Thoughts, Memories and Behaviours: The Triplets That Rule Us

Our brain is designed to look for patterns. We keep thinking the things that we keep thinking and doing the things that we keep doing. Therefore, trying a new thought and learning a new thing can be awkward.

The only way we can instill a good habit in ourselves is by:

• Continuously repeating the same action. This creates a pattern in our brain and leads to automaticity.

This is called rewiring our brain. 🧠

When we try to change a behavior, we only focus on the behavior by committing to start or stop doing something.

• I am going to eat healthy and exercise every day starting tomorrow.
• I am going to quit smoking.
• I am not going to let others' opinions upset me.

We either never start or we fall back soon. This is because we are trying to cut the branch.

💡We have to figure out the root of our behavior.

❓What is the trigger?

❓What emotions do I feel in response to the trigger?

❓Is there a different way in which I can perceive the triggering events?

If we keep driving over grass through the same route again and again, we create a rut. The same goes for our negative thinking patterns. The more we think, the more we reinforce them.

The opposite is to create our own trench of truth. We should write a declaration of the truth and keep reading and reciting it again and again until we internalize the truth.

This is creating a new neural pathway and developing a healthy habit over a bad one. ⭐

The limbic system located in our brain, is a neuronal circuit that controls emotional behaviour and motivational drives.

Two major part of the system are

1. The Hypothalamus
2. Hippocampus

The Hypothalamus also controls the body temperature, our drive to eat and drink and our body weight.

The limbic system classifies a sensation as Pleasant or Unpleasant. This is also known as Reward and Punishment. If a stimulus causes any of these sensations, the response of the brain becomes progressively intense and the memory is reinforced.

Short Term Memory: New information results in memory traces in the brain. Initially what we get is Short Term Memory.

Memory Sensitisation: If activated repeatedly, there will be initiation of chemical and physical changes in the neural junction called synapse. This causes facilitation or strengthening of the neural pathways

Long Term Memory: Our brain has the tendency to rehearse new found information, especially those that create a sensation of reward or punishment. This eventually causes formation of Long Term Memories.