Do you trust yourself? I hope so because you should trust yourself.
But, let me ask you a question…
Do you think you know the most about yourself compared to others?
Probably yes.
But, do you know yourself more than your brain knows you? Maybe not.
Your brain knows everything about you and more.
In this article, we will talk about the subtle art of not trusting your brain…
PS. Before we begin I’m announcing group coaching sessions for a small group of you beginining shortly next month - check out the details here: https://www.markmetry.com/group-coaching
Should You Trust Your Brain?
1. The average person has 65,000 conscious/unconscious thoughts a day. Anything happening that many times is likely to not be accurate every time. Taking your thoughts seriously every single time will lead you to your mind using you.
2. Your brain is a physical organ entrapped by absolute darkness in your skull. Based on the information it receives from trillions of cells through your senses, past memories, cognitive biases it constructs a model of the world. What’s important to realize is your direct experience of life is filtered by your brain. Therefore your experience of life is partly based on your brain’s health, perception and the past. Therefore if your brain is unhealthy, you will live a not so great life.
3. Experience social anxiety? Once the anxiety gets triggered, you basically lose your brain. What do I mean? Well, you know those states of mind where your mind goes blank, you start sweating, and you start thinking people are looking and judging you? In those moments, trusting your brain means falling into social anxiety.
When to Not Trust Your Brain
Don’t trust your brain in the moments where you are 100% in no physical danger.
Don’t trust your brain in moments where you are anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed.
Don’t trust your brain in the moments where you are tired, down, depressed, etc.
Personally, if I feel social anxiety being triggered, I automatically stop trusting my senses and perception, which comes from the brain. For example - if I’m at a social gathering and for some reason my social anxiety activates.
Your brain might start telling or showing you:
someone is looking at you and judging you.
someone is avoiding or ignoring you because they don’t like you.
that you’re an anti-social shy loser incapable of talking to people.
In these moments when your anxiety triggers, make it a common practice to stop listening to your mind. Ignore it, like a kid asking his parent for candy for the 6th time. Reassure yourself by telling yourself, nobody is looking at me in a bad way, and nobody is judging me, at least not more than themselves. Tell yourself your intentions for showing up at the social event and try to find the positive silver lining to motivate yourself instead. Maybe try supplementing with GABA to calm your nervous system down.
So, should you trust yourself? Absolutely.
Should you trust your brain? Maybe. Maybe not in certain situations.
If you want to listen to the audio versio of this on my podcast - Social Anxiety Society.
PS. In self-paced individual online course we address many more ways on how to do reduce social anxiety, check it out here: www.markmetry.com/program
Conclusion
💬 I am opening my calendar right now to work with 1 more person 1-on-1 on an ongoing basis to manage anxiety and heal your mind more effectively.
Interested? Schedule a free call with me to see if it’s right for you or not :) by responding directly to this email.