Untangle

Today’s guest is Sharon Salzberg, one of the most prominent voices in the field of meditation, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, and author of 11 books including the NY Times Best Seller Real Happiness. Our conversation is about her newest book, Real change, Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World. It’s an incredibly timely book because she shares great examples of how we can bridge the worlds of mindfulness and social action. Sharon has a way of expressing complex ideas in her signature, down-to-earth style. She invites us to rethink how we approach some of our most difficult emotions with grace and dignity. Encore Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you a little fed up with your partner sometimes? Or looking to be a better partner yourself? Our guests this week are a married couple, Nate and Kaley Klemp, who teach us how to be better, more mindful partners. They are mindfulness and organizational dynamic experts who get real about strategies to show up for the other person, even when the other partner might not be so mindful all the time. Encore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest, in honor of Valentine's Day, is Loretta Breuning, PhD and author of several books including Habits of a Happy Brain and The Science of Positivity. She is the Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute where she studies the brain chemistry we share with mammals. It’s fascinating how she connects our behaviors with those of mammals, especially as she dives into the neurochemicals…dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and cortisol — that drive love, relationships, and much of our lives. You’ll learn a lot about the neurobiology of love, how to turn on the happy chemicals — and how you can build new neural pathways anytime. A little piece of advice she shares…Love is a neurochemical roller coaster, and managing your own chemicals works FAR better than blaming your partner for them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest is Dr. Molly Maloof. She is the author of a new book called The Spark Factor. The Secret to Supercharging Energy, Becoming Resilient, and Feeling Better Than Ever. In this interview, she shares her research and insights on the key pillars of women’s health and wellbeing. I found this to be like an encyclopedia chock full of information and data related to our brains, gut, mental and physical health. She’s passionate about biohacking, lifestyle interventions, personalized medicine, and optimizing performance. It’s a rich look at how we manage our own health so we don’t have to rely on the healthcare system to ‘fix us’ when something goes wrong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, you can learn more about what you eat affects the health of your brain. Dr. Lisa Mosconi, Alzheimer's researcher, and nutritionist gives us a step-by-step guide to what foods to eat and what foods to avoid for the best brain health. Encore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Zemon, our guest today, has a Masters's in Psychology and Neuroscience and is the editor of the book Psychedelics for Everyone — A Beginners Guide to These Powerful Medicines for Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Expanding Consciousness. The book is a compilation of writings from a number of different experts. In 2019 Matt had an opportunity to experience a guided psilocybin (magic mushroom) journey and, he says, it completely changed his worldview. Since then, he has gone from someone who had never taken any drugs, with the exception of a little cannabis, to a deep dive into the study of human consciousness with the help of psilocybin, ayahuasca, ketamine, MDMA, and more. Psychedelics for Everyone is his attempt to share some of the insights he’s gained. He feels these drugs can sometimes play a powerful role in healing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the Untangle Podcast, learn how to create any habit you want! By celebrating even the smallest changes as victories, you can rewire your brain to tackle your year's challenges successfully. Learn more about BJ Fogg at www.bjfogg.com and read his book, "Tiny Habits". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is an author, speaker, and Harvard-trained neuroanatomist. You may remember her from her Ted Talk (viewed by over 27 mm people) and her NY Times best-selling book, My Stroke of Insight, A Brain Scientists Journey. In this book, she chronicles the experience of her rare stroke at the age of 37. She lost her ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her past. It took eight years for her to rebuild her brain — to recover all physical, emotional, and thinking abilities. Her second book is called Whole Brain Living, The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life. In this book, she blends neuroanatomy with psychology to illustrate how we can short-circuit emotional reactivity to lead a more fulfilling and peaceful life. Most of us have been led to believe that our right brain houses our emotions and the left brain our rational thinking. Jill shares that it’s not that simple. Each of our hemispheres has both an emotional and a thinking brain. In this book, she presents these four distinct modules of cells in the brain as four characters that make up who we are. She presents a whole new language that we can use to understand our behaviors, feelings, and emotions. In this discussion, she introduces us to the 4 characters and offers ways we can find more peace in our daily lives and create healthier relationships. The more we become familiar with each of the characters in ourselves and others, the more power we gain over our thoughts, feelings, relationships, and our lives. Indeed, she says, we discover that we really do have the power to choose who and how we want to be in every moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the perfect Zen antidote to new year’s resolutions and planning and striving, Zen priest Rev Angel Kyodo Williams shows us the simplicity of returning to the self. To our enoughness. To the present moment. To our multiple and ever-changing purposes. To the joy that unfolds from just being, not doing, planning, or striving, and to the timelessness of the value of life- whatever year it is. This podcast offers a collective exhale to just be and take life as it is. Encore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the end of each year, I love to look back at some of the gems that have come from Untangle. It’s such a joy to be reminded of all the insights and inspiration that our guests invite us to explore. This year there are some wonderful themes: Accepting all of who we are…the wholeness and the brokenness; Being in alignment with our values and our true nature; Noticing the fragility of life as we behold the joys and sorrows; Allowing for the idea that ambiguity teaches us that there can be multiple interpretations and possibilities to any situation; Cultivating friendships is a key to meaning and happiness. There’s more in this annual episode of Untangle. We hope you enjoy it. Happy 2023 to all! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices