Conscious Contact with Chris Willitts

Conscious Contact is officially launched (this is the first episode) and, it’s short and sweet. That’s how you start sometimes. Another baked-in message here is that it’s ok if you don’t knock it out of the park at first bat. The proceeding episodes will better be produced with a decent mic, etc. I just wanted to do the first one on the fly to set the tone. I want my podcast to be more about the content itself and being authentic versus being over-polished or synthetic or trying to sound good.

What is Positive Psychology?   Today I offer some ideas about Positive Psychology from two reputable sources. Also, I wanted to take this opportunity to explain why I started this podcast.   Since 2003, I have launched several online businesses, some successful, some not so much. The motive was simple; I wanted to get rich because growing up in the US I was always led to believe that getting rich is how you get respect and attain happiness.    Later on, life taught me that if I changed my perspective a little, that financial abundance could also mean having the means living a healthier lifestyle, freedom to have any worthwhile experience on the menu and having the resources to help people.   The bottom line, I spent most of my adult life living in financial fear, and I never want to go back to that; it was a nightmare. At one point, I even briefly resided in a homeless shelter.   Fast forward to three years ago, I had significant success with one of my online businesses. However, barely anything about this business was adding much value to people's lives. And although the money was great, I felt empty, and to be honest, I felt like a complete phony. This lack of purpose and meaning messed with my head and heart.   I vividly remember thinking to myself, wait a minute, I got the dope pad next to the ocean and the twin-turbo V8 convertible sitting in the driveway, I supposedly won the "Game of Life"…shouldn't I feel better than this? WTF?   Which finally brings us to the present moment.   I wanted to get back to my academic roots, where I attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. It was my experience during those five years that I discovered and studied social entrepreneurship, positive psychology, consciousness, meditation, and altruism.   So that collective experience plus other meaningful stories will be the piping hot meal that the Conscious Contact Podcast will bring to the table each week.   Now, back to Positive Psychology. What exactly is Positive Psychology?   According to Dr. Martin Seligmen of the University of Pennsylvania and commonly known as the founder of Positive Psychology:   Positive psychology is "the scientific study of what makes life most worth living", or "the scientific study of positive human functioning and flourishing on multiple levels that include the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global dimensions of life".

Today I'm speaking on the topic of meditation and how it changed my life. I originally wanted to title this episode "Meditation and How It Saved My Life" because this practice played a significant role in healing some emotional wounds as well as getting sober. In addition to going over how meditation helped bring me back to sanity, I will also discuss some practical ways that this daily practice helped me with my personal and professional relationships.

It is my thesis that the root of the problem at the highest level is human emotion. And, at the lower level is not feeling good enough via comparison, increasing isolation via independent living and modern technology, and lack meaning in life because school never gave us any tools for taking care of one another and having Purpose. On a side note, institutionalized impatience via instant gratification isn't helping. Examples being 1-click shopping and swipe-right dating.