In today's episode Kate and Elizabeth discuss the ongoing process of self-discovery and gaining new insights. How self-reflection and self-care should be prioritized in order to effectively navigate life’s challenges and tap into our potential. How our bodies have a vast potential energy with the ability to influence our DNA, self-regulate and make changes. Why taking responsibility for our own healing is necessary and vital to our capacity for love and joy in our life. They discuss how to process emotions from childhood such as grief, recognize patterns that do not serve us, and take action to care for ourselves. 

• Always Starting Over: Uncovering the Hidden Power of Will (00:00 - 07:18)
• Living in the Question: How We Move Through Uncomfortable Spaces and Tap into the Field of Infinite Possibility. (07:19 - 13:47)
• The Power of Self-Regulation: Harnessing the Power of Our Cells (13:47 - 20:35)
• Healing from Painful Experiences: Taking Responsibility for My Healing (20:36 - 27:25)
• The Journey of Understanding: Grieving the Loss and Treating the Little Girl's Needs (27:25 - 34:28)
• Grief, Gratitude, and the Unchecked Instincts of Survival (34:28 - 41:06)
• Healing Our Wounds: Processing the Emotions of Childhood (41:06 - 42:58)

Gregg Braden Website

In this episode Kate and Elizabeth focus on how to overcome self-pity and transform one's wellbeing. Their conversation includes accepting one's current reality, discovering the divine spirit within, and taking ownership of one's life. Additionally, they emphasize the need to take responsibility for one's actions and be conscious in life. Learning to live awake is a journey worth taking.

• Self-Pity: Breaking Free from the Victim Current. (00:00 - 07:03)
• The Power of Self-Pity: Understanding its Disempowerment (07:04 - 14:09)
• Victimhood and Recovery: Understanding the Difference Between Fear and Love (14:10 - 21:13)
• The Power of Choice: Taking Responsibility for Ourselves (21:13 - 27:50)
• God's Protection in Rejection: Choosing to Overcome a Challenging Moment (27:51 - 33:48)
• Taking Responsibility and Living an Enlightened Life (33:50 - 40:19)
•  

In this week's episode, Elizabeth and Kate jump off by talking about Deepak Chopra's teachings on the Wisdom of Uncertainty and the Wisdom of Insecurity found in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.  

• What is Poverty vs. Wealth Consciousness? 00:00 - 08:02
• The Wisdom of Uncertainty 08:02 - 15:20
• The Wisdom of Insecurity and how we habituate 15:20 - 23:09
• Moving from mind-focused to higher consciousness-focused 23:10 - 29:19
• Consciousness and Our Point of View 29:19 - 36:26
• Marketing our egos to ourselves and buying in! 36:26 - 43:20
• Experiencing "The Gap" 43:21 - 50:25
• Plumbing the depths of pain and letting go 50:26 - 54:04

• Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
•  Elizabeth's previous podcast with her friend Dr. Phil D. Mayer, can be found at GratefulTummyBooks.com
• Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. 2001
• Alison Armstrong, Understanding Men, online course available here
• Eckhart Tolle elaborates on the relationship between awareness and our thinking in his videos and books. A relevant talk on this subject is here.
• Chopra discusses "infinite choices," mentioned by Elizabeth, as well as karma and samskaras here
• Byron Katie's "The Work" can be found here

Are you ever trying to figure out the answer to something and no matter how you think about it, you're stuck? Elizabeth and Kate talk about realizing that "figuring it out" (by constant thinking) doesn't work because we end up using parts of our brains that are not the center of stillness or intuition. Instead, when we have a question or a problem, one technique is to set the thing we are thinking about on a mental shelf and go into meditation with a mantra, counting, or breathing practice, essentially letting the buzzing problem go untouched during our sit. Then when we rise from the sit and go about our days, how do we handle the decisions to be made and the persistent thoughts that seem to still be clamoring (if a bit more quietly)? By not focusing on it. Kate and Elizabeth discuss how that looks in practice and how we do it together in community. 

• Uncovering the Power of Spiritual Principles - 00:00 - 06:43
• Facing Stress: Using the Gap to Find Peace - 06:32 - 13:27
• Using Meditation to Detach from Desires - 13:28 - 20:51
• Awakening to the Sacred Ordinary - 20:51 - 27:48
• Using Mantra Meditation - 27:48 - 35:12
• Feeling Peace - 35:14 - 42:06
• Then Finding Joy - 42:08 - 49:07

• Around the Year with Emmet Fox, Emmet Fox
• Joel Goldsmith discusses oneness in many books. A great place to start is Living the Infinite Way
• Chuck C recorded a series of talks then collected into a book, both titled A New Pair of Glasses
• Michael Singer's teachings start in The Untethered Soul and continue in Living Untethered
• Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Deepak Chopra
• The spiritually sacred act of washing dishes is expanded upon here and is one of Thich Nhat Hanh's small, great lessons
• Roger Gabriel serves as Deepak Chopra's Chief Meditation Officer at the Chopra Center. More on him here
• We've talked about Sri Ramana Maharshi before. More on his teachings here. 
• Information on Caroline Myss can be found here.
• The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism can be read about in numerous places, including here. 

In today's episode Kate and Elizabeth discuss the benefits of gaining spiritual principles and practices, such as meditation, spiritual reparenting and mindful living. Through practices such as faith, action, and exercise, individuals can gain insight into the effects of meditation and take steps to make positive changes in their lives. Additionally, their conversation leads to how meditation can improve cognitive functioning and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression. They move into the importance of creating a morning practice as a means of centering oneself. Finally, they discuss the "law of substitution" and other positive mantras and  how to create a mindful practice.

• Consistency Trumps Quantity: Exploring Faith, Beliefs, and Actions for a Consistent Meditation Practice (00:00 - 07:31)
• Revolutionary Ideas Of Meditation - Rejecting Your Mind's Hypervigilance and Focusing On What Grows (07:31 - 13:53)
• Spiritual Reparenting: Recognizing Fundamental Building Blocks for Human Being in the World (13:53 - 21:07)
• Harnessing the Benefits of Mindful Meditation and Self-Discipline (21:07 - 28:39)
• Unlocking Mindful Practices: Harnessing the Power of Mosaic Healing and Spiritual Science (28:40 - 35:37)
• Training the Mind: How to Live Effectively with Stress and Trauma (35:37 - 39:18)

Elizabeth begins by reading a personal reflection about the troubled relationship she had between her head and her heart and learning to live peacably with both--now that head is no longer demaning heart be silent. Taming our heads by meditation means our minds no longer dominate our hearts' intuition and guidance--or force it into submission.  Kate shares about a form of therapy that is enabling her heart to offer healing to the traumatic mental images following her mother's death. 

One bellweather for whether head or heart is in charge is to consider how we treat ourselves when we are tired--do we keep adding commitments, or go home and rest? When heart tells us to slow down and head barrels forward, what is the resistance in us to honoring what we know is right for us? Are our habits true to us? 

1. Dropping down from Head to Heart - 00:00 - 08:03
2. Mind-Heart connection - 08:03 - 15:38 
3. Honoring intuition by unifying our mental, spiritual, and emotional selves - 15:39 - 24:20
4. Letting Go of Habitual Connections - 24:20 - 31:55
5. The Power of Commitment and Discernment - 31:55 - 38:14
6. Living Heart-Fully: Unfolding Divine Synchronicities in the Everyday - 38:14 - 42:41

• Elizabeth mentions the three components of action, memory and desire; this triad is from the teachings of Deepak Chopra.
• Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist. 
• You are Here: Mastering the Magic of the Present Moment, Thich Nhat Hanh
• Kate references EMDR, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, in healing from symptoms of PTSD. EMDR should be done with a professional who is trained in that form of therapy. Clinical research is referenced here.
•  Michael Singer, who we love, writes about the ex's car in The Untethered Soul
• The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Deepak Chopra

Elizabeth and Kate discuss the meaning they each find in a passage in A Parenthesis in Eternity by Joel S. Goldsmith. Goldsmith says that if we live in the invisible source, we draw only good from life. But how can we reconcile that with the pain and evil we see in the world? Elizabeth and Kate talk about how to have real faith despite our ubiquitous perceptions of suffering and how human consciousness fails where the spiritual connection creates a different world. We can practice experiencing good no matter what: by making a conscious choice to focus on the good; by watching our reactions in the moment that personalize our pain; by laughing; and by noticing that those who have survived the greatest suffering are often the most grateful.  

1. Dwelling constantly in the invisible cause means we draw only good from life. How is this possible? 00:00 - 09:35
2. Moving beyong personalizing our life experiences - 09:35 - 17:57
3. Bursting the personal bubble to drop down into heart living - 17:57 - 25:45
4. Surrendering the parts of ourselves that imprison us - 25:46 - 33:55
5. The thunder of silence and oneness - 33:55 - 41:36
6. Human consciousness vs. God consciousness - 41:37 - 46:15

• A Parenthesis in Eternity by Joel S. Goldsmith page 76. 
• The Thunder of Silence by Joel S. Goldsmith
•  The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
• The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer
• Living Untethered by Michael Singer

Today we talk about the practice moment to moment awareness to pain as it arises using the example of Kate navigating driving in the rain after her mother was killed in a car accident during a storm. Elizabeth and Kate talk about practicing Michael Singer's vision of allowing pain to enter and leave the body as energy when pain comes to avoid storing it and hardening it. They talk about meditation techniques they have used and the openness to try new ones.  

1. Staying present through recurrent pain - 00:00 - 07:48
2. Permitting stressors to enter and leave as energy - 07:48 - 15:29
3. Power of meditation: unlocking intentional living - 15:29 - 23:30
4. Living in the question - 23:21 - 31:37
5. Letting go of concepts in each moment - 31:37 - 39:17
6. Experiencing oneness and quiet - 39:17 - 41:54

Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul - We reference him a lot, and there's a reason for that. Check out his website, and try not to be drawn into this book from the first page. 

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, 

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and to try to love the questions themselves
like locked rooms and like books that are written
in a very foreign tongue.
Do not now seek the answers,
which cannot be given you
because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it,
live along some distant day
into the answer."

David M. Potter, Stanford Professor of History, as quoted to me by my father: "All the Simple Answers Seem Suspect" – David M. Potter

Plato, The Apology: "The unexamined life..." (yep, we love returning to this idea as well)

Ramana Maharshi, the Who Am I teaching instructions. 

Joel S. Goldsmith, A Parenthesis in Eternity: Chapter VI, God, the Consciousness of the Individual, on the Buddha's seeking first outside, and then within: "He does it all, but he does not find God. Then when he decides to eat and be comfortable, he sits down under the Bodhi tree and there, alone with God, he meets Him face to face and receives his illumination. He had been seeking God in practices, exercises, diets, and fasting, and God is not to be found in any of these. God is to be found only within. It is not easy to shut out the world and enter the inner sanctuary of your being, but if you have to do this and stay away from the world for a year..."

Magic carpet rides are often sourced to One Thousand and One Nights, or at least it is in Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which I found on Wikipedia.

Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way, suggesting Morning Pages for all creative enterprises. More on that here.