Latest / MIDDLE GROUND - Real Conversations on Faith, Identity & Becoming — Through Brynne's LDS Lens of Curiosity, Love and Doubt / Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: How Your Thoughts Are Creating Your Life — Part 4/4
Transcript
- Brynne Erickson (01:05) The results in your life right now, your relationships, finances, health, confidence, the way your days feel are not random. they are the output of a loop that has been running mostly on autopilot for years. Thoughts generating feelings, feelings driving actions, actions creating results. Results becoming new circumstances and the loop starts again. The good news you can interrupt it. And this episode shows you exactly where. This is episode four, the final one of the thought model series. So let's close this out. In the model, feelings drive actions, not circumstances, and not other people. The feeling state you are in when you take an action determines the quality of that action. And this is supported by a significant body of research in behavioral psychology and neuroscience. So Dr. Barbara Frederickson's Broaden and Build Theory, published in peer-reviewed research over several decades, shows that positive emotional states literally broaden our cognitive capacity. And when we feel hopeful, curious, confident, we think more creatively and we see more options. And we even connect with others more easily. We can also build resources like skills, relationships, and resilience over time. But negative emotional states do just the opposite. They actually narrow our attention and our action. And when we feel shame, fear, or resentment, we tend to contract, avoid, or defend, or even attack. And this doesn't mean negative emotions are bad. We established that in the last episode that all feelings are information. but it does mean that the feeling state from which you take action has a direct impact on the results you're going to get. So remember, you have been the author of your results all along. And you can write something different at any time. So here's where it gets really important and a little humbling. Your results don't just happen and then stop. They become new circumstances, which your brain generates new thoughts about, which generate new feelings, which generate new actions, which generate new results. And it's this loop. And most of us are running the same loop on repeat without realizing it. and so the thought I'm bad with money, generates anxiety. Anxiety drives avoidance. avoidance means you don't look at your finances. And not looking at your finances means you make uninformed decisions. And then those decisions create financial problems. The financial problems become your new circumstance. Your brain looks at them and thinks, see, I'm bad with money. And the thought is confirmed and the loop continues. This is what psychologists call a self-fulfilling prophecy. And research on this phenomenon goes back to Robert Merton's foundational 1948 work and confirmed in dozens of studies since. And this Shows that our beliefs about ourselves and our world shape our behavior in ways that tend to produce the outcomes consistent with those beliefs. So we literally create evidence for what we already believe, which means if you want different results, You have to interrupt the loop. And the most accessible place to interrupt it is at the thought. Brooke Castillo talks about unintentional models versus intentional models. An unintentional model is the loop you're running by default, the automatic thought, the feeling it generates, the action you've always taken, and the result you keep getting. You didn't choose it. It's just what your brain does on autopilot. It's doing its job. An intentional model starts with the result you actually want and then works backward. What actions would create that result? What feeling would drive those actions? What thought would generate that feeling? And this is the key question. Is that thought something I can genuinely believe? This is where affirmations and intentional thought work actually live. Not as wishful thinking, but as deliberate practice of choosing the thought that generates the feeling, that drives the action, that creates the result you truly want. You are not hoping the result appears. You are engineering the internal conditions that make the result possible. This is also exactly where reach comes in. The affirmation framework we talked about in a previous episode, a reach affirmation is an intentional thought. It's real, it's expanding, it's active, it's claimed, and it's felt. And when you practice it consistently, you quite literally rewire the loop. Neuroscientist Donald Heb established in 1949 what is now summarized as neurons that fire together, wire together. So every time you think a thought, the neural pathway associated with that thought gets slightly stronger. And repetition builds the road. And the road your brain has been traveling for years is well paved and easy to follow. But here's what neuroscience also tells us: the brain is plastic, it can change. This is called neuroplasticity, and it is one of the most significant discoveries in modern neuroscience. Dr. Michael Merzenik, one of the leading researchers in neuroplasticity, has demonstrated through decades of work that the brain continues to reorganize itself throughout life based on experience and deliberate practice. So good news, you are not stuck with the brain you have. You're not stuck with the thoughts you've always thought. Every time you deliberately choose a different thought, examine an automatic belief or practice an intentional model, you are building a new neural pathway. It takes repetition, it's gonna take time, but it is happening every single time. Okay, so here's the full model. One more time before we close out. And I want it to land in your body and not just in your head. So circumstances are neutral. Thoughts are the story your brain tells. Feelings are what those thoughts generate in your body, and actions are what you do from that feeling state. And then results are what those actions create. And results become your new circumstance. And the loop continues until you interrupt it and intentionally change it. You are not at the mercy of your circumstances. You're not at the mercy of your thoughts. And you are not at the mercy of your feelings. You are a conscious, capable, whole person with the ability to examine what's happening inside you and make a different choice. Not perfectly and not all at once, but one intentional thought at a time. That is what this whole series has been pointing toward. And I want you to know, this is just the beginning. Come find me on social media for daily refinement tips and encouragement. You can subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss what's coming up next. And share this series with someone who needs it. that's genuinely one of the best ways to get this work in front of people who are ready for it. I'm so glad you were here for this. All four episodes, that's not nothing. That's you showing up for yourself. And I'm so proud of you for doing this work. It's changed my life. And I hope it can make an impact in yours. So keep going and I'll see you in the next one. Brynne Erickson (09:08) Hey, really quick, whether your faith is shifting or you've already done a lot of that work, I built something for you. It's called Faith in Process and is a private online community for Latter-day Saints who want to explore and expand their beliefs through real open-minded conversations about gospel topics and principles. Think that like Facebook and Sunday school had a baby, but you never have to see anyone in person. Drop in whenever works for you, leave a thought, read what others are sitting with. No calls, no meetups, just good conversation. Twelve dollars a month at Brynarikson.com. Click join Faith and Process for more information and I hope to see you there.