E149 | Belief Shapes Biology

What if the story you tell about your body is the blueprint your biology follows? We dig into the powerful, measurable ways belief shapes hormones, inflammation, sleep, and body composition - especially during perimenopause and beyond. Rather than preaching toxic positivity, we connect the dots between neuroscience and daily choices: how the brain’s threat detection drives cortisol, why expectation is biologically active, and how identity loops lock in either decline or progress.

We unpack research behind motor imagery and visualization, where fMRI scans show that vividly rehearsing movement lights up the motor cortex and nudges performance in the real world. From the famous counterclockwise study to the everyday placebo and nocebo effects, you’ll hear how perceived reality can tilt dopamine, endorphins, immune function, and even pain. Then we get practical with a four-step ritual that turns mindset into physiology: present-tense identity writing, five-sense visualization, emotional amplification, and one immediate action that stacks evidence for change.

We also break down midlife hormone dynamics—progesterone’s earlier decline, estrogen’s wild swings, and how chronic stress magnifies hot flashes, belly fat, and sleep disruption. You’ll learn why mindset doesn’t replace labs, HRT, lifting, or protein targets; it primes the terrain so those tools actually work. Expect clear tactics for nervous system regulation, strength training, protein optimization, sunlight for circadian rhythm, and boundary-setting that protects energy and reinforces identity.

If you’ve been bracing for the worst, consider this your pivot from defense to offense. Subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share this with a friend who needs a new story. 

Then tell us: what identity are you rehearsing tomorrow morning?

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Transcript

Welcome And Framing The Topic

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on the Rejuvenating Health podcast are solely those of the speakers and are intended as such. Please consult your trusted healthcare practitioner for medical advice. Let's go, girls.

Belief As Biology Not Toxic Positivity

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Welcome back to the Rejuvenating Health Podcast. I'm Laiken and I'm joined today, as usual, by Lindsay. And today we're going to be talking about something that's a little bit different, but I think that you guys will like it. It's it's a little bit woo, but it's definitely grounded in science. But we are talking about why your body responds to belief and what you believe. And before you go, like, you know, clicking forward and fast forward or going to a different episode and thinking, like, oh, it's just about positive thinking. Stay with us because it's not just about positive thinking. Because I'm not someone that prescribes to or subscribes to toxic positivity. Um because what we're gonna explain today is neurological, it is hormonal, and it is measurable too, most importantly. But we want to speak to women who feel like you know that they're constantly playing defense with their health, right? Like you're always bracing for weight gain or brain fog or joint pain, or you know, you're anticipating all the negative things that come with menopause and aging. And um, if you feel like you're trying to outrun the decline. And so we want to switch that to more of an offensive stance today and what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Yeah, and I'm not saying like ignore your labs, ignore your science, or that there is there isn't any underlying medical condition, right? It's not about bypassing that, but it's about really understanding that your thoughts and your beliefs have a huge impact on the results that you're gonna get, right? It's understanding that your brain is upstream from your hormones and your nervous system is upstream from inflammation. So your beliefs actually like shape your physiology. And once you understand that, you'll realize that you have more agency than you were told. I mean, I don't know how many women the women that lay it down in in our program and say, I'm giving this all to you, I trust you, I believe this is gonna work, are the ones that get results. The women that fight us tooth and nail that don't change. Yep, that don't believe it's gonna work, they don't get results.

unknown 2:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

And it's not because we talk about this all the time, right? Like if you're stuck in the story that says nothing is gonna work for me, and you're just going around plugging and playing and trying these different things to collect more evidence that things are not gonna work for you because you're doomed, right? It's not gonna work.

Conditioning Women To Expect Decline

Threat Response Cortisol And Inflammation

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Exactly. And I'm like, you're a lot of Lou and I'm a lot of science, and I'm not one of these people that like, if you manifest it, it's gonna come true. But there is some of that that is that is true, right? Like, so let's kind of dig into why, right? Let's start with how women are conditioned to think, because we're all conditioned to think this way, right? We're all conditioned to think that by the time we hit 35 or 40, our metabolism is gonna slow down and our hormones are gonna crash. And it's just a part of aging. Wait until you're postmenopausal. So we're expecting deterioration to happen, right? And here's what's wild expectation itself is biologically active. So when you expect decline, your brain sees threat, right? And your brain's primary job is survival. It's not longevity, it's not vitality, it's survival. So it activates our favorite word, cortisol. So we get those inflammatory pathways happening, we get that sympathetic nervous system tone. And over time, we get those body composition changes. We get that insulin sensitivity, we get that declining thyroid function. Even how our ovaries communicate with our brain changes.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Yeah.

unknown 4:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

And I mentioned this before, right? It's like at the root of it, like women really are amplifiers. And so anything that we necessarily put our intentional focus on is going to be amplified, but that goes towards negative things, not just positive ones, right? So if we're putting a lot of our focus on all the things that we're hoping don't happen, even though we're hoping they don't happen, you're still focusing on the negative shit, right? And so we have to, we have to reframe that. And I think what's really unfortunate is like how many women come into our world already feeling defeated. And that's before we even take a look at any of the actual internal data, right? So they're already bracing, they're already saying things like, you know, I know this is, it's all just downhill from here, or, you know, my mom went through this and it was terrible, or I guess this is just what happens when you get this age. And the that resignation, that feeling of like, well, like screw it, you know, I can't do anything about this, that's really powerful and it's not in a good way. It's going to ultimately take you in a direction that you don't want to go and it's going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Inner Critic Identity And Self Talk

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yeah, because your brain doesn't separate that from biology, right? If your internal dialogue is constantly, I'm breaking down, your your body's going to respond accordingly to that. Not because you're weak, but because your nervous system is adaptive. It's saying, Oh, we're entering a decline. So let's conserve energy, let's store fat, let's reduce muscle mass, let's literally slow down the metabolic process. So your body is listening to that repeated messaging. And I don't, this doesn't just apply to your body, right? Like I don't, I know you've heard the saying, like, if there's a will, there's a way, right? How many of you women find a will to make it through college and get the education you want? To buy the expensive house that you want, even though you probably can't afford it, to buy the new car, the new person. Like, if you want something bad enough, you will yourself into it and you manifest that it's gonna happen. But for some reason, no one can do that with their body. It's wild.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yes. And well, and it's because, like you said, of all that conditioning, right? Like, if all we're focused on, this this is where the inner critic comes in. If so much of the focus on your body is criticism and negative feedback and the lack of what you don't have or comparison to somebody else, right? Then how is it that you're going to get the thing that you want, right? Because we're not, you're not standing in the mirror talking to your body and being like, oh man, I really appreciate how strong I look today. I can't wait until I can do this, or you know, I really, you know, I recognize that I don't feel the same way that I used to about this part of my body, but I know what I what's realistic for me to get back to because I've seen it before, or you know, things like that. Like we're not using that type of positive language when when we're looking at ourselves and the way that we treat our body and the way that we talk to ourselves about our body. So it's like, well, what what are your expectations, you know?

Neuroscience Of Visualization And Performance

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So let's kind of dig into some neuroscience here. We're gonna get a little science-y. There are multiple functional MRI studies showing that when someone vividly imagines performing a physical activity, like lifting weights, their motor cortex lights up almost identically to when they actually perform the activity, which is kind of wild to me. Um, in some studies, people who only visualize strength training increase muscle mass by like a measurable percentage. Not through physical lifting, just like neural rehearsal, which is mind-blowing when I read this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Yeah, it's nuts. Now, like we're talking about um, we're not saying that you can like yoda your way to increase muscle mass, right? Like you're not gonna sit around meditating and like envisioning yourself lifting weights and then not have to actually go lift the weights. This the these studies were done on like Olympic athletes, right? These are people that have a, they've built over time a muscle memory that helps them understand what that stimulus feels like in the body so that they can clearly envision it. It's similar to like when they um when they will envision completing a competition a certain way, right? Or being able to do a certain movement. It because they've done it over and over and over again and accumulated all of these reps over time, that pathway is ingrained in the body. And so it's triggering that muscular response the same way that it would if they had done it because they've got so many, so much practice in it, right? And it's super empowering because what this does mean for us for the lay person is that like rehearsal does matter and the internal story that we tell ourselves matters a lot.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

I mean I see this all the time in the gym and myself, right? Like I can power clean 125, like it's nothing. I put five more pounds on the bar and it's like I there's no way I can't do it. Like the mental like when weightlifting, the mental blocks that you get just by like a number. Like if you if Matt just put weight on a bar and I could not see it, like I could lift so much more than I thought I could.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

But the mental aspect that's happens with my training clients all the time. Like when we're if we're doing any type of like uh testing day, right? Like, I just won't tell them what's on the bar. Like if there's like I'll load the bar and I just won't tell them what the weight is. Even if they ask, I'll be like, I'll tell you afterwards. Let's just see if we let's just see what happens, right? And then it alleviates that mental block, and then they're not doubting themselves before they even approach the barbell. They're just trying.

Placebo Power Of Sensory Imagery

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yeah. I mean, like visual visualization is is wild, right? Like it's emotionally vivid, it's sensory rich, like your brain activates certain pathways like your motor cortex, your cellar bellum, your autonomic nervous system, even hormonal cascades like your hypothalamus, which regulates hormones and responds to perceived reality, not just your objective reality. So this is why when you imagine something embarrassing, like your face flushes, right? When you imagine something scary, your heart rate increases. Your body doesn't wait to confirm it's real, it just reacts.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, or like you'd be reading like a really intense book, right? Like a really a book that you're really into, and there could be like, you know, um a scene that's building a lot of anticipation, and like you will, your heart will salt your race, your body will start to physically respond to what's the input is coming into the brain.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Yeah. So imagine if you said, I'm strong, I recover easily, my body adapts beautifully, repeatedly, like with emotion, if you truly believed it over weeks. Yeah, that can become a psychological input for you.

The Counterclockwise Study And Identity

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Yeah. Um, I want to talk about uh a study because this one is like really, really interesting and kind of blows my mind. So let's talk about the 1980s counterclockwise study.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Yeah. So there was this Harvard psychologist, Ellen Langer, who conducted what's called the counterclockwise study. Men in their 70s and 80s were taken to a retreat designated to replicate 1959, so 20 years earlier than it was, right? And they were told to think that they were younger. They were immersed in a younger identity, they spoke in present tense like it was 1959, they discussed sports games from that time like it had just happened, like they lived like they were 20 years younger, essentially. And after just one week, their grip strength improved, their posture improved, their gait speed improved, their memory improved, their vision improved, their arthritic symptoms decreased. And like it was even said the independent observers rated them as looking younger. So they weren't like getting motivational speaking, they were actually getting an environmental identity shift, right?

Loop Of Identity Behavior And Biology

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Yeah, yeah, like their bodies essentially adapted to who they believed that they were in that environment. Now, this is this is full immersion, right? So it's like we're not going to be able to replicate this, but it does show the power of the mind of like, oh, this is my perceived reality. And so my body is going to reflect that perceived reality.

Perimenopause Stress And Cortisol

SPEAKER_00 12:33

But I mean, you kind of think about it now, like if you stick an older individual in a nursing home, like they deteriorate really quickly because they're surrounded by people who are deteriorating, right? Like your goal should be to stay out as long as you can just and surrounding yourself with active people as you age, right? Like if your identity really regulates your behavior and your behavior regulates your biology, and then your biology reinforces your identity. Like it's a loop, right? And most women in midlife are stuck in that loop of I'm aging, I'm slowing down, I'm losing. And that mindset and that loop really needs to be shifted.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah. And it won't work, like we said, like you have to believe it and it has to be with emotion and intention, right? Like it's not gonna work if you just tell yourself stuff just to say it in the mirror. That's why I always say, like, when we when we craft any type of affirmations when I work with clients, it's like, does it set off your bullshit meter? Right. Like it should be something in your words that you believe based on evidence that you've collected, right? And it can be something small, again, meet yourself where you are, and then you can progress it from there once you gather more evidence, but it has to be something that you believe. Otherwise, it's not.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah. So let's kind of bring hormones into this, right? So during perimenopause, your estrogen is like a wild roller coaster. It fluctuates up and down all over the place. And we know that progesterone starts declining in your late 30s and it declines first. So when that progesterone declines, we come a little bit less resilient to stress, a lot of it less resilient to stress, right? If you layer chronic psychological stress on top of that hormone fluctuation, you're gonna amplify hot flashes, sleep disruption because of cortisol spikes, belly fat because of cortisol and insulin, mood instability because of neurotransmitter shifts. So now imagine adding in that catastrophic belief of, oh my God, this is the beginning of the end. Yeah. Right? Like here it comes, I'm entering perimenopause. Like that sign that belief signals a threat, which is gonna make your symptoms even worse because it's gonna increase your cortisol even more, which is gonna disrupt your sleep even more. Like it becomes a cyclical pattern.

Nocebo Vs Placebo In Midlife Health

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah. It's like um, you know, all those studies where they show where people that are in a car accident, right? Like if one person is either inebriated or asleep or whatever it is, and they are just lax, but the other person braces for the impact. The person that braces for the impact is the one that suffers the most damage to the body. Yeah. And it's like this is not saying that mindset is a replacement for hormone therapy, right? We're not saying that at all. It's just it's modifying the terrain and the environment that the hormones are operating in to make sure that they can help you and like you're giving them a fighting chance, right? Because if you want to incorporate HRT, but the whole time you're telling yourself, like, well, nothing works for me, or this, you know, it's just all downhill, or my body's not gonna respond to anything I've tried, then it's it's only gonna go so far because it's not an ideal environment for it. Your your body is defending that story essentially.

Vision Crafting Step By Step Practice

SPEAKER_00 15:51

And this is why some people go on hormones and they don't work. Like women, even if you can go on HRT and do go on HRT, benefit enormously from this nervous system regulation and identity work. Like whether you can or can't do hormones, whatever, this everyone should be doing this work in this belief system as you're entering perimenopause because it becomes even more powerful, right? Because now we can lean into like strength training, which we know stimulates growth hormone. We can lean into protein optimization, which we know preserves our lean muscle mass. We can lean into getting more sunlight, which we know stabilizes our circadian rhythm. We can get into stress regulation, which we know protects our progesterone. Like visualization can reduce that inflammatory tone. And so mindset stuff is not woo, even though some people really think that it is, it's it really does affect your physiology.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Yeah, it like if if you feel like you're stuck in this place where you just, you know, keep ruminating on all the things that don't work, right? You're not gonna lean into the things that we're talking about here, right? If I'm determined that, oh, well, this is just how it's gonna be, I'm not gonna put in a lot of effort into strength training. It becomes that all or nothing mentality, right? And it's like the these women that have decided already that their story has to be like the other women in their family, that they've seen a negative, you know, season out of perimenopause into post-menopause, or that have decided that like, well, it doesn't, you know, all of this isn't worth the effort. Well, then it then it simply won't be, right? Because you're not going to be able to get the response out of it that you're hoping for. You have to be, the time is going to pass either way, right? So you might as well adopt the belief that what you're doing is worth the try and put in a solid effort behind it and be willing to acknowledge small improvements along the way, as opposed to deciding that, well, this isn't gonna work. So I'm you're gonna look for evidence that it doesn't. And then the minute that you don't get the absolute result that you want, then it's like, see, it doesn't work. And then you're just reinforcing that negative belief.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Yeah. And another way that you can think about this is the placebo effect, which we all know is uh it's real. The placebo effect is real, and I'm sure that someone has you've experienced it somehow. Like it's literally why they do studies, right? So the placebo effect can increase dopamine, it can release endorphins, it can reduce pain, it can improve immune function, it can improve motor function and Parkinson's disease, it can ex it can have changes in neurochemistry. And then there's the nocebo effect as well, which is the opposite. Placebo is like positive, nocebo is like negative expectation. So we kind of expect those symptoms to worse, worsen, right? So if you're going into this plan or whatever you're doing, saying this supplement isn't gonna work, this diet isn't gonna help, my body's broken, like it's not gonna work. That belief is a biochemical, right? It like when you like people get placebo effects from pain medicine, right? Like, oh my pain is suddenly gone, because you thought that you took this pill that was reducing your pain and it's magically gone. The opposite can happen as well.

Small Wins Coaching And Playing Offense

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Yeah. So let's get tactical with some vision crafting, right? So this is not like vague affirmations, it's structured identity rehearsal, essentially. We're going back to like what um what that visualization process was when we were talking about Olympic athletes, right? It's it's internal rehearsal. And so a ritual would look like step one, present tense identity writing, right? So you're gonna write down, I am a woman who, and not don't say like I will or I hope, right? We're not, um, we're staying in the affirmative, in the positive affirmative. And so you can be, you know, I'm a woman who lifts heavy, I'm a woman whose metabolism responds, I'm a woman who navigates menopause empowered, right? Your brain is gonna encode present tense differently than it will future casting or ruminating on past. So stay in the present affirmative. Then the next step would be a five sense visualization, right? So you're gonna close your eyes. What does your posture look like as this woman, right? We're embodying the identity of this woman that you are saying, I'm a woman who and start the blank. What is your posture look like? What do your shoulders feel like? What does your stomach feel like when you move, right? Like how do you feel internally? What does your morning routine feel like? What is what happens during that morning routine? What rituals do you put in place? What is around you in your environment? What are other people noticing about you, right? The more sensory detail, the more neural activation you're gonna get. So down to like, you know, what does your morning breakfast smell like, right? Like as much detail as you possibly can. And then step three is gonna be an emotional amplification of this. So feeling gratitude, right? Emotion strengthens that neural wiring, thinking about like we're firing the neurons and then we're wiring them to make them really, really strong. So without emotion, it's gonna stay very cerebral, very intellectual. With emotion, that's when we get grounded into the body. That's when it can get encoded, right? So we want to make sure that we're adding emotional amplification. How do those things, those sensory responses that you're you're writing down or that you're narrating for yourself, that experience, how does that make you feel? What's coming up in your body around that? Do you feel grounded? Do you feel warm through the chest? Do you feel um strong and solid? Do you feel you know calm? Like how does it feel in your body? And then step four is an immediate identity action, right? So then you take. One action. This is where we collect that evidence to support that new narrative or that identity, right? That looks like lifting the weights, eating 30 grams of protein at my next meal, going outside and getting morning light if that's a part of the ritual that you're envisioning, saying no to something that's draining your energy if you're somebody that's talking about, you know, being boundaried in what's important to you or your personal self-care. And so we're looking at identity, identify the identity, find the action, embody it, and then that's your reinforcement, right? Collect that evidence. And these can be little things, but you do it over and over and over again. And this can be a daily rehearsal. And just because it doesn't go according to plan one day doesn't mean it's all for naught, right? You just reinforce it for the next action. And then the more of these little evidence, um, the more proof that you can stack up right over time, then eventually that identity becomes the new default. And then from there you can expand. But what I see a lot is that women will say, like, oh, I want to go from here all the way to here, and I want that to be the identity tomorrow, right? And it's like, okay, we can work our way there. But again, what's the small action step that you can take today, that you can guarantee you can take today, and then collect that win to gain that momentum as we're working towards that new identity. That's really important because that's what's gonna continue to build that belief over time. And it's not gonna set off that like negative mindset, that inner critic that's like, see, I told you you couldn't do it, right? We need to continue to be the proponent of I am doing the thing that I'm saying, that I'm feeling into. I am feeling the emotions that I envisioned, right? All of that's happening in real time.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yeah. I mean, I was talking to the enrollment team today um just about we have a lot of people that come to us, they're like, I just want labs, like I don't need coaching. And and you know, maybe they think they don't because they have the workout routine down and they think that they're eating the right way. But almost every woman that we work with does not have this mindset aspect down at all. And that is why I believe that everyone needs to work with a health coach. Working with a health coach does not mean just they're telling you how to work out and eat. It's working through all this crap. All the crap of you playing these games in your head, right? Like you should be playing offense, not defense, right? Like we should be having positive thoughts and working on that. If you're trying to do this on your own, you're gonna keep beating your head into the wall, right? You're gonna keep waiting for your labs to worsen. Playing offense is like training your nervous system daily, rehearsing vitality, strengthening your muscle, feeding your body intentionally, regulating stress, like choosing your identity consciously. Like your brain is listening and your body is responding to that. And so if you're trying to do this on your own, you're gonna beat yourself into the wall because you're gonna keep doing the things that you're doing that aren't working.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah. And you're gonna keep identity, like you're gonna stay in the identity of basically of being a victim of your menopause symptoms or being a victim of, you know, your genetics or, you know, your um your physiology, right? Like saying everything is working against you. And you are actually in partnership with your physiology. So you can start this as early as today or tomorrow morning, right? Like it is simply a matter of deciding on what you want to believe, making something realistic as far as an action step that works towards that belief today, and then taking the action step and then recognizing it and celebrating it.

Calls To Action And Closing

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Yeah. Like your mind literally controls everything. So again, I I mentioned this, like you make happen what you want to happen in life, right? Because you manifest it and you believe it. So do the same thing with your body. So share this with someone who needs to hear it. If you would like to work with us on how to do this, let us know. But for real, give us a five-star review, share with everyone, it really helps, and we'll catch you next time.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

See you next time.