The Daily Edify

Today's episode is about something I've learned from my social worker friends: unconditional positive regard. As my friend and colleague Allison Bengfort writes, "It's an intentional, emotional posture that the best therapists extend to their clients...assum[ing ]the best in the client. It assumes that the client is inherently good, worthy, and worthwhile. It is able to separate misguided choices and challenging behaviors from who the person is deep down." We explore this posture in our lives and how we might cultivate it further. 

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about the spiritual practice of gratitude - in particular, deep gratitude. We touch on a retreat I attended last week, a line from the apostle Paul's letter, 1 Thessalonians ("Give thanks in all circumstances") and Diana Butler Bass' recent book, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode features a short poem by Dawna Markova, "I Will Not Die an Unlived Life." It reflects on how to inhabit our lives, risk our tender significance, and set aside the voices of fear. It invites us to embrace our lives as they actually are,  receive the seed we've been given and to nourish them to blossom and then fruit. 

I first heard this poem at a coaching summit for pastors four years ago in Bloomington, Illinois, and it blesses me still to this day. I hope it blesses you too.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about the practice of forgiveness - I primarily draw from my experience with the Christian tradition, but the act of forgiving is part and parcel of what it means to be human.  And, in recent years, many other disciplines have taken up the topic of forgiveness, exploring its relevance to their field, from psychology to medical science to philosophy to evolutionary biology.

What is human forgiveness and how do we go about it? We talk a bit about the practice, and I mention the book by Desmond and Mpho Tutu, "The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World," citing the path it suggests as a way to approach the difficult, costly and complex work of forgiveness. 

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about failure, and the invitation to keep doing it in our life, our work, our faith, and our relationship. Failure is human. Failure is healthy. Failure is how we grow. We share stories about James Dyson, Dr. Norm Larsen, the apostle Paul, among others. We end with a mention of the recent book, In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility. Let's reframe failure as inevitable, as part of life, as an opportunity to grow.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about something neuroscientists are teaching us through their research: negative and critical thoughts are like velcro - they stick and hold. Whereas  positive and joyful thoughts are like teflon - they slide away. These thoughts can come from others or ourselves. This is part of a "negativity bias" we all have. But there's a way to counteract this tendency. We can learn to hold onto the good and loving things or thoughts that come our way. In order for them to imprint in our "implicit memory," scientists tell us we need to consciously savor them for at least 15 seconds. Otherwise, they often slide away. 

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode features is blessing by the inimitable John O'Donohue, "For the Traveler." It's drawn for his book, "To Bless the Space Between Us," which is one of Arianne and I's all time favorites - chock full of gorgeous and evocative language that offers blessings for various and sundry life moments.

As my family prepares to take a trip this week, I'm thinking of this blessing and the gift it invites us into. I hope it blesses you as well!

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about the concept of blue minding, first popularized by the marine biologist, Wallace Nichols. The basic idea is that being in or near blue water reduces stress and helps us get grounded in a primal and spiritual way. Since our bodies are 60% water and our brains are 75% water, this makes intuitive sense. 

I've always found being in or near water to be a "thin place," and I'm grateful to have this term and set of research to make better sense of it. 

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about Loretta Ross and her courageous and brilliant work that invites us to "call in" instead of "call out." Ross is an activist, public intellectual and professor of women’s studies at Smith College.

I find her invitation to be both challenging and helpful, a summons to improve the connection and understanding in our corner of the world. I learned about Ross from an article written three years ago, and it's stayed with me ever since. She also has a website (with a four-week online course) and moving TED talk.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!

Today's episode is about the African concept of "ubuntu," inspired by my reading of the spiritual biography of Desmond Tutu. The basic idea is this: "a person is a person through other persons." The myth of the isolated, self-sufficient individual is not only misleading: it's wrong biologically, psychologically and spiritually. We explore what "ubuntu" might have to offer us as a framework for leading our lives in this time of great challenge and great opportunity.

Here are a couple of links to explore "ubuntu" more deeply: here and here.

Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!