Super Brain

Modern life can estrange us from what truly matters. We chase goals that look like success but feel hollow – and before we know it, we’re overwhelmed, reactive and disconnected from our own internal compass.
In this episode of Super Brain, Sabina Brennan explores meaning and purpose through a neuroscience lens and offers a powerful practical tool: make an appointment with yourself.
You’ll learn why your sense of self is essentially a story your brain constructed from data (some brilliant, some expired), why memory isn’t a recording device and how clarity changes what your brain notices.
By the end, you’ll have a simple, repeatable ritual to audit the story of you, update limiting beliefs and take one small action aligned with what matters most.
In This Episode
Why meaning and purpose aren’t found by doing more
How stress pushes your brain into survival mode
Why your sense of self is a story built from old data
The myth of memory as a “video file”
How limiting beliefs are often narrative errors
A step-by-step “appointment with yourself” ritual
How clarity becomes a neural filter for what you want next
Call to Action
If this episode landed for you, schedule your appointment with yourself today – even 30 minutes is enough.
For a deeper dive into these ideas, explore The Neuroscience of Manifesting.
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Episode Summary:
Why do some people seem to attract good fortune? In this episode, I explore the neuroscience of serendipity – those chance discoveries and happy accidents that change everything. From Alexander Fleming’s mouldy petri dish to the role of the brain’s default mode network in connecting unrelated ideas, this episode uncovers the science behind what we call “luck.”
You’ll learn how curiosity, openness, and cognitive flexibility make us more likely to notice opportunity when it crosses our path – and how to train your brain to do just that.
In this episode:
How the term serendipity was born from a Persian fairy tale
What neuroscience reveals about “accidental” discoveries
Why “lucky” people simply notice more (Wiseman, 2003)
How creative insights emerge from brain network interplay (Beaty et al., PNAS, 2018)
Why our digital lives might be shrinking our chances for serendipity – and how to get it back
The Three Tools for Your Super Brain Kit to invite more insight, connection, and creative luck into your life
Three Tools for Your Super Brain Kit:
Expand your input – curiosity feeds connection.
Practise attentive openness – notice what others miss.
Reframe setbacks as openings – mistakes can be portals to discovery.
Referenced research:
Beaty, R. E. et al. (2018). PNAS, “Robust default–executive coupling supports creative cognition.”
Wiseman, R. (2003). The Luck Factor.
Busch, C. (2020). The Serendipity Mindset.
Key Quote:
“Serendipity isn’t just luck – it’s the brain’s brilliance at connecting the unconnected.”
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/superbrain.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Dr Sabina Brennan explores how generative AI changes learning. She looks at why effortful thinking is the engine of mastery, how AI can create an illusion of competence and practical ways to use AI as a tutor rather than a crutch.
Key takeaway: Learning sticks when it’s hard – AI works best when it helps you reach insights, not when it replaces the work.
Source: Brian W. Stone (2025), The Conversation – “How does AI affect how we learn? A cognitive psychologist explains why you learn when the work is hard”.
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If New Year’s resolutions leave you inspired one day and flattened the next, it’s not a willpower problem – it’s a nervous system problem. In this episode, Sabina shares three tiny, science-backed “micromoment” resets that help your brain feel safe enough to begin, plus a menu of quick interventions for common January traps like overthinking, doomscrolling, self-doubt, catastrophising, comparison, over-planning, worry and procrastination

In this episode, you’ll learn
Why big resolutions can trigger your threat system, even when you want change
How micromoments build safety and agency, which is how the brain rewires
A fast sensory reset for spiralling thoughts, plus a 10-minute action that restores control
A two-minute “toe dip” that breaks procrastination without shame
A “threat to choice” switch for doomscrolling and catastrophising
Key takeaways
Your brain is a prediction machine – it prefers the status quo because it’s easier to predict and therefore feels safer.
When change equals discomfort, uncertainty or not being instantly good at something, the threat system can hijack behaviour into avoidance, scrolling or over-planning.
The antidote isn’t more pressure – it’s small, repeatable experiences that teach your nervous system: “This is safe. This is enough. I can do the next step.”
The 3 tools (quick reference)
Tool 1 – The 3–3–3 reset + 10-minute agency
Name 3 things you can see, 3 you can hear, 3 you can feel against your skin
Then do one thing you can influence in the next 10 minutes (single-task timer)
Finish with: “I didn’t solve everything, but I did choose and complete one thing.”

Tool 2 – The two-minute toe dip (procrastination reset)
Set a timer for 2 minutes
Do only the first step (open the doc, write one line, open the bill, clear one corner)
Stop with permission – the win is starting, not finishing

Tool 3 – The threat to choice switch (doomscrolling + catastrophising)
Choose a daily cue (kettle, getting into bed, sitting on the loo, waking up)
Name it: “I’m checking for threat.”
Flip the action for 2 minutes (stretch, step outside, drink water, slow breaths)
For catastrophising: Worst case → most realistic → best case (restore range)

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Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/superbrain.
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Episode summary
What happens when you close your eyes and try to “see” something in your mind? For some people it’s a full-colour mental movie. For others it’s hazy, fleeting or completely blank. In this episode, Dr Sabina Brennan explores the neuroscience of mental imagery, including eigengrau (that grainy ‘intrinsic grey’ most people notice in darkness), the spectrum from aphantasia to hyperphantasia and why visualisation is less about forcing pictures and more about learning how your brain constructs experience.

In this episode, Sabina covers
Why “seeing nothing” when you visualise doesn’t mean you’re bad at imagination
Eigengrau – what that smoky grey tells us about baseline visual activity
Aphantasia and hyperphantasia – two ends of the imagery vividness spectrum
Mental imagery in brain terms: top-down simulation meeting bottom-up perception
Why worry is often a “mental movie” and how imagery can amplify emotion
How imagery is used in sport, performance, rehab and therapy
Tools in Three: how to work with imagery whatever your baseline

Key takeaways
Imagery varies hugely between people and it’s normal.
Visualisation isn’t just visual – sound, touch, movement, emotion and language can carry imagination too.
The goal isn’t perfect pictures, it’s intentional rehearsal that shapes attention, expectation and behaviour.
The most effective visualisation tends to be process-focused, not just outcome-focused.

Tools in Three
1. Know your baseline – stop forcing a cinema screen. Work with your strongest channel (words, sensation, sound, movement).
2. Build a multisensory practice – start with a real object, then recreate it with eyes closed. Add texture, temperature, weight, sound. Pair calming imagery with slow breathing.
3. Apply imagery intentionally and aim for process – rehearse the steps, the likely wobble moments and how you’ll recover, not just the “trophy scene”.

Memorable lines (pull quotes)
“Imagination isn’t about pictures. It’s about possibility.”
“Worry is often imagery too – the brain running mental movies of what might go wrong.”
“Aphantasia is not an imagination failure. It is a different format for thinking.”

References (as cited in the episode)
Zeman A, Dewar M, Della Sala S. Lives without imagery – Congenital aphantasia. Cortex. 2015.
S6E6 - Visualisation beefed up …
Pearson J. The human imagination: the cognitive neuroscience of visual mental imagery. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2019.

Milton F, et al. Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: extreme differences in visual imagery vividness. Cortex. 2021.

Tags
visualisation, mental imagery, aphantasia, hyperphantasia, eigengrau, neuroscience of imagination, memory, anxiety, sport psychology, mental rehearsal, guided imagery, manifesting, brain prediction
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/superbrain.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.