Showing Up To Life

As the early comments roll in, it seems that most folks are happy with a once-a-week podcast/youtube channel.

I think whichever way it goes, it will take on a creative, hybrid appearance of some kind. It likely won’t be an all-or-nothing kind of solution.

So what’s your vote?

In today’s episode, I share some further feelings on the past couple of weeks and I share my gratitude for the support I’ve already received from some of you amazing Human Beings!

I also talk about the importance of forgiveness to allow us to meet life as it arises and to become buoyant in the flow of life.

I hope you enjoy today’s episode!

https://youtu.be/hJ5GzYSlCgM

Also, just want to make sure you see this: We are just about wrapping up the first run of the mindfulness and self-compassion course and it’s been amazing! I’m planning to start the next cohort in the first week of January, if not the week before. Just a heads up. Let me know if you’d like to register. Early bird pricing applies.

First of all, I want to apologize for my absence! Please know that it takes a lot to keep me from doing these recordings and writing these emails every day.

Takes a lot, indeed.

So please understand that my absence was necessary and my hope is that the process I endured during this time will inform and inspire future episodes.

You can learn more about what I’m saying by watching or listening to today’s episode:

In case you’re unable to watch or listen today, I want you to know that you’ve helped me through this process.

Whether you are one of the people who reached out to check in on me, or you are just one of the people I know are out there listening and watching and learning and healing, you helped me.

And I thank you for that!

Well, today has been an opportunity to practice what I preach!

I’ve had to practice acceptance, patience, compassion, and forgiveness… all in one episode!!!

I hope you enjoy all of it!!!

NEW COURSE ALERT!!!

I’m so excited!!!

Over 8 Weeks, I’ll guide a group through lessons and practices to help us all see the news, current events, and social media that works to keep us anxious, depressed, and/or stressed all the time these days.

We’ll work on experiencing all these issues - over which we have little-to-no control - with the balance, grounding, and calm of mindfulness, allowing us to discuss it all without reactivity, even with people in our lives with polarizing views to ours.

And we’re kicking it off the weekend before Thanksgiving, giving you a chance to manage all those difficult conversations, no matter what your world view.

(I will not be promoting any specific politics or morals in this course. It is about understanding what’s going on without judgment so we can coexist with those with whom we disagree.)

Check out this page for more information and to claim your spot:

artburnscoaching.ac-page.com/mindfulness-for-a-messy-world

Questions? Email me at [email protected] or book a free phone consultation with me here:

https://calendly.com/artburns/45-min-coaching-session

We can cover your questions about the program and also whatever else is on your mind.

If you saw/heard yesterday’s second segment, you witnessed the Showing up to Life version of the singer who shouts:  “We Love you, Cleveland!” from a stage in Milwaukee.

Well, today I got to tell you the story I thought I was telling you yesterday.

It’s a story about how a single mistake can have a rippling effect of consequences that are only seen over the course of time.

The trouble is that I - and probably a lot of other people! - tend to react to each one of these consequences as though it were a new event of some kind.

But all these consequences arose from a single mistake. So is it fair or productive to cast blame every time we notice one of these consequences?

I use the second segment of today’s episode to talk, generally, about Men’s Mental Health.

Specifically, I discuss how difficult it is for men to discuss, much less understand and heal from, their mental health challenges.

And I end the episode with a little invitation/challenge to reach out to the men in your life with more specific questions that might help start the vital communication that is missing for most men.

I hope you enjoy today’s episode.

https://youtu.be/PTDb_SXTil8

NEW COURSE ALERT!!!

I’m so excited!!!

Over 8 Weeks, I’ll guide a group through lessons and practices to help us all see the news, current events, and social media that works to keep us anxious, depressed, and/or stressed all the time these days.

We’ll work on experiencing all these issues - over which we have little-to-no control - with the balance, grounding, and calm of mindfulness, allowing us to discuss it all without reactivity, even with people in our lives with polarizing views to ours.

And we’re kicking it off the weekend before Thanksgiving, giving you a chance to manage all those difficult conversations, no matter what your world view.

(I will not be promoting any specific politics or morals in this course. It is about understanding what’s going on without judgment so we can coexist with those with whom we disagree.)

Check out this page for more information and to claim your spot:

artburnscoaching.ac-page.com/mindfulness-for-a-messy-world

Questions? Email me at [email protected] or book a free phone consultation with me here:

https://calendly.com/artburns/45-min-coaching-session

We can cover your questions about the program and also whatever else is on your mind.

In today’s first segment, I discuss an idea that came to me in a deep meditation of open awareness.

The thought, and the concept I discuss here, can be summed up in the statement: We are the entertainment. Our consciousness is the show.

I’d love to know your opinion on this segment, so please send me an email!

Today’s second segment belongs on a blooper reel!

I totally goofed halfway through a story and it’s kinda funny so I’m keeping it in the episode.

But before the goof, I talk about Men’s Mental Health Awareness and include a very important announcement.

NEW COURSE ALERT!!!

I’m working on the information page this afternoon and hope to have it published before tomorrow, but I want to let you know about this new course I’ll be offering.

I’m so excited!!!

Over 8 Weeks, I’ll guide a group through lessons and practices to help us all see the news, current events, and social media that works to keep us anxious, depressed, and/or stressed all the time these days.

We’ll work on experiencing all these issues - over which we have little-to-no control - with the balance, grounding, and calm of mindfulness, allowing us to discuss it all without reactivity, even with people in our lives with polarizing views to ours.

And we’re kicking it off the weekend before Thanksgiving, giving you a chance to manage all those difficult conversations, no matter what your world view.

(I will not be promoting any specific politics or morals in this course. It is about understanding what’s going on without judgment so we can coexist with those with whom we disagree.)

The details:

8 Week Course, starting Saturday, 11/20.

Group meets every Saturday, via Zoom, at 6 pm EST (5 CST, 4 MST, 3 PST)

Cost: $88

Questions? Email me at [email protected] or book a free phone consultation with me here:

https://calendly.com/artburns/45-min-coaching-session

We can cover your questions about the program and also whatever else is on your mind.

In today’s first segment, I talk about the importance of meeting life’s struggles without shame.

When we find ourselves struggling with any of life’s challenges, it is normal and natural to feel a measure of shame at what we may perceive as a failure or shortcoming of some kind.

But when we allow the shame to engage us it can disguise the true nature of the suffering: it’s almost always not what’s wrong with you; it’s almost always what’s happened to you.

In the second segment, I use a personal story to illustrate how our struggles are often lessons in disguise.

And with a little practice, we can learn to experience struggle and difficulties in our lives with the open and curious energy of mindfulness.

It is in this space where healing and learning can occur.

​​https://youtu.be/53f7nEZS5Bc

NEW COURSE ALERT!!!

I’m working on the information page this afternoon and hope to have it published before tomorrow, but I want to let you know about this new course I’ll be offering.

I’m so excited!!!

Over 8 Weeks, I’ll guide a group through lessons and practices to help us all see the news, current events, and social media that works to keep us anxious, depressed, and/or stressed all the time these days.

We’ll work on experiencing all these issues - over which we have little-to-no control - with the balance, grounding, and calm of mindfulness, allowing us to discuss it all without reactivity, even with people in our lives with polarizing views to ours.

And we’re kicking it off the weekend before Thanksgiving, giving you a chance to manage all those difficult conversations, no matter what your world view.

(I will not be promoting any specific politics or morals in this course. It is about understanding what’s going on without judgment so we can coexist with those with whom we disagree.)

The details:

8 Week Course, starting Saturday, 11/20.

Group meets every Saturday, via Zoom, at 6 pm EST (5 CST, 4 MST, 3 PST)

Cost: $88

Questions? Email me at [email protected] or book a free phone consultation with me here:

https://calendly.com/artburns/45-min-coaching-session

We can cover your questions about the program and also whatever else is on your mind.

After a couple of days off to recuperate from what turned out to be a purely imagined illness - but felt quite real at the time! - I’m back with a new episode and an important announcement.

First, the announcement:

Starting Saturday, 11/20, I will be offering a new 8-week course that will focus on the skills and understanding necessary to make sense of, and handle the overwhelm of the world in which we’re living.

Turning on the news, social media, or even a lot of the content we’d call ‘entertainment’, is often a difficult and even traumatizing experience that makes us want to run and hide to escape the difficult feelings.

But running from these things never really works and in the end, the overwhelming emotions are made even stronger the harder we try to escape them.

The answer, therefore, is to learn to sit with all the information and energy without becoming overwhelmed.

For this, we can use mindfulness and compassion practices.

And this is precisely what we’ll be doing over this 8-week course.

I’ll have a page set up in the next day or two with more information, but if you have any questions or would like to take advantage of the early-bird pricing between now and Monday, please send me an email: [email protected]

In today’s episode, I talk about one of these skills.

In our lives, at any given moment, we’re going to be predominantly (or fully!) in the mode of construction - we’re figuring things out - or conduition, where we are grounded into our present moment experience.

It’s not accurate to say that one mode is preferable over the other, even though our brains will always tend towards construction mode.

As I explain in today’s episode, the key is to be aware of which mode you’re in at any given moment, decide whether this is appropriate to the current experience, and adjust as necessary.

This is what I describe as a moment-to-moment course correction, and it becomes available to you through super simple practices as I describe in today’s episode.

I hope you enjoy it!

Owing to a decision I made last night and inspired by a conversation about decision-making with an amazing client this morning, I thought we could make this whole episode about decisions.

I hope you enjoy the audio/video, but here is the practice I suggest during the episode:

As always, there is a link below you can use to schedule a free coaching session if you’d like to do more work around this.

For any simple questions, feel free to email me at [email protected]

If you’d like to discuss this further, there is an amazing opportunity before you.

By clicking the link below, you are claiming the opportunity to learn one or two of the vital practices I discuss in my videos.

And you are also claiming the opportunity to know whether a coaching relationship might be right for you.

Best of all, this session is presented free of charge to you. So you really have nothing to lose.

Click here to change your life with me:

https://calendly.com/artburns/45-min-coaching-session

I hope you are meeting this moment with kindness, acceptance, curiosity, and compassion. And I want you to know that at any moment you have the opportunity to do so.

In today’s first segment, I talk more about the two biological imperatives of Attachment and Authenticity.

Specifically, I discuss how these two drives can come into conflict when we enter romantic relationships.

As happens with children sometimes, we sacrifice the authenticity for the connection we need so desperately.

When this happens, as Dan Siegel says, our relationship becomes more like a smoothie rather than the more healthy and integrated fruit salad it could be.

In the second segment, I talk about how this all applies to stress.

Particularly, I discuss the vagus nerve and Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal theory.

It turns out that in order to achieve the connection and authenticity we really need throughout our lives, we must first bring our nervous system to what Dr Porges calls the Social Engagement mode of our nervous system.

Fortunately, mindfulness and compassion will promote parasympathetic nervous system activation while also increasing your vagal tone and making the process more optimized and efficient!

Enjoy!

If you’d like to discuss this further, there is an amazing opportunity before you.

By clicking the link below, you are claiming the opportunity to learn one or two of the vital practices I discuss in my videos.

And you are also claiming the opportunity to know whether a coaching relationship might be right for you.

Best of all, this session is presented free of charge to you. So you really have nothing to lose.

Click here to change your life with me:

https://calendly.com/artburns/45-min-coaching-session

Well, it was unintended, but we’re starting off the week with an old-school single segment episode! Woo-Hoo!

I grew up in a very hostile and confrontational environment, both in my home and in the New York City surroundings outside my home.

When I was about 25 years old, I was even the victim of a horrific violent crime.

So I understand, perhaps more than most people, the potential for violence in the world.

But I also understand a few other things about violence in the world.

I understand that, despite my own direct experience and what I see in movies and in the news, that the world is essentially peaceful and cooperative.

I know also that what we practice is what we become and that, while gaining physical abilities of defense, we stand the risk of creating a tendency towards violence.

And I understand that while there is plenty of violence in the long history of human evolution, our true strength and survival were never based on brute strength, but rather on our abilities of cooperation and cunning.

In today’s episode, I talk about all this and more and I would love to hear your thoughts:

And if anyone wants to learn Tai Chi with me, please let me know!

If you’d like to discuss this further, there is an amazing opportunity before you.

By clicking the link below, you are claiming the opportunity to learn one or two of the vital practices I discuss in my videos.

And you are also claiming the opportunity to know whether a coaching relationship might be right for you.

Best of all, this session is presented free of charge to you. So you really have nothing to lose.

Click here to change your life with me:

https://calendly.com/artburns/45-min-coaching-session