Podcast 302: The Bowl of Light: Ancestral Wisdom from a Hawaiian Shaman with Hank Wesselman

Hank WesselmanI had the pleasure of interviewing author Hank Wesselman about his new Sound True book entitled ” The Bowl of Light“.  I must admit that Hank is a very interesting and well versed author on the aspects of Hawaiian Shamanism.  In my interview with Hank we discuss the development and long standing friendship with his Hawaiian mentor Hale Makua.  Hale Makua taught Hank over the years a number of spiritual insights that author Wesselman articulates in the “Bowl of Light“.

Hale Makua was a revered Hawaiian elder who brought forth from his ancestors many beautiful and powerful teaching to inspire and guide Hank to remember his spiritual gifts and provided him with an enhanced way of being. The Bowl of Light is filled with much of the wonderful wisdom that Makua had to share and now through the authors intimate and evocative sharing of his encounters with this great man, these teaching are available to those who did not have the pleasure of meeting Makua. Your heart will be warmed by the loving and supportive relationship that developed between them.

In my interview with author Hank Wesselman we discuss what Hale Makua revealed to him including how we can restore our natural diving radiance, referred to as the Bowl of Light.  We also discuss the three directives of the spiritual warrior–love with humility, live with reverence, and know with self-discipline.  This is a wonderful story that not only captivates the reader, but provides insightful wisdom on the spiritual teaching and practices of the ancient Hawaiian practices of Shamanism.
I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with author Hank Wesselman.  I you want to learn more Hank has a wonderful website filled with references, blog entries and audio recordings–please click here.  I encourage you to visit Hank’s website and learn more about his encounter and long standing friendship with mentor and master spiritual teacher Hale Makua.

Podcast 301: ChiWalking with Danny Dreyer

Danny DreyerIt was a pleasure interviewing Danny Dreyer the Founder of ChiLiving about his new audio program through Sounds True entitled “Chi Walking“.  Danny Dreyer is a waking and running coach and is nationally ranked ultramarathoner runner.  He is a student of renowned t’chi master George Xu and coauthor(with Katherine Dreyer) the books ChiWalking and Chi Running.

In my interview with Danny we discuss the benefits of Chi Walking.  I know that lots of people are attempting to find ways to become more peaceful, centered and clear their minds from all of the chatter as well as become more healthy.  What I learned during my interview with Danny is that Chi Walking which I bet many of my listeners have not been exposed to is a way to accomplish the peace and inner harmony while at the same time obtaining a great workout.

As Danny states walking is one of the most beneficial forms of exercise on the planet. In his audio program Danny teaches you how to take this routine activity to a whole new level and turn it into a deeply rewarding experience for the mind, body and spirit. The secret to this program is in what Danny refers to as “The Five Mindful Steps” which help you increase awareness using the energetic movement principles of t’ ai chi.  Drawing on the concepts of the program that have helped thousands around the globe walk more efficiently, get into great shape, clear the mind and tap into a deeper source of well-being.

I know that you will enjoy learning more about this wonderful program.  If you are looking for a way to combine the art of t’ai chi with the movement of walking, then you have come to the right place. Chi Walking just might be the next form of movement and focused breathing that helps you release stress and obtain a wonderful workout without the pounding to the legs and feet.  If you would like to learn more about Chi Walking and Chi Running please click here to be directed to Danny’s website.
I hope you enjoy this interview with one of the forerunners in the art of art of Chi Walking. If you would like to obtain a copy of Danny’s CD’s please click here to be directed to the Sounds True website for ordering.

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 298: Thrive Foods: 200 Plant Based Recipes for Peak Health with Brendan Brazier

Brendan BrazierThis is my second interview with author Brendan Brazier.  Every time I interview Brendan I continue to learn more about nutrition and the important role is plays not only in our health, but in how the foods we eat impact our environment.

In Brendan’s new book “Thrive Foods: 200 Plant Based Recipes for Peak Health” Brendan lays out the importance of a plant based diet, and gives the reader great recipes that are nutrient-dense and which have a very low impact on our overall environment.  In my interview with Brendan we speak about what he calls “Nutrient-to-Resource Ratio”.  Brendan refers to this ratio as a proactive form of health insurance and environmental preservation rolled into one.  This ratio reveals the extensive amount of arable land, water, and fossil fuel consumed to produce food, as well as taking into consideration carbon emissions created.

Brendan states that the average American could have a greater impact on the on the environment by switching to the eating suggestions in the book.  That is one person swapped out a Standard American breakfast for a plant-based, nutrient-dense whole food smoothie for one year, it would conserve the same amount of C02 emissions as created by driving a mid-size car from Vancouver to Tijuana, Mexico.  If everyone stopped eating factory farmed beef for one year, it would conserve the equivalent of c02 emissions as over 2 trillion miles being driven in a mid-size car.

Needless to say if we as consumers would think about our choices in food consumption we could have a significant impact on the worlds environment.  A diet based in nutrient-dense, plant based foods not only improves our health but it has a positive impact on our environment.
Brendan’s book is loaded with great recipes that are good and easy to make.  So if you want to improve your diet, loose weight, and help the environment then I highly recommend that you get a copy of Brendan’s new book.  If you would like to learn more about Brendan Brazier please click here to be directed to his website.  He also has a company called Vega that produces plant based products, you can learn more about Vega by clicking here.

Enjoy this great interview with truly a man on a mission to save our environment, as well as increase the life span of millions of people.

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 290: Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People with Dr. Edward Hallowell MD

Dr. Edward Hallowell MDToday’s workplace is a pressure cooker according to Dr. Edward Hallowell author of the new book ” Shine-Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People“.  In my interview with Dr. Hallowell we discuss the challenges that workers are faced with in the work environment today, and solutions to improving performance.

Dr. Hallowell says that even the most talented people struggle to sort through an influx of information, relentless demands, and unprecedented stress.  In his new book “Shine” Hallowell combines brain science with performance research to offer a proven process to help you deal with the struggles of our daily busyness.  He provide the leadership of organizations with what he refers to as the Cycles of Excellence to assist  in managing the human capital of the organization.

There are five steps that are very important: 1) Select-Simply put put the right people in the correct jobs 2) Connect: Peak performance is accelerated if people are allowed to connect face-to face not through email. 3) Play: Imaginative engagement is ignited when people are allowed to play and have fun on the job. 4) Grapple and Grow: People really want to excel and perform on the job–provide challenging work.  5) Shine: It feels good to do good, and it feels good to get the deserved recognition for a job well done.

Dr. Hallowell has created several modern paradoxes that I believe are certainly worth mentioning.  The first modern paradox: while we have grown electronically super connected, we have simultaneously grown emotionally disconnected form each other.  The paradox can lead a person to modern loneliness which is an extroverted loneliness, in which the person is surrounded by many people and partakes of much communication but feels unrecognized and more alone that they would like.   The phenomenon of overloaded circuits leads to the second modern paradox: people’s best efforts often fail not because they aren’t working hard enough, but because they are working too hard.   The brain has is limits.  The tsunami of data comprising modern life can easily flood the brain and rot it.  Working hard now becomes like bailing out a sinking boat with a can, instead of plugging the leak.

If you are interested in learning more about how to cope with the stress and struggles of you everyday life, and  how to better lead in this hetic working environment then you need to read this book.  Also if you would like advice from a physician who has studied positive psychology, neuroscience, and the psychology of happiness and brought the disciplines into one book  read “Shine”
I hope you enjoy this interview with Dr. Edward Hallowell as he reveals the findings of his research and life’s work.  You can also visit Dr. Hallowell’s website by clicking here.

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“.

Podcast 281: Inside-Out Healing with Dr. Richard Moss

Richard MossThis is my second interview with Dr. Richard Moss about his new book entitled “Inside-Out Healing“.  At it’s essence Richard has written a book that is about creating awareness of our presence moment, and in so doing we access all that we need to heal from the Inside-Out.

As Richard states” All suffering, even physical suffering, has a mental component.  Inside-out healing is about learning to free yourself of that mental component: the emotional unhappiness created by your own thinking.  It is about learning how to live in the Now, where egoic thinking is witnessed and gives way to awareness.  In other words, it’s about wisdom.  Inside-out healing is for everyone because it’s ultimately about your relationship to yourself moment by moment.

If suffering is the problem and that suffering primarily comes from your thinking, then you are not going to relieve your pain or solve other problems if you remain at your current level of thinking.  It doesn’t matter that you decide to think positively; you will keep swinging like a pendulum to the negative thoughts sooner or later.  The issue is not what you think is wrong with you to someone else; you are going to have to shift levels, to move from thinking to awareness of your thinking.  This is the fundamental relationship: the relationship of your aware self to your own thoughts, emotions and feelings.

“Presence is the greatest power any of us have”.  As we learn to relax into the present moment, body and soul respond.  We spontaneously tap into our own intuitive wisdom and gain insight that can resolve even old and seemingly intractable emotional wounds.

I encourage you to listen to this great interview with Dr. Richard Moss the author of ” Inside-Out Healing“, you will learn how to access and become aware of the present moment—the most valuable tool you will need to heal and become whole.
If you would like more information about Dr. Richard Moss, and his courses and video content please click here to be directed to his website.  Enjoy the podcast.