Still Point Podcast

Our topic for this podcast is emotional maturity and emotional intelligence. We discuss why it's important to see and understand what's happening for us emotionally, specifically when we are working to change the way we think and behave. Processing with us today is Chuck DeGrote, professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality at Western Seminary. 

Conversation overview:

• Learn about Chuck
• Discuss the difference between Emotional Maturity and Emotional Intelligence, and why they’re important for the growth of our full Self
• The True Self & False Self (or True Self & Smaller Self)
• How stress and anxiety (e.g.: in a global pandemic) impact our emotional maturity and sense of True Self
• How emotional maturity helps us when the bottom falls out of our world

If you’re interested in learning more about the work we do at The Leader’s Journey or through The Still Point, or if you’d like to learn more about getting a coach, you can go to www.theleadersjourney.us.

The work to surface our mental models and become a more thoughtful and aware person is an ongoing work.  In today's conversation with Earl James, we process through ideas around confronting our mental models and how we can work to help create safe spaces to consider and learn.

In this episode we:

• Talk about what a mental model is (including mental models like race, God, Jesus, church, Self, marriage, relationships, and forgiveness)
• Hear Earl’s story about how his early mental models changed - of God, church and community
• Talk about the things we do to surface and change mental models - including seeking out dissonance, and learning from pain and suffering
• Share how we create spaces for other people to surface and challenge mental models
• Examine how institutions like the church interact with mental models, when we do it well and when we don’t do it well
• Consider how we are born/formed in the moment of deep change

If you’re interested in learning more about the work we do at The Leader’s Journey or through The Still Point, or if you’d like to learn more about getting a coach, you can go to www.theleadersjourney.us.

When you deconstruct/reconstruct, it's not only what you think that's important, but also what happens internally/emotionally. Today we're talking about what that's like, and about some of the skill sets, concepts, practices and supports that can help us care for ourselves in the process.

Conversation Overview

• What does self care mean to you?
• Why is self care important during times of change?
• What role does community play in self care?
• What is difference between self soothing & self care?

If you’re interested in learning more about the work we do at The Leader’s Journey or through The Still Point, or if you’d like to learn more about getting a coach, you can go to www.theleadersjourney.us. 

Juli Rush has done the work. In this episode, Ryan and Marijke interview Juli about why anyone would want to go through deconstruction, anyway. What benefit is there to such hard work? Juli is a school director, a mother, wife, a personal friend of Ryan’s. Through her story, we hear the joys and challenges of learning to think and see in new ways - with honesty, humor, and grace. 

• Juli shares her personal story of deconstruction and reconstruction
• She talks about the real losses and gains of this work
• We discuss the impact it has on relationships
• And the practices and supports she found helpful on the journey
• We ask Juli, “why is it important to do this work?”

If you’re wondering why in the world you would interrogate your ways of thinking and believing, this is a good one for you. The work can be scary and alienating, but for many of us it leads to a truer self and a more workable life. There are also practices and supports that can help, including safe community, mentors, therapy, coaching, good reading, solitude, and journaling... to name a few! 

If you’re interested in learning more about the work we do at The Leader’s Journey or through The Still Point, or if you’d like to learn more about getting a coach, you can go to www.theleadersjourney.us. 

The work of deconstruction can stir up feelings like anger, sadness, resentment, delight, fear, confusion, excitement, joy, anxiety and shame. It’s a mixed bag! Sometimes when we focus on the “head” work of changing how we think, we forget the “heart” work of attending to our emotions. In this episode, we interview the brilliant therapist, Ann McKnight, who talks about the internal landscape of deconstruction and reconstruction, along with practices that can help. 

In our conversation, we:

• Hear some background on who Ann is
• Discuss the internal emotional processes of deconstruction and reconstruction
• Unpack mental models more, and why they’re so scary to change
• Share helpful practices for seeing, managing, and expressing fear, grief and other emotions

We love this conversation with Ann! One of the great images she offers us is of death and birth. The death of our old ways of thinking can bring up all kinds of raw emotions, not to mention stress on our bodies and tension in our relationships. On the other hand, the birth of new thought might be messy and painful but it can also usher us into a more beautiful, spacious self. This is a great discussion about how to navigate those realities.  

If you’re interested in learning more about the work we do at The Leader’s Journey or through The Still Point, or if you’d like to learn more about getting a coach, you can go to www.theleadersjourney.us.

The Still Point Podcast is a conversation about the experience of deconstructing some of the ways we think about the world, and reconstructing different ways of thinking and believing that are life-giving and new. Marijke and Ryan bring experience from the worlds of theology, therapy, leadership coaching, consulting, emotional intelligence and spiritual direction, to a discussion about how we change what we think and believe. 

In this conversation Marijke and Ryan:

• Give some background on who they are
• Explain what the Still Point is
• Share some of their own deconstruction/reconstruction stories
• Briefly explain mental models and how they relate to this work

We want to create a space for people to evaluate and explore their mental models - and to thoughtfully reconsider them when those models are unworkable, unhelpful or unhealthy. We want to do this work in a safe and challenging community that journeys together in unraveling old narratives and rewriting new narratives that are workable, life-giving, and consistent with who we are becoming. We hope you'll join us on this journey!

If you’re interested in learning more about the work we do at The Leader’s Journey or through The Still Point, or if you’d like to learn more about getting a coach, you can go to www.theleadersjourney.us.