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.

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. 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.

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:

[vii]

[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

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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!

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