If You Suffer From Depression or Anxiety, You Need to Watch This | Rainn Wilson on Impact Theory

Yes, you know him from The Office, but Rainn Wilson has an inspiring career that not only extends well past that show, but has even evolved past just being an actor. He founded SoulPancake, an incredible platform that creates content celebrating creativity and exploring life’s big questions.

On this episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu, Rainn Wilson takes on some of the biggest questions we face as a society today--a mental health crisis that is disproportionately harming younger people, climate change, and an epidemic of loneliness that has only gotten worse with the pandemic. He discusses how therapy helped him deal with severe anxiety, talks about why service to others is so important, and advocates looking at the data on big issues like global warming.

Check out SoulPancake at

SHOW NOTES:

Rainn discusses mental health, especially its increase among young people [0:51]

Rainn shares his battle with anxiety, and says it never happened when on stage [6:15]

Rainn talks about the gestalt therapy he has used to deal with anxiety [10:25]

We are most satisfied when we serve others, as that creates human flourishing [15:37]

Rainn advocates compassion for others, and making yourself a better person [21:39]

Gratitude is the number one tool of people of faith [28:08]

All teenagers want to do is be with other teenagers, and right now they can’t [32:47]

Rainn explains how he got involved in climate change [34:09]

Check it out at

Tom advocates not merely taking sides on issues, but actually investigating the data [40:01]

QUOTES:

“I’m a big proponent of therapy because my parents didn’t know how to talk about emotions, let alone to teach me how to process feelings.” [11:12]

“We rise to our maximum potential when we’re of service to others.” [17:36]

“One of the worst ways to achieve happiness, contentment, whatever you want to call it, is through materialism.” [18:44]

FOLLOW: