Blog | Dr. Amy Johnson

Thought Doing What Thought Does

We’ve come to expect our mind to behave the way we want it to rather than pausing to understand how minds naturally operate. It would be like bringing Jelly home for the first time and after a few hours saying, “This one’s too hyper. Her bark is too squeaky. She doesn’t work the way we imagined.” It’d

EP172: Jenny Roberts: Less is Unbelievably More in Parenting

Jenny Roberts has been working with parents and their children (but really just the parents) for decades. Jenny lives in Australia and worked with parents who were feeling completely overwhelmed and hopeless throughout Australia and all over the world. She’d move in with families who were at the end of their rope, dealing with children

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Sensations and Labels

Several years ago, I was preparing to lead a live workshop, and I went to the venue to check on some logistics. I experienced panic attacks for a long time, but at this particular point, I hadn’t felt anything I would consider anxiety or panic for at least six or seven years.At the venue, I

EP171: Deeply Exploring the Nature of Thought

In this episode, I share a practice I’ve been playing with. It’s a deep investigation into the actual experience of thought. It’s me asking “what is this thought thing, really?”It’s me walking right up to a thought and looking at it. Feeling it. Moving closer. Are there images, sounds, or other sensory reflections I find? Are

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It Just Popped Into My Head

Before last week, Miller’s last haircut was in February 2020.He loved his long hair. He loved the way it flowed behind him when he ran. He loved that people called him Malibu Miller and told him he looked like a surfer or a European footballer. He loved that many of his friends wanted to grow

EP170: A Conversation About Our Apparent Shift From Psychology to Spirituality

In this episode, my friend and coach colleague Piers Thurston and I discuss what it’s been like for our coaching to move from a focus on psychology to a focus on something closer to spirituality or nonduality. We talk about how life looks far simpler than it used to, and why, even given that, we

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Worry

I learned to worry at an early age.My mom worried a lot, often aloud, and I had no clue that what she was worrying about wasn’t real. You don’t as a kid.We were going to run out of money. We’d have to eat canned soup every night. We were going to lose our house. My

EP169: I Can’t Handle It!

Minds love dramatic, sensational statements. And if you don’t know better, you might be very tempted to take them seriously. They’ll say things like: “I can’t handle this”.“I don’t know how I’ll make it through.”“I’m lost. I don’t know what to do next.”“I’m barely keeping my head above water.”.But here’s the thing: Your mind saying these

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Putting on a Facade

Somewhere around the thirteenth century in Bangkok, Thailand, a massive statue of the Buddha was made of pure gold.Not long after the statue was created, Burmese soldiers invaded Thailand. In a flash of insight, the Thai people covered the Golden Buddha in stucco and glass to hide its value and keep it safe from the

EP168: Siobhan’s Change Story: When Change Doesn’t Look How You Imagined

Siobhan came to the new paradigm a couple different times in the past few years. The first was to find freedom around some habits. She talks about going through The Little School of Big Change a few years ago, solidly focused on her behavior (which is NOT how I recommend doing it!). Even while tracking