The Light Inside

When Allen Klein, spurred on by the power of intention and the awe of childhood, sets out to march in the Macy's Day Parade, he discovers that life's greatest wonders can be found in unexpected places.

"If you can't find the humor, that may be the second best thing you can do. Try to be positive about what's happening. Right, so the dictionary, if you look it up, one of the definitions, it's reverence mixed with fear and wonder."

Allen Klein is a former set designer and author of multiple books, including The Healing Power of Joyful Humor, Awe, and Wonder. He is an expert in the power of awe and wonder and has given a popular Ted Talk exploring how our thoughts and intentions create our reality.

Allen Klein had a moment of awe and wonder when he saw his newborn daughter for the first time, and his daughter revealed a funny story from her childhood. He went on to explore the power of positive thinking, awe, and wonder, learning that you don't need to go somewhere special to find it - it is all around us if we look closely.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. Discovering the power of intention to manifest one's desires

2. Experiencing awe and wonder in everyday moments

3. Exploring the possibility of learning from children's curiosity.

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Other episodes you'll enjoy:

Clear as The Nose On My Face: Engaging Body Linguistics for Effective Emotional Competency

https://www.thelightinside.us/clear-as-the-nose-on-my-face-engaging-body-linguistics-for-effective-emotional-competency/

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

Featured Guest: Allen Klein

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Senior Program Director: Anna Getz

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thelightinside/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thelightinside/support

In this episode, we’re exploring the Complex Relationship between Food, Emotions, and Society with Dr. Marcella Raimondo. Marcella is a psychologist who specializes in eating disorders while creating body and food liberation through social justice.

Armed with her B.A. from UC Berkeley, and Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan. Marcella’s desire to address eating disorders drove her to pursue her doctorate in clinical psychology. Until 2005 she worked with About-Face, a nonprofit organization that addresses media impact on body image serving as the Director of Media Literacy. Today she is on the Board of Founders and a consultant - serving on the Advisory Board for the Association of Size Health and Diversity (ASDAH).

Marcella noticed that society's diet culture was not invested in people's well-being, but instead in keeping them chasing after a goal. On a trip to Italy, she saw people of all shapes and sizes enjoying ice cream and being together, without judgment. She realized the importance of a holistic relationship with food and the need to remove self-imposed judgment.

Armed with her B.A. from UC Berkeley, and Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan. Marcella’s desire to address eating disorders drove her to pursue her doctorate in clinical psychology.

Until 2005 she worked with About-Face, a nonprofit organization that addresses media impact on body image serving as the Director of Media Literacy. Today she is on the Board of Founders and a consultant - serving on the Advisory Board for the Association of Size Health and Diversity (ASDAH).

Today, we examine the impact of diet culture on food insecurity and our mental health, and the inherent power social influence has over our overall well-being.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. Exploring the Complex Relationship between Food, Emotions, and Society

2. Examining the Impact of Diet Culture on Food Insecurity and Mental Health

3. Investigating the Role of Food in Coping with Trauma, Emotional Deprivation, and Self-Harm.

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

Featured Guest: Dr. Marcella Riamondo

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Senior Program Director: Anna Getz

--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/thelightinside/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thelightinside/support

Having experienced both direct and indirect verbal and non-verbal abuse in a narcissistic relationship, Angela Myer became determined to learn how to make rational choices and avoid regrets. She discovers the End Game technique, a powerful tool for protecting herself from emotional abuse, gaslighting, and identity erosion.

In our last episode, author, wellness coach, and motivational speaker, Angela Myer, Shared how to uncover the Secret to Stopping Verbal abuse that Arises from Narcissistic Abuse.

We learned loving someone doesn’t mean putting up with arguments that attack your self-worth and basic rights.

In the heat of the moment, sometimes the things you say in an argument can be hurtful. Yet, when we are pushed to the brink of this narcissistic abuse - we frequently snap.

Filling the script, The Abused - find themselves becoming The Abuser.

Angela knows that healthy people can agree to disagree and can communicate their needs, but reactive verbal abuse is designed to trigger people into snapping, which can lead to life-altering consequences. She wants to teach people a technique to protect them from snapping and make rational choices. This includes verbal abuse, bullying, trauma, gaslighting, and more which can chip away at a person's identity, self-confidence, and sense of reality. Angela encourages people to use the sandwich approach when disagreeing with someone,

Resources:

“Empowering people & shifting one's perspective. Focused on educating people to improve communication and compassion. Change starts here!”

https://undetectednarcissist.com/

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

Lovingly or Manipulating? Navigating Narcissistic Abuse with Shannon Petrovich

https://www.thelightinside.us/lovingly-or-manipulating-navigating-narcissistic-abuse-with-shannon-petrovich/

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

Featured Guest: Angela Myer

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Senior Program Director: Anna Getz

Having experienced both direct and indirect verbal and non-verbal abuse in a narcissistic relationship, Angela Myer became determined to learn how to make rational choices and avoid regrets. She discovers the End Game technique, a powerful tool for protecting herself from emotional abuse, gaslighting, and identity erosion.

"When you really love someone, you think before you speak and you pick your words wisely. When you're being destructive and you're using words that are damaging, you can't take those words back. So, like, a good example I gave is I really think some of the law should change about physical abuse versus emotional abuse." -Angela Myer

Angela Myer learned about different types of verbal abuse from her experience working with a young woman in her 20s who was diagnosed as being narcissistic. This young woman had been traumatized twice due to her mother's death and her father's grief, leading her to shut down and lash out at others. Angela knows that healthy people can agree to disagree and can communicate their needs, but reactive verbal abuse is designed to trigger people into snapping, which can lead to life-altering consequences. She wants to teach people a technique to protect them from snapping and make rational choices. This includes verbal abuse, bullying, trauma, gaslighting, and more which can chip away at a person's identity, self-confidence, and sense of reality. Angela encourages people to use the sandwich approach when disagreeing with someone,

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. How can we prevent ourselves from being manipulated by gaslighting and other forms of emotional abuse?

2. What techniques can be used to manage a disagreement in a respectful, non-confrontational way?

3. How can we protect ourselves from the damaging effects of identity erosion caused by negative verbal attacks?

Resources:

“Empowering people & shifting one's perspective. Focused on educating people to improve communication and compassion. Change starts here!”

https://undetectednarcissist.com/

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

Lovingly or Manipulating? Navigating Narcissistic Abuse with Shannon Petrovich

https://www.thelightinside.us/lovingly-or-manipulating-navigating-narcissistic-abuse-with-shannon-petrovich/

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

Featured Guest: Angela Myer

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Senior Program Director: Anna Getz

Pain.

Our emotional reactivity frequently causes it to surface as the emotional turmoil we feel. You’ve perhaps heard this clique, and often worn phrase - “We can’t grow without pain; or maybe - it’s discomfort”?

But, what if we can and DO…frequently grow; in states that exist free of this existentially created and self-inflicted state of pain and suffering?

Despite trying various therapies, medications, and lifestyle changes, then this episode is for you!

It's not uncommon for us to feel that life, the world, other people, and even ourselves - are getting on our nerves. A very specific nerve located in our autonomic central nervous system - to be exact. We may, or may, not be able to eliminate all existential pain and suffering from our lives - yet some of it can certainly serve a valid and healthy purpose.

In spite of this, when we navigate through our fleeting emotions and conditioned beliefs, we frequently find ourselves emotionally triggered and activated - with a drive to only react.

And it all starts to feel like we are playing a childish game of emotional chutes and ladders….

When John Eli Garay, a second-generation American, discovers Neuroception, our naturally- inherent ability to scan for cues of safety and danger, he must confront the cognitive dissonance between his past trauma and present reality in order to self-regulate and feel secure.

John Eli Garay is a mental health professional and self-awareness coach, specializing in neuroception and autonomic nervous system regulation. He is passionate about helping others understand how to self-regulate, while feeling safe and secure.

"Discover your natural power to self-regulate and feel safe with Neuroception: the foundation of all feeling."

Here's what I cover with John Eli Garay in this episode:

1. What is neuroception, and how does it govern our ability to self-regulate and feel safe and secure?

2. How does the autonomic ladder function in regard to our ability to engage neuroception?

3. What typical actions do we exhibit when we are in an avoidant behavior mode?

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

Featured Guest: John Eli Garay

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

High on a Ladder by oomie

Bright Smile by Mica Emory

Perpex Dilemmas by Miles Avida

Strangled by Piano Strings by Ludwig Moulin

Tulum by Vendla

Puppy Love by Mica Emory

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Senior Program Director: Anna Getz

When J. Stamatelos confronted his anxious insecurity; he discovered the underlying power of self-acceptance and the vicious cycle of validating oneself through the love and acceptance of others - creating a central conflict between self-validation and external validation.

Courage.

Perhaps it is the virtue that enables the existence of all others. True virtue is knowing the self - not by intellectual knowledge - but by pure silence. Seeing things with new eyes requires courage and uncertainty. Yet, we live in a world that forces us to constantly compete with others in order to achieve what we want.

As we journey throughout our lives, may we arrive at better, yet still - no better than…

There's no doubt that each of us is fighting to be, and to do, our best. We seek that space where we thrive. But what happens when this battle is within ourselves - one that rages on between your self-concept and true identity?

The result - a mask we wear each day in front of the world that hides that light inside.

We bring you this exploration of the superiority complex, one of the results of such a mental battle, detailing how A conflict between self-validation and external verification is created when anxious insecurity plays a role in a person's life.

Our guest J. Stamatelos shares his insights on the effects of Anxious Insecurity & The Search for Love & Belonging.

Here's what J. Stamatelos and I cover:

1. What is the impact of anxious insecurity on our lives?

2 How do we create a sense of belonging in a fragmented society?

3. How can we create a healthy self-concept while still achieving self-actualization?

J. Stamatelos is a trauma modality expert and mental health practitioner who specializes in helping people break free from anxious insecurity and the cycle of feeling not enough.

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

FEATURED GUEST: J. Stamatelo

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Production Manager: Anna Getz

2022.

-- What a year, what an amazing journey, and what a fascinatingly thought-provoking ride. We couldn't have been more thrilled to share that ride with you; yet now, we turn our eyes toward, a new year and new chapters.

But first, we hope to share a little insight with this mindful reminder...

Every new year we do it - relentlessly piling more and more on our plates. It’s really exhausting, is it not?

Why?

Because we are more-less emotionally driven toward insecure validation. We are afraid others will feel we somehow don’t stack up…

Or worse — we see it as letting ourselves down.

Science calls this the action bias. The action bias describes our tendency to favor action over inaction, at times - to our benefit. However, there are times when we feel compelled to act, even if there’s no evidence that it will lead to a better outcome than doing nothing would.

In the coming year; we want you to spend even less time getting better - than you did the last. Yes, you heard correctly. Sleep in tomorrow, it’s a Sunday. Allow your morning routine to be non-routine.

With an ever-present need for more and better, we are caring less about expanding, by further condensing and refining what we do for everyday people - so that less personal change is needed. Research can also reveal how the drive for overachievement frequently arises from allostatic overload - an anxious state where we simply feel the need to do too much!

Change frequently seems hard; perhaps because we feel the emotionally insecure need to create more of it.

In the immortal words of Deepak Chopra - release the struggle!

— Let 2023 be the year you float a little lighter. A little kinder.

Have a happily less emotionally activated new year. Here’s to fewer goals, less beating yourself up, and underachieving. Your future self may or may not thank you…

But that’s all right.

So on the dawn of this new eve, we wish you a fond farewell.

Until we see you again, this has been The Light Inside. I’m Jeffrey Besecker

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Production Manager: Anna Getz

Screen time.

It’s the new currency utilized when measuring how our children spend much of their time interacting with the world.

With the holiday season upon us, many of us will be giving the gift of technical access to the young ones throughout our lives. Spreading accessibility to gadgets, games, and even communication or learning devices.

Yet, with this gift comes empowering access to a connected world of data, influence, and interaction. A world that inevitably might also contain what is sometimes more adverse and insidious in nature - Childhood Screen addiction.

The present world is now largely digital. From checking social media on our phones to gaming or binging a new show -it’s hard to escape this cultural norm. Even our educational systems have grown to hinge on leveraging digital technology as a productive asset.

So how do you encourage your kids to build healthy tech habits while also giving their brains a break?

Author, Daniel Sih is here to tell us how we can raise tech-healthy humans when we return to the light inside.

———— Resources

Raising Tech-Healthy Humans

https://raisinghumans.au/buy-now/

Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids - and How to Break the Trance

How Screens Affect Children - Children & Technology Facts

Social Media Effects on Teens - Social Media & Mental Health

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Credits:

Featured Guest: Daniel Sih

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Senior Production Manager: Anna Getz

Marina Yaney Triner, a self-proclaimed empath and trauma expert, dives into the world of repressed trauma and how it affects our everyday lives.

This episode of the Light Inside Podcast is about Trauma and how it can show up in our lives in seemingly innocuous ways. Marina Yaney Triner learned about Trauma and its effects while working through her own experiences with it in counseling. She discusses how we often react out of trauma without even realizing it, and how this can create drama in our lives.

Trauma can be caused by a variety of things, including childhood experiences, generational patterns, and even seemingly small things like not being able to control a situation. Trauma can manifest in a variety of ways, including numbing behaviors, anger, and a need for control. It's important to be aware of how trauma might be affecting us so that we can work through it in a more productive manner.

"We react out of that trauma space so often and we don't even know it."

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. The importance of uncovering and resolving childhood trauma in order to live a more empowered and fulfilling life.

2. How emotional reactivity often stems from unresolved trauma, and how this can impact our relationships and limit our potential.

3. The ways in which trauma can manifest in our lives, include numbing behaviors, reactivity, and a need for control.

Resources:

Emotional regulation: Skills, exercises, and strategies

https://www.betterup.com/blog/emotional-regulation-skills

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

Emotional Detox: Cleansing Yourself of Stagnated Emotions with Sherianna Boyle

https://www.thelightinside.us/emotional-detox-cleansing-yourself-of-stagnated-emotions-with-sherianna-boyle/

Circumstantial Evidence: Overcoming a Victim Mentality with Nelson Tressler

https://www.thelightinside.us/circumstantial-evidence-overcoming-a-victim-mentality-with-nelson-tressler/

Connect with me:

Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here: https://www.thelightinside.us/reviews/new/

Credits:

JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM: @thelightinsidepodcast

SUBSCRIBE: pod.link/thelightinside

Credits: Music Score by Epidemic Sound

Featured Guest:

Marina Yanay-Triner

Executive Producer: Jeffrey Besecker

Mixing, Engineering, Production, and Mastering: Aloft Media Studio

Senior Production Manager: Anna Getz