How Not to Be Your Own Worst Enemy
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In the social-media age, we curate images of our lives on a screen—making it especially easy to translate images of perfection as the image of oneself. But the pressure to pretend we are perfect is exactly the thing holding us back from experiencing the happiness we seek—and limiting our ability to be our whole, authentic selves.
In this week’s episode of How to Build a Happy Life, we’ll define what we mean by “authenticity” and explore the psychological underpinnings of our ego-driven identities. A conversation with the clinical psychologist and mindfulness expert Dr. Shefali helps us work through one of the most challenging questions of all: Who am I?
Try this week’s live interactive exercise, “The Chipping-Away Exercise,” and apply these lessons to your own life. Tag us on social media with #thechippingawayexercise, and listen to other full-length episodes of How to Build a Happy Life at theatlantic.com/podcasts/how-to-build-a-happy-life. (Your entries are private, unless you share on social media.)
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This episode was produced by Rebecca Rashid and is hosted by Arthur C. Brooks. Editing by A.C. Valdez. Fact-check by Ena Alvarado. Sound design by Michael Raphael.
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Music by Trevor Kowalski (“Lion’s Drift,” “This Valley of Ours,” “Una Noche De Luces”), Stationary Sign (“Loose in the Park”), and Spectacles Wallet and Watch (“Last Pieces”).
This transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
People often ask this question: How do I find myself? And for a long time, I didn’t really understand the nature of that question, because, I mean, find yourself? Look in the mirror! But then I realized that people tend to be deeply alienated from
