If you’re familiar with the concept of brain retraining, you might have heard of it in the context of healing from chronic illness, chronic pain, or trauma. Brain retraining refers to the practice of using various techniques, such as visualization, mindfulness, and positive affirmations, to rewire the neural pathways in your brain and create new, more beneficial patterns of thinking and feeling.
While brain retraining can be incredibly powerful, it’s important to recognize that it’s just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to healing and personal growth. In fact, if you’re relying solely on brain retraining to transform your life, you might find yourself stuck in a cycle of repetitive patterns and behaviors.
Here are five signs that you might be rewiring yourself in circles, and what you can do to move beyond level 1 brain retraining:
- You’re still triggered all the time.
If you’ve been practicing brain retraining for a while and yet you still find yourself becoming triggered by the same things and needing to use brain training tools to keep yourself from spiraling, it’s time to look deeper. While brain retraining can be a powerful top-down practice, it doesn’t always hold all the answers. To truly heal and rewire yourself, you need to feel safe and grounded in your body. This means establishing what I call “Primal Trust” – a deep sense of safety and connection to your inner truth.
- You’re having a hard time getting back into the world.
Rewiring your brain should result in getting back into life, not avoiding it or avoiding all the things you have linked to “getting sick”. While it’s important to take sensible precautions, if you’re constantly in avoidance mode, you might need to do some deeper inner work to heal the underlying fears and beliefs that are holding you back.
- You’re having a hard time in relationships despite rewiring.
Relationships can be difficult, but if you’re constantly getting snagged by your emotions or experiencing communication issues, you might have some inner attachment repair work to do. While brain retraining can help you shift your perspective and create more positive patterns of thinking, it’s not a substitute for the deep inner work that’s needed to heal attachment wounds and create healthy relationships.
- You’re unclear on your values, your purpose, and mission despite doing brain rewiring practices.
Brain retraining can create elevated emotional states, but if you’re not connecting to your heart and aligning with your authentic self, you might find yourself feeling unfulfilled and unclear on your purpose. To truly rewire yourself and create a life full of meaning and purpose, you need to connect with your inner truth and develop a clear understanding of your values and mission.
- You still hide your true self around others.
If you’re not fully embracing who you are and showing that to the world, you might be rewiring in circles. True healing should lead you to a life of freedom and expression, not playing small or hiding behind a mask. To truly rewire yourself and step into your power, you need to do the deep inner work of healing old wounds and developing a healthy, authentic sense of self – your Adult Main Personality.
If you can identify with any of these behaviors, you might need to go on a deeper journey of self discovery and trauma healing. This is what I call “Level 2” of Primal Trust™ – The Mentorship. This stage involves developing your innate Primal Trust, connecting with your deep somatic presence, and truly rewiring your brain to get back into life, rather than just calming down a trigger response.
The Primal Trust™ Level 2 Mentorship program is designed to help you achieve these deeper practices and fully embrace a life of freedom and expression. It’s time to break the cycle of rewiring in circles and start living your best life!
