How to Have a (Good) Life Crisis: Authenticity, Healthy Discontent, and the Anxiety of Choice
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore how to use a life crisis productively, drawing on developmental stage theories, existential philosophy, literature, personal experience, and Rick’s clinical work. They examine the anxieties of death, freedom, responsibility, and choice that often underlie these crises, and discuss how we can not only cope with these anxieties but also harness them to build a more authentic life. Throughout, they simplify, summarize, and invite you to focus on not just the next 10 years, but the next 10 minutes.
Key Topics:
0:00: Introduction
5:26: Life Stages: Erickson and Levinson
15:34: Healthy vs. Unhealthy Discontent
17:18: Inner Conflict and the Anxiety of Choice
24:18: Guidelines for Having a “Good Life Crisis”
29:36: Seizing Each Day
33:00: Coping with the Anxiety of Choice
35:17: Authenticity, Values, and Living True to Yourself
44:17: Roles and Life Transitions
46:28: Clarifying Your Values
52:09: Taking Action
57:28: Recap
Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.
Sponsors
If you are exploring whether you might be neurodivergent, check out Hyperfocus with Rae Jacobson.
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People Pleasing and the Fawn Response with Meg Josephson
Forrest and therapist Meg Josephson explore the fawn response, a survival strategy where safety is sought by pleasing other people. They discuss how fawning can start as self-protection in childhood, but later morph into overthinking, hypervigilance, and self-abandonment. Meg shares her own experience, including how fawning creates resentment and makes it difficult to find a healthy relationship or figure out your authentic needs. Topics include becoming aware of unconscious habits, building distress tolerance, grief, self-compassion, healthy boundaries, and speaking up for ourselves.
About our Guest: Meg Josephson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and author of the new book Are You Mad at Me?
Key Topics:
0:00: Introduction
1:18: Self-sabotage as self-protection
4:01: Bringing the unconscious fawn response into awareness
9:51: Silencing wants and needs, conflict avoidance, and resentment
14:33: Rediscovering wants and needs after people pleasing
18:05: The healing arc: grief, anger, and relationship
25:30: Viewing people pleasing as a “part” rather than an identity
30:11: Nice vs. compassionate
51:36: Hypervigilance and the NICER practice
57:22: Authenticity as “uncovering” rather than “fixing”
1:03:02: Recap
Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.
Sponsors
If you have ADHD, or you love someone who does, I’d recommend checking out the podcast ADHD aha!
Level up your bedding with Quince. Go to Quince.com/BEINGWELL for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Join hundreds of thousands of people who are taking charge of their health. Learn more and join Function at functionhealth.com/BEINGWELL.
Listen now to the Life Kit podcast from NPR.
Go to Zocdoc.com/BEING to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.
Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Anxious-Avoidant Relationships, Narcissism, and Insight to Action: Mailbag
Dr. Rick and Forrest open up the mailbag to answer questions about complex situations where good process really matters. They discuss whether to get back with an ex who has seemingly changed, relationships with someone with addictive tendencies, the difference between Narcissistic Personality Disorder and narcissistic tendencies, and why genuine change requires more than insight alone. Other topics include how much to tell your therapist, fears of being misunderstood, and how to approach meditation if you have an underlying vulnerability.
Key Topics:
0:00: Introduction
2:00: Should I get back with my ex?
13:40: Dating someone with long-term substance use
19:30: Narcissistic traits vs. narcissistic personality disorder
32:40: How much research to bring into therapy
39:50: Fear of being misunderstood and hyper-rationality
47:40: Safe meditation practices for people at risk of depersonalization
55:50: Recap
Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.
Sponsors
Level up your bedding with Quince. Go to Quince.com/BEINGWELL for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Join hundreds of thousands of people who are taking charge of their health. Learn more and join Function at functionhealth.com/BEINGWELL.
Listen now to the Life Kit podcast from NPR.
Go to Zocdoc.com/BEING to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.
Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1:11:30
Limerence: The Psychology of Romantic Obsession with Brandy Wyant
Forrest and therapist Brandy Wyant discuss limerence, an intense and often one-sided state of romantic obsession. They explore how limerence differs from both love and ordinary crushes, why uncertainty fuels it, and how it can take over a person’s inner world. Brandy shares both clinical insights and her own lived experience, describing the obsessive thoughts, compulsive behaviors, and shame that often accompany limerence. They examine its overlap with OCD and addiction, and discuss practical strategies from CBT and ACT.
Key Topics:
0:00: Introduction
2:00: What is limerence?
5:26: Limerence vs. a crush
11:28: Why research and treatment lag behind
13:38: Treatment approaches and practical strategies
24:47: Attachment, susceptibility, and shame
29:05: How limerence shapes relationships
38:12: Online communities and reinforcing obsession
49:18: Self-worth and validation
53:41: Recap
Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.
Sponsors
Level up your bedding with Quince. Go to Quince.com/BEINGWELL for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Join hundreds of thousands of people who are taking charge of their health. Learn more and join Function at functionhealth.com/BEINGWELL.
Listen now to the Life Kit podcast from NPR.
Go to Zocdoc.com/BEING to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.
Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Mingyur Rinpoche: A Meditation Master on Anxiety, Awareness, and Awakening
Dr. Rick and Forrest are joined by Mingyur Rinpoche, a renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher, to explore calming anxiety with awareness, relaxing unhealthy wanting, and finding a deeper sense of our innate goodness. Rinpoche shares how a near-death experience during his four-year “wandering retreat” transformed his relationship to fear and deepened his gratitude for life. They discuss practical ways to see the true nature of the mind, soften the grip of aversion and attachment, reframe fear as care, and embrace impermanence as a path to freedom.
Learn more about Rinpoche's live teaching in South Africa and join for free online at https://tergar.org/southafrica.
Key Topics:
0:00: Introduction
3:33: How a near-death experience dissolved Rinpoche’s fear
7:06: Learning not to fight panic attacks
10:25: Seeing anxiety as clouds in the sky
14:18: Awareness, wisdom, and love as innate qualities
18:39: Recognizing basic goodness even in self-hatred
25:28: Courage to be with doubt and uncertainty
27:51: “Anytime, anywhere” meditation practice
33:57: Awareness and emptiness as inseparable
46:49: Letting old selves die and embracing change
52:41: Recap
Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link.
Sponsors
Level up your bedding with Quince. Go to Quince.com/BEINGWELL for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns.
Join hundreds of thousands of people who are taking charge of their health. Learn more and join Function at functionhealth.com/BEINGWELL.
Listen now to the Life Kit podcast from NPR.
Go to Zocdoc.com/BEING to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
O Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson
Forrest Hanson is joined by clinical psychologist Dr. Rick Hanson and a world-class group of experts to explore the practical science of lasting well-being. Conversations focus on the key insights from psychology, science, and contemplative practice that you need to build reliable inner strengths, overcome your challenges, and get the most out of life. New episodes every Monday.
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