So interesting, I was cleaning up some files on my computer the other day and I came across a video I had done with a fellow coach from back in April 2020. And think about what was happening in april 2020—we were at the beginning of the pandemic, and everything felt so completely up in the air, globally, right? And in this conversation my friend was saying that she wanted to launch a coaching practice but she was feeling kind of paralyzed, everything felt topsy turvy now, that she thought she would launch when things seemed safer, more predictable. Okay, so that sounds so logical. Noone would think—what a crazy thought, it’s actually very logical. She’s saying I feel afraid, I need to wait until the world calms down so I can feel ready.

So I thought, wow, fast forward five years and we could be thinking the exact same thing now. Things are scary, need to wait….And so I thought, this is such a good illustration of what I call thinking from the Lower Mind. 

And by LM, I don't mean inferior, it’s the logical mind, the figuring things out mind. The way I teach about your thoughts is through these concepts of lower mind and higher mind. So the lower mind is a label that you can put on the part of your mind that is tied to your body, you are an earthling that has a little soft body, and you’ve been provided with this brain function that brilliantly looks for ways to keep you alive. It looks to the past and tries to predict the future. And whenever you are registering fear, you are in your lower mind. Nothing wrong with fear, nothing wrong with the lower mind, but it is a good indicator that you are operating in your lower mind if you are feeling fear or dread or even confusion which is kind of fear light. The lower mind is extremely important to us, but it’s just coming up with a hypothesis based on the past—in this case, things are gonna be bad so we need to not taking any action—the future is uncertain, uncertain equals scary and therefore retreat, but you get to decide what you will do with that hypothesis. Who is THAT you who is deciding what to do with that hypothesis? It is you operating in the Higher Mind. The HM is the one who observes the LM, and it is the one that imagines not based on the past, but rather what you choose to imagine, imagining something brand new that maybe never existed before. We knew this as little children, and then we slowly forget as adults and we are trained to trust our logical mind, that that’s the one to keep us safe and we become disconnected from the powerhouse.

So today I want to talk about something that’s more important than ever: thinking about your future self—even when life feels uncertain.

So first, let’s talk about the Neuroscience of thinking and feeling.

The Brain Only Knows NOW. You can think about the past, but you are thinking about the past now. You can think about the future, but you are thinking about the future now. Neuroscience tells us that your brain cannot distinguish between something that’s actually happening and something you vividly imagine happening—when it is paired with an emotion.

That’s why professional athletes, performers, and executives all get this now, they visualize their future performance before they do it. A gymnast imagining a perfect routine, The brain treats it like practice in real time. And how do you get better at something? You rehearse. You practice.

Okay so you have that same brain. For us, in everyday life, this is incredibly powerful…what are you thinking and feeling on the regular? what are you rehearsing? What are you teaching your brain to get better at?

• When you visualize your future self as calm, resilient, and capable, your brain starts wiring itself to that reality. It is practicing that thought and emotion and strengthening those patterns. This is why I call my podcast Our Modern Emotional Lives, we are starting to understand and harness the power of our emotions instead of relegating them to something frivolous or something we are trying to avoid.

• You are practicing your future life right now, in the present moment, long before it has “arrived” in the external world.

So if I ask you—tell me how you are imagining your life three years from now,  if you say I can’t—I don’t know what’s going to happen so I can’t, it is likely because you are identifying yourself based on what happens in the external world.  You look to the outside world to define you, so when things seem really uncertain, you will struggle to predict how you will experience your life. So the question is—can you imagine your Future Self without having to know what is happening in the world? What do you know will be true about you no matter what?

The only thing you can know will be true is what you are choosing to think. That is what you know now you control.

Most of us see our identity and our life as our reaction to what is happening outside of us. but I want to encourage you to start shaping your identity based on who you choose to be and how you choose to think, as opposed to the circumstances of your life.

 And how do you begin this process…..you  practice your future self deliberately, consciously, you think this is who I am now, and this is who I want to be in 3 years….you give your brain a new “script” to follow—one that is calm, capable, and aligned with the life you want to create. That is the Higher Mind. It’s Not logical, it’s not figuring out your future, it’s imaginative. The HM gives you the opportunity to create what you want in the future because when you practice feeling calm now, you experience calm now.  This isn’t about denying reality or ignoring danger. It’s about understanding what you can control—and the way most people describe this is the only thing you can control is your thoughts, you can’t control the world you can only control your response to things…….but what I want to emphasize here is, that’s not a small thing. It’s not just little old you trying to control your responses in the big bad world, THOUGHTS ARE THE CREATIVE SOURCE OF EVERYTHING. You have been granted the exquisite creative power of being able to control your thoughts.  it is such a remarkable opportunity to be a human with a thinking mind. It is a truth that has been mostly hidden from our view and conditioned out of us.  So this is the opportunity of this moment—when the outside world can’t create good stable feelings for us, we go inside., and when we do, we  are bound to get closer to the truth of how powerful our thinking really is.

Okay so I want to give you some ideas about how to Think About Your Future Self , how you start anchoring yourself in that future self, regardless of what is happening around you, and you don’t have to DO all of these things, these are just ideas, take any that resonate:

1. Okay so first,

   • Take a few minutes daily to imagine the person you want to be with a focus on feelings—imagine your future self sitting in a comfortable chair, looking out at some vista, thinking about your life, -and in your body you feel calm, capable, resilient, wise.  Focus on qualities and feelings, not circumstances.

2. Now Your LM, when thinking about the future in uncertain times,  will try to be helpful and it will predict things that might make you feel afraid….the LM is very simple—it wants to seek pleasure and avoid pain, and ironically it creates pain now. 

   • It’s normal and even a healthy thing to think, “What if the worst happens?” Notice the fear, but then ask: “What thought could I choose that supports the life I want instead?” –I can handle things. That’s what I always do, I handle things, one step at a time.  The LM can’t notice that it is thinking fearful thoughts, only the HM can notice that. As soon as you notice, you have put a little space between you and the fear. The HM is who you REALLY are, the Observer, the one who is deciding what to do with these fearful predictions. The more you lean on that HM, the more you will build your identity based on the HM and not just stuff out there that scares you. Make sense?   I remember this gradual transition very well in my own life…..the LM was my home base it was familiar and thinking and feeling calm was unfamiliar and it felt kind of forced and clunky. And gradually, it became the opposite. I still get captured by my fearful LM, but it doesn’t feel like the real me anymore. I’m not sure if I’m explaining that well, but it happened over time.

3. Write a Letter from Your Future Self, pick like 3 or 5 years from now. Just like when you were a kid, just let your imagination go….and focus on how you want to feel: calm, capable, resilient, wise.

   • This makes the future feel real and reachable, not distant or scary. And you practice it, spend time with her. Make her real.

4. Focus on making tiny Decisions Today that align with that FS who is calm.

   • Small choices, thoughts, and actions compound over time. Ask yourself: “What one thing can I choose today that aligns with my future self?” Any time you choose to do something a little UC instead of C, you are leaning into the HM. The LM guides you all the time toward comfort and familiarity, so even in the tiniest moment—when you want o grab your phone and check IG and instead you say no, I’m going to keep focusing on the task at hand, NOTICE that you did that. Amplify it. That is a micro HM moment. And it shifts your identity.

5. Act “As If” Your Future Self Exists Now, you can’t be waiting for her to show up, you build her now. You create her now. You practice her now. Imagine she is standing 30 yards away from you and everyday you practice being her, she gets closer and closer. She wants to come, but she can’t come if you aren’t practicing being her now.

Okay….if any of this resonated, this is the kind of stuff we will be addressing in my FB class—it starts this Sunday Sept 14th, if you’re listening to this past that date no worries just email me and you can still be a part of it. It is six weeks long, we focus on six different topics that are a distillation of all of the concepts that had the biggest impact on my clients. The first wave of people who signed up are people who are taking the class for the third time….not because the content changed, but because their brains changed. Students say that not only do they feel better, they learn HOW to feel better. That is the point—it is an empowering class, one that helps you understand your brain in a way you didn’t before so you can feel more in control. You can find all of the details at sheilatully.com. It’s the only time im teaching it this year, grab your seat now.