This Episode, We Will Cover:
✔ What it means when we say your thoughts are “biological instruction”
✔ How your thoughts influence brain chemistry, the nervous system, and behavior
✔ Why thinking, feeling, and choosing are always working together
✔ The connection between thought patterns and future results
✔ How repeated thoughts create neural pathways and habits
✔ The Motivation Loop — and where thought patterns fit in
✔ The “magnet analogy” — how your thoughts organize patterns in the brain
✔ How to identify and change toxic or limiting thought patterns
✔ Dr. Carolyn Leaf’s 63-day Neurocycle process for rewiring thinking
✔ How your internal state influences your external results and environment
✔ Why you are both shaping and responding to your environment
🎯 How to begin directing your thinking to create more consistent outcomes
Practical Strategies You’ll Learn:
✔️ How to identify the thought patterns that are holding you back
✔️ Simple ways to interrupt negative thinking loops
✔️ How to build positive neural pathways through repetition
✔️ Questions to help you get to the root of your thinking
✔️ Daily habits to rewire your brain over time
🎯 Key Takeaway:
👉 Your thoughts are not just ideas—
they are shaping your brain, your behavior, and your results.
Welcome back to Season 15 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast.
I’m Andrea Samadi, and on this podcast, we bridge the science behind social and emotional learning, emotional intelligence, and practical neuroscience—so we can create measurable improvements in well-being, achievement, productivity, and results.
If you’re new here, welcome.
We are currently reviewing past episodes in Season 15--organized as a roadmap of the brain’s foundational systems. Instead of treating neuroscience, health, mindset, and performance as separate topics—like we’ve done in the past 14 seasons—we’re now exploring how these systems come online in sequence.
“In Phase 1, we focused on regulation and safety—because without it, nothing else in the brain fully activates.
👉 If we don’t feel safe, the brain shifts into survival mode
👉 And when that happens, the systems we need for motivation, focus, and learning don’t fully come online”
- Phase 1 — Regulation & Safety
• Phase 2 — Neurochemistry & Motivation
• Phase 3 — Movement, Learning & Cognition
• Phase 4 — Perception, Emotion & Social Intelligence
• Phase 5 — Integration, Insight & Meaning
By the end of this season, my hope is that we can step back and ask:
👉 Where am I out of alignment?
👉 Is it regulation?
👉 Is it my thinking?
👉 Is it my focus? Or Belief?
👉 Is it how I’m learning or connecting with others?
Because once we can see the gap…
👉 We can begin to close it”
“The goal is not more effort—it’s better alignment.”
“And when these systems are aligned…
👉 Effort feels easier
👉 Learning becomes faster
👉 And results become more consistent
Because peak performance is not about doing more.
It’s about aligning the systems that drive our results.
🧠 We are now in Phase 2 — Neurochemistry & Motivation, where we asked one core question:
👉 What IS IT that drives us forward?
In EP 392[i], we introduced the Motivation Loop—how our brain decides what’s worth doing.
In EP 393[ii], we saw how belief triggers neurochemistry—driving action, feedback, and repetition.
THOUGHT PATTERNS (Dr. Carolyn Leaf)
For today’s EP 394, we move deeper into the loop—into thought patterns with Dr. Carolyn Leaf[iii] who we first met in October 2022 on the podcast.
While I think that all of the parts the motivation loop are important, (starting with our beliefs) I think this one that we are covering today (our thought patterns) is the MOST important part of the motivation loop.
Because our thinking isn’t neutral.
It is biological instruction.
Or said in plain English. Our thoughts can influence ourselves as well as others.
Every thought you think sends signals through your brain and body.
Our thought signals trigger:
- Neurochemicals like dopamine, cortisol, and serotonin
- Changes in neural activity
- Activation of our nervous system
So our brain is constantly responding to what we’re thinking.
👉 A thought isn’t just a moment in our mind
👉 It’s a message that tells our body how to respond
We could go deeper here, and connect Russian Scientist Dr. Konstantin Korotkov’s work from EP 307[iv] where he explained the concept of electrophonics. In this episode, he explained his advanced GDV Technology that shows “that we have energy fields…that can show physical energy distribution, emotional energy distribution, psychological energy distribution, and our relationship of our inner state to the outer world.”[v]
And in agreement, according to Dr. Carolyn Leaf,
our thoughts are constantly shaping our brain’s chemistry—
either increasing our drive…
or quietly shutting it down.
Impacting ourselves as well as others around us.
I think this concept is a CRITICAL part of living a successful life. Eliminating negative thoughts though is always a work in progress. My thinking isn’t always positive, but I strive to make it that way the majority of every day.
Dr. Leaf’s work that we will cover today, shows us how to break down and eliminate our most toxic thought patterns (that are having a detrimental impact on our lives) and she can do this in 63 days, using her Neurocycle App. We covered this app and the 5 STEPS she uses to break a toxic thought and Clean Up Your Mental Mess on EP106[vi] and EP 299[vii]
Since learning about Dr. Carolyn Leaf’s work back in 2020, I’ve completed five 63-day Neurocycles using her app—and I can honestly say, it’s been one of the most impactful processes that I’ve ever done for my mental health.
Because the truth is—we all have toxic thought patterns. Even Dr. Leaf talks about this and uses the 5-step approach herself. These thoughts can surface throughout the day, and if we don’t recognize and process them, they can start to influence how we feel, how we show up with others, and ultimately how we live.
What I found most interesting about her system is that it helps you get to the root of your thinking.
And for me—that root has actually been the same, every time I’ve gone through a new cycle over the past six years, eliminating a toxic thought, or something that is bothering me.
That showed me something important…
As we start to peel back the layers of our thinking, we begin to understand why we think and act the way we do.
And once we can see that pattern—we can start to change it.
But this isn’t instant.
👉 Changing thought patterns takes time, consistency, and awareness.
And that’s really what this work is about—learning how to observe our thinking, understand it, and then intentionally reshape it over time.
🎙CLIP 1 — UNDERSTANDING THE MIND, BRAIN & ENERGY
The brain is the physical structure…
but the mind is what drives our experience.
Your mind is how we:
- Think
- Feel
- Choose
And these processes are happening all the time, shaping our biology and behavior.
MAIN POINTS FROM CLIP 1
1. 🧠 The Brain is Physical — But It Doesn’t Create Experience Alone
- We can look at a brain—but it won’t generate thoughts on its own
- A living person creates our thoughts, and experiences through interaction with others and the world around us.
👉 The brain supports our experiences
👉 But the mind creates it
Key Takeaway:
Our life is not just coming from our brain structure—it’s coming from how we actually use our mind.
Tip to Implement:
Pause during the day and ask:
- “Am I reacting automatically… or intentionally choosing my response?”
- Is the response that I’m choosing moving me TOWARDS my goal, or AWAY from it?
What experiences are you creating day to day?
If you like what you are creating, keep going. If you would like different results, begin with your thinking.
2. The Mind = Think + Feel + Choose
- Thinking, feeling, and choosing are not separate
- They happen simultaneously and continuously
👉 Every thought creates a feeling
👉 Every feeling influences a choice
Key Takeaway:
You can’t change behavior without addressing both thoughts and emotions together
Tip to Implement for improved results:
When stuck, ask:
- “What am I thinking right now?
- What am I feeling right now?”
- “What choice is this leading me toward?”
“I first heard this idea explained in a different way years ago, while working in the seminar industry with Bob Proctor. It was a core concept in every program he delivered—and it really stayed with me.
He would say that our thoughts are not just passing ideas… they are directly connected to our future results.
That our thoughts, combined with the feelings we attach to them, and the actions we take because of them… ultimately shape our conditions, our circumstances, and our environment. Or in plain English again, our thinking determines our future results, or where we end up in life.
And now, when we look at this through the lens of neuroscience—like Dr. Carolyn Leaf’s work—we can see what’s actually happening underneath:
👉 Our thoughts are influencing our brain chemistry
👉 That chemistry is driving our behavior
👉 And that behavior is what produces our results
So what once sounded like philosophy…
is now something we can understand as biology.
3. Thoughts Are Constantly Driving the Body
- Every moment our mind is active, it’s influencing our biology
- Our thoughts affect:
- Brain activity
- Nervous system
- Physical responses
Key Takeaway:
Our thoughts are not harmless—they are biological drivers
🔧 Tip to Implement for improved results:
Use a simple reset:
- Slow your breathing
- Shift one thought at a time, intentionally
👉 This can begin to regulate your entire system
We saw the importance of breastwork with lowering our HRV with Rohan Dixit[viii]. Over time, and practice, this becomes a habit, as we become more intentional with our thinking.
While studying neuroscience with researcher Mark Robert Waldman, he had his students do an activity that showed us just how difficult this is to do in a typical day. He would say to time how long you would go without thinking a negative thought, or complaining (it didn’t have to be out loud, thinking was enough to stop the timer). Most of us chimed in that we lasted maybe an hour or two before thinking something negative.
Waldman let us know that this activity was not meant to be easy, but for us to become more aware, since the research shows that the average person has roughly 60K-70K thoughts a day, and that 75%-80% are negative, and nearly 95% are repetitive thoughts from the day before.
But there’s hope since we can learn to use our minds to change our brain.
4. The Brain & Body Are Only Part of the System
- The brain and body are physical
- But our mind is what directs and organizes these parts
👉 We are not just our brain
👉 We are the system using the brain
Key Takeaway:
We have more influence than we think—we’re not stuck with our current patterns.
Tip to Implement:
Instead of saying:
- “This is just how I am”
Shift to:
- “This is a pattern I’ve learned—and I can change it”
The fastest way I’ve been able to change my thinking is with Dr. Leaf’s Neurocycle app. It might seem like 63 days is a long time, but when you see the progress at the end, I’m sure you’ll wish like I had, that you had started sooner, to eliminate whatever it was that was stuck in your mind.
5. Thoughts Create Measurable Changes
- As we think, feel, and choose
→ our brain changes
→ our chemistry shifts
Key Takeaway:
Mental activity = physical change in the brain
If you watch our full interview, Dr. Leaf had props to demonstrate what our brain looked like with negative thoughts (it looked like a dead tree) vs a healthy tree with positive thinking.
Tip to Implement:
Be intentional with:
- Morning thoughts
- Pre-performance thoughts (before something important)
- Pre-sleep thoughts
👉 These are high-impact moments for rewiring our brain with positive intentions.
FINAL KEY TAKEAWAYS
✔ The brain is the structure—but the mind drives experience
✔ Thinking, feeling, and choosing are always working together
✔ Thoughts create real biological changes
✔ Repeated thoughts build neural patterns
✔ We all have the ability to shift those patterns with awareness and intention
✔ Our internal state and external world are constantly interacting
What this really shows us is that our thoughts are not just passing moments—they are actively shaping our brain, our chemistry, and ultimately our results.
And when we learn to direct our thinking,
we begin to influence our brain’s chemistry,
our behavior,
and ultimately, our results.
CLIP 2 The Brain is Like a Magnet and Draws Its Own Energy Field.
Prior to this section in the interview, Dr. Leaf spoke about the iron filings activity many of us saw in school. We put a whole bunch of iron filings on a sheet of paper, and then took a magnet and put it in the middle and you saw a beautiful pattern with the iron filings, but take the magnet away, and the filings go into a disordered random pile because the filings are not strong themselves. They lose their alignment that was caused by the magnetic “force” pulling them together. It’s this force Dr. Leaf explains happens with our each of our brain’s. Depending on what our minds are thinking, determines the patterns our minds create with our own energy force. And she clarifies that she isn’t talking about Star Wars, this is understanding the power of our own individual energy force.
MAIN POINTS FROM CLIP 2
1. The “Magnet” Analogy (Pattern Formation)
- Like iron filings around a magnet
→ energy becomes organized into patterns
👉 Our thoughts organize our internal world
👉 Patterns become habits
And I would take this a step further, and say our thoughts absolutely create not only our internal world, but pair them with our feelings and actions, and they create our conditions, circumstances and environment, or our outside world.
We can also look at this as:
- Neural patterning
- Attention shaping networks
- Repeated thoughts→ create strengthened neural pathways
I always want positive neural pathways in my mind, and in the minds of those I care about, which is why I’ll always lead with positive thinking myself. I know my energy field can directly impact the energy field of not just my world, but those around me as well.
Key Takeaway:
Repeated thoughts = repeated neural pathways
Tip to Implement:
Ask daily:
- “What patterns am I reinforcing right now in my life?” When you see something on the outside that you don’t like, we’ve said it before on this podcast, that you’ve got to go inside and make a change.
Shift ONE thought in that pattern if it’s not moving you towards the results that you want.
2. You Are Both Generating AND Responding to Your Environment
- Your internal state influences how you experience the world
- Your environment also influences your internal state
👉 It’s a two-way system
Key Takeaway:
We’re not just reacting to life—we are co-creating our experience (based on what we think, feel and choose day to day).
Tip to Implement:
Control what you can:
- Inputs (what you watch, read, listen to)
- Environments (who you’re around)
👉 These shape your thinking patterns (what you will ending up thinking, feeling and choosing) in your day to day life.
I’m very intentional with who I spend time with for this reason alone. And also what I read, listen to and the environments where I spend the most time.
3. Where We Ground the Science
“While some of these ideas are still being explored, (which is why I interviewed Dr. Korotkov to better understand the science behind our thinking) what we DO know from neuroscience is clear—our thoughts change brain activity, they influence neurochemistry, and shape our behavior over time.”
EP 394 — REVIEW & CONCLUSION
“As we wrap up today’s episode, let’s go back to the question we’ve been exploring in Phase 2:
👉 What is it that actually drives us forward?
In EP 392, we introduced the Motivation Loop—how your brain decides what’s worth doing.
In EP 393, we saw how belief triggers neurochemistry—driving action, feedback, and repetition.
And today, in EP 394, we took it one step deeper…
👉 We looked at the starting point of that loop—our thought patterns.
Because what we’ve seen today is this:
🧠 Your thoughts are not neutral
🧠 They are biological instruction
Every thought we think is influencing:
- our brain activity
- our neurochemistry
- our nervous system
- And ultimately… our behavior and results
WHAT WE NOW UNDERSTAND
From Dr. Carolyn Leaf’s work, we learned:
👉 The mind is how we think, feel, and choose
👉 These processes are always working together
👉 And over time, repeated thoughts create patterns in the brain
And using the magnet analogy…
👉 Just like a magnet organizes iron filings into patterns
👉 Our thoughts organize patterns in our brain
And those patterns become:
- Habits
- Behaviors
- Results
THE BIG CONNECTION
When we zoom out, everything we’ve covered fits together like this:
👉 Thoughts → Neurochemistry → Behavior → Results
This is the Motivation Loop in action.
And what this means is powerful…
👉 If we change our thinking
👉 We can begin to change our results
OWNERSHIP + AWARENESS
But here’s the important part…
This doesn’t happen overnight.
As I shared in this episode, after completing five 63-day Neurocycles, what I’ve seen is that:
👉 Patterns repeat until we become aware of them
👉 And real change takes time, consistency, and intention
But once you can see your patterns…
👉 You can start to change them
PUTTING THIS INTO ACTION
So here’s what I want you to take with you from today’s episode:
Ask yourself:
👉 “What patterns am I reinforcing right now?”
And if they’re not moving you toward the results you want…
👉 Shift one thought
👉 Interrupt one pattern
👉 And begin building a new one
Because small shifts, repeated over time…
👉 Create lasting change in the brain
“So as we continue through Phase 2, remember this:
👉 Our thoughts are not just something we have…
👉 They are something we can direct
And when we learn to direct our thinking…
👉 we begin to direct our life.
Because we have more influence than we think—
over our brain, our behavior, and ultimately, our results.
And next, we’ll continue building on this foundation, as we explore the next layer of what drives performance and sustained effort…
🧠 Attention and reward.
Because once our thoughts shape our neurochemistry…
👉 attention determines what we focus on
👉 and reward determines what we repeat.
When I asked Dr. John Medina about Theory of Mind (in one of our early interviews)—something I had heard him speak about—he explained it as our ability to understand the intentions and motivations of other people.
And this is where it gets really interesting for what we’re studying in Phase 2…
Because the brain doesn’t just pay attention to random information—
👉 It pays attention to people
👉 It pays attention to meaning
👉 It pays attention to intention
And when we understand someone’s intentions…
👉 That creates emotional relevance
👉 That increases attention
👉 And that activates the brain’s reward system
So next we’ll explore how Theory of Mind is not just about understanding others…
👉 It’s a driver of attention and reward.
And this is where dopamine comes into the Motivation Loop.
Then we will tie in what Dr. Anna Lembke explains in Dopamine Nation…
👉 Dopamine isn’t just about pleasure
👉 It’s about motivation, anticipation, and what the brain decides is worth pursuing
“So when attention and reward are aligned…
👉 Learning increases
👉 Memory strengthens
👉 Behavior becomes repeatable
👉 And dopamine is released to reinforce the behavior”
But when they’re not aligned….
👉 We lose focus
👉 Motivation drops
👉 And the loop breaks
And that’s what we’ll explore next.
We’ll see you next around the middle of May for our next episode.
RESOURCES:
Full interview with Dr. Carolyn Leaf on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI6o1pZwGtc
CLIP 1 — UNDERSTANDING THE MIND, BRAIN & ENERGY
CLIP 2 — THE BRAIN IS LIKE A MAGNET
Neurocycle App https://www.neurocycle.app/
REFERENCES:
[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 392 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-motivation-loop-how-your-brain-decides-what-s-worth-doing/
[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 393 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/belief-first-the-neuroscience-of-motivation/
[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/worldrenownedneuroscientistdr-caroline-leaf-oncleaningup-your-mentalmess5-simplescientifically-proven-stepsto-reduceanxiety-and-toxic-thinking/
[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 307 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-konstantinkorotkov-on-bridging-thespiritualworld-with-rigorousscientific-method-methodtappingintothe-powerof-our-thoughtsenergy-fieldsandlimitless/
[v] What is Gas Discharge Visualization? Konstantin Korotkov Published in 2012 in YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhBYqkos-Xk
[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 106 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/book-and-app-review-of-neuroscientist-and-best-selling-author-dr-caroline-leafs-cleaning-up-your-mental-mess-coming-march-2-20201/
[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 299 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-a-deep-dive-into-dr-carolyn-leaf-s-5-scientifically-proven-steps-to-clean-up-our-mental-mess-so-we-can-help-our-children/
[viii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 389 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/breathe-to-reset-how-hrv-tech-reveals-hidden-stress/
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