Your Mind Is The Trick

I keep seeing this interview with Eileen Gu everywhere. If you haven’t come across it yet, she’s 22, studies quantum physics at Stanford, and just became the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history. The woman literally flies 20 feet in the air for a living.

But that’s not why I can’t stop thinking about her.

A reporter asked her, kind of bluntly, “Do you think before you speak?” Because apparently she answers questions about aerodynamics, geopolitics, and fear with the kind of ease that makes people wonder what’s going on inside her head.

And what she said next is the reason I’m writing this.

She talked about being deeply introspective. About journaling. About breaking down her own thought processes and applying an analytical lens to her own thinking. And then she said this:

“You can control what you think. You can control how you think, and therefore, you can control who you are. With neuroplasticity on my side, I can literally become exactly who I want to be. How cool is that? How empowering is that?” Eileen Gu

She described approaching her own mind the way she approaches free skiing. Tinkering like a scientist. Always modifying. Always asking, how can I be better tomorrow than I was today?

And I just thought... yes. That’s it. That’s the work.

Because here’s what most people don’t realize: you are not your thoughts. You are the one watching them. You are the one who gets to decide what they mean. And that, right there, is the shift.

This is what I teach every single day. And hearing a 22-year-old Olympic champion talk about it so clearly, without any spiritual language, without any woo, just reinforced something I already know to be true: this isn’t abstract. This isn’t just for people who meditate or do breathwork or sit in ceremony. This is how the brain actually works.

Your Brain Is Listening

Neuroplasticity is not a buzzword. It’s the brain’s ability to physically rewire itself based on repeated thoughts, behaviors, and experiences. Your neural pathways are like paths in a forest. The ones you walk most often become well-worn and easy to follow. The ones you stop walking eventually grow over.

So that anxious loop you’ve been running for years? That’s not who you are. It’s a pattern you’ve worn smooth through repetition. And the grounded, clear, expansive version of you that feels far away? That version exists too. You just haven’t practiced being her enough yet.

When Gu says she can “literally become exactly who she wants to be,” she’s not being arrogant. She’s being accurate.

And so can you.

In another interview, she talked about something called appraisal theory. The idea that the neuro-processes you go through when you’re nervous are the exact same ones that fire when you’re excited. Same racing heart. Same butterflies. Same rush. Your brain is the one that decides whether it’s a positive or negative experience.

Her high school coach used to tell her before competitions: You’re not nervous. You’re just excited. One reframe. One tiny shift. And it became the foundation of how she performs under the most intense pressure you can imagine.

Sound familiar? It should. That’s the same kind of nervous system work we do.

The Part No One Talks About: Your Energy

Here’s where I want to take this a step further. Because the mind piece is huge. But there’s another layer underneath it that most people skip right over.

Your thoughts are not just thoughts. They carry energy. Every single one.

When you’re looping in anxiety, replaying old stories, bracing for something that hasn’t happened yet... that costs you something. It’s not just mental. It’s energetic. You feel it in your body. The heaviness. The fatigue that has nothing to do with sleep. The way you can be doing “nothing” all day and still feel completely drained by 3 pm.

That’s because running old programs takes a massive amount of energy. Your nervous system is working overtime to keep you in patterns that don’t even serve you anymore. And the longer those patterns run, the more they drain.

But here’s the flip side. When you start to shift your thoughts, when you start choosing new ones on purpose, your energy shifts, too. Not in a vague, conceptual way. In a real, felt, in-your-body way. You start to notice you have more of it. You feel lighter. Clearer. More available for the things that actually matter.

That’s what Gu is describing when she talks about tinkering with her own mind like a scientist. She’s not just changing her thoughts for the sake of thinking better thoughts. She’s changing her entire energetic state. She’s freeing up energy that was locked in old loops and redirecting it toward who she’s becoming.

This is the connection between mindset and energetics that I think most people miss. Your thoughts shape your energy. Your energy shapes your reality. And when you learn to work with both, everything opens up.

It’s Not About Adding More. It’s About Seeing Clearly.

Gu also called herself “an evidence person, not an affirmations person.” And I love that. Because this work, the real work, isn’t about plastering positive affirmations over unprocessed pain. It’s about getting quiet enough to see what’s actually running the show.

So much of what we think is real isn’t. It’s just old thoughts dressed up as truth. Stories we’ve told ourselves so many times we forgot we were the ones who wrote them.

When you understand that your nervous system is running patterns from decades ago, that your stress response is a habit and not a verdict, everything changes. You stop reacting and start choosing. You stop bracing and start breathing.

That’s the shift. Not a dramatic overnight transformation. A quiet, daily practice of remembering that you get to change your mind. Literally.

This Is What We Do Inside SHIFT

SHIFT with Jamie is the container I built for exactly this.

It’s where we take the science of neuroplasticity and the wisdom of somatic and energetic practice and make it something you can actually use. Every day.

Inside SHIFT, you get:

→ Weekly Wisdom Drops, Energy Reports, and Journaling Prompts every Sunday to cut through the noise and meet you right where you are

→ New and Full Moon meditations and moon talks to help you align with the larger cycles at play, set intentions, and release what’s not serving you

→ Monthly challenges that move through different facets of manifestation and nervous system regulation. Real tools for real, sustained transformation. Follow the current one, revisit a past one, or build your own calendar from the libraries. It’s your practice.

→ A growing meditation library with new Mantras, Breathwork, and Reiki Bath meditations added every month. The longer you’re here, the deeper your collection grows.

→ A community of people who are doing this work right alongside you. People who cheer you on and hold you up. Because transformation doesn’t have to be lonely.

→ A direct line to me. There’s a form inside where you can submit what’s on your heart. Questions, reflections, things you’re working through. I read every single one and address them in the weekly Wisdom Drops.

And if you’ve been feeling that energetic drain I just described, if you know something needs to shift but you’re not sure where to start, I have two ways in.

The Energetics Challenge is a 21-day practice designed to help you understand and gain command of your energy. Learn to know your power and how to use it. Ten minutes a day. No overthinking. No mystical gymnastics. Just clear energy work, prayer, journaling, and the exact practices I use for myself and my clients. You can grab it on its own right now.

Or come inside SHIFT with Jamie, the full membership, where you get Energetics plus everything else: weekly Wisdom Drops, Energy Reports, journaling prompts, New and Full Moon meditations, a growing library of Mantras, Breathwork, and Reiki Bath meditations, monthly challenges, community, and a direct line to me. It’s the whole container.

This isn’t about being perfect. It’s about developing a real relationship with your own mind. Learning its patterns, understanding its language, and choosing, day after day, to show up differently.

Gu said she wakes up every day, becoming the person her 8-year-old self would be obsessed with. I think that’s a beautiful way to live. And I think you can do it too. Not by flying through the air, but by being willing to get still, get honest, and do the work right where you are.

You already know how to do this. You just need to remember.

Come SHIFT with us.

Jamie