It’s A Brainer

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: A No Brainer for Mind over Brain

Competencies: self-development, self-control, achievement orientation

Who benefits: You

Consultant Usage: Important background material for executive coaches, coaches, mentors

What’s it about? “There are only a few true necessities in life, but for many of us it doesn’t feel that way.  A lifetime of habits, ingrained by repetition, can seemingly make us slaves to a not always beneficial master – our own brain.

“Nothing is more confusing or painful than when your brain takes over your thoughts, attacks your self-worth, questions your abilities, overpowers you with cravings, or attempts to dictate your actions.  Have you ever felt that something is compelling you to ‘go’ places, mentally or emotionally, where you don’t want to be?  Do you find yourself acting in uncharacteristic ways or doing things you don’t really want to be doing?

“The reason is simple: Deceptive brain messages have intruded into your psyche and taken over your life.  Left to its own devices, your brain can cause you to believe things that are not true and to act in any number of self-destructive ways.”

So begins You Are Not Your Brain, a just released book by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding, psychiatrists, researchers and colleagues at UCLA.

Let me assure that this book passes the BILL test (Believable, Important, Literate and Lively).  It is indeed well-written, engaging, mildly provocative, and practical for those with the courage and desire for self-improvement.  I love readable books on complex topics.  I love authors who can take difficult topics and write for general readership.

Intellectually the book is about neuroplasticity.  Here is where the mildly provocative comes to play: The authors argue that the brain is not the same as the mind.  In this book the brain is the villain.  The brain generates negative thought patterns.  Your ally, they argue, is the mind.  If properly employed, the mind can and will help you rewire the brain toward positive and more rewarding habits. 

But beware!  Inside that brain of yours resides the mighty “Habit Center”, an absolute fortress that dares to be breeched.  It contains and protects all those bad habits that hold you back. 

What, pray tell, are these villainous habits that hold you back.  Herewith are some familiar ones:

“Overthinking problems and fretting over things that are out of your control
“Getting stuck or panicked by unfounded fear and worries
“Blaming and chastising yourself for things that are not your fault
“Engaging in unhealthy behaviors to escape life’s daily stresses
“Reverting to past patterns when you are trying to make a change.”

So what weapons do you need at your disposal before you authorize your mind to charge headlong into the Habit Center?  According to the authors you need the four “Rs”:

• Relabel
• Reframe
• Refocus
• Revalue

And those, my friends, are the four tools of “self-directed neuroplasticity.”

Catch you later.

[tags]neuroplasticity, the mind, the brain, habit center, self-development, self-control, achievement orientation envisia, envisia learning, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.