Episode 187 - Using Metacognition to Retrain the Brain
- Tricia Zody
- Mar 19
- 7 min read
3/19/25
Hello friends, and welcome to episode 187 – Using Metacognition to Retrain the Brain
I had a call with a fellow coach the other day surrounding a decision-making issue I was having. She began the call with, “Tell me all your thoughts.” Fortunately, I had already done a Thought Download, and boy, did I have a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head. Those thoughts were all over the place. But the first thing I told her was, “I know me. I know how I’m wired and what my patterns are when it comes to making decisions. I also know how I typically approach new opportunities that are exciting. Like new shiny objects, I’m attracted to them. But I also know my tendencies to, after a while, get bored and want to look for newer, shinier objects.” And all these thoughts were just the precursor to all the other thoughts about the thing I needed to make a decision about. But here’s what’s fascinating. I was keenly aware of my thoughts about my thoughts that were directing how I approached a problem. And I knew that those underlying thoughts were the ones that were going to affect and direct all the others. That’s metacognition.
Metacognition is defined as the capacity to reflect on, evaluate, and control cognitive processes such as decision-making, memory, and perception. It involves the ability to assess one's own performance. To know who you are and how you work. What makes you tick. Metacognition is what makes us human. It’s what sets us apart from the animal kingdom. We can think about what we’re thinking about. We can plan ahead. We can redirect the course of our thinking. We can change our memories and perceptions if we want to. We can take an assessment of all the areas of our lives and calculate the cost of change…or lack of change. And go from there.
The sad reality, though, is that most, well no, let me say many…many people don’t think about what they’re thinking about. The very thing that sets them far and above even their family pet, they don’t take the time to do. It is self-evaluation in the highest form, and a lot of people don’t want to. Maybe because they’re afraid of what they’ll find. Or maybe they already know things about themselves that they’d rather not admit out loud.
When I was being coached, I knew admitting the patterns of behavior that could sabotage my current decision-making was akin to admitting my weaknesses. No one likes to admit their weaknesses. No one likes to feel inadequate or flawed or wrong. But awareness is crucial for adaptive behavior. We’re not going to change our lives at all if we’re not willing to see the weaknesses and admit them. It’s then that we can start picking them apart, so they no longer have a leg to stand on. I had to admit to an element of pride that kept me from taking certain action. I had to own up to the parts of myself that I know could be holding me back. And here, I get to decide if I want to hang onto the pride – which the bible says leads to destruction (Proverbs 16, verse 18), and in my case, it’s self-destruction – I get to decide if I want to hang onto that pride and make all my decisions going forward based on that.
The beautiful thing about all of this is this is how God made our human brains to work. How kind of Him! We can change our brains. They are malleable through Neuroplasticity. We don’t have to get stuck in negative spinning thoughts. We don’t have to live in a defeatist attitude. We don’t have to succumb to living out of lie-based beliefs and perceptions from our past or even our skewed present. We have the capacity to reframe old stories and memories so that we’re not living in fear or worry or bitterness and resentment or anxiety and insecurities today.
Maybe you’re not living in the peace and joy that Jesus said that he intends for his beloved to experience – that zoë life – life full of abundance John 10:10 talks about. Maybe you’ve had one difficult relationship after another. Or you’re always angry, quick to explode on everyone. Maybe you’re sad a lot of the time. Maybe you have a loud and rude inner critic that says horrible things to you all the time. Or maybe you just can’t figure out why life is going a certain way for you. And maybe you’re afraid that it’s always going to be this way. That you’re always going to be this way.
There are several scriptures that encourage us to quote/unquote “know thyself.” 1 Corinthians 11:28, 2 Corinthians 13:5, and Galatian 6:4. This is to take a good look at ourselves for introspection, for assessment, to examine our heart and our actions. To know ourselves. Know your patterns of behavior. Know your weaknesses. Know the sin that so easily entangles you (Hebrews 12, verse 1). And when you have this awareness ahead of time, you are more able to catch yourself in that negative thought cycle or that behavior that entangles you. And it’s then that you can think about what you’re thinking about.
This is the place we want to get to. I love it when my life coaching clients get there. It’s like the light came on. They’re very aware. It happens almost at the exact same time in the coaching process for each client. Which I think is a phenomenon, but I’m sure it has more to do with the steps we take – the progression of retraining the brain. Kind of like they say it takes 21 days to break a habit. To get to metacognition in the moment to adapt thinking or behavior, it takes a little bit of time to get away from the hand-holding from me, reminding them of their thinking. And that’s okay, because it’s so gratifying when I get to hear them say they “hear” themselves. To think about what they’re thinking in the very moment.
I had a client the other day who said, “My mind was spinning and then I asked myself, ‘How long am I going to allow this to steal my joy?’” It reminds me of Kind David when he said to himself, “Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” Psalm 42, verse 11. And he was able to encourage himself with truth and then change the way he was feeling by changing his thoughts. Same with my client. Right in the middle of the spinning thoughts that were making her an emotional mess, she was able to ask herself that question: “How long am I going to allow this to steal my joy?” And her brain got busy answering the question and came up with a solution to solve the problem. That’s what stops the spinning. But you have to have the tools to stop the spinning. If you don’t know what those are, I’m going to include several suggestions in this week’s Listener’s Guide. The link to grab that is in the show notes.
We can’t change our lives, friend, until this happens – until we actively engage in changing our thinking. But when you do, you have the capacity to feel better, to be happier, create peace around you, break generational curses, change the trajectory from one generation to the next, to improve the quality of your life and those you come in contact with, to become resilient, to increase your faith and hope, and to walk in your God-given purpose. These things are all possible because God made your brain so beautifully, so uniquely from all other creatures. This is possible for you because you are a human. And the added benefit of being a believer in Christ means that when you calibrate your mind to His truth, it’s absolute truth, perfect truth, true north. And this is where true freedom is. Living in His truth is freedom. It’s liberating because it sets us free from the bondage of sin and living in fear and lies. It sets us free from the stinkin’ thinkin’ that holds us back from our God-given passions and our purpose.
Friend, because God created our human brains capable of examining itself, to “know thyself,” we can use this further to get ourselves out of the swirling thoughts that keep us confused; from the spinning thoughts that seem to take us down. You can do this by actively engaging in the process of thinking about what you’re thinking about – metacognition, God’s beautiful gift to a more enriched, abundant, and purposeful life by retraining your brain.
Don’t forget to grab my Listener’s Guide that has a few prompt questions to help you work through this topic. It also has a few suggested tools to quickly get your mind out of spinning. The link is in the show notes.
Have a wonderful week, friends. See you next Wednesday for the next episode of Another Beautiful Life.
SHOW NOTES:
Metacognition is what sets human brains apart from all other created beings’. It’s the ability to think about what we’re thinking about. Meta.
When was the last time you remember actively aware and thinking about what you were thinking in the moment when your emotional brain was spinning out of control?
When we’re thinking about what we’re thinking about, we’re able to make adaptive changes that make our lives enriched and feel more abundant and purposeful. Today we talk about actively engaging in this beautiful God-given gift – metacognition.
Resources Mentioned:
· For more tools, questions for reflection, and resources to help you on your journey, download the Listener's Guide for this episode: https://www.triciazody.com/guide
Scriptures Mentioned:
· Proverbs 16:18, John 10:10, 1 Corinthians 11:28, 2 Corinthians 13:5, Galatian 6:4, Hebrews 12:1, Psalm 42:11
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