366. Buddhism and Confidence with Ethan Nichtern

The Daily Helping

For most folks, confidence and Buddhism probably don’t really seem to have much to do with each other. But for Ethan Nichtern, who grew up in a modern Buddhist community in New York City and has been studying it his whole life, it makes complete sense. Ethan joins us today to tell us about his book, “Confidence: Holding Your Seat Through Life’s Eight Worldly Winds.”

Ethan explains what Buddhism’s eight world winds are: Pleasure and pain, praise and criticism, fame and infamy, success and failure. Holding your seat during these winds, or in other words, keeping your confidence, is achievable through practice.

The second half of Ethan’s book and the second half of our interview is focused on this practice. We dive into what mindfulness truly means and how it's the foundation of Ethan’s confidence-building techniques.

If you’ve ever struggled with confidence, and most of us have, check out this episode!

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

The struggle with confidence is very human. It's universal. If somebody claims not to struggle with it I think they're probably lying at least a little bit. If we can view showing up and trusting ourselves as a practice rather than an outcome It will help tremendously.

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

Resources:

• Learn more at EthanNichtern.com
• Check out Ethan’s yearlong program on Buddhist philosophy and psychology at DharmaMoon.com.
• Listen to Ethan’s podcast, “The Road Home”
• Read “Confidence: Confidence: Holding Your Seat Through Life’s Eight Worldly Winds”

Produced by NOVA Media