Scientifically Changing Your Brain with Positive Thinking

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Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast, the number one mindset podcast in the entire world. I'm your host Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast. Today I'm going to dive in and I'm going to talk to you about how positive thinking can actually change the structure and function of your brain. This is not going to be anything that's weird and out there. I am going to slam you with scientific proof today to the point where you're going to be like, is he still telling me more studies? And the answer is yes. Because I really want to hammer in home that actually thinking positive can change the structure and function of your brain. And I'm going to tell you exactly how to do it. I'm not just going to sit here and be like a motivational speaker. They can't root anything back in science. No no, no. We're proving it today because research has shown a over and over and over again that positive thoughts have a massive impact on the structure of your brain. And when the structure of your brain changes, the function of your brain long term will change as well. In fact, it's very similar to how physical exercise gradually changes the body if you do it over and over and over again. Positive brain workouts help form new neural pathways that can disrupt your negative thinking patterns, leading to long lasting changes in your cognitive function, which help you think better and actually help your brain work better. And so to understand how this works, let's first take a look at just the brain itself. Your brain is basically this little mushy thing that's made up of billions and billions of neurons, which are specialized cells that transmit information throughout the brain and the nervous system. And these neurons are connected through things called synapses, which help them communicate with. With one another. And when you think a thought or you perform a certain action or task in some sort of way, your neurons are going to fire in a particular pattern that corresponds with that thought or with that action. And there's a real famous phrase, the most famous phrase around neurology is neurons that fire together, wire together. Fire together basically just means an electrical signal. And then they wire together, which means they create an electrical connection. And over time, repeated patterns of thought or behavior, positive, negative, whatever it might be, just repeated patterns of thought and behavior can actually change the structure of your brain. And this is known as neuroplasticity. This is what allows your brain to adapt and learn new things throughout your entire life. So we've all heard the phrase, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Completely false. You definitely can. It's just, as you get older, it becomes a little bit harder to learn things or to change, but it does not mean that you cannot change. So, for example, you know, if you, if you sit and you decide, I've never played the piano before, but I'm going to sit down for an hour a day, and I'm going to practice the piano every single day, the areas of your brain responsible for processing music become more developed and more efficient. I have an entire. Not episode. I have an entire chapter in my book, my book Level up that is specifically around neuroplasticity. And it is so fascinating to me how we can change our brains whenever we put dedicated practice into something. And how people who play the piano, their brains end up changing and being different. People who drive taxis in London, their brains end up being different because they have to memorize every single road that's in London. And so the same is positive for. I'm sorry, the same is true for positive thoughts. So the same way that if I decide to learn piano, my brain is going to change if I decide that I'm no longer going to be negative. My brain is going to change. It's not going to change overnight, but it's going to change if I continue to keep being very intentional. And when you consciously focus on positive thoughts, you activate certain neural pathways in the brain that correspond with those thoughts. And over time, those pathways become stronger and stronger and stronger. And as they become stronger, they become more efficient. And as they become more efficient, it actually makes it easier for you to access positive thoughts and emotions in the future. That's what's crazy. You could be negative as hell right now, but decide, I'm no longer going to be negative. I'm going to find the good in everything. I'm going to be positive. And as you do it over and over and over, those neural pathways become stronger and stronger, stronger. And as it becomes stronger, they become more efficient, which makes it easier for you to access positive thoughts and emotions. Wow, that's pretty damn crazy, right? This is why positive thinking is often referred to as a brain workout. It's just like a real workout. Like physical exercise strengthens your muscles, positive thinking actually strengthens your brain. Once again, I'm going to give you science. Don't you worry. I'm not just saying this as some, like, rah rah high five motivational speaker, because that's not what I want to be. And this is why you can meet somebody who's always happy, and you're like, what the fuck? How are you always so happy, right? Like, I'm like, how do you do it, right? Like, I've thought that we're so happy all the time. You're so positive all the time, right? But you also can meet somebody and they're always sad all the time. They're always negative all the time. You're like, this person's not fun to be around. All of that, whether it's the sadness, whether it's the happiness when there's a positive, all of it is just a habit. It's just a habitual way of thinking. And if this is true for positive thinking, then the opposite must also be true. Negative thinking can also have a really huge impact on your brain as well. When you consistently think negative thoughts, you activate neural pathways that correspond with those thoughts, same way that you do with positive they're just different ones. And over time, those pathways become stronger and more efficient, making it easier for you to access negative thoughts and emotions in the future. And this is why negative thought, like negative thought patterns, Negative thinking, being a little negative Nancy can be so hard to break. Teachers are deep into new units.

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You can see someone, and it's just like, they're so miserable. And even if they don't want to be miserable anymore, it's so hard for them to stop being miserable. It's hard to break, because as you continue to keep doing them over and over and over again, it becomes easier to do, and they become deeply ingrained in the structure of your brain. But the good news is, is that with a lot of time, well, first off, with awareness of what you are thinking, how you're acting in time and attention and intention, you can disrupt these negative thinking patterns and consciously start focusing on thoughts that are more positive. When you intentionally choose to think positively, you activate different neural pathways in your brain that correspond to those thoughts. You activate different neural pathways than the negative thoughts and neurons that fire together, wire together. And over time, these pathways become stronger and more efficient, and eventually they disrupt the negative patterns, making it easier for you to access positive thoughts and emotions. And recently I told you guys about, like, I used to be such a negative person. I used to be such a pessimistic person. I was such a negative Nancy. And over time, I was like, I don't want to be this way anymore. This is not who I want to be in the future. Like, just a negative little person. Nobody wants. I don't want to be that. And so I started changing the way that I thought. Every time I thought negative, I'd force myself to find the positive. Every time I thought negative, I forced myself to find a positive over and over and over again. The same way that you train a dog. If it goes potty inside, you take it outside, it goes potty inside, you take it outside over and over and over again. Eventually, the dog just goes, oh, I go potty outside. Right? It's the same way that you train your brain. I was negative, I'm going to be positive. I was negative. I'm going to be positive over and over and over again. Eventually, your brain just starts learning new neural pathways. And so really, that's what it comes down to. And you might be like, all right, cool hippie, but Is there real science? Can we root this in real science or are you just saying rah rah, high five, go do it. Be positive. It changes your brain and there's no studies behind it. Oh, ready? There are many, many studies I've researched the hell out of this just to make sure that the most pessimistic person that's out there, the most analytical person and the most skeptical person, all in one would go, well, damn. Yeah, this actually seems to hold. It seems to hold water. I'm guessing that this is the truth. Okay, so let me give you a bunch of different studies. You ready? One study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that practicing positive affirmations for just four weeks led to significant changes in the brain in areas that were associated with self related processing and emotional regulation. Participants in the study reported feeling less anxious and more self confident after practicing positive affirmations and these changes were reflected in their brain activity. Want another study? Let's keep going. Another study published in the Journal of Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience found that when participants were trained to focus on positive images instead of negative ones, they experienced changes in the brain activity in areas associated with emotional regulation and attentional control. These changes were still present six months after the training ended, suggesting that the effects of positive thinking are actually long lasting. There was another study Neuroimaging studies have shown that positive thinking can increase activity in the prefrontal cortex of your brain, which is the part of the brain that's responsible for executive functions such as decision making, planning and impulse control. Another study that came out have shown, or many studies have shown that positive thinking can actually decrease activity in the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that's responsible for fear and other negative emotions. So positive thinking actually decreases the blood flow in the amygdala, which means less fear is going to pop up. A study that was in the Journal of Cerebral Cortex. I didn't even know that was a journal. The Cerebral Cortex Journal found that people who practice mindfulness meditation had greater gray matter density in the prefrontal cortex of their brain, which is associated with cognitive control and emotional regulation. Research has also shown that positive thinking can increase the production of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, which are both associated with feelings of happiness and well being and being more motivated. Studies have also found that positive thinking can improve cognitive performance in tasks such as problem solving, decision making and working memory. A study that was published in the Journal of oh God, let me try my best Psychoneuroendocrinology. That might be the longest word I've ever seen.

Psycho.

That's one word, everybody. Psychoneuroendocrinology found that people who wrote about positive experiences had lower levels of stress hormone cortisol than those who wrote about negative experiences. Research has also shown that positive thinking can improve physical health outcomes, such as reducing inflammation and improving cardiovascular health. So that's a crazy thing to think about. Positive thinking reduces inflammation in your body and improves cardiovascular health. So it's not just your brain that changes. Your body also changes. All right, we're almost done. We got a couple more. Okay. Neuroplasticity studies have shown that the brain is capable of changing and adapting throughout our lifetime, and that positive experiences and thoughts help shape the processes and the efficiency of the brain. A study that was published in the Journal of Nature Neuroscience found that people who received positive feedback during a learning task had increased activity in striatum, which is associated with reward processing and reinforcement learning. So does positive thinking actually change your brain scientifically? The answer is yes. That is the most studies I've ever put into one podcast episode. Of course, it's important to note that positive thinking alone is not some, like, magic cure all for all mental health issues. I'm not saying that when something comes up and, you know, you're feeling like complete shit, that you're just like, hey, everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay. Everything's gonna be okay. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, is there a way for us to try to start searching for a little bit more positivity? When something happens, can we look at it through a positive light? If something negative happens in our life, can we look at through a positive light so that not. Not so that we ignore the negative, but so that we can actually take on the negative in a more of a positive way? So it's not a cure all for mental health issues. For instance, for people that have, like, clinical depression, positive thinking exercises might not be enough to alleviate their symptoms. But there's many studies that show just practicing positive thinking can be helpful as a complement to forms of therapy that they might have or medication that they might be using. And so how do we start actually taking this? And now that you've realized that it works, how do we take this positive thinking and we put it into your daily routine? Well, let's dive in. I'm gonna give you a few different techniques and some tips to help you. The first thing as corny as it sounds, is to practice gratitude. Right? Take a few minutes a day to just write down three things that you're grateful for. All too often, our brain goes to negative. It looks for what is wrong in our environment, and it does that as a way to keep us safe. It searches for what is wrong. And so what we need to do, if that's the case, is we need to search for what is right. We need to search for what we can be grateful for. And so what we need to do is we need to find three things that we're grateful for. Early in the morning, not late at night, but early in the morning, when your brain is still kind of waking up, it's still kind of in theta state, because theta is the most programmable state that you can be in. And so a simple exercise like this can just help shift your focus from what's wrong in your life to what's going right or what you can be proud of or what you can find that's good. And it doesn't have to be huge things. Doesn't be like, oh, my God, I bought a new house. It could be like, hey, it's a beautiful sunny day outside. I get to go have dinner with a friend tonight. It could be something like that, right? That's the first thing. Practice gratitude. Next thing is use positive affirmations. I gave you multiple studies that show that positive affirmations actually start to change the way that you view yourself. And so instead of saying, you know, don't lie to yourself, but if you say, I am capable and I am confident, or if you feel like you're unlovable, I am worthy of love, I'm worthy of respect, and repeat them to yourself all throughout the day. Because all too often, we have a narrative that's going on in our heads and. And it's not really a story that's helping us. And so really what it comes down to is, how can I change the narrative that's going on in my head? You can also write them down on sticky notes. You can place them all around your house, your workspace, everything. Next thing is, how can you try to surround yourself with more positivity? Can you start spending. Can you be more intentional with who you spend your time with? Right? The people that you spend your time with. You have really negative people around you. They're going to, you know, change your mental health. So can you spend more time with people who lift you up, who make you feel good about yourself? Avoid negative people and start to get into the. The energy of more Positive people. Another thing is to practice mindfulness. Sit down, be quiet, and become aware of your thoughts. You know, a lot of people think that sitting down and meditating is about trying to turn your brain off. It's really not. What it's about is to take out all the things that you're seeing, all the things that you're doing, and to take a moment just to be with yourself. And it's not about getting rid of your thoughts, it's about observing your thoughts. So when you sit down and you meditate, you start to become more aware of your thoughts, you start to become more aware of your emotions. You're just trying to be with yourself a little bit more, which can help you develop much more of a positive mindset. Oh man. I'm noticing that when I sit down and meditate, I'm immediately going to anxious thoughts, anxious feelings. Okay, what do I need to do to change that? Another thing you can do that really helps is to start getting better with your self talk. A lot of times most people that I come in contact with are not really the nicest. They're kind of shitty to themselves. And so when you catch yourself with negative thinking and having negative thoughts, challenge yourself to change them with positive thoughts that immediately come back. So if you say something negatively about yourself and you notice it, become aware of it, immediately replace that with three positive things that you like about yourself. Right? And that's slowly how you start re patterning yourself. So if you start thinking, you find yourself thinking, I'm not good enough. Well, counter that with I'm capable, I'm deserving of success. What else that you need to hear? How do you need to be your best friend? How do you need to be the person that's in your corner, that's building yourself up instead of breaking yourself down? Remember practicing positive thinking. It's a process. It's not going to happen overnight. You're not going to be positive today and wake up tomorrow and just immediately be like, oh my God, I'm so positive. But when you're really consistent with it, when you practice it all the time, you can actually change your mindset. You can actually change the structure of your brain through those long lasting changes. And when you change the structure of your brain, the function of your brain changes and the cognitive function that happens inside of your brain actually starts to change and adjust as well. So hope I proved to you that there's scientific proof that positive thinking actually changes your brain for the better. So with that, I'm going to leave you the same way leave you every single episode. Make it your mission. Make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.

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