Practicing Human

In this episode, we discuss what self-esteem is, why it's gotten a bad reputation, why it's actually extremely important, and how to develop the two components that comprise healthy self-esteem. All of this research is based on the self-esteem section of the book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, by Scott Barry Kaufman.

If you're interested in registering for Scott's 8-week course that starts in September (which I have no affiliation with) you can do so at this link: https://scottbarrykaufman.com/course

In this episode, we talk about what non-striving looks like in your meditation practice and in real life. If you've ever struggled with the concept of non-striving, not quite sure what it means and how it's practical in real life, this episode is for you.

As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298

And if you'd like to get daily inspirational text messages to your phone from me, just text the word "podcast" to +1 (631) 305-2874

In this episode, we discuss the importance of taking time to metaphorically exhale. 

As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298

And if you'd like to get daily inspirational text messages to your phone from me, just text the word "podcast" to +1 (631) 305-2874

In this episode, we discuss how the thoughts and ideas we most see in our newsfeed impacts how we think about and perceive the world, and also how we can reimagine our relationship to this information intake so that it's a positive force in our life.

As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298

And if you'd like to get daily inspirational text messages to your phone from me, just text the word "podcast" to +1 (631) 305-2874

In this episode, we discuss how burnout can creep up on us and three steps to help prevent it.

As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298

And if you'd like to get daily inspirational text messages to your phone from me, just text the word "podcast" to +1 (631) 305-2874

In this episode, we discuss a quote by Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman about finding wholeness through more simplicity, minimalism, and meaning, rather than the chase for more goals. The quote is: "In the rush to feel whole, people will often add more and more goals to their plate when in reality what people often need is to add more simplicity and minimalism to their lives so they can energetically put their entire being into deepening something that is already meaningful." You can follow Scott on Twitter at this link and Instagram at this link.

Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved, all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness, you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say it is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye

In this episode, we explore an episode called happy/sad body. It's a great way to better understand how your body language impacts your psychological and emotional state.

As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298

And if you'd like to get daily inspirational text messages to your phone from me, just text the word "podcast" to +1 (631) 305-2874

In this episode, we discuss a poem by Li-Young Lee. In the episode, I make a mistake by saying the poem is titled "So, we're dust" when in fact it's titled "To Hold":

So we’re dust. In the meantime, my wife and I
make the bed. Holding opposite edges of the sheet,
we raise it, billowing, then pull it tight,
measuring by eye as it falls into alignment
between us. We tug, fold, tuck. And if I’m lucky,
she’ll remember a recent dream and tell me.

One day we’ll lie down and not get up.
One day, all we guard will be surrendered.

Until then, we’ll go on learning to recognize
what we love, and what it takes
to tend what isn’t for our having.
So often, fear has led me
to abandon what I know I must relinquish
in time. But for the moment,
I’ll listen to her dream,
and she to mine, our mutual hearing calling
more and more detail into the light
of a joint and fragile keeping.

In today's episode, we discuss a simple technique you can use in your meditation practice to refine your concentration.

As always, if you'd like to get free access to my resource library, including guided meditations, book recommendations, app recommendations, and more, text your email address to: +1 (631) 337-8298

And if you'd like to get daily inspirational text messages to your phone from me, just text the word "podcast" to +1 (631) 305-2874