Your brain is a lying liar that lies…
So I’m not gonna pretend that I know everything but there are some common things floating about the interwebs right now and there’s a little heaviness about which is not good.
Life might feel like some hidden force is taking a steaming hot dump on your reality.
Hopefully you’re not sinking a bottle whiskey every night. Or maybe you’re stuck, scrolling social media until 3 am like it’s your job. Maybe you’re eating your feelings one take out meal at a time.
And then your brain keeps telling you this…
“This is just who I am. This is my life. I’m broken”
Your brain is a lying bastard.
Your habits aren’t carved in stone. They’re just stories you keep telling yourself. And stories can be rewritten.
But you can’t just think positive thoughts and expect magic. That Instagram influencer bullshit doesn’t work. You need to get dirty. You need to reprogram the narrative at a deeper level.
Let’s say you want to quit drinking as an example.
Your brain has spent years building this beautiful little fairy tale…
“Alcohol helps me relax. Alcohol makes me funnier. Alcohol makes everything better.”
Every time you pop the top and pour one into the glass. You’re reinforcing it.
So you flip the script.
“Alcohol is poison”
Not metaphorically. Literally. It’s a neurotoxin that slowly destroys your liver, fucks with your sleep, and turns your brain into mush.
When you look at that bottle now. There’s no relaxation. Only pretty little poison dressed up in a pretty little bottle.
You repeat this. Daily. Hourly if you have to.
Reframing isn’t a one and done deal. It’s a different kind of warfare. You’re literally fighting years of conditioning with new information. And your brain will resist like a stubborn toddler who doesn’t want to eat vegetables.
This is where it gets interesting.
You can use your awareness of the bad shit as fuel for the good shit.
Every time you feel that craving, that’s data. That’s your brain trying to run the old program. Instead of fighting the craving, you acknowledge it…
“There’s my brain trying to poison me again”
Then you reframe…
“I choose things that make me stronger”
This works for everything. Social media addiction? “This app is designed to steal my time and sell my attention to the highest bidder”
Junk food? “This processed garbage makes me feel like shit and look worse”
Toxic relationships? “This person drains my energy and adds nothing to my life”
It’s changing the fundamental story your brain tells you about these things.
And yes, it feels fake at first. Your brain will throw tantrums. It will try to convince you that the old ways were better. That you’re depriving yourself. That you’re being dramatic.
Let it whine.
Keep reframing. Keep repeating the new story. Keep feeding your brain better information.
Over time. The new narrative becomes automatic. You’ll look at that bottle of poison and feel nothing. You’ll see that toxic person’s name on your phone and feel relief that you don’t have to deal with their drama anymore.
Your brain will literally rewire itself around the new story.
But you have to be consistent. You have to be relentless. You have to treat this like the mental warfare it actually is.
Addiction is your brain running the wrong program. And reframing is how you debug it.
Start today. Pick one thing that’s fucking up your life. Write down the story your brain tells you about it. Then write down the truth. The real, ugly, uncomfortable truth.
And then repeat that truth until it becomes automatic.
Your brain is programmable. You just need to learn how to write better code and that’s something our robot overlord AI turd nuggets can’t do.
This might’ve been a little heavier than my regularly writer-ly shenanigans, but I’m sure someone out there might’ve needed this at this very moment.
Stephen Walker.
https://www.facebook.com/stphnwlkr
P.S. Feel free to come hit me up on Facebook Messenger and tell me I’m being full of shit.