BITESIZE | How to Design Your Perfect Life | Dr Tara Swart #503

Summary

Feel Better, Live More with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee Episode: BITESIZE | How to Design Your Perfect Life | Dr. Tara Swart #503 Release Date: December 13, 2024

In this insightful episode of "Feel Better, Live More," host Dr. Rangan Chatterjee engages in a profound conversation with neuroscientist and executive coach Dr. Tara Swart. Drawing from their extensive expertise, they delve into the powerful concept of designing one's perfect life through intentional visualizations and strategic actions. This summary captures the essence of their discussion, highlighting key topics, expert insights, and actionable advice to help listeners revolutionize their approach to health and wellbeing.

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1. The Power of Vision Boards

Dr. Tara Swart introduces the concept of vision boards, emphasizing their significant impact on shaping one’s life. She explains that vision boards are more than mere collages; they serve as visual representations of one’s aspirations, engaging deeper parts of the brain compared to written goals.

[01:41] Dr. Tara Swart: "Visual images track to parts of your brain that resonate deeper down. If you repeatedly see these images of what you want, you're more likely to notice opportunities to achieve those things in your daily life."

2. Visual vs. Verbal Goal Setting

Dr. Swart contrasts the effectiveness of visual images with written lists or affirmations. She argues that images engage the subconscious mind more effectively, making goals more tangible and actionable.

[03:14] Dr. Tara Swart: "By creating a vision board, you're priming your brain, telling it what's important to you. So it's more likely to notice those things."

3. Mechanisms in the Brain: Selective Attention and Value Tagging

The discussion delves into the neuroscience behind why vision boards work. Dr. Swart explains two primary brain mechanisms:

• Selective Attention (Selective Filtering): The brain prioritizes information essential for survival and personal success, filtering out irrelevant data.

• Value Tagging: The brain assigns importance to stimuli based on personal values, keeping significant goals at the forefront of our consciousness.

[03:37] Dr. Tara Swart: "The brain has a natural mechanism for understanding what's important. Vision boards help signal to your brain what you value, making those goals more prominent in your daily awareness."

4. The Tetris Effect and Subconscious Influence

Dr. Swart introduces the concept of the Tetris effect, where consistent exposure to specific stimuli influences subconscious processes. She highlights how placing a vision board near the bed can imprint aspirations into the subconscious during the hypnagogic (falling asleep) and hypnopompic (waking up) states.

[04:58] Dr. Tara Swart: "If you keep your vision board by your bed, the images last thing you see before sleep make a stronger impression on your subconscious, influencing your actions the next day."

5. Impact of Visual Exposure on Wellbeing

The conversation shifts to the dual-edged nature of visual platforms like Instagram. While images can inspire and motivate, they can also lead to negative comparisons and discontentment.

[08:45] Dr. Tara Swart: "Images can be so impactful, but in a positive or a negative way. We need to be aware of this duality to harness the benefits while mitigating the downsides."

6. Vision Boards vs. Action Boards

Dr. Swart differentiates between traditional vision boards and what she terms "action boards." While vision boards often focus on passive visualization, action boards integrate intentional steps to achieve goals.

[09:59] Dr. Tara Swart: "You can't just make this collage and wait. You need to take daily actions to make your dreams come true."

7. Taking Control: Driving vs. Riding Passenger

Using a metaphor, Dr. Chatterjee and Dr. Swart discuss the importance of actively directing one’s life rather than passively experiencing it. This involves making conscious choices that align with personal values and aspirations.

[10:46] Dr. Tara Swart: "It's easy to go through the motions every day and let life happen to you. But if you stop and step back, you realize you have much more control over your choices than you think."

8. Overcoming Fear in Decision Making

Dr. Swart addresses the brain’s natural predisposition towards fear, a remnant from our evolutionary past. She emphasizes the need to shift decision-making from fear-based avoidance to abundance-based creation.

[11:56] Dr. Tara Swart: "Negative emotions like fear have a more powerful effect on our brain than positive emotions. By choosing to make decisions from a place of abundance, we can overcome this bias."

9. Practical Tips for Enhancing Wellbeing

Concluding the discussion, Dr. Chatterjee shares actionable strategies for improving wellbeing through small, incremental changes:

• Micro Tweaks: Implement minor adjustments such as waking up 30 minutes earlier or increasing daily steps by 1-2000.
• Consistency Over Perfection: Focus on making multiple small changes rather than a single significant shift.
• Flexibility: Embrace routines without stressing over perfection, allowing for adaptability.

[14:35] Dr. Rangan Chatterjee: "It's better to change 10 things by 1% than try to change one thing by 10%. Small changes build up and lead to significant improvements over time."

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Notable Quotes

• Dr. Tara Swart [01:45]: "Visual images track to parts of your brain that resonate deeper down."
• Dr. Tara Swart [03:37]: "Creating a vision board is priming your brain, telling it what's important to you."
• Dr. Tara Swart [09:59]: "You need to take daily actions to make your dreams come true."
• Dr. Rangan Chatterjee [14:35]: "Small changes build up because you start to feel better, your brain becomes more powerful."

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Conclusion

This episode underscores the profound impact that intentional visualization and small, consistent actions can have on one's life. By leveraging vision boards (or action boards), individuals can program their brains to recognize and seize opportunities aligned with their personal goals. Dr. Chatterjee and Dr. Swart offer a blend of scientific insight and practical advice, empowering listeners to take control of their lives, overcome fear, and cultivate a mindset of abundance. Embracing these strategies can lead to enhanced wellbeing, greater happiness, and a more fulfilling life.

For those eager to delve deeper, listening to the full conversation between Dr. Rangan Chatterjee and Dr. Tara Swart is highly recommended. Their collaborative wisdom provides a comprehensive roadmap for designing a life that you not only envision but actively create.

Transcript

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

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[Unknown]

To get you ready for the weekend.

[Dr. Rangan Chatterjee]

Today's clip is from episode 58 of the podcast with neuroscientist executive coach and author of the best selling book the source, Dr. Tara Swart. In this clip, Tara shares some powerful tips and tools to help you create the life that you want to live.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

What is a vision board and why is it so powerful?

[Unknown]

Okay, so I'm going to start off by saying that this year mine is actually on my phone on Pinterest, which is. It's not the ideal that I recommend, but I just couldn't find the images I wanted in magazines. Visual images, they sort of, they track to parts of your brain that resonate deeper down. So if you write out a list of what you want in your life, that won't have the same impact. But if you repeatedly see these images of what you want, then when you're going around your daily life, you're more likely to notice opportunities to do or get things that you want in your life. Your ideal vision board is a collage that you make by hand. So it's visual. You've been tactile with it whilst you've created it. So you've already created sort of, you know, a bond with it in a way. And I just would get a variety of magazines so, you know, maybe travel, lifestyle, food and look for images that represent things that I want in my life that year. Sometimes you see an image and it's not something you thought about that you wanted, but you just really love that image. You can pick images like that. I try not to use words or numbers. But if you specifically want. Had a goal of earning a certain amount of money this year, let's say if you run your own business, you could put that number on there. And it's really important to think about things like if you don't want your life to be too crammed full, that you actually have a board with some space on it that you don't fill it up. So. So the whole look and feel of it should represent how you want your life to be.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

So what is it? Is it that by making our brain aware of what we want, like actually having some sort of act full of intention, where we're actually stating whether it's in journaling, whether it's in affirmations, whether it's on the vision board, we're actually visualizing what we want out of life, Is it that the brain is, what, more aware to seeing those opportunities?

[Unknown]

Yeah. So journaling and affirmations are still words, right? So this is adding in another level, which is the visual one. And the way it works is through two main mechanisms in the brain called selective attention or selective filtering and value tagging. So because we're bombarded with so much information all the time, everything, you know, everything that we see, everything that we hear, everything that we feel, our brain naturally has to filter most of that out. And so there's a natural mechanism for understanding what's important to our survival or to us doing well in life. And anything that's not totally relevant to that will get filtered out. By creating a vision board, you're priming your brain, telling it what's important to you. So it's more likely to notice those things. So if I said to you today, notice everything that's red, you will notice more London buses and post boxes and telephone boxes than you do normally. And this is a more sophisticated version of doing that. Also, the value tagging is that what the brain does decide to keep as important in front of mind, it then tags in order of importance. So importance in terms of things like our personal identity, our work identity, our feeling of belonging in society, and then things that I need to be successful. So again, if you repeatedly look at these images, they're much more front of mind, they're higher up in your value tagging system. And do you remember, did you play Tetris? So do you remember, if you played it till last thing at night when you were falling asleep and you shut your eyes, you could see the little blocks falling in front of your eyes. So that's a phenomenon that's now called The Tetris effect. So if you keep your vision board by your bed, then in those states of waking and falling asleep, the hypnagogic and hypnopompic states, your brain is more impressionable. So if you see that image last thing at night, you close your eyes, you go to sleep, it is going to make a stronger impression on your subconscious. And then the next day, you're much more likely to actually act on that if there's a trigger that reminds you to do it at the time.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

Yeah, the other thing that really fascinates me, and I read about the Tetris effects in your book, and you talked about all the science, which is really, really fascinating. It's that period just before we go to bed. Yes, you can do it with a vision board, but if we look at what a lot of people in society are doing, they're on their phones in the evening, they're scrolling through the news. Let's say if we're looking at that just before we go to bed, as opposed to these beautiful images of how we want our life to be, that's gonna have quite a different impact on our subconscious, isn't it?

[Unknown]

Absolutely. And that's, you know, one of the things about being conscious and not being on autopilot is basically controlling what you expose your brain to, because the more you expose it to bad news, the more you're likely to live life through fear. We know, for example, that people who repeatedly looked at images of the Twin Towers going down, who had no personal connection to New York, could get ptsd. I mean, it's incredible that just exposing yourself repeatedly to bad news, especially with visual imagery, can actually traumatize you in a way that you can't easily get over. So I'm very, very careful about what I look at, what I read. You know, my social media feeds are carefully controlled to be as positive as possible. You're absolutely right that if you don't think about it and you look at bad news just before you go to sleep, then think about young children. Even if they read a book that's not that scary, but maybe has some monsters in it, then they can have nightmares, they can feel frightened. So, yeah, everything that we expose our brain to has an impact, and we need to be much more mindful of that, especially because the gearing of the brain, it's two to two and a half times more likely to focus on negatives than positives. So we need to be feeding our brain more positive things to keep ourselves confident and moving forward positively.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

I think what you're saying is so profound because it's the missing piece for me in health and wellbeing. It's. Yes, the physical stuff's important. Moving more, sleeping more. Of course these things are important. But what we're exposing our brains to is something that I don't think gets spoken about enough. And I think it's super, super important. So you mentioned something, and I think you talk about this in the book around the section on vision boards about why images are so powerful, they bypass something in the brain. Is that right?

[Unknown]

Well, I think we're very visual creatures, so, you know, vision is the primary sense for most people and we're bombarded with images that we don't necessarily curate. So that's an important part, you know, a segue from what we were just saying. But yeah, visual sort of, you know, tracks more, more strongly to the subconscious than when you read something. It sort of travels around the brain in a way that gets picked up by logic, by emotion, by intuition. Whereas this kind of bypasses the logic and just gets straight to the core of us. It resonates with us. So using images to make your life feel more positive is really important.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

So that's the case. And images are so powerful. Is that one of the reasons then why Instagram has been so successful? Because it is image based, but also is that one of the reasons why Instagram can be in many ways uniquely toxic?

[Unknown]

Yeah, so I think you're right. That image, you know, whether it's Instagram, Facebook, whatever it is, that images can be so impactful, but in a positive or a negative way. And that's what we need to be aware of. So, yeah, I think the sort of, the issues with comparison, with discontentment, with resentment, they are magnified by imagery. Rather than writing. I sort of focus on wanting things that I can make possible. And that's really the key difference between vision boards as they've been described before. And what I talk about is I actually call it an action board, because what I say is you can't just make this collage and then sit at home waiting for checks to come in the post. You need to be doing things every day to try to make your dreams come true. And, and so, you know, spending some time on social media is great, it's fun. But spending too much time on it could actually be taking you away from doing the things that you can do to make your life the life that you really want, rather than looking at other people's lives.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

I love it that you call it an action board. Because you're saying create that, but use it as a way to imprint what you want in your brain and then create action.

[Unknown]

Absolutely. I think that there's been a bit of a unfair bad reputation of things like the law of attraction and vision boards with this idea that you just expect it to come true. I don't think that's what it ever was either. But I've made a much more strong case saying that you need to do the things that make it come true.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

And I think that's what makes your book so unique. You have brought some of these ideas that have been there before to life, but you've got some scientific grounding in them now. And I guess one of your core concepts is how do we create the life that we want rather than let life sort of happen to us?

[Unknown]

Let's say you and I want to go on a journey. Would you rather be sitting in the passenger seat and I choose where we go and the route that we take, or would you rather be driving and choosing the destination? It's kind of like that in life. It's very easy to go through the motions every day and let life happen to you. But if you think about it, if we stop and step back, we have a lot more choice in what we tolerate and what happens to us and the choices that we make than we necessarily think. It's easy to just sort of go on autopilot.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

And I think that's something that really does happen these days, doesn't it? Many people are living life on a treadmill day to day, week to week before, you know, another year's gone by. And I think one of the issues is that people don't have time. They don't feel that they can actually separate off some time where they reflect internally. You talk about how many of us, many of us actually use fear as a way of making decisions and that can be problematic. Can you explain what you mean by that?

[Unknown]

That's actually a natural default. So you have to, you know, make a lot of effort to override that because to help us to survive, fear is actually our strongest emotion.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

So we're hardwired for that.

[Unknown]

Yeah, and you can see why. Because when we lived in the cave, you had to be afraid of saber toothed tigers and run away from them, otherwise you die. So, so basically these sort of negative emotions like fear, anger, disgust, shame and sadness, they have a much more powerful effect on our brain than positive emotions like love and trust and joy and excitement. And you know, there's a survival advantage to that. But if you, once you know that you've raised it in your awareness, you can take steps to say, I choose to make my decisions from abundance, which is a phrase that I use a lot in the book. So of course we don't want bad things to happen to us. We don't want to lose our jobs, we don't want to end our relationships, we don't want to lose friends, we don't want to be in debt. Everybody will be saying, yes, of course I don't want those things. But instead of making your life decisions based on avoiding those bad things, just choose to make your life decisions based on things like building up a little nest egg in the bank, having your relationship evolve and improve more than it even is at the moment. Making new. So those things all seem to involve a bit of risk, but you can make a real effort to understand the psyche of your partner more and improve your relationship. You can try to go out and meet new and different people that will broaden your horizons. And actually meeting new people, having new experiences, reading books on topics that are really different to what you normally do. They're all activities that make your brain more open and flexible. And once you learn to try new things and you get a positive benefit from that, then if something bad happens, you will just feel that little bit more able to deal with a change because you've been willingly bringing changes into your life, which seems like a risk at times, but is actually a really good thing to do.

[Dr. Tara Swart]

So I guess in many ways the inspiring take home for me is that look, we are programmed to look at the negative. So we absolutely, if we want to get the most out of our life, we need a strategy. If we leave up to the default, if we leave up to oh, if I feel like it, I'll do it. It ain't going to happen because we're hardwired to think this way. So, you know, many people are starting to realize this. That's why I think so many people in the health and wellbeing sector are talking about gratitude now. Because yes, there's science behind gratitude, but it's great to have so many people talking about it and saying, hey, it's okay to say that I'm grateful for things and have a daily practice. What are the things that you think you have changed in life that have had the most impact on your well being?

[Unknown]

Great question. I try to do the right things about sleep and everything else, but I don't get stressed about it if I can't. So that's a really big thing. For me. I try to eat right, I try to remember to take my supplements, I journal when I can, I meditate when I can, but if I don't do it then I don't get stressed. I would say that is a really big learning for me. I think that's a really big tip. I would also say it's better to change 10 things by 1% than try to change one thing by 10%. So work on micro tweaks to your routine like go to bed half an hour earlier, do a digital detox over one weekend, drink a bit more water than you normally do, try to increase your steps by 1 to 2000 per day for a week and see what happens. So small things like that build up because you start to feel better, your brain becomes more powerful, and then you're able to do you know some of the bigger goals that you may have been saving up?

Hope you enjoyed that bite sized clip. Do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you want more, why not go back and listen to the original full conversation with my guest. If you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my bite sized free Friday email. It's called the Friday five and each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity, articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across, and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel good. To get you ready for the weekend, you can sign up for for it free of [e-mail] Friday 5. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long form conversational Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science. Next Friday.