Creating the Brain You Want
Self-brain surgery™ to become who you're supposed to be (part 3 of 3)
✉️ A letter from me about how selective attention, repetition, and spiritual intention rewire your mind for resilience and flourishing.
⏱️ Reading time: 7 minutes. Paid subscribers: scroll to the bottom for early, ad-free access to next week’s podcast!
Hey friend,
Over the past two weeks, we’ve explored how perception isn’t just passive—it’s powerful. You’ve learned how what you focus on becomes more “real” in both your brain and the world around you.
Now, here’s the next step:
You’re not just a passenger on this ride, you’re the brain surgeon in charge.
Today, we’re talking about how to create the brain you want by harnessing the transformative power of:
Selective Attention (focus shapes perception)
Hebbian Learning (repetition rewires structure)
Quantum Zeno Effect (observation stabilizes patterns)
Spiritual Intention (inviting the Holy Spirit to guide the process)
This isn’t just about “thinking positive.” It’s about intentionally constructing the neural architecture that will help you flourish, even when life is hard.
🧠 Neuroscience Nugget: Your Brain Becomes What You Practice
Your brain isn’t fixed, it’s constantly remodeling itself based on what you do, think, and pay attention to. That’s the gift (and risk) of neuroplasticity.
In 1949, Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb hypothesized that the structural basis of human memory and learning involves the strengthening of synapses that happens when neurons on either side of a synapse are active at the same time. He called it “coincident-based synaptic plasticity,” which has been famously restated as “Hebb’s Law” in popular culture.
Hebb’s Law is summed up us as, “Neurons that fire together wire together.” In practice, that means every time you focus on something, good or bad, you strengthen those neural circuits. This is called “Hebbian learning,” and it’s the scientific basis of of our ability to practice self-brain surgery to transform our minds and brains (as prescribed by Romans 12:2 in the Bible).
Add in Selective Attention (via your reticular activating system), and you’re now filtering your world to match your focus. It’s like training a searchlight to always find what you’ve been rehearsing. (I have a story about that for you next week!)
Then comes the Quantum Zeno Effect: the more consistently you observe something, like a thought, belief, or memory, the more stable and real it becomes, effectively locked into place by your sustained attention.
This is why focusing on feelings like anxiety can be so harmful; the more you attend to how something feels, the more your brain reinforces and amplifies that feeling. Eventually, your brain may interpret it not just as a temporary emotion, but as a fundamental truth about who you are. But as we’ve seen, some things we believe to be fundamental aspects of our reality are actually just perceptions we’ve wired into place with focused attention.
Put it all together, and the message is clear:
Your attention and repetition are literally shaping the brain you’ll have tomorrow.
So, friend, what kind of brain do you want?
Remember the 8th Commandment of Self-Brain Surgery: “I must believe that what I’m doing, I’m getting better at.” If you mentally practice catastrophizing, worrying, or going down rabbit trails of harmful thinking, you’ll get better at doing those things. But thanks to our brilliantly designed minds, you can learn to practice self-brain surgery, not commit self-malpractice, and build a brain and life that helps you get better at getting better instead!
Some things we believe to be fundamental aspects of our reality are actually just perceptions we’ve wired into place with focused attention.
📖 Faith Fact: The Mind of Christ Is Available
Paul said, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
But how? He answers it later: “We have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)
Transformation isn’t just about effort, it’s about alignment. When you direct your attention toward truth and invite the Holy Spirit (the Great Physician) to guide your thoughts, you’re not just changing your brain. It’s so much more: you’re participating in God’s plan to make you more like Jesus.
Renewed thinking rewires your brain. But Spirit-directed thinking rewires your life.
🧬 News for Your Neurons:
📘 In my opinion, The Mind and the Brain by Jeffrey Schwartz* is the best book ever written about the fact that you are more than the neurons inside your brain.
Schwartz worked with patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Through a four-step process (Relabel, Reframe, Refocus, and Revalue) patients learned to redirect their thoughts.
Using functional neuroimaging, Schwartz showed that intentional redirection (thinking about one thing and not another thing, with willful intention and spiritual mindfulness) physically changed brain activity.
Working with physicist Henry Stapp, Schwartz found that the mind can direct the brain using the principles of quantum mechanics and focused, repeated effort.
Bottom line?
You’re not stuck with the brain life gave you.
You can build the one God intends for you to have.
🧠 Be sure to check out Dr. Schwartz on the podcast last week!
🧠 And here’s a great article Dr. Schwartz wrote for Biola University.
🔄 The Science-Faith Smash:
Science says:
Your focus filters reality (Selective Attention)
Your thoughts shape your brain (Hebbian Learning)
What you observe becomes stable/real (Quantum Zeno Effect)
Faith says:
You can renew your mind (Romans 12:2)
You have access to the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16)
The Holy Spirit guides you into all truth (John 16:13)
Put it all together, and here’s the call to action:
👉 Create the brain you want by choosing what to rehearse, where to focus, and who to listen to.
You’re the self-brain surgeon. And your most powerful tool is a mind anchored in truth, guided by the Spirit, and trained by repetition.
💊 This Week’s Prescription: Build It On Purpose
Pick a mental habit you want to rewire—like worry, shame, negativity, or hopelessness.
Then:
Relabel it.
“This is not truth. It’s an old pattern.”
Refocus on what’s actually true.
A verse, a thought, a goal, or a hope.
Repeat that redirection daily.
Journal, pray, or speak it aloud.
Invite the Spirit to guide your mind.
Ask: “What do You want me to see here?”
💡 Remember: You’re not just reacting to life.
You’re wiring your brain for resilience, clarity, and hope.
Your brain- and your life- will start to change. Small shifts lead to big transformation. Keep track of your progress by journaling your perspective shifts over time.
The good news is, you can start today. 🧠✝️
Hit reply and let me know what kind of brain- and life- you’re building!
Lisa and I are praying for you.
Dum spiro spero (While I breathe, I hope),
Lee
Psalm 71:14 ("As for me, I will always have hope.")
From the banks of the North Platte river on Moon River Ranch in Nebraska, USA
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Check out the third approach, “Maybe Science Can Help Me,” as we strive to learn new ways to think about our lives, operate our minds and brains, and find a better path forward.
📣 Next week: We’ll go deep into how a network in your brain works to keep you stuck in negative, fearful thinking, and the incredible power you have to change it with self-brain surgery!
Be sure to check out the archive of previous posts if you missed last week’s letter.
*Book links are Amazon affiliate links unless otherwise noted. If you purchase a book through these links, we will receive a small commission to offset the expense of this work, with no extra charge to you.
This week’s letter is sponsored by Timeline
Just as we practice self-brain surgery to renew our minds, we also need to renew our bodies every day. That’s because good health is like home maintenance- eventually things break down if you don't clean up and repair. And as our bodies age, the energy to perform those repair processes in our cells begins to fade because our mitochondria lose efficiency.
The compound that's key to keeping our mitochondria healthy as we age is called Urolithin A, and it is lacking in most of us because deficiencies in our Western diet have changed our gut microbiota.
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