Mastering the Mindset
Mastering the Mindset
Mastering Mental Fitness for a Better Life
Can your thoughts reshape your brain and improve your life? Yes. There is science behind it. Let's talk about positive thinking and the way it impacts your life. There are proven effects in the brain from changing the way you think that can lead to an overall better mental fitness. In this episode you'll learn how neurons, synapses, and new neural pathways can physically alter your brain while enhancing your cognitive function. Sounds like a bunch of jargon? Well let's dive in and talk about it!
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What's up everybody and thank you for listening to Mastering the Mindset. My name is Darius Dodge and I'm an actor, hip-hop artist and fitness and life coach, and I'm here to personally help you train and improve your mindset so that you can, one, become the best version of yourself mentally and, two, gain focus and motivation to be able to take action and achieve the success in life that you want and deserve. Before we get started, please like and subscribe to my channel and at the end of this episode, if you liked it, please share it with a friend or a loved one or someone who would benefit from hearing this message. I'm so glad you're here and I'm ready to go on this journey with you, and that journey begins now. That journey begins now. All right, and welcome back to another episode. Like I always say, thank you for being here and if you are on YouTube, please go ahead and like and subscribe, and if you're on a podcast platform, go ahead and leave me a review and, most importantly, make a donation. These help me keep this thing going and are greatly appreciated.
Speaker 1:But let's dive in. Today. Let's talk about how your thinking changes your brain, how it changes the function and structure of your brain and specifically, how positive thinking does this? Now, what I won't do is sit here and give you this cliche rah, rah, think positive and all your problems go away Speech no, some motivational speakers and coaches they take that approach, but if you be listening to me, you know that I give you some facts and examples of how the things I talk about play out in life. So I want to give you some information and a few different scientific studies that go along with this topic and I'm going to use it to show you how you're thinking. Your positive thinking will change your brain and change the function of it as well, and research shows over and over again that positive thinking has an effect on you. It just does. And think about it for a second in terms of your body. And if you decided to wake up and you work out, and if you work out every day or a few times a week, over and over again, you will eventually see changes in your body and your brain is the exact same way If you have a certain, a certain or specific thoughts and or new thoughts. New thoughts create new neural pathways and these neural pathways disrupt old ones and this will lead to change, change that lasts in your cognitive function.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about the brain for a second, to break it down a little bit better so we can understand how this works. So your brain, your brain has billions I think is like 80, 80 billion neurons, and these are little specialized cells that transmit information through the brain and the nervous system and these neurons are connected together by synopsis. That's SYNAPSES. I had to spell that out for me because it sounds like synopsis, like synopsis of a play. Anyway, the synopsis are how the neurons communicate with each other. The synopsis are how the neurons communicate with each other. So when you think a thought or perform an action, your neurons fire in a certain pattern that correlates with that thought or that action. And over time, if you do the same thing over and over again, if you think the same thought over and over again, if you do the same actions over and over again, over time you can change the actual pattern and structure of those connections in your brain. And this is called neuroplasticity, which means that your brain, no matter how old you are, can actually start to change itself. It's how you can adapt and change to new things that come in your life.
Speaker 1:Now, unfortunately for us, it is easier for kids to learn new things. That's why they learn so fast at younger ages. Right, compared to adults, kids learn things way faster. It's why, as an adult, it's harder to learn a musical instrument or a new language. Now, does that mean you can't learn? No, it just takes longer, more effort, and I'm starting to notice this at my ripe age of 38. Ripe like ready to be plucked, plucked off a branch of youth. You can steal that if you want to.
Speaker 1:But I remember when I first started acting and I will be in shows with older people, the vets, and I will see them struggling to get their lines down. And if you were older actor, that's listening and I work with you before. I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about that other actor that we know. You know the other person anyway, and I will look at listening and I work with you before. I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about that other actor that we know. You know the other person anyway, and I would look at them and I would think, damn man, they really are struggling to get these lines. Now, fast forward.
Speaker 1:I'm starting to see I'm slowly on my way, because when I tell you I done had some moments on stage, because I used to always crack up when I saw an actor call another actor their character name. Like, let's say, if they play the role of Mac, and they walk on stage and say, look at me when I'm talking to you, mac, james, look at me, james, I used to laugh so hard. And when I tell you karma and life have caught up to me because it happened to me now I was on stage in the heated scene, I was in Skeleton Crew at the Guthrie and my character name is Reggie and I'm in a scene with Des and I'm in this heated moment and I'm yelling and I say hard and wrong, well, what the hell do you want from me, reggie, des? And when I tell you, I don't know how I kept it together because I was dying on the inside. Anyway, my point the older you get or the younger you are, the easier it is to learn new things, like lines. But you can still learn things at older ages, like if you started to learn piano.
Speaker 1:If you practice every day, areas of your brain start to restructure themselves so that that processing music can become easier and stick in your brain. Your brain learns and rewires itself to learn and memorize music and notes. And there was this podcast I heard a while ago and they talked about the study that was done on taxi cab drivers in London and how to become a cab driver over there. You need to learn the streets. They test you on your knowledge and you have to basically learn all the streets. And they did this study on cab drivers both when they first started and then again later down the road and of course, they found that the more they drove as a taxi cab driver, the part of their brain that processed and learned the map of the city, that part of the brain, grew Big surprise, right. So if your brain can change when you learn a new instrument or when you drive as a cab driver and learn the city, that part of the brain grew Big surprise, right? So if your brain can change when you learn a new instrument or when you drive as a cab driver and learn the city like the back of your hand, do you think the thoughts we think can do the same thing? The answer is yes, 100%. And when you consciously focus on positive thoughts, you activate those neural pathways in your brain that correspond to those thoughts, and the more you use them, the more you think positive, they get stronger and more efficient, which makes it easier to generate more positive thoughts in the future. Now again, I'm not a person who thinks that, ok, damn, so, life hit the fan. It's crazy, it's hectic, some tragedy happened. Let me just think positive all day and that'll fix it. No, that's not what I'm saying. But changing the way you view life in the world from negativity to positivity does change how you enjoy it, how you show up in life. And we all, we all know those people, those folks that make you wonder like, how are they so damn positive? Every time I see this, this person, they just have this ball of positive energy and you might feel like, well, man, I need some of that happiness, that they have some of that positive energy as well. Well, whether that person knows it or not and most of them do know it because they consciously make the choice, because it's a habit. They made the choice to focus on that happiness, to consciously not let negativity bring them down and over time, their brains keep repeating it. And on the flip side of it, we all know those folks who do the opposite. We all know those negative people who can find negativity in anything, who always complain, who can bring the energy of a room down, and they always get pissed about something. They're always mad. We know those people and hopefully this ain't true. But for those people it's hard for them to break out of that negativity because obviously I don't think they just wake up and say you know what I want? To be as negative as I possibly can today. Give me negativity or give me death. No, nobody truly wants that. But the damn show can feel like they do, right. It's because over time they've chosen negativity so much they've let negativity into their brains over and over again until they just can't help it and they see the negative and damn that any and everything. So what we need to do is think of positive thinking as a brain workout, as exercise, and as you think positive, just like your muscles when you work out, your brain will start to change and grow. Your positive thinking strengthens certain parts of your brain and it weakens other parts of your brain. The more you think positive, the easier it is to do more positive thinking, and the same goes with negative thinking, right. It is to do more positive thinking, and the same goes with negative thinking Right, the more you choose to be in a bad mood and see only negative, you better believe. The more you do it, the more you see it, the more it will show up in your day to day life and those specific neural pathways that correspond with negativity will get stronger. Pessimism Right, and the stronger they get, the more efficient they get. Pessimism Right, and the stronger they get, the more efficient they get. And again, how do you disrupt these patterns? You do about consciously thinking different thoughts, thoughts that are positive, and, like I always say, you can't control your first thought, but you can control your second thought. If that negative thought comes in, you can make the choice to bring forward a new thought, make the choice to bring forward a new thought, and if you do this over and over again, over time the negative ones will get weaker and you actually stop using them as much. Ok, so I can hear you right now through the Internet. I can hear you, I can read your mind and I know what you're thinking. You're saying. Ok, captain Positive Mr Sunshine, all right, optimistic Prime, all this sounds good, it sounds good. Ok, captain Positive Mr Sunshine, all right, optimistic Prime, all this sounds good, it sounds good, ok. Well, let me give you some facts, let's get to it. Study number one, and I'm going to read this verbatim 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 what this is telling us is the science proves that with just four weeks of it, it led to significant changes in brain activity, and participants of this study reported feeling less anxious and having more self-confidence. Ok, but boom. Study number one. Number two, and this study was published in the Journal of Social, cognitive and Effective Neuroscience, and they found that when the test subjects were trying to focus on positive images instead of negative ones, they had changes in brain activity and areas that were associated with emotional regulation and attentional control. And attentional control is just a fancy way of saying concentration, your capacity to pay attention and be able to ignore things. And these changes check this. They were still present six months after the training ended. So what this means is the effects of positive thinking can be something that is long lasting. Hmm, interesting? Ok. Number two, let them cook. Number three neuroimaging studies have shown that positive thinking can increase activity in the prefrontal cortex of people's brains and that's a part of the brain that's responsible for executive functions, which is decision making and planning and impulse control. Hmm, interesting. So positive thinking can help you make better decisions. Ok, keep going Dutch. That's study number three. I'm gonna keep going. Number four Studies have also shown that positive thinking can actually decrease activity in the amygdala, and that's the part of the brain that's responsible for processing fear and other negative emotions. So positive thinking can change this part of your brain and can lead to you having a lesser amount of fear. Interesting. So that's four examples, and so many more out there, but you get the point Positive thinking changes your brain in a positive way. Positive thinking changes your brain in a positive way. Another study shows that it increases the amount of dopamine you produce, and dopamine is what makes you feel good, what makes you happy. It also gives you motivation. Positive thinking and being conscious when you are thinking negative will change your brain in positive ways. Now, before I end this, I do want to say that this ain't the cure all for anything. This won't cure clinical depression or other things that just aren't curable, right? That's something that's way more serious than what we're talking about today. Those things are actually things that you literally cannot control. But for the other 99% of people who self-sabotage with negative thoughts, who do have control over the way they think, at least that second thought. You can't always have the first one, but you absolutely can change the thoughts after it. For those people, positive thinking can absolutely be beneficial, as science proves it, and, like I always say on here, this ain't something that's going to happen overnight. This will take effort, a conscious effort, and time. It's just going to take time. I don't want you to leave here thinking that you're going to be thinking 90% different thoughts by next week. No, it's not going to work like that. It's not that easy. It's going to take effort. That's going to have to be a part of you. It's going to have to become part of who you are. You're going to have to become a person who is positive, and to get there, you's going to have to become part of who you are. You're going to have to become a person who is positive, and to get there, you're going to have to practice gratitude. Take note of what you're grateful for, being aware, or making yourself aware, of all the things that are positive in your day. Think about those things that you're grateful for, and it don't even have to be something big. It could be something super small, like right now I'm in a show at History Theater and I also have a show already booked in April. That's a blessing, the fact that I can say I'm in a show and I already have another one booked. I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful that I have this coffee in front of me Right and look, I get it. Affirmations might sound like a bunch of beers. I struggle with this at first Like really, this seems silly, but the more I learned about it and learned that a lot of folks do it wrong. Those affirmations have to one be true and two have to be present tense and three has to be empowering True, present tense and empowering. So, for example, I tell myself I'm capable of creating the life I want, or I fully believe I'm capable of attaining the career I strive for, instead of saying something like, oh, the money is flowing into me from all areas of the universe, money is on its way and I'm claiming it right here, right now. That's less real, right? So make sure you practice true, positive affirmations and this is going to lead to you believing in yourself more and again. This takes time, and what better time to start than right now? It only takes a few seconds out of your day and you get eighty six thousand four hundred of them every day out of your day, and you get 86,400 of them every day. So, yes, you can do it anywhere, anytime brushing your teeth, driving to work, at work, in that barn meeting you wish you didn't have to be in. You can practice in your head right then and there, and nobody will know. You can literally do it anytime. And another thing we can do to change our thinking is surround yourself with more positivity, and this one is big. Do you need to unfollow some people on social media? Do you need to follow more positive people? And, like I said I think it was last episode, I definitely do that Some folks on social media, I mute them. I mute their page because they're always negative. Certain political pages that pop up in my news feed, I mute or unfollow, and lately I've been following a lot of motivational pages or pages that focus on how to grow a podcast, how to grow your music career, because I'm trying to surround myself with as much positivity as possible. So make sure your external environment matches what you are trying to do with your internal environment. So that's what I got for you today. Thank you all again for being here. Please like and subscribe, leave a donation. The song I got for you today is called Lakeside. Let's game time. Wide awake. I ain't tired. I won't sleep till I'm gray side. It's cool if they hate mine Long as to keep it on they side. All the fake and all the snake yeah, please keep it on they side. Now they want to come rock the boat. Can't all lines about who I slept with? Ha ha, yeah, they lied. Heard about it through the grapevine. I stayed classy and made wine and if I ever made a mistake I'm a man about it I claim mine. Skeletons came out the closet and I ain't talking about gay pride. You need style, but don't take mine Like saying black lives matter. They want to talk about their lives. They don't want to talk about killing us, treating us like canines. Cop killers keep piling up like 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, but who the hell said break time? It's take three, we don't take five. Go ahead and make your point. Please hurry up. We don't waste time. She mad, cause I'm busy, said if I really cared I would make time. She wanna have date time Like margaritas on the lakeside. They talking about they on the wave. I don't see em. I'm lakeside and I can't make her wet. I yeah Been to get lit right now. Take another sip. Right now I'm feeling bougie by the lakeside. We drinking top shelf liquor. It's mixed good. I don't taste mine, so pass about it. Took shots at me Okay fine, won't take mine, but I'ma take every one of these and I bet I still walk a straight line. I bet I still walking way better than I talk it. That's why lately I ain't been talking Big coffee. Never seen nothing fly like me. I'm a UFO. I'm a flying saucer. Never been a follower, not behind you. Don't look back, because you lost me and we getting saucy. We turn this thing to a party. This ain't dancing. I'm shaking demons off me. My favorite team should be in Milwaukee because we bought bucks and we at the top and it never was loved. I used to be down at the bottom. I We'll be right back. I can feel it. I'm lakeside. They say life is a beach. Tell me about it. I'm lakeside. Don't be fish of a compliment Sending thirst traps on my lakeside and we been through all kind of shit. Now it's time to sip on this lakeside, so pass my cup. Lakeside, yeah.