Brainwashing. It’s not just for cults.

(Now there’s a tagline).

But really. We’re all brainwashed. We brainwash ourselves.

Because our minds will accept anything that is repeated enough times.

On a neurological level, a thought is a particular pattern of neurons firing.

That thought becomes a deep-rooted belief when that pattern of neurons has been fired so many times it becomes the automatic pathway that our brain wants to go when a certain situation arises.

The only difference between something we believe and something we don’t is the number of times our brain has fired that neuron pattern.

Each thought has its own neuron pattern.

The more times you think that thought, the stronger that neuron pattern becomes, and the more easily it gets triggered.

And how do you get a neuron pattern to be stronger? Practice.

Like basketball, swimming or piano.

Choosing new beliefs is about practicing them until their neuron firing pattern becomes stronger than the competing neuron firing pattern.

In other words – if you want to believe something new, keep practicing the thought until you believe it more than the old belief.

Say it again.

Journal it on paper.

Find proof for it.

Tell it to your brain again and again.

Your mind will eventually accept anything you tell it enough times.