COACH 101: ONLINE COACHING RESOURCES
Landscaping your "brainforest"
Imagine you enter a human ‘mind-brain ecosystem’ and you encounter something that looks like the forest below.
In this forest, there are paths. Some of these paths are frequently used by excursionists. Therefore, they became wider and clearer. Others are so forgotten that nearly disappeared, and some have not yet been discovered. Some of these paths lead to amazing locations, such as pristine lakes, while others lead to unpleasant spots with nettles and weeds.
Carefully observe the differences between the two forests illustrated below.
As you likely observed, in Forest A the broader paths lead to beautiful spots, with very few narrow paths leading to unpleasant destinations. While these unpleasant spots still exist, the paths leading there are mostly abandoned. In Forest B, the wider paths lead to unpleasant destinations, with weeds or deforestation, and beautiful destinations are barely explored.
Some individuals might have a brainforest more similar to A, and others, to B. This is not a black-or-white situation, it’s more of a continuum, and the majority will fall somewhere in between. Also, it is not fixed, and wherever you find yourself in this continuum can also change over time.
Many external factors can contribute to explain why your brainforest might initially resemble A or B, but this doesn’t really matter. The question that matters is HOW you landscape your brainforest so that it looks like A or B.
How do we landscape our brainforest?
Let’s take a trip to the brainforest to find out.
A trip to the brainforest
Consider this: In a real forest, what determines the width of the paths? The number of excursionists heading to a certain destination. The more excursionists use a particular path, the broader and cleaner it becomes. In addition, the rangers will actively contribute to keeping these paths more accessible, so that excursionists can use them more easily.
Who are the excursionists in your brainforest?
Your THOUGHTS.
Let’s return to the brainforest, clearly envisioning that the excursionists are your thoughts. The more thoughts heading to a certain destination, the wider the pathways in your brain leading there will become. If some destinations receive fewer visitors (thoughts), they will narrow or even disappear. If a destination has never been explored, there will be no pathway leading there. Also, your brain has its own ‘rangers’ landscaping accordingly, to facilitate your thoughts moving faster towards certain destinations.
In essence, your thoughts are the excursionists utilizing the pathways in your brain, shaping your brain landscape based on where your excursionists (thoughts) go.
If you catch yourself being pessimistic or self-defeating too frequently, consider that this is the result of you having created a habit of using certain unhelpful thoughts, and therefore the pathways in your brainforest got landscaped accordingly.
There is nothing to worry about if you’ve done so, though. And this should be the most important takeaway: much like in a real forest, the brain landscape is not permanent and keeps changing based on where the majority of excursionists (thoughts) go. This implies that you have the capacity to decide how your brainforest looks, whether like A or B. No matter how it looks at present, you can self-rewire to make it look like A.
Like in a real forest, the brain landscape keeps changing based on where the majority of excursionists (thoughts) go.
How do we train our brain to make it look like Brainforest A?
The first step to achieving Brainforest A is actually to understand how we are programmed to function. Understanding how your mind-brain ecosystem works is necessary to develop a conscious self-rewiring capacity that leads to healthy success. This is the reason why I have been covering this topic so insistently in this and previous articles.
The first step to achieving Brainforest A involves understanding how our mind-brain ecosystem is programmed to function
I will progressively be covering further steps to train your brain to become Brainforest A in future editions of the Newsletter. For now, I hope you found the trip to the brainforest insightful.
Key takeaways
- Like in a real forest, your brainforest landscape keeps changing based on where the majority of excursionists (thoughts) go
- You have the capacity to landscape your brainforest so that it becomes Brainforest A
- The first step to achieving Brainforest A involves learning how your mind-brain ecosystem is programmed to function
Ready for a more intensive, fast, and effective process? Discover how the Conscious Self-Rewiring Coaching Method can accelerate your personal growth. Book a complimentary 30-minute discovery call with Dr. Laura to explore the Healthy Success Coaching program. Coaching sessions online. In-person coaching in Dubai and the UAE.