The Resilient Mind - The Hidden Brain State That Builds Unshakable Focus - Greg Braden

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Gregg Braden is a five-time New York Times best-selling author, scientist, educator and pioneer in the emerging paradigm bridging science, social policy and human potential.Take action and strengthen your mind with The Resilient Mind Journal. Get your free digital copy today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/Download_Journal Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Resilient Mind podcast. In this episode, you will be listening to the hidden brain state that builds unshakable focus with Greg Bredden. Get access to the Resilient Mind Journal by clicking the link in the show notes. Enjoy. My name's Greg Braden. I'd like to welcome you to this very special presentation. Well, in this episode, I'd like to explore two of those abilities, two of those potentials, super learning and deep intuition, as well as the technique,

that we use to awaken these things in our lives. I'm going to invite you look at your screen right now, and I'm going to talk about brain states just for a moment. What you're seeing on your screen are the traditional brain states at the very bottom of the screen, the delta waves, long, slow waves. And these are when we're deeply asleep. And then the theta waves, when we become drowsy.

The alpha waves were more relaxed than maybe in meditation. The beta waves, this is where maybe you are right now when we're busily engaged in daily activities. This used to be the end of the brain states, but there is another brain state that scientists are working with now, and it is above the beta wave.

It is called gamma. This is the gamma state, and look at how much faster and how much more compressed these brain waves are. Well, interestingly, these are the brain waves that the Tibetan monks were creating in their bodies intentionally on demand to accomplish the amazing feats

of healing, of awareness, of intuition, they're able to regulate their body functions, their body temperatures, their immune response, their anti-aging hormones, all on demand when they choose. And this is where they find their power by realizing this potential. So I'm sharing this with you now because, interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, it is by harmonizing the heart in the brain that we achieve this gamma state, but one of the ways that we can achieve it, that we achieve this gamma state intentionally. And when we create the gamma state, one of the first things that signed to say to us is it opens the door to precisely what we've been talking about, to states of deep

intuition. It opens the door to increase focus where we can recall everything about any memorable event. This sounds like some of the very popular television programs where individuals are trained to become super humans and they walk into a room and boom, they know everything about everyone in that room, total recall. The gamma state is what allows us very fast processing of storage and information and retrieval. And it actually makes a lot of sense that we would be able to do that. When you think about fast information retrieval and involving the heart, if you really think about it, this makes tremendous sense for this reason, when we process information solely in the brain, when you ask your brain a question, the answers generally are a little

slower. As I mentioned before, in the heart, they're almost instantaneously. Often when we ask our heart a question, it answers before we finish asking the question. And the reason makes a lot of sense. It's because the brain, before it gives us the answer, goes through all of the loops of the logic, the fears, the issues of that have come up in the past, the issues of self-doubt, the issues of self-esteem, all of those things. Those are the logic loops the brain go through the filters before it gives us an answer. Heart doesn't do that. Heart, you ask a heart a question? Boom, it gives you the answer. Part of my heritage is Native American, is Cherokee. And it is In the Cherokee tradition, as well as in some others in the Midwest of the United States,

our indigenous ancestors knew of this power of the heart, and they actually gave it a name. This is one of the things, there is no English translation specifically for this name. There is no single English word that means precisely what the native words means. So we have to create English words around it, like prana. When we say the word prana, that is a Sanskrit word, there is no English word that means prana. So we have to create some other words. We say energy, body, or life force to approximate what it means. Well, same things happen with the wisdom of the heart.

And the word that's used is called shante ishta ishta. And it means the single eye of the heart. the heart that doesn't judge right wrong good bad the heart can discern what's true for us and what's not yet it does not assign a judgment that's a powerful distinction and that will empower you in situations whether you're in the boardroom or the classroom or you're with your friends or in the most intimate relationships with those that are closest to you where you tap and they know you well enough to tap the buttons and the triggers that elicit responses that sometimes you wish you hadn't have said. If you can get out of your brain, go into your heart, shanta Ishthda, the single eye of the heart, it'll tell you what's true for you.

When you only can't tell you what's true for someone else and that we'll do it with discernment. So it makes a lot of sense that the gamma state actually allows us this very, very fast process. The gamma state also, when we achieve that, it's a natural antidepressant. People are happier, and they're much calmer when they're in this gamma state. And it also awakens. It breathes life into our sensory perception. When we're in the gamma state, we can pick up sense that we cannot pick up typically in the beta state. You smell things. It becomes alive. Your sensations of sound. Music feels differently. It doesn't just sound. It feels differently to you. These are all the of being in the gamma state. So I'm saying this to you now because we're about to move into the

gamma state. And I want you to know all the benefits that come from doing precisely this. So we've explored many of the potentials that come from awakening this marriage, this union between the heart and the brain. And there are others. We're just barely scratching the surface. But what I'd like to do now is share with you a technique, a technique so that you can tap these potentials in your life when you choose to do so. What scientists know is that every moment of every day, as I mentioned, there's this conversation. It's a conversation between the heart and the brain. The heart is speaking to the brain, and the quality of the conversation that comes from

the heart and the brain tells the brain what chemistry to release into the body. So, for example, when we're feeling emotions that we would typically consider negative, and I don't like to characterize emotions as negative or positive, I'm doing this so you get a sense what we're doing here. When we have emotions such as anger, hate, jealousy, rage, what you're seeing on your screen is an actual printout of the quality of the signal from the heart to the brain. And you can see it's very chaotic. It's a very jagged signal. It's a rough signal. And it's that chaotic, jagged, rough signal that signals chaotic chemistry in your brain. This is the kind of chemistry that tells us that we need high amounts

of adrenaline, high amounts of cortisol, the stress hormones to respond to something quickly in life. That's a good thing for a few moments. You don't want to live your life day in and day out like this. The next image that you're seeing is what happens when we can shift our heart-based experiences from things like frustration, anger, hate, jealousy, and rage, to things like compassion, care for anything, gratitude for anything, appreciation for anything. And when we can do that, very, very quickly, this signal from the heart to the brain shifts. And you're seeing that becomes a very rhythmic, very even, very coherent signal. This is what it's called. And it sends a different signal to our brain. And our brain begins to release a different chemistry into our bodies.

Now, I'm saying this to you now because I want you to know that your brain cannot do both things at the same time. It can only do one or the other. So when you are in coherent feeling and that even rhythm, that's what awakens your brain to send powerful healing chemistry, powerful immune response, powerful anti-aging hormones, awakens your senses, turns on the gamma. Okay. And when you are in the rough, jagged signal, that's fight or flight, your body and your brain are saying, something important is happening, we've got to run or fight, so we don't have time for healing. We don't have time for an immune response. We don't have time for anti-aging hormones.

They're not important. So it shuts off those functions in preferential treatment of this fight or flight. So for this reason, you can see why fight or flight is good momentarily. You don't want long term. We can shift these brain states very, very quickly. What I'd like to do now is I'm going to share a technique with you to help to do this. We can measure this conversation between the heart and the brain electrically, and it is a very low frequency. So this isn't an esoteric essence of a prana or aura.

This is an electrical and a magnetic frequency, and the electrical part is a very, very low frequency. It is 0.1 hertz. It's not even 1.0.1 hertz. This is such a low frequency. You can't even hear this. It is right on the threshold between feeling and hearing. It's a frequency that whales use to communicate in the oceans. So it's a very universal frequency. It's also a frequency that military submarines use to communicate in the oceans, which is why it's a problem for the whales when they use it. And it is the optimal signal to harmonize your heart and your brain. So what this means is if you can create a feeling in your heart, of 0.1 Hertz, then that feeling is going to harmonize your heart and your brain. Now, in indigenous traditions that I've been with, they have techniques to do this. The Institute of Heart Math that I mentioned in the last episode, they have refined these techniques in the laboratory into very, very simple steps that make them

accessible in our everyday environment, whether we're in an urban environment, whether we're in a military environment, a first responder environment, This technique is being used in all these environments that I'm mentioning now in family and marriage and family counseling environments and cardiac environments to help deal with blood pressure and cardiac events that are happening within our bodies. So there are a vast and myriad number of applications for the one technique that we're going to do right now. And this technique is the doorway for all the potentials that we've just listed. By achieving heartbrain coherence, it opens the door and we get to choose.

It's like once we're in this place, now we can do this, this, this, or this. We can do subconscious, we can go into intuition. We can simply use this technique before we go to bed at night to begin to sleep and trigger a healing within our bodies. We can do it first thing in the morning. We can do it before our yoga. We can do it before our martial arts. We can do it before our chigung, our healing practice, any of these things, because Everything goes better with heart-brain coherence.

And that's all we're doing, as we're optimizing the conversation between the heart and the brain, between your heart and your brain. So, how do we do this? Three steps. The first step is to simply shift your awareness from your mind into your heart.

I'm going to found is in the Western traditions for many people, that's easier said than done. I'll ask people, are you in your heart? And I'll say, yep, I'm in my heart. But what they are really doing is they're still in their brain thinking about what it would be like if they're in their heart. This is where the indigenous traditions come in. Our ancestors told us, and when I spend time with my indigenous friends, I say, how do you guys do this? And they say, it helps if you can gently touch your heart center physically in a way that's comfortable for you.

In the Mayan traditions, you see an open palm right on the heart. And many of the Middle Eastern traditions, you see the same thing. In the Buddhist traditions, you see a prayer mudra that physically touches the sternum. The key is, any of those things, creates a gentle touch, a physical sensation right over the heart center, and your awareness will always go to the place where you feel the sensation. That's the key. So if you can create a touch over your heart, your awareness will go there. First step.

Second step, very simple. Slow your breathing, a little bit. slower than typical, maybe five seconds inhale, five seconds exhale. And here's why that's powerful. Because the only time you would ever slow your breathing and breathe in that way is when you feel safe. When you feel that you're in a place that's safe and you're not threatened and you're not vigilant of your surroundings. So you're telling your body, you're in a place that's safe, slow your breathing. Third step, and this is the key, is to begin to feel the feel the feeling. that creates 0.1 Hertz.

Feel the feeling that sets up the coherence between your heart and your brain. How do we do that? I gave it away earlier. I've already mentioned it. Scientists have found at the Institute of Heart Math, their researchers have found that there are four key words

that work almost 100% of the time for everyone. Appreciation for anything or anyone. Gratitude for every one. for anything or anyone. Care and compassion. If you can feel one or some combination of those feelings in your heart while you're breathing as if your breath

is coming from your heart, touching your heart center, now you're setting up this communication between the heart and the brain. Now you are triggering those neurons to begin to reach out and find other neurons to strengthen this connection.

And that's why I mentioned before it takes about 72 hours, three days to build these networks. So that means the more you do what we're about to do right now, the stronger this connection becomes in your life. Let's try this. Let's go through this together. And this is the way we're going to close out our segment today. I'm going to invite you first to shift your awareness from your mind into your heart

by gently touching your heart center. Okay. And once you're there, breathe a little slower than you typically would. be five seconds inhale, five seconds exhale, and as you breathe, feel your breath coming from your heart and begin to feel those feelings. Compassion, gratitude, care, appreciation, to the best of your ability, to the best of your ability. I'm going to do the same. Okay. And what researchers have found is that typically three minutes, only three minutes of doing what we have just done will set into motion a cascade of events within your body,

biochemical events that will last as long as six hours, the immune response, the S-I-G-A response, first-line immune in the white blood cells of your mouth. They are reflecting this effect for up to six hours after you actually create the experience. So I mentioned that we can do this any time of day. You can do it before you sleep at night, first thing when you wake up in the morning.

This technique, as simple as it seems, is the powerful key to awaken the greatest potential in your life. Thank you for tuning in. Continue strengthening your mind by listening to our other episodes.