Libsyn Directory

398: Holiday Replay: How to Become Happier with Gretchen Rubin

Release Date: 12/21/2023

404: Embracing Transformation and Rediscovering Your True Self with Jennifer Dawn

The Adult Chair

Hello, my beautiful Adult Chair family! It’s Michelle Chalfant, and I’m thrilled to be back with you after a few months away. These months have been a transformative journey for me, one filled with deep introspection and change, not just personally but also for our beloved podcast. In this episode, I’m joined by someone very special, Jennifer Dawn, who has been a guide, mentor, and friend to me through this incredible period of growth. Jennifer has a profound connection to energy and healing, and she generously shared her insights on self-discovery and the transformative power of...

403: How To Listen to Your Soul

The Adult Chair

Lately, there’s been something stirring in my soul. I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but I feel like it’s going to be BIG – like something new is coming, and I need to go inward and listen for what it is. Have you ever felt this way? When this happens, I believe it’s our soul tugging at us, trying to tell us something about our mission and purpose on the planet. And I have made it my intention to always listen when the soul calls. It’s something I like to call “soul alignment” — a practice of going within and listening to the...

402: Healing Through Grounding with Clint Ober

The Adult Chair

What if the secret to better sleep, less inflammation and reduced pain was as simple as walking barefoot in the grass? Both the earth and our bodies have an electrical charge, and “grounding” (or “earthing”) refers to the practice of connecting our bodies to the earth – keeping the body’s charge at an optimal balance and unlocking tremendous health benefits. If you think this sounds like something made up by a crunchy tree hugger, think again: the father of grounding, Clint Ober, is actually a cable guy. Clint had a strong connection with nature from...

401: Practical Intuition with Laura Day

The Adult Chair

Have you ever gotten a “gut feeling” that something was going to happen…and then it did? Or sensed that someone wasn’t trustworthy or that you shouldn’t move forward with a decision? This is your intuition at work! Intuition is something we all possess, and something we’ve all undeniably experienced, but how it works remains largely a mystery. Is it something spiritual? Psychological? Biological? Laura Day grew up feeling like her brain was “different” in some way. She knew she had ADD and a number of head injuries, but she didn’t know...

400: The Art of Manifestation: How To Manifest Your Dream Life

The Adult Chair

2023 is behind us, and 2024 is here! The new year represents a clean slate and new chapter where you can begin manifesting the year – the life – you want. I believe that, as creative beings, we are always in “creation mode.” Like gravity, we can’t turn the laws of manifestation on and off – they just are. So, then the question becomes: What do you really want? And what is it that you are creating with every thought you have and word you speak? In this episode, I’m giving you everything you need to get more intentional with your creations...

399: Holiday Replay: The Magic of Surrender with Kute Blackson

The Adult Chair

Kute Blackson is no stranger to miracles. Growing up the son of a spiritual leader in Ghana, Africa, Kute witnessed healings and transformation that were nothing short of awe-inspiring. But when he realized it wasn’t his calling to take over his father’s ministry in the way his family expected, it led him on a challenging and transformational journey of his own: one in which he discovered the magic of surrender and how it can heal our lives. In this episode, Kute delivers so much wisdom about what surrender really is (it’s not passive like you might think), the role...

398: Holiday Replay: How to Become Happier with Gretchen Rubin

The Adult Chair

Whether it’s eating healthier, getting exercise, starting a meditation practice or staying socially connected, figuring out what to do to be happy might be simple – but actually doing these things and living in a way that lets us experience happiness is much harder. When we know there are things we can do that will make us healthier and happier, why do we struggle to actually do them? Why do we get caught in a cycle of chasing happiness instead of choosing joy, even when we know better? This is what Gretchen Rubin wanted to understand when she began studying happiness and why...

397: How Brain Health Affects Mental Health with Dr. Bisleen Attli

The Adult Chair

For too many years, mental health came with a stigma. It was treated as something “wrong” in the mind, with the psychological and physical looked at entirely separately. It’s almost as if we forgot that the brain is part of the body – a physical organ that needs care just like our heart, our gut or any other part of our body. And when we support our brain health, it can have BIG impacts on our mental and emotional health. Dr. Bisleen Attli is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-certified naturopath, which is a fancy way of saying...

396: Healing Generational Limiting Beliefs with LaShonda Walker

The Adult Chair

As you think about your life, do you ever wish your story was different? You wish you more of this, less of that, that an event had never happened, that you had done the thing you will always regret not doing. But what if the story you tell yourself about your life is just as important as the story of what happened to you? And what if you could change your entire life by consciously changing how you think about your past? LaShonda Walker is a Certified Adult Chair® Coach who has created an incredible healing process called “A New Life Story,” inspired by her training in The...

Managing Triggers at the Holidays

The Adult Chair

‘Tis the season…for triggers! At the holidays, stress, drinking, spending money and spending time with others all increase. And with that, comes a decrease in patience, sleep, time for self and all the things that make us more resilient to stress. Add in the fact that we tend to be around people we aren’t normally around for longer periods of time, and it’s a landmine for triggers. But as you know, I love triggers because they are such a powerful opportunity to look at and work on our limiting beliefs. So, I invite you to view this...

More Episodes

When we know there are things we can do that will make us healthier and happier, why do we struggle to actually do them? Why do we get caught in a cycle of chasing happiness instead of choosing joy, even when we know better?

This is what Gretchen Rubin wanted to understand when she began studying happiness and why people form the habits they do.

It turns out that it has everything to do with how we relate to expectations.

Gretchen discovered that there are four different “tendencies” that tell us how different people approach habits and expectations – whether we question expectations, comply with expectations, rebel against expectations or uphold them from within.

We are born with our tendency and there’s no right or wrong way to be, but our ability to pursue happiness and form habits is directly connected to which tendency we’re wired with.

In this episode, Gretchen describes each of the four tendencies in detail and ways to work with your type to go after the life you want. She also talks about habit formation and the different approaches to starting a new habit, so you can figure out which one works best for you!

This is so fascinating and has major implications for how we structure our lives, how we work with each other in business and relationships and so much more!

Listen to discover:

Concrete steps we can take to start boosting our happiness
The "four tendencies" personality framework
The Upholder, The Obliger, The Questioner and The Rebel – four different ways we all respond to inner and outer expectations
How your tendency impacts how you form habits
How to overcome resistance and work with your tendency to be as successful and happy as possible
Misconceptions about happiness and techniques to form better habits

Though it's true that everyone is different in terms of what makes us happy, we're also all different in how we get to the things that make us happy.

When we understand our wiring, we can overcome resistance and set ourselves up to achieve the life we want, in a way that is uniquely ours.

"Our physical experience is always going to color our emotional experience." - Gretchen Rubin

"The key to happiness is relationships." - Gretchen Rubin

"Don't suit other people. Suit yourself." - Gretchen Rubin

"I'm a big believer in the genetic roots of personality." - Gretchen Rubin

"We can work with each other to help us all achieve our aims, but sometimes we have to provide a different way from what would work for us." - Gretchen Rubin

"Your communication style would change once you know this." - Michelle Chalfant

"Happier people are more interested in the problems of the world." - Gretchen Rubin

"You have to take care of yourself. You have to put yourself first." - Michelle Chalfant

"When you're not indulging in a temptation, it goes away." - Gretchen Rubin

LINKS & RESOURCES

Gretchen Rubin Website

https://gretchenrubin.com/

Happier Podcast (Gretchen Rubin podcast)

https://gretchenrubin.com/podcasts/

Gretchen Rubin Books

https://gretchenrubin.com/books/

The Four Tendencies Quiz