Huberman Lab
Dr. Martha Beck: Access Your Best Self With Mind-Body Practices, Belief Testing & Imagination
Mon, 05 Aug 2024
In this episode, my guest is Dr. Martha Beck, Ph.D., a Harvard-trained sociologist, bestselling author, and one of the world’s foremost experts on personal exploration and development. Dr. Beck shares specific frameworks and practices to tap into your unique and deepest desires, core truths, and best life direction—all elements that comprise your authentic self. She also explains how to align your work and relationships of all kinds with your true self and how to embrace the discomfort and process of leaving unhealthy relationships. We discuss how to deal with negative thoughts and emotions, grapple with societal norms, and improve body awareness to gauge your inner truth. We also discuss codependency and self-abandonment - and how to exit and recover from these experiences. By the end of the episode, you will have learned numerous practical tools to access your best self and live a richly fulfilling life. Access the full show notes for this episode at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman Timestamps 00:00:00 Dr. Martha Beck 00:01:34 Sponsors: BetterHelp, Helix Sleep & LMNT 00:05:34 Tool: Perfect Day Exercise 00:15:31 “Clear Eyed”, Male vs. Female 00:23:31 Family & Work; Directed Attention & Miracles 00:30:21 Sponsor: AG1 00:32:10 Unease, Restlessness & Guilt; Life Worth, Fear 00:37:22 Accessing the Subconscious; Compassionate Witness Self 00:46:16 Finding Self, Suffering, Anxiety; Tool: “KIST”, Self-Parenting 00:54:01 Self, Radiance, Death; Awakening 00:59:14 Suffering & Compassionate Attention 01:02:10 Challenging Internal Thoughts, Understanding Truth, Body & Mind; 01:08:44 Sponsor: Waking Up 01:10:20 Western Society & Pressure 01:18:30 Tool: Sensing Truth in Body; Meditation, “Stopping the World” 01:25:02 Energy, Magnetoreception, Pet’s Death 01:33:49 Lying to Ourselves, Addiction 01:38:18 Tool: “Integrity Cleanse”, Lies; The Light 01:47:32 Relationship with Loss; Love, Self-Abandonment & Codependency 01:55:10 Romantic Relationships; Jobs & Family 02:02:06 Hurting Others, Relationship Imbalance 02:06:55 Tool: True Empathy 02:11:26 “Happiness is an Inside Job”, Codependency 02:18:58 Live Your Joy, Western Society 02:24:41 Relationships, Love & Integrity, “Feeling Good By Looking Weird” 02:30:42 “I Like It!”, Punk Rock Music, Love 02:34:24 Honesty & Essential Self; Helping People & Healers 02:42:12 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer & Disclosures
Full Episode
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. Martha Beck. Dr. Martha Beck did her undergraduate master's and PhD training at Harvard University.
She is also considered one of the foremost experts in the personal development field, having authored many bestselling books, including her upcoming book, Beyond Anxiety. curiosity, creativity and finding your life's purpose. I must say that today's discussion is a truly special one.
I've long benefited from Martha's teachings, and I assure you that during today's episode, you will benefit from Martha's teachings. She describes and we explore practices in real time that will allow you to truly understand what is most important to you and what you ought to spend your time pursuing.
You will hear a rich discussion about how to frame the thoughts and the emotions around any topic, including pain points in life, as well as your goals and the things that you are in pursuit of. You will also learn how to figure out exactly what is most essential to you and indeed how to explore what Dr. Martha Beck calls your essential self.
Those deep rooted desires that are unique to you and your history and what will make your life most fulfilling. By the end of today's episode, you will be armed with new intellectual and practical knowledge, and you will be able to adopt the best possible stance for you as you navigate forward in your life.
Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is BetterHelp.
BetterHelp offers professional therapy with a licensed therapist carried out entirely online. I've been doing weekly therapy for well over 30 years. Initially, I didn't have a choice. It was a condition of being allowed to stay in high school, but pretty soon I realized that doing regular therapy is extremely important to our overall health.
There are essentially three things that go into great therapy. First of all, you need to have great rapport with a therapist. So you need to be comfortable with that person. You need to be able to trust them and talk to them about all the issues that are relevant to you. Second, and this is what people normally think of when they think of a great therapist,
that therapist needs to provide you support in the form of emotional support or directed guidance. And third, excellent therapy has to provide very useful insights, insights that you can apply to be better, not just in your emotional life, in your relationship life, but also your relationship to yourself.
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