Energy Studies Book Club

After a 60-day hiatus, Samm Smeltzer returns to share an honest, unfiltered recap of her slow but meaningful journey through Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine by Harriet Beinfield and Efrem Korngold. In this episode, Samm reflects on why pacing matters more than progress, and walks through the passages that stopped her in her tracks — from the Taoist concept of the Tao as an unbroken wholeness, to the gardener vs. mechanic metaphor, to the five phases and what they reveal about personality, disease, and balance. She also draws powerful connections between Chinese medical theory and her work in HR, organizational development, and energetic healing at the HRart Center. A candid, rich conversation about learning, grace, and tending your own inner garden.

---

Join the conversation in our Energy Studies Book Club Portal — you'll find the highlighted passages from this episode waiting for you there. Share your thoughts, connect with fellow readers, and dive deeper into what we're exploring together.

👉 Join the Book Club Portal

It's here. The first official episode of the Energy Studies Book Club podcast and we're starting where every good book club starts: the reading list.

In this episode, I'm walking you through the seven books I'll be reading this year, why I chose them, and the structured reading methodology I've built to actually make it through them.

Primary Book List:

1. Between Heaven and Earth
2. The Way of the Five Seasons
3. The Five Spirits
4. The 7 Emotions: Psychology and Health in Ancient China

Secondary Book List:

1. Learning the Tarot
2. Co-Active Coaching (Fourth Edition)
3. Playful Rebellion

I also share my daily reading methodology (yes, there is a page count goal). My philosophy on re-reading, and why most of these books don't have quality audiobook versions (and why that matters to an auditory learner like me).

Next episode I'll be back with my first debrief on Between Heaven and Earth and Learning the Tarot. Come hold me accountable.

Join the free Reader Hub inside the HRart Collective to read and explore alongside the community.

Come read. And let the energy hold you.

Access all the book details by clicking here.

Welcome to the Energy Studies Book Club Podcast — I'm so glad you're here.

This trailer is me being fully transparent about what this podcast is, what it's becoming, and why I believe energetic theory is the conversation that HR, culture, and workplace wellbeing have been missing.

A little about me: I'm Samm Smeltzer, founder of the HRart Center burnout recovery center in York, PA, and I hold a Doctorate in Medical Qigong. I've spent over a decade in HR and organizational development — and this podcast is where all of that comes together, one book at a time.

Each month, I'll be reading, reflecting, and sharing in real time — connecting Classical Oriental Medicine with workplace culture, processing dense energetic theory in bite-sized chunks, and growing alongside you.

What to expect:

1. Monthly book reflections and real-time takeaways
2. Honest processing — not expert performance
3. Connections between energy theory, burnout, and organizational life
4. Occasional guest friends and authors along the way

Ready to go deeper? Join us in the free interactive Reader Hub inside the HRart Collective, where we'll read and explore together as a community. Click Here to Join.

Subscribe, leave a review if something resonates, and I'll see you in the first episode.

Come read. And let the energy hold you.

Welcome back to the very last episode of this season of the HRart Worker Book Club podcast. If you've been following along, you know we've been expanding upon our insights and discussing the overlap that exists between three very different books, The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant, Think Again by Adam Grant and Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh. Grab your books, join us and let's jump in to chat about the power that books have to change our work and lives. Find the show notes at www.hrartcenter.com.

Captivate

Books have the ability to change our lives. They broaden our worldview, they influence our thoughts, they show us how to be better people, and they help us to connect to others. The HRart Worker Book Club has just finished reading The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant, Think Again by Adam Grant and Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh. Now we gather to talk about the real impact these very different books have had on our lives. Tune in and join us for part one of the finale of this season! Find the show notes at www.hrartcenter.com.

Let’s chat about that element that runs through both our personal lives and work lives… that subject that can be both polarizing and yet essential – spirituality. We continue to read three very different books and discuss the amazing themes that run throughout them all in this episode of the HRart Worker Book Club Podcast. Grab your copy of The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant, Think Again by Adam Grant and Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh and join us! Find the show notes at www.hrartcenter.com.

The HRart Worker Book Club Podcast is back again with another episode as we read three very different books and discuss the amazing themes that run throughout them all. Karen, Liza, Ben and Samm jump back and forth between talking about mindfulness, suffering, the power of focus, and the practice of reading itself. Grab your copy of The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant, Think Again by Adam Grant and Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh and join us! Find the show notes at www.hrartcenter.com.

The 2022 Book Club is a month into this new reading experiment where we're reading three very different books simultaneously in order to unpack common themes between them. Karen, Ben, Liza and Samm all tease out themes of openness and curiosity as each book uses them to show us how these qualities can lead to success. They also discuss the incredible way these texts are connecting on a personal level as well as at a global scale. Grab your copy of The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant, Think Again by Adam Grant and Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh and join us! Find the show notes at www.hrartcenter.com.

Welcome to our first Book Club episode of the 2022 season of the HRart Worker Book Club Podcast! We are so excited to introduce you to our 3 Book Club members who will walk us through their experience as they read 3 incredible books -- 10 pages a day, 70 pages a week.

The magic happens as the insight of these individuals with vastly different backgrounds and perspectives is woven together to create a new understanding of these texts. So grab your copy of The Mamba Mentality: How I Play by Kobe Bryant, Think Again by Adam Grant and Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh and join us! Find the show notes at www.hrartcenter.com.

“Do more of what matters most to you and let go of the rest.” Today's guest on the HRart Worker Book Club Podcast gives this life decluttering advice in her book The Happiness Recipe. On this episode of the podcast, Samm interviews author Rebecca Morrison about her writing process, what the research and data says about happiness, as well as some practical next steps to help you discover your own happiness recipe.

Rebecca explains the path to finding happiness requires us to slow down first to see our lives with clarity. By deeply understanding what we want and letting go of the rest, we create the space to experience fulfilling happiness. Find the show notes at www.hrartcenter.com.