Fun Fact: Your brain will choose familiar crap before it will choose unfamiliar good.

This is is why fear is “easier” than faith. Your brain actually prefers it.

Really? How do I know all this? Well, I read a lot. And I have spent the last 6 months or so exploring the function of my brain and untangling my thoughts. I starting looking closely and more carefully at the constant barrage of mind chatter, feelings, and emotions I couldn’t seem to quiet. I delved into the essence of my own spirituality and what effect it had (or could have) on my brain. Soul work is a thing, too. I’ve worked on healing old wounds, changing false beliefs, and improving the energy around me. (I could tell you a million things about this!)

In the midst of all that, I learned a few things I didn’t know about our brain. First, our brain is not supposed to be handling all the tasks we have assigned to it. We ask way too much of our brain. We ask it to do things that really are not its job at all. Its only real jobs are to (1) manage problem solving and (2) aid in our literal survival. It either needs to be busy figuring out a solution to an immediate problem, or it needs to kick in automatically with that handy-dandy fight, flight, or fawn reflex to keep us alive. That’s it.

What do we ask it to do? We ask it to evaluate what that family member said to us, analyze all the emotions that came with it, justify why we reacted the way we did, and come up with a list of reasons why that person is wrong. We ask it to store away little tidbits of information that help us judge people in such a way that makes us feel better about our own selves. We burden it with finding words, scenarios, meaning that help boost our egos and relax our insecurities. Then we ask it to do all this instinctively, so it stays on the clock 24/7 working, working, working. It’s no wonder that poor brain of ours can’t remember the capital of Vermont or the name of the person we just met 5 minutes ago. It’s no wonder we can’t fall asleep at night. It’s overworked and constantly working.

When we rely so heavily on our brain to keep us going, we train it to stick with the familiar. When we don’t think outside our box, when we don’t explore new ideas with an open mind, when we don’t have real self awareness, our brains take over, write programs like a super computer, and use that programming to make us function. It starts to run these programs in the background, and the processes run as naturally as those that keep us breathing.

This is why it’s easier to stay at that dead end job than it is to go out on a limb and find a new one. It’s familiar crap your brain is programmed to deal with. It’s why that beautiful, precious girls keeps that awful boyfriend. Her brain knows the work-arounds that help her hang on. It’s why children who grow up verbally abused, threatened, or guilt-tripped won’t, as adults, dump that toxic family. Their brains can handle the present it knows and hesitates to tackle a new situation it doesn’t know. It’s why we get hurt when someone gossips about us. Our brain remembers an old trauma, dredges up that insecurity, and whispers to us that something that person said must somehow be true.

Our brain has learned to rely on experiences, real stuff it has seen or can see. I like to think of it as The Loop. If you’re living in The Loop, you’re rocking right along inside your own mind dealing with things the way you always have, weighing new things against what you already know, and seeing life through the lens of your own experiences and personal world view. Your past is what it is. Your present is what your brain is capable of making it based on what’s inside you at that moment. And your future is uncertain and limited to only what your present brain is capable of perceiving in the present.

Interesting, right? Does that sound bad? You tell me. My mind was blown, if you will. It was eye-opening info for me. It not only helped me realize I was stuck in The Loop, but it reminded me that most of the world is stuck in The Loop. It makes sense. It helps me understand me and other people. It helps me understand fear. It helps me understand the work I need to do to make it all better.

So does that mean I now know what to do with all this brain function and how to stop it? Actually, yes, and I want to share that with you, too. It starts with self awareness.

Self awareness is rare. If anything I write leads you toward your own awareness and self discovery, you’ll learn quick that there are infinitely more people living in The Loop than out of it. To get out of The Loop, you have to know how your own brain functions and why. It’s quite natural, really. None of us did anything wrong. It just happens, especially without real self awareness.

So fear…what you ask of your brain…familiarity over the unknown. Consider it. It’s a great place to start on any kind of self improvement journey, if you’re up to it. Become super self aware. You’ll learn a lot. Fear is definitely easier than faith, and now you know why. Watch your brain. Become an observer of your thoughts. Listen to what your brain tells you versus what that small voice inside you says.

Oh, that small voice? Yep, that’s another conversation for another time. Can’t wait!

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,