← Dr. Trish Leigh Podcast
Dr. Trish Leigh Podcast
Episode #198: The Neuroscience of Flow: Why Stillness Fuels Your Dopamine
00:08:10
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You've heard how modern life hijacks your brain, how abstinence alone can drain it, how control can keep you frozen. Now let's talk about the antidote flow. I'm Dr. Trish Leigh, cognitive neuroscientist. This is the final chapter in the real reason that no FAP fails. We are talking about no num November. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Let's dive into how no longer escaping and instead showing up on purpose can not only rewire those pleasure pathways in your brain, but also in your life. When your nervous system moves in rhythm instead of in restriction, your dopamine, your attention and your purpose fall into sync. That's what I call living in a super normal state. Not superhuman, but fully human, fully coherent, and fully alive. Okay, so I've mapped over 50,000 brains even more so. Picture a brain map shifting from red chaos to the green harmony of what I call the green zone. Neurons that are firing together like instruments in a symphony. These instruments are finding the same key together in flow. Your prefrontal cortex quiets, your amygdala relaxes and creativity in the default mode network. Well, guess what? It wakes up. You stop chasing spikes of dopamine and begin generating a steady current of of not only dopamine, but serotonin, endorphins and alpha waves. Your system isn't high, nor is it looking for the next spike. It's harmonious. That's what peace looks like on a brain scan. The green zone. Okay, this always makes me think of my daughter, Saoirse. We just had a new addition to the family. His name is Larry Laureate, but Larry for short. He is Saoirse's new horse. Releasing him. I'll have to post a picture of Larry on my Instagram feed. Now I know, like someone told me the other day in my masterclass, every month I offer a group coaching with all the people in my masterclass, and someone put in the chat. Horse life is expensive. And I'm like, you know it for sure, my friend, but why do I do it? If you know me, I like to invest my time, my money and my energy in not only my purpose and passion, but that of my children. Now, when it comes to search, she's amazing. She not only knows how to jump horses, she knows how to use social media to create this flow in her life. When I watch her at a show and she's approaching the jump, it's like watching flow in action. I can tell in the first few strides which version of her brain has shown up. If she's tense, trying to control every stride. Larry fights back. You can feel the friction in the air. But when she exhales and softens her body and lets the rhythm carry her, they merge two nervous systems. One flow. That's the beauty of equine therapy. That's exactly what you and your brain can do. Also, when you stop forcing control or running, trying to escape and get a dopamine hit, and instead, you start syncing with your own internal rhythm, life begins to lift you instead of draining you, and it becomes magical. Okay, so let's talk about some brain hacks for you today. When something in your day feels forced, Pause. Think about it. Feel it. Exhale. Ask yourself, where's the rhythm here? Your body already knows. You may not realize that every single system in your body, your heart, your gut, your brain, they all move to rhythm. When overstimulated, that symphony falls apart. High beta waves spike, heart rate variability drops. Cortisol floods your bloodstream flow brings them back into tempo. Your breath slows, your heart synchronizes with your brain waves, and performance meets peace. That's not poetry. That's neurocardiac coherence is what it's called. It's measurable and it's. It's trainable. It's the biological signature of what can be your supernormal state. Okay, let's talk about brain hack number two. Practice a 4, 6 breathing rhythm once a day. Inhale for four, exhale for six. We talked about this in the last episode. Within 60 seconds, your vagus nerve signals safety. That, my friend, is your doorway into flow. Now here's the real deal. You cannot receive clarity when you're full of chaos. Flow starts with emptiness when releasing the noise, the chase and the proof. Then slowly, life pours back in to the presence. It'll show up with creativity, and for me, most importantly, peace. Okay, brain hack number three. Before you start your next project or conversation, Empty first. Breathe. Stretch. Clear notifications, get some silence, then begin. You will absolutely feel the difference. St. Augustine said, to be fully alive is to be fully present. When your nervous system settles into sacred order, stillness becomes power. You no longer chase dopamine. You generate fulfillment from within. It's the divine design of your brain. A mirror of creation's own calm coherence. Okay, brain hack number four. Presence is not an activity. It's intimacy with your reality. Let your day become filled with purposeful intention and attention. The supernormal life is not about never getting hijacked again. It's about knowing how to come home. Every time you choose. Rhythm over rush, peace over pressure. You retrain your brain for coherence. That spark inside of you, the one that's filled with passion and purpose, becomes a steady fire again, not an artificial fire. Your attention becomes a devotion. Your life becomes sacred flow. Now you're regulating from the inside out. And what you think about and what you believe will happen for you begins to be reflected in creation. Now, if you want to see your brain's rhythm, or lack thereof, unfortunately for many people, and learn how to bring it back into harmony, then please go over to Dr. Trish Le.com, check out brain mapping, my neurofeedback program. I can help you visualize and see what's happening inside your brain so that you can know what you can do about it. Because I want to remind you, the world profits from your distraction, but you gain from your clarity. That's how you move from being hijacked to being harmonious and living a truly super normal life. Okay. Thanks for joining me and I'll see you next time. And remember, control your brain or it will control you.