19 Year Old Shrink

In this episode, I talk about the importance of taking a creative day. This is something that I’ve done in the past that’s not always easy. We spend so much of our time trying to respond to emails, get groceries done, do schoolwork, and succeed in jobs. And taking a day off from all of that sometimes gives us the idea that we are taking a step back. But, what I’ve learned is that we’re actually ta...

In this episode I sit down with my friend Will. He is a sociology major here at LMU and is VP of Recruitment for Agape, a service org on campus. During our talk, we learn about his upbringing as a child and how that led to his passion for destigmatizing mental health. Stories of his father leaving and lack of acceptance for seeking outside help along with the great support from his mom fuel an in...

In this one I talk about where I and others struggle to find that balance towards our Ikigai and what questions we need to ask ourselves in order to discover it. Some of those questions include: What do you love? What are you good at? What does the world need from you? What can you get paid for? Many people might thrive in one specific area but are lacking in another, which causes doubt and insecu...

In this episode I talk about aiming high and missing vs. aiming low and hitting. This is the idea of people including myself being afraid of having too high expectations and not reaching their goals. And most of the time, people don’t fail completely, they just succeed at something that requires lower expectations. In this one I’ll talk about where I’ve been a victim of this and how to be ok with...

In this episode I talk about our natural inclination towards worst case scenario thinking. With my own life, I’ve seen that I’ve naturally resorted to that way of thinking because it gives off the illusion of being more prepared. We feel as though worrying about things has some sort of productive nature rather than allowing things to run their course and be at ease with it. Something that has been...

In this episode I discuss the role that cognitive dissonance has when hurting other people. This state is the feeling of discomfort that we have when our actions or decisions aren’t in line with our beliefs and values. I experienced this recently this last week, and learned in class that there are three ways to reduce dissonance. The first way to reduce dissonance is to change the behavior, the se...

In this one I talk about the reality of how our world is getting more competitive each and everyday. And finding ways to stand out is very important. One example I give is with handwriting letters. I used to laugh at my dad when he told me to do this, but now I realize how effective it was. When applying to jobs or building relationships, it’s easy to fall into the crowd. “They were a good intervi...

In this episode, I interview Varun Gandhi, who is the host of “What’s your Story” show on YouTube and a successful soulpreneur that spends much of his time trying to help others reshape the stories they tell themselves.  He originally was an environmental engineer who lacked direction in his life. This led to him feeling consistent pain in his solar plexus when he would wake up in the morning. He...

In this episode I talk about how to get out of a creative rut. And to start, some people think that they aren’t creative at all. They think that they have to be an artist, musician, etc. to have creative ability. But even when applying for job or writing a speech, you need to use your creativity to deliver the most unique message possible to others.  One of the tools I use for when I’m lacking tha...

In this episode I talk about accepting some parts of life as temporary. And when you hear this, usually you would think of this as being negative, but it really isn’t.  Sometimes we start off struggling, begin noticing we’re struggling, and then putting more weight on it to the point where it becomes a bigger problem that we think will last forever.  On the flip side, when things are going really...

In this episode I talk about the importance of keeping your friendships throughout the years. This became more relevant as I came to college, because being far away from home definitely presents its challenges. But, by keeping these friendships with people who we are close to, we are able to not only keep those good memories close to us but gain a new perspective on the tough ones. We naturally as...

In this episode I talk about the anxiety that comes with the age of texting. I’ve noticed from a lot of the conversations I’ve had with others and also my own experiences, good communication can be thrown out the window when texting. Without body language and tone of voice, it could sometimes be difficult to understand the true meaning of someone’s message. And from here, we sometimes make up thes...

In this episode, I discuss the reasons why so many people including myself  don't follow through with their New Years Resolutions. Much of the struggle to keep them lies in not being specific with your goals and for focusing too much on the end result.  An example that I give is "I want to eat better," but what does "Better" mean?  Throughout this talk, I discuss focusing...

 This episode is definitely very relevant for our winter break right now. Although it was very exciting returning to in person classes and meetings, the adjustment was definitely challenging. For myself and some of my friends who I’ve talked to, quarantine allowed us to become regimented in our routine and build a lot of structure for ourselves when we didn’t naturally have it. With going back to...

In this episode, I talk with Michael Weinraub about his efforts in creating a more effective environment for learners to learn and teachers to teach. He describes his experiences starting out as a teacher in the LA Unified School district and how those extremely difficult first years allowed him to gain a lot of knowledge into helping students. He mentions the idea of being able to look at the ent...

 In this episode, I interview Fred Schwam, former owner and CEO of American Christmas. This company is focused on commercial holiday decorating throughout New York City and around the world. Fred took over the company when he was just 21 years old and describes his 30+ years of experience building up the company to where it is today. He started off as the production person, bookkeeper, truck drive...

This episode focuses on overcoming Imposter Syndrome, which is feeling inept in a specific area of your life despite all of the experiences and accomplishments that you have. I was listening to Ed Mylett's interview with NFL Hall of Famer Michael Strahan, which inspired this topic. Strahan mentioned how even with all of his accomplishments, whenever he’s preparing an interview, or speaking wi...

During this episode I discuss our ability to sometimes look for advice from people who shouldn't be giving us advice. In my own experience, sometimes I view them as being a great emotional support for me during a tough time, and I remember them giving great advice for one moment in my life. And from there, we assume that they will give great advice in every area of our life. But everyone has...

In this episode I discuss something we’ve all experienced which is not having all the answers. Something that I’ve struggled to accept and especially up to this point in my life which can be tough And sometimes detaching yourself from a situation or being vulnerable can be really intimidating to start off, especially when you have so much running through your mind. Maybe you’ve never experienced t...

In this episode I talk about the lessons I learned during startup weekend at LMU, where we had 54 hours to build a prototype for a business idea. I start off talking about how much your initial plan for a business idea changes and how looking back on it five years down the line, you realize you took a completely different path. Our product, “The Dream Machine” was an app designed to help people jo...

In this episode I discuss the struggle that exists of people quitting right before they see the results. A lot of times we are putting in the effort day after day and we start expecting that this effort will immediately show results and when it doesn’t, we give up. And a lot of that comes from the perception of instant gratification that is portrayed on social media and other outlets. In our socie...

This episode explores humility in the context of current society. We are inundated with visions of comparison and there is often this understanding that others might be getting more recognition than ourselves. And we begin to crave that feeling so much, that when we don’t get it, we begin talking about our accomplishments until we do. And in my opinion, this relates back to our past experience of...

In this episode,  my friend Josh Nutson joins to discuss his experience with mindfulness. Josh is a Management major and Psychology minor at Loyola Marymount and has spent much of the last year focusing  not only on the benefits of mindfulness but the different ways an individual can experience it.  For college students, Covid was definitely a time for self discovery, and in our conversation Josh...

In this episode, I discuss something we have all struggled with at one time or another; caring about what people think. And sometimes it's good to care about what people think, because they are doing it in your best interest. One example of this discussed in the episode involves cheating on a test, and your friend telling you it's not the right thing to do. Being open minded to your frie...

Trevor Shevin, Intervention Specialist joins me to discuss his experience of addiction and how it led to him becoming an interventionist for those who struggled like he did. We start off hearing about his life on Wall Street where he was ultra focused on results and spent a lot of time trying to people please. We dive into his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse  that led to him being intervened...