“Humans are born to be kind. They're born to love. It is part of our nature. … we're actually nurturing a capacity that is part of the nature of who we are as human beings to begin with.” — Dr. Richie Davidson

Dr. Richie Davidson’s research has revolutionized the way we understand the brain and how plastic and malleable or changeable the brain is. Just like we train our physical bodies and go to the gym, he and his team at the Center for Healthy Minds have shown that we need to train our brains and work them out as well. 

As a result, he is changing the way we understand well being—to think of it as a skill—something we do and practice as active agents of our own well being.

His research can give us a whole new appreciation of Christian contemplative practices or disciplines. Although we can't control all that happens around us or to us, we do have some control on how we respond, merging helpful insight with concrete practices that make a difference for our minds, so that we can become more regulated, peaceful, receptive, open, and even more trusting. Not just so that our personal well being increases, but so that we become more engaged in thriving humans that contribute to a flourishing world.

In this bountiful conversation with Richie Davidson, we discuss:

• Two kinds of learning—declarative and procedural—that need to be integrated in order to cultivate mental and spiritual health
• The four pillars of a healthy mind: awareness, connection, insight, and purpose
• How to cultivate a mindset for healthy relational connection
• How to understand the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and how this impacts our well-being and spiritual health
• The over-emphasis (even approaching hype) on mindfulness that seems to be present in our culture
• What a healthy approach to meditation might be in our spiritual lives
• The science and spirituality of love and compassion

About Richie Davidson

Dr. Richie Davidson is a pioneer in contemplative neuroscience, and does cutting edge research on the neuro-correlates of emotion and meditation. He's also the founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin Madison, where he's the William James Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry.

Show Notes

• Check out the Healthy Minds App (free!)
• Learn more about the Center for Healthy Minds
• Science intersecting with spiritual experience
• “I've always considered spiritual experience to be part of the human repertoire. I think that humans are born to touch into those qualities that we come to label spiritual because it is within our capacity to have experiences that in many ways we can say go beyond ourselves, connect us to something larger.”
• Richie’s experience with the Dalai Lama
• The neuroscience of kindness and compassion
• The development of the Center for Healthy Minds: “to cultivate wellbeing and relieve suffering through a scientific understanding of the mind.”
• Learning to approach thriving and well being as a skill
• Two kinds of learning: declarative and procedural
• Brain plasticity and well being
• Well being requires practice!
• Declarative learning, e.g., learning the value of kindness or honesty. This won’t make you kinder or more honest, though.
• Procedural learning— a skills-based roadmap, complementary to declarative learning.
• Mental hygiene
• The four pillars of wellbeing: awareness, connection, insight, and purpose
• Insight: changing the narrative and changing the relationship to the narrative
• Self-esteem
• Finding your true north in life
• Nurturing our capacity for compassion and kindness
• “Humans are born to be kind. They're born to love. It is part of our nature. … we're actually nurturing a capacity that is part of the nature of who we are as human beings to begin with.”
• The power of appreciation
• Cultivating a sentiment that others would be relieved of their suffering
• Lovingkindness meditation that moves from a person who’s easy to love to others, including those who might be very hard to love
• “An elixer for the soul” … to “regain our humanity”
• MEDITATIVE PRACTICE for connection: Richie Davidson leads listeners through a meditative exercise to send love and wish for that person’s healing and relief of suffering.
• Comparing to Christian intercessory prayer
• Exploring the pillars of awareness and insight
• The default network or default mode
• Research on depression and cognitive behavioral therapy
• “What does that mean: ‘I am sad.’”
• “The narrative we carry around acts as a filter.”
• Developing a healthy relationship with the narrative we have about ourselves
• “A lot of people I think don't even recognize that they have a narrative. … And that the narrative is actually powerfully guiding their behavior and experience in the world.”
• Mary Helen Immordino Yang on meaning making and the default network.
• The default network is almost always about ourselves.
• The connectivity in our brains can change.
• MEDITATIVE PRACTICE for awareness and insight: Richie Davidson leads through an exercise to imagine a different approach to a challenging personal situation. “Can you imagine a different set of beliefs or expectations?
• “Let’s see if we can envision how things might be different.”
• Understanding purpose
• Cultivating rituals that connect us to purpose
• What are the pitfalls that lurk near the practice of mindfulness or meditative practices for cultivating the skill of well being.
• Blaming the victim.
• “The best form of meditation is the form of meditation that you actually do.”
• A gap in the scientific study of love and compassion.
• Vivek Murthy: “an epic struggle between the forces of love and the forces of fear.”
• What is thriving to you?
• “From my perspective, I would say thriving is nurturing all of the innate capacities that we've been given. And here, the four pillars of wellbeing in our framework are critical, awareness, connection, insight, and purpose. And I think when we are expressing these qualities to their maximum, we are thriving by definition. And I would say perhaps the most important manifestation of that is our capacity to both receive and to express love.”
• Pam’s takeaways
• “We have a robust and glorious agency to cultivate our personal well being.”
• “Transformation comes from the integration of declarative and procedural learning.”
• “We have the power to shift our relational experiences to more loving places that align with our deepest values.”
• “Discerning and articulating your purpose will keep you grounded and directed in your journey towards spiritual health.”
• “Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18)

About the Thrive Center

• Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
• Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
• Follow us on X @thrivecenter
• Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

• Host: Pam King
• Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
• Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
• Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
• Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.