Brain Won’t Shut Up?

Doug the Brain’s job is to make sure you survive.

Doug is also a drama queen and likes to tell you that everything is a Very Big Deal and screams a lot.

Doug uses predictions based on the past to determine if something is a threat.

A lot of those stories from the past were written with either sparse or wrong information or kid-level understanding of the situation.

The problem is that those stories set the defaults for when your brain sounds alarms and how you react to things now.

So for example, let’s say very young Skipper’s parents got divorced. The story Skipper came up with to understand the situation was that if Skipper had been better at mini-golf, Skipper’s parents would have stayed together.

Now, as an adult, Skipper has become a mini-golf mogul because that story he came up with around his parents’ divorce has driven Skipper to try to overcome their own perceived failing.

The story also drives how Skipper relates to others and affects Skipper’s health, because Skipper spends all their time stressing about their mini-golf empire rather than spending time with loved ones or caring for themselves.

If Skipper could rewrite this story, this filter that shapes their reactions with the world, Skipper would likely be able to have healthier relationships with others, with their business, and themselves. (This is vastly oversimplified, but you get the idea.)

You can reset your own filters and alarm defaults.

By updating your brain’s stories, you can change what your brain decides are threats and how you react to them.