Process equals product and, according to Ira Israel, our western culture is akin to a conveyor belt turning children into depressed adults. Even the western school system, he contends, sets us up for disappointment and discontentment.

There’s no course in high school in America [on] how to love people, or how to be intimate, and yet, that’s the thing that correlates most strongly with happiness.

But thankfully, it’s never too late to unlearn conditioning that prevents us from leading truly fulfilling lives. In his book, How to Survive Childhood Now That You’re An Adult, he invites the reader to explore deeply their behaviour and their relationship to the world. Possibly the best question you can ask, he says, is 

Why do we act like assholes if we know that at the end of our lives we’re gonna say ‘I should have loved more.’

Listen to Ira Israel’s inspirational story of forgiveness here:

About Our Guest:

Ira Israel is an author and licensed Counselor and Psychotherapist. His latest book is called How to Survive Your Childhood Now That You’re an Adult; A Path to Authenticity and Awakening.