The brain is helpful, but it can also tell us lies

​It isn't a problem that we tell ourselves ugly stories about our lives. That's just our brain doing what it's good at doing. And in many ways, it's our brain doing what it's SUPPOSED to be doing.

In order for our brain to help keep us alive, it's primary job, it has to detect threats to our life. Our brain is a bit of a negativity seeking machine.

The problem begins when we turn the negativity the brain perceives about the world into ugly stories we tell ourselves about who we are as individuals. The problem isn't the stories the brain tells, it's the stories we believe. 

If there's something negative going on in the world, it must be my fault.

Why wouldn't the world be ugly with me in it?

And then once we believe that, we begin to feed our ugliness instead of our beauty. The world, with some help from our brains, feeds us a theory that we are unworthy. We run with it and make unworthiness a true story about our identity.

So how do we help our brains stay real about the threats in this world? How do we help our brains come to know that we are NOT one of those threats?

It's simply and it's hard. Simple to know, sometimes hard to do.

But when we feel our brain feeding us a story that suggests we're ugly, we need to say, that's a lie.

When we feel our brains feeding us a story that suggests we're unworthy, we need to say, that's a lie.

When we feel our brains feeding us a story that my broken world is my fault, that I am to blame, we need to stop and consider, that's a lie.

We all long for honesty in our relationships. We want to know the people closest to us won't tell us lies.

Well, one way to help us all get there is to quit believing the lies we tell ourselves. The healthiest honest relationship we can have in life is the relationship we have with ourselves.

Don't let your brain tell you otherwise. It's a helpful organ, but it doesn't always tell the truth.