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Abstract

t up in this momentum of familiarity is that something deep within us naturally desires growth. Whether we call it our soul or our heart’s desire, we know that there is often a lot more potential within that wants to be realized. When we don’t stretch beyond our comfort zone, we still feel discomfort. Yet this time it’s not the discomfort of taking a risk, but the discomfort of not following the heart’s desire to expand our lives beyond what we have known.</p><p id="3c82">The universe is continually expanding, even as you are reading these words. The grass in your backyard is growing. Your children or pets may be growing. Even your body is continually growing new cells as it recycles old ones. So if everything in nature is growing, is it natural for our thought patterns and perceptions to remain the same?</p><h2 id="d25a">THE BRAIN’S CHEMICAL RESPONSE TO YOUR THOUGHTS</h2><p id="bd2c">Your brain initiates a chemical reaction to match every thought you are having. It does not know whether the experience playing out in your mind is real or not. It just knows to generate a physical response in accordance with those thoughts. Having stressful and worrisome thoughts? Your brain releases stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline. Basking in a blissful feeling of gratitude? Your brain produces feel-good chemicals such as oxytocin and serotonin that aid in the regeneration of the cells in your body.</p><h2 id="cb1a">Addicted to pain, victimization, or stress?</h2><p id="0d30">As your body gets used to a certain state of being through the thoughts you think most often, it takes even more of the same chemical to generate the sensation corresponding to that feeling. You become addicted to your thoughts and feelings! The brain has to produce more of those chemicals which strengthens those neural networks even further.</p><p id="a722">This is why some people are literally addicted to their own pain or to drama. If they always feel victimized by outside circumstances, the brain becomes addicted to those feelings and needs more of them to match those thoughts. The more victimized one then feels through the release of more of these chemicals, the more they will think as if they are victimized by their outside circumstances. They will then act from that mindset. The process perpetuates itself until the person thinks a new thought.</p><p id="b7a8">If you are thinking the same thoughts you were thinking yesterday, you are literally deepening a “groove” in your brain. If you keep cutting the same groove, much of your brain’s neural real state remains untapped and explored.</p><h2 id="c75b">GETTING OUT OF THE LOOP</h2><p id="f74b">The way out of staying in the same groove mentally — and thus the same life experientially — is to think new thoughts and seek out new experiences. Thinking new thoughts is easier said than done precisely because of this neural strengthening process that happens. You CAN teach an old dog (your mind!) new tricks — the dog ju

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st has to be willing to learn!</p><p id="eec8">The trick to moving past the same old daily thoughts is to replace them with new ones. Just as dropping an old habit means we have to one to replace it with, releasing the same thought patterns means we have to replace them with new ones.</p><p id="964e">There are two primary ways to go beyond the loop of our old thought patterns and get “unstuck” in life:</p><p id="980c">1) By<b> doing</b> new things or doing familiar things differently</p><p id="2b8b">2) By <b>learning </b>new things or thinking about familiar concepts differently</p><h2 id="2936">TAKE A CHANCE AND TRY SOMETHING NEW</h2><p id="a478">Our daily lives present countless opportunities to do things differently. We may not be aware of how much our habits and routines shape our lives until we consciously try to shake things up.</p><p id="9c16">New perspectives shake up the cobwebs of our old thinking and help break apart limiting beliefs. When we do something out of the ordinary, the brain pays attention. If it doesn’t find existing data relating to a situation we’re facing, it has no choice but to be more aware of what is going on in the present. This weakens the influence of our limiting stories because we are forced to think in new ways.</p><p id="0e6e">When we think in new ways, we find ourselves being more present. A rush of dopamine propels us to explore further. Exposing ourselves to new experiences, new people, and new perspectives broadens our menu of life. The more we experience, the more we travel, the more we read, the more new people we interact with, the more our minds expand.</p><h2 id="6516">SHAKE UP THE ROUTINES</h2><p id="a091">Make a commitment to do something new and out of your comfort zone at least once a week. See how many possibilities that opens for you. Perhaps in doing something new lies an answer to a question or a problem you have been working on. When you commit to doing that new thing, you will be rewarded with a spike of dopamine. Enjoy that rush and use it to keep doing more new things! Here are just a few simple ideas:</p><ul><li>Skip a day or a week of using social media — or use it for a new purpose</li><li>Eat a new type of food you normally wouldn’t try</li><li>Take a different route to a place where you go often</li><li>Spend five minutes a day learning a new skill or language (Duolingo is an awesome app to do that!)</li><li>Explore different restaurants or parks in your town that you’ve never been to</li><li>Listen to a different genre of music than you normally would</li><li>Join a new exercise class or go to a new event</li><li>Volunteer at a new non-profit related to your hobbies or interests</li></ul><p id="5035">Shake up the cobwebs of old thought patterns and your actions will change. As they change, you will notice all of life around you changing as well. You have always had the power to get unstuck — because you’ve always had the power to change your thoughts!</p></article></body>

The Neuroscience of Getting “Unstuck” and Going Past Your Comfort Zones

There’s a biological reason you may be feeling stuck in life…here’s how to overcome it

There may be times when it feels as if no matter how hard you try to make a change in your life, everything feels the same. Although every single day calls forth brand new possibilities, we unconsciously choose to live out the same routines. It’s not that we’re not creative enough to choose new experiences, it’s just that our brains don’t really want us to.

YOUR BRAIN LOVES THE COMFORT OF A ROUTINE…

Our brains crave stability, familiarity, and comfort. If we even think about the possibility of doing something unknown, our brain’s initial response is fear. Uncertainty could mean risk — whether physical or psychological. That initial feeling of discomfort is often enough to make most people brush their “wild ideas” aside and so they end up retreating right back into their comfort zone. This does not just apply to our actions and behaviors, however. It applies most predominantly at the mental level. This means we keep thinking the same thoughts and feelings over and over again and then wonder why life isn’t changing. In reality, it’s our mental frameworks that are remaining the same.

If we don’t consciously make the decision to seek out new information, to experience a new event, then our minds will naturally cave into the brain’s desire for the familiar experience.

According to Dr. Joe Dispenza, we think sixty to seventy thousand thoughts a day. Of those, 90% are the same as the day before. Those thoughts lead to the same choices. These choices lead to the same habits. The actions we take as a result of those habits lead to the same emotions. The emotions we feel reinforce the thoughts that we have been thinking. Does any of that sound familiar? It appears as if we are stuck in a loop — because we are. We are in the feedback loop of the same thoughts, feelings, and actions until we consciously choose to disrupt the momentum.

“Warning: when feelings become the means of thinking, or if we cannot think greater than how we feel, we can never change. To change is to think greater than how we feel. To change is to act greater than the familiar feelings of the memorized self.” — Dr. Joe Dispenza

….BUT YOUR SOUL WANTS TO THRIVE AND GROW

The problem with getting caught up in this momentum of familiarity is that something deep within us naturally desires growth. Whether we call it our soul or our heart’s desire, we know that there is often a lot more potential within that wants to be realized. When we don’t stretch beyond our comfort zone, we still feel discomfort. Yet this time it’s not the discomfort of taking a risk, but the discomfort of not following the heart’s desire to expand our lives beyond what we have known.

The universe is continually expanding, even as you are reading these words. The grass in your backyard is growing. Your children or pets may be growing. Even your body is continually growing new cells as it recycles old ones. So if everything in nature is growing, is it natural for our thought patterns and perceptions to remain the same?

THE BRAIN’S CHEMICAL RESPONSE TO YOUR THOUGHTS

Your brain initiates a chemical reaction to match every thought you are having. It does not know whether the experience playing out in your mind is real or not. It just knows to generate a physical response in accordance with those thoughts. Having stressful and worrisome thoughts? Your brain releases stress chemicals like cortisol and adrenaline. Basking in a blissful feeling of gratitude? Your brain produces feel-good chemicals such as oxytocin and serotonin that aid in the regeneration of the cells in your body.

Addicted to pain, victimization, or stress?

As your body gets used to a certain state of being through the thoughts you think most often, it takes even more of the same chemical to generate the sensation corresponding to that feeling. You become addicted to your thoughts and feelings! The brain has to produce more of those chemicals which strengthens those neural networks even further.

This is why some people are literally addicted to their own pain or to drama. If they always feel victimized by outside circumstances, the brain becomes addicted to those feelings and needs more of them to match those thoughts. The more victimized one then feels through the release of more of these chemicals, the more they will think as if they are victimized by their outside circumstances. They will then act from that mindset. The process perpetuates itself until the person thinks a new thought.

If you are thinking the same thoughts you were thinking yesterday, you are literally deepening a “groove” in your brain. If you keep cutting the same groove, much of your brain’s neural real state remains untapped and explored.

GETTING OUT OF THE LOOP

The way out of staying in the same groove mentally — and thus the same life experientially — is to think new thoughts and seek out new experiences. Thinking new thoughts is easier said than done precisely because of this neural strengthening process that happens. You CAN teach an old dog (your mind!) new tricks — the dog just has to be willing to learn!

The trick to moving past the same old daily thoughts is to replace them with new ones. Just as dropping an old habit means we have to one to replace it with, releasing the same thought patterns means we have to replace them with new ones.

There are two primary ways to go beyond the loop of our old thought patterns and get “unstuck” in life:

1) By doing new things or doing familiar things differently

2) By learning new things or thinking about familiar concepts differently

TAKE A CHANCE AND TRY SOMETHING NEW

Our daily lives present countless opportunities to do things differently. We may not be aware of how much our habits and routines shape our lives until we consciously try to shake things up.

New perspectives shake up the cobwebs of our old thinking and help break apart limiting beliefs. When we do something out of the ordinary, the brain pays attention. If it doesn’t find existing data relating to a situation we’re facing, it has no choice but to be more aware of what is going on in the present. This weakens the influence of our limiting stories because we are forced to think in new ways.

When we think in new ways, we find ourselves being more present. A rush of dopamine propels us to explore further. Exposing ourselves to new experiences, new people, and new perspectives broadens our menu of life. The more we experience, the more we travel, the more we read, the more new people we interact with, the more our minds expand.

SHAKE UP THE ROUTINES

Make a commitment to do something new and out of your comfort zone at least once a week. See how many possibilities that opens for you. Perhaps in doing something new lies an answer to a question or a problem you have been working on. When you commit to doing that new thing, you will be rewarded with a spike of dopamine. Enjoy that rush and use it to keep doing more new things! Here are just a few simple ideas:

Skip a day or a week of using social media — or use it for a new purpose
Eat a new type of food you normally wouldn’t try
Take a different route to a place where you go often
Spend five minutes a day learning a new skill or language (Duolingo is an awesome app to do that!)
Explore different restaurants or parks in your town that you’ve never been to
Listen to a different genre of music than you normally would
Join a new exercise class or go to a new event
Volunteer at a new non-profit related to your hobbies or interests

Shake up the cobwebs of old thought patterns and your actions will change. As they change, you will notice all of life around you changing as well. You have always had the power to get unstuck — because you’ve always had the power to change your thoughts!