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How to Be an Explorer of Your Own Brain
By Denise Baxindine, LCSW
October 19, 2016
Your brain is like a hiking area in a moderately populated city – full of pathways, some barely traveled and overgrown,
and others well-worn. You are accustomed to thinking many of the same thoughts over and over again. These habitual thoughts,
or thought patterns, create well-worn neural pathways. If you’re like a lot of us, such habitual thoughts are often negative and draining.
I’m such an idiot. Her life is so much better than mine. Nothing ever works out for me. I’ll never find love. The problem with negative
thought patterns is they don’t end there: negative thoughts affect how we feel. Thinking, I’m a failure, likely leads to feelings of discouragement,
frustration, stress, etc. These emotions, in turn, lead to measurable physiological effects. Breathing becomes more rapid, muscles tense, the body is
flooded with stress hormones. Over the short term, these physiological stress responses are not damaging, and in some cases, can save your life
(if you’re being attacked, for example). Chronically, however, such physiological responses can lead to a host of serious physical and mental health problems. (1)
The Good News
You can change the neural connections in your brain. Study after study points to the brain’s plasticity, or ability to change (2). Intentionally challenging your
habitual thought patterns with more positive thoughts can actually change the neural structure of your brain overtime. While negative thoughts yield emotions such
as frustration and despair, positive thoughts also lead to an emotional response, in this case, peace, joy, love, gratitude. Thinking positive thoughts,
however, is one of those things in life that is simple, but not easy . Just as walking through an over-gown brambly path in the woods is uncomfortable
and uncertain, thinking positive thoughts is often challenging. The pull to revert to your more comfortable, habitual way of thinking is strong, especially
at the beginning. You might think a positive thought, only to have the thought, yeah right, that’s not true, immediately follow. Many people give up quickly, and
their habitual ways of thinking and feeling and being in the world remain unchanged.
What Can You Do?
Go exploring! Be persistent! Try forging new pathways in your brain by intentionally thinking about things in a different way. Walk down those barely-formed
neural pathways of positivity, by purposefully thinking positive thoughts, even if you don’t believe them. In order to change your brain, however, you can’t do
this just once. You have to challenge negative thoughts over and over again, before you form a strong neural pathway in the brain. Thus, you are going to have
to build a new habit of positive thinking. Whenever I coach people in building habits, step one is to start small, very small. Building a new habit takes time;
one study suggested habit formation can take between 18-254 days, depending on the person (3). You’ll want to spend time each day, every day, then, thinking positively.
I recommend building in a “positive thinking time” in your morning or evening routine, so it becomes a daily habit. For example, each night, after brushing your teeth
and putting on your pajamas, sit down on the edge of your bed and do thirty seconds of positive thinking. This “positive thinking time” could be spent repeating an
affirmation to yourself such as, things usually work out well for me or it could be mentally listing five things you were grateful for that day. The key at the beginning
is to start small. If you start with the ambitious goal of twenty minutes, you’re likely to fail. Aiming to practice for just thirty seconds, however, makes it
more likely that you’ll actually do it. And once the habit is built, you can work on expanding the time spent from thirty seconds to five or ten minutes.
Don't worry if you don’t believe your positive thoughts at first. Keep practicing. As the neural pathways become stronger, belief will follow. As you start to
believe your positive thoughts, you will in turn begin to experience more peace, joy, confidence, and love. These feelings, then, will positively affect the way
you interact with the people and situations in your life. Just as chronic negative thinking can yield negative health consequences, so too can positive thinking
benefit physical and mental health (4).
Getting Support
If something in this article resonated with you and you want additional support addressing habitual negative thinking, consider working with a mental health
practitioner who utilizes cognitive-behavioral or mindfulness based interventions.
Robert Frost ended his famous poem,
By Denise Baxindine, LCSW
October 19, 2016
Your brain is like a hiking area in a moderately populated city – full of pathways, some barely traveled and overgrown,
and others well-worn. You are accustomed to thinking many of the same thoughts over and over again. These habitual thoughts,
or thought patterns, create well-worn neural pathways. If you’re like a lot of us, such habitual thoughts are often negative and draining.
I’m such an idiot. Her life is so much better than mine. Nothing ever works out for me. I’ll never find love. The problem with negative
thought patterns is they don’t end there: negative thoughts affect how we feel. Thinking, I’m a failure, likely leads to feelings of discouragement,
frustration, stress, etc. These emotions, in turn, lead to measurable physiological effects. Breathing becomes more rapid, muscles tense, the body is
flooded with stress hormones. Over the short term, these physiological stress responses are not damaging, and in some cases, can save your life
(if you’re being attacked, for example). Chronically, however, such physiological responses can lead to a host of serious physical and mental health problems. (1)
The Good News
You can change the neural connections in your brain. Study after study points to the brain’s plasticity, or ability to change (2). Intentionally challenging your
habitual thought patterns with more positive thoughts can actually change the neural structure of your brain overtime. While negative thoughts yield emotions such
as frustration and despair, positive thoughts also lead to an emotional response, in this case, peace, joy, love, gratitude. Thinking positive thoughts,
however, is one of those things in life that is simple, but not easy . Just as walking through an over-gown brambly path in the woods is uncomfortable
and uncertain, thinking positive thoughts is often challenging. The pull to revert to your more comfortable, habitual way of thinking is strong, especially
at the beginning. You might think a positive thought, only to have the thought, yeah right, that’s not true, immediately follow. Many people give up quickly, and
their habitual ways of thinking and feeling and being in the world remain unchanged.
What Can You Do?
Go exploring! Be persistent! Try forging new pathways in your brain by intentionally thinking about things in a different way. Walk down those barely-formed
neural pathways of positivity, by purposefully thinking positive thoughts, even if you don’t believe them. In order to change your brain, however, you can’t do
this just once. You have to challenge negative thoughts over and over again, before you form a strong neural pathway in the brain. Thus, you are going to have
to build a new habit of positive thinking. Whenever I coach people in building habits, step one is to start small, very small. Building a new habit takes time;
one study suggested habit formation can take between 18-254 days, depending on the person (3). You’ll want to spend time each day, every day, then, thinking positively.
I recommend building in a “positive thinking time” in your morning or evening routine, so it becomes a daily habit. For example, each night, after brushing your teeth
and putting on your pajamas, sit down on the edge of your bed and do thirty seconds of positive thinking. This “positive thinking time” could be spent repeating an
affirmation to yourself such as, things usually work out well for me or it could be mentally listing five things you were grateful for that day. The key at the beginning
is to start small. If you start with the ambitious goal of twenty minutes, you’re likely to fail. Aiming to practice for just thirty seconds, however, makes it
more likely that you’ll actually do it. And once the habit is built, you can work on expanding the time spent from thirty seconds to five or ten minutes.
Don't worry if you don’t believe your positive thoughts at first. Keep practicing. As the neural pathways become stronger, belief will follow. As you start to
believe your positive thoughts, you will in turn begin to experience more peace, joy, confidence, and love. These feelings, then, will positively affect the way
you interact with the people and situations in your life. Just as chronic negative thinking can yield negative health consequences, so too can positive thinking
benefit physical and mental health (4).
Getting Support
If something in this article resonated with you and you want additional support addressing habitual negative thinking, consider working with a mental health
practitioner who utilizes cognitive-behavioral or mindfulness based interventions.
Robert Frost ended his famous poem,
Your brain is like a hiking area in a moderately populated city – full of pathways, some barely traveled and overgrown, and others well-worn. You are accustomed to thinking many of the same thoughts over and over again. These habitual thoughts, or thought patterns, create well-worn neural pathways. If you’re like a lot of us, such habitual thoughts are often negative and draining. I’m such an idiot. Her life is so much better than mine. Nothing ever works out for me. I’ll never find love. The problem with negative thought patterns is they don’t end there: negative thoughts affect how we feel. Thinking, I’m a failure, likely leads to feelings of discouragement, frustration, stress, etc. These emotions, in turn, lead to measurable physiological effects. Breathing becomes more rapid, muscles tense, the body is flooded with stress hormones. Over the short term, these physiological stress responses are not damaging, and in some cases, can save your life (if you’re being attacked, for example). Chronically, however, such physiological responses can lead to a host of serious physical and mental health problems. (1)
The Good News
You can change the neural connections in your brain. Study after study points to the brain’s plasticity, or ability to change (2). Intentionally challenging your
habitual thought patterns with more positive thoughts can actually change the neural structure of your brain overtime. While negative thoughts yield emotions such
as frustration and despair, positive thoughts also lead to an emotional response, in this case, peace, joy, love, gratitude. Thinking positive thoughts,
however, is one of those things in life that is simple, but not easy . Just as walking through an over-gown brambly path in the woods is uncomfortable
and uncertain, thinking positive thoughts is often challenging. The pull to revert to your more comfortable, habitual way of thinking is strong, especially
at the beginning. You might think a positive thought, only to have the thought, yeah right, that’s not true, immediately follow. Many people give up quickly, and
their habitual ways of thinking and feeling and being in the world remain unchanged.
What Can You Do?
Go exploring! Be persistent! Try forging new pathways in your brain by intentionally thinking about things in a different way. Walk down those barely-formed
neural pathways of positivity, by purposefully thinking positive thoughts, even if you don’t believe them. In order to change your brain, however, you can’t do
this just once. You have to challenge negative thoughts over and over again, before you form a strong neural pathway in the brain. Thus, you are going to have
to build a new habit of positive thinking. Whenever I coach people in building habits, step one is to start small, very small. Building a new habit takes time;
one study suggested habit formation can take between 18-254 days, depending on the person (3). You’ll want to spend time each day, every day, then, thinking positively.
I recommend building in a “positive thinking time” in your morning or evening routine, so it becomes a daily habit. For example, each night, after brushing your teeth
and putting on your pajamas, sit down on the edge of your bed and do thirty seconds of positive thinking. This “positive thinking time” could be spent repeating an
affirmation to yourself such as, things usually work out well for me or it could be mentally listing five things you were grateful for that day. The key at the beginning
is to start small. If you start with the ambitious goal of twenty minutes, you’re likely to fail. Aiming to practice for just thirty seconds, however, makes it
more likely that you’ll actually do it. And once the habit is built, you can work on expanding the time spent from thirty seconds to five or ten minutes.
Don't worry if you don’t believe your positive thoughts at first. Keep practicing. As the neural pathways become stronger, belief will follow. As you start to
believe your positive thoughts, you will in turn begin to experience more peace, joy, confidence, and love. These feelings, then, will positively affect the way
you interact with the people and situations in your life. Just as chronic negative thinking can yield negative health consequences, so too can positive thinking
benefit physical and mental health (4).
Getting Support
If something in this article resonated with you and you want additional support addressing habitual negative thinking, consider working with a mental health
practitioner who utilizes cognitive-behavioral or mindfulness based interventions.
Robert Frost ended his famous poem,
You can change the neural connections in your brain. Study after study points to the brain’s plasticity, or ability to change (2). Intentionally challenging your
habitual thought patterns with more positive thoughts can actually change the neural structure of your brain overtime. While negative thoughts yield emotions such
as frustration and despair, positive thoughts also lead to an emotional response, in this case, peace, joy, love, gratitude. Thinking positive thoughts,
however, is one of those things in life that is simple, but not easy . Just as walking through an over-gown brambly path in the woods is uncomfortable
and uncertain, thinking positive thoughts is often challenging. The pull to revert to your more comfortable, habitual way of thinking is strong, especially
at the beginning. You might think a positive thought, only to have the thought, yeah right, that’s not true, immediately follow. Many people give up quickly, and
their habitual ways of thinking and feeling and being in the world remain unchanged.
What Can You Do?
Go exploring! Be persistent! Try forging new pathways in your brain by intentionally thinking about things in a different way. Walk down those barely-formed
neural pathways of positivity, by purposefully thinking positive thoughts, even if you don’t believe them. In order to change your brain, however, you can’t do
this just once. You have to challenge negative thoughts over and over again, before you form a strong neural pathway in the brain. Thus, you are going to have
to build a new habit of positive thinking. Whenever I coach people in building habits, step one is to start small, very small. Building a new habit takes time;
one study suggested habit formation can take between 18-254 days, depending on the person (3). You’ll want to spend time each day, every day, then, thinking positively.
I recommend building in a “positive thinking time” in your morning or evening routine, so it becomes a daily habit. For example, each night, after brushing your teeth
and putting on your pajamas, sit down on the edge of your bed and do thirty seconds of positive thinking. This “positive thinking time” could be spent repeating an
affirmation to yourself such as, things usually work out well for me or it could be mentally listing five things you were grateful for that day. The key at the beginning
is to start small. If you start with the ambitious goal of twenty minutes, you’re likely to fail. Aiming to practice for just thirty seconds, however, makes it
more likely that you’ll actually do it. And once the habit is built, you can work on expanding the time spent from thirty seconds to five or ten minutes.
Don't worry if you don’t believe your positive thoughts at first. Keep practicing. As the neural pathways become stronger, belief will follow. As you start to
believe your positive thoughts, you will in turn begin to experience more peace, joy, confidence, and love. These feelings, then, will positively affect the way
you interact with the people and situations in your life. Just as chronic negative thinking can yield negative health consequences, so too can positive thinking
benefit physical and mental health (4).
Getting Support
If something in this article resonated with you and you want additional support addressing habitual negative thinking, consider working with a mental health
practitioner who utilizes cognitive-behavioral or mindfulness based interventions.
Robert Frost ended his famous poem,
What Can You Do?
Go exploring! Be persistent! Try forging new pathways in your brain by intentionally thinking about things in a different way. Walk down those barely-formed
neural pathways of positivity, by purposefully thinking positive thoughts, even if you don’t believe them. In order to change your brain, however, you can’t do
this just once. You have to challenge negative thoughts over and over again, before you form a strong neural pathway in the brain. Thus, you are going to have
to build a new habit of positive thinking. Whenever I coach people in building habits, step one is to start small, very small. Building a new habit takes time;
one study suggested habit formation can take between 18-254 days, depending on the person (3). You’ll want to spend time each day, every day, then, thinking positively.
I recommend building in a “positive thinking time” in your morning or evening routine, so it becomes a daily habit. For example, each night, after brushing your teeth
and putting on your pajamas, sit down on the edge of your bed and do thirty seconds of positive thinking. This “positive thinking time” could be spent repeating an
affirmation to yourself such as, things usually work out well for me or it could be mentally listing five things you were grateful for that day. The key at the beginning
is to start small. If you start with the ambitious goal of twenty minutes, you’re likely to fail. Aiming to practice for just thirty seconds, however, makes it
more likely that you’ll actually do it. And once the habit is built, you can work on expanding the time spent from thirty seconds to five or ten minutes.
Don't worry if you don’t believe your positive thoughts at first. Keep practicing. As the neural pathways become stronger, belief will follow. As you start to
believe your positive thoughts, you will in turn begin to experience more peace, joy, confidence, and love. These feelings, then, will positively affect the way
you interact with the people and situations in your life. Just as chronic negative thinking can yield negative health consequences, so too can positive thinking
benefit physical and mental health (4).
Getting Support
If something in this article resonated with you and you want additional support addressing habitual negative thinking, consider working with a mental health
practitioner who utilizes cognitive-behavioral or mindfulness based interventions.
Robert Frost ended his famous poem,
Go exploring! Be persistent! Try forging new pathways in your brain by intentionally thinking about things in a different way. Walk down those barely-formed
neural pathways of positivity, by purposefully thinking positive thoughts, even if you don’t believe them. In order to change your brain, however, you can’t do
this just once. You have to challenge negative thoughts over and over again, before you form a strong neural pathway in the brain. Thus, you are going to have
to build a new habit of positive thinking. Whenever I coach people in building habits, step one is to start small, very small. Building a new habit takes time;
one study suggested habit formation can take between 18-254 days, depending on the person (3). You’ll want to spend time each day, every day, then, thinking positively.
I recommend building in a “positive thinking time” in your morning or evening routine, so it becomes a daily habit. For example, each night, after brushing your teeth
and putting on your pajamas, sit down on the edge of your bed and do thirty seconds of positive thinking. This “positive thinking time” could be spent repeating an
affirmation to yourself such as, things usually work out well for me or it could be mentally listing five things you were grateful for that day. The key at the beginning
is to start small. If you start with the ambitious goal of twenty minutes, you’re likely to fail. Aiming to practice for just thirty seconds, however, makes it
more likely that you’ll actually do it. And once the habit is built, you can work on expanding the time spent from thirty seconds to five or ten minutes.
Don't worry if you don’t believe your positive thoughts at first. Keep practicing. As the neural pathways become stronger, belief will follow. As you start to
believe your positive thoughts, you will in turn begin to experience more peace, joy, confidence, and love. These feelings, then, will positively affect the way
you interact with the people and situations in your life. Just as chronic negative thinking can yield negative health consequences, so too can positive thinking
benefit physical and mental health (4).
Getting Support
If something in this article resonated with you and you want additional support addressing habitual negative thinking, consider working with a mental health
practitioner who utilizes cognitive-behavioral or mindfulness based interventions.
Robert Frost ended his famous poem,
Don't worry if you don’t believe your positive thoughts at first. Keep practicing. As the neural pathways become stronger, belief will follow. As you start to believe your positive thoughts, you will in turn begin to experience more peace, joy, confidence, and love. These feelings, then, will positively affect the way you interact with the people and situations in your life. Just as chronic negative thinking can yield negative health consequences, so too can positive thinking benefit physical and mental health (4).
Getting Support
If something in this article resonated with you and you want additional support addressing habitual negative thinking, consider working with a mental health
practitioner who utilizes cognitive-behavioral or mindfulness based interventions.
Robert Frost ended his famous poem,
If something in this article resonated with you and you want additional support addressing habitual negative thinking, consider working with a mental health
practitioner who utilizes cognitive-behavioral or mindfulness based interventions.
Robert Frost ended his famous poem,
You, too, may find thinking the thoughts less traveled makes all the difference in your physical and emotional well-being.