On Today's EPISODE #299 we will cover: 
✔ A Deep Dive into Dr. Carolyn Leaf's 5 Scientifically Proven Steps to Clean Up Our Mental Mess, So We Can Help Ourselves, Others and Our Children (Preparing for Dr. Leaf's NEW Book Coming Out August 8th). 
✔ What to Expect in the 63 Day Neurocycle (from her APP) from Andrea's Experience of Breaking Down Her Own Toxic Thoughts.
✔ How This Scientifically Proven Process Breaks Down a Toxic Thought, and Reconceptualizes It into Something Healthy and Manageable.
✔ An Overview of the 5 Steps You Will Use to Manage Your Mind.
✔ What Tools and Strategies Stanford Professor Dr. Andrew Huberman suggests for improving anxiety and stress in our lives.
✔ Andrea's Thoughts on implementing these strategies for improved mental and physical health, with tools to create balance on a daily basis.
Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we connect the science-based evidence behind social and emotional learning (that’s finally being taught in our schools today) and emotional intelligence training (used in our modern workplaces) 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 5 years ago with the goal of bringing ALL the leading experts together (in one place) to uncover the most current research that would back up how the brain learns best, taking us ALL to new, and often unimaginable heights.   
As we have now hit more than halfway through this year, I want to look back to where we started in January. We opened up January 2023 and SEASON 9 with an episode that focused on “prioritizing our mental and physical health, improving self-awareness and resiliency”[i] with a quote from Julie Smith, and her book Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
She said “To me, working on maximizing our mental health is no different to working on our physical health.”
Today, we are going to show just how true Julie Smith’s concept of being mindful of our physical AND mental health is, and look at some strategies that we can all use immediately, for difficult times, so that we ALL keep our mental health at the forefront, with ideas for how we can use our mind to become resilient to stress.
For today’s episode #299, we are going back to the Basics, and reviewing EP #106[ii], from February 2021, where we covered a review of Dr. Carolyn Leaf’s Neurocycle APP[iii] (that’s scientifically designed to help manage and reduce anxiety, depression and mental ill-health by 81%) along with her book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, that we covered when we interviewed Dr. Leaf on a BONUS EPISODE[iv] back in 2021. I continue to release her episode every year, as her 5 STEP process to identifying, and breaking up toxic thoughts is unlike anything I’ve ever seen or tried myself. If anyone ever asks me “what do you recommend for getting rid of those ruminating thoughts, those worries, stresses or anxieties” that ALL of us feel at some point in our life, I always send over Dr. Leaf’s interview, and let them know about her APP that’s now called The Neurocycle APP, based on applying these 5 steps.
Why Am I Revisiting Our Mental Health Now?
After our last EP #298 with my friend and Neurocoach, Grace Reynolds[v], I mentioned that my girls were struggling with going back to school, and my youngest in particular, with a new school, no friends there, and an entirely new routine. I tried some of Grace’s strategies with her to help bring her brain back to calm, but I quickly realized that I needed more help for her.
I thought back to Dr. Leaf’s episode, and wished she has steps for me to follow that I could walk my 12 year old through, so I went back to the Neurocycle APP on my phone, and thought that it might be a good time for me to revisit the 5 STEPS that s