In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, host Mike Wirth sits down with therapist Shely Rachel Esses, LMFT, to explore the psychology of the future self and what it takes to imagine a life beyond survival mode. Shely brings together clinical psychology, nervous system science, embodied healing, and Jewish spiritual wisdom to show how trauma and chronic stress can shrink our sense of possibility, and how healing can reopen it.
They talk about future thinking, how we project ourselves into the future, and what happens when we start to care not only about our own lives, but also about our impact on our descendants. Along the way, they connect these ideas to teshuvah as an ongoing process of transformation, and to the very practical question of how we begin building better futures in the present, in our relationships, communities, and inner lives.
Check out Shely’s website.