Episodes

  • Individual, Relational, Aspirational: The Three Pillars of Thriving with Dr. Pam King and Nada Jones

    Individual, Relational, Aspirational: The Three Pillars of Thriving with Dr. Pam King and Nada Jones
    Nov 18 2024
    Dr. Pam King joins longtime friend, entrepreneur, and inspiring podcast host Nada Jones on for a conversation on thriving and self-discovery in mid-life. Nada Jones is the founder and CEO of Liberty Road, a podcast and organization for entrepreneurial women focused on growth, wisdom, sharing stories, and finding purpose. She has a regular podcast where women in the middle third of their lives share their journeys of self-discovery.Together they discuss Pam’s approach to thriving as a developmental psychologist; the adventure of women entering and exploring the middle third of their lives; Pam’s definition of thriving; and what might get in the way of thriving during this challenging period of life.Pam shares resources from psychology and spirituality that can provide for people to grow and support others, describing three pillars for a thriving life: individual, relational, and aspirational. Show NotesAbout Liberty Road podcast and organization“Pursuing your future doesn't end at 40. In fact, it may mark the beginning of knowing who you are, what you're capable of, and what you really want.”What is the Thrive Center?The intersection of psychological science and spiritual wisdom“The irony of the term of mental health is that it's actually defined by mental illness, or pathology, or depression, or anxiety.”What can go right with people?Explicit interest in spirituality: “There’s gotta be something more.”“A historical rift between religiously or spiritual things and psychological science.”Research-backed spirituality“A thriving life is a life on-purpose.”“It’s not just the journey, it’s the direction.”Thriving at the intersection of three pillars of life: individual, relational, and aspirational.“In the deepest part of my being, I really want to enable people to thrive in a very holistic way. And live more fully into who they are. Living more authentically, living with deeper connection and, and with deeper purpose.”Not just another self-help platform“How do you help us understand purpose or thriving when maybe we haven't put ourselves first?”Balance and moving through extremesLife is fluid and dynamicMiddle age as a period of fluxLooking at opportunities in challengesMotherhood and service for othersFinding joyExamples for each three pillarsStay-at-home mom moving into a new phase of life“Start with loving ourselves and giving ourselves grace.”“Bring out the best in yourself. Love yourself.”What images come to mind as positive memories of competency and strength?Obligations in relationshipsWhat are we actually living out? Is it consistent with our values?Change your environment or change yourself.What is spirituality?“Spirituality is people’s perception and experience of transcendence. … But also our response to transcendence.”Spiritual health and psychology—”Not all spirituality is helpful or healthful.”“I think we're living in a spiritually void time.”“Have we deprived ourselves of something in an effort to not deprive ourselves of anything?”Pam King on life in the “middle third”Reprioritizing and making professional shiftsWhat keeps you grounded? 10 minutes of silence of meditation.What are you currently reading? Open and Unafraid by W. David Taylor / Strength That Remains, by Tracy KidderWhat is a skincare musthave? SBLA Facial WandWhat has surprised you about the good life? There’s more losses than anticipated.What has your work done to liberate you? Reworking and reconsidering purpose; “Diving deep in conversations with people has been liberating and wonderful.”About Nada JonesNada Jones is the founder and CEO of Liberty Road, a podcast and organization for entrepreneurial women focused on growth, wisdom, sharing stories, and finding purpose. Discover more of her work at www.liberty-road.com. About the Thrive CenterLearn more at thethrivecenter.org.Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenterFollow us on X @thrivecenterFollow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter About Dr. Pam KingDr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking. About With & ForHost: Pam KingSenior Director and Producer: Jill WestbrookOperations Manager: Lauren KimSocial Media Graphic Designer: Wren JuergensenConsulting Producer: Evan RosaSpecial thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.
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    47 mins
  • Human Relationality and Growth: Psychological and Theological Perspectives with Dr. Pam King & Evan Rosa

    Human Relationality and Growth: Psychological and Theological Perspectives with Dr. Pam King & Evan Rosa
    Nov 11 2024
    “How do I grow as a fully differentiated person in relationship and increasing intimacy, increasing contribution with the world around me?” (Dr. Pam King, from the episode)Dr. Pam King joins the Yale Center for Faith & Culture podcast, For the Life of the World, for a discussion of human development, purpose, relational intimacy, and spiritual connection—all through the integration of developmental psychology and theology.With host Evan Rosa (Yale Center for Faith & Culture), she reflects on human change and plasticity in the midst of a whole complex life; relational attachment for the sake of intimacy and exploration and ultimate purpose or meaning; the proper place of self-love; God’s enabling and loving presence as the ultimate secure attachment figure; the importance of learning, gaining skills, and the pursuit of expertise; the prospects of regaining emotional regulation through relationships; the game changing impact of deliberate psychological and spiritual practices to move us well beyond surviving to a life of thriving.Announcement! With & For Season 2 is dropping on January 6, 2025! And until then, every Monday from September to December, we’re sharing some shorter clips, practical features, and other talks or interviews featuring Dr. Pam King, to offer insight into what it means to thrive and pursue spiritual health.Show NotesMartin Buber’s I and ThouJohn Bowlby and Attachment TheoryTrolick’s Still Face Experiment (Video)Justin Barrett & Pamela Ebstyne King, Thriving with Stone Age Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human FlourishingDevelopmental psych as the observational study of human change in the midst of a whole life of complexityPlasticity of the human speciesRelational attachment for the sake of intimacy and explorationThe Impact of environment on genetic expressionLaw if reciprocityFullness of creation, redemption and consummationTheology as establishing ends, and psychology as developing towards gods purposesHow psychology aids in the process of becoming our full selves as selfhoodThe proper place of self-loveGod’s enabling and loving presenceThriving as psychological, vs Flourishing as philosophicalMeaningful life in eudaimonic and hedonistic termsImago dei“Back to the future”—understanding the end toward the beginningReading psychology through a teleological lensLinear stage theories of developmentLife as a series of cyclesWe can have a telos as a dynamic processThriving as pursuing the fullness of selfReciprocity beyond ourselves when life is hardColossians and Jesus as the perfect image of GodConformity is not uniformityParenting as helping children to become their unique selvesTelos as inhabiting the self, the relational, and the aspirational—purpose is found at the intersection of all threeWilliam Damon on purposePurpose as enduring actionable goal, meaningful to the self and contributing beyond the selfLearning, gaining skills, and pursuit of expertiseMeaning making as a dynamic life-long projectOrienting life in the present moment by tethering to a consummate vision of the futureSociality as inherent to human natureGoals: self, expertise acquisition, and what we aspire toRoles: who we are in our social networksSouls: what ideals are most dearly held and most meaningfulThe fundamental rejection of pre autonomy and independence; embrace of our relational selvesHow malleable our brains are through intentional practicesMaking meaning can change your brainsSurviving vs thrivingAttachment and regulationRegaining emotional regulation through relationshipsThe game changing impact of deliberate psychological and spiritual practices—intention, motivation, and goalsPossible cutoff point — The relation of psychological science and theologyPsychology as a God-given tool to enable thriving and flourishingKnown, loved, and loving othersThe role of suffering and loss as part of the thriving processFor the cynical and jaded: thriving that is real to loss, grief, vulnerability, and daring to thriveProduction NotesThis podcast featured Pamela Ebstyne KingEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge and Kaylen YunA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give‍This episode was made possible in part by the generous support of Blueprint 1543. For more information, visit Blueprint1543.org. About the Thrive CenterLearn more at thethrivecenter.org.Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenterFollow us on X @thrivecenterFollow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter About Dr. Pam KingDr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking. About With & ForHost: Pam KingSenior Director...
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Roots to Fruits: How to Live Out Love in Turbulent Times, with Rev. Dr. Pam King

    Roots to Fruits: How to Live Out Love in Turbulent Times, with Rev. Dr. Pam King
    Nov 4 2024

    If we want to bear good fruit in our lives, we must have strong roots. Good fruit must lead to love. As the Rev. Dr. Pam King offers in this episode, “Root into love so that you can live out love.”

    Speaking on Jesus’s parable of the Tree and Its Fruits in Luke 6, she draws on theological and psychological resources to reflect on the role of active and intentional love in a thriving life.

    Luke 6:43-45: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes bramble bush. The good person, out of the good treasure of the heart, produces good. And the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”

    Show Notes

    • Luke 6:43-45: “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes bramble bush. The good person, out of the good treasure of the heart, produces good. And the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil, for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”
    • “I believe this scripture … redefines reality and redefines fruit.”
    • True love in *The Princess Bride — “Wuv. Twoo Wuv.”
    • “True love is the greatest thing in the world.”
    • “Root into love so that you can live out love.”
    • What is thriving? What New Testament parables of Jesus express thriving?
    • Redefining “Good”
    • What is good?
    • “Good” is a four-letter word
    • There’s always a right answer in Sunday School: “Jesus”
    • Defining the Relationship? Or Define the Reality?
    • A reordering of values
    • “… a radical reordering of values and a re sanctification of sanctioned behaviors. He describes the kind of conduct that is appropriate for this kingdom that he will be leading. It is love your enemies, do good out of love. Give generously out of love. Lend without expectation. Love your neighbor.”
    • Fruit is a symbol of love
    • Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, “The Home of God”—what is to come is coming now. “Inbreaking”
    • Flux in congregational or community life
    • The Reciprocating Self
    • Conformity is not synonymous with uniformity
    • “We are each invited to bear fruit out of our own giftedness.”
    • “Bear fruit as yourself.”
    • “Pam, you’re a good Pam.”
    • “We bear fruit by living out God's love. in this world as ourselves.”
    • Tree imagery in the Bible
    • “A tree firmly planted, or some versions rooted, by streams of water, that does not get blown when the winds come by.”
    • What kind of tree are you?
    • How do you root into God’s love?
    • Eli Finkel and third-person perspective taking
    • “When people take a benevolent third person view in the Christian worldview, God's perspective, and they actually write those things about a person, the conflict is still there, but they're able to interact and care for that person more effectively and see that person more wholly.”
    • “80 percent of Americans young people are lonely. We are in a cultural mode of despair in many ways. We are losing our relational capacity.”

    About the Thrive Center

    • Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
    • Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on X @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

    About Dr. Pam King

    Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

    About With & For

    • Host: Pam King
    • Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
    • Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
    • Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
    • Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

    Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.
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    23 mins
  • Assessment: How to Reflect on Our Progress Toward Spiritual Health with Dr. Pam King

    Assessment: How to Reflect on Our Progress Toward Spiritual Health with Dr. Pam King
    Oct 28 2024

    “How did it go?” As we pursue purpose and spiritual health, we need regular opportunities to take stock and understand how our efforts are making an impact in our lives and in the lives of others.

    In the process of pursuing purpose, cultivating joy, and connecting more deeply to ourselves, we need to learn how to audit and assess how its going as we live out our spirituality and refine our values.

    In this episode, Dr. Pam King explains assessment—the final (and absolutely essential) step in the process of cultivating agility and adaptivity for spiritual health. At this stage, we take stock, adapt, and flex, ready to start fresh and begin anew each day.

    Show Notes

    • Audit and assess
    • Take stock, adapt, and flex, ready to start fresh and begin anew each day.
    • Consider cycles and frequencies of assessment
    • The Ignatian Prayer of Examen
    • Becoming aware of where God is most fully active in our lives
    • Slow down, connect with God, and take a different perspective
    • What are we made and created to do?
    • What is our purpose as full human selves?
    • The importance of patience and pausing
    • Accountability
    • Utilize emotions as signposts
    • Drawing on the first step of attunement
    • How to facilitate the final step of the cycle and move toward beginning again

    About the Thrive Center

    • Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
    • Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on X @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

    About Dr. Pam King

    Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

    About With & For

    • Host: Pam King
    • Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
    • Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
    • Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
    • Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

    Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.
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    8 mins
  • Activation: Intentional Steps Toward Your Purpose with Dr. Pam King

    Activation: Intentional Steps Toward Your Purpose with Dr. Pam King
    Oct 21 2024

    “Activate your skills, gifts, and passions for the benefit of others.”

    Activation is the practical step in the cycle of 5 A’s for Agility in Spiritual Health—where we implement a practice or exercise, make a move toward our values, or experiment with something to help us grow.

    In this episode, Dr. Pam King walks through the fourth step of the 5 A’s: Activate. This step in the cycle draws from each previous step, going from non-judgmental observation, internally connecting to our values, and then puts our values into action for the sake of living out our purpose.

    Show Notes

    • Implement a practice or exercise, make a move toward our values, or experiment with something to help us grow.
    • “What is one thing I can do today to more clearly align my life to those values and those sources of joy and mattering  that I thought about when I was considering alignment.”
    • An attitude of discovery
    • Enacting intentional behavior; bringing our values into real life
    • “Activate your skills, gifts, and passions for the benefit of others.”
    • Activating your purpose
    • What will get us one step closer to our purpose?
    • Stay mindful of the feelings we attuned to in the first step of the 5 A’s.
    • Positive, expansive feelings
    • Small microsteps forward
    • Moving toward what matters most

    About the Thrive Center

    • Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
    • Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on X @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

    About Dr. Pam King

    Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

    About With & For

    • Host: Pam King
    • Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
    • Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
    • Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
    • Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

    Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.
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    7 mins
  • Alignment: Connecting Our Experience with Our Values with Dr. Pam King

    Alignment: Connecting Our Experience with Our Values with Dr. Pam King
    Oct 14 2024

    “When our life is aligned to what truly matters, that is when we experience the most enduring joy.”

    In this episode, Dr. Pam King explains the 3rd step in the 5 A’s of Agility for Spiritual Health. Alignment is the process of becoming more reflective, drawing connections between our thoughts and emotions—and our beliefs, values, habits, and the experiences that shape us.

    This is the step where we look for our intentions and expectations and hold them up to our raw experiences and the possible meanings associated with them. We begin by identifying what's true or what's false in our feelings and thoughts so we can more clearly move toward our purposes.

    ANNOUNCEMENT: With & For Season 2 launches on January 6, 2025!

    Show Notes

    • “Alignment involves aligning the insights that you gained from taking inventory and attuning to your feelings and becoming aware of their meanings of then aligning these feelings to your ideals, your values, and what you assume matters.”
    • What matters to you?
    • Taking stock of what we attuned to, and what we became aware of
    • How do we align what is with what we want?
    • How to practice alignment
    • How do you spend your time?
    • Reflecting regularly on life goals
    • “When our life is aligned to what truly matters, that is when we experience the most enduring joy.”
    • Resilience and stability

    About the Thrive Center

    • Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
    • Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on X @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

    About Dr. Pam King

    Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

    About With & For

    • Host: Pam King
    • Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
    • Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
    • Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
    • Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

    Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.
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    8 mins
  • Awareness: Non-Judgmental Reflection on Our Emotions and Thoughts with Dr. Pam King

    Awareness: Non-Judgmental Reflection on Our Emotions and Thoughts with Dr. Pam King
    Oct 7 2024

    It’s not easy to reflect on our emotions without judging them or running away from them. It’s difficult to stay with challenging or frightening feelings and thoughts. But to cultivate awareness means taking an open, curious, and non-judgmental approach to observing our minds.

    More than simple or immediate observation (like Attunement), awareness asks us to get curious and reflect on our feelings, emotions, thoughts, and the landscape of experience we discovered in step one of attunement. What emotions are coming up for us? What thoughts keep coming into our consciousness?

    In this second step of the 5 A’s of Agility for Spiritual Health, Pam King explains how we can become more emotionally aware and open-minded about our psychological reality. The key to observing our thoughts and feelings is to simply look, and not judge yourself. Let the emotions come and go, and learn from they provide information to us.

    ANNOUNCEMENT: With & For Season 2 launches on January 6, 2025!

    Show Notes

    • Jill Westbrook introduces the episode
    • For the most enriching and helpful listening experience, make sure to start with the beginning of this series!
    • More than immediate observation: we must reflect non-judgmentally
    • Just observe, don’t judge yourself.
    • Examining the meaning of our feelings, thoughts, and sensations
    • Attach reflective thoughts to our embodied and psychological experience
    • Journaling is a powerful exercise to connect kinetically with emotional realities.
    • Narration and storytelling helps with processing non-judgmentally.
    • Cultivating curiosity and open-mindedness
    • “So be curious, welcome the dust, welcome the muck,  hold it, consider what it means and what it's pointing you towards.”
    • “Avenues for growth. Avenues for loving yourself.”
    • Uncover the values that fuel our life.
    • Understanding anger, sadness, disappointment, joy, delight—all as emotional signposts to meaning and purpose
    • Emotions that direct us to what matters.
    • Practical Example: Anger
    • Practical Example: Sorrow or Sadness
    • “Linger, but don’t loiter.”
    • “You’re not in this alone.”

    About the Thrive Center

    • Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
    • Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on X @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

    About Dr. Pam King

    Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

    About With & For

    • Host: Pam King
    • Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
    • Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
    • Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
    • Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

    Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.
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    11 mins
  • Attunement: Paying Attention to Our Feelings, Thoughts, and Sensations with Dr. Pam King

    Attunement: Paying Attention to Our Feelings, Thoughts, and Sensations with Dr. Pam King
    Sep 30 2024

    What’s happening right now? What do you feel? What physical sensations are present from head to toe?

    The first step in practicing the 5 A’s of Spiritual Health is Attunement—a simple, direct process of connecting to reality, perceiving your experience of the present moment, and paying attention to our physical sensations. It’s as simple as a clear-eyed consciousness: listening, feeling, acknowledging, being aware of basic sensations.

    In this episode, Dr. Pam King explains attunement and the foundation it lays for cultivating greater agility and adaptivity. She oconsiders theological and psychological grounding for the benefits of attunement, and offers practical techniques, including a body scan and breath exercises.

    ANNOUNCEMENT: With & For Season 2 launches on January 6, 2025!

    Show Notes

    • Jill Westbrook introduces the episode
    • ANNOUNCEMENT: With & For Season 2 launches on January 6, 2025!
    • What is attunement? And how does it support personal agility and adaptivity?
    • Connecting to reality, the present moment, and our physical experience and sensations
    • Clear-eyed consciousness
    • Listening, feeling, acknowledging, noticing sensations
    • Embodiment and rooting in the body
    • Our bodies are part of the created order.
    • God has given us bodies to know and serve God.
    • Pain and stress, joy or pleasure
    • How do we attune?
    • How to perform a body scan
    • Breath exercises
    • Walking as a spiritual practice of attunement
    • Breathing
    • Andrew Huberman’s breath exercises: “the physiological sigh” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSZKIupBUuc

    About the Thrive Center

    • Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
    • Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on X @thrivecenter
    • Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

    About Dr. Pam King

    Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

    About With & For

    • Host: Pam King
    • Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
    • Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
    • Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
    • Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

    Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.
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    8 mins