588: How to Stop Overthinking, Face Discomfort, and Take Back Control of Your Life | Amy Morin

Amy Morin (0:00)

So good, so good, so good.

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Max Lugavere (0:27)

What's up, everybody? It's episode 588 of The Genius Life. Let's rock.

The Genius Life.

What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to The Genius Life. I'm your host, Max Lugavere, and my guest today is Amy Morin. She is a psychotherapist, internationally bestselling author, and one of the world's leading voices on mental strength. Her latest book is The Mental Strength Playbook, which offers 50 practical strategies for handling difficult thoughts, uncomfortable emotions, anxiety, setbacks, and the moments when you simply don't feel strong. Amy's expertise was forged through unimaginable personal loss, honestly, and she's going to tell you all about that. Those experiences forced her to confront a question that her training as a therapist hadn't fully answered. How do we move through pain without merely white-knuckling it, and how do we become stronger without becoming hardened? In this conversation, we're going to discuss the difference between mental strength and mental toughness, why self-care sometimes means doing the uncomfortable thing, how rumination keeps us trapped in our own heads, and simple tools to stop or at least manage negative thoughts when they arise. We're also going to talk about social media, doom-scrolling, anxiety, perfectionism, grief, physical exercise as a form of mental training, the value of hobbies and responsibility, and so much more. Amy's central message is both empowering and super practical. You don't have to feel strong in order to act strong, and mental strength is a skill that every one of us can train. Listen through all the way to the end, you're not going to want to miss a beat, and if you have friends and loved ones in your life that you think may benefit from this episode, please guys, don't forget to share it. Finally, subscribe to the show wherever you listen, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter at maxlugavere.com/newsletter for my latest thoughts on nutrition, brain health, fitness, psychology and living a better life. And now with all that out of the way, here's episode 588, let's rock. Amy Morin, how are you doing? Welcome to the show, what's going on?

Amy Morin (2:31)

Thank you so much for having me, I'm excited to be here.

Max Lugavere (2:34)

And you're straight off the boat, literally from, I was overhearing you discuss with Sydney, you live on a sailboat?

Amy Morin (2:40)

I do, so I have been on a sailboat in the Florida Keys for 11 years now.

Max Lugavere (2:44)

Wow.

Amy Morin (2:44)

It was supposed to be a six month adventure, but 11 years later, I'm still there.

Max Lugavere (2:49)

What is the festival that occurs every year on Halloween, is it Halloween in Key West?

Amy Morin (2:53)

Oh, yeah. Fantasy Fest? Fantasy Fest.

Max Lugavere (2:55)

Fantasy Fest, shout out. I went to University of Miami, and so I went down there a few times. So fun.

Amy Morin (3:01)

It's an adventure for sure.

Max Lugavere (3:04)

And so you're like off a boat, like anchored off the coast, or are you like, is it?

Amy Morin (3:08)

So I own what's called a dockaminium, so I own dock space, and I have an outdoor tiki hut, and then that way I have high speed internet, electricity, all the good things that I need to function and do my own business and everything from. So a lot of the time, I'm anchored anywhere, I'm tied to a dock, rather than just bobbing around at sea, but.

Max Lugavere (3:27)

And you're also a therapist. Correct. And an author, best selling author.

Amy Morin (3:30)

Correct.

Max Lugavere (3:31)

And TEDx speaker or TED speaker. So do you see patients like on your, do they come to you on your boat, or is it like?

Amy Morin (3:40)

It's remote now, so I can just see people over the internet, yeah.

Max Lugavere (3:44)

What a story. Well, I'm excited to dive in even further, but I'm super excited about your work. I think it's so important we live in, we live in this amid this very interesting juxtaposition. I feel like we've inherited a time where we are, by all accounts, safer than ever before physically, and yet we're more psychologically fragile than ever before.

Why do you think that is and how do we build mental strength? That's what I want for all of my listeners, all of my viewers.