Soul Search

The next episode of Soul Search is "Taste," featuring Dr. Joyce del Rosario. Food has power when it's more than just something to eat. Coming in June.

Kris Smiley has had four cancers episodes, twenty plus tumors and multiple invasive surgeries. He knows what it's like to face that cold calculating part of reality that doesn't care about your plans or the things you love. Can you hold hands with what's destroying you? Is there an answer to why it's happening? This is his story about finding out.Be advised: This episode contains adult language and graphic descriptions of medical procedures. So if any of this is triggering for you, you might want to skip this one. Intro (0:00)Act 1 | A Guy Named Kris (5:45)Act 2 | I Get Off at This Stop (20:09)Act 3 | An Exit (34:10)Credits (55:06)Music Credits:Blue Dot SessionsRhucleSign up for our newsletter here.Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by your support. If you like what you've heard from us, consider making  a donation today.

Kirk's walk in episode 1 inspired others to walk too. In this bonus episode, we take a walk with Nita Hines through Ingleside, the neighborhood where she was born and raised. It was a place of childhood wonder, care and spiritual connection. But like Kirk's home, it's changed too.Intro (00:00) - Did I lose something?Act 1 | The Hood (04:00) - Some things have changed.Act 2 | The Church (15:53) - Some things you question.Act 3 | The Home (20:43) -  Some things can't be taken from you.Outro (32:15) Music Credits:Blue Dot SessionsRhucleP3PPERSign up for our newsletter here.Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit. Our work is made possible by your support. If you like what you've heard from us, consider making  a donation today.

This guided meditation is intended to be a companion to our podcast episode “Look” (S1 E3). To give context to what you'll be experiencing, consider listening to it first before continuing.Here, you'll be invited to reflect on a person or a situation that you feel some resistance to. We are not talking about anything that threatens your physical or emotional safety. Instead, what we're looking for is someone that you tend to quickly and harshly judge, or something that triggers feelings of sadness or guilt or anger. These are normal human emotions, but we can become trapped by them. When we do, our vision for life narrows and we cut ourselves off from the life-giving energy in us all around us. If we're willing, however, we can move past the typical fight, flight or freeze response we have and open ourselves to the radical work of acceptance and the freedom that letting go can bring. More resources for your spiritual journey to authentic living are available on our website, thesoulsearch.org. 

Our eyes often deceive us. We tend to confuse what we think about a person or a situation with all there is to them. But much of what we've come to believe is simply a reflection of our own internalized expectations or fears. Our projections distort their truth, and say more about us than about them. What does it take to slow  down and see below the surface of life to what's actually there? And what's on the other side of what we resist?In this third episode of our "Welcome Your Life" series, we visit with Bernie Dickson, a photographer and mother of two special needs boys. Her profession requires her to see the world a bit differently than most of us. Hear the story about how photography and acceptance of her kids came together one  beautiful night. And how a community came around to support her.  See photos from the Acceptance Exhibit here.Act 1 | Photography (0:00-18:00)  - Bernie talks about her approach to using the camera to capture a moment.Act 2 | Resistance (18:00-32:00) - In the wilderness of confusion, Bernie encounters a truth that changes her perspective on life.Act 3 | Acceptance (32:00-52:30) - A community comes around Bernie to create an unforgettable evening.  Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit committed to your process of self-discovery, so you experience greater freedom, spontaneity and love in life. Our work is made possible by your support. If you like what you've heard from us, consider making  a donation today.Episode CreditsWelcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley Audio engineering by Lenny B.Music (in order):Micolai by Blue Dot SessionsThe Provisions by Blue Dot Sessions Funk and Flash by Blue Dot SessionsValantis by Blue Dot SessionsAn Oddly Formal Dance by Blue Dot SessionsA Path Unwinding by Blue Dot SessionsRambling by Blue Dot SessionsBombadore by Blue Dot SessionsDarn that Weasel by Blue Dot SessionsMaisie Lee by Blue Dot SessionsKallaloe by Blue Dot SessionsCuriously and Curiously by Blue Dot SessionsCloud Line by Blue Dot SessionsGuard from Holy by RhucleSlow Toe by Blue Dot SessionsSimple Vale by Blue Dot SessionsThe Zeppelin by Blue Dot SessionsPersimmon St by Blue Dot Sessions

In this bonus episode,  you'll be invited to meet your inner child.   It's designed as a meditation to go along with "Wonder" (S1 E2). Please consider listening to that episode first, to give context to what you'll experience here. You inner child is real and can be a resource to you. Getting in touch with them can be a way to heal old wounds that limit your sense of self worth and can also be a way to bring creativity, compassion and imagination back into your adult life. But this experience, while freeing, can also bring up pain points from your childhood. Be gentle with yourself. If you feel triggered at any time during the meditation, please consider pausing or stopping altogether. Return only when you feel ready. I'm happy to coach you through this. Email me at seth@thesoulsearch.org.

In this second episode of our "Welcome Your Life" series, we look at a vital, but often neglected, aspect of a healthy spirituality - wonder.  As adults we tend to lose that unfiltered amazement of the world we had as children. Our agendas take over instead because we think wonder is a luxury we can no longer afford. But could it be that what we seem to have lost in our adult lives has never left us? And that recapturing wonder can reconnect us with what's always been most essential to us?We'll visit with Lacy Finn Borgo and Steph Cheung to help us see why we've lost wonder and how to recover it. Lacy is the author of Spiritual Conversations with Children and has other books in print and on the way related to spirituality and children. Find out more about her work at Good Dirt Ministries. Steph is on staff with InterVarsity and has come up with a truly unique way to incorporate play and wonder into her sabbatical time away from work.Music by Blue Dot Sessions.Learn more about Soul Search at our website.

In this bonus episode, you'll be guided through a "walk of presence" in which you imagine yourself walking through a neighborhood, or any physical space that is meaningful to you. It's designed as a meditation to go along with "Walk" (S1 E1) Please consider listening to that episode first, so you'll have context for what you'll be guided through here. We'll pick up on the themes of lingering, lament and hope that Kirk Davis talked about in that episode, but using the imagination as a way to interact with them. While being seated in a quiet space will be a helpful way to do this meditation, you might also try listening to it while walking through a physical space, especially if you are a body movement learner.

In Episode One of our very first podcast series, called "Welcome Your Life," we look at walking as a spiritual practice to deepen our awareness in life. This is a certain kind of walking, not to get anywhere or to accomplish anything. Instead it is a walk to linger and to listen.  We'll join Kirk Davis, a San Francisco native and community leader in the city's Bayview neighborhood, to trace the steps of a sacred walk he would take through the city.  Often taking several hours, it is a way he intentionally listened to what the city is saying to him about the past and the future. And to what stirred in his heart as he contemplated both. Find out what he heard.Learn about Kirk's work with Kairos of San Francisco in the city's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood.Check out our website for more content related to this episode, including pictures of our walk with Kirk and a spiritual exercise you can use to take what you heard deeper into your soul.  You can download the exercise directly here.Also: try out our "walking" guided meditation. You can find it as a Soul Search bonus episode on this streaming app or on our website.Soul Search is a 501c3 non-profit committed to your process of self-discovery, so you experience greater freedom, spontaneity and love in life.  Our work is made possible by your support. Make a donation today.Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

The key to a spiritual life is not finding a way to manufacture a life that is spiritual but instead giving yourself more deeply to the life that you're already living. In our first series of podcasts, we'll take a look at this essential part of the spiritual journey, one we're calling “Welcome Your Life.” You'll hear stories and interviews from everyday people and experts in the contemplative life, who have regained a sense of wonder and purpose to life through the simple act of letting go.  Visit our website for more podcast info.   Music: Borough by Blue Dot Sessions

Who are you? How we answer this question determines everything in life. Too often our culture answers it for us, taking us away from being in touch with who we truly are. The essence of the spiritual life is to reclaim our lost identity. Using a blend of storytelling and interviews, the Soul Search podcast is an up-close look at this journey, taking you below the surface of life to find your deepest and truest self.  https://thesoulsearch.org/podcastMusic: The Onyx by Blue Dot Sessions