How Meditation Changes Your Brain and Your Life!

What if a single practice could change your brain in the most magnificent ways thus enhancing the way you experience life itself? Most people think meditation is about calm or focus, but that’s only the surface. The real change happens deep within your brain itself.

In this talk, you’ll discover the neurological benefits of meditation. Science can now measure and prove what mystics have known for centuries. When you hear this, you’ll never see your mind—or your potential—the same way again.

If you’re curious about the brain and ever wondered what’s really happening during meditation, this is your invitation to find out.

For FREE Resources, Book Link, 1:1 Mentoring, KB’s Self-Love Merch Shop and more: https://www.linktr.ee/kristenbrownauthor

Transcript

Kristen: 0:00

My dog is so funny. He won't come in my office with me. He just sits outside the door the whole time I'm in here. It's the funniest thing. I don't know if he's guarding me, protecting me, just wants to be near me. Who knows? Welcome to Empower Hour with KB, a podcast for the sacred rebels and the courageously curious, the ones who crave growth, long for deep transformation, are willing to do the inner work to get there. Here we dive deep into self-discovery, emotional liberation, and soul alignment. Through honest conversations, you'll be reminded of your inner wisdom, your worth, and your power to create meaningful change from the inside out. If you're ready to break cycles, reclaim your power, and embrace your authenticity and confidence, you are in the right place. And if you are listening to this talk from another platform, please know that you can come over and join these conversations live and per potentially, if you should choose so, to come up on my stage as a guest/slash co-host. We would love to hear from you. My name is Kristen Brown. I'm a personal development and self-healing author, healer, and mentor. I'm the author of the international number one bestseller, The Recovering People Pleaser, and the host of Empower Hour with KB podcast. Through a blend of lived wisdom, neuroscience, and universal truths, I help people rediscover their true worth and reclaim their personal power. My motto is simple: all change happens on the inside first. And when you change your inner world, you change your life. And this topic today is all about changing your inner world. This is one of the best tools that we can use. And it's gotten a bad rap throughout life, right? Where so many people are saying, I can't meditate, I can't meditate. I'm here to tell you, beloveds, you already have, and you probably didn't even know it. But making it a purposeful practice could really change your life in the most meaningful ways. And that's why I titled this talk, How Meditation Changes Your Brain and Your Life. Because I was just going to talk about the brain science of it, but of course, I'm going to share personal stories about how I happened upon meditation and what it did. But also the brain science behind it, because I didn't know the brain science behind it. I had no idea that I was changing my brain when I started to meditate. But it started to show up in my life in the most amazing ways. And the funny thing is, is I kind of felt it might have been a little bit about meditation, but I was going through so much at that time that I didn't really attribute much of it to it until when I did the research and actually got the goods on the brain science. I was like, yep, of course. Because like I say so many times on here, there's so many things that we learn and wisdom we acquire and information we acquire, but we kind of think we're making it up. We're not really sure if it's a thing until someone or something or some book, some podcast out in the world. Oh, I hear my cat. Okay, I hope my son can get. Okay, hold on, you guys. My cat is one cat's not liking the other one. One podcast or whatever you listen to gives you the information, and then you think to yourself, thank you, Bertie. Then you think to yourself, wow, that's a thing. This is a thing. What what I found out, what I've discovered on my own, is actually relevant. We are powerful beings, everyone. We're so powerful, we don't even know it. We're only tapping into this teeny tiny portion of who we truly are. And so meditation is one of the gateways to getting there. So I started to meditate out of sheer desperation. This was when I was going through my tsunami, and it was horrible. Most of you know the story. I was about to be broken homeless with three children in tow. I was divorcing a very difficult person, and of course, he didn't want to support me in any way through the divorce, so it went to court. We had mediation, and that only got us so far. So it had to go to court. I'd never been to court. I'd never walked into a courtroom. Well, that's wrong. That's wrong. I did one time when I was young for something inconsequential. But at any rate, no, that's wrong again because I did walk into another courtroom when I had to give a victim impact statement for my best friend and daughter who were killed by a drunk driver. But anyway, this was not in this type of way where I was going to be on the stand. I didn't know anything about this. I'd only seen things from movies. And at that time I had been practicing meditation. Well, let me back up. Let me back up. So I was going through my tsunami, and it was horrible. I had lost a bunch of weight. I couldn't eat. Everything tasted like cardboard. I could barely even drink water. I mean, it was, I would sit and just stare into space for hours. I was just frozen. I was absolutely petrified about my life and what was becoming of my life, and that the well-being of the most precious, precious things in my life was going to be threatened, which was the well-being and welfare of my three babies. So it was bad, you guys. It was bad. But I remembered the days of kundalini yoga. My window washer at the salon that I owned at the time. He is a yogi and he kept telling me, come to my kundalini, come to my kundalini. So I went and eventually he built his own practice and I went to that place. But I remember leaving one time after kundalini yoga, and I felt like I was floating. I felt like there was not a care in the world. And I remembered that during this most heaviest, horrible time in my life. I remembered, you felt this way once before, you can feel this way again. So I hit the floor in my bedroom every single day, laid flat on the floor, put a pillow under my head, and I did slow deep breathing until my heart started pounding and or I fell asleep. And I did this sometime for two hours every day. I had the time during that time. Man, it started to change my life. I started to see things again. I thought I was just calming my my pounding heart. I didn't realize what I was actually doing. So fast forward to the court date, and I'm sitting outside in the chair, you know, outside the courtroom, and my lawyer comes up and I, you know, said hello, whatever, and I leaned my head against the wall and I was meditating. And he looks at me and he says, Are you are you okay? And I just kind of cracked one eye and looked at him and I said, I'm meditating. And he said, Oh, okay. He didn't bother me after that. Well, I ended up getting on the stand, and of course, his my tsunami ex's lawyer was very aggressive. Very aggressive. And he was just hammering me, hammering me. And I remember I remember this so clearly. It's almost like almost out of body. But I was so clear, I just listened. None of his craziness, none of the weird things he was accusing me of, none of that was registering. I just answered the questions. And at one point he kept pushing on one point that I didn't understand. And I and I looked at the judge and I said, I don't understand what he's asking me. And the judge looked at my lawyer, or his the other guy's lawyer, and he said, Move on, next question. Like, leave her alone. The next day I come on the stand, same thing, and the guy was completely gentle. Little did I know that my lawyer knew his lawyer. And later my lawyer said to me that once he met me and saw me and put all the pieces together about his guy, he was like, This is not okay. This is not okay. But what it also did was it allowed me to become more clearer, more calmer, less emotionally reactive. And I was able to hear my inner guidance more clearly. We all have inner guidance. We're all connected to source. We are source in human form. We have this inside of us. We're always connected. By the way, we're always connected to each other too. This is why when you judge your neighbor, you're judging yourself too. You're hurting yourself. Just a little sidebar to consider. And I remember the one thing that was the most clear to me is that it started me on my healing path. And I'll tell this story because it's it's just an indicator. There's so many stories I could tell you guys. Oh my gosh, I feel like I'm trying to rush through this to get all these stories in. Let me calm down. Calm down, KP. Okay. So I remember one time I was standing in my room at my mother's house because my mother and stepfather took me and my three children in. It was a really beautiful thing. It ended up being great. We were there for five years. During this time, I was still meditating like crazy, like crazy, like crazy, trying to build back my hair clientele. So I had space when the kids were at school and stuff. And I was just standing, maybe I was sitting on the foot of my bed, just kind of looking out the window. And this voice came into my head and said, How did your previous partners treat you? And because it was so clear, and because I was in a calm place, I didn't even think where the voice came from, what it was. I said, Well, I was disrespected, I was used, I was not protected, blah, blah, blah. I went through the whole list. And then the voice right afterwards says, How have you treated yourself that way? And so then in my all in my head, I was like, Well, I disrespected myself like this. I didn't protect myself here, I didn't honor myself here, I didn't care for me here. And then the voice said, Would you be your best friend? And I said, Yes. And then it said, why? And I started to list off all these intrinsic values about me. I'm kind, I'm generous, I'm sweet, I'm thoughtful, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then it said, Well, why don't you treat yourself that way? I promise you, all of this came through my meditation practice. Because I was calm and clear, and my brain was silenced or more quiet than it had been. And I'm gonna tell you guys, I have it written down here, I'm gonna tell you the brain science of this because it's mind-blowing how in alignment it is with my experience. That was the defining moment that started my college of Kristen. The defining moment in my life, it was like two o'clock on a Wednesday. I couldn't even tell you the date. I don't pay attention to dates much. As you guys know, I never know what date it is. I did when I was doing hair. Maybe there's a little rebel in me now where I'm like, you know, I was so stuck to a calendar that I'm like, I don't even want to know what date it is. That started my whole journey for me. Why don't you treat yourself that way? That's when I vowed to remain single and celibate for quote unquote, as long as it took for me to feel differently, to me to feel like I broke through or learned something. Again, didn't even know what I was aiming for at the time. So these are some of the ways that meditation is helpful to us. Of course, it reduces stress, of course, it reduces cortisol, but there's so many other ways that it helps us that are almost undetectable unless we know what we're looking for. Like I said, I did not know what I was looking for. I didn't know, all I knew is I was trying to call my nervous system because I was a hot mess. I was a wreck. And I could tell you stories upon stories about what that looked like and how, oh, it was just such a difficult time. I look back to it now with not the same emotions about it, but with the emotions of compassion. Like that, my poor little thing, she was a mess. Her life was rocked. She was scared to death. She didn't know what end from the other end or how this was ever going to work out. And look at me all of these years later. All these years later. And I believe without a shadow of a doubt, that meditation was the massive catalyst for my healing journey. I even had, and I won't get into details with this right now, but I even had what is termed mystical experiences. Things happened to me, sometimes conscious, like awake and conscious, sometimes during meditation, that these things would happen that were undescribable. I mean, there are describable, but the way it felt to me is I knew this was just for me. And I didn't really tell anybody about them because they were so personal and they were so impactful. But I knew that they came because I was meditating on the regular. Now, fast forward to today's time. Am I graded at 100%? No. But do I return to it all the time? Absolutely. I meditate as often as possible. Now I had had the topic for this conversation prior to going to the gym. And as I was walking on the treadmill of the gym, contemplating meditation and how I wanted to present this and how I wanted it to look and feel and to be clear. What were the points that I wanted to make? My daughter texts me, and I can't remember the question she asked me, but it was something about meditation. And I messaged back and I said, That is so funny, honey. I'm literally on the treadmill pondering my thought, my talk for the today. And so we had a back and forth conversation, and she had asked me, Well, like, what do you do? Like, how, what is your practice? And they said, Well, right now, y'all, because I'm all about ownership, right now, I'm uh attempting to do it all day long. And I'll tell you some of those ways, but I want to do it all day long because there is a thing called walking meditation as well. So it's not always we can hit the pillow or hit the bed or hit the floor and do the things, but we can do it in other ways as well. And I told her here's how. Shockingly, surprisingly, but again, on my journey, I knew that meditation was doing something, but I didn't really understand how much it was doing. I didn't really understand the full impact of what it was doing. So there's many, many times that I just would drop the practice because life was good and everything was fine. And then it took me getting into another nervous state or anxiety type state where I was like, I gotta meditate again. I gotta, you know, so it was kind of like that for me. And every time I do that, I go, Kristen, you gotta stay with this. You know, this is your medicine. You know this is the cure. You know this is where the magic spot is for you. This is it. And then I get going on my life again, and then I kind of fall off of it. So again, grace, grace, grace, grace. We're just human. We're doing human things. There's nothing wrong with you, forget things, what have you. It's just part of the whole experience. And I remember, and then I tap into it again. So when, of course, when I started, like I said, I remembered the days of kundalini yoga, which is very, very mild, slight poses. It's not anything crazy. It's not like Hatha yoga or any of those other ones. And the whole thing is breathing. You do two types of breathing: long, deep breathing or breath of fire, which is sort of like a panting breathing where your belly goes in and out, in and out, in and out. The whole thing about breath, oh my gosh, there's so much science that can back up why paying attention to our breath and deep breathing is beneficial to us. So put that aside and just know, even if you have a breathing practice, by the way, a conscious breathing practice where you're sitting up, you are meditating because you're highly focused on your breath. You're breathing in and you're breathing out. You can't focus on the type of breath that you want to do and be somewhere else. It's impossible. We have to be in the present moment. So that is a form of meditation. So I started to do my long, slow, deep breathing. At that time in 2010, I was not doing the breath of fire by myself. I was just long, slow, deep breathing, long, slow. I breathe in as far as I could get, and then I do that extra, you know, you just get that top of it, and then I would breathe as I exhale through my mouth as slowly as possible, and I would count how long it took me to exhale. At first, because I was so stressed out and anxiety ridden, my inhales would be like, you know, like hardly anything. And the exhale would be like four seconds. But as I started to do it with each practice, pretty soon I was all out of these full lung expansion breaths. And these exhales sometimes were for 20, 25 seconds. So at first it always looked crunchy and weird, but as I continued the practice in that particular setting, that particular moment, I always got into the deep. It always ended up there because we tend to hold our breath when we're stressed and everything constricts. So this is opening up pathways, it's doing all kinds of things for us. Like I said, focusing on our breath is amazing. And there's all kinds of breathing practices. You can look them up everywhere. My new favorite is box breathing. I've been box breathing when I lay in bed at night, right before I fall asleep. And at first, I'm gonna be honest with you, I was afraid of what my husband would think. I would afraid that he was gonna be like, Are you stressed out, honey? Is there something wrong? And so I told him, I'm gonna be doing box breathing just because I'm, you know, calming down from the day and everything. Nothing's, I'm okay. All right. But, you know, sometimes we're afraid of doing these things because of what other people will think. We gotta get past that, everyone. We have to become our own saviors. We gotta stop caring what everybody else thinks. Like when I sat outside the courtroom on that chair and my lawyer walked in, walked up, and there I was meditating. All right, we gotta get past that. Who cares? And he didn't say anything weird. He didn't judge me. He just goes, Oh, okay. That's all he said. Yes, there might be people in your life that go, oh, you think you're all that or whatever. If they're make fun of you in some regards, just let it go. They just don't know yet. They just don't know yet. That's it. You have a little bit of intel that they don't have yet. You have had your experiences have culminated to this place where you know that this is beneficial for you, this works for you, and here's what you're going to do. So anybody who is making fun of, joking, whatever, there's just ignorance involved here. We don't need to judge them because they're on their own path, and you do not need to attach to their judgments of you. So there's slow deep breathing, there's breath of fire, there is just, oh gosh, I'm trying to think of mine. There's so many, you guys, so feel free to make up your own. One that was inspired by Dr. Joe Dispenza is a lot of his guided meditations have you picture nothingness. I remember back in the day when I was very, very young, struggling through some emotional something I was going through. I remember the only way I could get myself to fall asleep, and this was again, I'm in my teen years. I was because I was coming up with things with myself. It's like, how do you get out of your brain? How do you stop thinking? And so I thought, well, what would make me stop thinking? Well, if I was a pilot flying an airplane in pitch dark. So I would focus on being a pilot and looking out the window. At pitch dark. And I had to focus. Boom, I'd be asleep every single time. So I started to do these things very, very young without any guidance, just trying to, like I said, I'm always looking for solutions. I'm always looking for somehow to feel better. And that was one of the things that I did. So when Dr. Joe's meditations, you know, some of them, not all of them, have picture yourself in nothingness, and there's a whole way that he goes about this. That's one of my newest things right now, falling asleep is I used to do counting with my breaths. That worked for a while. And I was like, I'm not really loving that anymore. And I picture nothingness, just nothingness. I'm just, I'm looking actually at whatever I'm seeing behind my closed eyelids, whatever that looks like. You know how sometimes it's different. It'd be like super dark blue, or it's got little uh geometric shapes in it, but super, super faint, or whatever it might be. I just focus on that and either I focus on that or I add a mantra to it. And one of my new favorite mantras that I've only picked up probably the past year and a half or so came from my friend Andy Dooley, who's a law of attraction teacher, mentor. He's the brother of Mike Dooley, who does Notes from the Universe. He taught me, well, he sent it in a newsletter, and so I tried it. He said, so hum. S-O-H-U-M. So my inhale is so, and my exhale is hum. And I fall asleep quickly every single time. What so hum means is, and it's translated from Sanskrit, I believe, it means I am that. That's what he said, I am that. Remember, sometimes in languages, translations are weird, right? My mom was uh natural bilingual, she grew up Spanish speaking, and so when she would try, she would say certain things in Spanish to us, and I'd say, What does that mean? She goes, There's really no translation for it. So what I'm understanding with I am that, because it is Sanskrit, is this I am all that is. I am part of all of it. I am one with the universe. That's how I interpret it, but it is does stand for I am that. So that's one of my other things. I've done walking meditations where I walk and I just smell. I just focus on what I'm smelling, I focus on what I'm hearing, I focus on my feet, what they feel like in my shoes, I focus on how my muscles feel in my legs as I'm walking, and I stay focused. And if I peter out and go over here into thinking about something, I just pull myself back in. We all, our minds all wander, you guys. They all wander. So this is about discipline. This is how disciplined are you going to be? How much do you want to feel better? How much do you want to be clear and less emotional and allow for source to communicate with you? How much do you want it? How much are you done with your anxiety? When we want something a lot, we tend to do the things that are going to support the things that we want. And nobody can do this for us. So when people say I can't meditate, I go, not literally. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. You already have in some capacity. You just didn't know it. One day when I was living at my mom's, again, this is through that hairy scary time for me. I was anxiety ridden like crazy. I was back in a salon at that point. And I remember leaving for work and just being jittery all over the place. Just anxiety, you guys. Heart pounding, nervous, handshake, just so much anxiety. And I said, holy moly, I cannot show up to work like this. I can't be good for my clients like this. I can't make good decisions because there's hair problems that you need to solve. What color do I use? How many ounces of this? What volume developer? There's a wall of color, you guys. 4.6, 2.8, 11.5. You know, I'm seeing there's a wall of color. And here's one thing that's interesting. I never ruined anybody's hair. Like never made a big mistake with someone's hair. And I've asked myself, why? Because I didn't know anything. You know, you only know so much when you start doing hair. There's a world to know, let me tell you. But I was calm. Okay, those first 19 years before all this shenanigans, I was calm. So I would just, I would literally go back to the dispensary and stare into space and just feel. And then I would get a little nudge. Use use 5.65. Okay. Only use one ounce of that, use two ounces of this. Sometimes I'd second guess it, so I'd step back and I would feel again. Does that feel right to me? Yes. So we can use guidance all day long, every day. But we can't do it if we're stuck in survival mode, if we're anxious, if we're living in fear. And this is one of the major reasons why meditation is so important because it gets us out of those spaces, which I'm going to share. Huge sidebar just to tell you, on that way to work that day, I took the back roads instead of the main streets, and I said, look at every beautiful tree you see. Point out every beautiful tree you see. Within five minutes, my nervous system was calmer. By the time I got to work, I was baseline. And the drive, main roads were probably 12 to 15 minutes back roads, or maybe 15 to 17, wasn't that much longer. But that's all it took. And then I did things like walked on the treadmill holding on, and I'm not recommending this if it's not safe for you. You got to be your own judge on that. I would close my eyes and I would hold onto the handles of the treadmill, and I would go left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. I just go left, right, left, right, left, right. So when I say I was meditating all day long, I was as much as possible. That's what I told my daughter. She goes, All day, mom, how'd you do that? Because I wanted to be calm. I wanted to be calm for my children. I was a mess. I was a mess. I was like out-of-body parenting. It was weird. I was like, this is not okay. So again, because I wanted it so much, I was willing to do what I needed to do. I also meditated while sitting in the pickup line in my vehicle at my youngest daughter's school. So I would lay back in my chair and I would focus on sensations in my body, the sun coming through the window, my breathing, how my hands felt, loosening my ponytail holder if it was pressing into my head. If I didn't like my position, I would oftentimes put my feet up on the dashboard. I really would. I would just say, this is now. So practicing the pure present moment is meditation. All is well is one of my favorite mantras because we tend to be scared. We're scared humans. We're scared a lot because of various reasons to do with the brain that I've talked about a lot on here. We just get scared. We have a thought, and all of a sudden we're scared. So I would just say, all is well. All is well. All is well. Over and over and over again. I would also do it in appointments. Let's say I went to a dental appointment and I had time in the waiting room, lean my get head against the wall, and I would just focus on my breathing. Wouldn't change my breathing. I would just say, in and out, in and out. Oh, it's kind of fast right now. Oh, it's slowing down, in and out, in and out. So get creative with your meditations, you guys. Don't think it's supposed to be perfect, especially when you are highly stressed or in a very fearful place. It's going to be discombobulated. Just know that. It's just like learning anything else. You have to build muscle in that area. Um, there are still times when I am just slightly discombobulated and I find my mind going, but I just pull it back in again. And I've kind of trained my body to this point that when I'm meditating, I'm meditating. Like I can get into that space fairly quickly, but I use all kinds of practices. And if one is not working, I pull up another one. All right. So just try different things. Trust yourself. You are going to be guided on this journey. Remember, we're connected to source, and source wants to help us be connected to source. This is very human words. It doesn't look or sound like this in that world, in that, in the ethers, I guess I should say. So if we ask for guidance, we will get it. How do I do this? What's a good idea for me? But it's important that we calm everything down so that we can hear the guidance. So creating space in your life, limiting distractions. Oh my gosh, I'm not on social media for very long, but I find myself like, okay, sit down, boop, open Instagram and click on the Reels section and see how I can be entertained right now. And I've noticed that, and I'm like, Kristen, you're not addicted as in you have to do it all day long or anything like that, or you get you know sucked into the abyss for hours. I don't do that, but it's still there. It's it's become a habit. So I've noticed that even though it's not for long periods of time, it's still, I'm still filling gaps, I'm still distracting. And so I just had that realization earlier this week, and I thought, okay, so my new focus is limiting distraction. My daughter said she got an app on her phone. I don't know what it's called or anything. She got an app on her phone recently because she really loves her social media. And this app, if you want to go on social media, you have to go get a card. It's like probably has a QR code or something on it, or you tap your phone with it, I don't know, to open that for you. And you can set a timer on your on that app. Is this crazy, you guys? Someone's clapping, someone's liking that. I don't have my glasses on. Um, but you can set a timer. So after that five, 10, 15 minutes, it closes it for you. And then you have to go get the card again. See, so it's you're having to make the choice to go do that rather than something else. I've also meditated while vacuuming. I know it's crazy. I remember when I was writing the recovering people pleaser and I was stuck. Like I'm I'm forcing myself to write it, sitting down. Okay, this is my writing time. Nothing's coming, it wasn't flowing, it wasn't whatever. And I said to myself, you know, this isn't working. What do you want to do? And this was accidental. I didn't know this was gonna do this. And I said, well, you know what? I really want to go vacuum the carpet in my room. That's when we had carpet. Now we have floor with a big rug. But I was like, I need to go vacuum the carpet. I want to go vacuum the carpet. So I went to the vacuum and I'm vacuuming and I'm paying attention to the lines, and my brain always goes, Oh yeah, suck up all that dirt and cat hair, and you know, this is what my brain's saying. So I'm really, really focused on this vacuuming in the middle of vacuuming, boom, inspiration hit. And I said, Oh. And then I sat at the computer and busted out, I don't know how many pages, and I thought, okay, that was interesting. I got out of my thinker and the inspiration came forth. Fascinating, isn't it, you guys? Okay, the I see the listener's lounge has a lot of claps and love coming up, so I am gonna dip in there. VA, Michelle, hi sisters, Pamela, Lisa, Sarah, Terry, let me scroll down some more. Doobie was here. Janet, Jason, Dinga, Cher, another Kristen spelled like me because we're tens, not tins. That's what I tell people. That's the way to remember how to spell my name. David. Okay, I'm gonna stop right there because there is hundreds of people in this room. But thanks, guys. I have seen your claps coming up, and I wanted to stay in the flow state so I didn't stop myself and um look at them. Plus, I had my glasses off because I've told you guys that if I keep my glasses on and I stare into space, my eyes end up burning at the end of the day. So I'm trying to put them on, put them off, put them right now, they're on the top of my head, and then I drop them back down when I need to read something. All right, we're gonna get into the fun part of all this. All right. I hope that this was a great introduction for you. It was pretty long, but I really hope that it inspired you in some way to understand like, wow, this there's something to this, y'all. There's something to this. KB's not blowing smoke in my ear. There is something to this. Oh, thank you. I just got a back channel message from Sarah said I'm really loving this. I need to get back to meditation again. Yay, I know. I know, Sarah. It's it's the same. Same, same. That's all I'm gonna say. All right, so now we're gonna jump into, and I researched this. This is not coming from my brain because I would not remember all of these things. I looked, did a little research before I got on today, so that I could really give you the appropriate information. Let me take a sip of water. Okay, maybe that was four sips. Meditation changes the brain in measurable, structural, and functional ways, especially with consistent practice. Neuroscientific studies using fMRI and EEG scans reveal remarkable benefits for both the brain and body. This is it, you guys. This is meditation is medicine. Isn't that wild? All right. The first thing that it does is it what they call thickens the prefrontal cortex. That's that part, that's that part behind our foreheads. What the prefrontal cortex does is governs decision making, focus, self-control, and awareness. It changes because meditation increases cortical thickness, especially in long-term practitioners. The result is better attention, improved impulse control, and improved emotional regulation. Wow. So cool, isn't it? Better attention, improved impulse control, and emotional regulation. I had that experience. Here we go. We're dipping into the fear part of the brain. It shrinks the amygdala. It shrinks the amygdala. Remember, the amygdala is responsible for processing fear, anxiety, emotional reactions such as fight flight. The amygdala is constantly scanning our environment for a threat. The threat back in the day used to be the T-Rex or the Saber-toothed tiger. The threat now could be anything that your brain recorded as traumatic or dangerous. So it's going to scan, scan, scan, scan, even if it's not true. If something even mimics something in our environment, like you saw a red car and something in your past was associated with a red car, the red car could be going a completely different direction, but it's a red car. So your brain goes, the amygdala goes, red alert, red alert, red alert, red car. Before we even register, we see a red car, we're like, now we're in fight, flight, freeze. That's when that happens. So that's what the amygdala is doing. And it will continue to do this all throughout our lives. However, we can quiet the little baby down. We can quiet it down. We can shrink it through the practices of meditation. Regular meditation reduces amygdala volume and activity. And the result is less reactivity to stress and reduced anxiety levels. I also feel it can create space for us between a stimulus and a response in regards to triggers, traumatic triggers. So the trigger may arise because I was meditating so frequently when my current husband went out of town one time and didn't respond to our lights went out in our house, blah, blah, blah. Long story. I've told it before. I think it's in my book. I think I actually wrote about it in the Recovering People Pleaser. I don't remember. But I called him or I texted him. I think I texted him first. He didn't answer. Texted him again, he didn't answer. And then I called him, he didn't answer. My brain went, this is exactly what tsunami X did to you when he was cheating. That's exactly what he did. Now, I didn't blow up his phone. I didn't start attacking him, anything like that, which I may have done in the past, maybe many, many, many years ago. I believe this is because meditation. So when he called me back, I asked questions because I was still in that state, not attacking Lee. I'm like, Where were you? Why didn't you answer the phone? Because my brain's got him off doing something horrid. And he answered me back. He said, Do you need me to come home? I said, No, no, I'm I'm I'm fine. But I am triggered and I'm gonna hang up the phone so I can regulate myself. He didn't know what any of that meant. He was like, Okay, weirdo. Hung up the phone. I sat on the edge of my bed for 10 minutes and said to myself, Doug is not Mike. Doug is not Mike, Doug is not Mike, Doug is not Mike, Doug is not Mike. I just kept saying it over and over and over and over again because he's not somebody that would do that, what the ex did. And then I was fine. But here's what I'm saying. When I do believe it's because I created space and everything slower and the amygdala was smaller. Maybe, maybe the screaming in my head that something bad is happening, maybe that was quieter. But it also allows me to regulate emotions. I felt it, but I wasn't knee-jerk responding to it. I was able to have a conversation. Where in the past, I might have said it to somebody with snark or with sarcasm or attack, like, where have you been? Oh, sure, that's what you were doing. I don't believe you. You know, it could have, it could have looked something like that. You sure you guys weren't out doing this and that? It could have looked different. But because my meditation practice was so consistent at that time, I believe it helped me to manage my way through that that didn't hurt Doug, that didn't create a problem with us because now he's being wrongly or falsely accused. Does that make sense to everybody? I was unpacking that real time. I don't think I've ever said that out loud before. So if that made sense to you, please send up some claps so I know that you guys, or any emoji, you want to. It takes a second, but I'm sure people, oh, maybe it didn't make sense. Where's my claps, people? Okay, here we go. There's a little bit of a little bit of a delay. Okay. All right, quite a bit of people. All right, you guys are getting it. Thank you. I appreciate that. I did get a DM. Let me read that. Uh Jennifer said, I trim our bushes by hand and find it to be meditative. Yes. However, I have not actually meditated while doing it, as my front bushes all need trimming. Okay, the side two. I'm going to practice actually meditating while doing it. Great topic. KB. Thank you, Jennifer. Yeah, just try new things, guys. Just try new things. But I I do I love doing yard work too. I don't do it in the summer here. And actually, we have a landscaper that comes now. But I did not mind it back in the day. I actually liked it because it was very hands-on. It was very earthy. I was very, very focused when I was doing it. It was just a calm place for me to be. So yeah, you guys, just do stuff like that. Okay. The next thing that it does for us is it strengthens the hippocampus. The hippocampus is responsible for supporting our memory formation, emotional regulation, and learning. How it changes through meditation is that it increases gray matter density in the hippocampus. Crazy, right? Meditation. Meditation. The result is improved memory and emotional resilience. Do you see a running thingum of emotional resilience throughout the first couple ones that I already read? Yeah. It calms us the heck down, guys. That's Kristen Brown's layman turns. It calms us down. And I've often said it creates space between the thoughts and space between the thoughts and our it's a very hard to describe space. I just know that everything I don't want to say slowed down because it wasn't like slow motion. It wasn't like that. It's everything was tempered. It was like someone someone put the governor on the fast engine. You guys know what governors are? They're, I don't know, they make the engine not rev at high RPMs or something like that. It's like the governor was put on. It's like salve was put on. It's like someone turned the volume down. It's like the level of intensity went away. If you think of yourself, like when you're really, really, really cold, and then you grab a heated blanket and how it just sort of soothes you, it's kind of like that. It creates this softness, this more flow, a more presence, a more awareness than we had before. And if we've not experienced that, what I'm saying right now to you, if you haven't experienced that, it might sound like a foreign language. But I'm banking on that those of you here, the Sacred Rebels, the Courageously Curious, the ones that want deep transformation, you've had these moments. So when I'm saying them, you're like, oh, I remember that's how I felt when I was on vacation, or the time I was at the beach, or when I walk in the forest. Like there's some point in your life where you've had that, you probably didn't know why. Okay, could be just something that was going on or that you were doing naturally and organically. The next one is it reduces activity in the default mode network. The DMN. The default mode network handles mind wandering, self-referential thinking, and rumination. The default mode network is typically where this is not, I didn't learn this from a neuroscience. It's me putting my own spin on it. It's that monkey brain, it's that negativity bias, it's that that negative self-talk, it's all those things that don't feel good and help us, helps create stress, anxiety, fear, doubt, those type of things. Meditation quiets the DMN, reducing mental noise. Again, scientifically proven through fmri's and EEGs. The result is more presence, less overthinking, and less mental chatter or monkey brain. So when I was reading these things, I was like, oh my gosh, yes, because I stopped doing these things to myself. I I it didn't happen as much, I guess I should say. It was just like it just sort of faded away. Like again, repeating this for the 18th time in this conversation, I didn't know that. I was only doing it to calm my nervous system. That's it. But then in hindsight, I realized, and this is when I decided that in meditation is key, key, key to this journey. Because the more we meditate, the more we're going to learn. We're gonna calm this area of the brain, we're gonna activate this area of the brain, we're gonna create space in between, we're less emotionally reactive. The default mode network is quieted down. Do you see how all this works congruently together? This is why I believe I moved through my healing practices or why they were so beneficial to me and why I started to see change so quickly is again in hindsight because I was meditating all the time. And you don't have to meditate all the time, you guys, like I was. Like I said, I was calming my nervous system. I was a wreck. So it's not like I'm saying, you guys, all day long, every day, oh, you have to, and make you feel all types of stress and pressure. You give yourself five minutes in the morning. Neil Donald Walsh said, five minutes in the morning spent with yourself and source in a quiet moment can set the tone for your day. I've done it. Are you kidding? I don't take people's word for it when I hear things and don't take mine, by the way. When I hear stuff, I'm like, okay, that sounds good, that feels good. Well, let me try it. Let me let me see if this works for me. And then I do the thing and I'm like, holy moly, there's something to this. Just like with the mantra so hum. Use this mantra, best mantra ever. Really? Really? Okay. I'm gonna try so hum. The the so hum mantra blew my mind how fast that worked for me. I was like, what? Okay, so keep that in mind that if you hear things and learn things out there in the world, just put them into practice. I remember Marian Williamson saying that once when I was listening to her lecture on a course in miracles, and she's someone asked the question because she would do this every Friday night in the Saban Theater in LA, and then she would record them and then post them, and then people would ask questions in the audience. They'd pass around a microphone. And I remember someone asking her something. I'm sorry I don't remember the direct question, but her response was, Oh, don't take my word for any of this. Try it yourself. And I thought, yep, that there's really something to that, you guys. You don't have to believe me. Just try it. But give it the good college effort. Because people will say, like, I sat one time for one minute and tried to meditate and it didn't work. And then for the rest of their life, like, no, I can't do it. Okay, come on. Give it some time, give it some effort, and maybe start simply, like I said, walking and saying left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Or what am I smelling? What am I hearing? What am I tasting? What's the temperature outside right now? Okay, you can do it in all different kinds of ways. All right. Number five, improved connectivity between the brain regions. What? Improved connectivity between the brain regions. The connections between the brain regions enhance communication across different parts of the brain. So cool. How it changes. Meditation increases connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and emotional centers. Interesting. First time I read that. The result is greater emotional intelligence and a balanced mood. Do you see how emotions is really kind of a running theme through all of this? Calm. Calm. Everything is subdued, I guess I should say, rather than slowed. It's subdued. It's tempered. The next one is it changes the brain wave patterns. It alters the speed and frequency of brain activity. Meditation boosts alpha, theta, and gamma waves linked to relaxation, creativity, and insight. So I'm just gonna go through the brain waves briefly. Delta is sleep. The next, you know, awakened, or they get bigger, I guess you would say, is theta. Theta is either deep meditation slash light sleep. And remember, these are it's like a spectrum. So there's deep delta, and then it goes up, and then it enters the lower theta, and then that goes up, and then it it bleeds into low alpha and then goes up into higher alpha that would bleeds into low beta and then goes up into high beta. Okay. And then gamma, if I remember correctly, don't quote me on this. Gamma is like the like you are tuned in, tapped in, you are connected to source, mystical experiences are happening, craziness. I remember Dr. Joe correctly, and I haven't researched this yet, because high beta is stress and thinking and planning and solutions and rushing. Okay, that's high beta. So you would think gamma would be down lower than delta, but if I remember correctly, I shouldn't even say this because I don't know this for a fact. He said it's above beta. So it's like the really highest brainwave frequency that you can be in is gamma. Isn't that crazy? But you it's not in the stress, it's in this other realm. I think I'm correct with this because they do so many brainwave scans. And when people enter that gamma, so let's picture a brainwave scan, and it's got peaks that are going up and down, sort of like a lie detector would look, right? And there's they have blue ones and they have pink ones and other colored ones, and they're just kind of going, there's lots of space between them. When someone's in gamma, it's almost the entire screen is filled with color. There's like no gaps and big triangles, it's just like scribbling. And so when other researchers and brain scientists first saw this, and people they because people had on electrodes, is that the right word for their heads? And they were doing their meditations. When other researchers saw this, like, oh my God, this person is this is bad, something's happening in Dr. Joe's like, nope, just watch. Just watch. And then I think they said this part, I'm not sure about watch the person. I think he said they're about to blow or something, but not in a bad way. I don't remember his wording. But you would see big fat tears come down the people's faces because they entered the space of unconditional love. That's crazy. You gotta research this yourself, you guys. Go listen to Dr. Joe. It's wild. It is wild what this stuff does. And let's see what else. So it boosts the alpha, theta, and gamma waves linked to relaxation, creativity, and insight. And the result is deep calm, mental clarity, and expanded awareness. And the next one, I think this is the last one, is it enhances neuroplasticity. What is the neuroplasticity? I've been talking about this a lot on here. It's the ability for our brain to rewire, to change. This is where we're changing belief systems. This is where we are, yeah, belief systems. I'm gonna stay in that vein for a minute. You know, the belief system that I'm not worthy or I'm never gonna make it, or no one likes me, or whatever. We're in some belief system that's hurting our life. But if we focus enough on the belief and you add emotion to it, I am worthy, people love me, I am successful now. And you add emotion to that, what happens is the more you do it, you will start firing in a different area, and then all the neurons that were connected to the old neuropathway will come onto this new one, and this will become your dominant neuropathway. So you will start to believe your new belief system will change. Neuroplasticity, you guys, who knew? So it enhances the brain to rewire and adapt and stimulates the neuroplasticity, creating new neural connections. And this is why much of Dr. Joe's work, he is having people, he does a lot of guided meditations, he picks the music, like so that it the frequency of the music does something to the brain. I mean, this is all very complicated. Um, the research that goes into it, not on our end, we just buy the meditation and do the meditation. But the people that are healing themselves through this is mind-blowing, but it was all researched, so it's kind of bridging the gap between spiritual and science. It's it's fascinating to me, always has been. And what was the other point I wanted to make with that? Um Yeah, so he plans all these things and helps people to get into these states where the body, okay, ready for this one, starts to repair itself. He says our brain is a pharmacy of chemicals. Our brain is a pharmacy of chemicals, and when we tap into it through meditation, through the calming of the nervous system, one, getting out of fight, flight, two, believing something that you want to experience and adding the emotion to it of having it already, that releases chemicals that heal. That is my very, very first grade description of this. Again, don't trust me, go look it up. Or don't believe me, go look it up yourself. Do your own research. So the result from meditation is increased adapt adaptability, learning, and you ready for this? Recovery from trauma or unhealthy habits. How about that? The result is increased adaptability, learning, and recovery from trauma or unhealthy habits. Wow. I've got truth coming up. I'm so glad to hear from you, Truth. Thank you for joining.

Truth: 55:28

Um, I think that this the very last thing that you said actually really ties in so well to just like what I was thinking about and what this conversation brought up for me. Most of the things that you said about meditation, you know, I've known, I've heard it somewhere. But um, like many on these new vibe talks, it's like hearing in this space, in this way from you, being the person that I am right now in this moment today, it's like all these things just clicked for me in a different way. What I've realized is, you know, I went through a lot of trauma in my life, a lot of big T, a lot of little T, a lot of complex, all those things. And along the way, when I would be in therapy, like in my 20s and early 30s, therapists would treat me like a case study because they just couldn't understand how I had been through so much trauma, but yet I could be so high performing and how I could be so well adapted. And obviously, like my neurodivergence wasn't identified then. Um, you know, when I was in college and in my 20s, the highly sensitive person diagnosis was like just coming out at the very beginning of it. And so it was always just kind of like this anomaly of like how I could function the world. Now, part of it was my ADHD and my masking to like show up in every way possible and be as perfect to the outside world as possible. Part of it was definitely not feeling my feelings, like I would put them away in a box and lock them up. Um, there were definitely some like things that I've worked through and improved upon, but I just kind of realized in this conversation, maybe one of the reasons that I was able to be so well adapted through all of that is I learned how to meditate when I was a kid. And it was always a part of my life. Like it has always been a part of my life. And like I knew that it was helpful. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But it's just like the way that it's sinking in right now with this information, it's like I'm connecting all these dots, and I'm like, oh wow, that is literally how I have survived my entire adult life was having this meditation practice because all of the things that it was doing for me, it was like counterbalancing all of the trauma and the other pieces. And, you know, the bigger part of like what the like negative part of what was happening for me was the reality that as a child, me being who I was, being so misunderstood as a highly sensitive child. It was like all the stories that everybody else said of like, your sensitivities aren't real, your feelings aren't real, your needs aren't real, like you're just trying to get attention and manipulate. And it's like, no, like the lace actually feels like it's cutting me, and my skin is red and irritated, and I am in physical pain, and like no one would believe me. Yes. But it's like, I don't know, just it's just such a like a wonderful epiphany right now to be like, oh man, even in those times where like I really didn't realize how big of an impact the meditation had on my life and how it was really just like literally helping me function. It's like when I really think about it, like I might not be here today if I hadn't had that meditation practice my whole life. And I'm just so grateful that I did, and I'm also so grateful right now that I'm able to connect those dots and understand myself a little bit better. And I don't know what that means for me, but I just feel like this realization about myself has just like opened up another door for the next step of my healing. And so I'm just really excited about it. So, as usual, Kristen, thank you for this talk. I'm so happy.

Kristen: 59:32

Thank you, Truth. That was awesome. But I have some questions for you. Would you mind coming back? Yeah, immediately. We're having a little bit of um robotic with you. So if maybe reposition somewhere because it's getting a bit robotic.

Truth: 59:48

Let me take my headphones off on the in-between.

Kristen: 59:51

Okay, okay, that might be it. Yes. Thanks, Truth. Okay, excellent. So we are gonna bring Truth back up again. I was wondering if she was on a headset of some time. Because of the clicking and whatnot and the coming in between. Okay, so let's go ahead and bring truth back up again. So here's my question, Truth, while you're loading up. You said you had a meditation practice as a child. Where did that start? What did it look like? Because I believe I was meditating too as a child and didn't really know it either. So I'm curious about your experience and what is it, what does your meditation look like today? Like, can you share with people what you do?

Truth: 1:00:30

Okay, yeah. Well, first um, with what it looks like for me today is because of my ADHD, I know that I cannot set a strict, rigid routine of I'm going to sit here and practice meditation for 15 minutes at this time of day. That does not work for me. So I'm much more gentle with it and I give myself options and I don't limit my time. I don't limit the style. I just I do what I feel like for the day. Sometimes it's just sitting and staring out at the table rocks in my meditation room in my living room. Um, well, there are two different rooms in the meditation room and just focusing on my breath. And it's just as simple as that. Um sometimes I listen to guided meditations uh because I do have them as options on several apps, including this one, which is nice. Um, sometimes it is a walking meditation. There's a little road beside the farm that I live on, and I'll just like walk up and down it. And kind of like what you're saying about spotting things, it's like I'll just like look at my surroundings and have gratitude. And I just like get into that meditative space while I'm just walking back and forth up the same little gravel dirt road. Um, I do my favorite type of meditation. That sounds dreamy, by the way. That sounds dreamy.

Kristen: 1:01:57

Yeah. Continue.

Truth: 1:02:00

Oh, cool. My favorite type is at waterfalls. Um, I don't get to do that as often, but that's definitely something that like I seek out. I seek out waterfalls so that I can go have meditations at waterfalls. And the only times in my life that I've been able to get to a natural psychedelic experience is through meditation and breath work at a waterfall.

Kristen: 1:02:26

Wow.

Truth: 1:02:27

And like, I mean, man, talk about amazing. Like, those are so, so amazing. Um, and it takes time. It definitely like takes time to get into that state. And one thing that's interesting about I I lost a dear friend, and there were a lot of super traumatic events happening a couple of years ago, around the time that like I stopped taking all substances, stopped like numbing myself. Um, it was about the first, I was like, had just hit my first year, and all these things started to happen. And at the time I had a spiritual coach since I was going through so much, and I felt like that was like helping me with my sobriety. And I remember at one point I got on the phone with her and I was like, meditation isn't working. I don't understand. I've been doing this my whole life and it's not working. I can't focus on anything, I'm failing, blah, blah, blah. And she reminded me that meditation is a practice. And so if I'm focusing on my breath, if my mind wanders, that's fine. That is meditation. That is the practice to notice that my mind is wandering and to bring it back in to my breath or to whatever my focus is. And when I'm doing that, the moment that I become aware and bring it back in is the moment that I am succeeding in my meditation. Oh, I got chills. Yes. Yeah, and that was something that I had forgotten because life had gotten like so chaotic and dumping on me at the same time. And I'm like, you know, just learning how to feel my feelings instead of putting them in the a box for the first time in my life.

Kristen: 1:04:09

So it was like it was a little too much. Oh, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. I, gosh, I relate to that. I'm sure many people relate to that. So when you were a child, would you say your meditation wasn't like a formal meditation? You weren't taught it, you just looking back. I was taught.

Truth: 1:04:26

Yes, my mother has always been, um, she's been a spiritual teacher, I guess you could say. Um, she's always lived a very spiritual life, and she did not know what I needed or what to do with me, but that was the only thing that she did know to do was to teach me how to meditate, how to clear my energy, those types of things. So it was 100% from my mother. Um what age before you tell that. Oh gosh, tiny, like probably before I can even remember. It's just, it's always been a part of my life.

Kristen: 1:05:04

True. Thank you. What an excellent addition. Like I said, co-host, you guys are co-hosting. Excellent addition to this conversation. You heard it in real time. And wow, kudos to your mother. Kudos to your mother for teaching you that because yeah, now you're like connecting the dots, looking back and thinking, wow, all of this did play a part in all of this. It's it's crazy, you guys. And I love hearing somebody else have these crazy awarenesses and awakenings and dot connectings like I have, because I don't really have anybody that has had those so much. It's one of the reasons why I believe that I was not formally meditating, but I spent a lot of time alone. And what I knew and believed to be, quote unquote, God, was my best friend. That's like who I talked to when I was out riding my bike by myself, when I was doing things. I remember talking to the air as if it was a person and knowing that it was God, and my understanding of God was high energy and good things, and my experience of it. And I believe this is why, because talking to my husband about this the other day, I said, Why do I know things? Like, you know, we all have the ability to have the same gifts, by the way. There's no one person that, oh, you have better intuition than I do. No, we all are given the gift. It's part of our toolbox when we get here. Okay, we don't just get thrown off the bus, you know, God's going a slow row, slow roll and say, everybody jump off. No, you know, have fun, good luck. No. We're we're handed these toolboxes. And one of those toolboxes is our intuition, our inner knowing, our energy reading, like all of these type of things. But for many various reasons, people didn't cultivate that or enhance it. But for me, I did. It took me a long time to write on my bio, intuitive healer. A long time. I was in the closet. I was in the closet, but doggone it, I know stuff, and I know stuff. And what am I gonna do? I it's like I see all these other people out in the world, and then other people were calling me that. I'm like, don't call me a healer. I don't heal people. They're like, yeah, you do. I'm like, no, like to me, because it was like you wave a magic wand and heal someone, they're like, no, you bring people to it. They do the work, but you bring, I was like, okay. And much of what I do is through intuition, it's through guidance, like channeling. I don't know what you want to call it. And so I talked to my husband about this at Blessed His Heart. He's such a good listener. He just sits there and listens while I, and I don't know how I got this and that. But I work through things and I remember I spent so much time, not so much time, I'm making it sound like I was neglected or abandoned. It's just I spent the time that I spent alone was very purposeful. I was not distracting. Like my little brother said, he always went and went and found someone to play with. He always went and found a person. I just would go entertain myself. And whatever that looked like, but I remember always commuting. So I believe this is where I started when I started to get messages in first grade of a little boy that was something not was not right with him. I'm now as an adult, I'm assuming that he did not have a great home life, but I felt it and I just stayed away from that kid. And then I later learned later in life what he turned into. Seven years old, ten years old, recognized that a man was a pedophile. I couldn't word it. He was not doing anything weird. He was being a Mr. friendly, nice guy, 10 years old. Didn't even know the term pedophile, didn't even know. I just knew his energy was something was about this man. And this just continued and continued and continued where my girlfriend, current girlfriend, uh female friend, says to me, She goes, You see beyond the veil. That's what she always tells me. You see, we see here and you see four feet behind that. I believe that was enhanced because, like Truth was saying, thank you, Truth, for saying that. I was not taught formally to meditate, but I was doing it in some capacity when I was young. And so it allowed for these things to emerge, which we all can have. And by the way, you're not too old. Don't go, well, I'm 50. I can't, oh yeah, you can. It's there, it's it's accessible, it's always there. We're talking infinite intelligence and love and and all of that. It's always there, it doesn't go anywhere. Infinite, eternal, okay? It's just about us tapping in to that. So don't think, oh, you're too old. You're not. You're not. It's it's already there. It's already there. It's just turning on the spigot. All right, that's it. Connecting, click, turning on the light switch, however you want to word it. That's all it is. So being interestingly, oh, this is just I'm having some dots connecting here, truth based on what she said. Interestingly, I always smelled danger before it came. Like I could smell, I like my radar went up and I knew, but nobody else around me did. So I'd be like, Yeah, I'm not something's not cool here. I'm gonna go do this or go do here, or I would say, I didn't like this person for whatever reason, or and people be like, why? And they they didn't agree with me or whatever. So my point is is that I sensed things and I believe that's why I have like brushed up against very dangerous situations and nothing happened because my connection was so clear. But again, I didn't know, I couldn't name it, I was too young, and even up through teen years, I wasn't naming it. But here's the thing is that I got well versed on what it felt like or sounded like or looked like in my mind's eye or my body or whatever it was, and it's so incredibly subtle that I had to learn that that subtlety was as loud as a lightning bolt. I just had to understand that it that's what it sounds like, but that's the truth. But it's very subtle, it's very quiet, it's very calm. The calm still voice within. And that calm still voice comes in many ways. So, really cool. I am processing out loud with you guys right now based on what truth inspired in me, talking about her childhood and how how that worked out for her. And I do believe she's right. I I'm going to agree with the idea that she said, Wow, I this is this is what with all of this that happened, this is what carried me through. So my God, truth, your mom gave you probably one of the best gifts. And all my kids know about meditation. And it's the one thing that I will say when they they're struggling. Thank God they're old enough now that you know they don't, they used to fight me on it. Because I I probably started way later than your mom did. And I did start way later than your mom did, and they would kind of fight me on it. Now they don't, because when they come to me with something like, you need to meditate on that, you need to get clear about that. You your answer's there, you'll know it when you see it. Because I could be that mom that says, Oh, do this, do that, do the other. I don't like telling people what to do. I might have ideas if someone says, I'm stuck, what do you think? Well, I'll throw some ideas around. But what the bottom line is, is that you already know on some level, you already know. And so helping people get guided back to that inner knowing is what's, to me, what's purposeful, right? Because we, everybody's paths are so incredibly different. We might throw something out there that we would do, but that doesn't mean that's the next step for the person. So I like trusting the way I do, God Source Universe, and our connection to it and what this life really is, what I believe and my what it really is all about. I know that the people that we have our own guidance inside of us, we are connected to, and we just need to follow that. It's kind of like the yellow brick road, so to speak. We just, oh, go to the left, go to the right, make it make a 180, go now to the other left. You see what I'm saying? We're being guided. We just need to tap into it, and it allows our life and our path to flow more easily. Now, here's something that's also interesting. I was listening to a speaker the other day, and I was like, oh my gosh, I think that too. She was talking about how we can be how we can flow and be guided through life. But she said, but I also think there's some milestones, some places that we have to experience. Like there are things that were predestined. And I thought, oh my gosh, that's what I've always felt. I don't know about you guys. Again, these are just my theories. Do we really know? I don't know. But I thought that I thought there's things that I knew that this thing had to happen. But then there was this expansive space, and then the next thing that was needed to happen. So it's kind of it's almost like a connect the dots with space in between in a different way than Truth and I were talking about connecting dots earlier. It was like the space between to create, but then this is your experience that you need to have, and then space between. See what I'm saying? I don't know. I'm just throwing that out there because I'm thinking out loud right now to all of you. Do I have one back channel message? Okay, Jeanette said, My old sponsor told me prayers are talking to God and meditation is waiting for an answer. Thought that may speak to someone. Absolutely, I've heard that too. Yeah. Prayers are talking to God, meditation is where you hear the answer. I like that. I also like to talk to God in ways of thank you. Thank you for the thing, not in a begging way. Please, please, please. I don't do that. That's not my practice. My practice is because I believe in energy, is I want to put it out there first, as in thank you for, thank you for. And if things that are happening currently and things that I want to experience in my life, thank you for. This is why you guys often hear me say, you know, if you're going through something, I'm like, I'm envisioning you in the highest health and healing. Or I'm, you know, in whatever capacity that is, because it could be relational, it could be career-wise, it could be um physical, whatever it might be. But that's my vision is I want to picture you, I want the energy going to you of the highest health and healing. Not please, please, please, oh God, scary. No. Mm-mm-mm. All right. Let me see if I can bring up my next guest because I do have to be somewhere. Um, I think I have time. So I'm gonna go ahead and bring up Lois. Lois, we are talking about meditation. I would love to get back on the topic. So if you got something to share on that, that would be fantastic.

Loyce: 1:15:52

Uh-oh, my speaker went off. One second, let me see if I can connect it. Okay, I can hear you. Okay, you can hear me, but I can barely hear you. Okay, I just wanted to say, you know, you your topic is how meditating meditation changes your brain and your life. I just I know that for in my life, once I begin to take the pause for the calls, that's what I call it, because um, before I make a statement, before I talk to anybody, before I respond to anything somebody says, especially if triggered, I take that silent moment between my thoughts before I open my mouth to decide which direction I'm gonna go. Yeah. And if I had never slowed down with meditation, I would still be all reaction and blowing up the people, going off, getting ready to get in fist fights. Because that's all that's how traumatic my life used to be. When I started meditating, all the trauma and drama, it did not completely dissolve as if it was miracle magic. But I can tell you, over time, my finding center, finding my focus, finding quiet in my mind, let me be able to see finally, clearly, what was really going on. Okay. And when my mind was running from this to that, here to there, doing this for that and this for that person, and and being, what my daughter said, super everything, and getting super sick, when I slowed my mind, it allowed my body to heal. Okay, it literally allowed my body to heal because I was able to clear all the cobwebs that were stopping, that were blocking my healing from coming in the first place. Because healing is prevented by belief. Okay, because I've had I've had clients where they've had the exact identical problem, identical thing. And um, this is in church, because I had church clients too. And I prayed for one, the exact prayer, our same prayer, I prayed for other. One got better, the other one got worse. The difference was their belief in where they were. And when I taught them how to quiet their minds, OMG, everybody started actually getting better because they knew how to stop and focus and stop spreading the flashlight when they needed a laser beam. You know what I mean? And and when we when we when we start meditating, we can we can quiet our mind long enough to reel in all that flashlight, big old broad spotlight thing, all the way down to a to a pinpoint. And once we can get pinpointed on what it is we want, that pu that pure focus, everything changes. So that's what I wanted to say about the meditation. It's it's like I said, it's not it's it's you know, all gratitude, meditation, all of it works together.

Kristen: 1:18:59

Can you hear me, Lois? Because you said you're I can bear I can barely hear you, but I'm listening. Okay. I wrote this down while you were talking. The sentence came to me based on what you were sharing. Meditation creates the neurological environment for healing trauma.

Loyce: 1:19:15

Yes.

Kristen: 1:19:15

So it creates the environment because everything is what's the words that you would use? Subdued, quelled, tempered, like what's the words that we would use there?

Loyce: 1:19:28

You're dampening that fight or flight response when you're in meditation. And once you dampen it, eventually the fire of that firing you up, firing you up, it's gonna go, it's gonna eventually smolder. And then once it smolders, you get to see what damage is really there. That's the best way I can. I mean, that's the way it came to my head just now.

Kristen: 1:19:48

Well, and we can't learn in fight flight.

Loyce: 1:19:52

No, no, because our frontal lobe is hijacked.

Kristen: 1:19:55

We can't part that reasons so the so the metadata. Meditation calms all of that. It lowers our brainwave state to a state that we can learn. And learn, you guys, means break habits, heal trauma, you know, those type of things. Because learning basically is rewiring the brain. Yes.

Loyce: 1:20:16

Okay. And that's what it does. It quiets you long enough for you to see clearly. Because most of the time we're looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, tainted lenses, just plain old grimy, greasy trauma lenses or whatever. And when we meditate, we quiet all that stuff because we start getting an observance of our thoughts and we start seeing stuff. And then as we as we quiet our mind, we get to see more.

Kristen: 1:20:41

And the more we Yes, Lois, thank you. You just timed out. If you want to come up for a minute and finish your sentence, you sure can. I do have an appointment, so I'm keeping an eye on the clock because I have to drive somewhere and I was factoring in drive time. But yeah, come on up and finish what you were saying. I love where she was going with that. And I thought it would be great for her to be able to finish that.

Loyce: 1:21:02

Okay, so so when you when your mind is quiet, you actually get to see what's really there. You don't see all the adjective because we put adjectives on everything. Oh, that was bad. This was terrible. We get without judgment. And when you can see things without judgment, oh my God, your vision clears. And when your vision clears everything, your whole nervous system calms. It's not like, oh my God, what's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? What's gonna happen? No, you see clearly, so you ain't gotta worry about what's gonna happen. And meditation did this for me. Okay, because I used to react to everything because I was so sensitive. And this is not teasing anybody that's sensitive, okay? I just I was sensitive because my body, because of my career and what I chose to do and how I live my life, I stayed, I was born into fight or flight. I'm gonna say that. Because it was always survival. From the time I was an infant, I was in survival mode. Whether it was not getting enough affection or whatever, I I had a lot of trauma as a as a young person. So I stayed in survival mode. That's why I picked what I picked. And it and I was always on call 24-7. Okay, and you can't stay in survival mode and think you're a live. Well, that's for real. Okay. And I end up dying, you know. But when I came back, I realized I had to quiet, figure out some way of quieting all this noise that was going on in my mind, and my head, and my body, and meditation was the key. It quieted my mind enough for me to focus on what was going on in my body so that I can pinpoint where I needed the healing and focus. Because I couldn't focus when I was all over the place. I'm gonna be real. I man, I was doing the most. My husband's like, you know what? You was doing the most. I was doing the most because I was trying to be everything to everybody. And I couldn't, and I was never taking any time to quiet my mind. I wasn't mean or stifled, but I would get rage points where I could take, I had all I can stands, and I can't stands no more. You know, but yeah, but as long as I was in that fight or flight, I couldn't think I thought I was thinking clearly, I thought I operated best, but I realized once I got out of it, I'm like, ooh, this is peace. Oh my God, I see this clearly, I see that clearly. And sometimes we really do believe because I thrived, I thrived in fight or flight, which I don't know if everybody can do that. I wouldn't I wouldn't suggest it to nobody, okay, because it ended up killing me, really. Okay, but the thing is, quiet in my mind helped me to rearrange what was going on in my brain and to rethink how I was processing things and the the lenses through I was which I was processing. But thank you so much. But I because I love meditating. I had to do my meditation before I came on here. So I was hoping I didn't I didn't miss you because I was with my daughter all morning.

Kristen: 1:23:58

But anyway, I love you and I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Uh okay, bye Lois. I love you, Baxis. Yes, I love that. And I do know that Lois meditates regularly. We took because sometimes she'd be like, hey, I've got to meditate or whatever. You know, I do the same thing. Oh my goodness, we're getting a really cloudy sky out. I'm so excited. Thank you guys for being here today. This has been an amazing conversation. I want to thank especially Truth for coming up multiple times and Lois for coming up multiple times as well. It's such beautiful co-hosts. You guys added so much depth to this conversation. I absolutely love, love to hear from you guys, and so do everybody else that listens to this podcast. So please continue to come up. And for those of you who are still a little nervous about coming up, you're always welcome. There's something that you have to say, you might just be waiting for that right time. There's no right time. Just come up. Just come up and share with us on my stage or somebody else's stage because you really add to these conversations. Man, this conversation was juicy. Thank you guys so much. I will be back again tomorrow for another episode of Empower Hour with KB. So if you liked what you heard here today and you're interested in healing your inner world to attract and create the most amazing outer world, I recommend that you hit that follow button so you're notified when I come live. Much love to you guys. Thank you so much for being here. Amazing conversation, and I will see you tomorrow.