Get in the G Zone: Recent Episodes
Laura Orsini
Get in the G Zone is a space to come explore and incorporate the amazing power of gratitude. Grateful people are healthier, wealthier, sleep better, have better relationships, and are generally happier in life. If you want more peace and joy, you'll want to be sure to tune into this podcast as often as possible.
In today's podcast, we begin with a very brief meditation - and then examine a bit our willingness to play in the light or default to low vibration feelings of anxiety or fear. The choice is ours, and we can take great strides toward the positive by controlling what we take in via social media and traditional media. Feed the joy and hope, not the fear and darkness!
Music and voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with gratitude!
This is my first podcast in a while - first since coronavirus has sidelined the world. How can we remain grateful and lift our own spirits during these challenging times?
Some things to look at:
- Lorie Ladd's YouTube channel
- QiGong for Respiratory Health (on YouTube)
- Bruce Lipton on epigenetics (on YouTube)
Music and voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with sincere gratitude.
Never one to shy away from an enormous subject – too big to do more than just touch on – I want to use to today’s meditation to explore gratitude for the internet.
What do you think of when you hear the word internet? There’s a famous – and now rather funny – 1996 clip of Katie Couric and the Today Show gang trying to understand and explain what the internet is. Think about it – how would you explain it to a Martian, or a two-year-old?
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement, used with sincere, heartfelt thanks.
RESOURCES CITED IN THIS EPISODE
https://www.today.com/video/-what-is-internet-katie-couric-bryant-gumbel-are-puzzled-62308421624
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/09/10-ways-the-web-and-internet-have-transformed-our-lives.html
I’m going to go out on a limb here and venture that you didn’t know today – January 21st – is National Hugging Day. That’s right – hugging. Like you do with a romantic partner, dog, or favorite stuffed animal. There are many benefits to hugging you may not be aware of – so today, we’re going to celebrate hugging and find reasons to be thankful for the hugs in our lives.
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement, used with sincerest, heartfelt thanks.
RESOURCES CITED IN THIS EPISODE
https://bethrogerson.com/build-better-you-8-hugs/
https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2000-01-13-0001130751-story.html (vague reference to the bunny cholesterol story)
https://peaandthepodchiropractic.com/articles-tips/page/3/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6169869/
https://www.thehealthy.com/mental-health/benefits-of-hugging/
It’s MLK Day, so today we are going to explore gratitude for influencers and change agents. Look up the term “change agent” on the Google and you’re likely to first see a lot of discussion about an individual who creates change within an organization. That is certainly one interpretation of a change agent. However, I’m taking a broader approach to the term, viewing it more in terms of someone who is using their skills, confidence, power, relationships, and personal courage to make a positive difference in any avenue of life or corner of the world. There’s the key word – positive. Loads of influential people have made a difference, not all of them positive. Who do you think of when you consider the concept of positive agent of change?
Today's podcast meditation focuses on names.
The definition of the word name is fairly simple – a word or group of words by which a person, place, or thing is known or referred to. The concept of naming, however, is so complicated and far-reaching that it’s not even known how far back the tradition of giving individuals names actually goes. In this podcast, we’ll consider all kinds of names – and our gratitude for them.
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement, used with sincerest, heartfelt thanks.
RESOURCES FROM TODAY'S PODCAST:
https://heraldry.sca.org/names/namehist.html
https://www.kabalarians.com/cfm/what-does-my-name-mean.cfm
https://www.behindthename.com/
https://seattlebridemag.com/expert-wedding-advice/history-behind-maiden-vs-married-names
https://www.genealogy.com/articles/research/35_donna.html
https://www.todaysparent.com/pregnancy/baby-names/when-did-naming-your-kid-after-yourself-become-a-parenting-faux-pas/
https://pocketcultures.com/2011/04/13/children-naming-traditions/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/03/04/how-does-the-pope-choose-his-pope-name/#c04595148aed
https://didyouknowboats.com/why-are-boats-called-a-she/
https://earthsky.org/earth/how-do-hurricanes-get-their-names
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/502251/funniest-town-name-all-50-states
https://www.fastcompany.com/90156104/2017s-best-and-worst-names-and-3-naming-trends-for-2018
https://www.thelifecraftingguide.com/NumerologyServices
Today our podcast meditation focuses on communication. There are many, many ways to communicate. We are probably decent enough at at least one of them. Some of us are better at multiple forms of communication. Some of us may not be as good at communicating as we’d like to be. The point isn’t to rate yourself or evaluate yourself. The goal is to examine reasons you are grateful for whatever form communication takes in your life and for the messages that come to you through it.
https://www.vitalsmarts.com/resource/crucial-conversations-book/
http://tomvangelder.antrovista.com/sense-of-speech-133m50.html
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with sincere, heartfelt gratitude.
Today our podcast meditation focuses on gratitude for travel. The most frequent answer given when people are asked what they’d do if they ever won the lottery is TRAVEL. Yet recent surveys indicate that the average American has only visited 12 out of the 50 United States. Eleven percent claim never to have traveled outside the state where they were born. So are people really interested in traveling? If they wanted to do it, wouldn’t they have traveled more by now? Maybe money is holding them back – but a day trip or weekend excursion to the next state probably isn’t going to break the bank for most people – yet so few of us do it.
Today we’re going to explore where we’ve been, gratitude for those trips, as well as places we might one day like to visit.
https://www.pointswithacrew.com/this-is-how-many-states-the-average-american-has-been-to/
https://nypost.com/2018/01/11/a-shocking-number-of-americans-never-leave-home/
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with sincere, heartfelt gratitude.
We've all received some - maybe given more. Today is a conversation about advice. Who gave us good advice - and the importance of keeping our own counsel, along with an exercise that might help you when it comes to accepting and acting on anyone's advice.
I reference my own novel (still in progress) in this episode. Learn more at StanTravels.com.
I also mention the work of Dr. Ellen Kreidman. Find more about her here: DrEllenKreidman.com.
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with sincerest and heartfelt thanks.
In today’s meditation, we’re going to explore the idea of closure. We come up against this need when relationships end, people die, we lose a job, or some other big – often sudden and unexpected – change occurs in our life. Letting go of something that was once important can be difficult, and many people seek closure in doing so. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes searching for it is a lost cause. The question today is whether or not we can find gratitude for whatever degree of closure we’ve had for situations seemingly left unended.
RESOURCES CITED:
http://theconversation.com/the-psychology-of-closure-and-why-some-need-it-more-than-others-104159
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-flux/201104/5-ways-find-closure-the-past
Original music & voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with sincerest, heartfelt thanks.
In this podcast meditation, we’re going to explore the nature of habits. A habit is a regular tendency or usual manner of behavior that often has become nearly or completely involuntary. It may be a pattern acquired by frequent repetition. We have a tendency often to think of habits as bad things that must be reformed – but habits can be good. Most of us have the habit – or custom – of showering daily, brushing our teeth, eating, and drinking. We may have the habit of going to bed or getting up at a particular time. Let’s consider the habits we have for which we are grateful, habits we might want to develop, and habits we’re happy to release.
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with sincerest, heartfelt thanks.
https://liveboldandbloom.com/08/habits/list-of-habits
Today our podcast meditation focuses on gratitude for teachers and the whole concept of education. When you think about it, we really do have a LOT for which to thank teachers, because almost anything you know how to do, you learned because someone taught you. From tying your shoes to reading to making macaroni and cheese – someone probably taught you the foundations so you could go on and master those things yourself. Teachers are found in classrooms, to be sure, but they also show up on every jobsite, sporting arena, or volunteer headquarters. We’ll spend some time today examining the teachers and places of education that have benefited us and our gratitude for them.
Original music & voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with sincerest, heartfelt gratitude.
RESOURCE:
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?n=anton-j-renna&pid=166419508
Today our podcast meditation focuses on gratitude for children & childhood. Whether you’re parenting in any fashion or have never even considered the thought of having a child, we all have one important thing in common: we were all once children. The amazing thing about kids is that they approach life differently: they’re fearless, creative, and most live in sheer joy. Then, life comes along and urges them to grow up, play by the rules, color inside the lines – and slowly that fearlessness, creativity, and joy is dampened and tempered until sometimes it seems like only a vague memory. Let’s see if we can reconnect with some of the wonders of childhood today – and express gratitude for the aspects of the child in us, still.
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement, used with sincerest, heartfelt gratitude.
RESOURCES
https://www.thoughtco.com/childish-and-childlike-1689341
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaswinters
http://storyplayglobal.com/storyplay-center
https://www.gabrielsangels.org/
Today our podcast meditation focuses on traditions. We’ve just finished the winter holidays, a time filled with traditions. However, traditions come from every time, every place, every culture. Are there family or cultural or historical traditions you hold dear? Are you thinking you might like to create some new traditions for yourself and/or your family? What better time than the start of a new decade?
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement, used with sincerest, heartfelt thanks.
RESOURCES:
https://simplicable.com/new/tradition
https://www.insider.com/how-to-greet-people-around-the-world-2016-8
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/04/24/how-close-is-too-close-depends-on-where-you-live
https://www.onnit.com/academy/ceremonial-change-5-ancient-rites-of-passage
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/13-amazing-coming-of-age-traditions-from-around-th
Today's meditation turns toward the seemingly random incidences that can affect, change, sometimes even save our lives. How tuned in are you to the coincidences in your life? And how grateful are you for the results of those coincidences and synchronicities?
Original music and voiceover by Mickey Clement - used with the sincerest, heartfelt thanks.
Today's podcast is an interview with author, speaker, and soul nurturer, Cristina Whitehawk. The topics are self-forgiveness and the perhaps radical idea of loving cancer, rather than fighting it. Cristina knows it works because she is one of the 25% of women who is still alive more than 5 years following a diagnosis of Stage 3 ovarian cancer. This conversation may challenge you, but if you stick around till the end, it may also lift your spirits.
Visit Cristina's website at http://PoweredByGenius.com.
Voiceover and original music by Mickey Clement - used with sincerest, heartfelt thanks.
Welcome to 2020. It’s the first day of the new year. It’s the first day of the new decade. And not to be trite, but it is, indeed, the first day of the rest of your life. We love New Years celebrations – and waking up on January first of a new year – because of the possibility they represent. The chance to start over. Begin again. Repair or repent for past mistakes. Move forward.
On December 30, we did a meditation about gratitude for endings. Today we’re focused in the opposite direction, on gratitude for things just beginning. They may be things we have planned – or spontaneous or unplanned new things that come up this year. Our goal today is to set our minds toward gratefulness for all the new things that 2020 will hold – both the ones we’re already looking forward to, and the ones that may surprise us.
Today's podcast, sponsored by Blaine Oelkers and Selfluence.com, features calls - brief interviews, really - with entrepreneurs and authors who share some of the things from 2019 for which they are most grateful.
This will be a regular feature of the last day of each month.
Blaine Oelkers - http://Selfluence.com and http://BlaineTedX.com
Donna Tucker - http://linkedin.com/in/donnatuckeraz
Rita Goldner - http://ritagoldnerbooks.com
Cristina Whitehawk - http://poweredbygenius.com/read
Kebba Buckley Button - http://kebba.com
Sue Berliner - http://bnakedchocolates.com
Bill Soroka - https://www.notarycoach.com
Barbara Chatzkel - https://linkedin.com/in/barbarachatzkel
In today's podcast meditation, we're going to focus on gratitude for another thing many of us may take – if only occasionally – for granted: shelter. Again, this isn’t meant to be a guilt trip – just a reminder that we probably have much more to be thankful for in this area than we sometimes recognize.
RESOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States
https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/cities-grow-so-do-numbers-homeless
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_shelter
https://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/statistics.html
Today we’re one day away from the end of the year – the end of a decade. So we’re going to focus on gratitude for endings. We sometimes think of endings as sad times, but with every ending comes a new beginning. Sometimes endings are sad, as in people leaving us through death, divorce, or other estrangements. Other times, endings can be good things – as in retirement, leaving one job for a better job, moving to a new home or community, or graduating from school and moving on to the next level of education or life experience.
RESOURCE:
http://getinthegzone.com/podcast-33-support/
In today's podcast meditation, we're going to focus on gratitude for something many of us may take – at least a bit – for granted: clothing, shoes, and outerwear. This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip – just a reminder that we probably have much more to be thankful for in this area than we sometimes recognize.
RESOURCES:
https://www.roughguides.com/gallery/traditional-dress/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/24118241
https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-some-people-wear-uniforms
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/16/france-denmark-bans-full-face-muslim-veils-are-spreading-across-europe
https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-fashions-change-over-time
Yesterday was Boxing Day - a tradition that began in the Victorian era with offering a small gift or money to tradespeople who had provided good service over the prior year. In keeping with this tradition, we will take some time during today's meditation to recall the service people in our lives, and reasons to be grateful for them.
LINKS ABOUT BOXING DAY
EXPLANATIONS
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/26/why-is-it-called-boxing-day https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/32030/what-boxing-day MORE HUMOROUS TAKES ON BOXING DAY https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/boxing-day-in-america-a-guide-for-visitors-from-the-u-k-australia-and-canada https://www.mtlblog.com/news/canada/the-27-most-hilarious-twitter-reactions-to-boxing-day-2018
Inspired by some teenage songwriters whose only topic is grief for their recent and traumatic lost loves, this podcast conversation considers why it's important to have gratitude for the past - and then leave it there. We offer 11 ways to move on from what was and embrace the now.
Sources:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/272275 https://7mindsets.com/leave-the-past-behind LifeWithCoachMel.com TheGreatnessCollection.com
Today is Christmas - this podcast focuses on reasons to be grateful for our Christmas and/or winter holiday traditions.
I mention specifically that Joey Diaz did a fantastic podcast today about the Importance of Being Grateful. You can check that out here, on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HBCFztJB2s
Today's meditation will focus on gratitude for THIS DAY. That means gratitude for the day on which you are listening to this - in whatever way gratitude may show up for you today.
Today's podcast meditation focuses on having and expressing gratitude for the talents, skills, and abilities that are native to us and which we can hone. Even if you don't think you have skills, rest assured, you do.
Take a look at your immediate surroundings. Which are the things you love? The ones that are most useful to you? That make your life most comfortable? The ones with the most sentimental meaning? What three things would you take with you to Mars if you were never to return to your life on Earth? These are the topics of today's gratitude meditation.
Today's podcast focuses on gratitude for physical events, like celebrations, trips, concerts, festivals, parties, and the like. We'll go back in time to historic events, look at events happening today, and shine a light on events that may be on our bucket lists.
We're all familiar with big concepts like freedom, love, and courage - but have you ever stopped to consider how far you'd go to protect them, and how important they are to you? How grateful are you for the intangibles - from concepts to emotions to personality traits?
This is a reflection about friendship with commentary about men's friendships, girls' friendships, long- and short-term friendships, social media, and the positive impacts of friendship. You might want a tissue for the early part. :-)
In this podcast, we focus on the hobbies and pastimes through which we spend time entertaining ourselves - as opposed to the enjoyment we receive from others' talents. The range is huge - from sports to collecting to crafting to travel. We can't possibly touch all of them, so if by chance we miss yours, please fill in the blanks where appropriate - and drop a comment to let us know about some of the other hobbies out there.
Today's meditation focuses on gratitude for arts and entertainment - the things that someone else does, performs, or creates for our pleasure and enjoyment. It could be the arts or sports or comedy or some other form of entertainment. It could be music or books or visual arts. Which do you enjoy - and which are you thankful for?
Even though I don't know you, I know there are people in your life presently - or who passed through your life at some point - for whom you are grateful. This podcast meditation is a bit of an inventory of the people and pets who've been a part of our lives, and a reminder to express gratitude for them, and to them.
This podcast focuses on gratitude for opportunities to be of service. Serving comes in so many different forms, we may not even realize we're doing it. But if we help others with any sort of regularity, we are serving. Not only does serving others help them, it also helps us boost our own self-esteem and happiness.
Everyday, we use services that help facilitate our lives: streets and traffic systems, stores, utilities like the internet, running water, and electricity. They are so much a part of every fabric of every day that we can come to take them for granted. In today's podcast meditation, we slow down a minute to recall gratitude for the services and things that make our lives go on a day-to-day basis.
This podcast focuses on thanksgiving for birthdays and other celebrations, loved ones, and the generosity of strangers. These things may sound a bit random, but it all comes together in the conversation and meditation portions of this podcast.
Today's podcast is a deeper look at body image. How we see ourselves has a great deal to do with our level of happiness in life. We don't have to look like Adonis to have a good body image. We'll discuss some of the reasons gratitude plays an important role in our self-perception. We'll also have a brief conversation with personal trainer and nutrition expert Miles Beccia, of Mind Muscle Memory.
Today's podcast focuses on the gifts of Nature and reasons to be thankful for them. Whether we gravitate toward nature and the outdoors or prefer the comfort of life indoors, we live in a natural world. Nature is, if we stop to notice, at every turn, from trees to weather elements to the sun and moon and stars. This podcast is the opportunity to take a virtual nature walk and find things, big and small, for which to be grateful.
This meditation focuses on gratitude for the physical things in our lives. These things may seem obvious - so much so that perhaps we have begun inadvertently to take them for granted. We are surrounded with things that help us function in life. The goal of this podcast is to take just a few minutes to reflect on the gifts of the physical things in our lives, both the marvelous and the mundane, and find reasons to be thankful for them.
This meditation focuses on Wealth & Finances. Yes, it can be a charged subject - most of us are terrified of talking about money. Regardless of where you are on the financial landscape - dripping with wealth, struggling to get by, or anywhere in between - the goal of this meditation is to find reasons to be grateful for where you are in this moment with regard to your money situation.
Today we examine Career & Studies. Whether we've had a series of unrelated jobs or a specific career, started a business, or stayed home to raise a family, our work helped us become who we are today. Today's meditation focuses on reasons to be grateful for our work life.
Today our meditation focuses on love, romance, and relationships. Regardless of whether we are presently in a relationship, single, seeking a relationship, or mourning a lost relationship, there are reasons to be grateful. Our goal is to uncover them.
This podcast focuses on gratitude for Health & Fitness. Whether we're already fairly healthy or looking to make improvements, our goal is to find some area where we are succeeding for which to be grateful.
An accomplished business leader, Blaine Oelkers specializes in helping people discover their often hidden abilities to live the lives they desire, design, and deserve. He recently released the book Think and Grow Rich Book Study Edition and gave a powerful TED-XTalk on the concept of WYTAYBA: What You Think About, You Bring About. Blaine shares why experiencing and expressing gratitude is so powerful and offers some practical ideas about starting a gratitude practice.
Today we're going to focus on reasons to be grateful for our friends and social life. While friendship is relatively easy to define, social life can include hobbies, sports, interests, clubs, and groups. It's a broad category we will revisit. Our goal is to identify and express gratitude for our social experiences.
Our focus today is family. It's one of those touchstone topics. For some people, family has a happy connotation - they are the people we feel most at home with, the ones who have our back no matter what. For others, family members were never nurturing or supportive. We've left them behind, and good riddance! Regardless of who we are and how we relate to them, we all had at least one family where we got our start. Our goal today is to find and express gratitude for our family, whether in the traditional sense or not.
Living our dharma - rhymes with karma - means we're doing what we showed up on Earth to do. We're contributing by living our purpose. Some people make their contribution the same way they earn their living. For others, their jobs don't really reflect their purpose at all - they contribute in other ways: volunteering, the arts, personal relationships. There's no right or wrong way - just our way of contributing. The goal of this meditation is to find reasons to be grateful for the way we are making a personal contribution to the world.
Personal Growth can take many forms. Generally speaking, it means the progress we're making as we move through life. This meditation will explore some of the shifts we've made and express gratitude for them.
Faith & Spirituality are different from religion. Religion is a social construct that revolves around belief in a supreme deity. Participation in an organized religion is not necessary for one to practice faith or spirituality. Some people have more questions than faith, holding to a more agnostic perception of the world and universe. Still others have no belief in a God or source. None is right or wrong. This meditation explores reasons to be grateful for whatever our belief system may be.
This podcast focuses on Self-Perception - and the things we can be grateful for when it comes to the way we see ourselves.
The inaugural podcast for Get in the G Zone with Laura Orsini is an overview of why gratitude and what to expect in coming episodes.