#1 Neuroscientist: How To Manifest Love & Abundance in Your Life!

message is brought to you by Apple Card.

Each Apple product, like the iPhone, is thoughtfully designed by skilled designers.

The titanium Apple Card is no different.

It's laser-etched, has no numbers, and it earns you daily cash on everything you buy, including 3% back on everything at Apple.

Apply for Apple Card on your iPhone in minutes.

Subject to credit approval, Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch.

Terms and more at AppleCard.com.

Introducing the redesigned Dell PC with the Intel Core Ultra Processor.

It helps you handle a lot, even when your holiday to-do list gets to be a lot.

From organizing your holiday shopping and responding to holiday requests to planning the perfect holiday dinner.

Luckily, you can get a PC with all-day battery life so you can do it all faster to get it all done.

That's the power of Dell PC with Intel Inside.

Get yours at Dell.com/slash holiday.

Being smart with your money is one of the best ways to invest in yourself yourself and your future.

With State Farm personal price plan, you can create a competitive price just for you when you choose to bundle your home and auto insurance.

That way, you can keep more of your money focused on your goals.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state.

Coverage options are selected by the customer.

Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.

So I had Dr.

Tara on, what was it, two, three years ago, the first time that I had you on?

2022, I had you on.

The first time I met Dr.

Tara, I don't think really many people knew who you were back then.

I think it was one of the first kind of interviews that you did.

But you've been a neuroscientist for a long time.

You've been extremely

helpful in the world of moving the world forward, of understanding our minds, understanding our brains, understanding how it all connects so that we can accomplish our goals, so we can manifest better and live a better life.

And when I met you,

you were

in an

interesting moment in your life.

You were an interesting moment and you're a completely different person now than when I first met you.

You've continued to grow.

You continue to heal.

I remember you were a little nervous the first time.

Now you're like this rock star all over the world doing big interviews and doing all these things.

You've got a new book also called The Signs, which is the new science of how to trust your instincts.

And for me, signs have always been a powerful thing.

Signs, symbols, synchronicities.

And I'm always trying to look for the signs and the synchronicities in my life.

I don't know if anyone else likes to look for signs and say, oh,

this person, you know,

someone said this thing to me multiple times in one week about a book.

Maybe I should read this thing.

Or my wife is telling me I need to come to Summit of Greatness for weeks.

Maybe I should come.

Whatever it is, like you keep hearing these signs.

you see certain things over and over again you're like huh maybe i should pay attention maybe i should listen more maybe i should lean into what that sign is and

i know when we first met you were going through a lot personally

and

you were going through some grief in your life and i want you to share what that what that was but before you do if anyone is going through grief or sadness

or loss in their life, What would you say is one of the first things they can do to start healing from that grief?

And then maybe you can share some of what you've been through as well.

Okay, so

I believe that

the most dangerous thing that people can do is suppress their grief and their pain and cover it up with something else.

And I think that all of my friends thought that I would just throw myself back into work.

And that would be the way that I would sort of avoid having to deal with my loss, which I will share in a minute.

But I just had this absolute knowing that I had to go to the bottom of the hole of grief and feel all the pain if I was ever going to truly heal and so

10 months after I lost my husband I had the opportunity to come on Lewis's podcast so I think he'd invited me before the pandemic but then we couldn't fly and you know it had to be live so this opportunity that I'd been waiting for for so long, the first big podcast that I was ever to do,

I, at 10 months, usually people are doing quite well after a grief or a loss, but then the anniversary is really hard.

So I thought I could do it.

I came to LA.

I didn't know if I was going to tell you or not.

I was crying on Zoom to a colleague the week before saying, I can't trust myself to perform.

I've lost all of my confidence.

And like you said, I was nervous, which I'm not normally.

And

so you sat me down and kind of like gave me a bit of a pep talk before.

And then we finally got into the room and the cameras were rolling.

And you said, are there any off-limits topics and i think i just blurted it out because i hadn't you know i wasn't mentally prepared for what i do in a professional situation and you were like oh my goodness are you going to be okay yeah and i said well as long as we don't talk about it i'll be okay

but i always had it in my mind that i wanted to come back on your show and show you what i was really capable of because i felt like i hadn't performed that well.

So I think it was a couple of years later I came back on the show and

we still didn't talk about, you know, the thing that you knew about but I hadn't been public with yet.

Yeah.

So here I am for the third time.

So you and you had lost your, so now it's been three years since you lost your husband.

That would be four in October.

Four years.

And you hadn't really started talking about it.

I guess you weren't talking about it publicly for certain reasons, but now you are starting to talk about it, right?

Yeah, the reason was that I never saw the point of sharing a sad story with people unless there was some benefit from it.

Yeah.

And I'm very lucky I've got amazing friends and support around me.

So that's one of the other things I would say if you're in grief or loss, please make sure you've got the right people around you.

It makes such a big difference.

I literally don't think I'd be here today if it wasn't for my friends.

So

I

then went on this journey of receiving signs from my lovely husband, who I knew would never leave me, and he's proven it to me now.

So he sends you signs.

Yeah.

Your husband.

Yes.

Who's no longer with us?

Yes.

What type of signs signs does he send you?

Obviously hearts.

But

when I met him, I was journaling and I kept noticing this infinity symbol on an advert.

And for some reason, because I really trust my intuition, I had written in my journal, if the person I'm going to marry is already in my life, then I will see three infinity symbols in really unusual places.

So then I was walking on the streets of London and I saw an elastic band in the shape of the infinity symbol.

I flew to a conference in Turkey.

There was a guy wearing a wedding ring that had an infinity symbol engraved in it.

So, you know, I was obviously very close to him to even see that.

And then I was sitting on the tube, the London Underground, and it was super crowded.

I had a seat.

There was a girl standing right in front of me, almost against me.

And in the gap between her sneakers and her jeans was a tattoo of an infinity symbol.

So I had already met Robin on a plane at this point, but he was pursuing me and I wasn't interested because he was so much older.

So I never thought it would be him.

And then, you know, he was just like very kind and he like wouldn't go away.

So eventually I thought I'd give him a chance.

So that story is in the background.

And now, for example, I have so many stories like this, but one day I was walking between meetings.

I had an hour, so I thought I'd take the chance to get some exercise.

And I ended up walking past the hospital where he'd been having treatment.

And in my mind, I said to him, Why would you let me walk this way?

You know, it's so traumatic for me.

I never want to see that building again.

You've got to send me a sign.

So, you're saying this to your husband who passed.

You're having a conversation with the husband.

I'm just making sure.

Okay.

Yeah, I would speak to you.

And you're saying, Why is this happening?

Why are you sending me this way?

Yeah.

And you've got to send me a sign to make up for it.

And by the time I got from University College Hospital to Houston Station, and please Google Maps said it's very close.

There was an elastic band in the shape of an infinity symbol on the pavement.

And I get things.

Sometimes I ask for signs, but sometimes I just get ones that I couldn't expect.

I've had one recently that is so crazy, I haven't shared this before.

I was with a really good friend who never, unfortunately, never got to meet Robin.

We're sitting down at dinner, and it was a prepaid set menu, but it had a lot of meat on it, and I don't eat meat.

So she said, Actually, can I just transfer my credit and take her to the restaurant downstairs?

And they said, no, it's prepaid for this restaurant.

So we decided to stay, which was a good move because the food was really good, and they did some changes for me.

So, I'm talking to her, I'm looking at the glasses between us, and engraved on the bottom of the glass is R B.

And my husband's name was Robin Bieber.

So, she and I are kind of freaking out.

Then she says,

When are you having the little dinner for his birthday?

Remind me when his birthday is.

So, I said, September 21st.

So, I constantly see 2109 on my phone and

on receipts and things like this.

So, she goes to to put that into her phone calendar, and she has this shocked look on her face.

And I say, what?

And she says that she used to have this habit of putting people's birthdays in with the age that they were going to turn.

And so she had her aunt's birthday in on that day, but she hadn't updated it for seven years.

And it said 44, and that's my angel number, which means your angels are guiding you.

And I liked 11, but I never asked for 44.

It kept coming to me.

And then I realized it was him telling me that he is still looking after me.

Interesting.

The next morning she sends me a screenshot of an email that she got with the title of which is a thank you from Robin and it was a receipt for a charitable donation she'd made like two weeks previously.

And then this is the one that is going to blow your minds.

She matches on a dating app for somebody called Robin Bieber.

What?

Wow.

And I've got, obviously I've got the screenshots, though I can prove that that.

Wow.

Wow.

Now, the thing that we have talked about a lot in our last couple of interviews and we talk about personally is that I see you creating content around us, around manifesting and the science behind it, how you actually have a specific science that you studied on how to do it.

We've talked about it on the show a few times.

But do you think that you can manifest what you want?

If you're not willing to go through grief when sadness or loss comes in your life,

There's lots of ways I could answer that question.

I mean, I think for a long while, I felt like everything I'd believed in, like manifestation and love and abundance, was just shattered.

And I felt like I'm not that interested in manifestation anymore.

And at first, you know, I wasn't meditating or journaling.

I was just trying to get through each day.

I will say I've come back round to believing in manifestation in a different way.

I think whereas before, for example, I would have suggested journaling to hone your intuition, now I'm much more into

unleashing creativity and spending time in nature and doing like somatic or physical body therapies like dancing, drumming, chanting, humming to unleash hidden wisdom from the body.

And then

manifest more through having a conversation with the universe through signs.

Interesting.

Why do you think it's important to kind of hum, chant, drum, dance, be in nature in order to is that more of getting in alignment with the signs and your intuition or what is the the reason for that?

Um, you know Bessel van der Kolk's book, The Body Keeps the Score.

So that book explains very carefully how trauma is stored in the body.

So the PTSD circuits of the brain, like the hippocampus and the amygdala, they're not the only place that trauma plays out.

And actually, when you're traumatized, the broca area of the brain, which articulates speech, gets shut down.

So people say, I'm speechless, I don't have words for this, I'm dumbfounded.

And that's when his research showed that yoga is better for PTSD than talking therapy or any kind of drug therapy.

And also things like art therapy.

But I think you don't have to be traumatized.

You can unleash hidden wisdom through physical movement too.

Do you want me to give you the real deep science of this?

Yeah, please.

So serotonin, which is commonly known as the mood hormone,

over 95% of that is made outside of the central nervous system.

So it's mostly made in the gut.

And it doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier.

So it has no effect on mood whatsoever.

It has many other functions in the body.

But the word serotonin itself actually means serum, which is like your blood and your plasma, and tone.

So serotonin has an action to constrict or dilate the blood vessels that changes how much nutrition and oxygen is pushed into the tissues of the body.

And we believe that that's how trauma and all the intuition and wisdom that we picked up in life that we don't consciously remember is stored in the body.

Interesting.

So

let me make sure I understand this.

So if we do things that activate serotonin, then we unleash more wisdom in our body or what are we doing?

If we do physical activity, it's more likely that serotonin will dilate the vessels, allowing a lot of nutrients and oxygen.

But also,

when we are traumatized or we have intuition stored in our body, it's held in certain patterns in the tissues like the fascia and the muscles.

So you're actually accessing those patterns and that's what's giving you the wisdom.

It's also from your mind, but what's held in your body, you can't articulate through words.

So if someone's been experiencing some type of trauma, whether big trauma or little traumas that have continued over time,

but they haven't released those traumas or they haven't released that grief and it's stored in their body and their cells.

They've got a blockage in the way they think around things because of that memory that's causing them to feel tighter or clenched around a certain situation.

What is the best thing they can start doing to feel more emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically free just to allow possibilities in their life or intuition to come in or to see the signs?

Because there's been seasons in my life where I felt like everywhere I look, I'm getting signals and signs.

And then other seasons where

I don't feel like anything's coming to me.

Yeah.

And I think it's really worth saying that's completely normal.

So even when I was like at the height of my manifesting powers, it would feel like for months nothing would happen.

And then it would be like everything's coming at the same time.

And I always say, ask for what you want in that moment because that's when you're manifesting.

And you don't necessarily know whether it's the cycles of the moon or the seasons or your mindset or, you know, what it is, but just take advantage of it when it's working.

And so in terms of that physicality, which I think a lot of us are cut off from, you know, there's a real disconnect between our minds and our bodies.

The first thing I want to ask you all is, have you ever had a visceral reaction to something where you've received a piece of news and a shiver goes down your spine or you get goosebumps?

So that's the start of learning the language that your body is speaking to you.

And so, you know, I have this favorite thing, which I think you enjoy, which is when I don't know the answer from modern science, I go back to evolution.

So our ancestors didn't have spare resources for anything that was just fun or a luxury.

All the resources were for survival.

So in that case, why did they dance, hum, drum, chant, make cave paintings?

It must be because art and beauty is crucial to human survival.

Interesting.

And so, we know that

we were painting caves 40,000 years ago.

But 10 and 20,000 years before that,

we were making,

in southern Africa, they were carving ostrich eggshells and you know, just for fun, for beauty.

They were making necklaces out of shells and wearing them.

They were using ochre crumbled from the ground to paint their faces and their bodies.

And

500,000 years before that,

we were making tools that were more beautiful and symmetrical than they had to be to complete the task that they were for.

So it really goes to show that art and beauty and creativity and physicality and movement are very crucial ways that we've always operated.

And since the world has modernized, we've kind of like forgotten those things.

So it's not really anything new.

It's just things, it's ancient wisdom that we really need to remember.

Interesting.

The School of Greatness is sponsored by Airbnb.

Martha and I both share a love for traveling, and lately I've been going to Spain for a lot of my handball training, and Martha is often traveling too for different projects.

There's something about stepping into a new country or city that just refreshes us.

Some of my best memories, whether from work, sports, or just to recharge, have come from exploring a new place.

Now, think back to your last trip.

While you were away, was your place just sitting there empty?

The same way you're excited to discover someone else's city, there are people out there who are excited to visit yours.

Hosting on an Airbnb while you're gone can be a practical way to put your space to use and help balance out some of your own travel expenses.

From our experience, hosting has always been easy and straightforward.

And whether you're on the road often or only once in a while, it can be a smart move that fits naturally into your lifestyle.

Your home might be worth more than you think.

Find out how much at airbnb.com/slash host.

Get this.

Over the years, Blue Apron has shipped more than 530 million meal kits.

That is insane.

And now, for the first time ever, you can shop Blue Apron a la carte.

Meet the Blue Apron now with no subscription.

Order what you want when you want.

Their expanded menu has more than 100 weekly meals, more than double what they used to offer, and 75% of them are customizable.

Plus, they've added new, low-prep recipes and pre-made meals so you can get good food on the table fast.

It's been such a relief for Martha and myself to not have to stress about meals right now.

With my twin girls arriving next month, our plates have been full.

No pun intended.

Thankfully, we have Blue Aprons help keeping our actual plates full at mealtimes.

It's been so helpful knowing that Blue Apron meals are always on the way.

Try the new Blue Apron today and get 40% off your first two orders at blueapron.com with code GREATNES40.

Terms and conditions apply.

Visit blueapron.com/slash terms for more.

You ever walk out of the grocery store or fill up your tank and just think, how is everything this expensive?

Feels like prices are going up everywhere.

And how great would it be if just once something actually just went down in price?

Well, at Metro, that's exactly what's happening.

They've lowered their prices and are giving you a five-year price guarantee on talk, text, and data.

One line, now 20% lower.

Family plans, also lowered.

Oh, and you also get a free 5G phone, all with no ID required and no activation fees.

Stop by your neighborhood Metro store.

Visit metro by t-mobile.com or call to find out about their amazing offers.

Bring your number, not available if currently at T-Mobile or with Metro in the past 180 days.

Guarantee covers monthly price of on-network talk, text, and 5G data for customers activating on an eligible plan.

Exclusions apply.

Details at metro by t-mobile.com.

So I'm hearing you say that art, beauty, dance is designed for our survival.

And it also is designed to heighten our experience, it sounds like, but we forget that sometimes.

Yeah, because if you think about when we lived on the savannah, we had to access our instincts and our physicality to read the land, to read the weather.

But the beauty of ancient wisdom is that a cloud formation could say rain is coming, or it could be a pattern that you recognize recognize as a message from your ancestors.

And it's just such a beautiful way to live.

Speaking of ancestors, do you believe it's possible for us to connect with our ancestors and have

like they're with us?

I know some people do, some people don't, but

what's been the research and the science around the signs around either reincarnation or connecting with ancestors or people who have passed?

What have you researched or personally experienced?

I just want to say, because I have been teasing you about this for several years, I'm very impressed with your Spanish now.

It's getting a little better.

It really wasn't good for a long time.

It still needs to get better, but it's getting better.

Thank you.

I'll take it.

And I'm saying that because I want to ask you about your own wife's culture.

I mean, Mexican Day of the Dead.

Need I say?

Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.

But in the book, I've researched...

you know, the major ancient civilizations, the Greeks, the Romans, the Mayans, the Aboriginal Australians, the Maoris.

And in all of those cultures, there is ancestor worship, there is communication with ancestors.

When I worked in Aboriginal Australia, I worked with Aboriginal liaison officers.

And the very common bird in Darwin is the cockatoo, the white cockatoo.

But he told me that when they see the much rarer black cockatoo, they believe that's their ancestors in animal form.

just letting them know that they're still around.

Wow.

That's beautiful.

What have you, I mean, did you always believe that you could connect with people who had passed?

Or is this more of a recent thing that you started to experience, but also research?

It's definitely a recent thing.

It's definitely since I lost my husband.

It was just, you know, such a terrible time.

You saw me like shortly after and I was desperate for a sign and

I just couldn't believe that he would like completely leave me.

I could see that he'd had a horrific disease and that his body couldn't tolerate that anymore.

But this was a man that taught me what unconditional love was, that told me he wanted to live till he was 100 because he'd met me and

um

so his as obviously his name was robin and i did start seeing robins in the garden like all the time like a crazy amount but it didn't give me that much comfort and i didn't really know what to make of it but out of desperation i went and spoke to a couple of mediums and in the end because i'm super independent and obviously i'm all about like expanding my mind i just thought if it's possible then i want to do it myself this is the person i was closest to and that's the journey that I went on that I've written about in the signs what about people that think that they don't believe but they're like you know what that's too much for me or that goes against what I've grown up with or my beliefs or my religion that that doesn't happen I'm not sure who but what would you say to someone who doesn't believe that when someone dies you can still be connected to them in some way or have some type of relationship

signals, signs, conversations with them?

Yeah, I mean, I was brought up in an Indian household where my parents believed in reincarnation and gave like food offerings to ancestors, right?

But I also went to medical school in the UK and did a PhD in neuroscience.

So I've always been quite torn in that respect.

I've had that skepticism that I think everyone should have.

The only thing I can say now since writing this book is that I have literally had thousands of messages from people.

Really?

Thousands.

People?

Yeah.

Real people, live people.

Okay, I was like, come here.

Okay, real people, yeah.

I cut her off before the end of the sentence, okay.

People who can DM and email.

Okay, got you.

I thought I'm like, people are talking to you all day long.

I was like.

And I've been taken aback.

I've been taken aback by the amount of stories like mine that I've heard.

In my friendship group, it's normal to say, oh,

send me a WhatsApp of a sign or whatever.

But the number of people who've written to me and included in that is the skeptics.

I actually had someone, this is just one message, I hope he's listening, that I'm going to say, he literally sent me a voice note saying, I listened to you on a podcast.

I was like, nah, you know, this just, it sounds really woo-woo.

I was super skeptical.

I was walking on the beach whilst listening to this podcast, and I came across the infinity symbol on the beach whilst I was.

And just, you know, many other people saying, I listened to you.

I didn't believe.

I've never heard from any of my lost loved ones.

But I specifically asked for a sign and it came.

Wow.

So that's all I'm asking all of you is just try it.

It's not going to harm you.

If you've lost someone or it might just be from the universe or God, whatever you believe in,

just think of a symbol that means something to you that will feel like it's an unmistakable sign and just ask for it and see what happens.

What if they don't see it?

It's

so

it's tell me a million dollars right now.

Where are you?

So

give me an example of like, if someone's the most skeptical person who's like, I don't believe any of this stuff.

And I've heard people say this before.

And all these things happen to me or I lost someone close to me and I haven't felt a thing.

I've just felt sadness, loss, and grief.

And it's unfair.

And

I'm alone.

How can someone?

say, I'm going to just give it a try, even though I know it's not going to work.

The most, the biggest skeptic, how could they try to be open to the possibilities to see a sign?

What would you start them with?

Think of a sign that's meaningful to them, not like actual physical money, but more of like a symbol, right?

Yeah, and I think there's got to be a more like emotional depth to it.

Okay.

You know, there's got to be a reason that you're longing to see that sign and it would actually mean something to you in a way that a million dollars is never going to make you happy.

Gotcha.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, yeah.

So for you, it was an infinity sign.

Oh, well, it's Robins.

It's the numbers 11 and 44.

It's the infinity sign.

White feathers are quite universal.

My friend who's written a book about it actually calls them the angelic business card.

So that's one that I like.

White feathers.

Yeah.

Okay.

So you'll think, so what would the first step be?

Think of a sign that you resonate with.

Well, if it's for a lost loved one, then I like to actually meditate on that person and my memory of them for a while.

And then think of either a joke that we shared or a memory that only that person and I would know about and then pick a symbol that represents that.

So for example once I asked for a button that would appear out of place.

A button that would appear out of place.

Yeah

and

and I also put like some parameters around it like I would have to see it three times and I would have to see three signs by 11 p.m.

the following day.

Interesting.

So you're like there's structure to the signs.

But that's because I'm quite far along the journey of getting them.

At first it would just be like please send me a sign.

In the next week or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

For instance, I had forgotten that I had written in my journal that

on another podcast, I said that I'd wanted to be an actress, but my father had said over my dead body.

So my father...

then passed away.

Wow.

And a lot late, this was when I was like 16, but my father passed away a few years ago.

And so I thought, well, now that you've passed away, Daddy, maybe I do have your permission to

said over my dead body

and that was the kind of relationship we had I was very cheeky with him but he liked it and so I said if I have your permission now then I will bump into a famous actress

I didn't put any time parameters on it I forgot that I'd written that in my journal I'm the trustee of a charity in the UK and

I helped organize the Christmas Carol concert so I invited a friend We met in the doorway quite early and then people started to come in.

So this woman tried to get past us and so I tried to step out of her way but she stepped in the same direction so we literally physically bumped into each other and then she said sorry and she walked off and I said to my friend he's a filmmaker oh my goodness that's Anna Friel I love her

So that story is in the book with her permission and we've now become friends and she keeps saying I can help you to become an actress.

You know, and I told you I knew this story.

I knew you were going to tell me because we were talking about this.

Yes.

Yeah, because you met her.

I've met her.

Yeah, I met her a bunch of times.

And she, I think she follows me.

And she, her and Martha did a TV show together.

Yeah.

So I was like, that's a cool synchronicity right there.

Yeah.

Isn't that wild?

It's crazy.

Yeah.

So when you said her, I was like, oh, what of all the actors?

All the people.

Yeah, it's cool.

Very cool.

So that was something you put in there.

You met her.

Now you guys are connected.

And she said, if you ever want to do acting, let me know.

I'm happy to help.

But I think the biggest thing for me is I forgot I'd written that in my journal.

So when I look back, I mean, even though I believe in this, it takes my breath away every time.

That's a powerful.

You mentioned a meditation.

You're You'll do meditations or you'll think about the person and the memories of the person that you want to receive a sign from.

Is there a meditation or a process that people can do?

Maybe it only takes a few seconds or a few moments that you can guide us with?

Yeah,

there are a few and they're all in the book as well.

But I just want to preface that by saying part of my journey has been cultivating the art of noticing.

And I learned that by noticing beauty.

So that's part of neuroaesthetics, which is this field of research I've written about, about the arts and beauty.

So nature for me is the easiest place to do this.

It'll be like, you know, the spring blossoms, the flowers in LA, the autumn leaves on the east coast, whatever.

And I realized that the neuroplasticity set in really quickly, because you know I take on a neuroplasticity challenge every year.

It's normally quite hard and takes a while.

But with this, very quickly, I noticed that like 10 plus times a day, I'd be saying, oh, isn't that so pretty?

And I thought, okay, my brain's definitely like, you know, looking for these things.

Yeah.

and finding them.

So that helps you obviously then to notice signs because your whole saliency network of your brain is just like the filter is less harsh.

And I've written about saliency and habituation in the book too.

So I did a few, chose a few meditations to do with our senses.

And I'd like to share one now that is to do with the sense of sound and hearing.

Okay.

So if you'd like to join in the meditation, if you just close your eyes and sit with no arms or legs crossed,

and we'll just start with a little bit of breath work just to get you into the zone.

So just start by noticing your breath.

Don't try to change anything, but as soon as you turn your attention to your breath, it usually does change.

So just notice if the in-breath and the out-breath are of equal length or if one is longer than the other.

And then I'm just going to count you through breathing in for four and breathing out for four.

So inhale, two,

three,

four.

Exhale, two,

three,

four.

And just repeat that for a few cycles in your mind.

And then try to focus on making the out-breath two counts longer than the in-breath.

So breathe in, two,

three,

four,

and breathe out,

two,

three,

four,

five, six.

And again, repeat that for a few cycles.

It just helps you to let go.

And now I'd like you to take your attention away from your breath and just turn it inwards

and focus on the sound that you can hear that is closest to you.

And now focus on the sound

that seems furthest away from you.

Try to move your attention away from the closest sound

towards the furthest sound.

And now turn your attention to the sound that you can hear that is the loudest.

And then

use your senses to locate the sound that is the quietest that you can hear.

And then turn your attention away from the sounds around you

and notice that whatever sounds are around you, however close, far, loud or quiet,

there is always stillness within.

And I want you to just sit in that place of stillness for a little while,

just breathing.

And when you're ready, you can flutter your eyelids open and bring yourself back into this room, back into your body,

back into the here and now.

Real nicely.

Wow.

Imagine never buying gas again.

Just plug in your car like you plug in your phone.

That's the power of driving electric.

It's not just good for the planet, it's actually more convenient and more affordable.

I've actually been driving a Tesla for a couple of years now, and I love it.

I can charge it overnight in my garage.

And when I'm on the go, I hit a fast charger and I'm back on the road in no time.

No gas stops, no oil changes, just smooth, quiet, reliable drives.

EVs are built for real life with daily range that lets you go wherever you need to go without worry.

And the savings?

Up to $2,000 a year just by skipping the gas pump.

And with over 100 new and used EV models available right now, there's truly something for every lifestyle and budget.

The way forward is electric.

Learn more at electricforall.org.

Greatness starts with what you put into your body, and that includes the very air you breathe.

If you want better focus, deeper sleep, and more energy to show up at your best, try starting with fresh, clean air.

Blue Air Blue Signature Purifier is the most compact, powerful air purifier you can get.

Through seven stages of filtration, it quietly removes pollutants and 10 times more odors.

It's no wonder Blue Air is the most awarded air care company in the U.S.

and UK.

I just got my Blue Air Purifier, and and I've got to say, I've noticed the difference, especially since I have two cats in my house.

I just feel like I can breathe easier, and I've been waking up feeling more refreshed.

Cleaner air can mean a clearer mind, stronger body, and the energy to live at your highest level.

So, get your Blue Air Blue Signature Purifier today.

Visit blueair.com and use promo code GRATE25 to save 25%.

That's B-L-U-E-A-I-R.com with promo code G-R-E-A-T25.

I think you need to do a meditation app next, too.

The voice is so soothing.

It was so interesting just doing the

listening meditation of to sounds and noises

and trying to put my attention like up in the upper balcony of like, can I hear a breath up there?

It's like just even if I can't hear it, how do I put my attention over there?

And then putting your attention into the stillness inside of you.

It's just, that was very interesting.

And what does that

meditative practice, that specific one, do for us to either heighten our senses or our attention or

how does it support us in tapping into these signs?

For me, that one is really about remembering in the most stressful moments that there's stillness within that you can access in a matter of minutes.

There's another one which I would have liked to do, but it involves chewing a raisin for a minute.

So it was a bit impractical.

Raisins.

But it's about, you know, visualizing this grape growing in California under the sunshine and the rain and being transported to your local town and your shop and then you buying it and you know sort of so just really getting into that journey.

But a lot of tapping into signs and your intuition starts with tapping into your senses.

And so to ease people into the book, because obviously I knew they were going to be skeptics, the first main chapter of research is about the fact that humans, as far as we currently know, actually have 34 senses.

And so most people don't know that.

And I didn't until I did a literature review.

I knew we had more than the five, because I've been to medical school, obviously, but I didn't imagine it was anything like 34.

So if you now know that you have 34 senses, and let me just give you a few examples.

Taste is subdivided into five.

So it's bitter, sweet, salty, sour, and umami.

And umami was only discovered in the 1980s.

So, you know, our understanding of what we're capable of is evolving quite a lot.

But if you don't know that you have them, you you can't be tapping into them.

And that's an analogy for intuition, and it's also an analogy for signs.

So we have five tastes.

Yeah.

So mommy, though, is recent though.

Is that a recent thing?

1980s.

I wonder if there's more senses that we haven't tapped into.

Well, the latest one that's been recognized physiologically as a sense is the immune system.

What the sense of the immune system.

What does that mean exactly?

The immune system feels something?

In the book, I've described a sense as something where a stimulus acts on a receptor and it causes the production of a chemical that then has a cascade effect in the body.

So for example a lot of people say intuition is our sixth sense but intuition doesn't stimulate a receptor so I've ruled that out.

Interesting.

Yeah.

So intuition is not a sense.

Not in the strictest physiological terms.

What is intuition?

Intuition is all the life lessons that we've picked up in life, but that we don't consciously remember.

So it's the wisdom that we picked up that we have access to.

It's not our logic.

It's not emotional thinking.

It's another way of thinking and it's based on patterns that we recognize from life experience.

Does intuition come from the mind

or the nervous system?

So I would have said, when I wrote the source and when I first came on your podcast, I would have said it comes from the

mind, which is part of the brain and the central nervous system and possibly the gut neurons, you know, is called gut instinct.

Now I've gone further with my research to say that it's coming from the tissues, the fascia, the musculature.

The whole body, like everything in your whole body.

Your intuition is like every cell in your body.

Embodied, yeah.

Embodied intuition.

Why do so many of us go against our intuition?

When it comes to relationships that later were like, we knew they were the wrong person.

Yeah.

Or a business opportunity or a career.

Why do we go against intuition?

And we make poor choices that we know, like in ourselves we know

something was off i don't know if ever you've ever heard this story but i've heard it so many times from from women who have been divorced who said they knew on their wedding day that they were not she laughs she's the one who knew on her wedding day that she was not supposed to be with the person she was getting married to i don't know has anyone ever had that feeling or not have heard that it's like after they get divorced like i knew on my wedding day i'm like if you knew why would you go forward with this right it's like but I can say that about me for all the dumb things I've done right so why do we do dumb things when our intuition tells us not to do it

so I was I was going to start by saying I think society has conditioned us to believe in logic more than intuition

but I also think with what you the last part of what you just said is why do we not listen it it it's because

We don't hear it because we're not tapped into it because of all the reasons I said, you know, we don't know that we've got 34 senses, so we're not tapped into them.

I was lucky, I realized quite early on that I was intuitive.

I would just have a sense that something was the right thing to do, and I would go with it.

And my husband at the time would really support that as well.

So it nurtured it.

Then I got into journaling practice, and that really helped me to write out all the dumb decisions that I made that went wrong and realize that I should have gone with my intuition.

And to learn to take a healthier risk with that and go with my intuition, where, you know, perhaps it would feel

like

it would make more sense, even if I made the wrong decision decision to explain to you well logically this was the reason right um on paper he looked good right yeah on paper it all looked like it was supposed to work out that's what you always hear I mean for the most important decisions of my life like my life partner I would absolutely go with my intuition now that I you know feel like I've like grown it to the point that I can trust it so much but also for me and like the people I teach at MIT for example at the business school I had to put the science behind it so in the source I wrote about how and on your previous podcast with you I've I've talked about how intuition works through Hebbian learning in the body, in the nerves.

But in this book, I've written about how it works really like from your entire being.

From the whole being.

When you have an opportunity that comes in your life or a person you meet or something that you're given an opportunity to do.

Do you have like a strategy now that you say yes or no to based on your intuition?

Is there like something you say it needs to be a hell yes or it's a no?

Or is is there something you feel out more until you feel like, okay, my intuition is telling me this could be a good thing because maybe you know right away, maybe you don't.

Maybe it takes time to know if like something's going to be the right thing for you.

Cause a lot of people I feel like get stuck,

just they're not sure how to make a decision either way.

Yeah.

And so they're in the middle, right?

It's like they don't just fully commit.

They don't say no.

They're just like, ah, let's feel it out.

So how do we know when to say yes to the project?

Yes to the person, yes to the possibility?

And it doesn't mean that thing's going to always work out, I guess, but I don't know.

How do we know it's going to be the right thing for us right now?

So that's a really good question because in terms of the neuroscience, that limbo place of like not being able to take a decision one way or the other is actually the worst place for your brain to be in.

So it's better to make a decision.

than not make one at all.

And what I've learned, I do trust my intuition and I feel like it's right most of the time, but I've also learned that if I take a step in one direction and it turns out to be like either I make it work or if it turns out to not be the right decision, then I make that right somehow and I trust myself that that's what I'll always do.

And I guess we probably need to make a lot of wrong decisions for us to have the wisdom to have the intuition to know what to do in the future.

Yeah.

You need to make some mistakes.

And you build that up by taking a risk on smaller things, not taking a risk on like the biggest thing, like buying your home or something like that.

And people experience this in different ways.

So there are some phrases which are quite new age, I suppose, like clair audience, clair sentience, clair cognizance, and clair.

Oh my god, don't do this to me.

Clairvoyance.

The most obvious one.

So that is clairvoyance is seeing something and knowing that it's right.

Claire audience is hearing it.

Personally, I experience probably what's closest to clair cognizance, which is I just know something's right.

Claire, what's it called?

Cognizance, so like cognizance.

Cognition.

And Claire's sentience is feeling in your body that it's right.

So that may appeal to different people.

You know, you may receive it in a in like a different modality.

But I do believe that journaling and reading over your journal entries is a really good start.

There's a couple of exercises in the book that are combining physicality and your mind to access your intuition.

So those are some things that they can do.

Yeah.

What about listening to your friends or your family?

If they say, no, they're not right for you.

Should you trust the intuition of the people closest to you or do they not really know your intuition

only you know your intuition but i do think that running your intuition by your own logic and also by past the logic of someone you really trust is a good thing to do especially if you're not like 100 sure on your intuition i if i have a dilemma i will pick three friends to ask for their opinion and i'll pick people that i know will challenge me and like criticize my thinking

um

and i always say with i know exactly what situation you're asking about.

If one person doesn't like your prospective partner, that's their opinion.

But if four or five of your friends don't, you probably need to listen.

Yeah, right?

It's like, and how do you know, like, you hear this a lot about in relationships, like

my parents or my family didn't like this guy or this girl or whatever, but I just so connected.

We have so much love.

Like,

if someone's family or closest friends don't think it's the right choice, do you think they still have the ability to make a beautiful relationship?

Or is it,

what is that

um

as my best friend once put it to me which has stayed with me for so long like however much people love you and care for you everyone has an agenda for you they have an agenda yeah and even if it's obviously that they don't want you to get heartbroken or something that's still their agenda uh-huh i really do believe that you know you've got to live your life to the fullest if one thing i've learned from losing my husband is that every second, every decision is so

is

such a privilege.

And I feel like, you know, I could have gone down such a road of becoming so bitter and thinking like life had treated me so unfairly, but it took me years, as you know, but I've come out of it thinking, I am so lucky to be alive.

I have to throw myself into this life with everything that I've got.

Wow.

And if that includes future heartbreak, so be it.

It's not going to kill me.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's beautiful.

I've got, that's beautiful.

Yeah.

This episode is brought to you by Square.

Every business is unique and Square is the platform designed to help them all move forward.

Whether launching a new location, introducing fresh offerings, or reaching more customers, Square is built to serve businesses of every kind, from the corner sandwich shop that grew into a chain to the stylist at your local salon.

And with Square's AI-powered analytics, clear insights and data are only a quick chat away, giving business leaders the confidence to make smarter decisions on the go.

Instead of searching through endless filters or complex reports, simply ask Square AI and instantly see the metric that matters most.

From tracking what products are performing to optimizing staff schedules to identifying top customers, Square AI delivers answers in real time so businesses don't have to wait until the end of the day to know what's working.

Go to square.com slash go slash greatness to learn more about how your business can grow with Square.

That's s-q-u-a-re-e.com slash go slash greatness.

As the weather cools, it's time to swap in the pieces that actually get the job done.

Warm, durable, and built to to last.

And Quince delivers every time with wardrobe staples that carry you through the season.

Quince has the kind of fall staples you'll actually want to wear on repeat, like classic fit denim, real leather, and wool outerwear that looks sharp and holds up, plus 100% Mongolian cashmere from just $60.

By partnering directly with ethical factories and top artisans, Quince cuts out the middlemen to deliver premium quality at half the cost of similar brands.

And it goes beyond their clothes.

Quince has also incredible home and bedding options to make your home cozy this fall.

Martha and I have the European Linen Duvet cover set from Quince.

And let me tell you, this duvet set is so soft and high quality, we highly recommend it.

Layer up this fall with pieces that feel as good as they look.

Go to quince.com slash Lewis for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns.

That's q-u-i-n-ce-e.com slash Lewis.

Free shipping and 365-day returns.

Quince.com slash Lewis.

You know, you got a quote here about in your book, page 196.

It says, the more stable and supported you are, the more likely you are to have the resources to bring signs into your life.

And if you are open-minded about the possibility of some sort of shared consciousness, then feeling your connection to others and support from your tribe gets you a step closer to tapping into wisdom.

And in my experience, that's when signs will become an everyday part of your life.

And when I opened this event, I was talking about this kind of mastermind, this community.

Some people came alone, and hopefully, they'll meet someone here.

Some people dragged someone that didn't know they were coming.

And some people have been here for years, and some people, this is their first time.

And feeling supported is one of the most powerful things that you can have.

Unfortunately, not everyone has people in their life that supports them and believes in them.

And so, hopefully, here you can find that place, even if for this weekend and afterwards, you can take someone and connect with someone to continue to support you.

I know for me, there were a lot of years where I just didn't feel supported.

Even though people supported me, I just didn't feel understood as a young kid.

And I had to learn how to support myself internally and almost give myself the love and affection, as weird as that might sound, internally through meditation,

through patience with myself, through kindness rather than being, you know, just upset at myself constantly for making mistakes, but being kinder to myself.

I had to give myself grace.

And by doing that, I felt like I was able to start to attract more of the right people when I gave myself the support I needed, when I showed up for me.

Then I attracted other people who had a similar alignment to life, similar point of view.

And I want to close with this.

You talk a lot about neuroplasticity.

Again, you are.

the neuroscience master.

You teach this stuff, your books,

your content is amazing.

But neuroplasticity is something I'm fascinated by.

How can people use this concept from this weekend to start reshaping their own beliefs, their own thinking, the thoughts that hold them back or make them think negatively?

How can they reshape them to have more empowering habits after this weekend?

Well, I think the first thing that I can say that I think is going to like, you know, really land is a feeling, which is, and a neuroplasticity is stimulated by repetition and emotional intensity and you know I know this this weekend is going to be emotional in a good way for a lot of people but as a neuroscientist what I see is

hundreds of brains sitting here that are more like soft clay than a hard rock and that will inevitably be changed by the end of this weekend and that's just by absorbing that's if you're not even trying to necessarily learn or meet new people it's just by being here and having the experiences that you have your brain will be different so it's up to you how you want that brain to be different by the end of this weekend.

And if you take that intention into every workshop, into every performance, into every speech, then

what's right for you, what's meant for you will land for you.

And that's what you'll take forward into your life.

I want to leave it as open as that.

I trust the brains in this room to do the right thing.

And when you receive information, though, If you just receive it once at a weekend like this or any other weekend that people go to,

is it enough or do they have to do more to really create the dream that they have the goals that they have like what do they need to keep doing to keep their brain malleable enough so that they can start acting in different ways to create different results yeah so if something lands very highly emotionally this weekend, that itself may be enough to trigger a change.

But obviously there are actions that have to go along with that.

But I really liked it earlier when you were saying, you know, what's the thing that you would say to yourself, like, stop doing that now.

I think pondering on that this weekend and then actually making sure that every single day you do something that acknowledges that after you leave this weekend is probably a really good start.

I'm sure there'll be more specifics for people, but that really landed for me as a neuroscientist because of this negative gearing in the brain.

So overturning that negativity, working out maybe five to 10 small things that you need to do to change that status quo in your life would be a really good start.

Well, Dr.

Tara, we appreciate you for showing up.

You flew out here from the UK.

Thank you for giving us your time.

I acknowledge you for constantly growing and evolving.

Here we have everyone.

One more time for Dr.

Tara Swart.

Thank you very much.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.

Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links.

And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well.

Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review.

I really love hearing feedback from you, and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward.

And I want to remind you: if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.

And now it's time to go out there and do something

great.