The Living Experiment: Rethink Your Choices. Reclaim Your Life.

This week on The Living Experiment, while Dallas is off on adventures, Pilar has a very special guest: Geneen Roth.

Geneen has written close to a dozen terrific books, including Lost and Found: One Woman's Story of Losing Her Money and Finding Her Life and When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair. She also teaches life-changing workshops all over the country.

Most of Geneen's work explores the intricate, under-examined spaces between how we feel, think, act, and relate — to ourselves, to each other, and to the experience of being alive.

In this interview, a far-ranging conversation that stretches over two full episodes, Pilar delves into Geneen's new book, This Messy Magnificent Life: A Field Guide. It's a work so rich in wisdom, feeling, and funny insights that it's kind of hard to categorize, and even harder to contain.

Get full show notes and resources at http://livingexperiment.com/messy-magnificent-1/

This week on The Living Experiment, we're talking about Apologizing — the reasons it's worth doing, and the art of doing it well.

We explore the value a good apology can have in healing conflict and shame, and the reasons our well-intended apologies sometimes don't go as well as we'd like.

We talk about the characteristics of good and not-so-good apologies, about private apologies and public ones.

Finally, we offer you some experiments to help you evolve your own apologetic skills and sensitivities in ways that work for you.

This week on The Living Experiment, we're talking about Friends — not the kind we call "friends" social media, but the real, meaningful, human kind we connect with in person. The kind we care about deeply. The kind we count on for hugs, empathy, perspective, emotional support and fun.

In a world where many of us feel painfully pressed for time, we're barely connecting with our romantic partners and close family members, much less making time to forge and maintain meaningful connections beyond the walls of our own homes.

So here, we talk about the difference between various levels of friendship intimacy, and how relationships are deepened by time, proximity, shared experiences, vulnerability, and trust.

We explore the essential role friendships play in defining our lives, and how to go about evaluating and evolving the friendships in your life now.

Finally, we offer you some experiments to help you give your own friendships a little more of the energy and attention they deserve.

This week on The Living Experiment, we're talking about Reading — its potential for informing and enriching our lives, and its potential for becoming an escapist habit.

In a world dominated by a non-stop stream of mass media and clickbait, is there still a place in our lives for real, deep, intentional reading?

Is reading a paper book or long-form magazine article the same as reading on screen, or listening to books on tape?

Has the ability to read, and ready deeply, become endangered in our culture?

We address all these questions and more. We also share the role that reading — particularly book reading — plays in our lives, and the reasons we both read as much as we do.

Finally, we offer some guidance on making more discerning reading selections. And we suggest some experiments to help you reflect on how reading can enhance your wellbeing, your thinking, and your quality of life.

We also happily announce our sponsorship by Experience Life magazine, and the special, discounted subscription offer and free e-newsletters now available to The Living Experiment listeners. Get full show notes and resources at http://livingexperiment.com/reading

This week on the Living Experiment, we're talking about "Dying" — the fact that it's something we're all going to do, and the fact we tend to live in denial of that fact, often to our detriment.

The age-old advice to live each day as though it was your last might be inspiring, but it is also rather impractical. The truth is, most of swerve back and forth between repressing all thought of death to being confronted by it, and then feeling — fleetingly, that it's something we really ought to give more thought.

So here, we dive into the topic of death and dying. We share our take on our own mortality. We share some insights on how to live better by thinking, talking about, and planning for death in ways that work for you.

Finally (no pun intended), we offer you some solutions to help you explore your own feelings about death in ways that help you live your own life with greater meaning, pleasure, and satisfaction.

Get full show notes and resources at http://livingexperiment.com/dying We also happily announce our sponsorship by Experience Life magazine, and the special, discounted subscription offer and free e-newsletters now available to The Living Experiment listeners.

This week on The Living Experiment, we're talking about Noise — its many sources, its surprising impacts, and the options we have for relating to it more consciously.

From the difficulty of escaping noise in our modern environments to the effect it can have on our health, happiness, and quality of life, we talk about the underestimated toll that noise can take on our bodies and minds.

We explore the important role quiet spaces have in supporting our wellbeing, and the opportunities we have for regulating the noise in our midst.

Finally, we offer you some experiments to help you make more discerning choices about the kinds of noise you choose to tolerate — or eliminate — in your own world.

P.S. We also happily announce our sponsorship by Experience Life magazine, and the special, discounted subscription offer and free e-newsletters now available to The Living Experiment listeners. Get full show notes and resources at http://livingexperiment.com/noise

This week on The Living Experiment, we're talking about Dating — it's modern trials and tribulations, and the options we have for reclaiming it from the limiting realms of texting, swiping, and scrolling.

In an era where face-to-face interaction is limited, and where an entire generation of people have lost track of real-life flirting, mingling, and conversational skills, many are bemoaning what they see as the sad state of dating, even as they are feeling constrained by its commoditizing conventions.

So here, we make a case for challenging the superficial status quo, and for making romantic connections that respect the depth and humanity of all parties. We also offer you some experiments to help you experience more fun and satisfaction within your own dating world.

P.S. We also happily announce our sponsorship by Experience Life magazine, and the special, discounted subscription offer and free e-newsletters now available to The Living Experiment listeners. Get full show notes and resources at: http://livingexperiment.com/dating/

This week on The Living Experiment, we're talking about Anxiety — a condition that causes tens of millions of people to feel rattled by intrusive thoughts, oppressed by worries, or otherwise disquieted — sometimes to a disabling degree.

These days, anxiety has surpassed depression as America's number one mental health disorder.

So here, we talk about a wide range of strategies proven to help, from nutritional interventions to self-calming techniques.

We explore the underlying reasons anxiety is giving so many of us so much trouble.

From the factors that have given rise to our high-stress society, to the implications of medicating anxiety's symptoms rather than addressing its root causes, we invite you to consider the role anxiety may be playing in your own life, and the options you have for making it better.

We also offer some experiments to help you build your own collection of anti-anxiety skills.

P.S. We also happily announce our sponsorship by Experience Life magazine, and the special, discounted subscription offer and free e-newsletters now available to The Living Experiment listeners. Get full show notes and resources at http://livingexperiment.com/anxiety/

This week, on The Living Experiment, we're talking about Vacation — the benefits that regular breaks from work can have for our health, sanity and happiness, and the reality that most of us aren't getting nearly enough of them.

We look at some statistics that suggest many U.S. adults aren't getting any paid vacation time, and many more aren't making full use of the vacation time they have.

We explore some of the reasons for that, as well the real costs to our health, wellbeing, and productivity.

We also consider some strategies for making the most of the vacations you do take, and for navigating around some of the most common vacation mistakes.

Finally, we offer you some experiments to help you begin making space and time for more satisfying vacations in your own life.

P.S. We also happily announce our sponsorship by Experience Life magazine, and the special, discounted subscription offer and free e-newsletters now available to The Living Experiment listeners. Get full show notes and resources at: http://livingexperiment.com/vacation/

This week on The Living Experiment, we're talking about Judgment — the critical opinions we hold about ourselves and others, and the sometimes scathing assessments we make as a result. From our natural tendency to disparage those who disagree with us, to the opportunities we miss when we make up our minds too quickly, we explore the territory between learning and judging, between connecting and distancing, between living in the questions and having all the answers. We suggest some ways of moving from self-righteousness belief toward open-minded inquiry, and we offer you some experiments to help you soften the judger within yourself. P.S. We also happily announce our sponsorship by Experience Life magazine, and the special, discounted subscription offer and free e-newsletters now available to The Living Experiment listeners. Get full show notes and resources at http://livingexperiment.com/judgment/