Turning Towards Life - a Thirdspace podcast

How avoiding fear can shrink our lives. A conversation about living in an ever larger world, with Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. In this conversation we consider what it takes to live in an ever larger world of both meaning and contribution, and how that nearly always calls on us to move towards what we’re most afraid of. As we go we talk about the ways in which fear draws us away from our capacity to respond to what’s actually happening now, the kindness to ourselves that’s required to work with all of this, the perils of living in a narrative of ‘self-improvement’, how it is that our fears are also a kind of loyalty to something that matters or mattered, and the ‘leaving home’ that’s required to find a new and more spacious home in which we can live. Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-eG and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life   Photo by Henrique Ferreira on Unsplash 

Self-deception, our attempts to stay in control of everything, and the trouble that comes from all of it. Our source this week is an extract from a piece published on Justin's blog, justinwise.co.uk. We use it to launch into a conversation about self-deception, trying to stay in control of circumstances and experiences (and the cost of both), the trouble that comes from our attempts to manage our own image, the wisdom and delights of the enneagram as a way of understanding personality patterns, and the gifts of laughing joyfully at ourselves and our complexity. As you'll see, we have a lot of fun in this conversation as we tackle some big topics about being human. Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-es and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life Photo by The Creative Exchange on Unsplash

The difficult and live-giving work of both loving and grieving. A conversation about courage and tenderness with Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. In this conversation we consider together how easily our fear of loss can stop us from loving fully, how love and grief are but two sides of the same coin, and how we might step into both with a clear heart, courage and tenderness. And along the way we find much to be joyful about, and to laugh about. Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-ev and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life   Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The urgency of belonging to the world. A conversation about the feeling safe even when the world is risky, with Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace. This conversation is inspired by a poem by Mary Oliver, who died this week. Lizzie and Justin talk about the power of ongoing practices to shape the world; the many ways in which we're taught that we're in some way separate from things, and what we might do about that; what it is to feel safe, even when life is risky; and the gifts that we make to others when we find it in ourselves to write, or teach, or speak - in one way or another to make art. Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-e9 and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash

How we box ourselves into an identity - a conversation about shame, self-criticism and freedom with Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. One of the weirdest and yet most understandable features of being a human being is how we'll box ourselves in to an identity - a particular way of being in the world that allows this but doesn't allow that; a way that we lay out familiar territory for ourselves, fiercely bounded by shame and self-criticism, that easily stops us from bringing ourselves fully to life and from experiencing all that life is bringing us in each moment.  This is our topic for this week, inspired by Anthony Wilson's poem 'When the Holy Spirit Danced With Me in My Kitchen'.  Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the poem, a link to Anthony's Work, and more information on this conversation here https://wp.me/p4Tynu-dU and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life   Photo by Ali Kanibelli on Unsplash

A conversation on listening, and hearing, silence and true connection. With Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-ec and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life   Photo by Jenny Marvin on Unsplash

What is it to learn in a way that allows us to be more truthful, compassionate and alive? A conversation about community with Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This week we talk about learning. Not the kind of learning that fills us with facts, but the kind of learning that allows us to open ourselves to more spacious interpretations of our lives, and which helps us to take new kinds of action and enter into relationships that are more truthful, compassionate and alive.  Along the way we talk about what it is to have a kind of 'critical reflection' about our own lives, about the gift that human beings can be to one another when we share our stories and when we can hold our stories 'lightly' enough to neither abandon them too quickly nor be rigid about them. And we consider how doing this together - in community wherever we can find it - is necessary for cultivating the courage, hopefulness and care that the world calls for.  Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-dM and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life Photo by Ali Kanibelli on Unsplash

This week we talk about poem Lizzie's sister Hollie wrote which has gone viral in the past year. We believe it’s so popular because of how harshly we treat our bodies in our minds and hearts, and Hollie's call for us to treat our bodies call with a simple, powerful loving-kindness. During our conversation we talk about what it is to know ourselves in a gentle way, to appreciate the miracle of an embodied life, and steps we might take to be less caught up in the punishing narrative of shame, self-improvement and comparison that fuels our understanding of our bodies at this point in history. Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-dw and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life Photo by Tanja Heffner on Unsplash

Stepping in when life seems a mystery. A conversation about time, with Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This week we talk about how we might understand the mystery of being human. So often both of us find ourselves in a place of real confusion, and it's tempting while there to treat the confusion as something wrong - either with life or with ourselves. We know this is true of many other people too. But there are bigger narratives to step into when life seems a mystery, or when things are breaking down around us and within us. One powerful and stretching source of different perspectives is the 13th century Zen teacher Dogen. Our source for this week begin's with Dogen's suggestion that we are all a kind of 'time', and follows with some questions and interpretation by our friend and colleague James Flaherty. Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-dD and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life   Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Love, and grief, and defendedness, and the huge life-giving letting go (and welcome) that's required for us to love and be loved in return. Along the way we talk about doing the dishes, having grand plans, and the place in the middle that can hold them both. Turning Towards Life is a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can find the source text and more information on this conversation at https://wp.me/p4Tynu-dd and find more, including details about how to join us live, on our website http://turningtowards.life Photo by Honey Fangs on Unsplash