Your Identity Is the Problem. Here’s the Fix

Hello my friends and welcome back to Planet M. This episode is going to be amazing. It is all about the three types of visualization that I personally use that I have found are best for rewiring your brain, for shifting your mindset, for getting into the right energy state, and also for shifting your identity, which is my analogy. That type of visualization is one of my sort of techniques that I like to compare to quantum leaping. I always say identity shifting is the neuroscience backed quantum leaping. It's so powerful and I've had people in my community in Minecraft absolutely change their lives, change lifelong behaviors and bad habits after doing an identity shifting visualization. I personally guide them through them of my own, but there are plenty out there. You can also do them by yourself. And I'm going to tell you exactly how to do the visualizations that I explain to you in this episode. And they are all optimized, of course, for rewiring different areas of your brain, which I will also be explaining and describing in this episode. So lock in, get ready to take some notes and write some stuff down because this one's going to be really good and you're going to use these three types of visualizations for all sorts of situations. Now, before we dive into the three different types of visualization and what they do, how to do them and step by step break it down. I want to explain to you a little bit about why visualization is so powerful and why you would even want to do it to begin with. The first reason why it is so, so, so powerful is because, and I'm sure you've heard this before, the brain does not know the difference between what is real and what you are imagining. Now, I'm sure you have experienced this in your day to day life. If you, you know, are overthinking something or thinking about something that may or may not happen and all of a sudden, you start to feel anxious and your heart starts racing. This is your brain and your body reacting. You're having a physiological reaction to something that your brain is making up. So if you can have a physical reaction to something that your brain is making up, then you might as well make up something inside of your brain and allow yourself to have that physical reaction too. Okay. And of course, visualization also activates neuroplasticity. And if you don't know what neuroplasticity is, it is basically your brain's ability to rewire. And what does that even mean? You have pathways in your brain, brain cells, neurons that connect in pathways all throughout your brain. Okay. We call them neural circuits, but you can just think of them as pathways the same way that this microphone has a cord right now that is connecting the microphone to the interface. And then my laptop, you have like chords or pathways circuits, neural circuits, running through your brain and body. And so neuroplasticity is the ability to strengthen circuits in your brain, pathways in your brain or weaken them or rewire them and shift how they're wired, it's pretty incredible. And why would you want to do that? Because the pathways that are dominant, the ones that are most active in your brain, those are the ones that fire when, you know, you always have the same belief for the same mindset or these same thoughts, right? Those are the dominant pathways in your brain. And so when you start to visualize something different, you start to strengthen different pathways in your brain. Now your default mode will be different. Okay. And that's the goal. Visualization is a practice. It is a tool to help you rewire your brain. And I always say, you don't get what you want in life. You get what your brain is wired for. And so of course, you should use visualization as often as possible. As often as you want, as you please, I've been asked that many times. So I'll answer that question right now. How many times should I visualize? Should I be doing it every day? How often as often as you please, as long as it brings you joy, do it. And now in the beginning, you might be like, oh, it's a chore. I want to go do it just do it and watch how good it makes you feel. It's so easy to forget. And it's so easy to bypass and just kind of brush over. But start practicing these visualizations that I'm going to talk about because they will change your life. So the first type of visualization that you're going to want to start practicing is the emotion activation visualization. Something that I always say to my students in Minecraft that I say to my clients that I coach is that you do not want the thing that you want. What you really want is the feeling that you believe the thing that you want is going to bring you. You don't really want the money. You don't really want the relationship. You don't really want the house. You don't really want a million followers. You want the feeling that you believe a million followers or a house or a soulmate is going to bring you. You want the feeling. This is so powerful. So the first step to doing this visualization is to identify what those feelings are. You need to do that before you even sit down to start the visualization. Okay. This is going to happen in your journal and your notes. What are the feelings that my brain has associated with this item object person place thing that I'm wanting. And we'll just use me as a personal example, right? Because I actually did this exact practice whenever I was wanting to manifest a million followers. I hosted a manifestation workshop in Minecraft, my coaching program in community. And I personally use my example of a million followers. I had not hit a million yet. And I sat down. I was alive on this workshop that I was hosting. I was like, I'm going to walk you guys through this. I'm going to use my example of one million followers. I sat there and I thought to myself, what are the feelings that I believe one million followers is going to bring me. One million followers is going to make me feel more official and accomplished. That's the feeling that I was really after feeling more official and accomplished. You have to identify those feelings going into it. Now you don't really have to. You can do it during the visualization. It is in my opinion easier to identify them. But also the visualization in itself can help you identify them. Oftentimes I get questions of what if I don't know what the feelings are that I'm after the visualization practice in itself can help you know what the feelings are. And this is an extremely important practice because again, you need to become a match for whatever it is that you want. And so visualizing and putting your brain and submerging it into a visual experience of you feeling how you actually want to be feeling. That is an amazing practice. Why? Let's talk a little bit about the neuroscience. Well, you are going to be activating the emotion centers of the brain, the limbic system. All right. And you are activating these centers in such a way that they are activating to mirror or match the emotions that you're wanting to feel. You're going to strengthen those pathways. And over time, those pathways can become more dominant and be your more default state of being. It's a beautiful thing. Again, the emotion activation visualization and visualizing achieving the thing that you want and feeling how it's going to feel that also primes your particular activating system. It primes other areas in the brain as well to then go and scan and filter your reality for things that match up that align with what it is that you want that will bring you closer to what it is that you want. And so for example, if I'm in my manifestation workshop talking about doing this exact thing for hitting a million followers and I'm visualizing me hitting a million followers and feeling official and accomplished. Well, now I'm priming. Of course, I'm strengthening those emotion centers of practicing the feeling, practicing the feeling is so important. And that doesn't mean that you just do it when you're visualizing. You need to do it in other areas of your life as well. And then what I'm doing this visualization and I'm feeling the feelings of hitting a million followers, right? I'm also priming my brain to now scan my reality outside of visualization for more ways to feel that way. Priming my brain to filter my reality for more things that will get me closer to a million. So it works wonders in many different ways. But I will say and just to give a, you know, personal example of how this type of visualization really changed my life because the million followers practice was more identifying the feelings that I wanted and then just embodying them and living them now. But I remember years ago when I was about to graduate early from the PhD program and I was consulting for a hypnotherapist. I was teaching her the neuroscience behind what she does. And I went to one of her classes because she said, "M, come to one of my classes. You can see how I hold these workshops." And I came, I went to her class and she guided her clients through a visualization and I did it. I went along with it and I remember visualizing and I'm sitting in my apartment in Arizona, still in the PhD. And I'm visualizing myself living on the beach like, you know, visualized you, achieving what you want and like living your desires and, and, you know, looking around like, where are you engaging your senses, right? And so the emotion activation visualization, this first visualization, it's about emotion, right? And so how do you activate the emotion? Well, you have to engage your senses. So I would, I visualized myself, you know, I'm living on the beach and I am going to the ocean all the time. I am hanging out with my friends. I'm surrounded by people that I love. I feel, I feel full of purpose. I feel purposeful and fulfilled and, and my surroundings are beautiful, of course, I'm on the beach. And so I'm, I'm imagining, right? Or I'm visualizing where I am, who I'm with. What does it look like? What does it smell like? Who am I surrounded by? All of these things are great to be visualizing when you're trying to activate the emotion because the more that you can engage your senses, more. present you'll be in the more emotion that you will feel. And so in this specific story, I visualized all of that and a year later, I remember thinking to myself, oh my God, I am living the, it was less than a year later. I'm living the exact reality that I visualized that one day during that class for the woman I was consulting for. The exact life, I graduated early, moved across the country to live on the beach in Miami and I was surrounded by friends and I had amazing social life and I was letting my dream come true. I was creating content, I was coaching, I felt so fulfilled. And I just remember this is the exact thing that I was visualizing that one day in my apartment back in Arizona when I was at the class for the woman that I consulted for. And so this is a very powerful practice. I'm gonna walk you guys through it step by step and then we'll move on to visualization number two. Okay, so the first step is to when you're sitting down to visualize, you guys know I love to start out with a few physiological size, that is one deep inhale through your nose all the way to the top, followed by a second inhale through your nose, one last sip of air and then an exhale through mouth, a sigh all the way out. (sighs) Do a few of those and you're ready to visualize, okay? Helps you relax. It also opens you up. You can learn better, your brain will rewire more, right? You can absorb more when your nervous system is in a state of rest and digest and you feel safe and a physiological sigh does that. So I highly recommend it for that reason. But again, do that and then visualize yourself achieving or receiving whatever it is that you want. Visualize yourself achieving or receiving that. And in this visualization, ask yourself, what do my surroundings look like? Who am I with? How does it feel? What can I see? Here, feel, smell, touch, all the senses. Go through them all. You can even tap into what you're wearing. There's so many different ways that you can do it. But just be as present as possible and try to engage all of your senses and feel what it would feel like. And I have a little bonus tip for feeling the feeling, all right? And it is making the sound that you would make when you achieve or receive the thing. It's so powerful, all right? The sound is super primal, the sounds that we make. And they are really great at activating the emotion of how we want to feel, right? So for example, I'm going to give you a little personal example. You might not resonate with this, but I personally am the excited type. So when I'm visualizing myself, hitting one million followers, I'm like, oh my god, like screaming, right? Sorry if I just blasted your ear drums off. That is the sound that I would make. And I'm not going to lie to you as I just made that sound, I feel excited for whatever's but it come, whatever blessings on this way to me, OK? So making the sound that you would make upon achieving or receiving whatever it is that you want is an amazing way for activating the emotion that you want to feel. Do it in your visualization. I used to really struggle with feeling the feeling in my visualizations and the moment that I started making the sound game changer. So I'll start doing it. And if you are a different type or you're more of a relaxed type of person, and maybe it's just like a sigh of relief, you know, like a, I did that. It's here. Whatever it is, you do you. Let's move on to visualization number two. Visualization number two is a little bit more slept on. And I never hear anybody talk about it. And it is the resilience practice of visualization. Nobody ever talks about this type of visualization. I don't hear people promoting it or talking about it or sharing it. And I think it's extremely powerful for so many different situations in life. And I want to tell you about it because you can use it to overcome so many different things. OK? It is the resilience practice visualization. OK? It basically is a visualization to help you practice resilience, to help you practice going through the hard things, to help you practice going through, you know, a challenge or something that you're nervous about or something that, you know, you're maybe a little scared about. And I'll give you just a quick example from my life, you know, back in the day, the hater comments would affect me. And they would make me feel some sort of way, not all the time, but every once in a while. And with my coach back in the day, something that I practiced was actually visualizing myself, my best self, and then going on Instagram, right, in this visualization, I'm going on social media and I am allowing myself to visualize looking at the hater comments, visualizing the challenge, visualizing the tough experience that's making me feel emotional. I would visualize it and visualize it as the highest version of me, my best self, how would my best self feel? How would my best self move through this situation? And you visualize that. And what happens when you do that? Well, you're actually training the premotor areas of your brain. And so this type of visualization is used by professional athletes. It's used by people at NASA. It's used by all sorts of high performing people. And it's because it is so powerful, all right? Everybody wants to visualize achieving their dreams and getting what they want. But nobody really hypes up visualizing doing the hard things. And it's so powerful doing the hard things, facing the challenge, doing the thing that you're nervous about, or facing the thing that's making you triggered, right? It's sort of like exposure therapy, but in your mind. And there's all sorts of different ways that you can do this for all sorts of different situations. I have personally done this with interviews. I remember the first time that I did this sort of visualization was when I was applying for PhD programs in neuroscience. And I was going into interviews and I was nervous. And I remember one morning, I was getting into all of this. This was the very beginning of my journey. And I remember one morning sitting down before my first interviews. And I visualized my interview and how I wanted it to go. I visualized the entire process, how it would feel, how me and the interviewer would interact, and exactly how it would go. I remember visualizing me and the woman interviewing me, laughing and having an amazing conversation, and it just flowing and feeling like a really good time. And I remember sitting on the interview and we were laughing and the conversation was flowing and we were both just having a really good time. I remember thinking to myself, whoa, this visualization stuff is some crazy powerful stuff. And that was the very beginning of my journey. And it showed me very early on. Yeah, visualization is some crazy powerful stuff. That's just one way to do it. And so you can visualize things like, for example, going and giving a big speech, someone in Minecraft, he shared that he had a big speech coming up in front of tons of people. And he visualized how he wanted it to go. He visualized himself, like the routine leading up, the going out on stage, how he was going to be, how he was going to feel. He even gave himself the opportunity to visualize, okay, like what if people aren't, you know, having the reaction that I want to have to my speech, how am I going to feel? What am I going to do? This is resilience training. This is training your brain to overcome obstacles and be more resilient. And when I said this strength, this trains the premotor area of your brain. The premotor area is the area of your brain that kind of sends signals to the motor area for you to go and take action, right? So when I'm thinking to myself, I want to pick up a cup and take a drink of it. The premotor area actually plans the movement before it's sent to the motor area, which then executes the movement. And so you're training the area of your brain that plans what you do. So powerful. It helps you feel more confident in tough situations. It helps to desensitize the fear response, right? Because it's normal to go out and do things that make you feel uncomfortable and feel fear. But when you visualize the things that scare you, you visualize doing the things that scare you when you take it all the way to the end. You actually help to desensitize that fear response and so powerful. And that student in Minecraft that did this visualization, he shared on a community call that his between great and it went better than expected. And it went, it was amazing. And so it's so powerful. And one more example of just another way that I use this type of visualization, I have done this to help myself focus. I had in the past back in the super ADHD, not able to focus easily the distracted days. I found this super, super helpful. And a lot of us might think to ourselves, oh, but I don't have five minutes before I get to work. Yes, you do. You have five minutes and that five minute visualization is gonna help you get way more done and way less time. So I highly recommend that you do it. But something that I would do is I would visualize myself going through the work day or visualize myself for the next two hours, doing the work that I need to do and doing it in flow and feeling good. And it made such a huge difference, right? Because again, I'm priming my brain. I'm telling it, hey, this is the state that we wanna be in right before I go and do it. So powerful. So let's talk about how to do this visualization step-by-step. So the first step in this visualization is to embody your highest self. or your favorite self, your best self, whatever terminology you want to use, embody the highest version of you. The version of you who has achieved everything who is so incredible, so badass, can do anything they set their mind to, that version of you, the version of you who was on their egg game at the top. Visualize, embody that version of you. Okay, that's the first step. All right, you are them. That is you. Then, bring up a past, present, or future challenge. It can be something that you're expecting to happen in the future, or it can be something that you've been, a challenge you've been facing in the past, right? Something that triggered you recently, and maybe you didn't like the way that you reacted. Well, now you can practice a new reaction, right? So I always say you're always practicing something, because you're always activating some sort of circuits or pathways in your brain with every decision action thought. And so practicing is so important. Like you wouldn't expect to be good at basketball if you didn't, if you've never played, so why are you expecting to have a different reaction or feel more confident or feel more calm if you don't practice it? It just doesn't make any sense. So bring up a past, present, or future challenge, whatever it is that you want to bring up, it can be something that, like I said, whatever it is, I could name a thousand examples, but I think you get it. So bring up a challenge. And then visualize or as that embodied highest best version of you visualize that version of you facing that challenge. Watch how they move through that situation calmly, confidently, securely, sure of themselves. However, it is that you think the highest version of you would move through that situation, visualize that, observe how this version of you moves, how this version of you thinks and feels, how they react, how they respond to the situation, all of it. This is how you train your brain to overcome anything. I remember I was whenever I was working on filming some course material, maybe 10 months ago now, I had done a visualization that morning of facing challenges, basically, and overcoming them. And later that day when I was filming the course material, the camera kept overeating. And I was like, oh, I got it. But then for some reason, I was just like, no, I can overcome this. And rather than getting stressed, I felt just more centered and grounded. And I was like, no, we just got to keep going, keep pushing through. It is very powerful. Highly recommend this visualization. I'm calling it the resilience practice visualization. You can call whatever you want, challenge training, whatever it is that you want. But that's visualization number two. All right. So without further ado, let's talk about visualization number three, which is the identity shifting visualization. And oh, this one is so good. I've watched people's entire lives change. I have changed my entire life. I've made huge financial like moves like in the span of 24 hours. I have leveled up my financial income through using this exact visualization that I'm about to share with you. I have watched people go from lifelong bad habits and cycles and patterns to breaking out of those patterns within a week of doing this visualization. Someone else in the Minecraft community did this visualization and he had the best week in his company, the highest performing week in his company of the year after doing this visualization. He's so, so, so, so powerful. And I'm going to tell you a little bit why identity shifting visualization is so powerful. It is powerful because it helps to shift your default mode. It shifts you. It shifts everything about you. So the default mode network in the brain, it is responsible for your default mode of behavior, right? The behavior, the thoughts, the emotions that you feel when you're not consciously trying to direct your thoughts, behaviors and emotions. Okay. So it's just kind of a default mode, right? How you feel when you're not really trying to feel in these sort of way? This network also holds your sense of identity or your ego. It's responsible for constructing the story of who you are, your sense of self. And so this same network that is responsible for holding who you are and your story and your sense of self is also responsible for your default mode of thinking, feeling and being. And so if you shift the sense of who you are, then you immediately shift your default mode of thinking, feeling and being. And when you shift your default mode of thinking, feeling and being, you shift your entire life. Because you completely shift your energy, you shift your behavior, you shift your habits, your emotions, your entire life is different. Boom, quantum leap. And this is sort of my neuroscience behind quantum leaping practice because identity shifting is so crazy powerful. When you shift your identity, your entire reality has no choice but to shift. If you go on YouTube and you look up quantum leaping visualizations or hypnosis tracks, most of them will be self-concept shifting tracks. Because when you shift your self-concept and who you believe that you are, you shift your entire life. And now you know the neuroscience behind why. So let me tell you exactly how to do it. All right. This is one of my favorite visualizations ever. And I love guiding my community through this. So I'm kind of just going to go in the zone and just do a little mini condense version. So of course, I always start with my physiological size. And then I have people visualize, you can visualize. And maybe we just walk through this right now. We'll do a little quick version so you can close your eyes or just remember this is what you need to do. So do your three physiological size. Really center yourself in ground. Feel the support beneath you. Feel how supported you are. The chair underneath you. The ground beneath your feet. Feel how supported you are in this moment. And know that you are exactly where you are meant to be right now. There's nowhere else. But here, now in this present moment. And then visualize yourself at some point in the future. When you have and are doing everything you've ever wanted, everything you ever wanted is yours. Every single goal is achieved. You did it. You made it. Now the next step is to tune in to you. Who is this version of you? Who has it all? What do you look like? What is your mindset like? What do you believe? What do you believe about yourself? What do you believe about the world? How do you feel? How do you move? How does this version of you move? How does this version of you behave? What are their habits like? What is our energy like? This version of you in the future that has it all. Who are they? Tune in to their confidence and their certainty in themselves. Really tune into it like visualize that. That version of you is in the future that has everything that you want. They're so confident. They have it all. They're so certain in their ability to create their dream reality. And after you've done that, and if you're still going, you can pause for a second, keep visualizing. But after you've done that, after you've visualized the thoughts, emotions, beliefs, the mindset, the energy, the confidence, the habits, surroundings, what is their environment like? What are they wearing? When you visualize all of that about that future version of you that has it all, the next step is to realize that the only thing stopping you from being that version of you is you. You don't need to wait until some point in the future to be that to think, feel, act, behave, believe as that version of you. The only thing that is keeping you from being that version of you is the decision to step into it now. And so in this visualization, step into this version of yourself. Walk over to this version of yourself and merge with them. And imagine your DNA locking in. Imagine you merging with this version of you. You now have these habits, these beliefs, this mindset, these thoughts, this energy, this confidence, this certainty. And when you're done with the visualization, open your eyes and step into the world as that version of you. You are that. Now, obviously, my guided visualization version is a little bit longer and more more detail, but that is the gist. And when you do that, you will have shifted into that version of you that has it all. And after all, and after all, the reason that you want the things that you want, right, is to feel how you want to feel. And also for how the reason you want to achieve any goal that you want to achieve is because it's going to make you something. It's you want it for what this goal is going to make you. Who this goal is going to allow you to become. It's all about the becoming. It's all about the personal transformation, right? In a movie with the hero, when a hero is going on a journey, there's always two journeys. There's the journey to the external reward, the external goal or achievement. And there's always the internal journey, right? They always go through this internal journey where they grow into this version of themselves that they were not before as they worked toward this external goal. That's you. You are on this hero's journey, where yeah, that external goal, that's not materialistic. That's not so bad to have material desires, like have material desires because going after those material desires is exactly what is going to help you grow internally to become that version of you. Your goals are calling you to it will become a high. version of yourself. And the faster that you can become, that higher version of yourself, the faster you'll achieve that goal. And this visualization will help you get there. Something that I recommend for this specific visualization that I find really helpful is to write down what you've visualized. In my notebook, I have a page where I wrote down, you know, like what was the mindset, the beliefs, what were the beliefs, the behaviors, the habits, the surroundings, like what are all these, like, who is that version in the future that achieved everything, right? Like get clear on who that version of you is. And then see, huh, where am I out of alignment with who this version of me is and then get to work on closing the gap. Because when you've closed the gap, your goals just start raining in, like achievements, opportunities, blessings. They just start raining in. It's incredible. I am so excited to hear what you do with these visualizations and how they help you. I actually read a DM just before I started recording this from someone that said that my last podcast episode on one of my previous episodes on how to play the game of life changed something in her. And I love hearing you guys's feedback. It's so incredible. Like I love, I love how watching it help you transform your own life and you using this information to transform your own life. Because at the end of the day, knowledge is not power applied, knowledge is power. And it is up to you to go and apply this information and use these tools, right? Like your brain is your superpower and you have the power to use it. Like you have so much power within you. Each of these visualizations serves a different purpose. Okay. One of them is for activating the emotion and getting clear on what the emotions even are. If you're not sure, that visualization can really help you, but also helping to train your brain to feel more of the emotions that you're wanting to feel and really becoming a match energetically to what you want. Also, priming your brain, right? To filter your reality from more opportunities to feel that way in the now, which is so powerful. The second visualization is really great for helping you practice and train for challenges. And we're always facing challenges, right? Like that's just life. Things are going to happen. And the more equipped you are, the more trained you are to overcome challenges to face them and to be your best self in the face of a challenge, that is when you become unstoppable. So that visualization number two is really helpful for that. And then of course, visualization number three is to help you shift your identity to become the version of you that has it all. And when you become you no longer need. It's so helpful for detachment and we're going to need to talk about detachment and all the video, but each of these visualizations serves a different purpose. And again, you can use them all. You can use one. It's totally up to you. And whenever you want, how often you want. And again, if you try these and you use them and you experience shifts, please do leave a comment or something. I love seeing you guys's reactions and just hearing about your, like what happens in your life and hearing about your transformations. It's so cool. It's genuinely so motivating and it helps keep me going because that is what I'm doing it for, right? And so with all that being said, guys, if you want to learn more, if you want to come to one of my live classes, I host a live. I haven't talked about this yet on this episode. But if you want to learn more about Minecraft, my coaching program and community, if you want to get on a live free class with me and hear me talk, listen to me talk about the 10 step process that I personally use to completely change my life, come to one of my very free, very live master classes. They're virtual. So you can attend them from anywhere in the world. I currently host them at two times that way all different time zones can join. We have people from all over the world join like thousands of people from all over the world join. It's so cool. All different countries, continents and it's so awesome. It's super fun. The energy is super high. And at the end, I answer people's questions. So it's super fun. And also at the end is when I kind of explain more about Minecraft and the process and what it looks like to join and how to join. And that is when we open the doors to Minecraft as well. It's currently the only time we open the doors to Minecraft. And just because we like to bring in cohorts and let it be a very inclusive and exclusive experience for the people that do join the registers. It's a process. And so we want to give you the best experience possible. And so if you are interested in any of that or you just want to come and be live on a class with me and hang out and vibe and have and get super motivated because everybody's always super motivated at the end of my classes, then sign up. It's completely free. At least it is right now. I can't promise if you're listening to this like six months from now. I don't know. But for right now, get on this class because it's free and it's really fun. All right, guys, I hope that you enjoyed this episode and I hope that you got a lot out of it. And I can't wait to hear about your experiences with these visualizations. And until next time, have an amazing day and amazing week. I'm sending you so much love. You got this. You are amazing. And you can do anything that you set your mind to. So go be great. And I'll see you next time. Bye, everyone.