75. The quote that changed EVERYTHING for me: Where Buddhist wisdom meets modern neuroscience

On today's episode I share a very powerful quote that changed my life...  This single idea formed the foundation not only for my recovery from porn and addiciton, but also for building a deeper and more meaningful life.. and for getting unstuck and out of my head.  If you're looking for a way to improve the very foundations of your life, this is the episode for you. 

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ABOUT JEREMY LIPKOWTZ

JEREMY IS A MEDITATION TEACHER, LIFE COACH, AND DIGITAL HABITS EXPERT WHO WORKS WITH ENTREPRENEURS, EXECUTIVES, AND LEADERS.

Jeremy overcame addiction, shame, self-judgement, and depression in his early twenties with the help of mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness not only helped him let go of destructive behaviors, it also allowed him to connect with deeper meaning and purpose in his life.

For the past 10 years Jeremy has been teaching mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices at universities, recovery centers, and companies throughout Asia and the US. He holds a Bachelors and Master’s degree in Genetics and Genomics, and spent several years at Duke University working towards a PhD in Genetics & Systems Biology before he turned full-time to teaching mindfulness.

Jeremy is also an ICF certified Executive Coach. As a former scientist and academic, Jeremy has a great passion for bringing his EI based coaching skills into the corporate and professional world. He realizes how powerful & transformative these practices can be for skeptics and senior-level managers. He is known for his calm and grounded demeanor, his expertise in habits and high-performance, and his compassionate approach to transformation.

Coaching Certifications

* CPCC, Co-Active Training Institute
* ICF Member
* ACC International Coaching Federation

Jeremy is a Certified Teacher with the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence program initially developed at Google. He also spent time living and training as a fully-ordained Buddhist monk in Myanmar. He now combines his science-based expertise with a hunger for personal development to help others discipline their minds and achieve genuine inner- peace and fulfillment.  

Transcript

This quote was something that I read when I was in college. Uh, you know, it was when I was struggling with a lot of anxiety and stress from my studies and thinking about the future and what was I going to be when I grew up, all that stuff. And I read this quote from the Buddha, from the Buddhist tradition. 

And the quote was, what you frequently think and ponder upon becomes the inclination of the mind. And what it's saying is that, you know, what you, What you're constantly thinking about, you're strengthening those neural pathways. So if you're always thinking about what you want, like, let's say you're always thinking about how much you love cookies, and you're always thinking about cookies, you're creating those habit patterns in the mind, and you're becoming the type of person who thinks about cookies all the time. 

Now that's kind of an innocent example, but you can also think about it in these other ways, like if you're always thinking angry thoughts. You know, if you're constantly thinking angry thoughts, then that's becoming the inclination of the mind. And what I realized is that, whether I was aware of it or not, I was creating the conditions in my mind.

I was forming habits in the mind around things like perfectionism, around things like stress and anxiety. So just think about it. Like if you're constantly thinking about how you're not good enough, if you're thinking, Oh, I shouldn't have said this, or I shouldn't have done that. You're creating the inclination of the mind.

You're strengthening those neural pathways, the types of neural pathways that are thinking thoughts about regret or worry or anxiety. And what's really interesting is this is now backed up and supported by neuroscience. So, another quote that really changed my life, similar to this, was this saying by neuroscientists that neurons that fire together, wire together. 

So if you're firing, you know, these certain neural pathways, you're actually strengthening those neural connections on a physiological level. We actually know what happens in terms of the synapses, you know, growing more connections and the synaptic strength is actually increasing. And so, you know, it's just, it's so fascinating is that we're constantly building neural pathways.

We're strengthening certain neural connections and we're de strengthening others, depending on what we're thinking. Just what we're thinking, like, not even what you're doing necessarily, but the things that you think about are creating habits in the mind. If you're constantly thinking about what you don't have, thinking about what you want, You're strengthening the pathways of greed and craving. 

If you're constantly thinking about how everyone is stupid, or everyone is, you know, out to get you, you're creating those as habits in the mind. You know, so this, This goes, you can apply this to almost every aspect. Fortunately, you can use it to your advantage. You know, understanding that you can cultivate things like gratitude. 

You can cultivate contentment. You can cultivate resilience. You can cultivate happiness. You know, what we all want at the end of the day is happiness. Some bind it through, through meaning, you know, living a purposeful life. Some find it through creativity. Some find it through kind of. Uh, freedom and travel, whatever we, whatever way we do it, you know, ultimately we're all searching for deeper happiness, not kind of just this vanilla Hollywood style of happiness of big boats and beaches and drinking margaritas, but genuine happiness, genuine inner peace. 

And if that's what you want, if you want happiness, if you want inner fulfillment, there are certain mental qualities and mind states that can help you get there. You know, there are things you can train your mind, like contentment. It's very hard to be happy if you don't know how to appreciate what you have. 

And so if you want to be happy, you know, cultivating contentment, that's what I love about Buddhist philosophy. It's so logical. It's just like, A plus B equals C. Like, if you want C and you know that A plus B will get you there, then do that. If you want happiness, then cultivate the factors that lead to happiness.

Cultivate contentment. Cultivate compassion. Cultivate patience. Cultivate self worth and self love. It's like it's so obvious, and we, we miss out on it. We think because of society, and because of the media, and because of all these other things, we think that, oh, if I want to be happy, then I should try to have as much pleasure as I can.

I should try to get as much adulation and praise from other people, but it just doesn't work. So that quote of, you know, what you frequently think and ponder upon becomes the inclination of the mind. It's showing you how to get to where you want to get to, and it's showing you that whether you like it or not, you are creating the conditions in your mind.

You are building habits in your mind. So, I hope you've enjoyed this quote and that's all so i'll see you guys later 

stay calm and take care of yourself