Living in SURVIVAL vs. Living in CREATION - Dr. Joe Dispenza

we've all heard about the placebo effect the instance when you take a medication because you're sick and later when you're all better you discovered that the medication was just a sugar pill the pill did nothing the healing was done by your mind it is estimated that half the efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs can be attributed to the placebo however the placebo effect can work in both ways our mind can actually induce illness and this is known as the nocebo effect every stressful thought is like a dose of a nocebo pill and this stress literally shuts down

the immune system this is why doctors give stress hormones to a patient who is receiving an organ transplant the immune system needs to be turned off so that the body won't reject the foreign organ in modern society many people are trapped in a cycle of financial debt fear-mongering on the news instability in the home soul-crushing jobs and toxic social media and so they are living in a never-ending state of stress which results in the nocebo effect our well-being is a reflection of how we perceive the world if we gain an understanding over how our emotions

affect our biology then we gain the ability to take back control over our health and come into alignment with our mind body soul genetics and environment today's episode is from the original gaia series rewired by the wise and powerful dr joe dispenza this episode will break down the difference between living in survival and living in creation you are not a victim of your genetics or environment you have the capacity to experience reality and transform it it's time to take our power back sit back and enjoy this insightful presentation with dr joe dispenza can be defined

as a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances but how do different kinds of stress cause long-term effects on our brain and body stress usually is created when we can't predict a future outcome when we feel that we can't control the situation or when we have the perception that there's a threat a danger or a perception that something's going to get worse in our lives you may not be able to control everything that happens in your life or your outer world however is it possible that you can

learn how to control your inner world of thoughts and feelings i'm your host dr joe dispenza and in the previous episode we went into depth on the ancient practice of meditation and what it means to be truly present in this episode we're going to identify different kinds of stress show you the long-term effects of stress how it can create illness in your body and once you understand what stress can do to you it's my hope that the information you'll learn will empower you to make some important changes in your life there are three types of

stress there's physical stress chemical stress and emotional stress now physical stress are things like traumas accidents injuries falls chemical stress flus bacteria viruses blood sugar levels toxins and food emotional stress family tragedy second mortgages single parenting traffic jams and all of these different stressors whether they're physical chemical or emotional knock your brain and body out of balance in fact the definition of stress is when your brain and body are knocked out of homeostasis now the stress response is what your body innately does to return itself back to order when you or any organism in nature

begins to perceive a danger or threat in their external environment they turn on a primitive nervous system called the fight-or-flight nervous system and when the person or the organism is perceiving that danger the body innately begins to mobilize enormous amounts of energy and resources all of its energy now is being mobilized to be able to adapt to the stress in the environment so then we begin to tap the body's vital resources so that we can survive the condition in the outer world all organisms in nature can tolerate short-term stress whether it's a zebra being chased

by a lion or whether it's a pack of coyotes chasing a deer the moment the organism perceives that danger and switches on that emergency system there is a rush of adrenaline and a rush of energy and there is an arousal that takes place in the brain and body and those chemicals then alter our normal homeostasis and in that state of survival we switch on that sympathetic nervous system or what's called the fight-or-flight nervous system and our pupils dilate our salivary juices shut down it's not a time to eat our heart rate increases our respiratory rate

increases blood is sent to the extremities and it's shut down in the eternal organs because it's a time to run it's a time to fight or it's a time to hide now if the zebra or the deer outrun the predator 30 minutes later the stress response begins to switch off and the body returns back to balance after there's a stress response many organisms need to rest and repair because the body has to come back online and regenerate and conserve energy what if though you're being chased by t-rex and you're turning on that primitive nervous system

called the fight-or-flight nervous system and the moment you perceive that threat and you're in danger and now you're running from the predator that's very adaptive but what if then the predator is waiting outside the cave and waiting for you to go out and get some food we could say then that your ability to sustain a certain stress response would be extended but what if it isn't t-rex outside the cave what if it's your co-worker what if it's your mother-in-law what if it's your boss what if it's traffic and what was once highly adaptive becomes very

maladaptive because when you turn on the stress response and you can't turn it off now you're headed for disease because no organism can live in emergency mode for an extended period of time reason this with me if you keep mobilizing enormous amounts of energy for some threat in your outer world there's no energy in your inner world for growth and repair so think of the sympathetic nervous system as the emergency system that's like the gas pedal in the car the other nervous system called the parasympathetic nervous system that nervous system is the nervous system of

relaxation of regeneration of metabolism so if a person is living in a constant state of stress and they like an addict become conditioned to the rush of the arousal of those chemicals then in time then they will begin to use the problems and conditions in their life to reaffirm their conditioning or their addiction to that emotion we become so conditioned to these chemicals that like a drug addict we need the bad job we need the poor relationship we need a difficult situation in our life to keep getting that rush of adrenaline to keep getting that

rush of energy and in a sense people become addicted to the life they don't even like so then because of the size of the neocortex the thinking brain as you learned about we can make thought more real than anything else and people can begin to think about their problems and as they begin to think about their problems they can turn on the stress response just by thought alone and we now know that those chemicals can become addictive and you can turn on the stress response just by thought alone so then you can become addicted to

your own thoughts so it's a scientific fact that the long-term effects of the hormones of stress push the genetic buttons that create disease and you can turn on the stress response just by thought alone it means then that your thoughts can literally make you sick and so many diseases around the world now are created by the immune system being suppressed or what we call immune mediated diseases everything from cancer ms lupus rheumatoid arthritis food allergies food sensitivities is a compromise in the immune system so here's the question if your thoughts can make you sick is

it possible that your thoughts can make you well well we did a research study where we took 117 people and we wanted to measure their cortisol levels which is the stress hormone and another chemical called iga immunoglobulin a it's your body's primary defense against bacteria and viruses so as cortisol levels go up and you're mobilizing enormous amounts of energy for some threat in your outer world the immune system dials down and now the immune system becomes compromised because all of the energy is going for a threat in the outer world our immune system becomes suppressed

so typically iga levels go down so we measured the cortisol and iga levels and we put them through four days of training and we asked them to trade emotions like anger and frustration and hatred and violence and aggression and competition and fear those are all the chemicals that are derived from the stress hormones we ask them to trade those survival emotions for elevated emotions heartfelt emotions like gratitude appreciation kindness care love for life a joy for existence and all we wanted them to do for 10 minutes a day was open their hearts and begin to

feel those elevated emotions at the end of three and a half days we went back and we remeasured those same values and their immune system that is iga levels went up as a collective about 50 percent their cortisol levels dropped about 16.25 the stress hormones went down and their immune system up regulated to a great degree that means then when you begin to make a change in the way you think and the way you feel and you begin to change your attitude and you begin to open your heart again and feel an elevated emotion it

is those elevated emotions that begin to restore and repair the immune system so then there's three things when you're living by the hormones of stress that you keep your attention on think about it if you're being chased by a predator all of your attention is on your outer environment where are you going to go what place do you need to move to what object you need to move past and when you're under the gun of those chemicals you're thinking about time how much time do i have to get there so then the body the environment

and time and if where you place your tension is where you place your energy it makes sense then if all of your attention is on your body all of your attention is on your environment and all of your attention is on time then you are putting all of your attention in this three-dimensional reality now you have to play by the rules of this three-dimensional reality and everything that you create will take time when people are under the gun of those chemicals they're drawing from this invisible field of energy surrounding their body this vital life force

and they're using it to make chemistry and the field around their body shrinks and they become more matter and less energy more particle and less wave and the very hormones of stress heighten our senses so that we become a materialist and the more altered we feel from that stress response or by the emotional reaction from some threat or danger the more we narrow our focus on the cause or the object and when we do that all of a sudden we are focusing only on matter and so people over time get hooked in or habituated into

narrowing their focus so then when you're living in emergency mode it's not a time to create it's not a time to open your heart it's not a time to learn anything new it's not a time to sit still and go within in fact if the survival genus switched on you'd be thinking in some level innately that it's not a time to sit still because you would be prey so then the more people are conditioned or addicted to the hormones of stress the more their attention is on matter the more they begin to experience separation from

everyone and everything now if stress is created by the feeling that you're losing control in your life that you can't predict an outcome or you have the perception that something or someone is causing situations in your life to get worse then if you're living by the hormones of stress on a daily basis then what we try to do is we try to control everything in our life when we're feeling loss of control we try to predict the next moment based on our memories of the past that means people under stress are craving the known they're

trying to get back to the familiar or the known because in survival the unknown is a scary place so then as they begin to shift their attention from one person to one problem to another person to another problem to another thing to another place each one of those elements has a neurological network in the brain and the arousal of those chemicals then begin to cause those different circuits as you shift your attention to begin to become highly activated and now the brain is functioning in a very incoherent state and the arousal of those chemicals drives

the brain into a very very highly analytical over-focused state think about it when you're under stress have you noticed that you keep thinking about the same problem over and over again because the very hormones of stress cause you to narrow your focus on the cause because that's what you do when you're living in and in fact out of the infinite possibilities that exist in your reality when people are addicted or living in that stressful state they'll always select the worst case scenario in their mind and prepare for the worst why is that because in survival

if you prepare for the worst anything less that happens you have a better chance of surviving so people spend the majority of their life preparing for the worst thing that could happen to them when they're living in the stressful state and it turns out that 70 percent of the time most people are living in survival so then when you react to someone or something there's a refractory period of chemicals that's created from your emotional reaction and if you don't know how to regulate or stop that emotional reaction and you keep that same reaction lingering for

hours or days that's called a mood if you keep that same refractory period going for weeks to months on end that's called the temperament if you keep that same emotional reaction going on for years on end that's called the personality trait and most people's personalities then are defined by experiences from the past so now that you understand that stress is when the brain and body are knocked out of balance and you understand that the hormones of stress push the genetic buttons and create disease it begs the question is there anyone or anything truly worth living

in that state so then if people are living in chronic stress and they're drawing from this invisible field of energy surrounding their body and they're mobilizing that vital life force to make chemistry and the field around their body is shrinking and they're feeling more like matter and less like energy more like particle and less like wave and they feel separate or disconnected from everyone and everything in their life well when your matter trying to change matter we tend to force outcomes control outcomes try to predict outcomes and there's only a certain number of resources that

we have when we're matter trying to change matter we'll compete we'll fight for it we'll manipulate we'll try harder we'll hope we'll wish because we're experiencing separation and yes you may accomplish your dreams but if your matter trying to change matter and all of your attention is on your body the environment and time then everything you create in your life will take time because you'll have to move your body through space and when you move your body through space it's going to take time for you to get what you want so you may want a

house you may want a new car you may want a new experience a new vacation but you're going to have to drag your body to work every day to make the money to pay for those things and yes you may arrive at your goals but you may have to work harder and it may take some time to get it there is another state of mind and body that you can live in and that's called living in creation and it's the exact opposite of living in survival if the hormones of stress create incoherence in the brain

as well as incoherence in the heart what we've found is that when people are living by those states what if they had the ability to go from a narrow focus or what's called the convergent focus to what's called a divergent focus or a broad focus or an open focus and it turns out when people take their attention off their body when they take their attention off the people in their lives when they're no longer putting any attention on the things they own like their cell phone their computer the car they're not thinking about the place

they need to go or the place they're sitting and they're not thinking about time in and of itself they are disinvesting all of their attention and all of their energy out of this three-dimensional reality because they have no attention on it it makes sense then that they're beginning to change their brain state so then we've taught people how to broaden their focus and when they open their focus and sense nothing but space when they open their awareness and they tune in to the energy or the frequency out here and instead of putting their attention on

the matter they're putting their attention on energy the act of opening their awareness causes them to stop thinking to stop analyzing and if they're no longer thinking and they're no longer analyzing they're no longer activating these circuits in the brain all of a sudden they begin to slow down brain activity and they start getting beyond their analytical mind and as they suppress the neocortex the memory bank of the autobiographical self they begin to suppress everything known in their three-dimensional reality and they turn off the neocortex they begin to regulate their brainwaves and slow them down

all of a sudden something magical happens the act of opening their awareness causes different compartments of the brain that were subdivided like a house against itself all of a sudden to begin to synchronize to begin to unify you start to seek neurons beginning to join larger communities of neurons what was once an incoherent brain begins to become more organized and more coherent now the chronic stress creates a thyroid condition called graves disease and the person develops what's called myasthenia gravis and the side effect of that aside from a tremendous lack of energy is double vision

now this person said i've created this condition now that i understood that i've mismanaged my thoughts and feelings and my emotional reactions if i created this condition by pushing the genetic buttons every single day and it's taken me a couple years i lost my marriage i lost my business i have to get beyond that story and i have to tell a new story i have to start believing in my future more than i've been believing in my past is it possible then that i can begin to make those significant changes and as the person started

overcoming the stress hormones and taught her brain and body had to create coherence the side effect of it was the body came back to balance her vision is now perfect her thyroid hormones are moving back into balance and she's moved her brain and body back into homeostasis and in a sense then she healed herself of the condition because her autonomic nervous system got back into doing its job which is to create order and balance so then when we live in two states of mind and body living in survival is living in our animal state when

we live in survival we live in stress and we live in stress there's contraction that takes place in the body and because we're using a lot of the body's resources we experience what's called catabolism or tissue breakdown when the body's in that state there's disease or imbalance there's degeneration that takes place in the body the emotions of fear anger sadness are the primary emotions of survival the self comes first when you're living in that state all of your attention is on your environment all of your attention is on your body all of your attention is

on time there's always energy lost in the system we're living in emergency mode we're narrow focused or object focused we experience separation we're determining reality with our senses in other words if we can't see it if we can't smell it if we can't taste it if we can't hear it we can't feel it it doesn't exist we're living by cause and effect we're waiting for our environment to change to give us the relief from the discomfort that we're feeling inside of us in survival and stress we don't see many possibilities because it's not a time

to create the brain and heart function in a very incoherent state and in survival we are craving the known because the unknown is just too much of a scary place now when we begin to create the creative state we could call that the divine aspect of us in creation the brain and body move back into homeostasis there's an expansion of energy or release of energy from the tissues the body goes into anabolism or tissue repair there's health there's order there's regeneration taking place in the body elevated heartfelt emotions like love joy trust knowingness gratitude begin

to mobilize all these new chemicals that begin to repair and regenerate the body when we're in this heartfelt state we tend to be less selfish and more selfless we have our attention now no longer on our body on the things in our life the people in our life on our environment or on time itself energy is always created in the creative process there's growth and repair we broaden or open our focus and when we do that properly we start feeling less separate and more connected to something greater we start to imagine and dream of a

reality beyond our senses now we're interested in causing an effect we're looking at all possibilities instead of limited possibilities the brain and heart go into coherence and now the unknown becomes the adventure why is that important because if we're going to create something new in our life we have to crave the unknown now that i've shown you the difference between living and survival and living in creation i want to explore the different brain wave states and what you can do to use your mind to begin to consciously change your own brain waves in the next

episode i want to show you what's happening inside your head when you live in survival and when you live in creation that is coherence versus incoherence i'm your host dr joe dispenza for rewired and i hope to see you in the next episode where we go beyond the ordinary into the extraordinary thank you for watching this original gaia presentation you can now start your free trial to gaia and stream the complete series rewired with dr joe dispenza now by clicking our link in the description thanks and we'll see you again soon you