What is Emotional Brain Training (EBT)?

The average American takes 17 prescriptions per year, and most are needed not because of genetics, but because we have wiring problems. With so much stress in the environment, that stress seeps into our brain. It easily becomes encoded in the emotional brain, the lower, more primitive unconscious mind. In time, the emotional brain develops a set point or "comfort zone" in stress. It learns the stress habit.

That stuck state of stress causes a cascade of stress hormones, and imbalances in neurotransmitters, and it is the cause of 80 percent or more of health problems. We feel depressed, anxious, hostile, numb, hungry, tired, and miserable. We can't remember where we put our keys and everybody irritates us. It's hard to get our work done, so easy to be distracted or procrastinate, and one problem leads to another and another. Medications can help, but how many pills do we have to take to deal with all these symptoms? Isn't there a solution?

Stunning discoveries in brain science are suggesting that we can change the emotional set point of the brain -- and get it out of that stressed state. However, it is not the neocortical or thinking brain that is the problem, but the emotional brain, the lower parts (the limbic brain and brain stem). Until 10 years ago it was thought that the emotional brain -- the seat of stress, emotions, relationships, spirituality, and pleasure drives -- could not change after childhood. We were stuck with trying to cope or use various crutches. Transformation would take changes in the emotional brain -- and that would be unlikely or impossible.

We now know that emotional wires in humans can change, however, these wires are so essential to our survival that it takes a long, long time. Significantly moving up our emotional set point so that we transform may take decades of therapy, a spiritual awakening or years and years of meditating. It could take decades to see the kinds of changes that we want -- and need -- to experience now.

EBT is not a quick fix, but it is designed to speed up the process, by equipping each of us with the tools that are brain friendly. The EBT tools give you the power to use the brain's natural "best" pathways from each level of stress back to feeling great. It takes effective stress processing to give the brain the experience of being out of excessive stress often and by choice, not because the circumstance happens to be favorable. When we do, the balanced state begins to be encoded in the brain, so that the brain gradually develops the habit of being on the present, aware and positive state that we call joy.

Learning these EBT tools helps because they are the tools of "self-regulation." However, these tools don't just ease stress. Each one gives you the power to not only get out of a mediocre mood, but to get into a mood that's relatively positive -- feeling good -- or even, great. The tools are designed this way not because this is "happiness" training, because it is not. The tools are designed that way because the brain is reward driven. It wants more than relaxation. It wants gratification, satisfaction and pleasure, so the tools of EBT, when used effectively, bring you a spurt of neurotransmitters in the reward centers of the emotional brain. The stress response damps down, and you feel a glow in your body or even ripples of pleasure more of the time and given all that pleasure the drives for artificial pleasures -- sugary, fatty foods, and more -- ease up.

In addition to regulating stress and feeling more rewards, more awe, wonder, gratitude, love and joy with these tools, there is another need. The brain needs to heal. The moments of trauma, upset, loss and change leave behind circuits in the brain that get triggered again and again, like a scab that keeps being disrupted, and causing more and more scarring. Those stress circuits cause most of the rumbling kind of stress and the times we overreact, or get really stuck in stress for hours, days or weeks.

So one of the EBT tools -- The Cycle Tool -- gives you the power to identify one of those stressed out circuits, arouse it, and reconsolidate in another form. You can do that day by day, whenever you are stressed, so the tool not only relieves your stress – and you feel good or great -- but you accomplish some rewiring, so next time the circuit is weaker or doesn't get triggered at all. This rewiring by The Cycle Tool eases stress considerably. More important, once you've used it a few times, you'll feel a new sense of comfort because when you get "triggered" you know it's just a wire. When you get around to it you can erase or weaken it. In fact, you'll learn that you can pick and choose which circuits you want to rewire. That is a level of control over one's life that we could not even imagine 10 years ago!

Last, woven into the method are adopting a healthy, rewarding lifestyle, with healthy food, plenty of sleep, and regular exercise and using health care effectively. That means preventive health screening, and attending to any health problems -- for they ramp up stress. It means taking all the medications you need to feel great, but skipping the ones you don't really need.

All in all, this method is aimed at giving you the vision, tools and community to take your health into your own hands. You can use it to prevent the build-up of stress in your brain -- clearing away the daily build-up of emotional clutter -- or to change an emotional set point that has been dialed up for stress. Either way, learning the tools of EBT can be life changing and it may even catch on. The current paradigm is not sustainable. And besides, medications may relieve our pain, but they rarely bring the tenderness a loving touch, the warmth of belly laughs, and the awe at a blazing sunset. That takes a brain that is wired for joy.

EBT was developed at the University of California, San Francisco during the last 32 years, yet scientific breakthroughs in the last few years have led to a new, easier -- and more fun -- method and new, more convenience sources of support. There is an EBT Online Community, as well as retreats, groups, and telegroups facilitated by health professionals who are certified in the method.

All in all, it's a great time to try out the tools, and -- if EBT seems right for you -- to get started!

Step 1. Get Started: Introductory Course

Launch your emotional brain training by learning the tools. In just a few sessions, you'll learn how to identify your brain state (there are 5 of them) and how to use the tools (there are 5, one for each brain state), and you'll be able to switch your brain state from any level of stress back to feeling better. You'll use the tools to begin to:

• Be more present, aware and relaxed.
• Quiet your mind and stop analyzing everything and thinking too much.
• Experience more emotional balance.
• Know how to identify your level of stress -- and know just the right pathway in the brain to take -- the most effective tool to use -- to relieve it.
• Bounce back from stress more rapidly, rather than having it drag on and on.
• Create surges of joy ("Joy Points") that swamp stress.

Step 2. Lasting Results: Move through the EBT Kits

Feed your emotional brain just the skills and experiences it needs to change. The EBT Kits give you just the skills, insights and experienced needed to progressively move up your emotional set point. Completing these kits is the adventure of a lifetime, and will give you the most exciting journey there is: the emotional rewiring of your own brain. Each kit includes a journal (workbook), 2 CDs, 3 pocket reminders and 3 months of EBT Online Community Membership for support. Groups, telegroups, coaching and retreats are also available. Each kit takes about 6 to 8 weeks to complete, but don't rush yourself. Enjoy using the tools, gaining the insights, the "ah-ha" moments, and watching yourself transform. Use your kit with the support of the EBT Online Community membership. Also, you can access support from EBT Providers, health professionals who are certified in EBT and who use the method in their own life.

EBT Kit 1: Sanctuary: Begin by sharpening your skills in to switch your brain from stress to joy and experiencing more of the rewards of peace and power from within. Become comfortable with the method and allow your brain the time to start moving up your emotional set point.

EBT Kit 2: Authenticity: Build on that rewiring to experience more self-acceptance and greater authenticity. Rewire your first circuit that causes cravings -- a survival circuit -- and see yourself change your habits more easily.

EBT Kit 3: Vibrancy: Experience more joy in your daily life as you create a healthy lifestyle that is rich in natural pleasures. Use the tools to create effective limits, so that it is easier to follow-through at home and at work. Notice that it is easier to be highly productive.

EBT Kit 4: Integrity: As your emotional set point moves upward it's easier to become clear about your purpose in life. Writing a review of your life and clearing away the survival circuits that separate you from intimacy make this a very powerful kit.

EBT Kit 5: Intimacy: At this point, you have cleared away enough circuits that trigger stress, and become so intimate with yourself, that you have the foundation to create more intimacy with others. Experience more moments of the day in emotional connection. In addition honor your need for sensual and sexual pleasure, and boost your capacity for loving companionship.

EBT Kit 6: Spirituality: As stress symptoms fade and you have an abundance of all six rewards, notice that you are aware of the grace and mystery of life in a new way. You have become wired at Brain State 1, free to move among the brain states, but highly effective in spending more moments of the day in a state of connection that creates joy regardless of circumstance.

Step 3. Enjoy the EBT Community: Graduates

After completing the courses, you'll probably notice that the tools have become part of you on a cellular level. Just the way that when you learn to ride a bike, it takes practice, but at some point you wouldn't know how NOT to ride a bike, your EBT Tools have shifted into long-term memory. You naturally process stress effectively and wonder what everyone is so stressed about. You're wiser, calmer, happier and healthier and you have the tools and can use them intentionally whenever you need to.

Some graduates choose to join a Wired at 1 group to make these circuits even more solid. All graduates receive an ongoing membership in the EBT Community. Many become EBT Mentors, sharing the method with others and volunteering to bring these life-saving tools to their community. Some, who are health professionals become involved in research or clinical certification. On the other hand, many people are Wired at 1, and are off fulfilling their purpose in life in other ways, and with clarity, vibrancy and joy!

"EBT is the real deal!" - Candace Pert, PhD