Hacking My Brain to Make Life Better

I was out for a walk in the tame wilds of inland Southwest Harbor, and I was thinking about my brain. I find brains in general rather interesting, in a psychological sense. I like coming up with brain “hacks,” and I’ll tell you about a couple of mine in a moment.

But first, here I was on this walk. I was admiring the green trees, the blue sky, the purple lupin flowers, the grey boulders… Everything is lovely. Summer is in bloom for sure.

Along with admiring the scenery, I was also tuned in to the music in my head. There’s always something playing in there. I’d been listening to Trey Anastasio Band with my hubby the night before, so the chorus of the song “Everything’s Right” kept chanting itself in my mind. It seemed pretty positive:

“But, everything’s right, so just hold tight

Everything’s right, so just hold tight”

I let that circle around for a while as I walked and pondered and admired Mother Nature.

Then I remembered a game I’m playing with my mastermind group. I’m supposed to be keeping my eye out for coins, dimes in particular. I turned my gaze down to see if I could notice any shiny objects along the side of the road.

My brain started prioritizing places where there were mailboxes, the parking lot by the pond, and other areas where people might have plausibly gotten out of their cars and dropped money. I soon noticed that this was my brain fixating on “the cursed hows” - how would that dime have landed there, exactly?

This part, of course, is none of my business. If the Universe is going to leave me a coin, it has a million ways to make it happen. I don’t have to make up stories about it.

But that’s what the brain does, you see. It makes up stories, and then repeats them, like the Phish lyrics rotating ad nauseum as I walked. By focusing on the coin game a bit too heavy-handedly, I stopped looking at the sky and the trees and all that other lovely life surrounding me.

What is the balance, I wondered, between being open to receiving (which is what the game is all about) and becoming overly fixated on the outcome? I’m still experimenting with that, obviously.

I do have a couple of brain hacks that I’ve come up with, ones that help me deal with situations that used to freak me right out.

One happens when I’m riding in the front seat of a car, with someone else driving. I will say that the folks I ride with are good drivers. I’m not doubting their ability. However, I like to leave a lot of room between me and the next car, and slow down gradually when coming up behind a vehicle. Not everyone drives that way.

I figured out that it was the actual visual trigger of coming up fast on another vehicle that caused me to panic and tense up. If I see it happening, I can simply close my eyes (because I’m not the one driving!) and suddenly my body is totally relaxed. My brain knows full well that we’re still approaching that car in front of us at a rapid pace, however, without the visual image of it, we (my mind and body) simply don’t care.

I can go from stressed to relaxed in just one second, by shutting my eyes. Weird, right?

That’s why I call it a brain hack. Another hack is also about releasing control and letting things happen.

I love to go on amusement park rides, everything from roller coasters to the Tilt-A-Whirl to the ones that drop you down rapidly. Many of my friends don’t like the rides, because it makes them dizzy, and for them being dizzy is equated with being nauseous.

Do I get dizzy on these rides? Absolutely! Do I feel like throwing up? Only when I tense up and resist the dizzy feeling. When I let go and enjoy being thrown around, I’m fine. I’m usually laughing hysterically. It’s so much fun.

Somewhere along the way through life I let go of trying to keep my physical orientation in space consistent, which allows me to enjoy the ride.

I also do this with hot weather. I like being warm. Even when it’s humid and sultry out, I enjoy the feeling of being warm all the way through to my bones. Do I sweat? Sure. I just don’t mind. It’s just a natural bodily function. I don’t mind being hot. Thus I’m not one of those many, many people who complain all summer about how hot it is. I love summer, so I just lean in and enjoy the whole thing. I take it as it comes.

Have I been able to do the same thing with cold weather? Not yet. Not fully. But I have, for the most part, released complaining about it, because I know folks who actually love the cold, so why ruin it for them by being overly crabby? (Are you listening, hot weather complainers?)

I guess the overall lesson is that the brain wants to control everything, in order to keep you safe, but when you practice letting go of that control, things actually work better. Or at least you have more fun.

Letting go too much, of course, can also cause problems. That’s why it’s a balance. All things in moderation, even moderation.

This line of thought makes me question the “just hold tight” part of the lyrics of that Phish tune. How tight is too tight? Can’t I hold on loosely? How do I know when I’m holding on just the right amount?

Brains are fun and interesting, right? Mine brought me back from the walk and made me sit down and write about its inner monologue, just for you. I hope you liked it. That’s all.

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