Simple Ways to Have a Good Life with James Scott Henson
By James Scott Henson
Simple Ways to Have a Good Life with James Scott Henson Apr 30, 2019
How to Stop Being the Main Character
Okay, time to wrap up the series on being the main character by talking about three ways we can chip away at the idea of our own importance:
1. Learn to meditate
2. Invest in other people
3. Understand that you will die
I know that a lot of this might seem disempowering or morbid, but there is freedom in recognizing that nothing revolves around you. I promise.
Realistic Gratitude
This is an audio version of an old video that I created specifically for an issue of my newsletter.
It’s about 4 things we can always be grateful for:
1) There is something instead of nothing.
2) This something is stable.
3) We have a consciousness with which to experience this stable something.
4) We have a say in how this consciousness relates to the stable something.
I was sick when I recorded it, please excuse the difficulty breathing you hear from time to time.
The Problems with Being the Main Character
If we pay attention, we can see that life is constantly giving us feedback about our behavior. We cannot hear this feedback if we are too busy being the main character, and this will bring us constant trouble.
Are You the Main Character?
Simple ways to tell if you are the main character.
Quick spoiler: you're not.
Confessions of a Recovering Main Character
I used to think I was the main character. Now I know I’m not.
There’s freedom in ordinariness.
Have a Morning Routine
Having a morning routine is one of the simplest ways we can improve our lives. I really found that how I start the morning is how my day goes. I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I’m doing a class called Surviving Social Media for ClassRT on Tuesday, June 28th at 7pm CST. You can check it out here.
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This episode is meant to be supplemented with the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Tuesday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
What are YOU working on, James?
People ask me often enough what kinds of things I'm working on personally and what kinds of things I struggle with that I figured I'd just do an episode about it.
The first two things I'm working on were pretty easy for me to identify: I'm always working on being more gentle and on being more social. I'm not really good at either of these things, but I know they are good for me so I'm doing my best.
I think we all have things we need to be working on. It's scary to me that there's this narrative in the world that you are fine the way you are.
I get it, a lot of the things we need to work on are not necessarily our fault. The things I like least about myself make a lot of sense when you look at my life, but that doesn't mean that I'm OK with them and that doesn't mean that I don’t have to sort them out.
A lot of the things that happen to you are probably not your fault, but what you do with them is your responsibility. It's not compassionate to tell somebody that behaviors and choices that are bringing them harm or are harming other people are OK. It’s not everyone else’s responsibility to get on board with your bullshit behavior.
So, in that spirit, this is a podcast talking about me and my bullshit behavior.
Turn Off the News
We all feel this strange obligation to watch the news so that we can be informed and know what's going on. The problem is that watching the news often leads to anxiety and worry, and we may not even be as informed as we think we are in the process. This episode explores the idea of turning off the news and what that might do for us.
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This episode is meant to be supplemented with the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Tuesday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Care Less
Here's a more accurate title:
“Care less about all the things that you don't have control over or that you aren’t really interested in so that you can put your time and energy into the things you can control and the things you do care about.”
It's a little clunky.
Everybody expects us to care about what they care about. They expect their passions and interests to be our passions and interests. It's OK to say that you don't really care about something. It's OK not to put your time and energy into things that don't matter to you or where you cannot make a difference.
Say "Thanks for Sharing"
This week’s simple way to have a good life is to say “thanks for sharing”. Our brains are amazing, but they are also weird as hell. We think negative things about ourselves, we get caught up in arguments and debates inside our own heads, and we get scared about future events that we made up. When we think about these things, we are giving them attention. When we argue with these things, we are giving them attention. Learning to thank them for sharing and moving on is almost magical in how well it works.
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This episode is meant to be supplemented with the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Tuesday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Remember, You are Human
This week’s simple way to have a good life is to remember that you are human.
This is the first episode in a series about getting back to basics. We have a super cool brain, and we like to use it. This often leads us to overcomplicate things and forget about some simple things that have a big impact on how we feel:
Eating
Sleeping
Drinking water
Moving our bodies
Going outside
Being social
Contributing
2018 was the start of a tough few years for me. I neglected these basic human necessities, and I paid a price for it. I talk about this and more in this episode.
This is the first episode in what I am hoping is a series of positive changes for the podcast and newsletter. I’m excited about this. It’s a complete re-brand and re-vamp of the newsletter and podcast, and I think it’s going to be better for everyone who reads and listens.
The podcast will be weekly from now on, going out every Monday morning. It will work with the newsletter to provide a deeper dive into whatever topic we are discussing that week.
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This episode is meant to be supplemented with the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Tuesday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Toxic People and Self-Sabotage
As we wrap up the series on self-sabotage we take a look at one of the worst ways we limit our own success: allowing toxic people to have a place in our lives.
It sucks, but there’s no way around the fact that some people will bring destruction and misery into our lives the same way someone with the flu will bring sickness. They may not mean to do it, but the results are the same.
Learning to recognize and draw boundaries with unhealthy, destructive people is essential to having a good life.
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If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every other Monday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Self-Image and Self-Sabotage
We behave according to how we see ourselves, but we have a lot more control over this than we think we do.
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If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every other Monday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Self-Sabotage Part 2
We are continuing our series on self-sabotage by looking at three common behaviors that hinder us: perfectionism, procrastination, and self-medication. We also talk about things you can do to break the cycle of these behaviors if you recognize them in your own life.
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If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every other Monday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Self-Sabotage
I did a poll on Instagram asking people what they wanted the next series to cover, and I was surprised that self-sabotage won. In this episode, we talk about self-sabotage and how it can manifest in very subtle ways. I also talk about the very not subtle ways it has manifested for me over the course of my life and what kinds of things I've done to deal with it.
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If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every other Monday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Thoughts are Random, Don't Take Them So Seriously
“The brain secretes thought like the liver secretes bile.”
Pierre Cabanis, 18th-century French physiologist.
It's a little scary to see just how much authority we give our mind once we take the time to recognize just how random the thoughts the mind churns out can be. We like to think that we are rational, logical beings who only make the best decisions, but a few minutes of observing the mind will disabuse us of this idea very quickly.
The mind isn’t bad, but it won’t stay in its lane. It’s super helpful in navigating reality, but it won’t stop there. It just has to start opinionating on things and predicting the future and reading other people’s minds, and this is where our trouble lies.
If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every other Monday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Our Thoughts Determine the Quality of Our Lives
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.
Marcus Aurelius
This is the first in a four-part series on our thoughts and how they impact our lives. In this episode of the podcast, we explore how our thoughts determine the quality of our lives. We will continue this up next week in the newsletter - you can sign up for that here. When you sign up you will only get the newsletter from me, I don't share your email address with anybody else and I do not spam you.
Three Degrees of Control
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If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Friday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Practice Gratitude
What does a realistic gratitude practice look like - one rooted in reality, acknowledging the difficulties of life, and not suppressing our emotions? We talk about this and more in this episode of the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life Podcast.
Two Quick Links:
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If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Friday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Emotions as Energy
We experience a lot of different energies in the body. The mind takes these sensations and tells us a story about them, creating our emotions. When we learn how to recognize and deconstruct this process, our life gets better.
What We Have to Do
We go through life feeling like we have to do a lot of things we don't want to do, but when we step back and look at things we realized that we are actually choosing to do a bunch of things we don't want to do. Sometimes this is necessary to have the life we want to have, but other times we are doing things without really questioning whether they are necessary or not.
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If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Friday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
You are Not Your Thoughts
This is the first episode in the new series where we will be talking about the things that clients have most consistently told me were useful to them over the years.
The idea that we are not our thoughts is easily one of the most important things that we can recognize. We talk about that in this episode, along with three simple exercises we can use to help recognize this whenever we need to.
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If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Friday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
The End Of Season 3: Answering Your Questions
As we wrap up season 3 I'm taking the last episode to answer a few of the questions I've gotten over the last few months:
Why don’t you tell more stories about your life?
What are your hobbies?
Favorite things?
What are you working on in yourself?
What motivates you?
We’ll get started on season 4 next week or the week after. Thanks for listening.
If you enjoyed this episode, you may enjoy the Simple Ways to Have a Good Life newsletter. It goes out every Friday morning and is full of things intended to help you live your best life, all for free. Sign up here, unsubscribe without any hassle. I don’t share names or email addresses with anyone.
Stay In Your Lane
There’s power and freedom in minding your business. The world will bring you plenty of problems, it’s unnecessary to go out of your way to find more. There are plenty of things you are well-informed about, there’s no reason to have an opinion on the things that you don’t know much about.
So many of our human problems arise from our opinion of things we have no control over. Acknowledging this allows us to address everything with intentionality and purpose. By staying in our lane, we are able to put our time, energy, and awareness toward the things that matter most instead of unconsciously relinquishing control by chasing things that have nothing to do with us or are beyond our influence.
Thanks for listening. Send me an email.
Dethrone Your Phone
This is another simple one. I'll talk about the things that concern me with the primary role our phones play in our lives, and I tell you about a few things that have helped me change my relationship with my phone for the better.
Thank you for taking the time to listen, take care.
Ditch Social Media
This one is fairly self-explanatory. Taking a break or permanent vacation from social media can improve your life. There are a bunch of studies that document the harmful effects of social media, especially on young people, not to mention the time suck and fragmentation of awareness that comes with the territory.
I don't think you have to be militant about it and you can choose how and when you do it, but introducing some intentionality into your relationship with social media will not hurt you. That's what this episode is about.
Cold Showers
This episode is pretty simple. I mentioned that I think taking cold showers has been really good for me, a lot of people asked me questions, so I did a bunch of research and I talk about it on here. I wanted to keep it short and concise, so it's not exhaustive but it should get you started.
No Pedestals
This is a sort of interlude episode while I fight my way through what has become a deep dive with lots of reading and listening to other podcasts to learn about the benefits of cold showers and the benefits of ditching social media. I'm excited about both of those topics so I wanted to put a little more work into them.
In this episode, I talk about one of the most important things I've learned working with people for the last 20 years: no one is perfect, no one should be on a pedestal, and it's not fair to ourselves or to them when we do that to people. The more that we can let everyone be fully human the happier we are, the deeper our relationships are, and the more honestly we can live our lives.
As always, I'm deeply grateful for everyone who takes the time to listen to these episodes, and I love hearing from people. You can always shoot me an email at james@jamesscotthenson.com if you have an idea for a topic, or if there is a situation in your life that might be helpful to discuss on the podcast. I appreciate your time
Finding a Good Therapist
This episode was inspired by one of the questions I got most frequently over on Instagram: “What should I look for in a counselor?”
This isn't an exhaustive exploration of this question, but we touch on things like the relationship, scope of practice, and professionalism in the counseling field and I think it will at least point people in the right direction in finding a good therapist.
If you're looking for a counselor right now, Psychology Today and Better Help seem to be really good online resources, and a quick Google search will probably point you towards different agencies or people in private practice in your area.
10 Actually Simple Things That Can Change Your Life
This episode is in response to a valid criticism someone recently shared with me: this podcast claims to be about simple ways to have a good life, but I spend a lot of time talking about things like awareness and the ego. Not everyone knows how to take those concepts and turn them into actual change. I realized the person who told me this was right, so I took some time and thought about the 10 most concrete and actionable things that made a difference in my life.
They are:
1) Meditate
2) Take Cold Showers
3) Ditch Social Media
4) Put Your Phone Away
5) Drink Water
6) Prioritize Sleep
7) Get Out of Bed
8) Limit or Avoid Alcohol
9) Stay in Your Lane
10) Help Others
None of these is a one-size-fits-all answer. Some people will have an easier time incorporating them than others, but even one or two might make a difference.
Thanks for taking the time to listen, take care.
Thin Your Bubble
It is strange to me that this generated some pushback when I posted about it on Instagram a few months back. We only know what we know, and if we surround ourselves with people that are familiar, it's impossible for us to know more than we already know.
Thick bubbles used to be the privilege of the wealthy, but the Internet has allowed us all to cultivate echo chambers that feed our own ideas back to us in the guise of likes and comments, making us think we are more right than we really are. This also creates a world where people who are different than us are faceless enemies, making our lives more fearful and anxiety-ridden than they need to be.
In this episode of Simple Ways To Have A Good Life we talk about thinning our bubble by being open to knowing and understanding the stories of people who live differently than us, come from different places, then believe things we might not believe.
Take Responsibility for Your Mood
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor Frankl
It is sad that we are not taught this, but there is a difference between the things that arise in our internal experience without being invited and our response to those things. If someone wrongs us, we will feel anger, this is normal. Our power lies in what we do with that anger, and what kind of hold we allow it to have on us going forward.
This episode of Simple Ways to Have a Good Life is all about recognizing that space between stimulus and response, and using it to make our lives better.
Don’t Try to Be Everywhere
We live in a world that offers us thousands of distractions in the guise of opportunities. If we aren’t careful we end up doing a large number of things really poorly, and we aren’t happy with the results. We try to be everywhere and end up being nowhere.
This episode of The Simple Ways to Haves a Good Life podcast is all about priorities and how we spend our time. Thanks for taking the time to check it out.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - check out my website or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Learn to Meditate
We tend to overprioritize our internal experience. Our thoughts and our emotions can take a good day and turn it bad and they often claim knowledge of things they do not have knowledge of. As we look at these simple ways to have a good life, learning to meditate is one of the most important things we can do because it helps us change our relationship to all the things going on inside of us and it helps us learn that a great deal of it doesn't mean anything at all, much less mean as much as we think it does.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Recognizing Our Negativity Bias
Our ego cares more about us being alive than it does about us being happy, so it operates with an inherent negativity bias. This makes sense, and it's a good thing in many situations, but it can also run amok and make our lives really difficult. In this episode of The Simple Ways to Have a Good Life Podcast we take a look at this negativity bias and its effects on our lives, and we talk about a simple practice that can help minimize its impact on how we live day-to-day.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Justified or Free
Change can be scary, and it usually requires some work. Because of this, we often choose to feel justified in what we are already doing so that we don't have to pursue the process of change. The problem with this is that it keeps us locked into the things we're already doing whether they're working or not, and this prevents us from finding freedom in life. This is all complicated by the fact that there are armies of well-meaning people who will tell us that we are fine just the way we are. We talk about all of this and more in this episode of The Simple Ways to Have a Good Life Podcast.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
The Problem with the Things We “Know”.
The things we “know” are often the source of so much of our trouble. We think we know things about how the world works, about how other people are, and about ourselves, and we allow these things to become unwritten rules that dictate and limit our lives.
In this episode of The Simple Ways to Have a Good Life podcast we take a look at the things we supposedly know, talk about how to deconstruct them, and explore the concept of friendly curiosity as a way of living in a world full of possibilities instead of a world limited by what we think we know.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Identification with Suffering
When it comes to simple ways to have a good life, the ideas that we shed are every bit as important as anything we can learn.
One of the first things we have to shed is our identification with our suffering.
We live in a world that encourages us to suffer, to identify with our suffering, and even to validate or justify ourselves through our suffering. This will always tie us to that suffering because we think it's part of “us”, and how can we ever escape from something that is “us”?
In this episode, we talk about the difference between pain and suffering, how the ideas we accept about ourselves impact us, and what it means to accept our pain without turning it into suffering.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Simple Ways to Have a Good Life: The Problem with Identity
This is the first in what is going to be a long series about the simplest ways to have a good life. I've worked with people for close to 20 years now, and I thought it might be useful to take everything I've learned over those years and turn it into a series of episodes for the podcast.
It's become clear to me over the past two decades that a majority of the things that are best for us are more about shedding what we think we know than about learning something new, so we’ll start the series by talking about the issue of identity.
All the things that we think are “us” and help us define ourselves simultaneously lock us into patterns of behavior and thought that make it very hard to change. This episode is all about that.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Attachment to Nonattachment
This episode is all about nonattachment: what that means, what it means for the people in our lives, and how this looks when we approach it in an unhealthy way.
I've studied nonattachment for close to a decade now, but even with that, it took me a while to get this podcast out because it's such an important topic. In my early life I embraced a toxic perspective on nonattachment due to my emotional immaturity and how deeply I was suffering. This was messy.
Since then, I've explored the idea of healthy nonattachment and I think it's one of the more important things we can cultivate so long as we do it from the right mindset in the right perspective.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Kurtis Vanderpool: Deconstruction is Not Destruction
This one is different. It is long, it is challenging, and, I think, it may reach some people who haven’t always felt a resonance with some of what I’ve offered.
Kurtis Vanderpool is a Life Coach who specializes in working with people who are struggling with their faith, and in helping them deconstruct their experience to retain the things that were good.
In this conversation, we talk about how people are fleeing organized faith, what this means, what we might lose as a result, and the difficulty institutions and their leaders are facing. Kurtis approaches all of this from the “outer edge” of the narrative and therefore offers a different perspective than what you may hear from me week-to-week.
You can find Kurtis at:
o @kurtisvanderpool on Instagram
o 806-790-5469
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Opening Up
If you really pay attention to your experience you’ll notice that you tense up or constrict when something that you don’t like happens – a lot of our suffering comes from this. In this final part of the series on awareness, we look at moving beyond simple acceptance and into saying “yes” to the things life brings us, especially when they are beyond our control.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
What Does It Mean to Let Go?
In this episode of the podcast, we explore what it means to let go, how to actually do it, and the fact that it is a process rather a one-time thing. This can be especially difficult when it comes to other people in our lives.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Awareness and the Need for Approval
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
The need for approval is a tough one. We are wired to care about what other members of our species think, especially when it comes to our family and close friends. In this episode, we talk about this need for approval, how getting approval often creates a false sense of security that can be dangerous for us, and how awareness can help us reconcile ourselves to all of this.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Defining Awareness
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
The practice of simple awareness is powerful, but it's also simple enough to become complicated as our mind tries to get a grasp on it. In this episode, we talk about what awareness is, what it can do for us, and how to cultivate it.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Gaming Skills, Life Skills with Yash Anand
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This is a cool one.
My friend Yash lives in New Bombay, India, and has written a book on how gamers can take the skills they’ve developed from their hobby and apply them to life. It’s a good idea and I think it’s going to be a good book.
Join us for the conversation - we were off on a few population statistics, the sound is not perfect, and we stepped on each other a few times due to the lag time on Skype, but it was a good conversation and Yash has some really cool ideas about how video games can help us with concentration, resilience, and problem-solving.
Find Yash on IG @thequotedquill, online at www.thequotedquill.com, or email him at yashanand@thequotedquill.com.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Guided Meditation: Counting the Breath
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This is probably the most requested video/audio: an introductory guided meditation. It's also been the most difficult for me to get done because I don't know much about sound editing and it's really hard to record one without background noise.
I don't think this one is perfect, but it's good enough that I feel comfortable putting it out – you can watch it on Instagram with some video of calming waves but I wanted to upload it as a podcast episode for anyone who just wants the audio.
Thanks for listening, take care.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
The Best Habits
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This episode is in response to a question I got on Instagram: What are the best habits? I discuss the habits I am most grateful for and share a framework I use to keep my habits in check by remembering what I want to stop, decrease, maintain, increase, and start.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Learning During Difficult Times
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This is the first episode under the new name, and serves to catch everyone up on where I've been and the things I've learned from a difficult last year. Thanks for listening!
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Goodbye Dying Daily: Time and How We Waste It
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
In what is the final episode of this podcast under the name Dying Daily, we explore why I am moving away from it and what led me to it in the first place. Over the course of this podcast we’ll talk about Seneca and his essay “On the Shortness of Life”, the ways we waste our time, the suddenness of death, and things like regret, selfishness, and destructive behavior. I promise it’s a lot more fun than it sounds.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Mindfulness Isn't Magic
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
In this episode of the Dying Daily podcast we take a quick look at one of the most problematic expectations many people have of a mindfulness practice.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Who I Am
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
In this episode of the Dying Daily Podcast I tell a little bit of my story and how I found freedom from much of the suffering in my life through things like mindfulness, meditation, compassion, and gratitude.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Never Being Bothered
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
In this episode we explore how being bothered by things is human, and how our response to being bothered is what really matters.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
What It Means to Sit with Anxiety
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
What does it mean when somebody tells us to sit with our emotions? This episode of The Dying Daily Podcast explores this question and give some examples of how to do this.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Mindfulness and Being Human
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
A quick look at being human and dealing with difficult emotions.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Health, Humanity, and Holistic Healing
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
I have a guest for the first time on this episode of the Dying Daily Podcast: Health Coach, Health Advocate, Experienced Yoga Teacher, and all-around cool human being Lindsay Kerr. We talk about everything from the bioindividuality of our diets and the stigma of shame associated with food in our culture to what kind of advocacy is needed for us and our children so that we can all live healthy lives (healthy, not socially-constructed-notions-of-beauty-fad-diets). It was a cool conversation, I think you will enjoy hearing it. To learn more about Lindsay look her up at www.byitsowndesign.com or find her on Instagram @byitsowndesign and @mamalinz13. Two documentaries you might want to check out after listening to this episode: In Search of Balance documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5022626/ Feel Rich: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6285404/
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Boundaries and Compassion
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
People who are suffering will often harm others whether they mean to or not. This episode of the Dying Daily Podcast explores how we can have boundaries and protect ourselves and those we love and still offer compassion to those who are suffering.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Opinions and Why They Don't Matter
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
We are driven by what we like and what we don't like and what we want and what we don't want, but when we really examine this we find that these things are driven by emotion and conditioning and don't really matter at all. This episode of the Dying Daily Podcast explores this idea and its implications.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Mindfulness and What We Can Control
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This is an audio version of a YouTube video talking about what we can and what we cannot control.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Mindfulness and Illness
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This is an audio version of a YouTube video talking about mindfulness and how it can help when we aren't feeling well.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Gratitude is Everything
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This is an audio version of my first YouTube video discussing why gratitude is not only important but is the only rational response to the world.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Mindfulness and Why It Matters
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
Mindfulness is something of a fad these days, and this has it's positive and its negative implications. In this episode of the Dying Daily Podcast, we talk about what mindfulness is and look at some concrete ways to incorporate it into our lives.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Why Passion and Motivation are Overrated
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
We hear a lot about being passionate and motivated these days, but neither of these is sustainable or useful in the long run. This episode of The Dying Daily Podcast explores the idea that discipline and perseverance are worth cultivating because they will serve you when passion and motivation have drifted away.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Getting What We Want
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
Getting what we want is not always the best thing. It may even end up being harmful to us, while many of the best things in life emerge from things we would not have chosen for ourselves. This episode explores these ideas and makes suggestions for how to work with the mind's tendency to focus on what we want to the exclusion of everything else.
Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Controlling Your Control
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
A lot of our suffering comes from trying to control what is not ours to control, while releasing control of the things that should get our attention. In this episode we explore these ideas, and look at some solutions to the human problem of control.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
Situations are Neutral
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This episode looks at the peace we can find in recognizing that many of the things we label as good or bad or right or wrong are really just neutral. Thank you for listening.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
We are All Doing the Best We Can with What We Have
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
This episode explores the idea that people do what makes sense to them, even if it looks irrational or unskillful from the outside. It asks how our judgments might affect our relationships with other people, and our relationship with ourselves.
This was a tough one to get right, and I do not think I did, but my recent soapbox about the perfect as the enemy of the good didn’t leave me a lot of room to shelve it. I worked on making the cuts and edits flow better, and I tried to adjust the volume as per a suggestion I received. I would appreciate any feedback you might have about anything on this episode.
Thanks for listening and helping me get this podcast off the ground.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.
The Perfect and the Good
Quick note: I recorded this episode a long time ago and I've made a lot of changes in my life since then. What I do for a living, the name of the podcast, the website, and the contact information (among other things) are all different. The best place to find updated information about what I'm doing is here.
If you try to do anything at all, people will find reasons to criticize you.If you try to avoid criticism by not doing anything at all, people will criticize you.
If you try to shoot for the middle and think you can hide in mediocrity, people will criticize you for that.
The only way to avoid criticism is to be perfect, which isn’t possible. If you aim for bulletproof, then you’ll wind up with nothing at all.
This episode is all about not letting perfectionism rob us of our creativity, purpose, and happiness.
Thanks for listening.
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Looking for more? I write a lot - if you found this episode interesting you might enjoy my blog or the mini-blogs I post on Instagram. I also have a free resource library with a bunch of cool things you can have with no obligation. Check it out here.