Be Mythical

This week's show is with Mara Gleason. Mara is a firm believer that a new understanding of the mind is the next great frontier for humanity. In 2010, Mara co-founded NYC and London-based company, One Thought, which offers entrepreneurs, leaders and organizations a new understanding of the mind which brings about a profound new reality of working life. Most recently, Mara also co-launched One Solution, a leading-edge initiative focused on creating a world where persistent global challenges are more clearly understood and quickly alleviated by a more profound understanding of the mind. One Solution supports global change projects ranging from United Nations programs in Africa, aid work in the Middle East and Africa, and children's education around the world. Today we're talking about Mara's experience of how she went from being scared of her father to witnessing a transformation in him. And how that went on to inspire her work in global change. What you'll learn from this episode: When someone understands how their mind workd, they can change in every area of their life. Mara's father learned the principles through a course at work and it transformed how he was at home too. When we understand where are feelings come from - ourselves not the outside world - it enables us to feel free and empowered instead of victimised. Conflict comes from people believing that their feelings are coming from something other than their own thoughts. That's why Mara sees this understanding of the principles of mind as being the solution to all of the world's conflict.

Today's show is with Tony Broadbent. Tony's a State of Mind and Performance Specialist who works via speaking events, public, private and corporate training programmes, and one to one coaching. Tony's original fascination with human potential was first sparked in 1978 whilst studying martial arts and resulted in him achieving two first dan black belts. He spent his younger years training to be a stuntman where his areas of expertise were skydiving, high board diving, gymnastics, trampolining, stunt driving and martial arts, so he's able to draw on personal experience when sharing the impact of operating from a clear mind in high pressure and high adrenaline situations. He works with a diverse range of clients including sports professionals, business leaders, sales teams, entrepreneurs, companies, elite athletes, as well as general members of the public. In this show, we explore whether change is possible in instant, and if so... how to create it. What you'll learn from this episode: However long someone as suffered with something, whether that's OCD, anxiety, depression or anything else, the opportunity is always there to see it for the thought-created experience that it is. Even if something seems difficult in one moment, understanding that we always have the capability to think differently in the next moment is so freeing. Whatever you're going through, do you have moments in which you don't feel that way? Can you see that your thoughts DO change and in those moments, you feel differently?

This week's show is with someone we're delighted to have met... Craig Richardson. Craig joins many today who are engaged in asking the question, "What does it mean to be fully and authentically human?" As an advocate of the human rewilding movement he is interested in applying this question to all areas of life, including parenting, nutrition, education, lifestyle, and spirituality. He works both professionally and informally to help individuals to move towards authentic humanity and break free from the domestication model. He and his wife have unschooled their son since birth, and as a family they are interested in camping, hiking, natural family living, fire spinning, organic cooking, ancestral skills, and being as Earth-friendly as possible. In this show we spoke how we can make different choices about how we raise and school our children to allow them to reach their full potential as human beings. We speak about unschooling, rewilding, attachment parenting and more. And what impact this way of raising children could have on the world and the future as a whole! What you'll learn from this episode: Unschooling can seem like a novel concept but really it's how we've raised children in many cultures for thousands of years. Socialisation when done through unschooling usually involves connecting with a far more diverse range of people than through traditional schooling. There are many different ways for our children to mix with and learn from many different people and there's resources and networks in many places, online and offline. Craig has seen his son has a marked openness and eagerness to learn. Learning is its own reward rather than a means to an end. When it comes to the conveniences we've introduced into our lives, it's worth asking if the convenience is propelling the idea of developing or diminishing my child and I as humans? Questions like: "What does it mean to communicate as a human being? What does it mean to connect with my child in a human to human way?" allows us to see ways forward that allow us to grow as human beings in our relationships with our children and others. Schools are starting to recognise why linking subjects contextually (e.g. how we can learn maths through learning about something from history) is useful but this is something that happens very organically in a more natural setting such as unschooling. Lastly, Craig talked about the openness and the acceptance of diversity that comes from raising children in this way, that makes for a future in which we're less like to get caught up in dogma and differences. When we're connected to our primal state, it's much less likely that we'll want to wreak damage on others or the planet.

This week's show is with the wonderful Bill Cumming. Bill is a thirty-year coaching veteran and Director of The Boothby Institute. He has been a coach, consultant and trainer to CEOs and the executive teams of health care delivery organizations, businesses, school systems and non-profit organizations. He is a key partner in the New Horizons Academy. This is the second time Bill's been on this show, the last episode we did together is one of our most popular shows and with good reason - it's incredible. It blew me away. On this episode, yet again he was absolutely amazing. Today we're talking about whether it's possible to create a world which works for everyone and how we can move past the bigotry that's getting in the way of that right now. What you'll learn from this episode: Do we want to pass on a safer, more loving and kind world? First we need to have a commitment to making a world that works for everyone. We need to destroy the myths that are getting in the way of that. For example recognising that other people want the same things that we do. Take care of yourself - realise you're a miracle, living in a miracle. You can't change, empower or motivate anyone so focus on yourself. Pick something that you want to be involved with. Pick one thing, decide what you're going do about that. You've got a clean slate, you can use that to choose to do whatever you want in the next moment.

This week's show is with Chris Morris. Chris is a well-known personal coach, consultant and a meditation teacher and has spent decades exploring a tonne of different self-help techniques and 'thought-based' approaches, including meditation, NLP, the three principles, A Course in Miracles, and Byron Katie's The Work. One of many interesting facts about Chris is that successfully challenged the British government in the European Court of Human Rights to secure equal age of consent for sexual activity between men. In this show, Chris and Lian explored the (massive!) topics of politics, religion and spirituality (and more)... and the way we so often get caught up in dogmatic beliefs, how we don't see that we have, and how much of the conflict between humans is the result of that. This seemed like an apt topic post-Brexit but really it would be apt at any time. If you believe in, well... anything then this is the show for you! ;) 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: Doing and being... Chris talked about how we can fall into the belief that life is simply about 'being' and we then miss that we're always doing something, our being comes from what we do (and vice versa). When we understand that we can make different choices about what we do. Dogma vs Catma... believing dogma is about believing a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. Catma is about understanding a principle... but just for now. Continuing to explore, to ask, to test is what allows us to be less dogmatic and more catmatic. Explore who you would be, if you didn't have the background you have, if you hadn't had the conditioning you had, if you didn't have the beliefs... it isn't about answering this question, it's about exploring the place you would need to be in order to answer it.

And this week's show is with Lyric-Howard Jay Ginsberg. Starting in the 1980s, Lyric has been developing his crazy off the wall programs, throwing out the common models and merging and weaving together in-depth and advanced personal fitness training, dietary training, emotional awareness, NLP, sexual and relationship communication and enhancement, and consciousness and Integral thinking. The world today is one where we are no longer concerned with survival, but now thriving. This means we need to accent what we've lost.. focusing on the feminine... enhancing their peace of mind, abilities, and impact on the world. He applies his many different approaches with women entrepreneurs and professionals (some men to) to accelerate their growth. Each of his programs are synthesized from hundreds of existing models, tested in real-world situations, and streamlined for individual performance. In this show, Lyric and Lian explored the topic of women and aloneness - how that aloneness can be seen as loneliness which shows up in addiction, abusive relationships, dependencies, bad habits, and closing off to life in many ways. What you'll learn from this episode: We place a negative meaning on the fact of our 'aloneness', we decide it's 'loneliness'... and then that makes us seek out ways to distract or remove ourselves from the feeling. Lyric talked about the ways we try to remove this loneliness: the three 'atchments' of detachment, attachment, non-attachment. It's important to remember that we don't actively or consciously choose any of these atchments, they're what simply what our thoughts are creating based on the way we see ourselves and the world. Those beliefs were once useful for us but it doesn't mean that they still are serving us well now. As we as women (actually, men too!) see through our atchments and become more comfortable with our inherent aloneness, we can see the core of us is perfectly and naturally OK and we're more able to be open to exploring and connecting from that place.

I'm here today with Lea Ann Mallett, a wild woman, activist and midlife momma who believes fiercely that we all have a wild place within us that feeds our magic. Her greatest desire is to make the world a better place by demonstrating to everyone that our everyday choices DO change the world. In her activism she has travelled from direct action wilderness activist to nonprofit leader, from sitting in an ancient cedar for three days to protest clear-cut logging to leading forest protests to creating thriving nonprofits. She now inspires mission-driven leaders to greater impact as a leadership coach, is creating a new vision for activism, and she creates photo-essays of life, love and connection in her blog "Becoming Undomesticated". In this show, Lea Ann and I explore the topic of death and grief... whether or not there is a 'right' way to grieve and how a clearer understanding of death can allow us to live more fulfilling, more present and happier lives. What you'll learn from this episode: The linear definition of grief (as outlined in 'The 5 stages of grief') can be limiting. When we see through this definition we're freer to experience grief in a less conditioned way, we are then open to find real growth, beauty, freedom and gratitude in loss and all in our own unique time too. When we're able to see death and ageing as transformation rather than something scary or wrong, we're able to see the fleeting, changeable nature of life which inspires us to make the most of our time here, to live bigger and brighter. Take that trip around the world, tell people that you love them, dance barefoot around the garden or whatever it is that takes your fancy! As we honour death - and in some cultures there's traditions that are dedicated to celebrating this - we are more able to accept and embrace it fully. Whilst your culture might not have a tradition like this, you have the choice to create your own philosophy about death. How could you and your family honour death rather than fear it?

This week's show is with Piers has been a personal and professional development coach since 2001, and coached 100s clients for 1000s of hours; ranging from national newspaper editors, to Sheiks in Riyadh, to international sports people. He first discovered the principles in 2009, but it wasn't until participating in SuperCoach 2011 that he realise this was going to be a huge turning point in his life and work. Previously he had based my change work around NLP (he was a NLP trainer) Clean Language, Appreciative Inquiry, and range of others approaches and techniques. Now he is having a wonderful time exploring the Principles with his clients, both in the corporate and private client worlds. Piers is currently in the final stages of divorce and has generously agreed to share what he's learned from going through the experience. So in this show we explore whether it's possible to go through a relationship break-up and divorce without it being a long battle of bitterness and anger. 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: We all have our own narrative about what a relationship should be like. Recognising that that that narrative is just something we've made up (via thought) allows us to 'loosen our narrative' and be open to moving onto a different relationship with the other person, whether that's as friends, amicable exes or something else. Some thinking can be particularly seductive - Piers likened it to being sucked in by the Dementors from Harry Potter! That kind of thinking can be very hard to notice that it's just thought. But it can be so helpful to notice that even the most seductive, Dementor-like thinking isn't us (just like our dreams aren't us), it doesn't last 24/7 and when we're not thinking about something, we're not feeling it. We often build stories around people in our life and then continually see that person through that lens. But we can look afresh from a neutral space ('mind neutral' as Piers described it) and see the person how they actually are in this moment, without all the thinking around justification, traditional, commitment, beliefs, history and fairness. From that neutrality we have the opportunity to create a whole different relationship with them. Even knowing this neutrality exists, makes it possible for us. You don't have to stick at difficult conversations if either of you are in a low state of mind. Piers gave the example of he and his ex-wife having a conversation about money and having an awareness of their state of mind. When the feeling dropped, they agreed to pause and then waited until they were in a higher state of mind before restarting the conversation. I loved the point that Piers made at the end: if you're going through a difficult break-up right now, there's probably aspects such as money or custody which don't look like they're 'just thought', but it is all made of the same stuff as everything else. You always have the opportunity to have a liberation from the way you're thinking and feeling about it at the moment.

This week's show is with Jim Pehkonen. Jim is a Life Architect and a Certified Transformative Coach who works in the fields of chemical addiction recovery and youth at risk. Jim works with up to 60 people in recovery weekly … making a profound difference while opening a space for healing. In this show we spoke about how it's possible to move on from trauma in your past. What you'll learn from this episode: We all have a past but none of us are defined or limited by our past. The things that happened to you are just things that you experienced, they're not you. We can't be soiled or stained by trauma our past, almost every part of us is constantly being renewed. The only place trauma exists is in our thoughts. Jim spoke of the power of becoming aware of where your thoughts are putting blocks between you and love. Once we see those blocks for what they are - simply thought - we can also see that we can always reconnect to love. We always have that choice.

This week's show is with Jacqueline Hollows, the founder of Beyond Recovery CIC. Jacqueline works within the criminal justice system (with support staff and inmates) sharing how our experience of life is created from our own minds. Jacqueline has seen that through a fresh thought in any moment, a deeper level of common sense, connection and resilience is always available. Even in prison people are finding humour, and connection, and joy and peace of mind. If that is possible in one small section of one prison– the universal possibilities are limitless! In this show we talk about Jacqueline's work in prisons and what she's seen about labels and diagnoses (e.g. PTSD, addict, depression, anxiety)... both how they can initially be helpful and also what's possible when we see past those labels and understand the true nature of how our minds work. 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: Labels and diagnoses can be helpful in people getting some help and also allowing them and those around them to see their psychological innocence. But this is only part of the puzzle... labels can keep people feeling broken and from moving past that label. We can grow and move past suffering when we begin to see where the suffering is coming from - our own thoughts. Hearing about what possible for prisoners' with very challenging life stories, a collection of labels and diagnoses, and not to mention the circumstances of being locked away in prison, shows what's possible for all of us!