Dr. Lee Warren
@brainmindlife • 33,690 subscribers
Neurosurgeon, New York Times bestselling author of The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery, Iraq War vet, host of The Dr. Lee Warren Podcast
Videos
Your brain doesn’t know what time it is. Every time you replay that conversation from last year, that mistake from last month, that moment you wish you could take back from yesterday, your brain treats it like it’s happening right now. Same stress chemicals. Same alarm bells. You’re not remembering it. You’re reliving it, on a loop you built yourself. That's because of two things: your brain doesn't know the difference between what's really happening and what you're just imagining, and neuroplasticity means that your brain automates things that you think about and turns them into programs that it runs without you having to think about them next time. So, the more you rehearse something from the past or something you're just imagining, the more your brain builds out a reality as if that thing is still here right now. The ninth Commandment of self brain surgery is, "I must believe that what I'm doing I'm getting better at." That means if you're doing things with your mind that are making your brain better at living in the past or worrying about imaginary outcomes, you're getting better at feeling worse. So knock it off. Here’s the shift: you can’t edit the past, but you can stop rehearsing it. Every replay is a rehearsal, and your brain gets better at whatever you rehearse. Let's make neuroplasticity work for us and not against us. We call that self-brain surgery. It's not easy at first, it's hard and holy work. But remember, you get better at whatever you repeatedly do Philippians 3:13 says it like this: forget what lies behind and strain towards what lies ahead. Not denying it happened, but refusing to keep performing it. There's better stuff in the future, but not if you keep building a brain that lives in the past. Follow me to connect neuroscience and scripture every day. Save this for the next time your mind hits replay. Share it with someone stuck on a loop. Click the link in my bio to learn more about Self-Brain Surgery. #SelfBrainSurgery #Neurosurgery #FaithAndScience #BrainHealth
Dr. Lee Warren253,917 Aufrufe • vor 1 Tag
Today, I’m going to give you ten years of therapy in two minutes. I'm a brain surgeon, and I'm gonna show you how to make rapid progress in healing the wounds you’ve been carrying; the ones from childhood, from broken relationships, from things said that can’t be unsaid, and from things done that can’t be undone. Let's scrub in and get it done. Here's a Fact: Your Wound Lives in Your Brain, But Your Healing Lives in Your Mind When something hurts you, your brain stores it. The sights, the sounds, the sting of the words, the shape of the moment. That storage is real and physical. But here’s where the hope of healing lies: your brain doesn’t get the final vote on what that memory means to you. Your mind does. And your mind is not the same thing as your brain. Neuroscience nugget: Emotional memories get encoded in circuits involving the amygdala and hippocampus, but each time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily unstable and gets rewritten via a process called reconsolidation. That means every time you revisit a wound, you have a fresh chance to change how it’s stored. Self-Brain Surgery Procedure: The next time an old wound surfaces, don’t just relive it. Instead, reframe it while it’s “open.” Ask: What is the truest, most redemptive way to understand this moment now? Speak that new understanding out loud before you let the memory close back up. Scripture: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3, NIV This is self-brain surgery. Hard and holy work. Follow me to connect neuroscience and scripture every day. Save this to help when you need to heal. Share it with a friend who's hurting. Click the link in my bio to learn more about The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery, my NYT bestselling book. #selfbrainsurgery #neuroscience #neuroplasticity #grief #healing
Dr. Lee Warren1,115,610 Aufrufe • vor 17 Tagen
Your brain cannot tell the difference between a disaster that is happening and one you are only rehearsing. That’s why worst-case-scenario thinking isn’t “just being prepared.” It is building a brain that learns how to stay afraid. Neuroplasticity means you don’t live with the brain you were born with. You live with the brain you keep building. Spend enough time in the spiral and your amygdala stays online while your frontal lobes, the part that actually solves problems, go quiet. Cortisol rises. Sleep drops. The thing you’re trying to avoid becomes more likely, not less. Two thousand years ago Paul already knew the move: don’t be anxious about anything, but in everything, with prayer and thanksgiving, present your requests to God (Philippians 4:6-7). Anxiety and gratitude turn opposite directions on the same volume knob. One goes up, the other goes down. Next time the “what if this ends in disaster” thought shows up, try the other question: “What if it works out?” Hit that follow button and we'll work together every day to connect neuroscience and scripture to help you thrive. Save this for your next worst-case monent. Share it with someone whose brain is stuck in disaster mode. And click the link in my bio to learn more about my New York Times best seller, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. #neuroscience #selfbrainsurgery
Dr. Lee Warren125,639 Aufrufe • vor 6 Tagen
As a neurosurgeon, I've operated on two patients with nearly identical injuries many times. One was back on his feet in weeks, talking about gratitude. The other was still in the dark six months later. Same tissue. Same operation. Completely different outcome. The difference was not in their brain or their spine. It was in how their mind met the signal. NEUROSCIENCE: Pain is not just a wire from the body. A signal travels up. Then your mind interprets it, predicts what it means, and decides how much danger it represents. A mind braced for helplessness turns the volume up. Catastrophe, rumination, “this will never end," those are not just moods. They change how the signal is processed. A mind anchored in meaning and hope can genuinely turn the volume down. That is not a pep talk. It is how descending control of pain actually works. This is why two people can share a diagnosis and not share a recovery. The injury is real. The suffering is also being shaped by what the mind keeps rehearsing. You do not pretend the pain is fake. You refuse to let the pain become the whole story. II Corinthians 12:9 says, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” (ESV) Grace does not always remove the thorn. It changes what the thorn is allowed to mean. Self-Brain Surgery: The sixth commandment of self-brain surgery is this: I must love tomorrow more than I hate how I feel right now. That is not denial. It is orientation. When the signal flares, do the operation. Tell the truth: This hurts. Then refuse the second injury—the story that this feeling is the future. Aim your attention at the next faithful step, the people who still need you, the hope that is still allowed to be true. Same tissue. Different mind. Different path. Save this for the next time pain tries to push you around. And share it with a friend who's hurting. Follow me for daily connections between neuroscience and scripture to help you flourish. Click the link in my bio to learn more about my New York Times bestseller, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. #neuroscience #selfbrainsurgery #pain #chronicpain
Dr. Lee Warren60,070 Aufrufe • vor 3 Tagen
I'm a brain surgeon, and I'm gonna show you how to operate your brain the way it's designed, to help you heal the wounds you’ve been carrying; the ones from childhood, from broken relationships, from things said that can’t be unsaid, and from things done that can’t be undone. This is part two, make sure you watch part one also. Let's scrub in and get it done. Unhealed Wounds Get Rehearsed, Not Just Remembered Every time you replay a painful memory in anger or self-pity instead of truth, you’re not just remembering it, you’re practicing it. And practice strengthens whatever pathway you’re using. Neuroscience nugget: Neurons that fire together wire together. Rehearsing a wound with bitterness deepens the very neural pathway that keeps the pain alive, making the hurt easier to access and harder to escape. Don’t violate the 1st commandment of self-brain surgery (No self-malpractice) by letting neuroplasticity work against you. Remember the 9th commandment of self-brain surgery (”What I’m doing, I’m getting better at”), and rehearse the healing rather than the hurt. Self-Brain Surgery Procedure: Catch yourself the next time you start replaying an old hurt for the hundredth time. Stop mid-rehearsal and say, “I will not practice this pain today.” Replace it with one true, hopeful thought and hold that instead. Scripture: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable... think about such things.” Philippians 4:8, NIV This is self-brain surgery. Hard and holy work. Follow me to connect neuroscience and scripture every day. Save this to help when you need to heal. Share it with a friend who's hurting. Click the link in my bio to learn more about Self-Brain Surgery. Note: this is not medical or mental health advice. See your provider if you're having trouble.
Dr. Lee Warren233,298 Aufrufe • vor 16 Tagen
Defined or Refined? When you face difficulty, insurmountable obstacles, great loss, or other massive things, it forces a choice: Will you be defined by this? Or will you be refined by this? When we lost our son in 2013, Lisa and I quickly realized that this loss could easily become the thing that our family was about for the rest of our lives. We've seen it in our practice, when someone goes through something hard and everything about their entire life. After that revolves around the loss, the pain from the past, the wound that they've suffered. But we've seen other people that, after they appropriately grieved, somehow found purpose against the pain. Somehow overtime seemed to develop a quality about their lives that was informed by the tragedy that made them stronger, more resilient, and able to help people because of what they've gone through. This redemption of pain and turning it into purpose seems to me to be what God is promising in Isaiah 48:10 . "I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering." The furnace is not pleasant. But loss, trauma, and adversity are GOING TO PUT YOU IN THE FIRE. So, since you cannot avoid being in the fire, the only choice you have is what the fire does to you. Defined, or refined. That choice made all the difference for us. Save this for the next time the furnace forces you to make a choice. And share it with a friend who's in the fire. Follow me for daily connections between neuroscience and faith that will help you flourish in your life, even when you're in a season of suffering. And click the link in my bio to learn more about my New York Times, best seller, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. #neuroscience #selfbrainsurgery #pain #trauma
Dr. Lee Warren12,997 Aufrufe • vor 2 Tagen
Knock off the negative self talk! Changing the words you say to yourself literally rebuild your brain in ways that help you or hurt you. Here's the science of one of the words you say to yourself matter: When you use criticizing language in your internal voice, your brain picks up on that and turns on the parts that are related to defending you from physical danger. Your brain hears your mind saying something harmful, and assumes that you're under attack. This affects your physiology, keeps you in a fight or flight response, and elevates your blood pressure and cortisol levels. In other words, when you attack yourself internally, your body gets the message and you literally feel like you're at war. On the other hand, research shows that when you use compassionate language to yourself, you don't magically make all your problems go away. What happens is that your brain area is related to problem-solving, calmness, and feeling hopeful, come alive. This set the filters in your reticular activating system to begin to look for possibility and not danger. The first commandment of self brain surgery is that I must relentlessly refuse to participate in my own demise. Using harmful words to yourself is literally committing malpractice against your own brain and your own life. So, and I say this with love, knock it off. Be kind to yourself. In a world full of difficulties, you deserve at least one ally. And your brain needs to hear encouraging language so I can do a better job of showing you a path forward instead of keeping you stuck. Jeremiah 29:11 says that God has a plan to give you hope and the future. Don't hinder his ability to do that by blocking your brain from being able to see what might already be there. Send this to a friend who needs an ally. Save this for the next time you find yourself feeling afraid. And follow me for connections between neuroscience and scripture every day that will help you flourish in your life. Click the link in my bio to learn more about my New York Times. Best seller, The Life-Changing Art of Self- Brain Surgery. #selfbrainsurgery #mentalhealth #anxiety
Dr. Lee Warren33,690 Aufrufe • vor 11 Tagen
I'm a brain surgeon, and I'm gonna show you how to operate your brain the way it's designed, to help you heal the wounds you’ve been carrying. This is part three, make sure you watch then other ones also. Let's scrub in and get it done. Naming the Wound Takes Away Its Power Vague pain feels bigger than specific pain. When you can’t name what happened or what you feel, your brain treats the wound like an unmapped threat, and it stays on alert, never resolving the danger signal. Neuroscience nugget: Studies on affect labeling show that putting a precise name to a painful feeling reduces activity in the amygdala and increases activity in the prefrontal cortex; the simple act of naming it calms the alarm. Self-Brain Surgery Procedure: Write one sentence naming exactly what happened and exactly what you felt with no exaggeration or minimizing. “When ___ happened, I felt ___.” Read it out loud. Notice how much smaller it feels once it has a name. Scripture: “The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Proverbs 12:18, NIV This is self-brain surgery. Hard and holy work. Follow me to connect neuroscience and scripture every day. Save this to help when you need to heal. Share it with a friend who's hurting. Click the link in my bio to learn more about Self-Brain Surgery. (Note: I'm not a therapist, but I've done the work to heal after war, PTSD. and child loss. This series shows the things that helped me, but these are not medical or mental health advice for you. Talk to your therapist or provider if you're struggling) #selfbrainsurgery #neuroscience #neuroplasticity #grief #healing
Dr. Lee Warren36,805 Aufrufe • vor 15 Tagen
Overwhelming thoughts You feel panic or uncertainty when faced with an overwhelming thought, a painful emotion, or a trigger from your past. Doubts flood your mind: I don’t know how to handle this. What if I mess it up? What if it’s already too late to change this part of my life? This is just who I am. Why should I try to change now? Maybe I’m not strong enough. But here’s the truth: You’re ready. You are well trained, equipped with everything you need, and mentally prepared for what’s going to happen when you start operating. Equally important is what will happen if you don’t operate: Things will stay the same or get worse because the default process is also a type of self–brain surgery. The sad truth is that default leads to decline and that choosing not to change is choosing to stay the same. You see, neuroplasticity works all the time in your brain, and response to every thought you have, whether you take charge of the process or not. So when those automatic and negative thoughts pop into your head, and you accept them without critically, examining them or challenging them to replace them with something more true, your brain wires them in as if they are true. The bottom line? You're either getting better at staying the same/getting worse, or you're getting better at getting better. Self-brain surgeons get better at getting better. The ninth Commandment of self-brain surgery is this: I must believe that I'm getting better at what I'm doing. II Timothy 1:7 says God did not give you a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. II Peter 1:3 sad that his divine power has given you everything you need for your life. So what's going to have the final say for you? Your automatic thoughts that research suggests are almost always wrong? Or scripture, which never changes and reflects the timeless truth of God's plan for you and is being validated every day by 21st-century neuroscience findings. Let's get better at getting better together. Hit that follow button, save this for later when you need to remember something true, and share it with a friend who needs to believe that they really can get better. And click the link in my bio to learn more about my New York Times best seller, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. #neuroscience #selfbrainsurgery #neurosurgeon #mentalhealth
Dr. Lee Warren17,123 Aufrufe • vor 10 Tagen
I'm a brain surgeon, and I'm gonna show you how to operate your brain the way it's designed, to help you heal. Let's scrub in and get it done. (Remember- I'm not a therapist, and this is not mental health advice. I'm sharing what I've learned after overcoming PTSD from the Iraq War and the pain of losing a child. Talk to a professional provider if you're struggling) Forgiveness Is Brain Surgery, Not Sentiment Forgiveness gets sold as a nice feeling you’re supposed to have. It’s not a feeling. It’s a decision that performs actual surgery on the neural pathway connecting you to the person who hurt you, releasing you from carrying their offense in your own body. Neuroscience nugget: Chronic resentment keeps the body’s threat-response system activated: elevated cortisol, disrupted sleep, and impaired prefrontal function. But studies on forgiveness interventions show reduced physiological stress markers when people practice it. Self-Brain Surgery Procedure: Say the sentence out loud, even if you don’t feel it yet: “I choose to forgive ___ for ___. I release this from my body.” Feelings follow decisions. Don’t wait to feel forgiving before you decide to forgive. (Note: Forgiveness DOES NOT mean reconciliation or that you stay in a dangerous or harmful situation. It's something you do in your mind and heart) Scripture: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32, NIV This is self-brain surgery. It's hard and holy work, and I'm proud of you for showing up. Follow me to connect neuroscience and scripture every day. Save this to help when you need to heal. Share it with a friend who's hurting. Click the link in my bio to learn more about my New York Times bestseller, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. #selfbrainsurgery #neuroscience #neuroplasticity #grief #healing
Dr. Lee Warren19,401 Aufrufe • vor 15 Tagen
I'm a brain surgeon, and I'm gonna show you how to operate your brain the way it's designed, to help you heal the wounds you’ve been carrying; the ones from childhood, from broken relationships, from things said that can’t be unsaid, and from things done that can’t be undone. This is part four, make sure you watch then other ones also. Let's scrub in and get it done. (This isn't mental health advice. I'm sharing what I learned that helped me heal after PTSD from the Iraq War and losing a child. Talk to your provider if this seems scary if if you're struggling to heal) You Can’t Heal What You Won’t Feel Avoiding a wound doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it run the show from underground. Numbing, distracting, and denying all keep the wound exactly where it is: open, but hidden. (Not to mention violating our 6th commandment of SBS- “I must love tomorrow more than I hate how I feel right now.”) Neuroscience nugget: Suppressing an emotion doesn’t reduce the underlying physiological stress response, it just masks it while the body still carries the elevated cortisol and vigilance of unresolved threat. Self-Brain Surgery Procedure: Set a timer for two minutes. Let yourself actually feel the wound (the sadness, the anger, the grief) without acting on it or arguing with it. When the timer goes off, close it deliberately: “I have felt this. Now I choose what to do next.” Scripture: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Matthew 5:4, NIV This is self-brain surgery. It's hard and holy work, and I'm proud of you. Follow me to connect neuroscience and scripture every day. Save this to help when you need to heal. Share it with a friend who's hurting. Click the link in my bio to learn more about my New York Times Bestseller, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery.
Dr. Lee Warren16,318 Aufrufe • vor 15 Tagen
How to win morning your life! Click the link in my bio to learn more about Self-Brain Surgery!
Dr. Lee Warren13,367 Aufrufe • vor 14 Tagen
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