If you want to grow or manifest your desires, you have to rewire your subconscious mind. The amygdala, one of your brain’s programming systems, plays a huge role in that.
In our brains, we have a fear alarm called our Amygdala. While this may sound like a bad aspect, it’s job is to help keep us alive. Our brains first developed it to keep us safe from real threats in the wild, like spotting a nearby lion.
However, we no longer live in the wild and are at risk for things like lion attacks, so now our amygdalas trigger our fight-or-flight mode to non dangerous things. This process that happens every fast, within milliseconds, reacting before our logical mind gets a say in the matter.
It is inversely connected to our prefrontal cortex, meaning when one is up, the other is down. If our amygdala is up, the prefrontal cortex is down, and we are anxious, fearful, and can’t think straight. But if our prefrontal cortex is up, our amygdala is down, and we can think rationally, logically, and clearly.
Your amygdala is responsible for many of the reactions you experience every day, such as anxiety, stress, and even procrastination. None of which are personality flaws, they are simply survival responses your brain learned long ago.
Here’s an example of your amygdala at work…
If you have to give speech to an audience but every time you get on stage you freeze up and forget all your lines, that’s your amygdala thinking you are in danger. It misreads speaking, performing, and being seen as a threat—like judgement, rejection, and failure. The primal reasoning of your amygdala links “rejection” or “judgement” with being kicked out of your tribe and isolated, which historically meant becoming the perfect prey for predators (danger).
Your amygdala reacts based on past experiences and emotions, not logic. So when it’s reminded of an old fear—embarrassment from childhood, feeling unsafe being seen, or even ancestral survival patterns—it triggers a full fight-or-flight response, even though your life is not at risk when doing something like public speaking.
So the question is, how do we stop this?
How do we overcome this aspect so we are able to do things, such as public speaking?
Well first, you have to stop associating fear as bad thing. The things you want to achieve often lie right on the other side of fear. So don’t interpret fear as a stop sign, if anything it’s a sign you’re on the right route.
What you have to do is rewire your amygdala so that fear becomes a signal pointing to growth. Which also means doing the things that scare you.
There are two aspects to rewire your amygdala…
One, get clear on your fears.
Ask yourself what you desire, and then most importantly, ask yourself what are your fears around them. Your fears will always hold you back if you don’t even know what they are. You can’t overcome them if you never look within.
What do you fear will happen while working towards it? What do you fear will happen once you’ve accomplished it?
Write a list of reasoning as to why this fear is invalid or proof of the opposite, and come back to it whenever you need. The only limitations that exist are the ones we give our power to, so give power to the opposite.
Write down how you are going to achieve your goals and overcome those fears. And start doing it.
Two, regulate your amygdala
This is clearly important so you are not constantly put into a state of fight-or-flight when trying to overcome your fears.
Things like breathwork, visualization, affirmations, feel desired emotional state, meditation, EFT tapping, or scripting can work to help you to retrain your amygdala and teach it new associations over time.
Applying these tools:
Here’s an example for a fear of public speaking:
- Identify the desire and the fear:
“To become a broadway actor, I have to overcome my fear of being seen.” - EFT tapping:
Tap on themes like “being seen,” “speaking clearly,” or “feeling safe while visible.”
(Brad Yates on YouTube is great. More on EFT linked here). - Take aligned/baby steps:
- memorize your lines
- rehearse in the mirror, on camera, or with family
- speak to small groups
- begin identifying as a confident speaker instead of “someone with stage fright”
(This shifts your self-concept and reconditions your default mode network.)
- Use breathwork:
Calm your nervous system before auditions/performances so your body learns that visibility is safe. - Affirmations:
Before speaking, repeat and truly feel affirmations like,
“I speak clearly. I am safe being seen. I can do this successfully.”
(Emotion is one of the strongest languages of the subconscious mind.) - Visualization / scripting / meditation:
Imagine yourself on stage feeling calm, confident, and grounded.
Picture the lights, the faces in the crowd, the sound of your voice, your body relaxed, your delivery smooth, and the audience applauding.
(The more senses involved, the stronger the rewiring. Your brain and body can’t tell the difference between real and imagined experiences). - Begin small and then build:
Start with 1-2 things and gradually add more if needed. What matters is doing what you can be consistent with. Your brain and body need repeated, long-term signals to create lasting change.
At the end of the day, nothing outside of you can give you the freedom you’re craving if your mind is still caged by fear. Rewiring your amygdala is how you break that cage. Your fears aren’t here to stop you; they’re here to show you where you’re meant to grow. So face the fear, take the steps, and let your brain learn that you were safe all along.
