The Mind and The Brain - Jeffrey M. Schwartz & Sharon Begley

[Echo Blue]

Another book on my list!

In reading this thread, something came to mind with what I’ve been doing with my 4 year old granddaughter. She very verbal and her little brain remembers everything she hears and reads. She’s reading at a second grade level at the moment. I only mention this because of her ability to remember.

As a result, she gets frustrated when not able to do other things well - like riding a bike for example. Well, one day when I was babysitting she got upset about something that she was not able to do. And since there was nothing I could think of to calm her frustration, I suddenly remembered a phrase that someone had told me about to help with this sort of thing with kids. And that phrase was “if you can name it you can change it”.

So while she was whining and rolling around on the floor upset, I just said to her “OK Jimmy Cagney”. Immediately she stop what she was doing and stood up and looked at me and asked who is that. And I told her that Jimmy Cagney was an actor on TV and in movies who is always angry and mad and yelling. And I told her that when she acted the way she was doing that I was just going to call her Jimmy Cagney. And we both started to laugh!

And now when she gets frustrated all I have to say is: “hey, Jimmy Cagney”. And she laughs (or doesn’t because now it’s getting old). But it interrupts what’s going on in her brain and emotions. It makes her stop for a moment and think a little bit.

The other day when I had her for the day I burned something I was cooking and was grumbling, she walked into the kitchen and said are you being like Jimmy Cagney. And I laughed so hard. So did she!

So I’m thinking that maybe those little interruptions to A negative situation may gently help to change the way your brain reacts to those situations.

 

[Anthony]

This is a good overview of the 4 steps mentioned in the book, and it covers some of the Work principles.

Four Steps to Rewire Your Brain With Conscious-Mind Action

True, the mystery and complexity of the mind and brain may remain an ever present reality. Thanks in large part to advanced methods of studying the brain, however, recent findings in neuroscience have come a long way to unravel numerous puzzles.

Safe to say, many operations of the brain and body are governed by scientific laws as real as the Law of Gravity. Unquestionably, there is less mystery.

One of the laws discovered by recent findings is the ability of the brain to restructure and heal itself throughout life. This discovery alone tossed out centuries of scientific creeds, which previously held that we cannot do much about the damage caused by trauma and certain set patterns such as those labeled mental or behavioral “disorders.”

Known as neuroplasticity, findings show you have an innate ability to restructure the gray matter of your brain, literally speaking, with your mind and conscious-mind action. When you change what you think, say or do in response to an event or situation, you change inner emotional states. As emotions are molecules that transmit the “what” to fire and wire” messages, whenever your felt experience of an event changes, accordingly, this physically restructures the gray matter of your brain.

More and more, psychological treatment is less guesswork and mystery, and more application of proven science.

Even deeply entrenched behavior problems, such as addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been shown to respond to treatment that follows proven methods of rewiring the brain by altering current thought-response patterns. For OCD, for example, neuroscientist Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz has developed four steps in a ‘response prevention” cognitive-biobehavioral approach.

It makes sense. Most emotional issues have to do with rigid patterns of thinking associated with the body’s fear response.

What follows are four steps to rewire your brain to think and feel a different way, which can be applied to enhance your behavior or thought patterns overall. With more serious issues, seek the support of a professional.

1. See your automatic response patterns as learned brain-strategies.

The first step is to realize that toxic behaviors and patterns do not mean you are weak, inferior or defective as a human being. As a culture, it is unfortunate that most major institutions, i.e., family, school, church, even our medical and mental health industries, are overly problem-focused, judging those with problems as bad, weak, defective, and the like. Problems are not the problem, your brain is designed to solve them. You were born with a brain that not only loves to resolve challenges, it simply cannot be healthy and vibrant without them!

See problem behaviors instead for what they are: learned strategies that your brain adapted because they ‘worked’ to protect you. You may not remember because this involves subconscious processes. You’ve been practicing many of these patterns from the time you were a child, thus, they can seem like they are ‘you’ – when in truth they are learned patterns that can be un-learned. [I would say that these strategies serve more than to protect you, they can also serve for self-gratification like with self-pitying.]

It’s a mistake to think that you are your thoughts, your emotions or your actions. You always have the option, once you realize this, to choose the thoughts, emotions, actions you want to express. Truth be told, all automatic thought-, emotion- or action-patterns that cause toxicity in your relationships and problems in your life are based on misguided understandings, mostly subconscious, between your mind and body. It is these toxic or limiting neural patterns that jam up the communication network of your mind and brain with unnecessary levels of fear. [Thinking errors, congnitive biases, etc.]

If you have low tolerance for discomfort, or get bored easily, it’s time to take back what you lost somewhere along the way, that is, your innate passion to learn, to grow, to stretch, to discover, to be curious, to create, all of which you had naturally as a child! You need a new worldview that allows you to recapture your zest for life and healthy adventure, and to stretch out of old comfort zones. In this way, when thoughts surface that hold you back, such as “I can’t do that, that’s just not me,” you can bring yourself to speak truth, to say, “I am capable of stretching and doing whatever I put my mind and heart into realizing!!”

2. Re-frame a behavior as a problem located outside of who you are as a person.

The second step is to reframe a certain thought or behavior pattern so you can clearly see what is true and what is not true. This allows you to step back and separate yourself (or another), as a human being, from the behavior. When you do, you have a clearer picture of what is in your hands to change, and what is not.

Use a descriptive word that resonates with you, and grabs your attention. For example, call an unwanted thought, such as “I’m inadequate” or “there’s no point, nothing works,” a ‘big lie,’ a ‘misguided belief’ or a ‘false illusion.’ Refer to a shopping addiction as “a selfish money-grabbing thief’ or an addictive food “a high-cost cheap-thrill.’ Instead of telling yourself “I have to have a drink” you train yourself to say, “I’m having a compulsive urge to drink, and it’s trying to trick me into thinking ‘just one drink can’t hurt’ when I know that’s lie.”

This may sound too easy to be true. Rest assured, it’s anything but easy.

To consciously shift your focus on something opposite from what your brain has been automatically trained to do to ensure your survival will require you to come at this with determined force, to understand and accept that this will be quite a challenge, incredibly so. It’s about taking the reins as captain of your mind and emotional states, to develop your innate capacity by consciously navigating your responses to life. [Haidt's the elephant and the rider analogy comes to mind.]

3. Set clear life vision to refocus your energies on what you consciously prioritize and most value.

To the extent you have a clear vision of your life and what you most value, your body and mind subconscious galvanizes, and sharply focuses, your emotional energy to create thoughts, ideas, and actions that alight with your highest yearning.

If you are like many, you mostly have vague ideas of what you want in the long and short term, what you believe deep inside about yourself and life, and what is most important to you, what you value. The reason you may not have what you want, however, may be that you do not have a clear idea, a sharp vision, and specific and clearly stated goals. An articulated vision is a key trait of those who succeed in any endeavor. It is critical information to consciously feed your subconscious mind.

It’s not an option. It’s how your brain is designed to work. You need a clear vision of what you really want, who you want to be, what you’re willing to do and not do, clear enough so you can see it, preferably involving most or all of your senses, that is, you picture it, taste it, smell it, hear it, and feel it-as if it were already a present reality.

When your vision is a passion, the part of your mind that is in control of forming and breaking habits, the subconscious, is more quickly persuaded to let go of and replace the patterns that have been causing problems. Most protective survival-strategies, for example, are associated with a “low-energy” (fear-based) strivings, such as seeking “to prove your worth to others” or “to make sure no one gets upset or angry at you,” which you must necessarily replace. Fear-based patterns keep the subconscious mind on alert for certain cues, which it has learned to misinterpret as threats to your survival. To influence change, you must gain the cooperation of your subconscious mind. You need a vision to energize your mind and body and focus the direction of change. You can achieve what you want, more easily and effortlessly, when your conscious and subconscious mind work together toward common goals.

4. Take action to express your commitment to this new priority or value.

The fourth step is where the toughest work is, because it’s the actual changing of behavior. You have to perform another behavior instead of the old one. Once you recognize the problem for what it is and why it’s re-occurring, you now have to replace the old behavior by giving your brain new things to do. This is where the change in brain chemistry occurs, where you are creating new neural patterns, with your new mindset. By refusing to be misled by the old messages, by understanding they aren’t what they tell you they are, your subconscious is more willing to adapt change, and allow conscious you to be in charge of your brain (when you get triggered).

Action seals the deal. It says that the first three steps really matter to you. Your subconscious mind follows your lead the more you persuade it that you can handle those scary feelings of inadequacy or rejection, loss of control or abandonment, and thus stops treating you like a baby that has to be rescued with old strategies recorded in your early survival love map.

When you consistently take action, going opposite the emotional response you used to respond with to a triggering situation, you are consciously self-directing changes in your brain. These changes will make it increasingly easier for you to train yourself to respond, for example, with relative calm and confidence to a situation that is normally triggering for you. The more you practice a behavior, the more likely your subconscious mind will integrate it as a learned pattern that becomes more and more automatic.

Eventually, old thought patterns and intense emotional responses fade in intensity, and your brain is not highjacked by the body’s ‘fight, flee or freeze’ response, thus, your brain’s higher reflective thinking operates to allow you to make conscious choices. You’ve developed the capacity to accordingly maintain an optimal emotional state of mind and body. Your subconscious mind can perform its regular amazing functions, instead of acting like a dictator that usurps all the energies of your body thinking it needs to prepare for ‘enemy’ attack.

Ready to take the helm as captain?

Extensive studies say that, when you determinately decide to change your mind, you cause physical changes to your brain. Providing the change is in a positive direction, this is fantastic news.

This can involve a change in behavior to eliminate a compulsive pattern, take your life back from an addiction, or heal your relationship with money or food, a person you love or a difficult boss or colleague. Change and healing are about reshaping your mindset in a particular area of your life. You can make this a conscious process, where shifts in your thoughts, attitude and beliefs rewire current problematic emotional circuits.

It has been scientifically shown that the brain is structurally altered by changes in your behavior patterns. You can conquer toxic thinking patterns and old limiting beliefs by conscious shifts in your views, having a new vision, reframing problems. Safe to say, you get to consciously choose what you will create or change.

 

[Chu]

Good summary and an important reminder of what we can do each and every day. Thanks, Anthony!

 

[Tuatha de Danaan]

A printout of the above to be read every morning would be a very positive start to the day. A regular reminder that we can DO. Thanks Anthony.

 

[Alejo]

I just finished this book and it was really good, I think there's enough summary on its contents by others in this thread already, so I won't be adding much of that, but I did find several ideas rather fascinating.

The mind has a brain

That is probably the take home message of the book, simple and yet with so many implications that it's difficult to capture in a few words. The Brain's neurophysiology reflects the mind, but not just our current state of mind, as this neurophysiology is to a very large degree controlled by experience. The fact that this physiology is controlled by experience, probably lends a large hand to the notion that we do in fact live in a deterministic universe, where we're simply the result of what came before us, and as such.. we're simply an accident, unable to control what went on before and what will happen in the future, and forget about the present.

However, I think that is a key point in actually introducing volition, or will and agency into our lives. I think if we simply remain inattentive to the comings and goings of our brain, we are indeed simply accidental creatures, but if we do focus our attention then we can change our experience from predestined to one of our choice, even if we do not initiate our drives and impulses, we do have a hand in deciding what to block and what to allow to flow.

(Small parenthesis, It's interesting, recently I watched a story where destiny was described as our inability to change our nature, which made us predictable to the degree that destiny could be prophesied, BUT if we dared to change our nature, and go through that death of our old selves, then we defied prophecies and destiny didn't exist, doing what one chooses instead of what is "written" in us...anyway)

This was brilliantly illustrated when he talks about the readiness potential (I have attached an image that explains this) what was discovered was the consciousness of the wish to perform an action came milliseconds AFTER the onset of electrical activity, that preceded the action itself, and milliseconds before said action.

Again, that could lend a hand to the notion that there's no free will.. if our awareness of our wishes to act come after the onset of the readiness potential, BUT.. that's when he introduces the idea of the "Free Won't"... that is, what actions, drives, thoughts, ideas.. do you allow to pass freely through your awareness without any input.

And that was a wonderful idea, at least to me, because it made me realize that, in terms of self agency and free will, it wasn't so much seeking to be the origin of one's impulses, (which can actually lead to creating narratives to explain happenings, to explain why one didn't prevent an impulse from turning into action) but a participant in the destination, or the gate keeper of whatever may come your way.

That experiment created a graphic description of what the 7 habits author talked about when he said that between stimuli and action is where freedom lies, it truly is.

However, in this book, they take that a step further, including and going into a fairly large details about quantum mechanics, and the large role that attention plays, or the conscious observer. And discipline and repetition, specially when he talks about stroke victims and amputees, and how their brains re map their networks based on effort, discipline and experience.

It is through attention, discipline, commitment, creativity, effort and patience, that one can create the impossible, and go from being an accident of what happened to us, to a gate keeper, to an active actor in one's life. But before all that, there's the self awareness of one's condition, the acceptance of the truth of that condition (I.e. being "possessed" by ideas, by ones biology, etc) and a choice of a direction in which to go, which determines what that attention will aim at, and what that attention will prevent from taking over, which then determines what alternate path to take.

And then take one step... which might feel like the end of the world, and indeed it kind of is, filled with effort and struggle, but it's possible. It's the only way to go from being a simple Courtroom scribe, to a writer of our own story.

This book made me think of several other ideas, particularly when he spoke about the neurons that wire together, fire together... he illustrated this with the piano players. But, it really applies to everything, imagine if you learned, for instance, that abuse and love go together, if you had an awful enough childhood, what partner would you seek in life? or that abuse and sex are one and the same thing, as it's happening with so many children these days, what would you grow to seek? or what fetishes would you hide?

Dislodging these circuitry, takes effort, mental one and imaginary, even emotional, but also experiential. It made me think of the idea of faking it until one makes it, it carries deeper meaning, it's why some of the answers that we come up with intellectually, fail to materialize in behavior IMO, if one doesn't change the experience one has, one hasn't really begun the work of re mapping one's brain.. all one has done is think about things, it's missing the other half of the answer, the behavior part of the understanding, if that makes sense.

Although focused attention does activate the same circuitry as the act itself, but I feel more is needed, BUT.. that also speaks to the idea of mental hygiene, in my opinion.

Lastly, It also made me think of our arrogance, or one's arrogance, or mine... and the need to aim low, or being humble. I believe, much like with any other habit or hobbies one takes on, one will be an amateur, and be very bad at it at first. Initially, the best one can do is to be a gate keeper of ideas, that didn't originate in ones mind, and prevent them from turning into experience, and sometimes that is enough to enact growth.

Failing that, at least have the humility to admit that one couldn't help oneself, that one couldn't stop the ideas from turning into behavior, instead of writing an explanation to place oneself in the imaginary chair of the ruler of something one can't hope to comprehend, and master, if one continues to convince oneself that one is in charge at all. It feels awful, and it's not pretty.. but... bitter truth and sweet lies.

But then, if the ideas that turn into behavior come from without, the notion of aligning one's antenna to a specific cosmic frequency, takes on a deeper meaning, though it has been explored elsewhere, but I think that with enough effort, and work, enough attention, and discipline... much like with quantum mechanics, all the potential information that could overcome you, collapses into something more aligned with the vehicle you have crafted through effort.

Not to deepen the gap of a dichotomy of body and soul, brain and mind, flesh and spirit, that stand against one another, but to highlight their differences, so that you can bring them together and make one the expression of the other and work for a single existence of mutual benefit.

I hope the above is clear, the book is technical in a very accesible way, and it grabs from several avenues of thinking and it made it's point with a lot of science. Truly recommended, if you want a description of the Work from an entirely different viewpoint.

 

[Alejo]

Sorry for the double post, but I finished writing this and then went to smoke a cigarette and and idea occurred to me, on this:

It is through attention, discipline, commitment, creativity, effort and patience, that one can create the impossible, and go from being an accident of what happened to us, to a gate keeper, to an active actor in one's life. But before all that, there's the self awareness of one's condition, the acceptance of the truth of that condition (I.e. being "possessed" by ideas, by ones biology, etc) and a choice of a direction in which to go, which determines what that attention will aim at, and what that attention will prevent from taking over, which then determines what alternate path to take.

An analogy to describe this process, which takes enormous effort, is like... being a kid at a bridge watching things go by, and exercising attention to watch things go by, watch what ideas pass through, where they come from and what they turn into.. and what they have turned into, and little by little begin to take a role in stopping them, until one becomes wise and strong enough to rule over that bridge.

And if you need a graphic depiction of this, and thinking of bridges, the following came to mind as a perfect way to describe attention and volition in terms of the ideas and drives that show up and will continue to do so, and what the goal could be:

I felt it was very appropriate :) Excellent book.

 

[heinrich]

Full title: The Mind & The Brain, Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force

I recently finished reading this, and would like to recommend it. It is full of quoted studies about the brain, and at several places it reminded me of a lot of the research already shared here on cognitive sciences and the Work, together. FWIW, all in all, I thought it was a very good book to add to our collection on cognitive science (if we can separate some of the authors' conclusions, which don't alter the message and have, IMO, no relevance even in the text).

Here is the description taken from Amazon:



The main thread is how therapists can understand and heal severe OCD patients. But there is a lot more to it. Basically, Schwartz chose OCD because it is a problem that, as opposed to other mental disorders, reflects a clear distinction between what goes on in the brain (physically), and the mind (or observer). The person with OCD can be aware that his or her compulsion is an intrusive thought or impulse that says "wash your hands for the 20th time". Yet, they cannot do much against it at the beginning of their therapy.

So he proposes a "Four-Step program": Relabel, Reattribute, Refocus, Revalue. First, he teaches the patients to really recognize it as an intrusive thought, a defective mechanism. Then he teaches them about where the issue is in their brains. Then, he encourages the patients to think about an alternative behavior, a healthier one instead ("I can go water the roses", or whatever). At the beginning, the patients can't perform the second action. But, with mental exercises and focus, their brain gets used to the second idea, until they actually learn to put it into action.

It reminds me of how, when we notice a program in ourselves (or more often, are given a mirror about it), we start being able to observe it, and know it's intrusive/our false personality, etc., but can't do anything at first. In the case of OCD, focusing on what it would be like to master that mechanical part of the self has shown to produce actual physical changes in the brain, AS IF the behavioral change had already occured. Then, it takes focus and attention, but the behavior CAN be changed. The patients learn to get less and less identified with the programmed reactions/thoughts, predator, etc., and little by little they manage to modify it or a least stop it from ruling their actions. Sounds familiar?

The authors talk about how quantum physics applies to the study of the brain adn the mind in this context, and why. My main criticism would be that they seem to be very pro-Mindfulness meditation and a bit too much in favor of Buddhism (although they get points for mainly talking about teachings that are fairly reasonable, in my opinion), but I kept thinking that EE and knowledge as taught in our group is way better for what they are trying to convey and accomplish.

They also describe a lot of experiments done to test neuroplasticity in adults, and the results are sometimes amazing. In other words, they demonstrate that it's never too late to rewire ourselves, if we want to, and put enough effort toward that goal. The key is paying attention.

They talk about the problems with behaviorism and other types of therapies, discuss the differences between the mind and the brain, and also mention briefly the New Age movement. Perhaps it wasn't their intention (they were quite vague at some points), but I think that from the studies they shared, one can infer that you "CAN create your own reality", except that it's not easy and certainly doesn't come without concentrated efforts on our part. That is true, if we look at how this network works. You get what you give to life, and everyone's efforts to become more sincere and conscious bring about changes in life that are certainly positive. Without putting effort into it, whoever wants the change to be for free, gets nothing and becomes "free lunch" instead.

Finally, they share studies on "will power", which I found were quite interesting. Basically, they showed in brain scans that "will" is there, and it acts as a decision maker. The automatic/programmed thought kicks in, and "will" lasts for a fraction of a second, during which a person can decide whether to act or not. And it can be trained to be more active each time, I think. In other words, learning to make our own decisions can't be done by suppressing part of ourselves, refusing to look into our mechanical Is, etc., but rather, if we learn to observe them, then we can make the choice not to act on them. I'm preaching to the choir here, but anyway, I thought the studies all throughout the book were cool!

I'll post some quotes soon, for those who are interested.

thank you for your time in writing such a complete answer