Amy Morin: Build Mental Strength to Overcome Any Obstacle | E276

Get set for an engaging, intimate conversation in the podcast 'Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus'. Dive deep into this episode as Julia invites her mother, Judith Bowles, and acclaimed author, Amy Tan, to share candid conversations and sincere insights. Starting with a mutual memory from a momentous White House event, they traverse through multi-faceted dialogues about family connections, societal expectations around aging, personal trauma, and the journey of personal development.

In their shared exploration, the world of renowned author Amy Tan unfolds before the listeners' eyes. The acclaimed creator of 'The Joy Luck Club' opens up herself to the sensitivity of Louis-Dreyfus’s audience, sharing her life’s highs and lows, personal trauma, the solace she finds in writing, and the wisdom she would advise her younger self. Wrapped in conversational humor and the genuine warmth of mother-daughter bonds, this podcast discusses everything from literature to family secrets, providing an engaging rapport that leaves the listener eager for more.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is a memoir by psychotherapist and author Lori Gottlieb. She discusses a difficult time in her life following a sudden breakup with her long-term boyfriend. The incident upset her so badly that it drove her to seek therapy herself.

This book is the story of Lori’s time in therapy, interwoven with stories about Lori’s own patients. Though each of their situations is different, their shared struggles and how they overcome them reflect common experiences that all people share—in fact, Lori says that the reason therapists can be effective is precisely because they have those same struggles. As Lori and her patients work together toward health and understanding, they reflect on their pasts—how they got to be where they are now—and the futures they’d like to have.

In Trauma Stewardship, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky writes that we can better care for others who have gone through trauma by learning to care for ourselves—a practice she calls trauma stewardship. Trauma, loss, and suffering are everyday realities, damaging not only to those who suffer from these challenges directly, but also to the caregivers who witness and tend to others’ trauma. Lipsky argues that to be fully present and emotionally available to others, we must address the impact of secondary trauma (the harm we experience when exposed to others’ trauma). Lipsky's trauma stewardship framework addresses how to manage secondary trauma, create a better work-life balance, and practice mindful self-care so you can support others to your fullest capacity.

In this guide, we’ll explain Lipsky’s concept of trauma stewardship, discuss the warning signs of secondary trauma, and provide ways you can replenish your energy for healthy caregiving. Along the way, we’ll provide additional psychological insights about trauma exposure and other experts’ advice on self-care and compassion.

In this bestselling classic, Dale Carnegie—author of How to Win Friends and Influence People—offers timeless advice and practical methods for cultivating a happier, more worry-free mindset.

This guide explains the cause of worry and why it’s important to take control of it, and walks you through Carnegie’s methods for eliminating it from your life. You’ll come away knowing how to overcome worry by focusing on the present, come up with constructive solutions to your problems, and prevent criticism, work, or finances from triggering worry.

We’ll also expand on his suggestions with psychological research, additional insights, and practical advice from other self-help practitioners.

We’re often taught that stress is harmful and best avoided, but The Upside of Stress aims to prove otherwise. Kelly McGonigal argues that stress isn’t the enemy it’s typically made out to be—rather, it’s an ally we should embrace. By changing your mindset on stress, McGonigal claims you can transform it into a resource that leads to enhanced health, greater success, and a more meaningful life.

McGonigal is a health psychologist and professor at Stanford University. She teaches that when it comes to transforming stress, key mindset shifts—like viewing stress as normal and focusing on helping others in order to help yourself—make all the difference.

In this guide, we’ll see what ancient philosophers and modern stress experts have to say about the influence of your mindset on stress. We’ll also look deeper into the studies that support McGonigal’s argument and reconcile her research with updates in psychological literature. Finally, we’ll discuss practical ways to apply McGonigal’s ideas in your daily life.

Do you constantly get swept away by your emotions? Would you like to learn how to control your emotional reactions at home or at work? Or maybe you’re uncomfortable with emotions, and don’t understand why you or anyone else feels them? Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman is a comprehensive look at what emotions are and why we have them, how we can get better at managing them, and why the well-being of humanity might depend on us doing so.

In this bestselling classic, Dale Carnegie—author of How to Win Friends and Influence People—offers timeless advice and practical methods for cultivating a happier, more worry-free mindset.

This guide explains the cause of worry and why it’s important to take control of it, and walks you through Carnegie’s methods for eliminating it from your life. You’ll come away knowing how to overcome worry by focusing on the present, come up with constructive solutions to your problems, and prevent criticism, work, or finances from triggering worry.

We’ll also expand on his suggestions with psychological research, additional insights, and practical advice from other self-help practitioners.

If you've ever suffered from anxiety, you know how disruptive it can be to your peace of mind, relationships, and day-to-day activities.

In this Master Guide, we’ll examine what causes anxiety and how it affects your physical health, impairs rational thinking, and fuels unhealthy habits. We’ll also provide practical advice for preventing and overcoming anxiety. Our guide compiles research and methods from a range of experts, including psychologist Daniel Goleman, emotional well-being specialist Nick Trenton, neuroscientist Judson Brewer, self-help guru Tony Robbins, and biologist Robert Sapolsky.

You’ll come away understanding what causes your anxiety, why it’s often difficult to break free from it, and what practical steps you can take to:

• Curb anxious tendencies.
• Preempt anxiety-inducing triggers.
• Prevent anxious thoughts and emotions from escalating.
• Analyze and challenge anxious thoughts.
• Learn from anxious experiences.

Why and how do people justify their questionable actions and big mistakes? In Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson argue that we self-justify to relieve cognitive dissonance: discomfort triggered when we do things that don’t align with our other beliefs, actions, and values. They examine several unconscious processes we use to reduce the discomfort of cognitive dissonance, including self-justification, confirmation bias, and memory distortion. By learning about these psychological processes, you can unlock awareness of them in your own life and begin taking accountability for your actions.

In this guide, you’ll learn how contradictory thoughts and behaviors create painful dissonance. We’ll also discuss how self-justification, confirmation bias, and memory distortion help us relieve dissonance. Finally, we’ll discuss how the authors suggest we can break the cycle of self-justification and hold ourselves accountable for our uncomfortable actions. In our commentary, we’ll discuss healthier strategies you can use to deal with dissonance and explore some of the neurological processes that drive self-justifying behavior.

Dive deep into the subconscious with Mel Robbins as she welcomes Dr. Paul Conti on The Mel Robbins Podcast. Known for his expertise in psychiatric care and applauded by the likes of Lady Gaga, Dr. Conti brings his knowledge on the subconscious mind to light, discussing its compelling influence over our everyday lives. Together, they explore how our inner narrative not only shapes our emotions and behaviors but also can be the key to unlocking greater happiness and potential.

In a discussion that ranges from unveiling the origins of self-perception to strategies for fostering a healthier mind, Mel and Dr. Conti touch on fascinating topics such as Cotard's syndrome and the lasting impact of childhood trauma. They provide listeners with actionable advice on confronting internal critics and reshaping negative self-talk. This episode is a must for anyone looking to understand the powerful subconscious forces at play in their lives and seeking meaningful ways to initiate positive change. Join the conversation and see how introspection and a shift in inner dialogue can lead to profound personal growth and mental wellness.

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

Many of us are glued to our smartphones, tablets, and laptops, to the point that we’ve lost control of how we spend our time and attention. We feel overpowered and exhausted by the multitude of digital tools at our fingertips, including smartphones and tablets, websites, addictive apps, and social media platforms. Meanwhile, tech companies continue to invest major resources into making their products and services addictive so that we’ll continue scrolling and tapping.

This book explains how you can transform your tech habits by adopting digital minimalism, which aims to maximize the benefits of technology and avoid the pitfalls by identifying your values and determining how to use technology to support them. Learn how tech companies use human psychology to make their apps addictive, how likes and comments are weakening your relationship, and why trading your smartphone for a dumb phone could change your life.

Although we live longer today and have more material wealth than ever, many people feel anxious rather than happy. In Flow, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi offers an antidote. People are happiest when they feel in control of their inner thoughts and feelings and experience a “flow state”: a sense of enjoyment, purpose, and meaning.

Csikszentmihalyi explains: how controlling and ordering your consciousness brings flow and enjoyment, which personality characteristics produce flow, and how to find flow in your work and relationships.

Stillness is not just the absence of motion—it’s a perceptible state of mind that’s been sought and recognized as valuable throughout all of history and across many belief systems. Ryan Holiday says stillness already exists in all of us, and with some intentional practice, we can reap its rewards. In Stillness Is the Key, Holiday takes us through the dimensions of the mind, soul, and body, explaining how to cultivate stillness in each area to enrich our lives, guide us to make better decisions, and encourage a sense of connectedness to everything around us.

In this guide, we’ll explain what Holiday means by stillness, and discuss how stilling your mind requires also stilling your body and soul. We’ll examine each of those domains in turn, and explore Holiday’s techniques for cultivating stillness in each. Along the way, we’ll draw connections to principles from Stoicism, Buddhism, and Taoism and expand on Holiday’s ideas by comparing them with other spiritual and self-help books.