In this episode Andrea Samadi revisits a popular interview with Dr. Dawson Church about his book Bliss Brain and the neuroscience of meditation. They explore how simple, evidence-based practices can quiet the brain's default mode, trigger blissful neurochemicals, and reshape stress and happiness networks.
Listeners learn why happiness must be trained, how meditation helps people live more in the present, and practical tips to start a daily meditation practice using guided tools like the free Bliss Brain meditations.
Welcome back to SEASON 14 of The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we connect the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning and emotional intelligence training for improved well-being, achievement, productivity and results—using what I saw as the missing link (since we weren’t taught this when we were growing up in school), the application of practical neuroscience.
I’m Andrea Samadi, and seven years ago, launched this podcast with a question I had never truly asked myself before: (and that is) If productivity and results matter to us—and they do now more than ever—how exactly are we using our brain to make them happen?
Most of us were never taught how to apply neuroscience to improve productivity, results, or well-being. About a decade ago, I became fascinated by the mind-brain-results connection—and how science can be applied to our everyday lives.
That’s why I’ve made it my mission to bring you the world’s top experts—so together, we can explore the intersection of science and social-emotional learning. We’ll break down complex ideas and turn them into practical strategies we can use every day for predictable, science-backed results.
For today’s Episode 369, we are moving forward on our journey of the mind, to our next interview review, with our goal of building off of our past reviews, and sharpening our saw for improved well-being, productivity and success in 2025 and beyond.
To review our last 3 episodes, with our interview with speaker Bob Proctor, we learned that “If we want to improve our RESULTS, we must focus on the six faculties of our mind—reason, intuition, perception, will, memory, and imagination.” “Devoting a year to developing each one would be time well invested, elevating us to greater heights and setting us apart from others.”
Next, we looked at how we need to become extremely clear with our vision of “what we really want” and keep in mind that….
Our External Environment Reflects Our Internal World
What exactly does this mean? It means that if we don’t like what’s happening in our external world—whether it’s in our job, relationships, results, or any area of our life—we must first look inward. Our circumstances mirror the beliefs and thoughts we hold within. As James Allen reminds us in As a Man Thinketh: our outer world is always a reflection of our inner state.
For today’s Episode 369, we’ll turn inward—sharpening our inner world so that we can transform the outer one.
Today we go back EP 98[i] our interview with Dr. Dawson Church, that was recorded back in December of 2020, where we looked at the science behind implementing meditation into your daily routine. This interview is currently our most watched YouTube interview with over 11K views.
This week, in our review of EP 98 with Dr. Dawson Church and his book Bliss Brain, we will explore how meditation can rewire the brain for happiness and presence.
We will learn:
✔ Since happiness didn’t evolve naturally, we must train our brain to achieve it.
✔ Our brains default to the past or future, constantly scanning for threats, instead of resting in the present moment.
✔ Extreme states of happiness are possible for all of us when we implement meditation consistently.
✔ How to commit to a daily meditation practice using the free meditations that come with Bliss Brain, or explore other guided programs until you find one that resonates with you
Just a reminder-Dr. Church is the author of the book called Bliss Brain: The Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity and Joy.[ii] He’s an award-winning science writer who blends cutting-edge neuroscience with the stories of people who’ve had firsthand experience of brain change. Neural plasticity—the discovery that the brain is capable of rewiring itself—is now widely understood. But what few people have grasped yet is how quickly this is happening, how extensive brain changes can be, and how much control each of us exerts over the process of our thinking.
It’s been almost 5 years since this interview, and it feels like yesterday to me. I remember at the time, one of my dogs was barking in the yard when the landscape
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