Dr. Caroline Leaf

Roy T Bennett once said, “Be mindful, be grateful, be positive, be true. Be kind.” And author Ralph Ellison said, “When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.”

Welcome back to part two of my conversation with Dr. Caroline Leaf, a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist specializing in cognitive and metacognitive neuropsychology. Since the early 1980s, she has researched the mind-brain connection, the nature of mental health, and the formation of memory. 

My conversation with Dr. Leaf was so powerful that we split it up into two parts. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, you can click the link to catch up before continuing. In part two, we discuss how to rebuild confidence when doing an identity check, how our beliefs shape our identity, why positivity is so important to your brain health, and how jealousy and envy can cause brain damage. 

Who is Dr. Caroline Leaf?

Dr. Caroline Leaf is a communication pathologist and cognitive neuroscientist with a Master’s and Ph.D. in Communication Pathology from the University of Cape Town, and a BSc in Logopaedics from the University of Pretoria in South Africa/ She specializes in cognitive and metacognitive neuropsychology. 

During her years in clinical practice and her work with thousands of underprivileged teachers and students in her home country of South Africa, as well as in the USA, she developed her theory (called the Geodesic Information Processing theory) of how we think, build memory, and learn. Her work has led to the creation of practical guides and tools that have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), learning disabilities, autism, dementia, and mental health issues like anxiety and depression. 

Dr. Leaf’s podcast (Cleaning Up The Mental Mess), YouTube videos, and TV appearances have reached millions globally. She has been featured on Elle, TED, Bustle, Medium, Huffington Post, The O Magazine, Thrive Global, Something You Should Know, Getting Curious, and many other media outlets. Most recently, Dr. Leaf has been working on her app, Neurocycle, which uses an evidence-based, revolutionary 5-Step Process to help you take back control over your thoughts and your life, with scientific research showing it reduces anxiety, depression, and toxic thoughts by up to 81%.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Leaf back on Episode #1079 about how we can heal our minds and overcome trauma. It was such an insightful and helpful interview, I knew I had to bring her back! Remember to also listen to Part One to get all the information from this discussion with Dr. Leaf.

Let’s jump right in!

Identity Shapes Our Mindset

In part one we spoke about doing an identity check. This is something I feel all of us should be doing while constantly adjusting and improving upon ourselves. That’s because we build our beliefs around our identity — it’s what shapes our mindset. According to Dr. Leaf, an identity check can help us realize when our negative thinking may have more to do with how we feel about ourselves than how we feel about a situation. It can allow us to choose to see ourselves more positively, and then see challenging situations in a way that actually enhances our lives and bring us closer to our goals rather than letting those situations bring us down. 

Dr. Leaf uses an example of how an identity check can help us when we’re comparing someone else’s success to our own:

“Once I do that identity check, I’ll immediately shift to looking at something different. So [for example], something I think I should have achieved in my business, and I’m not achieving it, and I’m comparing myself to someone else, I’ll suddenly look at that and say, ‘No, I don’t need to compare. I’m not enhancing.’ So I shift from comparison and competition, which is totally toxic — it’s not at all human nature — and back to enhancement, which is: ‘Oh, gosh, that’s amazing what that person is doing! Wow! I love that for them!’ — and I mean it.” –Dr. Caroline Leaf

Catching ourselves when we’re comparing ourselves to someone else, and switching to enhancement instead, enables us to see others’ achievements as a source of inspiration. The trick is to learn how to say, “I love that for them,” and mean it. The important part here is “mean it” — if we don’t mean it, we’re just fooling ourselves. 

“If we don’t actually believe it, and we try to convince ourselves that we do, that’s the band-aid or the positive affirmation approach. When I’m saying those statements and I don’t believe them, I need an identity check.” –Dr. Caroline Leaf

Dr. Leaf says you know the identity check was successful when those positive statements are so true, you can feel them through your entire mind, brain, and body. 

Caroline hasn’t always been focused on identity. It took a chance meeting with a teacher in her home country of South Africa to make the shift. 

Dr. Caroline Leaf’s Work During Apartheid

Dr. Leaf began her career during the apartheid era when the transition began into the free society for all that it is today. During apartheid, before Nelson Mandela was released from prison, she spent three days a week working with teachers in extremely under-resourced schools. This is where she saw firsthand the impact of terribly evil social structures on humanity. 

“That’s why I chose to [work with the teachers] at the same time as doing my research and working in private practice with people that could afford to see a therapist. That’s where I learned what I really know about life and about this field.” –Dr. Caroline Leaf

She began training teachers in the education environment to help improve the terrible education the black population had been subject to during apartheid. One of their programs worked with over 300,000 people, training teachers on how to use their brain and how to learn, how to build their brain, manage emotions, and get the most out of the mind-brain connection. 

“As I started [a session], one teacher stood up and he was so aggressive. I’ll never forget he said, ‘Dr. Leaf, I’m sorry but you have it wrong. There is a kid in my class who is so stupid and so difficult that there’s no way he could learn anything or change.’ It was a whole mouth full of venom, and I was so dumbstruck — and I’m very seldom dumbstruck! One of the other teachers in the class stood up and said, ‘Sir, that child that you say is so stupid can do something that you can’t do. It’s your responsibility to trigger that in that child.’ It changed me forever, and that’s where I started researching identity in my work.” –Dr. Caroline Leaf

What an incredible insight that teacher had that changed Dr. Leaf’s approach to her work. It’s a lesson for all of us to recognize that our role is to bring out the best in each other, and then others will bring out the best in us — that is how we change society.