Questions (IQ): The Hidden Key Behind Meditation: When It Works, When It Doesn’t & When It Backfires (IQ. 285)

Welcome to Heal Yourself. Change Your Life. I’m Brandy Gillmore, and what I’m most known for is helping people to create radical transformations, and even demonstrating the power of the mind and self-healing under medical equipment so you can see the results. And my work has even been published in a medical journal because it’s truly incredible what we are all capable of when we understand our own minds at a deeper level.

So whether you’re new to this work or you’ve been studying the power of the mind for many years, I love that you’re here. I love that we’re on this incredible journey together, and I look forward to sharing breakthrough information with you. That said, on this podcast, I’ll share two types of episodes.

First, self-healing episodes where I share key insights from working with live volunteers. And the second type are where I answer questions from the audience. That said, if you’d like to volunteer or submit a question, come visit me at BrandyGillmore.com. On that note, let’s dive in

So many people have been messaging in regarding a recent podcast episode that I did on the topic of meditation and the side effects of meditation. And a lot of people are surprised that meditation can actually have a lot of side effects, and that they are medically documented. And so part of what we’re gonna talk about today is actually a deeper level of understanding, but also the benefits, and that there are key things that I’ve seen happen with people when meditation does work.

And we’ll talk about what those are c- because they can actually be kind of counterintuitive. And we’ll also talk about some of the questions that people have sent in, such as, uh, what are some warning signs to look for or some examples, because this is something that I see all of the time. And I just have to say, I really love that we’re talking about this topic, because so often I’ve seen people wanting to hide this topic and hide the fact that there are side effects to meditation.

But I feel like if everybody understands their own mind, that’s empowerment. And, and you know, if you stop and think about it for a moment, if somebody drinks way too much water, which we all need water But if somebody drinks way, way too much water, they can actually die. And so everybody should know that, you know?

Don’t drink 10 gallons of water. It’s probably not going to be good for you. And, and so my point is, is just even when working with the mind, so often I see people who are doing things that are keeping them stuck or keeping them from getting the results that they want or, you know, are not serving them to really get the best results that they want.

And so again, just keeping in mind that the more everybody knows about the power of the mind, the more everybody can use it very efficiently. So this isn’t about the negative about meditation. This is about understanding the mind and getting really practical, if you will, on understanding why does it work, when does it work, how does it work, what are some warning signs, what, what is it?

Because let’s be honest, if it was just meditate and that was going to heal… I mean, if we look at Steve Jobs, and you hear me use this example all of the time, incredible human being, you know? Um, but clearly if we look at Steve Jobs or Wayne Dyer, we can see that meditation didn’t keep them from getting sick, nor did it heal either one of them, and both of them meditated for many, many years of their lives, and both incredible beings.

And so much respect, so much respect, and we can learn from them. Learn from them while they were alive, and also learn from maybe things that they did great and maybe what, what was missing and, and, and what we can do different. And, and that’s what I did in my own life to be able to heal myself. And so that’s where we’re going, is just understanding some of those warning signs, what things you could do to help optimize, um, what things to look for, you know, just all of those things.

And by the way, in my own life, I didn’t even know that I was experiencing side effects initially. So I meditated very extensively from like, uh, 2003 to 2008 for multiple times a day, a variety of different types of meditation, um, along with, you know, positive thinking and affirmations and all of the things, and I was doing that because I was really trying to just heal.

And so the reason that I ultimately stopped meditating was just because I, I, I just… My biggest focus for me was healing, and I started asking logical questions. I started asking things as I was researching, as I started saying, well, as I was looking at research on the placebo, you know, I w- I was looking at it going, “Well, wait a second here.

How long does somebody need to meditate to get the placebo to work?” Well, they don’t. So I could see that, you know, that we could get results, physical results without meditation. Or, you know, something you hear me talk about all of the time is multiple personality disorder, where, you know, I started finding research on multiple personality disorder where one person in one personality could have one illness and a different personality could have a completely different symptoms, completely different illness, even though it was the same physical body, and that change would happen immediately.

Like, as soon as they switch personalities, it could change. And I thought, “Well, they don’t need to meditate.” And by that time, I had been meditating for, you know, over five years, and extensively, and I mean, spent so much time meditating ’cause I just wanted to heal so badly. And so I didn’t stop because I was having side effects initially.

I stopped because I realized I needed to change my approach, and I was willing to question everything, and, and five years, five, six years in, I realized that it just wasn’t working for me. Sure, I could have ups and downs. I could bliss out. I loved meditation. If you asked me if I would rather go hang out or, um, be present in life or meditate, I would have rather meditated.

Why? I was so good at it, and it felt incredible. And, and so I loved meditation, so I didn’t stop because I didn’t love meditation. I stopped because I wanted results, and I could see I wasn’t getting the results that I really wanted. And so what happened, though, is when I started looking at, you know, even placebo effect, I could see you didn’t need to meditate to heal or to get results from the placebo.

Or multiple personality disorder, I could see you didn’t need to meditate to get results, or even people with spontaneous remission They didn’t need to meditate to get healing results. And so I started looking at all of the, um, research, like real results and saying there was so much evidence of people healing without it and even getting faster results.

I mean, the placebo doesn’t take months or years to, to show up with results. You could actually s- you know, somebody can take a pill and start seeing some type of impact very quickly, and the same with multiple personality disorder. So at that point, I started saying, “Well, not only can I see that meditation is not being used, but I also see that there’s a possibility for a much faster way to start getting real results with the mind-body connection.

I just need to understand how it works.” And so that’s the initial reason that I stopped personally. Now, after I stopped, that’s when I also started realizing that I personally had been really kind of using it to check out. Even though my intention had been to heal, when I looked at a deeper level, I was really ultimately checking out from life.

And, and, b- so, so having the intention to heal, uh, was my focus, and I was picturing myself healing and, and doing all of these things, but it wasn’t working. And of course, I mentioned, we’ll talk about what I see when it does work, what I see happen. But, you know, kind of something I want to expand on for a moment is also this, is that more and more in today’s world, everything is kind of getting labeled as meditation.

And so that’s, that’s an interesting aspect of this also. So sometimes people even will say, “Well, you know, let me go meditate on, on a, a solution for that,” and really what they’re doing is, you know, uh, brainstorming. A- and so, so when I talk about, y- so, so that’s another key thing to think about is that, you know, um, even visualization.

You know, visualization’s been around for, you know, forever, and now people are calling meditation visualization and visualization meditation. So, so that’s an interesting aspect also. So- Keeping in mind that’s something that you’ll want to think about and, and, and as we go deeper into it, what you’ll want to think about is ultimately, uh, you know, I’ve created a, a framework to really help, but understanding that how you’re working with your mind and what type of meditation and what is really going on inside your mind is also key.

Because in my own mind, I mean, it was all about healing, and I would listen to recordings and then binaural beats and, and visualize healing and visualizing white light throughout my body or different colors or, you know, chakras or, I mean, all kinds of different types of meditation, seeing my body healthy, visualizing that, and yet it wasn’t working.

Now, when it does work, ultimately what I see is I’ll see an emotional shift occur. But what’s tricky is that it’s not always from meditation itself. In fact, a lot of times it’s not from the meditation itself, and this is what I mean. One of the things that I’ve seen that have ma- that has made meditation effective for people is this.

Imagine somebody who feels very lonely in life, and they start meditating, and they join a meditation group. Now suddenly, let’s say they find s- they start healing. Was it the meditation? Well, what I have seen time and time again is it’s actually the emotional component. So in other words, r- simplifying this, imagine somebody who’s very lonely in life.

Now, medical research has shown that loneliness can impact your health. It can actually, uh, cause and be connected to all kinds of health issues, or we even know, you know, if an infant doesn’t get enough love, they can actually die. Um, or a senior who loses a spouse can die, or, um, the surgeon general did a, an entire report on loneliness that it can increase Type 2 diabetes or a stroke or heart attack.

And so if we stop and think about it for a moment- We know that loneliness can impact, impact the body. So I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people who have felt awkward or disconnected or unloved or, um, you know, just disconnected in one way, and they feel lonely. And so then they join a meditation group, and then they start healing, and they think the meditation did it when it’s really the community, the connectedness.

They no longer feel lonely. So why is this good to know? Because I’ve seen the exact opposite happen. I have seen people who have had a family who start meditating, and they’re meditating, and then they’re checking out and checking out because maybe life feels stressful or the kids feel stressful. And here I’ll give you some examples of what I’ve seen on how it can actually backfire.

And so some examples that I’ve seen where people will meditate and, um, and ultimately they start feeling like they just want to disconnect and bliss out because life feels more stressful. Now, an example that I used recently to kind of give you an illustration, and we’ll expand on this, but an example of this is if you imagine for a moment, if you picture yourself If you go to the spa and you get a massage, and then afterwards you leave and you go directly to a disco dance party or a nightclub, how is that going to feel?

Well, typically very overwhelming and like you don’t want to… It, like, it’s too much, right? Now, I can tell you that I, I’ve worked with so many people who have meditated for a long period of time, that they start feeling like life is too much, that everything feels too much. They feel easily overstimulated, and so then they feel like…

And they don’t realize that it’s the meditation. So a lot of people will say this, they’ll say, “You know, I’m just more spiritual, and I just need to be in nature, and I, I just need to be in nature. I just feel like life is too much.” They don’t realize it’s because th- this, of meditating so much. A- and so I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen that happen.

Now, to give you other additional illustrations, I’ve seen… For example, I’ve seen, um, I’ve worked with very, very successful men who started meditating first thing in the morning, who then felt like work, life, their business was overwhelming, or their wife was overwhelming. Because they’d wake up, and they’d feel in a hugely meditative state, and then she’s saying, “Oh, let’s do this, and let’s do that,” and everything feels overwhelming to the point where then they are having health issues because then they’re feeling resentful or angry or overwhelmed or criticized or whatnot.

And it’s because they’ve actually started creating this extreme silence in the morning and then felt overwhelmed by everything. And by the way, to change this around, I’ve had them instead wake up and do a positive… Like, I, I… Basically, what I teach in my own work is I teach positive mind reprogramming.

So I call it uplift calls, where you wake up and, and you do, you have a mind recording, but it’s positive mind programming. It’s visualization. It’s release techniques. It is literally stepping into your strength or feeling alive, falling in love with life itself. So it’s not an escaping, it’s an, it’s a falling in love with life feeling.

And so, so but I’ve seen that a lot. So basically, even with these people, I’ve helped show them how to then to just start instead of escaping life, creating that feeling of falling in love with life and falling in love with, with what is going on, and then it feels easier to embrace life. It feels full of life, right?

And, and by the way, if we stop and think about it for a moment- I mentioned to you that when I was doing meditation that I loved it, right? I absolutely loved it and was blissing out. What I was ultimately doing is creating a lot of feelings of bliss towards not being in life, and then I would step back into life and reality and go, “Oh, this pain.

Oh, my life. Oh, these problems. Oh, this illness.” So my reality at the time really sucked . Like, it was not good. I mean, illness and problems and stress and financial and physical and everything, like everything. And so the more I stepped out of life and went into blissful meditation and then back into life and then out of life…

You know, if you think about the pain-pleasure dynamic, if you’ve heard before, our brains wanna go t- towards pleasure and avoid pain. So you could probably see clearly why my brain just wanted to check out all of the time, even though my intention had been to, to just to heal. That was my intention, but ultimately, because it felt so blissful, my mind just wanted to keep checking out all of the time.

And so, but even in, in these cases, overwhelm, feeling easily overstimulated by life or also the same thing, wanting to check out. Now, by the way, I have seen this where even m- mothers have felt like they wanted to kind of run from their own kids because children felt even more chaotic because they were meditating a lot.

And so it didn’t go well because then I’ve worked with mothers who felt guilty, who felt like, “Why don’t I love my kids more? Why don’t I wanna spend more and more time?” So that guilt started impacting their health. So these are just some ways that I’ve seen m- meditation backfire and that then that’s what then ends up coming up is that.

And so, and by the way, I mean, I could list so many ways that I’ve seen it backfire. Now, why? Because a lot of times people don’t find my work until they have been on the journey for many, many years. So this isn’t typically the, the beginner meditator. And, and what, what I’ve seen happen, by the way, on that note, is I’ve seen people where, you know, let’s say somebody’s really, really angry and stressed in life, and they start meditating.

Could that be a positive thing? Yes, because likely, initially, they will start to feel some relief from that. And so if they’re really stressed or upset, having some relief can be fantastic But the problem is, is that when it becomes then a coping mechanism or somebody gets really, really good at meditation, now that’s when you get more into the troubled water, so to speak, because then it becomes an ongoing thing where the brain feels really blissful to check out, or it rather check out and do meditation than live life, or starts feeling overwhelmed by life itself because it’s become a mental habit Or a- additional things can happen as well, but that’s my point, is that initially, of course, it can feel great because there can be relief from life.

But the way you wanna think about it is like this, is also to keep in mind that anything we do repeatedly with our minds can become a pattern, so the mind can start doing it automatically. And the simple way to think about that is like tying your shoes. When you first learn to tie your shoes, and you make your bunny ears, and you tie your shoes as a child, it takes some effort.

After a while, you tie your shoes, you don’t even think about it. Or another analogy you hear me use all of the time is driving. You know, when you first start driving, you’ve gotta think about where everything is, and 10 and two, and, and you… It’s a lot of thought and conscious thought. Then after a while, it becomes easier.

You have habits, and so much so that the mind can even start checking out. And, you know, if you’ve ever done that before where maybe you got to a destination you were driving to, and when you got there, you thought to yourself, “Oh, gosh, did I stop at all the lights?” Or something like that. You realized that you checked out for part of the time because the mind can start doing things on autopilot.

And of course, I’m not suggesting to do that, but just anything we do repeatedly, the mind can start doing automatically. And so those are some things that I’ve seen also. I’ve seen people who have, like, for example, who have gone on dates, and then at the end of the date, they say to the date, “Hey, do you wanna go on another date?”

And the date says, “No, you felt checked out half the time. Why would I even want to do that?” And the… It was a wake-up call for these people, like, “Oh, my gosh.” I’ve seen that. I have seen, uh, situations where people felt stuck staring, and a lot of them where people are stuck, like they feel like they’re stuck in a gaze, and they’re talking maybe, but they’re like, “I’m feel…”

And they feel very, very stuck. So I’ve seen those. I’ve seen people, uh, crash down businesses and not care and feel very blissful and not realize it. And then I’ve helped them kind of come out of that and reconnect with reality and life because there’s a derealization or a disassociation with life, and they didn’t even realize it.

So then when I started to, you know, helping them to reconnect with life, they said, “Oh, my gosh.” Like, it’s like, it’s like imagining, like, a house being on fire and somebody sitting there going, “But let’s just bliss out.” And, and that’s how they felt towards their life because it was such a derealization and a disassociation.

And so instead- helping them of course to take action. Now of course we don’t want to be frantic. We want to handle things from strength, but my point is, is just these are the long-term effects that a lot of times that I end up seeing that I think most people don’t see. And of course because meditation can feel so good It’s tricky, especially the more it feels good, the more tricky i- it is because you think, “Well, why if it feels good, i- it could it not be healthy?”

And so when we stop and look at it, it, you know, it’s tricky because so often it’s just like driving the car and getting to the destination. When you drive to the car, or when you drive the car and you get to the destination, and you say, “Oh my gosh,” you, you start to realize you were checked out. The only reason you really realize that is because the destination is different.

And so most people who are disassociating or disconnected never even realize it. In fact, they feel fine about it. That’s the thing. That’s what’s tricky. They feel absolutely great about it. And so again, so, so thinking about it, so, so that’s why w- I wanna share with you a bit of a framework of, you know, really being able to start tuning into this for yourself because ultimately, that’s what you wanna be able to do, is understand your own mind.

Because, you know, the amount of people that I’ve seen even sabotage their relationships, where they start just feeling disassociated from their relationships and their children and, and whatnot, and then they feel this… Sometimes they feel a feeling of guilt. Sometimes they don’t even realize it’s really even happening.

Um, or they have prioritized spirituality because they think meditation is spiritual. Now, I would say that meditation can be spiritual, but I would say meditation has… I, I don’t, I don’t see meditation as being… Yeah, I, I would say that, um, to me, spirituality is being connected with universe, right? And so universe, God, divine energy, Mother Nature.

So to me, um, I would say that, that that’s the real spirituality, not meditation. I think a, a lot of things with meditation, I, um, I think that, uh, is, is a, that’s a, a mind programming. That’s a whole different thing. And so, a- and by the way, um, in my own life, some people think that I channel information because of meditation.

But it wasn’t meditation that opened up my channel. It was actually really working with my mind in a different way and healing myself and working with my mind in a different way and clearing my mind, not just clearing my mind. Let me, let me explain this. Let me, let me give this some more information. Um, so ultimately, part of what I did is I also became very present, and so, um, and, and started wanting to connect peace with life itself.

So I would walk, like, as I w- like part of how this channel opened up was I would also, like, walk around in life And be very grounded and present because part of the process of healing my mind from meditation was actually reconnecting with life. And so even going for a walk in the city and just being very extremely present, so present it felt fantastic, but present with colors, present with the signs, present with people, present with life in a very peaceful, loving way of really just observing and feeling very, very present.

And I would say that’s how I really started reconnecting. But… So that’s one thing that I did to help open up this channel. Now, another thing that I did to help open it up was when I say cleared my mind, it’s not in the meditation type of way. And, and to, to help explain that, um, it would be this, is if we said, if we said, um, uh, imagine for a moment w- walking into a house, and you walk into a house and there are a bunch of radio stations playing.

And some of the radio stations or TV stations you like, and some of them you don’t. And so a lot of times what happens is people just try to silence their own mind and silence themselves amongst the chaos, right? In their mind. Or just observe it with non-judgment and just let it go, and observe with non-judgment and let it go, and observe with non-judgment and let it go, or just breathe.

But instead, what I started to do was identify the specific programming in my mind that needed to change, and I started just changing it. And so by doing so, it cleared the negativity from my mind and also helped me to heal. And of course, there was specific emotions and specific things, if you know my story.

But, uh, point being is I was very intentional about it. Instead of just trying to silence the chaos, I addressed it and really released it. And so that’s ultimately what I did in a different ways. I just… You know, I, I… As I was looking at multiple personality disorder, you know, going back to the, the healing, and I could see with research on multiple personality disorder that people with different personalities could have different illness and different personalities And it was consistent, meaning that personality number one could always have the same illness, and personality number two could always have a different illness, and personality number three could have no illness at all.

And so I could see the consistency, and so it made me want to figure out what it was in my mind specifically that I needed to change. And so that’s why I really started looking at what are the specifics and identifying that. And that w- is what was pivotal for healing myself, but also ultimately opening up this channel and opening up my mind in that different way was, was that.

Now If we simplify that for a moment and just make it very, very, very simple, we can see that our minds are specific when it comes to even emotional patterns. You know, if somebody’s embarrassed, their face can turn red. That’s specific. Compared to somebody who feels nervous and they might have a nervous stomach or sweaty palms.

That’s specific. Versus somebody who’s having anxiety, anxiety panic attack. That’s specific. Different specific emotion, specific physical reaction, or sexual thought creates a completely different response, different for men or women, but sexual thought and sexual emotion creates a sexual physical response.

So the mind body connection is very specific. And so by getting specific with my mind and identifying specifically what needed to change, that’s how I was able to get fast results and also how I was able to open up my gift. And so to be able to channel information and, and feel what other people feel.

And, and so… And of course, I feel like we all have these abilities if we’re willing to work with the mind in a different way. So, so it’s just, so it’s key. Now, on that note, there’s another key insight that I want to share with you, and it’s this, because so often people think that if you meditate, it will actually release negative emotions from the mind.

But so often that’s not the case. It suppresses them or helps avoid them, but typically doesn’t release them. In fact, even working with people who meditate, I’ve sometimes in some cases found it harder to get results because they don’t necessarily see the specific emotions. And I’ll show, show you what I mean.

And again, by the way, with meditation, there’s so many different types of meditation, but I’ll, I’ll, I’ll show, I’ll share with you what I mean, and it’s this. It’s that le- let’s– I’ll show you a simple example. Here we go. So let’s do a simple exercise to show you one example. So, um, so let’s do this. So I want to invite you for just a quick moment.

I want to invite you to close your eyes, and I want to invite you to just for a moment, we’re going to do a silly, ridiculous, simple exercise, so you can see what I mean. I’m gonna ask you to breathe, and I’m gonna ask you to picture for a moment that You take, somebody is making you your favorite meal, your absolute favorite meal, and I want you to notice how you feel.

Notice how you feel if somebody is making you your favorite meal And notice how that feels. And notice how it would feel taking a spoon and taking a bite of that meal, and notice how it would feel

Okay, so now I’m gonna ask you to breathe, and you can go ahead and open your eyes for a second. And now we’re going to do a little bit of change to that, and here we go

So I’m going to ask you again to close your eyes

And I’m going to ask you to picture that you have a spoon in your hand, and in the spoon You take a huge scoop of worms and you take it towards your mouth to eat it. Now, go ahead and open your eyes. Notice what feeling comes up for you. Now, real quick, I know this sounds ridiculous, but it is super insightful.

It’s extremely insightful. So I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous, but let me share with you the insights real quick. Number one, what you could feel from that, what could you feel from that? A person could feel nauseous from that. I know. It makes me feel like, gah, I want to gag. So number one, you can see the mind body connection can be triggered that fast, okay?

Number two is this. That is not innate programming, meaning this. Our ancestors ate worms. In fact, some people who are doing this very exercise have worms as a delicacy in, in their culture. And so worms, and some people eat mealworms. There are worms in bottles of mezcal or different types of drinks or whatnot.

So my point is there are worms, but it depends on your programming. Now, my additional point is this, and this is what’s key. Now, anytime I do that, like it makes me feel like I want to gag. Like it’s just gross. And again, that’s programming. It’s, that was programmed into me as a child, okay? But the thing of it is I have meditated for, from 2003 to 2008 and that programming is still there My point is meditation did not delete that programming, and that programming, when triggered, can make me feel like I want to gag.

So if I picture eating a scoop of worms, it feels gross. It feels like I want to gag. Mind-body connection. So my point is, is that meditating all of the time does not clear the thing that is necessarily triggering the mind-body connection problem, and in some ways it can increase it. So that’s what I want to say, is it’s not…

is, is that we just have to be real with what’s real, and what I mean by that is if we go back to the example earlier about meditation, that when I see people get results, there is an emotional shift. Like in the example that I used was I see people all of the time who are very, very lonely and disconnected or feel unloved or feel like an outcast, and then they find a meditation group and they start meditating, and now they feel very, very connected.

They have s- a sudden community. And not only that, but they don’t necessarily have to worry about talking. And so now it can create the feeling of connectedness without a lot of talking, or the talking can just be about meditation, so now they have a topic, so they feel less socially awkward, and they have a way to fit in, and now they’re bonding.

But again, on the opposite side, there can feel like a huge disconnect. Somebody can feel more and more alone or more and more overwhelmed or… So, so my point is there’s this invisible factor that is happening, and so that is the research that I have found. I call it, you know, the hidden key to meditation.

When I see meditation works so often, it is an outside or influence in one way or another that is somehow impacting a person, and they may not realize it. So for example, I’ve seen people who have been… who’ve walked around with meditation. They start meditating, and they start feeling very proud for meditating.

So it’s not necessarily the meditation itself but the feelings around meditation. So it can be so tricky, and that’s ultimately what you want to think about in your life. So notice how that can be really tricky. By the way, have you seen a recent episode that I did on even eating and the emotions around food that can be impactful?

If you think about it, in that particular episode, I was talking about the same thing, but emotions towards food. Like, you know, a person might feel, uh, like they’re eating junk food all the time, and then they have, they feel guilt, or they’re beating themselves up, and that can impact them negatively towards their health because there’s a lot of negative patterns and negative emotions.

Or a person might start eating vegan or vegetarian and maybe they suddenly start feeling like they’re a good person because they’re doing so, and so there’s a huge emotional shift. Or they have sudden community around it, where they start eating vegan or vegetarian and then they find a community around it to fit in regarding a topic they feel like they can talk on.

So now they can talk about the food, and they talk about the recipes, and they talk about how to do this or the farming. And so suddenly they have a built-in community. They have things to talk about. So this is how A person can amplify and use these to benefit, to create the change, if that’s what’s missing, meaning this, meaning that, you know, in my own life, my patterns had to do with feelings of fear and survivor’s guilt and, and, you know, the events of 9/11.

So having a community and feeling lonely wasn’t my thing. Like, I, I have, had friends and, and people around me who could help me or whatnot. So I mean, I, I had friends, I had connections. So to me, it was kind of wanting to avoid people because of, of my health issues. So for me, it wasn’t loneliness. It wasn’t social disconnect.

I was excited to get back into connecting with those that I love. So that wasn’t my particular issue. But if for somebody it is, then that becomes a whole door opener towards healing and transformation. So my point is, is it depends on what is actually going on, and that’s why it can be so tricky. Now, keeping in mind though, if you ask me if I’ve seen people who then use this to then, um, end up meditating and they’re finding a meditation group and whatnot, great, so now they’re feeling connected, but the problem is, is they can still develop the things of disassociation and disconnect and, and derealization and whatnot.

And, and so it is tricky. And again, by the way, um, some of these things that I’m mentioning, there have actually been medical studies on, meaning that, um, meaning that, you know, for me personally, I started noticing the side effects from meditation 16, 17 years ago. Um, after I stopped is when I started realizing and as, and I started working with my mind in a different way.

I started realizing, ooh, like there’s, there’s some issues. And, and one of the issues I also started realizing is I used to do also, um, one of the things that I would do is I would do breathing meditations and so where I was, um, you know, just listening to my breath. What I started realizing is after doing that for so long, there were times in a room where my breath was louder than, like I, like I would find myself listening to my breath instead of listening to somebody talk.

And my mind was doing that because I trained it to do that because that was good, so to speak. So then my, my mind would do that. It would check out and just listen to my breath, and then I’d be like, “Oh, wait a second. I missed part of that conversation.” So that was one thing. Um, or another thing that I’ve seen time and time again is that, you know, even using the process of, you know, if a, if a thought comes up, dismiss it, and a thought comes up, dismiss it, and just dismiss it.

What happens is that people program their mind to ignore what’s actually going on, and then what happens is it becomes harder to identify what’s going on in the subconscious mind. So, um, so when I mentioned previously, I said that sometimes if people have been meditating a long period of time, it can be a lot harder to work with them because they’re not seeing the patterns.

They’re not seeing the information, and then so it becomes a little bit, uh, trickier to help them see. But then when they see it, it’s, you know, making the change is great because it, yeah. So it’s, it’s tricky. We could go further and further and further down the rabbit hole. As you can see, I mean, I could give you a, a million different examples because again, my audience, typically people that I work with the most, uh, throughout the years, are people who have tried everything, who have been everywhere, have tried everything, and who have been, been doing meditation for years and years and years.

So I see Those things. I see the things, and that’s why I do have concerns about long-term meditation, especially when the subconscious mind starts enjoying it, you know? So being in a place where somebody would rather meditate, that’s when it becomes concerning, uh, because I think the brain starts to link up pleasure to checking out.

Um, or when life feels too stressful, I would say people start not only disassociating from life, but feeling less joy, less excitement, less will, less desire towards life itself. I see that all the time. And so, um, you know, it just, there, there are so many things. I could continue down the rabbit hole of, of all of the things, but the point is really ultimately that creating that real change…

So if we just bring everything to a close and, and just simplify it, I would say that a, a couple things, is number one, that if you want a simple framework that I have, I just call it intentional meditation protocol, and it’s just basically just being intentional for… You, and you can apply this to any type of meditation or mind programming or whatnot.

First and foremost, what is your real intention for it? And so when you look at it for a moment, what is your real intention? Like, if somebody said to de-stress, then look at that and, and really assess that and, and say, “Okay, well…” Okay, may- maybe you’re going to use it for de-stressing, but how are you also going to then change your life so you’re not using it just to escape?

Because you don’t want to have a, a checking out mechanism, and you don’t want to train your, you won’t want to train your brain for that. And so, so instead, um, if you said, okay, you wanted to use it to de-stress, but then, then what also can you do to follow through to then create a life that you want to live that feels more in flow?

How can you instead also create that excitement towards life? And so just being very intentional. And, and, and so another example when you look at intentions, you could also say, like in my case, when I said my intention was to heal, and that’s what it was. Then when I started really thinking about, okay, my intention is to heal, and then I saw faster results with the placebo, with spontaneous remission, with, uh, multiple personality disorder that, you know, just real results that didn’t require meditation and, and some of those faster, um- I, I started then thinking, “Okay, well, if I can get faster results and it doesn’t require meditation, then maybe I don’t need this.”

And so looking at what is your real intention? So that’s number one. And then number two is looking at what is the real impact that it is having? So how can that impact your m- your, your life? And so I think in my own life, what I saw in my own life is that I wasn’t getting the real results that I’m wanting.

And so sometimes people can look at it and say, “Okay, the impact, is it having a good impact on children? Is it having a good impact on relationship, on business, and, and where is that?” And, and frequently checking in, because again, as I mentioned, you know, somebody who’s been really, really stressed when they first start meditating, it can feel calming and relaxing.

But continued, continued, continued use might not create the real changes, you know? And, and so, uh, you know, if you think about Steve Jobs, we could look at how there maybe might have been positive effects to meditation in his life, but we can also see that, um, that, um, at the same time, it didn’t really change his emotions or heal his body.

And so, you know, if you’ve looked at a documentary or read any information about him online, and of course I also knew people who knew him, and, uh, and he was kind of known as maybe not the most pleasant person or kindest person. And, and, and I’m sure he also had lovely sides to him as well. And so just, uh, point being though is what is the real impact?

So being… Looking at the real impact, what is the real impact? What might you need to do different? So that’s number two, is impact. So intention, impact. What, what’s real and, um, and what real impact is it having and is that the best? Um, and then also the last one is asking yourself if this becomes a pattern Is this going to be beneficial for me?

And what I mean by that is, like, for example, let’s say somebody is, uh, trying to calm their mind and they are doing a meditation where they, you know, just notice things in their mind, and they’re noticing with non-attachment and just letting it go, letting it go. Is that beneficial long-term? So in my world, um, I would say no, because I would say you’re programming your mind to ignore what’s really in your subconscious mind.

So instead of just letting it go, we’d want to maybe observe what’s going on in the mind and say, “Oh, let me rewire that. Let me change that.” Now, that’s what I did is, is instead is really started looking at what patterns and understanding and creating the change. So, um, but, but so thinking about what that is for you, or if you’re using it to de-stress because life feels stressful and you’re de-stressing ’cause life feels stressful, is that a long-term pattern that you want if your brain starts doing it automatically?

And so that’s the third one. And, and, um, again, to expand on that, you know, when I said that when I was with people, I started hearing my breath. Why? Because my brain learns things fast. And so as I would meditate and I would just listen to my breathing and just listen to my breathing, after a while, what did my brain start doing?

It started doing that automatically for me. It would hear my breathing and then it would say, “I should listen to breathing.” And so that’s what I’m talking about is if it became an automatic pattern, if your brain started doing the very thing on its own automatically, would that be okay? And would it like…

So, so looking at that in your life and so, a- and so thinking about that, right? And that’s, that’s what’s a little bit tricky. And so, um, a lot of times, um, instead for me, instead of just listening to my breath, I’d rather walk around and go for a walk and be very present and feel, feel myself in my body, and then feel the feeling of love towards life.

So I’m now connecting this feeling of falling in love with life, of finding peace in life. Now, what that enables me to do is be around a lot of people at events or different things where I can be, and I can still have that feeling of peace inside of me, and it feels good. You know, I was just speaking at a, an event recently and, and it’s just, I can have that feeling of grounded peace because that’s how I feel, because it’s programmed in.

And so it makes it easy to operate, to be on stage with a lot of different people and, you know, and a, a lot of different people in the audience and still be very present. And so, so it’s just… So my point is, is, is I’ve given you, I wanted to give you a lot of different things to think about and a lot of ways to just understand the mind and what I see because again, in my world, I end up seeing a lot of people who have worked with their minds in a way that is in one way keeping them stuck or backfiring towards their relationships, their stress levels, their family.

Um, even in my own life, I did the same thing, and I just think that the more that every single person knows how to use their own mind, the better this world is for all of us. And, and again, I’m not saying to meditate, I’m not saying don’t meditate, I’m saying understand how it works and why. And, and, and, um, and so on that note, that hidden key, if you will, in my own research that I’ve found towards meditation is understanding what that, um, emotional impact is.

That’s a key that can also help it work as well, is that. And that’s, that’s, you know, something that I have seen time and time again because of understanding emotions at a deeper level and working with people. And it’s funny because when people finally see it, they go, “Oh my gosh,” like, “I didn’t realize how much…”

Like, they don’t… It, the community and the connectedness. And so It’s just those invisible layers, those invisible layers. And so on that note, by the way, all of this said, if you are looking for positive meditations or positive programmings, that’s ultimately what I do in my own work with people is like even going through my video course, there’s these positive mind reprogramming.

I call them uplift mind reprogramming’s and they’re like recorded meditations, if you will, but it’s putting in mind programming towards also life. And so it’s not about checking out. It’s really about falling in love with life or falling in love and feeling love towards self or releasing stress and falling in love with people or changing and transforming mind programming.

Because to me, the ultimate quote-unquote meditation isn’t about meditating and checking out. Um, instead, I prefer mind programming and visualization. So then it has lasting effects and it- it’s really rewiring the mind in a different way instead of just checking out or reducing stress. It’s actually creating compound interest, if you will.

It’s got effects to it that can be lasting with follow through to really, really create the reprogramming and reprogramming your mind. So food for thought. But anyways, I know this was a lot of information, but I just as I mentioned, I got a lot of questions. And so I just wanted to kind of just share because I, I just I see so many things and, and I think just again, awareness is key.

Now, by the way, if you are somebody who has been working on really healing yourself, there is also a free training that is in the show notes that shows you… that it shows you how I’ve been able to get results under medical equipment, which is… and, and back to back to back results, which is something that has nobody else has been able to do to just get back to back to back results and show people releasing pain in minutes using the power of their own mind.

And so that is really cred- incredible. And you can actually see the images from it. And, and so I love that. So that link is there as well. And, um, and that said, as always, I want to ask you, please do take just a quick moment to hit the share button on this episode. You know, share it with somebody you love, somebody you care about, or somebody you don’t even know.

Because the more that every single person in our world feels healthy and happy and loved and loving, truly the better this world is for all of us. And so please do take just a quick moment to hit the share button, and please do make a point to have an incredible rest of your day. I look forward to connecting with you on the next episode.

We’ll see you there.

Thank you for listening to Heal Yourself. Change Your Life. If you’d like to become a volunteer or join our members area, you can do so by visiting BrandyGillmore.com. Also, please remember to be responsible with your health. This podcast is for inspirational purposes only. You won’t want to make any changes to your medication or to your medical care based on this podcast, nor would you ever want to avoid seeing your doctor.

Instead, it’s best to see your doctor regularly, keep them informed on what you are doing, and you could make it your goal to blow their minds with what you are capable of with your mind. Thank you