Messy, Luminous, Being Podcast

In this episode, I'm going to tell you a story. It starts off with a girl who lives on an island in a vast isolated sea, until one day a strange boatman arrives. The story is about Isla. But it is also about all of us. It asked the fundamental question that inspires all my work — how does spiritual wisdom map onto messy real life? What does the inner journey illuminate about our difficult relationships, our tough choices? How does it help us navigate times that didn't go the way we expected? How can we use this wisdom in a world in which we never really know what the outcome of our actions will be? This is a story about the alignment (and sometimes misalignment) of our outer purpose and our inner purpose of awakening. It's a story about a girl and a boatman. It's also the story of us.   This is a story is a novel I wrote called The Boatman. I'll be chatting about it various aspects of the story, characters and the inner journey questions it asks each week on Facebook live. All the details will be posted in the MLB newsletter & FB group. Have you signed up for the Messy Luminous Being Newsletter? It's free! https://mailchi.mp/sarahbhunt/messyluminousbeingpodcastnewsletter   (Want to read The Boatman for yourself? You can get it now on Amazon!)

Remembering to care for ourselves in a life where we are often focused on taking care of others is a practice in itself. In this episode, yoga teacher Nicole Windle shares her thoughts about how we can avoid burnout and why caring for ourselves is the essential spiritual practice. She also shares her experiences with kirtan, a beautiful form of devotional singing from the Indian tradition. And we discuss how reflections on Impermanence have shifted her mindset and help her not over-think things.  You can find her at https://nicolewindleyoga.co.uk and on IG @nicolewindleyoga

There's no doubt that in addition to times of joy, excitement and deep satisfaction, life also holds a lot of uncertainty, change and loss. When these things come, our sadness, pain and heartache feels like just another part of life. But does uncertainty have to bring feelings of fear and anxiety? Does loss and unexpected change mean we have to feel deep heartache and pain? Or do we create unnecessary suffering for ourselves by the way we think about certain aspects of our life. This episode is my own thoughts about four reflections that form the basis of Buddhist practice. Usually known as the Four Noble Truths, these are beautiful reflection for our times and can help us see just how much influence we have over our inner experience of life, no matter what the outer circumstances might bring.

We practice. And then suddenly life hits us with something big and unexpected. It's in these times when our practice becomes more than something we do for momentary enjoyment. We start practicing to help us live well. This conversation with yoga teacher Claire Bradley brings so much practical wisdom and down-to-earth experience of how yoga can help us ground ourselves during the pandemic. Most importantly is the mind-shift yoga can bring, to use these moments as an opportunity to get to know ourselves more deeply. This is yoga on and off the mat in a way I know you're going to love.

This episode is my celebratory round-up of my favourite bits of wisdom from the many conversations I had over the past year of Messy Luminous Being. The women who came on the show over the course of the past year shared their real-life, behind-the-scenes experiences of meditation, yoga & mindfulness practices. They told us their favourite ways of reconnecting inward in the midst of busy life. And they shared the wisdom that has helped them navigate challenges we all face. Ultimately, what has always been so important to me is that this podcast represents spiritual practice of women whose lives looks like ours. And listening to them reminds me that we don't need our lives to look like retreat centres or a beach on Bali. And we don't need to be different people who finally "have it altogether". We can show up as our messy luminous selves and weave inner practices into everyday life. Thank you. Thank you. Beautiful messy luminous women!

We may like think of "spiritual practice" as joyful and calming, but the reality is that it's a bumpy road. It takes work to stay connected to our inner selves in a world that is always pulling us outside, into action and busyness, and trying to keep hold of our attention. There are so many times where it feels awkward, where our emotions are raw, sitting still is uncomfortable and we just want to fall back into old distractions. But as this conversation with Vikki will remind you, it doesn't matter how fast or slow you feel like you're going with your spiritual practice. It just matters that you keep going, keep showing up. You can find Vikki Rood at www.vikkirood.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/awkwardandawesomecoaching

Routines have always been the way I carved out time for myself. Blocking in specific time-slots for activities was how I thought things got done. But between lockdown living (where we watched our carefully cultivated routines completely fall apart) and watching the rhythms of the natural world (which can speed up or slow down but remain resilient), I've been wondering whether there might be a different mindset we can adopt — towards our inner practices and towards the way we think about our lives.

It can often seem like the world's problems are so big that our individual efforts barely make a difference. Yet from a meditation perspective, inner work is the most revolutionary and transformative action you can take to create change...not only in yourself but in the world. When Gandhi said, "be the change you want to see in the world", I think this is what he meant. This episode is my reflection on why this is true & how we can do inner work that makes change in the world.

Things that we experience in childhood and the parts of our life we struggle with are our spiritual curriculum for this life. And if we apply love to the places that hurt, then real healing can happen. Because Love is the ultimate competency. These beautiful words all come from my conversation with spiritual psycho-therapist Chausey Leebron Jameson. We talk about boundaries that help us care for ourselves and our energetic state, the power of long hikes, raising children in 'lockdown' and becoming our most authentic self. You can find Chausey on Instagram @chauseyj 

In this episode I talk about my take-aways from the conversation about self-compassion I had with my own meditation group last weekend. It's a personal episode and my attempt to pull back the curtain continually to show what my practice really looks like and how I'm using buddhist teachings to negotiate real messy life situations. It's in messy real life where different meditation teachings take on their most profound meaning & where we learn to react differently to the same old situations.  If you want to experience this kind of group support, check out the Breathing Space membership group I run monthly https://mailchi.mp/sarahbhunt/breathingspace