May Letter from Dr. J

I recently had the most profound conversation with an elite sports psychologist who is collaborating with neuroscientists from Georgetown University. He said something to me yesterday after I was done serving the Diamondbacks for the day, which I cannot erase from my mind.

He shared that we can actually do hi-potency functional MRI neural maps where we can illustrate that the act of complaining is like allowing negativity to do pull-ups, planks and push-ups in your brain! We can literally map how giving power to disempowering thoughts creates synaptic patterns in the brain that create neural grooves that keep us moving in the direction of feeling stuck!! We can make our debilitating patterns stronger!! Yikes! No thank you! 

I will never forget the scene in the movie Shawshank Redemption. There is a scene where the prisoners are doing intense manual labor on a roof of a building, I believe, possibly working with hot tar to resurface the roof, and the imposing prison guard behaves as though he is one of those people who receives an inheritance, or wins the lottery, and he would only complain about how much he would have to pay in taxes. 

You know the type. You can picture the downturned mouth, the bitter tone, and the steely empty stare, without compassion present. Unfortunately, these aren't just caricatures or descriptions from an impactful movie scene. All our brains have the possible tendency to amplify or to notice the negative things in life. And if we give voice to them and let those things remain our focus, the act of complaining will rewire our brains to notice and create even more negativity. This is not theory, this is hardcore, neuro-science. Years ago, when I spoke like this people often treated me as though my observations in peak performance were hypothetical at best, and now we know for sure these are empirically driven findings. 

Dr. Rick Hanson, psychologist and New York Times best-selling author of Hardwiring Happiness, explains how, over 600 million years, a negativity bias has developed in our brains as a survival skill. Neil the Nomad learned quite painfully that it was better to be alert and aware of the tiger in the bushes rather than daydream and contemplate why the clouds were so fluffy! But like many forms of survival behavior, Neil the Nomad enabled us to inherit the fact that that type of hyper vigilance toward negativity is counterproductive in today's world.

When working with peak athletes and executives, I have found that what is more debilitating than being chased by a lion is the internal battle that many encounter with their own disempowering and negative thoughts, habits and mythologies. I keep hearing the echo in my mind from yesterday. The act of complaining is like allowing negativity to do pull-ups, planks and push-ups in my brain. 

Let me say this another way: During any act or behavior, neurons in the brain branch out and connect to each other. If a behavior is repeated, as complaining conversation and behavior often is, the connections are reinforced and strengthened! As you complain more, the connections grow closer and stronger together, creating a neural pathway that is easier and more likely to be followed in the future.

But hey, let's not focus on the negative here. Even though we all complain, we are not locked into this tendency.  A few simple things can go a long way toward rewiring our brains to focus on the positive.

The first piece of rewiring that is often studied is grace and gratitude. Make a list, keep a journal, write a song, draw an image--whatever speaks to you and helps you access your warm heart. Sit down and really consider the things you have to be thankful for every day. Research by the brilliant authority Robert Emmons, the world's leading scientific expert on gratitude, has shown that people who regularly practice gratitude report more contentment, joy, pleasure and higher levels of positive emotions and are also more forgiving, outgoing, helpful, compassionate and generous. If that weren't enough, there's a host of other physical, emotional and consciousness benefits grateful people enjoy.

Second, linger on positive feelings whenever they occur. Maybe someone gives you a compliment, you notice a loved one’s smile, or you can dwell on an image of your pet’s tender face. Perhaps you notice a flower's beauty, or your favorite team wins (Let’s go Dbacks, Coyotes, ASU, and yeah okay, the Cubbies, too). Really soak in and relish the positive emotions you experience. As you are feeling these emotions, your brain is building new connections and pathways that reinforce positive thinking. Don't cut this positive sponge exercise short-- soak it in baby! It takes 10 full seconds to transfer the positive feelings from your short memory buffers to long-term storage to get the benefits. Just 10 seconds - I promise!

So go ahead and create thoughts and behaviors that help you anchor to what is possible, even when we know this can be challenging. Then, congratulate yourself as later in the day or week you have created the opportunity to feel all these positive feelings all over again when you practice gratitude. Slowly, over time, you can rewire your brain to focus more on the positive, and you'll be a lot less likely to even see what is missing.  

Now that is what is called creating a new neural map! 

Here's to a week filled with profound solutions that can increase your overall quality of life or the life of someone you care about. Here's to a month where Intuitiv Wellness can help you stay radically resilient!

With sincere gratitude

Dr. J