Our central nervous system is continuously perceiving, sorting, choosing and responding to information received through our sensory system. Over the years, we collect and store these experiences which turn into memories we replay over and over for ourselves.
Our perception of the moment within these memories taught us how to feel and respond and it's these responses that turn into habitual patterns of behavior deeply held in our sub-conscious.
The sub-conscious mind stores and retrieves data ensuring you respond exactly the way you've been "programmed." The brain is constantly scanning our environment for patterns to enable us to perform our daily activities and interactions. It then deduces what could be coming next and prepares the necessary processes based on how we've been programmed.
What is significant here is the message we give to any given experience. Becoming "aware" of these messages is how we transform negative habits into more positive habits.
For most of us trying to transform lifestyle patterns into more positive behaviors OR incorporate positive changes to improve performance at work, we bump up against obstacles that can cause feelings of distress (which refers to negative stress). It's this place of distress where we typically lose our momentum and fall back into old patterns. Chronic unmitigated stress can lead to sustained high levels of glucocorticoids, which over time can lead to cellular damage in the hippocampus, where learning and memory of new information are transferred to long-term memory.
You will receive what you perceive. You perceive what you have the courage to believe you are worth.
In the sales world, when a client is purchasing multiple products from you, it's called the "sweet spot." Let's think of our nervous system in the same way. We want to be operating from the sweet spot which in essence is finding the balance between stress response and relaxation response.
Most of us are living in the stress response (or a state of distress) without ever making time for much of a shift to relaxation. It can take hours or even days to turn off the stress response depending on the current communication of the feedback loop in the brain. Chronic elevated levels of the stress hormones lead to a myriad of health issues physically and mentally and affect the self-regulation area of the brain necessary for transforming habitual patterns.
To get to the root of your "message" and "programmed response," begin to incorporate a conscious breathing exercise to shift from stress to relaxation. A technique for calming the body/mind is known as Alternate Nostril Breathing.
Alternate Nostril Breathing can be used in a mindfulness exercise to slow the pace of your thoughts and emotional response. As we self-regulate in this way, we can calmly identify with the present moment and rationally incorporate new messages.
Keeping your mind, body and spirit healthy takes practice and practice makes permanent. This simple technique will help you restore balance and build resilience.
Go BE Great!