Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Andrea Samadi

“Who you are depends on where you’ve been. Your brain is a relentless shape-shifter, constantly rewriting its own circuitry—and because your experiences are unique, so are the vast, detailed patterns in your neural networks. Because they continue to change your whole life, your identity is a moving target: it never reaches an endpoint. That’s From Neuroscientist and Stanford Professor, David Eagleman’s, The Brain: The Story of You.

Now that REALLY made me STOP and THINK as I am about to write this next episode. I wonder:
What’s my identity-or what makes me-me, especially if it’s a moving target. I’m not just Andrea, the host of the Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast (imagining my brain, and all its neural networks that consist of ALL the years of experience that make me, who I am today) and each day, my experiences change who I am right down to the books I’m reading, what I’m studying and learning, the people around the world I interact with, making me the person I am today.
Then I wonder, who are YOU listening to this podcast? What’s YOUR identity, wherever you are tuning in from around the world (and I imagine YOUR brain, and the neural networks you’ve created with YOUR own specific and unique life experiences.
And if our identity (who we are at this point in time) is a moving target that never reaches an endpoint, can we then, create our own reality and future by continuing to re-wire our own circuitry with NEW information, and NEW ideas, that create NEW experiences that change who we could be in the future? Thus, changing our conditions, our circumstances, and our environment?
That is the goal of this podcast, (to help all of us to re-wire our brains (with new information) that we’ll put into action (using the most current, evidence based research) taking our results to new heights.  This is what keeps ME coming back time and time again to write new episodes.  I’ve put an image in the show notes that came from my study with Mark Waldman on the Default Mode Network, showing exactly what our brain looks like when we are using our imagination network to take this information we are learning, and use it in a creative way. Our whole brain lights up, connecting all of our brain regions in this process.

With that thought, I want to welcome you back to our final episode of Season 9 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 for immediate results, with our brain in mind.  I’m Andrea Samadi, (and while we know I’m not just) an author, or an educator with a passion for learning (I think after today’s episode, we will see that we are much more than our work and life experiences) and it’s this understanding that will encourage us all to continue re-wiring our brains, taking us to new, and often unimaginable heights.    
I’m recording this episode the end of May 2023, and plan to take some time away from the recording studio (my office) this summer. We’ll be back with the start of Season 10 the end of June, as we move into the 5th year of this podcast, and our second half of “Going Back the Basics” where we’ll continue through our past episodes, to see what we can add to them, with new research and ideas to take our personal and professional results to these new heights.
As I started writing this episode that tied back into some of our Brain Fact Fridays on Learning, I couldn’t think of what to cover specifically, because learning is behind EVERY episode we produce. I wonder, as we move towards our 5th year, and a new season when we return, what else can we uncover when it comes to “learning” with our brain in mind. Or in other words, how can we take our “learning” to new heights, or look at learning through a new lens?
I glanced through some of the episo

“I think I have always been a healer first. It feels like my life’s assignment… my purpose. Each day, I endeavor to bring healing to everyone with whom I come in contact. I believe everyone has this capacity to bring healing for themselves and others. I’m here to wake them up to that capacity.” ~Dr. Maiysha
 
Watch this interview on YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMv2HK7sxos 
 

 
 

From Dr. Maiysha Clairborne’s TEDX.[i]
On this episode #289 we will cover:
✔  How hypnosis and timeline therapy can help us to eliminate blocks in our subconscious mind.
✔ What's a more effective way for changing our beliefs than repeating an affirmation.
✔ A simple and easy to use strategy to resolve conflict in the workplace.
✔ The three views of "perception" for improving relationships (home and workplace).
✔ How to uncover the root of our doubts and fears to blast through to new heights in our personal and professional lives.
✔ Why challenges our beliefs is important for growth.
✔ What to think about when "resistance" comes up in our life.
✔ The importance of celebrating our wins, but keeping our eye on our end-goal.
 
I want to welcome you back to Season 9 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 for immediate results, with our brain in mind.  I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and an educator with a passion for learning and launched this podcast to share how the understanding of our complex brain transfers into our everyday life and results. Each concept we cover here I’m hoping will help you, wherever you might be listening to this podcast in the world, just as much as these ideas are helping me personally and professionally.
For today’s episode #289, we are meeting with Dr. Maiysha Clairborne, an author, TEDx Speaker, Podcast Host of the Black Mind Garden Podcast, a Master Practitioner of NLP and Hypnosis and Time Line Therapy.
I don’t think I need to explain why I wanted to speak with Dr. Clairborne when you click to the first page of her website, and she has the words EDUCATE, EMPOWER, ENRICH and ELEVATE in bold letters on the first page. She lives what she teaches, as these words come to my mind when I looked at her picture on the front of her press kit as I wondered where I would even begin with the questions I want to ask her. It was funny because she had some suggested topics included and I read through them, and thought “I want to know ALL of these topics!”
So that’s where we will begin. Let’s welcome Dr. Maiysha Clairborne, and see what we will learn together to elevate and empower us to new heights and leadership.
INTRO Q:
Welcome Dr. Maiysha Clairborne! Thank you for making my life so much easier as a podcast host. Preparing for this interview was easy with all of the information you’ve got out in the world. I wasn’t kidding when I said in the backstory that I want to know EVERYTHING you’ve suggested as questions for me.
Welcome!
Can you give us a bit of your background that takes us to where you are today? What inspired you to want to educate, empower, enrich and elevate others? This says a lot about who you are.
What about hypnosis and timeline therapy? I’m a full believer in hypnosis, but what is timeline therapy?
Q1: It’s been a few years since I’ve used them, but I did use an affirmation in my early 20s to help me to change my identity as a young woman, in business. Is there a better way? Tell me there is, because I didn’t like saying the same thing over and over again in front of the mirror until I finally believed it.
Q2: I love that you have some tips for improving our relationships in the workplace. What would you say would be some common workplace problems that you typically see, and how would you suggest solving them?
Q

“Reading is not for play. It is to gain knowledge” Stella Adler The Art of Acting[i] and she adds that “I, for instance, am very strict about what I eat and I’m equally strict about what I read.”

 
In keeping with our season theme of going back to the basics, and building the strongest 2.0 version of ourselves, I’m skipping to episode #199[ii] on “The Neuroscience of Self-Belief and Our Identity”[iii] from Feb 2022.
For those who are returning guests, 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.  For those who haven’t met me yet, I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and an educator with a passion for learning and launched this podcast to share how the understanding of our complex brain transfers into our everyday life and results.
On this episode #288 we will cover:
✔ A review of The Neuroscience of Self-Belief and Our Identity
✔ How Belief in Ourselves Develops and Changes Over Time
✔ Top 5 Lessons Learned from Stella Adler’s “The Art of Acting”
✔ Why Continual Study is Important
When I looked back to EP 199 on “The Neuroscience of Self-Belief and Our Identity” I noticed that we opened with a quote from the late Bob Proctor, and a meeting with my friend Patti, who worked closely with Bob’s seminars over the years. Patti and I met a few weeks after Bob moved from what he would say was the physical plane, to the spiritual, and we talked about some of the important lesson learned, and knowledge gained from those days working in the seminar industry, and how they’ve impacted our daily life since then.
Concepts based on our beliefs like:
“All things are possible if you believe.
“Our results are all based on our beliefs”
“If we don’t like what’s going on outside, we’ve got to go inside, and change our beliefs.”[ii] --Bob Proctor
These ideas were at the core of every seminar Proctor conducted, and he would travel the globe presenting these ideas in a way that would captivate and change the lives of his listeners globally. 
Now I sold seminars for Bob from 1999 to 2002 and every time he would come up with a new seminar, people would say the same thing. 
What’s new with this one? 
I’d explain that this new seminar had a different angle but some people would challenge this new angle and say, “that’s kind of what we learned in the last seminar” (belief in ourselves) to do xyz and the answer was yes… belief is behind everything we want to do… it’s at the heart of every seminar. 
It’s also something that takes time to develop. I’ve heard it described in different ways. It’s like pouring a drop of red food coloring into a glass of water, and you stir it once, and the red coloring disappears. We’ve got to keep putting the red drops into the water, to notice the change in color. It’s not easy to notice at what point the color goes from clear to red, as this change takes time.
Just like the belief we must have in ourselves that develops over time.
It’s difficult to put belief into words, or know when we’ve got it, or not, but it can be seen easily by others. I saw it while interviewing Ryan O’Neill on EPISODE #203[iv] on “Making Your Vision a Reality” because I knew Ryan BEFORE he achieved the goals he had set for himself, and remember when they were just ideas, written down.  Watching his success over the years has been nothing short of incredible, and the change shows up for Ryan on the outside. His knowledge, confidence, and success in his daily life, shows up clearly with his demeanor, as his work now is being showcased globally, on the Discovery Channel[v], and he himself agreed with me when I pointed this out to him. Over time, he could see it himself, but like th

“There is no separation of mind and emotions: emotions, thinking and learning are all linked.” Eric Jensen[i]

But what about our feelings? What’s the difference between our emotions and feelings? Have you ever thought about this?
And with that introduction, I want to welcome you back to Season 9 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 for immediate results, with our brain in mind.  I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and an educator with a passion for learning and launched this podcast to share how the understanding of our complex brain transfers into our everyday life and results. Each concept we cover here I’m hoping will help you, wherever you might be listening to this podcast in the world, just as much as these ideas are helping me personally and professionally.
In keeping with our Season theme of “Going Back to the Basics” we look back to EP #127 on “How Emotions Impact Learning, Memory and the Brain.”[ii] It was on this episode, exactly 2 years ago where we first looked at the impact of our emotions on our daily life with the work of neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino Yang from the University of Southern California. We first met Mary Helen on our 100th EPISODE[iii] and she shared with us that “it is literally neurologically impossible to build memories, engage complex thoughts, or make meaningful decision without emotion.” She further explained that “30 years ago, we had no idea that one could study human emotions that emerge slowly over time—such as admiration and awe—and compare them psychologically and neurobiologically with emotions that emerge more quickly like surprise or fear.” (page 80. Emotions, Learning and the Brain).
Before writing this episode, I had to stop, and think deeply about something I’ve often quoted. I learned this back in my days working in the speaking industry (in the late 1990s) to be careful what you think about because “it’s our thoughts that determine our feelings, that cause us to take certain actions that in turn cause our conditions, circumstances and our environment.”  If we are going to look at our emotions today, we need to understand the difference between our emotions, our feelings, and the actions that we end up taking because of them.
Let’s Start with How Emotions Are Different Than Feelings.
I found a clear explanation of “Emotions vs Feelings”[iv] from Dr. David Matsumoto, the founder of Humintell, who explains that emotions “are quick reactions to certain events that may impact our survival. They are unconscious, immediate, involuntary, automatic reactions to things that are important to us” which is right in line with what we learned from Jaak Panksepp’s 7 primal emotions that he mapped out in our brain, and taught us they aren’t something that we can control. They are automatic responses.  Dr. Matsumoto further explains that “these reactions include cognitive and physiological changes that help prime our body in a certain way and create sensations in us that we can perceive” which he calls feelings.
You can see a diagram of these differences in the show notes that outlines emotions as “quick reactions to certain events that are automatic and unconscious” and feelings “are perceptions in the body that aren’t necessarily related to the emotion.”[v]

IMAGE SOURCE www.humintell.com Dr. David Matsumoto
Since I’m always looking to connect the most current neuroscience research to improve our best practices, I wonder what can I add to this understanding of our feelings vs our emotions, to see if we can gain a deeper self-awareness into why we feel the way we do, and what this might mean for us, individually, in pursuit of our goals. Or to put this simply, what should we all understand about

Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.” ― Angela Duckworth
On today’s Episode #286 we will cover:
✔ A review of EP126 on building resilience (what we covered back in April 2021).
✔ A deeper look at what resilience is, with an evidence-based strategy we can all use TODAY if we are ready, to build up our own reservoirs of resiliency to better handle our life and work stressors.
✔ Tools for Measuring Resiliency.
✔ Checks for Resiliency.
✔ A Resiliency Challenge at the End to See if We Can All Push Ourselves to Try Something New to Build Resilience, Grit, Mental Toughness, and Our Ability to Use Our Head When We Need it the Most.

I needed to write this episode this week because it was just in time for me to try something new to build up my own levels of resiliency!! I hope you enjoy these ideas.
And with that introduction, I want to welcome you back to Season 9 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 for immediate results, with our brain in mind.  I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and an educator with a passion for learning and launched this podcast to share how the understanding of our complex brain transfers into our everyday life and results. Each concept we cover here I’m hoping will help you, wherever you might be listening to this podcast in the world, just as much as these ideas are helping me personally and professionally.
For today’s episode #286, we’re staying in line with our season theme of “Going Back to the Basics to Build a Stronger, More Resilient 2.0 Version of Ourselves” which was an intention I set at the very start of the year on EP268[i] where we talked about prioritizing mental health in 2023 with a focus on self-awareness and resiliency.

A Review of Horacio Sanchez’s Definition of Resiliency:
This topic goes back with our interview with Horacio Sanchez who I was just speaking about this week because he was presenting at a Science of Reading Event, and many of us were talking about where our understanding of the brain and learning first began, with Horacio’s work at the center. He was introduced to me in our very FIRST interview EP3[ii] with Ron Hall from Valley Day School who shared that his connection of the brain and learning first began with Horacio years ago, while attending a conference where he was conducting a training session.
When we spoke with Horacio on EP74[iii] he explained resiliency as “a collection of protective risk factors that you have in your life” and that there are some factors we are born with, and others come in through childhood, family, school, life events and social experiences.
Horacio reminds us that “if you have little risk, it takes less to be resilient. But—if you have a lot of risk, it takes a lot more protective factors to offset the scale.”  This is why two people can possibly respond in two completely different ways after a traumatic experience. One person walks away, dusts themselves off, and recovers quickly, (they had more reservoirs of resilience to tap into) while the other has a completely different outcome, and needs more assistance to get back on track.
With resiliency, we can overcome adversity or difficulty and have good outcomes in our life, but you can see why not everyone is born with exactly the same protective factors needed, so we don’t all have the same levels of resiliency. Horacio mentioned that “25% of the population are naturally resilient” and his work focuses on instilling this trait in those who are not naturally resilient due to the number of risk factors associated to them. To this day, he continues with this work, flying around the country, helping our next generation of students to become more resilient.
While researching for this episode, I wondered what I could add t

Have you ever heard of Senolytics?[i] It’s the latest breakthrough in aging and longevity science that I honestly had not heard about until I had an email about our next guest, whose work I’m very familiar with.
Watch this interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/poThU96sslU
 

I’m a huge fan of Neurohacker Collective (that was founded in 2015 with a mission of creating best-in-class well-being products) and I’ve been following their work for years to learn anything and everything possible about bio-hacking. We even quoted Heather Sandison (a medical advisor and podcast host with Neurohacker Collective) on our HRV EPISODE. [ii] One quick look at their ABOUT US[iii] section on their website, and I saw many of the leaders, innovators in health, longevity and wellness around the world, and quite a few who we have interviewed, like Dr. Anna Lembke from EPISODE #162[iv], Dr. Stickler from EPISODE #96[v] and Dr. Vuyisich from EPISODE #93[vi] and in their Collective Insight Section you’ll see many names we quote often, like Dr. Andrew Huberman, Deepak Chopra, Dale Bredesen, David Rabin, Bruce Lipton, Michael Gelb, Jim Kwik…I could go on and on here. These are the leaders and innovators in the field of health, wellness and bio-hacking. This is going to be a phenomenal episode!
And with that, 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 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 #285, we will be speaking with Dr. Gregory Kelly, the Director of Product Development at Neurohacker Collective[vii], a naturopathic physician (N.D.), and the author of the book Shape Shift: The Shape Intelligence Solution[viii] that’s all about getting healthy while creating your ideal shape.
As I was researching for this episode, I couldn’t help thinking “how on the earth did I miss this topic of senolytics?” since I’m always looking for anything new when it comes to productivity, health and wellness hacks. While preparing for this episode, the Neurohacker Collective Team was extremely helpful. Tina Gammon, their Marketing Manager, sent me the trio package of Qualia Senolytic for (Vision, Night and Mind) and I’ll be sharing the IMMEDIATE results I felt with the Night and Mind products, with a level of clarity I’ve never felt before.  I haven’t tried the VISION one yet but have lots of questions to ask Dr. Kelly about today.

So, hang tight, because on today’s science-packed episode, we’ll dive deep into this cutting edge topic, with the latest anti-aging research where we will cover:
What is cellular senescence?
What are the "Hallmarks of Aging" and why is cellular senescence an important hallmark?
The difference between cellular senescence and autophagy (with a quick review of 9th grade science mitosis).
Classical places where senescent cells take hold in the body.
The science to support senolytics from Mayo Clinic and Scripps Institute.
How do senolytics work?
The correct way to dose senolytics.
What makes Qualia Senolytic a groundbreaking supplement in the longevity space?
A bit first about Dr. Kelly.

 
He has extensive experience in both natural medicine and nutrition, and has been an influential figure in this field. He has served as the editor o