5.9K
Downloads
29
Episodes
I am here to have honest conversations with people around the world. I want to know, how are you doing, really? These are conversations built to encourage speakers to share what truly wants to unfold as a result of their current life experiences. My hope is that listeners will be able to empathize with my guests in order to gain new perspectives of compassion.
Episodes
Friday Sep 04, 2020
Friday Sep 04, 2020
Today, Sam speaks with his friend Joseph Meador.
Join us as we talk to Joseph about some powerful ways to center ourselves and come back into the present moment:
There's no performance in the present moment; "it just is." | Conversation takes 100 percent of mindful activity on both sides. | I can observe or witness my thoughts, but I am not my thoughts. | I am, therefore, I can think. | Anxiety is a product of thinking about the future while depression is the product of thinking about the past. | When one comes to a realization that, "I am not the mind and I am not the body," renunciation is possible. | Learning to be patient, loving, and gentle with oneself is the first place to start for a healthier ego structure. | Learning to breathe | In Ayurveda there are 6 senses, the sixth being the mind. | In yoga, turn off the monkey mind chatter by reorienting with breath. | With practice we can exercise control over our minds and thought processes; the key is watching the breath. | Learning to live from the authenticity inside the heart. | In one's suffering, tremendous love and compassion can emerge. | "It is what it is," in this moment. |
Thank you so much, Joseph!
Thursday Aug 27, 2020
Thursday Aug 27, 2020
Today, Sam speaks with his friend Jude Harmon.
Join us as we talk about Jude's experience of COVID-19 and how it has impacted him on multiple levels :
“Saint Jude. Not, ‘Hey Jude.’ But please don’t hold me to it…” | Missing in-person gatherings with his community | Experiencing pandemic fatigue | Feeling despair & hopeful simultaneously | Attuned to the meta-level, structural changes in society | There is no substitute for real human contact. | Ministering to people virtually through their last rites as they die | Praying for community members | Holding weekly services online | Participating in a finger labyrinth walk and meditation | Negotiating boundaries in a relationship during this time | Writing a book on marriage equality through the lens of his theological & biblical perspectives throughout history | The importance of marriage for all | Marriage: a moment for people to be joyfully vulnerable in front of everybody while being lovingly held in their vulnerability | There is no replacement for the embodied experience | Finding my way into becoming a priest | Seeking justice in a wider community and coming together to lift everybody up |
Thank you so much, Jude!
Jude's Contact: https://www.facebook.com/judeaaronharmon
Resources: https://gracecathedral.org/ & https://www.veriditas.org/
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Thursday Aug 20, 2020
Today, Sam speaks with his friend David Robinson.
Join us as we talk about David's experience of COVID-19 and how it has impacted him on multiple levels :
David is an educator, activist, and bird-lover! | Falling in love with Modern Dance | Being bullied for being a sissy | Being aware that, "I’m not doing all that I can, yet I’m doing a lot more than a lot of people I know." | Depression, anxious, being semi crazed |Coming back to the present moment | Song lyrics: Wade in the water, because it’s really going to be troubled water | Birdwatching & activism: “Auk the vote” | Staying practical and taking collective action | Involvement in Act Up | Learning to laugh, have joy, and be sexy in addition to being loud in activism | Recognizing there is so much more that I can do once joining a movement | It’s ok to be gay; it’s a strength and gift to the world | Grief & rage 2-3 years into Act Up | Experiencing the community more powerfully than I ever have in my life as hard as it was | Discovering birdwatching as a spiritual practice | "Act first and the feelings will follow." |
Thank you for sharing, David!
David's Instagram: Dvdrobinson
Wednesday Aug 05, 2020
Wednesday Aug 05, 2020
Today, Sam speaks with Caity Reilly, a devotee to the wild feminine call to healing & awakening.
Join us as we talk about Caity's experience during the pandemic.
Caity is a "human committed to being in [her] heart in integrity." | Creating safety and connection with/through honesty | Being in the descent of the Heroine's journey | Seeking the deepest level of integrity | Experiencing safety and privilege during the pandemic | "The great pause" as a gift | Creatively channeling writing during this time | “Loves Embrace," a co-created field committed to honesty | Facing aloneness as an experience of profundity | The paradox of aloneness and connection | "Being human is all about love" | Recognizing the depth of longing, aloneness, and connectedness | Studying under Loren Roche and his teachings of the Radiance Sutras | Sutra #26: The One Who Is at Play Everywhere says | Naming what I’m doing is the quickest way to come into connection | Recognizing that I have a choice about how I meet challenging experiences |
Thank you for sharing with humility & grace, Caity!
More about Caity: serpentandrose.com
Wednesday Jul 29, 2020
Wednesday Jul 29, 2020
Today, Sam speaks with his dear friend Ophir Haberer.
Join us as we talk about Ophir's experience of living during the time of COVID-19 :
Self-publishing a poetry book, The Essence Underneath | Living and thriving in an intentional-living community | Unlearning + deconditioning beliefs around masculinity | Facilitating men's groups | Inviting men to be vulnerable in safe spaces | Sharing the womb & life with a twin brother | "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference." (Elie Weisel) | Channeling | Listening to all emotions and exploring them | Weaving together different truths | Dismantling practices and rediscovering them | Rejecting formative beliefs in order to rediscover his own true voice | “My inner voice has been my greatest teacher” | Listening to all the different parts that comprise me | The descent has been one of the biggest learning experiences | Having an emotional experience during sexual growth | Integrating into an understanding of all parts of ourselves |
Thank you for sharing from your heart, brother!
Ophir's recent article: https://www.jta.org/2020/07/10/lifestyle/at-virtual-retreat-men-embrace-vulnerability-and-reckon-with-patriarchy
Ophirhaberer@gmail.com
Wednesday Jul 15, 2020
Wednesday Jul 15, 2020
Today, Sam shares some of his processes around self-inquiry during this week's episode.
Facing uncertainty | Lacking a sense of safety & security | Peeling back the emotional layers | Longing for a deeper connection to myself | Developing a practice of coming into presence | Missing communication through touch | Guiding people through self-massage | Inviting others into self-inquiry | Recalling my initial response to COVID | Being put in touch with my mortality | Experiencing grief around the loss of my brother | Gradually feeling the severity of the pandemic | Navigating life-changing experiences | The great pause during this time | Waking up to the injustice, inhumanity, and fear of others | Collective experience of mortality | Embracing our shadows | Tracking the continuum of awareness |
Thank you all so much for listening!
Wednesday Jul 08, 2020
Wednesday Jul 08, 2020
Today, Sam speaks with one of his closest friends, Chase.
Join us as we talk about Chase's experience during COVID-19 & social/civil justice movements:
Feeling trapped at home during COVID | Jogging as an outlet to get alone time and reset | The murder of George Floyd + COVID bringing light in the darkness | Being bi-racial having a white mom & black dad | Bringing DEI into the workplace | Experiencing rage around the murder of George Floyd | Using humor as a means to fit it | Identifying as black from junior high onwards | Being called the "N" word by peers & adults | Being run off the road by a truck while walking home from school | Identifying how the world sees you | Being assaulted as a toddler because he of his blackness | The complexity of racism | "You can’t necessarily change the past; you only have the future to make things better. " | Human=not perfect | Being mirrors for each other |
Thank you so much for sharing so vulnerably, Chase, I love you!
Wednesday Jul 01, 2020
Wednesday Jul 01, 2020
Today, Sam speaks with one of his teachers from Esalen, Ellen Watson.
Join us as we talk about Ellen's experience during COVID-19 & social/civil justice movements :
Teaching in Bali when COVID emerged | Coming home to the US and preparing for the worst | Shifting her work to online platforms | Stepping into Transpersonal facilitating | Studying under Stanislav Grof | Transpersonal healing while suffering from a personal emergency | Being part of a renaissance since the 80's | Political activism | Being quieted as a child | Experiencing educational freedom at Esalen | Through breathwork, having regained permission to make sound | Dancing with the shadow | Growing up in the South as a white woman | Global racism | The ability to create a future that is good for all is in our hands | Finding a way to solve human conflict other than war |
Thank you, Ellen, for sharing your experiences with us all.
More info. on Ellen: https://www.movingventures.org/
Free Racialized Trauma Course: https://culturalsomaticsuniversity.thinkific.com/courses/cultural-somatics-free-5-session-ecourse
Thursday Jun 25, 2020
Thursday Jun 25, 2020
Today, Sam speaks with his friend Diane Taylor.
Join us as we talk about Diane's experience of the recent death of her mother and life during COVID-19:
Losing her mother to cancer & dementia | Taking care of her mother throughout the process of her death | Mother/daughter intimacy that evolved from the overall experience | Humor & gratitude are healing | The healing gift of caring for her passing mother | Finding deeper compassion for her complex relationship with her mother | Seeing people from new perspectives | Longing for a more integrated relationship with her mom | “There’s a gift in all of it that I do see.” | Sharing her mother's last breaths with her siblings | Grief as a private internal process | Part of love is being able to receive it and take it in. |
Thank you for sharing such an intimate story with all of us, Diane, I love you!
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Wednesday Jun 17, 2020
Today, Sam has a heartfelt conversation with Dr. Joel A. Brown.
Join us as we talk about Joel's experience of the recent murder of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter Movement, and COVID-19 :
Diversity & Inclusion | Being raised in Milwaukee and growing up in Minneapolis | Being African, Indigenous, and LGBTQ | Teaching Empathy & EQ (Emotional Intelligence) | Black Resilience | Being the minority & being minoritized | I belong, I am just as beautiful, I am deserving | Getting past these illusions of separation so we can all see what it is we all have to bring into the world | We are all connected | Continuing to listen to my heart and my spirit | You can’t resolve what you don’t acknowledge, you have to go through to get beyond | The biggest gift you can give people is to share or receive their story | "Despite everything that has happened, it is still a good day to be Black" |
Thank you for sharing your wisdom & experiences with us, Joel!
Joel's website & recent articles:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-you-really-want-help-joel-a-brown-ed-d-he-him-his-/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/blackitis-case-black-self-care-joel-a-brown-ed-d-he-him-his-/