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: This seems like a very austere and grueling practice. Does it ever get easier to practice?

ANSWER: Although the self-empowerment practice I teach does require great intentionality and discipline to practice the skills, the satisfaction of being able to objectively self-observe our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and to then be able to practice living in harmony with what we value does make it easier to practice over the long term. It also gets easier to fully accept all the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings that we otherwise suppress.

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.