Episodes
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Of all the things we can do to nourish ourselves, sleep is perhaps the most vital. Alongside food and hydration, sleep is the thing that helps us to function at our best, with clarity and confidence. So vital is it, that lack of sleep can slow us down and make life harder. And severe tiredness can also begin to affect our decision-making abilities, our self-esteem, our courage, our grip on reality and our mental health.
Getting enough rest, and good quality sleep, then, should be a crucial part of our toolkit if we are to live and act effectively, with conviction, and integrity. At our best, moving joyfully towards our potential.
At its most fundamental, Yoga Nidra is the practice of sleep. As Tracee Stanley, the world-renowned practitioner of Yoga Nidra, states in her book, Radiant Rest: ârest is vital to thriving.â
But there is more to Yoga Nidra than simply catching some good quality zees. Through deep relaxation we gain access to a deeper part of ourselves that is beyond the cognitive mind, beyond language and all its cultural trappings, and beyond all the baggage that we carry with us. Normally we only experience this part of ourselves while we sleep, and so we donât remember it when we awake. At best there is, perhaps, a vague sense of it when we rise from our slumber, or maybe we glimpse something profound during a particularly deep meditation.
But with Yoga Nidra we are presented with both a process and a state of consciousness that allows us to remain aware while we are in this state. Known as hypnogogia, it not only allows us to come face-to-face with the void that lies deep inside ourselves, transcending duality and connecting us with the infinite universe of which we are so profoundly a part, but it also offers access to our deep intrinsic and ancient wisdom, returning with insights and clarity otherwise impossible to access.
The practical, spiritual and valuable benefits of a practice like this are nothing new. It is an ancient knowledge that has even influenced the greatest modern thinkers. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, was said to take regular naps throughout the day, clutching a large metal ball in each hand. As he feel asleep the balls would fall from his hands waking him up, and he would immediately note down any ideas or visions that he had seen in the semi-conscious dreamscape that lies between sleep and awakeness, before they evaporated from memory.
Perhaps this is where the idea for the lightbulb came from.
Practices such as this can offer us rich, nourishing rest. And they can also offer us guidance from the deepest part of ourselves, something Tracee Stanley refers to as âa connection to our inner knowing.â
Surely, getting to know ourselves so intimately, gaining access to our own profound knowledge â the light of our souls â that evades us during thinking hours, can only serve to heal our relationships with both ourselves and our day-to-day reality. And more than this, to move us towards our ultimate state of being. That is, a sense of meaning and purpose to why we are here at all.
As Tracee puts it: âYoga Nidra is a healing salve for the worldâ and in this conversation she gives me a beginners guide to this powerful and useful practice, which can help us to show up as the best of ourselves, into a reality that is aligned with who we really are.
Useful links:
www.traceeyoga.com
www.radiantrest.com -
As we hopefully begin to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, we step into the harsh light of a world on fire. Social injustice, climate change, corruption, inequality have never appeared so prominent. A landscape of crisis begging to be solved, and the failed detritus of all previous attempts at stewardship are calling for a new approach.
Is a spiritual revolution the answer weâre looking for? And what would that look like in a world where the genie of materialism has been out of the lamp far too long to be pushed back in?
Perhaps, instead of looking for answers âout thereâ we should follow the advice of Thich Nhat Hanh, who said, âthe way out is in.â
But is contemplative introspection really the answer? Can that lead to the real change we need, or is it merely turning our backs on the problems of the world?
In this episode of Conversations on Living (the new name of this podcast) I speak with Jeff Krasno, founder of Commune and The Wanderlust Festival, about how we can first do the work on ourselves that is required to give us the strength to lead others towards healing.
Useful links:
www.onecommune.com
www.wanderlust.com
www.jeffkrasno.com
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Episodes manquant?
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People like us donât do things like that. People like us, with our low self-esteem, our lack of confidence, our imposter syndrome, our insecurities about what other people think, about how weâre not good enough, talented enough, clever enough, lucky enough, donât realise grand vision. We donât start companies. We donât take on massive projects. We donât change the world.
We leave that sort of thing to the others. The successful. The charismatic. The gifted. Those other people, who are not like us.
But what if they were exactly like us. What if those people over there, doing the big thing, taking on the big challenges, realising the visions and changing the world, were exactly like us. Filled with insecurities, struggling to keep the faith, wrestling with how to face the day. Yet facing it nonetheless.
Today Iâm talking with Richard Hardiman, who is the founder of CEO of RanMarine. His company makes aquatic robots â automated drones that go into the sea in ports and harbours, and clear the plastic and other waste thatâs polluting the water.
Youâd imagine that someone like Richard, who has started a company that is tackling one of the biggest issue of the moment, would have bulletproof confidence and certainty about what heâs doing.
But as Richard reveals in this brutally honest and open conversation, is that just like me â and maybe just like you too â facing the day, getting out of bed, keeping the wheels turning and keeping the vision alive, can take a Herculean effort. And for me, knowing that, and hearing that, from someone who is doing such big things is hugely empowering.
Yes, for some of us, getting out and bed and turning up takes a huge amount of strength. Yes, for some of us, the self doubt can be crippling. But yes, we can still do immense and incredibly impactful things.
If you want find out more about what RanMarine are doing, check out their website at www.ranmarine.io.
www.conversationsonliving.com
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What happens when we get quiet, push past the distractions of the world around us and the noise within us, and come face to face with whatever lies deep inside?
What monsters are waiting for us when we turn the volume down and listen to what is whispering beneath the hubbub? And how can we be sure that theyâre monsters at all, and not instead, angels, keen to shine a light on our true authentic selves?
What happens when we shed all that we are not, and tune into everything that we really are.
Iâm Chris Brock and this is Conversations on Living, and podcast about how to be well, do well, and live well. And these are just a few of the questions that I tackle in todayâs episode with Donna Bond, spiritual psychologist and author of the book Original Wisdom: Harness the Power of the Authentic You.
Donna believes that if we can harness the courage to push past the fear, push past the cultural, societal and experiential programming of the ego-mind, and tap into the intrinsic, essential self that lies beneath, we can live much more in alignment with who we came here to be. And the rewards of a life in alignment are very much worth the journey to get there.
You can find out more about Donna at her website, www.donnabond.com.
www.conversationsonliving.com
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Being who we came here to be, living and experiencing life in a way that is authentically ours, and remaining true to ourselves, is incredibly difficult when, from our earliest days, we become encumbered with the experiences of culture, the programming of society, and the big and small traumas of life.
Whether or not weâve been through catastrophic events or situations, the low level stress of life, of getting by, doing and being our best every day, in world that seems â according the to 24-hour news cycle â increasingly broken and divided, is traumatic.
As weâve explored in previous episodes of this podcasts, our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual selves are all closely interlinked, often to the point of being indiscernible from one another. So when negative patterns appear repeatedly in our behaviour, in our mental and emotional wellbeing, our health, or even our circumstance, the cause of our problems might be just as likely to come from within as from without.
In this episode Iâm joined by psychologist, doctor, meditation teacher Radhule Weininger, who says that with compassion, loving self awareness, and a willingness to forgive and let go, we can unpick the deep seated traumas that cause the negative patterns that prevent us being who we really are, and having the life experiences we came here to have.
Radhule is the author of Heart Medicine: How to Stop Painful Patterns and Find Peace and Freedom - a book that helps us to identify our emotional and behavioral patterns â patterns she calls Long-standing, Recurrent, Painful Patterns of hurt (or Lurps!) â through the lens of loving awarenessâwithout self-judgment or blame, learning to hold ourselves as we would a dear friend, with space and grace. If you want to know how highly recommended the book comes, the forwards were written by his holiness the Dalai Llama and Joanna Macy.
You can find out more about Radhule and her book, at www.radhuleweiningerphd.com and also at mindfulheartprograms.org
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From the moment we are born we are acted upon by the influences of the world we are born into. The programming of things like language, culture, aesthetics, behaviour, and etiquette all start to imprint themselves upon us. And so too do experiences, expectations, incidents and accidents, joy and happiness, and also trauma and hurt.
All of these things embed themselves in our memories, our neural pathways, our subconscious, and ultimately our ego, our identities, our inner narratives, and this, crucially, impacts the way we perceive the world, and interact with it. This then, in turn, has huge implications for our quality of life. If we go smiling into the world, sometimes the world smiles back.
But with all of these things from our world and our experiences imprinted upon us, it can be difficult to see where we end, and our baggage begins. And when this baggage begins to weigh heavy upon us, and ultimately impacts the direction and quality of our existence, we can very easily start to believe that life, and the world around us, are treating us unfairly and that none of this injustice has anything to do with whatâs going on deep inside, within our own psyches. That is, until we start to dig, and offload, some of those things that have been dragging us off course.
This week Iâm speaking with Polly Bateman - sheâs a mindset performance coach, but that title is huge simplification of the work she does with her clients. She believes that in order to truly get the most out of life, we need to align the way we go into the world, with who we really are. And that means unstitching the internal narratives, digging deep into the past experiences, the stories, and traumas that impact who we think we are, and we go about our daily lives.
And we also talk about the books she is writing for Children, about the Grumpet, a character that she has created o help them manage their thoughts and feelings.
You can find Polly online at ThePollyBateman.com, and also on instagram at ThePollyBateman
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What does it mean to be âalways onâ. To have the entirety of human knowledge in your pocket, and to know whatâs happening right this minute on the other side of the world⊠all the time?
What does it mean to be âalways availableâ. To be contactable, ready to respond at a momentâs notice. Never nowhere, always somewhere.
Of course this all has its benefits, right? But is it necessarily healthy?
This week Iâm speaking with Christina Crook, author of the book The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World. She believes that being constantly connected to the 24-hour news cycle, having our relationships moderated by social media algorithms, being addicted to a constant flow of information that is curated by others who might not have our best interests at heart â and letâs not forget the dopamine hit that comes from getting another âlikeâ or another âfollowâ â is not only bad for us, but is sapping the life out of our days, and replacing it with stress.
In this conversation we talk about why the need to be intentionally conscious about how we use technology, lest it use us, is vital if we are to build healthy lives and healthy relationships. And that getting offline is, in itself, a wellness practice.
If you want to find out more about Christina, her books, her speaking and her other work, head over to www.experiencejomo.com, and you should also check out her online store, where she has a range of non-digital products to help you get offline. Thatâs at www.jomogoods.com.
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What does it take to do something new, a new career perhaps, and to build something bigger than yourself? What do you need in order to keep turning up even when failure and rejection seem to be the lay of the land? How much of finding success it is about experience and know-how, and how much of it is about attitude, courage, find the angles that work, and finding the energy to keep showing up when you just canât face another day?
Today Iâm chatting with Kelly Robinson, the founder of the Kelly Robinson Team of real estate agents working in New York City. She decided to try a career in real estate when her acting career, which was propped up with other jobs, wasnât going in the direction she wanted it to go.
But building something new wasnât just about turning up and working hard. It become facing failure and learning the hard way â and still persisting despite it all â until she learned to navigate the landscape and, ultimately, make it her own.
In this conversation Kelly generously shares her experiences about finding the courage to keep showing up, facing the fear of attempting something that seemed much bigger that her, and about how setting boundaries, investing in yourself, and taking scary but calculated risks are vital to building something great.
To find out more about Kelly, find her on Instagram: www.instagram.com/kellyrobinsonnewyork
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When we think about nature, or we talk about spirituality, itâs easy to see it as something âotherâ. Something disconnected from the modern world that we have to live in, day to day.
We save it for the weekend or for our morning meditation sessions, and we view the wisdom of the ancients as something quaint â but certainly not something that we should bring into the office.
But this cultural disconnect could actually being doing us more harm than good. By turning our backs on nature, and creating lives that are more processed than ever in terms of what we consume â both into our bodies and our minds â we are making ourselves ill, or at the very least, living lives that are lacklustre and dull.
What if, instead, we were to find a way of connecting with the spiritual wisdom of nature, of ancient cultures, and bring into our daily lives â in a way that didnât seemed perfectly, well, natural.
This week Iâm speaking with Ben LeVine, he is a herbalist and co-founder of Rasa. It is a coffee alternative made with adaptogenic plants, mushrooms and herbs. Designed to nourish our nervous systems, enhance and balance our energy, and calm our stress, it is based on a relationship with nature that is not exploitative as in most western industries, but instead reciprocal. Itâs about flavour and feeling â spiritually, emotionally and physically â as a form of communication between ourselves and our bodies, and the natural world around us.
I chatted with Ben about the science behind our relationship with plants, and how we can enter into dialogues with them that are beneficial to everyone â you, me, and the planet we live on.
To find out more about Rasa, and what theyâre all about you can find them at wearerasa.com, and listeners to the podcast can get a discount of 15% on their first order â just enter the voucher codes LIVING15
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To celebrate the release of Martha Beck's recent book, The Way of Integrity, we're replaying our episode from 2020. Here are the original show notes:
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I have a favourite quote by the Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung: âBeneath the threshold of consciousness, everything was seething with life.âThis notion â that there is life beyond what we know in the physical world of systems and money and society and iPhones â is reflected in a drawing called Three Worlds by M.C. Escher. It depicts a lake with fallen leaves floating on it. Beneath the water you can see a beautiful carp swimming, and reflected on the surface of the water are the now leafless trees.
What these two works, from Jung and Escher, toy with is the idea that at any one time, we are not simply inhabiting one world, but there are others that exist right alongside it. Indeed, with practice we can even tune in to other ways realities, by seeing past the superficial distractions up here on the surface of the water, and adjusting our own perspectives to recognise what lies above it or beneath it.
In Polynesia there are fisherman who know the ocean so well they can navigate their canoes for thousand of miles across open sea just by watching the behaviour of the water - even if they are far, far from land. This is not something that they doing knowingly, logically, but instead they tap into their intuition, their skill and their experience â their innate knowledge â and let it guide them to their destination.
Author and life coach Martha Beck calls this âwayfindingâ, and it is something that all of us can do, if we can open our minds and our hearts, get quiet and listen to what our intuition is telling us. It might simply be about noticing what we notice, the things that our non-conscious minds pick out of the constant cacophony of noise that we are bombarded with from dawn until dusk. Or it might a deeper exploration beyond the limitations of words that connects us to worlds that exist outside of space and time â the sorts of places that indigenous Australians might have called the âEverywhenâ â a state of eternal presence that takes us past the physical boundaries of what we know, into a unified space where we can connect to everything that was, is or will be.
Wayfinders find their way by listening to their inner compass. They find their own true north by stepping out of the confines of this man-made world of language and rules and processes, and by connecting to a wordless relationship with themselves, their environment, and the universe.
I spoke with Martha about some of the ideas in her book âFinding Your Way in a Wild New Worldâ and explored the notion that maybe, just maybe, there is a spiritual revolution quietly taking place right now.
I hope you enjoy this conversation.
Useful links:Marthaâs website: www.marthabeck.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/themarthabeck -
What does it take to do more, live more, and be more, when our programming, our culture and our society are all designed to keep us right here where we are. And for the most part, that is in a state of dissatisfaction, of unease, of unfulfilled potential?
How can we really fulfil our potential, and live beyond the day to day, the mundane struggles and mediocrity, in order to spread our wings and fly to the highest altitudes of our potential?
How can we follow in the footsteps of Maya Angelou, when she said âMy mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some styleâ?
It can be done. We can live extraordinary lives, we can be extraordinary people and the truth is, we already are, we just donât know how to step into it. But Ken Lindner might just have an idea.
Ken is the founder of one Americaâs largest news and hosting agencies, representing some of the biggest names in network journalism. But more importantly â for this podcast at least â is that he is the author of a number of books about how we can all take the steps necessary to transform our lives, and realise our greatness.
His most recent book, Aspire Higher, is literally a call to action, offering us some straightforward advice about how to find out what we want from life, and how to take the steps necessary to realise it.You can find out more about Ken at his website www.kenlindner.com, along with links to buy his book from all main online retailers, such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon, and of course you can also find it in real, bricks and mortar bookshops.
www.conversationsonliving.com -
Itâs said that if youâre not angry, youâre not paying attention. And indeed, all you have to do is turn on the news or take a look at social media, and youâll find plenty to be angry about. Or sad about. Or worried, anxious, or fearful.
But is this any way to live? Scores of studies have shown that the stress caused by being permanently in these sorts of emotional states can lead to a wide range of health issues â both mental and physical. So surely itâs better not to be angry, or sad, or worried, anxious or fearful.
But does that mean weâre not taking our world, and our place in it, seriously enough?
This week week Iâm speaking to Diane Dreher about the Tao te Ching and her 1990 book the Tao of Inner Peace, which has just been re-released to bring it up to date with a world that seems more turbulent, more ill at ease, and more divided than ever. And the message is this, the more we can cultivate inner peace, the healthier we can become in mind, body and spirit, the more effective we can be when we step into the world to make a difference.
This is a wonderful, inspiring and reassuring conversation. Sometimes I feel very lucky to be able to have such great conversations on this podcast, as they really enrich my experience of life, and this is one such conversation. If you want to find out more about Diane and her work, you can visit her website at www.dianedreher.com â and I really urge you to do that and take a look at what she is offering the world.
www.conversationsonliving.com
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âTell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life,â asked poet Mary Oliver. As children we wanted to be astronauts, movie stars, wizards or unicorns, as grown-ups we generally just settle for a reasonably comfortable existence with something good to watch on TV and a beer at the end of a hard week.
As that other great literary mind Zadie Smith said: âwhat modest dreamers we have become.â
So what does it take to live a life of fulfilment, of impact? To leave a dent on our small part of the universe? What does it take to explore whatâs possible, and then realise it, and much more, as we step towards our potential and live the life of our dreams.
Joining me this week is Nikki Eiberhardt, and she believes that if we align with our purpose â that thing which keeps us awake at night and gets us up in the morning â and set our sights on servant leadership, we can empower ourselves and others to take on the biggest challenges and find audacious solutions.
Nikki is professor of business at Minerva University, Manager of Delta Airlines Global Talent Team, she works with Global Citizen, NASA, The Sundance Film Festival, The Nelson Mandela Foundation, sheâs given a TEDx talk, and has achieved so much more, in an effort to move towards a better world for everyone. And she believes we all have to power to find our purpose, engage with empathy, and develop a systems thinking approach to achieving amazing things.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/nikkieberhardt_
www.conversationsonliving.com
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Weâre surrounded by information, and itâs easy to turn this information into stress within us, allow it to begin influencing how we feel, how we act, and how we experience life. Whether itâs a work deadline, the subtext of an email, the news media, advertising, past experiences, or so-called cultural norms, sometimes we can feel overwhelmed. Sometimes we can feel triggered. Sometimes we just want to yell âstop the world, I want to get off.â
But what if there was an easier way of being. A way of feeling, being and acting, that wasnât dictated by the stories we attached to the information that swim in, but instead chosen by us, for us, in order to experience our days and our lives in the best way possible. And what if it all starts as simply as taking a breath?
This week Iâm joined by world-renowned meditator, breath work expert, and mindful alchemist, Scott Schwenk.
Scott believes that in order to choose our reality, instead of having it chosen for us, and to show up effectively and with our full potential in that reality, we must interrupt the routines and habits that allow our attention to be drawn to things which donât serve us. And instead we must take ownership of who we are, how we feel, and the energy we embody the day with, and it all begins in the breath.
You can find out about Scott at his website, www.scottschwenk.com, or an instagram where heâs most active, and his handle is @thescottschwenk. You should also check out his classes on commune, and onecommune.com
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In the Ayurvedic tradition, our constitutions are categorised into different types, called doshas. These doshas â Vatta, pitta and kapha â define the best types of food to eat in order to to be healthy, vital, energised and to avoid inflammation and illness.
Itâs a beautiful idea, and for thousands of years people have adopted this Ayurvedic principle to live a bright and energetic life.
But what if we could take it beyond diet. What if we define our âtypeâ and then use this in order to create live a life of fulfilment, meaning, and contentment.
This week Iâm joined by author and minds expert Jaya Jaya Myra, who turned to ayurvedic principles when doctors couldnât solve the chronic illness that was costing her not just her health, but also her career, her relationships, her financial stability and more.
But as she explored and played with the concepts behind Ayurveda she found that not only did her health improve, but also her wider life, too. This lead her to present an eye-opening TedX Talk, become a television wellness expert, to set up her own boutique PR agency, and to write several books, including her latest, The Soul of Purpose.
Her message is this â that all aspects of our lives are connect, that when we live in alignment with our purpose, we can live a life filled with health and wellness, and that by understanding ourselves, we can discover that purpose.
Find out more about Jaya Jaya Myra and her work at www.jayajayamyra.com
www.conversationsonliving.com
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âThe universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."
These are the words of Eden Philpots. And since he wrote them in 1918 our senses have certainly got sharper. The Hubble telescope introduced us to the idea of dark energy and billions upon billions of galaxies far beyond our own that we didnât even know existed.Today, thanks to the work of Thomas Dalton, we regularly look at atoms through powerful microscopes, even though their existence had been subject to scepticism since they were first suggested by the Ancient Greek scholars Democritus and Leucippus about two and a half thousand years ago.
And if youâve ever seen an olive grove shimmer in the breeze, but didnât know how to explain it, youâd know that magic is real.
It makes you think, what else is out there that we donât yet fully understand. What else are our wits not quite sharp enough to comprehend. And, just like Democritus and Leucippus, what is it that we may just already know, but are not quite ready to face just yet? This week Iâm talking about Psi, which is the collective scientific monika for the parapsychological functions of the mind. That is, those things that we think might exist, but which come with so much baggage that most people are afraid to even touch them. Iâm talking about extrasensory perception, clairvoyance, telepathy, and other things surrounded by so much cultural woo-woo that it must surely be nonsense, right?
Well, scienceâs wits are beginning to grow sharper, and there is an increasing amount of rigorous research happening in this area. And who among us wouldnât admit that there are things out there that we just canât explain? Who hasnât had a weird experience, deja vu, a gut feeling that came true, who knew who was calling before answering the phone, seen things, heard things⊠well there may be more to it than we think.
To explore this with me I am joined by friend of the podcast Kim Forrester. Sheâs a holistic therapist, the host of the eudaemonia podcast, and the author of Infinite Mind â a book all about psi in its many expressions â and she believes that if we get quiet and pay attention to those phenomena that we might otherwise dismiss out of hand, we might discover that they may actually be trying to tell us something.
You can find more information about her book at infinitemindbook.com, and Kimâs home on the internet is kimforrester.net.
www.conversationsonliving.com -
Do you ever wonder where it all went wrong? Find yourself cursing life for being unfair? Struggle with where you are, why youâre here, or even how things would be if you could only just get your act together and sort your life out?
Youâre not alone. In fact, Iâd wager that most people feel stuck, dissatisfied, or at least a little bit disenchanted â if not with their entire life, perhaps one or more aspects of it.
Itâs easy to blame everything outside of ourselves for our unhappiness â the thing that was done to us, our bad luck, the injustice of an unfair world. But when we curse the world for all that goes wrong, we also end up wishing the world we bring us that magical payday weâve been waiting for all along â our big break â and grumbling our days away waiting for it to happen.
But its not the world out there thatâs going to dish up the good life, but the world within us. The energy we bring to our days, the action we take, our attitude towards what is working for us, and what isnât.The Sufi poet Rumi said âyesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I am changing myself.â
This week Iâm speak with Chris Plourde. Chris is a conscious performance coach who has worked with organisations such as Disney, LuluLemon, and Twitter, as well as high level CEOs, athletes, celebrities and even armed forces special ops soldiers. He says if we want things to be better, we have to do better, and seek out the patterns and triggers inside ourselves in order to make the changes we need to escape the things we donât want in our lives, and embrace more of what we do want. As I often say, when we step up to life, life will step up to meet us.
You can find out more about Chris at his website, www.chrisplourde.com
www.conversationsonliving.com -
I havenât read Frank Herbertâs Dune, nor have I seen the recent movie. Scenes from the cult David Lynch film are, however, imprinted on my mind, and Iâm not just talking about Sting in his underpants. Iâm referring - of course -to the Litany Against Fear, a poetic mantra recited by the Bene Gesserit, and it goes like this:
"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."Who is this I, that remains when the fear has gone? Maybe somewhat tangentially, but this makes me this think of the words of Pema Chodron:
âOnly to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.â
This fearless I, this indestructible, intrinsic self, could this be who we really are when we strip away all that we have accumulated, all that we cling to, all that our ego desperately holds onto to give itself substance in this chaotic world of culture and expectation that we have created for ourselves?
Mooji famously asked us to âstep into the fire of self discoveryâ claiming that âthis fire will not burn you, it will burn only what you are not, and set your heart free.â
This week's guest is Kevin Krenitsky, author of the forthcoming book, The Still Point.
The premise is this - life gets better, easier, and flows with less resistance, when we stop fighting it, and instead come to it only as it is, and not with all the stories we have attached to it. And furthermore, we get better when we come to it only as we are, and not with all the trappings of emotion, anxiety, worry and ego. The still point of who we are, and where we are. As Pema Chodron might say, that part of us which is indestructible.
You can find out more about Kevin at www.authorkevinkrenitsky.com
www.conversationsonliving.com
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Does your life ever feel like a suit that doesnât quite fit properly? Do you ever wonder why, no matter how hard you work, how closely you follow the advice and the tried and trusted steps that convention says you should follow, you never seem to get where you want to be?
Chances are the life you are living is out of alignment with who you really are.
Today's guest is Sam Thiara. Sam teaches at the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and the author of Lost and Found, his personal story about retracing his grandfatherâs life and discovering himself along the way. His message is that once you dig down and find ut who you really are, you can start to live a fulfilling and rewarding life that is in alignment with your values.
Like the stoics, he believes that the route to success is signposted with obstacles, and that this will lead us where we need to go for a happy life, and if keep asking ourselves why, then weâll get to the truth of who we came here to be.You can find out more about Sam, his ideas, his writings and his book, at his website, which is sam-thiara.com.
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It was Primal Scream who told us âdonât fight it, feel itâ. And if ever there are key messages that resonate in the world of mindfulness and personal development, this could be one of the big ones. After all, what you resist persists.
Yet resist we do, and most of the time we donât even know weâre doing it. But every time we feel discomfort or disatisfaction in our lives, itâs our resistance to âwhat isâ that weâre feeling. This anxiety about the future, the worry about the past, never really being present to do the real work that we need to do in order to make our lives better â or even just be happy.
Indeed, in the pursuit of happiness, we often focus too much on the thing weâre trying to escape from, rather than the thing that we should be running to. We donât want to be in debt any more. We donât want to work in the office any more. We donât want to be overweight, single, tiredâŠ. Whatever anymore.
And all these things that we resist, persist.
This weekâs guest is Dr Travis Fox, who says that the key to getting what we want, is not simply to stop fighting against what we donât want, and not even to think about what we DO want instead, but to feel that we are already where we want to be. That feeling aligns ourselves with the future we desire, and makes it much more likely to happen.
Travis holds doctorates in psychology and clinical hypnotherapy, and is a highly regarded public speaker. He also appeared in the sequel to the controversial but hugely popular film The Secret, called âBeyond The Secret: The Awakeningâ.
Working generally with organisations, he has put together what he calls the Ultimate Business Quest, a kind of gamified approach to getting us to dive beneath who we think we are to discover four different architypes that align with our values, and encourage us to feel our way to success.
To find out more about Travisâ Ultimate Business Quest, head over to ultimatebusinessquest.com
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