Good morning, alchemy club! ✨🖤

To show you the power of rewiring your brain, I want to flashback to four years ago:

At this time in my life, I woke up every day with so much fear and despair in my body. I felt like I was “floating,” which, according to my old journal entries, is what I called a constant impending doom feeling that I was wasting my life.

It was like I was wearing this mask everywhere I went. Although my life looked fine on paper, I couldn’t connect with anyone, I was drowning in intrusive thoughts, and all of my past traumas were coming up to the surface.

I didn’t know how to take good care of my brain. I focused on the dark moments in my past, spent time with people who left me anxious and depleted, and didn’t know the skills of mindfulness and staying present.

I was strengthening the neural connections that kept me in a state of suffering.

You know the saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” or neuroscientist Donald Hebb’s famous, “the neurons that fire together, wire together”?

They both get to the core idea of neuroplasticity: your brain strengthens what you use repeatedly, and removes what you don’t use.

Your brain has about 86 billion neurons that collectively make 100 trillion to 1 quadrillion (!!!) connections with one another. That is a lot of opportunity for new connections.

Here is how you can use your brain’s beautiful plasticity to your advantage:

1. Use your limiting beliefs to your advantage

This is a life-changing mindset shift.

First: in the moments you feel lost, confused, or fearful, I encourage you to reconnect with your higher self.

We all have a higher self. If you don’t know who they are, refer to your childhood dreams and what you wanted to be when you grew up. (Hint: you’ll know a vision comes from your higher self because it will give you a sense of awe, wonder, clarity, and joy. It’ll make you giddy and excited).

HOWEVER! In the process of connecting with this version of you, you may notice some limiting thoughts will start popping up in your consciousness, like:

• “It’s too late for that…”

• “That can’t happen…”

• “It’s too hard, I can’t do that…”

• “That’s too good to be true…”

But these thoughts are not coming from your higher self. They’re not even coming from you.

They are coming from your conditioning. They are the result of a fear-centric society that teaches people not to follow their dreams, that their dreams are embarrassing, that they shouldn’t even let themselves dream because it won’t come true.

It’s all bs. How do I know that? Because notice how your body responds to it. It makes you feel powerless, depleted, robotic. Exactly.

When you operate from the thoughts and emotions that make your body feel inspired, light, and joyful, you become so much more magnetic and clear-minded. You are operating from the infinite possibilities available to you, rather than past fear.

So, LABEL your limiting beliefs and anything that feels heavy or constrictive as your CONDITIONING. It’s not the truth.

2. Constantly refocus on the energy of gratitude

I know. Gratitude sounds basic.

But basic things, done consistently, rewire your brain in extraordinary ways.

Your brain has a negativity bias. It is wired to scan for threats and keep you stuck in old cycles of past hurts. But again!! Repetition + Attention = What you create MORE of! You become a completely new person once you release old emotions and stories from your body and use the power of your focus.

When you intentionally look for what is going right, what is beautiful, what is working, you are strengthening the neural pathways that keep you in a state of abundance.

We don’t realize how many blessings we have in any given moment. When we are too stuck in old stories of fear, we completely forget about the sunlight, a warm cup of coffee, a text from a friend, the health of our body, and the time we have to read.

Focus on the little joys. This also trains your brain to find safety in small moments, which again, compounds over time.

3. Nervous system regulation & rituals

Click here to learn how to regulate your nervous system.

Another thing I’d like to add is the power of RITUALS.

Your brain changes through repetition. Not spurts of intensity. It’s the small wins that compound over time.

The two most programmable windows of your day are:

• Right after you wake up.

• Right before you fall asleep.

In those windows, your subconscious mind is extremely receptive, as your brain is entering its theta state. You become more open to new ideas.

Become SO INTENTIONAL with what you feed yourself during this time. This is what I do:

In the morning:

• I wrote out my dream life, in excruciating detail, 1 year from now, in a journal that I keep right next to my bed. Right when I wake up, I read this immediately. I feel those heightened emotions first thing in the morning.

• Still sitting upright in bed, I do a meditation to align with the highest version of me and open my heart to new possibilities.

• I do not go on my phone until I have stretched, woken up my body, and written in my journal.

In the evening:

• I do some sort of somatic healing work, whether it’s deep belly breaths, somatic shaking, or humming.

• I pray to Source and express my gratitude, and recall all the wonderful things that happened that day.

These things only take a few minutes out of my day, but I can’t express how much happier they’ve made me. These rituals are the backbone of my life and keep me so grounded.

Create your own ritual and honor it.

Your brain is always listening and always adapting.

It is constantly serving what YOU are asking. So ask and spend your attention wisely.

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With so much love and light,

Emma