Dr. Laurie Nadel, a psychologist specializing in overcoming trauma, has helped people impacted by the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Sandy and, most recently, the mass shooting in Parkland, FL.

Today, Laurie joins us to talk about how to live inspired after our personal tragedies. Whether divorce, bankruptcy, a natural disaster or anything in between: A "trauma" is anything that leaves you feeling like you've lost your control, your safety or your identity.

My friends, we've all had challenges. Today's episode will directly help you overcome yours.

SHOW NOTES:

• If you like this podcast, you will love Live Inspired IN STUDIO. It's my membership community where like-minded friends join me via live webcast to live inspired together. Registration opens soon! Join the waitlist.
• Dr. Laurie Nadel shared how she was able to better relate to her mother after learning about the Myers Briggs personality types.
• Dr. Laurie Nadel's first book was a 4-time bestseller + on Oprah's book club twice: Sixth Sense: The Whole-Brain Book of Intuition, Hunchies, Gut Feelings, and Their Place in Your Everyday Life 
  • "This book changes lives, in terms of understanding how how you think and process who you are."
• Her most recent book came out in April 2018: The Five Gifts: Discovering Hope, Healing and Strength When Disaster Strikes
  • "This is a tool for people in the midst of tragedy. Open it and something will pop out you can use for self care."
  • The 5 Gifts: humility, patience, empathy, forgiveness, growth. 
• Something like a school shooting or natural disaster, they rip away the fabric of what we thought normal was. When they occur, we have to find a way of balancing in the midst of emotional chaos for sometime. You can swipe it away when you see it on your screen, but when it happens to you in real life, you can’t change the channel.
• At a certain point you're out of shock and can start to think about next week instead of just getting through the day.
• When we start to feel like we can get through a week is when we have the strength or enlarged capacity to connect with people as a result of what we’ve been through.
• Three Cycles of Loss (when you can't go back to who you were before the injury, car accident, bankruptcy, tragic event):
  1. Loss of control of your physical environment.
  2. Loss of safety, you may be emotionally fragile.
  3. Loss of identity / who you are now.
• For another "Live Inspired" take on this topic, check out Ep. #4 with Michaela Haas as she explores + explains: Post Traumatic Growth.

DR. LAURIE NADEL’S LIVE INSPIRED 7

1. What is the best book you’ve ever read? Catcher in the Rye and Catch 22. These two seminal books of the 60s have characters who are authentic and think in questions. They question authority. I admire them and hope I never stop questioning. 

2. What is a characteristic or trait that you possessed as a child that you wish you still exhibited today? My imagination has been tempered by reality and the real world. I was an excellent creative writer, I made up stories. I wish I had a more active imagination.

3. Your house is on fire, all living things and people are out. You have the opportunity to run in and grab one item. What would it be? I would have grabbed the original edition of the Wizard of Oz that I was saving for my grandchildren. The beautiful books from my childhood were destroyed in Hurricane Sandy.

4. You are sitting on a bench overlooking a gorgeous beach. You have the opportunity to have a long conversation with anyone living or dead. Who would it be? Dan Rather, I’m fortunate and privileged that he has been my mentor, believer and supporter of my book. I’m always fascinated by what he has to say with where we are now in America as compared to all of the cycles he has seen in the course of his lifetime and what we can learn from that to move forward and be more empathetic.

5. What is the best advice you've ever received? Dan always gives me great advice: Just keep writing.

6. What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? Calm down a little bit. I was definitely wild. I wouldn’t want to clip her wings or put the breaks on, but I have a lot of people who come into my practice for therapy in their mid to late 20s because what we learn during this season is that the rules of life and family culture we learn through childhood don’t always apply to the world at large. The world is very different when you actually get out there and have to make your way in it. Be careful but be open.

7. It’s been said that all great people can have their lives summed up in one sentence. How do you want yours to read She was a great mom and great friend.

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