It’s been ages since I wrote a blog
Weirdly I just haven’t felt inspired which is not like me. Usually I’m bursting with ideas
To get creative we need to be in the human brain and it seems I haven’t spent a lot of time there recently
For anyone who doesn’t know me, along with boxing, understanding brain science is my biggest passion.
Having an awareness of what’s going on in our brain and how to motivate ourselves gives us power.
You know when you feel stuck and just can’t get yourself to take action, even though you really really want to?
That’s your primal animal brain in play.
According to triune brain theory there are 3 layers to the brain.
Below our thoughtful human brain lies our emotional and tribal mammalian brain that seeks safety through acceptance and belonging to our tribe or pack. Our reptile brain is our survival mechanism that reacts in fight, flight or freeze when under any form of threat. These ‘animals’ are still very much active and part of us. Their purpose is to keep us safe from anything that could threaten our survival.
Our biggest threat today is social threat. What other people think of us, are we being judged? Do we feel a sense of belonging and acceptance? We are essentially pack animals. The stronger our social connections, the safer we feel. When we feel safe that’s when we get to play in our human brain. That’s where focus, goals, dreams, creativity and self actualisation are possible.
When we are not in the human brain it’s impossible to make decisions, find solutions or get creative. That part of the brain is offline. Until we can get human we are pretty much at the mercy of the animals, stuck in a reactive cycle of behaviours that don’t serve us
So what do we do about it?
Having an awareness is the first step to change. If we want to change our behaviour first we have to notice it, observe it and understand it
Changing our mindset like any other skill, is a practice. It doesn’t happen overnight. Knowing this stuff isn’t enough either. I’ve known about this for several years now but I still get caught out.
Just like we practice our punches and defence in training. If we want to stay human, we need to practice the behaviours that keep us off the punchline and out of threat
This means understanding how we can influence our environments to change how we feel and set ourselves up for the best possible outcome
It means becoming aware of and mastering our self talk and continually working on our connection and our relationship with ourself
It means understanding that stress, anxiety, overwhelm and other negative behaviours that keep us stuck are just our brain trying to keep us safe. But they also keep us stuck and stop us moving forward and limit our self growth. Understanding what lies beneath them, almost always fear of failure and not being good enough and continually working to build our self esteem is key to our success
Boxing is a tool to take us out of our reactive primal brains but if we don’t do the other work, the work on our relationship with ourselves, we just end up back there very quickly, reacting to life’s punches
Boxing AND working on your brain together will make you unstoppable
To get my training started I re-connected with my old boxing coach. With any coaching whether it’s in sport or business I think it’s so important to find someone that you completely connect with. For me Mark is the only coach who can push me to my limits and at the same time keep me motivated. Over the last few weeks we’ve had so much fun as he’s kicked my ass around the ring again
