The Gathering Room Podcast

Some people have a bullseye picture of their purpose in life and are headed straight toward it. However, this is extremely rare. Why? Martha says it’s because we live in a culture dominated by left-hemisphere thinking, which pulls us toward anxiety and socializes us to do as we’re told and acquire material wealth. In this episode of The Gathering Room podcast, Martha talks about following your curiosity to activate the right side of the brain, which is where our passion lives. And our passion is what leads us to our life’s purpose.If you want to start looking for things that draw your attention (rather than push yourself toward the things you think you should do), and you’re ready to prepare yourself to follow your curiosity wherever it leads, tune in to the full episode—it may contain just the spark you need!Episode Links Jill Bolte Taylor  Josh Waitzkin Daniel Coyle Elizabeth GilbertSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you ever feel like your life is a crazy quilt? Martha says that creating your life is the ultimate creative project, and that’s what she’s talking about in this episode of The Gathering Room. Each of us is given all the material to make a life—a human body, a set of circumstances, and a set of abilities—and the life we make from that material is ours to determine in this day and age. Sometimes it feels like we’re just piecing things together helter-skelter without a pattern,  crazy-quilt style, but Martha says there’s nothing crazy about it. “Crazy” is trying to follow the pattern the culture gives us, using only the materials it wants us to have.  When you stitch together the unique elements of your life to make something that brings you joy and a sense of purpose, that is actually very sane—what Martha calls a “sanity quilt.”  Listen to the full episode to learn how to see beauty in the fabrics of your life so you can make your own warm and wonderful “sanity quilt.” You’ll also be able to participate as Martha guides you through her Space, Stillness, and Silence meditation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Martha says one reason we humans are a strange species is because we love to make jigsaw puzzles—beautiful pictures that we cut up into tiny pieces and disassemble, and then put back together. And we don’t like them to be too easy!In this episode of The Gathering Room: Solving the Puzzles of Our Lives, Martha talks about the way problems in our lives are like puzzles, and how it often can be more joyful to have a puzzle than not to have one. These puzzles are the life situations given to us by circumstance. “If we can get into a state of relative relaxation,” Martha says, “and then look at even a very scary problem in our own lives, we can start to appreciate the kind of puzzles our brains like to solve.”To learn how to approach the problems in your own life like a jigsaw puzzle—and solve them in a way that supports your awakening and can help transform the world—tune in for the full episode. It also includes Martha’s guided Space, Stillness, and Silence meditation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You’ve heard of the fight and flight reflexes, but what about flop and fake?Flop and fake (also known as fawn) are two of the other responses in the polyvagal system, a theory about how our nervous systems adapt to stress and the environment. Fake/fawn is a people-pleasing response, and flop means you just lie there unable to drum up motivation.In this episode of The Gathering Pod: The Way Back to Happy, Martha’s talking about polyvagal theory and how to regulate your nervous system when it gets hijacked by fight, flight, freeze, flop, or fake.One of the things polyvagal theory says is that we can never go into a calm, alert state unless our nervous systems are interacting with one of four things: self, others, nature, and spirit. The good news is that Martha has a process to help you do exactly that!If you’re feeling frazzled, overstimulated, or overwhelmed and you need some relief, tune in and let Martha guide you back to your center of calm. With a few prompts, you can start to regulate your nervous system and become conscious of the beauty, joy, and love all around you.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're not trained to think of a spiritually led life as being hilarious or silly or goofy. But as Martha reminds us, laughter is the beginning of prayer.In this episode of The Gathering Pod: Letting the Force Steer Your Life, she talks about the difference between spiritual faith and religious faith, and how to connect with and trust spiritual energy (aka the Force) to guide you. When you do, you’ll be in for some truly delightful surprises!As Martha puts it, “The universe is not your butler. The universe is a continuous aspect of your consciousness that loves for you to play with it.” Listen to the full episode to hear some incredibly fun stories about manifesting with integrity, learn more about the overlap between play and spirit, and participate in Martha’s guided Space, Stillness, and Silence meditation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Be prepared to stop.” This is serious life advice, Martha says, because no matter what we’re doing (or how much we want to continue doing it), at some point we’re going to get interrupted by life.Whenever we have to stop something we thought was going to continue indefinitely—like a job, for example, or a marriage—it can really hurt. In this episode of The Gathering Pod: When Stopping Is the Way to Go, Martha talks about how we can make peace with inevitable interruptions by embracing another perspective:“In the flow of time in this earthly existence, stopping and starting are the same thing—every time we stop doing something, we start doing something different.”Tune in to participate in a guided meditation with Martha and learn how you loosening your attachments can ease the pain of stopping, so you can start observing the delicious flow of life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you familiar with polyvagal theory?  It may sound highly scientific, but Martha says polyvagal theory has a profound effect on spiritual practice as well, and she’s talking all about it in this episode of The Gathering Room: Dropping Anchor. The polyvagal nerve is a system of nerves connecting the brain to various parts of the body, and it plays a key role in our response to stress—either revving us up or shutting us down.  And according to the work of Deb Dana, it’s also involved with our sense of joy, compassion, love, and connection with higher consciousness through the part of the polyvagal nerve called the ventral vagal. Martha says that even when we feel overwhelmed, the ventral vagal state allows us to anchor into a state of joyful, peaceful relaxation and hold that state of being even amid chaos. To learn how to stay anchored in peace when others are in fight-or-flight or shutdown mode, tune in for the full episode. Martha even guides you through a ventral vagal exercise along with her Silence, Stillness, and Space meditation. Don’t miss it!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s The Best of the Gathering Pod, and this week we’re revisiting another listener favorite from the vault—Episode 110: How to Let the Light In.In this episode, Martha talks about her “rage to master” and the paradox of imperfection: While we can try our hardest to produce perfect results, we must accept that we’ll always make mistakes. It’s this combination of effort and grace that allows us to let the light into our lives.To find out more, be sure to listen to the full episode!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve got another Best of the Gathering Room episode for you today, a listener favorite called Building on Bright Spots. In this episode, Martha talks about finding and following the almost invisible “bright spots” in your life whenever things feel dark and cloudy. Because clouds are illusions, it's always possible to find little breaks in the clouds and see the clear points of truth that can guide you home.  To find out how, tune in for the full episode—which might turn out to be a bright spot for you!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While Martha is out on vacation, we’re bringing you The Best of the Gathering Room—a treasury of Gatherers’ favorite episodes—starting with: How to Heal Your Heart. Many of us believe something outside ourselves can heal us when we're heartsick, but Martha says the opposite is true. The heart can heal itself—if you know how to access the "heart healer" within you.  To learn how to come into integrity so that your inner “heart healer” can do its valuable work, don't miss this popular episode!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.