What’s the neurocycle process like? How does journaling about your mental state help improve it?
Mental toxicity results from repeated failures to process unhealthy thoughts. With the neurocycle’s steps, you remedy that by giving yourself opportunities to do that processing.
Check out the six steps of the neurocycle below.
The Six Steps of the Neurocycle
Dr. Caroline Leaf says that there are five neurocycle steps, but this count doesn’t include an additional step she recommends—grounding yourself. For this reason, we’ll refer to the neurocycle as a six-step process.
1) Ground yourself: Leaf says neurocycling can be taxing, so it’s important to begin from a calm, grounded place. Grounding yourself entails connecting with your body or the present moment to stabilize your emotional state. You can use any number of grounding techniques at this stage; one that Leaf recommends is deep breathing.
(Shortform note: You may also find it beneficial to do grounding exercises at the end of a neurocycle. Psychologists recommend grounding techniques when you experience something upsetting (like processing intense or difficult thoughts and feelings), as they help you transition from a heightened emotional state to a calmer, more balanced one that can carry you through the rest of your day.)
2) Notice your mental state: Confront your unhealthy thoughts by acknowledging them and embracing the opportunity to begin healing them. An unhealthy thought may be obvious if it’s attached to a dysfunctional behavior, or you may have to listen to subconscious hints like physical or emotional pain or tenderness. Leaf says noticing your mental state may be uncomfortable at first, especially if you’re not used to this kind of self-awareness, but the unhealthy thought’s power and any associated discomfort should start to dissipate.
(Shortform note: Psychologists say you can ease the discomfort from observing your unhealthy thoughts by creating distance between yourself and your thoughts. To do this, you can think of your thoughts as fleeting experiences—they come and go like passing clouds in the sky. This perspective helps you observe your thoughts without becoming overwhelmed by them, which reduces their emotional impact enough for you to confront them head-on.)
3) Understand your mental state: When you notice your mental state, you bring an unhealthy thought from your nonconscious mind to your conscious mind. Next, you’ll explore your nonconscious mind further, examining the network of memories and events associated with the unhealthy thought. Leaf recommends asking yourself a series of questions about how you formed the thought, how it’s impacting you, and whether the thought is accurate.
(Shortform note: In The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris refers to this process as defusion. He explains that thoughts are merely stories that your brain tells you to help you survive—they may not be based in fact, and they may not actually be useful. Additionally, they only have as much power as you give them; if you dig deeply into a thought and decide that it isn’t healthy, accurate, or helpful, you can choose to let it go or shift your focus to more constructive thoughts and actions. If a thought is healthy, accurate, and helpful, you can use it to guide your decisions in the future.)
4) Journal about your mental state: Once you understand your mental state, Leaf recommends writing about it to deepen your understanding. She says studies show that writing helps you organize and simplify your thoughts, which makes them easier to work with going forward. Writing about your unhealthy thoughts also externalizes them—instead of being trapped in your mind where they can fester, they’re transferred onto paper, where they’re controllable.
(Shortform note: Psychologists say that there’s a right way and a wrong way to journal about your thoughts. Journaling is effective when you evaluate your thoughts critically, identify patterns, and seek solutions. It becomes less effective if it turns into a repetitive cycle of venting or self-criticism without moving toward problem-solving or constructive insights. To maximize the benefits of journaling, focus on exploring your emotions, understanding their origins, and actively working on strategies to address and resolve your mental challenges.)
5) Correct your thinking: When you’ve put your thoughts down on paper, it becomes easier to view them objectively and identify any distortions or inaccuracies. In this step, you use this perspective to challenge or even totally deconstruct your unhealthy thoughts. Then, you imagine healthier, more constructive alternatives. According to Leaf, correcting your thinking physically weakens your unhealthy thoughts by interrupting a process called protein synthesis, which she says is integral to a physical thought’s structure.
(Shortform note: CBT experts refer to this as cognitive restructuring and offer several techniques for replacing unhealthy thoughts with healthier alternatives. One strategy is to evaluate the evidence for and against an unhealthy thought, which helps you arrive at a more balanced conclusion. Another is to immediately counter negative thoughts like “I’m stupid” with an opposite thought like “I’m smart.” Although Leaf claims that cognitive restructuring weakens unhealthy thoughts by interfering with protein synthesis, neuroscientists have yet to confirm this. Protein synthesis may play a role in long-term memory, but the relationship between cognitive restructuring, memory formation, and protein synthesis is unclear.)
6) Put your healthy thoughts into practice. In the final step of the neurocycle, you complete activities based on the healthy alternatives to your unhealthy thoughts that you came up with in the previous step. For example, if your unhealthy thought was “Nobody likes me,” you might replace it with “My loved ones value me.” To put this healthy thought into practice, you could spend time with a loved one or say an affirmation like “I’m likable” aloud. Leaf says that taking action in this way physically destroys the unhealthy thoughts you’ve been weakening throughout the neurocycle: The choice to change your behavior generates energy that attacks your unhealthy thoughts, and then that energy is diverted to strengthen your healthy thoughts.
(Shortform note: In The Happiness Trap, Harris suggests that instead of trying to align your actions with healthy thoughts, you can enhance your well-being by acting on your values. As a proponent of ACT, Harris rejects the idea that you can or should destroy all your unhealthy thoughts. In his view, it’s more effective to define what’s truly important to you and commit to actions that reflect those values. Say you value compassion—it may be unreasonable to expect to think compassionately all the time, but you can act with compassion regardless of your thoughts. Neuroscience suggests that over time, enacting your values could become second nature, as the neural connections that support that behavior get stronger with repeated use.)
