Brain Fact Friday “Recovery Strategies to Build Resiliency Against Physical, Mental and Emotional Stressors”

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for Brain Fact Friday and episode #135 on my biggest AHA moment from EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes, the VP of Performance Science of WHOOP[i], a wearable personal fitness and health coach that measures sleep, strain, and recovery.

To see the images in the show notes, and Andrea's Data, click here.

In Today’s Brain Fact Friday You Will Learn:

✔︎ How the wearable health tracker WHOOP measures recovery.

✔︎ Why this data is useful for athletes, and humans in general, for mitigating physical, mental, and emotional stress.

✔︎ Strategies to improve recovery and decrease physical and psychological stress.

✔︎ See Andrea’s data and how she achieved her highest recovery rates using these strategies.

✔︎ How you can measure your own recovery to improve performance and resiliency.

Welcome back, I'm Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports, and the workplace for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain.

The purpose of this podcast is to bring the most current brain research to you, so you can make it applicable in your life whether you are a teacher in the classroom, or using these ideas to improve productivity and results in your workplace. As I am researching and learning new ideas, I’m also implementing them myself, and making connections to past speakers, so that we can all benefit from the research that is emerging in this new field of educational neuroscience.

If you listened to EPISODE #134[ii] with Kristen Holmes, the VP of Performance Science with WHOOP whose Ph.D. work is in multilevel interactions of stress and circadian behavior[iii] or the impact of light on sleep optimization, you’ll know that I first came across Kristen while researching Heart Rate Variability for EPISODE #125[iv] where I started to see how important this one measurement was for tracking health, recovery, and resilience which is crucial to brain health and performance. After listening to the WHOOP podcast, with Founder Will Ahmed, I joined the community so that I could measure my HRV that I learned from Neurohacker Collective[v] is “the most important biomarker”[vi] --a measure that captures what’s going on in a cell at any given moment that can serve as an early warning system for your health.  As someone who has been working hard to make use of every second of the day, I thought, “I’ve got to know this number if I want to be operating at my highest capacity.” No one wants to intentionally leave anything on the table to chance or luck and staying on top of these metrics is a guaranteed way to take the guesswork out of human performance.

Which leads us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday with a powerful AHA Moment I had during the interview with Kristen Holmes. After a month of measuring my data, and looking at the daily recovery score, I adjusted my behavior based on that number, and thought that recovery was based on the idea that I had to let my body recover physically after those days that I had high strain or exercised harder than usual. Even without measuring this data, we have a pretty good idea of days that we need to rest, based on how we feel.  I looked at the recovery score each morning, and it was never showing GREEN which would be 66%-100% recovered. My recovery score (that you can see a snapshot of in the show notes) was either yellow (recovering) or RED (not ready to take on strain) that I thought meant give your body more rest to prevent injury.  I even had a chart that told me that multiple days above my optimal strain targets (that averaged a score of 16) will promote fitness gains, but to dedicate time to rest if I continue this behavior, so I told Kristen that I actually stopped some of my workouts.

My thinking was close, but not exactly accurate, and since I’m new to measuring this data, was missing some key information that I would learn from Kristen. What would you think recovery means?  When you are tired mentally and physically, how do you restore yourself?  There is a way to use this data to improve future performance, that goes beyond what I think we would usually think about, and this was the biggest AHA Moment I had with my interview with Kristen Holmes, and also from listening to the podcast WHOOP did with Patrick Mahomes[vii], a world-class athlete who quantified the strain of his NFL season using the WHOOP device.  I thought it was crazy to see that he averaged over 20 for strain on game days and learned to change his behavior (both mentally and physically) to recover after these high intensity days.

Bringing us to this week’s BRAIN FACT FRIDAY:

DID YOU KNOW that recovery is “a measurement of physiological stress (how our body responds to our environment, or the demands we are putting on our physical body with our workouts), and psychological stress (manifested from our Autonomic Nervous System)?  Patrick Mahomes talked about the mental aspect of his training in depth, going into detail of how he uses visualization and the importance of his mental mindset, in addition to working on the fundamentals, for his success.

Kristen Holmes reminded me that recovery is based on “how well you are coping with external stress”[viii] and the WHOOP device measures this score based on 4 measurements which each are important, but the first two gave me the insight I needed to better understand how we can measure and improve recovery.

1. HRV: heart rate variability or the distance measured between our heartbeats. “The higher your HRV (the more variability you have between heartbeats), the more your nervous system is in tune with your environment, and the better you’ll perform. A lot of things affect your HRV, with stress as the most common factor”[ix] and HRV will be low when you are exercising at a high capacity and really pushing it and goes back up higher when you allow your body the rest and recovery needed for repair.  HRV levels can tend to be lower when you are tired and go higher when you get enough sleep. Activity level, stress, illness, hydration, alcohol consumption, nutrition and how tired you are can all impact your HRV levels.
2. Sleep: how much you needed vs what you actually are getting, and how much sleep you spend at each sleep stage.
3. Resting heart rate: that’s an indicator of physical fitness and heart function.
4. Respiratory Rate: (that usually doesn’t usually change from day to day, but is something to pay attention to, if this measurement does change.”

Kristen went on to explain that recovery is “a measurement of physiological stress (how our body responds to our environment, or the demands we are putting on our physical body with our workouts), and psychological stress (manifested from our Autonomic Nervous System).

And that the “more recovered you are, the more responsive your heart will be to both demands of the ANS—and the less recovered, the less responsive you will be.”  If your recovery score is low, and you are trying to run from a tiger (as an example) you won’t be as responsive to the stress, or if your recovery score is low, and you are hoping to perform at work or school, you will not have the reservoirs of fuel that you could have, if you had done things differently, and were operating from a highly recovered score.

Since the WHOOP recovery score correlates to your HRV score, for those who don’t use the WHOOP device can still use their HRV score (you can measure this for FREE using an app on your phone)[x] and remember that “the more variability you have between heart beats (or the higher your HRV score) the more capable you are of adapting to external stress (relationship stress, financial stress, or the stress our body goes under with the foods we are putting into it etc.).” (Kristen Holmes)

So here was my AHA Moment: Recovery was lower not because of too much exercise, but not enough sleep, hydration, and other physical stressors. What strategies do you have to mitigate your daily stress? What is your relationship with light, and do you know how to use light to help your circadian rhythm?  Can you improve your sleep quantity and quality?

Some great questions to think about with this AHA Moment, making me reflect on some strategies from past episodes that can help improve the psychological stressors to improve recovery, and then I was speaking to a colleague from Israel, named Shlomit, who was sharing with me the turmoil her country has been experiencing with the missile attacks earlier this month.[xi] She mentioned to me the psychological and mental conflict these attacks have had on many people in her area, disrupting their daily life and bringing uncertainty, fear and stress. Their peace and safety were taken away in a heartbeat, and she realized this was something she had taken for granted for so long. She didn’t ever worry about not having safety and security in her own home and suddenly she is sharing a bomb shelter with another family and not even sure she can finish her shower, for fear of evacuation. Much like the freedom that many people around the world lost during the Pandemic, and the upheaval this time has caused families worldwide. During this conversation, Shlomit asked me if I knew the meaning of the word “Shalom” and although I had heard this word often, especially during Passover, I couldn’t give her the meaning. She told me it meant “peace” and was also used to say hello or goodbye, and that her name, Shlomit, was the feminine version of the word peace and that although there was much fear, turmoil, stress and uncertainty in her world, she knew she had to savor the peace in her life, and never take this freedom for granted again the future.

My AHA moment with Kristen, on the importance of managing psychological stress, paired with my conversation with Shlomit, reminded me to look back at the bonus episode we did with Dr. Carolyn Leaf[xii], on Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess[xiii]: 5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety and Toxic Thinking for our strategies to improve psychological well-being, that will improve our recovery score.

You can download her APP Neurocycle[xiv] (formerly called the Switch App) that walks you through the 5-step process that I cover in my review of her book,[xv] based on 38 years of research, on how to change your brain (which is neuroplasticity in action) and get rid of toxic thoughts through self-awareness, journaling and reflecting. These 5 steps do take some time, but if you want to clean up your mental mess and close the gaps you might have with energy you are wasting on toxic thinking, it’s important to do this work.

STEP 1: Gather Awareness (of what’s bothering you). We’ve all heard of the importance of knowing our emotions, or when we name what’s bothering us, we can tame it[iv]. What about those worries that we name, and they don’t go away? These worries or fears really can impact our mental health, and we have seen with our recovery score, can impact our health and performance. If you have something on your mind, the first thing you can do is to take out a journal, and write out some of the worries that are taking space in your mind.

I’ve also heard this being called a CRAP Board, where you write out all of your conflicts, resistances, anxieties and problems. Once you have gotten them out of your head, and see them on paper, it’s easier to look at them and think “am I worrying about something that has not happened yet?” If so, get it out of your head, and stop worrying about things that may or may not happen in the future. Schlomit reminded me to savor the peace and safety in your day, as it can be quickly taken away, like hers was.

STEP 2: Reflect and Analyze: Answer, Ask and Discuss Some Questions to Find the Root Cause of Your Emotions or What’s Bothering You.

This is how we pull thoughts from our non-conscious mind to our conscious mind, where it becomes weaker. It’s no longer suppressed but acknowledged. Use your mind to ask yourself questions, and it will be interesting to see what comes up. This process takes time, reflection and daily effort. Our emotions are unique signals to learn how to cope with challenges, but over time, they will damage our brain with consistent worry.  See if you can get a new perspective on what you are worrying about. Is there anything positive you can gather from your insight?

STEP 3: Write out what you discover from step 2. Begin to capture what’s bothering you and see if you can come up with root causes, or why you think this worry is on your mind. Learn to write in pictures, add color, shapes. Learn how to write in a metacog  formula.[v]

STEP 4: Recheck and Edit What You Have Written Down. Re-read what you have written and see what comes up. Can you add more to your answer to help make more sense of it? Dig deeper, look for patterns, triggers and keep looking for the root cause of the problem that’s occupying your mind.

STEP 5: Practice and Apply Through Active Reach. Look at what you have written and see if you can come up with an action statement to practice what you have learned from your introspection.  You will read out your daily Aha Moment 7x a day to remind yourself what you are re-shaping, or make it easy, and let the app or your phone send you a reminder.

Example: I am worrying about xyz because I am afraid of xyz…but this hasn’t happened, and most likely will not happen, so this worry is wasting my time. If it happens one day, I will deal with this problem then, but not wasting the mental energy worrying about something that I cannot control. I can control my reaction to my worry.

So in my journal, I wrote out my worries like branches on a tree, and the trunk she says is the perspective of the thought. I begin to look at my worries from a different angle or perspective. Right here you should notice a shift in energy about the problem. I started to see mine differently here looking at it from a distance. Then the roots of the tree are the origin story, or root of why I am worrying about this problem, which is what we want to uncover. This activity will give you an incredible amount of self-awareness.

The next day, I had my highest recovery day in the past month:

If you have something like this on your mind, I highly suggest taking the time to upload the app on your phone, grab a journal and begin the work to eliminate and clean up your mental mess.

You could also learn more about Resonance Frequency Breathing[xvi], that Kristen Holmes suggested as “the best way to improve HRV, sleep, recovery and reduce anxiety.” (Kristen Holmes, WHOOP). This type of breathing is when the frequency of our breath matches the frequency of our heart, bringing coherence, giving us a stronger ANS (Autonomic NS) and allows us to control our stress response better, and become resilient to physical, mental and emotional stressors.

To review this week’s Brain Fact:

DID YOU KNOW that recovery is “a measurement of physiological stress (how our body responds to our environment, or the demands we are putting on our physical body with our workouts), and psychological stress (manifested from our Autonomic Nervous System)?  It’s important that we have strategies in place to mitigate our physiological and psychological stress.

Once you have these strategies in place, (like Dr. Leaf’s 5 steps to Cleaning Up Our Mental Mess), Meditation, or what Kristen suggested as the best way to improve HRV, sleep, recovery and reduce anxiety, with Resonance Frequency Breathing, it’s as simple of implementing them, measuring how your recovery has improved and then knowing when to add more strain. The key is to not just guess with these numbers.

If you have a passion to improve your performance and life and are human, I highly recommend looking at the WHOOP device to learn more about your recovery score. Episode #134 with Kristen Holmes received so much feedback and interest from high level performers, past podcast guests, athletes, Google executives, people in the health and wellness industry, from around the world, letting me know how much they love this wearable health and wellness tracker.

I look forward to seeing you next week with another case study, this one is a fascinating story of Lois Letchford, whose son failed first grade, could only read 10 words, had no strengths, and was given a low IQ. Lois used the principles from Dr. Immordino-Yang, from interview #100, and her son was able to defy the odds, and graduated from Oxford University with his Ph.D. in 2018. I can’t wait to share her story with you, but until then, have a good weekend. See you next week.

RESOURCES:

Recovery Tips from Leading WHOOP Members

https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/recovery-tips-from-leading-whoop-users/

REFERENCES:

[i] https://www.whoop.com/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes, VP of Performance Science of WHOOP.com on “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/

[iii] Let there be circadian light Feb.20, 2020 University of Washington Health Sciences https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200220141731.htm

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #125 “What is Heart Rate Variability and Why is it Important for Tracking Health, Recovery and Resilience”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/what-is-hrv-and-why-is-it-important-for-tracking-health-recovery-and-resilience-with-andrea-samadi/

[v] https://neurohacker.com/

[vi] Biomarkers https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/science/biomarkers/index.cfm

[vii] Patrick Mahomes’ WHOOP Data: Quantifying the Strain of an NFL Season by Mark Van Deusen https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/patrick-mahomes-heart-rate-strain-data/?utm_source=members&utm_campaign=the-locker&utm_medium=email&utm_content=patrick-mahomes-heart-rate-strain-data&_ke=eyJrbF9jb21wYW55X2lkIjogIlBBQm5XSyIsICJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJhbmRyZWFAYWNoaWV2ZWl0MzYwLmNvbSJ9

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes, VP of Performance Science of WHOOP.com on “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/

[ix] IBID

[x] https://welltory.com/

[xi] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57094737

[xii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE with Dr. Carolyn Leaf on “Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: 5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety and Toxic Thinking” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/worldrenownedneuroscientistdr-caroline-leaf-oncleaningup-your-mentalmess5-simplescientifically-proven-stepsto-reduceanxiety-and-toxic-thinking/

[xiii] Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess: 5 Simple, Scientifically Proven Steps to Reduce Anxiety, Stress and Toxic Thinking by Dr. Caroline Leaf AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW (March 2, 2021)  https://www.amazon.com/Cleaning-Your-Mental-Mess-Scientifically/dp/0801093457

[xiv]https://theswitch.app/?_ke=eyJrbF9jb21wYW55X2lkIjogIktxZ0g5ZCIsICJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJhbmRyZWEuc2FtYWRpQGNveC5uZXQifQ%3D%3D

[xv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #106 Review of Neuroscientist and Best-Selling Author Dr. Carolyn Leaf’s “Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/book-and-app-review-of-neuroscientist-and-best-selling-author-dr-caroline-leafs-cleaning-up-your-mental-mess-coming-march-2-20201/

[xvi] Resonance Frequency Breathing Published on YouTube Sept. 25, 2020  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIi1Tc5i8s4&t=694s

Kristen Holmes from WHOOP.com on “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain” with a WHOOP Device.

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, EPISODE #134 with Kristen Holmes[i], the VP of Performance Science with WHOOP,[ii] a wearable personal fitness and health coach that measures sleep, strain and recovery.

Watch the interview on YouTube here.

Welcome back, I'm Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports, and the workplace for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain. We’ve also uncovered the “Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies”[iii]  that we covered on EPISODE #87 that took us in the direction of health and wellness, with a focus on sleep, exercise, and nutrition as being important for brain health, and optimizing personal and professional results.

We even went to Dr. Amen’s Clinic in CA for a brain scan to see what we could learn about further optimizing our brain health, and sleep emerged as an area of weakness for me, along with some other areas we are still working on optimizing.

The powerful part of hosting this podcast, is that as I am interviewing guests, and learning, sharing their advice, I’m learning and implementing these ideas myself, as I share them with you. When I was introduced to Kelly Roman, from Fisher Wallace Laboratories, with his wearable medical device to help improve sleep, while reducing anxiety and depression, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to learn more, knowing that I needed help in this area, specifically with sleep. I had no idea how much this device would help me to create more balance in my life, and my review of the Fisher Wallace device, EPISODE #119[iv] has risen to my most downloaded episode, (with over 1250 downloads) beating out EPISODE #68 “The Neuroscience of Personal Change” where I linked Dr. Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” to Neuroscience Strategies.  This showed me that while there’s an interest in creating personal change and understanding how to connect practical neuroscience to our daily lives, it shouldn’t come at the expense of our personal health or well-being.

Since May is mental health awareness month, and many experts like Dr. Daniel Amen[v] consider brain health to be at the root of mental health, we will continue to dive deeper into ways to improve our own personal health and well-being.

Which brings me to today’s guest, Kristen Holmes, the VP of Performance Science with WHOOP whose Ph.D. work is in multilevel interactions of stress and circadian behavior[vi].  I first came across Kristen while researching Heart Rate Variability for EPISODE #125[vii] where I started to see how important heart rate variability was for tracking health, recovery and resilience. I found the WHOOP Podcast[viii]  hosted by Will Ahmed and featuring Kristen Holmes and Emily Capodilupo, and I was captivated with what I learned.

So captivated that I decided to join the WHOOP community[ix] which means that I can use the device for the amount of time I want to be a member (I joined for a year—but can’t imagine giving this tool up after just a month of use) and wanted to ask Kristen to come on the podcast to help me to further explore the benefits of using this device that appears to have been built with pro athletes in mind.

I’m looking forward to learning and sharing the benefits of the WHOOP device, and diving into what I have uncovered after just one month of measuring my sleep, heart rate variability, daily strain and recovery.

Welcome Kristen, thank you for being so quick to agree to come on this podcast to help me to learn more about the data using the WHOOP device.

Q1: When I look at the reviews on your website, I see a lot of pro athletes using WHOOP, like Justin Thomas (Pro Golfer), Kate Courtney (Mountain Bike World Champion) and Sue Bird (3x WNBA Champion, 4x Olympic Gold Medalist) holding up their arms, showing their WHOOP and explaining how important it is for their training. It was during one of my interviews, EPISODE #96[x] with Dr. Daniel Stickler, a former vascular surgeon whose built a career helping others to achieve what he calls “limitless peak performance” where I first saw someone hold up their arm and tell me “I measure everything.” After this interview I looked up this device to learn more, and then came across it again while researching the importance of measuring heart rate variability. Can you share in a nutshell why someone like me, who is not a pro athlete, but someone passionate about sharing health and wellness strategies, could benefit from using a WHOOP device?

Q2: I honestly was so moved by the power of measuring heart rate variability after I did that podcast that dove deeper into understanding this measurement on rest, recovery and resilience, that I joined just to see this one measure. I had to be patient, which I’m not, and wait a few days for the numbers to calibrate. I did see the email with Patrick Mahomes’ data[xi] that “quantified the strain of an NFL season” (Van Deusen) that was eye-opening. Can you explain what we should expect from our first 30 days measuring our data[xii], and maybe what’s the potential of measuring for a year if we are not pro athletes like Patrick Mahomes?

Q3: Can we look at my data and you tell me what you see? I know it says it loud and clear, but is there anything you notice? If you were my personal coach, what would you tell me (constructive feedback to help me to improve)?  (I would like to have the monthly assessment for this that should unlock the day of the interview).

Q4: What is your vision for WHOOP, and what have you learned most from your work at VP of Performance Science?

I want to thank you very much Kristen, for your time to speak with me and dive a bit deeper into the WHOOP device for personalized training, sleep and recovery insights. If people want to learn more about coming on as a member, I have the website in the show notes, and do you have any final thoughts? Thank you!

RESOURCES:

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/health/2017/04/02/charles-czeisler-sleep-doctor/

The Impact of Resonance Frequency Breathing on Measures of Heart Rate Variability, Blood Pressure, and Mood by Patrick R Steffen, Tara Austin, Andrea DeBarros, and Tracy Brown August 25, 2017 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00222/full?source=post_page---------------------------

REFERENCES:

[i] https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-holmes-she-her-b9b44647/

[ii] https://www.whoop.com/

[iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #87 “Top 5 Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/do-you-know-the-top-5-brain-health-and-alzheimers-prevention-strategies-with-andrea-samadi/

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #119 “Personal Review of the Fisher Wallace Medical Device for Anxiety, Depression and Sleep Management” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/personal-review-of-the-fisher-wallace-wearable-medical-device-for-anxiety-depression-and-sleepstress-management/

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #128 Review of Dr. Daniel Amen’s Book, “The End of Mental Illness” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/review-of-dr-daniel-amens-the-end-of-mental-illness-6-steps-for-improved-brain-and-mental-health/

[vi] Let there be circadian light Feb.20, 2020 University of Washington Health Sciences https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200220141731.htm

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #125 “What is Heart Rate Variability and Why is it Important for Tracking Health, Recovery and Resilience”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/what-is-hrv-and-why-is-it-important-for-tracking-health-recovery-and-resilience-with-andrea-samadi/

[viii] Whoop Podcast The Locker with Will Ahmed EPSIODE #29 Kristen Holmes and Emily Capodilupo on HRV https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/podcast-29-heart-rate-variability-hrv/

[ix] https://www.whoop.com/

[x] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast Episode #96 with Dr. Daniel Stickler on “Expanding Awareness for Limitless Peak Performance, Health, Longevity and Intelligence.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-daniel-stickler-on-expanding-awareness-for-limitless-peak-performance-health-longevity-and-intelligence/

[xi] Patrick Mahomes’ WHOOP Data: Quantifying the Strain of an NFL Season by Mark Van Deusen https://www.whoop.com/thelocker/patrick-mahomes-heart-rate-strain-data/?utm_source=members&utm_campaign=the-locker&utm_medium=email&utm_content=patrick-mahomes-heart-rate-strain-data&_ke=eyJrbF9jb21wYW55X2lkIjogIlBBQm5XSyIsICJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJhbmRyZWFAYWNoaWV2ZWl0MzYwLmNvbSJ9

[xii] https://support.whoop.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057137353-What-to-Expect-in-Your-First-30-Days

Brain Fact Friday “Applying Neuroplasticity to Your School or Workplace”

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for Brain Fact Friday and episode #133 on Neuroplasticity, or “the ability for our brain to re-wire, grow, adapt or change throughout a person’s lifetime”[i]

Welcome back, I'm Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports, and the workplace for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain.

I remember the first time I heard the term “neuroplasticity.” It was in 2014 when I first began learning about the brain and learning, and a teacher in a workshop I was running asked me if I knew what it was, and I remember having an idea about what I thought it was but wouldn’t have been able to explain it without this specific YouTube video[ii] showing how pathways of the brain are strengthened with use and weakened when they are not used, or the “use it, or lose it” idea.  I put this video in the show notes, but if you have been learning about the brain for some time, I’m sure you’ve already seen this video, as it’s been around for almost 10 years now and I have to say I’m so grateful for content like this that has helped me to learn the basics of neuroscience that I will continue to share with you, and help you to make connections whether you are using this information in the classroom or workplace.  

I love hearing new ways the podcast is helping people, most recently from Dorothee Oung, from Madrid, Spain, who let me know she has been guiding coaches to the podcast who are learning the basics of neuroscience to help their clients. I always appreciate knowing how these ideas are being used, and that the content is helpful. Thanks for the note Dorothee.  Please do send me a message via social media[iii], as I love hearing where you are listening to this podcast, and how you are using this information.

Remember: Knowledge isn’t power, until it’s applied. (Dale Carnegie)

Back to this episode.

In Today’s Brain Fact Friday You Will Learn:

✔︎ What is neuroplasticity and how this concept works in the brain when learning a new skill, thinking a certain way, or feeling a certain emotion.

✔︎ How neuroplasticity helps us to create new habits, and how we can use it to break habits we don’t want to keep.

✔︎ The controversy behind this topic, and how two of the people we have interviewed ignored the naysayers, and built a powerful career with the foundations of neuroplasticity.

Which brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday:

Did you know that "Neurons that fire together, wire together"[iv] and "neurons that are out of synch, fail to link."[v] 

I remember writing an article on LinkedIn a few years ago, explaining how we can use this idea which involves the concept that every time we learn a new skill, think a certain way, or feel a certain emotion, we strengthen the connections in our brain for whatever it is that we are reinforcing or repeating, or weaken the connection with less use.  Since learning creates a synaptic connection when you are thinking, feeling or doing something new, and with repeated practice, we create a neural pathway in our brain that becomes stronger the more we repeat it, it would make sense that if we want to stop doing something, or break a habit, that we just need to avoid certain thoughts, feelings and actions, making the impulses, or neural connections weaker and weaker.

Stefanie Faye spoke about this concept on EPISODE #39[vi], taking it one step deeper, explaining that the brain creates high priority pathways with skills we are practicing and then eliminates low priority pathways with skills we ignore. She shares how the brain re-wires itself using myelin (a mixture of protein and fatty substances that form an insulating sheath around the nerve fiber, increasing the speed and efficiency of electrical impulses along the nerve cells) and explaining why patterned repetition is so important for the skills we want to improve, develop, and keep.

The Controversy Behind Neuroplasticity

What I think is crazy, is that two of the people I have interviewed, have spoken about the fact that they became interested in this concept of neuroplasticity, at a time that it was not yet accepted.

Dr. Caroline Leaf, on a bonus episode we released February, 2021[vii] mentioned she wanted to dedicate her studies to the fact that “if we can direct our mind, we can direct or change our brain” and two of her professors told her this was a ridiculous idea.  She went on to build her career around this idea, has worked with thousands of people all over the world for the past 38 years, teaching people how to cultivate the power of their own thinking and direct their own brain changes.

During our last interview with Barbara Arrowsmith-Young[viii] she mentioned to me prior to our interview that the early days of her program caused quite a lot of controversy, and people even picketed outside her presentation because the concepts she was teaching were not understood or accepted. I have to say, honestly, that if I was picketed during my first presentation on the brain, (it was difficult enough creating a presentation on something new let alone have any criticism about it) I’m not sure I would have continued with this work. To me, you can see the belief that was behind Dr. Leaf’s work for her to push forward and make such an impact, and then Barbara knew that she changed her own brain with the results in her life being so obvious, that this belief is all that both women would need to move forward, leaps and bounds with these ideas.

So how can we use this concept of Neuroplasticity in our schools or workplaces? I learned about the AGES Model[ix] that is a good way for us to remember how we can continue to grow our brain and strengthen the neural pathways we want to keep.

LEARNING WITH THE BRAIN IN MIND: THE AGES MODEL

A: Attention: This was John Medina’s Brain Rule #4. “We don’t pay attention to boring things.”

I’m sure you have heard that “audiences check out after 10 minutes” (Summary 4, Brain Rules, Page 94) or that the brain can only focus on one thing at a time, making multitasking a bad idea. The funny thing is that although you may have heard of the fact that the “average person’s attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish, there’s no evidence that human attention is shrinking or that goldfishes have particularly short attention spans either.”[x] So how do we hold our student’s attention in the classroom, or during a presentation we might be doing in the workplace? The next 2 letters hold this secret.

G: Generation or Gender to make meaningful connections to prior learning. I think it’s important to make connections based on age, and experience, but I would change this one to gender, using John Medina’s Brain Rule #4 that “male and female brains are different.”[xi] Did you know that men’s and women’s brains are “different structurally and biochemically—men have bigger amygdala and produce serotonin faster and women and men respond differently to stress.” (Summary 11, Brain Rules, Page 260).  Women remember emotional details easier not because they are more emotional, but because “they perceive their emotional landscape with more data points (or detail) and see it in greater resolution.”[xii]

E: Emotion and EPISODE #127[xiii] went deep into this area. We do know that when audiences (or our students) are checking out after 10 minutes, we can grab their attention back by “telling narratives or creating events rich in emotion.” Emotions help memories form and stick so if you want to make your next presentation or lesson memorable, the best way is to somehow connect with your audience or class with a story that they connect to on an emotional level. This activates the mirror neurons in your audience, and they will listen, connect with you and trust you on a deeper level.

S: Spaced Repetition: We heard from Dr. John Dunlosky, a Professor of Psychology at Kent State University, who has contributed empirical and theoretical work on memory and metacognition, including theories of self-regulated learning and metacomprehension. With years of research on which learning strategies yielded the most results for learning new information, it was not using a yellow highlighter in class, (I still always use mine though) but it was spaced repetition of new learning that took the new skill from short term memory to long-term.

If we think about how neuroplasticity works, it makes sense that we use whatever method we can to keep what we are learning interesting for learners to actually listen to you, connecting to different generations and genders, adding emotion and repeating the new learning to strengthen the neural pathway and be sure that it’s reinforced with myelin that will make this information pass through the pathway quickly and efficiently.

Neuroplasticity to me is to the secret to learning something new, with the knowledge that this new learning will forever change my brain: both its structure and function. Both Dr. Leaf and Barbara Arrowsmith-Young would agree with this.

See you next week, for episode #134 with an incredible woman, Kristen Holmes, the VP of Performance Science at WHOOP.com as we debrief my first month using this device that measures sleep, strain and recovery, and was listed at #1 in Wellness with Fast Company’s 2020 Most Innovative Companies. The results and deep dive into my data of this device that’s used by many pro athletes like Patrick Mahomes, will blow you away.

Have a good weekend.

REFERENCES:

[i] Neuroplasticity Published on YouTube August 13, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmEOJyWVQj4

[ii] Neuroplasticity Published on YouTube November 6, 2012  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELpfYCZa87g

[iii] https://www.achieveit360.com/contact-us/

[iv] Donald Hebb, a Canadian neuropsychologist coined this term in 1949.

[v] Neurons That Fire Together, Wire Together: Using Your Brain to Break Bad Habits, Published on LinkedIn May 27, 2017 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/neurons-fire-together-wire-so-simple-andrea-samadi/

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #39 with Stefanie Faye on “using Neuroscience to Improve Our Mindset, Self-Regulation and Self Awareness: https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/neuroscience-researcher-stefanie-faye-on-using-neuroscience-to-improve-our-mindset-self-regulation-and-self-awareness/

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EPISODE with Dr. Caroline Leaf on “Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/worldrenownedneuroscientistdr-caroline-leaf-oncleaningup-your-mentalmess5-simplescientifically-proven-stepsto-reduceanxiety-and-toxic-thinking/

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #132 with Barbara Arrowsmith-Young on “The Woman Who Changed Her Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-story-of-barbara-arrowsmith-young-the-woman-who-changed-her-brain-and-left-her-learning-disability-behind/

[ix] Neuroplasticity and Learning Explained: The AGES Model Published on YouTube Feb.14, 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88OL8NdkV-s

[x]  72 Amazing Brain Facts #32 by Deane Alban https://bebrainfit.com/human-brain-facts/

[xi] John Medina Brain Rule #11 https://vimeo.com/52295224

[xii] John Medina’s Brain Rules Page 274 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005Z6YGRC/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

[xiii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #127 “How Emotions Impact Learning and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-how-emotions-impact-learning-memory-and-the-brain/

The Story of Barbara Arrowsmith-Young “The Woman Who Changed Her Brain and Left Her Learning Disability Behind”

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, EPISODE #132 with Barbara Arrowsmith Young, an incredible woman from my hometown, Toronto, Canada, who is otherwise known as “The Woman Who Changed Her Brain”[i]

Watch this interview on YouTube here.

In this episode, you will learn:

✔︎The heroic story of Barbara Arrowsmith-Young that Dr. Norman Doidge, the author of The Brain That Changes Itself says is “truly heroic, on par with the achievements of Helen Keller.”

✔︎ What specific learning challenges Barbara noticed by 1^st grade, and how she struggled through school during the time of the “fixed” brain, before the concept of neuroplasticity.

✔︎ How her parents prepared her for the legacy she would create years after she graduated from OISE’s Faculty of Education in Toronto.

✔︎ How a Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria and psychologist Mark Rosenzweig would help her to find the solution she was looking for to overcome her learning challenges and change her brain.

✔︎ What is the Arrowsmith School and Program that serves schools in educational institutions in worldwide?

✔︎ How you can connect with the Arrowsmith School to learn more about their programs to change student’s brains.

Welcome back, I'm Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports, and the workplace for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain.

I first learned about Barbara Arrowsmith Young when researching for Brian Fact Friday and EPISODE #129 as she was a case study in Dr. Norman Doidge’s book, The Brain That Changes Itself[ii] Dr. Doidge is a Canadian scientist, medical doctor, and psychiatrist who was one of the researchers who put Neuroplasticity on the map and he dedicated a whole chapter in his book to Barbara’s story called “Building Herself a Better Brain” which is exactly what she did. You can read Barbara’s book, The Woman Who Changed Her Brain,[iii]  that’s now in its third edition, here.   I’ve heard Dr. Daniel Amen say over and over again that “you are not stuck with the brain that you have. You can be empowered to change it for the better[iv]” and Barbara Arrowsmith Young did just that, and more. Her story just below me away. Literally. It was the first time I cried while researching someone, as her story of struggling as a young girl hit a chord for me. The whole reason I do the work I’m doing now, is to help educators or those in the workplace to use the understanding of their brain to improve productivity (whether that’s in the classroom, or the workplace) and when someone is struggling in this area, like many people who have dedicated their life to the field of teaching and learning, most would want to know “why is this person struggling and what can we do to help them past this?”

You can watch Barbara Arrowsmith Young’s  TEDx Talk, or read her story in Dr. Doidge’s book, to dive deeper into her story, that began when she was told she had a mental defect with her brain when she was younger, would never learn like other children, and would just have to learn to live with these limitations. For those of us who have children who need a little extra help, or who have worked with children with learning disabilities, we know that many times, even though other areas of the brain are highly functioning, and can even appear to make up for those areas of the brain that are not as strong, not addressing the areas of weakness, fixing or correcting them, can cause years of frustration for the child and will show up eventually when the brain becomes tired of working hard to compensate for the weaker areas.  This even showed up in my results with my brain scan at Amen Clinics with the X test, or the Connor’s Continuous Performance Test Score where we had to hit a key on the keyboard of a computer every time an X appeared, and not hit it when we didn’t see the x. Dr. Creado who did my test evaluation mentioned that “he has noticed that people who have weaker executive functions in their brain can develop life hacks to help them to focus and concentrate when they need to. But the problem is, that with time, and not working on brain health, or function, it will just become more difficult to keep up with these life hacks. Eventually, the brain will not be able to keep up with the hack which is why it’s so important to look and see what’s happening in your brain. You won’t know any of this, without looking.”[v]

 Her work, begun in 1978, has been recognized as one of the first examples of the practical application of neuroplasticity which, simply put, is the ability of the brain to change and rewire itself over one’s lifetime. As the Director of Arrowsmith School and Arrowsmith Program, she continues to develop and refine programs for students with learning difficulties.   

 Her vision is that all students struggling with learning will have the opportunity to benefit from cognitive programs utilizing the principles of neuroplasticity, programs that change the brain’s capacity to learn and open to these learners a world of possibilities.   

 The genesis of the Arrowsmith Program’s cognitive exercises lies in Barbara Arrowsmith-Young's journey of discovery and innovation to overcome her severe learning disabilities. Her inspirational book ‘The Woman who Changed Her Brain’ has become an international bestseller and a third edition updated with new research was published in December 2019.  

 Barbara is the recipient of the 2019 Leaders and Legends Innovation Award from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto for her outstanding contributions to education in Ontario.  

About the Arrowsmith Program  

The Arrowsmith Program has been recognized by Sharp Brains as the Most Innovative Special Education Program of its kind, identifying and strengthening the weak cognitive functions that underlie specific learning difficulties.   

The Arrowsmith Program is offered in over 90 educational organizations in 13 countries.  Ongoing research with neuroscientists, neuropsychologists and psychologists is demonstrating that the program not only changes the brain, cognitive functioning, and academic achievement but also leads to social-emotional well-being. 

 ‘Barbara’s story is truly heroic, on par with the achievements of Helen Keller.’  Norman Doidge M.D. author of the New York Times Bestseller The Brain that Changes Itself.  

 Barbara Arrowsmith-Young is the founder of the Arrowsmith Program, an assessment process and a suite of cognitive exercises designed to stimulate and strengthen weak areas of cognitive functioning that underlie a range of learning difficulties, which has been delivered for 40+ years throughout the world. 

Sadly, Barbara grew up at the time when most medical experts believed our brains were fixed, so she had to defy the odds, and find solutions to overcome her learning challenges on her own. She did and created the Arrowsmith School is Toronto where she now teaches other children many of the strategies that she used herself to strengthen her brain.

Let’s meet this extraordinary woman, from my hometown, Barbara Arrowsmith Young.

Welcome Barbara, I’m so grateful to have found you. It started when I read Dr. Doidge’s book The Brain That Changes Itself and chapter 2 of his book was dedicated to your story. My eyes saw Toronto (where I grew up and went to school) and Peterborough where you were raised, where I still send some Christmas cards to friends and family that way, and now I wanted to know your story. Then I saw your TEDx and the connection grew stronger with my background in teaching (I saw we both attended OISE’s Faculty of Education for our teacher training), and I had an interest in earning additional training in strategies for students with Learning Disabilities. Your story brought tears to my eyes as my focus on for the past 9 years has been to create content to help students/teachers in the classroom to instill a positive mindset for these young learners, and I saw how things were so different before there was such an emphasis on these skills.  Thanks so much for being here today.

Q1: Barbara, can you share what you were told about your brain, and learning when you were in 1^st grade, (mental block) and the challenges you had growing up at a time when doctors believed that our brains were fixed?

Q2: What specifically did you have a difficult time with and what did this do to your ability to learn at school (thinking of those students in the classroom today with a learning challenge)?

Q3: Things reached their lowest point for you in grade 8 where you just couldn’t see how you could go on with learning being this difficult, but your father, an inventor, helped you to adopt the mindset you would need to soldier on. When I heard what he told you, it made me feel more connected to you. I had a mousepad given to me from a friend back in Toronto as a gift when I was moving to the US, with the exact same saying on it. What did he teach you and how did this help you to move forward?

Q4: This is where my mind started to blow up a bit when I watched your TEDx. A bit because I can’t imagine researching before the internet. How did you come across the work of neuropsychologist Alexander Luria and psychologist Mark Rosenzweig[vi] and what did you learn from them?

Q5: The final missing piece for anyone who has gone through life with a learning challenge like you, or like me as a parent, watching my youngest child, wondering why can one of my kids sail through school, without any effort, and the other, needs constant support and guidance? Or a teacher out there, wondering what else could we do to help that one student putting in extra effort, without any results. Can you share what are the Assessments[vii] you use at Arrowsmith to identify a learning challenge, and what can they do for a student to help them past this challenge?

Q6: This podcast is going into our 6^th season, and 3^rd year and has a reach of over 148 countries around the world. Our top countries are the USA, Australia next and Canada and the UK not far behind. I saw your participating sites link[viii] on your website, and wonder how schools could become a participating site to access your assessments and curriculum?

Q7: What programs can you tell our audience about at Arrowsmith Schools? I saw a powerful video about your Summer Intensive program in Toronto that drew students from around the world (USA, Australia, the UK and beyond). Do you have anything like this coming up?

Q8: What’s your vision for Arrowsmith Schools, and on the horizon for you that we should all be aware of?

For people who want to learn more about your school, assessments and programs, I have put all of the links in the show notes, in addition to your website. https://arrowsmithschool.org/

Where else can people follow you and your school?

Thank you Barbara for taking the time to speak with me. It’s a true honor to meet someone who has made such an incredible impact on the world, that began with an understanding of your brain.  I will continue to follow work and wish you much success!

RESOURCES:

Here are some videos of students and parents describing the changes from the work:

https://youtu.be/YB1NPYJIcuE

https://youtu.be/kK_fe_KcXA0

https://youtu.be/8v8d_6u9iKM

Summary documents on our research

https://arrowsmithschool.org/research/

ArrowsmithProgram-Research-Summary-2019.pdf (arrowsmithschool.org)

ArrowsmithProgram-Research-Overview-2020.pdf (arrowsmithschool.org)

Participating Sites of the Arrowsmith School and Programs Worldwide https://arrowsmithschool.org/participating-sites/

Arrowsmith Cognitive Enhancement Program https://arrowsmithschool.org/enhancementprogram/

Live Arrowsmith Cognitive Classroom Demonstration with Howard Eaton Published on YouTube March 5, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epHBDNBPnHg

Cognitive Questionnaire https://questionnaire.arrowsmithprogram.com/

Neuroplasticity: How the Brain Can Heal Itself by Lynn Malcolm April 21, 2015 https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/neuroplasticity-and-how-the-brain-can-heal-itself/6406736

Alexander Luria: Life, research and contribution to neuroscience by Maria Illmarovna Kostyanaya https://www.thescienceofpsychotherapy.com/alexander-luria-life-research-contribution-to-neuroscience/

The Man with a Shattered World: The History of a Brain Wound by A.R. Luria Published April 30, 1987  https://www.amazon.com/Man-Shattered-World-History-Brain/dp/0674546253

REFERENCES:

[i] The Woman Who Changed Her Brain TEDx Toronto Published April 27, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0td5aw1KXA

[ii] The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr. Norman Doidge Dec. 18, 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c5aTlq3nYI

[iii] Barbara Arrowsmith-Young The Woman Who Changed Her Brain: How I Left My Learning Disability Behind and Other Storis of Cognitive Transformation, Foreword by Norman Doidge. Published  Sept. 17, 2017 https://arrowsmithschool.org/books-3/

[iv] Dr. Amen http://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2019/08/14/1901976/0/en/Dr-Daniel-Amen-s-Change-Your-Brain-Change-Your-Grades-Helps-Students-Parents-and-Teachers-Sync-Up-for-Better-Success.html#:~:text=Amen%20Clinics%2C%20Inc.,-Los%20Angeles%2C%20California&text=LOS%20ANGELES%2C%20Aug.,change%20it%20for%20the%20better.

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast Episode #84 “How a SPECT Scan Can Change Your Life.” with Andrea Samadi https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-a-spect-scan-can-change-your-life-part-3-with-andrea-samadi/

[vi] American research psychologist Mark Rosenzweig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rosenzweig_(psychologist)#:~:text=Rosenzweig%20initiated%20experimental%20research%20upon,than%20rats%20raised%20in%20cages.&text=This%20work%20led%20in%201962,enrichment%20increased%20cerebral%20cortex%20volume

[vii] https://arrowsmithschool.org/assessments/

[viii] https://arrowsmithschool.org/participating-sites/

Brain Fact Friday: “Understanding How We Learn: Declarative vs Procedural Systems”

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for Brain Fact Friday and episode #131. Of all the Brain Fact Fridays, so far, this one really made me stop, think and make connections to past episodes, and how the brain learns.

To view images in the show notes, click here.

Welcome back, I'm Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports, and the workplace for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain.

This week’s brain fact came to me when I was asked to appear this past weekend, on Naomi Toland’s[i] Live Q and A with Barbara Oakley[ii] the author of many books, including Learning How to Learn[iii] to ask her a question related to how the brain learns.

In this episode, you will learn:

✔︎ The 2 Major Ways the Brain Learns

✔︎ The difference between these 2 modes of Learning: Declarative and Procedural Learning

✔︎ Why one of type of learning might work better for one student than the other.

✔︎ Aha Moments for the Classroom, Sports and Beyond.

The first question for Barbara on this call caught my attention, and it was from Phil Stringer[iv], a Department Head of Math, Research Chair of Applied Cognitive Science from Vancouver, Canada, and it was his question that got me thinking.  He asked, “how can we move away from a grades-based culture, to a learning culture…or the idea of using points and grades verses just feedback for students” and I got my pencil out right away, knowing that there are a few schools near me who don’t use grades at all. Students just complete assignments, receive feedback, and work at their own pace. Some students are very happy working in this environment, and I wondered what Barbara, the expert on teaching and learning, would say.

How the Brain Learns:

Her answer blew us all away. The feedback after this event continued all night. She shared her screen and explained that the brain learns through two major systems:

The Declarative System: which is like when I am teaching something. Declarative links in the brain occur because we have listened to an explanation of something. The information goes from the working memory, through the hippocampus and puts the new information into long-term memory.   I thought back to EPISODE #127[v] “How Emotions Impact Learning and the Brain” and thought how important it is to be sure that students are making connections with their learning with what’s important to them, to sear the new learning and information at the brain level using emotion.  Since we “feel” therefore we learn.[vi]

The Procedural System: Is built when we practice a skill over and over again without thinking about it. This new information goes through the Basal Ganglia in the brain and deposits the new learning or new skill learned into the long-term memory. Todd Woodcroft talked about this idea on EPISODE #38[vii] with “The Daily Grind in the NHL” and Dr. John Dunlosky mentioned it in EPISODE #37[viii] when he spoke about the importance of spaced repetition as the most effective cognitive strategy for student success.

We need both types of learning when learning a new language, math, sports, or when we are learning anything, but Barbara reminds us that some people like to learn declaratively, (with an explanation) like people with Dyslexia, and others on the Autism Spectrum Disorder prefer to learn more procedurally, (with practice) if you are applying this to the classroom.

(Source: Barbara Oakley with Naomi Toland and Phil Stringer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAwzdCc8EPY

This brings us to this week’s Brain Fact Friday:

“We want people to learn both declaratively (through an explanation) or procedurally (by practicing a skill over and over again) but what we learn procedurally, we cannot explain.” Barbara Oakley

AHA Moments for the Classroom

If you have been asking your students to explain every step with their math problems, remember that some mathematical concepts have been acquired procedurally, and they won’t be able to explain it. This doesn’t mean they don’t understand the concept, they just cannot explain it back to you declaratively. Barbara Oakley further explains that “you could even destroy their interest in learning the subject if you force them to explain every step.”

Think About This:

Have you ever asked a student or your own child to explain something and they say, “Oh this is just how I do it?” This is because they were taught the skill using the procedural system and they cannot explain it to you.

Making Connections:

Friederike Fabritius, from EPISODE #27[ix], covers in her book, The Leading Brain: Neuroscience Hacks to Work Smarter, Better, Happier the process of procedural learning or “Intuitive Decisions” as she calls it. She offers the example of when Captain “Sully” Sullenberger explained that he was able to make that safe, emergency landing in the Hudson River that saved all 155 passengers, because he said “for forty-two years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education and training. And on January 15^th the balance was sufficient that I was able to make a withdrawal.”[x]  He acted intuitively, after years of experience.

She also explained this concept with Wayne Gretzky, who is considered to be the greatest hockey player of all time because his years of experience and practice on the ice gave him what many fans consider “hockey sense” or knowing how to be in the right place at the right time.  These “intuitive decisions” come without thinking and Friederike shares that it could even be “disruptive” if you ask someone to explain “how” exactly they do what they do.

To Sum up Brain Fact Friday:

“We want people to learn both declaratively (through an explanation) or procedurally (by practicing a skill over and over again) but what we learn procedurally, we cannot explain.” Barbara Oakley

The procedural system recognizes patterns and helps you to react quickly, so don’t eliminate rote learning from the classroom, just don’t call it Drill and Kill. Call it something more positive, Barbara suggests, like Drill and Skill.  And don’t forget that when learning procedurally, you need to provide feedback immediately. Don’t delay the feedback as this breaks the pattern made, and will make it harder for the student to learn the new skill effectively.

We all learned from Phil Stringer’s question: and were reminded that too much focus on grades or points has a detrimental impact on student learning, but testing a student is one of the most effective ways to help students to learn, since it provides the perfect amount of stress to motivate the student to perform.

I hope you can see the importance of thinking about these 2 ways that our brains acquire new information, and that it opens up your thinking, like it opened up mine. I’m no longer going to ask my children to explain every step in their math problems, and trust that they have learned the steps procedurally.

See you next week where we will have another Case Study, of a fascinating woman, from my hometown of Toronto, who is otherwise known as “The Woman Who Changed Her Brain.”[xi]

 REFERENCES:

[i] Naomi Toland’s Live Q and A with Barbara Oakley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAwzdCc8EPY

[ii] https://barbaraoakley.com/books/

[iii] Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley Published August 7, 2018  https://barbaraoakley.com/books/learning-how-to-learn/

[iv] Phil Stringer on Twitter https://twitter.com/xphils and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/StringerCHS

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #127 “The Impact of Emotions on Learning and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-how-emotions-impact-learning-memory-and-the-brain/

[vi] Mary Helen Immordino Yang Emotions, Learning and the Brain (November 16, 2015) https://www.amazon.com/Emotions-Learning-Brain-Implications-Neuroscience/dp/0393709817

[vii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #38 with Todd Woodcroft on “The Daily Grind in the NHL” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/assistant-coach-to-the-winnipeg-jets-todd-woodcroft-on-the-daily-grind-in-the-nhl/

[viii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #37 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kent-states-dr-john-dunlosky-on-improving-student-success-some-principles-from-cognitive-science/

[ix] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #27 with Friederike Fabritius on “Achieveing Peak Performance” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/pioneer-in-the-field-of-neuroleadership-friederike-fabritius-on-the-recipe-for-achieving-peak-performance/

[x] The Leading Brain by Friederike Fabritius page 147 https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Brain-Science-Based-Strategies-Performance/dp/014312935X

[xi] The Woman Who Changed Her Brain TEDx Toronto Published April 27, 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0td5aw1KXA

Case Study: The Story of Bridgid Ruden “Overcoming a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury”

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, EPISODE #130 with a fascinating case study/story of Bridgid Ruden[i], a traumatic brain injury survivor, whose life changed on May 24, 2008 with a bicycle accident that would begin her new life inspiring her book Discovering Your Life’s Purpose: From Tragedy to Triumph[ii], as she now inspires people nationally and internationally with her story of resilience.

To watch the interview on YouTube click here.

To see the images in the show notes if you are listening on iTunes click here.

Welcome back, I'm Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports, and the workplace for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain.

Before I give the backstory of Bridgid, and why I think her story is important to share, I want to read you a testimonial from the doctor who saw her first CT scan after her bike accident in 2008.

“Bridgid, you are a miracle. I remember as your physician telling you these words as I reviewed your brain CT scan from your initial head injury. I believe that you are unique in your positive approach to your recovery, your dedication to sharing your experience, and your commitment to helping and motivating others to overcome their own life obstacles and adversity. I deeply and sincerely admire your efforts and your positive attitude in dealing with a truly difficult and challenging personal experience so that they can benefit from your experience, wisdom, and wit. Although we sometimes are witness to events that are miraculous, sometime the real miracles are people like you.” -Dr. Andrew G. Lee, MD

In this episode, you will learn:

✔︎How a Traumatic Brain Injury can happen (statistics) and Bridgid Ruden’s Story.

✔︎ Who was Bridgid Ruden before the accident and how she used pure determination to re-build her brain and life after her accident on May 24, 2008.

✔︎ What her CT brain scans showed after the injury that led to 4 surgeries.

✔︎How Bridgid rebuilt her brain and life with exercise, nutrition, art, music therapy and laughter.

I came to meet Brigid Ruden when she reached out to me through our website[iii] to share her story, and at the time her email came in, I was in the middle of writing the review of Dr. Daniel Amen’s book, The End of Mental Illness on EPISODE #128 where we spoke about Traumatic Brain Injury as one of the brain risk factors of head trauma that Dr. Amen considers to be “the silent epidemic that underlies mental illness.” When I saw her email, I was reading it quickly, and saw the following words-severe traumatic brain injury survivor, healing, education, miracles, author, speaker and reiki therapist, and that’s all I needed to see. It’s not often that you see severe traumatic brain injury survivor and author in the same paragraph. Writing a book has to be the most daunting task, requiring brain focus, and here was someone who had survived a severe brain injury with a book about it. I was amazed, curious to learn more and emailed her back immediately.

The rest is history. I can’t wait for you to meet this woman whose determination to heal herself has opened her to a whole new life’s purpose.

Just to review, we did cover the statistics behind head trauma on episode #128 with a review of Dr. Daniel Amen’s “The End of Mental Illness” book where he called Head Trauma: “The silent epidemic that underlies many mental illnesses.”

(Dr. Amen). According to the CDC, “more than 2 million new head injuries occur in the US every year” ranging from falls, to motor vehicle collisions, to sports injuries and Dr. Amen treats many of these injuries at his clinics across the country, saying that his database of “tens of thousands of patients, 40% had a significant brain injury before they came to see us.”[iv]

Here’s Brigid Ruden!

Welcome Brigid. Thank you so much for reaching out to me with your story. It was timely and I’m so glad to have this opportunity to speak with you directly.

Q1: Brigid, I have just completed an episode[v] where I reviewed Dr. Daniel Amen’s book, The End of Mental Illness and one of the brain risk factors he outlines is Head Trauma that he describes as “The silent epidemic that underlies many mental illnesses.” Can you share the statistics that you’ve learned about the leading causes of Traumatic Brain Injury and why do you think the police officer that found you after your fall thought you had just a mild concussion?

Q2: To help others who might have someone in their life recovering from a TBI, can you take us through how serious your fall was from your first CT Scans, to your 2^nd CT Scans, to your 4^th surgery, and what happened to you after this?

Q3: Your story is a true story of resilience. Can you explain how you re-built your brain using the power of exercise, the value of nutrition, art and music therapy and reiki?

Q4: What helped to motivate you along your path to healing?

Q5: I know that documenting your life story in your book was not easy. I’m in the beginning stages of my third book and it requires more brain power than I’ve got on most days. How did you write your book while still healing to help others to develop and redefine themselves?

Q6: What vision do you have with your story? How do you want to help others who might be stuck in the recovery process?

Brigid, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to share your story. For those who want to learn more about you, they can go to your website at www.bridgidruden.com  or find your book Discovering My Life’s Purpose on Amazon.

Brigid, I want to thank you very much for taking the time to share your story. For those who want to learn more about you, they can go to your website at https://www.bridgidruden.com/ and can you explain the services that you offer there? 

RESOURCES:

All slides in the YouTube interview were from I Believe in the Power of Believing Movie Published on YouTube November 2, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZsa3mKAboE&t=607s

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #88 with Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, M.D. on Demystifying the Human Brain “Neurotheology, Spect Scans, and the Aging Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/neuroscientist-andrew-newberg-md-on-neurotheology-spect-scans-and-the-aging-brain/

REFERENCES:

[i] https://www.bridgidruden.com/

[ii] Discovering My Life’s Purpose: From Tragedy to Triumph by Brigid Ruden Published September 19, 2016  https://www.amazon.com/Discovering-My-Lifes-Purpose-Tragedy/dp/1681971992/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=bridgid+ruden&qid=1603334667&sr=8-1

[iii] https://www.achieveit360.com/contact-us/

[iv] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 4574

[v] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #128 with a review of Dr. Daniel Amen’s “The End of Mental Illness: Book https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/review-of-dr-daniel-amens-the-end-of-mental-illness-6-steps-for-improved-brain-and-mental-health/

Brain Fact Friday “Using Neuroscience to Lessen the Impact of COVID-19 on Learning”

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for Brain Fact Friday and episode #129.

If you are listening on iTunes, click here to see the images.

In this episode, you will learn how to lessen the impact that COVID-19 has had on our mental health, well-being and learning by understanding:

✔︎ What brain research can teach us about new ways to position learning for our students.

✔︎ Tips to re-build our student’s brains after the impact of the Global Pandemic.

✔︎ The importance of motivation, learning and the brain.

✔︎ Why neuroplasticity is the most important change in the understanding of our brain in the past 400 years. (Norman Doidge, MD).

Welcome back, I'm Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports, and the workplace for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain.

We also know that “mental health is brain health”[i] and that research demonstrates that “students who receive social, emotional and mental health support achieve better academically. School climate, classroom behavior, on-task learning, and students' sense of connectedness and well-being all improve as well”[ii]   

As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s clear that mental health disorders are a worldwide concern, magnified with the effects of the Global Pandemic. Here in the United States, 4 in 10 adults have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder…up from 1 in 10 adults who reported these symptoms from January-June 2019”[iii] before the Pandemic, and we know that “young adults are already at risk for poor mental health”[iv] but these statistics, along with some comments from some of the educators I speak with often got me wondering “What will be the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the mental health of our students in our classrooms, let alone the havoc it’s created in the workforce.”

Since leaving the corporate world in 2012, I have been focused on creating content to help students and educators implement social and emotional skills, character education, practical neuroscience and leadership,[v] with a focus on well-being, but the recent changes in our world have got me thinking:

• What are the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on our students’ well-being?
• How has wearing a mask every day impacted their self-image, their self-esteem, and confidence levels?
• What will happen to those students who struggle (or are still struggling) with Distance Learning?
• What are some solutions to these questions that we can implement to bridge the gap that was created with this Global Pandemic?

I don’t think I’ll be able to solve everything here in this episode but it’s a starting point. What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear from you with what issues you are facing in your schools and workplaces in different parts of the world, a year after the global pandemic.

These questions bring us to this week’s brain fact Friday, and a reminder from our last episode where we reviewed Dr. Daniel Amen’s book, The End of Mental Illness, that we are not stuck with the brain we have. We can change our brain and change our results. Whatever impact the Global Pandemic has had on our student’s social, emotional and cognitive thinking in our schools, or on those in the workplace, I strongly believe that this impact will not last forever, especially with the application of brain science to guide us through this time.

For this week’s Brain Fact Friday

DID YOU KNOW THAT:

“Nature has given us a brain that survives in a changing world by changing itself?” –Dr. Norman Doidge, a Canadian distinguished scientist, medical doctor, a psychiatrist on the faculty of the University of Toronto and Columbia University in New York, and the author of The Brain That Changes Itself[vi] (that has sold over 1 million copies) and The Brain’s Way of Healing[vii] said that.

Dr. Norman Doidge is one of the researchers who put Neuroplasticity on the map (meaning that neurons, the building blocks of the brain) are changeable (plastic) which means that our brains “can change their structure and function through mental experience alone” and he believes this to be “the most important change in the understanding of our brain in 400 years.”[viii]

How Can this Idea of Neuroplasticity Help Us in Today’s Classrooms?

Norman Doidge’s book, The Brain That Changes Itself is full of case studies of people who have experienced chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, TBI, autism, ADHD, and even Blindness, train new parts of their brain with focused thought and movement alone.  If our neural pathways can be re-wired and strengthened in these case studies in this book, as well as in The Brain’s Way of Healing, (his most recent book) how can we use this information in today’s classrooms to help with our student’s well-being? Understanding how our brain’s works is a crucial next step for accelerating learning in our post-pandemic classrooms, with a goal of lessening the learning loss that may have occurred in the past year.

3 TIPS TO ACCELERATE LEARNING IN TODAY’S CLASSROOMS:

1. Think of New Ways to Position Learning: With the Brain in Mind

Chapter 2 of The Brain That Changes Itself features a fascinating story about a woman named Barbara Arrowsmith who was born with learning challenges. Tests to her brain revealed that she had extremely strong areas with her audio and visual centers, but her spatial reasoning was weak.  Barbara was determined to find ways to improve her learning and found a study by Mark Rosenzweig[ix] using rats that helped her to understand the neuroplastic nature of her own brain.

This study showed that rats in a stimulating environment had “an increase in neurotransmitters, a heavier brain, and more blood flow to the brain”[x]  Once Barbara saw that the rats could change their brain, she began a series of mental exercises to help her to strengthen the areas of her own brain that were weak and with time, she brought her deficiencies back up to a normal level. There’s more to the story, but I found it fascinating that Barbara Arrowsmith was able to overcome her learning challenges using mental exercises and strengthened the parts of her brain that were weak. She later opened the Arrowsmith School in Toronto[xi], where she used many of the techniques, she used on herself, with her students. With this case study in mind, can you think of ways could you use Barbara’s story to help students in your classroom?

IMPLEMENTING THIS IDEA IN THE CLASSROOM:

Whatever challenges your students have faced the past year, remember that our student’s brains are resilient and with practice, repetition, and a stimulating environment, they will continue to learn and make academic gains like Barbara did.

I’ll learn more from Barbara and the school she has built, but it’s clear that many students would benefit from knowing what areas of their brain need more work to identify these weak links. This is exactly why looking at your brain is so powerful instead with instruction that just repeats the same thing over again, missing an opportunity to target learning and instruction.

2. Strengthening Neural Pathways in the Brain: Priming the Brain to Learn

We know that Mark Rosenzweig’s rat experiments inspired Barbara to improve her learning, but they also taught her that “animals raised in enriched environments—surrounded by other animals, objects to explore, toys to roll, ladders to climb, and running wheels—learn better than genetically identical animals that have been reared in impoverished environments.”[xii]

Our learning environment matters our brains will grow in the right environment. Doidge mentioned in postmortem examinations, “it was shown that education increases the number of branches among neurons. An increased number of branches drives the neurons further apart, leading to an increase in the volume and thickness of the brain.”[xiii] Which brings us to the question, “Is a bigger brain better?” and a Stanford neuroscientist would say that “some studies claim the answer is yes” to this question.[xiv]

IMPLEMENTING THIS IDEA IN THE CLASSROOM:

This has been a challenging one this year, with many students still using distance learning[xv], and it’s not easy to have control over your students’ learning environments, when many students are doing the best that they can, with their individual circumstances. Take a look at what the dendrites in the brain look like without stimulation vs stimulation, and most teachers I know get excited about this concept. Our students brains have been impacted in the classroom, and when they leave, they will continue to grow and expand from the lesson that you have taught them. Their brains will expand, and yes, you helped to build a stronger, smarter brain.

3. The Importance of Motivation:

We did cover the importance of motivation in the workplace on episode #127 “How Our Emotions Impact Learning, Memory and the Brain”[xvi] with a reminder that the motivation network of the brain is driven by your instinct and curiosity which is one of Jaak Panksepp’s Core Emotions (Panksepp was an Estonian neuroscientist who mapped out 7 emotional circuits in the mammalian brain (the hindbrain) with play being one of them.

Panksepp identified another emotion called SEEKING that keeps us moving forward, engaged in new and interesting activities and work throughout our lifetime. If you think your students have lost motivation for their work, it’s time to look or like Panksepp would say, SEEK something that their brain will find new, and interesting, that will bring them JOY. This will engage them at the brain level.

Doidge found that “when animals were motivated to learn, the brain responds plastically” and stimulating the brain makes it grow in almost every conceivable way.

IMPLEMENTING THIS IDEA IN THE CLASSROOM:

Keeping the focus on the joy of learning in difficult times will allow our students’ brains to do what they do naturally—learn and grow. Making sure our students and children at home are motivated to learn is the first step in engaging them at the brain level.

Reviewing our brain fact for the week “Nature has given us a brain that survives in a changing world by changing itself” makes me think of the possibility that exists within each of us. I know this past year has revealed many changes for all of us, all over the world, but the science clearly says that our brain has the ability to survive in an ever-changing world.

Next week I will be speaking with a TBI survivor who has rebuilt her brain to create an incredible life, helping others to do the same. See you next week, and I hope this brain fact has given you some new ideas to look at our students, colleagues or families, and see the power behind neuroplasticity, and the ability for our brain to adapt and change on its own…which I would agree with Doidge to be the most important change in the understanding of our brain in 400 years.

See you next week!

Contact Andrea Samadi andrea@achieveit360.com or via Twitter https://twitter.com/andreasamadi or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/samadi/

REFERENCES:

[i] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159

[ii] School-Based Mental Health Services: Improving Student Learning and Well-Being  https://www.nasponline.org/

[iii] The implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use Published by Nirmita Panchal, Rabah Kamal, Cynthia Cox, and Rachel Garfield Feb. 10, 2021 https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/

[iv] IBID

[v] Andrea Samadi’s Programs and Services https://www.achieveit360.com/

[vi] The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr. Norman Doidge Dec. 18, 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c5aTlq3nYI

[vii] Dr. Norman Doidge The Brain’s Way of Healing Jan. 26, 2016 https://www.amazon.com/Brains-Way-Healing-Discoveries-Neuroplasticity/dp/014312837X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+brain%27s+way+of+healing&qid=1620322327&s=books&sr=1-1

[viii] Dr. Norman Doidge | The Power of Thought Published on YouTube Feb. 15, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c5aTlq3nYI

[ix] Animal research on neuroplasticity (Rosenzweig and Bennett, 1961) https://www.themantic-education.com/ibpsych/2018/12/10/key-study-animal-research-on-neuroplasticity-rosenzweig-and-bennett-1961/

[x] The Brain That Changes Itself Part 1 Published on YouTube Jan. 5, 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI1BT7E58WU

[xi] https://arrowsmithschool.org/toronto/

[xii] he Brain That Changes Itself by Dr. Norman Doidge Dec. 18, 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c5aTlq3nYI location 873

[xiii] The Brain That Changes Itself by Dr. Norman Doidge Dec. 18, 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c5aTlq3nYI location 888

[xiv] Ask a Neuroscientist: Does a bigger brain make you smarter? May 24, 2014 by Kendra Lechtenberg https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/ask-neuroscientist-does-bigger-brain-make-you-smarter

[xv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #77 with University Professors and Authors Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey on “Delivering High Quality Distance Learning” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/university-professors-and-authors-doug-fisher-and-nancy-frey-on-developing-and-delivering-high-quality-distance-learning-for-students/

[xvi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #127 “How Our Emotions Impact Learning, Memory and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/brain-fact-friday-how-emotions-impact-learning-memory-and-the-brain/

Review of Dr. Daniel Amen’s “The End of Mental Illness” 6 Steps for Improved Brain Function and Mental Health

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, for episode #128 with a review of Dr. Daniel Amen’s book, The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More.[i]  

If you are listening on iTunes, click here to see the images. 

Welcome back, I'm Andrea Samadi, a former educator who has been fascinated with understanding the science behind high performance strategies in schools, sports, and the workplace for the past 20 years. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we’ve uncovered that if we want to improve our social and emotional skills, and experience success in our work and personal lives, it all begins with an understanding of our brain.

Since May is Mental Health Awareness month, and every 14 minutes, someone in the country commits suicide, and it’s the 2^nd leading cause of death for young people, I thought it was important to cover the one person, the leading expert on this topic, who has a goal to eliminate the stigma around mental illness with the understanding of brain health, and that’s with the world-renowned psychiatrist, brain disorder specialist, New York Times best-selling author and director of Amen Clinics, Dr. Daniel Amen.

We’ve had his daughter on the podcast, Chloe Amen, for episode #11[ii] with the book that she helped Dr. Amen to write, Change your Brain, Change Your Grades and we have definitely asked Dr. Amen and his wife Tana to join us on the podcast. We understand that his schedule is tight between running Amen Clinics[iii], The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast[iv], and making television appearances, like his recent episode with Dr. Oz[v], but we are still working with this with his staff and his schedule with the hope that we can get him on, to give my husband and I a quick overview of our brain scans, and hopefully shed some light on why a brain scan can change your life for those listening.

Visiting Dr. Amen’s Costa Mesa clinic was eye-opening, especially from the point of view of two people who didn’t have any obvious symptoms, just to gain more awareness into our health and well-being. It was a process that I think everyone could gain awareness from, whether you are having symptoms that you would like to dive deeper into, or not.  If you haven’t yet seen the 3-part series on where I outline what exactly a spect image brain scans, and how it can change your life, you can listen to it here.[vi]

For those who are listening that might be interested like we were in visiting his offices, it’s a simple process. Just go to www.AmenClinics.com  and schedule a call with their offices to help you to find the best location to visit (in the US) and the best solution for you. 

There’s no doubt that Dr. Amen is disrupting psychiatry with his brain scans, and the evidence is there on the wall at his clinics. You will see in plain view as you walk to his office, the famous studies he’s conducted. Dr. Amen has published “more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including some of the largest brain imaging studies ever done…if you type in ‘brain spect’ in the National Library of Medicine’s website www.pubmed.gov it will return more than 14,000 scientific abstracts.”[vii]

Dr. Amen was the “principal investigator on the first and largest brain imaging and rehabilitation study on active and retired NFL players, showing high levels of damage, but also the possibility of recovery for many, using the principles in his book…Dr. Amen was also a consultant on the 2015 movie Concussion starring Will Smith”[viii]

Since this information is so valuable,  I wanted to cover the highlights of his book, The End of Mental Illness that I know we could all benefit from reading. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know someone who is impacted in some way with their mental health, and Dr. Amen says it pretty clearly that “most of us will have a mental health issue in our lifetime—and that “normal” is a myth..that 51% of us will have a mental health issue (post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, addiction, an eating disorder)”[ix] showing me that it’s more normal to have a problem, than not.

When you pick up your copy of this book, (even if you aren’t ready to buy a copy, you can get a free sample on Amazon using the Kindle version) and just scan through the leaders in the health and wellness industry in the beginning.

You’ll see Dr. David Perlmutter who we’ve mentioned often on this podcast, with his Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention Series,[x] Mark Hyman[xi], who appeared in Dr. Perlmutter’s series, Dr. Andrew Newberg[xii], director of research at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University, who we had on the podcast for EPISODE #88[xiii] and many other well-known names from the sports industry, medicine, and education.

In the first few pages of this book, Dr. Amen poses the question, “What if mental health was brain health?” which brings us back to our goal with this podcast, to bridge the gap that exists in our schools and workplaces that begins with an understanding of our brain.

Part 1 of the book gives a history of mental health over the years, with some tips for brain health that can change your life. You will see some SPECT image scans and case studies and begin to see how some common brain health issues like depression, anxiety, TBI, substance abuse, or Alzheimer’s Disease show up in the brain vs a healthy brain scan image.

Part 2 of the book explains the BRIGHT MINDS acronym which is a guide for well-being with the brain in mind. We will cover the BRIGHT part on this episode.

Part 3 of the book offers strategies that can be used in schools and the workplace to end mental illness with a focus on brain health.

We believe that well-being is the key to achievement and that an understanding of our brain health is behind the success our students will experience in the classroom, and then take with them for future success in the workplace.

There’s no better place to learn about the brain, health, and well-being, than Dr. Amen. For this episode, if you would like to improve your mood, energy, focus and sleep, I’ll be using the acronym that Dr. Amen uses, (BRIGHT MINDS) with six tips to help us to improve brain health and function. This book also has an online class you can access for free on YouTube.[xiv]

You can learn more about the acronym BRIGHT MINDS in Part 2 of The End of Mental Illness with the idea that in order to have a healthy brain, you must have a healthy mind.

Dr. Amen mentions at the start of the book that we want to create as much “brain reserve” as we can as we age “since the more brain reserve you have, the more resilient you are and the better your brain can handle the aging process to keep mental health disorders at bay.”[xv]

Although we have all been exposed to stressors to our brain in our lifetime, whether we have had an injury or not, we all have had some of our brain reserve depleted from our day-to-day life experience.  Here are six tips and strategies that are a good starting point when looking at our brain/mind health.

6 TIPS FOR IMPROVED BRAIN HEALTH

1. B- Blood Flow: “If your brain doesn't get enough blood flow its function will be compromised”[xvi] so Dr. Amen believes “the number one strategy to support your brain and mental health is to protect, nurture, and optimize your heart and blood vessels”[xvii] and exercise pumps blood to the brain.

DID YOU KNOW THAT “Blood vessels age, not your brain cells? Keep blood vessels healthy so blood flows to your brain.”[xviii]

BRAIN TIP:

Keep your blood vessels healthy with moderate exercise 5 days/week and weight training 3 times/week.  I know we all have heard how important exercise is for our health, it’s one of the top 5 health staples we have been covering on the podcast, but have you thought about it from this point of view? Keeping our heart healthy, keeps our blood vessels healthy, and helps blood flow to our brain. When you follow Dr. Amen’s work, you will quickly learn how important blood flow is to the brain. When looking at a brain scan with holes, the hole you see represent a 45% drop in blood flow to that area and it’s important to understand ways to increase blood flow to your brain (like with exercise and diet) as well as what lowers blood flow in your brain (more than 2 cups of caffeine/day, smoking, lack of sleep, excessive alcohol use).[xix]

2. R: Retirement/Aging: “When your brain stops learning, your brain starts dying.”[xx]

DID YOU KNOW: “That negative thoughts release chemicals in your brain that make you feel bad?”[xxi] It’s important to always be learning something new to keep the brain active, growing, and healthy and that we hold a positive mindset.

BRAIN TIP:

It’s important to find activities that we enjoy keeping us learning and growing and staying positive as we age. What I think is interesting is that activities we might have enjoyed doing 10 years ago, might have changed, so be open to trying something new, since your brain loves novelty and novelty makes us happy.[xxii] The more connected we are to what makes us happy, the more we can continue to contribute to the world, helping others and continue our lives with a sense of purpose.

3. I: Inflammation: “Which is your body’s process of fighting against things that harm it, such as infections, injuries and toxins, in an attempt to heal itself. When something damages your cells, your body releases chemicals that trigger a response from your immune system.”[xxiii] Amen explains that the word inflammation comes from “the Latin word inflammare, meaning to set on fire”[xxiv]

DID YOU KNOW “That a poor, inflammatory diet leads to less energy production in the brain?” (Ari Whitten, The New Science of Energy)[xxv] Dr. Amen explains that “Just as it can ravage your body, it can also damage your brain and mind. It’s been associated with a wide range of neurological and psychiatric illnesses including depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.”[xxvi]

BRAIN TIP: Keep your gut microbiome healthy, to maintain good brain health. We covered this topic on episode #93 with Dr. Vuyisich[xxvii] and it’s important to understand what creates an imbalance in our gut microbiome (stress, excessive alcohol, artificial sweeteners, and certain medications) while adding probiotics, being careful about taking antibiotics, and taking Omega-3 fatty acids[xxviii], can all reduce inflammation and improve brain health.

4. G: Genetics: “Your history is not your destiny.” (Dr. Amen). I loved the dedication to this book: To Alize and Amelie, Your history is not your destiny. Let’s end mental illness with your generation.” You will see this dedication after the reviews of this book in the beginning and if you don’t know the story, Alize and Amelie are Dr. Amen’s nieces (Alize co-wrote Change Your Brain, Change Your Grades with Chloe Amen) and they are the reason Dr. Amen wrote this book, with the goal in mind to show the world that we are not stuck with the brain we have. You can read the story on page 5 of the book and see how Dr. Amen used these brain strategies as a blueprint to change the brains of his nieces, but it’s such a moving story, that caught my attention for many different reasons, because it’s powerful to know that we can change our brain’s (structure and function) with these strategies.

DID YOU KNOW: “You are not stuck with the brain you have. You can make it better.” (Dr. Amen)

BRAIN TIP: Just because certain things run in your family, like some people really are genetically inclined to be overweight (Dr. Amen says he has to be careful of what he eats and when) “don’t believe your genes are your destiny.”[xxix]

Do you know what your genetic vulnerabilities are? I’m fully aware that depression runs in my family, so years ago, I put certain habits like exercise and healthy eating as priority, and it’s not something I even think about anymore. It became a healthy habit. When you can focus on brain health first, everything else will fall into place, and family history, or genetics can be changed.

5. H: Head Trauma: “The silent epidemic that underlies many mental illnesses.”

(Dr. Amen). According to the CDC, “more than 2 million new head injuries occur in the US every year” ranging from falls, to motor vehicle collisions, to sports injuries and Dr. Amen treats many of these injuries at his clinics across the country, saying that his database of “tens of thousands of patients, 40% had a significant brain injury before they came to see us.”[xxx]

DID YOU KNOW: That your brain is soft like butter or tofu, and you don’t need to have lost consciousness to have injured it? Have you ever “fallen out of a tree, fallen off a horse, dove into a shallow pool, had a whiplash accident, hit your head on a ball, the ground, or someone else’s helmet in sports?”[xxxi]   I didn’t think that the patten of a TBI would show up on my brain scan, but it did, and I’m sure it was from when I hit my head on a pool deck during a triathlon, over 20 years ago.

BRAIN TIP:

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a simple, noninvasive treatment that many athletes have been using for years to help with the healing and reduce inflammation in the brain.[xxxii] This was suggested for me with the pattern of a TBI showing with my brain scan. I have not had a session yet, mostly because I don’t have symptoms that bother me but I would look into this if I did.

6. T: Toxins: “Toxins are one of the major causes of brain/mental health issues…and can increase the risk of depression, suicide, ADD/ADHD, learning problems, memory problems, brain fog, and temper outbursts.”[xxxiii]

I’M SURE YOU ALL KNOW: “That every day we are exposed to a host of chemicals, pesticides, fumes, and products that poison the human brain?”[xxxiv] Dr. Amen reminds us that we can’t avoid some of these toxins, but there’s a lot we can do to limit our exposure to them and help to detoxify our homes, workspaces and environment.

BRAIN TIP: If your think you could be sharper,  improve your focus, or memory, the first place to look, is at what you are putting into your body that could be harming your brain.  There’s the obvious drugs and alcohol category, but some other areas to consider looking at are mold exposure, cleaning supplies, and what you are putting on your body (lotion/makeup) that could contain harmful chemicals that can hurt your brain. Learn to read labels and identify chemicals and preservatives we should avoid like “potassium bromate (carcinogenic), BHA, BHT (linked to tumors), Sodium benzoate (may damage DNA), Sodium nitrate (linked to Cancer), Tartrazine dye (makes cheese yellow) linked to asthma, MSG (linked to seizures and heart issues), Red Dye #40, and artificial sweeteners (aspartame-blue packets) and saccharin (pink packets) both linked to obesity. I know that in the past 10 years, this area has improved with many people switching to green cleaning supplies, and I know that many students themselves know what foods have red dye #40 in them, as their parents tell them, and that some countries are far more advanced than others, but you can still look around and see toxins everywhere and just be mindful of what they do to our brain.

REVIEW:

To close out the review of Dr. Amen’s book, The End of Mental Illness, there’s a lot that we can all do, just by reviewing his BRIGHT MINDS Tips.

1. Improve blood flow to our brain with exercise.
2. Keep learning as we age and find strategies to hold a positive daily mindset.
3. Take supplements to keep our gut microbiome healthy as a poor diet can cause less energy production in our brain.
4. Your history is not your destiny. Know your genetic vulnerabilities but also that you are not stuck with the brain you have. You can change your brain with new habits that create new results.
5. Your brain is soft like butter or tofu. Protect it by wearing a helmet playing sports.
6. Toxins surround us every day. Do what we can to reduce exposure to chemicals we know harm our brains.

If we can start with these six steps to prioritizing our brain health, we will be miles ahead with our productivity and results. When we can get our brain health right, everything else in our life will improve.  I highly suggest reading this book and taking the 6-week online course that goes with it, as there are many resources that can help guide you towards having a better brain and life. It really doesn’t take a lot to make small improvements that will yield huge results.

To close out this episode, I wanted to list the top brain tips I have learned from studying Dr. Amen to give some hope during Mental Health Awareness Month.  If you want to learn more about Amen Clinics, go to their website www.amenclinics.com and you can click on the conditions tab to search for a list of the brain disorders they treat, with valuable information.

Hope you have a wonderful week! See you for Brain Fact Friday.

REFERENCES:

[i] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning EPISODE #11 with Chloe Amen on “Change Your Brain, Change Your Grades” https://www.achieveit360.com/15-year-old-chloe-amen-reveals-strategies-on-how-to-change-your-brain-change-your-grades/

[iii] https://www.amenclinics.com/

[iv] https://www.amenclinics.com/podcast/

[v] Dr. Amen on The Dr. Oz Show with his Memory Rescue Plan https://www.doctoroz.com/article/dr-daniel-amens-memory-rescue-plan

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast Episode #82 “How a SPECT Image Brain Scan Can Change Your Brain and Life” PART 1 with Doug Sutton https://www.achieveit360.com/how-a-brain-scan-changed-my-brain-and-life-with-doug-sutton/

Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPSIODE #83 with Andrea Samadi on “What is a SPECT Brain Scan and How Can it Change Your Life?” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/how-exactly-can-a-spect-imaging-brain-scan-change-your-life-with-andrea-samadi-part-2/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast Episode #84 “How a SPECT Image Brain Scan Can Change Your Life” PART 3 with Andrea Samadi https://www.achieveit360.com/how-a-spect-scan-can-change-your-life-part-3-with-andrea-samadi/

[vii] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 547

[viii] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 532

[ix] Dr. Amen, Brain Thrive by 25 Online Course http://brainthriveby25.com/

[x] Dr. David Perlmutter’s Alzheimer’s: The Science of Prevention Series  https://www.drperlmutter.com/alzheimers-the-science-of-prevention-2020-air-dates/

[xi] https://drhyman.com/

[xii] http://www.andrewnewberg.com/

[xiii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #88 with Dr. Andrew Newberg https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/neuroscientist-andrew-newberg-md-on-neurotheology-spect-scans-and-the-aging-brain/

[xiv] The End of Mental Illness 6 Week Online Class Published on YouTube Jan. 21, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-8CiGDWYXQ

[xv] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 2034

[xvi] Dr. Amen on The Dr. Oz Show https://www.doctoroz.com/article/dr-daniel-amens-memory-rescue-plan

[xvii] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 2755

[xviii] Tana and Daniel Amen on The Brain Warrior’s Way Podcast https://brainwarriorswaypodcast.com/its-not-your-brain-cells-that-age-its-your-blood-vessels

[xix] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 2787

[xx] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 3256

[xxi] The End of Mental Illness 6 Week Online Class Published on YouTube Jan. 21, 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-8CiGDWYXQ (lesson 5)

[xxii] The Importance of Novelty Sept. 5, 2019 by Nicole Dean https://brainworldmagazine.com/the-importance-of-novelty/

[xxiii] Understanding and Managing Chronic Inflammation Written by Adrienne Santos-Longhurst July 27, 2018 https://www.healthline.com/health/chronic-inflammation

[xxiv] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 3714

[xxv] Ari Whitten, The New Science of Energy from The Energy Blueprint https://theenergyblueprint.com/new-science-of-energy1/

[xxvi] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 3728

[xxvii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #93 with Dr. Momo Vuyisich on “Improving the Health of Your Microbiome, Preventing and Reversing Chronic Disease.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-momo-vuyisich-on-improving-the-health-of-your-microbiome-preventing-and-reversing-chronic-disease/

[xxviii] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 3967

[xxix] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 147

[xxx] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 4574

[xxxi] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 4642

[xxxii] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 110

[xxxiii] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 4881

[xxxiv] The End of Mental Illness: How Neuroscience is Transforming Psychiatry and Helping Prevent or Reverse Mood and Anxiety Disorders, ADHD, Addictions, PTSD, Psychosis, Personality Disorders and More by Dr. Daniel Amen  March 3, 2020 https://www.amazon.com/End-Mental-Illness-Neuroscience-Transforming/dp/1496438159 Location 4953