Why lots of therapy doesnā€™t WORK. Sprouting and Pruning
May 27, 2024
Where most therapy, pop psychology, religion, self-help, etc, goes wrong is by trying to get us to focus on and fix, understand, figure out, heal, pray about, process, and solve our problems.
As long as we are oriented as a reaction to our suffering, even if it’s wanting to get rid of our problems with the best of intentions, we are ironically activating the neural networks of suffering.
This point is in consideration of the neuroscience concept of "sprouting and pruning."
Whenever we think a thought, it generates all manner of activity throughout the body, all of which have associated infrastructure in the brain.
When there is repeated similar neurological activity it creates a neural "groove." I liken this to drops of water in the dirt. At first, they create just a trickle. But, with more drops of water, eventually, there is a creak, then a stream, then a river - with power, direction, and a life of its own.
Another analogy is a spider web. Similar neural activity starts "branching out" and latching on to other areas of the brain. Practically then, if I have an "anxiety" branch that only gets activated when I go to the dentist, it can start branching out and becoming associated with white dentist coats → doctors → hospitals → ambulances → the street where we saw an accident → the time when I was young and heard a siren → the time I fell and my heart rate was the same as when I heard the siren → the color white → etc. → etc.
This neural groove is now a neural network.
It has "sprouted."
And it has a life of its own until we take the power back and starve it of our attention.
By nature, when one network is "sprouting", other networks, due to lack of activity, are "pruning."
This is a for better or worse principle and can be a real problem when it comes to all the usually well-intentioned "guides" and friends who are trying to get us to "process" all our problems, or my favorite, "do shadow work."
If I am focusing on how much I hate anxiety, and want to get rid of anxiety, going to therapy about the reasons I am anxious, praying to god to rid me of anxiety, or wishing I never had the trauma that led to all this anxiety, or doing breathing exercises to calm "my" anxiety....
All of this activity is stuck in the "web" of the anxiety neural network, thereby strengthening, not diminishing, anxiety.
If however, we focus on what we value and choose, and "sprout" neural grooves and networks of what we choose to experience more of, we will by default, "prune" the networks that we no longer wish to experience.
I go into this all much more, and the "how to", in 33-Day Power Play Program and The Future Now Mastermind.
But I know you have lots of tools to make good use of this information. If not, message me, and let's get to work.
Happy sprouting!
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