Authentic Chaos

Have you ever felt frustrated that people can’t understand you or your thoughts? Maybe some conversations with friends or family get difficult because of misunderstandings or other miscommunications. 

All people want to be understood, and we all have the capacity to be understood, but what often stands in the way of being understood is how we communicate. I will share my journey with being understood and how changing my view of the goal of communication enabled others to more easily understand me.

Why does it feel so hard to be an “adult” sometimes? Our bodies start to ache, the foods we enjoyed before are now bad for us, and the relationships we had relied on can sour. Does time and age have to be this oppressive force? Join me and Tessa for a heart-felt discussion on our relationships with time management, health, the chaos of the world around us, and our own families. 

Traveling to new places and exploring new cultures can be exciting and stressful! Especially when you are aiming to visit a culture that is so different from your own. Stephen Ritchie joins us today to talk about his own adventures in India, a culture that is utterly foreign to him. Listen as he paints a beautiful and complex picture of this ancient culture. What insights can we gain from putting ourselves in unfamiliar situations? 

Follow the podcast on instagram: @authentic.chaos

Salvador - a reference to a savior/messiah - reflects the answers we are searching for: who are we, why are we here, what is the meaning of our lives, how do we do good? These questions have many and no answers. There are many ways people can try to seek out their answers but there is no right answer.

This is no more clear than when we explore new cultures and meet new people. These diverse perspectives show us that these questions aren’t unique and the answers are more complex than we think. 

Join me and Jason McIntosh as we share travel stories and lessons learned from our experiences. Listen to how the people we have met on the way have sparked changes within us and how we actively change in our lives.

Follow the podcast on instagram: @authentic.chaos

Do you have problems that seem to keep coming up in your life? Maybe you feel chronically stressed or perhaps you are getting into arguments now and then with people around you. Does it seem like when you address these problems you only temporarily solve them? What if you are missing the bigger picture?

We live in a complex world with many patterns and cycles. Sometimes the problems we experience are just symptoms of different patterns that affect us. Perhaps from work, our culture, the weather, or our inner cycles. If we take a step back and work to understand these patterns on a deeper level we can try to find the solution to the hidden puzzle.

Follow the podcast on instagram: @authentic.chaos

Think about the last time you were stuck in a thought pattern or a bias. How did you recognize you were stuck in the pattern? How did you go about changing? Did the change come from inside yourself or from the outside world?

I found myself in one of these bias patterns that was affecting my perspective. It got to the point that I knew I had to change, so I planned a trip, which is commonly what I do when I want a big perspective shift. But when I was on the trip, I did notice my perspective had shifted but when I looked into the time period between being aware of my stuck perspective and this trip was full of a gradual process of perspective shift. So maybe this trip was unnecessary? Maybe internal changes aren’t as influenced by the outside world than we think? 

Follow the podcast on instagram: @authentic.chaos

Is Hell a place where the damned go for all eternity? Is it just a prop used by religious types to confound the masses? Or is there deeper, more personal meaning to Hell. What is Hell even and why would any all powerful, all good gods create such a place?

Journeys of self discovery are not unique, they are some of the oldest tales we know: The Odyssey, the trials of Hercules, The Divine Comedy. But here is a new one that you might not have heard of: The Red Book by Carl Jung. Carl Jung made powerful connections in his own personal reflections between these tales of journeys and the process of self discovery. For him, Hell wasn’t an external place but an internal state of mind. A mental place where contradictions are rampant, where we confront our darkest evil. But when we confront our darkest evil, should we reject it or accept it?

Join me in a personal review of the journey within my own Hell. Let’s review of the lessons I learned from my own journey and from reading Carl Jung’s journey.

Follow the podcast on instagram: @authentic.chaos

How do we obtain happiness? How should we live a “good life”? How would we describe the last year (2023)? 

These questions can seem difficult to answer precisely because they have no right answer. But even that isn’t quite right because there is an answer that is right for us, while not universally right. Finding your “right” answer is as challenging as finding your “right” path. While no one can tell you the right path, learning different perspectives can help you find your right path. 

Join me and Shikhar Tuwari (IG: @its_sh1khar) for a raw and emphatic conversation as we share stories from the last year, contrast our world views and how we see the purpose of our lives, and what we hope to do in the coming year.

Follow the podcast on instagram: @authentic.chaos

Does reality have a bias toward fun or obligation? Is going on vacation or to a music festival reality or a fantasy? Is music just fun sounds to listen to or is there a deeper meaning?

Music has connected people for as long as humans have existed. From prayer chants and war songs to classical music to DJs, people have found connection with their world and with each other through music. But what does this music mean for us? What lessons can we learn from music and festivals in how we should treat each other?

Join me and Alina Pawchareune (IG: @lina_face) as we talk music and how music and festivals can grow our perspective and connect us deeper with the people around us.

Follow the podcast on instagram: @authentic.chaos

Take a look back over the last 10 years. How have you changed? How has your view of the world change? How often do you get stuck in a certain set of biases or world view? Perspective is complex, it is a window into the world and into ourselves. But this window can be invisible. And sometimes this window can feel like a prison. 

Join me and Stephen Ritchie (@powerofperspectivewithstephenritchie) as we discuss the importance of understanding your own perspective and how we have changed our perspectives over time.

Follow the podcast on instagram: @authentic.chaos

Prior episode with Stephen where we talked about beliefs: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4yw50pugXj8uFCFjmrG3Jb?si=wYih2IABRvu0Ubfp-bpcrw