The Science of Manifestation - How to Use Neuroplasticity and Universal Laws to

8:41AM Jan 20, 2023

Speakers:

Angela Foster

Tara Swart

Keywords:

brain

people

day

sleep

life

artificial sweeteners

eat

probiotic

supplement

bit

yoga

science

morning

book

neuroplasticity

vision board

pandemic

women

year

happen

So the science that underlies manifestation is neuroplasticity, which is the fact that your brain can grow and change at any age, any stage and any mindset.

Hi, Friends, if you listen to Tuesday's little bite size bio hack clip, then you will have had an introduction to this week's podcast guest who I'm very excited to introduce. But before I do that, firstly, I want to say a very warm welcome to all the new listeners that we have to this show. I'm super grateful to have you here and excited to be sharing lots of new content with you about how you can really optimise your mind, body and spirit and also to my longtime listeners. Welcome back to this episode, back in 2019. At the end of 2019 When I was coming off all my medication in terms of my antidepressant and bipolar medication, I was really on a journey of self discovery and how could trying to figure out really how could I stay? Well, I'd got to the end of all the kind of CBT work that I'd been doing in psychotherapy, and I'd finally transitioned off medication. And I've become a lot more spiritual focusing on mindfulness and meditation and breath work. And also diving into the science of health. As you know, I'm a big fan of science, but I wanted something that was going to really kind of connect the dots if you like, between science and spirituality. And that's when I came across the book, the source. Open your mind, change your life by Dr. Tara Swart. And it's an incredible book. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's absolutely brilliant book, really showing you how you can connect the dots between the science and how you can manifest your best life and also, it dives into neuroplasticity and the science behind that, and how that relates to manifestation. And in today's episode, I'm actually sitting down with Dr. Tara Dr. Torres, who is a neuroscientist and former psychiatric doctor. He's also a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan. And she's a visiting senior lecturer at King's College London, and she's also an executive advisor to some of the world's most respected leaders in media, and business. And with over 25 years of brain expertise. Dr. Tara is gifted at translating the science behind a healthy brain, and how to harness its power in your daily life. And in this episode, we talk about the female brain in particular, and the unique challenges that I think women have facing them, and how you can really optimise for a healthy brain, including how to take care of it. There's a new supplement that Dr. Tara has formulated with heights in relation to supporting your microbiome, and how that in turn communicates with your brain, your gut bacteria and supporting that gut brain access. And we talk about that on this episode. And also all of the things that you can do to really, really optimise for a healthy brain for longevity, and also to manifest your best life. So without further delay, let me introduce you now to the lovely Dr. Thomas. So I'm so excited to be here with you today. Tara, it's just amazing to have you on the show. We were talking offline there about how the source was one of those books that really helped me in my road to recovery from depression. I'm just I'm so excited. I've got so many things to talk to you about. But first of all, a very warm welcome to the show.

Thank you so much. I love the fact that you were a lawyer and I was a doctor. And now we're doing like something quite similar. Yeah, yeah. So I think I'll have loads to talk about.

Yeah, I think we will both had kind of career changes. I think that's probably a really good place to start. Because you have so much experience in psychiatry as a neurologist. And now I think you coach as well. You've formulated supplements. Gianna, give listeners, just a little bit of background on your journey, and how it all began.

Sure. So I went to medical school when I was 18. And after the third year, you could were in the third year, you could choose special topics. And I was just attracted to the neuro part of everything like neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and I actually took three years out to do a PhD in neuropharmacology, which is, you know, sort of drugs and supplements and stuff. Then I came back to medical school, and I just found psychiatry like, more fascinating, more personal interaction. And I also just felt that psychiatric diseases, were the cruellest Way To Lose yourself, like your brain playing tricks on you, changing your mood, you could have voices that weren't really there. And I just felt like I really wanted to help people that were going through that. So I did that for seven years. And then for various reasons, like my own intellectual stimulation and my desire to run a business and just to have like a bigger impact because I was working in the NHS I was working with For people who were, you know, very broken, they're often their families that abandoned them, their children were taken away from them, they couldn't really work. And you know, as much as I cared for them, I felt like could I do more if I was working with senior executives influence a whole, you know, a leadership team, a company, through corporate social responsibility can actually have a massive influence on lots more people. So I started coaching, and that was around 2008. And that's when neuroscience started to slowly become a big topic in business and leadership. And the people around me encouraged me to start speaking. So then I got into that. I've obviously written a few books that bad one being the source. And then Dan Murray SATA from heights, basically stalked me on Twitter and said, we're looking for a Chief Science Officer neuropharmacology has that ideal PhD. And we want someone that really walks the talk. And when we first met, and I sometimes think that's crazy, because I don't think I would go and meet somebody that like, sought to be on Twitter anymore, but it was a while ago. You know, I was saying to him that when I travelled to America, which I do a lot, because I teach at a university there, I was taking, like, at least 10 bottles of supplements with me, because travel is very stressful for your body. So it was more important than ever, then to take everything that I would normally take. You know, sometimes at home during the year, I just listened to my body and think, Okay, I need more of there. So I don't need that at the moment. But on a big trip to the States, I would want to have everything with me. And the idea of formulating one double capsule that had pretty much everything that I would need in it was was very attractive. So that's how that started. And from the beginning, I was going on about magnesium and probiotics. And now we're we've just launched the smart probiotics. I'm excited about that. I've obviously been trying it for a few months before launch. And hopefully there's a magnesium product on the way because those are the things I'm obsessed with.

Magnesium, yes, a big one for me as well. Actually, I love magnesium. I want to dive into the kind of gut brain connection in a moment. But just looking firstly, kind of at the brain. And you were saying there you were encountering so many people who kind of struggled with mental health, you know, listeners of this podcast will know it's something I've struggled with in the past. And I think when you have struggled with it, actually, it's almost a little bit like an autoimmune condition, right? I don't feel it ever really leaves you it doesn't go away, you almost putting it into remission. But for me, certainly it takes daily work, I have to kind of manage that. When we're looking at a healthy brain. I think that for a lot of women, things that show up for them, they encounter them either after having a baby or in their 40s. And both of those have big hormonal kind of crunch points if you like, aren't they as you go through perimenopause. But what would you say about the female brain? In particular? How can we kind of support it because I think the other thing that I'm aware of is we just pulled so much in different directions, right? Where the primary caregiver for children, even if we have very supportive partners, often we have a lot going on, you're progressing in your career, you might have elderly parents, there's lots of different kinds of things pulling, what would you say, are the most important things for a healthy brain in particular, for the female brain?

Well, let's go through the sort of lifecycle of a female brain. So around the teenage years you go through men are key, which is the start of periods and that can be associated with a lot of emotional dysregulation, which you have to learn how to cope with in your teens and into your 20s. And then you may have, you know, one or more children anytime between the early 20s to late 40s, or either side of that. And then like you said, sometime in your 40s 50s, you would start the perimenopause, and then go through the menopause. So it's a lot of more obvious ups and downs in hormones than, than for a man although they also do have, obviously, puberty and andropause or male menopause as well, but it's more subtle. And actually, men's brains are affected by having babies too. So they're oxytocin levels increased because of bonding, their testosterone levels drop at the same time, more so the baby's in the bedroom. So it's fascinating that there are those subtle things that we're less aware of, but you know, when you made that list about primary caregiver for children, elderly parents, it's really hit me like how much is going on for the female brain? And so basically being aware of those and then the monthly cycle as well mean, you know, that's also got implications for mood and mental state. I think starting with good nutrition is a really good basis for women because we're more guilty than men of skipping meals and neglecting ourselves or yo yo dieting. So lack of nutrition is a really big issue for women. Good nutrition and regular eating So I would actually start with that, you know, we're obviously, so focused on making sure that our children eat well. And sometimes we just end up eating leftovers or eat late or we skip meals and things. All of those things, having babies going through menopause being stretched, you know, between elderly parents and children also affect our sleep. So, trying to focus as much as you can on the importance of sleep, because, you know, one night's bad sleep can actually lead to your IQ being five to 10 points lower the next day. And sleep debt is cumulative. So four or five nights have interrupted sleep. And, you know, there's a statistic where you're equivalent to being, you know, sort of a certain level of almost drunk. And longer term, if your sleep is regularly disrupted, then the implications for dementing diseases like Alzheimer's are quite worrying. There's a seven to eight hour cleansing process that goes on overnight, so you really need to be in bed for seven to nine hours. And you can't, you have to when you've got young children, obviously, but you should not be breaking that up into like three and four hour segments or, you know, napping is great if you've had a whole night's sleep, but not if it's making up for not having a whole night's sleep. So focusing on sleep, good nutrition. Another one, I think for women is we forget to drink enough water or we like, try to hold off going, you know, to do away for as long as possible, because we're so busy. And not being sedentary. So I'm not necessarily actually I don't advocate high intensity exercise. But obviously I active, I advocate being physically active, but it's really, at the minimum, just making sure you're walking around enough each day that you're kind of getting those steps and getting enough oxygen to your brain. And then having said all of that, which feels like so much to do already. But you know, I have to say the last one is bringing some simplification and mindfulness into your life. So even if that's meal planning, or like laying out yours and your children's clothes the night before. And you know, preferably having some time for yourself and meditation and yoga, because there are statistics that show that women who do yoga three times a week have lower levels of the stress home hormone cortisol than women of the same age that don't. That's interesting, very interesting.

With asleep, this is the thing. I think this is a tough one, as you say, when you've got young children, you're very often disrupted in terms of sleep. And I think it can be difficult. And I know why I personally do struggle to always find that kind of seven hour window. And it is something that concerns me, I think with the awareness that we have with DNA testing, for example, I know I've tested mine, lots of people listening will have I carry one copy of the apiary for I think everyone's kind of a bit anxious at the moment if they've been following what's trending with Chris Hemsworth on Instagram, and it feels a little bit and I have a very great respect for Dr. Peter a tear, but it's kind of like, my understanding is that just because you have the gene, it doesn't mean that you will go on to develop it, and the STI risks can be greatly increased. But for me, when you look at things like genetic susceptibility like that, it's more that it's a kind of pointing system, if you like it's alerting for me that yes, actually, I need to prioritise sleep maybe even more so than other people, or I need to think about blood sugar control and things like this. You know, without wanting to kind of scare people is this when we look at things like the buildup of amyloid plaque and tau proteins and things like that, does that happen over a very long period of time? If you accumulate a short period of sleep debt? Can you kind of can the brain cleanse itself of it and make up make reparations? Curious how that works?

Yeah, so it does happen over a very long period of time. So you can actually now scan the brains of people in their 20s and see if there's cell shrinkage or cell loss or buildup of those sorts of markers of pathology of dementia, like, like you mentioned, amyloid plaques and tau proteins and women do get more dementia than men. And it's very hard to say whether that's linked to sleep disruption due to childcare or not. Probably it's more linked to the fact that women live for longer. And if we all lived for a very long time, we would all get a buildup of those toxins at some point. I'd like to say for the same reasons that I wouldn't do that DNA testing myself because there's there's pros and cons to it. There's the fact that yes, you can focus more on sleep and blood sugar regulation, but equally, you've got that message in your brain that you can't unhear that you have a risk factor for a certain disease. So on that basis, have lived the best life that you can. I would say let's say that even if your sleep is destroyed, I always say to people try to get your baby into routine as soon as possible. But even if that's disrupted for a certain period of months or years, act on the basis that you can, by getting back into a good routine, boost your chances of staving off any dementia type symptoms for as long as possible. So with any habit, you know, even much more sort of short term mundane things like let's say an exercise regime, I would always say if you fall off, you know that schedule, don't waste any time beating yourself up, just start again as soon as you can. And so I kind of say the same theory for what you've asked about

with sleep. Yeah, I think it's not just that. I think anyone that has worked in corporate law, like I did, has probably sacrificed many a night. I think my worst ever was something like 85 hours with sort of one and a half hours of sleep. And I remember the floor just not staying still. And I think, yeah, I think London, maybe it's changed a bit since then.

I don't know, I have to say in my experience, and I coach, mostly people in financial only financial services now but have done law and engineering and stuff in the past. Lawyers are the worst when it comes to sleep asleep. Yeah, there

wasn't the greatest respect for sleep. With exercise, you mentioned there that you wouldn't advocate high intensity exercise. What's the reason for that? Because some of the some of the literature that I read around high intensity is that it's really good short, sharp bursts are great for mitochondrial health. They're great for improving glucose tolerance. I just want to hear a little bit more around that. Yeah,

that is absolutely true. And I'm, I think I'm saying this message more strongly post pandemic, where we've been through so much chronic stress, it's unprecedented for anyone that's alive today, that if you do too much high intensity exercise, you actually trigger the release of the stress hormone cortisol, which, you know, just being super practical and shallow, will make you fatter. But like, you know, longer term kind of more importantly, is pro inflammatory in the body. And everything you said about, you know, the things that you can do to improve your chances of that gene that you've got not expressing would be to reduce inflammation in your body, you do everything that you can to reduce inflammation.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And with yoga, it's interesting what you say that, that yoga, because if you take someone like me is a bit of a type A personality, this is where you don't have to discipline me to go to the gym. But I do have to use a certain amount of self discipline to do yoga, as much as I love it. When I do it. It's kind of getting onto the mat. Can you talk a bit more about the benefits of yoga?

Yeah, so yoga basically means union, and it's connecting your mind and your body. And it's based on the belief that your mind is embodied. It's not just up in, you know, above your neck. And so that when you do a pose in yoga, that it's basically it's mindfulness. So I also went on that journey of considering yoga as exercise and thinking, okay, in a week, I do this much cardio, this much yoga. And then I really realised that yoga actually is mindfulness. It's not exercise. And this statistic about women who do regularly having lower levels of the stress hormone was really important to me, because when pre pandemic when I was travelling, like crazy, and you know, working like crazy. I always like my fat to muscle ratio changed in a good way whenever I went on holiday. And that means that no matter how much salmon I ate, and exercise I did when I was stressed, it wasn't working for my body. And that was a huge realisation for me. So I think for someone like you to think that yoga is actually going to boost the effects of what you do in the gym in a really good way. Because it's going to lower your cortisol, which some of your gym activity could be going against you is a really great way to think about it, and I've got a challenge for you. Okay. When I decided to do a daily yoga practice, what that meant was, even if I just lay on my mat and did nothing for five minutes, that was daily, okay. And you know, sometimes it'd be a 90 minute class, sometimes it'd be half an hour at home. But it had to be something every day, even if it was just lying on the mat, which I think you can do.

I could definitely do that. Five minutes. Yeah, I like the idea of daily as well, because I always think when you're all in for something, it actually just removes all the decision fatigue, right? Because it's like, I have to do this, then it's just a case of how long Yeah, exactly. It becomes routine. So much easier to build the habit. Okay, I'm going to take out your challenge and try it at least five minutes I do is something actually it's funny, isn't it that you have in the back of your mind, like I must do more, I must do more. And it's like as you were saying before, today is the best time to start any of these things that we need to be fixing. When we look then at nutrition and protecting the brain and also helping it to function at its best, because again, this is another thing And with women in their 40s, particularly their late 40s, depending on when menopause is going to come in, they encounter that brain fog, they sort of lose a little bit of verbal fluency at times, their memory isn't serving them that while they're not articulating quite as well, one of the key nutrients that we need to really support healthy cognition.

Okay, I'm going to come to that, but I want to pick you up on two things. So go for our first one is the end of what we were just talking about, which is like, you know, I've got to do more. When you think I've got to do yoga every day, that's so overwhelming if you're, if you're raising three young kids, and you're running your business. And so telling yourself that it's five minutes, and that if you haven't done it by bedtime, all you got to do is go and lie on your mat for five minutes is different to thinking I must go to a 90 minute class three times a week. So really, breaking everything down into bite sized chunks is a very, very important part of, you know, kind of building in these micro habits that make your brain work better. Secondly, all the symptoms that you've described around perimenopause, and menopause, can all happen. But none of them have to. There are plenty of women that go through perimenopause and menopause and don't experience any of those symptoms. So let's not tell ourselves, that's going to happen by the time we were in our late 40s. You know, I work on the basis that that's not going to happen to me. And I might be wrong. But the longer that I keep up that positive thinking. So far, it hasn't happened. And I'm late 40s. So

yeah, I think positive expectancy is definitely the thing. Yeah. And it helps build resilience as well.

Exactly. And there's, you know, there's a lot of really good stuff out there that helps women that talks about all the issues that can come around that time. But I had one older friend, who said to me, I didn't even really notice having the menopause. And I remember thinking, right, that's gonna happen to me. And just like putting that seed into my brain and just leaving it there, like, you've read my books, you probably know the story of me putting off needing reading glasses for my entire 40s. And it's a similar thing, like when the optician, the following year, when my numbers were better. And he was like, how did you do this? I said, Well, I didn't really do anything, I just thought, No, I'm not going to believe what you're telling me, I'm not going to change my behaviour, like holding my phone further away, so that I can read it more easily. I mean, keep doing what I've been doing. And so I think, you know, like, you know, I'm really into manifestation and neuroplasticity. So I apply that to like everything in my life. However, I also do all the good nutrition stuff that you want to know about. So basically, if you eat a nutrition, dense diet, so that's mostly plant based, but with the good fats, and the hydrating foods, and the dark foods, those are the things that you need to think about for your brain. Then, even as I grow my own food, and I get an organic farm box, and I cook as much as I can, even then I take the smart supplement because of agricultural practices, and just the way that our food has become so much more depleted than than it was, you know, kind of in pre agricultural times. And the way that our gut microbiome has become less diverse, so it's like even if you're trying like super hard, you still might not be getting you know, there still might be a nutritional gap. So even though I eat like that I take supplements, but for people who can't do that all the time, taking a supplement is you know, it's kind of like an insurance policy for that nutritional gap. And so what's in the smart supplement that complements what I just said about what you should be eating is it's a double capsule. So around the outside, there's algae oil, which is basically the Omega oils. And it is you know, I do eat fish and it's good to eat fatty fish but they get their omega from algae oil. So you know, this is kind of like going back to the source. And it's vegan. So for people who want to be vegan, it means they can still take the capsule. Inside the second part of the capsule is the standard you know the B complex vitamins that we need for our nervous system and to combat fatigue. We've got the extract of over 24 Blueberries which is what you would need to eat every day to get the right number of antioxidants and poly phenols to stave off that inflammatory process that we were discussing earlier. And then there's vitamin C vitamin D I have to say I am finding at the moment since October I have to top up my vitamin D and and I am deficient in it and I am dark skin so it's worse you know for me but we do tweak the formulation as we go along and every three months we talk about you know is there something we need more of or less of this tiny bit of vitamin A and iron and zinc. So basically all the vitamins that you need, you know, to keep your host, not just your brain, but you know, because I don't separate the brain and the body so that you know, keep that brain body system as antioxidant and anti inflammatory as possible. And then the Omega oils, which you know, the brain is mostly made up of fat, so, and you can't synthesise some of those oils yourself. So you do need to provide the building blocks for that.

And what's Is there a best time of day to take it?

No, and this is the thing I love about it, because I'm not necessarily that good at getting up first thing in the morning and remembering to take everything. So both the smart supplement and the smart probiotic don't need to be taken with food, but can be and can be taken at any time of day. So again, it'd be ideal to have that practice of waking up in the morning and thinking I've taken the things that I need to put my brain in the best condition today. But like with the five minutes on the yoga mat, if you've got a bedtime and you haven't taken it, you can just take it then

take it and you don't need to take it with food. No, no. Okay, ask it to no less talk then because I know you're as into this as I am manifestation and creating because you know, you hit on something there that I just think is really, really important is to have this, to have these. Well, first of all, I do think positive expectancy is really, really important. And I think what shows up in your life is often as a result of that. And as you say, you don't want to be guided by something someone told you. You want to kind of create your own reality. But what you've done is really repet sort of, I guess put together the science with the spiritual world. And it's very interesting kind of how you present it. So how if we if we sort of start there, how can people because a lot of people feel that they can't manifest the future that they want, or they're held back. And you do talk about in your book about the conditioning that goes on as a child and kind of bringing awareness to that and how you can change it. Because often in those early formative years, we're not even aware right of what we're picking up and they're informing us. So should we just kind of start there that these things that people need to start identifying, that might be guiding, you know, their compass, and they're not aware of?

Yeah, absolutely. And let me give you a bit more of a backstory from you know, when I started from I went to medical school, which is that I am the first child of first generation immigrant Indian parents. So I grew up with like yoga and incense and meditation and Ayurveda eating at home. But I went to school in North London, and I just wanted to be like my friends. So I learned to separate spirituality from my regular life as a child, and then much more to separate it again, from being a medical doctor in the Western world and a scientist. So it was only after I changed career, and I'd been through divorce at that time, that I needed more spirituality in my life. And luckily, I had access to it, because I'd grown up with it, but some of it, I just couldn't believe it if I couldn't explain it by science. And so the process of writing the source was partly convincing myself that this actually works for a reason that I can accept as a scientist. And what was really interesting to me after the book came out was that all sorts of people in my life who are not in into science at all, like they're out there, but they might be in fashion or anything, you know, just the furthest away thing from science, said that it was the science that made them think all of that stuff they thought about doing before, like a vision board or visualisation, or, you know, trying to be that author of your life. The fact that it was brain science that was explaining it, made them actually take action, where before they thought, yeah, I'd like to do that stuff. I would like to think it works. But now, it's been laid out in front of me that if I think and feel and behave in a certain way, it can change the outcome of what happens in the real world. And so, writing it up, obviously, I did all the research, and there was a lot there. You know, there's a lot of cognitive science that could explain manifestation. But actually, for me as a human, not as a scientist, the response from like, normal people in my life, that it changed it for them was kind of like wow, and and I think that's when it really took off for me. So you know, we are, we're tribal people, we need to exist as part of our tribe and have that validation as well. If I just sat in a room and did all the research, and didn't interact with people in my real life, I'm not sure it would have had the effect on my life that it had. It has had so so I love that too. It's very much a two way process and when the book first came out, because I didn't know about this thing called Work fairies that leave books like on the tube or on benches. And so people were just finding it as a gift. And so completely random people were DMing me and saying, I got engaged, I got pregnant, and I've like started running my own business. And that's kind of some add on. Yeah, like for me to get all those examples of it was like, okay. Even like without having to think about the science, there's, there's obviously work. So it's just just so lovely as a person to feel that.

And just to like, so amazing with that, with the science of it for people who are a little bit more kind of agnostic, trying to explain how the science works on this. Because I think a lot of people when they've watched the secret originally, right, they're a bit like, wow, that kind of implies I can sit on my sofa and just say money flows to me and expect all this money to blow up at the front door. And it was like your mind was getting that's crazy. Yeah, I think if you can kind of dispel some of the Mets it'd be helpful.

Yeah. So that's why I renamed vision boards, action boards, because I was very clear that you cannot sit at home and create a fantasy and just wait for it to happen. You have to be doing something every day, to try to make your goals come closer to you. And and that's really everything that we've already talked about, like doing some yoga, eating more healthily, because then you know that you're providing your brain with the environment to be able to do the bigger manifestations later. So there's two things there's the science behind manifestation, and the science behind visualisation or vision boards. So the science that underlies manifestation is neuroplasticity, which is the fact that your brain can grow and change at any age, any stage and any mindset. And that's incredible to know, like, we are literally so amazing, we had no idea until we got all this sophisticated scanning technology that, you know, healthy brains can do that. And even unhealthy brains, if, prior to scanning technology, we knew that you could recover from a stroke. We knew that you could learn empathy if you committed a crime. I mean, I did forensic psychiatry for a time and people working with rapists on like, understanding what how they made their victims feel. And we didn't really know about neuroplasticity at that stage. But I was kind of like, that's amazing. And I it must have stuck in my mind. Because once I understood about neuroplasticity, I thought oh, that was you know, it was happening in clinical practice. But we didn't really know why. But now, basically, the brain changes with three physiological processes. And the most common one is connection of synapses. So you've got, you know, 86 billion neurons in your brain, they can connect up with each other more, more, more and more. So the easiest analogy is if you decided to start learning French, then neurons would connect up in your brain for that language. And then myelination is like a sort of it's a, it's an installation process that makes your neural pathways more efficient. So the more you practice your French, the more easily it's going to come, you know, to front of mind and your, your mouth. And then one that doesn't happen so much in the adult brain. But I actually just tweeted something from MIT, which is where I teach in America this morning, about embryonic cells that grow into fully formed nerve cells, and then connect up with existing ones. And then may or may not become myelinated, depending on you know, how efficient they need to be. And the way to invoke that process is starts with raised awareness. So what is it that's holding you back? What is it that you really want in your life? What are your goals for 2023? Like, write them down or like, create, you know, create a vision board and have pictures of them and remind yourself what they are every day, I always think that's 50% of the battle. Because, like you said, for people who are very stretched in life and work, it's easy to let that go by the wayside because you just don't have time. And again, to break it down into bite sized chunks, so it's not some huge new year's resolution that you're very likely to like, you know, just not be able to sustain. The second part is focused attention. So looking out for times in your life where you don't get on the yoga mat for five minutes a day, you skip a meal, you don't go networking, you don't go dating because you're too tired, or you just think it's never gonna work out for you. And just not changing anything yet, but just thinking about okay, you know, maybe I missed an opportunity there. Maybe I could do something differently next time. Once you feel like you've got like a better idea of that. Then the next stage is deliberate practice, which is making sure that you eat in a certain way every day you do get on your yoga mat everyday even if it's just for five minutes, that you go to social events or you know, networking events, even if you don't really want to you make yourself go you give yourself evidence But when I go, something great happens, I meet someone interesting, I meet someone that can like, introduce me to somebody for an opportunity. And the fourth part isn't really a stage, but it's accountability. So it's how you're going to make sure that you keep doing those things, you know, with all the hormonal ups and downs, or you know, whatever else life throws at you. And some people can do that themselves in journaling. But we're not usually the best friend to do that for ourselves. So, you know, whether it's a friend, whether it's a coach, a therapist, there are some really nice little apps like habit, share and momentum that you can use to like track your progress. But as you know, I'm a really big fan of vision boards. So at the end of every year or throughout the year. Like if I do mine on Pinterest, then what I've started doing is making a subsection called manifested and moving things from the board onto that to like, see that I've done these things. And equally, if you have a, you know, a collage next to your bed or whatever, then you can look at it and see oh, yeah, I've got that I've done that. You know, what still hasn't happened yet. And the science behind that is a three step thing. Selective attention, selective filtering, and value tagging. And because we're bombarded with so much information every day, like, if you read a newspaper today, that is the same amount of information that someone would receive in their lifetime, 100 years ago. So, you know, and if you think about how much more than that, yes, which technology like, yeah, so your brain has this natural filtering system. And the best example of that is that you're not aware of your clothes on your body all day, because it's, it's, you know, information data that your brain doesn't need to be aware of. So like that your brain will filter out things that it doesn't consider to be important to your survival. But it still does it in quite a way that we were wired for survival, you know, in ancient times. So in the modern world, we need to make sure that we are directing our brain better, to look out for things that will make us thrive, not just survive. And that's where the value tagging comes in, which is, it's a process in the brain that picks up on two pathways, both the logical and the emotional. So the logical is going to tend to be more things like, put food on the table for my kids, like, you know, make sure I don't lose my job, kind of do whatever we have to to keep a roof over our heads. The warmer or more emotional pathway is the things that you really want in life. And you can see that the brain is going to put those lower down in priority. But you can tell your brain to put them higher up in priority by looking at a vision board every day, or looking at a written list every day or listening to a recording that you've done every day. And it just makes you more able to both notice but then second stage, grasp the opportunities that are going to take you closer to manifesting your goals.

So it's almost like you could be in the right place at the right time. But you didn't even know because you hadn't. So it's kind of activating that almost that reticular activation system. But like when you're buying a car, and then all of a sudden you're like, so many people have the same car, got this funny thing going on with my kids at the moment where my daughter she just taps me every time there's a yellow car the first time she did it, I was like, What are you doing, like smack me really hard. And she's like yellow car. And the funny thing is, over time over the last few weeks, what I've noticed is how many yellow cars there are. And there was me thinking yellow cars are quite rare. But it turns out that we see at least one yellow car every single day. Who would have thought they were that common right? But it's just that now we've brought it into our awareness as you're saying when you're doing this and you're creating vision boards and things have you found that there's a good time of day to do it like I know like when we're talking about manifestation a lot of people will talk about that time before sunrise like kind of this special time where you can almost almost have a like a download to Universal Intelligence. And there is something really magical I have to say I'm quite an early riser. And so that's that's my bit I've got to discipline myself to get a bed but there is something magical in the morning right? I'm just curious what you've what you've found there.

I'm laughing because everyone that knows me knows that I'm so obsessed with sleep and my excuses I work on the US timezone so I start to see the opposite. I don't think I've ever been awake so but I'm saying that because what we don't want to do as to you know, very successful women is say, we wake up early we smash all our goals we you know, like, I just don't believe in that. I think it's different for different people. You love waking up early and you find it magical and I have a couple of times like if I was trekking in the Himalayas or something be enough at that time and it is magical. But I don't want to be doing it every day. And so you have to find the rhythm that's right for you. Keeping your vision board visible. So mine is next to my bed means that I naturally see it first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

And so is this a physical one in addition to what you have on Pinterest? Yeah. Okay, what one way you've kind of stuck things on, or how was that

literally a collage like your kids would make? Yeah. And actually, the one that I have by my bed is my 2016 one, which was a really big one for me. And it's more of a reminder that you can, you know, can change your life massively like. But the one for like, this year is on Pinterest. So that period between sleeping and waking, and the period between waking and sleeping, I call it the hypnopompic and hypnogogic states, and they are very suggestible states for your subconscious. And I can't speak too much to the morning one because it's of less interest in the evening one. Evening one, there's something called the Tetris effect. And I was a kid that like, was obsessed with my Gameboy and playing Tetris until I was literally told you have to put that down and go to sleep now. And so I remember that if I did that, when I closed my eyes, I could see the little bricks falling like in my mind's eye. And the Tetris effect is a psychological phenomenon that happens in that state between being awake and falling asleep, which imprints very strongly onto your subconscious. So if you visualise your goals, or look at your vision board, last thing before you go to bed, then that is the ideal time, but I would say anytime, like, if you look at it 15 times a day, obviously, that's going to be better than looking at it once a day, you know, last thing at night. So again, find your rhythm, Is it best for you to look at it first thing in the morning? Last thing at night? Is it you want it as your screensaver on your phone? So that you see it all the time? Yeah, I think it's quite personal.

Yeah, very much. And I love what you say there about not everyone being a kind of morning person. I think it's such an because the 5am club just gets completely overrated. And if I wasn't a morning person, and I have to put off to be the first to put my hand up and say, I am not the best party guest because I'm so done by that time of day. Do you know what I mean? I think that's why I found law so hard, because it didn't matter how early I came in. I remember leaving my jacket on the back of my chair and kind of ducking out because you had to have this approach. You're always there. And the only thing that really mattered was, were you there late at night, you know, and that, for me was the hardest time. And I think that whereas you know, there's a bunch of people listening, who are night owls. And that's an amazing time and people create masterpieces are so creative. Whereas for me, my brain is completely switched off by them. In fact, from about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, it's you know, so I'm very much early, but so we're about

at heights, because obviously I'm the chief science officer, and I think they like that I am. But I went to do another podcast, and it had been scheduled in for three hours. And I was like three hours. Like, yeah. And also so but then just before it started, and Dan was there, I said it you know, I'm very flexible in the way that I work pipes, and then I just burst out laughing. And he was like, Yeah, unless it's the morning, or it's three hours.

I love that a 70. With a vibration rikes. You mentioned something that because this is another bit that I just kind of have my mind. So we have the neuroplasticity we have showing on like or training our brain if you'd like our mind to recognise things that are going on and when opportunities might be there and looking at it, bring it to the front of our mind. What about the vibrational aspect of manifesting? And actually, because my understanding from the reading that I've done on this is that the law of attraction is secondary to the law of vibration. And that actually raising our vibrational energy is something that's really important. Curious as to your, your thoughts, your research around them? Yeah, so

the first research I did before starting to write the book was like over a summer holiday, I actually took my laptop, which I wouldn't normally do. And I just started looking into the laws of attraction and the universal principles and I didn't look too much into the vibration stuff because my mission was to present it, you know, as based on cognitive science. But I think that what you mean when you say we raise our vibration is the same thing that we said before, which is about positive expectancy. And I prefer to talk about I make my mindset more abundant than you know, like more scarcity. Because of my background, obviously, you'd like you know what I'm an expert in but also because that makes me feel like I've got more agency. If if it has to be about vibrations, then I feel like there's less that I can do about that and that's why there are plenty people out there talking about that and it's really interesting space On a different kinds of science, it's not really an area that I would use to explain manifestation or visualisation.

Do you focus more on the positives? I know that Dan Sullivan talks about you want to be and I love this, you want to be in the game, not the gap. And it's so easy to kind of spend your day gapping. So writing like three games at the end of the day or three wins. That's something I journal and I just find it so powerful to leave the day. Yeah. And then what would make tomorrow? I think I got this from the Five Minute Journal, what would make tomorrow even better? So you're kind of pre framing the next day? Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, that's framing yourself for an abundant mindset. To me. That's, that's what that is. And I will say one other thing, from what you said, Oh, yeah. So a nice way that I've kind of thought to speak about it from a neuroscience perspective recently is about because I always in the book, I wrote about abundance and lack mindset. But now I talk about it, like, through fear or survival, emotions, and love and trust. Because those two things can't be going on in your brain at the same time. And fear is basically being scared thinking of lack, you know, thinking that things aren't going to go right. And that's when the stress hormone cortisol circulates around your brain in your body, and actually moves blood flow around so that you're not going to be creative, you're not going to take healthy risks, you're not going to think yourself out of a complex problem. When you exist in the state, emotional state of love and trust, you've got that bonding hormone oxytocin, which makes you lower your guard, it makes you take healthy risks, it makes you more likely to go to that networking event or that aid. So neurologically, the equivalent of what you're saying about raising your vibration is moving yourself from fear and sadness and shame, to love and trust and excitement.

Yeah, very much. So. And I guess I guess one thing for people that have maybe tried repeatedly to achieve something, and they feel like they're stuck, what would your advice be where they're looking to next year, and they're thinking God, I just have never really, truly lost that weight that I wanted to. And then I just somehow self sabotage, or, you know, I've always wanted to get myself into a really good position financially, but somehow, there's never anything left at the end of the month, what would you say? How can they and they think God, I've tried this for years, but actually now it's finally that time, what needs to happen for them to shift and actually be able to make that change?

Well, I'll tell you what happened to me, that was a massive game changer, which was that I stopped doing big New Year's resolutions. And one year, I said, Okay, I'm gonna build in two or three habits in the first three months of this year. And then, yeah, and they were small enough that by three months, they were, you know, maybe I wasn't doing all three of them. But I was definitely doing two of them, like without even thinking about it. Then for the next three months, I picked two or three other things. And that year, I got to the end of the year, and I thought 10 of those things I now do without even thinking about it. They're completely embedded habits. And they could be around everything from weight loss to financial things. So the two examples that you gave, and many, many more, just pick the smallest thing that you can do to like, move yourself towards that. And then build it up. Oh, you know, and four stages over the year. And I'll be surprised if people don't find that they've achieved a lot more than if they start the year by saying, I need to lose five kilos. And I need to make like 10,000 pounds more than I did last year.

Yes, so true. And breaking it actually into those kind of 90 day blocks, you can achieve so much, it's unreal. Before you go, I want to I want to finish with your kind of morning or evening routine, because I think it will be very interesting for people. But I do just want to touch on that gut brain connection because you formulated a new supplement a probiotic. What's also happening there, because it's fascinating everything that's going on with the microbiome at the moment and the link and the gut brain access. Can we touch on that briefly?

Yeah, I think you know that COVID really raised the importance of our immune systems and in all of our minds, and I've been taking a probiotic for years. But what I'm really excited about with the smart probiotic is that it's got several strains of bacteria in it, including ones that are specifically related to mental health. So because of the gut brain connection, the state of your gut, the quality and diversity of your gut microbe bacteria have an impact on your brain in a two directional way. So if you're mentally stressed, it has an effect on your garden. If you're malnourished or eat loads of processed food or you've taken antibiotics that has an effect on your mental state things like insomnia, anxiety, brain fog, and mood. So we've got some strains that are specific for mental health, some strains that are kind of good, more generally for things like anti inflammation. And then we've got a beneficial yeast called saccharomyces boulardii, which is different to other probiotic probiotics. I was taking that separately, whenever I travelled because the one I was taking before was liquid, so I couldn't take it with me had stay in the fridge. And so I was, you know, I was alternating things sometimes to make sure I was giving myself a variety of strains. But in the smart probiotic, there's a real variety of strains, you know, at a really good, like, number of units that you need, and then with this beneficial yeast as well. What else did you use? Is that enough? Or?

Yeah, no, that's, that's really helpful. It's just to find out what was in it and how that's optimising the brain, if you like how that because you mentioned their mental health, is it to kind of is it are those strains that are they're designed to sort of help produce things like serotonin to produce kind of more positive mood in people or

Yeah, so for example, one of them is Bifidobacterium, Bifidobacterium longum. And so although they don't have that direct action, what they do is they improve the quality and diversity of the gut bacteria, the gut bacteria, and the gut neurons communicate with the brain through several different ways. So through through the nervous system, through hormones, through cytokine messaging, which is chemical messages that go through the blood and cross the blood brain barrier. And all of that basically creates the environment for the brain to produce the serotonin that it needs to 90% of our serotonin is produced in the gut, but it doesn't cross the blood brain barrier. So although there's a direct impact on serotonin production in the body, you just have to provide the conditions and the nutrients in the brain for it to be able to produce serotonin that's connected to your mood. And, and, you know, various other hormones and neurotransmitters that are connected to sleep, and lowering of anxiety. And, yeah, mood and fatigue, right brain fog, those those things will come from there. And then you know, there's a knock on effects and the brain tells the gut, oh, I'm happy, I'm fine. I'm producing. And it's literally a two way thing. It's so so amazing how the research has progressed in the last 20 years.

So actually, those two supplements really complement each other. Yeah. And work kind of symbiotically together. Yeah. Are there any things like we know like, obviously, sugar isn't great for gut bacteria? Certain things you know, too much gluten in some people can cause irritation sort of leaky gut. What about things like artificial sweeteners, they just seem there's ongoing research nowaday kind of because we've got you know, we've got the really artificial sweeteners that you can get from things like chewing gum or, or soft drinks that are going in, and there seems to be this huge drive now to replace sugar drinks with artificially sweetened drinks, which sort of really concerns me because I think Dickie with children what I don't understand as if they're playing a tonne of sport, actually, I don't think sugar is so bad, but the artificial sweeteners probably are. So that's kind of one area and then we've got the natural sweeteners that are being more and more used like Stevia for example. And sugar alcohols, which some people do get a bit of bloating, I was curious as to how you think these things, there's probably three different types there aren't they're affecting the microbiome and possibly affecting the brain.

Yeah. So refined sugar is definitely bad. We've always known that for other reasons, but it is bad for your gut bacteria. And it's bad for your brain because it spikes your glucose levels, and is pro inflammatory and can lead to those longer term kind of, you know, diabetic and inflammatory issues. And artificial sweeteners. I cannot say this strongly enough, especially for women who are doing it because they think you know, it's going to reduce the calorie count. If you drink a diet drink that's got artificial sweeteners in it, your gut bacteria will take up more calories from other things that you eat to compensate for that you are not dieting by by using artificial sweeteners. And then the middle one, which I'm a big fan of is the natural sweetness. So you know, I've got date molasses, I've got maple syrup, I put coconut sugar, honey. And so I try to use different types of natural sugar so I'm not getting too much of anything. And obviously, you know, I have learned over time to minimise that. I had a really sweet tooth when I was younger, but now the maximum that I will have is like one square of dark chocolate, not even every day and it's actually good for your brain because it's got good fats in it. So yeah, I think that's that's the message like definitely lowering even for kids. slike refined sugars having small amounts of variety of different types of sugars. And artificial sweeteners is an absolute no from from my point of view,

and more kind of natural sweeteners like stevia. Yeah, yeah. So

I don't have to do because I don't like it. But yeah, agave, date molasses, maple syrup, bit of honey, of coconut sugar, just the variety and minimization.

And with the sugar alcohols, what are your kind of thoughts there? Because they're often used in like, bars and things that people eat protein bars they're commonly put in, I think they cause quite a lot of bloating. In many people.

I haven't tried, I haven't tried them personally. So I mean, if it causes you bloating, then that's probably a sign that your gut doesn't like it. So yeah, and I, you know, those bars, I read the ingredients of those. And if, if there's one word in there that I don't recognise or isn't natural, I wouldn't touch it.

Exactly. I think that's the thing, isn't it, you're better off having, as you say, natural sweetness, having a piece of fruits and nuts, something like that. Because eating real food, real foods, it's amazing. It's been such a pleasure to have you on the show. Before you go, share. Are there anything you could share around your morning or evening routine You've shared so much, obviously, with vision boarding, journaling, things like that any kind of loss tips, either in the evening, or I know you're not such a morning person, so maybe the evening

to do things in the morning. Because I'm always grumpy. So in the morning, I wake up, the first thing I do is literally go through all of my bedding and say I Love My Pillow. I love myself pillowcase. I love my mattress, I love my wall topper. So I'm starting the day, always with the positive, whilst I'm still lying in bed with it happy. Then, like in the pandemic, I felt like there was so much pressure to like, Oh, you must do your stretching first thing in the morning or your yoga first in the morning meditation first in the morning. And I was like, being not a morning person, how many things am I supposed to do first thing in the morning. So I found that breathing was the single most important thing to do so and what I do is I just breathe into areas of tension in my body, but you could equally just do deep breathing or box breathing. That really helped with a lot of the physical tension that I get as a result of stress. So like breathing into those creaky areas. And then for me, it's my like, cup of tea ritual, that's, that's my morning. After that, I kind of start going, you know, start working, doing housework or whatever. Evening, I start to wind down from six o'clock. So in the pandemic, particularly where we weren't going to work out to work. So home was also work, I would have that hour six to seven to do like my mindful chopping of my vegetables and just like really de escalating from the work day. I'm mindful eating at seven. And then just you know, like relaxing, but being mindful, not too much of that being on screens. And I don't even just mean like close up blue light. But even like bright lights, you know, so dim the lighting, TV, I do like to watch TV in the evening, but not till too late. Because there's evidence that if you're looking at any kind of bright light, not just blue, from 11pm to 4am, then you can reduce your dopamine production. And so like it just makes you like feel more disappointed generally. And, you know, none of us needed that during or after the pandemic. So just being mindful of that now.

I'd heard Andrew Friedman talk about that. Actually, you got to be really careful, I think but either 10 or 11 to four. Yeah, yeah. And just protect that window. Yeah. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. Where can people find you your books, your work? You've got a new podcast, please, Link.

Thank you so much for having me. I just absolutely love talking to you. I'm most active on Instagram, where I'm at Dr. Tara Swat. And on Twitter, I'm Tara SWAT and my website's terasort.com. My book, the source is bridging science and spirituality in my new podcast. reinvent yourself with Dr. Tara is stories of neuroplasticity, people who've changed their lives either personally or professionally. And I am going to have you as a guest in season two.

Yeah. So excited about that. Thank you. Yeah, really excited. I was listening. I'd say we've seen offline earlier as listening to you interview. Bruce Lipton, who I'm a huge fan of just kind of fascinating. So such a great podcast. So those of you listening, go and check out our podcast, reinventing yourself so amazing, and we will link to everything in the show notes. Thanks again for coming on. It's been really fun. Thank you. Thank you for listening to today's show and for your interest in health optimization for high performance. If you're new to my podcast, you may be interested to know that you can get a free health score and rip Well complete with personalised recommendations on how to optimise your sleep, nutrition, fitness and resilience in the top link in the show notes below. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Links to everything we talked about are also in the show notes. And if you enjoyed today's show, please subscribe for more