Understanding & Honoring How Your Brain Works (Recording)

Your brain is beautiful and unique the way it is now. Once you understand and honor how your brain works by noticing and becoming aware of how it functions, you will then be able to accept it and find strategies to complement and improve your executive functioning skills.

Transcript

Welcome everybody.

How are you guys doing today?

Thank you so much for joining me in another live session.

And today we're going to be talking about understanding and honoring how your brain works.

Hi Polly,

Hi Beth.

Good morning everybody,

CJ.

Thank you so much for tuning in.

For those of you who are new,

Just say hi.

My name is Emilia Jose Garcia.

And I like to call these live sessions your thriving lifestyle.

Okay.

Because all these sessions are helping you.

Hopefully they will help you create a thriving lifestyle that you can enjoy more.

So I do have a circle here on Inside Timer called the same name,

Your thriving lifestyle.

And you can find my recordings in there.

And you can also find all the recordings of my sessions in my podcast by the same name,

Your thriving lifestyle.

Okay.

So Monique says I am thinking of myself today as well as my child with ADHD.

Beautiful Monique.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for bringing awareness to this.

Because in the past sessions that I have done about executive functioning skills,

The first session was an intro about all the skills that we all use on a daily basis to regulate our emotions,

To think and to take action and control our attention and focus.

Okay.

And then last Tuesday,

So the last session that I did,

It was all about seeing those skills in action.

And I share some examples on how these skills work in combination,

Because they normally don't work alone independently.

They are like an orchestra,

Right?

They create beautiful music in your life and they all work together combined.

Okay.

So welcome Anna.

I see that you are new here.

Thank you for being here.

So today,

My intention for today is to help you create space and time so that you can notice how your brain works.

And I would like to help you do that by looking at these skills one by one and then understanding how do you use them?

What kind of relationship do you have with these skills?

Do you struggle with them?

Do you thrive with them?

Do you do okay with them?

And then by shining the light on these specifics,

Hopefully you can then start brainstorming ideas,

First accepting what it is.

Okay.

Because sometimes we have what we have and we do the best with what we have.

So if it's not enough for what we would like to do or how we want to function,

Then it's a great opportunity to start looking for compliments,

Looking for assistance,

Okay?

Strategies that will help you perform better,

Function better in whatever setting you need.

Okay?

Amy,

No,

You didn't miss the rain stick.

And I am at the studio today.

So as always,

I like to do like a little practice.

Thank you for asking.

I like to do like a little like ceremony.

Let's call it like a ceremony just to set the intention for this session,

Okay?

Before we get started.

So please get yourself in a comfortable position.

Close your eyes.

Just deep,

Breathly and relax.

And just listen to the sound of this rain stick,

Okay?

And just enjoy.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Don't forget to breathe.

.

.

And the last one.

.

Thank you so much guys for doing this little practice with me.

It really helps to get into the session and set the intention.

I will invite you to remind yourself of the intention of why did you come here today?

Why did you decide to spend this time with me,

With us,

Learning more about this?

Just remind yourself about that because it's really important.

And this is an executive functioning skill,

Transitioning,

Right?

Transitioning from task to task.

And this is one that I would like to start with.

Transitioning,

Okay?

What is transitioning?

Transitioning is deciding intentionally to change your attention and your focus from one task to the other.

Okay?

And I would invite you to think and reflect about how do you transition?

In my specific life,

I notice that sometimes I struggle transitioning.

And sometimes I have to transition from being a father with my daughter,

And especially when she's not being very nice to me.

She's on a mommy face,

For example,

In the morning,

And then it's my time to wake her up,

And then maybe she's just giving me a hard time.

She doesn't want to see me.

She doesn't want to go to school.

She doesn't want to get dressed.

It's normally not like that,

But sometimes that happens,

Right?

So I am on that mode.

I am on that energy or however you want to call it.

And then all of a sudden,

I drop her at school and then I have to do this.

And I have to come here and show up for you guys.

And then I have to be the intentional Emilio,

The teacher,

The leader of this group.

So sometimes that's difficult to do,

Right?

And that's why ceremonies like this one can help you transition from one task to the other.

Another example is imagine that you are at work and you are having a hard day,

Very stressful.

You have bad news or maybe a project is not going the way you're supposed to,

Or maybe someone like spat at you a lot of things that were not very nice.

So you are digesting that and then you are going home and then you open the door of your house.

And then it is your family,

Your children claiming your attention,

Your husband asking how the day was,

And you feel like I'm going to suffocate.

OK,

So sometimes I feel that way,

Too,

Because I don't allow myself time to transition.

OK,

So that's good,

For example,

That example,

If you find yourself transitioning,

Struggling to transition,

Start noticing when is the transition not smooth.

And then start brainstorming,

First accept what it is.

OK,

Right now I am doing this and clearly it is not serving me.

It's not working well for me.

So then you start thinking and brainstorming and then you are using another skill that is called metacognition.

OK,

And this skill allows you to think about how you think.

This skill allows you to reflect,

Allows you to adjust.

And then there is the adaptable thinking or flexible thinking.

And that skill is going to help you look at the same situation from different angles so that you can solve a problem.

You can find different ways of doing the same thing.

So going back to the transitioning,

Maybe a strategy that you can brainstorm and use and test.

In my case,

I do that sometimes before I open the door of my house outside.

I just take a couple of deep breaths and then I remind myself,

OK,

Now I'm supposed to be at that.

My daughter is going to be there.

Now I'm supposed to be a nice husband.

My wife is going to be there.

So I need to transition into that energy.

I need to really set the intention about,

OK,

It's not work time anymore.

So I have to do that.

Sometimes just going for a walk from the studio to home is enough for me to just breathe,

Get fresh air.

Maybe I listen to something,

A music,

A session on Inside Timer,

A quick meditation,

Whatever.

Sometimes you just exercise.

Sometimes.

You just have to try and find something that will help you transition.

And that's that's one strategy,

For example,

About this specific skill.

So question for you guys.

How do you transition?

Is this a habit that you have a hard time with?

Or is this something that is smooth in your life?

Just reflect about it and feel free to share in the chat how you do it.

And if you think that is something that you can adjust,

Maybe you can tweak,

Maybe you can find different strategies.

Just sharing the chat what's coming up for you when it comes to transitioning.

OK,

Monique says,

I struggle with those.

Excellent breathing rituals help me a lot.

Beautiful.

I struggle transitioning from Inside Timer to Matthew.

He's very logical and I am deeply immersed emotionally in this session.

Beautiful,

Amy.

Beautiful that you are noticing these different kinds of energies.

And this is a session that I am planning on doing.

OK,

Really talking about the different kinds of energies that we can all tap into.

And understanding them and putting a name to them is going to help us understand where we are at and what we are transitioning into.

And then sometimes transitioning from a task to a task is not very difficult because the energies are similar.

But sometimes you are transitioning from,

As Amy says,

From a very emotional state to a very logical state.

And then you clash.

You have a hard time.

So beautiful awareness.

I struggle with change in life.

Anna,

Witnessing you with compassion.

Amazing.

Deep breath,

Smile,

Gratitude for the next phase.

I often do have difficulty with it.

Finding waking helps with transition from working to not working,

Especially now with working at home.

Beautiful,

Laurie.

Working from home changes transitioning a lot because if you were used to working at an office or somewhere outside of your home,

You had a transitioning time from leaving your office or leaving your work.

Maybe you walk,

Maybe you bike,

Maybe you drive,

Maybe you take transportation,

Whatever it is.

So you had a transition time and then you get home.

So there is a natural transition that you have time to adjust or maybe a little bit of buffer time to get ready.

Now we are home and we have to change from working mode to being home mode to mom mode to dad mode to cookie mode to whatever it is.

And it's very sudden,

Right?

That's why it is way more important to become aware of it and to create ceremonies,

Routines,

Something that will allow you to transition easily.

Okay,

So beautiful.

I'm reading if I am not mindfully transitioning,

I can be very,

Very moody.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And this is something that happens to me,

Right?

When I don't take enough time to transition,

I become frustrated.

I become stressed and I snap and then my wife may come to see how is your day going and I will just leave me alone.

I'm taking my shoes off or something because I'm not ready yet.

And she's very aware of this,

Too.

So it just takes me to say I just need a couple of minutes.

Do you mind?

But it is better to do that outside of the house so that I enter the house already in that kind of energy.

That's way better than me having to do it at home in front of them because my wife can understand.

But my daughter,

She's three years old.

She will not understand what's going on.

I can teach her what I'm doing,

But it's easier if I try to do it before.

Okay,

So Maya says I struggle with transitions in general.

One thing that someone suggested was to take a conscious inhale and exhale breathing or entering through a new door,

Which I really like this technique,

But often forget to do it.

Yeah,

Maya,

That's beautiful.

And that's just creating some sort of ritual,

Some sort of ceremony,

Some sort of action that is going to help you transition from one to the other.

Okay.

I don't think about them,

But I recognize them.

I struggle with changing life.

Yeah.

Transition from chores during the day to meditate.

So that's a difficult one.

Amazing.

Yeah,

I need to remember serious boundaries when I work at home.

Yeah,

Exactly.

You have to set healthy boundaries that everybody understands so that you can maintain that energy that you are into and then transition after into a different one.

Okay,

So that was just one example.

Let's move into emotional control and impulse control.

Those are the two executive skills that will help you control your emotions and regulate.

Okay,

So emotional self regulation,

Also called emotional control is one and impulse control is another one.

So what,

Try to reflect about how,

How do you deal with those two skills.

Okay,

How do you,

How do you,

What is your relationship with emotional control and with impulse control?

Will you say that you,

You have a good time with it?

Do you say that it's easy for you?

Do you say,

Would you say that maybe sometimes it's not?

And if that's the case,

Can you recognize when it's not good,

When it's difficult for you to self regulate or when you act impulsively?

I can share some of mine,

For example,

When it comes to emotional control and impulse control,

Something that I noticed is with my daughter,

For example,

Mess triggers me,

Especially when eating.

So when eating,

If my daughter is eating and she's making a mess,

I feel the obligation of teach her how to do it better.

And if I'm not mindful,

Sometimes I am impulsive in the way that I would try and do it for her or I will not be patient to let her make a mess and then clean it up after.

So that's a trigger for me and it triggers and it changes my mood.

So if I'm not mindful about that,

And I,

If I don't regulate well that emotion and I'm noticing it and I am present when that's happening,

I can go down the route and then I become moody.

I become frustrated.

I've not been nice to my daughter.

My wife is not liking my behavior.

So that's what,

For example,

That I have.

So it's important that you start recognizing what situations are making me lose control of my emotions or making me be impulsive and do something that I will regret after.

And when you start becoming aware of those things,

Then you can start looking for strategies to cope with that.

Okay.

So for example,

When that happens,

What we did,

My wife printed a three-liter photo of my daughter when she was a baby and she was letting her to use a spoon.

And one of the photos is her eating bean sauce and she has bean sauce everywhere.

And she was just feeding herself everywhere,

Bean sauce everywhere.

And then she put it on the table,

Like on the wall by the table.

And then that's a reminder for me when I see that photo to understand,

Wow,

She's so little,

She's doing so well,

She's learning,

She's enjoying eating,

She's enjoying this experience.

So who am I to make this experience negative,

Not fun?

So that really helps me put things into perspective.

This is just a phase of life.

It's just temporary,

Right?

And I can clean things up after and she will learn.

Okay.

So that's just one example of a strategy that works for me.

So Anas is working on emotional control and the trigger to freak out when there is any instability.

So this says my hardest transition is from work to home life,

But transitions are challenging and I tend to be late to things.

Amazing.

So being mindful of this is really hard.

Yeah,

Amy,

And you guys will find your spots,

Okay?

Because it's very easy to be mindful,

It's very easy to be nice,

It's very easy to like be aware and meditate.

But when someone touches your button,

That's when it is really hard.

Sometimes I am in that state and then Samantha is trying to talk to me and I just can't even look at her because I am in that state and it's just so hard.

It is really hard.

So that's why once you are down there,

Maybe you just,

I just have to go get out and then go for a walk or do something else,

Take a couple of deep breaths,

Remove myself physically and then come back because I am not able to look at it.

I'm not able to be present because I am just stuck in that thought pattern.

Again,

This is metacognition,

Guys,

And adaptable thinking.

I am noticing that I cannot connect with doing what I want to be doing because I'm stuck in that process thinking,

In that trigger,

That change my mood and I am in that energy that is not really good.

So I don't have to get out and come back.

That's the only way for me to change the scenery,

Change physical and then come back.

And then I say,

Then I can apologize to my daughter and say,

Eva,

I'm really sorry that Papi was trying to control you.

And then Samantha,

I'm really sorry that I was being so mean.

It's not as important.

I'm sorry.

But before I couldn't do it.

Okay,

So how do you prevent from triggering you?

So Maya,

Once you identify a trigger like that one,

For example,

I have that therapy on me,

On that.

I was doing therapy sessions with a therapist and then we dive deeper into that specific trigger that I was having.

And that goes back when I was little.

That goes back with my father,

Especially my father,

Always asking me,

Roll up your sleeves,

Be careful,

Don't make a mess.

You are spilling food.

So I remember that.

So I don't want I want to avoid that from my daughter,

I guess.

So that's my way of showing up for her when that's happening.

So the way for you to understand that trigger is to really meditate on it,

Journal on it,

Make a drawing about it,

Talk to someone about it,

Research strategies about it.

Okay,

Just do deeper work to understand what the trigger is,

To understand what is the belief behind that trigger that is making you behave this way.

And then to really brainstorm strategies to complement,

To make a different scenario next time.

You need to bring presence to it.

Okay,

You need to first notice it.

Sometimes you can notice it in the present moment,

But sometimes you are so charged emotionally that you will not be able to do anything in that specific moment because you are already down.

So think about this.

That's an automatic behavior that is happening to me.

For example,

Mess,

My daughter eating and making a mess that triggers me into and I go down a path that once I enter that path,

It's very difficult for me to get out immediately.

I have to do a process to get myself out of it.

Okay,

So the first one is to really understand and notice before it starts happening.

And this takes a little bit of practice.

But then when it happens one time,

Then you can journal after you can reflect,

Wow,

Like I did the same thing again.

So what can I do next time?

So with my wife,

We have a sentence or maybe she does something or maybe she tells me something.

So she tries to accuse me into something or she points at the photo that I have of my daughter for me to look at it.

Sometimes that's enough for me to say,

Okay,

Okay,

Emilio,

You are going down the same path again.

So I choose not to do that.

Okay.

But sometimes it's too late.

So when it's too late,

I have to recognize,

Okay,

Right now I cannot receive anything.

I cannot apologize.

I cannot do anything.

I just have to get out and then even two minutes and then come back.

And then I come back.

It's like,

Okay,

I'm sorry that I was doing this.

It wasn't necessary.

And then I can do that.

Okay,

So,

So another skill,

For example,

That I would like to talk about.

It's a working memory.

Some people have really good memory.

Some other people don't.

Okay,

So it's important to understand where do you fall on?

What is your relationship with that skill?

In my case,

I don't have good memory.

Okay,

So I need to complement my that skill with something.

So,

For example,

I have a hard time remembering names from people.

I need to experience something with people at least a few times for me to remember their name easily.

If not,

I will have a hard time remembering their names.

So what I do,

I will write them down in a note.

I will write them down if I create a contact,

Especially like I have a friend that I hang out a lot,

But I was having a hard time remembering his wife's name and his children's names because I don't see them very often.

So every time I was there,

I was embarrassed because I couldn't remember their names.

So I changed the strategy.

It's like,

Okay,

Emilio,

Your memory is what it is.

I can choose to do exercises.

I can choose to do something else to try and make it better.

Or you can complement it with a strategy.

And for me,

The strategy is I create the contact,

I put my friend's name and then I put all the names of their family members.

And then before I go to the house,

I will have a peek and remind myself of their names.

And then when I see them a few times,

Then I will remember.

But I know that that's me.

Okay,

So you can use also I use a calendar because I cannot keep all my appointments in my head.

I will not be able to do that.

And I will miss things.

I will be late to things and I will probably not be as mindful and as intentional.

So I have a calendar that I share with my wife and that really helps me stay on track.

And I don't have to remember things with my head,

With my brain,

Because I don't have really great memory.

Okay,

So what is your relationship with memory?

Is it good?

Is it bad?

And it is what it is.

And I want you to accept it.

And then if it's great and you have really good memory and it is not frustrating for you to remember things,

Then maybe you don't have to do anything about that specific skill.

Okay,

If you notice frustrations,

If you notice that you are missing things,

You are not doing what you want to be doing,

Then that's a clear sign to me that a complimentary strategy can be helpful to you.

That can be using a calendar,

Using an agenda,

Using a planner,

Using notes,

Whatever that strategy is,

It's just one that will help you achieve the outcomes that you want and function in the way that you feel comfortable functioning.

And you get to define that,

Okay?

I'm not saying here,

Everybody needs to start using a journal or everybody has to use a calendar.

No,

Only do that if you are frustrated with that specific skill.

Okay?

So some other skills that will help you plan,

Focus and shift your energy and attention are task initiation,

For example.

That's another skill that you can shine the light on.

What is your relationship starting tasks?

Is it easy for you or is it challenging for you?

Do you find yourself maybe procrastinating or maybe you find yourself that you don't have the motivation?

And then if that happens and you don't get yourself started with a task that you really want to be doing,

Then that's a clear sign for me that you can spend some time there.

You can try and narrow down a specific activity and say,

Why am I procrastinating this?

Why do I have a hard time initiating this task?

Maybe,

And then you start looking for the reasons why is this happening?

Especially,

Again,

This is something that needs to be frustrating to you.

If you don't care about it,

Then why are you even thinking about it?

But if you are frustrated and you want to do it better,

You want to change the way that you are,

Okay?

Then that's a clear sign to me that you can use a complementary strategy.

So Amy says,

Which category is procrastination under?

So Amy,

Procrastination can be inside time management,

Can be inside task initiation,

Can be inside planning and sequencing,

Prioritizing,

So that can affect to all these ones.

That's why I find it very helpful to divide these skills one by one,

Because right now I am talking about task initiation.

So if we look at procrastination at task initiation,

That means that you are procrastinating starting a task.

When that happens,

It's your opportunity for you to shine the light and then think about what's going on here.

Maybe you are procrastinating because you don't have enough information.

Maybe you are procrastinating because you are finding emotional charge,

An emotional challenge here.

Okay?

Maybe you are procrastinating because you have a hard time finding the time in your week and you don't know where to put it and that ties with time management,

Right?

Maybe you are procrastinating that task,

Initiating that task because there is someone else that is involved and you need to talk to them and you need to communicate with them.

And when that happens,

Then that's difficult and that's something that you need to do.

So those are different reasons about task initiation,

Okay?

Again,

When you are having a hard time initiating a task and you find yourself procrastinating,

Just remind yourself about,

Okay,

Maybe I need to communicate with someone.

Maybe I have an emotional challenge here that I need to process before I get started.

Maybe this task is overwhelming me because I didn't break it down in smaller pieces.

Maybe this task is just not motivating to me.

So maybe you have to take in with yourself and really,

Really think about,

Okay,

How can I do this task more interesting,

More appealing to me?

Maybe you need to spend some time connecting with the benefits of you doing this task.

Okay?

So there are different reasons.

And again,

I find this very helpful because once you have a specific scenario,

Once you know,

Okay,

My task initiation in this specific task,

It's always bad.

It's always I cannot do it.

I cannot get myself to start doing this task that it is important to me.

And always start there,

Guys.

Is this task necessary and important to you and relevant and intentional?

Because sometimes maybe the task is not even necessary.

And if that's the case,

Why are you trying to do it in the first place?

But once you have assessed,

No,

This task is really important to me.

It's really necessary.

I am going to benefit from it.

Once you do all this awareness and clarity work,

I will say that you're going to have an easier time starting that task.

Okay?

Because then the procrastination is not going to be so hard.

If that task is overwhelming you,

Then try to break it down in smaller tasks that you can take action on.

Okay?

So,

For example,

Imagine,

Let's take an example of a task.

I want to learn how to play the guitar.

So how do you approach initiating that task?

If you just have that task initiating playing your guitar,

It's going to be very overwhelming because you don't know what I what am I going to be doing for how long,

When,

With who.

It's going to be lots of variables and you don't have all the information.

If you spend a little bit of time getting clarity and gaining confidence and getting information,

Then maybe you decide,

Okay,

I am going to practice guitar once a day for 20 minutes.

And all of a sudden,

Now you can practice guitar 20 minutes and you have a deadline.

You put your timer and then 20 minutes after you stop playing the guitar.

And that's your task,

20 minutes of practicing guitar.

Another task around playing guitar can be learning a song.

Maybe you are going to say,

My task is to learn this specific song.

So today I am going to learn the chords that are included in this song.

Tomorrow I am going to learn the lyrics.

And the next day I am going to put them together.

And after that,

I'm just going to practice for 20 minutes that specific song.

You see,

It gets clear,

It gets specific,

It gets more achievable.

And now you see yourself making progress.

And if 20 minutes is too much,

Just do five minutes.

Guys,

Five minutes every day for a few weeks,

You learn a whole song.

I promise you do because I have my guitar beside me and just practicing five to 10 minutes a day.

It's enough to make a lot of progress.

OK,

So don't overestimate the amount of time that you are spending.

OK,

Sometimes when you are looking at task initiation,

You are not focusing on length.

You are not focusing on how long you are going to be doing it for.

You are focusing on getting yourself started.

And once you have that habit created,

Then you can work on staying longer in that task.

OK,

And this is why this is so powerful,

Because sometimes we are trying to develop several of these executive functioning skills all at once.

And that's why we are not successful,

Because they are too much.

But if we focus on task initiation,

I'm going to sit with my guitar for a minute.

And then you do that for a few days.

I promise you that once you have that task initiation started and your brain recognizes every day I sit here,

I grab my guitar and I play for one minute.

Expanding that minute to 10 minutes is very easy.

It's not that difficult anymore because you have half of the battle won.

You get yourself started.

You set the intention and your attention to that specific task.

You made it a priority.

You schedule it in your calendar.

You know what I mean?

You are using so many skills to make that sitting down and grabbing your guitar a reality that now getting started for longer is just easier because you have done all the other work.

So start breaking down these skills in ways that make you develop these routines easily.

Okay?

Yeah,

And I have talked about this a lot.

Creating new habits many times is not about how long you spend meditating,

How long you spend doing this or doing that.

Sometimes it's just getting started.

Okay?

Once you can get started consistently,

Doing one minute or doing five minutes or doing ten minutes is not going to be such a big deal.

I promise you it won't.

Okay?

So we have seven minutes left.

Let's see.

Another skills that come into play that and I feel that they are really important.

They are really important to divide them because so many times I see people overwhelmed with these skills that are mixed up.

And these are time management,

Organization,

Planning,

Sequencing and prioritizing.

Okay?

Five skills,

Guys.

Prioritizing,

Planning,

Sequencing,

Organization and time management.

All those five skills are playing together when you are trying to do something in your life,

When you are trying to take action,

Create a plan,

Organize yourself.

When you are having a hard time,

I find it very helpful to divide these skills separately and then look at them one by one.

Because the time management is your ability to be aware of time,

Passing time,

Is your ability to estimate how long a task is going to take.

Okay?

Organization and planning,

For example,

Planning is thinking about the steps that are going to be involved in the task that you are planning on doing.

Okay?

So if you are planning on doing a renovation in your home,

Planning is you gathering all the information and creating all the steps that you need to take to make that renovation a reality.

Organization is actually putting the resources in place,

Putting your time,

The tools that you may need,

Organizing all the steps in an actionable way.

Okay?

The sequencing is sequencing the steps in the right order.

Okay?

If you are doing a renovation,

For example,

You are not going to start cleaning if there is no mess and you are not going to start like putting art on the wall if the walls need to get done and painted.

So there is a specific order that needs to happen and that's called sequencing.

Okay?

And then there is the prioritizing.

You also have to prioritize which task is most important now.

So all these skills,

All these skills are playing together to make the renovation a reality or to make anything that you want to make happen in your life a reality.

Okay?

And it's important for you to look at each of those skills independently so that you can then see where your struggles are.

Are you struggling with the time management?

Are you struggling with the planning and finding the steps?

Maybe you need more information.

Are you struggling with all the organization,

The actual physical actions that you need to take to make each step a reality?

Are you having a hard time with the sequencing and ordering those steps in a way that makes sense,

In a way that is efficient?

And are you struggling with prioritizing because you have many competing priorities and you don't know which one is next.

So look at all those angles that you have now to problem solve your specific challenge.

And this is going to look different for each of you.

And this is where you are going to be using your metacognition,

Your power of reflection,

Your ability to reflect about what you have done so far,

And then take a different approach.

Decide what the next step is.

Be aware of like,

What is my struggle here?

Oh,

I am having a hard time with the planning.

Why?

Because I don't really know what steps need to happen.

Okay,

So I'm going to invite a few contractors over so that they can give me ideas and then explain to me what it takes to make this renovation a reality.

Now,

All of a sudden,

You will have more information.

And that information is going to help you with the planning,

With the sequencing,

With organizing what needs to happen,

And then prioritizing what's next and what's after.

You see,

That's how things evolve.

That's how the problem solving starts happening.

And you have the ability to look at this.

Okay.

And if I want you to take something out of this session today,

Guys,

Is like what Lisa is saying.

We are all perfectly imperfect and more than good enough.

I love that,

Liz.

Thank you so much for sharing that.

And this is the conclusion of this talk today.

The conclusion is that your brain operates and works the way it does.

It is unique to you.

It is beautiful.

It is perfect.

And your job is to understand how it works,

To honor it,

To accept it,

And then to find complementary strategies that will help you function in a way that you will feel more comfortable.

Okay,

So that's that's the that's the main takeaway that I would like you to get today.

Okay,

It's going to look different for each of you.

Okay.

This journey,

Guys,

Is going to this journey is going to look very different for each of you.

But now you have the tools to understand your brain better.

You have the tools to bring more presence into your day to day life and start honoring how you function,

How your brain functions.

Start accepting that and start taking action and brainstorming different approaches,

Different strategies with an open mind,

With curiosity,

Without expectations and start taking action,

Different action.

And then just see what happens and see how that helps you function differently.

And when it comes to executive functioning skills,

There are many,

Many reasons,

Many,

Many causes that may affect how you function.

Okay,

So ADHD,

Having a brain injury,

Having an accident,

Having illness,

Having mental health issues,

Environment,

The people that you surround yourself with,

The house where you live in.

There are so many variables that will affect how you function.

Okay.

And that's why awareness is so important,

Because once you start becoming aware and once you start noticing those things,

You can then get started trying something different,

Finding strategies and complementing your executive functioning skills.

Okay.

Lack of good sleep.

Absolutely lack of a good diet,

Not drinking enough water,

Not exercising enough.

There are so many variables that will affect your executive functioning skills.

And it is your job to really find what makes you feel well and what frustrates you and what kind of self-care practices help you function better.

And then start doing more of that.

Okay.

Guys,

In the meantime,

Until the next live session next week,

I will invite you to take one of my courses.

Okay.

I have three courses here on Inside Timer.

Start taking action,

Start becoming aware and you can take different approaches.

I have a course that will help you declutter your home.

And it really talks about the emotional aspect.

I talk about all these skills,

How to apply them in your decluttering journey.

I have a minimalism course that applies to every area of your life.

And I also have a self-care course where I share self-care practices that you can implement.

And I am creating a new course about executive functioning skills.

So make sure that you join the circle so that when I release that course,

You can be the first one to find out.

You can also follow me here on Inside Timer to receive updates.

Okay.

And then now I would like to do a little practice to get out of this session.

Okay.

Get comfortable.

Close your eyes if you can.

And then just enjoy the sound of this rain stick and don't forget to breathe in a way that makes you feel comfortable.

Okay.

And a good pace.

Okay.

Let's do it.

Okay.

And the last one.

Thank you so much,

Guys.

Have a wonderful rest of your day.

And I will see you in the next live session.

Okay.

Adios.

Reviews

Thanks so much Emilio 🙏🏻. I always get so much out of your tracks.

Thank goodness Emilio has been addressing this topic, breaking it down into manageable, practical pieces while also generating positive awareness about an aspect of our brains that in one way or another factors into every person’s life. 🙏💕👍