- Unstuck Yourself
- Posts
- The Art of Disruption
Welcome to a voyage into the intricate highways of your brain, where every thought, feeling, and action carves its path.
Picture your mind as a sprawling landscape, with neural pathways resembling roads etched into the terrain…
When you embark on a new action, it's akin to forging a dirt path through this vast expanse. Initially, you navigate through rugged terrain, battling through grassy fields, thickets, and rocky patches. But with each repetition, your brain lays down neural connections like paving stones, gradually transforming this rough path into a smooth, well-traveled route.
As the habit solidifies, your brain adds more lanes to accommodate increased traffic, making the journey effortless and efficient. Just as a single dirt path evolves into a bustling highway, your brain seamlessly executes habits with minimal conscious effort, becoming an integral part of your daily routine.
But what happens when these habits veer into negative territories?
That's where the power of interruption comes in.
By disrupting these familiar patterns, you open space for new possibilities to emerge. Like a sudden stop on the highway, a pattern interrupt forces you to pause and consciously choose a different path.
In today’s Unstuck Yourself Newsletter, we'll explore the art of interruption and how it can reshape your brain's pathways for positive change. From recognizing negative patterns to implementing effective interrupts, you'll learn how to navigate toward a brighter, more empowered future.
Buckle up and join me on this exhilarating journey through the neural highways of habit formation!
Imagine your brain as a vast landscape, with neural pathways resembling roads…
When you start a new action, it's like carving a dirt path through this landscape. Imagine needing to walk the same 10-mile trek each day from your home to your place of work.
On the first day, you trudge through grassy fields, thickets, and rocky terrain while traversing various hills and valleys. Eventually, after taking the same path for a consistent period, you begin to notice that somewhat of a path emerges. It’s a bare, dirt path that has hardened and cleared with each passing day and step.
As you repeat the action, your brain begins to reinforce this pathway, laying down neural connections akin to paving stones. In time, this path becomes more pronounced and easier to travel. No longer do you need to traverse certain sections on all fours.
After a specific period, the path becomes so clear, that you get the idea (and appropriate resources) to pave this path. What was once a long hike through uncharted terrain has now become a newly paved road; thus, making it even easier to navigate.
As the habit solidifies, your brain further develops this pathway, adding more lanes to accommodate increased traffic. The path to your destination is not only easy to recall and travel due to familiarity and repetition, but it’s now easier than ever before to travel.
No longer does it take hours; now, it merely takes 10 minutes.
This is how your brain works to increase efficiency and save energy.
The more you think, feel, or behave in a certain way, the more your brain works to increase efficiency and ease of communication between neurons so that your brain can conserve energy and spend it elsewhere.
Eventually, this single one-way road evolves into a two-lane road, and, eventually, into a highway. When you’ve greased the groove of a pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior to this extent, it happens unconsciously and automatically.
Just as a 16-lane highway efficiently transports a high volume of traffic, your brain efficiently executes the habit with minimal conscious effort, making it an integral part of your daily routine.
The only way to create an opportunity to consider a different thought, feeling, or behavior is by bringing it up from the depth of the unconscious and into conscious awareness.
This is where a pattern interrupt comes into play.
The Art of Interruption
In recognizing the depth of negative thinking, unkind self-talk patterns, and sabotaging behaviors, it becomes evident how ingrained they are in our daily lives. Often, we only become aware of these behaviors after we've already treaded the familiar path once again.
Pattern interrupts serve as valuable tools to disrupt our usual thoughts and actions, opening up space for new possibilities to emerge. This interruption is a crucial step in the process of change, as it's easier to influence and redirect an unstable pattern rather than a rigid one.
When a pattern is completely interrupted, you're left momentarily without a clear next step, making you highly receptive to new directions. The unconscious mind, lacking the ability to make decisions, awaits instructions from the conscious mind or external sources.
This is where the power of the pattern interrupt lies. By sending the unconscious mind into a state of "decision-awaiting mode," you create an opportunity to insert new instructions into its programming.
A pattern interrupt is like a sudden stop on the highway - whether it be due to a deer in the road, a fallen tree, or a bad accident ahead - forcing you to pause and consciously consider your next move. It brings your next action (or lack thereof) into conscious awareness while temporarily quieting the unconscious, automated control.
In this moment of pause, you're presented with a choice - to continue with the familiar or to think, feel, or behave differently. Just as you might choose to take an earlier exit to avoid traffic caused by an accident, you can consciously decide to pursue a new path where new opportunities await.
How to Use A Pattern Interrupt
Once you've honed your awareness to initiate a pattern interrupt and redirect your thoughts, it's crucial to channel that energy into constructive thinking, feeling, or behavior.
For instance, when you notice yourself slipping into a cycle of doubt and negativity, pivot your focus towards hopeful, optimistic, and empowering thoughts.
To start harnessing the power of pattern interrupts, you first need to select your preferred method. Here are a few examples that I've used and recommended to clients:
Say "stop it!" aloud three times.
Say "cancel, cancel" aloud three times.
Jump up and down three times.
Try one or experiment with each.
The key is to use the interrupt as soon as you notice yourself heading down that familiar path. With practice, you'll catch yourself earlier and earlier, preventing the detrimental thought, feeling, or action from taking hold.
However, using a pattern interrupt is just the beginning. After interrupting the pattern, you must consciously choose a new thought, feeling, or behavior aligned with your desired outcome.
For example:
If you have a nail-biting habit, you might say "stop it, stop it, stop it" aloud and then redirect your focus to taking three deep breaths.
If you tend towards self-critical talk, you could jump up and down three times, then recite a kind affirmation like "It’s safe to make mistakes. Mistakes are beneficial. I’m already learning so much from this."
If you find yourself mindlessly scrolling on social media, yelling "cancel, cancel, cancel" and tossing your phone aside, then do five jumping jacks to shift your focus and energy.
By practicing these interruptions and consciously choosing positive alternatives, you'll gradually unlearn old habits and cultivate new, healthier ones.
Through techniques like hypnosis and Mindset and Performance Coaching, I can assist you in constructing a detour from your usual path of negative habits. This involves temporarily blocking access to these habits, akin to placing orange traffic cones on a highway.
From there, we collaborate to forge a new path forward, aligning your thoughts, feelings, and self-talk with your desired self. With hypnosis, we expedite the creation of this new path, which, with consistent reinforcement, evolves into a robust neural network - a 16-lane highway - forged by your present-day intentions and alignment.
Hypnotherapy acts as the mechanism for setting up these detours, temporarily halting access to old patterns. Each hypnosis session rapidly reinforces and deepens this new pathway until it becomes a dominant, self-created neural highway.
Your Next Step
You know the drill: start taking action on what you learned.
Choose a primary pattern interrupt to pair with the habit you wish to let go and unlearn and begin using it as often as possible.
You can’t change unless you change.
Ready to learn more about how Hypno-Mindset and Performance Coaching can help you unlock your full potential?
Schedule a complimentary Coaching Discovery Call with me now.
Thank you for reading this week’s newsletter.
Interested in learning more about how I help high-performers just like you unstuck themselves and unlock their full potential?
Apply to work with me and schedule a coaching discovery call here.
You may catch up on previous newsletters here.
Subscribe and listen to The Unstuck Yourself Podcast here.
If you have a question about anything I discussed in this week’s Unstuck Newsletter, please message me on Twitter (@pauljsalter7) or Instagram (@paulsaltercoaching).
My email inbox is always open, too: [email protected].
If you found this information valuable, click here to share it with a friend.
If you were forwarded this email, click here to receive my Unstuck Newsletter each Friday.