The Middle Way with Dr. Matthew Goodman

The Middle Way with Dr. Matthew Goodman

By Matthew Goodman, PhDSociety & Culture
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The Middle Way with Dr. Matthew Goodman episodes

  • MM: Progressive Muscle Relaxation

    1. Squeeze all the muscles in your face (really tight!). Hold for 2-4 seconds. Release. 

    2. Notice what it feels like to have relaxed muscles in the face.

    3. Repeat for every part of the body: neck, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, back, stomach, groin, upper legs, lower legs, feet. 

    Follow Dr. Goodman:

    Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

    Book: Simple Stress-Reduction: Easy and Effective Practices for Kids, Teens, and Adults (Amazon)

    The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

    Improv for Anxiety Class: https://www.the-middle-way.com/class-improv-mindfulness-2

    Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

    ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

    3 min
  • Jessica Baum, LMHC - Anxiously Attached: Healing Relationships in Self and Society

    Jessica Baum, LMHC is a Psychotherapist, Author, Thought Leader, Relationship Coach, and Founder of the Self-full® Method. Her book, Anxiously Attached: Becoming More Secure in Life and Love is a practical guide to understanding core patterns in relationships, namely anxious and avoidant attachment styles. In this episode, Jessica decodes how these deeply rooted patterns manifest in our relationship to self and others. We use the framework of attachment to examine our larger societal relationship: how are Left and Right both fighting to get their needs met, and how can we begin to enter a form of healing with one another?  

    In this episode, you can expect to learn: 

    • What "attachment" is and how it relates to early life experiences. 
    • Styles of attachment (secure, anxious, avoidant) and how these play out in relationships. 
    • What is happening in our nervous system as these patterns are activated. 
    • Why insecure attachment seems to be increasing in society.
    • Insights into healing attachment patterns, whether with yourself or in the container of relationship. 
    • How these patterns actually help us heal by making the unconscious conscious. 
    • How insecure attachment is manifesting on the collective level, including the role of dynamics such as chaos/order, rupture/repair, and the anger/anger escalatory loop. 

      • Learn more about Jessica's work: https://www.beselffull.com/ 

      Grab a copy of Jessica's book (which has been translated into 10+ languages): https://www.beselffull.com/anxiouslyattached

      Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XY5fWAOAWTM

      Follow Dr. Goodman:

      Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

      The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

      Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

      ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

      35 min
    • MM: Warming Up Awareness

      Monday Mini: Warming Up Awareness. By bringing a hand or two to the heart, we can "warm up" awareness before or during meditation (or in everyday life). This helps us bring a gentle and compassionate element that can sometimes be missing.

      Follow Dr. Goodman:

      Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

      Book: Simple Stress-Reduction: Easy and Effective Practices for Kids, Teens, and Adults (Amazon)

      The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

      Improv for Anxiety Class: https://www.the-middle-way.com/class-improv-mindfulness-2

      Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

      ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

      4 min
    • Addiction to Separation: The State of the World and the Story of the Future

      The story of separation—between human beings, and between humans and the planet—is growing stale. Is there another story waiting for us? Perhaps one of connection and unity? 

      If we are indeed being called into a new story, the invitation is coming through the symptoms of the world. The sense of separation and division is being amplified and mirrored back to us. Why? 

      This episode looks at symptoms of the world, namely the escalation between Russia and Ukraine (i.e., East and West), as an unconscious attempt to wake ourselves up. Like the process of addiction, a deeper intelligence knows that "rock bottom" may be the only way we change. Just as we do as individuals, the collective may be manifesting the conditions for deep transformation to occur. Let us do this with the least amount of suffering and as quickly as possible. ❤️

      Read the Essay version of this episode: the-middle-way.com/blog/addiction-to-separation-the-state-of-the-world-and-the-story-of-the-future

      Questions? Comments? Have a guest or topic you want to see on the show? Reach out! [email protected]

      Follow Dr. Goodman:

      Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

      The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

      Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

      ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

      45 min
    • MM: How to Open Your Heart

      Monday Mini: How to Open Your Heart (a poem by Jeff Foster). 

      Jeff Foster, "The Way of Rest: Finding the Courage to Hold Everything in Love."

      Follow Dr. Goodman:

      Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

      Book: Simple Stress-Reduction: Easy and Effective Practices for Kids, Teens, and Adults (Amazon)

      The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

      Improv for Anxiety Class: https://www.the-middle-way.com/class-improv-mindfulness-2

      Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

      ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

      5 min
    • Dr. Corey Wilks - Finding Purpose and Authenticity in Work and Life

      Dr. Corey Wilks is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Executive Coach, writer, and entrepreneur with over 15 years of psychological experience. After seeing so many people—patients, friends, and family—struggle to build their life around doing meaningful, purpose-driven work that fulfilled them, he started writing online to help people get more out of life through understanding and applying practical concepts from psychology. He now coaches entrepreneurs, content creators, and other driven individuals, and creates content to help people be more intentional with how they live, work, and create.

      In this episode, Corey and I discuss:

      • Why and how he transitioned from clinical psychology coaching (and the difference between the two).
      • The "Four Horseman of Fear"—fear of failure, ridicule, the unknown, and success—and how these get in the way achievement and pursuing meaningful work. 
      • Other self-limiting behaviors like perfectionism and self-sabotaging. 
      • Fear inoculation (building up "immunity" to what we're afraid of).
      • "Side hustles" and the strategy of exploring one side hustle per month. 
      • Creating a "category of one"—the place where our interests, skills, and needs overlap.
      • Being authentic and risking being oneself.
      • Corey's near-death experience and how this changed him. 
      • "Momento Mori" and why this is so meaningful to Corey, and how this can help you live a more inspired and meaningful life. 

        • Corey's website: https://coreywilkspsyd.com/

        Corey's Intentional Life Design Course: https://coreywilkspsyd.podia.com/intentional-life-design

        Questions? Comments? Have a guest or topic you want to see on the show? Reach out! [email protected]

        Follow Dr. Goodman:

        Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

        The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

        Take a FREE Improv + Mindfulness Workshop or Sign-Up for a Class: https://www.the-middle-way.com/class-improv-mindfulness

        Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

        ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

        52 min
      • MM: Crisis Precedes Transformation

        Monday Mini: Change comes in cycles. Preceding any sort of change is typically crisis. When we put ourself back together, we can re-integrate with the nuggets of wisdom we discovered while we were dis-integrated. This cycle is true both individually and collectively. 

        🙏🏻

        Follow Dr. Goodman:

        Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

        Book: Simple Stress-Reduction: Easy and Effective Practices for Kids, Teens, and Adults (Amazon)

        The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

        Take a Improv + Mindfulness Course or FREE Workshop!: https://www.the-middle-way.com/mindfulness-improv

        Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

        ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

        3 min
      • The Revolution of Rest: Balancing Divine Masculine & Feminine in the World

        The world is exhausted. This fatigue has manifested in different ways, individually and collectively: burnout at work, anxiety, hopelessness, and the ailments of our political, economic, and ecological systems. COVID brought on many of these changes; our collective fatigue is a symptom of the pandemic. But what if the world was already exhausted prior to the pandemic? What if, instead, the pandemic is a symptom of our collective fatigue? 

        In this episode I discuss the need to integrate rest into our world - physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Fundamentally, this is about balancing the divine masculine and feminine energies of the world. 

        Thanks for listening! : ) 

        Read the article, "The Revolution of Rest: Balancing Divine Masculine & Feminine in the World"

        Follow Dr. Goodman:

        Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

        The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

        Upcoming Improv + Mindfulness for Anxiety Course!: https://www.the-middle-way.com/mindfulness-improv

        Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

        ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

        22 min
      • MM: Recording and Listening

        "Recording and Listening is, hands down, the most powerful tool for ending suffering I’ve found." - Cheri Huber, Zen Teacher 

        Recording and Listening practice:*

        1. Grab a recorder (usually, your phone will have a recording app).

        2. Think about something that is bothering you. Hold your recorder in one hand. Record your problem. Take your time and explain it however you'd like.

        3. Now, using the other hand, play your problem back to yourself. Try to listen as if you were listening to a friend or loved one.

        4. Now, keeping the recorder in that same hand, record a response to the problem. Tap into your "inner mentor." What kind words would you say to someone else? How would you comfort and encourage them?

        5. Now, listen back to the "inner mentor" recording to receive your inner wisdom.

        *Adapted from Cheri Huber and Living Compassion. http://www.recordingandlistening.org/

        Follow Dr. Goodman:

        Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

        Book: Simple Stress-Reduction: Easy and Effective Practices for Kids, Teens, and Adults (Amazon)

        The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

        Take a Improv + Mindfulness Course or FREE Workshop!: https://www.the-middle-way.com/mindfulness-improv

        Your support for the show helps! Donate as little as $1/month. Or leave a RATING/REVIEW or SHARE it with someone who would find it valuable! Thanks for listening!

        ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

        4 min
      • Dr. Mona Sobhani - Proof of Spiritual Phenomena: A Neuroscientist's Discovery of the Ineffable Mysteries of the Universe

        Once a self-described hard-nosed neuroscientist, Dr. Mona Sobhani aggressively defended the dogma of scientific beliefs--until a series of life-altering events caused her to reconsider spirituality and psi concepts and launched her into a two-year investigation into the ineffable mysteries of our world. This eventually led to her recently published book, "Proof of Spiritual Phenomena: A Neuroscientist's Discovery of the Ineffable Mysteries of the Universe." In this episode, I speak with Dr. Sobhani about her journey from "knowing" how the world works (or at least thinking so), to being thrust into a state of "not knowing" (a Dark Night of the Soul) and the process of re-discovery, finding new ways of understanding both herself and the world. 

        We touch on the role of "identity" and "belief" in science, at both the individual and societal level; the surprisingly robust research on phenomena like psi, telepathy, collective consciousness, and other often-dismissed experiences; the dark night of the soul; the tension between "knowing" and "not knowing"; and much more.

        Mona Sobhani, Ph.D. is a cognitive neuroscientist, researcher, and author. A former research scientist a the University of Southern California, she holds a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Southern California and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Vanderbilt University with the MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. She was also a scholar with the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics and her work has been featured in the New York Times, VOX, and other media outlets. 

        Dr. Sobhani's Website: https://monasobhaniphd.com/

        Dr. Sobhani's Book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L8QKNCM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

        Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ASWCCVTKJHE

        Follow Dr. Goodman:

        Instagram: @matthewgoodmanphd

        The Middle Way Consulting: the-middle-way.com

        Upcoming Improv + Mindfulness for Anxiety Course!: https://www.the-middle-way.com/class-mindfulness-improv

        You can support the show for as little as $1 per month. Other ways to support include leaving a rating/review or sharing it with someone who would enjoy it! Thanks for listening!

        ~May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease and joy. May you be free of suffering~

        1 hr 12 min

      About The Middle Way with Dr. Matthew Goodman

      From the publisher's feed

      The Middle Way is about bridging the divide between human beings. At a time when polarization continues to destabilize our world, The Middle Way emphasizes our interconnectedness and common humanity.…