“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 in a fundamental reorganization of... READ MORE The post The Neuroscience of Intergenerational Trauma and Healing: Interview with Tim Lewis – Season 4 …

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... READ MORE The post The Neuroscience of Feeling Like a Failure: why our brain makes us feel like giving up and what we can do stop it – Interview wi…

“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.” - Maggie Jackson,... READ MORE The post Uncertain: The Science and Wisdom of Being Unsure Season 4 Ep 4 appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

Our nervous systems and brain networks are powerfully shaped by experiences that are embodied, visceral, sensory-motor and social. This is the essence of Embodied Social Neuroscience. In this episode, learn about 5 concrete embodied, neuroscience-supported pillars you can use to get better at honing the incredible power of the human mind-brain-body…

“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 concept of changing... READ MORE The post Mindstuck: the science of stubbornness and how to change your mind- interview with Michael McQueen Season 4 Ep 2 app…

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 was... READ MORE The post New Podcast! The Science of Growth Mindset, Healing & Resilience – Season 4 Ep 1 appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

"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."... READ MORE The post Season 3 Ep 12 – Safety, Security and Systems Intelligence appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

“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... READ MORE The post Season 3 Ep 11: Mission, Endurance and Post-Traumatic Growth – Interview with Two Wolf Foundation …

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... READ MORE The post Season 3 Episode 10 – Education, Maturity & Human Potential appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

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... READ MORE The post Season 3 Episode 9 – Mindset, Purpose & Neuroplas…

“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 distract ourselves... READ MORE The post Season 3 Episode 8 – Warriors Heart: Courage, Connection and Healing appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

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 abilities for information processing and preparing and responding to future events. The concept of how we regulate ourselves and with others, and how we …

“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 growth and equilibrium. Any person... READ MORE The post Season 2 Ep 6: Love, Purpose and Relational Realities appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

"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 that humanity has ever experienced. The... READ MORE The post Season 3 Episode 5: Why social rejection is so scary – the science of communication, matur…

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 Blubrry Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple... READ MORE The post Season 3 Episode 4: Embodied Cognition and Learning: My Interview with Sheila Macrine and J…

“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 alone in an mri machine can only get us so... READ MORE The post Season 3 Ep 3: The socio-biomechanics of resilience, trust and flow appeared first on Stefa…

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 are completely unfamiliar to us. That is the essence of my interview with Jason Knight, director of Alderleaf Wilderness College. In this interview, we…

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 ourselves that are tied to our past and may not be helpful to us in our current situation (as I am learning, these can be hard habits to break) -how we can e…

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 and how it can be used to improve energy efficiency and resilience of the human species - how forgiveness and flexibility help us activate highly sophi…

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 helps us regulate ourselves and explore new frontiers. This in... READ MORE The post Season 2 Episode 11 – The Neuroscience of Attachment and Emotion Regu…

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 explain. It... READ MORE The post Season 2 Episode 10 – The Science of Feeling Understood appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

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…

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 simp…

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 th…

When we focus on trying to 'fix' dysregulation without acknowledging how it emerged, we are conveying a message that somehow the anxiety or overreaction just ‘appeared’ because of an imbalance in their brain and that distress, dysregulation and anxiety are... READ MORE The post Season 2 Episode 6 – Why are humans so anxious? and the dark side of mi…

The formation of self-identity and group identity through the lens of hyper-coherent networks, key features of what makes a system resilient. (remember - your brain, your relationships and human society are all systems). To help systems become more flexible and innovative, we need to understand the mechanisms of change. A mindset or paradigm shift …

The human species has some pretty spectacular systems built into us to achieve mental, emotional and physiological states that most of us are not even really aware of. We also have systems and features within us that make us very vulnerable to being influenced and 'programmed' into behavior that is not reflective of our most evolved neural circuitr…

What do a viral video and a stampede of animals have in common? It's a mechanism that is also related to 'self-fulfilling prophecies', self-beliefs, anxiety and negative thinking in general. It has to do with something called 'positive feedback'.... READ MORE The post Season 2 Episode 3 – Feedback Loops appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

One of the most complex adaptive systems we know of is the brain*. When we are trying to understand a complex system, one of the most important things for us to think about is its function. ... READ MORE The post Season 2 Episode 2- Your Brain’s Predictions and Paradigms appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

This episode focuses on the idea of systems thinking, and how we can use this 'lens' or paradigm as a way of expanding our thinking so we can see new ideas for solving challenges in our life and in... READ MORE The post Season 2 Episode 1 – Systems Thinking appeared first on Stefanie Faye.By Stefanie Faye

“What matters is not how things are, but how they interact.“ – Carlo Rovelli, theoretical physicist, in his book, Reality is Not What It Seems ​​​​​Relationships are the key to building our most powerful mind. Our relationships with others build... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 12 – “Relational Minds” appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

No two people ever experience reality in the same way: our senses and neural architecture are built up by our own lifetime of unique experiences. Our brain and senses are constantly narrowing down our world. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing: if... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 11 – This is what happens to your brain when you add diversity t…

Most growth mindset interventions don’t work because they focus on: changing ‘other people’s’ attitudes rather than on the mindset of the person who is teaching or leading catchphrases & posters rather than relationship & trust specific results, like improving standardized test scores* *this is literally the... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 1…

In order to teach growth mindset, we need to be sure it’s coming from an authentic place. It seems that much growth mindset teaching is focused on changing the attitudes of others’, rather than looking at how we internalize and... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 9 – How to be more authentic when you teach growth mindset appeared first on Stefan…

Have you ever had a misunderstanding over text? Maybe you texted someone and they didn’t reply right away.. or their answer left you feeling rejected or frustrated? Do you know why you feel the urge to put an exclamation mark... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 8 – Toxic Media: How social media impairs your brain, nervous system and relationship…

Earlier studies on fixed vs growth mindset reveal how we build bias and stereotypes. The original wording used by Carol Dweck and colleagues before they popularized ‘fixed versus growth mindset’ was ‘entity’ versus ‘incremental’ mindsets. Dweck’s research (included the idea... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 7 – How fixed mindset leads to bias,…

Sound may be the most important sense we have for learning as well as for detecting others emotions. The human ability to hear ‘just noticeable differences’ is significantly more powerful than what our eyes are able to detect... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 6 – The importance of sound and how it affects our wellbeing appeared first on Stefan…

“Feelings can annoy or delight us, but that is not what they are for […]. Feelings are for life regulation, providers of information concerning basic homeostasis or the social condition of our lives.” -Antonio Damasio, The Strange Order of... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 5 – Self-Regulation: the remarkable skill that will make you a better h…

Summary: In this episode, we look at how neuroscience can help us explain: why so many people react to life unconsciously (not ‘on purpose’). Understanding this helps us get to the root of our issues, instead of repeating our reactions... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 4 – A Sense of Purpose appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

There's a lot of 'old science' out there. Stuff we used to believe that has been de-bunked. Things like... 'humans are more complex than other species, which means we have more genes.' Before the Human Genome Project was completed in... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 3 – The science most people keep using is wrong appeared first on Stefanie Fa…

"It's not merely that we can't be loving or creative when we're scared; we can't heal." -Stephen Porges In order for us to access our most evolved neural and behavioral resources, we must be in a state of physiological... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 2 – Psychological Safety, Resilience and the Vagus Nerve appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…

Listen on iTunes Old, outdated science said that the human brain basically stopped developing in childhood and there wasn't much we could do to change it. What we got was what we got. But we now know that that... READ MORE The post Season 1 Episode 1 – Neuroscience of Growth Mindset appeared first on Stefanie Faye.…