How to Use Your Brain’s Weakness to Stop Being a Nervous Wreck When Facing Big Moments
Repeat “This is nothing big” until it becomes your truth.
We think a lot. Our brains can’t even be quiet for one second. Don’t give me that meditation bullshit. You still have to think about not thinking when doing so (at least for me).
So naturally, the number of thoughts intensifies when we need to do something big like proposing to your partner, presenting your business plan to a potential investor, or when holding your acid fart in public.
Your relentlessly working brain is why you become a nervous wreck when facing those moments.
The good news is that your brain is also smart. It’s so smart that it’s a fool. It has the capacity for you to remember all you need to memorize but decide to vomit everything out when you ask for it to function properly for once.
But don’t worry. We can use that stupidity to our advantage.
Because of how simple-minded our cerebrum is (let me use a fancy word to call our brains in return for calling it stupid), we can make it believe something untrue to save ourselves from being on edge.
When you find yourself in big moments where your hands are sweaty and trembling or when you feel like peeing yourself because shit this is happening to you, tell your brain:
“This is nothing big and I can do it”
You’ll feel no difference. That’s because our brain’s stupid but not stupid enough to believe a blatant lie. But that’s also why you need to say those words repeatedly, like a mantra.
“This is nothing big and I can do it. This is nothing big and I can do it. This is nothing big…”
Cast your cerebrum under that mantra and watch how it starts believing the words. Before you know it, you’re done facing the big moment you were so scared of facing.
Some of you might find that stupid, but allow me to elaborate on why and how it works.
I’m sure you’ve read or heard this quote before:
“Repeat a lie often enough and people will eventually come to believe it.”
— Joseph Goebbels
This phenomenon is a brain glitch that scientists like to call the Illusory truth effect.
Said glitch is the reason why people believe in fake news.
And sometimes... pranks.
In junior high, my friend and I fooled a bunch of our classmates by telling them that we were sisters from different mothers.
We were only thirteen, sue us.
The first time they heard our confession, they were thoroughly convinced that we were lying.
But we kept on telling them the same lies. Thanks to the brain glitch and our marvelous child acting skills, they started believing in it.
It was simple. The idea of my friend and me as sisters was new. So, the first time we said it, people went nuts.
They didn’t believe it at first because it was an absurd idea, especially since some of my classmates had known us for more than five years then.
But the level of truth to the said information in their brains increases every time my friends and I repeated the same lie. The more time they were exposed to said lie, the more familiar they were with it too.
So, the brain decided to flip the status of the new piece of information from a lie to the truth.
Whether it’s a fact or not doesn't matter anymore.
The same concept applies to when we tell the “This is nothing big and I can do it” lies to ourselves. When you do it enough times, you’ll start believing in it.
Final Thoughts
In the past and sometimes now, many use the illusory truth effect to control people.
- Nazi propaganda,
- BLM-related fake news,
- Companies’ advertisements, and more.
But there are many positive ways we can use the effect to our advantage, and one of them is to get us out of being a nervous wreck.
The next time you’re faced with something big or when you need to hold another acid fart in public, keep telling yourself that it’s nothing big and you can do it until it becomes your truth.
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