ARTICLES + PODCAST EPISODES
Emotional ups and downs: why they happen and what to do about them
“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” -Fred Rogers Do you go through a lot…
Empathy: how too much can hurt and what you can use instead
Empathy allows us to connect with others on a deep level, to recognize, understand, and even internalize the internal state of another person, their emotions and what they’re going through. A full definition of empathy includes both cognitive and affective…
New Video! Emotion regulation skills won’t work without this
“You can’t navigate well in an interconnected, feedback-dominated world unless you take your eyes off short-term events and look for long term behavior and structure.” -Donella Meadows, Systems Thinking: A Primer We all have emotion regulation strategies. We all…
Human Systems Resilience: New videos, mini-book and learning community!
Through learning we re-create ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do. Through learning we reperceive the world and our relationship to it. Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be…
Mental health relies on these two key elements
What drives you to do the things you do? When you wake up in the morning, what thoughts or feelings come up and how do they help or hinder you from putting your feet on the floor and starting the…
Season 3 Ep 12 – Safety, Security and Systems Intelligence
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“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 a truly adequate solution.”…
Human systems intelligence & biodynamics
After completing all chapters of my book, I’m now heading into intense editing and creating a biomechanics map of systems resilience. I have been loving the writing journey so much. It has pushed me to new levels of stamina…
New Video! Boundaries, power and why we need them
https://youtu.be/wMp5rtrcSzI Boundaries, anger and aggression reflect important nervous mechanisms that play a role in relational dynamics and emotional strength. The idea of anger & aggression is controversial. On the one hand, when we don’t have control of it, particularly…
Season 3 Ep 11: Mission, Endurance and Post-Traumatic Growth – Interview with Two Wolf Foundation
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“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 the call of a potential meaning…
Depth & dimensions
AI is a Feedback system that feeds us back what we feed into it. It is one layer out from our experience, meaning that it uses the digital info, 1’s and 0’s- it receives from our symbolic expressions (words &…
Intelligence & Optimization
As AI becomes increasingly more of an influence in many realms of life at higher speeds than expected – whether we are thinking loss of jobs and the ripple effects of that into the economy and world, or the…
Coming soon
Hello! Just wanted to give a quick update as I get into a busy week of moving back to the US and taking care of a few more things here! I recently had an incredible conversation with the founder of…
Pathways
As we interact with many systems, we play a role in clearing pathways for brighter futures ahead for ourselves, our loved ones and future generations. How we respond to danger (perceived and real) and WHO we turn to (including…
Optimizing intelligence
So much of what is tied to mental health is tied to the maturation process – the developmental journey of learning how to self-regulate, stay true to one’s own integrity, to know one holds value, and to integrate into…
Nature of science
“When we talk about the big bang or the fabric of space, what we are doing is not a continuation of the free and fantastic stories that humans have told nightly around campfires for hundreds of thousands of years….
Season 3 Episode 10 – Education, Maturity & Human Potential
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Because of how human brains develop, the only way for maturity to emerge is in the presence of maturity. Listen on Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts I remember the first time I gave a…
Flexing Prefrontal Features
How often do you plan for things to not go as planned? Using our mind to think about different plans and actions ahead of time in case of emergencies or negative scenarios is a powerful mental tool. It is for…
Learning
Just registered for the second part of my Wilderness First Responder training. I’m realizing that something that many of us may need to pay attention to is the vulnerability of falling into old patterns when we are surrounded by…
Maturity and problem-solving
Brains mature in the presence of mature brains. Maturity is one of the most important, and complex, topics of our current time. Maturity is directly related to mental health, and mental health is at the core of all the…
Untapped Potential
Learning, adaptation and change are: Enfleshed Embedded Enacted Extended … within the mind-body system for learning. The current education paradigm has not caught up with this fact. What and how we teach children and young people about…
Context and complexity
Long form content. We need it. Our brains need it. The next generation needs it. What do I mean by long form content? Books, audio books, long podcasts, in-depth interviews, as well as courses, workshops, seminars, training classes. Images are…
Thank you!
brainwaves and book-writing… First I want to send my appreciation to all of you who are sending me the most beautiful emails and insightful, intriguing questions related to my last newsletter and podcast episode! I will dedicate some time…
Sleep and the Brain
It’s Sleep Awareness Week, so I thought I’d share some information about the importance of sleep, dreams and circadian rhythms. Something I have found with many clients, and especially teenagers, is that they are not getting enough sleep. This…
Growth
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature has a way of taking my breath away… Being outdoors yesterday made me think of quotes from Ralph Waldo…
Newsletter!
I just sent out a monthly newsletter to email subscribers! If you’d like to receive these (which also include exclusive invites for subscribers, such as an upcoming online Q & A with me), make sure to subscribe using any…
Season 3 Episode 9 – Mindset, Purpose & Neuroplasticity: Career Insights & Perspectives
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A quick episode that covers some insights gained over the course of my career in human communication and psychology, child development, teaching, and neuroscience. Highlights include the importance of: mindset, purpose and effective teachers anti-disciplinary thinking and teams…
Online challenges
I talk about challenging ourselves and self-regulating… sometimes I forget that social media is something that feeds us those feel-good hormones, and can keep us constantly trying to engage and get reactions from others, or compare ourselves. I forget…
Play, Failure and Learning
“Increased struggle leads to increased structural change in the brain.” -Dr. Lara Boyd During a conversation yesterday with a few other beginner jiu jitsu students, someone said, ‘the way I’m learning is I keep failing and then noticing…
Teacher-Student Connections
Good teachers are rare. They possess an ability to connect with students that is in and of itself a form of intelligence. It requires a high level of attunement to the unfolding processes, reactions, and feedback that is being…
Beginner Mindset
Years ago, I directed programs for kids at the Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University. What we understood from experience and research is that no child is born gifted or pre-determined for a specific trajectory. Passion, talent and goals…
Scientist Mindset
“Science is about reading the world from a gradually widening point of view.” — Carlo Rovelli, world renowned quantum physicist A scientist’s mindset is open to questioning what it has learned, what it has been told. It is…
Community
Had an amazing experience this past weekend connecting with people who came together to celebrate the grand opening of a wonderful coffee shop* in Montana and to learn some basic principles for preparing and dealing with emergencies The conversations…
Bottom-Up and Top-Down Strategies
https://youtu.be/YAmCdYYPtYs I spent several hours yesterday (as I do almost every day) with people’s brainwaves and team meetings about self-regulation strategies. Decided to make a short video with some thoughts and themes emerging through book-writing and working with clients. …
The island
As a continuation from a previous post about some favorite travels, I thought I’d share one of those stories… So after traveling on a tiny fishing boat with a couple of friends (where the roof fell off and we…
Inspiration and Flow
The moment I can sense the ‘aha’ from someone when they see a situation, themselves, or someone else with ‘new eyes’… that’s a moment I live for. When that person tells me later how that new way of seeing has…
Connecting with Ground
I’m excited to continue to integrate the past couple of decades of my career experience in the field of neuroscience, mindset, and my extensive world travels and outdoor experiences into a way of contributing new perspectives and models for…
Oxytocin, Brainwaves and Bonding
One of the most common brainwave profiles I’ve seen with clients over the years are related to anxiety. This is often correlated with very fast frequencies (high beta). (see video below) https://youtu.be/uFvyu_A20Yw A neurochemical that I think…
Off Screen
Sometimes there are no words or on-screen images capable of honoring what we experience. Sink into those spaces. #offscreen #behindthescenes #patience #resilience…
Stimulus Response
There is something about coffee shops for me… I love how they bring people together, I love when they are done well. This one had a cute book about making the best coffee at home (Chemex is my favorite at-home…
Our social matrix
When we talk about the importance of coming together with others, who we surround ourselves with, and what we do when we come together matters. It’s not just about connecting and bonding. In fact, the bonding hormone oxytocin has been found…
VIDEOS
Emotional ups and downs: why they happen and what to do about them
“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” -Fred Rogers Do you go through a lot…
Empathy: how too much can hurt and what you can use instead
Empathy allows us to connect with others on a deep level, to recognize, understand, and even internalize the internal state of another person, their emotions and what they’re going through. A full definition of empathy includes both cognitive and affective…
New Video! Emotion regulation skills won’t work without this
“You can’t navigate well in an interconnected, feedback-dominated world unless you take your eyes off short-term events and look for long term behavior and structure.” -Donella Meadows, Systems Thinking: A Primer We all have emotion regulation strategies. We all…
Neuroscience of Self-Regulation: 5 Ways to Master Your Nervous System
The spectrum of human behavior we see as ranging from inspirational to irritating to horrific are tied to two key mechanisms Self-regulatory systems: neural and behavioral resources that we are NOT born with and must have attachment-based experiences in order…
Neuroscience of Attachment: how to have more intimacy and independence in our adult relationships
As children, we all seek a secure base. The harbor we know we can return to and rely on, no matter how upset or distressed or emotionally messy we get. As children, it’s not our job to be a secure…
Why growth mindset is a neuroscience-informed mindset
Growth mindset is more neurologically accurate than fixed mindset. A growth mindset reflects the idea that we can build and evolve our abilities and intelligence. A fixed mindset is the idea that we have ‘fixed’ amounts of intelligence and…
How to slow down anxious thinking using neuroscience
Anxious thinking is associated with fast brainwaves. The more relaxed you are, the slower your brainwave activity. In this video I show you how to slow your brainwaves so you can access a more relaxed state. I also go into:…