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Today we are talking about something that I think we all need to know about… How to reset your dopamine. And before you think this is going to be one of those extreme episodes where I tell you to throw your phone into the ocean, stop drinking coffee, sit in a dark room for three days and eliminate everything fun from your life… That is absolutely not what we are doing. Because dopamine isn't bad. We need dopamine. Dopamine is part of what makes us want things. Pursue things. Work toward goals. Get up and go. The problem is that we are living in an environment where we can get enormous amounts of stimulation with almost zero effort. Open Instagram. Refresh your email. Check likes. Open TikTok. Eat something hyper-palatable. Buy something. Get a notification. Watch another episode. Click another video. Check your texts. Pick up your phone because you have 17 seconds with nothing to do. We have essentially eliminated boredom. And I think we need to talk about what that is doing to us. Because I don't think most people have a motivation problem. I think some people have made normal life too boring compared to the stimulation they consume all day long. Think about this. Working toward a goal is slow. Building a business is slow. Getting stronger is slow. Improving a relationship is slow. Reading a book is slow. Learning something difficult is slow. But your phone can give you novelty every half second. So what happens when your brain gets accustomed to incredibly stimulating rewards that require almost no effort? The things that actually build an awesome life can start feeling painfully boring. And THAT is what I want to change today. I've been going deep into what Andrew Huberman, Chris Williamson, Stanford addiction psychiatrist Anna Lembke, Peter Attia and Gary Brecka have discussed around dopamine, reward, pleasure, discomfort and motivation. And there is one massive theme that keeps coming up: We need to stop getting so many rewards without earning them. We need less cheap dopamine… And more earned dopamine. More accomplishment dopamine. More anticipation. More effort. More challenge. More doing hard things and feeling awesome afterward. So today we're going to talk about what dopamine actually does, why our modern environment can completely screw with our motivation, what people mean by a dopamine reset, and most importantly… How we actually do it. Not forever. Not perfectly. But intentionally enough that normal life starts feeling interesting again. Because imagine waking up and actually WANTING to work on your goals. Imagine sitting in your car without immediately opening your phone. Imagine finishing a workout and letting that accomplishment be the reward instead of instantly needing another stimulus. Imagine being fully engaged in dinner. Or a conversation. Or a walk. Or your kids. Or your work. That's what we're after. Not less enjoyment. More enjoyment from the things that actually matter. FIRST… WHAT IS DOPAMINE? Dopamine isn't simply the "pleasure chemical" This is probably the biggest misunderstanding. Dopamine plays a huge role in motivation, pursuit, learning, reinforcement and determining what your brain decides is worth pursuing again. Think less "this makes me happy" and more: "Go get that again." It's a molecule heavily involved in wanting and pursuing. Huberman explains dopamine in terms of baseline and peaks You have a baseline level of dopamine. Then certain experiences generate temporary increases above that baseline. The important part is what happens afterward. A big dopamine peak can be followed by a period where dopamine activity falls below where it was previously. This is part of why something incredible can sometimes leave you feeling strangely flat afterward. The higher and more frequently we chase enormous peaks, the more ordinary activities can start losing their appeal. Think about it like contrast If you eat incredibly sweet processed foods all day… A blueberry doesn't taste very sweet. There isn't anything wrong with the blueberry. Your reference point changed. The same general concept applies here. When your environment becomes filled with intense stimulation… Quiet feels boring. Reading feels boring. Work feels boring. Walking feels boring. A normal conversation feels boring. Your life didn't necessarily become boring. Your stimulation threshold changed. WHAT I MEAN BY "CHEAP DOPAMINE" I'm going to use the phrase cheap dopamine throughout this episode even though scientifically dopamine itself isn't cheap or expensive. What I mean is: A high-reward experience requiring very little effort. Things like: Endless short-form videos Constant social media refreshing Notifications Online shopping Gambling Highly processed foods Video games for hours and hours Constant snacking Drinking Continually checking texts Refreshing email Internet rabbit holes Watching episode after episode after episode Constant novelty And here's the key… None of those things has to be inherently evil. It's the dose. The frequency. And whether you've lost control over your consumption. There's a massive difference between choosing to watch a movie on Saturday night… And being literally unable to stand in an elevator for 25 seconds without checking your phone. That's the part I want us to notice. THE WORLD HAS REMOVED THE WAITING This might be one of the biggest problems. Almost everything used to have some friction. You wanted food? You cooked it. You wanted entertainment? You waited until your show came on. You wanted to talk to your friend? You called them. Maybe they weren't home. You wanted to buy something? You drove somewhere. You wanted information? You found a book. Now? Everything is immediate. Food. Entertainment. Shopping. Attention. Validation. Communication. Information. Novelty. Almost every human desire has an app attached to it. And our brains evolved in an environment where rewards generally required work. Now we can receive reward after reward while lying horizontally on the couch. That is a massive mismatch. THE PLEASURE-PAIN SEESAW One of my favorite explanations comes from Dr. Anna Lembke. She describes pleasure and pain almost like opposite sides of a balance. When we repeatedly push hard toward pleasure… Our brain tries to restore balance. And over time, you may need more of the stimulus just to experience the same effect. This is incredibly obvious with severe addiction. But I think it's useful to recognize much milder versions in ourselves. Have you ever: Opened Instagram for five minutes and 45 minutes disappeared? Finished a show and immediately needed another episode? Finished dessert and started looking for something else sweet? Checked one notification and then somehow checked four different apps? Picked up your phone without consciously deciding to? That automatic reaching is important. You aren't necessarily choosing anymore. You're responding. And I want us to get back into choosing. WHY NOTHING FEELS EXCITING ANYMORE Sometimes people say: "I'm unmotivated." "I don't feel like working." "I can't concentrate." "I'm bored." "I don't really feel excited about anything." Obviously there can be many medical, psychological and situational reasons for those feelings. But there is another question worth asking: How much stimulation are you consuming? Because if you're exposing yourself to novelty constantly… Your brain never gets a chance to be bored enough to create. Never bored enough to think. Never bored enough to solve a problem. Never bored enough to decide what you actually want. We're treating boredom like an emergency. I actually think boredom is incredibly productive. Some of my best ideas happen when there's nothing else coming into my brain. And we are filling every single empty pocket. DOPAMINE STACKING Huberman talks about something that I think is fascinating: stacking multiple dopamine-producing experiences together. Think about a workout. Exercise itself can be rewarding. But now we add: Pre-workout. Favorite playlist. Phone. Texts. Social media. Energy drink. Maybe stimulants. Maybe a reward meal afterward. Maybe we post the workout and check responses. We've taken one intrinsically rewarding activity and stacked reward upon reward upon reward. And his point isn't that you can never do those things. It's that you don't necessarily want every good experience in life turned up to 100 every single time. Sometimes train without the perfect playlist. Sometimes walk without the podcast. Sometimes drink the coffee without simultaneously scrolling Instagram. Sometimes eat without watching television. Separate the rewards. You don't have to eliminate pleasure. Stop supercharging every experience. LEARN TO LOVE EFFORT This might be my favorite part of the entire episode. We need to stop making the reward exclusively something that comes AFTER the work. "I'll work out and then I can have this." "I'll finish this project and then I'll reward myself." "I'll complete my work and then I'll scroll." There's nothing wrong with celebrating accomplishments. But we also want to train ourselves to associate the effort itself with something positive. Because if the entire purpose of doing something difficult is the reward waiting at the end… The work becomes something you're trying to escape. Instead: "This discomfort means I'm getting stronger." "This is hard because I'm growing." "I'm proud of myself for doing this when I don't feel like doing it." "This is what keeping promises to myself feels like." "This is who I am." That shift is huge. The workout becomes the win. Doing the work becomes the win. Keeping the promise becomes the win. USE DISCOMFORT ON PURPOSE This theme comes up across a lot of these conversations. We're living in an unbelievably comfortable world. Temperature-controlled houses. Food everywhere. Cars. Couches. Entertainment. Delivery. Escalators. Amazon. Everything is optimized to eliminate friction. But voluntary discomfort can be incredibly valuable. Exercise. Walking. Strength training. Running. Sauna. Cold exposure when appropriate and done safely. Doing something physically difficult. Getting outside when conditions aren't perfect. Taking the stairs. Having the difficult conversation. Doing the work you're avoiding. The idea isn't: "Suffering is good." The idea is: Stop organizing your entire life around avoiding discomfort. Because challenge followed by satisfaction is very different from pleasure followed by emptiness. One you earned. One you consumed. We need both fun and hard things. But modern life has heavily tilted us toward consumption. DON'T START YOUR DAY WITH OTHER PEOPLE'S DOPAMINE Here's something I think would change a lot of people's lives. Do not roll over and immediately hand your brain to your phone. Because instantly you've got: Texts. News. Instagram. Email. TikTok. Other people's emergencies. Other people's opinions. Other people's lives. Other people's accomplishments. Other people's bodies. Other people's vacations. Other people's businesses. Other people's problems. Before you've even decided what YOU want your day to look like. I would rather protect that first part of the morning. Wake up. Water. Sunlight. Walk. Workout. Journal. Think. Plan. Work. Whatever your routine is. Just don't immediately flood your brain with novelty. You should decide the direction of your day before an algorithm decides it for you. THE 2.0 DOPAMINE RESET Okay. Here is what I would actually do. Not some insane internet detox. A realistic reset. RULE #1: Identify YOUR cheap dopamine Ask yourself: What do I compulsively reach for? Not what does the internet tell me is bad. What has control over ME? Maybe yours is: Instagram. TikTok. Shopping. Sugar. Video games. News. YouTube. Email. Texting. Something else. Identify the top one or two. Don't try to become a monk overnight. RULE #2: Take a meaningful break from the biggest offender If something truly feels compulsive, consider taking a real period away from it rather than constantly trying to moderate it. Try deleting it for a week. Maybe two. Maybe 30 days. See what happens. You might be shocked by how often your hand reaches for an app that isn't there. That's valuable information. RULE #3: Stop filling every gap This is a HUGE one. We're bringing back empty space. Stand in line. Just stand there. Drive five minutes. No podcast. Walk around the block. No headphones. Sit outside. Do nothing. Take a shower without content playing. Cook dinner without a video. You are retraining yourself to tolerate a lower level of stimulation. And here's the funny thing… After a while it doesn't feel low stimulation. It feels peaceful. RULE #4: Create phone-free zones Pick places where your phone does not belong. Examples: Bedroom Dinner table Gym Family time Bathroom First hour of the morning Last hour before bed Don't rely purely on willpower. Change your environment. Leave the phone somewhere else. Make the bad habit inconvenient. RULE #5: Turn off almost every notification Notifications are someone else deciding when your attention moves. Think about that. Unless something legitimately requires immediate attention… Turn it off. RULE #6: Stop stacking everything Coffee + Instagram + television + food + texting? No. Pick one. Workout + podcast + scrolling between sets + energy drink + Instagram? Simplify it. Let an experience stand alone. Food can just be food. Coffee can just be coffee. A walk can just be a walk. A conversation can just be a conversation. RULE #7: Get your dopamine through pursuit This is the big replacement strategy. You can't just remove things. You need better things to move toward. Exercise. Building something. Learning. Working. Creating. Sports. Relationships. Adventure. Goals. Competition. Skill. Experiences. Meaningful challenges. Get obsessed with something difficult. That is completely different than being addicted to consumption. RULE #8: Do one hard thing every day I love this rule. Every day, intentionally do something that you'd rather avoid. Workout hard. Make the phone call. Send the proposal. Clean the closet. Have the conversation. Finish the project. Run the hill. Get into the cold water if that's safe for you. Walk when you'd rather sit. Do the thing you've been procrastinating. You start creating evidence: "I don't have to feel like doing something in order to do it." That is power. RULE #9: Prioritize sleep Your brain isn't operating independently of your body. If you're chronically sleep-deprived, everything becomes harder. Motivation. Impulse control. Training. Food choices. Emotional regulation. Focus. Peter Attia and Huberman both hammer sleep for a reason. If we're trying to optimize our brain while sleeping five hours… We're focusing on the wrong end of the problem. RULE #10: Morning sunlight and movement Huberman talks frequently about getting outdoor light early in the day to anchor your circadian system. I love pairing that with movement. Outside. Walk. Light. No Instagram. Let your nervous system wake up naturally. It's incredibly simple. And simple things done repeatedly tend to beat complicated hacks. THE 24-HOUR CHALLENGE Here is your challenge. For the next 24 hours: No phone for the first 30 minutes after waking. No social media until you've completed something productive. Turn off unnecessary notifications. No phone while eating. Take one walk without headphones. Do one difficult thing you've been avoiding. No double-screening. If you're watching TV, you're not also scrolling. Put your phone outside your bedroom tonight. Let yourself experience boredom. Notice every time you instinctively reach for stimulation. Don't judge yourself. Observe yourself. Because awareness is the beginning of changing anything. THEN TRY SEVEN DAYS Now let's level it up. For seven days: Reduce your biggest cheap-dopamine behavior dramatically. You don't need to eliminate all pleasure. In fact, please don't. Go to dinner. Laugh. Drink your coffee. Listen to music. Hang with friends. Enjoy your life. This isn't punishment. We're trying to reclaim our ability to enjoy NORMAL things. That's the goal. Less artificial stimulation. More real life. ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION Before you reach for something, ask: Am I choosing this, or am I escaping something? That question can completely change things. Why am I opening Instagram? Because I intentionally decided to spend 15 minutes enjoying it? Fine. Or because this task got difficult? Why am I eating this? Because I'm hungry and I want it? Fine. Or because I'm uncomfortable? Why am I drinking? Because I'm celebrating with friends? Or because I can't tolerate sitting with how I feel? Why am I checking email for the 47th time? Because I'm waiting for something important? Or because working on the project in front of me is harder? That pause between impulse and behavior… That's where your power is. CHEAP DOPAMINE VS EARNED DOPAMINE This is the easiest way I can summarize the episode. Cheap dopamine: Consume. Scroll. Click. Watch. Refresh. Snack. Buy. Escape. Earned dopamine: Build. Train. Create. Learn. Connect. Explore. Compete. Finish. Accomplish. The first category isn't evil. But if the balance of your life is overwhelmingly consumption… Don't be surprised when your motivation disappears. Shift the ratio. More creating. Less consuming. More doing. Less watching. More participating. Less observing. More real life. Less digital life. WE NEED ANTICIPATION BACK I think anticipation is disappearing. When everything is immediately available… There's nothing to look forward to. And looking forward to something is part of the fun. Plan the trip. Wait for Friday night. Save the amazing dessert for dinner. Don't buy everything the second you want it. Put the concert on the calendar. Build toward the race. Earn the reward. Delay things intentionally sometimes. The waiting isn't ruining the experience. The waiting IS part of the experience. YOUR LIFE SHOULD NOT NEED CONSTANT ENTERTAINMENT This might be the line I want you to remember. You should not need to be entertained every minute in order to enjoy your life. Your kids shouldn't either. We need boring car rides. We need afternoons with nothing scheduled. We need conversations without phones. We need walks. We need staring out the freaking window. We need thinking. We need daydreaming. We need opportunities for our brains to say: "Okay… what should we do?" Creativity often appears after the stimulation disappears. THE GOAL IS NOT LOWER DOPAMINE This is important. We're not trying to crush dopamine. We're not trying to become emotionless. We're not trying to avoid things that make us feel amazing. We're trying to protect our ability to feel amazing. That's different. We want the vacation to feel incredible. The concert. The accomplishment. The amazing dinner. The business win. The race. The adventure. The hug. The goal. The experience. We just don't need to manufacture an artificial mini-version of that feeling 800 times between breakfast and lunch. Leave some room. Let your baseline exist without constantly smashing the stimulation button. Here's what I think is so interesting about all of this. We have designed a world where almost everything that used to require effort can now be accessed instantly. And that sounds like freedom. But if we're not careful… Convenience becomes dependence. Entertainment becomes distraction. Pleasure becomes compulsion. And access becomes addiction. The answer isn't to reject modern life. I'm certainly not giving up my phone. I'm not giving up coffee. I'm not giving up Instagram. I'm not giving up amazing food or concerts or trips or all the fun things. I want MORE life. That's actually the entire point. I don't want to spend my life looking down at a screen getting tiny rewards when there are enormous rewards available by actually participating in life. I want the dopamine from doing the workout I didn't want to do. Building the business. Taking the trip. Making the memory. Trying something new. Getting really freaking good at something. Having an amazing conversation. Being completely present with my kids. Creating something I'm proud of. Doing something hard. That's the dopamine I want more of. And maybe the simplest takeaway from this whole episode is this: Stop making pleasure so easy and effort so optional. Let yourself work for things. Let yourself wait for things. Let yourself be bored. Let yourself struggle. Let yourself anticipate. Let yourself earn some of the really good feelings. Because when we stop trying to make every moment maximally stimulating… Something really cool happens. Normal life starts becoming awesome again. And that is how to be awesome at resetting your dopamine.
https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260830dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. Romans 8:19 Ten Minutes Sometime, give yourself ten minutes. Give yourself ten minutes for a profound teaching moment. Go to a place where you can let your eyes rest on a portion of God’s creation. If you’re near a shoreline, go to the water’s edge. If you’re near a trail that winds through a grove of trees, take a walk. If you’re driving past a scenic overlook, stop the car and put it in park. If you’re away from city lights and the night sky is clear, lie down on your back. For ten uninterrupted minutes, let God’s creation fill your field of vision. Watch it. Observe it. Study it. As you do, call to mind that God’s Word wants you to notice something about this portion of God’s creation. He wants you to notice that his creation is waiting. The oceans are waiting. The lakes, rivers, and streams are waiting. The trees are waiting. The mountains and valleys are waiting. The planets, stars, and galaxies are waiting. They are all waiting, the Bible says, in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. They are all waiting for that moment when the One through whom all things were made (John 1:3) will come back one more time. They are all waiting for the last day when all believers in Jesus will be identified. They are all waiting for that moment when the King of kings will come to roll up this broken place like an old carpet. They are all waiting for the moment when the Lord of lords will come to sweep away the presence and effects of sin once and for all. And when your ten minutes are up, realize that the creation before you now has ten fewer minutes to wait. For the One who entered this creation on our behalf, the One who lived a sinless life in our place, the One who died to wash us clean, the One who rose from death—this very Jesus has promised to return. And he always keeps his promises. Prayer: Lord Jesus, as I enjoy the beauty of your creation, let your Word show me that even your creation reminds me that you are in command, and that you will return. Amen. Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
Most people don't think they're creative.I disagree.Creativity isn't something you either have or you don't. It's a skill—and like any skill, you can develop it.In this episode, I'm giving you five practical ways to become more creative: learn to observe without immediately judging, collect ideas throughout your day, build an environment that feeds your thinking, study creative people and pioneers, and most importantly—actually do something with what you're learning.Because creativity feeds your imagination. And imagination is what helps you take what you already know, combine it with your experiences, and see possibilities you couldn't see before.You probably don't need another book, another class, or another piece of information before you move forward. You may already have enough in the tank. What you need is to trust yourself enough to use it.So quit saying, “I'm just not creative.”Start exercising the muscle.Observe. Collect. Study. Create the environment. Then go do the thing.Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.TEXT ME!Support the show
The Break Room (FRIDAY 8/28/26) 7am Hour 1) How are these students supposed to learn if your answer is always "no"? 2) Mini vans make sense 3) A very unique car goes up for auction
The Liberated Life - Set Yourself Free in Business and Pleasure
This is the 100th episode of The Liberated Life. A hundred conversations about freeing yourself from what quietly drains you — and this one is about the thing underneath all of them: closing what needs an ending. One morning I went live, said what I came to say — and then couldn't find the button to end it. The control was hidden behind something else on the screen. So I did what capable, overwhelmed people do with the things they can't figure out how to close: I shut the laptop and hoped it had ended itself in the background. It didn't. It kept running. Still live, still draining — even after I looked away. That hidden button has a name. It's an open loop: a conversation, a promise, a decision, or a commitment that needed an ending and didn't get one. In this episode, I walk through what Open Loops are, why they cost you far more than their size, and how to close one. In this episode: • Why the things we walk away from keep running in the background • What an Open Loop actually is — and why a five-minute task can take up five days of your head • The four types: task, decision, relational (the "Unspoken Broken"), and self • How Open Loops get created (a late-night FaceTime from Australia taught me mine) • CLOSE — a simple way to close a loop on purpose: Capture, Locate, Observe, Speak, End/Evolve/Honor • PEACE — how to have the conversation when the loop is between you and someone else You don't have to overhaul your life. Pick your loudest Open Loop. Close it. That's where your energy comes back. Free tools at closetheloopsnow.com — a short quiz on how you communicate under pressure, the Close One Loop walkthrough, and the Difficult Conversation Simulator (try.pplskillz.com) to practice the conversation before you have it. From Robin Quinn Keehn, author of Stop Stealing From Yourself. If this resonated, there's probably an open loop of your own worth closing. My free Close the Loop tool walks you through it in about 15 minutes — a gentle place to start.
Pamela Potts is an executive coach, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of Every Leader Is a Coach.She is the creator of the Leader Coach Approach™ and OMO Method™, helping founders and senior leaders build trust, strengthen accountability, and multiply their impact through coaching-based leadership.With more than 25 years of experience building and scaling high-growth technology and ed-tech companies, Pamela brings a practical, human-centered approach to developing people and creating sustainable performance.SHOW SUMMARYIn this episode of Selling from the Heart, Larry Levine and Darrell Amy welcome Pamela Potts to explore why effective sales leadership is less about directing people and more about developing them.Pamela explains why successful salespeople don't automatically become successful leaders. Leadership requires a different skill set—listening deeply, staying curious, asking better questions, and helping people develop solutions they genuinely own.She introduces her OMO Method: Observe, Map, and Optimize, a practical framework for coaching without judgment, uncovering what is really happening, and helping people create their own path forward.The conversation also explores accountability, trust, consultative selling, and self-coaching. Pamela challenges leaders to stop becoming the bottleneck and become the multiplier—because great leaders don't simply manage people. They develop them.KEY TAKEAWAYSTrust starts with self-awareness. Understand your own perspective before trying to understand someone else's.Become a multiplier, not a bottleneck. Leadership is about developing capability in others. Great sellers don't automatically become great leaders. Coaching requires a different set of skills. Choose curiosity over judgment. Listen to understand instead of immediately trying to solve. Ask better questions. “Tell me more” can unlock insights that advice never will. Use the OMO Method. Observe, Map, and Optimize to turn challenges into opportunities for growth. Let people own their solutions. People are more committed to ideas they help create. Accountability belongs in coaching. Clear commitments, follow-up, and feedback turn conversations into action. Coach yourself first. Self-coaching creates the awareness needed to effectively develop others. Treat failure as data. Use setbacks as information for improvement rather than reasons to stop.HIGHLIGHT QUOTESWe stop being the bottleneck and start being the multiplier for our teams.What we're doing is listening to actually hear instead of solve.What we solve and what we contribute to is what we own.We're not going to manage people. We're going to develop people.Once you can coach yourself, then you can coach others as well.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESExplore the secrets of heart-centered leadership and thriving workplace cultures with Culture from the Heart Podcast! Nominate a visionary CEO at https://culturefromtheheart.com/HomeGet Larry's New Book: Selling Food from the Heart, https://a.co/d/07dzlMx8Subscribe to The Selling from the Heart Podcast Youtube Channel! Stay updated with the latest episodes and leadership tips: https://www.youtube.com/c/sellingfromtheheart/Get Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:https://www.sellingfromtheheart.net/daily
What if meditation isn't supposed to make you feel better? In this podcast episode, I break down one of the biggest misconceptions about meditation, and show you how to work with racing thoughts, difficult emotions, stress, and discomfort (instead of trying to get rid of them). DOWNLOAD THE FREE GUIDED MEDITATION: www.deeprootedbliss.com/free You'll learn why meditation feels so hard to achieve when you first begin, why experienced meditators might still struggle with silent meditations, and a four-step practice — Notice, Get Curious, Allow, Observe — for overcoming any obstacle you face in your practice (and finally processing what comes up). WATCH THIS ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/FU2UhkGUN2c?si=HUpkcKisSXIWRZUd
NECROMANCER EP.146 – ONES THAT OBSERVE: SMILE 2 (2024) The necromancers honor their pop star film tour obligations with Bret's horror pick, Smile 2. Being a pop star and a scream queen is not for the faint of heart but doing both at the same time, backwards, and in heels is something only Naomi Scott […]
In today's episode we're talking about Florida's state saltwater mammal, the dolphin. We will discuss why it's not technically correct to call them a porpoise, some fascinating behaviors they exhibit the exemplify their intelligence, some basic biology and more. Learn More:Sarasota Dolphin Research Program - https://sarasotadolphin.org/ Common Bottlenose Dolphin - https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/common-bottlenose-dolphin Dolphin- https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/mammals/aquatic/dolphin/ How You Can Help: Practice safe and ethical behaviors when interacting with dolphins: Swimming and feeding interactions increase risk of injury from boats, increases the incidents of entanglement in fishing gear, decreases dolphins' willingness to forage for food and may cause habituated behaviors to be passed on to calves and other dolphins. Observe from a respectful distance: It's recommended to view from at least 50 yards away and limit your time spent observing to 30 minutes or less.Learn to love dolphins! There are many smartphone applications and websites where you can track dolphins and learn about them along the way. Sources:Highlight: Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Inhabitance of the St. Johns River - https://sjrr.domains.unf.edu/highlights-2017/ Cetaceans and Primates: Convergence in Intelligence and Self Awareness - https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=acwp_asie Sarasota Dolphin Research Program - https://sarasotadolphin.org/
What if the most aligned thing you could do this week… was nothing?In this week's Weekly Invitation, Jessica Meils explores the wisdom of slowing down, releasing control, and trusting what you've already set into motion. Inspired by the Scorpio Moon, Sagittarius Moon, the integration of the recent Leo eclipse, and the message of The Arrow from the Mystical Shaman Oracle, this episode is an invitation to notice your inner dialogue, release what no longer aligns, and reconnect with your own inner wisdom.Sometimes the bravest thing we can do isn't push harder.It's trust.⸻This Week's Invitation* Notice the stories your inner dialogue is repeating.* Observe where you're gripping too tightly or trying to control the outcome.* Release what no longer aligns with the person you're becoming.* Trust that what you've already set into motion will unfold in its own timing.* Remember: sometimes doing nothing is actually choosing not to interfere.⸻ReflectionAsk yourself:* What story has been quietly directing my decisions?* Where am I trying to force an outcome instead of trusting the process?* What am I being invited to release so I can continue moving toward my own North Star?Ways to Work With Jessica1:1 Intuitive SessionsIf you're navigating a season of change, seeking clarity, or feeling called to reconnect with yourself on a deeper level, I currently have a handful of one-on-one session openings available.Each session is intuitively guided and uniquely tailored to you, blending mediumship, intuitive guidance, energy healing, and practical support to help you move forward with greater clarity, confidence, and self-trust.✨ Book a 1:1 Session:https://www.jessicameils.com/book⸻The Rooted & Rising Living Library (Coming Soon)The Rooted & Rising Living Library is a growing collection of audio teachings, guided practices, meditations, and reflections designed to help you build self-trust, reconnect with your intuition, and turn inspiration into a lived practice.Join the waitlist to be the first to know when the library opens.✨ Join the Living Library Waitlist:https://jessicameils.myflodesk.com/immersive⸻Rooted & Rising: The Gathering PlaceIf you're looking for ongoing support and community, The Gathering Place is my upcoming membership where we'll explore intuitive living together through monthly teachings, live gatherings, guided practices, and meaningful conversation.Join the waitlist to receive early access and Founding Member pricing when doors open.
Send us Fan MailWhen was the last time you realized that you—not your team—were part of the leadership problem?That realization can be painful, but it can also begin your most important growth.In this episode, Dr. Lisa DeVore, United States Air Force veteran and author of Pawprints on Leadership, shares how she confronted a low-empathy leadership moment and chose to grow from it.We discuss how authoritarian leadership models can cause us to prioritize rules and results over people, why reflection and apology matter, and how emotional intelligence and active listening make us better leaders.Lisa also explores the importance of followership and the lessons she learned from Bailey, her service dog—including the powerful truth that sometimes the person leading us has no title or words, just greater awareness.Subscribe to Unarmored Talk, share this episode with someone who leads others, and leave a review to help more listeners discover the show.Stay unarmored, stay authentic, and stay mentally fit. God bless.Connect with Dr. Lisa DeVoreBook — Pawprints on Leadership: [https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0G2L2VZ89?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_SAMWGJ2YXEZ7DBNCB1PP&bestFormat=true]LinkedIn: [Dr. Lisa DeVore, PMP, SSM | LinkedIn]Chapters00:00 — Welcome and Guest Introduction02:49 — Lisa's Air Force-to-Space Force Path04:21 — Owning a Low-Empathy Leadership Moment07:15 — How Authoritarian Models Shaped Her08:41 — Why a Trusted Teammate Stayed12:51 — Followership as a Leadership Skill16:32 — Letting Bailey Lead When It Matters18:29 — Pause, Observe, and Give Yourself Grace20:01 — Where to Find Lisa and Final SendoffSupport the showBecome a Member Today! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_M2Kfxb2hN1uHdlDKGtuQw/joinWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6pF-fF29KO1rqQsabaxHHO1nQQtn5lhdStill Serving, Inc.: www.stillservinginc.comEmail: mario@stillservinginc.com
In this episode Andrea Samadi explores Phase 3 of the Brain's Operating System—movement, learning, and cognition—focusing on the recovery and adaptation side of the "movement loop." She revisits Dr. Kristen Holmes' insights on measuring strain, sleep, and recovery to show how movement provides the stimulus while recovery enables lasting adaptation and greater capacity. The episode offers practical steps: identify your stimulus, track recovery, find your weakest link, and use feedback to train smarter—not just harder—so measurement becomes a tool for meaningful change. IN EPISODE 405, WE WILL COVER: ✔ Why recovery is not the absence of work—it is where adaptation occurs → How recovery allows the brain and body to absorb stress and build greater capacity. ✔ Where Dr. Kristen Holmes fits into the Movement Loop → Movement creates the stimulus; recovery determines how effectively we adapt. ✔ Why measuring your data matters → What gets measured can be adjusted, repeated, and improved. ✔ How to identify your personal recovery patterns → Using sleep, HRV, resting heart rate, strain, stress, and daily behaviors to uncover what helps—or limits—your performance. ✔ Why your recovery formula is uniquely yours → The habits that improve one person's readiness may not produce the same results for someone else. ✔ How recovery helps create more predictable performance → When you understand your patterns, you can make better daily decisions instead of leaving your results to chance. ✔ How repeated behaviors become adaptation → Measure → Adjust → Repeat → Recover → Adapt → Build Capacity. ✔ Where the larger journey is taking us → A preview of The Journey of the Mind Workbook and its five-step process: Understand → Reflect → Apply → Measure → Become ✔ What comes next in the Movement Loop → A Bonus Episode applying recovery science to real-world data, followed by Dr. John Medina on how an activated brain turns experience into attention, learning, and lasting change. EP 405 — From Recovery to Adaptation: Revisiting Dr. Kristen Holmes in Phase 3 WELCOME BACK Welcome back to the Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast, where we bridge neuroscience, social and emotional learning, and human performance so we can create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. I'm Andrea Samadi, and if you've been following along through Season 16, you'll know that we've been building what I call The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—a neuroscience-based framework designed to help us understand how the different systems of the brain and body work together to influence how we learn, adapt, connect, lead, and perform. Our roadmap has five phases: Phase 1 — Regulation & Safety Where we built the foundation by asking: Is the nervous system regulated enough to learn and grow? Phase 2 — Neurochemistry & Motivation Where we explored the systems that drive us to act, persist, and pursue meaningful goals. And now, we are here—Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Cognition. This is where movement becomes the catalyst for learning, adaptation, and performance. The central idea of Phase 3 is that the brain does not change through information alone. It changes through experience. Through movement. Through challenge. Through recovery. And through the repeated process of adapting to what we ask our brain and body to do. I called the framework we are building in this phase: The Movement Loop: Movement (the stimulus) → Brain Activation (the brain responds) → Attention (the brain becomes engaged and ready to learn) → Learning (new information and experience begin changing neural pathways) → Recovery (the brain consolidates and restores) → Adaptation (the brain and body adjust to the repeated challenge) → Performance (the adaptation shows up in what we can do) → Greater Capacity (we become capable of more) Movement is the stimulus. Brain activation is the response. Attention opens the door to learning. Learning creates change. Recovery helps that change stick. Adaptation builds the system. Performance reveals the result. Greater capacity is what we gain. And then we repeat the cycle. In our last episode, EP 404, we revisited the groundbreaking work of Dr. John Ratey, who helped us understand the front end of this loop. Dr. Ratey showed us that: Movement changes the brain. Exercise activates the brain. It supports attention. It prepares us for learning. And it creates the biological conditions that allow the brain to change. But that leaves us with an important question. What happens after we create the stimulus? Because movement alone isn't enough. Training alone isn't enough. And more strain does not automatically equal more improvement. At some point, the brain and body have to recover from what we've asked them to do And that's where today's episode begins with the back end of the movement loop. WHERE THIS JOURNEY IS GOING Before we move into today's episode, I want to zoom out for a moment and share where I believe this entire journey is taking us. Because as we've been building The Brain's Operating System for Human Performance—making sense of the interviews we've gathered over the past seven years and organizing them into five phases we can all understand and apply—I realized we are doing something much bigger than simply reviewing past episodes. I had to stop for a moment and look at what we've built so far. And that's when something became clear: We are mapping a journey. We aren't finished yet—we are only in Phase 3—but as we continue into Phases 4 and 5, I think you'll begin to see the bigger picture. This is about more than learning how the brain works or connecting social and emotional learning skills to our daily lives. It's about asking: What will we actually do with everything we've learned once we've traveled through all five phases? That's what led me to what I'm calling The Journey of the Mind. We could just as easily call it The Journey of the Brain because we now understand how deeply connected the mind and brain are.[i] But for me, Journey of the Mind has a much older meaning. That phrase takes me all the way back to the late 1990s, when I had the opportunity to watch an unpublished video program with that title, created by my mentor, Bob Proctor. I had no idea where that experience would lead me. But it planted a seed. It encouraged me to stop looking outside of myself for every answer... and to begin looking inward. To become curious about my thoughts. My beliefs. My habits. My potential. And ultimately, the relationship between what happens inside of us and the results we create outside of us. That idea influenced my early writing and eventually became part of the path that led me here. And now, all these years later, I can see that the podcast has evolved into its own Journey of the Mind. Only now, we have neuroscience to help us understand what is happening along the way. We have hundreds of experts. Years of research. Stories. Experiments. Data. And our own lived experience. The five phases give us a way to bring all of that together. We began with Regulation and Safety, because before we can grow, the nervous system needs a stable foundation. Then we moved into Neurochemistry and Motivation, where we explored what drives our behavior. Now, in Phase 3, we are looking at Movement, Learning and Cognition—how experience changes the brain and how recovery and adaptation help us build greater capacity. Next, we'll move into Connection, Emotion and Social Intelligence, because none of us develops in isolation. And finally, we'll reach Integration, Meaning and Human Performance, where these systems begin to come together. And when we reach the end of Phase 5, I want to bring the entire journey into something practical. THE JOURNEY OF THE MIND WORKBOOK I'm currently developing a companion workbook for these five phases. The Journey of the Mind Workbook will help us take what we've learned and apply it to our own lives through a simple process: Understand. Reflect. Apply. Measure. Become. Understand the science. Reflect on our own patterns. Apply what we are learning. Measure what changes. And then ask the bigger question: Who are we becoming? Because the goal isn't simply to know more about neuroscience. It's to use what we know. To identify our gaps. Recognize what is working. Build a clearer understanding of how we learn, recover, connect, perform, and grow. And become more intentional about the future we are creating. The workbook is still taking shape, but it's coming. And my hope is that when we reach the end of these five phases, we won't just have more information. We'll have a map. A clearer understanding of our brain. A deeper understanding of ourselves. A way to measure our growth. And a framework for becoming who we are capable of being. Now, let's return to where we are today... Phase 3: Movement, Learning and Cognition. Before we go further, I want to give you a quick roadmap for today's episode. We're going to explore Kristen Holmes' work through 15 short parts, each one helping us move step-by-step through the recovery and adaptation side of the Movement Loop. (The left side of the loop). We'll begin by clarifying the difference between readiness and adaptation. Then we'll look at the stimulus–recovery–adaptation cycle, revisit Kristen's original idea that what gets measured gets improved, and connect that to what I've learned from tracking my own data over the past five years. From there, we'll explore the difference between training harder and training smarter, why movement is information, why the goal is not maximum strain, and how these same principles apply to learning and performance far beyond exercise. We'll also return to one of my favorite ideas from Kristen's original interview: Your competitive advantage is often built in your downtime. And finally, we'll bring everything back to the Movement Loop and ask the question that really matters: Is what I'm doing building more strain—or building greater capacity? So think of these 10 parts as a guided walk through the second half of the loop... from recovery... to adaptation... to performance... and ultimately to greater capacity. PART 1 — WHY ARE WE RETURNING TO DR. KRISTEN HOLMES? When we first interviewed Dr. Kristen Holmes in 2021 for EP 134[ii], she was Vice President of Performance Science at WHOOP. At the time, I had recently turned 50. I purchased WHOOP because I wanted to improve what I knew was my weakest link: sleep. And in that original conversation, Dr. Holmes introduced ideas that I've now carried with me for more than five years. One of them was this: “What gets measured gets improved.” Another was the idea that what we do in our downtime may actually give us our greatest competitive advantage. At the time, I understood this at one level. Sleep matters. Recovery matters. Strain matters. Your habits outside of the workout matter. But after five years of looking at my own data, I understand her message differently. And I think this is one of the most important things about revisiting experts over time. We hear something at one stage of our development... and then years later, we hear the same idea again with an entirely different level of understanding. We revisited this same 2021 interview earlier in this season during Phase 1: Regulation & Safety on EP 390.[iii] So why are we covering this topic again? Because I realized that Dr. Holmes' work sits at a critical intersection inside our Brain's Operating System. In Phase 1, her work helped us understand regulation and readiness. Her message was: Can your system handle what you are asking it to do today? But in Phase 3, the question changes. Now we're asking: Is what I'm doing today actually helping my system adapt? That's very different. In Phase 1, recovery helped us understand whether the system was ready. In Phase 3, recovery helps us understand whether the system is changing. And that's why we're returning to Dr. Kristen Holmes. Not to repeat what we learned. But to take it one level deeper. Just a note here: while I've been using WHOOP to measure my movement, sleep, strain, and recovery, WHOOP is only one tool. There are many other ways to track these patterns—from other wearable devices and apps to simple measures like sleep duration, resting heart rate, exercise intensity, energy levels, and how recovered you feel. The important point isn't the device you use. It's learning to pay attention to your own patterns and using that feedback to make better decisions. PART 2 — READINESS VS. ADAPTATION Now let's return to the Movement Loop we opened this episode with: Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity In our last episode, Dr. John Ratey helped us understand the front end of this loop—how movement activates the brain, supports attention, and creates the conditions for learning. Today, Dr. Kristen Holmes helps us move into the recovery and adaptation side of the loop—what happens after we create the stimulus. This is where we ask a different kind of question. In Phase 1, we looked at Kristen's work through the lens of readiness: What is my capacity today? How much strain can I tolerate? How well did I sleep? What does my HRV tell me? How recovered am I? Do I have the capacity to push? Or would backing off today serve me better? That was the Phase 1 question: Am I ready? But now, in Phase 3, we move one step further around the loop. Now we are asking: Am I adapting? Is the movement I'm doing helping me become stronger? More resilient? More efficient? Better able to recover? More capable than I was before? That is the shift from readiness to adaptation. And this is where Dr. Kristen Holmes' work becomes essential to Phase 3. Because movement may provide the stimulus... but recovery is what gives the brain and body the opportunity to respond to that stimulus, adapt, and ultimately build greater capacity. Or would backing off today serve me better? That was our Phase 1 lens. And it was foundational. Because if the nervous system is depleted, overstressed, or under-recovered, everything downstream is affected. But Phase 3 takes us another step forward. Now we are not only asking: Am I ready? We are asking: Am I adapting? ADAPTATION asks: What is changing because of what I repeatedly do? Am I becoming stronger? More resilient? More efficient? Better able to tolerate stress? Better able to recover? More capable than I was before? And this is where I think recovery is frequently misunderstood. Recovery isn't simply what happens when we stop working. Recovery is not the opposite of performance. Recovery is part of the process that creates future performance. That distinction changes everything. Because the goal is not simply to recover enough to get through today. The goal is to recover in a way that allows the brain and body to become better prepared for tomorrow. So I want to give you one sentence to keep in mind throughout this entire episode: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. That's where Kristen Holmes' work enters Phase 3. Dr. Ratey helped us understand why movement activates the brain and creates the stimulus for change. Dr. Holmes helps us to understand what has to happen afterward if that stimulus is going to become something useful. Something the body can integrate. Something the brain can learn from. Something that eventually becomes greater capacity. PART 3 — THE STIMULUS–RECOVERY–ADAPTATION CYCLE Think about exercise for a moment. When you challenge your body, you create stress. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, some level of challenge is exactly what we need. It's called hormesis, right? The challenge is the signal. It tells the system: Something is being asked of me. But the signal alone isn't what we are looking for. What matters is what your body does afterward. You place a demand on the system. Then the body needs time and resources to respond to that demand. We can think of it very simply: STIMULUS → RECOVERY → ADAPTATION → GREATER CAPACITY The stimulus is the challenge. Recovery is the response period. Adaptation is the change. And greater capacity is the result. The purpose of training isn't simply to create more strain. (Which is what I did for years). The purpose is to create a strain that your system can successfully recover from and adapt to. And that idea changed the way I began looking at my own movement. For years, I thought: Harder must be better. Longer must be better. More must be better. If I could hike for three hours, that had to be better than walking for one. If I could push harder, I assumed I would get better results. If I felt exhausted after a workout, I often assumed that meant I had accomplished more. But the data started showing me something different. Sometimes more strain simply created... more strain. And if I wasn't sleeping enough...(because I was repeating the same thing without enough rest) if I wasn't recovering... if I was stacking high strain on top of stress... then I wasn't necessarily building greater capacity. I could actually be interrupting the very adaptation I was trying to create. This is why one of the most important questions in Phase 3 becomes: How much challenge can my system absorb, recover from, and adapt to? Not: How much can I force myself to do? And this takes us directly back to the lesson Kristen Holmes gave us five years ago. Because if we want to know whether the stimulus we're creating is actually working... we need feedback. We need to see the patterns. We need to understand the relationship between what we do and how our system responds. Which brings us to Part 4: PART 4 — WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED In our Phase 1 episode with Dr. Holmes, I shared something that has become very important to me over the past five years. Once you begin measuring your sleep, your recovery, your strain, and your habits... you stop guessing. And when you stop guessing, patterns begin to emerge. For me, some of those patterns took years to understand. I began seeing that: Too much strain + not enough sleep = poor recovery. Over and over again. I knew intuitively that I was pushing too hard. But knowing something and changing behavior are two very different things. The data eventually forced me to look at the pattern honestly. There were times when I was training hard... waking early... cutting sleep short... and then wondering why my recovery didn't improve. I was giving my system a stimulus. But I wasn't giving it enough opportunity to adapt. That distinction matters. Because the goal is not simply: How much can I do? The better question is: How much can I do, recover from, and adapt to? That is a completely different way of approaching human performance. PART 5 — MY UNDERSTANDING OF RECOVERY HAS CHANGED When I first bought WHOOP in 2021, my weakest link was sleep. I knew I needed to improve it. And I did. Not perfectly. But significantly. What I find interesting now is that as one weakness improves, another one becomes easier to see. That's the value of measurement. Your weakest link can change. In 2021, mine was sleep. Today, I can see other areas much more clearly. Strength training is one. Balancing different kinds of movement is another. And this is where I began looking beyond total exercise time. Instead, I started asking: How much time am I spending in lower intensity movement? How much time am I spending at higher intensity? What happens to my recovery when I increase strain? How much sleep do I need after harder training? How quickly do I recover? What habits seem to help me recover faster? What habits tank my recovery? That's a completely different mindset than: Did I work hard today? PART 6 — TRAIN HARDER VS. TRAIN SMARTER One of the biggest lessons I pulled from Kristen Holmes' work was the difference between training harder and training smarter. In our Phase 1 review, I shared one example that really challenged my assumptions. I went on a walk along the canal near my house. Nothing extreme. I was walking my dogs and wearing a weighted vest. And during this much more moderate activity, I was able to reach Zones 4 and 5 for short periods. That surprised me, because those higher-intensity zones could sometimes be difficult for me to reach even during much longer hikes. I noticed the same thing when I started comparing different trails here in Arizona. When I first moved to AZ, Camelback Mountain—especially the Echo Canyon Trail—was my go-to hike. I used to hike it after work and again on the weekends. It was short, steep, and intense—about a 2.5-mile round trip on Echo Canyon, with the Cholla side a bit longer. So when I later moved to another part of the Valley and started hiking Telegraph Pass at South Mountain, I initially thought: This isn't going to give me the same workout. Telegraph Pass felt less intense. It didn't have that same steep, all-out challenge I was used to on Camelback. But once I started measuring my hikes, or learning new trails that were longer, I saw something I didn't expect. The longer, lower-intensity hikes were sometimes producing more overall strain than the shorter, harder hikes. That honestly shocked me. Because I had always assumed that if something felt harder, it must be giving me better results. But the data showed me that wasn't always true. A longer period of sustained effort—even at a lower intensity—could place a greater total load on my system than a shorter burst of very difficult exercise. And that taught me something important: How hard something feels in the moment is not always the same thing as the total load it places on your body. That was one of the moments when measurement changed the way I thought about exercise. I stopped asking only: How hard did that feel? And started asking: How did my body actually respond? And this is where data becomes useful. Not because the number knows everything. But because the number can reveal something we might otherwise miss. It can become feedback. And feedback helps us learn. PART 7 — MOVEMENT IS INFORMATION Movement is not just calories burned. I hardly ever think about calories anymore. There was a time when I could tell you almost exactly how much effort it took to burn off certain foods. But I think about movement very differently today. Movement is not punishment for what we ate. Movement is not simply exercise. Movement is information. Every time we move, we send signals to the brain and body about the demands being placed on the system. How much strength do I need? How much endurance? How much balance, coordination, speed, or cardiovascular capacity? And when we repeatedly expose ourselves to manageable challenge, the system begins to learn from those signals. It responds. It adjusts. And, with adequate recovery, it adapts. So movement isn't just something we do to burn energy. Movement is one of the ways we teach the brain and body what we want them to become capable of doing. PART 8 — THE GOAL IS NOT MAXIMUM STRAIN This brings me to what may be the biggest takeaway from today's episode. The goal is not maximum strain. The goal is the right amount of strain for your current capacity. Because too little challenge may not create enough stimulus. But too much challenge without adequate recovery can work against the very adaptation we're trying to create. And this is where Kristen Holmes' message about strain and recovery becomes so powerful. In Phase 1, we used recovery to ask: Should I push today? In Phase 3, we can use recovery to ask: Is my current training producing the adaptation I want? That is a much bigger question. And it applies far beyond exercise. PART 9 — THE SAME PRINCIPLE APPLIES TO LEARNING Think about learning. We don't learn best by forcing information into the brain endlessly without rest. We need exposure. Attention. Practice. Then space. Sleep. Recovery. Integration. And then we return to the material again. Spaced Repetition. The brain changes through repeated cycles of challenge and recovery. So while we're talking today about Kristen Holmes, recovery, movement, and strain... the same architecture appears in learning. It appears in work. It appears in leadership. It appears in stress management. It appears almost anywhere humans are trying to grow. Challenge alone doesn't guarantee growth. Challenge + recovery + repetition creates the conditions for adaptation. PART 10 — YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IS STILL BUILT IN YOUR DOWNTIME One of my favorite ideas from my original conversation with Kristen was something we revisited in Phase 1. Listen to Dr. Holmes' CLIP here. She talked about the importance of what we do in our downtime. That what happens outside of the performance itself may give us our competitive advantage. Five years later, I think I finally understand how deep that idea goes. Your workout may last an hour. Your hike may last two hours. Your presentation may last 45 minutes. Your game may last an afternoon. But adaptation is happening across the rest of the day. What are you doing with the other hours? Are you sleeping? Hydrating? Fueling? Managing stress? Allowing the nervous system to come back down? Giving the body what it needs to repair? That downtime isn't empty time. It's part of the training. PART 11 — RECOVERY IS AN ACTIVE PROCESS This is another mindset shift that helped me. I used to think of recovery as: Doing nothing. Resting. Taking a day off. But recovery can actually be very intentional. For me, over the past several years, that has included things like: prioritizing sleep hydration meditation breathing spending time outside lower-intensity movement infrared sauna red light therapy And again, the point isn't that everyone should copy my routine. The important question is: What actually helps your system recover? That takes us back to one of the central ideas of our recent Bonus Episodes. PART 12 — FIND YOUR GAP In Bonus Episode 2[iv], we introduced the idea of finding your gap. Instead of copying someone else's recipe for high performance, identify the variable that is currently limiting you. Maybe your gap is sleep. Maybe it's hydration. Maybe it's high stress. Maybe it's too much intensity. Maybe it's not enough movement. Maybe it's inconsistent recovery habits. Maybe it's strength. The point is that your gap is personal. And it can change. This is one of the most useful things measurement can give us. It can show us: Where is the breakdown in my loop? Let's return to the Movement Loop. Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity Where is your gap? Are you not moving enough? Are you moving but not recovering? Are you recovering but not challenging yourself enough to create adaptation? Are you pushing constantly without allowing your system to consolidate the gains? If you can locate your gap, you know where to begin. PART 13 — THE MOVEMENT LOOP THROUGH DR. KRISTEN HOLMES Let's walk through the entire loop now through the lens of Dr. Ratey and Dr. Holmes' work. MOVEMENT We create a stimulus. We challenge the brain and body. BRAIN ACTIVATION Movement changes our physiological and neurological state. This is where Dr. Ratey's work helps us understand why movement prepares the brain. ATTENTION An activated brain is better positioned to engage. LEARNING The brain receives information and experience. But learning isn't finished simply because we experienced something. RECOVERY Now the system needs space. This is where Kristen Holmes enters the loop. How well did we sleep? How much stress are we carrying? What was our total strain? How prepared is the system to absorb what we've done? ADAPTATION This is where the system changes. Over time, repeated cycles of challenge and recovery create new capacity. PERFORMANCE We begin to see the result. We move differently. Think differently. Learn more efficiently. Handle greater demands. Recover faster. GREATER CAPACITY And this is what makes the loop a loop. Because now tomorrow's starting point may be different from yesterday's. The system has adapted. So we can begin again. The WHOOP wearable device may have started with elite athletes, but optimizing performance isn't only for elite athletes. Any of us can measure our patterns, learn from the feedback, and use that information to build greater capacity. PART 14 — THIS CHANGES HOW I THINK ABOUT PERFORMANCE For most of my life, I thought performance was primarily about effort. Work harder. Try harder. Push harder. And effort still matters. But effort without adaptation can become a dead end. What I'm learning through this phase is that performance is much more dynamic. You need the stimulus. You need the challenge. You need the work. But you also need recovery. Because recovery is what allows the system to absorb the work. And that leads me to an important sentence I want us to remember: The goal isn't to prove how much stress you can tolerate. The goal is to become capable of more over time. That's adaptation. PART 15 — FIVE YEARS LATER, DR. HOLMES' MESSAGE MEANS SOMETHING DIFFERENT When we first interviewed Kristen Holmes in 2021, the idea that what gets measured gets improved resonated with me immediately. That idea is partly why I bought a wearable device in the first place. I wanted data. I wanted answers. I wanted to improve sleep. But five years later, I think the lesson is bigger than measurement. Measurement itself isn't the goal. The goal is feedback. And feedback only becomes useful when we do something with it. Measure. Write it down somewhere. Observe what's happening month to month and year to year. Adjust. Recover. Adapt. Repeat. Measurement closes the learning/performance loop. That's why Dr. Holmes' work was worth revisiting here in Phase 3. Not simply because she studies recovery. But because measurement gives us information about whether the behaviors we repeat are actually creating the changes we want. PRACTICAL APPLICATION — HOW TO USE THIS THIS WEEK So let's make this practical. You do not need WHOOP. You do not need a wearable. You don't need complicated equipment. You simply need to start paying attention. Identify your current stimulus. What are you asking your body and brain to adapt to right now? Maybe it's: exercise strength training a new learning goal a demanding work schedule stress adapting to intensive heat in your new sauna Know what you're asking the system to do. Identify your recovery. Ask: How am I sleeping? How am I managing stress? Am I giving myself enough downtime? How do I feel the day after harder efforts? What patterns do I notice? Watch the relationship between effort and recovery. Does more effort always give you better results? Or is there a point where more becomes counterproductive? Find your gap. What is your weakest link right now? Don't try to fix everything. Start there. Look for evidence of adaptation. Ask yourself: Am I becoming more capable? Can I handle something today that used to be difficult? Am I recovering faster? Am I stronger? More focused? More resilient? If the answer is yes, your loop is working. REVIEW AND CONCLUSION To review and conclude this week's episode 405, let's bring this episode together. We brought Dr. Kristen Holmes back into our roadmap intentionally. In Phase 1: Regulation and Safety, Dr. Holmes helped us understand recovery as readiness. Sleep. HRV. Strain. Stress. Recovery. The question was: Is the system prepared for today? Today, in Phase 3: Movement, Learning and Cognition, we've looked at those same ideas through a different lens. Now the question is: Is the system adapting for tomorrow? That's the progression. Dr. John Ratey helped us understand that movement provides the brain with a powerful stimulus. Kristen Holmes helps us understand that the story doesn't end with the stimulus. We need recovery. Because: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. Adaptation improves performance. Performance builds greater capacity. And then the loop begins again. ONE QUESTION TO TAKE WITH YOU Before you move on with your day, I want you to ask yourself one question: Am I creating more strain…or am I creating more capacity? They are not the same thing. You can push harder without improving. You can work longer without adapting. You can accumulate strain without building capacity. The goal is not simply to do more. The goal is to create a system where you can become more. FINAL TAKEAWAY And this brings us right back to Kristen Holmes's message from 2021: What gets measured gets improved. But today, I would add something to it: What gets measured can be adjusted. What gets adjusted can be repeated (in this new way) And what gets repeated—paired with the right amount of recovery—can become adaptation. That is how capacity grows. And that is where Kristen Holmes fits into Phase 3—not simply as an expert on recovery, but as a critical part of the science of change. And this idea—turning what we measure into meaningful change—is also shaping the larger vision for this podcast. At the start of this episode, we mentioned I'm developing a companion workbook called Journey of the Mind—a practical guide designed to help us move beyond simply listening to these ideas and begin applying them in our own lives. The workbook will guide us through five steps to apply what we have covered on this podcast. Understand. Reflect. Apply. Measure. Become More. With each episode we've covered. And this workbook began with an unexpected spark of inspiration. So, I want to offer one quiet acknowledgment: To the person who quietly helped illuminate this path for me—thank you. Sometimes, the people who influence the direction of our lives may never fully realize what their presence helped awaken. My vision from that the spark of inspiration I received will travel through this work and reach you listening—inspiring you to move forward on your own path and create a life that is more intentional, meaningful, and fulfilling than the one you knew before. Because inspiration doesn't end with the person who first awakens it. It moves through us. And when we act on it, one spark can grow into something that serves many others—far beyond what either person could have created individually. We'll explore the transformative power of human connection more deeply in Phase 4. Then, in Phase 5, we'll examine how connection, meaning, and contribution can become something that continues growing beyond us. But until then, we'll continue building this journey—one insight, one application, and one measurable change at a time. COMING NEXT Before we move on to Dr. John Medina and the next part of the Movement Loop, we'll cover our next Bonus Episode and show you what adaptation can actually look like in real life. In Bonus EP 3, I'm going to take you inside one of the clearest changes I've seen in my own data over the past several years: my resting heart rate. We'll look at where it started, how it changed, what may have contributed to that change, and why resting heart rate can become a useful window into how the body is adapting over time. Because this is really what Phase 3 is about. Not simply moving more. Not simply collecting data. But asking: Is what I'm doing actually changing my capacity? Then, for EP 406 we'll return to the research of Dr. John Medina and explore the next critical link in the Movement Loop: Attention. Because movement can activate the brain—but activation alone doesn't guarantee learning. The brain must first notice what matters. It must direct its attention. Hold that attention long enough to encode new information. And return to that information if it is going to become something we can remember and use. Dr. Ratey helped us understand how movement prepares the brain. Dr. Kristen Holmes helped us understand how recovery allows the brain and body to adapt. And Dr. Medina will help us understand what happens between those two points: How does an activated brain turn experience into learning? Because movement may open the door— but attention determines what enters and stays behind that door. And we'll reinforce one of the central ideas of this journey: What we repeatedly do shapes who we become. The question is: Are those repeated actions expanding our capacity and moving us toward our highest level of performance—or quietly holding us back? That's where we'll turn next as we continue building the Movement Loop. I'll see you next time. EP 405 — KEY TAKEAWAYS ✔ Why Kristen Holmes belongs in both Phase 1 and Phase 3 ✔ The difference between recovery for readiness and recovery for adaptation ✔ Why movement alone does not create improvement ✔ The relationship between stimulus → recovery → adaptation → greater capacity ✔ Why the goal is not maximum strain, but the right dose of strain ✔ How recovery completes the Movement Loop ✔ Why your weakest link can change as you improve ✔ How measurement provides feedback for better decisions ✔ Why downtime is part of the performance process ✔ The difference between accumulating strain and building capacity THE MOVEMENT LOOP Movement → Brain Activation → Attention → Learning → Recovery → Adaptation → Performance → Greater Capacity → Repeat Remember: Movement provides the stimulus. Recovery allows the adaptation. The goal isn't maximum strain. The goal is greater capacity. RESOURCES: Watch the full interview from 2021 here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOgivjYhhW8 CLIP 1 Dr. Kristen Holmes https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Lg7FiWJKZc4 Phase 1: Regulation & Safety The Foundation Core Question: Is the nervous system safe enough to learn? Everything begins with regulation. Before we can focus, learn, lead, or perform, the brain first asks one fundamental question: Am I safe? Throughout Phase 1, our guests showed us that regulation isn't simply about reducing stress—it's about creating the biological conditions that allow the brain to learn, adapt, and thrive. Together we explored: Baland Jalal – how sleep, curiosity, imagination, and creativity prepare the brain for learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/hypnagogic-genius-capture-your-best-ideas-at-the-edge-of-sleep/ Dr. Bruce Perry – why regulation, rhythm, and relationships form the foundation of every healthy nervous system. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/safety-first-why-a-regulated-brain-is-the-key-to-learning/ Dr. Sui Wong – how lifestyle medicine and autonomic balance build lifelong brain resilience. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/your-eyes-the-brain-s-early-warning-system/ Rohan Dixit – how heart rate variability gives us real-time feedback on our ability to regulate stress. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/breathe-to-reset-how-hrv-tech-reveals-hidden-stress/ Dr. Kristen Holmes – how recovery metrics reveal our physiological readiness to perform. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/ Dr. Antonio Zadra – how sleep and dreaming consolidate memories, regulate emotions, and generate insight. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/when-brains-dream-how-sleep-integrates-emotion-insight-and-creativity/ Together these conversations taught us that sleep and stress regulation aren't optional—they're the operating system that allows every higher brain function to work. Phase 2: Motivation & Neurochemistry The Direction Core Question: What moves us into action? Once the brain feels safe, it becomes ready to pursue goals. In Phase 2, we explored the internal chemistry that transforms intention into action. Our experts helped us understand that sustainable motivation isn't about willpower—it's about aligning our beliefs, thoughts, attention, energy, and movement. Together we discovered: Bob Proctor — our beliefs determine the direction of our lives. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/belief-first-the-neuroscience-of-motivation/ Dr. Carolyn Leaf — our thinking literally changes our brain chemistry. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/thoughts-as-biology-how-your-mind-shapes-neurochemistry/ Dr. John Medina — attention determines what the brain encodes and remembers. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/theory-of-mind-the-missing-link-between-attention-reward-and-motivation Dr. Anna Lembke- Dopamine, Motivation and Why the Brain Repeats Behavior https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dopamine-nation-the-pleasure%e2%80%93pain-balance-that-drives-motivation/ Dr. Friederike Fabritius — managing our energy allows high performance to become sustainable. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/fun-fear-focus-closing-the-motivation-loop/ Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — movement activates the brain, preparing it to learn. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/move-to-learn-how-movement-activates-the-brain-and-fuels-motivation/ By the end of Phase 2, we introduced what became The Motivation Loop, showing how beliefs influence thoughts, thoughts influence actions, actions create results, and results reinforce future beliefs. Phase 3: Movement, Learning & Human Performance The Transformation Core Question: How does movement change the brain—and how does recovery transform that change into performance? Now we're taking the next step. Phase 3 builds on everything we've learned so far. If Phase 1 created a regulated nervous system... If Phase 2 created motivation and direction... Phase 3 explains how the brain and body actually become stronger. Together we've explored this process through conversations with: Dr. Chuck Hillman & Paul Zientarski — why movement activates the brain before learning. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-first-how-a-20%e2%80%91minute-walk-lights-up-the-brain/ Dr. John Ratey — how exercise builds a healthier, younger brain. https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/movement-matters-how-every-move-rewires-the-brain/ Dr. Kristen Holmes — why recovery determines adaptation and readiness. Dr. John Medina — how attention transforms movement into lasting learning. Jason Whitrock — how metabolism and cellular energy fuel long-term performance. WHERE WE ARE GOING NEXT Phase 4 — Connection, Emotion & Social Intelligence The Human System Core Question: How do we thrive with other people? The brain didn't evolve in isolation—it evolved through relationships. In Phase 4, we'll explore emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, trust, leadership, and psychological safety to understand how our relationships shape learning, well-being, and performance. Phase 5 — Integration & Human Performance The Complete System Core Question: How do all the systems work together? In our final phase, we'll bring everything together—regulation, motivation, movement, emotion, relationships, learning, and recovery—into one integrated framework. We'll discover how these systems work together to create measurable improvements in our well-being, achievement, leadership, productivity, and results. REFERENCES: [i] A Neurologist Looks at Mind and Brain, published October 1, 2003, by Phirose Hansotia. [ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 134 with Dr. Kristen Holmes “Unlocking a Better You: Measuring Sleep, Recovery and Strain.” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/kristen-holmes-from-whoopcom-on-unlocking-a-better-you-measuring-sleep-recovery-and-strain/ [iii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE 390 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/what-gets-measured-gets-improved-sleep-recovery-peak-performance/ [iv]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast BONUS EP 2 https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/find-the-gap-how-recovery-unlocks-predictable-performance
It's much easier to find the solution when you understand the problem. Tune in to a youngster's frame of mind. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/779/29?v=20251111
Today let's talk about something I’ve been asked many times over the years. “Why warehousing?” Or “Why transportation?” Or “Why the supply chain?” After unloading trailers, pulling orders, operating forklifts, supervising teams, managing operations, and on to the executive team, I’ve been asked that question hundreds of times. People usually expect me to answer with one of the obvious reasons. That there’s good money, great benefits, opportunities for overtime, or the Job security and Promotion opportunities, and how the works stable, sometimes even considered essential. And those are all true, and they’re all important. But if I had to narrow everything down to just one reason? Just one thing that makes this industry different than almost every other career? Well, I'd have to go with how this industry rewards the person you’re willing to become. Not who you are today or where you came from. Not what grades you made or where you went to school or who your parents were. This industry has always rewarded effort. It rewards people that keep showing up and that continue learning. It rewards people that become more valuable every year. And to me anyway, that’s something incredibly special. When someone asks me what they should do with their career, I often tell them that warehousing isn’t just about moving boxes and transportation isn’t just about trucks and how the supply chain isn’t just about inventory. It’s about solving problems. It’s about making businesses successful and it’s about making sure families receive what they need. Every package is delivered. Every grocery shelf is stocked. Every hospital was supplied. Every manufacturing plant receives their raw materials. Every online order arrives on someone’s porch. All of that happens because thousands of us workers choose to become professionals. One of the things I love about this industry is that there are very few ceilings. As I've said many times, you can literally start today sweeping floors and next year you might be operating equipment. A year later you’re training others and soon you’re a lead. Then a supervisor. Maybe an inventory analyst. Perhaps a dispatcher or transportation coordinator or a safety professional. Even an operations manager, director, or Vice President. I’ve watched people make that journey. I’ve had the pleasure of hiring several of them and the honor of promoting many of them. Not because they had the fanciest résumé. But because they earned the opportunity. First off, our industry notices consistency. I know I sound like a broken record sometimes. I keep repeating these things because they are that important and just that simple. Showing up everyday matters. Being dependable and taking ownership matters. If your supervisor never has to wonder whether you’ll be at work, if they know you’ll do quality work and they know you’ll help solve problems instead of creating them, you’ve already separated yourself from many others. Consistency becomes your resume. Then comes learning. Every new skill increases your value. Learn a second department. Learn receiving, Shipping, Inventory Control, Quality Assurance, Cycle counting, Forklift operation, the Reach truck. What else, here's a few of my go too's, the order picker. Yard management. Transportation planning. Warehouse Management Systems. Excel. Everyone should feel comfortable working with Microsoft word and excel. And Leadership. Communication, and of course Safety. Every skill is another tool in your toolbox. And no bad manager or company can take those skills away from you. Even if you change employers, those skills travel with you. One lesson I’ve learned throughout my own career, and try to share with every new boot I meet, is that companies don’t simply promote experience. They promote confidence and our confidence comes from preparation. I think being prepared comes from learning everything we can. The more you understand the operation, the more valuable you become. Eventually people begin asking for your opinion and that’s when your career really starts to grow. Another reason I love this industry is because every day is different. No two days are exactly alike. One morning you may have weather delays, all your trucks and loads are running late. On another day we'll have equipment issues. A customer changes an order. A shipment arrives early. A truck breaks down. The inventory doesn’t match. The team is short-handed. Problems appear every single day! Some people see stress. I've always tried to see opportunities. Seriously, every problem solved teaches you something. Every challenge develops another leadership skill, and every difficult day prepares you for greater responsibility. Young people often ask me how to become successful, and my answer seems to surprise them. Just Become the person people trust. Trust opens doors. Trust gets assignments and earns promotions. Trust creates opportunities. Trust is built one decision at a time. A decision from us. Being on time. Following through. Owning mistakes. Helping our teammates. Doing the right thing when nobody’s watching. Those habits are noticed. I also appreciate something else about our profession. You don’t have to wait for someone to allow you to grow. Growth is largely in your control. Read books. Watch training videos, there’s thousands on YouTube. Volunteer for projects. Crosstrain. Ask questions. Observe great leaders. Practice communication. Improve your safety knowledge. Become certified. Nobody can stop you from investing in yourself. The people who grow the fastest are usually the ones who never stop learning. I’ve met warehouse associates making six figures. transportation professionals earning incredible incomes. Supply chain analysts traveling the country. Operations leaders running million-square-foot distribution centers. Safety professionals influencing thousands of employees. Corporate trainers teaching nationwide. None of them started there. Most started exactly where someone listening today may be standing. The difference wasn’t luck. It was growth. You know, one of my favorite moments is watching someone realize they have more potential than they ever imagined. Maybe it’s the forklift operator who becomes a trainer. The selector who becomes a supervisor. The receptionist who becomes a recruiter. The dispatcher who becomes a transportation manager. And I could go on and on. I’ve watched those transformations happen over and over again. The warehouse is an incredible classroom. It teaches discipline, Communication, Teamwork, Safety, Accountability, Time management, Customer service, Leadership, Conflict resolution, Problem solving. And These aren’t just warehouse skills. They’re life skills. Skills that help in every profession and every stage of life. People sometimes say they don’t want to work in a warehouse forever. I understand that. But don’t overlook what the warehouse can do for you. It can build confidence. Teach responsibility. Develop leadership. Provide financial stability. Introduce lifelong mentors. Open doors you never knew existed. The warehouse may not be your final destination. But it can absolutely become the foundation of an incredible career. As I look back over my own career, I don’t remember every shipment. I don’t remember every inventory count. I don’t remember every dock schedule. What I remember are the people. The mentors who challenged me. The associates who inspired me. The supervisors who believed in me. The teams that accomplished incredible things together. That’s another gift this industry gives us. Relationships. And those relationships often last an entire lifetime. So, if someone asked me today, Marty, what’s the one thing that makes this industry so great? My answer would be simple. Because this industry rewards the person you’re willing to become. It rewards effort. It rewards learning. It rewards reliability. It rewards character. It rewards ownership. It rewards growth. And the beautiful part is, every one of us gets to decide who we’re becoming tomorrow. Ok, I've got to get back to work myself now. But I wanted to add that if you’re just beginning your career in warehousing, manufacturing, transportation, or supply chain, don’t focus only on the next paycheck. Focus on becoming the person everyone wants on their team. The promotions will come. The opportunities will come. The raises will come. The career will come. It's my opinion or my belief, in this industry, your greatest value isn’t the equipment you operate or the building or department you work in. It’s the person you choose to become. I'm Marty T Hawkins and I want to thank you for checking in on Warehouse and Operations as a Career today. Until next time, be safe, keep learning, help someone else grow, and never stop investing in yourself.
Les chiffres alarmants du neuvième baromètre du cabinet Empreinte Humaine en 2022 révèlent qu'en France, 34% des travailleurs sont en état de burn-out. Cette réalité met en lumière l'importance cruciale du bien-être au travail. Cette réalité soulève des questions sur la manière d'éviter la détresse psychologique et la baisse de productivité. De nombreuses pistes sont explorées, et parmi elles, l'activité physique émerge comme une possible réponse à ces problèmes. D'où vient la tendance du sport en entreprise ? Et quelles sont les activités qu'une entreprise peut proposer ? Observe-t-on des effets bénéfiques ? Ecoutez la suite de cet épisode de "Maintenant vous savez". Un podcast Bababam Originals, écrit et réalisé par Maële Diallo. Date de première diffusion : septembre 2022 À écouter aussi : Qu'est-ce que l'inflexibilité intentionnelle, qui peut vous sauver au travail ? Qu'est-ce qu'un burn-out ? Comment mieux télétravailler ? Retrouvez tous les épisodes de "Maintenant vous savez". Pour rester informé et recevoir le meilleur de “Maintenant vous savez” chaque semaine, abonnez-vous à notre newsletter. Suivez Bababam sur Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Many people ask how to change their reality, or how to manifest something they want. Most approaches focus on changing thoughts, emotions, beliefs, or actions. These can certainly influence our experience, but what if they are only part of a much larger process?After a lifetime of research, this is the model that best explains what I have observed:Reality is an interconnected fabric of threads of connectivity, an ongoing discourse I call the Communication Network of Reality. The threads themselves are “communication”.The important question then becomes not, “How do I create reality?” but, “Which reality am I presently compatible with, and how do I become compatible with the one I want?”Compatibility is not wishful thinking. It is the natural relationship between who we are being and the discourse in which we are already participating. Every choice, habit, expectation, conversation, and relationship either strengthens or weakens that compatibility.Over the years, I have watched people sincerely describe what they wanted in life, while continuing to cultivate compatibility with the very experiences they hoped to leave behind. I call this phenomenon “lip service”. Although, to be fair, “lip service” hints at the person doing so on purpose while when it comes to manifesting what we want, it is invisible (to the person) programs that rule the day, keeping them compatible with experiences they no longer want.In other words, people try to force outcomes while remaining deeply compatible with, and feeding, the experiences they wish to leave behind. They want peace while feeding conflict. They want abundance while reinforcing scarcity. They seek freedom while continuing patterns that generate entrapment.One possible misunderstanding is to think that compatibility means we are somehow destined to experience a particular reality, or that we must simply accept it. It doesn't. Compatibility points to the reality we spend the most time nourishing through our attention, thoughts, actions, choices, conversations, programs and relationships, whether we consciously chose it or not.Changing what we are compatible with begins by becoming aware of the countless ways we participate in a particular discourse, then consciously cultivating compatibility with the discourse we wish to experience.One practical exercise is deceptively simple.Throughout the day, pause several times and ask yourself, “What reality am I compatible with right now?”Do not answer intellectually. Observe your conversations. Notice your emotional reactions, assumptions, entertainment, habits, and expectations. These often reveal far more than our stated intentions. Did you notice yourself defending the very patterns you say you want to change?This is often where lip service becomes visible. What we say we want and what we are compatible with through feeding and energizing are not always the same.Relationships provide another valuable laboratory. The people with whom we cultivate the strongest threads of connectivity often reflect the discourse with which we have become compatible. They can reveal our current reality more accurately than anything else.Reality shifts are often gradual rather than dramatic. Small adjustments in compatibility accumulate until the surrounding discourse begins to reflect them in unmistakable ways.The model itself has remained remarkably consistent throughout my research. What has evolved is the lexicon I use to describe it. I have found that a simple change in language can make the construction of reality much easier to observe, understand, and investigate. Sometimes a new word does not simply describe an idea more accurately. It allows us to perceive relationships between incidents and manifestations that were difficult to recognize before.For now, one sentence summarizes the entire model:Become aware of the reality with which you are currently compatible. Then consciously cultivate compatibility with the reality you choose to experience.As a researcher of consciousness and reality, my work now focuses on refining practical methods that help people recognize their current compatibility and consciously cultivate a different one. The goal is simple: make the process understandable, repeatable, and accessible to anyone willing to observe and participate. If that's you, you know where to find me.The discussion doesn't stop here - listen to the full podcast episode for unfiltered insights from Inelia and our panelists. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dttr.substack.com/subscribe
Here are the Formation Questions from Matthew 11-15, along with our B.O.L.D. living Rule of Life challenges to prayerfully practice throughout the week.SURRENDERED TO JESUS:▶️ Where has Jesus failed to meet my expectations, and how might He be inviting me to trust Him more deeply?▶️ What burden am I carrying that belongs under His yoke rather than on my shoulders?▶️ What competing desire may be choking the growth of God's word in me?SENT ON MISSION:▶️ Who might our assumptions or traditions cause us to overlook?▶️ Where can I bring Jesus' mercy into someone's grief, fear, or scarcity?COMMITTED TO ONE ANOTHER:▶️ Are we using truth to restore people or merely to evaluate them?▶️ How can our community make room for honest questions without losing confidence in Jesus?B.O.L.D. LIVING RULE OF LIFE:BE WITH & BLESS OTHERS:▶️ Spend time with someone carrying grief, disappointment, or doubt▶️ Listen before (or maybe without) offering answersOBSERVE & OBEY THE HOLY SPIRIT:▶️ Ask the Spirit to reveal one tradition, expectation, or inner desire that may be causing me to resist fully submitting to JesusLOVE & LIVE LIKE JESUS:▶️ Choose one parable from Matthew 13▶️ Identify what response it calls for and practice that response this weekDEMONSTRATE & DECLARE THE KINGDOM OF GOD:▶️ Offer one resource—time, food, money, prayer, or attention—to someone facing scarcity
What does it actually mean when someone tells us to “be like the Buddha”? In Fishing Without Bait Episode 527, Jim Ellermeyer sits down with longtime co-host and Producer Mike to explore Buddhism not as an unreachable ideal, but as a practical way of approaching everyday life. Being awake doesn't mean being perfect. It means noticing what is happening around us, recognizing what is happening within us, and becoming more intentional about what we do next. That leads Jim and Mike into a discussion about living on autopilot. Jim even brings up the longtime Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel as a playful connection to the idea of “sleepwalking through life.” How many days do we simply go through the motions without really participating? Learn more about Asleep at the Wheel: https://www.asleepatthewheel.com/ The conversation moves through compassion, boundaries, time, emotional reactions, expectations, and the Buddhist “middle path.” Jim reminds us that compassion does not mean becoming a doormat. We can care about other people while still deciding where our time, effort, and resources belong. Jim and Mike also explore non-attachment and the expectations we place on our future. Wanting a new job, a different career, a bigger house, or another version of life isn't inherently wrong—but suffering can begin when we convince ourselves that those outcomes must happen. That discussion leads Mike back to the spoken-word track “Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen),” a piece that has stayed with him since his teenage years. He reflects on its message about the role chance plays in our choices: sometimes things work, sometimes they don't, and we don't have to spend our lives regretting a road that didn't lead where we expected. Listen to “Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI Throughout the episode, Jim and Mike return to one central idea: mindfulness creates a space between what happens and how we respond. In that space, we can make a choice instead of reacting automatically. The challenge for this week is simple: stop trying to become perfect. Work on becoming more awake. Observe. Describe. Participate. And take the next step. Subscribe to Fishing Without Bait on your favorite podcast player. Support Fishing Without Bait and receive ad-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/c/fishingwithoutbait Pick up “Learn to Fish Without Bait: A 365-Day Mindfulness Journal and Adult Coloring Book”: https://www.lulu.com/shop/james-ellermeyer-lpc-ma-ncc-lpc/learn-to-fish-without-bait/paperback/product-6n9rd8.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Burnout is not caused by too much work. That's the argument at the heart of this episode — and Yana Carstens has earned the right to make it. After 12 years in the design and tech space, and her own burnout behind her, Yana shifted into executive coaching, where she now focuses on burnout prevention and authentic leadership for women in tech. In this conversation, Yana and Toni get into what taking radical responsibility for your own wellbeing actually means — and why most of what we call "wellness" is polishing the car while nobody looks under the hood. They dig into hyper-responsibility, the reflex that makes everything your fault; why rest is a prerequisite for success rather than a reward for it; and how leaders who model genuine wellbeing quietly reset the culture of everyone around them. If you're stepping into a new role, carrying everyone around you, or wondering why the vacation didn't fix it — this one is for you. What we cover: ◾ Why tech-native executive coaches are so rare — and why coaching skills spread naturally through teams ◾ The three reasons wellbeing is a leadership issue: modeling, leading from your center, and preventing burnout ◾ Burnout is not caused by too much work — the root causes nobody talks about ◾ The Ferrari analogy: you're built for speed, but without the pit stops you break down ◾ Why unlimited PTO and spa days are polish, not maintenance — and what "under the hood" work looks like ◾ Rest is a prerequisite for success, not a reward for it — and how that belief shapes team culture ◾ Hyper-responsibility: the high-achiever trait that makes everything your fault ◾ Observe, don't absorb — and Toni's version, hold, don't carry ◾ The client story: the boss's bad mood that had nothing to do with her ◾ Moving from hyper-responsible to "response-able": pause, clarify, build the internal boundary system ◾ The honest truth: this pattern comes back under stress — and that's okay ◾ Worst advice Yana ever received (from another coach): "you need to put on an act" ◾ Best advice: if you believe things will work out, you see opportunities — if not, you see obstacles Useful Links Connect with today's guest, Yana Carstens, on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanacarstens/) and sign up for her monthly newsletter at https://realignandthrive.com/newsletter. Ready to learn to coach — for your self-coaching, your leadership toolkit, or a business of your own? Ignite Coach Academy is open for enrollment. Doors close September 11: https://tonicollis.com/ignite-coach-academy This episode was sponsored by our guest, Yana Carstens. Thank you Yana for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!
What does it actually mean when someone tells us to “be like the Buddha”? In Fishing Without Bait Episode 527, Jim Ellermeyer sits down with longtime co-host and Producer Mike to explore Buddhism not as an unreachable ideal, but as a practical way of approaching everyday life. Being awake doesn't mean being perfect. It means noticing what is happening around us, recognizing what is happening within us, and becoming more intentional about what we do next. That leads Jim and Mike into a discussion about living on autopilot. Jim even brings up the longtime Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel as a playful connection to the idea of “sleepwalking through life.” How many days do we simply go through the motions without really participating? Learn more about Asleep at the Wheel: https://www.asleepatthewheel.com/ The conversation moves through compassion, boundaries, time, emotional reactions, expectations, and the Buddhist “middle path.” Jim reminds us that compassion does not mean becoming a doormat. We can care about other people while still deciding where our time, effort, and resources belong. Jim and Mike also explore non-attachment and the expectations we place on our future. Wanting a new job, a different career, a bigger house, or another version of life isn't inherently wrong—but suffering can begin when we convince ourselves that those outcomes must happen. That discussion leads Mike back to the spoken-word track “Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen),” a piece that has stayed with him since his teenage years. He reflects on its message about the role chance plays in our choices: sometimes things work, sometimes they don't, and we don't have to spend our lives regretting a road that didn't lead where we expected. Listen to “Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI Throughout the episode, Jim and Mike return to one central idea: mindfulness creates a space between what happens and how we respond. In that space, we can make a choice instead of reacting automatically. The challenge for this week is simple: stop trying to become perfect. Work on becoming more awake. Observe. Describe. Participate. And take the next step. Subscribe to Fishing Without Bait on your favorite podcast player. Support Fishing Without Bait and receive ad-free episodes: https://www.patreon.com/c/fishingwithoutbait Pick up “Learn to Fish Without Bait: A 365-Day Mindfulness Journal and Adult Coloring Book”: https://www.lulu.com/shop/james-ellermeyer-lpc-ma-ncc-lpc/learn-to-fish-without-bait/paperback/product-6n9rd8.html?page=1&pageSize=4
What if this New Moon isn't asking you to manifest something new—but to create space for what's ready to leave?In this Weekly Invitation from Jessica Meils the Podcast, we're moving with the energy of the Leo New Moon solar eclipse on August 12.Eclipse season can bring change, endings, revelations, and unexpected shifts. Rather than rushing to decide what those shifts mean—or trying to control what comes next—this week's invitation is simple:Observe. Release. Allow.I don't personally use eclipses for manifestation or setting new intentions.Instead, I treat eclipse season as an opportunity to stay present, remain flexible, and notice what life may already be showing me.Where is something naturally completing?What feels ready to dissolve?What no longer feels aligned?What am I being shown without having to search for an answer?This isn't about fearing eclipse energy or expecting something dramatic to happen.It's about allowing ourselves to observe what is already moving without immediately trying to direct the outcome.Sometimes our spiritual practice isn't about doing more.Sometimes it's about creating enough space to recognize what's already changing.THIS WEEK'S INVITATION:Observe what is showing up.Release what is clearly ready to leave.Stay flexible.Allow yourself to be in the unknown without rushing to fill the space.And rather than setting a New Moon intention, consider one simple question:What is life showing me that I am ready to release?You don't need to force an answer.Notice what comes.Observe. Release. Allow.And trust yourself along the way.ROOTED & RISINGRoot deeply.Rise authentically.Trust yourself along the way.WORK WITH ME + WHAT'S COMING1:1 SESSIONSA limited number of private sessions are available:https://www.jessicameils.comROOTED & RISING: LIVING INTUITIVELYMy new $44 audio experience is coming soon—a practice-based experience designed to help you deepen your relationship with your intuition and learn to notice, experience, discern, and trust what you know.Join the Living Intuitively waitlist:https://jessicameils.myflodesk.com/immersiveROOTED & RISING GATHERING PLACEA deeper gathering place is taking shape behind the scenes for intuition, embodiment, self-trust, and living your own unique blueprint.Join the Gathering Place waitlist:https://jessicameils.myflodesk.com/osif9gm4lnFREE RESOURCES + MEDITATIONShttps://www.jessicameils.com/freebiesCONNECT WITH JESSICAWebsite:https://www.jessicameils.comInstagram:@peoplecallmejessABOUT JESSICAJessica Meils is a spiritual medium, intuitive healer, and mentor exploring astrology, intuition, mediumship, energy healing, embodiment, self-worth, spiritual development, and what it means to build a life rooted in self-trust.
In his sermon “On Family Religion,” Wesley said this about the education of children: “Instruct them early in the morning. Speak to them plainly. Observe the few ideas they have and graft what you say upon them. Teach them frequently. Persevere.” He likely learned these principles from the way his mother Susannah instructed him and his siblings, and it translated into a lifelong commitment to improving the educational systems throughout England. It is part of our legacy and ongoing work as United Methodists. Questions for reflection:1. Name someone who grafted some important aspects of faith onto your heart.2. If education is "a lifelong spiritual practice," what is something new you are learning in recent days?3. How is what you are learning shaping your character?Find out more at HydeParkUMC.org/NextSteps
https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/tmb-ehv/03-0809db.mp3 Listen to Bible reading Through My Bible Yr 03 – August 09 Hosea 11 – 12 God's Love for Israel Hosea 11 1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 The more I called to them, the more they went away from me. [1] They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. 3 Yet I was the one who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them in my arms, [2] but they did not realize that it was I who healed them. 4 I drew them with cords suitable for a man, [3] with ropes of love. For them I became like someone who lifts a yoke off their neck, and I bent down to feed them. 5 They will not [4] return into the land of Egypt. Instead, an Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent. 6 The sword will slash against their cities. It will destroy the bars of their gates, and it will devour them because of their plans. 7 My people are determined to turn away from me. Though they call him the Most High, he certainly will not exalt them. 8 How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? [5] My heart is changed inside me. All my compassion is stirred up. 9 I will not carry out my burning anger. I will not destroy Ephraim again, because I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you. I will not enter a city. [6] 10 They will follow the Lord. He will roar like a lion. Yes, he will roar, and his children will come trembling from the west. 11 They will come trembling like a bird from Egypt, and like a dove from the land of Assyria. I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord. Israel Must Repent 12 Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from [7] God, even from the Holy One, who is faithful. [8] Hosea 12 1 Ephraim feeds on wind and chases the east wind all day. He multiplies lies and violence. They make a treaty with Assyria, and olive oil is carried to Egypt. 2 The Lord has a case against Judah. He will deal with Jacob according to his ways. According to his deeds he will repay him. 3 In the womb Jacob grasped his brother by the heel, and when he was a grown man, he struggled with God. 4 He wrestled with the Angel and prevailed. He wept and sought his favor. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him, [9] 5 namely, with the Lord, the God of Armies. The Lord is the name by which he is to be remembered! 6 So return to your God. Observe mercy and justice, and wait for your God continually. 7 A merchant has fraudulent scales in his hand. He loves to defraud others. 8 Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich. I have secured wealth for myself. Among all my possessions no one will find anything that makes me guilty of sin.” 9 But I have been the Lord your God from the time you left the land of Egypt. I will make you dwell in tents again, as in the days of the appointed festival. [10] 10 I have spoken to the prophets. I have given numerous visions. I taught meaningful lessons through the prophets. 11 Since Gilead is wicked, it is certain that they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Yes, their altars are like piles of stones in the furrows of a field. 12 Jacob fled to the territory of Aram. Israel worked as a servant to get a wife, and for a wife, he took care of sheep. 13 By a prophet, the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he took care of Israel. 14 Ephraim has provoked bitter anger. Therefore his Lord will leave him bloodied by his guilt and bring his disgrace back on him. Footnotes Hosea 11:2 A variant reading is the more they called them, the more they went away from them. Hosea 11:3 The text of the pronouns in this verse is uncertain. The translation follows the Greek Old Testament. Hosea 11:4 Literally cords of mankind. The words translated man and love have homonyms meaning leather, so there may be a play on words here. Hosea 11:5 Not is missing from some manuscripts. Hosea 11:8 Admah and Zeboiim were daughter cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Hosea 11:9 Or come in wrath. The Hebrew is difficult. Hosea 11:12 Literally wanders with. Translations disagree whether the term is negative or positive. Hosea 11:12 English verse 11:12 is verse 12:1 in Hebrew. In chapter 12 the subsequent Hebrew verse numbers are one higher than the English numbers. Hosea 12:4 Variant us Hosea 12:9 The Festival of Shelters in the autumn The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
During basketball practice, Enrique’s dad asked him and his friend to show the team how to pass the ball correctly. Enrique had practiced for weeks but feared messing up. He prayed, completed the drill, and said, “Thank You, Lord!” Later, his dad said, “I’m proud of you for working hard, Son. But I’m prouder that you prayed and praised God.” Enrique shrugged and said, “I just did what you do.” Throughout history, God has worked through healthy cross-generational relationships. Sharing His decrees and laws with the Israelites, He said not to add to them nor subtract from them (Deuteronomy 4:1-2). “Observe them carefully,” God said, “for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations” (v. 6). But God wasn’t only interested in how others perceived His people. He said, “Teach them to your children and to their children after them” (v. 9). Why? So that they “may learn to revere” God and teach “their children” about Him (v. 10). We don’t have to be parents or serve in children’s ministry to share our Spirit-empowered faith with younger people. Whether we’re praying for a younger person or a young family, providing resources to nurture spiritual growth, or offering encouragement, God uses our healthy cross-generational relationships to impact generations to come.
Your digestive symptoms may feel random—but recurring patterns can give you useful clues about what to do next. Bonus Episode
The 8/8 Lions Gate Portal is open, and this year it doesn't simply open and close. It opened with a powerful Full Moon, peaks on August 8th, and carries us straight into the Total Solar Eclipse on August 12th and the new eclipse cycle beginning. In this video, the 3 key things you need to know to make the most of this eclipsed Lions Gate, plus a card pull for the collective.
Artificial intelligence is being blamed for replacing workers, devaluing human effort, spreading misinformation, and threatening humanity. But did AI choose any of that—or did people choose to use the tool that way? In this episode of Living the Tao (1-92), Taoist Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan examine AI through the lenses of Taoism, social mind, human responsibility, and the ancient problem of the mechanical man. Master Steenrod describes AI as an intelligent, interactive library: a tool built from humanity's accumulated knowledge, arguments, errors, and wisdom. It can save time, expand human capability, and help address problems too complex for ordinary methods. Yet it lacks discretion, lived experience, and the ability to test its conclusions directly against reality. The real danger may not be artificial intelligence itself. It may be the human tendency to turn every useful tool toward control, profit, displacement, and destruction. The discussion asks whether humanity now needs AI to survive the problems it has created, whether social mind could become an unlikely safeguard against technological self-destruction, and why people both fear and desire an authority greater than human authority. The Taoist response is neither blind acceptance nor automatic rejection. Use AI as a tool. Observe what it produces. Question the people directing it. And do not confuse the machine with the intentions of the person holding it.
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Steven L. Kwast and Chris Ponder take a 50,000 foot view this week, framing the whole "tools for truth" project through a military lens: the OODA loop. Observe, orient, decide, act, and whoever moves through that loop faster wins, whether it's a battlefield or the information war we're all living in. Kwast draws on everything from Sun Tzu to John Boyd to explain why speed and clarity matter so much right now, while Chris recaps the framework built across the last few episodes, life, logic, space, spectrum, form, force, ledger, capability, and starts connecting it to something bigger: an information economy built the way a periodic table or a blockchain gets built, one verified piece at a time. It's part strategy briefing, part philosophy class, and it ends on a reminder that none of these tools matter without the moral foundation to use them well.
FORMATION QUESTIONSSURRENDERED TO JESUS:▶️ Where am I more concerned with appearing faithful than being honest with the Father?▶️ What worry, possession, or ambition competes with my trust in God's Kingdom?▶️ What teaching of Jesus have I heard but not yet obeyed?SENT ON MISSION:▶️ Who might Jesus be inviting me to see with compassion rather than judgment?▶️ Where can I speak words about the Kingdom while extending mercy in practical ways?COMMITTED TO ONE ANOTHER:▶️ Are we creating a community where people experience both genuine welcome and genuine transformation?▶️ How can we help one another remain faithful when following Jesus becomes costly or risky?B.O.L.D. LIVING RULE OF LIFE:BE WITH & BLESS OTHERS:▶️ Share a meal or meaningful conversation with someone who may feel overlooked or excluded this weekOBSERVE & OBEY THE HOLY SPIRIT:▶️ Ask each morning, “Father, what are You asking me to trust or obey today?” ▶️ Act upon one clear responseLOVE & LIVE LIKE JESUS:▶️ Choose one teaching from Matthew 6–7 and practice it intentionally throughout the weekDEMONSTRATE & DECLARE THE KINGDOM OF GOD:▶️ Pray for someone's need and connect that prayer with a tangible act of compassion
Dave's summer vacation got cut from three months down to two, and Adam has a theory. New baby, plus he hasn't been working near as hard. Dave tried to get a second opinion from Anthony Fauci, who invoked the Fifth on advice of counsel, so we're left with the ruling as it stands. Either way, the new van is getting loaded and the Niles family is headed to a cabin in Michigan for two weeks. Fifties at night, fires in the morning and the evening, which means chopping enough firewood to replace what you burn. Golf, swimming, and a little aluminum fishing boat that Davey gets to ride in. Joseph and Joshua stay on shore. Joseph has a big knot on his head at the moment anyway.Sponsor: Amen app (from the Augustine Institute) Sunday morning in a Catholic family is not easy like Sunday morning. It's kids in the van, beat Father down the aisle, get to the pew. The Amen app is how the guys prepare their kids to receive the Gospel before Mass even starts, plus free access to Divine Mercy in My Soul and True Devotion to Mary. Since 2021 it's hit 950,000 downloads. Let's get them to a million. No paywall, no subscription, no upfront cost. Download the Amen app right now.Sponsor: Select International Tours When Adam and Dave went looking for help leading their first pilgrimage, every single person pointed them to Select International Tours. Having used them, the guys can vouch. Wherever in the world you want to go, head to selectinternationaltours.com and see what they have ready.On the drive back from Lady Pamela's family reunion in Arkansas, Dave counted three mopeds inside 45 minutes, which would be unremarkable in Portland and is deeply strange here. A moped gang remains unconfirmed but would be extremely cool. His reading time is going to Plato's Republic with the group at Deacon Harrison's house, book 10 now, while Adam has missed it all year and is on record that he'll haunt them if they kick him out.Dave also saw the new Odyssey movie, alongside Dr. Frank Grabowski, Juan in a dog onesie as Argos, and Deacon Harrison Garlick, who announced in the group text beforehand: "I have filled my heart with hate." Verdict, 7.5 for entertainment. They shouldn't have tried to cram the whole epic into one film, they changed the ending, which you can't do, and they folded the lotus eaters into Calypso's island. That last one guts the most important choice in the story. Odysseus rejects immortality for his family. That's the whole thing.The pour is Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey, the flagship, from a bottle the distiller sent the guys when the show started and that has sat on the shelf about ten years since. The label reads: Warning, contains high levels of manliness. No age statement, and no, ten years in your house doesn't count. Whiskey only ages in the barrel. Small batch, four barleys, virgin charred American white oak. Not bourbon, not 51% corn. Made in the style of Scotch, right here in America.Then the topic: the five precepts of the Church, Catechism 2041, page 548 if you've got the classic 90s edition. This is the Church flexing authority, which she rarely does. Most of what she does is defensive. Papal infallibility is a negative power, not a positive one. The precepts are different. They bind, and they're the floor, not the ceiling.Attend Mass on Sundays and holy days, and rest from servile labor. Everybody knows the first half. The second half is the one that stings, because going out to eat after Mass means you're compelling somebody else to work. Nurses show up, gas stations stay open, and nobody needs to be demolished by guilt over a trip to the store. Don't be a Pharisee about it. Do take it seriously.Confess your sins at least once a year, meaning your mortal sins. Go monthly anyway, and do a daily examination of conscience, because you can't remember what you ate two days ago, much less where you lost your temper 28 days ago. Dave prays to Our Lady on the way in: help me make this confession as if it were my last. Adam leaves his phone outside, because it's listening, and that's not a conspiracy. And if you deliberately hold a mortal sin back, the confession is invalid and you've just added to the pile. Compound interest is powerful. Compound sin is worse.Receive the Eucharist at least during the Easter season. Observe the days of fasting and abstinence, which used to be far heavier, and nothing is stopping you from going heavier now. Adam has never once enjoyed fasting. Dave eats nothing until dinner and swears he thinks more clearly for it. Both of them fast every Wednesday with a group of men and offer it up for their wives and their families. That's the domestic priesthood doing what it's for.And help provide for the needs of the Church. Notice it doesn't say if you can afford it. Money is the easy part. Time is the sacrifice, especially in the seasons of fatherhood when there isn't any. Fr. Brian O'Brien's answer when somebody says the church really ought to do this: "I totally agree. You should do it." Your kids need to see you make some of your time sacred, not because nothing else was asking for it, but because you told everything else no.It all lands on stewardship. You don't owe God 10%. You owe Him 100%. The house, the money, the hours, and most of all the kids were never yours, and He's going to want all of it back. Adam is honest about where that gets hard: leaving work drained, walking in the door, wanting to shut down instead of engage. The fix isn't willpower. It's routine. A liturgy of the home. Because those minutes belong to Him too, and at judgment there won't be a single moment that goes unjudged.One housekeeping note. The Camp Out is always the last weekend of September, so put it on the calendar now. Sign-ups open at the end of August, late on purpose, because opening early means people sign up and don't come, and space is limited. Patrons still come free. This year the guys will be asking for donations on site, because Patreon numbers are down and 100% of what comes in goes straight back into the show. Neither of them takes an income from it.Protect what you were given. Provide more than the minimum. Establish a house that looks like the King is coming back for it. Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDDave's summer vacation demoted from three months to two, with Fauci pleading the Fifth on the scienceTwo weeks at a Michigan cabin, chopping firewood to replace what you burn, and a little aluminum fishing boat15,000 miles on a brand new van because Oklahoma City is a multiple-times-a-week tripThree mopeds in 45 minutes in Arkansas, and the unconfirmed existence of a moped gangReading Plato's Republic with the group at Deacon Harrison's, book 10, and Adam's threat to haunt them if he gets kicked outThe new Odyssey movie reviewed: Juan in a dog onesie as Argos and Harrison Garlick arriving with his heart pre-filled with hateWhy folding the lotus eaters into Calypso's island wrecks the most important choice in the storyWhiskey of the week: Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey, on the shelf ten years, "warning, contains high levels of manliness"Why an age statement stops the day it's bottled, because whiskey only ages in the barrelWhat makes Stranahan's American whiskey and not bourbon: four barleys, virgin charred American white oak, made in the style of ScotchBringing back the old show warning, sporadically and without noticeThe five precepts of the Church, Catechism 2041, and why they're the floor and not the ceilingPapal infallibility as a negative, defensive power versus the precepts as the Church flexing positive authorityWhy the Church legislates as little as possible and prefers freedom from the law over obedience to itResting from servile labor: the case against going out to eat after Mass, and why nurses and gas stations are fineSt. John Chrysostom on why you cannot pray at home the way you pray in churchConfessing mortal sins at least once a year, and why monthly confession is the better habitThe daily examination of conscience as the thing that makes confession possible at allDave's prayer to Our Lady walking into the confessional: make this confession as if it were my lastWhy Adam leaves his phone outside the confessionalSt. Alphonsus Liguori on concealing sin, and why an intentionally incomplete confession is invalid and grave matterThe Easter duty and St. Thomas Aquinas on why the Eucharist completes what baptism beginsAquinas's threefold purpose of fasting, and why the second reason is the most interesting oneSt. Basil the Great: fasting as a weapon for the valiant and a gymnasium for athletesFasting every Wednesday with a group of men and offering it up for your wife and familyProviding for the needs of the Church with time, not just money, and Fr. Brian O'Brien's "you should do it"Why churches were built with a piazza out front, and what that says about communityStewardship: you don't owe God 10%, you owe Him 100%, and He wants your kids back"It's the King's house" as a reason to actually take care of what you haveComing home mentally exhausted and shutting down instead of engaging, and why routine beats willpowerThe liturgy of the home: building routines so a weak will has somewhere to fallCatholic Man Show Camp Out: always the last weekend of September, sign-ups open at the end of AugustREFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEBooks &...
Are you sick and tired of living your life from a script that somebody else wrote? In this video, Prof. Spira takes you on a walk down a real American fast-food strip — what he calls "Spira's Inferno" — and breaks down the three steps to deprogram yourself from the death culture and the pus and mucus matrix. Instead of moralizing about junk food, or trying to change a system that was never built for your health in the first place, this video shows you how to observe it, decode it, and step out of it. Prof. Spira walks past the drive-thrus, the gas stations, the logos and the slogans, and reads the propaganda back to you — an environment engineered to make poison effortless and vitality difficult. You'll learn why cravings are not simply a willpower problem, why the hell loop of poison, sickness, and more poison keeps repeating, why Brother Air told him pizza was "slave food" back in 2002, and why Prof. Spira teaches that physiological liberation is the real key. Inside this video, we cover: * Step 1 — OBSERVE: how to walk through the chaos and see it clearly, without judgment* Step 2 — REALIZATION & RELEASE: how the old programming gets unwired * Step 3 — ACCEPTANCE: why trying to change hell is what keeps you stuck in it* How to decode food propaganda instead of consuming it * Why the hell loop of poison, treatment, and more poison repeats* What it means to be "a battery in somebody else's machine" * Why pus and mucus-forming foods sit underneath the whole system* Why alcohol, tobacco, and processed foods are so easy to get, and real food is not * How the Transition Diet and the Mucusless Diet Healing System offer a way out* Why physiological liberation is the goal, not moral superiority If you're serious about learning the Mucusless Diet Healing System and want support applying it in real life, use the links below: Book a clarity call for Transition Diet Bootcamp: https://live.mucusfreelife.com/bootcamp-apply Join the Mucus-Free Life Membership: https://go.mucusfreelife.com/join-ytc Join the newsletter: https://bit.ly/mfl-fb-join Mucus-Free Life is an educational platform exploring the Mucusless Diet Healing System. Content reflects study and experience and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified professional before making changes to your diet, fasting, or health practices. Peace, Love, and Breath!
Ready for real help with OCD or anxiety? Book a free discovery call with me — no pressure, no obligation: robertjamescoaching.com/book-discovery-call Prefer to work at your own pace? My 12-week programs are available self-guided: Break Free from OCD: robertjamescoaching.com/self-guided Sensorimotor OCD: robertjamescoaching.com/sensorimotor-self-guided New here? Start with my free course: robertjamescoaching.com/free Robert James describes severe OCD as a storm that can be observed rather than fought, and explains how anchoring in the body, noticing urges, and letting go of the need for certainty creates space to make different choices. He gives practical steps for recognizing rumination, returning attention to everyday life, and building freedom from OCD, plus information about his 12-week program for anyone seeking extra support Disclaimer: Robert James Pizey (of Robert James Coaching) is not a medical professional and is also not providing therapy or medical treatment. Robert James Pizey recommends that anyone experiencing anxiety or OCD to seek professional medical help straight away to get a medical opinion and rule out other conditions or illnesses. The comments and opinions as written on this site are simply that and are not to be taken as professional medical opinions. Robert James Pizey provides coaching, education, accountability and peer support around Anxiety through his own personal experiences.
That child who waits for you to start every sentence? In this replay I sit down with SLP Alexandria Zachos — founder of Meaningful Speech — to talk about how years of prompting quietly create prompt dependence, and how silence, connection, and a child-led approach help gestalt language processors find their own spontaneous voice. Prompting doesn't lead to spontaneous language. Connection, silence, and meeting a child where they are do. Gestalt language processing (GLP) is a normal, natural way of developing language — just a different path than the analytic, word-by-word route most of us were taught. Alex walks us through what it actually is, how the stages unfold from delayed echolalia to flexible, novel grammar, and why so many kids we've labeled "echolalic" or "scripting" are simply gestalt language processors who need a different kind of support. We also dig into the hard truth about prompting — why fill-in-the-blank, cloze phrases, and always initiating for a child can lead to prompt dependence — and what to do instead: natural language modeling, honoring all communication, and trusting silence to make room for language to emerge. We'll talk about: ● what gestalt language processing is — and why it isn't a disorder ● the six stages of gestalt language development, from delayed echolalia to complex grammar ● how prompting and compliance-based strategies create prompt dependence over time ● why our ultimate goal is spontaneous, flexible, multimodal communication ● how silence, connection, and being a trusted communication partner change everything ● why it's never too late for an older child who has become prompt dependent In This Episode, You'll Learn • What gestalt language processing is, and how it differs from analytic language development • How the stages unfold — delayed echolalia, mitigated echolalia, the "magic" word-freeing stage, and grammar • Why delayed echolalia is always communicating something, even when it isn't literal • How to do "detective work" to figure out what a child's gestalt actually means • Why years of prompting and cloze phrases lead to prompt dependence, not spontaneous language • What targeted natural language modeling looks like across communicative functions • Why "the change starts with us," not with fixing the child • How silence and the OWL approach (Observe, Wait, Listen) create space for language to emerge • Why acknowledging all communication — a smile, a nod, a repeat — builds the trust language grows from Key Takeaways • Gestalt language processing is a natural way of developing language, not a disorder • Delayed echolalia is meaningful — it's communicating something worth investigating • Prompting does not build spontaneous communicators; child-led support does • Our goal is spontaneous, flexible, novel communication — including through AAC • Change starts with what we model and how we respond, not with the child • Silence is a strategy: spontaneous language emerges when the pressure is off • Acknowledge all communication to build the relationship and trust • Use a child's own gestalts — and put them into AAC — for instant buy-in • It's never too late for an older, prompt-dependent child Try This • Notice how often you prompt, question, or fill in the blank — then try saying less • Use the OWL approach: observe, wait, and listen before you speak • Let silence sit; follow the child's lead and join what they love • Acknowledge every attempt to communicate with a repeat, a smile, or a nod • Model language naturally instead of asking the child to perform it • When you hear a gestalt, do some detective work to learn what it means • Add a child's gestalts into their AAC device for automatic buy-in • With an older prompt-dependent child, plan low-pressure sessions to rebuild trust first Related Resources & Links
If you're the person who is stuck right now and you don't know what to post, I need you to get out and start having more conversations. Once you start having these conversations, notice what sparks interest. My audience shapes everything I do, from offers to website content to taglines, and noticing the smallest details can start meaningful conversations that help grow your brand. I'll share how conversations have impacted my content and helped me get brand deals. We'll also look at real content examples and hooks that you can use, even as an introvert or someone who hates talking on camera.In this episode we'll be covering:Sharing things you notice throughout your day without exposing every last detail of your life.Observe reactions and take people behind the scenes recording little things that someone on the outside has never seen before.Start noticing when you're out or working with clients, what is unexpected? What do they ask about? Use this to create content that people will find interesting and start a conversation.Using easy to understand language that anyone can connect with. Featured content in this episode:Gesoderberg: Expensive things that changed my lifeThe.hostess.collective: What to buy for the hostToast_events: Reception crowd favoriteTangkarmen: 10 Things I do on a flight as a nutritionistRecommended episodes:Episode 113: This Instagram Story Strategy Became My Biggest Sales FunnelEpisode 119: Your Boring Life Moments are the Shortcut to SuccessEpisode 121: Discover What's Valuable Once You Start PostingEpisode 122: Insider Style Content is Taking Over Social MediaEpisode 123: Fill in the Blanks and Start Sharing Your Insider KnowledgeSend a message!If you use the send a message option above, be sure to include your email address if you would like a reply! (Please allow 3-5 business days for a response)Join me in the Reels Lab!Love this conversation? Make sure to follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode.Connect with me on Instagram!
This week we welcome back Senior Technical Evangelist Mike Nelson and introduce podcast newcomer and Product Manager Ameerul Shah. Our conversation centers on the latest developments with Fusion and how it is redefining and automating data management. We explore how the Everpure is moving beyond simple storage management by leveraging the Fusion automation engine to empower IT teams to become true data strategists. A major focus of our discussion moves to the new Fusion MCP server release. Mike and Ameerul explain the Model Context Protocol, describing it as the important bridge between infrastructure data and large language models. By providing the right context, the new Fusion MCP allows AI agents to move past confident guessing and hallucinations, enabling them to safely execute real world tasks like provisioning workloads and resolving incidents with supervised actions. We then highlight the open source commitment behind Fusion MCP, designed to help power users and dark site customers integrate their full infrastructure stacks. Mike and Ameerul discuss the power of API first development, the importance of human in the loop supervision for agentic AI, and the broader shift toward autonomous management. Listeners will gain practical insights into how this technology is helping organizations streamline operations and scale their data services more effectively. To learn more, visit: https://blog.everpuredata.com/purely-technical/smarter-ai-powered-data-management-with-everpure-fusion-mcp-server-2/ Check out the new Everpure digital customer community to join the conversation with peers and Everpure experts: https://purecommunity.purestorage.com/ 00:00 Intro and Welcome 06:38 What Product Managers Actually Do 09:55 Origin of Fusion 14:05 Applying AI to Data Management 16:18 What is Model Context Protocol (MCP) 25:45 Observe, Triage, and Act 35:15 MCP is Open Source 38:25 Availability of MCP for Users 42:49 Hot Takes Segment 48:31 Oops IT Stories
Send us Fan MailThe fastest way to wreck a hard-won calm is to say one more thing. In this episode, dig into the escalation trap that shows up in boardrooms, squad cars, kitchens, and group texts: the moment an interaction starts to stabilize, we keep pressing because we still feel the original disrespect, risk, or resistance. That's when accountability quietly turns into humiliation, and influence turns into a contest.We talk through why capable, experienced people miss the off-ramps. Stress narrows perception, ego wants a “win,” and an audience makes us perform. The fix starts with updating your baseline and reading behavior in context, not getting hypnotized by the words. Reduced intensity is information, not proof, so we walk through what to watch for: distance, fixation, posture, speech becoming more organized, and whether the person is actually moving toward a least objectionable way out.You'll also get a simple self-check you can use before you speak or hit send: STOP. Separate the present from the past, Test your purpose, Observe the direction of behavior, and Pick the proportionate next move. We apply it to real scenarios and share how a bystander or teammate can step in without making things worse. If this helps, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review.Support the showWebsite: https://thehumanbehaviorpodcast.buzzsprout.com/shareFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHumanBehaviorPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehumanbehaviorpodcast/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ArcadiaCogneratiMore about Greg and Brian: https://arcadiacognerati.com/arcadia-cognerati-leadership-team/
What if the biggest driver of a good patient experience has nothing to do with the patient at all — at least not at first? In this episode, Jamie sits down with four leaders behind Your Health's new Ambassador program: Rebecca Dillard (Chief Patient Experience Officer), Eddie Caldwell (VP of Talent & Workforce Strategy), Stephanie Martin (Executive Director of Employee Performance), and Whitney Myers (Executive Field Director of Patient Experience). Together they built a 36-person volunteer network designed to move Your Health's values off the wall and into everyday conversations. • Why colleague experience has to come before patient experience — not after it • The five-part Ambassador framework — Observe, Encourage, Celebrate, Listen, Connect — and which piece each guest personally underestimated • How Eddie has changed what he listens for in job interviews to hire for culture fit, not just skill • The simple three-word question — “tell me more” — that's changing how the team listens to understand instead of listening to respond • Why Purpose Partners, a peer-support network launched at the Ambassador retreat, is built to outlast the excitement of any single training day This is a conversation about what culture change actually requires — not slogans, but sustained, person-to-person influence. Press play to hear what a good “ordinary Tuesday” looks like when a culture initiative actually works. www.YourHealth.Org
Adventures in Maya Land "...Observe, with all your presence Time without becoming time" ... Observe, for what you call future is your past" ... the Ancestors from Maya Land There is an inner world inside of you where you are not bounded by time, there is an inner world where Love is the way of Living, naturally You are a child of God, is your time to remember, for the New Earth is here i am you Magdala www.magdalas.com
this episode, continuing our series, we will discuss the SOAP method of bible study. We are talking about tools to help us better observe the text we are reading and apply it to our everyday lives.
Welcome to the Celestial Insights Podcast, the show that brings the stars down to Earth! Each week, astrologer, coach, and intuitive Celeste Brooks of Astrology by Celeste will be your guide. Her website is astrologybyceleste.com.
This was a Money Mindset Monday meeting led by Dan where participants discussed real estate challenges and business strategies. Amy shared her struggle with off-market probate listings where clients wanted higher prices than the market would support, and Dan provided detailed guidance on client communication using the LOVE method (Listen, Observe, Validate, Educate) developed by Rene Rodriguez. Dan emphasized the importance of understanding clients' perspectives, asking curious questions, and demonstrating empathy during negotiations. The discussion then shifted to broader market challenges, with Dan advising participants to focus on process over results, maintain consistency despite difficult market conditions, and invest in professional development opportunities like EXP Con to connect with successful agents.
Duncan Smith, Labour Party TD for Dublin Fingal East, discusses why he is joining a cross-party delegation in Germany to observe the trial of Irish citizen Daniel Tatlow-Devally.
Mientras escuchas este episodio. La Tierra continúa su viaje alrededor del Sol a casi ciento ocho mil kilómetros por hora.Pero no está sola. En nuestra galaxia. La Vía Láctea. Existen cientos de miles de millones de estrellas.Y alrededor de muchas de ellas. Giran planetas. Planetas que jamás veremos con nuestros propios ojos. Planetas donde nunca amanecerá para nosotros. Mundos congelados. Mundos abrasados por temperaturas imposibles. Planetas donde un año dura apenas unas horas...Y otros donde un amanecer puede tardar décadas.Ahora imagina esto. Entre todos esos mundos. Podría existir uno donde, en este mismo instante. Alguien levante la vista hacia su cielo.Observe una pequeña estrella amarilla a cientos o miles de años luz de distancia. Y se pregunte exactamente lo mismo que nosotros. "¿Estaremos solos?"Durante miles de años esa pregunta perteneció a la filosofía. A la religión. A la imaginación. Hoy, pertenece también a la ciencia.Y por primera vez en la historia. Tenemos herramientas capaces de comenzar a responderla.Curiosidad Científica Podcast (@curiosidacientificapodcast) • Instagram photos and videosHandcrafted Soap for Daily Use | Don Gato Soap Co. – Jabonera Don Gatocodigo: Curiosidad
The 5D Academy with Zarathustra explores universal wisdom to foster total freedom from suffering in all areas of your life; health, wealth, love, and self. Each Academy podcast contains valuable insights and takeaways to become the best version of yourself and create an authentic, fulfilling life. Zarathustra transmits 5th Dimensional Quantum frequencies in each episode with transformational tools while discussing different topics to help you maintain this new frequency in your daily life. Zarathustra has created a practical system of transmitting the truth to his audience allowing transformation and freedom from suffering. Spiritual development requires an open heart. It is virtually impossible for a seeker to advance to higher consciousness if they don't love themselves. The belief system which has been ingrained in our cellular memory from childhood that we are not good enough results in a conditioned mind. The conditioned mind holds the false belief that there is something missing in our lives, that we are incomplete, that we need to gain something in order to become happy and whole, which is not true. After a life time of searching, Zarathustra has blended a practical system of Eastern and Western methods and techniques to help the Academy members to free themselves from anxiety, negative thoughts, lack of self-love and self-acceptance and destructive emotional patterns through a systematic way to raise your vibration to 5D Vibrational Frequency, which enables you to live a vibrant life of freedom and happiness. The Key Elements To Freedom: Zarathustra recognizes continuity and consistency are the key elements to freedom. In order to help you achieve your spiritual goals, it's best to have a highly effective spiritual practice, free of dogmas, false beliefs and superstition that helps you raise your vibration to 5D Vibrational Frequency as well as the ability to maintain this newly found higher level of consciousness. This translates to a life filled with inner peace, self-love and happiness which is the goal of every spiritual seeker. New knowledge and benefits are gained with each replay. Scroll down for a record of all 5D Academy podcasts and for more information about Zarathustra's 5th Dimensional Academy of Higher Consciousness, Upcoming Events, Workshops or 5th Dimensional Quantum Healing & Awareness Training Programs, please visit: www.Zarathustra.TV WARNING: The 5D Academy transformational process is highly effective and very intense. You may find it severely challenging as old patterns shift. Working with Zarathustra requires absolute ownership and personal accountability. If you are mentally unstable, weak, tend to blame others, and/or are unwilling/unable to take personal responsibility please do NOT proceed. Zarathustra is not a doctor and makes no medical claims. Nothing Zarathustra or any agents/employees of 5th Dimensional Quantum Awareness communicates should be construed as medical or psychological advice of any kind. Please see a health professional for all medical assessments & treatments. By viewing this statement and using any products, services or information contained herein, you agree to our Disclaimer and agree to indemnify and hold harmless Zarathustra, 5th Dimensional Quantum Healing & Awareness and any employees/agents of the Company of any liabilities. Website: www.zarathustra.tv/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/zarathustra5d/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/zarathustra5d/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/zarathustra5d Twitter: www.twitter.com/Zarathustra5d
Observe the similarities between “walking by the Spirit” and the Sermon on the Mount.Reading Plan: Worship - Psalm 84:8-14Wisdom - Proverbs 18:6-8Witness - Matthew 5-7Visit https://www.revivalfromthebible.com/ for more information.
THE #1 SKILL THAT CHANGES EVERYTHINGFull Video:https://youtu.be/Wxj5kFBOhiMhttps://www.instagram.com/janeapplegathYOUTUBE: https://bit.ly/4jqFLbiSpotify, iTunes and more. https://bit.ly/3Ey8bAWTHE MOST POWERFUL WORDS YOU'LL EVER SPEAKARE THE ONES THAT MAKE ANOTHER PERSON FEEL SEEN."Every conversation is an opportunity to build trust. Or break it.The happiest people aren't always the smartest or the most talented.They're the ones who know how to make others feel heard, valued, and understood.Communication skills begin the moment you stop thinking about what you're going to say next and start paying attention. You make a HUMAN CONNECTION.Observe. Listen. Adapt. Build RAPPORT and TRUST.Whether you're leading a team, raising children, growing a business, strengthening marriage, making an influence or new friendships, one skill changes everything:Learn to communicate from their world, not just your own. Because people don't remember every word you say, they remember how you made them feel.MASTER COMMUNICATION, AND YOU'LL STOP WINNING ARGUMENTS, AND START WINNING HEARTS.
The 5D Academy with Zarathustra explores universal wisdom to foster total freedom from suffering in all areas of your life; health, wealth, love, and self. Each Academy podcast contains valuable insights and takeaways to become the best version of yourself and create an authentic, fulfilling life. Zarathustra transmits 5th Dimensional Quantum frequencies in each episode with transformational tools while discussing different topics to help you maintain this new frequency in your daily life. Zarathustra has created a practical system of transmitting the truth to his audience allowing transformation and freedom from suffering. Spiritual development requires an open heart. It is virtually impossible for a seeker to advance to higher consciousness if they don't love themselves. The belief system which has been ingrained in our cellular memory from childhood that we are not good enough results in a conditioned mind. The conditioned mind holds the false belief that there is something missing in our lives, that we are incomplete, that we need to gain something in order to become happy and whole, which is not true. After a life time of searching, Zarathustra has blended a practical system of Eastern and Western methods and techniques to help the Academy members to free themselves from anxiety, negative thoughts, lack of self-love and self-acceptance and destructive emotional patterns through a systematic way to raise your vibration to 5D Vibrational Frequency, which enables you to live a vibrant life of freedom and happiness. The Key Elements To Freedom: Zarathustra recognizes continuity and consistency are the key elements to freedom. In order to help you achieve your spiritual goals, it's best to have a highly effective spiritual practice, free of dogmas, false beliefs and superstition that helps you raise your vibration to 5D Vibrational Frequency as well as the ability to maintain this newly found higher level of consciousness. This translates to a life filled with inner peace, self-love and happiness which is the goal of every spiritual seeker. New knowledge and benefits are gained with each replay. Scroll down for a record of all 5D Academy podcasts and for more information about Zarathustra's 5th Dimensional Academy of Higher Consciousness, Upcoming Events, Workshops or 5th Dimensional Quantum Healing & Awareness Training Programs, please visit: www.Zarathustra.TV WARNING: The 5D Academy transformational process is highly effective and very intense. You may find it severely challenging as old patterns shift. Working with Zarathustra requires absolute ownership and personal accountability. If you are mentally unstable, weak, tend to blame others, and/or are unwilling/unable to take personal responsibility please do NOT proceed. Zarathustra is not a doctor and makes no medical claims. Nothing Zarathustra or any agents/employees of 5th Dimensional Quantum Awareness communicates should be construed as medical or psychological advice of any kind. Please see a health professional for all medical assessments & treatments. By viewing this statement and using any products, services or information contained herein, you agree to our Disclaimer and agree to indemnify and hold harmless Zarathustra, 5th Dimensional Quantum Healing & Awareness and any employees/agents of the Company of any liabilities. Website: www.zarathustra.tv/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/zarathustra5d/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/zarathustra5d/ YouTube: www.youtube.com/zarathustra5d Twitter: www.twitter.com/Zarathustra5d
This episode is part of the Faith By Reason teaching library — over 100 episodes of in-depth Bible study, Christian apologetics, and systematic theology.
Welcome to the Weekly Invitation. Every Monday, we'll begin the week together by slowing down and reconnecting with the rhythms of the natural world.Together, we'll explore the season we're walking through, the archetypes of the Moon as it moves through each sign, and one simple reflection to carry with us throughout the week.These conversations aren't meant to predict your future or tell you who you are.They're an invitation to become curious.To observe.To reflect.To notice.I believe we're on a journey back to ourselves through our relationship with nature.The changing seasons.The tides.The birds.The trees.The weather.And yes… the Sun, Moon, and stars.Nature has always been speaking.Perhaps we've simply forgotten how to listen.Throughout these Weekly Invitations, I'll occasionally share what I've personally noticed while observing these rhythms over the years. My hope isn't that you adopt my experience as your own, but that it encourages you to begin noticing your own.Because the invitation isn't really to notice the Moon.The invitation is to notice yourself.Beginning each week on Moon Monday, we'll gather for a moment of reflection and curiosity.Then every Thursday, we'll meet again for Rooted & Rising—a deeper conversation inspired by Jupiter, exploring the stories, teachings, and practices that help us root deeply, rise authentically, and trust ourselves along the way.Thank you for beginning this new rhythm with me.I'm so grateful you're here.⸻This Week's Invitation
A burst of light is a beautiful sign that everything is going to be okay. Living an intuitive life means taking whatever life hands you and giving it a positive spin. Sonia C. and Sonia T. know the importance of embracing the darkness because it has a way of magnifying the light. If you want more light in your life, start looking for it today! Positive energy is always swirling around you, you just need to reach out and capture it. This week's theme is: Observe the energy that is all around you. Speed Dial Your Guides Manifestation Transmission on June 20th Grab Sonia Choquette's FREE Meditation Guide! Highlights: Lights are bursting all around Sonia C. [:50] No matter how dark the world is, you have your own lantern to guide you. [3:44] Sonia T. is choosing to be as slow as a turtle today. [4:55] When you feel challenged, what do you do first? [7:50] Pause and scan your energy - what are you feeling at every layer? [12:19] Sonia C. recognizes her need for mutual respect. But what does she do about it? [15:28] 3 checkpoints when scanning your energy. [21:35] Feeling too much? Stop the input so that your spirit can speak. [26:40] Slow down for the rest of the month. [28:09] The gift of childlike energy. [33:45] Tool of the Week: Observe, don't absorb, the energy around you. [41:02] Question of the Week: How do you follow your path when it is intertwined with a partner? [48:28] We are currently approaching the summer solstice, so light is filling our every days. But when the winter solstice is here, it brings with it a whole lot of darkness. No matter what time of year you are currently facing, never fear! You have your own lantern to guide you through even the darkest days. Living an intuitive life means that you find the good and meaning in everything that is happening, no matter how dark it may seem in the moment. Intuition bubbles up from your body. Are you taking time to listen to what your body is saying? Sonia C. noticed a real change in her energy when her knee was hurting, and Sonia T. has recognized her need to slow down during the holiday season craziness. Observe the energy around you, but don't feel the pressure to absorb it. Your spirit and your inner child will thank you! Tool of the Week: Observe, don't absorb, the energy around you. [41:02] Question of the Week: How do you follow your path when it is intertwined with a partner? [48:28] Continue on Your Journey: Grab Sonia C.'s New Card Deck Here! Your Glorious Life Sonia C.'s In the Moment Guidance Good Vibes Tribe More Sonia Choquette Follow Sonia Choquette on Instagram Sonia Choquette on YouTube Sonia Choquette's Book Read Life ACCURATELY: Recognize and Respond to What's Really Happening Soul Mastery: 22 Lessons to Reinvent Your Life Order Sonia Choquette's Trust Your Vibes Guided Journal True Balance book by Sonia C. More Sonia Tully Psychic YOUniversity Level 1 Waitlist Psychic YOUniversity Level 2 Waitlist Book a Reading with Sonia Tully Sonia on Substack Follow Sonia Tully on Instagram Book a Discovery Call with Sonia Tully Free Spiritual Toolkit and Meditation Connect with Sabrina Tully Buy Sonia and Sabrina's book, You Are Amazing Share with us your questions and vibe stories at itsallrelatedpodcastquestions@gmail.com and vibecheck@soniatully.com