Ep 30 - Rewiring Reward: The Neuroscience of Supporting Your Dreams
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome to the Building Your Best Brain podcast — and the very first episode of 2026. Recently, I shared that 2026 is the year I’m intentionally rewarding my brain to build the circuits that support my dreams. And while that might make logical (even scientific) sense… how do you actually begin doing that? The good news: it’s probably not as complicated as you think. You’ve likely experienced versions of this already. But when we try to apply these principles to our goals, something tends to go sideways. A small mismatch. A quiet error in how we’re using reward and motivation. Until...
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Ep 29 - The Hidden Brain Mistakes That Make Goals Feel Exhausting
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain 🧠✨ As we close out the final days of 2025, today’s episode dives into the neuroscience behind how to actually enjoy the journey toward your goals—not just push through it. So many of us struggle to stay motivated and consistent. Not because we lack discipline or desire, but because of how our goals are set up and because no one ever taught us how the brain really works in the process. These struggles often show up as familiar pain points—and in this episode, we unpack them together so you can start shifting them as you move into 2026. In this...
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Ep 28 - Your Brain Doesn’t Like Your Goals
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome to the Building Your Best Brain podcast! I’m so happy you’re here—learning how to rewire your brain for resilience and feel empowered by your own biology. As someone who loves a good goal (finishing my PhD and building a business over here 🙋♀️), I realized something was missing from traditional goal setting. Most approaches don’t actually help your brain build the circuits needed to support goals from a productive, sustainable, and regulated place. In this episode, I share a new way of structuring goals—building on powerful work from neuroscience and...
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Ep 27 – The Stress Circuit You’ve Never Heard Of (But It Runs Everything)
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome to the Building Your Best Brain podcast! I’m so happy you’re here — learning how to rewire your brain for resilience and feel empowered by your own biology. In this episode, we dive into the missing piece of stress regulation — the piece that helps your brain build positive momentum, instead of feeling like you're stuck in a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. (You know… addressing one stress symptom only to have another pop up a few moments later.) We explore: · What core circuit is linked to MOST of your stress symptoms ...
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Ep 26 – Why Rewiring Your Brain Can Feel Worse Before It Feels Better
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome to Building Your Best Brain podcast! Today’s episode we dive into the science behind why when we try to make a change in our brain (example – regulate your stress, rewiring a limiting belief) that you may start to feel WORSE. If I knew this information 5 years ago it would have saved me so much time and energy! The stage that most people give up and think the tools aren’t working is usually when you brain is making massive change and you don’t even know it. In this episode we discuss; - How circuits form and why...
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Ep 25 — The 6 Levels of Stress Regulation: A Neuroscientist’s Framework for Stress Management Mastery
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! In this episode, I’m sharing something brand new — a 6-level framework I developed to measure and improve stress regulation, based on neuroscience, behavior, and emotional awareness. 🧠 As a neuroscientist, yoga and meditation teacher, and someone who has personally navigated mental health challenges, I’ve spent years studying what it really means to regulate your stress. This scale bridges the science of the nervous system with the lived experience of emotion, showing you where you are, and how to gently move toward greater calm, clarity, and...
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Ep 24 - From Thought Spiral to Stillness: The Neuroscience of Neutrality
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! Today, we’re diving into the neuroscience of thoughts — what actually happens in the brain when you get caught in a spiral, why your emotions can take over so quickly, and how to bring your brain back to balance. 🧠 Here’s what we cover in this episode: What happens in the brain during a thought spiral. How emotions create feedback loops that keep you stuck. The science (and magic) of bringing neutrality to your triggers and desires. A guided exercise to rewire your stress response through thought awareness. A real-life example...
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Ep 23 - Words can be Your Wand or Your Sword - What is the Difference in Your Brain?
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! Today, we’re getting the science behind our WORDS when it comes to building circuits in our brain. A topic that has A LOT of nuance that is often not explained or overlooked. Once you get these subtle differences, you’ll see rather quickly how your brain shifts and changes in the direction you desire 🧠✨. Here’s what we cover in this episode: What happens to the brain when we say things out loud? Why affirmations don’t work. The dangers of venting. Two tools that help you use your words to build what you want in...
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Ep 22 - How to Become a Mental Ninja - Mental Rest Explained in a Way You Never Have Heard Of Before
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain! Today, we’re getting into a poorly understood and explained topic “Mental Rest”. Where I take both my knowledge in neuroscience, meditation and neuroplasticity to unpack what is truly is and why it is the key to happy and healthy brain 🧠✨. Here’s what we cover in this episode: What it means to be well-rested mentally? What it looks like to not be mentally rested? How this impracts your brain and body long term? Three tools that help you integrate more mental rest today! Want to go deeper with me? If you'd like to be...
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Ep 21 - Why Your Stress Tools Aren’t Working (And What Your Brain Actually Needs)
Building Your Best Brain
Welcome back to Building Your Best Brain podcast! So excited to dive into something that I know a lot of us have experienced before, despite our best efforts … the stress relief tools EVERYONE raves about fail us. This short episode will help solve that problem, and lucky for you doesn’t require you to add any more tools or buy anything! In this episode we dive into 5 reasons why your brain may not be finding relief you hoped for and how to rewire for good. My recommendation after this episode is you focus on one of these reasons for the next 2 weeks and begin to notice the small...
info_outlineWelcome to Building Your Best Brain Podcast!
In this episode we:
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Benefits of a long, less frequent meditation practise vs. shorter more frequent meditation practice
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Journal prompts to build your meditation plan that will actually stick!
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Some free meditation resources to get your started.
Journal prompts;
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What do you hope you will gain from a consistent meditation practise?
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What is a small, specific, feasible goal you can implement right now?
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What tools or resources can you use right now to help strengthen your meditation practise?
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What emotions/thoughts come up when you think about implementing a daily meditation practise? What is an antidote thought to help nurture a positive learning environment?
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What is a science fact that you are most attracted to and/or find most motivating to maintain a meditation practise?
Resources:
Instagram page - https://www.instagram.com/synaptic.sylvie/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9aDm5czIeiOSSdeQLjbJUw
Website - https://yoga-with-synapticsylvie.square.site
InsightTimer - https://insighttimer.com/synaptic.sylvie/guided-meditations/refresh-and-renew_1?_branch_match_id=1229844450865890638&utm_source=copy&utm_medium=home&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXz8wrzkzXyyjRL%2FaPcvctS05ycU8CALuBbPYcAAAA
References:
Levi K, Shoham A, Amir I, Bernstein A (2021) The Daily Dose-Response Hypothesis of Mindfulness Meditation Practice: An Experience Sampling Study. Psychosomatic Medicine 6: 624-630.