Member-only story
Rewiring Your Brain by Finding Sources of Insecurity
System 1 Superhighways are hijacking your life
The Rewired Brain
I’m part way through Dr Ski Chilton’s book The Rewired Brain, and so far it’s a decent read. The book centers around how the two classic systems of your brain, System 1 and System 2, interact.
- System 1 -> Fast, unconscious, difficult to directly control
- System 2 -> Slow, conscious, easier to control
In one of the chapters, “Your Brain on Change”, the metaphor of highways really stuck with me.
Your brain is one of the most complicated feedback loop systems ever conceived. But what you can liken it to is a highway. The more onramps there are to negative, destructive thinking, the more cars (thoughts) that move onto the highway, and the more difficult it will be to live a healthy life.
My personal problems are all in the realm of negative self talk, things like:
- You’re not worth it
- Why even try it’s just going to break/fail
- You’re so stupid
The book asks you to try and see what in your life is responsible for these negative System 1 onramps, and for me I think it’s down to two things I want to talk…
