#1 Neuroscientist: How To Manifest Love & Abundance in Your Life!
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this fascinating episode, renowned neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart returns to discuss her groundbreaking book "The Signs," exploring the science behind trusting our instincts and connecting with signs from the universe. (02:51) Dr. Swart opens up about her profound personal journey through grief after losing her husband four years ago, sharing how this experience transformed her understanding of manifestation, intuition, and our connection to loved ones who have passed. The conversation delves deep into the neuroscience of signs, the importance of processing grief rather than suppressing it, and how physical practices like dancing, drumming, and time in nature can unlock hidden wisdom stored in our bodies. (12:00) This episode offers both scientific rigor and deeply personal insights into how we can cultivate our ability to receive and interpret meaningful signs in our lives.
- Main Theme: The intersection of neuroscience and spirituality, focusing on how to scientifically understand and cultivate our ability to receive signs while processing grief and trauma in healthy ways.
Speakers
Dr. Tara Swart
Dr. Tara Swart is a renowned neuroscientist, medical doctor, and senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management. She holds a PhD in neuroscience and has dedicated her career to understanding how the brain works, particularly in relation to manifestation, intuition, and neuroplasticity. Her latest book "The Signs: The New Science of How to Trust Your Instincts" explores the scientific basis for receiving and interpreting meaningful signs from the universe, combining rigorous research with practical application.
Lewis Howes
Lewis Howes is the host of The School of Greatness podcast and a New York Times bestselling author. He has built a platform dedicated to helping high-achieving individuals unlock their potential through conversations with world-class experts across various fields including neuroscience, psychology, business, and personal development.
Key Takeaways
Don't Suppress Your Grief - Feel It Fully
Dr. Swart emphasizes that the most dangerous thing people can do is suppress their grief and pain, covering it up with work or other distractions. (02:15) Instead, she advocates for going "to the bottom of the hole of grief" and feeling all the pain in order to truly heal. This approach, while counterintuitive to many, creates the foundation for genuine recovery and prevents the trauma from being stored in the body where it can manifest in other ways later. Her personal experience losing her husband taught her that avoiding grief only prolongs suffering, while embracing it fully allows for authentic healing and growth.
Humans Have 34 Senses, Not Just Five
Most people believe humans have only five senses, but Dr. Swart reveals that current research shows we actually have 34 distinct senses. (31:46) For example, taste alone is subdivided into five different senses: bitter, sweet, salty, sour, and umami (discovered only in the 1980s). The immune system is recognized as our most recently discovered sense. This expanded understanding of our sensory capabilities directly impacts our ability to receive signs and trust our intuition - if we don't know we have these senses, we can't tap into them effectively.
Physical Movement Unlocks Body-Stored Wisdom
Through her research on trauma and the body, Dr. Swart discovered that over 95% of serotonin is made outside the central nervous system, primarily in the gut. (11:31) This serotonin affects blood vessel dilation, which influences how nutrition and oxygen reach body tissues where trauma and intuitive wisdom are stored. Physical activities like dancing, drumming, chanting, and time in nature help access this stored wisdom because trauma shuts down the brain's speech centers, making verbal processing insufficient. Movement-based therapies can unlock insights that traditional talk therapy cannot reach.
Cultivate the Art of Noticing Through Beauty
Dr. Swart developed what she calls "the art of noticing" by intentionally observing beauty in nature - spring blossoms, flowers, autumn leaves. (25:41) This practice rapidly enhanced her neuroplasticity, with her brain beginning to notice beautiful things 10+ times per day. This heightened awareness directly improved her ability to receive signs because it trained her brain's saliency network to be less harsh in filtering information. The practice demonstrates that our ancestors engaged in art and beauty not as luxury, but as essential survival tools for reading the environment and receiving messages.
Make Decisions Rather Than Staying in Limbo
From a neuroscience perspective, being stuck in indecision is the worst place for your brain to be. (37:18) Dr. Swart advocates for making a decision and then either making it work or adjusting course if it proves wrong, rather than remaining paralyzed by uncertainty. She builds confidence in decision-making by taking risks on smaller things first, then gradually trusting intuition on bigger decisions. This approach recognizes that we need to make wrong decisions to build the wisdom and pattern recognition that inform better future choices.
Statistics & Facts
- Over 95% of serotonin is made outside the central nervous system, primarily in the gut, and it doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier, so it has no direct effect on mood. (11:31) This challenges common assumptions about serotonin being the "mood hormone" and explains how physical movement can access body-stored wisdom.
- Humans have 34 distinct senses, not just the commonly known five. (31:46) Dr. Swart discovered this through literature review, noting that taste alone subdivides into five senses (bitter, sweet, salty, sour, umami), with umami only being discovered in the 1980s.
- Cave paintings date back 40,000 years, but evidence shows humans were creating art and beauty 50,000-60,000 years ago, including carved ostrich eggshells, shell necklaces, and ochre body paint. (14:54) Even 500,000 years ago, humans made tools more beautiful and symmetrical than functionally necessary, suggesting art and beauty are crucial for survival.
