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Welcome to The TruthMap Podcast with clinical psychologist, healer, theorist and author, Michael D. Lukens, Ph.D. Over the course of 30 years, he has been developing and refining his own theory of human motivation. Would you be willing to know more of the truth about the real you? We believe this wi…

Michael D. Lukens, Ph.D.

  • Feb 1, 2021 LATEST EPISODE
  • every other week NEW EPISODES
  • 15m AVG DURATION
  • 17 EPISODES


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Latest episodes from TruthMap

Mindful Body Coach Michelle From Rewire & Inspire

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 1, 2021 39:35


Michelle and I followed each other on Instagram a couple of years ago and it took us a little bit to figure out how that came to be! Michelle is a mindful body coach and her company's name is Rewire and Inspire. In this conversation we talk about the reasons for "why" you want to improve your body in the first place, and cover eating disorders with Dr. Lukens' insight on how anorexia, bullemia, and obesity are 3 paths a person can take who all may be coping with the same issue. Find her everywhere at @rewire_and_inspire. Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/thetruthmap/ Download our mental health app https://truthmap.app.link/WycgfMTiobb to access Navvy, our chatbot life coach!

Emily King Founder of The C Word Mag: Goals & Shame

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 1, 2021 44:31


I sat down with Emily King, the founder of the online publication C Word Magazine. The C word for them stands for "Celebration" but they invite you to discover what the C Word Means for you! "Is it someone calling you one particular derogatory word? Is it creativity, content, collaboration, cruelty, community, or change? Is it to challenge yourself?..." Emily and I discuss Shame and its role in goal-setting and discover why she founded a publication that focused on the stories of people that weren't being told by the mainstream media, such as stories about female genital mutilation or mom guilt. Visit them at https://www.thecwordmag.co.uk/ to help them out with their web traffic to boost their SEO and consider donating to their crowdfund to help them pay their writers and amplify more voices. You can visit that page here.

Enlightenment, mental health, & Tokyo drifting into a donut shop

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2021 18:18


Enlightenment is the awareness of your existence that strips away all the “acceptance criteria” you place on yourself in order for you to love you, just for you. We have mental health issues because we lack enlightenment, and we can’t reach enlightenment if we have mental health issues. We can’t fix our mental health issues without some genuine INTEREST in becoming enlightened…It’s nuts! We’re nuts! Humans are crazy, all of us! And life is a vicious circle made up of paradoxes just like this one. If you have to ask if you’re enlightened, then you aren’t. This truth is a bit tricky to come to know and even harder to accomplish when you’re smack dab in the middle of present culture instead of a secluded hut on a mountain in Tibet. So kudos to you if you’ve achieved it like me, while being surrounded by a sea of modern-day content that does very very little to impress upon you that you are lovable! You can download the TruthMap Hologram App for free here --> https://truthmap.app.link/WycgfMTiobb Listen to this episode for a coupon code for 20% off an upgrade to premium to unlock TruthMap With Navvy (our chatbot journal feature)! Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetruthmap/ and https://www.instagram.com/truthmapwithholly

The type of person who sets/keeps their resolutions has very few resolutions

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 31, 2020 11:24


And that's on Integrity. This episode that is! How can we re-evaluate resolutions that we set last December in the context of a year that’s so drastically changed everything for us? How can people whose goals were derailed due to covid, perhaps due to losing a job, moving unexpectedly, or having their life uprooted in a number of other ways cope if they feel they haven’t measured up to their expectations? These are important questions to ask if we want to set and achieve our goals for 2021. In this episode I dive into the 3 things you need to cultivate in order to set and stick to your new year's resolutions and to help cope with the fact that perhaps you didn't achieve everything you set out to in 2020. Download our self-care app for womxn here --> https://truthmap.app.link/WycgfMTiobb Listen to this episode to get a code for 20% off your subscription! Follow me on Instagram: @truthmapwithholly

3 texts to send to someone going through a breakup

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 15, 2020 9:52


What is something you can send to a friend who is just going through a breakup? What if they just want to be left alone, how can you still show your support? I break down the 3 text messages you can send for the different types of scenarios and the reasons why they are the ideal texts to send. You can download the TruthMap Hologram app for free here --> https://truthmap.app.link/WycgfMTiobb Listen to this episode for 20% off your subscription to premium. Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthmapwithholly/

You can check out whenever you want but you can never leave

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2020 18:50


Are you an escapist? What do you use to escape...work..? dating...? social media..? Whatever it is, you're not alone. Escapism is a human universal. A human universal is something that all humans experience across all genders, cultures, sexualities, careers, and life experiences. Our need to escape our reality is what drives our acting out. In this episode we delve into Escapism and get a good idea of what it is as a concept. Download the TruthMap Hologram app for free here --> https://truthmap.app.link/WycgfMTiobb And listen to this episode for a 20% off coupon code to upgrade to premium. Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthmapwithholly/

Sorry, but you're wrong about depression.

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2020 12:35


This is our first episode of Season 2 of the TruthMap Podcast! Those of you who have been listening along with us might be noticing the changes! The podcast is now hosted by one of our co-founders Holly J. In this episode we explore a different definition of Depression because in order to resolve it, you have to know what it actually is! And as it turns out the whole world is confused about what it is. This is Lesson 1 from the Intro to Depression (Redefining Depression) Audio Course that can be found on the TruthMap Hologram app. You can download it here --> https://truthmap.app.link/WycgfMTiobb and listen to this episode to get a 20% off coupon code for your monthly subscription!

Success and Your Motivation

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2020 7:38


In this podcast, Dr. Lukens talks about our goal of success from the perspective of the dark side of our motivational moon. Do you know why you have the goals you've set in place? Do you want success because you really want that house or that car, or do you want security? Do you want success because the shame of failure would be too painful for you to experience? Or perhaps it's because the feeling of sadness would be too painful to come to terms with if don't accomplish enough in your life...these are just some specific examples of "stuff" that would be found on the dark side of your motivational moon that is driving you to want to achieve certain things in life. But, if you are operating from a place of pain-avoidance, then your goal is not based in pure DESIRE. It's based in a DESIRE to AVOID a certain type of emotional pain. This leaves you in a state of ambivalence.... where the motivations behind why you do -- what you do become foggy. We hope you enjoy this episode.

Quick Thoughts On Gaslighting

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 30, 2020 5:54


In this week's episode, Dr. Lukens shares his thoughts on gaslighting. Gaslighting is the “manipulatIon of (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity". We associate gas-lighting with emotional abuse in a relationship.

The Self-Esteem Neighborhood Causes Tension In Your Relationship

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2020 6:57


In this weeks episode Dr. Lukens explains how some people might consider a characteristic of a healthy relationship being the other person making you feel better about yourself, Dr. Lukens goes on to say how it's helpful to recognize why this does not tend to happen when there’s a significant mismatch or discrepancy between the two individuals self-esteem levels.

Self-Defeatism Is Inevitable Due To Second Order Emotioning

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2020 9:23


In this episode, Dr. Lukens discusses emotional programming. If you want to be somebody who's no longer self-defeating, you have to recognize this largely unseen, but predictable trap of second-order emotion programming for action that we as humans employ to control, erase, dominate, manage, or minimize some other ongoing program for action and feeling states connected with this. This is our resistance to feeling the emotions we do not like to feel- we use second-order programming (Fear or Anger) to resist those emotions. So, I do have a fear of guilt. I do have anger about some guilt. And I wish to squash the information coming from the guilt feelings, which are the signals that there is guilt. And if I get rid of the signals I can pretend that the alarm clock doesn't exist and that the meaning of the alarm clock doesn't exist or isn't relevant. And this is my way of controlling my experience. And we begin to do this when we're quite young. And we're encouraged by everybody else because they're all doing it too. But this is what leads the majority of people into a self-defeating paradox of which they can't seem to get out from underneath.

My Definition of Anxiety Could Help You Resolve Your Anxiety

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 9, 2020 31:47


In this episode, Dr. Lukens explains his definition of anxiety. He explains anxiety is a condition unto itself that supports our getting fuzzy and remaining fuzzy about our real fears. The second conclusion is that, except for a very small percentage of cases, everything that gets diagnosed or labeled as anxiety is really nothing more than fuzzy fear. This then is made into a problem to be solved, rather than a baffling mystery simply to be clarified by identifying the actual fear. This obviates the need to label any of the person’s experience or behavior as anxiety. This is allowed because the assumption is, there is a valid link between the fear response and something triggering it in the person's meaningful world, even if it’s hard to see or identify. He explores why those who believe they have anxiety might prefer things to be fuzzy because they don't really want to know about their fears...which makes anxiety a whole different story. If you suffer from anxiety you might want to ask yourself - there some sort of payoff for you to call this anxiety, rather than figuring out what you're afraid of? To read more on this topic you can visit the blog on anxiety here --> https://www.truthmap.co/blog/2019/3/27/my-problem-with-the-concept-of-anxiety-could-help-resolve-your-anxiety?rq=anxiety

Why You’re Feeling So “Blah” Around The Holidays/New Year

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 2, 2020 12:48


Clinical psychologist Dr. Michael Lukens explains why a whole lot of people go into the holiday season believing they’re doing just fine but then seem to get blindsided by unexpected bouts of melancholy -- the holiday “blues”. These are little bouts of the “blues” that seem to come out of nowhere. The mysterious part is a function of our being unable to pinpoint where these drops in our mood come from. Dr. Lukens says these declines in mood have most likely been going on for as long as the holidays have been a time of increased interpersonal connection with the significant people in our lives. If you’d like to read more about this topic please visit: https://www.truthmap.co/blog/mysterious-melancholy

Disappointment - You're Going To Have Some

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 28, 2019 7:36


In this episode of The TruthMap Podcast Dr. Lukens discusses the concept of disappointment. Disappointment itself is painful enough but many times people will self-sabotage their own positive goals because of a hidden fear of the possibility of disappointment. If you have unresolved disappointment wounds, which are similar to regular grief wounds, even the slightest possibility of being disappointed could lead you to not trying something or not going after something that would be very positive for you. If you'd like to read more about this topic you can read the blog here --> https://www.truthmap.co/blog/disappointment-youre-going-to-have-some --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Is There Free Will Or Not?

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2019 7:57


In this episode of The TruthMap Podcast, Dr. Lukens delves into the topic of free will. Is there free will, or isn't there? Humans are built to relate to the “commitment” to free will in one of the following ways: You lean toward believing in free will, You feel like you need to believe in free will, or You are uncertain or You could even be okay with the idea of no free will. In this episode, Dr. Lukens will examine the different perspectives and the emotional commitments that underscore each. To read more about this topic you can visit the blog here --> https://www.truthmap.co/blog/giving-up-the-idea-of-free-will?rq=free%20will

If Love is CBI

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2019 8:40


In this episode of The TruthMap Podcast Dr. Lukens explains the concept of Love as C.B.I. (Committed Benevolent Interest) which is at the core of his theory on human motivation. Consider this: if you don’t know “enough” about Love, how are you going to find your way to success in your relationships or in your life in general? But besides relationships, Love also inspires the manner and the means by which we pursue our goals. It also determines how we evaluate success, relative to our goals. Your ideas about Love are making you more lost than found in life. No matter the context, if you define Love poorly (and you may be surprised to find that you ARE in fact one of those people), you shouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t go so well. To read more about C.B.I. you can read this blog on our website --> https://www.truthmap.co/blog/mydefintionoflove-cbi --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

My Definition of Emotions Can Help You Understand Yours

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2019 7:26


In this episode of The TruthMap Podcast, Dr. Lukens clarifies the concept of human emotions. Your misunderstanding about emotions could be playing a significant part in keeping you stuck. Not really being certain about the truth about your emotions can leave you meandering on your own healing and growth process forever. With a better definition of what emotions ARE and HOW they work, you will gain clarity about your behaviors, desires, and interactions with others. To read more about human emotions check out this blog on our website --> https://www.truthmap.co/blog/2019/5/6/emotions-are-your-programs-for-action --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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