Welcome to my Mindset 101 Series! Throughout this series I will be sharing the fundamentals of mindset work. In this episode I’m going to explain:

• The two basic parts or sides of your brain
• How one side keeps you safe but stuck
• How the other side supports growth and transformation
• How to use your brain to get what you actually want

---

Your brain is a very complex machine and is responsible for all of our functions as humans. However, for the sake of simplicity (and all you truly need to understand for mindset work,) I’m going to explain the brain as two different “characters,” The Primitive Brain and The Prefrontal Cortex.

Your Primitive Brain is the part of your brain that dates back to caveman days. This part of your brain was designed to keep you safe. It’s main priority is to identify danger or risk and steer clear. This part of your brain is what kept us all alive in the early days of human evolution. It told us to be weary of tigers in the bushes and perpetuated desire for being safe and comfortable. While we as humans have evolved immensely since then, this part of our brain has stuck with us.

You can also think about it as your “toddler” brain. It operates off the Motivational Triad which is to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and do it in the easiest way possible. It just wants to feel good and is adverse to doing anything that might cause discomfort. While this part of your brain functions as intended – it keeps you alive by avoiding dangerous activity – it also tends to keep you stuck right where you are. It is afraid of risk, failure, discomfort, change, etc. It would rather take the easy route of doing the same safe and easy things over and over.

On the flip side, you have your Prefrontal Cortex. This is the much more evolved, complex, and rational side of your brain, and in contrast, could be seen as your “adult” brain. This is the part of your brain that is able to look beyond making decisions based on immediate satisfaction and choose temporary discomfort in favor of achieving long-term goals. This is the part of your brain that is interested and willing to take risks and experience potential failure in order to create growth or transformation.

Without awareness or intention, most people’s default mode is to operate from the Primitive Brain. Our auto-pilot is set to maintain our status-quo, remain exactly as we are, and to do whatever feels best in the moment in spite of the long-term, net negative consequences it might create.

I’ll give you an example related to weight loss:

• Scenario: You want to lose weight and you feel like you know how you “should” be eating, when your partner unexpectedly brings home your favorite chocolate chip cookies from the local bakery
• Primitive Brain Says: Those look and smell amazing, this is your favorite treat, I deserve to feel great right now, this is special and fun, I should eat the cookies! Gimme, gimme!
• Prefrontal Cortex Says: Of course those cookies would taste good, but they weren’t something I’d planned on eating today, and eating them would work against my long-term goal of losing weight. I can forgo the temporary pleasure these cookies might have in order to stay within my self-integrity and stay on track with the outcome I truly desire.

If what you really want for yourself or your life is something different, that requires a change which will likely induce some uncomfortable feelings along the way, you must bring awareness to these two sides of your brain and which one is taking the spot in the driver’s seat. Both “characters” will always be in the car, but you can intentionally choose which gets to actually take the wheel. When you can operate the vehicle with your Prefrontal Cortex and allow the Primitive Brain to throw a temper tantrum from the back seat, that is when you can travel to all the places you want to be which actually serve your higher self.

It takes some practice and tools to not always default to letting your Primitive Brain run the show. It’s one of the greatest skills I teach my clients. When you learn how to tap into and prioritize the power of your Prefrontal Cortex, you will be able to achieve any goal!

---