The Gathering Room Podcast

Ever think if you just try harder or achieve more, you’ll FINALLY feel whole and happy? Martha warns us that this is a misconception shoved at us by culture, which insists that fame, money, and accomplishment are the answers to everything. In reality, doing things that don’t feed our souls will be unfulfilling. We must go back to the first principles of what we love, back to the fundamentals of our true nature, to find activities and ideas that will be deeply rewarding. (Originally aired: Apr. 25, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Martha reveals several freaky-deaky stories that she couldn’t quite squeeze into her new book, The Way of Integrity! She talks about finding and moving to her ranch in California, meeting a massive rattlesnake, a very unusual flock of turkeys, how she acquired her own personal labyrinth, and more. (Originally aired: Apr. 18, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just before the release of her latest book, The Way of Integrity, Martha describes feeling pulled in many directions and drifting away from her true self! She describes the ups and downs of preparing to release a huge creative project into the world, and her realization that she must get off the roller coaster of human emotion and back into the truth of her spirit. When your mind, heart, soul, and body are all telling the same story, everything in life flows more easily. (Originally aired: Apr. 11, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Martha identifies as a codependent: someone who helps others even when helping is to her own detriment. Since many of Martha’s listeners have similar personalities, she shares a coping technique she formulated after reading Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. People who don’t experience empathy, such as narcissists and psychopaths, are very hard for codependents to understand. Managing these relationships means acknowledging that empathy and reasoning are absent, and acting accordingly. (Originally aired: Mar. 28, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This conversation took place right after the Spring Equinox, a time when day and night are equal in length. Martha points out that this is a time of transition and a reminder that life can be experienced cyclically if we so choose. She adds, though, that while we are experiencing spring again as part of a cycle, we are also experiencing this particular spring for the very first time. Perhaps it’s time to start an entirely new life, with fresh eyes and an open heart. (Originally aired: Mar. 21, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In an interview with Inspire Nation podcast host Michael Sandler, Martha explained that living with integrity WILL bring fear into your life. You’ll realize you’ve been betraying your authentic self to coddle people around you. We all do this because social pushback is frightening! Then Michael described the edge between destructive fear and fear we feel despite being safe. Martha offers an exercise to approach that edge safely. (Originally aired: Mar. 14, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After hearing Brene Brown declare that “unused creativity is not benign,” Martha and her family decided to hold a Creativity Day … but when Martha sat down to paint, she found it terrifying and overwhelming! This is because culture trains us to value activities done for money or to help others over activities that help us build meaningful and joyful lives for ourselves. Martha challenges us to push the edge of creativity, past any blocks, until we can feel the euphoric flow. (Originally aired: Mar. 7, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We cannot force fresh starts. They come when they want to come, and they always begin inside of us. Martha describes the feeling of being “fed up” as crucial to catalyzing sweeping change, but also explains the concept of being “full fed.” A caterpillar cannot become a butterfly unless it is full fed, meaning plump enough to sustain its transformation. Fresh starts in our own lives must be similarly resourced or true metamorphosis simply cannot occur! (Originally aired: Feb. 21, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Although many of our cultural stories focus on generosity, selflessness, and giving MORE, Martha uses this episode to stress the importance of reserving resources for ourselves. She points out that when we overgive we may actually prevent people from learning and growing on their own. (And, of course, WE end up drained and exhausted.) Giving should feel joyful, and when it doesn’t, we can absolutely dial it back. (Originally aired: Feb. 14, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you cultivate vulnerability while maintaining healthy boundaries with others? Striking this balance is especially complicated if we keep ourselves emotionally wide-open or utterly closed-off at all times, tendencies that many sensitive people favor. When we’ve been repeatedly hurt by people or systems, it can be hard to know who and how to trust. Martha offers tactics and resources for connecting with others and sharing ourselves in healthy, safe ways. (Originally aired: Feb. 7, 2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.