Welcome to the Bloom Your Mind podcast, where we take all of your ideas for what you want, and we turn them into real things. I'm your host, certified coach Marie McDonald. Let's get into it.
Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 86 of the Bloom Your Mind podcast. What's going on? How are you?
I'm wonderful, it's summer and I have made a wind tunnel in my house because I love feeling like I'm outside when I'm inside. So, I have done what's called over glazing in my house, where I've put lots and lots of windows and doors in my house for a very specific reason, so that I can open them on both sides of the house and feel what I'm feeling right now, which is this lukewarm summer wind. It's not warm, it's not cool, it's just this brilliant breeze that's blowing over my skin as I sit here talking to you. I love it. I love to sit in a wind tunnel in my house.
What is the air like where you are? Do you feel a breeze, don’t you not? Do you want to? Today, we are going to talk about your three brains. Did you know you have three? You do, and when I found this out, it became something that is a tool that I started to use often and use with my clients often to access some incredible groundedness, knowledge and inner wisdom. Basically, I use this to always know what to do and it helps my clients in that same way and never fails. So, I'm going to share this with you today because I was reminded of this.
This past weekend, my daughter and my husband and my son and I were laughing about this term that my daughter calls herself all the time. She calls herself a book nerd because she loves reading. She always refers to herself as a book nerd and I think of myself as a people nerd, among other things. But we actually Googled what's the difference between a nerd and a dork and a dweeb and a geek, and we found out we are actually geeks.
There is this Venn diagram that we found online that sort of shows these three circles of intelligence, obsession and social ineptitude and it creates where they overlap. It creates the definition of all of these terms and we found out that we are actually geeks, because that is the Venn diagram where it sort of overlaps, where you really have a lot of passion for a thing and love to learn about it, and so she is a book nerd and I am a people nerd and I really also love many other things, including hypnotherapy.
So, I was there, my geeky self, geeking out in Vegas over hypnosis, and I got to meet two of my mentors last week and two of my teachers. One is named Simone Seol; the other is Melissa Tiers. One is a Korean coach and change maker, the other is a New York hypnotist, and so they were in Vegas and had all of their followers that had come there to learn from them in person around them and it was really amazing. It was the epitome of geekdom, because we were all there like sitting and talking well into the night about hypnosis and about people and about brains and about hearts and about how to make the world a better place through loving what you do and helping other people to love who they are, what they do and what they're building in the world. And I was cracking up because it's Vegas and nobody's drinking and we're all like sitting in these like big rooms, just talking to each other for hours and hours into the night. And it was just lovely to be there. And while I was there, I was reminded of this tool of tapping into our three brains, which I learned this tool a couple of years ago, but it just really reminded me of the power of this thing that I use with my clients all the time, so I'm here to share it with you today.
I did, before I shared this tool with you. I did also, while I was in Vegas, end up at the Magic Mike show. I did not know what this was. Y’all, I thought it was a dance show. It is not a dance show. I mean it is, but it also is not. So, look it up if you want to laugh at me. Finding myself at a show that I did not expect was quite something, all right.
So, three brains, what am I talking about? Well, we think of our brain in our head as the seat of our knowledge, and that is so true. We have a brain in our head that guides us, our body functions, it guides our memory, it guides our cognition and our synthesis, our perception, all the things right. We also have a brain in our heart and in our gut. These are the three sorts of centers of our knowledge and our knowing, and there's some different actual science that shows this. So, I like to think of the brain in our minds as the seat of our knowing, and there's some different actual science that shows this. So, I like to think of the brain in our minds as the seat of our knowing, our thinking, our logic, the brain in our heart as the seat of our wisdom, and the brain in our gut as the seat of our intuition and our instinct. Now, when we think about these three the mind, the heart and the gut when we're not listening to all three of them, I like to think of this as, like the three stooges, they're like bonking each other and trying to poke each other in the eyes and slamming heads and bumping into each other a little bit, because intuition sometimes be in conflict with again with even our instinct or with our logic. When we aren't listening to all three, they will struggle to be known, they will struggle to be heard. When we are listening to all three, they turn from the three stooges trying to poke each other in the eyes and bonking into each other to the three fates, which offer us tons of wisdom to guide us through our lives. So, my clients use this tool when they're stuck and they get so much out of it every single time, especially when a part of them is triggered or confused or lost or cloudy or overwhelmed. This tool is a shortcut to the higher mind, to the part of us that always knows what we need and what to do next. So, I'm going to share a little bit of background research that I've done myself over the years to help myself understand this tool, which I originally learned from Melissa Tiers and she refreshed me on it last week. But some of the interesting things that she talks about are these three areas as hormone centers, and she touches on it briefly. So, I've researched a little bit more over the years.
Our brain is where we produce dopamine, which is the pleasure hormone, and we all enjoy some pleasure right in our lives. We would like to have pleasure as part of our human experience. Dopamine is part of the brain's reward system and it's released when we experience pleasurable activities, whatever that is for you. Maybe it's shopping, maybe it's baking, maybe it's walking your dog, whatever it is. Dopamine is released through many of the things that we do, and it also reinforces the activities that create it and makes us want to do those again. So, it can actually be really related to addiction and to sort of like the things like Netflix or like social media where we get a dopamine hit. We just want to do them again. But it also affects how well we learn, our motivation, our sleep, our memory, our focus, how stressed we get, our mood, our attention, our digestion, our blood flow, heart rate, all kinds of functions in our body. So, we can do specific things to both get dopamine from healthy sources like our diet and healthy sources in our own behavior that we want to reinforce because they end up giving us a net positive result in our life and we can be aware of where our dopamine is coming from. That isn't helping us, like social media, like alcohol, like you know anything that is addictive for us but this dopamine center in our brain, our brain producing this dopamine, is huge to all these functions that I talked about, but it's not the only one.
Our heart is integral to the production of oxytocin, which is, you know, if dopamine is the pleasure hormone, oxytocin is the love hormone. It's associated with bonding with our loved ones, lowering our stress and anxiety levels, and it's really related to positive behavior, socially positive attachment and relationships. And we can naturally increase our oxytocin by doing things like donating to charity, engaging in acts of service, buying gifts that you love for family members. This is a huge love language of mind is acts of service and gifting and, like last week, I was talking about creating paintings for people, painting things for them, creating them, objects that are really special, that are an investment of my time, like these, all are acts of love for me because they create a lot of a feeling of love inside of me. You can also eat dark chocolate, take your vitamins, take yoga classes, you know, do things that both relax you and connect you. And one huge thing that you can do to produce oxytocin is hug, kiss, like touch. These are all things that produce oxytocin. I always get burned for giving really long hugs, probably because I love oxytocin.
So, the heart produces oxytocin, the brain does too, and oxytocin helps to regulate cardiovascular function. So, it's super related to the heart and it's our second brain. We also have a third brain, which is our gut. Let me tell you about the hormone related to that. The gut's hormone specialty is serotonin. So, if dopamine is the pleasure hormone and oxytocin is the love hormone, serotonin is like the mood hormone. It's often called the body's natural feel-good chemical. So low serotonin levels can lead to depression or are related, can contribute to feelings of depression. Serotonin also helps us have great sleep, helps us with digestion, it helps us to process foods and eliminate foods and it actually helps to protect the gut. So, along with other things, it helps with appetite as well. So, there's this whole center in our gut related to serotonin. So if you think about these three hormones and how much they relate to your wellbeing Like, aside from all of the body functions that they contribute to, that they regulate, that are a part of our whole wellbeing, related to our physical body's function, dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin are hugely and serotonin are hugely are pivotal, right Like in our mood, in our state of happiness, in our mental function as well, and they have these different flavors to them.
The three stooges, if we're not paying attention to them, or the three fates right, if we are paying attention to them, if we are listening to their wisdom, if we are honoring them and letting all the different parts of us that have our sort of higher knowing, our wisdom, that are holding our wisdom for us, if we're listening to all of them, we get a really cohesive compass that directs us into the future. That's why I'm calling it the three fates, right Like, if we're listening to all three centers of wisdom, then we have this predictive quality to our thinking, to our perception, and we know that our thinking leads to our feeling and our actions. So when we're listening to the wisdom from all three states, then we can really create the future that we want and take steps towards it, being guided by these places in our body, these centers of wisdom that are totally responsible for and integral to the hormones, that really help us feel love, the pleasure of life, and that put us in our best moods and give us our best experience of life. So, I told you that at the end of this episode, I will give you an exercise, a way to check in with these three centers. Well, I do this all the time with my clients and every single time they get incredible, clear guidance from their internal source of knowing. They get guidance from themselves. When they go through this exercise, I do it with myself and again I'm going to reiterate that anytime someone is feeling confused, torn, lost, foggy, just kind of like not knowing what to do next, stuck, if they're feeling triggered, we unwind that triggered state, get them into a calmer place and then we have them check in with these three. It's a tool I use often.
So, for you, is there anywhere that you are feeling stuck? Is there anywhere that you're feeling confused? Is there anywhere in your life that you're feeling unsure? Do you not know what to do next? Are you feeling indecisive? Is there anywhere where you're feeling unsure? Do you not know what to do next? Are you feeling indecisive? Is there anywhere where you're feeling foggy? Triggered any of those feelings? If so, after you close out, you're listening to this episode you can find a comfortable place when you are not driving a comfortable, supportive place, and you can close your eyes and do this meditation.
So, I will tell you what it is. I call it a meditation, but it's really just a deep dive into yourself. You can do it in two minutes, you can do it in an hour. You can take as long as you want. Optimally, I would say about 10 minutes is perfect for this, but you can absolutely shorten that if that's what you need. Would say about 10 minutes is perfect for this, but you can absolutely shorten that if that's what you need.
The first thing you'll do is you'll put yourself into what's called an induced state. An induction All that means is a very relaxed state. The reason we do this is because our brain doesn't fight as much against us just tapping into our own wisdom. Our brain is in a very receptive space. When we do that, get into a deep state of relaxation. The parts of the brain that we can access, the parts of the brain that light up, are just much more receptive to new ideas and are much more sort of like awake to the type of listening for the type of wisdom that we're going to look for from ourselves. So, what we're looking for is to bring ourselves into this relaxed state and then we're going to check in with our three brains and I'll tell you exactly how to do that. Okay, so the first step is to bring yourself into that relaxed state.
My favorite way of doing this, when you're not being led by someone else, is to picture the number 10 in your mind as you take breaths in, inhale and exhale, and every time you exhale, just exhale any tension in your body, let your eyes closed, do this in a really relaxed place, and as you inhale and exhale, you're going to picture the number 10 in your mind and you're going to let a wave of relaxation just wash over your whole body. And then, as the number 10 fades out of your mind, you're going to open your eyes and close your eyes and picture the number nine, inhale and exhale, let another wave of relaxation wash over you as the nine fades away. You're going to open your eyes and close your eyes. Do that all the way down to zero.
Once you feel really relaxed, you're going to go into your mind, your brain, the center of dopamine production, the center of dopamine production, the place where your logic and your thinking reside, and you're going to ask that part of you to share any messages, any guidance, any thoughts, anything that wants you to know about the question that you have, about the area where you're stuck or confused or foggy or whatever. Then listen for as long as you'd like to and then leave that door, open that door that leads into your brain's knowing, and invite your brain to keep sending you any wisdom or messages or knowing over the next 24 hours, maybe while you're sleeping, maybe when you first wake up, maybe anytime. Just let it know I'll be listening, keep sending me some messages. And then move down into your heart space and open that door and invite your heart to offer you anything it wants you to know About the area where you feel stuck, confused or foggy or triggered. And then do the same thing. Leave that door open and invite your heart to keep sending you guidance and messages.
Let it know you'll be listening, maybe while you're sleeping, maybe when you first wake up, anytime, and then move down into your third brain, into your gut, your intuition, your instinct, that center of knowing related to serotonin. You've got the dopamine and the oxytocin messages. What about that serotonin message? Is that brain going to tell you? What does your gut have to tell you? Let it offer you any knowing about that area that you want guidance for and then again invite it to continue to send you knowing messages.
In the next 24 hours you'll be listening and then, when you're all done listening and you've received those messages, let yourself feel like you want to stretch and write them down. Write them down. In my experience, the messages are clear and succinct. They might be full images, they might be all kinds of information, but what I love about this specific tool is that it tends to boil down into a sentence for each one, for the mind, the heart, the gut tends to be pretty clear. Message and write it down so you can keep it in front of you, so you can let it guide you and then tell me how it goes.
All right, I love you all. That is what I've got for you this week and I will see you next week.
Thanks for hanging out with me, friends. If you like today's episode and you want more of them, please take two minutes right now to subscribe and give me a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Then send this episode to a friend. See you next time.
