Talk To Your Brain

-Devlyn Steele

John and Steve were walking down the street when John started talking to himself.

Steve said, "If you keep talking to yourself, people will think you're crazy."

John said, "I'm not crazy."

Steve said, "Oh, I wasn't talking to you."

It's happened to all of us, we're walking down the street and we get caught up in conversations in our own heads and don't realize that we're actually talking to ourselves. You look around wondering who was listening and feel like you must look crazy. Thank god for cell phones, at least now we can pretend we're talking to someone else. You didn't think that all those people talking on their cell phones were actually talking to other people, did you?

Are you crazy to talk to yourself? I tell my clients all the time that, "the crazier you get the healthy you will become" -- well, that's if talking to yourself is crazy. Of course there's a constructive way of talking to yourself, and other methods that might be just a little bit crazy.  How you talk to yourself can make the difference between creating the positive changes you want in your life, or not.

In order to understand why and how you should talk to yourself, let's first take a look at your brain. When you were born you started off with one hundred billion brain cells called neurons. It's hard to even imagine a number of cells that large inside your head. Even though that is a large number, our mental characteristics are not determined by the number of brain cells, but the connections between them called synapses. However, when you were born there were no connections. The connections get developed through our environmental experiences.

The brain cell body contains a nucleus with two branches. The functions of the branches are to communicate with other cells. The first branch called the dendrite, which is used for incoming communications, and the second is called the axon, which is used for outgoing communication.  Both have many connector points to facilitate multiple and various incoming and outgoing messages with other neurons through the dentritic and axonic terminals. There's a space between the axon of one cell and the dendrite of another cell. The space between the branches where the connection is made is called the synapse, or the synaptic gap.

The gap is filled by chemicals in the brain that establish the link between the cell network called ligands. (We'll discuss the three types of chemicals which establish the connections for your thoughts in two upcoming articles, "Your Brain and Your Mood" and "Feeding the Brain".) Each synapse contains hundreds of dendrite receptors waiting for its axon to exude the correct chemical. Each neuron is connected to hundreds of other neurons through a number of synapses ranging from one thousand to ten thousand. You start with no synaptic connections and by the time you reach twenty these connections increase the density of brain by as much as three times.

The massive amount of connections creates your neural network. All these connections are established through learning, which defines your knowledge base and your behavior. From the moment you learn to move a finger you are beginning to establish the synaptic connections in your brain.  Imagine that each action and or thought you have has a synaptic neural network which fires off to set it in action. Through brain imaging we can see these established neural networks of thought and actions, which are referred to as brain mapping.

Imagine a map of connections firing off with each activity and thought you have. Why is this important? Let's take a look at how learning is established. Think back to when you learned to tie your shoelaces, read, write, speak, brush your teeth, and drive, etc. You practiced and practiced, concentrating and focusing on the activity over and over again. At the time it might have seemed like a slow process. However, over time you have mastered those skills.  Now those same activities can be performed with little or no conscious focus or effort. In fact 95% of your actions and thoughts that you have, get performed by what is referred to as the automatic brain. This both works for you and against you, as the bad habits you learned are established in your neural network, and become automatic.

You may not have had a vote in what you were exposed to as you grew up which established your thought patterns, but as we get older, we do have a vote. We can take an active role in reshaping our neural network. That means you no longer have to stay stuck doing things the way you always have in the past. It means you don't always have to eat the wrong foods, not feel like exercising, procrastinate, and more. You can really reshape how you think about yourself and how you act accordingly. Thus, you can move past your addictions, manage your behavior, and create endless positive change in your life.

The last ten years of brain science has taken us in a new direction of understanding. We now know that the brain  has plasticity and can change and grow as we age. As much as the plastic brain presents new possibilities, it also works against us. The plasticity nature of the brain is competitive. The preexisting neural maps have strong footholds and don't get pushed aside easily. That's why understanding the brain is important. Picture all those neurons with hundreds of branches and connecting points attached to thousands of synaptic connections, and understand that you need to reprogram yourself.

If you understand the task at hand, then you will understand that part of the programming process is talking to yourself. You literally are training your brain to develop a new neural map with the thought process that will create the results you want. So is talking to yourself crazy? "No!" However you need to know how to talk to yourself to produce the results you want. You also have to be committed to the process. That is why simply understanding something is not enough. Understanding does not create new behavior. You already understand that you should eat right, exercise, not smoke or do drugs, that you should save money, pay attention to your relationships, your career, and so much more. Until you create a neural network to support the behavior behind that understanding your behavior will return to baseline regardless of understanding.

Understanding can come quick, however changing behavior to become part of your automatic brain takes time. Thus, there are no quick fixes. With the new amazing discoveries of the brain, we can attach brain science to effective self help strategies and the exercises no longer have to be built on theory or good faith. We can visually take images of the brain and see the brain map change with effective exercises and programs. This changes everything. So plug in an ear piece from your cell phone and learn how to start talking to yourself. You're crazy if you don't!

This article has been created in response to a large member base request for more information on the brain, and due to the importance of creating understanding to establish the positive changes we want to create. Over the next 4-6 weeks we'll continue to publish articles and Podcasts on the following brain subjects listed below.

December will serve as a month of preparation for a thirty day challenge starting January 1^st  , in which we will lead you to make real changes in 2010. We'll give you more information soon. In addition, Tools To Life will be finishing its financial funding, which will give us the opportunity to bring you a wide range of new programs and site features this coming year.

"Brain Wars: What To Say To Your Brain"

Discussing how we gain and lose skills and behavior.

"Brain Visualization"

Discussing how we can create new brain patterns with what we visualize.

"Thought Detective"

Discussing how to identify thoughts in advance that lead to negative behavior or feelings and changing them.

"Shifting Brain Gears"

Discussing OCD and other behavior is often about getting stuck in a gear or thought, we can shift the gear.

"Your Mood and Your Brain"

Discussing the Chemicals in your brain and how they affect your mood and outlook.

"Ageless Brain"

Discussing how the idea that age does not have to diminish brain capacity.

"Feeding The Brain"

Discussing nutritional methods to enhance the brain.

"The Brain Filter"

Discussing The Reticular Activity System.

"The Addictive Brian"

Discussing how addiction reshapes our brain.

"Sex and The Brain"

Discussing how the brain develops attraction.