Showing Up To Life

I hear all the time from my students and clients that they believe that if they are not in a place of calm bliss, they are obviously not practicing mindfulness correctly.

But the truth is that this is an impossible ideal.

In today’s episode, I discuss this and give you some pointers and advice on handling your racing or triggered mind in mindfulness:

If you’d like to learn more, please claim your free coaching session with me here:

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

We experience our lives, moment by moment, in four very specific ways:

Physically, emotionally, and cognitively.

The fourth way is a little less straightforward.

The fourth way we experience anything in our lives is in the tendencies, patterns, and even the trauma of our lives.

This fourth pillar is kinda like a prism through which the world passes and each of us has a prism that is totally unique to ourselves.

In today’s episode, I explore this important topic:

And in today’s episode, I also discuss a new opportunity I have for you!

I will be offering a weekly group meeting for anyone who is interested. This weekly meeting will be an opportunity for deeper learning and understanding.

It’s meant to be affordable (Say $15 per session vs $100 per hour for 1:1 coaching!)

And it’s open to all!

If you’re interested in this, please email me back at [email protected]. If there is enough interest, I’ll figure out the details.

Also, if you’re interested in joining us for a weekly meditation and short discussion, you can register for my mid-week meetup here:

https://www.meetup.com/learning-to-surf-talks-on-buddhism-meditation-mindfulness/events/vhrtfsycckblc/

And if you’d prefer to have a 1:1 talk, as always that is available - totally free! - here:

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

The other day, I posted this to Facebook:

Almost 10 years ago I gave up drinking alcohol and I had this feeling that “Yes! Finally! This is the answer!!”

A few years later, I went 100% vegan and lost 100 lbs and I thought: “This! This is what I’ve needed all along!”

A few years later, I discovered mindfulness and compassion practices, and I knew “This is it! NOW it all makes sense!”

A few months ago, for the first time, I recognized my trauma. And I sat down and said “Hoo Boy.”

In today’s episode, I unpack these statements and talk about the deeper meanings:

If you believe you can’t accomplish any of these things; if you believe what you might have gone through as a child wasn’t ‘really’ traumatizing or abusive, I beg for the opportunity to help you arrive at a deeper understanding.

If you want to take me up on it, just click this link to schedule your free coaching session with me.

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

We all know life can be unpredictable.

Any given moment can be either joyous and easy or sad and difficult.

For this very reason, regulation must happen on a moment-by-moment basis.

In today’s episode, I talk about this:

If you’d like to learn more, please book a free coaching session with me here:

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

Connection to other humans is as important as nutrition, hydration, and exercise.

Seriously. It’s really that important.

Scientists tell us that if a human baby is fed, cleaned, and protected, but not held by another human, that baby will die.

Many studies have shown that the survival rate of even the most deadly diseases we know is deeply impacted by the number and quality of social connections patients have in their lives.

In today’s episode, I talk about this topic and also give you a really simple practice to cultivate this essential connection in your life:

There are many more ways to practice connection via compassion!

If you’d like to learn more, you can send me an email - art@artburnscoaching - or simply use this link to schedule a call with me (It’s free and it could change your life!):

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

And speaking of connection, I want you to know that we now have a facebook community linked to this podcast. Please join us!

Join the Facebook Community Here

And another community is the one I meet every Wednesday night for a guided meditation followed by what is always an amazing conversation afterwards.

We offer this hour by donation, which is allowed to be $0.

If you’d like to join us (And I hope you do!), click here to register:

Join the Meditation Group Here!

Presence is a vital skill for so many reasons!

In presence, we can notice something positive in an otherwise difficult situation, allowing us to down-regulate our nervous system and maintain the ability to find creative solutions.

In presence, we can sense our own tension arising and take action for ourselves.

And in presence, we can notice and feel the feelings of another.

This is the gateway to empathy and compassion that are so important in every form of relationship we can possibly have!

In today’s episode, I cover all of this and how some delicious string beans saved the evening for someone I know:

I want you to know that we now have a facebook community linked to this podcast. Please join us!

Join the Facebook Community Here

And another community is the one I meet every Wednesday night for a guided meditation followed by what is always an amazing conversation afterward.

We offer this hour by donation, which is allowed to be $0.

If you’d like to join us (And I hope you do!), click here to register:

Join the Meditation Group Here!

And finally, if you’re looking for more intensive work, you can book a 1:1 coaching session, completely cost-free, by clicking this link:

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

It’s a fundamental law of nature that things work better, perform better, feel better, etc, when things are in balance and integrated.

And you are no different!

If all you do is work, you are out of balance…

If you spend all day (as I used to!) being angry and resentful of the people around you, you are out of balance…

And the need for balance shows up in all areas of our life:

It’s in our diets, our exercise, our screen time, and our time spent in nature, to name just a few.

In today’s episode, I talk about the need for balance, the science behind this understanding, and some simple ways you can create balance in your life:

If you feel like you need some support, I want you to know that we now have a Facebook community linked to this podcast. Please join us!

Join the Facebook Community Here

And another community is the one I meet every Wednesday night for a guided meditation followed by what is always an amazing conversation afterward.

We offer this hour by donation, which is allowed to be $0.

If you’d like to join us (And I hope you do!), click here to register:

Join the Meditation Group Here!

And finally, if you’re looking for more intensive work, you can book a 1:1 coaching session, completely cost-free, by clicking this link:

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

Jon Kabat-Zinn, from whom I have learned so much about mindfulness, stress, and living a life of equanimity, has a great description.

He says that most of us go through life thinking that our body is simply here to hold our head on as we think our way through our lives.

And he’s right!

When we ‘live in our heads’ we fall victim to the aversion and clinging that come along with expectations of how things are ‘supposed’ to be.

So we try to recruit our body into the process.

But when our body experiences stress, overwhelm, and dis-regulation, we can use the executive functioning brain to regulate ourselves.

In today’s episode, I talk about how it's really about employing the brain AND the body in our moment-to-moment experience:

If you’re not busy next Wednesday evening, I strongly encourage you to join us for the mid-week mindfulness meeting.

We do a guided meditation, followed by a discussion that never, ever disappoints!

If you’d like to join us for this free event, click here to register:

https://www.meetup.com/learning-to-surf-talks-on-buddhism-meditation-mindfulness/events/vhrtfsycckbcc/

And if you have any questions about any of this, or would like to see how it feels to work with a fantastic coach, I invite you to click here to claim your free coaching session with me:

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

“Integration made visible is kindness and compassion.” - Dan Siegel, The Mindsight Institute

There is so much packed into this short sentence!

But the message that comes through these words, to me, is that when we are in our integrated state, we are operating at optimal efficiency and well-being.

And from this integrated state flows natural and automatic kindness and compassion.

Therefore, the natural expression of human beings is kindness and compassion.

In today’s episode, I talk about this in some detail:

And I also talk about how we can use this information in reverse: that is, when we experience someone who is neither kind nor compassionate, we know that they are in a state of dis-integration.

We know they are suffering.

And today, I invite you to respond to these suffering people with the kindness and compassion in your heart, instead of the instinct you might feel to meet unkindness with more unkindness.

I have another invitation for you today!

I’ve started a facebook group for our podcast community!!! For now, it’s public as we get people to come in and join us. But in a week or two, I will switch it to private so we can all feel safe and among friends.

If you’d like to join, click here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/315597330255001/

And, as always, I invite you to book a coaching session with me. It’s totally free and, given 45 minutes of presence and attention, what we do in this session could very well change your life.

To book your call, click here:

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

And one more invitation! If you’d like to join me in my weekly meditation and discussion group that meets on Wednesday evenings, click here to register:

https://www.meetup.com/learning-to-surf-talks-on-buddhism-meditation-mindfulness/events/vhrtfsycckbsb/

My whole life, it feels like I always had something wrong with me.

I wasn’t good at sports…

I was a chubby kid…

I couldn’t make friends…

I was terrified of girls and sex…

And the list goes on and evolves to more adult issues like financial struggle, substance abuse, legal issues, etc as I grew older.

I always felt like I was somehow broken as I watched all the other people around me hold their lives together and thrive where I was struggling so mightily.

I used to think it was genetic, or that my parents were just messed up people and I was messed up like them.

But it was only recently, thanks to a wonderful quote I recently heard, that I’ve reframed this view of myself.

In today’s episode, I talk about this:

In case you missed it, the quote is: “We have to start looking at ourselves in terms of what happened to us instead of what’s wrong with us.” -Fritzi Horstman, The Compassion Prison Project.

And if you feel like there is something ‘wrong’ with you, it could be that you have unresolved childhood trauma.

And if you don’t have access to professional mental health services, I may be able to help.

So I invite you to book a call with me here:

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

It’s free and it could change your life.