Brain Squirrels?
These brain squirrels running around inside my head can be a real annoyance sometimes.
Brain squirrels, or for some people brain weasels, are those annoying little rodents running around and causing dis-ease, doubt, distractions, and various negatives to get in the way of just about everything.
Working with them can be challenging.
I think everyone copes with this in some form or other. No matter our intent or general thoughts, feelings and actions, these random, little, mostly annoying thoughts just run around and often force us to alter our course in order to avoid them.
Running over the brain squirrels does have a certain appeal, but frequently doing so causes two or three to pop up where there was only one before.
As I mentioned in Pathwalking this week, I am currently looking more deeply at being only in the now, and using that to better balance just being. Alongside that, I have been using new mantras and affirmations regularly to alter my brain. Because words matter, and the self-talk majorly affects conscious reality creation, this has come into greater focus for me.
Yet still, in the back of my head, there is that little nagging voice. More than one. Telling me this is all bullshit, that it doesn’t matter if I live in the now or past or future; letting me know that I am unworthy and do not deserve my desires; reminding me of all my mistakes and errors and poor choices in life. Little brain squirrels, chittering away, running around and making the cars of my thoughts, feelings and actions crash.
Where did they come from? Old, out-of-date programming. To put it more succinctly, it’s like the current me is running Windows 10 as my OS, while the brain squirrels are still running DOS for the most part.
Where do brain squirrels come from?
Back in childhood, there were certain programs installed. These were the beliefs I learned from my parents, from my teachers, and others around me. This is not just about education, and the things I was learning in my childhood, but thought processes, feelings and actions. I saw how the people in my life thought, felt and acted, and took it in as programming into my operating system.
As children, when the brain is being developed, we are super-impressionable. Things we do not realize are being programmed in get uploaded into our psyche. For example, and please note I am not in any way placing blame here, my parents divorced when I was six. As such, what I learned about relationships may have gotten skewed. On a deep, very subconscious level, I would develop certain beliefs that rooted in pretty deeply.
As we get older, we upgrade ourselves. New experiences, things we learn and general aging will provide a lot of upgrades. In time, we choose for ourselves if we are content getting Windows 7 installed, or if we want to upgrade to Windows 10. If we recognize that consciousness creates reality, and we can manifest the life we most desire, we take control of our upgrades. As such, some people abandon Microsoft and go to Apple and install OS X.
However, despite choosing to upgrade ourselves, there are some old, DOS-based programs running deep, deep in the background.
This often comes as a surprise. But that is where the brain squirrels originate from. Old, old notions and beliefs built in deep and running off of outdated software.
What do you do with the brain squirrels?
They cannot be ignored, because they will find ways to crash the system. I am of course talking about self-sabotage, depression, anxiety, and other negatives. In the end, once you recognize and identify the brain squirrels, you need to reprogram them, overwrite them, or uninstall them.
Bet you won’t be surprised when I tell you this is easier said than done, of course.
Part of why being in the here-and-now is so powerful is because it shuts down the brain squirrels. Since most of us cannot entirely live in the now all the time, there are things we can do to take care of these outmoded matters.
Methods for reprograming, overwriting and uninstalling brain squirrels
Meditation. It is amazing how powerful taking even a few minutes a day can alter my psyche. Meditation has become a daily habit for me, usually around ten minutes a day. I sit still, focus on my breathing, and work to be totally present and in the moment to be at peace. It is quite calming and comforting.
Questions. Asking questions like what am I thinking? how do I feel? what’s all this in my brain? and where am I? put you in the moment. They bring you to the present, and tend to pull the brain squirrels up short. These simple questions allow you to take control of your headspace, and get into the now.
Affirmations. I think these are totally cheesy. And yet, all evidence points to them being wonderfully effective at reprograming and overwriting this out-of-date information. As I wrote recently, I have been using a couple new affirmations, including I feel money is flowing to me; I’m feeling young; I feel that my joints are flexible and strong; I feel that I am in shape; I’m feeling solid; I know a way will be found to change my thinking to be more positive.
Exercise. Moving the body puts you in the present. Sure, taking a long walk can allow your mind to wander, but it can also let you take control and focus on yourself in the now. Further, exercise changes your brain chemistry, in particular exercise you love. For me, that’s fencing.
We cannot ignore the brain squirrels, but we can do things to deal with, change, or remove them. Yet more work in progress.
As always, thank you for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me.
This is the eighty-eighth entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series. My collectively published writing can be found here.
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