Podcast 381: Sustainable Wellness with Matt Mumber MD and Heather Reed

 

Heather ReedEveryone today is focused on wellness, and it is a topic that deserves a lot of focus and attention.  I had the pleasure of interviewing both Dr. Matt Mumber and Heather Reed about their new book entitled “Sustainable Wellness-An Integrative Approach to Transform Your Mind, Body and Spirit.”.   I must state that Matt and Heathers approaching to achieving sustainable wellness uses an integrative medicine approach which if followed properly will certainly help one achieve sustainable wellness with lasting results.

I found their  analogy of using the three legged stool a great way to explain how they both approach the topic of wellness.  If you can imagine a three legged stool with the seat being spirituality , and the three legs physical activity, nutrition, and stress management all feeding into our spirituality.   The stool rests on awareness, which is the foundation of where all wellness begins.   This provides a great visual of the integrative approach that both Matt and Heather take when working with their clients to achieve truly lasting wellness.

Achieving sustainable wellness begins with reflection and exploration.  In the book you will find many opportunities where  Matt and Heather  provide the reader with questions for reflection and thought.  They have also have created and an eight (8) steps process to follow in exploring your personal wellness RX.  Those steps include mindfulness, know thyself, life review and planning, nutrition, physical activity, stress management, spirituality, bringing it all together.  If you follow these steps and practice the wisdom that the authors have outlined in “Sustainable Wellness” you will most likely  achieve a new level of health and vitality for yourself.

Matt Mumber, MDI invite you to listen to this great podcast with both Dr. Matt Mumber and Heather Reed while we explore questions for the listeners about obtaining a peak level of health, vitality and wellness.  If you would like to learn more you can click here to be directed to the Sustainable Wellness website, or you can click here to watch a Youtube video interview with Matt.

Podcast 367: Awakening Somatic Intelligence with Risa Kaparo

Risa KaparoOur body speak to us, the question is are you listening?  In my recent interview with author Risa Kaparo we speak about her new book entitled “Awakening Somatic Intelligence“.  Risa states “This book offers a practice that brings immediacy to presencing the unbound source of all existence.

In Somatic Learning I use the term presencing as a verb to imply the embodying of spaciousness with awakened Somatic Intelligence. “Extended presence” refers to the process of living into the unknown, relaxed and curious, without efforting to grasp anything–aware of what happens in the bodymind as you ease the struggle to “wrap your mind around something”.  When we can be present or mindful as we live into the unknown, the infinite reveals itself to us so that we can come to know it intimately.

If you are experiencing any pain or discomfort in your body then “Somatic Intelligence” is a great opportunity to explore what is causing this pain and to transform it.  As Risa states the word “somatic”comes from the Greek root some, for body.  The conventional use of the word “body” in English implies an “object” observed from the outside. That is way I use the term “soma” to refer to how we sense the unfolding of life from within. And I use the term “somatic” to imply a first-person, here-now, all-at once, embodied intelligence-how we sense, feel and know ourselves on a precess level–from the inside out.

Risa says that listening to our body is the “ultimate practice”, embracing whatever is arising through our fill embodiment. As a result we “drink in” the infinite, we presence or “take up” vast spaciousness, infusing our whole being with consciousness that pervades all of existence.  And as we “kiss back”, our heartfelt savoring overflows, embuing this spaciousness with the luminosity of love. The ecstatic “practice” refers to the deepening of our capacity to bear the infinite as beloved, as intimately as our breath, bones, blood.

“Awakening Somatic Intelligence” is a book that is alive with stories, exercises and provides the reader with a whole new way to approach any dis-ease or discomfort of our body.  Is is the embodiment of years of study and blending of a innovative bodymind approach to transformative healing and self-renewal.   It teaches embodied mindfulness through breathing, sensing, movement and touch to revitalize the body’s self-organizing intelligence.

If you would like more information about “Awakening Somatic Intelligence” I recommend that you visit Risa’s website by clicking here or watch a YouTube video on Somatic Intelligence by clicking here.  Enjoy this great interview with author Risa Kapro.

Podcast 319: Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and The Brain with John Ratey, MD

John Ratey MDI know that their has been lots of talk recently about our brain health.  Recently I had the honor of doing a podcast with John Ratey MD, the author of a book entitled ” Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.” In our interview together we discuss the many benefits and correlations to exercise and our brain health.

I know that many of us do not think about the “brain muscle” when we are doing our exercise programs, but the fact of the matter is that our exercise program has as much importance to keeping our brains sharp and clear as it does on building the other muscles in our body.

In a landmark study, aerobic exercise was shown to be as effective as antidepressants.  That women who exercise lower their chances of developing dementia by 50%.  Exercise even sparks new brain-cell growth, and it happens on three levels. First, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information, and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus.  The evidence is incontrovertible: aerobic exercise physically transforms our brains for peak performance.

The world seems to be getting more and more stressful these days, and the correlation between exercise and stress reduction is not big news to anyone.  But the importance that the exercise plays in improving our brain function is big news!!!.  The face that we’re much less active than our ancestors only exacerbates matters.  Just keep in mind that the more stress you have, the more your body needs to move to keep your brain running smoothly.

The next time you exercise, or more importantly decide to skip exercising think again.  Your brain really needs you to put in extra hours on the treadmill or biking to perform at peak levels.  If you want to learn more about exercise and your brain you can visit John Ratey’s website by clicking here.  There are many articles and references that I know you will find of value.

I hope you enjoy listening to my interview with author John Ratey MD about ” Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.”

Podcast 310: Aware, Awake, Alive with Dr. Elliot Dacher

Elloitt Dacher MDDr. Elliott Dacher has been a guest at Inside Personal Growth previously.  I am honored to bring him back again to speak with us about his new book entitled ” Aware, Awake, Alive-A Contemporary Guide to the Ancient Science of Integral Health and Human Flourishing“.  Prior to his deep work in the Indian modalities of health and healing, Dr. Dacher practiced Western medicine for over 21 years seeing over 50,000 patients. Over this period of time, Dr. Dacher was finding that for many of his patients that the conventional ways of Western medicine were not have a lasting and sustainable healing impact that he would have liked to have had.

Through a series of serendipitous events Dr. Dacher ended up spending over 12 years going back and forth between the US and India studying the aspects of healing and what is termed in the book as “Human Flourishing”.   As Dr. Dasher state in the book ” to flourish is to move beyond the stress, dissatisfaction, and suffering that too often limits and diminishes our lives, and reclaim the profound well-being which resides at the center of our being.  That is our vision, a vision of human flourishing.

Even though each of our lives has an inner and outer aspect, they are usually unequally developed.  In modern times our focus has been on the outer aspects.  We have mastered an understanding of biology.  We know how to enhance our physical well-being, address physiological disturbances, reduce biological risk factors and promote high levels of physical wellness.  As mythologist Joseph Campbell reminds us, “where there was once darkness there is now light”.  We once knew very little about our biology, and now we know a great deal. But he also reminds us that, ” Were there was once light there is now darkness” There was a time we had a profound understanding of our inner life.  We could describe and traverse, as Plato did, the full development of consciousness from darkness to light, from confusion to wisdom. But in modern times that is no longer the case.  We have mastery of the outer world but we have simultaneously lost touch with our inner life.  It has become a buried and unseen treasure.

In Elliot’s book ” Aware, Awake, Alive” he provides the reader with a course of practice and study that is 10 weeks in length, along with more advanced material for those who master the basics and want to continue on.  This book and workbook provides the student with a complete overview of the journey to human flourishing—vision, path, fruition, and integration.   It also includes a CD to help the reader/student establish a stable and effective daily practice.

If you ready to transform your life completely, and have health, happiness and lasting bliss then you just might want to consider reading and studying the content of ” Aware, Awake, Alive” by Dr. Elliott Dacher.
I know you will enjoy this enlightening interview with someone who has devoted their life to helping us understand the miracles of how doing the deep inner work will assist in healing our bodies.  If you want to learn more about Dr. Dacher and his course please click here to be directed to his website.

Podcast 304: Embrace, Release, Heal: An Empowering Guide to Talking about, Thinking about, and Treating Cancer with Leigh Fortson

Inside Personal Growth with Greg Voisen · Podcast 304: Embrace, Release, Heal: An Empowering Guide to Treating Cancer w/ Leigh Fortson I recently had the

Podcast 300: Energy Healing for Beginners with Ann Marie Chiasson

Ann Marie ChiassonIt was a pleasure interviewing Dr. Ann Marie Chiasson recently about her new Sounds True program entitled “Energy Healing for Beginners“.   I thoroughly enjoyed about my interview with Ann Marie and was especially touched by the sincere way that she approaches “energy healing”. You can intuit from the beginning of our interview that she is authentic and really passionate about her work.

Her course which consists of 5 CD’s, DVD, 25 reference cards and a 107 page workbook is designed to teach you how to use movement, awareness, breath, and your hands to sense and shift energy in your body for specific results.  Ann Marie presents practices based on energy techniques that she learned from healers and teachers of energy medicine over the last eighteen years, and from a deeply personal exploration of her body as a patient, healer, and physician.

Energy medicine as Ann Marie describes in the workbook is based on the concept that ” in addition to a system of physical and chemical processes, the human being is made up of a complex system of energy.”  This underlying energy field, also called the subtle body, is housed within the physical body and extends beyond it.  She uses the analogy of a garden, where the health of the soil effect how a plant grows and flowers.  If the soil is nutrient depleted, the plant grows poorly.  Likewise, if the energy body is not balanced and the energy does not flow or move in it natural state the physical body is affected and can begin to function improperly.
Ann Marie provides the reader, listener and viewer of her program with wonderful instructions on how to learn and practice energy work on their own.  Her series of CD’s, DVD, and instructional workbook are a wonderful way to start down a path and explore techniques to heal and support harmony and balance in your body.  During our interview together she explored and tested with me a couple of techniques that I was not aware of–they were amazing in moving my blocked energy.

I highly recommend that you listen too, read and practice with Ann Marie and her new series ” Energy Healing for Beginners.  Enjoy my interview with a wonderful healer and beautiful soul, Dr. Ann Marie Chiasson.

If you would like more information on Dr. Chiasson just click here to be directed to her website.

Podcast 292: True Belonging with Jeffrey Brantley

 

Jeffrey-Brantley-M.D.-color-headshot-175x261I sincerely appreciate Dr. Jeff Brantley and the work that he is doing at Duke University as the director of mindfulness-based stress reduction in the Integrative Medicine department.  His new book co-authored with Wendy Millstine entitled ” True Belongings” is a simple read and a wonderful reminder of the practices we can implement into our daily lives to overcome loneliness and connect with others.

Have you ever wondered what keeps you from connecting more authentically and deeply in each moment–with yourself, with another or with the flow of your life?  Are you ever curious about the obstacles blocking you from from experiences of deep joy and unwavering contentment and belonging?

Who among us has not been affected by one or more of these challenges in our lives?  The experiences of loss and vulnerability that we all share is yet another way in which we humans are more alike than we are different.  As human beings we are part of the whole, called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space.  We experience, thoughts and feeling as something separate from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of consciousness.

What Jeff and Windy bring forth in “True Belongings” is how mindfulness can help us in becoming more connected not only to one another, but at a soul level to who and what we are longing to express to the world.  Mindfulness is a core human capacity, and it refers to noticing or knowing what is happening in each moment. Mindfulness is the awareness of your thoughts–mindfulness does not identify with any thoughts or feelings but is aware of them.

In this book the authors assist you in shifting your perspective and frame of reference that you are holding in any given moment.  Learning to release the personality’s grip on any narrow perspectivel on any subject-setting down and relaxing the view dictated by the rigidly held opinion of the ego-mind–immediately open each of us to a much vaster and more mysterious universe of possibilities and meanings, alive in each moment.

 

This book is filled with wonderful practices that when cultivated will bring you into a closer relationship with yourself and other.  I recommend reading and learning what truly will help one transform the loneliness and isolation feeling into happiness and belonging.  I hope you enjoy this great interview with Dr. Jeffrey Brantley.  If you would like more information about Dr. Brantley please click here to be directed to his website.

Podcast 285: Sharp: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower with Heidi Hanna

 

Heidi HannaI personally have been working with author and coach Heidi Hanna PhD over the last three months.  Her new book entitled “SHARP: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower” is a must read for all my listeners.  If you have ever wondered what are some of the things that you could be doing to assist you in having more energy, improve your focus and mental clarity then Heidi new book is the place to start.

We are all leading very busy lives, with more stimulation coming at us from every direction..cell phones, emails, instant “ON” almost all the time.  Do you ever wonder what all of this is doing to our brains?  Are you beginning to forget or you memory doesn’t seem as  SHARP.  Heidi speaks about these problems and provides practical advice on dealing with these issues.

In her book “SHARP: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower” readers will: 1) Understand how the demands on your time and energy impact your mental capacity, and learn critical components of brain health that provide a foundation for improved cognitive functioning. 2) How to utilize the power of brain training to stimulate mental energy with exercises that improve learning in areas that have the most impact on performance. 3) How to create an actionable plan for implementing a sustainable brain health training program that can be applied to your everyday life.

Our constant state of busyness has created a chronic level of stress on our brain–so toxic, in fact that experts believe more than 75% of medical visits are stress related. Heidi states that honestly most of us are too busy to notice, and will not realize the devastating impact of stress on our lives until it takes a serious toll on our health, happiness and performance.   Stress is literally making us sicker.

In Heidi’s new book “SHARP: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower” you will be guided and coached on the proper steps to take to reduce stress, eat healthier and techniques to improve your brains function.  I don’t know about you but my brain is of utmost importance to the proper functioning of my job, and I believe that this is the case with almost all workers in society today.  But just how often do you think about the fitness of your brain—you take it for granted don’t you?  If you listen to, and read what Heidi has been teaching and coaching top executives for years you will really alter many of your current habits that are effecting the functioning of your brain.
If you would like more information about author Heidi Hanna and her new book please click here to be directed to her website.  If you would like to watch a short introduction video, just click here to be directed to her book’s promotional video.  Enjoy this wonderful interview with Heidi Hanna PhD author of “SHARP: Simple Strategies to Boost Your Brainpower“.