Dr. Julia DiGangi

11/05/2025

It’s late when she crawls into my bed. “Where did you come from?” I whisper.

“It’s a secret,” she giggles.

“Tell me?” I ask.

“You wouldn’t understand,” she replies.

She’s probably right.

It’s been a few years, but I still have no idea where these children—the ones who destroyed my flesh only to emerge from it—came from.

One appeared when she fell from me on a snowy winter night, and the other was traumatically torn on a hot summer day. Though they stand right before me, I know they are still very much inside.

The shredding of my flesh merely reflects the shredding of my soul. Over and over again, motherhood has shattered me with its radiant agony, taking from me so much that I deeply loved: My freedom, my solitude, my spontaneity, my body, and, on plenty of days, my sanity, too.

All it has returned is the fiercest bond and the most honest reckoning with love I have ever known.

It turns out it's not just the trauma that’s painful; it’s the healing, too. And in the early days of their lives, I was overwhelmed by the unrelenting relentless of it all. Motherhood lit anew ancient wounds from my early life as I remembered the endless needs of people I could never really satisfy.

But motherhood is itself evidence of the impossible made possible. I figured, s**t, if my body could figure out how to convert cytoplasmic goop into one child who talks endlessly about Spiderman and another who never gets tired of my lap, I could figure out how to bring myself back to life.

And so the Rising began.

Occasionally, my mind is still overwhelmed by the task of teaching so many lessons in such little time: How many playdates is enough playdates? How much sharing is enough sharing? How many times can a person be asked to get in the car and what in the world is now wrong with broccoli?

Each night, after I tuck small children into tiny beds, I leave the brittleness of my mind and flow into the brilliance of my body. From the primordial sounds of my own breathing arises the most powerful Knowing of my life: I can only give what I already have. And now I know. I really know.

(Cont'd in comments)

09/05/2025

You will have certain gifts in this lifetime--the ability to change the course of someone's life with your understanding of motivation or money or mental health or relationships or spirituality.

Whatever. You get the picture.

And the people whom you will most want to touch with your gifts--your mother, your father, your spouse, your children--will often be the *least* receptive to your power.

This is what it means when it is written 'Jesus did not do many miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief.'

20/04/2025

Gethsemane is not a place. It is an emotional energy. Specifically, it is the feeling of terror and abandonment.

Unable to metabolize these feelings of existential darkness, we try to compulsively control everything. But in the haze of our fear, we forget there are 2 kinds of power.

1. The kind where you fix it.
2. The kind where you sit it in.

Holy Saturday asks us to sit in it.

It is so hard for the human brain to comprehend that faith means the utter absence of evidence. Too often, we barter. Just toss me a sign and then I'll believe. This same brain that cannot remember where I put my keys or how to fix my own relationships has appointed itself the authority on God.

When I'm in the right mood, it makes me laugh.

The deeper I go into the surrender, the more I can feel my small self dying. And I am filled with grief because I really did love her and I see now that I must let go of the life I envisioned to live the one I have.

But the thing about mystery is that it surpasses understanding. The thing about truth is it is true everywhere. Any good anxiety expert will tell you that it's the obsession with control that fuels anxiety. Paradoxically, the more we let go of our utter obsession to know, the more relief we find.

So tonight, with restriction still in my body, I try to unclench in the darkness and agree to sit it in. Not because I understand. But precisely because I don't.

Tonight, we sit in darkness.

Tomorrow, we rise.

12/04/2025

The reason you keep trying to fix your mindset and the mindset work doesn't work is because it's not your mindset that needs fixing; it's your relationship with your emotions.

Your brain is constructing reality based on the energy of your emotions. Mindset sits on feelings.

Fix feelings; transform everything.

Here's a photo of me talking to leaders about the neuroscience of leadership. , published by , will show you how to build powerful emotional intelligence.

12/04/2025

The most powerful person in the room is the person least fed by external fixes.

This is what "Man does not live by bread alone" means.

29/03/2025

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28/03/2025

Here is the core information for Connection: The Neuroscience of Revolutionizing Relationships.
This will be the deepest of dives into relational intelligence. Connection is for you if:
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Schedule (All in CST/ Chicago):
1. 7 Apr 2025, Mon 10am – 12pm
2. 9 Apr 2025, Wed 10am – 12pm
3. 10 Apr 2025, Thu 10am – 12pm
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25/03/2025

DETAILS
Connection will be the deepest of dives into relational intelligence. Connection is for you if:
1. you believe in the power of extraordinary emotional intelligence

2. you know that our ability to influence others begins with our ability to influence ourselves.

Connection is dedicated to the (neuro)science + spirit of relationships. It will address topics like:
- How is my brain organizing relationships?
- I'm overwhelmed by relationships. How can understanding the brain simplify them?
- What do I need to understand about the brain to feel restored to power in my relationships?
- How neuroscience clearly demonstrates you can be right OR you can be powerful
- Based on how the brain operates, how do influence and leadership actually work?
- How do I powerfully navigate uncertainty in my relationships?

- 7 calls; $800.
- There will be 5 teachings and 2 Q+As.
- Teaching calls last approx 90 min. Q+As last up to 2 hours.

Schedule (All in CST/ Chicago):
1. 7 Apr 2025, Mon 10am – 12pm
2. 9 Apr 2025, Wed 10am – 12pm
3. 10 Apr 2025, Thu 10am – 12pm
4. 11 Apr 2025, Fri 10am – 12pm
5. 14 Apr 2025, Mon 10am – 12pm
6. 15 Apr 2025, Tue 12:30 – 2:30pm
7. 16 Apr 2025, Wed 10am – 12pm

**Recordings always available.

https://buy.stripe.com/eVa8AkfZZ7io0X6dRn

24/03/2025

Connection is for you if:
1. you believe in the power of extraordinary emotional intelligence

2. you know that our ability to influence others begins with our ability to influence ourselves.

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Schedule (All in CST/ Chicago):
1. 7 Apr 2025, Mon 10am – 12pm
2. 9 Apr 2025, Wed 10am – 12pm
3. 10 Apr 2025, Thu 10am – 12pm
4. 11 Apr 2025, Fri 10am – 12pm
5. 14 Apr 2025, Mon 10am – 12pm
6. 15 Apr 2025, Tue 12:30 – 2:30pm
7. 16 Apr 2025, Wed 10am – 12pm

06/03/2025

Each Lent, I travel to the desert. Sometimes in person. Sometimes in my mind.

Either way, I find what I am seeking.

For 40 days, I find myself in this silent, barren place. Against the peaks of the Catalinas, I demand answers from a God who does not answer in a language I can understand. Like Job, I insist: they need to change.

But neither God nor these 200-year-old Saguaros appear moved by my indignation. And I am dismayed to find that the righteousness I decided I am owed is disrupted by Silence and Stillness.

Here in this empty place, there is nothing to face but myself. But breakthroughs come on barren ground.

A lot of times, you wonder if you are going to hell. But if you look closely enough, you will find that you are already there.

It is a revelation and a relief.

You think all the pain--all the hatred, all the fear, all the chaos-- you see before you is an effect of a world gone mad. Your brain cannot recognize what it does not already know.

You are who's gone mad.

You are who hates. You are who's righteous and judgemental. You routinely participates in panic and blame and urgency to obscure your extraordinary role as a creator in systems you hate.

This is what the Christ meant when he said: 'The kingdom of heaven is within.' We are our own path out. This, of course, infuriates the ego which rushes in to establish its own impotence.

The glorious power of the desert is that it quickly desiccates that which lacks strength. Pretty soon, this rough and holy land has stripped from me my stories and distractions. I have nothing else to do but look at myself. Sure, it's miserable for a while.

But soon, like a fever, the misery breaks and relief rises. And in the darkness, I am starting to see that we could spend a lifetime desperately demanding the world become as God wanted. Or we could wake up and realize: We are the God Force.

**********
These are wild times.Want to chat with me about the neuropsychology of God? Join me on my newsletter. Dr Julia DiGangi at substack.

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15/02/2025

22/01/2025

What an absolute banger of a conversation!! 🔥 💯

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the world, it's worth a watch. Let it soothe you. Mostly, let it elevate you.

If you like this conversation, image what we could do in a year.

To watch, simply click. Recording available for limited time.

Link in comments.