Why You're Not Stuck the Way You Think You Are | John R. Miles - EP 804

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:54)
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**John R. Miles** (2:23)
There's a word I keep hearing lately, in emails, in comments, in conversations, backstage after events, stuck. My focus feels stuck. My anxiety feels stuck. My temper, my weight, my relationship, stuck. People say it's like a diagnosis, like a verdict on who they are. But here's what almost nobody knows. The part of your brain that decided you were stuck, it's already different than it was five minutes ago. Hey, it's your friend John, and welcome to Passion Struck. I'm so glad you're here. Whether you're a longtime listener or someone who just discovered the show, thank you for pressing play today.
Maybe you've felt the life you were supposed to want, but you've quietly wondered why it still doesn't feel like enough.
If that's you, you're in the right place. Every week, I sit down with the world's top scientists, researchers and thinkers to uncover what it actually takes to build an intentional life that matters. Thanks for joining me. Let's get into it.
Welcome back to episode 804 of Passion Struck. We're in week one of our August series, The Adaptive Brain, how your mind learns, changes and heals. Earlier this week, I had two remarkable conversations on exactly that. If you haven't caught them yet, I highly encourage you to go back and listen to them. Today is a solo episode and I want to go straight at the question underneath almost everything I hear from you. Can I actually change or is it just who I am? Here's what's ahead. We're going to look at the brain of a London taxi driver and what neuroscientists found when they scanned it. We're going to look at one of the strangest, most famous cases in the history of neuroscience. A man who survived an iron rod being driven straight through his skull. What it taught us and what it took over a century to get right.
We're also going to talk about the thoughts that quietly run your life, without your permission, and exactly how to kill them. And we're going to sit with someone who has logged over 62,000 hours of meditation, and what happened inside their brain that made scientists sit up and take notice. By the end of today's episode, I want you looking at whatever feels permanently fixed in you right now. A habit, a fear, a pattern, a label you've been carrying since childhood and seeing it differently. Not as a life sentence, as a rep you just haven't practiced yet. Let's get into it. Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life that matters. Now, let that journey begin.