Cats and dogs bring to us many gifts including companionship and unconditional love. Carlyn Montes De Oca points out that “These furry companions are scientifically proven stress-busters in, perhaps, this most stressed-out age that humanity is ever known.” Here we explore how our cats and dogs can be our health and wellness allies. She is the author of Dog as my Doctor, Cat as my Nurse.Tags: Carlyn Montes De Oca, guardian, guardianship, cancer, petting, cholesterol, depression, stress, anxiety, EQ, emotional quotient, empath, Cesar Millan the dog whisperer, pen pals, prison programs and animals, forgiveness, prayer of ho’oponopono, Animals, Health & Healing, Personal Transformation

Any life-threatening medical diagnosis is a traumatic event and can invoke a complex mix of fear, sorrow, anger and confusion. The capacity to deal with such a trauma both during and after treatment involves a massive amount of energy and courage. Here we explore the emotional healing of survivorship. Cheryl Krauter is the author of Surviving the Storm: A Workbook for Telling Your Cancer StoryTags: Cheryl Krauter, survivor, cancer, deep listening, trauma, Maya Stein, How to Climb a Mountain poem, health advocate, fear, depression, grief, caregivers, tyranny of positive thinking, health support groups, Health & Healing, Personal Transformation

Ron Pevny, founder of the Center for Conscious Eldering, shares the three phases of elderhood: severance, neutral zone, and reincorporation. He emphasizes the importance of deepening spirituality and discusses the power of intergenerational relationships. They also explore the significance of poems and embracing transitions in conscious eldering.

Emerson’s transformational and prescient wisdom addresses the current and pressing needs of the world today. He encourages us to pay attention to our angle of vision because it is the first step toward self-awareness and will aid us in separating truth from falsehood. He guides us with inclusive thinking rather than the limitations of binary, either/or thinking.Mark Matousek is a teacher, spiritual seeker and award-winning author of many books. He leads transformative workshops, intensives, and guided writing sessions that mentor participants to reach their artistic and personal goals by using writing as a tool for insight, innovation, and clarity of purpose. He’s the founder of the Seekers Forum, an online community for self-inquiry. His books include: Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (Riverhead 2000), The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search for His Lost Father (Riverhead 1997), When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living (Bloomsbury 2009), Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life (Anchor Books 2011), Writing to Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery (Reveal Press 2017) and Lessons from an American Stoic: How Emerson Can Change Your Life (HarperOne 2023)Interview Date: 10/24/2023   Tags: Mark Matousek, transcendentalism, transcendentalist, self-reliance, ecstasy, materialism, rationality, Stoicism, Stoics, implicit bias, Pauline Boss, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Christ, Buddha, Jesus, Bhagavad Gita, Henry David Thoreau, Advaita Vedanta, nondualism, pantheism, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, History, Social Change/Politics

Humanity is straddling unprecedented, threshold times. This situational crisis is more than climate change. It’s a whole system change. Yet, despite the extreme nature of our situation, we’re also living in a moment of immense possibility. We live in an immense sea of a living universe within a domain of aliveness with new kinds of potentials that are going to emerge. Duane Elgin, Ph.D.(hon) is a visionary futurist, educator, and Citizen-Voice Activist who received the Goi Pace Award in Japan in recognition of his contributions to a global vision that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture”. Duane is currently the Co-director of the Choosing Earth Project. He is the author of many books including Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (William Morrow 1993), Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Harper 2010), The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (Barrett Koehler Publishers 2009), Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity’s Future the Living Universe (William Morrow 2000) and Choosing Earth: Humanity’s Journey of Initiation through Breakdown and Collapse to Mature Planetary Community (Revised Edition) (Duane Elgin 2022)Interview Date: 10/20/2023.  Tags: Duane Elgin, initiation, Christopher Alexander, mutual symbiosis, pocket neighborhoods, eco-villages, digital authoritarianism, digital dictatorship, electronic meetings, ETMs, electronic Town Meetings, The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Community, Social Change/Politics, Ecology/Nature/Environment, Global Culture

Johnson suggests by opening to the possibility of wonder from surprising sources, we recognize that, even in the bleakest of times, beauty is possible. Although that beauty can’t permanently replace our losses, our sorrow, and the dire problems we’re facing, it can break through the walls of powerlessness and melt despair. Trebbe Johnson is the founder and director of the global community Radical Joy for Hard Times, and she’s devoted to finding and making beauty in hurt places. She has camped alone in the Arctic wilderness; studied classical Indian dance; worked as an artist’s model, has been a street sweeper in an English village, and is an award-winning multimedia producer. She’s led wilderness rites of passage and contemplative journeys in clear-cut forests, Ground Zero in New York, in EPA’s toxic Superfund sites, the Sahara Desert, and other places. She participates in Global Earth Exchange—bringing people around the world together to go to places they care about that have been damaged or endangered: share stores, listen to the land, and make a simple gift of beauty for the place out of materials the place itself offers. She is the author of several books including Radical Joy for Hard Times: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty in Earth’s Broken Places. (North Atlantic Books 2018) and Fierce Consciousness: Surviving the Sorrows of Earth and Self (Calliope Books, 2023).Interview Date: 10/6/2023     Tags: Trebbe Johnson, Michael Meade, The Woman in the Cave, Dylan Thomas, green fuse, grief, beauty, Kim Stanley Robinson, Ministry Of The Future, disbelieving, disbelief, Halaco Plant, hurt places, superfund places, Global Earth Exchange, Personal Transformation, Health & Healing, Ecology/Nature/Environment

What if despite aging, injuries, health conditions and illnesses you could not only return to a state of health you enjoyed previously, but even improve on it? Greer explores feelings and thoughts both conscious and unconscious that are intertwined and can influence your physical health. He encourages us to explore our own health story. Carl Greer, Ph.D., Psy.D. is a practicing clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst, and shamanic practitioner. He teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago and is on staff at the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being. He is the author of Change The Story of your Health: Using Shamanic and Jungian Techniques for Healing (Findhorn Press 2017) and Change Your Story, Change Your Life: Using Shamanic and Jungian Tools to Achieve Personal Transformation (Findhorn Press 2014)Tags: Carl Greer, energy work, energy medicine, inner healer, changes habits, overeating, dieting, losing weight, personal power and weight, shamanic journeys, rituals, sacred ceremonies, fire ceremony, sacred listening, deep listening, depression, anxiety. Health & Healing, Psychology, Shamanism

Being with a person who is close to death may be difficult and confusing. Oftentimes it is mystifying to discern what they are talking about because their speech pattern can sound nonsensical. Lisa Smartt has done extensive research regarding the words spoken by many at this threshold and she advises us to be open to the experience our loved ones are having.She is a linguist, educator, and poet. She’s founder of The Final Words Project, an ongoing study devoted to collecting and interpreting the mysterious language at the end of lives. She lives in Athens, Georgia, and is the author of Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death (New World Library 2017) Tags: Lisa Smartt, nonsensical speech, paradoxical nonsense, signature metaphors, survival of consciousness, life after death, Raymond Moody, end of life care, Maggie Callanan, Patricia Kelly, coma, Death & Dying, Parapsychology, Paranormal

Humans live in a web of relationships, and true healing is always connected to family, community, and culture. Bedrick tells us that there is no symptom that belongs only to the individual, whether that ailment is emotional, spiritual, physical, social or financial. He gives examples of how symptoms are embedded and woven into all culture.Tags: David Bedrick, process psychology, depth psychology, process oriented psychology, depression, Robin Williams, anti-depressant medication, Maxine Waters, Sioux Nation and Black Hills land, Native Americans, weight, diets, inner critic, Maya Angelou, Judaism, Holocaust, Nagasaki, Hiroshima generation, Nazi Germany, Alzheimer’s, Psychology, Personal Transformation, Self Help, Indigenous Wisdom

Here you’ll learn how to start a circle of your own for honest, safe conversations and cooperation in a divisive world. Hear examples of how to maintain the integrity and mutual support in a circle. Oliver says “You don’t need to go somewhere or pay someone to start your circle. You can do it yourself.” Lauren J Oliver, Ph.D. received her baccalaureate degree from Harvard University and her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from UCLA. She currently provides coaching and organization development consultations for leaders, businesses, organizations, families, and individuals. She was co-founder with Dr. Robert Harrison Simmons of the California nonprofit Support Group Network. She is the author of Circle Culture: Tools for Cooperative Work (Bonnie Burstein) (Circle Culture 2023)Interview Date: 9/21/2023     Tags: Lauren J Oliver, special needs, Peer Counseling Program, circles, circling, Social Change/Politics, Personal Transformation