Recently I sat down with Dr. Caroline Leaf, host of the leading podcast Cleaning Up The Mental Mess, and bestselling author of multiple books. She holds a Master’s degree and a PhD in Communication Pathology, along with a Bachelor of Science in Logopaedics. We delved deep into the power of the mind and its influence on the brain. Dr. Leaf, with her extensive academic background and practical experience, shared invaluable insights on how to harness the mind’s potential for positive thinking.
“The mind is not the brain. The mind is a separate entity that controls the brain.” – Dr. Leaf
My conversation with Dr. Caroline Lead has been a long-time coming. Her work has been impactful to me. The predominant message that comes through on this podcast is to think of the mind, as the manager of the brain. “The mind is not the brain,” Dr. Leaf says, “The mind is a separate entity that controls the brain.”
She’s recently published a new book, How to Help Your Child Clean Up Their Mental Mess: A Guide to Building Resilience and Managing Mental Health. In her book Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, she shares scientifically proven steps we can use to reduce anxiety, stress and toxic thoughts.
She helps people see the power of the mind when it comes to changing the brain, controlling chaotic thoughts, and finding mental peace. I’m so thrilled to share this episode and to bring awareness to the connection between the brain and the mind, and the role the mind has in our lives.
The brain is controlled by the mind, let’s get into it!
The Mind-Brain Connection
If you’ve tuned in before, you’ll know that I’m fascinated with the brain and how our minds learn. This conversation got me thinking more about what we’re taught about our brains and our ability to question all of it. Dr. Leaf has a way of simplifying complex science into actionable steps that make a difference in our day-to-day life.
We’re exploring how the brain is controlled by the mind, and can be changed. There’s a clean-up process involved. A term Dr. Leaf says throughout her work she calls mental mess. What we come to learn through this conversation with Dr. Leaf is that it’s not a matter of if our mind will be messy, it already is.
Everyone has a messy mind. As humans we’re messy, and that’s okay! Our mind has different levels, at the core we’re wise, organized and creative. On the other hand, being human is experimental. We never know what’s coming up ahead and therefore things get messy. Specifically, our minds.
It’s completely normal that our minds are messy. We’re in a constant state of experimentation. The issue isn’t the mess. It’s when the balance isn’t managed and we lean too heavily into stress anxiety and toxic thinking.
In order to manage the mess, it’s key to remember that the mind is not the brain. The brain is only doing what the mind is telling it.
An easy way to think about this, Dr. Leaf says to think of the mind as being your aliveness. Everything we do as humans is driven by our minds. We think, feel, choose. The brain does not do those things.
Think of the mind as being your aliveness. Everything you do as a human. Life. driven by mind. Because of your mind basic simple terms – your aliveness, think, feel, choose. The brain reacts to this. The physical component is quantum physics, classical physics, electromagnetic light and waves, auditory sound waves, gravitational fields, and all that complex stuff. The stuff that makes your blood flow.
Our mind is what enables us to ask a question. That’s our mind in action.
When we don’t manage our mind, that’s when it gets messy. Depression and anxiety are normal and good, they can’t be ignored. Ignoring these signals tips the balance. Dr. Leaf explains, “If we look at depression and anxiety medically and forget to look at the human, we end up with the problem.”
Mismanagement of the mind leads to crisis. This keeps people stuck and out of balance.
The Roles of Emotions in Mental Health
Emotions play an important role in mental health. These are signals to pay attention to. It becomes messy when we ignore the signals and we don’t manage our minds.
Depression and anxiety are normal and good, but can’t be ignored. It will tip the balance.
If we look at depression and anxiety medically and forget to look at the human, we end up with the problem. Medicine works for the physical brain and the physical body, but it doesn’t change the stories of your life. This is where the mind comes in.
Managing the mental mess is to recognize the signals to understand that the brain responds to the messiness of the mind (the stories). The messiness is not who we are, and by managing the mess, we can change our lives.
Before changing anything Dr. Leaf talks about preparing the mind. Tuning your psychoneurobiology into a state of healing empowers you to start the process.
When we look at how we’re showing up in our life, and maybe realize it’s not how we want it to be. We can look at it with kindness and compassion and say this is not who I am, this is how I’m showing up because of my story. We can do this to try and understand more, it’s the wise mind, or scientifically this is called non-conscious.
This is part of the process that Dr. Leaf has refined this throughout her lifetime of research and work helping people manage their minds to lead more fulfilling lives.
The Neurocycle Process
The approach involves the NeuroCycle 5-step process, the steps are:
- Gather awareness of the physical and emotional warning signals.
- Write down reflections to organize thoughts.
- Reflect on why we feel these things in body and mind.
- Recheck what we’ve written and how our thoughts and feelings have changed.
- Active Reach: take action to form a new idea or different idea and find sustainable healing.
Our stories present as something (a behavior or way of being). This process is where we spot signals and create change. We can tap in to understand more about the emotions, behavior, sensations, and perspective and how all of this influences us in the moment.
Building Resilience for the Future
Dr. Caroline Leaf’s latest book, How to Help Your Child Clean Up Their Mental Mess: A Guide to Building Resilience and Managing Mental Health shares a sense of responsibility that we all have for the next generation. We may not have been taught about mind over matter when we were kids. We’re now learning how in control of our brain we really are. Our children will be better off because we’re moving forward in science, and now we have the tools to share with the younger generations.
Life is messy. Listen to the podcast episode, it dives deeper into how we can manage stress, anxiety, depression and toxic thinking. If you want to explore even more, Dr. Caroline Leaf has a lot of resources, including the brain detox app called NeuroCycle.
Enjoy!
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