What is a Good Life? #119 - The Art of Responding to Life with Tom Asacker

On the 119th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I’m delighted to welcome Tom Asacker. Often described as a creative force, albeit a wayward one, Asacker has been an artist, CEO, corporate advisor, award-winning inventor, and professional magician. He’s a student of the human psyche and the author of several best-selling books on belief, human behaviour, and personal transformation. Since childhood, he’s been collecting and deciphering observations about all of the strange ways that people think about and behave in the world. For the past 25 years, he’s been endlessly improvising, searching for ways to communicate an art of living that confronts conditioning and embraces freedom. His latest attempt is his new book, Unwinding Want: Using Your Mind to Escape Your Thoughts.

In this illuminating conversation, Tom shares the incoherence of his childhood experiences and how they led him to question the nature of beliefs and the human condition. We discuss the role of the thinking mind, the illusion of control, and the significance of feelings over societal conditioning in guiding actions, as well as the prioritisation of relationship over goals.

Ultimately, this conversation is an invitation for our inner spirits to emerge and to live the lives we truly want.

For more of Tom's work, check out the following:
Tom's book and website: https://www.unwindingwant.com/
Tom's Newsletter: https://unwindingwant.substack.com/ 

Contact me at mark@whatisagood.life if you'd like to explore your own lines of self-inquiry through 1-on-1 coaching, take part in my 5-week Silent Conversation group courses, discuss experiences I create to stimulate greater trust, communication, and connection, amongst your leadership teams, or you simply want to get in touch.

- For the What is a Good Life? podcast's YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife/videos
- My newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
- My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/
- Exploring one-on-one coaching: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/one-on-one-coaching
- The Silent Conversations: https://www.whatisagood.life/p/the-silent-conversations

00:00 Why do people believe what they believe?

03:41 Seeking stability or something to lean on

06:15 The calming of the thinking mind

09:35 Feeling what we want and responding to that

13:50 Revealing of the illusion 

17:55 Dancing with life

24:30 Feeling alive and focus of attention 

28:38 Allowing an expression of our feelings

34:20 We do things for a feeling that doesn’t come

37:50 The prioritising of relationship

47:50 Wants from feelings versus conditioning

52:20 The role of suffering and confusion in revealing

58:39 Playing with our minds rather than controlling

1:04:34 What is a good life for Tom?