Want more plays to help you stay mentally strong? PIck up a copy of The Mental Strength Playbook.

Have you ever wasted a whole day dreading a one-hour meeting? Or braced yourself for a Family gathering because you dreaded seeing the family member who makes inconsiderate comments?

The interaction with difficult people usually don’t wear you out. It’s the anticipation of seeing them that is draining. A meeting might only last an hour, but you can lose six hours dreading it.

Fortunately, a simple mental strength play can turn everything around. If you run it well, and the people who used to drain you might actually start to feel a little entertaining.

Some of the things I talk about are:

• Why my therapist sister and I started playing Behavior Bingo at family gatherings.
• Why dread is so exhausting, and what your nervous system is actually doing while you brace for impact.
• How shifting from being a participant in a stressful situation to being an observer of it changes the way your brain processes the whole thing.
• The surprising reason the people who get under your skin are also the most predictable people on the planet.
• The four steps to building and running your own Behavior Bingo game.
• The four pitfalls that can make this play backfire (including the one mistake that turns emotional distance into office drama).
• When Behavior Bingo is the wrong play—and the harder conversation to have instead.

Related Episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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• ⁠⁠⁠89 — Dealing With a Narcissist? How to Empower Yourself with Dr. Ramani Durvasula

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Amy Morin Therapist, Bestselling Author, Host of the Mentally Stronger Podcast

Amy Morin is a psychotherapist, international bestselling author and the host of the Mentally Stronger podcast. Her books on mental strength, including 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, have sold more than 1 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages.

She’s practiced therapy for over 20 years and she’s a sought after speaker whose TEDx talk, The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong, has become one of the most popular talks of all time with more than 22 million views.

Amy lives on a sailboat in the Florida Keys.