I Am Not Just My Brain
I Am Not Just My Brain
The Fourth Commandment of Self-Brain Surgery
The extent to which you believe your brain cannot change is the limit on how much you can flourish in your life.
If you believe that you are stuck with the brain you have because of your genetics, or you think your upbringing, past traumas or adversity you’ve faced could have damaged your brain in some way that you believe to be irreparable, then I have good news.
Your brain is literally changing every second of your life. It is structurally different than it was before you started reading this sentence, because of the miracle of neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to make new connections between its cells, a process we now know to be happening literally all the time. Couple that with neurogenesis, the process of the brain making new cells constantly, and we now know for sure that your brain changes constantly, and you can be in charge of most of those changes.
And the reason you can learn to take charge of those changes instead of letting them be in charge of you is that your brain and your mind are not the same thing.
That’s why our fourth commandment is this:
I must believe that I am NOT just my brain.
(The Fourth Commandment of Self-Brain Surgery)
Read it out loud:
I must believe that I am NOT just my brain.
The even better news is that the vast majority of the neuroplastic changes that happen in your brain can be directed by your thoughts.
But it’s only good news if you learn to believe and capitalize on it, because the default state is for those synapses to remake themselves into the same configuration over time unless your mind directs your brain to do otherwise.
As my friend Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz said in his amazing book, You Are Not Your Brain, “As long as you remain unaware of what your brain is doing or believe that there is no way to alter how your brain functions, you are essentially powerless.”
So the message for today is that you have a choice: take command of the process and see almost unlimited potential for positive changes in your life, or succumb to the default pathways and then be surprised when you feel stuck.
We’re here every week teaching the truth that God built you as an amazing person capable of extraordinary things. But somehow, many of us absorb the message from culture or circumstance that we’re an exception, that we’re unable to change, that we really are just whatever our brain does.
It doesn’t have to be that way, my friend.
But to make it change, you must believe that you are not just your brain. You’re not stuck thinking the same thoughts and feeling the same feelings you always have, because you can change your mind.
The Bible says that we can radically change the ways in which we’ve always thought, as long as we’re willing to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” (Romans 12:2). That’s Self-Brain Surgery™, and you can learn it and live it.
We’re starting The School of Self-Brain Surgery™ soon. We had the first training session for a test group on Friday, and paid subscribers will have an opportunity to hear a replay of that training soon. If you’re interested in knowing more about The School, click here to be notified when it’s ready to go live.
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Listen to this podcast for more on The Fourth Commandment (Note- This episode was released before the Commandments were in their final form as they will appear in my new book, so “I am not just my brain” is not called the fourth commandment yet in this podcast):
Be sure to check out last week’s lesson if you missed it.
We’re going all in on believing that we have the tools to change our minds and change our lives. Living from a mind-down perspective changes everything, and it helps us harness the transforming changes to our lives that the Bible promises in Romans 12.
The neuroscience is on your side, my friend.
And the good news is, you can start today.
By the way, if you think these lessons are valuable, please consider sharing this with friends. If you share with three or more people and they sign up, you can get free access to my paid subscriber content!
Lisa and I are praying for you.
Dum spiro spero (While I breathe, I hope),
Lee
Psalm 71:14 ("As for me, I will always have hope.")
From the banks of the North Platte river on Moon River Ranch in Nebraska, USA
Don’t forget that you can get the recent podcast archive with transcripts of all recent episodes by clicking the button below.
This is such good news! I remember feeling in my addiction and drug use that I had done irreparable damage. Praise God that the brain can heal, along with the spirit in recovery!
Honestly, this is something that I struggle with almost daily... my radiation oncologist told me that the gamma knife radiation caused radiation necrosis and that it couldn't come back, that it is just dead forever.
However, I'm believing that God will restore what was lost and make it new again. That He'll give me my memory back. I wish I could afford to go see Dr. Daniel Amen, but I'm on a limited income because of social security disability. My husband has a job, as one of the absolute best automotive electrical engineers in the state of Oklahoma, but we're believing that God will give him an increase in his salary soon. It's such a blessing that God brought us together, knowing how I missed my Dad who was a mechanic/racecar builder/drag racer. I honestly believe that at some point they probably raced each other before my Dad's passing in 1999. I see the similarities between both of them, in how amazingly their minds work/worked. They both believe(d) in going the extra mile to help someone in need, and not charging an arm and a leg to those who couldn't afford to pay.
Anyway, all that to say, please definitely keep me in prayer, or be in agreement with me that God will repair the damage done in my brain (the right temporal and pariatal places) due to an undiagnosed Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) rupturing when I was 4½ months pregnant with our first son William. And the embolization that was only 70% successful, leading to me having to have the gamma knife radiation.
I'm blessed to be alive for sure! Now we have 3 wildly wonderful boys (14, almost 9, and 6 year old's). They sure keep me on my toes!
By the way Doc, I have been encouraging my older brother Joshua P. to reach out to you because I'm constantly telling him of things I've learned through you, your podcast or newsletters. I'm one of many that are encouraging him to start his own podcast, sharing his journey of having a kidney disease diagnosis as a young child, getting his first transplant from someone with a PERFECT match, then as an adult last year, being told his 30 year old transplant was failing. He required dialysis more than 12 hours daily for a year and had multiple super scary medical issues related to that. Then this year, receiving his second kidney transplant, who God would have it, was the son of the man he received his 1st perfect match kidney from! Isn't that amazing!?!
God is So Good!