A Show of Hearts

Fed up with the patriarchy? In this episode of A Show of Hearts, host Rosemary Pritzker dives into the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Green Tara, who is a beloved deity revered as the great mother. Doing this practice not only shows reverence for her but helps us to cultivate the divine feminine energy in ourselves and to recognize it all around us. Rosemary shares how she came to the practice 19 years ago in Montana, what it has offered her over the years, how she’s turned to it in times of need, and what you can expect to gain from doing it yourself. This practice can help you to feel empowered, offers a bridge from your everyday life to the divine, and it reminds us we are all part of the same ocean.

A rich and complex practice, Rosemary talks about the concept of archetypes, explains who Green Tara was, guides you through the mantras of the practice, explains what they mean and what to visualize and then leads you through the practice itself. This episode was recorded as a live class in her home, so you’ll hear the experiences of attendees and their in-depth Q&A session about Tibetan Buddhism after completing the meditation. If you haven’t tried Green Tara practice before but love meditation, give it a try and connect to your inner divine feminine!

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Materials for beginners: Lama Tsomo

Rosemary’s mom’s book: Why is the Dalai Lama Always Smiling

For more advanced resources: Ewam

Ewam Garden of One Thousand Buddhas: Buddha Garden

Ani Tsering Wangmo singing Medicine Buddha Mantra

Thanks so much for listening! If you like what you heard, please subscribe and give a five star review on iTunes, visit www.ashowofhearts.com or follow us @ashowofhearts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! Take a screenshot of this episode and share it in your Instastory and use the hashtag #ashowofhearts . Feel free to email us at info@ashowofhearts with any questions or comments!

Transcript

You’re listening to A Show Of Hearts, the podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host, life coach Rosemary Pritzker. (singing)

In today’s episode I’ll be leading you in the Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice of Green Tara, the Great Mother. You can think of it as kind of a sacred goddess practice, designed to get us in touch with the divine feminine.

I began learning this about a month after I graduated high school, in the summer of 2000, when I did a two week Green Tara retreat with my teacher Tulku Sangak Rinpoche. Since then I’ve done Green Tara practice with my sangha or spiritual community, based in Montana, many times. And I’ve done it countless times on my own as well. So this practice is very close to my heart.

Part of why I wanted to share it with you is because it’s one of the tools I’ve used to center myself in order to more effectively follow my heart in life. It’s allowed me to sort of commune with the divine, get my head on straight, and drop more deeply into my heart. Centering in this way is incredibly helpful in the pursuit of knowing yourself, feeling your own power, and listening to the intuitive guidance system within you. There have been times where I’ve really been struggling, usually with health problems, where I can turn to this practice and feel empowered and get a sense of solace in that connection with the divine feminine.

It’s also allowed me to go more deeply into connecting with my lineage, which has been passed down from one lama to another for thousands of years.

In this solo episode of A Show of Hearts, host Rosemary Pritzker dives into the subject of compassion: how to cultivate it for ourselves and others and what compassion and having an open heart means in today’s world. She shares her interpretations of the Buddhist concept of the Four Immeasurables: Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity. Rosemary shares her own stories and recounts stories about compassion passed down from her teacher (a Tibetan Buddhist Lama). Then she leads listeners through a 15-minute heart-opening meditation for cultivating compassion, called Tonglen. Rosemary shares the personal story of how a childhood trip to Nepal and Bhutan opened her heart and helped her deal with childhood bullying by using Tonglen and learning to have compassion for both herself and the pain of those who hurt her. You’ll come away from the episode with tools for how to build your own meditation practice so that you can feel the benefits of implementing them into your day-to-day life.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

The Compassion Book by Pema Chödron

When Things Fall Apartby Pema Chödron

Why is the Dalai Lama Always Smiling? By Lama Tsomo

The Compassion Institute

Thanks so much for listening! If you like what you heard, please subscribe and give a five star review on iTunes, visit www.ashowofhearts.com or follow us @ashowofhearts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! Take a screenshot of this episode and share it in your Instastory and use the hashtag #ashowofhearts . Feel free to email us at info@ashowofhearts with any questions or comments!

Transcript

You’re listening to A Show of Hearts. The podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host life coach, Rosemary Pritzker.

(singing)

Today’s episode is about compassion. We’ll talk about what it is, how to cultivate it, and why. A Show of Hearts is focused on why it’s essential to follow our hearts in life and the fact that it takes courage, bravery, and guts to do it. It’s not just rainbows and butterflies all the time. It can be really painful or scary to face ourselves and overcome our fears. So it’s important to me that this show include ideas and instructions on how to do all the things required in order to truly follow one’s heart. From time to time you’ll hear me share some of the tools and practices that have helped me the most. I’ve been a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism for most of my life. And two things that have helped me the most with the long list of things that I’ve faced is training my mind through meditation and learning to better understand compassion. So that’s what I’ll be sharing with you today.

But before we jump in I want to share the review of the month. This month’s review is from Keely Carney who wrote “I love this podcast. It makes me feel like I’m getting to know some of the most interesting people on the planet in a really in depth way. Always excited for new episodes and invariably end up inspired after listening.” If you want to be featured as the next review of the month, head over to iTunes and write a five star review. This helps make sure more people will find this show so they can be inspired to follow their hearts too.

Albert Einstein said “A human being is a part of the whole called by us, universe.

Priya Darshini is a Brooklyn based singer, athlete and philanthropist. In this episode of A Show of Hearts, Priya discusses her experience growing up in India, how she and her family began taking care of pediatric cancer patients and how she became the first Indian woman to complete the Himalayan 100 Mile Ultra Marathon. Listen to her and host Rosemary talk about having the courage to follow your heart and pursue your passions without sacrificing practicality and about how they believe music is a form of magic. Though she has musical influences from all over the world and sings in 18 languages, her roots are in Indian Classical music. She describes the inspiration her Indian upbringing provides her to this day, particularly her grandmother, an accomplished singer and dancer whose name was also Priya Darshini.

Priya belongs to several bands that mix genres, cultures and languages, including The Epichorus, the Karsh Kale ensemble, and the recently launched Priya Darshini Trio. She co-leads Women’s Raga Massive, with whom she co-produces a festival called Out of the Woods, now in its third year. Priya occasionally sits in with her husband Max’s band, House of Waters, in which every member of the group is from a different country. In February, she teamed up with them at a house concert at Rosemary’s home in Miami, which was an extraordinary, intimate evening.

Towards the end of the show, you’ll hear a clip of her from that night, singing a love song in Hindi. As you’ll experience, her otherworldly voice is multifaceted, pure and heartfelt. And, if you’re ever in New York, she regularly leads fascinating music workshops at The Met, explaining what’s going on in various forms of music, so you know what you’re listening to.On top of a thriving music career, she helps run her family’s organization focused on pediatric cancer and education, adopting and operating schools in India. Priya also founded her own social venture called The Wind Chasers, which organizes ultramarathons throughout the Himalayas, and supports the livelihood of many Sherpa people. She explains how her intense experience as an ultramarathon runner has shaped her thinking and her life decisions. Listen and enjoy her singing, her life story and her reflections.

Episode Page and Transcript: https://ashowofhearts.com/priya-darshini/

Priya Darshini’s website: https://priyadarshini.com/bioPriya’s organization,

Jana Rakshita: http://www.janarakshita.org

The Epichorus: http://theepichorus.com

The Wind Chasers: http://www.thewindchasers.com/

Thanks so much for listening! If you like what you heard, please subscribe and rate on iTunes, visit www.ashowofhearts.com or follow us @ashowofhearts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Take a screenshot of this episode and share it in your Instastory and use the hashtag #ashowofhearts - we’d really appreciate it.

In this episode of A Show of Hearts, Jeff Feldman shares his experience working in Haiti for over a year and a half in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in 2010. We talk about what it was like to be on the ground at the time, the many misconceptions about Haiti and acts of strength he witnessed in the wake of unimaginable hardship. We discuss the darkness but also the light – the magic of Haiti, the resiliency and pride of its people and a culture steeped in mysticism and creativity. Inspired by this creativity, Feldman produced a show of Haitian art called the Haiti Art Expo that drew attention to art from the area and raised funds for relief. Also hear a hilarious, eye opening story at the end about what we see on the news that may or may not be true. Feldman is a dear friend and, in addition to continuing to advocate for Haiti, is the Senior Vice President of Uribe Construction, which designs and builds commercial and residential real estate in Miami.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

JP/HRO

Ayiti Community Trust

Hand in Hand for Haiti

How to Fix the Broken Humanitarian System: A Q&A with Paul Spiegel

“Why Haiti Needs New Narratives: A Post Quake Chronicle” by Gina Athena Ulysse

Thanks so much for listening! If you like what you heard, please subscribe and rate on iTunes, visit www.ashowofhearts.com or follow us @ashowofhearts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! Take a screenshot of this episode and share it in your Instastory and use the hashtag #ashowofhearts – we’d really appreciate it. Feel free to email us at info@ashowofhearts with any questions or comments!

Transcript

RP: You’re listening to A Show of Hearts, the podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host, life coach, Rosemary Pritzker.

Speaker 2: (singing)

RP: My dear friend, Jeff Feldman, and I met at a sustainable business conference in Tucson almost 13 years ago. He’s the Senior Vice President of Uribe Construction, which designs and builds both commercial and residential luxury real estate in Miami, but what Jeff and I are focused on in this episode is his passion for Haiti and particularly his experience working there for a year and a half after the massive earthquake that happened nine years ago on January 12th, 2010.

RP: When we sat down to talk last year, Pres. Trump had just called Haiti a shithole country, and Anderson Cooper had a strong emotional response on CNN. We picked up the conversation there. I’m just wondering what your response was to that video of Anderson Cooper, how it felt to watch it.

JF: There’s too much emotion wrapped up. I was watching him go through this, and I was like, “You Know What?” I turned the TV off. I just turned the TV off, because I knew where he was going. I knew where he was coming from, and I didn’t really want to be there in the moment, and because my anger, I was so furious, and to see the leader of the United States make such a terrible and awful and completely false type statement like that was infuriating. I just had to turn it off.

JF: He’s not the only person. A lot of people have the completely wrong picture of what Haiti actually really is. I mean, most people don’t really understand it. The visuals that we see on television here for the last 30 years have been of struggle and strife and despair,

Dr. Leo Galland is an accomplished doctor known as a founder of functional medicine and has had a long and varied career as both a world renowned physician and a international bestselling author of 5 books. His latest book Already Here: A Doctor Discovers the Truth About Heaven, is a more personal one about the story of losing his 22-year old son and how it sparked his belief in the afterlife. In this episode we talk about Leo Galland the doctor: what inspired him to go into the profession, his experience as a young doctor at Bellevue and how he arrived at using the approach of functional medicine. But we also speak at length about Galland the spiritual person: the experience he had raising and ultimately losing a developmentally challenged son and how that loss opened his mind and heart and ultimately changed how he operates in the world and how he approaches his patients.

To learn more about Dr. Leo Galland, visit www.drgalland.com. Thanks so much for listening! If you like what you heard, please subscribe and rate on iTunes, visit www.ashowofhearts.com or follow us @ashowofhearts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! Take a screenshot of this episode and share it in your Instastory and use the hashtag #ashowofhearts . Feel free to email us at info@ashowofhearts with any questions or comments!

Show Transcript

RP:    You’re listening to A Show Of Hearts, the podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host, life coach Rosemary Pritzker. (singing).

RP:    Dr. Leo Galland is a highly respected physician, and one of the original founders of the principles of functional medicine. He’s an international bestselling author of five books, and has published many scientific articles. Dr. Galland attended Harvard University and NYU School of Medicine, and has received numerous awards throughout his career. His name also appears on lists such as Leading Physicians Of The World, and America’s Top Doctors.

RP:    Dr. Galland has been my doctor on and off for a decade. His latest book, Already Here, is a departure from his usual subject of integrated medicine. In it, he shares the story of losing his 22-year-old son, Christopher, and what he learned about death, grief, and the afterlife. In this episode, we begin by discussing his worldview as a physician. I asked him if there is a common denominator among his most challenging and mysterious cases, and I think his answer will surprise you.

RP:    Then we discussed his experiences after the death of his son, and what he learned from him. Christopher was a special needs child who was brain-damaged from birth. He liked to challenge everyone around him, but Leo later learned that what appeared as Christopher being difficult was actually him showing up as a very wise teacher.

RP:    To learn more about Leo Galland, visit drgalland.com, or find the link in the show notes. When someone says, “Follow the heart,” what does that mean to you? What does that conjure for you?

LG:    Well, I think the first thing is stop running around, pay attention, know what’s in your heart. I mean, listen to it, because the heart will speak to you. That’s where I start.

RP:    Were there any early lessons in your life about that that kind of led you to thinking and feeling that way?

LG:    Well, I would say that for me, there was always this kind of duality of heart and mind that I probably spent my life trying to learn how to bridge the division between them. For me though, it was always a question of how do you respond to things? I tried to understand that process as I became a physician, I think.

LG:    That’s probably where I made the greatest strides, because what I learned was important to do was to be able to approach my patients with my heart as well as my mind,

Chartwell Dutiro is from the Shona tribe of Zimbabwe and is a master mbira player and professor. Mbira is a traditional, mystical instrument that’s purpose is to call on the ancestors, and it’s also the instrument you hear at the beginning and end of this show. In this episode you’ll learn about the history  of the mbira and its influence on Zimbabwean culture, as well as how it’s used in a spiritual and ceremonial context.

Chartwell holds a master’s degree in ethnomusicology from SOAS University in London, and is currently working on his PHD in Collaboration with Dialogue using mbira as the backbone. He has a great deal of knowledge and wisdom about both traditional cultures and modern culture and how the two can either be woven together in a beneficial way or how they can clash in a way that breaks us as individuals and as a society as a whole. You’ll also hear Chartwell’s thoughts on everything from Apartheid to what happens in cultures that don’t communicate with the spirits of their ancestors.

This conversation was recorded two years ago, when A Show of Hearts was just a faint idea, so you’ll notice that the interviewing style and overall sound differ a bit from the other interviews on this show. But, his wise and insightful words are pretty timeless, and his perspective is unique and thoughtful. As you listen, you’ll get a sense of the respect and connection that he and Rosemary share, as he is her mentor and friend. Finally, you’ll hear one of his songs, Bukatiende, which means “get up let’s go” in Shona.

To learn more about Chartwell, visit chartwellusa.wordpress.com or follow him on Instagram @chartwelldutiro

Thanks for listening! If you loved what you heard, visit our website, ashowofhearts.com, subscribe on iTunes, and share with your friends @ashowofhearts on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter using #ashowofhearts. Feel free to comment on our social media or send us an email at [email protected].

Remember to choose courage, even when it’s scary, and join me in igniting the world with our hearts!

Transcript

Rosemary Pritzker:        You’re listening to A Show of Hearts, the podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host, life coach, Rosemary Pritzker.

Rosemary Pritzker:        (singing)

Rosemary Pritzker:        Hi everyone. Welcome to the show. I’m so happy to introduce you to today’s guest, my dear friend and mentor, Chartwell Dutiro. He’s from the Shona tribe of Zimbabwe and is a master mbira player and professor. Mbira is a traditional mystical instrument that’s purpose is to call on the ancestors. It’s also the instrument you hear at the beginning and end of every episode of my show. So I’m thrilled for you guys to learn more about its meaning and history.

Rosemary Pritzker:        Chartwell holds a master’s degree in ethnomusicology from SOAS University in London and is currently working on his PhD in collaboration with dialogue using mbira as the backbone. As you’ll hear in our interview, he has a great deal of knowledge and wisdom about both traditional cultures and modern culture and how the two can either be woven together in a beneficial way or how they can clash in a way that breaks us as individuals and as a society as a whole.

Rosemary Pritzker:        This conversation was recorded two years ago when A Show of Hearts was just a faint idea. So you’ll notice that the interviewing style and overall sound differ a bit from my other interviews.

“Love is not something that’s optional. In a time of hate and fear, love is one of the most potent things that we can do in movement building.” -Marianne Manilov

Social change organizer and movement strategist, Marianne Manilov, shares her insights and experiences of approaching large scale activism from a place of love and connection. Hear her talk about what it felt like to be at The March for our Lives, what the Parkland students announced they will focus on now that the march is over, and what action she herself is taking on gun violence. Hear Rosemary refer to Martin Luther King’s words about the importance of being “tough minded and tender hearted” instead of being soft minded and hard hearted. She and Marianne discuss how to find compassion for someone when it’s really hard, and how to get past feelings of contempt by listening deeply so the person feels heard, and looking for points of connection rather than “othering”. Rosemary and Marianne also discuss the importance of healing ourselves first from the inside out, before trying to take action in the outside world. Hear how Marianne learned the difference between being ok and being joyful, and she and Rosemary share their advice on how to change the world and heal yourself at the same time. They talked about how in order to get people to take significant action, they first need to feel deep connection. The takeaway: do something simple and sustainable and connected, and do it in community with people who feel good, because movements are built from the heart.

“I think for a lot of people they get into social change because they have a wound and they don’t want to walk through that wound. But on the other side of that wound is freedom. And when you yourself get free, you realize that your journey is tied to everyone, and that you’re not actually getting anyone free, that we all get free together.” -Marianne Manilov

To learn more about Marianne’s work, visit engagenet.org

Transcript

Rosemary Pritzker:        You’re listening to A Show of Hearts, the podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host, life coach Rosemary Pritzker.

Rosemary Pritzker:        (singing)

Rosemary Pritzker:        Welcome everyone. Today’s guest, Marianne Manilov, is a social change organizer and movement strategist. 13 years ago she founded The Engage Network which helps organizers build the strong networks and personal relationships necessary for powerful movement building. Marianne has long history of social, political, and environmental activism and organizing that goes back decades. She has deep wisdom to share on what makes an effective movement and how each individual within it can contribute to that effectiveness. When we sat down, she had just come from the March For Our Lives which took place the day before our interview. We started by discussing the overall feeling in the air these days.

Rosemary Pritzker:        So there is something happening in our country right now, starting in my eyes on election day where we had this big shock of Trump winning and for me that day I was actually in Peru in the jungle and there was that initial knee jerk shock and … you know. But, pretty much immediately the thought that came to me was this needed to happen because Trump is basically aa virus that’s going to kick up the immune system of our country, because we’ve gotten too complacent. And it seems to me like that is what’s happening right now. Since then, we’ve had the Women’s March, MeToo, and now March For Our Lives. So you were at The March yesterday, could you just share a little bit about sort of what was the feeling in the air? What did it feel like and what did it feel like it meant?

Marianne Manilov:        Well, I think the first thing I want to say is that I agree with you that this is a time of enormous change. But,

Happy Spring Equinox! Rosemary talks about what that means, and gives tips on how you can enjoy it and use this time to emerge as a new version of yourself, with a fresh outlook on everything! Let your imagination run wild! Do something today that makes you feel super alive! Hear her talk about the awesome things she did today that made her come to life! She ends with this quote:

“It’s a shame to be caught up in something that doesn’t make you absolutely tremble with joy.” -Julia Child

Transcript

You’re listening to A Show of Hearts, the podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host, life coach Rosemary Pritzker.

(Singing).

Happy vernal equinox, everyone. What exactly is an equinox you may ask. Well, it is when the day and night are the same length, so they’re each 12 hours, which brings balance between light and the dark, obviously. It’s on that edge where the shadow and the light are equal, like the tide line where you’re standing on the edge of sea and sand. It’s a time of new beginnings and potential as winter melts away and spring springs to life. It is a potent time of new life bursting out of the ground, the ice, the cave. Hibernation is ending. The ice is thawing. Plants are pushing up through the dirt to form buds that will later be flowers, and vegetables, and all kinds of other things.

So, what is emerging as the ground of your life thaws? Can you acknowledge what has happened, what was, and be grateful for the lessons, and then leave behind of what hasn’t been serving you, what’s been weighing you down, what isn’t working and start afresh, spend some time imagining what’s possible? So today, do some dreaming and scheming. Meditate or journal about the most awesome version of your life you can possibly imagine and what steps will get you there. Let your imagination run wild. Then, do something today that makes you feel super alive.

So for me, today, I did some really awesome dancing just alone at home to mostly some reggaeton music, which is basically Latin hip hop-ish. Super fun. And just kind of let myself go, and really enjoy it, and threw myself into it.

Then, later on, I had a friend from out of town call me out of the blue saying, “Hey, I just flew in for a meeting. I’m here for a few hours. Let’s go jump in the ocean.” I was like, “Sweet.” I dropped everything and soon thereafter was swimming in the ocean while my friend sat on the shore holding my dog so she wouldn’t chase the seagulls into infinity, like she likes to do. I just let go and let myself delight with all my senses, delight in floating and swimming in the ocean, looking up at the sky, breathing in that ocean air. Just the whole experience was just so lovely and enlivening.

Then, I spent a little bit of time sitting on the shore just soaking in that peaceful feeling of being in nature, especially of being on a beach with the wind, and the sea, and the sand, and the beautiful clouds, and the … You know, it’s like so many different elements wrapped up into one.

So today, just be present. Savor life and see with fresh eyes. View everything in a new light, and just enjoy this time of imagining what’s possible. Then, share what’s bursting in you and what makes you feel alive in any of our social media at A Show of Hearts, which is on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

I wanted to leave you guys with one of my absolute favorite quotes ever. It’s been in my email signature for a really long time. It’s Julia Child who says, “It’s a shame to be caught up in something that doesn’t make you absolutely tremble with joy.” So with that, enjoy this vernal equinox. Let the new version of yourself emerge. And may you find yourself trembling with joy.

Sean Barlow and Banning Eyre are the founders of Afropop Worldwide, a Peabody Award winning radio show about African music. This year, they’re celebrating 30 years of sharing some of the best African and African-inspired music in the world. The beauty of their show is not only in enticing their audiences with fresh, joyful music, but also in providing a rich cultural, historical, and political context and education. The show creates a potent atmosphere filled with magic and joy that is likely to open the heart of the listener.

In this episode you’ll hear Sean and Banning talk about how they set out on a life-long adventure of tracking down epic African music, then exuberantly sharing it with the world through their show. You’ll also hear them reminisce about some of their favorite African artists, including several they developed close relationships with over decades, like Thomas Mapfumo and Johnny Clegg. You’ll hear never before released tracks from Mapfumo and Clegg, as well as Ali Farka Touré and others. These recordings, going back as far as 1987, were pulled just for this show from the massive Afropop archive.

Immerse yourself in the sounds and stories that caused Sean and Banning to build a lively, kaleidoscopic community and platform that many people hold very dear to their hearts.

To learn more, visit afropop.org and listen to the Afropop Worldwide podcast here

Banning’s book, Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe

To watch the YouTube video of Johnny Clegg dancing, click here

Transcript

Rosemary Pritzker:        You’re listening to A Show of Hearts, the podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host, Life Coach, Rosemary Pritzker.

Rosemary Pritzker:        (singing)

Rosemary Pritzker:        Hi everyone. Welcome. Today I have two super awesome guests who I can’t wait to share with you. Shawn Barlow and Banning Eyre are the founders of Afropop Worldwide, a Peabody Award winning radio show about African music. This year, they’re celebrating 30 years of sharing some of the best African and African inspired music in the world. The beauty of their show is not only in enticing their audiences with fresh, joyful music, but also in providing a rich cultural, historical and political context and education. Sean and Banning met at Wesleyan where they both discovered their fervent passion for World Music.

Rosemary Pritzker:        In this episode, you’ll hear about how that led to immersing themselves in the cultures of countless African countries, falling in love with each distinct style of music, then exuberantly sharing it with the world through their show. I was introduced to their work in 2005 when I attended the Afropop Awards Gala. I was blown away by the vibrant community they created around African music, and honored to be in the same room with such musical legends as Youssou N’Dour and Angélique Kidjo. The potent atmosphere was filled with magic and joy, and it opened my heart. Shawn, Banning and Afropop have since become an important part of my life that stoked my enthusiasm for African music while we cultivated our friendship based on shared passion. We’ve spent a great deal of time together at shows all over New York City in Brooklyn, and at one point I even joined the board of Afropop.

Rosemary Pritzker:        When I was interviewing them, Sean joked that I’m probably their most enthusiastic supporter.

Have you ever felt like something was trying to burst out of you? Like a creative project, or a baby, or some kind of spiritual crisis? Something that makes you feel like you’re burning in the flames. Usually it feels somewhat chaotic and like you don’t have a choice in it…

Rosemary shares advice on how to dive towards the flames to get through these times so that you can find your true self, your tribe, your path in life. If you want all the best, most wonderful things in life, you have to go through some kind of burning process. Listen to find out more.

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

– Poem by T.S. Eliot

Transcript

You’re listening to A Show of Hearts, the podcast about finding the courage to live a deep and magical life. I’m your host, life coach Rosemary Pritzker.

(music)

Hey guys, Rosemary here. Today I wanted to talk to you about those times in our life where we have something that’s trying to burst out of us, whether we’re trying to bring some creative project into the world or an actual child, or there’s some kind of spiritual crisis going on. Whatever it is, it’s something that we feel like we’re burning in the flames. Usually it feels somewhat chaotic and like we don’t have a choice in it. There’s this image I wanted to share with you guys that Martha Beck talks about, my Mentor, who I trained with as a life coach. It’s this image of this sphere that represents our psyche, where the outer shell of this sphere is what she calls the Shallows, and it’s basically where most people spend most of their life, going through the motions of everyday life, never really going very deep.

But then in the center of the sphere is what she calls the Core of Peace, which is where you find your true self, your true tribe, your calling, your path in life. But, the kicker is that between the Shallows and the Core of Peace, is what she refers to as the Ring of Fire. In order to get to the Core of Peace from the shallows, you basically have to burn through hell in some way. There’s no way around it. If you want all of the best, most wonderful things in life, you have to go through some kind of burning process. The swiftest way through the flames is to dive towards the flames, let it burn. It would be so easy to sink into the pit of despair or spiraling into focusing on how hard moments like this are or how scary it is or how hopeless it feels. But if we can little by little incrementally continue to choose to come back to our hearts and breathe into it and recognize the gifts and lessons in this moment, even if there’s enormous pain along with it, there’s always some kind of gift or silver lining.

And then there’s this poem that I want to share with you from T.S. Elliot. This one is for all of you out there who are burning through the flames right now, who feel like you’re trudging through the darkness, who may feel like you’re completely alone. You are not alone, and you’re not going to be stuck here forever. So this is for you.

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

If you take the time to really sit still and go inside and sit with the discomfort you have...