Guest Kara Loewentheil discusses challenges of societal conditioning creating a 'brain gap' in women, self-doubt, body image beliefs, mindset shifts for personal growth, interplay of thoughts, emotions, and behavior, gender biases in money self-worth, and impact of personal transformation on societal change.
Money does not guarantee emotional security or happiness beyond meeting basic needs.
Cara Lowenthal focuses on challenging societal thought patterns for women empowerment.
Allowing emotions to be felt without resistance can help navigate through emotional distress effectively.
Deep dives
High Schoolers Participate in Philanthropic Leadership Program
High schoolers have the opportunity to engage in a seven-week philanthropic leadership development program by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Through this program, students learn valuable skills like project management and entrepreneurship while fundraising for pediatric blood cancer survivors in their local communities.
Cara Lowenthal's Unconventional Journey to Life Coaching
Cara Lowenthal, a recovering lawyer, transitioned to become a life coach focusing on rewiring cultural thought processes. Through her book 'Take Back Your Brain,' she addresses the brain gap in women's thinking patterns, guiding individuals to challenge societal norms and empower themselves.
Understanding Emotions and Thought Patterns
Cara Lowenthal emphasizes the distinction between emotional experiences and resistance to them. By allowing emotions to be felt without resistance, individuals can navigate through their feelings more effectively, recognizing that resistance often amplifies emotional distress.
Money and Emotional Security
The podcast delves into the emotional aspects of money, highlighting that beyond meeting basic needs, increased financial wealth does not necessarily equate to greater happiness or emotional security. Cara Lowenthal underscores that money is not a solution to emotional challenges but can provide a sense of physical safety.
Impact of Socialization on Thoughts and Behaviors
The discussion delves into how societal conditioning impacts individuals' thoughts and behaviors, particularly focusing on women's relationships with money and worth. It emphasizes the importance of reshaping thought patterns to separate financial value from personal worth.
Challenges of Self-Reflection and Social Paradigms
The podcast explores the complexities of self-reflection and societal paradigms around money and personal worth. It addresses the challenges individuals face in acknowledging their true motivations and the cultural norms that influence their beliefs about financial security and self-worth.
“There are studies showing that, once your basic needs are met, and you're not worried about losing your house, losing your health care, increases in money don't significantly increase happiness, right? So I think, you know, money helps alleviate the very real biological primitive fear of you're gonna die if you don't have shelter and food and in our society, healthcare, but when it comes to things beyond that, I think that we have been sold the lie that money creates security and it's a natural conflation because at a certain point for securing the necessities,and it makes other problems easier to solve also clearly, but emotionally, money is not the solution to an emotional problem any more than food or having a certain kind of body or being married or not married.”
So says Kara Loewentheil, author of Take Back Your Brain: How a Sexist Society Gets in Your Head—and How to Get it Out. While Kara and I went to college together, I first met her when she was gracious enough to have me on her hugely successful podcast, UnF*ck Your Brain, where I obviously fell in love with…her brain. Kara is theoretically an unlikely life coach—she graduated from Harvard Law School, litigated reproductive rights, and ran a think tank at Columbia University before deciding that she wanted to go upstream and rewire our culture’s brain instead.
Kara is fixated on what she calls the “Brain Gap” in women—the thought patterns so natural to women that keep us feeling anxious and disempowered. It’s in that “Brain Gap” that we continue to both unconsciously support and re-enact a culture that doesn’t do great things for women. My work and Kara’s work are very aligned. In fact, Take Back Your Brain: How a Sexist Society Gets in Your Head—and How to Get it Out is a cousin to On Our Best Behavior—one that’s written with actionable insights, by a life coach, for getting to the root of the problem.
