Conscious living is required in brain training techniques

Stress for Success

June 26, 2012

Thanks for indulging me while I’ve raved over recent weeks about the fascinating book, “Buddha’s Brain,” by Rick Hanson, PH.D and contributing author, Richard Mendius, MD (past articles at http://stressforsuccess.blogspot.com). Their brain re-wiring techniques give hope that we can all create greater emotional, thus behavioral, balance and control for ourselves.


Now it’s time to understand the importance of living consciously, or their skills won’t work.


The authors present their four stages of learning.


1. Unconscious incompetence: e.g., you reacted defensively (impatient or irritated, etc.) in a situation but weren’t aware of it;


2. Conscious incompetence: you reacted defensively and knew it;


3. Conscious competence: you could have reacted defensively, but chose not to;


4. Unconscious competence: your historic defensive reaction didn’t come up in the situation in which you’ve practiced re-wiring your brain. Your preferred way of reacting gradually becomes automatic;


To make desired changes you must “choose” more appropriate responses - consciously. You must be aware of:

• Your undesirable reaction;

• The discomfort it causes you;



For example, you want to stop over-eating to lose ten pounds by August 1. To succeed you must first become consciously aware of when you’re overeating, what you’re overeating, what triggers you to overeat, and the distress this causes you. Once consciously aware of these things, you’ve arrived at stage two above. To graduate to stage 3 you must consciously choose to not over-eat. Eventually, this conscious decision-making becomes unconscious, and you’ve arrived at stage 4.


Use brain training skills to help reach your goal. Start with this technique.
• You’re beginning to become consciously aware when you overeat. Now, identify the emotion you feel when you’re compelled to gorge, e.g., sadness.

• When you’re upset (e.g., sad) find a quiet setting and rate your level of upset from 1 (mild) to 10 (severe);

• Let go of what triggered the upset (it’s probably unconscious so you may not know what to let go of; continue anyway);

• In its place, imagine anything you find pleasant like a vacation spot or a fond relationship memory. Imagine this in detail for five minutes. Be specific with who, what and where.

• Rate your upset again from 1 – 10.


If you’re less upset it proves that imagining pleasant things alters your inner emotional landscape. Is it enough to deter you from over-eating? If not, keep practicing this technique. Invent a different pleasant memory. Spend more minutes imagining it more deeply until it works.


To facilitate brain training, also relax your body:
• Relax your jaws, eyes, tongue;

• Feel the tension draining away from your body and into the earth;

• Run warm water over your hands;

• Touch your lips;

• Breathe in and exhale to equal counts;

• Scan your body for tension and consciously release it;



I’d love to write 100 more articles on this book. Since that’s unreasonable, go out and buy it. It’s an easy read for non-scientists.

Jacquelyn Ferguson, M. S., is an international speaker and a Stress and Wellness Coach. Order her book, Let Your Body Win: Stress Management Plain & Simple, at http://www.letyourbodywin.com/bookstore.html. Email her to request she speak to your organization at jferg8@aol.com.