A Mindset of Miracles

In our setting, our surroundings, we need a challenge or an obstacle. Our surroundings can also provide a sense of safety and support or danger and opposition. However, we don’t need all the tools required to overcome the challenge. Also, we must bring Set, our mindset, an attitude that we will try. As you have undoubtedly discovered in your many encounters with adversity, if you have a mindset of failure, of having already been defeated, you are far less likely to grow in your capabilities.

“Set and setting” is a concept used with psychedelic drugs and plant medicines in PTSD and other therapies. The psychedelic stimulant creates a plasticity in the brain and nervous system and maybe in the emotional system. This means that old, dysfunctional reaction patterns in the nervous system can soften and be reshaped into more effective response patterns to external and internal stimuli. There are two challenges here. First, responses to psychedelics are different for every individual, and second, the mindset of the client is the dominant factor in determining the nature of the reforming of nervous system consciousness within the body. The practitioner has little control over the client’s mindset.

All aspects of struggle induce neuroplasticity. Simply trying something when you don’t know if you will succeed, or pushing your muscles beyond the level of exhaustion induces a degree of plasticity which can result in bigger or more efficient muscles and quicker reflexes. Some will claim that, when you succeed, “you had it in you”. However stiving against uncertainty activates a creative problem solving process at many levels. DNA, cellular, endocrine, heart, muscular, and nervous systems. Even if we didn’t have the capacity before, striving against the odds likely means that we will have more capabilities after we try, regardless of success or failure. If required, we may just pull the needed rabbit out of the hat. We can become more capable in ways of which we weren’t even aware.

A traumatic event, the source of long-standing PTSD, creates this same neuroplasticity. An emergency is a challenging situation in which we don’t know if we or our friends will even survive. The resulting neuroplasticity will result in rapid formation of neurons and synapses during and for a short time after the event.

The environment is filled with danger and potential disaster. How is this different from surfing 20 foot waves or giving a speech in front of 1000 critics and reporters? The answer is Mindset. If you expect to die, death is more likely. If you are determined to survive and succeed, your positive mindset will shape the neuroplasticity, and may just allow you to act upon inspiration to improve the outcome. You are likely to emerge with new capabilities. You are likely to come to expect inspiration and synchronicities.

With PTSD, the mindset was often different. If a desperation or helplessness is the embodiment of your mindset, the neuroplasticity is likely to reform into typical PTSD symptoms, imprinting your nervous system with expectations of disaster and unconscious memories which can be triggered by environmental triggers similar to the event that caused the PTSD in the first place. You have allowed your expectation of disaster to permeate your nervous system right before it solidifies again into it’s new more rigid form. You are now stuck with PTSD until the next time you hit a neuroplasticity situation with a more positive mindset.

Another example is whiplash. Why do some people get into car accidents, then over the next week develop whiplash syndrome where the vicious circle of nerve inflammation, muscle spasm, and spinal compression grows into debilitating pain and radiating numbness? Others seem to avoid the nerve inflammation so the muscles don’t compress vertebrae compressing nerves. The whiplash never forms. Is it a mindset of victimhood that intensifies this whiplash syndrome?

As we step away from our belief that our lives are determined by science and circumstance and instead cultivate a mindset of expecting miracles and blessings every day, our lives become a creation of our mindset. Mindset is a muscle. Can we find the silver lining in every storm cloud? Do we exercise it daily until it becomes our automatic response in all situations. Do we find the good that results from every disaster, even if it is just that our optimistic mindset is permeating more deeply into our nervous system every time we are exposed to a seemingly disastrous situation. Coming out of a PTSD experience without PTSD is a miracle. Giving an unpopular speech to an angry mob and not crumpling into a tear-filled blob of jelly afterwards is a miracle. Mindset creates miracles.

A resilient mindset of miracles also means that If you struggle with residual PTSD, depression, anxiety, or emotional turbulence, the next time you are faced with an angry pedestrian, a dark alley, news that creates cognitive dissonance within us, or any plasticity creating situation, your residual struggle may just vanish.

As we step away from our belief that our lives are determined by science and circumstance and instead cultivate a mindset of expecting miracles and blessings every day, our lives become a creation of our mindset. Mindset is a muscle. Can we find the silver lining in every storm cloud? Do we exercise it daily until it becomes our automatic response in all situations. Do we find the good that results from every disaster, even if it is just that our optimistic mindset is permeating more deeply into our nervous system every time we are exposed to a seemingly disastrous situation. Coming out of a PTSD experience without PTSD is a miracle. Giving an unpopular speech to an angry mob and not crumpling into a tear-filled blob of jelly afterwards is a miracle. Mindset creates miracles.

A resilient mindset of miracles also means that If you struggle with residual PTSD, depression, anxiety, or emotional turbulence, the next time you are faced with an angry pedestrian, a dark alley, news that creates cognitive dissonance within us, or any plasticity creating situation, your residual struggle may just vanish.