← Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning
Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning
Thought Patterns & Neurochemistry — The Hidden Drivers of Your Life (Revisiting Dr. Caroline Leaf)
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Welcome Back to season 15 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I'm Andrea Samadhi, and on this podcast, we bridge the science behind social and emotional learning, emotional intelligence, and practical neuroscience so we can create measurable improvements in well being, achievement, productivity and results. And if you're new here, welcome. We're currently reviewing past episodes in season 15, organized as a roadmap of the brain's foundational systems. Instead of treating neuroscience, health, mindset and performance as separate topics like we've done the past 14 seasons, we're now exploring how these systems are come online in sequence. In phase one, we focused on regulation and safety, because without it, nothing else in the brain fully activates. If we don't feel safe, the brain shifts into survival mode. And when that happens, the systems we need for motivation, focus and learning don't fully come online. And by the end of this season, we. My hope is that we can all step back and ask, where am I out of alignment? Is it with regulation? Is it my thinking or my focus or belief? Is it how I'm learning or connecting with others? Because once we see the gap, we can begin to close it. And the goal is not more effort, it's better alignment. And when these systems are aligned, effort feels easier, learning becomes faster, and results become more consistent. Because peak performance isn't about doing more, it's about aligning the systems that drive our results. We're now in phase two, neurochemistry and Motivation, where we asked one core, what is it that drives us Forward? On episode 392, we introduced the motivation loop, how our brain decides what's worth doing. And then episode 393, we saw how belief triggers neurochemistry, driving action, feedback and repetition. And for today's episode 394, we move deeper into the loop, into thought patterns with Dr. Carolyn Leaf, who we first met in October of 2022 on the podcast. Now, while I think that all parts of the motivation loop are important, starting with our beliefs, I think this one that we're covering today, our thought patterns, is the most important part of the motivation loop. Because our thinking isn't neutral, it's biological instruction, or said in plain English. Our thoughts can influence ourselves as well as others. Every thought you think sends signals through your brain and body. Our thoughts trigger neurochemicals like dopamine, cortisol, and serotonin. They trigger changes in neural activity and they trigger activation of our nervous system. So our brain is constantly responding to what we're thinking. A thought isn't Just a moment in our mind. It's a message that tells our body how to respond. And we could go deeper here and connect Russian scientist Dr. Konstantin Korakov's work from episode 307, where he explained the concept of electrophonics. In this episode, he explained his advanced GDB technology that shows that we have energy fields that we can show physical energy distribution, emotional energy distribution, psychological energy distribution, and our relationship of our inner state to our outer world. And in agreement, according to Dr. Carolyn Leaf, our thoughts are constantly shaping our brain's chemistry. They're either increasing our drive or they're quietly shutting it down. It impacts ourselves as well as others around us. And I think this concept is a critical part of living a successful life. Eliminating negative thoughts is always a work in progress. My thinking isn't always positive, but I strive to make it that way the majority of every day. And Dr. Leif's work that we'll cover today shows us how to break down and eliminate our most toxic thought patterns that are having a detrimental impact on our lives. And, and she can do this in 63 days using her NeuroCycle app. And we covered this app and the five steps she uses to break a toxic thought and clean up our mental mess on episode 106 and again episode 299. And since learning about Dr. Carolyn Leaf's work back in 2020, I've completed five 63 day neuropsychles using her app. And I can honestly say it's been one of the most impactful processes that I've ever done for own mental health. Because the truth is we all have toxic thought patterns. Even Dr. Leave herself talks about how she uses the five step approach herself. These thoughts can surface throughout the day and if we don't recognize and process them, they can start to influence how we feel, how we show up with others, and ultimately how we live. And what I found to be the most interesting about her system is that it helps you to get to the root of your thinking. And for me, the root has actually been the same every time I've gone through a new cycle over the past six years, eliminating a toxic thought or something that's bothering me. And that showed me something important. As we start to peel back the layers of our thinking, we begin to understand why we think and act the way we do. And once we can see that pattern, we can start to change it. But this is an instant. Changing thought patterns takes time, consistency and awareness. And that's really what this work is all about. Learning how to observe our Thinking, understand it, and then intentionally reshape it over time. So moving on to clip number one, understanding the mind, brain and energy. The core idea of this clip clip is that the brain is the physical structure, but the mind is what drives our experience. Our mind is how we think, feel and choose. And these processes are happening all the time, shaping our biology and our behavior.
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So the brain is therefore the receiver or the, the responder to mind. So brain is easy to understand. It's these physical organs. It's the main organ. It's got the left and right hemisphere. If you go inside, there's the different structures, almost 100. It's. Then there's the substructures, then there's the neur and the glial cells and the, and, and, and, and right down to the subatomic level of particles and waves, etc. Etc. The brain controls the body. So we've got the brain and the body interacting. The brain and the body collectively are made up of 37 to 100 trillion cells. So every thought, every, every time your mind is working, you are driving this physical. So this is the physical. And it's around about 1% of who you are as a human. So it's very important because without the brain and body, we can't express ourselves as humans. So I'm not saying that the body's unimportant by giving that percent percentage, I'm giving that percentage to help us to see the importance of mind. Mind is around about 99 of who you are because when you die, that goes. And the brain and body disintegrates no matter what you do. Yes, you can preserve it, but it's not going to generate anything. So the mind, then we have to say, what is mind? So the mind is. The most simple definition of mind is that mind is how you think, feel and choose. So those three things I'm holding three fingers together, they don't, they don't work separately, they work together.
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So the main points from clip number one, first, the brain is physical, but it doesn't create experience alone. We can look at a brain, but it won't generate thoughts on its own. A living person creates those thoughts and experiences through interaction with others in the world around us. And the brain supports our experiences, but the mind creates it. So a key takeaway from this main point, our life is not just coming from our brain structure, it's coming from how we actually use our mind. So how do we implement this? Pause during the day and ask yourself, am I reacting automatically or intentionally? Choosing my responses. And is the response that I'm choosing moving me toward my goal or whatever it is we want or away from it? What experiences are we creating day to day with our thoughts? And if you like what you're creating, keep going. And if you want different results, it all begins with your thinking. Key point number two. Thinking, feeling, and choosing are not separate. They happen simultaneously and continuously in our brains. Every thought creates a feeling, and every feeling creates a choice. A key takeaway here. You can't change behavior without addressing both thoughts and emotions together. So how do we implement this for improved results? When we're stuck, ask what am I thinking right now? What am I feeling right now? And what choice is this leading me toward? And I first heard this idea explained in a different way years ago while I was working in the seminar industry with Bob Proctor. It was a core concept that he taught in every program that he delivered, and it really stayed with me. He would say that our thoughts are not just passing ideas. They are directly connected to our future results. That our thoughts, combined with the feelings that we attach to them and the actions we take because of them, ultimately shape our conditions, our circumstances, and our environment. Or in plain English, our thinking determines our future results or where we end up in life. And now, when we look at this through the lens of neuroscience, like with Dr. Carolyn Leaf's work, we can see what's actually happening underneath. Our thoughts are influencing our brain chemistry, and that chemistry is driving our behavior, and that behavior is what produces our results. So what once sounded like philosophy is now something we can understand as biology. Takeaway 3. Our thoughts are constantly driving the body. Every moment our mind is active, it's influencing our biology. Our thoughts affect our brain activity, our nervous system, and our physical responses. So a key takeaway here. Our thoughts are not harmless. They are biological drivers. So how do we implement this idea? For improved results, use a simple reset. Slow your breathing and shift one thought at a time intentionally. And this can begin to regulate your entire nervous system. And we saw the importance of breathwork with lowering our HRV with Rohan Dixit. Over time and practice, this becomes a habit as we become more intentional with our thinking. Now, a few years back, while studying neuroscience with researcher Mark Robert Waldman, he had his students do an activity that showed us just how difficult it is to do this. In a typical day, he would say to time how long you would go without thinking a negative thought or complaining. And it didn't have to be out loud. Thinking was enough to stop the timer. And most of US chimed in that we lasted maybe an hour or two before thinking something negative. And Waldman let us know that this activity was not meant to be easy, but for us to become more aware, since the research shows that the average person has roughly 60 to 70,000 thoughts a day and that 75 to 80% of these thoughts are negative and nearly 95% are repetitive thoughts from the day before. But there is hope, since we can learn to use our minds to change our brain. Takeaway 4 the brain and body are only a part of the system. The brain and body are physical, but our mind is what directs and organizes these parts. We are not just our brain, but we are the system using the brain. A key takeaway here. We have more influence than we think. We're not stuck stuck with our current patterns. A tip to implement this Instead of saying this is just how I am, shift that thinking to this is a pattern that I've learned and I can change it. And the fastest way that I've been able to change my thinking is with Dr. Leaf's Neuropsychle app. And it might seem like 63 days is a long time to change a pattern, but when you see the progress at the end, I'm sure you'll wish like I had that I'd started sooner to eliminate whatever it was that was stuck in my mind. Takeaway 5. Thoughts create measurable changes. As we think, feel and choose, our brain changes and our chemistry shifts. A key takeaway here. Mental activity actually causes physical change in the brain. And if you watch our full interview, Dr. Leif has props to demonstrate what our brain looked like with negative thoughts. It looked like a dead tree versus a healthy tree with positive thinking. So a tip to implement this idea. Be intentional with your morning thoughts, with your pre performance thoughts before something important and your pre sleep thoughts. These are high impact moments for rewiring our brain with with positive intentions. Some final key takeaways from our first clip. The brain is the structure, but the mind drives our experience. Thinking, feeling and choosing are always working together. Thoughts create real biological changes and repeated thoughts build neural patterns. We all have the ability to shift those patterns with our awareness and our intention. And our internal state and external world are constantly interacting. And what this really shows us is that our thoughts are not just passing moments, they're actually shaping our brain, our chemistry and ultimately our results. And when we learn to direct our thinking, we can begin to influence our brain's chemistry, our behavior and ultimately our results. Moving on to clip two. The brain is like a magnet and it draws its own energy field. Now, prior to this section in the interview, Dr. Leif spoke about the iron filings activity that many of us saw in school, where we put a whole bunch of iron filings on a sheet of paper, and then we took a magnet and put it in the middle and. And you would see a beautiful pattern with the iron filings. But when you take the magnet away, the filings go into a disordered, random pile because the filings are not strong themselves, they lose their alignment. And this was caused by the magnetic force that was pulling them together. And it's this force that Dr. Leif explains happens with each of our brains. Depending on what our minds are thinking, it determines the patterns that our minds create with our own energy force. And she clarifies, she's not talking about Star wars here. This is understanding the power of our own individual energy force.
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Brain is like this magnet, and it's drawing in this. This, our energy force. So Andrea's brain, Andrea's energy force, Caroline's brain, Caroline's energy force. And it's unique to each of us. So we're generating this force. So this mind is this thing that's kind of like all around us. We still really, in early days when we understand understanding, but it's definitely got a lot to do with gravitational fields and that energy waves. These research has done. We see that you can actually, when you talk to a person like we're talking now, that your energy waves can connect. It doesn't matter that we're talking via zoom, because there's a relationship. There's no space, time, dimension when it comes to gravitational fields. So they would cross all the spacetime dimension. And what would happen is that we are. Our waves would be enhancing each other. So like waves in the sea, when one waves on another wave, it gets bigger and you get the crests and the. The trick twists and troughs.
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And some main points from clip two, the magnet analogy, pattern formation. Like those iron filings around a magnet, energy becomes organized into patterns. Our thoughts organize our internal world. Patterns become habits. And I'd like to take this a step further and say that our thoughts absolutely create not only our internal world, but pair them with our feelings and our actions, and they create our conditions, our circumstances and our environment or our outside world. We can also look at this as neural patterning, attention shaping networks. Repeated thoughts create strengthened neural pathways. And I always want positive neural pathways in my mind and in the minds of those I care about, which is why I'll always lead with positive thinking. Myself, I know that my energy field can directly impact the energy field of not just my world, but those around me as well. A key takeaway here, repeated thoughts causes repeated neural pathways. How do we implement this idea? Ask ourselves daily, what patterns am I reinforcing right now in my life? When you see something on the outside that you don't like, we've said it before on this podcast, then you've got to go inside and make a change. Shift one thought in that pattern if it's not moving you toward the result that you want. And a second takeaway from this clip. You are both generating and responding to your environment. It's our internal state that influences how we experience the world. And our environment influences that internal state. It's a two way system. Our key takeaway here, we're not just reacting to life, we're co creating our experience based on what we think, feel and choose day to day. So how do we implement this for results? Control what you can look at, your inputs, what you watch, what you read, what you listen to, and your environments, who are you around? These shape your thinking patterns and what you'll end up thinking, feeling and choosing in your day to day life. And I'm very intentional with who I spend time with for this reason alone. And also what I read, what I listen to, and the environments where I spend most of my time in. And finally three, we ground this in science. While some of these ideas are still being explored, which is why I interviewed Dr. Korotkov to better understand the science behind our sinking. What we do know from neuroscience is clear. Our thoughts change brain activity. They influence neurochemistry, and they shape our behavior over time. So as we wrap up today's episode 394, let's go back to the question we've been exploring in phase two. What is it that actually drives us Forward? In episode 392, we introduced the motivation loop, how our brain decides what's worth doing. And then episode 393, we saw how belief triggers our neurochemistry, driving action, feedback and repetition. And today, episode 394, we took it one step deeper. We looked at the starting point of that loop, our thought patterns. Because what we've seen today is this. Our thoughts aren't neutral. Their biological instruction, every thought we think is influencing our brain activity, our neurochemistry, our nervous system, and ultimately our behavior and our results. So from Dr. Carolyn Leaf's work, we learned the mind is how we think, feel and choose. These processes are always working together and over time Repeated thoughts create patterns in the brain. And using the magnet analogy, just like the magnet organizes iron filings into patterns, our thoughts organize patterns in our brain. And those patterns become our habits, our behaviors, and our results. And when we zoom out, everything we've covered fits together like this. Our thoughts influence our neurochemistry, that influence our behavior, that influence our results. And that's the motivation loop in action. And what this means is powerful. If we can change our thinking, we can begin to change our results. But here's the important part. This doesn't happen overnight. As I shared in this episode after completing five 63 day neuro cycles, what I've seen is that that patterns repeat until we become aware of them. And real change takes time, consistency, and intention. But once you can see your patterns, you can start to change them. So here's what I want you to take away from today's episode. Ask yourself, what patterns am I reinforcing right now? And if they're not moving you toward the results that you want, shift one thought, interrupt one pattern, and begin building a new one. Because small shifts repeated over time create lasting change in the brain. And as we continue through phase two, remember this. Our thoughts are not just something we have, they are something we can direct. And when we can learn to direct our thinking, we can begin to direct our life. Because we have more influence than we think over our brain, our behavior, and ultimately our results. And next, we'll continue building on this foundation as we explore the next layer of what drives performance and sustained effort. It's attention and reward coming next. Because once our thoughts shape our neurochemistry, attention determines what we'll focus on, and reward determines what we'll repeat. Now, when I asked Dr. John Medina about theory of mind in one of our early interviews, something I'd heard him speak about, he explained it as our ability to understand the intentions and motivations of other people. And this is where it gets really interesting for what we're studying here in phase two. Because the brain doesn't just pay attention to random information. It pays attention to people, it pays attention to meaning, and it pays attention to intention. And when we understand someone's intentions, that creates emotional relevance, that creates attention, and that activates the brain's reward system. So next we'll explore how theory of mind is not just about understanding others. It's a driver of attention and reward. And this is where dopamine comes into the motivation loop. And then we'll tie in what Dr. Anna Lembke explained with her book Dopamine nation. Dopamine isn't just about pleasure. It's about motivation, anticipation, and what the brain decides is worth pursuing. So when attention and reward are aligned, learning increases, memory strengthens, behavior becomes repeatable, and dopamine is released to reinforce the behavior. But when they're not aligned, we lose focus, motivation drops, and the loop breaks. And that's what we'll explore next. And we'll see you next around the middle of May for our next episode. If you're enjoying the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll stay up to date with our new episodes. 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