Tools to Bolster Your Mental Health & Confidence | Dr. Paul Conti

**Paul Conti** (0:00)
There's far more going right in any of us, in all of us, than there is going wrong if we're here, right? And if we're listening to educational material, we want to better ourselves, there's so much more that's going right in us. And it's a good place for us to start because it helps us to be able to look at what's not going the way we want it to be, where we want to bring change in our lives. But we should start from a position of strength.

**Andrew Huberman** (0:25)
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. Paul Conti.
Dr. Paul Conti is a medical doctor and psychiatrist and an expert in recovery from trauma. He is also one of the foremost public educators on how anyone can build a greater sense of agency, confidence and well-being in their life.
Today we discuss the practical aspects of building and maintaining mental health. In particular, how to identify your natural strengths and the often unseen opportunities to improve your reflexive mental framework and relationship with self and others. Dr. Conti's approach to building mental health and overcoming challenges with mental health are very different than most of the information that you'll find on the internet and elsewhere. He has decades of clinical experience and he draws on that and data to explain the specific questions that we all need to ask ourselves when we're facing things like lowered motivation, mood, or challenges overcoming bad habits. Today we discuss all of that as well as how to balance action and introspection. This is very important because I think a lot of people think about mental health as merely an introspective process. But as Dr. Conti points out, it's really a balance of thinking and doing and often involves more doing than thinking. So during today's episode, you'll get a specific framework of questions to ask yourself repeatedly, that is every day or every week, and specific action steps to take so that you can truly become the best version of yourself and derive the greatest sense of meaning along the way. I'd like to point out that Dr. Conti also has a new book coming out, which is aptly entitled What's Going Right? A Powerful New Method for Optimizing Your Mental Health. I've read the book from front to back, and I have to tell you it's a wonderful resource that includes both information and simple worksheet like prompts that can help anyone through sticking points, as well as to build on what the title suggests, what's already going right. So if you're currently suffering or if you're doing well and you want to level up your mental health further, today's conversation is definitely for you. 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, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. Paul Conti. Dr. Paul Conti, welcome back.

**Paul Conti** (2:54)
Thank you. Thank you for having me back.

**Andrew Huberman** (2:56)
Congratulations on your book, What's Going Right? A Powerful New Method for Optimizing Your Mental Health. It's an amazing book. And you also hold the record, not incidentally, I think for the most viewed and downloaded episodes of this podcast ever. So, you know, you got a lot of Huberman podcast listener fans out there.
So, they'll be reading if they're smart. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. They want to be better. They want to feel enriched in all the ways. So, let's talk about...

**Paul Conti** (3:24)
Thank you.

**Andrew Huberman** (3:25)
Let's talk about individuals first. And then I also want to talk today about interactions between people, which we probably haven't talked quite as much about, at least not here. The self.
We all have a name, a self concept. We wake up thinking and knowing essentially who we are, what bothers us, what we're excited about. And the question I've been living with for a long time is how malleable is our self view and our relationship to ourself? And we can define those, right? If we're not super comfortable or completely happy with our relationship to ourselves, how much flexibility is there on that whole picture?

**Paul Conti** (4:09)
I think it's very malleable. I think there's a lot of flexibility, but we have to be willing to look at ourselves. Very often, we're not looking at ourselves. We're afraid of what we're going to find, or we don't know how to understand, or how to bring change, so we don't look at ourselves, and then we can see ourselves as inflexible and think that we're just stuck in the same place over time. But if we're willing to look at ourselves and we bring this compassionate curiosity to ourselves, of hey, what can I learn about myself? And what might I be interested in changing in myself? Or in emphasizing in myself? I think we can bring a lot, a lot of change.