The science behind the ‘woo’

Today’s episode of the podcast is a solo episode all about why I’m no longer going to be using the word ‘woo’. As you know, I am a huge advocate for all things spiritual and the benefits that it brings to running a business. However, recently I have decided that I want to stop referring to it as ‘woo’, because that implies it’s silly, or based in fantasy - and it’s really not! I have been doing a lot of research into the scientifically proven benefits of this work, and I am so excited to share it with you and can’t wait to hear what you think.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST  ●     The science behind spiritual practices ●     The connection between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala in managing stress ●     What manifesting is and the science behind it ●     The science behind vision boards ●     The benefits of journaling and how writing improves your health   THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE The more we try to bring our brain into focus, the more it will look for opportunities for us to fulfill our dreams.   HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS  ●     What neural plasticity is and how it changes our brain ●     The importance of having a positive thought ●     How meditation and gratitude can change your brain   Transcript  

Hello, and I really will welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? I hope you're having a good start to your week or have had a great week whenever you are listening to this. So, this week I want to talk about the world of Woo. Right, now don't switch off if you're thinking, no, I can't bear this stuff.

Recently, have kind of come to a thought that I want to stop using the word Woo. Cuz to me that word implies silliness, not real fantasy, flippant. Just not, yeah, it just doesn't, say like what it is really, it just kind of makes it like it's a silly, stupid thing. And I've been doing, as you may know, I've been doing a coaching qualification, a spiritual coaching qualification, and during the process of doing that and during my own process of going through things and looking at things, there is actually a ton of science behind this woo stuff.

So what I've been doing over the past week or so prior to putting together this recording, I've been googling and searching and looking and looking at case studies and reports and various other wonderful things to kind of understand the science behind some of this stuff. And I want to go over with you today how this stuff is scientifically proven even if you think it wasn't, and I've picked a few of the obvious things that we will look at or that people might describe as woo. So buckle in, we're about to learn some stuff.

Okay! So the first thing you need to know is there's something called neuroplasticity. Now this is, this happens, right most of the things I'm gonna talk about David, which is why I'm talking about it first. So it's known as brain plasticity and it's basically the brain's ability to change and adapt. As a result of an experience, and this is important because actually so many of the things that we do, this is where it is changing our brain. So this isn't just a, oh, that's nice to do, and is it really doing anything? A lot of this stuff is changing our brain and it's doing it through this thing called neuroplasticity or that's what's happening to our brain.

So for instance, let's start with meditation. So I did some research and I found a study that basically scanned the prefrontal cortex. So the prefrontal cortex is where we have cognitive control over things such as memory organization and executive decision...