John Assaraf (speaker) explains how emotions are produced by well-functioning brain circuits (e.g., painful experiences wire into the amygdala; pleasurable experiences into the hippocampus) and why we tend to move away from pain faster than toward pleasure. He presents a practical 4R emotional-management process: Recognize (thoughts, emotions, sensations, behaviors), Reframe (give different meaning), Release (breath — six deep breaths/"inner size"), and Retrain (take inspired action). He emphasizes awareness ("AYA") as the source of choice and freedom, and repeats the mantra "I have emotions — I'm not my emotions." The talk ends with a brief call-to-action to watch more videos.
Chapters
There's nothing wrong with your emotions, nothing wrong with your feelings. Some are empowering you, some are disempowering you. Some are positive, some are negative, some are constructive, some are destructive. I have emotions. I'm not my emotions. I have feelings. I'm not my feelings. I have a brain. I am not my brain. Today's a little bit about your emotions and feelings. I'll sit out here or stand out here on the deck as I hold my tripod. A lot of people ask me what happens in our brain when we have a traumatic experience or a negative experience or an experience where we're embarrassed or ashamed or ridiculed or judged, whether it's as a kid or as an adult. Well, as you know, the neurons that fire together wire together, right? And what happens when we have a negative experience or a painful one is that those neurons that wire together create this memory in the amygdala, the emotional reactive center of the brain. And that amygdala is tied deeply towards survival and avoidance of any pain or discomfort. So it is one of the most refined parts of our brain, the amygdala, the emotional response center of our brain. When we have a pleasurable experience that gets more wired in the hippocampus part of our brain. And so why do we avoid things that might cause us pain or discomfort? Well, that's just the way we're wired. And we will move further and further and further away from something and faster away from something than we will move towards gaining the pleasure. It's just the way the circuitry is working. And so what we need to understand is the circuits work perfectly. And that means that your brain works perfectly. Now, the key is to become better at recognizing and managing emotions. And for that, we have the 4R process, right? Recognize thoughts, emotions, feelings, sensations, behaviors. When you have an emotion or a feeling that doesn't feel comfortable, breathe six deep breaths. You know that inner size, take six, calm the circuits. Well, you, inner size, breathe your way through it. And then to do inner size number two, which is aya, awareness of the thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, and behaviors. And it's in the awareness that you have choice, and it's in the choice that you have free freedom when you make the choices to take action anyway and to be aware of the old pattern and to disempower it, disengage it, don't reinforce it. Right. If we keep reinforcing these disempowering patterns, then guess what we do? We keep doing them over and over and over and over again. So recognize, reframe them by giving them a different meaning, release them through breathing, and retrain your brain by taking inspired action. Anyway, so there's nothing wrong with your emotions, nothing wrong with your feelings. Some are empowering you, some are disempowering you. Some are positive, some are negative, some are constructive, some are destructive. I have emotions. I'm not my emotions. I have feelings. I'm not my feelings. I have a brain. I am not my brain. I can use my brain better. Awareness is what's going to give you choice, and choice is what ultimately will give you the freedom that you want. I hope you have a great weekend. I appreciate you. Hey, this is John, and if you like that video, watch the next video because it is packed with things that you can do right now to achieve success way faster than ever before.
