Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

Apr 13, 2023

00:34:06

Our next guest became the first legally blind D1 athlete to play in a game when he played football at Tulane University. He was named team captain and went on to become an NFL free agent. Now he helps organizations and teams create leadership strategies that overcome adversity through speeches, workshops, and strategic partnerships.

Watch this inspiring interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/sPFQCn3VvJw

On today’s Episode #283 we will cover

✔ How Aaron Golub became the first legally blind D1 athlete to play in a game when he played football at Tulane University.

✔ The key take-aways from Aaron's TEDx, on “Finding Diamonds with Your Disadvantages” that led him to uncovering his true potential.

✔ When Aaron knew he needed to step up and do a bit more than the person next to him, to reach those higher levels of success.

✔ The actions Aaron took with football, that have now transferred into his personal and business life.

✔ How you can reach Aaron to speak or work with your organization.

I am honored to have this chance to speak with someone who has learned many of the concepts we talk about on the podcast, like building a vision, and carving out a happy, fulfilled life, all without the use of his eye-sight.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use for immediate results, with our brain in mind. I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is to our everyday life and results using the most current brain research. If there’s a tool, strategy or resource that I find, that could be helpful to improve productivity and results, whether we are a teacher in the classroom, a coach or in the modern workplace, I will share it here.

He started his journey as a speaker in high school. Aaron was asked to go on Good Morning America when he committed to play football at Tulane, he knew immediately that he had a message that would impact millions. This experience threw him in the deep end at 17 years old. Since then he has traveled the world sharing his message.

Aaron leaves organizations and teams with both strategies to create true change but also with impactful insights that will allow them to rethink their past beliefs. Aaron is never one and done, he is there by your side to help you implement and act accordingly.

He works in a speaking, workshop, and consulting manor. Whether you want Aaron to come in for a keynote, breakout sessions, day-long workshop, or longer-term consulting, he has a structure for all.

Aaron’s biggest accomplishment and what he is most proud of is when he was named a team captain of the Tulane Football Team and went on to become an NFL free agent.

Successful organizations and companies like Pinterest, Deloitte, PlayFly Sports, Evolution Mining, and many other events and teams invest in him regularly.

He has appeared on Good Morning America, as well has been in CBS, NBC, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Entrepreneur, NPR and many others.

When I first came across Aaron’s work, I think it was by accident, as I might have been on an email list for the work that he does. It didn’t take me a minute to read what he’s accomplished in his life to write back to him that I was hoping I could have him on our podcast.

Then I listened to his TEDx, on “Finding Diamonds with Your Disadvantages” and saw that this young man was LIVING many of the practices and principles that we write about on this podcast. He even quoted the quote I opened the last episode with that “we must be willing to do things that others aren't willing to do.” We set up a call to speak, so I could learn more about him, and see if he would be open to sharing his story for those who tune into our show, to see how he’s been able to overcome adversity, how he did it, and what would could learn from his life’s story.

I also want to let listeners know that if they find Aaron’s message as unique and helpful as I have, that I’ll include his website, so you can reach out to him, to see if Aaron could work directly with your team or organization. He’s nothing short of amazing: inspirational, motivational and creative and innovative.

Let’s meet Aaron Golub, and see what we can learn about overcoming adversity in our daily life.

Welcome Aaron, thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing your unique and inspiring life story with us.

To start off with, I think it’s true that in life there are no such thing as accidents. I think you agree with me on this one after I listened to you speak. Your TEDx is about finding diamonds with your disadvantages. I thought about this for some time this morning while hiking…

I do think that your story (that’s already reached millions) is one that should be heard by as many people as possible, so thank you again for coming on the podcast and spending some time with me here.

Q1: I saw something you posted on Twitter as I was looking to learn more about you, and you have a post there that outlines your story and you say “growing up I wasn’t athletic or confident.” Can you start with what life was like?

Q1B: What is long-snapping and how did you play football without full eye-sight?

Q2: At what point had you had enough of the challenges you face? How did you get to the point where you learned to see the diamonds where most people could only see the disadvantages? I know this took time…

Q3: Life is difficult for all of us. Most people run into some sort of huge life challenge at some point. You’ve learned specific strategies for overcoming adversity. Can you share what they were?

Q3B: Where did your courage or sense of self come from?

Q4: So as you began playing football in high school, trying to find your place, what was that like, and when did you notice that you still needed something else that would come from you to reach higher levels of success with your sport?

Q5: I thought your strategy of cold calling EVERY college coach in the country was brilliant. Probably because I’ve spent years in sales, and no one likes cold calling, but it’s another difficult task that takes you to places where the diamonds are, where most others will give up. I want to know how you did this? Did you just get a list of D1 schools, and then look up the coaches and then call them? What did you say?

Q6. When did you learn to stop looking at challenges through the eyes of being a victim, and that the world is out to get you, and start thinking that things in life happen for you, not to you?

Q6B: You definitely didn’t just rise to the top without having to face more adversity and challenge, right? You were ranked as one of the top players in MA, and then what happened?

Q7: So now you’ve found the team that’s the best fit for you, and you had an overturn with the coaching staff and you had to do something else that most people wouldn’t want to do. You had to have that difficult conversation of “are you going to give me a shot?” How did that conversation go?

Q8: Was there a time when things shifted and it was almost like you looked back and things became easier for you? The challenges that you face on a daily basis just seem like things you can handle?

Q9: At what point did you start going into companies and organizations to help others overcome adversity and challenge?

Q10: What’s a message you want people to take away from today?

Q11: If someone hears this, and would like to contact you to work with their organization, what’s the best way?

FOLLLOW AARON GOLUB

Website https://aarongolub.com/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCchzgREz-wfcjD0gmwkuTEQ

Twitter https://twitter.com/aaronjgolub?utm_source=hoobe&utm_medium=social

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-golub-33b22aa8/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aaronjgolub/?hl=en

Aaron’s TEDx “A Diamond in Your Disadvantages” April 4, 2022 https://www.google.com/search?q=aaron+golub&oq=aaron+golub&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i13i512j0i13i512l2j46i13i512j0i13i512j0i22i30l4.2349j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:dc6399b3,vid:o75LnVDXayc

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://powercoupleseducation.com

Apr 06, 2023

01:25:52

“Each emotional system is hierarchically arranged throughout much of the brain, interacting with more evolved cognitive structures in the higher reaches, and specific physiological and motor outputs at lower levels.” Jaak Panksepp

Watch our interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/siJ1FUeUD40

On today’s Episode #282 we will cover

✔ How Gabrielle Usatynski's NEW book The Power Couple Formula, Applies Jaak Panksepp's 7 Core Emotions to Transform Your Relationships, Family, Career and Life.

✔ What We Should All Know About The Attachment Theory.

✔ A Deep Dive into Each of the 7 Core Emotions and How They Map in the Brain.

On today’s episode #282, we will be speaking with an important guest, who reached out to me shortly after we released EPISODE #270 with Lucy Biven[i] who co-authored The Archeology of Mind, with Jaak Panksepp. She let me know she was a couple’s therapist, educator and an author, with a new book coming out next month and was amazed to see our episode with Lucy Biven, as she cites The Archeology of Mind on nearly every page of her new book, The Power Couple Formula: Unlock the Power of Your Instincts and Transform Your Relationship. She even mentioned that a colleague of Dr. Panksepp, Dr. Doug Watt, was currently reviewing her manuscript to offer his guidance on the subject.

When this email came through, I was taking a short break from interviews, gathering my bearings with a tight schedule, but when I saw this email, I knew I had to learn more about our next guest, Gabrielle Usatynski, and her new book, the Power Couple Formula.

We met briefly to chat, and I’ve got to say that we could have recorded that conversation. She spoke eloquently about her background as a therapist, and the history of our emotions. I couldn’t take notes fast enough, but saw that not only does Gabrielle understand Jaak Panksepp’s work (that many find to be difficult) but she could explain it in a way that made sense to me, with examples of how to each of the core emotions.

A bit about Gabrielle:

BIO:

Gabrielle Usatynski, MA LPC is the founder and director of Power Couples Education. An internationally renowned therapist, speaker and educator, she is the author of the forthcoming book, The Power Couple Formula, scheduled for release this year. She is the originator of ground-breaking online programs that help couples build relationships based on safety and trust and offers professional training programs for therapists in the Power Couple Method.

Her work is regularly featured in such publications as CNN, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Parents Magazine, Counseling Today, and Women’s Health.

For over a decade, Gabrielle has helped thousands of couples. Her clinical work has earned her numerous awards, including: the USA Prestige Award for Couples Counseling Service of the Year, the Best of Boulder Award for Couple and Marriage Counseling, and the Top 10 Best Marriage Counselors of Boulder, CO Award.

Gabrielle is a graduate of McGill University and also specializes in the treatment of traumatized children and their families.

So today, we will meet Gabrielle Usatynski, and learn how Jaak Panksepp’s work plays out in our most personal relationships, with tools that we can all use and apply right away.

Welcome Gabrielle, it’s incredible to see you again. Thank you for coming on the podcast to share your knowledge on what many of us would consider a topic that’s not the easiest to explain because most of us are still trying to understand this topic of our emotions and how they play out in our lives, specifically with our relationships. Thank you for being here.

You know I was thrilled to meet you as I just love learning, and making connections, especially when the topic is challenging, or makes you think a bit.

INTRO Q: I wanted to ask you first, before diving into your new book, The Power Couple Formula, Why did you write this book, and why did you focus on the work of Dr. Panksepp?"

Q1: I put an image in the show notes of the 7 CORE emotions. Can you explain this chart I put in the show notes, and what Dr. Panksepp discovered about these emotions, that you found to be so important?

Q1B: What did Dr. Panksepp discover about where our emotions reside in the brain?

Q2: Can you orient us to what therapists were taught about our emotions, The Attachment Theory, and how important it is to completely deactivate this system in intimate relationships?

2B: Why should we understand Attachment Theory, and where does Affective Neuroscience come into this understanding?

Q3: How do we use your book as a map, with tools and resource to help us personally, with our family, career, or even with the work we are doing in the world?

When I first saw these 7 core emotions, I actually printed them and put them on my desk to see if I could notice them in my life. In the neuroscience certification course I took, we spent a lot of time on the PLAY system (especially as it relates to learning and our schools) but I wonder if we could take a look at your book, and go through 4 of the 7 action systems? Of course, I’d love to cover them all, but I picked the ones that stuck out to what I would think our listeners would like to dive deeper into.

Q4: I know that the PANIC/GRIEF system is important, especially as you’ve cited Dr. Bruce Perry who we had on the podcast. What are the impacts of early bonding on our physical and mental health?

Q5: What are some tools that could help de-activate panic/grief/rage in our relationships to avoid the conflict that goes along with it?

Q5B: As I was reading through the book, I saw that you have strategies to help ALL of the attachment styles. Wouldn’t it help people to know this BEFORE they marry someone so you can kind of guess how things would pan out during conflict?

Q6: To close out, is there anything important that we haven’t talked about, knowing that we didn’t cover all the core emotions, but to encourage people to read your book, and learn the strategies for ALL of the systems. What have we missed here?

Gabrielle, I want to thank you for coming on the podcast and sharing your new book with us. For people who want to learn more about you and your book, is the best place your website? https://powercoupleseducation.com

Final Thoughts

We opened up this episode with a quote from Dr. Panksepp that said “each emotional system is hierarchically arranged throughout much of the brain, and I think the image I put in the show notes and our YouTube interview clearly shows these 7 core emotions (or our 7 basic needs) that are hard-wired deep within our brain stem, bringing Dr. Panksepp’s quote to life in a way that we can now visualize these core emotions within the deepest, oldest part of our brain.

When I first began to study Dr. Panksepp’s work, I printed these core emotions and put them on my desk, for me to glance at throughout my day, and I wondered how they were showing up for me on a day to day basis. As I’m reflecting on Gabrielle’s book, and our interview, I’m doing so from how I think these core emotions have shown up in my daily life, and for you, it will be different, but I’m hoping that at least I’ve started the ball rolling to have us ALL think about how to take our understanding of ourselves to a deeper level, using Dr. Panksepp’s Core Emotions and Gabrielle’s book, as a map. Gabrielle was very thorough with her research that you will see within each chapter.

I can now see how these 7 core emotions interact with the “more evolved cognitive structures in the higher reaches” of my brain, and this understanding can now help me to see how each emotion I’m feeling, (that’s generated way deep down in the oldest part of my brain) and shows up behind the actions I’m taking. You’ll get a deeper understanding of why you feel a certain way, and why you do the things you do, with this book.

You’ll also get to look at why others close to you, do the things they do, as you begin to match Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory to your most intimate relationships.

What did I notice with each action system?

SEEKING, RAGE/Anger, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC/Sadness, and PLAY.

Seeking: This core emotion is evident with my need to connect with others around the world and this need is about getting more out of life with continual research and learning. While I can’t jump on an airplane and travel to Australia, India, Sweden or South African (at least not this week), and have conversations with curious minds like myself, I can write and release podcast episodes that travel around the world, to you, on my behalf. This kind of helps with this action system and keeps me working, and researching.

I also need to seek others to learn from, and when the research becomes difficult, I can remember what Dr. Zadina[ii] said on our recent episode, where she would find articles that she was interested in first (seeking) and then read them over and over again, gaining more understanding each time.

When you read Ch. 5 in Gabrielle’s book, you can learn how secure seeking develops in relationships, so that you can support your partner with ways that each of you can continue to expand, learn and grow together.

That’s what I learned about the how I interact with the seeking system. What about you? Where do you notice this core emotion of SEEKING plays out in your life?

Rage/Anger: Some people I’ve noticed get angry easily, for different things. My oldest daughter doesn’t like injustice, I don’t like disorder, but the key is to notice what makes this emotion come out in you, and know it’s hard-wired deep in our brain stem, so that when this emotion sets you off, that you find a strategy to help create more space between the stimulus (the thing that you didn’t like) you’re your response to it. I’ve noticed that meditation has helped me be less reactive here.

Chapter 7 of Gabrielle’s book covers the fear system, and Chapter 8 covers the Rage system, and she reminded us in our interview that we want to work towards NOT triggering rage and fear in our relationships. These are both good chapters to review for all of her tools and strategies for de-activating rage.

What about you? Where have you noticed rage/anger come up in your life? Do you have a strategy to bring you some understanding that can help you to de-activate this emotion?

Fear: This emotion is a powerful one to look at. Have you ever thought of your deepest, innermost fears? I remember a program I did years ago, that asked us to look at what we were afraid of, and that to “know our fears” would help us to overcome them, or at least help us to move towards the idea of having “no fear.” I know exactly what I’m afraid of, and it’s there right in front of me daily, and I side-step around it most days, but I see it, whether it’s out of the corner of my eye, or I’m staring directly at it.

Now this isn’t even going into subconscious fears and traumas like Dr. Bruce Perry’s work, this is just looking at what we are consciously aware we are afraid of.

What about you? Have you ever looked at this for yourself? Do you “know” your fears?

I think once we can identify them, then life just becomes easier. There’s no mystery with these fears. I don’t talk about what I’m afraid of, giving them more energy, but I know exactly what they are, and just knowing this, makes me feel that I’m more powerful than these fears. I can step around them, sometimes jump over them, when they come up, not letting them ever stop me from doing the things I want to do in life.

Who doesn’t want to be FEARLESS?

Taylor Swift says it nicely.

Lust: I’m not going to leave this one out, since everyone wants to talk about sex, and it is an important part of our most intimate relationships. Gabrielle covers this topic in Chapter 9 and 10 of her book, and when I was reading these chapters I was actually dying laughing because she made a comparison with sex, to a sport that will identify her as a Canadian. I’m not going to tell you the sport, but you’ll have to read the book to see how she made this comparison. She does say that most problems within relationships are a lack of the care system, they are not sexual.

When reading this chapter, I thought about how right she was that we have to have trust first here, and of the importance of repairing our relationships quickly and often so we don’t trigger the rage, fear of panic/grief circuit.

We’ve covered The Speed of Trust[iii] on past episodes with Stephen Covey who says that “trust is the glue to life” and “the one thing that affects everything else you’re doing.” Gabrielle mentioned that this system requires CARE that she outlines as commitment, availability, relief and empathy.

While we all know this core emotion is important, I wonder what Dr. Panksepp would say about other ways we can use this energy? If he were here, I’d ask him about Napoleon Hill’s Chapter on Sex Transmutation that we covered on EPISODE 195[iv] where Napoleon Hill, in his famous book, Think and Grow Rich, talks about how this powerful force can be “transmuted or transferred from one form of energy to another” which is a way of using this force to reach higher levels of achievement.

Care: Gabrielle covers this core emotion in Chapter 4 of her book, explaining why caring feels so good with the release of oxytocin, the bonding hormone and that “when you administer oxytocin to couples, they make more eye contact, are more self-disclosing, validate each other’s feelings more, and show a significant decrease in criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling, Gottman’s four behaviors that predict divorce.” (page 81, The Power Couple Formula).

Looking at this system makes me think about how care existed in my household growing up. Not that I didn’t feel loved, but this system was definitely turned down, as affections weren’t openly discussed or shown, so it’s interesting to see that I want this system dialed up now that I’m raising my own children, and interacting with my husband, and this one is a work in progress for me. The key to understanding these core emotions is to think about how they show up in our life, gain a deeper level of self-awareness, and then find tools and strategies to improve how we show up in our relationships. This is exactly what Gabrielle wrote her book to accomplish.

How does the core emotion of care show up for you? Are you able to easily show those close to you, who you love, that you care about them? If this doesn’t come naturally to you, do you have a strategy in place to dial this emotion up?

Panic/grief/response: Gabrielle covered this system thoroughly on our interview, explaining how it goes off when we are separated from those we love, or care about.

While she does suggest that in our close relationships we should always work on NOT triggering RAGE, FEAR or PANIC/GRIEF by being mindful of what sets these systems off in others, and working on keeping them in the OFF position.

But knowing your attachment style (and your partners’) helps here if you ever are faced with PANIC/GRIEF as it will shape the experiences you will have. Gabrielle covers extensively how each attachment style deals with PANIC/GRIEF.

Do you know how YOU respond to PANIC/GRIEF in your relationships? If you are securely attached, this system rarely goes off. If you are anxiously attached, “you will worry that someone won’t be there for you consistently.” (page 36, The Power Couple). If you are avoidant, you will “have lost touch with unmet needs for connection and security.” (page 36, The Power Couple). Your attachment style will help you to understand yourself better, how quickly you will be able to recover from a breakup or even your ability to be apart from your partner without feeling panic.

Play: This is the emotion I spent the most time learning about when I was first introduced to Dr. Panksepp’s work. Mark Robert Waldman who I took a neuroscience certification course with would have us thinking daily about how we would incorporate play with our work, to make it more enjoyable. When it comes to making neuroscience fun, this core emotion is vital. Or for students in the classroom in our schools, how can we make learning more fun?

My family tells me all the time “you are so serious, lighten up a bit” and I really do try, but I’m also the one who makes sure homework is completed each night, and day to day life stays on track, so I leave this part to others who are better at it than I am.

But who doesn’t want to have more fun every day? I’ve been playing around on the podcast, and working on having fun with interviews, but I’m not the type who will suddenly tell you a joke or something, or break out a fancy wrestling move with my kids which is what science would call “rough and tumble play” that Gabrielle says “reflects millions of years of evolution.” I’ve got some work here to add more fun into my day.

What about you?

Do you have fun with your work? Do you think that play is only for children? Do you think that animals play?

Gabrielle covers this core emotion in Chapter 11 with Five Ways We Can Add Play into Our Relationships. The part I loved the most about this chapter, is that Gabrielle left this core emotion till the end of the book on purpose. Life is full of pressure and stresses and play only works “when its initiated in the absence of acute or chronic stress” (Page 295, The Power Couple Formula).

This is good to think about, as it’s important to be mindful of the stress levels of those around you.

Lucy Biven, co-author of The Archeology of Mind weighs in on the quote I posted at the beginning of this episode. Before releasing this, I wondered if I had a solid grasp of the quote I chose to open up this episode with, so I emailed Lucy Biven, who we interviewed on EPISODE #270 at the start of this year. Here’s as close to Dr. Panksepp as I could get to be sure we’ve got a handle of his 7 core emotions. She wrote:

“As for the quote - The hierarchy that Jaak wrote about was basically from bottom to top of the brain (brainstem to cortex). The hub of all 7 emotional systems is situated in the upper brainstem and in Jaak's view, emotional arousal always generates affective consciousness (emotional feelings). The hierarchy lies in the fact that without emotional arousal/affective consciousness, no consciousness is possible. So the upper brainstem is most important in generating consciousness - it is top of the hierarchy. How do we know that the brainstem is all-important? Tiny lesions so parts of the upper brainstem, specifically the parabrachial nuclei and the periaqueductal gray obliterate consciousness while quite large cortical lesions obliterate components of consciousness (sight, hearing, memory) but not consciousness itself. If my visual cortex were damaged, I would be blind, but I would know who I am, I would know who you are and I would understand my relationship with my children and grandchildren and I would retain everything that I know about neuroscience. In short, nothing else would change. But if I had a bad stroke in my upper brainstem, I would become comatose and vegetative. Everything would be lost.

The idea about the hierarchy from emotion to cognition is this: Emotions evolved in order to solve life problems. Some emotional responses are instinctive - for example, when frightened we freeze and might be overlooked by a predator. Others we learn, for example we discover from experience where the predator frequents and we avoid those places. Since emotional arousal is a precondition for cognition, we think about things that arouse our emotions. For example, if I am smart enough, I might set a trap for the predatory animal, thereby solving my problem for good. So cognition expands and refines emotional problem solving. That is the emotion/cognition hierarchy.

Jaak posited that in the emotion/motor hierarchy, emotions are primary because emotions are inherently linked to motor responses. I am not sure that he expanded on this beyond the observation that electrical (or pharmacological) arousal of emotional systems generates motor responses, like FEAR resulting in freezing or running away (depending on the strength of stimulation.

And with that, I’ll close out this episode on “How to Use Jaak Panksepp’s 7 Core Emotions to Transform Your Relationships, Family, Career and Life” and hope you found this deep dive into Gabrielle’s Power Couple Formula book to be as useful as I have.

I hope that if you print the list of the 7 core emotions, and put them in front of you, while you are working, that you can begin to think about how these emotions show up in your life day to day, and how you can use this understanding to develop stronger, more resilient relationships at home, with your family and in the workplace.”

Have a Happy Easter Weekend, and I’ll see you next week.

CONNECT with GABRIELLE

Gabrielle Usatynski, MA LPC

303-859-1825

https://powercouplescounseling.com

Gabrielle's new book, The Power Couple Formula!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

Attachment Theory: Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Theory Explained By Saul Mcleod, Ph.D. Feb. 8, 2023 https://simplypsychology.org/attachment.html

The 4 Attachment Styles in Your Relationships and How to find Yours by Kelly Gonslaves March 10, 2023 https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/attachment-theory-and-the-4-attachment-styles

The Gottman Institute https://www.gottman.com/

The Four Horseman that can predict the end of a relationship https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-four-horsemen-recognizing-criticism-contempt-defensiveness-and-stonewalling/

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #270 with Lucy Biven https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/lucy-biven/

[ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #280n wit Janet Zadina https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/pioneering-neuroscientist-janet-zadina-reflects-on-her-journey-of-bridging-neuroscience-and-education/

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #207 on The Neuroscience of Trust https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-neuroscience-of-trust/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #195 on “Think and Grow Rich PART 5: The Mystery of Sex Transmutation https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-5-on-the-power-of-the-mastermind-taking-the-mystery-out-of-sex-transmutation-and-linking-all-parts-of-our-mind/

Mar 31, 2023

00:53:31

A Gallup Research Poll Says:

“Unhappiness spiked for a decade, costing over $2 Trillion annually”

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/R8aAFFQeDKY

On today’s episode #281 with Dr. Sullivan will cover:

✔ How to SHIFT our mindset, in 10 minutes, anytime, with Dr. Sean Sullivan's NEW App www.oneperfect.com

✔ How Dr. Sullivan noticed a need for an app to forge a pathway to health and well-being for all of us.

✔ How Dr. Sullivan took his background as a clinical psychologist, and merged it with his work with the Father of Mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn.

✔ Why mental health is not only a part of overall health, it’s the most important part.

✔ How to achieve and maintain a high level of personal performance, happiness and fulfillment in our fast-paced modern world

✔ What we can each do to address the mental health challenges and opportunities we see globally, together

✔ He’ll guide us through shifting into our chosen state of mind on demand during our interview. I’m looking forward to this as prior to recording, I’ve got to say, I could use a mental shift.

✔ Discuss how ‘shifting’ can address mental health issues at scale.

✔ Share how anyone can accelerate a mental fitness revolution so we can all get back to feeling our best.

Today’s guest, Dr. Sean Sullivan, a licensed clinical psychologist and founder and CEO of OnePerfect [i], a mental health and wellness platform that delivers personalized mindset ’shifting’ experiences called Shifts. I’m sure we all know of times when we could use a shift with our mental mindset, whether it’s to reclaim a day that’s gone off track, soothe some stress, boost motivation, or sleep, and shift into a productive mindset with more confidence, or purpose, or even shift our sleep. Dr. Sullivan began his formal psychology education at Harvard University and completed it with a psychology residency at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center and postdoctoral training based at the University of California, San Francisco. He has since been featured extensively in national and international publications including reality-limbix-mental-health.html">The New York Times, Forbes, and Huffington Post, to name a few.

Today Dr. Sean Sullivan will teach us how to shift into a better state of mind, anytime, with something he has developed to solve this Global Unhappiness Problem.

Let’s welcome Dr. Sean Sullivan, and see what we can do to build a future where we can manage our stress, and get the SHIFT we need, when we need it.

Welcome Dr. Sullivan! Thank you for coming on the podcast today.

INTRO Q: Dr. Sullivan, can you give us some of your background, and share what made you think up this idea for a tool that “shifts you to a better state of mind in under 10 minutes, anytime?”

Q1: We launched 2023 and our 9th season of the podcast with an episode that focuses on “Prioritizing our Mental Health in 2023”[ii] Why do you think that mental health is the most important part of our health?

Q1B: If you know that mental health issues run in your family, what do you think we should know?

Q1C: What did you develop and where did your vision for technology come into play?

Q1D: How can we recognize our past triggers, then shift, so we can be free of these blocks?

Q2: What is OnePerfect.com?

Q3: Guide us through shifting into our chosen state of mind on demand during the segment/podcast.

Q4: How important is self-regulation with the work you’ve been doing helping us to “shift quickly?”

Q5: What do you think about where mental health was 20 years ago, versus now? Are the advancements moving us forward, towards a healthier generation?

Q6: What’s your vision for mental and physical health over the next 10 years?

Q7: Is there anything important I’ve missed?

Thank you very much Dr. Sullivan for coming on the podcast (that we will not release until April). Please do let me know the best call to action…

CONNECT AND FOLLOW DR. SULLIVAN

Website https://www.oneperfectshift.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/be_your_purpose

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheMindMaster1

RESOURCES:

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction vs Escitalopram (Lexipro) for the Treatment of Adults with Anxiety Disorders Published 2023 Elizabeth A Hoge, MD, Ph.D, Mihriye Mete Ph.D, et al. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/2798510

What is Attachment Theory: The Importance of Early Emotional Bonds by Kendra Cherry Feb. 22, 2023 https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-attachment-theory-2795337

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://oneperfect.com/

REFERENCES:

[ii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #268 on “Prioritizing Mental Health in 2023”

https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-prioritizing-mental-health-in-2023-improving-self-awareness-and-resilience/

Mar 26, 2023

00:52:00

For today’s EPISODE #280, we will be speaking with a pioneer in the field of educational neuroscience. The book she wrote, Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain covers the years of work she spent speaking to teachers all over the world about how the brain learns and what this means in the classroom. At the time she graduated, she was the ONLY person, so far as she knew, using the term educational neuroscience.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/mU6eGZi6Rng

On today’s Episode #280 we will cover

✔ How Andrea was referred to study Janet Zadina's work back in 2014.

✔ The Impact of Dr. Zadina's Significant Contribution in Academics and Education Over the Years.

✔Janet Zadina's Arduous Pathway Bridging Education and the Brain since the 1980s.

✔ How Dr. Zadina Saw How Neuroimaging Could Help Change the Way We Teach Our Future Generations.

✔ Janet Zadina's Thoughts on Where Educational Neuroscience Began, and Where It's Going.

✔ Tools and Resources for Educators on her website www.brainresearch.us

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use for immediate results, with our brain in mind. I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is to our everyday life and results, using the most current brain research. If there’s a tool, strategy or resource that I find, that could be helpful to improve productivity and results, whether we are a teacher in the classroom, a coach or in the modern workplace, I will share it here.

On today’s episode #280 we will be speaking with someone I was referred to back in 2014, from Jeff Kleck, from EP #246[i]. He was the educator who handed me a bunch of books off his book shelf and urged me to move in the direction of educational neuroscience, to make a bigger impact with my work. He didn’t give me our next guest’s book, (so I figured it must be important to him) but he told me to write down “Dr. Janet Zadina[ii]” and study her.

Now, I don’t ignore anything someone tells me to do, especially if there is learning involved, so I wrote down Dr. Zadina’s name, and immediately followed her work back in 2014. I had no idea at the time that Dr. Zadina was one of THE leaders, spearheading educational neuroscience in the country, before it was even called this, and now fast forward to last September, when Jeff Kleck and I finished our interview, he asked me “Did you ever interview Dr. Janet Zadina?” I just looked at him thinking “How did I miss that?” remembering it was important.

I remembered standing in his office, holding a bunch of books he asked me to read, and then we went to his computer and he pulled up all the FREE resources and most up to date research on Janet Zadina’s website[iii] that he told me to review. It was Dr. Zadina’s work that helped me to begin in this field of educational neuroscience, making the connections to the brain and learning. Today’s guest, Dr. Janet Zadina, we will soon discover, a former high school and college teacher and cognitive neuroscientist whose background, expertise, energy, and humor all took her to international acclaim.

Before we meet Dr. Zadina, I want to share a bit about how she is changing lives with science and strategies.

She’s been said to be "Powerful!" "Engaging!" "Innovative!" "Life Changing!" These are just a few of the words audiences use to describe concepts and presentations by Janet Zadina, Ph.D. who is known for her extraordinary ability to inform, educate, and empower audiences with the scholarly and credible brain research.

She has made such an impact on the academic and education communities that Society for Neuroscience honored her with the prestigious 2011 Science Educator Award. This recognition solidified her reputation as an educator of high credentials making significant contributions to public education and raising awareness of critical issues in the field of educational neuroscience. Through her impactful, powerful, and entertaining presentations and transformational workshops, Dr. Zadina is changing the way teachers, students, and even business professionals understand and utilize the brain.

She’s determined to tear down brain myths and build up lives stemming from her personal experiences with students with dyslexia and their learning struggles. When she learned that a new “window” into the brain was possible with neuroimaging, she knew she had to go back to school and learn neuroscience. She earned a Ph.D. in Education while conducting MRI research on neurodevelopmental language disorders at Tulane Medical School, where she then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience.

She’s the founder and CEO of Brain Research and Instruction, has been honored as a Distinguished Fellow in the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA), among other honors. She is the author of reading and learning textbooks for students as well as professional development books for teachers, including Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain[iv].

I’ve waited a very long time to have this chance to speak with Dr. Zadina. With patience, I knew we would meet someday. I hope you enjoy meeting her, as much as I know I will.

Welcome Dr. Janet Zadina! I can’t believe it was almost 10 years ago that an educator who found your work, passed it onto me and without even knowing it, you sparked something to help me get to where I am today with educational neuroscience at the heart of everything I think about, and do. Isn’t that crazy to think of the impact you’ve had on others around the world?

Where have we reached you today? Are you in New Orleans?

INTRO: Before we get to your questions, I just wonder how many people do you run into who share stories like I did with you, about how learning from you ignited something in them somehow?

Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain

When I first began learning about the brain, I found some of your early TED TALKS and presentations where I started to connect stress and the brain to its impact on our students’ learning in the classroom. What motivated you to transition to speaking primarily about the effects of anxiety, high stress, and trauma on the brain and learning?

What is one take-away for teachers from your work on this topic? In other words, what might be one of the most important things they can do to help with their stress? Do you offer educators any resources they can access other than presentations? I’ll never forget Jeff Kleck showing me all the resources on your website.

Dr. Zadina, it’s been an honor to have you on the podcast today. I’ll be forever grateful that Jeff Kleck referred me to your work all those years ago, and then so happy that we were able to connect to make this interview happen. For people who want to learn more about you, is the best place your website? Thank you for the years of research. I know that many of us are only just scratching the surface with what we are capable of doing with this information.

Thank you so much Janet!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

Dr. Zadina TEDx Enola Using the Brain to Energize School Reform Published on YouTube Feb. 1, 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lzjo5swMmE

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #246 with Jeff kleck on “Using Neuroscience to Inspire Thinkers in Schools, Sports and the Workplace” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/jeff-kleck-on-using-neuroscience-to-inspire-thinkers-in-schools-sport-and-the-workplace/

[ii] Dr. Janet Zadina http://www.brainresearch.us/

[iii] Most up to date research by Dr. Janet Zadina http://www.brainresearch.us/resources.html

[iv] Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain by Janet Nay Zadina http://www.brainresearch.us/order_MPBook.html

Mar 23, 2023

00:20:54

“You must do what others won’t, commit and stay the course.” ― Bob Proctor

On today’s Episode #279 we will cover

✔ Top 6 Strategies Involved on Our End That Took Us to 300k Downloads of the Podcast.

✔ 6 Life-Changing Lessons I've Learned as a Byproduct of this Milestone.

✔ A Huge Thank You to ALL of You Who Listen to This Podcast!

And for this special episode today, that I’m dedicating to YOU, the listener, I’ve got to add a quote that has stuck in my head for years that I heard in one of Bob Proctor’s first cassette training programs, called You Were Born Rich[i] that you can find today on Audible.com. It was from his colleague John Kanary who joined him on stage for the recording of this live seminar that was the FIRST seminar I listened to back in the late 1990s, when my life path crossed with the personal development and seminar industry. John Kanary said “Excellence is a commitment to completion” and I wrote that down, and with time, started to integrate this concept into my daily life by making a pact to always finish what I start.

I started thinking about excellence a bit before writing this episode, and how I always want to put forth my best effort with these podcast episodes, making sure they reflect my best work, with the hopes that the strategies outlined are as useful to you as they have been for me. I know I’ve mentioned this a few times, referencing Brendon Burchard whose version of excellence he calls “prolific quality output.”[ii] Brendon, in his book, High Performance Habits says that “High performers have mastered the art of prolific quality output (PQO). They produce more high quality output than their peers over the long term, and that is how they become more effective, better known, more remembered. They aim their attention and consistent efforts toward PQO and minimize any distractions (including opportunities) that would steal them away from their craft” (Burchard, 2017).

I could reflect on this for a whole month and see something new, useful and important with this idea.

This led me next to civilian astronaut and extreme adventurer, Nik Halik who we featured on an early interview #31[iii] who said:

Who doesn’t want to “personify excellence” on a daily basis? Who doesn’t want to produce more high quality work over the long-term? I’m sure we can all agree that’s why we keep studying, learning and looking to build a stronger, more resilient and improved version of ourselves who is truly capable of consistently producing high quality, excellent work.

But the late John Wooden, an American College Basketball coach and player said it best. He said:

With that thought, I want to welcome you back to a special episode of The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use immediately, with our brain in mind. I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast almost 4 years ago, to share how important an understanding of our brain is, for our everyday life and results.

For today’s episode #279, I want to take a break from our usual Brain Fact Fridays to pause a minute, and reflect back on where we are in this process, and where we are going, after hitting a recent milestone in the podcasting world. As we are approaching our 4th year of the podcast, our 300th episode, (just 19 episodes away) and just hit the 300,000-download marker, I had to step back and take a deep breath to think about what this all means. I know it was Brendon Burchard who talks about the importance of “integrating your wins”[iv] or the important things that happen in your life, and while I remind others to do this all the time, with this milestone, I knew I wasn’t doing it myself. I was getting ready to write an episode on resilience, and have 5 interviews lined up in the next couple of weeks.

When good things happen to you, Brendon reminds us “be sure you integrate those important moments into your heart and life” because this practice will change your identity. He says this is important for people in pursuit of meaningful goals, who are committed to excellence along the way, and says that he sees it all the time with his high-level clients who are working hard over the years towards a specific goal, who have wins over the years, but maybe not the big win that they’ve got their eye on. To add meaning and fulfillment to their daily lives, he highly suggests integrating all of the important moments, at the heart level.

So off I went to think for a minute about what this recent milestone meant to me. How do I feel about this accomplishment? What have I learned from it? Who helped me to achieve it? While it “felt” cool and a bit mind-boggling to think 4 years later, I’m more passionate than ever about this podcast, but I’m now wondering why.

I listened to some other podcast hosts as they reflected back on hitting this milestone themselves, like The EntreMD Podcast[v], with Dr. Una, who shares entrepreneurship strategies for medical doctors. When she hit this milestone, it was right at her 250th episode, (not far from where we are) and this is enough to blow anyone’s mind because if you think about it, from the production side of things, it means that she repeated one action, over 200 times, successfully, that led her to hitting the 300K download marker, and helping millions of people along the way.

“Wow,” I thought, thinking of Dr. Una’s achievement, and then it hit me, “oh wow, that’s what we did” and for the first time, I began to integrate this feeling into my heart. Easy to tell others to do this, not as easy to actually do it myself.

So for today’s EPISODE, as I’m integrating this win into my heart, for a stronger more resilient 2.0 version of myself. Today I’d like to reflect back on how we did this, with the top lessons learned, to see if it can bring some insights into whatever it is you are working on. Just the practice of stopping to integrate a win is a powerful activity to try.

How Did We Reach 300K Downloads of the Podcast? After listening to how Dr. Una did this with her EntreMD Podcast, I had to agree that some of her tips were important for us here as well.

WHAT STRATEGIES DID WE USE TO HIT THE 300K DOWNLOAD MILESTONE?

[vi]

Think and Grow Rich

After thinking about these TIPS for those who create content, or for anyone who wants to take their mission seriously, following through on these steps is very difficult. There is no way I could have done this without you, the listener, tuning in, without my husband to take the kids to school when I was still writing in the early morning, or without that mission or vision that’s painted clearly in my head of “why” I’m committed to this podcast.

Here’s where I turn the tables back to you, the listener. I love hearing what you are learning from the episodes, whether it’s a comment on YouTube, or on social media, an email, or a direct message somewhere. These messages really do help me.

I bet you as listeners didn’t know how much this podcast has helped me, personally?

Here’s the TOP LESSONS I’ve learned as I reflect back on what 300K downloads means to me.

LESSON 1: PRESENTATION WINS: Interviewing/Presenting has become a superpower for me. This was evident during the first 50 episodes when I joke that I couldn’t breathe and ask questions at the same time. I can barely watch older interviews for this reason. I noticed after the 50th interview, I started to be less nervous with the guest I was interviewing, as I learned how to breathe and talk at the same time. This skill helps me DAILY with my work, as presentations are a part of my daily life. If you want to improve your speaking or presenting skills, practice is the key! You’ll notice, and so will others, that you can speak without fillers (no more ahhs and umms), with a clear and focused message.

LESSON 2: LIFE/HEALTH HAS IMPROVED FOR THE BETTER: Of course, as I’m creating these how-to episodes, I’m implementing the ideas into my own life (and those close to me). As I’m writing about the TOP 5 Health Staples and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies, I’m thinking of what else I can do to improve my health and for my family as well. This is one of the added bonuses of doing this podcast, as I get to speak directly with the high-level guests that we bring on, and learn what they are doing, and how they are doing it. Not a day goes by that I don’t take for granted that as I’m representing you, the listener with each topic and episode, it’s such a privilege to learn directly from our guests. I do also feel clearer minded from implementing these health, wellness and productivity tips over the past 4 years.

LESSON 3: BEING ABLE TO SEE THE SUPERPOWERS IN OTHERS. This just happens as I’m researching and learning about other people’s life’s work. I’m often blown away with what our guests have accomplished, and I do love sharing this with the world. It’s probably the most rewarding part of the podcast.

LESSON 4: LEARNED TO SET UP INTERVIEWS QUICKLY/EFFICIENTLY:

If you’ve been a guest on this podcast, you will see how we set up interviews. I know I can improve as there are tools like Calendly.com that make this process easier, but the key is that you want to find a time that works for your guest FIRST. Think always of where the person lives, (East Coast, West Coach, or International) and then set the time up around their schedule. Having clear dates and times where you can conduct interviews, with a clear and stream-lined process helps the guest to feel at ease with coming on your show, and spending their time with you.

LESSON 5: LEARNED HOW TO RESEARCH THOROUGHLY: Doing through research on each guest will help you to make connections with their work, and yours. This is the most time-consuming part of the interview process, and I used to spend a lot of time here. To save time, I now ask my guests to outline their books for me, and provide 6-10 questions to guide me in the process. I still research as usual, with their questions as a guide. Then I add something to what they’ve created so we have a personal spin on what we will be covering.

LESSON 6: PRAXIS/ INTEGRATING BELIEFS WITH BEHAVIOR:

I’ve talked about this concept of Praxis on past episodes, or integrating our beliefs with our behavior. I noticed that with time, I could connect our future guests to past guests in an almost magical way where things started to make sense, or come to life more. This is where I noticed I needed a clear mind to make these connections. On days that I was tired, hadn’t looked after my health as I should have, making these connections was difficult. The more I began to live the content I was writing, actually integrate these episodes into my own life, the more I could talk about them with each guest.

All of these superpowers and strengths have turned me into a stronger, more resilient 2.0 version of myself, which was my goal for this year.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION:

So, to review and close out this episode, I want to thank you, the listener, wherever you might be located in the 178 countries who tune into this podcast around the world. It wasn’t me who listened to these episodes, I just researched, wrote and recorded them. On today’s episode, I shared the 6 STEPS we took on our side to hit this 300K mile mile-marker, hopefully making the podcast more appealing to you, and then the outcome of these strategies were 6 valuable and life-changing lessons that I saw in myself.

If I hadn’t have stopped to integrate this milestone, I don’t think I would have fully seen the powerful lessons that are a byproduct of just doing this podcast, consistently, every week, for the past 4 years. I launched back in June 2019 with the hope to bring credibility to the field of social and emotional learning, while at the same time wanted to connect the research to our daily life and practices, and what I’ve personally gained from this experience was much more than any amount of money I could have earned in this time frame. These are life-changing lessons that can only happen through praxis, or when our beliefs are integrated into our behavior.

If you have learned something from this episode, or if our past episodes have helped you in any way, please reach out to me and let me know. It really does help.

And with that, I’ll sign out till next week, with our upcoming bunch of interviews. Thank you again for listening, and for making all of these WINS a possibility for me personally. I’m so grateful to have stayed the course, and look forward to what we will all learn with the next 300K downloads, and beyond.

See you next week!

“You must do what others won’t, commit and stay the course.” ― Bob Proctor

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[vi] https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

REFERENCES:

[i] Bob Proctor’s You Were Born Rich Program on Audible https://www.audible.com/pd/You-Were-Born-Rich-Audiobook/B0187M8TDC?source_code=GO1GB547041122911G&gclid=CjwKCAjwzuqgBhAcEiwAdj5dRnVzinjfs1rtrLAe08dyf84QvvPS1xqlKqkJGY_0V1p-T0lrzk31DBoCXh4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[ii] What is Your Prolific Quality Output January 27, 2020 by Sajjad Hussein on Brendon Burchard https://www.sunandesigns.com/roundups/what-is-your-prolific-quality-output/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #31 with Civilian Astronaut and Extreme Adventurer Nik Halik on “Overcoming Adversity” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/entrepreneur-civilian-astronaut-and-extreme-adventurer-nik-halik-on-overcoming-adversity-to-create-an-epic-life/

[iv] How to Integrate Your Wins with Brendon Burchard Published in 2022 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5OG7s13dPU

[v] The EntreMD Podcast https://entremd.com/5-strategies-podcast-downloads/

Mar 16, 2023

00:21:03

“Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.” – Robert A. Heinlein

And I want to add a quote I heard often over years, that "To believe in the things you can see and touch is no belief at all. But to believe in the unseen is both a triumph and a blessing.”

On today’s Episode #278 we will cover:

✔ How to Be A Neuroscience Researcher in 4 Simple Steps

✔ Why Creativity and Innovation are Important to Move You Towards Your Goals

✔ How to Navigate Through Pubmed When Looking for Answers to Questions You Might Have.

✔ How to Use Science and Evidence-Based Studies in Your Daily Life and Work

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use immediately, with our brain in mind. I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast almost 4 years ago, to share how important an understanding of our brain is, for our everyday life and results.

For today’s episode #278, keeping in line with our Season Theme of Going Back to the Basics to Build a Stronger, More Resilient 2.0 version of ourselves, we look back at EPISODE #124 on “How to be a Neuroscience Researcher in 4 Simple Steps”[i] I knew even before writing this one, that I had to spend some time getting creative. Science and research can be so very boring, especially if I were to just read through Pubmed.gov with some steps for all of us to navigate through the research, for our daily use. I can’t imagine getting excited about that, and that’s not what I wanted this episode to be about, so of course, I’m jolted out of sleep, in the early hours of a busy workday, to jot down some ideas that could bring the science into our daily lives, in a way that we can find evidence-based, science-backed answers to inform whatever questions might be keeping YOU up at night, or at least crossing your mind in the day, and make this episode a bit more memorable, interesting and useful for you.

To do this, I went back to EPISODE #265 where we covered “Improving Creativity in Our Schools, Sports and Modern Workplaces”[ii] to revisit what makes something truly “creative” according to science, using the work of Dr. Andrew Huberman. He said “To Show Creativity—It must Reveal something new to us (entertaining, thrilling or useful) and it changes the way we access the world—acting as portals into the world and ourselves.” On this past episode that I wrote just before Christmas of last year, I gave three examples of past guests who’ve come on this podcast who have done just that, and have shown their creativity to change the world in our schools, sports environments and workplaces of the future. You can review this episode and these examples, but for today’s episode, I’m hoping that I can show you how to use this research portal, Pubmed.gov to change the way YOU access the world, and take some things that you might be wondering about, and see how science can inform how you see the world, revealing something NEW, entertaining, thrilling or useful. Now this is an episode worth waking up at 1am to write.

Before we dive in here, I’ve got to go back a bit in time, because I did name this podcast Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning, knowing full well that this link to science could help all of us to improve our results not only in our schools (where most of my work has been spent the past 3 decades) but also in our corporate workplaces, and sports environments. I remember in those early days planning this podcast, I was told to keep my message simple and focus on one area (schools) as you will be confusing your end listener. I remember thinking I don’t want my end listener to only be working in our schools. I was hoping these ideas would appeal to a wider range of listeners, around the world, and today I’ve got to give a shout out to all of you who tune in, because I do keep an eye on our numbers (even though I’ve been urged to focus on the message and what we are learning each week, but I’m human, I do wonder “is the time I’m spending here, really helping others as much as it’s helping me?” This morning, I’m motivated just a bit more than usual, as we are approaching an important milestone in the podcasting world, as we are just a few hundreds away from that 300K download mark, with a reach into 178 countries, around the world. I’m so glad that I listened to that inner voice that was urging me to keep the topics on this podcast broad, to improve productivity and results beyond our classrooms, and into places that my mind couldn’t conceive at the time. So thank you for all of you who tune in, wherever you listen to this podcast in the world. I always say that without listeners, there would be no podcast, and without our guests, I wouldn’t have any content to wake up early and write about.

So, I will keep my promise back to you, that as long as we have listeners, that I will find the time to keep producing episodes that brings the most current research into practice, in our daily lives. While my days are now dedicated to promoting The Science of Reading in our schools, something I’ve been passionate about for a very long time, we will continue our theme of Going Back to the Basics this season, with some new guests coming up, to help strengthen our understanding of this connection between science, our productivity and results.

Going back to EPISODE 124 on “How to Become a Neuroscience Researcher in 4 Simple Steps” I want to explain why I thought this was important to write about in the first place.

I remember back to when I was first told “you know, you need to add science to your work” from Jeff Kleck, who we spoke with on EPISODE #246[iii] launching me into a world that I didn’t think I was capable of learning. I went to school to be a teacher, (focused on Physical Education and English) expanding into Behavioral Students when I first began. I was not a neuroscience researcher, but found myself fueled by the challenge of understanding something that he understood, and I didn’t. “If this educator, with a background as a football coach could grasp this work, then, why couldn’t I?” I thought. So that’s where it all began for me, and why I think it’s important to share that we all start somewhere and that’s usually with a blank slate. I think about those early days when I opened up David A Sousa’s famous book “How the Brain Learns”[iv] and almost slammed it shut, thinking “this is way over my head” as I saw these graphs on how memories are formed, and it just seemed so complex.

So, this episode today is to show you that if I can figure this out, anyone can.

Let’s revisit the 4 steps I suggested in our earlier episode with some more thought and creativity behind the steps.

STEP 1: First you want to think of your hypothesis: or something you are interested in, that you will back up with the most current research. I used my presentation slide as an example with “How Stress Impacts the Brain and Learning” in our earlier episode and in the 4 steps, I show you how to navigate through Pubmed.gov on this topic, how to find a study that does in fact prove how stress impacts learning, and then add this study to your work, or a presentation you might be doing.

ANDREA’S HYPOTHESIS:

In today’s episode, I want to get creative, be a bit more innovative, and think beyond something we all KNOW impacts our brain and learning (like stress). What about something that science has yet to prove? This is where my curiosity goes, and you can see from some of the speakers we’ve had over the years that I’m interested in learning what science has to say about our dream world. Specifically, WHY we dream, and WHAT if anything, can we learn from our dreams? What can science teach us about our dreams? This is my creative hypothesis.

FIND YOURS:

What’s yours? What would you like to understand better and see if science could inform what you would like to know? Think about what you would like to learn, and if you need your brain jogged for a minute, I saw a recent Twitter post that self-development researcher, Greg Lunt put up the other day, about 7 peer-reviewed, research-based life hacks from Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast.[v] Click the link in the show notes, and you can see 7 examples of important life hacks, that are all backed by science. If you listen to each of these life hacks, see if you can listen to Stanford Professor and host of the Huberman Lab, who I mention often on this podcast, through a different lens.

Remember, that we all start our journey somewhere. We never know where our interests will take us, and how far each of can go into the world. Don’t let the fact that we weren’t taught many of these concepts in school to put up a barrier for what we could learn using science. In some of the Deep Dive book studies we’ve done, I’m sure you will agree with me that we’ve uncovered that we all have unique talents and abilities, that when developed (or fanned into a flame) and used, have the ability to take that person to heights they might have only imagined in their dreams.

DID YOU KNOW THAT Stanford Professor, Dr. Andrew Huberman grew up as a skateboarder in the Bay Area, and didn’t have direction or a vision for the life he has created today? He was taken in by skater Tony Hawk’s parents when he was 14 and this gave him a place where he felt accepted, where he belonged and this changed the direction of his life forever. I’m sure that as we research most people who have risen to the top of their field, you will see that they had to overcome significant adversity, to arrive there. Nothing comes without effort.

How to Sleep Better How to Burn Fat How to Grow Muscle How to Build Habits How to Focus How to Ease Pain How to Stop Hiccups

See if you can come up with something you want to dive deeper into.

I’ll use mine since I’ve been logging my dreams since 1999, I can find patterns and themes, and lessons that I think might be important, but what does modern day science say about this?

I went over to English neuroscientist and professor at the University of California, Berkley, Matthew Walker’s research that focuses on sleep, and found a series on his podcast where he dives deeper into our dream world.[vi] It’s here where he mentions Dr. Robert Stickgold’s research on “Memory, Sleep and Dreaming.”[vii]

STEP 2: GO TO PubMed.gov [viii] and read the article on your topic of interest.

When I searched for Robert Stickgold and dreaming, his article came up and took me straight to Pubmed through using Google. Or I could go directly to Pubmed.gov and type his name into the search bar with dreams and see all of the articles he’s written on this topic.

Try it for whatever topic you would like to connect evidence-based research to.

STEP 3: Read through the studies with titles that interest you and see if you can uncover something new that can add value to your daily life. This is where you can spend a lot of time, or maybe go the other route, and you take one look at the article and X out of Pubmed thinking this is too difficult. Remember we all start somewhere. Dr. Huberman was once a skater kid, and now, I’ve never seen anyone navigate through the research like he does. Don’t let it intimidate you. I mention this on our past episode that the parts of the research study that are important are the title, that tells you the topic and hypothesis, or what the researchers want to prove. Then there’s a middle part that give you some details about the study that you can scan, and don’t worry about all of the language. I’m sure many researchers aren’t sure what it all means either. Someone who is an expert in research will inform this part of the study, that will help to find an accurate conclusion, that you will want to read.

In Stickgold’s dream study, he was looking to show how our dreams can consist of “fragments” of our waking life, and he explained someone’s waking life experience, and how it corresponded to something they dreamed about. Dr. Stickgold concludes that “waking experience is reactivated in the sleeping brain, (so what we think and experience in our waking life CAN show up in our dream life) leading to a process of “consolidation” by which new, labile (emotionally charged) memory traces are reorganized into more permanent forms of long-term storage. Dream experiences recalled from sleep bear a transparent relationship to recently encoded information, and provide a useful window into consolidation-related activities of the sleeping brain.” He concludes that “recent work from (his) laboratory has established a direct relationship between the “replay” of recent experience in dream content, and enhanced memory performance in humans.”

This blows my mind. I’m still learning, and think I could study this paragraph for some time, but my search for understanding with what’s going on in the dream world, and waking world is getting clearer. While I don’t think I ever want to have someone else interpret my dreams (which they are doing these days with templates and researchers can now predict WHAT someone is dreaming about with MRI scanners). But I do think that understanding how our brains dream, and what we are dreaming about, with themes and connections we can learn from in our waking hours, could add significant value to our daily life, especially if we take what Dr. Stickgold’s research said, and look at how our dreams could possibly enhance our memory performance.

Putting the Research into Practice:

I looked at a recent measure of my REM sleep, using my WHOOP device, that logged my REM sleep as 50% higher than my 30 day average recently. I know what I did to ensure I had a good night sleep, (starting with going to sleep an hour earlier than usual) and then logged what I recalled from my dreams that night. Now I wonder, “how are these dreams useful?” How did this increased REM sleep enhance my memory and important things I was learning that day? I had a very busy week, and this data was very useful for me to see BEFORE this busy week began.

I wonder: “Can this study about my dreams that I read on Pubmed.gov improve my memory or give me “enhanced memory performance” like Stickgold’s research concluded, or even combined it with the WHOOP data, and ask, “could my focus, alertness and performance be improved with more REM sleep?”

This is where curious minds, who want to learn can use science to inform our questions. I’ll continue to follow Mathew Walker’s work on the impacts of sleep on our brain, while measuring sleep, and continue to connect the research on Pubmed to uncover new ways for improved focus, productivity and performance.

STEP 4: Keep learning and reading about what YOU would like to prove or understand better. I wonder, did you learn anything new from the topic you looked up on Pubmed? If you did, I’d love to know what you learned.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION:

And with that, I’ll review and close out this episode where we looked at “How to be a Neuroscience Researcher in 4 Simple Steps”[ix] and take something we are curious about, connect the science to it, and then actually use it in our life.

STEP 1: Think of your hypothesis: or something you are interested in, that you will back up with the most current research. Get creative here, and think of something that you are curious about, like I’m curious about the dream world. To Show Creativity—It must Reveal something new to us (entertaining, thrilling or useful) and it changes the way we access the world—acting as portals into the world and ourselves.”

STEP 2: GO TO PubMed.gov [x] and read the article on your topic of interest. Don’t be intimidated by the language you will see in these research articles. Just read enough that you can figure out the title (what they are looking to prove) the middle part (how they plan to prove it) and the conclusion (what they learned).

STEP 3: Read through the studies with titles that interest you and uncover something new. How does what you learned from the research help what you are working on in your daily life? Like my interest in the dream world, where do your interests sit? Health, wellness, productivity? What are you interested in studying?

STEP 4: Keep learning and reading about what YOU would like to prove or understand better. With time, the research is advancing lightyears beyond where we could imagine just a few years ago. Who knew before looking at what’s new with this research that someone could measure me while I’m dreaming and now predict what I’m dreaming about? Who knew that an understanding of my dreams could help with my memory performance?

We wouldn’t know this without those who conduct the research, that are there for any of us to read on Pubmed.gov and I hope that this episode has made being a neuroscience researcher less intimidating. If you have spent the weekend, or longer, reading through Pubmed articles to learn something, then by all means, you can now call yourself a neuroscience researcher, and I hope that you’ve now taken something you were curious about (from the unseen world) and brought some clarity to it, in your life.

With that, I’ll close out this episode, that I hope you have found to be helpful, and useful in some way. I want to thank you again for tuning in and helping our podcast to continue to grow over the years. I’ll see you next week as we look at “Building Resilience[xi]” and we do have some fascinating interviews lined up:

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[vi] https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/podcast

INTERVIEWS COMING UP NEXT:

Gabrielle Usatynski,[xii] the author of the NEW book The Power Couple Formula, that is based entirely on Jaak Panksepp’s 7 Core Emotions. I can’t wait to dive deeper into Jaak Panksepp’s work with her, especially after having the chance to meet with Lucy Biven earlier this year.

Then we have Aaron Golub[xiii], who was the first legally blind D1 athlete to play football at Tulane University. We will be focused on leadership strategies that overcome adversity.

Dr. Janet Zadina[xiv], a pioneer in the field of educational neuroscience is coming up later this month as we look at learning and the brain, where neuroscience in our schools began, and her vision for the future.

Finally, we’ve got Jim Houliston, an athlete, artist, and educator who will explain to us the benefits of MMD (mirror movement development) on our longevity, body realignment, spatial awareness, balance and peak performance.

Exciting times! See you next week.

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #124 “How to be a Neuroscience Researcher in 4 Simple Steps.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-how-to-be-a-neuroscience-researcher-in-4-simple-steps/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #265 on “Improving Creativity and innovation in Our Schools, Sports and Modern Workplaces” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-silva-method-improving-creativity-and-innovation-in-our-schools-sports-and-modern-workplaces/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #246 on “Using Neuroscience to Inspire Thinkers in Schools, Sports and the Workplace” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/jeff-kleck-on-using-neuroscience-to-inspire-thinkers-in-schools-sport-and-the-workplace/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #197 with Dr. David A Sousa on “What’s NEW With the 6th Edition of How the Brain Learns” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/returning-guest-dr-david-a-sousa-on-what-s-new-with-the-6th-edition-of-how-the-brain-learns/

[v] Greg Lunt Twitter Post on 7 Peer Reviewed, Research Based Life Hacks from Dr. Andrew Huberman https://twitter.com/GregLunt27/status/1635665750370267136

[vii] Memory, Sleep and Dreaming: Experiencing Consolidation by Erin J Wamsley and Robert Stickgold, Ph.D https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3079906/

[viii] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #124 “How to be a Neuroscience Researcher in 4 Simple Steps.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-how-to-be-a-neuroscience-researcher-in-4-simple-steps/

[x] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

[xi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #126 on “Building Resilience” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-building-resilience-a-pathway-for-inner-peace-well-being-and-happiness/

[xii] https://powercoupleseducation.com/ Gabrielle Usatynski

[xiii] https://aarongolub.com/ Aaron Golub

[xiv] Dr. Janet Zadina https://www.learningandthebrain.com/education-speakers/Janet-Zadina

Mar 10, 2023

00:26:54

“What makes aerobic exercise so powerful is that it’s our evolutionary method of generating that spark. It lights on fire on every level of your brain, from stoking up the neurons’ metabolic furnaces to forgiving the very structures that transmit information from one synapse to the next.” John Ratey, author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

On today’s Episode #277 we will cover

✔ A review of EP 177 on "Transforming the Mind Using Athletics and Neuroscience" to see what's new.

✔ A look at Dr. Wendy Suzuki's Brain-Changing Protocol to strengthen our hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

✔ How to Create Your Own "Spark" to Take Your Results to New Heights.

And in today’s episode, I want us to all dive a bit deeper, beyond what I’ll uncover with the research, and look at this spark in our own lives. I want us to learn how to access this spark that John Ratey talks about, how to generate energy with this spark through exercise, and then figure out what we will do with this spark, or energy, once we’ve learned to create it, to go take ourselves to higher levels of achievement, all by using exercise and science, to take us there.

I want to welcome you back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use immediately, with our brain in mind. I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast almost 4 years ago, to share how important an understanding of our brain is, for our everyday life and results.

For today’s episode #277, we are going back to another favorite episode of mine, #122 on “Transforming the Mind Using Athletics and Neuroscience”[i] that we released April 9, 2021, after we interviewed Paul Zientarksi, the former PE teacher from Naperville Central High School, who reinvented physical education using the understanding of simple neuroscience. In this previous episode, we combined what we learned from Paul Zientarski,[ii] with our interview with Dr. John Ratey[iii], and his book Spark, that cemented the idea of the profound impact that exercise has on our cognitive and mental health.

For today’s episode, #277, we will go back to episode #122 on “Transforming the Mind Using Athletics and Neuroscience” and see what’s new with the research that might be able to take our understanding a bit deeper. I know that we all are clear on the fact that exercise creates that glorious protein called BDNF that we just reviewed thoroughly on EPISODE #274[iv] and even how this protein that is released when we exercise, is reduced in the brain of someone who has developed Alzheimer’s Disease, showing us that exercise is an imminent solution for the prevention of cognitive decline, or at least delaying this from happening for as long as we can.

Which leads me look deeper into the research on this topic, and I went straight to the work of neuroscientist and author, Dr. Wendy Suzuki, whose TED TALK on “The Brain-Changing Effects of Exercise”[v] has over 15 million views. I remember when her TED TALK came out (in 2017) and someone in my network sent it over to me and I immediately asked Dr. Suzuki to come on the podcast. After hearing what her schedule is like over the years, and the research she is involved with as the incoming Dean of Arts and Sciences at NYU[vi], I do understand now why I never did hear back from her on this request. Her TED TALK impacted me in a way where I knew I would need to focus on what she has discovered about the powerful effects of physical activity on the brain and that “by simply moving your body, this has lasting protective, benefits to the brain.” (Dr. Suzuki). Dr. Suzuki’s TED TALK, that came out years before we had looked at this topic on the benefits of exercise on the brain, that we started to unwrap with our interview with Dr. Ratey, explains how she was at the height of her work as a leading researcher on memory and the brain, when she stuck her head out of her lab she realized she was lacking in social interaction and had gained 25 LBS. She mentioned she was miserable, and launched her own exercise program, which is when she noticed things changing with her own brain. Not only did her mood improve, and she felt stronger, but she started to notice that her difficult work (grant writing which I know takes more brain power and patience than most of us have available on a day to day basis) but she noticed this daunting task was surprisingly getting easier for her, and she stopped and thought “What’s going on here? Could it possibly be my new exercise routine?”

I related to what she was saying (on many levels as I spent quite a few years working on grant writing) while also understanding there is no way I could ever sit at my desk and navigate through the research I need to do, without a daily exercise routine.

What about you? If you are listening to this episode, and caught the fitness bug at some point in your life, I wonder WHAT it was that inspired you to make physical activity a part of your daily routine?

When I thought about it, I would have to go back years to when I first noticed that exercise was something that just made me work better. I remember something clicked for me after high school, when I was at University, and spent my summers lifeguarding, to pay for that next year of school. In order to get the best pools as a lifeguard, in the City of North York where I grew up in Toronto, Canada, that were worth spending the entire summer at, there was this annual lifeguard triathlon, and those who participated, usually were given their first choice of the pool they wanted to work at. It was one of those “you’d better participate” and then you knew you would have a better chance at being happy with your work environment that summer.

And for many of us, living in Toronto, we lived for those summer months, poolside, with those we connected the most within our social circles, and many of us (or maybe it was just me) spent the entire winter dreaming of this special time of year, when the snow and ice melted, and the summer breeze filled the air. So, one year, I had set my mind of winning this summer triathlon, and started training for it in the winter. I joined the local YMCA and remember taking the bus from my house in Don-Mills to the YMCA on Sheppard and Bayview (at least a 30-min bus ride) where I would train, with the vision that I’d have a fancy pool to work at, with all of my favorite friends, while earning the money I needed to pay for University. As soon as the snow melted, I remember riding my bike, or rollerblading to the Y, but it was those days training for this one event that summer, that hooked me on being a regular daily exerciser, for the rest of my life.

An update on the triathlon that summer: I almost came in first, if I hadn’t have slipped and fell on the pool deck before the run, that was the final event. I was leading the whole race until my competitor, whose name I’ll never forget, passed me in that last stretch towards the finish line when I had nothing left to give. Good for her, I think today, as she motivated me in future years to keep training, and while we both got the pools we wanted, I know her love of athletics stayed with her for her lifetime as well.

Until revisiting this episode, I never really thought back to when I got the exercise bug, since it’s now became a non-negotiable part of my daily routine. When I heard Dr. Suzuki’s story, and learned about other people’s motivation for starting an exercise program, I thought it might help those listening to reflect back on their own story. It is interesting to think back to what is was that “sparked” this habit change, and made it stick, and if this isn’t a habit that you find interesting, at all, I’m hoping something in this episode creates that “spark” for you to perhaps begin your own program, with the health of your brain in mind.

Here’s where the research gets exciting! Dr. Suzuki mentions that “exercise is the most transformative thing that you can do for your brain” and listed some reasons that I think we have all heard of today.

She notes that with one 45-minute exercise session:

Pubmed.gov

BUT DID YOU KNOW THIS? THIS IS IMPORTANT…

Before switching her work to the impacts of exercise and the brain, Dr. Suzuki was one of the world’s leading researchers on memory. So of course, as she began to look at the impact of exercise on the brain, she would be looking at everything through the lens of a researcher whose spent years looking at the hippocampus (the brain’s memory center).

It’s her next points about how exercise improves our brain, through her memory research lens, that caught my attention.

She adds:

[viii]

While Dr. Suzuki says that “by increasing exercise over your lifetime, you’re not going to cure Alzheimer’s or Dementia, but what you will do is create the strongest and largest prefrontal cortex so that it takes longer for the disease to have an effect.” (Dr. Suzuki).

The whole reason why I spend all my spare time writing these podcast episodes, recording them, and putting them out to the world, for you, the listener, (and for me as well to keep learning) is that I do believe that small changes that we can all make, have the ability to completely transform our health, wellbeing and life.

Take for example, the recent episode we did on “The Damaging Impacts of Sugar on the Brain and Body”[ix] where we covered 2 people who were measuring their blood sugar. The only reason I had the data for this episode, was that someone close to me asked me for advice. One day, this person said to me, “if I was to do just a couple of things to improve my health, what would you suggest I do?” Now this person rarely ever comes to me for advice, so when it happened, I took the moment seriously. I looked them directly in the eye, and like Dr. Jacoby said to me when I asked him the same question, I answered back, without wavering, “You need to cut out sugar (and that means anything that turns into sugar after you eat it, like the obvious candy, bread, and alcohol and then measure your blood to see exactly how what you are eating affects you personally) and then you never eat those things again.” That was it.

In 30 days, this person lowered their A1C levels from the danger zone of 8.5 to 7.0. Once the behavior changes, so do the results. We can potentially reverse diabetes and pre-diabetes with this advice (and I say that not from the advice of my doctor, Dr. Jacoby, who swore that chronic disease is directly linked to lifestyle). Like Dr. Jacoby, I’m pretty militant about health, so my advice if you want to make changes with YOUR health, is to think of your own personal motivation for this change, and then find someone who won’t let you get away with reverting back to your old habits and behaviors, so that you’ll stick to the changes that support your brain health

So, back to Dr. Suzuki’s research. She mentioned that she often gets asked, “what’s the minimum amount of exercise that I would need to do, to get these changes in the brain?” and here’s what she suggests:

DR. SUZUKI BRAIN PROTOCOL:

Dr. Suzuki’s research revealed that the minimum amount of exercise you would need to do, to get these brain health benefits, would be 3-4 days a week, 30-45 minute sessions of aerobic activity, at an intensity that’s enough to get your heart rate up. She says you don’t have to go crazy, and I agree with her on this one.

Here’s something interesting I learned this year. Since I measure everything, I learned that certain activities get my heart rate just as high as my runs up the mountain. Activities like walking outside, lighter workouts on the elliptical, or even vacuuming the house, all get my heart rate up into ZONE 3 (70-80% of my maximum heart rate, or what would be considered a moderate exercise level). This was shocking to me, as I realized I could change up some of my activities, and save time, as long as I was able to get my heart rate up long enough for those brain benefits to take hold (for 30-45 minutes).

THINKING CREATIVELY WITH EXERCISE:

Now you can start to think creatively about aerobic activity. I recently noticed something while recording these podcast episodes. My WHOOP device started to log my activity recording as “other” and each time I finish recording, I would be notified, and could see that out of a 25 minutes recording session, I spent 70-80% of my maximum heart rate at the moderate exercise level. I’m not saying that sitting and recording for 25 minutes can replace a workout, but it opened my eyes to how strenuous public speaking can be on the body. I remember hearing speaker and author Brendon Burchard talking about how speaking in public “results in the same strain on his body as running a marathon each day.”[x] My WHOOP device was telling me the same story, and I’ve even noticed that when recording, I’m engaging muscles in my stomach to breathe, and it honestly feels like a workout session.

If you look at a graph of a typical hiking session, where I’m running up and down a mountain, my heart rate pattern is similar to when I’m recording a podcast episode, and recording or speaking into a mic logged me at 70-80% of my HR, which is ZONE 3 or a moderate exercise level. I do spend most of my hikes in ZONE 4 at 80-90% of my maximum heart rate, or the “hard” target zone, so I’m not going to replace this activity for speaking, but it really did open my eyes to thinking creatively with how else I can get my heart rate up for 45 minute sessions, with my brain in mind.

WHAT ELSE DOES DR. SUZUKI’S RESEARCH REVEAL?

While looking at the benefits of exercise on our brain, I wanted to go a bit deeper into what the research reveals, and there were a few more important details that I learned from Dr. Suzuki. She was interviewed on Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast on “Boosting Attention and Memory with Science-Based Tools”[xi] where she gave Dr. Huberman an overview of the most important points from her TED TALK, that now informed the research she was doing on exercise and the brain, through the lens of a leading researcher on memory.

BDNF, OUR HIPPOCAMPUS AND WHERE MEMORIES ARE STORED

Dr. Suzuki reaffirms some of what we’ve already covered, that “BDNF goes directly to our hippocampus and helps new brain cells to grow” which is what we knew from Dr. Ratey, who said that “BDNF is like Miracle-Go for the brain” and it’s from moving our muscles that this protein is created, helping us to improve “our highest thought processes.”

But Dr. Huberman wanted to dive a bit deeper into where our memories are actually stored in our brain and asked “isn’t the hippocampus involved in encoding memories, but not with the storage of memories? Memory storage (he asks) was in the neocortex or other overlying areas of the brain?” and Dr. Suzuki replies that he asked a tricky question because “memories are stored in the hippocampus for a very long time.”[xii] While she elaborates that people want to know “well how long are they there for before moving to the cortex” and she jokes “4 years, people want to know? Is that how long our memories are stored in our hippocampus?” I don’t need to be a neuroscientist to think that it doesn’t matter how long our memories are stored in our hippocampus, but I want this part of my brain to be as healthy, as big and fluffy (as she describes it) so that I can remain as sharp as I can as I’m aging. Not a day goes by that I go to grab a name of someone, and it’s not there, so this part of our brain is a muscle that needs to be worked, just as we would be moving our body with exercise.

LONDON CAB DRIVERS

Which led my mind back to the research that emerged with the hippocampus of London cab drivers. This part of their brain was “significantly larger in London cab drivers due to the mental workout they get while navigating the 25,000 streets of London.”[xiii]

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION:

To review and conclude this episode where we looked back at EPISODE #122 on “Transforming the Brain Using Athletics and Neuroscience” I think we’ve got a few NEW details to help build this case for the importance of adding at least, or at a minimum, 4 days a week of 45 minute moderate aerobic sessions to build a stronger, more resilient hippocampus, to help improve our thinking, decision-making, and our memory center, ensuring that neurodegenerative diseases that could possibly come our way with age, will at least be delayed, as remember with our brain, size does matter.

In the beginning of this episode, we spoke about a spark that exercise can create, that can help us to generate energy that we can use in our daily life. I mentioned where my spark began, training for the annual lifeguard triathlon in Toronto, to pay for my University classes, and I wonder:

IF YOU HAVE A REGULAR EXERCISE PROGRAM:

If you have incorporated exercise into your daily routine, what it was that inspired you to begin? What was it that kept this habit going for you? Have you noticed specific examples of how your exercise program has transformed your brain (like Dr. Suzuki noticed with her grant writing getting easier, and I noticed with being able to sit for longer periods of time and be focused on higher cognitive work)? Have you ever thought about what exercise was doing for your brain, down to your memory center (how it makes it bigger and stronger) or your prefrontal cortex? Were you aware of how you were building the size of your brain with exercise to at least prevent the onset of cognitive decline as we age?

IF YOU DON’T HAVE AN EXERCISE PROGRAM:

EPISODE on the TOP 5 Health Staples

[xiv]

Once you do begin this regular daily routine, I promise you that you will start to feel better. Like cutting out sugar, you will notice immediate changes in your body (mentally and physically), and you will start to notice that you have more creative energy that you can direct in many different places.

I promise you that this decision will “spark” something in you, that could possibly be the turning point that you needed to change your life forever.

Since I feel so strongly about health and wellness for all of us, I want to extend an offer to you. If you are listening to this episode, and you want to make an improvement with your health and wellness, and you are stuck, unsure of where to begin, send me an email to andrea@achieveit360.com and let me know where you are starting from. This is just me here offering to give you a bit of time if you feel stuck in some way, without having to worry if I’ll be selling you into some sort of coaching program. Sometimes in order to get started, we just have to make the decision, and talking to someone even for a few minutes, could be all you would need to “spark” some action of your end. If this is where you are sitting right now, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

I’ll close out this episode with a quote from Dr. John Ratey who said that “exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory and learning.” I’m going to add that it’s the best thing we can do for ourselves as we age, to supercharge our hippocampus (our memory center) and prefrontal cortex (what we need to think) and build a stronger, more resilient brain so it will take longer for these degenerative diseases that we all know about, to have an effect.

And with that, I’ll make a promise back to you that I’ll keep thinking up new ideas to share with you here, because I know now that writing AND recording is good for my brain.

I’ll see you next week as we look at EPISODE #124 on “How to be a Neuroscience Researcher” and looking back at this episode, I’ll have to think really hard on how to make this one a bit more creative. See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-science-based-tricks-to-improve-productivity-and-never-forget-anything/

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #122 on Transforming the Mind Using Athletics and Neuroscience https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-transforming-the-mind-using-athletics-and-neuroscience/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #121 with Paul Zientarski on “Transforming Students Using Physical Education and Neuroscience” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/naperville-central-high-schools-paul-zeintarski-on-transforming-students-using-physical-education-and-neuroscience/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #116 with John J. Ratey, MD on “The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/best-selling-author-john-j-ratey-md-on-the-revolutionary-new-science-of-exercise-and-the-brain/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #274 on “What’s NEW with BDNF: Building a Faster, Stronger, More Resilient Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-what-s-new-with-bdnf-building-a-faster-stronger-more-resilient-brain/

[v] The Brain-Changing Effects of Exercise with Wendy Suzuki, 2017 https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_suzuki_the_brain_changing_benefits_of_exercise?language=en

[vi] Wendy Suzuki suzuki.html">https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/wendy-suzuki.html

[vii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #149 on “Focus, Fatigue and Memory Hacks for Students and the Worplace”https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/2-time-guinness-world-record-holder-dave-farrow-on-focus-fatigue-and-memory-hacks-for-students-and-the-workplace/

[viii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #217 on “Science-Based Tricks to improve Productivity and Never Forget Anything.”

[ix]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #275 on “The Damaging Effects of Sugar on the Brain and Body” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-the-damaging-impacts-of-sugar-on-the-brain-and-body/

[x] Brendon Burchard’s High Performance Habits Story by Amy Anderson https://brendon.com/blog/success/

[xi]Dr. Wendy Suzuki on The Huberman Lab Podcast #73 “Boosting Attention and Memory with Science-Based Tools” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=099hgtRoUZw

[xii] Dr. Wendy Suzuki on The Huberman Lab Podcast #73 “Boosting Attention and Memory with Science-Based Tools” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=099hgtRoUZw 38:26 time stamp

[xiii] Taxi Cab Drivers’ Brains Grow to Navigate London’s Streets By Ferri Jabr December 8, 2011 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memory/

[xiv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #87 on “The Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/do-you-know-the-top-5-brain-health-and-alzheimers-prevention-strategies-with-andrea-samadi/

Mar 03, 2023

00:26:03

“The brain has a capacity for learning that is virtually limitless, which makes every human being a potential genius.” Michael J. Golb

I want to welcome you back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast where we bridge the gap between theory and practice, with strategies, tools and ideas we can all use immediately, applied to the most current brain research to heighten productivity in our schools, sports environments and modern workplaces. I’m Andrea Samadi and launched this podcast almost 4 years ago, to share how important an understanding of our brain is for our everyday life and results.

For today’s episode #276, we will go back to one of our early episodes, #119[i] on “The Key Ingredients of Learning with the Brain in Mind” and take a look at what I picked out as the key ingredients for learning back then, to see how NEW research has informed this area today. When I went back to review this episode, there were some ingredients in this “learning” equation that we’ve talked about often on this podcast, and the new research I found was eye-opening. The new research took what we covered so beautifully on those early episodes, to a whole new level, showing me why it’s important to go back to the basics and see what strategies are effective, and why. Before we get to what’s NEW, let’s look back at where our podcast began, and what we were focused on, with learning with our brain in mind.

Learning with the Brain in Mind

We can go right back to our very first interview EPISODE #3[ii] with Ron Hall, from Valley Day School, who mentioned how things changed for him when he met Horacio Sanchez and began teaching with brain science in mind. This is the whole reason why we are going back to the basics this season, as we connect the new research to our past episodes, to strengthen where we all are in our process of building a stronger, more resilient 2.0 version of ourselves in 2023 and beyond. It’s always easy to look back, and connect the dots[iii] like Steve Jobs’ famous quote, and trust that these dots will connect again in the future, with new meaning that’s evolved with time, knowledge and understanding.

John Hattie’s Research:

As I glanced at our earlier interviews, Greg Wolcott from EPISODE #7 on “Building Relationships in Today’s Classrooms” was our next guest in this learning equation, as he was the first guest to mention that his work and book, Significant 72[iv], was inspired by New Zealand Professor John Hattie. John Hattie became known for his two books Visible Learning and Visible Learning for Educators that focused on teaching strategies that have a high probability of being effective.

You can read directly from John Hattie himself, as he connects his dots looking backwards, where he says he believes he got some parts wrong with his approach to learning in the classroom. He shares he’d like to stop looking at the strategies teachers are using and look closer at the impact we have on our students and how they learn best when he reflects that “we need to switch from saying (I care about how you teach), to saying (I care about the impact of your teaching).”[v] Hattie goes on to talk about the criticism he faced with the term “visible learning” because learning isn’t visible at all.

As John Hattie now prepares to release Visible Learning: The Sequel[vi] this March, 15 years after his first book that sold out in days of its release and was described as “teaching’s Holy Grail” he’s returning to his ground-breaking work, with a new angle. Like the direction we are taking with this podcast, going back to the basics, this is what Professor John Hattie is doing with his next book where he not only looks at WHAT works best with learning, as he shares the research is his new that is now informed by more than 2,100 meta-analyses (more than double that appeared in his first book, drawn from more than 130,000 studies, and has involved more than 400 million students from all around the world.

He then asks “WHY” did these strategies work so well, with some thoughts of how we can improve learning, using current and future research.

I remember back to my early days of teaching when we were observed by our school principal, and given feedback for how effective our lessons were. I remember thinking this process was such a waste of time as the students were behaving differently knowing their teacher was being evaluated. I knew that there wasn’t much learning happening other than finding a way to beat the system to have my students behave in this artificial environment.

True learning, Hattie points out, happens when a teacher has to adapt a lesson, as they notice the students who might be missing the point, and need a new way to learn. Hattie noticed:

Professor John Hattie[vii] take this new knowledge and tells us that Australia has now gone with a new method of observation where they “ask expert teachers to consider a lesson they are planning to deliver, and then record themselves talking through their planning. Then the lesson is filmed. The expert teacher then records themselves again, explaining the decisions they made in the moment. The two recordings are then layered over the video. This allows those who watch the videos to hear what the teacher is thinking in real time.” (John Hattie, Why Teaching Strategies Don’t Make You an Excellent Teacher). Hattie believes that this is where the research is turning to, with more thinking aloud and dialogue around learning, and he goes on to project there will be “a massive breakthrough in automation of classroom observation and teachers will improve because of it.”[viii]

I can already see useful technology emerging in the corporate workplace that uses Artificial Intelligence to score a sales employee on their presentations, providing immediate feedback on specific metrics, including content, articulation, and even picking out keywords to help improve presentation skills.

The future of learning is evolving, and it undeniably involves an understanding of our brain.

Learning with the Brain in Mind:

Friederike Fabritius on EPISODE #27[ix] was next to contribute to our formula of learning and “Achieving Peak Performance” as we began to connect the neurochemicals involved in those high levels of achievement where peak performance or flow occurs.

Dr. John Dunlosky’s Research

Our next guest to help us to decipher this formula for learning was Kent State University’s Dr. John Dunlosky, from EPISODE #37[x] on “Improving Student Success: Some Principles from Cognitive Science.” I’ll never forget when the lights started to go on for me, when I first heard Dr. Dunlosky speak in 2016 of an Edweek Webinar about “deliberate practice” being one of the most effective learning strategies vs cramming to learn something new (whether a new skill in the classroom, or a sport). This led us to EPISODE #38[xi] on “The Daily Grind in the NHL” with Todd Woodcroft, who at the time was an Assistant Coach with the Winnipeg Jets. His episode covered the importance of “the daily grind” or doing the same things every day, for predictable results in the pro sports world.

The Key Ingredients of Learning:

I could keep going through our episodes, and connecting the guests who spoke about the key ingredients of learning, but as we move towards the current research, I want to start with what we first identified with learning with the brain in mind.

On today’s Episode #276 on “Looking Back at the Key Ingredients of Learning” we will cover

✔ A review of the key ingredients of learning from our early episodes (that include motivation and repetition).

✔ A look back on John Hattie’s Research with his ground-breaking book Visible Learning as he prepares to release Visible Learning: The Sequel to see “What’s New” when it comes to teaching and learning in the classroom.

✔ What is NEW with Learning and the Brain? (Dr. Andrew Huberman).

✔ How Can We Learn NEW Skills Faster with the Brain in Mind: A 3-STEP PROCESS

✔ Using Repetition and the NEW Research to Learn NEW Skills Faster: A 4-STEP PROTOCOL

✔ Thoughts on the Future of Learning.

What Dr. Huberman’s Research Says About Learning NEW Skills Faster:

When I looked up what’s new in this area, I didn’t need to go anywhere else, other than with Stanford Professor, Dr. Andrew Huberman and his Huberman Lab Podcast. I found two very thorough episodes that were similar in content, both close to 2 hours in length. You can access each of his episodes by clicking on the link in the show notes, but for today’s episode, I wanted to take the research, and tie it to what we already know about learning, with some steps for how we can use this research in the future.

I took his Podcast #20 on How to Learn Skills Faster[xii] that was published a year ago, in 2022, a year after I took a stab at explaining the key ingredients of learning. I remember listening to this episode while exercising and thinking I really needed to take notes, as he went into depth on the science behind acquiring new skills, affirming that we had uncovered some of the most important ingredients, specifically the repetition of a new skill and the motivation. I remember thinking it would have been good to know this as a former PE teacher, and I’ll be sure to copy my friend Dan Vigliatore[xiii] who trains our next generation of educators with what’s new and innovative for PE teachers in the classroom at York university in Toronto, or even just thinking back over those early episodes, it was clear why doing things a certain way (whether it’s learning a new skill in the classroom, for athletic performance or in the workplace) that tapping into the Science of Learning, improving what we already know works in the learning process, will take everything to a deeper level for all of us.

According to Dr. Huberman: How to Learn Anything Faster:

STEP 1: Open Loop vs Closed Loop

Dr. Huberman explains there are 2 types of skills: open loop and closed loop skills and you’ll want to be able to distinguish between these skills.

Open Loop: is a skill that when it’s completed, you know if you did it right, or not. It would be like if a gymnast is doing a back flip. They either do the back flip, or they mess it up. The only way to do it correctly, is to attempt it again if they messed up something and were scared halfway through. Or like throwing darts at a dart board. If the darts go on the ground, you missed the skill and the only way to get the skill, is to try it again. Or a free throw in basketball. I think we’ve got the point of this skill type. We can either do the skill, or we don’t. This is an open loop.

Closed Loop: is a skill that allows for correction while performing the skill, like if you were running and your coach is giving you tips on your stride or something that you change and improve along the way, or if you were playing the drums, and you were given instruction on how to speed up or slow down your tempo.

STEP 2: Ask “what should I focus my attention on?”

Next, Dr. Huberman says we ask ourselves “what should I focus my attention on” and there are three places. It’s either going to auditory attention (you are listening for something), visual attention (you are watching something) or it’s proprioception (sometimes known as our 6th sense) where we think about where our limbs are in relation to our body as we are performing a certain skill (like being able to walk or kick without looking at your feet).

STEP 3: Your Neurology Will Take Care of the Rest

This is where things get exciting, as Dr. Huberman goes into the in-depth explanation of how learning something new translates within certain parts of our brain. Without attempting to teach what he explains so well, I’m going to break it down so we can understand the basic ideas that he covers.

Central Pattern Generators: exist in our spinal cord and it’s this part of the brain that generates repetitive movements with skills we have learned. Things like walking, running, swimming, cycling, are all controlled by this part of the brain. The CPG also controls already learned behavior. When you have developed a certain skill, this part of the brain is taking over and controls the movement. I thought about something Friederike Fabritius said in her first interview with me when we were talking about her book, The Leading Brain and I asked her about something she wrote about on this topic of understanding learned behavior and how it shows up in our brain after years of repetitive practice.

She gave 2 examples of people who didn’t rely on their conscious thinking brain, but they used their unconscious brain to increase the speed, efficiency and accuracy of their performance. The first example she used was with Sully Sullenberger’s quick thinking with his emergency landing of that plane in the Hudson River and the other was with Wayne Gretzky, who used his unique “hockey sense” to “skate where the puck will be, not where it is.” Friederike explains in her book The Leading Brain that “there’s a common misconception that intuitive decisions are random and signify a lack of skill, the exact opposite is true. Intuitive decisions are often the product of years of experience and thousands of hours of practice. They represent the most efficient use of your accumulated expertise.”[xiv] So, if you are executing a skill that you’ve spent years learning, you will be activating this part of your brain, the Central Pattern Generator.

Let’s say you haven’t spent years learning a sport. Like for me, with golf. If I swing a golf club, the parts of my brain that will be working are much different than the brain of a golf pro who would be using the CPG. I’d be using the next part of our brain, the Upper Motor Neurons in our cortex, that are the neural pathways that control movement, and are involved with things like picking up a pen, or a deliberate action, like swinging a golf club. This part of our brain is important to note in the visualization process, with skill building, that we will touch on in a minute.

Then there’s the Lower Motor Neurons in our spinal cord that send messages to our muscles that causes the muscles to move.

When it comes to skill acquisition, I’m sure you’ve heard of the 10,000 hour rule. Someone just said it to me the other day, and while it does explain that work is involved with learning a new skill, it doesn’t explain HOW we learn that new skill, using science.

The secret to NEW skill acquisition Dr. Huberman says is not about the hours you put in, it’s about the repetition. This made me think back to those early episodes where we took Dr. John Dunlosky’s research, connected it to what we know works in the sports world, with the daily grind that’s required for pro sports athletes, and now Dr. Huberman adds something new to this equation.

He says of course “there’s a connection between time and repetition, but there’s new research that states that it’s important what you are focused on as you learn a new skill, and if you can adjust the number of repetitions that you do, adjusting your motivation for learning, and you can vastly accelerate learning.”[xv] He went on the share study after study that backed this idea up, but without going into the weeds with the research, he says the protocol for learning any skill faster, something he says has been dubbed online as “The Super Mario Effect” or “The Test Tube Experiment” with mice or rats has to do with stimulating a certain brain area that can lead to vastly accelerating learning. He goes into where he has seen this being tested with Lewis Howes on his podcast “How to Learn Anything Fast”[xvi] where Lewis Howes almost fell off his chair with what he was learning. The issue with this method is that it’s being tested now in military environments, and not something that any of us could use for immediate results, as we’d have to drill holes in our skull to stimulate a certain part of the brain to get these accelerated learning results (and they are doing this in certain places).

But what can we do right away with this research?

Dr. Huberman says that “whatever it is we are learning, that we are to perform as many repetitions per unit of time as we possibly can, even if we make errors” and this repeat of performance, even if there are errors will help you to accelerate skill learning.” So, we did get the ingredients of learning correct with the emphasis on repetition, but I didn’t know that the research now shows that making errors would promote plasticity in the brain and accelerate the learning process.

Here’s a 4 STEP Protocol to Help You to Learn Faster with Brain Science in Mind

Get as many repetitions in per session. (whether a sport or even going back to Dr. Dunlosky with his importance of spaced repetition). Pay attention to the errors you make and don’t worry about bad habits getting engrained. You will know the right actions vs the ones you want to discard. Know that neurochemicals are being created from the successful repetitions. After the session: REST. DO NOTHING. Don’t look at your phone for 1-5 minutes to allow the neurons in the brain to replay the sequences you practiced. The errors will be eliminated and the correct sequence will be played back.

What is interesting with Dr. Huberman’s research is that he noted that when you sit and let the brain go idle after this repetition, that the brain will play the sequences backwards as it consolidates learning (and he says they aren’t sure why) but the brain in sleep, plays the sequence forward.

He also covered using a metronome (that tool we know helps you to learn to play the piano) as a powerful tool to increase the number of repetitions. I thought about how I would use this strategy, and think it makes the most sense for sports (thinking of when I was a PE teacher of how I could have used this information), or even apply it to my girls who practice gymnastics, and share with them that it matters how many turns they take to practice their skill. I asked them “how many times do you practice a back flip in one 4-hour practice” and they didn’t have a number for me. If they are messing around in practice, they are taking away from others getting these higher repetitions, as well as themselves. I know their coaches know this, but I’m hoping that the girls understand why these focused repetitions area important for their results and skill learning.

If I were a coach, with this brain science in mind, I’d have athletes count the number of reps they were doing with a certain skill, in a certain time period and see how each practice they could increase this number.

What Does the Research Say About Visualization and Learning:

I’ve spent a lot of time covering Visualization on this podcast, as it’s a part of my daily routine, so of course I wondered what Dr. Huberman and the research says about adding mental rehearsal to your learning.

While he did say that “visualization is a powerful tool and that it works” he added “not as good as the actual experience” of doing the actual physical activity. Dr. Huberman says that “closing your eyes and thinking about a sequence of movements and visualizing it in your mind’s eye creates the activation of the upper motor neurons that’s very similar, if not the same as the actual movement.” He said that visualization is a good supplement to your learning routine, but not a replacement.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION:

To review and conclude this episode on the ingredients of learning, I think we uncovered the main ingredients from our episode 2 years ago (repetition and motivation) that’s crucial for learning, but Dr. Huberman’s research on making sure we get as many repetitions as we can per session, even if we make mistakes in the process, did help me to look at learning with a new lens.

I also couldn’t forget how he said the military is experimenting with stimulating parts of the brain to accelerate learning and know that years down the line, it might be easier for us to learn a new language, or master a new skill in a sport, with advancements in our understanding of brain science.

I hope that this episode helped you to think of what else you could do to accelerate learning for your students in the classroom, whether it’s with John Hattie’s reflections of “thinking through” an effective lesson, or with the tried and true strategies of Dr. John Dunlosky of spaced repetition that have proven to accelerate results in sports and the classroom, or even Dr. Huberman’s idea of increasing the amount of repetitions per unit of time, without worrying about errors.

This episode on learning made me think of more questions than I have answers for. It was only two years after we wrote ep 119, that Dr. Andrew Huberman released his new research, and many studies that have emerged about how to accelerate learning with repetition, and how our brain is involved in this process.

15 years after Professor John Hattie released his ground-breaking Visible Learning book in the field of education, that he reflects back now on AI for classroom observation.

I’ll close with a quote from Mark Zuckerberg who says that “unsupervised learning is the way that most people will learn in the future. You have this model of how the world works in your head and you’re refining it to predict what you think is going to happen in the future.”

This makes me wonder:

What will we uncover 3 years from now? Will we ever be able to find the science that gives us answers to other ways we can learn, like finding answers from our dream world? Will we be able to predict our future somehow like Mark Zuckerberg suggested by refining something in our head?

While Dr. Huberman says that visualization is a powerful tool that works, he still says that it doesn’t work as well as actually doing the skill. He has the data to prove this today but will we uncover something about our brain and places we can stimulate it without having to drill open our skull in the future that could improve our effectiveness, even if it’s a few percentages of improvement?

Maybe tweaking something with our visualization process could unlock some of the secrets Jose Silva unlocked in his Silva Mind Control Method[xvii] that we dove deep into at the end of last year?

One thing I know for sure is that I’ll never stop asking questions and searching for answers that can help us to all be a stronger more resilient 2.0 version of ourselves.

What about you?

What questions do you have? How has science informed your learning?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the future of learning…

And with that I’ll close out this episode and see you next week as we revisit EP #122 on “Transforming the Mind Using Athletics and Neuroscience”[xviii]

See you next week!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[xiii] https://twitter.com/PhysEdDynasty

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #119 on “The Key Ingredients of Learning with the Brain in Mind” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-key-ingredients-of-learning-with-the-brain-in-mind-with-andrea-samadi

[ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #3 with Ron Hall from Valley Day School on “Launching Your Neuro-educational Program” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/interview-with-ron-hall-valley-day-school-on-launching-your-neuroeducational-program/

[iii] Steve Jobs https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/steve_jobs_416875

[iv] Greg Wolcott Significant 72 https://www.significant72.com/

[v] John Hattie: Why Teaching Strategies Don’t Make You an Expert Teacher by John Hattie Jan 11th, 2023 https://www.tes.com/magazine/teaching-learning/general/john-hattie-visible-learning-teaching-strategies-dont-make-you-expert

[vi] Visible Learning: The Sequel by John Hattie Published by Routledge, March 20, 2023 https://www.routledge.com/Visible-Learning-The-Sequel-A-Synthesis-of-Over-2100-Meta-Analyses-Relating/Hattie/p/book/9781032462035

[vii] IBID

[viii] IBID

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #27 with Friederike Fabritius on “The Recipe for Achieving Peak Performance” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/pioneer-in-the-field-of-neuroleadership-friederike-fabritius-on-the-recipe-for-achieving-peak-performance/

[x]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #37 “Dr. John Dunlosky on “Improving Student Success: Some Principles from Cognitive Science” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kent-states-dr-john-dunlosky-on-improving-student-success-some-principles-from-cognitive-science/

[xi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #38 with Todd Woodcroft on “The Daily Grind in the NHL” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/assistant-coach-to-the-winnipeg-jets-todd-woodcroft-on-the-daily-grind-in-the-nhl/

[xii] How to Learn Skills Faster by Dr. Andrew Huberman, EPISODE #20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ0IBzCjEPk

[xiv] The Leading Brain, Page 148, Friederike Fabritius https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Brain-Neuroscience-Smarter-Happier-ebook/dp/B01HCGYVM2/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=CjwKCAiAr4GgBhBFEiwAgwORreGYXo-LXa5995xdbpY7AiCFCyjNHxQ842EYgZOf2uGIaCZmtq3T7xoCGc4QAvD_BwE&hvadid=174274111864&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9030068&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=1212127332165576286&hvtargid=kwd-262053540231&hydadcr=22536_9636732&keywords=the+leading+brain&qid=1677786313&sr=8-1

[xv] How to Learn Skills Faster Dr. Andrew Huberman PODCAST EPISODE #20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ0IBzCjEPk

[xvi] Lewis Howes and Dr. Andrew Huberman on “How to Learn Anything Fast” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADygLWbL2M4

[xvii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #261 on “Applying the Silva Method for Improved Intuition, Creativity and Focus” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/a-deep-dive-with-andrea-samadi-into-applying-the-silva-method-for-improved-intuition-creativity-and-focus-part-1/

[xviii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #122 on Transforming the Mind Using Athletics and Neuroscience https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-transforming-the-mind-using-athletics-and-neuroscience/

Feb 24, 2023

00:24:59

“It’s well understood that this chronic disease (type 2 diabetes) is linked to lifestyle. Combine a diet high in sugar (including fruits, honey, and starch, all of which turn into varying amounts of sugar when digested) with a lack of exercise and the results will be type 2 diabetes with the miserable complications that come with it.” (An excerpt from Dr. Richard Jacoby, co-author of Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage, and Reclaim Good Health.”

For today’s episode #275, we will revisit one of my favorite episodes #117[i] on “The Damaging Impact of Sugar on the Brain and Body” to review what we covered, and see if there’s anything else important that the research has revealed. There’s a lot that’s NEW with this topic, but as I reviewed this past episode, I had completely forgotten some of the details we covered a few years ago, that are very important.

Today we will cover:

✔What sugar does to the brain, cognition and well-being. ✔How sugar contributes to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's Disease.

✔That we all have individual journeys on our pathway towards optimal health and well-being.

✔Where my health took a turn towards wellness in 2005 and again in 2014 with the hope that my health story will give you some thoughts with your health story.

✔We looked at 2 people’s blood glucose results to see what each person learned from using a glucose monitor.

✔3 Tips You Can Implement Immediately for Improved Health, Clarity and Well-Being.

You can review this past episode by clicking on the link in the show notes but for today’s episode, we are going to dive a bit deeper with what sugar does to the brain, body, cognition and our health by tying in what has emerged since that first episode. We will look at the results of two people who’ve been tracking their blood glucose levels with the Freestyle Libre Glucose Monitor[ii] to see what patterns emerge eating certain foods. The first individual we will look at, had A1C levels that have recently gone into the danger zone, signaling type-2 diabetes, showing an A1C level of over 8.5 on a recent blood test. I’m the second chart, and am not insulin resistant, but know that sugar doesn’t work for me at all. I don’t need a blood test to know that it makes me feel horrendous. My A1C levels sit around 5.8, which is in line with someone on a lower carbohydrate, and higher fat diet.[iii]

This episode is not about the best diet to choose and when I sat down to write this, I quickly saw that this topic of health, especially as it relates to nutrition is such a challenging and difficult one to cover, as not one size fits all. I do want to acknowledge that there are many different diet plans out there, and that I’m not here to say one is better than another. I recognize that it’s downright frustrating when you are doing everything the right way, (eating clean and exercising) and you are seeing zero results. This seems to be especially true in the area of weight loss, where I recently saw a post from Chris Cornell, who shares his weight loss strategies on Twitter, and asked what ended up being a highly controversial question “why are most people unable to achieve significant and sustainable weight (fat) loss through lifestyle modifications?” He added “I’m guessing some people have something amiss with their regulatory mechanism. For many, I believe it’s that they are unable to regulate the crap foods they’ve been eating.”

I’ll share what I learned over the past few weeks that might shed some light into why it’s so difficult to make shift with what we eat, and why one bad food choice can often set us up to sabotage ourselves to continue making poor food choices with that snowball effect. Today we will put the focus on what we can control (using the data I uncovered with this glucose monitor) to inform our action steps at the end of this episode. There’s so much to this problem that includes things we can’t control (our heredity, hormones, stress levels to name a few factors) so I’m going to make it easy. Let’s focus ONLY on what sugar does to the brain and body.

I want to acknowledge that we are all different, and your path is probably going to be different from mine, but I’m sure some of what I will share will resonate with you. We all hit a point where we know something isn’t right, and go to the doctor looking for a solution. I really don’t believe in accidents, and when we “feel” like something is off with our health, I think it’s important to listen to our intuition here, and look into it. My journey towards looking for the “right diet” plan began in 2005 (before I had children) when I was looking for a solution for why my feet were going numb during exercise, and there were many twists and turns along the way, before things began to “click” for me.

When I felt that something was off with numbness in my feet, I went to a foot doctor to look for answers. Looking back now, this decision, I think moved the needle of health and wellness the most for me personally over the past 2 decades, as the foot doctor I went to see was Dr. Richard Jacoby, the author of Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage and Reclaim Good Health.[iv]

Dr. Jacoby[v] took one look at me and said “you don’t look like the typical patient I usually see. People come to me in their late 50s and 60s” (I was around 33 back then and people who were in their 50s (like I am today) were ancient to me so I was starting to think I was in the wrong place). He went on to say that people came in with different types of health problems, and his job was to help them solve these problems.” Over the years, he became excellent with his advice for people, leading him to appear in many of those Top Doctor Lists for 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010) and he just asked his patients to do 2 things. He asked them to eliminate sugar from their diet, and make sure they are taking omega-3 fatty acids, since most Americans are deficient here.[vi] I started to think maybe my running shoes were too tight and felt bad for wasting his time, as I didn’t think his advice was going to help me, but I looked at him and said, “that’s easy enough” as I was already doing one of his suggestions. Next was to eliminate sugar, which I did, not know how much it would completely change my health.

Of course, our health requires constant work, and this change didn’t last forever. My next turn was around 2014, 10 years later. I remember cooking my children dinner, standing at the stove, and not knowing what I should eat, leading me to google “healthy eating” and that led me to the work of fitness model and trainer, Jason Wittrock[vii], known as the blood sugar king. Jason is on a war against diabetes and obesity, that we will mention a bit later on this episode. The point here is that there’s no straight line. I think we all have our own individual path to figure out with our own “individual secrets” to unlock our optimal levels of health, and I’ve still not figured all of mine out yet, but as I’m approaching age 52, I feel better now, than I did at age 30.

Dr. Jacoby’s book Sugar Crush says it all. He says that:

It was not an accident that I ended up at Dr. Jacoby’s offices that day, and I thought about him while actually measuring my glucose levels for this episode.

Before I get to the results of what each of us discovered in this process of measuring our glucose levels, I think it’s important to note what we learned on that first episode that I had forgotten because we can’t remember everything, just what’s important to us—and this is very important at the moment.

Since last week’s episode was about “Building a Faster, Stronger, Resilient Brain, by Understanding Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)”[viii] or the compound that Dr. Ratey says is crucial for preventing cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease. I want to focus this episode on something Dr. Ratey said that really made me think.

He said, did you know that “High glucose levels are toxic to the brain, and limits the production of this glorious compound BDNF that has such a profound effect on cognition and well-being?”

Dr. Ratey’s quote made me think back to a BONUS episode I did for Podbean’s Wellness week[ix] that goes right along with what Dr. Ratey said. It was a quote from Dr. David Perlmutter, who wrote the foreword to Dr. Ratey’s book Go Wild![x] and it was Dr. Perlmutter’s documentary on Alzheimer’s Disease that made me think hard about our Top 5 Health and Wellness staples.

Dr. Perlmutter said DID YOU KNOW THAT: Sugar in the brain “looks like Alzheimer’s” in the brain, and that “60% of cognitive decline is related to how you handle blood sugar?”[xi] He says that “elevated blood sugar shrinks the brain.” I had to take these words and create a visual to bring this to light. Sometimes you can hear the words of something, but until you can actually see and feel the words come to life, like the image I put in the show notes, there isn’t as much meaning to what we might be reading. I think the image of a healthy brain, next to a severely shrunken Alzheimer’s brain, is an image I’ll never forget. Sugar can cause a brain to shrink and look like this.

Remember that quote from Dr. Dale Bredesen from our last episode that said:

Why would any of us knowingly choose this for ourselves? Why would we buy each other gifts at holidays that include things that science reveals are toxic to the brain? Why do teachers reward children with candy at school? Why do we stand around eating cake at the end of a church service?

I know, because it tastes good. But it’s here we will take the information we are learning, connect the dots to form knowledge and then apply this knowledge to become wise. This is where we go from theory to practice with this podcast.

I might be told I’m a bit on the boring side these days, as I’m cutting out all the food that are fun for us, but I’m doing this with the purpose of improving clarity, focus and performance on a day to day basis.

WHAT DID WE LEARN BY MEASURING BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS?

I’m sure you’ve seen people measuring their blood sugar, and sharing how this data helps them to make better choices with the foods they eat. I first saw this device with Jason Wittrock,[xii] who we mentioned earlier, and interviewed on EP 94[xiii]. If you go to his Instagram page, you’ll see many tests he’s done with a variety of different foods, drinks and snacks to see how each one affects his blood sugar levels, and there were many surprises.

If you're curious, go to his page and look at his tests, especially when he tested white rice. It was interesting that hot white rice spiked his blood sugar into the danger zone, but when he applied the cooling theory and put the rice in the fridge for 24 hours, it kept his blood sugar in the safe zone. He mentions at the end of every episode that the foods that took his blood sugar into the danger zone should be avoided by someone who is insulin resistant or who has type 2 diabetes.

Week 1: Feb 3-10

You can see my week one blood sugar averages as very stable, around 96 mg, with no spikes anywhere.

That first week, I almost gave up measuring as I pretty much eat the same foods every day and I was getting the same spikes every day. Around 9am I eat breakfast (usually Ezekiel bread with peanut butter) and you can see this is typically when my blood sugar spikes the most, around 9am. Since I’m not diabetic, my blood sugar goes back to normal pretty quickly.

Around 12pm I’ll have a protein shake with almond milk, (with strawberries, avocado, spinach and fiber) that doesn’t spike blood sugar, and usually around 3pm I’ll have eggs (sometimes with bacon) with the other avocado half. Everything on my chart was predictable, no surprises, even on the days that I ate some chocolate, something I do when I have writing blocks. Since I’m not diabetic or insulin resistant, small amounts of sugar don’t seem to do much to my blood sugar.

But look at what happened when I travelled in week 2.

Week 2, I was away from home, and ate something I don’t usually eat. Normally, I bring food with me when I travel, as it does save money and time trying to find a place to eat, but this time, it was a quick trip, so I didn’t.

Look at the second graph in the show notes and you can see what happened when I was away for the weekend. You will see 2 times my blood sugar rose up. Once with a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread from a place called Jersey Mikes around 3pm, and again around 9pm that night. I usually follow an eating schedule where I would never eat past 5:30pm at night (intermittent fasting where I don’t eat for a 16 hour window, and eat healthy foods in an 8 hour window) but the event we were at ended late, so a group of us decided to order food from a local Thai restaurant. I love Thai food (especially Pad Thai) so that’s what I ordered. This meal (that was delicious) but it took my blood sugar way over 200, putting me in the danger zone with this meal. It did stable out in the night, but here’s what was interesting for me. Whenever I eat something off my usual plan, I feel starving the next day. It just messes up the whole next day for me, and while it was worth it to sit and enjoy a meal with others, it is good to know what happens to our body when we overload it with high glucose foods.

If you look at the second graph, the next day, my blood sugar kept dipping too low (where it dipped low and was showing red, was when I felt insanely hungry) and it would’ve been easy to eat something else off the usual menu, showing how one choice can impact the series of choices you make over the next few days. This was eye-opening to me.

Now let’s look at the graph of someone who has just crossed the threshold of being diabetic. I didn’t even pick a sugary food for this example, which would have obviously spiked blood sugar.

What happens to someone who is diabetic?

“Diabetes is a problem with your body that causes blood sugar (also called blood glucose) levels to rise higher than normal. This is also called hyperglycemia. When you eat, your body breaks food down into sugar and sends it into the blood. Insulin then helps move the sugar from the blood into your cells.”[xiv]

For a person with diabetes, there is a problem with insulin. But, not everyone with diabetes has the same problem. There are different types of diabetes—type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. If you have type 2 diabetes, your body does not use insulin properly. This is called insulin resistance. At first, your cells make extra insulin to make up for it. But, over time your pancreas can't make enough insulin to keep your blood sugar at normal levels. Type 2 diabetes develops most often in middle-aged and older adults but can appear in young people.

WEEK 1 with TYPE 2 DIABETIC PERSON:

Week 1 he noticed spikes with foods that were high in carbs (like bread) that stayed high well into the night and only started to come down to normal levels by 9am. The obvious take-away from this was that for someone who has passed the threshold with diabetes, or in the danger zone that they will eventually need to see the doctor to take medicine to keep their blood sugar levels stable. For some people, diet and exercise could be the answer to regulate blood sugar, but if your blood sugar is staying high, for too long, remember “glucose in the brain is toxic to the brain” and that “elevated blood sugar shrinks the brain” or even that “sugar in the brain looks like Alzheimer’s in the brain. If you are insulin resistant or have type 2 diabetes, then knowing how your body reacts to sugar could be the difference between life and death.

WEEK 2

Be careful of thinking "I've got this" and make a poor food choice. Here's the graph after eating homemade pizza. A better choice for pizza dough would be cauliflower pizza dough that you can find at your local grocery store that keeps blood sugar levels stable.

Once you have seen and felt a blood sugar spike, especially for someone working hard to keep their blood sugar levels stable, this was enough to make this person choose foods that did not cause a blood sugar spike and glucose levels remained under 150. Until they thought “oh I’ve got this blood sugar thing” and made homemade pizza with store bought dough, you will see this raised his blood sugar well into the danger zone over 200, just like my Pad Thai.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION

So taking what we learned from our last episode on the damaging impacts of sugar on the brain, we know that glucose is toxic to the brain, so a person with this data would now need to make a data informed decision to not eat foods that spike their blood sugar.

This is one of those things that’s easier said than done. How do you make huge lifestyle changes like this? I think it gets to the point that you’ll do it if your life depends on it. Like I remember that math teacher, Sergei with tears in his eyes on the hiking trail. You’ll make changes when your doctor tells you loud and clear you have no other option.

Make room for your health or you’ll need to make room for your illness.

We will conclude this episode with some tips on how to make actionable changes if you don’t know where to begin in your journey towards improved health and well-being.

TIP 1: LEARN WHAT FOODS ARE LOW-GLYCEMIC and replace what you used to eat (that spiked your blood sugar) with something else that doesn’t. This is going to be the biggest change as I remember looking at Dr. Jacoby and saying, “you mean bananas are high in sugar?” and he said “yes” and handed me a list of low glycemic fruits that included blueberries and raspberries (that Jason Wittrock tested and they kept his blood sugar low). I found some great resources for low glycemic foods from Dr. Daniel Amen.[xv]

TIP 2: DISCOVER THE MEAL PLAN THAT MAKES YOU FEEL THE BEST: There’s so many different options and I only chose the meal plan I eat because in my late 20s I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome[xvi] (the most common causes of female infertility) and who would have known that the diet plan that would work the best for me, and completely reverse this health problem, was to eat a diet similar to someone who is diabetic. I bought the PCOS Diet Book[xvii] that surprisingly was written to also help protect someone against diabetes and heart disease.

TIP 3: READ LABELS Read Labels and Know How to Identify Sugar to Make Better Choices: It’s shocking how many foods have hidden sugars. Did you know “The average American consumes 150 lbs. of sugar a year” (Dr. Amen) This makes sense when there’s so many foods labeled as healthy, with hidden sugars added.

Making the following changes will change your brain, improve cognition, focus and help lead you towards improved results, and away from diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease.

I hope you find these tips as helpful as I did. I only discovered this pathway because I so happened to book an appointment with a doctor who believes that peripheral neuropathy (that numbness I felt in my feet during exercise) is an early sign for what he’s seen in his patients over the years…

The final thoughts come from Dr. Jacoby, who pleads with us:

I’d love to hear what you think of this episode! Do you know how YOUR body responds to sugar? Have you ever measured your glucose levels? This data will help inform many of your decisions related to the foods you will eat. I know I’m going to stick to eating those low glycemic foods that keep my blood sugar levels and hunger levels stable, until I make it back to my hometown in Toronto, where I’ll order a Hawaiian slice at the famous Pizza Pizza with extra pineapple, and I’ll enjoy every bite of it, because you only live once!

I’ll see you next week as we revisit EP #119 on “The Key Ingredients of Learning with the Brain in Mind”

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] https://www.freestyle.abbott/us-en/home.html

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #117 “The ‘Damaging Impact of Sugar on the Brain and Body” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-damaging-impact-of-sugar-on-the-brain-and-body-with-andrea-samadi/

[iii] Lower carbohydrate and higher fat intakes are associated with higher hemoglobin A1c: findings from the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008-2016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7413867/

[iv] Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage and Reclaim Good Health by Dr. Richard Jacoby (April 2014) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KPVB4OA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

[v] http://phoenixfootcarenetwork.com/

[vi] Study finds most Americans low in omega-3 fatty acids Published May 24, 2021 by Danielle Masterson usa.com/Article/2021/05/24/Study-finds-most-Americans-low-in-omega-3-fatty-acids-could-impact-mood#:~:text=Subscribe-,Study%20finds%20most%20Americans%20low%20in%20omega,fatty%20acids%2C%20could%20impact%20mood&text=New%20research%20has%20found%20that,on%20the%20US%20Dietary%20Guidelines">https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2021/05/24/Study-finds-most-Americans-low-in-omega-3-fatty-acids-could-impact-mood#:~:text=Subscribe-,Study%20finds%20most%20Americans%20low%20in%20omega,fatty%20acids%2C%20could%20impact%20mood&text=New%20research%20has%20found%20that,on%20the%20US%20Dietary%20Guidelines.

[vii] Jason Wittrock https://www.instagram.com/jason.wittrock/?hl=en

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #114 on “Building a Faster, Stronger, More Resilient Brain by Understanding Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor or BDNF” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-building-a-faster-stronger-resilient-brain-by-understanding-brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor-bdnf/

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE “Review of the Top 5 Health Staples Created for Podbean’s Wellness Week” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/bonus-episode-a-deep-dive-into-the-top-5-health-staples-and-review-of-seasons-1-4/

[x] Go Wild: Eat fat, Run Free, Be Social, and Follow Evolution’s Other Rules for Total Health and Well-Being by John J. Ratey, MD and Richard Manning (June 3, 2014) https://www.amazon.com/Go-Wild-Free-Afflictions-Civilization-ebook/dp/B00FPQA66C

[xi] Dr. David Perlmutter’s “Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention” https://scienceofprevention.com/

[xii] https://www.instagram.com/jason.wittrock/?hl=en

[xiii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #94 with Jason Wittrock on “Health, Intermittent Fasting, and the Ketogenic Diet” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-trainer-and-fitness-model-jason-wittrock-on-health-nutrition-intermittent-fasting-and-the-ketogenic-diet/

[xiv] https://diabetes.org/

[xv] 4 Feel Better Food Strategies by Daniel Amen https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/4-feel-better-fast-food-strategies/#:~:text=Most%20vegetables%2C%20legumes%2C%20and%20fruits,blood%20sugar)%20are%20smart%20carbs.[xvii] The PCOS Diet Book by Collette Harris https://www.amazon.com/PCOS-Diet-Book-nutritional-polycystic/dp/0007131844

Feb 17, 2023

00:18:28

“It is impossible to escape the drumbeat of grim news about Alzheimer’s Disease: this it is incurable and largely untreatable, that there is no reliable way to prevent it, and that the disease has for decades beaten the world’s best neuroscientists.”

This is an excerpt from Dr. Dale Bredesen’s book, The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline.

On today’s Episode #274 we will cover

✔ A review of EPISODE #114 where we covered a thorough overview of BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) and what we should all understand about this protein and its benefits to the brain.

✔How BDNF is reduced in the brain of someone who has developed Alzheimer's Disease.

✔A look at an internationally recognized expert in the mechanisms of degenerative disease, Dr. Dale Bredesen and his book The End of Alzheimer's to take the "fear" out of this disease.

✔ A look back to the Top 5 Health Staples we created after watching Dr. David Perlmutter's Alzheimer's The Science of Prevention Documentary.

✔ An overview of Dr. Dale Bredesen's Protocol where he is seeing significant results with his patients who shows signs of cognitive impairment.

✔A plan for us to think about the prevention of this debilitating disease.

If American Psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist, Dr. Daniel Amen says that “Alzheimer’s is a lifestyle disease”[i] and innovator in medicine, Dr. Dale Bredesen, with over 30 patents in his name, comes up with a protocol to prevent and reverse cognitive decline, you’d better believe I’m going to feature these important findings in the field of neuroscience on this podcast. If I see anything that could possibly change the course of our lives, improving it in any way, I’ll share what I’m learning with you here on The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. It’s here where we bridge the gap between theory and practice, with strategies, tools and ideas we can all use immediately, applied to the most current brain research with the goal of heightening productivity in our schools, sports environments and modern workplaces. For returning guests, welcome back, and for those who are new listeners, I’m Andrea Samadi and launched this podcast almost 4 years ago, to share how important an understanding of our brain is for our everyday life and results.

This season (Season 9) we will be focused on Neuroscience: Going Back to the Basics as we revisit our past Brain Fact Fridays, narrowing in on how anything new from the field of neuroscience (that I’ve seen since releasing those earlier episodes) can be tied to improving our productivity, our results, or our mental and physical health. My hopes are that this review will help us to become better prepared to move forward, with a healthier, stronger version of ourselves, as we move towards our goals, or whatever it is that we are working on this year, with this strong foundation and understanding of our brain in place.

This week, we will look back to our third Brain Fact Friday and episode #114 [ii] on “Building a Faster, Stronger, More Resilient Brain by Understanding Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor or BDNF.” My goal with this episode is that if anyone asks you “what do you know about Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor” that you would have a clear answer with what we covered on this past episode, (what it is, why it’s important for us to know about) and anything new that we will uncover today that will act as a check for us to see if we really are building a faster, stronger and more resilient brain.

On our last episode we covered:

✔What BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) is and what are its benefits to the brain.

✔What we should all understand about BDNF with Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease and how our brain learns.

✔The Connection Between Exercise, Nutrition and BDNF

✔ Why Putting the Body Under Stress is a Good Thing.

✔Sleep, Stress and the BDNF Factor.

If you want to revisit this past episode, you can click on the link in the show notes, and review the basics of BDNF, a protein that’s found in the brain and other parts of the body “involved in plastic changes related to learning and memory[iii] and higher-level cognitive abilities. This signaling protein is the reason why we can sit at our desk with a heightened sense of focus and concentration, after we exercise. It’s what Dr. Ratey from EPISODE #116[iv] on The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain taught us when he said that “movement places demands on the brain, just as it does on muscle, and so the brain releases BDNF which triggers the growth of cells to meet the increased mental demands of movement”[v] and the whole brain benefits from this movement.

ON THIS PAST EPISODE, WE LEARNED THE BENEFITS OF BDNF

[vi]

WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND ABOUT BDNF ESPECIALLY AS IT RELATES TO ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE?

[viii]

Now that we have reviewed what we learned from March 2021, I wonder what else there is about this protein found in the brain and spinal cord that promotes the survival of nerve cells (neurons) that could help all of us with our overall health and well-being and I found something important since that first episode 2 years ago. For today’s episode, #274, we will be looking at the work of Dr. Dale Bredesen, to see if we can take our health and wellness to new heights.

The goal of this episode is to take the “fear” out of Alzheimer’s Disease, as we gain some understanding about it. While there is no known cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, I want to share with you what Dr. Dale Bredesen has discovered, as “the first person to reverse Alzheimer’s Disease in people, not just with experiments with mice in the lab.”[ix]

About Dr. Dale Bredesen

I first came across his work on Dr. Perlmutter’s Alzheimer’s The Science of Prevention Documentary that we covered when our podcast took a turn towards health and wellness in 2020. After this documentary, we created our Top 5 Health Staples with tips for how they can prevent Alzheimer’s Disease and featured these tips on EPISODE #87.[x] While health and wellness have always been important to me on a person level, this episode opened up many doors for me when I was asked to speak on the topic of health and wellness after this episode. I’m not an expert here, (my schooling began in the field of education) but I do take all of these Top 5 health staples seriously, enough to spend any free time I have researching how we can all improve our health and wellness, and share what I’m learning with you here on the podcast.

I do believe that when you walk your talk, and believe in whatever it is that you are doing, that this curiosity for improvement become contagious, especially if whatever it is you are doing is yielding results. Who wouldn’t want to know what’s working for others, and see how they can apply it to their own life? I’ve asked health experts over the years on this podcast, what they think is missing from my list of health staples, and the one thing they’ve said, if I can recall my conversation with Dr. Brian Stenzler, from EPISODE #178[xi] on “Dream Wellness: Taking Your Mental and Physical Health to New Heights” is to include something about reducing stress.

REVIEW of the TOP 5 HEALTH STAPLES

I highly recommend that everyone picks up Dr. Bredesen’s book, The End of Alzheimer’s as he has created a pro-active approach to this disease that we “fear like no other disease.” (Dr. Bredesen).

Dr. Bredesen, an internationally recognized expert in the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, has been guided by a simple idea in his career: that Alzheimer’s as we know it is not just preventable, but reversible. His dedicated pursuit of the science that makes this a reality has placed him at the vanguard of neurological research and led to the discoveries that define his Protocol™ that you will see throughout the pages of his book.

Instead of the old-fashioned, outdated approach to health and wellness, where we wait for symptoms to occur, and then we go to the doctor where we will be told “there’s no known cure for this, but here’s a drug you can take that may or may not provide relief of the symptoms you are having” why not think like Dr. Daniel Amen, (that this is a lifestyle disease) and Dr. Bredesen, that this disease is preventable (for those don’t currently have symptoms) and reversible (if you do). If you follow Dr. Bredesen’s work, you will see he is a humble man, who has seen this eye-opening improvement in his patients over the years, who followed his “Bredesen 7 Protocol.” He said that in his most recent study, that “84% of his participants who were in Phase 3 of having symptoms (showing mild cognitive impairment-or people who had symptoms that were quite far along) that things improved significantly with his protocol.”[xii]

WHAT IS THE BREDESEN 7?

Dr. Bredesen believes that Alzheimer’s is a “network insufficiency” that occurs when parts of our brain are not functioning optimally. He says we need “Mitochondrial function (the energy powerhouse in our cells), growth factor support, BDNF, (the focus of this episode) blood flow, oxygen and ketone levels”[xiii] and if you look at the diagram in the show notes, his health staples, or his trademarked protocol include nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress reduction, brain stimulation, detoxing the body, and supplements. You can read more about the importance of each of these 7 protocols on his website.

For today’s episode, my hope was that if at any given time, if we are asked “what are you doing for YOUR cognitive health?” that we all have a thorough answer, using our deep and thorough understanding of this protein, BDNF that:

[xiv]

[xv]

Since this disease is preventable, I wanted us to think about this. Here’s a passionate and heartfelt excerpt from The End of Alzheimer’s:

If anyone has seen this first hand, Dr. Bredesen’s description of this disease will resonate as very true.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION

So now that we know that BDNF is reduced in someone with Alzheimer’s Disease, and we’ve seen Dr. Bredesen’s work where he’s been able to prevent AND reverse cognitive decline in those who have come to see him, I think that understanding our TOP HEALTH STAPLES with our brain in mind should include a clear understanding of what BDNF is, and why it’s important for our mental and physical health as we age.

Dr. Bredesen gives a good analogy of our brain to a computer, that over time begins to slow down in performance when it runs out of space. Like a computer, we can keep our brain healthy, by doing what we can to prevent this debilitating disease, and like Dr. Daniel Amen said, “it’s a lifestyle disease.” By no means is this episode here to say that these tips will cure you if you’ve noticed cognitive decline in yourself, or someone else, the point of this episode is to direct us all to what we can do today to build a stronger, healthier and more resilient brain, even as we age.

We can all tell when our brain isn’t as sharp as it used to be. I noticed it very clearly while interviewing guests on this podcast. It takes a very clear mind to be able to recall details of past episodes, or book names, or what the book was about, or even the person’s name that I’m speaking with. Every detail matters, and when I noticed a lack of clarity this past summer, I knew it was time to tighten up my own health protocol and take things to a new level.

What about you?

What have you noticed with your ability to think clearly, or recall information on a daily basis? If you look at the Bredesen 7 Protocol can you see areas you would like to improve? We don’t need to change everything all at once, one small step at a time can make a huge difference, but the first step, I think is to take a solid inventory of ourselves, and notice if something needs to change.

To conclude this week’s Brain Fact Friday, on our review of BDNF, my suggestion is that we all take note in ways that we can increase BDNF.

PUTTING THE BREDESEN 7 INTO PRACTICE FOR IMPROVED COGNITION:

Dr. Dale Bredesen, who was the first person to reverse Alzheimer’s in humans (not just mice) has come up with his “Bredesen 7” that includes strategies similar to the Top 5 health staples we’ve been covering on this podcast the past few years.

I’ll leave you with some final thoughts of where to begin. Look at the diagram in the show notes, and think:

Are there areas here that you can improve? If your life depended on it, would that be enough to motivate you to try something new? Pick one area that you will work on and create a plan to SHIFT this one area.

If it’s nutrition, what can you do to support your cognitive health with the food you are eating? For exercise, what can you do to move more every day? I just read the other day that “sitting is the new smoking”[xvi] and that over 25% of American adults site for more than eight hours every day, with 44% of these people getting little or no exercise. How are you reducing stress? I use exercise and meditation as ways to reduce stress. Sleep is always something I’m personally working on improving, and so far, I’ve not mastered this one yet, unless I’m on vacation. For mental stimulation, one of the reasons I don’t ever plan on giving up on this podcast, even when time is more limited, is for the fact that I know writing and recording these episodes keeps my brain mentally active. One area that surprised me while researching over the years was with the detox section, and it’s not just about be careful what you put into your body, but also thinking about our oral health. Brushing our teeth and flossing is actually good for our brain. I learned this one from Dr. Daniel Amen[xvii] who is the first to share how proud he is with his excellent oral hygiene. Supplements are another interesting area to pay attention to, and while I do take certain ones every day, this is something that would be individual to everyone’s needs. I’ll put a link to a recent podcast episode from Dr. Andrew Huberman that he did on a Deep Dive into Supplements, what to take and why.[xviii]

I hope this episode has made you think about your brain in a new light. Like our computer needs the right amount of memory to work properly, so does our body, that’s driven by our brain, and the hope that I’d like to provide is that it’s not too late for any of us to make changes if you’ve gone off track, and notice your memory is not as sharp as it used to be. I made some very small and simple shifts last summer that yielded huge results, and know it just takes the will to find a new and improved way.

And with that, we’ll close out today’s episode, and will see you next week as we revisit one of my all-time favorite episodes on “The Damaging Impacts of Sugar on the Brain and Body.”[xix] This next one is going to be good!

See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

The Bredesen 7 Protocol https://www.apollohealthco.com/simplifying-the-bredesen-protocol/

REFERENCES:

[i] Alzheimer’s is a Lifestyle Disease by Dr. Daniel Amen Published Nov. 3, 2021 https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/alzheimers-is-a-lifestyle-disease/

[ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #114 on “Building a Faster, Stronger, More Resilient Brain by Understanding Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor or BDNF” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-building-a-faster-stronger-resilient-brain-by-understanding-brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor-bdnf/

[iii] Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor: A Key Molecule for Memory in the Healthy and Pathological Brain (August 07, 2019) by Magdalena Miranda, Juan Facundo Morici, Maria Belen Zanoni, and Pedro Bekinschtein https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363/full

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#116 with Dr. John Ratey on “The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/best-selling-author-john-j-ratey-md-on-the-revolutionary-new-science-of-exercise-and-the-brain/

[v] Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor: A Key Molecule for Memory in the Healthy and Pathological Brain (August 07, 2019) by Magdalena Miranda, Juan Facundo Morici, Maria Belen Zanoni, and Pedro Bekinschtein https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2019.00363/full

[vi] Therapeutic potential of BDNF Published Jan. 2017 by Mary Wurzelmann, Jennifer Romeika, Dong Sun https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28250730/

[vii] BDNF ameliorates learning deficits in a rat model of Alzheimer’s https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25849905/

[viii] Relationship of circulatory BDNF with cognitive deficits in people with Parkinson’s disease https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26944151/

[ix] Peggy Sarlin’s Brain Health Breakthroughs, Awakening from Alzheimer’s https://brainhealthbreakthroughs.com/registered/

[x]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #87 on “The Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/do-you-know-the-top-5-brain-health-and-alzheimers-prevention-strategies-with-andrea-samadi/

[xi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #178 with Dr. Brian Stenzler on“Dream Wellness: Taking Your Mental and Physical Health to New Heights” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-brian-stenzler-on-dream-wellness-taking-your-mental-and-physical-health-to-new-heights/

[xii] Peggy Sarlin’s Brain Health Breakthroughs, Awakening from Alzheimer’s https://brainhealthbreakthroughs.com/registered/

[xiii] IBID

[xiv] BDNF ameliorates learning deficits in a rat model of Alzheimer’s https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25849905/

[xv] Relationship of circulatory BDNF with cognitive deficits in people with Parkinson’s disease https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26944151/

[xvi] Sitting is the New Smoking by Hannah, August 10, 2019 https://theheartfoundation.org/2019/08/10/is-sitting-the-new-smoking/

[xvii] Here’s Why Flossing is So Important For Your Health by Keith Rowe for Dr. Amen’s Brain MD https://brainmd.com/blog/benefits-of-flossing-for-gum-health/

[xviii] Dr. Andrew Huberman Supplements: Full List, Deep Dive into What and Why https://fastlifehacks.com/andrew-huberman-supplements-list/

[xix]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #117 on “The Damaging Impact of Sugar on the Brain and Body” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-damaging-impact-of-sugar-on-the-brain-and-body-with-andrea-samadi/

Feb 09, 2023

00:18:06

"Self-regulation will always be a challenge, but if somebody's going to be in charge, it might as well be me." Daniel Akst

On today’s Episode #273 we will cover

✔ A review of Brain Fact Friday #112, where we introduced Self-Regulation, and why it's important for our overall mental health and wellbeing.

✔ One strategy from the work of Dr. Daniel Amen for Self-Regulating Automatic Negative Thoughts.

✔ Two strategies from the work of Dr. Andrew Huberman--One on using self-regulation to calm ourselves down in less than a minute, and the other to strengthen the NO-GO Circuits in our brain to help with impulse control.

This season (Season 9) we will be focused on Neuroscience: Going Back to the Basics as we revisit our past Brain Fact Fridays, narrowing in on how anything new from the field of neuroscience can be tied to improving our productivity, our results, our mental and physical health. Why are we going back to the basics? When we are building something worthwhile, something that we want to last, going back to the foundations will help us to strengthen our understanding of our brain, and our mind, to our results, providing us with the extra strength we will need to overcome the obstacles and challenges that will come our way. My hopes are that this step backwards will help us to become better prepared to move forward, towards our goals, or whatever it is that we are working on this year, with this strong foundation in place.

Today’s EPISODE #273, we are going back to our second Brain Fact Friday, EPISODE #112, released in March of 2021 on “Training Your Brain to Self-Regulate Automatic Negative Thoughts and Emotions”[i] where we looked at our recent interview with my good friend Horacio Sanchez, from EPISODE #111 on “Finding Solutions to the Poverty Problem.”[ii]

Horacio Sanchez said, “Did you know that when we engage in inner speech, all the mechanisms of outer speech and the auditory process activate in the brain? Therefore, what we say to ourselves is just like hearing it said by someone else to us. Inform students (and ourselves) that inner speech can build them up or destroy them.” (Horacio Sanchez)[iii]

I brought up the damaging effects of Automatic Negative Thinking on one of our early episodes, #14 on Self-Regulation.[iv] This skill of managing our thoughts, emotions and behavior comes under the competency of self-regulation (one of the 6 social and emotional learning competencies that we covered in the beginning episodes of this podcast, to set the foundation for what I envisioned with the content we would be covering here. It’s these 6 pillars that I saw as the foundation for us to build upon, and improve and is the heart of The Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast.

What is Self-Regulation and Why is it So Important to Be Able to Manage Those Negative Thoughts, Our Emotions and Even Our Behavior?

Self-regulation is “the ability to manage your emotions and behavior in accordance with the demands of the situation. It includes being able to resist highly emotional reactions to upsetting stimuli, to calm yourself down when you get upset, adjust to a change in expectations and (the ability) to handle frustration”[v] In other words, it’s the ability to bounce back after a setback or disappointment, and the ability to stay in congruence with your inner value system.

On EPISODE #111, I gave some examples of how we could teach self-regulation to our children and students, and even gave some thoughts on why it’s an important skill to master in the workplace. You can go back this episode if you want to review these tips by clicking on the link in the show notes, but for today’s episode, almost 3 years later, I wonder, “how good am I at self-regulation” and have I improved this skill at all over the years? Since this is a how-to podcast, where I want to provide tips for us all to use and implement immediately, backed by the most current neuroscience research, I thought I would check in with what Stanford Professor and Neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman would say about self-regulation. I’m probably going to reflect back to his work, or anyone else who can explain how to implement the concepts I’m trying to reinforce on this podcast, or anyone who can help me to explain the details of science in a way that we can all understand and apply it. So far, I’ve found Dr. Daniel Amen (who I’ve talked a lot about on this podcast with his idea of controlling our ANTS, or automatic negative thoughts) and will look at Dr. Andrew Huberman’s work to see what he says about self-regulation.

Dr. Amen and Controlling Those ANTS

What I love about Dr. Amen’s work, is that he explains why eliminating negative thoughts is so important. Did you know that “every time your brain has a thought, it releases chemicals? Every time you have a sad, hopeless, mad, cranky, unkind, judgmental, or helpfulness thought, your brain immediately releases chemicals that make your body feel awful.[vi] He goes on to explain the physiological effects of negative thinking saying “your hands get cold and wet, your muscles get tense, your heart beats faster, and your breathing becomes shallower (and all of this activity) in your frontal and temporal lobes decreases which negatively affects your judgement, learning and memory.” (Dr. Amen).

Do what can we do to avoid this pitfall of making ourselves feel rotten? Dr. Amen suggests that we “work on disciplining the mind” to get rid of these Automatic Negative Thoughts to keep ourselves in a healthier frame of mind.

On our last episode, we talked about an effective strategy used in cognitive behavioral therapy[vii] of saying the word “SWITCH” in your head as you focus on switching the negative emotion that you feel to something more positive. This takes some practice, that’s for sure. I’ve always used the strategy of saying “STOP” when this happens and changing the thought pattern in my head to something more productive.

Also, remembering the idea of RESPONDING to situations with questions to dig deeper, and learn more, instead of REACTING with emotion, or jumping to conclusions, or incorrect assumptions, is always a better solution.

Now let’s dive a bit deeper here, and see what Dr. Andrew Huberman has to say about self-regulation.

Dr. Andrew Huberman on Self-Regulation

Dr. Huberman reminds us why self-regulation is important, and says that “knowledge of knowledge can actually help you to intervene” (which is why we are doing this podcast and breaking down the science so we can all use it to improve our lives) and he discusses why self-regulation with our behaviors is important. He notes a question to ask ourselves “when I’m thinking that I’m feeling low, nothing feels good, am I depressed? Maybe (he says) or maybe you’ve saturated the dopamine circuits and you’re now in the pain part of things. What do you do? (He says) you have to stop. You need to replenish dopamine. You need to stop engaging in the behavior (whatever it was you were doing that you noticed lost something for you) and then the pleasure for it will come back. You have to constantly control the hinge, make sure the hinge doesn’t get stuck in the pain or in pleasure.”[viii]

We covered this concept in depth with our interview with Dr. Anna Lembke and her book, Dopamine Nation on EPISODE #162[ix] where she dove deep with us on how we are constantly trying to distract ourselves from the present moment to be entertained” and “that we’re all running from pain—we’ll do almost anything to distract ourselves from ourselves” and that “we’ve lost the ability to tolerate even minor forms of discomfort.”

Here’s where I notice my inability to tolerate even mild forms of discomfort as Dr. Lembke was saying. Let’s take writing these episodes. I wake up early, go to my desk, and am ready to get back to my notes over the week where I’ve gathered ideas and research, and now I need to put them all in one place for this episode. It’s not as mentally challenging as I’ve already written the first episode, but now I’ve got to see if I can improve it somehow with the latest research, and while writing, the minute I get stuck on what to say next, I will get up, and do something to distract myself, and come back after a few minutes.

Is there a better, more effective, science-backed solution for me to use when I’ve hit a wall, and need a break? Dr. Andrew Huberman explained it beautifully on Mayim Bialik’s Podcast[x] (side-note, do you remember her? She’s an American Actress who was on the NBC Sitcom Blossom, and went on to study in the field of neuroscience, crossing paths with Dr. Huberman along the way. On this episode, she did with Dr. Huberman, he describes an activity he uses for stress reduction in minutes, that we can all use to self-regulate when we need it.

Try This Activity! How to Self-Regulate Your Brain in Less Than a Minute

I loved this episode with Dr. Huberman and Mayim[xi], as she talks about him as being “the smartest human being on the planet” and he talks about remembering her when she was interviewing at Graduate School and he didn’t miss a detail. There’s an obvious respect that each one has for the other.

On this episode, with Mayim, Dr. Huberman shares a quick and easy activity we can all to do calm us down in less than a minute. He says, “Do a double inhale through your nose, one longer inhale and then sneak in a quick second inhale, which re-inflates the sacks in your lungs, and then do a long full exhale to empty out all the air from your lungs” This, he says “naturally activates the neural circuits in the brain and body that shift that see-saw from sympathetic (alertness and stress) to parasympathetic.” It looks like this. Just one of these, Dr. Huberman says will return us to a calm state.

While reflecting back to our first episode on self-regulation, we did talk about a couple of examples to say “STOP” or “SWITCH” to stop those negative thoughts from ruminating in our head, but this breathing activity, I think is something I will try moving forward.

What About Self-Regulating Our Behaviors?

So now I think we all have a strategy we can use right away to calm ourselves down when we need to, but how else could we train our brain to self-regulate? This one, I learned from a podcast episode from Jessica Stillman’s INC Magazine’s article[xii] where she picks Dr. Huberman as a resource for this strategy. You can also watch an incredible interview with Shane Parrish[xiii] on this concept.

The important part to understand here is that our Basal Ganglia is vitally important for controlling our thoughts and actions and Dr. Huberman teaches us that “there are two main circuits that are both regulated by dopamine. Some of the circuits are involved in the go functions (where we lean into our work—its action oriented) and the other one is no-go and it involves certain neurotransmitters like dopamine to suppress behavior.”[xiv]

He gives some examples reminding us as adults, that most of the time we are operating with our GO circuits (waking up, making our bed, getting ready, go to work etc) but think of our kids and many of their circuits involves to NO go circuits, like when we tell our kids, sit still, don’t do that etc) and it’s not easy for them to do this. The research behind the whole marshmallow experiment that I re-enacted with my kids[xv] proves how important this skill is for our students’ future success, so I wondered, how can we all improve this NO-GO circuit in our brain?

Activity 2: How to Train Your Brain to Control Your Impulses and Self-Control

This is what Dr. Huberman does to intentionally train his brain to become stronger, keeping his impulses under control. He intentionally plans 20-30 NO-GO activities a day to strengthen this circuit in his brain. He says that the things you choose would be specific to you, and one way we both relate is that when I’m working in a block of time, and get stuck, I have this impulse to look at my phone, or get up and heat up my coffee or something. Anything to take me away for a minute of where I’m stuck. Instead of doing this, he suggests, stay there a minute longer and see if you can get past the block. This will strengthen my NO-GO circuit, and help me to reach those higher levels of productivity.

He mentions another example of how many of us find it difficult to sit and meditate. I remember the first time doing this I really struggled as I could hear the kids running around, and I really wanted to get up. This was because my GO circuits were stronger than my NO-GO circuits. What’s interesting is that you will have to monitor this one over time, because meditation and blocking out the world gets easier with time, so if I want to keep strengthening my NO GO circuit, I’ll have to look for 20-30 things (to replicate Dr. Huberman’s Strategy) that I want to do each day, and not do them, or at least, not do them right away.

Can you think of 20-30 things that you will suppress to strengthen YOUR NO-GO circuit?

If it’s difficult, begin with just 4 things. Here’s some ideas-

Don’t eat the thing you were going to eat. Don’t get up from working when things are difficult. Change up a work out and don’t do it the same. Don’t pick up your phone when you are working.

Whatever you habitually do, do it differently and it will feel strange at first, until you strengthen this part of your brain that Dr. Huberman says is like “keeping the blad sharp on both sides (the get up and go into action side, and the don’t go, leave the phone alone) side.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION:

To Review and Conclude this week’s Brain Fact Friday, we took a deeper dive into EPISODE #112, on “Training Your Brain to Self-Regulate Automatic Negative Thoughts and Emotions”[xvi] with some tips from Dr. Daniel Amen on how to stop those Automatic Negative Thoughts from making ourselves feeling rotten, and disciplining our mind to stay in the positive.

Then we went to Dr. Andrew Huberman’s research with 2 strategies for calming our mind in one minute with that breathing exercise and the idea of strengthening our NO-GO circuits by suppressing certain actions in our day.

I hope that you find these strategies helpful for improving your day to day work and personal life, and that we all can use the science behind these strategies to strengthen our brain and our results. I have to say that I did use the breathing strategy BEFORE recording this episode, and plan on carving out some NO GO activities within my day today. I’d love to know what you think of this episode.

With that, I’ll see you next week where we will look at what’s NEW for building a faster, stronger, more resilient brain.

RESOURCES TO FOLLOW:

To follow Dr. Andrew Huberman's work https://hubermanlab.com/

To follow Dr. Daniel Amen's work https://www.amenclinics.com/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #112 on “Training Your Brain to Self-Regulate Automatic Negative Thoughts and Emotions”https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-training-your-brain-to-self-regulate-automatic-negative-thoughts-and-emotions/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast Episode #11 with Horacio Sanchez on “Finding Solutions to The Poverty Problem” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/resiliency-expert-and-author-horacio-sanchez-on-finding-solutions-to-the-poverty-problem/

[iii] Horacio Sanchez on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/hsanchezceo_neuroscience-education-activity-6770706945264386048-BDCn

[iv] Neuroscience Meets SEL Episode #14 with Andrea Samadi on “Self-Regulation: The Foundational Learning Skill for Future Success” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/self-regulation-the-foundational-learning-skill-for-future-success/

[v] Edutopia article “Teaching Self-Regulation by Modeling” (January, 2019) https://www.edutopia.org/video/teaching-self-regulation-modeling

[vi] The Number one Habit to Develop In Order to Feel More Positive by Dr. Daniel Amen August 16, 2016 https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/number-one-habit-develop-order-feel-positive/

[vii] What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Therapist Kati Morton YouTube uploaded Sept. 23, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7B3n9jobus

[viii] Neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman on Self-Regulation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ1zYZHg8k4

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #162 with Dr. Anna Lembke on “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/medical-director-of-addictive-medicine-at-stanford-university-dr-anna-lembke-on-dopamine-nation-finding-balance-in-the-age-of-indulgence/

[x] Mayim Bialik’s Podcast with Andrew Huberman on Regulating Stress in Real-Time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk5GC269WT0

[xi] Mayim Bialik’s Podcast with Andrew Huberman on Regulating Stress in Real-Time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk5GC269WT0

[xii] Stanford Neuroscientist: How to Train Your Self-Control So You Don’t Mess Up Your Life by Jessica Stillman impulse-control-no-go-function.html">https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/stanford-impulse-control-no-go-function.html

[xiii] How to Control Your Impulses So They Don’t Ruin Your Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wpP1W8eoaI&t=1s

[xiv] IBID

[xv] The Marshmallow Experiment with Andrea Samadi Uploaded Nov. 2, 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq903CXJUpg

[xvi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #112 on “Training Your Brain to Self-Regulate Automatic Negative Thoughts and Emotions”https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-training-your-brain-to-self-regulate-automatic-negative-thoughts-and-emotions/

Feb 03, 2023

00:25:22

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost: this is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

--Henry David Thoreau from Walden

On today’s Episode #272 we will cover

✔ An Introduction to Season 9: Going Back to the Basics by revisiting our past Brain Fact Fridays.

✔ A reminder: What is the Reticular Activating System and How Can It Help Us to Achieve Our Goals.

✔ A Review of The Creative Process or Turning a Fantasy into a Fact.

✔ Priming Our Brain to Set Worthy Goals

✔ What the Most Current Brain Research Says to Help Us to Improve Our Goal-Setting Process

✔ Research-Based Tips to Prime Your Brain to Achieve Your Goals in 2023

This season (Season 9) we will be focused on Neuroscience: Going Back to the Basics as we revisit our past Brain Fact Fridays, narrowing in on how anything new from the field of neuroscience can be tied to improving our productivity, our results, mental and physical health. Why are we going back to the basics? When we are building something worthwhile, something that we want to last, going back to the foundations will help us to strengthen our understanding of our brain, and our mind, to our results, providing us with the extra strength we will need to overcome the obstacles and challenges that will come our way. My hopes are that this step backwards will help us to become better prepared to move forward, towards our goals, or whatever it is that we are working on this year, with this strong foundation in place.

Today’s EPISODE #272, we will go back to our very first Brain Fact Friday, that we released as a BONUS EPISODE on March 5, 2021[i], called “Using the Reticular Activating System to Set Your Intent and Achieve It” and we will dive a bit deeper into how this system in the brain (our RAS) can actually help us with whatever it is that we want in 2023. But before we get to the science behind our goals, I want to take you on a trip, that goes back to my early days of working in the seminar industry, with motivational speaker Bob Proctor, who taught me how to dream. You can watch our interview on EPISODE #66[ii] where he marvels at how he watched the dream I envisioned all those years ago reveal itself over the years, as I took his work, and created a book for teens to improve their grades, their results with sports, or sharpen their skills, that eventually was made into an online course. I remember talking with Bob about this first book, The Secret for Teens Revealed[iii], (that was really just my notes that I’d gathered over the years listening to him in the seminars helping adults to achieve their goals, written so that a teenager could apply it), and I remember telling him that I thought there was something missing that was preventing kids from embracing the concepts written within the pages. We all know how learning works, and how important it is for a student to be engaged and motivated with whatever it is they are learning. He picked up on what I was getting at, and affirmed that “it is missing something very important” and went onto a lesson for me, standing in this hallway at this seminar he was speaking at, about the Creative Process. He said “you’ll want to think about how the creative process works” and then he got on the phone and called someone and put me in contact with someone who would take the words in this book, and help them to come alive, visually, with video, he suggested.

I never did end up working with the person Bob was putting me in contact with, I forget why, but he did open up my mind for how to take the words in the book (the vision I wanted those kids to see), and bring it to life. You can do this with images in a picture book, or other ideas I’ve talked about on recent episodes with innovative and creative ideas, but we did it with video. I worked with Ryan O’Neill, who we met on EPISODE #203[iv] on “Making Your Vision a Reality” and created The Secret for Teen Revealed Online Course[v] that you find today on the UDEMY Platform.

It All Begins With The Creative Process

Before we get to the science behind this idea of goal-achieving for 2023, I think it’s important to go back to the basics here, and revisit what Bob was trying to get me to think about, standing in the hallway, when we were talking about “what was missing” from my book. He wanted me to revisit “The Creative Process” that I’ve been mesmerized by since those days I used to sell those seminars with him. I always wondered “how do people dream up big ideas and then achieve them?” Bob would say that it all begins with this process that starts when the “inventor” of the idea paints of picture of what they see.

He would talk about the Creative Process in 3 Steps:

STEP 1 FANTASY: Paint the picture of what you really want in your mind. See it clearly on the screen of your mind first. Dream it all first. We’ve talked in depth about the importance of being able to clearly see your goals on the screen of our mind on past episodes, but most recently with our Deep Dive of The Silva Method[vi].

STEP 2 THEORY: Next you will need to go from the dream world, or your imagination faculty, to your reasoning faculty, where you will create the plans you will need for the attainment of this goal. If you look at the image in the show notes, you can see that he would say it’s here you need to pass a test. Ask yourself “Am I Able to Do This?” You might look at whatever it is you’ve dreamed up and you think “I can’t do that” as you think about the hundreds of reasons why you CAN’T achieve this goal that you really want. He would say “if you really want it, you’ll find the way.” The second test you’ll need to pass is with the question “Am I Willing” to do what it takes for this goal? Are you willing to pay the price, put in the extra effort needed? It’s here that he would say that “goals are not meant for you to get them, they are meant for you to grow.”

STEP 3 FACT: Now you’ll use repetition, and a change in behavior to turn your fantasy into a fact. Whatever it is that you want, or that you’ve achieved, it wasn’t something that just came to you overnight. It was something that you created, with your imagination, starting as a fantasy, then you turned it into a theory, putting your plans into place, until over time, until your dream became a reality, or a fact.

“When you turn that fantasy into a fact, you are in a position to build even better fantasies. And that, my friend, is the Creative Process.” Bob Proctor

Dreams and Worthy Goals:

I’m hoping that whatever it is that you want, or that you are investing your time on, that it’s something worthwhile. I hope that it’s NOT something that you have achieved in the past, and you’ve just written haphazardly down while setting goals this year. I hope it’s a goal that when you look at it, and have no idea how you will accomplish it. This is a worthy goal that only comes from dreaming big, that will challenge you to grow and move beyond where you’ve been in the past. I hope whatever it is you are working on, that it’s something that you look at and think “Now how on the Earth am I going to do that?!” This is truly something worth investing your time on as it will help you to grow.

I find the creative process to be fascinating, or watching people achieve what appears to the untrained eye to be impossible, and I do believe there is a science to this process and think that a closer look at the Reticular Activating System is a first step towards unraveling the secrets to our future successes with goal-setting and achieving, with our brain in mind.

The Reticular Activating System, Our Goals and The Research

To bring the most current research in here, I’m going to go to the work of Stanford Professor and American Neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman’s[vii] work, and I‘ve joined his Podcast’s Premium Channel[viii], which I probably should join as a Founding Member for how much I quote him on this podcast.

On our first episode on the RAS, we talked about the fact that in order to achieve our goals, or things that we want in our life, we must learn how to understand and use our Reticular Activating System[iv] which is a filter in our brain that helps us to focus on the things that are most important to us. If you have heard the idea that “energy flows where your attention goes” this explains why putting some focus on what we want to create in our life is so important. In our first episode we explained that Tobias van Schneider explains that the Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a “bundle of nerves at our brainstem that filters out unnecessary information, so the important stuff gets through.”[v] Van Schneider believes that the Reticular Activating System can be trained, and I agree, and it’s here that I’ll bring in Dr. Andrew Huberman’s research to show you how we can use our RAS to move us towards certain things that we want, and away from others that we don’t want.

Dr. Huberman was interviewed on The Mindset Mentor Podcast[ix] where he went much deeper into this explanation, but said to “think of the RAS as a template for what you want, or what you are looking for” and it impacts your perception, helping you to notice what you are paying attention to (or like Van Schneider said, it filters out unnecessary information, so the important stuff gets through.”

It Begins with our Perception or What We Are Paying Attention To:

He gave an example of a car that you want, explaining how the brain first uses its perception ability and notices what I’m paying attention to (this new car that I really want). I used to really want the Audi R8, but am happy with the car I have now, so I can’t say that I’ve been “looking” for R8s when I’m driving around, but if I was, you had better believe I would begin to see them everywhere. We talked about this on our first episode on the RAS with the man who invented the MAXON® Liftgate you see on the back of trucks. Once he brought my attention to this sign on the back of trucks that helps to load and unload a truck with contents, I started seeing this sign everywhere. This was my RAS at work.

Next, Our Brain Gets Involved Based on the Neuromodulator That’s High:

Dr. Huberman says that once we know we are paying attention to, that one of the four neuromodulators (acetyl choline, dopamine, epinephrine or serotonin) come into play, depending on which one is high in your system. He gave an example with if serotonin is high, you’re more likely to feel good about your environment around you, and there will be no seeking involved. You’ll be focused on things in your immediate sphere (or your home life for example) and if your dopamine is high, there’s a sense of ambition involved, where you begin to focus on things outside of your environment, or experience, and is involved in the seeking circuit. He says that “the dopamine system is all about want, desire, craving, motivation and getting more”[x] and can tie into the goal-setting, achieving experience that Dr. Huberman says is all dopamine-driven.

Our RAS Changes Our World View:

Here’s where the science bridges the gap between many of our past podcast episodes where we’ve talked about the importance of knowing what it is that you want, or even reading your goals out loud every day, that we talked about often with our Think and Grow Rich Book Review EPISODES [xi]last year. If you want to get fancy, listen to our Deep Dive on The Silva Method[xii] to visualize whatever it is that you want on the mental screen of your mind. We dove deep into this method the end of last year and it makes more sense to me now why this method is so effective. Once you know what you want, the RAS in your brain begins to work FOR you, and it will “cue up the things near you “and “help you to access memory stores about your end goal.” (Dr. Huberman). Or, like Bob Proctor taught us with the Creative Process, it begins with painting the picture of your fantasy, clearly on the screen of your mind. Now that we understand the research behind the Creative Process, thanks to Dr. Huberman, it’s easy to see how we go from Fantasy (with our perception or what we are paying attention to) to Theory (create the plans for what we want, based on the neuromodulator that’s high in our brain) to Fact (where we’ve used an understanding of our brain to create something we wanted).

PUT THIS INTO ACTION:

Try this activity that Dr. Huberman suggests and let me know what happens in your case. Before you go to bed at night, place the intention of whatever it is that you want. Whatever it is that you are working on—maybe you are writing a novel, and you are looking for new ideas (this would be your intention), maybe you are looking for a promotion at work (this would be your intention), you’re a student looking to improve your grades (this would be your intention) or improve your skills in a sport, or even earn more money, you get the picture, clearly visualize your intention before you go sleep at night, and Dr. Huberman says this activity will be “cueing up your brain to the things it should pay attention to” because like we said before, it acts like a filter “since it can’t pay attention to everything.” (Dr. Huberman).

Then the next few days, see what you notice.

Did you have new ideas for the novel you are writing? Did you notice a new job opening that you could apply for that would be a promotion for you, and seems like a perfect fit for you? Did you notice something important you forgot to study that could have cost you some grades? Did you notice something new you could do with your sport to improve somehow?

The funny thing I picked up from watching this interview with Dr. Huberman is that he made a joke about the movie, The Secret, while explaining how the RAS works in this interview. If I wasn’t paying attention to everything he was saying, I would have missed it. He said that once you pay attention to what you’ve set your intention on, “you’ll start to cue up all the things near you from your conscious and subconscious mind…the things you already possess in your mind from your memory bank (to help you to attain whatever it is that you want to accomplish) and you’ll start to see things in the world (to help you) and there’s nothing secretive about this, no pun intended he says.”[xiii]

I thought it was interesting that he was referring to the movie, The Secret, that my mentor, Bob Proctor starred in, that inspired me to write The Secret for Teens Revealed. I know that Bob didn’t know the science behind goal-setting and achieving, or at least not as in depth that Dr. Andrew Huberman does, but he knew there was something happening that he saw over and over again with people who dreamed up an incredible fantasy, and then turned it into reality.

I’m glad I didn’t miss this detail and made me think of something I saw one of my early influencers mention this week, “Attention to Detail Does Matter”

Review and Conclusion:

To review and conclude this week’s Brain Fact Friday and our FIRST Brain Fact Friday from March 2021, that I think we have more than covered in depth today, DID YOU KNOW that “your RAS is a powerful system in your brain that draws you towards certain things and away from others?” (Dr. Andrew Huberman)

As we close out this episode and review of our FIRST Brain Fact Friday, I hope this understanding of our brain and this filter called the RAS has opened YOUR eyes (like it did mine) to something new, giving you an AHA Moment where you begin to draw that which you want closer to you, using the Creative Process with Science.

TO CONCLUDE THIS EPISODE, THINK ABOUT THESE QUESTIONS:

Has this understanding of our RAS connected to the goal-setting/achieving process in your life, helped you to refine what it is you are working on this year? Did it help you with the goals you’ve set that seem impossible to achieve, or helped you to dream bigger than you’ve been dreaming? If you look at the notes I took at one of my first seminars Bob taught on the Creative Process, (if you can read them) you will see where I point out that when others see you working on something that’s much bigger than you, that people will come out of the woodwork who will want to help you. You just need to begin, or set the intention of what you want, in order for this to happen. Some other thoughts: Have you thought about what are YOU paying attention to day to day? Do you think about the creative process diagram, and what can you turn over to your imagination at the Fantasy Level? Do you even spend time dreaming? Have you started to use your Reasoning Faculty and then create the plans that will turn your Fantasy into a Fact? Are you a DOER, not just a DREAMER? Do you know the neuromodulators that are high in your brain? This will help you to understand which of the four neuromodulators are driving you (dopamine to look outside of your environment, or serotonin to keep you focused on things in your immediate sphere) that we spoke about, or acetyl choline (that keeps us focused) and epinephrine (for your alertness). Do you now think about your RAS, or your brain, and how it’s working FOR you in the Creative Goal-Setting/Achieving Process? Did you try the activity and go to sleep with an intention of something that you want to create, or move towards the next day? Did your RAS help you in any other way that I haven’t mentioned with what you want to create?

I’ll close with a quote that was inspired by someone who I know understands how the Creative Process Works:

“The difference between something good and something great, is attention to detail” Charles Swindell, and I hope that we can all see that it’s important to notice even the tiniest details.

Where our focus goes, our energy flows, and this understanding of the RAS and our brain can help us to pay attention to what matters most to us, and help us to achieve something we’ve never achieved before in 2023, which will in turn, contribute to our growth personally and professionally.

And with that, we will close out this episode, and we’ll see you next week where we will take a closer look at our next brain fact Friday on regulating our thoughts and emotions.

FINAL THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

This episode made me think deeply about my own creative process as I wrote this over a few days, in an early morning time slot where I have a quiet place to focus. But like my book discussion with Bob, I knew there was something missing so I woke up early, went to my office and took out some old notebooks from the seminar days to see what else I could add to make this episode to make it more than just “hey here’s how we set goals, and cool, look how our brains help us.”

I was looking for something else and a few things stood out to me from those old seminar notes. The Walden quote I opened up with was actually written on the back of one of the old seminar booklets, and I thought it was fitting for what I wanted to convey. I want us to build castles in the sky…I could almost see Bob shouting that out from the stage, using his hands to mold his castle in the sky…he’d look up and paint this image getting us to all look up and “imagine” our dream in the sky.

I wonder:

What’s your dream? Can’t you see it painted visually? Can you feel it with your heart and soul?

I highly recommend going back to our Think and Grow Rich Book Study[i] to start off every new year with. There’s so much in those 6 episodes that will set us all up for success with whatever it is we are working on. The Creative Process is summed up nicely in the pages of this book.

After I had recorded this episode I had it all cued up to go out this Friday, and then something weird happened. I woke up in the middle of the night, and was almost jolted out of sleep. I kept thinking “This episode isn’t finished…”

I went to my desk and thought “what else can I add?” not knowing why I had woken up with such a force almost pushing me back to my desk to take another look at this episode. Now this was around 1:30am and I was wide awake, looking for whatever it was that needed to be added-- and then I saw it.

This Friday when I was planning to release this episode marks the one year Anniversary of the day Bob passed away last year. I’m usually pretty good with dates, but the past month has been a whirlwind, I’m not even sure what time it is often, let alone the day.

I can’t believe I almost missed it if it, and wrote this episode with many examples about my past mentor, without realizing it would go out on the exact one year anniversary of when he left us. If it wasn’t for that jolt that pushed me back to my desk to take another look at it, I would have missed it.

Details Matter.

So this episode is for you Bob, one year after you moved over from the physical world to the nonphysical where you taught us we will all go someday…and that we are still here, just in different forms of energy, like the goals we bring from the unseen world (from our imagination) to the physical world (our reality).

This trip back down memory lane was so very special—remembering how he taught many of us to dream, and to honor all those early influencers (many who’ve come on this podcast over the years) who paved the pathway for where I personally ended up today. This is what I want for all our listeners—to get to the place where you’ve given it your all—you’ve stretched yourself, gone beyond your levels of comfort, sat at the edge of your seat, leaning in, accomplished that big dream you had, leading you to things you could never have imagined before. Then I hope that you’ll teach this to others.

I’ll end this episode with the quote that I ended The Think and Grow Rich Series[ii] with…

“What story do you want to tell? What scenes do you want to shoot? How do you want the movie to end? Be the director of your life.” Bob Proctor

Whatever it is you are going after, you’ll do it when you believe it.

And I’ll see you next week.

RESOURCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 Think and Grow Rich Book Review Deep Dive PART 1 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 Think and Grow Rich Book Review Deep Dive PART 6 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

The Secret https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Rhonda-Byrne/dp/B00DDOWK5I/ref=atv_pr_sw_sc

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[vii] https://hubermanlab.com/

RESOURCES TO REVIEW:

Andrea and Bob's Interview Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #66 “The Legendary Bob Proctor on “Social and Emotional Learning, Where it All Began” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-legendary-bob-proctor-on/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 Think and Grow Rich Book Review Deep Dive PART 1 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #191 PART 2 on “Thinking Differently and Choosing Faith Over Fear” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-2-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever-by-thinking-differently-and-choosing-faith-over-fear/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 PART 3 on “Putting Our Goals on Autopilot with Autosuggestion and Our Imagination” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #194 PART 4 on “Perfecting the Skills of Organized Planning, Decision-Making, and Persistence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-4-on-perfecting-the-skills-of-organized-planning-decision-making-and-persistence/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #195 PART 5 [xxviii] on “The Power of the Mastermind, Taking the Mystery Out of Sex Transmutation, and Linking ALL Parts of the Mind” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-5-on-the-power-of-the-mastermind-taking-the-mystery-out-of-sex-transmutation-and-linking-all-parts-of-our-mind/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 Think and Grow Rich Book Review Deep Dive PART 6 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE on “Using The Reticular Activating System to Set Your Intent and Achieve It” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-using-the-reticular-activating-system-to-set-your-intent-and-achieve-it/

[ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #66 “The Legendary Bob Proctor on “Social and Emotional Learning, Where it All Began” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-legendary-bob-proctor-on/

[iii] The Secret for Teens Revealed by Andrea Samadi https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teens-Revealed-Teenagers-Leadership/dp/1604940336

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #203 with Paranormal Researcher Ryan O’Neill on “Making Your Vision a Reality” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/case-study-with-paranormal-researcher-ryan-o-neill-on-making-your-vision-a-reality/

[v] The Secret for Teens Revealed: A 10-Step Blueprint https://www.udemy.com/course/the-secret-for-teens-revealed-a-10-step-success-blueprint/

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #261 A Deep Dive into Applying The Silva Method https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/a-deep-dive-with-andrea-samadi-into-applying-the-silva-method-for-improved-intuition-creativity-and-focus-part-1/

[viii] The Huberman Lab Premium Channel https://hubermanlab.supercast.com/new_landing?

[ix] The Mindset Mentor Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruBJYNKKKXY

[x] The Mindset Mentor Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruBJYNKKKXY (1:46)

[xi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 Think and Grow Rich Book Review Deep Dive PART 1 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

[xii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #261 A Deep Dive into Applying The Silva Method https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/a-deep-dive-with-andrea-samadi-into-applying-the-silva-method-for-improved-intuition-creativity-and-focus-part-1/

[xiii] The Mindset Mentor Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruBJYNKKKXY (6:26)

Jan 28, 2023

00:53:09

Forbes Magazine said they are “one of four technologies innovating mental health” and Elle Magazine was quoted saying they “couldn’t stop talking about their good mood and hyper charged focus.” They’ve been proven in multiple published studies, treated over 100,000 patients and are prescribed by more than 14,000 doctors and providers.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArUif2kyo9w

On today’s Episode #271 we will cover

✔ A reminder of our first interview with Kelly Roman, CEO of Fisher Wallace Laboratories from 2021, that remains on our TOP 12 most watched YouTube Interviews on the podcast.

✔ My Personal Review of The Fisher Wallace Device, that remains our MOST downloaded episode of ALL-TIME!

✔ Our One Year Later Episode, where I answer the MOST ASKED QUESTION about our podcast.

✔ Kelly Roman updates us on The Next Generation of Wearable Devices: Where They are Now, and Where They are Going.

✔ We discuss Best Practices for Using Their First Generation Device, and HOW it provides a calming effect.

✔ The Importance of Staying on Top of Our Mental and Physical Health.

✔ How Fisher Wallace is Positioned to Support the Workplaces of the Future.

✔ First responder study, and ways that we can support Kelly's mission of building health, well-being and resilience in the future.

You can see countless reviews on their website[i] where people all over the globe share the relief the device provides for them, and I personally understand the impact that this specific technology can have on our mental and physical health. Our first interview with today’s returning guest, Kelly Roman[ii], CEO of Fisher Wallace Laboratories[iii], on their wearable medical device that’s cleared by the FDA to treat depression, anxiety and insomnia, came in at #11 of our all-time most watched YouTube interviews[iv].

Then, EPISODE #120[v] from last April 2021, where I posted “My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Medical Device”[i] remains our most listened to episode of all time with over 6,000 downloads.

You can watch our first interview here https://youtu.be/jCtbngfXoYg that Kelly Roman says is his all-time favorite interview. I think it’s neat to look back now, to when I had no idea that a device like this even existed, to see how it improved my sleep by much more the gold standard of 20 minutes each night. I’m sure as the CEO of this company, Kelly has heard it all. I remember having a deer in the headlights look while first learning about this device, as I didn’t even know there was something I could use at home that could help me to improve my sleep, levels of anxiety, that also supports those people suffering from depression. I’m pretty open on this podcast that depression runs in my family, and is one of the reasons I left Toronto, for AZ where I could find most days where we have sunshine, and I could exercise outside Year-round. This change of location has helped me to find the balance I needed, but not everyone can just pick up and move to a new location for a better climate. Kelly Roman himself was open with his past history with depression, and how the device has helped him as well, so after I released our interview, and then my review of the device, I was surprised at how many emails and correspondence I received from people around the world, with questions. I think most people just wanted to make sure I was a real person, and if you’ve ever emailed me, I answer EVERY email within 24 hours. Most people wanted to know “do you still use the Fisher Wallace Device?” and the answer is “yes, every morning, as a part of my daily routine.” I couldn’t imagine life without it. In fact, I’ve had this question come through so many times that I did a “Review One Year Later: My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Device[vi]” last summer, that I could point people to who asked me this question to.

I’ve said it often on this podcast that most of us will struggle with a mental health issue in our lifetime. We launched the year with EP 268 on “Prioritizing Our Mental Health in 2023: Building Self-Awareness and Resilience in the New Year”[vii] with a quote from Julie Smith, the author of Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before, reminding us that our mental health is just an important as our physical health. So, when I saw an email from Kelly Roman about a NEW product they were releasing, I immediately emailed him to see if he would come back on the podcast.

Today, I want to welcome back the CEO of Fisher Wallace, Kelly Roman, to reconnect since our first interview that received more feedback and comments than I imagined, helping all those who have tuned into that first interview, my personal review, or the one year later review.

Let’s welcome Kelly Roman and see what’s been happening over at Fisher Wallace since our first interview back in February 2021.

Welcome back Kelly, thanks for meeting me today in this early time slot and being so responsive for us speaking again. How’s everything going over there?

Q1: Kelly, I’ve got to say, I was really surprised with the reaction and interest with our first interview. It caught me off guard just how many people around the world are suffering, and looking for a solution. People were very open with how much they are struggling, and asked me how I used the device. What does this reaction mean to you and how have you seen the world responding to this device?

Q2: When I go back to my trial period, I was using the device to improve my WASO scores, as I’ve been trying everything to make sure I go to sleep and stay asleep so was happy to see those improve, but was not expecting my mood to improve, or anxiety levels decrease. Even after using some other tools this past year, there are many times I could see anxiety levels increase, without me even being aware of it. What have you seen as a typical reaction for someone who tries out the device?

Q2B: Does it matter which level you choose?

Q3: I loved the correspondence that came through after the personal review I did. I think most people wanted to know that I’m a real person here, and the biggest thing I noticed was when I said I was not paid to endorse your product. When I go to your website review section, and see wonderful reviews, including the one I did, is everyone there just like me? They tried the device, found it helped them, and they either let you know, or they just keep it, and use it regularly?

Q4: In our interview, I remember you were waiting on the device to be cleared by FDA for insomnia (and I think it has been by now from looking at your website). What has happened since we spoke that first time?

Q5: In our first interview we spoke about some work you were doing with first responders. What are you doing now with the first responders study, in order to validate tools and techniques to improve their quality of life in a profession that needs it more than ever today? (NOTE- I shadowed a team of police officers this year, and after 5 hours on the job, needed to take a break from what I saw. I wouldn’t make it in that industry, and saw first-hand how many officers needed mental health support tools to help them to deal with the stress they must endure, minute by minute). What can you share about this device helping those first responders with the stress they dealt with day to day?

Q6: I was sorry to see the email about the passing of Mitch Rosenthal, MD, the founder of Phoenix House, the largest private, non-profit therapeutic drug-treatment program in the United States. I remember you mentioned him in our first interview when I asked about the research behind the device with substance use disorder. How did Dr. Rosenthal contribute to the world as an “early apostle for treating drug and alcohol addiction?”[viii]

Q7: The reason I asked you back today was because I hear there’s a lot going on with Fisher Wallace. What’s Your Vision for the Future? What’s next for Fisher Wallace? Where are you going now? What can you tell us about OAK, and the Next Generation of Fisher Wallace Technology?

Thank you, Kelly, for coming back on the podcast, and for all you are doing in the world. I’m always going to be a fan of any tool that supports our mental health and well-being and I’ll continue to follow your work and showcase everything you are doing there on the podcast, in addition to continue to use my device on a daily basis. For anyone who listens and wants to try this wearable device, is the best way to go to FisherWallace.com and order one to try?

Thank you for all you do.

FOLLOW FISHER WALLACE

Website: www.fisherwallace.com

INVEST in FISHER WALLACE https://www.startengine.com/offering/fisherwallace

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fwlabs

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fisherwallace/?hl=en

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fisher-wallace-laboratories/

FOLLOW KELLY ROMAN:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyroman/

First Responder Study:

STILL OPEN FOR PARTICIPANTS https://trials.climb.care/wellness?goal=0_65e2b318c4-414be1b417-410047957&mc_cid=414be1b417&mc_eid=59841bcff4&goal=0_c0f9d91c97-db6d7657e2-423465785&mc_cid=db6d7657e2&mc_eid=d923a60bd6

Dr. Mitch Rosenthal at FD Hearing Talking About His Belief with the Fisher Wallace Device and CES Published on YouTube in 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5GTZ3uNmDg

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #120 My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Device://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/ceo-of-fisher-wallace-laboratories-on-wearable-medical-devices-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/

RESOURCES:

Seattle Police Department First Responders Study article by GeekWire Published May 5, 2022 https://www.geekwire.com/2022/seattle-police-department-testing-brain-stimulation-headband-as-part-of-wellness-research-effort/?goal=0_c0f9d91c97-d31de7eb66-422882348&mc_cid=d31de7eb66&mc_eid=dc68c5a284

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #120 My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Device https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-medical-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/

[iii] https://www.fisherwallace.com/

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #233 “Top 12 Most Watched YouTube Video Interviews on the Podcast” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/top-12-neuroscience-meets-social-and-emotional-learning-podcast-interviews/

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #120 My Personal review of the Fisher Wallace Device https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/update-one-year-later-on-my-personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-sleep-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleep-management/

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #231 ONE YEAR LATER UPDATE: Do You Still Use the Fisher Wallace Device? https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/update-one-year-later-on-my-personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-sleep-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleep-management/

[vii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #268 on Prioritizing Mental Health for 2023 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-prioritizing-mental-health-in-2023-improving-self-awareness-and-resilience/

[viii] rosenthal-dead.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/nyregion/mitchell-rosenthal-dead.html

Jan 18, 2023

01:06:50

"Jaak Panksepp was the first and only neuroscientist who focused squarely on the emotional brain. There followed a lengthy and instructive series of emails between Jack and Lucy that ultimately resulted in the publication of this book" Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven, authors of the famous book that is often required reading for those studying an Introduction to the Field of Neuroscience, The Archeology of Mind.

Watch our interview on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH3j5WDXvEk

On today’s Episode #270 we will cover

✔ An introduction to Lucy Biven, who co-authored the well-known book, The Archeology of Mind, with Jaak Panksepp.

✔ How Lucy went from being the Head of Psychotherapy at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in England, to writing a leading resource in the field of Neuroscience, with Jaak Panksepp.

✔ How neuroscience gave her answers to a court case she was asked to advise, that 19 experts in the field of child development couldn't solve, without an understanding of how our brain works.

✔ How an understanding of our brain can help us to be better parents, teachers, coaches and managers.

✔ Where Jaak Panksepp's work filled in the missing gaps for Lucy, opening doors with this new understanding of our brain, and emotions.

✔ 3 often discussed Theories about Emotions and Affect (Feedback Theory, Brainstem Theory and Conceptual Act Theory, or Theory of Constructed Emotion and which one Lucy believes in today.

✔ Lucy makes a case for Panksepp's Brainstem Theory, as well as Damasio's work.

✔ Lucy and Andrea discuss the hard question of consciousness and why all traditional attempts to answer this complex question, has failed.

✔ Lucy shares how she uses Panksepp's Brainstem Theory to help 2 boys knowing when to take the role of a coach, versus a traditional therapist, to help them to overcome mental blocks that were holding them back from living a successful life.

I’m so grateful to have this opportunity today to speak with Lucy Biven, who co-authored The Archeology of Mind, with the one and only, Jaak Panksepp. Those who study the field of neuroscience will know his name, and if you haven’t heard of him, I hope this episode sheds some light on his work, combined with Lucy’s as pioneer researchers in the field of Affective Neuroscience.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast where we bridge the gap between theory and practice, with strategies, tools and ideas we can all use immediately, applied to the most current brain research to heighten productivity in our schools, sports environments and modern workplaces. I’m Andrea Samadi and launched this podcast almost 4 years ago, to share how important an understanding of our brain is for our everyday life and results. This season (Season 9) we will be focused on Neuroscience: Going Back to the Basics for the next few months, as we welcome some phenomenal pioneers in the field of Neuroscience, paving a pathway for all of us to navigate our lives with more understanding with our brain in mind. My goal with this next season (that will run until the end of June) is that going back to the basics will help us to strengthen our understanding of the brain, and our mind, to our results, and provide us with a springboard to propel us forward in 2023, with this solid backbone of science. With some new and exciting responsibilities on my end, we will be doing one episode a week, going back to the basics each week, that I know will be helpful for all of us.

For today’s guest and EPISODE #270, we will be speaking with someone who many of you who study in the field of neuroscience will recognize. There are those who I would call “rockstar” researchers, whose work has revolutionized the field. If you take a neuroscience course, or like I did, a Neuroscience Certification Program, you are a clinician, a psychotherapist, you will have come across her first book as required reading. Metapsychology Online Review thinks this book should be “essential reading not only for mind professionals, but for teachers, parents, personal and physical trainers and coaches.”

So when I had an email from this next guest, one of the rockstar authors we come across and highlight in our notebooks, letting me know she has recently published a new book, and that her first book she co-authored with Jaak Panksepp, I almost fell off my chair in my office. She could have been Mick Jagger emailing me, as that would be the equivalent in this field of neuroscience research.

Her first book The Archaeology of Mind[i] that she co-authored with Jaak Panksepp “describes the new scientific discipline called affective neuroscience, which seeks to illuminate how our most powerful emotional feelings—the primal emotional affects—arise from ancient neural networks situated in brain regions below the neo-cortical thinking cap.”

"An exhaustive work, covering a neglected and often misunderstood field . . . . Nowhere else will you really find due diligence done on the non-conscious biases of humans and animals . . . . Essential reading, not only to us as mind professionals, but to teachers, parents, personal and physical trainers and coaches. Emotions are still everything, and vital to understanding why we are what we are, and why we do and have done, everything in the past and now. An amazing buy." ― Metapsychology Online Reviews

"Panksepp’s perspective on the continuity of animal and human minds has not received the attention it deserves. Here are the collected facts and the reasoning behind that compelling view. An indispensable volume." ― Antonio Damasio, author, Self Comes to Mind; David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience and Director, Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California

"This book has the capacity to integrate affective neuroscience into the consciousness of not only therapists, but also those interested in understanding depth motivation that sustains or pathologizes our every action and thought. It is a truly pioneering effort. Its deep truths about the origins of mind and feeling, and the implications for altering how we see ourselves over evolutionary time, connected to our fellow social mammals and birds, also has implications for how we treat our fellow travelers on this planet." ― Stuart Brown, MD, Founder and President, The National Institute for Play

Our next guest, Lucy Biven, who co-authored The Archeology of Mind with Jaak Panksepp, is the former Head of the Department of Psychotherapy at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, part of the National Health Service in Leicestershire, England.

She became interested in neuroscience about 20 years ago when she was appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to devise and implement a protocol for the transfer of custody of a 2½ year old girl from the home of a couple whom the child regarded as her parents, to the home of her biological parents. Like most of her colleagues, Lucy worried about the little girl’s psychological development, yet the child progressed well and today is an emotionally healthy young woman. Where did it all go right?

She looked towards neuroscience for the answers she was looking for and found that, along with meeting Jaak Panksepp who coined the term “affective neuroscience” (a field that studies the neural mechanisms of emotions and how consciousness emerges from strong emotional stimuli).

My goal with this next interview is learn directly from Lucy Biven, how an understanding of our emotions and our brain can help us to be better teachers in the classroom, coaches in the field of sports, or improve our effectiveness in the modern workplace. Her most recent book A Short-Cut to Understanding Affective Neuroscience was released last summer, and I look forward to learning what this rockstar from the field of psychology and neuroscience can teach us with her work, research and experience.

Welcome Lucy, thank you very much for reaching out to me when you did, it was perfect timing for the direction we are going with the podcast, and going back to the basics to start our year. Welcome.

INTRO Q: To start off with, I must ask, what type of reaction do you typically get from people when you reach out to them, like you did to me. Have most people read The Archeology of Mind? The reason I ask this, is that Antonio Damasio mentioned that "Panksepp’s perspective on the continuity of animal and human minds has not received the attention it deserves” and I had heard that before, so I wonder were you surprised when I knew exactly who you were, with the massive amounts of respect that go along with those who spearhead a field?

Q1: I always like to know what brought people to where they are now, and you explain what brought you to this field in the Introduction of your book A Short-Cut to Understanding Affective Neuroscience[ii]. Can you give a snapshot of your career path (so I don’t think I was crazy that you were in England)? What did your work entail as Head of the Department of Psychotherapy at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (in England) and why were you appointed that case by the Michigan Supreme Court?

Q1B: The book opens with an incredible example of how neuroscience helped to inform the outcomes of those cases involving children and their caregivers that dated back to 1993. Can you explain how neuroscience explained the outcomes that 19 experts in child development couldn’t see without understanding how the brain works? I’m asking from the point of view not of a researcher who has a sound understanding of how our brain works, but for of those of us who have a thirst to understand this information, that we were never taught.

Q2: The introduction of your book is interesting as neuroscience proved something that 19 experts in child development couldn’t see, even from the point of view of a parent. I always wondered if I had made a mistake when I moved from Canada to the US (only AFTER I had children) but it was with the difference we see with maternity leave in the US where we have about 12 weeks compared to a full year in Canada. I always wondered if I was doing something wrong when I dropped my daughter off at daycare and drove off to work.

I was shocked when I learned that “The hippocampus creates enduring personal memories, but it does not begin to function until a child is about four years old (Newcombe et al. 2000; Gleitman et al. 2007). Babies and young children can retain short-term memories, but the neural pathways that encode these memories dissolve after a few weeks or months and the children forget” (Fivush and Hamond 1990).

So, for all those parents out there who feel guilty dropping their kids off at daycare, or leaving them for a few hours with a caregiver, this bit of research could really have helped me back then to not stress so much about that, right?

How else can you see an understanding of our brain, helping us beyond your Supreme Court Case, or for young parents raising their children? Do you have any other neuroscience tips that surprised you?

Q3: What was it about Jaak Panksepp’s work that filled in the missing gaps for you, and for lay people like me and others listening who want to understand the important workings of the brain (for improved results in our schools, sports environments or modern workplaces?)

Q4: The first 3 chapters discusses different schools of thought about emotion and effect. Can we talk about each one and give an example of how something like a gunshot would be experienced with each theory?

Feedback Theory-affects emerge from cognitive parts of the cortex or cortex creates all forms of consciousness (Kawkabani, 2018) We hear a gunshot, and freeze but why according to FBT are we not afraid? Brainstem Theory-maintains that all mammalian brains contain genetically programmed emotional systems). I’ve seen Panksepp’s 7 Emotional Systems written out in many places but didn’t realize there was a reason behind the ALL CAPS of each system. What did he want to show with the all caps?

Panksepp’s 7 core emotions:

ALL mammalian brains have these 7 emotions? Why do you think these 7 emotions have been overlooked by psychologists and neuroscientists if they appear in the upper brainstem, indicating they evolved a long time ago? With brainstem theory, we hear a gunshot, what happens? We feel fear that originates from the brainstem?

3. Conceptual Act Theory (CAT)-claims that emotional systems do not exist and that emotions do not emanate from any brain region. Affects depend on concepts we construct largely on the basis of social experience.

(Lisa Feldman Barrett-Theory of Constructed Emotion-explains the experience and perception of emotion). Her research shows emotions are invented using our memory and imagination (Waldman).

With a gunshot, how would you explain your reaction if emotions don’t exist in the brain? Did my brain create a fearful affect based on what I watched on TV, my memory and imagination?

Q5: In chapter 5 and 6 you dive deeper into brainstem theory by looking at 2 different hypothesis—Jaak Pankseep and Antonio Damasio, explaining how affects might be created. Both are similar, involving the brainstem, but they explain different mechanisms for how this happens.

What is Damasio’s view involving homeostasis/consciousness?

What is Panksepp’s major contribution to affective neuroscience?

Q6: All the research in the first 7 chapters show how the brain creates conscious affective feelings. In chapter 7, you evaluate Damasio and Panksepp’s Hypothesis.

You mention that both Damasio and Panksepp maintain that all consciousness includes a conscious unified sense of self (Ramachandran, 2009) who we’ve come across on this podcast as he inspired the work of Dr. Baland Jalal EPISODE #211.[iii] Ramachandran sites that people with male bodies feel like men, and people with female bodies feel like women.

What does neuroscience research say about our sense of self and our consciousness and what was the point with Ramachandran’s research?

Q7: Chapter 8 we have the hard question of consciousness.

On EPISODE #251, I looked at “Exploring Consciousness” and learned that “consciousness is the most astonishing act our big, complex, interconnected brains pull off and scientists are only just beginning to understand it.”[xiv] (National Geographic, The Brain). I learned that “Some scholars reckon the puzzle of consciousness is something the human mind is incapable of solving” (National Geographic) but that Daniel Dennett, Philospher and Cognitive Scientist from Tufts University (MA) says that this line of thinking is “culpably wrong. It isn’t impossible at all. It’s just that we have to buckle down and do it.”[iv]

Why do all traditional attempts to answer the hard questions of consciousness fail?

Which brain structures and functions correlate with consciousness? How does the physical brain create nonphysical conscious experiences (like seeing colors, tasting flavors, feeling joy and sorrow, anticipating the future, and remembering the past? What makes us happy, lonely, caring or curious? (no one knows how this happens Greenfield 2000).

Q8: In chapter 10, you show how neuroscience helped you to treat 2 boys using the SEEKING system. How did you help each boy differently by knowing when to act like a coach, or like a traditional therapist and identifying the 7 emotional sytems that needed help?

NOTE: Lucy wanted to be sure we included a distinction between emotion and affect in the show notes.

Neuroscientists see emotion as purely physical reactions that occur inside the body (influx of stress or calming chemicals) and behavior (smiling, grimacing, approaching, running away). Affects, on the other hand, are private conscious experiences that cannot be directly observed - you can only deduce affects from behavior and verbal reports.

How could others use this system to help students, or athletes, who’ve gone off track somehow, or even managers and supervisors in the corporate world who might be having a challenge with their employees?

Lucy, I want to thank you very much for first of all sending me that note before the holidays. For those of us who spend a lot of time learning, someone who can understand these difficult concepts, and explain them in a way that we can all use them, really are rockstars in my eyes. Like Dr. Daniel Siegel[v], who wrote the foreword to The Archeology of Mind and suggested that scientists or researchers would be interested in “the abundance of academic references” but for clinicians, educators or general readers, he suggests to read the pages of that book like a fascinating nonfictional story, and let the words sink in over time.

Thank you for joining the rockstar researchers who have come on our podcast, like Dr. Daniel Siegel and those who have helped us to embrace a world where neuroscience can provide us with answers to move us forward, if we can take the time to stop, think, and understand the research that you’ve gathered, and then see how we can implement your last tip, to impact change in our worlds, backed by science. Thank you for all you have shared today.

If people want to reach you, what is the best way?

Email Lucy at LucyBiven@gmail.com

If people want to purchase your books, what is the best way?

A Short-Cut to Understanding Affective Neuroscience by Lucy Biven Published July 6, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Short-Cut-Understanding-Affective-Neuroscience-ebook/dp/B0B69SSNXV/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

RESOURCES:

Palaces of Memory by George Johnson https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/in-the-palaces-of-memory-how-we-build-the-worlds-inside-our-heads_george-johnson/572819/item/3589928/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAiJSeBhCCARIsAHnAzT-NyFHlqgUK_OySTM5OHSRM3Ic-W9ocGM_kDYtAqd4dUnj8SIp0kecaAuMREALw_wcB#idiq=3589928&edition=1903120

The Emotional Brain by Joseph LeDoux Published September 22, 201We https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Brain-Mysterious-Underpinnings-Life-ebook/dp/B00AK78PDC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Who’s in Charge by Michael Gazzaniga Published November 15, 2011 https://www.amazon.com/Whos-Charge-Free-Science-Brain-ebook/dp/B005UD1EVG/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=Cj0KCQiAiJSeBhCCARIsAHnAzT_G3h7DHS5KOnaE-oZBRaqInCY5h6x_azxOw6cDettoKFu73XQ2Om0aAvU3EALw_wcB&hvadid=295460754701&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9030091&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9467293520721770679&hvtargid=kwd-564030166002&hydadcr=22594_10348222&keywords=who%27s+in+charge+michael+gazzaniga&qid=1673931510&sr=8-1

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Educational-Neuroscience-Basics-Cathy-Rogers/dp/1032028556

REFERENCES:

[i] The Archeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotion by Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven Published September 17, 2012 https://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Mind-Neuroevolutionary-Interpersonal-Neurobiology/dp/0393705315

[ii] A Short-Cut to Understanding Affective Neuroscience by Lucy Biven Published July 6, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Short-Cut-Understanding-Affective-Neuroscience-ebook/dp/B0B69SSNXV/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #211 with Dr. Baland Jalal on “Sleep Paralysis” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/harvard-neuroscientist-drbaland-jalalexplainssleepparalysislucid-dreaming-andpremonitionsexpandingour-awareness-into-the-mysteries-ofourbrainduring-sl/

[iv] What is Consciousness Published on YouTube Sept. 10, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir8XITVmeY4 TIME STAMP 1:31/12:42

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #28 with Dr. Daniel J Siegel on “Mindsight: The Basis for Social and Emotional Intelligence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/clinical-professor-of-psychiatry-at-the-ucla-school-of-medicine-dr-daniel-siegel-on-mindsight-the-basis-for-social-and-emotional-intelligence/

Jan 13, 2023

01:05:16

WHAT IS THE POTENTIAL OF EDUCATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE?

British Physician, Ben Goldacre, 2013 says “I think there is a huge prize waiting to be claimed by teachers. By collecting better evidence about what works best and establishing a culture where this evidence is used as a matter of routine, we can improve outcomes for children, and increase professional independence.”

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/Uh1BZOTGZQc

On today’s Episode #269 we will cover

✔ Professor Michael S.C. Thomas' new book Educational Neuroscience: The Basics

✔ Where is educational neuroscience NOW? Where it began, and where it's going.

✔ How this book can help students improve how they learn.

✔ How this look at Educational Neuroscience can help us to become better teachers.

✔ The difference between evidence-based and neuroscience-based.

✔ Where we should ALL begin. What IS the BASICS of Neuroscience?

✔ What makes something forgettable and another thing memorable?

✔ Ways to make learning easier.

Today’s guest and EPISODE #269, I’ve been wanting to have on this podcast since I came across his work in the field of educational neuroscience around the time we interviewed Dr. Daniel Ansari, back in June 2021 for EPISODE #138.[i] I saw their Annual Research Review: (called) Educational Neuroscience progress from April 2019, written by Michael S.C. Thomas, Daniel Ansari and Victoria C.P. Rowland that provided a thorough overview of the origins of educational neuroscience, outlining where it began, the challenges it faces as a “translational field” and addressed it’s major criticisms. I immediately wrote down Michael S.C. Thomas’ name, along with his email address, to reach out to him to learn more of his perspective in this field. Since I was interviewing Dr. Daniel Ansari, it brought something to light for me that the people who write these research reports that we find on Pubmed.gov, are working hard somewhere, and not completely out of reach if you really want to find them, and ask them some questions about their work. When I finally emailed him, I was thrilled to hear he had a NEW book Educational Neuroscience: The Basics[ii] and am grateful to have this opportunity to speak with him about this new book.

Before we meet our next guest, Michael S.C. Thomas, let me orient you to his work.

Michael S. C. Thomas is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Birkbeck University of London. Since 2010, he has been Director of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience, a cross-institutional research centre which aims to further translational research between neuroscience and education, and establish new transdisciplinary accounts in the learning sciences. In 2003, Michael established the Developmental Neurocognition Laboratory within Birkbeck’s world-leading Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development. The focus of his laboratory is to use multi-disciplinary methods to understand the brain, including behavioural, brain imaging, computational, and genetic methods. In 2006, the lab was the co-recipient of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education, for the project “Neuropsychological work with the very young: understanding brain function and cognitive development”. Michael is a Chartered Psychologist, Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and board member of the International Mind Brain and Education Society.

Let’s meet Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, Michael S. C. Thomas, from Birkbeck University of London and see what we can learn about Educational Neuroscience: The Basics.

Welcome Michael, thank you for sticking with me as we made this interview happen. I’ve been wanting to speak with you for so many years that I was trying to change Wednesday yesterday to Thursday to speed up time because I know how important this new book is, and am so very grateful for this chance to learn more about this topic directly from you. Thank you for being here today.

INTRO: How did you find your way towards studying the brain as it relates to our educational system and establish the Developmental Neurocognition Laboratory within Birkbeck’s Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development?

If I look at Unlocke.org [iii] is this where your research is based?

Moving towards your NEW book, Educational Neuroscience: The Basics that is the reason we are here today, what can you tell us about writing this new book with Cathy Rogers, who moved to this field of neuroscience after years of producing science television shows. I can only imagine how her background in television and film contributed to this book.

Q1: When I first came across your work, it was when I was interviewing Dr. Daniel Ansari, and I found the Annual Research Review[iv] you wrote with him and Victoria Knowland. I don’t often sit and read through Pubmed in my spare time, but I was working on a paper for a Neuroscience Certification that required me to know how to navigate through the research, and after reading your report, this was the first time I was ever aware of criticisms in this field (this was before I learned about the Reading Wars[v]). Then I read Dr. Ansari’s review Bridges over troubled waters[vi] and I wonder if you could bring our listeners up to speed of where this field began, where it is now (you say “it’s barely out of the gates” and where do you see it going?

Q2: This brings us back to your new book with Cathy Rogers, Educational Neuroscience: The Basics that is an introduction to this interdisciplinary field. British physician Ben Goldacre said that there’s “a huge prize waiting to be claimed by teachers” with this book.

What are your goals with this book, Educational Neuroscience: The Basics, and how do you see it improving outcomes for students, like Ben Goldacre mentioned, while “increasing professional independence” for our next generation of teachers?

Q3: I’ve seen some graphics made over the years that show how Neuroeducation consists of the Pedagogy of Education and Learning, Neuroscience, with the brain and its functioning, and Psychology, combining the mind and behavior. (The 3 circles interconnecting) with Neuroeducation in the middle. With your research between neuroscience and education, and your background in psychology, how would you draw this diagram? What disciplines would you say make up Educational Neuroscience?

Q3B: I loved seeing a book that really does go back to the basics. This is fundamental for all of us, whether we work in the classroom with our students, in sports environments, or in the corporate workplace. I saw some of your testimonials at the start of the book say that “this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to learn how the brain works to enable learning” and after reading Chapter 1, I wonder “why do we need educational neuroscience, how can it help us to understand how we learn, and help us to become better teachers?

Andrea thinks that Michael has answered this question, with the idea that we want our students to use movement, manage their emotions, and social interactions, so these don’t get in the way of learning, thinking and cognition.

Q4: Can we go next to the research. This question would benefit those who create programs for schools, or for those who are selling programs to schools, or even for those who work in schools to understand this difference. I’ve spent countless hours (from a program creator point of view) trying to figure this out for certain funding buckets. What is the distinction between “evidence-based” and “neuroscience-based and does one provide a more guaranteed outcome for student success?”

Q5: When I read of the survey you mentioned of the teachers of Wellcome Trust (Simmonds, 2014) that found a high level of interest in neuroscience and 60% of teachers said they “knew little” about how the brain works, and

82% said they wanted to learn more, it reminded me of why we launched this podcast to help bring together all the leaders in the field like you said to address this “unmet appetite for neuroscience knowledge.” But then when asked about their current use it was noted there were many tools, and products that claimed to boost a student’s brain level, without the evidence. I know that CASEL has a program rating system for social and emotional learning programs, but what do you is there a rating systems for neuroscience or evidence- based programs?

Q6: I love that you quoted David A. Sousa (Hart, 1999, Sousa, 2011) in Chapter 1 with his quote that “teachers are the only people whose specific job is to change the connections between neurons in their students’ brains.” He’s been on our podcast twice, most recently EP197[vii] with his 6th edition of How the Brain Learns was our third most listened to episode of 2022. I’ve got to say that when I was first handed his books back in 2014, and asked to add neuroscience to the character and leadership programs I had created for the school market, I took one look at the images of the brain, or even how our memory works, and I felt overwhelmed, and almost didn’t go in this direction. What would you say to someone who looks at the word neuroscience, and feels the same level of intimidation that I felt in the beginning. Where should someone begin? What are the BASICS of Neuroscience?

Plasticity Learning and Altering Neuron Connections Memories/Forgetting

Q7: What makes something unforgettable while other things we struggle to remember?

Q8: To sum this all up, In chapter 5, Thinking is Hard, and different types of memories perform different types of functions, or working with memory for specific things or events. Then you cover “We feel, therefore we learn.” (Immordino-Yang & Damasio). What should we all take away to help us to all understand Neuroscience: The Basics and make learning easier?

If thinking is hard, why is learning harder? What makes learning easier?

Michael, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to come on the podcast (all the way from the UK) and for sharing your new book Neuroscience: The Basics with us. For people who want to purchase the book, is the best place https://www.routledge.com/Educational-Neuroscience-The-Basics/Rogers-Thomas/p/book/9781032028552#

CONTACT MICHAEL S.C. THOMAS

Email m.thomas@bbk.ac.uk">m.thomas@bbk.ac.uk

Research Unlocke.org

BUY Educational Neuroscience: The Basics

Educational Neuroscience: The Basics by Cathy Rogers and Michael S.C. Thomas Published November 15, 2022 https://www.routledge.com/Educational-Neuroscience-The-Basics/Rogers-Thomas/p/book/9781032028552#

Professor Michael Thomas at Birkbeck University of London https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/profile/8006159/michael-thomas#overview

Center for Educational Neuroscience http://www.educationalneuroscience.org.uk/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMlW1aThiDY5TB8uxS3DU0w

Stay tuned for Michael’s NEXT book How the Brian Works.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/professor-and-canada-research-chair-in-developmental-cognitive-neuroscience-and-learning-on-the-future-of-educational-neuroscience/

Thank you!

REFERENCES:

[ii] Educational Neuroscience: The Basics by Cathy Rogers and Michael S.C. Thomas Published November 15, 2022 https://www.routledge.com/Educational-Neuroscience-The-Basics/Rogers-Thomas/p/book/9781032028552#

[iii] https://www.unlocke.org/team.php

[iv] Annual Research Review: Educational neuroscience: progress and prospects by Michael S.C. Thomas, Daniel Ansari and Victoria C.P. Knowland (April 2019) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6487963/

[v] The Reading Wars by Nicholas Lemann https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/11/the-reading-wars/376990/

[vi] Bridges over troubled waters: education and cognitive neuroscience by Daniel Ansari, Donna Coch March 10, 2006 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16530462/

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #197 with David A Sousa on “What’s NEW with the 6th Edition of How Your Brain Learns” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/returning-guest-dr-david-a-sousa-on-what-s-new-with-the-6th-edition-of-how-the-brain-learns/

Jan 05, 2023

00:23:48

Happy New Year, and welcome back to our 9th Season, approaching our 4th year of The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. For those returning, welcome back and for new listeners, I’m Andrea Samadi an author and educator, who launched this podcast in June 2019, for many reasons, but the one that stands out the most today, is to amplify the best practices, tools, strategies and ideas, from authors, experts and leaders who’ve risen the top of their field, to improve productivity in our schools, sports environments and modern workplaces, by connecting an understanding of our brain to their proven strategies.

On today’s Episode #268 we will cover

✔ An Introduction to Season 9 of our Podcast: Neuroscience: Going Back to the Basics

✔ Intro to “Prioritizing Our Mental Health in 2023: Building Self-Awareness and Resilience in the New Year.”

✔ 4 TIPS for Putting our Mental and Physical Health First in 2023 with our Brain in Mind.

This season we will be focused on Neuroscience: Going Back to the Basics for the next few months, as we welcome some phenomenal pioneers in the field of Neuroscience, paving a pathway for all of us to navigate our lives with more understanding with our brain in mind. My goal with this next season (that will run until the end of June) is that going back to the basics will help us to strengthen our understanding of the brain, and our mind, to our results, and provide us with a springboard to propel us forward in 2023, with this solid backbone of science. Going back to the basics is something we do without thought while teaching a lesson in the classroom, or with skill-building in sports, and it’s at the root of our performance improvement plans in the workplace, so before moving forward, I wanted to take some steps back a bit, to intentionally strengthen our direction with this podcast.

Before moving forward, I do want to thank our listeners who have taken the time to post a review of the podcast on Apple iTunes. This helps us a lot, so other listeners can learn about the content, and your take-aways, so thank you to Joseue Diaz from Panama for letting me know you enjoyed the episode with Adele Spraggon, about how habits are formed in the brain, and from a review from a faithful listener who let me know you’ve enjoyed our Deep Dives of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book, and Jose Silva’s Program. Reviews like this make my day, and are extremely motivating to me, especially as I am sitting at my desk, working on finalizing an episode. Thank you for sending the motivation back my way.

For today’s episode, #268, and our FIRST episode of 2023, BEFORE we dive deeper into the Basics of Neuroscience, I want to begin our year on solid footing, going back to the basics of health by “Prioritizing Our Mental Health in 2023: Building Self-Awareness and Resilience in the New Year.” My good friend, and 2-time returning guest Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, and author of the book, Significant 72: Unleashing the Power of Relationships in Today’s Schools[i] Greg Wolcott, who was on our 7th episode, as well as our #64th[ii] sent me an email this week that got me thinking of how to launch our year. I already had written out “back to the basics” all over my office, but his email gave me some more direction. He sent me the cover of Dr. Julie Smith’s book Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before[iii] and I immediately downloaded her book, and began to connect the dots for this episode. In the beginning of her book, Dr. Julie Smith says,

It was the last line that she wrote “only more recently has it become acceptable to openly and visibly work on your mental health” that got me. She’s 200% right. How many photos have I seen of people working out at the gym at the start of the year, compared to those working on their mindset or mental health? You know, what goes on inside, shows up loud and clear on the outside. We can exercise our body till our legs shake, but if we ignore our mental health, it will, over time, be apparent.

I think back to a review we did on psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist Dr. Daniel Amen’s book The End of Mental Illness[iv] where something Dr. Amen said stuck with me over the years, and that’s that “most of us will have a mental health issue in our lifetime—and that “normal” is a myth..that 51% of us will have a mental health issue (post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, addiction, an eating disorder)”[v] showing me that it’s more normal to have a problem, than not.

So today we will focus on our mental health, with a few tools, strategies and ideas that we’ve uncovered over the past few years, to help all of us put our brain health first this year. This is keeping in theme of going back to the basics.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, and launch of our New Year,

DID YOU KNOW that “You are not stuck with the brain you have? You can make it better?” –From Dr. Daniel Amen, who said that in his online course Brain Thrive by 25 and he adds, “your history is not your destiny.” He reminds us to be aware of our genetic vulnerabilities, but that “we can change the structure and function of our brain” by doing things a certain way.

Before going into “this certain way” that we can use to change the structure and function of our brain, I wonder, do you know YOUR genetic vulnerabilities?

What steps are you taking to move beyond them? Dr. Amen speaks clearly and openly about his, and I’ve been open about mine on this podcast. I’m fully aware that depression runs in my family, so years ago, I put certain habits like exercise and healthy eating as priority, and it’s not something I even think about anymore. It became a healthy, daily, non-negotiable habit. When you can focus on brain health first, everything else will fall into place, and family history, or genetics can be changed.

Here’s the Tips We’ve Gathered to Help All of Us Put Our Mental Health First in 2023.

TIP 1: USING EXERCISE TO CREATE MORE BRAIN RESERVE AS WE AGE: Who doesn’t want to look younger, as the hands of time move forward? We covered this one on episode #128[vi] with our review of Dr. Daniel Amen’s The End of Mental Illness book, but just as a review, look at the graphic he created with the ACRONYM BRIGHT MINDS and listen to this past episode if you want to review ALL of the brain tips we have for each of the letters of BRIGHT MINDS but for today, we will cover the first letter, B that stands for BLOOD FLOW.

If your brain doesn't get enough blood flow its function will be compromised”[vii] so Dr. Amen believes “the number one strategy to support your brain and mental health is to protect, nurture, and optimize your heart and blood vessels”[viii] and exercise pumps blood to the brain. I know we hear it everywhere, but daily exercise is often written as a prescription for someone suffering with mental health issues, and this explains why.

DID YOU KNOW THAT “Blood vessels age, not your brain cells? Keep blood vessels healthy so blood flows to your brain.”[ix]

BRAIN TIP:

You can keep your blood vessels healthy with moderate exercise 5 days/week and weight training 3 times/week. I know we all have heard how important exercise is for our health, it’s one of the top 5 health staples we have been covering on the podcast, and one area we dove deep into recently on EPISODE #252[x], but have you thought about it from this point of view? Keeping our heart healthy, keeps our blood vessels healthy, and helps blood flow to our brain. When you follow Dr. Amen’s work, you will quickly learn how important blood flow is to the brain. When looking at a brain scan from his clinics, you will notice there are places with holes, and the hole you see represents a 45% drop in blood flow to that area. So, it’s important to understand ways to increase blood flow to your brain (like with exercise) as well as what lowers blood flow in your brain (more than 2 cups of caffeine/day, smoking, lack of sleep, excessive alcohol use).[xi]

TIP #2 FIND YOUR BALANCE POINT BY MEASURING YOUR WORKOUTS

This next point I have to add, after tip #1, as each of us will have different needs when it comes to “how much” exercise we will need to do each week. We’ve covered this topic on The Top 5 Health Staples[xii] with tips of where to begin with an exercise plan in addition to the other health staples, but after measuring my workouts using the Whoop device the past 2 years, I think it’s important to note that while daily exercise is important to keep our blood vessels and brain healthy, that finding our own individual balance point will help us physically, as well as mentally. At the end of this year, I received a report from Whoop that showed me loud and clear that while I was in the Top 2% for Strain Levels, of the entire Whoop community, consisting of many professional level athletes, that they recommend I find a better balance between my recovery and strain. In 2023 I don’t need to push so hard, that will be good for short-term fitness gains, but will not help me with long-term performance. Understanding this information was eye-opening, as I use exercise to solve all my problems, (mental health and physical) but this comes at a risk over overdoing it, which won’t help me in the long run. (pun intended here).

DID YOU KNOW THAT “when your recovery is high, your body is primed to take on more strain? (and you can get a green light to workout) But when your recovery is low, you may be at risk of overtraining (during intense workouts)[xiii]” (Whoop.com) and could use some rest. One quick glance at my yearly recovery rates you can see that I mostly had yellow recoveries (there were actually 192 days where my body wasn’t fully recovered and 122 days where it was recovered (green). These numbers can show me what to change/improve in 2023 so I can have more days where my body is “recovered” strong and ready to take on more strain (mental as well as physical) and that on yellow or non-recovered days, I can focused on less intense workouts to give me more capacity in my day. This will require a change in behavior on my end, but without this data, I’d be at risk of longer-term injury that you better believe would impact my mental health.

BRAIN TIP: I’m sure we’ve all heard that “If you don't make time for your wellness, you'll be forced to make time for your illness” but also too much time focused on wellness isn’t the answer either. FIND YOUR OWN BALANCE.

When you can find a way to measure how well your body is recovering on a day to day basis (I use the Whoop device-you can learn more with EPISODE #134[xiv] with our interview with Kristen Holmes, VP of Performance Science at Whoop) but there are other tools out there that measure sleep in addition to other vital information, so you can see a snapshot of your overall physical health to show you where you are on a daily and monthly basis against your baseline. You can see my report in the show notes measuring respiratory rate (is the amount of breaths I take per minute while at rest-which increases with illness or when I travel to places with higher altitudes) showing me more rest is needed when this number elevates. Resting heart rate (the number of times my heart beats while at rest) is an indicator of cardiovascular health, also alerting me when more rest is needed, and the report shows me that my average night of sleep still falls below the recommended 7 hours of sleep, something I’m still working on improving, that you’ll see with our next tip.

TIP #3 BE OPEN TO TOOLS THAT ARE HELPING OTHERS

When I first interviewed Kelly Roman[xv], the CEO of Fisher Wallace on their brain stimulator device for anxiety, depression and sleep management, I had no idea that my review of this device would have such a strong reach. EPISODE #120[xvi] of “My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Medical Device” has had over 6,300+ downloads and I think there was such an interest in this one since we know that there has been “a global increase in depression and anxiety with tens of millions of additional cases reported globally[xvii] (since the Pandemic) and from the emails I’ve received since this review, it’s clear that people are still searching for answers. Looking back, I remember thinking “I’ll use this device long enough to gather some data for the review” and didn’t plan on using it past the four weeks I was measuring my sleep. I remember being shocked at how much this device made an impact on my WASO (Wa-SO) score (or wake after sleep onset) that I still keep an eye on today as well I noticed it unexpectedly improved my mood, and anxiousness throughout the day.

You can see this review one year later from July 2022, EPISODE #231[xviii] posted on their website, under their review section, and probably why I receive so many emails about this device. To update even further, I still use the Fisher Wallace Device every morning, for 2 20 minute sessions, while meditating, and I do put it on the highest level to maximize the benefits. I also still read every email the company sends out on their mailing list, and just before Christmas noticed that they have a NEW product coming out. I’ve already reached out to Kelly Roman to see if we can have him back on the podcast, but about his email release of this new product, he reveals its name, saying, “OAK (the new wearable device) is the culmination of my 13 years in the mental health industry—everything I’ve learned and dreamed was possible to deliver to patients. I consider it the apex wearable device for harnessing the potential of the human brain.” (Kelly Roman, CEO and Co-founder of Fisher Wallace Labs).

I look forward to sharing what’s NEW with their Next Generation Device, and do want to say that while I was gifted the device to try (if I didn’t like it, I could have sent it back), but I have not been paid in any way to endorse the company or product. In fact, I’ve never been paid to endorse ANY product on our podcast to date). I just happen to be a user who noticed an incredible difference, and used the podcasting platform to share my results.

Be sure to listen to these past episodes if you have missed them.

DID YOU KNOW THAT: “The Fisher Wallace Stimulator® is the most researched wearable brain stimulation device on the market?” They have “conducted research on biomarkers (increased serotonin, lowered cortisol) depression, anxiety, insomnia, patient safety (including pediatric), Parkinson’s disease and the treatment of substance use disorder patients.”

BRAIN TIP:

Using this device has a similar effect as meditation, calming the brain in two 20 minute sessions. While everyday life stressors seem to be easier to combat with daily meditation, I’m not planning on give up another tool that can help me to stay calm during stressful times. While this device has helped my WASO score (wakefulness after sleep onset) if you look at how long I’m sleeping, I’m still averaging a bit over 6 hours of sleep that I could improve if I could just stay in bed longer. Like anyone else, I’ve definitely got some areas of mental and physical health pinpointed to improve in 2023.

TIP #4 DO YOU KNOW YOUR HRV? The most important biomarker for tracking health and recovery on a regular basis. We covered an introduction to the importance of understanding HRV back in April of 2021 on EPISODE #125[xix] on “What is HRV and Why is it Important for Tracking Health, Recovery and Resilience?” and I learned that a higher HRV score means we have more capacity to perform, versus a lower score. It’s another way of looking at how recovered we are.

Then we interviewed Rohan Dixit, the founder of Leif Therapeutics, on EPISODE #228[xx] with the wearable device that measures HRV in real-time, and I tried his device, and was able to pinpoint the parts of my day where my body was under high stress, to be able to learn and implement breathing strategies to overcome the stress, in the real time and watch my HRV increase on the dashboard of the device. What stuck to me that I didn’t know before using Rohan’s HRV tracker, is that I began to see where I was stressed or anxious, that I was unaware of before. For instance, the tracker started buzzing like crazy just before I went to sleep at night, when I thought I was relaxed and ready for sleep, but the tracker, connected to my heart rate, noticed the stress, and helped me to train myself to relax by taking deep breaths before sleep. The same thing happened while driving my kids to gymnastics. When we are in the middle of a busy day, it’s sometimes not easy to check in and think “oh, I should probably breathe now” but the device picked up where I need to do this, helping me immensely to change my habits, and improve my HRV score during times of stress.

DID YOU KNOW THAT: “HRV is a magical biomarker of your mental state?” (Rohan Dixit, Founder of Lief Therapeutics)

BRAIN TIP: To incorporate this magical bio-marker into our daily life, once we know what it is, (by measuring it some way) we can then use this number to guide us with our workouts. If the next day after a hard workout, your HRV is still low, use it as a sign to go easier the next day. If your HRV is low, and you haven’t been active, this “indicates your body is working hard for some other reason (maybe your fatigued, dehydrated, stressed, or sick and need recovery.”[xxi] UsePrioritizing this number as a guide to help you to gain more capacity to do the things you need to do throughout your day.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION:

To review and conclude this week’s Brain Fact Friday, DID YOU KNOW that “You are not stuck with the brain you have? You can make it better?” –From Dr. Daniel Amen we covered four tips for doing things a certain way in 2023, that can tip our needle towards mental AND physical health in the New Year. We also don’t need to do a lot of things all at once, but knowing where to begin is a good first step for improved overall health this year.

TIP 1: USING EXERCISE TO CREATE MORE BRAIN RESERVE AS WE AGE: Showing us that keeping our heart healthy, keeps our blood vessels healthy, and helps blood flow to our brain.

TIP #2 FIND YOUR BALANCE POINT BY MEASURING YOUR WORKOUTS: Because if we don't make time our wellness, we'll be forced to make time for our illness” and I shared how I’m using the Whoop device to find more balance between strain (with my workouts) and rest.

TIP #3 BEING OPEN TO TOOLS THAT ARE HELPING OTHERS: Where we covered the Fisher Wallace brain stimulator device for anxiety, depression and sleep management that has helped me with much more than just WASO (wake after sleep onset) score. The device, paired with my Whoop device has also shown me that one extra hour of sleep each night in 2023 could help me to find the balance my body needs this year.

TIP #4 THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING YOUR HRV: with the Lief Wearable Device that tracks HRV in real-time, helping us to train our body to breathe when we need it the most.

I hope that these 4 TIPS have helped you to think about where you MENTAL and PHYSICAL health could be improved this year, with some steps for getting started. I wanted to share what I’m currently working on, so you can see that we all have areas of improvement. But without knowing WHAT to improve, most of us will do the same thing we did last year, without any change.

Wishing everyone a healthy start to the New Year, and I’ll see you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] www.significant72.com

REFERENCES:

[ii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #64 with Greg Wolcott on “Making Connections with Neuroscience and SEL” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/assistant-superintendent-greg-wolcott-on-making-connections-with-neuroscience-and-sel/

[iii] Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before by Dr. Julie Smith Published January 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Why-Nobody-Told-This-Before/dp/0063227932

[iv] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #128 on a Review of Dr. Amen’s End of Mental Illness book https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/review-of-dr-daniel-amens-the-end-of-mental-illness-6-steps-for-improved-brain-and-mental-health/

[v] Dr. Amen, Brain Thrive by 25 Online Course http://brainthriveby25.com/

[vi] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #128 on a Review of Dr. Amen’s End of Mental Illness book https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/review-of-dr-daniel-amens-the-end-of-mental-illness-6-steps-for-improved-brain-and-mental-health/

[vii] Dr. Amen on The Dr. Oz Show https://www.doctoroz.com/article/dr-daniel-amens-memory-rescue-plan

[viii] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 2755

[ix] Tana and Daniel Amen on The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast https://brainwarriorswaypodcast.com/its-not-your-brain-cells-that-age-its-your-blood-vessels

[x] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #252 on Using Neuroscience to Improve Fitness, Longevity and Overall Health https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-using-neuroscience-to-improve-fitness-longevity-and-overall-health/

[xi] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 2787

[xii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast BONUS EPISODE Top 5 Health Staples and Review of Season 1-4 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/bonus-episode-a-deep-dive-into-the-top-5-health-staples-and-review-of-seasons-1-4/

[xiii] WHOOP Recovery https://support.whoop.com/WHOOP_Data/Recovery__HRV/WHOOP_Recovery

[xiv]Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes VP of Performance Science from Whoop https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/

[xv] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #108 with Kelly Roman, CEO of Fisher Wallace Laboratories https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/ceo-of-fisher-wallace-laboratories-on-wearable-medical-devices-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/

[xvi] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #231 on “One year later: My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Device for Anxiety, Depression and Sleep” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-medical-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/

[xvii] Global Increase in Depression and Anxiety Oct. 21, 2021 by Karen O’Leary https://www.nature.com/articles/d41591-021-00064-y

[xviii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #231 on “One year later: My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Device for Anxiety, Depression and Sleep” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/update-one-year-later-on-my-personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-sleep-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleep-management/

[xix] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #125 on “What is HRV and why is it important for tracking health, recovery and resilience.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/what-is-hrv-and-why-is-it-important-for-tracking-health-recovery-and-resilience-with-andrea-samadi/

[xx]Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #228 with Rohan Dixit, Founder of Lief Therapeutics on Measuring HRV in Real Time for Stress Relief” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/rohan-dixit-founder-of-lief-therapeutics-on-measuring-hrv-in-real-time-for-stress-relief-from-the-inside-out/

[xxi] Everything You Need to Know About Heart Rate Variability August 11, 2021 https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/heart-rate-variability-hrv/#:~:text=However%2C%20if%20you're%20not,a%20presentation%20at%20work%2C%20etc.

Dec 30, 2022

00:15:51

“Before you look at your future, reflect on your past.” (Sam Ade, author of the book Wisdom Untold[i]).

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast for a special EPISODE #267, where we will look back over the past year and review the TOP 10 most listened to episodes of 2022, as chosen by you, the listener. For those of you returning, welcome back, and for those new here, I’m Andrea Samadi, an author and educator who launched this podcast 3.5 years ago, to share how important an understanding of our brain (and mind) is for our everyday life and results. We’ve pulled in some of the world’s leading experts, authors, and researchers in the field of education, sports and workplace productivity, and while I knew we had hit the Top 20 Best Neuroscience Podcasts over the years, I had no idea until recently that we’ve now been included on the 35 Best Neuroscience Podcasts to Follow in 2023[ii], or that we’ve been rated in the top 1.5% of all podcasts, globally,[iii] out of 3 million. As I’m reflecting back at the end of this year, I have to say that I couldn’t have hit these accomplishments with the brilliant guests who come on the podcast, or without you, the listener, tuning in, so a huge thank you to our past guests, and listeners for making our show a success as we move into a New Year, and approach our 4th year anniversary of this podcast.

To reflect on this past year, I first pulled this report in December, and 4 episodes made the TOP 10 list in the past year, that were recorded in December 2021, so I ‘ll be mentioning these important episodes that came in at the end of last year after at the end of this countdown.

As we are approaching a New Year, many of us have our first few quarters (or beyond) of 2023 planned out already, but before we leap into the freshness of a New Year, if you haven’t reflected on the wins you’ve attained in the past year, this is probably the most important step of closing out an old year, and moving into a new one. I learned this year-end ritual from Jim Bunch[iv], who has been walking me through this year-end wrap up for the past 8 years at least, preparing those who tune in all over the world, for a fresh mind moving into the New Year. I put the REPLAY of his event from earlier this month, in the show notes, and did cover his process of creating energy from your 9 environments on EPISODE #103[v] that launched our year back in 2021, with “The Neuroscience of Leadership: 3 Ways to Reset, Recharge and Refuel Your Brain.” On this episode, we review the process of self-reflection, and evaluate the areas of your life (your 9 environments) to notice where energy might be leaking, that you could direct somewhere else in the New Year.

This self-reflection activity is a good way to close out an old year, and move into a new one, as it allows you to put some thought into your WINS, and what worked well for you in the past year. He has a printable download that goes with this activity, and what’s interesting, is that without looking at your calendar, just by going off the top of your head, see if you can write out some of your wins. Without some deep reflection, you will notice that it’s EASY to see the things that went wrong last year (the losses) but to see the WINS, it takes serious thought, because of our built-in negativity bias, that Dr. Rick Hanson tells us to remember---“our brain is like Velcro for negative experiences (we are attracted to the negative experiences) but our positive experiences, slide off like Teflon.” We must be intentional about reflecting on the positives that we incurred, and integrate these wins into our identity, before moving into a New Year. This practice will guarantee that you are building a stronger, better, more improved version of you, each year.

Now for the TOP 10 most listened to episodes of 2022-as voted by you, the listener!

#1: We have our review of Napoleon Hill’s bestselling Think and Grow Rich book, “How to Make 2022 Your Best Year Ever” with over 1600 downloads. I absolutely love that you loved this episode as much as I did, as I thought long and hard about what I could write that could possibly make an impact on ALL of us. While thinking about what to write at the start of the year, that would be better than what we did last year, EPISODE #103[vi], “The Neuroscience of Leadership: 3 Ways to Reset, Recharge and Refuel Your Brain” I wanted to cover something that would go beyond where we went last year. I’m sure I’m not the only competitive one out there who wants to beat prior year’s results, so I looked long and hard around my office, with a blank WORD document open on my computer, thinking about what I could possibly cover that would take us ALL to new heights, or levels of thought, and then I saw it. I’d been studying Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book, every year, with Paul Martinelli, since 2019. Each year, I’d use the same notebook, and would add something new to help launch my year. Instead of keeping these notes in this notebook, for myself to read, I put everything I’d studied, in this 6 PART review of this classic book that to date has sold over 70 million copies since it was published in 1937.

This is the same book, that my mentor Bob Proctor had spent his entire lifetime studying.

#2 PART 6 of Our Think and Grow Rich Book Review EPISODE #196[vii] “In Memory of Bob Proctor: The Neuroscience Behind the 15 Success Principles of Think and Grow Rich”

Little did I know when starting this book review, that Bob would become gravely ill, as I was completing the FINAL PART of this review, PART 6, and our 2nd most downloaded episode #196, that I recorded on February 3rd, 2022, the day before Bob passed away.

I was in constant communication with Patti Knoles, who worked with me in those early days in the seminar industry, so I knew that this final episode needed to be dedicated to Bob, but I changed the title to “In Memory of the Legendary Bob Proctor” the next day, when he passed away, and I must have read the ending to this episode 100 times.

The final episode of this book review ends like this…

What a legacy this man left the world, and I’m grateful that you chose the final part of this book review, as #2.

#3 On a lighter note, we welcomed back David A Sousa to the podcast, for EPISODE #197[viii] on “What’s NEW with the 6th Edition of How the Brain Learns” where Dr. Sousa dove deeper into his popular brain-based series that’s been helping educators around the world to connect neuroscience to learning together.

#4 We covered “The Neuroscience Behind Self-Belief and Our Identity” on EPISODE #199[ix]

that I dedicated to my friend Patti Knoles, after meeting up with her for coffee where we reminisced about how much we had learned over the years from all of the speakers in the motivational speaking industry, but most of all, that it gave us an unwavering belief about where we would go from here. It was powerful for me to see where self-belief and awareness exists in the brain, and this will help us with whatever it is that you are working on, so that you can leave an important legacy in the world with your talents and ideas.

#5, you chose EPISODE #198[x] with Mood and Stress Expert Erika Ferst on “Using Your Brain to Prevent Workplace Burnout” showing me how important it is that we all have strategies to reduce stress in the workplace and #8, you chose EPISODE #188[xi] with Nick Jonsson on “Strategies to Overcome Isolation, Stress, Anxiety in the Workplace” reaffirming that with the rise of mental health issues, of the important of making mental and physical health a priority in our daily lives. This is what led me to end the year focusing on The Silva Method, with strategies that we can all use to implement a mediation practice into our day, or improve it, if we have one in place.

#6 you chose emotional intelligence pioneer Joshua Freedman, and EPISODE #202[xii] who has connections to Daniel Goleman’s earliest work.

#7 was EPISODE #210[xiii] with Dr. Jon Finn, the author of the best-selling book, The Habit Mechanic, which has over 20 years of Dr. Finn’s experience on maximizing human potential using an understanding of how our brain and body work.

#8 we mentioned already with Nick Jonsson.

#9 was our 200th milestone episode[xiv] with my husband, Majid Samadi, who first appeared on EPISODE 1, and returned to review why we started this podcast in the first place.

#10 EPISODE #208[xv] with Blaine Oelkers, is a good episode to launch a New Year with as he made many connections to our book review of Think and Grow Rich.

4 EPISODES that missed the 2022 list, because they were recorded in December 2021 were:

EPISODE #189[xvi] on “Understanding Hormesis: Why Stress and Adversity Make Us Physically and Mentally Stronger” was at the top of the list, and a good reminder to ALWAYS include something difficult or arduous in your daily or at least weekly schedule, to build resilience.

EPISODE #186[xvii] on “Using Neuroscience to Understand the Introverted and Extroverted Brain” surprised me when I saw this one at the top, but it shows me that it helps us to find ways that we can learn to understand each other.

Dr. Simone Alicia, The Self-Esteem Doctor, EPISODE #183[xviii] on “Self-Esteem: Why We Have It to Succeed” and finally, there was EPISODE #185[xix], “Using Neuroscience to Repattern Our Brain” based on our interview #184[xx] with Adele Spraggon, on “Using Science to Break Up with Your Bad Habits for a Successful 2022” that I just received a comment about yesterday.

If you’ve missed any of these episodes, these were all TOP RATED by you, the listener.

My Personal Favorites That Impacted Me the Most:

The top 10 list, was chosen by you, but to close out this episode, I want to include the episodes that made an impact on me this year. I can’t reflect back on this year with mentioning #207 with the Co-founder of CoveyLink, Greg Link on “Unleashing Greatness with Neuroscience, SEL, Trust and the 7 Habits” with over 1300 downloads, because this interview was a clear example of “The Speed of Trust” that “is the shortest route to results” (Robert Allen). I hadn’t spoken to Greg in years when I asked him to do this interview but “when trust is high, communication is instant and effective.” There’s nothing like the speed of trust. When you see it, know it’s something very special, and rare and it’s “a performance multiplier which takes your trajectory upwards, for every activity you engage in, from strategy to execution” (Dr. Stephen R. Covey). When you have the Speed of Trust, know that is has been earned, so treasure and nurture it, as it can also be lost quickly and is very difficult to get back.

I also loved reconnecting with Paranormal Researcher, Ryan O’Neill on EPISODE #203[xxi] this year, as his story is one of true dedication where he has now rose to the top of his field, experiencing wild success, that might appear to look like it happened overnight but in reality, it took 15 years of hard work!

Then there was #201[xxii] on the “Lessons Learned from Our Top 10 All-time Episodes on The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast” took me on a trip down memory lane over the past 3.5 years, and finally, EPISODE #233[xxiii] where we covered the Top 12 Most Viewed YouTube video interviews of all time. Just looking at this list, I can see why these interviews were highly engaging for those watching, and I hope that you can review all of our previous YouTube videos[xxiv], if you have only ever listened to the audio versions.

To close out this EPISODE, and our review of our TOP 10 most listened to podcast episodes of 2022, I want to again thank you, the listener for tuning in, and helping us to reach the milestones we hit each year. Without our brilliant guests, or engaged listeners, there is no podcast.

I look forward to continuing to share what’s new in the field of neuroscience, as it connects to our schools, sports and modern workplaces in the New Year…and with that, I’ll see you next year.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/darshan-pindoria/?trk=public_profile_browsemap&originalSubdomain=uk

REFERENCES:

[i] Wisdom Untold, by Sam Ade Published April 30, 2011 https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Untold-Sam-Ade/dp/1462858228

[ii] Top 35 Best Neuroscience Podcasts to Follow in 2023 https://blog.feedspot.com/neuroscience_podcasts/

[iii] Global Rank Top 1.5% of all podcasts https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/neuroscience-meets-social-and-emotional-OJ-fLpuId2C/

[iv] Jim Bunch 2022 Year End in Review REPLAY https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=564195548861072[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #103 “The Neuroscience of Leadership: 3 Ways to Reset, Recharge and Refuel Your Brain for Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-of-leadership-3-ways-to-reset-recharge-and-refuel-your-brain-for-your-best-year-ever/[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #103 “The Neuroscience of Leadership: 3 Ways to Reset, Recharge and Refuel Your Brain for Your Best Year Ever https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-of-leadership-3-ways-to-reset-recharge-and-refuel-your-brain-for-your-best-year-ever/

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 PART 6 of the Think and Grow Rich Book Review in Memory of Bob Proctor https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #197 with David A Sousa on “What’s NEW with the 6th Edition of How Your Brain Learns” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/returning-guest-dr-david-a-sousa-on-what-s-new-with-the-6th-edition-of-how-the-brain-learns/

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #199 on “The Neuroscience of Self-Belief and Our Identity” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-neuroscience-behind-self-belief-and-our-identity/

[x]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#198 with Mood and Stress Expert Erika Ferst on “Using Your Brain to Prevent Workplace Burnout” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/mood-and-stress-expert-erika-ferszt-on-using-your-brain-to-prevent-workplace-burnout/

[xi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #188 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/nick-jonsson-on-strategies-to-overcome-isolation-stress-anxiety-and-depression-in-the-workplace/

[xii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #202 with Joshua Freedman on “Getting Results with Emotional Intelligence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/joshua-freedman-ceo-of-6-seconds-on-getting-results-with-emotional-intelligence-in-our-schools-and-workplaces/

[xiii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #210 with Dr. Jon Finn on “The Habit Mechanic” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-jon-finn-author-of-best-selling-book-the-habit-mechanic-on-how-to-fine-tune-your-brain-and-supercharge-how-you-live-work-and-lead/

[xiv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #200 with Majid Samadi on “Why We Began This Podcast” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/our-200th-milestone-episode-with-majid-samadi-returning-guest-from-episode-1-on-why-we-began-this-podcast/

[xv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #208 with Blaine Oelkers on “Mastering Your Thoughts, Goals and Life” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/blaine-oelkers-on-mastering-your-thoughts-goals-and-life-with-the-wytaba-strategy-what-you-think-about-you-bring-about/

[xvi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #189 “Understanding Hormesis: Why Stress and Adversity Make Us Physically and Mentally Stronger” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/understanding-hormesis-why-stress-and-adversity-make-us-physically-and-mentally-stronger/

[xvii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #186 “Using Neuroscience to Understand the Introverted and Extroverted Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-using-neuroscience-to-understand-the-introverted-and-extroverted-brain/

[xviii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #183 Dr. Simone Alicia, The Self-Esteem Doctor on “Self-Esteem: Why We Must Have it to Succeed” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-simone-alicia-the-self-esteem-doctor-on-self-esteem-why-we-must-have-it-to-succeed/

[xix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #185 Brain Fact Friday on “Using Neuroscience to Repattern Our Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-using-neuroscience-to-repattern-our-brain/

[xx]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #184 with Adele Spraggon on “Using Science to Break Up with Your Habits in 4 Simple Steps” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/adele-spraggon-on-using-science-to-break-up-with-your-bad-habits-in-4-simple-steps/

[xxi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #203 with Paranormal Researcher Ryan O’Neill on “Making Your Vision a Reality” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/case-study-with-paranormal-researcher-ryan-o-neill-on-making-your-vision-a-reality/

[xxii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #201 on “The Top 10 All-Time Episodes on the Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-top-10-all-time-episodes-on-the-neuroscience-meets-social-and-emotional-learning-podcast/

[xxiii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#233 on our Top 12 Most Watched YouTube Interviews https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/top-12-neuroscience-meets-social-and-emotional-learning-podcast-interviews/

[xxiv] ALL Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast YouTube interviews https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb5Z3cA_mnKhiYc5glhacO9k9WTrSgjzW

Dec 28, 2022

00:54:15

"Life gives you exactly what you need to awaken."

Watch this interview on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/wpxogphAQqw

On today’s Episode #266 we will cover

✔ Tips from Darshan Pindoria, who spent 9 months as a monk, for those beginning their meditation practice.

✔ How open-minded meditation vs focused meditation can help us to become more creative and innovative in 2023.

✔ How to "think like a monk" and ask questions of others, to learn and grow.

✔ How to teach mindfulness, focus and meditation to our younger generations.

✔ How to use our mind to change habits, and improve our levels of anxiety, happiness and emotional stability.

For today’s episode #266, we will be speaking with Psychologist Darshan Pindoria[i], who contacted me around the time I was working on PART 4 of The Silva Method[ii] book review. While writing this final part of this review, I mentioned that I had no idea just how deep the Silva Method would take me. This final part of Jose Silva’s book review sat opened on my computer, unfinished, for more than a week, as I knew there was a lot to this book that I was still learning myself. My hopes were that this review would help all of us to improve our meditation practice, and give us more capacity, especially around how we approach stress, problem solve, or use our mind for creativity and innovation in the New Year, and in Darshan’s introduction email, he let me know that he had trained 9 months as a monk. Darshan’s email came at the perfect time, allowing me to ask him the questions I had after completing this book review.

Thank you for all the feedback I received on this 4 PART review of The Silva Method, from around the world. I know this is just the beginning, and there will be another episode in the future, covering his online program.

For now, I want to welcome Darshan Pindoria to our podcast, where we can dive deeper into ways that we can use our mind, in NEW ways, in the New Year, for improved health, productivity, creativity and innovation.

Welcome Darshan. Thank you for reaching out to me, with perfect timing. Where have we reached you today?

INTRO QUESTION: Darshan, many of our listeners resonated with this 4 PART review of a Jose Silva’s popular book The Silva Method[iii], where he says “Once we learn to use our minds to train it, it will do some astounding things.

Then I watched your travel VLOG[iv] of your trip to the Himalaya Mountains, and as someone who spends every day in the mountains, I wondered how did it feel to sit in those mountains, and why do you think it would be different for you there, over sitting and thinking in any other mountain? What tips would you have for someone beginning this practice?

INTRO: Can you tell me what you learned from being a monk for 9 months? Or even what you felt just sitting in the Himalayas for 2 hours? You said so much…time went really fast there, you were lost for words. What did you discover/learn from your time sitting and thinking here?

Q1: We just covered a book review that was based on the work of Jose Silva, and his program that really is based on what the research today would call “open monitoring meditation” where we close our eyes, and pay attention to our thoughts without judgement. Dr. Andrew Huberman recently did a podcast episode on how this type of mediation can help us to improve our divergent thinking, to help us with creativity and innovative ideas. Why does this “open-minded” meditation help us to become more creative?

Q2: I noticed that the monk in your video was sitting a certain way, and he was touching his first 2 fingers together with his palms open. Jose Silva talked about this method as a way to access the Alpha Brain state, and reach deeper levels of creativity. Can you tell me why monks place their fingers this way? Is there something else to this pose that induces creativity?

Q2B: Can you tell me about your time as a monk and what led you there?

Q2C: What does someone who has spent a lot of time meditating want for others?

Q3: Did you do other types of meditation, other than this open monitoring type? What about more focused meditation that I’ve seen where it’s proven to improve focused attention (like staring at a flame of a candle). Dr. Huberman mentioned this type of meditation improved convergent thinking, greatly increasing focus and memory. Did you practice focused attention meditation, and what results did you see from this?

Q3B: How would you teach focus to a teenager?

Q4: How are you helping people change their results and habits fast, with how you understand the brain and mind?

Q5: Mental health is an important topic no matter what part of the world we are living in. How are you helping people to handle stress, emotional stability, addictions, confidence, self-esteem, Phobias, insomnia, health and diet? This is quite a list. Is there something that’s beneath all of these mental health concerns that we could all use for improved results in 2023?

Q5B: Andrea wonders what Darshan thinks of the podcast, and the questions we’ve asked him and other guests.

Q6: Is there something important, that I’ve missed that would help all of us jumpstart our new year?

Darshan, I want to thank you very much for reaching out to me at the right time. You video in the Himalayas was absolutely beautiful, and gave me a breath of fresh air at a time I needed it. I know there is so much you can offer people with your services for health and wellness. If someone wanted to reach out to you, is the best way through your website? http://deeppsyc.com/mini-services/

Thank you for all you are doing for the world.

CONNECT with DARSHAN PINDORIA HERE

FREE CONSULTATION WITH DARSHAN http://deeppsyc.com/the-fix-consultation-call/

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DeepPsyc

Website http://deeppsyc.com/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] http://deeppsyc.com/darshan/

RESOURCES: REVIEW OF JOSE SILVA’S MIND CONTROL METHOD FOR IMPROVED CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION:

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #261 PART 1

“A Deep Dive into Applying the Silva Method for Improved Intuition, Creativity and Focus” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/a-deep-dive-with-andrea-samadi-into-applying-the-silva-method-for-improved-intuition-creativity-and-focus-part-1/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#262 PART 2 “A Deep Dive into Applying the Silva Method: Dynamic Meditation and Improved Memory” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/a-deep-dive-with-andrea-samadi-into-applying-the-silva-method-for-improved-intuition-creativity-and-focus-part-2/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#263 PART 3 “Applying the Silva Method for Speed Learning and Creative Sleep” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/a-deep-dive-with-andrea-samadi-into-applying-the-silva-method-speed-learning-and-creative-sleep-part-3/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #265 PART 4 “The Neuroscience Behind the Silva Method for Improving Creativity in Our Schools, Sports and Modern Workplaces” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-silva-method-improving-creativity-and-innovation-in-our-schools-sports-and-modern-workplaces/

REFERENCES:

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #265 PART 4 “The Neuroscience Behind the Silva Method for Improving Creativity in Our Schools, Sports and Modern Workplaces” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-silva-method-improving-creativity-and-innovation-in-our-schools-sports-and-modern-workplaces/

[iii] The Silva Method https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Silva-Mind-Control-Method-of-Mental-Dynamics-Audiobook/B0038EX534?source_code=GO1GB547041122911G&gclid=CjwKCAiAjs2bBhACEiwALTBWZTnfUfB3QDDXIgJvcVhjOFuS5Mf3HrnZnviFsh0tpaqjEU8tt3lA4hoCx1cQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[iv] Badrinath The Land in the Heavens-Travel Vlog by Darshan Pindoria Published in 2018 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx8nhicnB0c

Dec 23, 2022

00:42:03

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast and PART 4, our FINAL part, of our Review of Jose Silva’s Mind Control Program. I’m Andrea Samadi an author and an educator, who like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind ANY high-performance strategy proven to increase our results in our schools, sports, or modern workplaces. If there’s something NEW that I come across that can help us in any way, I’ll investigate it, connect it with the most current research, and then share what I learn with you here.

My goal with this 4 PART review of the popular program from the 1980s and 1990s, The Silva Method[i], is to help all of us to learn something new to refine our current meditation practice whether we are working in our schools to improve learning, in our sports environments for improved results towards a specific goal, or in the corporate workplace to generate new ideas. I wouldn’t have picked this book to review if it hadn’t made such an impact on the world, like Napoleon Hills’ Think and Grow Rich book that currently sits as our most downloaded episode of 2022 after we reviewed it last January to kick off our New Year. Before starting this review, that I hoped would give us a running start to 2023, I had no idea the concepts I would learn each week, would be so powerful, deep, and life-changing requiring more thought than usual while writing each episode.

I began this 4 PART book review the end of November, around Thanksgiving in the United States, and shortly after releasing the first episode, I began receiving emails from around the world from people who were interested to learn more about The Silva Method. Some were remembering it from the 80s/90s when Jose Silva ran this program globally, and others were asking me where they could find a live seminar. It was Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram, EPISODE #260[ii] who held up an old copy of The Silva Mind Control Method book, sharing how it had impacted his life, jogging my memory of Jose Silva, who I had heard of years ago, while selling seminars in the motivational speaking industry.

Then my good friend Hans Ajay from the UK, urged me to sign up for the full program through MindValley[iii], where the course sits today after Vishen Lakhiani (the founder) revised and improved it in this current version. Hans wrote “It’ll be transformative” and little did I know just how transformative it would be.

As I’m writing this episode now, and the final part of this review, I’m nearing the end of Vishen Lakhiani’s Silva UltraMind Course[iv] through the MindValley website. I can now see that this is a program that you never really complete, like I noticed with Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich[v] book, for Hill intended the book to be read more than one time for the concepts to be mastered in one’s lifetime. Jose Silva’s book is exactly the same way, and his online UltraMind Course, the experiential side of the program (that consists of the lessons from his book, mixed with meditations) bring the pages of The Silva Method to life in a way I never imagined just by reading the book. I’ve got to say, this course has really blown my mind, and expanded my thinking in a way I hadn’t imagined at the start of this review.

REMEMBER:

“When a person learns to function mentally at this deeper level, creativity is enhanced. Memory is improved and a person is better able to solve problems.” (Jose Silva).

Today I plan finish the review of The Silva Method, and while I won’t be going into every chapter, I’ve picked the ones that I think are relevant to help all of us with “The Basics” of what Jose Silva intended us to learn. Then we will take these basic concepts that Jose Silva found to be transformative, (like my friend Hans Ajay noticed) and APPLY them to our daily life, connecting the science to our creativity and innovation, using Dr. Andrew Huberman’s most recent podcast episode on “The Science of Creativity: How to Enhance Creative Innovation.”[vi] Finally, I will provide clear examples of innovation and creativity from three of our past guests; one in each of the sectors we study here, our schools, sports environments and corporate workplaces with the goal to inspire YOU to enhance your own creativity for improved results in 2023, using the Silva Method.

I just wish Jose Silva could have seen the mounds of research that prove what he knew to be true with his Meditation Method, and that he wouldn’t have to disguise it as “bio-feedback” in the corporate world today.

DISCLAIMER: I want to mention that while I’m enjoying the Online UltraMind Course, I am not at all affiliated with Mind Valley, or the CEO Vishen Lakhiani, but I did hear my mentor Bob Proctor talking about his organization over the years, knowing he supported their work, but I had no idea that Jose Silva’s program would end up there.

While I’m only reviewing the book here, (and not what I’m learning in the online course-I might do this at a later date after implementing the concepts) I do think it’s important to include some of the meditations I found online in PART 3 of this review, to show you what they consist of. I’ve listed them in the resource section below for you to use. I’ve also put a snapshot of the topics covered over the 28 day online program, and while I’m currently at DAY 21/28, I can say that mastering the ideas in the book are a good place to start if you would like to improve your current meditation practice and then I will show you how this will enhance your creativity and ability for innovation. I think this 4 PART review could be used to jumpstart us all on the right foot for 2023. If you would like to go deeper into The Silva Method, I do suggest taking the online Silva UltraMind System, but caution that to get the most out of the program, that daily practice will be required. This is a course that you would want to carve out some time for.

PUTTING THE 4 PARTS of THE SILVA METHOD TOGETHER:

TO REVIEW PART 1 of THE SILVA METHOD EPISODE #261:

We covered:

✔ CH 1- Using More of Our Mind in Special Ways: An Introduction to the Silva Mind Control Method. If you have begun using your mind to create a mental screen for heightened visualization, you could end this book review here and still be miles ahead in 2023.

Central to Jose’s Silva Method of Mind Control is with the power of visualization, and he says “right from the beginning, from the very moment you reach your meditative level (what he calls accessing the Alpha State), you must learn to practice visualization. The better you learn to visualize, the more powerful will be your experience with Mind Control.”

With time and practice, it will be this screen that you will learn how to help yourself and others. You begin with creating simple things, until you are ready to solve small problems in your daily life, from work, to health, and improve learning/creativity. As you progress through this program, you can learn to use the screen of your mind to for more advanced innovative and creative ideas. There is no limit to what you could create here.

✔ What this program has done for others.

The late Dr. Wayne Dyer has said that anything with the name Jose Silva as the author has his vote before I open to page one. He said “Read it with a pen for underlining.”

Jose Silva himself noted that:

✔A marketing company used it to create 18 new products.

✔14 Chicago White Socks players used it to boost their scores.

✔ Celebrities have used it and credit Jose Silva for improving their focus and creativity.

✔ Colleges and universities have used it to help students study less, but learn more.

And during the Silva UltraMind course, (the online program I joined while doing this book review) I had the chance to participate on a training call one evening with all the new students who had recently come on board with MindValley, (that has over 10 million students worldwide, studying over 200 speakers and authors on the site), and the moderator asked what course people were studying, and people started chiming into the chat from the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and remote countries around the world…that they were ALL here to study The Silva Method. I was floored! Mostly because I had thought this training call would have just a handful of people coming on board. I didn’t expect so many participants globally, and ALL of them were there to study the same course I was there for. It took mind-boggling to a whole new level when I started to put together that this program was something that people are still very interested in learning about.

✔ Ch 2- Meet Jose Silva and learned about his passion for helping others to improve their ability to learn. He was a humble man who worked very hard to develop the ideas within his program, and was very careful about how he presented his ideas as visualization was not something that was widely accepted in the corporate world in the 80s and 90s. In his live events, he was smart to introduce his concepts as bio-feedback (that had more credibility at the time) and were more readily accepted, before introducing business executives to more advanced concepts of the mind (like using visualization) on the second day of the training.

✔ Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA,ALPHA,THETA,DELTA). He learned that we spend most of our waking time at the BETA brain state, where we can feel the stress and anxiousness of daily life, so finding ways to relax (that he calls going to the Alpha State) can be helpful. His online program does cover how to access the Theta level of mind for increased intuition, and offers a strategy for solving problems in your sleep at the Delta level.

✔ We were Introduced to Using A Mental Screen in Your Mind for Heightened Visualization. It Will Be This Screen That We Will Use to Help Yourself and Others in Future Chapters.

*** I would say developing the use of this screen is the KEY to the entire program. It’s where your goals will begin to form, or where you will work with NEW ideas that come into your mind. I’ve heard it be called “your workshop” or where you create something new in your mind, and with time and practice, what you put on this screen becomes clearer and clearer.

TO REVIEW PART 2 of THE SILVA METHOD EPISODE #262:

We covered:

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation (where we actually DO something while meditating, instead of it being a passive practice). We learn how to be more in control of our life using visualization. Dr. Andrew Huberman’s research does tie in the importance of using meditation to improve our creativity, and I will expand on this at the end of this episode.

✔ The 4 Laws that must be in place BEFORE we visualize a goal. (We must desire the event to take place that we want, we must believe the event we want will take place, we must EXPECT the event to take place, and we must ONLY be working with something that will benefit ourselves and others.

✔ I noticed How these 4 Laws mirror Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich book and wondered if Jose Silva did this intentionally.

✔ 3 STEPS to SOLVE ANY PROBLEM Using the Silva Method on the Screen that We Build in Our Mind.

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

✔ Where Silva's Memory Hacks have been seen on previous episodes and in the motivational speaking industry.

TO REVIEW PART 3 of THE SILVA METHOD EPISODE #263:

We covered:

✔ Chapter 6 on Speed Learning:

Using the mental screen paired with the 3-finger technique if you want to learn something quickly, using the Alpha Brain State. Silva also covered recording your voice, or creating what I knew of as the “loop tape” of whatever it is that you want to remember. You would record what you want to remember in the BETA State, and then listen to it in the Alpha state (using the 3 finger technique or counting backwards).

✔ Chapter 7 on Creative Dreams where we covered 4 strategies for remembering our dreams, and taking them seriously like Jose Silva himself did.

For PART 4 and today’s episode, of the SILVA METHOD, Episode #265 we will finish looking at the book, and will cover:

✔ Ch 8-Your Words Have Power

✔ Ch 9-The Power of Imagination

✔ Ch 10-Using Your Mind to Improve Your Health

✔ We will connect the most current neuroscience research to Jose Silva’s program, using Dr. Andrew Huberman's podcast on "The Science of Creativity"

✔ The 3 Parts to Your Creative Brain (Central Executive Network, Default Mode Network, Salience Network).

✔ 2 Types of Thinking Involved with Creativity (Divergent and Convergent)

✔ Putting Creativity to Practice with an example from our schools, sports and modern workplace environments.

with some clear examples and next steps for all of us to APPLY the Silva Method for improved Intuition, Creativity and Focus…right in time for a New Year.

Chapter 8: Your Words Have Power

I’m sure we’ve all heard of the importance of thinking and speaking positive words over negative ones, and Jose Silva would agree with this. In this chapter, he talks about a nurse-anesthetist (and one of his eventual lecturers) from Oklahoma, Mrs. Jean Mabrey, who puts this knowledge of the mind to use to help her patients. As soon as they are “under”—in deep anesthesia—she would whisper in their ears instructions that would speed their recovery, and in some cases save their lives.

Jose Silva would say “First, words have special power at deep levels of mind; second, the mind has much firmer command over the body than it is given credit for; and third, as I noted in Chapter 5, we are always conscious.”

Here’s another one if Silva’s principles that I learned from the speaking industry. Bob Proctor used to tell a story on stage, of how he would whisper success secrets into the ears of his children when they were little. While they are grown now, this story stuck with me, as we want the best for our own kids.

So when I had children, this is the first thing I did. I would drop into my child’s room just before they were about to drift off to sleep and tell them something that would go deep into their subconscious mind. I’d say something like “you’ll do whatever it is you want. Whatever you can dream you’ll do it!” I did this almost every night with my first…and with my second, not as often. She needed it more…. Now to think about it, I even spoke to my girls before they were born, letting them know how excited we were to meet them and how much fun we would have when they arrived.

Be very careful about the words we use and how they trigger our brains. We are always conscious. Since this concept was drilled into my head early on in the speaking industry, I learned early on to be careful of everything I say, and everything I think. If someone says “How are you?” and I’m not feeling 100%, the best way to answer this question is with a positive angle like “Getting better and better every day” to move myself in that direction. An answer like “not bad” would according to Silva, hit the brain in a negative way, as it would only hear “bad” instead of “good.”

I can tie the research to this as well, with my mentor Mark Robert Waldman who wrote Words Can Change Your Brain with Andrew Newberg, MD[vii]. In this book, they explain that

“the more you stay focused on negative words and thoughts, the more you can actually damage key structures that regulate your memory, feelings, and emotions.You may disrupt your sleep, your appetite, and the way your brain regulates happiness, longevity, and health. That’s how powerful a single negative word or phrase can be. And if you vocalize your negativity, even more stress chemicals will be released, not only in your brain, but in the listener’s brain as well. You’ll both experience increased anxiety and irritability, and it will generate mutual distrust, thereby undermining the ability to build empathy and cooperation. The same thing happens in your brain when you listen to arguments on the radio or see a violent scene in a movie. The brain, it turns out, doesn’t distinguish between fantasies and facts when it perceives a negative event. Instead it assumes that a real danger exists in the world.” Words Can Change Your Brain

Jose Silva had it right when he said “Words have special power at deep levels of mind, the mind has a firmer command over the body than it’s given credit for, and third, we are always conscious.” Jose Silva

Be careful with every word that you think, and speak. Words do have power.

Chapter 9: The Power of Your Imagination

We dove deep into this concept in part 3 of our review of Think and Grow Rich[viii] earlier this year that I can now see was of high interest to listeners as it had over 1400 downloads. On this episode, we looked at the fact that our lives reflect how well we use our imagination, because when we hit one plateau of success, it will be our imagination that will take us to what’s next. Author Earl Nightingale said that “imagination is everything” and as we will see with the Silva Method, all great inventions are created in two separate places: the mind of the inventor, and the physical world when the inventor creates it.

There is no doubt in my mind that Silva was influenced by Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book. He says it himself in this chapter that “imagination seizes directly on the goal; it gets what it wants” and elaborates by saying this is why he “placed so much emphasis on your learning true-to-life visualization at the deep levels of mind. If you spur your imagination with belief, desire and expectancy, and train to visualize your goals so that you see, feel, hear, taste and touch them, you will get what you want.” (Ch9, The Silva Method).

This is why mastering your mental screen for visualization is so important. If there is ONE part of the Silva Method that I think we could all benefit from, it’s this one. Learning to use the mental screen on our mind. It’s this mental screen where you will solve small and larger problems, and learn to help yourself and others in many different ways. It’s the starting block that must be mastered over time, and not rushed.

Chapter 10-Using Your Mind to Improve Your Health

We’ve covered this topic in a few places on this podcast, on EPISODE #234[ix] with Ashok Gupta on “Health and Happiness: Getting to the Root of Chronic Pain and Illness” where Ashok Gupta showed us how chronic pain or illness occurs in the brain with a vicious loop of inflammation/irritation that he has successfully been treating with patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Long-Haul Covid, Fibromyalgia, Chemical or Mold Sensitivities, Gut Issues, Anxiety, Lyme Disease and many more, with a meditation program he designed called The Gupta Program that combines brain-training in conjunction with working with a medical doctor for healing. Then physician and neurologist Dr. Phillippe Douyon shared his story of overcoming illness on EPISODE #241[x] with positive thinking at the root of his recovery.

Jose Silva was far ahead of his time with his understanding of using mind control for self-healing. This chapter is near the end of the book, and is mastered by students with time and practice, and I have to say that I had heard of using the mind for healing when my Mom was undergoing treatment for Cancer in the late 1990s. I told Dr. Douyon about her strategy for healing, and he said he had heard of many patients of his, successfully overcoming serious health challenges, and that positive thinking and visualizing health were at the very root of their healing, like Silva believed.

In this chapter, Silva talks about cancer specialist, O. Carl Simonton, who

Simonton who was trained by Silva and his Mind Control techniques was featured in Prevention Magazine in an article called “Mind Over Cancer” where he shared that the patients who recovered all had something in common. He said they were “often positive, optimistic, determined people.” (Ch 10, The Silva Method).

In this chapter Silva talks about the idea of self-healing using your mental screen, but he also touches on something that goes a bit beyond our usual level of thinking, in Chapter 12 that Silva called “ESP” or Extra Sensory Perception that he believed we all had. He worked closely with J.B Rhine at Duke University to understand this subject, and bring his experiments into his understanding, but it’s important to note that Silva believed this concept could be developed and strengthened over time to help his students improve self-healing, healing of others, improve their intuition, and strengthen their mental screen practice. He touches on this in the book, and his online program goes into great detail of how exactly this is done with activities using the screen of our mind, to psychometry, and is something I’ve been fascinated with since I first heard about this over 20 years ago.

I’ll be sure to cover this topic again in the future, as it one I’m still learning and exploring. I’m sure you can see now what Silva meant when he said “Once we learn to use our minds to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, as you will soon see.”

This brings me to the end of PART 4 and our REVIEW of The Silva Method:

To conclude this 4 PART REVIEW of The Silva Method, I want to look at how we can use what we’ve learned throughout this review of the Silva Method, to improve our Creativity in 2023 for Innovation in your specific line of work. This is where I’ll take the research, and tie it to The Silva Method, showing us that we all have the ability to be creative, and how to improve this area of our life in the New Year.

This is a deep topic, requiring some thought, that goes along with just how comprehensive Silva’s Method is. To make this applicable for all of us, I’ll be using concepts from Dr. Andrew Huberman’s most recent podcast on “The Science of Creativity and How to Enhance Creative Innovation” tying in Jose Silva’s Method to bring these 4 PARTS of our book review applicable to all of us, whether we are educators working in our classrooms, working in the sports industry, or in our modern workplaces.

WE CONNECT DR. HUBERMAN'S RESEARCH TO THIS EPISODE FROM HIS EPISODE ON ENHANCING YOUR CREATIVITY.

HOW CAN WE USE THE SILVA METHOD TO ENHANCE CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION IN 2023?

To close out this episode, let go straight to the research. Did you know that according to American neuroscientist and associate professor at Stanford School of Medicine, Dr. Andrew Huberman “the ability to be creative resides in everybody? We know that because the neural circuits that underlie creativity have been somewhat defined and the steps and processes in the brain that lead to creativity are well known.”

What Makes Something Creative?

Jose Silva would have loved this research, especially when Dr. Huberman ties many studies to meditation and the brain/creativity, but let’s begin with the idea of defining creativity. What makes something creative? Dr. Huberman spent over 2 hours on his podcast diving thoroughly and deeply into this topic, that I will narrow down for this episode. He explains that “most people don’t know how to access creativity” or “they do it in a limited manner” and I’ll agree with him here. As you will see, coming up with an idea that’s creative, and innovative takes time, effort and years of work, making connections, using your executive functions in your brain to cross off what’s not relevant and then testing these connections, to see what’s left over that you will keep, hoping they are creative and relevant to others.

Dr. Huberman explains that “when we see something that’s truly creative, it reveals something to us about the natural world and about how our brains work….It must reveal something that surprises us” for it to be truly creative.

Then, “something pops out at us” he says, “we hear something in the words with music, or if we see something, feel, or experience something” “and something pops out to us as exciting….this reveals something about our brain/our auditory system, creating NEW meaning for us.” AND “when we see, hear, feel or experience something that’s truly creative, the way our neural circuits function is changed. When our neural circuits are changed simply by what comes into our eyes, ears of the way we experience our feelings, there’s a release of chemicals like dopamine that make us feel surprised, delighted or excited in anticipation that we will see it again.” (Dr. Huberman)

So when I say that “the ability to be creative resides in everyone” it does, since we ALL have the same structures in our brain, but some people have learned to use certain parts of their brain to foster creativity in ways that others have not. This is where practicing the Silva Method comes in.

THE 3 NETWORKS TO YOUR CREATIVE BRAIN:

Dr. Huberman went on to explain that there are 3 networks in the brain that are involved in coming up with a CREATIVE idea, and we’ve covered these 3 parts of the brain extensively on EPISODE #48[xi] on “Brain Network Theory.” It was here where we covered The Default Mode Network, The Central Executive Network, and the Salience Network that are all involved with coming up a truly creative idea. While I’m not going to dive into each part of the brain and what it’s doing (you can review episode 48 where we show how these 3 parts of the brain must work together to improve our imagination and creativity), I just want to point out that coming up with a creative idea takes some brain power.

When you are working with the screen of your mind in the Silva Method, you will be using all three of these parts of your brain to come up with new ideas. Your CEN (Central Executive Network) will help you to suppress ideas, actions or choices, your DMN (Default Mode Network) will help you to access your library of previous memories that you will be using to create your NOVEL idea, and your SN (Salience Network) will help you to make choices of what’s most relevant to you.

You will use your brain to create something NEW and USEFUL by rearranging existing elements (from your memory bank) into new combinations that reveals something fundamental about how we and the world works.

2 TYPES OF THINKING ARE INVOLVED:

The final part of creating something CREATIVE and INNOVATIVE is that it’s done by going back and forth between two types of thinking:

Divergent Thinking: Where we take a known object in the world, and expand upon this idea, the more ideas the better, wandering through your ideas that you already know (from your memory bank) with the hopes that the connections you make reveals something new to others.

Convergent Thinking: That’s the opposite of divergent thinking, but it’s where we use focus and persistence to narrow in on an idea that makes sense in the real world.

If you want to dive deeper into Dr. Andrew Huberman’s thorough explanation of Creativity and the Brain[xii], he takes things much deeper than I will here, in his recent episode that goes well over 2 hours. He doesn’t miss anything and even goes on to show us the parts of the brain that light up when we are involved in divergent vs convergent thinking, and the 2 types of meditation that are proven to improve each of these ways of thinking. He says that “open monitored meditation” (like just closing your eyes and paying attention to your thoughts without judgement) is well documented to improve our divergent thinking capability, and focused attention meditation (like staring at a flame of light) is a way to improve our convergent thinking capabilities.

PUTTING CREATIVITY INTO PRACTICE:

When thinking about how to close out this 4 PART review, and make it applicable to all of us, I had to spend some time thinking hard about this one. I didn’t want to just end this review without some solid research backing up the validity of The Silva Method, with some clear examples of those who have shown innovation and creativity who we’ve come across on this podcast. It wasn’t difficult to find someone in each of the three sectors we cover, and now that I’ve tied the research to creative thinking, I’m sure you will agree with me that the examples I will share here all show true innovation and creativity, and that coming up with a creative idea like each of these, took years of experience, work and thought. It wasn’t like I remember the commercial for the guy who invented peanut butter cups who just tripped and his chocolate bar fell into the jar of peanut butter and bam, he had a new invention. These are 3 examples that I hope will inspire you to put some of your own thought into how you can use the Silva Method, and come up creative and innovative ideas of your own.

For Schools: I chose our guests from episode #215[xiii] who have shown innovation in the field of education by launching a podcast to elevate student and teacher voice.

Remember, To Show Creativity—It must Reveal something new to us (entertaining, thrilling or useful) and it changes the way we access the world—acting as portals into the world and ourselves.

I couldn’t have found a clearer example that these two Canadian podcasters who published a book called The Magnificent Microphone[xiv] that when a student connected to it, it opened up a whole new world of confidence, creativity and success. These two leaders in education have discovered true creativity and innovation in the podcasting space, bringing student-led podcasts to the field of education.

For Sports: I chose a forward-thinking coach from an early EPISODE #38[xv] who has shown innovation with his sports team when he redesigned their locker room and uniforms with a vision beyond what has typically been done before.

Remember, To Show Creativity—It must Reveal something new to us (entertaining, thrilling or useful) and it changes the way we access the world—acting as portals into the world and ourselves.

This one you’ll see more if you watch the 30 second snapshot of their locker reveal [xvi] that takes the team on a journey from the minute they walk into the new room, where the players are taking in the many visual cues they see, making connections to past players, where they are today, and their future.

For the Workplace: I chose our recent EPISODE #264[xvii] where our guest was able to look at ways to create breakthroughs in the workplace, bringing to light something that was left off the table in the past. He looked at EQ and IQ and found that experience was left off, and coined the term “XQ” for Experiential Intelligence. This guest also mentioned his love of “making connections” which is something he noticed I do intentionally on this podcast, and now after hearing Dr. Huberman’s explanation, he talks about the fact that true creativity or innovation could not occur without let’s say an architect coming up with incredible plans for buildings without a thorough understanding of how buildings are put together in the first place.

Remember, To Show Creativity—It must Reveal something new to us (entertaining, thrilling or useful) and it changes the way we access the world—acting as portals into the world and ourselves.

Once we know what novelty/creativity and innovation looks in the brain, you can only imagine what’s happening at the brain level with each of these examples. Just like the complexity of the reading brain, with 4 parts of the brain working together as a student learns how to read, someone coming up with a creative, innovative idea, has specific (Dr. Huberman lists 3 networks in the brain) working together to create what the rest of the world will come to see as novel, or innovative. This is what makes some things go “viral” online.

The NEW experience actually changes the circuits in the brain with whatever it is a person sees, feels, hears or experiences. Dopamine is released (with the surprise and delight) with whatever it is they make connections to, and there’s the hope or anticipation that they will experience it again.

I hope all 3 of these examples have given you a glance into the world of innovation that’s possible for you, as a product of going through the simple steps in the Silva Method.

To conclude this episode, and PART 4 of our Review of the Silva Method, we looked at

✔ A Review of all 3 PARTS of The Silva Method Review.

✔ Today, in PART 4, we looked at

Ch 8-Your Words Have Power

Ch 9-The Power of Imagination

Ch 10-Using Your Mind to Improve Your Health

✔ We connected The Silva Method to the Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Neuroscience Research on Creativity and Innovation.

✔ We gave an example of innovation from our past guests in the fields of education, sports and the modern workplace.

The goal of this 4 PART review of Jose Silva’s Program, was to encourage all of us to see if we could learn something new, to take our results to new heights in 2023. I had no idea just how deep the book and program would go, and I know I’ll review the online course at a later time, but for now, this review has given me some new ideas for how to improve my visualization/mental screen method to help me with my short term and long term goals.

I’d love to hear from you what you have thought of this episode, where we tied in the most current research to Jose Silva’s work, reminding me that “once we learn to use our minds to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, as you will soon see.”

I do want to add something before we close about the importance of honoring other people’s creative and innovative ideas. Now that we’ve seen what’s involved at the brain level with coming up with an idea that’s truly novel, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that while we all have this ability to create something new, that this comes naturally to some, and is more difficult for others. If you see someone else’s creative or innovative idea, please never approach it as your own.

PLAGIARISM CAUTION[xviii]: CAN WORDS OR IDEAS REALLY BE STOLEN?

When you are the creator of an idea, I can tell you first hand, as someone who worked very hard on something, and then saw it pasted on a reputable company’s website the day after I shared my “new ideas” with them. I was very disappointed, mostly as they had taken something I had permission to use from someone else who wasn’t referenced, because they stole the quote from me!

If you see something from someone else that you like, and want to use it somewhere, always credit the source where it originated from using the proper format with quotation marks. If it’s something that’s more than a quote, or it’s an idea, I would contact the creator first hand, and see what they think about what you would like to do.

I wanted to use an assessment based on American Psychologist Howard Gardener’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences in my first book, The Secret for Teens Revealed[xix], and emailed him directly at Harvard to ask him. He was shocked I even asked, and said that most people don’t. He told me he didn’t mind if I used it, but wanted me to be sure I portrayed the Intelligences in a way that showed that we can develop them all with effort, not that we are inclined for some and not others. I never forgot this. If you ask the creator directly, you can find out what they would prefer to keep original, and what they don’t mind sharing, with their name attached to it as the originator.

With this in mind now, I’d love to hear what you CREATE this year. I’ve put the meditations that I found online, that are a good place for all of us to begin this process, in the show notes below, and I’ll see you next week with our REVIEW of the TOP 10 EPISODES from 2022, and some surprise interviews that I had to squeeze in before the end of the year.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

RESOURCES:

MEDITATION 1: How to Enter the Alpha Level of Mind, Step by Step Process, The Silva Method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpMJWT6EsNs

MEDITATION 2: Jose Silva Method Alpha Exercises by Sommer Leigh Published on YouTube June 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SY0kajVITA

MEDITATION 3: 20 Minute Silva Centering Exercise with Vishen Lakhiani https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_4GDXWBPCk

REFERENCES:

[i] The Silva Mind Control Method https://silvamethod.com/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #260 with Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram on “Breaking Down the Mindset of the Million Dollar Monk” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/serial-entrepreneur-and-computer-scientist-hasan-ibne-akram-pd-d-on-breaking-down-the-mindset-of-the-million-dollar-monk/

[iii] www.mindvalley.com

[iv] Mind Valley the Silva UltraMind System https://home.mindvalley.com/quests/en/ultramind

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 PART 1 “Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

[vi] Dr. Andrew Huberman, “The Science of Creativity: How to Enhance Creative Innovation.” https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-creativity-and-how-to-enhance-creative-innovation/

[vii] Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Robert Waldman Words Can Change Your Brain Published June 14, 2012 https://www.amazon.com/Words-Can-Change-Your-Brain-ebook/dp/B0074VTHMA/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=CjwKCAiAnZCdBhBmEiwA8nDQxYXGNQeXA7fr8xVxnL3ns3s4ViPL46_aU6zL-rULfnX1cn9mSSD8ARoCENQQAvD_BwE&hvadid=281463219015&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9030068&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=5072060704672722834&hvtargid=kwd-337464396698&hydadcr=22593_10356183&keywords=words+can+change+your+brain+book&qid=1671724020&sr=8-1

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 PART 3 on “Putting Our Goals on Autopilot with Autosuggestion and Our Imagination”

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #234 with Ashok Gupta on “Health and Happiness: Getting to the Root of Chronic Pain and Illness” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/ashok-gupta-on-heath-and-happiness-getting-to-the-root-of-chronic-pain-and-illness-long-covid-fibromyalgia-chronic-fatigue-and-others/

[x]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #241 with Dr. Philippe Douyon on “How to Rewire Our Brain for Health and Happiness” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/physician-and-neurologist-philippe-douyon-md-on-how-to-rewire-our-brain-for-health-and-happiness/

[xi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #48 on Brain Network Theory “Using Neuroscience to Stay Productive During Times of Change and Chaos” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-network-theory-using-neuroscience-to-stay-productive-during-times-of-change-and-chaos/

[xii] Dr. Andrew Huberman, “The Science of Creativity: How to Enhance Creative Innovation.” https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-creativity-and-how-to-enhance-creative-innovation/

[xiii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #215 on “Chey Cheney and Pav Wander from the Chey and Pav Show” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/chey-cheney-and-pav-wander-from-the-chey-and-pav-show-on-their-vision-to-identify-and-amplify-the-voices-often-left-behind/

[xiv] Chey and Pav Podcast

https://publish.twitter.com/?query=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FStaffPodcast%2Fstatus%2F1575644124396789760&widget=Tweet

[xv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #38 with Todd Woodcroft on “The Daily Grind in the NHL” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/assistant-coach-to-the-winnipeg-jets-todd-woodcroft-on-the-daily-grind-in-the-nhl/

[xvi] UVM Men’s Hockey New Locker Reveal

https://twitter.com/UVMmhockey/status/1564327008775151617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1564327008775151617%7Ctwgr%5E1a6ca076211cde6d14d4567e7c32bc7d54ac2002%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FUVMmhockey2Fstatus2F1564327008775151617widget%3DTweet

[xvii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #264 with Soren Kaplan on “Experiential Intelligence: The Power of Experience for Personal and Business Breakthroughs” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/innovation-author-and-speaker-soren-kaplan-phd-on-experiential-intelligence-the-power-of-experience-for-personal-and-business-breakthroughs/

[xviii] What is Plagarism? what-is-plagiarism.pdf">https://healthsciences.nova.edu/studentaffairs/success/forms/apa-what-is-plagiarism.pdf

[xix] The Secret for Teens Revealed by Andrea Samadi

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teens-Revealed-Teenagers-Leadership/dp/1604940336

Dec 16, 2022

00:51:08

“Any new beginning is forged from the shards of the past, not from the abandonment of the past.” Craig Lounsbrough

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/M45pacbfyqA

On this episode we will cover:

✔ Soren Kaplan's background, and how he became interested in helping high level businesses breakthrough to new heights.

✔ How he has met and worked with some of the world's most well known experts in leadership and innovation.

✔ Where his innate strengths, talents and skills emerged from, skyrocketing his career and personal success.

✔ How we can ALL tap into the missing ingredient he discovered that leads to high levels of success and breakthroughs.

✔ How we can use this missing ingredient that he calls EXPERIENTIAL INTELLIGENCE (XQ) to become better leaders, increase collaboration, innovation and results at home or in the workplace.

✔ How EXPERIENTIAL INTELLIGENCE (XQ) compliments IQ and EQ.

✔ A simple formula for decoding our own EXPERIENTIAL INTELLIGENCE (XQ).

✔ How to use EXPERIENTIAL INTELLIGENCE (XQ) with teams, or individuals.

✔ The research behind EXPERIENTIAL INTELLIGENCE (XQ).

✔ How companies like Google, Apple, IBM and Tesla are embracing EXPERIENTIAL INTELLIGENCE (XQ).

When it comes to closing out an old year, and moving into a new one, goal-setting and mindset is at the top of mind for all of us, to jumpstart our New Year on the right foot. This week, I’m in the middle of writing out our TOP 10 episodes of 2022, and getting my head around the final PART of our book review of the Silva Method and I’m thinking about how I can personally improve where we are now with the podcast, to keep moving us all forward with engaging content and speakers that can us to reach new heights with our brain in mind in 2023 and beyond.

I wondered, “what am I missing that I haven’t covered yet, that could help move all of us to greater heights?”

We have gone deep on this podcast in the past year with using an understanding of our brain to improve our mental and physical health and wellbeing, especially as this all relates to our learning, and we’re now slowing down the year for the holidays, uncovering some new ways to meditate with The Silva Method,[i] and other episodes that we’ll be releasing over the last few weeks of this year to help us to improve creativity, our intuition and focus, but before we close out this year, I wonder, what else is there that can help drive transformation in our schools, sports environments and workplaces?

I’ve been thinking about this for the past few weeks, and then I met our next guest, Soren Kaplan, Ph.D., a bestselling and award-winning author, a Columnist for Inc. Magazine, and an affiliate at the Center for Effective Organizations at USC’s Marshall School of Business. Business Insider and the Thinkers50 have recognized him as one of the world’s top management thought leaders and consultants. I was introduced to Soren Kaplan via email letting me know about his NEW book called Experiential Intelligence: (that’s about how to) Harness the Power for Personal and Business Breakthroughs[ii] that follows his other successful books Leapfrogging: The Power of Surprise for Business Breakthroughs[iii] and The Invisible Advantage[iv].

I immediately thought, “This is it! This is what I’ve been looking for. Something else that we can tap into that can be used to transform ourselves, our teams, and our organizations” and something entirely NEW, giving us that “breakthrough” advantage, or quantum leap that I’ve been mentioning all year with Price Pritchett’s You2 book.

When I began reading Soren’s book, I noticed from the praise and testimonials at the start, that his supporters were all high levels leaders, sharing what they had learned from Soren’s book, and how “the ability to understand your inherent capabilities as a product of life experiences is the essence of (what Soren has called) experiential intelligence” and how “leaders can harness XQ to unlock their own hidden strengths and that of their teams to drive transformation.” –Valencia Bembry, VP of Philanthropy, United Nations Foundation

Today’s Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #264 will cover Soren Kaplan Ph.D on “Experiential Intelligence: The Missing Ingredient for Unlocking Personal and Professional Success.” This will give me some more time to think a bit deeper on our final part of our review of The Silva Method that I could really use. I’m Andrea Samadi an author and an educator, who launched this podcast to help us to understand the science behind ANY high performance strategy proven to increase our results in our schools, sports, and modern workplaces.

Before we meet Soren Kaplan, I want to share a bit about what he has discovered after 25 years of working with thousands of business leaders around the world. He says that Experiential Intelligence reveals how our past life experiences impact our present success and future opportunities in ways we often don’t recognize. While we can’t change what’s happened to us or how we’ve responded to it, within our unique stories are hidden strengths waiting to be discovered. He says we can all do just that by uncovering our unique Experiential Intelligence (XQ)—or our internal fingerprint, that is a combination of the mindsets and abilities gained from our personal and professional life experiences. Just as memorizing facts doesn’t give you a high IQ, your Experiential Intelligence isn’t merely what you’ve learned over time. It’s how you view opportunities, perceive challenges, and tackle goals. XQ can be leveraged for you to:

Become a better leader Hire and develop talent using more strategic criteria Increase collaboration, innovation, and results Transform your organization's culture

I had to sit and think for a moment after coming across Soren Kaplan’s work, as we’ve covered emotional intelligence on the podcast, with EPISODE #202[v] most recently with Joshua Freedman on “Getting Results with Emotional Intelligence in our Schools and Workplaces” that remains on our TOP 10 most listened episodes of 2022, so I wondered how this NEW book could help us to uncover our hidden assets, remove invisible barriers limiting peak performance, and amplify strengths to achieve breakthroughs for ourselves personally, our teams, or our organizations.Let’s meet Soren Kaplan and find out how we can all use Experiential Intelligence to breakthrough to new heights as we prepare to launch a new year.

Welcome Soren Kaplan, thank you for coming on the podcast to share what you have discovered about this unique fingerprint that we all have-- that when tapped into, can transform our results. Thanks for being here today! I’m excited to uncover some NEW breakthroughs with you.

INTRODUCTION Q: Before I ask you WHAT you’ve discovered that you cover in your NEW book, Experiential Intelligence, I’ve got to start out with a SURPRISE question for you, that wasn’t in the script, because I started reading your second book, Leapfrogging, about using the Power of Surprise for Business Breakthroughs that ties back to one of our earlier interviews on The Power of Surprise.

Can we begin with a progression of your three books, and how you became interested in helping people “break through” to new heights and results?

Q1: Looking through your website, and the praise of your best-selling and award-winning books, I saw leaders in business from around the world from 3M, to the CEO of PBS, to School Superintendents, but there was one person who caught my eye, as he was recognized as the world’s most influential leadership thinker and then I saw that he wrote the foreword to book, Leapfrogging. How did you get to meet Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, who listeners might know as the author of the book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There?

An excerpt from Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s foreword from the book, Leapfrogging.

Q1B: How have you brought “lateral thinking” into the workplace?

Q1C: Understanding XQ and all of its parts: how do we even begin to implement this concept that holds so many moving pieces that have been left out of our educational system and workplaces for years?

Q2: Now that you have given us some history of what got you here, can you explain Experiential Intelligence and how it’s different from IQ (Intellectual Intelligence) and EQ (Emotional Intelligence)?

It's how you perceive challenges, view opportunities, and tackle your goals. Street Smarts The greater self-awareness you gain around your own Experiential Intelligence, the more you actually develop it and can use it to your advantage.

Q2B: How does "XQ" complement IQ and EQ (Emotional Intelligence)?

XQ introduces the third leg of the intelligence stool that’s been there all along but is now equally important to recognize as a critical success factor in life and business. To deal with today’s disruptive world, we need to first understand and then develop certain mindsets, abilities, and know-how to ensure we survive and thrive. These are the components of XQ

Q3: For those of us who want to now look at our own XQ, How do we decode our own talents and strengths that come from our individual XQ?

exactly

do life experiences create this "

intelligence" and help develop

our Experiential Intelligence?

How can we tap into this intelligence for increased collaboration at work, leading to more innovation in 2023?

Q3B: How does a team work with XQ?

Q3C: Where do we begin to work with XQ?

Q4: What research supports the ideas behind XQ?

Q4B: How do you take into mind the research in this work, like connecting Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah’s book, What Happened to You with everyone we work and connect with?

Q4C: Soren asks Andrea where she got the ability to make connections across different sectors, and why does she think these connections are important?

Q5: What is the role of Experiential Intelligence in business, i.e., for leadership, teams, and organizational culture? How does XQ play out in our workplaces?

Companies including Google, Apple, Tesla, IBM, Home Depot, Bank of America, Starbucks, and Hilton no longer require a university degree for an interview. Many organizations haven’t fully tapped into the mindsets, abilities, and know-how that inherently exists across their people and teams. Leaders first need to recognize that the reality of life, including in business, is that everyone brings the whole of who they are with them wherever they go, including both their strengths as well as self-limiting beliefs. Until companies embrace this fact, they’ll never reach their full potential.

Q6: Experiential Intelligence seems to have broad relevance and implications beyond business, is that true?

Just like IQ and EQ, we all have XQ. That makes it relevant for parenting, education, personal relationships, psychology and more.

Q7: Is there anything important that I’ve missed?

How can we best assess or measure our Experiential Intelligence?

XQ can be measured at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Teams and organizations are simply collections of individuals, so collective “team XQ” or “organization XQ” represent the collective Experiential Intelligence of a group. For example, if a team or organization shares a specific mindset around something, it influences the collective culture in the form of shared attitudes and beliefs. Soren Kaplan created an assessment that measures four dimensions of Experiential Intelligence. ‘Ability Appreciation’ is your recognition that you possess specific strengths in the form of attitudes, assumptions, knowledge, or skills due to your unique experiences. ‘Impact Awareness’ is your attunement to the impacts you’ve experienced in life and how to view and use them to your advantage. ‘Mindset Flexibility’ is your awareness that your attitudes and beliefs will change over time based on your experiences. ‘Amplification’ involves sharing your personal XQ journey while providing a safe, trusted space for others to openly share and receive your insight and encouragement at the same time. How an individual or group scores on these dimensions indicates whether they have a lower or higher level of XQ.

Soren, I want to thank you very much for coming on the podcast, and sharing the work you’ve done with leaders around the world, to help our listeners to improve their QX this year for heightened results. For people who want to access the book, is the best place to go to your website?

Andrea’s Final Thoughts:

I couldn’t end this interview without sharing how much Soren’s new book, Experiential Intelligence made me think. I was caught up in thought throughout the entire interview, and working on making XQ applicable for all of us.

I was also surprised when Soren asked me a question. That’s only ever happened ONCE in the three years I’ve been hosting this podcast. Dr. David Sousa surprised me with a question at the end of our first interview, asking me “what else can I answer for you?” and I had thought long and hard about the questions we had covered, and I wasn’t expecting it, so I came up with something that really mattered to me at the end of our interview.

I thought it was interesting that Soren noticed the connections I try to make during interviews. It’s something I’ve noticed comes naturally when I’m listening to someone, I’m looking to see if what they are saying could be applicable for us in any way, especially if I can tie in something important to neuroscience research. I recently noticed that staying sharp with this skill requires me to be well rested, eat a clean diet and stay as healthy as possible, tying in the health and wellness side to our podcast that’s always there. Without our mental and physical wellbeing, everything else is impacted and I noticed it with my inability to make these connections with ease in the summer months, prior to changing some things in my diet. I shared this with Soren at the end of the interview, and he agreed that diet and nutrition have impacted his results as well. It’s an undeniable difference for both of us.

While editing this interview, I wanted to see if I could decode my XQ for an example, and if you watch the YouTube interview, you can see where I took a high impact experience from my high school years, when I was cut from playing basketball (after being on the team in previous years), and this experience conveyed to me that I wasn’t good at sports, and the belief I formed over the years is that I need to work extra hard when it comes to sports. It’s where I draw most of my resilience, strength and never give up attitude from. So instead of being mad at the coach who cut me from the team (Mr. Stein), I can now look at the wealth of experience learned that contributed to my knowledge and skills over the years.

Try this activity yourself, and for those who want to access Chapter 1 of the book, you can get it for FREE from sorenkaplan.com The book comes out Jan. 24th, but if you have time over the holidays, this would be a good time to sit back, reflect and decode your unique fingerprint that contributes to your unique talents and strengths. If you figure out anything eye-opening, I’d love to know, and Soren did say that mediation is another way to think and ponder about your life experiences, to help you to come up with your unique fingerprint.

And with that being said, I'll close out this episode and see you again for PART 4 of The Silva Method in a few days. See you then.

EXPERIENTIAL INTELLIGENCE BOOK:

https://www.sorenkaplan.com/experientialintelligence/

FOLLOW AND CONNECT WITH SOREN KAPLAN, Ph.D.

Website https://www.sorenkaplan.com/overview/

Twitter https://twitter.com/sorenkaplan

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sorenkaplan/recent-activity/posts/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dr.sorenkaplan/?hl=en

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SorenKaplan/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] https://www.sorenkaplan.com/experientialintelligence/

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #261 PART 1

[iii] https://www.sorenkaplan.com/leapfrogging-book/

[iv] https://www.sorenkaplan.com/invisibleadvantage/

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #202 with Joshua Freedman on “Getting Results with Emotional Intelligence in our Schools and Workplaces” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/joshua-freedman-ceo-of-6-seconds-on-getting-results-with-emotional-intelligence-in-our-schools-and-workplaces/

Dec 07, 2022

00:25:24

“A genius is a man who has discovered how to increase the intensity of thought to a point when he can freely communicate with sources of knowledge not available through the ordinary rate of thought.” –Napoleon Hill, author of the Best Selling Classic Book, Think and Grow Rich.

In PART 3 we cover:

✔ A look at Speed Learning with 2 strategies we can all use right away to learn faster, and remember what we have learned longer.

✔ Creative Sleep, and how to use our sleep to solve problems, improve creativity and intuition in our waking hours, with 4 steps to improving your ability to use and remember your dreams.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast and PART 3 of our Review of Jose Silva’s Mind Control Program. I’m Andrea Samadi an author and an educator, who like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind ANY high-performance strategy proven to increase our results in our schools, sports, or modern workplaces. If there’s something NEW that I come across that can help us in any way, I’ll investigate it, connect it with the most current research, and then share what I learn with you here.

If you’ve been following the past few episodes, you’ll know that I came across Jose Silva’s work with Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram, from EPISODE #260[i], who has launched 7 successful companies, and mentioned that this book completely changed his world. I had heard of this book and Silva’s Program over the years, and many of the concepts that Jose Silva mentions in his book, but had not read it cover to cover, or practiced the audio training that goes along with the book, so I decided to do a complete review of the program, like we did with Napoleon Hill’s book at the start of this year, and see how this book, that was popular in the 80s and 90s could connect to the interviews we’ve done previously on this podcast. Especially when Friederike Fabritius mentioned on EPISODE #258[ii] that our mind can be trained to produce flashes of insight, that can help us in business and our personal lives and what Jose Silva would say could reveal “some astounding things” with a trained mind.

I wondered how exactly could our mind be trained...

Was daily meditation not enough? If it was, how do I even know if I’m meditating the right way? What was I missing from my current practice? What can we learn from the years of research behind Jose Silva’s popular program that could help all of us to refine our current meditation practice?

Then I thought back to a class I took with Jon Kabat-Zinn, the father of mindfulness, who reminded us in this class that we are already perfect, (as we are) and that mindfulness is not about “attaining a certain state, (that brings us to this new level of perfection) but that we are already whole and perfect.” Whatever program we are doing now, the idea of this book review is not to say that Jose Silva’s method is better, or that we might be missing something from what we are already doing, but to see if there’s anything NEW that we cover here, that interests us to dive deeper into, to further enhance our current practice.

Jim Kwik, the founder of Kwik Learning[iii], has said that “we’ve discovered more in the past 20 years about our brain than we’ve known in the previous 2,000 years combined” and I think it’s so exciting to share new strategies to help us all, which is the purpose of this podcast. When I learn something new, something that can help me to improve in any way, this energizes me, this gets me all jazzed up, and I know I can’t be the only one like this. I’m sure for those of you who tune into this podcast, can relate to what I’m saying and I’m honored that you’ve chosen me to study with, wherever you might be tuning into this podcast around the world. I love looking at the statistics to see where listeners are tuning in from in over 168 countries, which is a Geography lesson for me when I look at the map of the world.

NOTE TO LISTENERS: Thank you to everyone who tunes into our podcast around the world. I can see all the countries you are tuning in from, and am grateful you have chosen to study with me.

For this book review, little263-INTRO did I know just how powerful Silva’s program would be, when I recorded PART 1 of this series. As I began reading each chapter that Jose Silva wrote many years ago when he was on a quest to increase learning for his own children, I began piecing together many of the strategies that we’ve covered on this podcast for improving learning, focus, creativity, imagination and productivity, all backed by science, right within the pages of The Silva Method.

I made many connections to past episodes and research, including Dr. John Dunlosky from EPISODE #37[iv] where he spoke about using “spaced repetition” as an evidence-based method for improving recall for students, that we will cover today. This research also appears in John Almarode, Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher’s recent book, How Learning Works: Translating the Science of Learning into Strategies in Your Classroom that we covered on EPISODE #161[v].

Or even the importance of mindfulness and meditation in the classroom, for athletes or in the workplace. The connection to current research was enough for me to see that Jose Silva was on to something with the methods he wrote about, years before the research would take off exponentially in this area.

Daniel Goleman wrote about this in his book Altered Traits[vi] where he showed a visual with the research on Mindfulness and Meditation going up exponentially from the year 2000, to 2020.

My goal with this review of The Silva Method[vii], is to help all of us to learn something new to refine our current meditation practice whether we are working in our schools to improve learning, in our sports environments for improved results towards a specific goal, or in the corporate workplace to generate new ideas. I wouldn’t have picked this book to review if it hadn’t made such an impact on the world, like Napoleon Hills’ book, but I had no idea the concepts I would learn each week, would be so powerful, and life-changing.

After releasing the first 2 PARTS of this program, I began to receive messages from our listeners around the world who have used Silva’s Program, even from those who used it years ago. Then my good friend Hans Ajay from the UK, urged me to sign up for the full program through MindValley[viii], (where the course sits today after Vishen Lakhiani (the founder) revised and improved it in this current version. Hans wrote “It’ll be transformative.”

I don’t need anyone to twist my arm if there’s going to be transformation and learning occurring, so I signed up immediately taking what I’m learning in the pages of Silva’s book to a whole new level. I’ll stick to covering each chapter, but have to say that the experiential exercises have brought each chapter to life in a way that I don’t think it’s possible for me to show with my writing. I’ll connect as many exercises as I can find online with each chapter review, and encourage those of you who want to learn more to explore the entire program further through MindValley. This course is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in all my years of studying and learning.

To REVIEW, In PART 1[ix] we covered:

✔ CH 1- Using More of Our Mind in Special Ways: An Introduction to the Silva Mind Control Method

✔ What this program has done for others.

✔ Ch 2- Meet Jose Silva

✔ Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA, ALPHA, THETA, DELTA).

✔ How to quickly access the ALPHA STATE to improve creativity, and intuition.

✔ Using A Mental Screen in Your Mind for Heightened Visualization

✔ How to Help Yourself and Others Using a Mental Screen in Our Mind

UNDERSTANDING HOW TO ACCESS THE ALPHA BRAIN STATE:

Once we understand the different brain states, and how to access them, it makes more sense as we dive into the Alpha State, and practice visualizing on the screen of our mind in this state with the meditation exercises. Understanding the Alpha Level of Mind is the first step in Silva’s Mind Control Program, and used by itself, had tremendous health capabilities.

When you are daydreaming, or just going to sleep but not quite there yet, or just awakening but not yet awake, you are in Alpha Brain State that Silva calls the "inner consciousness” where he says is our mental world exists, with no time or space. With Silva’s Mind Control training you can enter the Alpha level at will and still remain fully alert, which is where the exciting part of his program begins.

I found 2 meditations on YouTube that I’ve listed below to help us to gain access to the experiential activities and take the first steps to applying Jose Silva’s program into our daily life.

ALPHA MEDITATION 1

How to Enter the Alpha Level of Mind,

This first video is an introduction, helping us to understand how to enter the Alpha state of mind easily. Jose Silva explains what one needs to do to reach the Alpha, or meditative, level of mind, and this video illustrates his words beautifully.

ALPHA MEDITATION EXAMPLE 2:

Here’s a second example I found on YouTube of entering the Alpha State and practicing our Mental Screen, with the 3, 2, 1, countdown method in a (25 minutes meditation) with Sommer Leigh, who reads Silva’s Alpha Meditation exactly as he would, but obviously this time, it’s with a female voice and peaceful music. Sommer does address the fact that someone new to meditating should begin with counting down from 100 to 1 to reach the Alpha level, using the countdown method that Silva suggests.

If you prefer a male voice for this activity, you can sign up for MindValley.com where Vishen Lakhiani goes through this same exercise, that he calls “Tapping into Alpha with a Centering Exercise” or you can hear Vishen’s YouTube version of The 20 Minute Silva Centering Exercise here from MindValley’s Channel.

Once you reach the Alpha level, (either in the morning, or a night or any time of day that you have to spend 15 minutes) Silva explains this is where we envision a peaceful place to help us to relax our mind, and body for improved health. This is also the place where we can practice solving a problem that we will go deeper into in PART 2. This meditation ends with the 1-5 countdown method to exit the meditation, where we feel better than we did before.

Jose Silva reminds us that if we did nothing other than practice going to this peaceful state of mind, it would have tremendous health and wellness benefits that research now proves to be true.

In PART 2[x] of our review, on our last episode, we covered:

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation (where we actually DO something while meditating, instead of it being a passive practice).

✔ The 4 Laws that must be in place BEFORE we visualize a goal.

✔ How these 4 Laws mirror Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich book.

✔ 3 STEPS to SOLVE ANY PROBLEM Using the Silva Method on the Screen that We Build in Our Mind.

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

✔ Where Silva's Memory Hacks have been seen on previous episodes and in the motivational speaking industry.

In PART 3 of our review, today’s EPISODE #263, we will cover:

✔ Ch 6-Speed Learning

✔ Ch 7-Creative Sleep

For Chapter 6: Speed Learning

I couldn’t begin writing about Silva’s strategies, without referring to Jim Kwik[xi] first, the founder of Kwik Learning, who created his entire business around how to reader faster, work smarter and think better by accelerating your learning and your life by unlocking what he calls our “superbrain.” Jim Kwik reminds us something I’m sure we’ve all heard of a million times, that school teaches us WHAT to learn (History, Math, Science, Languages) but “there are ZERO classes on how to learn, listen, focus, concentrate, solve problems, read faster or remember things.”

We mentioned Howard Berg, The World’s Fastest Speed Reader on our last episode, who taught us on EPISODE #189[xii] many skills that school never taught us, like speed reading or memory tricks.

Jose Silva was ahead of his game when he began looking for ways to teach his children, and eventually thousands of others who studied his methods, to learn faster, and be able to remember what they learned for longer periods of time.

He offers two strategies in his book:

STRATEGY 1: THE MENTAL SCREEN FOR LEARNING PAIRED WITH THE 3 FINGER TECHNIQUE

Silva suggests using our Mental Screen for learning, to speed up and deepen what we learn. He also uses the 3 Finger Technique to help us to reach the Alpha State quicker, which can be done while reading to help with focus, concentration and retention, and he outlines a teacher from Denver who used this Three Finger Technique to teach her students spelling with a list of 20 words. To test them, she would ask them to write down the words they studied that week, recall the words using the Three Finger Technique, and see the words on the screen of their minds. She was able to teach all of her students to remember their spelling list with this method.

STRATEGY 2: RECORD YOUR VOICE

The second method for Speed Learning, I’m most interest in, as I had heard about this strategy in the past. Silva suggests recording your voice when you need to learn something new. When I worked in the seminar industry, we called this a “loop tape” and this strategy was for anyone who wanted to take their results to new heights. Whether they were studying for a test, and needed to learn something new, or an actor who needed to memorize their lines quickly, a loop tape was recommended. I even remember it was suggested to me when I first moved to the US, and found life in this new country to be challenging. The first thing our offices said was “has Andrea created a loop tape of what she wants her life to look like?” Sounds a bit off the wall, but if you don’t think something first, on the screen of your mind, you’ll be less likely to know what you are looking for when you see it. It’s crazy to look back now, because my current life looks pretty much the way I imagined it to look 20+ years ago, when I created my first loop tape, and even drew a sketch of what I envisioned the house I would live in, would look like.

PUTTING THIS INTO PRACTICE:

For someone who want to apply this strategy to learning something new, Silva suggests to read the chapter that you are studying out loud (or whatever it is that you want to remember) and record it while you’re in the beta brain state, or wide awake and focused. Next, he says, go to the alpha brain state (by counting backwards using the 3, 2, 1 method, or with the 3 Finger Technique and listen to what you recorded while in this state, concentrating on your voice.

For added reinforcement, he suggests to let a few days pass and then do it again. Read the material in your beta state and play it back in alpha. This is also in line with Dr. John Dunlosky’s research, using spaced repetition.

Chapter 7 of The Silva Method on Creative Sleep.

Silva took the dream world very seriously, and he was interested in using dreams to solve problems. His programs teach us to first of all remember your dreams and suggests writing them down as soon as you wake up.

We’ve covered dreams on this podcast with EPISODE #224[xiii] with Harvard Neuroscientist Dr. Baland Jalal on “Sleep Paralysis, Lucid Dreaming and Premonitions” or EPISODE #104[xiv] with Antonio Zadra and his book “When Brains Dream” and I even took a stab at explaining “Why Our Dreams Are So Weird, Highly Emotional and Often Forgotten” on EPISODE #226[xv] as I’m personally been interested in deciphering the messages that come through in our dream state.

I mentioned on our recent episode with Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram about how motivational speaker Bob Proctor would encourage all of us to write down our dreams to see what we could learn from them. I’ve got quite the dream log that goes back to the late 90s, and while no one other than myself would understand the significance within my scribbles, they are very clear to me.

Here’s an example: I was planning to move from Toronto, Canada, to Arizona, USA in January 2000. I had applied to come to the USA on the H1BI VISA for the work I was doing with teenagers, and I didn’t get the paperwork I needed until April 2001. You can see a dream I recorded Dec 14th, 2000 where I wrote “Bob at office putting in new computer telling me how I should set up my Phoenix office” that to someone else might be just a bunch of jumbled words, but to me, that was a clear sign that I was going to eventually finally make it to Arizona, with some suggestions on how to set up my office when I got there. I remember this dream clearly, with Bob actually hiding the wires behind my computer under my desk. With each log I’ve written, I can now go back over the dream in my head whenever I want, and the messages within each dream are obvious…at least to me.

HOW TO USE YOUR DREAMS AS GUIDANCE:

I’ve used this dream log to guide me in my personal and professional life and highly encourage anyone who wants to gain more self-awareness to try this activity.

Silva began using dreams to solve his problems back in 1949 and said the more he studied, the more humbling it became as he realized he knew less and less as time moved forward. He was always looking to learn more to help others with his research.

He writes an incredible story about how he dreamed of 3 numbers, and couldn’t figure out what they were, until a string of events led him to a gas station, where someone he was with saw the numbers on a lottery ticket. He bought the ticket, and went on to win $10,000 that he used to fund his research over the years.

This isn’t the only story where dreams have had a significant importance. Richard Bach, the author of the book “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” an important book in the field of personal development, was almost never was written. Richard Bach explains that he couldn’t figure out the ending to this story, until he saw the ending in a dream he had, helping him to finish the book. This book made the cover of Time Magazine, and Bach credits The Silva Method for the mental discipline and visualization he needed to complete this book.

PUT THIS STRATEGY INTO PRACTICE: BEGIN BY

The Complete Book of Dreams

[xvi]

To bring this episode to a close, and REVIEW Chapter 6 on Speed Learning and Chapter 7 on Creative Dreams,

In Chapter 6 on Speed Learning we looked at 2 Strategies that included

In Chapter 7 on Creative Dreams we covered 4 strategies for remembering our dreams, and taking them seriously like Jose Silva himself did.

In the resource section, I’ve put the links to the three meditations I found online that can help you to take Silva’s ideas to new heights in your own life.

I hope that you take the time to go through the meditations where you will see what Hans Ajay told me. They are transformational. I wanted to learn something new with my current meditation practice, and had no idea just how deep Jose Silva’s Program would take me.

Next episode we will cover:

Episode #164

✔ Ch 8-Your Words Have Power

✔ Ch 9-The Power of Imagination

✔ Ch 10-Using Your Mind to Improve Your Health

Will see you next episode.

RESOURCES:

MEDITATION 1: How to Enter the Alpha Level of Mind, Step by Step Process, The Silva Method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpMJWT6EsNs

MEDITATION 2: Jose Silva Method Alpha Exercises by Sommer Leigh Published on YouTube June 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SY0kajVITA

MEDITATION 3: 20 Minute Sila Centering Exercise with Vishen Kakhiani https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_4GDXWBPCk

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iii] https://kwiklearning.com/

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #260 with Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram on “Breaking Down the Mindset of the Million Dollar Monk” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/serial-entrepreneur-and-computer-scientist-hasan-ibne-akram-pd-d-on-breaking-down-the-mindset-of-the-million-dollar-monk/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 3258 Neuroscientist and Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author on “The Brain-Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Quit and How to Make Them Stay” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/neuroscientistwallstreet-journalbestselling-authorfriederike-fabritius-onhernew-bookthe-brainfriendly-workplacewhy-talented-peoplequitand-how-tomake/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #37 with Dr. John Dunlosky on “Improving Student Success with Some Principles from Cognitive Science” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kent-states-dr-john-dunlosky-on-improving-student-success-some-principles-from-cognitive-science/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #161 with John Almarode, Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher on “How Learning Works: Translating the Science of Learning into Strategies for Maximum Learning in Your Classroom” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/johnalmarodedouglas-fisherand-nancyfreyon-how-learning-works-translatingthescience-oflearningintostrategiesformaximum-learning-inyourclassroom/

[vi] Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain and bod Published September 5, 2017 by Daniel Goleman https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Traits-Science-Reveals-Meditation/dp/0399184384

[vii] The Silva Mind Control Method https://silvamethod.com/

[viii] www.mindvalley.com

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #261 PART 1

[x]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#262 PART 2 “A Deep Dive into Applying the Silva Method: Dynamic Meditation and Improved Memory” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/a-deep-dive-with-andrea-samadi-into-applying-the-silva-method-for-improved-intuition-creativity-and-focus-part-2/

[xi] https://kwiklearning.com/

[xii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #145 with Howard Berg, the World’s Fastest Speed Reader on “Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension and Recall” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-worlds-fastest-reader-howard-stephen-berg-on-strategies-to-improve-reading-comprehension-and-recall-for-educators-and-the-workplace/

[xiii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #224 with Harvard Neuroscientist Dr. Baland Jalal who Explains “Sleep Paralysis, Lucid Dreaming and Premonitions: Expanding Our Awareness into the Mysteries of Our Brain During Sleep” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/harvard-neuroscientist-drbaland-jalalexplainssleepparalysislucid-dreaming-andpremonitionsexpandingour-awareness-into-the-mysteries-ofourbrainduring-sl/

[xiv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #104 with Antonio Zadra on “When Brains Dream” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/sleep-scientist-antonio-zadra-on-when-brains-dream-exploring-the-science-and-mystery-of-sleep/

[xv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#226 “Using Neuroscience to Explain Why Our Dreams Are So Weird, Highly Emotional and Often Forgotten” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-using-neuroscience-to-explain-why-our-dreams-are-so-weird-highly-emotional-and-often-forgotten/

[xvi] The Complete Book of Dreams: A Guide to Unlocking the Meaning and Healing Power of Your Dreams by Stephanie Gailing Published October 20, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Dreams-Illustrated-Encyclopedia/dp/1577152131

Dec 01, 2022

00:24:19

“Once we learn to use our mind to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, as you will soon see.” Jose Silva (August 11, 1914-February 7, 1999) author of The Silva Mind Control Method.

On today’s Episode #262 we will cover

✔ A Review of PART 1 of this series (How to access the ALPHA BRAIN STATE, Creating A Mental Screen for Visualization and Problem Solving).

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation

✔ The 4 Laws that must be in place BEFORE we visualize a goal.

✔ How these 4 Laws mirror Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich book.

✔ 3 STEPS to SOLVE ANY PROBLEM Using the Silva Method.

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

✔ Where Silva's Memory Hacks have been seen on previous episodes and in the motivational speaking industry.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast and PART 2 of our Review of Jose Silva’s Mind Control Program. I’m Andrea Samadi an author and an educator, who like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind ANY high performance strategy proven to increase our results in our schools, sports, and modern workplaces. If there’s something NEW that I come across that can help us in any way, I’ll investigate it, connect it with the most current research, and then share what I learn with you here.

At the start of this year, I reviewed Napoleon Hill’s Best-Selling Think and Grow Rich[i] book, with a deep dive into many of the concepts that have been put to a practical test by millions of people around the world over the years. This is THE book that my mentor Bob Proctor spent his lifetime studying, and it remains on my desk as a resource to visit when I need some inspiration, or some wise words of wisdom to push me forward. Then I came across Jose Silva’s work on our resent EPISODE #260, a fascinating program that I had heard about when I worked in the seminar industry, and I knew it was time to slow down the podcast, and see what Jose Silva’s program covered, and if his work could help us all with whatever it is that we are working on.

My goal with this review of The Silva Method[ii], is to help all of us to learn something new to refine our current meditation practice whether we are working in our schools to improve learning, in our sports environments for improved results towards a specific goal, or in the corporate workplace to generate new ideas. I wouldn’t have picked this book to review if it hadn’t made such an impact on the world, like Napoleon Hills’ book.

In PART 1[iii] of our review, on our last episode, we covered:

✔ CH 1- Using More of Our Mind in Special Ways: An Introduction to the Silva Mind Control Method

✔ What this program has done for others.

✔ Ch 2- Meet Jose

✔ Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA, ALPHA, THETA, DELTA).

✔ How to quickly access the ALPHA STATE to improve creativity, and intuition.

✔ Using A Mental Screen in Your Mind for Heightened Visualization

✔ How to Help Yourself and Others Using a Mental Screen in Our Mind

After recording this episode, there were some important parts that I forgot to add in, but since each of these episodes is cumulative, building off the last episode, I’ll be sure to add in anything important along the way. As I’m writing these episodes, as I’m also learning along with you.

***If you are listening to this episode, and have not yet listened to PART 1, please do begin with PART 1 of this series, to maximize each concept we will be learning, and practicing. Each lesson builds off the next, in The Silva Method, which to me could be described as a combination between meditation, and self-hypnosis all in one. I’ll be sharing Silva’s Method, chapter by chapter, with clear examples of how to put it into practice, and how his method can help all of us to train our brain to do some astounding things.

I wanted to cover The Silva Method on this podcast, as years ago, no one spoke about the power of hypnosis, or meditation, in our corporate workplaces, or in our schools. It’s taken some time, but now these concepts are no longer weird, they are mainstream, embraced worldwide, and have helped millions of people from celebrities, and high level CEOS, to regular people in search of their own personal breakthroughs. I hope this episode series will help all of us to sharpen our saw with our own meditation practice, and help us to reach new heights in our personal and professional lives.

On our last episode #261, we practiced accessing the Alpha Brain State using the countdown method, were introduced to the use of the Mental Screen for Heightened Visualization, and learned that it would be this mental screen where we would utilize the power of Silva’s Mind Control Program, that is about controlling our own mind for the betterment of mankind. The idea is that we will be learning sequential exercises, created by Jose Silva, and tested by thousands of others, endorsed and practiced by many of the world’s most well-known and respected scientists, and thought leaders.

On today’s Episode #262 we will cover:

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

and we will build off from where we left on the last episode, where we were practicing building mental images on the screen of our mind, while in the Alpha Brain State.

Chapter 3 on Dynamic Meditation involves “training your mind for organized, dynamic activities” that Jose Silva thinks is what our mind was designed for. He says “once you have reached the meditative level, to simply stay there and wait for something to happen is not enough. It is beautiful and calming and it does contribute to your good health, but these are modest accomplishments compared with what is possible.”

This is where The Silva program gets exciting as we step past passive meditation techniques, to use it dynamically to solve problems. Now we’ll see why it’s so important to perfect what we see on the Screen of our Mind, and why daily practice of these skills is crucial.

Let’s Do This!

Let’s use our mind for something that’s useful for us—something of value. It all begins with our imagination, on this screen of our mind, but Silva says there are 4 important laws we must follow next.

The Silva Program says that --Whatever it is that you want, you must:

Law 1: You must desire that the event take place.

Law 2: You must believe the event can take place.

Law 3: You must expect the event to take place.

Law 4: You cannot create a problem.

When I heard these laws, that Silva wants us to consider BEFORE we begin visualizing what we want, I connected them to Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich, probably because this book review is still fresh in my mind.

Law 1: You must desire that the event take place. (Which reminds me of the Second chapter of the TAGR book. If you recall, this is the chapter where Barnes had a burning desire to work with Edison, so intense that he “burned all bridges behind him. He stood by his desire until it became the dominating obsession of his life.” (TAGR, Ch 2, Page 20).

BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO USE THE SCREEN IN YOUR MIND, THINK ABOUT THIS.

Do you have a burning desire for whatever it is that you want to create? If not, keep thinking for what you REALLY want, and choose this to focus on for this activity.

Law 2: You must believe the event can take place. (This reminds me of Chapter 3 in TAGR, the chapter of Faith: Visualizing and Believing in the Attainments of the Desire. Napoleon Hill said that “every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat” (TAGR, Ch 2, Page 21) and you’ll do this, because you won’t believe in any other outcome.

In PART 2 of our TAGR Study, I wrote an example I saw while researching Dr. David Sinclair, who we covered on EPISODE #189[iv] (and he’s come up a few times on the podcast with his pioneering work in the field of anti-aging). While researching him, I found out that he had to self-funded his trip from Australia to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to interview to work in their lab, which he did. He didn’t let his lack of funds stop him from finding his way to MIT. He had a clear vision of what he wanted, and he BELIEVED in his vision, and didn’t let any obstacles get in his way.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO USE THE SCREEN IN YOUR MIND, THINK ABOUT THIS:

Do you BELIEVE the event you’ll create on the screen of your mind can take place? Unwavering belief drives behavior, and it will come through, and be obvious by the way you walk (with purpose), the way you talk (with conviction) and finally, by the actions you will take, directed towards the attainment of whatever it is that you want. You will NEVER outperform your self-image. Without belief, you’ll miss the boat.

Law 3: You must expect the event to take place. While reading Silva’s laws, I couldn’t believe that these were all a part of the Napoleon Hill’s best-selling book. I wondered if Silva learned them from Hill? I’ll never know for sure, but expectation connects everything we are doing and when we expect something to happen, when it eventually does, we’ll recognize it because it’s been in our mind all along. In Silva’s program, you will have spent some time with what you want on the screen of your mind, so expecting it is the next step.

Law 4: You cannot create a problem. This law says a lot about who Jose Silva was as a person. He says “there is plenty of evil on this planet, and we humans perpetrate more than our share of it. This is done in Beta, not Alpha, not Theta, and probably not in Delta.” He says his research has proved this and I believe him. I don’t believe in time wasting to prove what Silva has already proven, but it you want to use the Alpha Brain State to wish ill-will on someone else, you’ll be wasting your time, as you will quickly snap out of Alpha in this process. You must only visualize something that’s for the betterment of mankind.

LET’S USE THE POWER OF OUR MIND TO SOLVE A PROBLEM

***To practice this, choose an event that’s a solution to a problem you have. Something you desire, believe can come about, and can learn to expect it, with this exercise.

STEP 1: PICK A PROBLEM

Follow the steps that will get you into the Alpha Brain State, from our last episode (counting backwards from 100-1) and then lift your eyes upwards, and with your mind, create a mental screen where you will re-create the problem you want to solve. Relive the problem by seeing it and feeling it.

For Schools: A problem could be a poor grade on a test, resulting in a low overall grade.

For Sports: The problem could be a losing streak, or poor performance leading with the loss.

For the Workplace: The problem could be a lack of sales in your organization, or poor performance somewhere.

Pick the problem you want to solve, and visualize it on the screen of your mind.

STEP 2: TAKE SOME SORT OF ACTION

Next, you will gently push the problem scene off to the right which Silva explains in his book will represent the PAST. The past is now over, so push the problem aside.

To the left of the problem, (that represents the FUTURE), create a NEW mental screen with the SOLUTION. Whatever you imagine will require ACTION of some sort showing you solving the problem.

Most of us don’t spend time thinking about the present moment or the future. We can easily get bogged down in what happened in the past. This is what I love about Silva’s Method. The past is over, moved off to the side and we now focus ONLY on the present (taking action to solve the problem) and the FUTURE, which will highlight the changed outcome.

For Schools: A solution could involve a student studying with more focus.

For Sports: A solution could involve practicing a skill that is known for needed improvement.

For the Workplace: A solution could involve presenting your product to a group of people who see its value, and decide they will purchase a large order.

STEP 3: THE SOLUTION

Finally, the action you have taken pays off, and you will envision the solution on the screen of your mind. Everything here is positive, and all of the feelings associated with the problem have been resolved. You celebrate the WIN here in as much detail as you can. What does this win feel like? Who’s there watching you? What do you hear? What do you see? Involve all of your senses.

For Schools: Picture the student celebrating when they see their efforts were rewarded with an A+ grade. This A+ will lead to many more, eventually allowing the student to receive an honor roll award at the end of the year.

For Sports: You’ll picture your team celebrating when the practice pays off with a WIN that eventually leads to a trophy or award at the end of the season.

For the Workplace: You’ll picture your team celebrating when they receive the large order that came from the hard work from the recent presentation. The team celebrates by hosting a lunch where all those involved are recognized for their efforts.

These are some examples of using The Silva Method to train your brain towards your desired outcome. Does it always work? No, Silva says, but with time and practice, you’ll start to see improvements that you might chalk up to be coincidences. He suggests stopping this practice altogether, and the coincidences will also stop. Start back up again, and they will reappear.

You’ll see…just practice this, and let me know what YOU see.

With practice, the results you will see will be more and more astounding.

The part that I forgot to mention was that in this Mind Control Exercise, “you will establish two routines. One for going to your level (with the countdown method) and the other for coming out of it.” Silva suggests at the end of STEP 3, after you’ve successfully visualized your solution, to say “I will slowly come out as I count from 1-5, feeling wide awake and better than before. One, two, prepare to open your eyes, three, open your eyes, four, five, eyes open, wide awake, feeling better than before.”

This entire exercise, with practice, can be done with just 15 minute blocks of time, especially once you’ve reached the countdown method from counting from 5-1 to enter your level. You can also reach this state at any point in the day (morning upon wake, night, before sleep, or any time of day that you can a block of time where you can close your eyes and visualize yourself solving your problem).

Chapter 5: Improving Memory

We’ve covered memory hacks on this podcast with EPISODE #145[v] with Howard Berg, The World’s Fastest Speed Reader on “Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension and Recall” or EPISODE #149[vi] with Two-Time Guinness World Record Holder Dave Farrow on “Focus, Fatigue, and Memory Hacks.”

I’ll use what Howard Berg said in our interview together[vii] as he said “take a list that you know, and link it to what you want to remember” which is exactly what Jose Silva suggests with his memory strategy. Howard had me remember a list from 1-10 using words and images (1 looks like pole, 2 is shoe, 3 is a tricycle since it has three wheels), 4 is a car (four wheels), 5 is a glove (five fingers in a glove)…etc. Next, Howard had me speed learning this list of numbers using imagery, showing me how to remember longer lists of numbers with these images.

If you had ever attended a seminar with Bob Proctor, he also did this activity, linking words that we want to remember to a list of 10 words we already know by what he called ridiculous association. With the audience, he would pick a list of 20 words they wanted to recall (the audience would shout out 20 things). I wrote them down in my notes you can see (if you can read my writing). Then Bob would tie the words we want to recall to the numbers we already knew, by ridiculous association.

1-run, the audience picked a water bottle to remember and he’d say, (imagine a water bottle running around the room) 2-zoo (imaging a whole bunch of watches behind the glass with the lions as they are walking around them at the zoo 3-tree (growing a whole bunch of telephones), 4-door (with eye-glasses on the handle balancing there about to drop off when someone opens the door)…Bob’s memory technique was like Howard’s linking images (ridiculous images that were difficult to forget) to a list of numbers we already knew.

Silva also believed in creating visual images to remember words and called these images “memory pegs” and mentioned this type of learning is a whole other area. To keep it simple, he says, to remember something

He says that “all that you have to do, once you’ve learned to work with your mental screen, is visualize a past event that surrounds an incident you believe you have forgotten, and it will be there. I say an incident you believe you have forgotten because in reality you have not forgotten it at all. You simply do not recall it. There is a significant difference.” (Ch. 5, Silva Silva Method).

He says that our brains record far more than we realize, and goes on to give some fascinating examples of what people have remembered while under general anesthesia, which is a whole other area I’ll cover another time.

3 Finger Technique:

In this chapter, Silva shows us how we can use what he calls the 3 Finger Technique to help us to quickly access the Alpha Brain State and solve simple things, like memory recall.

He says, “Here is how simple it is: Just bring together the thumb and first two fingers of either hand and your mind will instantly adjust to a deeper level” to accomplish what you want.

Try it for yourself.

STEP 1: Join together your thumb and your first two fingers. What do you notice? He says this instantly brings us into the Alpha State.

STEP 2: REPEAT silently or out loud “Whenever I join my fingers together like this”—now join them—“for a serious purpose I will instantly reach this level of mind to accomplish whatever I desire.”

I heard Vishen Lakhiani, the CEO of MindValley say that he calms himself down during public speaking with this method. I agree that it’s very calming, and use this technique to relax when I’m feeling stressed or anxious. I just used it yesterday while driving my girls to gymnastics in heavy traffic.

Silva says that teacher from Denver used this Three Finger Technique to teach her students spelling with a list of 20 words. To test them, she asks them to write down the words they studied that week, recall the words using the Three Finger Technique, and see the words on the screen of their minds. She’s able to teach all of her students to remember their spelling list with this method.

This concept is not new. It’s often how people place their hands during meditation, while sitting crossed-legged, but Silva has taken this technique to new heights, and those who have applied to to their line of work have noticed a significant improvement with memory/recall.

REMEMBER:

“When a person learns to function mentally at this deeper level, creativity is enhanced. Memory is improved and a person is better able to solve problems.” (Jose Silva).

TO REVIEW PART 2 OF THE SILVA METHOD: We covered

✔ REVIEW of EPISODE #261 PART 1

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation

✔ The 4 Laws that must be in place BEFORE you visualize something.

✔ We Solved a Problem with 3 STEPS (Problem, Action, Solution) with ideas to use this method for schools, sports or the workplace.

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

✔ The 3 Finger Technique

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:

As we close out this episode, I want to reinforce that solving problems using the screen of our mind is something that takes some practice. This isn’t something I’ve mastered yet, but as I have said, the purpose of these episodes are to see how we can improve our own meditation practices. It’s only been 9 days for me now practicing the countdown method, and I’m noticing that I can access this beautiful Alpha Brain State quicker than I was from day 1 with improved focus, and clarity. My current goal is to be in better control of the images that I see on the screen of my mind. Right now, it’s taking a lot of effort to override what I can see there already, and put something new on the screen that I want to create. When I need to access this state in the day, I’m using the 3 Finger Technique and finding another solution to instantly calm my brain. I’d obviously love to solve all of my problems overnight, but that’s not how The Silva Program was designed.

It’s a journey of the mind, that I think is fascinating.

“Once we learn to use our mind to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, as you will soon see.” Jose Silva

I can see how many of Jose Silva’s techniques have created geniuses, as Howard Berg, The World’s Fastest Speed Reader used similar strategies, as well as the 2-time World Guinness Record Holder, Dave Farrow.

Thank you for listening, and coming on this journey with me. I’d love to know what you notice if you have tried out the exercises with your field of work.

With that, I’ll close out for now, and will see you in a few days with

Episode #163 on

✔ Ch 6-Speed Learning

✔ Ch 7-Creative Sleep

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Think and Grow Rich Book Review with Andrea Samadi

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 PART 1 “Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #195 PART 5 on “The Power of the Mastermind, Taking the Mystery Out of Sex Transmutation, and Linking all Parts of Our Mind” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-5-on-the-power-of-the-mastermind-taking-the-mystery-out-of-sex-transmutation-and-linking-all-parts-of-our-mind/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 PART 6 in Memory of Bob Proctor on “The 15 Principles Behind Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich Book” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

[ii] The Silva Mind Control Method https://silvamethod.com/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #261 PART 1

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #189 on “Understanding Hormesis: Why Stress and Adversity Make Us Physically and Mentally Stronger” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/understanding-hormesis-why-stress-and-adversity-make-us-physically-and-mentally-stronger/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #145 with Howard Berg, the World’s Fastest Speed Reader on “Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension and Recall” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-worlds-fastest-reader-howard-stephen-berg-on-strategies-to-improve-reading-comprehension-and-recall-for-educators-and-the-workplace/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #149 with Two-Time Guinness World Record Holder Dave Farrow on “Focus, Fatigue and Memory Hacks” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/2-time-guinness-world-record-holder-dave-farrow-on-focus-fatigue-and-memory-hacks-for-students-and-the-workplace/

[vii] Howard Berg’s Memory Trick with Andrea (40:20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al0B6HzxtEk

Nov 29, 2022

00:26:54

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast I’m Andrea Samadi and like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind high performance strategies to increase our results in our schools, sports, and modern workplaces.

As we are in the midst of holiday season here with Thanksgiving this past week in the US, and Christmas fast approaching, we will be narrowing our focus here on the podcast and resuming interviews in the New Year. Until then, this episode will launch a series where I’ll be taking us on a deep dive into the benefits of developing a meditation practice. While I’m sure those who tune into this podcast already have a practice in place, I wanted to cover a meditation method that I came across years ago, that our last interview, with Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram reminded me about.

The goal of this series is to help all of us to reduce stress with this practice, but also to see if we can learn something new, and refine our practice for those who work in our schools to improve learning, in our sports environments for improved focus and concentration towards a specific goal, and in the corporate workplace for ideas to improve creativity and focus. We will begin this series reviewing Jose Silva and Philip Miele’s The Silva Mind Control Method[i] that’s based on the Revolutionary Program by the Founder of the World’s Most Famous Mind Control Course.

Ch 1: Using Our Mind in Special Ways

This course is something I came across while working in the seminar industry, and while interviewing Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram, on our last EPISODE #260[ii], he reminded me of Jose Silva’s program, that helped him with his self-esteem as a teenager, in addition to his studies, and a few other areas of his life, and this reminded me that I had come across Jose Silva’s work years ago. I’d actually forgotten about this book, and many of the techniques we learned that were adaptations of Silva’s work, and I thought that since meditation is helping so many people around the world, and it’s now mainstream in our schools, with athletes, and in the corporate world, it would be fascinating to look closer at Jose Silva’s Method, to see if it could help all of us to enhance our current meditation practice, myself included. Then I dove into The Silva Method, and realized his work is going to need to be broken up over a few episodes, like we did with The Think and Grow Rich[iii] book review, just to make it applicable for all of us, and give each chapter careful consideration as we look to see what parts of The Silva Method, could help us to improve our own lives. I wanted to release this episode last Friday, but in order to cover this topic properly, I knew I had to review the Silva Method thoroughly myself, do exactly what he instructs us to do, and not cut any corners. So this weekend, instead of recording, I reviewed and practiced the strategies in the first three chapters of this book, making more connections to past episodes, and increasing my learning and understanding before sharing these ideas with you.

If you listened to our episode #258 with Friederike Fabritius, on her new book, The Brain-Friendly Workplace, I asked her what science has to say about those flashes of insight that we ALL have access to for improved creativity and performance, and she explained that “when you are relaxed, your brain waves slow down to the alpha state.”

Friederike further explained that we can measure these brain waves with EEG scans and that at moments of insight, or those AHA Moments, the brain has “gamma oscillations” that can be trained and measured that she called “The Gamma Insight Effect.”

After speaking with Friederike, I wondered HOW we could ALL train our brain to reach these levels to gain those flashes of insight on demand, or at least more often, to help us with our lives and work?

Whenever I’ve had a flash of insight about something, it’s often during times where I’m relaxed (during a massage, in the shower, or during meditation) but they happen when I’m not expecting them, so I’ve learned to write them down, to see I can learn the meaning behind them, and determine if the insight is useful.

Have you had flashes of insight? When do they happen for you? How do you make use of what you are seeing?

Next, I remembered our interview #148[iv] with Dr. James Hardt and his Biocybernaut Alpha One Training that helped people (like Tony Robbins) to access the zone, or peak performance, on demand, and increase those heightened levels of awareness for reduced stress and increased productivity.

I wondered if there was a way we could do this ourselves, without having to pay the money to attend a training somewhere.

Dr. Hasan spoke about attending Dave Asprey’s 5 Day 40 Years of Zen Training[v], that was life-changing, but he also mentioned The Silva Method on EPISODE #260, that’s designed specifically to help us to tap into the Alpha (deeply relaxed brain state) with other parts of the program that could train us to reach the Theta State (relaxed consciousness, deep meditation, light sleep, REM state) and the Delta State where we are in a deep sleep.

Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram, who has successfully built 7 companies, believes that the Silva Method launched his mind to a whole new way of thinking and spoke about how Einstein and Edison would gain flashes of insight from relaxing their minds in a certain way, something that we ALL have access to do. Dr. Hasan is a huge believer in The Silva Method, that shows us how to access these creative brain states, and then give us some ideas of what to do with them once we are there. Jose Silva himself believed that once we learn how to use the tools in his program, that we all have the ability to become geniuses.

Napoleon Hill even wrote about this in his best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich, when he said that a better definition of genius “is a man who had discovered how to increase the intensity of thought to a point where he can communicate with sources of knowledge not available through the ordinary rate of thought.”

Read that quote a few times and keep thinking.

How could YOU benefit from diving a bit deeper into your meditation practice?

We have covered meditation on this podcast, beginning with Dr. Dan Siegel all the way back to EPISODE #28[vi] where we spoke with Dr. Siegel about something he calls Mindsight, or seeing the mind in another person, and he says this is the “basis for social and emotional intelligence.” Then on EPISODE #60[vii], we dove deeper into his Wheel of Awareness Meditation, and the science behind a meditation practice, which is evident to anyone who goes to www.pubmed.gov and types in the word “meditation” as they will see over 9,000 results showing that mindfulness and meditation clearly improves our health and wellness. Dr. Dan Siegel has mentioned the research often with his Wheel of Awareness Meditation, that “integrates the structure and function of the brain.” By integration, he meant moving towards well-being.

But with ALL of these episodes, we’ve focused on WHAT meditation does (improves mental and physical health and well-being) but I’ve never covered exactly HOW to access these altered states of consciousness, or what to do when we get there, mostly because until I read Jose Silva’s book, I had no idea what I was doing when I was meditating. I’d been doing many of the exercises in Silva’s Program, that I had learned from different seminars and sources over the years, without fully understanding exactly what I was doing, and noticed I could use some improvement with my own practice.

When Friederike Fabritius said that accessing these different brain states could be trained, and then suddenly Dr. Hasan mentioned HOW he trained his brain all those years ago, I thought it was time to take a closer look at our brain states. My goal with this episode is to help me to be more intentional with my meditation practice, and then share what I learn with you here. Just keep an open mind. As I share my insights with you from each chapter, see how the ideas could help you to improve YOUR practice, and perhaps give you some new insights along the way.

On PART 1 of this book review we will cover:

✔ CH 1- Using More of Our Mind in Special Ways: An Introduction to the Silva Mind Control Method

✔ What this program has done for others.

✔ Ch 2- Meet Jose

✔ Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA,ALPHA,THETA,DELTA).

✔ How to quickly access the ALPHA STATE to improve creativity, and intuition.

✔ Using A Mental Screen in Your Mind for Heightened Visualization

✔ How to Help Yourself and Others With this Practice

What This Program Has Done for Others:

For this episode, #261, we will begin our DEEP DIVE into Jose Silva’s Mind Control Method, used by over 10 million students around the world, to see if we can all use his work, that’s based on accessing altered states of consciousness, to train our brain in ways where school just never taught us. The only reason I had heard about Jose Silva’s Method, was that when I sold seminars for Bob Proctor, back in the late 1990s, many of the seminar attendees asked me if I had heard of Silva’s Training. Over the years, I learned that parts of Silva’s Methods were used in many of the seminars I had attended in the personal development industry, but I had never looked at the entire program as Jose Silva had written it. Much like I had only read parts of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book, until I decided to review it myself on this podcast earlier this year. We will be going through the chapters together, and see what resonates with our current practice enough to dive deeper into.

Now, there are two ways you could learn about these concepts. You can either learn with me here on the podcast, or, if you want to go deeper, you could pay to do one of the trainings like Dr. Hasan Akram did (with Dave Asprey), or what Tony Robbins did, with Dr. James Hardt and his Biocybernaut Alpha One Training, or even dive deeper into The Silva Method as this Method is now called The UltraMind System[viii] that you can purchase through Mind Valley which is where the program exists today. It’s here that the CEO of Mind Valley, a New York Times Best-Selling author himself, Vishen Lakhiani[ix] was asked to be the face of Jose Silva’s work, just a few years after he passed away.

PART 1 of My Review of the Silva Method:

Remember when Dr. Hasan held up his copy of Jose Silva’s book, from our last episode? The book is actually written as a book within a book, as the outside chapters 1 and 2, and 17-20 were written by Philipe Miele, who orients us to Jose Silva, and the millions of graduates who have benefitted from the program, while the inside of the book consists of the techniques we will learn, written by Jose Silva.

We will learn more about the type of man Jose Silva was, but I have to clarify the title of the program, that is based solely on learning to control our mind for “the betterment of mankind.” (Page 6, The Silva Mind Control Method). The program cannot be used in any other way and is not meant to be used to “control” anyone, other than our own minds. As we saw with the quote we opened up with, once we can learn how to use our mind, it will do some astounding things. Throughout this series, we will see how it can be used to improve our own intuitive and creativity skills, solve large and small problems that we might have in business and in life, and will even uncover ways we can use the tools to improve our own health, or the health of others. Just keep an open mind as we go through the chapters, and I’ll show you how I’ve either used the tools myself, or have seen them being used by others for results that cannot be denied.

What This Program Has done for Others

Now, don’t just take my word for the deep work we will uncover in the next few episodes, here’s what some of the leading experts have said about Jose Silva’s Method as well as what Jose Silva himself has said that his program has done for others.

✔ A marketing company used it to create 18 new products.

✔ 14 Chicago White Socks players used it to boost their scores.

✔ Celebrities have used it and credit Jose Silva for improving their focus and creativity.

✔ Colleges and universities have used it to help students study less, but learn more.

To access the research[x] that has been done on this program to date, I’ll link it in the show notes. The late Dr. Wayne Dyer has said that “anything with the name Jose Silva as the author has my vote before I open to page one. Read it with a pen for underlining.”

The Founder of Precious Moments, Jon Butler said that “Any CEO who is not using altered states of mind is at a competitive disadvantage.” (from Vishen Lakiani’s Masterclass).[xi]

As you go through this book review with me, think of where The Silva Program could help you. There will be some areas that will resonate with you, that you can practice and refine, and others that you can set aside for a later time. At the end of each of these review episodes, I’ll have a section for you to put the ideas into action with clear examples of how I have used these exercises.

REMEMBER:

“When a person learns to function mentally at this deeper level, creativity is enhanced. Memory is improved and a person is better able to solve problems.” (Jose Silva).

Ch 2- Meet Jose Silva

What’s crazy for me to see, looking back at Silva’s work, is that he began The Silva Method, with his children while he was working on a way to improve learning. Like any parent, he wanted the best for his own children and their academics. But Jose Silva went above and beyond what most of would do for this to occur.

He took his knowledge of working with radios and electronic circuitry, (what he did for his work that he excelled at) and combined this knowledge with the fact that we know that the mind generates energy, and developed a program that he hoped would help the brain to work more efficiently. He tested his ideas on his children. Imagine Jose Silva, as a young man, with young children, who would work his job in radio repair until 9pm every night, come home, eat dinner, help put his children to bed, and then when his house was quiet, he would go on to study until midnight. He would learn the ideas that would eventually help his own children improve their grades, extending the course to other children, who achieved even better results with his program, as he refined and improved it along the way, and then within 3 years, developed the course that we know today. This is where The Silva Method began, that has now been validated by over 500,000 experiments, providing the results that no one could ignore.

Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA,ALPHA,THETA,DELTA).

A Review of the Brain States:

Beta Brain States: are where most of us spend our waking time, in normal and alert consciousness with brain waves at 15-30 cycles/second. It’s here that we can feel the stress and anxiousness of daily life, so finding ways to offset this stress can be helpful.

***Alpha Brain State: where our brain slows down and we begin to feel healing, a sense of relaxation, or bliss, at around 9-14 cycles/second with our brain waves. This brain state is where most of Jose Silva’s Programs are centered around.

Theta Brain State: involves deeper relaxation with access to problem solving while these waves slow down to 4-8 cycles/second. If we can train our brain to stay awake here, we will be able to access heightened levels of creativity and intuition for solving problems. In chapter 7 of the book, Jose Silva covers Creative Sleep. He says “Understand a Man’s Dreams, and You Understand the Man”

Delta State: our brain waves slow to 1-3 cycles/second while we are in deep dreamless sleep.

How Do We Use the Silva Method to Access the Alpha State Where All the Magic Begins?

STEP 1: HOW TO ACCESS THE ALPHA STATE:

YOU CAN ACCES THE ALPHA STATE WHEN YOU FIRST WAKE UP, BEFORE BED, and ANY OTHER TIME YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES TO RELAX YOUR MIND. The Alpha State is the easiest state to access as we will already be in this state the first 5 minutes after we wake up.

Jose Silva suggests:

Jose Silva suggests the 40 Day Technique to guarantee you are at the Alpha Level where you begin by counting backwards from 100 to 1 for 10 mornings, then you can count from 50-1 for the next 10 mornings, then from 20-1 for 10 mornings, and then 10-1 until you get to 5 to 1. I’m currently in the first 10 days of counting backwards from 100-1 to allow myself to drift deeper into Alpha in the morning as well as before I go to sleep at night. I noticed that I’m more focused on my morning meditation, whereas before, I was just sitting there, not as focused as I know I could have been. I practice Dan Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness Meditation each morning, and going into the Alpha State FIRST, has deepened my brain state into the Alpha level, where I no longer drift off when I hear a noise or something.

PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE: Begin using the 100-1 countdown to at night, in the morning, or whenever you plan to access the alpha level to begin to improve your current practice.

I’m in my first few days of practicing this method before sleep, and the first couple of nights, fell asleep before I could get to 1. I’ll keep trying, as I’d like to get to the point where I can just count from 5-1 to access the Alpha State, like Jose Silva suggests. If you are as serious about accessing this level as I am, I suggest keeping a note card next to your work place to check off where you are in this process. After 10 days, you can progress to the next step, until you are able to access the alpha state from counting from 5-1.

STEP 2: ONCE YOU REACH THE ALPHA STATE, THEN WHAT?

Next, You will learn to use a Mental Screen for Heightened Visualization

Once you have accessed the Alpha State, Silva reminds us:

He also believes that his process goes far beyond what many of us have come across with other meditation programs, and as I go through each chapter, I’ll leave it to you to pick and choose which parts of his program resonate with you to use and practice, but this part is important to master for EVERYTHING else we will be learning.

PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE: When you close your eyes, what do you see? Raise your eyes up a bit (about 20% upwards above the horizon of what you see). Is it black, or can you use your mind to create things? Begin with simple things like an orange or an apple. This takes time and practice. This mental screen will help you in many ways as we move through different lessons, and is important, but don’t be tied to what you think you should see. We are all at different stages of learning. I started seeing things on the screen of my mind starting in my late 20s, and things would flash sometimes when I was relaxed. I never did have control over what I was seeing. It just happened, and I would either know what I was seeing, or be wondering “what on the earth is that” so I’m hoping that with time, effort and practice, I will gain better control over what I’m able to visualize, so I can put it to better use.

STEP 3: Now Utilize This Power

PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE:

Just begin here with playing around with what you can create on the screen of your mind in the Alpha State. If you do nothing else, other than these 3 steps, you will experience what William Wordsworth called “a happy stillness of mind.” (Page 27, The Silva Method).

Think of this as a journey within your mind. Each day you will be getting better and better, mentally stronger and stronger, and remember the quote we opened this episode with?

“Once we learn to use our mind to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, you will soon see.” (Jose Silva)

TO REVIEW PART 1 of THE SILVA METHOD:

We covered:

✔ CH 1- Using More of Our Mind in Special Ways: An Introduction to the Silva Mind Control Method

✔ What this program has done for others.

✔ Ch 2- Meet Jose Silva and learned about his passion for helping others to improve their ability to learn.

✔ Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA,ALPHA,THETA,DELTA).

✔ How to quickly access the ALPHA STATE to improve creativity, and intuition using the countdown Method.

✔ Using A Mental Screen in Your Mind for Heightened Visualization

✔ It Will Be This Screen That We Will Use to Help Yourself and Others in Future Chapters.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:

As we close out this episode, I wanted to share that while there are many programs out there, and I’m not here to say that one is better than the next. If you have studied the father of mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn, you’ll recall that he reminds us that we are already perfect, and that mindfulness is not about “attaining a certain state, (that brings us to this new level of perfection) but that we are already whole and perfect.” Whatever program you are doing now, see if there’s anything we cover that interests you to dive deeper into to further enhance what you are already doing.

And with that, I’ll post the topics in upcoming episodes on the show notes, and I’ll see you in a few days, with EPISODE #162 on Dynamic Meditation and Improving Our Memory.

COMING NEXT:

Episode #162 we will cover

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

Episode #163

✔ Ch 6-Speed Learning

✔ Ch 7-Creative Sleep

Episode #164

✔ Ch 8-Your Words Have Power

✔ Ch 9-The Power of Imagination

✔ Ch 10-Using Your Mind to Improve Your Health

Episode #165

✔ Ch 12- You Can Practice ESP

✔ Ch 13- Form Your Own Practice Group

✔ Ch 14- How to Help Others

Episode #166

✔ Ch 16- A Checklist

✔ Ch 17- A Psychiatrist Works with The Silva Program

✔ Ch 18- Your Self-Esteem Will Soar

✔ Ch 19- Mind Control in the Business World

✔ Ch 20- Where Do We Go from Here?

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[v] https://40yearsofzen.com/dave/

REFERENCES:

[i] The Silva Mind Control Method https://silvamethod.com/

[iii] Think and Grow Rich Book Review with Andrea Samadi

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #148 with Dr. James Hardt on his “Biocybernaut Alpha Training” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-james-hardt-of-biocybernaut-alpha-training-on-change-your-brain-waves-change-your-life/

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #28 with Dr. Daniel Siegel on “Mindsight, the Basis for Social and Emotional Intelligence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/clinical-professor-of-psychiatry-at-the-ucla-school-of-medicine-dr-daniel-siegel-on-mindsight-the-basis-for-social-and-emotional-intelligence/

[vii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #60 on “The Science Behind a Meditation Practice with a Deep Dive into Dr. Daniel Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness Meditation https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-science-behind-a-meditation-practice-with-a-deep-dive-into-dr-dan-siegel-s-wheel-of-awareness/

[viii] Mind Valley The Silva UltraMind System https://www.mindvalley.com/ultramind/sales?utm_source=google-paid&utm_medium=ocpm&otag=%5Bgg-ads%5D-%5Bvsl%5D-%5B17753276300%5D-%5B%5D-%5B%5D-%5Bsums%5D&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsoycBhC6ARIsAPPbeLvitYEzBdYZUiIjVD6DfQhvBjckA4peckfGlr0NpnXnvs0dK2jXTLEaAiZoEALw_wcB

[ix] Mind Valley The Silva UltraMind System https://www.mindvalley.com/ultramind/sales?utm_source=google-paid&utm_medium=ocpm&otag=%5Bgg-ads%5D-%5Bvsl%5D-%5B17753276300%5D-%5B%5D-%5B%5D-%5Bsums%5D&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsoycBhC6ARIsAPPbeLvitYEzBdYZUiIjVD6DfQhvBjckA4peckfGlr0NpnXnvs0dK2jXTLEaAiZoEALw_wcB

[x] Research on The Silva Method https://silvamethod.com/research

[xi] Vishen Lakiani’s Masterclass on The Silva Method https://www.mindvalley.com/ultramind?itm_source=storefront_w2.0&itm_campaign=sums_evergreen_evergreen_sums&otag=storefront_sums&itm_medium=email&itm_content=%5Bwatch_later%5D

Nov 23, 2022

01:11:16

“If you’re going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can’t be erased.” Maya Angelou

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/oxdz07FUMOc

On this episode we will cover:

✔ How Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram found The Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast, and what resonated with him, with our content.

✔ Why after building 7 companies, Dr. Hasan is looking at leaving a legacy that lasts far beyond this lifetime.

✔ Where Dr. Hasan has been focused in the business world (Brainvincible and Matrickz) and why he wants to help others to achieve financial freedom.

✔ For the man known to be "The Most Disciplined Man in Germany" what discipline means to him.

✔ What he thinks discipline can do for someone over long periods of time.

✔ What he cautions us about with being tied to the outcomes of our daily results.

✔ How this book he came across when he was 16 (that I also read) completely changed who he was, increased his self-esteem and skyrocketed his success in business and life.

✔ How he thinks people like Edison, Einstein and Michael Jackson used the principles in this book, to reach breakthrough levels in their life and work.

✔ About the strangest longevity strategy he's ever heard!

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast where we bridge the gap between theory and practice, with strategies, tools and ideas we can all use immediately. I’m Andrea Samadi and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is for our everyday life and results. It’s probably taken me 3 and a half years of hosting this podcast, (looking back now) to see how much these weekly interviews have expanded my own self-awareness by picking the brains of some of the most brilliant minds on the planet in high performance, connecting their strategies to the most current brain research, and then sharing what I’m learning with you here on the podcast. If our results really are tied back to our level of awareness, then it makes sense to me that we keep sharing the success secrets, used by those who have risen to the top, with the goal that we can ALL do the same, and take our results to those higher levels of achievement.

For today’s EPISODE #260, we will be speaking with a serial entrepreneur from Munich, Germany, Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram[i], someone who has been obsessed with high performance and biohacking for years. Since 2005, he’s created disruptive companies in multiple industries (automotive with his company Matrickz[ii], brain and performance, with his company Brainvincible[iii], and real estate to name a few) that are changing the way we live, think, and work. Dr. Hasan reached out to me as he had been enjoying our podcast, and wanted to share his perspective and journey, that he thought could bring value to our audience and I agreed.

I watched a few of his other interviews, and one that he did a year ago, with Craig Ballantyne[iv] (who’s a well-known business coach and entrepreneur from my hometown, Toronto, Canada) called “The Millionaire Monk’s Abundance Formula[v]” stuck out to me, so I listened to it. It was here that I learned Dr. Hasan and I have a lot of our influencers in common that he mentioned opened his mind to the possibilities that exist when you fully optimize the power of your brain and mind.

The program he created, Brainvincible helps those in schools, sports or the workplace to improve their communication and creativity skills, helps athletes to optimize their skills and abilities to achieve precision and regeneration, as well as helping students to improve their study habits to achieve higher grades. I had to look at who Dr. Hasan studied, and what motivated him to create a course like this, and low and behold, Dr. Hasan, from Munich, Germany, took the same course that I took many years ago, where we both learned how to use the power of visualization to create what we wanted in our life, and use our imagination to solve problems. Dr. Hasan learned about The Silva Method[vi] when he was 16 and I came across this method while working in the seminar industry, and used it in many different ways over the years. Dr. Hasan used this method to skyrocket his grades and self-confidence, and years later he began searching for ways to further enhance his brain’s capacities.

I can’t wait to ask Dr. Hasan about his unique perspective after he’s dedicated years of study to bio-hacking to improve performance, with some of the most unique brain-training strategies I’ve ever come across. Let’s meet Dr. Hasan Akram, who’s been called “Germany’s Most Disciplined Man” and learn from his experience, to see how we can further improve our own brain’s capacity, and skyrocket our results to new heights.

Welcome Dr. Hasan, it’s incredible to meet you.

INTRO Q: Dr. Hasan, I feel like we are kindred souls, even though this is just our second time meeting. When I listened to your interview with Craig Ballantyne, who you mentioned is from my hometown, I felt instantly connected, with everything you were saying, from where you began to see the power of your mind and brain with The Silva Program, to Dave Asprey’s Biohacking, to even your practice of using the early morning time to find answers to questions—I thought, this guy seems like me (except I don’t run 4 companies). I’ve got to ask you, when you found our podcast, what resonated with you, and our content, enough that you took the time to send me a note?

I’m very glad you did. It’s been nothing short of transformational hearing what you have created, from very humble beginnings, using many of the strategies we’ve been talking about on this podcast.

It’s clear from your background that there’s a lot we can all learn from your experiences. Instead of starting with where this all began for you, I wonder if we could connect the dots, looking backwards and explore some of your best success secrets that could help our audience, myself included?

Q1: So here you are, you’ve built 4 successful companies, (CORRECTION: Dr. Hasan has built 7 companies) and then I heard you say that you want to help people beyond your lifetime. This is an incredible legacy to leave, but I wonder, looking back now, at what point were you clear with your purpose, and the legacy that you want to leave? And what is your legacy?

There’s more to what we are doing here than the money we make, or the things we can buy with it.

Can you give an overview of your businesses so we can all get an idea of what you have built with Brainvincible[vii] and Matrickz?[viii] And have I missed something that you’ve created that’s important to highlight?

Q2: My next question is about discipline. I love watching people who have this trait. I heard it mentioned the other day and I wrote it down, knowing it was important to take a closer look at its meaning. Then I saw it again, as I was interviewing Friederike Fabritius (from Germany) on EPISODE #258[ix], she hit the Wall Street Journal’s Best Selling List for business books, and a couple of books under hers was Ryan Holiday’s book, Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control[x]. Then I saw that you were referred to as Germany’s “most disciplined man.”

What has this word meant for you over the years, and what do you think is possible for someone who can execute discipline over a long period of time?

Q2B: I know that doing the same thing day in and out can get boring, and difficult. It’s the way many people’s days go if they are in sales, or looking for their next breakthrough. What do you think leads to those jumps in results that we see that took years of work, and finally snowball into a huge success story, but many people might think “oh that person was just lucky” if they hadn’t seen the years of blood, sweat and tears behind the scenes? How have you seen leaps in results occur within your companies, and is there something you would caution us against from being tied to the outcome of our results every day?

Q3: Can we go back to your childhood now, and what your mindset was like back then? I saw that we both studied The Silva Method. Jose Silva’s methods were an integral part of many of the courses I studied over the years. How did this program help you back then, (maybe beginning with confidence-building) and how have you incorporated these ideas into the programs you’ve created?

Q3B: I just asked Friederike Fabritius about where people get these “flashes of insight” and how science ties to this concept, and she explained when we are relaxed, we can into the Alpha Brain State, just like the Silva Method taught us.

I’ve been looking for a simple way to explain how these insights occur in the brain, and I’ve heard you share how important that early morning time of 3am-4am is. How have some famous people we know, (like Thomas Edison, or Einstein), used this time to solve their greatest scientific problems, and how could ANYONE use this time period to gain answers to questions or problems they want to solve?

Q4: Like you, I’m a huge Dave Asprey[xi] fan, the Father of Biohacking, and follow his podcast and his work over the years. What was it about his work that you say changed your life?

Q4B: Dr. Hasan, all of this stuff we’ve been talking about can seem way out there. You know, solving big problems in the alpha brain state at 3am, or biohacking our health and increasing our longevity. I’ll never forget where I was on the freeway when I heard Dr. David Sinclair say he could “make a mouse out of stem cells” on Dave Asprey’s podcast. I had to stop and think “wait, what did he just say?”

Q4C: A lot of the tools and strategies I’m sharing on this podcast are not strategies that were accepted in the workplace 20 years ago, but advancements in science can show us how they can be beneficial today. What would be the strangest, but most productive strategy you’ve come across over the years?

Q5: What would be your final thoughts or your message for those listening who are building something? What mindset should we all embrace when starting something from nothing to hit the high levels of achievement you’ve hit?

Q6: Is there anything important I’ve missed?

Dr. Hasan, it’s been incredible meeting you, and learning about your work. I’m so grateful to have found you, and you’ve just made the world a smaller place as we connected over our podcast, from the other side of the world. Your message is inspiring, uplifting and helpful, for all of us who might be looking for some new and refreshing ideas to help us finish the last quarter of our year on strong footing, and launch us into a successful 2023. Thank you for your time and knowledge today!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Some final thoughts at the end of this episode, I had no idea that Dr. Hasan would expand my level of awareness with some areas my mind has never gone before. If you want to learn more from Dr. Hasan’s company’s, I have put links in the show notes to follow his work, his Brainvincible programs and nootropic that I am trying, and where you can find his book, The Million Dollar Monk. Prior to speaking with Dr. Hasan, I didn’t realize he had started 7 companies, (I thought it was 4!) but what was interesting is that this was not uncommon with people I met in the seminar industry. Most people who I met back in those early days did what they loved in the day, whether they were truck drivers, teachers, or working some sort of corporate job, they all did something they enjoyed, but had other business ideas that they ran outside of what they spent their days doing. Dr. Hasan challenged me to think there isn’t a limit to how many “sources of income” we can create but that in this quest for helping others with whatever it is that we do, to not be tied to our outcomes (that will come with time) and while we are putting in the daily effort, enjoying whatever it is that we do with our day, that we can also put an emphasis on our relationships and health, because science is revealing that many of the most common chronic diseases are “lifestyle diseases” and are reversible. Something I’m going to keep studying and learning more about, so we can all move our needle towards health and wellness, and healthy relationships, to enjoy not just this year, but for many years to come.

And with that, I’ll see you a bit later this week, for Brain Fact Friday, where I will share what exactly The Silva Method is, and how you can use it in your daily life. See you then.

FOLLOW DR. HASAN IBNE AKRAM

Instagram Brainvincible Nootropic https://www.instagram.com/brainvinciblegmbh/

Matrickz Daily Tech Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/matrickz-daily-tech/id1490915309

Autonomous Vehicle Safety and Security Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/evolution-automotive-advancements-in-industry-2020/id1449184734?i=1000474441158

The Million Dollar Monk Website: https://themilliondollarmonk.com/

The Million Dollar Monk Book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Monk-Spiritual-Entrepreneurial/dp/1737929805/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1667496609&sr=8-1

Brainvincible Daytime Nootropic: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T1DPKNT?ref=myi_title_dp

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] https://www.matrickz.de/en/home.html

RESOURCES:

How Science Discovered The Silva Method discovers-the-silva-method.pdf">https://www.silva.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/science-discovers-the-silva-method.pdf

Dave Asprey 40 Years of Zen https://40yearsofzen.com/dave/

REFERENCES:

[i] The Million Dollar Monk by Dr. Hasan Ibnr Akram Published Nov. 9th, 2021 https://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Monk-Spiritual-Entreprenuerial-ebook/dp/B09LHR83TR/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1669135056&sr=8-1

[iii] https://brainvincible.com/about/

[iv] https://www.craigballantyne.com/about/

[v] “The Millionaire Mon’s Abundance Formula[v]” Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram with Craig Ballantyne https://www.earlytorise.com/212-the-millionaire-monks-abundance-formula-how-to-find-your-passion-purpose-and-motivation/

[vi] The Silva Method https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Silva-Mind-Control-Method-of-Mental-Dynamics-Audiobook/B0038EX534?source_code=GO1GB547041122911G&gclid=CjwKCAiAjs2bBhACEiwALTBWZTnfUfB3QDDXIgJvcVhjOFuS5Mf3HrnZnviFsh0tpaqjEU8tt3lA4hoCx1cQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[vii] https://brainvincible.com/about/

[viii] https://www.matrickz.de/en/home.html

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#258 with Friederike Fabritius on “The Brain-Friendly Workplace” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/neuroscientistwallstreet-journalbestselling-authorfriederike-fabritius-onhernew-bookthe-brainfriendly-workplacewhy-talented-peoplequitand-how-tomake/

[x] Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday Published Sept. 27, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Discipline-Destiny-Power-Self-Control-Virtues-ebook/dp/B09PB1SB72/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=CjwKCAiAjs2bBhACEiwALTBWZUoeFX3MnNVRB4QOWsUg1uvIUKq9Pkxz6Bb7s2yOtYcJsuXRBQSt1xoCds0QAvD_BwE&hvadid=596389425996&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9030091&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=10963384709549795411&hvtargid=kwd-1655571139839&hydadcr=22166_9764349&keywords=discipline+is+destiny&qid=1668545416&sr=8-1

[xi] https://daveasprey.com/about/

Nov 18, 2022

00:55:43

“One can only perform at maximum potential when in optimal health. Optimal health can easily be obtained and maintained.” --Dr. Mike Van Thielen, whose mission is to help those who really and truly want to regain their health and live longer. Dr. Mike, has written many books[i], in the field of health, wellness, productivity, and biohacking, that all cover important topics that I know we are all interested in on this podcast.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY0nOaiQVFc

On this episode we will learn:

✔ Some of the secrets to Dr. Mike's success as a World Record Holder (swimming).

✔ How he learned to optimize his productivity and focus to achieve higher levels of success/laser focus in school/sports/work.

✔ Why he believes "failure is not an option" and why he doesn't practice one of Michael Phelp's training secrets.

✔ Advice he would offer to anyone looking to make an explosive leap with their results.

✔ How to develop discipline.

✔ The importance of knowing your purpose, and discovering what you are passionate about in life.

✔ The role of dopamine as it relates to focus and concentration.

✔ Forward thinking preventative health and why it's important for everyone to put their health first.

As a podcast host, I do come across many people, in different areas of the world, and to stay focused, I do stick to a certain theme each season, or I’d be all over the place with researching guests and questions. For this season, we are focused on brain health as it relates to learning, and I’m looking to show how important an understanding of our brain is, for our results and productivity.

When I came across Dr. Mike’s work, I didn’t even read all of his credentials, as I saw two things that caught my eye. He was the assistant coach and therapist for the Belgian Olympic swim team for the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. Dr. Mike himself is a current World Record Holder in swimming[ii]. He also holds 28 U.S. National Titles and 2 YMCA National records. He is a proud member of the exclusive WSA – World Sports Alumni, holds a PhD in Holistic Nutrition and is also the Founder of Health Freedom movement. He’s a sought-after speaker who has often shared the stage with celebrities who I’ve met during my time in the motivational speaking industry, like Les Brown, Brian Tracy, and Darren Hardy, owner of Success Magazine.

He’s also an entrepreneur with vast business experience and a proven track record of establishing and developing successful business operations. Dr. Mike owned several anti-aging clinics in central and northeast Florida and was the CEO of an innovative stem cell clinic, treating top athletes including NFL players and heavyweight boxing champions. Along with his successful career he has managed to be a philanthropist by raising money through many charity events to those who need it most.

While I speak often about my time in the motivational speaking industry on this podcast, I haven’t mentioned that I spent many of my high school years teaching swimming lessons to pay for my University degree, and would watch these two Belgium swim coaches who would come in every Saturday morning, at the crack of dawn, and run the most incredible swim practices that I’ve ever seen. They had these kids zipping up and down the lanes. I always wondered what was their secret for success (like the ideas that I’m gathering here now on this podcast years later) and I would often watch these coaches, wondering what they were doing differently from the others. When I saw that Dr. Mike is from Belgium, I wondered where his passion to succeed began.

Let’s meet Dr. Mike Thielen, where we’ll narrow down on some questions for him, based on all of the books he has published, and with his upcoming book, The Keys to Your Success, and see what secrets he will share with us on the importance of our health, our brain, and breaking through to new levels of achievement.

Welcome Dr. Mike Thielen, it’s incredible to meet you after I was blown away by all of your credentials while researching your work.

Intro Q: Dr. Mike, I like to open with a question that ties all of your work together, and this podcast is focused on providing the most current brain research to optimize results in our school, sport environments, and modern workplaces, I wanted to ask you something that covers all these areas. With all that you’ve accomplished, it’s clear you are doing something different, that has clearly set you apart from the rest. When did you notice you were doing things differently to reach the high levels you have reached (sports and business) and who taught you these important life-success hacks?

Intro B: Why is failure not an option for you?

Q1: Since most of us see the value in putting our health first these days, especially after the Pandemic, can you share your secret for “how to think faster, move quicker, and become laser focused to become a top athlete?” I know your answer will help all of us with whatever it is we are working on.

After reviewing your website, I was moved. It’s not often that a person’s website can grab your attention, and capture it. I watched your races, and was captivated. You must have incredible retention rates! That aside, I wrote down “failure is not an option” after reviewing your work. What does this phrase mean to you, and how could it help someone going after something important to them this year?

Q1B: Was there a recipe you could share for hitting the World Record in swimming? If someone is looking to make a Leap with their results (I’m a huge fan of Price Pritcett’s You2 Book[iii]) or an explosive jump in their results, what would you tell them?

Q1C: Have you ever focused or visualized on how you would handle failure, like Michael Phelps has been known to do?

Q2: The other day, I wrote down the words “focus” and “disciple” as something to look deeper into. What do you do to improve your focus and get more completed in less time?

Q2B: Where does discipline come in for you? What does this word mean to you?

Q3: After 6 years of working in the motivational speaking industry (I did sales for Bob Proctor), my eye was caught with your connection to your time sharing the stage with Les Brown, Brian Tracy, and Darren Hardy, owner

of Success Magazine. This industry changed my thinking, and I love meeting people who have had the opportunity to experience the “behind the scenes” that no one gets to see. Can you share a story of a time that changed YOUR thinking while you were speaking and changing others?

Q4: We just did an interview with Friederike Fabritius, whose book, The Brain-Friendly Workplace talks about different brain signatures, and how to use them to optimize our happiness and productivity in the workplace. One of the brain signatures that she mentioned was someone who had a high dopamine neurosignature. It’s something I noticed I needed to pay attention to creating as I can only sit and work at my desk after exercise that boosts the chemicals I need to focus. What are some ways (other than exercise) that you know of where we can access the Dopamine in our brain to improve our concentration, motivation and drive with our work, and life?

Q5: I’m sure by now most people have seen the movie, Limitless[iv], and I would take a pill if I knew it wouldn’t harm my brain, to improve mental focus and physical performance. With over 3 decades working with best optimal health practices, anti-aging and regenerative medicine, sports performance, nutrition and supplementation, and biohacking strategies helping people to regain control of their health, what would you suggest that everyone know in this area of preventative health?

Q6: What are you doing with STEM cells that you cover in your book STEM CELLS 101[v] and how could this help people with chronic pain or healing injuries? I’m asking as my husband and I looked at STEM CELLS as a business years ago, but we didn’t invest in it. Now I wonder what we missed out on especially as we are aging and have weird pains all over, or even peripheral neuropathy in our hands every morning. What results is your company seeing with STEM cells?

6B: How did you decide which book to write next?

Q7: Over the years, I learned how much of my results are mental. It begins from the minute I open my eyes, to the seconds before I go to sleep. But I’ve used this training for productivity in the workplace. You’ve done it in many places, but specifically as an athlete. What percentage of winning as a sports athlete is mental and what percentage is physical? Is it a different formula for each sport?

Q8: I’m always looking for tips to improve cognition that leads to improving results. I even went to Amen Clinics to get a brain scan to see what areas of my brain my husband and I could improve in the next 50 years of our lifetime. With your experience as an athlete, coach and business leader, I wonder, how do you think we can improve our ability to think faster, move quicker, and become laser focused, to become the best that we can as an athlete or in the workplace?

Q8B: Does what you suggest change if we want to be the best at sales? Or as a coach or teacher?

Q9: Is there anything important that I’ve missed? Your work as Medical Director at ClariGenZ Health or your new book? What are you focused on now?

Dr. Mike, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to come on our podcast. I was moved to a whole new level when I watched the videos of you on your website hitting those world records. I think it hit a chord for me because I want everyone to hit their own world record. You’ve accomplished so much in your lifetime, personally, documented your journey in your books, and I wonder, what else would you like to accomplish? What’s next for you? I saw you have a NEW book coming out The Keys to Your Success that focuses on stress reduction.

For people who want to reach you, for any of your services, is the best place your website https://mvtonline.com/

Thank you Dr. Mike. I’ve got quite a book list to complete now, but will read them all, and do appreciate the time you have spent with me here, to help me and our audience reach higher levels with whatever it is we are working on.

I hope we all take away many AHA moments from you—including “Failure is not an option.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

There was a lot to think about for me during this episode with Dr. Mike, and it might be because we just covered Peak Performance with Friederike on our last episode, but I’m always looking for ways we can all move the needle closer towards our goals. If you do want to try his supplement, go to TrySmartPill.com and you can put your address in for a free trial. You would just need to pay $4.99 for shipping. I am not an affiliate for this product and just a reminder to always consult your doctor when trying anything new. We are not medical doctors offering advice, but sharing what is working for others. I do plan to try the supplement myself as writing these episodes each week doesn’t seem to be getting easier as I’m getting older. I’m pretty clear on what breaks my focus, so to keep producing episodes that are helpful, meaningful and useful to you, I’ll try anything to give me that edge. I’ll do a follow up later down the line on this episode.

If you do want to reach out to Dr. Mike and take him up on a 20 minute zoom session, you can find that link on the home page of his website. The incredible part of doing these podcasts, is that I feel like I’m getting free coaching, learning valuable life lessons and information, and then I share it with you, wherever you live in the world. Then it’s up to you if you want to dive deeper into the work of the guests I share.

Next week, I’ll be speaking with someone who is known as “the most disciplined man in Germany” who found our podcast on YouTube, and we’ve connected as his work and pathway in life, closely connects with mine. He’s just running 4 businesses globally, but the insights he will share on our interview, will take all of our thinking to new heights, revealing many of the secrets we’ve both learned over the years, that have shaped our lives and careers in different ways. We can now show how these success secrets are backed by science.

And with that in mind, have a good weekend, and will see you next week.

MORE ABOUT DR. MIKE

Dr. Mike is the Medical Director at ClariGenZ Health, an innovative medical company with a new pill providing all the benefits of Adderall without any of the harmful side effects. He is also a treating physician for Boston Neuro Pain and Psych Centers, helping tens of thousands of patients with chronic pain and mental health conditions.

I’ve added a screen shot of his credentials from his website, as he done so much, in many different areas, and I really had my work cut out for me while researching Dr. Mike, as he’s written so many books[vi], in the field of health, wellness, productivity, and biohacking, that all cover important topics that I know we are all interested in on this podcast.

RESOURCES:

ClariGenZ Focus Plus https://www.clarigenz.com/products/clarigenz-focus-plus?utm_source=google_ads&utm_medium=performance_max&utm_campaign=focus_plus_tof&utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=17289983468&utm_content=&utm_term=&gadid=&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1NebBhDDARIsAANiDD1n1JPfgDjvCazOByD6D2DrgfS_UvkRUBaI0xEe83yl7hY8ICFOXdcaAjpWEALw_wcB

The Pomodoro Technique Actually Works by Kat Boogaard Published Jan. 24, 2022 https://www.themuse.com/amp/advice/take-it-from-someone-who-hates-productivity-hacksthe-pomodoro-technique-actually-works

Michael Phelps on Preparing for the Worst by Sarah Davis https://medium.com/@sarah_j_davis/michael-phelps-shows-why-we-should-prepare-for-the-worst-59ba2a401c60

CONNECT WITH DR. MIKE

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikevanthielenphd/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/clarigenz/?hl=en

ClariGenZ https://www.clarigenz.com/

Website https://mvtonline.com/

FREE TRIAL OF FOCUS PLUS+ www.trysmartpill.com

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://mvtonline.com/author

REFERENCES:

[ii] https://mvtonline.com/world-record-holder

[iii] Price Pritchett You2 https://www.pritchettyou2.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA68ebBhB-EiwALVC-NqYJlRCr03rhA3EDXpsGE2d_S8zK4BmWy_95QwWnhuCGdsYdnSsSjRoCo-AQAvD_BwE

[iv] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219289/

[v] Stem Cells 101 by Dr. Mike Van Thielsen

[vi] https://mvtonline.com/author

Nov 13, 2022

01:09:53

"The old corporate paradigm of extreme hours, little sleep, endless meetings, and nonstop travel is dead. No one wants to go back to that. It's bad for performance and for everyone's mental and physical health. The future of business is hybrid and requires a flexible new paradigm that helps everyone reach peak performance: the brain-friendly workplace." (Friederike Fabritius)

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/Mmv9PmuioFs

On this episode we will learn:

✔ How to create a workplace of the future. A Brain-Friendly Workplace.

✔ How an understanding our brain-type, can help us to be happier and more productive in the workplace.

✔ What is causing the "Neuro-Gap" and why is it important to have different brain-types represented at the higher levels of corporations or organizations.

✔ How can someone with ambition and persistence, move forward into a management position? What should they be prepared to show if their brain-type isn't often represented in these higher level positions?

✔ What is lateral or creative thinking, versus linear thinking, and why are both important in the workplace?

✔ Where do those "flashes of insight" come from, that creative people can see? Can science prove this type of thinking to be useful?

✔ What are the 4 brain types, or neurosignatures, and how can we be sure we understand them for ourselves, and for others?

✔ Why is understanding our optimal level of stress important for our workplace productivity and happiness?

✔ An example of when Friederike used her neurosignature under pressure.

✔ What to expect from some of the interviews in The Brain-Friendly Workplace

✔ An important tip from John Medina on the "power problem" that happens at the brain level, for people in positions of leadership.

FOLLOW FRIEDERIKE FABRITIUS

Website https://friederikefabritius.com/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/friederikefabritius/

Twitter https://twitter.com/FriederikeFab

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8wD4PRM2RablIfUVDzT2WA

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FriederikeFabritius

Amazon: www.amazon.com/author/friederikefabritius

SEE PAST NEUROSCIENCE MEETS SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING PODCAST EPISODES https://www.achieveit360.com/episodes/

There’s much more to this new workplace, overriding old, outdated paradigms, than meets the eye, and Friederike Fabritius’s NEW book, The Brain-Friendly Workplace is FULL of ideas to help all of us adapt our workplace, so that our brains will work at their best.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast where we bridge the gap between theory and practice, with strategies, tools and ideas we can all use immediately, applied to the most current brain research to heighten productivity in our schools, sports environments and modern workplaces. I’m Andrea Samadi and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is for our everyday life and results. My vision is to bring the experts to you, share their research, books, ideas and resources to help you to implement their proven strategies, whether you are a teacher working in the classroom or in the corporate environment. Be sure to listen to the EPISODE prior to this one, #257, as I do cover a DEEP DIVE to put us all in the right mind-set, or should I say, brain-set, for today’s interview.

I’m so very excited for today’s interview, EPISODE #258, as we have a returning guest, from one of our early episodes, #27[i], Friederike Fabritius, all the way from Germany, who dove deep into her book, The Leading Brain: Neuroscience Hacks to Work Smarter, Better, Happier when we first launched our podcast back in 2019. What was crazy about finding Friederike back then, is that I found her on YouTube, from a presentation she did on Leadership and the Brain, and it really helped me to understand the chemicals involved in the brain during peak performance, and what it looks like when the brain is involved in FLOW, which is something I think we all want to master.

What Friederike might not know, is that I watched her presentation many times over, back in 2017, taking notes OVER my notes, as it helped me to understand why people perform the way they do at work, why some people excel, and others seem to be missing something, and why certain people gravitate towards certain positions based on the chemicals predominantly in their brain. What became clear to me from this diagram, from this presentation where you can watch Friederike[ii], on “Fun, Fear and Focus” is that some positions in the workplace (at the beginning of the curve) are routine, and require people to do the same thing every day, (and some people are wired this way) but for those who are not, they will find themselves to be under-challenged and bored, without a brain strategy in place. Similarly, some positions that require NEW daily challenges are designed for those workers who enjoy constantly putting out fires and would be bored if their work was routine, the same way every day, but these positions often lead to burnout, without a brain strategy in place.

We ALL need to find our optimal stress point, so that our work challenges us just the right amount, leading us to that place of optimal workplace happiness. I could see clearly with this example, why I was very unhappy when I left my “exciting” job in field sales, covering Higher Education/University Campuses in the southwest region, moving to “inside” sales where I sat at a desk, and was bored and under-challenged until I figured out that I needed to offset my desk time, with exercise.

This diagram also comes into my mind when I see someone working very hard, or burning the candle at both ends, as Friederike cautioned that this type of work pattern isn’t sustainable and can lead to depression, burnout and even changing the brain to where people under these high levels of stress begin to see stress in places where there isn’t any, or experience “hyper arousal.”

I’m always looking for productivity tips that we can all use, and it’s clear that stress in our workplaces is at an all-time high, globally. We know that “2/3 of people report being stressed at work, to the point they can’t sleep at night”[iii] so I was thrilled to see that Friederike’s new book was focused on changing the workplace, not the employee, to create the best environment for happiness and productivity.

Let’s welcome back, returning guest, and my friend from EP #27 Friederike Fabritius[iv], a neuroscientist, author and public speaker, who works with leaders to help them to understand how their brain works, and like I mentioned from that first presentation I saw with high level business executives, she will share how we can all find our optimal stress points, with the secrets from her NEWLY released book, The Brain-Friendly Workplace that hit #3 on The Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Books List, and remains on this list today, and show us how we can all adapt our workplaces, for optimal productivity, health and happiness.

Welcome back Friederike! It’s incredible to see you again. Congratulations on your new book hitting the Wall Street Journal’s Best-Selling List!! That’s AWESOME!!

INTRO Q: So, I was reading your book, and you know, I feel like we can think we know someone, but when you read their book, you get a whole new layer of understanding behind someone with knowledge you might not have known before. I felt like I knew you fairly well from studying everything I could find online about your work, interviewing you with your first book back on EP #27, and then I’m reading your NEW book, preparing for this interview, and I come to the part in the Introduction on “Happy to Be Fired” and I knew you came from the Max Plank Institute[v] where all the Nobel prize winners came from, but I had no idea why you left. Your story gave me so much insight into my own neurosignature, or what I need to be happy with work, and I think this understanding is a HUGE missing link in the workplace. Can we start with why you were “Happy to be Fired” and why understanding our brain is the first step towards being happy with our work?

Q1:. My next question is kind of long, but it will help set up how to Address the Neuro-Gap from Chapter 1 of your book. Can I share how I see the “Neuro-Gap?”

I’m always learning something, and trying to make connections with this learning. Last week I took this fascinating course called “How to Think Like an FBI Profiler”[vi] with Special Agent John Douglas who they created the Netflix Series Mindhunter after his cases. I learned so much from him, but one part that stuck out to me was he spoke about how he brought creativity, intuition, keeping an open mind to solving his cases, something that the FBI lacked before he came on board because women were under-represented in the FBI.[vii] He talked about solving a case when a female investigator said she wanted to go with her gut, and blow up a note from a murderer and place it on a billboard to see if anyone would recognize the writing. Creative, out of the box thinking wasn’t a usual strategy within the male dominated FBI agents, but he was known for his out of the box thinking, and went with this woman’s idea, and this method is how they identified their criminal and were able to put him behind bars. Is this what you call “The Neuro-Gap?” (overrepresentation of high dopamine/high testosterone brain systems, and systems thinking, at the executive level) that would have ignored this type of creative thinking to solve problems that came from this one female agent?

Q1B: Of course, I saw the Neuro-Gap in the corporate world when I was there. My creative, intuitive ideas for building curriculum that covered social and emotional learning connected to neuroscience was something that our curriculum team couldn’t even fathom 13 years ago, when I worked in the publishing field, so I had to leave, and highlight this space on this podcast years later. What about others in different fields? Women in sports? Female actors? Or even like the example I used with female agents in the FBI? How do you see change occurring here in our present-day workplaces? Not everyone can just quit and start over like we did. How can people move forward if their brain signature is not what’s usually at the top?

Q1C: Can you give some examples of lateral thinking vs linear or systems thinking and perhaps ways that you’ve seen creative thinking emerge in The Brain-Friendly Workplace? I was definitely told my ideas were lateral. Can you explain this type of thinking and why it’s important to embrace people who think this way in the workplace?

Q1D: Where do these flashes of insight come from? Can science give us some insight to why some people can “see” things that others might think to be crazy?

Q2: What’s a quick and simple way to discover what our neurosignature is? I know that my brain is high with dopamine, as I get bored easily, need autonomy, and challenge on a daily basis, and there’s also this intuitive, creative side to me, that’s the estrogen/oxytocin signature that I think is the same as yours? How can we pinpoint what our signature is?

IMAGE CREDIT: Carolin Nischwitz

Q2B: I had to laugh at the Testosterone Signature, because it’s my husband to a “t.” Not to name call or anything, but I would take out direct and put the word that starts with an a in there. It’s actually something I admire in strong people (male or female) because I wish I was like this more myself. The strong drive to succeed at any cost even if they come off as being abrupt, I like people who are decisive and direct. You say that 1/3 of women have a high testosterone brain, yet women don’t make up 1/3 of corporate leaders. How would you suggest women with this neurosignature embrace their brain and move into leadership positions to change this in the future?

Q3: Can we review your incredible presentation that I mention in the backstory, where I first found your work back in 2017 with what we should all know and understand about ourselves, to achieve peak performance/find our optimal stress point?

Q4: When I got to Chapter 4 of your book, and you were talking about your first-ever TEDx talk, I had to look through my LinkedIn messages, as I thought I remembered chatting with you just BEFORE you went onstage for that event as we were planning our first interview, and you mentioned that your technology had failed. How did your neurosignature help you in this situation? This has been the STORY of 2022 for me.

Q5: Your book is something I’m going to be studying for some time. I could ask you a question on each chapter, each interview, and each brain tip but we’d be here for a long time. I loved seeing some of the researchers I most admire, like Dr. Andrew Huberman, from Stanford, and Mathew Walker, the Sleep Diplomat, but I most loved seeing your interview with John Medina, as I remember you asking me for his contact information. I was thrilled to see him in there in Chapter 7 and so glad you were able to reach and connect with him. I forgot how absolutely funny he can be, but also, he covers a serious topic, of some brain “power problems” that I think are important to understand for those in positions of leadership. What would be one “power problem” John Medina mentioned, and how can those in leadership positions mitigate this problem?

NOTE: Andrea asked John Medina if there's a way he would suggest this "power problem" could be mitigated. He said:

"You pose a great question, and I have one piece of bad news and two pieces of good news to share in response. To date, there is no randomized blinded trial of which I am aware that has been shown to successfully force someone to understand the consequences of their actions, especially when they think normal rules don’t apply to them.

The first piece of good news is that the research world isn’t clueless about the issue. Connecting one’s behaviors to the consequences of those behaviors is the hallmark of a cognitive gadget called executive function. There is a wealth of solid behavioral work discussing how to improve executive function.

The second piece of good news concerns the concept of prophylactic education, essentially warning people in advance of what is likely to happen to them if they’re not careful. Prophylactic education can go along way towards neutralizing certain bad behaviors, from reducing the number of medical malpractice lawsuits in surgical units to reducing sexism in the workplace." John Medina

This was exactly what Friederike suggested as a solution. Make people aware of the consequences of their actions. John Medina called this "prophylactic education."

Q6: Is there anything important I’ve missed?

Friederike, I want to thank you very much for coming back on the podcast for a second time, and for creating such an engaging and important book that I know will help all of us to become happier in the workplace. For people who want to reach you, is the best place your website? Thank you!

About The Brain-Friendly Workplace

The Brain-Friendly Workplace[viii] envisions a new kind of office where thought-diversity is acknowledged, invited, and supported. Complementing racial and gender diversity, and coinciding with shifting employee trends following the Great Resignation and remote work revolution, “diversity of mind” can lead to better employee retention, higher innovation and creativity, and increased sales.

In The Brain-Friendly Workplace, Friederike Fabritius makes the case for a radically different kind of environment that recognizes the unique “neurosignature” of each person and supports employee wellbeing by shifting from “hustle” to “outcome” culture. These cultural and environmental changes naturally create pathways for more diverse executive leadership. Especially for women who have long had to choose between high-impact careers and having a family.

Where “lean-in” trainings and countless DEI initiatives have failed to make material differences in corporate diversity, The Brain-Friendly Workplace is a science-backed, field tested approach with proven impact at leading companies like EY (formerly Ernst & Young), thyssenkrupp, and Boston Consulting Group. Rather than approaching diversity from a numbers perspective, Fabritius demonstrates that supporting neurodiversity naturally leads to better gender and racial representation at the top.

THE BRAIN FRIENDLY WORKPLACE https://friederikefabritius.com/books/the-brain-friendly-workplace/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #27 with Friederike Fabritius on “The Recipe for Achieving Peak Performance.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/pioneer-in-the-field-of-neuroleadership-friederike-fabritius-on-the-recipe-for-achieving-peak-performance/

[ii] Friederike Fabritius “Neuroleadership: A New Approach” YouTube Published Dec. 11th, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g4XhlLZ5ak

[iii] Intro to The Brian Friendly Workplace Published on YouTube September 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La9yqt0v9f4

[iv] Friederike Fabritius on The Brain-Friendly Workplace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI3XxIkNSOQ

[v] Max Plank Institute https://www.mpg.de/institutes

[vi] How to Think Like an FBI Profiler https://www.masterclass.com/classes/john-douglas-teaches-how-to-think-like-an-fbi-profiler/chapters/

[vii] Women Agents in the FBI: In Their Own Words words.mp4/view">https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/own-words.mp4/view

[viii] The Brain Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Qui and How to Make Them Stay by Friederike Fabritius Published Oct. 11th, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Brain-Friendly-Workplace-Talented-People-Quit/dp/1538159538/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3NVHQ2JCDQ2NP&keywords=brain+friendly+workplace&qid=1667939024&sprefix=brain+friendly+%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-3

Nov 10, 2022

00:15:26

On this episode we will cover:

✔ What are the 4 neurosignatures that Friederike Fabritius identifies in her NEW book, The Brain-Friendly Workplace.

✔ How to use these neurosignatures to improve workplace productivity, happiness and flow.

✔ 3 TIPS for using neurosignatures in YOUR workplace.

✔ Preparing for EPISODE #258 with Friederike Fabritius.

ALL IMAGES FROM THE BRAIN-FRIENDLY WORKPLACE ARE CREDITED TO CAROLIN NISCHWITZ

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, and Episode #257, I want to cover Friederike Fabritius’s new book The Brain-Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Quit and How to Get Them to Stay[i] as I’ve been reading her book, preparing for our interview Friday morning, and our NEXT episode, and I know I won’t be able to cover everything in one interview. This book is beyond comprehensive and has enough science within it to cover our Brain Fact Fridays for the rest of this year.

Friederike has been carefully writing this book since our last interview EPISODE #27[ii] back in 2019, when we first launched this podcast, and there are many Aha moments, and connections I’ll highlight on the next episode, when we speak with her, but for today’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to cover something important that her book taught me. It’s the title of her book, The Brain Friendly Workplace, that explains what we all need to happy at work. My goal with this episode is to share Friederike’s science-backed brain discovery of the “neurosignature” that she introduces in the introduction of this book, and how we can all use it to increase our awareness, the meaning we create throughout our day, and add a sense of autonomy with our work. Then I’ll share an example that shows how her discovery of the “neurosignature” will highlight what we all need to be successful and happy in the modern workplace, with our brain in mind, and that it’s not about changing the people (with more training) but it’s about changing the workplace.

With this paradigm shift in mind, I’ll get straight to the point here—-

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, Did YOU KNOW THAT:

We all have our own “neurosignature,” a unique mix of four key brain chemicals that strongly affects our personality and how we process stress and information?”

Once we understand our unique “neurosignature” we can learn how to hit our “optimal stress point” and manipulate our “fun, fear, and focus” which is the recipe for reaching peak performance in the workplace.

In this place of peak performance,

Ideas will flow. You’ll feel energized, inspired, and alive. You’ll also gain a valuable framework for understanding colleagues and those you interact with their different “neurosignatures.” You’ll get more done in less time You’ll see why changing the workplace is needed, over expecting employees to change with more training.

Understanding our unique “neurosignature” is a technique that provides a competitive advantage allowing you work with the flow, rather than against it.

This is the whole premise of Friederike Fabritius’s NEW book, The Brain Friendly Workplace where she’s created a new vision for the future of our modern workplaces.

What are the 4 Neurosignatures?

Friederike says there are 4 brain systems that we can fall into. Can you recognize yourself? Others you work with? What about those you live with?

THE DOPAMINE NEUROSIGNATURE:

Friederike says that “people high in dopamine are curious, energetic, and future-oriented. Inventors and entrepreneurs tend to have this neurosignature. They get bored easily and are always looking for the next new exciting project.” This one feels like me, as the host of this podcast, thriving with the creation of each episode.

THE TESTOSTERONE NEUROSIGNATURE:

People high in testosterone are tough-minded, direct, and enjoy wielding power. They tend to be analytical and use systems thinking, which involves moving logically from one step to the next to solve a problem, based on a system’s “rules.” They enjoy tinkering with “systems” such as car engines or computers. This signature describes my husband to a “t” and we often joke around about his quality of being direct. I call it something else starting with the letter A—I mean it as a compliment as I do find direct people to be refreshing as they rarely waste time (a pet peeve of mine).

THE ESTROGEN/OXYTOCIN NEUROSIGNATURE:

People high in estrogen are empathetic and good at building personal connections and community. Estrogen increases the secretion of oxytocin, which enhances feelings of bonding and trust. People with this neurosignature excel at nonlinear “lateral thinking,” which involves examining a problem from multiple angles until insights emerge. Lateral thinkers are also good at envisioning long-term implications of a decision. I’m thinking this also seems like me, as I know I’ve been told I think this way, and then there’s this highly intuitive side to me that I tap into as I’m creating these episodes with the goal of helping others, wherever you might be listening in the world.

Are you ALSO noticing that you show up in more than one signature as well?

Psychologist Scott Barry Kauffman, who wrote the foreword of The Brain Friendly Workplace, reminds us that “Neurosignatures are fluid, and they should serve as guidelines, as a helpful framework in understanding people, rather than as categories and boxes to classify people” and he shared how his “testosterone neurosignature is very high (in the morning). But by evening, it’s almost nonexistent.” As you are thinking of what neurosignature you are, take note to how it might be different throughout your day.

THE SEROTONIN NEUROSIGNATURE:

In the final brain system, Friederike says that “people high in serotonin are reliable, detail-oriented, cautious and loyal. They thrive on routine and structure and enjoy consistency and stability.”

What’s YOUR Neurosignature?

Where do you fit in?

While I recognized myself with a dopamine neurosignature, I could also see I fit into the Estrogen/Oxytocin Signature. While I admire those who naturally possess the Testosterone Signature, I probably try to rock the boat with those with a Serotonin Neurosignature, who are tradition-oriented and cautious, hoping they’ll lean in a bit to some of my crazy adventurous ideas.

How Does This Translate into YOUR Workplace for Increased Happiness and Success?

It’s always easy to look back, connecting the dots backwards, (like Steve Jobs reminds us) but if you asked me what corporate environment I enjoyed the most over my career, or when did I have the most fun with my work, (excluding my time working in the motivation speaking industry where I earned commission sales) I would hands down say that it was when I was operating from the Dopamine Neurosignature, and had fun, was creative, had complete autonomy with my day, was curious, which led to increased self-motivation and high productivity on my end. What job was I doing where I was working with this neurosignature?

I was the happiest was when I was a field sales rep, working with Pearson Education, covering the southwest region of the country, selling books and software to Higher Ed (college/university campuses) and K-12 schools in the 5 States surrounding AZ. Work felt like play to me back then. This job hit all the requirements of my Dopamine Neurosignature but the only problem was that it required me to be on the road 4 days/week, so when I wanted to start a family, I had to leave this brain friendly field sales position, and go to inside sales to stay with the company.

It’s easy to see it all looking back, but I’ll never forget the manager who looked me straight in the eye and said “this is a huge mistake for you.” I’m guessing he didn’t need to know my neurosignature to see that I’d learn to understand what he meant a few years later when it all sunk in.

I noticed the discord when I no longer had the chance to use my creativity, or curiosity in my day, working in this cubicle, that felt sort of like a prison when I was used to the open space of driving on endless open roads, navigating campuses to find my customer’s offices, to suddenly sitting in a small space with just a telephone and computer—my neurosignature went haywire. I wouldn’t have said it was the easiest transition until I figured out how to bring fun and creativity to an office space when our sales team started to go to the gym at lunchtime, breaking us out of our offices, and activating all of our brains mid-day. I’d say this revised work environment was the second most enjoyable corporate environment I’ve ever experienced.

Like Friederike said “change the workplace, not the people.” Our sales team was highly productive and creative with this autonomy and we were all very happy. Here’s my sales team from 2006, all of us with different neurosignatures (some of us were dopamine driven-enjoying the break away from our desks, others were serotonin driven, requesting to go dancing after work, and others testosterone driven—just there for the moment and planning to take over the world, or looking for the next open position in management/leadership). We all worked together, towards a common goal, helping each other to manage our optimal levels of stress, and even without knowing each other’s neurosignatures, we knew what each of us needed to be successful.

“Change the workplace, not the people.”

What Happens if You Don’t Have This Type of Synergy in YOUR Workplace?

The crazy thing that happened to this sales team, is that our workplace changed about 2 years after this photo was taken. Our company boasted of these huge offices that we would all have moving from Scottsdale, right next to the base of Camelback Mountain (where we often hiked together) to Chandler, where back then, was known for their dairy farms and the wonderful scent you could catch in the air if you drove past one of these farms with your car windows open.

Our offices moved and we all lost our synergy. The workplace changed, but not for the better. Management thought replacing our cozy cubicles that looked out to Scottsdale road, and the mountains nearby with a more corporate location (that you can see from the highway if you ever visit AZ). Pearson Education exists on the 101 near the Ray Road exit, but the culture that was created in the Scottsdale location never made it there.

The people were the same, but the workplace changed for the worse, taking the culture we had built with it. I remember using my creative mind, in our new offices, to change the energy of this location, and presented many forward-thinking ideas that were never received well from the Testosterone-led management team. Even the managers who made the old location a success, tried to change the culture, but something had changed with this new location, that would never be captured again.

There is a solution to this problem, and Friederike captures it in her NEW book.

To Review This Week’s Brain Fact Friday, based on Friederike Fabritius’s book, The Brain-Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Quit and How to Get Them to Stay[iii]

DID YOU KNOW THAT: We all have our own “neurosignature,” a unique mix of four key brain chemicals that strongly affects our personality and how we process stress and information?”

HOW DO WE USE OUR NEUROSIGNATURE TO OPTIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY AND HAPPINESS IN OUR WORKPLACE?

The Brain-Friendly Workplace,

I’ll leave you with these questions, and will see you on our next episode, with Friederike Fabritius, as we dive into The Brain Friendly Workplace. See you next week.

REFERENCES:

[i] The Brain Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Qui and How to Make Them Stay by Friederike Fabritius Published Oct. 11th, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Brain-Friendly-Workplace-Talented-People-Quit/dp/1538159538/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3NVHQ2JCDQ2NP&keywords=brain+friendly+workplace&qid=1667939024&sprefix=brain+friendly+%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-3

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #27 with Friederike Fabritius on “The Recipe for Achieving Peak Performance.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/pioneer-in-the-field-of-neuroleadership-friederike-fabritius-on-the-recipe-for-achieving-peak-performance/

[iii] The Brain Friendly Workplace: Why Talented People Qui and How to Make Them Stay by Friederike Fabritius Published Oct. 11th, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Brain-Friendly-Workplace-Talented-People-Quit/dp/1538159538/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3NVHQ2JCDQ2NP&keywords=brain+friendly+workplace&qid=1667939024&sprefix=brain+friendly+%2Caps%2C213&sr=8-3

Nov 03, 2022

00:11:24

“What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.”--Paulo Coelho

On today’s episode #256 and this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I wanted to take what we learned from Dr. Chantel Prat earlier this week on EP#255[i], and her book The Neuroscience of You[ii], and dive a bit deeper to increase our learning with whatever it is we are interested or curious about. At the end of our interview with Dr. Prat, I shared how much I learned about myself from reading her book, and how learning inspires me (which is why I am motivated to keep producing podcast episodes that can help all of us take our results to new heights—with what we are learning and applying here, and why I’m always looking to fill in the gaps in with my knowledge). Do you know what I mean here? Have you ever found someone who knows something that you don’t know, (you notice the knowledge gap) and then you were motivated, or even energized to glean their knowledge to enhance your life?

I know that each of us will be curious about something in the world and I’m so grateful that you’ve chosen this podcast to learn from, along with me.

I’m always looking to answer the question “What is it that YOU’RE curious about?” so I can create episodes that are helpful, and Chapter 7 of Dr. Prat’s book dives much deeper into the research behind curiosity and the brain, that I know will help you with whatever it is you are working on, or those you hope to motivate around you, but today, my goal to inspire you, even energize you a bit, when I show you WHAT happens in our brain when we are curious, WHY being curious prepares our brain for learning, and how we can use this to inspire those around us to naturally want to learn more.

On this episode we will learn:

✔ What happens to our brain when we are curious.

✔ Why being curious prepares our brain for learning.

✔ How we can inspire OURSELVES and OTHERS to naturally want to learn more and make learning unforgettable.

Now, just before writing this episode, something caught my eye, and my curiosity was piqued, pulling my attention towards something I found to be interesting. NOTE—this is why it’s important to turn off your phone (or put it away) when you need to focus. I didn’t do this, and my eye was caught by an ad that was right in line with my area of interest (which is a whole other story how we are all targeted daily to buy things based on what we search for on the internet, or even what we are talking about) but this ad drew me to a class from Former Special FBI Agent John Douglas (where the Netflix series MindHunter[iii] was created based on his work, and his book MindHunter[iv]). This class, called How to Think Like an FBI Profiler[v] changed how I saw this week’s Brain Fact Friday and I’m grateful that I had a chance to learn something new from being curious. On today’s episode I not only want to cover the psychology and neuroscience of curiosity, and how we can use this trait to improve our learning, but I want to do this through the eyes of an FBI Profiler and what my curiosity helped me to learn. Former Special Agent John Douglas (and his masterclass) taught me many tips for becoming a MindHunter and recognize the signs of bad people, or ways to avoid violent criminals, but for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to focus on how to use our curious mind to understand ourselves better, with our brain in mind, by profiling OURSELVES first. Once we have a solid understanding of WHO we are, how our own brains are wired, and what drives us to perform on a daily basis, then we can extend our knowledge to improve our understanding of others we live with, work with, or interact with. Like Dr. Prat’s book said, it all begins with “The Neuroscience of You.”

So for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, it’s about YOU.

DID YOU KNOW that “curiosity is a mental state that both precedes and facilitates learning? Put simply, curiosity is the subjective feeling one gets when their brain wants to take in a piece of information in front of them. As a result, the more curious you feel in any given situation, the more prepared your brain is to remember what happens next.” (Chantel Prat, The Neuroscience of You).

“When you explore, and satisfy your curiosity, your brain floods your body with dopamine, which makes you feel happier”[vi] and Mattias Gruber tells us in his TED Talk that “current research says it’s not only intellect that predicts academic achievement, but our levels of curiosity that predict success in school.”[vii]

DID YOU ALSO KNOW “that when we are curious, 2 parts of the brain light up (our midbrain and nucleus accumbens)” (Dr. Gruber) and these are the SAME areas that light up when we anticipate a reward, like food or money? Dr. Gruber says this is the brain’s “wanting” system which is another way to look at why being curious motivates us to want to learn, driving us to study, persevere and seek new information.

Dr. Prat wrote about Dr. Gruber’s work in her book. She said that “according to the Prediction, Appraisal, Curiosity and Exploration (PACE) Framework recently developed by Matthias Gruber and his former mentor, your curiosity in any given situation depends on what you already know about the world….(and that) your curiosity gets piqued when something either surprises you based on what you thought you knew, or because you experienced a knowledge gap—a type of mental conflict that occurs when you need more information before deciding what to do in a given situation.” Prat elaborates with what curiosity looks like in the brain by saying that

I interpret this to mean that our brain thinks that what we are learning, eventually will lead to something rewarding, and it releases dopamine to keep us motivated to learn whatever it is we’ve deemed to be important, or this thing we are curious about. I think this is a HUGE discovery when it comes to understanding our brain and learning.

So how can we inspire curiosity in those around us (those we are teaching, or coaching) or even those we live with and interact with to inspire learning?

How to Think Like an FBI Profiler

To review this week’s Brain Fact Friday,

DID YOU KNOW that “curiosity is a mental state that both precedes and facilitates learning?” (Dr. Prat)

DID YOU ALSO KNOW “that when we are curious, two parts of the brain light up (our midbrain and nucleus accumbens)” (Dr. Gruber) and these are the SAME areas that light up when we anticipate a reward, like food or money?

Curiosity energizes us by tapping into the brain’s “Wanting System” urging us to want to go out and seek new information. So, if we want learning to stick for our students, piquing their curiosity is one way, that brain research says will do this, inspiring learning, so it’s unforgettable.

After writing this episode, I wonder, what made you curious to learn more?

Once you know this, you have a powerful “secret” that you can use for yourself and others.

I’ll see you next week!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmaTPPB-T_s&t=464s

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #255 with Dr. Chantel Prat, on “The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Wired Differently and How to Understand Yours” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/chantel-prat-phd-on-the-neuroscience-of-you-how-every-brain-is-wired-differently-and-how-to-understand-yours/

[ii] The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours by Chantel Pratt, Ph.D published August 2, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Neuroscience-You-Every-Different-Understand/dp/1524746606

[iii] Netflix Series Mindhunter https://www.netflix.com/title/80114855

[iv] MindHunter: Inside the Elite Serial Crime Init by John Douglas Published November 26, 1998 https://www.amazon.com/Mindhunter-Inside-Elite-Serial-Crime-ebook/dp/B000FC0RRY

[v] How to Think Like an FBI Profiler by Former Special FBI Agent John Douglas https://www.masterclass.com/classes/john-douglas-teaches-how-to-think-like-an-fbi-profiler

[vi] The Science of Curiosity of-curiosity.html#:~:text=When%20you%20explore%20and%20satisfy,curiosity%20again%20in%20the%20future">https://curiosity.britannica.com/science-of-curiosity.html#:~:text=When%20you%20explore%20and%20satisfy,curiosity%20again%20in%20the%20future.

[vii]This is Your Brain on Curiosity | Matthias Gruber | TEDxUCDavisSalon

Nov 01, 2022

01:05:34

“As human beings, our job in life to help people realize how rare and valuable each of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has—or ever will have.” Chantel Prat, PhD who quotes Fred Rogers, in her new book, The Neuroscience of You.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/JCpD9vGe4As

On this episode we will learn:

✔ How to understand ourselves better, before understanding others, with our brain in mind.

✔ Why Dr. Anna Lembke said "The Neuroscience of You" is "smart, funny, and irreverent" and a "must read for any budding neuroscientists out there."

✔ What happens at our brain level when we are out of synch with someone else?

✔ A review of Theory of Mind and why it's crucial for our success and "predicts the way a team will perform."

✔ How to improve our Theory of Mind and learn how to "Read the Mind" in others.

For today’s EPISODE #255, we will be speaking with Dr. Chantel Prat, Ph.D.,[i] who I’ve mentioned a few times on this podcast. I came across Dr. Prat’s NEW book, The Neuroscience of You[ii] that she just released this August while researching for EP #245 back in September, on “Using Neuroscience to Recognize Individuality and Uniqueness”[iii] because her name kept coming up when I was searching for “using neuroscience to understand diversity.” When I started reading her book, it was clear to me that Dr. Prat is heavily invested in the research that helps all of us to first of all understand ourselves on a deeper level, which will help us to understand others. If you look at the Levels of Consciousness Model that I drew out from EP 151, you can see that I have listed Dr. Prat’s work in the fully aware column, as I think this is what her work prepares us for. While you can see our podcast has touched on different levels of consciousness, and since this is such a difficult concept that many scientists still cannot explain, I think it makes things easier if we can map concepts out so we can see what we are talking about visually. I know that after today’s episode, Dr. Prat will open our eyes and awareness a bit more to see who we are, in relation to those around us, with some new ideas for creating synergy with those we are no in synch with.

Here’s a bit about Dr. Prat.

Chantel Prat is a Professor at the University of Washington in the Departments of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Linguistics, and at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, the Center for Neurotechnology, and the Institute for Neuroengineering. A cognitive neuroscientist by training, her interdisciplinary research investigates the biological basis of individual differences in cognition, with an emphasis on understanding the shared neural mechanisms underpinning language and higher-level executive functions.

In English…I would translate that to “Dr. Prat helps us to understand ourselves and others” which is why she kept coming up when I was search for understanding unique differences, or that all brain are not alike.

Dr. Chantel Prat was the first neuroscientist to directly link two human brains through technology. Her research has explored virtual reality, neural linking, and the diversity of our brains throughout development. Learning about the science of our brains and nervous systems empowers us with greater ability to build the lives we want. Some of the power within Dr. Prat's work is that she highlights that neuroscience truly is not a one size fits all field. As Dr. Chantel Prat explains, "being equal does not require us to be the same."

She is featured in the 2019 documentary, I Am Human and her studies have been profiled in media ranging from Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Science Daily to Rolling Stone, Popular Mechanics, Pacific Standard, Travel + Leisure, and National Public Radio.

Let’s meet Dr. Chantel Prat, and see what we can learn about embracing each other’s differences, at the brain level, and what this really means and looks like. I’m sure this discussion will change our perspectives of how we think of others who we aren’t on the same page with, and hopefully help us to all find common ground with those we work with, live with and interact with on a daily basis, with some new strategies to improve our daily results, with our brain in mind.

Welcome Dr. Prat, thank you for coming on the podcast today, and sharing a deeper look at your NEW book, The Neuroscience of You, that I’ve already been promoting since I saw it come out this summer.

Intro Question: Dr. Prat, I’ve already mentioned you many times on this podcast, tying your work to past episodes and speakers, but what caught my eye while reading your book, and researching you further, was the reason “Why” you wrote this book. What was it that motivated you to dive into the importance of understanding ourselves better, as well as others, with our brain in mind?

Q1: When I saw Dr. Anna Lembke’s review of your book, that it’s a began with “smart, and funny” which is not a usual combination for books about the brain, and a “must read for any budding neuroscientists out there and anyone else who wants to know how our brains work and why it matters.” (This review says a lot about you, your work and ability to connect with everyone who want to learn this topic that can be difficult, dry and confusing). We had Dr. Lebmke on the podcast last September for EPISODE #162 on her book Dopamine Nation[iv] and going on the theme of her insightful review of your book, I wondered what would you say is important for us to all know (Neuroscience 101) BEFORE we read what was also noted to be “one of the best books on neuroscience for the lay person.”

Q2: Dr. Prat, when I heard you mention “Theory of Mind” as something that can predict how well a team will perform, you took me back to one of our early episodes #42 with Dr. John Medina the author of “Brain Rules”[v] mentioned Theory of Mind in our interview, with ways we can all improve it, in order to relate to others on a deeper level. What happens to us initially when someone’s brain is making them behave in a way that we don’t understand, and why is being able to “model the mind of someone else” crucial for our success, like you said “it most predicts the way a team will perform?”

Q2B: I took a stab at writing an episode when I first launched this podcast on Theory of Mind, back in March 2020[vi] that talks about when I first learned about ToM when I asked my Mom to explain to me how I could recognize a murderer from a regular person, as there were these horrific murders in Toronto happening at the time, and the killers didn’t “look” like bad people to me. My Mom, I’m not kidding gasped when I asked her this, and said “did you not look at their eyes?” which led to her working with me every week on reading facial cues, and reading the mind in someone’s eyes. John Medina talked about ways we could improve this skill (he said by reading literary fiction books and studying well crafted, award winning writing). What do you think? How can we further improve our ToM, and how can this tool help us all to connect with others on a deeper level/improve our results or even keep us away from bad people?

Q3: In PART 1 of the book you describe some of the biological features that shape the way we experience our personal reality. I LOVE this concept you mention about story-telling, as I worked 6 years in the motivational speaking industry, that’s all about the importance of “the stories we tell ourselves” or keeping a positive mindset or even being careful of the things we say out loud that could be limiting. Until seeing your book, I didn’t realize just how integral our brain’s design is for shaping our story-telling process. Can you explain what how our brain creates and produces the stories we experience, and how can we use an understanding of our brain to create the story with the outcome that we desire? (Landing the successful job, or achieving a huge win at work).

Q4: Is there anything important that I’ve missed?

Dr. Prat, I want to thank you very much for coming on the podcast, and sharing your deep and thorough research that you’ve been doing over the years and explaining it in such a way that we can all understand and use it, in a way that’s been fun, entertaining and memorable. Thank you so much for this.

For people to connect with you, and buy your book, is the best place to go to your website? https://www.chantelprat.com/

Thank you!

Final Thoughts:

I had no idea while writing these questions for Dr. Prat that I would learn so much about myself. She really did have it right. Her book is called The Neuroscience of YOU for a reason, and I hope as YOU read the book that you learn something about yourself, that helps you to understand others. I also highly recommend going to Dr. Prat’s website and taking the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. I did talk about this on EP #36 but see how you do, and see if you can take what you’ve learned here, or when you’ve said “I’m not wired that way” to understand what exactly that means for YOUR brain.

RESOURCES:

Chatel Prat, How Every Brain is Wired Different and How to Understand Yours Talks at Google Published August 26, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idloD9qYYCE

Chantel Prat on The Curious Minds at Work Podcast with Gayle Allen https://www.gayleallen.net/cm-223-chantel-prat-on-how-every-brain-is-different/

Research https://www.chantelprat.com/research.html

Social Intelligence Test Scored 28/36 http://socialintelligence.labinthewild.org/

FOLLOW CHANTEL PRAT

Website https://www.chantelprat.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/ChantelPratPhD

BUY The Neuroscience of You https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624256/the-neuroscience-of-you-by-chantel-prat/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://www.chantelprat.com/

RESOURCES:

Two Years Later, We Finally Know Why People Saw “The Dress” Differently by Pascal Wallisch Published April 12, 2017 why-people-saw-the-dress-differently.html#:~:text=Remember%2C%20the%20dress%20is%20actually,Because%20shadows%20overrepresent%20blue%20light">https://slate.com/technology/2017/04/heres-why-people-saw-the-dress-differently.html#:~:text=Remember%2C%20the%20dress%20is%20actually,Because%20shadows%20overrepresent%20blue%20light.

REFERENCES:

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #245 on ““Using Neuroscience to Recognize Individuality and Uniqueness”

https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-using-neuroscience-to-recognize-individuality-and-uniqueness/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #42 with John Medina on his book “Brain Rules” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-john-medina-on-implementing-brain-rules-in-the-schools-and-workplaces-of-the-future/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #46 on “Mind-Reading: Developing Theory of Mind in Your Daily Life: As Close as Brain Science Gets” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/as-close-to-mind-reading-as-brain-science-gets-developing-and-using-theory-of-mind-in-your-daily-life/

Oct 27, 2022

00:57:41

“The best way to predict your future, is to create it!” Abraham Lincoln

Watch this inspiring interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/aG_B3aLSLEc

For today’s EPISODE #254, we’ll be speaking with Ryan Brady[i], an avid public speaker who has put into practice many of the concepts that we’ve covered on this podcast. Ryan went from having a traumatic brain injury when he was a teen, to re-learning how to walk and talk. What caught my eye with Ryan’s story is that as a young man, he was able to see the positive side of his brain injury, that occurred when his car went over an 80-foot cliff, flipped 6 times, breaking his neck, back, wrist and collar bone. This resulted in a Traumatic Brain Injury, that listeners to this podcast will understand the horrific impacts of this injury to his brain on learning, memory and his ability to function in the world.

But what he did while recovering is mind-blowing! He studied, learned, and then created a company, Digital Prodigee (that creates mobile apps for businesses) and took his company to 7 figures of revenue in 7 months. His story is a true story of resilience in the business world and you can hear it for yourself with his TED Talk[ii], that I think everyone on the planet should listen to.

I’m personally excited to speak with Ryan, as I began interviewing young entrepreneurs back in 2012, years before launching this podcast when I ran The Teen Performance Magazine, and hearing Ryan’s story took me back to many of the young leaders I interviewed when I was first launching this magazine, hoping to inspire our next generation of entrepreneurs with these interviews. This idea didn’t take off as well as I had hoped, but it was a valuable experience to learn from some of the youngest leaders and most brilliant minds I’ve ever come across, many who I’ve kept in touch with, or watched their results skyrocket over the years.

Let’s meet Ryan Brady, and see what we can learn from this entrepreneur about mindset, vision, and brain health, for a refreshing new perspective on life. Something I think we could all use today.

Welcome Ryan Brady, thank you for joining me on the podcast today. What part of the world are you in today?

Ryan, I’m always looking for new perspectives on this podcast, and hadn’t even listened to your TED Talk when I replied to your team that I wanted to speak with you as I saw something unique about your ability to help others start their own business…then I saw the whole TBI story, that took your story to a whole new level.

INTRO Q: Can you begin with what type of kid you were BEFORE your car flew off an 80 foot cliff?

I’m curious if your positive/forward-thinking mindset was there BEFORE the accident, or do you that the accident changed your perspective?

Q1: I couldn’t tell your story even close to how you tell it. Can you give us a quick synopsis, and I’ll put your TED Talk in the show notes for those who want to hear the whole story? What’s the short version of your accident and how it helped you to see things in a different light?

Q1B: Did you have a positive mindset BEFORE the accident, or do you think it came as a result of it?

Q2: Like I just said, I’m always looking for a unique story to share on this podcast, to help all of us to improve our mindset, with an understanding of our brain at the heart of this podcast. BEFORE your TBI, what did you know about your brain?

NOTE: After recording, Ryan let me know that he’s had many influencers that he’s learned from but he learned from AJ Osborne[iii] who 5 years ago was told he was paralyzed from the head down, and they said he would never walk again. He not only re-learned how to walk again, but his company now earns over 300M in Real Estate and he now teaches OTHERS how to achieve financial freedom.

He also learned from Memory and Executive coach Jim Kwik[iv], the author of the book, Limitless.

Q3: For me, this was the most impressive part of your TED Talk, probably the entrepreneur in me, who wants others to find their way, forging their own path with a very soft spot for young entrepreneurs. How did you create a NEW path, thinking with your heart, brain and pure gut instinct while you were recovering?

Q4: Having an idea, and then having your idea generate 7 figures, in 7 months, is mind-boggling. I’m not the best at math, and still have nightmares about it, but that’s $1M right? How did you do this?

Q5: I absolutely love your story, as I caught the entrepreneurial bug when I was in my late 20s, and have never looked back, but I learned a lot from working in the motivational speaking industry and I share a lot of this on the podcast.

Once our mind has been expanded to NEW opportunity, you can only keep moving forward, never backwards. But sometimes when we’ve been working in one place for a long time, it’s difficult to see the amount of opportunity out in the world, especially for young people (before kids take over their lives).

sold real estate in Dubai, in the middle of the night before the big RE crash.

What advice would you give to a young person starting their career today?

Q6: What is Digital Prodigee? Who is it for?

Q7: I know your story will empower everyone who listens to this episode to think in a different way and provide hope at a time we could all use some. What message would you like to leave as we wrap this up?

For people out there, listening, perhaps in the business world, who want to learn more about your mobile app, is the best place for that your website? https://www.digitalprodigee.com/

Thank you for your time, ideas, and inspiration today, Ryan. I can’t wait to see where you end up in the next 10 years.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Some final thoughts at the end of this episode, I’m sure you could see that I was inspired by Ryan and his vision as a young entrepreneur. I wish we all could see the vast amount of opportunity in the world, and not get bogged down with doubts and fears when working on something new, or while forging a new path where no one has gone before you. While there are times entrepreneurship, or even leadership can be lonely, Ryan gives many tips for how he found inspiration from those around him. If I was still running the Teen Performance Magazine today, I would have grabbed Ryan Brady for an interview, and although that business idea is long gone today, the soft spot I have in my heart for young people who take the difficult path in life, choosing challenge over fear, is what keeps me moving forward. If you know anyone looking at creating a mobile app, I do hope you look at his company DigitalProdigee as a solution.

Will see you next week as we continue to use Neuroscience to explore and take our results to new heights.

FOLLOW RYAN BRADY

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-brady-14b451157/

Website https://www.digitalprodigee.com/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://twitter.com/GaskellMgaskell

RESOURCES:

Tim Ferris The Four-Hour Work Week Published December 28, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded-Updated/dp/B0031KN6T8

The Mindset Mentor Podcast with Rob Dial https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-mentor/id1033048640

REFERENCES:

[i] Digital Prodigy(Mobile App Company) https://www.digitalprodigee.com/

[ii] How Traumatic Brain Injuries Can Reveal More Than They Remove with Ryan Brady Published on YouTube July 19, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDsZx8iqy1w

[iii] The Story of AJ Osborne https://www.instagram.com/p/CjGvKTjoDEG/?hl=en

[iv] Jim Kwik https://www.jimkwik.com/

Oct 24, 2022

01:01:22

“Radical approaches are the sorts that are crazy the day before they are brilliant. The payoff is enormous, especially for children who are disadvantaged. Students are the real winners of fearlessly Radical Principals” Dr. Michael Gaskell

And I will add that “our world needs radical thinking, creative ideas and imagination.”

On this episode we will cover:

✔ How "radical approaches" are beneficial for those in a position in leadership for building creativity, and breaking through to new heights.

✔ How timing, idea stacking and mentoring can be used to conserve time and energy needed for leaders to generate new ideas by freeing up time/resources.

✔ What are some strategies for handing negative misinformation, or managing the negative forces of online exchanges?

✔ How are you using support networks (mastermind groups) to empower Radical Principals to create safe zones, leading to more innovation?

✔ What is Radical Loyalty and how can you build this to breed more success in your school or organization?

✔ How to tackle difficult topics like countering the effects of institutionalized inequities.

✔ How to help our next generation to recognize the consequences of their online presence.

Today’s EPISODE #253, we have returning guest, Michael Gaskell, a veteran principal from NJ, USA, whose episode #172 on “Leading Schools Through Trauma”[i] sits in our TOP 10 most downloaded episodes at #6, with over 1500 downloads.

Dr. Michael Gaskell is Principal in East Brunswick, NJ., and he models the pursuit of lifelong learning as he serves to mentor new principals through the New Jersey Leaders to Leaders program. An NJPSA Stars recipient, he has been published in over 3 dozen articles in education journals and blogs, including Education Post, eSchoolNews, NASSP, Edtech and ASCD Smartbrief, and has made the most-read section of ASCD Smartbrief numerous times, which coincides the fact his last episode remains in our TOP 10 all time most listened to episodes.

Mike presents at national conferences, and started his own podcast in January of this year, where he interviews successful adults like Diamond Dallas Page, how he conquered his dyslexia and anxiety associated with it. Mike has published two books: Leading Schools Through Trauma and Microstrategy Magic. Dr. Gaskell works tirelessly to support instructional excellence and student success, for his school community, and most importantly, for the wellness and equity of all children.

He’ll be joining us today to share his new book, Radical Principals[ii]: A Blueprint for Long-term Equity and Stability at School, that will be released November 2022, but is currently available for pre-order through the link in the show notes. Dr. Gaskell obviously loves writing and intends to continue offering his contributions to support learners and educators in written and presentation format. Let’s welcome back Dr. Michael Gaskell for a second time, and learn together about his new book, Radical Principals, and how we can all inspire change in our schools and workplaces, with radical thinking, creative ideas and imagination.

Intro Q: it’s so good to have you back here, Michael/Dr. Gaskell, especially after your first interview made such an impact on our audience, sitting in the top 10 all time most listened to episodes.

I’ve got to commend you on writing another book since that episode. I know that fitting this in is something that I know first hand to be a challenge in todays world, but you’re accomplishing where many would give up. Thanks for inspiring us to keep going…

Intro Q- what’s your secret to writing books? How did you do this one so quickly? I ask because I have a book on my desktop that’s been grueling for me to complete. Do you have a secret? Or is it just the passion you have for helping others?

Q1: I opened the backstory with your quote about radical approaches being crazy before they are brilliant and you say in the first chapter of your book that “Finding innovative solutions to unnecessary and unproductive procedures is part of being radical”.

I wonder, what you do to keep a “radical approach” as a school leader. How is this way of thinking beneficial to you, the students you serve and your community?

Q2: How can radical thinking help others in different sectors to break through to new heights with this creative, and often imaginative way of thinking?

Q3: Can you explain why “timing and stacking of ideas” is important from Chapter 3?

Q4: How do you use mentoring programs to focus your time and energy (to help students) and allow you to write more books?

Q4B: can you give some examples of negative misinformation we all deal with on a daily basis and best practices to handle this?

Q5: In chapter 5 you mention “Learning to manage the most negative forces of online exchanges on email and social media and that “reply only twice” is your mantra to help you model effective communication. Can you give an example of how you put this into practice? We’ve only ever had positive email exchanges, with lots of replies, but I’m sure this is not always the case.

Q6: I think having a team of supporters behind all of us is crucial these days, especially in a world where there’s so much upheaval already. Life is hard. How are you using support networks (mastermind groups) to empower Radical Principals to engage with other leaders in safe zones, leading for more innovation?

Q7: Loyalty—this is a huge topic and important for me. What is radical loyalty and how does this concept breed more success in schools beyond what you’d normally see?

7B: How can we encourage loyalty towards others we work with vs some of the behavior I know happens in schools and workplaces which is why I would avoid the staffroom when I was a teacher, and even noticed I did the same thing in the corporate world?

Q8: In Ch 8 you talk about “helping faculty to how to counter the effects of institutionalized inequities.” Where do you even begin to cover this topic? How do you create solutions for the problems you see in our schools and workplaces on this topic?

Q9: In chapter 9 you bring to light a topic that many Netflix shows have attempted to address and that’s the consequences of bad online behavior. This is a topic of interest for anyone who has a student or child using technology, as it only takes a quick glance at someone’s social media account to form a quick opinion of you, that we all know could potentially hurt their future. How are you helping our next generation to recognize the consequences of their online presence?

Q10: Is there anything I’ve missed, or final thoughts about Radical Principals, or how to lead in today’s world? How would you close this out?

Dr. Gaskell, I want to thank you very much for coming back on the podcast, and sharing your guidebook, for K-12 leaders, Radical Principals, that I know could be applied in the workplace as well to create change. If someone wants to pre-order a copy, is the best way through the publisher?

Book Summary:

Radical Principals is a guidebook for K-12 leaders looking for creative ways, beyond the status quo, to support and nurture school communities in the wake of unprecedented obstacles. In-service principals understandably rely on existing protocols and district policies to solve day-to-day problems, but do you ever wonder whether these quick fixes are preventing you from making a more lasting, transformative change? Radical Principals are those school leaders who recognize that every child, especially disadvantaged ones living through inequities, need adults lighting their path with inventive and evidence-based opportunities for success.

This inspirational yet pragmatic book provides novel strategies and solutions for balancing common concerns—curriculum, school safety, high-stakes testing, parental concerns, among others—while advancing your long-term vision for your school. These audacious, yet controlled approaches will help you maneuver around both the stubborn obstacles facing children in the greatest need of supports and your own blind spots and unintended biases. Spanning bureaucratic roadblocks, systemic injustice, communication breakdowns, and more, each chapter is rich with scenario-based challenges and leadership practices that don’t merely resolve the issues at hand but further help you advance your school towards a holistically equitable and supportive climate.

PRE-ORDER RADICAL PRINCIPALS HERE

Radical Principals: A Blueprint for Long-term Equity and Stability at School by Michael S Gaskell https://www.routledge.com/Radical-Principals-A-Blueprint-for-Long-Term-Equity-and-Stability-at-School/Gaskell/p/book/9781032229287

FOLLOW MICHAEL GASKELL, EdD

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-gaskell-922711100/

https://www.facebook.com/Mikesmicrominute/

www.mikesmicrominute.com

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EP 172 with Dr. Michael Gaskell on “Leading Schools Through Trauma” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-michael-gaskell-on-leading-schools-through-trauma-a-data-driven-approach-to-helping-children-heal/

[ii]Radical Principals: A Blueprint for Long-term Equity and Stability at School by Michael S Gaskell https://www.routledge.com/Radical-Principals-A-Blueprint-for-Long-Term-Equity-and-Stability-at-School/Gaskell/p/book/9781032229287

Oct 20, 2022

00:18:29

It’s one of the Top 5 health staples that we’ve covered often on this podcast, but Dr. Peter Attia[i], Canadian-American physician, known for his medical practice that focuses on the science of longevity, says that “exercise might be the most potent “drug” we have for extending the quality and perhaps quantity of our years of life.”

On this episode we will cover:

✔ What the current research says for improving fitness, longevity and overall health.

✔ Look at the workouts from Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Andrew Huberman, who dive deep into this topic on their recent podcast episodes.

✔ Compare their workouts to mine, and look for gaps using the most current research to see if we can all improve our workout routines with longevity in mind.

✔ Use Attia's Rule in this process.

On today’s episode, I want to share the research I saw recently to improve fitness, longevity and overall health, with Dr. Peter Attia’s work who was recently featured on Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast. Dr. Attia, has a fascinating origin story, as he started his career as a cardiac surgeon, and then found he had a heart condition, so he began to dive into the research to see how he could improve the quality of his own life. On today’s episode #252, and this week’s Brain Fact Friday, we will take Dr. Attia’s advice, look at what he does himself, and what he recommends for others he trains, compare it to how others, like Dr. Huberman are training, and then how I’ve been training. I’m hoping we will find areas to tweak or improve, with Dr. Attia’s research in mind, that focuses on longevity and overall improvements in health and fitness. The overall goal with this episode is to have all of us use the research to inform our current exercise program, uncover our gaps, and see if there are any ways that we can improve what we are doing, with longevity research in mind.

I wanted to cover this topic, as I’m always looking to improve what I’m doing, but find that when there’s so much to do, or so many different exercise or nutrition plans to follow, I notice I don’t do anything new at all, and just do the same thing, which changes nothing. The point of this episode is to look at moving our needle even just a little bit, and see if there is something we can all do, even if it’s a small tweak, to build a better 2.0 version of ourselves, to make this year our best year ever, or at least give us a running start at 2023.

Biohack Tip Advice

For this episode, I plan on following Attia’s Rule[ii] which Dr. Huberman coined that basically addresses the ton of exercise and nutrition advice flying around out in the world. This rule says “don’t quibble about nutrition or supplementation until you’ve dialed in your own exercise/strength protocol,” and I wouldn’t even consider writing this episode, if I wasn’t putting my own health first, using Attia’s Rule as a guide.

Dr. Attia says that nutrition and health arguments are a waste of your time until you’ve completed a certain set of criteria. He says don’t bother unless you can:

Dead hang for a minute Wall sit for two minutes Have a VO2 max of at least 75th percentile for your age group.

Before writing this episode, I wanted to be sure that I qualified for Attia’s Rule. Here’s how I fared with his criteria.

Dead Hang[iii]: I had to find a park down the street from my house to try a dead hang, as I’ve never done one before. In Canada, I remember doing fitness testing for running in school, but I don’t remember ever having to hang from a bar to see how long we could do this. When I got to park I scared away some kids who were on the bars to do this activity. I set my timer for one minute, closed my eyes, and had to pretend if I let go, I’d fall from a skyscraper or something (maybe why they are called dead hangs) so that I could keep going, and hit that one minute mark. Dead hangs are as difficult as they sound, and I can see how practicing this skill would increase overall body strength. I felt every muscle in my body shake as I got closer to the end. I did complete this task, but after raving about how I could do this one minute challenge that night at dinner, my kids who both train every night in competitive gymnastics started listing all the kids at their gym who can dead hang for more than 7 minutes! I’m just going to stick to improving my one minute hang one second at a time.

Wall Sit[iv]: This one was easy for me, even with one injured quad. Was able to sit against a wall at a 90-degree angle for 2 minutes, and switch weight away from the injured leg when needed and completed this criteria.

V02 Max[v]:

I’ve been watching this number using my IPhone in the Activity App. If you are exercising, doing cardio, this number should show up under Trends. If you are not doing enough cardio to grab this data point, you will see “needs more data” next to this item, so you just need to keep training and watching this number.

My VO2 Max currently sits at 37, which is considered Superior for my age (51) and in the top percentile. This is a very important bio marker to track for health and longevity, and we’ll cover why a bit later in this episode.

So, I completed the criteria for Attia’s Rule, and continued the research for this episode.

What About YOU?

If you are measuring your workouts—have you ever wondered

How your workouts fare compared to what the longevity research says? Have you wondered if your workouts are as effective as they could be? Are you reaching the goals you’ve set for yourself? What/how can you improve?

While by no means do I consider myself an expert in this area, I’m just someone who puts a high value on health and have been measuring the data with my workouts for the past 2 years. While tracking my results, I see the same thing every month, so I know it’s time to look at what I’m doing to see where I can improve what I’m seeing. Every week I see “Strain was overreaching, sleep fell short.”

Before we analyze my data, I wanted to look at Dr. Attia’s exercise regimen that he’s built specifically for optimizing health and longevity. You can learn more about his programs on his website, but here’s a quick overview of how he trains.

What does Dr. Peter Attia do?

What’s the optimal dose of exercise for longevity? Dr. Attia lists a framework on his website that is “built upon four pillars: stability (the foundation) that he notices this is often lacking, strength and muscle mass, aerobic / zone 2 training, & anaerobic / zone 5 (high intensity) training.”[vi]

His workouts are simple and straightforward (it’s the research that’s intense and a bit more complex). His workouts consist of:

8 hours total (7-9 hours is advised for endurance training).

This is simple and easy to understand.

I also thought I would list Dr. Andrew Huberman’s suggestion for what he does for his workouts, using science to optimize his physical health to compare.

Dr. Huberman’s fitness protocols are similar, just laid out more specifically:

Sunday: Long endurance workout

Monday: Leg resistance/strength training

Tuesday: Heat/Cold exposure for recovery

Wednesday: Torso/neck resistance training

Thursday: Moderate intensity cardio

Friday: High intensity cardio (max heart rate) Like Attia’s Zone 5 High Intensity

Saturday: Arms, calves, neck training

You can listen to Dr. Andrew Huberman’s entire episode[viii] where he breaks this down his fitness protocols to the most clear and granular level to optimize health and longevity, referencing Dr. Attia’s research[ix], but for this episode today, I wanted to give a snapshot of what longevity workouts look like (connecting the research) so we can all see if there’s anything we can do to tweak or improve what we are doing.

What does the research say?

This is where it gets interesting. I’m sure we’ve all heard of different workout routines, and know that if we’ve seen a trainer that we’ve got to combine cardio with strength training. Then we can add in some of the recent discoveries about heat and cold exposure for recovery, but what exactly does the research say we should know to improve our longevity?

Brain Fact Friday

Which brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday.

We opened this episode with a quote from Dr. Attia that we’ve all heard before, that said “exercise might be the most potent “drug” we have for extending the quality and perhaps quantity of our years of life” but did you know that “exercise reduces the risk for all-cause mortality? (or death from all causes)” (Dr. Peter Attia).

Research from the National Institute of Health found that, compared with taking 4,000 steps per day, a number considered to be low for adults, taking 8,000 steps per day was associated with a 51% lower risk for all-cause mortality (or death from all causes)[x]. Taking 12,000 steps per day was associated with a 65% lower risk compared with taking 4,000 steps.

What caught my attention was when Dr. Attia put all of the research into perspective.

We know:

Exercise has a huge impact on disease and death from all causes (all-cause mortality). We know it does something to reduce aging, and improve longevity right down to the ends of our telomeres. We know exercise is like a drug, and hormones are released that provide neurogenesis, or create new brain cells. (BDNF).

But Did You Know:

[xi]

These numbers are shocking, especially if you or someone you love, suffers from chronic disease. It caught my attention especially when high blood pressure was not far off from ACM of a smoker, and made me stop in my tracks to think “what can we do to improve these numbers?”

What Can We Do?

Dr. Attia suggested the answer lies with comparing low to high achievers and the findings are significant.

Did you know that “low muscle mass people compared to high mass people have a 200% increase in all-cause mortality (or dying of any cause) as they age?” (Dr. Attia) who adds that “it’s less about the muscle mass but the high association with strength.”

“It’s a 250% greater risk if you have low strength to high strength.” (Dr. Attia)

So the answer, (from the research) is to prioritize strength training, and get stronger, while keeping an eye on the 4 pillars of exercise that Dr. Attia mentions (stability, strength, aerobic and anaerobic training).

Dr. Attia goes on to say that “if you look at cardiorespiratory fitness, it’s even more profound.”

“For the bottom 25% in terms of V02 Max (for your age and sex) compared to people at the top (elite) for a given age, there’s a 400% difference in all-cause mortality.” (Dr. Attia) which he says “is the single most strongest association” he’s ever seen for any modifiable behavior.

With this research in mind, I know I want to keep doing cardiovascular exercises to keep my VO2 Max in the elite/superior group for my age.

What do I do?

You can see my September workout results broken down into the framework Dr. Attia suggests for longevity.

AEROBIC:

Most time spent on aerobic exercise:

1.5 hour hikes daily, mostly zone 3. (STRAIN 15-17)

7.5 hours

ANAEROBIC:

High Intensity Training usually Tuesday/Fridays where you see strain is highest (18-20). 2 hours/twice/week= 4 hours

STABILITY: Have been using Joshua Gillis’s NeuroFuctional Training Program from EPISODE #238[xii] that Centers the Mind-Body Connection to Release Our Highest Potential. I’ve also found this program difficult to sustain. The exercises help strengthen parts of my body I don’t use often, and I notice it’s very challenging. 12 minutes a couple times/week.

STRENGTH: Weight training 4x week 30 min using a system created by Vince Sant, called Vshred.[xiii] I’m not an affiliate of this program, but have used this system since 2019.

****STRENGTH IS THE AREA I WILL LEAVE OUT WHEN BUSY. According to the research, this is a huge mistake.

****Looking at the research, can you find your gaps, or areas that you would like to improve?

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION This Week’s Brain Fact Friday:

Did you know that “low muscle mass people to high mass people have a 200% increase in all-cause mortality as they age?” (Dr. Attia) who adds that “it’s less about the muscle mass but the high association with strength.”

“It’s a 250% greater risk (of all-cause mortality) if you have low strength to high strength” so cutting out my strength training is not something I will do moving forward. I’ve been following Monica [xiv], whose a phenomenal trainer on physical and mental fitness for new ideas for strength and peak performance training.

Don’t forget to follow Dr. Attia’s work https://twitter.com/PeterAttiaMD

Sign up for Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Newsletter to receive all his workout tips through his website https://hubermanlab.com/neural-network/

IMPROVING WORKOUTS WITH LONGEVITY RESEARCH IN MIND?

While I do want to keep my VO2 max in the elite or superior range for my age, I can definitely lower the intensity of my daily hikes that are pushing me to see the daily message “strain too high, not enough sleep” as sleep is required to repair the body from high strain days.

Using the research, I plan to spend more time on easier, low intensity cardio, strength training and with a bit of high intensity training added in, and I’ll keep the 4 pillar framework that Dr. Attia created in mind for longevity training to include Aerobic, Anaerobic, Strength and Stability Training.

I’d love to know if there was anything in this episode that helped you to tweak your weekly exercise routine, with health and longevity in mind. Please do visit the resources and references in the show notes if you would like to go deeper into the research we’ve covered today.

I’ll see you next week with a returning guest, who amazes me with his ability to complete the books he is writing. Have a good weekend.

RESOURCES:

How to Dead Hang June 27, 2019 https://www.fundamentalsportsandfitness.co.uk/blog/how-long-can-you-deadhang-for

STRENGTH TRAINING (Mental and Physical Fitness) Follow Monica @Fit_Pump on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fit_pump_/?hl=en

Don’t forget to follow Dr. Attia’s work https://twitter.com/PeterAttiaMD

Sign up for Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Newsletter to receive all his workout tips through his website https://hubermanlab.com/neural-network/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Peter Attia https://peterattiamd.com/

[ii] Attia’s Rule Published August 29, 2022 by Logan Gelbrich https://www.deucegym.com/community/2022-08-29/the-attia-rule-weve-all-been-waiting-for/

[iii] Dead Hang Exercise https://theworkoutdigest.com/dead-hang-exercise/

[iv] 90 Degree Wall Sit https://www.verywellfit.com/the-wall-sit-quad-exercise-3120741

[v] V02 Max Testing August 29, 2022 by Elizabeth Quinn https://www.verywellfit.com/what-is-vo2-max-3120097

[vi] The framework for exercise https://peterattiamd.com/category/exercise/

[vii] he framework for exercise https://peterattiamd.com/category/exercise/

[viii] Dr. Huberman breaks down the research with his top fitness tools to optimize health https://hubermanlab.com/fitness-toolkit-protocol-and-tools-to-optimize-physical-health/

[ix] Best Exercises for Overall Health and Longevity Dr. Andrew Huberman with Dr. Peter Attia Published on YouTube August 18, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN0pRAqiUJU

[x] Higher Daily Step count linked with lower all-cause mortality March 24, 2020 https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/higher-daily-step-count-linked-lower-all-cause-mortality

[xi] Best Exercises for Overall Health and Longevity Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Andrew Huberman Published Aug. 18, 2022 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN0pRAqiUJU

[xii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #238 with Joshua Gillis on his “Neuro Functional Training: Centering the Mind-Body Connection to Release Our Highest Potential” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/joshua-gillis-on-neuro-func-tional-training-centering-the-mind-body-connection-to-release-our-highest-potential/

[xiii] World Class Training Programs to Build Strength https://vshred.com/

[xiv] Follow Monica on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fit_pump_/?hl=en

Oct 13, 2022

00:14:26

On this episode we will cover:

How can being “mindfully aware in the present moment” benefit us? An overview of the Levels of Consciousness that take us from coma, unaware, to full wakefulness and awareness. How to expand our level of awareness through effective study (using the most current neuroscience research). Break down this complex idea of consciousness, so we can all improve an area on the map, moving us towards full awareness. Use this understanding to better understand ourselves and others.

This week’s Brain Fact Friday came to me this week while on a training call with Mark Waldman, in his neurocoaching program, that consists of all of the students he has worked with over the years[i] all over the world. Some students have been certified, and share their knowledge with others, like Michael Kirton, an Australian clinical psychologist and author who specializes in child development, mental health issues and trauma, and he often joins the calls to share how he is making an impact in his community with the understanding of mindfulness based coaching, training or therapy. I tune into these calls as I’m always looking for something new to share on the podcast, that we could all use to improve our results.

This week, were talking about what it means to be “mindfully aware in the present moment” that Jon Kabat-Zinn coined in his definition of mindfulness to be the “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally”[ii] which Waldman says is a key secret for experiencing optimal health and wellbeing. We covered an overview of Brain Network theory on EP #48 and the importance of being able to mindfully shift between our imagination, (DMN) awareness (SN) and thinking (EN) to increase our creativity and results, while reducing stress. The funny thing I’ve noticed with writing these episodes, and implementing what I’m writing, I’ve got to say that when I’m in a high stress situation, the last thing I’m thinking about is being “mindfully aware” in the present moment. But with time, small things like learning to breathe properly while experiencing stress, that we learned from Rohan Dixit, on EP #228[iii] is putting me miles ahead of where I used to be without a mindfulness-based stress reduction strategy. While I wish I had the opportunity to study and learn directly with monks deep in the Himalayas, like Rohan Dixit did before he founded Lief Therapeutics, and invented a wearable device that tracks HRV in real-time to help us to learn how to breathe when we are stressed, interviewing those who’ve taken the time to do the research, and then sharing this research on the podcast, is my next best option.

We’ve all heard of the research that backs up how important these brief moments of mindfulness can be, whether it’s in our everyday life, or even in the classroom, during learning, as Professor Kimberly Shonert-Reichl’s research (from The University of British Columbia) shows that these brief moments “promote curiosity, creativity and pro social behavior.”[iv] The key to being mindfully aware is to focus on the present moment, instead of what’s happened in the past, or what we think might happen in the future, and learn to breathe, or focus on our breath, which brings our mind into this present moment.

While on this training call with Mark Waldman, a new student asked “what about when I’m dreaming” where’s my level of awareness here?” and we could go down many rabbit holes for hours, on this topic and while Waldman refocused the new student on this complex question, I glanced at the September issue of National Geographic on my desk, on “The Brain” that covers “the complex neural networks that make the brain so unique” and Chapter 4 of this series, covers “The Easy Problems of Consciousness” which was obvious from our call, that many of us, including this new student, finds this topic anything BUT easy, as we wonder how our conscious awareness works, what it is, and how an understanding of this awareness can benefit us in some way.

Which brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday.

DID YOU KNOW THAT “consciousness is the most astonishing act our big, complex, interconnected brains pull off when working properly and scientists are only just beginning to understand it?”[v] (National Geographic, The Brain).

I thought about the new student in our group asking about our awareness level when we are dreaming, and of what we have been covering on this podcast, and it became clear to me that this was a very important question and topic. It didn’t take me long to find some research that covered this question with an article called “Are There Levels of Consciousness”[vi] published by Tim Bayne in 2016 that are in line with what I was reading in the most recent National Geographic publication from September 2022.

What Are the Different Levels of Consciousness?

To bring light to this complex question, (what are the different levels of conscious awareness that our brain experiences) the only way I know how to break it down, is by mapping it out. Drawing something out helps me to see the bigger picture, especially when ideas are complex, or even noted to be “a mystery that some of the greatest minds have been unable to solve.”[vii]

This idea of being consciously aware, or thinking in the present moment, is complex, (because consciousness studies are still trying to find answers to the hard problems, like “where does my inner experience come from” (Page 74, National Geographic) but I’m hoping that this visual will give us all a new perspective of the different levels of consciousness we can experience, and provide us all with a frame of reference to “think” about.

If you look at the diagram in the show notes, that came from my interpretation of “The Easy Problems of Consciousness” from National Geographic’s article on the Brain, you can see how our levels of consciousness can go from low awareness, like when we are in a coma, under general anesthesia, that we have not investigated at all on this podcast. (YET). This is a fascinating area to explore, and I will on a later episode, since I do wonder how on the earth can we stay awake for brain surgery.

The next level of consciousness, is that time just before sleep, where we experience drowsiness, called a hypnagogic state of consciousness.[viii] We’ve covered sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming on the podcast with our interview with Dr. Baland Jalal[ix], bringing us into the next level of consciousness: sleep, that is one of the top 5 health staples we’ve covered often, beginning with Dr. Shane Creado, from EP #72[x] on “Sleep Strategies That Will Guarantee Us a Competitive Advantage.” We’ve also quoted English scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology, Matt Walker and his research from his best selling book, Why We Sleep, on a Brain Fact Friday earlier this year on “Science Based Tricks to Improve Productivity.”[xi] The final stage of consciousness is full wakefulness or awareness, that Chantel Pratt’s book, The Neuroscience of You dives into, as well as this whole idea of Mindful Awareness that we opened this episode with. I think you can see from the topics that we cover on this podcast, that besides understanding our sleep, or messages in our dreams, or health tips to improve our productivity, I’m most interested in ways we can all expand our conscious awareness, and become a better version of ourselves, with an understanding of our brain and how it works.

How about you? Have you ever wondered,

Who am I? Why am I here? What’s my purpose?

These are all deep questions but Jon Kabat-Zinn, the father of mindfulness would say that these questions (like who are you) are “more important than the answer.”[xii]

The key here, is that expanding our level of awareness is a crucial component of our work in this thing we call life, so that we can better understand ourselves, and others, and provide the best service we can in our lifetime. It’s the message in Chantel Pratt’s recent book, The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours[xiii], where she says that even after writing this book, she’s still trying to expand her awareness of who she is.

Even my mentor, the late Bob Proctor, would say that “awareness is everything” and he could talk for hours about the importance of our conscious awareness or our ability to sit, think and expand our awareness even a dot, saying that this small shift could change the world—or at least your world to start with. He’d often say that our “results are an expression of our awareness” reminding us to open up the keyhole, and expand our level of awareness when we are stuck, or to keep “thinking” to move us forward. Never stop thinking, learning and expanding. Invest the time to develop YOU, (your awareness) and this could take our entire lifetime.

So, the question (“Who am I?”) is more important than the answer. It requires our conscious thought and thinking is the highest function we are capable of, and it’s very difficult. Most people think the same thoughts over and over again, which isn’t thinking at all, but like a hamster spinning on a wheel, or playing old movies in our head.

How to Expand our Awareness and Break Through to New Levels:

Have you ever been stuck and you can’t seem to find the answer to your problem? I know we all have. The fastest way to expand our thinking, and find new solutions, is to ask someone who has achieved what you want to do, (because it’s easy for them to connect the dots looking backwards) as they can give you thousands of ideas, showing you that there’s not just one way to get to where you are going. Thinking new thoughts, opens up our awareness (even if it’s just a dot) to new ideas, and possibilities, but how do we do this?

How Do We Expand Our Level of Awareness?

On Today’s episode, I have just one strategy, and that’s to expand our awareness through study. If you look at the diagram I drew, look and see where your area of interest is. You can see where mine is from the episodes we are covering.

STUDY: Find the podcasts that you connect with (for those listening, thank you for choosing mine), read books, study people who are winning, and glean whatever you can from what you are learning to expand your conscious awareness.

What I love seeing is people who break through what seems to be impossible, or where most people would give up.

For a minute, let’s review this week’s Brain Fact Friday. On today’s episode we covered:

How being “mindfully aware in the present moment” can benefit us? An overview of the Levels of Consciousness that take us from coma, unaware, to full wakefulness and awareness. How to expand our level of awareness through effective study (using the most current neuroscience research). Break down this complex idea of consciousness, so we can all improve an area on the map, moving us towards full awareness. Use this understanding to better understand ourselves and others.

Reminder—for this week’s brain fact Friday

DID YOU KNOW THAT “consciousness is the most astonishing act our big, complex, interconnected brains pull off and scientists are only just beginning to understand it?”[xiv] (National Geographic, The Brain).

After looking into this a bit, I learned that “some scholars reckon the puzzle of consciousness is something the human mind is incapable of solving” but Daniel Dennett, Philospher and Cognitive Scientist from Tufts University (MA) says that this line of thinking is “culpably wrong. It isn’t impossible at all. It’s just that we have to buckle down and do it.”[xv]

Imagine going back to 1973 (I was only 2) but let’s go back in time and I’m going to explain to you that there’s this thing called the internet, that’s in the ether. I send you something, and you get it pretty much at the same time as I sent it to you. You’d think I was crazy.

But not now that our level of awareness has been expanded, and we use the internet every day to function in this society.

While we might never understand why we have consciousness, we can continue to study, learn and expand our conscious awareness, (on this topic and others) and like Cognitive Scientist Daniel Dennett suggests, “buckle down” and do whatever it is we are working on. Whether it’s something as difficult as breaking down something so complex as our consciousness, or something less complex, it just takes our effort, and continual study to blast through to new levels of awareness, and results.

Wishing you success in whatever it is you are working on. Like that new student in our neuroscience course, keep asking questions, and searching for answers, and I’ll see you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[xiii] https://www.amazon.com/Neuroscience-You-Every-Different-Understand/dp/1524746606

REFERENCES:

[i] Certified Neurocoaches with Mark Robert Waldman https://www.markrobertwaldman.com/students-2/

[ii] Jon Kabat-Zinn defining Mindfulness by Mindful Staff Jan 11, 2017 https://www.mindful.org/jon-kabat-zinn-defining-mindfulness/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #228 with Rohan Dixit, Founder of Lief Therapeutics on “Meaasuring HRV in Real-Time for Stress Releif From the Inside Out.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/rohan-dixit-founder-of-lief-therapeutics-on-measuring-hrv-in-real-time-for-stress-relief-from-the-inside-out/

[iv] Enhancing cognitive and social-emotional development through a simple to administer mindfulness-based school program for elementary school children by Kimberly Schonert-Reichl Published 2015 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-56463-002

[v] Page 74, Chapter 4, The Brain by Julia Sklar, National Geographic https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Brain-Editors/dp/1547859121/ref=asc_df_1547859121/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598244665656&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9016464077537371621&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030091&hvtargid=pla-1672909059785&psc=1

[vi] Are There Levels of Consciousness? Published by Tim Bayne June 2016 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136466131630002X

[vii] What is Consciousness Published on YouTube Sept. 10, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir8XITVmeY4

[viii] What is Hypnagogia, the State Between Wakefulness and Sleep? By Raj Dasgupta,MD Published Oct. 26, 2020 https://www.healthline.com/health/hypnagogia

[ix]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #224 with Dr. Baland Jalal on “Sleep Paralysis, Lucid Dreaming, and Premonitions: Expanding our Awareness into the Mysteries of the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/harvard-neuroscientist-drbaland-jalalexplainssleepparalysislucid-dreaming-andpremonitionsexpandingour-awareness-into-the-mysteries-ofourbrainduring-sl/

[x] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #72 with Dr. Shane Creado on “Sleep Strategies That Will Guarantee a Competitive Advantage” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-shane-creado-on-sleep-strategies-that-will-guarantee-a-competitive-advantage/

[xi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #217 on “Science-Based Tricks to Improve Productivity and Never Forget Anything” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-science-based-tricks-to-improve-productivity-and-never-forget-anything/

[xii] Jon Kabat-Zinn defining Mindfulness by Mindful Staff Jan 11, 2017 https://www.mindful.org/jon-kabat-zinn-defining-mindfulness/

[xiv] Page 74, Chapter 4, The Brain by Julia Sklar, National Geographic https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Brain-Editors/dp/1547859121/ref=asc_df_1547859121/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598244665656&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9016464077537371621&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030091&hvtargid=pla-1672909059785&psc=1

[xv] What is Consciousness Published on YouTube Sept. 10, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir8XITVmeY4 TIME STAMP 1:31/12:42

Oct 06, 2022

00:15:58

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to look at the Japanese term “Kaizen” that means “change for the better” or “continuous improvement” as we enter the last quarter of 2022. If you follow this podcast, we launched our year with a 6 PART study of the bestselling book, Think and Grow Rich, that ended with EPISODE #196[i] on “The Neuroscience Behind the 15 Success Principles of Napoleon Hill’s Classic Book, Think and Grow Rich” ensuring that we all make 2022 our best year ever with this detailed study. I’ve been studying this book chapter by chapter, at the start of every year, since 2019, which doesn’t seem like a long time, but if you go back to this book study, you’ll see that it’s quite intensive. The notes I share came from 2 of my mentors who have studied this book for their entire life. It took me to the beginning of February to properly cover these 15 success principles, with enough content in this series to continue to study this book, every year, for the rest of OUR lives, and we will still pick up something new. We will cover this on today’s episode, but success with these principles doesn’t happen immediately. But it will happen, with time, which is why I think it’s crucial to revisit this book (and success principles) throughout the year, to be sure the concepts are being applied, not just in January, when we are starting our year, but every month of the year, right through to end of Q4. There are 6 STEPS in this book, that I’ve written on my wall, that when read aloud every day, causes an increase in the amplitude of our thinking, until eventually, our goals become so engrained in our mind, that they become on autosuggestion in our thoughts throughout our day. Napoleon Hill intended this book to be studied over and over again, not just once, but multiple times, for results to occur.

We opened this 6 PART series at the start of the year with a quote from Undercover Billionaire Grant Cardone, who said, “In order to get to the next level of whatever we’re doing, we must think and act in a wildly different way than we previously have been” and I know I’ve repeated this quote often throughout the year, (on various episodes) but I’m doing it on purpose, since making any sort of change takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight, or immediately, or how our brain wants to see things unravel, because success is nonlinear[ii]. I heard this concept the other day, and it made me stop and think for a minute. When you hear “success in nonlinear” what do you think about? I thought about that image of the person riding their bike with their plan in mind, towards their goal, but in reality, there are many obstacles along the way.

We all will have our ups and downs, but what I’m hoping to show with this episode, is that our results will happen predictably, by taking certain actions, day in and day out, with our desired outcomes in our mind, that eventually become on autosuggestion, as we move towards our goals, overcoming the obstacles along the way. This will encourage all of us, that no matter what results we see today, in front of our eyes, that we must never give up, as you might just be giving up 3 feet before gold,[iii] (which is a concept from Chapter 1 of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book) that says “one of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.” (Napoleon Hill, Chapter 1, Think and Grow Rich). Which brings to my mind another image of this guy giving up as he was almost about to hit it big, discovering the diamonds underground, when another guy, (right above him in the image) who is determined to keep moving forward.

When you hear “success is nonlinear” what comes to your mind?

Stop and think about this for minute, because there is much more to this concept than meets the eye. When I’m looking at the images that come to my mind (the guy on a bike with the obstacles, or the guy digging for diamonds) these images are missing something important—they are missing the huge quantum leap in results that occur for those who don’t give up. After digging a bit, (pun intended here) I found an article that explained what I was looking for from Thomas Waschenfelder and I’ve put his image in the show notes.

IMAGE CREDIT: Success is Not Linear by Thomas Waschenfelder

Waschenfelder’s diagram “Success is Not Linear” shows two places where people often give up, right before their results were about to shoot up, exponentially.

How Does This Apply to Us at This Point in the Year?

What if we are in Q4 of 2022, and it’s not panning out to be our best year ever? We listened to many different podcasts for new ideas, we took notes, and applied what we could, but life looks pretty much the same in October as it did in January. Most of us would be tempted to give up as we can’t see the quantum leap (your end result) when you’re looking forward. It will only be evident once we hit our goal, and it will be at that point that you’ll be able to explain it to others.

If you’ve attained your goals this year, that’s awesome! You held your vision to the end, and now you can now share your strategy with others. But what if you haven’t? I’m working on something over here, and I haven’t achieved it yet, either, despite all the effort. And there were two specific times (just like in Waschenfelder’s diagram) where things didn’t go my way, where most people would throw in the towel. But when you look at “how success isn’t linear” you can expect the obstacles to appear, and keep going, if you believe in the process.

Do You Believe in the Process?

I can say honestly that I wouldn’t be spending the time to sit at my desk, thinking of how else we could all move the needle forward (myself included), and study the most successful people I know, looking for how science can help us to understand our lives a bit better, if I didn’t believe in this process myself. If you look at Thomas Waschenfelder’s image that describes how most of us think that the more effort we put in (we listen to podcasts, gather ideas, but them into action) so success should follow. But this isn’t exactly how it works. Waschenfelder describes the process reminding us that “the amount of work you put in does not correlate to the success you enjoy at any given moment.” Most people will give up when they don’t see the immediate rewards, and this made me think back to the book You2 by Price Pritchett that I covered on EPISODE #109, February 2021[iv] that was a high velocity formula for multiplying our personal effectiveness in quantum leaps. If you look at Waschenfelder’s image, you can see two places where most people give up. But look at what happens if they kept going! He says it himself. “With one additional move, they see a giant, disproportionally huge impact.” If this is you, doing the work, and not yet seeing the results, go back and listen to EP 109 on the principles of YOU2 that will guarantee you “an explosive jump in your personal performance that puts you far beyond the next logical step.” (Price Pritchett, Page 5, You2). Then when you think that “success is not linear” you’ll have a new image formed in your mind, with all the obstacles along with the way, and the goal, right next to that exponential, quantum leap at the end.

And Now What? (you ask).

This brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday and how the Japanese term Kaizen, can help us.

DID YOU KNOW that “the Japanese term Kaizen, or the practice of using small steps for continuous improvement “actually originated with the U.S Military?” (Friederike Fabritius, points this out in her book, The Leading Brain: Work Smarter, Better, Happier) that we covered when we interviewed her way back on EPISODE #27[v] one of our early episodes. I’m thrilled to share that she will be joining us again soon with her new book coming out October 11th (next week) called The Brain Friendly Workplace[vi] but until then, I wanted to tie this powerful concept of Kaizen, that’s used by the U.S. Military (so we know it must be good) with our brain, so we can all benefit from this concept, for the remainder of 2022, and see if it can help us to make a “Quantum Leap or Explosive Jump in our personal or professional performance, that puts us far beyond the next logical step.” (Pritchett)

Friederike, in her book, The Leading Brain says that “procrastination is the principle impediment to initiating any habit change. Large goals can seem intimidating unless broken down into manageable steps. Kaizen, the practice of using small steps, can help you to avoid the threat response (in our brain) that frequently drives procrastination.”

When I saw the concept of Kaizen, I thought we could easily apply it to our health and wellbeing, (in addition to our professional lives). Or any place where there’s too much for our brain to handle, so we don’t do anything at all. This strategy can be used in any field to take our results to the next level.

I saw Dr. Mark Eley[vii] point out that the Kaizen cycle could be used in education with PLC, as the steps can help educators “to achieve better results for the students they serve.” (DuFour, DuFour & Eaker, 2002).[viii]

Whatever sector you are working in, (education, sports, health and wellness) I hope you can see how the Kaizen approach is one way of finding solutions, and breaking through to new levels of achievement, creating your quantum leap.

How Can You Use the Kaizen Strategy in the Workplace?

STEP 1: Get Your Team Together

STEP 2: Write Out Your List of Problems

STEP 3: Brainstorm Solutions, Then Choose Yours.

STEP 4: Test the Solution

STEP 5: Regularly Measure and Analyze the Results

STEP 6: If Successful, Adopt the Solution

STEP 7: Repeat the Process

Keep in mind Thomas Waschenfelder’s image as you are working through the 7 steps to break through to new levels of achievement in your workplace, as there will be times throughout that members of the team will want to give up, if they can’t see the end results a quantum leap that’s miles ahead of where they are now.

How Can You Use the Kaizen Strategy for Improved Health?

For our health, it looks a lot like what I’m doing when I’m testing products and sharing them with you here on the podcast. When our podcast took a turn towards health and wellness during the pandemic, we began to focus narrowly on the TOP 5 health staples[ix] (exercise, sleep, healthy diet, optimizing our microbiome, and intermittent fasting). Narrowing in on these health staples makes it easier to pinpoint where our challenges are.

While recently reading Dr. Tom O’Bryan’s book, You Can Fix Your Brain: Just 1 Hour a Week to the Best Memory, Productivity, and Sleep You’ve Ever Had[x] he mentioned how intimidating it can be to improve our health, with all the different theories, diets, and advice, that often contradicts each other and it’s not uncommon to “find ourselves immobilized with minimal results, or not getting better at all.” (O’Bryan, You Can Fix Your Brain).

Dr. O’Bryan talks about dedicating just one hour a week to make significant changes with our health, and I wondered how he could guarantee change in this way. In the first few pages of the book he offered a tip that I’ll never forget, that will change my brain health forever. He offers this brain health tip in the first few pages of his book called “A Note from the Author: Progress, Not Perfection” that reminds us that significant gains can occur when we do things the “Kaizen” way.

This is just one brain health tip he shares, but I’ll never forget it. He says--

This one simple maneuver every time you pump gas, over a lifetime, dramatically reduces the amount of benzene we are exposed to. The Kaizen way. Small actions add up over our lifetime.

So to conclude this episode and review this week’s Brain Fact Friday,

DID YOU KNOW that “the Japanese term Kaizen, or the practice of using small steps for continuous improvement “actually originated with the U.S Military?” and that “the secret for kaizen is that it operates below the radar of your brain’s threat response and that the actions you are taking are so small, so incremental, and seemingly inconsequential that psychologist Robert Maurer, (says they really) Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way” (Friederike Fabritius).

Whether we are using the Kaizen way for our professional or personal lives, we can take small steps towards progress, every day, that one day, will yield our Quantum Leap that puts us far beyond the next logical step.

When you hit your Quantum Leap, I’d love to hear about it.

Until then, I’m still working on mine! I’ll see you next week.

RESOURCES:

Think and Grow Rich Book Study with Andrea Samadi

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 190 PART 1 “Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #195 PART 4 on “Perfecting the Skills of Organized Planning, Decision-Making, and Persistence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-4-on-perfecting-the-skills-of-organized-planning-decision-making-and-persistence/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #195 PART 5 on “The Power of the Mastermind, Taking the Mystery Out of Sex Transmutation, and Linking ALL Parts of Our Mind” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-5-on-the-power-of-the-mastermind-taking-the-mystery-out-of-sex-transmutation-and-linking-all-parts-of-our-mind/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 PART 6 “The Neuroscience Behind the 15 Success Principles of Napoleon Hill’s Classic Book, Think and Grow Rich” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

You can watch this interview on YouTube here.

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 “The Neuroscience Behind the 15 Success Principles of Napoleon Hill’s Classic Book, Think and Grow Rich” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

[ii] Success is Nonlinear: Why Most People Give Up Before the Rewards Published June 5, 2020 by Thomas Waschenfelder https://www.wealest.com/articles/success-is-nonlinear?format=amp

[iii] Napoleon Hill’s 3 Feet from Gold https://www.selfhelpdaily.com/napoleon-hills-three-feet-from-gold/

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #109 on “Achieving Quantum Level Results Using Pritchett’s You2 Principles” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/achieving-quantum-leap-results-using-price-pritchetts-you-squared-principles/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #27 with Pioneer in the Field of Neuroleadership, Friederike Fabritius on “The Recipe for Achieving Peak Performance” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/pioneer-in-the-field-of-neuroleadership-friederike-fabritius-on-the-recipe-for-achieving-peak-performance/

[vi] The Brain Friendly Workplace by Friederike Fabritius published Oct. 11, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Brain-Friendly-Workplace-Talented-People-Quit-ebook/dp/B0B627QGWB/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[vii] Dr. Mark Eley https://twitter.com/1atatym

[viii] What is a PLC by Martin Yan Sept. 25, 2020 https://www.illuminateed.com/blog/2020/09/what-is-a-plc/#:~:text=The%20term%20%E2%80%9CPLC%E2%80%9D%20stands%20for,DuFour%20%26%20Eaker%2C%202002).

[ix]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#87 Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/bonus-episode-a-deep-dive-into-the-top-5-health-staples-and-review-of-seasons-1-4/

[x]Dr. Tom O’Bryan You Can Fix Your Brain: Just 1 Hour a Week to the Best Memory, Productivity, and Sleep You’ve Ever Had https://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Fix-Your-Brain-audiobook/dp/B07GTBMFMH

Oct 05, 2022

01:08:40

Today we have a special BONUS episode on the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast with a very insightful backstory for how we came to meet our next guest. But first, if you are new here, my name is Andrea Samadi, and I’m a former educator who created this podcast to bring the most current neuroscience research, along with high performing experts who have risen to the top of their field, with specific strategies or ideas that you can implement immediately, whether you are an educator, or in the corporate space, to take your results to the next level. If we want to improve our social, emotional and cognitive abilities, it all starts with an understanding of our brain.

----------------BACKSTORY-----------------

I first heard our next guest on Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen’s Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast[i] right at the start of the Pandemic last May 2020 where I learned about a “Step 5 Process to Managing Trauma.” At the time of this interview, many people around me were just beginning to feel the stressors and pressure that this global pandemic was having on the world, and I began to pay attention to what this speaker was saying. I usually listen to my podcasts early morning and takes notes on my phone, and I began quickly writing what I was learning on this podcast.

This speaker caught my attention because she mentioned that she had spent 25 years in the in South Africa in the worst areas—working with local schools, and community centers where she would teach them about their brain and their mind, and her work had such an incredible impact on those around her, they would fill these rooms, with standing room only. I know what it takes to fill a room, coming from my work in the speaking industry, working closely with Bob Proctor Seminars, so I knew she had to be doing something outstanding to draw this much interest. This podcast episode ended and I went back to my usual work life and interviewing new speakers. At that time, I was referred to a publisher and was working with many of authors connected to this polisher (Corwin Press), and my interview schedule filled up through the summer, and I wasn’t looking for new guests, I was just trying to keep up with the demand to interview the ones I had in cue.

Then I had an email from one of my LinkedIn contacts, John Prucha[ii], from Atlanta, GA, who I heard from occasionally as he was enjoying the podcast episodes and often would send me his thoughts and feedback. One day he sent me a private message asking if I had considered reaching out to Dr. Carolyn Leaf[iii] for the podcast. At the time he sent me the message, I was swamped with the line-up of guests, but I do take all referrals seriously, and wrote down Dr. Leaf’s name on my desk. And went back to work as usual.

A couple of weeks later I was working on a Character Book that I am creating, and this time, I am doing the interior design of the book, instead of sending it to a publisher, and I was looking for some headings to go along with the lessons I was creating. For each Character Trait, like Attentiveness, I have created ways to learn this attribute, and had the heading THINK (with some tips on what to think about before studying how to become more attentive), LEARN (the actual lesson on attentiveness), TAKE ACTION (with an activity to implement attentiveness into your daily life) and I was searching for the last heading. What happens to people after they learn a new skill? When I don’t know the answer to something, I usually type it into Google and see what comes up. I typed in THINK, LEARN, and the FIRST thing to come up was a book called Think, Learn, Succeed: Understanding and Using Your Mind to Thrive at School, the Workplace and Life[iv] by Dr. Caroline Leaf! If you had been in my office, you would have seen me glance at the note on my desk as my brain processed, “Hey, wasn’t that the same person who John Prucha from LinkedIn asked me to contact?” Then I typed Dr. Leaf’s name into my notes, and there she was, on the Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast, so I put down what I was doing, and emailed her offices to request her as a guest on the podcast. I don’t believe in accidents, or that things happen by chance or luck. I believe that when there is an opportunity that we can easily miss it if we are not aware. I really should have reached out to Dr. Leaf the minute I knew of her background with education and the brain, which is the whole entire theme of this podcast, for those who have been following us. I did hear back from her offices, from someone named Jessica, who let me know that Dr. Leaf was currently swamped, but for me to reach back to her in January. Of course I put a note up on my calendar on my wall to contact Dr. Leaf then, and circled it so I wouldn’t forget.

And went on with my work and life, until I was contacted by Podbean, who hosts this podcast, to see if I could be interested in moderating an event that was coming up in November of 2020, called Wellness Week. I wrote back that I would love to do this and asked to learn more about the session I would be moderating. I received an email back that I would be running the session about Neuroscience, Mental Health and Coaching with John Kim, and….Dr. Caroline Leaf!

Of course I did a deep dive into Dr. Leaf’s work prior to that session, and loved every minute of speaking with her, learning more, taking more notes, and knowing that it would be so much fun to one day interview her face to face on The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast.

And today is that day.

World-renowned neuroscientist and best-selling author Dr. Caroline Leaf, is a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist with a Masters and PhD in Communication Pathology and a BSc Logopaedics, specializing in cognitive and metacognitive neuropsychology. Since the early 1980s she has researched the mind-brain connection, the nature of mental health, and the formation of memory. She was one of the first in her field to study how the brain can change (neuroplasticity) with directed mind input.

During her years in clinical practice and her work with thousands of underprivileged teachers and students in her home country of South Africa and in the USA, she developed her theory (called the Geodesic Information Processing theory) of how we think, build memory, and learn, into tools and processes that have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), learning disabilities (ADD, ADHD), autism, dementias and mental ill-health issues like anxiety and depression. She has helped hundreds of thousands of students and adults learn how to use their mind to detox and grow their brain to succeed in every area of their lives, including school, university, and the workplace.

Dr. Leaf is about to release her NEW book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: 5 Simple Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress and Toxic Thinking (March 2, 2021) where the solution is offered in five action-oriented steps called the Neurocycle, where she shares practical application and strategies for readers. Backed by clinical research and illustrated with compelling case studies, Dr. Leaf provides a scientifically supported plan to find and eliminate the root of anxiety, depression, and intrusive thoughts in reader’s lives so they can build a healthy new and automated neural network in 63 days, the length of time to properly build a new habit.

“I truly believe that mental mess is something we all experience often,” writes Dr. Leaf, “and that it isn’t something we should be ashamed of. This is my profession, and I still have to clean up my mind daily. The events and circumstances of life aren’t going anywhere; people make a lot of decisions every day that affect us all, suffering of some sort for you and your loved ones is inevitable. That said, I wholeheartedly believe that although the events and circumstances can’t be controlled, we can control our reactions to these events and circumstances. This is mind-management in action!”

Dr. Leaf leverages the strategies she has developed working with patients over the last 38 years to teach readers how to foster and cultivate the power of their own thinking and direct their own brain changes. Mind-management, when done correctly, helps facilitate talk between the conscious, the subconscious, and the nonconscious mind. This, in turn, gets brainwaves flowing in a healthy way, optimizing brain function. This is done by implementing the Neurocycle, a simple, clinically researched mind-management tool for personal use to address and ameliorate such warning signals as anxiety, depression, toxic thinking, inability to concentrate, irritability, exhaustion and burnout before they take over someone’s mind.

In CLEANING UP YOUR MENTAL MESS, you will learn:

What happens when we don’t use our minds properly Mind-management and why we need it How the 5 steps can help reduce anxiety and depression by up to 81% according to clinical studies Why mind-management is the solution to cleaning up your mental mess How the science can help us transition from being aware of toxic thoughts, to catching and managing them in their early stages How our thoughts physically affect ourselves and others How to capitalize on directed neuroplasticity using the Neurocycle To apply mind-management to unwire toxic habits and trauma How to leverage the lessons in the book for their daily lifestyle, including connection, brain-building, sleep, diet, exercise, people-pleasing, toxic perfectionism, overthinking, toxic emails and texts Why mindfulness is not enough and how strategic mind-management through the 5 steps can take a reader beyond mindfulness

You can order your copy of Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess[v] starting March 2nd (and pre-order your copy if you are listening to this podcast on March 1st).

Welcome Dr. Leaf, it’s such a pleasure to meet you face to face after working with you during Podbean’s Wellness Week for our session back in November last year.

Intro:

Dr. Leaf, before we get to the questions I have for you, I wanted to ask if you could give us a quick history of how you came to study the brain and how did you come to believe that if “we direct our mind, we can change our brain.” How did you set out to prove those 2 professors wrong who told you this concept was ridiculous?

My Thoughts: I first heard about the importance of studying the mind with Bob Proctor, who I worked for through his seminars for 6 years. I learned about the mind, the importance of positive thinking, and how we could change our conditions, circumstances, environment and results with the power of our thoughts. Schools/educators were not ready for this, so when I began working with schools, I had to change the word “mind” to “brain” to make what I was saying science based. Like you, I believe that with the right strategy, we can learn anything.

PART 1 of the BOOK “The Why and the How”

Q1: When we release this podcast episode, it will be the day before you NEW book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: 5 Simple Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress and Toxic Thinking comes out. This book takes the research you have done over the past 38 years and teaches us exactly how we can make the most of our mind and brain, taking us to new heights. Can you explain what our mind is, and what happens to it if we don’t keep our thoughts clean? What is the interconnected mind? What’s the difference between the mind and brain? Can we measure or see what “mind” is?

My Thoughts: On episode 23[vi], we take a close look at “Understanding the Difference Between the Mind and the Brain” with Dr. Daniel Siegel’s definition of the mind and brain. It’s a topic I’ve been interested in learning more about since learning of the importance of positive thinking from Bob Proctor in the late 1990s. I know that our thoughts control our conditions, circumstances, environment and results. I just never had the science to prove it, other than one person I met, Dr. Joesph Guan (Clinical Director at the Brain Enhancement Center in Singapore) who studied with Dr. Bruce Lipton[vii] said he saw machines (called SQUID machines) that could measure a positive and/or negative thought and prove how negative thinking caused poor results.

Q2: I know I heard you mention on your podcast with Dr. Amen that if we are anxious while eating, that our pancreas will not secrete the peptides needed to digest our food, just like the importance of our thinking on our telomeres/aging. What happens when we don’t use our minds correctly and have doubts and worries occupying our mind, like most of us do on a daily basis?

Q3: Listeners of this podcast all know of the importance of self-regulation with regards to our results, but these days, we seem to get hit with something new every week that makes positive thinking really difficult. Can you explain what your research suggests to be the best way to manage our minds during stressful times?

PART 2 of the Book, The Practical Application of the Neurocycle

Q4: I heard you speaking about this concept of using your brain to change negative thinking a few times before I really understood it. I heard it first on the Brain Warrior Way Podcast, then again on Ed Mylett’s podcast, and you went into detail about this strategy during our session on Wellness Week and I was furiously writing notes to understand this concept. I will link all of these episodes in the show notes for people to find, so you don’t have to go into detail, but can you explain the metaphor that you use of how our worries are like branches on a tree, with the goal of identifying FIRST what we are worrying about, pick one worry to fix, get a new perspective of this worry, and then actually get to the root cause or origin of our worry to eliminate it?

My thoughts: I downloaded the SWITCH app after watching the Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast again and have just started to work on one thing I worry about. After just one day, I am learning so much about why I think I worry about this one thing, and even just thinking/analyzing it, has helped. (Name it to tame it idea).

Q5: It seems that every day we have a new challenge to overcome and many of us our experiencing some sort of anxiety that can lead to depression which is completely normal.

How can we use neurocycling to build mental toughness, resiliency, or even emotional toughness to overcome how difficult times are these days?

Q6: How can we use these 5 steps to break bad habits and build good lifestyle habits?

Q7: How can we use these steps to detox from trauma or memories that we habitually play over in our minds—those Automatic Negative Thoughts?

Thank you very much Dr. Leaf for the years of research you have done in this field, for the books and resources you have created, and your Switch app where anyone can go and begin to immediately implement these ideas. For people who want to learn more about your work, is the best place https://www.cleaningupyourmentalmess.com/

If someone wants to purchase your book, out March 2nd 2021, I will put the links in the show notes.

Also, you have an incredible podcast, Cleaning Up the Mental Mess[viii] where you go into detail on using the neurocycle in specific areas of your life (most recently for reclaiming the loss of self and your identity).

Other than the NEW book, your APP, website and podcast, have I missed anything that people should see?

Thank you!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iii] https://drleaf.com/

RESOURCES:

Neuroscience Meets SEL Episode #106 with Andrea Samadi "Review of Dr. Leaf's Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess Book and App" https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/book-and-app-review-of-neuroscientist-and-best-selling-author-dr-caroline-leafs-cleaning-up-your-mental-mess-coming-march-2-20201/

What is Qeeg Brain Mapping https://www.mountainvistapsychology.com/qeeg/

REFERENCES:

[i] The 5-Step Process to Managing Trauma with Dr. Caroline Leaf on The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast Published on YouTube May 22, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_sHPAvOXh4&t=2661s

[ii] John Prucha, Graduate Student from Liberty University https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-p-2160661b2/

[iv]Think, Learn, Succeed: Understanding and Using Your Mind to Thrive at School, the Workplace and Life by Dr. Caroline Leaf (August 7, 2018) https://www.amazon.com/Think-Learn-Succeed-Understanding-Workplace/dp/0801093279

[v] Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess by Dr. Caroline Leaf (March 2, 2021) https://www.amazon.com/Cleaning-Your-Mental-Mess-Scientifically/dp/0801093457

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Episode #14 “Understanding the Difference Between the Mind and the Brain” https://www.achieveit360.com/understanding-the-difference-between-your-mind-and-brain/

[vii] Dr. Bruce Lipton https://www.brucelipton.com/

[viii] Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess Podcast with Dr. Leaf https://drleaf.com/pages/podcasts

Sep 30, 2022

00:15:12

“When I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the shame-based fear of being ordinary. I see the fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be loveable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose.” Brené Brown.

And when I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the spirit in that person, desperately trying to be seen for their talents, skills and abilities, but something keeps this person’s spirit in the shadows and I wonder what that is.

On today’s episode we will examine:

✔ Narcissism through the vulnerability lens

✔ What is narcissism and how is it diagnosed.

✔ What the narcissistic brain looks like.

✔ 3 STEPS to move you forward if you think you are a narcissist, if you live with one, or if you work with one.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to look at something I saw this past week about the narcissistic brain. We hear this word so often these days, thrown around when describing someone who is self-centered, someone who is unlikeable when they exclaim, “That person is such a narcissist!”

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is “a condition where people have an inflated sense of self-importance and a deep-seated need for attention and admiration. Those living with NPD show a distinct lack of empathy for the feelings and needs of others.”[i]

In writing this episode, I want to come from the “vulnerable” angle (like Brené Brown mentioned in her quote) and look at what we can learn about the brain of someone who meets at least 5 of the criteria for what we call narcissistic personality disorder.[ii] My goal with this episode is to help all of us to understand the “why” behind narcissism, a personality disorder that is not difficult to miss when you either work with, or live with someone who shows even a few of the criteria that’s needed for a clinical diagnosis.

American psychologist, and brain disorder specialist, Dr. Daniel Amen, from Amen Clinics, says that “6.2% of the American population has a narcissistic personality disorder” that often begins in early adulthood.

What’s interesting, is that “Psychologically speaking, narcissism is a personality trait that every person possesses to some degree. Like any characteristic, it exists on a spectrum. We all fall somewhere along the narcissistic continuum” and a certain amount of self-centeredness is healthy.”[iii]

While writing this episode, I remembered something sleep medicine physician, and sports psychiatrist Dr. Shane Creado from EP #72[iv] said to me when he analyzed my brain scan from Amen Clinics, and I went back to that episode #84[v] to look at what he saw. I remember he said something about my deep limbic system being the brightest part of my emotional brain and that he saw this area overactive in people who hold themselves to high standards. I wondered for a minute. Oh no, does this make me a narcissist? Curious, I sent him a text late last night to double check what he meant by that and he sent me a wonderful explanation this morning, affirming that narcissism is complex, and operates on a spectrum. He explained why we all need a certain amount of it, to be focused on our goals, or things that we want to achieve, which explained why he saw this area light up brightly with people who are perfectionists, like I tend to be with this podcast.

When releasing content out to the world, I have to be careful of what I say, and how I say it, especially when I’m interviewing someone, and what I create goes into the world for anyone to watch, and will become a reflection of that person from that moment on. I’m incredibly picky with how I produce my video interviews, (and will probably never outsource them) as I want to highlight that person in a certain way--in the brightest light possible, not just for that minute, but for the rest of their lifetime that the video is online, representing them. Thank goodness that the perfectionist in me doesn’t make me a narcissist, according to Dr. Creado, as this would be expected of anyone who wants to do their best on anything (a test, an interview, or whatever it is they are working on).

Where he cautioned me, was that if for some reason something doesn’t meet my high expectations, to watch that I don’t go down the path of self-doubt, shame, or guilt which would lead to depression. He reminded me that this topic is complex, and to be careful of taking a brain scan that “looks” a certain way, and then label of person because of it. He recommended credible personality testing to diagnose someone with a personality disorder, like the Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)[vi] that is one of the most researched psychological tests in existence. He did say this topic was complex, and I’m starting to see why.

So for this episode, I want to stay on the surface of this complex brain disorder, to see if we can improve our own awareness of the narcissistic brain—what the research sees in a brain with someone who has been diagnosed with this personality disorder, and what can we learn from this. Dr. Amen, from Amen Clinics[vii] where I had my brain scanned, has a section for understanding personality disorders on his website[viii], and notes that Narcissistic Personality Disorder is characterized by “an inflated sense of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a lack of empathy.”

He lists symptoms that include:

An exaggerated sense of self-importance A need for excessive and constant admiration A lack of empathy Being preoccupied with grandiose fantasies of unlimited success, money, or power A need to be recognized as superior or special and a belief that they can only keep company with people of equal exceptionalism A sense of entitlement to special treatment A tendency to exaggerate accomplishments or talents Manipulation or exploitation of others A belief that others are envious of them, while deep down being envious of others An arrogant, haughty, or demanding attitude

While this topic is complex, as Dr. Creado shared, there are many books that one can read to learn more about the different types of personality disorders that are on a spectrum, meaning that not all types are the same, for today’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to focus on a trait that is common to all types of narcissism, and that is that they lack empathy. When I saw this, my need to understand “why” came to my mind, as I thought, “why do some people not care about others?”

Which leads us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday where we can gain tremendous understanding with questions just like this, when we look at why people behave the way they do, and connect it, to the most current brain research.

DID YOU KNOW “that people who suffer from narcissistic personality disorder have less gray matter volume[ix] in a region of their brain believed to be involved with empathy”[x] and they also have “increased activity in baseline images in brain regions associated with self-directed and self-absorbed thinking.” Dr. Daniel Amen.

In the show notes I put an image of an fMRI scan that reveals the lower cortical thickness in the NPD brain vs a normal brain, as well as lower cortical volume, which explains why someone who has been diagnosed with this disorder would show impairments in the social brain.

WHY DO NARCISSISTS LACK EMPATHY?

It’s starting to make more sense to me now, almost like an AHA moment. When someone says “I don’t care” they really do mean it.

A closer look at the narcissistic brain can explain why.

SO NOW WHAT?

Dr. Amen, who has been on a mission to help people improve their health since he began looking at the brain back in 1991, now adds in a recent Instagram post with international DJ, producer and neuroscience fan, Steve Aoki[xi], that he’s on a mission to make brain health cool, and his clinic is where anyone can go to find answers. He states that what makes personality disorders complex is that “many environmental factors can impact brain function and lead to symptoms of mental illness” and he shares that he has seen “how environmental toxins (such as toxic mold) infections like Lyme Disease, extremely low thyroid, anemia, anoxia (lack of oxygen) and even chemotherapy can alter brain function and contribute to changes in someone’s personality.”[xii] Like Dr. Creado mentioned, since there are so many factors at play, it’s very important to investigate this disorder with someone who can perform a comprehensive evaluation that includes brain imaging, lab testing, and other assessments, and that we don’t jump to conclusions, and label someone as “bad” with this disorder. Looking at any disorder with the brain in mind puts a whole new perspective on our brain health, as we look to see beyond the behavior to what could be at the root of the problem.

Since I’m not a doctor, and a clinical diagnosis of this personality disorder is needed, the goal of this episode is to bring awareness to help all of us understand others that might show signs of this brain disorder whether it’s someone you work with, live with, interact with, or even (gasp) in ourselves.

How can we use this new understanding of the narcissistic brain to help us?

Go back and look at the list of symptoms that are present in this disorder, and see if there is someone in your life that is making your life challenging in some way, with this trait.

What can we do next?

1: BECOME CURIOUS TO LEARN MORE: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Use this new understanding of the narcissistic brain to learn more. As you gain more awareness, you also gain more confidence with how to deal with challenging or high conflict people in your home or work life. I could list all the books I have found, but jut type narcissism into Amazon, and you will find hundreds of books to help guide you to understand:

What is narcissism What causes it How it’s diagnosed Different types How to move beyond the damage

2: THINK WITH YOUR BRAIN HEALTH IN MIND: Even someone like high performance author and expert Brendon Burchard[xiii] noted that after an ATV accident, his personality changed dramatically, and he went straight to Amen Clinics to look for the reason behind the personality change, with his brain health in mind. The key is to look for what might be at the root of the personality change and not to rule out accidents, injuries, or environmental factors. When we look at our health with our brain in mind, we also look at the supplements we can take, or what else we can do to improve our health, outside of taking medication that’s often prescribed for someone when they don’t need it.

3: USE THE CURRENT RESEARCH TO BACK-CAST YOUR LIFE: Once you begin to look at something you want to learn more about (like this topic-The Narcissistic Brain) go deeper into the research to see what this could mean for you in the future. As I began to research the narcissistic brain, I started to learn that someone with this disorder is at higher risk for dementia.[xiv] If I had someone in my life that were showing signs of this disorder, I would be using the technique I learned from Peter Attia[xv] calls back casting, and think about what we want our life to be like as we age. I would also begin to research this topic from as many of the experts like Dr. Ramani[xvi], to see what other people in similar situations have gone through.

To review this week’s Brain Fact Friday,

DID YOU KNOW “that people who suffer from narcissistic personality disorder have less gray matter volume[xvii] in a region of their brain believed to be involved with empathy”[xviii] (Dr. Amen) and they also have “increased activity in baseline images in brain regions associated with self-directed and self-absorbed thinking.”

In this episode we looked at why someone with this disorder lacks empathy, with what science reveals with brain scan technology and my hope is not to label or shame someone who fits the wide spectrum of narcissism, but to open up our awareness and use this new understanding of The Narcissistic Brain to show us this issue is “biological, not moral” (Dr. Amen) and with this new understanding, help us to find new ways to move forward, and create more balance, peace and equilibrium in our everyday life.

This episode was created to help us to see why some people behave the way they do. Like Brene Brown said, this doesn’t make us naïve, but allows us to look past what some would call “bad behavior” and see the spirit or soul in every person. She reminds us--When we look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, we see the shame-based fear of being ordinary or the fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be loveable, to belong, which we can all understand on some level.

I hope this episode has helped you to see Narcissism in a new light, like it did for me, so we can all keep learning, and looking for the latest research to inform our decisions, thinking with brain health in mind.

I’ll see you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[vii] www.amenclinics.com

RESOURCES:

What’s Going on in a Narcissistic Brain? https://writemindmatters.medium.com/whats-going-on-in-a-narcissistic-brain-4ea5331b2696

Narcissists Lack of Empathy Detected on Brain Scans by Denise Chow June 24, 2013 narcissistic-personality-disorder-brain-structure.html">https://www.livescience.com/37684-narcissistic-personality-disorder-brain-structure.html

REFERENCES:

[i] The Neuroscience of Narcissism Published June 13, 2020 https://www.learnaboutdid.com/2020/06/13/the-neuroscience-of-narcissism/

[ii] Dr. Amen 5 Signs You Are in a Relationship with a Narcissist Oct. 16, 2019 https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/5-signs-youre-in-a-relationship-with-a-narcissist/

[iii] I’m a professor of human behavior and I have some news about the narcissist in your life by Melody Wilding, Published Nov. 14, 2018 https://www.businessinsider.com/narcissism-vs-narcissist-2018-11#:~:text=Psychologically%20speaking%2C%20narcissism%20is%20a,of%20self%2Dcenteredness%20is%20healthy.

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #72 with Dr. Shane Creado on “Sleep Strategies That Will Guarantee a Competitive Advantage” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-shane-creado-on-sleep-strategies-that-will-guarantee-a-competitive-advantage/

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #84 on “PART 3: How a Spect Scan Can Change Your Life” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-a-spect-scan-can-change-your-life-part-3-with-andrea-samadi/

[vi] The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) by Kendra Cherry Sept. 02, 2021 https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-minnesota-multiphasic-personality-inventory-2795582

[viii] https://www.amenclinics.com/conditions/personality-disorders/

[ix] Gray matter abnormalities in patients with narcissistic personality disorder Published October, 2013 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23777939/

[x] Dr. Amen 5 Signs You Are in a Relationship with a Narcissist Oct. 16, 2019 https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/5-signs-youre-in-a-relationship-with-a-narcissist/

[xi] Dr. Amen with International DJ Steve Aoki https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci_k8NhLrYN/?hl=en

[xii] Narcissistic Personality Disorder by Dr. Daniel Amen https://www.amenclinics.com/conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/

[xiii] What Brendon Burchard learned about 2 brain traumas https://www.instagram.com/p/BjP5NKFBawh/?hl=en

[xiv] From narcissistic personality disorder to frontotemporal dementia: a case report published by Michelle Poletti, 2011 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21606578/

[xv] Peter Attita https://twitter.com/PeterAttiaMD/status/1529823436196835329

[xvi] Narcissistic Relationships and Dementia Dr. Ramani Published May 13, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJMzDBJssGA

[xvii] Gray matter abnormalities in patients with narcissistic personality disorder Published October, 2013 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23777939/

[xviii] Dr. Amen 5 Signs You Are in a Relationship with a Narcissist Oct. 16, 2019 https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/5-signs-youre-in-a-relationship-with-a-narcissist/

Sep 23, 2022

00:37:12

"Heart rate variability has really come to the forefront in the last 40 years as being the most important biomarker for tracking health and recovery on a regular basis, and not just health and recovery, but resilience." (Neurohacker Collective)

Watch this interview here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8wbt2o-lO1I

It’s something we’ve covered on past episodes[i] including our most recent EP #228 where we reviewed Heart Rate Variability, what it is, why it’s important to track, with tips to increase it, for increased capacity throughout our day.

On this episode we will learn:

✔ How Rohan Dixit created a wearable device for stress relief, based on his own personal struggles.

✔ The ONE THING that most of us are missing when it comes to improving our mental health and well-being.

✔ How Rohan came across HRV in his research and why as a neuroscientist he looked outside of the brain for a solution for our mental health and well-being.

✔ REVIEW: What is HRV and why it is an important biomarker to measure.

✔ Why tracking HRV in real-time helpful for our mental well-being.

✔ How we can all improve our stress levels by looking at our data.

✔ What is biofeedback and how does it work?

✔ The most common ways to decrease our HRV, that we should all be aware of.

✔ The research behind HRV as a drug-free solution to stress and anxiety reduction.

✔ How to get started and receive 15% off your first month using the code ANDREA.

NOW IMAGINE THIS! What if you could see your HRV in real time throughout the day, so you know what’s helping this important score, or hurting it? We will cover this on today’s episode as we meet with Rohan Dixit, the founder of Lief Therapeutics (a wearable stress relief device) that’s designed to help us to overcome stress and worry from the inside out. Stay tuned and we’ll explain how this ground-breaking device can help ALL OF US to improve our health, as we learn self-regulation strategies using the device, that will eventually become a habit, showing us how to break free of anything that might be holding us back.

On today’s episode #248, we will be speaking with Rohan Dixit, the founder of Lief Therapeutics, to see if we can sharpen our saw with our understanding of HRV, a biomarker that’s known for tracking health and recovery as well as resilience. What I think is absolutely incredible with this wearable stress relief device, is that you’ll see that the point of wearing this device, is to train us to breathe in a certain way to relieve our stress, anxiety and worry (that it will pick up) and then help to calm us down, so we won’t need to rely of the device.

Rohan’s mission is not about the money he could make with the device, but truly about helping people to be able to manage their own problems, without the use of medicine, or pills, or those things we do that we know relieve stress in the short term, but are bad for our overall health in the long term. I can’t wait to speak with Rohan Dixit, and explore the technology he created in his garage, (he’s a real Steve Jobs story) and the idea was based on his own personal struggles with anxiety and depression when he was younger, that he overcame, and then used his experience to help others. Let’s meet Rohan Dixit, the founder of Lief Therapeutics, and see how this device works, to improve our mental health and wellbeing from the inside out.

Welcome Rohan, it’s incredible to meet you after wearing the device you invented and now I have this incredible opportunity to ask YOU questions about it. This is amazing. Thank you for joining me today.

I’m wearing mine today, and curious, do you wear yours every day or have you gotten the point to where you can self-regulate without it?

INTRO: To start off, Rohan, I had a blast researching your work, and am so glad I listened to you on The Abstract Doctors Podcast[ii] because I tend to more on the serious side, and could lighten up my interviews to make them more fun/less stressful and as I was learning more about you, I was dying laughing with these two doctors covering your Lief Device. They were asking why it’s called Lief, and they were guessing “it’s about turning over a new leaf?” Why is it called Lief?

Then I watched your clip of the Today Show[iii] with Hoda and Savanna trying out your device, and I thought, wow, I take learning and this podcast a bit too seriously because they were having such a good time investing the high stress parts of their day. Since you are an expert at helping people relieve stress, I wonder what tips you would have for me or anyone else these days who spends most of their day sitting at a desk? What are most of us missing that could help us handle life’s pressures/stresses better?

Q1: I know there has to be a story here of how you came to be the founder of Lief Therapeutics that is focused on helping people to overcome stress and worry from the inside out. Where did this begin for you?

Q2: Where did you come across HRV, and is there really a story like Steve Jobs where you started this whole idea in your garage?

Q3: Can you give me YOUR definition of HRV for the lay person who is tuning in, and has no idea what it is? (We have talked about it often on this podcast but I recently reviewed it when I became stuck explaining it to someone else).

Q4: Tracking HRV in real time is such an incredible idea. I track with a device that gives me a daily score and I wake up dying to see my score, hoping for improvements as I’m working on certain strategies. Why would someone need to know their HRV levels throughout certain parts of their day? How does this help them? I think I heard you say this knowledge is like our “superpower!” What do you mean by that?

Q4B: Is the strap for athletes who might need to measure their HRV during play?

Q5: So I wrote your questions BEFORE trying out the device and wanted to add a snapshot of my work day, to see what you see with my bar graph. I had an important LIVE presentation on Monday morning that I practiced all weekend for, and wore the Lief device thinking it would show how calm I was under pressure. Then the unexpected happened and I had 2 major unforeseen tech issues that really threw me off. I’d like to know If you look at my Monday morning, what do you see but I want to guess and see if I have the right idea of this first?

This is what I see: I started out calm (green) which is the 60th-80th percentile and then as the time for the presentation came closer, I went into yellow, lowering my HRV to 20-40th percentile, most of the time presenting was yellow, with some RED (o-20th percentile) that happened about the time of the tech issue, and I ended up back to GREEN. While I was hoping to show you all GREEN with my morning, I can see that I had some moments of stress, but when something goes wrong, and we need to think and troubleshoot our way out of problems, I think this was me at yellow, thinking and not shut down in RED. What do you see with these colors?

Q6: Now that we’ve talked about Lief measures, I wonder How exactly does the device work? What is this idea of biofeedback, and why are the sensors so important?

6B: What should we be looking for? We have already talked about the bar graph at the top of the dashboard that shows our HRV in real time. I put my WEEK 1 and WEEK 2 of using the device in the show notes to look at. Just glancing at my week 1 vs week 2, I can see my range improved from 46-55 (week 1) to 52-61 week 2, going from 65% success to 72% success. What should everyone be looking for in their first few weeks of using Lief to know that we are in fact showing an improvement?

Q7: Have you ever done experiments like I’ve seen people do with glucose monitors, and look to see what are a few of the most common ways to increase your stress and decrease HRV?

Q7B: I’ve been tracking my HRV and RHR with a different device since I heard Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast on the effects of alcohol on our brain and body[iv], and after I heard how bad it is for us, I don’t think I’ll ever drink alcohol again. After stopping this toxin, I’m watching my HRV skyrocket up. After 2 weeks, my HRV went from 76 to 84 and after a month it’s jumped up to the 90s. I know it’s clear that alcohol impacts our HRV, giving us less capacity to handle stress throughout our day, but what else have you noticed affects us in this drastically? (sleep, diet, hydration I’m sure…anything surprising you’ve seen)?

Q8: What’s involved for individuals who want to try it out, as well as health care providers? Do people just click on the link you provided for our listeners to get started?

Q9: What research backs this drug-free solution to stress and anxiety[v]?

Q10: I know this is way too many questions, but if I make them fun, I’m sure you won’t mind answering them! Is there anything important I have missed?

Thank you, Rohan, for sharing your groundbreaking program for us. For people who want to learn more, I do hope they will click on the affiliate link and test the device out, like I did, and see what they notice.

I noticed a difference on the first day of using the device and it was surprising to me that it picked up times of my day where I felt anxiety (like before I go to sleep) and didn’t realize it. I think the Lief device is an incredible solution for anyone who is anxious about something, to help to train themselves to calm down, and self-regulate without the need for drugs, or alcohol that we know is bad for our brain. Thank you again Rohan for coming on the podcast, and for your time today.

Some Final Thoughts on This Episode:

As we close out this episode, I wanted to let you know that Rohan and I chatted a bit at the end, after we finished recording. It became clear to me that he had created this device, and coaching to help others, and it’s NOT about the money. From the product creation side, we do need money to sustain our business, so it’s not going to be free, obviously. If you click on the link, it will take you to a page to get started. The device costs $49/month and the coaching is $50/month for a total of $107.95/month which at first glance can seem like it’s high. I thought about this before trying it out, and what I would say to others who might also want to try it. If you’ve ever gone to therapy for a problem you’ve had, I know I’ve paid much more than this, in addition to doctor visits for our health and wellness, so I think about this device to be like training wheels to help us to use HRV as a biomarker, that will make us more resilient to stress, once we’ve learned to breathe in a way that the device shows will calm us down, and the coaching will help with all the questions, and data analysis to be sure you are going in the right direction. Once you’ve got the hang of controlling your HRV through breath work, you shouldn’t need to use this device.

I hope this has helped you, like it did for me, to see there are tools and resources in the world that can help us to improve our resilience to stress. If you want to try the device, just go to www.getlief.com and use ANDREA at checkout to receive 15% off your first month. If you have any questions for me, please don’t hesitate to send me an email[vi].

TO TRY THE DEVICE

Go to www.getlief.com

Put the code ANDREA in at checkout to receive 15% off your first month at checkout.

FOLLOW ROHAN DIXIT

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohan-dixit-5453a833/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/getlief

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getlief/?hl=en

Website: www.getlief.com

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

Richard Gevirtz https://www.alliant.edu/faculty/richard-gevirtz

REFERENCES:

[i][i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #228 Review of Heart Rate Variability https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-review-of-heart-rate-variability-the-most-important-biomarker-for-tracking-health-recovery-and-resilience/

[ii] Abstract Doctors Podcast with Rohan Dixit https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e6-rohan-dixit/id1534778814?i=1000532292468

[iii] How Stressed do Hoda Kotb and Savanna Guthrie Get Over 24 Hours? April 11, 2018 https://www.today.com/video/how-stressed-do-hoda-kotb-and-savannah-guthrie-get-over-24-hours-1208201283672

[iv] Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Podcast on “What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain and Health” https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain-health/ (37:39 alcohol and cortisol).

[v]Pilot Study on Reducing Symptoms of Anxiety with a Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Wearable and Remote Stress Management Coach https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10484-021-09519-x?wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst&utm_source=ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst&utm_medium=email&utm_content=AA_en_06082018&ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst_20210726

[vi] Send Andrea any questions about her experience using the Lief Device to andrea@achieveit360.com

Sep 15, 2022

00:13:05

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

On this episode we will cover:

✔ Brain Fact: DID YOU KNOW THAT "95% of the decisions we make take place in our subconscious mind?" (Deane Alban).

✔ A review of EP #207 with Greg Link with his tips to INTENTIONALLY create a legacy, reading a book a week.

✔ Applying the 7 Levels of Awareness to our Daily Life to Be INTENTIONAL With the Life We Create.

✔REMINDER: To see and recognize the "spirit" in everyone.

What does this mean to you? On today’s episode we will be diving into this quote…to see how much of our life we really do have control over. At the end of this episode I hope to show that with being intentional about every action we are taking, that we don’t leave anything up to chance, and that we can in fact, create an exciting life, and future, without relying on chance or luck, and there’s magic in the creation process, that illuminates the fact that there’s much more to who we are. I am not just my name, Andrea Samadi (or the human being you see), there’s a spiritual side to me, and there’s a spiritual side to you. Do you see it? Do you see the spiritual side in others? Once you see it, you won’t be able to see anything else, and I hope we can all begin to see the “spirit” in each other.

With that in mind, for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to go back to EP #207[i] with my dear friend Greg Link, the cofounder of CoveyLink who worked directly with Dr. Stephen Covey for many years, with our episode on “Unleashing Greatness with Neuroscience, SEL, Trust and the 7 Habits.” On this episode, Greg opened up with the quote I read at the start of this episode, from his back porch in Sedona, Arizona, reminding me just how much the 7 Habits connected to the brain, social and emotional learning and to this magical thing we call life. It was an extraordinary opportunity to speak with Greg on this day, as he hadn’t spoken publicly for almost a decade, since I saw him last, and when I got the prompting to ask him to come on the podcast, there was no way I was going to ignore it, or worry about whether he would say no, or not.

Just a reminder, for those who haven’t listened to episode #207 (go back and check it out—here’s the link to the YouTube interview[ii]) but I met Greg Link when I worked in the motivational speaking industry, when he was brought to help some of the speakers to gain more traction, and solve some of their problems with his experiences. Greg had recently skyrocketed Dr. Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book that sold over 40 million copies since its first publication, and many leaders in the industry were looking to learn from his success. On this episode, Greg gave us a running list of the books that influenced his life, and urged us to do the same to leave a powerful legacy behind.

As we are now in the final weeks of Q3 in 2022, I’ve focused the past few Brain Fact Fridays on Building a Stronger 2.0 version of ourselves, so we can all get a running start to 2023, and when I was interviewing Greg Link, I knew it was going to be an epic interview that I would refer back to often. I just didn’t know how powerful it was going to be at the time, but looking back now, connecting the dots backwards, after just a few months, this episode now has over 1100 downloads. I knew after we recorded that episode that I’d need to do a follow up and be sure to highlight his Legacy Building Activity.

With that in mind, for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to take a closer look at HOW exactly we take control of our life, how do we build a stronger 2.0 version of ourselves in pursuit of whatever it is we are doing, and leave a meaningful legacy for others to learn from?

How do we do this when we know from this week’s Brain Fact that “95% of our decisions take place in our subconscious mind?” (Deane Alban)[iii]

How can we be sure that we create the future that we want, and help others to do the same, and leave a meaningful legacy, when most of our decisions are made subconsciously?

To build a stronger, 2.0 version of ourselves, intentionally, I’m going to follow Greg Link’s advice from our interview, and keep learning, reading and shaping who I am, since “learning is an active process (where me must learn to access it) at the right moment and apply it in real world contexts.” (Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Professor of Education, Psychology and Neuroscience) who joined us on EP #100.[iv]

When we can see the power that each of us holds, (our spiritual side) we should ALL be capable of doing whatever it is that we want to do, by putting our minds to work, rolling up our sleeves, and intentionally creating something out of nothing with time and effort.

In our interview, Greg suggested that in order to leave a legacy that you are proud of, why not document the books you read, or the people you have studied, that took you to where you are today. His suggestion was so powerful, that I immediately contacted Julie Porter, a good friend of Horacio Sanchez, our 3rd time returning guest from EP #111[v] and asked if she could create a graphic of Greg’s book list, with the top lessons he’s learned in his career, to inspire others to do the same. You can review the image in the show notes, and I’ve also put a link to it in the resource section if you want to print a copy.

To Review Greg Link’s Interview Take-Aways:

He talked about:

How “we are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience” He challenges us to all read a book a week and then ponder, contemplate, and connect the dots with what you are reading. This will inspire you and “people who are inspired are 52% more productive than those who are engaged.” This will help you to “Find your voice, and then help others to find theirs.” (8th Habit). We captured the 22 books that Greg mentioned inspired him on the graphic Julie created for us in the show notes, and he also listed other notable authors he’s learned from. Reminding us that “you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will connect in the future” with whatever it is you are doing. He talked about Jack Canfield’s idea of taking “inspired action” and to listen to those promtings as you never know where they will lead you. Have you ever had a gut feeling to reach out to someone, maybe someone you haven’t spoken to in years? I never ignore those promptings! Then he told us about Dr. Stephen Covey’s advice that “you’ve got to carry your own weather with you. You are bigger than your weather” which came from Greg’s story of how he almost didn’t go to work with Dr. Covey in the beginning because he would have to work in Utah, after he’s been enjoying the wonderful climate in San Diego, CA for some time. He ended up following Dr. Covey’s advice, and went back and forth between the two states to make this work. Finally, Greg talked about the many connections between the 7 Habits, SEL and neuroscience. They are there when you look for them.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION: WITH THE 7 LEVELS OF AWARENESS

Greg Link built a powerful empire, that he credits to his wife Annie, who saw the vision before he did, and listened to the many promptings they both received. He documented his career for us to all learn from, with the books that inspired his path, and encouraged us to do the same.

So, if “95% of our decisions take place in our subconscious mind” I don’t know about you, but I want to be sure that I’m being intentional with the actions I’m creating, to push me forwards, rather than backwards.

To do this, I will continue with reading as close to a book a week as I can get, and share what I’m learning with you on this podcast. But there’s something else I think we can all do, to be intentional with our growth and this included being aware of the 7 LEVELS OF AWARENESS.

Are you aware of them? They are the 7 stages of consciousness in a person’s life, showing the progression from where we all start out (knowing nothing), to where we begin to express our own talents, abilities and individuality. We can either ignore our own special talents, (or our spirit) or we can with discipline, step out and become someone great, unique, inspirational (like Greg, or others I have studied and have show cased on this podcast).

These 7 stages of consciousness can be seen often expressed in music,[vi] psychology,[vii] or even the arts where you see the progression a person takes over the span of their lifetime, towards mastery, or internal wisdom/enlightenment.

To close out this week’s Brain Fact Friday, where we looked at how “95% of our decisions take place in our subconscious mind” (Deane Alban) I wanted to highlight the activity that Greg Link shared with us so that we don’t leave anything up to chance or luck. Keep moving confidently towards your goals, studying, learning and growing and think about where you are in the 7 Levels of Awareness.

The 7 Levels of Awareness: Where are you?

We all begin at the same place:

Survival at the bottom of Barrett’s chart, or the Animal level on the second chart I took from my notes from my days working in the seminar industry. Many people get stuck in this “non-thinking” state where they are not contributing to society. No one wants to be at this bottom level, so they aspire for more.

Each diagram shows how we can move up towards Mastery, where we step out into the world, with our unique talents, contributing something to society, with our knowledge.

It’s the middle steps where our transformation occurs. As we progress up these levels of awareness, as we aspire to be and do more with our lives, our relationships strengthen, along with our self-esteem, and we begin to express our individual talents and abilities, stepping away from the crowd. Once we take action towards our goals, discipline will keep us on track, along with time, effort, study and experience. Stay in the game….until you look up one day, and you realize you are doing the thing that existed only in your dreams. After a lot of experience, you’ve now hit the Mastery, or Sage level where you’ve acquired wisdom, and now, like Greg Link did with his book list, it’s up to us to share what we’ve learned with others, so that we can help others move past these lower levels of awareness, and intentionally create a life of contribution that they can look back on, at the end of their life, and be proud of.

We must control our own destiny, or someone else will!!

I hope this episode has got you thinking about how unique each of are (the spiritual side that we all have) along with how we can all further develop our unique talents and abilities by reading a book a week like Greg Link suggested and then compiling our list of 20 books to share, to create our legacy, and move up the 7 levels of awareness towards mastery where we will be living a purpose-filled life, contributing our special and unique talents and abilities with the world.

That seems to be the meaning of life to me…I’ll see you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

Greg Link’s 22 Book List Graphic https://www.dropbox.com/s/62cw8ab2kt8ixof/Andrea_Samadi_091222%20%281%29.png?dl=0

Julie Porter on Twitter https://twitter.com/JuliePorterEC

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #207 with Greg Link on “Unleashing Greatness with Neuroscience, SEL, Trust and the 7 Habits.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/co-founder-of-coveylink-greg-link-on-unleashing-greatness-with-neuroscience-sel-trust-and-the-7-habits/

[ii] Andrea Samadi Interviews Greg Link Published on YouTube April 1, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCRjLyCKE40

[iii] Deane Alban, 72 Amazing Human Brain Facts Based on the Latest Science https://sdbif.org/72-amazing-human-brain-facts-based-on-the-latest-science/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #100 with Professor Mary Helen Immordion-Yang on “ The Neuroscience of Social and Emotional Learning” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/professor-mary-helen-immordino-yang-on-the-neuroscience-of-social-and-emotional-learning/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #111 with Horacio Sanchez on “Finding Solutions to the Poverty Problem” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/resiliency-expert-and-author-horacio-sanchez-on-finding-solutions-to-the-poverty-problem/

[vi] 7 Stages of Consciousness depicted in the 1976 Album L’Heptade https://www.discogs.com/release/1887068-Harmonium-Lheptade

[vii]Richard Barrett’s Seven Levels of Consciousness https://www.discogs.com/release/1887068-Harmonium-Lheptade

Sep 13, 2022

00:48:31

“Like Martin Luther King, I have a dream. I dream that someday all teachers will teach students how to think rather than make them think. I dream that all students will understand how their brains work and use the knowledge to be successful and excel in whatever endeavor they choose.” Arizona School Administrator, Jeff Kleck

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/2pDRrOOcX5s

On this episode we will learn:

✔ About the educator who inspired Andrea to move in the direction of neuroscience in 2014.

✔ How he became interested in neuroscience, introducing Andrea to Carol Dweck and David A. Sousa.

✔ The moment of truth when Jeff met Andrea and gave her feedback that changed the direction of her work.

✔ How to handle criticism, and move forward even when it's difficult to hear.

✔ After 40 years in education, Jeff Kleck shares brain-based strategies he's used with students, athletes and his own children.

Our guest today is someone I’ve mentioned often on this podcast, but one day, I realized that I know very little about the person who encouraged me to pivot in the direction of neuroscience, back in 2014. Every interview I’ve ever done, someone always asks me “How did you end up doing a podcast on the topic of neuroscience?” and I tell the same story about how an educator urged me to go in this direction many years ago. I’m very intentional about the people I ask to come on the podcast. They are usually someone who is making an impact in the field of health, wellness, and education in some way, or has had an impact on my direction, and the work I’ve been doing over the years and while creating the questions for Dr. Ginger Campbell, who’s well known for her podcast Brain Science[i], I stopped to think for a moment about how on the earth I ended up where I am today and I thought about our next guest. I never ignore those flashes of insight that interrupt me while working, as the connections I’ve made over the years are the only reason I am here today, working in this field of educational neuroscience, and so very passionate about it, with the incredible opportunity to think, learn and create every day.

And I wouldn’t have had the courage to move in the direction of Neuroscience, without the guidance of our next guest, Jeff Kleck,[ii] who is now the principal at Valley Christian School in Phoenix. I look forward to talking neuroscience with Jeff, someone I’ve not seen since he helped me to create my second book, Level Up: A Brain-Based Strategy.

On today’s episode #246, we’ll be speaking with Jeff Kleck, and see if I can fill in the blanks of where his passion for neuroscience began, what he’s doing now to help educators understand how their brain impacts learning, and what he thinks of the future of educational neuroscience in our schools, sports and workplace environments. Let’s welcome my mentor to this field of educational neuroscience, Jeff Kleck.

Intro: Welcome Jeff! It’s incredible to see you again. Was it 2014 when we met last? Maybe 2015? Somewhere back then…

Jeff, I reached out to you, as I mention in the back story that I never ignore those flashes of insight that come while working, and I was writing Dr. Ginger Campbell’s interview questions, and for a moment, I was stumped. How on the earth did I get here, asking the host of the top neuroscience podcast questions for an upcoming interview. For a minute, I was just blown away, because you’ll remember that day we met in your office, and you were handing me all these books off your bookshelf for me to read, I knew absolutely nothing about this topic. First off, I want to let you know how grateful I am that you presented me with this opportunity to learn more about the brain.

Q1: Can we begin with where YOUR interest in neuroscience began?

Why did you have all those books on your book shelf, and I know you gave me a ton of your hand-written notes and research to get started. Where did this interest begin for you?

Q1B: I’ll never forget you telling me to research Carol Dweck[iii]. I wrote her name on the back on a piece of paper, and her Mindset book took off in our schools after you had mentioned her work. I’m curious, who you are you studying now?

Q2: If you think back to that day where we met in your office, and you gave me all of those books (I still have them all, one set is behind me) I know that you were really trying to help me, or I know you wouldn’t have given me so much content to give me a running start. What do you remember about having to provide feedback about the direction I was going, that no one wants to say, but your feedback ended up being a huge turning point for me?

Q3: One of the books you gave me was David A. Sousa’s How the Brain Learns Series by Corwin Press. I can’t even tell you how much this series impacted the work I’ve been doing since we met. I’ve interviewed Dr. Sousa (twice), have met many other Corwin Press authors, worked on projects with other companies with these authors and have used what I learned from Dr. Sousa to help my youngest daughter who needed new strategies to help her with reading comprehension. A huge thank you for that but I remember opening that book, and seeing all these charts about the brain, and memory, I almost thought that learning neuroscience was going to be too difficult for me. How are you approaching this topic with your teachers now, and do you receive any pushback on the topic at all? (does anyone talk about the reading wars—science vs whole language point of view)?

Q4: I know you’ve been wearing the hat of an educator for most of your years (working in the admin side) but I wonder, when you took off this hat, and switch to being a student, what is something that you have learned over the years about the brain that has helped you?

4B: Did you use what you know about the brain with your children when you were raising them?

4C: What strategies did you use for athletes as a football coach?

Q5: What’s your vision for educational neuroscience in the future? What do you think will help our students in the classroom, athletics and even when they move into College and their future careers?

Q6: Is there anything important that I have missed?

Jeff, I want to thank from the bottom of my heart for coming on this podcast today to share your passion and vision for neuroscience in our classrooms of the future. I know I would not be doing what I’m doing today without your influence, and I’ll be forever grateful for that.

I do hope that you publish something someday to document everything you’ve learned on this topic over the years and if you do, please do come back on the podcast to share it.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://brainsciencepodcast.com/

RESOURCES:

How the Brain Influences Behavior by David A. Sousa https://us.corwin.com/sites/default/files/upm-assets/26266_book_item_26266.pdf

REFERENCES:

[ii] https://valleychristianaz.org/team/jeff-kleck/

[iii] Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Published Feb. 28, 2006 https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck-ebook/dp/B000FCKPHG/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1662756061&sr=8-1

Sep 08, 2022

00:08:00

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I’m Andrea Samadi, and launched this podcast just over 3 years ago, with a vision to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and help all of us (whether we are a teacher in the classroom, or in the modern workplace) to understand the most current brain research, and how to use it, for improved productivity and results.

On this episode we will cover:

✔ That we are all unique and our brain makes us this way. (Chantel Prat, Ph.D) ✔ If we want to change ourselves in any way, this change must involve our brain. (Chantel Prat, Ph.D). ✔ We can change our brain for the better, by repeatedly taking action towards our goals, and strengthening our “roads” or neural pathways. ✔ We can also change our brains for the worse. (Dr. Andrew Huberman) ✔ As human beings, our job is to help people realize how rare and valuable each of us really is. (Chatel Prat, Ph.D).

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to leverage off something we’ve been talking about on the past few episodes, that we are all unique, and our brain makes us this way with “a pattern of connectivity as unique as our fingerprints.” (Deane Alban).

Have you ever wondered “what makes you unique from others? Or why you do things a certain way?” I certainly have wondered this, and I think back to the days I worked in the motivational speaking industry and when discussing how change occurs, we went straight to the importance of understanding our paradigms, or habitual behavior and that if we want to experience change, we would need to change these habits, that began with changing our thoughts, feelings and actions, to attain the newly desired results. But now I see that there’s a simple answer to why we are unique, or do things in a certain way.

I recently came across Chantel Prat’s book, The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours[i] and I thought back to last week’s Brain Fact Friday, and EP 244[ii] where we looked at how we are all unique, and it’s our brain that makes us this way, and I wondered what we could learn from Chantel’s book, that just came out last month, to help us to figure out who we are, with our brain in mind. I haven’t finished reading her book yet, but the answer to “why we do what we do” stems from the fact that “my brain makes me this way.” (location 34, The Neuroscience of You, Prat).

Prat tells the story of when she first realized this to be true, when she took a course that described the famous story of Phineas Gage, who was a railway worker who made an error that caused an iron spike to blast through his left cheek and out the top of his head, and this essentially changed the personality of Phineas Gage.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I’m taking this AHA moment from Chantel Prat’s The Neuroscience of You to help us to understand ourselves on a deeper level.

“If you change your brain, you change the person.”

I could think about this one for the next year! I’m always looking for ways that we can improve our productivity and results, (and change ourselves for the better) and it would make sense to me that if we want to change ourselves in any way, that this change must take place in the brain, which will change the person.

How exactly do we change our brain?

Chantel Prat tells us that we can soak our brain in cortisol by increasing our stress levels, and this in fact will change our brain. But that’s not the change I’m looking for. Or we can shrink our brain with the research that Dr. Andrew Huberman[iii] provided for us on his eye-opening podcast episode on “What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain and Health” which is also not the answer I was looking for. Or we can repeatedly take certain actions to strengthen the neural pathways or “roads” in our brain, and with time, these pathways strengthen, making whatever we are learning simpler, and easier to perform. This is getting closer to the change I’m hoping we all can attain. When we do something over and over again, eventually we will change our brain in the process, like the London taxi drivers, whose memory center, or the hippocampus in their brain, was significantly larger due to the mental workout they get while navigating the 25,00 streets of London.

So, for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to stop and think for a moment about how each person we interact with, has a brain that’s unique from ours. We can go all the way back to EP #168[iv] where Dr. Bruce Perry taught us that our brains are different based on our life’s experiences, or “What’s happened to us” and rather than judging someone who is different than we are, to work on getting to that place of understanding with each person we interact with.

Dr. Ginger told us on EP#243[v] that the biggest AHA moment of learning she’s had in all the years of covering Brain Science on her podcast, was that we are all different, and perceive the world in different ways, and that if we could embrace each other’s differences, the world would have less conflict and be a better place.

Chantel Prat said the same thing in her book, The Neuroscience of You when she said, “As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has, or ever will have.”

We are all unique and our brain makes us this way.

When you look at people (your co-workers, your friends, family members) what do you see? Do you see the “spirit” in each person, like Dr. Gervais talked about on EP #214[vi] on her book, The Spirit of Work where she connected science and business for a happier, more productive workplace, by making sure we all saw the “spirit” or uniqueness of each individual?

REVIEW and CONCLUSION

To review and close out this week’s Brain Fact Friday

We are all unique and our brain makes us this way. (Prat)

If we want to change ourselves in any way, whether it’s to attain new results, or become a new person, it will involve change at the level of our brain.

We can change our brain for the better, by repeatedly taking action towards our goals, and strengthening our “roads” or neural pathways.

We can also change our brains for the worse.

As human beings, our job is to help people realize how rare and valuable each of us really is. (Prat)

I don’t have all the answers yet and maybe I’ll know more after I finish reading The Neuroscience of You, but I think it’s fascinating to see how we have the ability to become an entirely different person, just from changing our brains.

And we can make this change from learning and applying something new, growing our brain, and changing ourselves in the process.

Like I mentioned with Ryan O’Neill, from EP #203[vii] who changed into an entirely different person in front of my eyes as he worked hard and steady, in the Paranormal Research field.

What do you think?

Can you see this change I’m talking about? (in yourself and others)?

With that thought, I’ll close out this week, and see you next week, and hope that we all keep learning, improving and changing…for the better.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] The Neuroscience of You: How Every Brain is Different and How to Understand Yours by Chantel Pratt, Ph.D published August 2, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Neuroscience-You-Every-Different-Understand/dp/1524746606

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #244 “Using Neuroscience to Change Our Perception” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-using-neuroscience-to-change-our-perception/

[iii] Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Podcast on “What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain and Health” https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain-health/ (37:39 alcohol and cortisol).

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #168 with Dr. Bruce Perry and Steve Graner on “What Happened to You” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-bruce-perry-and-steve-graner-from-the-neurosequential-network-on-what-we-should-all-know-about-what-happened-to-you/

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #243 with Dr. Ginger Campbell, MD on “Exploring Brain Science for Career and Life Success” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-ginger-campbell-md-on-exploring-brain-science-for-career-and-life-success/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #214 with Dr. Marie Gervais on “The Spirit of Work” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/marie-gervais-phd-on-the-spirit-of-work-connecting-science-business-practices-and-sacred-texts-for-a-happier-and-more-productive-workplace/

[vii][vii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #203 with Paranormal Researcher Ryan O’Neill on “Making Your Vision a Reality” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/case-study-with-paranormal-researcher-ryan-o-neill-on-making-your-vision-a-reality/

Sep 01, 2022

00:11:57

“If we have very strong beliefs about something, evidence to the contrary could be sitting right in front of us, but we may not see it because what we perceive is entirely different.” (Dr. Joe Dispenza, speaker, researcher and author who is passionate about the fields of neuroscience, epigenetics, and quantum physics, pushing the limits of possibility).

On this episode we will cover:

✔ How to change our perceptions, or what we believe, using the most current brain research.

✔ That we each have a pattern of connectivity in our brain as unique as our fingerprint.

✔ How each person, with a unique brain, learns and behaves differently, based on how it's wired.

✔ 2 Strategies to improve health, well-being, productivity and resiliency, by measuring your personal fitness metrics.

✔The importance of accepting other people's differences.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I’m Andrea Samadi, and launched this podcast just over 3 years ago, with a vision to bridge the gap between theory and practice, with strategies, tools and ideas we can all use immediately to take what we know (our current knowledge) and apply what we know to the most current brain research for new results, and heightened productivity in our schools, sports environments and modern workplaces. Like Dr. Dispenza, I believe in pushing the limits of what’s possible, and hope this podcast helps those who tune in, to do the same.

As I’m writing this episode, it’s September 1st and I can’t believe how fast time flies. If we think back to the start of this year[i], we looked at how to make 2022 our best year ever, with what will we change, or do differently this year, to attain NEW results and I wonder, have YOU “thought in a wildly different way than you previously have been to get to the next level of what YOU are doing?” (Grant Cardone). If the answer is YES, then congratulations, you’re well on your way to new conditions and circumstances in 2023, but if the answer is “not yet” then let’s see what else we can do, together, using neuroscience to challenge our perceptions and change our old habits and behaviors, for new results, with our health in mind.

Changing our Perceptions, of What We Believe:

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, and EPISODE #244, I wanted to look at how exactly we create behavior change, using science to challenge our old beliefs. How can we change our perception or what we believe? To do this, we will go deeper into EP #239, where we looked at “Building a Stronger 2.0 Version of Ourselves”[ii] where we picked something that we wanted to change, with the bigger picture of what this change would mean, using our motivation based on our values, holding our focus on what we wanted to change, with a 90-day plan to make this change stick.

But, what if we see the evidence, (we know that whatever it is we want to change is bad for us), we really want the change, but there’s nothing compelling enough for us to make this change, like Dr. Dispenza’s quote said.

“If we have very strong beliefs about something, evidence to the contrary could be sitting right in front of us, but we may not see it because what we perceive is entirely different.” (Dispenza)

Our beliefs (old habits and behaviors) will override the desired behavior change. Which leads me to this week’s Brain Fact Friday.

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

“Your brain has a pattern of connectivity as unique as your fingerprint?”[iii]

This episode is not about swaying you to believe what I believe, but to have you challenge your own beliefs, knowing my brain is different from your brain, and see if you can look at something from a different point of view, while I’m doing the same.

Just like Dr. Ginger Campbell told us on our last EPISODE #243, as the host of the longest running podcast on Neuroscience, she acknowledges that what she’s learned over the years is that everyone will have their own beliefs and perceptions about things, and since our brains are all wired differently, we must learn to be more accepting of other people’s beliefs, and the more we can accept each other for our differences, the better place our world will be. Accept that we are all different.

Even tuning into Brendon Burchard’s[iv] most recent podcast episode, he mentioned that there are secrets to helping people “achieve their goals, and get healthier” and that with all the years he has been working in the area of high performance, with world class athletes, high level executives, he’s discovered four things that needs to achieve their goals (health and happiness) and one them is to acknowledge that although we all might have different beliefs, that we are in fact, very similar, and that judging someone else for being “different” than us, is what creates the divisiveness we see in the world today. Progress can be made for all of us when we can embrace our unity, despite our differences.

With this model in place, on our recent interview with physician and neurologist Dr. Douyon[v], I asked him “when science reveals that something is bad for us, and even a carcinogen, what needs to happen to STOP society from consuming it?” (without judging people for their choices) and the answer to behavior change is going to be different for everyone, since our brains are all wired differently. What worked for me, might not work for you, but I think that when you can see the impacts of the behavior change on your own health, that this in itself is enough to drive someone towards lasting change and transformation.

Once you see an area of your health that you would like to change, Dr. Douyon mentioned to begin slowly, and see if you can “wean” yourself off of whatever it is you are doing. We were talking about a patient of his who he took soda away from, to stop her from having seizures, and the change didn’t last for her, because he felt like some people just can’t stop using the “cold turkey” method.

We are all wired differently, and without being judgmental, we all need to find our own way towards making our behavior change stick.

Using Data to Inform Our Health

Once you either cut out the food, the drink, the substance or the behavior that you know isn’t good for your body or your health, try measuring your biomarkers to see the impact of this decision on your health and body. There are many devices you can use to measure your results. I use the Whoop[vi] wearable device, (since I did interview their team) but you can also use the Oura Ring[vii] or even your Apple Watch.

After listening to Dr. Huberman’s podcast, I cut out alcohol immediately, without a thought, and then watched in amazement at the results of this “science-based” decision. In the past, I have cut this toxin out for 30, 60 and 90 days, but never payed attention to the physiological response that this had on my body.

This is what I saw after 2 weeks of eliminating alcohol from my diet August:

My HRV (heart rate variability) increased by 11%.

WHAT THIS MEANS: We reviewed HRV on EP #228[viii] What is HRV: The Most Important Biomarker for Tracking Health, Recovery and Resilience which means that this decision gave me 11% more capacity to perform. It gave me more resources to use towards my daily activities, helping me to be more resilient to daily stress.

My RHR (resting heart rate) decreased from 54 bpm to 51 bpm.

WHAT THIS MEANS: Resting Heart Rate (RHR) is a measure of your average heart beats per minute (bpm) while your body is at a state of complete rest[ix] and “a low RHR is an indication of a strong heart muscle that can pump out greater amounts of blood with every beat, so it doesn’t have to do it as frequently.” (Whoop) and “physical fitness is directly correlated to the strength of your heart.” (Whoop).

This data helped me to see that in a very short period of time I’ve found ways to become more resilient to daily stress, and have increased my physical fitness, which are in line with my values of improving my health, so this habit is going to stick for me.

Review and Conclusion: Using Neuroscience to Change Our Perception and Build a Stronger 2.0 Version of Ourselves

But I’m not sure what it will take for you to change your behavior, when looking to create that NEW and improved 2.0 version of YOU, since our “brains are all as unique as our fingerprint” and what works for me, might not work for you, but I do know that when most of us are presented with sound information, or the most current research, and we are able to explain this research to others, that this is the beginning how our brains rewire for the better.

Sergei’s Story: Shocked into Behavior Change with the Fear of Death

To close out this episode, I wanted to share a story of how one person I know made their behavior stick, an entirely different way. I thought about this one guy I met on the hiking trials, who changed his behavior, because his life depended on it. Since I’m on the trails every day, you get to see the same faces over and over again and you get to know people this way, even if you don’t stop to have a conversation with them.

One day I noticed a new face showing up on the trails, and he was a bit out of shape, but clearly working daily to change it. There were times I’m sure I saw tears in his eyes as we passed each other but it was months before we spoke, and exchanged names. You can tell when someone is working something out during exercise and focused, so we just usually waved until one day, we stopped to speak.

His name was Sergei, and he was a mathematics professor at ASU and he told me that his doctor told him if he didn’t lose weight, he was going to die. Plain and simple, Sergei was scared into making a change in his health, and in a few months, he took off over 40 lbs. and completely turned his health around. I remembered later when he reminded me of his story that it made sense that he was crying in the first few weeks. Behavior change can be extremely difficult, that’s for sure, but Sergei stuck to his change, because his results were easy to measure. He quickly went off all the medicine he was on, and his new behavior stuck.

If we can measure the impacts of our change like Sergei, or like I was able to see with an increased HRV and lower RHR after just a few weeks, we can see and feel the physiological changes with the decisions we’ve made have on our health and wellbeing, then this is the first step towards lasting transformation, and permanent change, building a stronger 2.0 version of ourselves.

Recognizing Neurodiversity:

But not every strategy fits all. To get a bigger picture of the differences within our brain, a quick glance at the Neurodiversity image in the show notes can help us to see that “there is no right way of thinking, learning or behaving”[x] but I do hope that we all look for ways that we can each take our results to new heights, using the most current research, and decide for yourself what behaviors or habits you want to stick, or kick to the curb, and then get to work, and see if you can match your behavior, with your intention, to create your new 2.0he identity.

I’ll see you next week!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-using-neuroscience-to-build-a-stronger-20-version-of-you/

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 “How to Make 2022 Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-2-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever-by-thinking-differently-and-choosing-faith-over-fear/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #239 “using Neuroscience to Build a Stronger 2.0 Version of You”

[iii] Deane Alban 72 Amazing Brain Facts https://sdbif.org/index/72-amazing-human-brain-facts-based-on-the-latest-science/

[iv] Brendon Burchard “4 Parts to a Meaningful Life” https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/charged-life-brendon-burchard/id821746377

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #241 with “Physician and Neurologist Dr. Philippe Douyon on How to Rewire Our Brain for Health and Happiness: https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/physician-and-neurologist-philippe-douyon-md-on-how-to-rewire-our-brain-for-health-and-happiness/

[vi] www.whoop.com

[vii] www.ouraring.com

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #228 on “Review of Heart Rate Variability: The Most Important Biomarker for Tracking Health, Recovery and Resilience” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-review-of-heart-rate-variability-the-most-important-biomarker-for-tracking-health-recovery-and-resilience/

[ix] Resting Heart Rate: What’s Normal, Why it’s a Sign of Fitness, How to Improve it Published May 7, 2020 by Whoop https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/normal-resting-heart-rate-improve-fitness/

[x] What is Neurodiversity Published Nov. 21, 2021 by Nicole Baumer https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/what-is-neurodiversity-202111232645

Aug 31, 2022

00:41:36

Our guest today, Dr. Ginger Campbell has been running her Brain Science Podcast[i] since 2006, and anyone who studies the topic of Neuroscience would have come across her work, as a pioneer, where she launched her podcast all those years ago because she believes that “understanding how our brain really works is essential for being a good citizen in the 21st Century.”[ii]

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/W6QeFM6-9lI

On this episode we will learn:

✔ Podcast Hall of Fame, 2022, Dr. Ginger Campbell, host of the Brain Science Podcast: Why an MD began podcasting.

✔ Why Dr. Ginger believes that understanding our brain, is essential for being a good citizen in the 21st Century.

✔ Top lessons she has learned from hosting the Brain Science Podcast since 2006.

✔ What is that feeling of certainty?

✔ Where does intuition come in, and can we trust it?

✔ Is interoception (listening to what we feel in our body) reliable?

✔ What about solving our problems in our dreams? Is this reliable?

✔ What about premonitions? Can we trust them?

✔ Why do emotions make our memories stick?

✔ Things to consider with our thinking? We think, therefore we are wrong?

✔ How to distinguish neuroscience from pseudoscience?

✔ Dr. Ginger's thoughts on neuroscience in the field of education.

On today’s episode #243, we will be speaking with Dr. Virginia “Ginger” Campbell, MD, who is a physician, author and science communicator who was just inducted into the 2022 Podcast Hall of Fame. She also runs the podcast Books and Ideas, that includes more diverse guests including science fiction writers.

Dr. Campbell spent over 20 years as an emergency physician in rural Alabama, and in 2014 she went back to the University of Alabama in Birmingham where she completed a Fellowship in Palliative Medicine which is an approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex and often terminal illnesses. She now practices Palliative Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama and enjoys sharing her passion for science—especially neuroscience.

When I was referred to Dr. Campbell for this interview, I almost jumped out of my chair and wrote back quickly, knowing how timely our conversation would be as I was editing our recent interview with physician and neurologist, Dr. Douyon. I know that Dr. Ginger will open our eyes even further to help us ALL to connect the dots with our brain, as it relates to our health and wellbeing.

Let’s welcome Dr. Ginger Campbell, and get right into her thoughts about Brain Science, and see what we will learn from her deep and vast experience to help us to all take our understanding of the brain, and our health, to new heights.

Welcome Dr. Ginger! Thank you for joining me today.

INTRO: So, Dr. Ginger, from my email to you, I’m sure you know that I’m a follower of your work as a pioneer not only in the podcasting world, but as someone who has successfully been helping people to understand how their brain works (which is why we launched this podcast. Can you tell us where your career began, what need did you see, and how did you find your way to podcasting in those early days when I’m sure you needed to understand how to create your own code and website?

Q1: Dr. Ginger, now that we have an understanding of your background, I wanted to begin our questions today by telling you how honored I am to have the leader in the field of Neuroscience Podcasts, who was recently inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame, on our show, but then I listened to your recent episode with Batja Mesquita, on “How Cultures Create Emotions” and now I’m aware of this thing that I do, where I always open up by highlighting the talents of my guests in the back story, showing how “special” they are, or maybe what I’ve learned from their work, but now I know that in some cultures, this might make some guests uncomfortable to hear all this praise about themselves.

I had never thought about our emotions and how they are culturally connected.

What are some top AHA moments of learning for you, as the host of the Brain Science Podcast, and why do you think “understanding how our brains work is essential for being a good citizen in the 21st Century?”

If someone wants to gain access to your newsletter, where you share all the show notes for your recent episodes is the best way to text brainscience (all one word) to 55444? That’s how I signed up for your newsletter.

Q2: So, what is that “feeling of knowing” that we have? Where does it come from when we are certain of something (an answer on a test) or when we have those AHA moments when everything clicks? What is certainty? What is that feeling? Is it an emotion?

In your book Are You Sure?[iii] you look at the unconscious origins of certainty, and if PART 1, you dive into Richard Burton’s work on Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not[iv] which reminds me of an interview we did with Howard Rankin[v], on his book How Not to Think and that it’s always important to look at something with a different perspective, since our thinking can be wrong. What should we know about our thoughts, how we create thoughts in our brain and what should we be careful of with our thinking process?

What about some questions that I know science has yet to prove?

Q3: Where does intuition come in? Can we trust it, or is it also unreliable lie our thoughts and memories?

Q4: What about interoception (Antonio Damasio) and is this signal that we feel from within our body reliable?

Q5: I’m looking to explore this thing called certainty? What about our dreams? I can get some incredible answers to things I want to know this way, and I know you’ve mentioned that our dreams are one way that we can consolidate new ideas but what do you think about the validity of finding answers to our problems in our dreams? Or even flashes of insight we might see in those times before we fall asleep? (organic chemistry example—was that August Kekule, whose dream revealed the structure of benzene?

Q5B: Have you ever heard of people who say they “saw” something, before it occurred almost like a premonition? Can brain science explain that?

Q6: Last April, I took a stab at creating an episode on “How Our Emotions Impact Learning, Memory and the Brain”[vi] and in this episode, I wanted to explain how our emotions help memories to stick and I used the example of how most of us can tell you detail by detail of where we were on Sept. 11th, 2001. But if you were to ask me what I did on Sept. 10th, what I ate for breakfast that day, or anything about that day, it’s completely blank unless I just made stuff up backtracking from what I remember about Sept. 11th. Would you say my memories of Sept. 11th are accurate, or even when emotion is added, are our memories still unreliable?

Q7: What should we take away about our thinking? We think, therefore we are wrong?

Q8: What about neuroscience vs pseudoscience? Is there a quick and easy way to check to be sure we have the most current research (like finding a study on Pubmed) so we stick to the research, and stay clear of neuromyths?

Q9: What you have seen with neuroscience in the field of education?

Q10: Is there anything important that I’ve missed that you would like to share?

Dr. Ginger, I want to thank you very much for the work that you have done to pave the way for people like me who came to the podcasting field later, but still very passionate about learning and sharing new ideas and research, showing us that we can ALL learn something that can help us to be a better citizen, employee, parent, or even human. If someone wants to gain access to your newsletter, where you share all your upcoming episodes and the notes for each episode, a reminder for people to text brainscience (all one word) to 55444.

I’ll put the links for people to follow you in the show notes, and thank you again.

I’m now motivated more than ever to keep learning, exploring and sharing ideas about science with the world. Thank you very much for role modeling the way, and WHI hope that you don’t mind me pointing out your talents…that I saw go well beyond brain science and into technology, code, automation…but that’s a whole new interview!

Thank you Dr. Ginger.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

To close out this episode, I do hope that if you are as interested in neuroscience as I am, that you do take a look at Dr. Ginger’s podcast and website. She does have a section for educators that’s easy to find, with many resources. Today we learned quite a few lessons together, but my biggest take-away is that we all perceive the world in a slightly different manner, and when we don’t see eye to eye with someone else (in our work environment, or our personal relationships) to remember this is our brain at work, and if we can be more tolerant of the differences we have with others, we would have less conflict in our lives. Thinking with our brain in mind really can be life-altering.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode, and taken away something to help you to create more success in your work or personal life, and I’ll see you in a few days.

FOLLOW DR. GINGER

Website www.brainsciencepodcast.com

Email: brainsciencepodcast@gmail.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/docartemis

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GingerCampbellMD

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/docartemis/

RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS: https://brainsciencepodcast.com/for-educators

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://brainsciencepodcast.com/

OTHER RESOURCES:

On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain Will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines by Jeff Hawkins, August 1, 2005 https://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Understanding-Creation-Intelligent-Machines/dp/0805078533

Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not Robert Alan Burton Feb. 5, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Being-Certain-Believing-Right-Youre-ebook/dp/B003J5UJHW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Published October 21, 2011 https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman-ebook/dp/B00555X8OA/ref=sr_1_1?crid=FZ8EXQMZMLN7&keywords=thinking+fast+and+slow&qid=1661907469&s=books&sprefix=thinking+fast+%2Cstripbooks%2C143&sr=1-1

REFERENCES:

[ii] Dr. Ginger Campbell from the Podcasting Hall of Fame 2022 Ceremony https://podcasthof.com/

[iii] https://www.amazon.com/Are-Sure-Unconscious-Origins-Certainty/dp/1951591259

[iv] Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not Robert Alan Burton Feb. 5, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Being-Certain-Believing-Right-Youre-ebook/dp/B003J5UJHW/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #146 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expert-in-psychology-cognitive-neuroscience-and-neurotechnology-howard-rankin-phd-on-how-not-to-think/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #127 “How Emotional Impact Learning, Memory and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-how-emotions-impact-learning-memory-and-the-brain/

Aug 26, 2022

00:12:30

“Many of the most significant public health challenges faced today have a behavioral component. To change individuals’ behavior, we need to understand and change the brain.”[i] From Professor Huda Akil, a Syrian-American neuroscientist

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. I’m Andrea Samadi, and launched this podcast just over 3 years ago, with a vision to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and help all of us (whether we are a teacher in the classroom, or in the modern workplace) to understand the most current brain research, and how to use it, for improved productivity and results.

On this episode we will cover:

✔ Why we must understand our brain, in order to change our behavior.

✔ 2 Brain Facts learned from Dr. Andrew Huberman's most recent podcast on "The Effects of Alcohol on the Brain and Body"

✔ Why Chronic Disease Prevention means thinking with our brain health in mind.

✔ 4 Steps to change our behavior with our brain in mind.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I wanted to tie our past few episodes together, starting with EPISODE #239 where we talked about “Using Neuroscience to Build a Stronger 2.0 Version of Ourselves.”[ii] On this episode we looked at how we can change our identity by reviewing our self-image. We looked at where our self-image is formed (in the front of our brain) and how people who have stronger pathways in this part of the brain, will have higher, long-term self-esteem, which I think we can all agree would help us to move forward, towards this newer, stronger, 2.0 version of ourselves.

Then we looked at the concept of Praxis, or integrating our beliefs with our behaviors, as a way to step into this brand new 2.0 version of ourselves where we can become an entirely NEW person, overriding our old identity, building a new image of our self, over time, with hard work and persistence.

Then, physician and neurologist, Dr. Philippe Douyon[iii] advised us with his experience of facing 2 kidney transplants, that the power for health and happiness, really is in our own hands, but he gave us a sense of urgency, telling us that we only have ONE brain, ONE body and ONE life.

If we really want to improve ourselves in any way, everything points back to understanding what’s happening with this organ that controls everything that we do. Next week, we will be speaking with Dr. Ginger Campbell, MD, who was just inducted into the 2022 Podcast Hall of Fame. Dr. Ginger has been running her Brain Science Podcast[iv] since 2006, and anyone who studies the topic of Neuroscience would have come across her work, as a pioneer, where she launched her podcast all those years ago because she believes that “understanding how our brain really works is essential for being a good citizen in the 21st Century.”[v]

When I think about why we launched this podcast, where we look for leaders around the world who are using the most current research, to help us to all see that success, health and happiness is possible for all of us, when we do things a certain way, and I would say, that this certain way, is with our brain in mind. Not to say that this way (with our brain in mind) is the only way to accomplish success, but if we are going to look at our life, and we only have a short time here to do whatever it is that we want with our time, I think to live up to our full potential, it’s important to remember that we only have one brain, and to be aware of what helps it, or hurts it.

Dr. Douyon’s company mission: “One brain, one body, one life” makes me think seriously about the consequences of every action I’m taking. While I enjoy every interview I’ve ever done, something magical happens when all of our episodes begin to thread together with a common theme, and I think that Dr. Douyon noticed the lights turning on in our interview.

It’s starting to sink in. To change an individuals’ behavior, we need to understand and change the brain.

Which leads me to this week’s Brain Fact Friday, that came to me early this week, while listening to Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast.

I’m sure everyone in the world “knows” that there are some things that are “good” for our brain (and productivity/results) and other things that aren’t but when new research comes out that is compelling enough to make me change my behavior, I’m going to share it here. If you were like me, you might have heard that there was a connection with drinking alcohol and cancer, but until this week, I didn’t know exactly how drinking even low amounts of alcohol (as low as one drink a day, or even if it’s not every day, a couple of drinks socially on the weekend) damages this one brain that we have, that controls everything that we are, and everything that we do. And I think it’s crazy that these brain facts that I’m going to share from the most current research are seldom discussed, so I’ll put all the links in the show notes to Dr. Huberman’s podcast (along with the notes) that made an impact on me, for anyone who is curious to review these facts for themselves.

I picked two out of the twenty-eight topics to cover on this week’s Brain Fact Friday to help us to all think with our brain health in mind.

BRAIN FACT 1

DID YOU KNOW THAT “alcohol changes our gene expression, which therefore causes cancer, particularly breast cancer and that for women, there’s a 4-13% increase in the risk of breast cancer for every 10 grams (1 glass of wine has around 10 grams of alcohol)?[vi] I’m not sure what you think when you hear this, but this research was enough to help me to decide very quickly that alcohol is now on the do not ingest list, if health is something I’m striving for, which it clearly is. I encourage you to listen to his entire episode. There were many facts that filled in the blanks for me and helped me to gain a better understanding of how toxins impact our brain and body.

BRAIN FACT 2

If that first brain fact was not enough, there were many more points to drive the truth of this matter home. Another shocking brain fact is that “alcohol changes the HPA-axis” (which is the part of our brain that balances what we see as stressful or not) and that for those who consume alcohol, (even low amounts like a couple of drinks in the week, or over the weekend) will have “elevated baseline levels of cortisol”[vii] even when they are not drinking. While most people will be thinking “hey, let’s go have a drink” to enjoy the stress-relieving and relaxing benefits (which might be true) no one is thinking that research now shows this causes our stress and anxiety to increase, in our working hours, days later, when we are NOT drinking, when focus and concentration is crucial.

I don’t know about you, but when we understand how important our brain is for our future success, and that we all want to avoid neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease, or increased stress in our work week, or even Cancer, it’s definitely something that I think we should all be fully aware of, and make the informed decision that’s best for you.

It’s sinking in more now. To change an individuals’ behavior, we need to understand and change the brain.

TIPS TO CHANGE BEHAVIOR WITH OUR BRAIN IN MIND:

When I asked Dr. Douyon, when science reveals something is bad for us, even a carcinogen, how can we stop people from consuming it?

STEP 1: Think Big Picture: Dr. Douyon gave us some great advice with not having someone quit something cold turkey, but wean them off whatever it is they are trying to quit. We’ve covered “Using our Brain the Break Bad Habits” in our early episode #35[viii] when looking at eliminating habits that no longer serve us. Instead of just thinking about what you want to quit, think about what you want to start, stop and what do you want to do more of. Look at the bigger picture of what you want to create, so you aren’t focused entirely of that thing you want to give up. This should make the transition easier, especially when you can see the benefits to what you want to eliminate.

STEP 2: What’s Your Motivation Based on Your Values: This one was easy for me. With health at the top of what I value, it something proves to not be healthy for my brain or body, it’s an easy decision to eliminate it. What do you value? What will this change in behavior do for you?

STEP 3: STAY FOCUSED: When grinding away our old self-image, to create a new one, it will require focus, especially when something stressful happens. When looking to make long-term change, I like to have a plan in place. John Norcross’s book Changeology

Explains how to stay focused on whatever it is you want to change for 90 days. He says to make any long-lasting change stick, you’ve got to spend the first 14 days that getting psyched up for the change, then you prepare yourself for the change, from days 14-21, then 14-60 he says you’ve perspiring, since the change takes work, and you persevere from days 60-90. Persistence comes with day 75 onwards.

IMAGE CREDIT: from John Norcross’s Changeology[ix]

STEP 4: INTEGRATE YOUR WINS: This is the part that most people forget. If we can change our old self, into an entirely new self, this is a serious win and I think is the purpose of life. We should always be striving to be a better, 2.0 version of ourself, and when we do, there’s nothing like it. Celebrate other people’s wins and give yourself credit when you achieve something you’ve worked hard for.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSIONS:

To review and close out this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I took 2 brain facts, from Dr. Andrew Huberman’s most recent podcast on “The Effects of Alcohol on the Brain and Body” to bring to the forefront the message that we learned so clearly from our recent podcast with Dr. Philippe Douyon that we have one brain, one body and one life, and that preventing the chronic disease, especially neurological disease in our future, means looking at our brain health today.

Dr. Douyon’s interview made me think of the fact that we will all die one day, and in this quest for our goals, and daily life, I never put that much thought into what I want the last half of my life to look like. Annie Duke, the author of How to Decide: Better Choices, Better Life[x] calls it Back-Casting, or when we think of how we want the last years of our life to look like. Have you ever done this? I’m definitely planning these years, with my brain in mind, and that means making tough decisions today, that will impact the last half of my life.

What do you think?

I’ll see you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-using-neuroscience-to-build-a-stronger-20-version-of-you/

REFERENCES:

[i] The neurobiology of behavior: what drives individual choices? Friday August 30th, 2019 from The Academy of Medical Sciences https://acmedsci.ac.uk/more/news/the-neurobiology-of-behaviour-what-drives-individual-choices

[ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #239 “using Neuroscience to Build a Stronger 2.0 Version of You”

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #241 with Physician and Neurologist Dr. Philippe Douyon on “How to Rewire our Brain for Health and Happiness.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/physician-and-neurologist-philippe-douyon-md-on-how-to-rewire-our-brain-for-health-and-happiness/

[iv] https://brainsciencepodcast.com/

[v] Dr. Ginger Campbell from the Podcasting Hall of Fame 2022 Ceremony https://podcasthof.com/

[vi] Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Podcast on “What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain and Health” https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain-health/ (1:37:11 alcohol and cancer).

[vii] Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Podcast on “What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain and Health” https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain-health/ (37:39 alcohol and cortisol).

[viii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE#35 “Using Our Brain to Break Bad Habits” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-to-use-your-brain-to-break-bad-habits-in-2020/

[ix]John C. Norcross Changeology https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Changeology/John-C-Norcross/9781451657623

[x] Annie Duke, How to Decide: Better Choices, Better Life https://www.amazon.com/How-Decide-Simple-Making-Choices-ebook/dp/B07TRJB3S3

Aug 25, 2022

00:30:04

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, with a special episode, recorded for Podbean’s Wellness Week.

When I first launched this podcast, in June 2019, using Podbean as my host, of course, it was a bit by chance, as I had just purchased a new template for my website that had a podcast theme, and the developer who helped me to build the site said “you can delete the podcast section if you don’t want to host a podcast” and I thought about it for a minute, and was already conducting interviews for the programs and services I was offering in my membership area, so I told him, “let’s just keep it” and I went over to Google and searched for “what is an RSS feed” and “how to launch a podcast.” I had no idea at that moment just how powerful that one decision would be, leading me to launch something that would connect me to leaders around the world, be downloaded in over 100 countries, become my biggest learning opportunity I’ve ever had, and open up many doors, all from just one decision.

I also started this podcast because I saw a serious need in the area of social and emotional learning that was being implemented in schools around the country and the world, but many educators didn’t know the best way to begin their implementation. We all know that “success in life, and in college and career specifically, relies on student’s cognitive, (the core skills your brain uses to think, read, remember, and pay attention) social and interpersonal skills, (including the ability to navigate through social situations, resolve conflicts, show respect towards others, self-advocate and learn how to work on a team with others) and emotional development (including the ability to recognize and manage one’s emotions, demonstrate empathy for others and cope with stress)” but what are these skills, and what exactly is the best way to implement them?[i]

In the corporate world, these skills aren’t new, but they are “newly important” and of high urgency to develop in our future generations. A recent survey showed that 58 percent of employers say college graduates aren’t adequately prepared for today’s workforce, and those employers noted a particular gap in social and emotional skills. This is where our goal with this podcast began—to close this gap by exploring six social and emotional learning competencies as a springboard for discussion and tie in how an understanding of our brain can facilitate these strategies. Hence the title of the podcast, Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning. If we want to improve our social, emotional and cognitive abilities, it all starts with an understanding of our brain.

Season 1: Consists of 33 episodes that begin with introducing six the social and emotional competencies (building a growth mindset, making responsible decisions, becoming self-aware, increasing social-awareness, managing emotions and behavior and developing relationships) along with an introduction to cognitive skills that I call Neuroscience 101 where we introduce some of the most important cognitive strategies, or the core skills your brain uses to think, remember and pay attention.

CONTENT: In this season, you will learn about understanding your mind vs your brain, mindfulness and meditation, the 3 parts of your brain, achieving peak performance, and improving awareness, mindsight, rewiring your brain for happiness, and experiential learning. We interviewed Ron Hall from Valley Day School who talked about how he launched his neuroeducation program into his school, Jennifer Miller on “Building Connections with Parents and Educators,” Helen Maffini on her Mindful Peace Summit and “Launching Mindfulness and Meditation in our Schools,” Greg Wolcott on “Building Relationships in Today’s Classrooms,” 14 year old Adam Avin on “Improving Our Mental Health in Our Schools,” Clark McKown from xSEL Labs on “SEL Assessments” and how we can actually measure these skills, Sam Roberts on her experience of “Winning a 4 Year Prestigious Scholarship” using these skills, Donte Winrow on “Breaking into a Challenging Career Path” with the application of these skills immediately after graduating from high school, Dr. Lori Desautels and Michael McKnight on “The Future of Educational Neuroscience in Today’s Schools,” Harvard researcher Jenny Woo on “The Latest Research, Brain Facts and Myths, Growth Mindset, Memory and Cognitive Biases,” Psychologist Dr. Kenneth Kohutek on his new book “Chloe and Josh Learn Grit,” Psychologist Bob Jerus on “Suicide Prevention and Emotional Intelligence Training,” Spencer Taylor on his “Death of Recess Educational Documentary” featuring Carol Dweck and Sir Ken Robinson, Marc Brackett on his powerful book “Permission to Feel,” former Superintendent Dr. Jeff Rose on “Leadership, Innovation and the Future,” Mick Neustadt on “How Meditation and Mindfulness Can Change Your Life,” Friederike Fabritius from Germany on “Achieving Peak Performance with the Brain in Mind,” Dr. Daniel Siegel on “Mindsight: The Basis for Social and Emotional Intelligence,” my mentor and neuroscience researcher Mark Robert Waldman on “12 Brain-Based Experiential Learning and Living Principles,” Nik Halik on “Overcoming Adversity to Create an Epic Life,” and John Assaraf on “Brain Training, the Power of Repetition, Resourcefulness and the Future.”

Season 2: These 33 episodes build on the strategies from Season 1, with high level guests who tie in social, emotional, interpersonal and cognitive strategies to increase results in schools, sports and the workplace. You will learn about the power of repetition, challenge, creativity, using your brain to break bad habits, how the brain ties into mindset, self-regulation, and self-awareness, cognitive rigor, thinking, learning, brain rules for schools and the workplace, the theory of mind, brain network theory, personal leadership, taking initiative, resiliency, the science behind mindfulness/meditation and your values.

CONTENT: You will hear from Chris Farrell on “Strategies for High Achievers,” James Nottingham on “The Importance of Challenge with Learning,” Dr. John Dunlosky on “Improving Student Success,” Todd Woodcroft on “The Daily Grind in the NHL,” Stefanie Faye on “Using Neuroscience to Improve our Mindset, Self-Regulation, and Self-Awareness,” the Co-Founder of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Frank Shankwitz on “Lessons from the Wish Man Movie,” Erik Francis on “How to Use Questions to Promote Cognitive Rigor, Thinking and Learning,” Dr. John Medina on “Implementing Brain Rules in the Schools and Workplaces of the Future,” Dalip Shekhawat on “Life Lessons Learned from Summiting Mount Everest,” Dr. Jeff Magee on “Managing Fear, Focus and Strategy During Challenging Times,” Tiffany Krumins on “Life After Shark Tank,” Kelly Schmidt on Easy to Implement Fitness and Nutrition Tips,” David Adams on “A New Vision for Education,” Torsten Nicolini on “Working Smart,” Dr. Lori Desautels on her book “Connections Over Compliance,” The Wise Emotional Fitness Program delivered via virtual reality with James MacDiarmid and Natasha Davis all the way from Australia, Suzanne Gunderson on “Putting the Polyvagal Theory into Practice,” Maria Natapov on “Building Autonomy, Self-Confidence, Connection and Resiliency Within Our Children,” Casel President Karen Niemi on “Tools and Strategies to Enhance and Expand SEL in our Schools and Communities,” Hans Appel on “Building an Award Winning Culture in Your School or Organization,” Greg Wolcott on “Making Connections with Neuroscience and SEL,” Dr. Barbara Schwarck on “Using Energy Psychology and Emotional Intelligence to Improve Leadership in the Workplace,” and an Introduction to my first mentor, speaker, Bob Proctor on “Social and Emotional Learning: Where it All Started,” where I share how I began working with these skills over 20 years ago, along with a deep dive into some of the lessons learned from Bob Proctor’s Seminars.

Season 3: These 14 episodes tie in some of the top authors in the world who connect their work to these social, emotional and cognitive skills, with clear examples for improved results, well-being and achievement within each episode.

CONTENT: You will learn about the neuroscience of personal change with a deep dive into Dr. Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” (that’s currently the most downloaded episode) Self-Regulation and Behavior Change with David R Hawkins’ “Power vs Force,” Self-Regulation and Sleep with Dr. Shane Creado’s “Peak Sleep Performance for Athletes,” Chris Manning on using “Neurowisdom” to Improve Learning and Success in Life, Horatio Sanchez on “Resilience,” Maurice J Elias on “Social and Emotional and Character Development,” Michael B Horn on “Disrupting Education” and the future of education, Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey on “High Quality Distance Learning.” David A Sousa on “How the Brain Learns,” Eric Jensen on “Reversing the Impact of Poverty and Stress on Student Learning” and Samantha Wettje from Harvard on “Mitigating the Negative Effect of ACES.” I conclude this season with a solo lesson from me, on critical thinking and the brain, after being asked to create an episode on this topic for the corporate space.

Season 4: These 14 episodes (82-96) that begin to tie in health, and mental health into the understanding of our brain, productivity and results. The shift to health on this podcast became apparent when we started to see how important our brain health is for our overall results.

CONTENT: Everything that we do starts at the brain level, and we dive deep into this with our 3-part episodes on “How a Brain Scan Changed My Life” with a look at what we can learn from looking at our brain using a SPECT image brain scan. The interviews of this season mix in the power of education with an understanding of health and wellness. Dr. Sarah McKay agreed with Dr. Shane Creado (from Season 3) that sleep is one of the most important health strategies we can implement. It became apparent that there were 5 health staples that emerged as so powerful they were showing an impact on Alzheimer’s Prevention, so this season became a deep dive into these top 5 health staples (daily exercise, getting good quality and quantity sleep, eating a healthy diet, optimizing our microbiome and intermittent fasting). You will also hear from Dr. Andrew Newberg and his episode on Neurotheology, Dr. Erik Won and his ground -breaking technology that’s changing the future of mental health, Luke DePron, who is stretching the limits with neuroscience, health, fitness and growth, Sarah Peyton on “Brain Network Theory, Default Mode Network, Anxiety and Emotion Regulation,” Momo Vuyisich on “Preventing and Reversing Chronic Disease by Improving the Health of Your Microbiome,” Jason Wittrock on the Ketogentic Diet and Intermittent Fasting, and Dr. Sandy Gluckman on “Reversing Children’s Behavior and Mood Problems.” We also hear from behavior experts Drs. Jessica and John Hannigan on their new book “SEL From a Distance” that offers simple strategies for parents and educators who are working on implementing these SEL skills into their home or classroom, during the pandemic.

When Season 4 took the direction of health, mental-health, and wellness, I began looking for guests to dive deeper into the Top 5 health staples that seemed to continue to emerge with each guest.

Health Staple 1: Daily Exercise (Luke DePron)

Health Staple 2: Getting Good Quality Sleep (Dr. Shane Creado)

Health Staple 3: Eating a Healthy Diet (Dr. Daniel Stickler).

Health Staple 4: Optimizing our Microbiome (Momo Vuyisich)

Health Staple 5: Intermittent Fasting (Jason Wittrock)

On this episode, that we are releasing for Podbean’s Wellness Week, I’ll take the Top 5 Health Staples from EPISODE #87 and offer additional tips, strategies, and ideas based our most recent interviews, that you can implement immediately for improved health and well-being. You can see EPISODE #87[ii] on the “Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies” that I wrote after watching Dr. David Perlmutter’s Documentary: Alzheimer’s the Science of Prevention[iii], that inspired the change in direction for the podcast towards health and wellness in addition to social, emotional and cognitive strategies for improved results.

The case is clear that in order to move the needle the most with our health, there are some important areas that we can come to a consensus that are crucial to pay attention to. We know that Alzheimer’s disease now affects “more than 5 million Americans and is the most common form of dementia, a term that describes a variety of diseases and conditions that develop when nerve cells in the brain die or no longer function normally.”[iv]

I was interested in learning more on this topic, since it was one of the reasons, we did scan our brain in the first place. The pattern of Alzheimer’s can be seen in the brain years before signs and symptoms show up, so when I saw Dr. Perlmutter’s Alzheimer’s Prevention series, I watched every episode to learn what brain experts across the country are saying about the top ways to prevent this disease, that currently has no know or meaningful treatment but I was given some hope when I learned that “you can change the direction of your cognitive destiny” (From Max Lugavere,[v] a Health and Science Journalist and NYT Bestselling Author, Genius Foods). Here is how we can take control of our health and future, with the TOP 5 health staples that I think we should all know, how they play a role in Alzheimer’s prevention, with added TIPS from our most recent health interviews.

Health Staple 1: Daily Exercise: This seems to be the solution for every single brain problem, so I think that this is the most important strategy, and the reason why I block out exercise time on my schedule as non-negotiable. If we can incorporate 30 minutes of brisk walking every day, we will be miles ahead with our brain health. It wasn’t until I started to measure my activity, that I started to see that 30 minutes of walking really did make a difference. I didn’t need to be running or working really hard (like I used to think I had to do) to notice a difference, but I did need to put in some effort to move the needle. The benefits of daily, consistent exercise “come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, and stimulate the release of growth factors—chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells.”[vi] If for some reason, this whole idea of exercising still doesn’t sound the least bit interesting to you, you might be surprised like I was, that household activities like vacuuming, or raking leaves, or anything that gets your heart rate up, like shoveling snow (something I haven’t done in years since I moved from Toronto)—but these activities can also fall into the category of moderate exercise. The idea is whatever you choose, that it remains consistent, so it eventually becomes something you do habitually.

ALZHEIMER’S PREVENTION THOUGHT FOR DAILY EXERCISE:

If exercise reduces insulin resistance and inflammation, it would make sense that it also reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s. Studies show that “people who are physically active, have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and possibly have improved thinking.”[vii]

DEEPER DIVE with LUKE DEPRON:

On episode #90, I interviewed Luke DePron on “Neuroscience, Fitness and Growth” Luke is a Men’s Health & Performance Coach[viii], and graduate of Exercise Science, Kinesiology. Luke has done everything from personal training with 100s of clients, to working alongside Drs of Chiropractic as a corrective exercise specialist, training Olympic level athletes, to performance work with world champion mixed martial arts fighters. Currently Luke works as a Men’s Online Health and Performance Coach—learn more at http://www.livegreatlifestyle.com/ where he helps men step into a lifestyle approach of exercise and nutrition to transform their physique, energy, and confidence.

He’s also the Host of the Live Great Lifestyle Podcast[ix] where he’s interviewed former Navy Seals, Mixed Martial Arts world champions, New York Times best-selling authors, personal development speakers, and many more….

LESSON LEARNED FROM LUKE ON DAILY EXERCISE:

I learned from Luke that “most people start a fitness or nutrition journey with a physique goal in mind, but it’s how you feel at the end of it.” What’s inspiring Luke says “is to see someone who might not be in that great health to begin with, create daily and weekly habits or standards that they follow, that creates energy and confidence that comes along with these habits.” That’s what the journey is all about.

Health Staple 2: Getting Good Quality Sleep: Making sure we are getting at least 7- 8 hours each night. I think that we have seen the importance of sleep with our interview with sleep expert Dr. Shane Creado, on episode #72[x] and with Dr. Sarah McKay on episode #85.[xi] It is clear that sleep deprivation causes poor health and performance because it’s not allowing enough time for the brain to wash and clean itself. With less than 7 hours of sleep each night, the “trash”[xii] builds up in our brain, that leads us farther away from health. I learned from health expert Darin Olien from the Darin Olien Show[xiii] --he’s the one who did the Netflix Docuseries with Zac Efron called “Down to Earth with Zac Efron[xiv]” that studies show that “almost all neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, are created when protein waste accumulates in the brain, which in turn slowly suffocates and kills the brain’s neurons.”[xv] We also know that the brain shows lower functioning to important areas when it’s sleep deprived.

ALZHEIMER’S PREVENTION THOUGHT FOR THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP:

Dr. David Perlmutter, on his Alzheimer’s Science of Prevention Series, made a clear case for the fact that “sleep deprivation is directly linked to developing Alzheimer’s disease” and that “sleep plays an important role…impacting our risk for developing this condition.” He went on to remind us that “from a medical perspective, we cannot afford a bad night’s sleep” and that “sleep is essential if we want to retain optimal function of our body and our brains.”[xvi]

DEEPER DIVE WITH DR. SHANE CREADO

On episode #72 with sleep medicine physician, sports psychiatrist and author of the NEW book “Peak Sleep Performance for Athletes: The Cutting-Edge Sleep Science That Will Guarantee a Competitive Advantage”[xvii] Dr. Shane Creado

Shane Creado[xviii] is a double board-certified sleep medicine doctor and psychiatrist. He practices functional sleep medicine, integrative psychiatry, and sports psychiatry, putting all those skills together to uncover underlying factors that sabotage the patients, comprehensively treat them, and help them achieve their goals.

LESSON LEARNED FROM DR. CREADO ON SLEEP:

Dr. Creado mentions that “Sleep is a key pillar of brain health and it’s modifiable, which is what’s beautiful about it. We can’t really change our DNA, well, we could talk about epigenetics and how the environment influences our DNA but sleep is something that it modifiable and we can correct it.” When working with a patient, Dr. Creado looks at the brain using SPECT image brain scans and based on what he sees, he determines the treatment plan. When Dr. Creado looked at my brain, he suggested that a change in my sleep pattern of adding just an additional half and hour to make 7 hours of sleep, would improve my results. He also reminded me that a 20 minute nap in the afternoon would boost my productivity and is not lazy, to incorporate this habit into my daily routine, and that Google and many high level corporate environments offer sleep pods to help their employees to gain the rest needed in the afternoon to boost productivity.

Health Staple 3: Eating a Healthy Diet: Eliminating sugar and processed foods. We hear this all the time and know intuitively what feels good when we eat it, and what makes our body feel tired, lethargic and just plain bad. The goal is to eliminate “the brain robbers that steal our energy and do what helps it, not hurts it.”[xix] There are two specific moments that I remember were life-changing when it came to my diet.

The first was around 2005 when I was seeing a foot doctor, Dr. Richard Jacoby, for foot numbness after exercise, and he asked me to eliminate sugar completely from my diet. I was looking for solutions to why I couldn’t feel the top of my foot during exercise, and I didn’t show any signs of diabetes, but this doctor was writing a book, that is now released called Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage and Reclaim Good Health[xx] and he was convinced that sugar intake was at the root of most health problems. He suggested that I take fish oil, and learn to avoid higher glycemic foods, and the results that occurred were so impactful, that I wished I had done this sooner. The benefits of cutting out sugar from my diet only snowballed my health for the better down the road. When I was ready to have children, I was a bit worried that I would have some challenges here, as I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) in my late 20s and told that I might need to take fertility drugs to conceive, but surprisingly, after some tests, my doctor told me that I no longer had this condition, that it appears to have reversed, and she asked me what I had done. The only thing I did was exercise, take fish oil and cut out sugar.

The second life-changing Aha Moment around diet was focused around intermittent fasting, that I talk about in point #5, but it was also eye opening when I started to follow Dave Asprey, the author of the NYT bestseller The Bulletproof Diet: Lose Up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Focus, Upgrade Your Life[xxi] and creator of Bulletproof Coffee[xxii]. Who would ever have thought that putting butter, coconut oil or MCT oil in your coffee would help you to increase your energy and stay lean? I heard this idea first from bodybuilder and fitness expert Jason Wittrock[xxiii] from watching his YouTube channel where he explains exactly what goes into a keto coffee, and why it’s good for your energy levels. He explains the science behind the keto diet and was a great resource for me when I was learning that eating fats, won’t make me fat. Thomas DeLauer[xxiv] is also a great resource for anyone looking to learn more about intermittent fasting, or the ketogenic diet.

ALZHEIMER’S PREVENTION THOUGHT FOR EATING A HEALTY DIET:

Did you know that sugar in the brain “looks like Alzheimer’s” in the brain, and that “60% of cognitive decline is related to how you handle blood sugar?”[xxv] There was a study that followed “5,189 people over 10 years and found that people with high blood sugar had a faster rate of cognitive decline than those with normal blood sugar—whether or not their blood-sugar level technically made them diabetic. In other words, the higher the blood sugar, the faster the cognitive decline.”[xxvi]

Did you know that with Type 2 Diabetes, you have almost double the risk for Alzheimer’s Disease, that has no known treatment? If you have type 2 diabetes, your goal would be to do everything that you can to manage your blood sugar, by eating good carbs[xxvii] (complex carbs with fiber), eat lower glycemic foods[xxviii] that balance your blood sugar levels, instead of throwing them off balance with high levels of sugar.

Above is an image of a healthy brain, from Dr. Amen’s Clinics, showing even, symmetrical and smooth blood flow to all areas in the healthy brain, and the Alzheimer’s brain shows a drop of blood flow to the important parts of the brain.

DEEPER DIVE WITH DR. DANIEL STICKLER

On episode #96 with Dr. Daniel Stickler, MD, a former vascular surgeon who concluded that traditional medicine is not the best route for ideal health. He is now the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of The Apeiron Center for Human Potential (Apeiron meaning Limitless) and is the visionary pioneer behind systems-based precision lifestyle medicine, which is a new paradigm that redefines medicine from the old symptoms-based disease model to one of limitless peak performance. A few minutes of looking at Dr. Stickler’s work and your level of awareness will expand.

LESSON LEARNED FROM DR. STICKLER ON NUTRITION:

Dr. Stickler talks about a skill called interoception or the ability to listen to the signals within the body that we have spoken about in a few episodes on this podcast (whether it was with Dr. Dan Siegel and his Wheel of Awareness meditation[xxix] that strengthens this awareness) or personal trainer Jason Wittrock who talked about the importance of listening to your hunger cues to gain control over your eating habits.

Dr. Stickler mentioned interoception as a skill used by pro athletes to achieve results with their athletic career, or with those in the special forces who must learn this skill since they are often faced with life vs death situations. If we can learn to listen to the cues our body tells us, whether it’s with the food we are eating, or when we are eating, we will be miles ahead with our well-being.

Health Staple 4: Optimizing our Microbiome: Did you know that your gut is made up of trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes. This microbiome plays an important role in your health by helping to control digestion and benefitting your immune system. Taking a probiotic daily, remaining active, eating a healthy diet and avoiding foods that disrupt our microbiome[xxx] (processed fried foods, sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners, are important for our gut/brain health.

ALZHEIMER’S PREVENTION THOUGHT FOR OPTIMIZING YOUR MICROBIOME:

There does appear to be a hidden relationship between Alzheimer’s disease and the microbiome in our gut and that “an imbalanced gut microbiome (dysbiosis) could lead to Alzheimer’s disease and wider neuroinflammation through the gut-brain-axis. Promoting ‘good bacteria’ relative to ‘bad bacteria’ in the gut may be important in maintaining good digestive, immune and neurological health.”[xxxi] This is still a developing field but taking prebiotics and probiotics[xxxii] are the best way to promote a healthy gut/brain balance.

DEEPER DIVE WITH DR. VUYISICH

 Our recent episode #93 with Dr. Momo Vuyisich, the co-founder and chief science officer of Viome[xxxiii], a healthcare disruptor that’s using IA to analyze your gut microbiome to make personalized nutritional recommendations, we learn about the importance of the gut/brain connection and how we can take control of our own life and health by optimizing our gut microbiome with personalized nutritional recommendations using Viome testing.

Dr. Vuyisich’s research focused on applying modern genomics to the areas of gut microbiomes, host-pathogen and microbial inter-species interactions, pathogen detection, cancer biology, toxicology, infectious diseases, and antibiotic resistance.

LESSON LEARNED FROM DR. VUYISICH

Dr. Vuyisich believes that “Today we have 100% of the science and technology needed to cure every chronic disease and every cancer.” He urges everyone to learn more about ways to optimize their gut health by understanding what damages our gut health, and what is good for it. Since each person’s microbiome is different, his company offers microbiome testing, and the result is that people learn what foods they should avoid, minimize, enjoy and those that are superfoods for them. This has opened up a whole new world for him, and it begins with each person taking charge of their own health by understanding our gut/brain connection.

Health Staple 5: Intermittent Fasting: Has many health benefits[xxxiv] that you might have heard of, like the fact it reduces belly fat. I started intermittent fasting around 3 years ago when I was looking to take my health to the next level, and was following some of the well-known body builders, to see what they were doing for their health and fitness. I started the 16-8 program where you fast for 16 hours, and only eat foods in an 8-hour window. I just picked 4 days a week (Sunday to Wednesday) to do this, to see what happened, and the results were obvious. I was able to quickly get down to my goal weight, where I was stuck, and not able to move the needle with exercise alone.

ALZHEIMER’S PREVENTION THOUGHT FOR INTERMITTENT FASTING :

Intermittent fasting has so many other health benefits tied to this practice, like the fact it “fights insulin resistance, lowering your risk of type-2 diabetes, reduces inflammation in the body, is beneficial for heart health, and may prevent cancer.”[xxxv] If it is fighting insulin resistance, then it is also fighting your risk of Alzheimer’s.

DEEPER DIVE WITH FITNESS TRAINER AND MODEL JASON WITTROCK

On episode #94 with personal trainer and fitness model, Jason Wittrock we learn more about intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet that go hand in hand.

I first found Jason Wittrock late 2016/ 2017 when I was searching for answers with my diet. I was at a crossroads with my health, and knew I needed to do some things differently, I just didn’t know exactly what to do, and I had heard some friends in some of my online groups talking about how they were drinking keto coffee, and experiencing health benefits, like increased energy and weight loss. So I went to YouTube, and typed in “how to make keto coffee” and Jason Wittrock’s video came up called “Keto Coffee”[xxxvi] and my journey began here, taking my health to a whole new level, and have never looked back. I’m sure there are thousands of stories just like mine.

LESSON LEARNED FROM JASON WITTROCK

Jason says it just like it is. He talks about the fact that eating fats, won’t make you fat, which is a whole new paradigm for anyone who is used to counting calories. He says “You can’t get mad at the butter for what the bread did” and is one of the leaders in the fitness industry who has built a career on helping people implement the ketogenic diet. Many people on this diet notice that they stay full for much longer, and intermittent fasting becomes easier to implement.

REVIEW AND ACTION STEPS:

Wherever you are with your current health, there is always a way to take your results to the next level. You also don’t need to get bogged down with implementing these ideas in a rush and stressing yourself out in the process.

To get started, pick one area that you want to improve, and work on that one area for the next 90 days.

Remember what Luke De Pron suggested, the end results should be how you “feel” not what you look like. How you feel will spill over to your confidence levels, helping to improve your daily productivity and results.

WHERE TO BEGIN WITH DAILY EXERCISE:

If you want to improve your daily exercise, but have no idea where to begin, I would start with walking.

Beginners: I remember after a surgery I had that I could barely walk to the bottom of my driveway and remember thinking how frustrating that was. Listen to your body and start with short distances. I would wake up early, at 4am (since I didn’t want the whole world watching me struggle to walk short distances) and I could walk from the bottom of my driveway to the end of the street. I did that every day for a week and then added a longer distance that lasted 15 minutes. After a few weeks, I was walking longer distances and longer amounts of time, showing me that progress is possible, with regular, consistent activity.

Moderate to Advanced: If you have plateaued with your current exercise routine, have you tried working with a trainer? Many are available for zoom/video calls during this time if your gym is still closed, or if you don’t have one. The key is to do something that you have not done before, to get new and different results.

WHERE TO BEGIN WITH GETTING A GOOD QUALITY SLEEP

[xxxvii]

[xxxviii]

WHERE TO BEGIN WITH EATING A HEALTHY DIET

Do you avoid processed foods? Have you ever thought about cutting out sugar? Do you choose healthy carbs and fats? Do you choose whole foods vs processed foods?

WHERE TO BEGIN WITH OPTIMIZING YOUR MICROBIOME

Do you take a probiotic? A prebiotic? Do you know what foods help/hurt or damage your microbiome? Have you considered microbiome testing like Dr. Vuyicish’s company offers so you can pinpoint the foods that you should avoid, minimize, maximize, or foods that are superfoods?

WHERE TO BEGIN WITH INTERMITTENT FASTING

If fasting for 16 hours with an 8 hour eating window seems too much, try 12 hours fasting and 12 hours eating to begin. Try it for a few days a week, and just see if you feel better fasting than when you eat like you normally would. If you feel better, you can always experiment with different fasting methods, and see where you feel best. Remember Jason Wittrock explaining that when you are eating a diet that is higher in fat, that you will not get hungry the same way you do eating a high carb diet.

I hope you have found this episode helpful, and I that you did learn something new. Please do send me a message on social media and let me know what you think. I really do believe that if we want to improve our social, emotional and cognitive abilities, it all starts with an understanding of our brain, and these TOP 5 strategies seem to move the needle the most, especially when it comes to preventing Alzheimer’s and other diseases that I know we all want to avoid. I hope you have found the additional interviews helpful, and begin to make small changes in one area at a time. It’s these small, daily habits, that when repeated over and over again, yield outstanding results.

See you next episode!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[viii] http://www.livegreatlifestyle.com/

REFERENCES:

[i] (Integrating Social, Emotional and Academic Development: An Action Guide for School Leadership Teams) page 4

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #87 on the “Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies”

[iii] Dr. David Perlmutter’s “Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention” https://scienceofprevention.com/

[iv] 10 Early Alzheimer’s Symptoms That You Should Know https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/10-early-alzheimers-symptoms-that-you-should-know/

[v] Max Lugavere, Health and Science Journalist and NYT Bestselling Author, Genius Foods. https://www.maxlugavere.com/

[vi] Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills by Heidi Goodman, April 2014 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110

[vii] Alzheimer’s Disease: Can Exercise Prevent Memory Loss April 2019 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alzheimers-disease/expert-answers/alzheimers-disease/faq-20057881

[ix] Live Great Lifestyle Podcast with Luke DePron http://www.livegreatlifestyle.com/podcast/

[x] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast Episode #72 with Shane Creado on “Peak Sleep Performance for Athletes” https://www.achieveit360.com/self-regulation-and-sleep-with-a-deep-dive-into-dr-shane-creados-peak-sleep-performance-for-athletes/

[xi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast Episode #85 with Neuroscientist Dr. Sarah McKay on “High Performing Brain Health Strategies That We Should All Know About.”

[xii] Darin Olien “The Sleep Position to Detoxify Your Brain” https://darinolien.com/detoxify-your-brain/

[xiii] The Darin Olien Show https://darinolien.com/podcasts/

[xiv] Down to Earth with Zac Efron (co-host Darin Olien) https://www.netflix.com/title/80230601

[xv] Darin Olien “The Sleep Position to Detoxify Your Brain” https://darinolien.com/detoxify-your-brain/

[xvi] Dr. David Perlmutter’s “Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention” EPISODE 10 on Sleep https://scienceofprevention.com/

[xvii] Dr. Shane Creado’s Peak Sleep Performance for Athletes: The Cutting-Edge Sleep Science That Will Guarantee a Competitive Advantage (March 15, 2020) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085YFP9YW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

[xviii] www.shanecreado.com

[xix] Dr. Daniel Amen “7 Simple Brain-Promoting Nutritonal Tips” https://www.creativityatwork.com/2011/01/10/dr-amen-seven-simple-brain-promoting-nutrition-tips/

[xx] Sugar Crush: How to Reduce Inflammation, Reverse Nerve Damage and Reclaim Good Health by Dr. Richard Jacoby (April 2014) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KPVB4OA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

[xxi] Dave Asprey The Bulletproof Diet https://www.amazon.com/Bulletproof-Diet-Reclaim-Energy-Upgrade-ebook/dp/B00K8DSTWU/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3EQ3XAEBNVQKS&dchild=1&keywords=dave+asprey&qid=1600893573&s=digital-text&sprefix=dave+asprey+the+%2Cdigital-text%2C210&sr=1-2

[xxii] Bulletproof Coffee https://www.bulletproof.com/recipes/bulletproof-diet-recipes/bulletproof-coffee-recipe/

[xxiii] Fitness expert Jason Wittrock on “What goes into Keto Coffee” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzLwqBDMgGc

[xxiv] Fitness and Health Expert Thomas DeLauer https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC70SrI3VkT1MXALRtf0pcHg

[xxv] Dr. David Perlmutter’s “Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention” EPISODE 5 https://scienceofprevention.com/

[xxvi] The Startling Link Between Sugar and Alzheimer’s by Olga Khazan Jan. 26, 2018 https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/01/the-startling-link-between-sugar-and-alzheimers/551528/

[xxvii] Good Carbs vs Bad Carbs https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/good-carbs-bad-carbs

[xxviii] Lower Glycemic Foods https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/low-glycemic-diet

[xxix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPSIODE #60 “The Science Behind a Meditation Practice with a Deep Dive into Dr. Daniel Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness Meditation” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-science-behind-a-meditation-practice-with-a-deep-dive-into-dr-dan-siegel-s-wheel-of-awareness/

[xxx] 11 Ways Your Life Can Disrupt the Gut Microbiome https://atlasbiomed.com/blog/11-ways-your-life-can-disrupt-the-gut-microbiome/

[xxxi] Alzheimer’s Disease and the Microbiome by Oman Shabir medical.net/health/Alzheimers-Disease-and-the-Microbiome.aspx">https://www.news-medical.net/health/Alzheimers-Disease-and-the-Microbiome.aspx

[xxxii] What is the Difference Between a Prebiotic and a Probiotic https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323490

[xxxiii] https://www.viome.com/

[xxxiv] 11 Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2

[xxxv] 11 Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2

[xxxvi] Keto Coffee with Jason Wittrock Published August 2017 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzLwqBDMgGc

[xxxvii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast Episode #72 with Shane Creado on “Peak Sleep Performance for Athletes” https://www.achieveit360.com/self-regulation-and-sleep-with-a-deep-dive-into-dr-shane-creados-peak-sleep-performance-for-athletes/

[xxxviii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast Episode #85 with Neuroscientist Dr. Sarah McKay on “High Performing Brain Health Strategies That We Should All Know About.” https://www.achieveit360.com/neuroscientist-dr-sarah-mckay-on-high-performing-brain-health-strategies-that-we-should-all-know-about-and-implement/

Aug 24, 2022

00:46:23

“Finally, we have an expert in the field of neuroscience and neurology, who breaks down the complex concepts and demystifies the workings of the brain, while putting the power back in our hands. Through his thoughts and reflections on neuroplasticity and neuroinfluences, Dr. Philippe Douyon, a physician and neurologist, unlocks the true power of the brain to help us heal and reach our full potential.” Dr. Sidor, Quadruple board-certified Psychiatrist who reviews the book of our next guest, Dr. Philippe Douyon.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/qYUR3CAN1VQ

On this episode we will learn:

✔ How Dr. Douyon came up with a unique approach to life when it comes to health and chronic disease, or any serious health challenge that might be thrown our way.

✔ What he learned from overcoming kidney failure, Covid, dialysis and from undergoing a successful kidney transplant.

✔ What he noticed was missing from medical school that was important to help patients heal and recover.

✔ Why positive thinking is crucial for overcoming illness and for our overall health and wellbeing.

✔ How he did dialysis "his way."

✔ His thoughts of the impact of alcohol and other unhealthy food/drink on the brain?

✔ His Pyramid of Neurological Health vs Our 5 Health Staples.

✔ How to help people make the decision towards health, one step at a time.

✔ His tips for health and wellness that we can all benefit from.

On today’s episode #241, we will be speaking heart to heart with Dr. Philippe Douyon, a board-certified neurologist who has a unique outlook of approaching life, when it comes to health and overcoming chronic disease, or any serious challenge that might unexpectedly be thrown our way, taking us by surprise.

Not only has Dr. Douyon's philosophy helped countless patients with medical, neurological, and mental health disorders, but it's the same philosophy that he used himself to overcome kidney failure, Covid, dialysis, and undergo a successful kidney transplant. He is the author of the book, Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Superpower[i], that focuses on how to use our brain's ability to adapt and learn to heal to overcome life’s serious challenges. He also has an online course called Take Charge of Your Brain[ii] that teaches us how our lifestyle choices, directly influence our brain and health. I’m not going to hold back with my questions, as I’m certain that the research is loud and clear, that many neurological disorders (that we’ve been talking about on this podcast), like Alzheimer’s, dementia, stroke, or Parkinson’s disease, can be prevented with lifestyle changes.

What I love about Dr. Douyon’s work, is that everything he shares about health and wellbeing is what I learned years ago in the personal development industry, that he now matches with the most current brain research. Concepts like:

Our thoughts do matter when it comes our mental and physical health and well-being. How to STOP victim mentality (poor me thinking) especially when it comes to our neurological makeup. How to increase our levels of success, even when we’ve lost hope with our health. As a board-certified neurologist, Dr. Douyon shows us how we can in fact take charge of our health, with our brain in mind.

He believes that success in life and business starts in the brain and is on a mission to spread his empowering message that we CAN rewire our brain to create the life we were meant to live, of health and happiness, regardless of our age, and all without prescribing a single pill.

Let’s meet Dr. Philippe Douyon, connect our brain, to our health and well-being, and take everything he says seriously, as if our lives and futures really do depend on it.

Welcome Dr. Douyon, it’s wonderful to meet you, especially after listening to some of your recent podcasts, and hearing your story. I’m sure I’m not the only one to tell you that your perspective to health and life is unconventional, especially with someone coming from the medical field, am I right?

Intro Q: Dr. Douyon, your story caught my attention as I spent 6 years working in the motivational speaking industry, with a speaker who helped people around the world to understand how when we change our thinking, it can actually change our results and that this change of thinking can impact EVERYTHING—our health, wealth, mental, and physical well-being. Where did YOU learn this secret to life, with the way we think, connected to our brain health and wellbeing? What’s your story and who did YOU study?

Q1: Your story made me think about when illness hits, many times, we aren’t sitting here waiting for it, prepared for everything we will have to go through. It hits us when we least expect it, and whatever it is, we’ve got to fight to get through to the other side. What did you notice was missing in medical school with this mind-brain connection? How did you know how to prepare your own mind and body to heal when you were caught off guard with your health?

1B: My Mom overcame Uterine Cancer in her late 40s and she used this mental activity where she would imagine each part of her body (from head to toe) like a meditation, and she would imagine an axe chopping up the cancer cells. She did this twice a day. I used to tell this story years ago, and many people would say “that’s crazy—there’s no way your Mom beat uterine cancer this way.” Since very few people did, her surgeon asked if she would come into the hospital and share her strategy, since she was the only one in her group who healed themselves completely and remains cancer free today. As a medical doctor, what can you tell me about the power of positive thinking, and our health? How important is our mindset to our healing when faced with a serious, life-threatening diagnosis?

1C: While reading your book, Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Superpower, I couldn’t miss what your colleagues in the medical field said. Dr. Sidor, a quadruple board-certified Psychiatrist mentioned that “finally we have an expert in the field of neuroscience and neurology who breaks down complex concepts and demystifies the workings of the brain, while putting the power back in our hands.” How are you planning to help other people understand about the power of their brain as it relates to health/wellbeing and reaching our highest potential in life?

Q2: When you were faced with dialysis, and decided to go through it “your way,” what did you do that was different from other people around you? What did other people say when they saw how you were spending your time in dialysis?

Q3: There is no sugar-coating with this question. I want to hear what you really think about this. While health is very important to me, at the top of my list, by no means am I perfect. We can all improve in some way. While I’m pretty good about choosing healthy foods, and sharing tips on the podcast for health and wellness, however, I do drink wine in moderation. Well, since writing these questions, I listened to Dr. Andrew Huberman’s most recent podcast on the impacts of alcohol and the brain[iii], and he makes a clear-cut case that even for moderate drinkers, there are very few benefits to drinking alcohol, only risks, making me seriously question why I’m putting a known carcinogen in my body when I won’t take an Advil because I know that will mess up my microbiome.

What have you seen with people who choose unhealthy foods or drinks over their health? I know your take on soda is like my take on Advil, but what do you think about alcohol and its impact on the brain that we should think about for preventing neurological disorders?

Q4: Dr. Douyon, our podcast took a turn towards health and well-being around September 2020, when we started looking at the Top 5 Health Staples[iv] that I thought could really move the needle for all of us and improve our physical and mental health. I really got into understanding Alzheimer’s Prevention, and it seems that exercise solves many mental/physical health problems, so we’ve centered many episodes around the impact of exercise on the brain. When I heard you mention your Pyramid of Neurological Health, I wondered what you think we should all know to prevent neurological disorders?

Q4B: How do the TOP 5 Health Staples that we’ve been focused on the podcast compare to your Pyramid of Neurological Health? If you look at my list, would you change it in any way? Am I missing anything that’s important for our neurological health?

Q4C: What do you say to people who don’t want to let go of their vices?

Q4D: How do you make behavior change stick?

Q5: From listening to your Brain Prophet’s Podcast, I can see that you are on a mission to help people to take control of their brain, when it comes to their overall health, but what have I missed? How do you want your mission to impact the world? What is your vision for the work you are doing?

Q6: Most of our listeners are focused on their health and wellbeing, but like me, could sharpen the saw in some areas. What do you think is the wakeup call that we could all benefit from BEFORE a serious neurological illness hits us? What are one of two things would you suggest we all be doing to move the needle the most towards health and wellness?

For people to learn more about your work, I will put all the links to your website, book and online course in the show notes. I want to thank you very much, Dr. Douyon, for bringing credibility through science and research to the positive thinking movement where many years ago, many doctors would prescribe a pill over many of the strategies you’ve shared today.

Thank you for spearheading the way, and showing us how our health and well-being really can be within our control.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

As we close out this episode, I think it came at the perfect time for me to think back to the beginning of the year, when we looked at how we would achieve NEW results, to make 2022 our best year ever[v], do things in a wildly different way than we have previously, and the importance of learning and applying NEW and specialized knowledge to our lives, in order to move beyond where we’ve ever been before.

This is exactly what Dr. Douyon’s online course, Taking Charge of Your Brain[vi] is all about. I highly encourage following Dr. Douyon’s work, reading his book, and tuning into his podcast, especially if you have an area of your life that you want to improve in the area of health and wellness.

I’ve already made some notes of where I’ll be making changes, and it’s all focused around the understanding that we have ONE BRAIN, ONE BODY and ONE LIFE…and all the choices I’m making today are either “Rewiring My Brain for Health and Happiness” or they are not.

I hope you’ll join me in looking for areas of your life that you want to improve.

I’ll see you on Friday.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

FOLLOW Dr. PHILIPPE DOUYON

Website https://www.inlebrainfitinstitute.com/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/philippe.md/?hl=en

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PhilippeDouyonMD

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-philippe-douyon-85a24449/

The Brain Prophet’s Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-brain-prophets-podcast/id1582747254

RECENT PODCAST APPEARANCES:

Think Unbroken Podcast: Neuroplasticity and the Impact of Positivity with Dr. Philippe Douyon

Rewire the Podcast: Improve Your Health Through Neuroplasticity with Dr. Philippe Douyon, MD

Black to Business Podcast: [BLACK MEN WHO LEAD] How To Take Charge Of Your Brain & Rewire It For Success w/ Dr. Philippe Douyon

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroplasticity: Your Brain's Superpower published by Philippe Douyon, MD April 23, 2019 https://www.amazon.com/Neuroplasticity-Brains-Superpower-Change-Brain/dp/164228100X

[ii]Take Charge of Your Brain online course by Philippe Douyon, MD. https://www.inlebrainfitinstitute.com/take-charge

[iii] Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Podcast on “What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain and Health” https://hubermanlab.com/what-alcohol-does-to-your-body-brain-health/

NOTES FROM Juan Pablo Aranovich Published August 22, 2022 https://medium.com/@juanpabloaranovich/the-effects-of-alcohol-how-bad-are-they-bfb93c57ff8f

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #87 “Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/do-you-know-the-top-5-brain-health-and-alzheimers-prevention-strategies-with-andrea-samadi/

[v]Neuroscience Meet Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

[vi] Take Charge of Your Brain online course by Philippe Douyon, MD. https://www.inlebrainfitinstitute.com/take-charge

Aug 22, 2022

00:46:18

“We have a brain for one reason and one reason only -- that’s to produce adaptable and complex movements. Movement is the only way we affect the world around us… I believe that to understand movement is to understand the whole brain. And therefore it’s important to remember when you are studying memory, cognition, sensory processing, they’re there for a reason, and that reason is action.” From neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/wiSPswItU70

On this episode you will learn:

✔ How Trent McEntire discovered a way to "unlock" his brain through movement, and change his life forever.

✔ How his discovery impacted his ability to go from a struggling reader, to someone who enjoys reading books.

✔ How he took his discovery and created a brain-training program for students, athletes and anyone struggling with a neurological disorder.

On today’s episode #240, we will be speaking with Trent McEntire, from Fire Up Your Brain™[i] where you can see the Brain-Based Training Programs that he developed by chance (for kids, seniors and athletes) when he stumbled across the answer to something that unblocked his brain, through moving the body, leading him to develop The Fire Up your Brain Program™, unleashing his mission to help others around the globe with this discovery.

We just heard from Joshua Gillis on EPISODE #238[ii] about how important movement is for “unblocking” the brain, especially with athletes, so when I read Trent’s story, I was blown away with how our last episode, helped me to make sense of how Trent’s invention could possibly “Fire Up Your Brain” since we just learned about how some simple movements that Joshua created, had a profound impact on world-class athletes, who had almost given up hope of getting better.

Then I read his story, and it caught me off-guard a bit. From looking at Trent’s videos, and even the pictures of him on his website, I would guess he was a retired pro athlete of some sort, who had invented something that made a difference for his team, and extended this tool for kids and seniors, but there was much more to his story than meets the eye.

Trent was born with a mild form of Cerebral Palsy, and experienced pain and stiffness every day from the time he was a child. Now my mind is going back to our recent episode with Ashok Gupta[iii], where he created an advanced brain retraining program to help people relieved chronic pain by breaking the vicious inflammation loop, and I wonder how Trent was able to move past his pain, using his love for sports and repair his own body. I’ll put Trent’s BIO in the show notes, but think he will tell his story in a way that we will all feel the heart behind the Fire Up Your Brain Program™, and participate with Trent’s mission to spread the word of his work.

Let’s meet Trent McEntire, and learn how we can Fire Up Our Brain, unlocking us to new heights in school, sports and the workplace.

Welcome Trent, thank you for meeting up with me today to take us behind the story of this incredible invention you’ve created to Fire Up Our Brains. I’m going to guess that you are still in Michigan?

INTRO Q: Trent, if you were able to look at the back story I wrote, you will have seen that I wouldn’t have guessed that you had overcome so much in your past, including the pain and stiffness you were experiencing as a young child, through movement in sports. Can you share what those early years were like, and when things started to take a turn for the better for you?

Q1: Trent, we have spent many episodes talking about reading and the brain, and have dove deep into why some children struggle with reading with David A Sousa whose life’s work has been centered around “How the Brain Learns.”[iv] While it’s a complex topic, asking a kid to sit down and read longer isn’t the solution to this problem, I’m sure you’ll agree? How did you “unlock” the secret for reading, that marked the end of your reading challenges, through brain-training?

Q1B: How does the BrainSpeedBall work?

Q2: Now I’ve got to move on to something that’s really important to me and that’s health. Our podcast took a turn towards health and well-being around September 2020, when we started looking at the Top 5 Health Staples[v] that I thought could really move the needle for all of us, and improve our physical and mental health. Daily exercise was STAPLE #1 and we’ve centered many episodes around the importance of exercise on our brain health. For someone like yourself, who has overcome health challenges, using exercise, what can you say about The Movement Gap, and why people might begin to lose hope with the medical community these days?

Q2B: How are you using the BrainSpeed Ball with higher-level athletes?

Q2C: Do you know how it works? What does the research say?

Q3: What exactly is the BrainSpeed Ball that you’ve invented? How does it work? And how does it help people with Neurological conditions to improve the quality of their life (Parkinson’s, MS, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, Sensory Integration, Traumatic Brain Injuries, etc?

Q3B: How was the production creation process, and trademarking BrainSpeed Ball?

Q3C: How do you plan to market BrainSpeed Ball?

Q4: How would an athlete, student or senior integrate the BrainSpeed Ball into their day? Where would someone begin, and then what Best Practices should we know about?

Q5: What are the ways that people can work with you?

Q6: What is your vision for Fire Up Your Brain™?

Q7: Trent, Is there anything important that I’ve missed?

I want to thank you for coming on the podcast today and sharing your story of how you came to discover BrainSpeed Ball with others who might know of someone (a child struggling to read), an athlete or a senior. If someone wants to try this program, where should they go?

Thank you Trent.

Final Thoughts:

When someone who has spent their lifetime thinking of ways to help others, like Trent MeEntire, I think it’s really important to support their work. If you are a teacher in the classroom, looking for new ways to have your students take “brain breaks” be sure to visit the website FireUpYourBrain.com and read through some of the K-12 educator testimonials.

If you work with athletes, we have spent many episodes on this podcast talking about the importance of movement and the brain, but now we can add how eye-tracking is sharpening an athlete’s focus and agility.

If you know someone who is struggling with everything that goes along with a neurological disorder, we are going to dive deeper into this topic with Dr. Philippe Douyon this week, (a board certified neurologist who focuses on how to take charge of our health when we are faced with illness in our life, but in the mean time, I trust the work that Trent has put behind BrainSpeed Ball, and hope you will take a serious look at what he has created, to get us all moving, with our brain in mind.

See you in a few days.

CONNECT WITH TRENT

www.FireUpYourBrain.com

EMAIL: trent@fireupyourbrain.com

PHONE: 586-615-0223

FACEBOOK @FireUpYourBrain

INSTAGRAM @BrainSpeedClub

Ask Trent https://www.fireupyourbrain.com/pages/ask-trent

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://www.fireupyourbrain.com/

REFERENCES:

[ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #238 with Joshua Gillis on “Neuro-Func-Tional Training Centering the Mind/Body Connection”

https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/joshua-gillis-on-neuro-func-tional-training-centering-the-mind-body-connection-to-release-our-highest-potential/

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #234 with Ashok Gupta on “Health and Happiness: Getting to the Root of Chronic Pain and Illness” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/ashok-gupta-on-heath-and-happiness-getting-to-the-root-of-chronic-pain-and-illness-long-covid-fibromyalgia-chronic-fatigue-and-others/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #197 with David A Sousa on “What’s NEW with the 6th Edition of How the Brain Learns” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/returning-guest-dr-david-a-sousa-on-what-s-new-with-the-6th-edition-of-how-the-brain-learns/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #87 “Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/do-you-know-the-top-5-brain-health-and-alzheimers-prevention-strategies-with-andrea-samadi/

Aug 18, 2022

00:22:09

“It doesn’t matter how hard we work, or how many hours we put in, if OUR Paradigm (or mental program that has exclusive control over our habitual behavior) does not change, the results will ultimately remain the same, year after year.” Bob Proctor, from the Paradigm Shift Seminar.

I’m Andrea Samadi, and for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to revisit how exactly we change our identity, to build a stronger, more resilient, 2.0 version of ourselves, by reviewing our self-image and self-belief that we covered on EPISODE #199[i] that had over 1300 downloads, showing me that you are just as interested in this topic as I am.

In this episode we will discuss:

✔ What is PRAXIS (the application of a theory) and how can we use this idea?

✔ What is our self-image vs our self-esteem?

✔ How is our self-image/identity formed?

✔ How do we identify gaps or areas we can improve?

✔ How can we change our self-image/identity?

✔ Can our confidence levels be seen by others?

✔ Can we predict a person’s self-esteem levels (or what they think of themselves) by looking at their brain?

✔ 4 Steps to create a 2.0 version of YOU!

What is PRAXIS and How Can We Use it For Improved Results?

This weekend I was thinking about life, and how we just get one shot to make it a meaningful one. I’m sure I’m not alone with this line of thinking, especially these days, when it comes to acknowledging how fragile life really is. Earlier this month, I lost another mentor—Mark Low, who was my neighbor in Toronto, who was the one who handed me “the” book that would change my life forever. You can read the story I’ve told often in the show notes[ii] but for this episode, after thinking about how precious life is, and all the lessons I’ve learned from the many mentors along the way, there was one profound lesson that stood out to me, that I want to tie into this episode that I’ll dedicate it, to my neighbor, Mark Low.

When I first went to work in the motivational speaking industry, back in the late 1990s, I was hired by my neighbor, Mark, to help with administrative tasks, that eventually moved into sales, leading me to travel to each of the seminars and learn from all the speakers and connections made over the years and I talk about everyone I’ve learned from often on this podcast. In those early days, I would receive a paycheck from Mark’s company, that was called The Praxis Group. I remember looking at my check one day, and asking Mark “Hey, what does Praxis mean?” and he looked over at me from the desk on the other side of the room (we worked out of his parent’s basement back then, with our desks facing a wall that was covered in charts with our upcoming seminars, and he replied, “Andrea, it’s when you integrate your beliefs with your behaviors.” That’s was it. He just stopped for a minute and watched my face looking confused, and he added that “people really change when this happens and that they become an entirely new person” with this concept of Praxis. I looked up the definition that Miriam Webster[iii] gives today and it says that Praxis is the “practical application of a theory” or the “practice of an art, science or skill.” If you look up “becoming a better version of you” these days, the topic is still of high interest.

I remember thinking “that’s incredible”, as I love everything about change, growth, or skill-building but looking back now, I’m sure it took me over 22 years to get the full understanding of the meaning of Praxis and how exactly we integrate our beliefs with our behavior to attain this sought-after change which happens when we repeat the new habits of what we want, over and over again. I had to dig a bit, but I did find an old photo of our offices in those early days, before Bob Proctor Seminars took off and became The Proctor Gallagher Institute, with an official office. But in these early days, Mark Low worked at the desk to the left of me, and while it’s funny to see all of the old technology we used to use, or how we manually kept track of the seminar attendees with wall charts, there is much more behind the work that was done in those early days and it had to do with Praxis, which was why people paid the money that they did to attend these seminars. Seminar attendees were all looking to create a new version of themselves, by changing their old beliefs, and then integrating their new beliefs (that they had learned) with their current life. They were paying for this concept of Praxis---whether it was around changing their beliefs about their ability to earn money, (there were many seminars on that topic) or improve their relationships, or creativity, or productivity, there was a change of thinking required that would lead to a paradigm shift, and then to permanent change, which I’m sure is what we all want in life. We are either improving and moving forward, to this new version of ourselves, or we are not.

PHOTO of Andrea working with Mark Low, selling Bob Proctor’s Seminars in Toronto, December, 2000.

So What Does Praxis (or Integrating our Beliefs and Our Behavior) Have to do with Our Self-Image?

The Mountain State Centers for Independent Living has a definition of self-image that I can relate to. It says that

“Self-image is how you perceive yourself. It is a number of self-impressions that have built up over time… These self-images can be very positive, giving a person confidence in their thoughts and actions, or negative, making a person doubtful of their capabilities and ideas.”[iv]

Our self-image is what we see when we look in the mirror, but like the definition we just read explains, what we see can be either be positive, giving us confidence, or negative, making us doubtful of our capabilities and ideas.” Our self-image is something that’s built up over time and I would say that it exists in the non-conscious part of our mind. See the image in the show notes that I took from my notes from the Winner’s Image Seminar, that eventually went into my first book, The Secret for Teens Revealed. This way of looking at our mind originated from the late Dr. Thurman Fleet, the Founder of Concept Therapy, and is a good way to think of where our “self-image” exists in our mind.

REMEMBER:

We can have a self-image that controls our ability to earn money, where we either see ourselves as a strong income earner, or not. We can have a self-image that controls our weight and health, where we see ourselves as healthy, or not. We can have a self-image that controls our grades in school, where we see ourselves as a good student, or not.

If we look at the image in the show notes of our self-image in our mind, it’s easy to see how what we think about ourselves, (our self-image) controls our results in life.

To change our paradigms, or old way of thinking, we need to do the work to overcome the old self-image that controls our results with a NEW self-image that with time, will override the old, outdated version of ourselves. Our NEW 2.0 self-image that’s based on the new actions we must take, will eventually cause us to create new conditions and circumstances, setting us up for a whole new life. Who wouldn’t want to choose this new path, over the old version of you? It just takes WORK and THE WILL to do it.

When We Believe in Ourselves, We Will Do That Work Required for Our New Results.

Our self-image also has a lot to do with our self-esteem “which is the overall sense of respect for ourselves and involves how favorably (or unfavorably) we feel about ourselves.”[v] Obviously when we are earning more money than less, we will feel more confident, or if we are a student achieving excellent grades, this boosts our confidence levels.

It’s these strong confidence levels that we will need to override our doubts, fears and uncertainties that will come our way, allowing us to achieve PRAXIS, and the change that Mark Low mentioned comes along with creating a NEW identity. You become a winner, or a good income earner or an excellent student. You Become a New Version of YOU!

Can Our Confidence Levels Achieved by This Thing Called Praxis Be Seen by Others?

When I look at the photo of myself that I found back in December, 2000, (I was 29 years old) I can remember sitting in that chair like it was yesterday. I know that I felt confident with myself, (my self-esteem) enough to quit my teaching position, and try something entirely new, but there was something missing with my equation. While I had a strong self-esteem (what I thought of myself) I had a weak self-image, as I worried about what other people thought of me. I think this is an age/experience concept, that shifts with time. But what goes on inside our minds, shows on the outside (with our behaviors and end results) like we can see with the diagram I drew out, so I do think that we can see someone’s confidence levels, or lack of confidence. It’s almost like this cybernetic mechanism that keeps us stuck from moving forward with whatever it is we are working on. When we are stuck, or unable to move forward, there’s something blocking our results at the non-conscious level. And we can, with some introspection, figure out what it is.

While writing this episode, I was talking to one of my close friends from high school she said to me “do you ever look back at pictures and think, wow, I wish I knew then, what I know now?”

She got that right for sure. I wish I knew this quote 22 years ago, from America’s leading psychiatrist and brain health expert, Dr. Daniel Amen, who reminds us--

“When you’re 18, you think everybody is judging you, and you care deeply about what they think of you. When you reach 40, you no longer care what anybody thinks about you. At 60, you realize nobody has been thinking about you at all because most people only think about themselves.” (Dr. Daniel Amen).

Try This Activity Yourself.

Find a photograph of you from a long time ago, and see what you see. It’s really easy to see it in others, and more difficult when it comes to self-reflection. What do you see when you look at older photos of yourself? Do you remember how you felt in the photo? How is your self-esteem equation (what you think of yourself) vs your self-image (how you see yourself based on what you think others think of you), leading to your level of confidence?

You can learn a lot about yourself, and what you can improve from this level of self-awareness.

Once We See Our Gaps, How Do We Build Up Our Confidence?

Once we see our confidence equation, if you were like me, and noticed that for whatever reason, you had an area of your equation that you could change (either your self-esteem levels, or self-image) then this week’s brain fact Friday is for you. On this episode, we will create a plan to fix our gaps, and override the older version of YOU.

The Brain and Self-Esteem

Before we create this plan, for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to revisit a part of our brain that researchers at Dartmouth College have identified as a region of the human brain that seems to predict a person’s self-esteem levels, or what they think of themselves (where our identity begins that leads us to our self-belief). We did cover this on EPISODE #199 but I want to look at this part of the brain from a different angle and how it relates to PRAXIS, or integrating our NEW beliefs with our NEW behaviors, for NEW results, and increased confidence levels that we will need to build this 2.0 version of ourselves.

This part of the brain that researchers discovered can predict a person’s self-esteem levels is called “the frontostriatal pathway, and the stronger and more active it is in the brain, the more self-esteem someone has.”[vi] The lead researcher of this study, Robert Chavez found that self-esteem lies in this pathway as shown in the image in the show notes and that “this pathway connects the medial PFC that deals with self-knowledge to the ventral striatum that deals with feelings of motivation and reward.” He called this pathway “the road” and that “a person with a strong road was more likely to have higher long-term self-esteem.” He also reminded us “how repeated behaviors (like meditation) can alter brain traits,” and we’ve talked about why repetition, or doing things over and over again can strengthen these neural pathways that lead to “stronger roads” and “higher levels of self-esteem.”

How Do We Build a New and More Confident YOU?

Or How Can We Integrate Our Beliefs with Our Behaviors?

This comes with time, experience and like we learned from Dr. John Dunlosky’s research from EPISODE #37[vii], from repeating the same thing, over and over again to strengthen those neural pathways, leading to “stronger roads” in the brain.

This weekend, as I was thinking about Mark Low and his business name, PRAXIS, and all the people he helped over the years, I went back to those early days when I watched many people “switch on” something with their thinking, and make significant changes in their lives as they changed their self-image, overriding their old paradigms, and created this NEW 2.0 version of themselves. I’m always on the look-out for those who do the work to make this change as many people get stuck in the process along the way, which is why I wanted to cover this on this week’s Brain Fact Friday, to bring clarity to how we can all accomplish this change.

So How Do We Create A NEW Self-Image and Override Our Old Paradigms?

Now this is the part that I think took me over 22 years to really understand. I think this part is clear, that over time, or doing things a certain way, we can override our paradigms, creating a new self-image, leading us to new results and “stronger roads” in our brain, leading us to higher levels of self-esteem. That makes sense, right?

When I asked Mark what Praxis meant and he said “it means integrating our beliefs with our behaviors” I don’t think I really understood how “Praxis” happens, like how do we make this change? How do we integrate our beliefs with our behaviors? It doesn’t just happen one day….it happens over time, after doing the same thing over and over again. One day, we look up from whatever it is we are doing, and notice that this change is now permanent. Like my high school friend reminded me, “don’t you wish we knew what we know now, back in those days?” I wish I was more confident in my abilities, and didn’t worry what others thought about me. I hope this awareness can help others to shorten their curve to changing old beliefs and habits, and create a NEW 2.0 version of themselves.

I saw it when I interviewed Ryan O’Neill, with EPISODE #203[viii] on “Making Your Vision a Reality” because he changed in front of my eyes into an entirely different person. A NEW 2.0 version of himself. When I began working with Ryan, around 10 years ago, he mentioned that he never imagined where his life would be today, starring on Television shows around the globe for his work as a Paranormal Researcher.

I thought about the hard work Ryan put in, to change his self-image, leading to new results, and I thought it was almost like taking a glass of water, and putting one drop of food coloring into it, likening the food color to the repetition of daily activity that’s required for this change. To make a long-lasting color change on the water, we have to keep adding new drops of color to the water, every day. We can’t just add a drop or two, and expect the color change to last. It will fade away, unless the drops are repeated. Exactly like the way we must repeat our daily actions, grinding away our old self-image, and building a new one in its place. It’s a process, but this new self-image, leads us to new results, and this new version of you. This is all possible with a vision, hard work and persistence.

How to Achieve PRAXIS and Integrate Your Beliefs with Your Behavior?

I’ve included a ROADMAP for you to use in the show notes for the next steps, but it doesn’t matter what you use. This is just a vision to help you to plan out where you are and where you are going.

WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

Start with the Self-Esteem Equation and Look for Your Gaps.

Strong Self-Esteem (what you think of yourself) + Strong Self-Image (how you perceive yourself based on how you think others see you) =

Strong Confidence Levels.

Where is your self-esteem (your overall sense of self-respect)? Does this are need work? Where is your self-image (how you see yourself based on how others perceive you)? Are you like me, and just need to let go of what others think of you? Once you can see the gaps, you know where to begin. Write out the OLD identity you want to override (where you are now) and replace it with your NEW identity or vision.

WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

What is the NEW Self-Image you would like to create? (ie, good student, lose weight, leader in educational neuroscience?). Write out your NEW identity in as much detail as possible.

DO THE WORK: What do you need to do to achieve this goal? Find someone who has achieved what you want to do, and ask how to begin. Create an action plan, and don’t stop until you get to where you want to go.

[ix]

REVIEW:

To review this week’s Brain Fact Friday, did you know that researchers found a part of the brain that predicts a person’s self-esteem levels called “the frontostriatal pathway, and the stronger and more active it is in the brain, the more self-esteem someone has?”[x]

Did you know that we can change our self-image (how we perceive ourselves) by repeatedly taking action towards something that we want, (like Ryan O’Neill did in the Paranormal Industry) and this action will override our old self-image, watering down the paradigms that once controlled us (like we explained with the glass of water changing color with each drop of food coloring added), and giving us heightened confidence levels, and new results?

Like Mark said to me 22 years ago, “It’s called Praxis or integrating our beliefs with our behavior” and when this happens, it creates an entirely new person. It just takes WORK and the WILL to make this change.

I hope you enjoyed this episode that took me back 22 years ago, as I thought of where my journey began, in those early days of working in the motivational speaking industry. This episode is for you Mark, and for all those people who you worked with, including myself, helping us to change into this NEW 2.0 version of ourselves, that we could barely imagine without your vision, and I hope that it impacts listeners, the same way it did for me, all those years ago.

See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

My Roadmap 2022 Roadmap-2022.jpg">https://www.achieveit360.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/My-Roadmap-2022.jpg

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #199 “The Neuroscience Behind our Self-Belief and Our Identity” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-neuroscience-behind-self-belief-and-our-identity/

[ii] How a Book Can Change Your Life by Andrea Samadi https://www.proctorgallagherinstitute.com/43977/how-a-book-can-change-your-life?fbclid=IwAR0RHhcy0WXImsUkzyuMgfWwNPvQjXn2-36hiSBmKKEfZFI-MXtl_2U53Y0

[iii] Praxis definition webster.com/dictionary/praxis">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/praxis

[iv] What is Self-Image and How Do We Improve it? Dec 22, 2018 by Courtney Ackerman, MA. https://positivepsychology.com/self-image/

[v] IBID

[vi] There is Where Self-Esteem Lives in the Brain by Anna Almendrala Published June 16, 2014 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/self-esteem-brain_n_5500501

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #37 with Dr. John Dunlosky on “Improving Student Success” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kent-states-dr-john-dunlosky-on-improving-student-success-some-principles-from-cognitive-science/

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #203 on “Ryan O’Neill, Making your Vision a Reality” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/case-study-with-paranormal-researcher-ryan-o-neill-on-making-your-vision-a-reality/

[ix] LIVE EVENT Huberman Lab Q & A from Seattle, WA (32 min) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/live-event-q-a-dr-andrew-huberman-question-answer/id1545953110?i=1000576342167

[x] There is Where Self-Esteem Lives in the Brain by Anna Almendrala Published June 16, 2014 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/self-esteem-brain_n_5500501

Aug 12, 2022

01:09:46

“We have seen that the brain grows by use and that the more you use it, the better it will function.” Glenn Doman, the creator of the Doman Method"[i]

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/KUF52WCNRxU

I’d like to add, that the more we understand how our brain works, the more we will actually use it!

On the episode we will explore:

✔ The work of Joshua Gillis, Neuro-Integrator, and the outstanding results he has been having with world class athletes from the world of ice-hockey, to skiing, and wrestling.

✔ Where his work with "unlocking blocks in the brain" began.

✔ What we should all know about our the evolution of our brain and why movement is critical for "unlocking" our true potential.

✔ An Intro to the Neuro Func APP used to improve sports performance, cognitive abilities, and behavioral intelligence.

✔ How to access the FREE sessions in the APP to try it out.

On today’s episode #238, we will be speaking with Joshua Gillis[ii], who is on a mission to spread his groundbreaking knowledge in neuroscience to as many people as possible, and maybe even convince them to become a member of the small but growing, NOWLiving community. Before we get into WHAT exactly Joshua Gillis has discovered in this field, I’ve got to say that something about his work stuck out to me when his team contacted me.

While preparing for interviews, I want to be sure the topic is in line with our season theme of brain health as it relates to learning, and Joshua’s work goes deep into the brain and learning, which I saw with some of his teachers and colleagues who included Glenn Doman (USA), Blythe and Godard (UK) and (I hope I’m getting this one right, as I’m not well versed in Russian) Svetlans Masgutova (RUSSIA). This is quite a powerful list, but the minute I saw Glenn Doman, my mind went back to 1999 when I was working in the seminar industry, and the speaker I worked for, opened the seminar with the work that Glenn Doman was doing in PA, helping children with special needs accomplish the impossible. If you’ve ever heard my story, in those early days after I left the teaching field, I was still trying to figure out where I was meant to be working, and I would write down anything important that caught my attention when it came to helping young people live up to the potential we know we all have. When the speaker told us about Glenn Doman’s work, where we took a young boy named Brendon, who was severely handicapped, and was told he would “just live his life like a vegetable” and with the method of using his brain and movement, they had this young boy up and running (and I forget the time frame) but that’s not what was important. It was the fact his life changed 180 degrees from what everyone expected of him. I thought the story was profound enough to write his name and phone number on the first page of my seminar notes, where we I was supposed to be learning about how our mind is connected to our earning potential. That weekend, I couldn’t stop wondering about what made such an impact for that young boy and it wasn’t difficult for me to find the notes I jotted down from that seminar.

IMAGE 1: My first introduction to the work of Glenn Doman in 1999 led me to purchase all of his books, and raise my two children with the Doman Method.

The problem with this #1 Best Selling Parenting Series was there was a huge gap with understanding the brain, or how it works, to allow me to properly use these books.

23 years after first hearing about the Doman Institute, I still have some of his books, but without any training these books and theories remained unused over the years, which to me is a huge waste. I wonder if Joshua Gillis’ work could fill in the blanks of what I didn’t understand, so others listening to this podcast, could use these concepts to their advantage, and perhaps Multiply Their Baby’s Intelligence[iii] and join Joshua’s mission to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Let’s learn a bit about Joshua Gillis now that you have an idea of those innovators he has worked and learned with.

What Joshua has found, seems to be, the basic coding to unlock our brains to its true and full capacity like I heard about with that young boy Brendon, all those years ago. His work is all based on the evolution of the nervous system and that our brain’s first job is to move the body. The result is a training and therapy system which will offer physical therapy, behavior and learning for children, psychology, endocrinology, men’s and women's health with a new more effective and holistic way to resolve these problems and so much more.

Joshua has been working 36 years as a therapist, treating over 10,000+ clients, including top athletes like:

Former Swedish ice hockey player, Peter Forsberg, who was known for his “on-ice vision and physical play” who was considered one of the greatest players of all-time, as one of NHL’s All Time Stars, and Winner of 2 Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche. Peter Forsberg worked with Joshua for Rehabilitation and Increase in Performance and after his treatment he said “I could not even get my foot into the skates before getting the neuro-treatments. After surgery, and physio with the world’s best I had given up hope of ever skating again. Thank God I gave it one last try! After only 7 treatments I was skating and two months later back with the Avalanche and a million-dollar contract. This stuff is just unbelievable!”

I will put a link to Joshua’s top athletes in the show notes, that includes Markus Larsson, a retired Swedish alpine skier who took part in the 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014 winter Olympics who said “From the first treatment, I felt the difference. In a month after the treatments and neurotraining my finishes improved by 10 places to the top 10. Then, after a day of training and treatments with Joshua, I pulled off the impossible, a 5th place in the Olympics at 35 years old.”

How this happens, I don’t know…just as we still don’t understand exactly why when we turn on a light switch, electricity lights up our room, but Joshua has discovered something that “switches on” something in our brain, helping us to overcome where there were once blocks.

Let’s meet Joshua Gillis and see what we can learn about our brain and body, with an approach to improving the “human condition” that’s so interesting, that anyone listening will be moved and touched by his journey where he went from a Ski coach into pre-med and alternative medicine scouring the planet for knowledge living in Sweden, Italy and France, along with his personal struggle to help his two sons which is actually what led him to the creation of this work. I’m hoping he can unlock some of the mysteries of the brain, so we can all take something back to improve our own health, wellbeing and productivity.

Welcome Joshua Gillis, thank you for coming on the podcast today. Where have we reached you today? Are you still in Maine?

INTRO Q: Joshua, I’ve got to say I was thrilled to see your work come across my email, when your team reached out to me, as it took me back over 20 years ago before I was even thinking about the brain and learning and came across some of your colleagues. Can you take us back to when you began to make a connection with our brain, learning and movement? Where did this journey begin for you?

Q1: I’m sure you can see that I’m a huge Glenn Doman fan, and bought all his books when I was pregnant with my first daughter, of course, wanting to Multiply my Baby’s Intelligence before she was even born. I can’t be the only one who wanted to do everything possible in those early days. How did you meet Glenn Doman and what did you learn from his work?

Q1B: What should we know about the origin of our brain and our central nervous system?

Q1C: What should we know about the brain to make it all simple?

Q2: So what’s behind the levels that you have used in your Neuro Func APP that you have used to improve sports performance, cognitive abilities, and behavioral intelligence?

Q3: So what exactly will people be doing at each level in the APP to improve their performance?

Q4: Does your APP help us to unlock our blocks through movement at each level?

Q5: This next sentence is profound. Especially with the topic I’m covering here on the podcast-helping people to learn how an understanding of their brain can impact productivity and results (in schools, sports and the workplace). You say:

“When certain and specific movements are practiced, there is a powerful shift deep within our unconscious mind that positively affects nearly all of what we are; emotional clarity, behavioral stability, intellectual and artistic ability, postural perfection and sports performance.”

Can you explain what this means?

Q6: What is your current focus/vision for your work?

Joshua, Thank you very much for coming on the podcast and sharing your fascinating journey to help us to unlock our brains so we can reach those higher levels of capacity.

Is there anything important that we have missed?

Final Thoughts

When I think back to the beginning of this episode, I was hoping that Joshua would be able to fill in the blanks for what I didn’t understand about the brain, but I realized that we don’t always need to understand everything. I learned that in order to unlock our potential, movement is critical, and Joshua has figured out the best movements that he has put into 5 levels in his app. I went through each level (you can sign up to access each level for FREE with your email address as well) and what I noticed was that there were some exercises I had recently started doing in physical therapy for neck pain. If you’ve ever been to physical therapy, you go when you need to recover your muscles from an injury, or recover from an accident or injury, and sometimes the exercises can feel like a waste of time. You do the same motion over and over again. But then, after each session, you express to your therapist whether you feel better or not, and after every session I had attended, I felt an improvement.

Before seeing Joshua’s app, or the exercises he’s been doing with athletes over the years, I’m not sure I would have believed the power behind it all, until I thought of this one exercise called the “Cat Camel” that he has in the app.

If you have something that you would like to work on, I highly suggest trying his app, and see what you notice. I will be having Joshua back on the podcast to take a deeper dive into each of the 5 levels, but until then, try it out, and see if you can use movement, the basic blueprint of your brain, to unlock your potential, like we saw from the athletes he has worked with around the world.

I’ll see you next week!

LEARN MORE ABOUT JOSHUA GILLIS

Website https://nowliving.today/

NeuroFunC in the Apple App Store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neuro-func/id1544667683 (Sign in with your email/password to access FREE Training).

EMAIL nowliving.today@gmail.com">nowliving.today@gmail.com

SEE ALL APPS https://nowliving.today/applications/

TOP Athletes Joshua Gillis has worked with https://nowliving.today/top_clients/

RESOURCES:

Glenn Doman’s Work with The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential https://iahp.org/

Brain Gym https://www.braingym.com/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Glenn Doman https://www.domaninternational.org/glenn-doman

[ii] Joshua Gillis Website https://nowliving.today/

[iii] How to Multiply Your Baby’s Intelligence by Glenn Domann 2006 https://www.amazon.com/Multiply-Babys-Intelligence-Gentle-Revolution/dp/0757001831#:~:text=How%20To%20Multiply%20Your%20Baby's%20Intelligence%20provides%20a%20comprehensive%20program,for%20a%20lifetime%20of%20success.

Aug 05, 2022

00:10:38

On this episode we will cover:

✔ The future of educational neuroscience.

✔ A mid-year look at our goals.

✔ How unresolved issues impact our brain and body.

I’m Andrea Samadi, and for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I wanted to tie in our interviews from this week with something we can all use right away. I thought about what my friend Kate is building with YungMash Collective that we covered on EPISODE #235[i]—a mentoring community for young adults ages 18-30 to learn how to apply the most current cutting edge neuroscience to their lives to solve problems with their brain in mind. When Kate’s Dad heard this interview, he told her “what a noble cause” which is exactly what Simon Sinek said to me when he heard of my mission to make an impact in the field of education. It made Kate’s day to have her Dad’s support with her project…

Then I thought about Dr. Loretta Breuning’s Habits of a Happy Brain book that we just covered on EPISODE #236[ii] and I’m amazed at how new this topic of applying an understanding of our brain is, for improving our everyday life and results. Before this interview, I wouldn’t have thought about the serotonin boost that our mission would give both Kate and I, as Dr. Breuning taught us many things about how to increase our happy chemicals, and how serotonin increases when we have a sense of pride with our work, or social importance.

IMAGE: From Habits of a Happy Brain by Dr. Loretta Breuning

It’s only been recently that I began making the connection between the work we are doing here on the podcast, improving our results, and what our brain has to do with it all. We’ve mentioned in recent episodes that “the first academic departments devoted to studying neuroscience didn’t appear until the 1960s” (National Geographic) proving this is a relatively new field of study to glean strategies from, and guide us towards an improved life.

Since we are now mid-year, in Q3 of 2022, I thought back to the beginning of the year, where we launched our 6 PART Think and Grow Rich[iii] book review on “How to Make 2022 Your Best Year Ever” and remembered that we opened each episode with a quote from Grant Cardone who said “In order to get to the next level of what you are doing, you must think in a wildly different way than you previously have been.”

Leading me to These Mid-Year Thoughts:

Are you thinking in a wildly different way than you did last year? What are you doing differently? What NEW results have you attained? Have you broken any records, or moved beyond where you’ve ever been before? Are you making an “effect” (which means a change) in the world? Have you stopped to integrate your NEW success into your current life? Remember, during our Think and Grow Rich book study, we said “it’s our DUTY or OBLIGATION” to win in 2022? Do you think you are winning?

After thinking about these questions myself, I opened my email to see a note from Michael Thomas, the Director of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience at Birkbeck, University of London letting me know he has a new book coming out called Educational Neuroscience: The Basics[iv] that we will dive into a bit later this fall on the podcast. I had written Michael Thomas’ name on my desk last summer (June 2021) with a reminder for me to reach out to him after the interview with Professor and Canada’s Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Dr. Daniel Ansari, from EPISODE #138[v] on The Future of Educational Neuroscience. I knew Michael Thomas as a pioneer in the field and if it wasn’t clear to me 3 years ago, when we scratched down the name of The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning as a podcast title, it’s clear as ice now, Educational Neuroscience is going to be a part of our future.

Michael’s forthcoming book reminded me of how important this topic is for all of us to understand, (whether we are training in the field of education or psychology) where these disciplines interconnect, helping us to question our assumptions about how our brains learn and what this means for education.

For me, this means that this podcast is a lifetime commitment to keep learning, and sharing new ideas and strategies with you (as long as listeners tune in!). I’m committed on this end to finding high quality speakers, and representing their work for all of us to learn from, in the years to come. I keep my eyes open for those who are winning, what they are doing, and then think of ways that we can all take our results higher, as we add this new understanding of our brain, to our everyday lives.

With that in mind, for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I wanted to tie the importance of understanding our brain, for our physical and mental health, since we are focused on our health as it relates to learning this Season. This topic began to emerge more often during those early days in the Pandemic when families were suddenly forced under the same roof for work and school, and had to learn how to interact with each other in an entirely different way. Remember those days? Did any problems emerge that you didn’t have to face prior to this time? No one like dealing with problems like this, but for our mental and physical health, for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, we are going to look at the impact of NOT resolving our problems, and what that does to our health.

DID YOU KNOW THAT Unresolved issues (in your relationships, with your children, or even your work colleagues) … those problems we push aside because they are uncomfortable to talk about so we ignore them, to keep the peace, or have silence around a known issue, “damages our immune system in our brain and body? It damages everything about how we function as a human, damaging the tissues in our body, impacting our mental and physical well-being? Unresolved issues increase the vulnerability of our body by up to 90%” (Dr. Carolyn Leaf who appeared on our podcast last February 2021 for a BONUS EPISODE).[vi]

If we are going to reach those high levels of achievement this year, with whatever it is we are doing, and do things in a wildly different way than we ever have before, I highly suggest listening to Dr. Leaf’s most recent podcast episode where she talks about the impact of our thoughts on our health.

She shares a study that blew my mind when I heard it. She calls it “the Blister Study[vii]” and I’ve linked it in the show notes for you to see where participants were all given a wound or a blister on their hand, and then were directed to either solve an argument amicably, or in a toxic manner (either with yelling and screaming, or ignoring the problem by keeping silent). This was a controlled study, so some people didn’t act the way they would at home, but the study still revealed some fascinating things about the way we resolve conflict, and how our body heals.

After 3 weeks, smaller wounds should heal on their own (Dr. Leaf) while bigger wounds take longer. They brought the participants back after this 21-day period to see what happened to their small wound (the blister).

The study showed that those who were able to solve their conflict, or work towards a solution, (even if it was messy) came back and they had healed their wounds with an immune system that was working optimally. Those others who didn’t resolve their problems had compromised their healing from up to 65%.

Which made me look at my legs that I scraped up with a bad fall from hiking 3 weeks ago today. While I have other scars that haven’t gone away from other falls (that were more serious) the small cuts from 3 weeks ago were completely healed. Until I heard about this study, I would never have thought about how my mental health, and how I solve conflicts, could impact my physical health.

Have you ever thought about this? Did you know that if you are arguing with someone, and don’t resolve it, that you are compromising that person’s health right down to the level of how their brain cells function? That it actually “shortens the telomeres (that are like the ends of shoe laces, and protect the ends of chromosomes from becoming shorter) which impacts how we age.

To conclude this week’s Brain Fact Friday, if we are going to do things differently than we ever have before, one way would be to look at how we deal with conflict in our relationships.

Do we ignore issues to keep the peace, which we saw damages our brain and body, or do we do what’s difficult, and solve issues, as we think about the health and wellbeing of those people we interact with the most? If we really do care about others, solving our problems with our brain in mind is a healthy step forward.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend. If there’s conflict, I hope you solve it, rather than ignore it.

I’ll see you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #235 with Katherine-Alexander Dobrovolskaia on “YungMash Collective” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/katherine-alexander-dobrovolskaia-on-yungmash-collective-a-peer-to-peer-global-mentoring-and-empowering-community-based-on-cutting-edge-neuroscience/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #236 with Dr. Loretta Breuning on “Habits of a Happy Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/loretta-breuning-phd-on-habits-of-a-happy-brain-rewiring-your-brain-to-boost-serotonin-oxytocin-and-endorphin-levels/

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 PART 1 of the “Think and Grow Rich Book Review: How to Make 2022 Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

[iv] Educational Neuroscience: The Basics Forthcoming book by Cathy Rogers and Michael Thomas https://www.routledge.com/Educational-Neuroscience-The-Basics/Rogers-Thomas/p/book/9781032028552

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #136 with Professor and Canada Research Chair Dr. Daniel Ansari on the Future of Educational Neuroscience https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/professor-and-canada-research-chair-in-developmental-cognitive-neuroscience-and-learning-on-the-future-of-educational-neuroscience/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE with Dr. Carolyn Leaf on her NEW book “Cleaning Up your Mental Mess” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/worldrenownedneuroscientistdr-caroline-leaf-oncleaningup-your-mentalmess5-simplescientifically-proven-stepsto-reduceanxiety-and-toxic-thinking/

[vii]Hostile Marital Interactions, Proinflammatory Cytokyne Production, Wound Healing December 2005 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16330726/

Aug 05, 2022

00:57:39

The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most out of every day….

Or is it? Is there a secret to happiness that we can uncover by looking into the chemicals in our brain? We will find this out today.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/6Sb8wAsvwQ8

On the episode we will explore:

✔ A deep dive into the four happy chemicals in our brain.

✔ How to move past old patterns, behaviors and stress response circuits in our brain, for new results.

✔ Healthy ways to increase our happiness neurotransmitters.

✔ Vicious cycles we should all be aware of, and ways to break these cycles.

✔ How to rewire a "low trust" brain and what we can learn from how monkeys build trust in others.

I’m Andrea Samadi, and on today’s episode #236, we have Loretta Breuning, the Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute,[i] Professor Emerita of Management at California State University and the author of Habits of a Happy Brain[ii] and Status Games: Why We Play and How to Stop. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, Real Simple and numerous podcasts.

Loretta helps people to build their power over their mammalian brain chemistry, reminding us that “happiness comes from chemicals we’ve inherited from earlier mammals: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphin levels. When you know how they work in animals, your ups and downs make sense. Our happy chemicals evolved to reward survival behaviors, not to make us feel good all the time. But you can feel good more often when you understand nature’s operating system.”

Let’s meet Dr. Loretta Breuning and learn together, how to retrain our brain to boost our serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels, for a happier and healthier life by understanding why these neurotransmitters are important for happiness to occur in the present moment of our lives.

Welcome Loretta, thank you for coming on the podcast. We have been focused on our brain as it relates to learning, and when I saw your book, Habits of a Happy Brain I jumped to learn more about it, because who doesn’t want to learn more about our brain chemistry, especially when it comes to retraining our brain for happiness.

INTRO Q: Can we start with where your interest in this topic began? How did you go from being a University Professor, to writing books about our brain chemistry and connecting us back to our “inner mammal” and how our brain is wired for survival?

Q1: You mentioned something in another interview[iii], that I think is important for us to understand. You said “we are all wired by our early experiences because this is when we have the most neuroplasticity.” What should we all know about how our brains are wired, that makes us all unique, right down to the level of the neurons in our brain?

Q1B: So, if we are to dive deeper into this, you know how we all have a trauma response, or when we are stressed, or experiencing overwhelm, we experience either fight (anger/irritability) flight (let’s talk about something else and avoid all of this) freeze (unable to move and disassociate), or fawn (where you keep the peace as a people please to avoid conflict)…all of these reactions hard-wired from our early experiences. I’m sure each of us, if asked, could think about which trauma response we use predominately. Once we are aware of our stress response circuit, what do we do with that? Is it enough to just pay attention to whatever it is that’s causing a reaction and notice if it’s really a threat to you, or if we can just move beyond it?

Q2: When I think about happiness, I don’t usually think about what’s going on at the brain level (until reading your book). I’m thinking, I want to move towards this, or I don’t. This makes me feel good, or it doesn’t. Do more of X, and less of Y. What’s behind this feeling of happiness? What 4 chemicals are showing up in the brain, and what should we know about how these 4 brain chemicals work? (Page 14)

Q2B: To intentionally retrain our brain towards more happiness, is this a good formula? “look for the joy=dopamine, beware of masking my pain, it will be temporary (endorphins), look for those I trust (oxytocin) and keep an eye on my pride/desire for social importance with serotonin? Is this enough, or am I missing anything important? (Page 16)

2C: What are healthy ways to increase each neurotransmitter?

Q3: How does our brain wire itself early in life, and how difficult is it to break old wiring/habits?

Q4: What are some common vicious cycles we should be aware of? What is the solution to getting out of these cycles, or resisting habits that make you feel good in the moment, and then bad later?

Q4B: What tools do you have for people who are struggling to break a habit?

Q5: In Chapter 2, Meet Your Happy Chemicals, you say that “your dopamine circuits are built from your past experiences” and “that dopamine builds a neural template that helps you find your rewards” (page 36, Habits of a Happy Brain) all built from our life experiences, like the child who discovers a berry patch with their mother, triggering dopamine with the whole experience. What happens to the rush this person feels later in life, (eating berries, or other experiences that have been wired into the brain) and what should we understand about the ups and downs of dopamine?

Q5B: How can we translate this understanding into our parenting?

Q6: What about endorphin, that “masks pain for a short time” (Page 41) “that is only released if you push past your capacity to the point of distress” and allows you to move forward. We have recently addressed chronic pain[iv], with ways to retrain our brain using mindfulness and meditation, along with other strategies, but endorphin doesn’t seem to be a long-term solution to pain management. How does it contribute to our happiness if it’s a short-term solution to our pain?

Q7: What is the connection between oxytocin and trust? If you were standing in front of someone who just feels off to you for some reason, what happens at your brain level? Is oxytocin ONLY secreted with trust?

Q7B: You say that “our oxytocin pathways are built with life experience” (page 48) so would it make sense that if we have a hard time trusting in our past experiences that these neural pathways would lean towards mistrust with others until we had rewired a new pathway of trust?

Q7C: How would you rewire a “low-trust’ pattern in our brain?

Q8: How can we recognize when serotonin is flowing in our brain as we seek that feeling of being important or being respected, and how do our past serotonin experiences create our present expectations?

Q9: What is your 45-day plan to rewire our brain towards happiness? How can we take all of this and make it applicable?

Q10: Why does our brain create unhappiness? What’s important with experiencing the contrast of happiness and it’s opposite?

Q11: Is there anything important that I have missed?

Final Thoughts:

Thank you Dr. Breuning for sharing your Habits of a Happy Brain and all of your research on this podcast. For people to learn more about your work, and access the incredible free video series you’ve created, I will put the link to your resources and where people can follow you in the show notes.

FOLLOW DR. LORETTA BREUNING

WEBSITE https://innermammalinstitute.org/trainings/

TWITTER https://twitter.com/InnerMammal

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/LorettaBreuningPhD

LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorettabreuning/

YOUTUBE https://www.youtube.com/c/InnerMammalInstitute

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://innermammalinstitute.org/about/

REFERENCES:

[ii] Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin and Endorphin Levels https://innermammalinstitute.org/books/habits-of-a-happy-brain/

[iii] The Quest for Status with Dr. Breuning and Mark Queppet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQFzCq8bSdk

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #133 with Ashok Gupta on “Getting to the Root of Chronic Pain and Illness” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/ashok-gupta-on-heath-and-happiness-getting-to-the-root-of-chronic-pain-and-illness-long-covid-fibromyalgia-chronic-fatigue-and-others/

Aug 02, 2022

00:56:23

"The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper." W.B. Yeats

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/-hQVyUdiBmk

On the episode we will explore:

✔ Why Kate launched a Peer-to Peer Mentoring and Empowering Global Community for young adults, ages 18-30.

✔ Who is Masha, who inspired Yung Mash Collective?

✔ Why Kate felt a sense of urgency to launch this Foundation a few months after losing her daughter, Masha, to a rare form of Cancer.

✔ What neuroscience cannot explain--the spiritual side of losing someone in the physical world.

✔ Lessons Bob Proctor taught in his seminars about the beauty of death, dying and the spiritual realm.

✔ Why some people "feel" things. Are they real?

✔ Kate's vision for YungMash Collective as place for young people to find answers to their problems, from trained Certified Neurocoaches.

On today’s episode #235, we are featuring return guest, Katherine Alexander-Dobrovolskaia who joined us last June, for our very first LIVE event[i] that we recorded from Hawaii. For today’s episode, we welcome Kate back where she will share how she has turned an absolutely heart breaking loss into something life-changing for others with the launch of YungMashCollective, a new peer-to-peer global mentoring and empowering community based on cutting edge neuroscience, after losing her daughter, Masha, to a rare form of Cancer this past March.

Kate, who I met over 10 years ago in a community for those looking to learn how to apply the basics of neuroscience to our daily life, remained in close contact with me over the years, and she later joined Mark Waldman’s Neurocoaching Certification Program where we worked together to be sure we were both on track, completing the assignments. While it took me over two years to complete the course, Kate came into the program with a force to be reckoned with, motivating me to complete the lessons, so we could make use of the knowledge and certification program, to help others, with a sense of urgency. Kate completed her certification that first year, just before her daughter’s health began to decline.

I’ll let Kate tell her story, and how she is using her Neuroscience Certification to help others with this new foundation that she launched, YungMash Collective, to honor her daughter, Masha, and her gift to help others with problems they were struggling with. Let’s welcome my dear friend Kate, from the UK, and hear how she has turned her heartbreaking personal journey around, with her understanding of the brain, and this new Foundation to help others.

Welcome Kate. It’s always incredible to see you, especially face to face.

INTRO Q: To begin, I just don’t have the words. Your story breaks my heart, as it would for any parent listening but especially for someone who saw everything happen first hand. Can you share what happened to your daughter, Masha, and orient our listeners to the why behind the YungMashCollective[ii]?

Q1: I know as a parent, we want our children to excel out in the world with whatever it is they are doing, especially when it comes to helping others along the way. While I’m sure you knew of Masha’s many talents, were there some things you didn’t know until you met with her friends at the vigil that night? What did you learn from gathering Masha’s friends together and the power that she had to help solve other people’s challenges?

Q1B: Knowing that anxiety and depression have reached an all-time high globally, besides the need for this age group that you are focused on with YungMash Collective. What else beside the statistics we see everywhere about where things are in the world today, gave you a sense of urgency to launch this Foundation?

Q2: What services do you provide with YungMash Collective and how are you incorporating what we learned from Mark Waldman in our Neuroscience Certification program?

Q3: Now we are going to cross into the side of this that science is still exploring, but we can’t ignore the things that we “think and feel” when someone we love passes on from where we are in the physical plane, and moves to the non-physical or spiritual side. Can you share some of the mind-boggling things that you and Masha’s friends were talking about on your most recent podcast episode on Yungmash Radio, “Signs from Masha?”[iii] that prove without a doubt that she is still around with you?

Q4: Remember when my dear mentor Bob Proctor moved to the other side, just a month before Masha, and I shared something that he said with a voice recording, reminding us of how are “all spiritual beings, living in a physical body” and that he stopped being afraid of death when he began to look at how beautiful it was on this “other side.” I know we can’t prove it with science, but what do you think about what he said, with the fact that “energy is neither created nor destroyed” and that when we move on, that we are still here energetically? He said “spirit is everywhere. What we see in the physical world and what you cannot see in the spiritual world are all connected, like the colors of the rainbow.”

Photo Credit: John Assaraf with Andrea's Neighbors in Toronto, Anita and Rolf Weiland

What have you seen that makes you believe this to be true?

Q5: I’m hoping in the next decade, we will have more answers to the things that science has yet to discover, but many people can access answers to problems they might have, by quietening their mind through meditation or mindfulness. I recently read that cognitive and clinical neuroscientist Athena Demertzi say that “during resting states, the mind still wanders. It goes here, there and everywhere—into the future, into the past” which reminds me of this interconnected world that we live in. If we can quiet our mind, and look for answers, what do you think Kate, these signs that we have both felt, and want to dismiss them as “coincidences” could they be our brain picking up things from the spiritual realm?

Q5B: If we are on this train of thinking, then everything that exists in the world is already here. We just need to tap into it. I can feel you and your energy without us talking. What do you think about that?

Q6: Now we’ve talked about the why behind your Foundation, with some fascinating stories that you and Masha’s friends have shared, how can people learn more about what you are building? When will you be launching?

Q7: Other questions that I have missed?

Kate, I want to thank you for sharing such a personal journey on our podcast. I truly love you and value our friendship and would do anything to send people your way who could benefit from what you are building. Is the best way for people to learn more is to connect via Instagram and Twitter? Other ways?

Final thoughts…

After Kate and I closed out this interview, and said our goodbyes, we both knew something very special had just occurred, and the synchronicities we experienced continued on for a few hours that morning. We both couldn’t deny that there is so much more to our connection that began while we were both beginning our journey with neuroscience with John Assaraf, and then to have him text me unexpectedly last Sunday after I sent Kate her questions was weird, but caught both of our attention reminding us that we are all connected, whether we are in the physical or spiritual world. This got us looking a bit deeper at our connection and friendship. It began over 10 years ago, through John Assaraf, and then we both ended up getting certified through Mark Waldman. That might not sound like a big deal, but knowing most people don’t even finish this course, it’s shocking to us that we not only completed it together, but went on to continue to use the knowledge we learned with our work. This brings me back to the quote I picked to open up this interview. “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

Can you see the magic in your day? Do you feel the connection Kate and I feel with each other with someone in YOUR life? If you do, that’s all you need to do, just notice it, and know that it’s there. This way, you know that you are never alone. You are always surrounded by love and this in itself, is truly magical.

Keep looking for the magic in your day, and spread the word about Yung Mash Collective by staying in touch with Kate’s mission. This is only the beginning…

I’ll see you with our next episode.

FOLLOW KATE AND YUNG MASH COLLECTIVE

Website https://www.yungmash.com/

Get started https://www.yungmash.com/contact-us

Twitter https://twitter.com/yungmashC

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yungmashcollective/?hl=en

YungMash Radio on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/5KvZMDvmffrHkNto7v0wui?si=ZIRfEBVgTcGRrAFtWWTVDg&nd=1

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] https://www.yungmash.com/

RESOURCES:

The Light Between Us by Laura Lynne Jackson Published July 5, 2016 https://www.amazon.com/Light-Between-Us-Stories-Heaven/dp/0812987926

The Art of Dying by Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick Published August 26, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Art-Dying-Peter-Fenwick/dp/0826499236/ref=sr_1_3?crid=347QPKWXD04DR&keywords=the+art+of+dying&qid=1659468978&s=books&sprefix=the+art+of+dyin%2Cstripbooks%2C150&sr=1-3

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast FIRST LIVECAST EVENT with Katherine Alexander-Dobrovolskia. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-neuroscience-qa-livestream-andrea-with-katherine-alexander-dobrovolskaia/

[iii] YungMash Radio “Signs from Masha” https://open.spotify.com/show/5dzQAnZxXMjcrObXIfKi2t?si=EZv4QoavQMCyxf_mPXmqRQ&dl_branch=1&nd=1

Jul 29, 2022

00:44:16

“If you do not make time for your wellness, you be forced to make time for your illness.”

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/3u2sCwB_mSg

This month, you might have noticed that we are breaking into a new season on the podcast, Season 8, where we are focusing on brain health and learning with a look at how an understanding of our brain can have an immediate improvement on our life, as well as our future generations. If you have followed our past few episodes, you’ll recall me mentioning our guest for today, Ashok Gupta, who is a well-known Neuroplasticity "brain retraining" expert who has spent the last 25 years researching the effects of the brain and the mind on illness. He suffered from a condition called ME, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, around 25 years ago when he was studying at Cambridge University. Through neurological research that he conducted, he managed to get himself 100% better. He then set up a clinic to treat others, and published the well- known neuroplasticity “brain retraining” recovery program he created, known as the Gupta Program[i] in 2007. He has published several medical papers, interviews experts in the field himself, like his recent interview with Dr. Joe Mather, medical director of a well-known functional medicine clinic in England called the Ruscio (ru-show) Institute[ii], and is continually researching these chronic conditions. Recently, a randomized controlled trial was published showing the Gupta Program (that Ashok created himself) was highly effective compared to a control. The program now is used to support people with a wide variety of chronic illnesses, (like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Fibromyalgia, among others that you can see listed on his website) and Ashok Gupta is now on a mission to research and support people with chronic illness through this drug free and revolutionary, integrated and holistic approach.

When I was first introduced to Ashok and his brain-training program I thought of all the people I know personally who have had the frustrating experience of going to the doctor for something they know feels “off” in their body (whether an illness, or pain from an accident or injury” and the doctor says “there’s nothing physically wrong with them” and sends them off with a prescription for something (anti-anxiety medicine, or an anti-depressant) which doesn’t work, because it doesn’t come close to addressing the root cause.

If you’ve ever wondered why our body seems to hold onto an old injury, or what’s at the root of chronic disease like fibromyalgia, that causes years of frustration, lack of focus in the workplace and decreased productivity, there is a solution, and the answer shockingly comes with an understanding of our brain.

Let’s meet Ashok Gupta, and see how neuroscience is connected to chronic pain, and illness, and what he has seen from thousands of his patients around the world who use The Gupta Program.

Welcome Ashok, thank you for coming on the podcast to share the years of research you have done in the field of chronic pain and illness. What part of the UK have we reached you today?

INTRO Q: To begin, I want to start from the beginning of your story because it really is incredible to see what you have built. I have watched some of your recent podcasts that people can access in the show notes[iii] and everything you share in all your interviews I find fascinating, and even ground-breaking. Can you share where this all started for you beginning with your own illness?

Q1: Ashok, the whole reason we launched this podcast, was to connect the brain to learning, and I heard you say it yourself that “most medicine is based on what’s measureable, and what is measureable is in the body. But the brain is a black box.” Without looking at the brain with fMRI scans, we just don’t know what’s happening (in medicine and with learning/education). How did you first think to look at the brain with chronic illness that led you to your hypothesis that I will let you share and explain?

How did you come to discover or hypothesize that in the case of chronic pain or illness that “maybe the brain is creating an artificial environment in the body because it’s overprotecting the system to ensure its survival” explaining why we feel pain or discomfort that doctors say isn’t there?

1B: We’ve all had an injury or something where the pain just never seems to go away or neck pain I’ve always had, if I came to see you about it, would you say that it’s a conditioned, or learned response? Perhaps tied to my posture at my desk, by not sitting up straight—what’s happening in this case? Why would the pain from an injury a long time ago still remain in my neck years later? How does my brain create the inflammation/irritation I feel and how does it create a viscous loop building up more inflammation and pain in the body?

1C: What about hypnotherapy for pain reduction? With everything you have learned studying the brain and pain, why do some people respond really well to this type of therapy, while visits to the chiropractor seem to have very little impact on long-term pain relief?

1D: Has modern medicine caught up with brain retraining as a viable solution for chronic pain or disease?

Q2: When you discovered how the brain, specifically the amygdala and insula were connected to chronic pain and disease, what happened next? You obviously knew how it helped you with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but what about Long-Haul Covid, Fibromyalgia, Chemical or Mold Sensitivities, Gut Issues, Anxiety, Lyme Disease? There’s at least 12 conditions listed on your website and more listed in the Member’s Area. Is the solution to finding relief with all of these chronic diseases held within the amygdala and insula of our brain?

2B: Is emotional pain the same as physical pain?

2C: For people who want to learn more about your hypothesis, as well as your published medical papers, clinical study and new randomized control trial, they can read those on your website.[iv] How important was it for you that you were the FIRST original neuroplasticity or brain retraining program with over 20 years of experience? How has this helped you to pave the way in the brain-retraining industry?

Q3: Let’s talk about the Gupta Program that you developed. I signed up for your 28-day free trail[v] to see what your program offered, and I was impressed from the start. The FREE Trial gives you access to the first 3/15 sessions. Like you, I’m a course creator, and my earlier courses began on DVD (in the olden days) so I’m picky when it comes to online courses, with the eye from the creator point of view, and you have done an incredible job with your online program. How did you create such beautiful videos? Were you actually shooting in the mountains somewhere? Your program is definitely easy to use which does help new users looking for answers! (I’m guessing it’s on the Kajabi Platform?)

3B: I’ve just started the program, and have completed the first session out of 8. (Are there 8 session or 15?) I love it so far. Will the brain retraining in the Gupta Program help people like me with chronic pain, or is it just for the conditions we listed above?

Q4: What are the results that people are seeing using your program? I did watch the video testimonials that you have listed on your website[vi]. They are impressive! There’s a lot of success with Chronic Fatigue, and I also watched your interview with Dr. Joe Mather and his mold exposure story.

When people aren’t feeling well, what would be your recommendation? To use your brain-retraining program in conjunction with working with a medical doctor? What’s the best way to use your program? Where would people begin?

Q5: What’s next for you?

Q6: Is there anything important about your work that we have missed?

Q7: How did you learn to navigate your way through scientific articles on Pubmed?

For people to learn more about the Gupta Program, they can go to your website and like me, sign up for a free trial https://www.guptaprogram.com/free-trial/

They can also follow you:

FOLLOW DR. ASHOK GUPTA

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/guptaprogram

Twitter https://twitter.com/AshokGuptaTV

Ashok, Thank you very much for sharing your phenomenal program with us today. It’s clear that you have a heart to help people all over the world, especially those who don’t know where to turn. I hope that anyone listening, feels “off” with their wellness visits your website to learn more and give your program a try. I know you are already helping people globally, just from reading the testimonials on your website, and do look forward to learning from you as a pioneer in mindfulness and mediation for improved well-being. Thank you so much Dr. Gupta.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://www.guptaprogram.com/

REFERENCES:

[ii] Dr. Gupta interviews Dr. Joe Mather, Medical Director of the Ruscio Institute, June 7th, 2022 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=search&v=1210685199469705&external_log_id=ea24049b-d07c-4d70-a576-1f747a984ee1&q=dr%20joe%20mather

[iii] Sam Visnic Podcast with Ashok Gupta on Retraining Your Brain for Chronic Conditions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z81QhEHYiQ&t=2235s

[iv] Learn more about Dr. Gupta’s research https://www.guptaprogram.com/conditions/treatment-for-other-chronic-conditions/

[v] 28 day free trial of The Gupta Program https://www.guptaprogram.com/free-trial/

[vi] The Gupta Program Success Stories https://www.guptaprogram.com/success-stories/

Jul 27, 2022

00:16:16

I’m Andrea Samadi, and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is for our everyday life and results--whether we are a teacher in the classroom, or in the modern workplace, and release content to help all of us, specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity.

This weekend, I heard a message from New York Times Best Selling author of the book, High Performance Habits, Brendon Burchard[i], that got me thinking about where we are right now in the world today. He said that while there might have been times during the Pandemic where we laid low, or held back in protective mode, the pendulum has swung the other way now, and that there is a high need for us ALL to be “more productive as a nation”[ii] as we enter this next phase of the economy, and showing up with our A-game is not just timely, but crucial.

I know that listeners of this podcast are high performing, with learning new things at the top of your list, so with this in mind, for today’s EPISODE #233, I wanted to go back and review our TOP 12 Most viewed YouTube Video Interviews, as chosen by you, the listener, so we can all go back to the basics, and review some of the most important lessons learned on this podcast, since we launched just over 3 years ago.

I used to love listening to radio icon, Casey Kasem’s American Top 40[iii] back in the 1980s on my clock radio when I was in high school, where he would leave you in suspense as he counted backwards, to the #1 song, but for this countdown, I will start with our #1 most listened to episode, with something I remember about each one, or the speaker, and a link that we can all use to revisit, and “Sharpen our Saw”[iv] as Dr. Stephen Covey would say, as we can go back and review these most listened to episodes with the 7th Habit.

Since I keep an eye on the numbers of this podcast, whether it’s with the audio interviews, or video, I thought it was interesting that the Top 10 list holds 8/10 people who were in our early interviews, or the 1st 100 interviews, with 2 people who came in later, and rose to the top. While I think ALL interviews hold important lessons, let’s begin with our Top 12.

Let the Countdown Begin…

[v]

https://youtu.be/7nLe3P50j4Q

[vi]

https://youtu.be/Al0B6HzxtEk

https://youtu.be/WCFrygUG-UI

https://youtu.be/bH8yVKHjFN4

https://youtu.be/5Pu82wZRZwo

https://youtu.be/4welQLkKm5I

https://youtu.be/148InRAxFts

Permission to Feel

https://youtu.be/CeOzi8ZrFO4

The Behavior Code

https://youtu.be/oQqFN110gMM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54bmB6_gPGc

https://youtu.be/uNFT4-Yg_kI

https://youtu.be/jCtbngfXoYg

https://youtu.be/ZTa1zwpQcxQ

I could keep counting down and reviewing the Top 40, like Kasey Casem’s Show, but I would be here writing all night. To close out today’s EPISODE #233, I wanted to go back to what I heard Brendon Burchard mention over the weekend, with the importance of ramping up our learning, and that we must become more productive as a nation. It’s not the time to shrink back, and be protective, but lean forward, review our goals, notice what’s working, and what isn’t, “Sharpen Our Saw” and then move forward with everything that we’ve got.

I hope that reviewing our TOP 12 most watched interviews gives you some ideas to gain more clarity and perspective with whatever it is that you are working on, raising your ambition to do just a bit more, and show up, with you’re A game for a strong last half of 2022.

I’ll see you in a few days. :)

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iii] https://www.iheart.com/live/classic-american-top-40-6545/

REFERENCES:

[i] www.Brendon.com

[ii] Brendon Burchard on “What to focus on as we enter this next phase of the economy.” https://www.growthday.com/iphone2

[iv]The 7th Habit https://www.franklincovey.com/habit-7/#:~:text=Sharpen%20the%20Saw%20means%20preserving,emotional%2C%20mental%2C%20and%20spiritual.

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #77 Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey, EPISODE #77 on “Developing and Delivering High Quality, Distance Learning.” https://youtu.be/7nLe3P50j4Q

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #171 Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and John Almarode on Their New Playbook "How Learning Works"https://youtu.be/1Zw3E1OZnl4

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #231 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/update-one-year-later-on-my-personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-sleep-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleep-management/

Jul 22, 2022

00:08:16

For today’s EPISODE #232 and Brain Fact Friday, I wanted to stay on the theme of chronic pain and disease as we prepare to speak with Dr. Ashok Gupta[i] next week, a well-known Neuroplasticity "brain retraining" expert who has spent the last 25 years researching the effects of the brain and the mind on chronic pain and illness. I have so many questions for him, and hope you will tune into this next episode where I know he will answer everything, and give us all a solid plan for how to move forward to live healthier, more productive lives with our brain in mind.

After posting last week’s Brain Fact Friday, where we looked at chronic pain and the brain, asking “is it all in our head” I received many messages, including one from cognitive neuroscience researcher John Harmon, from EPISODE #170[ii] who added to our post on LinkedIn, saying that “most neuroscientists who study pain say it IS in the brain. And beliefs about bodily pain -- such as "I think this treatment will reduce my pain" -- are (obviously) in the brain also. There is a very real physical connection between pain perception and one's beliefs, emotion, attitudes and the rest of the mind.” He sums this all up saying, “If the mind (including pain and thoughts and beliefs about it) = a set of functional neural networks, it’s easy to see how the mind can either amplify, or dampen, pain -- via the two sets of FNNs (functional neural networks) either amplifying, or working to dampen, one another.”

This shows me something I’ve thought about for years—that it does matter what we think about.

Which brings me to this week’s Brain Fact Friday.

DID YOU KNOW THAT “Negative thoughts cause your brain to immediately release chemicals that affect every cell in your body, making you feel bad; while the opposite is also true—positive, happy, hopeful thoughts release chemicals that make you feel good. Your thought patterns can also have long-term effects. Repetitive negative thinking may promote the buildup of the harmful deposits seen in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease and may increase the risk of dementia, according to a 2020 brain imaging study in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.”[iii] (Dr. Amen, Your Brain is Always Listening.

In the world famous physician Dr. Daniel Amen’s recent book that he published in the middle of the Global Pandemic, Your Brain is Always Listening, he affirms that it’s not just the thoughts we are thinking about our health and wellness that are damaging for us, but how we think about everything that we do. If Your Brain is Always Listening,[iv] it makes sense to me that it’s fed positive thoughts about our mental AND physical health just like what John Harmon said about “the real connection between pain perception and one’s beliefs, emotion, attitudes and the rest of the mind.”

This is one reason why I don’t like sarcasm. I don’t think it’s funny at all to poke fun of yourself or another person for anything. I’m pretty serious about this, as it just hits a chord with me. If I ever hear someone putting themselves down in any way, I’ll mention it and say something like “well that’s not true” hoping it will switch that person’s mind from this practice that I didn’t realize until writing this episode could contribute to the risk of this person developing dementia later in life.

It’s important what we think about whether it’s in relation to that nagging pain we feel in our body, or those automatic negative thoughts that Dr. Amen writes about in his book, Your Brain is Always Listening.

Julia Gover’s TED Talk on Pain and the Brain that we mentioned in last week’s Brain Fact Friday explains the science behind this concept when she said that “pain is an output of our brain, not an input from our body” and that our brain “takes cues from our mood (and the level of stress hormones in your blood) from your environment (sight, sounds and smells), from your memory (to see if you’ve been in this situation before) and it will also take into account your own personal beliefs about your health and your body. Then it takes all of this into consideration and asks—do I need to protect myself. If the brain thinks there’s a threat, it will produce the experience of pain to protect you.”[v]

REVIEW

To review this week’s Brain Fact Friday, DID YOU KNOW that “negative thoughts cause your brain to immediately release chemicals that affect every cell in your body, making you feel bad; while the opposite is also true—positive, happy, hopeful thoughts release chemicals that make you feel good.

It’s important more than ever that we find strategies to keep our thoughts positive, and eliminate negative thought cycles. If you find yourself waking up and not feeling happy, for your physical and mental health, I think it’s of high importance to look for ways that you can switch this.

IDEAS FOR KEEPING OUR THOUGHTS POSITIVE

TIP 1: I covered one way that I’ve kept a positive mindset, while at the same time boosted mental clarity and focus, with EPISODE #231[vi] on my “Update on the Fisher Wallace Brain Stimulator” that increases serotonin and melatonin, while decreasing that stress hormone cortisol. Check out this episode that covers my results with using this wearable medical device designed to combat insomnia, anxiety and depression.

TIP 2: You could also read Dr. Amen’s book Your Brain is Always Listening where he talks about our “hidden dragons” that we can uncover for solutions to controlling our happiness and changing hard-wired habits in the brain.

IMAGE CREDIT: Dr. Daniel Amen's Presentation on "Your Brain is Always Listening" Published on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unHhPdefYIU&t=547s

TIP 3: Work it out with exercise that Dr. Amen says solves most mental and physical problems.

Whatever you decide to do to keep your thoughts positive, remember:

I’ll see you next week as we dive into Dr. Gupta’s discoveries about chronic pain and illness and how the thoughts we think about really do matter.

Have a wonderful weekend.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://www.guptaprogram.com/

REFERENCES:

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #170 with Cognitive Neuroscience Researcher, John Harmon https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/cognitive-neuroscience-researcher-john-harmon-on-our-brain-and-mind-under-pressure/

[iii] Your Brain is Always Listening by Dr. Daniel Amen published March 2, 2021 Page 98

[iv] Your Brain is Always Listening by Dr. Daniel Amen published March 2, 2021 https://www.amazon.com/Your-Brain-Always-Listening-Happiness-ebook/dp/B08B52RL74/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=Cj0KCQjwlemWBhDUARIsAFp1rLVYEas79vkAA4DfBVEozW0I0l9boqpf8jXQDApjjBFYpn4NNjXFtFQaAp5UEALw_wcB&hvadid=534670613194&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9030068&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6191731203555851064&hvtargid=kwd-1523419927192&hydadcr=22565_10355049&keywords=brain+is+always+listening&qid=1658503764&sr=8-1

[v] Julia Gover Pain and the Brain TEDx Northwich Published on YouTube August 21, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR-1M95Kthw

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #231 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/update-one-year-later-on-my-personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-sleep-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleep-management/

Jul 20, 2022

00:13:23

For today’s episode, I wanted to look back over the past 3 years and cover the most asked question that I receive via email, which stems from EPISODE #120 from last April 2021, on “My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Medical Device for Anxiety, Depression, Sleep and Stress Management”[i] which remains our most listened to episode of all time. We do have all of our past interviews that you can watch on YouTube[ii] and I would like to review our Top 25 in the near future (as chosen by YOU) because this is one very powerful list, with some surprises, and others who have remained at the top of the list every time I look. Until then, I thought I’d answer the most asked question that comes in to me via email since it has to do with this most downloaded episode.

It’s no surprise that EPISODE #120 of “My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Medical Device” has had over 5,500+ downloads since we know that there has been “a global increase in depression and anxiety with tens of millions of additional cases reported globally in 2020”[iii] and from the emails I’ve received, it’s clear that people are searching for answers.

The question that I’ve answered the most since publishing that episode is:

“Do you still use the Fisher Wallace Device that you reviewed last year? If so, why?”

If you want to review our interview with Kelly Roman, the CEO of Fisher Wallace[iv] that markets this wearable medical device, that’s cleared by the FDA, for depression, insomnia and anxiety, I’ll link our interview from last February 2021[v] in the show notes and you can learn directly from Kelly Roman on why this device was described by Forbes as “one of four technologies innovating mental health.”

But to answer this question:

I absolutely, 100% still use the Fisher Wallace wearable device, every day for two 20 minute intervals.

***It’s important to note that this is not a paid endorsement of the product. When I interviewed Kelly Roman, I had not yet tried the device, and during the interview I mentioned that my brain scan with Amen Clinics showed signs of sleep deprivation,[vi] and I didn’t know how exactly I should fix that, other than “get more sleep.” At the end of the interview, Kelly offered to send me a device to try and see what I noticed, and I agreed. While the details of this interview I had to review to remember, I didn’t forget that I I didn’t plan on wearing the device past the trial period. I remember thinking “I’ll see what happens” and just couldn’t imagine that this device would become a part of my daily routine along with my morning meditation.

***Also, another important reminder that I am not a medical doctor, and none of the advice, ideas or strategies I offer on this podcast should be taken as medical advice.

Back to the question…Do you still use the Fisher Wallace device, and why?

When I went back and reviewed the interview myself, I remember that I had never heard of a wearable device that was designed for anxiety, depression and insomnia. Even though these devices are not new, Kelly Roman shared with me that they actually originated from Russia in the 1960s and were called “electrosleep” devices, yet I still had never heard of a device like this for home use.

While I knew my sleep could use improving, I definitely didn’t suffer from insomnia, that neuroscientist Matt Walker dives deep into on his most recent podcast where he reminds us that insomnia, the most common sleep disorder affects ½ people and is classified when we have either “difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep or not feeling refreshed or restored by our sleep the next day.”[vii]

None of these were me, but I had been measuring my sleep for months before trying the device and knew I could improve the time I was waking up at night, without knowing it, (which is called our WASO score- or wakefulness after sleep onset) so I took Kelly up on his offer to try the device to see if it could help me to stay asleep longer.

He was right with how simple and easy it was to try it out. While my device was gifted to me, I would have gladly paid the $500 fee to try it out. I recently saw for people who are on their mailing list, the price was to just a couple of hundred dollars since this interview, and remains at a discounted price on their website. Kelly did mention that the more products they sold, the more they could reduce the pricing to make this wearable device comparable to something like the Whoop that we’ve talked about often. The device arrived 2 days after the interview, via FEDEX and I began my clinical trial testing the product at home, using a FITBIT.

RECAP of 2021 RESULTS: Sleep Results After Using the Fisher Wallace Device for Five Weeks

I took this study seriously, and measured sleep each night for 5 weeks, with one week establishing my baseline. When I sent Kelly Roman my results, he suggested that I look at each week using the device, compared to the baseline of 5 hours and 28 minutes of sleep. In week 1 there was not much change due to that one night I worked late, week 2 showed an increase in 35 minutes of sleep, Week 3 an increase of 23 minutes, week 4, an increase of 42 minutes, and week 5, the same increase of 42 minutes above the baseline. According to Kelly Roman, 20 minutes of sleep increase is what he says would be the gold standard minimum that doesn’t seem like a lot but allows for improved REM sleep and over time he says reduces sleep debt.

This was powerful to hear that my study showed an increase of much more that this gold standard of 20 minutes’ improvement showing me that the device worked better than I realized before I had shown Kelly these results.

When asked, “what results did you get from your trial?”, I share this fact, and just tell people to try it out, and see what it does for you. If you like it, keep using it, if not, they have a very simple, hassle free 30-day return. 85% of those who try the device, end up keeping it in the end, like I did.

RECAP of 2021 RESULTS: Mood and Anxiety

I did notice some other improvements in addition to sleep, and I know the device also helps to improve your mood, anxiety and depression. While depression does run in my family, and it’s something I am fully aware of, it’s not something I’ve encountered any symptoms with to date, and I think this might that I’m aware of the fact this runs in my family, so I maintain a certain amount of exercise to keep the endorphins and neurotransmitters flowing. I mentioned to Kelly in the interview that the device could save someone’s mental health if they didn’t have access to exercise, were in a wheelchair, elderly or disabled as it’s a healthier way to calm the mind and entrain the Alpha Brain state that is attained with meditation. Studies show the device helps to increase serotonin and melatonin, while decreasing cortisol, the stress hormone.

While using the device in the initial experiment, I also noticed that I had more patience, was less high strung or anxious, and was calmer with my day-to-day activities. This change was noticed immediately and along with an increase of energy, I was able to complete more tasks, in less time, and felt less stressed before going to sleep.

FAST FORWARD: From April 2021 to July 2022

Over a year later, I still use the device, like I mentioned, it’s a part of my morning routine. It can be used at any time of the day to calm the brain. Kelly Roman did suggest using it before bedtime it you want to improve insomnia. I chose to add it to my morning routine because I didn’t have the symptoms of insomnia, just wanted to improve overall sleep health.

Sleep (AFTER) Where am I now, a year later? From 50% range to 60 and 70%

While I no longer use the FITBIT, and can’t do a side by comparison like my home study, I now use the Whoop device, and can easily look at where my sleep was showing up when I began using this device in April 2021. Whoop gives you a sleep score every day that shows how much time you were awake, in light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep and it took me some after the study for significant changes to show up, but by November of 2021, my low sleep score in the 50s jumped up to the 60s and 70s and a 70% sleep score is the parameter that WHOOP gives if you are getting “enough sleep” based on the amount of strain you have in your day, to properly recover your body.

Just from looking at the graphs in the show notes, you can see the lighter days represented lower sleep performance and darker days represented higher sleep performance. The darker days (higher sleep performance) started to become more often after with time, and improved sleep became more consistent. To me, my sleep has clearly improved but it did take some time to jump from 50% scores using to scores in the 60s and 70s.

FIGURE 1: April 2021-January 2022

Sleep scores jumped from high 50s to mid 70s

FIGURE 2: February 2022- June 2022

Sleep scores remained in the 60-70% range.

Mood and Anxiety (AFTER):

One of the reasons I kept using the device was that I just felt more even keeled with it. During the interview Kelly Roman mentioned that the device “helps to increase serotonin (the neurotransmitter that mediates satisfaction, happiness and optimism) and melatonin (a hormone associated with the sleep-wake cycle), while decreasing cortisol (the stress hormone)” so it made sense to me why I felt a calming effect. Kelly further explained that the device “helps to modulate the Default Mode Network and regulate the parasympathetic nervous system” which is quick and simple way to destress the brain and body.

CONCLUSIONS:

Using the device has a similar effect as meditation, calming the brain in two 20 minute sessions. While everyday life stressors seem to be easier to combat with daily meditation, I’m not planning on give up another tool that can help me to stay calm during stressful times.

So, when asked “Do you still use the Fisher Wallace device” my answer is 100% yes. It’s something I plan to continue using.

While I can clearly see that I’m not the model for perfect sleep, (that I can attain only while on vacation) I think that for something that targets improvements for “the most common sleep disorder that impacts 1 out of 2 people” (Matthew Walker) it’s worth giving it a shot.

If you want to learn more about this device, go to their website and click on the research tab to see their most recent studies.https://www.fisherwallace.com/pages/research

If you would like to try the device, just go to their website and do some research of your own. If you do try the device, I’d love to know what results YOU noticed. Send me an email and let me know.

I’ll see you later this week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iv] https://www.fisherwallace.com/

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Podcast EPISODE #120 on “My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Medical Device” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-medical-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/

[ii] Watch ALL Past Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODES here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb5Z3cA_mnKhiYc5glhacO9k9WTrSgjzW

[iii] Global Increase in Depression and Anxiety Oct. 21, 2021 by Karen O’Leary https://www.nature.com/articles/d41591-021-00064-y

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #108 on YouTube with Kelly Roman, CEO of Fisher Wallace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCtbngfXoYg

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Podcast EPISODE #84 PART 3 “How a SPECT Image Brain Scan Can Change Your Life” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-a-spect-scan-can-change-your-life-part-3-with-andrea-samadi/

[vii] Matt Walker Podcast Insomnia PART 1 https://themattwalkerpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1821163/10976547-26-insomnia-part-1

Jul 14, 2022

00:11:41

This week's Brain Fact Friday will explore: ✔ How neuroscience is a new field of study--where it began in academics in 1960, and where it is today. ✔ How fMRI scans changed the way we can look at and study the brain. ✔ Where advancements in neuroscience are going (in education and other sectors). ✔ How fMRI scans can help us to learn more about chronic pain and disease.

IMAGE CREDIT: PAGE 51 of National Geographic's June 10, 2022 Issue on The Brain: Discover the Way Your Mind Works.

This season, Season 8 of the podcast, and our third year of creating content, I wanted to take a deeper dive into the importance of brain health since this 3 pound organ of remarkable matter that we all have, our brain, literally controls everything for us. We all have a brain, but it still boggles my mind that we were never taught how to use it. We have now entered this “new era of neuroscience”[i] where we are gaining a deeper understanding of what makes us human, and the latest breakthroughs in science that can propel us all forward in ways we never could without the latest discoveries in science. When we think about how new these concepts are, this topic is truly fascinating, and I can understand why there is so much interest in this podcast, along with others of the same theme. Who wouldn’t want to know the latest secrets of the brain, and how they are relevant to our daily life?

This topic is a relatively new field of study, where the first academic departments that focused on studying neuroscience didn’t begin until the 1960s, and then “for the next 40 years, brain science was hyper-focused on establishing the basics like

What is a neuron? How do brain cells communicate with each other? What are the brain’s functional areas that map onto behaviors?”

(National Geographic, page 5)

This solid foundation does help us to learn about different parts of the brain and uncover their functions, but I’m sure that you are like me, and have more questions that there are answers for when it comes to uncovering the mysteries within our brain.

When fMRI scans came about in the early 2000s, this changed the way we could look at the activity within the brain, and advancements in our understanding took a fast track, going far beyond just what we could see looking at the brain through a microscope.

I’ve mentioned it before on this podcast, that in the early days of studying neuroscience, we went from seeing research that was focused on different parts of the brain (like the amygdala or hypothalamus) to seeing entire networks in the brain as technology advanced. Studies became focused more on the neural pathways, or the interconnected brain, bringing to light that when we take an action, it’s not just one part of the brain we should consider, but the “immense networks of the brain working together, sometimes across blurred borders and multiple functions.” (National Geographic, Page 6, The Interconnected Brain).

It’s taken some time (well, it’s taken over 60 years since those early academics began studying neuroscience) but we are now finally seeing positions in the field of education turn up in certain states where leaders like Dr. Lori Desautels[ii], an Assistant Professor at Butler University, just shared that in her state (Indiana) schools that were just a few years ago beginning to add social and emotional learning department heads, are now looking for those who are trained in the field of educational neuroscience. This topic is broad, and important not only for those in education, but in every sector of the modern workplace.

Which brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday, where we are preparing for an upcoming interview (closer to the end of this month now), with Dr. Ashok Gupta[iii], who is a well-known Neuroplasticity "brain retraining" expert who has spent the last 25 years researching the effects of the brain and the mind on illness, when he began researching ways to help himself with chronic fatigue that he was diagnosed with. He was frustrated with his own health and became fascinated in learning more about how his brain was connected to his body (in the late 1990s) when he began looking for answers, no one was talking about the brain/body connection. He says that medicine was focused on what we could measure, but the brain was a black box (without fMRI scans) that no one could peer into.

Like Dr. Gupta, I’m sure we can all relate with an injury we’ve had in the past, where the pain just doesn’t seem to go away. We keep going to the chiropractor, massage therapist or physical therapy, with no avail. Or we’ve gone to the doctor with chronic pain, or when we just don’t feel right, and the doctor does a bunch of blood tests, and says “there’s nothing wrong with you,” so we get a frustrating diagnosis of fibromyalgia, or some other autoimmune disease where doctor visits seem never-ending, and results or healing never occur.

It’s not been until recent discoveries that the brain was even considered with chronic pain or disease, but Dr. Gupta kept looking for answers within the brain, until he found them. We’ll learn more about Dr. Gupta’s discoveries when we speak with him, that has made a serious case for the fact that chronic pain, or illness, is due to the fact that “maybe the brain is creating an artificial environment in the body because its overprotecting the system to ensure its survival.” (Dr. Ashok Gupta).

Which brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday. I wanted to take a closer look at how neuroscience is connected to chronic pain. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics showed that in 2019, 20.4% (or 1/5) adults had chronic pain and 7.4% of adults had chronic pain that frequently limited life or work activities (called high impact chronic pain)[iv] lasting more than a 3-month period.

Do you relate? Have you had an injury and the pain just never seemed to go away? Does this pain bother you while you are working, or impact your sleep? Have you been to the chiropractor, or any other health care provider and it’s helped for a short period of time, but the pain returns?

I surely do relate to this and I’ve wondered for years. What is this pain in my neck? The doctors say there’s nothing structurally there, so off I go to physical therapy and learn to stand up straighter, and work without leaning forward, but the pain is always there and it has been since I slipped and fell on a pool deck in my late 20s. I’m not one of the 7.4% of adults whose life is limited with pain, but it’s been there all those years I was studying in University, or teaching a class, or leading a presentation. I always end the day with some neck exercises and Biofreeze for pain relief.

When a top sports chiropractor, who has worked closely with athletes and sports teams in my state evaluated me years ago, he seemed surprised that for someone who seemed to be doing things the right way, that I couldn’t solve this one thing—this pain in my neck. I definitely started to wonder “is this pain all in my head?” and now, I think there is some truth to this.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, DID YOU KNOW THAT “there is no single brain region that generates pain” (National Geographic, Page 58) and that “our pain is in our head…not for some people, but for everyone, 100% of the time?”[v] (Julia Gover, Pain and the Brain TEDx). Dr. Gupta will explain what he has discovered about how the brain creates a vicious loop of inflammation in our body (or you can watch his recent interviews here)[vi] but Julia Gover explains it really well in her TEDx talk on Pain and the Brain[vii].

Julia likens the pain we feel to a fire alarm that senses fire by being sensitive to heat and smoke, not specifically to the fire itself. This is exactly like our body. She explains there are “no pain signals, pain pathways, or pain nerves in your body—it’s the receptors on the end of your nerves that are receptive to pressure, touch, chemicals in the area, or temperature. Our brain takes clues from our mood, from our senses, and memory to see if we’ve been in this situation before. It also takes into account our own personal beliefs about your health and your body.” (Grovers)

We can see now that pain is a subjective experience and I began to learn more when I read that “two people may undergo exactly the same procedure, but they may come up with a very different pain response and also (pain relief) requirements.”[viii]

It goes back to Dr. Gupta’s hypothesis for pain, where he guessed that “maybe the brain is creating an artificial environment in the body because it’s overprotecting the system to ensure its survival.”

The brain takes everything it’s experiencing into consideration and asks—do I need to protect myself? If the brain thinks there’s a threat, it will produce the experience of pain to protect you. (Like the fire alarm sounding when it senses danger with smoke or heat).

To review this week’s Brain Fact Friday—

Did you know that “although brain injury and chronic pain reshape how the brain works” that “the brain itself cannot feel pain?” (National Geographic, The Brain Page 50).

Which means that pain doesn’t exist in our body, it’s created by our brain and projected onto our body. So, if you have a pain in your neck like me, that just doesn’t go away, we do know that our brain and its neural networks are involved. We will dive deeper into this topic next Friday, and hopefully, Dr. Gupta will answer our questions on the best solutions we can use to resolve our chronic pain the following week. Until then, have a wonderful weekend, and hopefully its pain free. See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iii] https://www.guptaprogram.com/

REFERENCES:

[i] National Geographic, The Brain Discovers the Ways Your Mind Works (page 5) Published June 10, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Brain-Editors/dp/1547859121/ref=asc_df_1547859121/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598244665656&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16963226721841914892&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030068&hvtargid=pla-1672909059785&psc=1

[ii] Dr. Lori Desautels https://www.facebook.com/revelationsineducation

[iv] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db390.htm

[v] Julia Gover Pain and the Brain TEDx Northwich Published on YouTube August 21, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR-1M95Kthw

[vi] Sam Visnic Podcast with Ashok Gupta on Retraining Your Brain for Chronic Conditions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z81QhEHYiQ&t=2235s

[vii] Julia Gover Pain and the Brain TEDx Northwich Published on YouTube August 21, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR-1M95Kthw

[viii] National Geographic, The Brain Discovers the Ways Your Mind Works (page 5) Published June 10, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Brain-Editors/dp/1547859121/ref=asc_df_1547859121/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=598244665656&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16963226721841914892&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030068&hvtargid=pla-1672909059785&psc=1 Page 53

Jul 13, 2022

01:01:05

“The one who falls and gets back up is so much stronger than the one who never fell”

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/BkGLDGqmfUU

On the episode you will learn:

✔ How a personal story from Howard Rankin, can help all of us reach our highest levels of potential.

✔ The power of honesty and truthfulness with relationships.

✔ Why seeing the "spirit" in others is so very important.

✔ The steps we can expect to take if a "Fall" happens so we can recover quickly and gracefully.

✔ The importance of rising above our "primitive brain" when dealing with difficult situations.

✔ What happens to our physical and mental health if we hold "trauma" within.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for EPISODE #229. I’m Andrea Samadi, author, and educator, with a passion for learning, understanding difficult concepts, and breaking them down so that we can all use and apply the most current research to improve our productivity and results in our schools, sports environments, and modern workplaces.

Today we are welcoming Howard Rankin back for the 4th time to the podcast, to cover his newly released book, Falling to Grace.[i] Before reading Howard’s book this month, I had no idea of his story. I saw his book come out in April, on his birthday and knew we would have him back on the show to discuss it, knowing it would be full of thought-provoking lessons, but I had no idea just how personal, and deep his story would be. If you recall, Howard Rankin first appeared on the podcast this time last year for EPISODE #146[ii] where he taught us “How Not to Think” and that our thinking is full of cognitive biases. While reading this new book, I found myself asking a question, that he would answer later in the book, showing me that it’s easy to jump to a conclusion but that we should all be aware of the “limitations of our thinking.”

This book also brought to light that we are all “spiritual beings having a human experience” and the importance of seeing the spirit in everyone, and treating them without judgment as we never know what their internal struggles might be. We learned from Dr. Marie Gervais on EPISODE #214[iii] on her book The Spirit of Work that there’s a shift when can see someone’s spiritual side, and can also connect science to everything that we do. If you have ever looked at someone and noticed their spirit, you will know exactly what I mean. I’ll never forget the first time I looked at someone and saw them shining brightly, seeing their potential that they were unaware of. They were sitting in front of me, and it’s a moment I’ll never forget, and was probably one of the reasons why I do what I do today. We all have tremendous potential within us, and this podcast was designed to help us to become aware of it, then use it.

But sometimes things happen in our life that make us question the direction we are going, but there is always a way around life’s obstacles. Howard’s book shows us that we can move beyond anything and connect our internal struggles to the most current brain research, in this quest to move towards redemption and healing.

I knew Howard lost his license as a psychologist and that it was important to cover, but I didn’t know how…which didn’t really matter to me. None of us are exempt from the story Howard will share—no one is exempt from Falling, in our personal or professional lives, but if we do, will we know how to Fall to Grace, with the lessons Howard shares for us? Howard’s story of tremendous loss and pain hold lessons we can all benefit from, especially if we want to reach our highest levels of productivity and achievement in this thing we call life. And if there’s something inside holding us back (like Howard will share) or anything else that might be bothering us, internally—that there is a way around it, to what he calls redemption—and it’s available for anyone who wants to do the work to achieve it.

“We can be redeemed only to the extent to which we see ourselves.” – Martin Buber

Let’s welcome back Howard Rankin for a 4th time to the podcast and see what we can learn from his lessons of Falling to Grace.

Welcome Howard, it’s wonderful to see you again. Thanks so much for coming back for a 4th time to the podcast.

I’ve got to say, your story is beyond painful for anyone to read, and witness first-hand the tremendous loss that occurred. It was heartbreaking to know this happened to you (and your family) and like the note I sent to you when I began reading your book, the lessons you are sharing with us are priceless because none of us are exempt from falling, but your experience gives us a pathway to fall with grace. Thank you for sharing such a personal story to help others find their way back up in a way we can all take something of value from and apply it in our own lives.

INTRO Q:

You say in the beginning of the book that you use your own story “mainly as a guide to the challenges of illuminating one’s conscience and what that entails” and that people can read the details about your circumstances in the appendix but the general idea is that you were a well-known psychologist with a very good reputation, had appeared on ‘The View’ and was featured on 20/20 as well as in many other media outlets.

Then you crossed a line into this grey area that changed everything for you.

For those who want to read your entire story, they can read your book, for today’s interview I want to focus not so much on what happened, but for someone listening, who might be struggling with something internally, what can we all learn from your experience about the importance of dealing with those difficult emotions of guilt or shame?

Q1: You mention in your book that “While some studies have suggested that as many as 70% of people who experience trauma come back stronger, there has been concern that this can be misleading and there are clearly large numbers of people who struggle to get back to pre-trauma baseline, or never recover at all.” I noticed during a recent interview with someone who had recently lost his license that there was tremendous pain around everything that stemmed from false accusations that were written online, to everything he went through, and he lost so much in the process. Whether someone is in the public eye, or not, your book is a guide to help people begin the healing process, (after a Fall) but can you describe the steps or stages that people should consider going through while rebuilding their life after such a significant loss? Where does someone begin?

Q2: As I was reading your story, I kept thinking “How could this entire situation have been prevented in the first place” (I’m sure this thinking is flawed—first off, what cognitive bias[iv] would “how could this all have been prevented” be? What trap do I create when I’m thinking like this?

Q2B: Then I wondered, for the co-author of the book Intuitive Rationality[v], was there anything that you saw or felt back then that might have alerted you to “this person could destroy my life, career and future?”

Q2C: I thought about this question while hiking this morning. Why couldn’t both parties rise above their primitive sides and have fallen to grace together? Is emotional intelligence not enough? At what point do we all need to be aware of personality disorders?

Q3: When you talked about false accusations and that “the limited brain doesn't easily undo past associations and emotions especially to 'flashbulb' moments, critical events of high emotion. To change the association requires some effort and the fact is that few people are prepared to make the effort to go beyond the first biased, egocentric thought that comes into their minds about anything.” In a world where words spread fast online, and are permanent, how do you deal with your personal life being broadcast all over the internet for people to read and put their own spin on whatever it is they are reading, with their own cognitive biases?

3B: When someone says something about another person online, that’s enough to highly consider a lawsuit, since this type of behavior can damage a person’s future. I remember you mentioned there was something written online that you wanted removed (and it’s not there now, or I would have been sure to find a way to help you to remove it). What did you learn about the importance of knowing our “digital imprint” and when do you know when to take legal action, or just let some things go?

Q4: You mentioned that there will be people who make up their minds based on what they read online, but for the people who know you, nothing changes, like your son who said, “I know who you are.” What did you learn from your son when he said that?

4B: How did you handle the people who you thought were your friends?

Q5: Some lessons stuck out that struck a chord for me because I know you are right, but it still burns me to think there are people like this in the world. You said, “There will always be someone wanting to profit from your misery.”

Your advice: For the most part the best plan is to ignore them. Don’t give them any power over you and that “your redemption really depends on you acting differently. Your redemption is about not getting drawn into useless fights and emotional spats but rising beyond that primitive mindset.”

Besides meditation and long jogs, how did you get to this place of rising above where most of us would be operating at a lower level?

Q5B: How have you learned to listen to other people’s criticism without being defensive?

Q6: How did an understanding of the brain help you here?

Q7: What did you learn from Mary-Frances O’Connor and The Grieving Brain[vi] that can help someone to get through Grief with their Brain in Mind?

We covered this question in the beginning. One of the first lessons I learned from Bob Proctor when I worked with him all those years ago was the importance of taking responsibility for my thoughts, feelings and actions, and never blaming anyone else for what I think, feel and especially my results. You said it loud and clear that “you cannot escape the hell without taking responsibility” and that “until you take responsibility you have no credibility.” Can you explain that?

Q8: What did you learn about how trauma impacts the body? (Bessel van der Kalk and Dr. Lief). Why is forgiveness important for our physical and mental health?

Q9: If I was to sum up the top lessons learned from your story, Falling to Grace, what would they be?

Howard, I want to thank you very much for writing this book to help all of us to learn how to fall to grace, and reminding us that we are all human beings, hard wired with emotions (Jaak Panksepp) and we can with an understanding of our brain, learn how to control the feelings we have attached to these hard-wired emotions, helping us to rise above our primitive selves, and be our best selves, like you have shown we all can accomplish. Thank you so much for all you contribute to the world with your books, podcast and teachings. I’ve learned How Not to Think, and many lessons from the importance of Falling to Grace that would be a blessing if we could all master in our lifetime. Thanks Howard.

To learn more about Dr. Howard Rankin

Facebook page; https://www.facebook.com/HowardRankinBooks/

A website where he posts blogs: https://ithinkthereforeiamwrong.com/

LinkedIn and Instagram

Email: DrHRankin@gmail.com

WEBSITE FOR THIS TOPIC www.hownottothink.com

NEW BOOK FALLING TO GRACE: https://www.amazon.com/F alling-Grace-Art-Science-Redemption-ebook/dp/B09KHK9ZC1

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iv] List of Cognitive Biases https://thedecisionlab.com/biases?utm_campaign=TDL+Dynamic&utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=adwords&utm_term=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ad=564666141031&hsa_src=g&hsa_cam=14567061057&hsa_kw=&hsa_grp=127713121155&hsa_tgt=dsa-19959388920&hsa_ver=3&hsa_acc=8441935193&gclid=Cj0KCQjw8amWBhCYARIsADqZJoXVRqivwle3n2OaSqUArDe26i61KSN1OC6vBlEw4rDYwHz7EaTP6QkaAlIhEALw_wcB

REFERENCES:

[i] Falling to Grace, by Howard Rankin, Published April 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Grace-Art-Science-Redemption-ebook/dp/B09KHK9ZC1

[ii]Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #146 with Howard Rankin on “How Not to Think” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expert-in-psychology-cognitive-neuroscience-and-neurotechnology-howard-rankin-phd-on-how-not-to-think/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #214 with Dr. Marie Gervais on “The Spirit of Work: Connecting Science Business Practices and Sacred Texts for a Happier and More Productive Workplace” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/marie-gervais-phd-on-the-spirit-of-work-connecting-science-business-practices-and-sacred-texts-for-a-happier-and-more-productive-workplace/

[v] Intuality AI Website https://intualityai.com/

[vi] The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary Frances-O’Connor Feb. 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Grieving-Brain-Surprising-Science-Learn-ebook/dp/B093ZZ7HZY

Jul 07, 2022

00:20:12

For today’s Brain Fact Friday, I wanted to revisit a topic that we have covered once already on the podcast, Heart Rate Variability or HRV. We covered an introduction to the importance of understanding HRV back in April of 2021 on EPISODE #125[i] on “What is HRV and Why is it Important for Tracking Health, Recovery and Resilience?” I wanted to go back to this episode and the basics of HRV because it’s such an important number to measure and understand “not just for health and recovery on a regular basis, but (for) resilience.” (Neurohacker.com) Recently, I found myself not being able to explain what it is, or knowing exactly how I can manipulate it for improved results, leading me to take a closer look at what it is, or go back to HRV Basics.

What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Why is it Considered “the Most Important Biomarker--a measure that captures what’s going on in a cell at any given moment that can serve as an early warning system for your health?”[ii]

Unless you have been training with a forward-thinking coach, you’re an elite athlete, or someone who has taken a serious interest in measuring their performance, most of us have not heard of, or really understand what exactly heart rate variability means. From the name, we can tell it has something to do with our heart rate. Maybe you’re like me and you measure your own HRV and have even studied it to see what exactly it is, but when it comes to explaining it to someone else, you just say when asked what it is “that it’s just an important number to know.” When I heard that Dr. Rabin, a board-certified psychiatrist and neuroscientist, would consider HRV to be “the most important biomarker for tracking health” I knew it was time to revisit HRV closely so that I could better understand it myself, and explain it to others with more confidence.

I wondered:

What is HRV again? Why is it the most important biomarker for tracking health, recovery and resilience? What tools can I use to measure it? Besides clean eating, sleep and rest, how else can I improve this important number? Can I dive deeper and look at my HRV, and see if I can manipulate a higher score by doing things a certain way when I’m experiencing high stress or having an off day? How can I stay motivated when life is difficult to keep pushing forward and have more high HRV days than low?

REMINDER: WHAT IS HRV?

After reviewing EPISODE 125, where we covered “What is HRV and Why is it Important?” I remembered that this number measures a person’s ability to bounce back from stress. Kristen Holmes and Emily Capodilupo from Whoop are HRV experts and they remind us on their most recent review of HRV that “it’s the timing between the beats of your heart and that the variability comes from the sympathetic side (where we take action) and the parasympathetic side (where we rest or digest).”[iii]

BALANCING OUR PARASYMPATHETIC AND SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM:

Our goal is to find balance between the two parts of our autonomic nervous system. When there’s balance, we will see a lot of variability, or a HIGH HRV that tells us that our nervous system is balanced and that “you have a lot of resources that are available and ready to use.” (Kristen Holmes/Emily Capodilupo, Whoop’s HRV 101 Podcast). This is why more and more athletes are using wearable devices like Whoop, or there’s the Oura Ring[iv], so they can wake up and see their score, and gain some insight into this number over time, using it for their training schedules. If you wake up to a high HRV score, then you know it’s going to be a good day, with lots of resources available to you whether you are an athlete training for an event, or if you just want to operate at your highest capacity.

When your HRV score goes down, it’s because “one set of the inputs, usually the sympathetic (action-taking) part of our nervous system is dominating, producing cortisol and the parasympathetic side, isn’t getting heard.” (Kristen Holmes/Emily Capodilupo, Whoop’s HRV 101 Podcast).

WHY IS UNDERSTANDING THIS NUMBER SO IMPORTANT?

Now that HRV has been explained, (what it is) and I feel that I’ve got a solid understanding of what a high HRV score means, ( I have more capacity to perform) versus a low HRV score, (where I’m not as balanced as I could be), I wanted to review why this number is so important for measuring rest, recovery and resilience.

I listened to Whoop’s most recent podcast on HRV Insights where they took all of their HRV related podcasts and gave the highlights of these on this one episode, and I heard internal medicine and journalist Dr. Bob Arnot, (ar-not) say that “HRV is the best overall marker for biological age—it’s how springy your overall autonomic nervous system is”[v] and world-renowned HRV expert Dr. Daniel Plews said that “knowing your HRV gives you more bang for your buck when you train” and then Whoop’s Vice President of Performance Kristen Holmes, (who joined us on EPISODE #134)[vi] agreed, saying that “you show up with more capacity to training, and that it matters what you did the day before for next day capacity and next day HRV.”

So, a higher HRV number is what we want to look for, if we have a day where our performance is important. Not just for athletes, but also an important number to watch for our productivity in the workplace. Will Ahmed, the founder of Whoop warns us “to avoid comparing your HRV to someone else’s as it’s “me verses me” number, and that we should be concerned with our score versus our baseline, and not ever look over the shoulder of someone else’s numbers to compare.

WHAT TOOLS CAN I USE TO MEASURE THIS SCORE?

Before measuring my HRV with Whoop, (that has a yearly fee associated with it[vii]), I started with a free app[viii] on my iPhone and it felt accurate and was a great place to start. Then I moved to measuring this number with Whoop when I was preparing for my interview #134 with Kristen Holmes[ix] and decided to purchase a membership and try it out.

HOW CAN WE IMPROVE THIS SCORE?

So, if this score is so important, how can we improve it? There are many articles you can read that will give you tips on improving your HRV[x] but world class stunt guy, Steve-O told Whoop that he swears by his high HRV Score with “mindfulness and meditation”[xi] which made me think beyond what we already know with clean eating, sleep and exercise.

While researching HRV on a deeper level, I got an email from the Rewire Fitness App that I had been using, since EPISODE #179[xii] with the CEO of Rewire Fitness[xiii] Sun Sachs, on Their First to Market Neuro Performance Mobile App for Athletes and the email said that I had been entered into a contest to win a prize (and the prizes were actually ones I could really use). The email said that the more we used this app, the more entries we would get into this contest. I thought, “I’m in” thinking that maybe I could see if I could increase my HRV levels with increased usage of this app, but adding something else to the plate is easier said than done, even with these incredible prizes.

Even though I had been using this app regularly since our interview last November, I have to say that I wasn’t using it twice a day (like Jack-O said gave him his noticeable HRV boost) and I was sometimes skipping a day. But this contest motivated me to take this all seriously and test out whether using the app, twice a day, consistently, could manipulate a higher HRV score with predictable results I could use in the future when needed. Here are the results:

DAY 1: Friday July 24th, I took the Rewire Fitness app readiness test that I take first thing in the morning, (that takes just a few minutes and it involves hitting a key when you see a shape appear on the screen) flagged me with high cognitive fatigue. It also showed low scores on the physical track, but my emotional track was looking good. I was tired, and the app picked it up, giving me a Readiness Score of 53 at baseline, was congruent to how I was feeling.

With this new understanding of HRV, after reviewing it last week, it would make sense that my HRV score would also be low, and I went over to the Whoop app to see, and it was. You can see on Friday, my HRV score took a dip down to 58 from 96.

Remember, if you do measure your HRV, don’t compare it to mine. 58 that’s a low score for me, could be a high score for someone else. The Rewire app had me do a Mindset Recovery Program that included guided breathing, binaural beats, self-talk, subliminal priming and visualization. I did do two meditations suggested for this day, in addition to what I already do in the morning.

DAY 2: The next day, Saturday July 25th, I woke up, took the 2 minute readiness test as usual, and all of my scores (cognitive, physical and emotional) had improved, giving me a rating of PRIMED with a score that went from 53 to 63. A quick glance at my Whoop app showed that my HRV score went up (just slightly) from 58 to 63 which I was hoping to see. I did do two meditations that the app suggested this day, in addition to what I already do in the morning.

DAY 3: Sunday night, July 25th, I went to bed, and wanted my score to be higher the next day, so that I could make a case for Jack-O’s theory that mediation and mindfulness really does improve your HRV score, and show how the Rewire App took me me from “Tired to Re-Wired” in one weekend, but I wasn’t sure it would work.

Not that I doubted the app, but when we are measuring something like HRV, there are so many different variables that can affect this number. Emily Capadilupo mentioned that if you are slightly dehydrated, this number can be decreased. So, I did everything I knew of, to raise my HRV Sunday night, and Monday morning, woke up to an increased HRV score of 85, and a PEAK score on the Rewire Fitness app that went from 53 on Saturday to 88 on Monday.

RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENT:

From this weekend experiment, it was clear that meditation and the mindfulness exercises did increase my HRV number, giving me more resources to draw from on Monday morning.

If you are measuring your HRV score over a long period of time, you can play around with this number to see what brings it up, and what takes it down. Obviously when we eat clean, get enough rest, and sleep, our score goes higher. Test it out and see what makes your score go higher for you, or lower. The CEO of Kernal, Bryan Johnson, says his HRV goes up higher when he sings. While my singing isn’t good enough to increase my HRV score, for such an important biomarker for tracking health, recovery and resilience, I plan to continue to do whatever I can to keep this number high.

MOTIVATION:

Which brings me to motivation because there are times that we just don’t feel like doing the activity that we know is important for our health and every day well-being. I often have days like this, and having a system that you can draw energy from within yourself can really help.

EXTRINSIC VS INTRINSIC MOTIVATION:

To review motivation, I revisited Clayton Christensen’s ground-breaking and besting selling book for motivation in the classroom, Disrupting Class, where he reminds us that “motivation can be extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside the task where a person might learn to do something not because they found the task itself stimulating or interesting, but because learning it would give them access to something else they want.” This would be like me using the Rewire Fitness app that I had gone off course with, in order to win the prize I wanted, or the sales person who makes extra sales calls to earn a higher commission, or the athlete who trains hard to win that trophy at the end of season. The motivation comes from outside the task.

Intrinsic motivation is when “the work itself stimulates and compels an individual to stay with the task because the task by itself is inherently fun and enjoyable”[xiv] and I noticed this happening after using the app for some time, and seeing my results go up. I really started to enjoy doing the meditations and brain training when I could see how it was helping me to improve. The motivation came from doing the task itself, just like when we exercise, and start to see how great we feel, it’s really hard to stop, once it’s a part of our routine.

I thought about what was motivating me to begin using the Rewire Fitness app 2/day to increase my HRV like Jack-O said worked for him, and it was interesting because although I knew it was an important part of my day to Rewire my brain, sometimes I would forget to do the readiness assessment in the morning (even though it just takes a couple of minutes) but the minute there was a contest to use the app, with prizes I could really use, I suddenly became highly motivated to use the app. I was extrinsically motivated by the contest, and like Clayton Christensen reminded us, this makes learning something new much easier. I was motivated to win the prize, but when I saw how much the app helped improve my HRV, I suddenly became intrinsically motivated, and using the app alone, without the contest, was enough. Contests are great motivators and a good way to jumpstart someone to begin taking new actions.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU?

Looking deeper at motivation, I thought back to when I worked in the motivational speaking industry, and Bob Proctor was always talking about how he signed up for this Yo-Yo contest to win this red sweater he really wanted. He kept saying “you’ve got to want the sweater” to remind us of why we do what we do. He became a phenomenal yo-yo master, as close to a pro as I’ve ever seen, just to win this red sweater.

So what’s your red sweater? What motivates you to do what you do?

The key is to figure that out, and then whatever you are doing becomes so much easier, whether it’s adding a mindfulness and meditation app to your day, or just going back to the basics with clean eating, sleep and nutrition. You can draw on the energy from “your red sweater” or whatever it is, and before you know it, you don’t need the contest, or the red sweater, but you’ll be taking action, without the need of a prize to motivate you. Until one day life knocks you off course, it’s always good to know that you have your red sweater to draw on, and a predictable way of staying on track, keeping your HRV levels high.

REVIEW AND CONCLUSION:

To close out this week’s Brain Fact Friday, DID YOU KNOW that “Heart Rate Variability has come to the forefront the last 40 years as being the most important biomarker for tracking health and recovery on a regular basis, and not just for health and recovery, but resilience” (Neurohacker.com)

What is HRV again? HRV is “the timing between the beats of your heart and that the variability comes from the sympathetic side (where we take action) and the parasympathetic side (where we rest or digest).” (Whoop Podcast HRV Insights)

If you wake up to a high HRV score, then you know it’s going to be a good day, with lots of resources available to you whether you are an athlete training for an event, or if you just want to operate at your highest capacity.

If you wake up to a low HRV score, you’ll need to draw on the energy of whatever it is that motivates you (your red sweater) to keep you moving towards health and wellness.

I used the Rewire Fitness App to show that I was able to go from tired, to rewired, and raise my HRV over the weekend, setting me up for a strong week, with lots of resources available for improved performance the next week. And I’ve got to say, it came in really handy, because this was a challenging week and I needed to be mentally sharp.

The key in raising HRV, (to attain this resiliency and sharpness) is to pick what makes you feel good (happy and healthy) and track this score to see what you notice. With time and trial and error, you should be able to get predictable results and do what you need to do to increase your HRV levels that give you more capacity with whatever it is you are doing, as well as with recovery and resilience.

I hope you have found this review of HRV as helpful as I did. I’ll see you next week with Howard Rankin who is returning back on the show for the 4th time, to talk about his most recent book, Falling to Grace[xv], as well as Dr. Ashok Gupta[xvi], who will share with us why an understanding of the brain is important for eliminating chronic pain and chronic disease.

See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iv] https://ouraring.com/

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #125 on “What is HRV and why is it important for tracking health, recovery and resilience.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/what-is-hrv-and-why-is-it-important-for-tracking-health-recovery-and-resilience-with-andrea-samadi/

[ii] Biomarkers https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/science/biomarkers/index.cfm

[iii] Whoop Podcast HRV Insights https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hrv-101-insights-from-the-whoop-podcast/id1445509665?i=1000530228812

[v] Whoop Podcast HRV Insights https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hrv-101-insights-from-the-whoop-podcast/id1445509665?i=1000530228812

[vi]Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes from Whoop on “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/

[vii] https://www.whoop.com/membership/pricing/

[viii] https://welltory.com/

[ix] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes from Whoop on “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/

[x] Tips for Improving Your HRV by Roni Radhakrishnan August 18, 2021 https://www.medicinenet.com/how_can_i_improve_my_hrv/article.htm

[xi] Whoop Podcast HRV Insights https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hrv-101-insights-from-the-whoop-podcast/id1445509665?i=1000530228812

[xi] https://ouraring.com/

[xii]Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #179 with Sun Sachs, CEO of Rewire Fitness on Their First to Market Neuro Performance Mobile App for Athletes https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/sun-sachs-ceo-of-rewire-fitness-on-their-first-to-market-neuro-performance-mobile-app-for-athletes/

[xiii] https://rewirefitness.app/

[xiv] Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen https://www.amazon.com/Disrupting-Class-Expanded-Disruptive-Innovation-ebook/dp/B00422LBY6/ref=sr_1_1?gclid=CjwKCAjwk_WVBhBZEiwAUHQCmbNtWNQSbSZuYVry-Jprwv-Ms8v9hMGvJ_sq6ZNGHq7IO38Hc_LoLBoCFEgQAvD_BwE&hvadid=241643135200&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9030068&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7203507980497277162&hvtargid=kwd-6896407241&hydadcr=21875_10169765&keywords=disrupting+class&qid=1656605317&sr=8-1

[xv] Falling to Grace, by Howard Rankin, Published April 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Falling-Grace-Art-Science-Redemption-ebook/dp/B09KHK9ZC1

[xvi] Ashok Gupta https://www.guptaprogram.com/

Jun 30, 2022

00:36:34

Welcome to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we cover the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (for schools) and emotional intelligence training (in the workplace) with tools, ideas and strategies that we can all use for immediate results. When we understand how the brain works, we can be better equipped to help our students focus their attention and improve their results.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/jqRo1e30PkM

I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and educator with a passion for learning specifically on the topics of health, wellbeing and productivity, and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is to our everyday life and results--whether we are a teacher in the classroom, or in the modern workplace. We have moved onto Season 8 of the podcast with a focus on our brain as it relates to learning, and today we have a case study, of someone who has been using the concepts she learned from self-study to create a brain-based program in her schools and community in India where they have already trained over 300 educators with her curriculum at the Institute of Cognitive Learning Sciences.[i]

On the episode you will learn:

✔ How an ambitious, forward-thinking educator, has created brain-based K-12 curriculum in India.

✔ How Manjula learned the most current neuroscience research before seeking out a certification with Dr. Kieran O’Mahony.

✔ The differences Manjula saw with the US Educational System and India.

✔ How she plans to impact change in the classroom, one teacher at a time.

Manjula sent me a message via my website, all the way from India, letting me know that she had listened to EPISODE #220[ii] with Dr. Kieran O’Mahony and Rich Carr on “Brain Centric Design” and she let me know she was a student of Dr. Kieron’s programs, and wanted to share what she was doing in India. I could tell that she was very excited about the work they were doing and so I wrote back quickly, and we set up a Zoom call to talk. I will let Manjula explain what she is doing with schools in India, the need she saw to change the way typical classrooms were operating by inspiring teachers, not forcing them to do something they didn’t want to do. She shared with me how she began to study neuroscience using as much free content as she could find online, (including our podcast) before she became certified, and began creating change one school at a time in India.

When you meet Manjula, I’m hoping that she will inspire you to keep searching for those students who need a bit of a push to reach their full potential. She was told as a young girl that she was below-average in school, and felt disconnected with her grades, but as she grew older, she wanted to prove to herself (and others) that she did indeed have unlimited potential and the will to make significant change in her community. You can’t miss the fire in her spirit. Let’s meet Manjula from India, and see how she is using brain-based learning to inspire students in the classroom.

Welcome Manjula, it’s wonderful to see you again. I’ve got to say, it was powerful meeting you yesterday on Zoom, and hearing about the work you are doing in India.

INTRO Q: To open up, can you share your story and background. What is life like growing up, and going to school in India?

Q1: How did you become interested in studying and learning about the brain? What resources did you learn from in the very beginning? Who have you been learning from?

Q2: What training did you take after you began to see how brain-based education could help students and teachers in India?

Q3: Who inspired you to reach for your highest potential in life?

Q4: When did you see that change towards brain-based learning was needed?

Q5: What did you notice about the differences between what family/school/student life is like in India vs the United States where you were learning your training? (values).

Q6: Do teenagers in India do the eye-roll (that I see often in the US) when asked to do something?

Q7: What did you create for the K-12 school market in India? What training do you offer?

Q8: What is the vision for what you are building?

Q9: Is there anything important that I have missed?

Thank you Manjula for sharing your story, program and vision for the future in education. You have created something incredible that I know will open up the eyes of those around the world who also share your vision. If people want to learn more about your programs, what is the best way?

RESOURCES AND LINKS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MANJULA’S WORK

https://www.youtube.com/c/pipaltreeeducation/videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp4XzzafTYNihURdODM4YAw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjwUvDFf3I0

https://www.linkedin.com/in/manjula-veeranna/

https://www.facebook.com/manjula.veeranna.3

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://www.linkedin.com/in/manjula-veeranna/

OTHER RESOURCES:

Wendy Suzuki https://www.wendysuzuki.com/

REFERENCES:

[ii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #220 with Dr. Kieran O’Mahony and Rich Carr on “Brain Centric Design” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/rich-carr-and-dr-kieran-o-mahony-from-brain-centric-design-on-the-surprising-neuroscience-behind-learning-with-deep-understanding/

Jun 23, 2022

00:12:49

“As long as we dare to dream and don’t get in the way of ourselves, anything is possible—there’s truly no end to where our dreams can take us.” Hilary Swank

On the episode you will learn:

The Neuroscience behind

✔ Why our dreams are so weird, highly emotional and often forgotten.

✔ With a BRAIN STRATEGY you can use to improve your waking life, with your brain and sleep in mind.

What is Sleep Paralysis?

Dr. Jalal and I discussed this terrifying experience in depth on our recent interview, episode #224[i] and most of us can relate to this experience, but wonder what it is, and why it happens, in addition to many other questions I had about dreams themselves. You can see Dr. Jalal’s lectures on this topic, where he explains what happens to our brain when we sleep and that we even see things we might say were ghosts. Now that I have heard Dr. Jalal’s explanation of what happens to our brains when we are dreaming, I definitely think of my brain now, when analyzing my dreams, with this new awareness.

Which brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday where I want to explore sleep paralysis, why dreams are so weird, and why are they highly emotional, and do this, with our brain in mind.

SLEEP PARALYSIS

DID YOU KNOW that during REM sleep (when we dream) there’s a part of the brain in the brain stem that paralyzes the body to keep us (and our sleeping partner) safe[ii] and another part of our brain (the cortex) that’s responsible for our perceptual awareness. Occasionally, we can wake up when we are still in REM sleep, and are perceptually aware, but unable to move as we are paralyzed. This is sleep paralysis, and can feel terrifying, if you have no idea what’s going on.

I learned from Dr. Jalal that in this state we can also see what we think is a ghost, or which he explains is “an illusion that your brain creates” in the Temporal Parietal Junction (that’s close to our Occipital or Visual Lobe) that can project a sense of our self, outside of our body. Have you ever felt or seen something like this and thought it was a ghost? Seeing something like this, paired up with feeling paralyzed can be a terrifying experience as I told him in the interview, and he agreed, with his own sleep paralysis experience.

Then, our brain doesn’t like the feeling of incompleteness and it will make up a story of what you are seeing. Dr. Jalal explains that in all of the years he has done this work, he has found that our cultural background can influence what we think we are seeing. It took me some time to make the connection, but the ghost I saw, was not far off from an 18th Century Englishman, or even someone wearing the outfits of the guards at Buckingham Palace. I did grow up with a photo of the Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in my house, and this made me think it could have been the reason why my ghost was of British decent when I was actually in a house in Vancouver, Canada. My brain created this image from a past, cultural memory.

WHY ARE DREAMS SO WEIRD?

DID YOU KNOW that there’s a part of our brain called the Dorsolateral PFC[iii] (a region of the frontal lobes associated with executive functions like working memory and attention) (Curtis and D’Esposito, 2003) that put concepts together in a meaningful way in our life—and that during REM sleep, or when we are dreaming, this part of the brain “shuts off”[iv] so we aren’t usually aware that we are dreaming?

If you have ever thought “that dream felt so real” this is the reason why, and it also explains why everything in our dreams is messed up and backwards. One minute we are on a bus with friends we haven’t seen in years, you grab one of your friends’ hand, jump off the bus, and go to the movies, and the next minute, you are back in your childhood home, drinking tea. This is one of my bizarre dreams, and I’m sure you can relate with your dreams. Now that I understand Dr. Jalal’s explanation of the part of my brain that puts concepts together in a meaningful way, shutting down during REM sleep, I can clearly see why everything in my dream is disjointed and doesn’t make much linear sense.

WHY ARE DREAMS FILLED WITH STRONG EMOTION, PAST MEMORIES AND PEOPLE?

DID YOU KNOW that during the REM state, or while we are dreaming, that “four areas of the brain fire up: the visual spatial regions (that help people to find their way around the world), the motor cortex (creates movement in the body), the hippocampus (our memory center) and amygdala (that processes strong emotions like fear, pleasure or anger)”

“Which is why dreams are often filled with movement, strong emotions, past memories, people, experiences and are irrational.” Mathew Walker[v] tells us on his podcast that’s all about why we dream.

If you can keep a dream log, over time you can see what’s going on in your waking hours, and learn from your dreams. Usually our concerns, worries and fears will show up in our dreams in some way, and you can solve them once you are aware of what they are.

To conclude this week’s Brain Fact Friday, that came from our recent interview with the world’s leading expert on sleep paralysis, Dr. Baland Jalal, we took a closer look at the neuroscience of our dream world, explaining why our dreams are so weird, often highly emotional and what we can learn from them.

I have four brain tips to make what we have learned about our brain when we sleep, useful in our daily life.

UNDERSTANDING SLEEP PARALYSIS: Once we know what sleep paralysis is, that our brain paralyzes our body to keep us safe, then we can understand what might happen if we become perceptually aware during our REM sleep, and stuck between our sleep and wake state.

BRAIN TIP FOR THIS FACT: OUR BRAIN DOESN’T LIKE CONFLICT OR INCOMPLETENESS: So figure out what your story is, if you have had a sleep paralysis experience and it’s left you feeling unsettled. I explained my British ghost that my brain created as an illusion to tell the story and fill in the blanks of the unknown. What was YOUR sleep paralysis experience, and how can YOU make sense of it?

WHY ARE DREAMS SO WEIRD AND OFTEN FORGOTTEN: Since we now know the Dorsolateral PFC, the front part of our brain associated with memory, attention and putting things together in a meaningful way in our life, shuts down during REM sleep, we can now understand why dreams are so weird and events that happen are all over the place. If the part of our brain responsible for our memory is turned off, this explains why “95% of our dreams we don’t remember” but we might remember the last few minutes, and last stage of our dreams if we are intentional about it.

BRAIN TIP FOR THIS FACT: REPEAT TO REMEMBER: (which is John Medina’s Brain Rule #5).[vi] If you want to improve this number see if you can remember your dreams when you wake up. Write them down before you do anything else, or they will be forgotten. Sometimes I’m not even awake yet, and I repeat the dream in my head while I’m brushing my teeth, to help me to remember and write it down when I can. Also, it will help if you are intentional about this practice and say “I will remember my dream” before you go to sleep at night.

LEARN WHY DREAMS ARE HIGHLY EMOTIONAL: When we know what parts of the brain fire up during REM sleep, especially our amygdala that processes strong emotions, or past memories and experiences, we can now look for messages in our dreams, over time to see what common themes come up. If we can solve the problems that we find in our waking hours, it will help improve the other 1/3 of our life spent in sleep.

BRAIN TIP FOR THIS FACT: SLEEP WELL, THINK WELL (John Medina’s Brain Rule #7).[vii] Here’s the im portance of sleep again. It keeps coming back on this podcast. John Medina writes in his Brain Rules book, that “people vary on how much sleep they need and when they prefer to get it, but the biological need for a nap is universal.” (Medina, Brain Rules)[viii] If there’s something bothering you in your waking hours, it will show up in your dreams in some way, and will impact your sleep. To truly sleep well, leading to improved “attention, executive function, working memory, mood, quantitative skills, logical reasoning and even motor dexterity” (Medina) work out your problems, and add a nap to your day to keep your mind operating at its highest levels.

While Dr. Jalal does put his neuroscientific mind first with every question I asked him, there were still some questions that he said science couldn’t prove, that have a spiritual side. Instead of saying that some things are not possible, he leaves this up to us to keep an open mind, and perhaps in the future, new advancements in science could move us forward so that we could find answers to the spiritual questions of our dreams in a way to benefit our waking life. Until then, I plan to keep on dreaming, and learning as much as I can on this topic to share with you here.

I hope you’ve enjoyed diving deep into sleep paralysis, why our dreams are so weird, and highly emotional with some tips we can all use to take our understanding and awareness to a new level. It really helped me to make sense of my sleep paralysis experience after interviewing Dr. Jalal, and thinking of ways that we can all use what we learned from his research. I do plan to keep an open mind moving forward to see what else I can learn from lucid dreaming, especially as it relates to improving our psychological well-being.

See you next week and hope you have sweet dreams this weekend.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iii] Dorsolateral PFC https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/dorsolateral-prefrontal-cortex#:~:text=The%20dorsolateral%20prefrontal%20cortex%20is,Pathways%20in%20Clinical%20Neuropsychiatry%2C%202016

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #224 with Dr. Baland Jalal on “Expanding our Awareness into the Mysteries of the Brain During Sleep” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/harvard-neuroscientist-drbaland-jalalexplainssleepparalysislucid-dreaming-andpremonitionsexpandingour-awareness-into-the-mysteries-ofourbrainduring-sl/

[ii] Sleep Paralysis https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21974-sleep-paralysis#:~:text=Why%20does%20sleep%20paralysis%20happen,or%20coming%20out%20of%20REM.

[iv] Neuroscience of Dreams and Sleep Paralysis at Harvard University Published on YouTube Feb. 13, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WBL-51kIkc&t=7s

[v] Mathew Walker Podcast The Sleep Diplomat https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/podcast

[vi] John Medina’s Brain Rule #5 Repeat to Remember https://brainrules.net/short-term-memory/#:~:text=Rule%20%235%3A%20Repeat%20to%20remember.&text=Which%20means%2C%20your%20brain%20can,have%20to%20repeat%20to%20remember.

[vii] John Medina’s Brain Rule #7 Sleep well, think well. https://brainrules.net/sleep/#:~:text=Rule%20%237%3A%20Sleep%20well%2C%20think%20well.&text=It's%20possible%20that%20the%20reason,reasoning%2C%20and%20even%20motor%20dexterity.

[viii] John Medina Brain Rules (Page 168) Published May 30, 2011 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005Z6YGRC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Jun 22, 2022

00:56:05

"Every child deserves a champion: an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists they become the best they can possibly be." Rita Pierson, Educator.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/feNGn-cpPP8

For returning guests, welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast for EPISODE #225 with a case study from someone I’ve mentioned before on the podcast, Elizabeth Mercado, from Ossining Union Free SD, New York, who you will see is a strong force with a goal to support ALL students, with the most comprehensive SEL plans that I’ve ever seen. I’ll be sure to link her plans and resources in the show notes for you to access and use it you would like, since her goal is to help all of us to move our students forward, with as much support as possible.

This interview takes a look at SEL with an equity lens, with clear examples of how to begin, what to do, and what SEL looks like in her District. I do love hearing how people around the globe are implementing the ideas we share with you on this podcast (it really does help with new ideas and motivation) and Ellie Mercado, an Assistant Principal in Ossining, NY, let me know that she was inspired by what she was learning to support her students and staff. Little did I know just how much she would inspire me, with her story and thorough SEL plans that I think everyone in education could benefit from. You will see in this interview that I made more connections with her story, that I think is important to share with everyone here, because just one new piece of information or motivation, can have a huge ripple effect on the world.

A bit about Elizabeth Mercado: She’s an ENL immigrant student who came at twelve years old from the Dominican Republic without speaking English, to a poor neighborhood in the South Bronx, living in a 1500 sq feet apartment with 8 children ages 12 and younger and 4 adults, and experienced first-hand what it is to have challenges growing up and in school. This experience gave her an in depth understanding of the impact of how our cultural, racial/ethnic, linguistic, and economic backgrounds can impact our learning. This is why she’s passionate about being an educator and wants to create the best learning environment for her staff and students in the Ossining Community where many of them come from a similar background. She believes that ALL students can be successful. She is a middle school and early childhood assistant principal for the last seven years and one year as an elementary early childhood assistant principal whose goal is to provide her students with a safe, trusting and nurturing learning environment where they feel included, respected, supported; recognizing that every student and staff member has unique strengths. She believes it is important to be intentional about all that they do since it makes a difference: the images on the walls; pictures in the books, holidays recognized; accepting and celebrating all; promoting student agency, voice and choice is all critical so students feel that they belong.

I hope that Elizabeth’s story inspires you, whether you are working in a school, or in some other capacity, to think of where to begin when looking at SEL through an equity lens.

Let’s meet Elizabeth Mercado.

Welcome Ellie, It’s incredible to meet you finally after all the support you have sent our way with the podcast. I’m so grateful that you reached out to us and shared your SEL implementation with us. I’ve never seen anything as thorough, with a clear way to begin and knew immediately that we needed to share your work on the podcast. Thank you for being here when I know time is always hard to come by.

Intro Q: I’ve got to start and leverage off the emotions I felt watching your presentation with how you are implementing SEL with an equity lens at Ossining SD in New York[i], because your story shows exactly why SEL skills are important in our schools, and why they must transition into the workplace. Can we begin with your “WHY” and why you are so passionate about implementing SEL with an equity lens to share your story since I related to you on a million different levels and I’m sure others will as well?

Intro B: While I definitely connected with your story from the point of view of those newcomer students, coming to the US and needing to navigate their way (like that one student who came to your school, and her biggest question to you was “how did you learn English?”) I also thought about ways these students could be leaders in their schools, and raise their voice up, instead of the experience you had where the teacher didn’t understand you. I think of my girls in Arizona, in a Dual Language Instruction program (learning their subjects in Spanish for half the day) and lost without Google Translator (that they aren’t supposed to use in class). The Spanish speaking students are like gold to them, as they need them to survive. I just wonder, while new students coming to Ossining are learning to fit in, can their Spanish be used to help other students? I ask this because I know how much my girls rely on those who are fluent in Spanish.

Q1: We are going to get into the details of what you have built in Ossining SD, but from watching SEL come into our schools across the US in waves (I would follow Linda Dusenbury[ii] from Casel and her Collaborating States Initiative from the very beginning when only 8 states had SEL initiatives). Like someone mentioned on your presentation that you sent me, the biggest question Districts still have with implementing SEL is “where do we begin?” Before you share your comprehensive SEL structure that you’ve built, can you take us back to the beginning, BEFORE you created what you have now, and tell us what you remember about your starting point?

Q2: We’ve all heard that students just need one champion to make a life-long difference and I don’t know an educator who hasn’t watched Rita Pierson’s TED TALK “Every Kid Needs a Champion”[iii] that has over 13 million views. Did your District always have the vision of SEL though an equity lens with the demographics in your District? Over 70% LatinX or Blacks.

Q3: Can you share the 6 Recommendations you covered in your recent training with tips on how to actually begin each one?

Q4: When I saw the quote from District Superintendent Dr. James Ryan that said “Social and Emotional Learning and Equity” two of the most important issues facing educators today, and seeing your passion for spearheading this movement forward, I couldn’t help but wonder what your vision is with this work? Do you do workshops for schools to help them implement their plans? What do you see in the future?

Q5: Is there anything important that I have missed? I know that you shared a recent presentation about how you are growing a sense of community in your District. Can you share what you did here, and anything else that’s important that I’ve missed?

Elizabeth, I want to thank you so much for reaching out to me, and sharing your story. What you have built with SEL through the lens of equity at Ossining is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I know your story and resources will help educators, as well as those in the workplace who would like to start somewhere with an equity and leadership plan. There is such strength and power that comes from you, and I know this is not at all how you felt all those years ago when you were standing there in your English class, and couldn’t find the words to read your poem. I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the vulnerability that you have shown, to share your story, and how it’s helping so many others.

For those who want to learn more about what you are doing at Ossining, what’s the best way?

Are there any resources others can access?

Andrea’s Final Thoughts:

This episode hit me pretty hard on the emotional level, that was obvious throughout, especially the end. I had to step away from my desk to think about why. I know how important this work is, but there was something about Ellie’s story that moved me deeply. After thinking about it for a while, I made the connection. We all know “why” we do what we do, and that’s an important part of our self-awareness, to keep us moving forward when times are difficult. Why I do what I do with this podcast is to lift up those students, like Ellie, who needed encouragement to access the unlimited potential that we can see she has. Her story of reading that poem in class made me remember when I first saw the importance of these SEL skills before they were called this, in the late 1990s, when I was working for Bob Proctor seminars and I watched him working with this group of 12 teens. If you’ve heard this story, you’ll know why Ellie’s background hit me on the emotional level. The moment I knew that SEL was going to be an important part of my future was when I saw these kids showcasing the skills they had been learning (things like improving their attitude, mindset and setting goals) and there was this one boy, Brian, who struggled to speak when it was his turn. You couldn’t blame him. He was on stage at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans in front of thousands of people, and the speaker went behind him and rubbed his back to calm him down so that he could get his words out. This moment is etched in stone for me as a pivotal moment in time.

Imagine if Ellie had a teacher who helped and encouraged her when she was struggling with her poem. It only takes one person to skyrocket or champion a student, and I’m so glad that Ellie found her champion. That’s why I spend the time to record these podcasts, hoping that maybe just one idea will help one student like Ellie, to take her talents into the world with strength and courage, to truly make an impact.

If I was ever to end this podcast (and I don’t plan on it, as I’m just too curious to keep learning and sharing new ideas) but I would end it with this episode, as it does come full circle for me with why social and emotional skills are important in our schools and workplaces today.

Do you know your why? Why do you do what you do?

While I know my why is just as clear as the day we launched this podcast, I know there is still so much to explore and learn in the field of neuroscience, like we saw with Dr. Jalal’s episode on dreams. As new discoveries with the brain and learning are uncovered, I’d love to share them here, so we can all access and use them in our life, and I stick to what I’ve always said. As long as listeners find these topics interesting, we will continue to produce more episodes.

And with that, I’ll close out this episode and will see you on Friday for this week’s Brain Fact Friday, where we will look closer at Dr. Jalal’s work on the dreaming brain, which expanded my awareness beyond where it has ever been.

I hope you enjoyed this episode with Ellie Mercado. You can find all the links to follow her work and access her resources in the show notes.

See you on Friday.

CONTACT AND FOLLOW ELLIE MERCADO

EMAIL: emercado@ossiningufsd.org

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/EMercadoAP

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZHpm64ahElUiW3e9s2M4mR9yBbAPVt541J0eCnsEBJw/edit#slide=id.gf07c305c23_1_0

RESOURCES:

July 11th Casual Leadership Connections Conference: Cultivating Growth and Self-Care https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Join-Fellow-School-Leaders-at-the-9th-Annual-Regional-Leadership-Institute--RLI-.html?soid=1129297243955&aid=4gLt1ExsFIA

Culture at Care Park PowerPoint Presentation: Creating a Safe, Trusting and Nurturing Learning Environment

How We are Embedding SEL with an Equity Lens to our Schools, Published May 18, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhFVRfS2qZM&t=2981s

IMPORTANT LINKS AND RESOURCES FROM HOW WE ARE EMBEDDING SEL WITH AN EQUITY LENS PRESENTATION

New York State Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks

AMD SEL Resources to Support Students, Staff and Family-20-21

Emotional-and-Academic-Development-Through-an-Equity-Lens-August-6-2020.pdf

Applying an Equity Lens to Social Emotional & Academic Development

Nine Cultural Values Differences You Need to Know

insights.com/country/ecuador/

Jagers, Rivas-Drake, & Borowski, 2018

This is Equity Video

Program-Quick-Facts.pdf

Transformative SEL as a Lever for Equity & Social Justice

Six Ways to Build More Equitable Learning Environments

SELEQUITY

STRATEGY 1 RESOURCES:

SLIDE 10 for MEANINGFUL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES AND SUPPORTS:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XJqpMl7dRLTdDGCKGval546TuK2eeaJTfQWSDUjN2DY/edit#slide=id.gcd85ba80c1_1_0

STRATEGY 2 RESOURCES:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XJqpMl7dRLTdDGCKGval546TuK2eeaJTfQWSDUjN2DY/edit#slide=id.gbb8ac5ae75_0_10

STRATEGY 3 RESOURCES:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XJqpMl7dRLTdDGCKGval546TuK2eeaJTfQWSDUjN2DY/edit#slide=id.gbb8ac5ae75_0_15

STRATEGY 4 RESOURCES:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XJqpMl7dRLTdDGCKGval546TuK2eeaJTfQWSDUjN2DY/edit#slide=id.gbb8ac5ae75_0_20

STRATEGY 5 RESOURCES:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XJqpMl7dRLTdDGCKGval546TuK2eeaJTfQWSDUjN2DY/edit#slide=id.gbb8ac5ae75_0_25

STRATEGY 6 RESOURCES:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XJqpMl7dRLTdDGCKGval546TuK2eeaJTfQWSDUjN2DY/edit#slide=id.gd497d415ec_0_261

REFERENCES:

[i] How We are Embedding SEL with an Equity Lens to our Schools, Published May 18, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhFVRfS2qZM&t=2981s

[ii] Linda Dusenbury from CASEL and her Collaborating States Initiative Plan https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED581611.pdf

[iii] Every Kid Needs a Champion TED TALK with Rita Pierson Published on YouTube https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion

Jun 21, 2022

01:02:34

“Dreams are one of the great mysteries of science. In their bizarre complexity, they can reveal deeper truths about who you are at the most basic level.” Researcher at Harvard University and the World’s leading expert on sleep paralysis, Dr. Baland Jalal

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/nE15JIqy5rU

On the episode you will learn:

✔ Who is Dr. Baland Jalal, and how did he find his way to study neuroscience and sleep, becoming the world’s leading expert on sleep paralysis?

✔ How is Dr. Baland connected to Francis Crick, who discovered the double helix of the DNA structure and Dr. V.S. Ramachandran?

✔ What is sleep paralysis and what happens to the brain while this is occurring?

✔Why is the time just before we go to sleep and the time just before we wake up important for increasing our creativity or gaining insight?

✔ Are premonitions real, and can we access important information from our dreams?

✔Can we actually travel to places we have never been?

✔ What is lucid dreaming and how can we gain insight from what we see in these dreams?

✔Can lucid dreaming be beneficial for our waking hours?

✔What advancements in neuroscience do you think could help us in the future with our dreams?

I mentioned on EPISODE #211, that when I first was introduced to Dr. Jalal, his team sent me an email with his Harvard Bio and a write-up about his work on dreams but little did I know that his work would open my mind to places it’s never been before, as I began to explore sleep paralysis (something I’ve experienced—just once which was enough for me, I just had no idea there was a name for it), lucid dreams (that I flat out thought I was crazy for having), and learning how my brain operates while dreaming, which revealed more truths about who I am at the core than I knew before coming across Dr. Jalal’s work. I’ve gone on to study English scientist and professor of neuroscience, Mathew Walker and often tune into his podcast that’s all about sleep, the brain and the body[iii] to see how we can all learn more about ways to improve our sleep, which we all know to be one of our top 5 health staples.

I did create this podcast to bring credibility to some of the concepts that used to be considered weird, but now, science and FMRI scans show why these practices that 20 years ago were not mainstream, are now commonly used in our schools and work environments. Before watching Dr. Jalal’s lectures, I don’t think I would openly talk about the experiences I’ve had with the dream world, but I thought if I’ve experienced these things, what if our listeners have also, wherever you are listening to this podcast in the world, and perhaps hearing from Dr. Jalal WHAT these bizarre things called dreams actually are, WHY we have them, and see if they can expand our self-awareness, and open up our world to a new level and even be used in a way to improve our productivity, creativity and results in our waking life.

My mentor Bob Proctor was always challenging me to stop looking at life through the key hole, and instead, open up the door and expand my level of awareness. He would say, “Once the mind has been expanded, it will never go back to its original state. Awareness is not something you lose.” (Bob Proctor)

When Dr. Jalal and I were working on rescheduling our interview, he asked me how early on a Sunday I would wake up, since he is currently in Europe, and my response to him was that I would wake up at midnight to speak with him about this topic because it’s fascinating and I know will help all of us to expand our thinking. Let’s meet Dr. Baland Jalal, and see if he can shed some light with what neuroscience can tell us about our dream world.

Welcome Dr. Jalal, thank you for coming on the podcast, and helping all of us to expand our thinking about what happens in our dream world—especially knowing that this time takes up 1/3 of our life and that our sleep is such an important health staple. Thanks for being here today…I know you have been busy recording your second TED TALK and that you are in Europe now?

I’m hoping you can shed some light for ways we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves through our dreams, and what neuroscience can tell us about our sleeping brain.

Intro Q: I’ve watched all of your most recent podcasts, and had no idea how much I would learn from them. I really enjoyed your interview on The Ranveer Show[iv] as Ranveer seemed like such an open-minded person. You mention your beginnings on this podcast that I think are important to begin with since there’s a lot more to you than we see without listening to your story, so I’ve got to ask, can you take us back to your humble beginnings, and then how you met your mentor (Dr. V.S. Ramachandran)?[v]

Q1: Until I heard your lectures, I probably wouldn’t ever admit to the fact that I had felt sleep paralysis. It’s such a weird and scary experience, and you explained it EXACTLY as I felt it over 20 years ago. For those listening, can you explain what sleep paralysis is, why we become paralyzed during REM sleep, and what’s happening in our brain to make this happen?

Q1B: Why does it feel so scary? I had an experience that if I had not heard you say this, I probably wouldn’t be mentioning it at all—but I thought there was a ghost laying on my chest. I could see him (in my head) and he definitely “felt” evil. Did my brain play a trick on me with what I was seeing and feeling or was there really a ghost in this sleep paralysis experience?

Q1C) How did you become known as the world’s leading expert on sleep paralysis and then I saw the topic of your most recent TED talk you how are you have designed one of the first treatments for sleep paralysis to help people who experience this terrifying phenomenon regularly?

Q2: I think it’s crazy that most of us have had these experiences, but we would just leave them off the table of our regular conversations with people, since they are just so weird. I actually remember asking a sleep expert years ago why I could “see things” in my head in those moments that I was drifting off to sleep. He wrote down the term “hypnagogia[vi]” and told me to study that. I can sometimes see people’s faces and sometimes what I see foreshadows important events many years later. What can you tell us about the importance of this time before sleep and wake, and how insights can be drawn from what we see so we can trust what we see to be useful?

2B: Sometimes during this time, we can have the sensation of floating above our body. I know you’ve talked about this often, and explain what’s happening in the brain for this to occur. Can you explain the part of our brain that’s responsible for our self-awareness, (Temporal Parietal Lobe) and how we could possibly see another version of ourselves floating above our self? (Sup Parietal Lobe)

Q3: Premonitions? Is there any TRUTH to what we are dreaming? Are there messages from our waking hours in our sleeping world? I think there are (after seeing common themes in my dreams from my waking hours) but what do you think? After your research and connecting science to dreaming, why do we have dreams? Are we supposed to learn from them?

What part of our brain can help us to interpret our dreams?

Q4: What about lucid dreaming. At the time I first wrote these questions (in April) I didn’t know there was a name for this. There are times just before I wake up, or times just before I go to sleep, that I can see things. My eyes are closed, (but I can feel them opening and moving around in my head as I’m trying to see this vision in my head) that I think are lucid dreams. Some of these visions have helped me in life with massive life-changing decisions and others I have no idea what I’m supposed to be learning from them. One example I can give you that I have no idea what the purpose of the vision is—there’s a hallway, and I can see people walking down the hallway. I know where this hallway is, and who the people are from what they are wearing. I’ve never been there before, but there’s certain things in the hallway, in addition to the people, that tell me where it is. The last time I saw this hallway, I was able to (for the first time) zoom in on certain parts of the hall, and see photos on the wall, or the light at the end of the hallway, where the people were walking. I know this hallway is a real place, because I saw a news clip of it, and had this immediate feeling of recognition like “that’s the hallway” but the camera in the news clip was shooting from a different angle than what I saw in my dream and I kept thinking…turn around, so I could see the hallway as I saw it in my head. What’s happening here? How can see “see” places in our mind where we have never been before? I don’t need to ask if it’s real because I’m certain it is from what I have seen, but what’s the purpose of have a lucid dream?

5: When we are “lucid dreaming” I recently learned from Mathew Walker’s research that in this state, our PFC that usually shuts down usually in dreaming, lights up and this explains why we can actually interact with people in our lucid dreams, or gain control of our dream. I’ve always just been an observer (like my hallway example I’m standing behind the people) but recently saw that I could zoom in and out of the hallway and see the pictures on the wall--wouldn’t it be neat if we could interact with the people we see, or even bring back something to show we really were there, like a pen from someone’s desk or something. You mention that you had this experience, and that you put a piece of paper in your pajama pocket. Can you explain what happened to the paper? Do you know how to control lucid dreams so they could be beneficial for us?

Q6: If lucid dreaming is real, and I think it is, couldn’t we use this skill for improved productivity or creativity in our waking hours? Could athletes use this for mental rehearsal since dreaming of doing something is almost equivalent to actually doing it?

What about in the workplace to gain access to ideas or answers to problems? Is there a way to enter lucid dreaming at will vs just randomly happen (which is how it happens for me)? I can’t control what I see, it just happens.

Q7: How can we “test” ourselves to see if we are dreaming or not so we can develop Lucid dreaming more? Is it like the MATRIX when Neo puts his hand on the wall and it either stops, or goes through? Can we do this to test if we are dreaming or not? What are you learning from your dream experiences to help yourself and others?

Q8: For people to learn more about your work, is the best place to follow you on YouTube where you post your lectures?

Thank you very much Dr. Jalal, for coming on the podcast, opening up my awareness BEFORE the interview, and giving us all an understanding of how our brain connects to our dream world. I hope it can help others to not be afraid of what they see during REM sleep, and keep searching for answers to help them in their waking hours, with whatever it is they are working on. It’s been such a pleasure to speak with you.

FOLLOW DR. JALAL

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/balandjalal

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/balandjalal/?hl=en

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/DrBalandJalal

RESOURCES:

Sleep Paralysis and the Monsters Inside Your Mind by Baland Jalal July 15, 2020 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sleep-paralysis-and-the-monsters-inside-your-mind/

REFERENCES:

[i] Dr. Baland Jalal https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/baland-jalal

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #104 with Antonio Zadra on “When Brains Dream” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/sleep-scientist-antonio-zadra-on-when-brains-dream-exploring-the-science-and-mystery-of-sleep/

[iii] Mathew Walker’s Podcast https://themattwalkerpodcast.buzzsprout.com/

[iv] The Ranveer Show Published on YouTube July 30, 2021 Neuroscientist Explains Scary Secrets of Your Brain https://www.youtube.co/watch?v=vJ_7h-OijAQ&t=24s

[v] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Ramachandran https://www.ted.com/talks/vs_ramachandran_3_clues_to_understanding_your_brain

[vi] What is Hypnagogia, the State Between Wakefulness and Sleep https://www.healthline.com/health/hypnagogia

Jun 16, 2022

00:08:43

Did you know that according to English scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology, Mathew Walker, the author of Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams that current research shows “that there appears to be a causal affect between sleep and our risk for Alzheimer’s Disease?” For this week’s Brain Fact Friday and Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #223 we are going to take some of the most noticeable lessons learned from our recent podcast with Dr. John Denboer, on “This is Dementia: Disrupting the Decline”[i] and see what we can learn from Mathew Walker’s most current research. This way, we can take a proactive approach to our sleep, optimizing our potential for learning, memory and retention, and see what we can learn about this devastating disease that affects “6.5M Americans, and is expected to double by 2050.” This topic goes hand in hand with our theme of Season 8 of our podcast: where our focus is on Brain Health and Learning with a look at How an Understanding of Our Brain Can Improve Learning in Ourselves (adults, teachers, workers) as well as our future generations of learners.

On this episode we will cover:

✔︎What is the difference between Alzheimer's and Dementia

✔︎What the most current research says about the connection between Alzheimer's Disease and sleep.

✔︎11 risk factors that we can learn more about to mitigate Alzheimer's Disease.

✔︎A look at the 2 proteins that damage and change the brain.

✔︎What we can do right now to mitigate Alzheimer's Disease by understanding sleep and our brain.

What is Alzheimer’s and What is Dementia?

On our interview with Dr. Denboer, who has spent most of his career working with patients on disrupting dementia, we began our interview defining each of these terms, since many of us aren’t sure exactly what they are, and if we don’t know what they are, how can we be sure we are being proactive with preventing them?

Dementia: is a general term for “decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life”[ii] and there’s not just one form of dementia. There’s Alzheimer’s, Vascular Dementia, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Mixed Dementia.

Alzheimer’s is “a degenerative brain disease that leads to dementia symptoms and gradually worsens over time.”[iii] We opened up our interview with Dr. Denboer with a quote from Dr. Babak Nayeri, a clinical associate professor from the University of Arizona who said “Dementia is not an aging disease; however, it is the most common disease of the aging population.” (from the Netflix documentary, This is Dementia). “Though the greatest known risk factor for Alzheimer’s is increasing age, the disease is not a normal part of aging.”[iv]

11 Risk Facts of Alzheimer’s Disease

One of America’s leading psychiatrists and brain health experts, Dr. Daniel Amen, who we’ve spoken often about on this podcast, believes that Alzheimer’s (that damages the hippocampus or memory center of our brain) and is responsible for “the disease-memory impairment”[v] is “a lifestyle disease similar to heart disease and type 2 diabetes and that our everyday habits contribute to our everyday risk.”[vi] Dr. Amen lists 11 risk factors that increase our probability for Alzheimer’s (with the acronym Bright Minds) and sleep is the S in this acronym. You can read the rest of the risk factors here[vii] but to review them quickly, they are:

B: For blood flow problems

R: For retirement and aging

I: For inflammation

G: For genetics

H: For head trauma

T: For toxins

M: For mental health problems

I: For immune system problems

N: For neurohormone problems

D: For diabesity (that seriously impacts brain health and memory)

S: For sleep that we will dive deeper into today.

Which leads us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday, that we opened up this episode with.

Did you know that according to English scientist and professor of neuroscience and psychology, Mathew Walker, that current research shows “that there appears to be a causal affect between sleep and our risk for Alzheimer’s Disease?” I recently watched Mathew Walker’s The Science of Better Sleep Masterclass[viii] and he explained that a recent study took a person who was sleep deprived (of non-rem sleep) for just one night, the next day “they saw an immediate increase in their blood of that toxic protein beta-amyloid”[ix] which shows “that there appears to be a causal affect between sleep and our risk for Alzheimer’s Disease.” (Mathew Walker).

What are Beta-Amyloids and Tau?

These two proteins are NOT the only factors in Alzheimer’s but since we now know from Mathew Walker that lack of sleep causes amyloid to increase in our blood, I think it’s important to understand what this could do to our brain over time.

To see a full presentation of How Alzheimer’s Affects the Brain[x], I will put a link to a page to review in the show notes. In this article, with a very clear video, you will learn how these two proteins, beta amyloid and tau, become toxic in the brain. You will see how the abnormal tau protein accumulate and eventually form tangles inside neurons, and beta amyloid clumps into plaques, which slowly build up between neurons. This is how Alzheimer’s begins to change the brain, and along with other changes, and inflammation, neurons begin to die, causing the brain to shrink, beginning in the hippocampus, our memory center, which is important for us all for learning.

To conclude this week’s Brain Fact Friday, where we looked at Mathew Walker’s research that shows a causal affect between sleep and our risk for Alzheimer’s Disease, I think a good action step for all of us would be to take a serious look at our sleep to be sure we are getting more than 6 hours each night. Or to at least understand what happens when we do go below 6 hours of sleep/night. I’m sure this will lead you to wonder just how much sleep we should be getting each night? Mathew Walker did cover the importance of sleep with elite athletes saying “sleep may be the greatest legal performance enhancing drug that too few athletes are abusing enough in this modern day and age” and that elite athletes like Lebron James gets 11 hours of sleep each night (a long sleep at night with 1-2 naps in the day) and tennis play Roger Federer gets in between 10-12 hours sleep/day and I’m sure if you ask a sports star with a proven track record how much sleep they get each night, they will talk of the importance of prioritizing sleep.

If you are not an elite athlete, looking to improve performance, Walker recommends 7-9 hours of sleep each night.

There’s a lot more that we can do, but we will cover that on another episode. Until then, I hope this episode shocked you enough (like it did me) to work as hard as I can to make sure we strive for improving our sleep each night, since we know this will affect our future health as a strong Alzheimer’s prevention strategy.

I hope everyone sleeps well this weekend, as we prepare for our much-awaited interview with sleep and dream expert Dr. Baland Jalal[xi], from Harvard.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncel.2014.00095/full#:~:text=The%20hippocampus%20is%20one%20of,of%20the%20disease%2Dmemory%20impairment.

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #221 with Dr. John Denboer on “This is Dementia: Disrupting the Decline” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-john-denboer-on-this-is-dementia-disrupting-the-decline/

[ii] Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease: What’s the Difference? https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/difference-between-dementia-and-alzheimer-s

[iii] ibid

[iv] ibid

[v] Why looking at the whole hippocampus is not enough by Aleksandra Maruszak March 31, 2014

[vi] Alzheimer’s is a lifestyle disease by Dr. Daniel Amen Published Nov. 3, 2021 https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/alzheimers-is-a-lifestyle-disease/

[vii] Alzheimer’s is a lifestyle disease by Dr. Daniel Amen Published Nov. 3, 2021 https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/alzheimers-is-a-lifestyle-disease/

[viii] https://www.masterclass.com/classes/matthew-walker-teaches-the-science-of-better-sleep

[ix] ibid

[x] What Happens to the Brain in Alzheimer’s Disease https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-happens-brain-alzheimers-disease

[xi] Dr. Baland Jalal https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/baland-jalal

Jun 15, 2022

00:35:57

In order to learn something new, looking at something from a different perspective can shed some light. Today we are going to “See the world through a different lens” specifically with a new look at “Transformative SEL.”[i]

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/dY28tux0tq8

On this episode you will learn:

✔ How Jason Littlefield and Erec Smith of EmpowerED created a Framework for SEL when they noticed something was missing with Transformative SEL.

✔ How they envision empowering educators, youth and communities by strengthening the neural pathways to peace and resilience through mindfulness and social and emotional learning.

✔How you can work with Jason and Erec with their mission.

Their Work Has 3 Pathways of Practice That:

Build awareness and equanimity (mental calmness) Kindness and compassion towards self and others and Celebrate common humanity, breaking the walls of indignity (or that treatment that causes one to feel shameful).

I spoke with Jason prior to our interview, as I know that the podcast guests I have chosen over the past 3 years have been addressing SEL as it relates to our brain and learning, but there was something missing that became apparent to me as we have not yet discussed diversity, equity and inclusion that are all important components of social and emotional learning.

THEIR MISSION[iii]

Empowering educators, youth and communities by strengthening the neural pathways to peace and resilience through mindfulness and social and emotional learning.

Their framework, Empowered Humanity Theory focuses on fortifying the individual and increasing societal cooperation by centering a value-centered identity, human dignity, disrupting mindsets of fear/judgment with inquiry and compassion, and intentionally engaging in 3 Pathways of Practice:

Practices that build awareness and equanimity Practices that build kindness and compassion towards self and others Practices that celebrate common humanity, and break the walls of indignity

That also includes 3 Attitudes:

1) Establishing a value-centered identity

2) Cultivating mindsets of inquiry/compassion over fear & judgment

3) Navigating self and others with a dignity lens.

They believe this framework fills a gap that we need at this moment to inspire us to empower humanity and affect the wellbeing of future generations in profound ways. It’s up to us to make the shift.

Let’s meet Jason Littlefield and Erec Smith, and dive into their Framework to view SEL through the lens of human dignity and our shared humanity, to see where we could expand our awareness and close any existing gaps.

INTRO: Welcome Jason and Erec, thank you for coming on the podcast today. Jason, when I saw your email and noticed how long you worked as an SEL Specialist, I thought that there must be something that you noticed was missing with the way that SEL was being implemented into our schools, and like we said in our email correspondence, your vision to empower humanity and affect the wellbeing of future generations in profound ways is important and timely.

Before we begin with our questions to dive into this topic, I’ve got to say first that I was a bit nervous to do this interview, mostly because this is a topic that I’ve not yet covered on the podcast. I know this is important, and before this interview, I was listening to one of my mentors, Dr. Jeff Rose, a former Superintendent from Atlanta, GA cover the topic of Equity Based Leadership on his most recent podcast and his guest, Joshua Starr, author of the book Equity-Based Leadership: Leveraging Complexity to Transform School Systems mentioned that “equity and social justice are an integral part of any school system’s agenda” (Joshua Starr).

Can we begin here, and have both of you share what drew you to create a NEW Framework to look at SEL through the lens of human dignity and our shared humanity? How does this relate to an equity-based transformation strategy? What did you notice?

Can we look at your solution or the EmpowerED Pathways Approach to SEL? How did you come up with your framework?

3 Pathways of Practice:

Practices that build awareness and equanimity Practices that build kindness and compassion towards self and others Practices that celebrate common humanity, and break the walls of indignity

That also includes 3 Attitudes:

1) Establishing a value-centered identity

2) Cultivating mindsets of inquiry/compassion over fear & judgment

3) Navigating self and others with a dignity lens.

Q1: What would be some examples of the OLD WAY vs THE NEW WAY that prevents flawed thinking?

Q2: Who have you shared your model with and what do they say? Have you had any pushback with your “humanity centered framework?” What are people saying?

Q3: What would be some entry points for schools to begin implementing your framework?

For people to learn more about your work, is the best place your website www.empoweredpathways.org?

UPCOMING EVENTS: https://www.empoweredpathways.org/fourthwave-antiracism/progress-4ward-advancing-21st-century-antiracism-with-fourth-wave-antiracism-development-fward

Jason Littlefield, M.Ed

Jason Littlefield is an educator passionate about personal well-being establishing a society of individuals at peace within themselves and others. He established EmpowerED Pathways in 2017 and co-designed the Empowered Humanity Theory; a framework for life, leadership, and learning. He served as a public educator for twenty-one years in multiple capacities. From 2014 to 2021 he was a Social and Emotional Learning Specialist for the Austin Independent School District. Jason has also served students and families from around the world, including Taiwan, China, and Benin, Africa. He is an advocate for decreasing our current human division and increasing personal well-being by bringing awareness to the impact and intent of the emerging ideology dominating our institutions and permeating the zeitgeist. He does so through EmpowerED Pathways, Free Black Thought, and The Institute for Liberal Values.

Erec Smith, Ph.D.

Erec Smith is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania. Although he has eclectic scholarly interests, Smith’s primary focuses on the rhetorics of anti-racist activism, theory, and pedagogy. He is a co-founder of Free Black Thought, an organization dedicated to highlighting viewpoint diversity within the black intelligentsia. Smith is a member and moderator for Heterodox Academy and sits on the Board of Advisors for both the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism and Counterweight, an organization that advocates for liberal concepts of social justice. In his latest book, A Critique of Anti-racism in Rhetoric and Composition: The Semblance of Empowerment, Smith addresses the detriments of anti-racist rhetoric and writing pedagogy based on identity and prefigurative politics and suggests that a more empowering form of anti-racism be considered.

Access Erec Smith’s book A Critique of Anti-Racism in Rhetoric and Composition https://www.amazon.com/Critique-Anti-racism-Rhetoric-Composition-Empowerment/dp/1498590403

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iii] https://www.empoweredpathways.org/about

REFERENCES:

[i] Transformative SEL https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/how-does-sel-support-educational-equity-and-excellence/transformative-sel/

[ii] EmpowerED Pathways https://www.empoweredpathways.org/empoweredhumanitytheory

Jun 13, 2022

00:52:30

“Dementia is not an aging disease; however, it is the most common disease among the aging population.” Dr. Babak Nayeri, Clinical Associate Professor from the University of Arizona, from the Netflix Documentary, This is Dementia.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/-U-slBBIEIA

On this episode you will learn:

✔ Who is Dr. John Denboer, what he built, and lost in his passion to help mitigate dementia.

✔ What Dr. Denboer learned raising funds for a high growth startup.

✔ What is the difference between Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia?

✔ What can we all do now to mitigate this debilitating disease.

✔ How a tattoo with personal and professional meaning motivates Dr. Denboer to keep moving forward with his work.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for EPISODE #221. For those who are new here, I’m Andrea Samadi, author, and educator, with a passion for learning, understanding difficult concepts, and breaking them down so that we can all use and apply the most current research to improve our productivity and results in our schools, sports environments, and workplaces.

This month, we are breaking into a new season on the podcast, Season 8, where our focus will be on Brain Health and Learning with a look at How an Understanding of Our Brain Can Improve Learning in Ourselves (adults, teachers, workers) as well as our future generations of learners.

If you’ve been following our podcast over the seasons, you will know that our content took the turn towards health and wellness around September 2020 with a BONUS EPISODE where we covered the Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies[i] after watching Dr. David Perlmutter’s Alzheimer’s The Science of Prevention Documentary.[ii] We took a closer look at Daily Exercise, Sleep, Eating a Healthy Diet, Optimizing our Microbiome, and Intermittent Fasting) as strategies we can all use to improve our brain health with the goal of preventing one of the most devastating degenerative diseases that affects “more than 5 million Americans (that is closer to 6 million now after reading our next guest’s book) and is the most common form of dementia, a term that describes a variety of diseases and conditions that develop when nerve cells in the brain die or no longer function normally.”[iii] This number has reached “over 80 million cases globally and is expected to double to be 150 million cases by 2050.”[iv] (Denboer).

On today’s episode #221, we will be speaking with Dr. John Denboer, a former clinical neuropsychologist who specializes in early stage preventative medicine - including cognitive, physical exercise and nutrition – with a goal of slowing down the natural decline in patients with dementia. At peak, his practice served in the range of 10,000 patients in the US supported by over 100 employees.

I listened to a recent podcast Dr. Denboer did with Graham Brown on the XL Podcast[v] and learned that while Dr. Denboer has a passion for disrupting Dementia (the umbrella for degenerative diseases likes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s) that there have been many ups and downs in his start up journey as a pioneer in this field of health and wellness, disrupting Dementia. In today’s interview, I’ll ask him about the lessons he’s learned along the way, the importance of family, and to explain his mission to make a difference for dementia sufferers and their loved ones before the global numbers go from 55 million people living with Dementia to doubling these numbers in the next 20 years.

***Just to note that John Denboer is not a current licensed psychologist / neuropsychologist / doctor and cannot provide medical advice. While researching Dr. Denboer I did see some things online that made me wonder why he is not a current licensed psychologist, and if you know me, getting to the truth of something is important. Instead of sweeping what I saw under the rug, I will ask him directly to explain what happened, so we can cover his journey with all the facts uncovered.

Let’s meet Dr.John Denboer and learn what we can do to disrupt dementia, strengthen our brains, and apply some of the lessons he’s learned in his journey.

Welcome Dr. John Denboer.

Intro: I’ve got to ask you, because I did notice before you sent me the note to be sure we say that you are not a current licensed psychologist/neuropsychologist/doctor that something happened to your license. When I’m researching someone, I always say, “if it’s online, I’m going to see it.” Instead of just ignoring what I saw, can I ask, what happened to your license?

Intro B: Dr. Denboer, I listened to a recent podcast you did, before I read your book, This is Dementia, or watched your Netflix This is Dementia Documentary that goes hand in hand with the book, and it was a heartbreaking episode. It hit the heart for me, as I’ve been working the past 25+ years to bring awareness to important strategies and skills in our educational system (hence the name of the podcast Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning) and to do this, we have relied on grant funding with our work in the schools. Some competitive grants were won, others were lost, but my dollar amounts were nowhere near your dollar amounts lost with your start up. Can we start with a quick overview of what you built, what happened, and what you learned raising funds for a high growth startup, the successes/failures?

Q1: I just interviewed Hilary Decesare,[vi] who appeared on that TV show Secret Millionaire on her new book coming out Relaunch and she talked about all the people she’s helped over the years to start over. We’ve all been there at some point of time. What are you focused on now, and what is your vision for the future?

Q1B: I watched your Netflix Documentary This is Dementia last night, and I did lose an Uncle who was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers at 58, and it was a devastating experience to watch his decline. For those who don’t know what Dementia is, can you explain the difference (Dementia vs Alzheimer’s?)

Q2: Can we mitigate dementia? What can we do right now to prevent this disease from impacting our brains?

Can you explain what science knows about the brain and Alzheimer’s and how Alzheimer’s Disease affects the brain (our ability to think, remember and make decisions)? I do like to make sure we include the science in a way that we can all understand and learn something new. Is it just those 2 proteins Beta-Amyloid and Tao[vii] that do the damage in our brain, or is there more to it?

Q1C: I did get my husband and I a brain scan[viii] to look and see what our brains looked like after I heard from Dr. Daniel Amen say that Alzheimer’s can show up in the brain years before onset, but we can’t all get our brains scanned and we were lucky to get his VIP rate since I did a podcast on the results. What can you share with us about early stage dementia detection since we can’t all get our brains scanned until the cost comes down. What can we all look for and what prevention tip can we all implement immediately to prevent cognitive decline?

Q2: When I saw your tattoo in the documentary, to motivate you personally and professionally, I related, as I recently got a tattoo for the same reason, and I draw on it daily to motivate me (it’s on my ankle). You can’t see your tattoo on your back though. Why did you put it there?

Final Thoughts

For people to reach out to you, and learn more, is the best place JohnDenboer.com?

Dr. John Denboer, I want to thank you for coming on the podcast today, and being so open to share your journey with all of those who tune into the podcast. There are many lessons to learn from your experience, as well as the importance of listening to your heart and moving forward no matter what obstacles come your way. You surely have faced more obstacles than most of us, and your story shows that being a pioneer in the health care industry does take a unique and dedicated individual. I wish you all the success with your mission, and raising awareness for how we can all mitigate and slow down this devastating disease.

Andrea’s Final Thoughts

Wow, that was a heartbreaking interview. I knew it was going to be difficult during the research phase, but knew there would be many lessons for all of us to hear. Since our focus of Season 8 is on brain health as it relates to learning, I wanted to debrief this interview, and think about everything that stood out to me.

Lessons Learned from Dr. Denboer’s Story

Never a Lender nor a Borrower Be. The first lesson made me think of something my Dad used to say all the time, and is easy for us to see in hindsight. He would always say “Never a lender, nor a borrower be” and I know how difficult it must have been for Dr. Denboer to share the story of where borrowing money took him drastically off course. If you have ever been in a pinch financially (we all have been at some point), borrowing money to help get you past your difficult time isn’t usually the best solution. Even if it’s from someone you know well, and trust (like your family) it still does cause tension. The best solution, is to find another way forward (either by earning it yourself) or change the direction until you have the resources you need. I know that Dr. Denbouer wanted to share the details of his journey so that others could see where he made turns that sent him off course with his goals, so those listening can learn from his mistakes. Find a New Way Forward. We all get stuck, but when we know what we are meant to do, we must look for a new way forward. To see someone with years of work invested in his passion, lose their way, made me think of all the people who might have lost their way somehow during the Pandemic. I watched companies merge, and people being displaced, not sure of where to go next. I’m sure those of you listening could tell me a million stories, of loss and disappointment and as difficult times in our world continues, stories like John’s aren’t going to disappear. What I loved about this interview, is that Dr. Denboer is not giving up, and I know he will find a new way forward. He acknowledged how difficult it was, but he is clear on his direction, that his tattoo of his grandmother reminds him of daily. If you watch the interview, Dr. Denboer’s face lit up when he spoke about his grandmother, and what she represents to him. If you have something important to you, like Dr. Denboer, you too will find a new way forward, if you’ve been taken off track. Keep Learning: We know that our brain health is crucial for all of us to live up to our full capacity, and Dr. Denboer reminded us that good cardiovascular health will get us 60% of the way, but to keep learning and doing things that stretch our brain in the process.

I hope that you found Dr. Denboer’s story to be helpful. If you want to reach out to him, go to JohnDenboer.com and send him a message. Like all of us, we could all use as much positive energy and love directed towards us, and our goals. I’ll close with a quote from Steve Jobs, reminding us that “What we’re doing here will send a giant ripple through the universe.”

See you in a few days.

Dr. John Denboer is a former clinical neuropsychologist specializing in the assessment and detection of early-stage dementia. He received his internship training at VA Boston Healthcare System (Boston University School of Medicine/Harvard University) and received his postdoctoral training at Barrow Neurological Institute. He has published extensively in the area of Clinical Neuropsychology and has been an expert speaker at many local, national, and international conferences. He is the Founder, CEO, and Chief Medical Officer of SMART Brain Aging, Inc., a company designed to help prevent and intervene in mild cognitive impairment and early-stage dementia. In the last 3 years, he has become a world-renown speaker in early-stage dementia detection and treatment. This has culminated in a Netflix documentary entitled “This is Dementia?!”[ix] as well as this book.

RESOURCES:

What Parts of the Brain Are Affected by Dementia by Chelsea Roderick Sept. 16 2022 life.com/blog/brain-affected-by-dementia">https://relish-life.com/blog/brain-affected-by-dementia

REFERENCES:

[i]The Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies (Daily Exercise, Sleep, Eating a Healthy Diet, Optimizing our Microbiome, and intermittent Fasting). https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/do-you-know-the-top-5-brain-health-and-alzheimers-prevention-strategies-with-andrea-samadi/

[ii] Dr. David Perlmutter’s “Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention” https://scienceofprevention.com/

[iii] 10 Early Alzheimer’s Symptoms That You Should Know https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/10-early-alzheimers-symptoms-that-you-should-know/

[iv] Disrupting Dementia TEDxGrandCanyonUniversity John DenBoer April 10, 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0xooSv6FkY&t=13s

[v] https://podcasts.apple.com/dz/podcast/xl26-dr-john-denboer-disrupting-dementia/id1471486300?i=1000560704608

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #219 Secret Millionaire Hilary Decesare On Her New Book Relaunch. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/secret-millionaire-hilary-decesare-on-her-new-book-coming-june-9th-relaunch-spark-your-heart-to-ignite-your-life/

[vii] What Happens to the Brain in Alzheimer’s Disease https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-happens-brain-alzheimers-disease

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #84 PART 3 “How a SPECT Image Brain Scan Can Change My Life: Andrea’s Results” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-a-spect-scan-can-change-your-life-part-3-with-andrea-samadi/

[ix] This is Dementia Netflix Documentary https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinseatonjefferson/2019/04/09/this-is-dementia-documentary-premiers-thursday-on-netflix/?sh=5ea60a61320c

Jun 09, 2022

01:21:13

"Your brain has a capacity for learning that is virtually limitless, which makes every human a potential genius." Michael J. Gelb

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/xP3lTXlwcPQ

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ How did Rich Carr (radio and communications) go from working with Paul Allen (Microsoft Co-founder) to working with Dr. Kieran O'Mahony in the field of neuroscience?

✔︎ What's Missing with the Behaviorist Method (rewards/punishment) that's used in our schools and workplaces?

✔︎ What is the Brain-centric Design and how can it be used to accelerate results in ANY industry?

✔︎ What should we all know about our brains to demystify them?

✔︎ What should we all know about learning and the brain?

✔︎ What do YOU have in common with Jeff Bezos?

✔︎ How can YOU get involved with Dr. Kieran O'Mahony and Rich Carr with Brain-centric Design?

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, EPISODE #220! For returning guests, welcome back, and for those who are new here, I’m Andrea Samadi, author, and educator, with a passion for learning, understanding difficult concepts, and breaking them down so that we can all use and apply the most current research to improve our productivity and results in our schools, sports environments, and modern workplaces. My goal with this podcast to make the research applicable for all of us to use-whether we have a background in science, or not.

On today’s episode #220, we have Rich Carr and Dr. Kieran O’Mahony whose pedagogic model, Brain-centric Design[i], is enjoying rapid acceptance in schools and businesses with high praise from different sectors including Nike executives who say that upon implementing these ideas, “their learners (athletes) not only understood their positions better, but also reached their goals faster” (Brain-centric Design, Praise, Michele Jordan, Fortune 100 Learning Director) from the Department of Defense, noted that “this process invites us to lean in and become interactive with our learning, enabling us to grasp topics quickly and most importantly with vastly greater retention.” (Ken Robinson, Department of Defense) The feedback from those in the classroom who have begun implementing these ideas follow suit, saying “Brain-Centric Design took the guesswork out of the classroom and highlighted the scientific reasons behind the success” (Ellen Thompson, Fortune 100 Learning and Quality Specialist) who highlighted how great it felt to “identify the positive traits of cognitive flexibility, social—emotional engagement and adaptive expertise” that she already possessed.

Rich and Kieran’s model explains that while behaviorist pedagogy might sound like the best way for students to learn in the classroom, or for employees to be motivated in the workplace, that there’s a more effective way to learn with the brain in mind, and this is exactly why we cover the most current neuroscience research on this podcast.

Who knew that learning the most current research in neuroscience would be so important to the world? I certainly didn’t when launching this idea just under 3 years ago this month, but it’s clear with the number of downloads we receive all over the world (in 168 countries now) that this is an important and timely topic for us all to pay attention to. As we are now moving into Season 8 of the podcast, with a focus on Brain Health and Well-Being as it relates to learning, Richard Carr and Kieran O’Mahony’s Brain-centric Design fits right in as they focus on the training and certification of Communicators, Coaches, and Educators to form a deep understanding in the pedagogy of their program: Brain-centric Design: The Surprising Neuroscience Behind Learning with Deep Understanding[ii]. Because their framework is aligned with how the brain processes information, and how people’s brain loves to learn, (especially something new) its inherent design places any learning space in a psychologically safe framework. They will show us how great things can happen when your brain is free of the behaviorist constructs of rewards and punishment that we have all seen in our public schooling, and corporate workplaces.

Let’s meet Rich Carr, and Kieran O’Mahony of Brain-Centric Design, and take a close look at why the behaviorist model that many of us have been use it using because it works, is out-dated, as they show us there is a better way to learn in our schools and classrooms of the future.

Welcome Rich Carr and Kieran O’Mahony, thank you for reaching out to me and sharing your learning model with all of us today.

INTRO Q: Just a quick glance at all of the praise of your work in the beginning of your book, Brain-centric Design: The Surprising Neuroscience Behind Learning With Deep Understanding I couldn’t help but notice the one written by Alan Breeze, Washington State Prison, Inmate #797180 who said that “there must be a way for headheads like myself to learn that does not include years of solitary confinement” and that if he had found your method, that instead of a testimonial from inmate #797180, it could have been written by Master Chief Brazee, US Navy.

How did you both come to discover your method?

Q1: We can clearly see that our K-12 Educational System needs transformation and how far we are behind other countries like Finland and Japan (who tune into this podcast) and Ireland where Kieran mentioned his journey began, we are currently in the TOP 20 in this country.[iii] You mention that one reason is that our K12 system is built on the rewards/punishment system. Where did this Behavioralist Method[iv] go wrong? What are we missing when it comes to learning and deep understanding?[v]

1B: Why do some people seem to thrive in this system-or seem to be resilient enough to not be impacted by this system (dandelion vs orchid) and how is this data evident in the Nations Report Card? (NAEP).

1C: The example of in your video of the young girl who was given candy as a reward for completing her math sheet just broke my heart listening to it as I still see this happening with my youngest daughter. I don’t know why candy is given as a reward! Can you explain why rewards and punishment aren’t helpful in the learning space?

1D: How does this rewards/punishment system carry into the workplace to prevent employees from reaching their potential? Kieran’s answer blew me away here, as I came from the system of commission sales, where employees were rewarded with money if they could hit their sales goals, and punished if they missed them. We know that people in this space can be fired on a dime, which works against how our brain works. Can you explain why the rewards/punishment system limits us in the workplace?

Q2: In chapter 1.1 of your book, Learning is Connecting the Dots, you say, “to learn you need neurons” and “to teach you need to know how neurons work.” Isn’t it mind-boggling that no one asks us right through our educational system, anything about our brain and how it relates to learning? I know that this is changing as more schools are learning how the brain relates to learning (the science of reading) etc, but where do you think we are now and what else needs to happen before learning and brain are more widely accepted in our schools and workplaces? I’ve got to say that I loved Kieran’s answer where he talked about learning about telomeres and mitochondria (that are both important structures in the cell that help us especially as we are growing older) but what he was learning was written by neuroscientists in complex terms. How are you translating these concepts into useful concepts and making them useful in the public domain for teachers, parents and even students to use in their lives?

Q3: What should we all know about our brain to demystify it? PART 1 of the book.

Q4: What should we all know about learning and the brain? PART 2 of the book?

Q5: Why is challenge so important with learning and what does Rich’s daughter and Jeff Bezos have in common? PART 4 of the book. Kieran’s take on this made me think back to the many influencers in my life who I’ll always be grateful for but ultimately it was my brain that made I used in every decision-making process.

Q6: How can BcD be applied in different industries? (Schools/Sports/Workplaces)?

Q7: Why is BcD Revolutionary and something we should all pay attention to?

Q8: Is there anything important that I have missed?

For people to learn more about you, what’s the best way? What is the call to action at the end? Contact you? www.braincentricdesign.com

Thank you very much for sharing BcD with us. You have created a system that is revolutionary, and has the ability to impact change in our schools and workplaces.

CONNECT WITH RICH CARR:

rc@braincentricdesign.com

https://braincentricdesign.com/

https://twitter.com/BrainCentric

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrknowledge/

https://www.youtube.com/c/RichCarrknowledge

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://braincentricdesign.com/

REFERENCES:

[ii] Brain-centric Design: The Surprising Neuroscience Behind Learning with Deep Understanding by Rich Carr and Dr. Kieran O’Mahony https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SRC6BSM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

[iii] Ireland Apple How-To Charts https://chartable.com/charts/itunes/ie-how-to-podcasts

[iv] Brain-centric Design Chapter 3.2 Behaviorism is Outdated May 20, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc0jWUZKqS8

[v] This is the one critical piece we are missing when it comes to learning and deep understanding. By Robyn Shulman Sept. 15, 2019 https://www.forbes.com/sites/robynshulman/2019/09/15/this-is-the-one-critical-piece-were-missing-when-it-comes-to-learning-and-deep-understanding/?sh=36515031e329

Jun 03, 2022

01:12:30

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/naWMRm8tqck

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ How Hilary Decesare, who made her first million at 32, got involved with giving back and ended up on the TV Show, Secret Millionaire.

✔︎ How the story of Hilary's Mom, connected with Andrea and an untold story with her and Bob Proctor.

✔︎ What Hilary learned from leaving her home, and going into a poverty struck area in Long Beach, CA.

✔︎ What is the 3HQ™ Method to help people move from their head, to their heart, to higher self.

✔︎ How anyone can reLaunch their personal or professional life.

✔︎ How John Assaraf helped Andrea and Hilary to ReLaunch their life and business.

✔︎ How to begin, and join Hilary's book launch on June 9th.

She’s a sought-after speaker, founder of The Relaunch Co., and previously one of Oracle’s top account managers worldwide, who brings fresh energy to industry leaders, CEOs, and solopreneurs. She holds a psychology degree and a range of certifications in her field, and has been featured on ABC’s hit TV series Secret Millionaire. Her insights have been seen on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and mentioned in the Huffington Post, Yahoo, Market Watch, and others. As an innovator in neuropsychology as it relates to business and life, Hilary DeCesare has cultivated her experience to illuminate a heart-driven path to conquer today’s shifting landscape, re-imagining personal and professional success.

When I received an email introduction to Hilary’s work, I noticed that she was on the TV Show, Secret Millionaire, that I’ve seen and find inspiring. I love seeing people give back after they have found their way in this world, and Hilary Decesare definitely has a purpose to help others find their way which is what her new book, and podcast are all about. I had no idea just how much Hilary’s work would connect with mine, with many parallels that I hope will become apparent in the interview.

This is one of those interviews that I know how has the ability to completely transform someone listening. When ignoring her intuition resulted in fearing for her life at the edge of Niagara Falls, this award-winning Silicon Valley CEO and entrepreneur Hilary DeCesare was shocked into realizing she needed a deep reassessment of who she was and why. The answers surfaced where she least expected—her late mother. In RELAUNCH! Spark Your Heart to Ignite Your Life, Hilary immerses the reader in a world of neuroscience, to uncover a powerful secret that we all harbor: The 3HQuotient. This is the power to leverage the three H's—the Heart, the Head and the Higher Self. Stay tuned and learn some of the top lessons and personal stories from Hilary as well as from other experts like John Gray, John Assaraf and Jim Fortin.

Let’s meet Hilary Decesare, and see what she can share to help all of us to see the silver lining of what’s happening in the world today, and for anyone out there, thinking of a reLaunch (maybe a new career path, or considering a new direction) this is her specialty.

Welcome Hilary Decesare, it’s such a pleasure to meet you. Hilary, like you’ve said on your podcast, reLAUNCH, you mentioned how lucky you feel to get to speak to such incredible people like your last guest, Dr. John Gray, whose book Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus was one of the most influential books of the last quarter century. I feel the same way, especially as I’m researching people and making many connections to what I’m learning and I wonder, just to open up and help people to quickly get to know the spirit of who you are, can you share perhaps why someone who made their first million at the age of 32 got involved in this work of helping others to see the “silver lining” in what many would consider very difficult times?

Your book, that isn’t due out until June 9th, but I found it and made a connection with how you saw your Mom and it related to a story of when I first moved to the US. Can I share this story that made me connect to you BEFORE I found another connection?

You Mom Taking Pride in Painting Your House (that gave you inspiration) reminded me of the Bob Proctor window cleaning story. Bob took pride in cleaning windows, just like your Mom took pride in painting that house.

What did you learn from your Mom in PART 1 of the book with her painting story?

We just interviewed Dr. Marie Gervais on EPISODE #214[ii] on her new book “The Spirit of Work” that I think resonates with your 3HQ™ Method (before I know what it is) because her book is about getting to the “spirit of a person in the workplace, to make a true impact. It wasn’t long while researching you that I was able to see beyond what we might see on the outside, and see the power and presence that you hold within with your spirit. Maybe it was watching you go into that place in Long Beach, leaving your LA home behind (and all that you had that makes you comfortable) and watch how you could see the silver lining (or the spirit) of that situation that not many people would do. What did you learn from that experience that the show didn’t cover? Maybe insights you see now, looking back?

Q1: Hilary, I think anyone listening should go and watch your Secret Millionaire[iii] clip as it was eye-opening to see, especially in these difficult times we are all experiencing. You think it just can’t get any worse, and then it does, but nothing was as difficult to see for me than that house you had to stay in and I’m not picky when I travel, but a place needs to be clean. As we move to your book, RELAUNCH, that comes out June 9th, What is the 3HQ™ Method and how could it help people listening who might be going through a difficult time and in need of a reLAUNCH? (Heart, Head, Higher Self)

Q2: You’ve got a unique approach to helping people uncover and get rid of their limiting beliefs. What is your BUGS approach, and where did you learn this? Did you have any negative beliefs and how did you get rid of yours? How do we identify our limiting beliefs?

Q3: Why do you say you must be invisible to be visible if you are going to have success in your personal and professional life?

Q4: How do you tap into your intuition? Can you explain the “Power of Pause” more?

Q5: I noticed that you have an incredible testimonial from someone who helped me back in 2014 (when I moved in the new direction of Neuroscience with my work), New York Times Best Selling author, John Assaraf. How did you meet John, or did he just send you a testimonial for your book (since I know him, I know you must know him to gain access to his knowledge.

Q6: Hilary, is there anything important that I have missed?

For those who want to join your book launch on June 9th, what’s the best way? TEXT 55444 and put Relaunch to gain access to everything on the book.

Thank you, Hilary, for meeting with me today. I was impacted by your work at the first glance of the email your offices sent me. It wasn’t difficult to get to the heart and spirit of your work and know that you will continue to help others reach new heights. I will put the links for your social media for people to follow you and wish you much success with this new book, and workshops and helping as many people as you can to find their way, and the silver lining. Thank you!

FOLLOW HILARY DeCESARE

www.instagram.com/therelaunchco/

www.facebook.com/TheReLaunchCo/

www.linkedin.com/in/hilarydecesare

https://therelaunchco.com/

ABOUT THE BOOK

RELAUNCH! Spark Your Heart to Ignite Your Life is an empowerment manifesto to yourself - it explores the 3HQTM: the intersection between the Head and the Heart and how to reach your Higher Self. It’s about learning how to live your most fulfilling life and to take it to the next level... and beyond.

Andrea’s Final Thoughts

To wrap up this interview with Hilary Decesare on her new book, Relaunch, if you are in a place where you think there could be more for you (whether in your professional or personal life), I think the strategies that Hilary outlines in her book could be a really good starting point. I do hope that you will join her launch and grab her book.

In Part 1, on the heart, you’ll see the story of Hilary’s Mom painting the house, showing us all how to move from the heart to the soul and examine our work to see if we take pride in what we are doing.

In PART 2 we move to our head, and look at the reLaunch Flip™ where we go from being a victim with our story, to a victor and eliminate those BUGS (or automatic limiting negative thoughts) in our head that we all have.

We will see how when all of the H’s—the heart, head and higher self are connected, it will open up pathways that will connect us to others and new life experiences. Without a balance within our three H’s, it’s difficult for us to reach our highest potential.

REMEMBER: When we feel stuck, we aren’t really stuck, but it’s our thinking that is stuck and needs to shift/change. This process will help you to find the possibilities where you might only see closed doors.

PART 3 We look at our higher self and learn to use our intuition to find answers from within so we can trust the decisions that we make.

If you are looking for a way to reinvent yourself in some way, this book will give you many ideas for where to begin and what to look for in the process. Re Launch is a life-long program as we will need to Relaunch many times over in our lifetime.

I thought of the many times I’ve had to reinvent myself and was able to do so quickly as I had access to so many programs through the speaking industry I worked in for many years. Hilary’s book covers everything I have even seen (from John Assaraf, to Bob Proctor, Carol Dweck, and even Dr. Amen). This book covers them all.

I’ll close with a quote from John Assaraf who helped me to reLaunch when I needed to move in the direction of Neuroscience. He says “

"If you're not in touch with who you really are and know that there is way more you can do and achieve, Hilary DeCesare shows how to put yourself on the path to not just manifestation, but transformation, starting from the inside out. Read the book, apply its lessons and watch your life soar to heights you have only dreamed about." - John Assaraf, Brain expert Featured in The Secret, and two-time New York Times bestselling author

See if Hilary’s stories resonate with you, like they did with me. We all have the ability to reLaunch and come out stronger on the other side.

See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] reLAUNCH Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-relaunch-podcast/id1510506747

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #214 with Dr. Marie Gervais on her book “The Spirit of Work” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/marie-gervais-phd-on-the-spirit-of-work-connecting-science-business-practices-and-sacred-texts-for-a-happier-and-more-productive-workplace/

[iii] Hilary Decesare Long Beach, CA Secret Millionaire Season 3, Episode 4 https://abc.com/shows/secret-millionaire/episode-guide/season-03/04-hilary-decesare-long-beach-ca

May 26, 2022

00:13:34

This has been a tough week in the United States and while being interviewed on Tom Schimmer’s[i] educational podcast on Monday that focuses on learning, leadership, and life, he asked me what keeps me up at night related to education, and my answer to him was “school shootings” since they don’t seem to be going away. This was a day before the next mass school shooting would hit the news around the world.

This has been a really tough week for everyone, in addition to the stress the world is already facing, and I’m sure those listening to this episode outside of the US can feel the turmoil, and have many questions. While I certainly don’t have all the answers, I do have some thoughts that I think can provide some insight and hope for those who tune in. After this incident, while working on releasing our next episode, nothing felt right to me as I was writing, and so I figured the best solution was to take a break from our usual episodes, and think of ways that we could use this platform to amplify the voices left behind (like Chey and Pav have done do well)[ii] and highlight those who have been working in the trenches, to provide solutions for those impacted by the events like we saw repeated this week.

Before we take a look at these brain-based solutions, getting a bigger picture overview of the events that occurred this week is important. The k12 school shooting database lists some charts and graphs that provide visuals of this issue documenting “each and every instance a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property (in the US) for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time, day of the week.”

There’s a map that you can click on to see the incidents that have occurred by state[iii], and it’s eye-opening. Click on the link in the show notes and see for yourself. There wasn’t ONE state in the US that was exempt. You can see some that have less incidents, but country wide, you can see no one remains unaffected.

There’s also another graph that shows some of the most recent and well-known incidents next to ones we might not all know by name, all the well-known incidents highlighted in red. We can see Columbine in 1999 with 13 people killed, Sandy Hook in 2012 with 26, Sante Fe 2018 (10), Parkland, Florida, 2022 (17) and now Uvalde, Texas with 21 killed this week.

I share these numbers and visuals as a way to show that what Mathew Portell said is right on the mark. Moments of silence aren’t solutions. It’s time to speak up. But what exactly do we say?

How can we “Seek to Understand?” when things are so horrible and abnormal?

Dr. Covey’s timeless principles can help us all here. We must first Seek to Understand[iv], using Dr. Stephen Covey’s Habit #5.

How do we understand such difficult tragedies in our world?

The Brain of a School Shooter:

This takes me back to the work of American Psychologist, Dr. Daniel Amen[v], whose work looking at the brain through SPECT Image Scans[vi] (that looks at blood flow and activity in the brain—where he looks to make improvements and further balance the flow to improve brain function) his work and scans weren’t widely accepted when he began years ago, but he now helps people who come to his offices across the country (from well-known sports athletes, to celebrities, to regular people) to look at their brain to get to the root of their health and wellbeing from the brain level. He’s famous for saying “When our brain works right, you work right.”

Dr. Amen focuses on “why” this behavior is occurring (Habit #5) as he explained on recent Instagram post that the brain of Kip Kinkel[vii] (the shooter from the Thurston High School Shooting in Springfield, OR, 1998) was shown to be “toxic, damaged, and dramatically under active.” Dr. Amen said it “was one of the worst 15-year-old brains” he has ever seen and reminds us that “we have to talk about brain function whenever behavior is so awful and abnormal” and that “if we understand why (his brain is this way—he thinks possibly lack of oxygen at birth) then we can do something about it, but “most people get medication without understanding their brain.” (Dr. Daniel Amen Instagram). Dr. Amen shows a healthy brain that is smooth, even and symmetrical, versus an unhealthy, under-active brain when he points to the brain of the shooter. The challenge with this strategy is that we don’t have SPECT image scanners in our classrooms (or any brain scanners at all for that matter!) to pinpoint those with unhealthy toxic brains, so we could do something with this information.

What the Future Holds: Prevention from Understanding

Dr. Amen is working on making brain scans that he offers more accessible, which only the future will tell, and aren’t immediate solutions but there is still a lot that researching the brains of people who are committing these crimes can show. Since a SPECT image scan would only work on someone who is living (since it measures blood flow and activity in the brain) they can also look at the brain of someone who has died, to see what can be learned.

The Brain of NFL Player Aaron Hernandez

Just by looking at a razor-thin slice of the brain of Aaron Hernandez, (who was a football player in the NFL who was arrested and convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd, and ended up committing suicide in prison) it was clear that “his brain was riddled with stage 3 CTE, a neurodegenerative disease which has 4 stages and has been found in athletes like football players, boxers and soccer players who endure repeated concussions and other blows to the head. It’s been associated with memory loss, cognitive dysfunction, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.”[viii] While brain scans are not an immediate but a future solution, I thought about what else we could do as we reflect on the events that stopped us all in our tracks this week to give us some peace in the middle of this chaos. Dr. Amen says often that he’s in the “helping business” showing that his brain is hard-wired for altruism.

So How Can We Help Others With our Brain in Mind?

Friederike Fabritus, a pioneer in the field of neurol-eadership, who joined us on EPISODE #27[ix] reminded me this week that “one aspect that is very important for our brain is purpose. When we help others and behave in altruistic ways, our brain is flooded with the happiness trifecta: dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin. These are instant well-being boosters.”[x]

Doing good for others helps us to feel better! Research has shown that our brains are hard-wired for altruism and purpose.” Which brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday.

Did you know that:

“Doing good for others helps us to feel better!” (Friederike Fabritius[xi], and from the research of a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, LA, Leonardo Christov-Moore[xii] that “our altruism may be more hard-wired than previously thought?”[xiii]

Besides, Dr. Amen, who is helping us to “understand” why people behave in abnormal ways, we also have people in the world who take this understanding to another level by actually doing something about the problems that they see.

This leads me to highlight the work of Darryl Scott, the father of Rachel Joy Scott, the first student killed at Columbine High School, who founded Rachelschallenge.org that focuses on his daughter’s life, with this legacy, not her death. Darryl Scott has spoken to over five million people in live settings around the world, not counting the millions he has spoken to through programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, CNN, and the Today Show. He has authored or co-authored five books, and meets with politicians and educators regularly concerning issues of school violence. I highlight Darryl Scott in this episode (even though there are others taking a stand to end violence in our schools) but I had the chance to hear Darryl Scott speak when he keynoted at a School Counselors Conference in Arizona in 2018 and it was an event I will never forget. While he talked about the importance of safe schools, and provided a timeline of the shootings that occurred after Columbine, he took us all back to the person who created education in the United States in the first place, Horace Mann.[xiv] Scott reminded us about The Principles of the Father of Education, one being the importance of making education “inclusive” for all children. He asked us to all think about where we are today with helping all students feel safe in our schools, making us all think to where US education began in the first place.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday where “doing good for others makes us feel better” and that we are “hard-hired for altruism” I hope that we can all think of how we can move forward, with understanding, and go the extra mile to help others in need. We might not be able to solve all the world’s problems at once, but doing a little bit every day to help others can make an incredible ripple effect on the world. I know we all know how to do this, and look for the ones who don’t stand out in the crowd to help.

While writing this episode, my alarm went off, and I had to pick up my youngest from her last day of school. While I was driving her home, there were two kids walking home up the side walk. One kid, looked like the older sister and the other, the youngest was much farther behind. It’s now close to 100 degrees out in AZ, so you get the picture. The little one walking behind dropped a folder of papers all over the ground, and her older sister didn’t even notice. She kept walking and the two girls were now really far apart. I’m writing this episode and super sensitive to this poor kid who just wants to go home, and now here papers are everywhere, so I stopped the car, and helped her to pick up her papers. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look she gave me when she said “Thank you” as she ran up the street to join her sister.

We all have a story like this—maybe you’ve helped someone walk across the street, or you’ve shown your kindness in some other way, but now we all know that are brains are wired to help others in this way, and to do more of this moving forward.

Review and Conclusion

To conclude this week’s Brain Fact Friday, where we are looking for solutions to the problems we see in the world, we went back to Dr. Daniel Amen’s work where SPECT image brain scans could help us to understand “why” terrible things can happen in the world (Using Dr. Covey’s Habit #5 of Seek to Understand First) but until the research catches up with every day practice, we can all remember that:

“Doing good for others helps us to feel better and that our brains are hard-wired for altruism and purpose.” When we find that purpose, like Darryl Scott, who founded Rachel’s Challenge, this can improve our well-being while our message goes on to impact millions more around the world. Keep our eyes open for those who could use our help, and take action when you can.

We can all make the world a better place, and our brains are hard wired to do this.

I hope this weekend that you surround yourself with those you love, and that you think of ways that you can help others around you, as we do have the ability to make change over time, which does require action, not silence.

See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Tom Schimmer https://twitter.com/TomSchimmer

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #215 with Chey and Pav on “Amplifying Those Voices Left Behind” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/chey-cheney-and-pav-wander-from-the-chey-and-pav-show-on-their-vision-to-identify-and-amplify-the-voices-often-left-behind/

[iii] K-12 US Shooting Database https://www.chds.us/ssdb/data-map/

[iv] The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits/

[v] Dr. Daniel Amen Instagram post of the brain of a school shooter https://www.instagram.com/p/CeAHXUzJUaF/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #82 PART 1 “How a Brain Scan Changed My Life with Doug Sutton” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-a-brain-scan-changed-my-brain-and-life-with-doug-sutton/

[vii] Thurston High School Shooting , 1998 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurston_High_School_shooting

[viii] What the Aaron Hernandez Documentary Missed About His Brain by Dr. Daniel Amen Feb. 17, 2020 https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/what-the-aaron-hernandez-documentary-missed-about-his-brain/

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #27 with Pioneer in the Field of Neuroleadership, Frederike Fabritius https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/pioneer-in-the-field-of-neuroleadership-friederike-fabritius-on-the-recipe-for-achieving-peak-performance/

[x] Friederike Fabritius LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6935211532599369728/

[xi] Our Brain and Purpose with Friederike Fabritius https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6935211532599369728/

[xii] Our Brain May be Hard-Wired for Altruism Study March 20, 2016 brain-may-hard-wired.html">https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/content/535712/our-brain-may-hard-wired.html

[xiii] Our Brain May be Hard-Wired for Altruism Study March 20, 2016 brain-may-hard-wired.html">https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/content/535712/our-brain-may-hard-wired.html

[xiv] Horace Mann, The Father of Public Education http://evolutionofeducation.leadr.msu.edu/2017/04/18/horace-mann/

May 20, 2022

00:13:11

Did you know that “the shorter we sleep, the shorter our life will be?[i]” Professor Matthew Walker, The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ A review of the importance of sleep on our physical and mental health.

✔︎ How lack of sleep attacks the memory centers of our brain.

✔︎ 2 science-based strategies to improve memory and never forget anything ever again.

✔︎ Tips for how to use these strategies in your life for improved results.

Have you ever said, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” or pushed through your work possibly doing an all-nighter, thinking that you’ll catch up over the weekend?

The most current research shows that this is a really bad idea, as Matthew Walker, the author of the book, Why We Sleep, tells us that “lack of sleep attacks the hippocampus (where memory and learning take place) and increases the risk for various forms of cancer.”[ii] We have covered the importance of sleep on this podcast in many different places, including a BONUS episode in December 2020 where we talked about sleep as one of The Top 5 Health Staples[iii] we should all pay attention to, but Professor Matthew Walker reminds us that “as we are getting older, our learning and memory abilities fade and decline...and that a physiological signature of aging is that our sleep gets worse” which contributes to cognitive or memory decline. I don’t know about you, but as I’m going through the next 50+ years of my life, I’d like to have a sharp memory, in addition to a healthy body that can help me to do the things I want to do with work and family and when I find something that’s NEW and INTERESTING, I will share it with you, wherever you might be listening to this podcast, so it can help you in your personal and professional life.

My hope is that today’s Brain Fact Friday makes us all think about how we can improve our sleep, memory and overall health as I share the most current research, and how I’m applying it for improved results and productivity. We are now nearing the end of Season 7 of the podcast on “Brain Health and Well-Being” and will begin Season 8 in June, on “Brain Health and Learning.” Having a theme for each season helps me to stay focused on the guests we bring on, as well as the questions I ask them. If there is a topic of interest to you, please send me a message[iv] and let me know.

Today we are going to take a deeper look at the importance of sleep on our learning, memory and overall health, as we prepare to speak with the world’s leading expert on sleep paralysis, Dr. Baland Jalal, from Harvard University, who will help us to connect the brain to some of our weirdest sleep experiences, with the hopes that this connection can help us to all learn something new, and perhaps use some new strategies to make sleep a priority that will in turn improve our memory and learning in our waking hours.

While researching for our next interview with Dr. Baland Jalal[v], I’ve been looking at what some of the leading experts have discovered about our dreams and sleep. I did explore what I was learning on EPISODE #211 on “The Neuroscience of Dreams: Expanding Our Self-Awareness”[vi] to open up the door for this interview and always want to remind everyone of EPISODE #104 with Antonio Zadra on “When Brains Dream”[vii] but today I want to highlight how our sleep is important for learning and memory consolidation, hoping the Dr. Jalal will deepen our understanding of our dream world, take some of the mystery out of what happens to our brain during sleep, and bring some strategies to the forefront that we can use to improve our productivity in the 16 hours of our waking day.

So Why is Sleep So Important and Critical to Look at For Our Health, Well-Being and Productivity?

Professor and Neuroscientist Matthew Walker, from the University of California, reveals a recent study with adults who got 6 hours of sleep vs 8 hours, and they noticed that in the “6 hours of sleep group, that certain genes were turned off (the immunity genes)” that we all need to fight against disease and viruses, and the genes that were turned on were the genes that produced tumors in the body. We’ve all heard of how important sleep is, and how it’s nonnegotiable for our health, but this study put sleep back on the map for me to keep investigating to see how else it can be improved. After our interview with Dr. Jalal, I hope to show how our dream time can benefit our wake time, and how we can use our sleep time for improved creativity, focus and productivity while we are working/awake.

Since lack of sleep “attacks the hippocampus” of the brain, where our memories are first formed, and then consolidated from short-term to long-term memory, I wanted to share some strategies where our memories can be strengthened, with or without a good night of sleep. I share these 2 strategies with you, as I recently had to draw on them, and then while listening to Stanford Professor and Neuroscientist, Dr. Andrew Huberman’s most recent podcast, on Understanding and Improving Memory[viii], I made some connections to the memory building techniques I’ve been using, while Dr. Huberman showed how science proves these strategies grounded in science.

If what Matthew Walker says is true, and that as I’m getting older, my learning and memory abilities are fading and declining, it would make sense to me to find some ways to strengthen my memories to prevent this from occurring.

Last week, the day before interviewing Dr. Marie Gervais, for EPISODE #214[ix] something weird happened and I lost the questions for our interview. The good thing is that it was the day before the interview, so I had time to recreate them, but what was interesting is that I relied on my memory to do this quicker than if I had to start from scratch. While I know I don’t have a photographic memory, where I could remember every word by detail, after listening to Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast on Improving Memory with Science Based Tools, I could see how science really helped me in this situation.

USING SCIENCE TO STRENGTHEN OUR MEMORIES

TIP #1 Taking a Mental Snapshot in Your Mind. Until I heard Dr. Huberman talking about this as an effective, science-backed method for improving our memory, I wouldn’t have believed it myself, even though I do this all the time. He drew on a research article about Photographic Memory[x] where he explained it’s not in the sense of remembering every word of writing on a page (like some people can do) but a bit different—something he has been doing since he was a young kid, and something I’ve done since I was young as well. It’s when we take either an actual or mental photograph of something we want to remember, and the research says that if it’s something we choose to remember ourselves (it’s volitional) then our memory of this snapshot is enhanced, and even if we delete the actual photograph, if we took one, that we should still be able to recall every detail in the image, from our mind, for years to come.

HOW TO USE THIS IN YOUR DAILY LIFE

I thought about this example with recreating my questions for Dr. Gervais. Because I was in an emotional state while reading her book, and creating her questions, you would think this is what helped me to remember them when I had to recreate them (because her book The Spirit of Work was all about connecting to her at the soul level). I had the research, and went through each point, and remembered where the questions came from, but the places I could remember the questions clearly, were the ones that were connected to images I had seen (whether on social media) or somewhere that I remember thinking “yes, this goes along with what I want to ask” and it was the mental image recall that helped me to remember her questions.

If you want to try this, take either a mental, or an actual photograph of something you want to remember. Remember it must be volitional, not something someone else wants you to remember. While taking the photo, or imaging it, pay attention to what you are seeing. Where is the picture? What’s in the background? Is there a person in the picture? What are they wearing? Is there anything about the photo that would allow you to pinpoint the month the photo was taken? Are they wearing something that stands out? Where are they standing? How are they standing? What’s behind them? Is there a window in the photo? What’s outside the window? Is it daytime or nighttime? Now that you’ve got your mental image, delete it, stop thinking about it, and wait a week, and see how much of the image you can remember. With practice, you should be able to recall details from these mental or actual snapshots, many years later. Dr. Huberman did say that the research showed that although the image could be recalled, that the auditory along with the image would be diminished, or that vision trumps our auditory senses.

TIP #2: Highly Emotional States + Adrenaline=Enhanced Memory. Dr. Huberman shared a study that was done by Cahill and McGough[xi] that showed when you are in a highly emotional state, adrenaline is released but what is interesting about this study is that “it’s not the emotion that stamps the memory down, but it’s the presence of adrenaline”[xii] that solidifies the memory.

He said “You don’t need to take anything to spike adrenaline” (Dr. Andrew Huberman) you just need to find what works for you and if it “makes your eyes go wide and breathing increase” then you’ve spiked your adrenaline. He did give some suggestions of ways to recreate this adrenaline boost in our brain to enhance learning and memory, without using repetition (the most popular research based strategy for learning retention) like cold ice baths or showers to increase adrenaline, or exercise that I use often.

HOW TO USE THIS IN YOUR DAILY LIFE:

How do you approach learning and memory? With this research in mind, did you think about stamping the memory of what you want to remember with adrenalin? Have you heard of strategies to increase adrenalin in your body (like a cold shower or cold bath) to stamp down your learning? I talked about this with Dr. John Ratey when I interviewed him on EPISODE #116 on “The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain”[xiii] when I told Dr. Ratey that in order to study neuroscience, write these episodes, and make sense of it all, I had to run up a mountain, or do some sort of rigorous cardio activity in order to be able to sit at my desk and actually understand what I’m reading. Dr. Ratey agreed that I needed to create the neural chemicals needed for learning and memory.

How do you approach learning and memory? Exercise, cold baths, or some other method? I’d love to know…

To review this week’s Brain Fact Friday

Did you know that “lack of sleep attacks the hippocampus”[xiv] the part of the brain that plays a role in learning and memory. If we want to protect this part of our brain, then paying attention to how much and how long we sleep is a responsible next step for us to all focus on, in addition to working on strategies that can strengthen this important part of our brain.

We covered 2 tips for implementing how an understanding of our brain can improve productivity in our life with the mental snapshot strategy that will allow you to remember anything, even if you’ve deleted it, by paying attention to whatever it is that you want to remember, and then practice this, to strengthen this part of your memory center. If you are like me, and have deleted something, you’ll never have to worry, because it will never be lost, when you’ve backed it up with a mental snapshot.

The second strategy of enhancing our memories is with the idea that it’s not just our emotions that make our memories stick, but the presence of adrenaline and to find ways to increase adrenaline naturally (like through exercise) to create the neural chemicals that our brain needs for learning and memory.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode, and that you have taken away something to improve your brain health and well-being. I’ll see you next episode with Dr. Baland Jalal where we will see what we can learn about ourselves, by diving into the dream world.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, Professor Matthew Walker Published on YouTube June 28th, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j9xCC_VtQA

[ii] The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, Professor Matthew Walker Published on YouTube June 28th, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j9xCC_VtQA

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE on The Top 5 Health Staples from December 11th, 2020 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/bonus-episode-a-deep-dive-into-the-top-5-health-staples-and-review-of-seasons-1-4/

[iv] Contact Andrea https://www.achieveit360.com/contact-us/

[v] The Neuroscience of Dreams by Dr. Baland Jalal Published on YouTube Feb.13, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WBL-51kIkc

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-neuroscience-of-dreams-expanding-our-self-awareness/

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #104 with Antonio Zadra on “When Brains Dream” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/sleep-scientist-antonio-zadra-on-when-brains-dream-exploring-the-science-and-mystery-of-sleep/

[viii] Understand and Improve Memory Using Science-Based Tools by Andrew Huberman May 16, 2022 https://hubermanlab.com/understand-and-improve-memory-using-science-based-tools/

[ix]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #214 with Dr. Marie Gervais on “The Spirit of Work” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/marie-gervais-phd-on-the-spirit-of-work-connecting-science-business-practices-and-sacred-texts-for-a-happier-and-more-productive-workplace/

[x] Photographic Memory: The Effects of Volitional Photo Taking on Memory for Visual and Auditory Aspects of an Experience by Barasch, Diehl, Silverman and Zauberman published at Yale University January 26, 2017 Diehl-Silverman-Zauberman-Photographic-Memory-Psych-Science.pdf">https://faculty.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Barasch-Diehl-Silverman-Zauberman-Photographic-Memory-Psych-Science.pdf

[xi] A Novel Demonstration of Enhanced Memory Associated with Emotional Arousal Published December 1995 by Larry Cahill and James L McGaugh https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053810085710483

[xii] Understand and Improve Memory Using Science-Based Tools by Andrew Huberman May 16, 2022 https://hubermanlab.com/understand-and-improve-memory-using-science-based-tools/ (31:49).

[xiii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #116 with Dr. John Ratey on “The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/best-selling-author-john-j-ratey-md-on-the-revolutionary-new-science-of-exercise-and-the-brain/

[xiv] The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, Professor Matthew Walker Published on YouTube June 28th, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j9xCC_VtQA

May 18, 2022

00:56:43

“The best way to predict YOUR future is to CREATE it.” Abraham Lincoln

And what better way to create our own life than to have our very own built in compass.

BOOK RELEASE DATE: Memorial Day. Stay tuned.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/tPFhP5mg-l4

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ How Assistant Principal Dan Wolfe came up with a "moral compass" using the 5 SEL Competencies to help students and teachers navigate through difficult times.

✔︎ How to use the 5 SEL Competencies to stay on track.

✔︎ How to use Dan's Self-Assessment to see where our strengths and areas of improvement are.

✔︎ How to use a "Compass Check" to monitor our progress along the way.

✔︎ Insights and AHA Moments with using the 5 SEL Competencies as your "guide."

Today, on EPISODE #216, we will be speaking with Dan Wolfe, an Assistant Principal from Pasco County, Florida, on his new book Becoming the Change[i]: Five Essential Elements That Guide Us Towards Becoming Our Best Selves-- that is coming out before Memorial Day Weekend. Dan reached out to me via Twitter to let me know he was about to release a new book that was inspired by a blog he started on Social and Emotional Learning called “Our Moral Compass” that led to him starting the Become the Change Podcast[ii] where Dan focuses on the five areas of social and emotional learning that we have been focused on with this podcast.

I’m always looking for unique ways to share these important SEL skills, and I loved what Dan has created with his book that compares SEL skills to a moral compass that can used to keep us on track with our life. Before the title of the book changed, it was going to called Our Moral Compass, and evolved to Becoming the Change.

What caught my attention with Dan, BEFORE I had even read this book, was the original title. I wondered how he was going to use the SEL competencies to help us navigate through difficult times in our life. We all need a moral compass, and without this, we can veer off track very quickly. How do you navigate through life when times are difficult? Do you have your own built in compass that keeps you on track?

I look forward to speaking with Dan, learning how he is using the analogy of a moral compass to help his students learn, navigate their way through the complexities of life, by understanding and apply SEL in our schools today.

Let’s meet Dan Wolfe!

Welcome Dan Wolfe, thank you for reaching out to me and sharing your new book, Becoming the Change.

INTRO Q: Dan, what caught my attention with what you have created is not just the fact I can see that you have been immersed in teaching SEL for many years, which is clear from your blog and podcast, that I know is a lot of work on top of being an Assistant Principal and all that goes along with this full-time position.

When I first saw your compass analogy, with the SEL competencies that we have been covering on this podcast since we launched, (we did add mindset to ours) but you’ve got the 5 Casel[iii] Competencies covered, it made me think of this powerful leadership activity I did many years ago involving a compass. I was dropped off in the middle of the woods with a cooler of food, (that I remember being very heavy) and a tent, (that was awkward to carry) and we had to navigate to our camp site using a compass. There had to have been at least 5 of us. This was years before I think Casel even came up with their 5 competencies, (or at least they weren’t online) but they were all apparent on this trek from where we were dropped off in the woods, to where we needed to go (our campsite) where we met up with all of the other groups in one place.

This activity was of course to bring to light how we “showed up” in life under a stressful, grueling, difficult task. I’ve thought of this activity many times over the years, as an example of all that’s needed to guide us through life…but the one area that really helped, especially when at a crossroads, was navigating life, with a moral compass that came from within, choosing what I think was best for me at the time.

How did you come up with this idea of the moral compass connected to these important SEL skills?

Self-awareness came up as we all got to see ourselves and unique characteristics on this journey. Relationship skills seemed to be the most important as we had to come to a consensus with every decision we made. Obviously they had to be responsible decisions to allow us to get to where we were going (hopefully before dark) so we could set up our tent in the daylight. Social awareness was apparent as we had to think outside of ourselves and help others, and we of course had to manage ourselves, and make sure our emotions were regulated in this difficult task.

Q1: Like my example of using a compass, we had to make sure we stayed on track as we moved from where we were, to our final destination. When we went off track, we lost (or wasted) time that was important for setting up our campsite that evening. What happens when we go off track with your compass analogy? Pick one of the competencies and explain how we can use your compass to navigate this competency through life.

Q2: There’s a lot behind this quote that you mention as a Compass Check. “You are the Captain of Your Own Ship. Never let society determine the direction of your moral compass.” (Page 12, Becoming the Change). I think of this for leaders who have to forge their own way, often going where no one has ever gone before them, or even like we spoke on a recent episode with Dr. Marie Gervais, with the former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, who was given a lower wage because she a woman, and a woman of color. She didn’t even think of asking for more, since it was a “good” wage, but she knew she was being limited. In all the 5 competencies we usually know what to do to stay on track, but something gets in the way, takes us off course, and we don’t do it. How can we use this compass check to be responsible for ourselves, and our direction, as we pursue our goals?

Q3: Since anyone forging their own way will have come up against all of these statements, I wonder if you could review your Becoming the Change Self-Assessment Tool to pinpoint which one of the 5 competencies we need to focus on? I took this self-reflection tool, and while all the competencies are a work in progress, what showed up for me was self-awareness scored the highest with your score of “I’m Headed in the Right Direction.” I know that I’m getting to know myself on a deeper level with each episode, and that my learning documented on this podcast, especially areas of growth that’s apparent if we answer your questions honestly. I think there’s always room for improvement and to learn more so I didn’t check “I’ve reached my destination” EXCEPT for the same area you did on Relationship Skills and helping others grow, since this is what I’m doing with the podcast.

What did you learn about yourself with this Self-Assessment?

What do you see others learn with it?

How can this tool be used like a compass to check our growth over time?

Q4: I couldn’t help noticing the choices on your self-assessment (I’m not sure which direction to go in or where to begin) or I’m at a crossroads, because I’ve been there many times. There was the time I was urged to move in the direction of neuroscience, and it was a new field for me, and I was questioning whether this was the right direction for me. What advice would you offer someone who has checked “I don’t know where to begin” or even when you’ve been working for some time and you hit a cross-road and are “somewhat stuck.” How would you help someone move past these 2 scenarios?

Q5: Chapter 2, Regulating Yourself Through Self-Management, you have a compass check about our true superpower. I heard podcaster Jay Shetty talking about superpowers and think we all have them, as we evolve, we get to know what they are. You put a quote in this chapter from Dale Carnegie about our True Superpower that I think is very important for us to all master.

“Everybody in the world is seeking happiness—and there is one sure way to find it. That is

by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn't depend on outward conditions. It depends

on inner conditions.”― Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People

In a world that seems to push our buttons daily (gas prices are skyrocketing, stress in the workplace is at an all-time high) how can we ALL master this superpower and stay in control of our happiness when the outside world is trying it’s best to sabotage our happiness?

Q6: In Chapter 3, Social Awareness, you have a quote by Brian Tracy.

“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.”-Brian Tracy

This is a big one for me, and what’s crazy is that if you are not aware of your surroundings, this opportunity to lend a hand to another person can be missed. Your story about Sept 11th took me back to that time and I had only been living in the US a few months. The job I had come to do with youth had fell through, and I was at a crossroads, working out where I was going next, and to pay the bills, I found a job as a nanny at a local resort, and cleaned houses. Money was really tight. I remember standing in line at a grocery store and the guy in front of me was buying diapers (gosh after having kids, diapers were one of those necessities that you had to have, but boy where they expensive). I was NOT socially aware back then, and was thinking of myself, and in a split second I watched him not have enough money to pay for the diapers, and the check out clerk took them, and he ran out of the store. I missed an opportunity to help this guy, and I even tried to find him when I went outside of the store, but this has bothered me since that moment, over 20 years ago. Being socially aware is one thing, but being ready to act on it, when someone is in need is another. What have you noticed with social awareness and how to be prepared at all times to help others?

Q7: Chapter 4 on Enhancing Your Relationship Skills, you quote that No One is Perfect “When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.”

-Donald Miller This reminded me of my last interview with Dr. Marie Gervais, and her book The Spirit of Work when I noticed that when we look at each person’s spirit, that’s for fuller expansion, we can only see greatness in this person, not their imperfections. How have you used this idea to enhance your relationships and look at everyone in this way?

Q8: Chapter 5 Responsible Decision-Making you quote Gary Vaynerchuk who says “Your legacy is being written by yourself. Make the right decisions.” I love Gary V, and liked this quote because we all do have an incredible opportunity to leave an important legacy in our lifetime, that can impact others, for years after we are gone and create what you say as “an everlasting legacy.” What advice would you have here about being mindful of our decisions today, so that we can strengthen the legacy we are working our entire lifetime on?

Q9: Is there something important that I have missed?

Dan, I want to thank you very much for sharing your new book with us. I absolutely love the moral compass analogy, and know this will help many others navigate through these 5 SEL competencies with a clear path. For people who want to access your book, what is the best way? Is your website the best place for people to find you?

CONNECT WITH DAN WOLFE

Stay tuned for Memorial Day and the release of Becoming the Change.

Website the-change.com/">https://becoming-the-change.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/ServLeadInspire

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/becoming-the-change/id1498725281

Thank you!!

BIO: Dan Wolfe has served as an educator in Pasco County, Florida for more than 20 years. During this time, he has held roles as a teacher, instructional/district coach and administrator. He is currently an Assistant Principal at Sunray Elementary. He was selected as Pasco County’s District Teacher of the Year in 2011-2012 school year. He is a part of the district’s Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Committee that recently established Pre-K through Grade 12 SEL standards.

For the past two years Dan has written a blog and recorded a podcast called Becoming The Change (formerly Our Moral Compass) which focuses on a different quote each day and how we can best apply it towards becoming the change through our own moral compass and the five areas in SEL.

REFERENCES:

[i] the-change.com/">https://becoming-the-change.com/

[iii] https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/

May 16, 2022

01:26:17

For returning guests, welcome back, and for those who are new here, I’m Andrea Samadi, author, and educator, originally from Toronto, now in Arizona, with a passion for learning, understanding difficult concepts, and breaking them down so that we can all use and apply the most current research to improve our productivity and results in our schools, sports environments, and modern workplaces.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/2GysauKi3Mc

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ The importance of Dr. Stephen Covey's 8th Habit-Finding Your Voice and Helping Others to Find Theirs.

✔︎ A look behind the scenes of The Chey and Pav Show-Where They Began and Where They are Now.

✔︎ What they have each noticed with their personal and professional growth hosting their podcast.

✔︎ Their vision for their NEW book "The Magnificent Microphone"

✔︎ What they learned from working with an artist with this book.

✔︎ How they intend this book to be used to connect with students whose voice is often left behind.

✔︎ How they use Easter Eggs (personal insights) to connect to their long-time supporters.

With today’s episode, my goal is to show the importance of identifying, sharing and amplifying the voices that aren’t typically amplified. Dr. Stephen Covey reminds us that when he created the 8th habit, it was “not about adding one more habit to the 7, one that somehow got forgotten. It’s about seeing and harnessing the power of a third dimension to the 7 Habits (taking The 7 Habits beyond where they were before) that meets the central challenge of the new Knowledge Worker Age (requiring continual growth). The 8th Habit is to Find Your Voice and Inspire Others to Find Theirs.” After seeing this quote I had to ask Greg Link, who worked and partnered with the late Dr. Covey if I understood the real meaning behind this quote as I sensed it was deeper than I was grasping, and he said “He is likening finding your voice (the 8th Habit) as a next dimension fruit or outcome of mastering the 7 Habits. It’s an outcome or next level, opposed to another habit” which left a profound impact on me with this episode that features 2 well-known podcast hosts from my hometown, who are on a mission to help others to amplify their voice, with their podcast and NEW book series. This means that their mission will inevitably create many NEW opportunities (or fruits as Dr. Covey put it) that will impact many people, around the world, for many years to come.

Today’s episode #215 is important to me (well, all the episodes are important) but this one touches the heart, mind and soul on a deep level, (as Dr. Marie Gervais reminded us to pay attention to in our last interview #214[i] on The Spirit of Work, to bring our whole selves to whatever it is we are doing) – and today’s episode does just that.

Today we will be speaking with Chey Cheney and Pav Wander, from The Chey and Pav Show,[ii] a weekly podcast that centers around teaching insights, reflections and growth of Chey and Pav, two middle school teachers from Toronto, Ontario. They regularly comment on being JUST two teachers in a highly diverse community, who look to share best practices, favorite resources, mis-steps and setbacks from their teaching experiences. I’ve told them often they are far from “just” teachers, but are exemplary, legendary leaders, who are paving the way forward for many who have previously not been seen, or heard and were at risk of being left behind. They did outline the highlights of becoming published authors (and all that they learned from this experience) on their most recent podcast episode #110[iii] that I encourage everyone to tune into.

Today’s episode we will look at their new picture book, The Magnificent Microphone[iv] that depicts a story of Chey and Pav, who in the picture book, are two keen and energetic elementary school students who often feel unseen and unheard at home and school. They always have vibrant ideas to share, but for some reason, they are always ignored! One lucky day, they find a Magnificent Microphone which helps them elevate their voices with the people that haven’t been listening. I invite everyone to join Chey and Pav as they plunge into sharing their voices, learn about storytelling, and find ways to help others amplify their voices.

Let’s meet these NEW published authors, keynote speakers, successful podcast hosts, and legendary middle school teachers from Toronto, Canada, Chey and Pav!!!!

Welcome Chey and Pav!!!!!

How much fun in this going to be??? Thank you for joining me today on the podcast.

You know you’ve got a serious supporter of your work here, and I really do need to come back for a visit and meet up with you for coffee in the parking lot because the staffroom was never my thing.

Welcome, both of you.

So, I’ve got to say this is really cool for me to speak with you both, being a former TDSB teacher. It’s been a long time, but I was at Zion MS in North York. My department head was Jim Carson, who I had to look up and saw he’s now at Fairmount PS (I think)…I’m not sure where Rexdale is from North York and how many educators you get to meet across the District..

FOR CHEY: So Chey (am I the only one who has no idea who the Hurricane Cheney is??). I’ve heard of a few wrestlers, (my husband is definitely a fan--he has a poster of the Iron Sheik in his office)—and I’ve heard of some others but I wonder why you chose The Hurricane as your Superhero name? What’s so cool about this wrestler?

FOR PAV: And welcome Pav (Wonder-woman Wander)…I understand this reference much better than the wrestling one. You definitely are Wonder-woman, teaching, raising a family and running the podcast. No explanation needed unless there’s more that I’ve missed? Oh, expect baker as well, as I did steal one of your Christmas Cookie recipes!

Q1: So, it’s been over 2.5 years since you launched your podcast, (is that right??) that’s now called The Chey and Pav Show, and I know so much has happened since you put your voice out into the world in this short amount of time that’s probably gone by like the blink of an eye. So many new opportunities are coming your way, and many more on the horizon, so I do want to first of all congratulate you both on the decision to do this work. Looking back now, Pav, you say this is “the most exponential growth you’ve experienced as a teacher.” Could you both go back to when you took your RSS feed and put it out to multiple podcast channels…what do each of you remember thinking back then and was exponential growth that would be chronicled for the world to see on your mind at all?

Q2: Let’s go to your 100th episode, which is a HUGE milestone (awesome!!) where you each went over your “most impactful” episodes over the years that impacted your growth. What is unique about this podcasting experience, is that the world gets to watch your growth (which I’ve seen with some other podcast hosts I follow-and I can see the growth in myself. I remember the first 50 interviews I did, I seriously look like I’m hyperventilating…I can’t watch them without thinking “just take a breath…breathe!!” I know you have noticed your growth as well. Aside from the knowledge you have both gained, what have you noticed about your growth personally and professionally with hosting The Chey and Pav Show and putting your voice out to the world?

Q3: What I loved about your 100th episode is that you picked some episodes that were impactful, and stood the test of time. Over the years, I often draw back to past episodes for this reason, as I think they can inspire others for years to come. I know it’s hard to think ahead, and easier to look back, but what is your vision when you get to EPISODE #200? What are your next podcast milestones goals?

Q4: I’d like to move to your NEW picture book, The Magnificent Microphone, since this is a huge deal that you are now published authors. I actually wrote these questions BEFORE I read your book, and these questions have more meaning now, as I felt your story on a deep emotional level. Can you each share your vision for this book and eventual series?

Q5: I have to mention your art work, since we also had an artist create images for our Level Up program and book. We interviewed our artist on EPISODE #13[v], Sam Roberts, as her artwork actually gained her a 4-year, all paid, prestigious leadership scholarship at the University of AR. Who knew when she was 16 years old, and sending me back ideas based on what I was asking her to draw for me, where this would lead her in her future.

What did you learn from your artist, Shawnna Purkis, and I wonder what this experience uncovered for her as her voice was elevated being your artist?

Q6: What’s next for you both? I know you are going to make this a book series, but I wonder if you have thought about the books having components that could be used for the ELL population? (I ask because I worked for Pearson ESL and many books to schools for Newcomer students). Have you thought about this audience as you are now working on translating this book into many different languages?

Q7: I’ve got to mention the Easter Eggs (not chocolate-but the personal insights) that you have noticed in your episodes. I didn’t notice I was doing that until I looked back when I got to EPISODE 100 and saw how intentional I was with the guests I asked to be on the podcast. The people I asked were ALL influencers in my life in some way. I quote them often, as I want to leave a legacy with what I’m creating to help others, by recording these moments of growth and it’s a lot of fun knowing there’s a creative side of me embedded in each episode. What have you both noticed?

Q8: Congratulations on your huge keynote presentation in Saskatoon! I loved watching you both prepare for that. I know there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff that happens (let alone content prep). What stuck out to you from that weekend as memorable for you both?

Q9: Is there anything important I have missed?

I want to thank you both for the years of support with our podcast. I haven’t met you in person, (yet) but feel massively connected to you both. For people to learn more about your podcast, book series, and contact you, is the best place your website www.cheyandpav.com

Thank you!! I can’t wait to see what’s next for both of you and how many young leaders your book (and series in the future) will inspire. When I make it back home, I’ll be sure to let you both know!

Reflections After This Episode:

Some final thoughts:

Today I got to come full circle as a former teacher from Toronto District School Board, who had no idea of the impact possible when you put the 8th Habit into action. Imagine how many young leaders Chey and Pav’s book series will inspire. This is only the beginning for them, but I see so much more. I do understand now why they refer to themselves as “just” teachers from Toronto (although I will always see them as legendary leaders). I can’t wait to see where these two teachers with a passion of sharing their voices, through storytelling, and find helping others to amplify their voices end up in the next 5-10 years. Dr. Stephen Covey’s quote reminds us all that life is about getting to the 8th Habit—so whatever it is that you might be working on, I hope this episode has given you some insight of the importance of amplifying those often unheard voices—whether it’s in the classroom, workplace, or in the sports environment.

With that final thought, I’ll see you next episode, with an elementary school assistance principal, Dan Wolfe, who is just about to release a NEW book that takes the 5 SEL competencies we’ve covered on our podcast and shows us how to navigate through life with these competencies as our “moral compass.” See you next episode.

FOLLOW CHEY AND PAV

Twitter https://twitter.com/Staffpodcast Podcast

Twitter Chey Cheney https://twitter.com/mrccheney

Twitter Pav Wander https://twitter.com/PavWander

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/staffroompodcast

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cheyandpav/

Instagram Chey Cheney https://www.instagram.com/chey_cheney/

Instagram Pav Wander https://www.instagram.com/___pav___/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chey-and-pav-%E2%80%9Cteachers-talking-teaching%E2%80%9D-8b69081b8/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iii] https://www.cheyandpav.com/podcast

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #214 with Dr. Marie Gervais https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/marie-gervais-phd-on-the-spirit-of-work-connecting-science-business-practices-and-sacred-texts-for-a-happier-and-more-productive-workplace/

[ii] The Chey and Pav Show https://www.cheyandpav.com/

[iv] The Magnificent Microphone by Chey Cheney and Pawan Wander Illustrated by Shawnna Purkis Published April 14, 2022 https://www.cheyandpav.com/picture-book

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #13 with Sam Roberts on “Winning a 4-Year Prestigious Leadership Scholarship at the University of AR, Fort Smith” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/our-very-own-teen-artist-sam-roberts-on-winning-a-4-year-prestigious-leadership-scholarshipat-the-university-of-arkansas-fort-smith/

May 12, 2022

00:52:57

“Healthy workplaces are characterized by strong communication, mutual respect, and attention to work relationships” and “there’s no denying that work and workplaces are experiencing a crisis.” (Dr. Marie Gervais, whose newly released book, The Spirit of Work) is “a path to the enhancement of the soul.”

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/md088Ynx0ek

On today’s episode #214, we will be speaking with Dr. Marie Gervais[i] the CEO of Shift Management Inc and the author of The Spirit of Work[ii]," where she offers a high-level yet approachable model in rethinking how we view and structure work. Her book delves into the fascinating relationship between people and work, combining ancient wisdom, modern science, spirituality, and real-world examples to share insights into developing a soul-sustaining workplace culture. She also has a podcast herself, The Culture and Leadership Podcast[iii] where she dives deeper into this topic.

After releasing three interviews this year on workplace burnout, it’s been clear that workplaces around the world are indeed experiencing a crisis, as I’ve had many messages relating to individuals with their specific workplace struggle and Dr. Gervais highlights this new workplace problem in the beginning of her book when she shares that “statistics about workplace engagement, happiness and satisfaction have shown consistent decline and saw significant change since the event of the coronavirus pandemic.” (The Spirit of Work).

If you are a leader, change-maker, or anyone looking to build a humane and sustainable system of work, and can see that something needs to change in today’s workplace, this interview is for you. I hope we can all learn some new perspectives to create happier workplaces where productivity and creativity soars by looking at how to build our future managers with skills that are based on what humans need to succeed and develop in our future workplaces.

In today’s episode we will cover:

The interconnections between science, business practices and sacred texts as they relate to work Find practical tools and workplace examples to apply to management as a soul-enhancing journey Rethink common but destructive workplace cultural assumptions To see ourselves as a spiritual being with thoughts and actions that have lasting effects

This episode has already made me move from my thinking/intellectual mind, and see what we can learn together when we incorporate our spirit and soul into our daily work.

Let’s meet Dr. Marie Gervais!

Welcome Dr. Gervais! It’s wonderful to meet you. Thank you for coming on the podcast all the way from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada which I always consider my home country, because that’s where I grew up.

Dr. Gervais, congratulations on releasing your new book, The Spirit of Work, that I watched you unbox[iv]. I know how exciting it is to put your heart, soul and mind into something and release it to the world. I related when you said that releasing this book was like pushing a bolder up a hill. How has this journey to release this book been for you?

I’ve got to mention the story behind your episode, because there’s always so many twists and turns with creating content. While researching each guest for this podcast, I put a considerable amount of thought into what I wanted to ask, look for ways that what I want to ask is being mirrored in the world so our interview can help others for years to come, and I begin to connect with that person (I’d say on a soul level) in this research process.

Something that’s never happened to me in all my years of content creation. While preparing for your interview, something unexpected happened and I actually lost the 5-page script I’d written, after I had finished it and sent it to your team. I saved it and then after opening it again, it was just blank. Your team got the blank version. I’ll never know what happened, (and it might not be worth the time to look into that) but the file somehow became corrupt, as you saw, and I had to stop, think about it all, and recreate your questions.

I know there are always lessons to learn with everything we do and I really do think it happened for a reason to make me think hard about The Spirit of Work that I noticed after creating your questions. When this spirit is present, it drives our work in an entirely different way.

INTRO Q: What do you think about this AHA Moment connected to your book and this interview that perhaps I needed to rethink my original questions for you and recreate them from more of a soul level, than mind?

Q1: What does the Spirit of Work mean to you and how did a negative experience from your job led you to continuously ask questions about workplace culture leading you to write this book?

Q2: We have covered the idea that human beings live simultaneously on three planes (our spiritual/soul side, intellectual/mental side and physical side on many episodes, starting with Dr. Daniel Siegel who talked about “Mindsight[v]” as being “the basis for social and emotional intelligence,” or Dr. John Medina[vi] who mentioned Theory of Mind as a way to connect to others on a deeper level, my mentor Bob Proctor talked about paying attention to our spiritual side all the time in the creative process and Greg Link mentioned that even when we die, our spirit still exists. Why is the mind/body/soul connection important to you and your work?

Q3: I do believe that we create what we imagine and that “we build systems around the outcomes of our beliefs to prove the veracity of our beliefs” (Spirit of Work).

How can we build workplaces we love where we can be with others in healthy, enjoyable interactions, that build prosperity and solve conflicts easily? Where do we even begin to make the change that you see?

Q4- I saw a quote that made sense to me, and I’m sure anyone listening would agree that “true leaders don’t create followers” they create more leaders, but often there’s no room for new ideas in our corporate world and its rare, if not impossible to go from the bottom of an organization, to the very top, without someone leaving, proving themselves somewhere else, and coming back with a promotion. Taking this leap outside of an organization (to a new one) is a difficult one, but so often it’s the ONLY way for someone to push past this block and forge their own path.

What’s behind this concept where managers or leaders DO NOT create other leaders, but squash them into a corner, so they have to end up quitting, and proving themselves somewhere else? Is this a fearful leader, and what needs to change for this quote to ring true in more organizations?

Q5: For someone who was promoted into a position of leadership (maybe someone with a tech background who didn’t have to worry about people skills in the past) and they now find they are dealing with people and all their complexity (mind/body/soul). What keys to success would you offer this person to unlock the skills that will accelerate anyone in the workplace?

Q6: What are some common mistakes that you see in the workplace that leaders can avoid with your experience?

Q7: This type of training was left out of ALL the corporate training I ever went through, but was at the center of the work I did while in the motivational speaking industry. We were always looking at how our past would show up in our present-day life, and identify subconscious blocks that might be holding us back. Bob Proctor called them paradigms, or beliefs that have turned into habits over time, that either work for us, or against us. How can leaders help their team members to identify their subconscious blocks to move them forward and towards their goals?

Q8: Your call to “rethink work, informed by new understandings about the greatness we are destined to achieve as a human race” is a noble cause that takes thought from all of us. Maybe it was why I lost my original questions, so I had to THINK about them again, and ask them in a way that they came from my heart (from my emotional side after crying a bit) but it made me think about how I bring my “soul” to each interview. What do you want our listeners to take away from this interview? What are your final thoughts we should all take some time to ponder for a bit?

Q9: For people to learn more about your book, podcast and the work you do at Shift Management Inc, is the best place to learn more, your website? https://shiftworkplace.com/

Thank you for meeting with me today, and sharing your vision for a happier, more productive workplace with the world. You’ve given me a lot to think about, and strategies to shift to soul-enhancing thoughts that bring joy with my work, and ways that we can all shift away from when we are soul-diminishing.

FOLLOW DR. MARIE GERVAIS Website - http://shiftworkplace.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/shiftworkplace

Email - marie@shiftworkplace.com

c 780-993-1062

www.shiftworkplace.com/the-spirit-of-work

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://shiftworkplace.com/

REFERENCES:

[ii] https://shiftworkplace.com/the-spirit-of-work/

[iii] https://shiftworkplace.com/podcast

[iv] https://www.instagram.com/p/CdG1iHVolJP/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #28 with Dr. Daniel Siegel on “Mindsight as the Basis for Social and Emotional Intelligence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/clinical-professor-of-psychiatry-at-the-ucla-school-of-medicine-dr-daniel-siegel-on-mindsight-the-basis-for-social-and-emotional-intelligence/

[vi][vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #42 with Dr. John Medina on “Implementing Brain Rules in Our Schools and Workplaces of the Future” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-john-medina-on-implementing-brain-rules-in-the-schools-and-workplaces-of-the-future/

May 06, 2022

00:11:57

“Did you know that the brains of people who are chronically burnt-out show similar damage as people who have experienced trauma”[i] and that “burnout reduces the connectivity between different parts of the brain which can lead to decreased creativity, working memory, and problem solving skills?” (Vanessa Van Edwards).

It’s incorrect to assume that burnout is just an emotional response to long hours or a challenging job. Instead, scientific evidence shows that burnout takes a profound physical toll that ripples well beyond our professional lives.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I want to cover the importance of understanding how serious workplace burnout is at the brain level. After releasing our 3rd interview this season on work burnout, I realized just how important this topic is to you, the listener, with all the comments that came in to me this week on this topic. There is a serious need for us to ALL recognize when we have too much on our plate, so that we take immediate action without feeling like we are giving up on our company, ourselves, our goals or dreams. I also don’t want to discourage anyone from putting in the extra work, or effort that is required to reach the top of your industry, or whatever it is that you are working on that might require a push at this time, so, my hope with this episode is that we can find the right balance to get to wherever it is we are going, in one piece, so that we can enjoy life when we get there, and have enough energy left so that we can continue moving forward and attain new goals, reaching new heights and achievement along the way.

“Using cutting-edge techniques, integrative research teams are demonstrating that burnout is not just a state of mind, but a condition that leaves its mark on the brain as well as the body. Just as the impact of burnout that stifles healthy professional growth, emerging research shows that the chronic psychosocial stress that characterizes burnout not only impairs people’s personal and social functioning, it also can overwhelm their cognitive skills and neuroendocrine systems — eventually leading to distinctive changes in the anatomy and functioning of the brain.”[ii]

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk[iii] (psychiatrist, author of the book The Body Keeps the Score[iv]) draws on more than thirty years at the forefront of research and clinical practice, to show the characteristics of the brain of someone who has experienced trauma and research now shows these characteristics are showing up in the brains of employees who are chronically burnt out.

What to look for:

Fear-Driven Brain: People who have experienced trauma (or are under chronic stress) will have a brain with enhanced threat perception (or see danger where others see things can be manageable). (Van der Kolk)

THINK ABOUT THIS…

If you are under chronic stress, do you see threat or danger often? For example—do you think others are out to get you? This could be that your threat perception has been enhanced from chronic stress and a signal for you to slow down.

Unusual Outbursts or Increased Moodiness: Burnout Enlarges Our Amygdala (our emotional center in the brain) and can increase moodiness. (Vanessa Van Edwards).

THINK ABOUT THIS…

If you notice someone around you is unusually moody, it might be their brain’s reaction to their increased stress. Instead of snapping back at them, see if you can help them to find ways to decrease their stress levels. When we work with our brain in mind, we can find solutions to problems, instead of jumping to conclusions or assumptions (which is easy to do).

Inability to Think: Burnout reduces the neural connections in the brain, causing decreased creativity, working memory and problem solving skills. (Vanessa Van Edwards).

THINK ABOUT THIS…

While under stress, do you find it difficult to think? I relate to this one the most because I cannot write these podcast episodes unless the house is quiet. In order for thinking, creativity, problem solving and memory consolidation to occur, our brain must be working optimally. I know we have said it often on this podcast—“when our brain works right, we work right” (Dr. Daniel Amen) and if you can’t think, this is a red flag that something needs to change.

All of this seems common sense, but just because we know something, it doesn’t mean it’s common practice. How many of you have noticed these stress related situations, and pushed through, ignoring all of the stressors that face us daily. Most of us…

But did you know that The World Health Organization added burnout to the International Classification of Diseases Index in 2019. It defines burnout as “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”[v] and in our last interview with Dr. Sharon Grossman[vi] this week, being able to recognize when we are feeling stressed, is the first step towards being able to better manage ourselves, before it becomes chronic, impacting our brain and cognition.

Christina Maslach, a professor emerita of psychology at University of California Berkeley developed a way to measure burnout with an inventory[vii] that can predict burnout before it occurs and two of her inventory items we spoke about on our last episode.

Control: Do workers have enough autonomy (like the example we used with the employee with no control over their schedule). How does control work in your organization? Do employees ever get double booked on calls, (adding stress and pressure to their day) or do they have the ability to set boundaries for what they can and cannot do in the day (making their schedule manageable)?

Reward: Does the company recognize when employees go above and beyond with recognition, and rewards that motivate employees to work harder, and put in that extra effort? Do they reward hard working employees outside of their working hours? If not, employees will eventually tire of this hard work, without any reward, and engagement will decrease.

Both of these situations can lead to an employee disengaging from their work. The first example, the worker becomes over-engaged and without the needed breaks, their cognition will be affected, and eventually their health, (which I watched happen to someone I know this week, while writing this episode and thinking “that person is showing the classic signs of burn out” and sure enough, they did, before the week ended and they were forced to slow down) or the second example, will lead to under-engagement, without a challenging, stimulating environment, leading the employee to check out mentally from their work which means their health will also be at risk, in addition to their productivity.

What Should We All Know About Work Burnout?

“It is estimated that 40% of office workers in the United States and Canada are burnt-out and this statistic is even higher in industries like medicine and athletics which have 50% and 60% burnout rates respectively.”[viii] This is exactly what we heard from Dr. Sharon Grossman who works mostly with doctors and high level CEOs, not to mention even the highly successful journalist, Arianna Huffington who learned the hard way that ignoring these red flags connected to our wellness will not allow any of to escape unscathed as she “collapsed from exhaustion, hit her head on her desk, and broke her cheekbone”[ix] when she ignored these signs.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, I didn’t want to paint the picture that there is something wrong with hard work. I watch hard workers excel all the time, and they amaze me with their ability to perform at high levels, consistently, without complaining, just quietly working and hitting goal after goal, moving them forward one step at a time, with the tenacity that comes from a mix of their vision, and being dedicated to their craft. I just want to highlight that in this quest for whatever it is we are working on, if we notice something in off where we are either overly engaged, or under engaged with our work, that ignoring these signs won’t get us anywhere.

Putting our brain health and well-being first, which is the theme of our podcast this season,

REMEMBER FOR THIS WEEK’S BRAIN FACT FRIDAY:

“That the brains of people who are chronically burnt-out show similar damage as people who have experienced trauma”[x] and that “burnout reduces the connectivity between different parts of the brain which can lead to decreased creativity, working memory, and problem solving skills” (Vanessa Van Edwards) and if we want to be at our best, increase our creativity, solve problems and have a stellar memory, then it all begins with optimizing our brain by managing our levels of stress.

And with that, I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend, and we will see you next week with Dr. Marie Gervais[xi], who specializes in the future of work, workplace communication and productivity, as well as the well known Chey and Pav[xii], my good friends from Toronto from the @staffpodcast.

Our interview with Harvard’s Dr. Baland Jalal[xiii] on the bizarre lessons we can learn from our dream world will be coming at the end of the following week, as he is traveling, but this interview is one that you won’t want to miss. It’s going to be an exciting month. Rest up, and See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iii] https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/

REFERENCES:

[i]How to Fight Burnout and Get Unstuck by Vanessa Van Edwards https://www.scienceofpeople.com/burnout/#:~:text=The%20brains%20of%20people%20who,memory%20and%20problem%20solving%20skills.

[ii] Burnout and the Brain January 29, 2016 by Alexandra Michel https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/burnout-and-the-brain

[iv] The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score

[v] Experiencing Job Burnout by Orlando Mayorquin May 2, 2022 https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/05/02/what-is-job-burnout-stress/7411686001/

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #212 with Dr. Sharon Grossman https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-burnout-doc-sharon-grossman-phd-on-a-research-based-approach-to-preventing-work-burnout-from-the-inside-out/

[vii] Factor structure of the Maslach Burnout Inventory: An analysis of data from large scale cross-sectional surveys of nurses from eight countries Published 2009, April 10 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2700194/

[viii] How to Fight Burnout and Get Unstuck by Vanessa Van Edwards https://www.scienceofpeople.com/burnout/#:~:text=The%20brains%20of%20people%20who,memory%20and%20problem%20solving%20skills.

[ix] Arianna Huffington: What You Need to Know to Prevent Burnout By Brit Morse, INC. huffington-wellbeing-stress-burnout.html">https://www.inc.com/brit-morse/arianna-huffington-wellbeing-stress-burnout.html

[x]How to Fight Burnout and Get Unstuck by Vanessa Van Edwards https://www.scienceofpeople.com/burnout/#:~:text=The%20brains%20of%20people%20who,memory%20and%20problem%20solving%20skills.

[xi] https://shiftworkplace.com/the-spirit-of-work/

[xii] www.cheyandpav.com

[xiii] Dr. Baland Jalal https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/baland-jalal

May 05, 2022

00:58:56

Are you a doctor, attorney, high level manager, CEO or business professional in a high stress environment? And did you know that according to a recent Gallup Poll that teaching, and nursing are tied for daily stress? Teaching can be a lonely profession when educators lack support, training and strategies for classroom management, leading to lack of job satisfaction, disintegrating health, depression, and teacher attrition.

Whatever profession you are in, we can’t escape the demands of everyday life, so on today’s episode we will cover new strategies for overcoming work burnout before it takes a toll on our health, job satisfaction, productivity, and motivation. Today, on EPISODE #212, we will be speaking with Dr. Sharon Grossman, otherwise known as the Burnout Doc who will provide us with a fresh perspective of an age-old problem, with tools and strategies that she has used on many of her own clients, to take the steps to prevent work burnout BEFORE it occurs.

Watch this episode on YouTube here https://youtu.be/kDjQCyffiCk

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ How we can recognize work burnout vs boredom or lack of challenge.

✔︎ Knowing how and when to set boundaries when the workload is too high.

✔︎ What to do the minute you feel "resentful" at work.

✔︎ What's at the root of work burnout.

✔︎ Tips for creating your ideal work environment.

Today we are going to look at work burn out from a different angle. We did launch the year with Nick Jonsson on EPISODE #188[i] on “Strategies for Overcoming Stress, Anxiety and Depression in the Workplace” and Mood and Stress Expert Erika Ferzst on EPISODE #198[ii] on “Using Your Brain to Prevent Workplace Burnout” but I saw something different with our next guest and here’s why.

Dr. Grossman sent me an email that went above and beyond ANY email I’ve ever received. She took a considerable amount of time not only create a VIDEO introduction to her work, but to let me know how the content on our podcast resonated with her and her work with stress management. She mentioned all of the ways that we would have a great conversation, as we dig deeper into our theme of Season 7 on “Brain Health and Well-Being.” I sometimes even forget myself what our theme is (even though I have a note on my computer monitor to remind me and keep me on track) but Dr. Grossman not only knew our theme, but how she could provide new insight and ideas into work burnout, with the brain in mind, and take our content to another level.

What I didn’t know after her incredible introduction that caught me off guard as I began to read her book, The 7E Solution to Burnout[iii] is I realized that Dr. Grossman is not much different from anyone else, EXCEPT for the fact that she experienced work burnout herself, and noticed that she was not going above and beyond for her clients, so she created a system that she used herself, in addition to now sharing it with others, to impact change to combat work burnout and she wants to share he system with all of us.

I can’t wait to dive deeper into some solutions for this issue that I’m sure many of you listening have faced in the past, if you aren’t experiencing it to some extent today, with some ideas of how an understanding of our brain can help us to better manage our mind while under stress.

Let’s meet Dr. Grossman…

Welcome, Dr. Sharon Grossman, thank you for such an engaging intro to your work that you sent over. You really did make a memorable impression.

Way to set the bar high and create an immediate interest on a topic that I know you can see we’ve covered a few times on the podcast.

INTRO Q: Dr. Grossman, can we begin with when you noticed some early signs of burn out when you stopped wanting to go above and beyond for your clients. When you said this, I can look back to times when I lost the zest for what I was doing, and didn’t recognize this as work burnout. Can you explain what happened, how you knew it burnout, and where this all began for you?

Q1: Dr. Grossman, what I love is that your strategies are solutions that work from the inside out, without anyone having to change their environment. This is how I think long-term change can occur because even the most stressful work environments can be turned around with your 7E Solution. Can we take a common workplace scenario that causes most people to become overwhelmed, and you walk us through your 7E Solution so we can figure out how to apply your method to combat stress?

SITUATION: It’s 8pm at night, and you are still working. Your work day began at 7:30am with calls,(of course after dropping the kids off at school) and your calls go straight through until 5:30pm. You need to finish a report that you will present to the entire company in the morning, so instead of throwing it together in the morning, you are working on it late at night and feeling resentful that your work day seems to never end.

What would you say to someone who’s work day looks like this every day? How can such a stressful day be turned around to be more manageable?

Q2: How can we become more stress-hardy and gain more control over too many demand/not enough time to complete them, especially as a perfectionist who wants to complete everything perfectly and on time?

Q3: What is at the root of this problem? Why does the traditional definition of success leave many of us burned out?

Q4: What are ways that we can train our mind to work for us, rather than against us?

Q5: Is there anything important that I haven’t asked you about?

Thank you very much Dr. Grossman for your time today on the podcast. For people who want to learn more about you, you are offering a FREE "Dial Back Your Stress" Breakthrough Session http://www.bookachatwithsharon.com/

Thank you for this offer and for all of your tips today.

FOLLOW DR. SHARON GROSSMAN

Podcast https://drsharongrossman.com/podcast/optimizeyourlife/

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharongrossman/

Website https://drsharongrossman.com/

Free Burnout Checklist https://drsharongrossman.com/burnoutchecklist/

BIO: Dr. Sharon Grossman

You know how high achievers struggle with constant stress and end up working to the point of exhaustion? Imagine if you could continue doing the work you love, create a life you’re wild about outside of work, and have time for that life. What Sharon Grossman, the Burnout Doc, does better than others in her industry with her 20 years of experience as a psychologist, is she gives you a roadmap for managing stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. In just 90 days she helps you go from friend and frazzled to energized and exhilarated.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #192 with Nick Jonsson on “Strategies for Overcoming Stress, Anxiety and Depression in the Workplace” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/nick-jonsson-on-strategies-to-overcome-isolation-stress-anxiety-and-depression-in-the-workplace/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #198 with Erika Ferszt on “using Your Brain to Prevent Workplace Burnout” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/mood-and-stress-expert-erika-ferszt-on-using-your-brain-to-prevent-workplace-burnout/

[iii] The 7E Solution to Burnout by Dr. Sharon Grossman https://coachingbysharon.teachable.com/p/7e-solution-burnout/?preview=logged_out

Apr 28, 2022

00:15:44

Everything you’ve got in your life is an expression of your level of awareness (Bob Proctor) and when you change your level of awareness, everything starts to shift. It’s fascinating.

Today’s podcast I’m going to share how my awareness expanded as I began researching for an upcoming interview and what’s absolutely amazing about this experience, is that “once the mind has been expanded, it will never go back to its original state. Awareness is not something you lose.” (Bob Proctor).

On this episode we will cover:

✔︎ Why lifelong learning is important for expanding our levels of awareness.

✔︎ What we all should know about dreaming and the brain.

✔︎ Review of our sleep cycle and REM sleep.

✔︎ Tips for remembering our dreams.

✔︎ Opening our mind up for new ways to improve creativity, business ideas, and sports training with our dream world.

Before we get into this episode, I do want to start out by thanking you, the listener for tuning in. While writing this episode, I woke up to an email from Anuj Agarwal, the founder of Feedspot, who ranks podcasts based on content, followers, and traffic, letting me know that we had made ranking for The Best 30 Neuroscience Podcasts.[i] For those who have listened to our earlier episodes, you’ll know that I didn’t set out to go in this direction of Neuroscience, (it wasn’t even on my roadmap) but we ended up here by chance, when an educator urged me to go in this direction almost 10 years ago. So to hit this achievement, in a relatively new field of study for me, without a background in science (other than the fact I did teach 9th grade Biology for a semester), it’s a true honor, and I’m beyond grateful to continue to host this podcast, and that you are finding these episodes as helpful as I am. This is the reason why I thought about launching this podcast in the first place—to show that anyone can learn and apply these skills, backed by science, whether you have a science degree or not. This cutting-edge research is important for all of us to know, understand and apply and I’ll be researching in this field anyway, so I figured, I might as well share what I’m learning on this platform. With our analytics, I can see where listeners are tuning in from by Country, and do appreciate all the messages you send to me on social media, letting me know that you listen and what you are learning. I can now put some faces to the downloads, as I got to recently meet Sarah Eaton, from Queensland, Australia, who works with the Australian Government, and Ellie Mercado from Ossining, NY working in the field of education with social and emotional learning among many others who tag me on posts, and let me know this information is helpful and important. We do have a Facebook Group[ii], if you do want to stay connected to others around the globe as well.

Moving on now to this week’s episode, and Brain Fact Friday, where I want to make a connection to an upcoming interview later next week, but in the meantime, I hope this episode will help us to expand our level of awareness when it comes to our dreams. My mentor, the late Bob Proctor (who I know I talk about often) was always saying “Stop looking at life through the keyhole. Open up the door and expand your level of awareness”[iii] by changing your paradigms. You can go back to episode 66 and 67[iv] to review the importance of changing our paradigms to break through to new levels of awareness, that will help us to reach new heights in our personal and professional lives, which is what happened to me while preparing for an upcoming interview. I noticed that some of my paradigms, or beliefs started to change, as I began to connect the science to what I was learning, expanding my awareness in a way that it will never be the same again.

As you can see from past episodes, it is very important to me to stick to the most current neuroscience research with this podcast, and I do aim to steer clear of pseduoscience, and fads, but pick topics to help make a difference for us in our modern workplaces, whether it’s through the science of reading, or productivity, and this time, my paradigm or beliefs were challenged. Which is what learning is all about.

I was introduced to Dr. Baland Jalal’s work from his team, who emailed me his Harvard Bio[v], letting me know his field of research and the topics we could cover on the podcast. I wrote back immediately, as I saw Harvard, neuroscience, researcher connected to sleep, and Dr. Rama 2011, TIME Magazine 100 most influential people in the world. (I’ve heard Dr. Jalal use the short form of his name, so I’ll take the easier way out here as I don’t think I’ll get it right even with some practice).

Even though I read the email intro quickly, I knew Dr. Jaland was someone I wanted to learn more about, especially as we covered the importance of sleep on many previous episodes, and dreams on EPISODE #104[vi] with Sleep Scientist Antonio Zadra and his book When Your Brain Dreams: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep, but I had no idea that Dr. Jalal’s work was going to open up my level of awareness to where it had never been before, allowing me to cover some topics that I normally would think of as “too weird” for this podcast, and in turn, change some of my beliefs around sleep.

Dr. Jalal says that “dreams are one of the great mysteries of science. In their bizarre complexity they can reveal deeper truths about who you are at the most basic level. Keep on dreaming.”

So now my mind is opening up and I wonder:

Why do we dream what we dream? What’s happening in our brain when we are dreaming? What’s the purpose of dreaming: are there things we could learn from our dreams?

Mathew Walker, the author of Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams covers these questions on his podcast[vii] and he has said “perhaps it was not time that heals all wounds, but rather time spent in dream sleep” which is REM sleep, and this made me think:

What else could I learn about dreams, to open up new levels of awareness, new insights maybe that could help increase peace and understanding in my world that I could share with you to do the same? What could we learn from Dr. Jalal’s work on sleep paralysis as the "top-rated expert in sleep paralysis in the world?" And what is sleep paralysis?

Could learning more about our dreams expand our thinking, like Proctor would say, helping us to see the world in a different way, instead of just peering through the keyhole, with a limited view? After all, it was Proctor who taught me to log my dreams (he taught me to write them down the minute I would wake up) and I’ve been doing this since 1999, (off and on), and although I thought I knew what dreams were all about, when I began researching Dr. Jalal’s work, I realized just how little I really knew about dreams.

What about you? I know we all know how important our sleep is, but for something we spend 1/3 of our life doing, (sleeping) Baland-how much thought do you put into your dreams? Other than writing down my dreams, and glancing at them from time to time to learn common themes, lessons, or ideas, this is an area that I think I could explore more with.

Is there something I’m missing with this time? Could I learn something about my dreams, or use this “dream-time” to my advantage in a way that I could improve the other 2/3 of my life?

Mathew Walker, calls sleep “our superpower”[viii] and reminds us how important sleep is for learning, memory and productivity, and that “when we wake up, we are (actually) wiser” and that “it’s not time that heals all wounds, but time spent in dreams that provides emotional convalescence.” (Matt Walker, Podcast 3 on DREAMS).

What’s your experience with dreams?

Are you too busy to even think about them? If you do—do you remember them? Do you know why we forget them? Have you ever had this weird feeling that you were paralyzed and couldn’t move while sleeping? Have you ever had visions of places you’ve never been while dreaming and wondered what they are? Are they real, or imagined?

The Stages of Sleep and REM Sleep:

We will dive deep into these questions on our interview with Dr. Baland Jalal, but in the meantime, I wanted to give you something to think about to expand our awareness and get us thinking about dreams until then to prime our brain for what we will learn, and this begins with a quick review of what our sleep cycles look like. I never really thought about improving my sleep cycle until I reviewed the Fisher Wallace medical device on EPISODE 120[ix] but did you know that we have sleep cycles (about 5 of them that last about 90 minutes if we are sleeping 8 hours). Stage 4, our REM sleep or where our dreams occur happens at the end of each sleep cycle and is the longest in the last sleep cycle right before we wake up. We are dreaming all night, but “95% of our dreams we don’t remember when we wake up” (Dr. Jalal) because “we need serotonin to transfer them to our long-term memory”[x]

Did you know:

When we are in REM sleep (and dreaming) that our body is paralyzed? What part of the brain controls this paralysis and Why it’s important that we don’t move in REM sleep?

SLEEP PARALYSIS:

Until researching Dr. Jalal, I didn’t know that we were paralyzed in REM sleep, but I also have FELT sleep paralysis before. I just didn’t know there was a name for it. Then I heard Dr. Jalal’s explanation of sleep paralysis[xi], (and he described it exactly as I experienced it) and I would have to say this is not something I would ever admit I’ve felt. You know, it’s one of those things you’d rather leave out when someone says “hey, how did you sleep” and you’ve had an experience like this, I’d personally rather skip this conversation and just say “oh it was great” with that look on my face that will tell you there was nothing great about it. It’s got to be one of the weirdest experiences, but Dr. Jalal explains what is happening, the importance of our brain paralyzing our body during sleep, and connecting our brain to this “weird” phenomenon that expanded my awareness to what else I could learn about dreaming and REM state.

I also thought, if I had this experience, and so did Dr. Jalal, and then the guy interviewing him on the podcast I was watching, Ranveer,[xii] also had the same experience, how many other people listening could relate, and learn something new with this new angle of the neuroscience of sleep.

To make the most out of our upcoming interview with Dr. Jalal, I encourage you to learn more about your sleep to expand your level of awareness.

Do you know how much sleep you get? Do you know how much time you spend in REM sleep each night? Do you remember your dreams?

To remember your dreams so that you can gain deeper levels of insight about yourself, here are some suggestions:

Make an intention that you will remember what you were dreaming about when you wake up. This might take some time, but with focused effort, see what happens. Wake up, and write down your dream immediately, or you will forget. Either write them down on a notepad beside your bed, or on your phone. Start looking for patterns in your dreams.

Before our interview with Dr. Jalal, later next week, we will dive deeper into lucid dreaming, or “knowing you are dreaming while you are dreaming”[xiii] to see what fMRI scans reveal about our ability to control our dreams, interact with people in our dreams, and even travel to a different location within our dreams. All of this is fascinating, as science now steps in to validate some of the practices that many of us have heard of over the years, and brings light to what exactly is happening when we wake up, and wonder “what on the earth just happened?!”

My goal with these episodes are to take what I would have once thought of as the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had while sleeping, and demystify them with brain science. Of course, I’m going to ask Dr. Jalal to share his insights and research with us, so we can learn what might be of importance to think about with our dream time, and how this new awareness could be of benefit to us in the future. I’m hoping that he can shed some light on what we can learn from our dreams that we can take into the 2/3 of our waking hours, that could improve our creativity, performance and results.

To close out this episode and review this week’s Brain Fact Friday:

DID YOU KNOW: “that dreams can reveal deeper truths about who you are at the most basic level?” (Dr. Baland Jalal).

I hope this episode expanded your awareness like it did mine about the possibilities that our dreams could provide for us in the future.

See you next week as we dive into our brain, stress and the workplace, and our upcoming interview with Dr. Jalal to open up our awareness in ways that science will show us that there are many benefits to keep on dreaming!

Have a good weekend.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://blog.feedspot.com/neuroscience_podcasts/

REFERENCES:

[ii] https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697/

[iii] How to Shift Your Paradigm by Bob Proctor Published on YouTube July 26, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWL0w9-oiqg

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #67 on “Expanding Your Awareness with Lessons Learning from Bob Proctor’s Seminars” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expanding-your-awareness-with-a-deep-dive-into-bob-proctors-most-powerful-seminars/

[v] Dr. Baland Jalal https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/baland-jalal

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #104 with Antonio Zadra on “When Brains Dream” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/sleep-scientist-antonio-zadra-on-when-brains-dream-exploring-the-science-and-mystery-of-sleep/

[vii] The Mathew Walker Podcast https://themattwalkerpodcast.buzzsprout.com/

[viii] Sleep is your superpower TED 2019 by Mathew Walker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH-MGqokk_Y

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #120 “Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Medical Device for Anxiety, Depression, Sleep and Stress Management” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-medical-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/

[x] The Neuroscience of Dreams by Dr. Baland Jalal Published on YouTube Feb.13, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WBL-51kIkc

[xi] Happy Hour Podcast Why is Sleep Paralysis Always Scary? Published on YouTube June 21, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eisGABFcn9w

[xii] The Ranveer Show Published on YouTube July 30, 2021 Neuroscientist Explains Scary Secrets of Your Brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ_7h-OijAQ&t=24s

[xiii] How Lucid Dreaming Works Published on YouTube Jan. 21, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH-MGqokk_Y

Apr 22, 2022

01:16:50

“If you don’t truly understand how your brain and body work, it will be more difficult to maximize your potential” (Dr. Jon Finn[i], author of the Best-Selling book, The Habit Mechanic[ii]) which took Dr. Finn over 20 years to write, and was not intended to be read once, and left on a shelf to collect dust. This book contains Dr. Finn’s life’s work, “where he’s trained and coached over 10,000 people: Global businesses, high-growth start-ups, individuals, elite athletes, coaches and teams, leading educational institutes, and families” to thrive and succeed in our challenging modern world. This book is exactly what I have been looking for, as it is full of practical and simple exercises in each section that we can all apply for immediate results, backed by science.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/CO-_znUut28

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ How Dr. Finn, from Leeds, UK, took three psychology related degrees to inform his work with The Habit Mechanic and his Tougher Minds Consulting Firm.

✔︎ What Dr. Finn discovered made Roger Bannister's training more "efficient and effective" than his competitors.

✔︎ How he has used his Habit Mechanic Model to develop high performing sports teams.

✔︎ Simple and easy ways that we can all fine-tune our habit-building muscles.

✔︎ Strategies to teach others how to do the same.

✔︎ Unique visuals for improving time management, and overcoming obstacles.

Dr. Finn, who founded the award-winning Tougher Minds Consultancy, and has three psychology-related degrees, has been working in the field of resilience, performance, and leadership science for over 20 years, and through his work, has uncovered WHY people fail, while trying their very best.

Before we meet Dr. Finn, I have to give you a bit more of his background, because when reading his book, I was floored with how he connected the research to habit building, with examples that we can all understand and remember.

Dr. Finn and his colleagues have a collective experience of over 100 years in helping people, leaders, teams and organizations build better habits. They have worked extensively in the highest levels of elite sport, advised the Government and think tanks, had their work featured in The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, People Management and T.E.S, published peer-reviewed papers and popular books within the area of performance psychology, and helped 10,000s of people be their best more often.

His company, Tougher Minds work globally and I’ll include a list of the people, teams and organizations they have helped fulfil their potential in the show notes.

– ING – Janus Henderson Investors – Aon – HSBC – Mercedes – Chaucer – John Deere Financial – The Professional Golfers’ Association – Premier League Football Managers – Deloitte – The Rugby Football League – The Scottish Golf Union – Yorkshire County Cricket Club – European Tour Golfers – Sky Sports – England Athletics – Rugby League Super League Head Coaches

Let’s meet Dr. Jon Finn and uncover why traditional approaches to being our very best, that we might all still be using, are outdated and ineffective.

Welcome Dr. Finn, all the way from Leeds, United Kingdom which I had to look up, is only about 4 hours from Worthing, Sussex, where I was born.

Dr. Finn, I’ve got to tell you, I’m beyond thrilled to have found you and your book. Thank you very much for coming on the podcast to share your life’s work and strategies with all of us.

INTRO Q: I actually started reading your book last week when I was going in for a routine medical procedure (nothing serious). I had an IV in my right arm, was holding my phone with that hand, (I don’t like wasting time) and was jotting down notes while I was reading, and was so excited by what I was learning, that when the procedure was over, I completely remember telling the doctor about your book, and how profound it was tying it to the past few interviews I’ve done on Habits on the podcast. I’m not sure if he added it to his reading list, but hopefully all the other patients around me found your book on Amazon, after I had reviewed it for them.

I was blown away from the first few pages, and we hadn’t even set up our interview date at the time. Can we begin with where this all started for you-- how you used failure as a catalyst with your story where you noticed that mental skills were more important than physical skills, launching your career into performance psychology?

INTRO B: Then, how did your three psychology-related degrees inform your work as a consultant, and with writing The Habit Mechanic?

Q1: Dr. Finn, you’ve helped over 10,000 people using your unique consultancy tactics (that are comprehensive, thorough and backed by science. Why did you decide it was time to share your teachings, and put them into writing for the world to see?

Q2: What stuck out to me right in the beginning of the book, (aside from the unique way that you made the concepts I was reading stick with analogies that we’ll get to) but it was that you revealed the secret science behind an iconic sporting success, Roger Bannister in STEP 1 of your book, Discover Your Superpower. We’ve all know how Roger Bannister was the first person to break the record for the four-minute-mile, but can you tell us why Bannister succeeded where many others had failed, and what did he have to “learn” to make his training more “efficient and effective” than his competitors?

2B: What about a sports team? When I saw that you worked with the Head Coaches of The Rugby League Super League, I couldn’t miss asking what science-based advice you would offer to a head coach of a sports team to create a championship team?

Q3: I really do believe we all have superpowers, and the key to unlocking our potential is when we figure out what our superpower is and then learn how to use it, with the understanding that “science shows that with deliberate and focused practice we can improve any skill” (page 63, The Habit Mechanic). Can you explain how we learn a new skill, and turn it into a habit, with your analogy of the “ice cube” so we all remember this concept as we apply it?

Q4: We have covered habit building on some of our past episodes, specifically episode #103[iii] where we talked about how to set goals in different areas of our life, but after reading your book, I can see that many times, this goal-setting activity happens at the end of the year, and needs to be reinforced to be strengthened—and you show us how in your book. Can you elaborate on habit building, maybe some mistakes you see that are common as to why habit or skill building don’t stick, and what we MUST do to build new skills that do stick with your igloo analogy?

Q4B: How do you know where your gaps are, or what bricks to build in your igloo?

Q5: There was another analogy that stuck out to me when reading The Habit Mechanic and that was the bar code where you get us to think about how to eliminate destructive habits that fill up our day. I know we all have 24 hours in a day and I’m always trying to find ways to “cheat” the system and find more time. I think this idea is brilliant. Can you explain the bar code analogy, and how we identify our super-habits vs destructive habits to improve our productivity in a way that it sticks?

Q6: And you’ve got another powerful analogy to help us to move past obstacles and actually achieve those things we write down and label them our “goals.” Can you explain your unique “Lighthouse Brain” model that you cover in Step 2 of the Habit Mechanic Process so we can learn how to better manage those stressors that come our way and try to knock us off course from our goals?

Q7: How can people use and understand behavioral science/your Nine Action Factors to help build better habits for work success? What should we all know about learning NEW habits and skills, and becoming expert habit builders and do you have a fancy way for us to remember and switch on these ACTION factors so we can ALL be sure to implement them after this interview?

Q8: We see books that cover only habits, or sleep, or diet, or exercise, or motivation, or stress management, or confidence, or productivity, or performing under pressure, or learning how to learn, or leadership, or teamwork. But your book covers all these areas? Why did you write the book this way?

Q9: What is the difference between “Habit Mechanic” tools and “Chief Habit Mechanic” tools?

Q10: As we sum up everything on your life’s work of becoming a Habit Mechanic, is there anything important that I might have missed?

Dr. Finn, I want to thank you for coming on the podcast, and sharing your tools, resources and strategies for us to all become Habit Mechanics, and Supercharge How We Live, Work and Lead. For people to learn more about your book, is the best place www.tougherminds.co.uk ?

I will put all the links for people to follow you in the show notes, and look forward to following your work in the years to come as more science will reveal new strategies that I know we will all want to learn.

FREE TRAINING AND TOOLS https://www.tougherminds.co.uk/free-training-tools-and-insights/

CONTACT DR. FINN https://www.tougherminds.co.uk/contact/

FOLLOW DR. FINN

Twitter https://twitter.com/TougherMinds

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jon-finn/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://www.tougherminds.co.uk/

REFERENCES:

[ii] The Habit Mechanic by Dr. Jon Finn Published April 5, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/Habit-Mechanic-Fine-Tune-Brain-Supercharge-ebook/dp/B09VNNY3GR/ref=sr_1_2?crid=L04X6G0XCL7T&keywords=habit+mechanic&qid=1650127357&sprefix=habit+mechanic%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-2

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #103 on “3 Ways to Reset, Recharge and Refuel Your Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-of-leadership-3-ways-to-reset-recharge-and-refuel-your-brain-for-your-best-year-ever/

Apr 15, 2022

00:13:44

On this episode we will cover:

✔︎ The importance of making mistakes and failing forward ✔︎ How an understanding of the most current research can improve productivity and results in our schools, sports and workplaces ✔︎ An important ingredient for change to occur ✔︎ A review of past episodes to consider what change you could initiate in your workplace ✔︎ Prepare for our NEXT EPISODE #210 with Dr. Jon Finn the author of The Habit Mechanic.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”--American architect, systems theorist, author, inventor, philosopher and futurist, Buckminster Fuller

This quote made me think of why we launched this podcast in the first place. Not to fight against all the models that we struggle with in our world today, but to offer solutions like Sir Ken Robinson[i] did with his thought-provoking case of creating an educational system that nurtures, rather than undermines creativity. If you haven’t watched Sir Ken’s TED talk in a while, I encourage you to go back to it (it’s got over 72 million views)—and you’ll see how the concepts he talks about are still as valid today, as they were in 2006. Sir Ken’s TED Talk reminded me that “all children have exceptional capacity for innovation” and that “creativity is as important as literacy” in our schools, but we tend to squander it. I could “ponder deeply” (Greg Link, EPISODE 207) about that for a while, and am always looking for ways to increase creativity and innovation for our next generation of students in the classroom.

Sir Ken said something else that hit me on a deep level on his famous TED talk, as I sat at my desk, listening to his words, knowing that he’s been gone for some time, but he’s not really gone. His legacy lives on as he makes me think about his words and write this episode, making connections to past episodes and speakers, and sharing these thoughts with you, wherever you might be listening to this podcast. With one of his examples, he said “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original” when he shared a story of a four-year-old who wasn’t afraid to be wrong and then he brought it back to how school teaches us that mistakes are the worst things you can make.

Making me think again--

Am I afraid of making mistakes?

Not so much anymore, but take me back to 7th grade, being wrong in class (in front of everyone) probably would have prevented me from trying in the future without someone there to encourage the idea of failing forward, which is such an important concept for us to all learn early.

With today’s episode on “The Neuroscience of Change” I’m hoping that we can all take Sir Ken’s advice, and be prepared to be wrong, with the hopes that it somehow moves us forward. Looking back and connecting the many dots over my career, I know I wouldn’t be here today on this podcast if an educator didn’t sit me down in his office, and show me where he thought I was wrong and could improve my work and career path with this understanding of simple neuroscience as the solution. But it did take action on my part without worrying about the outcome. We’ve got to be prepared to be wrong first, Sir Ken reminds us.

What about you? Do you have ideas that you would like to move forward with—to impact change?

Maybe in your school, or to be used in sports with athletes, or in your workplace? These episodes were created in the how-to format to generate ideas for all of us. I hope we can all ponder deeply about this, think about where we would like to see change, write down some thoughts and ideas, and see if these ideas can take us to somewhere new, somewhere we’ve never been before, as we make connections with the neuroscience of change.

For returning guests, welcome back, and for those who are new here, I’m Andrea Samadi, author, and educator, with a passion for learning, understanding difficult concepts, and breaking them down so that we can all use and apply the most current research to improve productivity and results in our schools, sports, and modern workplaces. Today’s EPISODE #209, on “Using Neuroscience to Inspire Change” we will build off of our last two interviews where we dove deep into why The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book with Greg Link on EPISODE #207[ii] sold over 40 million copies worldwide, breaking the Covey organization through many obstacles along the way, taking them to where they had never been before not only in North America, but also in Japan, using many of the principles that connects the dots back to simple neuroscience, years before the research could explain their success. Or Blaine Oelkers from EPISODE #208[iii] who showed us how change begins in our mind with “what we think about.” We will continue to stretch our thinking on EPISODE #210 that’s being recorded later next week with Dr. Jon Finn, author of The Habit Mechanic[iv] where he will show us how traditional approaches to being our best are outdated and ineffective and will really take our thinking to new heights when he shares the secret science behind an iconic sporting success, Roger Bannister, who is famous for being the first athlete to run the 4-minute mile, but did you know that Bannister’s secret advantage had to do with the fact that at Oxford University, Bannister was training to be a medical doctor, and he used his understanding of the inner workings of the body to gain a competitive advantage over all other athletes, making his training “more effective and efficient.” (Page 59, The Habit Mechanic).

As we begin this episode, I know there are some things that are very difficult to change and what I’m proposing here isn’t easy at all. Beliefs run deep, and require some serious thought. We covered self-belief and identity on EPISODE #199[v] where we could actually see when our identity and self-belief forms in the brain and that this pathway is strengthened with daily practice (whether it’s through meditation, a sport, or practicing an academic skill) that we learned from Dr. John Dunlosky’s work all the way back to EPISODE #37[vi]. We covered “The Neuroscience of Belief” on EPISODE #173[vii] where we looked at cognitive bias, and challenging our beliefs which is important especially when we follow the most current brain research. I just learned yesterday that something I once believed, is no longer true as new research has already debunked it, and found there is a more effective way. On episode #159[viii], we looked at “The Power of Surprise” and how our brain secretly changes our beliefs, and then EPISODE #146[ix] with Howard Rankin, taught us “How NOT to Think.”

The goal of this episode is not to change your mind, or challenge you to believe what I believe, (that an understanding of how our brain works can lead us all to increased productivity and results) but my goal is to show all of us that hearing those words “you are wrong” can actually lead to innovation, like Sir Ken told us, and to keep an open mind as we are learning. Especially as we move ahead with our interview with Dr. Finn next week, where we will see how the most current research leads to innovation, when we are ready to make change, without the fear of failure, or of being wrong.

Just look at these examples and think about how “being wrong” could possibly move us forward, to uncover a new way.

Right or Wrong? You Tell Me…

If you are in the field of education, you’ll likely be aware of the reading wars,[x] where one camp believes in teaching phonics versus the whole word, and each camp firmly believes in their methodology. I know I could create a presentation for a group of educators and show how an understanding of the science of reading could make you lean towards having more belief in the need to break words down as we are learning them, (and teach the skill of reading with the brain in mind) but this still might not convince a die-hard fan whose taught reading a certain way their entire career. Is there a right or wrong? Just keep an open mind and see if there could possibly be another way to teach a child to read—with the brain in mind.

Like the reading wars, I learned about the “therapy and coaching wars” yesterday, where brain scans that began in the late 1990s now reveal that some of the practices that exist in traditional coaching and therapy are not effective,[xi] as they are not evidence-based. John Norcross, American professor, board-certified clinical psychologist and author in psychotherapy, behavior change and self-help has spent the past 15 years researching what works in psychotherapy, that can be applied to coaching/therapy as well. You can read the links in the show notes of what Dr. Norcross has discovered doesn’t work in therapy or coaching, but I want to focus on one particular finding that he mentioned DOES work and that’s when the client, or student is “self-initiating, self-motivated, and self-aware—with the ability to self-heal.”[xii]

Which brings me back to our EPISODE with Greg Link where he talked about the “secret sauce” of Dr. Covey’s success with the 7 Habits book, and he mentioned that the secret to their success came from the fact that people who attended Dr. Covey’s events were “self-initiating” or they chose to be there. When they were not forced to attend his events, but chose from their own free will, they participated in an entirely different way than if they were told they had to attend. This is what Dr. Norcross noticed made psychotherapy work, and what Dr. Covey also noticed led to personal change with the 7 Habits. There does appear to be a neuroscience to change, and it has to do with “leaning in” to what you what to learn or accomplish.

If you are listening to this podcast, you are also “leaning in” and open to change with the ideas that you are learning. This is how change occurs, one person at a time.

Change in the Classroom:

Scroll through our episodes and see if there are certain ones that stand out to you as interesting, and listen to those ones to generate new ideas for change and innovation in your school or classroom. I can’t list all of them, but do highly recommend EPISODE #56[xiii] with Dr. Lori Desautels on her book “Connections Over Compliance” that rewires our perceptions for discipline in our schools, Greg Wolcott’s EPISODE #64[xiv] on “Making Connections with Neuroscience and SEL,” EPISODE #78[xv] with Dr. David A. Sousa on “How the Brain Learns” and EPISODE #111[xvi] with resiliency expert Horacio Sanchez on “Finding Solutions to the Poverty Problem.”

Change in the Sports World:

If you work with athletes, don’t miss EPISODE #38[xvii] where we connected the daily grind required for success in the sports world to Dr. John Dunlosky’s research of the importance of spaced repetition, or EPISODE #116[xviii] and #121[xix] where we saw how exercise impacts academic achievement, #134[xx] on wearable devices that measure and track sleep, strain and recovery, #163[xxi] on reading the emotions in others, and #166[xxii] on accelerating leadership for success in sports and the classroom. Episode #168[xxiii] with Dr. Bruce Perry and Steve Graner uncovers the importance of teaching and coaching with the brain in mind.

As we prepare for our episode with Dr. Finn next week, on “Fine-Tuning Your Brain to Supercharge How You Live, Work and Lead” and think of new ways to inspire creativity and innovation in our workplaces, without being afraid to make mistakes like Sir Ken reminded us, we will dive deep into the science behind habit building. We will look closely at why some traditional approaches to being our best are outdated and ineffective, with an understanding of cutting edge science to better build our habits, to create higher levels of success in our future.

And like Dr. Norcross pointed out, whatever we are learning today, might change in 30 years as new science is revealed…but that shouldn’t stop us from looking at change through the lens of neuroscience, with the hope that what we can learn can take us to new heights in the meantime.

I hope you enjoy reviewing some of our past episodes, or ones that you find interesting to your field of work, and I’ll look forward to seeing you next week with Dr. Finn that I know will take us ALL to new levels of awareness. See you then!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Sir Ken Robinson TED 2006 “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #207 with Greg Link on “Unleashing Greatness with Neuroscience, Trust and the 7 Habits” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/co-founder-of-coveylink-greg-link-on-unleashing-greatness-with-neuroscience-sel-trust-and-the-7-habits/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #208 with Blaine Oelkers on “Mastering Your Thoughts, Goals and Life with the WYTAYBA Strategy: What You Think About You Bring About” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/blaine-oelkers-on-mastering-your-thoughts-goals-and-life-with-the-wytaba-strategy-what-you-think-about-you-bring-about/

[iv] Dr. Jon Finn The Habit Mechanic https://www.tougherminds.co.uk/habit-mechanic-overview/

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #199 on “The Neuroscience of Self-Belief and Our Identity” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-neuroscience-behind-self-belief-and-our-identity/

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #37 with Dr. John Dunlosky on “Improving Student Success” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kent-states-dr-john-dunlosky-on-improving-student-success-some-principles-from-cognitive-science/

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 on “The Neuroscience of Belief” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-neuroscience-of-belief/

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #159 on “The Power of Surprise: How Your Brain Secretly Changes Your Beliefs” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-michael-rousell-on-the-power-of-surprise-how-your-brain-secretly-changes-your-beliefs/

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #146 with Dr. Howard Rankin on “How Not to Think” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expert-in-psychology-cognitive-neuroscience-and-neurotechnology-howard-rankin-phd-on-how-not-to-think/

[x] The Reading Wars: Phonics vs Whole Word Published on YouTube August 18, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7UZP3irJ3I

[xi] Dr. John Norcross on What Does Not Work in Psychotherapy https://www.psychalive.org/dr-john-norcross-work-psychotherapy/

[xii] Psychotherapy Relationships That Work: Volume 2, Norcross & Wampold https://www.oxfordclinicalpsych.com/view/10.1093/med-psych/9780190843953.001.0001/med-9780190843953

[xiii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #56 with Dr. Lori Desautels on her book “Connections Over Compliance” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/educational-neuroscience-pioneer-dr-lori-desautels-on-her-new-book-about-connections-over-compliance-rewiring-our-perceptions-of-discipline/

[xiv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #64 with Greg Wolcott on “Making Connections with Neuroscience and SEL” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/assistant-superintendent-greg-wolcott-on-making-connections-with-neuroscience-and-sel/

[xv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #78 with David A. Sousa on “How the Brain Learns” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/award-winning-author-david-a-sousa-on-how-the-brain-learns/

[xvi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #111 with Horacio Sanchez on “Finding Solutions to the Poverty Problem” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/resiliency-expert-and-author-horacio-sanchez-on-finding-solutions-to-the-poverty-problem/

[xvii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #38 with Todd Woodcroft on “The Daily Grind in the NHL” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/assistant-coach-to-the-winnipeg-jets-todd-woodcroft-on-the-daily-grind-in-the-nhl/

[xviii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #116 with Dr. John Ratey on “SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/best-selling-author-john-j-ratey-md-on-the-revolutionary-new-science-of-exercise-and-the-brain/

[xix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #121 with Paul Zientarski on “Transforming Students Using Physical Education and Neuroscience” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/naperville-central-high-schools-paul-zeintarski-on-transforming-students-using-physical-education-and-neuroscience/

[xx] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes from Whoop.com on “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/

[xxi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #163 with Dan Hill on “How to Read the Emotions in Others” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dan-hill-phd-the-faces-guy-on-how-to-read-the-emotions-in-others-for-schools-sports-and-the-workplace/

[xxii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #166 with Chris Gargano on “Accelerating Leadership for Maximum Results” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/vice-president-executive-producer-of-the-new-york-jets-chris-gargano-on-accelerating-leadership-for-maximum-impact-and-results/

[xxiii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #168 with Dr. Bruce Perry and Steve Graner on “What Happened to You” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-bruce-perry-and-steve-graner-from-the-neurosequential-network-on-what-we-should-all-know-about-what-happened-to-you/

Apr 07, 2022

00:59:58

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, EPISODE #208, I’m Andrea Samadi, author and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and today’s guest ties in perfectly to what we have been talking about on this podcast the past few months. Before I introduce him, I have to mention that he contacted me through LinkedIn and asked if I was looking for podcast guests. I always am and do have a running list of people I reach out to as our topic is specific, tied to how the most current brain research can help us to improve our productivity and results.

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/rZ5s3MBa91I

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ Who is Blaine Oelkers, and why did it take 3 seconds for Andrea to notice something unique about his work?

✔︎ The mistake that 99.9% of people who read the book Think and Grow Rich make.

✔︎ What were in the "missing pages" of Think and Grow Rich that Blaine Oelkers discovered?

✔︎ What is the "secret" that we should all know, while studying Think and Grow Rich.

✔︎ Strategies to become crystal-clear with whatever it is that we want to create.

✔︎ How neuroscience supports what Napoleon Hill teaches in Think and Grow Rich.

✔︎ Simple strategies to break and form new habits.

✔︎ The importance of "cleaning" your mind.

If you recall, our last episode with Greg Link[i], who partnered and worked with the late Dr. Stephen Covey with the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People mentioned how many of the principles that they used for success over the years took some time before they were accepted in the corporate world, let alone the K-12 school market, so when I come across someone who’s an expert, or even known as a Chief Results Officer, I want to know who they are, who and what and who they have studied, and how exactly they are getting these high levels of results that most of us want, but take such hard work to achieve.

While researching our next guest, Blaine Oelkers[ii], a lifetime entrepreneur, a graduate of Purdue University and Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship program, I learned that he’s coached 1000’s of people with what he calls their Personal Implementation Plans (PIPs) elevating his clients to a higher level of productivity and results that he calls You 2.0, when I saw exactly what I was looking for.

It's rare for someone to teach these success principles, without having studied with one of the “greats” at least for a period of time, so I always look to see where their love of self-improvement began. I will be sure to ask Blaine this question, but it became clear to me that he has a sound knowledge of the most influential success books when I saw that he has taught the book we covered to launch our year with, Think and Grow Rich, and has some tips to help us to be more effective while studying this book, along with some lost passages! At this point in my research, I ‘m beyond curious how he knows this top secret information and wonder if it has to do with the fact that he shared the stage with American author and entrepreneur, Jim Rohn.

I suppose we will all have to find this out in the interview. Let’s meet Blaine Oelkers and see if we can kick our productivity up a notch and uncover where he learned these secrets for success from.

Welcome Blaine. Thanks so much for reaching out to me. I’m not sure if you noticed that it took me about 3 minutes to write back to you that you were a perfect fit for the podcast!

INTRO Q: I mention in the backstory that I’m always looking for people who can take our understanding of productivity and success to higher levels, and I have to open up with the question I was thinking the whole time I was researching you—where did your love for self-improvement begin, who did you study, and what do you think makes you stand out from others in this field—I saw it immediately.

Q1: I opened the year with a 6-part series on Think and Grow Rich[iii] after studying this book for the past 3 years with Paul Martinelli. I have to say that when you teach something, you study it so differently as I could tell that didn’t finish reading it until I had to explain it to others. I wonder what did you uncover that 99.9% of people miss every time they read TAGR? Here’s my guesses—that people don’t FINISH the book? Or they don’t IMPLEMENT the ideas Napoleon Hill suggests? Or they don’t read the book with effort and like Greg Link mentioned on my last episode-they don’t really “ponder deeply” with what they are reading.

Q2: What do you think “the secret” is that Hill says will stand out to you, and every chapter mentions it? Bob Proctor would never tell us what the secret was as he said we would stop looking for it.

Q3: What are the lost passages of TAGR? How did you come across them?

Q4: We’ve spoken often on this podcast about the importance of creating a crystal-clear vision of what you want. Why have you found this to be important, and how do you help others to remember this? WYTABA

Q5: How has neuroscience proven that WYTABA works? RAS

Q6: When you begin to connect the science to some of these success strategies, I know that belief is formed. What’s been your experience of working with corporations/leaders over the past few decades. How have things changed with this understanding of neuroscience?

Q7: We’ve also covered breaking/forming habits often on this podcast and I love how simple you make this. What should we all know if we want to form a new, healthy habit (like exercising more or cutting out unhealthy foods?)

Q8: What are some simple ways that we can keep our mind free of negative thoughts?

Q9: Any questions that you think I’ve missed that would be good to add

CONNECT WITH BLAINE OELKERS

Get healthy challenge https://www.facebook.com/groups/yesyoucanchallenge

Rewire your brain group https://www.facebook.com/groups/rewiremybrain

Watch Blaine’s TED Talk http://blainetedx.com/

Listen to Blaine’s Podcasts http://selfluence.com/podcasts/

CONNECT with BLAINE OELKERS

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaineoelkers/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/chiefresultsofficer

Blaine, I want to thank you for the hard work you are doing in this field.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] https://www.superresultsexperience.com/about

RESOURCES:

Headspace App for Taking “Mind Showers” https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getsomeheadspace.android&hl=en_US&gl=US

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #207 with Greg Link https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/co-founder-of-coveylink-greg-link-on-unleashing-greatness-with-neuroscience-sel-trust-and-the-7-habits/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 PART 6 of the Think and Grow Rich book study https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

Apr 01, 2022

01:25:03

Have you ever felt “The Speed of Trust?” It’s the “shortest route to results” (Robert Allen, author of Multiple Streams of Income), and “the one thing that affects everything else you’re doing. It’s a performance multiplier which takes your trajectory upwards, for every activity you engage in, from strategy to execution.” Stephen R. Covey

I felt “The Speed of Trust” from the moment I asked our next guest if he would come on the podcast, knowing full well that he hasn’t spoken on a podcast or radio show since around 2014, but I know that “when trust is high, communication is easy, instant and effective.”

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/kCRjLyCKE40

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ Who was behind the marketing strategy that took Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits Book to sell over 40 million copies worldwide (surpassing the popular Think and Grow Rich book) in 40 languages.

✔︎ How exactly did Greg Link come to meet and partner with the late Dr. Stephen Covey and what dots were connected as he looks back over his career now.

✔︎ How “Inspired Action” a term coined by Jack Canfield helped many leaders forge a path where no one had ever been before.

✔︎ What the Covey Organization learned from taking their book to Japan, and how they became the best-selling foreign business book in Japan.

✔︎ How Dr. Covey simplified the 7 Habits, and his vision for this book from the beginning.

✔︎ The challenges that Dr. Covey had as they began their work in the K-12 school market, how they overcame these challenges, and created The Leader in Me program.

✔︎ How they overcame daily obstacles they faced and used the 7 Habits to move forward.

✔︎ How he came up with the idea for the 8th Habit.

✔︎ How Greg’s expertise was recognized in the motivational speaking industry.

✔︎ Why Trust was a trait that was the center of The Speed of Trust, Smart Trust and their new book Trust and Inspire.

✔︎ What advice did Dr. Covey give Greg Link that changed his life, and how can you use this advice today?

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, EPISODE #207, I’m Andrea Samadi, author and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and today’s guest is someone I have mentioned often on this podcast. For returning guests, you’ll be able to figure it out quickly. For those who are new, welcome.

This episode is very special to me in many ways—not just with the fact that I consider myself beyond lucky to have had the opportunity to have met some of the world’s most influential people at a time in my life (late 20s) when this influence was important for the direction that I would take, that would land me exactly where I am now, all these years later. While listening to today’s episode, my hope is that this story inspires you in some way, to take action with whatever it is you are working on as I take you on a trip that goes back over 20 years ago, with the lessons learned along the way highlighted, so that you can see how some of the top influencers in the world have faced challenge, had doubts, fears and worries, and even unthinkably difficult life challenges that they all had to overcome, just like you and me.

What was unique with this opportunity that I had while working in the motivational speaking industry in the late 1990s, is that I was driven to keep in touch with many of the speakers who came in over the years, (as you can see from this podcast) and this platform allows us all to continue to learn and grow from them with what author Jack Canfield would call Inspired Action (that I’ll cover in a minute). Today’s guest, I know we can all learn from which is why I knew I had to ask him to share his experience on this podcast.

If you think back to our final episode of The Think and Grow Rich book study, EPISODE #196[i] that we launched 2022 with, we opened with a quote from Bob Proctor, who said ““You can’t just THINK and GROW RICH, you’ve got to do something with those thoughts” and it reminded me of meeting some of these global leaders, around 20 years ago, including our guest today, Greg Link, and that knowledge is power, but without action, it’s useless. It’s got to be Inspired Action as well, that comes from the heart.

The seminar where I met Greg Link was a pivotal one, and we’ll talk about this in the interview, when Steve Jobs says, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, only looking back. It was here that I met Mark Victor Hansen, who co-authored The Chicken Soup for the Soul Series with Jack Canfield, Presidential Historian Doug Wead from EPISODE #187[ii] and many others including celebrities like Melanie Griffith, and world class athletes who came in to speak. I met today’s guest, Greg Link in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton in Pasadena, as he introduced me to his good friend Stedman Graham, the longtime partner of Oprah Winfrey, at the very beginning of this event.

I remember at the time, I had just started to write my first book that would be published quite a few years later, The Secret for Teens Revealed, (that was originally called The Mentoring Excellence Now Program that was created when I worked with over 100 youth with physical disabilities for the Easter Seals Foundation) and when I met Stedman, and saw that he had just written a book for teens[iii], I remember that feeling of “oh no, I’ve missed the boat on this topic” but the message I would receive loud and clear this weekend from the speakers, was quite the opposite. I can still hear Doug Wead shouting out at the audience, in an attempt to motivate action from them, when he said, “Get up and do something” with this booming voice and I wrote down-move forward with publishing this book idea I had in my head. What shocks me to the core, looking back and reading my notes from this event, is that I had written Doug’s age beside his name. 21 years ago, Doug Wead was 54. I’m turning 51 this year, and if you heard EPISODE #187, you’ll know that Doug passed away unexpectedly last year, at the age of 75. I don’t know how old you are, but I do know that whatever age you are, that there’s no such thing as “missing the boat” with whatever it is you want to do.

If that’s not a huge motivator, I don’t know what is. Remember, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, only looking back. Everything I needed for success in my lifetime was right in front on me that weekend. They were all standing a shoulders length away from me. If you were standing next to someone who could possibly change the course of your life, would you see it?

After I had recorded our Top 10 episodes of all-time, I got this strange feeling to ask Greg Link if he would come on as a guest. I mentioned taking “inspired action” at the beginning of this episode, and recognize this was one of those moments when I sent the message to Greg, but hesitated. Why was I afraid to ask him to do this? He’s always been there, ready to help when I’ve asked in the past. He did an incredible testimonial[iv] for our work in 2013, AFTER those days working in the seminar industry, and he even wrote a back of the book endorsement for The Secret for Teens. I hesitated because I knew he had been off the grid for some time, but I asked him anyway. That’s what Jack Canfield, who partnered with Mark Victor Hansen for the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series would call taking “Inspired Action.”

I learned from Jack Canfield that those flashes of insight we get to reach out to someone, are important to listen to.

I’m so excited to see what this Inspired Action will uncover, and know that whatever it is that you take away from these secrets to success from someone who not only worked with, but partnered with the late Dr. Stephen Covey, my hopes are that it inspires you to move forward, and take the Inspired Action needed, to move you in the direction of your goals.

Let’s meet Greg Link….

Welcome Greg!! Thank you for speaking with me today on what I am shocked is your FIRST podcast appearance?

Before I get to the questions, I always like to open up with something that helps us to dig a bit deeper before we begin, and it has to do with the fact that you kept coming into my head the past few podcast episodes, as I do tie in past episodes to current ones, and after quoting you on the last episode, I thought “I’ve got to ask Greg Link to see if he would speak with me on my next episode” and I know we have kept in touch over the years, but I wasn’t sure if this is something you would want to do, so I was a bit nervous before I sent you that message. I usually listen to those thoughts that come into my head (Jack Canfield called it taking inspired action)—so I wonder, if you would share what you have been up to the past few years, since I saw you last, and what did you really think when I asked you to come on this podcast?

This leads me to go back to where your career began…

Q1: How exactly did you come to meet and partner with Dr. Stephen R Covey, I know you’ve told me the story—I wonder if looking back, like Steve Jobs’ incredible commencement address at Stanford, what dots were connected when you think back to that moment?

Q2A: When I found that interview you did in 2014 with that Toronto radio station where you mention where your journey with Dr. Covey began--it made me wonder what qualified you to work in publishing and why did Covey pick you? What did you do that made Ken Blanchard refer you to Dr. Covey when he was launching the 7 Habits book?

Q2B: 2 PART QUESTION--It’s written everywhere how you took the 7 Habits Book to incredible heights, published globally in 40 languages. Can you explain what you did? Also 7 Habits is the best-selling foreign business book in history in Japan. How did that happen?

Q2C: How did get Dr. Covey to “simplify” the habits to make them easier for people to understand? Why did you call him your recovering academic?

Q3: I saw it when I first began, and so did you! I remember you telling me how difficult it was BEFORE Leader in Me launched in our schools. You gave me millions of tips BEFORE I went into the schools with my work, and I still met with challenge and obstacles. Can you share how difficult it was for the 7 Habits BEFORE it sold millions of copies worldwide, inspiring the Leader in Me curriculum? AND what led the 7 Habits into primary schools in the first place?

Q4: We could spend a good week on my next question, because you’ve got some incredible life experience, with high levels of success and achievement reached, but I want to know about those times where things were difficult. Our audiences consist of educators, and those in the corporate workplace (around the world) who could benefit from your story that you told me where everything went wrong in Portland (I think) and Dr. Covey insisted that “the show must go on.” Can you tell this story, so we can all take some pressure off ourselves when it comes to presenting or speaking in front of others and wanting everything to be perfect? What about Distance Learning from Microsoft and Zoom?

Q5: I think I like the 8th Habit the most, as that’s what I’ve centered my life’s work around (especially with this podcast). You mentioned to me that The 8th Habit almost didn’t get published! What happened?

5B: What’s YOUR favorite habit, and one that you find yourself working on the most?

Q6: When I first met you, it was around 2002 when you came to consult with Bob Proctor and Mark Victor Hansen from the Chicken Soup for the Soul on their 3% Club seminars, around the same time Doug Wead came in, and I remember meeting you in the lobby of the Ritz Carleton in Pasadena, that’s now called the Langham, and I remember that you were coming in to help impact change with the seminars back then. What do you remember about those days, and working with the seminar industry leaders? Didn’t you also work with Tony Robbins and Werner Erhard?

Q7: We’ve talked about your book with Stephen M.R. Covey, Smart Trust. I’ve got a Character Book on my laptop that I’ve held off producing (it was a compilation of lessons I used when I worked with schools) but will release it eventually. Trust has always been THE most important character trait for me. What was it about Trust that you thought was important for everyone to know-what was so important about Trust for you that you wrote a book on this topic?

Q8: I know you’ve got another book on Trust coming with Stephen MR Covey (Trust and Inspire)…and in this low-trust world, I think this is the best time for this book. What’s this next book about?

Q9: I’ve got to ask a question about family, since I know it’s an important part of your life, and the pandemic surely put the emphasis on family for us globally. Your family has gone through some really difficult times. For those listening, who may also be dealing with difficult times, what words of encouragement could you offer with your life experience in mind?

Q10: As we think of all the habits, I like the 8th Habit the most, as it relates to our building our legacy (Find your Voice and Inspire others to find theirs. What advice can you offer for people listening as they might be working on the legacy they want to create, thinking of Dr. Covey as an example?

Q11: What’s next for you? Trust and Inspire, and then what?

Q12: What are your final thoughts?

For people who want to reach you, what’s the best place? I’ll be sure to put your Twitter, Linkedin and social media accounts, and I’m sure when this goes out, everyone will be reaching out to you for an interview. A lot of excitement was generated BEFORE I even asked if you would do this podcast today.

Greg, I want to thank you for your time today, to share these secrets that only you would know. I’m so grateful we met, and that you took an interest in helping me along the way to find my voice, and help others find theirs. Where I am today is such a huge quantum leap from where y mindset was back when you first met me, so I’m forever grateful for the help, ideas and support along the way. I’m looking forward to Trust and Inspire coming out next month and learning more from you moving forward.

This episode is far from over. My mind was blown while editing this episode as Greg mentioned so many book titles, that I do plan on creating a map of this episode, with his suggested book titles to guide us along the way. I do highly suggest grabbing this next book, Trust and Inspire, and taking on Dr. Covey’s challenge of reading a book a week, like Greg has done over his career. His final challenge of writing out the 20 books that have changed your life, with your commentary, is something I will do in the future, and hope that this episode inspires you to take inspired action in your life.

See you next episode!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address Published on YouTube March 7, 2008 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

The Brain That Changes Itself Norman Doidge Published Dec. 18, 2007 https://www.amazon.com/Brain-That-Changes-Itself-Frontiers/dp/0143113100

Shakti Gawain Creative Visualizations Published November 15, 2016 https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Visualization-Power-Imagination-Create-ebook/dp/B01MSL5SIL/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3OTH9QMA0T39R&keywords=shakti+gawain+creative&qid=1648757709&s=books&sprefix=shatki+gawain+creative%2Cstripbooks%2C108&sr=1-2

Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg Published December 31, 2019 https://tinyhabits.com/book/

Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by W Clement Stone published June 12, 2007 https://www.amazon.com/Success-Through-Positive-Mental-Attitude/dp/1416541594/ref=asc_df_1416541594/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312025908234&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7742204498469496254&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030068&hvtargid=pla-436652129468&psc=1

Werner Erhard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Erhard

ASQ American Society of Quality Consultants https://asq.org/

The Leader in Me (The 7 Habits for Schools) https://www.leaderinme.org/

Leader in Me Lighthouse Schools https://www.leaderinme.org/lighthouse-schools/

Muriel Summers’ Leader in Me School https://www.leaderinme.org/muriel-summers/#:~:text=For%20more%20than%20two%20decades,book%20by%20the%20same%20name.

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier Published Feb. 29, 2016 https://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Habit-Less-Change-Forever-ebook/dp/B01BUIBBZI/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3QFW8U95Q6QZG&keywords=the+coaching+habit&qid=1648831862&s=digital-text&sprefix=the+coaching+habit%2Cdigital-text%2C141&sr=1-1

The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious, and Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier, Published February 29, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/Advice-Trap-Humble-Curious-Forever-ebook/dp/B083YZTW4B/ref=sr_1_1?crid=JXXFWF2F19C5&keywords=advice+trap&qid=1648832648&s=digital-text&sprefix=advice+trap%2Cdigital-text%2C125&sr=1-1

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPSIODE #60 “A Deep Dive into Dr. Dan Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness Meditation” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-science-behind-a-meditation-practice-with-a-deep-dive-into-dr-dan-siegel-s-wheel-of-awareness/

IMPORTANT LEGACY QUOTES:

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

'We are human beings not human doings” Dalai Lama

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” Albert Schweitzer

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations" George Bernard Shaw

“At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

“In the end all you have is your reputation” Oprah

“It takes 20 years to build your reputation and 5 minutes to ruin” Warren Buffett

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 “The Neuroscience Behind the 15 Principles in Think and Grow Rich” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #187 in Memory of Presidential Historian Doug Wead https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/in-memory-of-presidential-historian-doug-wead-on-applying-leadership-and-character-lessons-from-the-greatest-us-presidents/

[iii] Teens Can Make it Happen by Stedman Graham, December 2001 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Teens-Can-Make-It-Happen/Stedman-Graham/9780684870823

[iv] Greg Link’s Testimonial of Andrea’s Work Published Fed. 14, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTfN-6ZSmdY

Mar 25, 2022

00:08:05

Did you know that “trust is the highest form of human motivation? It brings out the very best in people. But it takes time and patience.” Stephen Covey

You’ll need to tune into our next episode #207 to learn more from Greg Link’s incredible experience working with Dr. Covey, and with individuals and companies around the world, where Greg will share what qualities are important and integral for success for our students in today’s classrooms, and in our modern workplaces as we dive into our topic of “Unleashing Greatness with Neuroscience, SEL, Trust, and the 7 Habits.”

While researching Greg, who I met when he came to work in the seminar industry in 2002, I was reminded of a topic that he thought was so important that he wrote a book about it with Stephen M.R. Covey (the son of the late Stephen R. Covey) called Smart Trust: The Defining Skill That Transforms Managers into Leaders.[iii]

If you look up quotes from Stephen Covey on trust, you can see how important this skill was to him. He said, “trust is the glue to life” and “the one thing that affects everything else you’re doing. It’s a performance multiplier which takes your trajectory upwards, for every action you engage in, from strategy to execution.”

The quote I like the most is where he says that “the first job of a leader—at work or at home—is to inspire trust. It’s to bring out the best in people by entrusting them” and what I learned from Greg and his book Smart Trust, is that “we have to extend trust to others, to get it back.” This seems counterintuitive, or not what we’d expect to hear, especially in a low-trust world, where many of us don’t want to be too naïve, and too trusting on one side of trust, or we don’t want to be too suspicious either, on the other side of trust. So how do we use Smart Trust, and find the right balance with this skill that transforms managers into leaders? If you read the book, you will see where Greg had a huge AHA moment with his relationship with trust, when someone extended trust to him. Leaders go first, they extend their trust to others, by walking their talk, by showing their character and competence (by doing what they say they will do) and watch how people respond around them (not with blind trust, but with Smart Trust) and you will be surprised that when you give trust, most often, you’ll get it back.

Greg does mention cases where trust is not possible to be restored, like for those who invested their money with Bernie Madoff[iv] who was known for defrauding thousands of investors out of tens of billions of dollars over a time span of around 17 years, it would be difficult for trust to be restored in this case, but he affirms that “it’s possible to restore and regain trust”[v] and possibly even on a deeper level with time and transparency.

Which brought me to wonder, where does trust exist in our brain?

DID YOU KNOW THAT “high levels of trust are associated with decreased amygdala activity and low fear. When there’s a breach of trust the brain’s conflict detector the ACC (anterior cingulate cortex) activates the amygdala. Trust and fear are inversely related; fear activates the amygdala and trust decreases activation. Trust therefore frees up the brain for other activities like creativity, planning and decision-making”[vi] which to me shows on a brain level why “the act of extending trust is an act of leadership.” (Stephen M.R. Covey).

To conclude this episode and set us all on the right frame of mind for our next episode with Greg Link, (next week) I highly encourage you to read Greg’s book, Smart Trust, and pre-order Stephen MR Covey’s NEW book, coming out next month, Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Inspire Greatness in Others[vii] so that we can all deepen our knowledge of this skill that is a prerequisite for success in life, and business, especially for those in a position of leadership.

To Build Smart Trust, and open your brain up to higher levels of creativity, planning and decision-making, Here are Some Tips From Greg Link:

Believe in Trust: and remember that extending trust is the key to leadership. Start With YOU: look at the two sides of trust. Integrity-do I walk my talk? Competence—do I do what I will say I will do? Declare Your Intent: Be transparent and say what you want to accomplish so others are clear of your expectations. Assume Positive Intent in Others: Always give others the benefit of the doubt. Extend Trust: to others and you will gain more influence. No need to micromanage others, just use SMART Trust.

With those tips, I’ll bring this episode to close. Have a good weekend and I’ll see you next week on EPISODE #207, where Greg Link will share what only someone who worked directly with Dr. Stephen Covey and the blockbuster 7 Habits book would know. It’s going to be memorable.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits/

REFERENCES:

[i] Greg Link Speaker’s Bio https://premierespeakers.com/greg-link/bio

[iii] Smart Trust: The Defining Skill That Transforms Managers into Leaders by Stephen M.R. Covey and Greg Link Published September 3, 2013 https://www.amazon.com/Smart-Trust-Defining-Transforms-Managers/dp/1451652178

[iv] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff

[v] Interview with Greg Link on Smart Trust November 27, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-PyD-pX8nk

[vi] The Neuroscience of Trust https://headheartbrain.com/brain-savvy-hr/the-neuroscience-of-trust/#:~:text=High%20levels%20of%20trust%20are,amygdala%20and%20trust%20decreases%20activation.

[vii]Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Inspire Greatness in Others by Stephen MR Covey April 5, 2022 https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/198214372X?tag=simonsayscom

Mar 23, 2022

01:15:54

Have you ever wondered WHO exactly YOU are? We are more than our name, our job title or perhaps how we are viewed in our personal lives. Whatever part of the world you are listening to this podcast from, today’s episode is going to stretch your mind, like it did mine, as we expand our field of view from our individual schools or workplaces to our cities, to go far outside of where we operate on a day-to-day basis to think on a different level than we usually think about ourselves, or those around us. We are going to use a brilliant article written by author, Chevening Alumnus (MSc in Psychology of Education--University of Bristol) and former National Geographic Learning Consultant, Andre Hedlund[i] called Learning Cosmos: A Voyage into the Learner’s Universe[ii] to help take our imaginations on a trip, where we will “consider the multitude of principles, theories and frameworks that address learning, and compare (them) to the expanding universe. Different spheres, each one influencing the others.”

Watch this interview on YouTube with visuals here https://youtu.be/wsJ8NpYawdM

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ How Andre Hedlund compared learning to the Cosmos for a Macro vs Micro view of learning.

✔︎ How the 6 SEL Competencies compare to the Cosmos and Larger Universe.

✔︎ How Andre took the most current and well-known educational frameworks and theories and mapped them to the Cosmos for a deeper look at learning.

✔︎ How looking at something from a new angle (Macro vs Micro) can give you a new perspective, solve problems, and open your eyes to new possibilities.

Today Andre will look at neuroscience and psychology and try to bring together principles about cognition, emotion, attitudes and beliefs, motivation, learning design, and context (many of the topics we have been talking about on this podcast for the past 3 years) into an illustration that resembles the universe so we can see how we fit into our world, from a different point of view, and Andre’s hope is that this “Learning Cosmos Angle can help students, teachers, schools, families and policymakers admire and reflect on the amazing universe surrounding our learners.” (Hedlund).

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, EPISODE #205, I’m Andrea Samadi, author and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and today’s guest is an expert in Education, the Science of Learning, Neuroscience, Psychology, Pedagogy, and the Methodology Behind how we learn. If you are interested in neuroscience and learning, which I’m sure you are, if you’ve been tuning into our podcast, I know this episode will expand your thinking, like it did mine, as we hear from Andre’s perspective why neuroscience alone cannot tell us how we learn. We must look at psychology and education for these answers, but next, he takes it a step further with an empowering, mind-boggling thought. Imagine this if you will…

“The Cosmos is within us. We are all made of star stuff. We are a way for the Universe to know itself.” –Astrophysicist, Carl Sagan[iii] This quote opens Andre’s article, and it took me back to the day I was first introduced to this topic of neuroscience, before I knew how the brain and learning were connected.

I had many questions.

How on the earth (pun intended) is the learning connected to Cosmos? Wait, what is the Cosmos again? It’s been a while since I studied the planets and I never really got into Star Trek or those out of space shows. What does it mean when he says “the cosmos is within us?” I’ve been wrapped up in the brain for the past few years and had to look up what exactly this means.

The funny part of researching and coming up with some questions for Andre to help us to dive deeper into this topic, was that I shared on LinkedIn that I was looking forward to this interview, as I spent Friday night reading Andre’s new book, The Owl Factor: Reframing Your Teaching Philosophy A Reflective and Practical Guide for Teachers and Trainers, and Greg Link, who I’ve mentioned before on this podcast, who took Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits book to great heights, commented on the post and got me to think even harder about the questions I was going to come up with. I don’t think there are any accidents in life, and when Andre caught Greg’s attention, I felt like I had better dig deep into this topic and see if we can all reframe our teaching philosophy with this new perspective.

Let’s meet Andre Hedlund, and take this Voyage into the Learner’s Universe.[iv]

Welcome Andre, all the way from Brazil. We do have a good number of listeners from your past of the world, and after reading your article, it really did make sense to me, showing me how someone in another country, can hold so much passion for this topic, (like I think I do) but with a different angle. Thank you very much for contacting me and sharing your work that I know will help us to all see things in a different way today.

INTRO Q: So, this podcast is The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, as you know, and I clearly remember when we made the connection with Neuroscience and the SEL competencies that we talk about all the time on this podcast. How on the earth did you make the connection with learning and the cosmos?

Q1: Where do we begin? What is the science of learning? What should we all know about how our genetics and epigenetics impact our learning? (for ourselves, our own children, and our students?). What does this mean for the future? Gene editing?

Q2: I like the idea of looking at things from a different perspective to learn something new but I’ve got to say that using diagrams, or frameworks have been a key component for me to break down difficult concepts. Even Greg Link mentioned it to me when looking for ideas to promote my book to schools, and he asked me “are the concepts in your book clear like Covey’s 7 Habits?” and it made me think of the importance of using frameworks or images to convey what I wanted to teach. So I picked these 6 SEL Competencies that we have been focused on throughout this podcast.

How did you take ALL the theories and frameworks connected to learning and compare it to the Universe/Cosmos? What is the first competency that’s important? Is it our SELF-AWARENESS (who we are), our identity? To me, you’ve put the self-worth or identity first, with The Four Pillars of Learning (attention, engagement, error feedback, and consolidation) (Dehaene 2020) which overlaps with the Engage, Build, Consolidate Framework (Paul Howard Jones 2018).

4 Pillars of Learning -How do these make us self-aware? Do you have examples or ideas to build on this?

Then you compare the cognitive sphere to earth’s conditions to support life (like the presence of liquid water or breathable air). Do you mean that self-awareness that comes with motivation, attitudes and beliefs, emotional and cognitive skills is integral for us, like water and air is on the planet? (Do I understand this correctly?)

Q3: Is Self-regulation next? With the research on Emotional Intelligence by Salovey and Mayer (1990S) popularized by Daniel Goleman (1995), Emotion Regulation by James Gross and Ross Thompson and the Theory of Constructed Emotion (Lisa Feldman Barrett 2017).

Then you compare our emotions to our planet’s climate and say “our mood is like earth’s weather.”

Q4: Next is our attitudes and beliefs about learning (or how learning works) that should include Metacognition, (thinking about thinking or learning how to learn), Growth Mindset (one’s belief they can improve their intelligence through commitment and effort) and Self-Efficacy (one’s ability to set and achieve goals).

Q5: Motivation is important and must include autonomy, relatedness and competence.

Daniel Pink believes what drives people is autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Q6: Macrocosm vs Solar System Level? Earth and why it’s perfect for life. Design our lessons so student’s flourish. Flexible, active and desirable difficulties.

Q7: Interstellar Level?

Systems Theory (we just mentioned this with Joshua Freedman Interview). What impacts an individual’s development.

Q8: Environmental?

Q9: Conclusion--What was your purpose/goal of creating this theory? What feedback have you received so far?

Q10- What’s next?

Andrea closes this episode with her thoughts on how thinking "macro vs micro" can help us to look at things in a different way, like André did with education, to solve problems, create new ideas, and innovate.

FOLLOW ANDRÉ HEDLUND

Twitter https://twitter.com/andrelshedlund

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andr%C3%A9-hedlund-msc-he-him-83411621/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/andre_hedlund/?hl=en

Website https://edcrocks.com/

BIO: Andre Hedlund is a Chevening Alumnus (MSc in Psychology of Education

- University of Bristol) and former National Geographic Learning Consultant and Materials

Reviewer. His work includes teacher education for Academy of Distinction (Italy),

Gallery Teachers (Europe), and Amolingua, with several international projects including

LINGO+(awarded Erasmus+ funding). Andre is a Bilingual Program Mentor for Edify

Education and a guest lecturer on Multilingualism, Global Education, and Neuroscience

at PUCPR. He is also a member of the BRAZ-TESOL Mind, Brain, and

Education (MBE) SIG, and he blogs at edcrocks.com

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[i] https://edcrocks.com/

REFERENCES:

[ii] https://www.academia.edu/49459091/Learning_Cosmos_Article

[iii] We Are Made of Star Stuff Published on YouTube Nov. 3, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bm479V8qPs

[iv] Learning Cosmos by Andre Hedlund Published on YouTube March 13, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuv5g71wiEQ&t=1067s

Mar 18, 2022

00:11:29

Did you know that “from a neuroscientific standpoint, happiness is experienced in different ways depending on your state of mind?” Mark Waldman

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday, and EPISODE #204, with all that is going on in the world, I wanted today’s episode to take a closer look at how we can all find happiness in our life, even during the most difficult times, and look at happiness through a neuroscientific lens. If we can do this, I am confident that we will all walk away from this episode with a way to generate happiness, with our brain in mind.

Welcome back! I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and we launched this podcast almost 3 years ago, with the goal of taking the mystery out the science behind high performance strategies, so that we can all apply the most current brain research, to improve productivity and results in our schools, sports and modern workplaces. I became interested in success strategies to improve performance in the late 1990s while working with some of world’s top performers in the motivational speaking industry and saw immediately how important these skills were for our future generations.

For those who have been with us since we launched, thank you for coming back, for listening, and supporting the podcast over the years. The topics we cover each week seem to be never-ending, as more research continues to be uncovered, each episode connects back to past episodes that you might remember from our earlier days.

Bringing us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday.

Did you know that “there are three distinct networks in the brain responsible for happiness?

It hit me while recording our Top 10 Episodes of All Time[i] when psychologist Dr. Francis Lee Stephens said “no one ever comes to me saying my thinking is awful. They come with—I feel like garbage.” How do we look for happiness, or positive feelings when we “feel” like garbage?

We covered The Neuroscience of Happiness way back in November 2019 on EPISODE #29[i] and I remember it being such an important topic, that I created a PowerPoint Presentation on YouTube[ii] to go along with this episode where we dove into the recipe for peak performance, with strategies to boost our serotonin levels to generate more happiness. We took a closer look at the neuroscience of anxiety, with ideas to calm our limbic, emotional brain. We were almost a year into the pandemic, and nothing has changed with the importance of mental health and well-being since we recorded EPISODE 29, but today, I want to look at happiness with the latest neuroscience research I’ve recently learned from Mark Waldman, adding a new perspective, hoping that whatever is going on in our lives, wherever you are listening from in the world, that you can look at happiness with this new lens, a neuroscientific lens, and see if the ideas I’ll share can help you today can generate more happiness in your life, as well as mine, as I put these strategies into practice right along with you.

This week I learned that the latest neuroscientific research suggests there are three distinct networks in the brain that generate happiness. As we take a closer look at these three networks, I hope we can think of some NEW strategies to bring real happiness, into our day, with this new knowledge of the specific network of the brain that this feeling is being generated in.

1. Frontal Parietal Network: also called the Central Executive Network (CEN) or our Thinking Network that controls our everyday thoughts and memories about what happiness means to you. Waldman reminds us that these memories are “mostly based on old beliefs and memories of the past and that happiness is something that only occurs briefly in the present moment.” Remember: that your beliefs about happiness are embedded in the past, and that you can think back to old memories that made you happy, but this level of happiness won’t last forever.

HOW DO WE GENERATE MORE HAPPINESS USING THE CEN: Have you ever heard of visualizing yourself in your happy place to shift how you are thinking or feeling? When you actively pull up a memory of yourself, on a beach (let’s say) in the middle of winter, it can help you to feel the sunshine on your face, or smell the salt water for the time you are visualizing, but when you open your eyes, you do come back to reality that you aren’t really on this beach, so this strategy will get you to feel happiness and shift your mood, but there is another strategy that can bring you closer to real happiness.

2. Salience Network: This network (that doesn’t fully develop until we are 28-30 years old) puts a value or level of importance on the experience we are having in the present moment and can “generate a deeper level of satisfaction” which is what real happiness is. When we can savor the experience while it’s happening, like when we savor a hug from someone that you love, you are “using the Salience Network” to generate a deep level of satisfaction. When you can “mindfully immerse yourself in what you are experiencing in the present moment, you can touch those brief moments of pleasure.” (Waldman).

HOW DO WE GENERATE MORE HAPPINESS USING OUR SALIENCE NETWORK: When writing this episode, I asked my youngest daughter to give me one of her “special” hugs because I know that she savors every moment when she hugs someone. In my lifetime, I’ve only ever had a hug like this from one other person, my friend Christian, who we lost in his late 30s, and his hugs were unforgettable. Have you ever felt this? Someone who hugs you and they squeeze you so tightly, they take the air out of you, and they give everything they’ve got with this hug? I remember saying to my friend “ok, enough already” as I could barely breathe with his tight hugs, but now that he’s no longer here, I bet there’s many of us who wish we held on tight for those extra seconds. My daughter’s hugs are like this and she says that she “feels the hug with her heart, closes her eyes and that the squeeze part is important.” She’s definitely mastered the mindful hug that brings happiness to everyone she comes in contact with. I know that during the pandemic, we barely shook hands with each other, let alone give each other those big bear hugs, but if you can hug someone close to you, that you love, and mindfully immerse yourself in this experience, you will feel “real” happiness.

Savor your hugs.

What else can you savor that you really enjoy? If you have ever been really hungry, that first bite of a sandwich tastes extra special. Savor that first bite and you’ll feel what I mean.

I’m sure you can write a list of things that you love that you will take the extra time to savor, to feel this heightened sense of happiness that originates in the Salience Network of your brain.

3. Default Mode Network: or Imagination Network that “generates fantasies about what happiness may or may not be” (Waldman) and this network is active when we are “wishing for happiness” in our life. This “daydream-like realm of imagination can make you desire deeper levels of happiness” but research shows that “seeking happiness in this way increases depression.” (Waldman). We dove deep into the DMN back on EPISODE #48[iii] in March 2020 with ideas for using this new brain science to reduce stress and find balance in the major networks in our brain.

HOW DO WE GENERATE MORE HAPPINESS USING THE DEFAULT MODE (OR IMAGINATION) NETWORK? When using mind-wandering to visualize happiness, to prevent yourself from feeling too far away from your goal, bring yourself back to reality by using mental contrasting. This evidence-based strategy, known as the WOOP strategy[iv] (not to be confused with the wearable device that measures sleep and stress). WOOP stands for “Wish, Outcome, Obstacle and Plan” and can help you to keep from drifting off track into negative thinking that sometimes can occur in the DMN. Stay on course by daydreaming for a bit (maybe about a beach vacation) and then switch to your CEN and think of the outcomes of this beach vacation. How incredible would it be to escape reality and just relax poolside for a while? Now bring yourself back to reality with mental contrasting or thinking of the obstacles that you must overcome for this goal to become a reality. Create a plan, and you can turn your happiness daydream into reality.

To review this week’s Brain Fact Friday, we’ve outlined clearly the three networks in the brain responsible for our happiness, with ideas for generating happiness using each one. We can learn to activate these networks together, for example, by thinking of a specific happy memory with our CEN, and savoring it, with our Salience Network, and then using our DMN to further dream, or imagine our happiness memories, switching back to our CEN to create a plan to bring our happy memory to reality. I know this will increase our happiness in all 3 networks of our brain, and hopefully will leave us with an elevated feeling, bringing us as close as we can get to true happiness.

REMEMBER: To savor those hugs, or whatever it is for you that brings you true happiness.

Wishing you a happy weekend, and hope this episode made you smile.

See you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #29 “How to Rewire Your Brain for Happiness and Well-Being to Optimize Learning” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-to-re-wire-your-brain-for-happiness-and-well-being-to-optimize-learning/

[ii] PowerPoint Presentation on YouTube for EPISODE #29 “The Neuroscience of Happiness”

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #48 on “Brain network Theory: Using Neuroscience to Stay Productive” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-network-theory-using-neuroscience-to-stay-productive-during-times-of-change-and-chaos/

[iv] WOOP Strategy https://www.panoramaed.com/blog/setting-goals-woop

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #201 on the Top 10 All Time Episodes https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-top-10-all-time-episodes-on-the-neuroscience-meets-social-and-emotional-learning-podcast/

Mar 17, 2022

00:47:27

"Whatever it is you are going after, you’ll do it when you believe it." Napoleon Hill

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/tsBpdG1DpaE

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ How Ryan O'Neill rose to the top of his field using specific success strategies that we've been teaching since the late 1990s.

✔︎ How Ryan used these principles to home-school his daughter and help her to create a successful future.

✔︎ The pathway from setting to achieving large goals-what to expect.

✔︎ Creating a new identity in the process-how to integrate your belief with your behavior.

✔︎ Overcoming obstacles and criticism and why what other people say or think doesn't matter.

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, EPISODE #203, with a Case Study of someone who did just that—he believed in his vision and rose to the top of his field but only once his family got there first.

Welcome back. I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and launched this podcast to bring the most current neuroscience research and success strategies directly to you, whether you are a teacher in the classroom, or looking for new ideas to improve productivity in your workplace, my goal is to bring the experts to you with clear strategies that we can all use to implement for immediate results.

This week, I’m speaking with Ryan O’Neill, a Paranormal Researcher from Scotland, UK, who I met around 10 years ago, when he signed up to take our first certification program, where we taught the success principles in my first book The Secret for Teens Revealed[i] that turned into our Level Up Program[ii] for schools. Years before we narrowed our focus with teachers, we worked with individuals, all over the world (teachers, coaches, and parents) who were looking for a curriculum they could use whether it was to improve young people’s mindset with sports, in the classroom or with their personal lives. Many people who studied Bob Proctor’s work in the seminar industry, came our way, looking to narrow their focus with these timeless principles for young people.

Ryan stuck out to me as unique, back then, as he signed up for the program to use the principles to help his children to learn these concepts. He knew that school wasn’t teaching them these important skills, and I still remember as he was going through each of the lessons with me, back then it was on Skype, he would then go on and teach the lesson to his daughter Tammy who was a teen at the time, just figuring out her life’s purpose. I remember she soared with these success principles that she saw her Dad taking seriously, and she did the same. She knew that these unique principles could help her to achieve high levels of success in her life, and she continues to use them to this day, as she’s put them on autopilot with her daily habits. His other daughter Rhian also became involved with this work, and did some voiceovers along the way that still exists in our work today.

Ryan had such a strong belief in these principles, that he ended up helping us to create The Secret for Teens DVD program, that you can still find on Udemy.[iii]

He was an integral part of our work in those early days when we were just starting out, as he had a keen mastery of seeing something that wasn’t yet there, and his belief was contagious, as he began checking off goal after goal that he had set out to achieve.

I’ll get to the heights that Ryan has reached in his career using this skill of bringing his goals to completion with my questions, but when I saw how much he has achieved since those early days we worked together, I had to bring him on the podcast to feature his story as a case study so he can share how exactly he applied the success principles to achieve these outstanding results.

Let’s meet Ryan O’Neill, from Scotland, UK, who has always been crystal clear of his life’s purpose “of researching, studying and sharing his open-minded discoveries, into all things mysterious” and see if he can take us back to where he began, and what it took to reach the top of his field as a part of the Scottish Paranormal Team, at the forefront of paranormal research in Scotland for the past 15 years. I know he will give us some tips from his experience that will boggle our mind when he takes something that many will say is impossible, and show us how simple and easy ALL of our goals can be.

Welcome Ryan!!!

Ryan, I can’t even tell you how happy I am to reconnect with you after working with you so closely in our early years. It’s incredible to see you.

INTRO Q: Ryan, when we first launched our FIRST coaching certification program in 2012 (I think), you were one of our first students to sign up and go through a program that would later transform into our program for teachers with the Level Up Program. Do you remember how we met? How did you find us all the way from Scotland?

I remember that one of the goals you had for going through the lessons in this program was that you wanted your daughter Tammy, who was a teen at the time to learn these principles. Thinking back to this time, how do you think the program/studying these success principles helped Tammy create the life she wanted to live?

Q1: There were 10 success principles in this book[iv] that I told Bob Proctor in our interview came from this DVD I found when I worked in his office is Toronto. I thought these principles were profound and should be taught to young people in the classroom, and Bob never produced that program I found. I remember sitting in my basement in Toronto, watching the DVD and writing out each of these powerful principles that would eventually be the chapters in the book. Which of these lessons do you think were the most helpful to Tammy when she was a teen?

Lesson One: Why is a winning attitude so important for a rewarding life?

Lesson Two: What is your mind and how does it control your destiny?

Lesson Three: How will the laws of the universe change your life immediately?

Lesson Four: How does goal setting and persistence set you apart from all others?

Lesson Five: How can the confidence formula and body image give you predictable results for success?

Lesson Six: Why will responsibility shape your future?

Lesson Seven: How can you turn your life around by blasting through things that make you nervous?

Lesson Eight: How do self-motivation and your values help you live a decent life of integrity?

Lesson Nine: How can you let your courage emerge from within and rocket your life?

Lesson Ten: What difference will you make in your lifetime?

Q2: Now onto the questions about the rest of your vision. Once you created the mindset for your family, how did you create the vision for your work with Scottish Paranormal? I remember you had a keen eye for bringing what many of us couldn’t see to reality.

Q3: I just completed a deep dive into Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich[v] book to launch this year, so that everyone listening becomes crystal clear with what they want and adding WHY they want it. Can you go back to your vision and remember what it took to get to where you are now, from where you began?

Q4: We worked together around 10 years ago, and then we both went off to put the focus into our work. I’ve always kept my eye on what you are doing, and especially Tammy and Rhian, and do follow Carrie on Instagram. Your family has always been important to me. What changes have YOU seen with your family, since you began doing this work? What about your son? Did he ever become interested in self-study?

Q5: I did a whole episode on belief and identity because I think both of these are important, in addition to the self-image that we create. It’s more about who we BECOME in this process. Looking at your work now, I can see that you have become an entirely different person. I’m not sure if you would see it, but it’s easy for me to have seen the growth since your early days, just like I’m sure you can see my growth. Do you remember a moment when your belief matched your behavior? I think the definition for this concept is called PRAXIS.

Q6: What about paradigms? Looking back, it’s much easier to see what might have held you back with your work. Can you see any paradigms that you had to change to get to the top of your field? How did you do it? Did you read your goal vision 2/day?

Q7: After working hard for many years, never complaining, just working, trying different projects (your book-weight loss angle), then you hit your break. Can you share what happened? (Discovery Channel?)

Q7B) What is the scariest thing you’ve ever seen with your work and how do you handle this part of it?

Ryan's team investigates some of the most haunted castles in the world, like Glamis Castle.

Q8: Were there times that you faced criticism for your work? How did you handle it?

Q9: Looking back, you were a serious student, like me, I think that’s why we got along so well back then. You weren’t afraid to do the work required, whereas many people I have worked with just weren’t as diligent with the work that was required for the changes to occur. What were some pivotal lessons from the work that you did on your mindset? Did anything stick out that kept you going when times were difficult?

Q10: What’s on the horizon for you next? For a serious student of this work, I know this is just the beginning.

Q11: Is there anything important that I have missed?

Ryan, I can’t even begin to tell you how impressed I am with the path that you took, with the belief that you held all these years, to create the success that you see now. You deserve every moment of your success as well as your family. I wish you all the best in whatever it is that you create next, and for people who want to follow your work, I will put all the links to follow you in the show notes.

FOLLOW RYAN O’NEILL

Scottish Paranormal paranormal.co.uk/">https://scottish-paranormal.co.uk/

Twitter https://twitter.com/Haunt3dScotland

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-o-neill-80416b47/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SuccessCoachRyan

Some Useful Links

▪️ The Main Community — https://www.facebook.com/groups/ScottishParanormal ▪️ FB Page — https://www.facebook.com/HauntedScotlandInvestigates ▪️ YouTube Channel — https://goo.gl/TLqW3m ▪️ SP SPIRIT BOX APP — https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appybuilder.jonathangaraway.Scottish

VIDEOS

Scotland’s Most Haunted Castle https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=171681638090730&ref=sharing

The Real EVP’s Underground Edinburg https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3418454248236439

RYAN’S BOOK

The Unseen World: Afterlife Research by Ryan O’Neill Published October 20, 2018 https://www.amazon.com/Unseen-World-Afterlife-Research-Paranormal-ebook/dp/B07GS24NF5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3QOO1RD19E8N5&keywords=the+unseen+world+ryan+o%27neill&qid=1647532733&sprefix=the+unseen+world+ryan+o%27neill%2Caps%2C106&sr=8-1

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES

Rich, Successful, Strong, yet empty. Mohammed Issa, TEDxAccra Published on YouTube June 16, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO801NKR0Cc

Gayle Porter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Famous_(TV_series)

REFERENCES:

[i] The Secret for Teens Revealed program launch Published on YouTube May 2, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GlA9WvQQYE

[ii] Level Up for Students https://www.achieveit360.com/level-up-online/

[iii] The Secret for Teens Revealed Online Course https://www.udemy.com/course/the-secret-for-teens-revealed-a-10-step-success-blueprint/

[iv] The Secret for Teens Revealed by Andrea Samadi Published 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teens-Revealed-Teenagers-Leadership-ebook/dp/B078TQ4NF5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3OFS7HYPZ2KJ1&keywords=secret+for+teens+revealed+samadi&qid=1647537149&sprefix=secret+for+teens+revealed+samadi%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 “The Neuroscience Behind the 15 Principles in Think and Grow Rich” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

Mar 11, 2022

00:52:40

“We teach what we most need to learn” Joshua Freedman

Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/xE0F0l9tbqo

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, EPISODE #202, with someone I’ve been wanting to speak with since the early days of launching our podcast. He’s a specialist on emotional intelligence, with connections that link him to Daniel Goleman’s[i] earliest work, as the CEO and one of the co-founders of Six Seconds[ii], the global community growing emotional intelligence that began in 1997, around the time I had my AHA Moment and realized how important these skills are for our students in the classroom. He’s an educator, author of 5 books, researcher and parent, who translates the latest neuroscience of emotion into practical insights we can all use to connect, solve problems, lead, and live better lives.

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ What led Joshua Freedman, one of the leading experts of emotional intelligence in our schools and workplaces, to discover the SEL/Neuroscience connection in the late 1990s.

✔︎ How the 6Seconds.org SEL Model is different than ALL other models and why EVERYONE working with SEL must see this model.

✔︎ A simple 3 step approach to implement emotional intelligence in our lives, as well as our students in the classroom, or in the workplace.

✔︎ How to use our emotions as a guidance system and what to be aware of with certain emotions (like trust).

✔︎ How to get involved with 6Seconds.org with their FREE SEL resources, assessments, programs and services.

Before I introduce you to this week’s guest, I’ve got to say that for someone who has spearheaded the movement of EQ in our schools and workplaces for over 3 decades, his humble and kind nature will show you that he practices what he teaches.

Welcome back. I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding and applying the science behind high performance strategies that we can use to improve our productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. My vision is to bring the experts to you, share their books, resources, and ideas to help you to implement their proven strategies, whether you are a teacher working in the classroom or in the corporate environment.

Let’s get right into this topic, and meet this week’s guest, Joshua Freedman, the CEO of 6 Seconds, and dive into the field of emotional intelligence in our schools, sports and workplace environments. I know that after these questions, we will all look at “emotional intelligence” with a new lens.

Welcome Joshua, it’s wonderful to meet you after all the years I’ve followed your work.

Joshua, I don’t know if you know this, (or remember) as I know that you do many of these interviews, but when we first launched this podcast, I did reach out to you, and even had a spot on your calendar. You are the only interview to date that I wrote the week of, and said I needed more time to research you, because I didn’t feel fully prepared for the interview. Do you remember this by chance?

What happened—I usually read each person’s book and come up with some questions on how their work applies to the field of SEL and neuroscience, but when I began to research you, I saw that where your work began, and realized I needed to think about your questions as one of the leaders behind the movement of this field of emotional intelligence, to bring more meaning to today’s discussion and make sure I didn’t leave anything out. A sincere thank you for speaking with me today and letting me thoroughly prepare the questions for you so we can go deep into this topic of how to get results with emotional intelligence.

INTRO QUESTION: While researching your background, Joshua, I listened to some of your interviews[iii], and was surprised to see that your introduction to this field came in a similar way to mine. We were both first year teachers (you were at the Nueva Learning School in California in the early 1990s and I was a first-year teacher at Zion Middle School in Toronto 1996. Both of us felt overwhelmed with our experiences. Can you go back to your early days and think about what was missing back then? Why do you think we BOTH felt ill-equipped? And what’s different today with the tools we have available for success in the classroom or in the workplace?

Q1: This field has come a long way since we were both first year teachers. I know that over the years (like many others) we could see that these skills were important, and was always trying to push them forward (when I worked at Pearson Education I tried to put these skills into a software program that was designed for HS students, but I know the timing was off) or even when I was given grant funding to put the program I wrote into the schools in AZ and was told that for this field to gain traction, we need to include the science that backs the importance of these skills. I didn’t make the neuroscientific connection with SEL until an educator guided me in this direction, but you did. Can you tell us how you made this connection, with the meaning behind 6 Seconds (the name of your company that you founded in 1987?) making the connection between neuroscience and SEL?

Q1B: We launched this podcast with the goal to connect Neuroscience with SEL, diving into 6 SEL competencies that we chose that came from CASEL’s 5 [iv], plus Carol Dweck’s Mindset[v] work and we know how important IMPLEMENTING these competencies are. When I saw your 6 Seconds Model, it opened me up to how simple it can be to implement Emotional Intelligence skills. Can we dive into your 6 Seconds Model[vi] that at the core of your programs and look at how we can implement EQ with a practical example in our school, sports environments, or workplaces?

Andrea’s SEL Model (CASEL’s 5 Competencies plus Mindset) from Carol Dweck’s work.

6 Seconds EQ Model (Know Yourself, Choose Yourself, Giver Yourself), becoming more aware, more intentional and more purposeful to live a more fulfilled life.

Q1C: It’s funny because the other day, after listening to one of your interviews, where you were told this bad emotion you felt “just is” and when you accept what you are feeling, it gives you some sense of peace. I thought back to how many times when something happens in our household and I say, “its ok, it just is” a glass breaks “it’s ok, it just is.” Someone spills milk all of the floor, “it’s ok, it just is.” So, I asked my girls “do you remember me saying this when something like this happens?” And getting feedback from your kids is always eye opening. They said “yes, you do say this ALL the time, but your face looks mad while you are saying it.”

So, I’m still learning that to connect what I say with what I really feel to communicate authentically…and I really had no idea what I was saying wasn’t matching up with how I was feeling (because I honestly don’t care about the broken glass…but maybe the time to clean it up is what got me out of integrity…. now I can work on fixing this. How can we make sure that what we think and feel line up so that we can communicate what we intend to communicate?

This was actually the quote I picked out that opens up this episode

“We teach what we most need to learn.” Joshua Freedman

Q2: The importance of naming our emotions is something we uncovered from our earlier interviews with Dr. Daniel Siegel[vii] who said, “Name it to Tame it” and even with Marc Brackett from the Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence with his book Permission to Feel.[viii] I never began looking at my emotions (beyond this makes me happy/this doesn’t) until in the neuroscience course I took, we studied neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp[ix] and his 7 emotional systems he believes to be present in each person’s brain. He said, “neuroscience is the only path to understanding how we feel” which makes me want to connect what we feel to our brain. Your career began when you identified the emotion of “feeling depressed” with your first classroom experience, that I connected to.

If you look at the table in the show notes that lists Panksepp’s 7 core emotional systems, where do you think that “feeling depressed” would sit on these 7 emotions, and where does “feeling depressed” show up in our brain?

Q3: What are some strategies for some of the most common ways people are feeling these days? When feeling low trust, how do you change that? When our work begins to feel meaningless, how do we bring it back to meaningful? What strategies do you find to be helpful for overcoming our bad feelings?

Q4: Since you have had the vision of this work for over 3 decades, what have you seen over the years since your early days, and do you think schools and workplaces are taking these skills seriously now, compared to your early days?

Q5: As we are coming to a close here, I want to be sure I haven’t left anything important out. Is there anything important that I haven’t asked you about?

Thank you very much Joshua, for speaking with me, and diving deeper into the Neuroscience behind our emotions. For those people who want to connect with you, I’ve put a link to your website and social media accounts in the show notes. Thank you for the work you are doing in this field, bringing more belief to the fact that our emotions are important guidance systems, that can help us to solve problems, connect with ourselves and others, and live a life with more meaning.

Thank you!

CONNECT WITH JOSHUA FREEDMAN

Website https://jmfreedman.com/

Twitter https://twitter.com/eqjosh

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sixseconds

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/freedman/

Contact Joshua Freedman to Speak for Your Organization https://jmfreedman.com/contact/

Take the FREE Emotional Intelligence Test https://www.6seconds.org/freetest/

Free SEL Kit for Educators https://www.6seconds.org/education/

Emotional Intelligence Assessments https://www.6seconds.org/education/assessments/

JOSHUA FREEDMAN’S BOOKS

Self-Science: The Emotional Intelligence Curriculum

ISBN

978-0962912344

Six Seconds

At the Heart of Leadership

ISBN

978-0971677272

Six Seconds

Inside Change: Transforming Your Organization with Emotional Intelligence

At the Heart of Leadership

The Vital Organization: How to create a high-performing workplace (Field Guide) - c

Whole-Hearted Parenting: How to use emotional intelligence to create more peace, connection, and joy

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

6 Seconds Emotional Intelligence Assessment https://www.6seconds.org/tools/sei/

Brofenbrenner’s Systems Theory of Learning https://www.psychologynoteshq.com/bronfenbrenner-ecological-theory/

Self-Science, The Subject is Me Published 1978 by Karen Stone, Harold Q. Dillehunt https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Self-Science%3A-The-Subject-is-Me.-Stone-Dillehunt/6f25bd457c88b5c8f78c6f06c94766dd9e43b3b0

REFERENCES:

[i] Daniel Goleman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Goleman

[ii] 6 Seconds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Seconds

[iii] Interviews with Joshua Freedman https://jmfreedman.com/interviews/

[iv] CASEL’s 5 SEL Competencies https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/

[v] Carol Dweck https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/

[vi] Six Seconds SEL Model https://www.6seconds.org/2010/01/27/the-six-seconds-eq-model/

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #28 with Dr. Dan Siegel on “Mindsight: The Basis for Social and Emotional Intelligence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/clinical-professor-of-psychiatry-at-the-ucla-school-of-medicine-dr-daniel-siegel-on-mindsight-the-basis-for-social-and-emotional-intelligence/

[viii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #22 with Marc Brackett on his book Permission to Feel https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/founding-director-of-the-yale-center-of-emotional-intelligence-on-his-new-book-permission-to-feel/

[ix] The Science of Emotions Jaak Panksepp Published on YouTube Jan 13, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65e2qScV_K8

Mar 04, 2022

00:35:08

“Learn continually—there’s always one more thing to learn” Steve Jobs

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, for episode #201 on “The Lessons Learned from our Top 10 All-Time Episodes” as we reflect on the episodes that YOU chose to be the most impactful since we launched back in June 2019.

For those returning, welcome back, and for those new, I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding and applying the most current research that we can ALL use to improve our productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. I launched this podcast as a solution to bring these ideas directly to you. As we are now well into our 7th season, with a focus on brain health and well-being this year, it hit me while recording our 200th episode, that it would be helpful to take a look back and review the top lessons learned since launching this podcast over three years ago. There’s so much content that’s been covered, and while I can’t mention every episode, you can always go back and scroll through the website[i] and pick episodes that stand out to you when looking for something new to learn. I still listen to these older episodes, and always pick something of value from each one. Like we said as we recapped our 200th episode, we picked high quality guests intentionally, and the content reflects these high caliber speakers.

What I Wish I Knew When We First Launched This Podcast:

While preparing for this episode, I glanced at the top 10 all-time episode list (that I have included in the show notes) and a few things came to my mind that I thought would be helpful to share with this review. Before I get to the lessons learned from our top episodes, I wanted to share some lessons learned from the production side of things. Many people reach out to me asking questions about “how do you launch a podcast” or “what would you have done differently if you were to do everything over again?”

There’s definitely ONE THING I would have done differently. If you scroll all the way down on our Podbean website to our first 6 months,[ii] you might see the downloads next to each episode are lower than you might expect up until December 2019. This is not just because we were starting out, (earlier episodes averaged around 300 downloads in the beginning, compared to 1,000 per episode now, but I’ll tell you one of the biggest errors I made launching this podcast, that impacted our numbers right from the beginning. If you look, next to each episode, you can see the number of downloads for that episode, and in the beginning, (episodes created in 2019) I saved the audio files in the M4A format which is the format that Camtasia (where I do my editing) defaults to, after saving an audio file. For those listening who don’t deal with audio files, think about it as one of those errors that you want to prevent others from EVER doing in the future.

Who knew that Spotify, our third largest source of traffic, (with Apple Podcasts as our first, and Podbean, our host as second) only accepts MP3 audio files, so when setting up this podcast, I realized 6 months into it, that I had an error message on the connection to Spotify and zero downloads from this source? It took 6 months to notice this error because there’s a lot with launching a podcast, but a mistake like this had to be fixed sooner than later. To do this, we had to reformat all audio files from M4A format to MP3 for our podcast to appear on Spotify, and that meant that any episode created in 2019, was reset to zero. This was a huge lesson to learn, (when downloads are important for the spread of your podcast) but I’m glad we fixed it early on. If you are thinking of launching a podcast, be sure to record ALL audio files in the MP3 format. I wish I knew this in the beginning.

There weren’t any other big AHA moments from the production side of things that stick out, other than the fact that there was this annoying crackling sound with the audio in our earlier episodes. I still have no idea what was interfering with the audio in the earlier days, and the new Rodecaster Pro Sound Board that we implemented in 2021 eliminated that problem, but I don’t think I would have changed the way we launched. I wanted to see if this idea would gain traction BEFORE we purchased all the high-tech equipment that we use now, and will continue to improve as we move forward.

Now, on to our episode lessons

According to you, the listener, the #1 all-time favorite was EPISODE #120[iii] with my personal review of the Fisher Wallace wearable medical device for anxiety, depression, and sleep management with over 5100 downloads. I mentioned on our previous episode that I receive the most feedback from this one, as I think that people really wanted to know there is a real person behind the review, who really did try the device.

LESSON #1 from EPISODE #120: The Fisher Wallace Wearable Medical Device Improved My Sleep by More Than the 20 Minute Gold Standard. If you listen to this episode, you’ll see that I was looking to improve my sleep, which it did, much more than the gold standard of 20 minutes improvement each night, and it was a non-evasive, drug-free way to do this. I can’t tell you how many people I talk to who say they “barely sleep at all” and with sleep being one of the top 5 health staples that we covered on a BONUS EPISODE[iv] where we reviewed Seasons 1-4 at the end of 2020, and the fact that in my brain scan evaluation from Amen Clinics on EPISODE #94[v], Dr. Creado told me that my brain looked sleep deprived, I knew it was important to take a closer look at new ways to improve our sleep.

Remember that I am just providing my experience of testing out this device, and everyone is different, but I do highly recommend trying it if sleep is something you are looking to improve. They do offer a 30-day trial and I saw the benefits well before the 30-day mark. I mentioned that in addition to being able to sleep longer, I noticed having more patience, was less high strung or anxious and calmer with my day-to-day activities. The improvements were significant enough that I continue to use the device every morning, since this review, while meditating and I seriously thought I would just be using it only for the month that I was conducting this review.

The 2nd most popular episode of all-time was EPISODE #162[vi] with Dr. Anna Lembke, the Medical Director of Addictive Medicine at Stanford University on her new book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. When I saw Dr. Lembke on Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast and received a newspaper article written by Dr. Lembke on my car while I was hiking, (from a good friend who I was talking to about how addictive technology can be) I knew I had to reach out to Dr. Lembke for this interview. It wasn’t until after I had read her book, that I figured out she was in the Netflix Documentary, The Social Dilemma[vii] where she discusses the addictive nature of social media, explaining that it taps into “our basic biological imperative to connect with other people—that directly affects the release of dopamine and the reward pathway” (32:35 The Social Dilemma) and she warns us that “there’s no doubt that a vehicle like social media which optimizes this connection between people is going to have the potential for addiction.”

LESSON #2 FROM EPISODE #162: A Dopamine Fast Can Reset Your Brain. There are many important lessons in this interview, but the one that stood out the most to me, and even surprised me during the interview, was that Dr. Lembke said that technology, or video games, or whatever it is that we are doing that we enjoy (too much) floods our brain with dopamine, and “if we can take a month off from our drug of choice” this will allow our brain to reset it’s dopamine balance, and that after the month off, you can test it out and see if you are able to go back to whatever it is that you were over-indulging with, in a more controlled manner. If we can figure out how to reset our dopamine balance and keep our use of whatever it is that we enjoy to a level that it doesn’t flood our brain, we will happier, balanced and don’t have to give up entirely the things that we enjoy.

Our next episode, The Neuroscience of Personal Change with “Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” from episode #68[viii] came in at the third most downloaded episode, and this one sat at the #1 spot until that review of the Fisher Wallace device took over. What’s funny to me about this episode, is that I remember sitting in the lobby at a local resort in Arizona, with my laptop open, as I was writing this script, and knew that I was missing something. The episode seemed boring, and it couldn’t even hold my attention, so I did what I usually do when bored, and scrolled through my social media accounts to see if I could learn something new that would give me a new perspective and add something of value to this episode. I’m always reading, watching, listening and learning from those around me, and add these ideas into the podcast.

Then I saw it. I read a social media post from my mentor, Greg Link[ix], who I’ve mentioned in past episodes. He was the mentor who I drove 3 hours each way to thank for the ideas that he gave me over the years with this work. As co-founder of the Covey Leadership Center, Greg was the one who orchestrated the strategy that led Dr. Stephen R. Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, (1989) to become one of the best-selling business books of the 20th century according to CEO Magazine, selling over 20 million copies in 38 languages. He created the marketing momentum that helped propel the Covey Leadership Center from a start-up company to a $110-plus million-dollar enterprise with offices in 40 countries. When he writes something, I always pay attention and what he has to say is always insightful and profound. This time, what he wrote was full of his own personal insight on what was happening in the world today, (it was June 2020)[x] and his post was a very personal reflection that mentioned the 7 Habits book, and Habit #5 “Seek First to Understand, then to be Understood.” It’s been a couple of years since I read his post, but it stopped me in my tracks and made me think about how it’s typical that when communicating, we often want to say our point first, without practicing what Stephen Covey called empathetic listening.

I knew at that moment that I wanted to think about ALL of the Habits (including the 8th one that is covered in a whole new book) and see how neuroscience could be connected to this best-selling book. It was this episode that Chris Gargano, the Vice President and Executive Producer of the New York Jets,[xi] would find our podcast as he was looking for content for his Leadership Course that he teaches at NYU and mentioned it was “ambitious” to make these correlations, and looking back at this episode, it was a lot of work to dive this deep into each of the habits, with this new angle.

The biggest lesson for me thinking about this episode is that the first three habits are all about managing ourselves, habits 4-6 are about leading others, and habits 7 and 8 are about unleashing potential. Habit #8 that Stephen Covey wrote a whole book on, is about “Finding Your Voice and Inspiring Others to Find Theirs” and it gave me some insight into why Greg Link might have sent me ideas over the years. It was the 8th Habit and he was living it.

LESSON #3 FROM EPISODE 68: The 8th HABIT: Find Your Voice and Inspire Others to Find Theirs. I met Greg Link, through Bob Proctor, around the time that Doug Wead came in to speak at the seminars (2002) and my passion for working with young people with these leadership concepts was just emerging. If you see Greg’s background, he was a busy guy, and when I met him, at a seminar in CA, we were in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton, (now The Langham Huntington in Pasadena) where he introduced me to Stedman Graham, (who is known as the long-term partner of Oprah). Stedman was there with a Basketball Team and had just published the Teens Can Make it Happen Book.[xii] It wasn’t just me that Greg Link was giving ideas to, but he gave others (like Steadman) ideas for how to make a book successful because that’s the 8th HABIT “Find Your Voice and Inspire Others to Find Theirs.”

Photo: Andrea at The Ritz Carlton, Southern CA (2002) This hotel is now The Langham Huntington, Pasadena.[xiii]

What’s Your Vision? REMEMBER: We all have the ability to impact the world by taking our mental energy and creating a vision, channeling our physical energy with discipline, unleashing this energy towards what we are passionate about and tapping into our spiritual side to further develop our talents and abilities. We can all do this, and once we’ve got to where we are going, we can role model the way for others to do the same, just like Greg Link showed me.

The 4th most listened to episode was #168[xiv] with Dr. Bruce Perry and Steve Graner on the book Dr. Perry wrote with Oprah, What Happened to You that brings together all the work Dr. Perry has done over the years at The Neurosequential Network.[xv] I put the link to Dr. Perry’s resources in the show notes because this is where I first started to get to know his work as I followed the trainings that he did when the Pandemic first began. Dr. Perry’s work explains how traumatic events impact the brain, and I did find Oprah’s parts of the book to be difficult to read as they were highly emotional, but Dr. Perry’s intentional use of offsetting the difficult parts of the book with neuroscience, made for a balanced learning experience.

LESSON #4 FROM EPISODE #168: Came from Steve Graner, who I found out in the interview is a childhood friend of Dr. Perry who now works with him as a Project Director, implementing the Neurosequential Model for Sport[xvi] when he said “as a teacher and a coach, why don’t I know this?” He went on to explain that he understood Dr. Perry’s model much better as a coach than as a teacher, and applied his model to his coaching first, and then eventually to his teaching.” Even though he was Dr. Perry’s childhood friend, he didn’t know everything he was teaching, and when he looked at the model, everything made sense in a way he had never seen it before. This lesson made me see exactly WHY we must keep learning about the brain, and applying what we learn to our work and lives.

Moving on to our 5th most downloaded episode, where this journey with social and emotional learning began, with my mentor, Bob Proctor, from EPISODE #66.[xvii] I list ten important lessons learned at the start of our interview together, and dove much deeper into more lesson learned from working with him for 6 years on EPISODE 67[xviii] but when the news hit that my dear mentor had passed on at the beginning of February, it took me a week or so, but I eventually watched our interview on YouTube[xix] to see if I could learn something new while reflecting back on everything. I did pick up a few lessons, but one wasn’t immediate. It took me some time to step back and look at something he said to me from a different angle to find the answer I was looking for. Have you ever done that? Looked at something from a different perspective to learn something new? This is how it happened.

Lesson #5 from EPISODE #66 with Bob Proctor: Leave Everyone You Come in Contact With, With the Impression of Increase. During Bob’s memorial service, everyone was sharing their stories of how Bob impacted them, and their lives, and it was his son Brian who said something that connected the dots for me. He said that Bob was always leaving people with “The Impression of Increase”[xx] and explained that he would always leave people in a place of abundance rather than lack and limitation. Brian shared this story of how Bob would put him to bed and whisper “success secrets” in his ear at night, and when my girls were little, I did the same to them, so that they would begin to infuse this mindset into their non-conscious minds while sleeping.

Brian’s story made me recall something Bob asked me when I was moving from Toronto, Canada, to Arizona, USA in early 2001. He said, “Are you going to fly first class?” And I’m not kidding, times were lean in those days, I didn’t even know how I was going to afford a sandwich when I arrived, but I remember laughing at the thought, trying to hide how scared I was of the unknown and just shook my head “no” and wondered why he would ask me that. It hit me AFTER his memorial service, all these years later, while revisiting our interview, at the very end, he said “there’s only one corner of the Universe I can change, and that’s me. Andrea can only change Andrea. It’s very important that we understand that. The only thing that Bob can change is Bob. You can’t change anyone else. You might inspire others to change, or cause them to look at things differently, but the ONLY corner of the Universe I can be certain of improving is my own self” and he went on to say, “when we understand that, we will stop letting outside conditions define us, control us, and dictate where we are going to go and what we are going to do.”

This took me right back to that day when he said “Are you going to fly first class?” and my bank account didn’t have enough money in it for a first class ticket, so I said no. He was giving me the Impression of Increase, trying to stretch my mind to think beyond what I could see. There was coach, and there was first class. I don’t think he expected me to be reckless and spend money I didn’t have, but he wanted to show me there was another option. 20 years later, when traveling with the family, we do always check to see if we can fly first class (depending on points and availability) but in those lean years, I didn’t even consider this option. Bob couldn’t do this for me, but he could say something to give me the “Impression of Increase” that maybe there was another way to move to a new country. He could motivate me by his example, but the work had to be done by me, over my lifetime. And the same for you, listening. Keep learning, growing and applying everything that we learn.

This lesson took another turn while writing this episode and I was trying to find the Ritz Carlton in Pasadena where I had that photo taken the day I had met Greg Link and Stedman Graham in the lobby, (2002) BEFORE I had published my book for teens, and was just creating the vision for my future. My husband looked at the photo, and said, “I know I stayed there in 2019) remembering a sports team that he saw there, and he found a photograph he took of that exact spot, 17 years later. Who knew, when I stood there in 2002, that my future husband would stand there years later on a business trip. The Impression of Increase has new meaning now, and I’m grateful to have learned this lesson, showing me that we can ALL create the vision that we want, and create a truly beautiful life. Why wouldn’t we choose this option, over lack and limitation?

Photo of the Langham Huntington, Pasadena, CA (formerly the Ritz) in 2019

The 6th most downloaded episode was Dr. Michael Gaskell’s EPISODE #172 on “Leading Schools Through Trauma”[xxi] which is the title of his second book. Dr. Gaskell has a unique story, because his books and strategies stem not only from his experience working in schools, and offering trauma-informed solutions from what he has seen working in his day to day world, but he takes it a step deeper, BEING a former student who was labelled himself as “anxious, low-performing, hostile and other terms that pointed to the characteristics of trauma.” (xi, Leading Schools Through Trauma).

I know that this being trauma-informed is an important topic, from Dr. Bruce Perry’s work, as well as Dr. Lori Desautels[xxii] work and this interview provides hope that the work being done in our classrooms today can have a profound impact on our students of the future, who may show these signs of struggle for a reason.

LESSON #6 from Dr. Gaskell on EPISODE #172 is to look deeper into why a student might be misbehaving or struggling and invest the time to get to know this student. He says this is a “critical investment” and that he was one of these struggling students, and no one ever gave up on him. Michael Gaskell’s book and interview helped me to understand how to recognize trauma, and offers tools, and resources for being trauma-informed in today’s classrooms.

The 7th most downloaded episode was #174[xxiii] with Dr. Francis Lee Stevens on “Affective Neuroscience in Psychotherapy” where he explained what he thought was missing from psychotherapy and how his new book on affective neuroscience fills this missing link. With the rise in mental health issues that we can clearly see have emerged since the global Pandemic, and the fact that on EPISODE #188[xxiv] we uncovered that “one-quarter of Americans intend to improve their mental health in 2022”[xxv]

LESSON #7 from Dr. Francis Lee Stevens from EPISODE #174 we learned of the importance of addressing our “feelings” to make an impact on our mental and physical health, and that changing our thinking can help us cope with our emotions, but we need to address our emotions to have long-term change in our health. In his book “Affective Neuroscience in Psychotherapy” his goal is to “change the feelings” we have that we don’t like, not just manage the symptoms.

Our 8th most downloaded EPISODE #161[xxvi] came from our second interview with Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and John Almarode on their new book with Corwin Press How Learning Works. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey were returning guests from EPISODE #77[xxvii] on “Developing and Delivering High Quality Distance Learning for Students” that still is our #1 most watched YouTube interview with over 6,000 views.[xxviii]

On this episode, it being an early one, as times were really busy, I remember having the worst cold, and for some reason, my internet kept dropping and disconnecting the interview. I’m sure no one listening noticed this, as editing does wonders, but this is what I remember from this episode, looking back. This book was written, as John Almarode explains “to build a bridge between the research and classroom practice” and in PART 2 of their book, they talk about how to Adapt promising principles and practices to meet the specific needs of your students—particularly regarding motivation, attention, encoding, retrieval and practice, cognitive load and memory, productive struggle, and feedback.

Douglas Fisher describes the Promising Principle of Attention and explains that life in the classroom would be much easier if we had our student’s undivided attention for the whole day, but this is just not reality. He breaks this principle down by showing us

What attention in the classroom means? What goes into paying attention. What are the practices that we can enact as teachers to improve and address the need for our students to pay attention? What does the research say about the need for attention in the classroom? What can we do right now?

LESSON #8 from EPISODE #161 on How Learning Works to me proves that there is a bridge between the science of learning, and classroom practices and this book provides the steps needed for us to cross this bridge and put theory into practice. What stuck out the most to me in this interview, aside from all of the resources and tools, was that Douglas Fisher explains in the beginning of the interview how he became interested in studying the connection between the brain and learning back in 2007 when he realized everyone was talking about the brain, and he knew nothing about how the brain was connected to learning, so he signed up for a Neuroanatomy Seminar with doctoral students, and went every Thursday night, from 7-9:40 pm to figure out how the brain learns, and how a teacher can use this.

There are two Brain Fact Friday episodes that came in at spot 9 with the Neuroscience of Belief[xxix] and spot 10 with Overcoming Digital Addictions[xxx] that I’ll let you go back and review, mostly because it’s Thursday afternoon, and I’m still writing this episode, and think it’s time to wrap this one up, and go for a run before the Arizona sun gets too hot!

To bring this episode in for a close, let’s Review the Top Lessons Learned from the episodes YOU chose to listen to the most since we launched this podcast over 3 years ago.

LESSON #1: The Fisher Wallace Wearable Medical Device Improved My Sleep by More Than the 20 Minute Gold Standard. If you are one of those people who know that your sleep needs some help, I would begin with measuring your sleep using free apps that you can find on your phone. You don’t need to start with all of the fancy tools but begin to get an idea of how long you are sleeping, how much REM sleep you are getting, and become familiar with what a sleep cycle looks like. If you want to hear the episode with Kelly Roman[xxxi], the CEO of Fisher Wallace Labs and their wearable medical devices to help improve sleep, while also treating anxiety and depression, go back and listen to episode #108. I really did think that after the month trial and my review, that I would stop using the device, because I really didn’t think it was going to make that much of a difference for me. I’m grateful that I found this device, that’s cleared by the FDA for the treatment of depression, anxiety and insomnia,[xxxii] and will always share what I think can help us to improve the quality of our life, especially around the Top 5 Health Staples.

LESSON #2: A Dopamine Fast Can Reset Your Brain. I had heard of dopamine fasting before I came across Dr. Lembke’s Dopamine Nation book but didn’t understand just how easy it was to flood our brain with dopamine, causing us to feel off balance. I almost didn’t believe her when she said in our interview that many of her patients can go back to whatever it was they enjoyed doing, with some modifications, after a month off, once their brain had reset, until I tried it myself. If there is something that you are doing, that’s causing you to feel off balance, you should be able to kick whatever it is on your own, or with an accountability partner to help you and Dr. Lembke’s interview explained exactly how to do this.

LESSON #3: The 8th HABIT: Find Your Voice and Inspire Others to Find Theirs.

This lesson begins with you and looking back, I can’t forget those early days when I wasn’t sure of myself and didn’t have a clear vision of what I wanted and was still searching for my own voice. When I met Stedman Graham, and saw he had written a book for teens, I remember thinking “That book will do well, he’s got Oprah to help him to promote it” and I almost shrank back from writing my own book for teens until I saw that even the long-time partner of Oprah took advice from those around him like Greg Link, who was role-modelling the way. Find Your Voice First and Then Inspire Others to Find Theirs. You won’t be able to do it for them, but you can role-model the way for everyone you’ll be watching you.

LESSON #4 came from Steve Graner, who works with Dr. Perry at the Neurosequential Network when he said “As a teacher and a coach, why don’t I know this?” This is exactly why we launched this podcast as we search for new ideas that can accelerate the teaching and learning process with the understanding of neuroscience made simple. If I had Dr. Perry’s upside down triangle when I was teaching those behavioral kids as a first year teacher in Toronto, it would have explained everything to me, like it did for Steve. I wouldn’t have operated by trial and error, (like I did when telling my students to run around the school building when they were misbehaving) since that was the only way they would listen. AHA Moment, they listened because they were regulated after the exercise, leading me to conclude, like Steve did at the very beginning of this episode, “Why didn’t I know this?”

Lesson #5 from Bob Proctor: Leave Everyone You Come in Contact With, With the Impression of Increase. This concept came from Chapter 14 of the book The Science of Getting Rich[xxxiii] by Wallace D. Wattles, written in 1903, and the concept still holds today, almost 120 years later. Wattles wrote “when dealing with other people, whether directly, by telephone, or by letter, (this book was clearly written over 100 years ago) the key thought should be to convey of increase” (CH 14, SGR, Wattles) since we all desire increase. We ALL want to be, do and have more in our life and are always seeking fuller expression. So how do we do this? Always look for the good in people and point it out to them. Tell them what you see. Don’t hold back. There’s so much good in EVERY person and when you look for it, you’ll see it. Make this a habit and a way of life. Always “leave everyone you come in contact with, with the impression of increase.”

LESSON #6 from Dr. Gaskell on EPISODE #172 was to never give up on a struggling student, since he was one of these students, who didn’t fall through the cracks, and went on to attain high levels of achievement with his career, helping others to do the same. I think this is the beginning for Dr. Gaskell’s work, as he continues to write more books and present on this topic around the country. This lesson reminds me to the quote by Theodore Roosevelt, that “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” I don’t like the idea of giving up on anything, but this takes it to a new level when you think of the unlimited potential locked up inside ALL of our students, and not knowing what each student is capable of doing or creating in their lifetime.

LESSON #7 from Dr. Francis Lee Stevens from EPISODE #174 we learned of the importance of looking beyond the thoughts we have that are bothering us, to the “feelings” behind the thought to make long term change possible. For example, if something is bothering you, it might take some time to figure this out, but you can go deeper and see if you can make connections to your past to when you first felt this way, and how this experience made you feel (like I’m not good enough) or something like that. When you can begin to make sense of why you feel a certain way, you can begin to heal the past, that brings healing to your present day. I did see the connection with Dr. Stevens’ work, and Dr. Carolyn Leaf’s work from a BONUS EPISODE that we released this time last year on her book “Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess”[xxxiv] that covers a 5-step process to reduce anxiety and toxic thinking.

LESSON #8 from EPISODE #161 on How Learning Works to me proves that there is a bridge between the science of learning, and the classroom, and Douglas Fisher admitted he knew nothing about how the brain learns back in 2007. He mentioned he felt “incompetent and behind” without this understanding and that’s what drove him to sit in a Neuroanatomy class with doctoral students to make this connection. Listening to Douglas Fisher’s introduction to neuroscience took me back to why we launched this podcast in the first place—to make neuroscience simple as I remember being awarded grant money to put my programs in Arizona schools, and an educator told me that I needed to understand the science behind learning, and write a new book for my program, and I began to question whether or not I was capable of doing this. 7 years later, I’m so glad I didn’t give up on the idea of making neuroscience simple and easy for all of us to understand.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reviewing these TOP EPISODES as much as I have and know that each time I listen to them again, I still do learn something new.

I’ll see you next week, and hope that wherever you are listening to this episode, that you and your families are safe.

Until next time…

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[xiii] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Langham_Huntington,_Pasadena

REFERENCES:

[i] Podcast website to see all past episodes https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/

[ii] Podcast website to see all past episodes https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #120 with My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Wearable Medical Device for Anxiety, Depression and Sleep Management. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-medical-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/?customizing=1

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning BONUS EPIOSDE and REVIEW of Seasons 1-4 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/bonus-episode-a-deep-dive-into-the-top-5-health-staples-and-review-of-seasons-1-4/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #94 on PART 3 of our Brain Scan Series: Andrea’s Scan Results https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-a-spect-scan-can-change-your-life-part-3-with-andrea-samadi/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #162 with “Dr. Anna Lembke on Her Book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/medical-director-of-addictive-medicine-at-stanford-university-dr-anna-lembke-on-dopamine-nation-finding-balance-in-the-age-of-indulgence/

[vii] The Social Dilemma Full Feature Netflix Movie Published on YouTube August 17, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mqR_e2seeM

[viii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #68 “The Neuroscience of Personal Change” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-of-personal-change/

[ix] Greg Link Speaker’s Bio https://premierespeakers.com/greg-link/bio

[x] Pandemic, Recession, Unrest: 2020 and the Confluence of Crises by Susan Milligan June 2, 2020 https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-06-02/pandemic-recession-unrest-2020-and-the-confluence-of-crises?context=amp

[xi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #166 with Chris Gargano on “Accelerating Leadership” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/vice-president-executive-producer-of-the-new-york-jets-chris-gargano-on-accelerating-leadership-for-maximum-impact-and-results/

[xii]Teens Can Make it Happen by Steadman Graham, December 2001 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Teens-Can-Make-It-Happen/Stedman-Graham/9780684870823

[xiv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #168 with Dr. Bruce Perry and Steve Graner on “What Happened to You” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-bruce-perry-and-steve-graner-from-the-neurosequential-network-on-what-we-should-all-know-about-what-happened-to-you/

[xv] COVID 19 Stress, Distress and Trauma Series https://www.neurosequential.com/covid-19-resources

[xvi] Neurosequential Model in Sport https://www.neurosequential.com/nm-sport

[xvii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #66 with The Legendary Bob Proctor on “Where it All Started” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-legendary-bob-proctor-on/

[xviii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #67 on “Expanding Your Awareness with the Top Lessons Learned from Bob Proctor’s Most Powerful Seminars” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expanding-your-awareness-with-a-deep-dive-into-bob-proctors-most-powerful-seminars/

[xix] The Legendary Bob Proctor on The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast YouTube Interview Published June 4, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWMCzfODU4

[xx] The Impression of Increase by Bob Proctor Published on YouTube October 8, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGoYzsugZ_0

[xxi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #172 with Dr. Michael Gaskell on “Leading Schools Through Trauma” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-michael-gaskell-on-leading-schools-through-trauma-a-data-driven-approach-to-helping-children-heal/

[xxii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #16 with Dr. Lori Desautels and Michael McKnight on “The Future of Educational Neuroscience in our Schools and Communities” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/lori-desautels-and-michael-mcknight-on-the-future-of-educational-neuroscience-in-our-schools-and-communities/

[xxiii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #174 with Dr. Francis Lee Stevens on his new book “Affective Neuroscience” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/psychologist-dr-francis-lee-stevens-on-his-new-book-affective-neuroscience-in-psychotherapy-science-based-interventions-for-our-emotions/

[xxiv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #188 Brain Fact Friday on “Putting our Mental and Physical Health First” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-putting-our-mental-and-physical-health-first/

[xxv] One-quarter of Americans Intend to Improve Mental Health in 2022 December 20, 2021 https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20211220/onequarter-of-americans-intend-to-improve-mental-health-in-2022

[xxvi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #161 with John Almarode, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey on “How Learning Works” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/johnalmarodedouglas-fisherand-nancyfreyon-how-learning-works-translatingthescience-oflearningintostrategiesformaximum-learning-inyourclassroom/

[xxvii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #77 with University Professors Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey on “Developing and Delivering High Quality Distance Learning” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/university-professors-and-authors-doug-fisher-and-nancy-frey-on-developing-and-delivering-high-quality-distance-learning-for-students/

[xxviii] Our #1 Most Watched YouTube Interview with Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nLe3P50j4Q&list=PLb5Z3cA_mnKhiYc5glhacO9k9WTrSgjzW&index=56

[xxix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #173 on The Neuroscience of Belief https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-neuroscience-of-belief/

[xxx]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #157 on Overcoming Digital Addictions with Neuroscience https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-overcoming-digital-addiction-using-neuroscience/

[xxxi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #108 with Kelly Roman on “Wearable Medical Devices for Anxiety, Depression and Sleep/Stress Management” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/ceo-of-fisher-wallace-laboratories-on-wearable-medical-devices-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/

[xxxii] Fisher Wallace Clinical Trial Evidence https://www.fisherwallace.com/pages/published-research

[xxxiii] The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles 1903 https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Wallace-D-Wattles-Collection/dp/1519738692/ref=pd_lpo_3?pd_rd_i=1519738692&psc=1

[xxxiv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE with Dr. Carolyn Leaf on “Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/worldrenownedneuroscientistdr-caroline-leaf-oncleaningup-your-mentalmess5-simplescientifically-proven-stepsto-reduceanxiety-and-toxic-thinking/

Feb 25, 2022

01:13:06

All organizations start with WHY, but only the great ones keep their WHY clear year after year.”― Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Watch the interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/hP854mDG9do

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ The vision for The Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast, from Majid Samadi's eyes, watching the podcast grow from the early days when it was just an idea.

✔︎ Why SEL skills are important in today's classrooms, and Emotional Intelligence training in our corporate workplaces.

✔︎ How Andrea held her vision for interviewing high quality guests with an experience over 12 years ago, of running The Teen Performance Magazine.

✔︎ The TOP 3 Guests from Majid's point of view in the past year.

✔︎ How to monetize a podcast, and why this step is crucial to sustain any idea.

✔︎ The "behind-the-scenes" of this podcast, from someone whose office is next door to where all interviews are conducted.

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, for our 200th episode milestone, with a reflection back on “The Why Behind Our Podcast” which is the #1 question people ask me when I share that I host this podcast. I hope that we can all learn something about “why we do what we do” as we reflect back on the past 100 episodes (that covers 2021 and the beginning of 2022). I’ve asked a special returning guest from episode #1[i], Majid Samadi, senior regional sales director at Lexia Learning[ii], and my husband, to join me as we reflect back on “why we do what we do”, as Simon Sinek would say.

Welcome back. I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding and applying the science behind high performance strategies that we can use to improve our productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. My vision with this podcast began 3 years ago, and I think it’s important to step back and take a look at “why” we began this podcast, since “the why” should be behind all of our work to keep us moving forward. As we think about “why” we do what we do, I hope that you reflect on why you do what YOU do, and see if you can gain insights from your why, to drive you to new levels of awareness, as we do the same.

I chose Majid Samadi to join me on this episode, because he’s really good at launching big ideas, especially those ideas that have a clear “why” behind them. It was Majid who encouraged me to publish my first book, The Secret for Teens Revealed to put the ideas I learned from the seminar industry into writing, and when I mentioned that I was thinking about launching a podcast in early 2019, when my website had a podcast theme, his first words were “how can I help you to begin?”

You would think that the person in our household who met Simon Sinek (me) would be his biggest fan, but Majid would be a much bigger fan of Sinek’s work than me. Every year he trains his sales team (at Lexia Learning—a company that provides structured literacy solutions and professional learning to students and educators across the country) on Sinek’s “The Golden Circle” so that his sales team launches their year with a clear why behind what they will be doing, to kickstart their year.

I’m always looking for a new angle to think about “why we do what we do” and I recently saw Mathew Portell’s[iii] keynote speech at Butler University’s 6th Annual Educational Neuroscience Symposium and it opened my eyes to a new way to approach this episode. Mathew Portell, who is currently in his sixth year as principal of Fall-Hamilton Elementary, an internationally recognized innovative model school for trauma-informed practices in Metro Nashville Public Schools, opened up his keynote for the Neuroscience Symposium with a completely NEW way of looking at our why. At least it was for me. Before I bring Majid on, I wanted us to all think about why we do what we do, to see our work through a new lens, with renewed purpose this year.

Remember on our final episode of our Think and Grow Rich book study, we talked about how important it was that we had a clear vision of our goals (WHAT WE DO) but has anyone ever asked you why you do what you do? Canadian Health and PE Educator, Dan Vigilatore,[iv] teaches this to all new health/physical education teachers at York University’s Faculty of Education. I’ll put a link to his recent lesson in the show notes.[v]

Back to Mathew Portell’s keynote. During Mathew’s recent keynote, he gave us a formula to think about.

SLIDE from Mathew Portell’s Presentation https://paradigmshifteducation.com

He said to think about your Intent (why you do what you do) + outcome (what are your outcomes of your work) = Impact (are you having an impact?) when thinking about the work that you are doing. It’s been almost three years ago since we launched this podcast (in June 2019) and back then, I didn’t see this formula, but I knew we had the right intent with our work, we were making headway with our programs in the schools, but the impact was not at all what I had envisioned. We were missing something with our impact.

I always had a global vision for this work and didn’t need Mathew Portell’s formula to tell me that our outcome was off. We needed to do something differently to have a larger impact—this global vision. So, when I bought a template for my new website that had a podcast theme, and the website developer said “you can delete the podcast section” I knew that I had to do something beyond what we were doing, and launched the podcast, putting our best work out to the world, for free, completely unaware of where it would lead us.

Three years later, we hit the Top 15 Best SEL Podcasts for 2021 [vi], and Top 20 Best Neuroscience Podcasts for 202[vii]1 featuring some of the leading experts in neuroscience, education and the brain, I know that the impact is beginning to match the vision I saw.

Think about Mathew’s formula with your work, and let’s welcome my better half, the one who has watched me with this work since those early days when all of this was just ideas scrawled on paper all over my office walls and he said “are you ever going to do something with those ideas?”

Let’s welcome Majid Samadi.

Welcome Majid! Thanks for agreeing to come back on the podcast as a returning guest for this important milestone.

INTRO Q: I know that you know, I think it’s important to thank people who’ve helped you along the way. It’s always been very important to me. I think you’ll remember I once drove 3 hours, each way, to thank someone who infused me with ideas and support over the years.

I’ve thanked everyone but not sure if you know how much I appreciate all you’ve done to help me to keep this podcast going, from all of the late night edits, that often went into the weekend, so you would take the kids swimming while I’m at my desk or just giving me the quiet time needed to research each guest, there’s just so much behind the scenes that goes into the production of each episode. So, my first question, after thanking you for all your support over the years, making everything, can you think back to episode 1 and tell me what YOU think are the biggest changes you’ve noticed since we launched the podcast to make all of this worthwhile?

Q1: Thinking back to our first episode, that was June 2019, you had just come home from a business trip) when I asked you to read and answer those questions (with no prep) about why these emotional intelligence skills are important in our workplace.

Almost 3 years later, what would you say now? After the pandemic--Why are these skills so important in the workplace?

Q2: I’ve always said you are my quality assurance department because every guest has been vetted by you (after I’ve chosen them) to be sure they align with the most current research with practical strategies we can all use and implement. You’ve kept me on track with the vision of this podcast with high quality guests and it’s not the first project we’ve done together where this was important. We had to do the same thing when we were looking for guests for the Teen Performance Magazine[viii] 12 years ago and I recall you on the phone with Taylor Swift’s PR team. What sticks out to you with this responsibility of making sure we provide the highest quality guests/content for our listeners, just like we did 12 years ago with our magazine interviews?

Q3: We hit the first 100 episodes last December 2020, (a bit over a year ago) and I know that don’t have a chance to listen to ALL of them (I will do a thorough review of lessons learned from our TOP 10 in this past year). But I wonder, since we are immersed in each person before, during and after their interview, is there someone that comes to mind that stuck out to you this past year as we went from 100-200 episodes? Your TOP 3? Is there anything important that you remember about these episodes?

Q4: Since you have watched the vision of Achieveit360.com where we started with curriculum and tools for middle and high schools with our Level Up Program, how do you see things have evolved over the years with our vision? If you can think back to the days we spent hours coming up with our website URL, how has our vision evolved over the years?

Q5: This podcast was created by design, to consist of the highest quality content (that was going to be a course for an educational publisher as you remember) with the idea that this information would be FREE for those who do not have access to this information. You know that this podcast is sponsored by Achieveit360.com and our programs and services but in the future, we do have a vision to do something we have never done before and will provide ads on the podcast. As someone who drives sales with your sales team, why do you think monetizing a podcast with ad space is important and for people who think a podcast will make them a ton of money, what do you think they should know?

Q6: For those who tune into the podcast, from whatever part of the world they listen to, what would you like them to know about the “behind the scenes” production process. What do you see that others don’t (without embarrassing me too much) from the researching, editing, and production side of things?

Q7: Aside from the fact that I know you would support anything I produce and create, what is it about this podcast that you see that’s different from some of the other projects you have seen me working on over the years in this office?

Q8: It’s difficult for me to go back to earlier episodes when my sound quality wasn’t that great, or to remember when the audio wouldn’t work for my first interview with Ron Hall[ix], (who now uses our podcast as a resource for a graduate class he teaches on Trauma and Resiliency at a local University in his area), or when I was nervous for at least the first 50 interviews, including Greg Wolcott from EPISODE #7[x] who became one of our top supporters, giving me many opportunities to speak and share resources with First Educational Resources[xi], but I sometimes do listen to past episodes and the content is always useful and applicable and I know that we launched without being perfect, but was always open to learning something new. What would you like others to know about The Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast that I would never say?

Q8B: What’s the process from idea formation, to an idea that comes to fruition?

Q9: If you were to hijack my email account for a day, and invite a guest that has nothing to do with neuroscience that you would interview, who would you choose and what would you want to ask them?

Q10: Is there anything I’ve missed, that you think is important that we share on this 200th milestone episode? We haven’t spoken about the fact that you believe in the importance of giving back to the community with the work you do in your spare time. Why is giving back so important?

Thank you, Majid, for coming back on the podcast as a guest and again, thank you for your support behind the scenes to make this podcast possible. I’m proud to be the one who does this thing called life next to you.

Majid gives Andrea a surprise at the end of the interview that says "Congrats on #200! Thanks for your impact on the world.!" Stay to the end to see!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

See ALL past interviews on our YouTube playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb5Z3cA_mnKhiYc5glhacO9k9WTrSgjzW

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #1 with Majid Samadi on “Why Implement an SEL or EQ Program in Your School or Workplace?” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-why-behind-setting-up-a-social-and-emotional-learning-program-in-your-school-or-emotional-intelligence-training-for-your-workplace/

[ii] Majid Samadi https://www.linkedin.com/in/majid-s-2328046/

[iii] Mathew Portell https://paradigmshifteducation.com/

[iv] Dan Vigliatore https://twitter.com/PhysEdDynasty

[v] Health and Physical Education Educator Dan Vigliatore “Starts With Why Lesson” at York University’s Faculty of Education https://bit.ly/3HbYhAb

[vi] TOP 15 Best SEL Podcasts for 2021 https://blog.feedspot.com/social_emotional_learning_podcasts/

[vii] TOP 20 Neuroscience Podcasts for 2021 https://welpmagazine.com/20-best-neuroscience-podcasts-of-2021/

[viii] Teen Performance Magazine https://www.magcloud.com/browse/magazine/77535

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #3 with Ron Hall on “Launching Your Neuroeducational Program” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/interview-with-ron-hall-valley-day-school-on-launching-your-neuroeducational-program/

[x]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #7 with Greg Wolcott on “Building Relationships in Today’s Classrooms” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/greg-wolcott-on-building-relationships-in-todays-classrooms/

[xi] First Ed Resources https://twitter.com/1stEdResources

Feb 18, 2022

00:18:15

“All things are possible if you believe.”[i]

“Our results are all based on our beliefs”

“If we don’t like what’s going on outside, we’ve got to go inside, and change our beliefs.”[ii]

--Bob Proctor

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, for episode #199 on “The Neuroscience Behind Self-Belief” that I want to dive into instead of the episode I was planning on writing this week, (a deep dive into David A. Sousa’s NEW Edition of How the Brain Learns), that I will release next week instead.

For those new, welcome, I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind high performance strategies that we can use to improve our productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. My vision is to bring the experts to you, share their books, resources, and ideas to help you to implement their proven strategies, whether you are a teacher working in the classroom or in the corporate environment.

Sometimes we must listen to what’s going on around us, and I got the message loud and clear this week, that made me pivot towards this topic of self-belief. This week I met my good friend, Patti Knoles, for coffee. We used to work together years ago when we both worked for Bob Proctor in the seminar industry, and although we live in the same state, it’s been a few years since we met up in person, but after the news earlier this month, we decided to meet and share some memories.

Patti Knoles with her daughter, Jessica Knoles

NOTE-- For those who follow this podcast and tuned into our final episode of our Think and Grow Rich Book Study[iii], you will know that my mentor, Bob Proctor sadly passed away earlier this month and I dedicated that final episode to him. After I released that episode, I knew I needed more time to just process everything and wasn’t finished. I wanted to stay open to what else I could cover, that would make an impact for everyone else who tunes in, while saying goodbye to the man behind the work that I do, so I just kept my eyes and ears open and went to meet Patti for coffee.

Patti Knoles, is a quiet, yet fierce force behind many creative efforts with Bob Proctor’s seminars, since the late 1990s when I first met her. She’s a graphic designer by trade, but so much more than that. She’s a true visionary, with a talent of combining her creative ability, with her imagination and thoughtfulness, bringing something powerful out in her work. It was Patti who I asked to design the covers of my two books, because I wanted her talent to shine through with my work, which it did. The Secret for Teens Revealed[iv] that was published in 2008 won an outstanding book sales award, and the publisher funded my second book, Level Up[v] with this incentive that ended up helping thousands of teens globally to go after their dreams, and live the life they imagined.[vi]

Think about this for a second. When we know what we want, we’ve got to start with writing it down. Writing causes thinking, thinking creates an image and this is where ALL ideas begin. Patti was able to take what I wrote down and turn it into an image that would later impact thousands of others around the world. Your ideas, or what you want to create, really do have the ability to change the world. I wonder if you believe that?

When I met Patti for coffee, she had a bag, and a gift for me that I’ve got to say was the most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received. To honor Bob’s legacy, Patti created coffee mugs that had a photo of Bob, saying “Live Like Bob” and on the side she inscribed “BE. DO. HAVE. GIVE.” which she had heard him say often. There was so much thought to this gift, but the icing on the cake came with the card that had a whole bunch of sayings that I know Bob said all the time, that have stuck in my head over the years. I’ve got the card and mug on my desk as a great reminder to DREAM BIG and NEVER GIVE UP on my vision.

The biggest AHA moment I had from my meeting with Patti is that we ALL have the ability to make an impact on the world with our ideas. It wasn’t just Bob Proctor who inspired the work that I do, but many others that I met along the way, like Patti who designed the cover of my two books, and then the teens who would drive our programs to new heights. Then the educators I met along the way, paving my path forward. Once we take action with the ideas that we want, we will meet many others, along the way to drive us forward.

I don’t know who has inspired the work that YOU do, but I’m sure there’s someone you look up to, that you want to live up to their example. You want to live like they do. This is why they are called mentors. Who has inspired you? What is YOUR vision? Who will YOU inspire with your work? Do you know what you want to do? Have you written it out? Are you hanging out with people who inspire you to move towards what you want?

If you’ve listened to the 6 Part Series of our Think and Grow Rich book review, you will remember that when I was in my late 20s, Bob Proctor asked me “what do you really want?” and I was caught off guard, because no one had ever asked me that before but there was more to it. I didn’t have a clear vision and didn’t have self-belief. I’m sure many of you listening can think back to your late 20s (if you are older than that now) and remember how you were in those early years when you were just figuring life out.

Back then, I didn’t believe I could have the things I really wanted. Who was I to think I could move to a new country and make an impact in the field of education? Proctor had us write out our goals and design that life that we wanted, with the book Think and Grow Rich as his guide post, and I still have my first sketches of the house I imagined living in, the car in the driveway, the family I envisioned, and the life I’m living today that’s not far off from the vision he had me create over 20 years ago. But it wasn’t always that way. If you knew me back then you’d remember, just like Patti who remembers those early days when I was carving out the vision.

You can see for yourself with a snapshot of my goals from 1999, the year I met Proctor. He would describe me as a “scared schoolteacher”, and I didn’t like that identity. But it was true. Based on my upbringing, it wasn’t easy to DREAM BIG, or think of BEING LEGENDARY, and I wasn’t someone who TOOK CHANCES. All of this took time from those beginning days when Proctor said, “What do you really want?” and I wrote them down. It began here, and you can see that Bob wrote his number at the top of the page for me to call him if I had any questions. At that moment, I made a pact to follow through and never give up on this vision that began with doing everything I was fearful of doing. I don’t know if you can relate, or if you have any fears, but I think EVERY high school student should have a list of things they really want to do, and a plan to work past their fears. This is where self-belief begins.

When I met Patti that day, we were reminded of where we began, and of how much our lives changed by living it, by our own design. Not by chance or luck, but by pushing past obstacles, fears and being relentless with this push.

We all begin here. With doubts, fears, and insecurities. We must do the work to discover our own self-belief and that was the whole idea of covering the 6 PART book study of Think and Grow Rich at the start of this year. At the end of this book study, I ask “Do you have an unwavering belief in whatever it is that you want to achieve” and urge us to all put some serious thought into this. It’s because I remember the days when I didn’t have it.

If you want to see my interview with Bob Proctor, and where my vision for the school market began over 20 years ago, go back to episode #66[vii] where this vision began, and EPISODE #67[viii] on the Top Lessons learned working with him for six years in the late 1990s. I only scratch the surface of the lessons learned in those six years, that carved the path for the future that began with this list of goals in the late 90s.

Meeting with Patti this week, I was reminded that in that final episode, I left something important out and didn’t want to move on without addressing the importance of our self-awareness, right down to understanding our identity, because if we ignore this, it will impact our ability to reach our highest potential. We did cover the neuroscience of belief on episode #173[ix] where we talked about the importance of understanding our cognitive biases, and how flawed our beliefs are and to be open to challenging our beliefs.

What is the Neuroscience of Self-Belief?

But what about self-belief? You can clearly see by the goals I wrote in 1999 that I didn’t have “an unwavering belief” in my vision, if I even had a vision at all. This all took time, work, and awareness, for self-belief to form with each success or win to propel the vision forward.

It begins with self-awareness that we covered on EPISODE #2[x] of our podcast back in July of 2019 and that “we must know our identity to reach our highest level of potential” and once you can see that you have the ability to reach whatever it is that you set your mind to, you’ll see that the opportunities in life are limitless. You’ll develop that unwavering belief.

Where does self-belief come from? How does it become instilled in us? How can we inspire it in others?

Researchers at Dartmouth College have identified a region of the human brain that seems to predict a person’s self-esteem levels, or what they think of themselves (where our identity begins that leads us to our self-belief).

“It's called the frontostriatal pathway, and the stronger and more active it is in the brain, the more self-esteem someone has.”[xi] Lead author Robert Chavez found that self-esteem lies in this pathway as shown in the image in the show notes and that “this pathway connects the medial PFC that deals with self-knowledge to the ventral striatum that deals with feelings of motivation and reward.” He called this pathway “the road” and that “a person with a strong road was more likely to have higher long-term self-esteem.” He also reminded us “how repeated behaviors (like meditation) can alter brain traits,” leading me to think back to our Think and Grow Rich book study and whether the repeated action of reading and writing our goals twice a day could strengthen this pathway, and self-esteem, leading to a stronger belief in whatever it is we are working towards. It would make sense to me that this is true, as well, that this pathway is strengthened with daily practice (whether it’s through meditation, a sport, or practicing an academic skill) that we learned from Dr. John Dunlosky’s work from EPISODE #37.[xii]

Using a Power Identity to Get to Your Next Level

Aside from repeated behaviors to strengthen our self-belief, through an increased self-esteem, what else can we do? I first heard of the concept of creating an “alter ego” when I interviewed multi-platinum recording artist, Sean Kingston in 2009 for the Teen Performance Magazine[xiii] when he was talking about how important it was for him to inspire self-esteem in his music. I became an instant fan of his work while preparing for that interview where he explained that he used certain strategies to move him forward. He depicted the “alter ego” in his song Face Drop[xiv] as an inner power or strength that gave him a new identity when he was singing, to help him to overcome his fears, insecurities and doubts. I don’t think I fully understood this concept until recently, when author Todd Herman hit many of the speaking circuits with his book The Alter Ego Effect, that he explains on Tom Bilyeu’s podcast[xv] and another podcast I heard recently[xvi] where we are reminded that “our thoughts and words can impact our state and those around us.” Herman’s book explains how we can change our brain state to attain the desired results with this “alter ego” or “power identity” that helps us to overcome obstacles and takes us beyond where we’ve been before.

Sean Kingston used this “alter ego” idea to form a new identity or self-belief, that drove him forward, and I could only guess that this repeated practice could possibly strengthen the frontostriatal pathway in his brain leading him to long-term self-esteem, which he needed for his success in the music industry.

It’s powerful when we can connect brain science to our life, leading me back to my meeting with Patti, where we chatted about how grateful we were to have been mentored by someone who changed our results over the years. It wasn’t just Bob who changed our results, but all of the people we met along the way as we worked towards our goals. We vowed that we would continue his legacy through our work, which led me to write this episode.

How to Develop an Unwavering Self-Belief and Then Instill it in Others?

Keep Studying: Awareness is the key. If I was to ask you “What do YOU really want” would you be able to tell me in detail, or would you hesitate like I did when I was first asked that question. If you aren’t sure yet, keep learning and you will discover this pathway with time based on your talents, skills, and abilities. Read and Write Your Goals Out Daily: There is a power and magic to the clarity that comes from this activity. I can’t say this enough, that this is where the magic happens. In addition to this, I had an affirmation that was created for me to help me to overcome my biggest doubts and fears and has been the most powerful tool I’ve used to overcome self-doubts. When I was affirmation was first given to me, I couldn’t even read it, let alone read it out loud. With time, the belief came, until it became my identity and I’m shocked that there was a time I didn’t believe this. Know Your Fears! They will show up in your results whether you like it or not, so it’s easiest to get them out of the way. Do what Proctor had me do and write out everything you are afraid of. Looking back at my list, I remember being afraid to ask him questions, or to ask him if I could speak on stage at times during the seminar. Can you imagine if I never overcame those fears? There’s no way I’d be able to do what I’m doing without acknowledging and then overcoming what I was afraid of. We all have fears, when we first begin. Expect Your Win: Whatever it is you are working on; you will meet with success when you are prepared for the outcome. Do the work, with consistency, and the win will be the outcome of this effort. What’s Your Legacy? How will you make a difference in the world? Once you have achieved your win, it’s up to you to replicate your win in others. This I believe is our duty, and why many of us choose the teaching/coaching profession. This brings me back to my meeting with Patti, where she gave me the coffee mug reminding me to “Live Like Bob” with a card with all the ways I can do this. I’m grateful for this reminder from Patti to “live” ALL of these in my lifetime and encourage others to do the same in theirs.

Here's the affirmation that was created for me that has been on my bookshelf since 2001. This affirmation helped me to create a new identity.

To close out this episode, I want to thank Patti for inspiring me to write this episode and for the years of friendship.

I’ll leave you with these questions:

Who do you want to live like? What legacy do you want to leave? Do you BELIEVE you’ll achieve it?

I’ll close this episode with the same quote I closed out our final episode of our Think and Grow Rich book study.

“What story do you want to tell? What scenes do you want to shoot? How do you want the movie to end? Be the director of your life.” --Bob Proctor

Whatever it is you are going after, you’ll do it when you believe it.

See you next week!

FOLLOW PATTI KNOLES:

Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/BakytaDesign

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/patti-knoles-57947010/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pattiknoles/?hl=en

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

REFERENCES:

[i] Believe in Yourself: When You Understand This, Your Whole Life Will Change by Bob Proctor Uploaded Nov. 21, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPIjwbuP2BM

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #66 with The Legendary Bob Proctor on “Where it All Started” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-legendary-bob-proctor-on/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 “The Neuroscience Behind the 15 Principles in Think and Grow Rich”

[iv] The Secret for Teens Revealed by Andrea Samadi, Published 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teens-Revealed-Teenagers-Leadership/dp/1604940336

[v] Level Up by Andrea Samadi Published in 2015 by Andrea Samadi https://www.amazon.com/Level-Up-Brain-Based-Skyrocket-Achievement-ebook/dp/B078V3L7FT

[vi] How to Think, Create and Innovate with Your Imagination Published July 1, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlgdwScpZco

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #66 with The Legendary Bob Proctor on “Where it All Started” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-legendary-bob-proctor-on/

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #67 on “Expanding Your Awareness with the Top Lessons Learned from Bob Proctor’s Most Powerful Seminars” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expanding-your-awareness-with-a-deep-dive-into-bob-proctors-most-powerful-seminars/

[ix]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #173 “The Neuroscience of Belief” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-the-neuroscience-of-belief/

[x]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #2 “Self-Awareness: Know Thyself” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/self-awareness-know-thyself/

[xi] There is Where Self-Esteem Lives in the Brain by Anna Almendrala Published June 16, 2014 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/self-esteem-brain_n_5500501

[xii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #37 with Dr. John Dunlosky on “Improving Student Success” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kent-states-dr-john-dunlosky-on-improving-student-success-some-principles-from-cognitive-science/

[xiii] Teen Performance Magazine https://www.magcloud.com/browse/magazine/77535

[xiv] Face Drop Video Version Nov. 14, 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXo7qtsGX8Y

[xv] Tom Bilyeu with Todd Herman on “Becoming Your Alter Ego” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Neyy2pSbkoI

[xvi] Beyond the Xs and Os with Dr. Cassidy Preston and Chris De Piero on “The Alter Ego Effect” https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-alter-ego-effect-with-peak-performance-coach/id1545004073?i=1000550151919

Feb 15, 2022

00:48:12

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, for episode #198 with mood and stress expert, Erika Ferszt, who was a senior creative executive for over 20 years and for 10 of those years, led all of the advertising, media and digital efforts for Ray Ban. She must have made such an impact with her work that the Ray-Ban Erika’s were named after her!

Watch our interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/y-vFVaiBPrw

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ The signs and symptoms of work burnout that led Erika to leave a job she loved and create an app to help reduce workplace stress.

✔︎ How her health scare led her to pursue 2 years of Postgraduate studies in neuroscience.

✔︎ How someone without a science background can understand and teach neuroscience in a way that it's simple and easy to use.

✔︎ What she offers at Moodally.com for corporate executives.

✔︎ How a stress management program like her app can help improve self-efficacy, so we can better manage our daily stress.

In 2015 she suffered a burnout episode and was hospitalized for 10 days with stress-related vision loss, and through this experience, went back to school to study the relationship between stress, the brain and the mind and founded her company Moodally.com as a result.

If you’ve been following our podcast, you will see clearly why I have asked Erika to join us today, for season 7 of this podcast where we are focused on brain health and well-being. Welcome back. I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind high performance strategies that we can use to improve our productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. My vision is to bring the experts to you, share their books, resources, and ideas to help you to implement their proven strategies, whether you are a teacher working in the classroom or in the corporate environment.

Today’s guest, Erika Ferszt, loved her job with Ray Ban. She will tell her story, explaining it was not like she was working for a terrible boss in a toxic work environment, but quite the opposite as she loved her work, but when her body reacted to the constant stress it was under, she was forced to make some changes, that led her to a whole new path in life.

Let’s meet Erika and hear how her burnout led her to create Moodally.com and a whole new life.

Welcome, Erika, thank you for meeting me on a Friday night (I think??). Are you in Italy now? (I know you said Europe).

There was so much to your story, when I saw it that resonated with me when I saw the path that you took after your health scare, but I have to start with a question that’s not so obvious (like tell me where this all started).

Intro Question:

I’ve got to say that most people I know here in the US push themselves hard work wise. You know, the American Dream can be had, but there’s a price to pay, and I’m always watching those close to me, looking for a sign that the push is too much, and now we can measure if our body is recovered or not with these wearable devices that can tell us if we need to rest and slow down. Were there ANY signs or symptoms that you can think of, looking back, with that episode, that you were close to burn-out?

Q1: So, you land in hospital, with quite a scary situation. I’ve lost my eyesight before, but it was temporary, and in one eye only, and I found out later, after I freaked out because I couldn’t drive the kids to school, that it’s common (it was an ocular migraine and I Googled it by looking out of one eye while calling my eye doctor) but your vision loss lasted much longer and was serious (and when I Googled loss of myelin sheath around the optic nerve I almost wish I hadn’t. Can you share what the stress did to your optic nerve to cause the vision loss, did you Google it and notice what I could have been, and with everything that you learned is that what led you to pursue 2-years of Post Graduate studies in the Neuroscience after this experience?

Q2: I have just completed a one year Mindfulness Based Neurocoaching Certification program (that took me 2 years because I found it to be very difficult/intensive) it was with a neuroscience researcher, who I have been working with over the years to understand the science behind what’s going on in the brain, and it’s one of the reasons I host this podcast, to make neuroscience is simple and easy to use for all of us, whether we have a degree in neuroscience or not. How do you think we can bridge this content and make it easier for people to understand? I’m always looking for ways to simplify ideas. Do you have any thoughts so that a teacher, or someone without a science background could understand and teach others these complex ideas with confidence?

Q3: Let’s go to how you founded Moodally.com (your Mood ali) and go straight to WHY you created this company, with a focus on our moods? I’m one of those people that is happy fairly consistently, because I know how important my mood is for my results and how it’s our competitive advantage, but I have to work at it (daily). If I miss a day of my routine, it’s pretty obvious. What does Moodally offer and how do most people implement it into their daily routine?

3B: How is mood different from our attitude or mindset?

Q4: I heard you say that “what shapes our mood is our self-efficacy or our belief in our abilities to face what life throws at us.” On any given day, we can have work pressures, health pressure, kids (health and school pressure), and the Pandemic magnified this, making many people I know consider a career-change, since there was so much change in the workforce. Can mental strength built by your app (or other ways) help with this self-efficacy, so we can better face all of the challenges that are thrown our way daily?

Q5: I was talking with a good friend of mine from high school, and he was sharing how his life has been since the Pandemic, and he said “sometimes it would feel good, just to get a win, eh?” (he’s Canadian) and yesterday I had an usually stressful day, where it was not obvious I had done any mental training, and I wondered at that moment, what do constant dead ends do to our self-efficacy? You know, those days where nothing works out right (like for me yesterday) Does it de-motivate us, lowering our ambitions and prevent us from pushing ourselves forward? What’s the healthy balance of the push that keeps us reaching higher, without letting those down days push us towards burn-out or apathy?

Q6: What is your vision for Moodally.com and who do you typically work with?

Q7: Is there anything that’s important that we haven’t covered today?

Thank you very much Erika, for sharing your expertise with us, and giving us some tools that we can access to help push us forward in a healthy way.

If anyone wants to learn more about you, is the best place Moodally.com?

FOLLOW ERIKA:

Moodally Matters Podcast https://anchor.fm/moodally-matters/episodes/How-Burning-Out-From-an-Award-Winning-Job-Improved-My-Life-with-Erika-Ferszt-e1dg16a

LinkedIn Page https://www.linkedin.com/company/moodally/

Free tools on her website https://www.moodally.com/#FREEBIES

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/how-the-brain-learns/book278665

Feb 11, 2022

01:08:17

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, episode #197 with a special returning guest, David A Sousa, who we first spoke with back in August 2020 on episode #78[i].

Click here to watch this interview on YouTube https://youtu.be/148InRAxFts

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ What's new with the 6th edition of Dr. David Sousa's "How the Brain Learns"

The importance of the cognitive component of social-emotional learning The importance of student engagement, especially through academic teams Connections between Bloom’s Taxonomy and current instructional strategies, such as teaming and project/maker learning Strategies that ALL teachers can implement to reduce stress in the classroom and improve student learning/engagement. What happens in the brain when we are learning something new. How to make practice PERMANENT and transfer knowledge into memory. What we can learn from the specialized areas of the brain How the science of reading can help us as teachers with the learning process

I’m thrilled to have the chance to speak with David Sousa again, as It was David Sousa’s How the Brain Learns book Series[ii] that is now in its 6th Edition (that includes How the Brain Learns, How the Brain Learns to Read, How the Gifted Brain Learns, and How the Special Needs Brain Learns) that I was given by an educator who put me on the path of helping others to understand how learning occurs in the brain. When reading this series, I was told from other respected colleagues that this book series is one that every educator should read, and after our first interview, was contacted from educators all over the country (and world) with how helpful this series has been for them. How the Brain Leans has helped me as a parent to understand how my own children learn (specifically with reading) and gave me more understanding and patience to help put into practice some of the secrets for accelerating literacy that we have dove into on this podcast, since this first interview with David Sousa, almost 2 years ago now.

For those new, or returning guests, welcome back! I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you listening, have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind high performance strategies that we can use to improve our productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. My vision is to bring the experts to you, share their books, resources, and ideas to help you to implement their proven strategies, whether you are a teacher working in the classroom or in the corporate environment.

A bit about David Sousa, he’s an international consultant in educational neuroscience, has written more than 20 books for educators and parents on ways to use brain research to improve teaching and learning. He has conducted workshops for more than 200,000 educators in hundreds of school districts on brain research and science education at the Pre-K to Grade 12 and university levels. He has presented at national conventions of educational organizations and to regional and local school districts across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.

Dr. Sousa has a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Bridgewater (Massachusetts) State University, a master of arts degree in teaching science from Harvard University, and a doctorate from Rutgers University. His teaching experience covers all levels. He has taught high school science and has served as a K–12 director of science, a supervisor of instruction, and a district superintendent in New Jersey schools. He has been an adjunct professor of education at Seton Hall University and at Rutgers University. He has received awards from professional associations, school districts, and Bridgewater State University (Distinguished Alumni Award), as well as several honorary doctorates for his commitment and contributions to research, professional development, and science education. He has been interviewed on the NBC Today show, on National Public Radio, and other programs about his work with schools using brain research. He makes his home in south Florida.

I would highly recommend watching our first interview together and can’t wait to hear what’s new to deliver game-changing and brain-changing results for our students.

Let’s welcome back Dr. David A. Sousa!

WELCOME and INTRO Q: Welcome back, David, thank you for coming back on the podcast as a returning guest. David, I’m sure you will remember me sending you feedback after our first interview from educators around the world who were using How the Brain Learns with their students, and that you know how important this understanding of the brain is for the future of education. Thank you for your dedication to this field. I know I speak on behalf of everyone who reads your books and gains a deeper understanding of how to teach with our brain in mind as a result.

David, as research of the brain continues to evolve, these insights can change the way that we as educators that you call “brain-changers” (and even as parents) guide our students/children towards success. My intro question to you in our first interview was to help orient our listeners with your background and how you became interested in the brain and learning. Can you share where your passion for the brain and learning began, and what you’ve seen over the years working with educators around the world?

Q1: Can we begin with some of the brand-new findings that you have put into this 6th Edition of How the Brain Learns, and expand on the growth of educational neuroscience, since this is the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, and how do you integrate the cognitive component of social and emotional learning?

Q2: It was an educator in 2014 who handed me your How the Brain Learns series, and told me the importance of understanding how important this book would be if I wanted to help guide students towards success and I have seen change in the field since then, and especially with the interviews on this podcast over the past 3 years, but what are you seeing? Are schools and teaching changing fast enough as new research emerges?

Q3: We are focused this season of the podcast on brain-health and well-being and after some of our interviews last year like Dr. Ratey,[iii] the author of the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, we can clearly see how important exercise is for academic achievement. How would you suggest we prepare our students to stressful situations like taking tests, or anything they must face that might be stressful?

Q4: I think it’s fascinating when we take a trip inside our skulls and look at how the brain learns (acquiring new knowledge and skills). In Chapter 2, you have a diagram that shows how our brain takes in new information and on my last podcast episode, I wanted to show what learning looks like with neurons reaching out to other neurons and making new connections in the brain. Can you explain what happens in the brain, when we are learning something new, and what does the new research reveal is important for students to enjoy the learning process so what they are learning is retained? (Transforming the learning into creative thoughts and products).

Q5: In chapter 3, you cover memory, retention and learning. There was so much to this chapter that I found important because it baffles me that I can test my daughter on her spelling test the night before, and sometimes she recalls the words the next day, accurate enough to do well on her spelling test, but other days, the practice we did doesn’t stick. What’s involved in retaining what we learn, and what could I do to guarantee her practice will be retained? Does practice really make perfect, or what else do we need to consider?

Q6: In Chapter 4, on The Power of Transfer, you examine the factors that affect transfer. Most of us know how important prior knowledge is for learning, and you even open up all your books in this series with a “what we already know” section, but I never thought of negative transfer, or something interfering with my learning. What should we all know and understand (general guidelines) for teaching transfer?

Q7: In Chapter 5, Brain Organization and Transfer, there’s a focus on teaching to the whole brain and this chapter includes some incredible resources (videos) that explain how brain areas are specialized. I found it helpful to know what parts of the brain are involved in reading (from your How the Brain Learns to Read book), or even how the ELL brain is different in How the ELL Brain Learns. What is important for us to know about the new research and how some regions of the brain are specialized to perform certain tasks?

Q8: In chapter 6, you have a quote that hit me as a parent of a child who has struggled with reading because I know how important this skill is for her entire academic career. You quote “one you learn to read; you will be forever free” and I can see it in her eyes how much she wants to learn this skill. How has the science of reading contributed to our understanding of the struggle that students face (whether it’s reading, or with mathematics) and what is “productive struggle?”

Q9: I could keep asking you questions and know that the content of this book is thorough, with new findings included in this latest edition. Is there something that we have missed, that’s new, that you think is important for us to cover?

Thank you for your time today, to dive deeper into the 6th Edition of How the Brain Learns with these fresh insights that educators can use to guide their students towards success. For anyone who wants to access this book, I will put the link to it through Corwin Press in the show notes along with the free resources they can access immediately.[iv]

https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/how-the-brain-learns/book278665#free-resources

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

RESOURCES:

Integrating Social, Emotional and Academic Development: An Action Guide for School Leadership Team by Hank Resnik March 2019 https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/integrating-social-emotional-and-academic-development-sead-an-action-guide-for-school-leadership-teams/

Engaging the Rewired Brain by Dr. David A. Sousa Published Dec. 9th, 2015 https://www.amazon.com/Engaging-Rewired-Brain-David-Sousa/dp/1941112250

Mind, Brain and Education by Dr. David Sousa Published July, 2010 https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Brain-Education-Neuroscience-Implications-ebook/dp/B0046W6UDY

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #78 with David A. Sousa on “How the Brain Learns” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/award-winning-author-david-a-sousa-on-how-the-brain-learns/

[ii] How the Brain Learns by David A. Sousa https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/how-the-brain-learns/book278665

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #116 “The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/best-selling-author-john-j-ratey-md-on-the-revolutionary-new-science-of-exercise-and-the-brain/

[iv] How the Brain Learns 6th Edition FREE RESOURCES https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/how-the-brain-learns/book278665#free-resources

Feb 03, 2022

00:46:21

Welcome back to PART 6, EPISODE #196 and our final episode of this series, where we will cover the final chapters and add “The Neuroscience Behind the Timeless Goal-Setting Principles” in Napoleon Hill’s Classic book, Think and Grow Rich to ensure we make 2022 Our Best Year Ever with brain-science in mind.

This episode I’m dedicating to the man who has been reading this book for his entire life, who I have mentioned often in this series and podcast, Bob Proctor, who was the first person to see more in me than I could see in myself. It was Bob who asked me “What do you really want?” when I was in my late 20s, and just figuring it all out. He did catch me off guard with this question, but it didn’t take long to map out the vision, as crazy as it seemed at the time, when you have someone who believes in you to push you along the way, the vision becomes clear. Once you know what you want, and have a crystal-clear vision of it, it really is our duty to make it happen in our lifetime. Bob is the perfect example of someone who took action, inspiring millions globally, and someone I will forever be grateful that I crossed paths with. I found out that Bob was gravely ill, while finishing this episode, thought it was important to recognize his influence as an example for all of us, to put something into our goals this year that we have never done. Using Bob’s example, do something wildly different this year, than you ever have previously. He said many things that are forever stuck in my head, but I found a quote that makes sense to close out our book study that I think will stick with all of us.

He said, “You can’t just THINK and GROW RICH, you’ve got to do something with those thoughts.”

I’m hoping that this year, we are all looking for quantum leap results, that take us far beyond where we’ve ever been before. I have been studying success principles, and how successful people became that way, since the late 1990s when my paths crossed with Proctor. I saw these ideas could transform results for our students in the classroom, years before we talked about how important our mindset was after Carol Dweck’s[i] work made its impact on the field of education, and I wrote my first book, The Secret for Teens Revealed [ii] to document these success principles that are echoed throughout Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book, and aren’t difficult to understand, but implementing them in our daily life is where the hard work comes in.

Here’s my challenge to you—to go through each of the PARTS in this series and see what you can do to truly make a difference and impact with whatever it is you are doing this year. We’ve covered the 15 principles used by some of the wisest people in the world, and I want to add a sense of urgency for all of us to kick it into high gear this year. Think and act in a wildly different way than we have previously. This will take some focus, but the results will be well worth the effort. Remember that Hill says you haven’t read this book until you’ve read it 3 times? We can come back to this series next year and continue to apply the principles with the new experiences built over this year. This series is not only for you, the listener, I am doing the work right along with you!

If you want to see my interview with Bob Proctor, and where my vision began, go back to episode #66[iii] and EPISODE #67[iv] on the Top Lessons learned working with him for 6 years which is one of our most downloaded episodes, and one I still receive feedback and messages about.

With this episode today, I knew I had to tie in the most current brain research, so that we can look at ways to improve our current goal-setting/achieving process, with strategies that will take the guess work out of our year, to make a difference for all of us, since the strategies I will share are all peer reviewed, and have been proven scientifically to be the most effective way to achieve whatever it is that we are working on this year. When I say I want us to make this our best year ever, I really do mean it and wouldn’t spend the time to create this episode, if I didn’t think it could make a difference for all of us. There is a neuroscience to setting and achieving goals, for habit formation and habit breaking, and I hope this episode will help break down the science, and make these principles applicable in your daily life, for the results that will inevitably come as a result.

Remember, it is our duty to take action, and use the potential that we each have. This is not just a mere wish, or hope, it’s for us to all take action on whatever it is that we want (our burning desire) in a way that we’ve never done in past years. What will we do differently this year?

We have covered an introduction to how our brain forms and breaks habits on an earlier episode #35[v] way back from January 2020 that’s a good episode to review in addition to what I will share with you here.

On this episode, you will learn:

✔︎ Review PART 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to all 15 Success Principles of Think and Grow Rich.

✔︎ Strategies and action steps that tie the most current brain research to these 15 Success Principles.

✔︎ Tools and resources you can use to immediately implement these success strategies into your life so you can move quickly and easily towards your goals.

If you have made it this far in this 6 PART SERIES, I’ve got to congratulate you, as most people don’t ever even finish this book, let alone read it 3 times, like Hill suggests. I can tell that each time I’ve read this book, I stopped at Chapter 12, The Subconscious Mind, probably because we covered this concept thoroughly when I worked with Proctor, that I missed reading Chapter 13 on The Brain, Chapter 14 on the Sixth Sense and Chapter 15 on How to Outwit the Six Ghosts of Fear that I’ll highlight at the end of this episode. I can tell that I didn’t read these chapters, as there are no notes written on these pages, and then the edition that I have, when I got to the end of the book, there was a surprise. There was a Chapter 16 that I didn’t know existed. If you will recall, there were only 15 Principles that we were going to cover, so when I saw the 16th chapter, I was confused and immediately sent a message to my good friend Alan Lindeman[vi], from Ohio, who has taught this book for years, and I knew he would reply to me immediately, which he did.

Alan filled me in and reminded me that Napoleon Hill wrote another book shortly after Think and Grow Rich was published, but his wife wouldn’t let him publish it at the time. It depends on the version of the book that you have, but mine has this 16th chapter that Alan thinks was included in the newer editions. I won’t review it, because I’m superstitious with what I think and talk about and prefer to stick to positive angles, steering clear of dark thoughts, or perspectives, even if I know it’s important to be aware of them. I would just prefer to keep this work focused in the light, and would never speak or think of anything outside of positive thoughts for anyone and this self-awareness will keep me from covering this final chapter. If you want to know what it’s about, just Google Chapter 16 of Think and Grow Rich, and you can see for yourself, if you are curious. Just remember the power of autosuggestion, and that your nonconscious mind will take in whatever you offer it, so I highly recommend skipping it, and focusing on the 15 principles we have covered. There is a power of thought, and if Hill didn’t think it was important to guard our thoughts, I don’t think he would have covered this in his first chapter.

For this episode, I want to review each of the 5 PARTS that we covered in this series and see how the most current brain research ties into the timeless principles Hill wrote about, to give us more belief as we push forward with whatever it is we are working on this year, which was the goal of covering this book to launch our year, in the first place. I’ll add the final 2 chapters (15 and 16) at the end to complete our book study before our final review to bring these principles all together.

Remember that PART 1 began with a reminder from Grant Cardone that “in order to get to the next level of whatever it is that we are doing, we must think and act in a wildly different way than we previously have been.”[vii] We’ve talked about Price Pritchett’s You2 book around this time last year on the podcast, where he explains that “if you want to accelerate your results rapidly, you must search out and vigorously employ new behaviors” (Pritchett, You2, Page 7). That’s what I am hoping this book study has inspired us to all do. What will we do DIFFERENTLY this year? I’m hoping some of the strategies I share will inspire us to take NEW actions, that will yield NEW results and that we continue to look at everything we are doing, with our brain in mind.

Using Neuroscience to Learn Something New

Have you ever wondered what happens at the brain level when we are taking new behaviors like Pritchett recommends, or thinking in a wildly different way than we ever have been? Or when we are learning something new? Maybe you say “no, Andrea, I’ve never wondered this” and I’ll say “that’s ok” but just for a second, think in a wildly different way than you ever have previously, from how we have been taught learning occurs, (the old method where we sit in class and I teach you something from the front of the classroom) and maybe you’ll learn it by actually doing it when you take what I’ve taught you, and apply it.

Instead of this old way of learning, I want us to think inside of the skull of our brain, to our neural networks, as we are learning something new, or if you are teaching students in the classroom, or coaching a sport, and see if this understanding can help you to see how new information is acquired at the brain level first, before giving us the new results we all want to achieve. Just think differently.

Look at the image in the show notes, and let’s take a trip inside our skulls. When learning something new, (in the classroom, at home, or a new sport) neurons in the brain begin to slowly extend an axon out to other axons, connecting to other neurons (which is a slow process).

We have oligodendrocytes (green in the image) that wrap myelin around the axons to allow information to move faster. We have astrocytes (shaped like stars, and red in the image) that play an active role in memory and learning as they wrap around the blood vessel serving as gatekeepers at the blood brain barrier, providing homeostasis and regulating blood flow in the brain.[viii]

For learning to occur, Eva Kynt, as associate professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium shares that we must have “motivation and willingness to learn (as) the basic elements”[ix] and “one way to motivate the brain is to expose it something new and unfamiliar.”[x]

“The ability to learn new things—whether that’s calculus or hitting a fast ball—requires stretching our brain past the point of what’s familiar or comfortable” (Cal Newport, Georgetown University) and “that stretch requires unbroken concentration.” Think of all the actions happening in the brain, and the focus that’s required to make these connections happen. Cal Newport from Georgetown University says “the amount of concentration a person requires to learn something new depends on the complexity of the material. The more complex something is, the more sustained focus a person will likely need to grasp it” and that there are “habits of mind to facilitate learning, such as curiosity, and diligence.”

As we are teaching or coaching new skills, think of the neural networks that are being created, the myelin that’s formed each time a student reinforces the skill they are learning and ways that you can inspire students to become curious with what they are learning.

What is interesting to me is that the research shows that there is nothing inspiring about doing something we know we can do. There’s no motivation in that and requires us to use our imagination (Chapter 6 of TAGR) to push ourselves, and those we are teaching, to new limits. American neuroscientist and tenured professor at the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, Dr. Andrew Huberman’s research said that “the data shows the probability of achieving the goal depends on whether the goal is easy, moderate or impossible. If the goal is too easy, or difficult we won’t use enough of our autonomic nervous system to recruit our action” and these goals won’t lean you towards readiness, “but when goals are moderate” or something that everyone can “see” as possible something happens to our blood pressure to prepare our body to take the needed action. Huberman says “when goals are moderate, or in range, there’s a near doubling of the systolic blood pressure” that helps the body to lean into the goal. Your body becomes primed for the action it’s about to take.

If we are looking to achieve quantum level results, or achieve something that we have never done before, I think it’s direly important to make what we are going for to be achievable, or something we can see ourselves doing, for the leaning in to occur physiologically. That’s why reading and writing our goals out twice a day and having a crystal-clear vision of what we want, that burning desire that anyone can spot when you are talking about what you are working towards, is so important. When we can connect what the research says to our goal-achieving process, it makes more sense.

Put This into Action: Breaking Past to Where We’ve Never Been Before

Think about the sports team in last place, who has a vision of winning, and had to stretch their mind beyond their past results. Like the Cincinnati Bengals who according to NFL research “no team in NFL history had overcome a halftime deficit of 10-plus points to win in multiple games against an opponent in a single season (including playoffs).[xi] This team suffered year after year with their performance and haven’t been a good team since they made the playoffs in 1988. 2 years ago, they were the worst team in the NFL, until they got a new head coach and quarterback, and whatever they did changed the trajectory of the team. The QB had previously won the college national championship so he brought the winning mindset to the team. Only they know what they did to achieve this milestone and will be interesting to see how it plays out moving forward, but I think it just takes one person of influence to turn a team around, with a new mindset, encouraging new actions, and to think in a wildly different way than they ever had previously, so they can get to where they have never been before.

This concept can be applied in the workplace if we want a new position at work and the salary is 3 times higher than our current salary. We must be able to see beyond what we know we can do, using our imagination, to break through where our results currently are sitting to achieve these quantum leap results. We must be unwavering with our vision for what we want.

This is how history is made in the sports world, and how we can transfer this skill to our personal and professional lives.

PART 2[xii] we looked at the importance of positive thinking, being crystal clear with what we want, and I’m going to add something Price Pritchett warns us of in his You2 book, that “most people confuse wishing and wanting with pursuing” their goals and that “quantum leaps require you to take the offensive. You can’t achieve exponential gains in your success from a defensive position. You can’t make a passive stance and make a quantum jump…and leave the safety that goes along with merely wishing for something. You must place your trust in action.” (Pritchett, You Squared, Page 24).

The Neuroscience of Action Taking/Executing Your Goals

So, what is the neuroscience behind taking action with our goals? American neuroscientist from Stanford University’s School of Medicine, the well respected Dr. Andrew Huberman discusses the science of setting, assessing and executing goals on his recent podcast.[xiii] Dr. Huberman reminds us that there’s only ONE basic system in the brain related to setting goals and there are common brain circuits that help move us towards our goals (short and long-term) and that humans can juggle many different types of goals (financial, health, work related etc.) but usually when we put all of our focus on one area, we lack in other areas. Like our health can suffer if we focus too much on our work goals, and vice versa.

Setting, Assessing and Executing Goals and Our Brain:

To reduce the stress with the goal setting process, Huberman tells us that when we are going after our goals there are only four parts (or circuits) of the brain involved and understanding how these four areas work together can help us to find ways to move towards our goals, more intentionally, with increased focused and with brain-science involved.

No matter what the goal is (an executive building a multi-million-dollar company, or a teacher creating their lesson plans) there, are only these four common circuits involved in the goal seeking areas of the brain[xiv]:

Goal-Seeking Areas of the Brain:

The amygdala: often associated with fear, anxiety or avoidance of pain. Initiating Action/Preventing Action Basal Ganglia: A circuit Involving the initiation or prevention of action (go or no-go circuit). Executive Functions like Thinking/Planning (Now and Future) Circuits: Lateral Prefrontal Cortex Orbitofrontal Cortex: Meshing Emotionality to Our Current State (where we sit now without our goals vs how it will feel when we achieve our goals).

How Do We Assess the Value of the Goal and Know What Action to Take? What happens in these circuits depends on what value is placed on a goal, and given the value of the goal, we decide which action to take, or not take and the neurotransmitter dopamine will be used in our brain depending on this value of the goal we deem as important.

Which brings us back to why a book like Think and Grow Rich could help us in the first place. If I think about the four goal-seeking areas of the brain, and how they are activated during the goal setting/achieving process, it makes sense to me that having a solid plan to stay on track would keep these 4 areas of the brain working for me, instead of against me. The chapter on choosing faith over fear will help prevent my amygdala from shutting down my brain when obstacles come my way, because I will have a plan to move past them. Then I can imagine the Basal Ganglia saying “go Andrea, keep going!” and cheering me on past whatever obstacles come my way like procrastination, and the persistence chapter will remind me why I must keep going, use my executive functions as I think, plan and add the final goal setting part of my brain to add emotion to how incredible it will feel when I achieve what I have worked so hard for, or the pain and frustration I will feel if I miss the goal.

This book was designed to support the four goal seeking areas of the brain. No wonder it works so well.

What I thought was fascinating with the research that Dr. Huberman mentioned is there are ways that we can further “improve our focus and cognitive attention” and our ability to stay focused on what we want, and that’s by focusing on an external point, and the minute we focus on a point (outside of our body) it requires effort, and something happens at the brain level that prepares us further for the action we are about to take. Remember Pritchett said we can’t achieve exponential gains in our success from a defensive position. We must be primed and ready for action.

Then Use Your Visual Focus to Achieve Your Goals Quicker and With Less Perceived Effort

Huberman’s focusing activity helps us to be prepared mentally for the action we must take, by leaning into the goal, when we do this. He gave an example of a study where one group looked at the goal line in a goal-achieving exercise they had to move to (narrowing their attention to what they wanted-move themselves to the goal line wearing 15 lb weights), while the other group did not look at the goal line, or their final destination. The group that used their focused attention towards the goal they wanted, (they could see exactly where they were going, with no doubts at all) were more primed for that goal physiologically. He explained on a deeper level what happens to the brain and body when we focus on the goal ahead of time, but the results showed the group that looked at the goal line, were able to move towards the goal line with less perceived effort (17% less effort) and quicker (23%) faster than the other group that did not look at the goal line.

Put This into Action:

So how does Dr. Huberman’s research tie into PART 2 of our book study? He said that just by changing where a person looks, they changed their perceived effort and their ability to achieve their goal more quickly.

Do you have your eye on your goal? Are you clear about your END point, or where you are going? There really is a science behind setting and achieving our goals.

As we are working through PART 2 of the series, where we took our goal, that is not a wish, nor a hope, but a burning desire, remember that desire that Edison saw in Barnes’ eyes? Barnes was clear about what he wanted. He had his eyes on the end goal, and Edison saw it just as clearly as Barnes did. That energy radiated from Barnes, and Edison picked it up. He didn’t let it waver (with doubts, fears or worries) and never took his eyes off his goal.

I put an image in the show notes of a roadmap I created in the Level Up Program[xv] (that I created for schools) to help us to break down our goal into quarters. It helps to bring clarity to where you are now, with a vision of where you are going, and a place for action steps you can take along the way, breaking the goal into smaller chunks. You might have a process for breaking down your goals that you prefer, but I put I wanted to share this strategy with you in the show notes as an example to map out your year, with a clear path, keeping in mind that the research shows this clarity (or your eye on the end goal) is so vitally important.

Our brain will pick up on the value we place on our goal, (our clarity and definiteness of purpose) and provide you with the dopamine needed to take the action necessary for the attainment of that goal. That’s mind-blowing to me, to think about WHY the principle of desire (knowing clearly where we are going) pushes us towards what we want. It’s happening on a biological and physiological level. Thanks to Dr. Huberman’s podcast, I was able to make this connection, and many more on a deeper level.

REMEMBER: When we are clear about WHAT we want, and WHY we want it, this will drive our behavior and our brain will produce the neurotransmitter dopamine to push us towards action of what we want. When we can keep our eye clearly on the end goal, we will get there with less perceived effort and quicker than if we didn’t have this clear vision. This reminded me that Brendon Burchard chose clarity as one of the habits in his book, High Performance Habits, as one of the habits that moves the needle the most for habits of high achievers, and now I can see why.

PART 3[xvi] we examined the importance of putting these goals on autopilot with what Hill calls “autosuggestion” and then further honing our craft by studying, learning, and developing specialized knowledge that will separate you from others, making you truly unique with your talent that you’ll continue to perfect in your lifetime, while using your imagination to keep building and perfecting whatever it is that you want to create in your life. What we are doing here is creating NEW behaviors that will become automatic and work for us and make our pursuit towards our goals much easier with time.

The Neuroscience of Habit Building

We mentioned at the start of this episode that we have covered an introduction to how our brain forms and breaks habits on an earlier episode #35[xvii] from January 2020 that’s a good episode to review in addition to what I will share with you here.

PART 3 is all about putting our goals on autopilot, and Hill suggests reading and writing our goals every day, twice a day. What he is doing, is helping us to prime our brain to become crystal clear with our vision, that after a certain amount of time of repeating our goals, they begin to become automatic in our brain. They no longer feel like pipe dreams, but we become familiar with them, and this is not far off from the habit-building literature you will find when you research “How to Build New Habits” with the hundreds of books, research and articles on this subject online.

What I liked about Dr.Huberman’s work is that he explains that there are certain habits that will give us more “limbic friction”[xviii] or are more difficult to do. This is going to be different for everyone. For me, getting up and exercising every day is easy to do, and requires very little limbic friction because it’s become a habit for me over many years, but to sit at my desk and read through Neuroscience Articles on Pubmed is excruciatingly difficult and when we have something that we find difficult to do, we can end up procrastinating, and not doing it at all. Dr. Huberman makes this daunting task simple and easier to tackle by diving the day up into phases, like Phase 1 being the early morning, (0-8 hours after waking up) where you can “overcome this limbic friction” and do the things that are most difficult for you if you tackle them in this early window of the day to help you to push past something that’s difficult, which will eventually form a habit. This was the main idea of Brian Tracey’s popular book Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.[xix] It was about tackling those difficult tasks first.

Put This into Action:

I’ve always liked the idea of picking one habit you will form (or break) every 90 days, and if you can check off each day you do the new habit (if it’s exercise, reading articles on pubmed, or trading coffee for hot lemon water) whatever it is, you pick one habit, and focus on that for 90 days. At the end of the 90 days, you will have formed a new habit, and will have a heightened level of self-awareness as you go through this process. I highly suggest this activity but will say that if you are looking to eliminate a habit you don’t want anymore, and can’t do it, then a good episode to revisit is Dr. Anna Lembke from EPISODE #162[xx] who explains how certain habits can become addictive, and how to break them. You can use the chart in the show notes to pick one habit and make it stick, or break a habit this way over a 90-day period.

I listened to another incredible podcast with Kristen Holmes from Whoop.com who we had on for episode #134[xxi] on “Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain” and she was speaking with Dr. Hazel Wallace on “Nutrition and Habit Formation[xxii]” and they discussed some similar habit forming/breaking strategies. I loved the example that Kristen Holmes used when talking about ways to break habits she didn’t want (like looking at your phone while driving) and she mentioned that thinking of the negative consequences of the action can help you to break these habits. Dr. Huberman mentioned this strategy of his “The Science Behind Setting and Achieving Goals”[xxiii] podcast with the idea of visualizing failure as being an effective goal achieving strategy, instead of the usual visualizing success strategy. He makes the distinction that predicting failure is much different than visualizing failure as predicting failure, or what happens if you don’t achieve what you are going for, can help you lean into your goal. When you are on track, you can reward yourself along the way, and withhold rewards when you veer off track, to keep your dopamine reward center active. The best reward is always the unexpected reward that you could also use to further motivate someone and amplify their system.

Take a look at the image in the show notes and pick one habit that you will form or break over the next 90 days, and see if you can use Dr. Huberman’s strategy of tackling the new habit in Phase 1 of your day, to make it easier on you and your brain, as you attempt to create a new habit.

PART 4[xxiv] we dove deep into why organized planning, decision-making and persistence are important and timeless leadership characteristics, with strategies to help all of us to improve our persistence muscles.

The Neuroscience of Focus

There is a way to focus in on our habits, using our persistence to turn them into stronger habits that stick, and use up “less limbic friction” (Dr. Huberman) or how difficult a habit is to carry out, when we think about the habits we do every day (like brushing our teeth) that are automatic, easy to do, and we can easily perform them at any time. They are strong habits.

Putting This into Action: and Increase the Likelihood That We’ll Build Strong Habits That Stick

A study identifies “neurons that fire at the beginning and end of a behavior”[xxv] become a habit.

Remember the 4 parts of the brain involved in goal-seeking? For this strategy, we are involving the basal ganglia (action execution or suppression or the do/don’t do) circuits of the brain for something Dr. Huberman shared is called “Task Bracketing” and happens any time we are learning a new habit/skill or trying to break a new habit or skill. Most of us will find some things easy to do, and others more difficult, depending on whether they are habits or not.

It matters what we are doing BEFORE and AFTER the skill, to bracket it, because parts of the brain (in the Basal Ganglia that determine whether we are taking an action or not) will become more active (before and after a particular habit) so it “brackets” the habit to make it stronger. I do remember hearing this in a past episode with Dr. Ratey, the author of Spark: The New Science of Exercise and the Brain on EPISODE #116[xxvi] where he mentioned that any time exercise is done BEFORE a new habit you are trying to form, it will make that habit stick. It made sense to me that exercise could be used to frame the habit or think of this imaginary bracket around the habit adding more focus to it, with our brain primed with neurotransmitters, strengthening what we are doing, so it can be performed at any given time.

If we have habits that are “bracketed (with physical exercise, or any other strategy you can think of to prime your brain to what you are about to do) like viewing sunlight, cold exposure, caffeine, fasting, or ways to increase norepinephrine, and dopamine) this will help you to engage in activates with high limbic friction”[xxvii] (or the activities that you find difficult to do). So even if we got a terrible sleep, or aren’t operating optimally, we will still move forward and perform what we set out to do, since we have placed a higher value on this habit we’ve bracketed, just like habits we don’t think as necessary, we could skip. This creates a neural imprint on our brain of the value of whatever habit it is we want to maintain. Preparing our brain for this habit that we want to create by initiating it when our brain and body are in the right state, like early in the first 8 hours of the day when we are less tired, is another way to “bracket” the habit we want to stick with less “limbic friction.”

Another way to strengthen a habit is to think of the neural pathway that’s created each time we do the thing that we want since “neurons that fire together, wire together” and neuroscience and the literature in psychology support that doing what you want to accomplish once or twice in your mind BEFORE hand, can help you to create the neural circuit before you even begin the habit creation process.

Do you know how you bracket your “high limbic friction” habits? Here’s how I do this. In order to read, research and write complex ideas involving neuroscience, I start my day around 4am with coffee (half caffeine and half decaf), use exercise and intermittent fasting that I break after my morning hikes. This way my brain in primed to sit at my desk and create content that I sometimes find difficult to learn, understand and explain. After my interview with Dr. Ratey, I was aware of the fact that I knew I needed to do certain things for me to focus on work that I find difficult to do, but I had no idea it was a brain strategy called “bracketing” until I learned that from Dr. Andrew Huberman.

Example of how Andrea brackets her difficult work (reading/writing neuroscience articles) with caffeine, exercise and intermittent fasting.

PART 5[xxviii] we looked at the incredible power of the Mastermind, when two or more minds come together, creating what Hill called a third, invisible, intangible force that may be likened to a third mind. Next, we took the mystery out of sex transmutation showing that we can use this energy, the most powerful of human desires, to develop keenness of imagination, courage, willpower, persistence, and a creative ability that can become a motivating force to propel any profession to new heights. Finally, we reviewed the importance of linking ALL Parts of our mind together and reminding us about the power of autosuggestion and reading/writing our goals out twice a day.

This part of the book showed me how important it is to bring our understanding of the brain and mind together. One of our earlier episodes from October 2019 focused on “The Difference Between the Mind and Brain”[xxix] so we can see how energy and information comes into our body, and how we can use this information.

There’s an incredible power that is formed when we can tap into our creative mind whether it’s through a mastermind team, or transmuting your energy, we all have the ability to take our results to a new level with this concept.

THE FINAL CHAPTERS OF THINK AND GROW RICH, REVIEW AND CONCLUSION

Chapter 14: Talks about the importance of our sixth sense or developing our intuition that “will open to you at all times the door to the Temple of Wisdom.” (CH 16, Page 248, TAGR). Hill says “the ability to use this power comes slowly, through application of the other principles outlined in this book. Seldom does any individual come into workable knowledge of the sixth sense (or intuition) before the age of 40. More often the knowledge is not available until one is well past 50.” (CH 16, Page 257, TAGR).

I first became interested in this topic years before I read this book, and there are many useful books I have found that have helped me to further develop this skill, like Shakti Gawain’s Developing Intuition: Practical Guidance for Daily Life[xxx] that has a section for using intuition in the workplace. When you become good at listening to what feels right vs what feels wrong, and science ties into this as we will feel it throughout our entire body (interoception) then we will become quicker and more efficient at making decisions and will never need to ask someone else “what do you think about this?” because you will know with certainty what the answer is. This skill does require practice.

The final principle we will cover is Chapter 15 and How to Outwit the Six Ghosts of Fear that Hill says is mandatory, or else none of the other principles will work. He says “before you can put any portion of this philosophy into successful use, your mind must be prepared to receive it. The preparation is not difficult. It begins with study, analysis and understanding of three enemies you need to clear out. These are indecision, doubt and fear.” (CH 15, Page 262, TAGR). Before we can even get to the Six Ghosts of Fear, we must eliminate all doubts and fears that make us indecisive. Do you see how ALL chapters of the book work together like the colors of the rainbow?

Are you decisive or indecisive? If you have learned to trust your intuition, you will be decisive, and not attached to what other people think or as Hill said not “easily influenced by the opinion of others.” Once you have used your sixth sense to move past these three enemies, there are Six Basic Fears (or Ghosts of Fear) that we must outwit.

Fear of Poverty Fear of Criticism Fear of Ill Health Fear of Loss of Love of Someone Fear of Old Age Fear of Death

“Fears are nothing more than states of mind” (CH 15, Page 263, TAGR) and all six of these fears should be examined and eliminated for you to reach your highest potential.

As we come to a close of this chapter, we are brought back to remember how important our thoughts are in chapter 1, and that we must build the life we want with a clear mental image of our goals. We need to be careful who we surround ourselves with, not stay clear of negative thinking, complaining, or worrying. And once we have followed all the steps Hill suggests, in each of the 15 chapters, and eliminate all doubts and fears, we will move steadily in the direction of our goals and THINK for ourselves.

REVIEW, ACTION STEPS AND INSIGHTS

To bring this final episode into a close, I want to review each PART with some thoughts on what action we will take to make use of this book study. I had no idea these episodes would keep me busy for the entire month of January, but I did learn that instead of relying on someone else to walk me through the book, teaching it on the podcast helped me to understand the principles on a deeper lever than any other year I have done with study with someone else leading it.

PART 1: We talked about stretching our brain past what’s familiar or comfortable and think in a wildly different way than we previously have been. The amount of concentration we require to learn something new depends on the complexity of the material, and we must think of learning from a new angle, from within our skull, right down to the neurons, and axons in the brain, and how they are forming neural circuits, depending on the effort we are putting in to form a new habit or create a new circuit that with repetition will eventually become easier. What will you do differently this year? How will you break through to new levels and achieve something you have NEVER done before?

PART 2: We looked at being crystal-clear with our goal, knowing where we are now, and where we want to go, and the action steps we will take, and how focusing on our end point or goal, will help us to get there with less perceived effort and time. I gave you a roadmap to use to map out your year and break it up into quarters so that at any given point of time, if you are asked where you are in the process, you are unwavering with your response.

Is your year clearly mapped out from where you are now, to where you are going?

PART 3: We looked at how autosuggestion puts our goals on autopilot and some ways to break habits that don’t serve us, and how to form new ones. What strategies will you use this year to break or form new habits? I put the 100 Days to Habit worksheet in the show notes you can use for this strategy.

PART 4: We talked about the neuroscience of focus and how to add “task bracketing” to make difficult “high friction limbic” tasks easier to accomplish, while setting the brain on a path to creating a new habit with whatever it is you find difficult. What are your “high friction limbic” tasks? How do you task bracket them to make them less difficult?

PART 5: Puts all of the parts of the brain together and leads us into the final chapters of the book that I admit I hadn’t read until doing this book study. Learning how our brain works is something we can do with new learning, applying new research and honing our skills and craft along the way. It’s all a process, which takes time.

To close out this episode, I’ll end with a quote that I saw the other night on one of Bob Proctor’s social media accounts. I know it wasn’t him posting this, but his team, as he never had time for that sort of thing, but whoever picked this quote, got it right. It said

“What story do you want to tell? What scenes do you want to shoot? How do you want the movie to end? Be the director of your life.”

Bob Proctor

Whatever it is you are going after, you’ll do it when you believe it.

Napoleon Hill had an unwavering belief in his vision when Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest men in American history challenged him to write a book on the laws of achievement, and Hill told him “Andrew Carnegie, I’m not only going to equal your achievements in life, but I am going to challenge you at the post and pass you at the grandstand.” [xxxi]

I’m sure that Carnegie saw the belief in his eyes.

Do you have an unwavering belief in whatever it is you want to achieve?

I would seriously put some thought into this. It’s the last chapter of the book I wrote, inspired by my work with Proctor, The Secret for Teens Revealed, I took the principles I learned while working with Bob in the seminar industry, and created an action plan for teens to use. The last chapter in this book is What Difference Will You Make in Your Lifetime? We should all know the legacy we want to create, and the difference we will make in our lifetime. It’s not what we GET in our lifetime, it’s who we become and it’s up to us to make this happen. The 15 principles of this book that we have studied are a solid roadmap to help guide us there. I think we can now all agree how these principles are backed by science and why they are effective.

With that, I complete our Book Study of the powerful book, Think and Grow Rich, that has been studied by some of the wisest people in the world, and if you’ve made it this far, you can add yourself to this list as well. I would love to hear any feedback on this episode and what you think. Did this study help you to refine your year? Now that we have completed the study, what action steps will you take? Do you feel the sense of urgency that I tried to convey that this MUST be the year we ALL do things differently to attain new results, and that as each year comes to a close, we revisit these 15 principles to further refine our plans? If this was the last year of your life what would you do to make an imprint of the world with your talents and abilities?

See you next week as we move into some interviews with a returning guest, David Sousa and his new edition of How the Brain Learns, as well as a fascinating story of Erika Ferszt[xxxii], who founded Moodally.com and turned to neuroscience after she experienced work burnout after 10 years of working for Ray-Ban in Global Advertising and Media. We continue our season in pursuit of our goals, with health and wellbeing at the core of our message.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[xxxii] http://www.moodally.com/

REFERENCES:

[i] Mindset: They New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Published February 28, 2006 https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck-ebook/dp/B000FCKPHG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3FV9OCNZT8UVQ&keywords=carol+dweck&qid=1643721730&s=books&sprefix=carol+dweck%2Cstripbooks%2C112&sr=1-3

[ii] The Secret for Teens Revealed by Andrea Samadi, Published 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teens-Revealed-Teenagers-Leadership/dp/1604940336

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #66 with The Legendary Bob Proctor on “Where it All Started” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-legendary-bob-proctor-on/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #67 on “Expanding Your Awareness with the Top Lessons Learned from Bob Proctor’s Most Powerful Seminars” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expanding-your-awareness-with-a-deep-dive-into-bob-proctors-most-powerful-seminars/

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #35 “How to Use Your Brain to Break Bad Habits” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-to-use-your-brain-to-break-bad-habits-in-2020/

[vi] Alan Lindeman, Executive Coach https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlindeman/

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 PART 1 “Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

[viii] Astrocyte Regulation of Blood Flow in the Brain May 2015 by Brian A MacVicar and Eric A Newman https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4448617/

[ix] Harnessing a Universe of Knowledge: The Science of Learning, Special Time Edition, by Markham Heid Page 12

[x] IBID

[xi] NFL Playoffs: What we learned from Bengals’ win over Chiefs in AFC Championship Game by Kevin Patra, Jan. 30th, 2022 https://www.nfl.com/_amp/2021-nfl-playoffs-what-we-learned-from-bengals-win-over-chiefs-in-afc-championsh

[xii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #191 PART 2 on “Thinking Differently and Choosing Faith Over Fear” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-2-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever-by-thinking-differently-and-choosing-faith-over-fear/

[xiii] Set and Achieve Goals with Andrew Huberman https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-setting-and-achieving-goals/

[xiv] The Science of Setting and Achieving Goals Andrew Huberman Podcast EPISODE 55 Published January 15, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1F7EEGPQwo

[xv] Level Up for Educators https://www.achieveit360.com/level-up-for-educators-neuroscience-meets-sel/

[xvi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 PART 3 on “Putting Our Goals on Autopilot with Autosuggestion and Our Imagination” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

[xvii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #35 “How to Use Your Brain to Break Bad Habits” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-to-use-your-brain-to-break-bad-habits-in-2020/

[xviii] Dr. Andrew Huberman “The Science of Making and Breaking Habits” https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-making-and-breaking-habits/

[xix]Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracey April 17, 2017 https://www.amazon.com/Eat-That-Frog-Great-Procrastinating/dp/162656941X

[xx] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #162 Dr. Anna Lembke on her book “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/medical-director-of-addictive-medicine-at-stanford-university-dr-anna-lembke-on-dopamine-nation-finding-balance-in-the-age-of-indulgence/

[xxi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes from Whoop.com on “Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain” with a Whoop Device https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/

[xxii] Whoop Podcast #157 with Kristen Holmes and Dr. Hazel Wallace on “Nutrition and Habit Formation” https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/podcast-157-dr-hazel-wallace-nutrition-habit-formation/

[xxiii] The Science of Setting and Achieving Goals Andrew Huberman Podcast EPISODE 55 Published January 15, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1F7EEGPQwo

[xxiv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #194 PART 4 on “Perfecting the Skills of Organized Planning, Decision-Making, and Persistence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-4-on-perfecting-the-skills-of-organized-planning-decision-making-and-persistence/

[xxv] Distinctive Brain Pattern Helps Habits Form by Anne Trafton Feb. 8, 2018 https://mcgovern.mit.edu/2018/02/08/distinctive-brain-pattern-helps-habits-form/

[xxvi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #116 with Dr. Ratey on “The New Science of Exercise and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/best-selling-author-john-j-ratey-md-on-the-revolutionary-new-science-of-exercise-and-the-brain/

[xxvii] Dr. Andrew Huberman “The Science of Making and Breaking Habits” https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-making-and-breaking-habits/

[xxix][xxix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #23 “Understanding the Difference Between Your Mind and Brain for Improved Results” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/understanding-your-brain-and-mind-for-increased-results/

[xxx]Developing Intuition: Practical Guidance for Daily Life by Shatki Gawain Published October 10, 2001 https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Intuition-Practical-Guidance-Daily/dp/1577311868

[xxxi] for-success.com/napoleon-hill/">https://www.inspiration-for-success.com/napoleon-hill/

Jan 27, 2022

00:21:49

Welcome back to PART 5 of Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever with EPISODE #195 on “The Power of the Mastermind, Taking the Mystery Out of Sex Transmutation, and Linking ALL Parts of Our Mind” as we continue our deep dive into Napoleon Hill’s Classic book, Think and Grow Rich, that has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. Before I go on with this episode, I just want to say that out of those 15 million copies of this book sold, I wonder how many people of those 15 million people read the book the way that Napoleon Hill intended? I know I didn’t until Paul Martinelli taught me how to read it, and I know from doing this book study that I’m only scratching the surface of these 15 principles, used by some of the wisest people in the world. Hill himself would say that if you haven’t read the book three times, or completed the exercises, you haven’t read the book yet! I hope this book study is helping you to dive deeper into these important chapters of one of this classic and timeless book, and that you are gaining a deeper awareness as we’re reading this book together.

On this episode, you will learn:

✔︎ Review PART 1, 2, 3 and 4 to Reinforce the First 9 Chapters of Think and Grow Rich.

✔︎ What "power" can be felt and seen when we Mastermind with Others.

✔︎ What is the "Irresistible Force" That Hill Says Gifts Us With a Super Power for Action?

✔︎ How Do ALL Parts of Our Mind Work Together?

If you have been following our book study of Napoleon Hill’s Classic book, Think and Grow Rich, we are nearing the end of this study. Just to review, you will recall how

PART 1 began with a reminder from Grant Cardone that “in order to get to the next level of whatever it is that we are doing, we must think and act in a wildly different way than we previously have been.”[i] We outlined all of the 15 principles that we will be diving into (have covered 9 of them so far) and in

PART 2[ii] we looked at the importance of positive thinking, being crystal clear with what we want, and choosing faith over fear in pursuit of our goals.

PART 3[iii] we examined the importance of putting these goals on autopilot with what Hill calls “autosuggestion” and then further honing our craft by studying, learning, and developing specialized knowledge that will separate you from others, making you truly unique with your talent that you’ll continue to perfect in your lifetime, while using your imagination to keep building and perfecting whatever it is that you want to create in your life.

PART 4[iv] we dove deep into why organized planning, decision-making and persistence are important and timeless leadership characteristics, with strategies to help all of us to improve our persistence muscles.

Leading us to the final chapters of the book with the last two episodes that will cover Chapter 10 on the Power of the Mastermind, Chapter 11 (one of the most misunderstood chapters in the book) The Mystery of Sex Transmutation, Chapter 12, The Subconscious Mind on this episode, and the final episode in this series, that will cover Chapter 13, The Brain, Chapter 14, the Sixth Sense and 15 on Outwitting the Ghosts of Fear.

Before I began recording these episodes, I didn’t know how many it would take to cover these chapters thoroughly, but if you are like me, and just want to learn, keep listening and see if you can add anything new to your goal-setting/achieving process. I had no idea it would cover the entire month of January to properly review this book. We really could keep going all year, as each principle we could talk about for an entire month. Therefore, I think it’s important to revisit this book, every year, as we are working on new goals, to continue to improve our own process, and take our understanding of each principle, to a new level. Remember that Hill says that if we haven’t read the book three times, and completed the exercises, we haven’t read the book at all.

Chapter 10 The Power of the Mastermind

Bringing us to Chapter 10 on The Power of the Mastermind that Hill brings to life when he says that “no two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible, intangible force that may be likened to a third mind.” (CH 10, Page 195, TAGR). Hill is describing the power that happens, the “collective consciousness” that’s created when 2 or more people come together for a sustained period of time to drive forward an idea.

I know that we have all felt this happen. No one has said it better than the late Doug Wead[v], who I first heard talk about this power May, 2001 when I worked in the seminar industry and heard him speak for the first time. His speech was called “The Third-Party Principle” and the wisdom that’s held when you take your idea or whatever it is you are working on, to two or more other people. He called it the “triple-braided cord” that would form when 2 or more minds came together. This is the power of the mastermind that Hill wants us to pay attention to, where he says that “no two minds ever come together without creating a third, invisible, intangible force, that may be likened to a third mind” and the reason why we should always look for people smarter than we are, to learn from. “The Master Mind may be defined as coordinated knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.” (CH 10, Pag 195, TAGR).

Whatever it is you are working on, if you can create a Mastermind group to help push your idea forward, you will notice the “power” of this Mastermind, that Hill titled this chapter on. There’s something magical that happens, that you won’t miss. Every person will feel it and be forever changed from each meeting that you have. Have you ever seen this principle in action? You’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, if you have.

“Plans are inert and useless without the sufficient power to translate them into action.” (CH 10, Page 193, TAGR) and “this chapter will describe the method by which an individual may attain and apply power…Power refers to an organized effort …of two or more people who work towards a definite end in a spirit of harmony.” (CH 10, Page 195, TAGR).

Hill reminds us to “keep in mind the fact that there are only two known elements in the whole universe—energy and matter. Matter may be broken down into molecules, atoms and electrons” and that the “human mind is a form of energy” (CHA 10, Page 196, TAGR) that will be an important part of the next chapter, but will show us in this chapter, why one plus one equals three. Always surround yourself with people who are smarter than you for this compounding effect to occur.

Do you have a Mastermind group that you participate in?

I’m sure for people who tune into this podcast, that this is not a new concept, but just a reminder of the success principles that have been proven over the years to yield the highest results. “Henry Ford began his business career under the handicap of poverty, illiteracy and ignorance. Within the conceivably short period of 10 years, Mr. Ford mastered these three handicaps, and within 25 years, made himself one of the richest men in America. Connect with the additional knowledge that Mr. Ford’s most rapid strides became noticeable from the time he became a personal friend of Thomas A Edison, and you will begin to understand what the influence of one mind upon another can accomplish.” (CH 10, Page 197, TAGR).

Setting Up Your Own Mastermind Group:

To make use of this principle, align yourself with others you can learn from, and begin. Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos all had their inner circle of “thinking partners” to help take their ideas to new heights. “Economic advantages may be created by people who surround themselves with the advice, counsel, and personal cooperation of a group of people who are willing to lend them wholehearted aid in the spirit of perfect harmony.” (CH 10, Page 195, TAGR).

WHO DO YOU INVITE? “Some of the best sources for creating your own Mastermind are your own employees.” (CH 10, Page 100, TAGR). Come together with people who are in harmony as you (with the same beliefs as you, and what you think is possible) but the people you choose must THINK differently than you to take you beyond where your mind can see. You will see this in action when you meet and be prepared to draw new ideas and knowledge from others, who can see things that you might not be able to see. WHEN DO YOU MEET? Pick a date to meet either in person or online and stick to that same date (whether it’s once a month or once a quarter), keep your meetings going for at least a year. WHAT SHOULD YOU NOTICE? First, you will notice a sense of peace and certainty that comes from these meetings, because of the energies coming together with a common goal, of helping each other. You will notice a calmness of mind, in addition to new ideas and ways forward. Next, you will notice these meetings are highly creative. Ideas will flow, and you will move away from the competitive plane, to a more creative one. Finally, you will notice that others will see things that you cannot see. They will be able to notice progress moving forward, when you see roadblocks, and the idea is that together, your minds move past all obstacles, with the powerful force that you create together.

Do you see how these chapters and principles all work together, like the colors of the rainbow. You will remember the image that shows how our thoughts can move from one frequency to another. If you want to think and act in a wildly different way than we previously have been (from Chapter 1) then it would be with the help of your Master Mind. The new ideas generated will take you from where you are now, to new levels of awareness, in pursuit of your goal.

Bringing us to Chapter 11, The Mystery of Sex Transmutation

Which I think is one of the most misunderstood chapters in this entire book. Many people teach this book, and many skip over this chapter, and I it’s because many people can get stuck with the physical side of this concept, that they miss that there’s more than the physical, and how simple yet important this concept is. Simple, and easily explained, but not at all easy to do. We could go down a rabbit hole here, but let’s stick to why Hill thinks this idea is “simple and easily explained” to begin with, so we can see why he included this principle as one of the main chapters in this book.

At first glance, I know, we can make up our own mind of what we think this chapter is about but let’s look at Hill’s definition.

What is Sex Transmutation?

It means the switching of the mind from thoughts of physical expressions to thoughts of some other nature” (CH 11, Page 206, TAGR) and can be better understood with that same image we just looked at to explain how our mastermind group can take us to new levels of awareness, where we can see how our thoughts can move us to different frequencies. Remember that we live simultaneously on three planes; we are spiritual beings, with an intellect, and we live in a physical body. If you look at the diagram in the show notes, we have labelled the lines or different levels of frequency S for spiritual realm, where we will feel the need to expand or always move forward, I for the intellectual realm where we access our creativity to build our dreams, and P for physical.

I’m sure it’s easy for us to imagine the energy that exists on the physical plane (just the same as we would imagine where we currently are with our goals on the physical plane, or what can use our 5 senses to see, feel, taste, touch and smell) but there’s much more to this energy, that goes beyond our 5 senses, to the intellectual and spiritual frequencies. Hill says to transmute this energy “It means the switching of the mind from thoughts of physical expressions (the lowest form of energy) to thoughts of some other nature (on a higher frequency)” (CH 11, Page 206, TAGR).

3 Planes of Existence (Spiritual, Intellectual, and Physical).

Remember it is “simple and easily explained” but not easy to do the switching from the plane that you predominantly operate from. This is where I think most people will miss the value in this chapter, and not spend enough time thinking beyond the physical. There is so much more for us to experience if we can detach from the physical, but it’s difficult to think beyond our five senses, because we have not been taught to operate with the unseen world or to “switch our mind from thoughts of physical expressions to some other nature.” (Hill). We look at our bank accounts, and see how much money we have, and can’t “imagine” beyond what we see. We can use our higher faculties our (intuition, imagination, will, reason, perception and memory) to see beyond our senses to attain new results, switch to different frequencies, and “transmute” our energy.

How Do We Do This?

We can take this idea of sex that we know as “the perpetuation of mankind, the maintenance of health, and the transformation of mediocrity into genius through transmutation” (CH 11, Page 205, TAGR) and switch it from “thoughts of physical expression, (on the physical plane) to thoughts of some other nature” (on a higher level of frequency or plane) (CH 11, Page 206, TAGR). We must actually do the switching and go from the physical level, where it’s very easy to get attached emotionally, detach (or let go) and switch our thoughts to another frequency with effort.

This is “simple and easily explained” but not easy to do, and Hill warns us this is why people seldom succeed before age 40. He notes “more often, they do not strike their real pace until they are well beyond the age of 50” (CH 11, Page 216, TAGR) and this chapter goes on to explain how to use this vital force to communicate with others, and inspire others through compassion, encouragement and enthusiasm.

Hill says this energy “is the most powerful of human desires. When driven by this desire, people develop keenness of imagination, courage, willpower, persistence and creative ability unknown to them at other times. When harnessed and redirected along other lines, the positive attributes of this motivating force may be used as powerful creative forces in literature, art or in any other profession or calling.” (CH 11, Page 206, TAGR). We will become highly attractive and appealing to people if we can balance these three planes of existence. You’ll see a creative force that really is unstoppable.

Where does this energy exist predominantly in you?

Some people have higher drives of this energy on different planes. Do you know where you operate from with this energy most of the time? It’s useful to know this, so you can work on balancing all three areas for improved results.

Paul Martinelli explained this to me in a way that made complete sense. He said to think about a singer[vi] who may have incredible talent, with a voice that moves you to the core. She sings and it strikes your emotions, and even on a spiritual level, you are moved. But there is something missing. She is shy and is lacking when it comes to her stage presence. She may have mastered the spiritual and intellectual realm but has not fully developed her talent in the physical realm and lacks the charisma needed for her to perform on stage.

Hill reminds us about the “irresistible force against which there can be no opposition—when driven by this emotion, men and women become gifted with a super power for action. Understand this truth and you will catch the significance of the statement that sex transmutation will lift one to the status of genius. The emotion of sex contains the secret of creative ability.” (CH 11, Page 207, TAGR).

We can transmute or “transfer one form of energy into another” (CH 11, Page 205, TAGR) which is how we move from one frequency or vibration to another. Don’t get trapped into thinking that we can exist only on the physical plane or that this energy exists only on the physical plane. It can also exist on the intellectual and spiritual plane with the use of “transmutation” that transfers or changes the physical energy into another form.

Remember, this idea links back to the first chapter, when we had to think “wildly different thoughts”[vii] to get new results, that would take us from where we are now (physical realm) to where our goals sit (spiritual realm in the diagram).

Think about where you operate from predominantly. If you are dominant in the physical realm, you will be missing something in the intellectual and spiritual realm, just as if you are dominant in the intellectual realm, there will be something missing for you in the physical realm. This is just another way to become more self-aware and find balance in all three areas to experience the “superpowers for action” that Hill explains is possible with this energy.

Chapter 12: The Subconscious Mind

Bringing us to Chapter 12 on what Hill calls the Subconscious Mind. We will call it this in this description but have been taught to label this part of the mind in recent years as the nonconscious mind (with any mental process that goes on in which the individual is unaware).

Don’t forget to READ and WRITE the 6 STEPS every day, to influence this part of your mind. We did cover this in PART 2[viii] of this series.

We did also cover this part of the mind on PART 3[ix] when exploring autosuggestion with the three parts of your mind: The conscious mind, The Non-Conscious Mind and how our mind impacts The Body. Hill reminds us in this chapter that “The subconscious mind works day and night” (CH 12, Page 230, TAGR) and that you “cannot entirely control your subconscious mind, but you can voluntarily hand over to it, any plan, desire or purpose you wish to be transformed into concrete form” (CH 12, Page 230, TAGR) and reminds us to go back to Chapter 4 on Autosuggestion and read this chapter again. Since each of these principles are connected, like the colors of the rainbow, it’s good practice to keep your book tabbed, so that you can go back and forth to previous chapters when needed.

To review PART 5 of this SERIES:

The Power of the Mastermind: Remember the third-party principle or the “third, invisible, intangible force that may be likened to a third mind.” (CH 10, Page 195, TAGR). with the “collective consciousness” that’s created when 2 or more people come together for a sustained period of time to drive forward an idea. Do you have a Mastermind Group that you participate in? This is a powerful practice that will guarantee forward motion. Taking the Mystery Out of Sex Transmutation: Do you know what plane you predominantly operate on? To make full use of this power, how could you create more balance in all 3 of these areas? Linking All Parts of Our Mind: Have you formed the practice of reading and writing your goals twice a day? If not, you are missing the power of autosuggestion created from the power of your non-conscious mind that works day and night and accepts whatever you tell it.

With that, we will bring this episode into a close, and I will see you in a few days for the final episode of this series, that will cover Chapter 13, The Brain, Chapter 14, the Sixth Sense and 15 on Outwitting the Ghosts of Fear.

Have a wonderful weekend!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 PART 1 “Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

[ii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #191 PART 2 on “Thinking Differently and Choosing Faith Over Fear” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-2-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever-by-thinking-differently-and-choosing-faith-over-fear/

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 PART 3 on “Putting Our Goals on Autopilot with Autosuggestion and Our Imagination” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

[iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #195 PART 4 on “Perfecting the Skills of Organized Planning, Decision-Making, and Persistence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-4-on-perfecting-the-skills-of-organized-planning-decision-making-and-persistence/

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #187 “In Memory of Presidential Historian Doug Wead on Leadership and Character Lessons from the Greatest US Presidents” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/in-memory-of-presidential-historian-doug-wead-on-applying-leadership-and-character-lessons-from-the-greatest-us-presidents/

[vi] Paul Martinelli on The Mystery of Sex Transmutation Published May 1, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QlYitpjpvM&list=PLO4Y7YoQ7TKPBOWw15h1DhlYQcKK8Hhub&index=13

[vii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #191 PART 2 on “Thinking Differently and Choosing Faith Over Fear” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-2-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever-by-thinking-differently-and-choosing-faith-over-fear/

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #191 PART 2 on “Thinking Differently and Choosing Faith Over Fear” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-2-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever-by-thinking-differently-and-choosing-faith-over-fear/

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 PART 3 on “Putting Our Goals on Autopilot with Autosuggestion and Our Imagination” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

Jan 21, 2022

00:18:57

Welcome back to PART 4 of Making 2022 You Best Year Ever with EPISODE #194 on “Perfecting the Skills of Organized Planning, Decision-Making and Persistence” as we continue our deep dive into Napoleon Hill’s Classic book, Think and Grow Rich, that has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

On this episode, you will learn:

✔︎ Review PART 1, 2, 3 to Reinforce the First 6 Chapters of Think and Grow Rich.

✔︎ Why the Skills of Organized Planning , Decision-Making and Persistence are important and Timeless Leadership Characteristics.

✔︎The Major Attributes of Leadership.

✔︎ The Major Causes of Failure in Leadership.

✔︎ Strategies to Improve Your Decision-Making and Persistence Muscles.

For those new, or returning guests, welcome back. I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you who tune in, have been fascinated with learning, understanding, and applying the most current brain research to improve productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. This month, I decided to share my notes with you on a book that I have been studying every January since 2018, with Paul Martinelli, who has studied this book for most of his career. It was the book that my mentor Bob Proctor has studied for his entire life, over 57 years, and a book that some of the wisest people in the world have studied.

If you have been following our episodes of Napoleon Hill’s Classic book, you will recall how

PART 2[ii] we looked at the importance of positive thinking, being crystal clear with what we want, and choosing faith over fear in pursuit of our goals.

Now we move into Chapter 7 on Organized Planning, Chapter 8 on Decision, and Chapter 9, my all-time favorite, on Persistence. If you think about it, we have developed our vision in the first six chapters, have probably created a plan to move towards what we want, and are using our mind, our five senses, and even thinking beyond our five senses with our 6 faculties of the mind that we reviewed on episode #67.[iv] These next three chapters are integral for making sure our plans stay on track, that we take continual action steps towards our crystal-clear vision, with a never give up attitude. Which leads us to…

Chapter 7 Organized Planning

This chapter holds some timeless secrets for success that are so important, you can go to Amazon and find hundreds of books that focus on “organization” whether in your personal or professional life. You can browse through Netflix and find shows based on the importance of keeping your home “organized” with the show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo[v] where she explains the energy that frees up when your home goes from disorderly to orderly.

Hill reminds us in the beginning of this chapter on the importance of organized planning when he states “if the plan you adopt does not work successfully, replace it with a new plan” (CH7, Page 117, TAGR) and that “temporary defeat should only mean one thing—the certain knowledge that there is something wrong with your plan.” (CH7, Page 117, TAGR). Remember Thomas Edison “failed” 10,000 times before he perfected the incandescent light bulb.

“A QUITTER NEVER WINS AND A WINNER NEVER QUITS” Hill suggests writing this sentence out on a piece of paper “and place it where you will see it every night before you go to sleep, and every morning before you go to work.” (CH7, Page 118, TAGR). I remember in 6th grade, my teacher, Mr. Ron Walker had a poster above the clock in our classroom at Norman Ingram Public School in Toronto, with a beat-up kid trying to learn hockey. He has band aids all over him, cuts, and bruises, but at the top of the poster was written that phrase “A QUITTER NEVER WINS AND A WINNER NEVER QUITS.” I used to stare at that poster often, not because I wanted to learn that sport, maybe a bit because it was right over the clock that I kept my eye on, but that phrase would later be something that would become a habit and would lead me to places that most people would never see, because the win often occurs AFTER most people would typically give up. We’ll examine this on a deeper level in the Persistence chapter.

In this chapter, on Organized Planning, Hill writes about the TOP 11 Major Attributes of Leadership, and while all of them are important, the ones that stood out to me are that leaders possess:

Unwavering Courage “that comes from knowledge of self and of one’s occupation”(CH 7, Page 120, TAGR)

Self-control “people who cannot control themselves cannot control others”(CH 7, Page 120, TAGR)

Definiteness of Decision “People who waver in their decisions show that they are not sure of themselves” (CH 7, Page 120, TAGR) Definiteness of Plans “The successful leader must plan the work and work the plan.”(CH 7, Page 120, TAGR) The Habit of Doing More Than Paid For “One of the penalties of leadership is the necessity and of willingness, upon the part of the leaders, to do more than they require of their followers” (CH 7, Page 120, TAGR) and Mastery of Detail of everything that pertains to “the leader’s position” (CH 7, Page 120, TAGR)

You will see how these characteristics of leadership all tie into the next few chapters we will be looking at.

Napoleon Hill also lists the TOP 10 Major Causes of Failure in Leadership in this chapter, and the first one is “The inability to organize details” (CH.7, page 122, TAGR) where “the successful leader must be the master of all details connected to that position” (CH.7, page 123, TAGR).

While I think ALL the 10 Major Causes of Failure are important to read through, and take an honest look at, the first one will set you up for success if you can master organization in your personal and professional life as the ability to organize details in our workplace begins with the ability to organize details within ALL the major areas of our life. I covered the nine environments of our life, on our episode that launched 2021 last January, on EPISODE #103 “3 Ways to Reset, Refuel and Recharge Your Brain”[vi] and I do highly recommend taking a 360 look at our life every year to evaluate where energy might be leaking that could be directed somewhere else. Our environments (that surround us) either inspire us or expire us. They either add energy and move you ahead or drain your energy and hold you back.

Whether this is fair or not, it’s easy to walk past someone’s work environment and notice if it’s organized, (giving energy vs draining energy) or sit in their car, and look around and notice if it’s kept clean, (giving energy vs draining energy) or open up their closet and see how their clothes are organized, (you get the picture) Our environments and how we keep them give anyone a glimpse into how we value organization in the major areas of our life.

The statement “How you do anything is how you do everything” which says a lot and means that the small details matter. Hill put the inability to organize details as his first Major Cause of Failure and he even leaves a spot open for you to add you own idea to this list, in spot #31.

He reminds us to “know thyself” and we couldn’t agree more. Our second episode on this podcast was called “Know Thyself”[vii] still remains as one of our most popular episodes. We launched our podcast with the topic of Self-Awareness to kick off our first social and emotional learning competency since to “know thyself” is the most substantial achievement we can have in our lifetime.

“The major value in life is not what you get. It’s what you become.” (Jim Rohn, American author, speaker and entrepreneur).

Hill reminds us that “you should know all of your weaknesses so that you may either bridge them or eliminate them entirely…you can know yourself only through accurate analysis.” (CH 7, Page 144, TAGR).

Do you know yourself? Your strengths AND weaknesses?

Hill offers a 28-question inventory to help us to self-assess ourselves, decrease our faults, and increase our virtues.

Chapter 8 Decision

Hill opens up this chapter by sharing that an “accurate analysis of over 25,000 men and women who had experienced failure disclosed the fact that lack of decision was near the head of the list of the 30 major causes of failure.” (CH 8, Page 157, TAGR). He says that this is not a statement of theory, but a fact and that successful people “had the habit of reaching decisions promptly and of changing these decisions slowly, if and when they were changed.” (CH 8, Page 157, TAGR)

He shared that one of Henry Ford’s outstanding qualities was “his habit of reaching decisions quickly and definitely and changing them slowly.” (CH 8, Page 158, TAGR)

How do you make decisions? Remember that you “have a brain and mind of your own. Use it and reach your own decisions.” (CH 8, Page 159, TAGR).

Making decisions requires courage and “the great decisions which served as the foundation of civilization were reached by assuming great risks.” (CH 8, Page 160, TAGR). You can read through some examples that Hill provides of those famous people in history who made decisions that required courage. Some of them are so moving, that they inspired me many years ago, before deciding to move from Toronto to the United States, to purchase a poster that has been in my office ever since I made this move, with the word Courage is written on the top, along with the poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that says “The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.” (Goethe)

This is true (with a committed decision all sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred) and cannot be experienced until AFTER the committed decision is made, and all other options or bridges are burned. Like we mentioned in PART 2 of this study, in Chapter 1 where “Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat.” (CH 2, page 21, TAGR). Barnes did this when he found his way to New Jersey to meet with Edison, and Dr. David Sinclair did it when he left Australia for MIT.[viii]

Do you make decisions quickly and change them slowly?

“You have a brain and mind of your own. Use it and reach you own decisions.” (CH8, Page 159, TAGR).

Chapter 9 Persistence

This chapter is to me, the most important chapter of the book. It’s so important that I put a tab labelled PERSISTENCE instead of just a chapter number so I could refer to this chapter often when needed.

People who reach high levels of success in their life can usually tell you where they have applied persistence to get what they wanted, with the mixture of their will (one of the higher faculties of the mind). Successful people are often “known as cold-blooded and sometimes ruthless. Often they are misunderstood. What they have is willpower, which they mix with persistence” (CH. 9, Page 175, TAGR) to get what they want. The word “persistence” is “to character, what carbon is to steel.” (CH 9, Page 178, TAGR). “Without persistence, you will be defeated, even before you start. With persistence, you will win.” (CH 9, Page 178, TAGR).

STRENGTHENING YOUR “PERSISTENCE” MUSCLES

I was taught to use this skill in my early days of working with Proctor. There was an activity he would have us to do that was meant to develop “Persistence” so that it became a habit. He would have us read this chapter, for 14 days in a row. The entire chapter, every day, for 14 days, and if for some reason, you missed a day, you would need to start over again. This was much easier for me in the days before I had children, and I read this chapter often. Fast forward to 2019 when Paul Martinelli challenged us to read the chapter for 14 days in a row, I thought “that’s a piece of cake” and I took the challenge. I would have to say this was one of the most difficult things I have done in recent years and could see exactly how it builds your persistence muscles. I set my alarm to wake up a bit earlier than usual, and went to my office, and every morning, would read this chapter using the small light in my office, so I didn’t wake anyone else up in the house. I wouldn’t say it was easy but try it yourself and see how you do. It was smooth sailing for me until one morning I was at my desk reading, and one of the kids came into my office not feeling well, and I put my book down to solve her tummy ache and get her ready for school. The day had started, and I had missed reading the chapter. I didn’t have a block of time in the work day to do this, so I had to take something off my schedule, to get back on track. This activity will open your eyes to how different roadblocks will come your way, and take your eye off your goals, and without the use of your will, you would probably let that one thing fall off your radar. And you will have to start over again at day 1 if that happens. Try this challenge, and tick off every day that you read the Persistence chapter from start to finish and see if you can do this 14 days in a row. It’s an eye-opening activity that will give you incredible self-awareness. Try it, and let me know what you notice.

Never underestimate the compounding effect of consistency.

“A good example of the power of persistence is show business. From all over the world people have come to Hollywood seeking fame, fortune, power, love or whatever it is that human beings call success…But Hollywood is not easily nor quickly conquered. It acknowledges talent, recognizes genius and pays off in money only after one has refused to quit. The secret is always inseparably attached to one word—persistence.” (CH 9, Page 180, TAGR).

It requires discipline—the ability to give yourself a command and follow through.

Who do you know who is persistent?

If you are in the profession of sales, someone who is persistent will be conditioned to not take “no” for an answer in the sales cycle. When the customer says “no” the persistent sales representative will ask questions to see if there is any possible way forward. Asking questions helps them to discover if there is an opportunity, or not. They may uncover that the person said no because they just spent their budget with another company and had no more budget left to spend with you, even if they love your product. A persistent salesperson who can develop and maintain strong relationships with their customers would then be able to ask if it would be possible for them to cancel the order with the other company and purchase with you.

It may lead to an opportunity, or not, but without persistence, one would never know.

WHEN TO GIVE UP

There’s always the point where whatever it is we want is out of our reach, and when we have tried all angles, pushed past when most others would have given up, that I think it’s ok to give up, only if you put in your best effort. I don’t quote my Dad (Frank) often, as sometimes our best teachers in life teach us important life lessons the hard way without any sugar coating that would not lead to intended results. My Dad used to always say “What’s for you won’t go by you” which helped me a few times I didn’t get the job I wanted in my early 20s. I do still believe that saying to be true, and remember that force negates, that there is always a time that you will know you’ve given your best shot, and this opportunity just wasn’t for you.

Which leads us to the conclusion of this episode. I’ll see you next week as we move into the final chapters of the book, with Chapter 10 on the Power of the Mastermind, Chapter 11 (one of the most misunderstood chapters in the book) The Mystery of Sex Transmutation, Chapter 12, The Subconscious Mind and Chapter 13, The Brain.

I hope you are finding value in visiting these timeless principles, used by some of the wisest people in the world, to make your 2022, your best year ever. See you next week!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

REFERENCES:

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #67 “Expanding Your Awareness with a Deep Dive into Most Important Concepts Learned from Bob Proctor Seminars: https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expanding-your-awareness-with-a-deep-dive-into-bob-proctors-most-powerful-seminars/

[v] Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/80209379

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #103 on “3 Ways to Reset, Recharge and Refuel Your Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-of-leadership-3-ways-to-reset-recharge-and-refuel-your-brain-for-your-best-year-ever/

[vii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #2 “Know Thyself” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/self-awareness-know-thyself/

Jan 18, 2022

00:23:37

Welcome back to PART 3 of Making 2022 You Best Year Ever with EPISODE #193 on “Making Your Goals Automatic by Putting Autosuggestion into Practice with Your Imagination“ as we continue our deep dive into Napoleon Hill’s Classic book, Think and Grow Rich, that has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

On this episode, you will learn:

✔︎ Review PART 1 and 2 to Reinforce the First 3 Chapters of Think and Grow Rich.

✔︎ Chapter 4: How to Use Autosuggestion to Set Your Goals on Autopilot.

✔︎ Chapter 5: Why We Must Acquire and Know How to Use Specialized Knowledge to Reach High Levels of Success

✔︎ Chapter 6: Why Imagination is Everything.

For those new, or returning guests, welcome back to Season 7 of our Podcast. I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you who tune in, have been fascinated with learning, understanding, and applying the most current brain research to improve productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. This month, I decided to share my notes with you on a book that I have been studying every January since 2018, with Paul Martinelli, who has studied this book for most of his career. It was the book that my mentor Bob Proctor has studied for his entire life, over 57 years, and a book that some of the wisest people in the world have studied.

If you have been following our episodes of Napoleon Hill’s Classic book, you will recall how PART 1 began with a reminder from Grant Cardone that “in order to get to the next level of whatever it is that you are doing, you must think and act in a wildly different way than we previously have been.”[i] We outlined all of the 15 principles that we will be diving into and in PART 2 we looked at the importance of positive thinking, being crystal clear with what we want, and choosing faith over fear in pursuit of our goals.

Before I began recording these episodes, I didn’t know how many it would take to cover these chapters thoroughly, but if you are like me, and just want to learn, keep listening and see if you can add anything new to your goal-setting/achieving process. We really could keep going all year, as each principle we could talk about for an entire month. Therefore, I think it’s important to revisit this book, every year, as we are working on new goals, to continue to improve our own process, and take our understanding of each principle, to a new level.

Whatever it is you are working on—a new job or position at work, or smaller steps to a huge vision that you have, it’s normal to be skeptical of anything new, especially when the ideas are so abstract. At first glance the title of this book sounds crazy. Think and Grow Rich! Sounds a bit out there. The only reason I am covering this book on this podcast, is because it is such a classic, and has the ability to challenge anyone’s “thinking” and the principles have been used successfully from some of the wisest people in the world.

I have met many people while working in the speaking industry who had successfully created beautiful lives with these principles, and they kept coming back to deepen their study, awareness and understanding. It’s a process. When I read about how Jim Carrey[ii] used these ideas when he first came into the film industry, visualizing his first $10M check, I wasn’t surprised at all.

For this episode we will move into chapter 4 on Autosuggestion, Chapter 5 on Specialized Knowledge, and Chapter 6 on Imagination. What I’m noticing is how these chapters all work together, like my mentor Proctor says, “like the colors of the rainbow” as we think back to PART 1 of this book study and remember this whole process began with the realization that we must think about what we want (or desire as Hill would say) with a high degree of clarity, increasing our awareness of the world, adding an unwavering belief and expectation around the attainment of what we want, (by choosing faith over fear, overcoming all obstacles) and then put this worthy goal on autosuggestion by repeating the 6 steps from the Desire Chapter twice a day (reading and writing out our vision).

If I were to want to STOP and FREEZE at any moment of these 15 principles, it would be right here, with the importance of understanding chapter 4 on autosuggestion because if we think about it, for anyone who has attained ANY level of success in their life, it began in their mind first and is best said with this poem by Walter D. Wintle.

“If you think you are beaten, you are If you think you dare not, you don't, If you like to win, but you think you can't It's almost a cinch you won't. If you think you'll lose, you've lost For out in the world we find, Success begins with a fellow's will It's all in the state of mind.

I’m really starting to think that the “secret” in these pages lays somewhere with our ability to “think” and now Hill introduces the term autosuggestion or a way of self-conditioning our non-conscious mind.

Sounds deep, but exciting, at least I think it is. I’m sure this is why this book is the #6th bestselling book on Amazon, but I wonder how many people read the book this way and put this much thinking into each chapter. I definitely didn’t until Paul Martinelli walked me though each chapter of the book.

REVIEW WHAT WE’VE LEARNED in PART 1 and PART 2 to reinforce what we’ve covered before adding a new layer.

KNOW WHAT WE WANT: Begin with identifying what you really want. Clearly defined goals written as if you have already attained your goal. I’m so happy and grateful now that---and write out what you want by a certain date. ADD FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS: Engage your emotions, feelings, and expectation which has a magical power that continues to drive what you are seeking, towards you, and you towards it. GET YOUR SENSES INVOLVED: Use all of your 5 senses to see yourself in attainment of your goal, feel it, even put something in your physical surroundings that you can touch like I did years ago when I put a small cactus in my room in Toronto, to help me to visualize moving to this new location. This small cactus helped me to imagine (beyond my senses) the beautiful landscape and mountains of AZ when I looked outside of my window in Toronto, and could only see snowbanks, frost and icicles. THE POWER OF REPETITION: Write and repeat what you want twice a day, with whatever method works for you. Grant Cardone uses a legal notepad, I read my goals out from where they are written on my wall, and write them on a notepad, and have seen others using letterboards where they have to take the time to write out their goals using letters, or whiteboards they can write on and erase their every day. ACT AS IF WHAT YOU WANT IS YOURS: When someone asks you what you are working on, your language is imperative for the direction of where you are going. Do you say “I’m trying for xyz” or “I’m in the process of achieving xyz” that gives a whole different level of confidence. Whenever I hear someone say they will “try” something, it’s a clear indicator it’s not even on their radar. There’s no such thing as “try.” You are either doing something, or you’re not. CHOOSE FAITH OVER FEAR: When you keep moving, past all obstacles, you will notice that new people, circumstances and situations will come your way to help you. There is no such thing as “something for nothing.” This only comes with hard work and perseverance.

Which leads us to the next step in the process with Chapter 4: Autosuggestion or “Self-Suggestion” (Chapter 4, Page 69, TAGR).

This chapter is best described with a quick lesson on how the mind works. I first wrote about this in my first book, The Secret for Teens Revealed[iii] (page 71) Lesson 2: What is Your Mind?

I first learned this concept while working with Proctor in the seminar industry, and it really did change the way that I think. The idea of creating order in our mind with the image of the stickperson originated from Dr. Thurman Fleet in 1934 and is a way of thinking of our mind. If you look at the image in the show notes labelled A, B and C of the stickperson.

Our conscious mind (A) in the diagram, is the part of our mind that we use when we are consciously doing something like reading, studying, learning, solving problems, or playing sports.

***Non-Conscious Mind (B)[iv] is the part of our mind that accepts whatever enters it. This is an extremely powerful concept and since I learned this BEFORE I had children, I was very careful of not playing the news around the kids, even when they were babies. We know that watching and listening to the negativity on the news is not good for us, as it all seeps into our mind when it’s in this submissive state (or a baby’s mind that is wide open to whatever you put into it) and this can change how we feel. That’s because what we are hearing is going right into our non-conscious mind and impacting our body and in turn, as adults, impacting our results. If you have young children, you can use this to their advantage by guarding their mind from negativity and adding positivity when you can, by whispering in their ear before they go to bed at night something powerful like “you will achieve all of your goals and live a wonderful happy life” as you send them off to sleep. Always be mindful of what you have playing in the background of your home. With this principle of autosuggestion, it really does matter.

It’s also important to think about this when we sit down to eat. Our mind goes into a submission state, when it’s not thinking, and anyone else’s negative thoughts can go straight into our non-conscious mind. It’s very important that we are careful who we surround ourselves with, as their thoughts can impact our mood, for this reason.

We have all “felt” this happen, and this image explains why.

Our Body (C): I know that you will know that our thinking and attitude can impact our health, since our body inherits what our mind expresses. Healthy thoughts, put our body in the best environment for health and conversely, when we dwell on negative situations, that can stress our body and can cause dis-ease. A healthy dose of optimism can go a long way with coping with life’s stressful situations.

Just by looking at the stickperson diagram, we can see how autosuggestion is one way to access our non-conscious mind so that we must be in integrity of what we are thinking, and feeling, creating the results we want. When our thoughts and feelings are lined up, it’s called PRAXIS and is the first step towards putting this principle into action. By repeating your goals twice a day, eventually, with time, you will believe what you are saying, build faith, and it’s the belief mixed with faith that will drive your behavior moving forward.

REVIEWING YOUR HIGHER FACULTIES:

Before we move onto the next chapter, Chapter 5, on Specialized Knowledge, I think it’s important to bring up one of the BIG IDEA’S I learned from working with Bob Proctor, who has been reading this book for his entire life (over 57 years). If you go back and listen to EPISODE #67[v], you will see BIG IDEA #4 where I explain the importance of learning to live beyond our 5 senses (or what we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch) that can be limiting. We can access new information, deeper flashes of insight, higher levels of creativity, if we learn to live with our 6 intellectual faculties that operate beyond our 5 senses for a competitive advantage. Napoleon Hill thought that intuition (or the sixth sense as he calls it) and imagination are so important that he added them to his chapters or principles that we will dive into in later episodes.

Intuition is a mental tool that gives us answers, by picking up the energy or feeling from another person or situation. Sometimes we feel we just know the answer, or we have a gut feeling. That is our intuition at work, and we must learn to develop and listen to it. With practice, we can learn to trust our intuition and become conﬁdent with that which we feel or know. Then, we can move conﬁdently toward that which we want without any doubt, because we’ve used this higher faculty that instills a level of trust within ourselves.

Chapter 5-Specialized Knowledge

To further hone in on what we want, chapter 5 reminds us to add an understanding of specialized knowledge which separates you from everyone else, making you special with the knowledge you have acquired. In chapter 5 we learn that knowledge (general or specialized) must be “organized and intelligently directed” (CH 5, page 79, TAGR) “and is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if it is organized into definite plans of action and directed to a definite end.”

This makes sense when we think about everything we learn in school (general knowledge) that has no use unless we apply and use it in some way (specialized). Hill explains this is the “missing link in all systems of education … the failure of educational institutions to teach their students HOW TO ORGANIZE AND USE KNOWLEDGE AFTER THEY ACQUIRE IT.” (CH 5, Page 80, TAGR).

Henry Ford even said that he has a row of buttons on his desk that he can push to find out answers to anything he wants (general knowledge) and that any “person is educated who knows where to get knowledge when needed, and how to organize that knowledge into definite plans of action. Through the assistance of his Master Mind, Henry Ford had at his command all the specialized knowledge he needed to enable him to become one of the wealthiest men in America.” (Ch.5, Page 81, TAGR).

If you think about this principle and what it means, I think about why some books become best sellers, and others are still great, but are missing something. Think about Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that we covered on EPISODE #68[vi] on The Neuroscience of Personal Change. Why was Covey’s book so successful and named the number 1 most influential book of the 20th century, selling more than 40 million copies in 50-plus languages[vii]. I think one of the reasons was that it contained specialized knowledge (The 7 Habits) in a framework that showed us how to organize and use it, after we read the book.

We are taught what to do with each habit, with clear steps on how to implement this new and specialized knowledge into our life to manage ourselves, and others. Next, think about another book, Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now[viii] that might still be an incredible book, but it was missing something. If you have read this book, you might be able to recall something about it, or that Tolle worked with Oprah on a series to teach these concepts, or you might remember specifics about the book, but was there a framework to help you to apply what the book was teaching us? Can you remember anything about it? There were incredible lessons in this book, but they were not organized in a framework to help people to use and apply them.

“Knowledge is not power until it becomes organized in definite plans and action.” (Ch 5, Page 80, TAGR) and Hill reminds us that just because Henry Ford had little formal education, it didn’t mean that he was not “educated.” The word educate comes from the Latin word “educo” that means to “educe, to draw out, to develop from within. An educated person is not necessarily one who has an abundance of general or specialized knowledge. Educated people have developed the faculties of their mind (that we reviewed with BIG IDEA #4 above) so that they may acquire anything they want, or its equivalent, without violating the rights of others.” (CH 5, Page 80, TAGR).

How to Use Specialized Knowledge to Reach New Heights?

How good are you at what you do? Are you continually looking to improve your talent? When you can take someone who has developed their talent in a way that comes natural to you, but amazes others, you have developed something unique. This must be improved, honed and further developed to continue to grow, expand and meet with success. Do you see how each principle in this book is a part of a formula? It’s a process…

Be sure that whatever your idea or goal is, that you continue to grow and refine it, adding more and more specialized knowledge to what you are building, which brings us to the last piece of the formula in this episode.

Chapter 6-Our Imagination.

The final part of this episode is when we add our imagination to the mix, to think beyond what we can see, and into the unknown world where our unattained vision lays.

Imagination is Everything[ix] according to author Earl Nightingale. All great inventions are created in two separate places: the mind of the inventor and the physical world when the inventor creates it. Our lives reflect how well we use our imagination, because when we hit one plateau of success, it will be our imagination that will take us to what’s next. When we create our crystal-clear vision, that we read and write twice a day, we are activating our imagination to do this. When we write and read our vision in detail it activates cells of recognition in our brain that when we imagine what we write, eventually our brain will accept and recognize what we are telling it, and it will go from feeling like a crazy pipe dream, to eventually something that you can see yourself doing. Then one day, what you imagined, becomes your reality.

Think of all the inventions over the past 50 years that changed how we live our lives. Someone had to think of how the world has changed in the past 10 years with the image in the show notes showing how Amazon has almost no stores, Uber owns almost no cars, Facebook creates no content, Airbnb owns no real estate, Netflix is not a TV channel and Bitcoin has no physical coins. All of these ideas began in someone’s imagination, and are transforming the world.

Did you know that in 2020, Jeff Bezos’ annual salary from Amazon was “$81, 840 which qualities as middle-income wage in his home state of California.”[x]

Bezos’ increase in wealth came in 2020 mostly from Amazon stock prices. He is now said to “make more in one second than most people make in one week. He makes about $8.9 billion per month, $2.5 billion per week, or $321 million per day”[xi]

Which brings us to one of the most famous quotes of this book. Napoleon Hill writes “If you are one of those people who believe that hard work and honesty will bring you riches, perish the thought. It is not true. Riches, when they come in huge quantities are never the result of hard work! Riches come, if they come at all, in response to definite demands, based on the application of definite principles, and not by change or luck.” (Chapter 6, Page 108, TAGR).

I’m sure we can all see how the Pandemic causes many of us to shop online, which meant there was a demand for what Bezos had created and Bezos was prepared and ready when this demand hit and I’m sure he had a clear pathway for his vision that wanted to build.

REVIEW OF PART 3

To sum up this episode, and prepare for Chapter 7 on Organized Planning, Chapter 8 on Decision, and 9 on Persistence, don’t forget to review the important steps in PART 1 and 2 that we went over in the past 2 episodes.

Next,

Review how our mind thinks: with the concept of the stick person so we can see how repeating and writing out our goals is an easy way to put them on autosuggestion. Learn to live beyond our five senses: (or what we can see, hear, smell, taste and touch) that can be limiting. Revisit episode #67 and pay attention to the definition of intuition and imagination, since Hill felt they were important enough to list both of these in his 15 principles. Keep Learning: by thinking of how you will continue to acquire and organize specialized knowledge that will take you to new levels with your craft. Let Your Imagination Soar: Hill suggests reading the entire book first but coming back to this chapter “to put your imagination to work” (Ch. 6, Page 100, TAGR).

Remember this is all a part of a process. If it seems like there are many ideas stacked together, just keep reading, and thinking and each time you put in some more thought to the potential of these ideas, your awareness will expand, giving you a new level of confidence for whatever you are working on.

See you in a few days with the next 3 chapters.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[iv] https://nickjonsson.com/page/mybook

RESOURCES:

Chapter 4: Autosuggestion Published on YouTube July 28, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYOc329tEYQ

Chapter 5: Specialized Knowledge Published on YouTube July 28, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV9KVZ0sQ7Q

REFERENCES:

[ii] What Oprah Learned from Jim Carrey October 12, 2011 https://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/what-oprah-learned-from-jim-carrey-video

[iii] The Secret for Teens Revealed by Andrea Samadi, Published September 15, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teens-Revealed-Teenagers-Leadership/dp/1976820030

[iv] ***If you have heard of the term sub-conscious mind used where I say non-conscious, it’s just because I have substituted non-conscious as a more recent term for what we used to call the subconscious mind.

[v]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #67 “Expanding Your Awareness with a Deep Dive into Most Important Concepts Learned from Bob Proctor Seminars: https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expanding-your-awareness-with-a-deep-dive-into-bob-proctors-most-powerful-seminars/

[vi]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #68 “The Neuroscience of Personal Change: With Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-of-personal-change/

[vii] How Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits Guides Leaders in Times of Challenge and Uncertainty by Marcel Schwantes, covey-the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people-leaders.html">https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/stephen-covey-the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-people-leaders.html

[viii] The Power of Now by Eckert Tolle August 1, 2004 https://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment/dp/1577314808

[ix] Imagination is Everything YouTube by Earl Nightingale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e25hRhKPm4M

[x] Mind-Blowing Facts About Jeff Bezos’ Wealth Published July 27, 2021 by Dawn Allcot mind-blowing-facts-jeff-182204262.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABJswqzQ-kSEQG-_kMdVZLAFZZRj0X13NDhrKwPFWjvxnht_QzHjo0yPUi5ydMf8G33y7o8SmqRJeHTVTOo3ADKOGRmSXd2d5DGyWiTinM0qb-IoVUVzkXxHpDA0NIvj8BS3hF9mHF5OGCxjC8Fuf_ikfLkGkmENcWHExq_zvzrR">https://www.yahoo.com/now/5-mind-blowing-facts-jeff-182204262.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABJswqzQ-kSEQG-_kMdVZLAFZZRj0X13NDhrKwPFWjvxnht_QzHjo0yPUi5ydMf8G33y7o8SmqRJeHTVTOo3ADKOGRmSXd2d5DGyWiTinM0qb-IoVUVzkXxHpDA0NIvj8BS3hF9mHF5OGCxjC8Fuf_ikfLkGkmENcWHExq_zvzrR

[xi] IBID

Jan 14, 2022

00:30:46

With the rise of mental health issues and with the COVID pandemic forcing less and less interactions amongst co-workers and leaders, senior leaders in many organizations are suffering numerous new ailments and challenges. With this workplace scenario continuing to be a problem, as times progress with more and more complications arising, many leaders are reaching breaking points in their personal lives. With no one to reach out to, many of these leaders may be suffering from what Nick Jonsson, the Co-founder and Managing Director of Executives Global Network in Singapore, calls “executive loneliness” that arises when top executives are exposed to extreme and prolonged stress, resulting in an increase in anxiety, isolation, and depression.

Watch this interview on YouTube here. https://youtu.be/b6TCGyysI-A

On this episode, you will learn

✔︎ What is "Executive Loneliness" and how has the Pandemic caused us to make our mental and physical health a priority?

✔︎ Nick's story and why he is passionate about talking about what others would rather shy away from.

✔︎ What is "smiling depression" and how to recognize when change is needed for yourself, and others.

✔︎ 5 Steps to Recovery outlined in Nick's book "Executive Loneliness"

✔︎ Where to begin to make changes with our physical and mental health.

✔︎ What increasing your activity looks like and how to measure it.

We just uncovered on EPISODE #188 “Putting Your Mental and Physical Health First”[i] the shocking statistic that “one-quarter of Americans intend to improve their mental health in 2022”[ii] and that according to a poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association, “almost 70 million adults resolve to find ways to improve their mental health this coming year”[iii] but Nick Jonsson, from Singapore, shows us that this is a global issue, and he wants to raise awareness of this phenomenon, no longer being quiet about the issues he has personally faced himself.

In his book, Executive Loneliness,[iv] Nick Jonsson outlines that most executives and leaders often do nothing to address this phenomenon of “loneliness” for fear of appearing unsuccessful and frowned upon. Worst, he shares that not addressing it exacerbates the negative and difficult feelings, to the point where it becomes more and more difficult for them to function. Ultimately, it takes a toll on their whole life.[v]

As we were looking for leaders around the world to launch of year, with a focus on physical and mental health, Nick Jonsson was the one I wanted to launch our year with to be our first interview of 2022. If you follow Nick on social media, (and I’ll put all his links in the show notes) you will notice that he puts his physical health first (which we have shown on this podcast is one of the top health staples to make an impact on your overall physical and mental health) –you will see him riding his bike, hiking, and training at his local pool.

Let’s meet Nick Jonsson and see what we can learn together with his experience and knowledge, to put our mental and physical health first this year.

Welcome Nick!

Nick, I like to open up the podcast with a question where we can get to know you a bit better, and just from looking over your social media posts over the holidays, it was more like a lesson in Geography, with health and wellness, and family tied in.

INTRO: Can you share a bit about what you’ve been up to over the holidays, that took you to 4 countries, with your family, and how you kept health at the forefront the entire time?

I saw you training the other day at your local pool in Singapore—how are things these days with COVID protocols over there? Still very strict?

Q1: It was important for me to launch 2022 with you, with your focus on mental and physical health, that’s our focus for Season 7 of our podcast. I know this is the question that most people ask you, and I’ve linked the podcast you did with From Survivor to Thriver[vi] so our listeners can learn more about you, but can you just a bit of your background with the 2 stories that coincided, to bring you to not be quiet around a topic that many people still shy away from?

Q2: I wonder if we can tie in this issue of executive loneliness, leading to an increase in anxiety, isolation, and depression, to something that our first responders might be going through these days or even those teachers who have been sent back to teaching online again, stress is at an all-time high in many sectors. I heard it described recently from someone working in policing who broke down and had to leave the field, to a desk job, and is on track for early retirement now, because all that pressure builds up over time (A good analogy I heard is like a garbage can getting filled up until the can overflows, just like the stress building up with a person until they can’t take it anymore).

You explain the pressure in the corporate world (all the meetings, being the first one in the office, the last one to leave, the one keeping it all together, and you still must be at your best and perform when there’s little time for yourself. I saw the parallel with many different sectors who are being pushed to the limits in a way that’s not far off from how you describe what you see with senior executives. Before we even begin to look at strategies and solutions for this serious issue, how would someone know that change needs to occur?

2B) Was the Pandemic an eye-opener for people to begin health programs?

2C) What are the trends you are seeing Internationally with working on the weekends?

Q3: I love how you’ve clearly outlined what you think is important with your 5 Steps to Recovery in your book. You walk the reader through all the steps with some very important things to consider in the early stages, since no one usually talks about these things and I do think it’s important that we do talk about the things that make us uncomfortable, for change to occur. Can you explain “smiling depression” and what to look for, and the support systems should we all know about?

Q4: And what about for someone listening, who might be in a rut themselves, and making any sort of change is difficult, so where do you suggest for someone to begin to make the changes that will instigate an improvement with their health instead of staying in that cycle that leads to more overwhelmed?

Q5: I love how you tie “Getting Healthy” into your book, and we’ve been focused on the Top 5 staples on this podcast (Nutrition, Sleep, Exercise, Relaxation/Meditation and Tools to Help Us with our Mental/Physical Health). It didn’t take me longer than a minute to skim through your social media pages when I was writing these questions to notice that you practice what you preach, which is awesome! I saw you relaxing with your son, at the cinema in Sweden, your sleep data (WOW) showing 15 hours of sleep (you must really have needed it) and a 120 km (74 mile) bike ride (woah!) I thought I was cool after a 7-mile hike!! Can you take us through what you normally do for training, and what tools do you use to measure your workouts, sleep and rest?

Q6: Is there anything important about your book that I have missed?

Q7: What are some ways that people could work with you? https://nickjonsson.com/page/work-with-nick

I’ve put all of the links to your social media accounts in the show notes, and I want to thank you very much Nick for speaking with me today, as this topic is timely and important. You’ve given us so many ideas to help our listeners who might be launching the year with some overwhelm, with some specific steps they can take to launch 2022 with their mental and physical health at the forefront of their mind, to truly make it their best year ever. Thanks Nick! Have an incredible Thursday!

FOLLOW NICK JONSSON ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Website https://nickjonsson.com/index

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jonsson.nick

Twitter https://twitter.com/NickJonsson

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-jonsson/

RESOURCES:

15 Male Celebrities Who Have Struggled with Depression by Ben Radding Feb. 22, 2019 https://www.menshealth.com/health/g26445823/celebrities-with-depression/

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #188 on “Putting Your Mental and Physical Health First” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-putting-our-mental-and-physical-health-first/

[ii] One-quarter of Americans Intend to Improve Mental Health in 2022 December 20, 2021 https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20211220/onequarter-of-americans-intend-to-improve-mental-health-in-2022

[iii] IBID

[v] Roshan Teran, A Review of Executive Loneliness Published June 6, 2021 https://www.leaderonomics.com/articles/personal/executive-loneliness

[vi] From Survivor to Thriver Podcast with Nick Jonsson https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-38-nick-jonsson-if-we-can-talk-to-each-other/id1551758201?i=1000544204022

Jan 10, 2022

00:26:13

Welcome back to PART 2 of Making 2022 You Best Year Ever with EPISODE #191 on “The Importance of Thinking Differently and Choosing Faith over Fear” as we continue our deep dive into Napoleon Hill’s Classic book, Think and Grow Rich, that has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

Be sure to click here to access the images in the show notes.

For those new, or returning guests, welcome back to Season 7 of our Podcast I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you who tune in, have been fascinated with learning, understanding, and applying the most current brain research to improve productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. This month, I decided to share my notes with you on a book that I have been studying every year, with Paul Martinelli, who has studied this book for most of his career.

On our first episode[i] and PART 1 of this book study, where we cover the Author’s Introduction and Desire chapter, we opened with a quote from Undercover Billionaire Grant Cardone, who said, “In order to get to the next level of whatever you’re doing, you must think and act in a wildly different way than you previously have been” and this is where I wanted to begin this episode, with reviewing Chapter 1 “Thoughts Are Things” with the idea that we must “think” in a wildly different way than we previously have to obtain NEW results in 2022.

On this episode, you will learn

✔︎ How to go from fear to hope, using faith, in pursuit of your goals.

✔︎ How to “think” wildly different than you did last year.

✔︎ Examples of people who “thought” their way to their goals, making their ability to “think” the best investment of their lifetime.

✔︎ The 6 STEPS you must take every day, that will put your goal on autosuggestion.

✔︎ Common mistakes made when goal-setting/achieving.

✔︎ 4 steps to overcome your fears, helping you to break through to new levels in 2022.

✔︎ How to becoming unwavering with our faith, helping us when obstacles appear.

How Do We “Think in a Wildly Different Way” to Get New Results?

The answer is--by expanding our awareness. I’m sure you see now why studying Think and Grow Rich by reading and thinking about every word we are reading is so very important. We could spend a whole year studying this book, which is why I think we should all keep reading it, gaining more awareness long after January and this book study ends.

Look at it this way. Remember the last lesson where we looked at how ideas are formed, and how it’s up to us to act on our ideas and bring them to fruition.

IMAGE: Levels of Frequencies of Thought

Look at the image in the show notes of the levels of frequency and think of this as an example of where you are now, or the thoughts, feelings, and actions you are currently living with, giving you a certain result. Then imagine all the lines above where you are now, leading to where you want to go. Think of these frequencies like radio stations. To tune into the radio station you want, you need to turn the dial to that frequency. This is exactly the same idea to think about when we want to tune into the frequency that our goals exist on.

And it won’t be with the level of thinking you have at your current level. That’s the whole point of Marshall Goldsmith’s book What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful.[ii]

To ATTAIN your goal, or a new result, you will need to “think and act in a wildly different way that you previously have been” like Grant Cardone, reminded us. That’s because the goal is on a different frequency than where you are now. To hit this NEW target, you will need to think NEW thoughts, take NEW actions, that will create NEW results, and none of them will be what you are currently doing.

When I first saw this image, I remember wondering “well how on the earth do I magically get on the same level of vibration as the thing that I really want?” and the first time I did this exercise, I wrote down that I wanted to live in the United States (when I lived in Toronto at the time) and had no idea how I would ever make that happen. In the beginning, we don’t need to know all the details on “how” we will do what we want to do.

How Do You Move to a New Frequency?

Over the years, and once I had achieved a few goals this way, it became obvious how this works. Think back 5 years ago to the person you were then. You have probably grown and changed since then and may be nothing like the person you once were. You had new experiences that took you to a new frequency. It can happen with a new job, where you must think in an entirely different way than you had to with a previous job, or maybe you moved to a new location, like I did, and had new experiences that have changed you. Now you can see the importance of why Napoleon Hill called this book “Think and Grow Rich” because it is crucial that we change our thinking to obtain the new results we are looking for. When we change our thinking, we will have new experiences, that will change our conditions, circumstances and environment, changing our vibration or frequency level and put us exactly where we need to be for the attainment of our goal. Only then, will we be able to look back and explain how we did it to others.

Yesterday, I ran into my good friend Jeff Gould on the hiking trails, otherwise known as South Mountain Cowboy, who has been horseback riding on these mountains for the past 40 years and he looks younger than most of us who run up and down the hills daily. While chatting with Jeff this morning, who is a huge supporter of this podcast, he shared what he’s learning from the episodes, and that he’s always challenging himself to “think differently” by tuning into these episodes, which is probably what keeps him looking and feeling so young! I agreed with him that happiness comes naturally when we do what we love, continually challenge ourselves to grow, and live life doing whatever it is that makes us happy. It’s a simple formula really--we radiate energy when we are doing what we love and enjoy the most, aligning ourselves with more and more experiences, as we continually expand and grow in pursuit of our vision. Can you see how 2022 can be your best year ever? It just takes your vision, and your will to achieve it, and I love seeing people like Jeff, living their dream on a daily basis.

Jeff Gould, Southmountain Cowboy, on Telegraph Pass Mountain, AZ.

Edwin C. Barnes

In Chapter 1 “The Power of Thought” Hill talks about Edwin C. Barnes who also had a vision that he wanted to achieve when he “thought” his way into a partnership with Thomas Edison. Hill shares how Barnes had this burning desire to work with Thomas Edison. This was his goal, and was way out there for him, because he didn’t even know Edison, and was short on money to pay for his rail fare to get him to New Jersey to meet him. Barnes overcame all the obstacles he faced, and Edison described meeting the man he would eventually partner with by recalling the day he arrived. He said, “he stood there before me looking like an ordinary tramp, but there was something in the expression of his face which conveyed the impression that he was determined to get what he had come after.” (Page 2, TAGR). Edison recognized the look in his eyes and it’s what allowed him to eventually go into partnership with Barnes, who had no money, or influence to bring to the table, but he did have “initiative, faith and the will to win” (CH 1, page 4, TAGR) which was all Edison needed to see.

Barnes thought wildly differently to obtain what he wanted, and Edison picked up the energy or vibration that came from him, and it was easy for him to trust this was going to be a lucrative partnership.

There are more important examples in this chapter, that I hope you will read, to see why we should never quit when we experience defeat, and why persistence is a power that often gets a person what they want, but only when one persists long after most people would usually give up. Have you even seen this principle in action? I saw an example of this recently while researching Dr. David Sinclair, who we covered on EPISODE #189[iii] when I uncovered that he had to self-fund his trip from Australia to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to interview to work in their lab, which he did. He didn’t let his lack of funds stop him from finding his way to MIT and had many obstacles to overcome when he would eventually begin his work, when he experienced criticism for the direction he wanted to take, when other researchers questioned whether “aging was even a thing”[iv] to study. He had a clear vision of what he wanted and didn’t let any obstacles get in his way, even though he faced many that began in his early days and was just something he had to push through.

Chapter 2: DESIRE

Which brings us to Chapter 2: DESIRE and why we must know what we want, with a crystal-clear vision, and hold an unwavering belief that we can have it, and expect that we will have it, remembering this is where it all begins. That “all achievement, begins with an idea.” (Napoleon Hill). Barnes had a “burning desire” (CH2, page 19 TAGR) that “was not a hope. It was not a wish. It was a pulsating desire, which transcended everything else. It was definite.” (CH2, page 19, TAGR).

Barnes wanted to work with Edison, even though there was no evidence of these two meeting. It wasn’t like Edison and Barnes had been talking about this idea for a while, it was Barnes’s idea, and when he started to move this idea into form, I’m sure he thought it was crazy and something he wouldn’t be shouting out from the rooftops. Going from where we are now, to where we want to go, is a process.

You are never ready when you start something, but you will never be 100% ready. You just need to start and do the thing that you want to do.

When I moved from Canada to the US in early 2001, I remember following this process, and not sure of “how” exactly I was going to do it. Proctor would always remind us that we don’t need to know “how” we will do what we want, but just get it started and the way will be shown. That was true. The way will always be shown, along with a billion obstacles that will show up as well, to try to deter you from moving forward.

You just need to know WHAT you want and WHY, and this will drive your behavior. You can only explain HOW you did it after the fact, looking back, once you arrive there.

Do you know what you want? Do you have that burning desire that Edison saw in Barnes’s eyes? Remember, it’s difficult to see our own potential, but others can surely see it in us. That burning desire of what you want radiates from you, and others can pick up this energy, and like Edison did with Barnes, help move you to where you need to go. That’s why you can’t be shy about what you are working on. You will need all the help you can get, from as many different sources as possible. And there’s something else to consider.

“Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat.” (CH 2, page 21, TAGR). Barnes did this when he found his way to New Jersey to meet with Edison, and Dr. David Sinclair did it when he left Australia for MIT. I remember doing this when I left Toronto. There was no going back saying “oh it didn’t work out” because I had burned all ships and had no other options.

You must be committed with your decision (which is another chapter) but you will see how all of these chapters tie into each other. The Latin root word for the word decision literally means “to cut” so when you make a decision, you must never go back. You’ve burned your ships and cut all sources of retreat.

Which brings us to the important 6 Steps to Achieve Your Goal in chapter 2. You will notice that these steps are written with the idea of drawing finances to you, but these 6 steps can be used to bring ANY goal your way. These are the 6 steps I have written on my wall, that I read every day, and Grant Cardone, Uncover Billionaire says he does this as well, all 6 steps, every day, twice a day. I’ve watched him do it using a legal pad of paper in less than 3 minutes.

Either way, the 6 steps to put any goal into our non-conscious mind, so that it eventually happens on autopilot, without much effort, is as follows:

Write out a clear description of what you want. You must be prepared to give something of value up in return for what you want. There no such thing as “something for nothing.” When you begin working on your action steps, it will become clear what you are giving up. Set a date when you intend to have this goal that you desire. Create your action plan, to carry out what you want, whether you are ready for it or not. Write this out in detail! Read what you wrote twice a day! “As you read, see and feel and believe yourself already in the possession” (CH 2, page 23, TAGR) of what you want.

It’s this simple, but not really, because most people won’t follow these steps. I was surprised when I watched Grant Cardone demonstrating how he WRITES and READS his goals twice a day, mostly because I know where this idea originated from, and most people miss that reading out loud part. Cardone didn’t. He knows these six steps and didn’t miss one of them. It’s easy to read this book, and grab some ideas to implement, and make some mistakes, and not do exactly what the book suggests. That’s why it’s called “Think and Grow Rich.”

Common Mistakes That Are Made When Setting Goals-That Will Guarantee That None of this Will Work?

People set goals on what they know they can do, or what they’ve done in the past. You will be sure to fail this way, because there is no inspiration in going after what we already know we can do. You need to really stretch yourself, and think of what you want, that takes you beyond where you have ever been before in this process. You’ll be sure to fail if you don’t change your plans when they aren’t working. If your Plan A fails, do you have a Plan B? Remember—you don’t need to know exactly how you will attain your goal. Just begin, do the work, and eventually you will achieve it, and only then will you be able to explain this process to others.

Chapter 2 has some examples of well-known, highly successful people who have put these ideas into action and ends with Hill summarizing the process for us when he says “I want to convey the thought that all achievement, no matter what it’s nature or purpose, must begin with an intense, burning desire for something definite. Through some strange and powerful principle of mental chemistry, nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire that something which recognizes no such word as impossible and accepts no such reality as failure.

We must remember that there’s a difference between “wishing for” something and being ready to receive it. Remember that look that Edison saw in Barnes’s eyes? Do you have that look with whatever it is you want? If I was standing in front of you, and asked you “what do you really want” would you answer this question clearly and confidently, with that look in your eye, and be able to show me how you would use the 6 steps, with your action plan, or would this question catch you off guard, like when Proctor first asked me, and I wasn’t prepared to answer it?

This brings new meaning to the quote— “Luck is when preparation and opportunity meet.” How? Over time, we become better at what we do. Every day that we write and repeat our vision out loud, it etches deeper into our being. Our vision becomes who we are, and we never let it rest, until we perfect our craft and achieve our goals. Keep going and remember “if a person is not prepared when the opportunity arises, it will only make them look foolish.” (Earl Nightingale).

How Do I Overcome my Fears?

What happens when you begin moving towards your big, outrageous idea, and FEAR, or DOUBT starts to set in, ruining your vision, and making you want to give up? This will happen. It will happen more times than you’d like. Dr. Sinclair mentioned it happened to him when he finally got to MIT to work on his vision of creating anti-aging strategies and people he worked with challenged his ideas, urging him to reconsider his vision, and that “anti-aging” wasn’t a thing to do study. He talked about this on Joe Rogan’s podcast that he called home and was worried that he had made a mistake with his vision. It’s easy to see HOW this happens, when it’s not you who is experiencing the fear. Look at the image in the show notes where you see your INSPIRED IDEA that you are working on with focused thought.

I write about this in my first book, The Secret for Teens Revealed[v], and it’s something I learned from my early days of working with Proctor.

The Terror Barrier or The Change Mechanism

To break through to a new level, you will need to break through what Proctor called the Terror Barrier, and I re-named it The Change Mechanism in my first book. It’s what happens when you have a major shift in your life, and you begin to feel scared deep inside that maybe you have made a mistake. Your entire Central Nervous System starts to go off as you begin to think of this new thought.

I remember feeling this when I quit my teaching job, broke my contact with TDSB and went to work for Proctor for $10 an hour. It didn’t help that my Dad screamed at me that I would regret this decision for the rest of my life, but I really did believe that there was more I needed to learn. You will go through these 4 stages with your new idea.

Stage 1: Help I’m Stuck (Bondage).

When you are here, you are living in your comfort zone. Life is easy, because you are not stretching outside your comfort zone. There is no discomfort or fear. But, if you were to be honest, this type of life is playing it safe. You might know you are capable of so much more, but are afraid to take the necessary steps needed for this change. You are stuck here, in your old paradigm. If you look at the image in the show notes, I show a person who is thinking x thoughts in their conscious mind, with x thoughts in their non-conscious mind, getting x results. They are not doing anything new, and their results will stay the same. We have all been here, stuck, not sure of how to make a change.

Stage 2: I’m Frustrated

If we live life stuck for too long, you will become frustrated, because it’s natural that we want to BE, DO, and HAVE more with our life. We are either creating (expanding) and growing, or we are going the other way, disintegrating, not growing, and frustrated. The feeling of frustration can be motivating, and push you to make a change, and try something different.

Stage 3: I’m Making Changes, But Feeling So Uncomfortable

At this stage, you have taken a new idea (I label it a Y idea in my diagram) in your conscious mind, but your non-conscious mind still has the old X idea (or whatever you are currently doing) so there is cognitive dissonance at the brain level. The new idea might be a new job, moving somewhere else, or maybe an entire career change, and suddenly, in the middle of the decision-making process, your entire central nervous system goes out of control, and you are overcome with fear. It’s because your non-conscious mind is still operating with your old idea, or whatever you are currently doing, and you will think that you have made a mistake and question your decision.

At this point, we must understand that the opposite of FEAR is FAITH, leading us to Chapter 3 of the book. We feel fear because we lack understanding, FAITH is based on understanding, and when we have it, we can move forward, and never look back at our old life. We will only advance forward to new opportunity with understanding, and the use of FAITH.

It’s here that we BREAK FREE from our past, and experience the final stage,

Stage 4: Freedom

Freedom is achieved when we step outside of our comfort zone, feeling uncomfortable, but doing it anyway, and keep moving towards growth. You’ll see in my diagram the Y (or new idea) in the conscious mind, over time will create a Y idea in your non-conscious mind, and with time, you will notice that you made the switch, broke free from your past where you were stuck, into a more fulfilling life, creating new results.

You did this using faith that Hill says “is the head chemist of the mind.” (CH 3, page 45, TAGR).

How Do We Develop Faith?

“Faith is a state of mind that may be induced, or created by affirmations or repeated instructions..through the principle of auto-suggestion” (CH 3, page 46, TAGR).

We develop Faith by following the 6 Steps, writing and reading our goal out loud every day, twice a day, until it moves into our non-conscious mind on autosuggestion.

It’s a process. If you have never read your goal out loud before, I will tell you that it feels weird in the beginning. When I first started doing this activity, I would close my window, thinking my neighbors will think I’m crazy, especially when I did this process trying to win grant funding for some of the projects I worked on. The first time you do this, you will feel weird, until with time, your words flow quickly, confidently, and easily.

You will read your goals out loud “as if you were already in possession of them” (CH 3, page 48, TAGR). I found it helps to say something like “I’m so happy and grateful now that….” and whatever it is that you want “now that I’m awarded a $50,000 grant to work with students in our schools” or whatever it is that you might be working on.

This is the part where we may all have different beliefs with this process, but if you are like me, and believe that there is something bigger than you, you can call it whatever you want (God, Spirit, Infinite Intelligence) whatever you call it, you will feel it in this process. Hill wrote that “FAITH is the element, the chemical which when mixed with prayer, gives one direct communication with Infinite Intelligence.” (CH 3, page 49, TAGR).

We must have FAITH in our DREAMS, not in our DOUBTS.

This is a process, that comes from following the 6 steps of reading/writing our goals every day and doesn’t need to take a lot of time, Grant Cardone did it in less than 3 minutes. Faith is a state of mind that will develop as you become more self-aware, self-confident and with experience.

Remember—to Become Unwavering with our Faith

You must go through the Terror Barrier and match up your conscious mind, with your non-conscious mind. You will continue to build faith through autosuggestion when you write and repeat your goals. Pick one idea that you are working on, and as you move towards it, with new actions, you will develop more self-confidence, self-awareness and self-esteem.

This will lead to BELIEF….one day you will be working and think back to the early days when you didn’t have the level of confidence, faith and belief that you have today, and you will be grateful that you stepped outside of your comfort zone, through the fear, with faith at your side, into a new life that had more opportunity than you ever realized. Whatever it is that you are working on, remember with that understanding you can move past the fears, doubts, and uncertainties to hope, and this changes your entire mindset, giving you faith, fueling you to keep moving forward.

I hope you are enjoying studying this book with me as I’m diving deeper into my notes more thoroughly than I’ve ever done in the past. Some of the wisest people in the world have studied these principles, and it doesn’t matter what your background or level of education is. The playing field is equal for all of us. This book is the essence of success that can be used in anyone’s life.

I’ll see you in the next few days as we move onto Specialized Knowledge, Imagination and Organized planning next episode, with an interview coming with Nick Jonsson, from Singapore, the author of the important and timely book, Executive Loneliness: The 5 Pathways to Overcome Isolation, Stress, Anxiety and Depression in the Modern Business World.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

Be sure to click here to access the images in the show notes.

REFERENCES:

[i]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 PART 1 “Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

[ii]What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith, June 12, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/What-Got-Here-Wont-There/dp/1846681375

[iii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #189 on “Understanding Hormesis: Why Stress and Adversity Make Us Physically and Mentally Stronger” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/understanding-hormesis-why-stress-and-adversity-make-us-physically-and-mentally-stronger/

[iv] The Backlash Dr. Sinclair Faced from the Scientific Community Published Jan.29, 2019 with Joe Rogan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdAI-X3y1o&t=618s

[v] The Secret for Teens Revealed by Andrea Samadi, Published September 15, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teens-Revealed-Teenagers-Leadership/dp/1976820030

Jan 06, 2022

00:23:23

“In order to get to the next level of whatever you’re doing, you must think and act in a wildly different way than you previously have been. You cannot get to the next phase of a project without a grander mind-set, more acceleration, and extra horsepower.” Grant Cardone, author of the 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure [i]

MAKING 2022 YOUR BEST YEAR EVER: WITH CHANGE

I chose this quote to launch this episode, and our 7th Season of The Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast with Grant Cardone,[ii] who I’ve been watching for years before he starred on Undercover Billionaire[iii] when I saw him working with (at that time) 16 year-old Caleb Maddix[iv], teaching this young man, who is now in his 20s, how to truly make an impact on the world and live his life with a success mindset. Since the day I watched him coaching this teen, I realized he has a heart for helping our next generation to become successful, while inspiring the rest of the world with his 10x Rule book, countless programs that focus on financial education, and encouraging anyone who will listen to shift their mindset to make 2022 their Best Year ever. To do that, Cardone reminds us that we must all THINK differently and “change what we did last year.”

For those new, or returning guests, welcome back to Season 7 of our Podcast and Happy New Year! I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you who tune in, have been fascinated with learning, understanding, and applying the most current brain research to improve productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments.

I wanted our first episode to launch our 7th Season to be different from past years. Instead of releasing an episode with goal setting or achieving tips, I challenge you to do something different this year. We all know that in order to achieve different results in 2022, we must CHANGE and I’m pretty sure we all have a list of things that we want to do differently to really make a mark on this year, but to make sure I was on track, I thought I’d better check in with what Uncover Billionaire, Grant Cardone is suggesting we change this year, since his results are proof that he knows what he’s talking about. Cardone suggests in order to make this change, we must keep 6 things in mind that will drive us towards our goals.

We must have:

Discipline: By waking up early, watching the sunrise, and getting to bed early. This practice gives you 2 extra hours to launch your day, which translates into an extra month a year to work on your dreams or yourself. It will also help you to become highly motivated and will be a driver for your year, boosting our Confidence: To further drive what you are doing and help you to fill up your calendar with meaningful work where you will create your Action Plan with Activity: and be open to listening to Feedback: From the marketplace (or your network) on how you can improve. Surrounding Yourself with Your Network: Of other like-minded, successful people who will encourage you/holding you accountable. And there is only one outcome-- Success: This is Our Duty/Obligation. We Must WIN/SUCCEED in 2022.

To truly make an impact on this year, so it’s our best year ever, I think we should all take a look at what Cardone suggests and do whatever it takes so that we achieve our end result (or whatever it is we are working on) at the end of this year. But how exactly do we do this?

Make 2022 Your Best Year Ever by Studying the Best-Selling book Think and Grow Rich[v]

I challenge you to practice Cardone’s TIP #1 with me, and develop discipline by waking up early, and study the #6th All-time Amazon Best-Seller, Think and Grow Rich with me this month. This is a book that has sold over 15 million copies worldwide, that has timeless principles used by some of the greatest minds of the 20th century, and I hope that together, we will uncover some new ideas that will bring us all new results in 2022.

I’ve been launching my year this way since 2019, with Paul Martinelli, who co-founded and built The John Maxwell Team[vi], by diving deep into the many secrets within Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book from someone who has studied and taught the principles within this book for his entire career. It was this book, that my mentor Bob Proctor[vii] was inspired by, and often opened up and quoted during his career teaching and speaking about wealth principles around the world, as he carried the same weathered copy around with him, reading, studying, as his bible, that he would open up first thing in the morning, and then again before he went to bed.

During the six years I worked with Bob, I knew this book was important to him, and there were times it sat in the middle of the table we were sitting at, and we all just knew not to touch it. I remember looking at it, thinking “what else could he really be learning from this book?” as the pages looked like they were about to fall out, and disintegrate. Napoleon Hill talks about a “secret” that is hidden within the pages of this book, and I have a few ideas of what I think the secret is. Bob would never tell us what the secret was, and would say “if I tell you, then you won’t look for it yourself” which is probably true.

Bob Proctor's original copy of Think and Grow Rich.

I used to think that the secret was that “all achievements begin with an idea” and we just have to gaffe this idea with a pencil, write it down, and act on it, (using the 6 steps that Napoleon Hill suggests in the Desire chapter) or someone else will surely launch it. But each time I studied the book, and the author’s preface, that describes this secret, I thought about it again, and each year, come up with a NEW idea or perception of what I think the “secret” is. Bob would say that books will have new meaning each time you read them because you change each year, and you see something in yourself that wasn’t there the last time you read it.

When you finish the book, and this book study with me, I wonder what you think the secret is in the book?

HOW TO READ THINK AND GROW RICH-WITH EFFORT

You’ve got to put some effort into this book study. It took me until 2019 to read this book properly. You know what I mean. You can read a book, flip through the table of contents, skim their meaning, grab some ideas, write them down, even apply them to your life, but then you put the book away, and don’t think about the ideas ever again. This is not the way to read this book, and it wasn’t until Paul Martinelli started teaching it to me, that I saw HOW to read Think and Grow Rich properly, uncovering the secret for myself, and finally putting it use, the way I think Napoleon Hill intended. I think. If Bob has been studying this book for more than 50 years (reading it twice a day), then I think I’m only scratching the surface of how it’s intended to be read and applied.

KEEP THE BOOK ON YOUR DESK SO THAT YOU READ AND IMPLEMENT THE IDEAS YOU LEARN

This book is always on my desk and opened often and I do highly suggest that you purchase a copy that you keep on your desk so you can refer to the pages on your own, and participate in the activities that I will suggest as we go through the important concepts of these 16 principles that really do have incredible power. I put a tab so I can quickly find the 6 steps to put any idea on auto-suggestion from the DESIRE Chapter (they are also written on my wall) and I practice them daily, and know all about the 30 Major Causes of Failure (so I can avoid them) in the Organized Planning Chapter, with my own #31 added to the end.

It was the successful founder of US Steel (the first corporation in the world with a market capitalization of over $1 billion, Andrew Carnegie,[viii] who encouraged the young reporter and author of the book, Napoleon Hill, to uncover why some of the most successful people in the world, became that way, using the principles that Hill would use to create this book. Carnegie thought it was a shame that many of the top leaders in the world, like Thomas Edison or Henry Ford, would go to their grave without sharing their knowledge and success strategies to help others. This book will change your thinking, open up the door to new ideas, help you to create new habits and results.

This is why I host this podcast, because like Hill, I think it’s important to share the most current research, and any success strategies (for free) so that we can all benefit from this information and apply it to our work and personal lives, since we just weren’t taught these concepts in school.

I’m grateful that this year, I was reminded of this book by my friend Hans Ajay[ix], who let me know he was studying certain chapters to launch his year. There are many ways to study this book, to make the principles seep into your mind subconsciously, and thanks to Ajay, I decided it was time to look at my notes over the past few years and share them on the podcast to launch 2022 with a new angle. In this podcast series, I will review all chapters of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, with my notes added, after years of study, and hope these ideas will challenge you to do things differently this year, perhaps with more intention, and that you continue to study this book for years to come.

I was so excited to see that even before I had released this episode, some of my social media posts have inspired some of the top leaders in my network, like Matt Stewart,[x] from Scotland, who runs the EntrepreneurMe programs with our next generation of entrepreneurs in the school market, to consider re-reading the book this year. I hope that you will join us, so that we can all make the change needed to make 2022 our best year ever, together.

In this series you will learn:

✔︎ How to apply the 15 success principles to your life, used by the most successful leaders of the 20th century like Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.

✔︎ How to harness the power of your non-conscious mind, when you can create new habits, that you put on autopilot, and work for you, instead of against you.

✔︎ Create a clear vision of what you want to create in your life in 2022 to make it a year that is pivotal for the next few years to come.

✔︎ Create the mindset needed to attain this vision with a 6-step plan of how to do it.

Try something new this year and see if diving deep with me into the pages of Think and Grow Rich can make a difference for you, like it has made for millions of people all over the world, who have taken the principles seriously.

THINK AND GROW RICH PART 1:

INTRODUCTION/THOUGHTS ARE THINGS/

Author’s Preface and Introduction “What Exactly is The Secret?”

The book begins with the mention of this money-making “secret” that’s contained within the book’s pages and how Carnegie believed this “secret” should be taught in all schools and colleges and if it were taught properly would “revolutionize the entire educational system and that the time spent in school could be reduced to less than half.” (vi, Think and Grow Rich, 2003 edition).

As you read through this book, you’ll be reminded of this secret in the pages that jump out at you and every chapter mentions it.

I first thought this “secret” was that we must have an idea, and write it down, something that we really want. Then I thought about the VERY first thing Bob Proctor said to me when he met me was after finding out I was a school teacher, in Toronto, and he asked me “What I Really Wanted” to do with my life, and back then, the late 1990s, I definitely didn’t have a clear picture of my goals written out to go through with him step by step (like I do now). I was taken back a bit, because no one ever asked me anything like this before.

Hill says that “the secret will stand out to you when you are ready for it” and when it appears, you will recognize it. I didn’t have a clear picture of what I wanted back then but do now. If you’ve been following this podcast, you’ll agree that it’s clear that I want to make an impact on the field of education by bringing together simple neuroscience, with social and emotional learning skills, to help make life easier for future generations with these evidence-based strategies. I wrote down that I wanted to become an expert in the field of educational neuroscience years before I had taken a neuroscience course or understood the structure and function of the brain. I would never have gone on a podcast back then sharing my vision with the world and if you were sitting next to me, and this was written in my notebook, I’m sure I would never let you see that I had written that and might even hide it from anyone who might be looking.

Does this resonate with you? What do you think? Where are YOU in this process of what you REALLY want? Can you paint a clear picture of it for anyone who asks?

If you look at the image in the show notes (sorry I didn’t write neater, I didn’t think I would ever share these notes) you will see that we must first THINK to create an IDEA. Hill called the book Think and Grow Rich, and if there is a secret in this book, I now think it’s that “there’s work required, to actually think” and begin this entire process. If you aren’t sure of what your vision is, and it’s not yet clear, then sit quietly somewhere and use your imagination and intuition to think for a while.

Stuck With Your Vision? Ask Yourself These Questions:

What do others say you are good at? What do you enjoy doing that you would do even if you weren’t paid for it. Think of an area of life where you are dissatisfied. How would you like this area to improve?

It’s normal to want to be, do, have more in your life so that you can extend your services and help more people with your services. You can’t see your own potential, but you can be made aware of it. I think it’s really important to tell people where they are excelling in life, so they know what you see, that they might not be able to see themselves.

Once you have a vision, write it down and follow these steps for:

Applying the Power of Thought:

High-Performance Habits

[xi]

[xii]

[xiii]

When I asked Bob about the quantum world that Dr. Dan Siegel[xiv] talks about in our interview, where there is this plane of possibility where we can create anything, Bob answered with “I believe the physical realm that we live in and the spiritual world, are all connected, like the colors of the rainbow.” When we take an idea, it comes in from spirit, hits our intellectual mind, and it’s up to us whether we move it into form.

Have you ever had an idea that you thought was brilliant, and you never did anything with it, and then suddenly you see someone else has created it? That’s because there is only one mind, and that we can all tap into these ideas.

This is how ALL ideas happen. They start in the mind of the person who creates it, and then after dedicated work, they hit their target, and people watching might say “Oh wow, that person is so lucky” not realizing the work that went into the attainment of the goal. There are usually years of hard work, persistence, of failures, wrong turns, course corrections, but all starting with that clear vision or idea with an end goal or target.

“Luck is when preparation and opportunity meet.”

How? Over time, we become better at what we do. Never let it rest, until we perfect our craft. Keep going and remember “if a person is not prepared when the opportunity arises, it will only make them look foolish.” (Earl Nightingale).

HOW TO CREATE YOUR VISION FOR AN IMPROVED 2022:

To review the INTRO and CHAPTER 1 of Think and Grow Rich, remember that to achieve NEW results in 2022, we must do something differently than we did in prior years. I hope that you continue to listen to this deep dive into Think and Grow Rich, and wake up early, with me, improving our discipline and confidence levels with this new habit.

EXAMPLE of ANDREA’S VISION:

Grant Cardone reminds us that “Average is a Failing Formula.” (page 70 10x Rule) and he suggests that we write our goals down in the morning/night as if we have already achieved them.

Here’s my FIRST vision of wanting to become an expert in educational neuroscience from January 2019, 6 months before I launched this podcast. I hadn’t even bought the new template for my website when I wrote this and was going to call the podcast Social and Emotional Learning Meets Neuroscience. I had no idea where this idea would lead to, but knew whatever it was, that it needed to have Neuroscience and SEL meshed together somehow.

Figure out what it is that you REALLY want, something that’s much bigger than you, (that you might not want others to see because it’s so big to you) and then believe that you can have it.

When I wrote this, I had no idea this podcast was going to become the top Top 15 Best SEL Podcasts for 2021, and Top 20 Best Neuroscience Podcasts for 2021 and would feature some of the leading experts in neuroscience, education and the brain, but I believed this vision was possible even when I didn’t know what an RSS feed was (that I now know drives ALL podcasts out to the world).

What’s YOUR vision? Do you have it written down? Did this episode give you some ideas on making 2022 your best year ever? Please do what Matt did and take a picture of you studying with me and let me know you have learned. It will help motivate others to do the same.

Remember: “All achievements begin with an idea.” (Napoleon Hill) and then you expand and refine your ideas as you progress towards them.

I’ll see you in the next couple of days where we will move onto DESIRE, FAITH and THE 6th SENSE.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[v] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_and_Grow_Rich

REFERENCES:

[i] Grant Cardone, The 10XRule https://www.amazon.com/10X-Rule-Difference-Between-Success/dp/0470627603

[ii] Grant Cardone Make 2022 Your Best Year Ever published on YouTube Dec. 30, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5QGEBkxuL0

[iii] Undercover Billionaire starring Grant Cardone https://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Billionaire-Season-2/dp/B091J1WPJL

[iv] Andrea Samadi interviews Caleb Maddix (Jan 4, 2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFKA6CPt_sI&list=PLb5Z3cA_mnKiiOxLqeDi_Jd2eG15S-ALF

[vi] See Paul Martinelli’s work over the years as co-founder of the John Maxwell Team https://www.facebook.com/paul.martinelli/videos/1287039331710834/

[vii] The Secret to Think and Grow Rich Revealed by Bob Proctor Published on YouTube April 11, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU-_vjDssVA

[viii] Andrew Carnegie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie

[ix] Hans Ajay https://www.instagram.com/hansajayb/

[x] Matt Stewart https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneurme/?ref=badge&hl=en

[xi] Brendon Burchard on How to Find Clarity https://brendon.com/blog/how-to-find-clarity/

[xii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE “Using the Reticular Activating System to Set Your Intent and Achieve it” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-using-the-reticular-activating-system-to-set-your-intent-and-achieve-it/

[xiii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #67 on “Expanding Your Awareness with Lessons Learning from Bob Proctor’s Seminars” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/expanding-your-awareness-with-a-deep-dive-into-bob-proctors-most-powerful-seminars/

[xiv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #28 with Dr. Daniel Siegel on “Mindsight: The Basis for Social and Emotional Learning” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/clinical-professor-of-psychiatry-at-the-ucla-school-of-medicine-dr-daniel-siegel-on-mindsight-the-basis-for-social-and-emotional-intelligence/

Dec 30, 2021

00:20:39

I know we’ve all heard of the old saying “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” but have you ever wondered if science could open our eyes to what exactly this means? I’ve wondered this, and it led me to this week’s Brain Fact Friday where we will explore hormesis or the idea that “short, intermittent bursts of stressors can actually trigger a cascade of cellular processes that enhance overall health, slow aging, and make you more resilient to future stress (both physical and mental).”[i]

On this episode you will learn:

✔︎ How our cells respond to short, intermittent periods of stress.

✔︎ A look into 2 pathways that are important for longevity (The Sirtuin and mTOR).

✔︎ 4 Ways to boost our health, using hormesis or stress, making us physically and mentally stronger.

For those new, or returning guests, welcome back! I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you who tune in, have been fascinated with learning, understanding, and applying the most current brain research to improve productivity in our schools, our sports, and workplace environments. The purpose of this podcast is to take the mystery out of this new discipline that backs our learning with simple neuroscience to make it applicable for us all to use right away, for immediate results.

I had no idea while initially researching for this episode that neuroscientist and tenured professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Andrew Huberman, would be hosting Dr. David Sinclair[ii] (a Professor in the Department of Genetics from Harvard Medical School) on the Huberman Lab Podcast this week, and covering this very topic on “The Biology of Slowing and Reversing Aging”[iii] where the idea of hormesis was discussed throughout. I do recommend this episode for those who want to take a deeper dive into the science of anti-aging, longevity and the fascinating work that Dr. David Sinclair is doing in this field, in addition to Dr. Peter Attia’s Podcast, The Drive, on “Dr. Sinclair, Ph.D. Slowing Aging, sirtuins, NAD, and the epigenetics of aging.”[iv]

If you are listening to this, and thinking “What? She’s lost me! What is she even talking about? Slowing down the ageing process? What is NAD and what are sirtuins?” Just remember to keep an open mind--this podcast focuses on looking for the research from the most reputable place (Pubmed.gov), learn what the experts in the field have to say about what they are discovering, and then we break down the research in smaller pieces, so that we can all make it applicable in our daily life, whether we’ve taken a neuroscience course, or not. What I’ve learned from studying closely with neuroscience researcher Mark Robert Waldman the past few years, is that we must be open to what the research says and keep our egos (and judgements) out of whatever it is we want to prove. I’m working hard on an abstract that supports the importance of educational neuroscience as a new discipline in our schools, versus the old model of learning, and although there is research that supports my hypothesis, it’s still a new field, and I must remember what Dr. Sinclair tells his students, that “most things we thought were true are not…or will change over time.”[v] I’m now on my third revision of this abstract, because it’s not easy to step away from what we want to believe, and leave it up in the air, because we might be wrong about everything, when it comes to looking at life through the lens of a scientist.

Just keep an open mind, especially when you hear that Dr. Sinclair, now at the forefront of anti-aging research, after all the criticism he’s received over the years, is in the late stages of clinical trials of working on something that mimics exercise in a pill to speed up metabolism. The next few years are going to really blow our minds with what is possible, and I hope that we can all embrace new ideas, with open minds and make the needed change with what we learn from the research, whether it’s in the classroom like I’d like to see with new models of learning backed by neuroscience, or in the modern workplace.

Moving into Season 7 of this podcast in the New Year, with a focus on Brain-Health and Well-Being, I won’t always be looking for speakers and authors who are discovering what we already know. I’m looking for people like Dr. Sinclair, who will stretch us to think in ways we’ve never thought before, to do what we once thought was impossible, showing us that we have powerful reservoirs of mental and physical strength, that we can tap into when needed. Now that fascinates me and is what will motivate me to keep learning more to share with you here.

With that said, I wanted this week’s Brain Fact Friday to tie into last week’s episode to improve our mental and physical health, since according to a recent survey from the American Psychiatric Association, “almost 70 million adults resolve to find ways to improve their mental and physical health this coming year”[vi] and while looking for ideas, I saw a graphic I created last year that caught my attention. The graphic was about using “hormesis” as a stressor to make us stronger. I know how important hormesis is for our mental strength, by choosing to stretch ourselves beyond what we think we are capable of and had heard of strategies that use hormesis like exposing our body to extreme cold (with ice baths), or extreme heat (with saunas), with exercise, (and HIIT) and even intermittent fasting, but I didn’t know what exactly this stress was doing for me on a cellular level.

What does hormesis or this intermittent stress and adversity do to our cells that makes us physically and mentally stronger?

This brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday.

DID YOU KNOW THAT: “We have 2 pathways that are important to longevity—the Sirtuin (the pathway we want to activate for health and longevity) and mTOR System (where too much activity causes disease in the body)[vii] showing us the importance of understanding the key regulators of ageing and age-related diseases?[viii]

This episode will focus on the Sirtuin Pathway, giving us hope that even when our cells become damaged, the Sirtuins help unwrap and put back together the unraveled, damaged DNA. To me, it’s just like the neuroplastic brain that can also repair itself depending how we live our life, and is refreshing to know that we have tremendous control over our future physical, mental health and well-being, and our resilience to stress.

There are ways that we can naturally boost the Sirtuin genes, opening them up, making them more active, giving us more energy, turning on all our bodies’ natural defenses, and in essence, slowing down the aging process, bringing our attention inside our body, down to the cellular level, helping us to understand why certain hormetic behaviors are good for us, and others that do not involve this stressor, are not.

Dr. David Sinclair, a leading expert in the field of anti-aging reminds us that “our bodies were designed to respond to adversity…and we’ve removed it from our lives because it feels good (or it’s easier)—but we need adversity to be resilient and fight disease.”[ix]

So, this year, as we are looking for NEW ways to boost our mental and physical health, I challenge you to start by thinking of the science behind hormesis, adversity and challenge and stretch our minds to try something new, something that challenges us, makes us uncomfortable (for short periods of time) yet has the potential to yield to outstanding health, and wellness benefits to take us to new heights in the New Year.

Please do consult with your doctor before trying anything new and remember that “you can change your epigenome (our loops of DNA) by how we live our life more than anything our genes give us. 80% is epigenetic (our behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way our genes work).” (Dr. Sinclair) I want us to look deeper into why these strategies, that involve some sort of intermittent stress (hormesis) can make us physically and mentally stronger.

Improving the Sirtuin/Longevity Pathway to Reduce Aging by:

Strategy 1: Choosing Workouts That Challenge You

If you have ever hired a personal trainer, it’s not usually because you don’t know what to do, it’s usually the how part that we are missing, the need for someone to push us past where we usually would stop on our own so that we push ourselves enough that to damage our muscle fibers, preparing them to rebuild themselves stronger than they were before. I did mention on episode #114 that “when we put our body under stress, like we do with exercise, that BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor--which is like fertilizer for the brain) upregulates, triggering the growth of cells to meet the increased mental demands of the movement.”[x]

When thinking about how to receive the benefits of exercise for improved cognition and well-being, be sure to pick workouts that challenge you, or push you beyond where you would usually stop on your own. “You can choose HIIT (high intensity interval training) where you go all out for 30 seconds to a minute, followed by 15 seconds of rest to experience hormesis. During these intense bursts, your muscles are briefly starved for oxygen, (hypoxia) which stimulates the production of mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell.)”[xi] It’s this brief period of stress that “improves the capacity of the cells to withstand greater stress.”[xii]

Strategy 2: Using Saunas, Cryotherapy or Ice Baths

For someone who finds anything below 80 degrees freezing, I’ve not yet tried extreme cold, with ice baths or cryotherapy[xiii] for pain relief, muscle healing, and improving the sirtuin pathway to reduce aging, but many people I know swear by this practice. Until I’m brave enough to try this, I’ll stick to ice-packs, but wonder if you have tried this strategy to speed up healing? I’ll say that sitting in a sauna is a lot like Arizona summers, and not difficult when you do this often enough to get used to those higher temperatures. The only challenge with this one, is that most of us don’t have a sauna in our home. I remember a friend of mine from Toronto, from Finland, swore by a sauna in his home, and I thought of him when I first heard of using heat stress to “trigger a thermoregulatory response”[xiv] if used regularly. Since I want to make use of the research I discover, I did investigate how expensive it would be to put a small sauna in your home, and Costco[xv] does carry them for a reasonable price. Might be something for next year’s Christmas wish list, or worth saving up for.

Strategy 3: The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Pioneer in anti-aging, Dr. Sinclair noticed that “our clock is ticking faster by always being fed…and it’s not important WHAT we eat, but WHEN we eat during the day.”[xvi]

I’ve been practicing this strategy since discovering Jason Whittrock from EPISODE #94[xvii] in 2016 but didn’t understand the science behind fasting back then. Remember that Dr. Sinclair reminded us that “our bodies are designed to respond to adversity” and “when we are hungry, we turn on these adversity, hormetic genes that are called longevity genes—and they make the body fight against aging and diseases,”[xviii] even increasing your mental focus. The problem in America is that most of us don’t allow ourselves to get to the point of hunger where all the benefits are. There are fast food restaurants on every corner to prevent us from starving to death, but I think, this strategy is freeing, giving you so much more extra time and energy that you will never want to give up again once you become free from “needing” to eat. If you want to start this practice, and don’t know where to begin, just skip one meal a day with either breakfast or dinner. No one ever said we “need to eat 3 meals a day” so you’ll notice some paradigms shifting as you try this.

I noticed a marked difference with my health after incorporating this strategy, but it took some time to get used to it. The key is to get past the first 2-3 weeks or so when you think “I need to eat something” and learn to get past the hunger feeling. It does go away. Everyone is different, and so I’ll let you know what works best for me, but that might not work for you. You have to play around these strategies and discover for yourself what will work best for your situation.

I started with fasting Sunday through Wednesday with a 16-hour non-eating window from 5:30pm-9:30am and 8-hour eating window from 9:30am-5:30pm back in 2016. I only drank water, tea or coffee in the non-eating window, and ate fairly clean in the 8 hour eating window, and chose only 4 days a week to do this, so that my body wouldn’t get used to it and adapt. With time, I began to trust that my body had stores of energy that it would use up, until it was fed or fueled again. It just became my way of life, and who knew it was a longevity strategy! I had no idea.

I usually exercise early morning with an empty stomach and have never once felt lightheaded or shaky with strenuous exercise on an empty stomach. Just monitor how you feel and adjust this strategy to work for you and your schedule, knowing that over time, your body gets used to whatever you are doing, so you’ll need to continue to switch it up.

Strategy 4: Taking Dietary Supplements (Resveratrol, NMN and Berberine) with Food

Every year I look for what I can add to my health regime to strengthen it and I look for what others are doing in the health and wellness industry. If you’ve been following this podcast for awhile, you will know that I’ve been a longtime fan of Dave Asprey and his bulletproof coffee, so after listening to Dr. Huberman’s podcast[xix], I decided I would try all 3 supplements they discussed (Resveratrol, NMN and Berberine) since both Dr. Huberman and Dr. Sinclair talked about the benefits of each one on health and longevity.

This strategy I’ve not tried yet, but I put the link in the resource section for these 3 supplements on AMAZON and suggest that you do some research yourself before buying anything.

Aha Moment and Paradigm Shift With This Strategy: Dr. Sinclair mentioned that in the fine print of his study with mice that he gave Resveratrol to, that when they gave this supplement to the mice every day, that the only thing that happened was that the mice were protected against a fatty Western diet. They had no noticeable lifespan extension. But for the mice they gave Resveratrol every OTHER day, they lived over 3 years (which is a long time for lab mice), showing him that there are benefits to NOT taking the same thing every day. This blew my mind, as I’m a creature of habit, and take the same thing every day. With this research in mind, I’m going to create a new plan of what supplements to take and when. Just like exercise, supplement use needs to be alternated so my body doesn’t get used to what I’m taking.

Just a bit more about the 3 supplements Dr. Sinclair has studied and noted to be anti-aging that I want to try this year:

Resveratrol: Dr. Sinclair suggests taking 1,000 mg a day that this “must come from a supplement and not from drinking wine, or you would have to drink 200 glasses/day to get the right amount.” I’m sure we have all heard of the health benefits of resveratrol, that it (may lower blood pressure, has a positive effect on blood fats, lengthens the lifespan of certain animals, protects the brain, may suppress cancer cells)[xx] so I’m going to try it to see what I notice.

NMN: 1000 mg/day Nicotinamide Mononucleotide to protect against heart disease, lower risk of obesity, enhance and maintains DNA repair, and slow down the rate of aging[xxi] by enhancing NAD levels in the body, an important coenzyme found in all living cells that plays a role in promoting health and prolonging lifespan “but these levels decline as we get older, or obese.”[xxii] Dr. Huberman and Dr. Sinclair suggested taking 1,000 mg of NMN to fuel the NAD molecule that also fuels Resveratrol to work in the body. It seems this one works best with Resveratrol since it increases those important NAD levels in the body that we need to live, and since numerous studies have demonstrated that “boosting NAD+ levels increases insulin sensitivity, reverses mitochondrial dysfunction, and extends lifespan”[xxiii] I’m definitely going to add this supplement to my health care regime in the New Year.

Berberine: Dr. Sinclair called this the “poor man’s Metformin” Metformin is a drug given to people with diabetes. I used to take metformin for another purpose and had no idea this drug had additional benefits of protecting against heart disease, cancer, frailty and dementia. If you are taking it, then just know there are these additional benefits, and if you don’t have access to it, there’s always Berberine, a powerful supplement with many benefits at the molecular level like “it’s been shown to lower blood sugar, cause weight loss and improve heart health.”[xxiv]

Longevity expert, Dr. Sinclair takes these 3 supplements daily, with a bit of olive oil and vinegar, with a basil leaf, and says it tastes like he’s drinking a bit of salad dressing, which sounds wonderful, but I’ll let you know when I try it out!

To review this week’s Brain Fact Friday:

DID YOU KNOW THAT: “We have 2 pathways that are important to longevity—the Sirtuin (the pathway we want to activate for health and longevity) and mTOR System (where too much activity causes disease in the body) that are key regulators of ageing and age-related diseases[xxv] and we can do things that positively impact the Sirtuin genes, by choosing challenge boosting hormetic activities, opening these Sirtuin genes up, making them more active, giving us more energy, turning on all our bodies’ natural defenses, and impacting the rate of aging.

Whatever strategy we choose (workouts that challenge us, heat/cold exposure, intermittent fasting, or supplements that target anti-aging, my hope is that we now have a different picture of why we are using hormesis to build a better, stronger, more resilient version of ourselves that embraces adversity head on, and full force. Just like when we have peered inside our neuroplatic brain and learned something new on other episodes, we have now looked deep into the longevity of our cells, and understand why hormesis doesn’t kill them, but only makes them stronger!

Have a safe, happy and healthy New Year and I’ll see you next year for the start of Season 7!

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697

[ii] https://sinclair.hms.harvard.edu/people/david-sinclair

RESOURCES:

NMN (Nicotinamide mononucleotide as an anti-aging health product) August 11, 2011 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090123221001491

NMN Supplement on AMAZON https://www.amazon.com/Nicotinamide-Mononucleotide-Supplement-Metabolism-Capsules/dp/B079S3XF4H

The Science Behind NMN: A Stable, Reliable NAD+ Activator and Ant-Aging Molecule by Christopher Shade Feb. 2020 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7238909/#sec1-2title

The mTOR Pathway August 31, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSx9ryXzCFE

REFERENCES:

[i] Hormesis: Meet the Stress That Makes You Physically and Mentally Stronger Feb. 28, 2021 by Stephanie Eckelkamp https://amp.mindbodygreen.com/articles/hormesis

[iii] Huberman Lab Podcast with Dr. David Sinclair EPISODE #52 https://hubermanlab.com/dr-david-sinclair-the-biology-of-slowing-and-reversing-aging/

[iv] Peter Attia, MD “The Drive” EPISODE #27 with Dr. Sinclair, Ph.D. on “Slowing Aging, sirtuins, NAD, and the epigenetics of aging” Published on YouTube Jan. 6th, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edrIEC0kJv8

[v] The Backlash David Sinclair Faced by the Scientific Community Published on YouTube January 29, 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdAI-X3y1o

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #188 on “Putting Mental and Physical Health First” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-putting-our-mental-and-physical-health-first/

[vii] The mTOR Pathway August 31, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSx9ryXzCFE

[viii] Antioxidant Modulation of mTOR and Sirtuin Pathways in Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases by Asmaa Abdullah, Nuraqila Mohd Murshid and Suzana Makpol Published August 31, 2020 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12035-020-02083-1#:~:text=mTOR%20and%20sirtuin%20are%20key,3).

[ix] Joe Rogan Podcast with Dr. David Sinclair on “How Fasting Can Fight Aging” Published on YouTube June 18, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUwd-D94pzE

[x] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #114 on “Building a Faster, Stronger, Resilient Brain by Understanding BDNF” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-on-building-a-faster-stronger-resilient-brain-by-understanding-brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor-bdnf/

[xi] Hormesis: Meet the Stress That Makes You Physically and Mentally Stronger Feb. 28, 2021 by Stephanie Eckelkamp https://amp.mindbodygreen.com/articles/hormesis

[xii] Modulating Exercise-Induced Stress: Does Less Equal More? August 1, 2015 by Jonathan M Peake, James F. Markworth https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.01055.2014?rss=1

[xiii] What are the benefits of cryotherapy https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319740

[xiv] Saunas for Personal Health and Longevity Strategy by Steve Hill July 22, 2021 https://www.lifespan.io/news/saunas-health-and-longevity/

[xv] 1-2 Person Infrared Sauna from Costco gracia-1-2-person-low-emf-infrared-sauna.product.100675807.html">https://www.costco.com/dynamic-gracia-1-2-person-low-emf-infrared-sauna.product.100675807.html

[xvi] Huberman Lab Podcast with Dr. David Sinclair EPISODE #52 https://hubermanlab.com/dr-david-sinclair-the-biology-of-slowing-and-reversing-aging/

[xvii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #94 with Jason Wittrock on “Nutrition, Intermittent Fasting, and the Ketogenic Diet” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-trainer-and-fitness-model-jason-wittrock-on-health-nutrition-intermittent-fasting-and-the-ketogenic-diet/

[xviii] Joe Rogan Podcast with Dr. David Sinclair on “How Fasting Can Fight Aging” Published on YouTube June 18, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUwd-D94pzE

[xix] Huberman Lab Podcast with Dr. David Sinclair EPISODE #52 https://hubermanlab.com/dr-david-sinclair-the-biology-of-slowing-and-reversing-aging/

[xx] 7 Health Benefits of Resveratrol by Kerri-Ann Jennings March 3, 2017 https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/resveratrol#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2

[xxi] NMN (Nicotinamide mononucleotide as an anti-aging health product) August 11, 2011 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090123221001491

[xxii] Huberman Lab Podcast with Dr. David Sinclair EPISODE #52 https://hubermanlab.com/dr-david-sinclair-the-biology-of-slowing-and-reversing-aging/ 59:25

[xxiii] The Science Behind NMN: A Stable, Reliable NAD+ Activator and Ant-Aging Molecule by Christopher Shade Feb. 2020 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7238909/#sec1-2title

[xxiv] Berberine: A Powerful Supplement with Many Benefits by Kris Gunners January, 2017 https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/berberine-powerful-supplement

[xxv] Antioxidant Modulation of mTOR and Sirtuin Pathways in Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases by Asmaa Abdullah, Nuraqila Mohd Murshid and Suzana Makpol Published August 31, 2020 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12035-020-02083-1#:~:text=mTOR%20and%20sirtuin%20are%20key,3).

Dec 24, 2021

00:16:51

As we are in the middle of our holiday season, wherever you might be listening around the world, rushing about, tying up loose ends with work, with a focus somewhere in our heads towards whether we are ready, or not, for the holiday, where we can spend that quality time with those we love, I want to release a quick episode to thank you, the listener, for your support with this podcast.

This year, we were listed in the Top 15 Best SEL Podcasts for 2021,[i] and Top 20 Best Neuroscience Podcasts for 2021[ii] and I owe this honor to you. Without listeners, and high quality guests, there is no podcast, so thank you for tuning in, sharing the episodes that you enjoy, and sending me messages and feedback with new ideas to continue to feature the leading experts in neuroscience, education and the brain.

For those new, or returning guests, welcome back! I'm Andrea Samadi, author, and educator from Toronto, Canada, now in Arizona, and like many of you who tune in, have been fascinated with learning, understanding and applying the most current brain research to improve results in our lives (whether we are a teacher in the classroom, or using these ideas in the corporate space).

This podcast uses Seasons to separate our content, and as we move into Season 7 at the start of the New Year, our theme will remain “Brain Health and Well-Being” as my friend Dan Vigliatore[iii] Health and PE Teacher from Toronto, Canada reminded me this year, that there’s more to this podcast than providing meaningful content around neuroscience. Wellness education must be at the heart of everything we do, since our brain is involved in everything that we do, and everything that we are, and I do want to make that apparent for those listening, like Dan noticed. Especially with the fact that I began my teaching career as a PE teacher in the late 1990s.

As we move into 2022, and plan for a new year of content, around the theme of Brain Health and Well-Being to optimize our cognitive, social and emotional competencies, I’m truly honored to have this opportunity to host this podcast, because the strategies that we are uncovering in each episode are not only for you, but they are transforming my results, as well! I do look forward to uncovering new ideas, strategies and research in this field in the New Year that we can all use to take our results to new heights.

Especially since it’s such an interesting time in our world. Last night, we were speaking with our pediatric cardiologist who told us that at the beginning of the Pandemic, almost 2 years ago, it was very quiet in his offices, and now, with the new spike in COVID cases, he is busy with new patients coming in, with symptoms they weren’t experiencing in the early stages of the virus[iv], showing us how important our health remains for us.

With everything going on in the world today, I’m sure that YOU will have health in the back of your head this whole time, knowing full well that 2022 is only a few days away, and before we know it, we will all be back in the swing of a New Year, with our old schedules, homework routines reestablished, and hopefully, healthy habits back on track, so for just a minute, I want take this moment to stop, pause and think about what’s important at this time of year.

Instead of releasing an episode about setting goals, like we did to launch the New Year Last year, with EPISODE #103[v] on “The Neuroscience of Leadership: 3 Ways to Reset, Recharge and Refuel Your Brain for Your Best Year Ever” that I still think is a good episode to revisit, for this week’s BRAIN FACT FRIDAY and EPISODE #188, I want to cover “Putting Our Physical and Mental Health First: To Ensure a New Generation of Thriving Adults.” Our next generation needs us to model the way.

The signs pointing in this direction have been clear the whole time of the Pandemic, but have you noticed there’s a sense of urgency around mental and physical well-being at this time? I saw it with one of my first XMAS cards that came in the mail. I’ve been getting a Christmas card every year from my mentor Bob Proctor and his wife Linda. It always makes me smile to keep in touch with people who have had a profound influence on my life, and this year, when I opened the card, there was a handwritten note highlighting the importance of a “healthy” and joyous 2022. This was early December, before the Omicron Variant began impacting people around the world, but I noticed this, and it stuck in my head “pay attention to health this year.”

Then I remembered that my next interview is scheduled for the middle of January, with Nick Jonsson,[vi] author of the #1 International Best Selling book on Executive Loneliness whose website headliner says “mental health issues are rising dramatically” especially in the workplace and I’d say the writing on the wall is clear where our focus needs to be in 2022, especially if we want to be stable, strong and predictable for the children in our lives, who watch and respond to everything that we do.

So, for this week’s Brain Fact Friday,

DID YOU KNOW: “That one-quarter of Americans intend to improve their mental health in 2022”[vii] and that according to a poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association, “almost 70 million adults resolve to find ways to improve their mental health this coming year.”[viii]

American Psychiatric Association president Vivian Pender, MD thinks this statistic is “important and encouraging” but points out of the “level of variation among demographic groups” and that “psychiatrists need to understand these trends.”

She references a poll conducted by APA’s Healthy Minds from Dec. 6-8th with a nationwide sample of 2,119 healthy adults and 37% of them revealed “anxieties about the state of their mental health approaches.”

The poll listed the following resolutions to make an impact on mental health as meditation (53%) therapy (37%), purposeful social media hiatus (35%), journaling (32%), accessing a mental health app (26%) and seeing a psychiatrist (1/5th of the participants).

Since there is such an important and timely movement toward mental health and well-being at this time, I want to provide the TOP STRATEGIES that we’ve covered over the past 2 years on this podcast, that would fall into the categories of the top modalities for improving mental and physical health.

STRATEGY 1: Meditation

There’s so much to this strategy, that it can be overwhelming for a beginner to know how to start. I learned something valuable from each of these episodes and I hope that it helps you to begin, or fine tune your meditation practice.

EPISODE 25: Mick Neustadt covers “How Meditation and Mindfulness Changes Your Life”[ix] and this episode is great for people who are new to meditation and mindfulness. He explains what mindfulness is, why it’s so important for young people, and what the research is saying about the importance of implementing a mindfulness program into your daily life.

EPISODE #98: Dr. Dawson Church covers “The Science Behind Using Meditation: Rewiring Your Brain for Happiness”[x] where he explains how he was able to turn his attention away from the horrible tragedy of losing his home in the 2017 Northern California wildfires, to create thoughts, habits and behaviors to support a happy life. I still use Dawson Church’s Bliss Brain Meditations every morning when I first wake up, because there’s something very peaceful about them.

EPISODE #28: Dr. Dan Siegel, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine covers “Mindsight: The Basis for Social and Emotional Intelligence”[xi] taking us into the results he is seeing with understanding the “mind” in others (whether in schools or the workplace).

EPISODE #60: I cover a deep dive into Dr. Dan Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness Meditation[xii] for anyone new, learning about what to expect from this meditation. Dr. Siegel’s guided meditation has the potential for fascinating insights and results, and I will always point to this one, for anyone looking to strengthen their mind.

EPISODE #154: Author and movie producer Tom Cronin on “The Portal Book and Film: How Meditation Can Save the World”[xiii] if you want to see how Tom transformed his life with meditation.

Strategy 2: Accessing a Mental Health App or Tool

In order to dig deep and make improvements with our brain and cognition, there are tools out there that can help. Before knowing about these tools, I thought the only way to strengthen my brain was through nutrition and exercise.

EPISODE #108: CEO of Fisher Wallace Laboratories Kelly Roman who covers “Wearable Medical Devices for Anxiety, Depression, and Sleep/Stress Management.”[xiv] Fisher Wallace has over 70,000 patients and 10,000 subscribers using their devices and has continued to run three sizable clinical trials during the pandemic, investigating how neurostimulation is a strong contender as a treatment for anxiety and depression compared to drug use.

EPISODE #120: My Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Medical Device[xv] came from following month following my interview with Kelly Roman after I had a chance to test the device myself. This is to date is our #1 most downloaded episode of all time with over 5K downloads and the episode I receive the most emails, and DMs on social media about. People want to know that there is a real person behind this review, who really did use the device. I would add a photo of me wearing it to prove I do use it but think the model in the picture looks much better than I do. All joking aside, this is a serious topic, and the emails I have received tell me that people are desperate for solutions when it comes to mental health. While I tested this device to help improve my sleep, I did notice feeling less anxious and worried about things, and it had a calming effect on me. Like I tell anyone who emails me, I highly suggest this product, and if you use it consistently, the way it’s designed to be used (20 minutes twice a day) you should notice an improvement in whatever it is that you are looking to improve (among other things) like I did. The only way to know this, would be to try it. They do offer a hassle-free 30-day trial period so you can return the device with no questions asked if you don’t want to keep it.

We had a BONUS EPISODE in February of this year, with World Renowned Neuroscientist Dr. Carolyn Leaf on “Cleaning Up Your Mess: 5 Simple Steps”[xvi] She has an app that goes along with her book, called Neurocycle and I would say it’s the most effective way to clean up your mind (other than going to therapy, that I have not done) that I have ever seen. She helps you to pinpoint a problem that you have, and eliminate it in a process she calls Neurocycling.

EPISODE #106: I Review Dr. Leaf’s “Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess” book and Neurocycle App.[xvii]

EPISODE #134: with Kristen Holmes from Whoop.com we cover “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery, and Strain with a WHOOP Device.”[xviii]

EPISODE #135: I offer my biggest AHA moments from my interview with Kristen Holmes on “Recovery Strategies to Build Resiliency Against Physical, Mental and Emotional Stressors.”[xix] I haven’t been wearing this device for a full year just yet, but there are immense benefit if you are able to measure your sleep, HRV, recovery and even your skin temperature and respiratory rates, on a daily basis.

EPISODE #179: Sun Sachs, the CEO of Rewire Fitness covers their “First-To-Market Neuro Performance Mobile App for Athletes”[xx] This interview I really needed this app before and after, as I had just tested positive to COVID the day before and was right in the middle of the wonderful symptoms. I think that Sun Sachs’ story was so engaging, and his voice was so calming, that I quickly forgot I was under the weather that day, and diligently use this app to help prime my mind before and after workouts.

Strategy 3: Exercise

I can’t leave exercise off the table, but have put this strategy last, because I usually put it first. The research points to the fact that exercise can help us to achieve optimal physical and mental health and learning about this research really can help us to all put exercise first to move the needle with health and wellness in 2022.

EPISODE #116: with Best Selling Author John J Ratey, MD on “The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain”[xxi] who explains why the brain is primed for learning after exercise.

EPISODE #118: with a Deep Dive into John J Ratey’s Books[xxii]

EPISODE #123: with Northeastern University Professor Chuck Hillman, Ph.D. on “The Impact of Exercise on the Brain and Learning”[xxiii] On this episode we dive into the brain scans Dr. Hillman did showing how exercise had a clear impact on student’s during test taking and can help us to all see of the importance of physical activity on a student’s academic performance.

To Review This Week’s Brain Fact Friday:

DID YOU KNOW: “That one-quarter of Americans intend to improve their mental health in 2022”[xxiv] and that according to a poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association, “almost 70 million adults resolve to find ways to improve their mental health this coming year.”

With the TOP 3 strategies I’ve shared with you (Meditation, Using a Mental Health App or Tool and Exercise) I wonder what you found to be the most insightful and interesting. Your brain will ONLY pay attention to what it finds interesting, which would be the first step towards making lasting change with whatever health and wellness strategy you choose. If you are ready for to make 2022 your best year ever (mentally and physically) pick one strategy that you find the most interesting, and start with that.

Have a happy and healthy holiday, and I’ll see you next week.

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI:

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697