Jun 25, 2026 · 42 min · 12 segments
Dr. Richard Davidson and Dr. Cortland Dahl explore how stable differences in brain activity may shape personality and the ways we engage with the world. They discuss introversion, anxiety, approach…
Richard DavidsonHostCortland DahlHostyeah i love this so i mean to me this feels like the key point in that and it's it's against you know i think what naturally happens in many of our minds very similar to what i shared earlier with my you know looking at me ocean and feeling like oh why can't i be more like that it's like we look at somebody else's superpowers and we wish we had them and then we see you know whatever is going on in us as deficits rather than seeing them as potential superpowers And I, you know, for me, I very much feel like this has been the story of my life because a lot of the, you know, like very introverted, you know, very much like the shy, like I would have, you know, on this spectrum, probably, I don't know how extreme, but somewhere on towards one side.
You know, my meditation practice, obviously, the, you know, I love solitude and that has served me so well.
I may have done, you know, so much retreat and that's been so, has brought so much to my life.
My creative work and writing and other things, solitude and that, you know, the fact that I have zero discomfort in just locking myself in a room for weeks on end with a pile of books and I'll just be a happy camper.
And so it seems like one of the lessons here is that within any of these styles or any of these patterns or even looking at brain asymmetry, whatever natural predispositions are going on even in our brains, It's kind of leaning into that and asking where is the hidden superpower in this particular configuration that I have, rather than saying, oh, I wish I could be more like that.
It's more kind of leaning into this as potential superpowers that are kind of just waiting to be tapped into.
And if we go back to our four key pillars of well-being, awareness, connection, insight, and purpose, the dimension of asymmetry is really, to use a technical term, orthogonal, which means independent.
You can be – you can have – left-sided activation or right-sided activation and still cultivate all four of these pillars of flourishing, but they will look different.
They won't look the same in a person who has strong left prefrontal activation or a person that has strong right prefrontal activation.
yeah i love this so i mean to me this feels like the key point in that and it's it's against you know i think what naturally happens in many of our minds very similar to what i shared earlier with my you know looking at me ocean and feeling like oh why can't i be more like that it's like we look at somebody else's superpowers and we wish we had them and then we see you know whatever is going on in us as deficits rather than seeing them as potential superpowers And I, you know, for me, I very much feel like this has been the story of my life because a lot of the, you know, like very introverted, you know, very much like the shy, like I would have, you know, on this spectrum, probably, I don't know how extreme, but somewhere on towards one side.
You know, my meditation practice, obviously, the, you know, I love solitude and that has served me so well.
I may have done, you know, so much retreat and that's been so, has brought so much to my life.
My creative work and writing and other things, solitude and that, you know, the fact that I have zero discomfort in just locking myself in a room for weeks on end with a pile of books and I'll just be a happy camper.
And so it seems like one of the lessons here is that within any of these styles or any of these patterns or even looking at brain asymmetry, whatever natural predispositions are going on even in our brains, It's kind of leaning into that and asking where is the hidden superpower in this particular configuration that I have, rather than saying, oh, I wish I could be more like that.
It's more kind of leaning into this as potential superpowers that are kind of just waiting to be tapped into.
And if we go back to our four key pillars of well-being, awareness, connection, insight, and purpose, the dimension of asymmetry is really, to use a technical term, orthogonal, which means independent.
You can be – you can have – left-sided activation or right-sided activation and still cultivate all four of these pillars of flourishing, but they will look different.
They won't look the same in a person who has strong left prefrontal activation or a person that has strong right prefrontal activation.
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