Is there such a thing as a “willpower miracle cure”?
Kelly McGonigal, PhD shared a surprising “willpower miracle” in this week’s webinar.
And judging from the comments we received, many of you found it pretty remarkable, too.
So we wanted to share it with you one more time – I think you’ll find it inspiring. It’s only 4 minutes, so check it out.
Has Kelly’s story changed the way you approach willpower? Do you have any clients who might be inspired by this? Please leave a comment below and let us know what you think.
I was glad to notice Kelly bringing attention to the breath, particularly the power of helping a client to just slow their rate of breathing a little bit, which makes all the difference, especially, when activated in a survival (defensive) mode. I find that even when clients begin to recognize that they are in an over-activated state (increased HPA-axis, etc.) and learn ways to regulated their emotions and social communications better, there is a process of learning to recognize more subtle degrees of stress responding, which I have found is often/always revealed in breathing patterns and the muscular tensions and ANS imbalances that correspond. Thus, small shifts in breathing can be key to maximizing gains in therapy and assisting clients in regulating emotions and finding their own organismic felt sense of safety, in order to become more sensitive and even vulnerable to their emotional processes. The 6 breaths/minute is also a common yogic breathing practice and is associated with increases in RSA (and ANS regulation). Especially for trauma clients, I find it is relatively easy to notice (say on a phone check in or phone session) that the breathing is a bit strained or forced and, as Kelly, so aptly described, they can be gently reminded to take a breath and/or just bring their breathing down, or even just notice the rate (whatever your style or is of most use for particular client), after which a shift into a calmer more socially-engaging and self-reflective mode will typically occur, where it becomes easier for a respective client to more confidently ascertain their subjective state and/or situation and make prospective plans in their best interest. I do not see such, personally, as a miracle cure, but as part of a natural process of becoming mindful and attentive to the interrelationships between physiology, emotion and behavior and taking action to re-balance the relationships thereof, especially when there has been trauma or extreme stress. Keep up the excellent webinars. Wonderful speakers! And, I love the idea of expanding the connotation of will power – very Nietzschean !
I appreciate being able to see all your for free. And since I live on a tight budget, I have to be careful about how much I spend on CEU’s, etc. This specific presentation was so helpful, I wonder if you would consider making it available on it’s own for say $35.00 or what you consider is a fair price?
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Likely one reason is EEG sensorimotor brainwaves that result from sustained physical activity.
This article references SMR w/learning disabilities: Brainwave Signatures
Findnig this post solves a problem for me. Thanks!
This was a fascinating session with Kelly who explained the concepts of willpower and how the growing body of knowledge in neuroscience helps us understand how we can change the brain. The explanation of the “pause and plan response” was very useful. As a strong advocate for self care myself, I particularly appreciated how Kelly pointed out how this is essential for getting us through difficult situations in life and making good choices in all areas. As usual Ruth drew out how the issues raised could be applied to practice and asked Kelly to clarify any iconcepts which some practitioners may be unfamiliar with. I gained lots of ideas from the session and was able to apply some of these to my clients that same day. Thank you for such a useful and informative session.
Thank you for sharing this valuable information about our brain and it’s relationship with our ability to increase or decrease will power. Fantastic interview…wonderfully presented, so much interesting information,and delivered in a clear and precise manner. I will use the techniques personally, and share them with my family, teachers, and students.
Blessings…
With all due resepct, I don’t believe this works in the long term. You cannot exercise “will power & self control” when you have subconscious self sabotage patterns that you cannot control and unless addressed, are even in the realm of the unknown. One must first uproot those patterns with aid of EFT and other energy shifting techniques, before execrising will power, otherwise when the subconscious self sabotage and negative belief patterns surface (and they will at some point), the person will fail again and again without even knowing why, and this will only increase feeling of lack of self worth, guilt, self blame and self defeating behaviour. So putting it all to self discipline might even become dertrimental and dangerous.
Was amazed by the depth and scope of Kelly’s presentation and how she powerfully highlighted the science and benefits of integrating body, mind and spirit. One part that resonated for me was when she spoke of how meditation & willpower access or activate the same frontal brain regions and capacities, and how training this brain function can catalyze other profound life changes. When I took my first, deep dive into meditation (2 hrs/day plus tools for mindfulness in daily activities) one of the unexpected & immediate side benefits was that, within 2 weeks, I realized that any craving for caffine, alcohol and sugar had simply slipped away. They had no allure, were no longer necessary, and I felt pleasantly neutral about them. It felt as if meditation & the inner state of calm presence it engendered eliminated a stressed quest for ‘self-medication’. It was the beginning of many benefitial changes thanks to focus meditation. Wonderful! Thank you for helping advance our understanding of this emerging field of study.
Kelly was one of the best presenters I have heard to date on any program. She is brilliant, welll read, inviting, intriguing and teacher par excellens!!!!!
You imght find my observations regarding willpower interesting. I had polio at six and lots of surgery In my practice it was evident to me that polio patientrs for whatever reason had two striking characteristics–the drank large quantities of water and secondly to a person they evidence what I came to call “cast iron” wills. I had one of those as well. Would have made a nice study but no patient population to carry one out today.
Incidentally I think you are doing great work as well CN