- Remove the current class from the content27_link item as Webflows native current state will automatically be applied.
- To add interactions which automatically expand and collapse sections in the table of contents select the content27_h-trigger element, add an element trigger and select Mouse click (tap)
- For the 1st click select the custom animation Content 27 table of contents [Expand] and for the 2nd click select the custom animation Content 27 table of contents [Collapse].
- In the Trigger Settings, deselect all checkboxes other than Desktop and above. This disables the interaction on tablet and below to prevent bugs when scrolling.
Refinding My Creativity
About a year ago, I started experimenting with the MW75 Neuro LT headphones from Neurable, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I first brought them into my Rewiring the Muse project, a documentary and personal experiment exploring how the promotion of neuroplasticity through art, sound, psychedelics, and mindfulness can help rekindle creativity.
Like many company founders, after 20 years of growth, I started to feel creatively stagnant. I had traded my craft as a filmmaker and content creator in the name of art for the complexities of scaling a business. I wanted to understand, through data and experience, what it actually looks like inside the brain when we lose touch with our muse, and what helps us find it again.
These neural headphones became a kind of mirror. They allowed me to measure my focus in real time, while I worked, read, wrote, and meditated. What I discovered changed how I think about creativity and attention altogether.
The Morning Experiment
Each morning, before the day begins, I pour a coffee, light a wood fire, put on the MW75 Neuro LT headphones, open the Neurable App, and select the Meditation Session. I set the timer and begin my practice.
From there, I experiment with different sound and practice combinations. Some mornings I listen to guided meditations. Other times I cue up Alexandre Tannous’ soundscapes of bowls, gongs, and bells. I also use binaural beats, and sometimes I simply sit in silence.
The second set of variables comes from my own inner practice of breathwork, prayer, body scans, or gratitude meditations where I move through every person and blessing in my life, naming and thanking them one by one.
When Gratitude Sharpens the Mind
When I combine binaural beats with gratitude meditation, my focus scores on the Neurable app consistently jump into the 90th percentile, sometimes even brushing 100%. By contrast, my other sessions (music with breathwork, prayer of petition, or silence) tend to hover in the mid-80s.
I was fascinated. Why would focusing on gratitude make my brain more focused?
As it turns out, neuroscience may have an answer. Gratitude may literally promote neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form new neural connections and strengthen existing ones. In other words, gratitude can help people think more creatively and focus attention on what matters most. Regular practice of gratitude is a conscious act that reinforces specific neural pathways and can even change the brain’s structure and function over time.
When we express gratitude, the brain releases a cascade of “feel-good” neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, chemicals linked to happiness, contentment, and motivation. These biochemical shifts don’t just make us feel lighter; they actually prime the mind for better performance and engagement. Gratitude also activates the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for higher-order thinking, emotional regulation, empathy, and decision-making.
At the same time, gratitude appears to calm the amygdala, also known as the brain’s fear center. It can also reduce the production of stress hormones such as cortisol through its influence on the hypothalamus. This creates a more balanced internal state, one where focus can flourish, and creativity can rise.
By reducing the mental clutter that comes from stress and negativity, gratitude helps sharpen attention. When the brain shifts from scanning for what’s lacking to noticing what’s abundant, it gains both clarity and stability. That shift not only improves concentration but also supports creative thinking by activating networks involved in complex thought and problem-solving. Over time, gratitude becomes a kind of internal compass, helping us prioritize what truly matters and directing our cognitive energy toward what we value most.
For me, this explains why those morning sessions feel so different and why my data backs it up. Gratitude doesn’t just make me feel connected to others; it aligns my entire brain toward presence, focus, and creativity.
The Science of Sound and Focus
Then there’s the sound element. Binaural beats are created by playing slightly different frequencies in each ear, producing a third “phantom” tone that the brain interprets as a rhythmic beat. Some studies suggest these beats can entrain brainwaves to frequencies associated with relaxation, concentration, or creativity.
While the research isn’t yet conclusive, there’s growing evidence that under certain conditions, auditory beat stimulation can modulate attention and working memory. For me, pairing that rhythmic resonance with gratitude seems to anchor my mind in a state of flow.
Measuring the Muse
What I love most about neuro-tech like the MW75 Neuro LT is how it transforms something abstract into something visible. I can see when my mind is wandering and feel when I’m in a groove.
In the context of Rewiring the Muse, this is more than just a personal experiment. It’s a broader exploration of how we can use technology, storytelling, and mindfulness to restore the parts of ourselves that get dulled by overwork and overstimulation. My data isn’t about perfection (I am new to meditation), for me, it’s about awareness.
When I meditate on gratitude, my focus stays steady. My body relaxes. My creativity returns. The numbers on the app are just confirmation of what the experience already tells me.
Rewiring the Muse
In the coming year, I’ll be releasing my new YouTube documentary series, Rewiring the Muse, where I dive into these experiments on camera. I’ll explore meditation, brain mapping, sound therapy, and other neuroplasticity-promoting practices, all aimed at seeing, in real time, how creativity can be restored.
If you’ve got a Neurable headset, I encourage you to try your own version of this experiment. Use it to measure your focus during different activities like reading, prayer, journaling, or meditation. Pay attention to what helps sharpen your focus. Notice when gratitude or sound changes your state. Perhaps you have felt like your creative inspiration has weakened. If so, join me in finding ways to rewire our muse together!
Join the Journey
If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to follow along as the series launches. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, HemmingsWorld, and join me in exploring how we can all rewire our creative minds.
2 Distraction Stroop Tasks experiment: The Stroop Effect (also known as cognitive interference) is a psychological phenomenon describing the difficulty people have naming a color when it's used to spell the name of a different color. During each trial of this experiment, we flashed the words “Red” or “Yellow” on a screen. Participants were asked to respond to the color of the words and ignore their meaning by pressing four keys on the keyboard –– “D”, “F”, “J”, and “K,” -- which were mapped to “Red,” “Green,” “Blue,” and “Yellow” colors, respectively. Trials in the Stroop task were categorized into congruent, when the text content matched the text color (e.g. Red), and incongruent, when the text content did not match the text color (e.g., Red). The incongruent case was counter-intuitive and more difficult. We expected to see lower accuracy, higher response times, and a drop in Alpha band power in incongruent trials. To mimic the chaotic distraction environment of in-person office life, we added an additional layer of complexity by floating the words on different visual backgrounds (a calm river, a roller coaster, a calm beach, and a busy marketplace). Both the behavioral and neural data we collected showed consistently different results in incongruent tasks, such as longer reaction times and lower Alpha waves, particularly when the words appeared on top of the marketplace background, the most distracting scene.
Interruption by Notification: It’s widely known that push notifications decrease focus level. In our three Interruption by Notification experiments, participants performed the Stroop Tasks, above, with and without push notifications, which consisted of a sound played at random time followed by a prompt to complete an activity. Our behavioral analysis and focus metrics showed that, on average, participants presented slower reaction times and were less accurate during blocks of time with distractions compared to those without them.
