This Most Unbelievable Podcast!

Hey all! This episode is a bit of a departure from our usual podcast format. This one is an exclusive Cheri Spiegel production on the topic of Empathy. As Cheri talks through in this episode, unlocking empathy takes a little bit of work, and it takes some skill to fully engage with it throughout a lifetime. Sometimes, when we really look around honestly at the world, as it is, it can break our hearts, and the pain and suffering of it can sometimes be too much to bear all at once. How can we know how much we can engage with it, and act upon it, without falling into despair, shutting it down in response, and turning it off completely? Give Cheri a listen on this one, and see what you think of our framework for engaging with empathy as a lifelong practice to live a full and complete life. Living with empathy is hard work sometimes, but we really do believe that empathy comes naturally to us, and that life really is richer, deeper, and more meaningful with a skillful empathy practice. Of course, this includes self-empathy. More on this in the podcast! Thanks all!

Do we have an interesting episode for you today? Well, we certainly think so! Ironically enough, we didn't intend to discover anything particularly new when we recorded this episode. Instead, we simply planned to share what we learned about the concept of discover through the workshop we've offered entitled "Discover: Exploring Needs as They Emerge In College Contexts." While we did share a bit from that experience, we got an invitation to really explore what it takes to be open to discovery when...a young man knocked on the door of the room we were recording in and asked, curiously enough, where he might be able to learn more about recording a podcast! You'll hear Cheri start to get distracted as she's finishing a sentence and then you'll be treated to Paul and Cheri debriefing the experience and using it as a tool to think through the things we agree one needs to accept if they're going to move into discovery mode! For quick reference, we provide them below here, but listen in to hear us talk through them - and for our most curious recording experience to date! To become a discoverer, you must first meet and accept the following things: You do not know all there is to know. You do not currently see all that there is to see. Other beings know and understand things you do not. Other beings have occupied spaces and experiences that you have not. You are limited in your capacity to know, experience, and understand. Your current way of seeing may inhibit your ability to see as others do. Depending upon your background, experiences, and abilities, some of these premises might be more or less difficult to accept.

This is Episode 117 of the This Most Unbelievable Life Podcast! This episode looks at the concept of reflection and its importance as a way of processing and moving us forward in our lives (more traction!).  We contrast reflection with rumination, which can cause us just to spin our wheels! Building on our car metaphor, we walk through an exercise we love using in our shared spaces, "The Parking Lot Reflection." If you're interested in using this tool yourself and/or with groups you lead, consider purchasing the PDF and PPT downloads we offer up on the brand new TMUL Etsy Store!

Welcome to Episode 116 of the Podcast! This episode takes a look at our deepening understanding of what it means to have a pause practice. We take a look at instances of when we get to choose to pause, as well as times when pausing is thrust upon us. It's something that we'll all have to engage with eventually. What is the skill set for this?

Hey all! Well, we're back! In this episode, we take some time to catch folks up with all we've been doing over the past 8 months, and to begin to share some of the ideas we've been developing over the past academic year. We're excited to be recording again, and we hope you enjoy this one! If there is a path that we're on in this life that leads to where we want to go, what provides the traction that lets the wheels grip the road to move us forward? Spoiler alert... we say it's compassion.  Thanks everybody! Paul and Cheri   

Hey folks!  This episode was recorded fresh on the heels of our latest Compassion workshop on our campus, and this being at the end of a busy couple of weeks, the conversation is pretty wide ranging! Since we have the tools of practical, embodied compassion in our hearts and minds as we offer workshops to our community, naturally, the conversation reflects on that.  This conversation curiously, but somehow naturally, flows into a discussion of the eternal question, “what is all of this?” Give this one a listen and let us know what you think the benefits of a compassion-based life might be as we explore this topic ourselves! Thanks folks!  P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Aaaaaannnd were back! It was quite a summer for us over here, but not too much of what we were up to was visible - thus, this episode! As we get the creative podcast juices flowing once again, give this one a listen and hear what's been pulling us away from the microphone, and what we're working on as we fire it back up. Thank you for your patience, folks! It's good to be podcasting again! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 112 - "Seeing What Is Around Us, with Honesty" Hey folks!  This episode brings us a chat about chapter 3 in Maria Arpa's book, “Mindfulness at Work.” This chapter, for us anyway, describes where the real work starts! When we turn our magnifying glass to all that is around us in the workplace, or anywhere for that matter, what do we notice, what do we like, and what could use a little attention? We especially like the use of the metaphorical magnifying glass in this chapter. With that, we can see things up close, or we can see them from farther away. Is it the details that we like or don't like, or is it the whole thing, in its entirety?  Let us know what you think about this one! Next time, Chapter 4 - “The Conflicts!” If you'd like to pick up the book, “Mindfulness at Work,” by Maria Arpa, here is a link to the book from the publisher page :  https://www.quartoknows.com/ourbooks/bookinfo.aspx?ean=9781782409342&bkey=39221980 Thanks folks!  P + C Shoutouts A big shoutout to the Zoom corporation, the makers of some of the best, affordable sound and video equipment out there. Notice that we seem to be into video now! Check us out on YouTube! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey folks!  In this episode, we talk through Chapter 2 of Maria Arpa's book, “Mindfulness at Work.” The title of this chapter, “Freedom & Sustainability,” seems to us to be about how we might find a way to operate in a joyful, mostly resistance-free way in the structure of our workplace. We live with this contrast between doing what we want, and needing to pay the bills. How do we find a middle ground in this that might be more than merely acceptable? Can we find ways to do the work we love to do AND hold a steady job, or does that require a total change in the container in which we operate? Give this one a listen and let us know what you think! Next time, Chapter 3 - “The Honest Audit!” If you'd like to pick up the book, “Mindfulness at Work,” by Maria Arpa, here is a link to the book from the publisher page :  https://www.quartoknows.com/ourbooks/bookinfo.aspx?ean=9781782409342&bkey=39221980 Thanks folks!  P + C Shoutouts A big shoutout to the Zoom corporation, the makers of some of the best, affordable sound and video equipment out there. Notice that we seem to be into video now! Check us out on YouTube! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey folks!  In this episode, we talk through Chapter 1 of Maria Arpa's book, “Mindfulness at Work.” The title of this chapter, “Wake Up & Smell the Coffee,” seems to us to be about acknowledgement. It starts with the acknowledgement that we are where we are in the workplace because we accepted things as they were, made decisions, even unconscious ones, on how to best operate in the environment we found ourselves in, and reacted and responded to situations as a result of the causes and conditions of our lives. As Maria Arpa writes, “By remembering and acknowledging those experiences, you will understand their effect on the choices you have made about work and can begin to take steps to remedy this.”  Give this one a listen and let us know what you think! Next time, Chapter 2 - “Freedom and Sustainability!” If you'd like to pick up the book, “Mindfulness at Work,” by Maria Arpa, here is a link to the book from the publisher page :  https://www.quartoknows.com/ourbooks/bookinfo.aspx?ean=9781782409342&bkey=39221980 Thanks folks!  P + C Shoutouts A big shoutout to the Zoom corporation, the makers of some of the best, affordable sound and video equipment out there. Notice that we seem to be into video now! Check us out on YouTube! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hi Everybody! We have a bonus episode for you this time! It's just a little short one to let you in on what's been going on over here at the TMUL shop. Long story short… acknowledging limitations! There are times in our lives when we discover that we can't do it all (blah blah blah - the same words we've heard all our lives). We do hit limitations sometimes, and as we discovered this month, until we can acknowledge our limitations, we can never be free. That's the message of this one. How do we acknowledge our limitations and be ok with them? On the one hand, we want to do great and be invincible. On the other hand, we're humans… humans with limitations.  For the long story long, check this bonus episode out, and let us know what you think! We'll be back with the longform regular programming soon.  Take care, folks! P + C Shoutouts Last week we had a shoutout to Zoom Corp - the A/V hardware company. This week, a mad props to Zoom the software company, without whom this episode, and many other podcasts by awesome creators around the world wouldn't be possible.   This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey folks! This episode marks the first in a seven-part series where we discuss the book, “Mindfulness at Work,” by Maria Arpa. As we work to bring our contemplative practices more fully developed into all aspects of our lives, we naturally ask, “how might we do this at work?” What we do on nights and weekends is one thing, what we do on the job, however… is that something else altogether? Or might these mindful awareness practices apply to all aspects of our lives? It's easy to be mindful while engaging in leisure activities or perhaps during times of rest, but during the majority of your waking, workday hours? What does that look like? This week we discuss the introduction of the book and the history of why we've chosen this one as the subject of conversation. Also, if you would like to join us in this experience, you too may pick up a copy of the book and come along on this journey with us. You could even start your own Mindfulness at Work book group at your place of employment! That's what we've done! If you'd like to join in with us, here is a link to the book from the publisher page :  https://www.quartoknows.com/ourbooks/bookinfo.aspx?ean=9781782409342&bkey=39221980 Thanks folks!  P + C Shoutouts A big shoutout to the Zoom corporation, the makers of some of the best, affordable sound and video equipment out there. Notice that we seem to be into video now! Check us out on YouTube! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 107 - Can Compassion be a Request? What, indeed, is the advantage of embracing the practices of mindfulness in the workplace? So often, we hear of businesses and organizations promoting mindfulness at work, and working on ways to institutionalize mindful approaches and activities, such as yoga, meditation breaks, and other holistic invitations. Is a 10 minute breathing break in the middle of the workday what we really need, though? In this episode, we talk through what it might mean to change our workplace experiences in a more complete and personal way by using awareness of communication with our colleagues and ourselves as the actual framework for workplace wellness. Can we actually ask for compassion in the workplace outright, and how might that request be made to those with whom we work?  We hope that you enjoy this episode! Let us know what you think! Link to Grok It Cards - https://groktheworld.com/ P + C Shoutouts A huge TMUL shoutout to our new patron, long-time supporter Jessica! THANK YOU JESSICA!!!! Your support means the world to us! Expect merch soon. :-) This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www .patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

We all have heard about workplace burnout, and there are whole books - many books - written about this topic. We sometimes think that if we REALLY loved our job, and if we were really happy with our work, we wouldn't ever actually experience burnout. What if, however, occasional bouts with burnout were an inevitable part of any work that we do? If we approach feelings of burnout honestly and with a little compassion and patience, we can see it for what it might truly be - a natural, occasionally inevitable part of what it means to do work. How do we know when it's time to change course with what we're doing or how we approach our work? It turns out that occasional feelings of burnout might be a window into this. We hope that you enjoy this episode! Let us know what you think! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

  What if compassion in the classroom was the foundation of the environment, rather than something “else” that you “ought” to do as a teacher? So often, we, as academics, are left with the thought that good classroom practices are “something else” that we have to do on top of the content that we teach. In this episode, we talk through the possibility that the content might actually be the second thing that we bring with us, and why the very nature of the classroom environment itself must be the first consideration to attend to, which, if established with compassion and non-violence as first principles, enables true, deep learning to happen. This episode also briefly hits upon a side topic not fully addressed in this episode, but one that has been raging on for years: what, in fact, does a grade in a class represent? Rather than this just being a gathering of opinions, which does have value, we also wonder if folks actually agree on what it is “supposed” to represent. If the goal is mastery of content, then clearly not everyone is starting from the same place, and PRESTO… academic privilege! As such, we explore some clear equity vs. equality conversation in this one, while anticipating that we'll circle back to this topic for many years, as we see equity and inclusion as active ongoing aims in a complex educational landscape. We hope you like this one! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey folks! From tea imagery to coffee! Where we go: into the grind! Truth - there are times when our days are easy, and there are times when days are hard. Sometimes we find joy in the daily little things, yet, sometimes what happens is met with resistance. Stuff happens, both expected and unexpected, and we look for opportunities for ease when we can. We also suffer the unexpected struggles when they arise. There's no avoiding that! In that, we really don't have too much choice. Easy things and hard things will happen, we promise. When faced with the truth of unpredictability, it can seem like this life is just happening to us, and that we really don't have any agency in this life. Although unexpected and challenging things happen, what choices can actually be made that can have a meaningful impact in how we show up for what arises? We don't always get to choose what happens, but we might actually have more options than we realize. Check this episode out, and let us know what you think! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey all! Question… what do you think of tea? Throughout the course of the day, we drink a lot of tea! We enjoy it in the morning, after class, sometimes during class, in workshops that we host, and in meetings, with friends, colleagues, students, and even on our own. Most of the planning and conversation that we have, between ourselves and with others, starts with, “You want a cup of tea?” Our invitations to others often take the form of, “Join us for tea?” For us, and we suspect for many others, tea holds this special quality that not many other drinks can produce. There indeed seems to be something primal, mystical, or magical, about simple tea.  To be clear, this conversation is about more than tea, it gets pretty deep into what we do, who we are, and what makes us tick. It all starts, however, with a cup of tea. Kick back, relax, grab a cup of tea, and give this one a listen and let us know what you think!  So, let's start with tea! Fire up the kettle, y'all! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Here's an episode about fire! At last! How have two fire signs (one a Leo, the other, Aries) gone this long without tackling this topic? Well, it's taken us a bit of time to learn to understand our own fire! Check this one out and hear more about how we have come to accept what fuels us and aim our “fire” in ways that help us - and those around us. The truth is that carefully aimed fire can bring life and warmth, while unfocused fire risks burning the whole place to the ground! Check this one out and let us know what fuels you and how you focus that energy in ways that you find sustainable! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hi all! When was the last time you really had to take some time to figure something out? If you're anything like us, the times when we have the A-HA moments are quick and sudden, but they only really occur as the end of a much longer, more involved investment of time, energy, confusion, familiarizing, and quite often, struggle! Rather than the A-HA moment representing the process of learning, we suggest that the whole process of it - including the awkward, uncomfortable times of fumbling around - represents the learning process.  If we put it like that, this means that the struggle, the challenge, the awkward fumbling, and even the frustration that comes with not “figuring it out” more quickly does not represent failure, or slowness, or inadequacy, or anything that one could disparage themselves for! Rather, quite the opposite might be true! To feel the struggle and challenge that comes with learning a new skill or idea IS the learning process itself, in its purest form. It's that awkward fumbling through that truly represents learning, rather than the A-HA moment at the end. Besides, that A-HA moment really doesn't last too long before we move onto the next thing. That A-HA moment does feel fantastic though, right? Of course it does. That is the reward we receive for our struggle.  Thanks, folks, and keep learning! Discover something new to figure out, and embrace the awkward! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey folks! Hello beloved podcast listeners! Here it is, at long last (for us anyway!) - podcast episode 100! Question for you…. How do you honor the 100th time you do something? Just like with some other milestones, such as birthdays and New Years' Day, in many respects it's just another day. Likewise, in many ways episode 100 is just like any other episode! It has a beginning, a middle, one or several tangents, an ending, and it runs about an hour long.  There is, however, a bit of a different feeling with notable episodes like 100, as there are with birthdays and anniversaries. There is cause for a bit of celebration, because that is what we do as humans, and it might actually represent something else. Clearly, it seems… we're all in! To do 100 of something, we think, means something. That's not always easy to do! And there have been many times when we've started things that can be counted, and didn't get to 100 before we, or it, flamed out. What does it take then? Or, maybe better put, what does it mean to be all in? Lasting. Staying power. Commitment? Value and meaning? Purposefulness? Importance? Any, or all of these, may be true. We can do things 100 times, but what does it mean to do that with joy? That does tap into something deeper, we think. Yet, there's another side to facing the sustaining power of something. How do we keep it going - or do more than 100 repetitions of something - without expectations? What's that? Are you wondering: what's so bad about expectations??? It turns out that, sometimes, rather than adding something that sounds meaningful, like accountability or validation, we see that those expectations are external to us. To do things from a place of true joy, meaning, purpose, and value, is to do them for ourselves! It's the doing that is the reward, not the metrics!  Expectations can set us up for challenge. Like we know what's going to happen or something? We find we're about as good at predicting the future as we can the weather! To release ourselves from expectation is to let go of what we think we know and can control, and to find true freedom in purpose. Surrender to the flow, y'all! And give this one a listen! We'd love to hear what you think!  Thanks, folks! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey folks! Welp, we've done it! 99 Red Record Buttons later and we're here:  Episode 99! And here's a spoiler: if you listen to this one all the way through, you'll get to hear Paul's excellent interpolation of “99 Red Balloons”! The same tune - in a totally new context! And…well, that's kinda the theme this week! We're thinking about times with the work to be done and the context for doing that work needs a remix! Have you ever been in a situation where you're really TRYING to do something and to get something done, but something feels like it's in the way, or like you're being blocked somehow from actually making progress or doing the thing that it is you're trying to do? Well, if you've answered “yes” to this, us too!! Why is it that some events require a “change in location” in order to do the thing that could, by all appearances, could be done where you are, or anywhere for that matter? For example, hunkering down in a coffee shop to do some typing, or going to Massachusetts to sit on a cushion. When, and under what circumstances, are we in need of a little “change of scenery?,” or even a “change of venue?” In this episode, Cheri and Paul talk through the many times that they have, in their lives, invoked different places to do some rather specific things. Why do some things work in some locations, but others work in other places? It is curious, isn't it? Where is it that you do your work? Give this one a listen! And…who knows…maybe you might try listening from a new location this week! If you do, let us know how that goes! Thanks y'all! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Have you ever attended an event wherein you find yourself with others gathered around a round table with tons of forks and spoons and the expectation for polite and witty dinner conversation?  For us, as academics, we have found ourselves in these situations most commonly at conferences, but these circumstances often emerge at weddings, fundraisers, and probably on a number of other occasions, too. What we notice about ourselves is that we both itch at the awkwardness of polite conversation in these contexts AND find those experiences meaningful - even fun. Based on our unique personalities, histories, and experiences, anxiety can arise at situations like these, even though they're meant to be “fun.” Sometimes they feel like these social situations are being imposed on us rather than offered.  We talk around these conversation occasions on today's episode. How did we get to that topic, you ask? Well, there might be two reasons. We're hoping to attend an academic conference in person this April and for us both it will be the first time we've participated in such an event in quite some time. Additionally, Paul just came from a retreat grounded in shared silence, and Cheri's about to head off to one. In these spaces where silence is expected, we have come to find some peace and ease. Yet, similar experiences where the convention is to keep the conversation going, tend to unsettle us. We all show up differently for these situations that involve groups of people, and with different feelings and reactions. May we be kind to ourselves in these situations, and if you're one of those folks who are perfectly comfortable in such a setting, be mindful that not everyone may be! Hold space lightly, and gently, for all. Thanks folks! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Ah! The first episode of 2022! This one's an interesting exercise in time travel! We recorded it on December 27, knowing it will be released on January 4, while Paul is away at a meditation retreat!  As a result, this episode bridges 2021 and 2022, and we've let that reality become the theme of the episode.  We look once more at New Year's plans and traditions. What we notice is a tendency to look back and reflect, paired with a desire to long for a different future. So often as we prepare to enter a new year we do so by taking inventory of our successes and failures and making idealized visions for what might come next.  In this episode, we round out 2021 with a bit of gratitude for what's unfolded along with an admission that: well, we couldn't have predicted the year we had if we tried! We're delighted by so much that we've had the opportunity to do, but find ourselves surprised by what we've experienced as a result of showing up for what unfolds rather than pressuring ourselves to make some kind of prescribed outcome happen.  Perhaps we walked away from this episode with this big point to ponder: what if we used the New Year transition as a moment to recognize and accept what is? Can we allow ourselves to just be with and witness what is for just a moment? It is with this intention we hope to come to the new year. Since we can control so little in life, we're committed to witnessing what is and showing up fully and with curiosity to whatever unfolds before us. May it be so!  So, fear listeners, as you listen, we ask you: What intention will you bring to this new season?  Are you setting intentions that are kind to yourself and that will bring ease and joy to yourself? Or are you driving yourself toward some sense of “more” or “better” that might contribute to your suffering more so than your success?  Happy New Year, Everybody! We can't wait to see what unfolds in 2022! P+C   This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to the final episode of 2021! We recorded this one fresh on the heels of visiting places that we might call, “home,” as in, “home for the holidays” or something like that.  As we talked through our respective trips and how they went, it became curious to us that it's not quite clear what we mean by the word, “home,” and what actually defined that particular place? In other words, what defines “home?” What, exactly, are the properties of “home?” Home might be where you grew up, where particular people are, a specific house, or where you are right now. It might be where your pets are, and it might be where your people are. However, we wonder, is it always “where the heart is?” In this last episode of 2021, we work through what home means to us, and where it is, and why that might be so. Maybe home was one thing or place, and maybe now it's another. What associations do you have with “home”? Has it changed over the course of your life? Has your sense of home been fixed over your life, or have you noticed ways that it has evolved as circumstances in your life change? We think it's a curious concept - one that's sometimes reassuring, and also, maybe, at other times uncomfortable or awkward. Where is your home, and what does “home” mean to you? We'd love to hear how you associate with home! Happy New Year, Everybody! We'll see you soon! P+C   This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 95 - Mindfulness and Resilience Happy Solstice, everyone! This week, we're sending out something a little different. A little while ago, Paul was afforded the opportunity to present for an annual Wellness Summit, and had the presence of mind to press the record button before he began! The episode for this week is that recording, and our own Cheri was kind enough to record an intro.  For a little context, the theme of this summit was “resilience,” a word that we've all heard quite often lately. Resilience is often thought of as something to get us through the hard times, but that's not really it. Resilience, in its purest, most technically correct usage, is the act, or the art, of rebounding after the damage has been done. Because of this, resilience is often talked about after big tragic events or difficult times like the one we're in now. However, there is great value in becoming familiar with resilience because even in the best of times, things can go awry and challenge us. What do we get from mindfulness in all of this? If we can learn to recognize challenges when they occur, and pay attention to how we react and respond to them, we might bring a little wisdom into exactly how that rebound takes shape. We might recognize that the form that we were in wasn't serving us too well, or maybe it's just time to make a few adjustments to how we're living our lives while we have them. Mindfulness, as it were, brings order to resilience. It can bring structure to the new shape we wish to take.  We hope that you enjoy this one! It was recorded in mid-October, and now we present it to you for your consideration! Again, happy solstice, and have a lovely day! We'll see you soon! P+C   This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hello, all! Well, the inevitable is upon us, and who are we to not acknowledge it fully? The holiday season is fully here, and once again we feel whatever that need is to embrace tradition, and we consider how it is that we might fulfill and/or satisfy our real, or perceived, holiday obligations. Traditions are one thing, and they're great! Many of us have traditions that have been passed down through time and generations, and they bring a certain meaning and flavor to the season. The obligation to satisfy them though. Now THAT can be stressy! Stressier than it needs to be, especially in times like these when so much seems in change, flux, and disarray. How can we still make it feel like the holidays when there is so much unsettled stuff going on out there? In this episode, we take this apart a little big, and begin where I think all respectable treatments of holiday tradition might begin - by acknowledging that we have traditions, and identifying them, no matter how untraditional they might be! All traditions start as a thing that happens for the first time. If you find yourself unable to satisfy all of your holiday traditions, just think… this could be the beginning of a new one! They can be respected without being sacred, and in the end, the tradition isn't really the point anyway, is it? Your traditions might be set in stone, with all the stops pulled out to ensure commitment to their satisfaction, or your holiday tradition might even be that you don't have traditions, and therefore the obligation might be to not do the same thing two years in a row! Whatever the case, we hope you are having a wonderful holiday season, and find some space and some ease that refreshes and relaxes the hardened, overworked soul.  We'll see you soon! P+C   This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hello, everyone, and happy December!  Well, has it been? Has it been happy? What about joyful?  Is your month starting off full of joy? Are you noticing when joy emerges or when it seems to be in short supply?  This podcast episode emerged from an unexpectedly joyful experience Cheri had recently…in a Lyft. Her driver was the personification of joy! He insisted that although a prior passenger tried to steal his joy, he wasn't going to let her! Instead, he both held onto it and was about to share it with Cheri and her fellow passenger, Beth, last Tuesday night.  Have you experienced joy in this manner?  Do you notice when it seems infectious?  Have you ever noticed how those who come to steal others' joy don't end up holding onto it for themselves?   As we move closer toward the darker days of fall and the often hectic close of the year, it can be hard to make space for joy and to both defend it and share it at the same time.  How are you navigating joy this season?  Are you hoping to take it off the hands of someone else? Or are you finding ways to cultivate it with those around you?   Joy is an intentional practice. It's not one we have all figured out, but we do delight in times where it seems to come easily!  This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hello dear listeners! Have you ever had that situation where someone says something to you, and you're just left thinking… “why would they say that???” Sometimes it's not just what they say, but also how they say it, and sometimes even that is innocuous enough, and the weirdness is just the identity of the person saying it! It's so funny all the variables that play into how stuff, like words, land for us when offered by those around us.  Of course, sometimes folks say things to us that are unarguably mean spirited. In these situations, the intent is clearly to cause suffering and harm, for whatever unfortunate reason that might be. Somehow, although unpleasant, it can almost be easier to abide with this situation than ones when our family, friends, and colleagues say something that hits in a particularly surprising way. We value friendships, and we don't like to lose them, so we think a little bit more about the intentions behind how things are offered. Are they striving to demonstrate knowledge? Is it a play for power or acknowledgement of authority? Are they just in pain and are looking for someone to sympathize with them? All these options, and then some, can be real. Things land in funny ways, and sometimes it's them, and sometimes it's us. Of course, it's also true that sometimes the thing that is said that doesn't land quite right comes from us! In this episode, we talk through many of the complexities behind why folks say the things they do, and why things land the way they do when they're heard. It's a big topic so we cannot claim to totally put this one to bed, but we take a good shot at it. We may do a follow-up to this one! Thanks all! What do you think? P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hello, dear podcast listeners, and welcome to episode 91! It's Thanksgiving week here in the U.S., and many of us are gearing up for holiday festivities with friends and family. For some, there may be traveling, food in abundance, and friends and family galore! What better time for a light-hearted conversation about boundaries? We realized in the run-up to this episode that we've talked around this topic before, but really haven't come out and said, “hey, this episode is about boundaries!” We've talked through many, if not all, of the components of a conversation about boundaries. It turns out, to take those components -- such as, how to say “no,” the art of the slow yes, recognizing exhaustion, how to communicate and advocate for yourself -- and put them together into a unified whole is a “some assembly required” situation! There are many parts to a conversation about boundaries, with several skills needed in order to do it smoothly, and rigorously. In this episode, we hit on another topic that is actually quite related! And that's been on Paul's mind lately: the notion that a job is kind of just a mechanism that converts time into money. Specifically, it converts your time into money that you want, or need, to live. Do you feel stuck, or unsatisfied with your job? Do you wish for more? Is the conversion from time into money working efficiently, or is the machine starting to heat up a little, or showing signs of wear and tear? Can the machine be repaired, or is it time to find a different machine?  It's also possible that we're expecting something out of the machine that it just doesn't do! How do we set up that boundary of expectation, which can lead to a new truth about who we are and what we want in this world?  Thanks all! We hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving! *** In this episode, we talked a little bit about the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special, in which we accused Lucy of flipping out about the Thanksgiving Dinner of popcorn and toast. FACT - it was actually Peppermint Patty, and we offer our sincerest apologies to Lucy. There are actually some good lessons about boundaries in this episode as well! Video linked below! Where's the Pumpkin Pie? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opN9NxqVCMM This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 90 - Trying and The Wisdom of Yoda November. Ah, the month where we get to start saying: “goodness, it sure is getting dark early, ain't it?”  We in Virginia come to notice this phenomenon, of course, as a result of the shift in time that's experienced as we shift the clocks for Daylight Savings. It's a curious thing, Daylight Savings, if you really think about it. Observing this shift, of course, comes from humanity's attempt to try to solve a struggle observed in society.    In this episode, we use this as a jumping off point for looking into what it means to “try.” Have you ever thought about what's implied when you say you're going to “try” to do something versus when you just saying you're going to do it?  We ask: is resistance and struggle inherent to how we experience what it means to “try”!   You might  say this is an episode that *tries* to unpack Yoda's sage advice about doing versus trying! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hello listeners! If you are a frequent listener to this podcast, you probably know by now that we take great pride in trying to do a good job of it! From interesting and timely content and topics, to the quality of the audio, we do our best to create a delightful and informative, possibly thought provoking experience for you. We think we usually do a pretty good job of it, yet, there is an occasional temptation to work to improve what we offer. This isn't a bad thing! Of course we want this podcast to be a quality experience. Fact is, with a podcast, improving it often becomes an exercise or practice of self-exploration. How do we become “better” podcasters? If we did this, this, and this, if we improved these things, we would be better! I mean, self-improvement is a noble pursuit, right? It seems that having an eye toward self-improvement can only be a good thing!  Yet, we ask, what happens when self-improvement is converted into a reward system of hustle culture? When self-improvement becomes a list of things we “should,” do to be better, we can accidentally run into an unintended backside of, “if I think I should improve on this, that must mean I'm not good at it now,” and that be a little bit weaponized. Also, when the idea of self-improvement turns into a hustle and grind of meeting everyone's expectations at all costs for a reward or for recognition, our health can go right out the window along with our sense of self-esteem and self-worth. In that light, everything can become a little dangerous. If we think we live in a reward system where the metrics of self-improvement are measured by the standards, and the potential gains of others, the innocent striving toward self-improvement can turn into worry, anxiety, and exhaustion.  How might we safely, kindly, and compassionately self-improve? Give this episode a listen and let us know what you think! We hope you love this one! We tried to do our best. :-)   This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Many of us, beginning at the time we are born, are told what to do, what we should do, what work is important, and which jobs and careers are the best ones to have. Jobs, careers, and livelihoods are sold to us as packaged items from which to choose from, and how to best prepare ourselves to qualify for a particular one. Some of us even took a test in high school which told us which careers were best suited to our “interests,” and some of us have parents and grandparents often telling us outright which jobs we should have, and push us in a particular direction. No wonder, then, we become a little confused, or disoriented, when all the perks and benefits of a particular job or career don't quite satisfy us, or we feel like we're somehow not quite living to our hearts desires. This can cause questions to arise. What, exactly, is my work to do? For such a short sentence, there sure is a lot here! Everywhere we look, it seems, there is work to be done. Just about everything could use a bit of a helping hand it seems. However, what, of all of this work to be done, is MY work to do? How do I discover what it is that I should actually do. Just because we see or feel that something needs to get done, that doesn't mean that it's MY work to do. We need “someone” to do all sorts of things. What is it that needs to happen that needs ME? In this episode, Paul and Cheri pick this question apart a little bit, and talk through their discovery process on what is the work to do, what is THEIR work to do, and how that discernment process might look. We're all about helping folks find their path and follow their heart, but we also gotta pay the bills! What, indeed, is the thing to be done? We hope you like this one! How do you discover your work to do? We'd love to hear about it! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

What, dear listener, does it mean to be “resilient,” and what, exactly, is “resilience” anyway? As many of us may find ourselves encountering a form of return, or re-emergence from (or event within!) pandemic life, we might be led to believe that resilience is something like grit, tenacity, or toughness while something difficult or downright traumatizing may be ongoing. We do live in a society that will encourage us to push on, power through and always be at the top of our game. Interestingly, resilience isn't grit. It's not maintenance of the status quo. No, resilience, as the Oxford English Dictionary will tell you, is defined as follows: The quality or fact of being able to recover quickly or easily from, or resist being affected by, a misfortune, shock, illness, etc.; robustness; adaptability. Reading this definition, we're led to notice that this thing isn't about staying safe and functional during a trauma or difficulty at all! No, resilience isn't about that. Resilience is about how you can bounce back. It's not about not getting knocked down. It's about who you want to be when you get back up. It's about finding the shape of your life moving forward, not trying to keep things under our control along the way. Resilience is about re-emergence, and a gateways on how to do that, on how to start that process, are awareness, and communication. We've talked on this podcast before about Non-Violent Communication, and we talk about meditation and awareness-building all the time. How do we practice and leverage these skills to build and employ resilience? In this episode, we talk about exactly that! We hope you enjoy! P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Have you ever wondered what life is like for the extras in a movie? Or what life is like for the friend or the sidekick? Oftentimes, it seems to us, we don't imagine ourselves as the side character in this saga called life. Instead, we might be tempted to greet each day as though the camera is focused on us and asking for a perfect take on the action of our life.  If we bring a little honesty, humility, and even humor to this consideration, however, we might realize: we're not the star of the show at all! And what a relief! If you're not the star, you get to take a break! You don't need to be perfection; you can embrace the comfort of being out of the limelight!   What if you woke up each day aiming for imperfection? What if you could find comfort in being part of the ensemble cast instead of striving to earn the leading role?   Well, that's the invitation in this podcast. Join us in this funny little narrative called life as we uncover what moments are breathtaking and perfect and find space to embrace the mediocre, the melodramatic, the mundane, and everything in between! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hi folks! This episode comes with a bit of a trigger warning! In this episode of the TMUL podcast on storytelling, some tales were told that describe some minor, but memorable injuries that one or the other of us have suffered in our lives. No worries though, no surprises here. We tucked those away at the end of the episode and if that's not your jam, feel free to skip that last part. I give a warning right before we get into it so you'll have a heads up. And with that being said... If you've been listening to this podcast for a little while, you might have heard us talk about “the stories we tell” to ourselves and to one another. At times, our thinking brains can lead us down  story paths that don't serve us particularly well. We know this tendency is alive in us!  Yet…it doesn't mean we stop telling those stories! Storytelling seems to be quite baked into our humanity. It's been with us throughout history - and, in fact, is the reason we have a historical account of anything in the first place!  Therein lies an interesting paradox: stories don't always serve us well; yet we seem incapable of living without them!   How do we live in this tension?  Well, that's the question this podcast leads to - but not yet the one we can say we answer!  Instead, join us this week as we explore some of our own favorites uncomfortable stories to share and retell (many with medical ties!) as well as some consideration of why we tell stories and what role they play in helping humans relate to one another in their communities!   In the end, we invite you to think alongside us: what does it mean to be a responsible and compassionate storyteller, in the stories you tell yourself, in the stories you share with others and with the stories about others that you share? This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 84 - We're Not Meant to Do This Alone!  Throughout the last 18 months, one obvious and particular question about our shared existence on this planet has been laid bare, front and center, and asked for all to answer with their own experience: what is the value of participating in shared experience? Paul mentioned a couple of episodes ago that he doesn't like the phrase "social distancing." He much prefers something more like, "physical distancing," which may more accurately describe what we've all been asked to do. Physical distancing may be mandatory (and we would argue rightly so!), but "social distancing" may be more optional. Can we be physically distant while intentionally cultivating social connection, or is the proverbial baby indeed thrown out with the bathwater?  We might not like e-meetings, or video conferencing, all that much, but for some, it has provided a platform where we can keep the bonds of social, and professional interaction, alive and kicking, if not exactly thriving. Regardless of whether we like it or not, it has brought at least one thing to our attention: the importance of intention, and the intentions that we set when entering shared spaces. This, by the way, includes both physical spaces as well as e-spaces! Whereas we could do all of this on Zoom, why do we put off a wedding until it is safe to do so? Why do we meet safely in person when we could just as easily do an e-lunch? What makes us itch to be in physical space together when the “work” of the gathering can take place over distance? What are the things that we do and what intention do we bring when we opt to gather together? What does it take to manifest that best intention and really bring it to life? In this episode we talk it out as best we know, and we hope you enjoy this one! Take care, folks!  P + C This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Once upon a time, Paul "shoulded" us! Can you believe that?  It's true. And what did he insist we should DO? Write excellent shownotes for each of our episodes! From the very beginning, we've not been content with simply offering a podcast to the world, but we've felt we SHOULD provide our listeners with great shownotes. No one asked us to. No one has told us these notes are important (or unimportant). We have decided for ourselves that they matter and - at times - heaped some extra pressure on ourselves for the value judgments we make about the quality of our notes and WHEN these here notes get written! Although it might sound a bit meta: this phenomenon is exactly what this episode is about!  In this one we take a look at how reflection and self-examination work in relationship to evaluation and value judgment. Can we observe ourselves without judgement?  And we use reflection as a tool to inform the future rather than as a weapon against our past self?   The reality is that we need not assign value to ourselves over how well we nail our day to day experiences…or our weekly episode shownotes! In fact, in terms of these notes: we might do well to write them and release them to the world without associating them with a sense of worthiness! However, so often that's not how we humans work!  We tell stories about who we are and how worthy we are based upon how we show up in the world and the criteria we deem valuable.  Can you observe without judgement?  Can you reflect without weaponizing?  What does compassionate reflection look like in you? This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hello listeners! Here it is: the last episode before we pivot into Fall (and thus into season 7)! As has been a trend in many episodes as of late, this one was recorded right on the heels of some travel by Paul to visit some family. What's special about this bit of travel, however, was that, as so often happens in this life, things did not end up going exactly as anticipated. It's ok! It's fine… everything is fine… but there was a delayed flight that was eventually canceled, an extra night in Saint Louis, a rescheduled flight, much more time than anticipated in O'Hare airport, and an arrival at home on Wednesday rather than Tuesday. All of this represented many opportunities to observe, pivot, adjust, adapt, and reorient to something else.  Sure it was unexpected. Yes, what happened wasn't what was supposed to” go do. Yet, life has a tendency to unfold as it will - regardless of our shoulds and supposed tos! Paul got a chance...many chances actually...to cultivate a practice of flexibility. This bit of travel offered ample opportunities to practice adjusting to something… different. And, as an intended podcast recording date was lost somewhere in the midst of his travel, Cheri got (a far more luxurious) opportunity to practice some flexibility as well! Being adaptable and flexible as life unfolds can be sticky. In some cases, we're willing to lean into whatever may come. Other times we really feel much rides on how things “ought” to unfold.  Adjusting isn't always comfortable to do without some resistance, especially at the end of a trip to see family when everyone involved is thinking about getting back home and back to work. How might we make these transitions as… well, not necessarily easier…probably not more comfortable...but maybe at least as painless as possible. As stated in the episode, you can “should have” yourself all you want, but afterward, you'll always find yourself in exactly the same place you are, having made no real progress toward pivoting to a resolution. Sometimes that's ok though. Some sudden changes can take a moment or two to fully understand, process, internalize or even mourn if needed. On most occasions, even when we successfully pivot in the face of a sudden, unanticipated, or unexpected change, it can take a minute to let the pivot reorient itself within us and settle. In these cases it's not a bad thing to ask for a few minutes to pause, breathe, and get in line with the new flow. It's worth doing, because like it or not, that's what seems to be happening, and joy can still be found in the most unexpected places!  Thanks for listening, all! We hope you like this one! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey folks! Here's a question for you! What is the magic that you are interested in beginning to the world today? Is it the magic that you are supposed to do? Need it be done the way it's “supposed” to look? Or is what you bring to light in your life what you WANT to do, done the way that only you can do it? Is the magic in your objective, or is it in your method? Is the secret in the unveiling, or is it in the work that is done along the way? If we think about it, it's not so much the pulling of the rabbit out of the hat that is the THING in that trick. That's just the part that other people see! It's what creates that sense of magic. The REAL magic is in getting the rabbit into the hat in the first place! As it turns out, and as we talk through in this episode, it might not actually be the end goal that represents the magic that you bring to this life.  We so often think of a desired outcome, and immediately envision a "right" way to achieve it. Stuff looks like what it does, but it's often the stuff going on behind the scenes, off-camera, under your skin, or when nobody is really looking or paying attention that represents the unique magic that you do. The way that one person does a thing might not look anything like how another person does it, and that can be totally ok! When we think about whether or not we're doing something "right," is that based on how that something looks? Or what others tell us about what it's meant to look like? Or is it based on what happens as a result of the process that unfolds? We're happy you're here to listen to our thoughts on this matter! And we'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject! There's a lot of potential to be haunted by the "should's'' in this episode. What is the right way to do a thing? Maybe it's totally up to you. Seriously, who else could really know? Thanks for listening, all! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Lately, Paul and Cheri have been thinking of this podcast as a historical narrative of the pandemic - from Episode 1, which we recorded on the last week of February 2020, and weekly since then. From episode to episode, what was it like for us? What were we seeing, feeling, and thinking? What did we notice, and what were we not noticing? Throughout all of it, we wondered: when will it end, and what will be there for us on the other side? Well, we're not out of the woods yet… the Delta variant continues to upend plans and reshuffle timelines. There are conversations about booster shots, and mask mandates continue to be a contentious issue. Inevitably, though, something will start to resemble the other side, and we may have found it with this week's recording. What's the “it” here? Well, folks, the somewhat inevitable has finally occurred! Cheri and Paul are teaching, once again, on campus. There has been so much talk lately about what it would be like to be in a classroom again, or in an office again, or at a major event again, after so much time away, and understandably so! It's really impossible to guess what the level of comfort or anxiety will really be felt until we find ourselves there in the mix. Will we enter and carry ourselves with cautious dread and worry? Or will we just slip right back into it all - habits, patterns, and customs - just as we left them? Might we discover ourselves somewhere in between these extremes? We both discovered our versions of the answer to this question recently and, in this episode, we talk it through and try to sort it all out what we are noticing! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hello listeners! One of the things that we notice when we talk to folks, when we talk to each other, when we're in groups having a chat, or even when we're alone in our own thoughts and experiences, stories seem to be at the center of everything! We tell stories about ourselves; we tell stories about each other. Story serves many functions: it works as news, as gossip, as a way to bond, and even as a way to disagree with each other. For whatever reason, with us as a species, there is something about the story that lies at the heart of who we are, what we do, and even how we see and define ourselves. Which brings us to the topic of... Anxiety. As educators, we encounter anxieties in our students, in our colleagues, and in ourselves, all the time. Most of what we think we see around us every day is mediated by us all trying to have our needs met, and finding freedom from our anxiety can be a big part of those needs. In this episode, we talk through anxiety as we've known it, as we experience it, and what we do in times when it seems to rear up a little. We hope you enjoy listening to this one as much as we did recording it! Let us know what you think. This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

So, folks… fear. Fear is a big one! When we look around, we might see it, or signs of it, everywhere. Why do people do so many of the destructive things that they do? What is the basis for all of the political discord we see in the world today? Why do we feel like it's so dangerous to go outside, or to a social event, or to a school or campus? Why do things feel so… scary? Sometimes, we assure you, some of these fears are quite real and bubble up in us for good reasons! One of the examples that Paul often brings up is that it's fearful to go 100 MPH on the highway… for good reason! Fears can keep us alive. Fear can keep us safe. Fear is a response to things observed, in the context of who we see ourselves to be - and what we see as being our human limitations! Fear, if nothing else, is informative. So what are you afraid of, and why? When fear arises, what does that tell you about yourself, your history, your daily reality, your image of yourself, your values, and the things that you hold to be important?  What, after all, is there to be afraid of unless you have something to lose, and what do your fears tell you about what you find to be important? Maybe the point of all of this fear exploration isn't so much getting rid of fear or even finding ways to power through fear. Maybe the thing to do right now is to notice our feel and how it rises to our awareness. it's just one of the many reflections and vibrations of who we are right now, the life we have lived, and the experiences that have shaped us into who we are. Are some fears “irrational”? Well, maybe. So what if they are! They can still feel real- even if we can't explain our fears to the person next to us. We're all wired and experienced a little differently.  Except with heights, the dentist, and worms. Paul thinks those are always rational fears! While Cheri's starting to think most fears are constructed…even though that doesn't make her fearless! Not in the least! Enjoy the episode, folks! Let us know what you think!!  This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

This week we're releasing something a bit different, folks! Different... but we hope you'll find it useful, no matter who you are!  What we have here is actually a recording of a presentation Cheri gave with her professional academic hat on. She gave a plenary talk at Old Dominion University's Annual Spring Conference on the Teaching of Writing on April 16, 2021. This talk was aimed toward educators, specifically, writing faculty, but we think there are a lot of nuggets in it for everyone.  At its heart, this talk is about how we choose our way of being in the world. Cheri talks through some of her own experiences shifting from a human doing to a human being. She offers that there is as much to unlearn in pursuit of a wonderful life as there is to learn. Where are we to begin when we feel called in so many competing directions that simple survival feels like the best we might hope for? This presentation looks to nature for lessons to guide the way. While most of the species we share this earth with seem to accept the realities of the seasons and allow themselves to live within (or have no means to resist) that cyclical flow, we humans manufacture our preferred conditions. Together, Cheri invites us to imagine a path that considers how we manufacture our spaces and that makes space to embrace the cyclical nature of our world, ourselves, and our work in the world.  What do you believe it would take to live your most unbelievable life?  What would you need to unlearn to set yourself on that path? No matter your industry or way of being in life, we suspect you might have a thing or two about your way of being that's come along for the ride and just isn't serving you, or your most unbelievable life, anymore. We'd love to hear how you might apply some of Cheri's observations to your own context! We hope you'll listen and connect with us after!  A couple of notes for context: At the start of the presentation Cheri references Dr. Kevin DePew, her dissertation director, who provided her introduction just before the recording began. While Cheri does a pretty good job talking through content she puts on her slides during presentations, you might like to follow along with her slide deck on your own as you listen. And finally, she uses the acronym WPA throughout her discussion, which is shorthand for writing program administration or writing program administrators, depending on the usage! With those notes: now you're an insider and ready to give it a listen! This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Welp, as the title pretty clearly states, this is a conversation about how we identify ourselves, and each other, and what that does to us. At the beginning of just about every episode, and for no real reason that we ever thought too deeply about, we refer to each other as, “Dr. Spiegel,” and “Dr. Fitzgerald.” This, of course, is not what a lot of folks these days mean when they talk about identification. This titular example here is just what is called, “honorifics,” the titles that we call ourselves and each other in context. Although not as deeply personal as other possible identifiers, such as those regarding sex, gender, and other preferred pronouns, it does provide an entry point into a conversation into these deeper, less contextual  levels of identification, along with all the uncomfortable stuff that a lot of folks don't really talk too much about in those conversations.  What happens when we are referred to using an identifying descriptor that we really don't love, or that just flat out doesn't describe who we see ourselves to be at all? How do we clear that preference, or that reality, up with folks, despite the fact that doing so may cause some distress to them, to us, to everyone? Our answers may be imperfect, but we take a start at it, and we'd love to hear what you think! Thanks for listening folks!  This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup! At long last, the newsletter is ALIVE!!! If you'd like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here's the link! https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

  After a couple of weeks of summer travel and the logistical challenges of coordinating recording times, we're back to our regular routine! A normal podcast recording session, and a return to the comfort of doing things in ways that we're familiar with for quite some time!  Those words in bold face type above…. Yeah, we've been hearing those words quite a lot lately, haven't we? Examples include, “going back to the office,” “getting back to normal,” and for some of us educator folk, “return to campus.” While there's no shortage of talk and type spent these days on what emerges “post-pandemic,” and how, and when, we can use those temporarily abandoned office spaces and campuses, there is deeper, more personal conversation to be had just surrounding the use of these words and phrases - going back, return to normal, and return to...well, any place! In some ways (or maybe in many ways!) these phrases seem to us… regressive, and we're beginning to realize that using them to describe what might happen can have a way of limiting the potential of new ways of doing things.  For example, “going back into the office,” if we just take that word, “back,” out of there, it just becomes, “going into the office.” Trivial semantics? Maybe. Tiny detail? Maybe not! Back, return, and especially “normal” have a way of implying that this pesky pandemic was a blip in the system, and we can all just sort-of forget about it and get on with our lives. What emerges as we re-enter shared spaces, however, might be a little trickier than that, and there is potential here, as we do re-enter these spaces, to examine and drop, or at least carefully consider, some habits that may not have been serving us before, and to adopt some new ways of being, and operating with spaces and others, that may have been long overdue. Check this one out and let us know what you think! Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Now you see, there are plans that we can make, and everybody loves a plan, right? There's comfort in knowing what is going to happen, at least approximately; it can feel fantastic! This knowing can provide a sense of safety: we can prepare for it, we can set some expectations on when, where, and how things might progress, and we can see it as a sign that we must be doing something right. Making plans, regardless of whether they're long-term or short-term, is, in a way, the definition of predicting the future. We speak into the universe: “This is what I'm going to do. This is how it's going to go. This is the future I'm going to build with it, and LET'S GET STARTED!!!” FACT – very few of our plans actually work out like we hope that they will. A great philosopher, boxer Mike Tyson, once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” So often, at the first sign of something not quite going as expected, the whole thing can come off the rails. To have a plan, and achieve satisfaction, is to accept some flexibility in how that might go, and how the whole business might unfold. What is it like to actually have a plan, and build some flexibility into the plan, while at the same time, reserving the right to change it if it ever starts going wrong, without the whole thing coming apart? It seems like walking a tightrope for sure, and in this episode, we talk it through and compare how we walk that line with our own plans. Very few things ever go exactly as planned. Yet, here we are! Find out how, honor your resiliency, and let us know what you think of this one! For a Deeper Dive... TMUL's own Dr. Cheri Spiegel just posted an awesome blog on seeing who shows up, and recognizing what they bring with them. You can check that out by clicking HERE! It's a good one!!! Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hey all! Well, that's a curious title for a podcast episode, isn't it??? Cheri hopes you read it with the cadence of this seemingly unrelated (but perhaps quite parallel) Monty Python skit.  So what's hanging out in your fridge? Is it all full of life and potential? Or has much passed its prime? Dedicated listeners may have noticed that recently we've seemed more like a cooking / food podcast as much as anything else! Food analogies have been running rampant on this show, and that may be for a couple of reasons: the varieties of foods that are available throughout the summer, the seasonality of moving from cool weather into warm, and, of course, Paul's garden has been talked about at least once per episode these days. In this episode, we don't focus on a recipe or a cultivation aspect as we have been; rather, in this episode, we take on the complexities of your refrigerator - both your literal one, and, of course, your metaphorical (or metaphysical?) one! So what do you have in your refrigerator, how did it get there, and what is your plan for it? Will those items be used or enjoyed one day soon, as intended? Or is are a few things soon to be unceremoniously tossed in when it becomes clear that their purpose in your life has expired and they must meet their fate in the bin? Also, and this is the big one that we tackle in this episode, are items taking up space that you would rather use for something else? In this one we think through how we often hang onto things that might prevent us from being able to use coveted and limited space in our life.  Are we hanging onto the old instead of making room for something more life-nourishing? Also, of course, we want to acknowledge that you can always just use that new space reclaimed from a good fridge-cleaning for…. Nothing! Maybe it's ok to have a fridge with space in it, unclaimed and uncluttered. Embrace that spaciousness! When might you do this fridge cleaning? Paul thinks that July 1 is a good day to do it, and he explains why that date makes sense in this episode! Check it out, and let us know how this one lands! P.S. - There is mention of an upcoming blog post from Paul in this episode… stay tuned!!! Coming soon to a webpage near you! For a Deeper Dive... TMUL's own Dr. Cheri Spiegel just posted an awesome blog on seeing who shows up, and recognizing what they bring with them. You can check that out by clicking HERE! It's a good one!!! Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 72 - We're Still Talking about Shepherd's Pie! Shepherd's Pie… or is it Cottage Pie… Paul's still not entirely sure exactly what the distinction is, but Cheri knows it has something to do with a choice of meat. What we both do know is that it's usually not an item baked in an oven in the middle of Summer when it's over 90 degrees outside. Shepherd's Pie is more of a fall / winter comfort food. So what does it mean when we feel the urge for this crap up in the warmer months, and does it mean that we're looking for comfort? It's not unreasonable, right? With all of this reopening, and with vaccinations rates increasing (hopefully!), there seems to be an air of celebration and relief as we confront the phrase, “back to normal.” However, it's hard to ignore the curious anxiety that arises when the realities of reopening come into focus. When the pandemic began, comfort, and the difficult changes that came with it, called for comfort where it could be found, however it could be found. What does comfort look like now that there is a push to reopen our society, and where will new kinds of comfort be called for? What are the discomforts that will arise or are already popping up? In this podcast, we talk through some of the things we've noticed with the increased reopening of the communities we live in, and not all of them are easy and comfortable! We're not just talking about going into a crowded concert venue here… We're talking about walking into the grocery store without a mask on! Eye contact with a stranger… what's that??? When the pandemic started, the changes that we made were around long enough to create new habits and expectations of human interaction. What happens when we change those again? Are we up for a new, new normal? Take a listen to this episode, and let us know where you find your discomfort in this calculus. But this is really just a conversation about Shepherd's Pie, right?  For a Deeper Dive... TMUL's own Dr. Cheri Spiegel just posted an awesome blog on seeing who shows up, and recognizing what they bring with them. You can check that out by clicking HERE! It's a good one!!! Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Paul and Cheri recorded a podcast commercial!!!  As much as we would like to announce that it went great and that it's ready for deployment, we have to admit... it did not go as planned. Part of the reason why that might be because, well, it wasn't planned! So much of what we do comes naturally, spontaneously, with flow, purpose, and ease, we thought, well, this probably will as well… let's give it a shot! Many, many takes later, we started to realize that we might have to come back to this. Then came the introspection - what were we doing wrong, and what does it all mean? This episode is about exactly that. When something like this doesn't go as planned, and rather than success, all you're left with is some frustration and doubt, what is going on there? Why didn't that thing that we were trying to do work, and could we have predicted that? Were there signs that we might have missed? What combination of events and circumstances went into that happening, and that outcome? Check out this episode and see if you relate! We've all had times when we tried to do something, and it just didn't work out. Here is our story about that time we tried to record a commercial!  Outtakes may be posted soon! For a Deeper Dive... TMUL's own Dr. Cheri Spiegel just posted an awesome blog on seeing who shows up, and recognizing what they bring with them. You can check that out by clicking HERE! It's a good one!!! Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Hi listeners! There's this funny word that gets used quite often, more specifically in gardening, and more broadly and generally in the context of self-reflection, contemplation, and wellness, that Paul had always found curious. That word is “cultivation.” When we cultivate the garden, that looks like one thing, and there is a tool for that. What does it mean to cultivate in the context of self? What does that look like, and what is really going on when we do it? Cultivating? For what? Is something going to grow if we prepare and tend to ourselves? So that's what this episode is about - the practice of cultivation. As you might imagine, this requires a bit of honest self-reflection, some intentionality, maybe a dash or two of discipline, and, maybe even the courage to imagine your cultivated self, fully tended, bearing the fruits of this courageous work. What do you need to get started? Now, let's take an honest and compassionate look at those weeds. What is the work to be done here? For a Deeper Dive... For a recent blog on cultivation : https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/blog/cultivator Also, Cheri just recently published a piece in the journal Teacher-Scholar-Activist which perfectly exemplifies cultivation, and how it can play out in someone's life. Check that one out by clicking HERE. Paul's Cultivator of Choice : https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-Wood-Handle-Cultivator/1000752676 Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

We both play chess, but we've never played one another. It might be better that we never know who would win if we decided to battle it out in that way! Even so - in a few curious ways, this episode reflects the dynamics of a game of chess quite nicely. First of all - it's about the space we take up in life. If you know chess, you know that each piece gets a square of their own - no matter what type of position that piece holds within the game, they are entitled to exactly one square at a time. Humans, however, don't always operate this way.    Here, together, we explore who, in life, takes up space at the margins or the corners of our society, rather than taking a place within the center of the playing field. We think about how folks navigate space within social and business settings. If you were to imagine yourself as a player on the chessboard, what piece would you select as representative of how you navigate the communities you operate within today?  Though we never frame it in chess piece terms, we do explore some related questions: What does it take for us to feel most comfortable speaking up within a setting? Where do we feel most comfortable adding our own voices?  What fears or concerns about our participation in group settings drive how we operate within spaces?    By the midway part, we'll fess up to what interesting experiment made this episode even more chess-like! But we don't want to spoil it by telling you too much here. Just listen in and tell us what you hear! What do you observe in our early conversation? And how does our reveal at the midway point shape your own understanding about taking up and sharing space with one another in this world? We can't wait to debrief on our experiment with you!   Is it checkmate, stalemate, or something else altogether? Social Media Links Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email Support the Podcast! We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife