Rewiring Your Brain

Default Mode Network (DMN)

• discovered by scientist Michael Richie in 2001

• it is responsible for all automatic thoughts and feelings

  • it ruminates about the past and worries about the future (aka the monkey mind)

• it is where the consciousness of the ego resides

• it is programmed by the traumas we have been through, and how we interpreted those experiences -- the meaning we attached to it

  • for example, food = love

• once we decide on a belief, the DMN repeats those beliefs on default (like a hamster wheel) --> repeating the past

• DMN programming keeps us repeating experiences that affirm our beliefs around money, love, body, health, career, etc. 

• All forms of suffering (poverty, scarcity, self-sabotage, self-judgment, unfulfilled relationships, etc.) come from the DMN

• it is more active when we aren't focused

Task Positive Network

• is engaged when we focus on a task --> mind quiets down

• is engaged when we come into the body (any of the senses of perception)

  • creates a physical anchor --> allows us to go deeper into the body and calmer mind

    • meditation 

    • breath (slow and deep)

    • visual (candle)

    • auditory (mantra, music, sounds of nature)

    • touch 

    • experiencing nature

3 Main Traps that keep us Stuck in Default

Fear 

• the belief that fear is real 

• is the fear you are experiencing a conscious choice? or by default? 

• fear always shows up when we are expanding into a bigger life

  • keeps us stuck in the past

• you can have fear while moving forward in life

  • compassionately accept the fear; allow it to be okay

Beliefs

• • beliefs are what the ego and DMN are programmed with

    • without beliefs there is no "default" program -- there is only conscious choice

  • when experiencing challenging situations, fear will come up as well as all kinds of beliefs associated with it (things we believe are real and true)

    • beliefs such as "why bother, it's not going to make a difference"

  • beliefs in themselves are not real or true

    • a truth is something that is true for ourselves and everyone else (e.g. -30C is cold)

    • beliefs are our perspective (e.g. I'm not good enough to be loved unconditionally)

    • beliefs are the ego's default -- not a chosen belief

  • when you resist a positive belief (e.g. I am worthy of love) you are further programming the opposite belief into the DMN

  • compassionately embrace the belief and love the one who learned that belief

Choosing from your mind (not from your heart)

• • when choosing from the mind we are choosing from the ego's DMN program 

    • creates limitation 

    • the mind thinks it has all the answers

      • the mind CANNOT PREDICT the FUTURE

      • the mind can only make decisions based on assumptions from the past

        • e.g. I'll be rejected, abandoned, I failed last time, etc.

  • we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them - Einstein

  • the heart is where love, joy, passion, beauty, etc. lie

    • the things that make life worth living

How do you know if you are operating from the DMN?

• Am I trying to solve a problem?

  • if there is strong emotional intensity to it, you are adding energy to it

    • what you focus on, and how you focus on it, expands

• Am I only giving myself 2 choices? 

  • this or that? eliminates other possibilities 

• Am I afraid of making the wrong choice? 

  • fear adds more energy to the DMN and further limits possible outcomes

• Am I looking to the past to know what to choose for the future?

  • the mind is a historian -- not a psychic!

  • the mind cannot know, because it hasn't experienced it yet 

DMN is a bio-feedback system of past beliefs and experiences

• it reflects back what we have learned and believe to be true

• choosing from the mind is choosing from the past - keeps us in a cycle --> keeps us stuck 

How do you know if you are operating from your heart?

• choosing from the heart is choosing from new possibilities (e.g. hope)

• feeling excitement (it could be a nervous excitement - and that's perfectly okay!)

• feeling of expansion