Harnessing Your Emotional Blueprint: Unveiling the Amygdala's Role in Shaping Reality

Ever found yourself wondering why, despite your best efforts, life doesn't always pan out as you'd hoped? Today's episode unveils the surprising truth that our amygdala, the emotional hub of the brain, holds the blueprints of our reality—a concept that's often overlooked in the pursuit of our aspirations. From my sunny Louisville home base, I'm excited to share insights on how inherited beliefs, often not our fault, can lead to unfulfilled dreams, and what we can do about it.

As we dig deeper, you'll discover why battling subconscious fears with sheer positivity might not cut it. Instead, I advocate for a more nuanced dance with our protective instincts. By acknowledging and understanding these instincts, we can create a harmony that resonates with our conscious goals. I'll walk you through the steps to tell a solution-oriented narrative that stays true to your emotional experiences while setting the stage for tangible progress.

The journey to a life beyond your wildest dreams is not just about the destination but understanding and evolving with the process. So, as we part ways till the next episode, remember that every moment spent in self-reflection is paving the way to a more fulfilling life. Join me, Greg Kuhn, as we celebrate the belief and determination that forge our shared path to transformation.

Transcript

Greg Kuhn: 0:12

Hello everybody, hello, my wonderful manifesting friends, welcome to another afternoon together. It's Greg Kuhn coming to you live from Louisville, kentucky. A sunny, beautiful day here in Louisville. If you're not joining me from this part of the United States, I hope you are experiencing some pleasant weather where you are. Either way, thank you so much for joining me today to continue our discussion about being your own manifesting coach by coaching your subconscious to manifest better versions of reality for you. I'm really excited about today's topic because this is probably my favorite part of manifesting reality intentionally, and I'm very happy that you are joining us Now. Of course, the whole reason to be together on an afternoon is to take a deep dive into manifesting our life differently, and as a wonderful manifesting soul, you, like me, have an interest in manifesting parts of your life differently that are disappointing, unfulfilling, painful, especially when we know that more is possible, that better is possible, and especially when those parts of our life are areas that are really important to us Spirituality, marriage, relationships, parenting, money, your body, our health, our fitness, our relationships, our career. These are parts of human life that well. They're wonderful opportunities to bring God to life and to be fulfilled. They're really tailor made for human fulfillment in the 21st century. And I don't know about you. I've never had any luck pretending that I didn't care about those most important parts of my life, and so that's what we're here together. We're brought together by a common desire, a communal knowing that more is possible for us, that in these parts of our lives, when we're disappointed, that's not the end of the road for us. You know that. I know that, and I'm here to tell you that your knowing is correct. And what I talk about in my books and my podcast, on my website, my blog, my newsletter I try to make it hard for you to ignore me what I share about in all of these venues is all scientifically backed. It's all based on science, to the point that I would say I will be surprised if these things don't work for you because of their basis in science. And today we're really leaning hard into neurobiology All right, it's a fancy word for the way that our brain works and the way that our brain functions as a physical entity.

Greg Kuhn: 4:18

I do want to say that, when it comes to manifesting parts of our lives in ways that are disappointing, in ways that are displeasing and, yes, it is true that you are manifesting the bad parts, just as you are the good parts and everything in between, just as I am. We manifest it all. We can't stop manifesting life. That's what humans do here in this, in this world, in this universe that we inhabit. We are the source. You are the source of your world, your universe, your life. You are manifesting it.

Greg Kuhn: 5:05

I want to start by making sure you know that you're not to blame for the bad things. No, your beliefs are manifesting your life, the beliefs you inherited as a small child, up through age nine. You did not choose them, you inherited them and they took up and have. Well, they took up residence in your amygdala, in your limbic system. That's what we've been talking about the last few weeks, and there they have stayed, manifesting your life in each moment.

Greg Kuhn: 5:53

It's tempting sometimes to feel like we're doing something wrong when the life we're manifesting is displeasing or disappointing. We're not. We're not. Let's take your weight. Let's take, for example, a desire to have a more comfortable weight. That's a pretty common desire, especially as we get older. Well, we can easily look around and see that so many other people are manifesting a weight, a physical form that is much more like the one we would like to have. They're doing it, but we're not. But that does not mean that you are manifesting your body the wrong way. I'll put that in quotes. It doesn't mean you're manifesting your body wrong or incorrectly. You're actually manifesting your body just as you're manifesting everything else, the way that you're able. You're manifesting your body as you believe and remember. These are inherited beliefs. You did not select them and they're still in there in your limbic system, in your amygdala, running the show, manifesting your life. Let me illustrate what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about letting yourself off the hook when it comes to blaming yourself for the disappointing parts of your life that you're manifesting, that we're all manifesting. I'm talking about giving you permission to put down the stick and stop beating yourself up.

Greg Kuhn: 7:59

Think about a dog Now. Maybe you have a pet dog. We've all been around dogs and we all know that dogs can smell things that people can't. So I'm taking my dog out for a walk and my dog is smelling. I mean, he's going crazy. You know how dogs behave on walks. You can't smell any of that stuff that my dog is smelling. Does that mean that I'm smelling the wrong things? Or is the dog smelling the wrong things? No, of course not. I'm smelling what I can smell, and my dog is doing the same thing. I'm not smelling the wrong things. I'm smelling what I can, and that's the way manifesting our reality works as well.

Greg Kuhn: 9:00

We manifest what we can. We manifest the things in well. We manifest our life in accordance with the beliefs that we inherited and are now currently stored in our amygdala. We can't just like a dog can't smell anything it can't and a human can't smell anything it can't. You can't manifest anything that you don't believe. Furthermore, you can only manifest that which you believe, and the same goes for me.

Greg Kuhn: 9:47

So, when our life becomes disappointing, we're being shown that we have beliefs that we inherited, beliefs that are now proving themselves incapable of manifesting life aligned with our desires. Displeasing life events, manifesting disappointing versions of life that's feedback. We get feelings, we get painful feelings from those disappointing events, and those painful feelings are feedback. Both of those things are clear indicators to us that we have limiting beliefs, and we all do, and we all receive that type of feedback every single day. And when we get that feedback, what can we do about it? How can we change? Well, that's what this episode is about, right, this episode is about coaching our subconscious.

Greg Kuhn: 11:04

Now, the first thing we need to know is that it's called our subconscious for a reason because it's below our conscious awareness. Our subconscious, however, is incredibly powerful, although our conscious awareness, which arises from our cortex, the most modern part of our brain, is the part of us that we call the thinker or the decider. When you are thinking and you are talking to yourself, inside your own head, that is your cortex, that is the CEO, if you will, of the physical body that you inhabit at the moment. Well, the CEO, your thinker, your decider, your conscious mind, it wants what it wants. It wants that svelte body, it wants that fat bank account, it wants that soulmate relationship, it wants that spiritual connection to a higher power, it wants to be the mentor, parent and on. Those desires are very real for us, and yet we encounter life that runs in opposition to those desires quite often.

Greg Kuhn: 12:43

But, as we've already established, is a sign that our amygdala, which operates below our conscious awareness, has limiting beliefs, that you inherited, limiting beliefs. Like all of us, we all have limiting beliefs because we were all raised by imperfect people. Goodness, I've passed along limiting beliefs to my four sons, I guarantee you, not intentionally, but there's really no way around it. So we all have limiting beliefs. We're all seeing their shadows in our daily lives. Those shadows are painful life events that are not aligned with our desires. We don't have to go over examples of those events. We all know. So what do we do when this is happening? Well, the first thing I will tell you is this we do not.

Greg Kuhn: 13:44

One of the least effective ways to coach ourselves to manifest better versions of reality is to shout down our amygdala. Our amygdala does not speak to us using words, because our amygdala does not understand words. It understands feelings, and it only understands feelings that are real, that it knows are real. In other words, it only understands feelings that are not too different from what's already inside of it. And what do I mean by shouting down our amygdala? I'm talking about positive thinking. Yeah, I know that sounds strange to have a manifesting coach demonize positive thinking. What could I be thinking to say that to you? Well, here's what I'm getting at, and I think you will agree with this when I explain it this way.

Greg Kuhn: 14:50

Although positive thinking is a wonderful tool, there's nothing wrong with positive thinking. Positive thinking helps us feel better, or it can help us feel better, among other things that it can do. However, when life is disappointing and painful, we've already established that means I am manifesting a disappointing and painful version of reality. Only I, technically, I am not manifesting it In my subconscious mind. My subconscious is manifesting disappointing and painful version of reality. So when that happens, when I am giving myself positive thought or positive affirmations in that situation, it's 100% guaranteed that those positive thoughts and positive affirmations are going to be very different from what's already inside my amygdala. How do I know that If I felt, if I truly felt those positive thoughts, if I if that's truly how I felt about the reality I was manifesting right now, I wouldn't be intentionally crafting positive thoughts about it. That makes sense, right? I don't use positive affirmations when the reality I'm manifesting is pleasing. When that's happening, I'm grateful, but I'm not looking in the mirror and reciting positive affirmations.

Greg Kuhn: 16:35

So every time a situation arises where I would use standard techniques of positive affirmations and positive thinking, you can bet that is me essentially shouting down my amygdala. That is me telling my amygdala you're wrong, sit down, shut up and let me, meaning my conscious mind, run the show. And that does not work. Our amygdala ignores that because it has a job to do keep us alive and safe and it can't do its job very well if it is ignoring its own evidence. Now, the amygdala we talked about this last week.

Greg Kuhn: 17:28

The amygdala senses things. Just like that dog example, the amygdala senses tons of things that we can't consciously sense Smell, sight, sounds, touches, energy fields, and on and on and on. The amygdala has its own sensory input that it considers above and beyond, well before anything that our conscious mind is contributing to the story. So the first thing I would say is, given all this, when life is being manifested in a disappointing, frustrating and painful manner, the first thing we want to do is call a truce right, don't. We don't want to browbeat our amygdala. We don't want to tell our amygdala it's wrong. We don't want to shout it down, we don't want to talk over it. That is not helpful. It's not going to lead to manifesting better versions of reality, it's only going to frustrate us, and you know that We've all had those experiences. Well, now I'm telling you why you get so frustrating, because that really doesn't work.

Greg Kuhn: 18:55

Declare peace between your conscious mind and your amygdala. You know your amygdala's job is to look for changes which it considers threats to your safety. It doesn't matter if those changes are positive changes or negative changes. It's looking for changes, irrespective of whether they're desired or not, and when it detects changes according to what you believe and what you've experienced from those beliefs, that is a threat and it is alerting you to it. It is manifesting your life in that way, your amygdala. Here's the reason why I say we declare a truce.

Greg Kuhn: 19:47

Your amygdala is not usually wrong about what it senses. It's almost always completely correct in what it senses. The amygdala isn't wrong about what it senses, but it is very often wrong about the level of threat that what it senses represents to you. Okay, it is not a great technique, it is not a success habit to shout down, ignore, talk over, chastise your amygdala for the threat level it is alerting you to. So I want to talk about what to do instead.

Greg Kuhn: 20:41

So what do we do instead? We don't want to plaster over our amygdala with positive thinking. What do we do instead? Oh, what we do instead is really simple B not hard, I'll even say easy to do and C I don't know why my fingers are representing letters of the alphabet, but C it's kind of hmm bricks us into doing something that's even more powerful to sculpt and manifest a different version of reality. And let me explain what I'm getting at here.

Greg Kuhn: 21:29

What we do instead instead of shouting over our amygdala, we tell ourselves the best feeling believable story that is possible for us. I want to emphasize that is possible, right, because we don't need to reach for pie in the sky. We don't need to reach for the top rung of the ladder when we're crafting a story in the face of disappointing reality. Right, I look in the mirror and I see and I'm going to go back to the weight example I was using earlier I look in the mirror and I see a body that does not please me. It is not aligned with my desires for it. I, in that moment, I want to tell myself the best feeling believable story that is possible for me in that moment. Now, what does that mean? Well, the way to make the story best feeling and, by the way, this is all constructed so that we can coach our amygdala Telling the best feeling believable story is an amygdala coaching technique.

Greg Kuhn: 22:55

It works wonderfully. The best feeling story is that is possible, is going to be a story that acknowledges the disappointment. I look in the mirror and I say, yes, it is true that my body doesn't look the way I want it to right now. It doesn't look the way I was hoping it was going to right now and it's disappointing to me because I was expecting something different. I was hoping for something different, and that's true. All right. So we want to acknowledge the disappointment. We're not encasing it in cement, we're simply acknowledging it and then we make this believable by incorporating the things that we are doing or the things that we're committed to start doing, if we're not currently that are leading us towards solutions.

Greg Kuhn: 24:08

So I would make my story believable and once again, this is believable to the amygdala and best feeling to the amygdala, I would say and at the same time, I know that I am committed To my practices of hydrating myself, drinking lots of water, to my practice of not eating after eight o'clock at night. I know that I'm also committed to my practice of getting out and going for a 30 minute walk today and each day, and I know that I'm committed to my practice of being a mindful eater and being committed to a healthy diet to the best of my ability. These things are all true and, given that I know that, I can say that I'm on the path and that, while the results aren't what I'm looking for at the moment, or they didn't align with my highest desires for my body, I can't deny and I'm encouraged by the fact that I am on the path and that, even though I'm disappointed by what I'm manifesting in this moment, I do know that I am walking towards a more aligned body Now. So that's a best-feeling believable story, and I said that we're kind of tricking ourselves. Well, the reason we're tricking ourselves in a good way, by the way is because, if that's my best-feeling believable story that I'm telling myself in response to manifesting a disappointing or painful version of my body, well, for that best-feeling believable story to work, for it to change the reality that I'm manifesting, I'd have to actually be doing those things that I claimed. That's super important, otherwise it's not believable. I mean, if I said, yeah, I see your body and I'm really disappointed by it, and that's true, however, I also know that when I wake up tomorrow, my body's gonna be perfect. Or I also know that I'm gonna go to the gym later today and, after a couple hours of working out, my body's gonna be perfect. I mean, those are ridiculous statements, right, but those are examples of unbelievable statements. And why are they unbelievable? Because not only are they not true, they're not what's really going on, they're not what I'm really doing.

Greg Kuhn: 27:13

So telling a best feeling, believable story requires me to tell the truth about what I'm doing, and so I can't tell a best-feeling, believable story without actually doing something that is solution-oriented, that really is leading me towards resolution of this pain in my life. So if I commit to telling the best-feeling, believable story, I know that I'm committed to A recognizing, listening to my amygdala. What is it telling me? Affirming what it's telling me, recognizing what it's telling me rather than blowing it off, ignoring it or trying to shout it down. I'm also committing myself to being involved in solution-oriented activity that I've legitimately identified as the best next-right things to do to lead me in the direction of manifesting my desires, because I can't include that information unless I'm really doing it and unless what I'm really doing really is focused on the solution.

Greg Kuhn: 28:37

Now, I don't have to have it all figured out. I mean, what parts of life do we have all figured out? I get wrapped up in that sometimes I don't know about you wanting to have it all figured out. I got to know, I got to know I do that, but the truth is the parts of my life where I'm knocking it out of the park, the parts of my life that are the most fulfilling. None of that happens because I have it all figured out, but what does happen, in the way that those parts of my life have grown into such fulfilling versions of life, is because I have declared a truth.

Greg Kuhn: 29:29

I've declared peace between my conscious mind, my cortex, and my limbic system, or my subconscious mind, particularly my amygdala. As we've been saying, I've declared a truth, I've declared peace, and I've reinforced that by listening to what my amygdala is sharing with me, not shaming it or shouting it down, but really hearing and acknowledging what it is sharing with me. Yes, you're right, there's no denying that I'm disappointed by this or this isn't the way I wanted it. And then adding the legitimate, solution-oriented activities that I am authentically engaged in. So, a, it motivates me to be engaged in such activities, and then, b, it allows me to utilize that engagement in ways that calm and coach my amygdala. So, yeah, the best feeling, believable story. So then? So here's my challenge to you. Okay, thumbs up.

Greg Kuhn: 30:45

My challenge to you is this when you run into something disappointing today, whatever it is big or small, don't beat yourself up, don't blame yourself. It's your beliefs that are manifesting your life, your inherited beliefs. You're not responsible for the beliefs that you inherited, but you are responsible for manifesting a different version of reality, if that's what you want and you get to, if you want to. So, when you, the next time you encounter something painful or disappointing in your life which, if you're like me, won't take very long to happen I want you to tell the best feeling, believable story that you can. I want you to acknowledge what your amygdala is telling you about, what's wrong, and then I want you to soothe your amygdala by lovingly and compassionately reassuring it by talking about the things that you are doing, the concrete things that you are doing that are solution oriented. I'll give you an example and then we'll close today.

Greg Kuhn: 32:15

I think I may have mentioned this in an earlier life, like months ago, but I distinctly remember going out to my garage getting ready to go for a run and as I was putting my head, my earbuds in, I noticed, wow, I am so discouraged right now about manifest the big stuff, about my business. I am so discouraged right now because I had received some disappointing outcomes. You know nothing, earth shattering. I'd gotten some outcomes here in my business that definitely were not aligned with my desires for them, and I'm thinking, wow, I am just so discouraged, I just want to quit right now. That's how discouraged I'm feeling in the moment. Now, this isn't how I normally feel about manifest, the big stuff. I thought. So this is an opportunity tailor made for a best feeling, believable story.

Greg Kuhn: 33:22

And so what I said to myself is yeah, you know what? The disappointing outcomes are 100% disappointing. There's no doubt about that. I'm not going to pretend like I'm happy at all about what is going on. I'm disappointed and it is not what I wanted.

Greg Kuhn: 33:47

And at the same time, I also know that I've experienced roadblocks and detours in the past that really have never completely derailed me. I also know that everything I've done that led to the disappointing results was all given my best effort and all appeared to me to be the right things to do. So if I went back in time, I'm quite certain I would do these things again, and I know that the way that the best parts of my life have continued to grow and become even better is because I am committed to using my reality and the feelings it elicits as feedback, as information to inform me and guide me. I also know that I'm committed to learning, growing and changing and that I'm going to continue to give my best efforts based on what I'm learning. And, furthermore, I know that I'm a hard worker. I've been working hard and I'm going to continue to work hard.

Greg Kuhn: 35:16

So, all those things considered, it is perfectly reasonable for me to say and know that, while disappointing, these results that I'm manifesting are not the final outcome. They're not an apocalypse, they're not doom and gloom. They're simply a wrinkle that I will learn from, grow from and change what I'm doing based upon and that was the real, best feeling, believable story that I really gave myself. And what did that do for me right there in the garage? Well, it didn't make. I can tell you this. It did not instantly transform that part of my reality like a genie, but what it did do was it transformed me in that moment. It transformed my perspective, it transformed what I see, what I saw past tense. It transformed what I saw and what I understood in that moment. And you know what it's.

Greg Kuhn: 36:37

What manifesting is Manifesting? While it might be a esoteric or mystical topic at different times, it really is nothing more than seeing an understanding. That's what manifesting is. So when we change what we see and we understand, we change what we manifest. So I am counting on you to take this practice and practice it, even if you don't get it perfectly. You'll know that you're making progress when you feel you're amygdala starting to soothe, when you still notice what's disappointing, but the threat level has a base. The threat level has abated because you're investing in yourself. What should next week's topic be? Why don't we talk next week about research based ways to begin your day, your morning routine? I'll share about my morning routine and I'll talk to you about research based techniques, practices and habits that turn up your manifesting power. I can't wait to share with you about this, and thank you so much to all who joined me today. What an exciting way to spend a Thursday afternoon. And until we meet up again, please keep believing and keep manifesting my beautiful souls.