What Does It Mean to Live a Great Life? A Psychologist Shares.

What is a great life? And how can you design your life around your ideals of greatness and purpose? This psychologist explains how.
February 26, 2016

What Does It Mean to Live a Great Life? A Psychologist Shares.

Gemma Stone is a psychologist based in Calgary, Canada whose first book, Your Great Life, is a soulful and strategic guide for designing a life you love.

In this interview, Gemma shares how her book’s publication was delayed by almost 2 years during a time of heartbreak and strife in her personal life, which ironically challenged her to really know what a “great life” is.

Gemma also explains how writing helped her undo her academic and overly-mental lens as a psychologist, and inspired her to trust feel and emotion (just as much as logic and thought). You’ll learn why nature is pivotal for accessing your creative energy, and how to reconnect to the soul of your own creativity.

Are you ready to drop into your heart to access your soulful knowing?

The interview free to stream, so tune in to listen below!

Listen: Writing From Heartspace

As You Listen…

  1. Do you tend to write from head-space or heart-space? What’s natural for you, and why? Did you learn one form of self-expression initially, over the other?
  2. Is your creative soul “starving”? Can you remember a time when it was? What helped you refill your creative “cup”?
  3. Taking advice from Gemma, what is the most loving thing that you can do for yourself as you prepare to give your words to the world (or, after having just given them to the world)?

Listening Guide

02:50 – Why was this book the one Gemma’s “soul needed to write”?
05:00 – What is a “consistently great life?” Comparisons to lifestyle design.
06:35 – Soulful knowing. Harmonizing how your life feels, not how it looks
10:25 – How to find your “one path” in life
11:55 – “My creative soul was starving.” Gemma’s breakdown, and realization
12:45 – Using writing to redefine expecations, identity and direction
17:48 – Feeling “in flow.” What is flow, really?
20:20 – “Is it fear, or is it love?” Knowing the difference of what’s stopping (and motivating) you.
25:12 – How space refills your creative cup; writing from abundance.
26:35 – “The pause.” or how to take a creative sabbatical. Recharging after creating.
33:08 – Channeling a source for achievement through the soft, yin, or femininity
37:10 – Why Gemma’s new book took 18 months longer to publish than she thought
41:07 – Considerations on book crowdfunding (for better or worse)

About the Author

Dave Ursillo is a professional life and career coach, multi-published author, writing teacher, and future mental health counselor. He has coached over 300 professional helpers since 2012, spoken and taught workshops on 4 continents, and turned more than two dozen writers into first-time authors. His words and work have been featured on Creative Live, Psychology Today, Forbes, INC, The Hindustan Times, and beyond.

MEANINGFUL STORIES IN YOUR INBOX

GET MY NEWSLETTER,
Chronicles of a Self-Storied Life’

ENJOY MORE RECENT ESSAYS

What is Avoidance, Really?

What is Avoidance, Really?

Of everything I thought I knew, avoidance was on top of the list. But how much did I really know about avoidance at the time?

read more