The Meaningfulistic Podcast

Greg Nolan of Birmingham UK is an accredited psychotherapist who has been working in Mental Health Services for nearly two decades. His practice is informed by a Christian perspective of the psyche (soul) and our relationship with the world around us. His core premise is that our intellect and free will govern our passions as enumerated by St. Thomas Aquinas. Greg does a great job of explaining the Thomistic understanding of the spirit, soul, and body composite, in a way that anyone with an open mind can understand. Greg Nolan has his course on Overcoming Depression with Catholic CBT available online through his website that is christian-psychotherapy.co.uk and it is available to anyone who is struggling with depression and is open to the Christian concept of the human soul. The difference between the soul and the spirit... https://youtu.be/R2_t7nW6MZQ?si=xUuErdqr5R3Djb8v https://youtu.be/60bb3n8YV44?si=-Unw-xM1E8c6gafm  

"Whereas the truth is that fullness of soul can sometimes overflow in utter vapidity of language, for none of us can ever express the exact measure of his needs or his thoughts or his sorrows; and human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars." - Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. https://www.yalom.com/books https://emersoncentral.com/texts/nature-addresses-lectures/nature2/chapter1-nature/ https://www.instagram.com/meaningfulistic/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/498726518921895    

Follow the Cloud: "Every day I wake up and die to the myth that I am in control of my life." Steve Thomason embraced his God-given artistic talent and his passion for ministry and combined them into "Artheology" = Art + Theology. His illustrations and animations have helped others to understand complex ideas and make them easy to remember and teach to others. He is the creator of a Cartoonist's Guide to the Bible. Steve Thomason is an associate professor of Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at Luther Seminary, a post-Evangelical, missional, neo-Lutheran theologian, rostered in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and an artist.  I stumbled upon his vast catalogue of work while searching for an image to compliment the book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.  A Cartoonist's Guide to the Bible https://cartoonistbible.com/ A Visual Book Review of The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt https://www.stevethomason.net/2018/09/17/a-visual-book-review-of-the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt/ Thketches: Social Trinity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe78DHHgF_s&ab_channel=SteveThomason Robert Kegan's 5 Orders of Consciousness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW4LTqRJDW8&ab_channel=SteveThomason

In this episode, I enjoy a meaningful conversation with my first Ph.D. for the podcast, the Psych Apologist, Dr. Jay Medenwaldt. Have you ever wondered how personality tests can be so eerily accurate? What is the Enneagram and can Christians use this enigmatic tool to promote their spiritual growth? Dr. Jay demystifies the Enneagram and breaks it down based on scientific psychological research. Learn more about the Forer effect, cognitive bias, and how easy it is for our minds to trick us into believing in something. https://www.jaymedenwaldt.com/p/about-me.html The Enneagram: A window into the soul or a waste of time? by Dr. Jay Medenwaldt Is the Enneagram Legitimate for Spiritual Growth? by Dr. Jay Medenwaldt The Traditional Enneagram The Enneagram: Spirituality it is Not by Father Mitch Pacwa George Gurdjieff  Gurdjieff Sacred Dance (see 3:00 and 4:30) Gurdjieff Sacred Dance (modern) Books: The Enneagram, Helen Palmer The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, Richard Rohr The Road Back to You, Ian Morgan Cron

What do G.K. Chesterton and Baloo the Bear have in common? They both believe in the bare necessities of life, of course. Logic and Faith both have their limitations and problems when taken in exclusivity. Balance the scales and be Meaningfulistic! Enjoy this meaningful journey through how I synthesize psychology, religion, and philosophy (bohemian as it may be). Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton audiobook 1947 Jungle Book Disney's The Jungle Book - The Bare Necessities  

This episode covers a short summary of the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin and how the impact of this book changed my life. I have been molded by the philosophy and psychology of Jocko Willink and the mental toughness that he embodies as a former Navy Seal Team leader. The Jocko Podcast was also my introduction to podcasting and has been instrumental to this endeavor. "GOOD!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8&ab_channel=JockoPodcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljqra3BcqWM&ab_channel=TEDxTalks https://echelonfront.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057

Kendall Ryan is a Human Resources Generalist with a gift of intuition and knowing how to read people. Our conversation is about being sensitive and how that is not a weakness. Men and women both fall into the spectrum of sensitivity and the world needs to hear how to appropriately address sensitivity through the lens of coping mechanisms and emotional intelligence. She discusses how emotions play into the five core concepts of emotional intelligence: social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and motivation.  Get more of The Meaningfulistic on Instagram, and TikTok, and join the Facebook Group or email me at meaningfulistic@gmail.com.

Why do Catholics pray to saints? Deacon Matt Rust tells the amazing story of his special relationship with St. Padre Pio and the miracles that he has seen in his life through intercessory prayer. We talk about the vibrant community of faith with our heavenly brothers and sisters and how their prayers benefit us by virtue of their proximity to God. I ask him about how Christian men can pray to embrace more feminine qualities to be more complete. "We as the body of Christ are the bride of Christ, and so we as a whole take on these feminine, wifely attributes that make us submissive to Christ." "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles." Hebrews 12:1 Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was an Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic. Books: The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila The Life of St. Anthony the Great by Athanasius of Alexandria

Is a man less masculine if he is sensitive? Men have been wrongly taught to suppress their feelings and it manifests later as addictions, depression, and violence. Male vocalists used to evoke passion, empathy, and a genuine yearning for love. A transition happened in music and media with the advent of drugs and the proliferation of a new false narrative for masculinity: money, power, and promiscuity. Sensitivity and emotional Intelligence can be used as a tool to become a more well-rounded individual. Sadiq of "An Honest Look at the End" podcast offers insights of his personal life and how we should take responsibility for the narratives we choose for our lives. An Honest Look at the End? https://youtu.be/_Z4MqgvLymk References: The Highly Sensitive: How to Find Inner Peace, Develop Your Gifts, and Thrive by Judy Dyer Tupac Shakur 1988 High School Interview (minute 34:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_XT9-C5Qu8&t=461s PSYOP Ghosts in the Machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA4e0NqyYMw John Vervaeke's "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis" Episode #5: Plato and the Cave https://open.spotify.com/episode/3OzAKnjjkocZlGEv0q9Dkv?si=3fcdd5a362cd45f7

In this episode, I have a meaningful conversation with Brennan Garriques, one of the founders of MoreThanEntertained.com. The vision of the website is to live in a world where the entertainment industry is used to prompt reflection on the divine. His article Lightning McQueen: What to do With Freedom, drew me in with its in-depth analysis and references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Brennan Garriques quotes: "The definition of virtue is the habitual disposition toward the good." "I definitely was in touch with the ache in my chest there's like a painful experience of something, I don't know what. "As I came into my faith more and more, I interpret now that painful experience in my chest, that something, as being God. Like an invitation, that painful longing, that I experience that I feel is a longing for God and a longing ultimately to be in heaven." "Maybe write about it and talk about how we find God in secular entertainment; in movies, and music and books and maybe encourage other people too. And show them how we do it so that they might also be able to recognize truth, goodness, and beauty and elements of the divine in every day." - Brennan's idea at the core of morethanentertained.com "Every encounter with beauty calls us to something, moves us to something." Greek word for beauty (kalen) means "to call" or "to becon". Other Meaningfulistic quotes: The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines freedom as “the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility” (CCC 1731). "All of humanities problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone" - Blaise Pascal "I asked the sea and the deeps, and the living creeping things, and they answered, 'We are not thy God, seek above us.'" - St. Augustine, Confessions. "Beauty will save the world" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot. For Dostoevsky, "beauty” transcends aesthetics, and is what inspires the best in us, our aspirations for what is good and true, and what connects us to each other. "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be." - Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen “Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only be aware to stop and savor it.” –Chef Gusteau, Ratatouille "For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man." (CCC 1) “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” - C.S. Lewis

What would it take to call a teacher dad? When a student has no one to turn to or confide in, sometimes the surrogate parent they really need can come in the form of a teacher. Jaime Moreno takes the loss of his father and his experiences with great childhood coaches to shape his approach to teaching and his life. Jaime loves his students and respects them enough to treat them like he treats his own children: without pulling any punches. He extends his classroom beyond the walls of the school and opens his very home up to the nurturing spirit of teaching. With five foreign exchange daughters, his family feels they have found their mission. It has reshaped his marriage, his family, and his life. As Jaime says, "The reality is... I'm dad." "If I can get a village of people to help me out and it raises an amazing child, who am I to argue with that village? "Kids can read people better than adults can."  "They don't want fluff. They want authenticity." "If they feel like you're checking a box, they're not going to do anything for you." "When a kid has no one they need someone, and sometimes the people that are the 'someone's' are the people in that building that they go to every day." "A great mentor/teacher can have good meaningful conversations and that's what kids want." "The more that you can grow a kid beyond what is in their general vicinity in the sense of their town or their neighborhood; if you can get them outside of that and experience more things, the better off the human being that you're cultivating."

What are the 12 Steps? Most people think the 12 steps are part of a drinking program that touches on spirituality, but really, it's a spiritual program that deals with drinking. The positive transformation of the 12 steps can apply to all aspects of life. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please consider seeking a healthy and positive solution.  Why would you do something better for yourself? Would you ignore a positive message because it said something about God? How does spirituality push people towards living a better life?  Mark Donaldson's words to live by: "Just saying you want to surrender your will and your life over to God; that's just a decision. Then you have to do stuff and you have to do the action, and the action reinforces your decision. If you do enough action, then your decision becomes ingrained and that's just who you've become." "Grow along spiritual lines." "God could and would if he were sought." "God is everything or else he is nothing." "I'm recovered from a hopeless mind and body. Today I have a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual condition." "I can recover from a hopeless mind body and spirit if I fit myself to be as spiritual as I can." "I respect God, and I want to be his man today." "Today trusting God, for me looks like going to sleep at every night and just being OK with things maybe not being 100% done." "If I'm as good as I can be for God, then I can go out and be useful to God and to others." "We don't want to cut people off from the sunlight of the spirit, and the sunlight of the spirit is God." "Trust God. Clean house. Help others." "I want to be a light in a dark-filled room." "It's hard to stay mad when you're being open-minded."   Other Meaningfulistic References: “Act as if everything depended on you; trust as if everything depended on God.” - Saint Ignatius of Loyola "You thought God was an architect, now you know He's something like a pipe bomb ready to blow." - 24 Frames by Jason Isbell "So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 "When a person can't find a deep sense of meaning they distract themselves with pleasure." - Viktor Frankl

What does it take to be completely committed to transformative self-improvement? Mark Donaldson accepted the 75 Hard Challenge upon himself to become the best possible version of himself. Change never comes easy. Your mind is especially resistant to change. The body desires homeostasis, equilibrium, rest - the easy life. But people who are serious about transformation know that you have to raise the bar and challenge yourself to achieve peak performance in life. Peak performance combines the mental, physical, and spiritual elements of the whole person. Mark exemplifies what it means to do just that by trying to make himself be of "maximum service to God." Why do people of character dare to post before, during, and after pictures of their personal struggles on social media of their struggle? Accountability with others and to yourself. "The opposite of addiction is connection." - Mark Donaldson The 75 Hard Challenge Exodus 90 Mark Donaldson quotes: "I'm an egomaniac with an inferiority complex." "I don't think much of myself but I think of myself all the time." "When you go for a run and your mind tells you you need to stop, you're still at 40% of what you're probably capable of." "Invite God into the room when there's a moment of silence. I try to treat God like a gentleman. Gentlemen don't go places they are not invited and they don't stay places where they aren't welcome." "Most of the time we are driven by a hundred forms of fear and we don't ever do anything about it." Book References: "How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Life Prosperously" by Jerrold Mundis The "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous "The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions"

Why would anyone take a leap of faith? What is proper worship? Haywood Glover discusses why one should always question their beliefs and not fall blindly into following a particular religion or person. We talk about the flaws in religious zealotry that comes forth from a lack of intellectual scrutiny. We also discussed the racial and political divisiveness in Christianity and the self-righteous blind spots it can foster. Why would a logical naturally skeptical, risk-averse person choose faith? Notes: "One Day It'll All Make Sense" by Common "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach "The five lifestyles or values that Ecclesiastes tries are precisely the five tried in all ages and cultures, from ancient Hinduism's 'Four Wants of Man' through Augustine's Confessions to modern existentialist novels like Sartre's La Nausee and Hesse's Siddhartha." - "You Can Understand the Bible" by Peter Kreeft "In a Pit with Lion on a Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson Why fear God? German theologian and philosopher Rudolf Otto describes it as the "Mysterium Tremendum et Tascinans" - a mystery before which humanity both trembles and is fascinated is both repelled and attracted.

Haywood Glover, Demand Process Manager is an expert at analyzing risk. He brings a lot to the table on the topic of the meaning of risk by being a naturally risk-averse person.  The conversation transitioned to personal experiences and the risks that people take to find meaningful relationships. We delve into the advantages and disadvantages of either being too cautious or too vulnerable. How do we interpret red flags in the dating arena? Do we overanalyze things or are our instincts helping us to make better-informed decisions for self-preservation?  "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

This is a brief introduction to what this podcast is about. There are many podcasts revolving around the topic of meaning, and in particular, Logotherapy. This is my exercise in logotherapy which involves interviewing people. I lay out some basic details and key quotes that are driving this investigation. This is just the beginning of my journey. "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." Martin Buber