The Courageous Life

You may know people who are seemingly unflappable.  Steadfast.  As if they’ve somehow been inoculated with antibodies to render them able to survive, strive, and even thrive through major life stressors and transitions.  What’s different about these people?  Are they born with resilient genes, or does culture play a role?  Do they have certain outlooks or behaviors that make them able to manage li...

What if the mental health symptoms we face aren’t the actual problem?  What if they’re signals that can help us see and solve the real problem?  Psychiatrist, award winning professor of medicine, journalist, and leading mental health expert,  Dr. Joanna Cheek invites us to lean into these questions Arguing In her timely new book:  It’s Not You, It’s the World, A Mental Health Survival Guide for Us...

In his new book Flourish , bestselling author, scientific journalist, and leading culture expert Daniel Coyle trains his eye on the groups and people who demonstrate exceptional connectivity, presence, and dynamism.  His focus driven by a deep curiosity to better understand some of life’s biggest questions: What is a meaningful life, and how do we make one?  And How do certain communities foster c...

There is an internal strength of mind and heart that is characterized by  non-reactivity and clear seeing.  It is a strength that holds the power to help us navigate the biggest challenges in our lives — not by ignoring them, not by reacting to them in destructive ways,  But rather by being present with, and open to, all the very real struggles of being human  without being hijacked by them.  In h...

There is a primal drive that in our species alone has been transformed into  one of our most persistent and universal motivations:  The longing to matter. In her revelatory new book:  The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us ,  MacArthur Fellow, National Humanities Medalist, and bestselling author, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein ,  Weaves powerful insights from biology...

Joseph Campbell, the visionary author behind The Hero's Journey, once wrote: " People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life.  I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking.  I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive." Today’s guest, leadership coach, organizational consultant, and wellbeing expert,  Vivien Tai in many ways has picked up where J...

We all have something we want to change about ourselves.  But whether it's quitting smoking, losing weight, or breaking some common bad habit, we feel a sense of failure when we don’t succeed.  This can often set off a cascade of negative feelings and discouragement,  making it even harder to change.  The voice in our head telling us: Why bother? In his profound book, How We Change: And Ten R...

10 years ago Chelsea Pottenger found herself in a psychiatric hospital.  Deep in the throes of severe PostNatal Depression following the birth of her daughter, Chelsea in many ways was fighting for her life and at the beginning of a long road  toward healing, and ultimately post traumatic growth.  Along the way she found herself in a monastery learning and practicing meditation, Arriving at new in...

What sets the most successful people apart?  You may think that the answer is hard work (and it’s certainly part of it),  but in her interviews of the most accomplished individuals— from entrepreneurs and investors to Olympic athletes and Pulitzer Prize winners— Distinguished Professor of Management, Dr. Laura Huang discovered  that what they called their gut feel, the product of their intuition, ...

Professor Stephen G. Post , one of the world’s leading scholars on altruism,  love, compassion, and the science of giving, has a beautiful new book out:  Pure Unlimited Love: Science and the 7 Paths to Inner Peace . In it, he writes: When the happiness, security, and well-being of another feels as meaningful and real to us as our own, or perhaps more so, we love that person. This love, which Steph...

Between the relentless uncertainty—political, environmental, societal—in the world  and our own personal challenges,  We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Many of us are feeling overwhelmed, and out of control. As a result we may find ourselves falling into unhealthy patterns that we struggle to change— worrying,  stress-eating,  constantly scrolling on soc...

Dr. Jud Brewer is an addiction psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and Director of Research and Innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center.  Jud is passionate about understanding how our brains work,  and how to use that knowledge to help people make deep, permanent change in their lives —  With the goal of reducing suffering in the world at large. This conversation, which we originally recorde...

Americans today are leaving religion in record numbers.  For many, the faith, practices, and institutions that once provided comfort and guidance no longer fit their beliefs and values.  Today’s guest, Dr. Daryl Van Tongeren , a psychologist scientist who engages big existential questions to promote human flourishing,  And author of the powerful book: Done: How to Flourish After Leaving Religion c...

Lee Johnson likes to say that he’s as ordinary as dirt but as complex as soil.  A former Course Director for the Colorado Outward Bound School and Certified Holistic Management Teacher,  Lee has also managed ranches in Nebraska, Tennessee, and New Mexico.  I first met him on a retreat at the Modern Elder Academy in Santa Fe. The Academy, which has been called "The World’s First Midlife Wisdom...

What do you feel when you gaze up at the Milky Way,  take in a beautiful sunset,  stand at the base of a mountain that seems impossibly high,  or witness an extraordinary act of courage, kindness, or love? Often, it's a profound sense of awe -  the overwhelming feeling we experience when we encounter something  vast that transcends our understanding.  In his book Awestruck ,  clinician, resea...

In her beautiful book: Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground ,  Bestselling author, translator, and celebrated spiritual teacher, Mirabai Starr  Invites us to let go of the limiting belief that spiritual life exists only in traditional places of worship.  She shares: You can visit an ashram in the Himalayas, Or kneel in a church pew to connect to the spirit or examine life’s big questions...

In her beautiful book, The Power of Wonder , Monica Parker, writes: “Wonder purls its way through our lives from first cry to last gasp -  Moments that engage us, surprise us, take our breath away, And give us the gift of viewing the world, and our place in it, In an entirely different way. But something happens as we move from the wonder-filled days of childhood to obligation laden days of adulth...

Success in virtually every aspect of life― career, friendship, love, and family― is determined mainly by one thing: how we deal with emotions.  In your most challenging moments, how did you respond?  Did you fly off the handle?  Were you paralyzed by indecision?  Did you engage in behaviors that undermined your best intentions?  Or did you exhibit grace under pressure and flourish?  How you respon...

When Sean Brosnan arrived at Newbury Park High School in 2016,  their cross country team hadn’t so much as qualified for a California state  championship in twenty-five years.  Brosnan himself had never coached high schoolers,  though he was no stranger to the sport.  A collegiate All-American, he had spent years trying to chase his ambitions of  becoming a professional runner,  along the way lear...

How do you define “growing up”?  Does it mean achieving certain cultural benchmarks—a steady income, paying taxes, marriage, and children?  Or does it mean leaving behind the expectations of others and growing into the person you were meant to be?  When we find ourselves in a career,  place,  relationship,  or crisis we never foresaw,  or that seems at odds with our beliefs about who we are,  it o...

How are some people so much smarter than the rest of us?  Where do visionary creatives and savvy decision-makers like  Vincent Van Gogh, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, Warren Buffet, and William Shakespeare, get their extraordinary mental abilities? In 2021, researchers at Ohio State’s Project Narrative ,  the world’s leading academic think-tank for the study of how stories work,  and...

Many of us think of the arts as entertainment or a luxury of some kind.  But In their New York Times Bestselling Book: Your Brain on Art ,  authors Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross invite us to open our minds and  consider a breathtaking expansion of this limited view of what the arts are,  and the power they hold to transform our lives both individually and collectively.  Ivy, who serves as Chief Desi...

Drawing from the science of cognitive bias,  Author, and digital product designer for some of the world’s leading tech companies,  Vicki Tan, has written a beautiful new book intended to help us find wisdom and confidence in the face of life’s biggest questions.  In today’s conversation we’ll dive deeper into her work around the art and science of decision making,  Which in Vicki’s words:  Is less...

In his book Stoicism and the Art of Happiness , author, therapist, and stoic philosopher, Donald Robertson, writes: "The Sage conquers his passions by becoming stronger than them not by  eliminating all traces of emotions from his life.  The Stoic ideal is therefore not to be ‘passionless’ in the sense of being ‘apathetic’,  ‘hard-hearted’, ‘insensitive’ or ‘like a statue’ of stone or iron. ...

As a professional baseball player, Jim Murphy’s sense of worth revolved around results.  He was focused on achievement but also afraid of failure.  When he started coaching professional and Olympic athletes, he often encountered the same mindset.  So he became obsessed with learning how the best in the world performed with peace and confidence under pressure. After years of research, two revelator...