Mindset Neuroscience Podcast

Human nervous systems are constantly teaching each other what to expect from the world. Safety or vigilance. Openness or defensiveness. Curiosity or contraction. And most of that communication happens...

When Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Brain Science: Returning to What We Already Know We're drowning in information. Collecting data. Consuming content. And yet, somehow, we're starving for wisdom. There'...

Most of us walk through the world believing we're responding to what's actually happening. But we're not. We're responding to a model—a statistical best guess shaped by our history, our nervous system...

  Gratitude - and all of its related rituals - can come across as surface level and performative.  But when we can explore it through the lens of neuroscience, we see that it is not just about some fr...

Resilience isn't built by staying calm. Resilience also doesn't happen by following a script or filling out a worksheet. It's built through rupture, repair, and range. It's about in-the-moment-flexibi...

How does revenge play a role in our world? Neuroscience research shows that its neurological basis plays a deeper, darker role than we might have imagined...   “Behavioral studies from around the worl...

What if the most powerful leaders are not those who control others, but those who have mastered the art of self-regulation? Not only leaders who can regulate themselves, but those who regulate the ner...

Our past experiences are not simply stored in the brain—they are patterns embedded into the circuitry of our brain-body system.     For many people, their history can linger as patterns of dysregulati...

Memory is not just in the brain. Many of you have heard of the book, The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van der Kolk. The main idea of the book is that memory is not just something contained in... REA...

Memory is not just in the brain. Many of you have heard of the book, The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van der Kolk. The main idea of the book is that memory is not just something contained in... REA...

What does your mind do when it wanders?  Perhaps you catch yourself getting 'lost in thought'...  moments of daydreaming, wondering, wandering...   Do you believe that those 'lapses in attention' are ...

“[...] humans, people and knowledge are not only objectively significant: they are by far the most significant phenomena in nature – the only ones whose behaviour cannot be understood without understa...

"It's a blessing to be hidden and a disaster not to be found." - D. W. Winnicott   The labels we assign to ourselves or accept from others can drastically influence our self-perception and motivation....

Attachment theory is not a 'theory'.. it's a part of our neurophysiological operating system It’s a biobehavioral adaptation that helps us regulate ourselves and explore new frontiers.  And attachment...

"your brain is editing out what it thinks you should know about and what you shouldn't know about." -Dr. Allan Hamilton   Understanding why we react the way we do, where our patterns come from and how...

Ever feel like your brain's in a fog? Like something is off and your brain is not firing on all cylinders? This is something I come across a lot when working with clients, and particularly in doing br...

Years ago, while studying with my mentor-professor at NYU, Zoran Josipovic - who was looking at brains scans of monks - I decided to stay for a few months at various monasteries. One of them was Deer ...

As we approach the end of the year, we may start notice within ourselves - and others - feelings of exhaustion, burn out, feeling frazzled or overwhelmed.     There are seasons that are influenced soc...

Connection is a 'biological imperative'. Being a mammal means that we are extremely 'nurture-dependent'. We cannot survive without connection to another. On the one hand, each human must become self r...

Whether it's asking a question, raising our hands, speaking in public, posting or publishing, expressing something new, asking someone out, having a difficult conversation, setting a boundary, or want...

When we truly understand the power of the human brain, and we authentically become learners, neuroscience becomes a language of the human spirit - one that empowers and inspires.  Unfortunately, it ca...

As we approach the holidays and important moments in history… are there social or family dynamics that feel like repeats or remnants from the past?   Do you sometimes get the feeling that nothing ever...

Purpose isn't just some grandiose, once-in-a-lifetime discovery. It's not a single "aha" moment where suddenly everything clicks. Instead, we can view a sense of purpose as an ongoing narrative that e...

"One thing about human intelligence is absolutely certain: it is malleable, meaning it can be changed through exposure to new information or even by looking at what you already know in a new way.  The...

Emotion regulation doesn't mean being calm and collected all the time. It's about range and repertoire, and an ability to intentionally shift into a state we prefer.  A state that 'feels better'.  Fee...

The brain, more than anything, is a predictive system. It conserves energy by attempting to predict - rather than truly understand - what is in front of it. When information is missing, it fills in th...

“Your brain - every brain - is a work in progress. It is 'plastic.' From the day we're born to the day we die, it continuously revises and remodels, improving or slowly declining, as a function of how...

In my interview with Michelle “MACE” Curran, we dive into the neural architecture behind the idea of our inner critic, imposter syndrome, and what it means to live life from a place of striving and op...

“We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it [...] has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results i...

“We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it [...] has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results i...

What is it about those things we know are good for us that we somehow just can’t get ourselves to do? Maybe we have intentions to do something healthy but then we don’t. … or maybe we do start making....

“too often people typically spring into action based on what first comes to mind, and thus too often mind… And thus too often, wind up seeing the world through the lens of what they already know.”   -...

In this episode, I cover 5 concrete, embodied, neuroscience-supported pillars you can use to get better at honing the incredible power of the human mind-brain-body system.  We look at several biomarke...

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” ― Albert Einstein     In a world that often values certainty and consistency, it can be hard to admit when we need to change our minds. The conc...

You were born with a growth mindset. When you were first learning to speak and walk, you fell and fumbled over and over again. But there was a part of you - an algorithm - that understood that this wa...

"A problem never exists in isolation; it is surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of the context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of finding...

  “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but ...

  Because of how human brains develop, the only way for maturity to emerge is in the presence of maturity.   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts   I remember the first time I ...

  A quick episode that covers some insights gained over the course of my career in human communication and psychology, child development, teaching, and neuroscience.   Highlights include the importanc...

“One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” ― Shannon L. Alder   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify   How we distrac...

Danger - and how it is dealt with - is the central theme of attachment - and therefore human interaction. Who we turn to and who we have around us during times of uncertainty and threat affect our ab...

“Love is at once an affirmation and a transcendence of who we are.” ― Esther Perel   “And what is true for human beings is true for every living thing: all organisms require alternating periods of gro...

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” * ― Leo Tolstoy   Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts We are in the most interconnected period ...

Learning is a gateway to power and freedom Learning increases our degrees of freedom by giving us new ways to move, communicate and adapt to challenges and capitalize on opportunities.   Listen on Blu...

“Once again, the world seems to be less about objects than about interactive relationships.” ― Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics   Studying human brains while a person is immobile and alon...

To update our algorithms and enhance our brain functioning, there is one key thing we can do: Intentionally add experiences into our weekly routine that engage our sensory-motor systems in ways that a...

In this episode, I explore: -the difference between our autonomic and somatic nervous systems and why knowing the difference gives us power to change -biomechanisms we use to protect or defend ourselv...

What is moral injury, and how can we use it as a path to cognitive flexibility, sense of purpose and forgiveness? In this episode, we explore the following: - what is moral injury - what is morality a...

Attachment theory is not a 'theory'.. it's a part of our neurophysiological operating system Attachment is a way of seeking proximity to an attachment figure.  It’s a biobehavioral adaptation that hel...

Have you ever had the experience of feeling like someone really ‘gets you’?   This can take various forms - like being able to share what’s on our mind and the other person holding space for us to exp...