The Mindset Mentor - What You Think Changes Your Brain

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. And if you love this podcast, you probably also love following me on Instagram. One of the things I've been doing on Instagram recently is doing what I'm calling coffee talks. Just ideas that come to me in the morning as I'm journaling, drinking my coffee, and just throwing it up there on my story. So if you want to get some daily little tips and tricks, go ahead and follow me on Instagram. It's RobDialJr. Today, we're going to be talking about how your thinking actually changes the function and the structure of your brain. Then we're going to specifically talk about positive thinking. And I'm not just

Starting point is 00:00:53 going to sit here like some, hey, rah, rah, when you think positive, your life changes, like a motivational speaker that might not be based in science and facts. No, I'm going to actually go over many scientific studies and cite them to you to prove to you how your thinking, your positive thinking will actually start to change the structure of your brain and also the function of it as well. Because research has shown over and over and over and over again that positive thoughts actually have a profound impact on the structure of your brain. And in fact, it's similar to, you know, if you think of like physical exercise, how if you just wake up and at some point in time throughout the day, you work out, you do something physical with

Starting point is 00:01:41 your body, gradually, you will have changes in your body, no matter what. If you just work out every single day, you will have changes in your body. The same exact way, if you have certain specific thoughts every single day or new thoughts, how new thoughts will actually create new neural pathways and can disrupt the old pathways and patterns that you have, leading to lasting and real changes in your cognitive function. And so to understand how this whole thing works, let's first take a look at how your brain itself works. So your brain is made up of billions, I think the number is around 80 billion neurons, which are these little specialized cells that transmit information throughout the

Starting point is 00:02:23 brain and throughout the nervous system. And these neurons are connected by something called synapses, which allow them to communicate with one another. So when you think a thought or perform a certain action, your neurons will fire, which means send an electrical signal from one place to another. Your neurons will fire in a particular pattern that corresponds with that thought or with that action. You know, you may have heard before neurons that fire together, wire together. What the firing together means is they just send an electrical signal from one to another. And so over time, if you continue to do the same thing over and over and over again, or you continue to have the same thoughts over and over and over again, over time, repeated patterns of thoughts, of behaviors can actually

Starting point is 00:03:10 change the structure of the brain that is inside of your skull. This is known as neuroplasticity, which means that your brain, no matter how old you are, can actually start to change itself. And what allows your brain to adapt, it's actually what allows your brain to adapt and change to new things that happen inside of your life. Now, it is easier to change your brain as you're younger. This is why kids can learn so freaking fast compared to like an adult. And it's harder to learn a musical instrument. It's hard to learn a new language when you're older, but it doesn't mean that it's impossible. It's actually not impossible, but your brain will start to rearrange and change itself. For instance, if you decide, I'm going to start playing piano and you just play piano every single day and you've never played piano before, areas of your brain will actually start to restructure themselves so that

Starting point is 00:03:58 processing music will become easier and more efficient for your brain. There's many studies of neuroplasticity that show like, for instance, when you become a taxi driver in London, in order to become a taxi driver, you actually have to memorize every single road in the city of London. And what they have found is they have measured people's brains as they're going in their first day on the job as a London taxi cab driver, and they measure them years down the road, they actually find that the part of their brain that deals with mapping changes and restructures itself as they have to learn and actually rewire their brain to memorize certain parts of the streets of London.

Starting point is 00:04:43 So if trying to memorize a map of London or playing a specific music instrument like piano can change the structure of your brain, can the thoughts that we think do the exact same thing? And the answer is absolutely 100% true. Yes, it can. When you consciously focus on positive thoughts, You actually activate certain neural pathways that are in your brain that correspond to those thoughts. And over time, if you think positively, positively, positively, they become stronger and more efficient, which makes it easier for you to access positive thoughts and emotions in the future. Now, believe me, I don't think that just by like, oh, you know, shit hit the fan, I'm going to think positive all day long. I don't want you to think that that's what I'm talking about here. But it's a viewpoint of how can I start to look at the world through a positive lens versus a

Starting point is 00:05:31 negative lens. We all know people. You go and hang out with them. You're like, how are they so freaking positive all of the time? Like they're so happy. They're so positive. I wish I was as happy and positive as them. Well, it's a habit. It's actually a function and structure that has changed in their brain. But we also know people who are very negative, and it's really hard to break out of the negativity. It is the exact same thing for them. And so when you look at positive thoughts, positive thinking is often referred to as a brain workout. And just like physical exercise, your muscles change and grow depending on what workouts you do. Well, your positive thinking strengthens certain parts of

Starting point is 00:06:11 your brain. It also weakens certain parts of your brain. So then that brings up the question, if positive thinking can change our brain in certain ways to make it easier to continue to think positive later on down the road, if we think negative, is it possible that when we think negative over and over and over again, it makes it easier to continue to think negative over and over and over again? And the answer is yes. Ding, ding, ding. Absolutely. 100% true. Negative thoughts also have a profound impact on your brain as well. When you consistently have negative thoughts, which I had for years and years and years, I was a self-diagnosed pessimist for a very long time. And I don't feel like that lives in me at all anymore. It's actually hard for me to be pessimistic and to not find the

Starting point is 00:06:56 positive in things now. But when you consistently think negative thoughts, you activate very specific neural pathways that correspond to those thoughts in your brain. Over time, those pathways become stronger and stronger. And as they become stronger, they become more efficient, which means it's easier to think negative than it is to think positive. And so when you look at this, negative thinking patterns can be really hard to break. There's some times where you're just so pessimistic and you've been for so long, it's hard to break those patterns. Now you understand why. Because they become deeply ingrained in the structure of your brain. Now, there is good news though. Good news is that you can disrupt these negative thinking

Starting point is 00:07:35 patterns by consciously focusing on something that is positive. When you notice something negative come through in your mind, you can intentionally choose to think differently. You can't always control your first thought because sometimes those first thoughts are just automatic thoughts. But you can always choose your second thought. You can activate different neural pathways in your brain that correspond with positive thoughts when negative thoughts start to come up. And over time, the pathways that you go down become stronger in your brain and more efficient. And when you stop going down certain pathways, like the negative pathways, they actually start to become weaker and your brain stops

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Starting point is 00:09:29 Once again, that is greenchef.com slash dial 60, D-I-A-L 6-0 for 60% off plus free shipping. And so you might be sitting there and you're like, all right, hippie, is all of this rooted in real science? Like it sounds good. It sounds true. But can you actually prove rooted in real science? It sounds good. It sounds true, but can you actually prove it through real science? And the answer is yes. I have found many, many studies. I researched these shit out of this podcast episode because I wanted to make sure that if there's any doubters

Starting point is 00:09:56 out there that this works, I can show you over and over and over and over and over again. You ready for this? Let's roll into it. Study number one. One study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that practicing positive affirmations for just four weeks led to significant changes in brain activity in areas that were associated with self-processing and emotional regulation. So for people that think that positive affirmation is just a bunch of bullshit, there's actual science to prove that with just four weeks of positive affirmations, woo bullshit. There's actual science to prove that with just four weeks of positive affirmations, it led to significant changes in brain activity and processing in the emotional regulation part of their brain. And participants in the study reported feeling less anxious and more self confidence after practicing positive affirmations. And these changes were reflected in their brain

Starting point is 00:10:40 activity when they did scans of their brains. Ooh, that's pretty awesome. All right, study number one, down. Number two, another study that was 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 actually experienced changes in brain activity in areas that were associated with emotional regulation

Starting point is 00:11:04 and attentional control. And these changes were still present six months after the training ended, suggesting that the effects of the positive thinking can actually be very long lasting. That's number two. All right, let's go for number three. Neuroimaging studies have shown that positive thinking can increase activity in prefrontal cortexes of people's brain, which is the part of the brain responsible for executive functions such as decision-making, planning, and impulse control. So positive thinking can actually help you make better decisions. There's study number three. Number four, studies have also shown that positive thinking can decrease activity in the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that's responsible for processing fear

Starting point is 00:11:49 and other negative emotions. So when you think positive, you actually start to change and decrease the activity in the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that brings fear and negative emotions. That's pretty damn awesome. So that's number four. Number five, a study published in the Journal of Cerebral Cortex found that people who practice mindfulness meditation had greater gray area matter density in the prefrontal cortex of their brain, which I just told you about a minute ago, which is associated with cognitive function and emotional regulation. So people who actually practice mindfulness meditations had greater gray matter density in their prefrontal cortex, which means that they are better at cognitive control and emotional regulation. That's number five. Number six, research has actually shown that positive thinking can increase the production of neurotransmitters,

Starting point is 00:12:39 such as dopamine and serotonin. Both of them bring up the feelings of happiness and well-being. So when you think positive, you actually train your brain to release more dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine makes you feel good, but it's also the motivation molecule. It makes you motivated to work towards something. Serotonin makes you feel good for everything that you have in your life, and that's associated with something like gratitude. So that's number six. Number seven, studies have found that positive thinking can improve cognitive performance in tasks such as problem solving, decision making, and your working memory as well. So positive thinking actually protects the brain and makes it work better. So that's number seven. Number eight, a study published in the Journal of, I'm going to fuck this up real bad,

Starting point is 00:13:25 Psychoneuroendocrinology. I think I got that right. Psychoneuroendocrinology found that people who wrote about positive experiences had lower levels of stress hormones, cortisol, these stress hormones, cortisol, than those who wrote about negative experiences. So even just sitting down and writing at the end of the day, what was positive that happened to you, it will lower your stress hormone cortisol inside of your body. So that's number eight.

Starting point is 00:13:53 Number nine, research has shown that positive thinking can improve physical health outcomes, such as reducing inflammation and improving cardiovascular health. So hold on. We were talking about how positive thinking changes your brain, but now we're also seeing that research has shown that positive thinking can improve your physical health. It can improve inflammation in your body and reduce that. It can

Starting point is 00:14:15 also improve cardiovascular. So positive thinking actually improves the cardiovascular health of your heart. Holy crap. that's pretty wild if you actually think about it, isn't it? That's number nine. Number 10, neuroplasticity studies have shown that the brain is capable of changing and adapting throughout our entire lifetime. And positive experiences and thoughts will shape a more positive brain. So you can literally change your brain no matter how old you are to be more positive. And then last but not least, I've found so many of these, but I'm just going to give you 11 of them because I just want to really hit home and make sure you guys understand this. A study published in the Journal of Nature Neuroscience found that people who receive

Starting point is 00:14:56 positive feedback during a learning task had increased activity in the striatum, which is associated with reward processing and reinforcement learning. So hopefully I've made you a believer that positive thinking and being conscious when you are thinking negative and switching it to positive will change your brain, will change your neurotransmitters, which are the hormones that go through your body as well, and change those. And then also start to change your cardiovascular health as well. It's really important to note real quick though, that this isn't like a cure-all for all mental health issues. Some people do have clinical depression. Some people have something that is uncurable. And I can't say like, oh my gosh, just thinking

Starting point is 00:15:38 positive is going to cure every single mental health issue. But it's important to know that for like 99% of people in the world, actually changing your thinking will change your brain in very drastic ways. And so now we actually ask ourselves, well, how do we actually start to become better? And how do we make this a daily routine? So let me give you a few tips. Number one, practice gratitude. I gave you a couple of examples of how actually practicing gratitude, writing down what you're grateful for, but also writing down the positive things that happen in your day will start to change your brain. So just take a pen and paper, write down what you're grateful for, or close your eyes and just think about the things that you have to be grateful for. The second thing, use positive affirmations. Affirmations can be

Starting point is 00:16:19 this weird like woo-woo-y seeming things like, oh, I'm a perfect being and all of that stuff. And sometimes our BS meter will go off. When I talk about affirmations, I always say, and this is my formula for creating an affirmation, is they need to be true, they need to be present tense, and they need to be empowering. True, present tense, empowering. So it could be like, I am capable of creating the life that I want. I fully believe that I'm going to create the wealth that I want to in my life, whatever it might be. Instead of saying like, oh, you know, money's flowing to me from all areas of the universe. Sometimes those can get a little bit corny. Practice true positive affirmations. And

Starting point is 00:16:54 as you start to do this, you actually start to believe in yourself more. You can make sticky notes. You could play some around the house. You could change the background of your phone, change the background of your computer. Try to just practice being a little bit more positive. Tell yourself some positive affirmations while you're brushing your teeth in the morning and brushing your teeth at night. Next one, surround yourself with more positivity. Part of that is start to get rid of people who are making you more negative. If you're sitting there and there's people that are around you that are completely negative, how can you let go of them? If you're going home and you're watching murder mysteries all night, that's probably not the most positive thing.

Starting point is 00:17:30 How can you start to think about all of your external environment and how you can make your external environment healthier for your mental health? Next one, practice mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation can help you become more aware of your thoughts, can help you feel your emotions a little bit more. The important thing to know about practicing mindfulness and to actually try to do a five-minute meditation, try to do a 10-minute meditation, to try to actually do these is not to feel calm. The point of meditation is to feel. Because all too often, we're just running away from our feelings. And so what if you just sat down and just allowed yourself just to feel? And then

Starting point is 00:18:09 you brought in all of that stuff that you're grateful for at the end of it. And just see how that works for you. And last one is start to get better at your positive self-talk. I always say you would never talk to someone the way that you talk to yourself sometimes. And so it's important to just remember just to be aware of the way that you're speaking to yourself. And so those are five tips to help you on a daily process of how to bring this into your routine. Practice gratitude, use positive affirmations, surround yourself with positivity, practice mindfulness meditations, and then actually use more positive self-talk versus negative self-talk. And it's important to kind of wrap this up to realize that positive thinking is a process. It-talk. And it's important to kind of wrap this up to realize

Starting point is 00:18:45 that positive thinking is a process. It's not like something that's just like a switch where you just flip it and you're a perfect person. Like I said, you can't always control your first thought, but you can always control your second thought. And as you start to use that second thought more and more and more, the first thought that you don't want actually becomes weaker. And so it takes consistent effort. It takes practice. But you can develop a more positive mindset if you now are aware that how you think throughout the day actually changes the structure of your brain. It changes the function of your brain. It changes the health of your heart. It changes the inflammation in your body.

Starting point is 00:19:23 How can you just be more aware to be positive instead of being negative so much? So boom, that's what I got for you for this episode, this beautiful episode that I did a ton of research for you guys on. If you love this and you got something from it and you're like, holy shit, people need to hear this, please do me a favor. Just share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in it, RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. That's why we put out so much free information is because we just want to continue to help the world. So if you could help us spread this message, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. And I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode, make it your mission to make someone

Starting point is 00:19:55 else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.

The Mindset Mentor - What You Think Changes Your Brain

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