Be Mythical

This week's show is with Ryan Simbai Jenkins, who was born and raised in Papua New Guinea to a medical anthropologist mother and professional musician and photographer father. He's a U.S citizen but has lived in France, Bangladesh, Australia, The U.S.A, Cambodia, Thailand, The Netherlands and Spain He attended the Duke Ellington High School for the Arts in Washington D.C and later the Rotterdam Conservatory (CODARTS) in The Netherlands to study music. During a particularly stressful period in his studies, he injured his hand while performing. After a long period of attempting to heal the injury through more conventional therapies, he learned self-hypnosis and almost instantly totally recovered his ability to play music! This led to an intense fascination and deep study and practice of meditation and self-hypnosis, NLP, coaching, different psychological modalities and diverse fields of personal development. His love of this field comes from the profound personal transformations he has experienced in his own life and those of his clients. He currently runs a hypnotherapy/change work practice in Barcelona Spain where he has lived for the last 7 years and is explores the boundaries of performance, therapy and coaching with people from all walks of life. In this conversation, Ryan kindly gave me the space to ask him all of the weird and wonderful questions that I've been pondering around hypnosis. We recorded this, knowing it might never make the show given it wasn't going to be of interest or helpful for everyone but then once we'd finished speaking, we both agreed that actually it was worth sharing with those of you who are more into diving deep into this stuff.

This week's show is with Isis Leeor. Isis is responsible for a movement of whole, ripe, and unapologetic women who are finally coming out of the closet. For 15 years, she has been passionately teaching people (women and men) how to connect both hearts, the one in their chest and the one in their pelvis. Isis Leoor has been featured in a myriad newspapers and radio shows alongside people like Storm Large, Dan Savage, Deborah Anapol and Sark. She is a counselor with an extensive background in Body Psychotherapy, Tantra, Hypnotherapy. Basically she does some kick ass embodied work online and in person, through workshops, intensives and private sessions. She is currently working on her book entitled "Feral Female." In addition to a lot of official studies, Isis has also howled at the moon, been saved by Qi-gong, taken drugs with a therapist, smoked a peace pipe, flipped off a Shaman, learned and unlearned emotionally responsible language, danced with her shirt off in public, avoided marrying an Essene guru, and worn cocktail dresses all over the world while going commando. In this conversation, Isis and I explored the glorious topic of becoming a feral female! Isis shared her own story of going from numb to feral and then we talked about the reasons this is an enquiry that's relevant to almost all women in today's world. I hope you feel Isis's living invitation in this show and are able to respond to it in how you live your own beautiful life.

This week's show is the first of a brand new monthly format! It's Lian's All The Everything where she'll jam on an eclectic mix of topics, including questions from listeners. It also airs weekly live on facebook. This is where you can get up close and personal with Lian, get inside her head and see what's she's up to and thinking about. In this episode, Lian jammed on the following topics and questions: My failure this week Women's circles Asking for what you need (from Emma) My explorations into hypnotism What's your dream bio? Are you For or Against Being the lighthouse

This week's show is with Ryan Simbai Jenkins, who was born and raised in Papua New Guinea to a medical anthropologist mother and professional musician and photographer father. He's a U.S citizen but has lived in France, Bangladesh, Australia, The U.S.A, Cambodia, Thailand, The Netherlands and Spain He attended the Duke Ellington High School for the Arts in Washington D.C and later the Rotterdam Conservatory (CODARTS) in The Netherlands to study music. During a particularly stressful period in his studies, he injured his hand while performing. After a long period of attempting to heal the injury through more conventional therapies, he learned self-hypnosis and almost instantly totally recovered his ability to play music! This led to an intense fascination and deep study and practice of meditation and self-hypnosis, NLP, coaching, different psychological modalities and diverse fields of personal development. His love of this field comes from the profound personal transformations he has experienced in his own life and those of his clients. He currently runs a hypnotherapy/change work practice in Barcelona Spain where he has lived for the last 7 years and is explores the boundaries of performance, therapy and coaching with people from all walks of life. In this conversation, we spoke about the incredibly fascinating topic of 'innate wellbeing'. It's something that's spoken about a lot in various spiritual and rewilding communities I've been part of and of course, is very much something that we're pointing to with our work at Primal Happiness. So Ryan and I dived deep into what 'innate wellbeing' really means, what's true about it, and what's not. This was such an interesting show - with so much food for thought!

This week's show is with Mark Matousek is the author of two acclaimed memoirs, Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story (an international bestseller) and The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search For His Lost Father, as well as When You're Falling, Dive: Lessons in the Art of Living, and Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life. A former editor at Interview Magazine, he is a featured blogger for PsychologyToday.com and the Huffington Post, and has contributed to numerous anthologies and publications, including The New Yorker, O: The Oprah Magazine (contributing editor), Harper's Bazaar, Yoga Journal, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and The Saturday Evening Post. A popular speaker and teacher, he offers courses in creativity and spiritual growth in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe, based on his book, Writing To Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery. A founding member of V-Men (with Eve Ensler), an organization devoted to ending violence against women and girls, he lives and works East Hampton, New York. His most recent book is Mother of the Unseen World: The Mystery of Mother Meera (Random House). In this conversation, Mark and I explored the topic of writing for self enquiry. Mark teaches a method of using writing as a path for transformation, we delved into how and why it works and then Mark gave some practical suggestions to get you, the listener started. I found this an incredibly insightful episode and I've personally adopted Mark's method since recording the show. The changes I've noticed in that short times have been unbelievable - more awareness of my shadows and surprisingly to me, more freedom to write and share my truth publicly too. I'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below. What you'll learn from this episode: Writing as self enquiry works because it gives us distance and perspective on our thoughts, just like any forms of self enquiry, it's just easier to see something when it's out of your mind and written down. Don't write for an audience, don't worry about perfection, or grammar. Just write to the question, for yourself. Give yourself permission not to do anything with your answers that come up in the writing. The practice is about asking and answering the questions, not necessarily taking action. Write every day, for around 15 mins and then review a day or two later. Don't edit unless it's to deepen on something. Ask the questions that matter most to you. Here's a couple that Mark mentioned on the show: Take five minutes to write about a story you tell yourself on a regular basis that you know isn't true. Take five minutes to write about what you would do if you were free (whatever freedom means to you).

This week's show is with Darren Deojee, Darren is all about bringing Positive Masculinity your way. He is firmly rooted in the Oral Tradition and the Toltec Mysteries and their irreplaceable power to bring transformation, realisation and connection. With 10 years teaching, and over 20 years practical experience in Toltec Gender and the Art of Spelling and Sound, his approach has transformed the relationships, perspective and personal power of thousands over the years. He calls his work Mental Healing to tackle a western pandemic he refers to as 'mental disembodiment' and return us to our indigenous nature of Integral Mind and embodied language. Darren lives in Suffolk, England, is in a committed long term relationship, and has 4 children. This week's show is a part two to last week's episode with Darren, in this conversation, Darren and I explored his incredible understanding of Toltec wisdom on gender and gender relativity and why this is something that is applicable to those of us living in today's world. This isn't a conversation that's being had in the world right now, it is deep, deep stuff. It's not really the most easy of listens but it's unbelievably worthwhile one, it's packed with gold.

This week's show is with Darren Deojee, Darren is all about bringing Positive Masculinity your way. He is firmly rooted in the Oral Tradition and the Toltec Mysteries and their irreplaceable power to bring transformation, realisation and connection. With 10 years teaching, and over 20 years practical experience in Toltec Gender and the Art of Spelling and Sound, his approach has transformed the relationships, perspective and personal power of thousands over the years. He calls his work Mental Healing to tackle a western pandemic he refers to as 'mental disembodiment' and return us to our indigenous nature of Integral Mind and embodied language. Darren lives in Suffolk, England, is in a committed long term relationship, and has 4 children. In this conversation, Darren and I explored what's going on for men living in today's modern world. There's a rise in addiction, suicide, escapism, and depression. Men have got to point of feeling shame about being a man, even judging of themselves for it. Darren believes the answer is in healing of the connection to the gifts of the masculine. We dived into what he means by those gifts, why he sees them as the answer for not just men but our world as a whole, and how we can heal that connection.

This week's show is with Alison Armstrong, Alison's exploration of human behavior began in 1991, with her decision to study men, "To find out how I was bringing out the worst in them. And hopefully, how to bring out the best." Her success in understanding men naturally led to studying women's behavior and making vital connections between the two. Armstrong distinguishes human instincts that compel both men and women to behave in ways that contradict and undermine our own purposes, goals, values, needs and relationships. She offers partnership-based alternatives giving millions of people access to more fulfilling lives, loving relationships, stronger families and productive organizations. Armstrong is a sought-after speaker and thought-leader amongst people with the desire to live empowered lives. Alison's philosophy and approach is frequently referenced and taught by other authors, speakers, business consultants and therapists. In this conversation, Alison and I explored what inspired her work in studying men to understand them better. We spoke about how we can live in a way that honours our natural strengths and allows men and women to complement each other instead of being in conflict or competition with each other. This show went far deeper than I expected! Alison talked about our evolutionary instincts, how simply asking better questions can change our perception, and our growth in consciousness. This truly was a corker of a show!

This week's show is Eli Jaxon-Bear is the author of An Outlaw Makes It Home. A life long search for freedom took Eli around the world and into many spiritual traditions from a Zen monastery in Japan to a Sufi circle in Marrakesh, among others. His search ended when he was drawn to India (1990) where he met his final teacher, Papaji; a direct disciple of the renowned Indian Sage Ramana Maharshi. Confirming Eli's realization, his teacher sent him back into the world to share his unique psychological insights into the nature of egoic suffering in support of self-realization. Eli infuses his teaching with his teacher's living transmission of silence and peace. He presents a unique map of egoic identification as a vehicle for ruthless self-inquiry and final realization of true freedom. His life is dedicated to passing on the transmission of his teacher. Eli founded and currently teaches through The Leela Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to world peace and freedom through universal self-realization, as well as The Leela School In this conversation, Eli shared the power of self enquiry - what it is, how it works and what it can help you to discover. As a bonus, Eli has an incredibly fascinating story himself which illustrates what he's talking about - we explore his time as a revolutionary, LSD and immortal consciousness... It was quite a trip!

This week's show is with Kendra Cunov, Founder of Fierce Grace: Practices of Embodied Wholeness for Women, Kendra has been studying, facilitating, and (most importantly) practicing Authentic Relating, Embodiment Practices & Deep Intimacy Work for the last fifteen years. Kendra has worked with thousands of men, women & couples in the areas of embodiment, intimacy, communication & full self-expression. She co-founded Authentic World, as well as The Embodied Relationship & Intimacy Training Salon, and pioneered some of the most cutting edge relation work on the planet. Kendra has consulted for companies such as Genentech & is currently on staff for 4PC, an elite mastermind for the top 4% of coaches in the world. She works with organizations & leaders, as well as men, women & couples, who know that presence, truth, connection & integrity are our truest access points to success - in business & in love. So in this show, we spoke about what it means to experience life as a woman in today's world and what we need from our environment, from other women and from ourselves. Kendra and I we also aware of the fine line we were dancing between talking about men and women as one homogenous mass and talking "this is what it means to be a woman' as if women have to be a certain defined way. We spoke about feeling like 'the wrong kind of woman' - maybe not feminine enough, feminism, nature, intuition, competition, sex and more. Just like feminine energy, this conversation flowed everywhere! Although this episode is about women, it's not just for women, if you're a man you will understand far more about women if you listen in too! I'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below. What you'll learn from this episode: There's a deep longing in women to be connected to nature. We are moved by cycles which are connected and reflected by the cycles in the natural world and we suffer when we don't find a connection to nature. We don't need men anymore so it's a choice. If we choose to be together, what shall we create? We have the opportunity to create something extraordinary and beautiful. What would be really radical would be to value the work that women typically do as much as we value the work that men typically do. It's about opening up choice. We got sold this lie of a need to compete with other women but what's natural for us is for us to gather together to support, encourage and love each other. The magic that's created in those spaces isn't just powerful for us as women but can ripple out to the world around us. Something aligned to that is what Kendra talked about in terms of the response to adrenaline in women which is to gather! Love that! When we base our culture around what's best for mothers and children, an entire eco-system is created from there which allows the entire community to thrive. The practice that Kendra shared at the end - a regular practice of going in and listening to your body - your mind, your heart, your gut, your vagina. Be incredibly honest about what you hear AND give yourself permission not to follow its guidance too!