Soulsciences: Recent Episodes
Charlene Jones
Welcome! I'm glad you're here. Whether you are a novice or advanced practitioner you'll find these meditations cross into your daily life, providing techniques for stability and calm right in the storms of life. Join me for these short, pithy meditation exercises that intersect to the heart of daily life—Meditate for Life! Then kindly leave a review so others may follow the trail...thank you!
In this short meditation we explore the power of the Vagus Nerve in helping us release and relax troubling thoughts. Please join me for this powerful meditation experience!
This second episode of meditating while using havening and listening to affirmations brings you calm, contented feelings within minutes. As delta waves suffuse your brain, meditation becomes easy and those affirmations acclaim your true nature: strong, resilient, and at peace.
In this episode, we return to Havening Touch as a way to induce deep calm before adding affirmations to smooth and soothe our thoughts. Discover the soothing, relaxing power of Havening Touch (by Dr. R. Ruden, @Havening.org). Treat yourself!
This week I introduce the practice of Havening Touch. Developed by Dr. Ron Ruden and his brother Dr. Steve Ruden, this remarkable, unique system of deep relaxation offers immediate relief. Used as support to meditation Havening Touch may deepen your experience of inner comfort and calm stability. Try it!
Today we return to an idea explored in Episode 4: how to create Your Best Self. We add the power of our Vagus Nerve to sustain relaxation and the strength of meditation to support ourselves in the feeling of already being our Best Self. Listen in for a method to improve how you feel about yourself, and the results you are getting in life.
Through the skill of Claire Villarreal interviewer, podcaster (Letting Grow) videographer and much much more, my life spills out in segments of drama, intensity, and stories of quantum experiences.
Today we experience a Vagus Nerve exercise to help us identify and strengthen our body's ability to 'rest and digest'. This exercise may be used on its own or as a precursor to meditation. Here we explore the Vagus Nerve exercise and how it affects our meditation in a positive way.
With this short meditation practice we begin to shift our neuronal pathways from inner carping, continual unrest, and desperate dissatisfaction to one of inner peace and calm. Try this meditation now!
Gabor Mate, world-renowned trauma expert, speaks with Mitchell Smolkin about his work, his history with addicts and his writings. Listen in for more about trauma, healing and words from this humble, humorous man, Gabor Mate.
LaTonia Hendry's life journey includes so much violence you'd believe she would give up, cave in. Instead she dedicates her life to encouraging and supporting other women who have experienced domestic and other violence, rape, and abuse to tell their stories. When we speak we empower ourselves!
In this interview LaTonia does a deep dive with me on how: how did I not only survive, but triumph? You'll hear how my life's road map came to me in dreams when I was 5 years old; how an inherited ability in Celtic Visions comforted me when I was held hostage for three days by two armed felons; how making the choice to believe in what I was experiencing chartered a path into confidence and a vital life of harmony and well-being despite the long odds against it.
LaTonia also questions me about Havening, the latest in Neuroscience and healing from trauma. I relate how and why I am working toward certification as a Havening Practitioner.
LaTonia Hendry's own life journey includes so much violence you would forgive her for curling up and giving up. Instead, she dedicates her life to encouraging and supporting other women. Listen here and then to her podcasts for more inspiration on A Woman's Soul Restored.
Letting Grow, a great podcast for meditators, questioners and seekers, takes an interest in my life and my Near Death Experience. Listen in as I describe crossing over and what it meant for the rest of my days here, in life.
This simple exercise takes you through your body part by part systematically building neuronal pathways to deepen relaxation. Relaxation leads to sleep.
This deep dive into relaxation may also be used when you are at the office or in your workspace, on a bus or public transit, any place you have ten minutes and can turn your attention and focus inward.
It is a powerful tool in your self-help chest!
https://tunein.com/podcasts/Health--Wellness-Podcasts/Soulsciences-Meditations-for-Life-p1370243/
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/86369692-759e-4163-8594-025dc04b6b54/episodes/15d7947d-e37a-4f1f-859d-f60a77e4bea1/soulsciences-release-negative-emotions-chant-hum-focus-on-your-heart-and-deep-blue
https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xMzA0NjUwLnJzcw%3D%3D
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soulsciences/id1529185344
Often one partner takes the lead in putting energy into relationships. By contrast she or he may feel their partner is less interested, not as engaged. Listen in to discover how our early lives condition our responses to intimacy and what the true language of love for each partner may be.
In today's episode we combine picturing blue at our hearts, with some chanting if we choose, and pictures of the Earth. We use actual photos of our beautiful planet, or we use our inner visualization ability, or we switch between the two. Today's episode is a prayer for our beautiful home, Earth.
Today's episode includes practice in chanting the seed syllable 'Hung'. Placing our minds in our hearts and visualizing deep, deep blue, the calming blue of space opens our hearts. This simple chant helps refocus us when we are caught in jealousy, rage, hatred or any other negative emotion. Chanting Hum while focusing in our hearts also allows joy to bubble through!
Sound is an active meditation in our daily lives. We speak and hope others hear. We listen and try to sense what their sounds make. Chanting besides being a healthy way to feel better, to intone gratitude or similar offerings to a Higher Power, reminds us of the endless variety of sounds we may make. It opens our ears to how we are creating sound. It allows us to practice making sounds that vibrate throughout our bodies. Chanting helps us practice flexibility of sound for the endless variety of ways our words, our bodies and our listening enrich our daily lives.
These two dynamic and heartful men offer their insights and wisdom on the topic of raising children, in particular their boys. Each man has one son and focuses in this discussion on sharing moments of clarity and joy, disappointment and hope as they raise their precious child. Oh, yes, both men are therapists. Listen in for gems!
In this week's episode we focus once again on bringing our Vagus Nerve online. Then we imagine or recall a scene that brings us peace. Combining these two creates a double strand of peacefulness. Imagine: a five minute vacation whenever, wherever you wish!
Everyone knows someone—family member, colleague, even a boss who seems to drench your sunshine with their cloudy gloom. They may even direct their negativity toward you! Today's meditation helps you protect yourself from their struggle, allowing you to remain calm and serene. It takes practice but it works.
Today's meditation involves dissolution: what we create we learn to dissolve. This has many applications in life, but first, practice in meditation!
In this meditation practice we return to the basics, just breathing and letting the mind wander. Bringing the mind back to the body over and over deepens neural pathways that make for greater body awareness in day to day life, improving our experience of living.
In this short podcast we meditate on visualizing a bubble. Next we identify an area of life that troubles us. Finally we put the difficult area inside the bubble and watch it float away. Try it!
We continue our exploration of bubbles, this time with putting the bubble in front of us and then, letting it float away and shrink. Stay tuned for Eps 10 to learn how this exercise can help with all our troubles!
In The Dignity of Suffering Mitchell Smolkin, my spiritual son, —therapist, father, husband and son, professional therapist and inquisitive human provides
—tips for healthier relationships
—parenting and child development
—dealing with life transitions
In Eps 2 Mitchell interviews me.
In early June Mitchell interviews the renowned and wise Gabor Mate. Don’t miss it!
https://mitchellsmolkin.com/
Check out The Dignity of Suffering— it’s available wherever you listen to podcasts and if you don’t listen to podcasts, there are many ways you can access it through Google, Spotify or on Apple devices.
Using our imaginations we create a bubble all around us. We focus on the translucent skin of the bubble and on the rainbows produced by the bubble. Then we introduce a difficult area of life. Listen in for more on how to send your troublesome area of life outside your personal bubble!
Herbalist, poet, meditator, Abrah Arneson describes the inspiration behind this, her latest book. She dives deep into her past as a Hospice Worker, her encounters with death, her practice as an herbalist and her love of writing. Don't miss this special episode of Meditate for Life!
Today we go through the exercise of Autogenic Training. Although I've described this before on this series, today is different–today we actually go through the deep relaxation and then discover how our five minute meditation is affected, or not, by having deep relaxation before meditation.
This episode of Meditate for Life describes how to turn on your Vagus Nerve. Your Vagus nerve will bring your parasympathetic nervous system online, meaning you feel at ease and comforted. A quick and easy way to increase your sense of serenity!
Today we explore our ability to visualize. Eventually color, shape, form, tactile senses and scents will be available to us but for now we begin with a simple meditation exercise with rose colored light.
This is an exercise in self-love, first, then expanding the self-love to include areas around us. Listen in for more detailed instructions in the Meditations on Rose Colored Light.
In today's meditation we explore how color affects our brains and in what way might specific color be used to help provide us with inner stability, calm and increased confidence.
I'm so grateful to have the vibrant, energetic life I still enjoy although I am very nearly 70 years old!
I hope to share with you in these short meditation podcasts a bit of how I managed to heal myself from severe PTSD and achieve a life of balance, integrity and abundance in all ways.
I hope you'll join me for Meditate for Life.
These short pithy meditations (and yes, I do meditate with you through our 5 minute meditations!) allow me the opportunity to share with you what I have learned through over 5 decades of meditating.
I began when I was 14 (so long ago!) with a paperback book as my guide. This was in 1964. Within a few years I met and traveled with the person who would be my meditation teacher for over 30 years.
As I sat in a Tibetan temple in Dehra Dun India meditating with His Holiness Sakya Trizen and His Holiness Chogyam Rinpoche, I had no idea how powerful these initiations and meditations were, nor how they would change my life.
Through visualization meditation I learned to heal from severe PTSD, achieve a double Master's Degree, and most importantly raise my son into a strong, independent husband, father, friend and more.
I am deeply grateful for my life and want now to share what I have learned about meditation, neuroscience, visualization and life. Thank you for joining me!
Welcome!
In these short podcasts, I'll be meditating with you in 2-5 minute segments.
Sound strange? No stranger than believing you can sit still and your mind will slow down!
But that is the truth.
I'm Charlene and I've been meditating since 1973 when I was initiated into the Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies of Vajrayana Tantra. This tantra means 'Union' with the figures and sounds associated with each of the large number of Tibetan icons of human energy.
In these short podcasts, I hope to help you learn how to provide yourself with strength for the challenges in life, a refuge when you need to re-set and focus on the joy and abundance you already have at your fingertips. Be well!
The BreakAway Girl:Secrets of a Tantric Yogi
by Paulette Bodeman
April 5th 2021
Join Paulette Bodeman as she explores with me the place of forgiveness, self-forgiveness as part of the highest art—new forms of healing. Bodeman finds joy in the latest science blending with ancient traditions. Take 15 mins to refresh yourself, here, with Paulette Bodeman.
The Break Away Girl: Secrets of a Tantric Yogi by Paulette Bodeman
March 29. 2021
Paulette Bodeman, Tantric Yogi explains her direct connection with the power of the Goddesses Kali, Sarasvati and Lakshmi in her own life. She has written this book, The Break Away Girl: Secrets of a Tantric Yogi as a memoir of her life's journey, and a paean to her help from the Goddesses.
Listen in as Paulette describes the three Goddesses who guided her deepening faith.
I Wanted Fries With That: How To Ask For What You Want and Get What You Need by Amy Fish
March 22 2021
Listen in as Amy Fish continues to describe how to ask for what you want, even in cases that involve intense human interactions such as when racism prevails. Amy entertains with her humor even as she cuts through to the chase in describing how you can ask for what you want and get more of what you need.
I Wanted Fries With That: How to Ask For What You Want and Get What You Need by Amy Fish
March15th 2021
Ombudsperson Amy Fish speaks up about how to speak up. For many of us the notion of voicing our wants, whether it's a change in a restaurant order or requesting local By Law attend to a situation, this book helps you learn to access the right people to solve your struggle. Listen in as Amy talks about her work, her book and her dedication to helping others speak out.
Headstrong: Surviving a Traumatic Brain Injury by Joanne Silver Jones
After her own trauma Joanne Silver Jones recognized the fear of trauma within her students and began to rearrange her classes, in simple ways, to accommodate what she now understood to be trauma symptoms. Silver Jones believes an open heart provides the most valuable tool for education and for healing ourselves. Listen in to this remarkable woman here.
https://www.amazon.com/Headstrong-Surviving-Traumatic-Brain-Injury/dp/163152612X
https://www.thenerddaily.com/joanne-silver-jones-author-interview/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45765679-headstrong
A nightmare shatters the life of college professor JoAnne Silver Jones when a stranger pummels her with a hammer. She struggles and overcomes not only her own injuries but the emotional wounds of her family as she heals. Then she discovers writing. Listen in to this remarkable woman speak of her life, her loved ones and her writing.
The Parrot's Perch by Karen Keilt
Karen Keilt, the woman who was arrested and spent 45 days in a Brazilian prison for crimes that still remain undocumented, speaks to us about her writing process. She reveals how writing her story in fiction first helped her feel strong enough to engage with her memoir. Listen in here for more from this remarkable woman.
https://www.amazon.com/Parrots-Perch-Memoir-Karen-Keilt/dp/1631525719/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543854401&sr=8-1&keywords=the+parrot%27s+perch+karen+keilt
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42402115-the-parrot-s-perch
https://karenkeilt.com/
Broth from the Cauldron A Wisdom Journey Through Everyday Magic by Cerridwen Fallingstar
Once again we welcome Cerridwen Fallingstar to our show. Cerridwen's down to earth memoir contains many moments of wisdom, skillfully woven between engaging stories. You won't even know she's teaching you! Listen in as this warm and laughter-filled witch shares her stories, her wisdom and her heart.
From the Lake House A Mother's Odyssey Of Loss and Love by Kristen Rademacher
June 22nd
Kristen Rademacher speaks candidly about her experience after the stillbirth of her only child. How she finds peace and acceptance, how her writing takes her to places she would never have gone, help listeners understand the path to peace after loss. Listen in here.
Kristen Rademacher has lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina since 2002, which is when she began writing. From The Lake House: A Mother’s Odyssey of Loss and Loveis her first memoir. Visit her at kristenrademacher.com, and on Facebook @kristenrademacherauthor
From the Lake House A Mother's Odyssey of Loss and Love by Kristen Rademacher
June 15. 2020
This loss leads Kristen to a profound sense of peacefulness and gratitude. Listen in as Kristen Rademacher describes her path after the shocking grief of still-birth. Here.
My friend and fellow memoirist Melissa Burch is just completing 100 Days of Memoirs, her way of supporting memoirists through the pandemic. I am delighted and honored to be able to return a bit of her light by way of this interview we enjoyed a few years back. Listen in. Then get her books for a refreshing articulation of women, babies, health, spirituality all during our times.
Today I'm honored to bring you an interview with a friend of the world. David Brazier has taught the feeling side of Buddhism, Buddhist meditation, and how to move from the heart for many decades. His 23 books with 4 and 5-star reviews speak to the world-wide esteem in which his teachings are held. He currently heads the Amida Mandala Buddhist Temple and continues to offer his life as an example of how to try to love.
Listen in to this joyful and inspiring talk.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/129201.David_Brazier
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=David+Brazier&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
http://www.amidamandala.com/about-our-teacher/
Elise Schiller, whose daughter died of an opioid addiction, describes in this week's interview what to do if someone you know is suspected of, or is, using opioids. Listen in to this valuable and hard won wisdom on how to approach someone who is using opioids to save their life.
When Elise Schilller's youngest child, her daughter Giana, died of an opioid addiction Elise began searching through Giana's medical records. What she found there, along with her own independent research into the most advanced methods for treating opioid addiction, describes how the most expensive medical treatment failed to provide Giana with enough support she would be alive today. Listen in as Elise discusses with balance and insight how the medical facilities failed to treat her daughter's underlying emotional diseases and how Elise has joined her city's campaign to bring education and awareness to all about opioid addiction.
Although my beloved friend Linda Stitt left her flesh body in May this year, the body of her work remains the essence of being human: humorous, warm, insightful and at times profound Linda's poetry reminds us what is essential in life. Listen in then grab a copy of her book, Talking to Myself available here: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Talking+to+Myself+Linda+Stitt&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&ref=nb_sb_noss
Turning the tables Sean Farjadi interviews me about my healing life. Using My Impossible Life trauma travel & transcendence as the basis for the interview I reveal the many facets of healing employed to bring me out of the numbed, half-alive state of severe PTSD to the vibrant life I live today—meditation teacher, soul guide, grandmother and generally contented and grateful human being. Much love to all!
In this, our time of trouble, the wholesome childhood of Marian Beaman comes as a reminder of the sweet simplicity of living. Along with this we learn how even with such a stellar beginning Beaman had to struggle her way into adulthood, toward making adult decisions that brought her life to a sharply different, but satisfying point. Listen in as Marian Beaman discusses her life and her memoir.
In this our second interview Lara Beth Lillibridge speaks with candor and humour about her writing, her role as a single mom, and how this life change changed her writing.
In this our time of crisis nothing remains more important, nor more demanding than the role of mother— unless it is the role of single mother! Listen in as Lara Beth Lillibridge describes her challenges and changes in learning to mother by herself. Oh, and take in her recipes, which grow in complexity and nuance as she herself does.
Full circle 45 years after her first meal away from home took place in the prison where her father worked, Deborah finds herself teaching creative writing, including poetry, in a men's prison. She finds this her calling and discovers the rich and unique talents of each man inside, eventually culminating in plays and theatre productions acted in, staged and in some cases written by those we call inmates. Listen in as Deborah describes how audiences across California receive her productions.
Deborah Tobola has been teaching creative writing in men's prisons since the 1980's. In this interview Deborah talks about her theatre company, Poetic Justice Project, how she hires previously incarcerated people to act, create props and more and how audiences typically respond with warm wonder at understanding prisoners are just people too.
What is astounding is Tobola's fearlessness in facing her own stereotyped views of these people and how her courage continues to lead her toward helping them. Truly inspirational!
When do the challenges of life exceed the bar of 'normal'? When you have been a Maths Professor for Carnegie Mellon, married with two children and your brain develops cavernous angioma or Bleeding Brain. Listen in to how this remarkable woman Deb Brandon has gone on to teach writing, to win awards for her own writing and to declare she is glad for the challenges and change brought on by what she calls "my bloody brain." Traumatic Brain Injury like you've never heard before— Listen in now!
The award-winning book Threads from Around the World comes from the love author Deborah Brandon has for all things textile. This exquisite books displays not only the materials and textiles from various parts of our planet, but includes stories and myths from the cultures hosting those textiles. Join us as Deborah Brandon, author of But My Brain Had Other Ideas, speaks about her second book Threads from Around the World.
Listen in as we continue the exhilarating and sometimes desperate change of life the courageous Jennifer Monahan created. She left her corporate straight and secure life to travel the globe where she discovered her past, and how to stay present.
There are many ways to encourage rebirth of vitality, joy in life and satisfaction. One is to challenge yourself. But it takes courage. And if you have the monster courage of Jennifer Monahan you leave everything behind: career, family, friends, all you have known. You put on your smallest travel equipment and step onto the globe. There you just may, as she did, discover the depths of pain and exquisite living vitality that now support and uphold her. Listen in as Jennifer describes writing her second memoir, the award winning Where To: How I Shed My Baggage and Learned to Live Free.
Helen Allison pioneer of end of life care and devoted nurse to the dying paved the way for many others to create what we have now: hospice and palliative care programs. Irene Allison, Helen's daughter, joined her mother on this journey to create a book that is at once a history of end of life care in Canada and moving stories of those who felt the support and dignity as they chose their path to end. Listen in and consider the power of dignity in end of life care.
Cindy Rasicot lived the American dream—husband, son, career until her husband's work took the family to Thailand. There Cindy discovered her spiritual path and the woman who became her Venerable Mother. Listen in as Cindy describes her life in Thailand, her meeting with Venerable Mother and her dramatic life change.
Cindy Rasicot lived the American dream—husband, son, career until her husband's work took the family to Thailand. There Cindy discovered her spiritual path and the woman who became her Venerable Mother. Listen in as Cindy describes her life in Thailand, her meeting with Venerable Mother, and her dramatic life change.
When a telephone pole landed on her head Josephine Jones figured a few headaches made sense. Her outrageous behavior of increased partying, drinking, and collapse made her know she was doing something wrong...but she didn't know why or how to stop it.
After a long stretch of unrelenting pain and bizarre behavior, including suicide attempts, Josephine Jones found a therapist who helped her come to terms with the brain damage and PTSD that would now shape her life.
Now she teaches military personnel how to cope with PTSD and they listen, because, like them she has suffered the consequences of severe pain and immobilizing neck destruction.
Josephine started an organization Sane in Pain to help all of us understand the cost of unremitting pain and how to cope with it. In this interview she shares her path in meditation and the inspiration she received and values to this day from meditation teacher Cecilie Kwiat.
Josephine Jones was a summa cum laude graduate student when a telephone pole fell on her car and her head. She believed she was just misbehaving with bouts of drinking, emotional outbursts, uncontrollable depression and more until she found the truth about Traumatic Brain Injury. Now she helps others, especially war vets work to overcome their traumatic brain injuries. I'm proud to offer today's interview with Josephine Jones, a true inspiration!
Brad Warner author of Hardcore Zen talks about meditation and his path to being a rock star in the world of meditation teachers.
Terry Fox! The name alone evokes the lone figure of a young man, with only one leg, courageously walking with the hope of raising money for research into cancer. The vision filled Canadian homes and spread to many parts of the world until the Marathon of Hope became a signal fire for others to walk or run every year to raise money in hopes of a cure for cancer.
Ron Calhoun as a name alone tells us none of the power he gave to organizing, encouraging, engaging others to help in, Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope, a name Calhoun gave to the event.
Ron Calhoun went on to mentor three other heroes and in this interview Elaine Cougler describes Ron's journey as he described it, sitting at her table. Her book The Man Behind the Marathons is the result of Ron Calhoun's dedication to serving others and to Elaine's ability as a storyteller. Listen in as Elaine talks about Ron Calhoun, her friend.