The Brain Coach

Much of the time the biggest stressor of modern life is overwhelm, which triggers the threat circuitry for repression, or a lack of perceived control. 

Slowing down, getting organised, freeing up time, losing distractions and reinstating order can reduce the feeling that your challenges are bigger than you. There is no rocket science here - but we all need a reminder to carry out good practice sometimes. 

There is also an introduction into what I think may just be the most effective hack possible for prolonged contentment. A marriage of emotional duality and metta meditation. 

Next time we can look at accepting what you can't control, as well as how to overcome procrastination - both of which will also assist us in putting a brake on this stress response. 

This episode introduces the idea of "emotional duality", which was an essential step towards my recovery from the default discomfort of anxiety, and gave me the freedom to be myself without the guarded feelings I always carried around. If you have anxiety, this is a game changer.. and one that doesn't get much coverage. 

If we want to teach our subconscious that our environment is safe and there is no need to feel on edge all the time, we need to change the way we connect with the world. First we need to become aware of our safety behaviours, because these are stopping us from interacting with life. Safety behaviours come in all sorts of guises, but common are: immersing yourself in your phone to remove yourself from the discomfort your experience, avoiding eye contact with humans at all costs, or making excuses as to why you can't go out. 

After relinquishing our safety behaviours, we can step into a mindful state and surrender to feelings of vulnerability. Staying with discomfort and awkwardness instead of avoiding them will allow us to relearn what it is to live without the guarded barrier of anxiety. Exposing and openly immersing ourselves to our current experience while holding them alongside feelings of safety and security will allow us to reconsolidate the emotional labels we assign to memories and stimuli. This is what freedom feels like. This is what living feels like. This is what it feels like to be yourself again. By repeating this process, we can re-educate our threat circuitry into the realisation that ambiguity does not require a threat response. 

If we like we can take it one step further. We can make a concerted effort to "take in the good". We can not only teach ourselves that our environment is safe, we can teach ourselves that it is joyful, beautiful and worth exploring. 

This episode starts by briefly covering how we can use mindfulness to press pause, allowing us to veto emotional reactions such as anger. 

Next, we talk about two common traps that most of us fall into at some point - anger and victimhood. A lack of control, resentment and the wounded pride of ego are often the root of anger, and when we understand what the cause is, we can often take action to attenuate these feelings. 

It is also helpful to recognise when we are taking the role of the victim. When we are always ready to whinge, make excuses and point the finger of blame, we are teaching ourselves that we are living under an injustice. This will feed the demon of resentment and activate the threat circuitry, leaving us prone to a cycle of anger, anxiety and helplessness. 

A brief description of developmental coaching, followed by a quick and light coaching exercise for you to take part in. 

Let me know how you find the exercise! 

This is a deep dive into a practice that is notoriously difficult to explain. Years of study into mindfulness, neuroscience and psychology have allowed to me to connect all the dots, enabling the realisation of a model which can finally give solidity and clarity to this seemingly nebulous idea. 

Insight into the mechanisms behind mindfulness, and understanding why it is so effective at helping us achieve balance, will give us motivation to learn more on how to practice effectively and consistently. Mindfulness is a game changer. 

This episode covers the physical foundations of achieving a balanced mental state. 
The brain is part of the body. Balancing the system through changes to diet, removal of toxins and increased levels of exercise, will result in a vast improvement to your mental state. 

We look into why chronic stress, poor diet, alcohol usage and a sedentary lifestyle leads to inflammation and how inflammation can lead to affective disorders and autoimmune diseases. 

This episode outlines the importance of sleep, and its role in maintaining a balanced mindset. It also explores ways in which we can get better at getting enough sleep, particularly if we're prone to worry and anxiety at night.  

How high levels of anxiety can be conceptualised from a biological and psychological point of view. The cycle of anxiety will be introduced, along with initial ideas on how you might break the cycle and turn the volume down on relentless feelings of discomfort and unease.

A few of my thoughts on how humans are reacting to this unusual episode in history. Includes an explanation of some of the weird behaviour, and some tips on how to maintain mental stability during this difficult time.

This introduces the stimuli that commonly activate the threat response:

Devaluation, Repression, Expectation unmet, Ambiguity, Disconnection, (in)Equality, Disgust

Understanding them can help us become more self-aware. It can also assist us in putting a brake on the threat response, which will relieve us of stress, worry and anxiety.

This episode is an introduction into the neuroscience of personal development. It also introduces the threat system that is responsible for anger, fear, anxiety, stress and worry. Neuroplasticity, neural competition and biological preparedness are considered. 

A description of three factors that will increase your faith in the tools and practices I will be outlining in future episodes. 

A brief look into my own journey into (and out of) stress, worry and anxiety

This episode starts by describing how we can begin to step into a toward state of mind by staying open and nurturing a sense of curiosity. It then explores the basic neuroscience of avoidance and the balance between order and chaos, so we can think about how we can break the habit. Next episode will focus on what we can do in a practical sense to get ourselves back into a proactive state. Taking action will allow us to disrupt the cycle of anxiety, appreciate feelings of excitement and rekindle a default seeking/reward response to the unknown. 

Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity Prayer states "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." This episode continues the theme of reducing stress and overwhelm by examining what we can do to help us to accept the inevitable, or to make headway into challenges we might feel are too overwhelming. 

Acceptance and the ability to overcome procrastination are two vital tools which can help us reduce our levels of stress and avoidance. Once we've stabilised, we can come up for air and move into a compassionate, happy and proactive state of being.   

This episode briefly revisits neural competition and neuroplasticity, allowing us to see why meditation can have a profound impact on our mental wellbeing. It then explores four staples of formal meditation: Loving Kindness (Metta), Gratitude, Expansion of Consciousness and Turning Toward.