Mandyland: Recent Episodes
Mandy Wintink
an insight into the wonderful people, conversations, and topics that are present in my life. In any given week I end up talking about neuroscience, motherhood, education, feminist and a variety of other social justice issues, gender and LGTBQ2S+, mental health and wellness, community, and yoga and mindfulness.
In this educational monologue Mandy talks about what is actually going on with the dopamine hits everyone talks about these days and then ends with some practical ways to control our behaviour for better mental health and wellbeing through harnessing the power of the reward system.
See also:
Berridge KC, Kringelbach ML. Pleasure systems in the brain. Neuron. 2015 May 6;86(3):646-64. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2015.02.018. PMID: 25950633; PMCID: PMC4425246. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4425246/)
The Science of Habit: What does it take to stick with something long term? You just have to rewire your brain. by By Stacey McLachlan on December 22, 2021
https://www.healthline.com/health/the-science-of-habit#6
This is a recording of my 4-year-old back in the summer when he was extra obsessed with poop and with porcupines, warthogs, and raccoons. He told us 3 stories. Please note: the stories are interactive and you will have to stand with the rest of the audience at the time. He’s a very insistent little 4-year-old who doesn’t take no for an answer.
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-psychology-of-conspiracy-thinking/id1316684637?i=1000467017701 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nathan-radke-671614139/the-psychology-of-conspiracy-thinking https://www.instagram.com/theuncoverup/?hl=en https://twitter.com/TheUncoverUp
It’s December. Christmas season is well among us. It’s a crazy time of year for many people. Not me. But for many others. Here in this rant I talk about my process of degifting my holidays, the terribleness of commercialized Christmas, the egocentrism of Christmas, the stress and money issues around Christmas, and where is religion in all of this? I end with some thoughts on Santa.
Me… ranting about gender, gender issues, gender reveal parties, gendered clothing, gender segregation, gender neutral, gender expansion, gendered opportunities, gendered washrooms… It didn’t start out as a rant. It was going to be an introduction to two other conversations about gender I’ve had specifically around gender-expansive parenting. But 17 minutes in, I realized it was a rant. Oops.
One thing I should add, that I didn’t add during the audio is that despite hating segregation, I do think segregation is important when combining the genders is holding one or more of the genders back. For example, I have benefited seriously from opportunities in sport that were gender-segregated and allowed women to rise up to an athletic potential they otherwise might not have. This is happened in hockey and ultimate frisbee for me. That being said, the ideal as I see it, is equating the genders together, like, for example in mixed-gender division. I spent a lot of time playing women’s ultimate but my heart was always in mixed-gender where cis-men and cis-women are theoretically on an equal playing field. That doesn’t always happen in practice but it’s the best attempt I have seen in sport. The next necessary step, mind you, is to successfully incorporate transgender people into sports in a way that allows all people to both develop to their full potential. Single-gendered divisions and mixed-gender divisions imply a binary, whereas the “open division” technically means open to anyone who wants to play at the level of that team. That is wonderful. In theory.
Me ranting about accessibility issues and the university system. No, I’m not actually lacking compassion for people’s needs. What I’m annoyed with is why we aren’t individualizing education more. I have lots of issues with the university system and you can read about some of them in the MicroDegree Manifesto too.
EPISODE 2: Today, I share parts of my conversation with Lindsay about what compelled into this world. I love how she starts with it’s not like they say “hey wanna join this cult and we’re gonna have this sex group?”. The recruiting process is very deliberate and calculated.
I am talking with my very dear friend, Lindsay. About 8 years ago, Lindsay got involved in the now famous cult, NXIVM, lead by Keith Raniere. In June of this year (2019) Keith was convicted of federal crimes including sex trafficking, conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit forced labor. His sentencing is at the end of October, 2019. I have been talking with Lindsay about her involvement since she started, back in 2011. Then this past summer, 2 years after she left the cult, we decided to make some podcast episodes.
EPISODE 1: Today, I share parts of my conversation with Lindsay about how she feels today, 2 years after she left as she heels and lives with PTSD.
Alia and I speak for the first time during this conversation. We were introduced through email by a mutual friend, Paul, who we both know from CSI (Centre for Social Innovation). Paul connected us because Alia is interested in co-living and because my partner and I bought a house in Toronto with our friends and are in a co-living situation. We talk here about what makes for a good human experience and community in a good co-living situation.
Resources:
Centre for Social Innovation https://socialinnovation.org
The Press We got:
Mandy and Lindsey on the CBC Candy Palmater Show (in 2016): https://www.cbc.ca/radio/candy/two-families-take-an-unconventional-approach-to-home-ownership-1.3669166?autoplay=true
Toronto Life Article: https://torontolife.com/real-estate/houses/inside-complicated-world-home-co-ownership/
Toronto Star article: https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/07/02/two-couples-pool-money-to-live-under-one-roof.html
Other People doing it too: https://www.thestar.com/life/2017/01/23/thank-you-for-being-a-friend--i-can-buy-a-house-with-meet-a-new-generation-of-golden-girls.html
If you want to sit in on a class presentation on the research related to bisexuality please listen to this podcast! Vanessa is a MicroMasters student (part of the Centre for Applied Neuroscience MicroDegree in Psychological Neuroscience) supervised by me, Mandy Wintink. This week’s seminar class was on Sex and Gender and Vanessa’s topic was “Bisexuality” and she presents on the topic according to the guiding questions that provoked the research (see below). The other voices you can hear are that of the other MicroDegree students.
Vanessa chose to do bisexuality because it is often considered a hidden sexuality because those who are bisexual are often seen as heterosexual if they are in a monogamous opposite-sex relationship or gay if they are in a same-sex relationship, neither of which can feel complete for someone who is bisexual. Through her research, Vanessa discovered that bisexual erasure is prevalent and so is bisexuality as well. In fact, some statistics show that bisexuality is the majority of the LGTB2QS community.
Word of wise: You may want to slow this episode down to .75 speed because Vanessa and her brain present very fast…
Resources:
Kinsey Scale
Rosa Diaz’s Comes Out on Brooklyn Nine-Nine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDGkCeElzhM
Guiding Questions for the MicroDegree Topic of Sex & Gender:
Choose a topic within the realm of sex, gender, or any sex-linked behaviour and learn about some aspect of neuroscience related to it. Some examples may include: sex, gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, gendered toys/clothes/behaviours, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, development, sex roles, gender/sex stereotypes, etc.
Answer These Questions to the Best of Your Ability:
Describe the topic that you chose in general terms.
Why did you choose this topic and/or what interested you about this topic?
Can you describe the public's general understanding or thinking associated with this topic?
[How] does this topic relate to the concept of binary/non-binary categorization.
Choose Whichever Of The Following Apply To Your Topic:
What are the neuroscience issues surrounding this topic?
Is there a neuroscience explanation/description for the phenomenon you are talking about?
What brain mechanisms or neurochemicals are associated with your topic?
Has your topic ever been considered a "disorder" or "disease"?
Are there known sex differences related to your topic?
How might our understanding of this topic change if we took a non-binary understanding approach to it?
Answer These Too Please:
What do you think is important information that the general public should know about this topic, as far as you can tell?
What was the most important thing you learned about this topic?
What was the most random/novel thing that you learned about this topic?
Now that you have done your research... and hopefully come out of the custard... choose any 5 of these questions to answer for your presentation.
Dawn has spoken before about her sever mental health issues (e.g., Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder). She works with a psychiatrist, is on medication, and is on permanent disability and unable to work. Today, she shares with an acute stress reaction she recently had and aims to get some perspective on it. She had approached me to do a live coaching session. The video associated with this session will also be released soon.
If you have benefited in anyway from this conversation, please consider saying thank you with a donation to Dawn’s fundraising campaign, available here: https://paypal.me/pools/c/8gwKm78eZx. Dawn is under serious financial stress and would appreciate any help she can get. It took a lot of creativity and courage for her to launch this campaign. Please consider a donation of any amount. Nothing is too small and the more people contribute the more we can keep her sharing her story.
Truth be told, Mandyland is not my main gig. I actually run a company on the side. ;) The Centre for Applied Neuroscience is where I do most of my work as a life coach, life coach trainer, and a neuroscience workshop leader in organizations. I founded the company in 2010 and now have 7-8 people working for me part-time. During this team meeting, we brainstormed our mission and corporate philosophy and present it to our clients, potential clients, and friends of Mandyland as part of our “openness” mandate.
To read what we came up with based on that conversation head to our About Us page here: http://www.knowyourbrain.ca/about.
Just a little recap of my experience with season two and forecasting what to expect for season 3.
In case it interests you, look into the MicroDegree mentioned in this episode: http://www.knowyourbrain.ca/microdegree
A year ago Mike was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, a cancer of the kidneys. He had surgery 6 months later. His experience was, on paper, great because everything went medically well. But his patient experience made him think very deeply about how to improve the cancer patient experience. Mike is the Design Director at Healthcare Human Factors, a consultancy through University Health Network in Toronto. He is fortunate to be in a position to rethink and design cancer care and he’s doing that now. Here we talk about his experience, which laid a foundation for rethinking cancer care!
We spoke earlier this season about getting the diagnosis. You can listen to that episode here: http://www.mandyland.ca/the-podcast/2018/8/28/mike-has-cancer-s2e1
Vanessa, who recently came out as Polyamorous, is questioning whether identifying a sexual orientation is enough to really capture all the nuances of romantic relationships. So we discuss… and that obviously brings up a discussion about gay versus bisexual and gender and labels in general.
Resources:
Living Apart Together: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/child-poverty-john-cleese-mail-paid-sick-leave-revolution-baby-living-arrangements-episode-3-1.2905289/living-apart-together-1.2905290
Chosen Family: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/chosen-family/
The MicroDegree that Vanessa is doing (with Me!): http://www.knowyourbrain.ca/microdegree
Pets: We love them dearly, oftentimes more than the humans in our life. When they leave us it is one of the hardest things to experience. It’s been 2 days since we said goodbye to our amazing dog Jett. It hurts like hell. I miss her dearly. I will love her forever. I want her to come back.
Sarah just got news that one of her tumours (a liver tumour) shrunk! Yay! It appears to be from the radiation she had back in March, which is welcomed news after being a bit confused as to what the initial report meant. She shares this with us today in context with the past 5 days of the perpetual roller coaster she is on. We end with a little life coachey-rest officer discussion about how she is planning to manage her energy for an upcoming trip to Australia.
Tackling the science of [heterosexual] love is an interesting endeavour indeed. Lauren starts us off with the idea of three phases of love (lust, attraction, and attachment), the hormones and neurotransmitters associated with some of these phases, differences between men and women* and an evolutionary perspective on love. We then spend a good deal of time talking about attachment and what that kind of love means in parenting and with pet animals. We even talk about how the brain is affected by a break-up. Unfortunately, all we covered was heterosexual love.
*although I (Mandy) believe in the non-binary nature to sex and gender, the scientific literature lags behind and often discusses sex differences exclusively between men and women.
My friend and colleague, Vanessa, recently came out as polyamorous. She’s been living this philosophy for a long time but I was not privy to it, mostly because she had been keeping her professional life separate from her polyamorous life. But she’s been provoked (by our Cosmic Consultant, Cylla — see Cosmic Consultation episode) to let these two worlds collide. So over breakfast in Costa Rica (we were there for work actually!) I open up my phone to record and solicit her into a conversation, which might be one of many. In the process we talk about how this started for Vanessa, how it exists now, and how this relates to sexual orientation.
I love sharing this conversation with others because we both think it’s an opportunity for anyone, whether in monogamous relationships or not, to open their mind to, even if just as a way of developing acceptance and appreciation for such a philosophy. Some people might even be considering it for themselves. In any case, have a listen and see what you think!
The morning sounds of Costa Rica is such a great example of the diversity of their ecosystem. It makes me laugh thinking back to when I posted a Birds Chirping Meditation from a park in Toronto. This recording was done while I did a morning yoga practice in the open yoga studio. Now, I do my practice to it while back in Toronto, keeping my eyes closed and feeling like I'm back there. It's a good interim until we return next April again!
In a (school) year when marijuana became legal, how could we resist the temptation to discuss the neuroscience side of this popular drug. With this change in legislation here in Canada, it granted us the ability to have an open conversation about it, including some of our own personal experiences along with research related to two psychoactive ingredients: CBD (cannabidiol) and and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). We covered both sides of this in terms the benefits and the negative side effects.
References:
Jager, G., Kahn, R. S., van den Brink, W., van Ree, J. M., & Ramsey, N. F. (2006). Long-term effects of frequent cannabis use on working memory and attention: An fMRI study.Psychopharmacology, 185(3), 358-368. doi:10.1007/s00213-005-0298-7
Nestoros, J. N., Vakonaki, E., Tzatzarakis, M. N., Alegakis, A., Skondras, M. D., & Tsatsakis, A. M. (2017). Long lasting effects of chronic heavy cannabis abuse: Heavy and chronic cannabis abuse and memory effects. The American Journal on Addictions, 26(4), 335-342. doi:10.1111/ajad.12529
Waddington, G. S. (2017). Cannabis, exercise performance and sport. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 20(9), 807-807. doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2017.07.017
Wong, A., Montebello, M. E., Norberg, M. M., Rooney, K., Lintzeris, N., Bruno, R., . . . McGregor, I. S. (2013). Exercise increases plasma THC concentrations in regular cannabis users. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 133(2), 763-767. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.07.031
Sarah provides a spring update on where she's at with cancer. It’s been a year since her metastatic cancer diagnosis. More scans, treatment protocols, surgeries, emotions, and science.
Join me for a sitting meditation. Find your comfortable sitting position, close your eyes, focus on your breath, listen to me talk about impermanence and expectations in the context of anxiety. Then stay for silence together.
In this week’s episode, we explore one of the most crucial aspects of the human experience; memory. We start off with a phenomenon Lauren finds particularly interesting: Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, in which individuals can recall specific, extremely detailed aspects of their daily lives spanning years and even decades in the past. From there we discuss How do we store memories? What different facets and types of memory are there? What is going on with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. We also discuss some historical figures in memory research (e.g., H.M.), eye witness testimonies, place cells, and erasing memories.
References:
Howard, M. W., & Eichenbaum, H. (2013). The hippocampus, time, and memory across scales. Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 142(4), 1211-1230. doi:10.1037/a0033621
Jeneson, A., & Squire, L. R. (2012;2011;). Working memory, long-term memory, and medial temporal lobe function. Learning & Memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.), 19(1), 15-25. doi:10.1101/lm.024018.111
LePort, A. K., Mattfeld, A. T., Dickinson-Anson, H., Fallon, J. H., Stark, C. E., Kruggel, F., . . . McGaugh, J. L. (2012). Behavioral and neuroanatomical investigation of Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM). Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 98(1), 78-92. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2012.05.002
Nowak, C., & Nowak, C. (2017, November 10). Only 60 People in the World Have This Insanely Powerful Memory. Retrieved from https://www.rd.com/health/conditions/highly-superior-autobiographical memory/
Palombo, D. J., Alain, C., Soderlund, H., Khuu, W., & Levine, B. (2015). Severely deficient autobiographical memory (SDAM) in healthy adults: A new mnemonic syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 72, 105-118. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.04.012
Simons, J. S., & Spiers, H. J. (2003). Prefrontal and medial temporal lobe interactions in long-term memory. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4(8), 637-648. doi:10.1038/nrn1178
Other Resources:
25, R. D. (n.d.). The 5 Types of Memory Everyone Has and Why They Matter. Retrieved from https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/memory-types/
ALifeJournal. (2016, December 05). Retrieved February 21, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnel7xQTFvI
The sections of the Medial Temporal Lobe are what is responsible for memory. This demonstrates the components as well as their function.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_lobe#Structure:
Gaitan, R. (2016, April 16). Retrieved February 21, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fV3jafglNo: This video discusses Neurons and their role in forming memories. It discusses the Prefrontal Cortex, where memories and associations are formed. For example, he uses Diet Coke as his example and discusses how your sense of taste and memory works so that when you drink Diet Coke, you remember the taste associated and can identify.
Frontotemporal Dementia. Retrieved from https://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/frontotemporal_dementia/: This page discusses a condition called Frontotemporal Dementia. It impacts about as many people as Domentia does, accept, it is experienced by those who are a little younger than those who experience Domentia The age range identified is between 40 and 60 years old.
ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA. Retrieved from http://www.human memory.net/disorders_anterograde.html
H.M.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Molaison
Clive Wearing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Wearing
Place Cells & Temporal Cells: https://www.ted.com/talks/neil_burgess_how_your_brain_tells_you_where_you_are/transcript?language=en
Replacing memories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRuUQiIgyj4
Summary:
Humans experience and observe some of the most extravagant wonders and marvelous sights the world has to offer using the sense many of us sometimes take for granted ; Vision! How do eyes work? What role does the brain play in all of it ? Can we trust what we see ? Find out in this week’s episode of the neuroscience podcast. Quite literally, there is more than meets the eye!
References:
Bokkon, I. (2009). Visual perception and imagery: A new molecular hypothesis. Biosystems, 96(2), 178-184. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2009.01.005
Collerton D., Dudley R., Mosimann U.P. (2012) Visual Hallucinations. In: Blom J., Sommer I. (eds) Hallucinations. Springer, New York, NY. Retrieved from https://link-springer com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-0959-5_6#citeas
Dubuc, B. (n.d.). The Brain from Top to Bottom: The Retina. Retrieved from http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_02/i_02_cl/i_02_cl_vis/i_02_cl_vis.html
Eagleman, D. M. (2001). Visual illusions and neurobiology. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(12), 920-926. doi:10.1038/35104092 http://tinyurl.com/yarpmdfh
Grossberg, S. (2014). How visual illusions illuminate complementary brain processes: Illusory depth from brightness and apparent motion of illusory contours. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 854 http://tinyurl.com/y82ct4aw
Kloosterman, N. A., Meindertsma, T., van Loon, A. M., Lamme, V. A. F., Bonneh, Y. S., & Donner, T. H. (2015). Pupil size tracks perceptual content and surprise in a visual illusion. European Journal of Neuroscience, 41, 1068-1078. http://tinyurl.com/y7xbzubk
Ko, H., Cossell, L., Baragli, C., Antolik, J., Clopath, C., Hofer, S. B., & Mrsic-Flogel, T. D. (2013). The emergence of functional microcircuits in visual cortex. Nature, 496(7443), 96-100. doi:10.1038/nature12015 http://tinyurl.com/yb4dmw78
Manford, M., & Andermann, F. (1998). Complex visual hallucinations. Clinical and neurobiological insights. BRAIN, 121(10), 1819-1840. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/121.10.1819
Moffit, M., Brown, G., Salt, R., Simmons, M., & Ghebrehiwot, S. (Directors). (2017, May 4). Your Brain on LSD and Acid [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG5JyorwYPo
Pfeffer, C. K., Xue, M., He, M., Huang, Z. J., & Scanziani, M. (2013). Inhibition of inhibition in visual cortex: The logic of connections between molecularly distinct interneurons. Nature Neuroscience, 16(8), 1068-1076. doi:10.1038/nn.3446
Roseman, L., Sereno, M. I., Leech, R., Kaelen, M., Orban, C., McGonigle, J., . . . Carhart-Harris, R. L. (2016). LSD alters eyes‐closed functional connectivity within the early visual cortex in a retinotopic fashion. Human Brain Mapping, 37(8), 3031-3040. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.23224
Saleem, A. B., Ayaz, A., Jeffery, K. J., Harris, K. D., & Carandini, M. (2013). Integration of visual motion and locomotion in mouse visual cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 16(12), 1864-1869. doi:10.1038/nn.3567 http://tinyurl.com/ycl2wa6e
Schmidt, F., Weber, A., & Haberkamp, A. (2016). Dissociating early and late visual processing via the ebbinghaus illusion. Visual Neuroscience, 33, E016. doi:10.1017/S0952523816000134 http://tinyurl.com/ycrsxyzb
Serences, J. T., Ester, E. F., Vogel, E. K., & Awh, E. (2009). Stimulus-specific delay activity in human primary visual cortex. Psychological Science, 20(2), 207-214. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02276.x http://tinyurl.com/y7fw92vy
Vollenweider F. X. (2001). Brain mechanisms of hallucinogens and entactogens. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 3(4), 265-79. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181663/
Other Resources:
National Eye Institute (NIH) (Director). (2016, February 3). The Visual System: How Your Eyes Work [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3_n3Ibfn1c
Hasudungan, A. (Director). (2016, May 24). Visual Pathway and Lesions [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG5ZuK0_qtc
NIH: National Eye Institute. (2015, December). Facts About Retinitis Pigmentosa. Retrieve from https://nei.nih.gov/health/pigmentosa/pigmentosa_facts
Alliance for Aging Research (Director). (2016, September 9). Taking a Closer Look at Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUnLaG-XlDE
For the second week of our Conversations with Neuroscience Students series, we discuss Nutrition and the Brain, which is a nice extension from what we talked about last week regarding Exercise and the Brain. There were many places we could have gone with this. What we did get into included the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (referred to as simply ‘BDNF' in the episode… and in neuroscience). We talked about toxins and diets and inflammation and even meandered into a discussion about social factors like food security and Canada’s new food guide.
This is a guided meditation practice with a focus on breath awareness. It's one of several basic introductory meditations to help build concentration skills with a focus on the breath.
In this episode, we dive into the world of health and wellness and how exercise affects the brain. We explore concepts such as CBR (cerebral blood flow) and BDNF (brain derived neurotropic factor) to see how these are affected by exercise. We also talk about how exercise can affect different demographics and what significance it holds for illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. We also share some of personal experiences with exercise and how it affects us and our studies.
I’m going to invite people into the process of my next project related to human intelligence and the need to rethink the way we see intelligence. In this first episode about it, I talk about Multiple Intelligence according to Howard Gardner and also about VIA Character Strengths. At the end, I invite people to take my in-progress screening survey on multiple intelligence and the VIA survey. The link for those are both listed below.
Take the VIA survey first so you can tell me what your top 5 character strengths are in my survey.
https://www.viacharacter.org/www/Character-Strengths-Survey
My First Draft of a Multiple Intelligence Survey:
https://goo.gl/forms/L1jEngE4yQ5hujMV2
My goal with all of this is to use a combination of questionnaire, interview by a trained coach, and if possible, field assessments. I will be looking for volunteers for the initial pilot testing. If you want to be considered, please do both the VIA survey followed by my survey and you may be contacted for follow-up.
Please note, this survey is not about identifying people as intelligent or not but rather about the hope of identifying individual’s dominant intelligence and strength.
After a few years of students from the second-year neuroscience class I teach at the University of Guelph-Humber asking for how they can learn more neuroscience, I decided to take some of them on as part of their placement requirements. Here we will be exploring various topics in neuroscience. This is our first formal audio meeting where we hear from them, what they are interested in and give us some idea of how to proceed for the next couple of months working together.
Sarah JohnsonSat, Jan 19, 1:18 PM (2 days ago)to me
In this episode, originally sent as a voice memo to Mandy and Mike, Sarah recounts the immediate aftermath of being kept up overnight by side effects of one of her treatments. This was back in September 2018, before recording the first podcast we published with Sarah on Mandyland. But she wants to share this note as it captures feelings of vulnerability, frustration, confusion, and exasperation that arise in dealing with cancer treatment. It's happened a few times now that a new symptom pops up and spurs a chain of medical appointments, scans, and tests. Figuring out what is going both in her own experience in her body, and from the perspective of multiple doctors, has proven to be one of the most challenging types of cancer experience. At present, Sarah's happy to report the small probably benign lesion for which this episode is named has not grown or caused any significant problems since it showed up, and her brain remains entirely healthy and tumor-free.
I’m with Sarah in San Diego, at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, a place we have been together many times. We had many slow(er than normal) days and quiet nights in our hotel room. And then we got a chance to really dive into what her new normal is. The conference was a perfect place to compare what use to be, with what is now.
Mike and I got into a conversation about The Interoceptive Mind, a way of feeling our inner body provoked partially by a book that I picked up at the Society for Neuroscience back in November. According to the authors Interoception is “the body-to-brain axis of signals originating from the internal body and visceral organs (such as gastrointestinal, respiratory, hormonal, and circulatory systems). [It] is the sensing of the state of the inner body and its homeostatic needs, to the ever-fluctuations state of the body beneath its sensory (exteroceptive) and musculoskeletal sheath.” In the process of discussing how we sense things — and how he and I might sense things differently — we bring up many related topics including intuition, gut feeling/reactions, multiple intelligence, depression, artists, and whether the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Resources:
Mandy’s Blog Post: Rethinking Intelligence: http://www.mandyland.ca/blog/2018/2/26/rethinking-intelligence-its-not-all-or-none
Dawn’s depression, referred to in this conversation:
http://www.mandyland.ca/the-podcast/2017/12/9/depression-and-anxiety-with-dawn
http://www.mandyland.ca/the-podcast/2018/6/14/follow-up-about-depression-and-anxiety-with-dawn
Book: Tsakiris, M. & De Preester H. (2019). The Interoceptive Mind - From Homeostasis to Awareness. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK.
Clearly, I have more important things to do with my time than creating episodes. Here’s a little snapshot into that. Note, this was recorded by Mike at the end of our date night, on Dec 1st. I only found out about it yesterday (Dec 9th). Apparently he sent it to me but I didn’t even see it or listen to it.
Enjoy. ;P
An introduction to focusing on the breath, a basic concentration practice that sets a foundation for meditating and for deepening your practice. Mostly instruction and practice, with a little bit of commentary on why we are meditating.
I reconnected with one of my favorite students from Ryerson. He was that super engaged student who asked good critical-thinking questions and really took things to another level. So when he contacted me to say he developed a game on scientific thinking, I was super excited to meet up and learn more about his game. And what he showed met my expectations. Jon is reflective, intelligent, a deep critical thinker, and a social justice advocate. All of these elements came out clearly in our conversation about his game “Think Like A Scientist!”. In an age where information is both a commodity and exploited, learning how to think like a scientist is even that much more important! It was a fun conversation where I decided to mostly keep my scientist hat on. I did challenge him a little bit on his bias against natural and the conflict of interest in science. We broached the topic but didn’t go to deep, because it was simply beyond the scope of this audio. ;)
Resources:
ASAPScience: http://www.asapscience.com/
Politifact: https://www.politifact.com/
Cash Flow: Game about investing: http://www.richdad.com/promotions/Cashflow-Classic-Evergreen
Get a pack of cards yourself: "Think Like A Scientist Set" is the first one listed, and comes in a pack of 2: https://www.printerstudio.ca/sell/designs/54-cards-total-two-sets-of-27-science-education-card-game-university-high-school-come-shrink-wrapped.html. The expansion pack is, as the name suggests, a longer version with more critical thinking cards and more situations. It's the most updated version, comes with instructions, and in the box.
There were a lot references for this conversation… if you want any, let us know. Jon has them!
I’m taking a Facebook Sabbatical… and this is why.
Resources
CBC episode with Jeron Lanier (the internet guy who talks about getting off social media): https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-current/segment/15610520. Also see: Talk also by Lanier: https://www.ted.com/.../jaron_lanier_how_we_need_to...
ZigZag is a podcast about changing the course of capitalism, journalism, and women’s lives. For real. https://zigzagpod.com/about/
Me and Mike talking about Blockchain... http://www.mandyland.ca/.../what-is-the-internet-and...
I didn’t talk about this but this is related: Sir Tim Berners-Lee (the founder of the Web) recently launched Inrupt to develop Solid, as described in his open letter: https://www.inrupt.com/blog/one-small-step-for-the-web. About Solid: https://solid.inrupt.com/about
MeToo Movement: https://metoomvmt.org/
Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford: https://metoomvmt.org/a-love-letter-to-dr-christine-blasey-ford/face
Other social media platform that I’m exploring, Diaspora: https://diasporafoundation.org/
Computer programming training that I’m considering, Ladies Learning Code/Canadians Learning Code: https://www.canadalearningcode.ca/
An introduction to meditation with some pretty basic instructions with a bit of commentary.
In this monologue, Sarah recounts her feelings over the past 3 years of dealing with cancer both how it looked from the outside and how it felt from the inside. At the beginning, she wondered "how am I going to come out the other side?” It felt like she was walking through a doorway in Alice in Wonderland and then suddenly stumbled upon the strange universe. She realized that the way that you look at the world shifts. And a big theme for her, is that cancer is slow.
Today... I felt my existential depression... and am so glad I happened upon that term recently.
For reference, I was reading from the book A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children, by James Webb, Janet Gore, Edward Amend, and Arlene DeVries.
Ok so Mike learned a whole bunch about the blockchain a while ago when we bought some bitcoin and ethereum and all that fun cryptocurrency stuff. I didn’t. But then I started listening to the Zig Zag podcast and wanted to learn more about it. So… on our next date we find ourselves going down the rabbit hole of trying to figure it out. It got fun for me when we realized that I was part of the internet era before the world wide web and he was not. Mike’s 5.5 years younger than I am, which equates to 6 grade school years. So that’s a pretty big difference during the internet era. Anyway… it turns out our understanding of the internet and the world wide web was different. So we figure that one out and continue on talking about blockchain and ethereum, which we both think are important to watch and understand because they might end up being the next new “internet”. This conversation is really funny to me… partially because I think in 5 years we’ll look back and laugh at this. Kind of like having a conversation about a phone WAY back when it started and asking questions like “so where do the voice live?” “Who delivers the voice?”. Even listening back 2 months later while writing these notes, I see that I know so much more now! Anyway… here is a conversation we should probably be embarrassed to share. Please don’t quote us on the details… like what gopher is!
Sarah and I have been talking for a long time about her cancer but this conversation was planned as a way of starting her series of episodes for Mandyland. We had a bunch of ideas planned but realized early that it was hard to figure out where to start. So we started with why she has been hesitant to share this, despite her desire to. That got us talking about her career and the impact cancer has had on her career. From there we talk about where she is now and a brief introduction to her cancer. We end with how valuable it is to talk about stuff.
At the end of Season One, I put out a call to listeners to send in voice-memo reactions to anything from Season One. Sarah replied and is now a regular guest on Mandyland for Season two! This is her reply.
I love Paul’s curiosity about mental health, psychology, and neuroscience. We sat down at the Centre for Social Innovation, which is where we met, on the upstairs patio of the Regent Park location. He is prepping for his new book to be released, which will be a very interactive journey populating the content around the book in curious ways, through public story telling events and conversations with others (like me) about mental other. It was a privilege for me to have this conversation with him about depression. We veer into a few different directions because, like I said, he is so curious, and just being around him and his curiosity gets me all fired up to talk about this. There are some basic conversations out there about mental health and then there are conversations that are more holistic and nuanced. This, I think, is more of a nuanced conversation about anxiety and depression.
August 2018 might just be the last of me breastfeeding!
This is a big one for me. I’ve been breastfeeding for 3 years and 2 months and I think…. I think… we’re done. Breastfeeding has been amazing and so hard in many ways, as it typically the case for many women. Sometimes it’s the act of doing it that’s hard… sometimes it’s the emotions around it. For me, it came naturally from a very physical sense but it’s been an emotional rollercoaster from then on. I’ve felt trapped and like my body is being used and on the otherhand I have loved it and been blown away by the awe of it all. Like I said, an emotional roller coaster. But… I think that’s all done now… wow.
So we’re starting off with a doozy… me and Mike talk about his recent diagnosis of Renal Cell Carcinoma. Yup, that’s what’s been happening over the summer. It started with a few scans for an unrelated reason and a tumour in his left kidney was detected incidentally. Surgery is planned and there is a good prognosis for it being curable. Here we discuss our feelings about it… sort of.
Welcome back! Just a short little introduction to what you can look forward to this season and why!
Well, that's a wrap. It's been a year of this project and it's time to end one season and start anew. There are lots of ideas brewing so I can't wait to start. Therefore, it won't be that long before it starts again.
Background
I hadn’t met Terrence in person before this conversation but Jenn Chan (another regular guest on Mandyland) mentioned him when I was talking about death one day. She told me that Terrence has a brother with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and that his brother was considering Medical Assistant in Dying (MAID). I provoked Terrence with a little facebook comment about having him on my podcast and he took the bait. We chatted a few times on facebook just to organize timing and then here we get right into it about death and dying. It was such a pleasure to talk to him and I look forward to doing it again.
Terrence is a huge advocate and consultant for accessibility and (I think) slowly becoming a Death and Dying Doula. He’s available to consult on ageing, accessibility, disability, death, and dying. You can find his info in the resources section below.
Resources
Enlightenment in Death with Mike: http://www.mandyland.ca/the-podcast/2018/3/30/discussing-death-with-mike
Dying Well Collection (Death Cafe): http://www.dyingwellcollective.com/
MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying): https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/medical-assistance-dying.html
Death Doulas Transforming How We Die in Canada: https://globalnews.ca/news/2754795/death-doulas-transforming-how-we-die-in-canada/
Hospice Toronto: https://hospicetoronto.ca/
End of Life Planning: https://elplanning.ca/
About Terrence: https://enables.me/author/terrence-ho/ Contact Terrence if you or your organization want to talk about inclusion associated with accessibility: https://about.me/terrenceho
Terrence’s Talk at Speaker Slam in Toronto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgSc8ZutXPE
Reflective Questions
What’s your relationship with dying?
Do you talk about death and dying?
Do you to have more open conversations about it?
What was your experience with death and dying growing up?
How has your experience with death and dying growing up influenced your current relationship with it?
Dawn, who shared what it’s like to have depression and anxiety earlier this year, now shares her experience with her gradual return to work and ultimately her having to stop working. She describes her very visceral experiences as she attempts to go back and subsequently the failure she feels not being able to. Like before, this is a great window into the what it’s like to struggle with anxiety and depression. At one point I even admit that I want to help her and fix her and how hard it is for me not to. I’m sure I’m not the only one listening who will feel that same desire to “fix”. My hope is that listening and providing space to share these experiences is helpful in and of itself. We also get into what I think is an interesting topic, of documenting the highs and lows.
Dawn’s previous episode is available here:
http://www.mandyland.ca/the-podcast/2017/12/9/depression-and-anxiety-with-dawn
I was walking with my dog Jett one spring day and noticed the beautiful sounds of the birds chirping. So I decided to record them as a 5-minute mindfulness meditation.
Background:
Mindfulness is paying attention to and sensing the present moment. Every moment is an opportunity to practice this simple act of paying attention and just noticing sights, smells, tastes, sounds, feelings, and even thoughts as they come up inside of us. So just pausing for 5 minutes to hear the sounds of birds chirping is an excellent mindfulness practice that's also easy to fit into busy schedules.
Instructions:
Just listen. Hear the sounds of the birds and any other sounds that come up. If you get distracted by thoughts, that's ok. Notice that too and then come back to just listening to the sounds in your ears. Try to be kind to yourself if and when you do get distracted, recognizing that mindfulness is more of the practice than a goal, even though the practice of paying attention often leads to a goal of being more mindful in daily life. But for now, just listen. Just practice. Just provide this opportunity to help train your brain to focus on this present moment.
Resources:
Mindfulness Quotes by John Lovas: http://www.johnlovas.com/
Mindfulness Yoga with Me (Mandy Wintink): https://youtu.be/qjOaj5dTp14
More Yoga with Me: http://www.mandywintink.com/yoga/
Self Science - A Guide to the Mind and Your Brain’s Potential, Chapter on Mindfulness: http://www.mandywintink.com/book/
Mindful Way Through Depression (Book): https://www.amazon.ca/Mindful-Way-through-Depression-Unhappiness/dp/1593851286/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=knoyoubra02-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=&creativeASIN=1593851286
Power of Now (Book): https://www.amazon.ca/Practicing-Power-Now-Essential-Meditations/dp/1577311957/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=knoyoubra02-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=&creativeASIN=1577311957
Talking with Emily made my friggen week! I didn’t know her before this first encounter except through email briefly. A few weeks before this, I put out a call for training proposals for a retreat that I’m running for my coaching/teaching staff at the Centre for Applied Neuroscience. Emily replied offering a workshop on intuition based on her PhD work in education philosophy. I was OVER THE MOON with her email and before even meeting her I booked her to train us! This conversation was our first official in-person meeting and I have to say that she is so absolutely wonderful in so many ways. I love her ideas, her ability to articulate her ideas, the sound of her voice, her knowledge, her curiosity, her story, her perspectives, and her wisdom. I hope that this is one of many times I get to talk/work with Emily.
In the process of talking about intuition we cover what it is, how it works, how to experience it, the effect of believing in it, resistance to it as a way of knowing, feminism and oppression by the patriarchy, and spirituality. There is so much more I want to know from her so I’m going to read her thesis, which is linked to below. She’s also working on a more general public book that I am equally excited to read!
We meet on the balcony of the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto so you can hear the birds chirping around us, along with the construction and cars. But the birds are the nicest sound.
Resources:
Emily’s dissertation: http://summit.sfu.ca/item/17780
Follow Emily on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilyrsadowski
Reflective Questions:
Do you believe in intuition?
Do you need evidence that your intuition is present?
Do you think your intuition has been suppressed and oppressed?
How do you connect with your intuition?
Do you define it? Can you define it?
When are you most aligned with your intuition?
Background
Greer (another neuroscientist) and I began talking after I posted something on facebook about how I wanted to honour the female brain. She replied to my post with something like “YES!” and so we planned a conversation without any idea of where it would actually go. We went around and around and covered much ground including: 1) what does a woman leader looks like?, 2) valuing women in the workplace, 3) the female stress response of “tend and defend”and the maternal brain, 4) the difference between rearing boys' and girls’ brains and emotional brain development, 6) women’s intuition, and 7) the validation of #MeToo and #TimesUp. We wrap up with asking what are the characteristics of a female brain? We probably should have started with that, but we didn’t. We even tie in cryptocurrency. It ends a bit abruptly mostly because I deleted about 12 more minutes where we come up with a women's circle plan, which was interesting but a bit TOO much of a tangent. ;)
Resources
Women more efficient after coming back after mat leave: https://www.bustle.com/articles/48477-working-moms-are-more-productive-at-work-than-all-of-their-colleagues-so-there
The Invisible Labour Still Asked of Women at Work: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/18/pf/women-emotional-labor/index.html
The Emotional Labour of Women in the Workplace: https://theoutline.com/post/2514/the-emotional-labor-of-women-in-the-workplace?zd=2&zi=7gtn3mnv
Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/93460/1/cesifo_wp4641.pdf
SHE venture capital: https://sheeo.world/
Reflective Questions
What is YOUR female brain doing in the workplace undercover?
Are female-led start-ups now different than men-lead start-ups?
Do you support other women in a meeting, by acknowledging their points?
Has the #MeToo or #TimesUp help validate any experiences you had?
I recently started reading about giftedness in children. I came upon it somewhat by accident, more out of a curiosity prompted by many people commenting on Ashar’s unusual alertness since he was a baby, his incredible comprehension even before he was verbal, and always seems to be thinking. A few of these people suggested he might be gifted. So one day I googled it and became almost immediately captivated by what I was reading, mostly about the special needs of gifted children.
It’s been almost 3 years of me feeling like very few typical resources have helped our family with our “issues", whether they were sleep challenges or emotional needs or boredom/stimulation needs or me feeling more inadequate than I could handle. When I happened upon the giftedness literature, I finally felt like the solutions offered for those special needs made sense for our situation and, actually, many were what I had already started to identify as being helpful for us. I felt like I found a home and people who could relate to what I had long felt — but unable to articulate — were unique challenges with our child. I finally found hope. But as quickly as I found hope, I felt more alienated from many people around me because I felt unable to share this new direction without the worry of me or my child being judged. I was even hesitant to tell Mike at first. I haven’t felt confident speaking about this to anyone short of my mom and Mike. And then… I took a leap of faith. A friend of mine who has children older than I, made a comment on a facebook post that lead me to believe that she might have a gifted child of her own. So I very hesitantly reached out and asked, point blank, if she had a gifted child. Turns out she does… and this is a conversation that followed.
Resources:
Is my child gifted? Use the check list at the National Association for Gifted Children: https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources-parents/my-child-gifted
Giftedness Resource: http://www.davidsongifted.org/
Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted Children: http://sengifted.org/
Multiple Intelligences: http://www.mandyland.ca/blog/2018/2/26/rethinking-intelligence-its-not-all-or-none
Me! Please reach out if you feel that anything here struck a cord with you and you want to talk. I hate feeling alone in this and would love some mutual support!
We’re on a date night… and this is what we end up doing: talking about death! We talk about it from the perspective of my fear of dying and also from Mike’s perspective of not being afraid and then with respect to (assisted) suicide and enlightenment.
Reflective Questions
What happens when we don’t take care of our needs or don’t advocate for what we need? Gabor Mate thinks our body will say “no”.
How does taking
your own life (either by assisted suicide or other) affect our ability to transcend suffering?
Can you take your own life from an enlightened perspective? And by extension… mindfully?
What happens if we "exert control" at that last moment? Is that the opposite of “letting go”?
Is taking your own life controlling death in a way that is not consistent with enlightenment/mindfulness?
Can you embrace death and control it at the same time?
I have always enjoyed consulting the cosmos for support. Actually, if I trace my psychology interests back, I can see it within my interests in the paranormal, for example, dreams, ghosts, telekinesis, superpowers, unsolved mysteries, and oracles.
Something about these unknowns deeply resonates with me and they bring me great comfort especially when I feel lost in other ways. To me, a session like this IS therapy, a therapy that feels a million times better than any other therapy I have ever tried. Often times, what I feel that I need is a perspective that I couldn't possibly come up on my own. Maybe that's why I have never really done any training in any of these metaphysical disciplines... I wanted them to remain a mystery.
In any case, I got HUGE benefit from this session, not too surprising for me. I came away with a new and refreshing perspective on my struggles as a mom, some affirmation having quit frisbee, and an unexpected new direction with my career.
I share this, despite that it is clearly very irrelevant to anyone other than me, except that this podcast is about the interesting conversations that I have with others, and this is definitely one of them. I share this because I know there are people out there who are curious about what it would be like to have an astrological or tarot card reading and just need a little glimpse into it before they can truly make that decision. So here is that glimpse.
A few days before this conversation Jenn and I (along with our partners and kids and friends) attended an open house for an alternative school in our neighbourhood that we both want our kids to get into. The conversation natural meanders through a variety of topics including school ratings, learning styles, starting a new school, starting a summer school, tracking how kids learn, neuropsychoidiology, strength-based approach to learning...
Resources
Equinox: https://equinoxschool.ca/
Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) scores: http://www.eqao.com/en
EQOA results for Toronto District School Board (TDSB): http://www.eqao.com/en/assessments/results
The value of diversity in schools
Paper: Diversity in Public Education: Acknowledging Immigrant Parent Knowledge: http://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/viewFile/560/1265
Kids Celebrating Diversity in Our Schools: http://www.cnmag.ca/kids-celebrating-diversity-in-our-schools/
Immigrants associated with lower bully rates: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/where-to-find-school-bullies-not-where-you-might-expect/article31930773/
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences: http://multipleintelligencesoasis.org/
Index of Learning Styles: http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSpage.html
Strength-Based approach to education: http://www.wellingtoncdsb.ca/school/stjohnbosco/publications/strength-based%20classroom%20strategies.pdf
Kids from lower SES and adversity given same opportunities are more innovative - Having trouble find this one that Jenn referred to.
Self-Reflecting Questions
do you need to see failure?
How do you learn?
Have you considered a strength-based approach to learning in your home or life, whether for you or your child?
Post-Show Reflections:
I realized after that the “Why” that I mentioned I need to learn is because I tend to be a Global thinker, according to the Index of Learning Styles listed above.
So I made a big decision recently, which was to quit playing competitive ultimate this summer. The process was gruelling for me and it brought up a lot of interesting things for me. I start with wrapping my mind around letting go of an identity (in my own monologue) to discussing my body with Mike and ending with confidence in how I want to grow old with my body and try to embrace death with Mike, Lindsey, and Bronwyn (and the kids in the background). Who knew it would be a spiritual journey to quit ultimate? Actually, it’s not that surprising when we consider how our egos get wrapped up in identities… and it failing to let go. The last conversation gets into so peripheral topics about what is an athlete and is it different for men and women? I also liked the deeper conversation about growing old with yoga.
Endnote: BTW, we ran out of parmesan cheese during that last conversation.
Self-Reflective Question:
Is “athlete” a mindset or a physical characteristic?
How do we grow up gracefully? Can yoga help?
Can yoga help you embrace your body?
So I made a big decision recently, which was to quit playing competitive ultimate this summer. The process was grueling for me and it brought up a lot of interesting things for me. I start with wrapping my mind around letting go of an identity (in my own monologue) to discussing my body with Mike and ending with confidence in how I want to grow old with my body and try to embrace death with Mike, Lindsey, and Bronwyn (and the kids in the background). Who knew it would be a spiritual journey to quit ultimate? Actually, it’s not that surprising when we consider how our egos get wrapped up in identities… and it failing to let go. The last conversation gets into so peripheral topics about what is an athlete and is it different for men and women? I also liked the deeper conversation about growing old with yoga.
So I made a big decision recently, which was to quit playing competitive ultimate this summer. The process was grueling for me and it brought up a lot of interesting things for me. I start with wrapping my mind around letting go of an identity (in my own monologue) to discussing my body with Mike and ending with confidence in how I want to grow old with my body and try to embrace death with Mike, Lindsey, and Bronwyn (and the kids in the background). Who knew it would be a spiritual journey to quit ultimate? Actually, it’s not that surprising when we consider how our egos get wrapped up in identities… and it failing to let go. The last conversation gets into so peripheral topics about what is an athlete and is it different for men and women? I also liked the deeper conversation about growing old with yoga.
Background
Jenn and I were meeting for a brainstorming session over “report cards” for home learning. We both highly value the importance of process a long with the outcome or the product. We decided to start discussing a tool to help parents (including ourselves) document the process of learning in their children, with a focus on learning that’s done at home. We don’t cover the nitty gritty of what we come up with — we’ll save that for later — but we discuss the value of process, other ways people/disciplines document learning, how to reward process,
Reflective Questions
How do you feel about process? Do you value it?
What measures are there to evaluate process?
Have you ever left “breadcrumbs” to show where you’ve been?
What’s the balance between a plan and changing as you go?
How can you both plan for an end point and also be flexible for change along the way.
What language do you use to reward process, with kids or students or employees?
What do you track? What do you capture in your reflections?
What are your patterns?
What are your themes?
Prompted or impromptu!?
Resources
Nipissing Development Check-List: http://www.ndds.ca/ontario
Woebot: https://woebot.io/
This is mine and Dawn’s first public discussion about her life with depression and anxiety.
There are so many things I love about Dawn sharing all of this but one thing that I think deserves extra attention is how articulate and wise she with her mental illness. It’s like she sees it both through her own eyes and experience but also through the eyes of some looking from outside and also someone looking with a clinical lens. We cover quite a few topics including what it actually feels like to live with depression and anxiety. She paints a very visceral picture of what it feels like in her body and the thoughts that go through her mind. If someone has ever questioned the physicality of depression and anxiety, they should hear how Dawn describes it. But I want to make it clear that this took A LOT of courage for Dawn to share this and then allow her name to be attached to it. She’s so articulate and seems to comfortable with all of this that it’s hard to really tell with her. But she deserves a huge applause for doing this. I am truly grateful and know her sharing her story is of benefit to others, whether it’s people with similar experiences feeling less alone or for people without these experiences to grow more compassion.
Resources
Treatment-resistant Major-Depressive Disorder (MDD): http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/health_information/a_z_mental_health_and_addiction_information/depression/Pages/default.aspx
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/health_information/a_z_mental_health_and_addiction_information/GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder/Pages/default.aspx
Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD): http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/health_information/a_z_mental_health_and_addiction_information/Social_Phobia/Pages/Social-Phobia.aspx
Postpartum Depression: http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/health_information/a_z_mental_health_and_addiction_information/Postpartum-depression/Pages/default.aspx
Postpartum Anxiety: http://www.postpartumprogress.com/the-symptoms-of-postpartum-depression-anxiety-in-plain-mama-english
Panic Disorder: http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/health_information/a_z_mental_health_and_addiction_information/PanicDisorder/Pages/default.aspx
Anxiety Disorder: http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/health_information/a_z_mental_health_and_addiction_information/anxiety_disorders/Pages/Anxiety_Disorders.aspx
We are not our thoughts:
* Eckhart Tolle: https://www.eckharttollenow.com/new-home-video/default.aspx?shortcode=qb8jfh
* Mindfulness, with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Krista Tippet: https://onbeing.org/programs/jon-kabat-zinn-opening-to-our-lives/
* Mindful Way Through Depression Book: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1593851286?tag=knoyoubra02-20&camp=8641&creative=330649&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1593851286&adid=0F7R69JBHSSQCXQFWG4T&
Reflective Questions
How is fear of judgment affect your mental illness?
How do you respond to the question “How are you?”
What do you think is the relationship between anxiety and depression? Are they the same? Does one lead to the other?
Are you surviving through life? Or thriving through life?
At one point we discuss “psychosomatic” as a confusing term with reference to the relationship between the mind and body. How do you understand that?
What does it look like to be compassionate with people with mental illness?
How self-compassionate are you? Can you practice it more?
What is the point of living if you’re going to be able to be yourself?
Yet, do you feel like you can be yourself?
How comfortable are you with others expressing their negative emotions?
Background
We’re at Merchants of Green Coffee in Toronto. Just before I started recording Mike said that he had the thought that everything is exactly how it is suppose to be. So I start recording as we are launched into a conversation about enlightenment, objective truth, and activism. Because we’re at a coffee shop, we have some great background music that sets a nice atmosphere, I think. The conversation ends with Mike's distraction.
Resources
Merchants of Green Coffee: https://merchantsofgreencoffee.com/
Anthropology of Childhood: http://amzn.to/2zDBHl3
Reflective Questions
Is there an objective truth? Or an objectively right or wrong?
What major (or minor) belief systems do you hold and how has your environment lead you toward those specific belief systems?
How often can you let go, let things be the way they are meant to be, or to accept that everything are exactly how they are? What’s holding you back? Do you think it’s important to do that?
What changes when we are attached to an outcome vs. not attached, in terms of knowing our role or productivity or anything else.
What’s your metric of success?
Is it possible of moving an agenda without being attached to it, to the outcome?
Do you ever consider the history of a person when trying to understand why they do what they do?
Background: We’re having a house breakfast. It starts off with Ashar and Nyjah getting stuck while crawling under the couch. We’re talking about our white privilege and some of our resistances to our white privilege, particularly in comparison to disadvantages we might feel because of our gender and/or sexuality. Throughout the conversation you also get to hear us parenting our kids squabbles and requests. Around the 30-minute mark, I stop the audio and then when not recording Bronwyn launches into this great speech about what we should do with our privilege. So I start recording again but we don’t come anywhere near what she said. So it ends again… for now.
Reflective Questions: * What opportunities do you hoard? * How do you check your privilege? * What do you do about your privilege? * Are people allowed to connect over shared experiences of disadvantages? * Do you feel like people with privilege are being silenced now? Or that they feel silenced? And if so, is it good for people to start to feel a bit uncomfortable as they learn how to navigate this new territory of equality?
Resources: * This is the privilege video I was talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc0kUlBvPhg but I don’t like it because it’s run by a white guy. * But I like this one better, because it’s actually run by young black women and describes the process of debriefing it after rather than just having a white guy explain it to the kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzubW6e4P6g * Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In Book: https://leanin.org/book/ * Man names to lead Canadian women’s advisory board: https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/09/14/man-named-to-lead-canadian-womens-advisory-board--again.html. And a critique: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/09/15/womens-empowerment-organization-catalyst-canada-believes-in-strength-of-male-leaders_a_23211090/
Post-Conversation Reflections: I keep thinking later on about my point about feeling like I want to do something with my privilege and not just "check it". I realized I said that I really felt uneasy about just being told I have privilege and not being able to do anything. But upon reflection, I realized that this feeling itself and my desire to take action, itself comes from a place of privilege because I am generally empowered in my life. So to feel helpless is uncomfortable and unfamiliar for me. And I have the luxury in life, generally speaking, to do something about that. Others aren’t as fortunate.
Summary Mike and I somehow end up in a debate on “what is a hipster?” It’s an old conversation, from 2014. I honestly can’t remember how it started but it did lead to a deeper (?) conversation about craftship, apprenticeship, and mentorship. You have to wait about 10 min to get to that part but I found listening to us figure out what a hipster is, kind of amusing. Then, we talk about the difference between craft, apprenticeship, and mentorship compared to design-based problem-solution-type business models.
Reflective Questions: * What sorts of investments have you made in a mentor or as a mentor? * Are you asking for help? * Who’s supporting your journey? * How would you define good mentorship? * If you were/are a business person, what style of business would/do you run? * Are you concerned more with the How or the Why?
Resources: Devin’s company, Rekindle * website: https://rekindleyourlife.ca/ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rekindleyourlife/ Huffington Post Article on PBR: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/pbr-coolness-study_n_5399109
Summary This was a planned discussion about the role of neuroscience in coaching between myself and my friend and colleague Quinn Simpson. Quinn is a coach who works primarily within education. We cover a lot of topics including creativity, neuroplasticity, change and capacity for change, stress, decision-making, intuition, empathy, how to be present with others, and how to self-reflect on our own biases as a coach. We end with a look at how neuroscience can provide tolerance and compassion for others.
Who would be interested in this: * Coaches, either in training or who have been working professionally as a coach for some time. * Anyone who is just interested in applied neuroscience, and by that I mean people who want to know about principles of neuroscience and how they can be applied to personal development, life skills, emotional intelligence, decision making, and that whole consortium of topics.
Reflective Questions * Ask, don’t tell. * What is the quality of your thoughts? * Mandy said her job as a coach is to inspire action-oriented thinking and awareness. What do you think your job is? * What are you using your brain for? Are you using it to ruminate over to-do lists or are you leveraging your natural capacity for growth? * Do you have any “sunk thoughts” (i.e., like sunk costs)? * How much change is good and bad? What is your change capacity right now? * How will you change your brain today? * What’s the value of providing time for reflection, to find their own lens? * Quinn asked, "What is it about humans neurologically, makes us want to give advice?” What is it about YOU that makes you want to give advice instead of just let answers come from within? * When you believe someone has the answers, your questions are going to be different. Can you think of examples? * How do you use emotions in your decision-making process? * What does the coach need to do to most effectively manage and to reduce the impact of themselves on the coaching? What can the actually do to fully be with that person and not in their own head? * Does Neuroscience provide you with tolerance and compassion for others? * Does neuroplasticity allow you to encourage change, in yourself or others?
Who would be interested in this? * people considering starting their own podcast * people who like to think about the process of podcasting * content people * people who like to watch other people’s projects unfold, kind of like Start-Up Podcast audience. 😉
Paul’s coaching me to start my Mandyland podcast. We recorded it in the summer before it launched. We start this session with Paul discussing his proposed coaching process and then we talk about Mandyland. He helps me figure out some of the details and clarify some of the concepts. We cover why I did not feel inclined to be very niche-like with this podcast. Why cover the “why” of what I am doing. Paul also challenges me with the fractured aspect of my work as he tries to wrap his head around all that I do. I resisted it, as I typically do. He asks the questions I hate the most: What’s the common thread? What connects all these things that I do?
This probably isn’t the most interesting conversation from an outsider’s perspective but it is the background and it is part of my process. So if you like people’s process you might like this one.
Self-Reflective Questions: * When is the common thread YOU? * When do you come back for the person? * When do people come back for you? * What are you doing that won’t get stale? * Why are you doing a podcast? Why are you doing any of the work you’re doing? * I’m not the only who has seemingly fractured work. So how do we link it? Do we? What’s your hub? What’s your core from where you build out? What’s your home base? * Can you describe the common element of your work? * Are you unfocussed like me? * Are you making it as easy as possible for people to find you? To connect with you?
Resources: * Paul’s Website: http://pauldore.com/ * Mama Brain: www.MamaBrain.ca * Body Monologues: www.BodyMonologues.ca * Our Community Living Website: http://www.homeshared.ca/ * Rich Roll: http://www.richroll.com/ * Lena Dunham: http://www.lennyletter.com/women-of-the-hour/ * Start-Up Podcast: https://gimletmedia.com/startup/
Background Jenn rants about her job for the first 13 minutes. So skip ahead if you don’t want to hear that. We eventually cover topics such as leadership, managing others, reference letters, challenges of being a working mom, brining your whole self to work, working/busy too much, life in balance, being addicted to work.
(BTW, my former student DID get the job that I’m referring to with that reference letter part of the conversation!).
Resources * Money & Happiness: http://harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/the-science-of-happiness.html
Reflective Questions * Do you provide real references for people? I.e., what do you do about the challenging parts of the person’s skill set? * Do you have a yearly rhythm of creativity, whatever “creativity” means for you? * What kind of support do you feel you’re lacking as a working mom? Are you an entrepreneurial mom with distinct support needs you feel are lacking? * What kind of accommodations would help you (working moms) keep doing your good work? * Are you honouring your whole brain? * How is your work-life balance?
This was recorded back in the summer of 2014, long before Mandyland was conceptualized. At the time, I thought I would have a podcast with mine and Mike’s conversations. You can tell it’s old because I refer to Jian Gomeshi as the host of the Q back before we knew what kind of asshole he was. Most of what we talk about is the career of ranting and my desire to have pursued that, had I known about it at the time.
Background We are all over the map in our conversation. We spent a great deal of time talking about poop, which I’m actually not ashamed of. I think we should talk about EVERYTHING as a culture, poop included. And this isn't even about baby poop. Just plain old regular adult poop. And the anxiety that provokes it! But that’s not all we talk about it. We started talking this conversation with a focus on authenticity in our writing and other projects and we actually do come back to that. I think the conclusion was that we write for ourselves... and maybe others care about it too.
Resources The real poop: https://youtu.be/ZuvAMJfYvBY (Allison McDonald) Vanessa Vella's coaching website: https://www.vanessavellacoaching.com/ Jeana Boutilier's coaching website: http://thecoachingconnection.ca/life-coaching/ Poop cafe: http://www.poopcafe.ca/ Dr Milene Ricardi, my amazing dentist at www.riccardidental.ca My ND, Dr. Du La: https://www.torontonaturopathicmedicine.ca/staff/du-la/ My Chiropractor, Dr. Kim Butler: http://www.fusionchiropractic.ca/bios/
Reflective Questions * How much of your content is for you and how much for others? * Should we talk about everyday things like pooping and periods? * Are you writing about stuff that you are passionate about? Is experienced-based blogging a genre that is not "once a week" Scheduled blogging? * Do you ever compliment random people just because? * How do you make decisions? What sorts of decisions do you avoid? What factors negatively contribute to making a decision? * Instead of looking for what you want what if you wrote a want ad?
Show Notes:
Background This is an older recording from when our babes were under a year old and you can hear them in the background. What feels like a long time ago, Jenn and I were very active in alternative education systems, but at the time it was focussed on Post-Secondary Education. In this conversation, we talk about early childhood education. We play around with some ideas for how can we create a new education system distinct from the public school system and distinct from the homeschool system. We also just hash out education in general, as we typically do.
Resources We don’t have any off the top of our head. Do you? Share them!
Reflective Questions Do you feel empowered as a parent with your kids education? How could you feel more empowered, if that’s of interest to you? [How] are you educating your child now? Are you intentionally doing anything or just letting them learn passively?
Greer currently lives in LA and was back in Toronto so we decided to meet at Riverdale Park to discuss parenting practices. We cover a lot of parenting topics in our hour and 20 min conversation including sleep training, responsive parenting, discipline, self-regulation, co-sleeping, childcare, and how to balance being a mom with work. We include personal anecdotes about my 2 year old and her dog!
Resources * Dan Siegel’s The Whole Brain Child: https://www.amazon.ca/Whole-Brain-Child-Revolutionary-Strategies-Developing-ebook/dp/B004J4X32U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1505422754&sr=1-1&keywords=whole+brain+child * Kangaroo care, also known as Skin-to-Skin * http://www.mountsinai.on.ca/patients/having-a-baby-at-mount-sinai/care-after-birth/skin-to-skin/skin-to-skin * Skin-to-Skin C-Sections: http://sunnybrook.ca/media/item.asp?i=1125 * Maternity leave vs Parental leave article referring to 18 months.
Reflective Questions: * Where is the line between needs and wants for you? * Are you eager to discipline your child? Where is the desire to discipline coming from? Is it for the child’s benefit? Is there a difference between safety and habits and rules? * Do you think birth and breastfeeding and child care are feminist issues? * Have you ever been “mad” at society that you couldn’t take care of your baby? Are you mad that there is not enough support to be a mom? Or a working mom? Or that you can’t have “it all”? * If you’re a mom who is in a parenting relationship with a partner, do you let your partner do things? Like really do things with the baby/child? How do you facilitate or impede equal participation
The conversation starts off with a reaction that Jenn had to a facilitator that I brought in for a retreat day for the staff of my company, the Centre for Applied Neuroscience. It sparked a whole conversation on privilege, which I admit was tough for me to have. I personally feel like it’s hard to talk about this, especially publicly, because out of fear that we might say the wrong thing. So I venture into this conversation feeling vulnerable. I think we dive into a few good points about it and I also feel more comfortable talking about it with Jenn, who I am very open with and who is a women of color (Chinese). So it was a great conversation to have!
We’re up at the cottage driving back from town. We start talking about my podcast but that leads into talking about doing things just for doing them, without another agenda. This leads into a conversation about science and how basic science is just for the sake of curiosity and how there is value in that. Despite this deviation into science, the conversation actually relates to people doing what they love and seeing where it goes. This is a belief I have held for a long time and it is the foundation of my coaching practice and how I personally navigate through life. At one point Mike also suggests that “Mandyland” sounds like a self-centred circus event! After listening to this podcast after the fact, I have to defend my desire to use Mandyland as an umbrella term. I don’t think it’s self-centred in the negative way we think of it but I do think it is self-centred in the sense that it is centred on me and my thoughts. And I stand by Mandyland as my playground! The conversation ends when we arrive at the cottage!
We started off with Lindsey reflecting on her maternity leave (which is about to end) and the anxiety she felt during her time off from work. It fed into a discussion about body image, which Lindsey and I have covered to a great extent through our co-founded organized, Body Monologues. The theme of this conversation was our “Expanding Identity”.