#1 Neurosurgeon: How to Manifest Anything You Want & Unlock the Unlimited Power of Your Mind

1. 0:00 – 3:08

   Introduction

   1. JDDr. Jim Doty0:00

      With manifestation or that terminology, there is a lot of woo-woo and pseudoscience. Actually, the ability to manifest is fundamentally based in neuroscience. There is no woo-woo. There's no magic. There's no law of attraction. What people don't appreciate is you can't wait for somebody to magically take care of everything. The reality is, you have the power within yourself to change your circumstance. So many people in our society, they think somehow if you get this stuff, that's gonna fill the void all of us have, and, of course, it doesn't. You're manifesting all the time. What people don't realize though is that many of the decisions they make in their lives, the relationships, the jobs they have, are actually based on the baggage that they carry and that is the narrative of their story.

   2. MRMel Robbins0:49

      When you start there, anything is possible.

   3. JDDr. Jim Doty0:54

      What you just said fundamentally addresses the issue of how people create a prison for themselves by this negative self-talk. Every time they make a negative statement, it's as if they're laying down a brick, and the walls get higher and it gets darker. Yet, all of us have the key in our pocket to let yourself out of the prison that you created. So many people make judgments about people, and they don't recognize the paths or the, the problems or the adversities they faced. In those situations, you know, you think there's no hope, but...

   4. MRMel Robbins1:38

      Hey, it's your friend Mel. I am so excited that you're here. It's always such an honor to spend time with you and to be together. If you're brand new, welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast family. Thank you for choosing to listen to this podcast and for hitting play on this particular episode, because it tells me that you're the type of person that sees bigger possibilities for yourself, and you're interested in learning how you can use neuroscience and the science of manifestation to help you achieve it. I love that. I wanna know all about that too, which is why I am beyond thrilled to introduce you to someone who is truly extraordinary. Dr. Jim Doty is here from California. He's in our Boston studios. He is a Stanford neurosurgeon. He's a world-renowned neuroscientist, a New York Times best-selling author, a philanthropist. He's the founder and director of the Stanford Center for Compassion, Altruism, Research, and Education. He has done so much more than just that, but to name a few, he's a military veteran. He has founded massive medical device companies. He's one of the world's leading experts in minimally invasive spinal surgery, and he was the former chairman of the Dalai Lama Foundation. And he is here to teach you the science of manifesting and visualization, why it works, and how to do it properly according to the science. You and I are gonna leave this conversation knowing exactly how to leverage Dr. Doty's extraordinary research and wisdom.

2. 3:08 – 9:42

   What you need to know about helping other people

   1. MRMel Robbins3:08

      So please help me welcome Dr. Jim Doty to the Mel Robbins Podcast.

   2. JDDr. Jim Doty3:13

      It is a pleasure and a joy to be with you.

   3. MRMel Robbins3:15

      I am so thrilled that you are here, and I cannot wait for this conversation. So, where I wanna start is, can you speak directly to the person that's listening to us, and tell them how their life might be different if they take to heart absolutely everything that you are about to teach and share with us today?

   4. JDDr. Jim Doty3:38

      Of course. And I think the challenge for so many of us is that we believe the negative self-talk we have, and as a result, we create limited beliefs that then limit our possibilities, and we believe this ongoing narrative. And the reality is, we have more power within ourselves, and it's understanding that you control this. There is no outside force, and as you know, in my book, uh, uh, it says the universe doesn't give a fuck about you, because there is nothing out there. And I don't mean this in a negative way, but I mean, you can't wait for somebody to magically take care of everything. The reality is, you have the power within yourself to change your circumstance, and it's just believing it. And listen, I will tell you, as you know, I grew up in a challenging background. My father was an alcoholic. My mother had had a stroke when I was a child. She was partially paralyzed, chronically depressed, attempted suicide. We were evicted. We were on public assistance. And in those situations, you know, you think there's no hope, but as I found and, uh, from my first book, Enter the Magic Shop, I walked into a magic shop and met a woman who looked at me as a human being. And what I mean by that is so many people make judgments about people, and they don't recognize the paths or the, the problems or the adversities they faced, and everybody deserves to be listened to. So, this woman in this magic shop, she was a radiant being. She had a smile, a presence that made you feel safe. And this is a key, psychological safety, to down-regulate your stress response, and she made me feel okay. She didn't look down on me, and I was 12. As a 12-year-old, she looked at me as an equal, eye to eye, and, uh, that interaction with her changed the trajectory of my life because it changed how I saw the world.

   5. MRMel Robbins6:02

      You've written about your past. You've written about this interaction with this woman in the magic shop, and still it brings so much emotion up in you. How come?

   6. JDDr. Jim Doty6:21

      Uh, one, I'm appreciative. Two, I mean, uh, having somebody take the time to look at you, see you, uh, appreciate what you are, and, uh, taking that interest, it's very meaningful. And I try never to take that for granted. And even, in I hope every interaction, y- you understand that, uh, uh, a lot of people are suffering. They're carrying baggage from their past and that baggage is limiting them. And oftentimes, just listening to somebody can profoundly change their lives, 'cause that's what... People wanna be heard. And sometimes it's just hello. Sometimes it's just a hug. So, I always tell people, "Never forget your own ability to change somebody's life." And also to recognize that oftentimes how somebody is interacting with you has nothing to do with what's going on. It has to do with the baggage they're carrying. And so give p- people the benefit of a doubt. And so, (clears throat) you know, i- if you grow up in a background like mine, typically there are two paths. One is the path you become an alcoholic, drug abuser, have mental health issues. The other is you over-excel, right?

   7. MRMel Robbins7:54

      Mm-hmm.

   8. JDDr. Jim Doty7:54

      Over-achieve. Then the path of the overachiever gets bifurcated. There's the one group who say, "Nobody help me. I did this all myself. Uh, I'm not gonna help anybody else." Then you have the other group, which I probably typify, and maybe excessively, uh, (laughs) where, uh, I understand the pain people go through. Uh, and very deeply. (laughs) So, uh, I'm very attuned to that.

   9. MRMel Robbins8:30

      Um, I personally cry all the time-

   10. JDDr. Jim Doty8:33

       (laughs)

   11. MRMel Robbins8:33

       ... for the same reason. And I don't think I've ever heard anybody explain, um, why I feel so driven to do what I do. So thank you for that. That was a real gift to me to hear somebody explain why tears come up all the time, and why I end this podcast every single time by telling the person who's listening that I love them. Because I know for most people, they actually don't hear it said by anybody else.

   12. JDDr. Jim Doty9:08

       No, and which is a very sad statement because, (clears throat) um, and we can talk about this, but so many people live in a fear mode all the time. And of course, it has all sorts of deleterious effects. And being in a love mode or a heart-centered mode is h- very difficult, especially if you have all sorts of challenges (sniffs) that distract you from who you really are. And I think the gift you give people, and hopefully I try to give people, is a sense of hope and possibilities.

3. 9:42 – 15:22

   The best advice for dealing with difficult people

   1. JDDr. Jim Doty9:42

   2. MRMel Robbins9:42

      I wanna go back to the moment in the magic shop that truly shaped you forever and changed the trajectory of your life. And so the person who's listening can really perhaps see themselves or someone they love in the story. Could you explain, as a 12-year-old, you're walking into this magic shop. First, just kinda how you felt emotionally at that point in your life going through all of the heartache and the hardship that you did that so many people do, and how this interaction with an adult woman who you had never met, who just interacted with you, how that actually changed.

   3. JDDr. Jim Doty10:29

      Well, um, what would happen in my situation at home was whenever s- there was fighting or, uh, uh, challenging events, I would get on my bike and ride as far and as fast away as I could. And I rode a great distance far from my house and ended up at a strip mall. And I'd had an interest in magic for a while. I used to have, like, a plastic thumb that I would do tricks with. (laughs)

   4. MRMel Robbins10:55

      (laughs) My son has one of those.

   5. JDDr. Jim Doty10:56

      Yes. Yes.

   6. MRMel Robbins10:57

      Yeah.

   7. JDDr. Jim Doty10:57

      And, uh, I lost it, uh, so I was looking for a plastic thumb. But anyway, I saw the magic shop and I went in. And what was interesting was this woman was there and who was in her mid-50s probably. And I, I still remember her vividly because she was wearing a blue and white muumuu. Remember these outfits? Because she was a larger lady. And she had this flowing gray hair, and she had these glasses that were at the tip of her nose, and she had a chain on them, and she was reading this paperback book.

   8. MRMel Robbins11:24

      You, you sound like you're describing the potions professor in Harry Potter.

   9. JDDr. Jim Doty11:27

      (laughs) And she may have been actually. Uh, but, uh, uh, anyway, uh, she looked up from her glasses and I started querying her about magic and she said, "I'm just here babysitting the shop because, uh, this is my son's store and he's doing an errand." But this led to her and I having a conversation. And after about 20 minutes, she said to me, she said, "I really like you." She said, "I think I can help you. I- I'm here for another six weeks. If you show up every day, I think you could learn a lot." And I had no clue what she meant. And this was before mindfulness or, uh, neuroplasticity were in the sort of common lexicon. And I did show up every day. Now, I have to tell you, it wasn't because I had any insight or self-awareness. I was a poor 12-year-old in despair with a feeling of hopelessness.But I did show up, and the reason I showed up was one, I had absolutely nothing else to do (laughs) -

   10. MRMel Robbins12:22

       (laughs)

   11. JDDr. Jim Doty12:22

       ... to do (laughs) , uh, two, she was giving me chocolate chip cookies. So those were the two drivers of, uh, my interaction with her. But to sort of understand what happened is she apparently had some exposure to Eastern, uh, meditation practices.

   12. MRMel Robbins12:38

       Mm-hmm.

   13. JDDr. Jim Doty12:39

       And she taught me, if you will, what is now called a mindfulness practice.

   14. MRMel Robbins12:43

       Mm-hmm.

   15. JDDr. Jim Doty12:44

       And what I never realized was that as a child, I was in a war zone all the time, constant trauma because you never know what's going to happen. It's chaos. There's always unexpected things. You can't rely on anyone or any person. And as a result, your muscles are always tight. You're always looking around. You can't focus. And of course, to learn you have to be able to attend. If you can't be present, it's not possible to learn. So she recognized this and she initially taught me a, um, relaxation technique, and then she taught me (sniffs) the ability to focus or attend, and then probably the most critical thing was she taught me that the negative dialogue that was going on in my head was not truth. And oftentimes when we tell ourselves we're not good enough, we're not worthy, we don't deserve love, we think there's some truth in that.

   16. MRMel Robbins13:40

       Yeah.

   17. JDDr. Jim Doty13:40

       But we have, as humans, a negativity bias where negative statements have a tendency to stick with us, and this leads oftentimes to rumination. And once you tell yourself, "It is not possible. I cannot," that becomes truth.

   18. MRMel Robbins13:55

       Yeah.

   19. JDDr. Jim Doty13:56

       And so we create our own limited belief system. And so she taught me a technique to respond with positive self-affirmation, but also to not respond to those negative feelings, uh, and just let them drift by, but also to constantly encourage positivity within yourself, and this led me to look at the world in a different way. And the reason I say that is if you're hypercritical with yourself, you're hypercritical in your, the lens through which you see the world, and you're very judgmental. And (clears throat) what I tell people is once I understood what was going on in my own head, it made me look at the world through a different lens, one of kindness, compassion, and it also dissipated the anger that I had towards my parents.

   20. MRMel Robbins14:49

       Mm.

   21. JDDr. Jim Doty14:50

       Because what happens is, of course they're supposed to be the caregivers, but if they don't have the tools to take care of their own pain, they can't help you. So that realization, uh, was very important, as the realization that people carry baggage and, uh, their reactions oftentime have nothing to do with you. And so having a much more thoughtful, gentle, kinder way to interact with people, uh, I- I think is extraordinarily

4. 15:22 – 18:42

   What society has gotten wrong about happiness

   1. JDDr. Jim Doty15:22

      powerful.

   2. MRMel Robbins15:23

      You, you went on to become a neurosurgeon. How and when did you start manifesting, and can you talk about the kind of overlap and connection between being a neurosurgeon and the interest in the functioning and wiring of the mind itself?

   3. JDDr. Jim Doty15:46

      Well, the other thing, uh, I didn't mention was that at the end of this, if you will, mindfulness type practice, um, we had a discussion. And the discussion was about how to manifest, or visualization.

   4. MRMel Robbins16:00

      So she taught you how to manifest and visualize at the age of 12?

   5. JDDr. Jim Doty16:03

      Yes.

   6. MRMel Robbins16:04

      Wow.

   7. JDDr. Jim Doty16:05

      So she asked me to make a list of 10 things that I wanted. Now, I have to tell you, this is through the lens of a 12-year-old who's poor. So, uh, in typical fashion, I said I wanted, uh, to be a millionaire, which in 1968 was, uh, a lot of money it seemed like. Uh, I wanted to have a mansion. I wanted to be a doctor. And it wasn't so much... Listen, I was always kind and thoughtful, but I wanted to be a doctor so people looked at me-

   8. MRMel Robbins16:34

      Mm.

   9. JDDr. Jim Doty16:34

      ... and said, "You're okay." Uh, I wanted a Porsche. I wanted a Rolex watch. And all of these external, uh, um, material things that so many people in our society think they need, they think somehow if you get this stuff, that's gonna fill the void all of us have, and of course it doesn't. And, uh, but society is oriented, unfortunately, towards seeking external affirmation with the belief that if you fulfill the societal narrative of success, which is money, power, position, that will then translate into happiness. And of course, this is a story that's been told over and over and over again, and it does not. And I'm sure you know many, many extraordinarily, quote unquote, successful people who are absolutely miserable.

   10. MRMel Robbins17:25

       Well, you know, one thing I wanna highlight as you're listening to Dr. Doughty, and I just am so blown away by, um, your gift of explaining things and how connected you are to why this is important to you, and it's important to, I think, everybody to understand what you're trying to teach us, is that I think a lot of us know that chasing the external stuff is what society has been prioritizing, but you're going a layer deeper, which is it's not just about the belief that you think those things will make you happy. It's that your lived experience when you feel invisible is that people that have those things are seen.And that is an explanation that cuts at a way deeper psychological driver than happiness. And that experience of feeling like you don't matter, you're not seen, you, uh, are not treated with a level of dignity and care that every human being

5. 18:42 – 21:20

   Why your body is designed to manifest your dream life

   1. MRMel Robbins18:42

      deserves, I haven't heard anybody truly connect the dots between the obsession with chasing status and surface level items and actually... Not happiness, but the fundamental need that we human beings have for connection and the sense that somebody actually cares about you, and you think that that's going to happen because of the si- shiny stuff that you acquire. And you're here to say that actually it doesn't.

   2. JDDr. Jim Doty19:18

      It doesn't, uh, at all. And I think, uh, that's a challenge for so many people because, uh, they've been sold this narrative and it's a narrative un- of unhappiness and it's a narrative of fear. And I was saying earlier, when you chase things like that, that's because of your own insecurity. And as a result, that activates your sympathetic nervous system, which of course is the flight, fight or freeze response. And when that happens, actually that has a very negative effect on how your brain functions, but also your peripheral physiology, and can lead to a lot of very significant, uh, diseases and, uh, decrease your life f- uh, expectancy. Versus if you shift that narrative, if you will, to the love mode. And what I mean by that is all of us have the ability to actually, uh, shift from engagement of our sympathetic nervous system, which is part of our autonomic nervous system which arises in the brain stem and is distributed throughout all the organs in your body, but especially your heart, to the parasympathetic nervous system, which is really how we evolved to live, uh, as a species. Uh, it's not that we were stressed every second, we were stressed periodically, and that stress mode was meant to activate i- uh, uh, in the face of threat and respond, and either you survived or didn't survive, but then you immediately went back to engagement of your parasympathetic nervous system if you survived. That is the system we were designed to live in. That is the system in which you care, which you're rewarded for caring, where you have the release of oxytocin and these other neurotransmitters that activate your pleasure and reward centers when you care for another, especially your offspring, but also i- within, uh, the context of our common humanity. And that is the mode you want to be in, especially if you want to manifest, because that is when your cognitive brain networks, your peripheral physiology work at their best. And that is from the love mode,

6. 21:20 – 26:13

   Why you must know the difference between heart mode vs. fear mode

   1. JDDr. Jim Doty21:20

      if you will.

   2. MRMel Robbins21:21

      I wanna see if I can translate back (laughs) 'cause those were a lot of big words. I realize that you are a neurosurgeon and you teach these concepts all over the world, but I want you and I to put our arm around the person that's listening, and I wanna see if I can't shorthand all this science. So you keep using the word fear mode and heart mode, which I love. You also just beautifully explained, if I'm hearing you correctly, that there are two, uh, modes to our nervous system, parasympathetic, sympathetic, rest, calm, and love, fight or flight. And that as we listen, is it okay if every time you say fear mode, we just go, "Okay, he's talking about the sympathetic fight or flight nervous system that a lot of us live in, that shuts you off to possibility, connection, potential, and love, versus the heart mode, which is your parasympathetic nervous system, and it is where the connection and manifestation and fulfillment and the potential of your life exists." Is that a way to think about this?

   3. JDDr. Jim Doty22:45

      No, no, uh, that's, uh, the perfect way to think about it. And, uh, when you're in that mode, everything changes for the positive and-

   4. MRMel Robbins22:53

      The heart mode.

   5. JDDr. Jim Doty22:53

      Yes. And the possibilities of having your intention manifest are greatest when you are in that mode.

   6. MRMel Robbins23:01

      Okay. Got it. So I wanna be in heart mode. How did this amazing woman in the magic shop teach you to manifest when you were 12?

   7. JDDr. Jim Doty23:12

      Well, I have to tell you, uh, uh, uh, and I don't wanna mislead people, uh, I thought it was a lot of bullshit, uh, initially. (laughs)

   8. MRMel Robbins23:23

      (laughs)

   9. JDDr. Jim Doty23:23

      Uh, and the reason is, is because, of course, I had never been exposed to anything like that.

   10. MRMel Robbins23:27

       Mm-hmm.

   11. JDDr. Jim Doty23:28

       I mean, being able to sit and, and relax your muscles with intention, being able to breathe a certain way to calm your nervous system down were completely new to me, uh, so it took a little while for me to understand that. But once I did understand it, I realized how powerful it was because I didn't constantly have this negative self-talk going on and this fear constantly. And so, uh, as you know, uh, these types of mindfulness practice, which are very commonly discussed today and have changed millions of lives, uh, are readily available to everyone. And fundamentally, what she taught me was this type of a technique, a relaxation technique, a focus technique, and, uh, dealing with the negative self-talk, looking at the world through a lens of compassion, and we talked about visualization. For you to maximally visualize, that n- means you have to be relaxed, you have to have calm, you have to not look at what I want...And this is the difference for a lot of people because they have a vision of what they want-

   12. MRMel Robbins24:38

       Mm-hmm.

   13. JDDr. Jim Doty24:39

       ... but not what they need. As an example, we're talking about possessions, "I want a Porsche, I want a Rolex," which was what I, uh, did. Um, and they think that, "If I just get that, I'll be okay." And the problem is that it won't make you okay. And when you're sitting there self-focusing, "If I just have that, I need this," versus as an example saying, "I wanna be a doctor." Now, it's not, "I wanna be a doctor so everybody looks at me and says how great I am," which is what I did. It's, "I wanna be a doctor because I wanna help people." Those are completely two different narratives. One is, "I want to be of service." That is how we were designed as human beings. Not, "I want for me." And when you change how you look at the world, when you change what you want, you realize, one, a lot of what you think you want is worthless versus what is powerful, what gives a person purpose and meaning, which of course activates every aspect of your physiology, both brain and peripheral physiology, to work at their best, is being of service, being connected, caring for others. And we know through the work of Bob Buettner and the Blue Zones or the work of Robert Waldinger, uh, and the 85-year-old Harvard study, when you care for others, when you look through that lens, everything in your life improves, and that is the place where you also have the ability to maximize the possibilities for your intention to manifest.

7. 26:13 – 28:47

   As human beings, how are we wired for service?

   1. JDDr. Jim Doty26:13

   2. MRMel Robbins26:13

      You said that human beings are wired for service. As a neurosurgeon, as a person that, you know, you're, you're here in Boston to go teach about compassion, you are the chairman-

   3. JDDr. Jim Doty26:28

      Of the Dalai Lama Foundation, yes.

   4. MRMel Robbins26:30

      So how are we wired for service as human beings?

   5. JDDr. Jim Doty26:36

      Well, if you look at our evolution as a species, unlike other species, one, we have a small litter size. (laughs)

   6. MRMel Robbins26:43

      (laughs) That's a very clinical way...

   7. JDDr. Jim Doty26:45

      (laughs)

   8. MRMel Robbins26:45

      I think if I were your wife and you said that, I'd smack you, Dr. Doty.

   9. JDDr. Jim Doty26:49

      (laughs)

   10. MRMel Robbins26:49

       A small litter size.

   11. JDDr. Jim Doty26:50

       Well, my wife has smacked me multiple times, believe me.

   12. MRMel Robbins26:53

       (laughs)

   13. JDDr. Jim Doty26:53

       And, uh, our offspring do not run off into the jungle or the forest, they have to be cared for for well over a decade. And why would you expend the time, the resources, the energy to care for your offspring unless you were rewarded? The way you're rewarded when you care for your offspring is the release of different neurotransmitters such as oxytocin or the love hormone. And when those are released, your pleasure and reward centers are activated, your physiology works at its best, and you look at the world through the lens of love and caring because you want your offspring to survive. As we evolved as a species, and you're probably aware of that, there's something called Dunbar's number. Uh, so up to 150 people, which was typically the size of a tribe, again, it was important because you were in a hostile environment that you cared for the other or the group would not survive. So these are very deep-seated genetic imperatives, uh, that are with us that allow our species to survive. We are not meant to live chronically, uh, in the sympathetic nervous system. We are meant, as a species, to live in our parasympathetic nervous system where we have openness, generosity, caring, love. The problem is the nature of how capitalist society has been developed, uh, actually for many, many people activates their sympathetic nervous system chronically and they get distracted from their purpose. Our purpose is to love one another.

   14. MRMel Robbins28:32

       I love that, and I love that you've simplified it to you're either in fear mode and heart mode, and that you are hardwired for heart mode. Your purpose is to love yourself, to love other people, to be in

8. 28:47 – 31:05

   Dr. Doty teaches you his incredible manifestation process

   1. MRMel Robbins28:47

      that mode. Can you explain what manifesting is? How do you think about it or describe and teach it to people around the world?

   2. JDDr. Jim Doty28:58

      So as you know, with manifestation or that terminology, there's a lot of woo-woo and pseudoscience, and a lot of people take advantage of that and, uh, it turns in- unfortunately into, uh, a money-making opportunity for some people. The reality is though that actually the ability to manifest is fundamentally based in neuroscience. There is no woo-woo, there's no magic, there's no law of attraction. Based on the history of it back in the first and second century, the hermetics came up with this idea and it's been propagated through different, uh, prosperity gospels and all sorts of other things as if if you have positive energy and you put that energy out in the world, you will be able to manifest the Porsche, the Ferrari, the mansion and, uh, but if it doesn't happen, it's your fault 'cause you didn't care enough or you didn't do it the right way, or, "Just buy another book and I'll tell you the real way to do it." Uh-

   3. MRMel Robbins29:56

      (laughs)

   4. JDDr. Jim Doty29:57

      (laughs) But fundamentally, it's based on neuroscience. And what I mean by that is the way in which you manifest, and I'll define manifestation, is the ability to take an intention and embed it into your subconscious in a manner such that it has the greatest likelihood to occur or to manifest. And what I mean by that is, what people don't appreciate is every second we have about six to 10 million bits of information coming to us from our sensory organs. That's what makes us who we are, that creates our reality. But on a conscious level, we can only deal with 50 to 100 because 99.9% go to maintain our bodily function.That 50 to 100 though, you have control over.

   5. MRMel Robbins30:46

      50 to 100-

   6. JDDr. Jim Doty30:47

      A hundred bits of information.

   7. MRMel Robbins30:48

      ...bits of information.

   8. JDDr. Jim Doty30:50

      So, how do you deal with that? Well, you take the tools and what I mean by that is the tools to embed something into your subconscious.

   9. MRMel Robbins31:00

      Okay.

   10. JDDr. Jim Doty31:00

       The best way to do that, and I'm sure you've heard the term, what fires together,

9. 31:05 – 38:30

   What happens in our brain when we manifest?

   1. JDDr. Jim Doty31:05

      wires together.

   2. MRMel Robbins31:06

      But can you explain that for the person listening?

   3. JDDr. Jim Doty31:08

      Sure.

   4. MRMel Robbins31:08

      What does that mean?

   5. JDDr. Jim Doty31:09

      So, if you create habits-

   6. MRMel Robbins31:11

      Mm-hmm.

   7. JDDr. Jim Doty31:11

      ...this results in the creation of neuropathways and if the re- mere repetition of those habits actually lays down the circuitry that then gets embedded and then actually makes things happen. And I'll explain it as follows. When you are able to use all of your sensory organs or abilities to embed that intention and do it repeatedly, that is when you're creating these neuropathways. As an example, if you have an intention, you take a pencil, you write it down, you're actually doing something physical, tactile. Then you read it silently, then you read it aloud, then you visualize that, and you do that over and over and over again. What that will do is then embed that into your subconscious and then these different cognitive brain networks get activated.

   8. MRMel Robbins32:09

      Now, can we unpack that just a minute?

   9. JDDr. Jim Doty32:11

      Sure.

   10. MRMel Robbins32:11

       'Cause everyone that listens to this loves to make sure that they just got the instructions from you, Dr. Doty, 'cause I'm like hanging on every word. And so there were a couple steps to that because you had the physical pencil, you had the act of writing, you had this moment where, if you're watching on YouTube you saw it, but if you're listening let me describe it. He, he sat back in his chair. He put his hands kind of in prayer at his chest, closed his eyes, and he started talking about repeating the thought. Is that the chain of events i- that you do to encode it in your mind?

   11. JDDr. Jim Doty32:49

       Yes, absolutely.

   12. MRMel Robbins32:50

       So we, w- so what is... Will you walk us through it one more time?

   13. JDDr. Jim Doty32:53

       Yeah, so again, what you wanna do is to use all of your sensory organs as much as possible to embed that intention. So by writing it down, by reading it aloud, by visualizing it, that creates the process where this gets embedded, uh, into your subconscious. And what happens is once you get this embedded, it activates different parts of your brain and without getting too technical, one is something called the default mode network.

   14. MRMel Robbins33:24

       Is that the same thing as the reticular activating system?

   15. JDDr. Jim Doty33:27

       No.

   16. MRMel Robbins33:27

       Okay.

   17. JDDr. Jim Doty33:28

       But they're related. (laughs)

   18. MRMel Robbins33:29

       Okay. So the default mode network...

   19. JDDr. Jim Doty33:31

       Yes, so this is what happens when your mind wanders, uh, or you're daydreaming and it's self-referential because it's internally focused, but it's where you create the narrative of who you are or what you want.

   20. MRMel Robbins33:48

       So, if you have negative self-talk, if you ruminate, if you are like, "I'm never good enough. Uh, nothing works out for me. Things like that don't happen to a person like me. I can never get it right." That is in-

   21. JDDr. Jim Doty34:01

       That is w-

   22. MRMel Robbins34:01

       ...in the default mode now?

   23. JDDr. Jim Doty34:02

       Oh, absolutely.

   24. MRMel Robbins34:03

       Okay.

   25. JDDr. Jim Doty34:03

       And that gets really activated and results in rumination for some people.

   26. MRMel Robbins34:07

       Can I ask you another question? Because one of the things that you said, at the very, very beginning, is you painted this gorgeous picture of the ability to leverage the remarkable power of your brain to help you get what you truly desire in life, to help you live in heart mode, and you said it's just about believing it. And part of the reason why we have trouble believing it is because of the default mode network and all of these stories you've repeated over and over and over again. Is that-

   27. JDDr. Jim Doty34:49

       Yeah.

   28. MRMel Robbins34:49

       ...is that fair to say?

   29. JDDr. Jim Doty34:51

       No, that's, uh, exactly, uh, correct and, and-

   30. MRMel Robbins34:53

       And c- we can reprogram or we can lay down a new track?
10. 38:30 – 47:46

    How to use the science of manifestation when trying something new

    1. MRMel Robbins38:30

       to reprogram your mind. When we talk about forming new habits through repetition, I think most of us understand that if you want to... Let's just take the example of stop drinking soda. There is a specific physical action that I have to do every day, whether I like it or not. And the consistency of not drinking soda or probably better yet just focusing on drinking water or a non-soda beverage, that repetition, I get it. I know what I need to do. Where I see people trip up is that when it comes to negative self-talk, it is so embedded in the subconscious. You've been thinking this way for so long and because it's there in the back of your mind, unlike learning to drink more water or learning to go for a walk every day, it's not a physical thing that you kind of see outside yourself. This is actually programming deep within. And so could you help me and the person listening understand? Let's say that you have for your entire life had this narrative in your mind where like, "I'm not good enough." How do I use these four parts of the brain and the technique you just described step by step to program a completely different way of talking to myself in my default mode network and pick whatever... 'Cause you have, you, you are the expert teaching people around the world this technique. So pick whatever you believe is the most common default negative self-talk or belief, and then if you could, walk us step by step. What am I doing, Dr. Doughty, every day?

    2. JDDr. Jim Doty40:31

       Well, I, I think the first thing people need to recognize is (clears throat) the burden we carry as a human being is negative self-talk. It is not going to go 100% away.

    3. MRMel Robbins40:41

       Okay.

    4. JDDr. Jim Doty40:41

       That's just the way it is. In fact, uh, I was, uh, you know, I speak about these things, and I have, I say to people, "How many of you have negative self-talk?" And usually, 90% of people raise their hand. And I say, "The other 10% are lying." And, (laughs) and I don't care in theory, I mean, obviously, you, uh, have examined these areas. I have examined these areas. I still have negative self-talk. The key is though in the face of the negative self-talk, you're okay. And understand what it is and not let it overpower you where you sit there and go, "Oh, God. I'm horrible." I'm, and you just ruminate over this. Recognize for what it is and let it sit there. You don't have to do anything with it. And this is the fundamental practice of mindfulness meditation, but the aspect which I think is different and actually what we teach at Stanford is to have compassion for self. And this is when you give yourself these positive affirmations and you say, "You're worthy. You're good enough. You deserve." And a lot of the negative self-talk comes from where? It comes from the baggage that we carry from our childhoods, and this is what a lot of people don't appreciate. You're manifesting all the time. What people don't realize though is that many of the decisions they make in their lives, the relationships, the jobs they have, the decisions they make are actually based on the baggage that they carry and that is the narrative of their story. And so one of the first things I think you have to do is to sit back, and whether it's with a therapist or just self-reflection where you're writing things down and trying to understand how you become you, to have some awareness of what created this.

    5. MRMel Robbins42:28

       Mm.

    6. JDDr. Jim Doty42:29

       And once you have that insight, then that allows you to not be as affected or to believe it but understand that it's the nature of how humans are wired and it's okay. That's not gonna change. And in some ways, it's like also accepting your shadow self.... right? All of us have a part of us that we're ashamed of, we're embarrassed about, we've done actions that are horrible sometimes, and you can't push your shadow away. You have to accept it and integrate it into who you are. And the same is true of this. So once you're able to do that, that lessens the power of that inner critic.

    7. MRMel Robbins43:10

       So, let me see if I can just, again, translate this because you've got a really big brain.

    8. JDDr. Jim Doty43:15

       (laughs)

    9. MRMel Robbins43:16

       You operate on brains-

    10. JDDr. Jim Doty43:17

        Oh.

    11. MRMel Robbins43:18

        ... and you are friends with the biggest spiritual leaders of our time, and you teach compassion, manifestation, visualization, all of this. And I'm, I just wanna make sure that I do my job, and that as you're listening, that you truly are able to take all of this extraordinary wisdom and the gift of Dr. Doty and apply it. And so, I heard you say that if you were to take out a piece of paper and you were to just start journaling around, "What did my childhood make me believe about myself?" That that first step of seeing that in writing helps you separate from it and see it for what it is, which is, it is a story just like a story in a book that is something you've been telling yourself over and over. And just separating yourself from it is the first step. The thing I'm curious about, though, is how I start to learn a new story. Because, for example, if we, if we were to bring in a flute, right? And, uh, and, and, and, uh, would you be able to play a flute if I handed it to you?

    12. JDDr. Jim Doty44:37

        Of course not.

    13. MRMel Robbins44:38

        Yeah, me either. But if I practiced it for a year, I could probably learn it. And so I'm assuming that there's a technique even once I separate and go, "Oh, my childhood taught me to think X about myself." What is the technique for how you use the science of manifestation and visualization to start to write a new story about yourself?

    14. JDDr. Jim Doty45:06

        No, I think that's an excellent question, and in fact, the first step is understanding what you've already been manifesting.

    15. MRMel Robbins45:11

        Which is the negative.

    16. JDDr. Jim Doty45:13

        (laughs) Yes. Okay.

    17. MRMel Robbins45:13

        Yes, and you've been manifesting it because you've repeated it in your subconscious, and you've interacted with those thoughts all day long since your childhood, and that is a form of manifestation. It proves that it works-

    18. JDDr. Jim Doty45:27

        Oh. (laughs)

    19. MRMel Robbins45:27

        ... because you just repeated it over and over and over.

    20. JDDr. Jim Doty45:29

        Well, and I'm sure you've met people who go, "Gosh, I'm going through my third divorce, and yet it's like I married the same person every time." (laughs)

    21. MRMel Robbins45:34

        And you're like, "Yes, you did."

    22. JDDr. Jim Doty45:36

        Yeah. (laughs)

    23. MRMel Robbins45:36

        "'Cause you manifested it-"

    24. JDDr. Jim Doty45:37

        Yeah.

    25. MRMel Robbins45:37

        "... because you think the same way over and over and over again."

    26. JDDr. Jim Doty45:41

        So, we do have the power to change that narrative.

    27. MRMel Robbins45:43

        Okay.

    28. JDDr. Jim Doty45:43

        And then the next thing is, which we discussed a little bit, is understanding the difference between what you want or think you want and what you need.

    29. MRMel Robbins45:52

        But Dr. Doty, I don't wanna think about what I need. I wanna think about what I want. You know what I mean? Like I-

    30. JDDr. Jim Doty45:57

        Uh, what-
11. 47:46 – 53:44

    Dr. Doty’s touching experience with spirituality

    1. JDDr. Jim Doty47:46

    2. MRMel Robbins47:46

       Um, you just said something that I wanna make sure I take out my magic highlighter and I call attention to. That if you were to remove all of the material stuff, do you actually still feel good about who you are?

    3. JDDr. Jim Doty48:08

       Absolutely.

    4. MRMel Robbins48:10

       And having those things to enjoy them is one thing, but needing those things to define your worth is a completely separate issue that, based on research, you're saying leads to unhappiness. And, uh, since we're talking about material items, though, can you explain how the science of visualization or man- uh, uh, are visualization and manifestation-

    5. JDDr. Jim Doty48:37

       Yes.

    6. MRMel Robbins48:37

       ... the same things?

    7. JDDr. Jim Doty48:38

       Yes.

    8. MRMel Robbins48:39

       Okay. So, how does the science of manifestation help you achieve goals or help you...... get material things, if that's something that you would like to have in your life.

    9. JDDr. Jim Doty48:52

       Well, let me give you an example. I mean, when I was 12, I had a list of all material things.

    10. MRMel Robbins48:56

        Mm-hmm.

    11. JDDr. Jim Doty48:56

        And I got every one of them.

    12. MRMel Robbins48:58

        What was on the list?

    13. JDDr. Jim Doty48:59

        I'd become a neurosurgeon, a professor at Stanford. Uh, I have all this material success. I'm a successful entrepreneur. I have millions and millions of dollars. I'm, uh, I have a, a, a home overlooking the bay in Newport Beach. I have a villa in Florence. I have, uh, an island-

    14. MRMel Robbins49:18

        We're all starting to hate you right now-

    15. JDDr. Jim Doty49:19

        Yes, yes.

    16. MRMel Robbins49:20

        ... but go ahead.

    17. JDDr. Jim Doty49:20

        Uh, uh, and, you know, I was single at the time and I was dating all these attractive women, and all my friends said, "God, your life is so great, man. Look at you." Yet, I was never more miserable (laughs) in my entire life because I kept expecting, "Okay, I'm gonna climb this mountain and then I'm gonna feel good about myself. Then I'm gonna climb the next mountain, I'm gonna feel good about myself." And I never felt good about myself. None of that stuff made me feel good about myself. And in fact, I, I don't, uh, you know, I lost $80 million during the dot-com crash and as a result, uh, of course, that gets your attention because I was $3 million in debt and I had a $15 million loan. And as a result, I had, I went through a period of steep self-reflection because I, I wanted to understand what mistake had I made in this process because I'd done everything, I thought. And (clears throat) it was because I was focused on, "Look at me, I did this, make me feel good about myself." And that's what I was chasing, and it didn't help me. And so here I am having to deal with this massive loss, I'm selling all of this m- you know, I had a Ferrari, a Porsche, a Range Rover, a BMW, a Mercedes, uh, I had a several million dollar house overlooking the bay. I had to sell all of this stuff. And it was interesting, uh, during that situation, I had to deal with my banker, of course, who wanted his money, and I had to deal with my lawyers because I had set up a variety of different trusts. But I had set up a charitable trust and had put stock into it, and honestly, it was probably a tax avoidance thing, it wasn't because Jim Doty was super nice (laughs) , right? Uh, so, uh, I was dealing with my lawyer and he said, "Look, Jim, I have some good news for you. We actually never completed the paperwork for that trust, so you don't have to give any of that stock away. You can just keep it." And I went through this period of, of deep reflection about this and, uh, um, uh, at the end of the day, I told him to go ahead and give the stock away.

    18. MRMel Robbins51:27

        Was it Google?

    19. JDDr. Jim Doty51:29

        No, (laughs) no, but it was $30 million. Uh, but what that $30 million did was it changed everything. It, I set up health clinics around the world, I set up programs for adolescents who were affected by AIDS, HIV, I set up programs for the disabled, I in- s- funded research, I set up endowed chairs. And in some ways though, it was an interesting trajectory because I went truly from rags to riches, literally, to rags again in terms (laughs) of the spiritual.

    20. MRMel Robbins52:02

        Mm-hmm.

    21. JDDr. Jim Doty52:03

        Okay? What I was doing was not soothing my soul and so when I gave everything away, being in the face of $3 million in the hole, that is when everything changed. This is where I started the center at Stanford that studies compassion, I met His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I developed these relationships with all of these spiritual and religious leaders, which has been incredibly, incredibly impactful in my life. And so it's a different rags to riches, right?

    22. MRMel Robbins52:40

        There are so many aspects of that story I wanna unpack because I have been in a, I've been in many moments of my life where I had nothing and was on the verge of losing everything that I cared about. But if I had heard somebody talking about Porsches and this and that and the other thing and then you lose it all and then you have a spiritual awakening, I would still, as I'm listening, go, "That's nice for you, but I am having trouble putting groceries on the table and I still would love a Porsche." And I know, because I know some of your background, how important it is for you to awaken something inside of people about the deeper meaning of life and the way to use manifestation and visualization and the science of all this in a way to truly unlock your potential.

12. 53:44 – 57:34

    How to grasp the power available to you through manifestation

    1. MRMel Robbins53:45

       And how would you have somebody who's listening, who is really struggling and never has achieved that moment of riches that is surface level, truly grasp the power of what is available to them to use these tools of separating from your past story and identifying what you wanna believe about yourself and then writing it and believing it and repeating it and trying to open up your heart and live in this heart mode? What is available to you if we lean in and trust you even when you're really struggling and it seems like money is the solution?

    2. JDDr. Jim Doty54:33

       No, no, you're absolutely right, and, uh, I don't want to give anybody the impression that... Look, my worst day, I was a neurosurgeon making, uh, more than 99.9% of people.

    3. MRMel Robbins54:43

       Mm-hmm.

    4. JDDr. Jim Doty54:44

       So even though, uh, I lost all this money and was in the hole, I certainly had the ability, uh, to, uh, recover.... and most people don't have that. So I certainly want to acknowledge that, and I'm not saying that my story is everyone's story. Listen, I started, uh, uh, i- in, from very, very humble beginnings. But the fundamental aspect of the story is it doesn't matter where you're at, it's matters what you believe.

    5. MRMel Robbins55:15

       Mm-hmm.

    6. JDDr. Jim Doty55:16

       And when you have this negative self-talk and you create these limited belief systems, that is the prison you're creating for yourself. And the first step though is to understand that yes, circumstances can be very horrible. Yes, circumstances can, uh, result in you not even being able to feed your family, and I truly acknowledge that because I know what it's like to be hungry. (crying) But regardless, you have possibilities when you're able to interrupt that negative belief system, when you're able to look through the lens of possibilities. Because when you are negative, when you say, "It's not possible. The world is against me."

    7. MRMel Robbins56:13

       Mm-hmm.

    8. JDDr. Jim Doty56:13

       "Everybody hates me."

    9. MRMel Robbins56:15

       Mm-hmm.

    10. JDDr. Jim Doty56:15

        Fundamentally, you're changing your physiology, and as you probably know, uh, we have oscillation or vibrations that come from our bodies, and one of the greatest ones is from your heart. If you have this negative self-talk, if you create this negativity, that goes out. I mean, the, the bioelectrical energy that comes from your heart extends three to five, uh, feet outside your body, and I'm sure you've experienced, you were mentioning something earlier, "Gosh, when you walked in, you made me feel good." That is a gift all of us have to give people, and I'm sure you've met people who, as soon as you meet them, go, "I do not like that person." All of us have the ability to become the former, not the latter. It's change, i- it's how you look at the world, and when you change how you look at the world from that one of negativity because, you know, your situation is difficult to look at, there are amazing possibilities here. Because what I tell people, when I changed how I looked at the world, the world changed how it looked at me, because people reached out to me because I was open to it. I was appreciative. I was thankful. I didn't sit there and say, "The world hates me. Nobody's gonna do anything." That energy changes

13. 57:34 – 1:02:44

    What can you do to enter Heart Mode?

    1. JDDr. Jim Doty57:34

       when you change how you look at the world.

    2. MRMel Robbins57:36

       And... the energy you're talking about is the ability to move yourself from a fear mode-

    3. JDDr. Jim Doty57:42

       Absolutely.

    4. MRMel Robbins57:42

       ... into a heart mode. And there's also a lot of research and science that you write about, and how being in that heart mode, where you're coming from a place of service, where you are actively manifesting and visualizing positive beliefs about yourself, "I am good. I am worthy. I am loved," what are the things that you say that help you drop into heart mode?

    5. JDDr. Jim Doty58:09

       And this may sound strange, but fundamentally, the world we create is one we create. It is a delusion that we have created for ourselves, and that delusion can either be one of, "The world hates me. Everybody hates me. The world is against me," versus saying, "Wow, look at the sunshine. I am here. Look at all these amazing people around me. Look at the possibilities." And I'm not saying this out of some, uh, trope that is not true. It is true when you change how you look at yourself. Now, if you want to manifest, there's several techniques, and-

    6. MRMel Robbins58:44

       Can you walk us through a couple?

    7. JDDr. Jim Doty58:45

       Sure. One of the first things you have to do though is find a place, a calm place, where you can shift from being in the fear mode to the heart mode, where you're not distracted, where it's not noisy, where you're not taking caffeinated beverages or using mind-altering substances, (laughs) where you can simply be present, and then you can begin a breathing exercise. The very nature of that breathing exercise, and this is a mindfulness practice, gets you into the heart mode, and then you start seeing the world through a different lens. And then you start, l- as an example, talking about, "What have I already manifested?" And you sit there with that, and you love yourself in the sense of saying, "Yes, that happened," but number one, and this is oftentimes the case with children, they look at, say, "It's my fault." It's not your fault. You're okay, and you're also okay no matter what's happened in the past. You know, all of us deserve a second chance and sometimes a third chance. There, uh, most people, uh, are loving, kind people inside, and they have been battered by the forces oftentimes that make them think that's not the case or that they don't deserve love. Everybody deserves love. Everybody deserves dignity. And so when you can sit in that quiet space and reflect on this and then think about what it is you truly want, what would make you happy, most people, if they actually sit there and do it, they realize the false narrative of getting the Porsche or the Ferrari. If they sit there and think about it, what do they really want? They want security for their family. They want food on the table. They want shelter. And if you look through that lens, that is, "What am I doing to be of service to help my family and my environment, which will ultimately help me?" And so going through those exercises, understanding the power that you have, and also, uh, there's another aspect which is related to attachment. One of the biggest things that causes suffering is attachment and craving, and...It's wonderful to have goals, it's wonderful to utilize these techniques to manifest, but there are certain caveats to that. One is sometimes things don't manifest, and it's not necessarily because you did anything wrong or, uh, the gods are looking down at you badly. Uh, sometimes your subconscious may even know that it's not good for you-

    8. MRMel Robbins1:01:17

       Hmm.

    9. JDDr. Jim Doty1:01:18

       ... and it doesn't allow that to happen. The other is that, uh, things don't happen always exactly as we visualize. They may approximate it, but oftentimes they're not exactly. And I have things I've been trying to manifest for 10 or 15 years, and I firmly believe they will manifest, but you have to be patient. You have to do the work. You have to do the exercises. And, uh, uh, all of that is okay because I'm not attached to the outcome, and that is a critical thing. Yes, do I want it to happen? Absolutely. Should it happen? Absolutely. Will it happen? Maybe, maybe not.

    10. MRMel Robbins1:01:58

        And it's more likely that it will-

    11. JDDr. Jim Doty1:02:00

        Yes.

    12. MRMel Robbins1:02:01

        ... because you are training your mind using these techniques and putting yourself in a heart mode to make it happen. You, you wrote in your book, "Your brain can't tell the difference between what is real and vividly imagined. By focusing on the feeling of success, you train your brain to expect it."

    13. JDDr. Jim Doty1:02:19

        Absolutely. And when you activate your subconscious, and I'm sure you've probably experienced this, if you're at a party and it's very noisy, somebody says your name, you immediately turn.

    14. MRMel Robbins1:02:28

        Mm-hmm.

    15. JDDr. Jim Doty1:02:28

        Even in the din of all this noise, you are attuned to your name because it's deeply embedded in you. The same is true, and this is the nature of synchronicities and coincidences, because your subconscious is always searching for

14. 1:02:44 – 1:05:17

    Why gratitude is the #1 tool for overcoming difficult situations

    1. JDDr. Jim Doty1:02:44

       what is salient.

    2. MRMel Robbins1:02:45

       I wanna expand on the power of learning how to be in the heart mode and what you just brought to the table, this dispositional optimism, and the belief that things can get better, the hope and the optimism that things will turn out, and feeling grateful for that. Because when you're in the heart mode, you've talked a lot about how we are naturally wired to be in that mode, calm, connected, open to service, open-hearted. Can you explain how positive emotions, the emotions that you feel when you're in the heart mode, like gratitude, compassion, love, how do those emotions communicate to your brain and accelerate or make it stronger, that what you're thinking about when you're in heart mode actually wires in a very strong way based on the emotions of heart mode?

    3. JDDr. Jim Doty1:03:47

       You just said it. (laughs)

    4. MRMel Robbins1:03:48

       Oh, I did? How do, how do positive emo- how do positive emotions like gratitude and compassion and love, um, create the ability to manifest or, like-

    5. JDDr. Jim Doty1:04:00

       Well, uh, yeah.

    6. MRMel Robbins1:04:01

       ... rewire your mind?

    7. JDDr. Jim Doty1:04:02

       A- as, as we said or discussed earlier, these types of positive belief systems make your physiology work its best, both your brain and your peripheral physiology. When all your cognitive brain networks function at their best, that is the greatest likelihood for you to manifest, uh, your intention. There's a lot of work that has been done on gratitude, showing that simply sitting down and writing three things you're grateful for changes everything. It changes how you view the world, how you look not from the lens of what I don't have, but how grateful you are. As an example, um, half of the world's population lives on less than $2.50 a day. I am extraordinarily blessed. And, uh, so I, no matter how bad it is, and, uh, again, and I'm not saying that I'm horribly suffering, but that being said, I still have ups and downs and have had situations which are incredibly demoralizing. But at the end of the day, I sit back and I have gratitude even in the face of these horrible things that, uh, were not as I planned or nor wanted happen, and you just have to understand that regardless of all of them,

15. 1:05:17 – 1:08:16

    Dr. Doty’s life-changing manifestation exercise explained

    1. JDDr. Jim Doty1:05:17

       you're very fortunate.

    2. MRMel Robbins1:05:18

       As a renowned neuroscientist and neurosurgeon, what does your daily manifestation routine look like? Can you walk us through it?

    3. JDDr. Jim Doty1:05:29

       Sure. Now, you have to understand, I've been meditating for well over 50 years. So in some ways, that becomes the habit, right? It is your mindset. It is how you look at the world. It is how you walk in the world. And hopefully it's through the love mode, although not always. (laughs) And I will assure you, my wife will get mad at me and she'll say, "They call you Mr. Compassion, but you're an asshole."

    4. MRMel Robbins1:05:53

       (laughs)

    5. JDDr. Jim Doty1:05:53

       Uh, s- so- (laughs)

    6. MRMel Robbins1:05:56

       Well, it's good to know you're human.

    7. JDDr. Jim Doty1:05:57

       Yes, I am very human. So let me start with the morning first. Every morning, I wake up and I sit at the side of the bed and I do a breathing exercise, and the very nature of that breathing exercise shifts me into the parasympathetic nervous system or strength-

    8. MRMel Robbins1:06:10

       And what is the breathing exercise?

    9. JDDr. Jim Doty1:06:12

       It's just slowly breathing in through the nose, holding it for four seconds, slowly letting it out, and I do this for a minute or two. You can sit, you can lay down. Uh, there's nothing that is prescriptive. And this is where people get lost about mindfulness practices. They somehow think you have to sit like a Buddha and do this, and they get all anxious about it. There's no reason to be anxious at all. It's just to find a, a place where you feel comfortable. And then I go through this breathing exercise of slowly breathing in for four to six seconds, holding it for four to six seconds, slowly let it, letting it out through the mouth, and then that shifts me into the parasympathetic nervous system, or strengthens where I'm already at. And then I think of the joy and awe of being in this world.And I just sit with that for a minute or two, and then literally I just go through that alphabet and, uh, uh, and that centers me, uh, for the day. And if I'm centered looking through that lens, then that actually creates the environment for me to manifest because I am in the right mindset. I'm calm, I'm thoughtful, I'm thinking about others, I'm not self-focused, and the very nature of that allows me to manifest. Now, I was gonna mention in the evening, all of us have goals, all of us have intentions, and you can prioritize them from ones that are mildly important, moderately important, incredibly important, and, uh, and the time frames and, uh, and then you focus on them. And what I will do is I will again write them down, whatever the top three are, and then I'll go through the exact same exercise I mentioned, which is to write them down, to repeat it silently, to repeat it aloud, to see it happening and, uh, and over and over and over again. All of those things strengthen the power and put you in the right mindset to have the greatest likelihood of you manifesting your intention.

    10. MRMel Robbins1:08:14

        Thank you for describing

16. 1:08:16 – 1:17:51

    You can’t forget this one thing for a successful manifestation process

    1. MRMel Robbins1:08:16

       that. How does the, uh, habit that you just said activate your brain's ability to help you act on those goals?

    2. JDDr. Jim Doty1:08:30

       Well, I think you used a key term, which is authentic. What makes somebody authentic? Uh, when they let their mask down, when they're able to show their emos- their own emotions and how they feel about things. And the very nature of that puts you in the right mental state where you don't feel you have to hide yourself, where you don't feel that you have to put on a show for everybody about how successful you are, and where ju- you're just feeling comfortable with who you are and accept yourself. And the hardest, hardest part for so many people is accepting themselves as they are, not be lost in how they want to be or lost in what could've been. And this is also a thing that distracts you from the energy you have to change things, because if you spend 80% of your time on the past and a future that hasn't happened, lamenting, then you can never be present to actually make things happen, and this is the key. You have to be present. You have to be authentic. You have to understand your past, and you have to understand that when you want something to manifest, yes, it is a future intention, but it's not something to get lost in. It's something simply to sit with instead of be pathologically focused on. As an example, I'm sure you've seen people who have sacrificed everything to get to the top of the mountain. Well, they've sacrificed everything to get to the top of the mountain to stand there by themselves. Well, what was the purpose of that? Our purpose in life is connection. It's not to so be focused that you don't have any connections and you're walking alone. It's to connect with people. I mean, many, many of the aspects of what we're talking about are the journey with others, not necessarily standing by yourself.

    3. MRMel Robbins1:10:23

       You've given me a huge epiphany, because I've always thought about the science of manifesting as something that is tied to what's gonna happen, and in listening to you, I had this huge epiphany where I thought, "Oh, wait a minute. It's all about this daily practice of sitting in the present and dropping into the heart mode and the starting line is acceptance of self, compassion and gratitude and love towards self, and getting yourself at this almost, like, daily reset present moment." And from there, I can decide what I want to believe. I can decide when I align with the wiring of my body and my soul, I can decide what I wanna believe, I can decide what's important to me, and practicing these tools both of dropping into heart mode, of being present with self, of tapping into this wiring for service and compassion and love. When you start there and now you're repeating the things that you want and why you want these things from your heart, anything is possible.

    4. JDDr. Jim Doty1:11:57

       Well, and basically, you've just unlocked the key to the prison that most people have created for themselves.

    5. MRMel Robbins1:12:04

       What do you mean by that?

    6. JDDr. Jim Doty1:12:05

       Well, uh, uh, what you just said fundamentally addresses the issue of how people create a prison for themselves by this negative self-talk. Every time they make a negative statement, it's as if they're laying down a brick to build a prison and the walls get higher and it gets darker. Yet all of us have the key in our pocket, which you just described, to let yourself out of the prison that you created. And I think this recognition is what's really, really critically important, and it's not woo-woo. It's not looking to the universe to save you. It's understanding your own self-agency and not believing that there's something out there. Now, that being said, and as you know, I, the first sentence of the book says, "The universe doesn't give a fuck about you," but at the end of the book, my statement is, "You are the universe."And that is your gift. (laughs)

    7. MRMel Robbins1:13:07

       What are your parting words, Dr. Doty?

    8. JDDr. Jim Doty1:13:10

       Well, (clears throat) oftentimes, uh, as we've talked about, uh, you know, people look through the lens of negativity and, uh, and the reality is, and you discussed it also, everyone wants to be seen. Everyone wants to be loved. And (clears throat) what I would say to everyone listening is regardless of your circumstance, regardless of your situation, each of us has the ability to improve the life of at least one person every day. And whether it's a hug, whether it's saying hello, whether it's sharing a meal, whatever it is, when you can actually look through the world through that lens, how can I help at least one person every day, that is a habit that puts you in the mindset to not only be of service and to help others, but it also helps you. And it helps you because it then gives you the power actually to see the world through the different lens and then be able to manifest whatever your intention is. And that is the power of our humanity. And it all relates fundamentally to connecting with another, with an open heart.

    9. MRMel Robbins1:14:40

       Well, Dr. Doty, um, thank you. I, I, I don't even know what to say. I just feel kinda blown wide open-

    10. JDDr. Jim Doty1:14:52

        (laughs)

    11. MRMel Robbins1:14:53

        ... by the experience of getting to be together with you.

    12. JDDr. Jim Doty1:14:56

        That's kind of you. Thank you. I appreciate it.

    13. MRMel Robbins1:14:59

        Well, I appreciate everything that you shared and all the work that you're doing, and thank you for being here.

    14. JDDr. Jim Doty1:15:06

        Thank you.

    15. MRMel Robbins1:15:07

        And I wanna thank you for being here with me and Dr. Doty and listening all the way to the end. I am sure that your heart is wide open, and I wanted to be certain that I told you, in case nobody else does, that I love you, I believe in you. I believe in your ability to create a better life, and I am so excited about everything that you just learned, and I cannot wait to hear how you put this to use in your own life. All right. I'll see you in the next episode. And I wanna thank you for being here with me on YouTube, making it all the way to the end of the episode. Didn't you freaking love that? Oh my gosh. I loved it. I'm so thrilled you got to experience it. Since you made it this far, click here, right there, and subscribe to this channel because it lets us know that you're enjoying this content. Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting me in that way. And if you loved this episode, and how could you not, the next episode that you should watch is this one. This one features Harvard psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Waldinger. In fact, Dr. Doty mentioned him during the video that you just watched. Waldinger is gonna share the secret to what makes a good life based on the lessons from an 85-year-long study at Harvard on happiness. I'll see you in that episode.

Episode duration: 1:16:29