#882 - The Best Moments Of Modern Wisdom (2024)

Are you often bogged down by negative emotions? Does this keep you from getting what you want from life? In Letting Go, David R. Hawkins explains how to move from feeling stuck to being happy and at peace. He argues that if you release negative emotions and welcome positive emotions, you can improve your mental and physical health, strengthen your relationships, and invite greater success in all areas of life.

In this guide, we’ll look at common ways we avoid dealing with difficult emotions. Then, we’ll explore Hawkins’s strategies for identifying, accepting, and releasing unhelpful emotions and discuss the benefits of this process. Finally, we’ll examine how the energies of different emotions affect our lives. In commentary, we’ll explore alternative perspectives on dealing with emotions from psychology and neuroscience. Additionally, we’ll explore commonalities between Hawkins's ideas and those from various spiritual traditions.

Do you ever feel that there is a more authentic, primal self within you waiting to be free? Glennon Doyle has felt this way, too—like a wild animal in captivity who was conditioned not to feel, think, or trust herself. She tells her story in Untamed, part memoir—covering her personal story of addiction and rehab, falling in love with a woman, leaving her marriage, and rebuilding her life—and part call to action for any woman who feels held captive by society’s rules and expectations.

Through exploration of her story, she instructs readers to rebuild their lives using emotion, intuition, and imagination as guiding forces. In this guide, we’ll explore Doyle’s journey out of captivity and her lessons for other captive women. Along the way, we’ll explore complementary ideas from other feminist thinkers, psychological reasoning for aspects of captivity, and practical actionables to help you live Doyle’s principles.

Brené Brown believes that the key to fulfillment is pursuing wholeheartedness—a way of life that fosters self-worth and emphasizes being brave, caring for yourself and others, and cultivating meaningful relationships. Living wholeheartedly requires you to embrace and express your authentic self. However, doing so makes you vulnerable—you may face painful experiences like rejection, loss, and heartbreak. If left unaddressed, these experiences cause emotional setbacks that can keep you from living wholeheartedly. In Rising Strong, Brown explains that to rebuild wholeheartedness after setbacks, you must recover emotionally.

In this guide, we’ll start by explaining why it’s important to take control of your recovery. Then, we’ll explore the three stages of Brown’s recovery process—confronting your strong feelings, exploring why they occurred, and identifying how you can change your thoughts and behaviors to cultivate resilience and rebuild wholeheartedness. In our commentary, we’ll add context to Brown’s research and advice, referencing books like Hans Rosling’s Factfulness and Emily and Amelia Nagoski’s Burnout.

Do you feel like you’re getting the most out of your brain? Or do you struggle to tap into its immense power? In The Source, neurologist and professional adviser Tara Swart explains that to achieve your desires, you must tap into the full power of your brain. This means understanding how the brain changes itself in response to your experiences, the different modes of thinking, and the major principles of the Law of Attraction.

In our guide, we’ll explain Swart’s ideas about how to get the most out of your brain’s functioning to build the life you want. We’ll explore the concept of neuroplasticity and the modes of thinking that you need to tap into to maximize your brain’s potential. We’ll then explain the principles underlying the Law of Attraction. Finally, we’ll describe Swart’s four-step process for putting these ideas into action. We’ll add ideas from other writers on how to use your brain, as well as scientific context for Swart’s ideas and additional tips for applying them.

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic

In The Happiness Trap, therapist and life coach Russ Harris argues that humans are hardwired to relentlessly pursue happiness. But this instinct makes us miserable today, leading to widespread anxiety, stress, and depression. We’re caught in a happiness trap, where the harder we try to be happy, the less happy we become.

Harris contends the answer to happiness and fulfillment is practicing the techniques of ACT, or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. The techniques—rooted in behavioral psychology and mindfulness—help you escape the happiness trap by accepting painful thoughts and emotions as part of life, while clarifying and living your values.

In this guide, we’ll explain ACT techniques—connection with the “observing self,” defusion, expansion, connection, values clarification, and committed action—and compare them to other therapies and practices. We’ll also provide additional exercises and techniques beyond Harris’s for practicing mindfulness in everyday life.

Happiness is more than just a positive state of mind—it’s a state of being that enhances your health, strengthens your relationships, and fuels both your creativity and productivity. However, though many people are aware of these benefits and try to feel happier, their efforts often fail to create consistent, long-term happiness.

In The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky—psychology professor and recipient of the Templeton Positive Psychology Prize—addresses this challenge. Drawing from her extensive research as well as insights from leading scientists in the positive psychology field, she unpacks the factors that fuel happiness and provides practical strategies to nurture and sustain it.

In this guide, we’ll explore Lyubomirsky's thoughts on what contributes to long-term happiness and how you can amplify it in your life. Additionally, we’ll supplement her ideas with psychological research and actionable methods from other self-improvement authors and practitioners.

What qualities does a “real man” display? Are men who play the role of a strong protector and provider a relic from the past—or even toxic and dangerous? Popular blogger and podcaster Rollo Tomassi says no.

In The Rational Male, Tomassi explains that men need to resist women’s calls to be nicer, gentler, and more emotional. Trying to be more like women will only keep men subjugated to a feminine agenda. Instead, men must reclaim their masculinity to achieve the freedom, confidence, and success they want.

In this guide, we’ll review Tomassi’s interpretations of what drives men and women—and the lies behind the feminine agenda that, according to Tomassi, allow women to manipulate men. We’ll also examine research in biology, sociology, and psychology that explores the concepts Tomassi mentions.