Because of how human brains develop, the only way for maturity to emerge is in the presence of maturity.   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts   I remember the first time I gave a presentation to parents, many years ago, about how children’s brains develop. One of the first concepts I introduced was the fact that young brains simply have not developed enough architecture to help them self-regulate, think about long-term consequences, control many of their impulses. As I showed graphs and had the parents reflect on various experiences, I remember seeing tears in the eyes of a few people. They realized that a lot of their upset with their child had come from a misunderstanding of what the child needed in moments of distress. They realized that they were punishing their child for being dysregulated. (this is called misplacing emotions, and I go into this in this episode) Their anger and punishment seemed to make things worse but they couldn't figure out why. Understanding brain development shifted how they saw their child. Instead of seeing them as a jerk who was trying to piss them off, they saw their child as someone who didn’t know what to do with overwhelming emotions. I had many parents report improvements in their interactions with their children after understanding this. It also gave them compassion for what they had gone through as children. Many of them realized that they also had been rejected, ridiculed or punished for being dysregulated. It gave them a new understanding of their own childhood experiences.   Knowing how our brains and nervous systems develop helps us see a universality to human needs. A sense of safety comes from knowing that someone understands us on a deeper level - that they can see through the dysregulated and defensive behaviors we might express when we don't know what to do with our emotions. This is the essence of secure attachment. One of the most important and intensive trainings I had as a school counselor was through the Neufeld Institute.  We discuss the importance of Neufeld’s frameworks on attachment and maturity in the interview and I explore these teachings in the introduction.   This picture is from when I worked as a French school counselor in Canada   We go into these topics and more in my interview in Episode 10 with Noor Sayed, where we cover the idea of adult-child ratios, what education is for, systems thinking and the importance of presence and attachment. We also discuss the neurological (and mammalian) mechanism of play as a simulation for adaptive behavior. By play, I mean some of the things we usually associate with play (like games, playfulness, sports, rough & tumble play), as well as role play.  Something I have done a lot with children over the years is role play for social situations, where we use dolls or just the children themselves (and me) to play out scenarios of social and emotional challenges, such as being rejected or not getting something we want.  By practicing different responses and trajectories within these simulations and role plays, this allows for flexible responding features of the brain-body system to be more readily accessible in 'real life' scenarios. Noor is the founder of a homeschooling coaching and consulting program - Leaders Among Mothers - an insight-based framework for helping parents use the platform of teaching,

  A quick episode that covers some insights gained over the course of my career in human communication and psychology, child development, teaching, and neuroscience.   Highlights include the importance of: * mindset, purpose and effective teachers * anti-disciplinary thinking and teams of experts from diverse fields * prefrontal cortex models and attuned caregivers for helping children reach their highest potential * understanding our power to control more of our thoughts, behaviors and reactions than we currently realize or have been taught.   A more in-depth article will be sent as a newsletter to subscribers later today or tomorrow to accompany the episode.   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify     “Non nobis solum nati sumus. (Not for ourselves alone are we born.)” - Marcus Tullius Cicero     With Love from Me to You xoxo Stefanie   #mindset #neuroscience #resilience #podcast #perseverance #adventures #exploration #awareness #prepared #gohumans #newheights #newera   #heartbrainconnection #community #team #familyunit #powerpartnership #mission #purpose #endurance #warriorsheart  #behindthescenes  #offscreens #outdoors #wilderness #nature #longtermvision #love #love #love #unity #unifiedpurpose #cometogether #humanpotential #genx #awakening #unraveling #crisis #passingdownwisdom #futuregenerations  

“One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” ― Shannon L. Alder   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify   How we distract ourselves from our deeper sources of pain In my interview with Warriors Heart Healing Center, we discussed the idea of 'presenting problems'.  These are problems that feel much more urgent and obvious to patients coming in (such as losing their job or getting a DUI).  As trauma therapists, however, they understand that there is generally something much deeper going on for patients than only that immediate and current scenario.  They understand that although there may be a lot of stress from something happening now, there are generally patterns of beliefs and reactions to things that have repeated over time... and the current situation may trigger some of those deeply held and invisible wounds and scars from long ago. Interestingly, in my wilderness first responder training that I attended recently, an important task during various emergency scenarios was to figure out the Mechanism of Injury (MOI).  Understanding how a person got hurt was important for figuring out further steps for assessing what to do next.  (sometimes we weren't able to to know the MOI, so we had to do our best based on our training protocols).   What sometimes happened during these scenarios was a 'distracting injury'.  This was something more obviously painful or noticeable to the patient (for example, an open fracture) but was not as critical as another situation going on (for example, internal bleeding).  In those situations, it was a challenge to help the team and the patient understand that certain things needed to be dealt with first before we could treat the obviously painful injury that was occupying their attention.  When we were able to assess the mechanism of injury, this also helped tune our awareness to pick up on other things in the situation we might have otherwise missed.   So much of what we think may be wrong in a moment is related to our level of awareness.  If our attention gets distracted by something very pinpointed or obvious, we may miss out on a lot of other types of information and noticing of patterns that could actually help us get to a deeper root of what is going on. An analogy I remember hearing a while back that resonates with this is:  imagine seeing people in a pool of water near a waterfall, and seeing some of these people falling over the waterfall to their potential death.  We need some focus to go to helping those people avoid falling over the edge.  And we need some focus to attempt to save people who may have fallen over the edge.  But we also need some focus to go to why people are jumping in the pool in the first place.   The other levels of focus will always draw our attention.  But it doesn't mean that we shouldn't also include the wider span of awareness needed to understand why problems keep repeating. This can include not just ideas about our past in terms of childhood or other experiences, but also for example our sleep patterns, what we are eating, the activities we are engaging in.   The more we can pause and take inventory of our habits,

  How we respond to danger (perceived and real, physical and social), and WHO we turn to (including ourselves and others) in the midst of uncertainty and threat is one of the most powerful foundations for future behavior and how we process information.   The level of self-regulating abilities in the people we have around us during times of danger, ambiguity and uncertainty are one of the most critical aspects of how accurately we predict, prepare for and respond to future situations.  This is especially true when we are young, but affects us throughout our lives.   Attachment (and our social behaviors) are about information processing: whether we distort, omit data, include erroneous information, or bias feelings over logic, or logic over emotions.   Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Listen on Blubrry   Danger - and how it is dealt with - is the central theme of attachment - and therefore human interaction. The concept of how we regulate ourselves and with others, and how we deal with social danger, rejection, status, comparison, the need for acceptance, and how we diversify our abilities to navigate our neurochemicals are topics we cover this Episode of the Mindset Neuroscience Podcast, where I interview Loretta Breuning of the Inner Mammal Institute. In our interview, we explore many intriguing and relevant topics including: The neurochemicals associated with how it feels to have social support - and how this differs from social dominance The fluctuations of neurochemicals, feelings and behaviors tied to threat, rejection, and constantly seeking external rewards and short-term gratification  Being more realistic about the ups and downs of all of our neurochemical states, rather than believing we should feel good all the time.  The biological purposes to the fluctuations and varieties of states we experience and why it’s helpful for us to understand this so we can get better at making choices that are good for our mental and physical health The life-threatening feelings people experience when it comes to social rejection, and social comparison How our brain and body store information about threats, and how this can significantly influence our current reactions to people The idea of ‘dopamine droop’ and our constant urge to seek reward and avoid discomfort   "We have inherited a brain that compares itself to others to promote its survival. It creates has a sense of urgency about how it measures up. If you don’t know you are creating this feeling yourself, you think the world is doing it to you. You feel bitter, resentful, and victimized. Instead, you can accept that the people around you are mammals, and you are a mammal too."" -Loretta Breuning     In this episode, I also go over the Dynamic Maturational Model of Protective Strategies. This model centers around the concept of danger and how the attunement and attachment we have to others during times of danger influence our information processing.   Challenges with information processing include distorting and omitting signals and cues from the environment, and biasing our thoughts and behaviors based on protective strategies that emerged in childhood.   

“Love is at once an affirmation and a transcendence of who we are.” ― Esther Perel   “And what is true for human beings is true for every living thing: all organisms require alternating periods of growth and equilibrium. Any person or system exposed to ceaseless novelty and change risks falling into chaos; but one that is too rigid or static ceases to grow and eventually dies. This never-ending dance between change and stability is like the anchor and the waves. Adult relationships mirror these dynamics all too well. We seek a steady, reliable anchor in our partner. Yet at the same time we expect love to offer a transcendent experience that will allow us to soar beyond our ordinary lives. The challenge for modern couples lies in reconciling the need for what’s safe and predictable with the wish to pursue what’s exciting, mysterious, and awe-inspiring.” ― Esther Perel, Mating in Captivity   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts     Our past influences our present No matter how strong a connection we feel to someone, there is always a chance that our past experiences and insecurities may influence the current experience.   To increase our chances of honoring the incredible potential of relationships, we must stay open to learning about how our own distortions from past experiences may lead us to think and behave in ways that close off connection.   Closing off connection to ourselves and to others can lead us to stop exploring the world around us and hold us back from engaging in incredible experiences that are always available to us.  Having that sense of exploration, curiosity and wanting to be challenged are essential for building healthy connections, units and systems.    A connection to someone who shares a passion for growth and evolution, a shared vision and ‘dialect’ for how they see and understand the world can give us a chance to be a part of a partner-family system who can help us feel at home AND energize us with fuel and fire to soar beyond our ordinary lives into awe-inspiring pursuits. But we must stay open to learning about how our own patterns, thoughts and behaviors contribute to the overall functioning of the unit.  This can be said for intimate partnerships and family units, as well as a community and team.       The more deeply we can experience life in all its forms and moments, the more deeply we can experience another person.   Intimacy and bonding are not just about how you are when you are with a person or people, but how engaged in life and exploration of your own world when you are apart.  What can lead many relationships into a feeling of boredom, stuckness, or resentment is 'self-abandonment'... an abandonment of what truly brings us joy and lights us up, and an abandonment of paying attention to our innermost wounds and places for healing.  Building a sense of love for yourself and wonder and fascination with life is what can help create a life-enhancing relationship for both people.  When we get clear about what our deepest needs and desires are and we find ways to support and nourish them within ourselves, we then get to share that with someone*.  They get to benefit from a perspective of happiness and sources of joy that are different than their own.  When each person in a partnership and family get better at honoring what regulates their nervous system and enhances their life force,

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” * ― Leo Tolstoy   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts We are in the most interconnected period that humanity has ever experienced. The potential for us to tap into and amplify collective intelligence is unparalleled. The potential for us to tap into and amplify collective trauma is also unparalleled. As we interact with others online and in person, and in all the moments in between, we have a chance to find new ways to react to people and events that help us become more intelligent, regulated and rational. Being able to regulate ourselves and achieve a desired internal state during times of distress and challenging situations and emotions is one of the most important tools for humans to learn and understand.  It is the journey to maturity and complexity for us as a complex, adaptive organism. Without an ability to self-regulate, we are more vulnerable to the reactions, insecurities and volatility of those around us.   As a species, we are still in the early phases of understanding how dysregulation and mental health challenges are passed on and perpetuated from person to person, generation to generation.  This means that in most of the interactions we have with other humans, we will be dealing with some emotional reactivity and immaturity. Immaturity is a degree of low complexity and is a state of a system (for example a human) that depends on more mature systems to help it meet its needs and achieve its goals.  As a system matures, it becomes more capable of self-organizing and finding new, diversified ways of meeting its needs and achieving its goals.   As humans, we do this by mastering our motor control over our bodies, our communication patterns (example language and social signals) and our problem-solving algorithms, which get more and more sophisticated as we have more feedback between us and the world around us.     The more self-regulating we become, the more we are able to take care of our own needs.  This doesn’t mean we are isolated beings while we do this.  It means that we are able to meet our basic needs of sustenance, shelter, survival and regulated internal states by collaborating and cooperating with other members to get the tools and resources and support we need to achieve these goals. Our maturity as a system is reflected in the diversification of our strategies and resources.  This means that we are able to navigate and master our ability to get certain types of support, resources and information from a wide variety of places. This includes our ability to regulate our stress and manage difficult emotions.     'Immature' systems have lower complexity, and higher rigidity.   When it comes to regulating our emotional states, immaturity would be reflected in attempting to use the same people and the same kind of activity over and over again to try to regulate our distress, and a lack of other tools to do this. Increasing our range and repertoire of strategies for survival and flourishing means that we are able to find tools such as online resources, books, therapists, community organizations, and tools and techniques like journaling, meditation, exercise, contemplation, stress inoculation training, physical movement training, etc., to help us achieve a desired internal state.

Learning is a gateway to power and freedom Learning increases our degrees of freedom by giving us new ways to move, communicate and adapt to challenges and capitalize on opportunities.   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts     True learning is a sacred process that is not honored in how typical classrooms are run.   I have seen many kids begin to believe that something is wrong with them. Not because they are unable to learn, but because of the teachers’ and education system’s outdated understanding of how humans actually learn and optimize their functioning. On a deeper level, because of outdated and ineffective education models that exist in schools, I think many of us were not given a chance to truly tap into our unique brilliance, and the effects of this linger in us today. The highlights of my life have been working with young people and watching them light up as they recognize their capacities to learn.  I love teaching them the magnificent systems-logic that exists in the world and in their bodies for them to use for their own sense of power and agency. It was an honor to speak with two professors who align with this and are taking action to transform and disrupt education as we currently know it.   In this episode, Drs. Sheila Macrine and Jennifer Fugate and I explore how our cognitive and learning processes are embodied as we discuss their book, Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning.   Their website is: embodiedcognitionandlearning.com     An example from the Movement Matters book is an expert bassoon player.  When this expert musician thinks of ‘bassoon’, their entire brain lights up with activity that simulates what it’s like to feel the smoothness of the instrument, the vibration of the sounds, etc. as they hear and play the instrument. Someone who has never played that instrument will not have the same areas light up when they think about a bassoon - there will be categories and words associated with ‘bassoon’, such as instrument or music, but that embodied, sensorimotor anchor of knowledge will not be there.  To learn something well enough to apply it, personalize and use it, we need to ‘play’ with the world, interact with it using our bodies and senses. As Dr. Fugate says in the interview, “the richer the initial experience , the richer the information that can be used for the simulation”.  Using more of our senses (including interoceptive and proprioceptive senses) during the learning process gives the brain-body more data to use later.   Embodied, Enactive, Embedded, Extended The idea of this process is aligned with 4E cognition. As described by Dr. Shaun Gallagher, this framework proposes that “cognition is not just in the head. it's something that involves the body in general and also the situation of the body in the environment …” As Schiavio and van der Schyff (2018) describe, there are 4 components of 4E cognition: * Embodied: Cognition cannot be fully described in terms of abstract mental processes (i.e., in terms of representations). Rather, it must involve the entire body of the living system (brain and body).

“Once again, the world seems to be less about objects than about interactive relationships.” ― Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics   Studying human brains while a person is immobile and alone in an mri machine can only get us so far in truly understanding human brains and behaviors.  Because optimal brain development requires serve-return exchanges with conspecifics (members of the same species), affiliative neuroscience moves us into an exciting new era of understanding. Affiliative neuroscience is an emerging field that combines neurophysiology (including neuroendocrine and EEG hyper-scanning*) attachment theory, and highlights the evolution of social acts within mammals, nonhuman primates, and humans. My interview with expert rock-climber Alma Esteban parallels affiliative neuroscience research and how we coordinate, move and attune to others as a way to solve problems and ascend to new heights. Before we go into that, let's take a look at Affiliative Neuroscience Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts Resilience-by-affiliation Much of the current research on resilience focuses on fear physiology and stress neurobiology.  Affiliative neuroscience seeks to understand this as well but also what cultivates strength and stamina.  Within this, pioneer researcher Dr. Ruth Feldman defines resilience as the "hallmark of human achievement", which includes the ability to*: Face life’s hardships with courage and perseverance Enjoy intimacy and wider social circles Have empathy and compassion to others’ misfortune Foster a sense of industry and agency towards long-term goals Access creativity, vitality and meaning Be free of debilitating symptoms despite early adversity or current trauma Affiliative neuroscience points to coordinated actions of sociality as a mechanism for increasing endurance, diversity and adaptation, thus optimizing us as a species. *Feldman, R. (2020) What is resilience: an affiliative neuroscience approach, World Psychiatry ;19:132–150) Humans are literally, neurophysiologically, 'better together' than alone Social neuroscience research shows that we achieve goals more efficiently and accurately when we coordinate our motor behavior with someone we have a long-term bond with, particularly couples.  One of the reasons for this comes from having high levels of exposure to the others’ patterns of movement, which helps each brain create better predictions and automations for reading and responding to signals.  Trusting, attuned, joint-problem-solving partnerships optimize our individual and collective functioning. Unfortunately, as children, many of us did not have parents with this type of partnership for us to use as guides for our own future relationships. We need more models of this for future generations. Affiliative neuroscience shows us that bonding and affiliation are embedded in our DNA.  Ignoring this fact will result in continued mental health challenges and depletion of well being and functioning.  We are wired to seek out connection.  This means that if a person is not getting it in their physically proximal environment, there is a good chance that they will seek it out in other ways.  For many people today, this will happen online.

The moment you learned to walk, the entire social and power dynamic between you and your caregivers changed. When you were an infant and lacked mobility, your caregiver would easily be able to track where you were. If they left you in the crib, they could be pretty much certain, you would still be there when they returned. As you began to move out of their reach, your caregiver needed to take on the role of ‘socialization agent’ and inhibitor of action to protect you from walking into danger or moving too far away where you were no longer visible. Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes     This meant two things: Your caregiver would start saying NO more and prohibiting your exploration You needed a way to stay safe as you moved physically away from your protector Which then resulted in two major changes: You and your caregiver would begin to have power struggles as you increased your degrees of freedom You would need to ‘check in’ to your caregiver to know if something was safe or dangerous.  This is called Social Referencing One key way a caregiver ‘prohibited’ your action is through a sudden disruption in internal state attunement.  Each time you began to explore your environment, your mobilization-energizing systems would have been active.   Depending on each scenario, your caregiver would need to use voice and face to get you to stop going too far.  The way to do this is to put a brake on your energized state.  Human caregivers do this by using the word NO and making facial gestures that indicate disapproval of your actions. This is the mechanism of 'shame' - an inhibitor of interest-excitement and enjoyment-joy to reduce exposure or exploration (Tomkins, 1963; Schore, 2003)*. *more on this in an upcoming article   How this relates to you now... Every caregiver has different levels of comfort and anxiety related to safety, danger and exploration Their comfort levels are based on their past experiences. Depending on what a caregiver perceives as dangerous, they will use a lot of prohibitory mechanisms to keep a child ‘safe’ (according to their perception). What the people around you were afraid of, disgusted by or avoided may not be things that are necessarily dangerous or inherently 'bad' for us. These include social types of danger such as rejection, failure, looking stupid, not fitting in, meeting new people, encounters with people who are very different or unfamiliar.  Another example I’ve witnessed in certain caregivers is an over-protection against germs, scraped knees, insects, and animals that will not cause them harm If any of these things feel aversive to you, part of your aversion may have some roots in the social referencing activity that happened between you and the people around you most when you were growing up. Your caregivers’ and social circles' perceptions of these things created an internal state within them which they would then transmit in the form of facial expressions, smell, voice frequencies, body posture, etc. - that became the reference point you used for your own algorithms of aversion, avoidance or approach. This is extremely important for actual dangers because as a child you also were not afraid of running into the street, sharp objects or hot stoves. Instead of learning in a way that can hurt or kill us,

"transformation begins with two commitments: the courage to try new things and act in new ways the honesty to no longer hide from or lie to ourselves". - yung pueblo   Much of my work to help others has come from integrating neuroscience research and application, and the journey of learning how to navigate life, particularly when it comes to challenges rooted in childhood experiences of unsafety... an unfolding work in progress. The last two seasons of podcasts focused on the internal world - emotions, sensations, and the interconnectedness of systems of past, present and future. This season, I'll be focusing on biomechanics and motor systems. Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes Listen on Blubrry   Movement and Communication: the basis of your survival Your first experience of life was in a liquid environment. There was nowhere for you to go, nothing in particular you needed to do to get your needs met. You floated and ingested. As you left the womb, you entered a new environment. The cord was cut. Air separated you from all things. You needed to find a way to get your needs met, and deal with gravity, inertia and momentum.  To do this, your machinery equipped you with two mechanisms:  movement and communication. Movement meant that, over time, you would move the bones of your body to grasp, climb, crawl and locomote. Communication meant that you could increase your chances of survival by sending and receiving signals with others to benefit from their abilities and resources that you were not able to obtain yourself. These two mechanisms, movement and communication, are what kept you alive. They’re what keep you alive today.  They are also the basis of vibrations that you send out into the world. Movement and communication are mechanical translations of your internal world into external vibrations* * Movement and communication are different than thinking, feeling and sensing; * They are mechanical outputs that cause vibrations in the air around you * These vibrations are caused by moving bones via skeletal muscles, such as in your voice, face, breath, hands, and body. * These vibrations can be perceived by others * These mechanical outputs are translations of what is going inside of you *Blood vessels, internal fluids and organs are all moving within you at every moment.  These are internal movements that send subtle frequencies into the air around you - detectable to us in unconscious and sometimes conscious ways (such as smell, pupil dilation and blushing), and sometimes by instruments we create that amplify the waves (eg., heart beat, brainwaves). These play a role in motor commands, but are different than movement and communication in the sense I am using, which is tied to voluntary motor control.  The control mechanisms of Initiation and Inhibition have powerful impacts on our daily life, mental health and relationships As we practice and understand the machinery of our body and what we can control and adjust, the better we can get at initiating when we want to initiate and inhibiting when we want to inhibit. This applies not only to movement of our entire bodies, but also the movements we make as we communicate with each other When it comes to initiation and movement, we can learn to move in ways that get closer to what we ...

Moral injury is not a danger- or fear-based response to an event.  Moral Injury is tied to a sense of betrayal, a breaking of social trust, and transgression of one’s values.   “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” -Khalil Gibran   Is it possible to take a painful and negative event from our past, and 're-purpose' it to become an empowering feature of our story, of our identity? The process of re-organizing neural circuits to integrate a negative past event into a more complex and mature perspective is tied to cognitive flexibility.  This flexibility is a major aspect of the healing process for moral injury. Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes Listen on Blubrry   What is Moral Injury? I offered an overview of moral injury in the last article, but here’s a quick recap... As  Jonathan Shay defines it, "moral injury occurs when there’s a betrayal of ‘what’s right’, either by a person in authority or oneself, and in a high stakes situation." Litz and colleagues divide moral injury into three types:  * bearing witness to, * perpetrating, or * failing to prevent events that transgress deeply held moral beliefs and expectations.   As we see from studies by pioneering researchers such as Ruth Lanius, Moral Injury is an emerging frontier in neuroscience and psychology to help us understand... * humans as a socially cooperative species * the importance of social trust and what happens when those bonds are broken * the importance of cognitive and psychological flexibility.   What's beautiful about the exploration of moral injury is that it helps us find ways to bring negative events into a new light.  In doing so, it exposes resilient and powerful aspects of the human response to stress.  The processes used to navigate moral injury shed light on how to help help all of us be more empowered and find new ways to contribute to the greater whole. As we talk about moral injury, it’s also helpful to explore the idea of morality  What is morality? Jonathan Haidt, a professor of moral and political psychology at NYU describes morality as “interlocking sets of values, virtues, norms, practices, identities, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make cooperative social life possible."

Attachment theory is not a 'theory'.. it's a part of our neurophysiological operating system Attachment is a way of seeking proximity to an attachment figure.  It’s a biobehavioral adaptation that helps us regulate ourselves and explore new frontiers. This in turn helps us achieve higher levels of complexity and adaptation to a variety of environments, particularly in the social realm.   Allan Schore states that although traditionally attachment theory was emphasized in the field of behavior and emotion, it is now supported by enough research from neurophysiology that attachment theory can simply be called ‘regulation theory’.  Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes Listen on Blubrry   Attachment doesn’t mean co-dependency This may sound counterintuitive, but our attachment to a secure base when we are young actually helps us become more independent.   Knowing we have an emotionally attuned, available and regulated base to return to and turn to in times of distress helps regulate our immature nervous system to tolerate a more expansive array of emotions and situations until our own more sophisticated brain and body architecture can help us do this for ourselves and with a wider variety of people.       One of the keys of secure attachment is resonance, attunement and availability.  The availability and attunement of an attachment figure is important during a wide array of emotional experiences.  Their availability is particularly important during times of an infant’s distress (Neufeld).   Because of how brains mature over time, the infant or young child does not have access to self-regulating features (Harvard Center on the Developing Child).  It must outsource these to an attachment figure.  This is a non-negotiable of being human.   This system of attunement and availability during various situations and affective states helps create bonding behaviors between child and attachment figures through a release of oxytocin. These oxytocin-releasing behavioral and neurochemical bonding mechanisms get disrupted when an attachment figure is: * physically or mentally ill * depressed, anxious, addicted * verbally/emotionally/physically abusive * threatening or violent * consumed by other relationships * geographically distant due to jobs or travel. (Feldman)   When an attachment figure is misattuned, unavailable or threatening, the child does not experience micro-behaviors and signa...

“The residues of the past and the content of the future tend to be formulated, constructed, and reconstructed in terms of that [traumatic] experience”   (Dowling, 1986)   Every aspect of our cellular design is to solve a problem.  And that problem - from a cellular-machinery level - is homeostasis, which includes maintaining our systems as fully functioning to keep us alive, and projecting us into the future.     Much of this system maintenance and future projection is tied to the efficient use of energy:  we need to preserve the ‘flesh barrier’ so that our system does not need to continuously use energy for repair of organs or fighting off of foreign invaders.  Damage to the molecular structure of our physical vehicle means that energy is not purely focused on regular maintenance and future projection.       Because of this, threats to the physical integrity of our system are one of the highest priorities for us to protect ourselves from.   The brain-body system devotes many of its resources and algorithms to ensuring this physical integrity.  Damage to physical integrity can come in obvious forms, such as a solid object actually piercing through the tight clustering of molecules that represent our physical body, as well as lack of energy units entering the body (in the form of liquids, solids and gases that hold molecular structures needed for body-maintenance, ie., water, nutrients, oxygen, etc.) Because energy-efficiency is so critical, the brain-body system also devotes much of its resources to protecting us against anything that could indirectly lead to a physical disintegration of the physical body.  These dangers are not necessarily physical.  They are related to the fact that our homeostasis and future projection are intimately tied to social mechanisms.     Our first experiences as infants require us to be dependent on an attachment figure in order to survive.  So those experiences lay a foundation for predictive algorithms of what other humans can offer us as we enter into future relationships.     Beyond infancy, we continue to depend on certain social patterns for our system maintenance and future projection. To be able to adapt to changing circumstances and environmental factors, we need some type of community, however small, to help offset the energy usage needed to survive and project into the future.  In some eras and communities, this might look like having some members stand guard while others sleep or eat (and are vulnerable to predators), to something more advanced like outsourcing the building of roads and food sources to some members, while other members use time to innovate more efficient ways of using energy for survival.     Because social mechanisms are also related to energy-efficiency, the threat of losing social connections is a top priority for our system to protect us against.   This means that an interaction or event that relates to a social loss may take on a sense of danger that deeply impacts our brain-body functioning, mental health and behaviors.   So when we talk about harm, threat and danger, we must also include - in addition to physical harm - the concept of loss and injuries related to our social functions and needs.   Our sense of wellbeing increases when we feel safe.   Feeling safe allows for our brain-body resources to not be focused on vigilance and defensive mechanisms.  This frees up energy units to be used for restoration and maintenance of organs, and the more energy-expensive tasks of problem solving, planning for the future and long-term decision-making.     A powerful component of feeling safe is our role within a social system.   If we feel valuable and needed by others in the group, this decreases the chances of us being replaced or disc...

Many of us don’t realize how many of our behaviors are automated. We need a certain amount of this automation to free up cognitive processing energy to learn new things, try new behaviors and deal adaptively with new situations.   So habits and automations are not bad. The question is, are they aligning with our most desired way of experiencing life?   To find out, we need to bring these unconscious patterns into our awareness. From that vantage point we can take a more honest inventory of whether these habits enhance our life or deplete it.   The most helpful way to gain conscious access to unconscious patterns is to become a witness to them.   This is where meditation can be helpful, but another step you can take is to be a witness to your own body.   If you can watch how your own body moves, you are accessing neural circuits involved in self-observation and what Stanislave Dehaene relates to as ‘conscious access’.  This helps you make the unconscious conscious.   One particular part of the body you can start to witness is your hands.   Our hands are one of the first tools we use in self-soothing. We use our hands generally to help us consume/ingest something, or to be in contact with another organism. This is for two reasons. From the time we are born (and even in the womb in terms of amniotic fluid), ingesting a substance activates the swallow reflects which engages the parasympathetic nervous system and thus helps soothe us. The pressure and heat from physical contact with another organism Is an infants main tool for knowing that it is not alone : this proximity to safety and protection help regulate its nervous system. We carry that need for proximity throughout our life. So to take an inventory of your habits, observe or witness what your hands do throughout the day.   You’ll notice that much of this hand activity involves the above mentioned two things: grasping for some thing to ingest or consume; or seeking contact with another organism. This can be cuddling with a pet, gesturing for someone to interact with you or using technology to ‘ping’ a signal to someone so that they notice you and ping you back. All of these behaviors are ways we seek to know we are not alone, thus soothing our nervous system. (Ep 11 goes into this depth).   To assess whether these habits are truly serving you, it’s important to examine the effects after you’ve engaged in the activity.   This noticing of after-effects helps us separate what feels good in the moment compared with what is actually good for us in the longer trajectory of our life. Future projection and extrapolation involves the prefrontal cortex - an area of the brain that also helps with impulse control and inhibitory signaling - both of which will help you pause before you do some thing that may not actually be in your best interest.   Let’s say you want to assess if eating donuts is a habit that you want to stop. (in this example, you may already know that it is some thing you want to stop doing, but it’s helpful to go through this assessment process). Instead of putting all of your attention on how good the donut tastes as you’re eating it, you’ll need to also use your attention to notice the after-affects of eating it.  

Have you ever had the experience of feeling like someone really ‘gets you’?   This can take various forms - like being able to share what’s on our mind and the other person holding space for us to explain. It can also be reflected in their ability to mirror back what we are saying with their own words.  When I hear people talk about this experience, it often involves some form of dialogue.   But there are levels of this experience that are non verbal and that began a long time ago in preverbal forms. Many of us rely on talking to co-regulate and attempt to be understood. But it’s important for us to understand all of the signals, sensations and frequencies that occur underneath, before and beyond what we are actually saying.   Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes Listen on Blubrry   The tricky thing is that most of us aren't aware enough of how we move our body, eyes and face in ways that are based on our past experiences and that don't help us get what we really want from our relationships.   These signals are part of our social nervous system. This system allows us to display signals to others that allow them to understand our internal experiences, and for us to know what another's internal state and intended action is towards us.  Without these mechanisms for transmitting and receiving these signals, we would miss out on information that is critical for our survival.   There are so many ways that our brain-body system uses to portray what we are feeling inside to the external world.  It does this by creating audible, visible and mechanical signals so that someone else can hear, see and sense what might be going on for us.   There are 6 aspects of this social frequency feedback system that I’ve integrated into a framework that has emerged from the years of work I’ve done in terms of: * measuring internal body and brain states (through heart rate variability, brainwaves, facial muscle movement and skin conductance), * neurocognitive testing (such as emotional bias), * behavioral observations of clients and patients who are having mental health, interpersonal and personal life challenges.  I’m combining this with perspectives from several additional researchers (papers listed below).  I go into each of these in detail in today’s podcast episode, but here is an overview:   Signal Seeking & Expression: This is where we use the complex machinery of our facial muscles, eyes and voice to display and detect extraordinarily subtle signals that point to our internal state and intended action.   The tiny, lightning fast movement of our eyes towards specific features in another  The movement of facial muscles (such as tiny muscles around our nose that can indicate disgust. These muscles can activate not just in terms of disgust at rotting food, but also in terms of moral disgust towards people we stereotype - see Lasana Harris’ work on this - I was one of his research assistants at NYU).https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/experimental-psychology/person/lasana-harris/ The movement of muscles that change the frequency of our voice in accordance with our internal state and intended action The movement of our eardrums in parallel with our eye gaze (our eardrums move in the opposite direction of where our eyes have shifted)   

Why do systems fall apart or become dysfunctional? A system can be a family, relationship, community, business, organization, society.  The human mind-brain-body is also a system. One reason dysfunction can happen is related to hierarchy and ‘signal flow’. Let’s go into both of these ideas.   Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes Listen on Blubrry Listen on YouTube   Hierarchies exist throughout nature and throughout human society. They are something that occur because of their ability to coordinate communication and signals from lower or small subsystems to a higher level that can interact with all the subsystems, either directly or indirectly.    An example of this is the brain.  It acts as a command center that receives and coordinates all the signals of the subsystems, such as the cells and organs, that make up the human organism.  If the cells and organs weren’t able to communicate with a higher order system, there would be no coherence or organization around a central goal.   A system needs a unified goal for all the subsystems to work towards.     This higher level of ‘command’ creates a hierarchy.  This hierarchical structure has nothing to do with which system has more rights or power, it is only to serve as a mechanism for signal flow for the subsystems.  The goal of the higher level of a hierarchy is to help with the optimal functioning of the subsystems so that they can do their job - whatever that may be.  The goal of the subsystems is to serve the goal of the entire system as a whole.  In the brain, the command features are closely tied to the frontal areas of the brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex.   Hierarchies are best able to serve the system when there is efficient signal flow from subsystems to the higher levels and vice versa.   We can see dysfunction happen when the highest levels of a hierarchy are not serving the goals of the entire system have communication channels dominated by a specific subgroup/subsystem  are blocking or suppressing efficient communication and signal flow from the subsystems   An example of this often gets reflected in businesses and other organizations. This can take the form of a CEO serving only his bank account and that of his family, to the neglect of the goals of the employees - which could include their personal wellbeing, optimal brain-body functioning and psychological safety.     System suboptimization can also happen  if only one subgroup or subsystem dominates the communication channels to the central command nodes.  This can also appear in the brain as hypercoherent brainwave activity between specific subnetworks, but to the detriment of efficient communication with other networks.   In human society, the other thing that occurs alongside system suboptimization is that as a system’s signal flow becomes dysfunctional, the splits and divides between the subgroups can also become more clear.   This is because the communication patterns within subsystems are always denser and more frequent than the communication patterns betw...

To have an impact on others, what matters is: can you connect with what a person is experiencing in a way where you will be able to find words to convey to them that you understand?   And then.. Can you, through an integration of your own self-understanding, utter words and express gestures that help that person see themselves in a new light?     Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes Listen on Blubrry Listen on YouTube   Can you find ways to exchange information with others that help them feel more connected to their own strength, resilience, power, intelligence and ability to make new choices, and achieve their desired experiences?   In my decade of doing that work - of helping people shift into a higher level of self-awareness and self-understanding…  I have not yet experienced that explaining a specific brain region is what creates the shift.     What I have experienced in helping people see a situation differently or feel relief from their anxiety is when I take my understanding of how our mind-brain-body system develops over time and connect it to what I hear them express about their own experience.   This understanding is a deeply entangled mix of feelings, memories, aha moments, uttering of words, seeing a ‘light’ shine in someone’s eyes, and hearing them say to me something that expresses a new awareness, a feeling of relief, a deeper knowing of who they truly are underneath the fear and the doubt and the negative beliefs they have accumulated over time.     There is no ‘brain region’ that does that.  We are too complex to reduce our experience to an area of the brain.  It’s great to know about these regions - they all contribute to an overall understanding.  And that is important work that I appreciate so many scientists are involved with.   But it’s not the work that I dedicate myself to.   We are each like specialized cells of a giant organ..  That ‘organ’ is the collective body of intelligence of the human species and its ability to not only adapt at extremely fast rates to its environment, but its ability to share knowledge and new levels of understanding with each other.  That ability to communicate new understandings is what has helped - and will help - all of us to get better and better at creating desirable experiences for ourselves, for us collectively, and for the planet.   As specialized cells within this organ of humanity, we each have unique histories that give us the opportunity to share custom-made, never- seen-before knowledge with each other.     What I hope to do in this lifetime - through my podcast and my content - is to help you understand yourself and why you behave, react and feel the way you do so that you can get better and better at behaving, reacting and feeling the way you want to.    In this podcast episode, I talk about something called ‘shifting the burden’.  It’s about the topic of what we depend on ourselves for, and what we look to others to help us with.  The balance of our dependence on ourselves and others - whether in adaptive or maladaptive ways - is based on our first experiences with depending on someone else.   Many of us simply don’t know how deeply emotional of a subject this is.  It is one of our most primitive,

Normal is based on historical data. It’s based on what has happened the most often in the past. Our past ‘normal’ can make it easy to not question if there is more that’s possible in terms of wellbeing and a deeper sense of meaning for our life. But what we really, truly, deeply need to understand is that the ‘normal mode’ of consuming and doing the same combination of movements day after day without challenging our brain-body to higher and higher levels of creation and exploration is not NATURAL.

We are: COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS. Our NATURE is to adapt to ever-changing, increasingly difficult and complex situations that involve other complex systems so that our adaptive problem-solving faculties become more honed and finely tuned.  Many of our behaviors and patterns are blocking us from tapping into our most natural abilities.

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When we focus on trying to 'fix' dysregulation without acknowledging how it emerged, we are conveying a message that somehow the anxiety or overreaction just ‘appeared’ because of an imbalance in their brain and that distress, dysregulation and anxiety are an isolated problem about that individual.  Treating the brain in isolation not only sends a disempowering message to the person experiencing challenges, it's also neurologically inaccurate. The ability to self-soothe is not genetically programmed to just ‘happen’ without the right conditions.  Our ability to self-regulate comes from social feedback systems that help us build our self-regulating circuitry.    

  What a person sees  “depends both upon what he looks at and also upon what his previous visual-conception experience has taught him to see.”   ― Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions     Listen on Blubrry Listen on iTunes  Listen on Spotify   What we see depends on what we look at.    What we look at depends on our previous experiences.      Our previous experiences create a field of vision.      This field of vision is always limited.  Always.  There is no possibility that we can be aware of everything.  This would overwhelm our system to a point of collapse because it would not be able to process every single quanta of information that enters our senses.   Our field of vision is therefore always incomplete and imperfect.  This concept is what Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon calls ‘bounded rationality’.*   Our first experiences with our families create the experience-dependent prediction networks in our brain.     These prediction networks act like a dial that zooms in our attention according to what we already predict or assume.     It then focuses our attention on that and blurs out the rest.      This is what is happening in terms of how we even ‘see’ physical matter.  Matter is made up of blinking electron clouds of potential that flash in and out of existence.  Yet we can’t ‘see’ this when we look at our hand or a chair.     Our brain has to dull out and blur massive amounts of information to make sense of what we see.   This doesn’t mean that the data in the form of waves and particles isn’t there right in front of us.  We just can’t see it. In the same sense, this happens to us as we navigate our social worlds. Our brain prioritizes information in this way:   Threat Goals Strong emotion   This is important for us to understand because it means that the focusing mechanism of our ‘beam of awareness’ will be first geared toward figuring out what will hurt us (and when it think it’s ‘found’ the threat, it will blur out all other information).      If our system then does not detect threat, it can look towards what will help it achieve its goals.  From a social level this also means that we often see people as either pathways to our goal or obstacles in the way.     Strong emotions become the next target of our focusing mechanism (beam of awareness).  Social media capitalizes on all three of the above.    The algorithms naturally pick up on the highest priority of our nervous system because that’s what we click on and share the most.       This is what I also see happening in many of the human social experiences that are occurring today.     We each believe we are seeing the whole picture.     But we are imperfect humans with imperfect information.   Always…. This can’t be disputed from a molecular, neurobiological perspective!   This means that there is always room for more information to flow into our awareness.     There is always another perspective.     The more different that perspective is from what you already think, the better.     Why?  Because if you continue to keep your focus on wha...

The human species has some pretty spectacular systems built into us to achieve mental, emotional and physiological states that most of us are not even really aware of. 

We also have systems and features within us that make us very vulnerable to being influenced and 'programmed' into behavior that is not reflective of our most evolved neural circuitry.

Technology is interfering with and manipulating those systems. 

And the more we get to know how technology is interfering with those systems, the more we can get control over our internal state rather than let the tech companies (who do not have the best interests of the human brain and nervous system in mind) hack into our vulnerabilities.  

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What do a viral video and a stampede of animals have in common? It's a mechanism that is also related to 'self-fulfilling prophecies', self-beliefs, anxiety and negative thinking in general. It has to do with something called 'positive feedback'. This is not verbal commentary, like 'you're doing a great job!' Positive feedback is something that enhances or amplifies an effect. In a stampede of animals, the abrupt movement and running of one animal gets detected by another, and another, and this effect continue to amplify until a stampede occurs. Something similar can happen to a person in certain cases of anxiety. In some cases, a person may have hyper-interoceptive awareness. This means that they are very aware of fluctuations within their body, including their heart rate. their interpretation of these sensations may lead them to think something is wrong, that their body is not 'supposed' to do that. Having this type of interpretation then creates a feedback loop of anxiety about what is wrong, which can lead to for example, a faster heart beat, which then leads to more anxiety. Something that can have a balancing or correcting effect on a positive feedback loop is 'negative feedback'. In the case of someone who may become anxious due to their heart beating fast (as an example), a negative feedback could include introducing thoughts that the body is doing something adaptive or beneficial. A faster beating heart can also mean we are excited, engaged, alert and feeling alive. I also talk about this idea of 're-appraising physiological signals' in my Neuroscience of Bravery Video In this episode, we cover how positive feedback loops might be causing us challenges in our thinking, and what we can do to try to interrupt these feedback loops so we can feel more regulated and resilient. References Oliver Cameron - Visceral Sensory Neuroscience  Donella Meadows - Systems Change Santa Fe Institute - Complexity Podcast Laurence Gonzales - Surviving Survival University of Wisconsin Madison study on negative interpretation of stress

One of the most complex adaptive systems we know of is the brain*.  When we are trying to understand a complex system, one of the most important things for us to think about is its function.  One of the main functions of the mind-brain-body’s main is to make predictions.  It does this by using our past to make assumptions about what’s happening now.  Another word for these ‘assumptions’ are ‘predictive models’. The mind-brain-body creates predictive models by taking snippets of information and then creating models that it uses to predict lots of things without needing to have all the information of everything it comes across.  it would be way less efficient if it had to analyze everything in order to understand it.   These predictive models affect our relationships, behaviors, and even our emotional well-being. One way these predictive models influence our relationships and how we interact with people is that they prevent you from seeing people as they actually are.  Instead, you're seeing them through your model - or paradigm -  that's built from your history.  

 Everything you perceive with your senses, you perceive through a filter that was built in your past. Each one of us has built up neural networks and sensory thresholds that are unique to us, and our mind-brain-body uses our past to create 'predictive models' about how the world works.  What people's intentions are, what things and people are appealing or repulsive to us.    Our brain filters information in a way that 'fits' with what it predicts.   This can make us become very repetitive, tied to our past and not able to see new opportunities or explanations to things. These models are influenced by our first encounters with a very small group of people who see over and over again.  And these models are also influenced by our culture and the subcultures we are a part of. When we try to predict or understand human problems and behaviors without thinking about all of these other systems that influence us, we are distorting the 'lens' we look through.  We aren't getting the bigger picture. This 'lens' we look through is another word for 'paradigm'. The latin roots of the word paradigm are to 'show beside'.  Or 'show side by side'.     Sometimes we don't realize how much we are missing from what we perceive until we are shown a contrast or a new, or higher, wider, bigger perspective. In Season 2, we are going to look more deeply into the idea of what paradigms or lenses are dominant in our world and in our lives, and how these influence our choices and interactions.    In Episode 1, we'll go into the idea of 'Systems Thinking', which is a paradigm shift from a world view that has dominated science and much of the ways we try to make improvements to things like education or within organizations - often without much success, because we are using a framework that doesn't actually make much sense when we are dealing with something as complex as human beings.

“What matters is not how things are, but how they interact.“ – Carlo Rovelli, theoretical physicist, in his book, Reality is Not What It Seems ​​​​​Relationships are the key to building our most powerful mind. Our relationships with others build up beliefs, ‘cellular memory’, and neural networks that can help our brains become their most ‘human’: adaptive, resilient, creative, brilliant.   When relationships are absent, neglectful or abusive, they can block block us from accessing brain circuitry that makes us most human.   clay-27368-unsplash.jpg?ssl=1"> In the final episode of Season 1, I re-cap the 5 key takeaways of the previous 11 episodes: #1 Trust & authenticity first. I give you a ‘sneak preview’ of some of the topics I’m covering in season 2, such as ‘neural synchrony’ and how we can ‘be on the same wavelength -literally – with someone else #2 Don’t just focus on the brain. “Peak experiences” enhance learning. I explain how. #3 Be in a constant state of learning and leaving your comfort zone. #4 Don’t get stuck on catchphrases.  If you’re explaining how to ‘celebrate mistakes’, you need to experiment and become a beginner again to know how to authentically model this to others. #5 Conditions and environment matter. I give you a tiny review of sound and acoustics, as well as play and other factors that lower defensiveness and boost openness to learning. ​​​​​​​ Pan, Y., Dikker, S., Goldstein, P., Zhu, Y., Yang, C., & Hu, Y. (under review). Instructor-learner brain coupling discriminates between instructional approaches and predicts learning. bioRxiv, 704239. *Go to Suzanne Dikker’s site for incredible research and projects related to social neuroscience The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath The Blue Zones of Happiness by Dan Buettner berlin.mpg.de/research/research-centers/lip/projects/ibsm">Interactive Brains, Social Minds – Caroline Szymanski with the Max Planck Institute for Human Development

No two people ever experience reality in the same way: our senses and neural architecture are built up by our own lifetime of unique experiences. Our brain and senses are constantly narrowing down our world. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: if...

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Most growth mindset interventions don’t work because they focus on: changing ‘other people’s’ attitudes rather than on the mindset of the person who is teaching or leading catchphrases & posters rather than relationship & trust specific results, like improving standardized test scores* *this is literally the...

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In order to teach growth mindset, we need to be sure it’s coming from an authentic place. It seems that much growth mindset teaching is focused on changing the attitudes of others’, rather than looking at how we internalize and model it ourselves. The good news is that we can learn and become more authentic, and in this episodes you’ll hear processes to help you achieve this, in turn, becoming a more effective teacher and being better received. Topics covered: – Concept of authenticity and its importance when teaching growth mindset – Processes for becoming more authentic – Importance of consistent movements and micromovents – Equine therapy – Biosignals and how people can detect the signals we emit – What’s missing from growth mindset teaching – Biofeedback that comes with being authentic The bottom line: Experiment. Experiment. Experiment. If you are asking people to be more brave and make mistakes and push themselves to learn, are you? Become a beginner again – in anything – and feel what it feels like to be self-conscious, fumble and be awkward and vulnerable.  Notice how it feels, and what you need to say to yourself to get through it.  Then when you talk to people about growth mindset, they’ll feel your sincerity. Your words will be more natural.  .  And you likely won’t need to rely on someone else’s catchphrases or research to talk about what its like to build a new ‘muscle’ and push through the dip. https://art19.com/shows/akimbo

Have you ever had a misunderstanding over text?  Maybe you texted someone and they didn’t reply right away.. or their answer left you feeling rejected or frustrated? Do you know why you feel the urge to put an exclamation mark or emoji next to your words? (hint: it has to do with how you use your vocal chords/folds in real life) Why is that having more “friends” on facebook doesn’t actually make us feel more loved? media.jpg?ssl=1"> As mammals, our nervous system is physically wired to connect – in the flesh – with others.   There are tiny, ‘biological movements’ that we detect and project when we’re with someone. Digital communication simply cannot keep up with how mind-blowingly sophisticated this ‘social connection system’ is – no matter how hard it tries. In fact… we need these specific ‘hard-wired’ things to feel satiated from an interaction (some of them have to do with what we do with our voice) that we try really hard to put into digital form, but it just doesn’t do the trick. So the more time we spend trying to socialize on a screen, the more we hunger for something else, and never quite feel ‘full’. media-2.jpg?ssl=1"> And it’s that very feeling of hunger and emptiness that leads to addiction to technology.  The mechanisms of addiction are so similar to chemical and substance addictions, it’s scary. And it’s what app makers and social media giants depend on. They must keep us addicted in order to survive.  And they know how the human brain gets wired up for addiction. And they use that knowledge to make sure we stay hungry so that we come back for more. What does this have to do with learning? Not using our most evolved biological systems for in-the-flesh connection keeps us in a mild to moderate state of anxiety because it is depriving us of our needed hormones and ‘vagus nerve activity’ that helps us co-regulate (helps our heart’s pacemaker slow our heart rate and allows for blood flow to our digestive organs).  Depriving ourselves of this overwhelms our sympathetic nervous system, and causes a variety of negative consequences. As we’ve seen in previous episodes, the physiological state of ‘safety’ MUST BE there or the brain will not be able to access what it needs to learn. So it’s more important than ever to understand and be aware of tactics that media and technology companies are using to make people addicted to their products, and how to protect our minds from being hypnotized by toxic media addiction. #evolveyourbrain #humanetech #tristanharris Topics covered: – What keeps us in a fear-based state and how media affects our view of the world – How attempting to create connections through technology keeps us in a state of mobilization and defensiveness – Tactics used by media & tech companies to keep us addicted to their products and platforms – Controlling your social media usage – The attention economy – How to talk to teens about technology addiction in a way that they’ll actually listen – Why it’s a positive thing for adolescents to question authority – Consequences when our autonomic nervous system is constantly overwhelmed by our sympathetic nervous system – How ‘toxic media’ creates addictive behaviour Links: Tristan Harris – Time Well Spent CBS news – Hooked on Phones

Earlier studies on fixed vs growth mindset reveal how we build bias and stereotypes. The original wording used by Carol Dweck and colleagues before they popularized ‘fixed versus growth mindset’ was ‘entity’ versus ‘incremental’ mindsets. Dweck’s research (included the idea that children are “theory theorists” – they begin building theories very early on about why something is the way it is. What she found with these young theorists was fascinating.  When researchers used ‘generic language’, which consisted mainly of talking about groups using plural nouns and adjectives, versus non-generic, or individuated, statements, the children made very different inferences. For example, when children were primed with the statement that “dolphins (plural) have fat under their bellies”, they theorized that the fat must be innate or functional.  So they would say “it must be because it helps dolphins float”, or “the fat keeps them warm” But if they got a non-generic, or individuated statement: “that dolphin has fat under her belly”, they would attribute it to something that particular dolphin did (not the species as a whole). So they would say “she must have eaten too much”. It’s hard for humans to not stereotype… The origin of stereotyping comes from early childhood, where we absorb a lot of ‘generic’ language. For example, over 40% of the words we hear before the age of six are  generic category-type statements, that start with generalized groupings like “boys are ___,”, or “kids don’t __”, etc.  This is helpful for our young brains to navigate the world more easily, but the issue is that if we don’t also get exposed to highly diverse data, and personalized encounters from many different types of people, this generalizing leads to what is called ‘essentialist’ thinking: that groups of people are homogeneous and invariant.     The problem with generic language: Research has shown that when people conceptions-of-race-and-the-motivation-to-cross-racial-boundaries.pdf">are primed with essentialist statements, like ‘scientists prove the genetic underpinnings of intelligence’, they are less likely to protest inequality.  Because in that paradigm, ‘nothing can be done for ‘those people’. Stanford’s neurological sciences professor Robert Sapolsky also emphasizes the importance of using non-generic language. In his book, Behave, he shares studies that show that when people are primed with words to make groups of people homogenous and ‘invariant’, they are more likely to be ok with inequality/ “Focus on the larger, shared goals. Practice perspective-taking. Individuate, individuate, individuate.”   This means, we need to be conscisouly aware of when and how much we are using generic language. We need to notice if we are saying “those people”, or “they” – and ask ourselves if what we say about a group is really, truly valid for every single person in that group. If it’s not,

    Sound may be the most important sense we have for learning as well as for detecting others emotions. The human ability to hear ‘just noticeable differences’ is significantly more powerful than what our eyes are able to detect...

The post Season 1 Episode 6 – The importance of sound and how it affects our wellbeing appeared first on Stefanie Faye.

Self-regulation requires special features of the brain that make us truly human: controlled, intentional and socially harmonious.  We are born to develop these skills - but we need to learn how to do this. Humans have a remarkable capacity to deliberately control their internal state.  It's not a skill that any other species has - and one that most of us don't really know how to do, but it can be developed.  How? By getting to know the autonomic nervous system, the vagus nerve and something called 'interoception': all three of which will make you better at noticing what our body and senses are constantly telling us.  Doing this helps us use more of the human features of the brain to keep us calm and in control.  In this episode, we'll move our focus away from the 'mental' and psychology-based idea of emotions, and move back into our body and senses to find out how we can have more control over our behaviors.

In this episode, we look at how neuroscience can help us develop a sense of 'Purpose': 1) That people are mainly reacting to life unconsciously (not 'on purpose').  Understanding this helps us get to the root of our issues, instead of repeating our reactions over and over again. 2) We can do more things 'on purpose':  by strengthening our prefrontal cortex, we can have more control over our reactions and behaviors. 3) How to tune in to a sense of purpose - the feeling that we know why we are here and what we are 'meant to do'. Topics covered: - A neuroscience explanation of the concept of purpose. - Methods and rituals we can use to have more control over our behavior and impulses. - Executive functioning skills. - Mindfulness and meditation. - Why we numb and distract ourselves, being uncomfortable to sit and go into our own thoughts. - Importance of expressing our uniqueness in a way that has value.

There's a lot of 'old science' out there. Stuff we humans used to believe that has been de-bunked. Things like...   'humans are more complex than other species, which means we have more genes.' Before the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, humans were estimated as having around 100,000 genes - more than any other species. Nope.  Turns out we only have between 20,000-25,000 genes. A tiny moss plant actually beats humans with 10,000 more genes than we do.  The sponge genome contains 18,000 genes, many of which are similar to people. In fact, humans and sponges share around 70 percent of their DNA. Previous generations simply did not have the same science and understanding of genes that we have now. They didn't know how much environment plays a role. "Genetic destiny" or determinism - the belief that we get what we get when we're born, and this will dictate the rest of our life... this is a belief that older generations had.    They were wrong. This includes our belief about the destiny of the brain.  In this episode, you'll find out the other two outdated systems most of us keep using that is holding us back from creating the change we hope to see. [Bonus: here's an extra science update that most people don't talk about: ALMOST ALL DINOSAURS were probably covered in feathers. The point?  We need to stay on our toes and make sure we don't keep passing on outdated thinking to the next generation :-) :-) ]

"It's not merely that we can't be loving or creative when we're scared; we can't heal." -Stephen Porges In order for us to access our most evolved neural and behavioral resources, we must be in a state of physiological and psychological safety. We'll explore this idea through the lens of something called the the Polyvagal Theory and the Social Engagement System.  This highly evolved system has to do with the 10th cranial nerve called the Vagus Nerve.  As soon as we move into a state of vigilance or defensiveness, we have less access to this very evolved system.  Understanding the Social Engagement System and the Vagus Nerve can help us do three key things: 1) regulate our own internal state, 2) have a better understanding of what other peoples triggers are and how to help them regulate themselves; and 3) create conditions that nurture the social engagement system and increase the chances that are more evolved systems can come online in a given moment. 

In this revised first episode, we'll look at why fixed mindset is 'neurologically inaccurate', how our experiences build brain architecture, and two types of neuroplasticity that can help us re-program our behaviors We'll also see how struggle and failure spark powerful and creative changes in the brain why celebrating 'grit' and effort can be a bad idea. One of the most important ideas that anyone can bring into any learning environment is to help people recognize their capacity to learn. Simply because they are human. Simply because of the architecture of the human brain, they are capable of developing new adaptations and flexible ways of achieving their goals. And that is really what intelligence and learning is all about.