Guru Please

Let’s redefine mental illness as a different state of consciousness that can move us toward a spiritual life. Depression, suicidal ideation, paranoia, and schizophrenia contain a set of experiences that can teach us and reveal aspects of life and of ourselves that we wouldn’t otherwise see. 

Ricky is a Life, Spirituality and Wellness Coach. He writes about spirituality, philosophy, mindfulness, meditation, and psychology in his blog Mind That Ego.

Quotes to remember: 

“If we can embrace suffering and not crave happiness and not be overly resistant toward difficult feelings, that’s going to lead us down a fulfilling path.” 

“Spirituality is not a hobby. It’s a way of being.” 

“You are not a product of what goals you achieve.” 

“Ultimately, our truest essence is beyond what we can identify with.” 

“You are not the center of the universe, but you are the universe.” 

“Depression is a great teacher.” 

Takeaways:

• It’s common to link being scientific with being atheist/cynical toward spirituality
• The journey of spirituality is bitter at first, then like sweet nectar
• With suffering, the only way out is through
• Unresolved grief and sadness contribute greatly to our suffering
• Our spirituality evolves in spirals, and each stage incorporates all previous stages
• Self-transcendence is what lies beyond the ego and beyond Western individualism
• You can be spiritual and have goals
• The ego will constantly try to intrude and impose, even when you are engaging in a passion project
• The ego both downplays and aggrandizes the truth
• What we identify with can hold us back and keep us stuck, even if it’s supposedly a good identity
• When our Shadow side (our undesirable side) is not faced, it will come out as projection onto others
• We are afraid of not only our Shadow but also our power, potential, and creativity
• Mental illness can be the beginning of spiritual awakening; nonstandard states of consciousness are not necessarily insanity
• Our potential is far beyond our senses
• Curiosity is the antidote to fear

What you’ll learn:

• Ricky’s introduction to spirituality through suffering
• How he talked himself through the suffering of mental illness to a place of wholeness
• Our understanding of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs isn’t the full picture of what Maslow intended
• About Ricky’s relationship with goal-setting
• How our concept of our identity shifts as we grow
• What envy can teach us about ourselves

Mentioned on the podcast: 

• https://www.mindthatego.com/
• Maslow’s hierarchy and self-transcendence
• Spiral Dynamics
• Eckhart Tolle
• Dr. Leanne Whitney
• Ken Wilber
• Crazy Wise documentary
• Stanislav Grof and Holotropic Breathwork

Links:

Facebook

Medium

Youtube

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Curious about the writer’s life and how writers find inspiration? Ever wonder about how a writer chooses their topics, and how to write about subjects you don’t necessarily have experience in? Then listen on. 

Candy is a writer, blogger, and wellness speaker. She writes on the topics of health, personal growth, and methods for moving through and beyond challenging life circumstances. Her latest book is Life on Pause: Learning to Wait Well.

Quotes to remember: 

“Sometimes waiting is for our protection.” 

“The people who are successful as writers are those who are teachable.” 

“When you find your voice, you’ll know it.” 

Takeaways:

• Pausing can be a time of preparation and relaxation
• When we write about subjects that aren’t often discussed, it can strike a deeper chord with people
• We can write about things we don’t have direct experience of
• Writing can be intuitive and contemplative rather than schedule-driven
• You may not be aware of your own patterns until in hindsight
• The more you write about something, the more ideas you’ll have about it
• Hone your focus and you’ll write better
• New writers tend to want to write everything

What you’ll learn:

• The life challenges that inspired Candy to write a book
• Lessons she learned during a time of waiting
• The circumstances around Candy’s first successful book proposal, a book on losing a loved one to suicide
• Tips on your first book or first major project
• On writing about a topic without personal experience of it
• What inspires Candy in her work

Mentioned on the podcast: 

• https://candyarrington.com/
• Life on Pause: Learning to Wait Well
• Aftershock: Help, Hope, and Healing in the Wake of Suicide

If you’ve been stuck trying to figure things out but with limited success, here is a technique to get you unstuck. Visualization is a skill that helps you empower yourself. 

Quotes to remember: 

“The only way to make great changes in your life is to be able to visualize and to imagine something for yourself that pretty much doesn’t exist for you today.” 

“Imagining and visualizing don’t need to be limited to the scope of entertainment.” 

Takeaways:

• Visualization is the practice of seeing and feeling in great detail
• Visualization is a skill we can build
• There is a huge difference between thinking about the future and imagining
• Imagination is not based on anything in the past or anything you know currently
• People can remain stuck due to an inability to imagine a radically different life
• Imagination plants the seed to a new way of being
• Good visualization technique includes imagining things that have nothing to do with your current reality

What you’ll learn:

• Why visualization and imagination are important
• The wrong and right way to do it
• An exercise to improve your visualization technique
• How visualization has helped me personally

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE: Visualize the first minute of your ideal day. What do you do? How do you feel? Do you stay in bed for a bit, or get up smoothly and easily? Embody the feeling as you visualize. 

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If you feel like your life is meaningless and fake, and you’re questioning everything and lost and feeling like you’re going crazy--congrats. You’re in the first stages of spiritual awakening. And here you are to learn more about your experience.

Lyndsay is a leadership coach, energy healer, and author of The Beautiful Un-Becoming: The Ultimate Guide to Life after Spiritual Awakening. She is passionate about empowering people on their spiritual journeys to reconnect with their inner light and wisdom to live an authentic, inspired life.

Quotes to remember: 

“I suddenly was face-to-face with my own mortality.” 

“I was so focused on that goal of financial security because I didn’t have it growing up, that I forgot that we’re actually here to experience life.” 

“Why do you want to wait that long? Why do you feel like you’re not ready now?”

“It’s not just one spiritual awakening and you’re done.” 

“Spirituality is woven into my fiber.” 

“Follow what lights you up because that is your biggest indicator of what you’re here to do in this lifetime.” 

Takeaways:

• When you realize that things could be over in the blink of an eye, you begin to question if you’re doing the right things
• We have whispers of the things that call to us
• Making the world a better place can appear very small
• We will need to rebuild our community when we have different priorities from those around us
• When you don’t have support you can get stuck in your own head
• Healing happens in spirals/circles
• Our resistance often comes from our social programming
• When you find yourself wanting to get rid of stuff, that’s a big sign you’re in spiritual awakening
• Many spiritual concepts are understood in other terms like burnout or depression or anxiety
• “It’s harder to fix my inside so I’m going to fix my outside”--consider if this applies to you
• Our ego loves to catastrophize
• Staying safe is often staying small
• Society often tells us we need to know what the next step is and what we want, but that’s not how it works
• Do what you do for the highest and greatest good of others
• If you want to do something exciting, you need to be excited about it--and our childhood reveals clues of it

What you’ll learn:

• What created the circumstances for Lyndsay’s “crumbling,” or “dark night of the soul”
• How she navigated her spiritual awakening on her own
• The 11 symptoms of spiritual awakening
• How to know when you are acting from the ego rather than from the heart/inner wisdom/higher Self
• Where to begin when you feel bombarded by stray thoughts
• The 6 stages of spiritual awakening
• Signs that you are progressing in your journey
• About Lyndsay’s relationship with the future

Mentioned on the podcast: 

• https://lyndsaytoensing.com/
• The Beautiful Un-Becoming: The Ultimate Guide to Life after Spiritual Awakening
• The Myth of Getting Over It - GP podcast

Link:

Instagram

Comparing ourselves to others is so easy, and so futile. 

Quotes to remember: 

“We’ll never win the game of comparison.” 

“When somebody’s doing well in their path, it really doesn’t have anything to do with your path.” 

Takeaways:

• Comparing is a distortion of what is really going on
• Online and offline, many people will showcase their highlight reel versus the full picture
• The voice of the ego is not you
• Choose your comparisons wisely
• When you focus on who you are and what you enjoy doing, the FOMO and the comparing fall away

What you’ll learn:

• What to do when you find yourself comparing to others and feeling bad
• How to work with the ego rather than against it
• What comparing reveals about yourself

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE: Notice one time in which you are comparing yourself to someone else. Allow it to be there rather than avoid it. Notice when it happens, how you feel, and what the voice is saying in your head. 

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Have you been stressed, anxious, lost, and confused lately? Let’s take a step back and gain some perspective. Listen to someone who specializes in helping people feel whole and complete--and has gone through the journey too. 

Dmitria is an author and healer who helps people reconnect with their spirit and reignite the light within.  She works with people who are feeling like something is missing in their world to reconnect to the forgotten, neglected, and undiscovered parts of themselves, in order to finally experience the ease that comes from being whole.

Quotes to remember: 

“I realized that it wasn’t something out there; there was something in me that I had to figure out to unlock this life that I was dreaming of.” 

“You connect with people at the level and depth that you’re able to connect to yourself.” 

“We get caught up in trying to prove to ourselves that we’re successful.”

“The only thing that keeps you from being ready is your own willingness.” 

Takeaways:

• Are you clear on what you personally enjoy doing?
• The beginning of your spiritual journey is a struggle and a search for help
• You don’t need to be somebody for somebody else
• Meditation gives you perspective
• Our purpose is to experience love and joy in this lifetime, and to simply be
• Let’s challenge the idea that success will bring us happiness
• Success, happiness, and self-care can all occur at the same time
• Allow yourself to rest and relax
• Why did we come here only to restrict ourselves and live by somewhat arbitrary rules? 
• Things will be okay when you take two or five minutes to take time for yourself
• All of us are a little lost
• We all have the same universal purpose, and unique passions and ways of expressing it

What you’ll learn:

• Why everything looked good on paper for Dmitria yet she still wasn’t happy
• How Dmitria started finding herself
• How her days and focus have shifted over this process of getting to know herself
• The two foundations to leaving the rat race and feeling whole
• The technique Dmitria uses to quickly replenish her energy
• The kind of shifts that are possible when you are connected within yourself
• Why we abandon parts of ourselves that are really core to us
• A useful reinterpretation of fear
• How Dmitria continues her learning 
• When she decided to quit her corporate career

Mentioned on the podcast: 

• https://www.luminancehealing.com/
• https://www.dmitriaburby.com/

Links:

Instagram

Youtube

Life is more than checking things off your to-do list. If you feel like you’ve been missing the point, or missing something, here is a way to connect to what truly matters.

Quotes to remember: 

“Life is more than a to-do list.” 

“Presence always pays off in the end.” 

Takeaways:

• What life is about
• To think that life is about productivity is to reduce and minimize the vastness of your experience
• Productivity is a chase whereas presence feels whole and complete, and nothing is missing
• Shifting to presence is reminding yourself of what is important by remembering unforgettable moments
• Presence is a process and it is ongoing

What you’ll learn:

• Alternate ways to judge the quality of a day, aside from productivity 
• What it means to love well
• What presence feels like and how to know when you are present
• How to shift from productivity to presence
• Questions to ask yourself to evaluate your day

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE: Find three moments in your day that you appreciate. Notice that your day would be different without those small things. 

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Own your life. You have this one beautiful life and if you feel stuck or unhappy or dissatisfied, things can change. Learn how to be the conscious creator of your life. 

Joey is a personal & professional development coach, author, and professional speaker. His mission is to help others find their purpose and live it with passion by living as their most authentic self.

Quotes to remember: 

“There was so much fear to it… but then there was that other side of what’s possible.” 

“If there’s no good or bad, there’s no right or wrong, there’s no fair or unfair, and life is truly happening for me, why would this be happening?”

“Any time life is happening to us, at the deepest level we go we’re a victim.” 

“The wealthiest people don’t decide what’s possible for them based on their past results.” 

Takeaways:

• Things will change for you when your prayer is stronger than your fear
• Look for where your spirit is fed
• It is so difficult to serve two masters so to speak, with regards to a job and a passion
• Failure is never taking a step
• Our reality is made-up based on our perceptions
• Differentiate truths versus facts
• So often people will use what happened in their lives to hold themselves back and limit them
• Fear kills dreams
• Living your purpose will take effort but won’t feel like work
• Sometimes we learn and absorb wisdom but don’t apply it
• Living our purpose is like a train going uphill; if you pause, you’ll be slipping
• We must continue to grow and expand, and this feels exciting, enjoyable, and enlightening
• The vast majority of people spend their lives in fear, doubt, and worry
• If we don’t take an abnormal action, we’ll get more of what we already have
• Life is not a to-do list

What you’ll learn:

• About Joey’s come-to moment in which nothing was going right in his life
• Step Number One of changing your life (no, not quitting your job)
• The biggest obstacle that everyone faces to living a life by their design
• How Joey waded through various addictions, a divorce, and living states away from his son
• How to shift your perceptions of your self-image 
• Being the conscious creator of your life
• The two key indicators of if someone will be successful and get results from coaching

Mentioned on the podcast: 

• http://coachwithjoseph.com/
• https://www.josephadrolshagen.com/
• Life’s Lessons book

Links:

Facebook

Youtube

Stop trying to get over it. Here’s what to do instead. In this episode we break down the myth of getting over it and explore what healing really looks like. 

Quotes to remember: 

“Feelings are temporary.” 

“Letting go and getting over something is a process of becoming okay with all the feelings that come up.” 

“Sadness isn’t wrong. Grief isn’t wrong. These feelings don’t need to be fixed.” 

Takeaways:

• Healing doesn’t mean that you’ll never think about something and feel pain about it ever again
• Two supposedly opposite feelings can co-exist together
• Grief and sadness and loss are cyclical rather than linear
• It is difficult to sustain a single emotion when you aren’t trying to run away from it
• Our feelings are like colors in a color palette; to avoid some feelings is to toss out half of the colors
• Strength is being able to bear the pain

What you’ll learn:

• What it really means to get over something
• A different paradigm on healing and getting over heartbreak or loss or rejection

THIS WEEK’S CHALLENGE: Take a look at something you are getting over or trying to get over, big or small. Consider the possibility that how you feel about it is exactly where you should be right now. That you don’t need to feel only positively or neutrally about it, and that the “negative” feelings mean that the person or thing that you miss is important to you. Ask yourself: “Why do I feel the need to get over it? What does getting over this look like for me?” 

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Learn about motivation from the man who broke the world record in May 2021 for most pushups in an hour--over three thousand pushups. 

TShane fought for his life after a horrific accident, flatlining three times as medics worked to save him. Later, as he struggled with PTSD, his business collapsed and he found himself homeless for two years. Today he is an author of three books, a motivational speaker, single father and a successful business owner, and he attempted to break two world records, for most pushups in an hour and most pushups over 12 hours, on a livestreamed event May 1 2021, raising money for the Purple Heart Honor Mission.

UPDATE: TShane DID indeed smash the 1-hour pushup world record (it was 2,919, he finished 3,050 pushups). Though he fell short of the 12-hour record, he managed to do over 16,000 pushups and hopes to tackle the 12-hour record again, which has stood for more than 30 years, set by Paddy Doyle at 19,325 pushups.

Quotes to remember: 

“There’s something calming about being homeless.” 

“Once we learn how to embrace pain, it doesn’t always have to be a bad thing.” 

“I don’t pity anybody that wants to talk about something and never do anything.”  

Takeaways:

• We are where we are because of so much that others have done
• Hardship and coming close to death can be your inspiration for doing challenging things
• Remembrance every day is key to building yourself long-term
• Take responsibility for your mistakes in order to keep moving forward
• Being homeless can be freeing and allow you to connect with yourself; nobody bothers you
• Workout time is you time
• Opportunity is any- and everywhere
• Find positively rewarding activities to be addicted to
• Food is to power the body, not pleasure the palate
• It’s okay that your energy varies throughout the day
• You can be happier and more productive when you finish your work early and have time for yourself and your family in the daylight

What you’ll learn:

• How TShane recovered so quickly after flatlining multiple times in the ICU
• What motivates TShane to break world records
• His thoughts on why the veteran suicide rate is so high
• Why pain isn’t necessarily a bad thing
• What TShane listens to while working out and training (it’s not music)
• How he feels about someone breaking his world record
• What’s next for TShane after pushups
• What his food routine and self-care look like

Mentioned on the podcast: 

• https://tshaneinspires.com/
• Earl Nightingale
• Zig Ziglar
• Les Brown

Links:

Facebook

Instagram