How I Rewired My Brain and Changed My Life

Hello, and welcome to Planet M, a podcast to help you rewire your brain, level up, and maximize your potential, all while having fun doing it. I am your host, Emily McDonald, also known as M on the Brain, and I am so excited for this podcast. It has been a long time coming, and I'm just so excited to share everything with you all about neuroscience, the brain, the nervous system, mindset, manifestation, spirituality, the subconscious, and everything else that we're going to talk about on this podcast. I really can't wait. And I think to start, it would be a great place to start with my journey, and sharing with you all a little bit about how I found neuroscience in my own life, and how I fell in love with neuroscience, and how I used neuroscience and my knowledge of the brain and nervous system to change my life. I don't talk about it much, I guess, on social media, but if you've been to one of my master classes, you've heard me talk about this before. I am extremely passionate about everything that I share on social media, all of the tips and tricks and all the information I share. They are all of the things that I've personally used to completely transform my life. So we'll just run it back to the beginning. I actually was sick when I was younger. When I was eight years old, I was hospitalized, and I actually really struggled with both my physical health and mental health for much of my sort of adolescent years throughout high school. I remember I would be in and out of doctor's offices getting my blood drawn. I really, really struggled with my health physically. I had hormonal imbalance, diagnosed with PCOS, all the different things, and coinciding with that, I also really struggled with my mental health as well. I was severely depressed. I was diagnosed with ADHD, and basically just had tons of labels put on me from a young age told that I had all these things wrong with me. This is what's wrong with your brain. This is what's wrong with your biology. This is what's wrong with you, basically. There's no fix for this. You just take these medicines and meet medications and you just take these prescriptions and this is going to help put a bandaid on the problem, a bandaid on the symptoms. I actually went to college with a biology major at first because I really thought that I should become a doctor. I was smart and good at science, and when people tell you, "Oh, when you're smart and good at science, people tell you, you become a doctor." You become a doctor because that's what you should do. I would never really was super passionate about that, but that was sort of my "plan" in the beginning because that's what I thought I was supposed to do. Very quickly learned that I hated this. I was like, "Get me out of here." I don't want to learn about the crebs cycle or photosynthesis. I'm sorry, plant. I love you guys, but no. I remember going up to my friend in an organ that I was in and I told him, "Hey, I hate this biology major. What should I do?" He was like, "Why don't you switch your major to neuroscience?" And I had never even heard a neuroscience up until that point, but it sounded cool. And so I switched my major to neuroscience. Now, if that tells you one thing about me, I'm a type of person to just send it. If I feel stuck, I change something about my situation, about where I'm at. I don't let myself get stuck in a position where I feel held back or I feel limited or I feel like I am not lit up or excited or I feel room to grow. I switched my major to neuroscience. Very first exam I ever took in neuroscience. I got a 100. My professor reached out to me to congratulate me. And I reached back out to him and I was like, "Please get me in the research lab. I need to be doing research. This is the coolest thing ever." Long story short, I ended up in the research lab very early on in sort of my neuroscience career. And I was studying learning and memory, the perception of time, depending on the context, all throughout cognitive development. So working with kids from five years old up until people around 35 years old, it was super cool, super fascinating. I'm sure we will talk about more of that research in other episodes. But yeah, learning about the perception of time and how we perceive time differently depending on the location that we're in and just super cool stuff, basically. So I fell in love with research and I knew that this is where I meant to be. This is what I meant to do. This is it. Around that time, you know, when I was in undergrad, I also, I took a class on the neurobiology of drug addiction. And I remember reading a research paper sort of a review on why the current treatments for relapse to drug addiction don't work. I remember it just being, you know, all these different treatments, they treat the symptoms. They put band-aids on the symptoms rather than really getting to the root of the problem. And it resonated with me because of all the struggles I had in my own life. It also resonated with me because I was addicted to nicotine and vaping at the time. And, you know, I saw so many young people around me also vaping and being addicted to nicotine. And so it resonated with me a lot. And this kind of light bulb moment went off in my head. I remember sitting there in that lecture hall and thinking to myself, this is it. This is what I'm going to do. This is my purpose. I am meant to go and get my PhD in neuroscience, open my own research lab, and cure drug addiction and win a Nobel Prize. That was the kind of light bulb that went off in my head. So from that moment forward, I realized I needed to change. Growing up, because I had all these health issues and mental health issues and physical health issues, and also people very close to me and my family had severe health issues as well. I just had this really severe victim mindset of like life happens to you and it sucks. And I was very pessimistic. I called myself realistic, but I know now that whenever anybody says they're realistic, that's really just a cover-up for being pessimistic. I honestly thought that if there was a God, God was evil, because how could all of these things happen to me and happen to my family? So when I had this kind of goal, this light bulb aha moment happened. I realized that I needed to change. Of course, this coincided with me studying neuroscience and getting my first degree in neuroscience and learning about how the brain constructs our entire experience of reality and learning about epigenetics and the ability that we have to change our DNA expression. Learning about the visual system and how we don't see the world with our eyes at all. We see the world with our brain. The brain constructs everything that we see, everything that we hear, everything that we touch. And then of course, at that time, I was also getting super deep into spirituality and I started kind of around the time that I had this dream was born. I started becoming obsessed with rewiring my brain and doing everything I possibly could to level up my mind, because I knew if I am going to accomplish this big dream, I'm going to have to change. And so I started getting up every single morning, listening to my affirmations, going for a walk. Before that time, I thought affirmations were this woo-woo thing that I just saw my friends doing it and I was like, mmm, that's kind of weird. Never really did it myself. Obviously understanding the neuroscience behind them now. Yes, they light up the reward centers in the brain. They do boost dopamine. They do rewire your brain to think more positively. So I started doing them every single morning on my morning walks and I would get back and I would meditate and I would, I was listening to all these motivational YouTube videos and I was going crazy with it. I started really changing my mind, changing my brain and changing my health as well. It's years later now, but I've had a complete transformation with both my physical health and my mental health as well as all of the symptoms that I used to deal with with ADHD. I used to depend on stimulants just to function. And now I can sit down for seven hours straight at a coffee shop and get work done. And it's crazy for me to think about just the transformation that I've been able to go through, understanding how the brain works and then using that knowledge and applying it to myself. Everything that I've ever shared with you guys on social media and every podcast, I really am a student of my own work. I am the guinea pig. I do it all to myself first. And then when it works for me, I share it. And so that's actually how I'm on the brain was born. It was around this time. So I was applying to PhD programs to go get my PhD in neuroscience and you know, people were telling me, "Oh, you can't, you can't go straight to the PhD out of undergrad. You got to get your master's first blah blah blah." I didn't listen to anybody talking against me or speaking against my dreams. And thank God I didn't listen to them because they were wrong. Around this time, like I was saying, I was really changing my mind and changing my my life and myself. And I started kind of just posting stuff on my stories for my friends. Like, "Hey guys, you got to get up and be going outside every single morning. Regulating your circadian rhythm. You got to be doing this." And just, you know, little fun tips like that. And my friends just started swiping up like, "Hey, Am, can you keep posting this? This is so helpful." I kept posting it for my friends until eventually my friends convinced me to start a TikTok. I had never even downloaded the app before. I remember the learning curve of downloading that app and posting my first video. But yeah, that's actually how I'm on the brain was born. I was never trying to become a content creator at all. I was trying to fulfill my dream of, you know, going and getting my PhD in neuroscience and, you know, curing drug addiction. And so, you know, I just happened to completely change my life and change my mind and my brain. And I wanted to share that with the people that I loved and the people that I loved. You got to be sharing this with the world. And so, graduated from undergrad neuroscience scholar, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies nominated me for as a graduate of distinction from my research. Our research, like I said, was super badass, which we will talk about. So, I ended up going and going and joining a PhD program studying neuroscience. And I was doing the exact research that I wanted to do. I was investigating new ways to treat and prevent relapse to drug addiction. That was really the time where I realized you really can do anything you set your mind to. And before that, I never would have believed you. If you would have told me, I actually know this for a fact 'cause I had a friend in high school who would tell me, "Em, you can do anything you set your mind to "and I would get mad at him." When he would tell me that, I'd get frustrated and I would get triggered and defensive when he would say that. I'd be like, "No, you can't." And it's crazy because I've proven to myself that you definitely can do anything that you set your mind to. So I was in the PhD, you know, just live in the dream. And I experienced a lot. I experienced a lot on that journey. I spent two years in the PhD program finished all of the coursework, worked in three different research labs before joining the drug addiction one. And I've studied many different types of research at this point. A series of events occurred where one, I realized that this lifestyle of being a full-time scientist working in the lab all the time, like that is not suited for me. But then I also lost two people close to me. Whenever I was in this PhD program, and the second year of my PhD, someone super close to me since the fifth grade passed away. And I was devastated and I just remember, at the time, I was living like Hannah Montana. Like truly, I was calling myself Hannah Montana. I was going to the research lab, taking classes, I was teaching undergrads, TAing, undergrad classes, going home, doing all my research and homework and grading essays and exams. And then at 9 p.m., 10 p.m., I'd be filming content. Totally living this double life content creator by night, neuroscientist, by day. I realized whenever my friend passed away, it just really shifted my perspective. And I realized that what am I doing sitting around here, wishing and hoping for one day, making a difference, when I'm making a real life difference on social media right now. And at that point, I had grown my following. I think I was at like 30k on Instagram, 100 something on TikTok. And the life that I had, kind of on the side at night, that creator by night lifestyle, I was going on podcasts and I was getting all this feedback from my audience and people saying like, I'm like, you're really helping me, you're changing my life. And that was fulfilling. It was so fulfilling seeing my work and what I was doing to help people. And not only that, but I also kind of just stopped resonating with the research I was doing as well in the research lab. I kind of just stopped really believing in it, honestly, and resonating with it. Because I started realizing through healing myself, I realized when it comes to curing drug addiction, that's a whole system inside job. That's not going to be one little magic pill that maybe it will be one day. But so what I started to realize was that my healing came from healing from the inside out, healing my mind, healing my body, regulating my nervous system, you know, getting a solid routine, training my brain the right way, identifying with the right things and your environment, because your environment's mirrored in your brain and the people you surround yourself with, because your brain syncs up with the people you surround yourself with. I started realizing, hmm, you know, I think all of this stuff that I'm doing on the side might actually be more impactful for people and for myself than maybe this research that I'm doing right now. Long story short, I decided not an easy decision. We can, we can flush out the details later, but I decided to graduate early from the PhD with my masters instead. To pursue social media, to pursue consulting, I was consulting at the time and starting my own business and coaching as well, because I love coaching people. I love working with people and actually watching their lives transform. It's the most fulfilling thing. It was a quick turnaround. I decided in the spring time within a month or two, I was graduating with my masters and I moved across the country to Florida, to Miami Beach. I grew up upstate New York in the cold and so I really don't like the cold and I had always dreamed of living on the beach and, you know, I was beginning this life for myself and taking a giant leap of faith. I do not want to downplay house terrifying this was because I had this sort of PhD in the back. I'm just gonna become a doctor and, you know, go and work in a lab and all that and graduating early and leaving and, you know, I had 30K on Instagram. I had no reason to believe I was gonna be able to be in the position that I'm in now, but I had amazing incredible people around me, my best friend in the PhD program. She's still my best friend, she's like my sister. She believed in me when I didn't even believe in myself. She saw a future for me when I didn't even see it myself and I had a phone call with somebody and I didn't even know this guy at the time and I was talking to him about my situation and he said to me, you know, I think it sounds like you know what you want, but you just, you just haven't let yourself admit it yet. Taking that leap of faith was terrifying. I moved across the country, packed up my car and just drove across the country and with my pet rat, Dewey, rest in peace Dewey. But anyway, yeah, I moved there. I didn't know a single person and I moved there and I started to make my dreams come true. I share this story with you guys to really just show you and hopefully inspire you and let you know that it doesn't matter where you're starting from. It doesn't matter, you know, what you think is holding you back. It doesn't matter, you know, maybe you really struggle to focus or you really struggle with stress and anxiety or you, whatever it is, right? You can change your brain. You really can. I used to really struggle. I used to be so down on myself. I used to be so impulsive and emotionally dysregulated and stressed and anxious and so easily triggered and didn't believe in myself at all. And I didn't have any sort of purpose either. Like I didn't know what I wanted for myself or my life and that is why I'm so passionate about sharing everything that I share with in my content and on this podcast. And that's really the purpose of this podcast is to help you know yourself and your purpose to help you understand your brain because when you understand your brain, it is a super power, all right? It is a super power. You have so much more power than you even realize. You do not understand who and what you are. You are a divine life force energy and a human body. And you know, one of the things that I love about neuroscience is that it actually helped me become even more spiritual. I actually wasn't spiritual at all. Like I said, I used to literally be atheist and not believe in anything, not even myself. And neuroscience and understanding the nervous system and how it works whenever I was getting my first degree in neuroscience, I had to take calculus level physics to understand that the nervous system are neurons act like batteries, okay? They have positive and negative charges and they communicate with each other via electrical impulses. We have electricity blowing through us. We are so cool, your nervous system's so cool, your brain is so cool. And when you understand how to use it to your advantage, it can go from something that's holding you back to being the absolute rocket fuel that's launching you onto the next level, okay? Because your brain, it can be your worst enemy but it can also be your best friend. And when it's your best friend and you know sometimes it might creep up and you might have a little chatter but you'll know exactly what's going on. And my intention with this podcast is to help you know when you're procrastinating, when you're stressed, when you're anxious, when you're struggling to focus, when you're not motivated, when you just can't, you can't get into flow, when you're just sitting there trying to get work done and it's just not coming to you. I want to give you all of the knowledge, all the information and tell you exactly what to do so that you can shift out of that state and into the state that you want to be in, okay? And of course, we're going to talk about neuroscience but we're also going to dive deep into the spirituality because I have had a journey of my own and I am not here to put any of my beliefs or project anything onto you at all. One of my sort of ways of life is take what resonates with you and leave what does not, all right? We are every single one of us lives in our own world. The world that our brain is creating for us and me and you, we don't have the same brain. And so we don't live in the same world. Your brain is constructing a world that is different than mine. And so I'm not going to sit here and act like everything that works for me is going to work for you and vice versa but what I will give you is the knowledge to understand your own situation so that you have the power to do what you want with that. And I think understanding yourself and knowing yourself is a huge superpower. And so it was something that helped me figure out what I really wanted to do in this life and help me find purpose. So this podcast really is for anyone who is ready to rewire their brain, level up their potential. Maybe you're feeling like you've all grown that old version of you but you just haven't fully stepped into that new version yet. Or maybe you're just procrastinating on something but whatever the case may be, okay? If you are ready to level up and you want to understand yourself and your brain and your nervous system and you want to just be and you want to understand and you want to remember how powerful you really are this podcast is for you. On this podcast we are going to dive so deep into, you know, PhD level neuroscience topics, okay? I'm going to of course simplify it and break it down so that you guys can understand and follow. And one thing that I always say is that knowledge is not power, applied knowledge is power. So I don't want to just sit here and teach you guys a whole bunch of stuff. I want to tell you how to apply it. And that's actually something that I'm really excited about for this podcast because, you know, I've been feeling really restricted in these little one, two-minute Instagram reels. But one thing that I'm very excited about is really being able to break down and share with you guys examples and real life stories because all my people in Minecraft, my coaching program and community, they can they get to know me. They know me on a personal level because they know my business. They know my business. Because that's the way that I like to coach and it's the way that I like to share information through my own personal experiences. So I hope that you guys are ready to get to know each other on a deeper level in this podcast or get to know me on a deeper level in this podcast because I fully intend and I am fully prepared to be super transparent with you guys and share with you this information. This is what's happening in the brain. Have you ever experienced this? And like this is how I am personally applying it in my own life. And you know, for me, and I guess I'll just give you an example because before starting this podcast, before ever filming this podcast, I procrastinated it like hell. I would go and film multiple short form content videos before I would sit down and record a podcast episode. And I'd be like, what am I doing? Why am I procrastinating? I don't understand this. I want to launch a podcast. This is my dream. What am I doing here? I just didn't understand. And then me being me, I'm obsessed with understanding myself, understanding my brain and how I can level up. I sat down and I thought to myself and I was like, why am I procrastinating so much? And then I realized I'm procrastinating because I'm subconsciously afraid of being seen in a more vulnerable way, which is long form content. Long form content. And having a podcast, like you are more vulnerable. People get to see who you really are and they get to see more into you. And there's more to judge and criticize and all that. And I realized that that was the subconscious fear that was holding me back, that was making me procrastinate. And when I realized that, I could rewrite the story. And that's where getting specific about your fears is so powerful. So when I realized that I was procrastinating because I was subconsciously afraid of what being successful might look like, being seen might look like, I could rewrite the story. Rewriting the story, while yes, it is true that long form content might set you up to be more vulnerable, to be seen, to be judged. It also sets you up to be more deeply loved. It also sets you up to connect more deeply with others. And I think that realization, I know, I don't think I know. That realization alone unlocked the next level for me because right after that, I was like, okay, let me go film. Let me go film a podcast episode and the rest is history. So guys, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you so much for your continuous support and love. I appreciate every single one of you listening if you've made it through this episode and you listen to my story genuinely, thank you for being here. And also thank you for caring about yourself in your own brain because a team is only as strong as its weakest link. And we are all in it together on this planet. And if we're gonna make the world a better place, which is genuinely my goal in life, is to raise the vibration of the planet. If we're gonna do this, it really does start with us and it's one person at a time. And so I'm deeply grateful for you for you being on this journey and for you wanting to level up yourself because you're not only bettering yourself, you're bettering the world. And that is an incredible feat. Let the journey begin. Welcome to Planet M and I am so excited for what this journey holds for the both of us. I'll see you next time. (upbeat music)