From Iranian Refugee to Serenity Expert: How to Manage Stress Positively with Amanda Enayati

Have you ever asked yourself why you feel so stressed all the time? It’s pretty common these days to just assume a stress-filled life is the norm, especially if you’re an entrepreneur. Today’s guest on The School of Greatness has known stress above and beyond the norm. Amanda Enayati had to flee from her home country of Iran when she was a kid (without her parents), lived in the West Village in NYC during 9/11, worked as an attorney for years and then got late-stage breast cancer (while raising two small children). Yes, that’s all for real. So you can take her word for it when she says she knows about stress. But what is incredible about Amanda (including what she has gone through) is her devotion to researching and teaching the best ways to understand and handle the stress that comes to all of us. If you listened to the last episode with Todd Kashdan, you’ll really enjoy this interview as well. Amanda shares some different and some similar ideas from Todd about how to use stress to your advantage and how to find healing from traumatic stress. I know you’ll enjoy this conversation as much as I did in Episode 155 with CNN contributor and author Amanda Enayati.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:What mattered to her when she got diagnosed with cancer:she needed to be who she was meant to beshe didn’t want any strife with anyoneThe fact that life is suffering isn’t all bad“Suck-it-up-itude” – the attitude that failure isn’t an excuse to give upSerenity means that you have found what you are meant to do and you are sharing that with the worldHow the little whys behind what we do add up to the big whysWhy we think of ourselves as so stressed outTo re-frame your stress mindset:

1- Tell yourself better stories about what’s happening

2- Remember all stress isn’t the same

3- Re-draw the map of your stories and what they are telling youThe problem with stress is a design issueWhy kids need some stress to develop into happy, healthy adultsThe power of belonging and its ability to heal usPlus much more…