On the 58th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I am delighted to introduce our guests, Dan Lawrence and Johann Botha. Dan is a Jungian Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and a Social Dreaming Consultant, a former derivatives trader, and a lifelong practitioner of Zen and contemplative traditions.

Johann is managing director of GSA Mindworks, a company cultivating a personal, participatory and measured approach to human integrity. A former, filmmaker, storyteller with an enlivening interest in human character.

I asked both of them to join me because all three of us have been exploring a sense of soul more closely recently, and I wanted to share those musings with you all to see if these types of conversations resonate with or add to your own explorations in life.

In this conversation, we explore what the soul means to us, where we get glimpses or senses of soul in our lives, and how the soul can move or call us to action. We talk about the significance of the soul regarding how we engage and participate in life, our relationships with others, and our work, as well as the places and spaces around us.

We also explore how experiences of dread can lead to both a feeling of soullessness and a lack of presence, and how we can cultivate space and awareness for more connection with the soul.

If you feel like your existence is lacking soul, whether that is in your work, relationships, or with a sense of mystery, this episode will give you plenty to contemplate, as well as images and metaphors for re-invoking more soul in your life.

Subscribe for weekly episodes, every Tuesday, and check out my YouTube channel (link below) for clips and shorts.

Contact me at [email protected] to book a free consultation (30 minutes) for one-on-one coaching programs or to hear about corporate workshops I am offering around this question.

Running Order:

03:30 What is Soul?
07:10 Getting glimpses of soul
12:30 Soul and spirit and movement
17:30 Relating and a contact point for life
23:00 Soul and a sense of aliveness and engaging uncertainty
31:00 The soul of work
35:00 Image, metaphor, and mystery
42:30 Reanimating our lives
47:30 What contributes to a sense of soullessness
55:10 Allowing space for soul 
1:00:00 How does soul and a good life connect?

For further content and information check out the following:

- For the podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos

- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/

- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/

- Dan's Website: https://www.theunthoughtknown.com/

- Dan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-lawrence-1537271b/?originalSubdomain=uk

- Johann's company: https://gsamindworks.com/

- Johann's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlbotha/