Today we welcome Dr. Robert L. Leahy, the Director of The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy NYC and clinical professor of psychology in psychiatry at Weill-Cornell University Medical School. Dr. Leahy serves on a number of scientific committees for international conferences on cognitive behavioral therapy and is a frequent keynote speaker throughout the world. He has authored 27 books about CBT, depression, worry, anxiety, and emotion regulation, which have been translated in 20 languages. His latest book is called If Only...: Finding Freedom from Regret.

In this episode, I talked to Dr. Robert Leahy about finding freedom from regret. Regret is an unpleasant emotion that can motivate us to learn and grow, but there are times when it can keep us frozen in place. According to Dr. Leahy, this is why it’s important to make a distinction between productive and unproductive rumination. He shares the cognitive biases we have about loss and opportunity as well as strategies on how to let go of regret when it no longer serves us. 

Website: cognitivetherapynyc.com

LinkedIn: Robert Leahy

Topics

02:12 Why do we feel regret?

07:30 Regret is tied to expectations

12:57 Affective forecasting, coping, resilience

18:31 Existential perfectionism

20:45 The free lunch myth

24:19 Inaction inertia

26:58 Hindsight bias

28:32 Adaptive humility

32:39 Letting go of regret

36:36 The boredom technique

40:01 Productive guilt

43:45 The 8 habits of highly regretful people

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