Why Nervous System Regulation Replaces Coding for the Next Generation

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Welcome to Signal Shift with me, Rocky.
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A few weeks back, we spoke to the wonderful Mary Martin about mindfulness and imagination.
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And today I wanted to carry on this thread around yoga and mindfulness, but in the context of preparing kids for the future and discussing the future of education, considering the likely impacts of AI.
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I think it's fair to say we are all worried about future generations, right?
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And how are they going to cope in the world that we are seeing today?
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I think mindfulness plays a beautiful, very, very important part of this.
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And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
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It is my pleasure to welcome Lisa Danahy to the podcast today.
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Lisa, welcome.
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Thank you so much.
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I am thrilled to be here.
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I appreciate the uh the opportunity for us to have this conversation because I agree with you, it's a really important element of where we're headed.
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Absolutely.
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Lisa is a certified yoga therapist and former school administrator with more than 35 years of experience.
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She is the founder of Create Calm, a nonprofit dedicated to mindfulness-based education and radiant child yoga, through which she partners with schools, museums, agencies, and community groups to make yoga and mindfulness accessible to all.
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She helps children, educators, and communities build calm, connection, and resilience through yoga and mindfulness education.
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She has supported thousands of children, caregivers, and leaders with very practical tools for self-regulation, emotional literacy, and joyful connection.
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And, you know, I obviously emphasize those words because they tend to come up on the podcast all the time.
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We know these are the things that are most important, not just for kids, even for us, right?
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As adults in learning all of this.
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If the world is shifting toward a hyper-technical, AI-driven, nonlinear workforce, the ultimate survival skill for kids actually isn't coding anymore.
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It's nervous system regulation.
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So, yes, Lisa, we are really grateful to have you here today and to learn from your insights.
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We've been talking a lot about skills for the future, things like degrees even becoming redundant.
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What's the purpose?
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And I think a lot of people are asking that big question now like, what's the purpose of all of it?
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But while we're figuring that out, and while at the same time we're trying to all be really tech literate and still learn AI so we don't fall behind, but we question its purpose, I think this question of human skills or skills that AI doesn't have also becomes very important.
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Like what makes us human and what we have to be really good at as humans.
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And in all of this, I think a regulated nervous system is so critical, is so foundational.
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So tell us, you know, why?
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Why is it so important that we understand that now and we are able to have that for ourselves to be successful, both for kids studying, but even for all of us in terms of the future of work?
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Well, I I think this is a super important question because I think some folks are feeling really excited about technology's advancements and some are feeling really fearful.
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And that's a perfect example of why the nervous system regulation is important, right?
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So if I go into this feeling fearful, I'm not going to be the ultimate decision maker.
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I'm not going to have that capacity to even use these tools.
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But also, if I rely on these tools, then they fall short because they're not being implemented from a full human capacity.
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AI brings a lot to the table.
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The volume of work it can do, the information it can process, its capacity to interpret data and organize information.
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But it doesn't replace human presence.
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So I may get a lot of information and collaborate in a lot of intellectual ways with this data processing that technology can do for me now, but I still need to apply it in my daily existence and relationships.
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And in order to do that, I need I need to be not in a survival mode, not in a fear mode, not in a scarcity mentality, but be very, very stable.
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And we talk about nervous system regulation.
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What does that really mean?
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It means my capacity not to be calm all the time, but my capacity to recover, to balance myself in the challenge, to go, okay, this is a big challenge, but I've got the information and I've got the presence, so I can work with it and I can keep coming back again and again.
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And I think the question as we move forward isn't what do we or our children know, but how can we and the children recover, connect, and learn, be curious, remain curious, remain tied to our internal knowledge base in these constantly changing external environments.
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I I think in there was almost inferred kind of something around the human judgment.
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You spoke about human presence, but that ability to still hold on to human judgment.
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Um I don't know if you've seen recently, but um there were these clips going around about Oprah interviewing people around um AI usage.
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And and some of these stories were really scary.
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Um, one gentleman got convinced that um he is a mathematical genius and he wasn't.
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And it's it's it's crazy.
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And when you listen to it, you're like, wow, um, someone else got convinced that she was a very chosen spiritual being, kind of went down that path.
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Um, and they they got out of it, but it's almost entrancing people.
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And again, it just brings up this need of presence, like you spoke about, but yeah, um, human judgment.
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I mean, you really tapped into uh a super critical element that we often neglect, especially when we're talking about children.
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And and that is what I call the layers of the onion.
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Um, when we are young, very young, we are like these super high power antennae.
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We pick it all up, we're we're really engaged, but there's a part of us that's very aware of who we are and who we aren't.
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There's a part of us that is curious and um vulnerable, but also um knowing, knowing what aligns with us and what doesn't.
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And over our life experiences, in order to feel like we belong, in order to feel safe, we develop these layers of the onion.
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We develop these protective mechanisms, these coping skills, these belief systems that protect us in a very complicated world, but they also prevent us sometimes from feeling back into our intuition, into our internal knowing.
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And and I might venture to say that those folks that are being carried away by little touch with their internal GPS, with their knowing, their intuition.
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And and I love to take things that I've played with and in AI and and turn them into meditations and see what in that quiet space of just me and those thoughts, you know, I'm able to say, is this true?
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Is this true?
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Um, or does this matter?
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Um, my favorite phrase, because um I am in love with um quantum physics and this notion of creating our experiences and our world.
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Um, my favorite phrase is it isn't matter until we make it matter.
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And I think that's what's happening is we're getting all this information, but we're not applying it in in the deepest spaces of who we are to know what to do with it out there in the world.
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Talk us through that a little bit more and even an example of yeah, how then, like how does it work?
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I might ask AI to help me um draft a marketing piece or you know, something um about my my work.
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Kids are doing applications for schools and they're drafting projects.
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And um, so let's say I put something together, it can't tell me what's true out there, it's just saying, oh, somebody said it.
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So it's dumping it in.
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So I might take what it came up with as my um marketing or my answer to a question, and I will I'll boil it down into um a question to consider in a meditation.
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I asked it to um consider um a conversation that I was going to have with someone.
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I needed information, so it put the information together and then I took a question out of that and I sat with it.
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So it was um, what is the priority and what is the truth?
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And so I did some movement because I know in order for me to sit in stillness, I need to move.
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So I I shook a little, I you know, I shook my arms and legs out, and I did some vocalization through lion's breath, and I did some movement of my spine and stretching, and then I went to sit and and I said, Um, you know, let this phrase arrive and how does it make me feel?
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And it was the phrase that was suggested, and as I repeated that phrase in my mind, I tuned into what was happening physiologically in my body.
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Oh, I'm noticing my chest is tightening, so that seems to be some resistance to what I'm saying.
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Where's the resistance?
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What can I say in that same vein?
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But what can I say or how can I say it differently so I don't feel that resistance?
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That's tapping more into my authentic intuition.
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So I start to play with it and what would what else could I say?
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How could I say it differently?
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And then after I've played with it a little bit and I start to feel my body relaxing, kind of approving it.
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Then I say, Is this truth?
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And I do the same thing.
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What am I feeling in my breath?
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You know, oh, my breath just got short and jumped up into my chest.
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Maybe this isn't truth.
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What would be the truth in there?
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So different, you know.
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I haven't no one's spoken about having that kind of practice with information coming from AI.
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So I think that's a really interesting, um, and I think a very powerful way of connection to self and testing right what is truth, right, for ourselves through our bodies as well.
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Um, that's amazing.
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And I think the bigger the question somebody's asking AI or outsourcing to AI, I think it highlights more of the importance to check in with yourself.
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We've said this on the podcast as well, but consciousness and that question around it and who we are is going to be the big question of our times now.
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Mindfulness is often seen as um pure stillness.
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But when it comes to kids, um yeah, how how does that work?
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Because they have big energy.
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I mean, talk to us a little bit about that.
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And um, when it comes to children, that mindfulness doesn't have to only be practiced sitting still.
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And I'm going to widen that and say for children and every human being on the planet, because there's lots and lots of research out there.
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Um, there's a book called Spark by John Raddy that talks about how literally our brains are wired for movement and how movement helps with healing, movement helps with information processing, movement helps with physiological systems operating.
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So movement is critical for all of us.
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And I think over um certainly the last 20 years, but even you know, last couple hundred, you know, in the industrial revolution, uh, we're moving less and less and less.
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And in our schools, we're seeing it even more.
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In an attempt to be more efficient, we've removed people's capacity to move their body in order to process.
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And and and when we do that, it it creates an unstable learning environment.
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Uh, one of one of my um taglines when I'm working with teachers is connection before instruction.
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So when we look at emotional regulation, physical regulation, um, social connection, that's the foundation for learning because that creates a stronger sense of safety, a stronger sense of belonging, in which I as a child can open up more curiously, I can be more vulnerable, and and I can process mistakes, I can process information so much more efficiently.
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And and yes, stillness and quiet is important, but it starts with movement, it starts with um with being able to connect to myself before I connect to anything else, and then connect to my environment, connect to my resources, and then the learning happens.
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So when when classrooms and spaces of learning, and I might say corporate boardrooms as well, embrace curiosity, embodiment, reflection, and connection, that is where we're all going to be at our best.
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I love it.
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It really spins us uh away from um this idea of just sitting and meditating, or you know, that that's just one part of this entire big story, but there's so many other important things there, like embodiment, right?
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And being in our bodies and being with our bodies and knowing what we are feeling in our bodies as we go through our days as well.
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If I take a moment, take a couple breaths, and I notice what's going on with me, if I notice I need big movement or small movement, if I need to curl inwards or I need to expand outwards to bring my nervous system into a regulated state, suddenly the mind levels out, the emotions level out, and I can comfortably be in that quieter space, in that still space.
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And and I will say the best way for children to practice this is with adults who practice it.
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And so it's super important that we allow playful practice of these tools, not in the critical challenge, but in in the daily routines, so that our our lifestyle becomes one of this curiosity and connection and being able to bring ourselves um to a space of internal safety.
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This concern about um, you know, teens, um even them kind of booing AI and all those things.
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Um, but uh I guess I question the angst of this generation and them feeling a little lost and having all this frustration and pent-up energy.
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I feel like we're seeing that um in the world now.
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So how do we how do we help them?
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How do we help this generation?
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What are your thoughts on it, being so close to all of this and seeing it?
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Uh, you know, I I I think there's two two points here.
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The first is I think there is a lot of pressure on our children, especially our teens, um, to live in a virtual world where relationships are still fundamental.
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Um I think I've heard you use the phrase relational poverty, where they're so connected and yet not.
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Um and so they're longing for that big group experience, that that physical um connection.
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Um, but at the same time, they're very fearful going into those um relational spaces because um there's a lot of um insecurity and uncertainty.
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And then on the other side, I think we as adults, um I don't want to offend anyone with this, but I think we're over labeling.
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I think we're searching for problems, we're searching for illnesses, we're searching for instabilities, we're searching for the the anxiety, depression, um, fear, you know, all those things where where in reality, um, I think if we backed off the need to categorize and label everything, I think our teams might be doing okay.
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And they might do better if they didn't feel the pressure to fit into a category.
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Wow, yeah.
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I I love that, Lisa.
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I think it's I think it's a fair call out.
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I think it's something for us to to question and think about.
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Because you're right, you know, and I think to remember that it doesn't matter what we categorize or call um these different challenges that kids or even adults face, but the solutions all seem to point to similar things.
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So let's focus on building that rather, um, than just having conversations at the level of the labels in the next 10 years.
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What do you think are the things that are important, um, particularly in that educational setting?
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Um, you know, yeah, what's going to be important?
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I think we have this wonderful opportunity to use AI and technology to um handle coordination of information, to give us access to information.
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And what that does is it frees teachers and parents up to be relationship builders, to personalize learning processes, um, to encourage and come back to creativity, critical thinking, slow looking collaboration, um, flexibility and emotional intelligence, um, and that learning becomes more experiential and interdisciplinary as children, instead of having to be fact finders, now become problem solvers.
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I love that.
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So succinct.
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We've maybe just used technology the wrong way if we have a generation that is having more cognitive challenges than previous generations.
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Um, I think it's now using technology the right way to, you know, transform from fact finders to problem solvers.
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Really insightful.
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Lisa, thank you so much.
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I appreciate your presence here today and all your beautiful insights.
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Um, really given us food for thought today and a lot to think about.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you.
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It's been my pleasure.
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To everybody who's listening, thank you as always for listening.
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Let us know what resonated.
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We will see you again next week.
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Bye for now.