Hey Jacob, Hi Scott

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about healthy and unhealthy communication, and the struggle to be as honest as we feel called to be with those we love, and with ourselves. Do we really want the truth, even when it’s something we don’t want to face? They discuss the power of listening without needing to offer an opinion or advice and the power of being heard without needing to be fixed. The friends dive into the differences between heart-centered and ego-centered communication, offering tools to keep us in our hearts more often.

Reading, by Adrienne Rich

An honorable human relationship — that is, one in which two people have the right to use the word “love” — is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other.

It is important to do this because it breaks down human self-delusion and isolation.

It is important to do this because in doing so we do justice to our own complexity.

It is important to do this because we can count on so few people to go that hard way with us.

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about a recent plant medicine journey Scott took in Austin and the ways in which it opened him up to the expansiveness of his masculine and feminine energies (and everything in between). This led to them discussing sexuality and gender and the growing rapidness with which our world is evolving around these and other realities, and how that can feel exciting and/or destabilizing, depending on one’s perspective. The friends talked a lot about lived experiences, and how important it can be to partake of stories from others who are having different lived experiences than you, how that creates a pathway to understanding and to offering compassion and love for one another.

Reading, from The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

“Once you have disidentified from your mind, whether you are right or wrong makes no difference to your sense of self at all, so the forcefully compulsive and deeply unconscious need to be right, which is a form of violence, will no longer be there. You can state clearly and firmly how you feel or what you think, but there will be no aggressiveness or defensiveness about it. Your sense of self is then derived from a deeper and truer place within yourself, not from the mind. Watch out for any kind of defensiveness within yourself. What are you defending? An illusory identity, an image in your mind, a fictitious entity. By making this pattern conscious, by witnessing it, you disidentify from it. In the light of your consciousness, the unconscious pattern will then quickly dissolve. This is the end of all arguments and power games, which are so corrosive to relationships. Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power is within, and it is available to you now.”

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about befriending the present moment. The future is an illusion, and the past is no longer, so all we ever have to work with, to be with, is the present. The now. The friends discuss the power of playing witness to your thoughts, remembering that you are the sky and not the weather, that you are no more your mind than you are your arms and legs. Your mind is a part of you, yes, but not the whole of you. When we remember to observe rather than become, we stand to create much more ease and peace in our lives, no matter what is happening in the outside world, or in our minds. They talk about ways to create grounding rituals during destabilizing moments and times, and how the energy of intention adds power to whatever rituals and habits we create. And, Jacob reads from the Mystical Shaman Oracle!

Submit your questions, comments, arguments at www.heyjacobhiscott.com

Reading: The Child, from the Mystical Shaman Oracle deck ( https://amzn.to/3uGToul )

THE ESSENCE:

THE INVITATION:

THE MEDICINE:

The Child comes to show you how you can correct the course of your life without being punished. Set yourself free from your conditioning for suffering; you were born unfettered and happy and can be so again if you make the choice right now! The Child will help you climb out of the hole you may have dug yourself into, to recover your sense of play.

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about cognitive dissonance, the ease with which we disregard information that goes against our ingrained understanding of things, or of ourselves. They talk about the importance of not being so fixed in our ideas, in holding space for openness, in being willing to learn, even when it’s uncomfortable to do so. The friends discuss the importance of being proactive when approaching a new reality, asking good questions, setting oneself up for successful transitions with intentional communication and action. They also talk about our deep connection to the natural world, the endless lessons being provided to us by nature, and the deep truth that it is not nature but humans that need the saving.

Reading, from The Overstory, by Richard Powers

We found that trees could communicate, over the air and through their roots. Common sense hooted us down. We found that trees take care of each other. Collective science dismissed the idea. Outsiders discovered how seeds remember the seasons of their childhood and set buds accordingly. Outsiders discovered that trees sense the presence of other nearby life. That a tree learns to save water. That trees feed their young and synchronize their masts and bank resources and warn kin and send out signals to wasps to come and save them from attacks. “Here’s a little outsider information, and you can wait for it to be confirmed. A forest knows things. They wire themselves up underground. There are brains down there, ones our own brains aren’t shaped to see. Root plasticity, solving problems, and making decisions. Fungal synapses. What else do you want to call it? Link enough trees together, and a forest grows aware.

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about hypocrisy, about the ways in which we have a tendency to judge others for doing the very things that we ourselves do. They discuss the importance of being honest with ourselves if we really want to grow, and taking ownership of our hypocrisies when they show themselves. The friends talk about social media, the way in can distort connection and incite people to be aggressive in ways they would likely never be in person. And, with the help of some words from Marianne Williamson, they ponder our capacity to be powerful beyond measure, and that our fears are not always rooted in our inadequacy but in our potential for radiance.

Reading, by Marianne Williamson from her book, A Return to Love:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about the importance of honoring your soul, despite the fears and insecurities that push you to do otherwise, despite a lifetime of conditioning and the expectations of others, despite the ease with which we can choose to pretend and play small. They talk about developing our capacity to listen — to nature, to our inner-beings, to the mysteries and miracles all around us. The friends reflect on this time in our reality, when they and many across the globe are choosing to honor what’s true for them, as scary and difficult as that can be. They talk about energy and momentum and how much sense things can make when we start paying attention to our choices and noticing what those choices create.

Today’s reading, from Emma Zeck:

hey guys, i wanted to let you know that i checked the news today and Fox and CNN and NPR and the NYT all had one very important announcement to make: everything is absolutely fucked!!!!!!!!

so if we’re gonna be f*cked,

there’s no time for blinking

or thinking

or shrinking!!!!

we must f*ck good and deep and long!

call it a day! call it a life!

there’s only time for buying every jar of parmesan and making cheese candles! i don’t know! sell them!

sneak into every abandoned castle in the city! marry an owl! makeout every day! clap your feet at the concert! wear heelies!

move to Tibet! become a sheep herder!

prank call your ex! spend all your money!

dress in a jellyfish costume for no reason!

decorate your home with parrot feathers!

dazzle your neck with salami links!

speak with a british accent!

convince everyone!

only eat spam for the rest of your life!

lose all your teeth!

go to jail in a foreign country!

become a member of parliament!

Tuesdays are for powdered wigs!

tell someone off! there are 4 million

reasons

we

are

all

totally

f*cked!

so walk around with a unicorn head!

request the pizza be delivered by donkey!

take scuba gear for the bathtub!

rent a clown for the day!

decide you hate your job! quit!

start a business! fail horribly!

embarrass yourself!

go back to the high school!

disguise yourself as the janitor!

put shrimp in the vents!

take up competitive dog grooming!

get your heart broken! cry about it!

then ride off on a horse!

you’re now on the back of a motorcycle in Zimbabwe!

tell the woman she has spinach in her teeth!

wax your nipples in public!

kiss every person on the street!

tell every stranger you love them!

sell your entire wardrobe!

only wear bedazzled hobble skirts!

pierce your buttcheeks!

disappear! change your name to Regina! reappear! wear a tophat!

it’s 90 degrees! wear fur to the beach!

have your own parade! make a victorian float!

invite no one!

wear a lampshade over your head!

run into everyone!

twerk down the boardwalk!

show up to the party naked!

ride a bull! adopt 30 cross eyed cats!

join the circus! backflips every night!

hopscotch every morning!

throw away your phone!

only communicate via pigeon!

flower petals for eyelashes!

live til you’re 120!

retire at 25!

jetpack or unicycle instead of a car!

who cares!

the news says we’re f*cked!

bye!!!!

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about the collective grief and overwhelm so many of us are feeling in the wake of tragedy after tragedy, and how to stay sane in a world mired in insanity. The friends discuss Scott’s past month camping across the country and the many gifts given to us through Nature. They remind us how important it is to pay attention to where we give our energy and make choices from a deeper awareness about what does and does not feel good. They end the episode by guiding listeners through a short meditation to center us back into our hearts, into our connection to divinity, into love.

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about feelings of unworthiness, and the importance of distinguishing between what is real and what is true. So often what we believe to be true is in fact a distortion of our mind. They discuss nudism, and conditioning as it relates to what could be considered natural ways of being. How would you be showing up differently in your life if you felt less bound to your conditioning – if you weren’t as concerned with the opinions of others? The friends also respond to a listener’s question about knowing whether to invest in a difficult friendship or to walk away.

― Rumi

Books Jacob mentioned: 

Co-Dependent No More – Melody Beattie 

Scream Free Parenting – Hal Edward Runkel

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott talk about the importance of choosing yourself over the expectations of others, and the challenges of other people’s opinions and projections when you make choices that align with your truth. They discuss the importance of listening and allowing, rather than trying to force certain narratives or feeling bound to old stories. How can we be more fluid than constricted in our day-to-day experiences? What happens when we consciously consider our well-being in all the choices we make, even and especially in environments that don’t naturally consider our well-being? The friends remind us all that when you honor your truth, and trust in its guidance, you will be led to something (many things) beautiful.

Readings:

From Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”

A Little Bit of Everything, by Dawes

With his back against the San Francisco traffic,

On the bridges side that faces towards the jail,

Setting out to join a demographic,

He hoists his first leg up over the rail.

And a phone call is made,

Police cars show up quickly.

The sergeant slams his passenger door.

He says, 'Hey son why don't you talk through this with me,

Just tell me what you're doing it for.’

'Oh, it's a little bit of everything,

It's the mountains,

It's the fog,

It's the news at six o'clock,

It's the death of my first dog,

It's the angels up above me,

It's the song that they don't sing,

It's a little bit of everything.’

An older man stands in a buffet line,

He is smiling and holding out his plate,

And the further he looks back into his timeline,

That hard road always had led him to today,

And making up for when his bright future had left him,

Making up for the fact that his only son is gone,

And letting everything out once, His server asks him,

Have you figured out yet, what it is you want?

I want a little bit of everything,

The biscuits and the beans,

Whatever helps me to forget about

The things that brought me to my knees,

So pile on those mashed potatoes,

And an extra chicken wing,

I'm having a little bit of everything.

Somewhere a pretty girl is writing invitations,

To a wedding she has scheduled for the fall,

Her man says, 'Baby, can I make an observation?

You don't seem to be having any fun at all.'

She said, 'You just worry about your groomsmen and your shirt-size,

And rest assured that this is making me feel good,

I think that love is so much easier than you realize,

If you can give yourself to someone,

Then you should.

'Cause it's a little bit of everything,

The way you choke, the way you ache,

It is waking up before you,

So I can watch you as you wake.

So in the day in late September,

It's not some stupid little ring,

I'm giving a little bit of everything.

Oh, it's a little bit of everything,

It's the matador and the bull,

It's the suggested daily dosage,

It is the red moon when it's full.

All these psychics and these doctors,

They're all right and they're all wrong,

It's like trying to make out every word,

When they should simply hum along,

It's not some message written in the dark,

Or some truth that no one's seen,

It's a little bit of everything.

In this conversation, Jacob and Scott do a deep dive into intuition. What is it and do we all have it? (Yes, we do.) How do we know whether it is our intuition or our fear guiding us? What tools can we use to strengthen our connection to the intuitive voices within us? They discuss the innately intuitive nature in each of us and the gifts that come from exercising it. They also talk about what to do when our minds freak out over the call to use our intuition (and the mind always freaks out where intuition is involved). This is an important conversation about one of the most profound, and most ignored, aspects of being human.

Go to www.heyjacobhiscott.com to submit a comment or question

Today’s Reading:

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Attributed to Albert Einstein