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Podcast 2023-08-10

Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess || Caroline Leaf

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Today we welcome Caroline Leaf to the podcast. Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist with a Masters and PhD in Communication Pathology and Logopaedics. Since the early 1980s, she has researched the mind-brain connection, the nature of mental health and the formation of memory. Dr. Leaf is also the bestselling author […]

Episode Details

Show Notes

Today we welcome Caroline Leaf to the podcast. Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist with a Masters and PhD in Communication Pathology and Logopaedics. Since the early 1980s, she has researched the mind-brain connection, the nature of mental health and the formation of memory. Dr. Leaf is also the bestselling author of Switch on Your Brain, Think Learn Succeed, and Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. Her latest book is called How to Help Your Child Clean Up Their Mental Mess

In this episode, I talk to Dr. Caroline Leaf about managing the mind. The world is a crazy place and our minds can get disorderly trying to keep up with it! But according to Dr. Leaf, to have a messy mind is to be human. We don’t have to pathologize our emotions and thoughts. Instead, we can embrace them and implement strategies that allow us to better direct ourselves. Dr. Leaf shows us how to make sense of the messy mind and the scientific research behind those steps. We also touch on the topics of self-compassion, consciousness, trauma, and neuroplasticity. 

Website: drleaf.com & mentallyresilientkids.com

Instagram: @drcarolineleaf

Topics

  • Dr. Leaf’s background and expertise
  • Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess
  • Managing the mind
  • Emotions are warning signals 
  • Intrusive rumination
  • Detox from trauma
  • The Neurocycle 
  • Where CBT works best 
  • Dr. Leaf’s research 

Seven core insights

What 11 years of conversation
revealed

  • 01
    Being over DoingThe richness of presence and inner life over constant productivity.
  • 02
    Creativity over EfficiencyMaking space for imagination and originality in a world that prizes optimization.
  • 03
    Self-Actualization over AchievementBecoming the fullest version of yourself, not just reaching the next milestone.
  • 04
    Deep Fulfillment over HappinessPursuing meaning and depth rather than fleeting positive feelings.
  • 05
    Self-TranscendenceGoing beyond the self to serve something larger — the highest expression of human potential.
  • 06
    Meaning & CompassionThe threads that run through every great conversation — purpose, connection, and care.
  • 07
    Human PossibilityThe unwavering belief that every mind is capable of far more than we’ve been told.

About the guest

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Keep exploring

11 years of
human possibility

478 episodes exploring creativity, intelligence, well-being, and what it means to be fully human. The archive is yours to explore.