You try to evaluate the circumstances, using what’s left of your moral reasoning. But shortly, your mind becomes commandeered by your emotions, by a swirl of harmful, tormenting thoughts — thoughts you didn’t even believe could be yours. You start to panic, scared of what you’re undertaking to become, afraid that this could be unchanging, but as you may remember, this only makes things worst.
And now, it’s too late. Everything’s spilling out, like a pot that’s been boiling with a lid, unsupervised, and you can’t seem to turn off the heat.

Don’t be too hard on yourself–your brain may be undermining you!
Some secret methods to keep on track with your goals and to beat bad habits.

Feeling Brain

Everyone has 2 brains. Okay, it’s just 1 brain or in the matter of some lawmakers, maybe none. We can divide the brain into 2 logical parts. The first part is often referred to as the FEELING BRAIN.

The feeling brain wants the marshmallow RIGHT NOW. It doesn’t care about consequences, principles, or goals. It just wants what it wants at the moment. Its powerful drives and thoughts are important for our survival and for our ability to bond with others. But often, it works contrary to what our goals and values are.

Thinking Brain

The thinking brain, or prefrontal cortex, is the ‘younger brain’ and can be thought of as the administrator or adult brain. This is where your values, goals, and principles stay. Interestingly, ‘Wait! Don’t eat the marshmallow yet! There’s something better if we wait.’ It can help ensure your feeling brain is acting in a way consistent with your goals and values.

Seesaw

There’s a seesaw effect within the brains, deciding who’s in command and making the decisions. This is, of course, is a simplification of something very complex. When the thinking brain has high activity, the feeling brain has less, and you tend to make more value and goal-based decisions. Like not eating the marshmallow now because you’ll get more later.

Lost Battle

When you have a mess and you give in to your thoughts, rather than beat yourself up, take some time to THINK about what led to giving in to the temptation. Let’s say I have a goal of breaking up with soda. My thinking brain recognizes I’d be healthier if I didn’t drink it, so I set a goal of no soda. A couple of days go by, and then I slip up and drink one. Hang on, let me savor this moment for a little bit….. Okay, now that I’m back in thinking mode, let’s analyze what led up to this.

Take Action

Overhauling your feeling brain trying to take over is the first step. Then, you need a plan of activity that will help rebuild power and activity to your thinking brain. The more you exercise your thinking brain, the stronger it will get. Do things that make you happy, and you’ll be spending more of your time in your prefrontal cortex and making that part of the brain stronger.

Know Your Happy Chemicals

Knowing the chemicals that make us feel happy helps us leverage them. Guess what funk is? A feeling brain hostile takeover. A word of caution though: Dopamine is the primary pleasure neurotransmitter associated with a lot of the habits we’re trying to break (sugar, video games, porn, etc). Leverage it wisely and in a way consistent with your goals.