Date: November 7, 2022

Mindset Mastery host Marie Swift speaks with author, poet, and teacher Gary J. Boelhower, PhD. As Professor Emeritus at The College of St. Scholastica, he continues to teach health humanities; healthcare ethics; living, dying and grieving; and leadership and wholeness. In this episode of Mindset Mastery, he tells us how to become grounded when we are afraid, when to use open-ended questions and inquisitiveness to reduce polarization, and what the most critical skill is if you want to make live a more meaningful life filled with authentic leadership.

In a nutshell: Stress can kill our ability to cope. Being fully present for ourselves and for others is the key to staying attentive, focused, and deeply aware. The 3 Dimensions of Awareness – focus, context, and self – come into play and can reduce the fractured feeling we experience in this digital, disrupted world. Appreciative inquiry (exploring the positive with a spark of curiosity) is the way to get more of what we want in life. And while we are approaching yearend, Thanksgiving, and the holidays, it is important to remember that an attitude of gratitude can and should be a yearlong mental practice.

Gary J. Boelhower, PhD

Gary J. Boelhower, PhD is a writer of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, teacher, workshop facilitator and speaker. His recent books include: A Common Thirst, Step Close In, Naming Rites: Poems, Choose Wisely: Practical Insights from Spiritual Traditions, Mountain 10: Climbing the Labyrinth Within (with Joe Miguez and Tricia Pearce), and Marrow, Muscle, Flight: Poems which won the Midwest Book Award.

As Professor Emeritus at The College of St. Scholastica he continues to teach health humanities; healthcare ethics; living, dying and grieving; and leadership and wholeness.

He has keynoted international and national conferences and leads workshops throughout the United States on wise decision making, the Mountain 10 process for listening to inner wisdom, professional ethics, creativity and writing, creating the respectful workplace, leading a life of meaning and purpose, and authentic leadership.