Re-wiring your brain for life and food...

Posted by Josh Gape on

We all have ways in which we think, our own patterns of thought, that we've developed over time and as a result of the experiences in our lives. The smallest difference in the way a situation was handled, especially when we were children, could mean the difference between a pattern that serves us at every turn vs one that plagues us. 
 
Imagine you were riding your bike as a child and you crash into a curb, falling off and cutting your leg. Your mum runs over, checks you're not seriously hurt, stands you back up and says "I know it hurts, but it's just a cut and being brave and strong right now will make you brave and strong for the rest of your life." From that day forward every time you're knocked down physically or mentally these words echo in your mind and you pick yourself up, dust yourself off and carry on your day with your head held high. 
 
Contrast that to the mum who runs over panicking... "Don't move, I'm going to call an ambulance, oh look at the blood, that must be so painful." In reaction you start to get upset but after a few minutes your mothers panic subsides and she realises there's no need for an ambulance and you both gingerly make your way home. However, so you don't have to move with your cut leg, she continues to wait on you hand and foot for the rest of the day. And she brings you comfort food from her own childhood; ice cream, cookies, etc. Although your mother is doing this from a loving and caring place, she doesn't realise she's seeding patterns of anti-resilience and comfort eating. As a result, from that day forward, whenever you get knocked down, you look outside of yourself for someone to look after you and you use unhealthy food to provide fleeting moments of relief, but which ultimately aren't good for you. 
 
This one seemingly meaningless and forgetful incident has the potential to start creating a pattern that will get gradually reinforced throughout your life until you become aware of it and consciously undo it. 
 
Although there's a wider lesson here, I'm going to keep the focus on nutrition... 
 
We all eat in ways we're not happy with at times. And this isn't just about overeating or eating unhealthy foods. It can also be on the opposite end of the spectrum, with being too strict. Personally I've experienced both these extremes. When I was younger and first started taking training seriously, I used to have cheat days where I'd eat all the unhealthy food I could get my hands on. And then as I started taking health and nutrition more seriously I went to the other end of the spectrum where I couldn't enjoy a meal out because I was so strict with my diet. 
 
The trippy thing about our patterns is because they're so engrained, lots of people don't even realise they're behaving/eating in a way that they wouldn't be happy with if they really stopped to think about it. This was definitely the case for me in the two examples above. That's why I'm such a big advocate of journalling about life generally, including noting down what I eat. It's such a simple practise as well, literally just sitting down at the end of the day, writing about your actions and reflecting on them... and for anything you're not 100% happy with asking yourself what you'd do differently the next time you're presented with the same situation. 
 
The reason I'm explaining all of this is demonstrate that any behaviour you're carrying out that you're not proud of isn't you, it's just a pattern. And patterns can be consciously rewoven into whatever you want them to be. Nutrition is a great way you can use this process of reflection to consciously change how you eat and prove to yourself that this process of re-wiring the brain works. And then if you'd like you can replicate it for other areas of your life. 
 
No matter how engrained a pattern is it's possible to change it, and through changing patterns one by one - we can transform ourselves and our lives into whatever we want them to be. 
 
In health, 

Josh