Dharma Lab

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit dharmalabco.substack.comThank you to those who tuned into our 4th live video with Dr. Richard Davidson and Dr. Cortland Dahl! Join us for our next live AMA on Tuesday, Jan 6 at 8pm ET / 7pm CT.The discussion covered a lot of ground not limited to: Brain activity during meditation, Expectations / Non-attachment, Neuroscience of desire, Journaling + Meditation, Meditation dosage…

At certain moments in life — the end of a day, the completion of a project, or the turn of a year — we naturally begin to reflect.But without intention, self-reflection can quietly slide into rumination, self-judgment, and stress.In this episode of Dharma Lab, we explore the science of self-reflection: why it’s such a uniquely human capacity, how it supports learning, empathy, and wellbeing — and why it so often goes off the rails.Drawing on neuroscience, contemplative practice, and lived experience, we explore how self-reflection can be guided by intention rather than left on automatic — and how moments of awareness restore the capacity to steer the mind.Episode Highlights:In this conversation, we explore:* Why self-reflection is one of the most unique — and potentially troublesome — capacities of the human mind* How the prefrontal cortex enables “mental time travel” into the past and future* The difference between healthy reflection and toxic rumination* How stress impairs intentionality and leaves the mind running on autopilot* Why curiosity and intention are key ingredients in constructive self-reflection* The role of meta-awareness in restoring choice and flexibility* How perspective-taking supports empathy and compassion* Why self-reflection is central to psychotherapy, learning, and creativity* How analytical meditation trains reflection without losing awareness* Simple ways to practice healthy self-reflection in daily lifeIn the coming weeks, we’ll continue exploring how reflection, when held skillfully, can begin to shape the habits and patterns that guide our lives.We’d love to hear from you: What are ways you’ve learned and grown over the past year? What methods help you engage in self-reflection in a positive way?Warmly,Cort + RichieAs you reflect on the year, consider our recent post on turning resolutions into habits:From the Archives:Podcast Chapter List:00:00 — Why Self-Reflection Is Uniquely HumanHumans’ unparalleled capacity for self-reflection — and how it can help or harm us.01:53 — Natural Moments of ReflectionWhy reflection arises at transitions: days, projects, and years.02:23 — When Self-Reflection Goes Off the RailsHow reflection turns into self-judgment, negativity, and rumination.03:27 — The Neuroscience of Mental Time TravelThe prefrontal cortex and our ability to reflect on the past and imagine the future.05:35 — When Reflection Becomes RuminationHow negative reflection hijacks the mind.06:11 — The Salience Network and Emotional “Charge”Why rumination activates threat circuitry in the brain and body.07:30 — Self-Reflection as an Umbrella TermWhy healthy and toxic reflection can feel radically different.09:23 — Intentionality: The Missing IngredientHow lack of intention leads to runaway mental loops.10:48 — Curiosity vs. Judgment in Self-InquiryWhat distinguishes healthy reflection from toxic rumination.12:03 — Stress, the Prefrontal Cortex, and Habitual MindWhy stress shuts down intentional control.13:10 — The Sailboat Without a RudderA metaphor for the mind on autopilot.14:11 — Meta-Awareness: Finding the RudderWhy awareness of awareness is the starting point.15:16 — Everyday Examples of Meta-AwarenessReading, driving, and the moment we “wake up.”17:05 — Flexibility and the ‘Eye of the Storm’What continuous meta-awareness feels like in daily life.18:43 — Expanding the Aperture of AwarenessHow presence widens experience rather than narrowing it.20:46 — Why Meta-Awareness Enables ChangeWhy we can’t change the mind without knowing what it’s doing.22:15 — The Benefits of Healthy Self-ReflectionWhy reflection is central to therapy, recovery, and growth.23:42 — Perspective-Taking and EmpathyHow reflection helps us see beyond our own viewpoint.24:48 — Training Empathy Through ReflectionCort’s retreat experience and learning to take other perspectives.28:31 — Why the World Needs This Skill NowSelf-reflection, polarization, and social division.29:06 — Building on Innate CapacitiesWhy these qualities are already within us.29:33 — Small Moments, Not RetreatsHow to practice reflection in everyday life.30:12 — Curiosity as a Driving ForceBecoming a student of your own mind.31:13 — Analytical Meditation and the Dalai LamaIntentional self-reflection as a contemplative practice.33:58 — Combining Awareness and ReflectionWhy this combination is “magical” for daily life.34:36 — Closing Reflections and A Question for YouInviting healthy reflection at year’s end: “What have I learned this year? How have I grown?” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dharmalabco.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of Dharma Lab, we explore the neuroscience and contemplative practice of what it means to truly give.Recorded in the middle of the holiday season, our conversation begins with a familiar arc many of us recognize: the childhood excitement of receiving, and the gradual (and sometimes surprising) shift toward the deeper satisfaction of giving. Together, we explore what’s really happening beneath that shift, psychologically, biologically, and experientially.Drawing on neuroscience, Buddhist contemplative traditions, and lived experience, we discuss:* Why giving leads to more sustained well-being than receiving* How generosity cultivates an inner sense of abundance rather than scarcity* What the brain reveals about extraordinary altruists, and their ability to detect suffering* How generosity is a trainable capacity* How small, everyday acts — including giving your full attention — can become powerful micro-practicesDiscussion HighlightsFrom Getting to GivingAs we grow older, the thrill of receiving often fades, while the joy of giving deepens. Neuroscience helps explain why: the brain rapidly adapts to getting what we want, returning us to baseline, while the “warm glow” of giving tends to linger.Giving and the BrainAcross many studies, people instructed to spend money on others consistently report greater and longer-lasting increases in happiness than those who spend the same amount on themselves. We also discuss how our brains are prediction machines, and receiving tends to meet expectations and quickly normalizes; whereas giving often involves situations with a higher discrepancy between what you predict and what actually happens.Extraordinary Altruists and the Detection of SufferingWe explore research on “extraordinary altruists” — people who donate a kidney to a stranger — who show heightened sensitivity in brain systems involved in detecting suffering. Compassion, it turns out, may begin less with moral reasoning and more with perception.In contrast, psychopathy appears to involve reduced sensitivity to others’ suffering — not necessarily cruelty, but a kind of blindness. This comparison reframes generosity not as virtue versus vice, but as a capacity that exists along a spectrum and can be cultivated.Generosity as an Inner StateIn Buddhist psychology, generosity is defined less by outward action than by an inner sense of abundance. Fixation on getting reinforces scarcity; giving evokes the feeling that there is enough to share. That inner shift may be one reason generosity is so nourishing.The Gift of AttentionOne of the simplest and most powerful forms of giving is attention. Putting the phone away. Listening without planning a response. Being fully present, even briefly. Attention communicates care — and people feel it as a gift.Micro-Practices of GivingGenerosity doesn’t require dramatic acts. We explore small, repeatable practices: doing routine tasks as acts of service, offering presence in everyday interactions, reframing ordinary moments as opportunities to give. Over time, these micro-practices can turn generosity from a fleeting state into a stable trait.Counterintuitive Practices: TonglenWe also discuss tonglen, the Tibetan practice of breathing in others’ suffering and breathing out care. Though counterintuitive, practitioners often report feeling stronger, less fearful, and more abundant. Rather than depleting us, generosity appears to dissolve deep fears of inner poverty.Flourishing Is ContagiousWhen we cultivate generosity — even briefly — it changes how we show up. Those changes ripple outward, influencing relationships, families, and communities. As we like to say: flourishing is infectious.A Simple InvitationRather than asking how much you can give, we invite a quieter question:Where can generosity enter your day — through attention, presence, or small acts of care?Warmly,Cort & RichiePodcast Chapter List00:00 – Opening reflections: from receiving to giving01:45 – Childhood memories and the holiday shift toward generosity03:15 – Why giving feels more nourishing than getting05:10 – Abundance vs. scarcity as inner states07:00 – Giving as a contemplative practice09:10 – Flourishing is contagious11:00 – Micro-practices and everyday generosity12:40 – Attention as a gift14:20 – Research on giving and sustained well-being17:00 – A personal story of generosity and the “warm glow”20:00 – Prediction, expectation, and why pleasure fades22:15 – Tonglen: the counterintuitive power of giving25:30 – Detecting suffering and compassion27:00 – Extraordinary altruists and amygdala sensitivity29:30 – Psychopathy, blindness to suffering, and compassion32:00 – Plasticity: generosity as a trainable capacity34:30 – Compassion without overwhelm37:00 – Rituals of giving in daily life39:30 – Imagination and generosity practices 41:30 – Dedication and carrying generosity into the world42:30 – Closing reflections This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dharmalabco.substack.com/subscribe

REMINDER: Live Q&A with Richie and Cort TODAY at 7pm ET on Substack.Why do certain memories feel like they still live in our bodies years after they happened? And why do some difficult experiences become turning points for growth while others leave us feeling stuck?In this episode, we explore the neuroscience of trauma and the contemplative tools that help us reshape old emotional patterns. A central part of our discussion is the role of plasticity in both trauma and healing:“Trauma wouldn’t happen if there wasn’t plasticity. The same quality that allows experience to wound us also allows us to heal.”We look at how emotional memories are encoded in the brain, why they can resurface with such force, and how memory reconsolidation creates a natural opening for change each time a memory returns. We also share a powerful experience from a recent meditation retreat, where a long buried emotional imprint surfaced and released through simple, spacious awareness.Again and again, we come back to one insight:Our emotional past is not fixed.Each time we remember an experience, the mind updates it. The state of our mind and body in that moment influences how it is stored again.Meditation helps create the conditions for this shift. A calm and open nervous system changes how old patterns settle in the body. Presence and care make the difference between a memory that stays tight and one that begins to loosen.In this episode we explore:* Why trauma exists on a spectrum and why we are more resilient than we often believe* How emotional memories form and how sensation, context, and meaning become linked* The science of reconsolidation and why remembering a memory makes it editable* How meditation supports emotional release and re-patterning* What happens in the hippocampus and amygdala during emotional release* Simple practices that help us reset between activities or at the end of a day* How offering ourselves the same caring presence we offer others can shift deep patternsA final takeaway:Reconsolidation shows that nothing in our emotional history is final. Each encounter with the past becomes a chance to update it. When a memory returns in a calmer mind, it settles differently.Warmly, Cort + RichiePodcast Chapter List00:00 Why memories change every time we recall them 01:21 Opening greetings & Center for Healthy Minds 02:34 Introducing today’s topic: trauma & old baggage 03:00 How neuroscience defines trauma 04:03 Trauma, neuroplasticity, and brain change 05:40 Trauma as a spectrum, not a binary 07:44 Innate resilience and basic goodness 09:11 When difficult experiences become patterns 10:55 PTSD vs. post-traumatic growth 11:52 Personal stories of challenge and insight 12:58 Why some adversity overwhelms us — and some transforms us 13:32 Growth mindset & the belief that change is possible 15:33 Why we get “stuck” with old emotional residue 16:07 Cort’s retreat experience: when old pain resurfaces 17:20 Open awareness and effortless presence 18:00 Memories, emotion, and bodily release 19:08 What’s happening in the brain during emotional release 20:06 Consolidation vs. reconsolidation 22:03 The hippocampus and encoding emotional experience 23:53 Retrieval, reconsolidation, and the chance to reshape memory 25:36 Why memory is always an interpretation 27:08 Re-encoding old memories in a calm body 28:40 How meditation creates a new emotional context 29:38 Care + presence: the healing alchemy 30:52 Can reconsolidation be disrupted entirely? 32:22 What animal research shows about memory deletion 33:00 Emotional memory without emotional charge 34:06 How meditation alters hippocampus–amygdala pathways 36:00 Updating anxiety and old narratives through practice 37:05 Practical tools: daily resets 38:30 Micro-pauses between activities 39:33 Mealtime gratitude as nervous system reset 40:53 Finding small spaces for awareness in busy lives 41:33 Shifting from “doing” to “being” 42:00 Final reflections & gratitude This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dharmalabco.substack.com/subscribe

Mingyur Rinpoche has spent his life immersed in meditation practice — beginning a three-year retreat at 13, and eventually logging more than 50,000 hours of formal training. He was also a central participant in some of the earliest research Richie conducted on advanced meditators, work that helped open the door to much of the scientific exploration of meditation that followed.Yet despite this extraordinary background, the way he teaches is remarkably simple and down-to-earth.In this week’s Dharma Lab conversation, we look at one of the biggest misconceptions people bring to meditation: that it should feel calm or peaceful, and that difficulty means something is going wrong.Episode Highlights* Why early meditation often feels harder — and why that’s actually progress* The monsoon river: a powerful metaphor for understanding the mind* The “road to Lhasa”: how ups and downs both deepen practice* What science shows about the first four weeks of meditation* Why even 4–5 minutes a day meaningfully changes the brain and body* How to stop fighting distractions and use them as support* Mingyur Rinpoche’s “anywhere, anytime” approach to awareness* How difficult emotions become some of the most transformative moments* A gentler, lighter, more playful way to practiceA conversation filled with warmthSitting with Mingyur Rinpoche always leaves us lighter. There is a quality of ease in the way he teaches — a reminder that meditation isn’t about achieving particular states, but about recognizing the awareness that’s present in every one of them.We’re grateful to share this conversation and hope it offers a moment of spaciousness in your week.Warmly,Cort + RichieREMINDER: Join us for our next Ask Me Anything live with Cort and Richie on Tuesday, December 16 @7pm Eastern Time. Please send us your questions in advance!Chapter List00:00 – Learning from difficulty: Why “down moments” matter01:22 – Introducing Mingyur Rinpoche: A lifetime of meditation03:26 – Why Rinpoche inspires Dharma Lab04:15 – Setting intention: A short compassion micro-practice06:42 – “I’m bad at meditating”: The common misconception07:33 – Rinpoche: Meditation is easier than you think08:40 – The myth of “empty mind”09:34 – When practice feels worse before it feels better10:31 – The “waterfall experience” explained11:03 – Scientific data: Why anxiety rises in week one12:03 – How Richie measures this in studies13:00 – Even 4–5 minutes a day changes the brain14:09 – Biological markers & inflammation15:07 – Cort’s early struggles with practice15:31 – The monsoon river metaphor: clarity reveals the mind17:05 – Using everything as support for awareness18:25 – The road to Lhasa: Ups and downs in meditation20:01 – Why down periods help us grow21:20 – Two categories of meditation experience22:25 – How emotional difficulty becomes insight23:59 – Awareness shifts, not experience24:58 – States vs. traits in meditation26:03 – How awareness becomes more spontaneous over time26:18 – Practical tips for everyday practice27:06 – Rinpoche: How we learn from obstacles28:08 – Connecting with the “background of mind”29:10 – Richie: Bringing compassion into busy daily life30:59 – Cort: Using transitions as practice cues33:02 – Anytime, anywhere meditation34:23 – Final thoughts from Rinpoche34:44 – Closing gratitude This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dharmalabco.substack.com/subscribe