191 - The Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary with Harvard Professor Ronald Siegel

The Verywell Mind Podcast

Dotdash Media Inc.

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Mental Health, Education

5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ronald Siegel, PsyD, is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School where he’s taught since the early 1980s. He’s a longtime student of mindfulness meditation, and he has taught internationally about the importance of mindfulness and mind-body treatment. He maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Lincoln, MA. Some of the things he talks about in this episode are why we equate happiness with achievement (even though success doesn't make us happy), the exercise that will help you discover what really matters to you in life, and how to conquer the fear of not being good enough. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.
0:22.9	This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.
0:50.2	Okay. Do you ever feel like your self-worth is based on your achievement? Do you think you just aren't good enough sometimes?
0:55.2	Do you convince yourself that you'll feel happier if you become a little more successful?
1:02.0	If you answered yes to any of those questions, today's episode is for you. I'm talking to Dr. Ronald Segal. Ronald is an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. He teaches about mind-body
1:09.0	medicine and the application of mindfulness and compassion
1:12.0	practices. He's written several books on mindfulness, compassion, and chronic pain. And today we're
1:18.3	talking about his newest book. It's called The Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary. Now, I know you might be
1:24.6	thinking, here's this really successful person who's going to tell me that success isn't going to make me happy.
1:30.6	But wait until you hear the things he has to say.
1:33.3	He's done a lot of research on how we're hardwired to believe that the secret to a better life just involves one more achievement.
1:39.8	But that's not true.
1:41.6	Some of the things he talks about today are giving yourself a break
1:44.3	sometimes, practicing self-acceptance, and allowing yourself to be happy right where you are now.
1:51.3	Make sure to stick around until the end of the episode for The Therapist Take. It's the part of
1:55.9	the show where I'll break down Ronald's mental strength-building strategies and share how you
2:00.0	can apply them to your
2:00.9	own life. So here's Dr. Ronald Siegel on how accepting the fact that your ordinary might actually
2:07.2	help you to become mentally stronger. Ronald Segal, welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast.
2:12.6	Thank you for having me. So I am thrilled to have read a copy of your book, the extraordinary gift of being
2:19.4	ordinary. And I, as probably a lot of people are going to do, when they see the title of that
2:24.2	book, their first response is going to be, yeah, but I don't want to be ordinary, right?
	...

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