Rewire Your Brain: Break Free from Stress, Anxiety, and the Default Mode Trap

Ep 106. Unlocking Conscious Awareness: How to Rewire Your Brain for Mindfulness, Focus, and Emotional Resilience

Did you know that your brain is often operating on autopilot, using what neuroscientists call the default mode network (DMN)? This state, where we function unconsciously through habits and routines, helps us become more efficient—but it can also trap us in cycles of stress, anxiety, and negative thinking when life gets challenging.

As we master tasks and improve our efficiency, our brains require less active effort—but here’s the catch: during stressful moments, the DMN becomes overactive, turning our thoughts inward in an unproductive and often self-critical way. This neurological pattern can cause us to misinterpret external stimuli as threats, feeding cycles of chronic stress and emotional burnout.

The result? Our minds predict negative outcomes, triggering feelings of learned helplessness, emotional fatigue, and even depression.

But there's a powerful tool that can shift this cycle instantly.

By practicing a simple peripheral vision awareness technique—a method grounded in neuroscience and mindfulness—you can interrupt these patterns. This technique trains your brain to be present, silences the “monkey mind,” and activates sensory awareness that can induce a phenomenon known as time dilation—making you feel as though time is expanding, giving you more space to breathe, think, and live.

This isn’t just self-help jargon—it’s a brain-based strategy for resilience, performance, and emotional clarity.

Step out of autopilot. Train your mind. Experience time differently.

Take care—and walk well.

Transcript

Welcome back folks to episode 106 of the Running Man Self-Regulation Skills Project Podcast with me, your host, Dr. Armando Dominguez, PhD in Health Psychology, licensed professional counselor and an adjunct professor at a local community college. And what I'd like to discuss today is going to be kicking off of a prior podcast that would discuss the default mode network, the DMN. This is something we've come to become more of.

aware of since the advent of fMRI neuroimaging that points directly at what happens to us whenever we are bored. So boredom is not a bad thing, but it is a real thing and it is something that can be the dog in all of our days when we're trying to do things. But also it speaks very deeply to not only mindfulness, but also what we would call time binding. And we will also discuss what it is that

boredom really is often, it is a very deep sense of self absorption. So from this point, we'll launch the discussion. We discussed the default mode network. This is something that our body goes into automatically whenever we are not intentionally doing something or actively engaged in something that would be anything from a sport activity to work this sort of thing. But whenever we are in that in-between state, whenever things aren't necessarily of a higher state,

or high pressure per se, but one, wherever we're just doing what we do on our day to day, whenever we're in the routine of the groove of things that we start to actually become more efficient. We actually stop being so deeply cognitive that we have to attend to every detail and rather we allow our prior memories and our experiences to kind of drive our autopilot, so to speak, what it is we call our day to day life. Now,

Whenever we're looking at time, the luxury of time, whatever we feel in the sense of the elapse of time, I started then and I'm here now and going that way towards the then, then we have kind of a linear sense of time passing and the experience of it in our body, so to speak. So there are definitely a couple of details within that that aren't often spoken of, but that sense of time passing, that's elapsed time.

armando (02:49.977)
not time on a clock where you measure the little second hand going tick tick tick across the clock. Now, what does this have to do with self-regulation is a question that we're going to be answering because it does have a lot to do with whenever we falter at regulating self and become much more anxious. whenever we are stressed and we are focused on those things that are around me and how uncomfortable they make me feel if I'm

particularly anxious and we're dealing with anxiety just for a moment about this, then everything is very self-centered, very self-centric, not selfish per se, in the sense of taking from you and keeping from myself in the perspective of looking at things like theft that I'm just trying to be greedy and taking from me, but rather in the self-awareness of the impact of what my environment has rather, and how it in effect impacts me and limits me if there's some...

point of egress that I need to make so I can feel safe and be safe by being over there instead of here. And also the crux of time wherever we have time crossing in the sense of how long does it take to get from here to there. And if I do this again like last time, I'm not going to get there and I'm going to get stuck here. And the right now is wherever I experienced the discomfort of the suffering. So there is some complexity to this. whenever we are in the...

the perspective of watching this default mode network where we're literally doing nothing. Even whenever we would think that, all that extra effort I put into things that I'm doing, it's exhausting and it burns fuel, lots of glucose getting burnt there. It leaves my mind tired, not only that, but it leaves my body tired. It leaves me emotionally trained. That physical sense of being washed out a little bit, then you would think.

at least a reasonable person would think, I would assume, and that is an assumption, you, and I generally don't make it, but for the sake of argument today, that somebody that is within a reasonable range would say, I would like to have some of that low-key, low-energy expenditure that doesn't tire me out, where I can just kind of be, just kind of, maybe just vibe silently, if you will. And what's really funny, not the comical sense, but rather, in the curious sense,

armando (05:10.67)
Is that the more we seek to silence ourself the more our mind turns to ourself we become much more self-centered self-centered Self-focused and we tend to pay attention to those things that are impacting me It's hard for us to really step into that sense of silence or that state of centeredness that being Or our mind truly quiets now there are methods that i've taught in this podcast before and i'll reiterate a couple of them today that actually get us to silence that

Cognitive signal, but we have to start thinking now there is awareness and there is visual Cognitive process that goes on but it that is not necessarily Me generating thought about things and judging things and have an opinion. That is the cognition I'm talking about Versus the level of thought that comes up naturally that just bubbles up like like little bubbles of water in Let's say some sparkling water over solar and they just kind of pop it to surface

That's kind of how thought is. We don't attach and this is kind of what Zen pushes towards or meditation practices push towards to where we know that our neurology, our mind is made to create thought. And those kind of little thinkings, thoughts, those processes of making sense of things by way of our brain are the little thoughts that bubble up. But whenever we just kind of watch them, when we observe our thought, whenever it's us in the backseat,

And our neuronal structure, our brain, is generating thought, and that's our mind. Whenever we are thinking about things, that's the higher cognitive mind, mind you. And yes, I'm being punny. But whenever we're watching our thoughts, whenever I'm thinking and I'm watching the thinker, or I'm observing the thinker, the inner observer, the deepest inner observer, that is the truest sense of me. This is what we're talking about whenever we're talking about...

natural level of silence and quiet and pretty soon whenever the brain realizes that it's not under threat the default mode would network and I would probably say that that is where our ego might arise from in the sense that if I'm not thinking I am not and the Cartesian error, the Descartes the I think therefore I am is saying that by perception and adjudication and naming labeling and all that process

armando (07:36.966)
is where that sense of I arises. But yet whenever I'm not doing that, do I exist is the question. So if I stop thinking, do I cease to exist? In quotes, I in quotes, and in a moment, yes. But that doesn't mean erasure. It does not mean dissolution. It does not mean decimation in the sense that it's gone and no longer existing. What we realize that our cognitive understanding of who we are exists as a thought process that I

self-sonus that we call me is something that is part of that process that I'm in the process of thinking and adjudicating and enabling labeling. I am active, I am. Therefore, I think if I've been thought of in the sense of me thinking things, then I exist somehow. And that may sound like a whole lot of banter, but it's leadness in the direction that we're going. But the default network is this.

that whenever things get too silent, it very quickly starts to want to attach onto things. And attachment is a term that has to do with me feeling like I must label and name. And this is where we start getting into luxury of time. Do I have time to do that? Especially whenever there is a mental exhaustion that exists or comes up or is a result of my process of being moment to moment. And there is time.

but the luxury of time rises whenever we have less of that bored activity of me thinking or filling those spaces. One example would be, and this is to use the peripheral visual exercise that I taught early on to silence the mind. Now, this is using your peripheral visual focus in the sense that you're sticking your arms out as an exercise to your sides and you're looking forward and you should be able to wiggle your fingers at arm's length.

You're pretty much level with your shoulders on the front and you should be able to see them wiggling without Glancing left or right with your eyes or even turning your head left and right to look and then if you push your arms back Of course, you know to what's comfortable don't injure yourself if you have a shoulder issue You can do with your arms bend if you bent if you must but be able to see without looking down to look at Your fingers and you'll see in the truest sense

armando (09:58.107)
You'll be in mind-sight. You're not just going to be taking in information by looking at it and focusing it, because this is an unfocused attempt of awareness. But in the process of picking up your environment in that sense, you don't have to know what it is that you're looking at to be able to give it a name. You just have to see where it's at. You don't have to know what it is. What is something that arises from judging it, naming it, labeling it, and categorizing it? And...

As a result of perceptual visual interpretation of signal from our environment, we're attentive, we're in the moment. We're truly in that Zen state where we're ego-less even for a moment. And if you become more aware of just that general out-focused, diffuse or soft-eyed state, you realize there's less thinking going on. Your mind is so much more quiet. But not only that, you're not time-binding.

You're not trying to find a reference point in the future about what's going to happen based on my prediction and expectation. And you're not worrying about what happened yesterday that could come up and hurt me again and ruin my future and making my uncomfortable right now really uncomfortable. Which means it kind of robs me of the ability to not only immerse myself in experience, but also experience the right now and all its loveliness, assuming everything is safe. And if my assumption of safety is met, I should, and I am using

The term should not be guilt to shame anyone, but me, myself, Armando, should be able to sit in that silence and enjoy it, so to speak. Not necessarily like eating an ice cream and saying, tastes good or that feels good, anything like that, but rather just being able to enjoy the silent, the quiet, that stillness, so to speak, that arises from being in that peripheral state. So that is one technique to help in regulating self.

by using the external, the most external part of your brain, your eyes, as a neurological trigger to help silence the mind. It's really good for helping picking up movement really, really quickly, but it's also a really good precursor to doing a meditative state without necessarily having to close your eyes. You can leave your eyes in that sense of soft focus and just kind of half close your eyelids and you can still see out and you can get into that dreamy, relaxed state much more quickly that way.

armando (12:22.373)
and your breath will naturally regulate itself just as long as your posture is nice and comfy. And this is an exercise to do sitting down, mind you. It's not dangerous to do standing up, but if you want to get the fullness of the experience of the relaxation, sitting down is best. Meditation bench, one of which I have, lets you cross your legs nice and comfy and your hips are higher than your knees, that's okay. You can use a cushion, sitting in the recliner, or even in a regular table.

type share that you'd have in your kitchen and That's what I'm sitting on right now as I'm speaking to you and that works just fine, too But it's just a matter of knowing what to do and that will make the difference in where you are and settling that down now my question about the luxury of time is when is it that we feel that time is moving faster than I can actuate and do the things I need to do and

The answer is often whenever I'm feeling a sense of stress or I feel like there's a deadline and that could be very anxiety inducing. Often what we consider anxious as far as the symptoms of discomfort where our heart rate increases and we have that pressured breathing or feel like people are looking at us and our eyes start darting around us or having elevated levels of arousal often that's brought on by thought, not exclusively. Now there are some medical symptoms.

that might actually be precursors to actual anxiety due to maybe a thoracic injury, due to trauma to the body or the chest. Having had prior heart surgeries can lead to your heart rate running a little higher than normal. But also, the body's been compromised if you've ever had any thoracic surgery. That could actually lead to some of that as well, where the body feels like it can't lessen any particularly straight level of stress.

that may come up, can't attenuate the stress because you feel like your body can't move as well. Whenever we have joint or back issues, that makes us feel like we can't run from consequence and circumstance. We may not have it spoken to us that way, but we definitely feel it in our body. We definitely feel like we're somehow less than or unable to rise to the occasion, so to speak, or even escape the occasion if need be. So those are some very silent but very uncomfortable states.

armando (14:42.279)
that tend to occur as a result of injury that will be very anxiety inducing to some. Especially if you have things you have to deal with that have nothing to do with your physical state. If you can't walk or you have a bad back, that sort of thing. But once again, these are our modern variants of survival stress, wherever we're the bologna sandwich or things we're trying to eat us. And technically the stresses we deal with are still inducing the same stress chemicals.

That would be like the glucocorticoids, the cortisol, and also other neurochemicals that are sympathetic, tone-increasing neurochemicals that get us ready for fight-flight but also make us very uncomfortable in our day-to-day life. Now, time-vibing isn't always a bad thing because we can also remember very good things in our past and also kind of expect to move towards things even though there may be unknowns involved, things in the future that could be expected.

And often we have this anticipatory excitement that releases pleasure chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, anandamide, this sort of thing. And they give us that sense of wellness. And that's okay. These are things that we resource to make ourselves feel good. Now that doesn't mean you're fooling yourself into thinking that things are good whenever they're not, but rather the thought process of thinking of something.

that we're moving towards that we like or a challenge that we want to meet that could be exciting. And it can also encourage us to move and develop in areas that I haven't developed yet. It could be a new skill in the martial arts. You can learn how to do a new block, new punch, new kick, or a new form of new methods of doing footwork, this sort of thing, and start trying to develop skill. And you can always look forward to when you can start to apply those.

And that's always kind of not really a fantasy, but you can call it that visualization of a future skill and being able to gain some sort of competency with. And that's motivating because often even within that, and mind you, I want you to pay attention to this. There's a belief quality that I can do this or I can achieve this. And on top of that, there's this anchor to that in the future that says, I want this. And those things can become great motivators and overcoming

armando (17:03.483)
not only obstacles that may come up, but also to encourage one to become much more committed to doing things and actuating things and realizing things, becoming self-realized in certain areas, whether it be a cognitive skill or becoming a professional in your area of expertise or becoming more expert at being able to move physically, whether it be sport or martial art, this sort of thing, and a number of other things, or even art or music for that matter.

Not that those are lesser things, it's just that I'm not an artist or a musician. But I just want to mention that those are all very skill-borne things that are time-dependent. That over time, one does gain skill, and the motivation is the thing that draws us forward, pushes us forward sometimes, pulls us in the sense because we throw that anchor out there and it's kind of heavy. And if we really like that idea, it might actually give us that sense of being compelled in that direction. So that's kind of a nice picture to use, if you will.

moving us in the direction of fuller development of said skill. Now, why is this important to self-regulatory skills? Because often much of what we do to self-regulate is in the immediate moment when things are becoming dysregulated, if it's a discomfort or something uncomfortable. But also those are skills that we use to deal with what happened in our momentary past in the immediate now. Now we can self-regulate forward like the example I just gave, because often if we like something,

Or often if we don't like something, there is a belief that is born within that as well. And it parallels the development of a sense of feeling and a judgment of this is good, this is bad, I don't like this, or I really do like this. And we will move forward in that sense with that expectation of arriving at a certain outcome, even if we have the facts for it, good or bad. Often it's in the more negative sense that we tend to employ that.

wherever we're moving forward kind of have expecting things to go to hell in a hand basket. Whereas we can also expect that hand basket to be a pot of gold, so to speak, and reaching and acquiring that sense of not only accomplishment, but also skill and development that's going to be long lasting that once earned I'll be able to keep. It won't be just a fleeting thing leaving me with bad feelings and disappointment and a broken heart. Instead, I might have fulfillment of a skill.

armando (19:28.177)
growth as a person and development of myself in the direction that I would become the person that I want to become that I'm supposed to become if you will, if you take on Maslow's idea of becoming and self-realization. So in this vein, the ideas that I was speaking of today have to do not only with time binding that arises from self-regulatory skills that are necessary for dealing with

let's say stress that are life engendering, life endangering, but also the stressors that are life engendering of course aren't always negative, but they're still stressors, do you stress? But the life endangering stressors are the ones that may bring us about to generate time binding that may not be so positive. But time binding can be a good thing. It can be helpful once again anchoring towards a future goal by our desire and our want. It can also be a negative thing.

in that we anchor ourselves forward to negative expectation and we find it hard because it's so intense, the emotions are so intense that we tend to believe that things are going to come out to a negative outcome and that can be very disappointing and disheartening. And I just want to point out that we can use those in either way. The thing is we don't want to use them for the negative, but we certainly do want to use them for the positive. But I want to let you know that it's the same thing and it rises out of our default mode network.

The more we become practiced at something, the more it takes over and the more we start thinking of self. But when we can get that balance and move in the direction of flow and we can start using that sense of not needing to prove that I am there by having to name, label and judge, but rather just experiencing and immersing and becoming mindful, if you will, that I get closer to flow and more able to look into the future with a more positive aspect of self.

moving in that direction as much as a very positive belief of self and being able to accomplish those things. So sounds complex. It's really not, but these are definitely things that we all carry and have within us. And we tend to need to drop our sense of knowing and having to know and time binding, worrying about time moving forward and how I don't have enough time and realize that when I'm more mindful, I have an expansion of that sense of time to where it seems to dilate and it feels like I can do more.

armando (21:51.089)
And that is one little secret, that little last bomb or what I would call tool to do more in a positive sense that I'm going to drop right now. And this is when we're more mindful, I can actually visualize better. I can actually see what I want to do, but also the drop away of time or the slowing of time in the way I see things allows me to chop things up into little pieces, so to speak, where I can add more and do more activities within the same amount of time.

that I would have done if I were doing something negative for the same amount of time wherever things seem to drag on and I can't do enough. But yet in a more positive sense I can do more. I can do 50 or 60 little things in 60 seconds that otherwise I can only do three or four within 60, like three. And that is a great leveraging of what we perceive as time that often is just a perception that we can dilate if we need to. We can even contract to wherever we make negative things go away more quickly.

And we'll talk more about those in a future podcast, but just something I want to drop as a hint. So dilation of time is perception of time based on belief that rises from a state, whether it be positive or negative. But if you use the positive, you can do a whole lot more in that same amount of time. And it feels like the field good goes on forever. Sometimes nothing wrong with that. That's leveraging the flow state using a couple of neurological techniques. kind of like that.

And it definitely speaks to the sense of time binding that arises out of our default mode network. Whenever we're trying to relax in our mind, won't let us go. too busy thinking stuff. Let's not think so much and let us just observe those thoughts and let them bubble up just like little bubbles in water and try to relax and be in that half eyelid closed state in the peripheral visual state and just sit and perceive. Listen to music while you do it without lyrics. Just

music and it will give you a very deep relaxing experience but also a very refreshing sense of my mind is back and I can do more whenever I need a quick rest. Just some things to think about on this late Sunday evening and I certainly appreciate you listening and thank you for your time and what I'd like to do is tell you they're still once again moving towards interview format here soon and if you go to YouTube please like, subscribe and share and I am available this podcast is available the Run Man podcast is available.

armando (24:13.943)
on all podcast platforms and I'd love if you would share it with people and let people know about it. I'd like to hear from you and if you have any feedback for me or just want to say hello let me know how you're doing send the email to running man get skills project at gmail I'd love to hear from you and take care walk well