Change Academy podcast

Heather Hutchison is a singer/songwriter and author of the new memoir Holding On by Letting Go. Heather has been blind since birth and one of the things she hopes to do through her music and writing is educate people about disability and mental health.

One of the concepts she explores in her book is this idea of Radical Acceptance, a term that Brock introduced in our recent episode on coping. So we thought it would be great to have Heather on the show to talk more about that. Please enjoy this conversation between co-host Brock Armstrong and Heather Hutchison.

Continue reading “Ep 46: Radical Acceptance with Heather Hutchison”

Coping mechanisms are not an inherently bad thing. If we can’t avoid or escape something unpleasant or even harmful, figuring out a way to cope with it is a good survival strategy.  But sometimes we use coping mechanisms to tolerate things that maybe we shouldn’t be tolerating. In this episode, we explore the difference between helpful and unhelpful coping.

Continue reading “Ep 45: Stop Coping So Well”

To-do lists, checklists, scorecards can be great tools to keep us on track. But they can also seem like an overwhelming task themselves. Or worse yet, they can become yet another way that we judge our own abilities or self-worth.

In this episode, we will show you how to create a list that suits you and your goals. We will also explore how to structure that list so it can keep you on track without being a constant reminder of how much work you have to do.

Continue reading “Ep 44: How to List Better”

Some of our goals or objectives require us to master a range of different skills. You’ll probably be naturally stronger in some areas than others. And sometimes, in order to reach our goals, overcoming or strengthening a weakness is essential.

But it’s not just about forcing yourself to work on the things that are hard for you. In this episode, we focus on identifying areas where you need more support–and seeking out resources that can help.

Continue reading “Ep 43: What’s Holding You Back?”

We all have cues in our lives that prompt us to carry out certain behaviors, like putting a seat belt on when we get in a car, grabbing snacks when we sit on the couch to watch a movie, or pouring a glass of wine when we change out of our work clothes.

Some of our cue responses are good (like seatbelts), and some are not so good (like snacks and alcohol). Many of them probably developed over time without our conscious intention.

We can, however, deliberately create cues in our lives to help us make decisions and perform behaviors that will benefit us. In this episode, we’ll teach you how to identify and dismantle unhelpful cues and also build some helpful ones.

Continue reading “Ep 42: Cues and Prompts”

Having a firm grip on reality is usually seen as a sign of good mental health.  But social scientists have discovered that happy and successful people routinely overestimate their skill, talent, and chances of success. In fact, that may be one of the secrets to their success.

In this episode, we explore why being overly optimistic is not a cognitive defect that needs to be overcome but a constructive trait that we can cultivate.

Continue reading “Ep 41: The Power of Positive Illusions”

A year ago, virtually every aspect of our lives changed profoundly: How we eat, shop, work, socialize, exercise, etc. These weren’t changes we chose but changes that were forced on us.  Now that we are beginning to imagine life returning to something more similar to pre-pandemic, we have some decisions to make. Are there new habits that we’ve adopted that we might want to keep? Old habits that we don’t want to return to?

What’s clear is that we DON’T want to do is miss this opportunity to make a conscious choice.

Continue reading “Ep 40: Changes We’d Like to Keep”

Behavioralist Schlomo Benartzi defines a default as “what happens if you do nothing.“  If we’re too busy, distracted, or fatigued to make a choice or decision, the default wins the day. And because we’re often busy, distracted, or fatigued we want to be careful and intentional about which defaults are operating on our lives. In this episode, we’ll show you how to do that. 

Continue reading “Ep 39: What’s Your Default?”

In the last episode, we talked about deciding which thoughts deserve our energy. But once we’ve decided that a situation deserves our attention, we need to decide how we want to engage with it. The words we use to describe (even to ourselves) what’s going on in our lives or our heads can make a big difference.

Continue reading “Ep 38: How Do You Want to Engage?”

Not all of our thoughts deserve our attention or energy. Some can safely be dismissed without further examination. But we often allow unworthy or unhelpful thoughts to take up a lot of real estate in our brains–and this can negatively impact how we feel, what we do, and ultimately what we accomplish.  In this episode, we talk about why it’s so important to choose which thoughts you give your energy to.

Continue reading “Ep 37: Choosing Your Thoughts”