Brain Gardening

20/10/2022

Fall is a season, especially, for letting go. As I look to the world around me shedding, unraveling, and letting go of layers it once grew and held onto so firmly, I remind myself of that same power we each hold for ourselves.

Change is an inevitable part of life, yet I’ve spent a lifetime trying to run from it at times. The seasons are a reminder of that inevitability, the organic nature of life, and how things evolve and transform. When we hang onto the security found in familiarity, we lose out on the value present in the unfamiliar, the unknown, and the potential in possibility.

What is it time for you to let go of?

09/10/2022

As a child, I felt very under valued and emotionally neglected in my home environment. School was sort of my retreat and place to feel more whole.

At home, I gained more positive attention when I did well in school and I interpreted that as what I needed to do in order to receive love. This led to a life of overworking and feeling the need to achieve in order to be valued.

As a child, sick days were also a way to catch a break and still receive some attention. I seemed to get colds frequently or feel depleted enough to want to stay home pretty regularly. My mother seemed to be more nurturing during these times and I think it was a nonconscious way for my body to try to get more emotional needs met or my exile part to receive more love. Feeling sick became an excusable time for rest.

After returning to working full-time while also maintaining 2 businesses, I am seeing this pattern from childhood start to creep in where it’s like my body signals initially towards that illness state as a way to communicate for rest or for my inner voice to be more compassionate/loving. That was the patterned response for decades that worked.

However, I’ve learned that once I meet those emotional needs, the physical sensations clear.

Perhaps all along, underneath all the chronic pain and bodily sensations over the years, was a deeper craving for unconditional love, separate from any achievements or obligations.

Just something pure and constant and when it’s most absent is when my body would scream louder for that kind of attention.

31/08/2022

We are now on Insight Timer!

Alina will be sharing free meditation and resources as a teacher on this free wellness app.

Check out the first meditation available here: https://insig.ht/TeRGg74mWsb

By Brain Gardening

28/08/2022

A new free meditation is up on our Youtube page!

It can be easy to connect to compassion in the company of our loved ones, but how often do we extend that same level of compassion to ourselves? When I participated in my first loving kindness meditation, it unlocked something in me—self-compassion.

In this 6-minute Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy-inspired meditation, compassion is cultivated and extended to all parts of us.

Let me know in the comments if you found this helpful or are interested in the extended 20-minute version!

This is a shortened version of an extended 20-min meditation. The purpose of this meditation is to cultivate compassion and loving kindness, and extend that ...

04/08/2022

Self-compassion can often be that missing ingredient, when we feel things aren't working or like we're not making progress, to help create a more upward spiral.

01/08/2022

Will you be our 100th Youtube subscriber?

We share free educational videos on Youtube about neuroscience, nervous system regulation, and supporting wellness.

Use the subscribe button here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD1-d-haLK4

21/06/2022

Happy International Yoga Day!

Here's a post on the multitude of brain benefits of yoga, like increased focus and creativity, as well as body-wide improvements such as vagal tone and relieving pain and inflammation.

https://braingardening.com/10-brain-benefits-of-yoga

01/06/2022

For much of my life, I’ve felt to be different and without a sense of belonging. I felt rejected/abandoned by family and my mother profusely engrained in me that I was “dysfunctional” and “abnormal“ in her alcohol-induced rages. Only when I found the brain retraining community did I finally feel validation and acceptance.

The LGBTQ community can be of similar retreat from a world that may be less accepting. Systems in society have been constructed in such a way that certain groups are marginalized. Systems like to maintain neat boxes and categories, however, much in life belongs more to a spectrum than an absolute binary. Things like gender and sexuality may not fit so neatly in such boxes. As a result, there can be an accumulation of beliefs and feelings to unpack in order to reach a place of acceptance or pride, particularly in oneself.

When I felt myself no longer neatly contained within the familiarity (safety) of a heteronormative relationship, the beliefs of being seen as different or not belonging ignited a fire of emotions for me such as shame, denial, self-rejection, and fear. I largely retreated into a place of hiding and not wanting to be seen as a means of reestablishing some sense of control in a world that felt to be out of my control. I felt to be more of a passenger to my partner’s journey than seeing the opportunity to take ownership of my own. This was primarily a fear-driven response, tied to historical pathways that are mostly remnants that were projected unto me and dormant in my subconscious until this experience pressed the right buttons for their activation.

Read more about the latest layer of my journey here: https://braingardening.com/standing-in-pride

28/05/2022

Remember, that jiggle that comes when we step outside comfort is not a negative sign that we’re “doing it wrong”. It’s part of the process and sometimes we meet it over and over again. That jiggle is a crucial part to breaking out of patterns of familiarity and growing into possibility.

When you feel that jiggle of discomfort, instead of pulling or retreating away, lean into your support system and own ability to nurture and show yourself compassion.

I’m currently doing a lot of work in the area of self-compassion and will be sharing more on this topic during the month of June.

21/05/2022

Many of those facing chronic illness, anxiety, or toxic stress were raised in an environment where we needed to shrink ourselves or deny/ignore our needs in our to keep the peace and not further contribute to the chaos that may have been in our environment.

If you have or have had a caretaking role, this can also become part of that experience.

We can habitually get stuck in the patterning and belief systems that we have to earn the ability to tend to our most basic needs, that we have to be productive in order to rest, or that others’ needs always come before our own.

The journey of recovery meets these pathways and, through discovering our innate worthiness, opens up new paths to healthier boundaries that support us and re-establish a sense of priority for ourselves.

If you feel like you need permission before you consider yourself, here are your permission slips. 💗

08/05/2022

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