First, apologies for not posting a new episode for a while.  Don’t worry, there will be more to come, but I’m involved in a big side project right now which has taken up all my extra time.  The Confident Mind will be back in a couple of weeks.  In the meantime… In this weeks episode of The Confident Mind I […] The post REPOSTED: The World in Black and White appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind I talk about sadness and how one of the ways that depression happens is when we get stuck in sadness, and allow it to define our sense of ourselves. I discuss research that shows that when we practice mindfulness meditation it decreases our tendency to define ourselves by our emotions, […] The post REPOSTED: Getting Stuck in Sadness appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

Have you ever felt like a robot? Like you’re responses are automatic, and out of your control?  This week on The Confident Mind I talk about how our emotional programming in childhood can leave us feeling as if we are trapped in certain patterns and ways of responding, and how mindfulness and therapy can enable […] The post I, Robot appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on The Confident Mind I talk about how our tendency to “look up” at those who have more, creates anxiety and unhappiness.  In capitalism and western society our tendency to strive and want to be more successful fuels anxiety and insecurity, and ultimately creates “status anxiety.”  I talk about how to consciously switch […] The post Don’t Look Up appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

On The Confident Mind this week I spoke with Aaron Jarden.  Aaron is a Senior Lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology, President of the New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology, lead investigator for the International Wellbeing Study and co-investigator of the Sovereign New Zealand Wellbeing Index. We talked about how to measure wellbeing, and […] The post REPOSTED: How to Increase Your Wellbeing: Interview with Aaron Jarden appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

What is reality?  It’s a philosophical question.  Are we, like in the film “The Matrix”, all living in a computer simulation?  This week on The Confident Mind I discuss how our perception of reality is unlikely to be a computer simulation, but however is nonetheless different for all of us.  And may be limited by our own perceptions, […] The post What is reality? appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

We all lie, all the time.  That’s what I talk about this week on The Confident Mind podcast.  Honesty is a virtue we all hold to be worthwhile, but human nature means that we lie to others and most often ourselves, all the time.  Reality is painful but mindfulness helps us to be able to […] The post Liar Liar appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

How to be free?  That’s what I talk about this week on The Confident Mind podcast.  True freedom comes from feeling free to think and feel what ever we like, or need to.  We are not our thoughts, as the saying goes.  I explore how to achieve this freedom, and included is a brief mindfulness […] The post REPOSTED: Freedom appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind I talk about compassion, both for ourselves and others.  I explore how being able to feel compassion is vital for emotional health and how extending and challenging ourselves to feel compassion for others, also helps us be kinder and more gentle towards ourselves. To see more about my online […] The post Why Should I care? appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind I talk about “normal” and how as it’s an abstract concept, no one is actually normal.  I explore how we all tend to act like out there, somewhere, are normal people that we are comparing ourselves to.  I also talk about how to use the ideas of mindfulness and […] The post REPOSTED: There’s no such thing as normal appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

In this, the first episode of The Confident Mind of 2016, I talk about how to have a good day and how to do a series of small things that help to keep our mood on track and not leave space for anxiety.  I talk about how to keep focussed on the present moment and […] The post REPOSTED: How to have a good day appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind I talk about sadness and how one of the ways that depression happens is when we get stuck in sadness, and allow it to define our sense of ourselves. I discuss research that shows that when we practice mindfulness meditation it decreases our tendency to define ourselves by our emotions, […] The post Getting Stuck in Sadness appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind I talk about procrastination, what it is, what makes some people more prone to experience it and some easy to implement strategies, mindfulness based of course, to overcome it. To see more about my online treatment program to help you Overcome Social Anxiety, which is “Pay What You Want” […] The post How to Not Procrastinate appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on The Confident Mind I talk with comedians Kade Nightingale and Jeremy Rolston about their new stand up comedy show “You, Me and O.C.D”.  They’ve both been diagnosed with O.C.D which happens to have the silver lining of being great inspiration for comedy.  We talk about the show, and their own experiences of […] The post You Me and OCD – Interview with Kade and Jeremy appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind, I talk about how I’m a hypocrite.  In fact, we all are.  I explore the ways that hypocrisy can be a useful driver of behaviour and attitudinal change, and also a hurtful and unhelpful way of thinking about our won natural inconsistencies as human beings.  Included is a brief […] The post We are all Hypocrites appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind, I talk about online bullying, and my thoughts on why it seems to be more prevalent.  I explain the role of narcissism and empathy failure in bullying, and how this is a particular risk with online relating.  And I suggest how mindfulness can help us all be more thoughtful and […] The post Anti-Social Media appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind, I talk about failure, what it means and how fearing failure leads us to avoid engaging in activities.  I talk about how mindfulness can help us to be more open to the emotions that happen around failure, and how to not let the fear of failure hold us back. […] The post Fear of Failure appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

In this weeks episode of The Confident Mind I talk about the limits and dangers in thinking about anxiety as a “brain disease”, some of the research that shows it clearly isn’t a disease, and what we understand about what actually causes anxiety.  This week includes a simple mindfulness exercise to help with relaxation. To see […] The post REPOSTED: Anxiety is Not a Disease appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

I’ve had an unexpectedly busy week, and so rather than leave you with no Podcast to listen to, here’s an earlier episode to tide you over… In this weeks Confident Mind Podcast I introduce secondary emotions, how they contribute to escalating patterns of emotions and how panic is really “fear of fear.”  I explore how mindfulness helps with […] The post REPOSTED: Feelings about Feelings appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.

This week on the Confident Mind, it’s all about motivation: what it is and how to get more of it.  Or more specifically how mindfulness can help us overcome a lack of motivation, and do hard things.  I talk about the paradox of motivation, and how dealing with a lack of motivation is really about […] The post How to get Motivated appeared first on Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness.