Personal Synthesis

In this episode, Nash and our special guest, Bonny Astor, discuss what can give us a sense of belonging, the pros and cons of groups, what groups require to last, and how to maximise your chances of being accepted when joining a new group. Bonny and Nash draw extensively from their experience of running Meetup groups, Thought Experiments in Pubs and Pub Psychology (also mostly in London pubs!), respectively. If you join these groups, you can meet them in person! personalsynthesis.com

This podcast can help you be more in charge of interest and boredom. Generally, there are two reasons why we get bored: because nothing is happening and because of what is happening and they require different approaches. We will address both. Also, we sometimes may not be interested enough in things that we want to be, so we will talk about how to get there too. personalsynthesis.com

Do you consider yourself an open or closed person? Are you in charge of opening and closing to new experiences or information, or sometimes you find yourself too open or too closed? Would you like to change anything in this respect? In this episode, we discuss what openness is, when and to what extent; we also share with our listeners tips on how to regulate the ability to open up as well as close down. You can be more in charge of it! personalsynthesis.com

In this podcast, we discuss what makes us feel alive and how we can enhance that sense of aliveness. We compare the advantages and disadvantages of diversity and variation as well as the intensity and depth of our experiences. Risk-taking and how to do it wisely is considered, too. personalsynthesis.com

Resilience is a hot topic - we seem to get less and less resilient with detrimental consequences for our well-being and mental health. In this episode, we first discuss factors that reduce resilience and then suggest what we can do to increase it. Three steps of resilience (think, choose, accept and move on), as well as how to deal with iceberg situations, are also addressed. personalsynthesis.com

In this episode, we clarify the difference between three distinct concepts: attachment, non-attachment and detachment. All three have a purpose in our lives and the capacity to move between them can be beneficial. We share with our listeners some tips on how to do that. personalsynthesis.com

In this episode, we will examine what is important to us and why and how much importance we should attach to something. We will also share with our listeners some tips on how to reduce as well as increase importance when we want to do so. personalsynthesis.com

In this episode, we discuss why it is good to accept death, the meaning of death, how to deal with the fear of death and some concerns related to death. We also touch upon loss and grieving and how to support those who grieve. personalsynthesis.com

In this episode, we will first examine the relationship between the sense of security and anxiety and explain why anxiety and fear are not the same, even though they are often used interchangeably nowadays. A few tips on how to control excessive anxiety will be suggested, and finally, we will discuss external and internal sources of security. personalsynthesis.com

In this episode, we discuss some main dispositions towards events that are not experienced but anticipated: worrying, optimism and pessimism. We start by examining if worrying is really useful, why we worry and how to reduce and control worrying. Then we turn to optimism, pessimism and the possibility of their synthesis. It is, really, quite an optimistic one! personalsynthesis.com

In this episode, we discuss how to deal with self-sabotage, build confidence, and preserve it if you make a mistake or receive negative feedback. We also tackle the negative effects of overconfidence and provide some easy-to-follow interventions that can help you regain your confidence in tricky situations when you feel you may lose it. personalsynthesis.com

In this first episode of the second season, we will discuss how to deal with fear reactions as well as their causes and triggers. Nash will also use the exposure technique to help Boby be more in charge of his fear of snakes. We hope this demonstration will help our listener deal with their fears too. personalsynthesis.com

In this podcast, we will discuss two types of development (qualitative and quantitative), how we can further our development, and various challenges we may encounter on that path. This is the last session in this session, but the new session is on the horizon! personalsynthesis.com

Discipline has bad press. Many of us feel that there is something restrictive about it. But this is because we usually think about the top-down kind of discipline. There is another kind that actually enhances our freedom and is one of the most useful abilities that we can develop. In this episode, we offer some tips on how to do that. personalsynthesis.com

In this episode, we will discuss how to develop and maintain stability. If you are tired of chasing a good mood all the time for fear that you will otherwise fall into a bad mood, discover the value of the neutral position and how to get there! Centring, grounding, some relaxation techniques, and a simple form of meditation that can help you be more in charge of impulsive relations will also be thrown into the mix. personalsynthesis.com

Since ancient times many have believed that the secret of happiness is peace of mind or inner harmony. That harmony is achieved by reducing internal conflicts. This will be the main focus of today's podcast. We will also suggest how to deal with one of the most common and difficult types of such conflicts - regret, personalsynthesis.com

Our concepts, ideas and beliefs create an inner structure, a private castle if you like, within which your mind lives. That structure is important to us, and when part of it crashes down or a hole appears in it, we experience anxiety and distress. In this episode, we will discuss how we can integrate and develop that inner structure. personalsynthesis.com

Are you creative? Well, you are - and much more often than you think. You create thoughts and images in your mind almost all the time. Sometimes spontaneously and sometimes deliberately. In this podcast, we will discuss how we can be more in charge of that stream of spontaneously generated thoughts and images. Also, we will consider have we can develop our capacity for deliberate creative thinking that can be handy in many everyday situations. personalsynthesis.com

Do you think well? In this episode, we cover how to check if our thinking is lazy or biased and what we can do to think better and be more objective or realistic. This can pay off in so many situations! personalsynthesis.com

Do you love learning? Yes? No? Well, we all did when we were young and then, for some of us it turned into a chore and the spark for learning has been lost. And yet, learning is and can be wonderful! We will discuss in this podcast various types of learning and also suggest some learning tips as well as mnemonic techniques with the hope that this will ignite that spark in you again! personalsynthesis.com