The Practices
As many of my clients have learned, I usually only have only one question to ask in response to their suffering, “Are you doing your practices?”
Be it mental, physical or emotional illness. It might be the loss of a career or a loved one. It could be the fear we sometimes feel when finally going for something big. It could be the most devastating of experiences in your life or a moment where you are finally reaching for the stars—regardless of how extreme or even mild the condition, when you come into a session with me this is the question I will ask. Not because I do not care, but because I care so deeply.
No amount of comfort I could give or words I could say will help you live a healthier happier life faster than helping you learn to modify your brain function. No amount of education could expand your thinking more than having a brain that thinks in an inherently expansive way. Nothing will alter your experience of life faster or in a more permanent way than triggering the right chemistry in your brain.
An important thing to note is, understanding your brain won’t significantly change your brain. While this book may spark inspiration that feels life-altering, significant change comes through working the muscle. Think of it as exercise. If I tell you lifting heavy weights will make your muscles stronger, you would probably agree. You might also agree that this is true for all people. However, understanding this won’t make your muscles stronger. To make your muscles stronger, you would actually need to lift the heavy weights. This process is the same. These practices are not mental activities as much as they are physical activities. We are working with anatomy. To make a difference, you must work the muscle.
The key to success in this process comes from doing the right exercises in the right way to trigger a specific chemical reaction. Done consistently—at least twenty minutes a day—it will alter the wiring in your brain and it will alter it permanently. Within weeks to months, you’ll experience significant change. Within a few years—less for some—your life could be free of the concept of suffering entirely, but you must ‘do your practices.’
The most important thing to recognize as we are creating healthy brain functions is the way we feel as a result of those functions. We don’t need to pick apart the experience were having—in fact, I prefer you don’t—but we do need to be able to recognize the result of certain functions if we hope to control them.
In Phase One, we will come to recognize our experiences and how they connect to specific functions of the brain. Then, we will explore the least healthy functions and we will learn practices to improve them, even in the most extreme cases.
Let’s start with some basics. In this first phase of the program, we will follow a three-part process, designed to create healthier brain functions. I’ve arranged this as a building block system, so remember to take your time in each section. The better you get at one, the easier the next will be.
To begin Phase One, we will:
Part One: Monitor our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and even how we perceive ourselves as a byproduct of chemicals.
Part Two: Provide the brain with Nutrients.
Part Three: Practice and become skilled at being able to easily move from the fight-or-flight state to rest-and-digest at will.
As we move into Phase Two of the program, we will learn practices to help us finally break the fight-or-flight / rest-and-digest cycle entirely. For now, let’s get started with Phase One.