Since we know the Internet can be a dangerous place, most of us put filters on the streaming content that comes into our homes. We instruct the filter to keep out things we don’t want our families to be exposed to, and it does as we ask until we tell it something different. Have you ever considered that your brain can work the same way?
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The subconscious of the brain, which does staggeringly more work than the conscious, does not come programmed with a quality filter. On its own, it doesn’t distinguish between good and bad, light and dark, right and wrong: it is designed to accept everything it encounters, no matter what it is. That makes it sound like the brain ends up as little more than a garbage heap, but then the hero arises: the conscious part of the brain, fully equipped to be a filter for its ever-accepting counterpart, ready to conquer the bad and accept the good.

“But.”

As with every great story, there’s more to the picture. The hero, as eager for battle as it is, is completely useless until its host decides to turn it on. It operates only by the aware, purposeful choice of the person it inhabits. When active, it can bring strength – literal and figurative – and clarity to the brain and body, but unused, it’s as helpful as a candle during a house fire.

“When active, it can bring strength – literal and figurative – and clarity to the brain and body, but unused, it’s as helpful as a candle during a house fire.”

And so, the question posed to each of us becomes how much control we want to have over what goes on in our heads – and thus, the resulting emotions we feel. Do you want to feel happier? Do you feel beyond hope, or beyond repair? Each feeling comes from a thought, and one of the world’s greatest lies is that we can’t change how we feel. Train the brain to keep only what is good and helpful, and the filter will reject the untruths that drain you of your strength. Your brain will help you see what positive changes you can make and believe that the change is possible. The possibility for a happy headspace is there: you just have to power up the filter.

By Melanie Kasper

By Melanie Kasper

liveJoy Founder and Life Coach