Courageous Ones

What can Buddhism and neuroscience teach us about finding more peace in our minds?

In this episode of Courageous Ones, I sit down with Tenzing Dolma Sherpa to explore meditation, compassion and how we respond to everyday life.

Tenzing shares her journey from growing up in a Tibetan Buddhist family to studying neuroscience and Tibetan Studies. We talk about her experience on a silent retreat, bringing mindfulness into a busy day, and practising kindness towards ourselves and people we find difficult.

As someone who grew up Tibetan, I was curious about both the teachings themselves and how we can put them into practice. We explore what meditation research can tell us, where questions remain, and how noticing our thoughts might help us pause before reacting.

We also talk about her interest in the Nechung Oracle, where to start with Buddhism, and her father’s advice about moving forward without knowing where you will land.

What helps you slow down and find a little more peace? Let me know in the comments.

Subscribe to Courageous Ones for the next conversation.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

00:42 Finding belonging in Nepal at 13

04:00 Growing up in a Tibetan Buddhist family

07:45 How her grandmother sparked her curiosity

11:56 What a silent retreat is like

16:47 Bringing meditation into everyday life

21:33 Meditation, the brain and the limits of research

26:53 Practising loving-kindness meditation

31:12 Noticing anger before reacting

33:05 Where Buddhism meets neuroscience

36:55 Can science measure our inner experience?

40:29 Books on Buddhism and neuroscience

43:45 Compassion and questioning what we believe

48:25 Making knowledge accessible

53:04 Thinking about your thinking

56:14 Where to start with Buddhism

1:02:13 Moving forward through uncertainty

1:06:43 Why sleep matters

1:08:28 Where to find Tenzing’s work

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#Buddhism #Neuroscience #Meditation

SPONSORED BY AMZA SUPERFOODS

Discover traditional Tibetan nutrition with Amza Superfoods, a Tibetan-owned food company based in Oregon.

https://amzasuperfoods.com/courageous

Use code COURAGEOUS15 for 15% off your order.

Available in the United States.

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Sometimes, believing in yourself means continuing even when nothing seems to be working.

In this episode of Courageous Ones, I'm joined by Tenzin Dhondup, a Tibetan actor based in Los Angeles whose work includes Four Rivers, Six Ranges and My Sweet Pala.

Tenzin shares his journey from growing up in India and Nepal to moving to the United States, discovering acting, and navigating the uncertainty that comes with pursuing a creative career.

We talk about rejection, fear, resilience, and why he believes a little positive delusion is sometimes necessary to keep going.

We also explore the lessons that come from growing up as a Tibetan refugee, what it means to live an experimental life, and how his experiences shaped his confidence and self-belief.

Later, Tenzin takes us behind the scenes of Four Rivers, Six Ranges and shares what it was like filming in the mountains of Nepal.

We finish by exploring meditation, Buddhism, flow states, and his personal definition of success.

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CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

00:39 Amza Superfoods

01:41 Growing Up in India and Nepal

08:52 Moving to America

15:04 Discovering Acting

18:47 Dealing With Rejection

24:49 His First Audition

28:24 Facing Fear and Nervousness

35:33 Rejection and Getting Ghosted

39:14 Four Rivers, Six Ranges

42:34 Why You Have to Be a Little Delusional

43:21 Living an Experimental Life

46:41 Growing Up as a Tibetan Refugee

49:08 Building Confidence and Self-Belief

57:23 The Underdog Mindset

1:01:30 Filming Four Rivers, Six Ranges

1:12:24 Meditation and Presence

1:15:50 Finding Flow

1:21:13 The Meaning of Success

1:23:10 The Best Advice He's Received

---

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Thank you for listening.

Stay Courageous.

Anik is a fitness coach, creator and the person behind Infinite. In his fourth conversation on Courageous Ones, we talk about what happens when you stop waiting to feel confident and start giving yourself evidence that you can actually follow through.

We get into putting yourself out there, dealing with rejection, following your curiosity, building self-belief through repetition, and how you change when you consistently show up for yourself.

We also talk about social media and attention, visualization, meditation, stress, burnout and why the “perfect time” to start usually never arrives.

The bigger idea is simple: confidence is not something you need before you act. Often, it is something you earn after enough action gives you proof.

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Chapters

00:00 Self-belief, content and courage

09:17 Rejection and giving yourself permission

17:30 Identity and building self-belief

24:24 Visualization and noticing opportunities

31:03 Social media, screen time and attention

42:29 Meditation and training your focus

53:00 Stress, burnout and the myth of perfect timing

57:51 One goal, proof and enough repetitions

Yassin Mahhou returns to Courageous Ones for a fourth conversation. He is the founder of Mahhou Solutions and a co-founder of the Jonge Ondernemers podcast, and he is still pursuing the goal he shared in his first appearance: becoming a millionaire before 25.

This episode is not really about the number. Yassin explains why the goal matters because of the person the process can make him. We talk about breaking big goals into measurable actions, making hard business decisions, facing rejection, finding exceptional people, adjusting when growth is slower than expected and learning to think from first principles.

The conversation also explores the difference between producing and consuming, how to use AI without outsourcing your judgment, why people get trapped by shiny objects, and how courage means deliberately doing what you would rather avoid.

This episode is sponsored by Mahhou Solutions.

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Chapters:

00:00:00 Coming up

00:01:08 Returning to the two big goals

00:08:55 Money, character and long-term growth

00:19:37 Rejection and ethical sales

00:25:56 Goals, first principles and direction

00:36:41 The reality of building a business

00:46:46 AI and independent thinking

00:56:22 From consumer to producer

01:07:50 The valley of despair

01:13:28 Courage and authenticity

01:23:31 Become better at becoming better

#courageousones #entrepreneurship

Harsh Pandorwala is a content creator, entrepreneur and new father who has spent more than five years building online, travelling the world and learning what happens when your work becomes tied to public opinion. He and his wife went from starting a travel page with around a hundred early followers to rapid growth, while Harsh also experienced the less visible side of creating online: burnout, dopamine-driven validation and the pressure to keep performing.

In this conversation, we talk about meditation and presence, focusing on what is actually in your control, the psychological cost of chasing virality, audience capture, staying authentic online and using AI without outsourcing your own creativity. Harsh also shares why he chose a slower life in Bali, how becoming a father changed his sense of drive, and why he is now building arkWELL around making wellness simpler and more integrated into everyday work and life.

The thread running through the conversation is simple: build a life where your inner world, your work and your choices still feel like your own.

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Chapters:

00:00:00 Coming up

00:01:34 Calmness, control and meditation

00:18:54 Burnout and inner work

00:25:36 From job to content creator

00:34:34 Authenticity, social media and AI

00:50:50 Bali, fatherhood and freedom

01:02:06 Building wellness into work

01:10:41 You have to try

#courageousones #personalgrowth

David Green is a filmmaker, storyteller and lifelong traveler whose experiences across different cultures have shaped the way he thinks about life, relationships, creativity and himself.

In this conversation, we explore what solo travel taught David about humanity, his experience studying yoga and meditation in India, learning to sit with yourself, protecting your time and energy, forgiveness, friendship, relationships, fear of judgment and becoming more intentional about how you live.

We also talk about what filmmaking taught him about being present, why some of his favorite memories were never captured on camera, his thoughts on AI and creativity, and why he believes getting to know yourself is one of the most important things you can do.

A wide-ranging conversation about self-awareness, travel, meditation, creativity, relationships, purpose and learning how to live with more intention.

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#personalgrowth #selfawareness #courageousones

Tenzin Tsering, also known as Tenzoni, is a Tibetan-Filipino Canadian artist and illustrator. In this episode, we have an honest conversation about creativity, identity, courage, and what happens when the thing you love also becomes your profession.

Tenzin shares how growing up surrounded by Filipino and Tibetan art shaped her creative path, why art became a way for her to connect with her culture, and the fear that can come with putting your work out into the world. We talk about creative blocks, perfectionism, The Artist’s Way, morning pages, digital versus physical art, flow states, and learning to create for yourself rather than for an audience.

She also opens up about travelling solo to Nepal while feeling lost, trekking to Annapurna Base Camp, studying traditional thangka painting, and realizing that sometimes changing your environment doesn’t allow you to escape what is happening inside you. We also explore meditation, self-belief, finding meaning through creativity, and the advice from her father that continues to guide her: choose what makes you happy, and don’t do a half job.

This is a conversation about creating even when you doubt yourself, reconnecting with who you are, and having the courage to be seen.

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#CourageousOnes #Creativity

Amin Alamdari is back on the podcast, almost two years after our first conversation.

A lot has changed since then. In this episode, we talk honestly about what happens when the excitement of chasing your goals wears off and you’re left with the reality of actually building the life you wanted.

Amin opens up about almost quitting entrepreneurship, questioning his definition of success, losing relationships along the way, and feeling deeply lonely while living in Bali, a place that from the outside looked like paradise.

We also talk about ambition and burnout, learning to let go, why not everything in life needs to be optimized, the downside of constantly trying to improve yourself, discipline vs flexibility, happiness vs inner peace, toxic positivity, social media, and learning to be okay with difficult emotions instead of always trying to fix them.

This conversation is ultimately about what happens when ambition matures, and when success starts to mean something deeper than money, status, or external validation.

Hope you enjoy it.

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#selfimprovement #entrepreneurship

Jamyang Dorjee Chakrishar is a Tibetan calligrapher, artist and cultural preservationist whose life has moved between public service, spiritual practice and art.

After building a respected career in the Sikkim government, he made the difficult decision to leave behind comfort, status and a much higher salary to serve the Tibetan administration in Dharamsala. Years later, he helped bring Tibetan calligraphy to the world stage by creating a 165-metre calligraphy scroll.

But what stayed with me most from this conversation was not the world record. It was the way Jamyang speaks about writing as meditation, focus as a form of discipline and the importance of learning how to sit with yourself.

We talk about the monkey mind, why multitasking weakens the quality of our work, the value of handwriting in a digital world, creativity, suffering, expectations and the fear of what other people think. We also explore the importance of preserving Tibetan culture and the small actions each person can take to keep it alive.

Near the end of the conversation, Jamyang shares a simple but powerful piece of advice: learn to be kind to yourself.

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Website:

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Rubin Museum interview:

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CHAPTERS

00:00 Stop worrying about what people think

00:47 Writing as a spiritual practice

03:33 Leaving Tibet and growing up in exile

10:36 His Holiness the Dalai Lama changes his path

15:41 Choosing purpose over money

17:19 Ten years of service and becoming an artist

21:01 Rediscovering Tibetan calligraphy

25:38 Creating the world’s longest calligraphy scroll

33:24 How the record inspired Tibet

39:33 Why calligraphy is a form of meditation

44:29 Understanding the monkey mind

46:06 The problem with multitasking

49:16 How to find answers within yourself

52:55 Writing 550 pages by hand

58:35 Why handwriting still matters

1:02:40 Writing by hand versus typing

1:05:25 The difference between art and imitation

1:09:53 Is everyone capable of creativity?

1:13:38 Teachers, suffering and human potential

1:16:28 Where happiness and world peace begin

1:19:16 How to stop replaying your problems

1:23:24 Letting go of expectations

1:24:11 Stop caring what other people think

1:24:43 Preserving Tibetan culture and identity

1:32:05 The best advice Jamyang ever received

#CourageousOnes #TibetanCalligraphy

Doina is a singer, marketing coach, and creator from Moldova, now living in Bali. She helps people build a personal brand without losing who they are.

She grew up in a house of teachers, reading twenty pages a day from the age of six and learning discipline before she learned anything else. She started singing to stand out from her sister, competed on X Factor at 17 and The Voice at 19, and then spent close to ten years shrinking herself to fit in. In this episode, she opens up about what that did to her and how she came back to herself.

We get into authenticity and what it means in practice, how to find your real self through her personality map, why quality content beats posting for the sake of it, and how to overcome the fear of putting yourself out there. She closes on the best advice her father gave her. Let them talk, and keep working on yourself.

If you've been afraid to be seen, this one is for you.

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