An excerpt from Bailey's book, a little bit of brain chemistry education, and the best way to help yourself get un-stuck.
The following is an excerpt from the in-progress written work of our owner and nutritional counselor, Bailey French:
"You see, when we choose to restrict ourselves from things that we love, we choose to put our mind in a state of lack. The cool part is that we can actually rewire our brains to think and “autopilot” tasks in a different way for almost anything. The scary part is that we can actually rewire our brains to think and “autopilot” tasks in a different way for almost anything.
If you wake up in the morning and hop right out of bed and put on your workout clothes and go exercise, you can retrain your brain to not only crave that routine, but also make it a process you don’t have to think about completing.
If you sit on the couch for 3 hours a day and watch TV, your brain will recognize that as a normal process and even begin to force you to watch TV by slowing certain brain waves, enabling or blocking certain neuron receptors, and making you feel so tired that you have to go lay on the couch...
The rewards system of the brain is so fascinating because it is so easy to manipulate.
Whether you know it or not, you truly do have 100% control over what you do and your rate of progress towards your goals. This takes a serious mindset shift, but it is 100% achievable. Another way to say it is this- it is hard work. Each of you reading this have the ability to start a new habit and rewire your brain for success, however; since it requires difficult action for a semi-extended period of time, most of you will read this and never take action on it and continue to wonder why your life doesn’t look the way you want it to.
While we can’t technically change the amount of people who buy something from us or the amount of time we have in a day to complete all of our tasks, we can change how we do what we do in order to indirectly change those values.
Here are a few examples:
You aren’t making enough money in your entrepreneurial journey.
What you can change is the level of value you’re offering to people.
Are you sharing free information with them so they can know what your expertise is? Are you making time to research facts in your field of study to make yourself more knowledgeable? Are you showing up and sharing transformational vision with your audience?
You aren’t losing the weight that you thought you’d lose on your new diet.
What you can change is your understanding of your unique body.
Are you working with a nutritional and exercise science expert? Are you researching scientific studies that share the basic workings of the human body and metabolism? Are you incorporating herbs and alternative supplements to encourage healthy body systems with educated professionals supervising?
You aren’t being treated well at your place of work.
What you can change is the way people perceive you.
Are you verbalizing the tradeoffs you’ll have to make in order to pick up someone’s slack? Are you engaging in personal development materials (books, podcasts) so that you’re learning how to be a better leader? Are you showing up confidently and having empowering and productive conversations?
If you’re in a similar situation as one of these and you answered “yes” to all of those questions, there is a hard truth that must be told. One of two things is happening.
1. You’re lying. You may not realize it or do it on purpose, but there is a good chance that you think you’re doing all you can when in reality you are playing it small and hoping no one notices.
2. You’re in the wrong environment. If you have done everything you can to change your situation and you’ve allowed hard work and time to take their courses, then the only thing left that you have control over is to change your location.
Find another job. Add another side hustle. Look for another coach. Move to a new city. Make some new friends.
"You, my sweet friend, have SO much power and you don’t even know it.
You can literally change brain waves. That’s wicked cool."
-Bailey French, Nutritional Scientist
If you're still wondering what the secret to shifting your mindset is, the answer is YOU.
You can control your brain most easily through three methods:
Dietary changes.
Movement changes.
Thinking practice.
🍽 Did you know that diet can be one of the most influential things on your brain? The foods you eat break down into designated chemicals and each and every chemical is intercepted by the brain and used in some way.
When you eat carbohydrates, they break down into poly-, di-, or mono-saccharides. Your brain uses them for energy designed for thinking!
When you eat pure sugar, it doesn't break down too much, but it does bind to the same neuron receptors as heroin. Ever heard that sugar is addictive? It's true! But it can be a good thing for cravings, weight loss, and even blood glucose regulation when used in moderation properly.
When you eat sugar alcohols (sorbitol, erythritol, mannitol, xylitol, etc.), they are not broken down, and the brain recognizes them as toxic foreign elements. They cannot be used by the brain and are marked to be attacked as would another foreign element such as a bacterium or fungi. These can actually cause serious damage to the liver and the gut if used in large quantities or over an extended period of time.
When you eat foods like chia seeds and avocados, they are broken down into omega fatty acids which help your neurons regenerate and function better.
If you care about your brain function, you need to start caring about what you're putting into your body. Each and every food we eat can play a positive or negative role in our brain health.
⛹️♀️ Remember that part about changing the rewards system of the brain? You can shift it from either internal or external reward.
This is the difference between working out to feel good after the rush of dopamine hits your brain and working out to get a ripped six-pack.
You should aim to live somewhere in between.
The interesting part about the movement side of things is that our rewards system isn't hard-wired for one way or the other from birth. This portion of the brain actually forms based on experiences. So, if you were rewarded with toys and money for getting good grades in school as a child, you're probably someone who enjoys buying nice things when you get a promotion or starving yourself to get that chiseled physique.
If you're someone who was rewarded with words of affirmation or physical touch, you probably tend to get more enjoyment from the feeling of chemical shifts within the body and brain or seeing the progress you've made.
The problem is that a real large amount of us were rewarded with stuff when we were younger.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just means we have to work a little harder to fully appreciate the internal reward we get from accomplishing anything.
When you change the way you move your body, you release different hormones and therefore exercise different brain receptors. HIIT workouts are great for burning calories, toning, and boosting dopamine, but adding yoga into your weekly routine improves serotonin regulation as well as GABA (the hormone associated with lowering feelings of anxiety and depression).
💬 Just like you can exercise different pathways in the brain by working out, you can exercise entire different portions of the brain by learning new things. This ranges from painting or drawing to reading a new book to learning statistics from a medical journal to playing with building blocks with a child.
This practice improves what is known as our neuro-plasticity.
Neruo-plasticity is just what it sounds like- stretching and building the capacity within our neurons.
Trying new things is not only healthy, but it is essential to help reduce our risk of mental disease and cognitive function loss.
It's still a good thing to only master that which you use every day (like your field of study or career skills), but it is also necessary to dabble in other areas of thought.
It's like that guy you see at the gym who has ripped arms and always skips leg day.
Don't let your brain skip leg day.
All of that is INSANELY interesting. It is also very confusing and even a bit overwhelming 😅
That's why we created Growth Mindset Masterclass.
If you know that you're ready to move out of a negative, "merry-go-round" cycle of feeling stuck and left behind, you need this masterclass.
We will walk you through each of the things we just touched on in this post and teach you the exact things you need to do in order to improve those brain techniques.
We will tackle your demons with you.
We will scale your mountains with you.
We will see you achieve all you ever dreamed of and more.
The team is so excited to start this upcoming round of Growth Mindset Masterclass with you on September 18, 2020!
Mark your calendars for access to our pre-registration window, where you'll receive additional FREE nutrition tools and yoga videos to start on that total body wellness practice we will teach in the course.
This is what you've been waiting for. You don't have to be the victim of setbacks and falling short of your goals any longer.
For more information on the GMMasterclass, please visit https://www.bewellphc.com/bookings-checkout/growth-mindset-masterclass-2
If you want to be reminded and be sure you get a seat in this masterclass when registration opens, please let us know at www.bewellphc.com/contact
Friend- you deserve this. Your brain health is worth fighting for.
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