Tools to Bolster Your Mental Health & Confidence | Dr. Paul Conti

Andrew Huberman

May 4, 2026

Episode description

Dr. Paul Conti, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist and an expert in how to improve mental health and increase your sense of agency and wellbeing. He is also an expert in trauma treatment. We discuss practical tools you can use to gain insight into your natural strengths and to make better life choices on your own behalf. We explore how these tools can help overcome low motivation, intrusive thoughts and self-destructive bad habits. We also discuss how to balance internal reflection and external action to ensure you move your life forward in the right directions.

Show notes: https://go.hubermanlab.com/ignr1Bk

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Dr. Paul Conti
Website: https://drpaulconti.com
Books: https://amzn.to/4tOULFf
Pacific Premier Group: https://pacificpremiergroup.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-paul-m-conti-845074216

Timestamps
00:00:00 Paul Conti
00:02:51 Self View; Tool: What's Going Right?; State Dependence
00:10:03 Sponsors: Helix Sleep & BetterHelp
00:12:44 Tool: Compassionate Curiosity; Falseness; Social Media
00:21:00 Doing vs Thinking; Self-Reflection
00:29:55 External vs Internal Processing, Balance
00:40:42 Sponsor: AG1
00:42:26 Quiet vs Verbal; Questions to Learn About Self
00:53:17 Examined Life & Reflection; Changing Unwanted Behavior
01:02:54 Making Positive Changes, Problem Solving
01:07:26 Sponsor: Function
01:09:03 Behavior Pattern Insight & Reclaiming Agency
01:17:06 Agency & Control; Getting in Your Own Way
01:22:49 Trauma, Living Intentionally; Internal Turmoil
01:29:08 Intrusive Thoughts, Tool: Self Talk Awareness; Dreams
01:34:10 Sponsor: Rorra
01:35:23 Trauma & Emotions; Healing Childhood Trauma
01:43:32 Photographs, Positive Climate for the Mind; Spirituality, Good & Evil
01:52:53 Happiness & Expectations; Death, Living a Good Life
02:03:10 Book Writing; Acknowledgements
02:07:25 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter

#hubermanlab #mentalhealth

Disclaimer & Disclosures: https://www.hubermanlab.com/disclaimer

Mindsip insights from this episode:

Externalize thoughts to enhance clarity and accountability

Saying thoughts out loud or writing them down brings different, more accountable brain processes and error-checking online, which helps you get unstuck from internal loops.

#cognition

#mental-health

Understand childhood patterns to avoid extreme reactions

Understanding a negative childhood pattern, like an over-controlling parent, gives you the freedom to find a healthy middle ground rather than just reacting by rushing to the opposite, unhealthy extreme.

#regulation

#trauma

Recognize past patterns to reclaim agency

The realization that you are being automatically controlled by a past pattern gives you agency because humans have a powerful, innate dislike of being controlled, even by themselves.

#autonomy

#self-awareness

Shift from reporting to intentional choosing in daily activities

If you find yourself just reporting a laundry list of your life's activities, it's a signal to ask how much of what you do is an intentional choice versus a reflexive habit.

#habits

#self-awareness

Recognize mental fatigue as a signal of internal turmoil

Feeling tired just from thinking about doing something is a marker that the internal turmoil and mental energy spent on the thought is more exhausting than the action itself.

#mental-health

Start with strengths to drive effective mental health change

Contrary to the typical mental health approach of focusing on what's wrong, starting from a position of strength by acknowledging what's going right is more truthful and effective for change.

#mental-health

#personal-growth

Surround yourself with photos to cultivate positivity and success

Surrounding your physical space with photos of good memories primes your unconscious mind toward positivity, helping to control your internal climate and bias you toward success.

#positivity

#subconscious

Cultivate true happiness through peace and contentment

A true and achievable happiness is not a naive 'happy-go-lucky' state, but a weave of peace, contentment with life's full story, and the capacity for delight.