"Empathy is a practice" - Lisa Kamen

Every person’s experience in life is different. From a very young age, we learn what actions help us get what we need to survive and thrive. All of these learnings eventually form our belief system, our story. When our beliefs are challenged we are hard-wired to defend ourselves or flee. To find out if these early evolutionary patterns help us in modern-day society or are an outdated response we have yet to shed, Positive Psychology Podcast Host Lisa Cypers Kamen speaks with author Lisa Cron. Lisa shares key components from her book, Wired for Story, and the neuroscience behind human connection and communication. 

In her book, Wired for Story, Lisa asserts that it is story that gives context and meaning to everything that happens to us.  [1:58]

•  Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is missing one critical component. [3:16]
•  Our belief systems are formed when we are very young and our body reacts accordingly anytime our beliefs are challenged. [6:27]
•  Lisa contends we are hard-wired to live in a world that no longer exists and why it is so difficult to change someone else’s mind. [17:39] 
•  Lisa shares the ultimate key to human connection and communication. [23:54] 
•  Society expects us to conform to its ideas to get other people to like us but it is our self-disclosure that binds us together. [27:07]

About Lisa’s Guest:

Lisa Cron is the author of Wired for Story, Story Genius, and most recently, Story or Die: How to Use Brain Science to Engage, Persuade, and Change Minds in Business and in Life. Lisa spent a decade in publishing and has been a literary agent, television producer, and story analyst for Hollywood studios. She served on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts MFA program in visual narrative and, since 2006, has taught in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

This episode of Harvesting Happiness Talk Radio is sponsored by: 

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