I love our brains. I love it for its inherent laziness. I love it for wanting to put everything in to neat little compartments, called schema, so that it can more easily understand the world and so that it doesn’t have to expend too much energy when something new comes in. Our beautiful brains always look for the common denominator and quickly file it away. ”He works in that job. He must be like the others I know that work in that job.” ”They wear that kind of clothes. They must be like others who wear those kinds of clothes.”
And while I love this aspect to our brains I am also aware of its inherent limitations and how this impacts our ability to create positive and lasting change in our lives. To demonstrate I will use the example of my diet.
I am a gluten-free vegan. Brain likey- nice easy to categorize statement. According to a 2008 study by Vegetarian Times less than 0.5% of Americans are vegan and one can presume that even less of those are avoid gluten. Now the interesting part comes when the brain is required to act on this information. Continuing with our example, let’s say now you and I are going out to eat or you are making me dinner. Your first question to me will most likely be “what can you eat?” The energy implied behind this is the assumption that I will have a hard time finding something to eat because with the phrases “vegan” and “gluten-free” comes the connotation of restriction. Again, thanks to our brain’s need to categorize and then connect new information with previous schema. So if you don’t have any dietary restrictions you will attach mine to limitations.
And here is where the fun part comes in. We can draw our awareness to this inherent nature of our mind to categorize and then attach new information to our previously held schema or BELIEFS and use this as an opportunity to transform.
So if you recognize your brain categorizing something as a limitation or restriction you can pause and ask yourself what the flip side looks like? What is outside the box I am trying to put this experience or information in?
To continue with our example, in the beginning of my gluten-free, vegan lifestyle I focused on the restrictions and what I was missing out on. This seems only natural in this circumstance and its okay to be in this space, but it is also important to move forward and start embracing the CAN. For example while I choose not to eat dairy, eggs, meat (including seafood and fowl), barley, wheat and rye. That is only six items. I CAN, on the other hand, eat an infinite number of fruits, vegetables, legumes and other grains and the combinations are endless.
Here is another example. Let’s say you’re running low on money this month. You can choose to focus on cutting some things out of your budget and lamenting on lack, maybe even complain about it to your friends and family OR you can choose to look at the opportunities this presents you. Now maybe you can stay home and work on that project you always want to get done or you could teach yourself how to make simply, healthy and inexpensive meals at home. If you run your own business, maybe this is an opportunity for you to stretch your networking muscles and go out and meet new people and new communities to expand in to.
By looking at our problems as opportunities and solutions waiting to happen we are led down a path of expansion, growth, possibility and transformation. You don’t have to change your thinking and things can stay the same, but my guess is you’d like to improve your circumstances and well-being and this is one of the many tools to do so.
Stretching our cognitive muscle and exercising our brain in this way is just like developing any habit or skill, it takes time. It sounds cliché, but the more you do it, the better you’ll feel and it will pay off in the long run by making any change or transition easier to manage.
What problem can you transform into a opportunity?
Blessings & Namaste.
♥ Megan
