Gateways to Awakening

Today’s episode is about how to search inside yourself in order to change the world with Rich Fernandez, the CEO of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute “known as SIYLI”, a non-profit organization developed at Google that now offers Google’s mindfulness and emotional intelligence programs to communities and organizations around the world. Rich previously founded Wisdom Labs and received his PhD in Psychology from Columbia University and is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review. I want to personally thank my dear friend Tyler Peterson who used to work with Richard for the introduction! We talk about: ✅ What it means to Search Inside Yourself ✅ The talk he gave at the United Nations about the topic of mindfulness and emotional awareness at work today ✅ What neuroscience has to do with mindfulness ✅ The kinds of company/organization that usually hires Search Inside Yourself and the results he has seen with the work ✅ Why he decided to become the Search Inside Yourself CEO after working at Google and founding Wisdom Labs https://siyli.org/ Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

In this conversation, I talk to Laura Day -- a NY Times bestselling author and world-renowned “Psychic to the Stars” and Intuitionist, who has spent three decades teaching others how to tap into their intuition and effectively harness their instincts to create profound changes in their paths to success. Her work centers on helping us understand intuition and its uses in the fields of business, science, medicine and personal growth. She’s also written six books including Practical Intuition and How to Rule the World from Your Couch, which both topped the New York Times Bestseller list. Her loyal clientele includes top organizations, executives representing Fortune 500 companies and A-list celebrities like Demi Moore, Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, and Sarah, Duchess of York – and many more. We talk about: ✅ How she defines intuition, and what it means to “use our intuition”, and how it is different than instinct. ✅ Some practices we can do to strengthen our intuition, and the seven steps to cultivating intuition ✅ What it means to heal through intuition or through psychic means ✅ What it even means to be psychic ✅ How she has seen people use intuition in their daily lives and how she’s helped people strengthen their intuition ✅ How she consulted Demi Moore in the movie Ghost, and how she works with some celebrities and in the medical field and business You can learn more about Laura Day here: https://lauraday.com/ Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

I’ve been really interested in speaking with Deepa for a number of reasons 1st - because she is the author of the book, Chup: Breaking The Silence About India's Women, and the creator and host of What’s a Man? Masculinity in India Podcast. She also has a TED talk called “The 7 Bad Habits Women Must Unlearn”, and in her TED talk, she shares the results of her research on what it means to be a good girl and a good man, and it was profound. Deepa was also the former Senior Adviser at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and has written 17 books and was named one of the 100 most influential global thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine in the USA and as one of India's 35 Great Thinkers by India Today. Deepa Narayan’s website can be found at www.deepanarayan.com We talk about: ✅ Her research that led to the talk, 7 bad habits women must unlearn and the beliefs used to silence women ✅ The bad habits that women must unlearn ✅ Why she has been so passionate about these topics and empowering women ✅ Where she learned her philosophy from ✅ Why she started the podcast “What’s a Man” Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

Dr. BJ Miller is a hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator. He currently sees patients and families through Mettle Health, a company he co-founded with the aim to provide personalized, holistic consultations for any patient or caregiver who needs help navigating the practical, emotional and existential issues that come with serious illness and disability. BJ has given over 100 talks nationally, and internationally, on the topics of death, dying, palliative care, and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk: “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), has been viewed over 11 million times and he has been on Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times. His book, A Beginner’s Guide to the End, was published in 2019. I found this book to be a must-read, and we discuss why on the show. For those of you who have lost a loved one, or want to prepare your families for your own transition or another’s, this episode is for you. We talk about: ✅ What it means to die well ✅ Why most people find it so difficult to talk about both death and disability in the West ✅ Some of the biggest regrets he has seen family members share as their loved ones approach death ✅ The preparation that goes into the end of life: paperwork, conversations and more You can learn more about BJ Miller here: https://www.mettlehealth.com/who-we-are Special thanks go to our sponsors for this episode, the Hydration Foundation, a non-profit organization, focused on better hydration for people, plants, animals and soil. As the leading authority on hydration, the foundation is dedicated to solving our health on this planet through creating better systems and conversations when it comes to water, and how it moves through our bodies, irrigation and food systems. You can learn more about the Hydration Foundation by navigating to www.hydrationfoundation.org. Donate to the Hydration Foundation’s program to restore soil through water. Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

Today’s episode is about the cosmos and investigating our place in the universe. My next guest almost requires no introduction. We’ll be featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and author of more than a dozen books—like Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. He is the host of StarTalk, a podcast, and Cosmos, televised by Fox and National Geographic. He has received 21 honorary doctorates as well as NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal. We talk about the following and more: ✅ What is our place in the universe and if we are alone ✅ The mysteries of the cosmos and how life began ✅ How the planets are classified today ✅ The most surprising thing that he has learned in the last 6 months ✅ The building blocks of astrophysics for a mainstream audience that may not have access to a lot of concepts in physics, and astrology ✅ How human beings are made up of the “stars” ✅ Something that is important for every human on earth to understand when it comes to the cosmos ✅ How Neil’s approach to science is evolving A special thanks goes to our sponsors for this episode, the Hydration Foundation, a non-profit organization, focused on better hydration for people, plants, animals and soil. As the leading authority on hydration, the foundation is dedicated to solving our health on this planet through creating better systems and conversations when it comes to water, and how it moves through our bodies, irrigation and food systems. You can learn more about the Hydration Foundation by navigating to www.hydrationfoundation.org. Donate to the Hydration Foundation’s program to restore soil through water. Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

Betty Kay is a New York, fine art, street artist who came from the hills of Napa Valley, CA, and is referred to as "street art royalty" in the spiritual circles that tend to mark her path. She is many things all in one: she focuses on magical realism and fierce freedom. Each of her series is guided by the story of the future pouring through her paintbrush. Her pieces sell swiftly and she adores connecting deeply to the souls of who she creates for. We talk about: ✅ What it means to live a life filled with magic ✅ What creativity means to her ✅ How to create as an artist ✅ How she connects spirituality and art ✅ How the audience can cultivate their creativity ✅ How to bring softness in Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

On today’s episode, we’ll be featuring Neale Donald Walsch. He has written 39 books on contemporary spirituality and its practical application in everyday life. Seven of the nine books in his Conversations with God series have made the New York Times Bestseller list, with Book One remaining on that list for 134 weeks. His latest book is The God Solution, was published in Dec. 2020. He can be reached at NealeDonaldWalsch.com. I first learned about Neale from the Mindvalley community, and read all of the CWG series, and found them to be fascinating. We talk about the following and much more: ✅ What it means to live as an enlightened being in today’s world ✅ What he means by “the God dilemma” ✅ The topic that has been most transformative for his readers and why ✅ The difference between knowledge and wisdom Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

I first learned about Dr. Shauna Shapiro through her Ted talk “Good Morning I love You” and through our mutual friend Nicole Patrice! Shout out to Nicole! Dr. Shauna Shapiro is a professor at Santa Clara University, best-selling author, and internationally recognized expert in mindfulness and compassion. She has been an invited speaker for the King of Thailand, the Danish Government, Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Summit, the Canadian Government, and the World Council for Psychotherapy, as well as for Fortune 100 Companies including Google, Cisco Systems, Proctor & Gamble, and LinkedIn. Dr. Shapiro has published over 150 journal articles and co-authored three critically acclaimed book, and her most recent book “Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire the Brain for Calm Clarity and Joy” is available on Amazon and Audible. We talk about the following and much more: ✅ What mindfulness is and it's so important ✅ The difference between mindfulness and meditation ✅ Why people are so disconnected from their mindful nature? ✅ What it means to have compassion, kindness and altruism ✅ The self-kindness morning meditation that she practices every day Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

I often hear men say that they don’t have an emotional outlet, or that their partner is the only person who they can emotionally connect with. Today’s episode is about how to be a conscious male in today’s world with Mike Sagun, a men's coach and an EVRYMAN facilitator. He has a somatic approach to coaching clients and focuses on helping men develop emotional awareness. Mike guides men out of their heads and into their bodies. He is a SF Bay Area Native now living full time in San Miguel de Allende, MX with his husband, Jerry, and his pitbull rescue, Bert. I had the great pleasure of spending time with Mike in San Miguel and felt it was important that we share his work on the show. We talk about: ✅ How Mike has been a leader in the men’s work movement for a long time, and what brought him to this work ✅ Themes he has seen over the years in coaching men ✅ Why men are so misunderstood in society today ✅ Some of the most life-changing questions he’s been asked ✅ How the group Evryman works ✅ Some of the biggest breakthroughs he has seen as a lead facilitator in Evryman You can learn more about Mike here: https://www.mikesagun.com/ Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard trained and published neuroanatomist. In 1996 she experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain causing her to have a stroke, and lose the ability to walk, talk, read, write or recall any of her life. Her memoir, My Stroke of Insight, which I’ve read, documents her experience with stroke and eight-year recovery. The book spent 63 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list, and is still routinely the #1 book about stroke on Amazon. In 2008 she gave the first TED talk that ever went viral on the Internet, which now has well over 27 million views. Also in 2008, Dr. Taylor was chosen as one of TIME Magazine's “100 Most Influential People in the World”. On this episode, we’ll be diving into her new book “Whole Brain Living The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life”. We talk about: ✅ Her new book “Whole Brain Living”, and what it means ✅ What the “four characters” are and why is getting to know them is important ✅ What the “Brain Huddle” is and how you can train our four characters to work with each other ✅ How the four characters map to the hero’s journey ✅ How incredible Jill’s opportunity to study a stroke from the inside out was in her position as a neuroanatomist ✅ How it takes less than 90 seconds for the chemistry of that emotion to flood through us how to deal with an emotional response ✅ Her quote “Please take responsibility for the energy you bring” and what that means ✅ Her rehabilitation in the book “My Stroke of Insight” You can follow her here: www.drjilltaylor.com Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you’d like to stay connected.