Episode 26: Lizard vs Human

Episode 26: Lizard vs Human

On the front page of my website I have a line that says "Don't merely survive...FLOURISH." I started this entire project as a result of observing how often we survive, and how rarely we actually flourish as we were created to. While the survival part of our brains is a virtuous gift when a bear is chasing us, there is something so much more expansive and generative that is always available to us.

In this 6 month anniversary episode (!!!!) I have a tender, loving invitation for you, my dear friends. Come check it out. Much love and happy anniversary!

Email me! What has this 6 months meant to you, personally? What do you want more of? What visiting voice are you dying to hear (or hear again)? Send your emails to lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com.

Episode 25: As You Are

Episode 25: As You Are

This past week I spent time with a group of uniquely vulnerable, dear humans who dared greatly to share themselves with one another and me. In the wake of this experience, I have some insights to share about divided self versus congruent self – the benefits and struggles of being the same on the outside as we are on the inside.

Email your challenges, thoughts, and questions to lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com.

Episode 24: What We Share

Episode 24: What We Share

About 10 years ago I read an article on quantum entanglement. You don't have to know anything about science to find this concept amazing on a very practical level. In the way two particles live in a relational holism no matter what distance apart they are (and we're talking light years), so we humans have these things about us that are the same. The closer we move to the "center" of the human experience, the more unified we realize we actually are. On the other hand, the closer we move to "center," the riskier it becomes to be exposed with another.

As I respond to a listener's questions about some previous episodes, buckle up for this ride where we explore the beauty of unified diversity and the experiences we all share yet shy away from...well, sharing. Come join the conversation!

Keep the emails coming, people. lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com

Episode 23: Foundation & Flow

Episode 23: Foundation & Flow

Life is a balance between learning and unlearning. Learning is our foundation, made up of pre-conventional and conventional wisdom and knowledge that we need to establish important routines and realities. Then our latter state is this mobius loop of fluid learning and unlearning, of post-conventional wisdom and knowledge, full of creativity, challenge, and alternate ways of being. This creates within us (then usually around us) a perpetual state of flow. Come join the conversation for an unprecedented number of metaphors relating back to this concept that we experience regularly, but don't always talk about. Happy flowing. xoxo

Email (lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com) or leave a comment below this episode at www.lifeinthewhirlwind.com/podcast/episode23.

Episode 22: On Transformation: Coming to Our Senses

Episode 22: On Transformation: Coming to Our Senses

We often think that the under-tapped unconscious holds the secrets to our transformation. I wonder if, in fact, what we call transformation – or even what we call "real life" – is most truly the here-and-now. If this is true, the thing that brings us into life as we know it is going to be, well...coming to our senses. Come join us for this conversation on the different options we have to living life – invisible and visible.

Email your thoughts, questions, ideas, musings to lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com. Hearing from you is pure delight!  P.S. Happy Mothers' Day to all you who are moms! xoxo

Episode 21: If the Whole World Were a Foot

Episode 21: If the Whole World Were a Foot

Too often we think our gifts and unique qualities are not "enough" simply because those with whom we share community do not also possess those qualities and gifts. We don't blend. We stick out like a sore thumb, perhaps. Yet variety and diversity is exactly what we all need. Come join this conversation, examining and challenging the ways in which you might judge certain gifts and qualities as less-than when perhaps "different" is what we were created to be.

Email anytime! lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com.

Episode 20: The 4 Parts of Everything

When you ring a bell (or a singing bowl, which I use to help me in this episode) you hear the strike of the bell for only an instant; it is the resonance, the ripple of the strike that you hear for a good long while. So it is in our lives. There are four parts to everything, but we rarely give attention and honor to the fourth part of everything, which is the ripple effect.

Come check join this conversation about truth and enchantment in plain sight, and I can almost guarantee how you view just about everything that happens in your life will change!

Email your thoughts, comments, joys, disagreements, etc to me at lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com or leave a comment below this post on the podcast website at lifeinthewhirlwind.com/podcast/episode20.

Episode 19: A Return to Original Goodness

Episode 19: A Return to Original Goodness

Has anyone ever said to you, "You are good" ? Did you quickly deny it (either internally or externally)? Did you ponder it? Did you believe the person? Unfortunately we are much quicker to believe that we are inherently bad, yet that's very contrary to the story the Divine Maker has given us.

This episode just skims the surface of the conversation of Original Goodness and True Self, which will surely continue on this podcast. We were made in and from Love, and yet we are told so differently by experiences and people in our lives.

I invite you to enter into this episode receptive to your innate very-goodness, and receive and ponder these truths this week. And remember: you are very, very good.

Email me! lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com or write a comment below this episode.

Episode 18: The Mischief of the Shadow Self

Episode 18: The Mischief of the Shadow Self

Acknowledged or not, we all have these parts of ourselves that we banish to the shadows – believing that if others saw these parts, we would be rejected and shamed. But consider this: have you ever seen more good than harm come from leaving things in the dark places?

In this natural follow-up to Episode 17 on the value of being seen and known, Episode 18 proposes in detail why being seen and known may actually start and end with knowing thyself. Some think of this as narcissistic and navel-gazing and distracting from truly valuable things that need attention; but I would argue that it is far more mischievous (dare I say dangerous) to not be aware of that parts of you that lie in the shadow.

Pour a cup of tea (or whatever it is that you drink when you listen to these episodes) and come join the conversation! It's nothing without you.

Email me your thoughts, your other possible scenarios (you'll get this reference when you listen to the episode), or whatever else is on your mind and heart – lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com.

Episode 17: Life in the Process (Visiting Voice: Ryan Thomas Neace)

Episode 17: Life in the Process (Visiting Voice: Ryan Thomas Neace)

This week I've got a real treat for you...a visiting voice! An artful one, at that. But first, let me whet your whistle.

So do you ever happen to notice that we go through our days having innumerable experiences just underneath the experiences that are obvious to the naked eye? We say things, but how often do we realize why we say them, or from what part of us they come? When we have an emotional response, we often act upon it in some way, but how often do we reflect on what that is rooted in?

For this episode one of my dearest friends, Ryan Thomas Neace, joins me to talk about process. Process, as we talk about it in this episode, is the choice to experience, expand, and share our awareness of our life's subtext in order to nourish the space inside us and between us & those with whom we share life. Ryan and I both  practice process in our own lives as a way to deepen a quintessential aspect of what it means to be truly human: to know and be known by one another. So I thought it would be fun to talk about in an episode! Come join the conversation as we look at the value, practicalities, barriers, purposes, etc of process as a life-giving practice.

Production note: In my constant pursuit to practice authenticity in this podcast, this episode contains some "sound blemishes," including some crackling, some cell phone interference, and (best of all) a very human moment between us where Ryan thought his audio had stopped recording and we had a brief moment of fear. I chose to leave these in, hoping you'll enjoy our humanness as much as I did.

Any questions or comments? Please email me at lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com. Feel free to copy Ryan in on any emails about this episode as well. His address is ryan@changeincorporated.org. And please read more of Ryan's deep and multitudinal wisdom at his website by clicking here: Ryan Thomas Neace on the interwebs.

Episode 16: A Teeny Tiny Introduction to Non-Attachment

Episode 16: A Teeny Tiny Introduction to Non-Attachment

I don't know about you, but I think it's so nice to have vocabulary for what we experience in everyday human life. One of the things we experience is attachments to certain outcomes. But there is a lot of value (ancient value, I would daresay) in practicing choice and action while also practicing the release of outcomes. In this first episode of many (I hope) on non-attachment, we scratch the surface of non-attachment, its value to bring us into more whole versions of ourselves, and its ability to help us flourish. (That's a good idea, hmm?) Come join the conversation!

Thanks for all your emails. Keep them coming. I'm treasuring each one and compiling them for a future episode I hope to do on listener emails! Email me at lifeinthewhirlwind.com.

Episode 15: 15 Seconds

Episode 15: 15 Seconds

What is automatic for us is often not the thing that best serves us –– would you agree? We spend so much of our lives in states of automatic thinking, feeling, acting and reacting. But what if, instead, we paused and did something very un-automatic instead? What would change? Come join the conversation on how this experiment can change a lot more than you might imagine.

Please feel free to email me your findings from this experiment this week! In your email let me know if you'd like your findings to stay private / anonymous, or if you don't mind me sharing them in a future episode perhaps. Email me at lifeinthewhirlwind@gmail.com.