This week on The Living Experiment we’re talking about Motivation — the force that gets us to do, accomplish, and change the things we want to. And the force that sometimes fizzles without our really understanding why. So here, we talk about the nature and source of motivation, and the art of cultivating it in the service of our highest goals. From the dynamics that cause us to procrastinate and avoid fulfilling ostensibly worthwhile commitments, to the science behind making change even when change is hard, we explore the realities of harnessing the willingness to do what must be done. We also acknowledge the reality that an unlimited supply of superhuman willpower is often not the magic bullet that many motivational gurus might have you believe. Finally, we offer you some experiments to help you tap into your own best sources of motivation, and to put them to work in ways that feel most rewarding to you. Get full show notes and resources at http://livingexperiment.com/motivation/

Episode 96: Motivation

Join Dallas Hartwig and Pilar Gerasimo for this series of smart, rollicking, no-BS conversations about healthy, happy, conscious living — plus real-life "experiments" to help you discover the practical shifts that work best for you.

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Health & Fitness

 This week we’re talking about psychedelics — the consciousness altering substances, and the extraordinary moment they are having in our culture at this time. We explore the reasons that popular interest in psychedelics has risen dramatically in recent years — although certainly not for the first time — and we consider the historical and emerging scientific research that supports their use in a variety of applications. We also share our own range of lived experiences with psychedelics and why we have both chosen to dabble with — or avoid — them over the years. Finally, we offer some considerations on why and how you might choose to learn more about, experiment with, or take a pass on psychedelics yourself. And as always, we leave you with some experiments to help you delve deeper into this fascinating topic, if you choose. Full show notes and resources at https://livingexperiment.com/psychedelics/ 

Episode 121: Psychedelics

 This week we're talking about Nutritious Movement, the brainchild of our brilliant friend, biomechanist, fitness expert, and best-selling author Katy Bowman. Katy's term "nutritious movement" refers to the type of movement that nourishes, educates, shapes, energizes, and repairs us in ways that support optimal health and vitality. And, as Katy explains during the conversation, that does not describe most conventional fitness approaches. So here, Pilar talks with Katy about a great many science-y things very few of us have ever learned about movement and exercise, including some key differences between the two. Katy shares some misconceptions most of us hold about what good fitness constitutes and requires, and she offers up some wonderfully simple, effective, and sustainable strategies for improving your body's physical form and function. We wrap up with a few experiments to help you discover what nutritious movement feels like and how you can easily enjoy more of it, starting today. Full show notes and resources at https://livingexperiment.com/nutritious-movement/ 

Episode 120: Nutritious Movement with Katy Bowman

This week, we're talking about Pandemic Era Discoveries. Last winter, after two years spent in various forms of social isolation, Dallas and Pilar met up at an improvised San Diego studio to catch up live and in person. We compared notes about how we'd weathered the weirdness of COVID reality, where we're at now, and some of the most rewarding stuff we encountered along the way. From craniosacral therapy to cigars, from continuous glucose monitors to toe correctors, from garden plot puttering to nature-based spirit questing, we serve up some of our favorite COVID keepers, along with some of our just-emerging curiosities. And, as always, we leave you with some experiments to get you thinking about what you'd like to take away from this next phase of post-COVID reality. Get full show notes and resources at https://livingexperiment.com/pandemic-era-discoveries/

Episode 119: Pandemic Era Discoveries

This week we’ve got a special guest episode with Brian Johnson, the creator of Optimize and the Founder + CEΦ of Heroic Public Benefit Corporation. Brian has spent half of the last twenty-five years as a Founder/CEO and the other half as a Philosopher, creating hundreds of his PhilosophersNotes summaries of all sorts of brilliant books worth reading. As a Founder/CEO, he’s built and sold two market-leading social platforms. As a Philosopher, he’s served tens of thousands of people from every country in the world with his Optimize membership, and he has also trained over 3,500 people from 90+ countries with his Optimize Coach program — a 300 day program scientifically proven to change lives for the better. Most recently, in March 2021, with the support of 2,500+ Founding Investors from 75+ countries around the world, Brian’s new business — Heroic Public Benefit Corporation — made history in ways he explains in his chat with Pilar. Get full show notes and resources at https://livingexperiment.com/optimize-brian-johnson/

Episode 118: Optimize with Brian Johnson

This week, Pilar talks with special guests Leslie Salmon Jones and Jeff W. Jones, co-founders of Afro Flow Yoga. Leslie and Jeff created Afro Flow Yoga in 2008, fusing a new blend of expressive movement and rhythmic music from their own explorations of healing and their African-American and Caribbean heritage, in West Africa, Haiti and Jamaica. Leslie and Jeff describe Afro Flow Yoga as an embodied practice, integrating dance movements of the African Diaspora with meditative yoga and live healing music, promoting individual and collective healing in a compassionate, inclusive, non-judgmental and safe environment. In this conversation, Pilar talks with Leslie and Jeff about what inspired them to create Afro Flow Yoga, the special role this practice has in helping us heal our fractured selves and culture at this time, and where they see it going from here. If you haven't already checked out one of their virtual classes, we hope you will so you can experience the whole-person "aha" of Afro Flow Yoga for yourself. Get full show notes and resources at https://livingexperiment.com/afro-flow-yoga/

Episode 96: Motivation

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