EXPAND YOUR PERCEPTION WITH DR. BEAU LOTTO: The neuroscience of how creativity, resilience and adaptability will enable you to thrive in uncertainty

EPISODE 9: HONESTY CREATES THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVENTURE

At the moment, many of us are experiencing the consequences of uncertainty in the form of disrupted sleep, awkward dreams, possibly negative realisations about one’s beloved, parent, child, friend, work, experiences of illness or the devastation of finances … or all of the above. Grinning in the face of it will not make these realities go away.
 

The aim of this podcast is to demystify adventure. ‘De-grandize’ it. Democratize and humanize it… in order to lower its bar of entry for all of us. 'Moving through life with a tilt’ is first and foremost ... movement. More deeply, it’s being tilted in that movement: To use the fears, sadnesses and losses to propel you forward… and in doing so proactively create the possibility of new perceptions.

 

To read the blog that accompanies this podcast, click here.

EPISODE 8: THE POWER OF ADVENTURE

This is the first podcast in Beau’s Adventures in Uncertainty series that documents the time he packed up his home in New York, traveled across America (twice) eventually finding himself on a island in the Mediterranean.

This podcast explores the distinction between uncertainty, adventure and exploration... and how adventure is about embracing the uncertainty that already exists in one's life and reframing it as an opportunity to discover. 

 

EPISODE 7: A PLACE WE CAN FIND COURAGE

Our society focuses a great deal on confidence. Schools try to teach it, parents reward it, coaches punish you if you don’t have it, businesses pay you more if you fake it. 

The logic is that confidence engenders success. But does it? 

Ironically, research has shown that confidence can engender exactly the opposite: Poorly considered decisions and thoughtless actions that can create harm. Because when we’re confident we often forget to ask questions ...

EPISODE 6: THE GREATEST GIFT WE CAN GIVE IS FEEDBACK.

Dr Beau Lotto considers what is core to all of our existence? Is it food, shelter and water as Maslow suggests? Or is it something else that transcends these? Something that ‘makes sense’ of our physiology. 

He discusses how it is feedback that creates life. Without it, we literally perish. With plenty of food, water and warmth, when one’s perception of existence is malnourished, it can result in destructive behaviours.

Therefore the greatest gift we can give to another, is the gift of existence by the simple act of listening in the pursuit of understanding and providing feedback.

EPISODE 5: ACTIVATE YOUR PREFRONTAL CORTEX

What’s required to thrive in the unknown? 

TO ACTIVATE YOUR PREFRONTAL

The prefrontal cortex is the most recent innovation of our brain’s evolution. It evolved to help us deviate away from the more automatic, reactionary perceptions of panic, denial and anger to more thoughtful and considered behaviours. 

EPISODE 4: PANIC IS A NATURAL RESPONSE, AND IT'S CONTAGIOUS

Feeling disempowered in the face of uncertainty is a deeply natural response. When disempowered, which many of our brains are feeling now in the face of COVID-19, our brain-state is similar to our ancestors’ brain-state when they faced a moment of imminent death. You inherited this response. We all did. Each of us is seeing the world through their brains, and all the millions of brains that came afterward. These brains and their evolved responses are deep inside you - and everyone one around you. 

We are now collectively hearing the predator’s roar. We know it’s out there. Except this ‘predator’ is invisible to the naked eye, which makes it all the more frightening. 

EPISODE 3: YOUR FEAR OF UNCERTAINTY CAN DISEMPOWER YOU

The need to be in control of one’s fate is profound. When we feel in control, our brain feels ‘empowered’. Whether in a social, behavioural, psychological or economic context, to be empowered is to feel certainty in our lives.

COVID-19 is challenging that sense of control. As a result, hundreds of millions - if not billions - of brains around the world are feeling collectively disempowered. And that sense of disempowerment is likely to be stronger for those who strongly identified with being ‘an individual’, ‘self-made’, or ‘a lone wolf’ - a common archetype in the USA (and the West in general). 

Why? 

EPISODE 2 - DARKNESS: THE FEAR THAT ARISES FROM UNCERTAINTY

The darkness of night embodies a fundamental, existential threat of many of the fears that we carry in our brains from living life, including the viral pandemic we are currently experiencing. 

EPISODE 1 - WHAT IS YOUR BRAIN’S GREATEST FEAR?

If you didn’t know before COVID-19, you do now. 

And if you don’t know it consciously, your body is feeling it. 

The source of your greatest fear lies at the heart of every one of your brain’s thoughts, emotions and beliefs. It is the basis of our evolution. It underpins every behaviour you have ever done or will ever do in the future. 

 

TO READ THE BLOG, CLICK HERE