Ep 107. How Your Mind’s Eye Shapes Your Reality: The Hidden Science of Perception and Belief

What you see with your eyes—before you ever form a thought—has a powerful impact on how you experience the world. In every moment, your brain builds fast assumptions based on past visual memories and emotional experiences. These snap judgments form your beliefs about the people you meet, the situations you face, and the environments you navigate.

But here’s the catch: these automatic beliefs are not always based on truth. They’re built in fractions of a second and often lack evidence. Sometimes, they help you adapt and succeed. Other times, they lead to stress, anxiety, or even failure—especially when they're driven by past emotional events or everyday stressors that feel bigger than they are.

This episode breaks down the neuroscience behind how visual perception influences your mindset, decision-making, and daily interactions. Learn how stress hijacks your mental filters, how to gain awareness of your automatic beliefs, and how to reset your emotional responses to build resilience and peace.

If you’ve ever overreacted to a situation, felt anxious without knowing why, or made quick assumptions that turned out wrong—this episode is for you.

• Perception and belief formation
• How the brain interprets visuals
• Mental health and emotional response
• Assumptions and cognitive bias
• Stress, anxiety, and emotional triggers
• Mindset and personal growth
• Mind's eye psychology
• Resilience and emotional intelligence

🎧 Tune in for a powerful exploration of how your mind's eye shapes your world—and how to take back control

Take care and Walk Well.

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Ep 106. Unlocking Conscious Awareness: How to Rewire Your Brain for Mindfulness, Focus, and Emotional Resilience

Did you know that your brain is often operating on autopilot, using what neuroscientists call the default mode network (DMN)? This state, where we function unconsciously through habits and routines, helps us become more efficient—but it can also trap us in cycles of stress, anxiety, and negative thinking when life gets challenging.

As we master tasks and improve our efficiency, our brains require less active effort—but here’s the catch: during stressful moments, the DMN becomes overactive, turning our thoughts inward in an unproductive and often self-critical way. This neurological pattern can cause us to misinterpret external stimuli as threats, feeding cycles of chronic stress and emotional burnout.

The result? Our minds predict negative outcomes, triggering feelings of learned helplessness, emotional fatigue, and even depression.

But there's a powerful tool that can shift this cycle instantly.

By practicing a simple peripheral vision awareness technique—a method grounded in neuroscience and mindfulness—you can interrupt these patterns. This technique trains your brain to be present, silences the “monkey mind,” and activates sensory awareness that can induce a phenomenon known as time dilation—making you feel as though time is expanding, giving you more space to breathe, think, and live.

This isn’t just self-help jargon—it’s a brain-based strategy for resilience, performance, and emotional clarity.

Step out of autopilot. Train your mind. Experience time differently.

Take care—and walk well.

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Ep 105. Unlocking True Resilience: How Your Immune System and Breath Control Can Transform Stress into Strength

Resilience isn't just about "toughing it out" or pushing through environmental stress. True resilience is biological. It begins deep within the body—at the level of humoral immunity, your blood-based immune response. This internal defense system doesn’t just protect you from viruses and bacteria—it shapes how you feel moment to moment.

Our perception of wellness—ease, effort, stress, or burnout—is deeply tied to immune function and the chemical messengers in our bloodstream. Hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and glucocorticoids, along with neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and NMDA receptors, directly influence how we interpret the world around us. Are we thriving, or are we merely surviving?

When life becomes uncertain, overwhelming, or ambiguous—whether it's work, relationships, isolation, or public settings—our body prepares to fight or flee. This triggers a flood of stress hormones and often leaves us in a loop of anxiety and fatigue.

But there’s good news: you can regulate this system—instantly.

Breath control techniques are a scientifically-backed, rapid-response tool to rebalance oxygen and carbon dioxide, reduce anxiety, and stabilize stress chemicals in the body. With conscious breathing, you activate a neurological and immunological reset—allowing you to respond to life with clarity, calm, and internal strength.

The first step toward resilience is awareness. By understanding your internal biology and practicing nervous system regulation, you build both environmental resilience and immune defense—from the inside out.

So, breathe deep. Stress less. Your body knows the way—now your mind does too. Walk well

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Ep 104. Unlock the Science of Flow State: The Truth About the Default Mode Network (DMN)

What if the biggest thing standing in the way of your full potential… was your own brain? Meet the Default Mode Network (DMN) — a critical part of your brain that gives rise to your sense of self, your inner monologue, and the feeling of being separate from the world around you.

In this episode, we dive deep into neuroscience-backed research that reveals how the DMN shapes your everyday consciousness — and how quieting it can unlock heightened states of performance, creativity, and flow.

When the prefrontal cortex quiets — a state known as transient hypofrontality — you enter the flow zone. Time slows. Action and awareness merge. This is the state elite athletes, artists, musicians, and innovators tap into when they're in the zone.

Whether you're looking to enhance productivity, creativity, athletic performance, or simply understand how to feel more connected to the present moment — understanding and hacking the DMN could be your key.

🧠 Science-based insights
🎯 Real-world applications
🎵 Flow in music, sports, art, and beyond
🌌 How to lose yourself to find yourself

May the flow be with you — and walk well

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Ep 103. Neurotransmitters play a crucial role in shaping human actions and behaviors, particularly those we label as successful or skillful. Skill building inherently involves effort, and to sustain this effort, there must be a rewarding payoff that reinforces the behavior. In today’s fast-paced world, we constantly strive to elevate our behaviors to achieve peak performance, enhance outcomes, and elevate our skills from the ordinary to the extraordinary—reaching legendary heights. The concept of performance enhancement is not new; it dates back to our ancient ancestors, who utilized basic tools to improve their survival. This drive for excellence is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history, where competition for gene proliferation was key. In this discussion, we will explore how neurotransmitters influence peak performance, goal achievement, flow states, and the realization of what once seemed impossible in our contemporary landscape. Embrace the journey, dare to explore, and walk your path with purpose.

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Ep 102. In today’s modern world, we’ve lost the essential rites of passage that once guided our transition into adulthood and defined our roles within tribes, families, and communities. Without these critical milestones, many people feel lost—like aimless souls drifting without purpose or direction. These individuals often face life’s challenges unprepared, navigating them through trial, error, and circumstance, which can become pivotal moments in shaping who they become.

Yet, in these moments of adversity lies an opportunity for personal transformation. Through proper mentorship and guidance from those who have already endured similar trials, one can learn the necessary skills to face life’s challenges and ultimately succeed. Even when failure seems imminent, the process of learning, adapting, and growing builds resilience—equipping the individual with the strength to overcome future obstacles.

Every human being values personal growth, and many yearn to become the best version of themselves. But the key to reaching this higher self lies on the other side of life’s hardest tests. These “life challenges” serve as the crucible for personal development, where we’re forced to confront and grow past our limitations.

True self-improvement requires practice, effort, and commitment—just like any physical skill. The journey toward becoming the improved version of yourself demands sacrifice, and it’s through enduring hardship that we develop the traits that make success meaningful. Achievements gained without struggle lose their value. The most rewarding growth happens when we face the fire, allowing ourselves to be forged into a stronger, more capable version of who we are meant to be.

If you want to reach your full potential, you must embrace the ordeal. Trust the process. The struggle is not only part of the journey; it is the journey. So take care, and walk the path with purpose. Walk well.

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Ep 101. The influence of environment—both our internal personal environment and the external world—significantly shapes and conditions who we become over a lifetime. Sometimes, this impact can be sudden, life-threatening, and even transformative. In the narrative of our lives, we often align ourselves with the charisma, talents, and strengths of a superhero, or the guidance of a personal mentor or athlete hero. Alternatively, we might align with the power that a villain appears to hold, feeling their influence as they avenge the wrongs, pain, and injuries we’ve faced throughout our lives.

Our best efforts at survival, getting our basic needs met, and preventing further pain can create powerful responses within us—reactions programmed by years of neglect, trauma, or the need to gain attention from others. Whether from neglectful parents or societal structures, these deep-rooted instincts and knee-jerk behaviors emerge to keep us safe and to ensure our survival. These behaviors are often seen as self-preservation mechanisms designed to get the essential needs for safety, security, comfort, food, and water.

The human desire for comfort, warmth, and stability drives us, but often, it feels like we have little control over our lives, much less our life trajectory. The struggle for betterment is real, and yet it can seem nearly impossible to break free from patterns of survival instincts and self-protection mechanisms. It’s a daily battle for those who struggle to make it through, fighting to thrive, not just survive.

To those struggling with the weight of life, we offer compassion. May we all walk this journey with care, strength, and understanding. Take care, and walk well.

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Ep 100. In today's fast-paced world, we often find ourselves caught in cycles of procrastination, hesitation, and self-doubt, leading to unnecessary stress and limiting our success. Understanding our primal survival instincts – often referred to as the "F's of survival" – can unlock the key to overcoming these challenges. Rooted in biology and psychology, these deep-seated survival drives are neurological responses that trigger when we perceive threats, even in modern, non-life-threatening situations.

In the primordial past, quick action was essential for survival, but in today’s world, the same survival mechanisms can cause hesitation, fear, and overthinking. These responses, deeply embedded in our subconscious, often cause us to judge events as either threats to avoid or opportunities to ignore. Procrastination, hesitation, and negative self-talk arise as the mind interprets events through a lens of fear and uncertainty, holding us back from taking action and achieving our goals.

The consequences of these survival-based reactions can be harsh self-judgement, feelings of failure, and a cycle of avoidance. But there’s hope. By understanding these mechanisms and stepping back to gather more information, we can leverage procrastination as a powerful tool. We can break free from the chains of fear, embrace self-compassion, and begin to take action in a way that aligns with our true potential.

This podcast delves into the science behind survival drives, how to recognize and manage them, and offers practical advice on overcoming procrastination, fear, and self-doubt. Tune in to discover how to rewrite your mental programming for success and well-being. Take care and walk well.

Hey folks, let me know what you think about the Running Man Podcast. Let me know where you're from and how you are doing in your little part of the world!