Confidence On/Off Switch Discovered in Human Brain
KANSAS CITY, MO. (PRWEB) September 04, 2018 -- Foundering in a sea of war, disease, weather disasters, and political gridlock, many feel hopeless and helpless. People need a deep belief that they’re strong and worthy and that they can surmount giant challenges. In Confidence Beyond Measure: The Science of Believing in Yourself, psychologist Bernard J. Sullivan, Ph.D. shatters our age-old understanding of confidence.
After decades of studying confidence, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology, Dr. Sullivan made the stunning discovery that people unconsciously use self-criticism and other negative feelings to suppress an inborn, bulletproof sense of worth and importance that was passed down from early humans. This raw, fearless, automatic confidence made them feel, “My children will sleep by the fire,” and “I will kill that beast with this sharpened stick.” It let them bring every ounce of their strength, talent, and passion to every challenge. He named this empowering instinct alpha confidence and shows that it is the strongest drive in human nature, dwarfing even sexual desire.
Confidence is like hundreds of other automatic on/off biological systems. For example, one system turns hunger on – another turns it off. One system heats people up and another cools them down. And one system automatically turns on inborn mighty confidence and another system automatically generates anxiety and self-doubt to turn it back off.
Most people can’t feel this inborn confidence because most early humans had to suppress it or perish. Their smaller brains couldn’t control it, and a tribe of boasting, swaggering alphas constantly competing wouldn’t cooperate enough to survive their harsh, dangerous world. Tribes survived only if most members “turned off” their primal confidence by paralyzing it with anxiety or self-criticism. That turned most early humans into worried followers feeling vulnerable and banding together behind an alpha leader.
But humans have evolved. Their big, frontal lobe can safely control even their mightiest confidence. So today, people doubt themselves not from weakness or their childhoods but because they inherited their ancestors’ worried, self-critical, “worker bee” gene.
When people stop suppressing it, “alpha confidence,” automatically rises to meet every challenge. For every speech, date, deadline, argument, or job interview their alpha confidence will automatically fill them with giant feelings, “I can do this. Nothing can stand in my way. And people will love me because I’m wonderful.” If those feelings make people uneasy, that’s their suppressive system turning their intense confidence off.
Confidence Beyond Measure: The Science of Believing in Yourself, provides specially designed easy visualizations (clinically tested over 20 years). They teach the emotional brain to stop turning off strong confidence.
Alpha confidence lets people feel calm, cool, and powerful in every situation so they perform at their absolute best, even under heavy pressure. Everything—success, happiness, concentration, creativity, and determination—flows from this wellspring of feeling strong and worthy.
Dr. Sullivan has been in private practice for 40 years. He founded the country’s first psychology/self-improvement store, The Creative Mind, and has published articles in major psychology journals. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and the National Register of Psychologists. He presents seminars for businesses and professional organizations. A former Golden Gloves boxing champion, he lives with his wife and his friendly German shepherd in Kansas City.
Bernard J. Sullivan, Ph.D. - http://www.BernardSullivanPhD.com - [email protected] - 913-451-2843
Bernard J Sullivan PhD, http://www.BernardSullivanPhD.com, +1 (913) 451-2843, [email protected]
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