Podcasts about unfocused mind

  Why This Episode Is a Must-Watch Are you struggling to achieve financial goals like saving more, investing wisely, or building long-term wealth? This episode of Inspired Money brings a unique and transformative approach to financial success—Vision Boards. Discover how visualization can reinforce your goals, reshape your mindset, and increase the likelihood of achieving your dreams. Featuring top experts like John Assaraf, Dr. Srini Pillay, and Ellen Rogin, this episode is packed with insights on how to train your brain for financial success. Meet the Expert Panelists John Assaraf is a leading mindset and behavioral expert, CEO of NeuroGym, and two-time New York Times bestselling author, known for helping individuals and businesses unlock their fullest potential using neuroscience-based training. He has built five multimillion-dollar companies, appeared on Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and has been featured in eight films, including The Secret. Srini Pillay, M.D. is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and CEO of NeuroBusiness Group, specializing in the science of mindset, visualization, and goal achievement. A sought-after speaker, author, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies, he translates complex brain research into actionable strategies for personal and financial success. Author of several book including, “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind.” Ellen Rogin, CPA, CFP®, is a money expert and financial intuitive who helps people reshape their relationship with money to create greater abundance and joy. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Picture Your Prosperity, and her insights have been featured on CNBC, ABC, NPR, TIME, and Oprah Magazine. Key Highlights The Power of Visualization: John Assaraf illustrates how visualization can restructure the neural pathways in the brain, influencing behavior and identity. He recounts his own experience, stating, “I started off making $1.65 an hour… to making millions of dollars a year.” Visualization coupled with consistent action propelled his vast transformation. Specificity and Relevance in Vision Boards: Dr. Srini Pillay explains that specific and relevant goals stimulate the brain's image centers. He shares a client success story where careful visualization led to unexpected personal fulfillment, demonstrating that specificity fuels motivation and action. Aligning Financial Goals with Personal Values: Ellen Rogin emphasizes that balancing financial planning with emotional and intuitive insights can deepen the meaning and fulfillment of financial success. Her structured approach to vision boards aligns financial goals with deeper personal values and contributions to society. Call-to-Action Here's my challenge for you this week: Take 10 minutes to start your own financial vision board. Grab a piece of paper, open a digital board, or even create a simple list of images and words that represent your goals. Just start—because clarity leads to action. Find the Inspired Money channel on YouTube or listen to Inspired Money in your favorite podcast player. Andy Wang, Host/Producer of Inspired Money

Join us for our Life of Purpose series this month as we revisit some of our most impactful episodes. Dive deep into expert insights and practical strategies on health, performance, and community, helping you achieve personal and professional fulfillment.Explore the counterintuitive benefits of an unfocused mind with Dr. Srini Pillay. In this episode, Dr. Pillay, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, unpacks how harnessing unfocused thinking can enhance creativity, decision-making, and productivity. Learn to leverage the power of your unconscious mind to achieve greater success and fulfillment in life and work. Subscribe for ad-free interviews and bonus episodes https://plus.acast.com/s/the-unmistakable-creative-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anxiety and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often overlap, resulting in confusion, misdiagnoses, and inadequate support for individuals struggling with these conditions. By acknowledging the complexity of these overlapping symptoms, we can foster a more supportive environment that addresses the unique needs of individuals navigating both conditions.This episode sheds light on the common symptoms and challenges faced by individuals dealing with both conditions. Additionally, we delve into anxiety in children mimicking ADHD, exploring how stress and worry can manifest as attentional difficulties.For more information, you may check out the following:● 5 Surprising ways magnesium helps adhd anxiety ocd and depression ● Anxiety● Clinical guide anxiety● 129 stress anxiety and mood 10 ways how magnesium helps the brain● Adhd and anxiety

There are tons of podcasts, blog posts, and books about how to get more focused. Focus is seen as the key to greater productivity and success.While focus is important, my guest says there are also amazing powers to be found in something that gets a lot less attention: the unfocused mind.Dr. Srini Pillay is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, a brain-imaging researcher, and the author of Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind. Today on the show, Srini explains the downsides of excessive focus, the importance of tapping into the unfocused mind, especially in the age of A.I., and the benefits of doing so, including how mind wandering can help you be more productive and creative, allow you to see greater possibilities for your life, and offer important insights that will get you unstuck from problems. He shares strategies to incorporate unfocused time into your lifestyle, including how to make daydreaming more beneficial and why you should let yourself doodle without guilt. Srini also makes a case for multitasking in the sense of switching back and forth between different tasks.Connect With Srini PillaySrini's websiteNeuro Business Group websiteSrini on LinkedInSrini on XSrini on IGSrini's articles on Harvard Health

When it comes to task completion and goal achievement, most people assume that more focus is the answer. Srini Pillay, however, demonstrates how specific types of planned "unfocus" can actually stimulate cognitive calmness, jumpstart productivity, inspire creativity, and help you stay on target. Subscribe for ad-free interviews and bonus episodes https://plus.acast.com/s/the-unmistakable-creative-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning podcast, episode #81. This episode was inspired by someone I grew up with, Alex, who sent me a DM on social media this week asking me “do you have anything I can use to help my team to learn, develop and improve their critical thinking skills?”  Since “thinking” is such an important skill, originating in the cortex, or top layer of the brain, I thought it would be a good topic to cover this week. Alex, this one is for you.For those who are new here, my name is Andrea Samadi,  a former educator who created this podcast to bring awareness, ideas and strategies to our most pressing issues  facing educators in the workplace, or parents working from home or in the corporate space, to keep us all working at our highest levels of productivity. Each episode we provide you with specific tools, resources and ideas to implement proven strategies backed by the most current neuroscience research to help you to help improve daily productivity, achievement and results.This week we are looking at thinking, specifically what we can do to improve our thinking skills. Have you recently heard yourself or someone else, say “I’m so busy, I can barely think?” or have you ever told your kids to be quiet so you can “think?” I’ve heard it and said it myself more so these days than usual, as our schedules just seem to be getting busier and busier each month with the new events unfolding in the world, with the fact that many children are going back to school “distance learning” at home, while parents are working, (and we all remember how that went in the Spring) so many of us are finding it difficult to “think, focus and concentrate” under these new conditions that require us to put in a bit more effort than we might have been used to in the past. I hope you find these strategies on thinking as helpful as I have and find ways to implement just one or two of them, to make life flow easier all of us as we move into the final half of 2020.Thinking and the BrainBefore we look at strategies to improve our thinking skills, I want to dive deeper into what exactly thinking is as it happens in the brain. When you are thinking, your neurons (86 billion of them) are shooting messages back and forth. This firing of neurons uses “2/3 of your brain’s energy”[i]  and “is powered by a molecule called ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate if you can remember that from 9th grade Science class) which is generated by the mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell) which burns glucose” that gives us the energy we need to think.This means that our brain runs on this simple sugar, and if we are low on this fuel, it’s harder for the brain to work.  So, we must remember to eat, to provide the fuel our brain needs to think, and rest. But eating and rest are only a part of the solution. There’s much more that we can do to optimize the power of our thinking brain.We have mentioned in previous episodes (#23 Understanding the Difference Between Your Mind and Your Brain)[ii] about ways we can strengthen our brain and thinking with the power of “the unfocused” mind.  In previous episodes, we did hear this point mentioned by some of the top thinkers in the world. Bob Proctor, on episode #66[iii] mentioned this fact when he pointed out that at the beginning of Earl Nightingale’s “The Strangest Secret” program, Earl talks about the famous Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer who recalled being asked by a reporter “what’s wrong with man today?” and Dr. Schweitzer thought about it for a minute, and then answered “They simply don’t think” which makes sense to me, because I know that life runs smoother when I can take the time I need to think.Eric Jensen also talked about the power of taking breaks in relation to learning in episode #79 when he said he asked Dr. Terry Sejnowskji, a leading scientist from the Salk Institute who co-authored the book called Learning How to Learn.[iv]  Eric asked Dr. Sejnowski about the best way to help students form long term memories with what they are learning, and he replied “10 minutes of instruction, and then go take a walk and stop your brain from processing.” The brain requires time to consolidate the information that comes into it, or we will get into what we all know to be information overload, where nothing that we are learning, or taking in, will be retained.I mentioned that we have covered tips to strengthen our brain and cognition (the mental action of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience and the senses) in episode #23, but let’s review them.How to Strengthen Your Brain and Cognition:Take brief relaxation breaks to maintain focus and improve your ability to think and problem solve. We must find a way to relax our brain and body. It’s during these “resting states” that remarkable activity takes place, allowing the brain to creatively solve problems. Dr. Srini Pillay, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, (who I am working really hard to get on as a guest) wrote a book about the importance of this resting period in his book, Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: that is about unlocking the power of the unfocused mind[v]. In this book Pillay explains that too much focus depletes your brain of glucose and depletes you. We just spoke about the importance of glucose as energy to keep our brain running optimally, so we must think of ways to conserve our energy. Pillay believes in the fact that it is as equally important to have strategies for purposeful focusing, in addition to unfocusing our minds to improve resourcefulness, creativity, optimism and well-being. When you can build unfocused time into your day, it will allow you to make better decisions, and will give you more energy.Be mindful of ways to eliminate decision fatigue, allowing those times for your mind to become unfocused. Remember that Einstein discovered his Theory of Relativity by using his intuition, and then used logic to explain it. This unfocused time can take you to places and insights where focus cannot. We’ve all heard of strategies used by the most successful thinkers in the world, designed around eliminating decision fatigue. Steve Jobs became famous for cutting down the number of decisions he had to make every day by wearing the same clothes each day. Since we typically make 35,000 decisions[vi] every day, so a simple way to conserve brain power is to cut down on the number of decisions you need to make. You can do this by choosing the same foods to eat at breakfast and lunch, or by getting the same outfit that you like to wear, in different colors. When you create routines like this for yourself, it will prevent life’s daily distractions (they are always going to be there) from zapping the energy that you can use somewhere else.Improve the circuits of your brain by learning to look within for answers. In his book, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation[vii] Dan Siegel (episode #28) [viii]shares that teachers introduced to a concept called “mindsight or the ability to focus on the inner life of their student or child” teach with the brain in mind and are reaching students in deeper and more lasting ways.” The research shows that developing the ability to make sense of your own life and past experiences, translates into the development of your students and children. This self-awareness also creates a sense of peace and understanding with your own life, allowing more energy to be funneled towards what’s important for you in the present and future, instead of spending time worrying about what we cannot change from our past. Once you learn to implement these energy saving strategies as habits, you will have more space available to think. You can then take your thinking to the next level. When I received the message on social media last week from my friend asking “What do you have on improving someone’s critical thinking skills” I immediately thought of episode #12 on Responsible Decision-Making, but when I looked at it, there was something missing. It was missing the fact that it’s really difficult to think or make decisions the way the world is today, without some serious introspection. Once we can take the time to step away, and give our brain some time to rest, thinking and decision-making will be much easier.Improve Your Decision-Making Muscles in the Workplace:Even though adults have a fully developed prefrontal cortex, the part of our brain that makes decisions, we still need a process to follow to ensure we are making effective and smart decisions that yield the results we are looking for. Go back to EPISODE #12 on Responsible Decision-Making for review.[ix] Remember that to make an effective decision, you must first learn how to think, and we have covered tips on how to relax and save energy to maximize our ability to think.  The process of thinking is carried out by the executive functions in your brain (in your prefrontal cortex): functions like planning, implementing, monitoring, and making adjustments to overcome problems are all involved with our ability to think. When working on a goal, or solving a problem, here are four simple steps you can use that eventually will become habitual and will increase your performance for decision-making.[x]Start your decision-making process with these 4 Steps:Evaluate the Problem You Want to Solve:This process begins in your frontal lobes. What’s the problem? What outcomes are you looking for? Is your outcome achievable? Is it meaningful? Attach meaning and emotion to help increase your motivation. Make sure everyone on the team is on board with the “why” or motivation behind the goal.Then Plan Your Strategy:Next, your frontal lobe maps out the strategies needed as you ask yourself “where am I now, where do I want to go, how will I get there and what strategies and tactics do I need?” Your strategy is your game plan. I’ve seen this plan mapped out many different ways but knowing where you are starting from, what your end goal is, and identifying what’s missing (your gap) is crucial to this step. This is where skill development takes place and the gaps are filled. Become clear on what’s missing and what must be learned to achieve the goal? Who can we consult with to fill in our gaps? Identify the experts you will need.Next, Break Down Your Strategy: into Tactics:Once you have listed the strategies that you will use, then you must break down the strategy into smaller chunks or tasks. Tactics help you to carry out your overall strategy one day at a time as your frontal lobe works with your body to put these ideas into action. This is where the hard work comes into play.  Finally, Monitor, Adjust and Track Progress:When you take action, your frontal lobe is ready to make changes as obstacles come up. Be ready to pivot when needed as you monitor what’s working and what isn’t. Effective decision-making requires ongoing evaluation of these four steps. Who can you bring on your team to help you to overcome obstacles that you are facing? What else do you need?When you are able to implement the energy saving strategies of taking unfocused breaks to allow for more creativity to flow, or adding in some new strategies to eliminate decision-fatigue, or becoming confident in your abilities as you search for answers from within, your ability to make quick and certain decisions will improve. You will create reservoirs of energy that you can access on a daily basis, so that when decision-making, or problem solving comes up, you will be prepared mentally and physically to go quickly through the 4-step process, making sounder and more steadfast decisions while solving problems.But it all began with the understanding of what the brain needs to run efficiently. If you do not allow for the rest it needs, or the proper fuel, you will notice that “thinking” is the hardest work in the world. Remember—the brain is involved in everything that we do, and everything that we are, so we must tie this into our daily decision-making process to optimize our future behavior and results.See you next week.REFERENCES:[i] This is How Your Brain Powers Your Thoughts YouTube Published April 9, 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxUkUaV2VPs&feature=youtu.be [ii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast Episode #23 “Understanding the Difference Between the Mind and the Brain” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/understanding-your-brain-and-mind-for-increased-results/ [iii] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #66 with the Legendary Bob Proctor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHWMCzfODU4&list=PLb5Z3cA_mnKhiYc5glhacO9k9WTrSgjzW&index=51&t=1171s (41:00) [iv] Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley and Terrence Sejnowski (August 2018) https://barbaraoakley.com/books/learning-how-to-learn/ [v] Dr. Srini Pillay Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind https://www.amazon.com/Tinker-Dabble-Doodle-Try-Unfocused-ebook/dp/B01JWDZ7SK/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=pillay+tinker&qid=1570042219&s=digital-text&sr=1-1 [vi] Why Successful People Wear the Same Thing Every Day by Craig Bloem Feb. 20, 2018 https://www.inc.com/craig-bloem/this-1-unusual-habit-helped-make-mark-zuckerberg-steve-jobs-dr-dre-successful.html [vii] Mindsight: The New Science of Transformation Dr. Dan Siegel https://www.drdansiegel.com/about/mindsight/ [viii] Neuroscience Meets SEL EPISODE #28 with Dr. Daniel Siegel on “Mindsight” https://www.achieveit360.com/clinical-professor-of-psychiatry-at-the-ucla-school-of-medicine-dr-daniel-siegel-on-mindsight-the-basis-for-social-and-emotional-intelligence/ [ix] Neuroscience Meets SEL Podcast EPISODE #12 “Responsible Decision-Making Begins with Understanding Your Brain Health” with Andrea Samadi https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/responsible-decision-making-begins-with-brain-health/ [x] Mark Robert Waldman and Chris Manning, Neurowisdom: The New Brain Science of Money, Happiness and Success (Diversion Books, January 31, 2017) https://www.amazon.com/NeuroWisdom-Brain-Science-Happiness-Success-ebook/dp/B01N9BLBDH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=neurowisdom&qid=1565268860&s=gateway&sr=8-1 

If you feel like you’ve been on the verge of mental and physical fatigue and don’t know how you’ll manage to see the new year, today’s talk is for you - because your quality of life matters. In order to show up as the parent you want to be, you need to take care of yourself and allow yourself to dream about the possibilities that life holds. Today’s clip with psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Srini Pillay tells the unique story of how he got into Harvard - and how we need to rewrite the daily story we tell ourselves in order to create a hopeful tomorrow. You can find the full clip here, and for more info about Dr. Srini Pillay, visit his website.  I also highly recommend his two books: Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind at https://amzn.to/3fmo7n8 Life Unlocked at https://amzn.to/2D3j7ab I'd love to know what you think, so join in on the conversation! Subscribe, leave a review, or follow PG-ish on Instagram (@pgishparenting), or you can always find me at www.pgishparenting.com.

Srini Pillay, M.D. is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, brain researcher, technology entrepreneur, and a certified master executive coach who works with Fortune 500 companies as a leadership development expert. He is also an award-winning author of several books, his last book being “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind.” one article on brain-brain interactions: https://hbr.org/2016/02/how-leaderless-groups-end-up-with-leaders

Often I will ask people “do you want to live an exceptional life?” And most people will say yes. But an exception by definition is low probability. If you want to live a normative life you'll be in the middle of the bell curve. But if you want an exceptional life it's going to be low probability. Anyone who wants an amazing life is probably going to go for a low probability life, which means you have to activate some sense of possibility. You ask yourself what is the possibility of doing something? Rather than saying “how do I recover from this trauma or how do I recover from this grief” you ask yourself “what do people who recover from these situations amazingly do? There what you're looking for is the exception... The very first principle is think like the exception and not like the rule. - Srini PillayDr. Srini Pillay is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (Part-Time) at Harvard Medical School. He is known for combining “head and heart” (figuratively and literally) in an approach to personal development and goal mastery that blends science, spirituality, and horns-grabbing joie de vivre to combat the stresses faced by ambitious and high-achieving people in academia, business, and life. He's also the author of Tinker, Dabble, Doodle Try: The Power of the Unfocused MindListener TribeWe have our own private social network for listeners of the Unmistakable Creative podcast. You can meet other listeners, discuss episodes, and even have the opportunity to have your favorite episode re-aired on a Friday! Just visit https://unmistakablecreative.com/tribe to sign up.UNMISTAKABLE CREATIVE PRIMEWe are launching Unmistakable Creative Prime, exclusive access to all our new monthly courses, group coaching calls, live chats with former guests as well as access to a keyword search engine of our entire podcast catalogue and much, much more. To find out more, visit https://UnmistakableCreative.com/Prime See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

People who overeat tend to do so at the same time on the same days. This episode begins with me telling you exactly when those times are so you can defend yourself against temptation. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2306736/Fat-oclock-7pm-Sunday-revealed-time-likely-comfort-eating.htmlSolving problems and developing new ideas doesn’t come from focus and concentration as much as it does from “unfocusing” and letting your mind wander. Psychiatrist Dr. Srini Pillay author of Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind (http://amzn.to/2pMIVy3) explains the science behind how the creative brain works better when it is distracted rather than when it is trying to be creative. There is something called “double standard parenting.” In other words, when you accidentally break a lamp – well it’s just an accident. But what happens when your kid accidentally breaks a lamp? Does he or she get punished and shamed for doing it? We’ll explore some sage advice on why you shouldn’t hold your kids to higher standard than you hold yourself. Source: The Awakened Family by Dr. Shefali Tsabary (https://amzn.to/2R9kLtC).The world of video games isn’t all about war, aliens, shooting people and blowing things up. Andrew Ervin, author of Bit by Bit: How Video Games Transformed Our World (https://amzn.to/2NeohBU) reveals an entirely different world of video games and also discusses the importance of video games as a true art form.

From Oct 23rd until Oct 30th a ton of news came out about Argent Saga. In this episode mrben stumbles through all of it without an outline. Geek City event details https://www.facebook.com/ShardlightRadio/posts/145936063434396 Wade's Comic Madness https://www.facebook.com/comicmadness/

If I were to ask you what are the qualities that you most want for your children, students, employees, or even for yourself so that you can reach those optimal levels of health, well-being and happiness, (no matter what part of the world you are listening from),  the answer would probably sound something like this.  “I want to them to develop a healthy mind, to pursue excellence, to have the skills needed to excel independently, to have compassion and empathy for others, to acquire the skills needed in this ever-changing world, or to adopt the mindset of lifelong learning that’s needed to thrive not just survive in this world” –something along those lines that focuses on developing the minds of our next generation with social and emotional skills.In order to bridge this gap between knowing and actually implementing these skills, we must first of all have a clear understanding of what they are. If social and emotional skills are skills that we could say are of the developed mind, and we are moving into cognitive skills of the brain, it leads us to question what is the difference between the mind and the brain before we continue further? Once we have a clear definition of each of these, it’s much easier to continue to develop and implement these strategies needed for improved results. Have you ever thought about what your mind is? What about your brain? And how are they different?Dr. Dan Siegel, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, (who I’m so excited to share will be coming on the podcast later next month) has spent a considerable amount of time defining the mind.[i] He was shocked when he first started to study the mind and began surveying mental health professionals around the world who should know about the mind that “95% of them had never even been given a lecture on the mind, and probably couldn’t even tell you what the definition of the mind was”[ii] so he wondered how can we expect  to develop it, without this understanding? He explores the concept of the mind in his book, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation[iii] where he proves that you can define what a healthy mind is, not just describe it. His book allows that Mindsight “is the potent skill that is the basis for both emotional and social intelligence.”[iv] He explains that psychology means the study of the mind and behavior and elaborates that “when a parent senses the inner mental life of their child, (their mind) their child does really well in life. This ability to see the mind actually changes the structure of their brain. It’s called neural integration.”[v] Siegel further explains that when we can adopt this practice of “seeing the inner-life” or the minds of our students, children, friends or family members, it makes a considerable difference in the results and well-being that they achieve. Even developing our own practice of being more mindfully present of our own inner mind can “change the ends of the chromosomes in your cells”[vi] proving that what you do with your mind, makes a difference for the health of your body and your relationships.Dan Siegel explains that a neuroscientist would define the mind “as the activity of the brain”[vii] but he could not settle on this definition as a therapist since this would mean our brain would control everything that we do. He came up with a definition in the mid-1990s that made the most sense  to him and his colleagues and it was that the mind “is an embodied and relational process—since it’s in the body and it’s in our relationships with one another—that regulates the flow of energy and information.”[viii]  This definition really got me thinking. I probably listened to it for a good week.It got me thinking about the flow of energy and information and how it comes into our body through our senses, and what we do with this information to cause the results in our life. One of my first mentors studied the mind intensively and came up with a picture diagram that he called the stickperson[ix] that originated from the work of the late Dr. Thurman Fleet from San Antonio, Texas, who was the founder of Concept Therapy. Dr. Fleet’s diagram of the mind included the conscious mind that included how we perceive the outside world with our five senses, our (sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell) which is how we take in information from the outside world, along with the six higher faculties of our mind, our (perception, reasoning, will, memory, imagination and intuition) that give us a deeper perspective of the information we receive. The diagram also shows the sub-conscious (or non-conscious mind as it is more commonly called today) where information comes in automatically, and the fact that what we think about with our mind, shows up with our thoughts, feelings and actions, and causes the results in our life as our conditions, circumstances and environment change based on the actions that we take.[x]  Dr. Fleet’s diagram shows how important it is that we understand how our mind operates in order to reach our highest levels of potential.In our last interview with the Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and author of the book Permission to Feel,[xi] Marc Brackett reminded us that “people don’t lose their jobs because of a lack of ability in the cognitive areas, it’s usually because of social skills—someone who just doesn’t fit into the organization for some reason, or who can’t seem to get along with the team.”[xii]  Developing these social skills of the mind is what we all want. These are the universal skills that we want for ourselves and for others and it’s interesting that it’s taken so long for our schools to put an emphasis on developing the minds of our next generation of students.The benefits of learning these skills does take time to be seen, but the research is evident.  Casel (the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning) has clear research that proves that implementing these SEL skills will improve students’ academic abilities. Casel’s meta-analysis of 213 studies involving 270,000+ students showed that “SEL interventions that address CASEL’s five core competencies (that we have covered in our social and emotional track) increased students’ academic performance by 11 percentile points, compared to students who did not participate in such SEL programs. Students also showed improved classroom behavior, an increased ability to manage stress and depression, and better attitudes about themselves, others, and school.[xiii]   The research also showed that we as parents, educators, coaches and counselors must first of all practice these concepts ourselves, before we teach others because if we haven’t developed a practice ourselves, our students will pick up on the lack of authenticity and won’t take the concept seriously either.Marc Brackett also shared with us that the social and emotional competencies were harder to learn and implement than the cognitive strategies. He reminded us in episode 22 that “we can’t be sure that once we have learned a strategy (for example like one for improving our mindset) that we will then be able to implement that strategy while under stress whereas memorization of our times tables, a cognitive skill, is much easier to learn, use and remember.”[xiv] It’s a lifelong commitment to understanding ourselves, our emotions and continuing to apply the strategies to regulate us. We should refer back to the strategies in the social and emotional lessons to be sure that we are continuing to “sharpen the saw”[xv] and implementing these ideas for continual improved results. Once we have a solid practice for developing our social and emotional mindset, (understanding ourselves and our emotions) it makes sense to move onto the cognitive strategies which are the processes of thinking and include the ability to focus and pay attention, set goals, plan and organize, persevere and problem solve.[xvi] If cognition is the realm of thinking, then metacognition involves thinking about our thinking, reflecting on your own thinking process and the ability to monitor and manage your learning. This is where we must begin to create a plan to improve what we would like to learn.  It is possible to learn anything with the right study habits, the ability to practice and refine the skills needed, with a positive growth mindset, we can create those “Aha Moments” of learning that come when we persist through something we are working on.What Slows Down Our Learning?Stress and anxiety make it difficult for learning to occur. When you feel threatened or anxious, the brain releases chemicals like adrenaline and cortisol. These chemicals quickly alter the way that you think, feel and behave and shut down the oldest part of the brain that are designed to keep us safe when we feel stress. It’s smart to learn quick and simple relaxation strategies that you can use immediately when you feel stressed or anxious. Taking some deep, long breaths can fuel your brain for focused attention and learning and prevent your emotions from taking control. If you are looking for a longer term solution, research does show that those who consistently practice mindfulness and mediation strategies, decrease the size of the amygdala, (the part of the brain that highjacks our emotions) and improves our ability to handle stressful situations so that we possess more equanimity, a mental calmness, composure and evenness of temper, especially during difficult situations.What Strengthens Our Brain and Cognition?When you are curious and interested, you will be ready to put in the effort needed to work hard and concentrate on new information. You must also be happy and relaxed in order to consolidate this new information. In his book Words Can Change Your Brain[xvii], Mark Robert Waldman outlines his brain-scan research suggesting that “the strategies incorporated in mindfulness could strengthen the neural circuits associated with empathy, compassion and moral decision making .”[xviii] This demonstrates just how powerful it can be to stop and think . Incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine can enable you to be more observant, creative, and ready to see the opportunity within your daily obstacles and challenges.Here are Three Tips to Strengthen Your Brain and Cognition That You Can Implement Immediately:Take brief relaxation breaks to maintain focus and improve your ability to problem solve. We must find a way to relax our brain and body. It’s during these “resting states” that remarkable activity takes place, allowing the brain to creatively solve problems. Dr. Srini Pillay, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, wrote a book about the importance of this resting period in his book, Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind.[xix] In this book Pillay explains that too much focus depletes your brain of glucose and depletes you. Be mindful of ways to eliminate decision fatigue and allow those times for your mind to become unfocused. He shared that Einstein discovered his Theory of Relativity by using his intuition, and then used logic to explain it. Unfocused time can take you to places and insights where focus cannot.Improve the circuits of your brain by learning to look within for answers. In his book, “Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation” Dr . Siegel shares that teachers introduced to “mindsight or the ability to focus on the inner life of their student or child” teach with the brain in mind and are reaching students in deeper and more lasting ways .”[xx] The research shows that developing the ability to make sense of your own life and past experiences, translates into the development of your students and children. Dr. Siegel is an expert on Attachment Research and discusses the fact that having Mindsight ourselves, will help develop securely attached children who will learn resilience.Create a plan for persistence. If your first plan does not succeed, what will you try next. Map out strategies for your plan b and be ready to pivot or try something new if the first plan fails. Those who fail, often attribute their failure to lack of inspiration, ability, talent or lack of time, but most often it’s due to insufficient application of strategies towards a goal and lack of persistence. I hope you have found these tips and further study of the mind vs the brain to be helpful as we move into the cognitive track and dive deeper into how we can use our brain to facilitate and improve our ability to learn and create lasting results. I’m excited to speak with Dr. Siegel the start of November. His work has inspired a lot of my early research into the brain and there’s no one like him who can explain such complex concepts in a way that anyone can understand them.  I look forward to bringing in new experts to inspire new ways of thinking around the power and purpose of our brain in our cognitive track.  See you next time. RESOURCES:Integrating Social, Emotional and Academic Development (SEAD) March 2019 The Aspen Institute https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/integrating-social-emotional-and-academic-development-sead-an-action-guide-for-school-leadership-teams/“How to Reach the Aha Moment of Learning” Diagram adapted by Andrea Samadi with permission https://www.dropbox.com/s/lktxwm2u130vllr/18-Metacognition.jpg?dl=0REFERENCES:[i] Dr. Dan Siegel Defines The Mind Published Feb. 11, 2010 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEdq04xbHAs[ii] TEDx Sunset Park Dr. Dan Siegel “What is the Mind?” YouTube Published July 4, 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak5GCyBFY4E[iii] Mindsight: The New Science of Transformation Dr. Dan Siegel https://www.drdansiegel.com/about/mindsight/[iv] Mindsight: The New Science of Transformation Dr. Dan Siegel https://www.drdansiegel.com/about/mindsight/[v] TEDx Sunset Park Dr. Dan Siegel “What is the Mind?” YouTube Published July 4, 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak5GCyBFY4E[vi] TEDx Sunset Park Dr. Dan Siegel “What is the Mind?” YouTube Published July 4, 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak5GCyBFY4E[vii] Dr. Dan Siegel Defines The Mind Published Feb. 11, 2010 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEdq04xbHAs[viii] Dr. Dan Siegel Defines The Mind Published Feb. 11, 2010 on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEdq04xbHAs[ix] How Your Mind Works Proctor Gallagher Institute, idea originally from Dr. Thurman Fleet  https://www.proctorgallagherinstitute.com/25593/how-your-mind-works[x] How Your Mind Works Proctor Gallagher Institute, idea originally from Dr. Thurman Fleet  https://www.proctorgallagherinstitute.com/25593/how-your-mind-works[xi] Marc Brackett “Permission to Feel” https://www.marcbrackett.com/[xii] Marc Brackett on the Importance of Emotional Intelligence https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/marc-brackett-on-the-importance-of-emotional-intelligence/[xiii] The Impact of SEL https://casel.org/impact/[xiv] EPISODE #22 Interview with Marc Brackett, Founding Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/founding-director-yale-center-for-emotional-intelligence/id1469683141?i=1000450933434[xv] Sharpen the Saw 7th Habit of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits/habit-7.html[xvi] Integrating Social, Emotional and Academic Development (SEAD) March 2019 The Aspen Institute https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/integrating-social-emotional-and-academic-development-sead-an-action-guide-for-school-leadership-teams/[xvii] Andrew Newburg M .D . and Mark Robert Waldman, “Words Can Change Your Brain,” (The Penguin Group, New York, New York) Page 12https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0074VTHMA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1[xviii] Andrew Newburg M .D . and Mark Robert Waldman, “Words Can Change Your Brain,” (The Penguin Group, New York, New York) Page 12https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0074VTHMA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1[xix] Dr. Srini Pillay Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlok the Power of the Unfocused Mind https://www.amazon.com/Tinker-Dabble-Doodle-Try-Unfocused-ebook/dp/B01JWDZ7SK/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=pillay+tinker&qid=1570042219&s=digital-text&sr=1-1[xx] Dan Siegel, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation, (New York: Bantam, 2010) Kindle Edition Location 133 https://www.amazon.com/Mindsight-New-Science-Personal-Transformation-ebook/dp/B002XHNONS/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=mindsight&qid=1570042869&s=digital-text&sr=1-1 

If you've ever wanted to be sharper, more creative and more satisfied with your life, then do we have the Tinker Dabble Doodle Try show for you! Today I'll be talking with Dr. Sirini Pillay, a Harvard trained practicing psychiatrist, brain imaging researcher, brain based technology innovator, the award winning author of Life Unlocked and the author of a MUST READ new book – particularly if you'll ever have kids Tinker Dabble Doodle Try! And that's just what I want to talk with him about today, about unlocking the power of the UNFOCUSED MIND. Did Dr. Pillay, a Harvard trained practicing psychiatrist have a focused mind growing up? How'd he go from South Africa to Harvard? How'd he end up calling Harvard Medical School – and what happened. What happened to Dr. Pillay in his 2nd year in med school? What did he have to change and what did he begin to learn? What does it mean to be unfocused? Why is there such a negative connotation? What's the cult of focus, and what's wrong with it? What's wrong with hyperfocusing? How does unfocusing reduce amygdala activation and create calmness? What's cognitive rhythm? What's the DMN or Do Moslyt Nothing Circuit? What's the importance of uncertainty and the brain? What are signs of a jammed up brain??? What are a few of the roads to getting unfocused? What's the importance of mind-wandering? What's the importance of day-dreaming? What's the importance of self-talk? How do we build unfocus time into our days? Why do we want to embrace chaos? What in the world is the psychological halloweener? What is brightworks school? What in the world does breaking chairs have to do with anything? What do we need to know about learning for our kids? What's the importance of self-forgiveness? Whats' the importance of being light? What does consciousness have to do with anything? To Find Out More Visit: DrSriniPillay.com Harvard's Dr. Srini Pillay On The Power of the Unfocused Mind & How to Use it for Greatness!!! Health | Brain | Neuroscience | Motivation | Spiritual | Spirituality | Meditation | Inspirational | Motivational | Self-Improvement | Self-Help | Inspire For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

Are you feeling stuck in a stress mess, overwhelmed, and overstimulated by the demands of your life? Spread too thin and not prioritizing self-care because you feel like it's selfish when so many other people need your help? Well, let's stop for a moment.   How much can we really help others when we're just scraping by, ourselves? At the end of the day, we're only really worth as much as we can give, based on the energy we have in the time that we have.   I'm your host, Dr. Heidi Hanna, and in this stress mastery podcast, we're talking to the experts to find out what they do to use stress as fuel for success and what they do to shift stress in a positive way when they notice it getting out of control.   Because we're all human, we all get stuck sometimes and we can learn so much from each other when we take an honest look at the patterns that are hurting us and create new patterns that will help us.   So, let's get ready to master stress together in today's conversation!   Key Takeaways: [1:08] Dr. Hanna welcomes listeners and introduces this week's guest, Dr. Srini Pillay, CEO of NeuroBusiness Group. He is a Harvard psychiatrist, world-renowned executive coach, brain researcher, technology entrepreneur, and musician. [2:27] Heidi explains how she met her dear friend Srini many years ago and mentions a few of her favorite books by him. [4:52] Dr. Srini talked about the nature and benefits of mixed feelings — a combination of opposite or contradictory feelings. [5:40] The conversation moves organically in an unplanned direction! [6:20] Dr. Srini touches on the importance of authenticity versus “what we're supposed to be” and what to do when there is a dissonance between our authentic self and what we think we should be or do. [7:40] We discover that a few of our preconceived notions of perseverance and practice on success levels are actually not stand-alone indicators! And these erroneous notions cause people a lot of stress. [11:20] Dr. Hanna asks what we can do to better our practices, if in fact perseverance and practice may not always help! [15:55] Unless we actually put our hearts into them, a lot of stress can be generated by our deliberate practices because we may just be rewiring negative habits. [16:50] Dr. Pillay tells the story of when he entered his residency at Harvard. [18:00] What is alignment in terms of focused and unfocused periods? [19:04] Dr. Hanna asks what are Dr. Pillay's go-to strategy or strategies when he finds himself out of balance in some way. [22:30] On the interconnectedness of consciousness and the stress generated when we feel disconnected from reality. [26:16] Dr. Hanna asks Dr. Pillay what his mantra is and wraps up the show until next week.   Don't miss out on Srini's great freebies! Click here for a free, customized, Total Brain Makeover!   If you enjoyed this conversation, please be sure to subscribe to the stress mastery podcast now for exclusive listener gifts and check out the show notes for links, tips, tools, and techniques.   Until next time, please remember that stressing is a blessing, once you know how to use it for good. It gives us the energy and information to fuel positive change if we're brave enough to look into it, stay open and curious to what it has to teach us and then adjust our patterns in a way that will give us even more capacity to cope. And when we do that together, we increase the energy we have to bring to the time that we have and we're better together. So please, be good to yourself, and I'll see you next week.   Mentioned in this episode: Book: Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind, by Dr. Srini Pillay Deliberate practice Positive-constructive daydreaming   For more information on Dr. Heidi Hanna: HeidiHanna.com @HeidiHanna Dr. Hanna on Facebook   For more information on Dr. Hanna's guest, Srini Pillay: Dr. Pillay on the Web NeuroBusiness Group on the Web Dr. Pillay on Facebook NeuroBusiness Group on Facebook Dr. Pillay on Instagram Dr. Srini Pillay on Twitter Dr. Pillay on YouTube

How to hack our daily routine through neuroscience and deliberate unfocus. On this episode of the EducationLawyers.com Sunday School Show we Today we have one of the world's leading brain experts - Dr. Srini Pillay. Dr. Srini Pillay is a globally recognized, Harvard-trained psychiatrist, brain imaging researcher and author of "Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind." Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try was named one of Coastal Living’s Best Books for the Beach This Summer Dr. Pillay talks about how a change in perspective, a change in what we prioritize, a change in focus -- can work to recharge our lives personally and professionally. Dr. Pillay's wisdom is relevant across the boardroom, classroom and living room. As CEO of NeuroBusiness Group, Pillay works with non-profits and Fortune 500 companies globally to help people understand how to manage risk, uncertainty, and volatility, and to harness creativity. In addition to being an author, Pillay is a high profile executive coach. Pillay has been featured on CNN, Oprah Radio, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Forbes, and Fortune - we are honored to have him on the Sunday School Show.  Learn how to hack your daily routine through neuroscience and deliberate unfocus!  

Dr. Srini Pillay shares why focus is over-rated and how unfocusing yields boosts to creativity and more.   You'll Learn: The five disadvantages of focus How hobbies and whole days off re-energize your brain The types of thinking that activate your creative brain   About Srini: Dr. Srini Pillay is a globally recognized, Harvard-trained psychiatrist, brain imaging researcher and author of Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind. As CEO of NeuroBusiness Group, he works with non-profits and Fortune 500 companies globally to help people understand how to manage risk, uncertainty, and volatility, and to harness creativity. He is an in-demand keynote speaker and has been featured on CNN, Oprah Radio, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Forbes, and Fortune.   View transcript, show notes, and links at http://AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep327

If you've ever wanted to be sharper, more creative and more satisfied with your life, then do we have the Tinker Dabble Doodle Try show for you! Today I'll be talking with Dr. Sirini Pillay, a Harvard trained practicing psychiatrist, brain imaging researcher, brain based technology innovator, the award winning author of Life Unlocked and the author of a MUST READ new book – particularly if you'll ever have kids Tinker Dabble Doodle Try! And that's just what I want to talk with him about today, about unlocking the power of the UNFOCUSED MIND. Did Dr. Pillay, a Harvard trained practicing psychiatrist have a focused mind growing up? How'd he go from South Africa to Harvard? How'd he end up calling Harvard Medical School – and what happened. What happened to Dr. Pillay in his 2nd year in med school? What did he have to change and what did he begin to learn? What does it mean to be unfocused? Why is there such a negative connotation? What's the cult of focus, and what's wrong with it? What's wrong with hyperfocusing? How does unfocusing reduce amygdala activation and create calmness? What's cognitive rhythm? What's the DMN or Do Moslyt Nothing Circuit? What's the importance of uncertainty and the brain? What are signs of a jammed up brain??? What are a few of the roads to getting unfocused? What's the importance of mind-wandering? What's the importance of day-dreaming? What's the importance of self-talk? How do we build unfocus time into our days? Why do we want to embrace chaos? What in the world is the psychological halloweener? What is brightworks school? What in the world does breaking chairs have to do with anything? What do we need to know about learning for our kids? What's the importance of self-forgiveness? Whats' the importance of being light? What does consciousness have to do with anything? To Find Out More Visit: DrSriniPillay.com Harvard's Dr. Srini Pillay On The Power of the Unfocused Mind & How to Use it for Greatness!!! Health | Brain | Neuroscience | Motivation | Spiritual | Spirituality | Meditation | Inspirational | Motivational | Self-Improvement | Self-Help | Inspire For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

Jeffrey’s Premise: “The people who lead lives of meaning and mastery let a force of character - a young genius - guide them as they pursue their most meaningful work and ideas.” ‘You are seven years old.’ What if we approached each day with a childlike mindset? Would it cultivate original thinking? Recapture a spirit of play and exploration? Bring us back to our young genius—the unique force of character we were born with? We have reached the halfway point of Season 1, and Jeffrey is stopping to reflect on the idea of ‘retrieving childhood at will’ and aligning our current work with the young genius of our seven-year-old selves: Is there a correlation between paying attention to this unique force of character and our own capacity to lead a life of meaning, if not mastery? Today, Jeffrey introduces us to the concept of a ‘genius force,’ explaining why the most influential and fulfilled people allow their young genius to lead them. He looks back at Charlie Gilkey and Pam Slim’s stories of their own young genius and how their childhood memories of channeling MacGyver and burying marbles inform their current work. We consider the idea of ‘primal uniqueness’ as a seed seeking nourishment and explore how our genius force might still thrive—even in a hostile environment. Jeffrey reminds us of Caroline Adams Miller and Ishita Gupta’s challenging childhood experiences as well as Srini Pillay’s curiosity for the forbidden and Alex Soojung-Kim Pang’s detour from cultural expectations. Listen in for insight around remembering your own young genius and finding work that allows that genius to flourish. Key Takeaways [1:26] The concept of a genius force Leads to creative fulfillment Most influential use as guide [4:33] The invitation to remember being a seven-year-old Produced more original responses in NDSU study Recaptures spirit of play, exploration [8:57] Charlie Gilkey’s ‘MacGyver’ young genius Creative with limited resources as child Became profoundly resourceful consultant [10:17] Pam Slim’s genius as a brilliant connector Elaborate fantasies in childhood (planting marbles, reading …Narnia) Feeling of magic, adventure and story in current work [12:08] Robert Greene’s idea of primal uniqueness All born with seed that wants to be nourished Express uniqueness through work to heighten chance of mastery [13:05] Caroline Adams Miller’s challenging childhood Lack of love from biological family Found happy, safe place at school [15:12] Ishita Gupta’s precocious childhood Middle class family, told what to do Curiosity, questions got into trouble [18:07] Srini Pillay’s experience growing up in apartheid Curiosity for forbidden Genius rose above environment [20:33] Alex Soojung-Kim Pang’s rebellion from expectation Expected to attend Ivy League school, become doctor/lawyer Found intellectual satisfaction in consulting, think tanks Talent for making technical knowledge useful [25:31] The challenge of remembering your young genius Georgia O’Keeffe encouraged to pursue talent at UVA Others reflect genius back to us, including children [31:13] The young genius’ role in questioning the status quo ‘Is this a dream or real life? Do I actually exist?’ Expanded perception of what is possible Unpredictable path to mastery, fulfillment (e.g.: Constantin Guys) [36:00] Charles Baudelaire’s definition of genius ‘Retrieve childhood at will’ Apply order to sensations received with delight, curiosity Connect with Jeffrey Tracking Wonder Tracking Wonder on Facebook Jeffrey on Twitter Jeffrey on Instagram Jeffrey on LinkedIn Resources ‘Child’s Play: Facilitating the Originality of Creative Output by a Priming Manipulation’ by Darya Zabelina and Michael Robinson Productive Flourishing Pamela Slim Mastery by Robert Greene Caroline Adams Miller Getting Grit: The Evidence-Based Approach to Cultivating Passion, Perseverance, and Purpose by Caroline Adams Miller Ishita Gupta Srini Pillay Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind by Srini Pillay MD Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang The Distraction Addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang The Restful Company The Republic by Plato Baudelaire: The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays edited by Jonathan Mayne

Today's show takes you behind closed doors, as two shrinks (psychiatrists) share the good, the bad and the ugly about mental health treatment today. Dr. Srini Pillay has been called a Renaissance man: author, coach, brain researcher, musician, provocateur, poet and psychiatrist. His latest book, entitled Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind, presents a counterintuitive approach that helps people discover the benefits of techniques from dabbling to daydreaming. Current news headlines contain stories of mentally ill men: the Parkland school shooter, the Waffle House shooter, and the Toronto driver who rammed his vehicle into pedestrians. Each of these tragedies illuminates failures in the mental health system and provide fodder for Dr. Pillay and Dr. Carole to take a profound look into how psychiatry training and practice has gone astray.

Jeffrey's premise:  "Sometimes our most important discoveries for our projects and our life happen in the margins of our attention.”  We live in a culture that trusts conscious attention and labor over intuition and mind-wandering. Yet those moments of contemplation and daydreaming are what set us apart as humans and give our unconscious minds the time and space to rest. It is in those breaks from conscious effort that our creative subconscious continues to work on problems and innovate new solutions.   Jeffrey is joined by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a Silicon Valley-based futurist, writer and founder of The Restful Company, and Srini Pillay, a psychiatrist, brain-based technology innovator and founder of the NeuroBusiness Group. They discuss how the environments in which they were raised informed their drive to achieve. Srini unravels the myth of deliberate practice as the only factor in creative mastery, and Alex explains how rest and work act in tandem to support and sustain each other. They discuss the magic of the unfocused mind as well as the value in scheduling intensive work followed by deliberate rest. Listen in as Jeffrey, Srini and Alex offer insight around activating the creative brain in the current cultural moment of volatility—when it has never been more important for humans to be human.    Key Takeaways [4:14] Srini’s young genius Grew up in apartheid South Africa Sense of curiosity in forbidden [7:49] Alex’s young genius Movement between two worlds ‘World of ideas’ as escape [11:12] Alex’s drive to achieve great things Korean father, expectation to be at top of class Found intellectual satisfaction outside university setting [16:02] Srini’s motivation to excel ‘Neurotically driven on my own’ Desire to make family proud Interest in many subjects [21:17] The path to creative mastery Deliberate practice not only factor History of people with combined interests (e.g.: music, science) Must practice AND rest deliberately Work and rest function as partners [29:52] How hobbies impact productivity Scientists with more hobbies had more citations May be protective against dementia [33:06] The magic of the unfocused mind ‘Professions’ trust conscious attention over contemplation Brains capable of productivity when not paying attention Organize working lives to create space for playfulness [38:43] Srini’s methods for activating the creative brain Constructive daydreaming Napping ‘Psychological halloweenism’ Doodling [46:33] Alex’s insight on scheduling work and rest Intensive work followed by deliberate rest Subconscious continues working on problem Schedule rest to protect that time [52:40] The uncertainty of the current cultural moment Alternate perspective necessary in midst of volatility ‘Never been more important for humans to be human’ Must protect rest in distracted culture of technology [59:09] What Srini and Alex are pursuing in 2018 Alex cuing up next book (work, rest and future) Srini working on musical, book plus clinical work/coaching Connect with Srini & Alex Srini’s Website NeuroBusiness Group Alex’s Website The Restful Company Resources Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind by Srini Pillay MD Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang The Distraction Addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang Princeton Study on Deliberate Practice Anders Ericsson’s Paper on Deliberate Practice Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper The Art of Thought by Graham Wallas No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends by Richard Dobbs, James Manyika and Jonathan Woetzel Brand Artistry Labs A special thanks to the early supporters of the Tracking Wonder Podcast. Your enthusiasm, feedback, and support helped make this possible. Thank you.  A few very special early supporters: Deborah Burand, Katherine Miller, Michael Belfiore, Lisa Grefe, Cathy Presland, Peter Wallace, Rita White, Janet St. John, Kim Manley Ort, Bill Miles, L. Hadley, Blair Glaser, Ann Brech, Laraine Herring, Kate Vogt, Susan Brennan

Are you willing to invest 2% of your day to make the other 98% better? Emily Fletcher is a three time returning guest. A meditation teacher and creator of the Ziva Technique, Emily taught me everything I know about meditation, and I’ve been a huge advocate of the practice every since I learned three years ago. Meditation has been a huge part of my creative journey and has helped me get rid of anxiety and stress. Emily has a new master class about just that: reducing stress. Listen in as she talks about different tools, meditation specifically, to help you de-stress your mind and body on a daily basis. She also is sharing new updated neuroscience around meditation, including new benefits and ways to use a meditation practice to hack your creative flow. Check out Emily's Stress Solution. To me manifesting simply means consciously creating a life you love. Some things we learn in this podcast: What’s new in the world of Ziva Meditation [4:10] The difference between mindfulness and meditation [5:10] How stress gets stored in your body [7:10] How epigenetic control your genes [8:50] Some of Emily’s favorite new science [10:45] The power of manifesting [14:30] What kind of teaching Emily is doing now [18:15] What a mantra is and how to use them [19:50] How meditation helps with creative performance [22:40] Why you should combine discipline and flow [27:55] What Emily has been doing for the past year [32:35] What is the biggest myth about meditation [35:00] Why people need to make time to meditate [40:20] Emily has a new masterclass about stress management [41:50] The top books Emily is reading now [43:15] What happens when you meditate when you’re pregnant [45:30] What has shifted for me since I started meditating [52:00] Links mentioned: Listen to Emily Fletcher’s previous episodes: Episode 66 + Episode 101 Take Emily's new online course Check out The Stress Solution Read the books mentioned in this episode: Origins by Annie Murphy Paul Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind by Srini Pillay Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Ortland Orgasmic Birth by Elizabeth Davis, Debra Pascali-Bonaro, and Aimee Jolson HypnoBirthing by Marie Mongan and Lorne Campbell The War of Art by Steven Pressfield Connect with  Instagram | Twitter | Website

Dr. Srini Pillay is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, brain imaging researcher, and leadership development expert who works with non-profits and Fortune 500 companies globally to help leaders understand how to change brain blood flow to manage risk, uncertainty, and volatility, and to harness creativity.He is also the author of "Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind." He is an in-demand keynote speaker and widely sought after by the media. He has been featured on CNN, Oprah Radio, Fox TV, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Forbes, and Fortune.CheersJoehttps://joedalton.ie/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to Minisode Monday, where we kick off the week with something quick and actionable -- to make you more magnetic and effective -- that you can implement right away. This time around, Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind author Dr. Srini Pillay rejoins us to talk about a process known as psychological halloweenism -- the act of taking on an alternative mindset as a way of unlocking creative potential. If you like this Minisode Monday, make sure to check out our full episode with Dr. Pillay here! Let's get to it! The Cheat Sheet: You don't have to be a little kid to benefit from the rewards of playing make-believe. We all tend to think of ourselves in one way -- we're good at some things and less adept at others. What happens when we mentally pretend to see the world from the perspective of someone else? Someone who, for instance, we imagine to be more creative than us? This is called psychological halloweenism, and it can be a powerful way to solve problems and cope with situations we feel ill-prepared (as ourselves) to deal with. "If you think like somebody else," says Dr. Pillay, "you will get yourself out of your own mental traps, your own habits, and you will begin to think from somebody else's perspective." Practice psychological halloweenism at the dinner table, at innovation meetings at work, or with your friends. You'll be surprised at what you can discover about your own mind's capabilities when you try to think like somebody else. To learn more about social dynamics and productivity hacks, take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text AOC to 38470. Also be sure to check out our Social Capital Intensive here! Let us know about how you put today's Minisode Monday into practice! Tweet with @TheArtofCharm in your response or write to Jordan directly: jordan@theartofcharm.com (he actually reads everything)! Full show notes at https://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/minisode-monday-74-psychological-halloweenism/ Find out more about the team who makes The Art of Charm podcast here! Does your business have an Internet presence? Now save a whopping 50% on new webhosting packages here with HostGator by using coupon code CHARM! Take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text AOC to 38470. We'll take you step by step to becoming better at making personal and professional connections, becoming a better networker, increasing your personal social capital and charisma. This is for both men and women! HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming!

Harvard Asst. Professor of Psychiatry — Dr. Srini Pillay — On The Power Of The Unfocused Mind and Productivity - Part 2 of 2 Today I have a very special guest Dr. Srini Pillay — an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School.

Harvard Asst. Professor of Psychiatry — Dr. Srini Pillay — On The Power Of The Unfocused Mind and Productivity - Part 2 of 2 Today I have a very special guest Dr. Srini Pillay — an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. He is known for combining the head and the heart (literally and figuratively) in an approach to personal development and goal mastery that blends science, spirituality to combat the stresses by high-achieving people in academia, in business and in life. Now, Srini has a talent for translating fairly complex principles around medicine and Psychiatry into a pedestrian in everyday language. That's is one of his many skills. He's the author of quite a few books, the most recent one of which is called Tinker Dabble Doodle Try which is all about unlocking the power of the unfocused mind. Share this Episode: Click to Tweet Links Mentioned: Click here to download the podcast shownotes DrSriniPillay.com NBGCorporate.com www.CallAshRoy.com www.Youtube.com/ProductiveInsights Books Mentioned: Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind Key Points and Insights 3:29 - Why intuition and creative thinking have becoming increasingly important in recent years 7:51 - How to use Self Connection (and self-awareness) to harness the power of the unfocused mind 10:09 - Clarity and why it's important 15:07 - Why you need to develop your psychological Core - your mental Six Pack 18:08 - Visioning and the role it plays in setting a clear direction 20:33 - Action steps and Key points

Dr. Srini Pillay — Asst Prof of Psychiatry at Harvard Talks About The Power of The Unfocused Mind - Part 1 of 2 Today I have a very special guest Dr. Srini Pillay — an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Srini Pillay — Asst Prof of Psychiatry at Harvard Talks About The Power of The Unfocused Mind - Part 1 of 2 Today I have a very special guest Dr. Srini Pillay — an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. He is known for combining the head and the heart (literally and figuratively) in an approach to personal development and goal mastery that blends science, spirituality to combat the stresses by high-achieving people in academia, in business and in life. Now, Srini has a talent for translating fairly complex principles around medicine and Psychiatry into pedestrian in everyday language. That's is one of his many skills. He's the author of quite a few books, the most recent one of which is called Tinker Dabble Doodle Try which is all about unlocking the power of the unfocused mind. Share this Episode: Click to Tweet Links Mentioned: Click here to download the podcast shownotes DrSriniPillay.com NBGCorporate.com www.CallAshRoy.com www.Youtube.com/ProductiveInsights Related Episodes: 127. Dr. James Carlopio Shares His Insights Around The Art of Better Decision Making & ‘Automated Expertise’ The Steve Jobs Guide to Using Death as The Ultimate Change Agent + 22 Actionable Insights to Thrive Through Change Books Mentioned: Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind Key Points and Insights 4:49 - The unfocused mind 6:47 - Context switching 12:27 - Conscious competence and unconscious competence 15:07 - Mastering the art of surrender 16:40 - Positive constructive daydreaming 20:00 - Psychological Halloweenism (very similar to the alter ego effect as explained by Todd Herman) 21:51 - Mind wandering vs Mindfulness

Michael Gervais on the Self Made Man with Mike Dillard, Chris Kresser on the Tony Robbins Podcast, and Srini Pillay on The Art of Charm with Jordan Harbinger.

Welcome to Minisode Monday, where we kick off the week with something quick and actionable -- to make you more magnetic and effective -- that you can implement right away. When something goes wrong in our lives, sometimes we fixate on its emotional impact -- how it makes us feel in the moment -- rather than what difference it will make in the long run (which may be minimal). Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind author Dr. Srini Pillay shows us how to control this emotional feedback with the CIRCA mnemonic. Make sure to check out his entire episode: The Power of the Unfocused Mind, and his other Minisode Monday:  Dabbling: Not Just for Dilettantes! The Cheat Sheet: When something goes wrong in your life, ask yourself: is this important, or just traumatic? We can gauge this by using the CIRCA mnemonic. C: Chunking. Break down the problem into its component parts; solve it over a period of time. I: Ignore mental chatter. Observe your thoughts; don't become your thoughts. R: Reality check. Remind yourself that "this too shall pass." C: Control check. Is the problem something you actually have a hand in, or is it something like weather or politics? A: Attention shift. Move your attention from the problem (the past) to the solution (the future). To learn more about social dynamics and productivity hacks, take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text AOC to 38470. Also be sure to check out our Social Capital Intensive here! Let us know about how you put today's Minisode Monday into practice! Tweet with @TheArtofCharm in your response or write to Jordan directly: jordan@theartofcharm.com (he actually reads everything)! Full show notes at https://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/minisode-monday-70-how-to-control-emotional-feedback-with-circa/ Find out more about the team who makes The Art of Charm podcast here! Take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text AOC to 38470. We'll take you step by step to becoming better at making personal and professional connections, becoming a better networker, increasing your personal social capital and charisma. This is for both men and women! Does your business have an Internet presence? Now save a whopping 50% on new webhosting packages here with HostGator by using coupon code CHARM! Listen to The Art of Charm, Attack Each Day: The Harbaughs' Podcast, and hundreds of your favorite podcasts with the free PodcastOne app (on iOS and Android) here! HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming!

Dr. Srini Pillay is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (Part-Time) at Harvard Medical School. He is known for combining “head and heart” (figuratively and literally) in an approach to personal development and goal mastery that blends science, spirituality, and horns-grabbing joie de vivre to combat the stresses faced by ambitious and high-achieving people in academia, business, and life. After graduating at the top of his class from medical school in South Africa, he received a Medical Research Council Scholarship to study the neurochemistry of panic. Thereafter, he completed his residency in psychiatry at McLean Hospital—Harvard’s largest freestanding psychiatric hospital—with the most accolades ever given to a single resident. Srini also completed fellowships in Psychopharmacology, Structural Brain Imaging and Functional Brain Imaging. He has been an expert guest for CNN, Fox, NPR, The New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Harvard Business School, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider and many other news outlets in a variety of media and is known as a highly entertaining guest.

Welcome to Minisode Monday, where we kick off the week with something quick and actionable -- to make you more magnetic and effective -- that you can implement right away. Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind author Dr. Srini Pillay rejoins us to talk about how we can benefit from the seemingly meandering path of dabbling to unlock creativity and make useful connections between disparate interests. Let's get to it! The Cheat Sheet: If you're only looking forward and focusing on a task you've set out to tackle, your brain is only using a small portion of its resources. To access the rest, understand the power of dabbling. We need regular distractions from our primary course of action -- like hobbies. If you engage in a hobby for one hour a day, you can prolong life and protect your brain from dementia. Hobbies also trigger the brain's unfocused mode, which activates your creative circuits and helps you make connections you might otherwise miss. It was by this dabbling that Steve Jobs applied what he learned in calligraphy class to create fonts for Apple. This week, make sure to listen to Dr. Srini Pillay's full episode on harnessing the power of your unfocused mind and give some thought to how it can help you connect your own disparate interests. To learn more about social dynamics and productivity hacks, take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text AOC to 38470. Also be sure to check out our Social Capital Intensive here! Let us know about how you put today's Minisode Monday into practice! Tweet with @TheArtofCharm in your response or write to Jordan directly: jordan@theartofcharm.com (he actually reads everything)! Full show notes at https://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/minisode-monday-67-dabbling-not-just-dilettantes/ Find out more about the team who makes The Art of Charm podcast here! Take the Art of Charm Challenge by clicking here, or text AOC to 38470. We'll take you step by step to becoming better at making personal and professional connections, becoming a better networker, increasing your personal social capital and charisma. This is for both men and women! Does your business have an Internet presence? Now save a whopping 50% on new webhosting packages here with HostGator by using coupon code CHARM! Listen to The Art of Charm, Cold Case Files, and hundreds of your favorite podcasts with the free PodcastOne app (on iOS and Android) here! HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming!

Srini Pillay (@srinipillay) is a world renowned, Harvard-trained psychiatrist, former Director of the Outpatient Anxiety Disorders Program at McLean Hospital, and author of Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind. "Most of us spend about 46.9 percent of our days daydreaming anyway. So why not learn to unfocus in a more productive way?" -Srini Pillay The Cheat Sheet: When 90-98 percent of mental activity is unconscious, focus can only get you so far. How focus and unfocus work in the brain. How positive constructive daydreaming helps us become more creative. Why doodling can improve memory by 29 percent. Discover the concept of possibility thinking for solving seemingly intractable problems. And so much more... Full show notes at https://theartofcharm.com/643/ Find out more about the team who makes The Art of Charm podcast here! With pain-free invoicing, FreshBooks helps entrepreneurs and freelancers save time and avoid a lot of the stress that comes with running a small business. Try a month of unrestricted use for free here (no credit card required)! Enter ART OF CHARM in the How You Heard About Us section. Learn over 500 subjects (no tests or homework!) at The Great Courses Plus -- The Art of Charm listeners get one month free here! Does your business have an Internet presence? Now save a whopping 50% on new webhosting packages here with HostGator by using coupon code CHARM! With Business Platinum from American Express, it's not about where you are, it's about where you want to take your business next. Explore the Power of The Business Platinum Card here! Catch season two of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath on A&E! Free yourself from typing notes, reports, and documents by going with the transcriptionists we trust here at AoC: TranscriptionOutsourcing.net -- 99% or higher accuracy guaranteed! HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming!

Dr. Srini Pillay, author of Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind, is a Harvard trained expert on brain function. In this interview, JJ & Dr. Pillay explore how we can practice being “unfocused” in order to focus more efficiently and achieve our goals! Contrary to many of our beliefs, seemingly lazy activities such as napping, doodling, and walking in no specific direction can actually help our brain be more creatively motivated when it’s time to turn the focus back on. You’ll get “unfocus” lessons from Picasso and Einstein, and also learn how to use “Psychological Halloweenism” to ramp up your motivation.   Key takeaways [1:44] Srini Pillay career briefing and how he met JJ. [4:07] The truth that too much focus can be problematic – it can actually drain the brain of energy! [5:16] The solution is to build cognitive rhythm between focused and unfocused states. [6:01] How can you be productively unfocused? Using PCD: Positive Constructive Daydreaming (Jerome Singer). [7:20] How to Daydream: Plan for it; have a playful image; and do it during a low-key activity like gardening. [8:55] Being “unfocused” in the right way helps you be more creative and re-energizes your brain. When you re-focus it helps you in many ways, including predicting the future... [9:55] “Unfocusing” your brain can help integrate information better, and even give you a better sense of self. [11:02] Try these to get started: An app that schedules unfocused time; napping & daydreaming; walking in unstructured paths; and even doodling can improve your memory by 29%! [14:30] Dabbling: What you can learn from Picasso and Einstein. [16:10] People who have complimentary hobbies do better at their primary tasks. [17:23] How to improve your health right away. 1 – Possibility Thinking: simply asserting that it is possible to achieve your goals has some very positive effects. It increases your dopamine, activates reward pathways in your brain, and increases your natural opioids so you are less stressed.  [18:10] 2 – The Biology of Imagination: imagine how you will look in the future, using images that demonstrate the “before and after” progression.  [19:31] 3 – Creative Motivation: building in periods of unfocus – napping, etc., helps you to come back and focus more successfully. Also try “Psychological Halloweenism” – embodying the full personality of an eccentric role model – to activate their ideas and habits. [21:45] When you get Srini’s book you get the app for free! [23:40] Practice: Ask yourself what do you want that you think is possible; imagine that. Than refine that image of what you want, and your brain will take you there. [25:30] Improve the quality of your sleep with JJ’s Sleep Candy. [26:08] Listeners’ questions: How can I get motivated to get healthier? [27:01] Find the Power of Purpose: What is your big ‘Why?’   Mentioned in this episode: To get the App go to JJVirgin.com/tinker JJVirgin.com/products Facebook page: JJVirgin Official  

If you've ever wanted to be sharper, more creative and more satisfied with your life, then do we have the Tinker Dabble Doodle Try show for you! Today I'll be talking with Dr. Sirini Pillay, a Harvard trained practicing psychiatrist, brain imaging researcher, brain based technology innovator, the award winning author of Life Unlocked and the author of a MUST READ new book – particularly if you'll ever have kids Tinker Dabble Doodle Try! And that's just what I want to talk with him about today, about unlocking the power of the UNFOCUSED MIND. Did Dr. Pillay, a Harvard trained practicing psychiatrist have a focused mind growing up? How'd he go from South Africa to Harvard? How'd he end up calling Harvard Medical School – and what happened. What happened to Dr. Pillay in his 2nd year in med school? What did he have to change and what did he begin to learn? What does it mean to be unfocused? Why is there such a negative connotation? What's the cult of focus, and what's wrong with it? What's wrong with hyperfocusing? How does unfocusing reduce amygdala activation and create calmness? What's cognitive rhythm? What's the DMN or Do Moslyt Nothing Circuit? What's the importance of uncertainty and the brain? What are signs of a jammed up brain??? What are a few of the roads to getting unfocused? What's the importance of mind-wandering? What's the importance of day-dreaming? What's the importance of self-talk? How do we build unfocus time into our days? Why do we want to embrace chaos? What in the world is the psychological halloweener? What is brightworks school? What in the world does breaking chairs have to do with anything? What do we need to know about learning for our kids? What's the importance of self-forgiveness? Whats' the importance of being light? What does consciousness have to do with anything? To Find Out More Visit: DrSriniPillay.com Harvard's Dr. Srini Pillay On The Power of the Unfocused Mind & How to Use it for Greatness!!! Health | Brain | Neuroscience | Motivation | Spiritual | Spirituality | Meditation | Inspirational | Motivational | Self-Improvement | Self-Help | Inspire For More Info Visit: www.InspireNationShow.com

Harvard psychiatrist and brain imaging researcher Dr. Srini Pillay will join us for this week’s Please Explain on focus, creativity and productivity. His latest book is Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind. In the book, he discusses his research on the helpful benefits of daydreaming, taking breaks, and even leaving work incomplete.

David is joined by Dr. Srini Pillay, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of the new book Tinker, Dabble, Doodle, Try: Unlock the Power of an Unfocused Mind. Get in on the conversation as David and Dr. Srini discuss the new book and how you can harness your mind’s innate tendency to wander, stall, rest, and unfocus and become more productive.

Often I will ask people “do you want to live an exceptional life?” And most people will say yes. But an exception by definition is low probability. If you want to live a normative life you'll be in the middle of the bell curve. But if you want an exceptional life it's going to be low probability. Anyone who wants an amazing life is probably going to go for a low probability life, which means you have to activate some sense of possibility. You ask yourself what is the possibility of doing something? Rather than saying “how do I recover from this trauma or how do I recover from this grief” you ask yourself “what do people who recover from these situations amazingly do? There what you're looking for is the exception.. The very first principle is think like the exception and not like the rule. – Srini PillayDr. Srini Pillay is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (Part-Time) at Harvard Medical School. He is known for combining “head and heart” (figuratively and literally) in an approach to personal development and goal mastery that blends science, spirituality, and horns-grabbing joie de vivre to combat the stresses faced by ambitious and high-achieving people in academia, business, and life. He's also the author of Tinker, Dabble, Doodle Try: The Power of the Unfocused Mind See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dr. Srini Pillay, author of Tinker Dabble Doodle Try, stops by to discuss how to get more done by giving your brain a break. Topics include:  * When daydreaming is actually a good thing and how too much focus can hurt more than it helps. * Debunking the right brain/left brain myth and why everyone can be creative if they want to be. Plus, why so many people get their best ideas in the shower. * Why it's so hard to make changes in your life and how to convince your brain to make it a little bit easier. * How to use self talk: exactly what to say (and what not to say) to get the results you want. * Why we should start paying more attention to the exception instead of the rule. Learn more about Dr. Pillay and his new book at www.drsrinipillay.com