The End of Self-Improvement: Joan Tollifson on the Art of Just Being
A New Way of Being
Simon Mundie
4.8 • 523 Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2024
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we explore a thought-provoking question: Is self-improvement really the path to happiness, or is it a trap that keeps us chasing something we already have?
My guest is Joan Tollifson, an author, teacher, and lifelong explorer of the nature of being. Together, we discuss why the idea of “improving yourself” is inherently flawed, how meditation helps us access peace and creativity, and the value of simply taking some moment to 'be' in our lives.
We also touch on:
- What actually is the “self” we’re trying to improve?
- Recognising the aware presence that doesn't need improving
- Meditation and its many different forms - and how we both 'do it'
- The power of taking moments of stillness to just 'be'
- The opportunity that being triggered presents us with
- Finding peace and ease by dropping the stories we tell ourselves
My free mini-course on Beating Burnout and Finding Flow: https://www.simonmundie.com/beat-burnout-mini-course
Joan's website: https://www.joantollifson.com/
Joan's Substack: https://joantollifson.substack.com/
My book: https://www.simonmundie.com/book
Website: simonmundie.com
YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/YouTubeSimonMundie
Substack: https://simonmundie.substack.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simonmundie/
Joan's books include Bare-Bones Meditation: Waking Up from the Story of My Life (1996); Awake in the Heartland: The Ecstasy of What Is (2003); Painting the Sidewalk with Water: Talks and Dialogs about Nonduality (2010); Nothing to Grasp (2012); and Death: The End of Self-Improvement (2019).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | We live in a world obsessed with self-improvement, but what if the whole idea is a recipe for dissatisfaction? |
| 0:13.9 | In today's episode, I am joined by Joan Tollifson, author, teacher and someone who spent her life exploring these questions. And together we are |
| 0:22.7 | diving into the roots of this obsession, why it keeps us stuck, and how meditation and taking |
| 0:28.4 | time to simply be can help us drop the stories we tell ourselves that keep us stuck in a state |
| 0:34.9 | of frustration. And Joan's background in somatic work, addiction recovery, |
| 0:40.2 | and even martial arts adds yet more depth to her perspective. And before we get started, |
| 0:46.2 | if you're feeling overwhelmed by burnout, stress, or that constant pressure to keep it all together, |
| 0:51.9 | you're not alone. With my brand new free mini |
| 0:55.8 | course called Beat Burnout and Fine Flow, you will discover practical insights and tools to |
| 1:01.3 | reclaim your calm, your focus, and a deeper sense of purpose all in just a few minutes a day. |
| 1:07.5 | It's available for a limited time. The link is in the show notes, so please do go and |
| 1:11.8 | check it out. Now let's dive into what was a wonderful conversation with Joan Tollifson. |
| 1:20.3 | Joan Tollifson, it's a pleasure to be with you. How lovely to see you. How are you? |
| 1:24.8 | I'm fine and it's great to be with you, Simon. It's wonderful to meet you |
| 1:28.8 | too. I've so enjoyed listening to you and reading your stuff. So to have a conversation with you is a |
| 1:35.9 | pleasure for me and you're a wonderful writer of books. You're a wonderful speaker and you've got |
| 1:41.8 | some fantastic titles. Now, one of which I particularly like, |
| 1:46.3 | and it's called The End of Self- Improvement. And I just love that title for a number of reasons. |
| 1:53.7 | Perhaps we can dive into that. But why don't I start by asking, what made you go with that? |
| 1:58.3 | And did you chuckle to yourself at what a good title it was? |
| 2:02.1 | I did. And I had the title for a long time, actually, before the book was finished. And every time I would mention it to somebody, well, every now and then somebody would look at me with utter, you know, because the full title is death, the end of self-improvement. |
| 2:16.7 | And sometimes people would look at me with like complete, like, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Simon Mundie, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Simon Mundie and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.