So many of us confuse success with happiness, and this belief can influence our life in a myriad of ways, both seen and unseen. Today’s guest, Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, has witnessed the consequences of this belief, not only in his own life and the lives of his patients, but also his closest family. For thirty years his father sacrificed his sleep and his health for the sake of his career and providing for his wife and children. By the age of 58, Dr. Chatterjee’s father had developed the autoimmune disease, lupus, due to decades of chronic sleep deprivation and stress. In the years leading up to his father’s death, Dr. Chatterjee prioritized caring for his father and treasured the time they were able to spend together. The experience irrevocably changed Dr. Chatterjee’s outlook on life and what it means to be successful. Since then, Dr. Chatterjee has made it his goal to inspire 100 million people to start living a healthier lifestyle. He is the author of several books on health and wellness and is also the host of Europe's #1 Health and Wellbeing Podcast ‘Feel Better. Live More. with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee’, where he interviews experts on a variety of topics from mindfulness to fitness. In our conversation, we discuss what Dr. Chatterjee has learned from his many interviews, why he chose to become a general practitioner, and the impact that his father had on his life. Dr. Chatterjee shares details about his latest book, the concept of core happiness, and why authenticity is so important. He also explains how being in the public eye has made him prioritize his inner life, the value of daily meditations, and how these practices have helped him maintain perspective. We hope you tune in for this powerful conversation on the meaning of happiness, what it means to live a healthy life, and much more!Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

Today on the Light Watkins Show, we are joined by Steve and Dave Flynn, who you may know as the twin faces of The Happy Pear. Our guests have been helping people all over the world eat more delicious, plant-based diets and live better lives for the better part of the last two decades! In our chat we chart the most important parts of the brothers' journey, from their early days in Ireland to their time at university, travels, and starting their business. They have always viewed their work as a way to sell a better way of life, and not just simply as a vegetable shop, which is how they began almost twenty years ago. We talk about the value of community, movement, discomfort, and some of the elements of their lives that they see as the most impactful. Steve and Dave share thoughts on their morning routines, and what a sunrise swim does for their mental and spiritual state. We also get into meditation, yoga, and a whole lot more, so do not miss this great episode.Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

My guest today is recognized as an ultra-successful entrepreneur, renowned keynote speaker, performance expert, coach, and bestselling author, but Ed Mylett has had to overcome some extraordinary hardships to become the man you see before you. Ed shares some insight into his journey; from growing up as the scrawny son of an alcoholic father with three sisters, a pro-baseball pipe dream, and zero self-confidence to finding his purpose as a counselor for disadvantaged children, which turned out to be one of the pivotal turning points of his life. Ed believes that you're just ‘one more’ intentional thought and action away from discovering your best life and, in this conversation, he shares some powerful philosophies to help you realize and exceed your personal and professional goals by tapping into the superpowers and gifts you already have inside you. We also touch on how meaning defines us, the immense power of believing in someone, and the value of questioning your faith, as well as the difference between happiness and fulfillment, goals and standards, and so much more. Tune in today to hear some valuable insights from a man who is well-known for combining spirituality, science, the inner workings of the mind, and practical solutions to help people produce real changes in their lives: the incomparable, Ed Mylett!Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

In this week’s episode, my guest is Chris Pan, founder of MyIntent (which you can hear more about in Episode 13) and more recently, VOMO, who is here to give a masterclass in the creation of movements! From his childhood days as an immigrant in the United States, and throughout his time working for big corporations like Facebook and Pepsi, music has always played a meaningful role in Chris’s life. VOMO stands for Voice Movement, and it is Chris’s way of bringing the joy of singing and dancing to as many people as possible. Tune in today to hear where the inspiration for VOMO originated, the expansion plans that Chris has for its future, and some valuable advice for starting your own movement! Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

Too often, conventional medicine treats the body as separate from the mind, ignoring physical issues like chronic illness or weight gain, but science shows that these issues are often intricately entwined with mood issues like depression, anxiety, stress, and fatigue. Today’s guest believes that we have the inherent capacity to create a powerful shift or ‘state change’ within ourselves and take control of our health, by ourselves, for ourselves.Tuning in, you’ll hear from Dr. Robin Berzin, who is the Founder and CEO of Parsley Health, America's leading holistic medical practice designed to help women overcome chronic conditions. She founded Parsley to address the rising tide of chronic disease in America through personalized holistic medicine that puts food, lifestyle, and proactive diagnostic testing on the prescription pad, right next to conventional medications. Since founding Parsley in 2016, Robin has seen 80 percent of her patients improve or resolve their chronic conditions within their first year of care, demonstrating the life-changing value of making modern holistic medicine accessible to everyone, anywhere.Her new book, State Change, offers readers a 30-day program for reaching a new level of energy, clarity, and calm based on one paradigm-shifting idea: you have to change your body to change your mind and mood. In today’s episode, Robin shares how practicing yoga inspired her to go to medical school, the story of how she came to work with Dr. Oz, and the steps she took to become the change she wanted to see in the world, as well as why her approach is centered around a real-world modern lifestyle, not a series of ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’, plus so much more. We hope you’ll join us for this inspiring conversation!Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

This week, I’m publishing my first solo episode that is not about a  book that I wrote. For long-term listeners, you may remember my previous solo episode was about my recent book, Knowing Where To Look. I’ve recently rebranded the podcast, and it's no longer At The End of the Tunnel. It’s now called The Light Watkins Show. This episode will take you back to how the podcast started  in 2020, what was going on in the background, and what the original intention of the show was, and how it's evolved over the last couple of years. I’ll also talk about where I would like for the show go in the foreseeable future.So this is a part autobiographical, it's part masterclass, and it's part manifesto. And I plan to do many more solo episodes in the future.  Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

Today, we are re-visiting one of my favorite podcast episodes, which is my conversation with Bronnie Ware, the former palliative nurse from Australia who wrote the blog post, Top 5 Regrets of the Dying, which went viral and eventually went on to become a bestselling book.Here are their top 5 regrets:I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life that others expected of me.I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.I wish that I had let myself be happier.How she came to be a palliative care nurse was fascinating, as it was very much happenstance. In short, Bronnie was just nomading, and she needed a place to stay, and the woman who offered her room and board ended up passing away shortly after, and Bronnie was there to help with her transition. And that’s how she discovered her gift of presence.Give it a listen (or a re-listen).Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

So this week I'm speaking with author, speaker and meditation thought leader, Mr. Ben Decker. Ben grew up as a member of the Church of the Latter-day Saints. He also began meditating and traveling the world on spiritual pilgrimages and mission trips. And then he decided to enter the priesthood as a teenager. But a battle with addiction and depression caused him to change his mind and search for a different type of career. He ended up doing a 180 by going to Los Angeles and becoming a publicist.And after rising up through the ranks and becoming one of Hollywood's biggest publicists, particularly for Playboy Bunnies, Ben had a dear friend died by suicide, and he felt somewhat complicit in his friend's unhappiness and depression. So he decided to leave his prolific career in PR, and he went back to his roots by starting his own field of study, which he called collaborative religion.Then Ben helped to open a religiously pluralistic spiritual center in Venice Beach, California called Full Circle, which is where he and I first crossed paths because I rented that space to help host one of my inspirational variety shows that I was doing at the time called The Shine. And Ben went on to become a prolific teacher and author of books on meditation.He's now written four books, most recently publishing Modern Spirituality: A Guide To The Heart of Mindfulness Meditation, and The Art of Healing, which became a bestseller. And he's also the host of the Modern Spirituality Podcast. And as always, we dive deep into the backstory of how Ben came to be the author and teacher that he is today. And what's notable about almost all of my episodes was that there was always a moment where the guests decided to take a big leap of faith in the direction of what they identified at the time as their purpose. Sometimes, they were motivated by curiosity, other times they were motivated by pain. Ben's case was more of the latter. So if you're on the fence about making a switch in your path to something that feels more aligned with where you currently are, I think you're going to find this episode very inspiring.Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

The never-ending dietary debates can make getting the right information about what you should be eating seem like an insurmountable challenge. But while nutrition is a complex and evolving field of study, choosing a healthy and ethical diet does not have to be impossible. This is the message that our guest today, Simon Hill, wants to bring to the world. Simon is the author of The Proof is in the Plants, and the host of The Proof podcast, through which he aims to educate people on the science around a plant-based diet, while also reviving popular understanding and appreciation for the scientific method. This work emerged out of Simon's own journey with nutrition and veganism, and we get to hear all about his story in today's conversation, with Simon doing a great job of bringing this personal narrative into the global context of issues such as heart disease, and climate change. So to hear it all from our great guest, listen in today!Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!

Caregiving is still a misunderstood and under-celebrated role in today's society. For this episode, we welcome J Smiles to talk about her amazing story of caring for her mother, launching a career in comedy, and how she managed to navigate these difficult terrains. Soon after her father's passing, J Smiles’ mother was diagnosed with two forms of dementia, and it took a minute for her to realize that the deterioration she was seeing in her mother was not just grief. The process surrounding her mother's diagnosis and treatment was a tricky one, and J Smiles generously opens up, sharing the biggest challenges and the lessons she learned through them. She notably talks about how she began to talk differently about her role as her mother's caregiver, relinquishing the early methods involving avoidance and shock. J Smiles tells us all about becoming an advocate for caregiving, and what it means to normalize these conversations about sensitive topics. This leads to our exploration of her work as a conscious comic and how she started this branch of her life as an escape before pouring her lived experience and authentic self into her routine. Today our guest also has her own podcast, called Parenting UP!, in which she brings together all these areas and themes in a show that is truly her, so make sure to give that a listen, as soon as you finish with this great episode!Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!