How to Naturally Reduce Stress and Be Happier with Yourself

What Is Conditional Self-Worth and Why It Steals Your Happiness

How to naturally reduce stress and be happier with yourself? When your inner light shines brighter than your inner critic… true success is inevitable. These are the inspiring words of Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo. She is a psychologist, author, and inspirational public speaker among other things, and I was really excited to have her on The Adiel Gorel Show as my podcast guest. Through the course of our chat, Dr. Lombardo shared inspiring stories from her own life, as well as vignettes of wisdom that we can all apply to our lives to make ourselves happier and more fulfilled. 

Her inspiration was a one-legged man.

Elizabeth or Dr. E as she is also called, is someone who enjoyed bringing succor to people as a physical therapist. She found it rewarding to be able to help people heal their injuries, reduce their pain, and restore their mobility. Then she was challenged by a one-legged man who needed to learn how to naturally reduce stress. This was a man who had to have his leg amputated surgically because of diabetes. It was her job to help with getting used to a prosthetic device, and learn to function independently with the aid of this. However, this man wanted nothing to do with her. He yelled at her and asked to go back to his room.

At this point, the attending physician wanted to prescribe Prozac to the man who had just lost his leg. This was a moment of epiphany for Elizabeth. She realized that all this man needed was someone to talk to, to write something to help him get through this difficult time in his life. To learn how to naturally reduce stress. This is when she realized her true calling – that she was meant to help people deal with what life throws at them. While she did go back to school to study psychology, another realization hit her – all she needed was to understand the basic concepts of the mind; how to make the mind work for us instead of against us. It then became her life’s mission to help people become more resilient, confident, and happy with less stress and better coping skills.

Looking for fulfillment.

As Elizabeth says, we are often looking for happiness and fulfillment in the wrong places. While there is nothing wrong with striving for wealth and a better life, this is not necessarily the definition of success. True success and real fulfillment come from the three Ps that she identifies: Passion, Purpose, and People. When we have passion and a purpose in life, it follows that we have the positive energy that we need; which enriches our lives. Since we are all social beings, people matter – our relationships, and how effectively we interact in our personal, social, and professional lives – all this is important.

It is a fact that the guy who has $100 billion is still not satisfied. That much money is enough to buy most things – people would agree – but that guy is going to want the next $100 billion and the next. This is a race that never ends, and this is something Elizabeth calls ‘conditional self-worth’ – something that never lets one realize how to naturally reduce stress. For a lot of people, external factors, and outer validation is necessary for self-belief and self-acceptance. What she encourages her clients to do is to create unconditional self-worth. 

In the course of the podcast, we speak about Shaquille O’Neal, Netflix, meaningful conversations, perfectionism, and Elizabeth’s inner critic called Mitzi. We speak about how that inner voice can be a drill sergeant and a cheerleader, why so many kids are finding it difficult to cope in the current social media-driven environment, how to naturally reduce stress, and more. Don’t miss this episode of my inspiring conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo.