Gratitude: Complementing last week's episode on "Thriving During the Holidays," Benjamin shares a few brief thoughts on gratitude for Thanksgiving.

Thriving During the Holidays: Whenever I'm doing the edits on an episode and I exclaim to myself, "This is really useful material!" I know we've done good work. In this episode, we talk about various tactics and strategies we can deploy to not just survive but actually thrive during the holiday season, from Thanksgiving through … Continue reading "Episode 19: Thriving During the Holidays"

Energy Shielding and the Water We Swim In: This episode is about using shielding to more effectively navigate the Water We Swim In. Right now in the world there's a strong vibration of chaos, anxiety and fear, and many of us are feeling deeply overwhelmed. Shielding gives us a tool to deal with the challenges … Continue reading "Episode 18: Energy Shielding and the Water We Swim In"

Energetic Center and Energy Shielding: This is a very important episode. In this episode, we discuss energy shielding, as a means to protect ourselves from negative energy. We begin our discussion by talking about how to find and expand energetic center, which is necessary in order to shield. We then move on to a discussion … Continue reading "Episode 17: Energetic Center and Energy Shielding"

Energy and Flow: In this episode, we discuss energy directly for the first time--when and how Jerry teaches it, the connection between it and the breath, and why we use the word "energy" instead of words like chi, prana or kundalini. We talk some about how we can begin to put energy to use in … Continue reading "Episode 16: Energy and Flow"

Awakening: This episode will be the first of several in a row in which we speak directly about vital energy. In this episode, we talk about Benjamin's shift from being skeptical (to say the least) about the idea of energy to awakening to it as a genuine, verifiable aspect of reality. This awakening unfolded through … Continue reading "Episode 15: Awakening"

Navigating intensity: I'm going to be honest with you: I'm very proud of this episode. In this episode, we bring together the strands we've introduced over the past several weeks. We take rating our perceived experience, as we've talked about for the past three episodes, and tie that concept in to our discussion of the … Continue reading "Episode 14: Navigating Intensity (RPE, Part 4)"

Rating Your Perceived Experience--Putting It Into Practice: In this episode, we discuss how to really put RPE into practice. We give a detailed exploration of how RPE will shift through a weight-training set, in order to point out the level of presence RPE practice can offer us. We explore how cardio RPE might differ when … Continue reading "Episode 13: Rating Your Perceived Experience–Putting It Into Practice"

RPE, Part 2: In this epsiode, we continue to explore RPE. We discuss RPE for stretching, and then get into the big subject of food, hunger and satiety. Because talking about food in a fitness context often brings up questions related to weight loss, we talk about strategies for weight loss as well. We finish … Continue reading "Episode 12: RPE, Part 2"

RPE, Part 1: RPE ("Rate of Perceived Exertion" or "Rate of Perceived Experience") is a big subject, and in this and the next several episodes, we explore it in depth. In this episode, we discuss RPE in the areas of strength-training and cardio. Our conversation takes us into areas as diverse as Buddhism, the energetic … Continue reading "Episode 11: RPE, Part 1"