Essential listening for anyone who intellectually knows what needs to change but keeps defaulting to familiar patterns.

You know what needs to change. You can feel it. But somehow you keep choosing the same responses, the same strategies, the same patterns—and then wonder why nothing shifts.

In this episode, Meghan gets to the heart of why "more of the same plus more of the same equals more of the same"—and what it actually takes to break free. Drawing from Dawson Church's neuroscience research in Mind to Matter and Dr. John Churchill's work on the imaginal realm, she reveals how our brains are wired for efficiency, not transformation. The good news? You have the power to interrupt old patterns and literally rewire your neural pathways toward new possibilities.

This isn't about willpower or waiting for circumstances to change. It's about understanding that you are the architect of your reality, and change begins the moment you consciously choose to do something different. Not tomorrow. Today.

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Covered In This Episode

• Why repetitive strategies that aren't working won't suddenly start working, no matter how hard you try

• How neural pathways form in the brain and why they keep us locked in familiar patterns

• The difference between imagination as daydreaming versus the imaginal realm as a dimension of consciousness

• Dr. John Churchill's work on feeling into possibilities that don't yet exist in your current reality

• The role of heart coherence in moving from survival brain to creative brain

• Dawson Church's concept of the quantum field and how our thoughts collapse infinite possibilities into one reality

• The practice of embodying the emotional state of what you want to create, not just visualizing it

• Why you are the only one who can interrupt your patterns, and what it means to become the architect of your own reality

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:55 Understanding Paralysis by Analysis
01:39 Personal Story: Meghan's Quarter-Life Crisis
02:39 Breaking Patterns and Creating Change
08:35 The Power of Imagination
16:30 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Special Offers

• Free Heart Coherence Masterclass – A complimentary session with Meghan Telpner exploring how to create alignment between your heart and mind, access inner calm, and live from your most authentic self.

• Click here to get 30% off Rise & Shine: A Guided Approach To Heart-led Living and Leadership. (Click here if you reside in Canada)

Links + Resources

• Mind to Matter by Dawson Church
• Dr. John Churchill on the Know Thyself Podcast Episode
• Dr. Joe Dispenza: referenced for his teaching on embodying emotional states and envisioning

Previous Courageous Pivot Episodes Mentioned:

• Episode 22: The Midlife Chrysalis: Designing Your Own Chapter From The Heart
• Episode 23: Learning How To Listen: When Your Story Requires An Unexpected Pivot with AI Expert Tiago Forte
• Episode 025: Why Willpower Isn’t the Problem: The Truth About the Knowing–Doing Gap with Ali Shapiro

This Week’s Exercise: Feeling Into New Possibilities

Purpose: To identify your repetitive life patterns and engage your imagination to create change and new possibilities. 

Step 1: Identify Your Pattern

• Take a moment to get honest with yourself. What pattern are you ready to interrupt? Where in your life are you doing more of the same and expecting different results?

  • Maybe it's choosing rest over productivity.

  • Maybe it's choosing honest conversation over avoiding conflict.

  • Maybe it's choosing your authentic desires over other people's expectations.

  • Maybe it's choosing to leave something that looks successful from the outside but feels hollow on the inside.

• Name it. Just one pattern. Don't judge it or make yourself wrong for it—just see it clearly.

Step 2: Drop Into Your Body

Close your eyes if you can. Take a breath. And now, feel into it.

• What would it be like to live that different reality? How would it feel in your body? What emotions would be present? What would become possible?
• This is imagination as a transformative practice. This is engaging the imaginal realm to access possibilities your rational mind can't yet conceive of.
• Stay here for a few breaths. Let yourself really feel it in your body.

Step 3: Take One Aligned Action

• When you can feel it—really feel it—that's when the neural rewiring begins. That's when you start creating the conditions for that new reality to emerge.

• Now ask yourself:
  • What's one choice I can make today that interrupts the pattern and creates this new possibility?
  • Not tomorrow. Not when you feel ready. Today.
• Start there. That's where transformation begins.

This exercise can be repeated daily as a practice for consciously rewiring your brain toward the reality you want to create.