A long time ago, I almost lost my life at work. My dad sold aluminium to aircraft manufacturers in San Diego, and I was working in the factory to put myself through college. Among other things, they produced aluminium foil, which required house-sized machines to squeeze thick aluminium sheets on gigantic multi-ton spools as they …
What I Learned About Pain From Almost Being Killed Read More »
The holidays are often the time of year where family comes together. Distant and close relatives show up …
When you ask high achievers why they succeed where others fail, they often reply with what psychologists call “self-efficacy” – a belief in their ability to achieve their goals. Therapists are not much different. When you ask them what enables some clients to make lasting changes, they too will focus on the client’s belief in …
How can you become more mentally resilient? I think it’s possible to give an answer that covers almost everything science can currently tell us about what to do. And you can easily remember it because you already learned it on the playground, in sports and recreation, or in the gym. Over the past four years, …
Everything Important About Mental Health You Learned In The Gym Read More »
When you think about visiting a therapist for the first time, you might feel quite uncomfortable. After all, why should you tell a virtual stranger the most intimate details of your life – things you haven’t even told your spouse, or your closest friends? What, are you going to be asked to open up about …
Why does psychotherapy work? Until relatively recently, many scientists studying methods of improving mental and behavioral health have delayed answering that question. Instead, they argued, it’s better first to ask if a method works, and when we know that it does, then we can ask why. It’s not an irrational strategy, but as the decades …
The internet is full of advice. I’ve written a few self-help books myself and I’ve created many scores of blogs and podcasts focused on processes of change. The psychological flexibility model that undergirds ACT is one of the most important sets of helpful psychological processes known, and often these skills have been the focus of …
Life is constantly teaching you to be smarter and wiser. With every consequence you face, you learn more about which actions likely lead to pleasure, and which actions likely result in pain. For instance, if you see a glowing, red circle on top of a stove, and you dare to touch it, you are in …
Imagine you had a friend who is there for you whenever you need them. Someone who cares about you, who listens patiently, and who is kind, forgiving, and compassionate. It’s probably fair to say that we all would want a friend like this. And even more: We likely all want to be this kind of …
Doing what matters comes with pain. But we can learn to be more effective about it. Here’s how.
