The Big Yearning: Recent Episodes
Alexander Butler and Neil Croom
What do you most deeply long for? How can you get there? What gets in the way? Alexander and Neil talk about the deeper questions in life. In each episode, we explore a question about living, thriving, and meeting our big yearnings. Episodes released fortnightly on Mondays at 5pm UK time.
After a year on air, Alexander and Neil are going to be taking a short summer break. Today we talk about why, and what we're looking forward to over the summer.
Alexander: Alexander Butler Coaching Neil: Coaching For Life website
Alexander and Neil interview Frome-based Shadow Work Practitioner, Marianne Hill. Hear what she has to say about the human shadow, how to recognize it and how to work with it.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Do you wish you believed in yourself more, or would you like to help somebody develop more self-belief? Alexander and Neil talk about what it means to believe in yourself, how to develop more self-belief and what gets in the way.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Neil and Alexander interview Brighton-based Sports Therapist, Jamie Webb. Jamie brings decades of experience and all sorts of training. Hear what he has to say about mind-body connection, pain and injury.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
When we say "love" we mean so many things. Alexander and Neil explore this complex and essential word to try to get to the deepest, most healing meaning of love.
Find Alexander's "beasting week" video here
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
So many of us yearn to feel like we belong, but how do we find belonging? What is it? What gets in the way? Neil and Alexander chat about their experiences of belonging, and explore how we all build more belonging in our lives.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Few topics are as difficult or as important as death and the experience of dying. How do we support those who are dying? How do we prepare for our own death? How can we let older, unhelpful parts of ourselves die in a positive and healing way? Alexander and Neil discuss this and a lot more besides.
Books referenced today are: The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller; Die Wise by Steven Jenkinson and the work of Derrick Jensen.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Sometimes we need to do things that are uncomfortable, boring, frightening or where we have blocks or limiting beliefs. Neil and Alexander talk about the essential component of willpower: how to develop the ability to stay focused and keep moving when things get tough.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Toxic Positivity is the darker side of the self-help world. It's the belief that you should be happy, up-beat and cheerful at all times. This week, Alexander and Neil talk about Toxic Positivity: what's wrong with it, how to escape it and what to do instead.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Getting a good night's sleep is so important. In this episode, Alexander and Neil talk about good sleep habits, cures for insomnia and what dreams are all about.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
How would it change your life if you could confidently say: this is what I'm good at. Today, Alexander and Neil talk about what stops us recognising our strengths, and how to go about finding them.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
A gratitude practice can really change our experience of the moment, especially in challenging times. It can open our hearts, make us feel warm and connect us with other people. Neil and Alexander explore how to find our sense of gratitude, and what problems we might meet along the way.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Do you know where you're heading in your life? Alexander and Neil talk about the value of a personal vision, how to get started on one, what gets in the way and how to keep it fresh and alive.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Neil and Alexander talk about a simple but helpful way to spot the gaps in our awareness, and the challenges that we need to face. It's a fresh way to look at our lives and ourselves, to examine what we need to learn, and perhaps find what we're avoiding.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Why is it important to love ourselves, and why can it be so hard? Where do we start? How does it feel and what can we do to learn this skill? Alexander and Neil dive into this subject in this week's episode.
The books we mention in today's episode are Deep Joy and Self Parenting.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
What is anger and how should we deal with it? Is anger just an annoying, upsetting distraction, or can it be a really helpful friend?
The books we mention in this episode are: How to be an Adult by David Richo and The Language of Emotions by Karla McLaren.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
A special, extra episode all about coping (and maybe thriving) through the lockdown. Alexander and Neil cover the essentials of self-care, how to reframe the lockdown as a positive experience, and how to plant hopeful seeds for the future.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
What do we mean by spirituality, how can we talk about our spiritual needs and where do we start to explore this stuff in such a secular time? Alexander and Neil talk about their own spiritual lives and offer insights about exploring yours.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
We all have big turning points in our lives, and we each learn something from them. Drawing inspiration from three turning points in their lives, Neil and Alexander talk about what happened, what they learned, and how you might handle turning points in your life.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
We all need help with things from time to time. This can be difficult to navigate, but if we have the skills to navigate it properly, asking for help can be really empowering, improve relationships, and lead to better results in our lives.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
As two men, we felt it was time to talk about some of the huge struggles faced by men at this time. In this episode, we share the challenges we've personally faced around manhood and masculinity, along with some of the answers we've found. If you are a man who is struggling or if you know a man who is, perhaps there are some words of hope in this week's episode.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
In today's episode, we aim to help you uncover your biggest yearnings, the things you most deeply long for, by sharing own own. Among other things, Neil and I talk about balanced relationships, belonging, ease of being and tackling worry and fear.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
How do we balance our need for personal security with our desire to grow to our full potential? Alexander and Neil talk about the nature of growth, healing and development, understanding what motivates us and building a healthy relationship with risk.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
What are personal boundaries and how do we keep them strong and healthy? Alexander and Neil dive into this massive topic and each offer 3 ideas about the nature of personal boundaries and how we can navigate them in our relationships.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
In today's episode, Alexander and Neil look at the big picture. When big things are happening on the world stage that can be frightening, upsetting or triggering, how do we cope with our own feelings of powerlessness, so we can continue being a force for good in the world?
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
Life Coaching demands a lot of skills, and those skills can be really useful in everyday life. In this episode, Alexander and Neil talk about three principles that they think at most important in any supportive, creative conversation.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
In episode 2, Alexander and Neil talk about their own experience with mental health, and give some ideas about how and when to open up to somebody to share anything you might be struggling with.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website
In our first episode, Alexander and Neil introduce themselves, their background, their approach to Life Coaching.
We talk about the end of the Coronavirus lockdown and offer some insights about coping with change.
Alexander: Deep Coaching website Neil: Coaching For Life website