Why do you use brain hacks to sabotage yourself?
Rumination is the same machinery in reverse. Spot it, flip it, and go deeper with the Deep Dive if you’re stuck.
One workbook for the whole course. This stage starts on page 15. After the exercise, add a row to your trackers at the back of the workbook: New Life (page 28), BE, DO, HAVE (page 30) and money, time, energy and giving (page 32). Already downloaded it? Keep using your copy. Lost it? Download it again (a new copy starts blank).
What about ruminating? (We all do it!)
Ruminating is essentially mentally rehearsing our biggest fears, whether they’ve happened or we imagine a worst case. Fear is linked to survival, so it carries high intensity. When we ruminate, we visualise it vividly with intense emotion, repeating it over and over.
Applying the same neuroscience: emotional intensity increases the fear’s importance, focuses the brain on it, and stores it for easy recall. Repetition makes the fear feel familiar and automatic, consolidates it into long-term memory, and creates a priming effect making the brain more sensitive to similar fears. All of this raises the prediction score for the fear, making it feel highly probable.
Think about what your current life looks and feels like. Consider your fears and desires. Do you have more of your fears or more of your desires? Are you ready to add more of your desires to your life?
For anyone struggling with the Next Version of Me exercise, there’s the Deep Dive exercise below to help retrain your brain.
Imagine your Next Version of Me: Exercise 2.0
Back to what you want
Reread everything and imagine for 5 minutes living all of it: vivid, detailed, multi-sensory, emotional. Play it like a movie trailer.
Find somewhere quiet, press play and close your eyes. Headphones help.
Repeat at least once more today.
Done it once and you can already feel it? Check your score out of 10.
- 7 or more, and higher than last time: one go today is enough. Move on to the next stage tomorrow.
- Under 7, or not moving: do the extra goes and reread your trackers. That’s what moves it.
Stuck later, or a part of your new life still feels strange? Come back and repeat this stage.
Deep Dive Next Version of Me exercise
Use this whenever there’s a part of your vision you keep skipping or can’t quite picture.
Try it on
Reread everything, then focus on one aspect you keep skipping or struggle to imagine. Play with different visualisations: picture it in someone else first (how it looks, feels, sounds, even tastes), then step into the scene yourself and “try it on” like a new fashion piece.
Make it vivid, detailed and multi-sensory. Feel the emotions and where they sit in your body. The emotions you attach increase its significance to your brain, so use that to your advantage. Notice all the nuances. Flick between seeing yourself with everything you want and experiencing it as yourself.
Find somewhere quiet, press play and close your eyes. Headphones help.
Repeat at least once more today.
Well done! See you tomorrow, for the big one.
This course is educational and not a substitute for therapy or medical advice.