Your Ultimate Self

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Tag: Neuroscience

  • How Awareness influences Outcome

    Just how much of our thoughts and actions are we truly in control of? During our waking state we consciously make the decisions to plan our days in a certain way. We can plan to structure our day down to the hour precisely or take a more free flow approach. Regardless, we are making a conscious decision on how to spend our time and construct our day. 

    However, most of the decisions we make or don’t make go through an audit system in our mind. We determine what is a good and bad use of our limited energy. Who or what then makes that decision of what is worth spending time pursuing or not? A great many of us think we are still acting from the layer of the conscious, but I would argue that the filter that determines what is good or bad for our time is actually at the deeper layer of our subconscious and even unconscious. 

    You see, we have been conditioned at an early age by society, friends, family, and even our selves to create judgments – rationalizations – values – beliefs that have been molded by our internal and external environment. These intrinsic properties that are working underneath the hood of our mental engines are not apparent to us when we make a decision to eat fast food after work or have a sugary snack after we feel upset. These conditioned values and beliefs lay at the core of our decision making and go beyond just dietary choices – starting your own business, asking your boss for a raise, starting an exercise routine; doing these or not are all examples of how our subconscious properties guide our decisions and choices in life. The sobering part of this realization is that we aren’t even aware about these processes working in the background of our psyches. 

    On the bright side, these conditioned and hidden internal systems that are created inside of our selves are not fixed. They are ever changing and evolving – for better and for worse. The fact that they experience plasticity is great news to us, only under one circumstance. If you do not know something is working in the background how can you change it? For that we need to bring these subconscious systems in the mind into our conscious awareness so that we may interact with them and reflect on how they are working towards or against us. 

    “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

    Carl Jung

    Are you interested in learning about your hidden judgments, values, beliefs, and rationalizations that have created the life you are currently living? And if so are you interested in bringing this awareness into your life so that you can change the outcomes you are observing? If so then reach out and book a consultation session today.

    Dr. Shaikh M.D

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  • Interoceptive Awareness, the 6th sense

    We spend most of our days with our bodies functioning in tandem with our minds, a kind of autopilot that allows us to focus on more complicated tasks. However, some type of internal disturbance may break our focus or flow we engage in. This disturbance can range from the hunger pangs of an empty stomach to the feelings of urgency of a full bladder. Our ability to sense these internal states within our own bodies is what is referred to as interoceptive awareness. 

    To clarify, the way we sense the outside world is through the 5 senses of taste, touch, hearing, smell, and vision. That is how we process information external to our own bodies. Interoception, however is the means in which we process information within our body; signals from the gut, lungs, heart, musculoskeletal system, etc. Think about the the last time you had a “gut feeling” or felt off about a new person you just met. 

    Of course, it wouldn’t be of much use if all of our internal sensations were being brought to the forefront of our conscious awareness 24/7. However, being able to tap into the more nuanced signals our bodies send can serve those that have the awareness. Research has shown that some of us are intrinsically better at others when it comes to interpreting and receiving signals from within. This would serve to explain how some of us are better at regulating our food intake when we look through the lens of the obesity epidemic in the U.S, or how some are able to understand the triggers of anxiety when it comes to self management. 

    With all this being said, interoception is still a phenomena being studied and current understandings are being expanded upon. Whether scientists perform research on the vagus nerve and its connection to the stomach or the areas of the brain such as the insula, we can be assured new insights into the 6th sense that allows us to remain in communication with our own body as time goes on. 

    If you’d like to learn more about how I incorporate interoceptive awareness into my transformational coaching practice and how it can be used to increase your cognitive, physical, and emotional health use the contact form to send me a message and lets connect.  

    Dr. Shaikh M.D

  • Cognitive Reappraisal

    Imagine a scenario where you are dealing with a stressor. This includes handling an unruly family member, facing disputes at work, or even having an argument with your spouse. The way we view that stress and characterize it has serious implications on the effect that it has on us. In most circumstances the narrative we create around the stressor is more harmful than the stressor itself.

    For example, when we lose our job, there are multiple meanings we can create around the situation. When we don’t get something we want, we can also create various interpretations. For the former incident, most people frame it negatively. They focus on their perceived lack of abilities, talents, and worthiness. This mindset leads to the formation of limiting beliefs which are carried with us as we navigate our professional, personal, and spiritual endeavors. 

    However, if we take that same incident (losing a job or not getting the object of our desire), we can look at it from another perspective: that this experience is motivating me to become a better version of myself, or that it is a learning event that will fuel my growth and allow me to be more successful in the future. Can you see how when we take a step back and objectively look at the scenario we can consciously ascribe meaning to a difficult or challenging situation? 

    Indeed, this is the essence of cognitive reappraisal. We take a step back from the challenging situation that we are dealing with and use an objective lens to see the meaning that we are making of it. We can then dissect the meaning that we are making of the challenge and see how that meaning limits or expands the future actions we will take as a result.

    In brief, we can alter our realities and outcomes based on our own perception and mind. Since one of the constants in life are challenges and stress which usually can not be changed immediately, one would be wise to shift the perception and narratives we create alongside them so that we can create the best outcomes for our lives and the lives of those around us. 

    Dr. Shaikh M.D