The Discomfort Practice with Betsy Reed

In this episode of the Discomfort Podcast, I speak to Judith Favor who is an author, former professor of theology, and retired minister from the Quaker church. I admire the Quaker church because it's grounded in restful practices like contemplation and reflection, which I discuss in-depth with Judith. Judith's mission is to bring spirituality and well-being to the world through her career as a spiritual guidance coach and we discuss what she means by 'spiritual guidance' and the practices she guides others in to find inner peace. We talk about her time in a Buddhist monastery and Judith shares how she found her current spirituality following a near-death experience.

No matter your faith or beliefs, Judith and I agree in this episode on the importance of taking moments of quiet to reflect on life and the importance of quiet and contemplation to find calm and inner peace. This is by no means a comfortable practice, but by opening yourself up to discomfort - by practicing discomfort - and simply sitting with all feelings that might arise during quiet contemplation, we can often find the answers within. This episode concludes with a guided Sabbath Practice in 'not knowing,' guided by Judith Favor. Join us for a moment of peace as you take time to sit in the discomfort of the unknown.

Let us know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag us. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes on the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform.

Key Points:

• The Moment of Discomfort – The moment that Judith faced death and had her life-changing spiritual experience (04:30)
• What does it mean to rest in a sacred presence? How Judith conquered excruciating pain through her spirituality (06:30)
• Where it all started - Judith's visit to a Buddhist monastery and how this was a founding moment in her spiritual journey, but not in the way you might think (09:00)
• How Judith became a spiritual director (11:30)
• Judith's family history – a story of working-class pioneers (12:30)
• What is spiritual guidance and what is the benefit? (13:00)
• How to make yourself available to moments of wisdom through contemplation silence (16:30)
• A practice of being aware of your body and feeling the Holy Spirit within (18:00)
• The role of discomfort in contemplation and why it is important to not shy away from uncomfortable thoughts and feelings (20:00)
• Judith discusses her novels and how the discomfort she felt when learning her family history, inspired this story (22:00)
• Sometimes the best advice is no advice. How to let others answer their own questions and what are the questions you don't want to know the answer to? (36:00)
• The Sabbath and its importance in life. The benefits of taking a day of rest and how to implement this into your life (50:00)
• A guided Sabbath Practice on not knowing, with Judith Favor (53:00)

Connect with Judith Favor

• Judith's Website
• Judith on Facebook
• Judith on Linkedin

Connect with Betsy Reed

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin
• Betsy's Website

Resources Mentioned

• Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
• Spiritual Directors International
• Friending Rosie: Respect on Death Row by Judith Favor
• River Flow: New & Selected Poems by David Whyte
• Sabbath Economics: A Spiritual Guide to Linking Love with Money by Judith Wright Favor
• The Companion Journal 52 Weeks of Love & Money: For Sabbath Economics by Judith Wright Favor

Rate, Review, Learn and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode of The Discomfort Podcast, I talk with one of the people I adore when it comes to intuitive business, Paul William Davis, and together, we took a deep dive into how we can all find our life's purpose, and how to truly tap into intuition.

Paul is an intuitive personal advisor, an entrepreneur, a best-selling author, an award-winning business growth consultant, speaker, and more.

Paul gives great insight into how we can all become more in tune with our intuition, and how we can all manifest our best life by taking the time to listen to the signs from the universe.

Paul discusses the signs to look for from the universe, that can be a guiding force which he refers to as – the feathers, bricks, and truck. These are the life events that are nudging us (or sometimes sweeping us) to the path we should be following. Paul and I discuss mental health, and how lacking purpose in life can be the greatest trigger for depression in so many people.

It is evident that commercial success, which lacks purpose, does not equate to happiness. We then take a look at the global decline of mental health due to the pandemic, and we look towards the future and discuss how we can all, as one human race come together to help one another and save our planet.

Post your thoughts on @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag us. Follow our journey as we reach out of our comfort zone on https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com

• The Moment that Changed Everything – The catalyst that led Paul to find his true life's purpose (04:00)
• The reality of corporate living, and how we are not always as happy as we may seem (07:00)
• What is purpose? And what is our true meaning in life? (10:00)
• How our purpose in life is waiting in our subconscious (16:00)
• How the universe guides clients to find Paul, right as they need him (18:00)
• The effects of a global pandemic on the human population, how it has been the catalyst for so many in the search for their purpose (22:00)
• Paul's personal experience with fine-tuning his intuition (30:30)
• The untold story of the pandemic – the mental health of humanity (37:45)
• How we all need to come together to tackle climate change (43:00)
• Hope for the future through purpose (49:00)

• Paul's Website
• Paul on Linkedin
• Send him an email
• Listen to his Podcast

Connect with Betsy Reed:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin
• Betsy's Website

Resources Mentioned:

• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
• EVOLVE by Paul William Davis

In my latest solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, I'm excited to dive into some of my current self exploration as part of my own discomfort practice.

I have gotta confess: doing these episodes has been the real edge of my own comfort zone. It is truly uncomfortable - part of my own discomfort practice - to reveal myself on the Internet. Not the professional persona, not the stuff that's already public. The real stuff going on in my life right now, set loose for others to interpret through their own filters. Yikes.

But I have found my new comfort zone, which is actually really the aim of a discomfort practice: to watch the edges of your comfort zone melt and expand. And then you find yourself with a spangly new expanded comfort zone. And that's where I am now: comfortable with the level of self exploration that I'm doing out loud. Because I am (contrary to popular perception), quite a private person.

This episode covers themes such as finding the energetic leaks in my life, the things that might be causing misalignment and holding me back from living my purpose. Whether it's a corner of my home that needs to be cleaned or a grudge I realise I've been dragging around.

For me, being aligned is about being in my purpose and having all the pieces of my life working to help that flow. We all have a purpose. Your purpose comes from the essence of who you are. And you find it by tapping into and listening to your deep inner knowing about why it is you're on this earth this time around. And for me, I'm very clear on my personal purpose. I'm here to work with people with power to create new systems that actually work for everyone on this planet. And from that everything flows.

So sit back and have a listen and let's get uncomfortable together.

Follow me on Instagram @thebetsyreed Like, follow, subscribe, leave reviews and share The Discomfort Practice and help me reach new ears.

In the latest episode of The Discomfort Practice, it was such a treat to interview journalist and fellow media professional, Irish Syrian journalist and activist, Razan Ibraheem.

Razan is a multi-faceted woman with an impressive career. She's had a high profile, passionate ethos-driven career in journalism, spoken to the UN and worked in a news agency focusing on addressing misinformation in the media. She also sits on the Amnesty board in Ireland and her work has led to her being named International Woman of the Year by Irish Tatler in 2016. Because she is also incredibly glamorous and beautiful.

We talk about Razan's deeply personal connection to the tragic situation in her native Syria. While studying in Ireland, Syria imploded into civil war, leaving her unexpectedly unable to go back, suddenly classified as a refugee. She turned this discomfort and her considerable energy to volunteering to help refugees in Greece for two years. Razan says "The people I met and the stories I heard from Syrian refugees changed my perspective on life."

Connect with Razan Ibrahim:

• Razan on LinkedIn
• Razan on Instagram

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin
• Betsy's website

Rate, Review, Learn and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode, I was delighted (and a little bit awestruck) to speak to Kasia Urbaniak, the Founder, and CEO of The Academy, a school that teaches women the foundations of power and influence. Kasia's perspective on power is unique. Over the course of nearly 20 years, she has worked as a professional Dominatrix, practiced Taoist alchemy in one of the oldest female-led monasteries in China, and obtained dozens of certifications in different disciplines, including Medical Qi Gong and Systemic Constellations. Since founding The Academy in 2013, Kasia has taught over 4,000 women to radically increase their power, agency, and influence.

Using practical tools, The Academy graduates transform their lives by breaking the york of "Good Girl Conditioning" They step boldly into leadership roles within their relationships, families, workplaces, and wider communities. They become adept in the art of verbal self-defense against bulldozing, bullying, and gaslighting. Women are the most critical, yet least represented voices in determining the future of our world and there's never been a better time than now to have women participating in fully meaningful conversations with as many people as possible. It can start here for you, so join Kasia and me as we discuss how you can liberate yourself from conditioned responses and learned behaviors to unleash the true power of female nature within you and live a full life in accordance with your desires.

Key Points Discussed:

• How discomfort shaped her life and destiny and revealed her path (05:49)
• Setting up The Academy unintentionally when she was in her own journey of understanding power as a woman (10:11)
• Why women should stop taking best-supporting actress roles in their own lives (14:06)
• Unpacking the Good Girl Double Bind: The No-Win situation for women (17:40)
• The superficial war between the good girl and the independent woman (22:14)
• To be Submissive or Dominant: Kasia's brilliant explanation of power (27:50)
• The detriment of domesticating our desires and why the core of the dominant experience is being submissive (40:08)
• Mastering the art of playing with No (46:28)
• Women finding their power and using it well, and what it does for the world (57:20)
• Feeling mystified, deeply curious, and privileged in the midst of an unpredictable world (1:03:47)

Resources Mentioned:

• Unbound: A Woman's Guide to Power By Kasia Urbaniak
• The Academy

Connect with Kasia Urbaniak:

• Kasia's Website
• Kasia on LinkedIn
• Kasia on Twitter
• Kasia on Facebook

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode, I chat with Philip Clayton, the President of the Institute for Ecological Civilization (EcoCiv.org), which works internationally to support multi-sector innovations toward a sustainable society through collaborations between governments, businesses, policy experts, and NGOs. He's also president of the Institute for the Postmodern Development of China, which works with universities and government officials to promote the concept of ecological civilization through conferences, publications, educational projects, and ecovillages. Philip works at the fascinating (and not un-controversial) intersection of philosophy, theology, and science.

He has increasingly focused on where climate science, ethics, religion, social philosophy, and ecotheology intersect, along with the tricky questions those intersections often raise. Philip holds the Ingraham Chair at the Claremont School of Theology where he directs the Ph.D. program in comparative theologies and philosophies, as well as being affiliated faculty at Claremont Graduate University. A graduate of Yale University, he has also taught at Williams College, California State University, the University of Munich, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard University.

He has published two dozen books and some 350 articles. Philip and I had a rich, dynamic, and truly fascinating conversation around the value of sitting with personal discomfort rather than suppressing it so we can collectively contribute to bettering our lives and the world as a whole. We also dive into how common themes across religion and science can be leveraged to build a global movement of passionate changemakers who together create a shift toward a more compassionate and sustainable world. You really won't wanna miss this episode, which is a dance between a theologian trained in improv and a campaigner trained in mindfulness. See you on the other side...

Key Points Discussed:

• The moment that totally shifted his focus in life (06:06)
• Why he contributed to creating the Institute for Ecological Civilization (10:15)
• The everyday magic of movement activism (14:25)
• Advocating for wellbeing economics to ensure the delivery of human and ecological well being (17:11)
• Living at the intersection of science and faith (20:55)
• Why some religions have an easier time aligning with science while others don't (25:32)
• Holding two different views at different times: How science and faith can come together more (28:57)
• How to build a movement of people from different religions who are also motivated by very different things (36:37)
• Climate Justice: The number one overarching justice issue for the planet (39:12)
• Embracing literal discomfort in order to cut back our carbon footprint and live in a more sustainable way (43:14)
• Learning how to win by practising discomfort (49:30)
• Analyzing the growing consciousness of connection in the world (55:28)

Connect with Philip Clayton:

• Philip's Website
• Philip on Facebook
• The Institute for Ecological Civilization

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode, I had a chat with Alina Siegfried, a New Zealand-based storyteller, narrative strategist, systems change advocate, TEDx speaker, and award-winning spoken word artist whose stage name is Ali Jacs. Alina's journey in storytelling and communications has taken her through environmental advocacy, political issues campaigning, social enterprise, crowdfunding, arts, and community development. In her role as the founding communications lead of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, she's helped bring together a global community of 500 world-leading entrepreneurs, investors, artists, and system change leaders to develop transformative solutions to pressing global challenges.

Her book, A Future Untold: The Power of Story to Transform the World and Ourselves, will be published at the end of this month (October 2021), and is centered around Alina's own 15-year journey through storytelling and creating narratives for systems change. With the current widespread awareness that the systems upon which we rely on are harming us and our planet, there's a great need to come up with radical solutions that we can use to shift those systems. Alina will share some solutions with us and tell us how we can use storytelling to challenge and trigger ourselves to seek out discomfort in order to find new ways of being and acting. Stay tuned for more of our inspiring conversation.

Key Points Discussed:

• Announcing herself as gay to an audience of 700 people during a TEDx ChristChurch talk she was doing and how it changed her life (05:07)
• Understanding the power of storytelling (11:08)
• Listening to the stories of others so we can work towards addressing polarization (16:21)
• Changing our relationship with certainty in order to hold space for paradox (20:48)
• Why we need to move away from our individualistic way of life to build wide-scale collectivism (23:25)
• How storytelling can unite us (25:47)
• Tackling the luxury of privilege in avoiding uncomfortable conversations (30:53)
• The inspiration behind writing her book and what the process of writing it was like (36:00)
• Creating new myths for humanity to bring people together (45:01)

Resources Mentioned:

• A Future Untold: The Power of Story to Transform the World and Ourselves By Alina Siegfried

Connect with Alina Siegfried:

• Alina on LinkedIn
• Alina on Twitter
• Alina on Facebook
• Alina on Instagram
• Alina's Website

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode, I chat with Becky Burchell, a talented and inspiring Arts Producer and Curator who specializes in "Hopeism" - the idea that sharing stories of hope through the arts can help us to imagine and create a better future. Becky is the founder of CHANGE Festival, a new arts festival in the UK which she created as a platform for inspirational performance, music, discussion, and workshops that invited audiences to consider their own role in manifesting positive change.

Becky has previously curated big-name festivals as an Arts Producer (like the UK's Bestival and Camp Bestival), creating areas and experiences across artforms from circus to carnival parades to spoken word. Becky has also worked with folk artist Sam Lee to produce the renowned Singing With Nightingale conservation event series, where musicians perform duets with wild nightingales in the woods.

The World We Made premiered at CHANGE Festival 2019 and was a groundbreaking new play that Becky envisaged and produced, set in 2050, and inspired by pioneering environmentalist Jonathon Porritt's book of the same name. Becky is also a Fellow of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, an internationally renowned research centre at the University of Surrey. Fellows explore what prosperity can mean in a world of environmental, social, and economic limits. we talk about how the arts can play a vital role in supporting all of us to be innovative, courageous, and caring in the ways we create change both within our own lives and collectively.

CHANGE Festival 2021 will take place at Warwick Arts Centre in the UK from November 5-7 and is offering a hybrid online offering. As part of this Betsy will be leading two online workshops - 'Resilience Bootcamp: training for the future' on November 6th and 'Leadership Bootcamp: throw out the rulebook' on November 7. Both are welcome to all and accessible from anywhere in the world (as long as you have an internet connection). They're donation-based, so come along and if you can pay for a place for someone else too!

Key Points Discussed:

• The journey that led her to creating and launching the CHANGE festival (05:42)
• Taking a completely different approach to activism and how to balance out the doomism all around us (14:30)
• How people have changed in what they want from entertainment (18:48)
• Inspiring change through festivals and the arts in general (21:10)
• Employing playful activism to bring about a better future (28:20)
• Rise Up: Why the upcoming CHANGE festival will be based on this theme (36:01)
• Highlighting the story of Rachel Carson, the unlikely activist (40:03)
• Having productive disagreements while still working together to make the world a better place (43:14)

Connect with Becky Burchell:

• Becky on Twitter
• www.ChangeFestival.org
• Chettle Village on Instagram
• CHANGE Festival's 'Resilience bootcamp: training for the future' with Betsy on November 6th
• CHANGE Festival's 'Rise up and lead: throw out the rulebook' with Betsy on November 7th

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode, I'll break down what implicit biases are, how they cause unconscious discrimination, impact relationships, and how we interact with the world. See how you can discover your own biases (because we all have them) so you can address them and be a bigger and better human. It's all about conscious awareness of something that is largely unconscious (implicit biases). Knowing that is freeing.

While a lot of people might like to believe that they don't have any biases, the reality is that we all do, whether we like it or not. Someone might even express explicit disapproval of a certain attitude or belief while still harboring related, unconscious biases. That's unconsciously stressful because that means we aren't aligned. (And people can hold positive or even negative associations about their own race, gender, religion, sexuality, or other characteristics.)

The good news is that implicit biases aren't set in stone. We all have the opportunity to 'begin again,' as Buddhism teaches us and which I talk about. It's always possible to adopt new attitudes, to grow, to change. The first step is awareness. I can't wait to see the amazing change we can make in the world if we each take a brave look at ourselves and are willing to do some work on anything we find there that doesn't align with our vision for a better world. I'm in this with you. Onward...

Key Points Discussed:

• The jitters of sharing my thoughts online when cancel culture is such a Thing (00:44)
• Discovering and addressing our implicit biases (03:00)
• Taking a bias test and finding out my own implicit biases (05:49)
• Where our biases come from and embracing the fact that we can "begin again" (07:11)
• Applying your newly found consciousness towards doing something about how systems in the world are oppressing people (10:34)
• Getting uncomfortable to make the world a better place before the discomfort comes to you (16:11)

Resources Mentioned:

• The Harvard Implicit Bias Tests

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts, and share how the episode has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!

In this episode, I've interviewed Martin Roberts, the Director of eLearning at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Martin leads CISL's open, customized, and blended digital learning programmes and is an expert in digital education, sustainability, and business leadership. He's worked in diverse sectors around the world, including the private and public sectors in several African countries, where he built the capability of leaders to address their natural resource challenges.

Martin has a track record of creating ambitious and commercially successful digital learning programmes with proven impact and has a set of unique skills and experience that have enabled him to support leaders and their global companies to achieve transformational change. He has a passion for democratizing learning and promoting engaging and accessible educational opportunities for future learners in blended and online formats at the scale needed to accelerate change and address challenges in the 21st century. Tune in as he shares his incredible back story and wisdom around the power of digital learning, sustainability, addressing global inequality, the future of leadership, and the role of business in solving critical problems in the world.

Key Points Discussed:

• Why he works towards addressing the enormous gaps in inequality that he came across working in sustainability both in Africa and the UK (05:10)
• Working with business and wider sectors to scale his impact quickly and improve the lives of more people (08:29)
• Contributing to the empowerment of individuals and organizations to take leadership so they can tackle critical challenges (10:06)
• How he works as part of the establishment without being part of the problem (13:29)
• Putting purpose at the very heart of leadership (15:51)
• The importance of understanding the interconnectivity of sustainability (19:00)
• Future of leadership: Being more open to listening and collaborating with others and why more female leadership is necessary (21:46)
• Being a leader without necessarily having the formal title of leadership (25:24)
• What CISL is doing to improve access to their digital learning courses for people who can't afford them or don't have access to technology (32:38)
• What needs to be done to ensure more diversity in leadership (35:44)
• Being uncomfortable as a leader to keep moving forward and being innovative (39:16)

Connect with Martin:

• Martin on LinkedIn
• Martin on Twitter

Connect with Betsy:

• Betsy on Instagram
• Betsy on Twitter
• Betsy on Linkedin

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don't forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!