Robert F. Mullen
Director/ReChanneling

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“Dr. Mullen is doing impressive work helping the world. He is the pioneer of proactive neuroplasticity utilizing DRNI – deliberate, repetitive, neural information.” – WeVoice (Madrid)

This is a draft of Chapter Nine – “Constructing Our Neural Information” in ReChanneling’s upcoming book on moderating social anxiety disorder and its comorbidities. We present this as an opportunity for readers to share their ideas and constructive criticism – suggestions gratefully considered and evaluated as we work to ensure the most beneficial product to those with emotional malfunction (which is all of us to some degree). Please forward your comments in the form provided below.

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Constructing Our Neural Information

“The problems are solved, not by giving new information,
but by arranging what we have known since long.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein

A comprehensive recovery program has three primary goals: (1) To replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors with healthy, productive ones, (2) to produce rapid, neurological stimulation to change the polarity of our neural network, and (3) to regenerate our self-esteem.

Proactive neuroplasticity is our ability to govern our emotional well-being through DRNI – the deliberate, repetitive, neural input of information. What is significant is how we dramatically accelerate and consolidate learning by consciously compelling our brain to repattern its neural circuitry. DRNI empowers us to proactively transform our thoughts and behaviors, creating healthy new mindsets, skills, and abilities. 

Before delving into the construction of our neural information, let’s break DRNI down into its components so we fully understand the purpose and the process.

Deliberate. A deliberate act is a premeditated one; we initiate and control the process. Let’s review the three forms of neuroplasticity. Reactive neuroplasticity is our brain’s natural adaption to externally driven information that impacts our neural network. Active neuroplasticity is cognitive pursuits such as dancing, yoga, or assembling a puzzle. It is not a deliberate manipulation of our neural network and is often impulsive. To be proactive is to intentionally cause something to happen rather than respond to it after it has happened. Proactive neuroplasticity is the deliberate act of reconstructing our neural network. Its purpose is to overwhelm or replace negative and toxic neural input with healthy positive information. As psychoanalyst Otto Rank confirms in Art and the Artist, “positively willed control takes the place of negative inhibition. 

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Repetition is the act or an instance of repeating or being repeated – in this case, our neural information. Common synonyms of repetitive include monotonous, tedious, and mind-numbing. The process can be off-putting unless we remain mindful of its purpose, which is the positive realignment of our neural network. Proactive neural Information consists of short, self-affirming, and self-motivating statements we commit to memory and repeat to expedite learning and unlearning. 

Neural input is the stimuli that impact our brain and compel its circuits to realign and create new neurons. The gateway to information, receptor neurons do not react to every stimulus. Our brain receives around two million bits of data per second but is capable of processing roughly 126 bits, so it is important to provide substantial information. 

Multiple tools assist in our recovery, and we identify them throughout this book. Coping mechanisms moderate our situational fears, graded exposure eases our transition into society, and cognitive comprehension corrects our irrational assumptions. In this chapter, our focus is on the rapid and concentrated neurological stimulation that compels a sensory neuron to spark, initiating a neural chain reaction. The more repetitions, the more durable the circuits. 

Neural stimuli are sensory – sights, sounds, tactile impressions; mental in the form of memory, experience, and ideas; and emotional incited by images, words, and music. The purpose of inputting neural information in proactive neuroplasticity is to overwhelm or replace toxic with healthy information in the form of positive electrical energy. The content and motive of our information determine the positive or negative polarity of its energy – the size, amount, or degree of that which passes from one atom to another in the course of its chain reaction. 

We begin the process of DRNI by identifying the goal of our information. What is our intention? What do we want to achieve? Are we challenging our anxieties about a social event? Are we asking for a raise? Are we confronting the family conspiracist at Thanksgiving dinner? A firm, specific goal enables the process. 

Then we identify the actions or measurable steps needed to achieve the goal. Our goal is the outcome we want to achieve; the objectives are the means necessary to achieve the desired outcome. Goals and objectives work in tandem. If our goal is to challenge a feared-situation, what is our strategy, and what coping mechanisms will make that happen. 

Now we construct our information – the self-empowering statement(s) that support our goal and objectives. To ensure its integrity, the information is sound in its construction. Meeting the following eight guidelines will establish an effective neural response. The best information is rational, reasonable, possible, positive, goal-focused, unconditional, concise, and in first-person present or future form.

Rational. Our overarching objective in recovery is to subvert the negative self-beliefs and image that stem from our core and intermediate beliefs influenced by childhood disturbance and onset. We manifest these self-defeating perspectives in our automatic negative thoughts (ANTs). For the most part, our assumptions are illogical and cognitively distorted. Countering them requires devising a rational response. If our ANT corresponds to our SAD-indued fear of ridicule or criticism, a rebuttal might be an affirmation of our significance – mindfulness of the value of our contributions.

Reasonable. Unreasonable means without reason, which is a definition of insanity. We are either sensible and of sound judgment or are cognitively impaired. Unreasonable aspirations and expectations impact the soundness of our information. “I will publish my first novel” is an unreasonable expectation if we choose to remain illiterate.

Possible means it is within our power or capacity to achieve it. Because our social anxiety attacks our confidence and self-esteem, we tend to subvert our inherent and achieved attributes, which limits our recognition of possibility. 

Positive. For our purposes positive means we eliminate negative thoughts, words, or statements from our information. Rather than stating, “I will not be afraid,” preferable statements could be “I am confident,” or “I will be courageous.”

Goal-Focused. If we do not know our destination, the path will be unfocused and meandering. We focus the content of our information on our goals and objectives. For SAD persons, our overarching goal is moderating our fears, anxieties, and ANTs. 

Unconditional. Our commitment to the content of our information must be unequivocal. Any undertaking contingent upon something or someone else weakens its resolution and potential. Saying “I might do something” means “I may or may not do something.” How comfortable are we when someone says, “I might consider paying you for your work?” 

First-Person Present or Future. Our information is a self-affirming and self-motivating commitment to our current or future. The past is important to intention but irrevocable. “I can do this.” Future time as self-fulfilling prophecy is also fine: “I will succeed,” for example. 

Concise. We express our information in succinct statements purposed to initiate the rapid, concentrated, neurological stimulation that transmits the electrical energy from one atom to another in the course of its chain reaction. Brevity also makes it easier to commit our PPAs to memory because information changes as it evolves in recovery. 

The importance of productive neural input is indisputable. It expedites and integrates our three primary goals, each complementary to the others. The deliberate and considered replacement of our negative thoughts and beliefs with healthy, productive ones assists in changing the energy polarity of our neural network and simultaneously helps regenerate our self-esteem.

Proactive Neuroplasticity YouTube Series

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Comments. Suggestions. Constructive Criticism.

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