Behavior changes can lead to a more meaningful engagement with life, focusing on retraining thoughts and living out values mindfully.
Emotional regulation and tactical factors are crucial in personal growth, emphasizing the 'middle way' in behavior change for life improvement.
Deconstructing overwhelming emotions through the 'emotional storm model' allows for intervention points and better emotional response handling.
Deep dives
Podcast Introduction and Overview
The podcast episode features a conversation with Eric Zimmer, a behavior coach and host of 'The One You Feed' podcast. The discussion delves into how to create a more meaningful engagement with life by focusing on behavior changes, retraining thoughts, and living out values more mindfully day by day. Zimmer shares insights on spirituality, agency, self-love, addiction, and emotions, emphasizing the importance of taking responsibility for personal growth.
Behavior Coaching and the Middle Way
Eric Zimmer discusses his journey into behavior coaching, drawing from his experience of helping others make significant life changes. He emphasizes the concept of the 'middle way' in behavior change, highlighting the balance between extremes and the importance of focusing on behavior as a lever for improving one's quality of life. Zimmer's approach involves addressing tactical factors and emotional regulation to facilitate personal growth.
The Emotional Storm Model
Zimmer introduces the 'emotional storm model' as a way to deconstruct overwhelming emotions into bodily sensations, thoughts, behaviors, and situational triggers. By breaking down complex emotional experiences, individuals can identify multiple points of intervention and gain a deeper understanding of their emotional responses, leading to more skillful handling of challenging situations.
Creativity and Spirituality
Zimmer shares his perspective on the link between creativity and spirituality, viewing the creative process as a spiritual connection to something greater and mysterious. He explores how engaging in creative endeavors can evoke a sense of spiritual presence and connection to a source of inspiration beyond individual understanding, reflecting on the transformative and spiritual aspects of creativity.
Spiritual Direction and Interfaith Perspective
Eric Zimmer reflects on his role as a certified interfaith spiritual director, highlighting the value of providing individuals with a space for reflection and spiritual exploration across different traditions. He emphasizes the importance of community, shared spiritual experiences, and honoring diverse spiritual paths within the practice of spiritual direction, guiding individuals in deepening their spiritual journeys.
Today we welcome Eric Zimmer to the podcast. Eric works as a behavior coach and has done so for the past 20 years. He has coached hundreds of people from around the world on how to make significant life changes that serve them well in achieving the goals they’ve set for themselves. He also hosts the award-winning podcast, The One You Feed. With over 30 million downloads, the show features conversations with experts across many fields of study about how to create a life that has less suffering and more fulfillment and meaning. His story and his work have been featured in the media including TedX, Mind Body Green, Elephant Journal, the BBC and Brain Pickings.
In this episode, I talk to Eric Zimmer about how to have a meaningful engagement with life. When we feel connected to what matters, it becomes easier to create an action plan that gets us moving in the right direction. At times, our emotions can get in the way but Eric believes that focusing on behavior changes can help us re-train our thoughts while leading us to our desired outcomes. Eric combines principles from religion, philosophy, and psychology to give us tips on how we can live out our values more mindfully day by day. We also touch on the topics of spirituality, agency, self-love, addiction, and emotions.
