Squats & Séances

From Predictive Processing to Present Moment: A Journey into Mindfulness

• Venessa Krentz • Season 1 • Episode 9

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Your perception of reality literally creates your reality. This profound truth sits at the heart of our exploration into mindfulness—not just as a trendy wellness buzzword, but as a scientifically-backed practice that can transform your physiological experience of stress.

The human body wasn't designed for the constant state of vigilance we find ourselves in today. What happens when this system never gets a chance to rest? Research shows the frightening consequences: anxiety, depression, digestive issues, heart disease, sleep disruption, and cognitive impairment—all linked to chronic stress.

Through simple practices like box breathing (used by special forces), finding flow through creative expression, or establishing a meditation practice, we can interrupt the stress cycle and reclaim our physiological balance.

Meditation deserves special attention as the gateway to presence. By learning to observe thoughts without attachment—watching them pass like clouds overhead—we can gradually free ourselves from the tyranny of predictive perception. 

Subscribe now, leave a review, and join our growing community as we explore the fascinating intersection of science, wellness, and spiritual practice. Your mind creates your reality—isn't it time you learned how to direct it?

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-neuroscience-of-reality/

https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-is-mindfulness

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation

McCartney, F. (2010). Body of health: The new science of intuition medicine for energy and balance. New World Library. 

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Speaker 1:

Hi everyone. Welcome to episode 9 of Squats and Seances. I am thrilled to share that today we surpassed 250 downloads for the show since starting in late July. I am so grateful to each and every listener. Thank you all so much. It is because of your engagement and support that this community will continue to grow and increase its reach.

Speaker 1:

Today, I want to speak about a practice that is near to my heart Mindfulness. What is it, how does one begin and why it should be a daily priority? Accounts featuring mindfulness and other buzzwords like that seem to pop up often on social media, especially for me. I think probably the AI algorithm generators have caught on that. It is collectively something that people are seeking right now, between geopolitical concerns to domestic affairs.

Speaker 1:

There is a lot to be stressed and worried about living in 2025. Our situation, though, is not unique. For as long as humans have inhabited Earth, we have manifested major issues for ourselves. The chronic effects of such stressors have well-documented effects on our endocrine system function, which, in turn, affect other physiological and psychological components. What this means is that we generally walk around in a state of extended hypercorticalism and endocrine system dysfunction. Let me read you this great example from Mayo Clinic on how our sympathetic nervous system responds to stress.

Speaker 1:

When you face a perceived stress or threat, a tiny region at the brain's base called the hypothalamus sets off an alarm system in the body. An example of a perceived threat is a large dog barking at you during your morning walk. Through nerve and hormonal signals, this system prompts the adrenal glands, which are found on top of the kidneys, to release a surge of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline makes the heart beat faster, causes blood pressure to go up and gives you more energy. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, increases sugar, also called glucose, in the bloodstream, enhances the brain's use of glucose and increases the availability of substances in the body that repair tissues. Cortisol also slows functions that would be non-essential or harmful in a fight-or-flight situation. It changes immune system responses and it suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system and growth processes in the body. This complex natural alarm system also communicates with the brain regions that control mood, motivation and fear. So now we have a better understanding of how our body responds to an immediate stress trigger.

Speaker 1:

Let's read about what happens when the state of chronic stress is continuous, as it is for much of the population, when stressors are always present and you always feel under attack, that fight-or-flight reaction stays turned on. Mayo Clinic goes on to state that the long-term activation of the stress response system and too much exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can disrupt almost all of the body's processes. This puts you at higher risk of many health problems, including anxiety, depression, digestive issues, headaches, muscle tension and pain, heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep problems, weight gain and problems with memory and focus. That is an extensive and scary list of complications for a seemingly innocuous thing like chronic stress. What is the answer to dealing with chronic stress?

Speaker 1:

There are many proponents of what caused stress that will be invariably out of your control to change. You cannot reset the current political climate, any more than you can stop the neighbor's dog from being aggressive and scary. The solution, the secret or the power here is in adjusting your mindset. Your perception of your reality creates your reality, and I want to share that again. Your perception of your reality creates your reality. I love this quote from Anais Nin we do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. Do you remember the 2015 blue-gold dress scandal? Half the world saw it as a blue and black dress and the other half saw it as a white and gold dress. Everyone was convinced that they were correct. This was due to a process called predictive processing. I found this excellent article in Scientific American and I will share the link in the show notes. It is worth reading all the way through. If you have time, for now I'll just share an excerpt that explains predictive processing and its impact on our perception of reality.

Speaker 1:

The central idea of predictive perception is that the brain is attempting to figure out what is out there in the world or here in the body, by continually making and then updating best guesses about the causes of its sensory inputs. It forms these best guesses by combining prior expectations or beliefs about the world together with incoming sensory data in a way that takes into account how reliable the sensory signals are. Scientists usually conceive of this process as a form of Bayesian inference, which is a framework that specifies how to update beliefs or best guesses with new data when both are laden with uncertainty. In theories of predicted perception, the brain approximates this kind of Bayesian inference by continually generating predictions about sensory signals and then comparing these predictions with the actual sensory signals that arrive at the eyes, the ears, the nose, the fingertips and all of the other sensory surfaces on the outside and the inside of the body. The difference between a predicted and actual sensory signal then gives rise to these so-called prediction errors. The brain then uses this information to update its predictions, relaying it and readying it for the next round of sensory inputs. By striving to minimize these sensory prediction errors everywhere all the time, the brain implements approximate Bayesian inference, and the resulting Bayesian best guess is what we actually perceive.

Speaker 1:

That was a scientific mouthful and I would really encourage you to read the article through to better understand this concept. Essentially, to bring this full circle, our brain is anticipating the dog being aggressive, so it preps the body for fight or flight. Our sympathetic nervous system is activated and our endocrine system is flooded with hormones. This feedback goes back to the brain and therefore our mind's perception of what could be becomes what is the physical reality in our body. Now think of how often this probably occurs throughout your day. These are minor, but these are real and relevant personal examples that stress me out People driving aggressively, mindlessly or just generally inconsiderately. My teens going radio silent on their phones and location sharing isn't working silent on their phones and location sharing isn't working. My toddler suddenly developing a fever of unknown origin. Just a few examples of things that clearly stress me out and of which I have no control to prevent that stressful experience when I'm in it.

Speaker 1:

We already established the long-term health risks from living in the state of chronic stress, and yet stress is inevitable and it's everywhere all the time. To be human and have a human experience means we must encounter stress. We also made the connection that what we think creates our physiologic reality and therefore we can draw the line between these two points that our thoughts control our experience. This is where mindfulness enters. What is mindfulness According to the American Psychological Association? According to the American Psychological Association, mindfulness is awareness of reduction and mindfulness meditation to help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions and other present moment experiences without judging or reacting to them. This means that mindfulness looks different for each individual and how they access it. The common denominator is creating the state of awareness of thoughts, emotions, sensations and responses in the body. How does one do this? There are a million ways. Undo this. There are a million ways.

Speaker 1:

The secret is finding the right combination for you to access that quiet space and place of internal observation, one that is absolutely free is breathwork. There are specific breathwork exercises that we know help calm the central nervous system and its response to stress. These breathwork exercises will allow you to slow down, take stock and let these perceived threats pass on by. One of my favorites is the box breath. You inhale for a count of four to six seconds, you hold for four to six seconds, you exhale for four to six seconds and then you hold at the bottom for four to six seconds before the next inhale. You can visualize drawing that mental image of a box that I just showed you, with the inhale and the exhale being the sides and the top and bottom being the inspiratory and expiratory holds. I recently shared this one with my 18-year-old when he was getting his first tattoo. It really works in moments of stress and it only takes just over a minute to complete four cycles. This breathing technique has also been used in special forces training, which they call tactical breathing.

Speaker 1:

Another option is creative expression and music. Creative expression could be art, such as paint and paper drawing, digital media, journaling. It can also look like dance, yoga, sound baths, gardening, jewelry making and tool forging. The goal for this is creating a flow state. I personally love the Wikipedia definition of flow, which is described as the melting together of action and consciousness. It is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does and a resulting transformation in one's sense of time, and a resulting transformation in one's sense of time. This is where personalization comes into play, as people will gravitate towards different things. I love to paint. While listening to binaural meditation, music or Native American flutes, the sound waves alter my brain waves and help reduce my stress. When I pair that sound experience with creative expression, I get lost in space without time, full of color and flow, I give my endocrine system a much needed break, a much needed break. There is one more avenue to access mindfulness that felt really important for me to cover today. For me personally, it is the single most important one, and that is meditation.

Speaker 1:

Wikipedia also defines meditation as a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, discursive thinking, achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. The definition goes on to read that meditation techniques are broadly classified into focused or concentrative and open monitoring methods. Focused methods involve attention to specific objects like breath or mantras, while open monitoring includes mindfulness and awareness of mental events. Meditation is practiced in numerous religious traditions, though it is also practiced independently from any religious or spiritual influences for its health benefits. Dr Francesca McCartney, the founder of the Academy of Intuitive Medicine and the author of Body of Health the new science of intuition medicine for energy and balance, notes that true meditation must occur in the now and that the effective foundation of most meditation practices lies in making ourselves present in the moment, meaning, if you are fully present in the moment of now, you can achieve a cessation of constant mental stimulation. This cessation allows your body a chance to catch up systemically to the predictive perception the brain excels at, always staying one step ahead of the anticipated actions needed for survival. Dr McCartney goes on to state that the pathway or portal to the present moment, or the being in the now, is through a practice of meditation. She talks at length in Body of Health about the stimulation of the hypothalamus, the pituitary and the pineal glands in the brain, specifically during meditation.

Speaker 1:

A meditation practice is the gateway to learning how to be present in your body and mind. Being in a state of presence about the now also keeps your mind from getting stuck in those endless feedback loops of predictive perception. It's like turning down the volume on static. It's an awareness and an eventual slowing of the internal chatter. However, it can be surprisingly challenging to make meditation a daily habit. I don't have time, I don't know how and I don't want to do it wrong are the most commonly used reasons for never starting. In truth, usually, the underlying reason why we subconsciously never try to establish this as a practice is that it is inherently intimidating to spend time in your own head. Once you become aware of the constant thought streaming, it can be frustrating to not know how to stop it. If you struggle with anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts, anger or resentment, sitting with these kinds of thoughts is frightening. The irony is that through acknowledging and holding space, those types of maladaptive mental loops eventually lose their power. They become like clouds in the sky that pass over your head and then keep moving. Learning to let go of our identity and attachment to such thoughts is the foundation of how and why meditation successfully brings us into the present moment.

Speaker 1:

It is important to point out that this is called a practice for a reason. There is no perfection in meditation, so therefore you can't do it wrong. Every meditation will look and feel a little different depending on the day and the state of your energetic bodies and energetic bodies is definitely something we'll cover in another episode. Energetic bodies is definitely something we'll cover in another episode. So a meditation practice does and should look different for everyone. There are guided meditations, unguided meditations, sound baths, silent meditations, mantras, manifestations, cord cutting, trauma. I've even seen meditations for healing cancer and for sex. If you can think of it, it exists. When I was first starting a dedicated daily practice about a year ago, I discovered an applicationug. It unequivocally changed my life Essentially.

Speaker 1:

Unplug is a database of curated meditations of every kind, length and topic. You can search by issue, thought pattern, desired outcome and time domain, to name just a few. When I first started I needed a lot of guidance and reassurance. I loved the shorter meditations at first because I was so habituated to checking out of my mind. I would often do my numbing out through intense workouts, log runs, loud angry music, sometimes even substances like alcohol. Tuning in and getting comfortable staying there was serious work for me at first. Now, just over a year later, I find that I'm really enjoying longer meditations because I get to stay in that state of flow for an extended time. I still prefer some guidance at the start, and I like that, followed by longer periods of silence for introspection and listening, just hanging out in my internal meditation sanctuary. As my practice continues to grow, I believe this will also continue to shift. I will include a link for the Unplug application if anyone wants to try it. I highly recommend it, and if you subscribe to Squats and Seances and leave me a review, I can send you a free 30-day trial. And in October, the founder and CEO of Unplugged will be joining me on the podcast. Her story is remarkable and the platform she has created, both digitally and as a brick and mortar, is benefiting souls around the world. Please make sure to subscribe to the show now so you don't miss it.

Speaker 1:

In closing, I want to recap everything we've covered today. We've addressed what happens when our bodies are under constant stress. We've reviewed the science behind the mind-body-spirit connection and how our perception creates our reality. Lastly, we explored ways to calm our central nervous system. We talked about tools for dialing down the sympathetic nervous system response and ways to alleviate chronic endocrine system fatigue. We covered actionable options for the beginning of exploring a mindfulness practice through breathing flow, states of creative expression and meditation.

Speaker 1:

I hope this information was thought-provoking, relevant and worthy of sharing with your friends and family. I do love listener feedback and I always welcome questions. You can reach me at vanessa, at squatsandseancescom that's Vanessa with an E or on social media at squats and seances. I am on Instagram, facebook, tik TOK, linkedin and YouTube. Please subscribe to the show on your favorite listening or viewing platform and leave me a review. Lastly, you should check out my website review. Lastly, you should check out my website, wwwsquatsandsayancescom and sign up for my newsletter. Until next time, may you continue to live well, embrace authenticity, question everything and, of course, stay gritty.