Lets Retrain Your Brain!

HELLO! Oh my gosh, happy New Year, guys.

Last month was a blur. While it certainly wasn’t perfect, it was probably one of my favorite holiday seasons by far. If you don’t follow me on Instagram, you might not know that I not only have two boys (11 and 14), but I also have four adorable tiny nieces. This Christmas season had me leaning hard into my nesting, feminine, girly side to counteract the man-land I live in here at home, and also to play in the best way with my four favorite little girls. Pictured here is Black Tie Baking Day, where we wore matching sparkly dresses and baked all day, dancing to Taylor Swift and genuinely living my best life.

While December is wonderful in so many ways, the true love of my life is sweet January. It’s such a potent time for intention and recalibration. My last few Januarys have been major course corrections for me, as I’ve navigated out of patterns that weren’t serving me and behaviors that kept me stuck and small. Cliché as it may be, January can be a really powerful time for personal change.

So with that belief in place, I want to talk about brain retraining.

“Brain retraining,” as an official practice, is something that was actually recommended to me by my doctor when I was dealing with a lot of chronic symptoms that came from stress. It’s the practice of teaching your brain safety. There are a lot of official programs out there (DNRS, Primal Trust, the Gupta Program, etc.), and I’ve gone through three different programs over the years. They all basically walk you through the same thing:

The mental rehearsal of goodness.

It’s kind of amazing how much science there is around this practice. It’s not toxic positivity, it’s the intentional visualization of memory, either an actual memory you’ve lived or a future experience you’d like to have.

Let’s try it right now:

Imagine a good moment from 2025 (or any year, really). It could be a gorgeous summer day, driving down the road listening to your favorite song. Maybe the best latte in the vibey-est coffee shop. Maybe a deep conversation with a friend or loved one. Any kind of moment where you felt present, engaged, and open.

Relive that moment. Sift through the details. Use your senses to take yourself back there. How did you feel? What did you see or do? Who was with you? What were you thinking in that moment? Take a minute there…

When we’re able to sit inside a good moment, even briefly, your brain and body run the same biochemical program as if it were happening in real time. You release potent and healing serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine, even natural painkillers (endogenous opioids)!

Now if you were to practice this every day, and you would be engaging in a deeply healing habit that shifts your nervous system over time out of shutdown and fight/flight and into ventral — the state we want to normalize for creativity and connection.

The most interesting thing about this practice is that you can use it to rehearse your future.

Let’s face it, guys, we are already constantly rehearsing our future based on what we don’t want to happen and what we’re afraid might happen. Rehearsing or meditating on what you want to happen isn’t woo-woo (although, who even cares if it was?), it’s consciously showing yourself that you will survive the dreams you have for yourself.

We have two amazing guests this month on the Heal/Create Podcast that I can’t wait to introduce you to, but for now, stick around here and on my instagram page (@courtneylan) and let’s dive into the potency of what working with your mind and imagination can do.

Again, Happy New Year — and I wish you a truly peaceful and transformative beginning to it!

Courtney 💛