What no one tells you about lighter living: The influence of your 3 brains
Living lighter seems so simple. Just turn off that phone. Just setting your boundaries and just taking more time for yourself.
But there could be all sorts of things going on in your life that make this difficult to do. You need your phone for work. You have to care for your mother. Your children need to be taken to and from school.
There is just so much to do.
In that case, take a look at the influence of your 3 brains on how heavy your life feels, and whether there isn't something after all that would allow you to alleviate that heaviness.
This is something many coaches skip when it comes to living lighter. But for hypnotherapists and hypnocoaches, this is incredibly important knowledge.
3 brains
We all know we have our brain, but the cells we have in our brain that do neurological things, we also have them in our heart and our gut (intestines). It is not the brain that you consciously think with, like those in your head, but those in your gut and heart are the brain that gives you certain feelings.
Belly Brain
Your gut contains about as many brain cells as a house cat's brain. Your gut brain communicates with your main brain in 2 ways. By releasing chemicals into your blood that go to your brain, and through the vagus nerve. A nerve that starts in your head, connects to all your organs and ends near your anus.
The main purpose of that biggest nerve is to communicate information from your gut and heart to your brain and vice versa. A kind of communication management system.
Like that gut feeling when something doesn’t quite feel right.
In general, the gut brain communicates with the head brain, but that communication does not work the other way around. However, sometimes the head brain can also communicate in the opposite direction—for example, by denying feelings of hunger. This can lead to problems such as anorexia. Anorexia is often related to a need for control and other circumstances that make life feel “difficult.”
Your gut brain is also incredibly important for feeling happy. Almost all serotonin (95%)—the hormone that creates feelings of happiness—is found in your gut brain.
Having as few bacteria in your gut as possible at a young age helps you to be happier and more cheerful later in life.
A link has also been found between your gut and Parkinson's disease. So by taking care of your gut and keeping it "clean," you are also helping your main brain tremendously.
Research shows that certain bacteria affect receptors, which can even lead to depression . It can even influence your response to stress and your thoughts. The more diverse your gut flora, the better it is for your mental health.
What is interesting is that eating vegan is not a solution, but neither is eating a lot of meat. A balanced diet is still best.
Do you suffer from digestive problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome? If so, hypnosis can help you reduce and even eliminate those problems, making it easier for you to stick to a healthy and varied diet[1].
This is also why it is popular in detox programs to also flush the bowels clean, then you can reintroduce variety.
Heart Brain
The heart brain is even smaller than your gut brain. There are about 40,000 neurological cells in your heart. These send information to your brain about how your heart is doing. That information in turn affects your brain. Your heart controls your brain, so to speak.
Your heart also plays an important role in oxytocin, the hormone that makes you feel love and is essential for feelings of well-being.
So feeling good also starts with a good heart.
Breathing exercises, such as those practiced in yoga, affect both your heart brain and your gut brain. They also help slow your heart rate.
In the process, this also helps the functioning of your bowels and makes it easier for your body to keep the bowels "clean."
Your heart also plays an important role in processing intuitive information[2].
During hypnotherapy, the heart and gut brain play an important role. For example, the therapist regularly asks "how does it feel now." That question is to check whether the technique used has had the desired effect.
You then feel if your heart and gut feel right. Only then does your brain draw the conclusion whether the situation is better now or hasn't changed yet.
Making decisions with all your brain
Making a decision is one of the first things you can do to make your life lighter. If this feels heavy for you, or if you get instant choice stress, you are probably making decisions primarily based on the brain in your head.
If you bring your emotions (heart) and intuition (gut) into the mix, everything can become a lot easier and lighter. Researchers even recommend using this approach when coaching people in leadership positions[3].
Indeed, when decisions are made when not only reason counts but also feelings, better choices are made business-wise (source 3).
The location of "yourself" affects
With all those brains, you may also feel that your " I" is in your head, or more in your heart anyway. Many people do have an idea of where their person is in the body.
This influences your thinking, performance, and even how you respond to stress .
For example, research shows that if you are very rational and see yourself in your head, then you are likely to be someone with higher performance in school and you can probably play trivia better than someone who sees themselves in the "heart."
The "heart" people, for example, rely more on their feelings when making ethical decisions than on practical things to consider.
And people who see themselves at heart are more sensitive to stress on busy stressful days[4].
Lighten up your life with this knowledge
So how do you lighten your life with this knowledge? At least you already know that in business executives make better choices when they also listen to their feelings, even in complicated matters.
You also know that your gut flora affects stress, depression, and your thoughts. You can actually have a significant positive impact on your gut flora by making healthy dietary choices.
Hypnotherapy can help you if you don't like vegetables, for example, to change your taste. Then it is easier to eat nice and healthy food.
In addition, hypnotherapy can help reduce stress, making it easier to make good choices. Research shows that the relaxation and safe feelings that hypnosis brings cause better choices to be made.
Even monetary rewards then become less important.
A post-hypnotic suggestion of safety can still influence a person weeks after a hypnotherapy session[5]. And that already feels a lot lighter.
When you live mostly from your head, you often care less about your gut feelings, but that very thing can make life tough.
It has been known since the 1950s that the hypnotic state helps people be more aware of their feelings and emotions[6]. This can help you be more aware of the signals your gut brain and heart brain send to your main brain for making important decisions even outside of hypnosis.
Strengthening connection between brains
Self-hypnosis and progressive muscle relaxation also help you get a better mind-body connection that allows you if you are still thinking mostly very rationally, to also feel more with your body what is good for you.
This even helps you sexually 😉[7].
Learn Hypnosis
Learning hypnosis can be incredibly valuable if you want to develop yourself, but especially if you work with people. For example, if you are a coach or therapist, knowledge of hypnosis and hypnotherapy techniques can help you help clients get rid of unhealthy patterns even faster and better and improve the connection of the three brains.
Want to learn more about how hypnosis works? Then come to the free online master class.
Or sign up for one of our free challenges.
Or join one of our other events and trainings.
Click here for more information about the training.
Do you have questions about the training program? Schedule a one-on-one consultation here.
Sources: