Summary — #1 Neuroscientist: How To Manifest Love & Abundance in Your Life!

Host: Lewis Howes
Guest: Dr. Tara Swart (neuroscientist; author of The Signs)

Overview

An interview with Dr. Tara Swart about grief, manifestation, and the neuroscience behind noticing signs and intuition. She shares her personal story of losing her husband, how that changed her relationship with manifestation, and practical, science-informed tools (somatic practices, journaling, meditation, and “asking for signs”) to reconnect with intuition, heal trauma, and invite love/abundance.

Key points & main takeaways

• Don’t suppress grief: working through grief is essential for true healing and for returning to creative manifesting. “The most dangerous thing people can do is suppress their grief.”
• Signs and synchronicities can be cultivated: intentionally asking for a symbol or sign (that carries emotional meaning) can produce meaningful experiences for many people.
• Manifestation shifted for Dr. Swart: from structured journaling/visualization to somatic approaches (dance, drumming, chanting), time in nature, and creative expression to unlock embodied wisdom.
• Trauma is stored in the body: nonverbal memories (in fascia, muscles, nervous system) can block perception and intuition; somatic practices help release them.
• Cultivate “the art of noticing” (neuroaesthetics): training attention toward beauty/salient details increases the brain’s sensitivity to signs.
• Practical rituals help skeptics test the idea: choose a personally meaningful sign, set simple parameters (e.g., see it 3x by a deadline), and notice results.

Notable quotes / insights

• “The most dangerous thing people can do is suppress their grief.”
• “I had this absolute knowing that I had to go to the bottom of the hole of grief and feel all the pain if I was ever going to truly heal.”
• “Cultivating the art of noticing” — training your brain to notice beauty increases your ability to notice signs.
• “If it’s possible, then I want to do it myself.” (on wanting to verify post-loss signs)

Topics discussed

• Personal grief journey following the death of Dr. Swart’s husband and how it reshaped her practice.
• Examples of signs/synchronicities (infinity symbol, initials on glass, recurring numbers like 11/44, feathers, unexpected encounters).
• Neuroscience of trauma and intuition (how the body stores nonverbal memory; role of fascia/muscles; Broca’s area shutting down in trauma).
• Serotonin and body physiology (statement that most serotonin is made outside the central nervous system and that body states influence stored wisdom).
• Somatic/creative methods to access intuition (dance, drumming, chanting, humming, time in nature).
• Neuroaesthetics and attention training to notice signs.
• Ancestor connections and cross-cultural perspectives on signs and ancestor communication.
• Practical guided meditation to tune senses and still the mind.

Practical action items & recommendations

1. If you’re grieving:
   • Allow yourself to feel the grief; avoid suppressing it.
   • Lean on supportive friends and community—social support matters hugely.
2. To test/receive a sign:
   • Choose a symbol that has emotional meaning (not arbitrary, e.g., a shared joke, a distinctive image or object).
   • Set simple parameters (e.g., see the symbol 3 times by 11:00 PM the following day).
   • Meditate on the person or intention before asking.
3. Somatic/creative practices to try:
   • Move your body: dance, drum, chant, hum — these can unlock nonverbal wisdom.
   • Spend time in nature and notice beauty daily to retrain attention.
4. Daily practices to build manifestation-aligned brain states:
   • Journaling (for clarity and intention-setting).
   • Brief sensory meditations to increase perceptual sensitivity (see below).
   • Identify 5–10 small actions to overturn negative neural patterns and perform them daily.
5. Guided (short) sensory meditation Dr. Swart offered:
   • Sit comfortably. Observe breath (no change), then breathe 4 in / 4 out for a few cycles.
   • Make the out-breath two counts longer (4 in / 6 out) for a few cycles.
   • Shift attention to the closest sound, then the furthest sound, then the loudest, then the quietest.
   • Notice the stillness that exists within/between sounds; sit in that stillness and breathe.
6. If skeptical:
   • Try a small, low-stakes experiment (pick a meaningful sign; limit timeframe). It’s low risk and can expand awareness.

Examples & stories that illustrate the approach

• Dr. Swart’s “infinity” synchronicities before meeting her husband; later, many “Robin”-related signs after his death (e.g., initials RB on glass, repeated numbers, a dating-app match named Robin Bieber).
• Asking for a “button appearing out of place” and later literally bumping into an actress she’d mentioned in her journal (Anna Friel), illustrating how small intentions and noticing converge.

Closing practical notes

• Manifesting is not only a mental exercise; it’s embodied. Incorporate creative, physical, and sensory work alongside journaling and intention-setting.
• Grief and healing are foundational—do the inner work first or alongside manifesting practices.
• Dr. Swart’s book The Signs contains more meditations, exercises, and research for readers who want to go deeper.

If you want, I can extract the short guided meditation into a one-page practice you can print or a 3–5 minute script to follow daily. Which would you prefer?