How Your Brain Works
Your brain has been protecting you since the day you were born. It’s survival instinct. And you really can’t blame it for sending chemical surges down the same familiar brain paths, especially when they’ve been proven to work in the past. If an idea or behaviour is reinforced enough, it becomes what’s known as a neural pathway, and these will often cause you to behave in certain ways, eat certain things, or feel particular things, without you even consciously realising what’s driving it.
The simplest version of a neural pathway is what’s known as a monosynaptic reflex pathway (basically, something that’s made up of a single connection), like the knee-jerk reflex that happens when a doctor taps that spot under your kneecap. These single connection pathways link the sensory neuron in your knee to the motor neuron in your leg and tell the leg muscles to contract. Single connection pathways like these exclude the brain. As human beings, we have lots of hard-wired responses like these, but as the brain becomes involved, things get a liiiiittle more complicated.
Neuroscience For Dummies
To generalise, just like the wiring inside your computer or iPhone, nerve cells make connections with each other in little circuits, which are known as neural pathways. As with emails or Facebook messages, there’s a sender and a receiver. And what’s being sent is a chemical message containing a neurotransmitter. These neurotransmitters fit into their receiver cells like a lock and a key. Basically, the long and the short of it is: if you send the same message down the same pathway for long enough, and it becomes ingrained and will seem to happen without any decision or thought from you – just like that knee-jerk!
“Neural pathways are the information highways inside our brains, created by our neurons through the formation of synaptic connections, a little bit like a daisy chain,” explains brain health expert and author of Future Brain Dr Jenny Brockis. “These pathways are strengthened as we practice and repeat them. Ultimately, they require far less energy to work and become established as our thinking patterns, long term memories and habits.”
A great example of a neural pathway or ingrained behaviour would be: as a child, a well-meaning Aunt or Grandma may have given you a sweet to cheer you up, and it probably worked! Sometimes we learn programming from our parents or older friends, and it’s generally reinforced over years or even decades. That sweet that cheered you up as a child may have become subconscious snacking when you felt down as a teenager, and eventually emotional eating as an adult.
So, How Do I Change My Programming?
But don’t despair, you can reprogram these old, tired, neural pathways by reprogramming yourself in the same way you might reprogram a computer.
Programming fabulousness is all about starting better habits and adopting new behaviours towards old issues. The more you program it, the easier it will become.
“It’s said that on average it takes 66 days to embed a new habit, depending on its complexity and our desire to make it happen,” reveals Dr Jenny Brockis. “We don’t break the old habits, instead we supersede them with stronger, better, updated versions that will serve us better. What really matters is the practice, because when we’re under pressure, or feeling stressed, the brain resorts to the old, more familiar way of doing things.”
5 Steps to Programming Fabulous
- Recognise Negative Pathways – what are the negative behaviours that you repeat most and why? Write them down and make the decision to start working on them. Once you’re aware of these thoughts and behaviours, they’re much easier to change.
- Identify Alternative Thoughts & Behaviours – once you’ve nailed down some of the old patterns, it’s time to start working on new ones. What are some alternative, more helpful thoughts and behaviours that you can use to start replacing the old ones? For example, replace: ‘I hate being overweight’ with ‘I love the fact that I had the courage to start this journey, and even though I’m still a work in progress, I’m proud of myself for how far I’ve come.’
- Practice, Practice, Practice! Repetition is key. Every time you notice a negative thought, reaction or behaviour, catch it and re-phrase it, re-frame it or re-take it as much as possible, until it becomes a new habit.
- Get Emotional – In a Good Way – your thoughts and actions drive the release of those awesome little neurotransmitters in your brain, which in turn drive your emotions. So instead of languishing in ‘I feel crappy’ land, make a decision to do something about it and then enjoy the benefits of the happy chemicals you get as a result.
- Expect Slip Ups – your brain is very good at hijacking your best intentions, and especially when you’re stressed or under pressure, it can be common to resort to old ways of doing things. “This is why, despite the slips and trips we experience, accepting and expecting setbacks as ‘normal’ is important to keep you on track and moving towards your new goal,” explains Brockis.
It’s also imperative to look back and pat yourself on the back for your progress every now and then, to reinforce how far you’ve come. If you regularly find your best intentions crumbling, or your brain keeps hindering your efforts, it might be worth enlisting some support. “Working with an accountability coach or support crew can make all the difference when you’re working on changing ingrained behaviours and well-worn habits,” notes Brockis.
C’mon Get Happy
Remember, you can switch your happy chemicals (aka the aforementioned neurotransmitters) on and off yourself, just by changing how you think and what you do.
Your brain naturally produces:
Endorphins: responsible for determination and euphoria – to help you ignore physical pain.
Dopamine: responsible for motivation and energy – to motivate you to seek rewards.
Serotonin: responsible for feelings of safety and wellbeing – to encourage you to earn respect from others.
Oxytocin: responsible for feelings of belonging and trust – to inspire you to build social alliances.
These are some hot tips for hacking your internal happiness chemicals:
- Endorphins: you can enjoy lots of delicious endorphins from exercise and laughter. We suggest scheduling in a good half hour of each per day! Invest in a library of comedic books, films and shows, go walking with a funny friend, watch comedians in your lunch break and so on. We love sharing funny images and videos with friends and colleagues on a daily basis.
Goal: feel the endorphin high to give you the determination to keep going. - Dopamine: fantasise about rewards, plan rewards and give yourself something to look forward to. e.g. look at images of clothes you are going to reward yourself with or plan to get your hair done when you lose 5kgs. You can even go smaller: reward yourself with a long, hot bath after doing a great workout.
Goal: motivate yourself by focusing on the end goal and what’s in it for you for a hit of dopamine. - Serotonin: concentrate on what you have achieved in life so far – you’ll be surprised how long that list can be, from getting a driver’s licence to mastering the art of the perfect boiled egg. Achievement feeds achievement.
Goal: write a list of top achievements and read it regularly to get a dose of serotonin! - Oxytocin: spend time with the right people – ones who make you feel good about yourself.
Goal: feel the love, companionship and friendship for lots of delicious oxytocin.
Remember, it’s all about getting happy first, and losing weight second. Because when you’re happier, you make much better decisions about your own wellbeing. Success breeds success. And success will reinforce those fabulous new neural pathways that you’ve just built, making them even stronger.
And that’s how you program fabulous, Super Squad! What are some of your favourite feel-good activities? Share them with us in the comments below or hop on over to the Members’ Facebook Page and give us your top tips.