What is a Good Life? #2 (Podcast)
What is a Good Life? #2 (Podcast)
Breaking Mental Health Taboos with Nora Dietrich
Good day to you all,
I hope life is treating you well.
On the second episode of the “What is a Good Life?” podcast, I am joined by psychotherapist Nora Dietrich to discuss Mental Health.
This episode is a great example of what I hope this podcast to be; substantive conversations around important topics, that share pertinent information and practical tips, along with personal experiences and perspectives - which help us handle these themes with more humility and humour, regarding the sometimes absurd, and paradoxical, experience of being human.
The structure for the newsletter is:
Short video clip from the podcast (2mins)
My weekly reflection related to the weekly video clip (1.5 mins)
Full podcast episode - both video and audio this week (58 mins)
Two content related questions to prompt your own reflections on life
1. Weekly Excerpt from the Podcast
2. My weekly reflection
We often discuss the importance of helping others to open up more when they suffer with their mental health. However, it doesn’t seem reasonable to me to expect someone to open up at their lowest ebb, merely because we have asked them to, when we as a society are generally prone to keeping our difficulties to ourselves.
By keeping our own cards so close to our chest when we struggle, we create this really false impression that we all really have our shit together. Which creates a really uninviting arena for someone to genuinely be themselves, or vulnerable, when they struggle.
If we want people to open up more, the first place of focus ought to be ourselves, not someone else. How often, in the moment of your discomfort, do you really share what’s going on in your life?
I am not talking about dumping your heaviest traumas, or deepest darkest secrets sporadically into conversations, I just mean when you are feeling a bit low on a given day, or that your kids aren’t doing well at school, or that you’ve had an argument with your partner, etc. - how often would you open up that day, before it’s all neatly cleaned up?
While the development of people retrospectively sharing their difficulties with mental health is a very welcome one in moving the conversation forward, we usually present these stories when they are sorted out and we have navigated the difficulty. These stories are not as relatable as we think they are to someone around us that is presently suffering; while helpful, we are not seeing each other eye to eye in that circumstance.
What I am finding very helpful of late is the more I mention small things like, “I am feeling a little angry / low / anxious today”, or sharing some present moment difficulty, people usually jump in with both feet in sharing something in their life. Sometimes with something small, many times with something that has been weighing them down for quite a while. Perhaps instead of persisting with “how are you?”, let’s lower our own guard first, before expecting others to follow suit.
3. This week’s Podcast - Breaking Mental Health Taboos with Nora Dietrich (What is a Good Life? Ep. #2)
My guest, Nora Dietrich, is a Psychotherapist. She works with individuals, couples, and more extensively with corporations to break Mental Health taboos, while creating healthier environments for us to work in. If you don’t follow her on LinkedIn, I’d recommend you do so, as she talks about Mental Health in a very human, well-informed, and relatable way.
Click here for Apple and Google.
4. This week’s Questions
What stops you sharing your inner world, emotions, and experiences, with those close to you?
How comfortable are you with just listening to other people’s struggles without leaping in to “fix” things for them?
About Me
I am a Coach based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. I left behind a 15-year career in Capital Markets after I became extremely curious around what life, myself, and existence are all about.
I work with high-performing, individual clients who have hit their material goals and are trying to understand what comes after performance. I have also created a Corporate program (based on the question What is a Good Life?) for teams to foster greater trust, human connection, and diversity of thought within high-performing teams (click here for reference).
If you would like to work with me, or you simply want to get in touch, here’s my email and LinkedIn.