Did you know that your brain loves neutrality?  

By Lori Hammond

Coach and Professional Hypnotist. Giving you simple tools to stop overwhelm and harness joyful forward momentum.

You know the feeling you get when you wake up in the middle of the night...

 

And for just a moment…

 

You don’t know where you are… 

 

Or what time it is…

 

Or WHO you are.

 

I’ve been feeling that way since I got back to Colorado on Wednesday.

 

While I was in Hawaii I woke up 3-4 hours later every day because of the time change…

 

I rode a bike everywhere instead of driving…

 

Birds I’d never seen, sang songs I’ve never heard…

 

While perched in trees I’d never seen before..

 

When I got back to Colorado I felt disoriented. 

 

Yesterday I realized…

 

These topsy-turvy FEELINGS are identical to the feelings I used to label as "depression".

 

But that was before I learned about the Feeling Teeter Totter.

 

The Feeling Teeter Totter

A few days ago, as I bear-crawled down a muddy trail to keep from careening down a Hawaiian jungle cliff, I listened to a podcast (because that’s how I roll) with a brilliant psychiatrist named Anna Lembke.

 

Lembke said something that stopped me in my muddy tracks.

 

“Pleasure and pain are co-located in the brain.” 

 

That means the “This sucks!” signal comes from the same part of the brain as “This is awesome!” signal. 

 

Lembke said that the pleasure/pain center works like opposite sides of a teeter totter. 

 

The teeter totter WANTS to be level…

 

Parallel with the earth. 

 

Not tipped one way or the other. 

 

The body perceives both pleasure AND pain as being “off kilter”.

 

OFF KILTER: not in the usual, expected, or correct condition or state.

 

According to neuroscience, the "correct" teeter totter position is neutral.

 

Will you let that sink in for a moment?

 

Our brain WANTS to be neutral. 

 

Not too low OR too high.

 

What goes up MUST come down.

Lembke says...

 

When we experience an emotional high, our internal teeter totter tips towards pleasure and sends a message to our inner gremlins. 

 

The “pain” gremlins jump on the other side of the teeter totter to restore balance.

 

But they don’t just bring the teeter totter back to level.

 

They tip the teeter totter an “equal and opposite” amount to the discomfort side.

 

We can let that fact (and it is a neurological fact) frustrate us…

 

OR we can let it liberate us because we know how to level the teeter totter!

 

(I'm about to show you.)

 

This concept of feeling “neutral” used to really frustrate me. 

 

My decades-long relationship with depression conditioned me to seek HAPPINESS! 

 

I didn’t just want to feel “ok”.

 

But the more I explore…

 

The more I curiously observe and experiment with shifting my emotions…

 

(And we CAN shift our emotions)...

 

The more I realize that a parallel teeter totter feels like pure bliss.

 

I’ve learned little tricks for getting to “neutral” and the more I use them, the more peaceful life gets. 

 

I don’t remember to level my teeter totter as often as I’d like, but that’s ok.

 

I can be gentle with myself about that too.

 

If I could show you how to level your teeter totter in less than 90 seconds, would you be interested?

 

Leveling the Emotional Teeter Totter

You might have heard me teach this before. I need to hear this one over and over so maybe you'll enjoy the reminder too. 

 

Step 1

Notice what you’re FEELING right now. 

 

Give the feeling a label... like "Sad" or "Anxious"....

 

Then rate the intensity of the feeling on a scale of 1-10 (it's ok to guess).

 

Step 2

Turn off the words/labels/story that goes with that feeling and just NOTICE where the feeling is in the body. 

 

I know that’s kinda weird but when this clicks for you it’s an absolute game changer. A hack for finding the emotion in the body is to just imagine you know where the feeling is.

 

Your body will understand your intention and start to show you.

 

Again... it works just as well if you guess.

 

Step 3

Observe the feeling with curiosity and say, “I see you” to the feeling.

 

Sometimes the Pain Gremlin just wants to be noticed. 

 

When we stop TRYING to make the feeling go away, and just observe it….

 

The pain gremlin steps off the teeter totter...

 

And the teeter totter returns to neutral.

 

BLISS.

 

So you can experience the beautiful sensation of…

 

JUST BEING.

 

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor discovered that it only takes 90 seconds for the gremlin to dismount the teeter totter when we follow those 3 steps. 

 

How amazing is that?

An invitation for you

 

In August I scheduled a group hypnosis session that teaches people to return to neutral. 

 

Then I forgot about it.

 

When I was on that muddy mountain learning about the emotion teeter totter, I had no idea that the following week’s Trancy Tuesdays session was the one that equips people to do exactly that.

 

How cool is it when the Universe whispers, "You're on the right track"?

 

That week's one-hour group hypnosis session is that whisper. 

Click on the orange button below to join the Trancy Tuesdays family if you're not already a member.

 

You'll get immediate access to all my hypnosis protocols to use with your clients too.

 

Will you come join me? 

 

Have a beautiful week playing on that teeter totter my friend!

 

Love,

Lori

P.S. Trancy Tuesdays calls happen at 1:00 Eastern Time/6:00 pm UK Time. Members get access to the replay every week plus the replay to all past calls.

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