Rewiring Your Brain: How Mindfulness Hacks the Programs

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Music.
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Welcome to Rephrase Reality, the podcast about meaning, usage, and why words matter.
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I'm your host, Debra Rose. I want to thank everybody who has listened to my
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previous episode and for coming back to hear episode two.
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This podcast project means a lot to me and is a result of affirmations and personal goals for 2025.
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I am waiting to get the approval to get the podcast distributed on Apple,
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YouTube, and Spotify, which should happen within a week or so.
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I want you to know that I really appreciate the support and willingness of you
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to go out of your way to listen before it gets distributed.
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As I start this journey of broadcasting my thoughts about the lifelong passion
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for words and revelations about their power, I realize how much there is to discuss.
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Words are precious and empowering, available to everyone who utters sounds to communicate.
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Even if people don't or can't make sounds, they still think and feel and thus
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have the same potential to manifest their dreams.
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In the previous episode, we learned that thoughts and spoken words synchronized
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with feelings and belief are crucial to the techniques of affirmations.
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We also talked about the power of experiencing and expressing gratitude for
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what we already have and for what we believe will come.
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If we can conjure the elated feelings of the outcome of our desire,
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then reality will rearrange our experiences to create a cause.
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If you want a life of abundance, including money, time, fun,
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love, peace, and security, then feeling, thinking, and believing will make it so.
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We don't need to figure out how the universe will provide the results.
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We just need to know that it will. Now, if this sounds like we don't have to
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do anything, then let me correct that assumption.
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Affirmations influence inspired action. Our intuition gets heightened and we become more mindful.
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We trust and believe although we have not yet seen. This is not a speech on
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a slacker's guide to abundance.
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On the contrary, we become very active in participation.
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We are no longer attempting to navigate our way through the world with our analytical
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minds, uncertainty, and broken promises.
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We are now navigating our way through the world with our inner senses, clarity, and beliefs.
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We act when inspired and trust the process.
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In today's episode, I want to talk more about affirmation and gratitude statements
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and touch on the science of neuroplasticity, mindfulness, and brain waves,
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and how they complement affirmations.
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Then I want to leave you with thoughts about how affirmations affect others. So let's dive in.
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What is neuroplasticity? Neuroplasticity is an easy concept to understand,
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but when understood, has the potential to change your capabilities, attitudes,
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behaviors, and perception of reality.
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In short, it means that the brain has the remarkable ability to reorganize itself
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by forming new neural connections throughout our entire life.
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What is also remarkable about this is that, until recently, the brain was considered
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to be rigid and predictable in structure and function.
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The development was assumed to be fully completed at a young age and then decline.
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While it is still true that different portions of the brain are responsible
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for specific functions,
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it turns out that the brain is also flexible enough to rewire itself to allow
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different areas of the brain to perform functions once thought the domain of specific areas.
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Brain injury was assumed to limit its victim to a life without being able to
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perform specific functions.
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Now that belief is obsolete. What that means for those of us not suffering from
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injury is that the malleability of our own brains to rewire itself changes our
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potential and outlook on life.
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Would it surprise you to know that although our brain thrives on change,
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it still routinely carves out the same neural pathways day in and day out because of our beliefs?
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We erroneously think our brain reveals reality, which create our beliefs.
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Is it not exciting to know that your brain will prove another reality when we change our belief?
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This is exactly what happens with affirmations.
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Our reality changes when we change our thoughts.
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Of course, those thoughts have to be infused with feelings and beliefs of our desires.
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Now, it's important to mention at this time that the brain can also rewire itself to negative beliefs.
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So understanding how important positive thoughts and input is crucial to our
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mental health and perception.
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What is easy to see is that when we change our thoughts and behaviors,
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we also change neural pathways.
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Can you see how affirmations can benefit our brain? Can you also see how changing
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neural pathways can also deepen the faith of our affirmations?
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So what can we do to help change our neural pathways?
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There is a saying in brain science, what fires together, wires together.
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A few things that can have an immediate effect on our brains are knowledge,
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mindfulness, meditation, and even daily routine. Our brain is a computer.
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The CPU, also known as the central processing unit, like a computer,
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it operates on installed programs.
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When people in cults or survivors of captivity escape or get rescued,
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the healing to release the thought reformation is called deprogramming.
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We don't have to be a victim of a cult or captivity to be subjective to programming.
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All of us have been subjected to a lot of programming since birth.
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As children, we were totally receptive to our environment and downloaded every
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experience and thing ever said directly to us or in our presence.
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Although every child processes information differently, the reality is that
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these programs and our beliefs got buried in our subconscious and helped run
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the program in our brain.
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Do you think it's a coincidence that television and news shows are called programs?
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I've known people who absolutely believe that watching the news keeps them informed.
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Facts or thoughts outside of what is reported on television news is met with
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condescending skepticism.
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Many of our listeners under 40 years old who grew up with access to the Internet
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may not realize the Internet was a secret government defense technology before
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it became a consumer commodity.
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Let that soak in for a bit. Are we surprised that people are addicted to their
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cell phones and losing the ability to communicate with each other face-to-face?
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We are not just consumers and customers of technology. We are the commodities.
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So more than ever, it is time for people to pay attention to what they say as
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well as what they choose to hear. Choose your knowledge.
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Know what you want to learn. You are responsible for the way your brain fires neurons.
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Learning a new language or skill is very beneficial.
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Reading thought-provoking books and most academic courses are very stimulating to the brain.
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But I'd be a bit careful with public schools and universities because there
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are many social programs that are meant to shape the behavior and thoughts of
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students. Choose your courses and academic affiliations carefully.
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Mindfulness is another way to positively affect neuroplasticity.
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Mindfulness and meditation should really be a podcast episode unto itself because
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of the depth of value, and I'd like to bring it up to give you something to consider.
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To stay with the computer metaphors, if knowledge is input, then mindfulness
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is a hack to break into the CPU.
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Mindfulness sounds like a new age philosophy served up with granola and herbal
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teas, but it is actively used by more people in our professional community than assumed.
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Mindfulness is the act of observing rather than reacting.
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Most of us tend to operate from a place of reaction which keeps the same programs running.
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Putting yourself in the observation seat allows us to view the programs rather than react to them.
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Mindfulness and affirmations complement each other.
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You don't need to scold yourself when you observe a belief or program.
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Being able to identify it and observe it is actually empowering.
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We can remove it by affirming a new state of awareness that doesn't have that program.
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Removing that belief or program may not happen immediately or overnight,
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but with continued mindfulness will be less effective.
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Observing is an empowering way to discover what is coming between you and desires.
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Let your observations be your teacher.
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Mindfulness is not only a great tool, but its immediate benefits are a deep
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sense of peace and content.
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Practice of mindfulness prepares your mind for meditation.
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The key to meditation is not to stop thoughts, but allow them to come and go
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while you sit and relax and make an effort.
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Don't expect otherworldly sideshows when you sit down and meditate.
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You will get what you need and a whole lot more than expected by just showing up.
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Daily routines, while having beneficial effects on our ability to meet our responsibilities,
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can also keep your brain churning out the same assumptions and giving you the
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same results as yesterday.
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It's like Groundhog Day.
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This movie is a brilliant metaphor of how the detrimental effect that mindless
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routines can have on us, yet hopeful how mindfulness can give us a whole new lease on life.
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When Bill Murray's character, a reporter who is bitter and uncaring and who
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has given up on the beauty of life,
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goes on a Groundhog Day assignment, he has a life-changing experience,
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which is a metaphor for mind-altering experience.
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He keeps waking up to the same day where the same people, places,
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and events are the exact same.
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When the veil finally parted for him and Bill realized that he could change
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the results in life by making small, mindful gestures, the clock changed from
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Groundhog Day to a new day.
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He realized that the love of life brought him to the love of his life, who was already there.
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As long as he was stuck in that rut, he was inaccessible to love and happiness.
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Like Bill's character, we routinely go through the same day with the same programs running.
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But in a moment of realization, all of that can change.
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The model here is the neural pathways don't change until we make the change.
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Another science that illustrates the power of changing realities are brainwaves.
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We may not consciously realize that we move in and out of different brainwaves
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on a daily and nightly basis and how important these shifts in brainwaves are to our existence.
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When we wake up from our nightly slumber, our brains are in alpha waves.
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This is a really enjoyable state where we feel a bit high and enjoy the comfort
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of our bed and daydream times.
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Alpha states are desirable states for learning and downloading information.
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Children are mainly in the state of alpha for their childhood until the age of seven.
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This is why many of our beliefs and programming can be traced back to our early
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childhood experiences.
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When we read emails or texts upon waking up, we conjure the feelings of our
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life the way it was the previous day.
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How can our brain and subconscious change the programs when we deliberately
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give it more of what we don't want?
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Why not harness this alpha state and affirm a new and exciting day instead?
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For instance, we can wake up saying, I am grateful for a new day and a new opportunity
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to create an exciting and fulfilling day.
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I feel at peace with myself and eager to embrace the world.
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While you're at it, make an affirmation about money, relationships, and creativity.
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During our day, especially at work, we stay in beta waves, which we need to
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focus on to accomplish our responsibilities.
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As we approach sleep time, our body winds down and goes from beta back to alpha waves.
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Again, another great time to do affirmations. Only at this time,
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we are preparing to dive into two other brain states, being delta and theta.
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While morning affirmations prepare you for beta state action,
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evening affirmations prepare you for powerful transformative dreams.
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Many inventions and discoveries have been made from dream states.
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Dream states are also another topic worthy of at least one podcast and no doubt
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are on my wish list for topics.
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Take advantage of waking and winding down alpha states and be prepared to change
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your reality one day at a time.
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You can see that you don't need to be a doctor of science, philosophy,
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or a healer to know a helpful amount of knowledge to change your life.
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Affirmations take ordinary people and give them extraordinary lives.
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We change our brain functioning, remove blocks from our subconscious,
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and can increase the efficacy and enjoyment of our sleeping life,
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which is one-third of our day.
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In our dream state, we are no longer limited to space, time,
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rules, gravity, and can immediately weave in and out of realities at will.
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Our dream time can inspire and inform our waking days.
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We don't just go to sleep. In
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some ways, our waking day goes to sleep and we wake up to a new reality.
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Not only does this knowledge of neuroplasticity, brainwaves,
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affirmations change your life, but it changes the lives of those around you.
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We can now see how affirmations drastically change our lives but the truth is
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we affect everyone in our environment when we change.
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You cannot change and not change those around you.
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We have an effect on people, places and things whether we realize it or not.
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Don't be surprised if people come to you for advice or if you find yourself
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being an influence of change in your career.
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We declare our affirmations with present confirming words like,
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I am, I believe, I trust, I attract, etc.
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But when we change the pronoun to, you are, you can, I believe you are,
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I trust you can, then you become a motivator.
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You encourage people to shift their beliefs.
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In conclusion, I want to encourage you all to practice affirmation and gratitude statements.
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Learn more about brain science, mindfulness, change up daily routines,
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and appreciate the power and benefits of dream states.
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And when you're ready, you will become the teacher.
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If not by written or spoken words, then by your actions.
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Thank you for listening to the end of this podcast.
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Please join me next week when we will explore the power of imagination and how
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to harness your imagination to manifest your desires and dreams.
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Until then, remember, words matter.
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Music.