08/10/2021
This is so cool.
Last month in The Brain Care Café we focused on strategies that would give our brains a sense of predictability.
Brains love predictability, it is SUCH a healthy form of care.
No matter how actually unpredictable our lives are, how confused it all is and how little we know about what the next minute will have in store for us, as long as our Brain SENSES predictability, it will believe it is in control.
And a Brain that feels in control is a brain less likely to stay in survival mode.
My fave strategy from last month was an old school standard in the lives of everyone 1990’s and earlier.
It was to listen to the family mix tape, (these days known as the playlist) IN ORDER.
Not on random, not skipping to fave songs, not repeating the good ones
If you’re a millennial you may not know this feeling, but back in the days of listening to car tapes (when we couldn’t fast forward or rewind due to fear of weakening the tape) we listened to every song, in order, every time.
And that feeling when one song finished, and we could immediately anticipate the sound of the next song starting, and then that next song started exactly as we’d imagined? THAT is predictability at its finest.
That feeling was amazing. It made us feel so good!
Honestly.
Such a small thing, but such a powerful way of keeping us feeling in control, and feeling safe, without us even knowing we needed it.
So, if your life is a little tipsy Turvey and you’re needing ways to trick your brain into a sense of control, create moments of predictability in your sensory environment.
Listen to your playlist in order, so that you get to the point you can anticipate the next song.
That feeling is golden.
And it’s Braincare ###xx
https://www.allisondavies.com.au/childhood-anxiety/