My Personal Development List: This is What I Have Listened to or Watched to Improve my Performance in Life
I have filtered out the bullshit, leaving only the most useful information.
To make it easier to digest, I have broken it down into topics.
Scroll to the one that you are interested in and enjoy.
I have been putting this list together since 2015.
Topics:
My Favourites
Governments and Politics
Military, War and Terrorism
Economy and Finance
Humanity
Food, Diet, Health and Agriculture
Science
Education, Teaching and Learning
Life, Career, Goals, Meaning and Purpose
Leadership
Sales
Marketing
Success
Happiness and Longevity
Human Performance
Self Help
Stress and Burnout
Depression and Anxiety
Emotions
Death, Grief and Loss
Addiction
Trauma
Healing and Therapy
Who To Follow For Podcasts
See Resources For Parents Blog for topics on parenting, child development, brain development, relationships, marriage and more.
See Book Notes for the best bits from the top books I’ve read on leadership, business and many others.
** = Recommended by a client
Last Updated: 30th July 2024
My Favourites
These are my favourites because they have profoundly shifted my perspective on how I think about the world and how I operate in it.
They are in order.
The video that has most shifted my perspective is first.
Guy Richie: You Must Be The Master of Your Own Kingdom (14 min YouTube video). In this video Guy Richie (director of Snatch, Lock Stock and Sherlock Holmes) suggests that there is an inner world and an outer world that tells us who we are and that we must take ownership of our lives.
Why You Feel What You Feel (20 min YouTube video). Understanding why you feel what you feel is one of the most important aspects of human development. After understanding comes control. When you control your emotions, you can be more successful and happy.
Striving versus self-acceptance (80 min YouTube video). How can someone be smart, winning and successful on one hand, but miserable, and on their third wife and their kids don’t speak to them on the other? Brene Brown asks the question “where’s the line between striving for excellence, and embracing who we are (self-acceptance)?”
How Changing Your Story Can Change Your Life (16 min YouTube video). Lori Gottleib, a psychotherapist, notices that most peoples stories tend to circle around two key themes: Trapped-Freedom and Responsibility-Change-Loss. “If I stay with my husband, I will never trust him again (trapped) but If I leave (freedom-change) the children will suffer (loss).”
Global Capitalism - Rich Nations and Poor Nations (25 min YouTube video) How the rich keep the poor poor so they can exploit them to make more money.
Doughnut Economics (15 min YouTube video). Could 'Doughnut economics' create a safe, sustainable and just future? This emerging economic model aims to shift our focus from constant ‘growth’ to ‘balance’ - to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet.
How To Live to be 100+ (20 min YouTube Talk). Dan Buettner discovered five places in the world – dubbed ‘blue zones’ – where people live the longest, and are healthiest. They found that all blue zones areas share nine specific lifestyle habits they call the Power 9
Ishmael Beah - Child Soldier (9 min YouTube video). A child Soldier of Sierra Leone in the mid 1990’s, who escaped and now looks back on life with amazing perspective and humility. His book A Long Way Gone telling the tale is incredible.
The Danger Of A Single Story (20 min YouTube video). Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Steve Jobs: Secrets Of Life (2 min YouTube video). In this 1994 footage, Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple talks about his thoughts on how to best live life.
Steve Jobs: 1997 Marketing Speech (7 min YouTube video). Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple gives one of the best marketing speeches in the world.
Simon Sinek: Start With Why (18 min YouTube video). In this talk, leadership expert Simon Sinek describes how great leaders inspire action.
Avoid The Trap of Materialism (6 min YouTube video). From the moment we are born we’re immersed in a machine that is designed to neglect what is important about life. The more you are driven by the external world (instagram, facebook, envy, acceptance), the more your internal world (authenticity, values, meaning) is starved and the more likely you are to become depressed and anxious.
1. Governments and Politics
Society
The Danger Of A Single Story (20 min YouTube video). Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (2 hour 50 min film) Noam Chomsky (world-renowned linguist, intellectual and political activist) shows how the political system of capitalism uses the media to influence society.
The Corporation (2 hour 25 min documentary) The documentary examines the modern-day corporation, considering its legal status as a class of person and evaluating its behaviour towards society and the world. Including how Monsanto got cancer causing growth hormones in milk, how in 1987 America allowed patents on living organisms and how IBM supplied coding machines to Nazi Germany.
Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century (2 hour documentary) In 1920 American Behavioural Psychologist John B. Watson reached a conclusion: The behaviour of humans is predictable, therefore controllable. And it is fear that can be conditioned to best control human behaviour. The driving force of society is not love, but fear. ‘Fear’ would then come to define political and social control in government and media in the 20th century.
Joe Rogan & Edward Snowdon (170 min YouTube video). Edward Snowdon is one of histories top whistleblowers. In 2013, he leaked NSA and CIA highly classified information on the USA’s illegal world data collection programs. He still lives in exile in Russia. This video gives insight to just how much of our personal information is collected, the power of governments to ‘make-up’ law when it suits them and also some inside intel to how the NSA/CIA managed the September 11 attacks. His book Permanent Record is a great read.
Corruption
Seaspiracy (89 min). Passionate about ocean life, a filmmaker sets out to document the harm that humans do to marine species - and uncovers alarming global corruption. This is an iMDb link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple etc.
Economics
Doughnut Economics (15 min YouTube video). Could 'Doughnut economics' create a safe, sustainable and just future? This emerging economic model aims to shift our focus from constant ‘growth’ to balance and wellbeing - to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet.
Why it's time for 'Doughnut Economics' (16 min YouTube video). Economic theory is centuries out of date and that's a disaster for tackling the 21st century's challenges of climate change, poverty, and extreme inequality. Kate Raworth flips economic thinking on its head to give a crash course in alternative economics, explaining in three minutes what they'll never teach you in three years of a degree.
The deceptive promise of free trade (40 min YouTube documentary). Global trade is a hot topic of the G7 summit in Canada. Is free trade truly free - and fair? What roles do US President Trump, economic powerhouse China, and the EU play in global trade? When it comes to global trade, it would seem that trickery, threats and deception are the order of the day - yet all this takes place largely beyond the reach of the public eye.
What global trade deals are really about (hint: it's not trade) (11 min YouTube Video) TPP, NAFTA, GAAT, WTO -- the concepts that govern our global economy and international trade are confusing to say the least, but affect us all.
How Do Trade Tariffs Work? (5 min YouTube Video) The U.S. imports more than $500 billion worth of goods from China, of which some goods are subject to a customs duty (tariffs). CNBC's Uptin Saiidi explains how increased tariffs can impact an economy.
Capitalism
Global Capitalism - Rich Nations and Poor Nations (25 min YouTube video) How the rich keep the poor poor so they can exploit them to make more money.
Noam Chomsky: Neoliberalism Is Destroying Our Democracy (7 min YouTube video) How elites on both sides of the political spectrum have undermined our social, political and environmental commons.
How You Are Being Exploited (5 min YouTube video) At the very heart of capitalism is a system of exploitation. In order for capitalists to make a profit, their workers have to earn less than the value they produce, and that extra value has to go to their bosses.
Chomsky 's Requiem for the American Dream (72 min documentary) Noam Chomsky sets out 10 principles for how capitalism facilitates the concentration of wealth to create power.
This is a 1 page snapshot for how global capitalism works. From the book Understanding Power: Noam Chomsky.
2. Military, War and Terrorism
The Coming War on China (1 hour 50 min documentary) John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn’t – that the world’s greatest military power, the United States, and the world’s second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, may well be on the road to war. On the other side of the world, the rise of China is viewed in Washington as a threat to American dominance.
Terrorism
Noam Chomsky on 9-11 (1 hour 27 min YouTube Talk) Noam suggests 9-11 was a window of opportunity for the powerful nations to now more ‘overtly’ continue pursuing their agendas. 9-11 wasn’t actually the start of the war on terrorism - it stated 20 years earlier! Noam also looks at the official and unofficial ‘definition’ of terrorism, who are ‘the’ terrorists and why terrorism is carried out - to; control the region, gain access to energy resources, to overthrow governments, limit independence and maintain power via military bases.
Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror (50 min documentary) Is the US actually the worlds biggest terrorist?
John Pilger: How The USA Created The Taliban (6 min YouTube video) John Pilger explores how the US created the very powers he aimed to eradicate in the War On Terror
The War You Don’t See (96 min documentary). What is the media/televisions role in war? Are we sold a patriotic seductive story leading us to believe wars are required? Is the news coverage manipulated? Does the news deceive entire nations to the ‘real’ purposes of war? Are facts removed/deleted so we don’t hear the truth about civilian casualties of war? How are war crimes reported… when they are ‘our’ war crimes?
WW2
We Stand Alone Together - Band of Brothers Documentary (77 min YouTube video). The interviews with ‘Easy’ Company, 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division from 1942 to the end of World War II. The brave men of ‘Easy’ Company, parachuted behind enemy lines in the early hours of D-Day in support of the landings at Utah beach, participated in the liberation of Holland, held the frontline in the Battle of Bulge and were the first to enter Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtegadan. Their efforts were pivotal to winning WW II. Their story was made into an HBO mini series Band Of Brothers This is an iMDb link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple etc.
Vietnam War
Bill Ehrhart Reveals What He Saw In Vietnam (15 min YouTube video). This is a clip of poet and educator Bill Ehrhart - a very articulate Vietnam veteran who joined the military with patriotism in his heart. Here he shares his experiences.
Vietnam Vet talking about his brutal war experience (11 min YouTube video).
Cambodia & East Timor
Noam Chomsky - The Atrocities in Cambodia and East Timor (13 min YouTube video). Chomsky on the media treatment of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor and Pol Pot's atrocities in Cambodia.
Africa
Ishmael Beah - Child Soldier (9 min YouTube video). A child Soldier of Sierra Leone in the mid 1990’s, who escaped and now looks back on life with an amazing perspective and humility. His book A Long Way Gone telling the tale is incredible.
Afghanistan
Restrepo (1 hour 33 min documentary). A year with one platoon in the deadliest valley in Afghanistan. This documentary reveals extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of back breaking labor, deadly firefights, and camaraderie as the soldiers painfully push back the Taliban. This is an iMDb link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple etc.
3. Economy and Finance
When money isn’t real: the $10,000 experiment (15 min YouTube video). Adam Caroll believes kids today are being raised in a world where money is no longer real, its on apple wallet, digital currencies and credit cards; but it has very real consequences.
How the Economic Machine Works (31 min YouTube video). Ray Dalio, billionaire businessman describes in 30 mins how the entire economy works.
Bitcoin: Beyond the Bubble (35 min YouTube video). This video explains the history of money and the evolution of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and block chains.**
The Stock Market (17 min YouTube video). This video explains what the stock market is and how it works.
Hidden Secrets of Money (26 min YouTube video). Episode 1 of 10 - Money vs Currency. This video explains the difference between money and currency, and where money actually comes from. I suggest to watch the full series.**
Inside Job (109 min). This amazing documentary explains the real reasons for the 2008 financial crisis. This is an iMDb link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple etc.
4. Humanity
Bruce Lipton (80 min YouTube video). Introduction to spontaneous evolution. In this lecture Bruce talks about the next step in our growth as a species. Bruce Lipton talks about Charles Darwin’s impact on the world.
Zach Bush (90 min YouTube video). Zach Bush MD is an internationally recognized educator and thought leader on the microbiome (gut bacteria) as it relates to health, disease, and food systems. In this video Zach explains why COVID19 actually isn't a respiratory virus, he explores humanity's awakening in the global shutdown and how spraying pesticides and insecticides has increased COVID19's impact.
How to be an antiracist (60 min podcast). Brene talks with Ibram X. Kendi a leading expert on racism. They discuss dehumanizing language, individualizing vs. generalizing issues and confirmation bias.
Everything is Connected (18 min YouTube video). Tom Chi demonstrates with science that our hearts, breath and mind ‘are’ actually connected.
This is a 1-page summary of Charles Darwin’s Natural Selection (from his book On the Origin Of Species, published in 1859). The bloke was an outright genius.
5. Food, Diet, Health and Agriculture
The China Study (55 min YouTube Documentary). “Food is Medicine.” In the early 1980’s, nutritional biochemist T. Colin Campbell completed the most comprehensive nutritional study ever undertaken known as the China Study. The China study included 880 million people (96% of China’s population at the time). The Chinese population of 1980’s tended to live in the same area all their lives and to consume the same diets unique to each region. Their diets (low in fat and high in dietary fiber and plant material) also were in stark contrast to the rich diets of the Western countries. The truly plant-based nature of the rural Chinese diet gave researchers a chance to compare plant-based diets with animal-based diets. Read more in the book The China Study
The China Study Book Summary (44 min YouTube video) What actually causes cancer? How does nutrition relate to heart disease, cancer and diabetes? Why do we eat the certain types of food we do? Why do we drink cows milk? Why do we believe oranges are the best form of vitamin C? Why do we eat meat? Who told us to do all these things??
How To Live to be 100+ (20 min YouTube Talk). Dan Buettner has discovered five places in the world – dubbed ‘blue zones’ – where people live the longest, and are healthiest: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California. They found that all blue zones areas share nine specific lifestyle habits they call the Power 9
The Truth about Organic (paper 15 min read) This paper from the Roadale Institute answers these questions - Is the Organic Label Just a Marketing Scam? Do Organic Farmers Spray Their Crops? Can Organic Feed the World? Is Meat Ruining the Planet? Is Organic Really the Healthier Option?
Aubrey Marcus and Shawn Stevensen (100 min YouTube video). Shawn Stevensen has been a health and nutrition researcher for over 20 years. In this talk Shawn suggests, based on data and science - diet can help cure COVID, nutrition affects behaviour, better food = better brain function, calorie counting doesn’t work, humans were ‘created’ by viruses, governments influence the food we eat and improving gut bacteria can help us lose weight.
Rich Roll and Zach Bush #353 (100 min YouTube video). Zach Bush explains how our health is deteriorating because of poor farming practices & sprayed chemicals on crops.**
Sleep Is Your Superpower (20 min YouTube video). Learn more about sleep's impact on your learning, memory, immune system and even your genetic code -- as well as some helpful tips for getting some shut-eye.
Food For Thought: How Your Belly Controls Your Brain (15 min YouTube video). Our bellies and brains are physically and biochemically connected in a number of ways, meaning the state of our intestines can alter the way our brains work and behave.
May I be Frank (90 min). This documentary follows Frank as he follows a vegetable only raw food diet for 42 days and completely transforms his weight, health and life.
6. Science
Bruce Lipton (47 min YouTube video). In this video Bruce Lipton a leading expert on cell biology talks about how genes and DNA can be switched on by a person’s beliefs and environment.
Change Your Brain (132 min YouTube video). Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman explains how to hack your brain to achieve and how the nervous system works.
To learn more about cell biology, genes and DNA, I suggest a book The Biology of Belief
7. Education, Teaching and Learning
Do Schools Kill Creativity? (20 min YouTube Video). Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
Henry Giroux: “All education is a struggle over what kind of future you want for young people (10 min YouTube video). "Education always plays a central role – whether in a visible or a veiled way – in any ideological project. For anyone backing the transformation of the world into a fairer, more caring and democratic place, education is key, but people who believe that market logics are fundamental for good social functioning also have their own educational project. All this, furthermore, is not only taking place in the classroom but permeating the whole of society.
Lets Teach For Mastery (10 min YouTube video) Would you choose to build a house on top of an unfinished foundation? Of course not. Why, then, do we rush students through education when they haven't always grasped the basics?
You Can Learn Anything (2 min YouTube video). A short statement that tone that “anything is possible.”
How To Practice Effectively…For Just About Anything (10 min YouTube video). Mastering any physical skill takes practice. Practice is the repetition of an action with the goal of improvement, and it helps us perform with more ease, speed, and confidence. But what does practice actually do to make us better at things?
Learning Styles (18 min YouTube video). This video disputes the belief that we each have certain learning styles and instead proposes that we store information in terms of meaning.
What Makes a Good Teacher Great? (15 min YouTube video). For 24 years Azul has collected 26,000 responses from 8 different schools and patterns have emerged.
Rethinking Challenging Behavior (12 min YouTube video). Challenging behaviour is a form of communication. If the teacher is able to become someone who is able to understand what is being communicated, their classroom and the lives of the vulnerable pupils in it will be transformed.
Learn Anything Faster (11 min YouTube video). When we think of learning, we don’t think of “learning how to learn.” That’s what Jim Kwik teaches.
Linking Positive Brains to Performance (12 min YouTube video). This talk describes how positive brains produce better performance.
8. Life, Career, Goals, Meaning and Purpose
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address (15 min YouTube video). Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple explains: (1) You can only connect the dots looking back (trust the dots will connect in the future); (2) Follow what ‘interests’ you, not what you ‘should’ do; (3) Follow your curiosity and intuition - they somehow already know what you truly want to become - everything else is secondary; (4) If you ‘drop out’ it means you can ‘drop in’ on something else; (5) Maintain a beginners mind - try and be a beginner again; (6) Find what you love - do what you believe is great work - you will know when you find it; (7) Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life; (8) Don’t let others opinions drown out your own inner voice.
How Much Money Is Enough? The Story Of The Mexican Fisherman (5 min YouTube video). A lot of people want to make more money so they can live a better life. They tell themselves: "Once I make enough money, then I'll go live the life I want." But that's a mistake. Living the life they want should be accomplished now, not later.
This Is Water: David Foster Wallace (22 min YouTube video). The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.
Avoid The Trap of Materialism (6 min YouTube video). From the moment we are born we’re immersed in a machine that is designed to neglect what is important about life. The more you are driven by the external world (instagram, facebook, envy, acceptance), the more your internal world (authenticity, values, meaning) is starved and the more likely you are to become depressed and anxious.
Steve Jobs: Secrets Of Life (2 min YouTube video). In this 1994 footage, Steve talks about his values, advice to entrepreneurs and his thoughts on how to best live life.
William H McRaven 2014 University of Texas Commencement Address (20 min YouTube video). Admiral William. H Raven, navy seal veteran with 37 years of service, sets out his 10 lessons to change the world. See my summary notes here
5 Steps to Design The Life You Want (25 min YouTube video). In five eyebrow-raising findings, Bill Burnett offers simple but life-changing advice on designing the life you want, whether you are contemplating college or retirement.
How to Achieve Your Most Ambitious Goals (18 min YouTube video). It’s the tiny marginal improvements and adjustments to our routine we make each day that compound over time and move us toward our goals. One stitch, one word, one step at a time.
How to stop screwing yourself over (22 min YouTube video). Stop saying you’re fine. You’re never going to feel like it. Start parenting yourself.
Finding Joe (80 min YouTube video). Discover the hero’s journey by Joseph Campbell.
See my whiteboard summary for finding your purpose.
9. Leadership
Steve Jobs (4 min YouTube video). How Steve Jobs managed people, led people, gave people a common vision, hired insanely great people, and how he avoided "professionals."
Simon Sinek (45 min YouTube video). Leaders eat last. In this talk leadership expert Simon Sinek reveals how leaders can build trust with their team.
Simon Sinek (18 min YouTube video). Start with why. In this talk leadership expert Simon Sinek describes how great leaders inspire action.
Perspective (2 min YouTube video). Ben Crowe explains that every individual in the world lives and dies by the success of 3 things.**
John Maxwell (27 min YouTube video). John Maxwell, an expert on leadership reveals his 5 levels of leadership.** See my summary notes here
7 Habits of Highly Effective People (7 min YouTube video). A video summary of Stephen R. Coveys classic book.
How To Win Friends and Influence People (9 min YouTube video). This video summarises Dale Carnegie’s timeless book.
Daniel Pink: Drive (11 min YouTube video). The surprising truth about what motivates us.
Benjamin Zander (20 min YouTube video). The Transformative power of classical music. Ben Zander, one of the best symphony conductors in the world, shows his philosophy for what is possible.
Energising Your Employees (18 min YouTube video) One of the most important questions a leader can ask of an employee is “what matters most to you in this situation?”
The 5 Dysfunctions of A Team (2 min YouTube video). Patrick Lencioni’s summary of his book.
Rassie Erasmus (2 min YouTube video). Rassie was South Africa’s Coach for their win in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. What other coach cries for his players?
The Power of Simplicity (2 min YouTube video). This comical, but accurate talk describes the simple words a leader should use to communicate a message.
Turn The Ship Around (10 min YouTube video). In this hand sketch talk, David Marquet, submarine commander, sets out his philosophy on leadership - taking a submarine crew known to be the worst in the fleet to being the most successful.
To learn more about leadership, this is one of the best books I have read Extreme Ownership.
10. Sales
The Science of Persuasion (12 min YouTube video). What makes us say yes? Based on Robert Cialdini’s ground breaking book Influence. A must read for anyone in sales.
The Four Letter Code To Selling Anything (21 min YouTube video). It turns out we love the new, but only if its familiar. When it comes to selling/buying we like familiar surprises.
SPIN Selling (6 min YouTube video). A simple strategy to making sales.
To learn more about Sales, Zig Ziglar was the grandmaster. This book is a great place to start Zig Ziglar: Secrets of Closing The Sale
11. Marketing
Steve Jobs (5 min YouTube video). 1984 The Macintosh. Steve Jobs the late co-founder of Apple introduces the Macintosh.
Steve Jobs (7 min YouTube video). 1997 Marketing speech. Steve Jobs the late co-founder of Apple gives one of the best Marketing speeches in the world.
Steve Jobs (10 min YouTube video). 2007 Introducing Iphone. The Iphone changed the world. See the moment here when it was unveiled.
The thought leader on marketing is Seth Godin. One of his best books on the topic is Seth Godin Marketing. This is a 1 page book summary.
12. Success
How to Get Ahead of 99% of People (12 min YouTube video). Mark Manson says that there are three (3) steps to being more successful that 99% of people: 1) Have a contrarian idea; 2) Be correct about that idea and; 3) Execute on it massively. He also disputes goals and discipline.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (5 min YouTube video). Shares his 6 rules for success
Chris Sacca (91 min Spotify Podcast). An American businessman and investor in Uber, Twitter and Instagram shares his success in making Billions.
Derek Sivers (35 min Spotify Podcast). An American businessman and previous owner of CD Baby shares his success habits.
Jamie Foxx (150 min Spotify Podcast). Actor, stand-up comedian and musician shares success habits and untold Hollywood stories.
13. Happiness and Longevity
What makes a good life? (13 min YouTube video). Lessons from a 75 year study on happiness.
One Skill = Awesome Life (19 min YouTube video). Shimi Kang sets out the one skill needed for an awesome life 'adaptability.’
Jon Jandai (15 min YouTube video). Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard?
109 Year Old Veteran (13 min YouTube video). Shares his secrets to a happy life.
14. Human Performance
Rich Froning (3 min YouTube video). Won the cross fit title of “fittest man on earth” four times 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
J.B. Mauney (14 min YouTube video). Top bull rider of all time.
Wim Hof (40 min YouTube video). Wim shows by using the power of breath only, he can control his nervous system, submerge in ice water, climb Everest in shorts, run a marathon in the desert without water and cure disease.
Shaolin Master (9 min YouTube video). This video documents the extraordinary final test to be a Shaolin master, something they train 10 years for.
Tom Thum (12 min YouTube video). One of the worlds best beatboxers.
Free Solo (100 min). Alex Honnold ‘free climbs’ (no ropes) the face of 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The docco won an Oscar.
15. Self Help
Brene Brown (20 min YouTube video). The power of vulnerability. In this talk Brene Brown talks about human connection, courage, compassion and belonging.
Joe Rogan & Guy Richie (14 min YouTube video). Master of your own kingdom. In this video Guy Richie (director of Snatch and Lock Stock) suggests that there is an inner world and an outer world that tells us who we are.
Tim Ferriss & Brene Brown (80 min YouTube video). Striving versus self-acceptance. In this video Brene suggests that we learn to carry armor to protect us from our inner hurt.
Russell Brand & Eckhart Toolle (120 min YouTube video). Become awake now! In this video Russell and Eckhart discuss the ego, our sense of self and our identity.
Tony Robbins (22 min YouTube video). Tony Robbins, a leading expert on coaching describes the 6 human needs.
16. Stress And Burnout
How Can I REDUCE stress? (10 min read). My simple blog explaining what stress is, why its there and how to reduce it.
7 Early Signs of Burnout and 7 Ways To Recover (29 min podcast). One of the biggest challenges people face in their adult life is burnout. Jay Shetty talks about the early signs of burnout to watch for and how to help yourself recover exhaustion and fatigue.
5 Stages off Burnout (10 min read). Burnout is the state of mind that comes with long-term, unresolved stress that can negatively affect your work and your life. it’s important to understand the stages of burnout before you can work towards preventing it.
How To Make Stress Your Friend (14 min YouTube video). Stress. It makes your heart pound, your breathing quicken and your forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for you if you believe that to be the case. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.
Gabor Mate (77 min YouTube video). The connection between stress and disease. In this video Gabor Mate talks about what stress is, how it effects the body and how it can cause disease.
To learn further about stress and its impacts on the body, I suggest a book When The Body says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress
17. Depression and Anxiety
Depression
Andrew Solomon (30 min YouTube video). Depression, the secret we share. One of the best videos describing what depression feels like.
Loneliness and Connection (54 min podcast). Brene talks with Vivek Murthy, the leading expert on lonliness. Vivek talks about lonliness and lack of connection (one of the biggest causes of depression).
Johann Hari (20 min YouTube video). This is why you could be depressed or anxious. In this video Johann Hari talks to global leaders in the field of depression to find out its cause and what we can do about it.
Depression is a Call to "Deep Rest" (17 min YouTube video). "We can view depression not as a mental illness, but on a deeper level, as a profound, and very misunderstood, state of deep rest, entered into when we are completely exhausted by the weight of our own false story of ourselves. It is an unconscious loss of interest in the second-hand -- a longing to 'die' to the false..." - Jeff Foster
Depression is a Call to "Deep Rest" - Jim Carrey (2 min YouTube video).
Serotonin and Treatments For Depression (4 min Youtube Video). This video explains how anti-depressants work in the brain and also suggests non-pharmaceutical treatments for depression.
Suicidal Ideation (4 min YouTube video). Ever wondered what suicidal ideation is?
Anxiety
The Anxious Brain Part 1 (14 min YouTube video). This video explains what anxiety is, the anxiety / avoidance cycle and how to change your ‘thoughts’ and ‘actions’ to reduce anxiety.
The Anxious Brain Part 2 (11 min YouTube video). This video offers 10 skills to beat anxiety.
The Anxious Brain Part 3 (18 min YouTube video). Anxious, but you don’t know ‘why’? This video provides two reasons you might be anxious and don’t know ‘why’ (includes a great visual explanation of the anxiety cycle).
Your Brain on Stress and Anxiety (5 min YouTube video). Ever wondered what happens in yours brain and body during stress and anxiety?
18. Emotions
Why You Feel What You Feel (20 min YouTube video). Understanding why you feel what you feel is one of the most important aspects of human development. After understanding comes control. When you control your emotions through vertical development, you can be more successful and happy.
Being Brilliant Every Single Day (Part 1) (18 min YouTube video) Dr Alan Watkins lays out how our emotions effect our brain performance. Part 2 is here.
The science of emotions: Jaak Panksepp (18 min YouTube video). Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp explains a modern approach to emotions, and how taking seriously the emotions of other animals might soon improve the lives of millions.
19. Death, Grief and Loss
Grief and Finding Meaning (46 min podcast). Brene talks with leading expert on Grief ‘David Kessler.’ They talk about what grief is, the stages of grief and how we can find meaning after grief.
Death as an Advisor (46 min YouTube video). In this video the panel of experts on death discuss how looking at death can teach us about life.
To Learn further about Grief, I suggest two books Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief and On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss
20. Addiction
The Power of Addiction and The Addiction of Power (19 min YouTube video). The best description of addiction.
How Childhood Trauma Leads to Addiction (9 min YouTube video). Gabor Mate explains how childhood trauma leads to addiction.
Russell Brand & Gabor Mate (90 min YouTube video). Damaged leaders rule the world. In this video Gabor talks about addiction. He discusses what addiction is, its cause, effects and what we can do about it.
Everything you know about addiction is wrong (19 min YouTube video). Johann Hari talks about the global history of addiction and our worldwide attempts to find a solution
To learn further about addiction, I suggest a book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
21. Trauma
How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime (16 min YouTube video). Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain.
Tim Ferriss & Gabor Mate (144 min YouTube video). In this video Gabor talks about trauma and addiction.
Thomas Hubl and Peter Levine (56 min YouTube video). In this video Thomas and Peter discuss collective trauma.
Trauma and The Brain (9 min YouTube video). Ever wondered how trauma effects the brain?
The Wisdom Of Trauma (film) Trauma is the invisible force that shapes our lives. It shapes the way we live, the way we love and the way we make sense of the world. It is the root of our deepest wounds. Dr. Maté gives us a new vision: a trauma-informed society in which parents, teachers, physicians, policy-makers and legal personnel are not concerned with fixing behaviors, making diagnoses, suppressing symptoms and judging, but seek instead to understand the sources from which troubling behaviors and diseases spring in the wounded human soul.
How We Were Parented
It Didn’t Start With You (32 min YouTube video) Unconsciously, we relive our mother’s anxiety. We repeat our father’s disappointments. We replicate the failed relationships of our parents and grandparents. Just as we inherit our eye color and blood type, we also inherit the residue from traumatic events that have taken place in our family. Illness, depression, anxiety, unhappy relationships and financial challenges can all be forms of this unconscious inheritance.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study
The CDC-Kaiser Permanente adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and household challenges and later-life health and well-being. The results showed that early adversity has lasting effects. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) are linked to chronic health problems, mental illness, and substance use problems in adulthood. ACEs can also negatively impact education, job opportunities, and earning potential.
What ACE’s do you have? An online test to check your childhood adversity.
Bruce Perry
Dr Bruce Perry - Early Brain Development (20 min YouTube video). Reducing the Effects of Trauma - Bruce Perry describes adverse childhood experiences and the impact they have on brain development and together how this affects academic performance in the classroom. Bruce Perry has been a legend of the child development world since 1990. Through his initial research and practice he opened up doctors eyes to the impact brain development has on children.
Seven Slide Series - Session 1: The Human Brain (13 min YouTube video). A brief introduction to core concepts regarding brain structure and function that provide the basis for developmentally sensitive and trauma-informed caregiving, education and therapy.
Seven Slide Series - Session 2: Sensitisation and Tolerance (10 min YouTube video). Sensitisation and Tolerance: An introduction to the crucial role that patterns of stress response system activation play in pathology and healing.
Seven Slide Series - Session 3: Threat Response (12 min YouTube video). An introduction to variety of adaptive responses that can be used under threat, with a focus on the hyperarousal and dissociative continuum.
Seven Slide Series - Session 4: State Dependant Functioning (10 min YouTube video). This brief video highlights the importance of understanding how stress and distress influence the way we think, feel and act.
Patterns of Stress & Resilience (16 min YouTube video). With a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, this video discusses stress, distress and how the pattern of stress can determine whether stress is destructive (sensitizing) or positive (resilience building).
Regulate, Relate, Reason (Sequence of Engagement) (16 min YouTube video). This video describes the sequential processing of experience in the brain. The Regulate-Relate-Reason heuristic is explained. This simple but powerful concept can help minimize miscommunication and behavioral challenges (especially with dysregulated adults and children).
To learn further about trauma, I suggest a book The Body Keeps the Score
22. Healing and Therapy
Human Behaviour
After years of research I was able to map Human Behaviour - why we do what we do. See this 1 page summary below. This is important to know because, if you change #2 - #11 will change.
Stages of Change In Therapy (the process of changing #2)
Carl Rogers is the father of counselling and therapy techniques. In his book On Becoming A Person, published in 1961, he distils thousands of hours of client therapy sessions. He noticed that there were stages of change all clients went through in therapy. This is my 1 page summary below.
How Therapy Works (changing #2 in practice)
Here is a 1 page snapshot of how Carl Rogers person centred therapy works. From his book On Becoming A Person
Healing
Heal (2017) (106 min). Scientists and spiritual teachers discuss how thoughts, beliefs, and emotions impact human health and the ability to heal. This is an info link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple, FMTV etc.
The Tapping Solution (2008) (90 min). The movie will show you how to release physical pain, how our emotions affect our body, how to release trauma, how our childhood is affecting us today, how to clear limiting beliefs, and much more. This is an info link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple, FMTV etc.
The Abundance code (2016) (90 min). Documentary featuring 17 of the world's top thought leaders in the field of abundance. This is an info link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple, FMTV etc.
E-Motion (2014) (87 min YouTube video). Scientists show how emotions affect the physiology of the human body and how replacing negative emotions can impact physical improvement. This is an info link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple, FMTV etc.
Transcendence (2018) This ground-breaking new FMTV original series will inspire you to examine your own life more deeply and give you the tools to ultimately live a healthier and happier life. This is an info link - find the docco on Netflix, Apple, FMTV etc.
Who to follow for Podcasts
Find them via their home sites or YouTube / Spotify / Apple.
All interview people who are world class in their field.
