Sharing today's interview with you is quite honestly one of the greatest gifts I could have ever dreamed of giving my listeners. It has been a lifetime in the making + a dream come true, and I couldn't be more honored to have had this sacred soul-conversation with the one, the only- Mark Nepo.

Mark Nepo moved and inspired readers and seekers all over the world with his #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Awakening. Beloved as a poet, teacher, and storyteller, Mark has been called "one of the finest spiritual guides of our time," "a consummate storyteller," and "an eloquent spiritual teacher." His work is widely accessible and used by many and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages. A bestselling author, he has published twenty books and recorded fourteen audio projects. In 2015, he was given a Life-Achievement Award by AgeNation. And in 2016, he was named by Watkins: Mind Body Spirit as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People, and was also chosen as one of OWN's SuperSoul 100, a group of inspired leaders using their gifts and voices to elevate humanity. In 2017 Mark became a regular columnist for Spirituality & Health Magazine. Mark is the author of twenty books, his most recent is More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and in the World, published by Atria Books in July 2018.

Friends, you are going to want to grab a pen + paper for this one; every word was full of deeply profound wisdom, and I encourage you to listen again and again. I hope you walk away feeling as grounded and present in your life as ever, leaving with the knowing that, as Mark so eloquently stated- there is no other place to go than HERE.

In this episode:

• Today's guest, Mark Nepo [ 0:42 ]

• The things that break us open and what happens on the other side of them [ 8:13 ]

• Becoming a student of all paths [ 11:30 ]

• What it means to move through time vs. entering time and how we can enter our lives [ 14:15 ]

• How to return to where we are [ 17:35 ]

• The gifts and shadows of both solitude and community [ 25:15 ]

• The deep paradox of life, love and loss [ 28:40 ]

• Mark shares a poem from "The One Life We're Given" [ 36:00 ]

• How we can stop struggling + fighting and start flowing + allowing [ 39:05 ]

• The original meaning of the word "perfect" [ 45:00 ]

• The other menacing assumption- urgency [ 45:35 ]

• How Mark begins his day and why rituals matter [ 47:15 ]

• Letting go of guilt when we make the choice to give to ourselves [ 52:53 ]

• What it means to be carried toward the light [ 58:00 ]

Soul Shifting Quotes:

• "Every person is given the chance to be dropped into the depth of life."

• "What is opened in us is always more important than what opens us."

• "The mind may be the greatest tool that a human being could have, but the heart is the greatest threshold."

• "The only place to transcend to is here."

• "One of the menacing assumptions that always keeps us from living our life, is the assumption that life is happening other than where we are."

• "Remember and affirm that there is no "there", there is only "here.""

• "We need to hold nothing back, we need to be as present as possible- when life pushes us away, we need to lean back in."

• "If you love, you will know loss. And if you don't love, then what's the point?"

• "The reward for being thorough is being whole-hearted."

• "Everything is worth writing about, everything is a miracle- I'm the one who comes in and out of focus. It's all about discovering, rather than inventing."

• "We never have to apologize for the truth of our experience."

• "Even atheists believe in something larger than them; they just call it 'nothing', I just call it 'everything'."

• "That seed below the ground, in the dark, has no idea that there is even a sun or a surface… and it is drawn to the light."

Links Mentioned:

• Read Carlos Castenada's Journey to Ixtlan

• Grab your FREE training, How to Call in your Tribe + Create Content that Converts

Purchase Your Ticket to the Ignite Your Soul Summit Here

Learn more about Mark and all of his incredible writings at marknepo.com

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