58 min
Eric Zimmer - Intentionally Creating the Lives We Want to Live Age Thoughtfully with Marissa Kennerson
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- Self-Improvement
A behavior coach, podcast host, and author, Eric Zimmer is endlessly inspired by the quest for a greater understanding of how our minds work and how to intentionally create the lives we want to live.
At the age of 24, Eric was homeless, addicted to heroin and facing long jail sentences. In the years since he has found a way to recover from addiction and build a life worth living for himself.
Eric works as a behavior coach and has done so for the past 20 years. He has coached hundreds of people from around the world on how to make significant life changes and create habits that serve them well in achieving the goals they’ve set for themselves.
In addition to his work as a behavior coach, he currently hosts the award-winning podcast, The One You Feed, based on an old parable about two wolves at battle within us. With over 300 episodes and over 13 million downloads, the show features conversations with experts across many fields of study about how to create a life that has less suffering and more fulfillment and meaning.
Guests on the show include scientists, authors, researchers, teachers, thought leaders, spiritual gurus, and public figures and all offer practical, actionable wisdom that listeners can readily apply to their daily lives in order to act their way into a better experience of living.
His story and his work have been featured in the media including TedX, Mind Body Green, Elephant Journal, the BBC and Brain Pickings.
Eric's Three Tips for Aging Thoughtfully
1. One of my most basic tips is that I have to be moving my body. Exercise for me is so fundamental to my mental, emotional and (as I age) physical well-being. I would be lost without that one. As I get older, I feel like I can let that one slide less and less.
2. Foster connection: I am intentionally leaving that very broad. We can connect to so many different things, but I do think connection is at the heart of a good life. Typically that connection will not only be to one thing but a variety of things. Some of things might be people, that’s a pretty common one. Our own spiritual ideas – that’s an important connection. Connection to things that we enjoy doing. Fostering connection in different aspects of our lives is really important. After doing 300 episodes of the One You Feed you could almost boil it down to exercise and connect. An over- simplification that holds truth.
3. Find things that you enjoy doing! Have things that you like to do that are also restorative in some way. Leisure activities that are mindless and unsatisfying (scrolling through Facebook or binging Netflix) are not bad, but they are not very nourishing or regenerating. Conversely, we try to stock our leisure time with things that are very edifying like meditation and yoga – which are all important.
I recently have been thinking how important it is to have things that sit in between those two. Things we really enjoy doing but also provide us with edification, relaxation and regeneration. I think the typical word for this would have been a hobby. Otherwise you might be spending a lot of time in leisure – but doing things that wear you out. You feel tired and empty after. The other side – shoving in things that are rigorous practices – might not let us rewind. For me, this is playing the guitar.
A behavior coach, podcast host, and author, Eric Zimmer is endlessly inspired by the quest for a greater understanding of how our minds work and how to intentionally create the lives we want to live.
At the age of 24, Eric was homeless, addicted to heroin and facing long jail sentences. In the years since he has found a way to recover from addiction and build a life worth living for himself.
Eric works as a behavior coach and has done so for the past 20 years. He has coached hundreds of people from around the world on how to make significant life changes and create habits that serve them well in achieving the goals they’ve set for themselves.
In addition to his work as a behavior coach, he currently hosts the award-winning podcast, The One You Feed, based on an old parable about two wolves at battle within us. With over 300 episodes and over 13 million downloads, the show features conversations with experts across many fields of study about how to create a life that has less suffering and more fulfillment and meaning.
Guests on the show include scientists, authors, researchers, teachers, thought leaders, spiritual gurus, and public figures and all offer practical, actionable wisdom that listeners can readily apply to their daily lives in order to act their way into a better experience of living.
His story and his work have been featured in the media including TedX, Mind Body Green, Elephant Journal, the BBC and Brain Pickings.
Eric's Three Tips for Aging Thoughtfully
1. One of my most basic tips is that I have to be moving my body. Exercise for me is so fundamental to my mental, emotional and (as I age) physical well-being. I would be lost without that one. As I get older, I feel like I can let that one slide less and less.
2. Foster connection: I am intentionally leaving that very broad. We can connect to so many different things, but I do think connection is at the heart of a good life. Typically that connection will not only be to one thing but a variety of things. Some of things might be people, that’s a pretty common one. Our own spiritual ideas – that’s an important connection. Connection to things that we enjoy doing. Fostering connection in different aspects of our lives is really important. After doing 300 episodes of the One You Feed you could almost boil it down to exercise and connect. An over- simplification that holds truth.
3. Find things that you enjoy doing! Have things that you like to do that are also restorative in some way. Leisure activities that are mindless and unsatisfying (scrolling through Facebook or binging Netflix) are not bad, but they are not very nourishing or regenerating. Conversely, we try to stock our leisure time with things that are very edifying like meditation and yoga – which are all important.
I recently have been thinking how important it is to have things that sit in between those two. Things we really enjoy doing but also provide us with edification, relaxation and regeneration. I think the typical word for this would have been a hobby. Otherwise you might be spending a lot of time in leisure – but doing things that wear you out. You feel tired and empty after. The other side – shoving in things that are rigorous practices – might not let us rewind. For me, this is playing the guitar.
58 min