Self-Brain Surgery Saturday

(Adapted from Infinitely Happier, Part 8)

When your world is crashing, you might need brain surgery.

Lately, we’ve been talking about the basics of self-brain surgery to learn how to think about our thinking, and the ideas behind my new book.

Today, I want to teach you an operation you can perform that will make all the difference in your life. When we face hard things, which we all will eventually (can you think of any examples?), we either believe that it’s going to be okay, or we believe that we’re hosed.

And basically, it’s a matter of trust. Of faith. Regardless of whether or not you’re a spiritual person, you have some baseline level of trust when you’re going through something difficult, that you can or cannot get through it, that it is or is not going to ruin your life or your marriage or your happiness, your finances. There’s a floor to your faith.

And I’m here to tell you that you can learn to raise that floor. No matter what you’ve been through, what you’re going through, or what’s coming, there’s a simple operation, self-brain surgery, that will help you increase your ability to know that you can get through anything with your heart intact, no matter what happens.

How? I call it the Trust Transplant.

It’s learning how to take the automatic thought- this is it, I’m done for, I’m hosed, I’ll never get through this, or- I might survive it, but my day is ruined, I can never be happy again, etc.- and cutting it out, sewing in something new. A belief that it’s going to be okay, no matter what it is.

That life, or disease, or pandemic, or “that guy” or whatever might kill me or break my bank or give me a disability or cost me my job, but it can never break my spirit, make me unhappy, or make me quit.

You can get there, friend, but it requires surgery. Self-brain surgery to raise the floor of your faith. We’re going to learn the Trust Transplant, friend.

And we're going to start today. 

My new book is called Hope is the First Dose: A Treatment Plan for Recovering from Trauma, Tragedy, and Other Massive Things. It is coming out on July 25, but you can pre-order it now anywhere books are sold.

Self-Brain Surgery with Dr. Lee Warren is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit drleewarren.substack.com/subscribe