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February 1, 2026 13 mins

In this final part of the series, Dr. Warren brings it all together — turning the science, the faith, and the commandments into a daily, livable, empowering practice.

He shares how hope is the first dose, but action is the medicine. How transformation isn’t an event, but a series of tiny, faithful choices. And how to become the kind of person who notices, names, and rewires thoughts in real time—right in the middle of stress, uncertainty, fear, and life happening.

This episode is about reclaiming agency… with God as your guide. It’s about partnering with the One who designed your brain for healing. And it’s about stepping into a version of yourself that is clearer, calmer, more grounded, and more connected to God than ever before.

If you’ve ever wanted a roadmap for what inner healing looks like day-to-day, this conversation is it.

GUEST: Dr. Lee Warren // wleewarrenmd.com // @drleewarren
Dr. Warren's Podcast: https://wleewarrenmd.com/podcast/
Pre-Order Dr. Warren's New Book: DrLeeWarren.com/preorder

HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington 

To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
If you want to go on a journey. If you're skeptical,
don't worry. Now here to preach. I'm gonna keep it
clean and talk to me and recall where faith needs,
files of nature and get in touch with your creator
with a bacon, love and June. She even speaks Hebrew.
What's that, Gonzato? What's that? Well sadboation? You should talking transformation?

(00:41):
What's that? Don sat.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hey?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hey, and we are back for episode four of our
Self Brain Surgery series. We are back with doctor Lee Warren.
Thank you for being here. It's been such a powerful series.
You yes, absolutely. Today we're gonna go taking it from
theory to you actual transformation, becoming your own surgeon, and
putting it all into practice. So you actually wrote the

(01:07):
book hope is the first dose, right, but as you
share in your book that's coming out in February, self
brain surgery is how you keep healing. So let's dive
on in when you say that hope is the first dose,
but self brain surgery is how we keep healing. What
does that mean to you?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
So nothing can happen without hope. If you don't believe
that change is possible, change is actually impossible. So you
have to have this belief that it is possible to
get from here to there if you think about the
place I need to be in my life, or is
just where I'm at now. Hope is that belief that
you can get from there to hear, from here to there.
And so hope is the first dose, because without hope,

(01:45):
nothing's going to happen. Right, But hopeing in and of itself,
isn't a moving agent. You got to have some tools
and some strategies and some policies and principles and actions
that you take. And that's why I built the self
Brain Surgery Framework to give you those things. Fifteen of
those operations in the book. So there's fifteen specific things
you can do if you're anxious to depress, sad, grieving, whatever.

(02:06):
But the most important thing is to believe with all
your heart that your brain is waiting for you to
give it different instructions than you've been giving because your
brain will change. And when I say that, I don't
want anybody out there to have an asterisk that says
except for me, because so many of us think you
don't know where I've been, doctor Warren, you haven't been
through what I've been through. You don't have ADHD like

(02:28):
I do.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
I'm way more broken than people, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
And I just have to tell you, friend that you're right.
I don't know you, and I don't know what you've
been through. But the human brain, all human brains are
designed and in fact do operate in this way. And
so if you don't believe it and you don't think
it'll work for you, just try it, because as soon
as you start giving your brain different commands than you've
been giving it, then you will find that the brain

(02:55):
actually wants to heal and wants to grow and wants
to change. And that's what scripture has been saying all along.
Don't be anxious, be grateful, you know, change one thought
for another, think about different things, Transplant your thoughts and
renew your mind, and your life will be transformed. And
when I say transformed, I'm not talking about you'll feel
a little bit better. I'm talking about, for the first
time in your life, you can find that you're not

(03:17):
a prisoner to your thoughts and feelings, that you are
not obligated to act like just because your dad did,
or just because your mom did, or just because that's
the way it happened in your family. You no longer
have to live under those constraints because you can literally,
in real time build yourself a new brain that will
support the person you want to become.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Amen. And what I would say about what you just
said is like that is a double dog dare. It's like,
if you don't believe it, just suspend that disbelief long
enough to go prove yourself wrong, you know, improve something right, Because,
like you said, when you try on the transformative system
and process that you talk about in your book and
that we've been talking about these last few weeks, it
can't not work. It's just science, you know. So that's like,

(03:55):
suspend that disbelief and go go try it on. So
how do people know when they are actually rewiring in
their brains? Like what are signs of transformation that they
can hold on to or pull threads at.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
I think the first thing you'll notice is that you
just feel better in your own skin. Your physiology will
begin to improve, You'll be less anxious. The thoughts that
you feel in your head here in your head will
start to sound a little different. They'll start to sound
a little more hopeful, a little more encouraging instead of
always so accusatory and shaming and negative that you're used
to hearing, and you'll start to see some traction, the

(04:27):
relationships will begin to improve, or you'll begin to feel
that you can withstand adverse circumstances a little bit more
than you ever had before. And let me just say
very carefully too, I think we've neglected to say this
in these three episodes. It's okay if you feel stuck
and this doesn't seem to be helping, get professional help
if you need it. Okay, when I as a brain surgeon,

(04:49):
if I have a patient with a heart attack, I
don't know how to fix that. So I, as the
surgeon in an empowered position, reach out to a colleague
who has different training than I do. And even though
I'm telling you that you can be your own brain surgeon,
understand that other people have different training and experience than
you do, and sometimes you need to engage them to
get to this transformation. You might need a coach, luckily

(05:11):
in you might need a professional therapist. But if you
engage a therapist or a mental health professional, choose one
that's going to orient you towards the future and not
just rest relentlessly towards the past. Yes, okay, yeah, because
it's not so much about what you've been through, it's
about what you're going to be next.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Amen. And that's why you and I have just you know,
meshed so well on our theories of transformation, because what
I hear you saying is you don't need to go
unpack and psychoanalyze the past anymore. Like a lot of
people have done that to death. You can use that
as data. It's very helpful data to know how to
create prediction and response in the future. But like it's
about turning your posture towards a solution. And this is

(05:51):
what your tools give us is the tools to actually
move forward without bringing our past into the future. So
I'm so glad that you said that, So for the
person who is listening and they're like, Okay, I feel
this for me, but I also want to be better
for my family, my friends, all of this. You know,
how can self brain surgery change not just us as

(06:12):
an individual, but actual family dynamics in relationships and communities
even if they aren't changing and we are the ones.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
That's a great question. And we have something that I
call the two patient rule, and that means that when
you make a change in your own mind and brain,
it always affects the people around you, whether they're consciously
aware of it or not. And there's a number of
different systems that are built into your neurobiology. One of
them there's something called mirror neurons. So other people pick
up on your mood an emotional state, and they begin

(06:41):
to mimic it even before they're consciously aware of it.
That's the DeBie Downer effect or the Betty upper or
whatever you want to call the opposite of that. When
Lisa and my wife, when she walks into a room,
people feel better magnetically. She engages them on a quantum
entanglement level that lifts their mood before they ever see
her face. And you have that kind of heart math

(07:03):
and that kind of power inside you too. When you
start making these changes in your life, you will affect
the other people around you mechanically, electromagnetically, on the quantum level,
on a spiritual level. And so the first thing is,
even if your family doesn't know that they're changing, they
will begin to change in response to you changing. So
you're the first change agent, and that gives you some

(07:24):
power and some responsibility too, because you don't have to
stay stuck and you don't have to keep your family
dynamic the way it's always been.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Absolutely. Yeah, your energy and how you're carrying yourself, it's metaphysical,
but it's got a physiological reaction and it creates something
in the atmosphere, you know. So, like you said, it's powerful,
but it can also we need to have discernment and
wisdom to know that we do have the power to
influence a room.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
So, what does this look like if we're talking about
spiritual practices and daily practices to take on this idea
of becoming a self brain surgeon? What is that love
like or is there something that you share from your
own practices that maybe helps you kind of integrate this
into your life.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, So I always say self brain surgery isn't self
help because I want you to understand spiritually, God built
your brain and your mind in the way that he
did intentionally. He designed you for this healing. But he
also gave us free will, and he won't force you
to practice these things. He won't force you to change
your mind and transform your life because he wants you

(08:26):
to do it will and he doesn't want to force
you to do anything. And so I use the analogy
all the time of me as a surgeon, like you
can come see me with the back problem or a
brain tumor, and I can give you the best plan
that there is. I could be the most skilled surgeon
in the world. But if on the day that we
schedule your surgery, if you don't get yourself out of
bed and drive to the hospital and sign the consent
form and let us put the IV in you and

(08:47):
anesthetize you and do the surgery, I can't help you. Like,
You've got to engage in the process. Right, So you
didn't create the hospital, you didn't build it. You didn't
put the bricks down, you didn't create the antesesion machine.
You didn't sharpen the scalpel for me. You just showed
up and had enough hope to believe that the transformation
was possible. And that's what has to happen here. God

(09:07):
will not do these things for you, but he built
you to accomplish them with his help. And so you've
got to get in the game. Friend, You've got to
decide that changes for you and you want to make
it happen in your life, and you can amen.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
And what I hear you saying is this is a
co creation, right, which is very different than self sufficiency, right,
very different, But you do have to take ownership of
what you can influence. And you know, I was talk
about this with my clients, like we're inviting God into
the wrong conversation. We're asking him to meet us in
the definition of insanity of the things that we've been
thinking forever and help and having him like work a

(09:42):
miracle on our lives versus like choosing a new way
of being and then invite God into that conversation and
he will pour gasoline on that fire.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
That's right. You don't actually need to pray for a
miracle because you're already living one. I mean, you're living
with a system where every time you think a different thought,
your brain does something different. And so you don't need
to pray for a new miracle. You just need to
learn how to operate the system the way God designed it.
It's miraculous that he did that and now you can
live in it.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Absolutely, And coming back to what we were talking about,
I think it was an episode two how because of
reciprocal inhibition, when you focus on gratitude of oh, my gosh,
this is the brain I do have. This is the
power I do have, This is the influence I do have.
You are getting out of that at Magdalah right away
by focusing on what is here, what's available. Gratitude Yeah,
super cool. We could geek out all day. But what

(10:28):
is one message that you want people to most remember
after they finish this series.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
I want you to understand that you are not stuck
with the brain that you have, that no trauma or
massive thing in your past has the inherent power to
change the rest of your life unless you give it
that power. It's not the thing that you've been through,
it's the response that you've directed to that thing, and
that can be changed. And as soon as you decide
to think about your life in a different way, you

(10:54):
can begin engaging all the tools that you were designed
to have for your own behalf to change your mind
and change your life. And you can start today that
is real and literal and in real time you can
transform your life.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Amazing. Thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Guys.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
If you're listening, go find more of doctor Warren. He
has a podcast, The Doctor Lee Warren Show. He has
a newsletter that is I don't even want to call
it a newsletter because it's so much more than that.
It's so much more transformational than that. And he's written
many books, but he's got a new book coming out
in February. Can you just tell us about that and
how to find it.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yeah, the life changing art of self brain surgery is
how you connect neuroscience and faith to radically transform your life.
It's not a metaphor, it's literal radical transformation that you
can have. I gave you to ten commandments of self
brain Surgery. I gave you fifteen specific operations and a
bunch of stories from my life and patients that we've
taken care of and people that have gone through this

(11:48):
and seen it change their lives. And I think it's
the most important work I've ever done in my life.
It rescued me from having lost my son, and I
know it can help you too, and I just encourage
you to read it. We got all kinds of space things.
You can get a peep pre order before February third.
And I think it's going to change your life.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
I know it well, So I'm so grateful that you
are doing this work and putting it out there. We
will link everything that you just said in the show notes,
and just thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Thank you Lee, you're the best.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
Bye, guys, we'll be back for more. Father, Father, don't go. Father,

(13:27):
don't another f

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