About the Episode 🎙️
In this episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast, Mel interviews Dr. Tara Swart-Bieber, a neuroscientist from MIT, about how to change your brain to achieve your goals. Dr. Tara explains the science behind manifestation and intuition, providing listeners with actionable steps to rewire their brains for success, happiness, and better health. She emphasizes the importance of neuroplasticity and how the brain can be trained to spot opportunities and think more positively.
Key Takeaways 💡
- (00:06:55) Neuroplasticity and Brain Change: Neuroplasticity allows the brain to grow and change throughout life, contrary to previous beliefs that it becomes fixed in adulthood. The brain constantly molds itself based on sensory input, experiences, and emotions. Listeners' brains will physically change by the end of the podcast episode due to the new information they are processing.
- (00:07:58) Thriving vs. Surviving: The brain is naturally geared towards survival, focusing on basic needs like food and reproduction. To thrive, one must consciously train the brain to seek opportunities and desires beyond mere survival. Techniques like manifestation, visualization, and affirmations can prime the brain to pursue a more fulfilling life.
- (00:09:16) Magnetic Desire Definition: Magnetic desire is the intense motivation that fuels neuroplasticity through repetition and emotional intensity. It differentiates between pursuing goals based on external pressures versus deeply held personal dreams. Having a magnetic desire helps individuals overcome obstacles and persevere in achieving their goals.
- (00:15:30) Manifestation Steps: Manifestation starts with cultivating a sense of abundance to counteract the brain's natural loss aversion. Aligning the head, heart, and gut enhances motivation and helps one persist through challenges. Neuroplasticity requires patience, as new neural pathways take time to strengthen and create noticeable changes in behavior and outcomes.
- (00:18:57) Selective Filtering and Attention: The brain uses selective filtering to manage information overload, prioritizing survival-related information. To manifest desires, one must consciously remind the brain of their goals through lists, vision boards, or daily affirmations. This helps the brain prioritize these desires, leading to selective attention and the noticing of relevant opportunities.
- (00:19:50) Value Tagging Process: Value tagging involves the brain ranking items by importance, both logically and emotionally. Magnetic desire helps override the brain's default logical order, emphasizing what truly makes one feel alive and purposeful. This process is crucial for directing the brain's focus toward achieving desired outcomes.
- (00:20:38) Four-Step Manifestation Process: The manifestation process, underpinned by neuroplasticity, involves four practical steps: raise your awareness, focus your attention, do deliberate practice, and hold yourself accountable. Raising awareness involves journaling and soul-searching to understand self-sabotaging behaviors. Focused attention requires observing behaviors and interactions to collect data for informed action.
- (00:24:19) Deliberate Practice and Accountability: Deliberate practice involves actively working towards goals, experimenting, and course-correcting as needed. Accountability is crucial for maintaining consistency and can be achieved through external support or self-monitoring. Using micro-habits tracked via apps can help build consistent behaviors that lead to larger goals.
- (00:26:39) Micro Habits: Micro habits should focus on self-worth, deservingness, and boundaries rather than solely on external goals. Creating a list of what one has to offer in a relationship and comparing it to desired partner traits can highlight areas for self-improvement. Affirmations and support from one's social circle can reinforce self-worth and attract positive relationships.
- (00:37:37) Neuroplasticity Mechanisms: The three mechanisms for neuroplasticity are myelination, synaptic connection, and neurogenesis. Myelination involves coating neural pathways with a fatty substance to make them faster and more efficient through repetitive practice. Synaptic connection involves forming new pathways between neurons, similar to learning a language.
- (00:40:10) Neurogenesis in the Brain: Neurogenesis, the growth of new nerve cells, is the most challenging process in the adult brain. It requires baby nerve cells to develop into fully formed nerve cells, make synaptic connections, and potentially undergo myelination. Magnetic desire fuels these processes by providing a strong emotional reason to learn and change.
- (00:44:34) Overwriting Negative Wiring: Negative wiring in the brain cannot be undone but can be overwritten with new, positive thoughts and behaviors. This involves repeating new thoughts or behaviors with emotional intensity until they become more energy-efficient pathways. Positive affirmations, derived from identifying and addressing underlying beliefs, can help overwrite negative self-talk.
- (00:45:30) Creating Effective Affirmations: Effective affirmations should address the underlying beliefs behind recurring negative thoughts. For example, the affirmation "I could be the first" can counter the belief that something is impossible because it has never happened before. Consistently replacing negative thoughts with these affirmations helps rewire the brain.
- (00:54:59) Morning Gratitude Practice: Practicing gratitude upon waking helps prevent the brain from immediately focusing on daily stressors. Expressing gratitude for tangible things in the environment sets a positive tone for the day. This practice leverages scientific evidence supporting the benefits of gratitude for mental health, overall health, and longevity.
- (00:57:51) Action Boards vs. Vision Boards: Action boards, similar to vision boards, serve as reminders to engage in selective filtering, attention, and value tagging. Unlike traditional vision boards, action boards should be realistic and paired with active steps toward goals. They help keep desired outcomes at the forefront of the mind, preventing daily life from overshadowing them.
- (01:01:15) Visualization and Gratitude: Visualizing goals and immersing oneself in the feeling of their achievement helps the brain perceive them as real. This process, combined with gratitude, releases oxytocin and reduces stress hormones. Regular visualization and gratitude practices can shift the brain from a state of fear and scarcity to one of love and trust.
- (01:04:21) Vision Board Mistakes: A common mistake is not gluing images onto the vision board, indicating a lack of belief in deserving the desired outcomes. Gluing images down signals a commitment to achieving those goals. Leaving space on the board allows for unexpected opportunities and magic to manifest.
- (01:07:55) Magnesium and Stress Reduction: Bathing in magnesium flakes helps reduce stress, as the body depletes magnesium when stressed. Magnesium is best absorbed through the skin. Twitchy eyelids can indicate a magnesium deficiency, often caused by stress.
- (01:09:36) Foods for Brain Health: Prioritizing brain health when making dietary choices benefits the entire body. Key foods include dark-skinned foods, hydrating foods, good fats (oily fish, eggs, avocado, nuts, seeds), and fermented foods (kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha). These choices support overall well-being and cognitive function.
- (01:13:05) Intuition and Gut Connection: Intuition arises from wisdom and knowledge stored in the brainstem, spinal cord, and gut neurons. A strong connection exists between gut neurons and the limbic system, where intuition originates. Journaling helps hone intuition by tracking decisions and their outcomes over time. Stress and digestive issues can impair access to intuition.
- (01:14:43) Impact of High Stress Levels: Chronic high cortisol levels, caused by stress, can lead the brain to believe it is in constant danger. This triggers the storage of abdominal fat and impairs immunity. In the brain, high stress levels cause a "low power mode," reducing blood supply to higher cognitive functions and hindering creative and flexible thinking.
- (01:20:10) Stress Contagion: Stress is contagious due to the release of steroid hormones like cortisol through sweat. The stress levels of leaders or authority figures have a greater impact on others. Mindfulness activities, such as meditation, yoga, and time in nature, can reduce stress and shift the autonomic nervous system to a state of rest and recovery.
- (01:25:50) Influence of Friends: The people one spends the most time with influence behaviors and social norms. Social circles can impact habits related to weight, exercise, and relationships. Surrounding oneself with positive influences can promote healthier behaviors and choices.
- (01:27:29) Potential for Change: Anyone is capable of change, regardless of age, stage, or mindset. Neuroplasticity offers hope for neurodivergent individuals. The biggest barrier to change is not a lack of ability but a lack of deep-seated desire, often rooted in underlying beliefs that prevent individuals from pursuing their goals.
- (01:30:40) Tying Change to Deepest Values: To overcome barriers to change, it is essential to tie goals to one's deepest values. Recognizing how a change aligns with core values, such as being a better parent, can provide the necessary motivation. Connecting goals to fundamental values ensures sustained effort and commitment.