Building Brain Waves Newsletter

February 19, 2020

Thanks for being a valued subscriber! If you feel there’s been a mistake feel free to email me at nelson@buildingbrainwaves.com or unsubscribe at the bottom of this email.

Let’s jump into a quote, a thought, something fun, and the value-add of the week

A Quote From Someone:

“Life is available only in the present moment. If you abandon the present moment you cannot live the moments of your daily life deeply.” - Thich Nhat Hanh


A Thought From Me:

You don’t have to react.

Back when I was struggling with my mental health, my days consisted of reacting to all the things going on in my head and body. This reactive way of living basically looked like me attempting to control all the thoughts and feelings that humans are naturally meant to experience. If a thought popped into my head that I didn’t like, my goal was to get rid of it. If I experienced an uncomfortable feeling like anxiety, I had to fight it and make it disappear. As a result, I was basically letting fear and discomfort dictate my life.

Living this way for a very long period of time taught my brain to react almost instantly to thoughts and feelings I didn’t like. Whenever I experienced an uncomfortable thought or feeling, my brain and body would immediately go on high alert and start treating that thought or feeling like a threat to be extinguished. This only led those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings to feel worse and worse every time I inevitably experienced them.

Then I discovered mindfulness and learned that I could observe my thoughts and feelings without reacting to them. It took serious work to get the hang of it, but practicing mindfulness in relation to my thoughts and feelings helped me create space between the first instance of a thought or feeling and my reaction. I was now able to make a decision instead of reacting automatically. This enabled me to completely change my relationship with the thoughts and feelings I experienced and helped me become much more welcoming to all human experiences (even the uncomfortable ones).

As I creating a more welcoming relationship with my thoughts and feelings, my body slowly stopped registering them as threats and my anxiety began to diminish. Suddenly, I was free to act for myself instead of acting on fear. I was able to choose what I wanted to do, not what my anxiety wanted me to do. And that was extremely liberating.


Something Fun:

People are amazing. Watch these guys create an underground home in the following YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYwazHyAq6k&feature=youtu.be


Value-add of the week:

This week’s value-add of the week goes to 7-11.

Every week I get 7-11’s cold-pressed juice, and it is amazing. It’s healthy (at least I think it is), it’s good, and the glass bottles are cool. If you haven’t tried it yet, you need to.

What would you like to see in this newsletter? Let me know by emailing nelson@buildingbrainwaves.com.

Nelson Lee

Founder of Building Brain Waves