John Assaraf explains why your brain defaults to negative thinking: an ancient fear center surfaces threats first. He contrasts the cautioning "Frankenstein brain" with the problem-solving "Einstein brain," then teaches an exercise: list reasons you can't reach a goal, then list what you can do instead. Repeating this switch rewires your thinking toward solutions.
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Hey, this is John Assaraf, CEO and founder of Neurogym. And here's a question for you. Have you ever felt or known that you are being negative, maybe a little too much at times? Have you ever wondered where that little negative voice inside your head comes from? Well, what if I told you that you and I are biologically wired to be negative at first? Let me explain. If you think of the evolution of our species, one of the key factors for the continuity of any species is to be able to procreate and produce offspring or babies. And we all love that part. What this means is that any species really has to protect themselves from danger. And the ones who can do this the best within a species lives on. Over millions of years of our evolution, our brain has developed a very, very sensitive fear center. And it's called amygdala that are connected to our memory center. Now, everything in your external world and my external world that enters our consciousness, and anything that I'm thinking about or you're thinking about, which comprises of our internal world, passes through this fear center filtering system to help us stay safe. Now here's the catch. Our brain will almost always look for and find anything from our memory bank and consciousness that may be harmful to us. And as a extra precautionary step to ensure our emotional, mental and even physical safety, it will bring forth to our consciousness any real or imagined danger. Now, in today's world, many people who set or have goals think that maybe they can't do it. They don't think they're smart enough or good enough or it's too risky and all of these negative self talk ideas come forth without any thought. I like to call this part of your brain that brings forth all this negativity your Frankenstein brain. However, that Frankenstein brain is known as the right prefrontal cortex. However, there is another part of your brain that is what I call your Einstein brain. And that resides right over here in your left prefrontal cortex. And this left prefrontal cortex is your orchestra leader. It's the CEO of your brain and it has the ability to, when you activate it, to come up with so many ideas and options to help you achieve any goal and dream that you want to achieve. Now the key is to learn how to deactivate your Frankenstein part of your brain and activate and use the genius Einstein brain. And this is what I really want to talk with you about today. And this is the idea of for today. And the idea is this we call the process of activating your Einstein brain and deactivating or shutting out your Frankenstein brain inner size. And it's as simple as learning how to turn a light switch on or off. Inner size is a process to help you engage in mental and emotional activities that stimulate and strengthen your ability to regulate your own function, thoughts, change your beliefs, manage your emotions, and deliberately choose your behaviors. So here's a simple inner size to help you get a feel for it. What I'd like you to do is think of or choose any goal that you want to achieve. Anyone you want. It can be anything, like earning more income, growing your business, or even losing weight that you want to lose and keep off. Now, I want you to take a sheet of paper on your cell phone or on a computer. Write down all of the reasons why you cannot achieve the goal that you want to achieve, including anything you've tried in the past that hasn't worked or maybe initially worked and then didn't. Next, after you do that, on another sheet of paper, I want you to write down all the things that you can think of and do that will help you achieve the goal that you have. Even if you don't know how to achieve the goal, just write down that you'll seek advice from somebody who knows how to achieve the goal, or you'll hop onto your computer and go to Google and type it in to get some answers. You see, when you do this very simple exercise, you are currently and actually using two different parts of your brain. When you wrote down all the reasons why you can't do it, or it can't be done, or you shouldn't do it, et cetera, that's when the Frankenstein brain gets activated. And that's really easy. When you write down all of the things that you can do and will do, that's activating your. Your Einstein brain. And the beautiful thing about how your brain works is only one of the two will work at any given time. So what you want to do is really focus on weakening, okay, the Frankenstein brain from being your predominant way that you choose to achieve your goals. The part of you that says you can't do it, you don't know how to do it, you won't do it. What all highly successful people who achieve their goals have become very, very good at is doing this exercise and focusing on how they can, why they must, and how they will. So starting today, that's what I want you to do. Whenever you catch yourself being negative, stop, be aware, write down all the things that you're thinking about, get it out of your head and onto a piece of paper and then in inner size. By switching over to your Einstein brain and focusing on how you can and why, you will start doing it on paper and what you will notice is within a very short period of time, you'll start doing it unconsciously every single time. That's your inner size for today. I hope you've enjoyed it. I look forward to sharing with you many more inner sizes so you can maximize your mental and emotional abilities. By the way, before you go, if you liked what I just shared, I'd love you to share it with other people that follow you on your Facebook page or anywhere else. And leave me your comments below so that we can really interact together.
