This is Your Brain on YOU: Honoring Your Unique Mental Wiring

2019: The Year of Understanding (Part II)

Let’s Recap (full recap here)…

This year we are going on a journey to the center of…ourselves!

We are climbing that metaphorical mountain and committing to the work of personal growth.

We’re leaving behind the teeter-totter of resolutions, and we’re not expecting overnight change.

We’re setting our sights upon the goal of growth, and then leaving a huge amount of spaciousness around that for things to unfold in unexpected ways.

We’re not beating ourselves up when we take a step backwards, or sideways, or when the avalanche falls and we have to dust ourselves off and start all over again.

We’re remembering that it is about the goal, but it’s also really really really about the process of getting there.

We’re learning that sometimes slowing down is the fastest way to get from point A to point B.

And we’re gathering the tools and support we need for our journey…which brings us to:


Tool #1: The Map

Dear User,

Welcome to your unique brain. To have the best experience with your unique brain, please refer to the following list of instructions…

Wouldn’t it be great if our brains came with little operating manuals written specifically for our unique wiring?

I know some of us wouldn’t actually read it…but wouldn’t it still be great if you had it to refer to just in case you happened to need it?

If it’s a little too meta to think about how your brain thinks about thinking, stay with me and we’ll unpack this.

Our Unique Mental Wiring

What most of us don’t realize is that brains are not a one-size-fits-all situation.

Oh sure, we get it – everyone’s unique.

But I think we say that more than we really understand it.

What if we truly understood that each person’s brain is operating using a unique mental wiring?

What if we organized our society in a way that actually honored these individual processes instead of cramming everyone into a one-size-fits-all approach?

What would our lives look like if we allowed ourselves to operate as exactly the person that we were designed to be?

I think we’d be a lot happier.

Here’s the good news: this operating manual exists!

Thanks to psychologist Carl Jung’s research in the early 1900s and neuroscientist Dario Nardi’s current research at UCLA, we now have both the theory AND the hard science to back it up.

What Jung theorized using observation and Nardi confirmed using EEG brain scan imaging is that every human’s brain operates using a distinct set of eight mental processes.

These mental processes are referred to as the “cognitive functions” and form the (much forgotten) backbone of what we now refer to as our Myer’s Briggs type.

What the cognitive functions unlock for us is much more than whether or not we’re an extravert or an introvert (and guess what? We’re all a little of both) –

it tells us our flow state, our growth state, our defensive state, and our blind spots.

This information translates into:

  • understanding exactly what kinds of activities recharge our batteries;
  • where the biggest bang for our buck lies in personal growth;
  • how to sidestep our less than desirable behaviors when we’re in a spat with a loved one;
  • and even ways we can help to reduce our experience of depression and anxiety.

Some pretty useful info, right?

And of course life experience makes every single one of us a different human being from the next;

we are so much more than just our Myer’s Briggs type, or our Enneagram type, or our Human Design Type, or our sun sign, or our moon sign, or even our rising sign, or our generation, or our top five strengths, or the level we find ourselves at within the Graves Model  – but heck, if we knew even just ONE of those pieces of information about ourselves, we would be able to understand ourselves on a much different and deeper level.

Your Personalized Brain Map

Knowing which of these mental processes your brain favors is akin to being handed a road map to the terrain of your brain.

What used to be an uncharted, unknown territory that was best utilized through trial and error is now a clearly established, well-explored region.

Instead of wondering where all the best attractions lie and hoping to discover them through sheer luck and perseverance, we now have a precise map leading us to all the fabulous wonders of our extraordinary mind.

Goodbye to the days of standardized instructions, a one-size-fits-all approach to life, and endless anxiety and unhappiness. Hello to honoring our mental wiring, living according to your own personalized instruction manual, and ongoing happiness and satisfaction.

When we understand which processes work best in our brain, we can begin to learn how to live more in alignment with that.

Understanding this, we discover not only how to be happier, but also how to be more balanced, more growth-oriented, more energized; we learn to be less defensive, less drained, less stressed-out.

The Best Gift to Yourself

Some people have described figuring out their particular personality type like opening a gift on Christmas morning. As in, YESSSSSSS!!!!!

When we find our best-fit type, so many things about our lives begin to fall into place.

In reality, it IS a gift – one of the most exciting and useful gifts you could give to yourself.

If life is feeling a little meh, if stress is getting the best of you, if you can’t quite shake that nagging feeling that there’s more to life than this – you’re right.

There is.

And it begins with claiming your map.

With that map in hand, then my friend, the real adventure begins.


I want to claim my map! How do I claim my map?

By now you might be excited about the prospect of understanding your unique personality type, and curious to find out which mental processes your brain uses and favors.

And while online quizzes can be a good starting point, they are also notorious for typing people incorrectly and almost never explain anything about the cognitive functions, which is where the real meat of the matter is at!

If you’re getting too generalized info, or even the wrong info, the result is not endless happiness and satisfaction, but something more like endless frustration and distrust for personality typing.

If you’re interested in discovering more about your personality type and unique brain wiring, I’d encourage you to sign up for a Personality Discovery & Coaching Session.

This is a 2-3 hour session that we can do long-distance via Zoom where we’ll dive deep into understanding the motivations behind your various behaviors – and you’ll leave with a whole new understanding of yourself, your behaviors, your strengths and blindspots, how to better care for yourself in a truly personalized sense, and the ability to fully embrace yourself for who you are  – even if you’ve always felt a little out of place 🙂


This year let’s shake off the one-size-fits-all approach to life, and learn to fully embrace our big, bold, zany, quiet, creative, quirky, beautiful selves.


Personality Discovery & Coaching Session
Your #1 Tool on Your Journey of Growth

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”

– Einstein

  • A Personality Discovery & Coaching Session is the perfect way to dip your toes into the waters of personal growth without a big commitment.
  • Myers Briggs 2.0: enough with the fluff! Most people don’t go deep enough with Myer’s Briggs – don’t stop before you get to the good stuff.
  • No test, quizzes, or assessments. Live interview and calibration with a Certified Personality Profiler to find your best-fit type. Learn about the Cognitive Functions and how your brain is uniquely wired to learn and make decisions. Discover your unique brand of genius.

Session Includes:

  • 3-hours of face-to-face time (in-person or long-distance) involving an interview, explanation of your profile, and personalized coaching around your most pressing goal or challenge.
  • A deep-dive into understanding your behaviors, motivations, and unique brain wiring.
  • Information on how to leverage your strengths and manage your blind-spots.
  • Clarity, understanding, and direction to apply to all aspects of your life including health, career, relationships.

Receive personalized answers to these questions:

  • What is my flow state?
  • How can I best energize myself?
  • What’s my biggest blind spot?
  • What’s my fighting/conflict style?
  • What’s the most effective type of R&R for me?
  • How do I encourage myself towards personal growth?
  • And more..!

A Gateway to the Soul

How do we access something as intangible as the soul? We will use this Myers Briggs 2.0 method as a map to help us remember who we are meant to be, or maybe to discover it for the very first time.

When we are living out of alignment with our true selves, our soul is out of alignment. When the soul is broken, we are broken, and this can manifest in very physical and tangible ways.

We will use this method of soul rediscovery to begin to bring both body and soul back into alignment and into a state of peace where we can access the ability to heal and reclaim our innate wholeness.

Let this be your map as you journey up your mountain of growth this year!

“The Personality Discovery Session I completed with Angela was a much needed guided journey into my soul and psyche. It is so much more than a typing session. Angela did help me understand my cognitive type, but in the process of doing so I had multiple moments of that feeling of connecting with my true authentic self. It is absolutely an invaluable experience.” –Lani Hanson

Truly understanding yourself is the MOST important tool in any journey of personal growth.

Contact Me Here with Questions or to Schedule Your Session!
Long-distance? No problem! Sessions typically done via Zoom

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Leave a Comment

  • Bill Goins May 27, 2018, 6:37 pm

    My wife would definitely say that I have a unique brain!!
    I have really enjoyed reading your three blogs…..very thought provoking!

    • Angela Kittock May 30, 2018, 8:00 pm

      Haha I bet she would say that! Thanks for reading all my blogs! 🙂

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