Featured

203: Eric Maisel: Rethinking Mental Health

4 Comments

Eric Maisel - Full- The One You Feed

Dr. Eric Maisel is a prolific writer, to say the least. His numerous publications span the human experience and explore how to interact with the various situations that one may encounter.  In this interview, he discusses a couple of his books and spends a great deal of time explaining how he thinks depression should be treated vs how it is currently being diagnosed and treated. It’s a different way of thinking about this subject and if it’s a topic you’re interested in, you owe yourself a listen.

This week we talk to Eric Maisel

Eric Maisel, Ph.D., is is the author of more than 40 books. His titles include, Why Smart People Hurt, Making Your Creative Mark,  The Van Gogh Blues,  Mastering Creative Anxiety, and Creativity for Life

In addition, Dr. Maisel is at the forefront of the movement to rethink mental health. He writes the Rethinking Psychology blog for Psychology Today and among his books in this area are Rethinking Depression and The Future of Mental Health.

His latest book is called Overcoming Your Difficult Family: 8 Skills for Thriving in Any Family Situation.

 In This Interview, Eric Maisel and I Discuss…

  • The Wolf Parable
  • His book, Overcoming Your Difficult Family: 8 Skills for Thriving in Any Family Situation
  • His book, The Future of Mental Health
  • The smartness to understand what’s going on with your family
  • The strength to make the changes that you need to make
  • The strength to be calm, or have a difficult conversation
  • Having clarity about what’s going on
  • Awareness of the situation
  • The courage to make change because change has consequences
  • The skill of presence
  • Being resilient – family members, especially siblings, don’t go away like other relationships
  • Visualizing the “calmness switch” within you
  • The importance of learning one anxiety management tool because you will have anxiety in life
  • How you name the problem often directs you to the situation
  • The importance of language
  • The importance of knowing the causes of things regarding your health
  • Living intentionally, identifying your life purposes and making meaning in your life
  • How thinking that all we are is matter, chemicals etc can lead people to feel less excited about living
  • Each person has to make the decision to opt to matter, to decide that you matter and that your decisions matter
  • The cultural trance of tv
  • www.madinamerica.com
  • Stigmatization of mental health
  • The three parts of personality: Original Personality, Formed Personality, Available Personality

Eric Maisel Links

202: Maia Szalavitz – A Different Lens on Addiction

Leave a Comment

Maia Szalavitz- Full- The One You Feed

Maia Szalavitz is an American reporter and author who has focused much of her work on the topic of addiction. In this paradigm-shifting interview, she explains what she means by claiming that addiction is a learning disorder, a developmental disorder. It’s a different way of thinking of addiction than it being a disease or a moral failing. As a result, it has different implications for how it should then be treated. Some of what Maia has to say is polarising and some will immediately make intuitive sense and you’ll ask yourself why you haven’t thought that way before. Take a listen to what she has to say and let us know what you think.

This week we talk to Maia Szalavitz

Maia Szalavitz is one of the premier American journalists covering addiction and drugs. She is co-author of Born for Love and The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, both with Dr. Bruce D. Perry. Her book, Help at Any Cost is the first book-length exposé of the “tough love” business that dominates addiction treatment. She writes for TIME.com, VICE, the New York Times, Scientific American Mind, Elle, Psychology Today and Marie Claire among others.

Her latest book is Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction

 In This Interview, Maia Szalavitz and I Discuss…

  • The Wolf Parable
  • Her book,  Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction
  • That your brain becomes what it does – that the more you repeat an activity, the easier it becomes
  • How addiction is a developmental disorder
  • That learning is critical to addiction
  • The problems with discussion about addiction as a disease
  • Arguing that addiction is a disease and then treating it like a moral failing
  • How addiction resets your priorities and therefore you’ll make very different decisions
  • Addiction = compulsive behavior that continues despite negative consequences
  • How illogical it is then to try and address addiction by focusing on implementing additional negative consequences
  • The complexity of addiction, genes + culture + timing
  • The developmental history that gets you to addiction
  • How the drug isn’t the problem and our efforts to simply get rid of it isn’t a helpful solution
  • Addiction as a learning disorder that is characterized by a resistance to punishment
  • The problem with “rock bottom” is that it can only be identified retrospectively, it’s not helpful scientifically, and it implies a moral component of having to reach a point of extreme degradation before you can stop
  • What the motivation is that turns people to recovery
  • How addicts keep using because they can’t see how they can survive any other way and recovery begins when you start to see that there are other options
  • That people with addiction are living at a point of learned helplessness, so the role of hope and other ways of managing their life is critical to recovery and it can start before they quit their drug(s) of choice
  • Addiction as a coping mechanism
  • The pleasures of the hunt vs the pleasures of the feast
  • Wanting vs Liking
  • Different motivational states
  • Addiction as escalating wanting
  • Stimulants and an escalating cycle of never being satisfied and chasing that satisfaction
  • 12 Step Programs: are they effective? are they useful?
  • The role of medicine in a developmental disorder
  • Looking at addicts as students who need to learn better coping skills rather than sinners who need to be forced to repent
  • That people who are addicted are PEOPLE and we need to treat them that way

Maia Szalavitz Links

Lewis Howes on the Masks of Masculinity

Leave a Comment

Lewis Howes - Full - The One You Feed

Lewis Howes is a lot of things. He’s been an athlete, a podcast host, an author. He’s worn a lot of masks, you could say. In fact, that’s exactly what he says in his new book and in this episode. He talks about how wearing these masks has not served him well in his life. In this interview, you’ll hear him talk about the various types of masks men wear to protect themselves from being vulnerable, from showing their true selves. While it might “work” on the outside, it destroys them on the inside and we see the manifestations of it in our society today.

This week we talk to Lewis Howes

Before Lewis Howes became a media sensation for empowering people and sharing ‘Greatness’ across the globe, he had his share of obstacles to overcome. From having a learning disability, which led to being alone and bullied in school, to being sexually abused as a child, to being injured and broke on his sister’s couch, Lewis’s story is the perfect example of how anybody can overcome the obstacles in their life and achieve greatness. Fast forward a few short years, and Lewis is a New York Times Bestselling author of the hit book, The School of Greatness and author of his latest book, The Mask of Masculinity. He is a lifestyle entrepreneur, high performance business coach and keynote speaker. A former professional football player and two-sport All-American, he is a current USA Men’s National Handball Team athlete. He hosts a top 100 podcast in the world, The School of Greatness, which has over 40 million downloads since it launched in 2013. He was recognized by The White House and President Obama as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs in the country under 30. Lewis has been featured on Ellen, The New York Times, People, Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health, The Today Show and other major media outlets.

 

In This Interview, Lewis Howes and I Discuss…

  • The Wolf Parable
  • His book, The Masks of Masculinity: How Men Can Embrace Vulnerability, Create Strong Relationships and Live Their Fullest Lives
  • How the masks he used to wear created success on the outside but destroyed him on the inside
  • How male violence comes from men who are hurting on the inside
  • The know-it-all mask
  • The invincible mask
  • The joker mask
  • The material mask
  • The sexual mask
  • The athlete mask
  • The aggressive mask
  • How important it is to live in service and lift others up
  • That the comparison game can crush us
  • How the real you is underneath all of the masks you wear
  • How he works on maintaining his real self on the outside
  • That when he lets the mask take over, he’s showing weakness because it has power over him
  • How he really wants to show up in the world
  • How women talk about struggles very often with their female friends but men do not
  • How unhealed pain causes pain somewhere else
 

Lewis Howes Links

200: Poe Ballantine – Struggle and Beauty

2 Comments

Poe Ballantine- Full- The One You Feed

Poe Ballentine is a great writer. Thank goodness for that because it’s through his gift and skill of writing that we get a glimpse into the experiences of his life which reach us at a moving level of beauty, truth, humility, and struggle. In this interview, you’ll hear him talk about these things and the gift you’ll get as a result is the knowledge and comforting feeling of knowing you are not alone in your struggles through life. You’ll learn through hearing what he’s learned about self-growth and self-improvement. Give yourself the gift of listening to this episode. You won’t be sorry.

This week we talk to Poe Ballantine

Poe Ballantine is a fiction and nonfiction writer known for his novels and especially his essays, many of which appear in The Sun. One of Ballantine’s short stories was included in Best American Short Stories 1998 and two of his essays have appeared in the Best American Essays series. His essays and short stories have also appeared in the Coal City Review, Kenyon Review, and Atlantic Monthly. Tom Robbins said ” Poe Ballantine is the most soulful, insightful, funny, and altogether luminous “under-known” writer in America”

His books include Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere,  Guidelines for Mountain Lion Safety,  501 Minutes to Christ: Personal Essays and Things I Like About America: Personal Essays

 

In This Interview, Poe Ballantine and I Discuss…

  • The Wolf Parable
  • Finding himself or becoming someone else
  • The Moral Mechanism of the Molecule
  • Asking, in your own experience – rather than simply in ideas, what do you know?
  • How he found his way out of despair
  • Doing enough work to exonerate yourself
  • How important it is as an artist, creator to be hyper-aware of your life and environment
  • The price of individualism in America
  • How he loves to take care of his wife and son
  • How difficult it is to be married
  • That marriage is the molecular foundation of our society
  • His book – a true crime story, Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere
 

Poe Ballantine Links

199: Robert Thurman- Buddhism and the Dalai Lama

Leave a Comment

Robert Thurman- Full- The One You Feed
Robert Thurman is the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism and he has recently written a book called Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dali Lama of Tibet. Whether you embrace the teachings of Buddhism or not, this episode will educate you on powerful approaches to growing in wisdom and it will also paint a beautiful picture of how the concepts of Tibetan Buddhism apply in today’s world. More than meditation and mindfulness, Robert Thurman gets to the heart of what the Dali Lama is working to achieve for all beings to have peace and enlightenment.
subscribe in itunes

 

This week we talk to Robert Thurman

Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University, President of Tibet House US, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization, and President of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies. The New York Times recently hailed him as “the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism.”

The first American to have been ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk and a personal friend of the Dalai Lama for over 40 years, Professor Thurman is a passionate advocate and spokesperson for the truth regarding the current Tibet-China situation and the human rights violations suffered by the Tibetan people under Chinese rule. Professor Thurman also translates important Tibetan and Sanskrit philosophical writings and lectures and writes on Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Buddhism; on Asian history, particularly the history of the monastic institution in the Asian civilization; and on critical philosophy, with a focus on the dialogue between the material and inner sciences of the world’s religious traditions.

Popularizing the Buddha’s teachings is just one of Thurman’s creative talents. He is a riveting speaker and an author of many books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics and culture, including Essential Tibetan Buddhism, The Tibetan Book of the Dead,  Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well, Inner Revolution, The Jewel Tree of Tibet, and Why the Dalai Lama Matters.

His latest book is a graphic biography of the Dalai Lama called Man of Peace: the illustrated life story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet

 

In This Interview, Robert Thurman and I Discuss…

  • The Wolf Parable
  • His book Man of Peace: the illustrated life story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet
  • Buddha Nature and Buddhahood
  • Enlightenment: When you get it, you realize that you’ve always had it
  • Whether or not we can actually reach enlightenment in this lifetime
  • His experience of tasting enlightenment
  • Clear light of bliss
  • The Buddha’s mind in us
  • We are the Buddha’s reality body
  • That the Buddha is pure love
  • That the future Buddha is currently manifesting as dogs
  • Kalachakra
  • That we can find a way to talk with our enemies and find peace
  • The common theme of “Love Thine Enemy” across religions and traditions
  • How the current Dali Lama is working to lay the path for all beings to reach enlightenment

Robert Thurman Links

198: Tim Urban Part Two-Wait But Why

2 Comments

Tim Urban - Full- The One You Feed
Tim Urban writes a pretty famous blog called Wait But Why – have you read it? Whether you have or you’ve never heard of it before, this episode will not only thoroughly entertain you but it will also help you implement a playful yet powerful approach to growing in wisdom. When it comes to concepts like “the consciousness staircase” or mindfulness about your moment to moment tasks, nothing helps your self-confidence more than reaping the benefits of making good decisions, “out of the fog”, in the clarity of awareness. In this episode, Tim Urban teaches you hacks to do just that and you’ll chuckle a lot along the way.
subscribe in itunes

 

This week we talk to Tim Urban

Tim Urban has become one of the Internet’s most popular writers. With wry stick-figure illustrations and occasionally epic prose on everything from procrastination to artificial intelligence, Urban’s blog, Wait But Why, has garnered millions of unique page views, thousands of patrons and famous fans like Elon Musk

His recent Ted talk has been watched almost 15 million times.

His articles have been regularly republished on sites like Quartz, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, TIME, Business Insider and Gizmodo. In 2015, Fast Company wrote that “Wait But Why is disproving the notion that thoughtful, long-form content and virality are mutually exclusive.”

Urban has gained a number of prominent readers as well: authors Sam Harris and Susan Cain, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, TED curator Chris Anderson and Brain Pickings’ Maria Popova.

Recently, Urban received a call from Elon Musk, who told Urban he liked his writing and asked Urban if he’d like to interview him and write about his companies. Urban accepted, and spent the next six months writing a thorough blog series that Vox’s David Roberts called “the meatiest, most fascinating, most satisfying posts I’ve read in ages.” Since then, Urban’s relationship with Musk has continued: Musk invited him to host SpaceX’s launch webcast, solicited Urban’s input and slide illustrations in a talk he did at the December 2015 Climate Change Conference in Paris, and recently granted him early access to information about SpaceX’s interplanetary transport system for use in a post on Wait But Why.

 

In This Interview, Tim Urban and I Discuss…

  • The Wolf Parable
  • The consciousness staircase
  • That wisdom doesn’t correlate with age
  • Step 1: Being in the Fog
  • Step 2: Thinning the fog to reveal context
  • How meditation can help
  • Step 3: Whoa Moments
  • Step 4: We Don’t Know What’s Going On
  • How he’s an agnostic about reality
  • The value of humility
  • How ludicrous certainty can be

Tim Urban Links