Naming the Real

At the center of our cultural crisis is a battle for reality—for the role of facts, objective law, and thought itself. As mainstream media is derided as "fake news" and blatant lies become rampant, it starts to feel like we are in a shell game with the truth. Meanwhile, long-held Constitutional norms are violated and the rule of law and due process are threatened. All of this is facilitated, in part, because of the growing culture trend to engage outrage over reason and emotivism over thought. In this episode, we explore examples of the war on reality, how we can reject the temptations to live in alternate realities, and name practices for staying grounded in calm and joy throughout it all.

At the center of our cultural crisis is a clash of values. The current administration's actions reflect an age-old paradigm: us versus them, winners versus losers. It is driven by animal kingdom values, where "might makes right." In this episode, we explore a different paradigm and a different set of values for transcending such limited thinking.

We are living through perilous times—an age of anxiety, crisis, and polarization. In this return to the Our Cultural Crisis series, we explore the 9 mechanisms—emotivism, blindness, tribalism, victimization, moral posturing, de-humanization, outrage, one-sidedness, and violence—that drive our current predicament. These dynamics are as old as time but pertinent as ever. By naming them, we can engage the work of transcending them, sobering up to our times and reckoning how to live powerfully and humbly in such an age of anxiety.

Transformation ultimately has less to do with thinking our way into change than living into it in bodies that have been trained to feel and be fully present. In this episode, we explore a way to create a strong foundation for ongoing transformation by not only recognizing glimmers—moments that slow your body down into an experience of calm and beauty—but challenging yourself to experience more glimmers than you might have thought possible. As you expand your awareness about just how much calm and beauty you can experience, you create the possibility of full embodiment and of living in radical abundance.

In this third conversation with John Phillip Newell, author of The Great Search and numerous books on spirituality, we explore what we talk about when we talk about "oneness." Oneness, as Carl Jung, Julian of Norwich, and Jalaluddin Rumi help us discover, is an archetypal way of experiencing reality. In simple, pragmatic ways, we can grow our awareness of oneness—of our interconnectedness with all things—which unlocks our spiritual experience and our experience of the divine.

There are many competing formulas for happiness. In this episode, exploring the tale of Abd al-Rahman III and his fourteen days of fulfillment, we look at two such formulas. What emerges is a conclusion backed by science: only experiences of beauty and connection make our lives meaningful and, therefore, happy. What then, do we find most beautiful and how do we pursue it? If we can name this, we can identify simple practices for living in the truly beautiful, which is the only path to abiding happiness.

In this second conversation with Nolan Kim, director of Power Coaching, we explore more practices for befriending the body. We begin with a dive into the science behind cold plunging and how a simple breathing practice from Wim Hof can radically boost your immune system. Nolan also outlines a number of exercises that will help you ground in your body, lower your blood pressure, and do the hard things that life requires of all of us. Since learning to be fully in your body is the foundational base of so much transformational practice, this knowledge and these exercises can be, quite literally, life-changing.

Breathing well is central to living well. In this conversation with Nolan Kim, director of Power Coaching, we explore the simplest practices for transforming your sense of presence and power through the transformation of your breath. But this is bigger than breath: ultimately Nolan invites us into a conversation about how to truly choose life while we draw breath, because our time is too precious for anything else.

One of our most profound capacities as humans is the ability to re-story our lives. In this final episode of the storytelling series, we explore the movement from shame to compassion/self-compassion. This is primarily a somatic or embodied process, allowing our bodies to release the stored vital energy that may have become stuck in our system, with groaning, yelling, and whatever else creates emotional flow. With practice, we can release our bodies into new stories, for our sake and for the sake of the world around us.

As a conclusion to the storytelling series, we explore one of the hardest things we ever learn to do: refusing self-judgment and embracing every part of us with compassion. Self-compassion has nothing to do with going soft on ourselves or giving ourselves a pass; in fact, it demands ruthless self-awareness and integrity. It is the death of our ego's self-focus and, for many, a path to the Divine. If we can learn to hold our story and ourselves with compassion, we are well on our way to becoming wounded healers in a hurting world.