This question came to me this morning: If I'm not a Guru, then what am I? And it seemed the only logical action was to work it out in a Showing Up to Life Episode!

Today's Casual Friday episode is all about self care when we don't have time or resources for manicures, massages, or nature walks. When we cultivate loving awareness of our moment by moment experience, self care takes on a whole new potential.

In today's episode we explore the meanings - and the common misunderstandings - of the terms 'Mind' and 'Brain' and also the concept of the the 'Mind-Body Connection.'

As always, if you would like a copy of the written instructions for the practice I discuss here - or if you have ANY questions at all - please email me at [email protected]

"I hold my theories on the tips of my fingers, so that the merest breath of fact will blow them away." Michael Faraday

If you would like a copy of the RAIN exercise I go over today, please comment below or send me an email.

[email protected]

"The most effective way to activate the circuitry of the brain associated with positive emotions is through generosity." - Richard Davidson

"If you knew, as I do, the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing some of it." - The Buddha

Today's episode is all about the benefits of generosity. Both giving and the openness to receive.

Here is the link I refer to:

https://artburnscoaching.podia.com/6f0ae188-df4c-4b9d-8417-ab78d77b36e7

Often, when we set goals, we do so from a rigid state of clinging and attachment. And in this state of attachment, we might confuse the goals we set.

We might think 'I need to buy a big house by the time I'm 35' but what we really mean is 'I believe a big house will make me happy'

As we cultivate the skills of non-judging awareness, we can approach our goals - and our happiness - with more critical thinking that allows us a deeper and more accurate understanding.

We tend, I believe, to see ourselves and one another as having some uniform capacity for handling life's challenges, as we would believe that two VW Jettas coming off the assembly line are made of the same essential parts. We know there are Jettas of different colors, and that some have more features than others, but at the base, every Jetta is made exactly the same way.

Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to humans and the apparatus with which we are born to handle stressors in life.

I talk about this - and how important and helpful it is to understand our own starting point; to understand our own capacity for managing stressors - in today's episode.Please let me know what you think!

As we live our lives, moment by moment, we experience every moment through the three realms of Our Body, Our Emotions, and Our Thoughts.

The thoughts can take many forms, but mostly the thoughts are part of a system we have for predicting what's going to happen to us and whether we should be worried or not.

In today's episode, I talk about where these stories come from and how we can change our relationship with them.

When people hear "Don't think of a hippopotamus" the first thing that pops into our minds is, in fact, a hippopotamus. Today I discuss why this happens and what we can do to notice the absence of difficult behavior in familiar circumstances. And I talk about why this is so important.

Mindfulness is about skillfulness that becomes natural and habitual through regular practice. And this episode describes what could be the most important skill there is.

If you enjoy this episode and find it helpful, please share it with a friend!