“Emancipate Yourself From Mental Slavery”: Understanding What it Takes to Shift Our Mindset

I obviously stole the title of this blog from Bob Marley who penned the following line in his famous Redemption Song:

 “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery.  None but ourselves can free our minds.” 

Over the last few years, I have come to believe mindset is everything.  It can repress us or liberate us.  It can limit us or allow us to grow.  It determines our resilience, perseverance, success and well-being in the face of life’s challenges.  We’ve all heard “it is not what happens to us, but how we see and deal with what happens to us” that decides the course of our lives. 

Your mindset is a set of beliefs that shape how you make sense of the world, including yourself. It influences how you think, feel, and behave in any given situation.

The idea here is all of our experiences in life are filtered through our mindset. Reality becomes how we see it, and how we see it influences how we respond and act in our daily lives.

For example, we know when people are guided by fear and insecurity, they approach the world with a scarcity mindset which means they tend to see the world as being limited in its resources (if you win, I lose).  They get triggered into comparing themselves to others, possibly end up feeling defeated or overinflated, and give up or become possessive about losing their position.  Alternately, when someone comes from a place of security and abundance, an abundance mindset, they believe the universe has an abundance of love, acceptance and resources for everyone, so they do not see another person’s success as their own failure, they see it as possible for both to win and as a result they are less competitive, more collaborative, able to celebrate others, learn from them, and continue to grow in their own skills and abilities.

I’ve seen the power of mindset in my own life.  I’ve seen during times I have not believed in myself my life and my world reflect that belief.  I end up feeling invisible and depleted. I’ve also seen when I decide I am enough, that I am worthy, the world gives me what I deserve, and I feel expansive and full.

So yes, more and more, I have come to believe mindset is everything.  Almost. 

Why almost?

We talk a lot about shifting mindsets as if it were a simple act of choice or will, but while I have personal proof that it is possible to change one’s mindset and I see the transformation it can bring about, I want to focus on something I do not see being discussed enough in the popular articles or blogs on mindset change; the developmental and neurobiological underpinnings of how and why we see the world as we do.

We need to turn to personal stories and neuropsychology here. 

A more accurate description of “mindsets” according to Ryan Gottfredson (2020), is:

“They are neural connections that operate as our brain’s circuit board, directing how we process and respond to information in unique ways.”

Our mindsets are, in plain English, the result of the way our brain is wired.  More specifically they comprise a circuit of neurons that connect the more primitive reptilian parts (the Basil Ganglia which processes body sensations and impulses and is in charge of our fight/flight/freeze stress response system) and mammalian parts (the Limbic system which processes emotions and implicit memory) of our brain with our Neocortex (the newer part of our brain responsible for rational thought, planning, regulation, etc.).

The main purpose of these neuronal circuits, i.e., our mindsets, is to find a short-cut to processing all of the millions of bits of information that come at us each second, by filtering out what to pay attention to (basal ganglia), how to make sense of the filtered information (limbic system), and then decide how to respond.

Here is the thing: the neuronal connections that get activated most often are the ones that become stronger and faster and most dominant.  In graduate school we were taught the holy principle of the brain is “neurons that fire together, wire together.” 

Which means, our early life experiences, even as early as infancy, help decide which neural networks become the “go to” networks; Which ones become predominant.  So, life experiences construct our mindsets which are imbedded within the structure of our brains.

We may understand this connection between mindset and life experiences, but I do not think we always appreciate the entrenchment of that connection when we start talking about shifting our mindset.  The risk here is twofold as I see it: 1. Underestimating the consistent effort it can take to change one’s mindset, and 2. Shame and judgement towards those who approach life with the “wrong” mindset and seem unable to “just” change how they are thinking, even if that person is oneself. 

Let’s get more concrete with an example.  Consider people that have experienced trauma; Either event-based big Trauma with a capital T (a parent died, they were involved in a life changing accident), or small daily little-t traumas like neglect or poverty or other kinds of circumstances that make life feel unpredictable and uncontrollable.  Depending on the level and frequency of stress caused, as well as other factors like the availability of alternate resources for safety and comfort, the trauma experience would activate the stress response system in the brain and could ultimately change the wiring of the brain.

Neurobiologist, Dr. Bruce Perry, in fact defines trauma as:

“Any pattern of pattern of activating your stress response system that leads to an alteration in how that system is functioning, and that leads to an over-activity and an over-reactivity.” 

This dysregulated stress response becomes how you deal with life situations into the future; it becomes a kind of mindset. 

The good news is, we know the brain to be malleable; a thing called neuroplasticity.  To change it we need to use the circuit created by trauma less and use a more adaptive mindset circuit more.  Remember, neurons that fire together, wire together.  However, this means repetition! Developing a new mindset takes practice.  So, it is possible to change our mindset, but it’s not a simple, “just” think differently kind of deal.

Now let’s discuss everyone’s favorite topic; Shame.  When our dysregulated stress response shows up in a maladaptive way; if it shows up as addiction, disconnection, anger, or anxiety, we end up labeling these responses as pathological.  However, what we are labeling as pathological is, according to Perry, essentially something that should have been predictable.  We end up judging what would be a reasonable response to one’s history, perhaps even an initially adaptive response that stopped being adaptive as the person grew into adulthood and circumstances changed.

Judgement gets internalized.  We are social beings; we need more than anything to feel seen, accepted and that we belong.  When acceptance and belonging are disrupted; we internalize judgment and fall into shame. 

The problem is shame is the counter-agent to change.  It blocks our capacity for change.  We elaborated why that is in our podcast on self-compassion, but again this is tied to how our brains work.  Shame is experienced as an attack on our self-concept, we are both the attacker and the attacked.  So, when we are in shame, the brain’s threat defense system (again the reptilian brain) is often the first thing triggered, which in turn activates our body’s stress response. In stress our responses are limited to fight–flight–freeze; that’s it.  That is not a good time to create a new mindset. 

What we need instead is compassion.  Especially, self-compassion.

Compassion triggers the mammalian care system, which makes us feel safe and cared for, and helps us down regulate the threat-defense system while activating the care system. Oxytocin and endorphins are then released, which helps to increase feelings of safety and security.  That sense of safety actually allows the neocortex to get online, which gives us more flexibility and freedom to respond.  So, while the stress of a self-attack constricts us, compassion opens us up.  Self-compassion is the agent of change.

I will end with this, there are a lot of cognitive and behavioral strategies offered out there to help us if we want to work on changing our mindset.  Some are: spending time with people who have positive mindsets, identify your counter mindsets (your automatic negative thoughts - ANTs), flip the switch from ANTs to the opposite thought, focus on growth, practice gratitude, meditate, etc.  What I haven’t seen discussed as much is the importance of non-judgement and compassion in creating the mindset shift.  I think whatever strategy we decide to use, we cannot move if we start with judgement.  Nothing can shift if we are attacking ourselves.  If we start instead from acceptance and self-compassion, change is very, very possible.

Love yourself into change and love yourself enough to change.