Mental States Become Wired Into Your Brain

If you stress out about every little thing, your brain is going to forge and strengthen connections, over time, making it reactive and anxious. If you expect the worst in every situation and are a pro at spotting the downside in all cases, you’re reinforcing this kind of negative thinking in your brain every time you engage in it.

One study confirmed that depressed people had more activity in areas of their brains corresponding to pessimistic thinking, meaning that a depressed brain expects the worst, which only increases that brain activity and strengthens those neural connections.

In his book, Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, Rick Hanson writes, “One way or another, negative mental states can easily become negative neural traits.”  He continues:

…[F]eeling stressed, worried, irritated, or hurt today makes you more vulnerable to feeling stressed, etc., tomorrow which makes you really vulnerable the day after that. Negativity leads to more negativity in a very vicious cycle. 

As long as you keep going about your normal routine, thinking the same old thoughts and doing the same things you’ve always done, you’re supporting those existing patterns in your brain and creating more of the same in your mind and life.

Henry Ford’s famous quote holds true for your brain:

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve alway got.”

Your Brain And Body Are A Feedback Loop

Fundamentally, a depressed, anxious, or pessimistic brain looks just like a happy, positive, joyful brain. The difference exists in which brain circuits are routinely activated in specific sequences resulting in mental traits in that person. The stimulation of particular neurons causes the release of certain neurotransmitters, which control almost all your bodily functions. This then triggers a cascade of physical reactions, like altered heart rate, breathing, muscle tension, and sweating.

The activity in your brain also changes based on what your body is doing. So, as your body changes, your brain changes, and as your brain changes, your body changes. It’s a continual feedback loop that works both ways.

Information coming from your senses not only causes chemical reactions in your brain, it also influences how your brain thinks and feels. Your brain first interprets the input received from the world around it emotionally, and then adds subjective material, made up of beliefs, memories, and experiences, to produce feelings.

Feelings and emotions are two sides of the same coin, but they’re not the same thing. Emotions occur in your mind, and feelings are the language of the body. (See: What’s the Difference Between Feelings And Emotions ) So, if you change what’s happening in your brain, it can alter how you feel, physically and mentally, very quickly. In fact, your thoughts precipitate changes all of the way down to your cells and genes.

Ways To Work With Your Thoughts

Neuroscience confirms that your personality creates your personal reality. Your thoughts, behaviors, habits, and emotions form your identity, shape your brain, and show up in your body. In You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter, Joe Dizpensa writes:

Ninety-five percent of who you are by the time you’re 35 years old is a set of memorized behaviors, skills, emotional reactions, beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes that functions like a subconscious computer program.

It’s commonly said that most of the thoughts you have today are the same ones you had yesterday and that the conscious mind’s small capacity is constantly working against this predominant unconscious programming, which is largely made up of wounds, fears, and negative memories and experiences from your past.

To change the automatic, subconscious script playing in your head will feel like trying to swim upstream at first, but with persistence and time, it can be done.

If you want to change the way you feel, you’ve got to change the way you think.