Your Inner Compass: The Patterns That Guide Us

Many of the thoughts, reactions, and physical responses we experience each day are shaped by patterns operating outside our conscious awareness. This episode helps you recognize those patterns and become more aware of the signals your mind and body may be giving you.

Through guided reflection, practical examples, and mind-body awareness, you'll explore how habitual thoughts and responses develop, how the nervous system can influence our reactions, and how noticing a pattern can create an opportunity to respond differently.

This reflective wellness practice supports greater self-awareness, mindfulness, emotional regulation, body awareness, and conscious choice. It may be especially helpful for anyone interested in understanding automatic reactions, recurring thought patterns, stress responses, neuroplasticity, and the mind-body connection.

Sometimes change begins with something much simpler: noticing.

Transcript

Today on Empowered Wellness Radio, We're looking at the patterns beneath the surface, The thoughts, Habits, And experiences that can quietly shape the way we move through the world and what can happen when we begin to recognize them. Welcome to Empowered Wellness Radio with your host, Jeanne Smith. Jeanne is a board-certified massage therapist, Wellness educator, And former broadcaster with a practical, Whole-person approach to health and well-being. Each episode brings you useful information, Thoughtful conversation, And simple, Effective ways to better understand your body, Care for yourself, And take an active role in your own well-being. And now, Here's your host, Jeanne Smith. We spend an enormous amount of time inside our own heads, But most of us don't pay attention to what's going on in there. We think, React, Interpret, Worry, Plan, Remember, And anticipate throughout the day. At the same time, We're taking in information from other people, Television, Social media, Books, Podcasts, Conversations, And whatever else we're exposed to. I've always believed that the mind is incredibly powerful. We've learned a great deal about the brain, But there is still much we don't understand about the mind, Consciousness, And the relationship between our thoughts, Emotions, Behavior, And physical body. One way to think about the mind is to compare it to a computer. Obviously, Your mind is far more complicated than a computer, But the analogy works. Some programs on a computer are deliberately installed. Others run quietly in the background, And you may not even know they're there. We have things running in the background too. They develop from our experiences, Our families, Our relationships, What we've been taught, What other people have said to us, What we've said to ourselves, And what we've repeatedly done. After a while, We don't recognize some of these things as patterns anymore. They're simply the way we think. I think of the subconscious mind as our North Star. It helps orient us as we move through the world, And we've been giving it information our entire lives, Whether we realized it or not. This isn't about believing that we think everything in our lives into existence. We don't. Other people make decisions that affect us. People get sick. People die. Accidents happen. Relationships end. Jobs disappear. Life can turn sideways without asking our permission. I don't believe that somebody experiencing something painful or difficult failed because they didn't think positively enough. What interests me is what happens in our minds while we're living through all of this. Sometimes we add suffering to an already difficult situation without realizing we're doing it. I see a physical version of this almost every day in my practice. I'll be working on someone's neck and ask, Do you clench? A lot of people say, I don't know. They really don't know. So I find there's this large muscle in the neck called the sternocleidomastoid. It attaches to the sternum, The clavicle, And runs up to the mastoid bone behind the ear. I can slightly turn someone's head and ask them to lift their head without turning. If that sternocleidomastoid muscle pops right out, It gives me information about what those muscles have been doing. I may then do intraoral work with the pterygoid muscles of the jaw and the person notices a tremendous us a difference. And in the meantime, They've been wondering why they keep getting headaches. They weren't deliberately walking around clenching their teeth. They didn't know they were doing it. You can't change a program you don't know is running. The same thing happens with thought patterns. We become accustomed to expecting the worst, Anticipating rejection, Catastrophizing, Focusing on what's wrong or scanning for the next problem. I can't can become such an automatic response that we stop questioning whether it's actually true. And then there's rumination. Something happens and we keep going back to it. We replay the conversation, Think about what we should have said, Decide what the other person meant, And imagine what we'll say the next time. There's a difference between working through a problem and repeatedly rehearsing it. At some point, We're not getting anywhere. We're feeding the loop. Rumination can steal the present because we're so occupied with what happened yesterday that we're missing what's happening today. Just like clenching, We may not know we're doing it. Awareness is the first step in changing something. I see this in the body all the time. Before someone changes their posture, They have to recognize how they're holding themselves. Before they stop clenching their jaw, They have to realize they're clenching it. Thought patterns aren't so different. We have to hear ourselves. Language is a good place to start. I used to say, No worries, All the time. Then one day, I actually listened to the words I was using. No worries. Both words are negative, And that's not what I'm trying to communicate. What I mean is that everything is OK. So now I say, It's all good. It was a small change, But it made me pay more attention to the other things we say without really listening to ourselves. Think about how easily we say things like, I'm terrible at this. Nothing ever works out for me. I always screw this up. I knew something would go wrong. Or simply, I can't. Words are powerful, And so are thoughts. What we repeat becomes familiar. When I catch, I can't, I prefer a different question. How can I? That's one of the simplest ways I know to move from problem-oriented thinking towards solution-oriented thinking. I can't closes the discussion. How can I makes us look for another way. There may be a legitimate obstacle. We could need more information, Another skill, Some help, Or a completely different approach. Sometimes what we want simply isn't possible. At least we've examined the situation instead of automatically surrendering to the first obstacle. There's another place where awareness can change the direction of things, And that's when we start getting spun up. Someone says something, We hear a tone of voice or see a facial expression and immediately begin interpreting it. They're angry with me. That was disrespectful. I know what she meant by that. One interpretation leads to another. Something that happened six months ago suddenly joins the conversation. Before long, We're rehearsing what we're going to say. Our jaw's tight, Our shoulders are up, And we're talking faster. The reaction has developed momentum. Somewhere earlier in that process, There's often a still point. If we know our own patterns, We have a better chance of recognizing it. I'm getting spun up. That's a good time to stop and separate what happened from what we've added to it. What actually happened? What do I know for certain? What am I assuming? We frequently react not only to an event, But to the meaning we've assigned to it. Sometimes we'll catch ourselves early. Oftentimes we'll figure it out afterward. Either way, We've learned something about our own pattern, Which gives us a better chance of recognizing it sooner the next time. The brain itself is capable of change throughout life. Neuroscience calls this neuroplasticity. Learning and repeated experience can change the way neural circuits function, And repetition is one of the ways behaviors and responses become more automatic. That doesn't mean one positive thought suddenly rewires your brain. Changing an established pattern takes practice. But the brain that learned an old response is still capable of learning something different. It's also worth paying attention to what we regularly put into our mental environment. Think about what you watch, Read, And listen to, Along with the conversations you participate in. If you spend hours consuming material that keeps you angry, Frightened, Or focused on everything that's wrong, Consider what effect that has on the rest of your day. I'm not suggesting we hide from reality. Difficult things are a part of life and difficult conversations sometimes need to happen. But we don't have to feed ourselves a steady diet of agitation and then wonder why we're agitated. The rest of our lives feed the mind too. Learning something new, Working toward a goal, Solving a problem, Spending time with people we enjoy, Practicing gratitude, Or simply having some fun gives us something besides problems to chew on. If we've practiced a particular way of thinking for years, Changing it takes time. Start by recognizing what's been running in the background. As we get better at catching our patterns, We tend to see them earlier in our thoughts, In our language, Or even in the way we're holding our body. That's where choice enters the picture. None of this means we're responsible for everything that has happened to us. We're not. Positive thinking doesn't guarantee a positive outcome. Our thoughts, Behaviors, And experiences do influence us though. Repetition helps shape what becomes familiar and automatic, Often without our realizing it. That's why I keep coming back to the subconscious mind as our North Star. Awareness gives us a choice and sometimes that choice is all we need to begin changing direction to make a course correction. You've been listening to Empowered Wellness Radio with Jeanne Smith. Join us again next time for practical information, Thoughtful conversation, And simple tools you can put to use in your own life. Until then, Take good care of yourself.