Rise and Thrive Show

We continue exploring the explosive new growth in modern psychology, as Mary jams with Darla McEnroe, a busy therapist. Darla employs a number of new growth technologies with people in her busy practice. After 25 years of showing up to healing human pain in her daily work, Darla remains fresh and curious and enthused about it and she has much experience to share! We discuss some of the tools she uses to heal trauma: EMDR and HMR, and The Eight Steps of Forgiveness. Darla also shares how she takes care of herself to avoid burnout. Listen in and learn - we are all on a psychological journey, and the field of psychology itself is on an exciting journey. Darla K. McEnroe LMSW, NBCC is a Clinical Supervisor and Therapist with Catholic Charities, Diocese of Sioux City Iowa.

In this episode, Mary and Erin discuss the ways that we re-set our attitude in the long weird times we're in. Take comfort from some of the best ideas from Eckhart Tolle's work, A New Earth, which explains to us what higher consciousness really is, and how our own energy and attitudes improve our life situation and the human collective all around us. Be a "higher frequency holder" - for yourself and for all of us! Enjoy revisiting this episode from late 2021.

During the height of the pandemic, Erin and Mary both had uncomfortable encounters with "people who are not doing that well."  Friends, family, strangers - how do you handle it when someone nearby you explodes with irrationality because of the built-up pressure of our weird times? Hear some tips for instant forgiveness and the attitude re-set that a masterful person can practice. Enjoy this revisit episode fall of 2021.

The pandemic is waning… rising…changing? We don't know anymore, but we do know that with all the pandemic debris still around, and with world situations quite chaotic and worrisome, times are weird and people are not at their best in this present uncertainty. How do we walk through this scary life classroom with the grace of a master? Here's a show we did in the fall of 2021 that is still 100% relevant. Join Erin and Mary as companions as they support each other to be masterful with the aid of having good patterns in a day, and focusing more on our "being" as well as our "doing."

What is true freedom? As Mary and Erin tell it, the healing experience of forgiveness delivers the promise of freedom because freedom is an inside job. You become free, as you dissolve the heavy weight of a bad old story, and something sparkly enters you instead. In the moment of forgiveness, your own soul pours in and empowers you to walk forward with a lighter step. Inner freedom is becoming unencumbered by guilt, shame, sorrow, disappointments, injustices, or false notions of who you are, enabling you to entertain fresh new choices in your life. In this episode, you will also enjoy some of Mary's favorite moments of glorious human freedom when she was teaching forgiveness in Ireland. Enjoy this "revisit episode" from our very first season!

Since the pandemic and the upsets of 2020, the word "trauma" has found a foothold in many conversations, and we see today that mental health issues abound all around us. Many people are seeking therapy for the first time, and psychologists are more than busy these days. How is the modern field of psychology best addressing our trauma issues, large and small? Today, Mary and Erin explore this question with licensed psychologist Sharon Stein McNamara, Ed.D., who is also president-elect of the Minnesota Psychological Association. Listen in as we draw on her deep and wide experience in different schools of thought in modern psychology. https://www.sharonsteinmcnamara.com/  

Erin and Mary are joined this week by Julie, a dedicated forgiveness student who swiftly transformed her misery about the surprise revelation that her husband had been having an affair for a full year. In the process, she realized there were important things about her husband's personality and failures as a partner that moved her solidly into divorcing him and creating a new and better life without him as her mate. Join us and be inspired by Julie's courage and her remarkable ability to swiftly heal this huge life disappointment. Learn how the effective 8 Steps forgiveness method has helped her to positively dealwith the truth of her marriage and move on into a better future.

Did you wake up in hell this morning, or did you wake up in your beautiful life? Or somewhere in between? Mary and Erin reflect on the most valuable takeaways from the recent My Beautiful Life class, and muse on the power we have to choose our attitude and the challenge of living through disruptions and transitions. Time for some healing and a fresh start in your life? Join Mary Hayes Grieco at The Wonderful Forgiveness Weekend, in-person, in St. Paul, MN, June 10-12, 2022. Learn more and register on the home page of www.forgivenesstraining.com

Are you ready to give Mary's 8-Step method for forgiveness a try?  First, listen to this episode where Mary shares tips on preparing to do the steps. And how to care for yourself afterward.  You got this! Relief is on the way! (This is another revisit of a previous conversation).

In this new episode, Mary leads listeners through a brief review of her Self-Forgiveness method.  The guided exercise begins at TC: 18:45. Pause and re-start the recording as needed. Relief is on the way! Learn more about Mary's method on her website at: www.forgivenesstraining.com Or read Mary's book: Unconditional Forgiveness: A Simple and Proven Method to Forgive Everyone and Everything, by Mary Hayes Grieco.

In this new episode, Mary Hayes Grieco gives a brief review of her 8-steps to freedom. The guided exercise begins at TC: 17:00. Pause and re-start the recording as needed. You got this! Learn more about Mary's method on her website at: www.forgivenesstraining.com Or read Mary's book: Unconditional Forgiveness: A Simple and Proven Method to Forgive Everyone and Everything, by Mary Hayes Grieco.  

Mary and Erin discuss how forgiveness is refreshing and healing, and by doing it, you can feel better and brighter, by accessing Spirit's healing energy. Mary explains how in steps 6, 7, and 8 of her forgiveness method, you can experience a spiritual cleansing, a reset in your life, that brings peace and feels terrific. We are revisiting this critical conversation to bring Mary's forgiveness method home!

Step Five is a key ingredient of Mary's recipe for healing. In this episode, Mary and Erin go deep on what it means to “open up to life again” and how to do it.  Mary explains how this turning point helps us connect with the goodness of life. And she explains how to draw on your higher power to get the healing you need. This revisited conversation is packed with insights and wisdom.

Mary and Erin revisit this conversation, where they reveal the liberating act of setting boundaries in our lives. Drawing lines between what is ours and what isn't. What we will and will not do. What we will and will not allow to happen to us. How we do and don't want to use our time and energy. Mary walks you through defining boundaries that reflect your values and intentions and help you restore calm and sanity to your life.

We naturally expect people in our life to be good, smart, and do the right thing. We rightly fuss and fume when they do bad and stupid things that hurt and disappoint us. We wish they could and should be different than they are, but we can't control that. Mary and Erin reveal how to stop tormenting yourself about the disappointing things people do, and how to get over our hurt feelings. (Revisited Conversation).

Getting out the bad memories, negative emotions, and crappy feelings that have been haunting you, is the beginning of the healing process. Honoring and expressing your true feelings passionately and out loud, is key to your emotional healing process. Don't be afraid to have the messy cry! Or to yell your head off. Empty your heart of the stored-up emotion.  Mary and Erin will show you how to do the releasing that refreshes, cleans you out, and helps you to heal. (Revisited conversation).

So you've decided it's finally time to ditch the anger, resentment, disappointment, and sadness from a bad experience with someone or something. You want to be done with the pain once and for all. We revisit this conversation, where Mary and Erin help you define the change you want and help you make the strong commitment that's absolutely necessary to do the work that will make that change happen, for real.

If you intend to heal a big wound from a bad experience and find relief from the pain of it, you will be making a significant change in your life.  Are you ready for a change? Change isn't easy for most of us. Fear can hold us back from making changes, even those we know are good for us. Mary and Erin provide the encouragement and the practical stuff you'll need to do in order to get ready to make the change.  It's worth it! You will restore your sense of peace and joy – no matter how difficult a task that seems to be before you get started. Join us, as we revisit this conversation. You will get there!

We revisit this conversation where Mary introduces her awesome recipe for getting through and getting over the inevitable losses, disappointments, and mistakes we all experience, and for peacefully coexisting with annoying and difficult people. Mary's “Eight Steps to Freedom” is an indispensable tool and life skill for restoring a sense of peace and joy whenever you feel angry, resentful, disappointed, and hurt by situations and people in life, including yourself. Episode Highlights, Ideas And Wisdom There's a process that always heals the pain from tough times and dealing with difficult and disappointing people. It's more specific and quicker than “Time heals all.” Peace and joy is found in letting go of unrealistic expectations that cause hurt and repeated disappointments. You don't have the power to make other people change their ways. You do have the power to adjust your expectations of them. You can count on having disappointing life experiences. You can expect that life is going to change. People are going to let you down. People are going to die. People are going to get sick. You are going to lose a job. Life is hard at times. You need to know how to process the hurt from these difficulties right out of your system and recognize the valuable golden nugget of wisdom that you can learn from these experiences. Mary's definition of forgiveness: “The refreshing experience of releasing an expectation that is causing you to suffer.” Forgiveness is an absolutely necessary life skill. We should be learning it in junior high. It's the way we heal the pain of disappointing life experiences. It's really hard to get over things by just saying to yourself “get over it!” Step One: State your will to make a change. Make a decision to make a choice to let go of a disappointing situation or person and move on and open up to life again. This decision can be hard and take time, particularly if you feel that you were truly wronged. Step Two: Express your feelings exactly as they are inside you. Vent. Let out your tears and your rage. Yell. Complain. Curse. Judge. Let out your true feelings about the situation or person that's causing the hurt. This stuff needs to come out. It's keeping you from being able to move on. Good healthy anger is kind of like a fiery quick moment that comes through and then it's gone. If you keep anger inside, roiling and revving, it hurts you. It makes you sick. It makes you ill. It's meant to come out of you. Step Three: Release expectations from your mind, one by one. Unhook the unrealistic expectations that have been glued into your brain by the fixed emotions that you let out in step two. Expectations are good. They're based on your values and your hopes. Sometimes we have to let them go because a certain person is incapable of being decent or honest or responsible in the way you expect them to be. Or, what you hoped would happen in a certain situation turns out to be unrealistic and doesn't happen. Step Four: Restore your boundaries. You have your own personal space and values. You can't be responsible for the bad actions of people around you. In this step, you set these people outside your personal space and give them full responsibility for their bad behavior and the problems it causes. You stop carrying around these burdens because they aren't yours. You're only responsible for your own integrity. Step Five: Open up to God to get your needs met in a different way. Imagine being completely unattached from the person or situation you're forgiving, no longer looking to him or her or the situation to satisfy your needs. You are now turning to a spiritual source for peace and joy saying, I'm giving myself into your hands. I trust you to give me my needs met and to lead me forward in a new way. Step Six: Receive God's healing energy into your personality. Imagine a source of healing light and love above your head. Visualize opening up the crown of your head like a big skyli...

Can you move forward yet, post-pandemic? How do we deal with the changes, uncertainty, and psychological rubble and debris that is still in us and around us? Mary and Erin take the long view today and discuss the gifts of a pandemic in human evolution, the current rise of people willing to view what's good, and the perennial tonic of forgiveness to heal our disappointments.

You don't need a lot of money to be rich and to experience great abundance in your life, starting today. Enjoy this meaty and encouraging discussion as Erin and Mary explore "the mindset of abundance and success" and the simple and transforming thoughts and attitudes that chase away the experience of lack and scarcity. If you stop chasing success, and fully enjoy what you have and who you are, as you play with principles of success and abundance in your own life lab, you will inevitably create more financial prosperity too.

Do you worry sometimes that you are playing "too small" in your life? Or do you hold yourself back from your fullest self because you were raised to be a humble and modest person and told not to call too much attention to yourself? Mary says, "If the Universe is asking you to step up and shine brighter, then it's the humble thing to do that, and arrogant to refuse it." Our topic today, Humility, is surprisingly rich and thick with good insights. A new understanding of what humility really is will empower you in your quest for a powerfully purposeful life, day by day. Enjoy!

When we feel stressed, overloaded, or scattered, it's usually because our boundaries are not in place. A boundary is the line we draw and maintain that delineates what we do and don't want in our lives; it's that important line between who we are and what we intend, and who we aren't, and what doesn't fit our intentions and our values. Mary and Erin explore the role boundaries play in our daily happiness and sanity. In this episode, we take a good look at the gift of boundaries, including Mary's ingenious method for delivering the “glowing golden word, NO,” a word that can improve our life and our relationships.

Explore the delightful "playground structure" of Mary's framework about how we recognize and empower our purposes: the paradox of relaxing AND getting going at the same time … the different levels of purpose that inform the song of our life, whether simple like a piano sonata or majestic and complex like Beethoven's ninth symphony. Reach out and put your hands and mind on the tools of purpose: humility, will, intuition, and good boundaries. Plus, can you learn your life purpose from someone who's drunk? Mary did. Enjoy her signature storytelling as she introduces you to her Aunt Ann, who was drunk 24/7 but left a powerful positive teaching behind her.This episode of Rise and Thrive is rich and on purpose to bring you new joy and clarity about your life!

Even for a moment? Our wild self is the part of us that does the unexpected - acts goofy, initiates a harmless joke, breaks a rule, leaves routine to go "Walkabout," or submerges spontaneously in a wild river or a beautiful rain. Erin and Mary celebrate the breakout moments that refresh us and encourage us to shake things up a bit from time to time. Surviving our own weird moments well is confidence-building; we also explore the behaviors that build confidence with highlights from the book The Confidence Code, by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. Enjoy the permission in this podcast to "just do that thing- what does it hurt?"

Do you have any idea how wonderful you are? Or did you forget how good you are somewhere along the way when life got hard? Stop beating yourself up and depriving yourself of "your beautiful life," and join Mary and Erin again this week as they explore the power of a commitment to self-love and to the active habit of self-forgiveness.

Erin and Mary lean in a little closer, a little deeper, into matters of the heart. Our capacity to know and accept ourselves enough to be transparent and trusting of another person is one of the essential abilities to cultivate in "your beautiful life." Let your heart be nourished by this conversation - let our podcast continue to be part of your growth and flourishing!

The Beautiful Life class moves ahead in Module 2 into the vital and tender territory of Self-Love. What are the behaviors of healthy self-regard? Do you dare to firmly plant the new belief that you are "a cherished child of the Universe," and experience the goodness that grows from that?What is "The 80% Rule”, and how will it help us to relax? Cuddle up with your darling self and this podcast and see how good you can be with being good, just as you are. https://maryhayesgrieco.com/

We continue our exploration of the topic of Intuition this week, with gusto for the subtle magic that abounds in everyday life; Erin and Mary give each other encouragement to let the magic be real, let it be good, and open up all of your perceptive senses to enjoy it. Hang out with them soon in The Benevolent Universe, and enjoy a conversation that pushes some edges about the things we don't understand, but remains grounded in goodness and common sense.

In this episode, Mary and Erin chomp into and savor one of their favorite self-mastery topics - Intuition. What is it? How does it operate in you? Is it scary? Can you trust it? Can you figure out if you're interpreting it accurately, and can you make it clearer and stronger? We explore some delicious questions, a practical framework, and good stories about your sixth sense. Find "My Beautiful Life" class on Mary Hayes Grieco's website: https://maryhayesgrieco.com/

Erin and Mary hang out after class together, and jam on some of the ideas taught this week in the My Beautiful Life class, an ongoing zoom class with Mary that focuses on aspects and tools of spiritual mastery and living purposefully. Today we explore the power of role models, and the opportunity we have to grow when we actively admire the light and mastery of another person. We give a loving nod to the gifts of the Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, who passed away recently, and we appreciate "the cool lake" of his being and teachings amid our fiery times. Find info about Mary's zoom class on her website: https://maryhayesgrieco.com/  

The "My Beautiful Life - Self Mastery and Life Purpose" class series begins this week with Mary Hayes Grieco and students from near and far on zoom on Saturday mornings this winter. Mary and Erin take time after class to jam on the podcast about a few of the highlights, the "golden nuggets" in her weekly talk. This week we set the table for a clear understanding of what it means to live like a master and some of the tools and attitudes that cultivate mastery. As the Buddha said, "Be a Light." More info at: https://maryhayesgrieco.com/

Mary Hayes Grieco continues her Spark your Sparkle 2022 talk and riffs off on some of the astonishing data about women and confidence in the book, “The Confidence Code” by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. Reflect on the value of acting and failing and acting again without getting lost in rumination and perfectionism.  Also, two other confidence-builders: bring alive again the energy of the best moments of you, since childhood, and dance freely just before you do something important that requires confidence. “The dancing is very important!” https://www.forgivenesstraining.com/

Here's an excerpt from Mary Hayes Grieco's talk at the recent New Year's Workshop for Spirited Women – “Spark Your Sparkle for 2022.” These good thoughts about what we are learning together in pandemic times transcend gender, so come on in, everybody, and enjoy Mary's simple and inspiring point of view for this point in time. Enjoy the lovely visualization at the beginning of the talk about building a safe space in community to explore new thoughts … and imagine other people out there listening to this too … the people who are “friends you haven't met yet” – the other humans out there who are intending to Rise and Thrive. https://www.forgivenesstraining.com/

Mary and Erin enter the dance of the New Year together with their Word of the Year (what's yours?) Kick-off 2022 in good company with these two friends who support each other to become "soul-illumined people." And hey! Mary's got two classes coming soon on zoom: Spark Your Sparkle New Year's Workshop for Spirited Women - January 8th, 2- 4:30 PM. My Beautiful Life class - 16 weeks on Saturday mornings 10-12:30 - open to everyone. Self-mastery, soul connection & intuition, loving yourself, and living purposefully. Begins on January 15th. Find full info at www.maryhayesgrieco.com or www.forgivenesstraining.com                                               Questions: 612-874-6622 See you there!

It's the New Year! Such a great time for the re-start, the re-boot, the re-set … but how do you stick with it for the long term? Maybe you gave up making a New Year's resolution a while ago because you always fail at sticking with it. (Doesn't everyone? How is it that we can FORGET our best intentions so quickly?!) Try this: boil your New Year resolution down into one word: your Word of the Year. This is a throwback episode from our first season. Coming soon: Mary and Erin discuss our words of the year for 2022!

At this time of year, as the Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus, it's a great time for seekers of all stripes to reflect on the consciousness that Christmas time is holding and renewing for all of us, year after year. Gain support for a renewed sense of human unity. This episode is from our first season when our podcast was called Life Gets Better Now. Here's Erin Warhol and Mary Hayes Grieco.

Home-grown philosopher Mary lets it rip as she and Erin explore some definitions and clarity regarding the distinctions between spirituality and religion. Enjoy taking some time for new thoughts and increasing your intention to grow this winter in steady spiritual practice. Build a space inside you for calm positivity. This episode is from our first season when the podcast was called Life Gets Better Now.

You are if you can get a glimpse of the Divine in ordinary things. Mary sees God in onions, and Erin sees it in light glinting in the landscape. Despite the challenge, conflict, and gloom of our pandemic times, and despite the fact that church attendance is decreasing, non-affiliated spirituality continues on the rise in our culture, as more and more people cultivate the sense of peace, gratitude, and a sense of wonder about the Universe. And people who are in churches say their faith is stronger than ever. The hope of our times lies in this quiet but massive spiritual awareness that is growing.  

You love your family but they drive you crazy sometimes? Before the next family gathering, do some “pre-emptive forgiveness.” Our families are ours for a lifetime, to learn from, to accept and appreciate, or to avoid and set limits with, as the case may be. If you already are aware of what some of your uncomfortable family dynamics are likely to be, take some time now to hang out with Mary and Erin, and get ready to show up in a new way. It'll be better this year! This show is from the first season of our podcast, which was then called: Life Gets Better Now. Enjoy! 

Welcome to winter, a time of year that offers a prime opportunity to deepen our spiritual connection, and go to a new level of peace and purpose. Mary and Erin inaugurate the season with enthusiasm for the “life inside,” and bring forward some of their richest, juiciest shows from the first incarnation of the podcast, “Life Gets Better Now.” Enjoy!

As Thanksgiving approaches, we take a minute to notice if gratitude is in our attitude, and make an effort to bump it up a notch.  Mary shares a story of a powerful breakthrough out of a deep depression she was in once, with the help of her wise teacher and the persistent practice of gratitude over nothing and everything. We conclude with a guided meditation designed to help you take this concept beyond mere talk to the energetic experience of gratitude, inside your body, and an amplified connection to your soul.

"I'm not lost … I'm … spaciously open-minded about what's next?!?" Erin and Mary check in again with a conversation about how important our mental framework is. When we are in times of emptiness and unknowns: it matters how we talk to ourselves about our current state. Also savor with them some golden nuggets from Eckart Tolle's book The New Earth, where he boils down the idea of higher consciousness to terms we can recognize each day - acceptance, enjoyment, and enthusiasm!

As pandemic winter #2 closes in, Mary and Erin talk about the mental health issues that abound, among community and strangers alike, and how to be with that. What do you do when someone nearby you explodes with unexplainable rage? Or do you yourself feel a flash of rage in the middle of a meeting?  How does a master meet that moment?

Mary and Erin go into serious fandom in discussing the merits of the hit television show, Ted Lasso. Why? Because Ted is a master in action - tho he appears The Fool he brings the strong medicine of love and kindness to every challenge and difficult human scenario. Hey, let's be like Ted.

Erin and Mary return after a little break with some new serenity, and some renewed "bubbly" in the attitude. Here's some fun about the importance of our groups, and the new views that traveling - however brief - brings to us.

(Hint: Are you feeling stuck or full of rage?) Mary and Erin explore the signs and signals that you may be ripe and ready for some forgiveness. Are you feeling clogged up and cut off from your spirit? Do find yourself full easily enraged? Listen and find out whether now is the right time to knock down that old, stale, story that is holding you back and keeping you from your joy.

Good, clean, anger is so important. What is the difference between healthy anger and toxic anger? With the revelations coming out in The Facebook Files, Erin and Mary jam today on the dangerous commercial uses of toxic anger in social media. We say, “Opt out of the culture of contempt, and the commercial industry that is feeding off of it! Opt in to a movement for support and good will for all.”

Erin and Mary reflect on the discoveries in their shared journey of living the techniques and principles of Unconditional Love and Forgiveness. Get inspired to begin your own gentle adventure exploring this soul-lit path. Mary's Forgiveness Training website.

"What??!!" we exclaim when an unforeseen crisis erupts into our daily life. How do we meet it, when something that feels so upsetting and so wrong is suddenly here? Mary and Erin explore how a masterful person meets those moments when we've fallen through a hole in the map.

Erin and Mary discuss their reticence for being active on social media because of its current toxic state. And they share how ordinary daily activities – can become an active spiritual practice. Plus, Mary explains the simple but powerful practice of “seeing the good”.