What Happens in Your Brain When You Think, “I am inadequate.”

According to yoga and meditation philosophy, a thought and an emotion appear simultaneously in the mind.

A thought such as “I am inadequate” causes an emotion of hopelessness or distress, or vice versa. Over time, the more we think the same thoughts, the more they get embedded in our experience as a human. Subsequently, we start to have chronic emotions.

Childhood Trauma & Cyclical Suffering

Intertwined with this, as if the cycle weren’t vicious enough already, is of course the trauma that takes place in childhood and beyond. Many people experience something in childhood that, at the time, teaches them that that scenario is the normal or the baseline way an event or relationship should unfold. And that set of thoughts carves a neural pathway in the brain.

For example, a child may feel insecure in their home or with their parent unless accompanied by an accomplishment-- like true safety is only available to them if they are over-achieving academically. This can become a belief if only once or twice, they perceived that not much they did was acknowledged or praised aside from report cards. Over time, this child grows up believing that love can be revoked if they don’t perform perfectly or achieve higher than everyone else.

In this child’s brain, the fear (thought) of inadequacy or the revocation of love has carved a pathway leading to the emotion of distress and anxiety about ever making a mistake or “failing.” And cyclically, the chronic emotion of stress can cause the thought that they are unworthy of love at all unless they can prove themselves a high-achiever or otherwise useful.

This child, now adult, has an issue with accepting and loving themselves (or letting a partner accept and love them) when they make minor mistakes, like forgetting to unload the dishwasher. Suddenly, an innocent slip of the mind causes a spiral of feeling unworthy and inadequate -- because the brain has traveled down the well-carved neural pathway it always has.

However, according to this spiritual philosophy, because thoughts and emotions appear at the same time, we have the ability to change our emotions by changing our thoughts.

What Affirmations Actually Accomplish

In this instance, though the cycle is deep and quick to continue, we have the power to interrupt the pattern (and subsequent emotion) by introducing a new thought, such as: I am allowed to make mistakes, I am worthy of love even when I make human errors, or my worth as a person is not defined by my accomplishments.

(Aha, affirmations are more than just feel-good sentences to trick your brain.) Most people in the professional world could stand to hear (say) that their worth is not determined by their productivity.

What some forms of therapy teach, and what Technically Spiritual teaches through a different avenue of mindfulness and meditation, is that we have the power to change our emotions by changing our thoughts.

We have the power to improve our daily wellbeing, sometimes just by being aware of the cycles at play.

This is not to say that clinical depression and anxiety can be changed through positive thinking. In fact, that’s toxic positivity at play. You are not “bad” or failing if just changing your thoughts doesn’t change your emotions. You are not weak for feeling badly.

Rather, this interruption of our brain’s thought-emotion cycle is just one method for regaining control over our suffering. Other times, what we might need is another method: crying, bingeing a comforting TV show, eating ice cream, talking it out with our therapist, or just needing a hug from a friend (I can personally attest to the legitimacy of these methods at times).

The Power of Awareness

Through yoga, meditation, mindfulness practices, digital decluttering, and the subtopics therein like resolving tech burnout, we can change the way our brain perceives our selves and the world. You can become aware of your body and mind’s inner workings, so you can have greater control over the outcomes.

Because being aware of what drains your spirit as opposed to feeds it, being aware of your mind’s conceived thought (neural) pathways, being aware of what the appearance of an emotion really means…

That is what it means to balance your life and live more mindfully.

That is what it means to find deeper purpose and happiness in our digital age.

That is what we all need, as a collective that, for the past year and half, has been facing and feeling immense chronic uncertainty.

And we all have the power to make a new reality for ourselves.