The Mel Robbins Podcast
How to Control Your Mind & Redirect Your Energy to Self Transformation
Mon, 17 Feb 2025
In today’s episode, you’ll learn how to do a mindset reset to unlock the full power of your mind. Your brain is wired to give you what you want, and today, you’re getting Mel’s science-backed insights and her step-by-step guide for letting go of negative thoughts and redirecting your energy to self-transformation. If you’ve ever felt stuck in a cycle of negativity, self-doubt, or overthinking, this episode is for you. Mel is sharing 5 powerful, science-backed techniques to get your brain working for you rather than against you. By the end, you’ll see that when you focus your thoughts toward the right things, there’s no stopping you. Whether you want to build confidence, break free from negative thought loops, or simply create more peace in your life, this episode gives you the life-changing tools to make it happen. For more resources, click here for the podcast episode page. If you like this research-packed episode, your next listen should be this one, with Dr. Jim Doty: #1 Neurosurgeon: How to Manifest Anything You Want & Unlock the Unlimited Power of Your MindConnect with Mel: Get Mel’s #1 bestselling book, The Let Them TheoryWatch the episodes on YouTubeFollow Mel on Instagram The Mel Robbins Podcast InstagramMel's TikTok Sign up for Mel’s personal letter Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to ad-free new episodes Disclaimer
Chapter 1: How can I stop negative self-talk and feel more positive?
Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. So the other day I was on FaceTime with our two daughters, and they're 25 and 24 years old, and one of them was saying, I've just been really stuck in this mental rut lately. It's like no matter what she does, it's just never enough. She'll see somebody else doing something and then all of a sudden she's beating herself up.
She's picking apart how she looks. She's working very hard and she was like, I know I'm working very hard and I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and yet I'm telling myself it's not enough. Have you ever been in that kind of place? I know I have. Or maybe somebody that you love, they're really stuck in this negative rut right now. Well, that's what you and I are going to talk about today.
What do you do when it feels like your mind has actually turned against you? I know what that feels like because I lived in that negative place for decades in my life. I was smiling on the outside, but on the inside, doom and gloom. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't do anything right. So when I heard my 24-year-old daughter trapped there, like it broke my heart.
And then our other daughter is chiming in. Oh my God, I do the same thing. And I'm thinking, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to let the two of you stay there. I'm not going to let you waste decades of your life trashing yourself. And there's two reasons why I want to talk to you about this today. First of all, it feels awful when you talk to yourself in a way that just brings you down.
And second, your brain is a supercomputer. Your brain can help you get what you want if you know how to use it correctly. And nobody teaches you this stuff. At least nobody taught me. So that's why you and I are going to talk about this today. I'm going to teach you the five simple things that help me and that are going to help you let go of the negative thoughts.
Five simple things that create a more positive way of looking at yourself. And by the way, these are also the exact same five things that will train your brain to help you get what you want in life.
So whether you're excited to learn this because you're just so sick and tired of beating yourself up and dragging yourself down, or you want to help someone that you care about, like I want to help my daughters, or maybe you've got big goals and you're like, Mel, tell me how to get my mind to work for me so that I can get what I want.
Well, I'm gonna, because that's exactly what we're talking about today. Five simple things that will redirect all your mental energy toward happiness, success, and self-transformation. Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I love what we're gonna talk about today. I am so excited that you're here. It's always such an honor to spend time with you and to be together.
And if you're a new listener, I just wanna take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins Podcast family. I am so glad that you're here, and I also wanna point out something. If you're listening to this particular episode because someone shared this with you, That's really cool. It means you have people in your life that care about you.
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Chapter 2: What are the five simple techniques to improve my mindset?
I'm going to describe them in just a second. See if you can see a heart shape. Is there a shadow on the wall? Is there some discoloration in the brick?
Like right now, as I'm looking straight around the room that I am in above the garage here in Southern Vermont, I can see that on the whiteboard over on the other side of the room, we have a series of magnets and they're all clustered at the bottom of the whiteboard. And a bunch of the magnets are together and they're actually in the shape of a heart.
I'm looking down on the carpet and I see that there's a stain on the carpet, a little like, I don't know what, maybe it's cat hair. I can't quite tell what that is. But it's also in the shape of a heart. Every time I go on a walk in the woods, I see rocks, I see tree stumps, I see them everywhere. So you're probably thinking, why on earth... Is this important? Well, let me explain the science.
In order to explain the science, I want to teach you about a part of your brain, the supercomputer between your ears, that has a specific name. And that part of your brain is called the reticular activating system. Okay, reticular activating system. I like to call it the RAS for short, because reticular activating system is a mouthful, and you don't need to know that.
You just need to know that there is this filter in your brain. I think about it almost like there's a hairnet that's over my brain. It's like the bouncer for your brain. And what is this reticular activating system doing? Well, it is deciding all day long what information gets into your conscious mind and what information is being filtered out of your conscious mind. That is what it is doing.
And there's a reason why you need this filter. So we had an amazing neuroscientist and neurosurgeon from Stanford that appeared on the Mel Robbins podcast by the name of Dr. Jim Doty. So he is not only somebody who is a neuroscientist, he is a neurosurgeon, meaning he actually operates on people's brain. And he is a world-renowned expert in the neuroscience of manifestation.
And he told me when I was talking to him about the science, check this out. Do you know that there are six to 10 million bits of information coming at your mind, body, and spirit every single second? Six to 10 million. Your brain can't handle that. Neither can your body. Dr. Doty says that your conscious brain can only handle between 50 and 100 bits.
And 99% of that that it can handle is all stuff that's about how your body operates. So we're talking teeny amounts of information is actually getting to your conscious brain. What's super interesting about this is that means that a massive amount, a bazillion amounts of bits of information are bombarding you. You're just not aware of it.
And the reason why you're not aware of it is because of this hairnet on your brain, the bouncer, the reticular activating system. Its job is to decide, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, of the six to 10 million bits coming at me a million miles an hour, what's actually important? Now, here's where this gets interesting. What's important is what you tell your reticular activating system is important.
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