049 and 1/2: Alex LIckerman

 

Alex Lickerman is a physician, former assistant professor of medicine and director of primary care, and current assistant vice president for Student Health and Counseling Services at the University of Chicago. He’s also been a secular Buddhist since 1989. His first book is The Undefeated Mind: On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self.

 In This Interview Alex and I Discuss...

• The One You Feed parable.
• Neither wolf wins permanently, the battle always goes on.
• How things that don't kill us can make us stronger but it doesn't happen automatically.
• Building an indestructible self.
• How our inner life state has much more to do with how we cope with adversity than the nature of that adversity.
• Suffering doesn't automatically cause us to grow.
• Learning to accept unpleasant feelings.
• How our strategies to avoid pain usually make it worse.
• Non judgmental awareness of our feelings is often better than resistance.
• The secret to success is not avoiding pain but carrying on in spite of it.
• That our internal pep talks have to be believable.
• The difference between optimistic and pessimistic explanatory styles.
• How obstacles always arrive on our path.
• That the last thing we do is look internally to see what we need to change in order to achieve a goal.
• Sometimes the way to solve a problem is not to fix it but to change how much we allow it to suffer.
• How suffering ceases to be suffering when it acquires meaning.
• Using comparison to be a positive force versus a destructive force.
• The difference between determination and willpower.

Alex Lickerman Links

Happiness In This World- Alex Lickerman run site

Alex Lickerman homepage

Alex Lickerman on Twitter

Alex Lickerman on Facebook

 

 

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