Is Your Brain Your Greatest Ally Or Your Worse Enemy?

Our brain is responsible for our bodily functions. It is also the center where thoughts are generated. What is your relationship with your own brain? Even though you are born with a brain and you have been living with your brain your whole life, you are likely not having the same relationship with your brain as someone else with their own brain.

What kind of relationship do you have with your brain? In other words, is your brain your ally or your enemy?

Before answering that question, let us explore the definition of “ally” and “enemy”. I like this definition of “ally”, used as a verb, I found online from Oxford Languages: “combine or unite a resource or commodity with another for mutual benefit”. An enemy is “a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something”, or “a thing that harms or weakens something else”.

Now that you have read the definitions of both words, which relationship would you choose? Your brain as your ally or as your enemy?

Most people would prefer to work with an ally rather than work against an enemy. Even though we know our preference, there are times that our brain is our enemy.

Our brain comes up with many thoughts throughout the day. There are so many thoughts that we are only conscious of a fraction of them. The brain is born to do certain basic things – to seek pleasure, to stay in familiarity and to avoid pain. If your brain senses that you are thinking about doing something new, it will resist you. Resistance may be in a form of going back to the past as an evidence of something that did not work out. Or your brain is offering reasons for staying where you are. You are literally having a mental battle with your brain without realizing it. Before you know it, your brain wins in that hostile mental war zone and you feel helpless. You may also feel restless, inadequate, stressed, overwhelmed and doubt, among other unpleasant emotions. After all, the enemy is not supposed to make you feel warm and fuzzy.

This default hostile relationship between you and your brain is meant to protect you from harm. If you want to feel better and achieve more in life, it is important to have an ally, to have someone who works alongside you and works with you for “mutual benefit”.

The first step in cultivating this friendly relationship with your brain is to acknowledge your brain. Whenever it comes up with many thoughts, especially the no-filter thoughts, accept them as your brain is functioning.

Second, realize that we are in control. Our mind gets to decide what thoughts from our brain are helpful. We get to decide to let the brain expand our horizons to learn new things. We get to decide to let our brain create a desirable future. We get to decide to let our brain heal our past wounds. We get to let our brain offer hope.

It is our decision to embrace or ignore that we are in control.

Having an ally is an empowering relationship. To nurture that with your brain, be mindful of your self-talk. Are you being kind and loving to your brain? Do you talk to someone you love and respect the same way?

Are you cultivating a meaningful and pleasant relationship with your brain? After all, this is the longest relationship you will have in your life. Isn’t it more uplifting and energizing to have a pleasant relationship in which you collaborate, cooperate and co-create wonderful things?

“The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.” – William James.