On Being Happier: Thinking with Heart and Mind

Evaluating Artificial Intelligence with both our hearts and our mind's intellectual capacities reveals unexpected, powerful, and compelling ideas, as detailed in this episode.     

Show Notes for Episode 27   Our social media engagement adds value to our lives, at least that's what it's supposed to do. This episode explores some of the hidden aspects of social media that affect our experience and our children's encounters. Exercises: Ways to think about the ideas developed in the episode: 1) The episode reviews several ways screens capture our attention, including the power...

Physician burnout is a widespread problem, and it can be reversed . This episode shows how thinking with heart and mind opens the door. Reversing physician burnout is vitally important to each of us. We are all patients. Exercises for interested physicians based on the episode: 1) What would you like your patients to say about your medical practice? How close are you to being that physician? What...

Show Notes for Episode 25 Mental well-being partially depends on how we feel about ourselves independent of our actions. This episode offers ways to strengthen this aspect of our mental well-being.   Exercises based on the episode: 1) Appreciate the idea that you are lovable and deserving of love, independent of anyone's words or actions. 2) How differently you would feel if you knew you were love...

Show Notes for Episode 24   Mental well-being partially depends on how we feel about our relationships and our handling of the practical details of life. This episode offers ways to strengthen this aspect of our mental well-being.   Exercises based on the episode: 1) Think about your life's practical affairs. Do you often feel personal failure when outer events don't go your way? a) If this is a p...

Is it possible to maintain differing viewpoints and, at the same time, not lose our human connection? This episode says it's not only possible, it's important and provides insights into maintaining these bonds. Exercises for Episode 23 1) Remember a time when you interacted with a group of people without knowing their political views. Chose a positive experience. This could be a memory of a vacati...

Show Notes for Episode 22   When we use heart and mind to think through our relationships with our partners, spouses, children, and parents we can create richer and deeper connections. We are fully ourselves. It ' s the art of living well.   An exercise: review the key points in the episode Partners and spouses: • Remember that we chose to live together to enhance our lives. • Consider regular mee...

Show Notes Episode 20: Thinking through relationships with heart and mind (part 1 0f 3) The following story typifies one aspect of thinking through relationships with heart and mind. It also sets the stage for the next two episodes: Yesterday a third-year medical student came to my office to work with me. The first two years of medical school are in the classroom. Students learn about the body, in...

We can have better, fuller, and richer relationships by using what we learned about about working through our emotions and feelings and applying it to our relationships. Exercises based on the episode ' s content: Exercise 1: Remember a time when you were criticized without your asking for negative comments. How did it feel? Were the comments helpful? Did they make you feel closer to the person wh...

Love uplifts and strengthens. Its power works through everyday life. It's the art of living well.  

Show Notes:   Episode 17: Working through emotion and  feelings with heart and mind (1 of 2)   Exercises used to review the episode's content Exercise 1: Allow yourself to fully experience your emotions. Exercise 2: As your emotions and feelings arise, note their origins. Are they from past hurts, frustration from present events, or are due to loss? Exercise 3: Explore the idea that love lives wit...

Show Notes:   Episode 16: Trusting life: A spiritual journey with heart and mind   Exercises for reviewing the episode's content Exercise 1: Love is transcendent. The love one feels for a child, for example, crosses culture and time. That's how it is with love from the heart, the love associated with compassion. Does this make sense to you? Exercise 2: We are containers for love. If love lives wit...

Show Notes:   Episode 16: Trusting life: A spiritual journey with heart and mind   Exercises for reviewing the episode's content Exercise 1: Love is transcendent. The love one feels for a child, for example, crosses culture and time. That's how it is with love from the heart, the love associated with compassion. Does this make sense to you? Exercise 2: We are containers for love. If love lives wit...

Show Notes:   Episode 16: Trusting life: A spiritual journey with heart and mind   Exercises for reviewing the episode's content Exercise 1: Love is transcendent. The love one feels for a child, for example, crosses culture and time. That's how it is with love from the heart, the love associated with compassion. Does this make sense to you? Exercise 2: We are containers for love. If love lives wit...

Show Notes:   Episode 16: Trusting life: A spiritual journey with heart and mind   Exercises for reviewing the episode's content Exercise 1: Love is transcendent. The love one feels for a child, for example, crosses culture and time. That's how it is with love from the heart, the love associated with compassion. Does this make sense to you? Exercise 2: We are containers for love. If love lives wit...

Show Notes:   Episode 15: Conquering self-doubt and  self-criticism with heart and mind (Part 3) Exercises for episode 15: Exercise 1: Remember a time when you felt overwhelmed because you had too much to do. This pressure could have been due to a school project, the demands of work, or trying to balance parenting and work. Besides feeling overwhelmed, how else did this make you feel? Did you enjo...

Show Notes: Episode 14: Conquering self-doubt and self-criticism with heart and mind (Part 2 of 3) Exercises for episode 14: A review of the episode's main points.   Exercise 1: Does the idea that we think with both heart and mind make sense? Where do you think with your heart and where do you think with your mind in your everyday life?  Exercise 2: Heart and mind working together As partners — Wh...

Show Notes:   Episode 13: Conquering self-doubt and self-criticism with heart and mind   Exercise: The exercises for this episode have one theme: think through the ideas in the episode. See if you agree with them.   1) Picture your best times with friends, loved ones, while engaged in an activity, or during prayer / meditation. Were self-doubt or self-criticism present? What would have happened to...

Show Notes / Exercises — Episode 12:  Successful, guilt-free inner work with heart and mind                                             Play: Being a teammate Picture the benefits in being a good teammate and boosting others on your team See the various people in your life as teammates How could you help them thrive through your attitude and approach? Playfulness Look at your most difficult settin...

Show Notes: Exercises for Attitude & Gratitude with Heart and Mind   Exercise one: Reviewing your attitude Consider your attitude in all the settings of our life settings Are you pleased with your attitude? Does it include your heart? If there's difference between how you'd like to be and how you are, why is this so. What stops you from being the way you'd like to be?   Exercise two: Considering g...

Show Notes: Making Decisions with Heart and Mind   Exercise one: Review your life and test the episode's idea   • Does good decision-making increase happiness? How? • Exercise two: Reviewing your decision making   • Think about these four kinds of decisions in your life. Which are you best at Which need work?   Intellectual / practical decisions. Decisions involving heart and mind First impression...

Show Notes: Bonus 9a A Daily Practice with Heart and Mind   Begin the practice before opening your eyes in the AM If you set your alarm, give myself an extra 10 minutes Turn off phone alarms without seeing any notifications Practice this, if necessary   Let in light and love Steps in Episode 9 Use an image of the sun poking through clouds Say a prayer or verse Stay with this feeling as long as you...

Show Notes: Bonus 9a A Daily Practice with Heart and Mind   Begin the practice before opening your eyes in the AM If you set your alarm, give myself an extra 10 minutes Turn off phone alarms without seeing any notifications Practice this, if necessary   Let in light and love Steps in Episode 9 Use an image of the sun poking through clouds Say a prayer or verse Stay with this feeling as long as you...

Show Notes: Rethinking Stress with Heart and Mind Exercise: Letting in Light and Love Close your eyes and think of a moment when you experienced love. Any feeling of love works here. It can be a time when you felt another's love, or it can be the feeling of love you have for another. It can also be the feeling of love you felt when with a favorite animal, or from another time in nature. The feelin...