No B.S Friday: A bit more on why this master hack gets such phenomenal results from such a little investment.
I got a bit of a reaction last Friday to my Three Brains Affirmation.
Remember you have three separate pieces of hardware – a reptilian brain stem, a mammalian hind brain, and a human neo-frontal cortex.
They mostly operate pretty seamlessly, but in practice, you have three separate brains with three separate needs.
The reptile wants to feel safe. The mammal wants to feel loved. And the human wants to belong.
And so the Three Brain Affirmation just cuts straight through to speak to each of those needs:
I am safe.
I am loved.
I belong here.
Now I said that if you gave this affirmation just a minute a day it would completely change your life.
Let me talk a little bit more about how that works.
Basically it’s very hard to get anything out of your brains if those primary needs aren’t being met (acknowledging that its perception here that matters, and our perceptions is generally skewed.)
So if your reptilian brain doesn’t feel safe, it will have absolutely zero interest in trying to do anything else. Make money? Build better relationships? Actualise your potential?
Sorry. Not interested.
It’s primary objective is safety and if that need is not being met, it’s not interested in supporting any of your other agendas.
In fact, if it gets the sense that you’re going to plow on regardless with your need to express yourself through water-colours, it will hi-jack your efforts. It will put you in rush so you can get through this painting and back to securing safety. Or it will find a way to make the painting about safety.
“Maybe if I impress my teacher, she’ll invite me to live with her in a fortified mansion.”
It’s the same story with your other core needs.
If they’re not being met, you’re going to be fighting your brains.
And hot tip: you’re not going to win. Your brains are way cleverer than you are.
(This is actually a give-away: if your core needs are not being met, then everything will feel like a battle.)
Now, the reality is that actually, our core needs generally are being met. Most of the time we are safe and loved and belong where we are.
But it’s the perception that matters. And our perception is all over the shop.
And so what the Three Brain Affirmation does is remind our brains of what our actual reality is. We’re just gently reminding our brains that we are in fact safe and loved and we do in fact belong.
And when that sinks in – when that story becomes our default story – then our brains become our allies.
If the core need for safety is met, then the reptilian brain wants to do whatever it can to help you be happy and healthy.
And there is power in those brains that we have barely started to understand.
So the point is, if you want your brains to be your allies (and you want life to stop feeling like a battle all the time), then you just need to remind your brains that actually, your core needs are being met, and we can all just take a chill pill and relax.
Because that’s when the magic happens.
So take it on and try it out.
I am safe.
I am loved.
I belong here.
Give it a minute a day. You won’t be disappointed.
JG.
Amanda says
I felt an ‘aha’ moment, or shift if you will, the very first time I voiced this.
Thank you, I feel this is going to help quell the fear that has me a little frozen right now