Dr. Trish Leigh Podcast

If effort feels heavier than it used to, the problem isn’t your motivation. A screen-driven world is suppressing your brain’s agency system. When reward is instant, and stimulation is constant, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) stops initiating effort. You don’t feel lazy. You feel stuck. Not because you lack discipline, but because your brain has been trained to wait for urgency instead of choosing action. This is a regulation issue, not a mindset flaw. And when you restore effort befo...

Dopamine Discipline Explained: The Neuroscience of Delayed Reward If you struggle with focus, consistency, or self-discipline, I want you to hear this. This is not a motivation problem. It is dopamine overstimulation. When your brain is trained on instant reward, it stops working for your future. Planning weakens. Effort feels harder. Long-term goals lose their pull because dopamine is spent on relief rather than on pursuit. In Dopamine Discipline Explained: The Neuroscience of Delayed Reward...

Why Your New Year’s Goals Fail — and How to Become Supernormal Instead You set big goals for the new year. But if your brain is hijacked by screens, algorithms, and constant overstimulation, willpower alone will not get you there. Excess dopamine from the screen miswires your brain, drains motivation, and keeps your nervous system stuck in survival mode. That is why focus fades, follow-through collapses, and every year starts to feel the same. If you want this year to be different, the first ...

The New Year Reset: Decluttering Your Space, Your Mind, and Your Goals If your mind feels cluttered and stuck as the new year begins, this is not a motivation problem. 🎯 It is a nervous system problem. When your environment stays cluttered, your brain stays overloaded. Visual noise, mental load, and unfinished decisions keep your nervous system stuck in a low-level state of threat. When you simplify your space, your brain can finally regulate. Order reduces cognitive load. Open space resto...

If going home for the holidays leaves you anxious, exhausted, or feeling like you’re twelve years old again, this is not emotional weakness. This is your nervous system. When you’re around your family of origin, the oldest wiring in your brain comes back online. These patterns were built before you had adult self-regulation. Your limbic system reacts fast, old roles resurface, and your regulated adult self can get pushed offline without you realizing it. What you’re experiencing is neurologic...