Happy and meaningful lives are great, but they can be a bit boring at times. Erin Westgate studies another construct of a well-lived life called Psychological Richness. When you are psychologically rich you have a life that is full of exciting and perspective-changing experiences. Listen in to hear Dr. Westgate share her cutting-edge research in this area and strategies to grow your psychologically rich life today! About Dr. Erin WestgateDr. Erin Westgate (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida, where she studies boredom, interest, and why some thoughts are more engaging than others. She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Virginia in 2018, and her undergraduate degree from Reed College. Much of her research has been on the conditions under which people enjoy or do not enjoy their own thoughts. She has extended that work to the larger question of why people become bored, developing a new model of boredom that explains what boredom is, why we experience it, and what happens when we do. Her recent work focuses on the desire for a "psychologically rich" life (versus a happy or meaningful one) and why some people seek out a life filled with a variety of interesting experiences.  Key TakeawaysPsychological richness is a new construct in psychology that is different but related to happiness and meaning Happy lives lead to personal satisfaction, meaningful lives lead to social contributions and psychologically rich lives lead to wisdom You can develop psychological richness by being challenged, traveling, and increasing variety in your day Psychological richness may help you see challenges as opportunities to grow Productive procrastination is an effective way to procrastinate and does not lead to worse outcomes compared to non-procrastinators Boredom is not good or bad, it’s information

Relevant Resources Mentionedhttps://www.erinwestgate.com/uploads/7/6/4/1/7641726/oishi.westgate.psychrev.2021.pdf (A Psychologically Rich Life) by Oishi and Westgate https://www.erinwestgate.com/uploads/7/6/4/1/7641726/westgate_spsp2014_shock.pdf (Shocking research on being alone with your thoughts )by Erin Westgate Research article about https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360193489_An_Infectious_Silver_Lining_Is_There_a_Positive_Relationship_Between_Recovering_From_a_COVID_Infection_and_Psychological_Richness_of_Life (Psychological Richness During COVID) Erin Westgate on https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/boredom-issues-covid-19 (Why Boredom Is So Interesting) https://drdianahill.com/extras/ (Download Your Daily Practice for Episode 34 Here) Sign up for https://drdianahill.com/striving-thriving-summit-2022/ (From Striving to Thriving 2.0)! https://drdianahill.com/events/ (Join Diana at an upcoming event) https://drdianahill.com/reset-and-restore-retreat/ (Reserve your spot with Diana for Retreat in Costa Rica in 2023)! Thank you for listening to Your Life in Process! If you have any questions or feedback you can contact me by email at podcast@yourlifeinprocess.com, leave me an audio message at (805) 457-2776, or message me on Instagram @drdianahill and remember when you become psychologically flexible, you become free. Stay tuned for my next episode on YLIP when we discuss How to Use Polyvagal Theory to Shift Your Nervous System with Deb Dana Thank you to my team Craig, Angela Stubbs, Ashley Hiatt, Abby Diehl, and to our sponsor InsightLA Meditation for making this podcast possible. Thank you to Benjamin Gould of https://bellandbranch.com/ (Bell & Branch) for your beautiful music.  Episode Segments[00:00] Introduction [00:22] Diana's Event: Costa Rica Retreat [01:49] My Goals For This Podcast [03:55] About Dr. Erin Westgate [06:10] Three Components Of Well-Being [07:58] How To Study Psychological Richness [13:06] The Overlap Between ACT and Psychological Richness [16:23] Diana's Event: From Striving to...