Unlocking the Hidden Power of Your Thoughts

Feeling stuck, anxious, or overwhelmed? You’re not alone—and you’re not broken. In this mind-blowing episode of our deep dive series, we expose the hidden science behind why your thoughts can trap you in stress loops—and exactly how to break free.

Based on Jim Moore’s transformative book Overcome Stress and Thrive Again, we reveal powerful brain hacks and ancient practices that actually rewire your emotional habits.

But here’s the kicker: it’s not about fake positivity or pretending you’re fine. This is about using specific tools—like breathwork, brainwave shifting, and emotional visualization—to shift your mental state and regain control. We’re talking real change, backed by neuroscience.

What’s causing your racing thoughts and emotional shutdowns? Why does your brain prefer stress over peace? And how can one simple breathing technique interrupt years of anxiety in minutes?

Whether you’re drowning in negativity or just looking for a mental edge, this episode gives you the practical roadmap. You’ll never look at your mind—or your future—the same way again.

Hit play now—because the most powerful transformation starts inside your head.

Welcome everyone to More Meditation Deep Dive number three. Great to be diving in again. Yeah.

And today we're tackling something, well, really powerful. This deep connection between what's going on in your head, your thoughts, your brain's actual state and the reality you end up experiencing. It really is foundational stuff.

Understanding this link can be incredibly empowering for you, I think. Totally. But let's be real for a second.

Yeah. When you're feeling low, I mean really weighed down, maybe by fear, guilt, despair, stuff Jim Moore mentions in Overcome Stress and Thrive Again, the idea of just thinking positive thoughts can feel, well, almost offensive. Oh, absolutely.

Why “Thinking Positive” Can Feel Impossible

Like telling someone with a broken leg to just walk it off. It doesn't connect. Exactly.

You feel stuck, right? Like your mind is just looping through the bad stuff, the trauma maybe, and your body is just pumping out stress chemicals to match. That feeling of being trapped is very real.

The book actually calls it a loop of negative feelings. It's like a chain reaction. Well, some kind of trigger, maybe stress or a memory, sets off signals in the brain, releases chemicals.

Your body feels that tension, maybe a knot in your stomach. Yeah. And then your mind, trying to make sense of why you feel bad, grabs thoughts that match that feeling, which of course just keeps the whole thing going, right?

Breaking the Chain: One Thought at a Time

It reinforces itself. So yeah, finding a happy thought when your body feels awful is, well, it's incredibly hard. It really is.

Okay, so that's the challenge. True. Our mission then for this deep dive is to explore some practical ways through this.

How can you actually start to cultivate what Jim Moore calls "better feeling thoughts"? Not necessarily perfectly happy thoughts straight away, but just better. Yeah. Better.

And intentionally shifting your brain state towards calm. It's not about pretending bad feelings aren’t there, is it? Not at all.

The Brain’s Stress Loop Explained

It's more about gaining some traction, some ability to choose so you can start reshaping those ingrained emotional habits. We'll be using insights from Jim's book Overcome Stress and Thrive Again, and also looking at ideas from his Udemy course plan on yoga for stress relief.

So, okay, where do we start unpicking this negative loop? Well, I think understanding the brain state itself is key. The book talks about the high beta brainwave state.

High beta. Okay. Yeah. When your brain's mostly running in high beta—think stress, high alert—you basically have easier access to those fight-or-flight emotions.

Survival mode stuff, right? And the interesting, maybe slightly worrying thing the book suggests, is that in this state, your brain can almost get comfortable, more efficient at firing off those negative thought patterns, like digging a deeper groove.

Why Stress Feeds on Itself

So, if you're stressed a lot, your brain gets better at being stressed in a functional sense. Yeah. It strengthens those pathways and that feeds right back into that loop of negative feelings we mentioned.

Okay, I see it. Stressful event, high beta brain, body reacts. Brain looks for thoughts matching the bad feeling.

More stress chemicals. Exactly. It becomes the self-sustaining cycle.

Really tough to break out of from within that state. It sounds daunting. But the good news, the sources say, is change is possible.

Rewiring Your Mind with Neuroplasticity

We're not just stuck. Definitely not stuck. And here's a crucial idea.

Finding solutions, accessing those better feeling thoughts—it gets a whole lot easier when your brain shifts into a calmer state. Different state. Yeah.

The Udemy course plan mentions the alpha brainwave state. This is often linked with relaxation, light meditation, that feeling just before you fall asleep. Okay, alpha—calmer.

And what's really encouraging for you listening is that this alpha state seems much more receptive. It's better for learning, for absorbing new information, and for potentially reprogramming those thought patterns.

Mental Shifts That Stick

So, it's like shifting gears in a car. You can't, I don't know, appreciate the scenery when you're redlining in first gear. You need to shift up to cruise.

That's actually a pretty good analogy. Yeah. And the amazing thing underpinning our ability to shift gears is neuroplasticity.

Ah, yes. I've heard of this. The brain can change itself.

Exactly. It's the brain's incredible ability to reorganize, form new connections, prune old ones, basically rewire itself throughout your life. It's not fixed concrete.

The book even mentions research by Alvaro Pascual-Leone. He showed that just mentally practicing something, like playing piano scales in your head, actually creates new physical connections in the brain. Wow.

Thoughts That Physically Reshape Your Brain

Just thinking it. Just thinking it. So the massive implication for you is that your thoughts aren't just fluff.

They have tangible power to reshape the physical structure of your brain. Okay, that is huge. So these negative loops might have paved some solid roads in our brain.

Mhm. But intentionally thinking different thoughts, maybe better feeling ones, it can start building new roads, smoother ones. That's the idea.

Building new neural pathways. But how? How do you grab hold of a better feeling thought when you're like drowning in negativity? Feels slippery, you know, hard to grasp.

Practical Tools to Shift Your State

That feeling is completely valid. It is hard. The sources offer a few practical places to start though.

One big one is seeking guidance. Guidance like what? Overcome Stress and Thrive Again suggests looking outside yourself for direction.

Maybe it's a book, a podcast like this one hopefully, or you know, inspirational videos, talking to a therapist or counselor. Okay. The crucial thing though isn't just the guide itself.

It's your intention. Your decision to want to change. That's the real engine here.

The Power of Intention and Physical Movement

The guide is like, well, like watching videos to learn tennis. You still have to pick up the racket and practice, right? The intention has to be there.

You have to want to swing the racket. So find tools, perspectives outside your own head. What else? Exercise comes up, right?

Yes. Both the book and the course really highlight physical activity. Even simple stuff like a brisk walk or yoga, of course.

Move the Body, Shift the Mind

And how does that help with the thoughts? Couple of ways. First, it's a distraction, isn't it?

Gets you out of your head, stops the rumination for a bit, just focusing on moving your body. Second, exercise releases endorphins, nature's mood boosters, basically.

So it physically makes you feel a bit better. And the sources suggest, you know, combining that physical boost with some positive input.

Maybe listening to something uplifting while you walk. That can be a really powerful combo. Move the body, shift the mind.

Breathe to Release Stress Chemicals

Okay, that makes intuitive sense. Now, there's also a specific breathing technique mentioned—the Moore Breathing Technique. Oh, yes. This is central.

It's detailed in both the book and the course plan. It's not just "take a deep breath." How so?

It's quite specific. Slow, controlled breathing but with a conscious focus on engaging your abdominal muscles as you exhale and even a gentle lift of the pelvic floor muscles. Okay, why that specifically?

How Breathing Reconnects Mind and Body

Well, the idea as presented is that this particular way of breathing helps forge a stronger connection between the thinking brain, the cortex, and the feeling, sensing parts of your body and nervous system.

Bridging the gap maybe, sort of. Yeah. And physiologically, this deep controlled breathing is thought to help the body process and eliminate stress hormones more effectively.

It kind of creates the internal space, the calmer state needed for new emotional patterns to take root. So, it's actively changing your body chemistry through breath. That's the aim.

Mantras as a Mental Reset Button

The course even mentions helping release certain volatile stress compounds through the exhale. It's using breath as a tool for physiological change. Very intentional.

Interesting. Okay. Another strategy mentioned is using mantras.

Yes. Simple ones. The book suggests things like “May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I be peaceful.”

Why those general ones? Because they're broad. They don't depend on your specific circumstances being good right now.

Yoga as a Full Mind-Body Reset

They're just fundamentally positive intentions. They act like a little interruption, a gentle nudge away from the negative spiral. Like a mental reset button you can press, kind of.

Yeah. A way to carry that calmer feeling you might get from breathing or yoga into the rest of your day. Just gently returning to that intention.

And that brings us nicely to yoga. Both sources seem to put a lot of emphasis there. They really do.

The book explains how yoga, with its combination of guided breath and movement, is particularly good at breaking that trauma-thinking loop we talked about earlier.

Yoga Interrupts the Loop of Trauma Thinking

How does it break the loop? By focusing your attention on the physical sensations, on the breath, it interrupts the mental chatter. But the goal presented isn't just fitness.

It's framed as supporting the body in detoxifying from stress chemicals, quieting that busy mind, and then actively retraining your emotional centers. Guiding them towards feelings like gratitude, peace, happiness—ideally while you're in that receptive alpha brainwave state.

So it's body, mind, and emotions all working together in the practice. Exactly. Using the physical practice as an entryway to influence the mental and emotional state.

Practicing Better Feelings, Even When It’s Hard

Now, the book is quite honest. This idea of practicing good feelings when you feel terrible—it can feel really hard. Yeah. Totally inauthentic sometimes or like, “I don't deserve to feel good right now.”

That's such a common feeling. And the key message here is—it is a practice. Just like you practice a yoga pose you find difficult.

You wobble, you fall out, you feel awkward maybe, right? But you don't just give up on the pose forever. You gently try again.

Visualize a Better Future, Train Your Emotions

It's the same with thoughts. If you notice you slip back into the stressful story, the negative loop, you just gently—without beating yourself up—redirect your focus back to practicing the better feeling thought. Practicing that mental movie of a potential future you'd prefer.

Ah, so that connects to visualization too. Directly. By picturing, really trying to feel desired future possibilities—the positive emotions they would bring—you start that retraining process for your body and emotions.

The book suggests that repeating these mental movies of better feeling thoughts gradually makes the positive emotions feel more real, more accessible, generated just by thought alone.

Why Shifting Brain States Changes Everything

Rehearsing a better feeling future. Okay, so pulling this together, the big aim is this shift in brain waves—moving from that stressed high beta to the calmer alpha state. Why is that shift so critical?

Well, the sources position high beta as the state linked to stress, anxiety—a kind of tunnel vision emotionally. It's good for immediate threats maybe, but not for thriving or learning new ways of being, right? Survival mode.

Whereas the alpha state is calmer, more open, more creative. It's presented as the state where learning happens more easily, where you're more receptive to new information, and crucially, where you can begin to access and reprogram those deeper subconscious emotional habits.

Train Your Emotional Habits Like Juggling

And things like yoga, meditation, that specific breathing—those are tools to help you get into alpha more often. Precisely. They are practices designed to facilitate that shift.

And once you start spending more time in alpha, that's where the real rewiring of emotional habits can happen. That's the idea.

Think about learning any skill—like juggling, as the book suggests. At first, it's all conscious effort, right? You're thinking hard, dropping balls. It's very front brain.

Definitely lots of focus. But practice, practice, practice, and eventually it becomes more automatic, smoother. It sinks into the subconscious.

Detox Stress and Rewire Emotional Memory

Emotional habits are kind of like that. They become automatic responses. Mhm.

So by intentionally practicing new emotional responses—gratitude, peace, hope—especially when you're in that calmer alpha state, you can start to overwrite the old automatic negative ones.

So it's like detox and retrain. Exactly. The book talks about supporting the body in processing stress hormones and retraining emotional memory centers.

Practices like yoga and breath work help with the detox, clearing out the stress physiology. This creates a window, an opportunity, to consciously imprint new patterns by visualizing desired feelings, desired outcomes—especially during that deep relaxation phase at the end of yoga, savasana.

Rewire Your Life During Savasana

That's presented as a prime time for this retraining. Uh, so the whole yoga class has this flow—detoxing, moving, cleansing, then this intentional reprogramming at the end. That's a great way to put it—a progressive purpose.

Okay, but let's circle back to that feeling of difficulty, because someone listening might still be thinking, "This sounds great, but it just feels too hard to think positive when I feel this bad."

And that feeling is completely understandable and acknowledged in the sources. It's not presented as easy or instant. These are gradual steps.

It’s Not Perfection—It’s Practice

It's a practice—with the yoga pose analogy again. Exactly. You don't expect perfect flexibility on day one. Your body conditions over time.

Similarly, the repeated mental practice of reaching for a better feeling thought—even if it feels weak or fuzzy at first—will gradually make those positive emotions feel more vivid, more specific, more real over time. It's about consistency, not instant perfection.

Absolutely. The book uses this idea of becoming co-pilots of our minds. You're not necessarily in full control instantly, especially when turbulence hits, but you're learning gradually how to steer, how to guide your thinking away from the storm clouds and towards clearer skies.

Shape a New Future with Calm and Intention

So, wrapping this up, what's the main takeaway for you listening right now? I think it's that yes, it feels incredibly hard—maybe impossible—to think positively when you're deep in negative feelings. That's a valid experience.

But the power to actually shift your internal state, and by extension your experience of reality, it's not just wishful thinking. It lies in your consistent intention and your willingness to practice these techniques.

Yeah, remember that analogy. You wouldn't expect to master a complex yoga pose after just one class. It's the same with reshaping these deep emotional habits.

It takes time. It takes dedication. So, please be patient with yourself.

Celebrate Small Wins and Embrace the Journey

Seek out that guidance if you need it—books, courses, people—and really importantly, celebrate the small wins. Notice the moments where you do manage to shift your focus even slightly towards those better feeling thoughts.

And maybe here's a final thought to leave you with, something potentially really exciting. If it's true that your thoughts and feelings have significantly shaped your past and how you experience your present, just imagine—what could your future look like if you intentionally, consistently practiced cultivating this state of inner calm, this sense of positive possibility?

Wow. What new opportunities might actually open up for you as you gently loosen the grip of those old negative habits and really step into a different way of being? It's an ongoing journey for sure, but the tools, the potential to navigate it more skillfully—that's right there for you.