Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts,

entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.

This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode. My guest today is Houston Craft.

Houston is the co-founder of Character Strong, a company that provides trainings that create more compassionate cultures in

schools and in communities. He's a really popular speaker who has reached over a half a million

people at his speaking engagements. In fact, that's how I met Houston. In 2019, we spoke with

the same event and I watched Houston deliver a presentation that resonated with the entire audience and me as well.

He asked everyone to participate in an exercise that involved pairing up with a stranger and talking about some of our fears and insecurities.

Even though I'm a therapist, I have to admit that this sort of thing is still really uncomfortable. But it was a yes

theory event where the motto was seek discomfort. So I went for it. And it turned out to be a really

powerful exercise. Houston's also the author of a book, which is called Deep Kindness. It's a great

read that might just change the way that you think about kindness.

As a mental strength trainer, I know how important kindness is to our overall well-being.

There's tons of research that links kindness to happiness.

And of course, it doesn't just help us on an individual level, but kind people also make the world a better place.

It's hard to be kind, though. We're busy, we're tired,

and sometimes we feel sort of taken advantage of when we're nice to people. So Houston and I will talk about that, and we'll also talk about how to take small steps toward incorporating more

kindness into your life, how to be more compassionate, and why saying be kind can actually be kind of unhealthy.

Make sure to stick around until the end of the episode for the therapist's take.

This is the part of the show where I'll break down Houston strategies and explain how to apply them to your own life.

So here's Houston Craft. He's mentally strong. This is his story. Houston Craft, welcome to the

Mentally Strong People podcast. Thank you. I wish I was on a boat for this podcast as well,

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