The Balance Blueprint: Bring in the NEW

In this episode, we get into the science of creating positive habits and bringing newness into your life.  I offer 4 biohacks that can be used independently or combined for success.  Enjoy!

Transcript

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Hey everybody, welcome back to Centered the Podcast. I'm your host, Leslie Braverman, and I'm sharing holistic content that reconnects you to your most centered self. From my background as a scientist and a yogi, that centered self is that place within you that feels energized, knowing, and uplifted despite the chaos and demands of life. It's that place within you where you can become a portal of possibility. Well, it's the new year. I took a little break for some much needed rest, and I'm happy to be back. We are still digging into this little mini-series on the balance blueprint. And today I thought it would be a really good timing to talk about novelty and how to create positive habits knowing some brain hacks. But first, speaking of novelty, I thought it would be cool to talk about just the energetics of the year. Some people are really knowledgeable about energy, and some of us are just learning. So, what I want to bring to you today is just a super short and positive and uplifting view of what's going on, despite what we see in the world on like a basic daily level. So, numerologically, we are in a one year. We are at a zero point, a time of new beginnings, and a time of action. And that is combined with our astrological new year, which starts in February. And this is the year of the fire horse. And the fire horse is all about embracing momentum. It's about vitality, and you can think of like unbridled individuality and authenticity. And the combination of these two energetic powers have a tremendous capacity to bring so much newness and so much of what you desire in your life into form. So, keeping that in mind this year, maybe as you set intentions or as you look at what you're really wishing to do with this year, come back to the idea of these energies and then maybe even come back to this podcast because we're going to talk about how to bring in to form the newness, the novelty. So when I think about novelty, I really do think about bringing in the positive. So the brain loves anything positive. It has a harder time with dealing with negatives. So I have some hacks for you. If you want to bring something new into your life, for example, I have a client who started coloring. I have a client who started building with Legos. And these are using different areas of the brain to bring in the newness, the new neuropathways. We we have this understanding now of neuroplasticity where we used to believe that when we reach adulthood, we stopped learning. And now we understand the brain a lot better, that we're constantly laying down new neural pathways based on the positive stress or the newness that we're bringing into the brain and that ask that we're creating. So when I was when I was a graduate student, I was getting a master of science. And when I was writing my thesis, I used to get really excited about any papers that summarized all the findings up until that date. Because then I didn't have to go back into the text. It was like right there. And they I referred to them as summary papers. And so James Clear wrote a book called Atomic Habits. And this is a book that I have referred to every single client I've ever had, private client, since he wrote it, because it's such an amazing summary of the combination of how to work with your own neuroplasticity to create positive, new, and lasting habits. And I'm just going to summarize my favorite takeaways and the ones that I use in my life and the ones that I use with clients. So the firstly about neuroplasticity. So as the brain is laying down new pathways, it relies on this law called the Hebian rule, which is neurons that fire together wire together. So we can use this basic rule as a premise for our hacks. And one of my favorite hacks is habit stacking. Habit stacking is when you're doing something new or trying to bring something new into your life, you put it in logistically where you're already doing something that you've got pat down pat, like brushing your teeth. So it's like while I'm brushing my teeth, I do this, or right before or right after. You get the idea. Another one that I'll use is like right after the dishes are done in the evening, I'll do this. For example, I'm learning how to play guitar. And so there are days when I'm super stoked about playing guitar, and there are days that I really don't want to do it. But the second rule is that it's about repetition and not perfection. So the combination of knowing that I'm gonna play guitar after I load the dishwasher every night, whether I want to or not, is what's creating the amazing boost in my ability. And so habit stacking, or you could call it habit coupling. I've done that for years. And then knowing that learning something new is about repetition, not perfection. That perfection comes later. It's really like a refinement of skills once those neural pathways are laid down. The third one is super fun. It's called the two-minute rule. And it's the idea that you can turn anything into just a two-minute habit because the brain needs to feel successful. Again, it's about feeling positive about something, not negative about it. So I'm gonna share a story. When I when I was working as a hydrogeologist, we our building was right across the street from a gym. And this was great for me because I used to use the gym on breaks all the time. And then I also taught yoga there for like 15 years on Fridays. But that's like a little aside. So I saw this man, this was a long time ago before this book was written. I saw this man come in and it was totally one of those New Year's things where he was brand new to the gym, he wasn't in the best shape, he was wearing sweat sweatpants and sweatshirt, which was not like part of athleisure back then. So he stood out and he was cute and just, you know, like an older cutie guy with his, you know, his way of carrying his bag in and wearing his sweats and doing his thing. And I kept seeing him go outside every time he was there. And one day I saw him from my office and he would go outside and he would run up and down the street just for like a couple minutes. And he would do it every single day. And he was habit stacking and doing the two-minute rule before I even knew that these were a thing. And over the years of watching him be consistent, he started to increase his running length and locale. And eventually, you know, his form changed and his clothing changed too, and his distance changed, and eventually he was like a hardcore runner. And it was fascinating to watch it this. It was very slow, very consistent, and very, very like positive for him. And I just bring that story in because you know, we often hit the new year and we hit this phase of wanting to go, like hardcore. And usually stuff like that doesn't last. And it's the people who are consistent and deliberate that are really able to create the habits that are necessary. So the last one is similar to this. It's about feeling successful every time, but not just feeling it, acknowledging it. Acknowledging your success every time is really key to brain health, novelty, laying down those neuropathways, and keeping with positive and consistent habits. And I love this one because it sort of takes us into the metaphysical as well. With the metaphysical aspect, we know that we are much more than the physical body. We are more than the mind. And we have this greater source of power within us that is always an inner cheerleader, always positive, always full of energy and gratitude and resourcefulness. And when we feel successful, we raise our vibration. And when we raise that vibration, we're tapping more into the portal of the heart energies that allow us to resource that higher energy. And so what I like to do anytime I complete something is I just pause and appreciate myself. And what I've seen in clients over the years is this starts to dissolve this harder shell or shield and barrier around the heart and allows more of, I'm not even going to call it a softening. It's really a strengthening of connectivity to the portal of the heart because it goes both from the brain to the heart and the heart to the brain. And it starts to create this coherence that's so necessary in living an authentic life, right? Which is this theme of 2026 of stepping into greater authenticity and stepping into more positive awareness of these traits. And so when we are really feeling success, and it doesn't mean that it, you know, we've created any sort of actual, you know, goal other than having done what we intended to do. For example, I'm like learning this new song on the guitar, and I'm like, I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to nail this chord change, but I know I will eventually. So I'm just gonna keep repeating it and repeating it and repeating it until I do. And so that takes away that voice that says, I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to do this, into look, I'm doing it. And it creates evidence for this change. And so as soon as we tap into the rhythm of consistency, that rhythm of knowing where our habits go, knowing how long we're doing them for, knowing that it's about repetition and not perfection, and then feeling that success, that's when things really start to shift. So I bring this to you, and I'm gonna just share one more thing as you step into your novelty, your newness. I have been healing a concussion for the last six months. And it's six months, you really hit the marker where the neural connections that were disrupted during the concussion come back together. So if I can continue podcasting and learning guitar and doing all the things, I know you can do whatever it is that you are wishing to do as well. And that said, I just want to bring this one sense into this too. When so concussions are incredibly uncomfortable. I mean, it's just not a good experience in a lot of ways. But by creating a timeline for myself where I knew things were going to shift at six months, I started to be able to say, okay, I can get through anything, I can do anything, I can keep learning, I can keep creating. And I could feel the neural pathways reestablish. And so I just bring this up because as you're working and learning and doing whatever you want to do to keep building this neuroplasticity, perhaps you can also sense into what's going on in the brain and what's being created and what's learning. And we have these different aspects and areas in the lobes of the brain that you can actually feel into with awareness. So that for some people might be really nice. The other thing you can do if it's a very physical thing is starting to look at the changes in your rhythm or your body, or how maybe it's easier to do certain things than it used to be. So, this idea of looking for evidence is another little piece that I'm gonna throw in that I like when I'm learning something new. So, have an amazing, amazing day. Come back to this anytime you need to review some of the key aspects to building positive habits and introducing novelty into your life in this balanced blueprint. And remember, every time you are in the heart, you're stepping into your newness and your potential as that portal of possibility.