In my last article for Sixty and Me I shared Dr. Doty ‘s new neuroscience of the brain’s manifestation process. Dr. Doty is a neuroscientist and a neurosurgeon. He recently wrote the book Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything.
In this book, Doty says, “once the body and the mind are in a state of balance, we have the power of manifestation, we can start thinking clearly about what we want to manifest.”
This fits beautifully with your practice of spending time in nature or green spaces. Why? Because your mind and body go into a calm state of balance even after a few minutes outside in green space. Simply recalling scenes of your time in nature or looking at images of nature immediately resets your nervous system to calm.
This feeling of calmness, safety, and comfort or peace, is your parasympathetic state – where you are meant to be – where you can think clearly. And if you are already in the calm parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) mode, being in greenspace strengthens this calm, yet focused state for you.
How to Manifest: Visualize the Powerful Positive Emotions
Dr. Doty suggests visualization and picturing powerful positive emotions of your desired goal. Why? Because your brain will not know the difference between the real and the imagined. Dr. Doty says this is manifestation not magic – it is neuroscience.
Dr. Doty’s Bedside Practice
Doty starts his day with a bedside practice. Every morning, he sits at the side of his bed and takes three slow breaths (inhale for 4-6 seconds and exhale for 4-6 seconds). This, he says, shifts his nervous system to the parasympathetic (PNS) or strengthens his PNS if he is already there.
Then Dr. Doty thinks of the joy and awe in this world (here you could remember a sight or sound of the natural world that impressed you). This, Dr. Doty says, puts him in the right mindset to manifest (your outside mindset). Dr. Doty says this takes you to a place where you are not self-focused, where you find comfort, where you are calm and thoughtful, and he asks you to sit with this for a while.
How to Manifest Your Intentions
When you are in this “calm, thoughtful, connected and open-minded state – your positive belief systems become available. You believe that things will get better.” This, says Dr. Doty, “is when your physiology works the best.”
Write Down 3 Things You Are Grateful For
Simply write down 3 things you are grateful for. Today I wrote down: I am alive, my body is working, and I can love. Dr. Doty asks you to sit with what would make you happy. Ask yourself: “what am I doing to help my family and my environment?”
How to Manifest Your Goals and Intentions
Write down what you want to manifest then:
1) Read it silently,
2) Read it aloud,
3) Visualize using you senses – see it happening.
Repeat often and add detail.
This process gets the attention of the brain’s Salience Network which then activates your brain’s Attention Network. Once these are activated and working, your brain, says Doty, becomes “a bloodhound looking for ways” to confirm your intention.
This is the same Salience Network that Dr. Norman Farb talks about in his book Better in Every Sense and on my last Your Outside Mindset podcast episode: “Dr. Farb Wants You To Test Drive Your Senses.”
Dr. Doty wants you to be patient and not be too attached to a timeline or an outcome. He says manifestation may come in another way at another time, and not to give up. Doty asks you to remain optimistic and to believe this will happen.
He says visualize a few times a day – each time adding more detail – imagine how your senses will feel. This, Doty says, activates your subconscious so that your intention is deeply embedded.
When Your Nervous System Is Balanced Your Physiology Works Best
When your nervous system is balanced (after breathing deeply, yoga, or being outside in green space), Dr. Doty says, “this is when your physiology works best.” This balanced nervous system state (PNS) is the opposite of the “what can’t be” state, or fight-flight-freeze nervous system state.
The Green Zone or The Love Mode
This PNS balanced mode is also a state which Doty calls the “Green Zone, which in our consciousness can be mustered most effectively to visualize and pursue our goals. When PNS is activated, the tone of the vagus nerve increases and a state of well-being that facilitates general health and releases beneficial hormones such as oxytocin that are key to immune and defense systems – which helps with learning, critical thinking, creativity by enabling the flow state and basically optimizes human experience.”
When you are in nature, mindful (and noticing), and breathing you are able to interrupt the negative thoughts and shift your nervous system. According to Doty, when you are in this parasympathetic state of mind (where we are meant to be) these bioelectrical impulses go to your heart and your mind. He says this state slows your heart rate and improves your heart rate variability.
Dr. Doty reminds you that “your heart is a muscle, and you can control your heart rate and heart rate variability.”
In this state you are shifting into what he calls the love mode. This is when you feel safe, warm, and protected…. unconditionally loved.
This love mode is the very same state of well-being that you experience when you spend time in nature and green space.
When You Set Your Intention to a Good Result
James Doty MD says it another way, “Every day is an opportunity to change how you perceive and react to the world. The magic of the process is that it is the same hardware…. when you set your mind to a good result, the pathway is exactly the same, but the software is updated through positive neurofeedback – by building inner power. This is step one (of manifesting).”
You Are Manifesting All of the Time
Doty says that you are manifesting all the time – you might not be aware of this and to ask yourself: “What have I already manifested?”
When you are in negative thinking/worry or rumination mode, your nervous system is in fight-flight-freeze or the sympathetic state (SNS). Rest assured you are not alone in this. Doty states that we all have negative self-talk.
All we need is some awareness of when it happens, to recognize it for what it is. For some this is a chronic state that leads to disease and decreased life expectancy.
Doty says that this was not intended to be our steady state – we are not supposed to be stuck on high alert based on fear.
We are meant to be living in the parasympathetic state (PNS) or the love mode as Doty calls it. Doty says it is not possible to manifest in this fear mode state. This state is also called your default mode network (DMN) – where your mind goes out of habit.
To counter this powerful negative habit, you need to have strategies to shift your mind and body into balance – into the rest and digest (PNS: parasympathetic nervous system) and the love mode – away from the fear mode (SNS: sympathetic nervous system fight-flight-freeze).
Being Outside in Nature Sets You Up for Manifesting Your Goals and Desires
In my first book, Take Back Your Outside Mindset, I share science and practices as your mindset changes to attention, focus, joy and awe when you are in green space or looking at images of nature. In my second book, Optimize Your Heart Rate: Balance Your Mindset and Body With Green Space, I give the science and ways of being in green space to improves your heart rate, heart rate variability and your mindset.
Let’s Keep This Conversation Going:
Have you ever written down, or said out loud, what you want to see happen in your future? Are you optimistic that these goals will happen? Is this easier to believe when you are outside in green space? Since you are manifesting all of the time, what are you currently manifesting? Did you know that your brain hardware is same for positive thoughts as it is for negative thoughts – and that by manifesting positive thoughts you are updating your brain’s software?
