Maggie Wilde: How To Be Smarter Than Your Brain
Maggie Wilde was working as a Clinica Therapist, committed to helping her client overcome adversity and pain when she, herself, was struck down by a stroke 15 years ago. This signalled a necessary change in direction, a refocusing of her energy and – although she didn’t know at the time – a significant turning point in her career.
During her recovery, Maggie began studying neuroscience and epigenetics to help ‘put herself back together’ after her injury. She uncovered some very powerful insights on mindset, the malleability of the brain and the complex yet fascinating way our wiring determines our reactions to the world around us. She discovered that we can be ‘smarter than our brain’ if we use it wisely, and that brain training has massive potential as a therapeutic aid. From here she developed her successful model; CPR Control, Program, Rewire Brain Training.
“The technique enables you to switch off the thoughts, the emotions and the sensations that aren’t working for you and are holding you back using simple brain training skills. You then learn to program the thinking, emotions, patterns and behaviours that you need to get the life you want.” Maggie explained.
“The ‘rewire’ focuses on the part of the brain that learns our automated processes and systems. That part of the brain learns through repetition, so rewire techniques are short repetitive brain training exercises that you can do to reinforce the change until it becomes permanent.”
For Maggie and her clients, change always starts with mindset. How your brain is programmed ultimately determines how you will respond t stressors and difficult situations. Even if you commit to making changes in what you do, such as signing up to a course or setting new financial goals, without acknowledging and reprogramming your subconscious many of us will end up sabotaging those efforts when times of stress or unpredictability hit.
“When it comes to things like money, building wealth, self-belief in our career or business; if our fundamental belief systems are programmed at a subconscious level that we’re not good enough or we fear failure, or that success is easy for other people but not for you, or that money is too hard to come by…then in times of stress that will be our default brain pattern. Our habits, our behaviour, our thoughts and our moods will actually be determined by that automated belief system.”
So, how do you change your mindset?
Maggie’s CPR technique starts with assessing what is happening right now, without judgment and criticism. If the thought, belief, emotion or sensation is helpful, it can be reinforced to become second nature and ingrained in your brain for the next time you are in the same situation. If it is not helpful, such as feeling anxious, doubtful, fearful, victimised or powerless, you switch off that thought and replace it with something positive.
Once we understand how we respond to the world around us is not who we are, but how we have learned to think, we open the door to abundance, wealth on every level and reaching the potential we know is inside.
“If we can detach from that emotional attachment to feeling like the victim to our poverty or the victim to our failures or holding disappointment or blame for our mistakes and just actually choose how to respond to life rather than react from automated processes, then we can take that first step into being smarter than our brain.”
The techniques to take control of your mind are simple once you get the hang of them, with Maggie’s favourite go-to taking just 15 seconds. Although short and sweet, these little moments of neural disruption are so powerful, instantly creating an incredible clarity and shift in focus that you can then take into the day ahead – and into your plans for forward momentum.
“The brain does amazing things, such as breathes for us while we are asleep, grows our hair and fingernails and connects with the body to digest food; it helps us function. However, the brain just responds to instructions from the mind,” Maggie explains.
“So, if we’re not in charge of our mind and we think that our mind is in charge of us then the brain is just following instructions from a person who is not in control of their outcomes! If some of our previous wiring causes destructive thinking patterns, then the brain is following instructions that have already produced mistakes. The definition of crazy is to let the brain follow the same patterns and keep repeating the same mistakes. Especially when there are easy strategies that will rewire our brain with new thinking to get different results.”
Maggie’s brain training techniques
Maggie’s favourite technique is simple; take a deep breath and blink three times very consciously, then roll your eyes in a big circle one way and then back the other way. Do the eye roll slowly, deliberately and curiously.
“The definition of crazy is to let the brain follow the same patterns and keep repeating the same mistakes.”
This quick technique needs to be done as soon as the thought transpires. It only takes around 68 seconds for the neural pathways connected with that process to fire, and the wiring in the brain that goes with it then fire as well. The result becomes your mood, which can translate into a trait and, over time, a personality – all coming from the way you are thinking.
Another simple technique is what Maggie calls mind rehearsal statements. This is as easy as standing in front of a mirror and smiling at yourself, then repeating a phrase that draws attention to what you want. For example, “I am worthy of a pay rise”, “I am confident in my abilities”, or “I will save enough to build my dream home”.
If you find a little voice persistently trying to sabotage your mind rehearsal statements, don’t try to push past it or ignore it, instead acknowledge the voice is not who you are, it is just your wiring, and that can be changed for good. Just blink and roll your eyes again and begin with your positive statements.
When it comes to money management, our belief systems often aren’t even our own. They come from family, those we grow up around and experiences that shape the way we handle our finances and the stresses that come with it.
In this case, a belief audit is helpful, which allows you to uncover what ideas you are holding onto when it comes to money and where they come from. Which do you want to hold onto, and which do you want to ditch?
“Most people think our beliefs are set in stone they’re not they’re malleable plastic. That’s what neuroplasticity is about, it’s the brain being able to change. And that’s just having tools to switch off what isn’t working and then program and rewire what you need instead to get what you want.”
Benefits of brain training
While neuroscience tells us that it takes around 60-90 days to form a new habit, there are numerous significant benefits to these mindset techniques that are felt immediately. Reduced pain levels, reduced depression and anxiety symptoms, stress management and a calmer mind are just some of the short-term benefits you can gain as you work to rewire your brain over time.
For long-term benefit, be patient, be kind to yourself and trust your ability to become consciously smarter than your brain and make positive steps forward. Cut the overwhelm by focusing on one new task at a time as you teach your subconscious to nurture what you genuinely want, not what you think you should want or deserve from life.
“When you start focusing on one thing… what you’ll find is that other stuff starts to fall away at the same time because what is wired together, fires together. So, if the one thing you’ve chosen to change is your fear about asking for a pay raise, then as you rewire the confidence to do that, confidence in other areas of your life will be enhanced as well. It has a snowball effect,” Maggie said.
website: thepotentialist.com