Change Your Brain Every Day - Is It Possible To Rewire A Negative Brain?

Episode Date: December 13, 2017

Did you know that the human brain is hardwired to have negative thoughts? Although evolution has caused our minds to think predominantly negative, our health improves immensely when we reverse that cycle of thinking. In episode 5 of the Success Starts Here series, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen tell you how to think in a way that causes your brain to release more good chemicals, and less negative ones

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Welcome back. We are talking about success starts here. And today we are going to talk about mastering your mind. I think this is one of the most important things in any program is mastering your mind. No question about it. In the Western society, and this has been going on for thousands of years, we have a monkey mind where our minds like all over the place, jumping from

branch to branch, completely undisciplined. And with an undisciplined mind comes anxiety, depression. An undisciplined life. And an undisciplined life. And I always think of it like that inner child, would you ever let your children behave a certain way? And if not, you got to rein that kid in, right? So we're going to talk about how to feel happy and present while conquering worry and negativity um so there's some master your mind principles one every time you have a thought your brain releases chemicals and see this was important for me to learn a long time ago

every single time you have a thought good or bad releases chemicals your body reacts to every thought you have when you have a happy thought a hopeful thought your brain releases a set of chemicals that change the physiology in your body so if I think of you my heart rate goes slower my hands get warmer they get drier my breathing becomes deeper let's see when you first met me though it was heart rate variability goes up i mean when i'm around you i just feel settled yeah right if i think about someone that scares me right Right. My hands get sweaty. They get colder. My muscles get tense. My breathing becomes disrupted

and heart rate variability goes down. Right. So it's, and this principle is so important. It's one of the reasons that I have these sort of rules. I like rules. I have these- Seriously? Really like rules.

What did we say about your cingulate? Yeah. Well, it's not that bad, but it's bad enough that I have rules you have rules i have rules i definitely have rules i think rules now i just said how much i love you so safe rules are safe they're safe so uh but this idea that when i learned this idea that your brain releases chemicals either good or bad right i try to wake up in the morning and like say a prayer and like focus on something really positive. I have these rules, no news in the morning, no news at night before bed, and no one's allowed to call me with their drama before I'm done with my morning with my daughter. Like I get her ready. We have a routine in the morning. So until that time is

done, which is usually around eight o'clock. You left me out. Part of our routine is. Yeah, no, I'm talking about the morning routine with Chloe before school. So, and one of the reasons is I didn't want her growing up. No, that's not what I meant. But I don't want my daughter growing up, our daughter growing up with that same level of stress and chaos.

So when I learned this, I'm like, my rule, no news in the morning, no news at night. And for her benefit, no calls with drama, unless you're like dying and bleeding out, you cannot call me in the morning. So I want to, you can call me later. So, but that morning time needs to be a time of focusing on positive things. So you're activating your frontal lobes to make a good decision. Right. I like that. Thoughts are powerful. Your thoughts are hardwired to be negative.

Isn't that interesting? From an evolutionary standpoint, that's how we survive. And I understand this. Even as a kid, forget evolution, as a kid who grew up in a chaotic environment, I notice what's wrong and I notice it quick. You always get irritated because when we're walking, I'm always looking around, right? I'm always looking for that thing that's off. So I think if you grew up in a chaotic environment, it's an important thing to know. So it doesn't run your life, but to notice that you are hardwired and those, those wires have been reinforced to notice what's wrong to keep you safe right the

brain hates change um thoughts are automatic they just happen i mean you don't plan the thoughts that come into your head right and they often lie to you that they're just because you have a thought has nothing to do with whether or not it's true yeah Yeah. It's like you'll hear some people say something, but I think, you know, and they're convinced of something that's like kind of crazy. And so my new thing with working with family is, so what?

Is it true? You know, like, so what you're thinking that? Like, is that a true thought? So you can learn to eliminate the ants, the automatic negative thoughts, the thoughts that come into your mind automatically and ruin your day that steal your happiness. Right. And so we have different ant species we have created. My new book, Captain Snout and the Superpower Questions.

Love that book. Talk about seven different types. or nothing ants that's where things are all good or all bad we have the best marriage ever in the history of the world right and then when you're irritated at me we have the worst marriage right in the history no he's not saying we do no clarify i we don't do. You're just using that as an example. As an example. Right. Just making it sound like. So the world is gray. Many people really see it as black or white when it's just not accurate.

That's a hard one for- Just the bad ants. It's where you notice what's wrong. And you said that earlier in a prior lesson that especially women are hard on themselves and they notice the negative about themselves or their spouse or their children and generally not help. And one of the reasons women do tend to be more focused on and notice more what's wrong is from going back to what you said earlier, hunter gatherers, right? Women actually survived in, in communities together by paying attention, by warning each other by, you know, so, but let that run away. And it's like a runaway train. Um, guilt beatings where you use words like should must ought have to yeah you should all over

yourself did you really say that yep whoa labeling where you label yourself or someone else with a negative term um he's a jerk she's does that count when you're in traffic? Yes, it counts. Just checking. Yes. What an idiot. Because when you say that, you lump him or her with all of the idiots you've ever known. And you can't deal with the situation logically. Fortune teller ants. It's where you predict things are going to turn out badly,

even though you don't have evidence of it. Mind reader ants, where you believe you know what somebody else is thinking, even though they haven't told you. I have 25 years of education and I can't tell what anybody else is thinking. A negative look from someone else may mean nothing more than they're constipated. You don't know. I have so many patients who go, oh, they're thinking this or they're thinking that. And I almost feel bad like breaking it to them. And I teach them the 18, 40, 60 rule, which says when you're 18, you worry about what everybody's thinking of you.

And when you're 40, you don't give a damn what anybody thinks about you. And when you're 60, you realize no one has been thinking about you at all. I actually love that rule. People spend their days worrying and thinking about themselves, not you. Right. And then the blaming ants, which are you're blaming other people for how your life is turning out. And that actually, I think disempowers you more than almost anything. It's the red ant. It's the worst ant. Because whenever you blame someone

for how your life is turning out, you become a victim and you can't change anything. No, I really love this idea of responsibility does not mean blame, right? I learned this many years ago when I was feeling very sorry for myself and feeling like a victim. Someone very wise taught me this and it's like responsibility and blame are not the same thing. Taking responsibility for your life, no matter what it is, whether it's you got cancer, whether it's someone close to you died and you are grief stricken, it doesn't mean you're taking blame for the situation. It means that you have the ability to respond. That's what responsibility means. And I love that.

As soon as I heard that, I went, whoa, okay. I don't want anyone else controlling and having the ability to respond and control my life. I want that ability, right? So I'm willing to take a hundred percent responsibility. It's not my fault. I got sick ability, right? So I'm willing to take 100% responsibility. It's not my fault I got sick, but I'm still willing to take the responsibility for it. I actually, it changed the way I saw things completely. So five daily thinking habits to build neural networks in your brain is you want to eliminate the ants as they attack. So whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous, or out of control, write down what you're thinking and then challenge it. Is it true? Can you absolutely know that's true? Stop the monkey mind. And how you stop the monkey mind is you just

start paying attention. It's like, wow, my mind's all over the place. Is that helping me? And you can do little grounding meditations, like five-minute grounding techniques. I mean, it just changes everything. You know, actually, for this day and age, you've got to do it for two minutes because people have such a short attention span. That's hilarious. Right? So I'm like, just take 10 deep breaths. You know, five seconds in, hold it for a second or two, five seconds out.

Do you recommend saying a mantra? Like, I like saying a mantra while I do it. No. What's your mantra? Well, I have several. Do you want to share? Well, one of them is I am a living example of health and fitness. Now, I actually came up with that when I was sick.

And it was because I wanted, as you stated earlier, reach above where you're at. Because I figured if I kept telling myself that, that that would make me behave a certain way. Right? And so now look where I'm at, but that's really cool. And then I am a living example of health and fitness. And so that way, when I don't feel good is when I actually say it the most. And another one is, it's just something I sort of like from karate. It's just wisdom, focus, energy. Before I go into a meeting or something, I sort of go through this thing. I take the deep breath and it's just wisdom, focus, energy, just sort of like to get me grounded. You know,

I'll say a two minute prayer and then I'm good. Love that. We want you to have appropriate anxiety. Mastering your mind is not about losing anxiety. You have to have enough that when you see the cheesecake, you really do see it as a weapon of mass destruction because it is. Um, and every day start the day with today is going to be a great day. I love that one because when you do that, your brain will find the reasons why it's going to be a great day. If you wake up and you go, today is going to be a bad day. Your brain will find why it's going to be a bad day. Discipline your mind. Uh, and day, take a daily dose of gratitude and appreciation because they're like medicine for your soul.

For sure. I have this cool little graph. Maybe you can help me go over it. Sure. It's on the benefits of gratitude. So I'll do personality, you do health. So for personality, you're less materialistic when you're grateful, left self-centered, more optimistic, increased self-esteem, and more spiritual.

So true. For health, you have improved sleep, you're less sick, you live longer, so your longevity is affected, increased energy, and more exercise. You tend to exercise more. Emotionally, you have more good feelings. You're more relaxed, more resilient, less envious, happier memories. And for career, better management, improved networking. Interesting. Goal achievement, improved decision-making, and increased productivity. And socially, you're more social.

You have a healthier marriage, kinder, more friendships, deeper relationships. And this is just by focusing on gratitude. And so we've been married nearly 10 years. And, you know, I mean, whenever you're with somebody for a long enough time, you could have your, I call them, bucket of smelly fish in all the things that really upset you um and so how would your marriage be if you like got the bucket of smelly fish and when you woke up in the morning just took a but i know people who do that like i have friends who do that and i just you know you're not a good friend to somebody if you just let them do that so when i have friends who do that they wake up and all they do when you get

together with them if you go to lunch or whatever, is they've got to do this, you know, beating up their spouse thing. And what a lot of women do is they're like, oh yeah, that jerk. And they just jump in. You're not being a good friend. If you do that, like you need to help that person get out of that place and not just sit there and don't do the whole let's beat up on our spouses thing. It's not a good, it's not a good habit at all. Getting rid of the bucket of smelly fish. So important. So you're kinder, you have more friendships, you have deeper relationships.

Success starts here. Master your mind. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month.