Zooming in the Lens

Hank Fortener – TedX, Adopttogether.org, World Adoption Day-Nov 9, Christian Pastor,   joins Katrina for an open, organic chat. But Hank is not your average Pastor. He captures even the non-religious when he shares from his inspiring & up-to-date lens, as you may simultaneously find yourself wanting to share a beer with the guy. Katrina and Hank share in their desire to create talking & living experiences on topics of spirituality, religion, ancient wisdom and texts, not clouded by dogma or pushing it away – instead rooted in the art of discovery and sharing, as they are always learning and practicing, too.

In Part-One, Hank shares some stories which inspired the creation of Adopttogether.org ~ the first crowdfunding site for adoption. Katrina and Hank  discuss relationships/marriage, religion and spirit, the importance of personal values (inspiration), and how doing good doesn’t always feel good during. These episodes spark many topics, which at the core, can inspire to widen the lens of practice by also looking underneath what we think we know.

We are so happy to be able to air these talks and are honored Hank gave us his time. Please follow these hyperlinks for more information on Hank; upcoming book; recorded talks including a Ted TV-www.HankFortener.com- Hanks podcast on Itunes: typically-hazardous-w.-hank  if you are in Los Angeles – attend his live podcast recording events! For more information on Adoption, I encourage you to go to Adopt Together.org, And don’t forget to learn more on how YOU can participate in World Adoption Day on Nov. 9th!  Stay tuned for Part-Two coming soon! Subscribe to ZITL Podcast to be alerted! Katrina Chester can be found on www.FunctionalYogaOnline.com and www.Facebook.com/FunctionalYoga – Thank you to Ian Hatton from Mixforpix.com for editing and music

Join Katrina and her guest Bryan Clark (MA, Mindset Coach and Client Experience Expert for Conscious Entrepreneurs) for PART 2 of their candid talk on the struggles of life as we adjust our spacesuits which culture, family, friends, peers, and beliefs systems rely on. Our mind says we are different but our souls have no differences. The mind reports how alone we are, how separate, yet the soul is never alone or lonely, even in a crowded room. Bryan shares his experiences growing up in religion, coming out as a gay teenager, family reactions, his reactions, and how they fed into adulthood personally and professionally. For Part 2, Bryan shares how this actually lead him to the deep inspiration and his life’s work as a practitioner of inquiry, spirituality and his success helping others. Listen to the end where he recommends further material and how to personally work with him one-on-one or within a group online (next one April 2016). It’s a lot easier than you think, no matter where in the world you are. We are honored to share space with Bryan! Hearing other people’s stories is a deep practice allowing us all to see ourselves, even when their story may seem so far from ours. Thank you for listening while we practice and share with you. Please share this link Zooming in the Lens Podcast (Bit.1y/ZITLPodcast) with friends that may dig it!  ram ram

spacesuit defined: Video, Ram Dass: https://www.ramdass.org/ram-dass-spacesuit/

Note: This podcast was recorded in Dec. 2015 and released in March 2016. Notes changes in the intro dialog, please. Ending lecture is public license youtube audio from an Oprah Winfrey TV episode

For more information on Bryan: “Get FREE Resources to Awaken and Inspire Your Unique Brilliance!”: www.ClientClarity.com/GetClarity

Katrina and “Zooming in the Lens online course” can be found at FunctionalYogaOnline.com and Facebook.com/functionalyoga

Music and editing by Ian Hatton at mixforpix.com

Spacesuit = Our roles and models in life, our external bodies, our personalities, who we think we are. “When I, like you, was born I donned a space suit for living on this planet, it was this body, this is my space suit, and it had a steering mechanism which is my pre-frontal lobe and all the brain that helps with coordinating and stuff…and we learn how to grab things and lift things…you get rewarded when you learn how to use your spacesuit. And you get really good at it. You get so good at it that you can’t differentiate yourself from your spacesuit anymore… and you’re constantly looking into other people’s eyes to find out if you’re really wearing a nice spacesuit…” Ram Dass (https://www.ramdass.org/ram-dass-spacesuit/)

Join Katrina and guest Bryan Clark (MA, Mindset Coach and Client Experience Expert for Conscious Entrepreneurs) in a candid talk about the struggles in life as we adjust our spacesuits that culture, family, friends, peers, and beliefs systems rely on. Our mind says we are different but our souls have no differences. It reports how alone we are, yet the soul is never lonely, even in a crowded room. Bryan shares his experiences growing up in religion, coming out as a gay teenager, family reactions and his own, and how reactions fed into adulthood personally and professionally. He shares this and more in a two-part episode leading to his deep inspiration and life’s work as a practitioner of inquiry, spirituality and his success helping others. In Bryan’s words “IGNITE Your Passion – SHINE your Unique Brilliance – LEAD with Love!” We are honored to share space with Bryan!

Note: This podcast was recorded in Dec. 2015 and released in March 2016. Notes changes in the intro dialog, please. Ending lecture is public license youtube audio from an Oprah Winfrey TV episode

Get FREE Resources to Awaken and Inspire Your Unique Brilliance! with Bryan Clark:

Katrina and “Zooming in the Lens online course” can be found at FunctionalYogaOnline.com and Facebook.com/functionalyoga

Music and editing by Ian Hatton at mixforpix.com

Katrina talks with Jim McCown in MO, who took part in the Zooming in the Lens course presented by Ram Dass and Functional Yoga online (which Katrina guides).

Jim attended the festival “Burning Man” this year for the very first time…and with his daughter. How many dads can say that Katrina and Jim discuss, the perhaps not-so-different worlds of BM and spiritual seeking, yet both can really be overlooked and over judged, without personal experience. Both share the road toward expanded awareness and challenging our judgments of who we think we are – community practices that can free us from the “me, mine and I” worlds we all live in – and, personal responsibility. Importantly, they both create opportunities for EXPERIENCES and our direct participation in life. With personal experience, learned knowledge grows roots. Without, may even be stopping us from trying. Join us in demystifying words like Ritual and Myth! Thank you to Jim for sharing his mirror with us!

FYO Instagram / FYO Soundcloud / FYO YOUTUBE CHANNEL 

*Zooming in the Lens online course” – Skype online course with 5-10 hand-picked people from all over the world. For more info log onto FunctionalYogaOnline.com and RamDass.org/zooming. This course is in honor of Katrina’s teacher, Ram Dass, and Maharaji (Neem Karoli Baba). *Join the past ZITL students at Facebook.com/Functionalyoga.

Want ideas for life experiences before or after college? How about no matter HOW old you are? Katrina Chester and Cara Evans join in for teaching moments with a beautiful 26-year-old sharing her own experience to free the limited thinking of career options! ~ Lexi Pellegrino is someone who went to college for 4 years, but once she landed in the workforce she did everything she could to not fall asleep at her desk in NYC. After she felt like “this can’t be it” she spiraled into confusion and guilt with a choice to make and seemingly limited options…or not. Two African safari’s later, working with Americorp with FEMA in the US on relief and aid, to cumulatively practicing and surviving for over a year living deep in the mountains participating, then leading youth in cultivating relationships to nature through conservation work when only 3-years-ago she was falling asleep at her desk. Did she wait for chaos and confusion to go away? Tune in to find out! Thank you for sharing your story Lexi! This is a great teaching for us all at any age.

An interesting article on gap years – http://national.deseretnews.com/article/559/how-taking-a-gap-year-between-high-school-and-college-can-improve-your-life.html

…with Katrina Chester, guests Cara Evans and Lexi Pellegrino for part-two…are we playing the game of our lives, or is it playing us? The scientists of spirituality discussion continues from last week with Cara and Katrina as they notice the recipe used by science for investigation, to adjusting the lens of ourselves in our own life discoveries; for allowing daily life as a spiritual practice. Cara shares a story showing, no matter where you are in practice, it’s not about everything becoming perfect. Lexi, just returned from another adventure in nature, shares with us her experience living in the mountains of Idaho, sometimes 83 miles into back country inspiring youth for a 7 week adventure living with the land. Next episode we will get to hear more from her, like her remarkable tales of the African bush rebuilding water wells for tribes from the elephants who had destroyed them. In turn, repairing the relationship between human and animal when restoring the tribes only water source. This is how she practices. That and much more, coming soon! Enjoy the triad of laughter and in-depth 1.5 hours as they follow each other into the land of our individual games of incarnation!

ONE DAY LEFT to hand in questionnaires for the online experience ZOOMING IN THE LENS – Group 3 – suggested DONATION. You may also register at any time for the next group formations at RamDass.org/zooming or by sending an email to [email protected] to request the questionnaire.

Thank you to Ian Hatton from Mixforpix.com for editing and music – we are truly blessed for his time on our little practice endeavor. And most grateful for you. Namaste everybody!

show ideas, topics or questions write to [email protected]

all rights reserved 2015 Functionalyogaonline.com

Joining Katrina today is Cara Evans discussing a deep desire for us as humans to separate. Seperate people, knowledge, ourselves into “this is ME at work, this is ME at home” etc., Right before our eyes the big topics teach us how separation leads us further into sleep leaving ONE option being right and making another wrong. That isn’t practicing – that is a belief, a role and pretty much all we know out of the box. How could we bridge a gap for a wider vision of who WE are with myopic glasses covering the many perceptions? One common barrier for a lot of us is when we label ourselves as “a more scientific minded person” verse ” a spiritually minded person”. Science for example and their primary practice for studying anything is the investigation. Their pattern in which to do this and the pattern for self-study are very much connected in that they are both gathering information about the object. For people, if we are busy being “us”, the object (and if a practice is done from that part of us) we leave no space in which to take in all angles and perceptions. That would literally be like a scientist cutting slivers of their own skin, muscles, ligaments, tendons and bone off, putting it under the  microscope, and looking through. Eventually, you’ll bleed out. Not very functional. Self-awareness develops the view of ourselves as both subject and object, as does science with ‘specimen and scientist’, and for self-study it’s like being in two places at the same time. We are discussing the similarities of scientific approaches of investigation and our self as both subject and object for our own investigation. So what are the rules of the game of incarnation? I think it’s one way of describing what a spiritual practice IS – noticing what our individual and collective rules are; what are the properties of the specimen?

GREAT NEWS —Ram Dass and Katrina from FYO are busy creating group #3 of Zooming in the Lens online course which will start Oct 29th on Skype, for an online, guided practice with 5-10 hand-picked people from all over the world. An intense, yet down-to-earth; meeting of spirit and mind, supporting and grounding for you to take off from any level, at any degree. For more info log onto FunctionalYogaOnline.com. Registration opens Oct 5th, 2015 on RamDass.org/zooming. 

Thank you to Ian Hatton from Mixforpix.com for editing and music of this podcast. For show ideas, topics or questions write to [email protected]