Q & A with Dr. B.

Dr. Larry Berkelhammer

The purpose of this website, my book, and the Community Education course I teach at the College of Marin, is to teach people how to live a vibrant, meaningful life through the cultivation of self-empowerment and self-efficacy. In this weekly Q&A column, I post questions from students and from people who attend my presentations along with my answers.

Here is this week’s question:

QUESTION: I have struggled to get beyond my feelings of annoyance but can’t seem to get rid of them. Being cool under pressure doesn’t work for me.

ANSWER: I want to be clear that the coolness under pressure is not about suppression of annoyance, frustration, or anger. Rather, the coolness is the result of the ability to see thoughts for what they are—just thoughts—rather than as reality. I also want to be clear that I am only able to objectively observe my thought processes when I am fully present, which takes a lot of work (practice). In other words, the coolness is there during those moments when I am practicing and it is not there when I am not mindfully practicing.

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges or issues related to wellbeing. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

If you would like to ask me something, you can type your question in the comment box below. An answer to your specific question may not necessarily appear in this column. The reason for that is I wait until I get a certain number of related questions, then I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one.