STOP 2 THINK

Discovering Your Way - Episode 16

Discovering Your Way This episode is a direct pushback against the idea that there is one right path to real change. Ray and I made it clear, neither of us wants to prescribe anything to anyone, because the only change that ever actually lasts is the change someone finds for themselves. We talked about how much digital information has changed our ability to focus, the difference between the hedonic pull of the senses and what we actually intend to do, and a story about a friend's husband who transformed his health after a heart attack, not because anyone told him what to do, but because he owned it himself. In this episode: How constant digital information has reshaped our ability to focus on anything The hedonic pull of the senses, and how it quietly works against stated intention Why Ray refuses to prescribe a lifestyle change to anyone he works with The Biggest Loser statistic again, this time applied to ownership versus imposed structure A friend's husband's heart attack recovery, driven entirely by his own ownership of it Pull quote: "I don't think we should be telling anyone what to do ever." Come and join me and Ray for Episode 17, one of the rawest conversations in the whole series, recorded while I was genuinely uncertain about what came next. Follow us here. Follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/petecohen_/ Subscribe to The STOP 2 THINK Newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/stop-2-think-newsletter-7474223126868918272/ Follow Ray on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drraysylvester/ Watch Hannah's Story: https://petecohen.com/hannah Visit Pete's website: https://petecohen.com/

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Designing Your Backstage. - Episode 15

Here's Episode 15, in my voice, with the corrected footer. Episode 15: Designing Your Backstage This episode takes the front stage and backstage idea from the last conversation and turns it into something practical, the actual physical spaces and objects that quietly shape how we feel about ourselves. Ray and I walked through Erving Goffman's three elements of any performance, setting, appearance, and manner, and I told him the whole story of an enormous table I bought on impulse in China back in 1999, and what it actually took, decades later, to finally get it into my own home. In this episode: Goffman's three elements of performance, setting, appearance, and manner The story of my huge table, bought impulsively in China in 1999 Growing up with a best room that was never actually used My old coach Raphael's question, where is home, and what he really meant by it Discipline, traced back to its root meaning, student Pull quote: "You are making an investment in you where no one is seeing that." Come and join me and Ray for Episode 16, where we ask whether there is really only one right way to discover who you are. Follow us here. Follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/petecohen_/ Subscribe to The STOP 2 THINK Newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/stop-2-think-newsletter-7474223126868918272/ Follow Ray on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drraysylvester/ Watch Hannah's Story: https://petecohen.com/hannah Visit Pete's website: https://petecohen.com/

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The Person Behind The Performance - Episode 14

The Person Behind The Performance This episode introduces one of the most important ideas in the whole series, the difference between front stage, the version of me the world sees, and backstage, who I actually am when nobody is watching. Ray and I got into Erving Goffman's idea that we are all performers on some level, and I opened up about my own childhood, my dyslexia diagnosis, and a lifetime spent quietly looking for validation from outside myself rather than from within. In this episode: Erving Goffman's idea that everyday life is really a kind of performance Front stage, what the world sees, and backstage, the conversation only I hear Jane Elliott's classroom experiment, and how quickly arbitrary labels can shape self worth Four questions Ray asks people, who are you, what is your value, who do you serve, how do you serve My own dyslexia diagnosis, and a lifelong search for validation I did not even know I was doing Pull quote: "If we leave our backstage dormant and non-intentional, then the front stage informs our backstage." Come and join me and Ray for Episode 15, where we take this idea from theory into practice and start designing our own backstage. Follow us here. Follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/petecohen_/ Subscribe to The STOP 2 THINK Newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/stop-2-think-newsletter-7474223126868918272/ Follow Ray on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drraysylvester/ Watch Hannah's Story: https://petecohen.com/hannah Visit Pete's website: https://petecohen.com/

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Back to Calm Meditation - Episode 13

Back to Calm This one is different from the rest. Instead of a conversation with Ray, it is a full guided meditation, my gift to you, turning the one percent of your day idea from the last episode into something you can actually do, right now, rather than just think about. It runs about fourteen minutes and twenty four seconds, exactly one percent of your day, and it is designed to help calm your nervous system, not through effort or control, but simply by giving your body permission to come out of alert and into rest. In this episode: Settling the body, and noticing tension without needing to fix anything Lengthening the exhale as a direct signal of safety to the nervous system The repeated phrase, I am safe, I am calm A simple colour visualisation to help spread that calm through the body Calm as something you allow, not something you have to force into being Pull quote: "This calm is not something you created. It's something you allowed." Come and join me and Ray for Episode 14, where we go back to a conversation and introduce one of the most important ideas in this whole series, the person behind the performance. Follow us here. Follow me on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/petecohen_/ Subscribe to The STOP 2 THINK Newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/stop-2-think-newsletter-7474223126868918272/ Follow Ray on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drraysylvester/ Watch Hannah's Story: https://petecohen.com/hannah Visit Pete's website: https://petecohen.com/