About this episode

The episode explores the concept of self and the stress associated with self-improvement through a conversation with Katrijn Van Oudheudsen about her book, Seeing No Self.

The podcast series explores a game-changing understanding of the human mind that operates “Before Psychology” — the secret source that exponentially increases peace, performance, and potential for any individual or organisation. What if a huge amount of human stress, striving, and psychological effort comes from trying to fix, improve, and manage a self that isn’t actually what we think it is? Are you ready to explore that now? In this episode of the Quality of Mind: Transforming Business podcast, Piers is joined once again by regular guest and fellow Quality of Mind collaborator Katrijn Van Oudheudsen to explore her newly republished book, Seeing No Self. At a time when modern culture increasingly promotes self-optimisation, productivity hacks, and constant self-improvement, this conversation questions a deeper assumption behind it all: the idea that we are a separate psychological self who must constantly be fixed, improved, and managed. Through the lens of Direct Inquiry, Katrijn explains why this belief sits at the root of much unnecessary stress, pressure, and psychological effort — and how investigating our experience directly can reveal something very different. Rather…

People in this episode

Host: Piers Thurston

Guest: Katrijn Van Oudheudsen

Topics covered

• self-improvement
• psychology
• stress
• identity
• Direct Inquiry

Keywords

• self
• psychological identity
• stress
• performance
• potential
• Direct Inquiry
• self-optimisation

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Seeing No Self

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