ARTICLES + PODCAST EPISODES
How to stop overreacting – Part 2 of 2
What does it mean to react? An important aspect of the word reaction is ‘re’ – which means that it happens again. To re-act is to act again and again in a similar way. In the psychotherapy…
My interview at the Big Brain Summit
In this interview, we focus on why learning new ways of being, thinking and reacting can cause discomfort. I share my two ‘origin stories’ of how I got into the world of neuroplasticity and neuroscience research, and my discoveries of…
How to stop overreacting – Part 1 of 2
Have you had an argument recently, or an interaction with someone that didn’t go as you hoped it would?
What was your reaction in this situation? Was it anger, defensiveness, or shutting down?
Did you say what you truly wanted to say?
Did you hold back?
Or did you say something hurtful?
Is there something you feel about this situation that you can’t put your finger on why it bothers you so much? Or do you think you know why, but you don’t know how to express it to that person?
In this podcast episode, I go into
-brain-body mechanisms that lead to overreactions
-connecting the dots between your childhood and anxiety, stress, depression and other challenges you may be facing
-A process to help us be less reactive and increase our attentional control during difficult interactions
Season 2 Episode 10 – The Science of Feeling Understood
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes Listen on Blubrry 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…
Season 2 Episode 9 – Hierarchies and Signal Flow
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Why do systems fall apart or become dysfunctional?
A system can be a family, relationship, community, business, organization, society. The human mind-brain-body is also a system.
One reason dysfunction can happen is related to hierarchy and ‘signal flow’.
Hierarchies exist throughout nature and throughout human society.
Hierarchies are best able to serve the system when there is efficient signal flow from subsystems to the higher levels and vice versa.
We can see dysfunction happen when the highest levels of a hierarchy are
-not serving the goals of the entire system
-have communication channels dominated by a specific subgroup/subsystem
-are blocking or suppressing efficient communication and signal flow from the subsystems
Optimal functioning of a system requires a state of signal flow where all members or nodes feel ‘understood’.
This experience of being understood is at the core of optimal system functioning within human systems. When we don’t feel understood, it means there is a block of signal flow.
This episode covers the idea of hierarchies and signal flow – and what happens when hierarchies don’t serve the goals of the entire system.
In upcoming articles, I’ll be bringing this concept back down to more personal and interpersonal levels.
The science of self-fulfilling prophecies and why we repeat relationship habits
Many of our patterns – whether we want to admit it or not – come from our childhood. It’s hard to get around this fact. This is because when we are young, our brain is specializing its algorithms and…
How quick fix mindsets hurt your brain
Something i see happen quite a bit in the mental health field is that a lot of people are seeking a quick fix and a way to alleviate their symptoms. This is completely understandable, and might be needed in…
Season 2 Episode 8 – Shifting the Burden
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In this podcast episode, I talk about something called ‘shifting the burden’. It’s about the topic of what we depend on ourselves for, and what we look to others to help us with. The balance of our dependence on ourselves and others – whether in adaptive maladaptive ways – is based on our first experiences with depending on someone.
Many of us simply don’t know how deeply emotional of a subject this is. It is one of our most primitive, primal CORE-to-the-CORE experiences of being human… a battle between wanting to be independent and self-sufficient, and yet also knowing that one of our deepest desires is to connect in authentic ways with others.
My reflection questions at the end of the episode are about your doubts, desires and dependencies – how they interplay on each other and how they’ve been formed over time – through your experiences with others.. and what they’ve doubted, desired and depended on in their own lives.
I hope you find something in this episode helpful.
3 ways to get rid of brain fog and increase mental clarity
Do you find yourself in a state of mental fog, or not being clear-minded, ‘out of it’? This is something that i hear a lot of people reporting issues with. In the brain maps that I do, i see…
Season 2 Episode 7 – Normal versus Natural
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Normal is based on historical data. It’s based on what has happened the most often in the past. Our past ‘normal’ can make it easy to not question if there is more that’s possible in terms of wellbeing and a deeper sense of meaning for our life. But what we really, truly, deeply need to understand is that the ‘normal mode’ of consuming and doing the same combination of movements day after day without challenging our brain-body to higher and higher levels of creation and exploration is not NATURAL.
We are: COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS. Our NATURE is to adapt to ever-changing, increasingly difficult and complex situations that involve other complex systems so that our adaptive problem-solving faculties become more honed and finely tuned. Many of our behaviors and patterns are blocking us from tapping into our most natural abilities.
3 Outdated Mindsets that Negatively Influence Our Behavior
Do you know what kind of mindset you have? The answer to this question is complex. You may be very aware of your ability to learn and adapt in certain categories of life or certain situations. But in others,…
How to use neuroscience to build growth mindset
Growth happens in increments and happens in ways that are often way below the surface
If our sense of success comes from a very specific outcome, then the only chance we have for that neurochemical reward is at the ‘finish line’ so to speak. That means we won’t get hits of it along the way, which can mean we are more likely to give up.
Families are Complex Adaptive Systems
Our families are complex adaptive systems. Our relationships are complex adaptive systems. A complex adaptive system is a system where the behavior and trajectories of the nodes/parts/subsystems/people are nonlinear and may not be predictable. This is because the interactions…
Can neuroscience change behavior? New video and monthly classes!
‘Can you fix my kid’s brain?’ asked a woman who ran into me as I was leaving one of my workshops. she was referring to her son’s strong emotional outbursts, especially with his family. And she was also referring to…
How to calm down anxious thinking by understanding your brainwaves
In brainwave patterns that correlate with the experience of anxiety and anxious thinking, we see a higher amount of a very fast brainwave frequency range called high beta (or hibeta, which is about 20-35 hz). Clients and patients…
Brainwave patterns related to depression
There are certain patterns i see in brainwave profiles (that are obtained through quantitative EEG analysis) that are often linked with people who report challenges such as depression and anxiety One of those patterns is asymmetry. What…
The science of how to build a more resilient and adaptive mindset
What’s the difference between ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ behavior? As children, we don’t get to choose what our environment is or what kind of system we are a part of. Since we don’t get to choose, we must…
VIDEOS
How to stop overreacting – Part 2 of 2
What does it mean to react? An important aspect of the word reaction is ‘re’ – which means that it happens again. To re-act is to act again and again in a similar way. In the psychotherapy…
My interview at the Big Brain Summit
In this interview, we focus on why learning new ways of being, thinking and reacting can cause discomfort. I share my two ‘origin stories’ of how I got into the world of neuroplasticity and neuroscience research, and my discoveries of…
How to stop overreacting – Part 1 of 2
Have you had an argument recently, or an interaction with someone that didn’t go as you hoped it would?
What was your reaction in this situation? Was it anger, defensiveness, or shutting down?
Did you say what you truly wanted to say?
Did you hold back?
Or did you say something hurtful?
Is there something you feel about this situation that you can’t put your finger on why it bothers you so much? Or do you think you know why, but you don’t know how to express it to that person?
In this podcast episode, I go into
-brain-body mechanisms that lead to overreactions
-connecting the dots between your childhood and anxiety, stress, depression and other challenges you may be facing
-A process to help us be less reactive and increase our attentional control during difficult interactions
The science of self-fulfilling prophecies and why we repeat relationship habits
Many of our patterns – whether we want to admit it or not – come from our childhood. It’s hard to get around this fact. This is because when we are young, our brain is specializing its algorithms and…
How quick fix mindsets hurt your brain
Something i see happen quite a bit in the mental health field is that a lot of people are seeking a quick fix and a way to alleviate their symptoms. This is completely understandable, and might be needed in…
3 ways to get rid of brain fog and increase mental clarity
Do you find yourself in a state of mental fog, or not being clear-minded, ‘out of it’? This is something that i hear a lot of people reporting issues with. In the brain maps that I do, i see…
3 Outdated Mindsets that Negatively Influence Our Behavior
Do you know what kind of mindset you have? The answer to this question is complex. You may be very aware of your ability to learn and adapt in certain categories of life or certain situations. But in others,…