The One You Feed | Personal Growth, Emotional Resilience & Purpose

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Greg Marcus about the spiritual practice of Mussar Greg Marcus has a BA in Biology from Cornell University, and earned his Ph.D. in biology from MIT. He worked for ten years as a marketer in the Silicon Valley genomics industry, after which he became a stay-at-home dad, writer, life balance coach, and biotech consultant. Greg’s first book, Busting Your Corporate Idol: Self-Help for the Chronically Overworked, is a five star Amazon best seller. His latest book is called The Spiritual Practice of Good Actions: Finding Balance Through the Soul Traits of Mussar In This Interview, Greg Marcus and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His book, The Spiritual Practice of Good Actions: Finding Balance Through the Soul Traits of Mussar Mussar: A Thousand Year Old Hebrew Spiritual Practice Soul Traits That you can be too truthful and it can be counter productive That being untruthful to spare yourself embarrassment is not ok That being untruthful to spare someone else's feelings can be ok And the intention is the most important determiner of whether or not to tell the truth Choice points The evil inclination and the good inclination Mussar helps us by opening the space between "the match and the fuse" That we all have free will but it's not always accessible to us What qualifies as an act of kindness Mussar = "Extreme Spiritual Fitness" Morning Mantra, Daily observations and practices, Evening journaling Mussar helps you specialize and deepen your knowledge and practice of the Soul Traits The four assumptions of Mussar: We all have a divine spark that is occluded by our baggage We all have the same Soul Traits but we have different amounts of each We have a conflict between the good inclination and the evil inclination We all have free will and it's not always accessible to us That patience is the cure for helplessness Mussar: repairing the Soul Traits within us and how it can help the world Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Brian Tom O'Connor Brian Tom O’Connor is an actor, theatre director, cabaret performer, and formerly depressed guy who stumbled onto the source of joy and happiness in the background of all experience. He is the author of the book: Awareness Games: Playing With Your Mind to Create Joy In This Interview, Brian Tom O'Connor and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, Awareness Games: Playing with Your Mind to Create Joy Real reality vs Virtual reality Why games are a more effective approach than questions to exploring awareness The fact that you don't have to believe anything to play a game That trying to reproduce an experience isn't doable That trying to get rid of an unpleasant feeling isn't doable That the mind is an excellent servant but a poor master The power of noticing "the whiteboard itself" rather than what's written on it The three basic questions: What's in awareness now? What is awareness? Who/what is aware? The Future Fishing game The Past Catching game The game, Slippery Mind That awareness games can be a good break from a serious meditation practice The benefit of allowing emotions to flow through you The game, Include Include Include Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Emily Esfahani Smith Emily Esfahani Smith is the author of The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters She graduated from Dartmouth College and earned a master of applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She writes about psychology, culture, and relationships. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times,Time, The Atlantic, and other publications. Emily is also a columnist for The New Criterion, as well as an editor at the Stanford University's Hoover Institution, In This Interview, Emily Esfahani Smith and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Her new book: The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters The difference between happiness and meaning That the defining feature of a meaningful life is connecting and contributing to something that lies beyond the self The three criteria of a meaningful life: feeling that one's life is significant in some way, feeling that one's life is driven by a sense of purpose and feeling that one's life is coherent That human beings are meaning-seeking creatures That there's more to life than feeling happy That our current culture doesn't emphasize meaning and purpose Victor Frankel's important work related to the role of meaning in our lives The role of meaning when facing adversity That responsibility and duty are wellsprings of meaning That the wellsprings of meaning are all around us The four pillars of a meaningful life: Belonging, Purpose, Storytelling, and Transcendence The wisdom in what George Eliot has to say about the people that keep the world going in small yet indispensable ways: that the goodness of the world is dependent on their unhistoric acts What kind of relationships lead to a sense of belonging That purpose can come in all shapes and sizes That reflecting on the story of your life can lead to a greater sense of meaning in your life The two different types of storytelling That transcendent experiences are crucial to having a greater sense of meaning in life The good news about what's happening to us as a species Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Koshin Paley Ellison Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, cofounded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, which delivers contemplative approaches to care through education, direct service, and meditation practice. Koshin is the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care . He received his clinical training at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center and the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association. He began is formal Zen training in 1987. He is a senior Zen monk, Soto Zen teacher, ACPE supervisor, and Jungian psychotherapist. In This Interview, Koshin Paley Ellison and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book: Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care The influence of his grandmother on his life and his work The story that changed his life forever That to truly love someone means to love all of the parts of them, even the ones you don't understand or like The importance of asking "where am I contracting away from things around me?" How we get into trouble because of our aversion The power of asking "I'm so curious about why you are angry?" Learning how to feel the feeling without becoming the feeling How his job is not to change people but to be with people That it's difficult for someone to move until their cry has been fully heard and received The healing connection with other people That dying people reflect on how well they loved and who loved them in their lives The recipe of resiliency: Including ourselves in how we care, the importance of community and having a contemplative practice with a group The relationship between having a contemplative practice and caring for the dying Learning how to give and receive freely = generosity To show up with beginners mind, to bear witness and identifying the loving action are the three important teachings for service Operationalized meditation Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Dr. Rick Hanson about hardwiring happiness into our brain Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence as well as Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom and Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time. He is the Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and an Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, he's been an invited speaker at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. An authority on self-directed neuroplasticity, Dr. Hanson's work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, CBC, Fox Business, Consumer Reports Health, U.S. News and World Report, and O Magazine, and his articles have appeared in Tricycle Magazine, Insight Journal, and Inquiring Mind. In This Interview Rick and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable. His latest book: Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence. That feeding the good wolf is a daily habit. How it's our responsibility to feed our good wolf- no one can do it for us. How frequently our brain changes. Experience-dependent neuroplasticity. That our brains are like velcro for the bad and Teflon for the good. Deciding what we cultivate and what do you restrain. The human tendency to overlearn from our bad experiences and under learn from our good ones. Learning to "install" our beneficial experiences. His practice of "taking in the good". The difference between positive thinking and taking in the good. The benefits of realistic thinking over positive thinking. Moving positive memories into longer term memory. How neurons that fire together wire together. Ways to deepen our experiences: Duration, Intensity, Multimodality, Novelty and Salience. The fundamental neuropsychology of learning, Taking on the good in four words: Have it, Enjoy It. How self hate and harshness are not motivating in the long term. Being numb from the neck down. The three-step way to working with negative emotions. The analogy of a garden for how we tend to our minds: Be with the Garden, Pull the Weeds, Plan Flowers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Glennon Doyle Melton about staying open to life In This Interview Glennon and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable. Having to get through the bad stuff to get to the good stuff. Being terrified of pain. If we work with our negative emotions we can transform them into something beautiful. The benefit of sitting with our negative emotions. Learning to use envy as a positive tool. Losing ourselves to pretending and addition. The continuous journey of valleys and mountains. Being "brutiful". How pain is a harsh but great teacher. How a broken heart is not the end of anything, it's the beginning. Using pain as fuel. The mantra "staying open". The power of service and art. We can numb our feelings and hide or feel our feelings and share. The power of the words "Me Too". How getting sober is like recovering from frostbite. Getting sober is hard but being sober is wonderful. The benefit of being forced to our knees. How no one is allowed to try and give you perspective in the middle of your pain. Bringing our whole selves to all our roles in lives. Surface conversations leave us lonely all the time because everyones surface is different, at deeper levels we are all the same. The fear of being honest about who we are.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to BJ Fogg about changing our behavior Dr. BJ Fogg directs the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University. A psychologist and innovator, he devotes half of his time to industry projects. His work empowers people to think clearly about the psychology of persuasion — and then to convert those insights into real-world outcomes. BJ is the creator of the Fogg Behavioral Model, a new model of human behavior change, which guides research and design. Drawing on these principles, his students created Facebook Apps that motivated over 16 million user installations in 10 weeks. He is the author of Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do, a book that explains how computers can motivate and influence people. BJ is also the co-editor of Mobile Persuasion, as well as Texting 4 Health. Fortune Magazine selected BJ Fogg as one of the “10 New Gurus You Should Know”. In This Interview BJ and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable The wolf you pay attention to is the one you feed The two main limits in life: time and attention The Fogg Behavioral Model- Motivation, Ability and Triggers How behavior change is about more than motivation Designing effective behavior change Managing the Ability part of the behavioral model Designing behavior to fit into our every day routines The bigger the change the more motivation you need Why taking baby steps is so important How motivation comes and goes How behaviors get easier to do day after day Building upon small successes That the ability to change behavior is not a character issue Keeping habits going during difficult times Creating good triggers Thinking about behavior change as behavior design Super Habits That triggers need to change with context changes The importance of celebrating small habit changes How emotions create habitsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to James Clear about building habits James Clear is an entrepreneur, weightlifter, and travel photographer. He writes at JamesClear.com, where he talks about scientific research and real-world experiences that help you rethink your health and improve your life. His blog gets millions of visitors per year. In This Interview James and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable. How money can be an addiction that society rewards. How much we over estimate one defining moment versus steady day to day behavior. The aggregation of marginal gains- improve by 1% in everything you do. Small changes can lead to big results. Reduce the Scope, Stick to The Schedule. Not letting your emotions drive your behavior. The difference between professionals and amateurs. It's not the result that matters but the action and habit. The 2 Minute Rule. How willpower often comes after we start, not before. "Start with something so easy you can't say no to it"- Leo Babuta You don't have to be great at the start, you just need to be there. Learning from our failures and seeing it as a data point. Seeing failure as an event, not as part of us. How mentally tough people define themselves by their persistence, not failure. Acquiring more mental toughness or grit. How 21 days to create a habit is a myth. Missing a habit once in awhile is not a big deal.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week on The One You Feed we have Noah Levine. We were lucky enough to sit down with Noah in the Against the Stream headquarters in Los Angeles. Noah's teachings are core to everything that I have come to believe over the years. I'm really excited to present this interview. Noah Levine (born 1971) is an American Buddhist teacher and the author of the books Dharma Punx: A Memoir , Against the Stream, and The Heart of The Revolution. As a counselor known for his philosophical alignment with Buddhism and punk ideology, he founded Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. As a youth, Levine was incarcerated several times. His first book, Dharma Punx, details teenage years filled with drugs, violence, and multiple suicide attempts—choices fuelled by disillusionment with American mainstream culture. His substance abuse started early in life—at age six he began smoking marijuana—and finally ended in a padded detoxification cell in juvenile prison 11 years later. It was in this cell where he hit "an emotional rock bottom" and began his Buddhist practice "out of a place of extreme drug addiction and violence". He recently started Refuge Recovery which is a community of people who are using the practices of mindfulness, compassion, forgiveness and generosity to heal the pain and suffering that addiction has caused. His new book is titled Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path to Recovery from Addiction. In This Interview Noah and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable. How he found Buddhism through his life failures. What "going against the stream" means. That the bad wolf has a stronger tendency in us and wins by default. How our capacity for kindness, generosity, and love have to be cultivated. Why the path of the Buddha is revolutionary. Going against the status quo. How to be in the world but not of it. The distinction between suffering and pain. The difference between craving and desire. Why suffering is not your fault. How the 1st Noble Truth normalizes the experience of suffering. The impermanent nature of all things. How we can never satisfy happiness through sense pleasure. How we layer suffering on top of our pain.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Dr. Dan Siegel Daniel Siegel, MD is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA He is currently a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine, and executive director of theMindsight Institute, an educational center devoted to promoting insight, compassion, and empathy in individuals, families, institutions, and communities. His books include Mindsight, The Developing Mind and Parenting from the Inside Out He has been invited to lecture for the King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Google University, and TEDx. His latest book is called Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human In This Interview, Dr. Dan Siegel and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book: Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human That where attention goes, neuro-firing flows and neuro-connection grows in the brain The mind is not only what the brain does, or brain firing The mind is more than merely energy and information flow The mind is a self-organizing, emergent and relational process that is regulating the flow of energy and information both within you and between you and the world The role of differentiating and linking in a healthy mind That an unhealthy mind is too rigid and/or too chaotic The importance of integrating rigidity and chaos in the brain The Connectone Studies The fact that integration of the brain is the best indicator of a person's well-being That when we honor the differences between us and promote linkage between us and others, we foster integration in our brains That people with trauma have impaired integration memory What "mindsight" is and how it differentiates from mindfulness How mindfulness can help foster mindsight and well-being The wheel of awareness That change seems to involve awareness That energy is the movement from possibility to actuality through a series of probabilities Please Support The Show With a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest today is Maria Popova: a writer, blogger, and critic living Brooklyn, NY. She is best known for Brainpickings.org, which features her writing on culture, books, and many other subjects. Brain Pickings is seen by millions of readers every month. Maria’s describes her work as a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, a subjective lens on what matters in the world and why, bringing you things you didn’t know you were interested in — until you are…. In This Interview Maria and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable. The critical importance of kindness. The 7 things she has learned from 7 years of Brain Pickings. Being so impatient that we don't dig deeper to understand peoples motivations. The difference between wisdom and knowledge. How we've become bored with thinking. How we have a biological aversion to being wrong. The uncomfortable luxury of changing our minds. How being open minded requires being open hearted. That as the stakes get higher we are less likely to be willing to change our mind. How most world religions exist to take away the feeling of not knowing. Presence is more important than productivity. How we can see spiritual growth as another thing to mark off on our checklist. Dispelling the illusion of the self. How we are creatures of contradictions. Trying to remove contradictions from our lives is a fools errand. Learning to love and live the questions. How it's silly to try and choose between the body and the soul, both are equally important. Why cat pictures on the internet will not relieve your existential emptiness. The average person spends two hours a day looking at their phone. That habit is how we weave our destiny. Whether we need to get something done every 4 minutes of our lives? Balancing presence and productivity. How it's easier to be a critic than a celebrator. Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time. There is no such thing as an overnight success.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Group Transformation Program email [email protected] To make a donation click here This week on The One You Feed we have Dan Millman. Dan is a former world champion athlete, university coach, martial arts instructor, and college professor as well as a best selling author. After an intensive, twenty-year spiritual quest, Dan’s teaching found its form as the Peaceful Warrior’s Way, expressed fully in his books and lectures. His work continues to evolve over time, to meet the needs of a changing world. Dan’s thirteen books, including Way of the Peaceful Warrior, have inspired and informed millions of readers in 29 languages worldwide. The feature film, “Peaceful Warrior,” starring Nick Nolte, was adapted from Dan’s first book, based upon incidents from his life. In This Interview Dan and I discuss… The One You Feed parable. The choice we face every day. What does window cleaning have to do with spirituality? How to get moving in the right direction. How life always comes down to whether or not you take the action. Starting small and connecting the dots. That a little of something is better than nothing. The danger of the all or nothing mentality. That knowledge alone is not enough. Life purpose. A definition of wisdom. Skillful versus unskillful action. The Four Purposes of Life. How life is a perfect school and the lessons get harder if we don’t learn. The conventional realm and the transcendental realm. The process of writing a book with his daughter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Claire Hoffman Claire Hoffman works as a magazine writer living in Los Angeles, writing for national magazines, covering culture, religion, celebrity, business and whatever else seems interesting. She was formerly a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and a freelance reporter for the New York Times. She has a masters degree in religion from the University of Chicago, and a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University. She serves on the board of her family foundation, the Goldhirsh Foundation, as well as the Columbia Journalism School. Claire is a native Iowan and has been meditating since she was three years old. Her new book is called: Greetings from Utopia Park: Surviving a Transcendent Childhood. In This Interview, Claire Hoffman and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Her new book: Greeting from Utopia Park: Surviving a Transcendent Childhood. Growing up in a transcendental meditation community How that community changed over time The meditation only trailer park Rationality versus belief How things can be so much more beautiful and strange than logic allows Moving away from the meditation community in her late teens Being tired of the negative cynical voice in her head Revisiting the meditation community many years later Can meditation cause people to levitate? Quieting the cynical doubting mind Is evolution antithetical to happiness? Yogic flying: what it is and what it looks like How she felt about seeing her mom attempt to fly The desire to escape being human, to be divine That part if being who she is is feeling uncomfortable Accepting what it's like to be a person Her evolution as a meditator That she doesn't aspire to being enlightened Claire Hoffman Links Homepage Twitter Facebook Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Jesse Browner Jesse Browner is the author of the novels The Uncertain Hour and Everything Happens Today. His latest book is the memoir How Did I Get Here: Making Peace with the Road Not Taken. Browner has also translated books by Jean Cocteau, Paul Eluard and Rainer Maria Rilke, as well as Frédéric Vitoux's award-winning Céline: A Biography. More recently, he translated Matthieu Ricard's Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill and Frédéric Mitterrand's The Bad Life. His freelance writing includes contributions to Nest magazine, Food & Wine, Gastronomica, New York magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Paris Review, Salon.com, Slate.com and others. . In This Interview, Jesse Browner and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, How Did I Get Here? Making Peace with the Road Not Taken That in our "unlived lives" we are always happier and more fulfilled Making peace with the choices we've made in our lives How to approach the question, "what if" by asking instead, "what is" That the most persistent monkey on an artists back is happiness The belief that happiness whitewashes all the things that makes us unique Bet on the likelihood that you're not a genius and that you can make meaning in your life in other ways than your art Why bet against yourself? To work hard at something you love: you'll be the best you can His life's motto: Work and Love How he's been called "the angry Buddhist" by his children The importance of and remedy in being more deeply involved in the life you have Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Lesley Hazleton Lesley Hazleton is a British-American author whose work focuses on "the vast and volatile arena in which politics and religion intersect." Her latest book, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto, a Publishers Weekly most-anticipated book of spring 2016, was praised by The New York Times as "vital and mischievous" and as "wide-ranging... yet intimately grounded in our human, day-to-day life." Hazleton previously reported from Jerusalem for Time, and has written on the Middle East for numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Harper's, The Nation, and The New Republic. Born in England, she was based in Jerusalem from 1966 to 1979 and in New York City from 1979 to 1992, when she moved to a floating home in Seattle, originally to get her pilot's license, and became a U.S. citizen. She has two degrees in psychology (B.A. Manchester University, M.A. Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Hazleton has described herself as "a Jew who once seriously considered becoming a rabbi, a former convent schoolgirl who daydreamed about being a nun, an agnostic with a deep sense of religious mystery though no affinity for organized religion"."Everything is paradox," she has said. "The danger is one-dimensional thinking". In April 2010, she launched The Accidental Theologist, a blog casting "an agnostic eye on religion, politics, and existence." In September 2011, she received The Stranger's Genius Award in Literature and in fall 2012, she was the Inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at Town Hall Seattle. In This Interview, Lesley Hazleton and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Her new book, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto Why she is a curious agnostic That belief is an emotional attachment That belief is an attempt to establish fact when there is no fact To be a "believer" means you've made up your mind The double meaning of the word "conviction" Why she loves doubt Why binaries concern her That agnostics are often mislabeled as wishy-washy or indecisive How to take joy in our own absurdity That you don't have to believe in a fact because a fact just exists The human tendency to find pattern in anything That perfection is boring Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Benjamin Shalva Benjamin Shalva is the nationally renowned author of Ambition Addiction: How to Go Slow, Give Thanks, and Discover Joy Within and Spiritual Cross-Training: Searching through Silence, Stretch, and Song and has been published in the Washington Post, Elephant Journal, and Spirituality & Health magazine. A rabbi, writer, meditation teacher, and yoga instructor, he leads spiritual seminars and workshops around the world. In This Interview, Benjamin Shalva and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, Ambition Addiction: How to go slow, give thanks and discover the Joy Within That ambition can be healthy and it can also cross the line to being destructive The casualties ambition can leave behind The mirage of "any day now" The signs and symptoms of ambition addiction That addictive behavior is something we do often and it's counterproductive The helpfulness of the question: Is my goal an all or nothing goal? That the road to hell is not paved with good intentions, it's paved with unexamined intentions Recovering from ambition addiction The technique of breath, word and deed The key step of slowing down Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Michelle Gielan Michelle Gielan, national CBS News anchor turned positive psychology researcher, is the bestselling author of Broadcasting Happiness. Michelle is the Founder of the Institute for Applied Positive Research and is partnered with Arianna Huffington to study how transformative stories fuel success. She is an Executive Producer of “The Happiness Advantage” Special on PBS and a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course. Michelle holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and her research and advice have received attention from The New York Times, Washington Post, FORBES, CNN, FOX, and Harvard Business Review. In This Interview, Michelle Gielan and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Her new book, Broadcasting Happiness: The Science of Igniting and Sustaining Positive Change The role that watching the news has in causing us to feel depressed How three minutes of negative news can lead to a 27% lower mood all day long How believing we are helpless can be one of the leading causes of depression The importance of believing that our behavior matters The three greatest predictors of success Stress isn't necessarily bad, it's the perception that matters Feeding the good wolf in others The myth that we can't change other people Is this positive thinking? Focusing on the good The power lead Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get more information on The One You Feed Coaching Program. Enrollment open until November 22nd Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Roger Housden about dropping the struggle Roger Housden founded and ran The Open Gate, a conference and workshop center in England that introduced the work of Ram Dass, Thich Nath Hanh, and many others into Europe. His work has been featured many times in The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. His first book was published in the U.K. in 1990, and as of 2014, he has published twenty two books, including four travel books, a novella, Chasing Love and Revelation, and the best-selling Ten Poems series, which began in 2001 with Ten Poems to Change Your Life and ended with the publication in 2012 of Ten Poems to Say Goodbye. His latest book is called Dropping the Struggle: Seven Ways to Love the Life You Have In This Interview, Roger Housden and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, Dropping the Struggle: Seven Ways to Love the Life You Have The power of poetry to reach deeper than the rational mind That struggle is not the same thing as effort That struggle is not the same thing as work That struggle is an extra push that really originates in fear, adding a note of desperation, that rarely ever works For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a very brief summary of my thinking today post-election.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show With a Donation This week we talk to Mike McHargue about beliefs Mike McHargue (better known as Science Mike) is the best-selling author of Finding God in the Waves, host of Ask Science Mike and co-host of The Liturgists Podcast. He's a leading voice on matters of science and religion with a monthly reach in the hundreds of thousands. Among other outlets, Mike has written for RELEVANT, Don Miller's Storyline, BioLogos, and The Washington Post. In This Interview, Mike McHargue and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, Finding God in the Waves His analogy of our brains being like the government Where God is found in our brains That if you continually analyze your relationship with a person, eventually that relationship will be less emotionally based and more intellectually based That the arts as well as anything looked at or experienced as a whole rather than reductively will help feed your "romantic" wolf in a relationship His journey from the Southern Baptist Church to losing his faith to where he is today His faith today is a posture of gratitude, surrender, an awareness that life is just something that we have that we didn't do anything to receive and it is a rare and precious gift and that he extends that gratitude to God (which is found in our unique human capacity to love) For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Shinzen Young about the science of enlightenment Shinzen Young is an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant. His systematic approach to categorizing, adapting and teaching meditation has resulted in collaborations with Harvard Medical School, Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Vermont in the burgeoning field of contemplative neuroscience. He is the author of The Science of Enlightenment, Natural Pain Relief and numerous audio offerings. Please Support The Show With a Donation In This Interview, Shinzen Young and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, The Science of Enlightenment The five fundamental good wolves The skill set of mindful awareness How meditation helps you concentrate How the ability to concentrate is at the base of the pyramid of anything you want to do That mindful awareness is the ability to focus on anything you want, whenever you want for as long as you want Untangle and be free How to break down our inner space How to track your sense of self Breaking the self down into these three things: Mental images, mental talk and body emotions That when you have a strong emotion you almost always will have a change in body sensation How to parcel body sensation into emotional and non-emotional The experiment you can do when you move into a situation that is emotionally intense but that is not currently intense How to suffer less in life and be 10x happier The difference between pain and suffering The habit of equanimity That one of the goals of meditations is to achieve happiness regardless of conditions The periodic table of meditation techniques The unified mindfulness system A "name and claim" meditation Please Support The Show with a DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show by Donation This week we talk to Michael Bungay Stanier about habits Michael Bungay Stanier is the founder of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. He’s the author of several books, including The Coaching Habit and Do More Great Work. Michael has written for or been featured in numerous publications including Business Insider, Fast Company, Forbes, The Globe & Mail and The Huffington Post. He was the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and holds a Masters of Philosophy from Oxford, and law and arts degrees with highest honors from the Australian National University. In This Interview, Michael Bungay Stanier and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More and Change the Way You Lead Forever The way that the question, How do you stay curious for just a little bit longer? Can transform the way you show up in your life How feeling safe can help us access our highest selves The power of sitting in the ambiguity of asking a question rather than jumping to the feeling of certainty of telling someone an answer The Karpman Drama Triangle: the victim, the persecutor & the rescuer The heart of the Victim role: There's only one way to do this, but you don't like the way it's being done. The best coaching question in the world: And what else? That the first answer someone gives you isn't their only answer and it's rarely their best answer. It's a great self-management tool for rescuers because it keeps you from jumping in, it allows you to stay curious a little bit longer It's a great question for the victim role because it helps give them other options Most people only consider two options before making a decision: should I stay or should I go? Asking this question can give you a third option The five essential components to building an effective new habit That 45% of our waking behavior is habitual The 95% of our brain activity happens in the unconscious brain Since it's inevitable that when building a new habit you will "fall off the bus" or fail, it's important that you have a plan for what you'll do at that point How do you hold yourself firmly but compassionately accountable when it comes to changing your behavior? The kickstart question - a good way to start conversation with anybody: What's on your mind Please Support The Show by DonationSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please Support The Show by Donation This week we talk to Eric Kaufmann about leadership Eric Kaufmann guides leaders to make better decisions and achieve better results. He has consulted for hundreds of leaders, including executives and teams at Sony, T-Mobile, Genentech, Alcon Labs, and Teradata. He is the founder and president of Sagatica, Inc. and serves on the board of the San Diego Zen Center. His new book is called the Four Virtues of a Leader and shares practical ideas and tools that deepen a leader’s ability to be efficient, effective and deliberate. In This Interview, Eric Kaufmann and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, The Four Virtues of a Leader How leadership is like The Hero's Journey How he used the spiritual bypass His definition of leadership Leadership in day to day life His four questions surrounding leadership The three hurdles we have to overcome to be effective His definition of courage Ways you can build courage The important difference between fear and anxiety The lifelong process of discipline The three gems of Buddhism Procrastination How spiritual surrender plays into leadership Please Support The Show by Donation It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion Group This week we talk to Jonathan Fields about living a good life Jonathan Fields is a New York City dad, husband, and he currently runs a mission-driven media and education venture, Good Life Project, where he and his team lead a global community in the quest to live more meaningful, connected and vital lives. He produces a top-rated podcast and video-series with millions of listens and views, where he hosts in-depth conversations with leading voices from Sir Ken Robinson to Brene Brown, Elizabeth Gilbert and hundreds more. Jonathan has also been featured widely in the media, including everything from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and FastCompany to Real Simple, O Magazine, Self, People, Vogue, Elle, Allure, and many others. His latest book is called How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom In This Interview, Jonathan Fields and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His new book, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful stories, surprising science and practical wisdom The three good life buckets: Connection, Vitality, Contribution Improving your experience in your "day job" The mistake in his business manifesto: Thou shalt do epic shit The role that money plays in living a good life That the way that you spend your money plays a big role in a satisfying life What gives you a sense of purpose? What in your life do you do passionately? Sparks The middle way Three ways to deal with the energy vampires in your life: self-care, compassion & find your beacon That your life can only be as good as the level of your lowest bucket How to improve your life by assessing the levels of your buckets and what actions to then take Jonathan Fields Links Homepage Twitter Facebook Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion GroupSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion Group This week we talk to Barbara Karnes about living and dying well Barbara Karnes, RN, is an internationally respected speaker, educator, author and thought leader on matters of death and dying. She is a renowned authority to explain the dying process to families, healthcare professionals and the community at large. Barbara has held both clinical and leadership positions, including staff nurse, clinical supervisor and executive director. She has won numerous awards including THE INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN WOMAN OF THE YEAR 2015 from the World Humanitarian Awards. In This Interview, Barbara Karnes and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable That knowledge reduces fear How her work with & knowledge of the dying process influences how she lives That as long as we're breathing it is an act of living What to do when one receives a terminal diagnosis The labor of dying The process of gradual death The significant changes that happen 1-3 weeks before death How to know if someone is minutes to hours away from their death That dying is not painful; disease causes pain The spiritual driver releasing its hold on the physical body The importance of telling the dying person that you understand that they For more show notes visit our website Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion GroupSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion Group This week we talk to Melody Warnick Melody Warnick has been a freelance journalist for more than a decade, she has written for Reader’s Digest, O: The Oprah Magazine, Redbook, The Atlantic’s CityLab, and dozens of other publications. She is the author of This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live. How we come to feel at home in our towns and cities is what Warnick sets out to discover in This Is Where You Belong. She dives into the body of research around place attachment—the deep sense of connection that binds some of us to our cities and increases our physical and emotional well-being—then travels to towns across America to see it in action. In This Interview, Melody Warnick and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Moving often Liking where you live Committing to where you are and making the best of it The difference between people who are movers, stuck and rooted Always thinking happiness is "out there" somewhere Why walking more helps you love where you live What is your Walk Score Each town is different to each person depending on perspective- there is no objective town Where would you take visitors in your town? Taking advantage of the things your town offers The paradox of choice How important nature is in feeding your good wolf and loving where you live Buying local The power of "weak ties" Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion GroupSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion Group This week we talk to Taylor Hunt Taylor Hunt is a devoted student of Ashtanga, a system of yoga originally transmitted by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. The system is now transmitted by his teacher, Sharath Jois, in Mysore, India. Taylor was the first Ashtanga teacher in Ohio granted Level II Authorization to teach from the Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (KPJAYI) in Mysore, India. He is dedicated to sharing the transformative and healing practice with others by teaching daily Mysore classes at Ashtanga Yoga Columbus and offering workshops around the country. He is also the author of the recently published book, A Way From Darkness, and director of the Trini Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing the life-changing practice of Ashtanga with those suffering from addiction. In This Interview, Taylor Hunt and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable How the parable applies to a person with addiction Addiction = A disease of denial His book, A Way From Darkness The varying amounts of meeting attendance and other support mechanisms in the recovery process The importance of being connected to one's self in a healthy life The importance of state of mind and intention when it comes to the practice of yoga The ways emotions show up in our body Ashtanga Yoga How he helps his students connect to their yoga practice on a spiritual level The importance of not comparing your insides with someone else's outsides The surprising thing that his dad said to him when he asked for his blessing to go to India "Bring Your Ass to Class" How he built the self-discipline to cultivate a consistent yoga practice The danger of identifying ourselves with our thoughts Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion GroupSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion Group This week we talk to Tara Brach Tara Brach is an American psychologist and proponent of Buddhist meditation. She is a guiding teacher and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C Brach also teaches Buddhist meditation at centers for meditation and yoga in the United States and Europe including Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, the Kripalu Center,and the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. Brach is an engaged Buddhist specializing in the application of Buddhist teachings to emotional healing. Her 2003 book, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha, focuses on the use of practices such as mindfulness for healing trauma. Her 2013 book, True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart, offers practices for tapping into inner peace and wisdom in the midst of difficulty. In This Interview, Tara Brach and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Being kind to the parts of ourselves that are more primitive The difference between feelings and thoughts Dropping the storyline The question of "What am I unwilling to feel?" How we have to go through the difficult emotions to get to peace The importance of remembering the good Not being addicted to suffering The habit of looking for what's wrong What's the moment like if there is no problem How we tend to always anticipating a problem How we are almost always lost in thought Practicing coming into our senses Self-compassion as the most important quality on the spiritual path Only being taught one type of meditation Trying different types of meditation until we find the one that works best for us. For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Matthew Quick about mental health Our guest this week is Matthew Quick. He is here for his second visit to The One You Feed. He is the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook, which was made into an Oscar-winning film; as well as many other novels. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention, was an LA Times Book Prize finalist, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and selected by Nancy Pearl as one of Summer’s Best Books for NPR. His latest book is called Every Exquisite Thing Our Sponsor this Week is Casper Mattress Visit casper.com/wolf and use the promo code “wolf” to get $50 off!! In This Interview, Matthew Quick and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Short term pleasure versus long term gain Imposter Syndrome Thinking that money and fame will create happiness Removing the stigma of mental health Intrinsic vs extrinsic goals What drives us The voice of depression Finding the middle ground between rebellion and conformity The power of literature to allow us to see different worlds and possibilities How sometimes quitting is the right approach Parental understanding How his father thought he was crazy to leave a job to become a writer The pressure to be someone that everyone else wants you to be Letting our children be who they are How lonely people need to find each other How we need music and art to rally around Social anxiety and depression The role of mental health in creating art The artist as the canary in the coal mine How being adjusted to a sick society is not healthy How do we know if we are artistic, mentally ill or just different Affecting an air of superiority over "normal" people For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion Group This week we talk to Howard Martin (HeartMath) about the intelligence of the heart Howard Martin is one of the original leaders who helped found HeartMath. HeartMath was founded to help individuals, organizations and the global community incorporate the heart’s intelligence into their day-to-day experience of life. They do this by connecting heart and science in ways that empower people to greatly reduce stress, build resilience, and unlock their natural intuitive guidance for making better choices. During his career with HeartMath, Howard has delivered programs for Fortune 100 companies, government agencies, all four branches of the U.S. military, and many school system. He coauthored The HeartMath Solution and Heart Intelligence:Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart. In This Interview, Howard Martin (HeartMath) and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable How polarized our world is How important our day to day choices are What "heart intelligence is" The benefit of looking "within" The science of heart intelligence What heart rate variability is How the heart is considered part of our hormonal system The two-way communication between the heart and the brain Measuring heart rate variability What heart coherence is The Heart Coherence method How it takes time for these practices to create results The difference between our heart talking and our mind Following our heart HeartMath promotion Join our new The One You Feed Facebook Discussion GroupSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Ralph White Ralph White is co-founder of the New York Open Center, America’s leading urban institution of holistic learning where his current role is Creative Director. The Open Center receives almost 60,000 visits annually from participants in its year round programs and has presented the major writers and speakers in the fields of wellness, social/ecological change, inner development, world spiritual traditions, art and creativity for over twenty seven years. He is an international speaker on spirituality, consciousness, the history of the Western Tradition. He is also editor of the award winning Lapis magazine, and taught the first fully accredited course in holistic thinking and learning at New York University. His new memoir is called: The Jeweled Highway: On The Quest For a Life of Meaning In This Interview, Ralph White and I Discuss...The One You Feed parable His latest book, The Jeweled Highway The role of music in his life His involvement in building spiritual retreat centers How you retain your centeredness in an urban environment If there are parts of the world that are more conducive to places of spiritual retreat than others The powerful role of retreat centers of bringing together people of like mind The importance of contact with nature The importance of a spiritual practice The importance of cultivating community For more show notes visit our website A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable. This parable goes by many names including: The Tale of Two Wolves The Parable of the Two Wolves Two Wolves Which Wolf Do You Feed Which Wolf are You Feeding Which Wolf Will You Feed It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was on my mind this week. I thought it would be good to revisit this episode- Eric Life will always take effort Most of us have a fantasy that we will hit some point where life won't take effort. We will read the right book, learn the right meditation, rub the right crystal and our troubles will vanish. I think this is a fallacy. Life always take effort, and I think this is good news. It's our unrealistic expectations that cause us problems and cause us pass over what works and chase more snake oil. Make the effort, life is worth it. Some of our most popular interviews that you might also enjoy: Kino MacGregor Strand of Oaks Mike Scott of the Waterboys Todd Henry- author of Die Empty Randy Scott HydeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get more information on The One You Feed Coaching Program. Enrollment open until August 20th This week we talk to Tami Simon about What Matters Most Tami Simon founded Sounds True at the age of 22 with the mission of disseminating spiritual wisdom. As a pioneer in the conscious business movement, she focuses on bringing authenticity and heart into the workplace while honoring multiple bottom lines. Tami hosts a popular weekly podcast called Insights at the Edge, where she has interviewed many of today's leading teachers, delving deeply into their discoveries and personal experiences on their own journeys. With Sounds True, she has released the audio program Being True: What Matters Most in Work, Life, and Love. In This Interview, Tami Simon and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable The core invincible goodness that's deep inside of us all Her new audiobook, Being True: What Matters Most in Work, Life and In Love What "There's no there there" means as it relates to enlightenment How she balances both accepting the moment and striving for things in her life The role that healthy ambition plays in daily life The types of feedback that our bodies give us to indicate that things are out of balance What her spiritual practice looks like today Somatic Meditation How she's working on integrating the meditative state into her everyday life The never ending process of deep attending within ourselves The five keys to living with integrity How support plays a big role in us having the courage to bridge the gap between knowing and doing Her experiences with some of the great spiritual teachers that she has met Get more information on The One You Feed Coaching Program. Enrollment open until August 20thSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get more information on The One You Feed Coaching Program. Enrollment open until August 20th This is a bonus episode of Eric being interviewed by Greg Berg on his excellent Life on Purpose podcast From Greg's show notes: What is a life worth living? How do change your behavior and establish lasting habits? Which wolf do you feed? For Life on Purpose Episode #35, my guest is podcast host/producer Eric Zimmer from The One You Feed, which was named one of the Best Health Podcasts of All Time by The Huffington Post. Eric has spent the past two years asking these questions of thought leaders, scientists, and teachers such as Simon Sinek, Byron Katie, don Miguel Ruiz, Sharon Salzberg, Bob Proctor, BJ Fogg, Dan Millman, and many more. Eric joins me for a great, in-depth conversation about his own life journey (being addicted to drugs and homeless 20 years ago), what he’s learned doing the show, tools and tips for self-awareness and behavior change, and much more! Get more information on The One You Feed Coaching Program. Enrollment open until August 20th The Tale of Two Wolves A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Matthew Fox about The Four Paths to God Matthew Fox is an American priest and theologian. Formerly a member of the Dominican Order within the Roman Catholic Church, he became a member of the Episcopal Church following his expulsion from the order in 1993. Fox was an early and influential exponent of a movement that came to be known as Creation Spirituality. The movement draws inspiration from the mystical philosophies of such medieval Catholic visionaries as Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas, Saint Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, and Meister Eckhart as well as the wisdom traditions of Christian scriptures. Creation Spirituality is also strongly aligned with ecological and environmental movements of the late 20th century and embraces numerous spiritual traditions around the world. Fox has written 30 books that have sold millions of copies. His latest book is called A Way to God: Thomas Merton's Creation Spirituality Journey In This Interview, Matthew Fox and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Feeding "the love of life" vs the "love of death" How fear can drive compassion out Embracing the difficult Silence and solitude Balancing engaging with the world vs retreating from it Battling our narcissistic tendencies Learning to let go and let be Developing a "portable solitude" that we can take with us His Four Paths to God- Via Positiva, Via Negativa, Via Creativa, Via Transformativa Creativity as a path towards God Getting "off the cushion" and into the world Via Positiva Awe and astonishment as a path to deeper spirituality Nature as part of the Via Positiva Via Negativa Facing suffering and grieving as part of the Via Negativa Via Transformativa Keeping our attention on being compassionate The "glittering Niagra of Trivia" that is our culture and media Thomas Merton's transition to mysticism Was Thomas Merton assassinated by our government? Technology as the main problem of our time How technology will not redeem us Being expelled from the Dominican Order Supporting homosexuality A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable. This parable goes by many names including: The Tale of Two Wolves The Parable of the Two Wolves Two Wolves Which Wolf Do You Feed Which Wolf are You Feeding Which Wolf Will You Feed It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Conor O'Brien about celebrating our uniqueness Conor O'Brien is an Irish singer and songwriter for the band Villagers. The band came to prominence in 2010 with the release of their debut album, Becoming a Jackal. Released to critical acclaim, the album was shortlisted for the 2010 Mercury Prize and the Choice Music Prize. The band's second studio album, {Awayland} was released in 2013. It won the Choice Music Prize that year and was also shortlisted for the 2013 Mercury Prize. Their 2015 record Darling Arithmetic quickly became on of Eric's favorite records of last year. It also won an Ivors Award for Best Album of the Year. In This Interview, Conor O'Brien and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Using art to explore our inner challenges His "meditation" song His song about smiling into the void- Nothing Arrived Embracing the difficult How most music tries to cover up the cracks in life How music that seems sad can be very comforting. Being part of something bigger Realizing how little we know Becoming more comfortable talking about his sexuality Being an introvert The sweet relief of knowing nothing comes for free Looking for shortcuts in life and how they don't exist Why being on The One You Feed is sort of like going to a therapist How therapy is less accepted in Ireland as much as America Having faith in the things that make you different Finding the things in ourselves that are unique and magnify them For more show notes visit our website A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable. This parable goes by many names including: The Tale of Two Wolves The Parable of the Two Wolves Two Wolves Which Wolf Do You Feed Which Wolf are You Feeding Which Wolf Will You Feed It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Brad Warner about not being a jerk Brad Warner is an ordained Zen teacher and author of the books There Is No God And He Is Always With You , Sit Down and Shut Up and Hardcore Zen. He’s also a writer for the Suicide Girls website, bass player for the hardcore punk rock group 0DFx (aka Zero Defex), star of the movies “Shoplifting From American Apparel” and “Zombie Bounty Hunter M.D.,” director of the film “Cleveland’s Screaming!” and former vice president of the US branch of the company founded by the man who created Godzilla. His latest book is called: Don't Be a Jerk: Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master - A Radical but Reverent Paraphrasing of Dogen's Treasury of the True Dharma Eye In This Interview, Brad Warner and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His book, Don't Be a Jerk and Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master That we become the people we need to become How a person can be a buddha one minute and a jackass the next That once you realize what your "negative" urges are, they become less attractive for you to respond to The answer to the question, "How do you strive to be a better person AND accept life exactly as it is?" That the most intelligent course of action is the one that benefits everyone involved How one of his teachers said that you need to hold an equal amount of faith and doubt The idea that thoughts are just the secretions of your brain the same way your stomach acid are the secretion of your stomach For more show notes visit our website A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee Indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable. This parable goes by many names including: The Tale of Two Wolves The Parable of the Two Wolves Two Wolves Which Wolf Do You Feed Which Wolf are You Feeding Which Wolf Will You Feed It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Michelle Segar about making lasting change Michelle Segar, PhD, is a motivation scientist and author of critically acclaimed “No Sweat! How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness” . She is also the Director of the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center (SHARP) at the University of Michigan, and Chair of the U.S. National Physical Activity Plan’s Communications Committee. Her evidence-based ideas about what motivates people to choose and maintain healthy behaviors is changing the conversation across fields. She consults with global organizations on these issues and delivers keynotes and sustainable behavior change trainings. She ran with the Olympic Torch at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. In This Interview, Michelle Segar and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Her book, No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness How considering a different "why" for starting to be more physically active can be helpful That why we engage in physical activity and what it is that we do are critical when it comes to us sticking with it How too many "whys" dilute their positive effect on us Intrinsic vs Extrinsic goals How answering the question, "What kind of physical activity did you enjoy doing as a kid?" can be important That we should start doing what makes us feel good and stop doing what makes us feel bad when it comes to physical activity That any physical movement is better than none at all - Everything counts! For more show notes visit our website A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable. This parable goes by many names including: The Tale of Two Wolves The Parable of the Two Wolves Two Wolves Which Wolf Do You Feed Which Wolf are You Feeding Which Wolf Will You Feed It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to James R Doty about the power of compassion James R Doty, MD, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and the Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of CA, Irvine and medical school at Tulane University. He trained in neurosurgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and completed fellowships in pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. As Director of CCARE, Dr. Doty has collaborated on a number of research projects focused on compassion and altruism including the use of neuro-economic models to assess altruism, use of the CCARE developed compassion cultivation training in individuals and its effect, assessment of compassionate and altruistic judgment utilizing implanted brain electrodes and the use of optogenetic techniques to assess nurturing pathways in rodents. Dr. Doty is also an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist having given support to a number of charitable organizations including Children as the Peacemakers, Global Healing, the Pachamama Alliance and Family & Children Services of Silicon Valley. Additionally, he has endowed chairs at major universities including Stanford University and his alma mater, Tulane University. He is on the Board of Directors of a number of non-profit foundations including the Dalai Lama Foundation, of which he is chairman and the Charter for Compassion International of which he is vice-chair. He is also on the International Advisory Board of the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions. He is the author of Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart In This Interview, James R Doty and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable His book, Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart The impact of compassionate acts on our brain, health and well-being How early in his childhood he felt like a leaf being blown around by an ill wind The four key lessons that, when learned, changed the trajectory of his life The difference between you and your inner voice That when you create the internal circumstances for reaching your goal, that allows for the possibility of the outward circumstances to align themselves for your own success A scientific perspective on the connection between the brain and the heart and the rest of the body For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Photo Credit: Dan Kowalski, Bainbridge Island, WA This week we talk to Parker J Palmer about finding wholeness Parker J. Palmer, is the founder and Senior Partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal. He is a world-renowned writer, speaker and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He has reached millions worldwide through his nine books, including Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, A Hidden Wholeness, and Healing the Heart of Democracy. Parker holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as eleven honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press. In 2010, Palmer was given the William Rainey Harper Award whose previous recipients include Margaret Mead, Elie Wiesel, and Paolo Freire. In 2011, he was named an Utne Reader Visionary, one of “25 people who are changing your world.” Our Sponsor this Week is Casper Mattress Visit casper.com/feed and use the promo code “feed” to get $50 off!! In This Interview, Parker J Palmer and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable That wholeness is not about perfection but it's about embracing all that we are His book, Hidden Wholeness: A Journey Towards an Undivided Life What the idea of "the Soul" means to him His experiences with clinical depression and the lesson he's learned, a.k.a. "the pearl of great price" What "the divided life" is That we need BOTH community and solitude The voice of depression The important concept of, "If you can't be in community, watch out for being alone and if you can't be alone, watch out for being in community." The idea of "The Circle of Trust" That sometimes giving advice to someone is like giving CPR to people who can breathe for themselves & when we give them CPR, we're actually inhibiting their own capacity to breathe The importance of letting another person work their way to the answer themselves His book, Healing the Heart of Democracy What he has to say about the current state of politics That rather than looking at the right vs left division in politics, another view is to look at the people who think they can't do anything politically and have given up vs the activists That our founding fathers really got it wrong when defining who "we the people" are The important role that conflict brings to our form of government The Five Habits of the Heart that are important to healing the heart of democracy For more show notes visit our webpageSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to A.H. Almaas about spiritual awakening A. H. Almaas is the pen name of A. Hameed Ali, creator of the Diamond Approach to Self-Realization. The Diamond Approach is a contemporary teaching that developed within the context of both ancient spiritual teachings and modern depth psychology theories. Almaas has authored seventeen books about spiritual realization, including the Diamond Heart series, The Pearl Beyond Price, The Void, The Unfolding Now, and The Point of Existence. He founded the Ridhwan School, an inner work school devoted to the realization of True Nature. The orientation of the school is directed toward helping students become aware of and embody their “essence” or essential nature. His latest book is Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery. In This Interview, A.H. Almaas and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable The different layers of consciousness The angelic and animal nature How the animal side is focused on our survival- the drive to survive Being is our fundamental essence Self Realization- when our Being and our identity becomes the same thing The primary method of The Diamond Approach- direct experience of being The process of inquiry Engaging in some practice that questions what we assume to know about ourselves How taking things at face value shortchanges ourselves of deeper knowledge How the separate sense of self is not an illusion, but it is only one of the ways to view reality For more show notes visit our website A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable. This parable goes by many names including: The Tale of Two Wolves The Parable of the Two Wolves Two Wolves Which Wolf Do You Feed Which Wolf are You Feeding Which Wolf Will You Feed It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Norman Rosenthal about transcendental meditation Dr. Norman Rosenthal is a world-renowned psychiatrist, public speaker and best-selling author who is known for his innovative research and inspirational writings. He is currently clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is most known for his discovery of Seasonal Affective Disorder. He is currently clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine. His new book is Supermind: How to Boost Performance and Live a Richer and Happier Life Through Transcendental Meditation. In This Interview,Norman Rosenthal and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Transcendental Meditation vs Mindfulness meditation His latest book, Supermind: How to boost performance and live a richer and happier life through Transcendental Meditation That whatever we practice, we succeed at Seasonal Affective Disorder: What it is and how he discovered it That you cannot become a master sailor in calm seas For more show notes visit our website Norman Rosenthal Links Homepage Twitter Facebook A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable. This parable goes by many names including: The Tale of Two Wolves The Parable of the Two Wolves Two Wolves Which Wolf Do You Feed Which Wolf are You Feeding Which Wolf Will You Feed It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Kira Astrayan about overcoming loneliness Kira Asatryan is certified relationship coach, author, blogger, loneliness expert, and speaker. She loves to speak publicly on the topic of loneliness, as it's a problem of epidemic proportions in our modern times. She maintains a private coaching practice in San Francisco where she helps couples, and individuals develop closeness - the antidote to loneliness - in their relationships. She has struggled with loneliness her whole life and has come to find that there are many others out there like her. She has spent her coaching career researching, pondering, and reflecting upon what specifically makes relationships feel good or bad. In This Interview, Kira Asatryan and I Discuss... The One You Feed parable Her book, Stop Being Lonely; Three simple steps to developing close friendships and deep relationships The new type of loneliness in modern society How closeness means direct access to another person's inner world How knowing and caring are the two things that create closeness The importance of seeing others from their perspective and letting them see you from your perspective The role of being interested in and invested in another's well-being That instead of fostering closeness, that worrying about someone can sometimes push them away What it is about technology that can cause distance even when we're around other people That love is not a reliable solution to loneliness For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to John Prendergast about tuning into our body John J. Prendergast, PhD, is a psychotherapist, retired professor of psychology, spiritual teacher, and founder and editor-in-chief of Undivided: The Online Journal of Nonduality and Psychology. He received my undergraduate degree from UC Santa Cruz and my M.A. and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist. His latest book is called In Touch: How to Tune into the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself In This Interview, John Prendergast and I Discuss: The One You Feed parable How important our body is What "knowing" is Learning to trust our deeper knowledge The difference between inner knowing and hunches based on fear Finding true knowing from ego desires The static in our system Observing thoughts as just thoughts For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Russell Simmons about being a giver Russell Simmons is an American entrepreneur and author. He began his entrepreneurial career in his youth, but on the wrong side of the law, selling marijuana to make money while an active member of a local gang. He then partnered with Rick Rubin to create Def Jam Records, and signed artists like the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and Run-D.M.C. He is also The Chairman and CEO of Rush Communications, he cofounded the hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. He is also a vocal proponent of meditation and veganism. His latest book is called The Happy Vegan: A Guide to Living a Long, Healthy, and Successful Life In This Interview, Russell Simmons and I Discuss: The One You Feed parable How good givers are great getters Giving before you get Dissociating ourselves from the results of our labors How success and fame don't necessarily make us happy Improving our health through veganism Improving the health of the planet through veganism Corporate greed The horrors of factory farming His experience with Occupy Wall Street The corruption in politics His daily yoga practice Combining yoga, meditation, and veganism Remaining useful and active as we age For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Benjamin Shalva about spiritual cross training Benjamin Shalva is a rabbi, writer, and yoga instructor, he leads spiritual cross-training seminars and workshops around the world. He received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City and his yoga teacher certification from the Yogic Physical Culture Academy in Los Cabos, Mexico. Shalva serves on the faculty of the Jewish Mindfulness Center of Washington and the 6th & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC, leads musical prayer services for Bet Mishpachah in Washington, DC, and spends his summers as the camp rabbi of Tamarack Camps in Michigan. His writings have been published in the Washington Post, Elephant Journal, and Spirituality & Health magazine. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he lives in Reston, Virginia, with his wife and their children. His new book is: Spiritual Cross-Training: Searching Through Silence, Stretch, and Song In This Interview, Benjamin Shalva and I Discuss: The One You Feed parable His book, Spiritual Cross-Training: Searching through Silence, Stretch & Song How he has been searching all of his life That spiritual work produces nothing tangible That spiritual growth is slow yet real & discernable in our lives Spiritual connection & growth, like friendship, is built through time, energy & attention What "spiritual cross-training" is His spiritual experience with the 3 modalities of silence, stretch & song How sticking to just one spiritual practice, over time becomes hobby The importance of "diving deep" into your chosen 2-3 spiritual practices How to deal with ego & ambition when it shows up in your spiritual practice How inviting the ego voice in his head to join him in his spiritual practice has been a useful tool in his life How what you resist, persists That, in the spiritual journey "...when we've exhausted all other options, we always have one weapon left in our arsenal....laughter"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get more information on The One You Feed Coaching Program. Enrollment open until May 25th The #2 Mistake Most People Make When Trying to Change Behavior: Dropping Old Behaviors Without Putting Something In Their Place Nature abhors a vacuum. Behaviors that have been done frequently enough that they have become habits are things that are now done mindlessly or effortlessly during our day. If at a certain time of day you do something and then all of the sudden you stop doing that thing, you are now left with a slice of time that was filled and is now empty. When faced with that empty space of time, it’s going to be really hard to resist doing the thing you’ve become habituated to do. So, put some other behavior in it’s place. In addition, a lot of our “negative” behavior patterns happen for a reason. There is something that they are doing for us (or did at one time). Removing them without some sort of substitute leaves a need unmet. For example, let’s say that everyday when you get home from work you have a snack. You’d like to stop having that snack because it’s close to dinner time and you don’t want the extra calories. Instead of coming home from work, sitting on the couch and doing nothing, resisting the urge to have something to eat, maybe you go for a 15 minute walk around your neighborhood instead. Get more information on The One You Feed Coaching Program. Enrollment open until May 25th The Tale of Two Wolves A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Robbie Vorhaus about following your heart Robbie Vorhaus is widely recognized as one of the top three reputation and crisis experts and advisors in the world. Robbie’s path is fascinating: On the outside, renowned crisis expert and communications strategist, Robbie Vorhaus’ life appeared ideal: a New York City Park Avenue apartment, a home in the Hamptons, two adoring children in world-class private schools, and a thriving PR agency representing world leaders, celebrities, sports stars, entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies. Privately, though, his life was falling apart. A marriage in trouble, jeopardized health, and financial pressures culminated on vacation when his family asked: “Dad, are you really happy?” Realizing he was in peril of losing everything he held dear, Robbie courageously followed the advice he had given clients for decades: Follow your heart. Choose to be happy. And consciously make everything better than you found it. The result: Vorhaus closed his agency, moved his family to their small Sag Harbor home, started a leadership and crisis consultancy, and began anew. Now transformed, healthy, happy, and celebrating a marriage of more than 25 years, Robbie drew on his life’s work and experience to write a column for his local newspaper, The Sag Harbor Express, outlining a step-by-step plan for following your heart and being happy, which, after going viral, became the basis for his next seven years writing. His book is called One Less. One More. – Follow Your Heart. Be Happy. Change Slowly. In This Interview, Robbie Vorhaus and I Discuss: The One You Feed parable The choice we face in every moment How if we feed our ego we are always alone, if we feed our heart we are always connected How you have to start now The math of One Less, One More Add one more good thing to your life each day and do one less thing negative thing Why we fail at major life transformation when we try to do too much at once The uniqueness of every human Doing less of what is no longer working for you Facing the fork in the road How there will always be resistance to our dreams. Committing to being our own person Following our heart The process of becoming How much choice do we have in our mood? The power of curiosity The power of small changes The crying Zen Monk If you think you are enlightened spend a weekend with your family Dealing with the perception of others How we tend to judge people by their worst moments Not allowing others to define us Do we want to be dust or ash? How wealth and fame do not necessarily bring happiness Committing to being our own person and being authentic For more notes visit our show page Learn more about the new coaching program. The window is open until 11:59 May 25th to sign upSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The #1 Mistake Most People Make When Trying to Change Behavior Starting Too Big The key to making lasting change is to break things down into really small steps. Most people want to start at point A and jump to Point Z but you don’t get there overnight. Break the new habit down into the smallest possible increments and be specific when planning each step along the way. In the beginning the most important part of behavior change is to be successful. This increases your motivation and makes you want to do more. If you start small it is much easier to “succeed” and build from there. For example, let’s say you want to take up a meditation practice. Instead of trying to meditate for 30 minutes a day, start with 3 minutes. Then once that becomes a daily habit increase it to 5 minutes, etc. As Leo Babuta of Zen Habits says “Make it so easy you can’t say no.” On one of our earlier episodes Dan Millman discussed the importance of “starting small and connecting the dots”. You will be amazed at what a series of small steps done consistently over a period of time will accomplish. The Tale of Two Wolves A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other. One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear. The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?” The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feed The Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we talk to Mary O'Malley about awakening to the world around us Mary O’Malley is an author, teacher, and counselor whose work awakens others to the joy of being fully alive. Her inspired and transformative approach to compulsions offers a way to replace fear, hopelessness and struggle with ease, well-being and joy. Through her individual counseling and coaching, books, classes, retreats and ongoing groups, Mary invites people to experience the miracle of awakening. Acknowledged as a leader in the field of Awakening by many Mary clearly sees both the big picture and the details of human patterns and conditioning. She possesses an extraordinary ability to understand and connect with people. And she is skilled in empowering people to work with difficult mind states resulting in greater inner awareness and presence and a greater capacity for joy. Eckhart Tolle says, “Thank you, Mary, for your contribution to the evolution of human consciousness.” Her latest book is called What’s In the Way, Is the Way: A Practical Guide to Awakening. In This Interview, Mary O'Malley and I Discuss: The One You Feed parable The intertwining of good and bad, the yin and yang Dealing with eating problems How what we fight, we empower Creating a relationship with the dark side The impact of the early years of our lives The conditioned self How we are addicted to struggle Being present to life instead of thinking our way through life The "low-grade suffering" that permeates our lives The storyteller in our minds The Four Let's- Let Life, Let it Be, Let it Go, Learning to not listen so closely to the storyteller in our mind The difference between being here for life and being in a conversation about life For more show notes visit our websiteSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices