Mastering Self-Leadership with Neuroscience REVIEW PART 1 Chapters 2-5 (Grant Bosnick)

02/02/25 • 20 min

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning

Welcome back to Season 13 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast. In this episode, join Andrea Samadi as we delve into practical neuroscience applications for self-leadership in 2025. Discover how to balance various aspects of life through insights from Grant "Upbeat" Bosnick's book, 'Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership.'

We explore strategies from four key chapters, focusing on leveraging neuroscience to level up your goals, the inspiration behind motivation, the benefits of mindfulness, and the art of achieving flow states. Learn actionable steps for overcoming obstacles and using positive forces to drive personal growth.

Whether you're implementing new habits or seeking motivation, this episode serves as a guide to harnessing the full potential of your mind and achieving greater heights.

Welcome back to SEASON 13 of The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we connect the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning and emotional intelligence training for improved well-being, achievement, productivity and results—using what I saw as the missing link (since we weren’t taught this when we were growing up in school), the application of practical neuroscience. I’m Andrea Samadi, an author, and an educator with a passion for learning and launched this podcast 6 years ago with the goal of bringing ALL the leading experts together (in one place) to help us to APPLY this research in our daily lives.

Now, we are well into 2025, and if you are listening today, I want to congratulate you. Not everyone chooses to do the work that is needed for self-improvement. It’s something I’m dedicated to working on each year, and like you, those who tune in each week, implementing the ideas we write down in our notebooks, and even the ones we highlight in yellow, this is the hardest work in the room. I just want to recognize you for showing up here, and tuning in to grab some ideas, do this difficult work, and take the ideas that you learn from the research, and put them into action.

Like you, I am doing this as well. We interviewed Kristen Holmes, the VP of Performance Science from Whoop.com back in May 2021, on EP134[i] when I had first started using the wearable device to measure my sleep, strain and daily recovery. She told me something I already knew, and that was that my sleep needed work. She said it much sterner than this, but I heard it, loud and clear, especially since my brain scan from Amen Clinics, that we reviewed on EP 84[ii] came back and showed that I was sleep deprived. Changing behaviors, habits and daily routines, and changing the trajectory of our health is all possible, but actually sustaining the change—this is what I’m looking for. This is why I am doing these podcast episodes, and sharing what I’m learning along the way. It took me 4 years to finally improve my sleep, but to do this, I had to sacrifice something else important to me, and that was my early morning workouts. I’m sure if you are listening, you would understand and know exactly what I am saying here. While making improvements with one area of our life, we tend to do this at the expense of another area. I’m determined to prove that we can have it all, and hopefully, at the end of this review, we can all find a way towards improving the balance in the important areas of our lives.

REMEMBER: “Mastering others is strength; mastering oneself is true power” - Lao Tsu

Now wouldn’t it be great to have a tool (like a map) that tells us what is important to focus on each year, based on what we say is important to us in our work or personal lives?

Now sleep is not on the map we are covering today, as we will review the 19 chapters from Grant Bosnick’s book, but I would put sleep right at the top of the list, along with the Top Health Staples that we covered back on a bonus EP we did in 2022[iii] where we first covered the importance of daily exercise, good quality sleep, eating a healthy diet, understanding how to balance our gut-brain axis, how to listen to our hunger cues with intermittent fasting, and the importance of stress reduction (that I think we could cover more in depth this year).

((If you took the leadership self-assessment[iv] last year, go back and take it again, and see if any of the areas have changed for you.))

SELF-ASSESSMENT LINK HERE

And now we will begin PART 1 of our 4-PART review, to sum up last year, 2024, and our entire year studying one book, Grant Bosnick’s “Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership: A Bite Size Approach Using Psychology and Neuroscience” that we first dove into with our interview on EP #321[v] the end of January 2024. The goal was that each week, we focused on learning something new, (from G...

Whether you're implementing new habits or seeking motivation, this episode serves as a guide to harnessing the full potential of your mind and achieving greater heights.

REMEMBER: “Mastering others is strength; mastering oneself is true power” - Lao Tsu

Now wouldn’t it be great to have a tool (like a map) that tells us what is important to focus on each year, based on what we say is important to us in our work or personal lives?

((If you took the leadership self-assessment[iv] last year, go back and take it again, and see if any of the areas have changed for you.))

SELF-ASSESSMENT LINK HERE

Previous Episode

Unlocking the Power of Presence: Neuroscience Meets Self-Leadership

Welcome to Episode 354 of the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast! Join host Andrea Samadi as she concludes the 18-week self-leadership series with Grant Bosnick's revolutionary insights into the neuroscience of presence. Discover how your internal thoughts, external behaviors, and interactions shape your presence, and learn practical strategies to enhance your mindfulness and connection with others.

This episode dives into Dr. Dan Siegel's 'Wheel of Awareness' meditation, offering three actionable tips to strengthen your presence in daily life. Uncover how to elevate your relationships and productivity by integrating mindfulness practices into your routine.

Whether you're striving to be the most interesting or the most interested person in the room, this episode provides valuable guidance. Prepare to close the year with heightened awareness and step into 2025 with a new perspective on leadership and personal growth.

On today's episode #354 we continue with the final topic of our 18-Week Self-Leadership Series based on Grant Bosnick’s “Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership: A Bite Size Approach Using Psychology and Neuroscience” that we first dove into with our interview on EP #321[i] the end of January 2024. The goal was that each week, we focused on learning something new, (from Grant’s book) tied to the most current neuroscience research, that builds off the prior week, to help take us to greater heights this year. It honestly shocked me that this series took the entire year. Our final topic today, will be the neuroscience of presence, and then stay tuned for a review of the entire series to help us to move forward in 2025 with a new lens.

((On today's EPISODE #354 “The Neuroscience of Presence” we will cover)):

✔ Chapter 19 of Grant Bosnick’s Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership with the topic of presence.

✔ Grant Bosnick’s Presence Framework with examples of subtle and direct presence.

✔ The Neuroscience of Presence using Dr. Dan Siegel’s book Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence

✔ Three Tips to Develop More Presence in our Day to Day Life.

✔ Reflections for using Mindfulness and Meditation to Improve Our Presence.

If you’ve taken the leadership self-assessment[ii], look to see if Presence (in Pathway 2), along with inspiration and motivation, persuade and influence, is of a low, medium or high priority for you to focus on this year. I was not surprised to see this pathway is a high area of focus for me as I’m always looking for new ways to motivate, inspire and influence, and presence is something I know I need to work on daily, bringing my attention back to the present moment or you might catch me daydreaming. It made me laugh when Masati Sajady mentioned he noticed this with me, back on EP 348[iii] last year. Our presence is something that can be felt, that’s for sure. Now let’s take this deeper with Grant’s book.

Grant opens up chapter 19, his final chapter, by saying that presence “is a product of our internal thoughts, external behaviors and interactions with others. It’s something (he says) that we carry with us at all times, whether we’re walking into a meeting room (or walking anywhere I might add) or sitting at a bus stop.” (Ch 19, Bosnick, Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership, Page 252).

I can demonstrate this one easily because we have all been there. I’ll never forget Dr. Dan Siegel, who we interviewed way back in our early days of this podcast, on EP 28[iv] talking about this topic, as he watched a mother with a young child walking, and the mother was on her cell phone, not present at all. He talked about the many opportunities for connection that were lost in this instance, and I never forgot it, as I’ve been guilty of doing exactly the same thing and potentially losing out on opportunities to make meaningful connections with others.

Or think about this. In a conversation, someone is talking to you, and you notice the void. They’ve left the conversation. They are standing right in front of you, they could be looking you straight in the face, but they are no longer present mentally. You don’t need to ask them where they have gone, you can just feel it, and they eventually come back, but you know they gave you half of their attention.

Has this ever happened to you? Of course, it has.

Bosnick says that our presence “can be direct or subtle presence; and it can be controlled or uncontrolled. With direct controlled presence, we can be the most interesting person in the room—being assertive, measured and engaging (he says). With subtle controlled presence, we can be the most interested person in the room—being observant, connected and attentive.” (Ch 19, Bosnick, Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership, Page 252) and he says “both add value in different situations.”

Next Episode

Unlocking the Secrets of Self-Leadership: PART 2: Chapters 6 to 9 Review (Grant Bosnick)

Welcome to Part 2 of our in-depth review of Grant Bosnick's 'Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership.' In this episode, we delve into the significance of hydration for brain health, discovering 'aha' moments through creative insights, and the influential power of expectations on our well-being and success. We also explore the neuroscience behind staying mentally strong and regulate emotions effectively through improved sleep patterns. Join us as we unravel these fascinating research-backed strategies to enhance your self-leadership skills.

And we will now resume PART 2 of our 4-PART review, to sum up last year, 2024, and our entire year studying one book, Grant Bosnick’s “Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership: A Bite Size Approach Using Psychology and Neuroscience” that we first dove into with our interview on EP #321[i] the end of January 2024. The goal was that each week, we focused on learning something new, (from Grant’s book) tied to the most current neuroscience research, that builds off the prior week, to help take us to greater heights this year. It honestly shocked me that this series took the entire year. Last week, we began with PART 1[ii] and the first 5 chapters of the book. Today we will review chapters 6-9 of Grant Bosnick’s Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership.

((On today's EPISODE #356 PART 2 of our review of Grant Bosnick’s Tailored Approaches to Self-Leadership, we will cover)):

✔ EP 327 Chapter 6[iii] “The Hydrated Brain”

✔ EP 330 Chapter 7[iv]“Aha Moments, Creative Insights/the Brain”

✔ EP 333 Chapter 8[v] “Exploring the Power of Expectations”

✔ EP 335 Chapter 9[vi] “The Neuroscience Behind Staying Strong and Clear-Headed”

If you have not yet taken the leadership self-assessment, or if you would like to re-take it to see if the results are different for you than last year, you can click the link here to find the quick test.

Self-Assessment Results 2024 vs 2025

I re-took the assessment for 2025, and did notice some similarities and some differences. See what you notice about yourself. I noticed that pathways 2 and 3 are my high areas of focus this year, and that I can drop pathway 6 from my focus. What about you? If you have a few minutes to spare, take this leadership self-assessment again, and see if you notice any changes in yourself for 2025. Did any of your pathways of focus shift since last year?

REMEMBER: We are either moving forward into growth, or backwards to safety. (Abraham Maslow).

EP 327 Chapter 6 “The Hydrated Brain”

For this episode, I remember wondering how on the earth can we narrow the focus of this topic of health and wellness that Bosnick covers thoroughly in Chapter 6?

Dr. Peter Attia[vii], a Canadian-American physician, known for his medical practice that focuses on the science of longevity, says that “exercise might be the most potent “drug” we have for extending the quality and perhaps quantity of our years of life.”

He created a rule that he thought would help narrow this focus and it was called “Attia’s Rule”[viii] where he suggests that can’t even talk about this topic, unless you have reached a certain level of health yourself. I agree, as this is one area we have been focused on this podcast, and I notice that as I strengthen one area, I lose sight of another. It’s an ongoing quest for balance, and I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered the balance yet.

We dove deep into Attia’s Rule on our EP back in October 2022, “Using Neuroscience to Improve Fitness, Longevity and Overall Health.”[ix]

Dr. Attia says that nutrition and health arguments are a waste of your time until you’ve completed a certain set of criteria. He says don’t bother defending this topic unless you can:

Dead hang for a minute (try this! I honestly thought I was going to die when I did this 2 years ago). I’m not sure I could do it today with the signs of osteoporosis showing up in my fingers (and noticeable when I type). Wall sit for two minutes. (This wasn’t difficult for m...