Life Full On: The Art of Living Fully

We’re so excited to bring you a brilliant guest Chris Stedman, who is the ideal interviewee for a podcast about adapting spiritual practices and ideas in a way that is secular.
Primo: Chris is a humanist chaplain and community builder who is not religious but whose work is informed by religious questions. He's driven by the specific ways that spirituality answers fundamental human needs. This has led him to being the humanist chaplain at Yale, before becoming a University lecturer.
Secundo: He’s just written a great book that brings this sensibility to a huge question how can we be human online? And how can online help us be more human? 
Chris' Book is 'Finding Realness, Meaning and Belonging In Our Digital Lives' - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irl-Finding-Realness-Meaning-Belonging/dp/1506463517
These are three things this conversation made us think about:

1. How we can think about our digital lives are in some ways just as “real” as the rest of our lives - and equally important.
2. How vulnerability and honesty can be liberating, especially at a time when we are encouraged to always put on a facade.
3. How we can think deeply about religion and what it might offer us without actually being religious.

The LIfefulness Community
Obviously we don't just talk about creating meaning and belonging online we also bloody do it. These are two ways you can get involved.
Lifefulness 101 - this is our 12 week collective learning experience, which starts in January - https://www.lifefulness.io/lifefulness-101
Lifefulness Small Groups - we also gather in online small groups and you can apply to join here - https://www.lifefulness.io/membership
Thanks so much for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzanne Alderson is a mental health expert, author and community builder who founded the charity Parenting Mental Health following the attempted suicide of her daughter Issy.
Whilst her work is dedicated to helping parents with mental health her story and book will resonate with anyone who has been a child, been a parent, wants to be a parent, wants good mental health or a society with mental healthy children. This is exactly the sort of conversation we created the podcast for: moving, informative and a lot fun.
The story of how Suzanne turned her pain and need into an online community for parents of children and teenagers suffering from acute mental illness is stunning. Today she supports over 20,000 parents through its Facebook group, in-person events and online mentoring and training programme!
Buy Her Book
'Never Let Go' is a great book. James and I loved it and you can find it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Never-Let-Go-Through-Illness/dp/1785043315
Three Key Takeaways:
1. It can be so difficult for parents to accept that their child is struggling with mental health challenges, but we have to accept what’s happening to help change it.
2. We shouldn’t view mental health struggles as “bad behavior” on the part of our children - these are real illnesses which need to be taken seriously.
3. Suzanne realized she needed to move “from parenting to partnership,” stepping away from the traditional parenting role so that she could listen to her daughter and what she needed - we explore what this means in the podcast!
Our Course: Lifefulness 101
There are still Early Bird Discounts available on Lifefulness 101 which starts on January 13th.
Find out more: https://www.lifefulness.io/lifefulness-101
Lifefulness Small Groups
You can still apply to be part of the Lifefulness Small Groups. Follow this link: https://www.lifefulness.io/membership


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John C. Parkin is the author of publishing phenomenon 'F*** It: The Ultimate Spiritual Way' which has sold over 600 000 copies. The book has changed people's lives with its simple message of saying 'F*** It' to unnecessary concerns, societal pressures and auto-generated stresses..This podcast is a clarion call to relax and give up any worries that are not warranted. What can you walk away from? What can you leave behind? What can you say 'I'd really rather not' to?.James and I got so much from this podcast and we're sure you will too..New Course: Lifefulness 101.In the podcast you'll hear about our new course - Lifefulness 101 - that launches in January. Lifefulness 101 is a 12 week group learning experience that will give you the skills, tools and team to thrive in 2021.
You can find tickets on the link below Super Early Bird Tickets are available until December 3rd for 50% off at £90. There's a very limited number available and they're already selling fast.
https://www.lifefulness.io/lifefulness-101
Thanks so much for listening, and please get in touch if you've got any questions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest today is John Vervaeke - a cognitive scientist and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. James and I were both so excited to speak to him as he has undertaken an amazing examination and integration of modern cognitive science, ancient wisdom practices, philosophy, and history in his incredible YouTube series ‘Awakening From The Meaning Crisis’. 
John’s theory is this: our culture today is beset by multiple overlapping crises which make our lives difficult: financial, ecological, political - tons of crises.
But underlying and connecting these is a crisis of meaning: the sense that we have lost a narrative which situates us in the world and helps us make sense of it all. 
Three Key Takeaways 

1. You’ll understand how our increased sense of loneliness and disconnection is related to the loss of big-picture meaning in our lives;
2. You’ll learn, from a cognitive scientific viewpoint, how religions fulfil deep human needs which haven’t gone away in our more secular age;
3. You’ll learn about the new science of wisdom. Obviously this is at the center of many religions and traditions throughout the ages, so how might we cultivate wisdom today?

Lifefulness 101
We launched a new course Lifefulness 101 which you can find here: https://www.lifefulness.io/lifefulness-101
The Early Bird tickets last until December 3rd and you get a 50% discount.
Lifefulness Community
We are also offering a discount on becoming a member of the Lifefulness Community to anyone who joins LIfefulness 101 and there are more details on the site.
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Jonathan Rowson is a chess grandmaster and philosopher who is at the forefront of rethinking society at every level. Jonathan founded a research institute called Perspectiva that is publishing ideas, and organising an eco-system of change-makers dedicated to creating the world of tomorrow.
Jonathan's work has been really influential on the development of LIfefulness, in particular his 'Spiritualise' report for the RSA, which showed how a spiritual sensibility was needed to tackle today's social issues.
Report - https://www.thersa.org/reports/spiritualise-cultivating-spiritual-sensibility-to-address-21st-century-challenges
Another jumping off point was his brilliant book looking back at the lessons he learnt from his chess career 'The Moves That Matter: A Chess Grandmaster on the Game of Life'.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moves-That-Matter-Chess-Grandmaster/dp/1635573327
Lifefulness 101
We launched a new course Lifefulness 101 which you can find here: https://www.lifefulness.io/lifefulness-101
The Early Bird tickets last until December 3rd and you get a 50% discount.
Lifefulness Community
We are also offering a discount on becoming a member of the Lifefulness Community to anyone who joins LIfefulness 101 and there are more details on the site. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today our guest is Shappi Khorsandi comedian, actor and author. I've known Shappi since we gigged on the stand up circuit together, and always loved her way of dealing with all manner of topics from politics to parenthood. Her passion for living a good life in a secular way led to her being elected President of the British Humanist Association in 2016 and today she is still the Vice-President. ..Shappi’s outlook is coloured by an unusual life story - her parents emigrated from Iran when she was a child and she was brought up as a sort of culturally Muslim atheist. Pretty cool. Her journey to TV stardom has not always been easy, leading to addictions and 12 step programmes...3 Key Takeaways...

1. We deep-dive into the importance of funerals, weddings and rites of passage.
2. You’ll learn how taking part in “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” created a spiritual transformation in Shappi
3. There’s a deep dive into how a lack of meaning, disconnection and low self-esteem led into addiction.

..News: Lifefulness 101..We are launching Lifefulness 101 - a new group learning experience that will help you devise meaningful goals for 2021 and give you a community of absolute legends who will inspire you to make them happen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest today is Samantha Moyo. Sam is vibrating harpstring of a human. In 2013 she founded MorningGloryville - an early morning sober rave. The concept went off like a bass bomb. City workers, professionals and folk of all stripes were kicking off their day with a dance to DJs like Fat Boy Slim.
Joyful, non-rational, transformative experiences are fundamental to being human, are a fundamental part of Lifefulness and she is an expert in them.
Her work was recognised in the ‘How We Gather’ report from Harvard Divinity School as an important way millennials were finding community in a post-religious world. Today Sam is a culture change and innovation consultant for major brands, and a spreader of wisdom and joy.
In this conversation you'll get a glimpse into a fascinating pan-religious upbringing in Zimbabwe before we dive into the MorningGloryville story.
Fans of the show will know that there’s adult language and this episode has got more than most. There’s an unusual story at the end which certainly acknowledges the existence of sex.
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Liz Oldfield is a remarkable woman who began life in TV and radio, before becoming director of the Theos Thinktank - which is dedicated to studying faith in the UK. 
This means she’s the first Christian we’ve had on the show. Sound the trumpets, kill the fatted calf, sing hosannas in the highest, and then some even higher than that.
Liz appears regularly in the media on matters of faith and culture. You might have seen her on BBC One, Sky News, the World Service, or caught her writing in The Financial Times.
What You'll Get.
I thought we were going to talk about faith in Britain, the changing landscape of belief and her reports but we ended up getting a breakdown of what she gets from her church.
I realised I’d never spoken to a religious person like this (and Liz hadn’t spoken about her faith this way either).
You’ll hear what it’s like to experience God, the support her community gives her, how central the worship experience is to her life, the role of money in community and more.

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Today my guest is Guy Claxton - emeritus Professor of the Learning Sciences at the University of Winchester, cognitive scientist, author of over 30 books and a world leader in the field of education. 
Combined with his background as a researcher Guy's a balls-to-the-wall spiritual seeker. Have you seen the Netflix documentary ‘Wild Wild Country’ about the Rajneesh community? Guy was part of the Rajneesh in India but got out before they all went crazy in Oregon. 
His life and work show how an appreciation of spiritual pathways can be scientific, academic and not at all hippy. 
And, I love him, so you’ll love him.
In the conversation:
The main reason I got Guy is because he’s an expert in embodied cognition - an idea that is so important when linking ancient spiritual practices to modern knowledge.
Embodied cognition is the idea that you think, feel and are with your body as much as your mind. It shows how this stuff is not elite, academic or impractical. For instance, Traders on the stock market who are in touch with their embodied cognition and bodies make more money.
On top of that you’ll learn what it was like in the Rajneesh community, what spirituality means to him, how these practices stablise altered states, and, as ever, a whole lot more.

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Today we're speaking to Dan Snow who is one of Britain’s most recognisable historians. Dan’s a BBC TV presenter, filmmaker, author podcaster and even runs his own History Channel, History Hit.
The guy loves history and is on a mission to pump as much of it out there as possible.
Dan and Sanderson first worked together in 2013 when they created a secular Remembrance Sunday service. It turned out that it was Britain’s first ever non-religious commemoration of the British war dead.
Because not only is Dan interested in these fundamental human questions as a historian, but he’s also a passionate humanist who regularly campaigns on issues close to his heart. 
In the conversation:
One of the main reasons we wanted to speak to Dan is because he’s created a sort of secular spirituality of history. He has found something that moves him profoundly, then dedicated his days to living it as truly as possible.  
On top of that Dan speaks very openly about his mental health struggles, and told us it was the time he’s done it in public. 
Amidst all of this there are insights into community, his ritual practices and a really handy tip for looking round museums!


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