The Cycle Tool

More Emotional Brain Training

The Cycle Tool for Brain State 4

"State the facts about your upset.
No feelings. Just the facts.
Keep it short, however, long enough to arouse strong emotions in your body.

Then launch into the Natural Flow of Feelings
I feel angry that . . .
I feel sad that . . .
I feel afraid that . . .
I feel guilty that . . .
Express short choppy sentences to express your feelings.
Your stress will begin to quiet down, and you will be in the portal of your emotional brain.

At that point, you can use deductive reasoning to identify your Unreasonable Expectation.

Then find a Reasonable Expectation — the opposite of the unreasonable one — which squashes the wiring of that old unreasonable expectation.

In a flash you will go into a stress response, which is why we use Encouraging Words, a short statement of support to keep you thinking about the reasonable expectation.

The most powerful part of The Cycle is to identify the Essential Pain, the change, loss, upset, reality to face, and grow from, in order to switch your brain to joy, and feel the joy response.

The Essential Pain is the truth about the human condition or my life that I must face in order to follow through with this new reasonable expectation, in a state of balance and joy.

The Earned Reward is your reason for following through with that reasonable expectation, and if that reward is not more pleasurable than the Essential Pain then the expectation needs some tweaking. It’s not reasonable.

Last, as you return to Brain State 1, ask What do I need? (including need for support from others).

If you like, check to see if there is a circuit you want to break that was revealed by the Cycle. That’s your positive affirmation or Grind In. Repeat it 10 times, 1 to 3 times per day to help break that old neural circuit and build a new one that leads to joy.

Here’s a demonstration of The Cycle Tool by the founder of Emotional Brain Training, Laurel Mellin, MA, RD, Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF.

Our unconscious emotional expectations hold us in a stress response.

Use the Cycle Tool to nab that unconscious unreasonable expectation, bring it to a conscious level and rewire it.

Just the Facts:
My shoulder hurts from playing golf, my brother is in the hospital after open heart surgery, I am going to visit a friend tomorrow morning in LA, and see her daughter’s wedding reception, and I am missing my mother, who passed away a little more than two years ago.

Natural Flow of Feelings
I feel angry that my shoulder hurts. I hate it that my mother is gone . . .
I feel sad that my brother is sick. I feel sad that my shoulder hurts.
I feel afraid that I will keep having losses, my mother . . . more . . .
I feel guilty that I feel bad.

My Unreasonable Expectation is that I shouldn’t feel bad when I am in the midst of loss.

My Reasonable Expectation? I expect myself to feel as bad as I need to feel for as long as I need to feel it.

Encouraging Words? I can do that!

The Essential Pain is that: Life can be difficult. I will have pain.

The Earned Reward (of accepting that): I can see myself. I can honor myself.

Now, I can feel a sense of sanctuary within. I am at Brain State 1.

Now that I have switched my brain from stress to joy, what do I need (including what do I need from others)?

What do I need? To enjoy my life. To appreciate how much love I feel for my mother, my brother, my family. I need to call the hospital and find out how my brother is doing (it’s still a “no visitor” day as he is in intensive care and in discomfort).

Grind In: I feel full of love and gratitude right now, just as I am.
Repeat your affirmation 10 times, 1 to 3 times per day, to help break that old neural circuit and build a new one that leads to joy.

The Cycle Tool gives us the power to rewire our unconscious memory systems, and using it simply as in the example or in ways that target healing of our early trauma and most challenging situation, such as with addictions, rejections, and survival needs. It guides us through the natural processing of stress through the brain, sending that electrical and chemical energy through stress and back to joy."

Emotional Housecleaning

More from the Emotional Brain Training website and blog.

Emotional Housecleaning for Brain State 3
Express four negative feelings (anger, sadness, fear and guilt) and four positive ones (their opposites — grateful, happy, secure and proud), in that order.

I feel angry about.......
I feel sad about.......
I feel afraid of.......
I feel guilty about.......


I feel grateful for .......
I feel happy that .......
I feel secure about .......
I feel proud about .......

Expressing feelings decreases stress. You start with the negative feelings, because the brain has to clear away the negative ones to reduce stress to the point that we can feel the positive ones.

What is Emotional Brain Training?

The following information of edited from the Emotional Brain Training website.

Emotional Brain Training is a method of rewiring the brain to promote optimal processing of stress. The method is based on six tools, one to identify the level of stress or “brain state” on a 5-point scale. For each level there is a different pathway in the brain that most effectively eases stress and promotes positive emotions.

One way of thinking about the brain is in different layers of function. The most primitive is the lower part of the brain and its core. The limbic system is the next layer of the human brain and is the seat of emotions, relationships, spirituality and reward. The newest layer is the neocortical brain, the seat of consciousness, planning and decision-making.

Each of these brain areas has different strengths and it is how the whole brain works together — neural integration — that supports our survival. The neocortex enables us to think magnificent thoughts, the limbic system to love and feel loved, and the primitive brain responds to stressors with amazing speed, adjusting bodily processes to offer the best chances of survival.

When the brain perceives a survival level threat, it shifts the flow of energy toward the more primitive areas, creating the quickest response and fulfilling our first purpose which is to survive. When our minds think that our survival is in danger and decides to shut off our ability to be creative or sense others emotions and instead just focus on making very quick instinctive decisions.

When this happens, both the limbic system and the neocortex stop working and our ability to process emotions and our ability to rationally think stops because we are not using that part of our brains.

The initial stress activates memories formed during other periods of stress. Memories or wires are “state specific”, that is, we are more likely to arouse other memories that were stored in that state, even though they don’t “match” the current situation.

The secondary stress, the arousal of wires or connections that amplify the stress experienced, is not experienced as a memory. There is no “source attribution” or feeling of remembering something.

For example when you experience rejection, the wiring from being rejected by other loves, or being bullied as school, or being criticized by a teacher, or negative experiences with mom, dad and siblings is aroused. Again, we don’t sense that we are remembering, but nonetheless, the wires cause us to overreact. Even if we didn’t like that old lover that much anyway, but you’d never know it. We plummet to Brain State 5, and it feels as if our life is on the line.

In Brain State 5, it is perfectly normal and universal either to be hyper-aroused or blank out. Thinking is irrational. We are confused. Emotions are extreme or strangely absent. Intimacy is impossible to find. We tend to merge or distance. Our behaviors are extreme, and tend to be addictive.

When the brain is working as it should, the limbic brain flows input from all the senses, from the body, emotional memories, unconscious expectations and thoughts. In an ongoing flow of functionality it sizes up all the potential threats and rewards, prioritizes them, then settles on an emotion. That emotion is the message to the neocortical brain and directs us to meet our most important need. The strongest emotion points to the most important need.

The brain is in one of five states at all times, ranging from stress to joy. For each brain state there is a specific pathway that most effectively processes stress back to well-being. Learn how to switch your brain from stress to joy. Rewire the brain for lasting results and change the brain’s set point toward well-being.

Laurel Mellin, MA, RD is an Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF. She is the founder of Emotional Brain Training (EBT), a method of treating obesity and stress symptoms that equips individuals with tools based on an integration of neuroscience and attachment theory to decrease the frequency and duration of the stress response and to favor high-level well-being.

Depression, stress, and Emotional Brain Training

Research is beginning to show that the a major cause of depression is not genetics, but stress. It was thought that a particular serotonin transporter gene was responsible for most cases of depression, as some previous studies have implied.

Emotional Brain Training (EBT) uses the Natural Flow of Feelings technique when at Brain State 4 to unravel depression, and identify what is triggering the cortisol cascade.

These feelings are: angry, sad, afraid and guilty.

Often in people who slip into depression, the “I feel angry . . ” skill needs strengthening.

A simple, “I feel angry that . . . ” and really feel it. come up with at least 20 "I feel angry..." and not allowing words to pass your lips until you feel FIRE in the belly.

Notice how depression cools, as you begin to feel better.