Maya Shankar

Oh, you're going through a divorce.

Oh, I have a friend who went through a divorce.

Talk to them.

Oh, you're dealing with loss.

Oh, go to the bereavement section of the bookstore.

But actually, because we have a shared human psychology,

And because we're grappling with the same stuff when it comes with change, things like uncertainty, fear, grief around the life we used to have and the loss of identity that we're having to experience, anxiety, all of these things are so universal in their nature.

And if the problem state is universal, then you could easily imagine that the solution set will be similar as well.

So, for example, one thing that is really tough for us in the throes of change is rumination.

we tend to spiral, we get into these really negative spirals in which we are rehashing the past, we're filled with regret, we're anxious about the future.

Our brains trick us into believing that we're actually making progress on solving our problem when in actuality we're making no progress at all.

That's actually the definition of rumination.

you're the type of person who after a big change wakes up at three in the morning and tries to out think the problem and ends up in a worse state that's rumination and so i provide strategies for overcoming rumination so that we can see our problems more objectively things like mental time travel in which you travel to the past or into the future in order to contextualize your present day problem and to see it as more transient psychological distancing tools in which you can actually breed

that sort of important distance you need between you and your problem so you can see it with more clarity and actually poke holes in the narratives that you're building.

First of all, thanks so much for having me, Jason.

Olivia was a early 20-something college student when she experienced a severe brainstem stroke that left her with a condition called locked-in syndrome.

And when you have locked-in syndrome, it means that your consciousness is fully preserved, you think and feel the same thoughts and have the same emotions as before, and

But you have no voluntary muscle control over any of the muscles in your body except for the muscles that control your eyes.

So the only way that you can communicate with the outside world is by blinking.

Exactly.