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Originally Posted by Lauxa  Just posting back to report that I have been having some small success with my new technique. Maybe because I am stating things in the negative with the intent for my brain to recast them into the positive. Let me give an example on what has been happening for me around "I am lazy" because that has been a limiting belief for me.
So I turn it around and get "I am not productive". The first thing my brain does is to throw up resistance. "Hey, wait, I am productive, remember how I did such and such productive thing?" After a while I realize that is not really what has been bothering me, and there is something else. Other beliefs emerge, which must be stated in the negative. "I don't pull my own weight" "I am not efficient" "I am not structured" "I am not disciplined".
With each thought, my brain has a few options. One is to defend by finding examples of where I display the trait. Another is to explore "...because if I were, then it would look like this." This gets me off visualizing what the desired trait would look like in my life. A third is to realize that this trait is not really important to me, and give it a big so what. The last option is to think about examples of being "not productive" ... and I have been avoiding this path.
There has been some internal resistance to this, but not too much. It is still too early to see how long this little trick of phrasing will fool my brain. |
This kind of negative affirmation that works because the brain throws up resistance to it, seems like a good idea. It reminds me of the idea that Noah St John came up with which was to ask a question like "Why am I so productive?". The idea is that the brain will then think "That's a good question. Let me come up with all the reasons why I am productive." And so you convince yourself that you are.