TRAIN YOUR BRAIN WITH DANA WILDE
GLOSSARY OF TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TERMINOLOGY
As brain trainers, we have a common language. Some of the more common Train Your Brain terminology is defined below.
THE CYCLE OF PERPETUAL SAMENESS:
Each of us has beliefs stored in our unconscious minds. We develop these beliefs from our families, cultures, experiences, and even our own thoughts. The Reticular Activating System (R.A.S.) part of the brain matches the outside world to these beliefs. We literally see or don’t see things in our environment based on our beliefs.
If we have a negative experience or get a negative result, we sometimes focus on that result and engage in negative self-talk. This negative self-talk generates negative emotion. The self-talk and emotion help to reinforce the belief in the unconscious mind and then the R.A.S. matches that belief, and so on.
We call this The Cycle of Perpetual Sameness and it’s the reason why most people only experience incremental change in their lives. The full-size version of The Cycle of Perpetual Sameness can be found HERE.
THE CONSCIOUS MIND:
This is the part of our brain with which we are most familiar. It’s the “thinking mind.” It’s the voice we hear in our heads all day every day. As brain trainers, we focus our Conscious Minds and intentionally think better thoughts on a consistent basis. By being more consistently aware and focusing on better thoughts which generate positive emotion, we also rewrite the beliefs stored in our Unconscious Minds.
THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND:
This is the part of our brain that operates without our conscious awareness. The Unconscious Mind stores our beliefs, operates our bodily functions (like breathing and digesting our food), maintains our habits, and much more. Brain scientists estimate that we are acting unconsciously 95-99% of the day. Think of the Unconscious Mind like “automatic pilot.” Many of us do most of our daily habits on “automatic pilot.”
RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM:
The Reticular Activating System is a part of the brain that acts like a filter. As brain trainers, we like to think of the Reticular Activating System (or R.A.S.) like a little matchmaker that lives in your head. It’s a full-time job is to listen to what you’re thinking about and what you’re talking about and to make sure you notice or don’t notice the things in your environment that match those thoughts. If you’ve ever shopped for a new car and started to see that car everywhere, then you’ve experienced the R.A.S. at work.
THE EMOTIONAL SCALE:
The Emotional Scale is a tool that we use to shift our emotions in any given moment. You identify the emotion you are feeling, and then say sentences that represent the emotional state to the right of the emotion you are feeling.
For example, if you are feeling fear or worry, then say a bunch of sentences in a row that start with the words, “I’m angry because …” Say those sentences for a few minutes until you actually FEEL angry. Then you can move one more spot to the right and start saying a bunch of sentences in a row that start, “I’m frustrated because …” After a few minutes move onto “hope” and so on.
The Emotional Scale allows us to honor and feel our emotions fully and at the same time, shift ourselves to a better emotional state. The full-size version of The Emotional Scale can be found HERE.
MANTRA:
A mantra is a short positive phrase. When you say a mantra over and over again, it helps to shift your energy and feel good. “Money is flowing to me” and “I love my life” are two examples of positive mantras. To get a daily mantra delivered via email, CLICK HERE. Get our mantra password idea list HERE.
RANT:
People often associate the term “rant” with negativity. In the Train Your Brain Sandbox, we like to use positive “rants” to shift emotions to the positive. When someone is ranting in a negative way, they are taking a very small issue and blowing it up into a big issue. A positive rant is the same, except you try to amplify the positive emotion. In short, a rant is when you string together a bunch of sentences designed to help you to feel good (or feel better.) A short video on “how” to rant can be found HERE.
SANDBOX:
An affectionate term for the virtual environments where we play together as brain trainers. You can join our FREE Facebook Group HERE.