#206: Thriving Minds 2026: The Future is Connection, Healing & Human Potential

2025 has felt like a turning point.

Across this year’s Thriving Minds conversations—from brain health and dementia, to stress, team flow, near-death experiences, and the “neuroscience of two”—one message keeps rising to the surface:

We are only just beginning to understand how powerful we are for each other’s brains.

In this special reflection episode, I explore what we learned in 2025 and where Thriving Minds is heading next, at the intersection of neuroscience, healing, neuroplasticity and community.

We dive into the major shifts reshaping neuroscience today:
 • The move from snapshots to living, dynamic brains, made possible by new imaging and genomic tools.
 • The neuroscience of two (and many) with insights from Dr Joy Hirsch on interbrain synchrony and why being in the same room matters.
 • Bioelectricity, fields and consciousness, inspired by conversations with Dr Bruce Greyson on near-death experiences.
 • A “middle way” that unites rigorous science with lived experience, trauma, recovery and human stories.

We discuss how healing is changing—from a symptom-focused view to a relational, systemic model—where early life experiences shape the nervous system, and being truly seen becomes a biological event that calms and connects the brain.

We revisit practical lessons in neuroplasticity and resilience: small daily actions that build new habits, strategies that strengthen the prefrontal cortex, and a shift from deficits to capacity—especially important in ageing, dementia and mental health.

And we explore the powerful truth revealed again and again this year:
 Community is part of our neurobiology.
 Humans regulate each other. Team flow, synchrony, compassion and presence activate brain networks that cannot be accessed alone or online.

Finally, we look ahead to the future of Thriving Minds:
 bringing connection neuroscience into real-world settings, designing homes, schools and workplaces aligned with what we now know about the brain, and continuing to build a bridge between science and lived experience.

If these ideas resonate, subscribe to the Thriving Minds podcast and join the growing community working toward a more hopeful, brain-wise future.

We change our brains—and each other’s—every day.
 The opportunity for the next decade is to do it consciously, together.

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