Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | RSS | More
My guest for Life on Purpose Episode #95 is award-winning author, speaker, teacher, and researcher Dawson Church.
He joined me to discuss his brand new book Bliss Brain, the Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy (Hay House), in which he digs deep into leading-edge science, and finds stunning evidence that rapid and radical brain change is possible. In just eight weeks of practice, 12 minutes a day, using the right techniques, we can produce measurable changes in our brains that make us calmer, happier, and more resilient.
*NOTE: I’ve taken Dawson’s classes and had the privilege to work with him, so I can personally testify to how impactful his work really is!
In our inspirational, in-depth conversation, Dawson and I discussed:
- His book Bliss Brain, the Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy;
- How he stays positive in these uncertain times;
- The subject/object shift and why it’s important;
- The 2017 fire in which he and his wife lost their home and all of their possessions;
- His personal journey as a metaphor for what we’re all going through;
- Post-traumatic stress vs. post-traumatic growth- what makes the difference?
- “When you discover the truth of who you are, it is incredibly powerful!”
- How long to meditate every day to start sparking positive neuroplasticity?
- What brain scans of Tibetan monks revealed!
- What REALY happened when ancient poets & mystics went into states of ecstasy?
- The neurochemicals that are generated internally when we meditate and how they effect us;
- Anandamide, the bliss molecule!
- 7 simple steps to get your first taste of bliss brain;
- His own struggles making meditation work and what changed;
- Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)/Tapping as a healing modality;
- How EFT can be used to treat anxiety, depression, PTSD, and phobias;
- The message from “the Buddha in the ashes”;
- Much more!
“Compassion and love can’t be burned! If we build a brain full of those qualities, we can be the Buddha in the ashes!” says Dawson.
About Bliss Brain:
How Quickly Can You Remodel Your Brain For Joy?
Stunning new research shows that “flow” states begin changing your brain within hours. With practice, they remodel key brain regions completely. Stress circuits shrink while happiness circuits grow.
This leads to “Bliss Brain.” It’s a state in which joy is natural. It nurtures the personality traits of patience, compassion, creativity, and love.
In this remarkable new book, legendary researcher Dawson Church explains the neuroscience behind these discoveries. He teaches the 7 simple steps that lead to elevated emotional states, and shows how science can take you to Bliss Brain daily.
To learn more about Bliss Brain, visit: blissbrain.com.
More About Bliss Brain:
We all know that our brains are capable of rewiring themselves. But what science is now showing is that this neural plasticity isn’t just happening over the course of months or years.
It’s occurring quickly, and can remodel entire networks in the brain over time.
In Bliss Brain, famed researcher Dawson Church digs deep into leading-edge research, and finds stunning evidence of rapid and radical brain change.
In just 8 weeks of practice, 12 minutes a day, using the right techniques, we can produce measurable changes in our brains. These make us calmer, happier, and more resilient.
When we cultivate pleasurable “flow” states regularly, they become traits. We don’t just feel more blissful as a temporary experience; the changes are literally hard-wired into our brains, becoming stable and enduring personality traits.
The startling conclusions of Church’s research shows that neural remodeling goes much farther than scientists have previously understood.
In meditation adepts, stress circuits begin to shrivel. Simultaneously, the “Enlightenment Circuit” — associated with joy, compassion, productivity, creativity, and equanimity — expands.
During deep meditation, Church shows how “the 7 neurochemicals of ecstasy” are released in our brains. These include anandamide, a neurotransmitter that’s been named “the bliss molecule” because it mimics the effects of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.
Meditation boosts serotonin and dopamine; the first is an analog of psilocybin, the second of cocaine. Church shows how cultivating elevated emotional states literally produces a self-induced high.
While writing Bliss Brain, Church went through a series of disasters, including escaping seconds ahead of a California wildfire that consumed his home and office and claimed 22 lives. A painful injury and financial disaster followed.
Through it all, Church steadily practiced the techniques of Bliss Brain while teaching them to thousands of other people. This book weaves his story of resilience into the fabric of neuroscience, producing a fascinating picture of just how happy we can make our brains, no matter what the odds.
About Dawson Church:
Dawson Church is an award-winning author whose best-selling book The Genie in Your Genes has been hailed by reviewers as a breakthrough in our understanding of the link between emotions and genetics. His follow-up title, Mind to Matter, reviews the science of peak mental states.
He founded the National Institute for Integrative Healthcare to study and implement promising evidence-based psycholog- ical and medical techniques. In his undergraduate and graduate work at Baylor University, Church became the first student to successfully graduate from the academically rigorous University Scholars program in 1979. He earned a doctorate at Holos University under the mentorship of neurosurgeon Norman Shealy, MD, PhD, founder of the American Holistic Medical Association.
After an early career in book publishing as editor and then president of Aslan Publishing, Church went on to receive a postgraduate PhD in Natural Medicine as well as clinical certification in Energy Psychology. Church’s groundbreaking research has been published in prestigious scientific journals. He is the editor of Energy Psychology: Theory, Research & Treatment, a peer-reviewed professional journal.
He shares how to apply the breakthroughs of energy psychology to health and athletic performance through EFT Universe. EFT Universe was the first organization to have its courses accredited for CME (continuing medical education) for all the major professions, including doctors (AMA), psychologists (APA), and nurses (ANCC). He has trained thousands of practitioners in energy psychology techniques and offers the premier certification program in the field.