Authentic Living

The original plan was to interview Iyanla Vanzant today. But there was a mix-up for her and so she couldn't make it. Good news, however: We are going to interview her next week. So consider this week's episode a preparation for next week's interview—when she really will be here. So this week we introduced her book Forgiveness: 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Everything. And we discussed some of the host's ideas on forgiveness. Listen in, and get ready for next week. You are going to love it.

Today we are very fortunate to get an opportunity to talk to bestselling author Andrew Solomon, writer and lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts and winner of the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. He is an activist in LGBT rights, mental health, and the arts. His latest NY Times bestselling book, and the subject of our interview today, entitled Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, is also the winner of several awards, including being chosen at among the NY Times Ten Best Books of 2012. It has been called "A bold and unambiguous call to redefine how we view difference… A stunning work of scholarship and compassion (Carmela Ciuraru, USA Today) distinguished similarly by many other notables for its exceptional profundity, compassion and insight. Today we are going to take an intimate look at this entire concept of loving differentness. Don't miss this unique opportunity to gain insight into the power of love.

We've been talking about differentness, and how we might begin to celebrate rather than condemn it. One of the areas of most contentious difference is in the area of religion—supposedly a place in which we find our deepest spiritual roots. What started out as a pathway to the divine turned into a place of rules, in which everyone was supposed to the same. Those who didn't follow our rules became a "they" as opposed to our "we." So, now that we have an externally developed spiritual path for each person who grows up in a particular religious culture, how does that person go about finding an authentic spirituality? Where will we find the path if it is not decided in advance for us by a very righteous and firmly planted group of spiritual leaders? And this, of course, brings us to the very definition of spirituality. What is spirituality, and how does one live an authentic spiritual life in a world where everyone has a "right" way for us to be spiritual? Let's talk about this today.

Last week we talked to Andrew Solomon about differences. We are going to continue that topic today as we explore what it means to an individual to be different. One of the complaints clinicians commonly hear from clients is this feeling they carry of being alien in their families of origin. This would not be true it their differences were accepted, even celebrated, by family. Unfortunately, not only does family reject us for being different but so does the social milieu in general. Children who feel the most rejected for their difference are often those who are selected by bullies for bullying. In fact, we even talk about difference in terms of its feeling: "feeling different" has become a way of describing that feeling of rejection. But what if "feeling different" could simply mean "celebrating me?" It is fascinating that in America we formulated a country out of the need for freedom to be different and then set out to obliterate it entirely. Let's talk about that today.

There has been much said over the past several years, particular among teachers of spirituality, about so-called "negative" feelings. Most of what we hear tells us that we should be thinking and feeling "positive" thoughts and feelings. Some offer us dire warnings that if we have these negative feelings we are going to attract "negative" events and relationships into our lives. Still others have told us that if we have so-called "negative" events in our lives, we must have attracted them through our "negative" thoughts and feelings. The question to be asked here is this: If we are gifted with a range of feelings that include on one end of the continuum, joy and on the other, pain, then what is the purpose of these feelings? Today we are going to talk about the purpose of emotions. We will look for and find their divine purpose. Don't miss this one.

In our third week of our Countdown to Heaven, we are talking to Bruce Lipton, bestselling author of The Biology of Belief about his latest book, The Honeymoon Effect: The Science of Creating Heaven on Earth. We all understand either the actuality of the honeymoon effect, or the dream of it. But most of us see it as temporary—because we have to get back to "real life." The Honeymoon Effect is a state of bliss, passion, energy and health resulting from huge love. But we cannot imagine that we can have that on a regular basis. But Lipton tells us that the Honeymoon Effect is not a chance event that happened to us because the right circumstances collided, but rather it is a personal creation. In fact, he tells us that love is the most potent growth factor for human beings. How can we manifest this heaven on earth? Tune it to find out—and to hear the clip from Oprah's upcoming Super Soul Sunday. Don't miss it.

Alright, so we've heard that it's possible for a person to experience heaven right here on earth, but how? How does a person stand fully inside him or her Self and live from that central organizing essence? Well, it's a process. And this week we are going to talk about some specific case studies, that demonstrate how we can do this. Do we have to have a Near Death Experience? Do we have to have some major life changing transformational event? Do we have to meditate for hours and hours every day? Do we have to exclude all so-called negative thinking from our minds? Do we have to become an ascetic or a Guru? Don't miss today's show. We are going to talk about all the things you do and don't "have to do" to inhabit heaven NOW.

What does it mean to have power? Where in our lives can we find it, where in our bodies and our minds? Do we know we have power when others cater to our needs and desires? Are we powerful finally when we are famous? What do we do with power and how do we do it? Today we are going to answer some of those questions in an interview with Rev. Raymont Anderson. Raymont is Holistic Transformational Life Coach, an Interfaith/Interspiritual and New Thought Minister. He is the founder and Senior player in three different organizations: B.E.L.I.E.V.E an American Sign Language Theatrical Performance Company, the Guang Dian Feng-Huang school of martial arts; and the Center for Living the Sacred: P.H.O.E.N.I.X. He is a Reiki Master and the author of Visual Music: Interpreting Songs in American Sign Language and Moving Mountains: The Journey of Transformation. He comes to us this week to talk to us about the power that is inherently ours. Don't miss it.

…how would we manage our behavior? Won't we just fall apart? Become the evil we always suspected we were? How will we keep ourselves from hurting others, from sabotaging ourselves, from being unkind, unloving, uncertain…from becoming the worst we imagine of ourselves? Won't we need something else, like guilt or remorse, or fear to keep us in line? Well, what if you knew that there was someone living deep inside of you who operated out of compassion and passion and who, without the external onus of morality, can guide us? What if that person has always been living inside of you trying to get out? What if, in fact, it is the most genuine you of you, the most real aspect of you? If that were true, if that truth became apparent to you, what would you do? This week, we are going to decide together whether or not this is true, and if it is, what we can do about it. AND we are going to listen to a clip from the next Super Soul Sunday.

We live in a world where failure occurs every day. Where we fail, others fail us, and life itself seems to fail. We live in a world in which we may pray for salvation, for sustenance, for safety and security, for love and relationship, but our prayers seem to fail at the doors to the gods. And what about God—has the Western version of God failed to bring about good results from his judgment, his mercy and his love? It seems to be everywhere. But what if it were actually possible that there is no failure—not one failed life, anywhere, anytime? Well, that would be heaven—wouldn't it? We'd have everything we ever wanted, we'd never make a mistake or fail at anything. Well, that's not exactly what it means, but on today's show, our last in the Countdown to Heaven series, we are going to find out what it does mean—and what that has to do with Inhabiting Heaven NOW. And we are going to hear the next clip for Oprah's upcoming Super Soul Sunday. Talk to you then.