How the Brain’s Algorithm Actually Works

There’s a version of “manifesting” that gets a lot of airtime and to be honest, it can feel pretty unhelpful in the therapy room.

Think positive. Visualise harder. Just believe.

For many of the people I work with, especially teenagers, this doesn’t land. If anything, it can increase shame:
Why isn’t this working for me? What’s wrong with my mind?

But neuroscience tells a very different (and far more compassionate) story.

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Your brain is an algorithm, not a wish machine

When I’m explaining this to young people, I often say:

“Your brain works a bit like an algorithm. It’s constantly deciding what to pay attention to, what to ignore, and what feels important, based on what it’s learned before.”

Your nervous system is always asking:

Am I safe here?
What matters most right now?
What helped me survive last time?

This isn’t conscious. It’s automatic. And it’s shaped by experience, especially early relational experience and moments of threat, unpredictability, or disconnection.

So when we talk about “creating your future,” neuroscience would say:

You don’t create outcomes by thinking harder. You create them by changing what your nervous system predicts is possible and safe.

Attention shapes reality (but not in the way social media says)

Neurosurgeon Dr James Doty speaks beautifully about how attention, emotion, and intention interact in the brain.

From a neuroscience perspective:

What you repeatedly attend to
What carries emotional charge
What your body experiences as safe or unsafe

…begins to shape neural pathways.

This isn’t manifestation as magic. It’s neuroplasticity.

Your brain strengthens the circuits you use most. And your nervous system filters the world accordingly.

What does that even mean?

Well, if your system expects rejection, it will scan for it.
If it expects danger, it will prioritise protection.
If it has learned that effort doesn’t lead to care, it may dampen hope altogether.

None of this is a personal failure.
It’s adaptation.

Why “just visualise it” often doesn’t work

For people with trauma histories, chronic stress, or attachment wounds, visualising a better future can actually feel threatening.

If your nervous system doesn’t believe something is safe or achievable, it will override positive imagery with:

Shutdown
Anxiety
Self-criticism
Avoidance

That’s not resistance.
That’s protection.

Which is why insight alone doesn’t create change, capacity does.

A nervous-system–led alternative

So what does help?

Instead of asking: “What do I want to happen?”

We might ask:

What does my nervous system currently expect?
What feels just barely safe enough to imagine?
What tiny experiences could update the algorithm?

In practice, this looks like:

Working with regulation before intention
Building safety in the body, not just the mind
Using relational experiences (including therapy, and sometimes horses) to create new predictions
Focusing on capacity expansion, not outcome control

Over time, as the nervous system learns:
“This is survivable. This is allowed. This is possible.”

The brain’s filtering system changes. New options come into view.
Different choices become accessible.

Not because you manifested them, but because your system could finally perceive them.

Maybe this is the real “manifesting”

From this lens, creating change isn’t about forcing the mind into positivity.

It’s about:

Gently updating the brain’s expectations
Offering repeated experiences of safety and agency
Widening the window of tolerance so more of life becomes available

When the algorithm changes, what you notice changes. What you reach for changes. What feels possible changes.

And that’s not magic. That’s neuroscience, with compassion at the centre.

If this way of understanding change resonates, you’re not alone.

Many adults come to therapy not because they lack insight, but because their nervous system is carrying years of adaptation, protection, and unmet needs.

I offer 1:1 therapy grounded in trauma, attachment, and nervous system science, supporting adults to build capacity, regulation, and meaningful change from the inside out.

If you’re curious about working together, you can learn more below.

Enquire about working with Gabby

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