Ep. 226: Dr. Beth Kurland — Mindful Awareness 1. Finding Peace of Mind When Life Is Difficult

My guest this week is psychologist Dr. Beth Kurland, author of the new book, You Don’t Have to Change to Change Everything: Six Ways to Shift Your Vantage Point, Stop Striving for Happy, and Find True Well-Being (affiliate link). We begin with a calming guided meditation that Beth led.

Topics we discussed included:

• The assumption that not feeling at ease is a personal failure
• Being with our distress without being swallowed up by it
• Cultivating well-being in the absence of happiness
• The role of self-compassion in well-being
• Recognizing and connecting with a deeper part of ourselves, whether we call is Self, spirit, or soul
• Seeing the world from our Wise Self
• Living from our head vs. being more connected to and aware of the body
• Contraction vs. expansion in the area around the heart
• Why we don’t habitually run toward our body and wise Self as refuges
• A simple practice for coming back into one’s body
• Proper breathing for calming the nervous system

Beth Kurland, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with three decades of experience.

She is also a TEDx and public speaker, a mind-body coach, and an author of three award-winning books: Dancing on The Tightrope; The Transformative Power of Ten Minutes; and Gifts of the Rain Puddle. 

Beth blogs for Psychology Today and is the creator of the Well-Being Toolkit online program. She lives in the Boston area.

For more, visit her website.