Do you ever find yourself thinking the same frustrating thoughts?
Does it feel like you’re stuck in a Groundhog Day of the mind?
There’s actually a scientific explanation for looped thinking. In short, our synapse get shorter and our neurons (a.k.a. thought transmitters) get closer together the more we think a particular thought. This, in turn, creates neural pathways that can feel like getting stuck in a looped thought ditch.
As explained by KAHN Academy “Presynaptic and postsynaptic cells can dynamically change their signaling behavior based on their internal state or the cues they receive from other cells. This type of plasticity, or capacity for change, makes the synapse a key site for altering neural circuit strength and plays a role in learning and memory.”
So the bad news first…if we hold deep negative beliefs or persist in fear-based thinking, it may feel like a negative nelly is sitting on our shoulders and playing our mind like a puppet.
The Good news is that we can use the same neural circuit strength concept to our advantage.
Just as we once learn the current ways we’re thinking, we can learn new positive ways of thinking!
And bonus: new ways of thinking can combat brain dysfunction and disease.
Ditching the puppet master does take work but believe it or not, it actually can be quite fun to learn new ways of thinking and boy oh boy does it feel a hell of a lot better!
To start, it can be as simple as creating “I am” statements that direct your Reticular Activating System (a.k.a. your subconscious which processes at 40 million bits of info/sec to the conscious minds 40 bit/sec) towards your goals.