In this episode of The Mindful Steward Podcast, Brooke and I sat down for a catch-up over zoom with one of my best friends from back home, Christoper Michael Evans. Chris is a cinematographer, director, and producer who is currently best known for his work directing music videos for artists without household names. Between Chris, myself as a marketing agency owner and mindfulness professional, and Brooke who owns a training business teaching coaches how to establish and scale their businesses, we took this opportunity to discuss some of the challenges and mindset work frequented by most entrepreneurs and creatives in the world today.

To learn more about The Mindful Steward visit www.themindfulsteward.com.

To learn more about Brooke's coaching and NLP/Hypnosis certification program visit her website at www.createdmindacademy.com.

To learn more about Chris and his work follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/chri7z/​.

In this episode, my friend Paula Rayo and I dive into the story of how she found herself researching Ayahuasca in the jungle of South America, what she learned, and what it all led to. Paula has experience leading a lab team of consciousness, neurofeedback, and VR researchers, aiming to better understand the connection between the complexities of our mind and the human condition. Though this all happened a few years back, today Paula is partnering with a Canadian University to launch a unique initiative to mentor students from day one to better find the career path that is right for them, aiming to guarantee employment and job satisfaction to their first cohort. This program would be among the first of its kind across Canada as well as the United States.

Follow Paula's journey or get in touch with her on Instagram @paularayo

If you are interested in learning more about The Mindful Steward visit my website at https://themindfulsteward.com/.

Our creative power lies in attention and focus. In this short mindset shift, I discuss the creative power we have in the world, and how every ounce of this comes from our ability to narrow our attention toward the goals we want achieve. In a world filled that constantly provides us with more and more distractions, it is often difficult to see this simple reality at play in our own lives. The bottom line is this, where attention goes, energy flows. Social media, among many distractions often serve us little more than to hold us back from achieving and living out the things we are passionate about.

Here is the video that prompted this mindset shift from Jason Silva himself: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CGTE3nkDb2b/

Visit my website at: https://themindfulsteward.com/

This episode has been a long time coming. Needless to say, we live in a highly digital era. In the modern day, many of us have access to any form of content our heart desires. This limitless access, includes porn, and those accessing it includes men and women from a wide range of ages. Many researchers estimate that most boys as young as 12 are watching highly pornographic content regularly. Though this topic is mostly brushed under the rug, the reality is that most young men in the western world are watching porn. Researchers attempting to study its effects struggle to even find enough non-porn watching men aged 20 to 30 to study the topic properly. What we now know about porn is a relatively unanimous set of data backing up the negative effects it has on the human brain. These effects range from depression to anxiety and ADHD. More recently, many young men are coming to the light, realizing the negative contributions their porn habit has had on their lives. To light the way, a community online known as "nofap" has been educating porn users and men about the massive benefits of ridding porn from our life. Mostly men, and of course Women as well, from around the world are finding massive relief from mental symptoms and transforming their lives through quitting porn. As always, this episode was a great conversation with my good friend and director Chris Evans, and I personally believe it is a very important conversation to continue.

The Great Porn Experiment Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU.

For anybody looking for more information about my mindfulness education company pleased visit: https://themindfulsteward.com/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSF82AwSDiU

This episode serves both as a catch-up with my good friend Chris Evans, as well as the first of hopefully not too many (so we can go back outside) episodes in my new "COVID Chronicles" podcast episode series. As a freelance videographer, I first started the conversation by asking Chris for a little storyline about how the coronavirus pandemic is effecting his work situation. Starting from this point, our conversation flows into a wide variety of different discussions, and I'm actually really happy with how the episode has turned out.

Chris and I, both quite positive dudes in general, end up discussing mostly the uplifting impacts and opportunities that the #stayhome quarantine is presenting to many Canadians, as well as people in most other countries around the world. Few sources can be found sharing positive content around some of the good things that are being caused or are triggered to show up down the line from this strange sequence of events, so we found ourselves stepping forward with a little bit of perspective to share about some of 'the good'.

Though both of us are far from therapists, self-awareness and how to find more of it has recently become one of the most common discussion points we inevitably end up chatting about. Self-awareness is the root cause of living from a passionate, fulfilling, and meaningful place, so we are suggesting that just maybe, this is the perfect time to find a little more of it. There are a lot of uncertain things about a worldwide lockdown, but we still possess the ability to decide how we are going to show up for the world and ourselves during this time.

In a nutshell, it's always great to chat with this guy, and I'll be having him back on the show to dive into a few of the topics we weren't able to cover in this episode very soon.

You can visit Chris on Instagram at:

https://www.instagram.com/chri7z/

As always, you can visit my website to learn more about meditation, mindfulness and anything else related.

https://www.themindfulsteward.com/

With COVID 19 (coronavirus) impacting the lives of people around the world, I felt called to record a few thoughts around the current situation many of us are facing on a daily basis for the time being. With constant uncertainty on the horizon, this is by far the most unique situation many of us have ever faced, including those of us who are older (my 83-year-old grandpa confirmed this as well). However, with so much reason for fear and anxiety around the situation at hand as society faces the virus head-on, it is important to remind ourselves that how we show up in the world is always a choice we can make for ourselves, despite whatever the world may be throwing our way. While this period of quarantine and isolation may be testing our mental health and state of mind in new and unforeseen ways, it also contains the potential for massive leaps in progress, learning, and insight. My only goal here is to present a possible mindset shift to anybody listening to that may help all of us approach this situation and our lives with more clarity and positivity.

In addition to the mindset shifts above, I clarify the macro view of what is being seen across North America currently around dropping approval ratings of local and national media outlets as the widespread public begins losing trust in the news while collecting evermore reasons to be skeptical about where we can find objective information. The cliffs notes: the media is rarely this source. The 21st era is indeed the decade of fact-checking and self-thought. Without these two, we are allowing ourselves to become pawns in the political front lines.

Here is a look to the videos I was referring to in the episode:

https://twitter.com/JimBreuer/status/1243955577396645888?s=20

For all things meditation, mindset coaching and mindfulness visit https://www.themindfulsteward.com/.

Sign up for my newsletter and get your set of free guided meditations and mindfulness ebooks today.

In this episode, I had an incredible conversation with my new and good friend Augustto Javier. Augustto is well known in both the mindfulness and movement community throughout Toronto for his work with Mindset Brain Gym where he has taught and hosted a wide range of meditation and community events. More recently he has launched an incredibly popular alcohol-free nightlife series in Toronto called Urban Mystics. It is both a community and a movement around the appreciation of connection and community through music, parties, and celebration, free from the compulsive need to drink copious amounts of alcohol. From what I have witnessed so far, these events are amazing and feature well-known music artists as well as performances, breathwork, meditation sessions and a whole host of activities and healthy offerings to replace the liquor. Over the next year he will be hosting a wide range of retreats and events to definitely stay tuned on what he is doing. Follow him @creativegeneralists on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/creativegeneralists/) to stay tuned on the updates.

Augustto and I will also be sharing a set of men's mindfulness & community evenings in downtown Toronto in the coming months. If you would like to stay tuned on when and where these will be happening, the best way to do so will be to subscribe to my newsletter where I will be sharing all of the updates around my business, events & content. These events will include lessons from incredible men from around the province, as well as great opportunities to home your practice within a community of like-minded individuals.

As always, for anybody who is interested in free guided meditations and additional resources, you will receive a free resource package for meditation and mindfulness upon subscribing to my newsletter. There will be lots of updates and goodies available through joining this list over the next 6 months.

https://www.themindfulsteward.com/augustto-javier-on-accessing-your-intuitive-power/

Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode!

Kayla Kozan is the Founder & CEO of Peak Wellness. With over 250 hours of formal training from U of T, Google’s SIY Leadership Institute and Mindfulness Without Borders, Kayla left her day job to make mindfulness meditation more accessible for the working professional.

Peak Wellness develops impactful corporate mindfulness training. Peak focuses on evidence-based practices that are proven to reduce burnout, lower stress and increase productivity. Many people struggle to maintain mindfulness practices in their spare time so Peak brings the practice to them — at work! Peak is dedicated to creating mindful workplaces across North America.

In this episode I had the chance to catch up with Kayla to discuss her own experience with workplace burnout, mental health, and to learn about some of the trends she is seeing in corporate environments today.

Visit Kayla online at peakwellnessco.com

Visit Kayla on Instagram at @peakwellnessco

This episode is a repost from the Naked and Wandering Podcast where I was a recent guest. The Naked and Wandering podcast is hosted by renowned yoga personality and international trainer Lauren Rudick. In this episode Lauren and I get down to the brass tax of why I ventured into mindfulness and what I have discovered along the way. I had the chance to outline why I do what I do and where I got my information. As mentioned in the episode, I am a very (and chronically) logically minded individual, and nearly every belief I have has emerged with a rational reason behind it. Meditation and mindfulness have helped me up-level my reality in so many ways I could hardly even put it into words. This episode actually provided me with a great opportunity to discuss why I think that the masculine realm needs more of this, and why I think the two worlds will inevitably collide in the very near future.

Download free guided meditations by signing up for my newsletter at https://themindfulsteward.com/.

Visit Lauren on Instagram @laurenrudick or online at https://www.laurenrudick.com/.

In this episode of The Mindful Steward Podcast I finally had the opportunity to interview a great friend of mine, Tyler Bryden. I first met Tyler when I joined his marketing Agency SixFive.co several years ago. Since that time, although I’ve changed jobs, Tyler and I have become great friends and have shared a ton of great conversation. With interest in the same topics, this has never really been a difficult thing to accomplish. More recently, Tyler has launched a tech startup called SpeakAI.co. This company takes advantage of leading machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze speech patterns and transcribe audio/video for a number of purposes. Since getting to know Tyler, I’ve recognized that he possesses a very unique ability to think creatively and far ahead of his time. His mind is constantly brewing ideas and I truly find this to be a superpower in its own right. His open-minded view of the world has brought him to the new science of psychedelics and their use in modern therapies. In recent years these substances have gained incredible traction and are on their way toward the legalization fast-track. After recently visiting the infamous burning man gathering in the southwest United States, Tyler shared with me his experience at this unique event and the things he learned from the amazing people in attendance. To learn more about Tyler and his businesses visit him online at https://sixfive.co/ or https://speakai.co/.

Download Free Guided Meditations at https://themindfulsteward.com/join-us/.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time.