In this episode of The School of Greatness podcast, Lewis Howes interviews Dr. Rahul Jandial – a dual-trained brain surgeon and neuroscientist. Before finding his calling in the operating room, Dr. Jandial was a college dropout and worked as a security guard. As a surgeon, he now provides complex surgical treatment to patients with cancer. As a scientist, his laboratory investigates the biology of the human brain. Throughout his career, he has authored 10 books and over 100 academic articles.
This interview sheds light on the things that we all need to be focusing on more, the things that we need to be worrying about less, and the critical things that will help all of use lead richer and more fulfilled lives.
Takeaways to note:
- Our mind is like a symphony that is conducted by our brain.
- When an area of our brain is damaged, the rest of our brain compensates for this damage. An example of this is when a hemispherectomy is performed on a child to eliminate their seizures; the child will eventually regain full control because their mind learns to reorganize bodily functions, even though that hemisphere of the brain will never grow back again.
- Flow states happen somewhere between being hyper-focused and asleep; the goal is to be focused yet calm.
- Without the memory of trauma, trauma cannot exist; you can change the emotional context of that memory to remedy your PTSD of a particular event with therapy techniques.
- Cancer patients often realize that they wish they would’ve lived their lives differently prior to being diagnosed. If you can see the finish line, it changes the way you live your life. Make quality of life a priority, even if you can see your own death on the horizon. A positive frame of mind can have a positive impact on a person’s body; which in turn helps the body fight cancer more effectively.
- As we get older, we get better at coping with trauma and pain by learning to better regulate our emotions. Having a safe place to process our emotions allows us to take a more measured action instead of reacting violently to a painful stimulus.
- Changing the emotional context of our bad memories can relieve and heal trauma.
Feel free to leave your takeaways in the comments below.
