Protecting Your Greatest Asset

Are you hanging out with people that are cheering you on? Are you spending time with people who are helping you and supporting you and loving you unconditionally as you are? Who push you to new limits? Who believe that you can?

You are as good as the five people you hang around the most. Welcome to the Thrive Her podcast. I'm your host, Amy Sanders. I'm a fitness and wellness pro, mom, stepmom, second wife, and master certified life coach.

I'm here to help you manage your mind so you can uncover the most potent version of yourself and create a thriving life you love. Hello, hello. Welcome back to the podcast. I am excited to have you here and I just wanted to say thank you for tuning in and being here with me.

I love this community and I love sharing with you guys every single week. This week has been awesome. I came home from a trip with my girlfriends. I took them to our beach house in Florida and it was amazing.

And as I was there, I met some new people. We had a great time and I just was like quiet and turning inward of like, what do I want to share when I get home? And what I decided on was. The brain, I want to talk to you about how to protect your brain, your mind, and why it is your greatest asset.

And we're going to get into some stats. We're going to talk about some fancy words like neuroplasticity and neural pathways, but ultimately understanding that your brain never stands still. I want you to think about it as a little butterfly that just flies around from one flower to the next. And it's always busy.

It's always thinking about something. I don't want you to confuse it with a muscle because a lot of people like to say your brain is a muscle and it's the strongest one you've got. Truth is, it is not a muscle, but there are some similarities. Your brain has neural pathways and you can continually rewire your brain throughout your life.

And your environment matters. Your behavior matters. Your thinking and your emotions matter. But neuroplasticity is literally your brain's ability to reorganize itself, but it only does that as you take care of it.

And you can continually create new pathways throughout your entire life. It's actually an amazing thing. So if we understand that, we can get very curious about how we are living and start to do things differently. So some stats.

I want to throw at you right out of the gate is that we have an average of 60,000 thoughts a day. And this is according to tons of different research from different universities and clinics across America. Okay, so it's not just some number that one person came up with. It's actually been proven over and over and over that we have around somewhere around 60,000 thoughts a day.

Some people have more than that. Some people have less than that. But regardless. That is a humongous number.

It's very big. Now 95% of them are thoughts that we think on repeat. And 80% of those thoughts that we are thinking on repeat are negative. So when you think a thought that's like a neural pathway and it's just it's just going just synapsing is just going.

Well, if 95% of them are on repeat and 80% of the 95 are negative. That can be like a really big problem. Think about it. That's actually 2500 to 3300 thoughts a day.

I mean an hour not a day an hour and what we do with those thoughts matter because as that brain continually is thinking that thought over and over and over and over and over again that can become a belief and that's where we get tripped up but I want you to like we're going to back up just a little bit and I want you to think about the brain. More like a computer. So a computer is something that gets downloads all the time. We're downloading all kinds of different things articles emails like tons of stuff, right?

The brain is no different. So every single download that's happening in your life affects the brain for good or for bad actually. So we're thinking these thoughts all the time on purpose. But what are we consuming?

How much water are we drinking? What are we allowing our self to consume in terms of content? Are you comparing yourself? Are you scrolling at social media and looking at all the skinny people and all of the weight loss and judging yourself against them?

Rich people that have more than you have people who are filtered and you're like this filtered picture looks prettier than me just as I am a lot of these things. We're not going to help your brain and they are considered downloads. Are you watching the news? How does the news affect you?

So for me, I am married to a man who loves the news and he loves consuming all kinds of things. He loves to learn and he consumes more news than anyone. I know mostly because I don't hang out with other people to know. How much news they consume.

But in my mind, he consumes a lot. It's not a problem. He can do what he wants, right? He's his own person.

But what I learned was I don't like to consume the news because when I consume the news, I feel like the world is ending. I feel like things are very negative. I feel like it's always like drama. And so I've learned that for me and my boundary.

I do not consume the news. I've also decided that I do. Do not filter my pictures. If you look at my social media, which if you don't, you should coach Amy Sanders on Instagram.

I don't filter my pictures. There was a time when I did. So if you scroll and scroll and scroll, you might see some filtered pictures, but I've decided I'm going to be me a hundred percent. I also don't consume a lot of social media.

I'm just telling you what I do, but I want you to think about what you do. The reason why I don't is because I've realized that. It wasn't good for my brain for my emotions for my thoughts for all of it. I decided that that wasn't something that was good for me.

Are you comparing yourself yourself to other people something that we can do automatically, right? So you need to ask yourself. What am I doing? What downloads am I allowing into my body into my brain that might trip me?

Up that are not serving me for me. The news does not serve me scrolling on social media does not serve me. I've decided that with social media. I am a content creator.

I am not a consumer. That's just something that I've decided for myself. You need to decide for yourself. What works for you?

Another question that I want to ask is who are you hanging out with? Are you hanging out with people that are cheering you on? Are you? Are you spending time with people who are helping you and supporting you and loving you unconditionally as you are who push you to new limits who believe that you can you are as good as the five people you hang around the most they rub off on you.

It's just natural birds of a feather flock together. Who is it that you're hanging out with? Are you hanging out with people that are going to help? You progress or not.

So get very. Curious because that is also a download the people that you spend your time around are going to either boost you up or pull you down, but it's never stagnant. It's always one or the other. What kind of music do you listen to for me?

I am a music consumer for lack of better words. I love music all sorts of music. I listen to literally every genre. I like and appreciate all forms of music.

But what? I've found is that certain lyrics are like really nasty language is something that I don't want to put up with and I don't like to think about so I don't listen to that. It's going to be different for you. But when you look at your brain and think about what can I do to help this brain?

What am I downloading into this body? You can get curious and start to make changes. My next question is what are you protecting? Like what are you protecting when it comes to?

Your mind? Do you protect it is a better way to ask the question. I want you to imagine that when it comes to your brain, you have an armor around it and you don't let anything come through that's going to take away from or take off that armor. I want you to think about your brain the way you think about your children's brains.

How are you protecting your children and what they are consuming and what they are seeing and what they are? Watching are you doing the same thing for yourself? Now? I know some of you might be saying well, I'm an adult and I can watch what I want to watch and I can whatever I can see what I want to see.

Of course you can. I'm just saying is it serving you or not? Is it helping your brain grow and develop more plasticity or not when you're just scrolling on social media? It is a brainless exercise.

It is not. Going to help your neurons. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but I'm saying it's not going to help you grow in our home. We have all kinds of filters on our network because we have teenage boys and we don't want them consuming things like porn or something.

That's going to create a lot of pain and agony of their life as they have these brains that are maturing. Are you filtering what comes in to your brain? Into your body? The downloads you are in control of those downloads.

The next thing you need to do is understand. I already gave you all kinds of examples not examples, but stats, you know, 60,000 thoughts a day and how many of them are on repeat. It's 95% which means most of us are just like walking zombies. Am I offending people?

Maybe I'm triggering people maybe but if we're just thinking things on repeat all of the time, that's not creating new neural pathways. It's just things that it's just like your brains on repeat. It's like little highways that are just going cars are going down the same highway all the time. So we need to do things that are going to stimulate our brain, but we also need to understand the process of thought patterns.

So if we understand that we have a ton upwards of 60,000 thoughts a day. And the majority of them are just ones on repeat. We can get very curious as to what we're thinking just because your brain has a thought does not mean it's true. Oh my gosh, some of the thoughts that I have are ridiculous and I'm going to share an experience right now on the podcast to give you an example.

So I am a life coach. I help people with their brains yet. My brain goes crazy town regularly. It's what's going to happen as you do more work.

It gets better but thoughts come and you're just like where it what the heck so fun story. My husband wanted to take us hunting. What am I saying? Not hunting.

He wanted to take me and my boys on a hike and it looked like it was going to be a sketchy hike, but I had no idea. I've never been on this hike before and one of my sons had a separated shoulder. So he was in a sling. This is just literally a couple weeks ago and as we ventured out on this hike, it got sketchier and sketchier and sketchier and as it got sketchier, which now we're like cliffs on both sides and it's windy and I feel like I'm going to fall off the cliff and die or one of my sons is and one of them is like using one arm because his shoulder is separated.

I started having the thought Chris and I are just not meant for each other anymore. We should probably just end this marriage if he thinks it's okay to take us on this hike, then we are just on totally different realms of thoughts. I don't know. Like I really was like, maybe we're done.

Maybe I just need to divorce him. Can you handle how ridiculous that thought is because of a hike because I'm scared and my thoughts are going crazy. My thought is telling me. Well, if he takes you on this hike, then.

You probably should just leave him because this isn't what you want to do now. I love to hike but not that kind of hike. It was the scariest hike to date that I have ever been on. In fact, it got so bad that I made I finally made him turn around so we did not go is supposed to be like this huge loop and we turned around and did not finish the entire loop because it was so sketchy.

But my point is. That your thoughts are going to come. Into your brain. Just like that butterfly going from plant to plant to plant your thoughts are going to do the same thing.

That does not mean that they're true. That does not mean that you should act on them. Like can you imagine if I got into the car and I was like, hey, you know what? We're done.

See ya now. I laugh about it. I was like what that's like the thought that came up when I was so scared like we go on these kind of hikes relationship must be over. Your thoughts are going to be all over the place.

Most of them are negative, which of course that one was but. What you think about is what creates your reality. So if you're having a certain thought and you're really thinking it over and over and over and over again, you're going to show up in that space. You're going to act according to what that thought is because when you have a thought a feeling comes up and when you have that feeling you act on it and from those actions create your results.

So end of the story when it comes to my crazy thought I was having. I was off the rest of the day after we got home from hiking and he finally was like Amy what is going on and I talked to him about it and looking back now. I just laugh and of course like he was like, I'm sorry. I had no idea.

It was so hard. It was totally sketchy. You were right that we should have turned around when we did we could have picked a different hike like he was totally open and willing to talk about it and now I look back and I laugh about it. But.

It created my reality and kept me in the space of like pulling myself away from him for the rest of the day because of this thought I was thinking well our relationships probably over that hike was too scary. And if he takes me on that then he must not care. So I withdrew and I was in a funk but I also understand it right? So once we talked about it and once I came to and started having like thoughts that actually serve me things could be different for me.

And that's what I want for you thoughts about something create your feelings and you act from that feeling. So can you look at your brain and can you start to get curious just even for a split second when you have a certain thought and it's not serving you. Can you stop in your tracks and question it when I was on that hike? I was not questioning it.

I wasn't doing the thing that I teach people to do but we're all human. We're all human. And it's okay. But we just need to get curious long enough to look at our thoughts understanding that 80% of them are going to be negative and 95% of them are things we think on repeat and we can start to do things differently.

So what else can we do differently? Meditate give your brain a break. Also when you start meditating you're going to see how active your brain is trying to quiet your brain. When you first start to meditate.

Thoughts just come up. They just come up. They just come up and when you meditate you can recognize them and dismiss them and be in your body allow space for your brain to take a break. We are in such a busy world right now that we're like in hyperdrive all the time.

Your brain needs space. So practice mindfulness. Make sure you're getting enough water. Take care of your body.

So tip for water is. Ounces and body weight at least get yourself on the scale. See what you weigh and then drink at least that many ounces. So like easy.

It's an easy thing to know. What are you eating? That's another download the way that you put food into your body will be directly correlated to how well your brain works for you. The next thing you can do is get curious as to like what you want.

Getting clear about who you are. What your passions are what regrets you have what challenges are you facing? Just getting clear on who you are. What are your core values?

What else do you want to accomplish still? What are you most proud of what inspires you ask yourself these questions and as you start looking at them that also helps with neuroplasticity. Puzzles help with neuroplasticity. But looking at what you want out of life and telling yourself that it's it's still available to you regardless of how old you are.

What experiences you've had whatever background you have it does not matter. You can make the change and you can make it right now. How are you showing up for others? How are you showing up for yourself?

What inspires you? Do you know what your core values are? If you don't. Then you should join thrive.

Camp thrive. Camp is my group coaching program and we learn all about our core values. But if you don't know what your core values are you can kind of feel like you're floating through life. Not really sure if you do know what they are awesome act from your core values do more things that you feel good about when it comes to self-love self-care showing up in the community in your environment.

All of that helps build neuroplasticity. Working towards your goals when you have a goal your brain gets thinking. So basically anything that's going to fire up your brain is going to help with neuroplasticity doing things that you love and are passionate about helps build neuroplasticity. Being healthy.

Putting food in that feeds your body making sure you have enough water making sure you're not consuming things that are bad for you. All of this helps your brain. Your food is literally helping your brain. And if it is the biggest asset you have why wouldn't you do these things set goals?

What goals do you have? Do you have a goal right now that you are working towards and do you believe that you can are you telling yourself that you're worthy of it that you can achieve it adopting that growth mindset is super helpful. We've already talked about exercise. I was just looking at some of my notes.

I was like, yep. Already hit hit on that. Another thing that you don't even think about is procrastinating. Stop procrastinating when you are conscious about your decisions and you take action on it and you move within the first five seconds or whatever just physically move.

It's going to help you stop procrastinating. Just do it. What are you procrastinating in your life right now? That is holding you back from where you want to be.

It's probably taking more energy to not do the thing than just to go do it. So what is it that you can do today that will help you move towards those goals or help you not procrastinate the thing that you're procrastinating? Do you need to clean out your pantry and it bugs you every single time you walk in and you think about it and you're annoyed and then your husband walks in and he's annoyed like what is it that's holding you back? From just doing the thing because you're probably spending more energy on thinking about it and the annoyances of it than just do it than just doing it.

So one last thing is if you want to change your life, you have to raise your standards. That is a quote by Tony Robbins. So raise your standards. Think about moving into discomfort.

How can you choose to get uncomfortable every single day? Because when you get uncomfortable? And you move through something that scares you it also builds neuroplasticity. It also helps those neural pathways grow.

It also feels good. It helps build courage. So go do the work ignore the distractions ignored like the brain that tells you that you can't just do it. And as you keep going and as you keep doing all these things that I've talked to you about today that neuroplasticity is going to happen for you and you are going to have a much healthier brain.

So question remains. How long does it take to rewire your brain? It can take anywhere between 18 days to 254 days according to research. So guess what if you have a thought that you've been thinking over and over and over and over again and you keep showing up in that light you would have to work on this for 254 days possibly before it goes away.

So you have to be consistent. You have to look at the thing and be like Kate. This is worth it. I am going to continually do the thing because I want a different life.

I want to show up differently. I want a healthy brain. I want to live a long time. I want to be that grandma that is still swimming a mile at 87 years old and out pulling weeds and when my grandkids come over I'm as quick as a whip.

I know that. That's what I want for me. But what do you want for you? Because whatever you want you can achieve you just have to keep going down that path.

That's going to get you there and knowing that your brain is your number one assets. You need to take good care of it is where all of it starts. So with that that's what I have for you today. Go think about what thoughts are coming up in your brain and how you can start to change those to work for you instead of against you and all the different activities.

You can do. To feed your brain and treat it as great as you can because it is your number one asset that take care and I will talk to you next week. Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, then you've got to come check out my signature program at thrive camp. This is where we do real coaching and inner work transformation.

I teach you how to apply the strategies and mindset tools. We talk about here on the podcast. So you can unlock your true potential and create the life you love for more info. Go to amysanders.

co forward slash thrive dash camp again. That's amysanders. co forward slash thrive dash camp. Let's get to work and thrive together.