Untangle – Details, episodes & analysis

Favorite Encore: Dr. Ellen Hendriksen is a clinical psychologist whose focus is on helping millions of people calm their anxiety so they can be more comfortable with their true selves. She serves on the faculty at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders and is the author of the book we discuss today, How to Be Yourself: Quiet the Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety. In this episode, we talk about the fear of being judged or rejected, and how to manage our somewhat distorted (and often annoying) negative thoughts. We’ve heard this before…your thoughts are NOT always true. Ellen discusses many ways to quiet the inner chatter that takes us down a rabbit hole and prevents us from living life, and enjoying it, to its fullest. She shares how we can actually rewire our brains through our behavior, make changes and let go of the 'monkey mind' inner critic. It’s not easy…but she suggests lots of small steps we can take.

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Todays guest is Tali Sharot, professor of Cognitive neuroscience at University College London (UCL) and MIT. She’s also the Director of the Affective Brain Lab at University College London, which integrates neuroscience, behavioral economics, and psychology to study the influence of emotion and motivation on beliefs and decisions. Her most recent  book is called Look Again, The Power of Noticing What Was Already There.

In this conversation, Tali  discusses her journey into neuroscience and psychology, exploring the intersection of these fields with behavioral economics. She delves into the concept of optimism, its effects on mental health and happiness, and the U-shaped curve of happiness across different life stages. There’s good news there. 

She also shares insights on the phenomenon of habituation, explaining how we adapt to both positive and negative experiences in our lives and that this can have a very unexpected impact-  both good and bad. She explores the relationship between habituation and mental health, particularly in depression. She introduces the idea of 're-sparkling’— I love that word— as a way to bolster everyday experiences and bring more novelty into our lives.  She shares how re-sparkling can revitalize relationships and experiences and how creativity thrives on unexpected connections and changes. Changing environments and habits, she says, can really boost creative thinking. 

As always, we’re Untangle, the podcast from Muse the brain sensing headband that helps to transform  your brain. Use promo code untangle 15 at choosemuse.com for your discount. 

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Todays guest is Hersch Wilson, an Interesting guy with many passions, but none more important than being with and learning from the dogs in his life. His new book, Dog Lessons: Learning The Important Stuff From Our Best Friends shares his insights on the powerful presence of dogs in our lives and the transformative lessons they can teach us about love, loyalty, grief, and more. 

Along the way, he was also a volunteer firefighter and wrote an award winning book called "Firefighter Zen, A Field Guide for Thriving in Tough Times." 

He considers Dog Lessons a meditation on the truths dogs can teach us. From universal values like loyalty and curiosity to practical lessons on napping, playing, and avoiding a serious fight. It’s all pretty darn good advice.

One of his big messages is that dogs help us remember that life is short and we must celebrate it wherever we can. They often help us find refuge, quiet and peace in this very complicated world. 

This is a bit different from our usual untangle interviews, but I couldn’t resist since I’m a dog person myself…and living with the love and challenges that come with my little pup.

Resources: Herschwilson.com

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Dr. Wendy Suzuki is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology in the Center for Neural Science at New York University. She was also recently appointed as Dean of NYU’s College of Arts & Science. 

In her book, Good Anxiety, Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion, she used new and established neuroscience to share how we can harness our fears to feel better, think better, and do better. We discuss why anxiety is so misunderstood and how we can turn it into a superpower. Much of it is pretty darn practical. 

Her other book is called Health Brain, Happy Life, here she discusses how we have the power to activate our brains. 

Her favorite line: Exercise is the most transformative thing we can do for our brain today. 

Her major research interest continues to be brain plasticity. She is best known for her extensive work studying areas in the brain critical for our ability to form and retain new long-term memories. More recently her work has focused on understanding how aerobic exercise can be used to improve learning, memory and higher cognitive abilities in humans. 

Resources: wendysuzuki.com

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Guest Interviewer: Ariel Garten, Muse Co-founder. Encore.

Dr. Adrian Owen, a renowned neuroscientist, discovered that individuals in a persistent coma could still communicate- and he went one step further and listened to what they wanted to say. He’s also performed the largest sleep and cognition study in the world, and demonstrated why brain training apps are bunk, and what we can do to sleep better and improve our own conscious function.

Dr. Owen is a Professor at The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Canada and the former Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging.

His research combines neuroimaging (MRI and EEG), with cognitive studies in brain-injured patients and healthy participants.

His lab studies patients who have sustained brain injuries that result in disorders of consciousness. They also study patients with neurodegenerative diseases in order to understand more about the causes and consequences of the memory, perception and reasoning problems that many of them experience.

Finally, he develops web-based tools for the assessment of cognitive function, both in healthy participants and in patients with disorders of the brain.

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Todays guest is Mitra Manesh. She is a senior mindfulness educator at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, best known for her storytelling and innovative teachings. 

Mitra is also the creator of the Mindful Attentionist Coaching (MAC) program — an inside-out deep dive into what she calls a life of choice and wellbeing. In this interview, she’s shares her wisdom on everything from how to be an attentionist to how to be in relationship with others. 

A little definition to get started: She defines Attentionism as an awakened way of believing, feeling, and living. It's about taking charge of your attention and learning how to use it intentionally.

She says there are three steps that can help you become an Attentionist—

Decide where you want to place your attention. 

Notice when your attention has wandered away.

Bring it back and place it where you intended to be. 

More about Mitra @ mitramanesh.com

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Today’s guest is Dr. Ellen Hendriksen. This is her second appearance on Untangle to share her expertise on all issues related to anxiety. She’s a clinical psychologist who focuses on releasing anxiety so that you can be more of your authentic self. Ellen serves on the faculty at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders and is the author of How To Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety. Her scientifically-based, zero-judgment approach has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Oprah Magazine and many other media outlets. 

She defines anxiety as a close cousin to another familiar emotion, which is fear. Fear is immediate. Fear is when the snarling dog is running at you. Fear is when the bus is barreling down the road at you. Anxiety is also fear, but it’s fear cast to the horizon. It’s fear out in the uncertain future. 

And she discusses social anxiety. 

It’s not surprising, she says, that at the heart of social anxiety is perfectionism and perfectionism is a little bit of a misnomer because it's not really about trying to be perfect. It's about never feeling good enough. And that ties right into the very definition of social anxiety; feeling like there's some flaw that we need to cover or hide, or else people will judge and reject us. She presents a number of tools to work with our anxiety, whether we want to deepen our relationships, build confidence, face our social fears in a more supportive way or challenge your own perfectionism standards.

Good news! She also talks about the superpowers of anxiety. 

Resources: Ellenhendriksen.com 

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Guest Interview with Ariel Garten.

Did you know that the way you breathe can energize or relax you? That a simple hack can help with snoring and sleep apnea? That your lung volume can relate to your longevity, and that your lung volume can be expanded with simple exercises? James Nestor takes us on a fascinating trip into the breath, explains how and why different breath techniques work and will transform each breath you take for the better.

His Book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art explores the million-year-long history of how the human species has lost the ability to breathe properly and why we’re suffering from a laundry list of maladies—snoring, sleep apnea, asthma, autoimmune disease, allergies—because of it. James ended up traveling the world in an attempt to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Encore.

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Today’s guest is Ian Andersen, cofounder of the Sunnyside app, 

Sunnyside is an app designed to help individuals discover and adopt a more mindful approach to drinking so they can reach their own personal goals. 

It’s focused exclusively on moderation and mindfulness, not sobriety. Ian and his business partner, founder Nick Allen started this company because they wanted to support people to find a balanced approach to drinking. One that would help them be healthier and more aware. In this interview, we discuss this moderation based approach, along with how and why this makes a difference in our mental and physical Health. 

Sunnyside is partnering with Muse for Soberish October. This joint initiative wants to support individuals seeking mindfulness in their drinking habits. Again, balance….not sobriety. Visit choosemuse.com/sunnyside to learn more about how you can participate in Soberish October and win some great prizes. Again, what makes this approach different is that it’s not an all or nothing approach to drinking. It’s moderation and mindfulness based, a middle path so to speak, with some pretty great habit changing tools to help. It's about setting your own personal goals, making a commitment, tracking, connecting with others, texting with human coaches if that's your jam, and measuring your progress.

Resources: Sunnyside.co

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Today’s guest is Dr. Rick Hanson — a Psychologist and NY times Best Selling author of several books, including the book we discuss in this interview “Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence." He shares how we can hardwire our brains for happiness using practices that help us cultivate and experience the good in our lives while reducing our natural negativity biases.

He shares why is it easier to ruminate over hurt feelings, negative feelings rather than to bask in the warmth of being appreciated or positive feelings. ? The negative stuff is like velcro…it sticks to us. But it doesn’t have to. 

He says we can build our inner strengths and capacity to override the brains habit of defaulting to pessimism. 

He suggests a simple method that uses the hidden power of everyday experiences to build new neural structures full of happiness, love, confidence, and peace. Encore.

Visit rickhanson.net to see what he’s up to. 

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Reach us with ideas and suggestions at untangle@choosemuse.com.

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