Understanding This Will Change How You Experience Your Entire Life

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May 19, 2025

Dr. Lisa Miller, a leading researcher on spirituality and mental health from Columbia University, shares groundbreaking insights into the biological roots of spirituality. She explains how our innate spiritual wiring can enhance mental well-being and resilience, helping combat depression and anxiety. The conversation dives into the distinction between spirituality and religion, while practical tips for nurturing spirituality in ourselves and our children are offered. Listeners are encouraged to unlock their spiritual potential for a deeper sense of purpose and connection.

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INSIGHT

Core Elements of Spirituality

Spirituality comprises three elements: sensing a deeper life, knowing it's real, and choosing to live in dialogue with it daily.
This offers a path to resilience, clarity, purpose, and a deep connection beyond ourselves.

INSIGHT

One Universal Spiritual Brain

The spiritual brain is universal, activated during spiritual moments regardless of religion or culture.
Spiritual experiences engage identical neural circuits, demonstrating our shared spiritual wiring.

INSIGHT

Innate and Cultivated Spirituality

Every person is born wired with circuits for spiritual awakening.
Spiritual life is one-third innate, two-thirds cultivated through practice and environment.

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Today’s episode is going to fundamentally change the way you think about spirituality — and what it truly means to live a deep and meaningful life.

Mel sits down with Dr. Lisa Miller, the world’s leading expert on the neuroscientific benefits of spirituality. Her groundbreaking research proves that every human being is biologically hardwired for spirituality — even if, right now, it means nothing to you.

Dr. Miller’s work shows that spiritual connection — however you define it — changes your brain for the better.

It can protect you from depression, anxiety, addiction, hopelessness, and burnout, and it gives you powerful tools to get through the hardest times in your life.

We are living in a moment where believing in something beyond yourself can feel impossible.

You might be feeling uncertain, anxious, or even pessimistic about the future — but this conversation will open your mind to possibilities you may have never considered before.

Dr. Miller will prove to you, using science, that when you awaken this innate part of your brain, you unlock resilience, clarity, connection, and a deep sense of purpose.

You’ll learn:

-The #1 thing that separates people who are resilient and hopeful from those who struggle

-The enormous difference between spirituality and religion (and why that matters for your mental health)

-How to unlock your brain’s “awakened” network — the key to creativity, intuition, and deep meaning

-How to nurture spirituality in yourself and your kids (even if you don’t know where to start)

-Why crises, heartbreak, and hardship can be portals to spiritual growth and personal transformation.

Whether you’re deeply spiritual, skeptical, or somewhere in between, this episode will inspire you to see that spirituality isn’t just a “nice to have” — it’s an essential part of being human.

If you’re feeling stuck, lost, hopeless, or like there must be something more to life, this conversation is coming to you at exactly the right moment.

For more resources, click here for the podcast episode page.

If you liked this episode, you’ll love listening to this one next: How to Find Your Purpose & Design the Life You Want

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