The Discomfort Practice: Recent Episodes
Betsy Reed
The Discomfort Practice explores the value of discomfort in shaping who we are, how we are in the world and how discomfort can be a catalyst for positive social evolution. Betsy speaks to leaders, activists, athletes, creatives and others about comfort zones, having a conscious ‘discomfort practice,’ and the superpowers that lie on the other side of discomfort. Come get uncomfortable with Betsy...
You can follow Betsy on: Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed/ Twitter https://twitter.com/thebetsyreed LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed/
This is an unusual episode of The Discomfort Practice. For six years, Betsy has only recorded solos when she's felt in creative flow, with thoughts already framed. This one is different. She's a week late posting, and instead of waiting for the mood to arrive, she's recording from inside it: chemo has gotten hard, a client canceled projects and wiped out her planned summer income and another piece of work fell through yesterday; she's newly and suddenly in menopause - with a nervous system that has lost its usual brakes; it's been 100 degrees in southern Spain for days with a month of heat still ahead; she's bald from chemo and her feet hurt all the time (but she still has to walk her dog); and she's mostly alone with it. And kind of over it. But not yet through it…
This is the edge of her own discomfort practice, and she decided that's exactly what belongs on the podcast. Not a lesson extracted afterward. Not a tidy insight. Just what it sounds like to turn on the mic without knowing when any of this ends, or what it's for. She gets a little weepy, which is not something she would have been brave enough to post even six months ago. But this is Betsy, living life out loud and welcoming others to do the same, whatever state they're in.
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why she's recording this solo without waiting to feel "in the mood," and what that shift is teaching her
- What it's actually like to be a week behind on the podcast because life didn't cooperate
- Chemo, sudden surgical menopause, and a nervous system with no brakes left
- Financial crisis, cancelled work, and not having the energy to reinvent her business again
- Deep summer heat in Spain, and losing rest as a coping tool just as she needed it most
- The loneliness of long stretches without real human contact, even while being cared for
- Sitting with the question "what's the lesson in this?" and not forcing an answer
- Being the homework for the Embodied Leadership Lab — living out loud as the method, not just teaching it
- A line from the late poet Andrea Gibson, who wrote from her own chemo chair: measuring a life by width, not length
- Pema Chödrön's words on the "off-center, in-between state" as the actual practice, not an obstacle to it
The Discomfort Practice explores the uncomfortable edges where personal growth, leadership, embodiment and systems change intersect. Follow Betsy for more reflections on reinvention, craft, uncertainty and building a life that feels vividly alive.
How to get more of Betsy: Subscribe to The Discomfort Practice wherever you listen - and a five-star review always helps Subscribe to Betsy's Substack to get more of her thoughts, in writing: substack.com/@thebetsyreed Work with Betsy, through 1:1 coaching and Embodied Leadership Lab membership: www.patreon.com/embodiedleadereshiplab and www.embodiedleadershiplab.com
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy is joined by Claire Carpenter - coach, social innovator, entrepreneur, and founder of Scotland's Centre for Social Innovation, The Melting Pot - for a conversation about what it really costs to build something before the world even has language for it.
Claire founded The Melting Pot nearly twenty years ago, long before coworking became mainstream and before "social innovation" became a buzzword. Together, Betsy and Claire explore the loneliness, creativity, exhaustion, identity shifts, and deep purpose of being an early pioneer - particularly in the social impact world.
They talk candidly about burnout, leadership, the hidden emotional cost of sustaining mission-driven work, and the uncomfortable reality that many nonprofit structures may inadvertently prevent the very change they exist to create. This is a conversation about building community, surviving systems that weren't designed for humans, and what happens when the people trying to make the world better forget they are human too.
In This Episode * What it feels like to create something before people understand why it matters * The early days of coworking and social innovation in Scotland * Why pioneering often means spending years swimming against the current * The emotional and relational cost of building mission-driven work * Leadership, burnout, and learning to care for yourself while caring for a vision * How COVID changed Claire's perspective on charities and social impact structures * The tension between purpose and exploitation in the nonprofit world * Why having your ideas copied is often a sign you've succeeded * The shift from building organisations to coaching the humans inside them * What social innovators need beyond passion and resilience
Final thought: Claire leaves listeners with a challenge she never imagined her younger self would say out loud:
"Don't set up a charity."
Thoughtful, honest, occasionally spicy, and full of hard-earned wisdom, this is a conversation between two women who have spent decades building things at the edges of leadership, culture, and social change.
About Claire Carpenter Claire Carpenter is a coach, social innovator, and entrepreneur with more than thirty years' experience helping people and organisations navigate change. She is the founder and former CEO of The Melting Pot, Scotland's Centre for Social Innovation, and one of Europe's pioneering coworking communities. Today she works with leaders, entrepreneurs, and purpose-driven organisations to help them overcome challenges, lead more sustainably, and create meaningful impact without sacrificing themselves in the process.
Find Claire Website: www.clairecarpentercoaching.com
Connect With Betsy Subscribe to the podcast and leave a five-star written review wherever you listen to podcasts - it genuinely helps get The Discomfort Practice out into the world.
Read and subscribe (don't just follow) Betsy's Substack: @thebetsyreed
Work with Betsy - coaching, Embodied Leadership Lab membership, community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: embodiedleadershiplab.com and betsy-reed.com
What happens after the brave thing? Not six months later. Not when the results are in. Immediately after.
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy reflects on what happened in the hours after launching the very first Embodied Leadership monthly Members' Lab in July 2026. The session itself was deeply moving, but not long after the room closed and her nervous system finally let go of months of holding, an old pattern came rushing in: the urge to burn it all down, disappear, and hide before anyone could reject something deeply personal. Something that truly matters to her.
Rather than trying to fix or fight the thoughts, Betsy did what she teaches others to do: she observed them.
Because sometimes we're not just teaching the work. We ARE the homework. And, as Betsy has found, in her work teaching embodied leadership, she most often IS the homework for things she passes on to others.
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why old narratives often surface immediately after moments of courage
- The gap between what the body is experiencing and the story the mind creates
- How exhaustion can muddy the truth
- Why self-sabotage often arrives disguised as "being realistic"
- What it means to witness your patterns without becoming them
- A simple practice for noticing the story that appears after you do something brave
If you've ever launched something, had a vulnerable conversation, taken a risk, or finally put yourself out into the world, only to immediately want to retreat, this episode is for you.
Subscribe to The Discomfort Practice wherever you listen to podcasts.
Work with Betsy
Betsy is the founder of Embodied Leadership Lab, where she works with leaders, teams and organisations to develop embodied leadership, nervous system intelligence and capacity and more personally sustainable ways of leading in complexity.
Check out Embodied Leadership Lab membership on Patreon Find out more about the work at www.embodiedleadershiplab.com Subscribe to Betsy's Substack: @thebetsyreed
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy answers a comment a friend once made — "You never talk about having hobbies" — by unpacking why that's true, and what it reveals about how she actually relates to her own life.
The answer isn't that she's hobby-less. It's that she doesn't experience her life as something to escape to something better. She experiences it as a craft — a container she's devoted to, refines, and is shaped by in return. And lately, that craft has had to make room for something she didn't choose: chemotherapy.
This episode is about what happens when rest, receiving and doing less become the most demanding practice you've ever undertaken — and why a culture obsessed with visible effort has no real language for the mastery that looks like slowing down.
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why she doesn't have 'hobbies' and what that has revealed to her about her relationship to her own life.
- The difference between a 'hobby' and 'craft' - and why it's not about doing more.
- How chemotherapy, rest and receiving have become part of her 'craft' of living, not interruptions to it.
- Why visible effort gets rewarded and invisible work, like healing, integrating and surrender, doesn't.
- Defining 'letting life carry you' as a different kind of strength.
- Plus a closing mantra / question to sit with: where are you treating something as an interruption when it can actually be part of making your life a 'craft'?
The Discomfort Practice explores the uncomfortable edges where personal growth, leadership, embodiment and systems change intersect. Follow Betsy for more reflections on reinvention, craft, uncertainty and building a life that feels vividly alive.
Follow Betsy on Instagram: @thebetsyreed Subscribe to The Discomfort Practice wherever you listen — and a five-star review always helps Join her on Substack, Voice Notes from the Edge: substack.com/@thebetsyreed Work with Betsy — coaching, the Embodied Leadership Lab membership, community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.embodiedleadershiplab.com
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy is joined by Katherine Wela Bogen - scholar, activist, storyteller, and self-described "joyful little freak" - for a conversation that refuses to stay in its lane (in the best possible way). Katie, as she's known to her friends, is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology researching the intersections of bisexual identity, sexual trauma, sexual functioning, and kink. She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers, hosts the political podcast Superhumanizer, and has just released her debut novel Queering Him - the first in the Avra and Kiran trilogy.
They talk about the particular loneliness of being a multi-hyphenate; the tension of being a storyteller who is also a rigorous scientist and a justice activist; growing up queer and Jewish in rural Connecticut; the grassroots, intergenerational nature of rural queer organizing; purity culture in activist spaces (yes, that purity culture); and why the internet may be doing something genuinely sick to our capacity for human connection. Oh, and they coin a new term: queer-narc. You're welcome.
This is a rich, wide-ranging, deeply honest conversation about sovereignty, disruption, and what it means to hold a fully realized identity in a world that keeps trying to flatten you.
In This Episode * The tension of being a scholar-activist-storyteller, and why each community will always think you're betraying the others * How the skills we sharpen to keep ourselves safe become our superpowers * Signing a "closeting contract" at boarding school, and what that taught Katie about using intellectual excellence as a shield * Growing up queer and Jewish in a majority-Christian rural Connecticut town, and the casual antisemitism that surrounded her Holocaust-survivor grandfather * How rural queer activism works - whisper networks, safe parents, rainbow sidewalks painted in the dark, and the teachers whose doors you know are open * Activist perfectionism and online purity culture: "Why are you being such a cop?" * Impact vs intent, and why a well-meaning neighbour is not your enemy * Katie's debut novel Queering Him: two flawed, bisexual adolescents asking the hard questions about desire, kink, fetishization, and queerness, and why readers who want to cancel fictional teenagers might want to look inward * What the kink community models about accountability, community repair, and anti-carceral approaches to harm * COVID, the digital age, and what we've lost by moving so much of human life onto a screen * Final thought: Don't let the internet take your humanity from you.
About Katherine Wela Bogen Katherine Wela Bogen (she/her) is a bisexual, Jewish scholar-activist and storyteller whose work sits at the intersections of consent, kink, pleasure politics, and self-advocacy. She is currently completing her doctoral degree in clinical psychology (NIH-funded research on bisexual identity, sexual trauma, sexual functioning, and kink). She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers and hosts the political podcast Superhumanizer. Her public-facing platform is k.w.bogen, where she reaches over 500,000 followers with millions of monthly views. Her debut novel Queering Him - the first in the Avra and Kiran trilogy - is out now. Books two and three follow in January 2027 and January 2028 respectively, with two spin-off novels to follow.
Find Katie:
- Instagram / social: @k.w.bogen
- Podcast: Superhumanizer
- Novel: Queering Him (Avra and Kiran trilogy, Book 1) - available wherever books are sold
Links Mentioned * Queering Him by Katherine Wela Bogen (Avra and Kiran trilogy, Book 1) * Podcast: Superhumanizer * Katie mentioned sharing academic articles on queer rurality in shownotes; check her social platforms for those links
Connect With Betsy Follow Betsy on Instagram: @thebetsyreed
Subscribe to the podcast and leave a five-star written review - it genuinely helps get The Discomfort Practice out into the world.
Read Betsy's Substack, Voice Notes from the Edge: substack.com/@thebetsyreed
Work with Betsy - coaching, the Embodied Leadership Lab membership, community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: embodiedleadershiplab.com
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy reflects on the deeply inconvenient timing of becoming wildly, viscerally alive in the middle of grappling with mortality.
A few months after a cancer diagnosis and before chemotherapy has even begun, she finds herself blindsided by something she genuinely did not expect: a crush. Not a sensible attraction. A full nervous-system hijack. The kind that turns a self-aware adult woman into a fluttery teenage disaster because someone walks into a room.
But beneath the humour is something deeper.
This episode explores what happens when the body you've suddenly begun relating to through fear, uncertainty and medical language unexpectedly remembers desire, curiosity, embodiment and aliveness. It's about eros as life force. About mortality sharpening beauty. About the absurdity and sacredness of still being emotionally movable in the middle of the unknown.
It's definitely existential, ya'll.
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why a crush feels strangely healing during a cancer diagnosis
- Mortality, identity and the fear of becoming untethered from yourself
- Erotic aliveness as animating life force
- The nervous system's refusal to become purely practical
- Why being deeply affected is sometimes evidence of being deeply alive
The Discomfort Practice explores the uncomfortable edges where personal growth, leadership, embodiment and systems change intersect. Follow Betsy for more reflections on reinvention, eros, uncertainty and building a life that feels vividly alive.
Follow Betsy on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed Subscribe to The Discomfort Practice wherever you listen to podcasts Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed: substack.com/thebetsyreed Work with Betsy: www.embodiedleadershiplab.com
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy reflects on what happens when life blows apart the illusion of linearity, and why that rupture may be the beginning of something far more honest.
A few weeks after unexpectedly being diagnosed with cancer and undergoing surgery, Betsy finds herself in a strange in-between space: giving keynote speeches and being invited into rooms of influence, while simultaneously asking for financial grace, facing chemotherapy and confronting the uncomfortable realities of building an unconventional life.
This is an episode about the collision between external accomplishment and internal uncertainty. About the shame that emerges when you compare your real life to an imaginary timeline. And about what becomes possible when you stop treating your life like it's late.
Betsy explores the myth of the "correct" life path - marriage, stability, financial security, certainty - and what it means to consciously choose freedom, creativity, reinvention, and impact instead. She speaks candidly about the sharper edges of that choice: ageing alone, financial precarity, mortality, identity and the fear that maybe none of it adds up the way you thought it would.
But she also asks a different question: What if life is not a ladder, but a series of eras, chapters, and initiations? What if this moment is not failure, but intermission before the next becoming?
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why cancer shattered the illusion of "later"
- The shame that comes from comparing human lives to linear timelines
- The difference between external achievement and internal alignment
- Choosing freedom over safety and the costs and gifts of that path
- What ageing, uncertainty, and mortality reveal about what actually matters
- Why this chapter may be less about proving herself and more about becoming fully herself
- Embodied Leadership Lab as work born from lived experience, not polished theory
- How to stop treating your life as though it's somehow behind schedule
The Discomfort Practice explores the uncomfortable edges where personal growth, leadership, culture, and systems change intersect. If this episode landed for you, follow Betsy for more reflections on embodiment, reinvention, and building a life that is fully your own.
Follow Betsy on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed Subscribe to The Discomfort Practice wherever you listen to podcasts - and leave a five-star review (it genuinely helps) Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge: substack.com/thebetsyreed Work with Betsy - coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, and Embodied Leadership Lab: www.betsy-reed.com
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy shares the origin story of Embodied Leadership Lab, why the launch didn't go to plan and what it is.
It was supposed to happen on April 7th. Instead, Betsy was in surgery. And she's here to tell you: that was the launch.
Because here's the thing at the centre of everything she's building: Leadership is not what you say in the room. It's the state you are in when you enter the room. When you're in the room.
What happens when the body overrides the timeline you 'should' follow? When life says "not that way" - and you actually listen? When the plan falls apart and you're left with a choice: hustle through it, or live what you teach?
Betsy chose to live it. To embody leadership 'in the wild.'
Drawing on the ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna/Ishtar, queen of heaven and earth who descends into the underworld, stripped of everything at every gate, Betsy maps what it means to go down into the hard thing, rather than push past it. And why that descent is exactly where leadership capacity gets built. Not on the way up. On the way down.
This episode is both origin story of Embodied Leadership Lab and embodiment in real time. It's what her work is actually about: the leadership development that most spaces skip entirely; the moment when the nervous system is telling you something strategy can't see or embody.
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why leadership is not a cognitive skill; it's the state you bring into the room
- What a hard health diagnosis strips away, and what it leaves behind
- The myth of Inanna, and why descent is not failure; it's initiation
- A three-day post-surgery ritual for honouring the threshold between who she was and who she's becoming
- Why you don't build leadership capacity on the way up; you build it on the way down
- What it actually means to embody your work, in the most inconvenient and unscripted way possible
The Discomfort Practice explores the uncomfortable edges where personal growth, leadership, culture, and systems change intersect. If this episode landed for you, follow Betsy for more reflections on integrity, embodiment, and the quiet courage it takes to lead from somewhere real:
- Follow Betsy on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed
- Subscribe to The Discomfort Practice wherever you listen to podcasts - and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed
- Work with Betsy - coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, and the newly launched Embodied Leadership Lab: www.betsy-reed.com
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy explores a slightly amusing and powerful idea:
What if blasphemy is exactly what we need right now?
Drawing from the line "Every great idea starts out as a blasphemy," Betsy looks at the beliefs, systems, and assumptions we treat as sacred… and asks a simple but disruptive question: Does this actually serve?
From workplace norms to wellness culture, politics to personal identity, many of the stories we defend most fiercely are simply habits we stopped questioning. When something becomes sacred, curiosity disappears… and systems can get stuck.
This episode is an invitation to bring curiosity back.
Not through rage or rebellion, but through a small, playful practice Betsy calls "writing blasphemy": noticing the things everyone treats as untouchable and daring to question them.
Blasphemy, in this sense, isn't about disrespect. It's about interrupting the spell of stories that no longer serve - whether that looks like questioning a belief, leaving a job, redefining a relationship, or simply pausing long enough to reconsider something you once took for granted.
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why sacred beliefs can quietly become barriers to change
- How certainty replaces curiosity in cultures, organisations, and identities
- The surprising power of writing "the sentence you're not supposed to write"
- Why questioning the sacred is often the first step in systemic or personal transformation
- A simple practice for spotting your own sacred cows
The experiment for this week is simple: Notice something you treat as sacred - a belief, habit, identity, or system - and pause long enough to ask:
Does this serve… or is it just sacred?
If the answer surprises you, you may have just written your first line of blasphemy.
And every great idea starts there.
The Discomfort Practice explores the uncomfortable edges where personal growth, leadership, culture, and systems change intersect. If this episode landed for you, follow Betsy for more reflections on integrity, discomfort, and the quiet courage it takes to question what everyone else takes for granted:
- Follow Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe to The Discomfort Practice wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed
- Work with Betsy: coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com
In this solo episode, Betsy explores a provocative idea for strange times:
Joy might be a form of anarchy.
We are living in an era saturated with catastrophe, outrage cycles, environmental grief, economic anxiety, and a constant sense that the world is tilting toward something darker. In that atmosphere, many of us quietly absorb an unspoken rule: if you care about the world, you should feel bad about it all the time.
But what if that equation is wrong?
What if joy is not denial or privilege or distraction, but a form of resistance?
In this episode, Betsy explores how fear-driven systems rely on exhausted, anxious populations, and why choosing joy in the midst of uncertainty can be a deeply rebellious act.
This conversation moves beyond superficial "positive thinking" to something much more embodied: joy as life force, sovereignty, and refusal.
Because being fully alive - cooking beautiful food, laughing with friends, falling in love, creating, resting, noticing beauty - is not frivolous.
It's a refusal to let the world shrink your life.
And in a culture that increasingly demands despair as proof of moral seriousness, enjoying your life might be one of the most subversive things you can do.
In this episode, Betsy explores: * Why modern culture subtly equates misery with moral seriousness * The "purity culture" that has crept into activism and social awareness * Why systems of control benefit from populations that are fearful and exhausted * Joy as embodied life force rather than denial or avoidance * The small, everyday acts that quietly reclaim sovereignty over your inner life * Why you can feel anxiety about the world and still insist on joy * The invitation to become what Betsy calls a "Joy Anarchist"
This episode is an invitation to protect your aliveness — even, and especially, in strange times.
Because joy is not naïveté. Sometimes it's defiance.
The Discomfort Practice explores the uncomfortable edges of being human - the places where growth, truth, and aliveness live. You can find the book Pleasure Activism, by Adrienne Maree Brown here on her website. It's a highly recommended read / approach that might very well change your approach to life.
If this episode landed for you, consider sharing it with someone who might need the reminder. Follow Betsy for more reflections on integrity, discomfort, and the quiet courage it takes to question what everyone else takes for granted:
- Betsy's on Instagram @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe to The Discomfort Practice wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed
- Work with Betsy: coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com
What do you do when the people you most need to work with are the ones you most fundamentally disagree with?
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy sits down with renowned facilitator and systems thinker Adam Kahane, whose work has brought together politicians, activists, CEOs, guerrilla fighters and community leaders in some of the most polarized environments in the world.
From South Africa's transition out of apartheid to complex global conflicts today, Adam has spent decades working in the uncomfortable middle: helping people collaborate across profound differences without pretending those differences don't exist.
This conversation explores what it actually takes to move forward together when trust is low, stakes are high, and nobody is getting exactly what they want.
In this episode, Betsy and Adam explore:
- Why collaboration doesn't require agreement
- The difference between controlling systems and participating in them
- How conflict can become a generative force instead of a dead end
- What it means to act when outcomes are uncertain
- Why real change often emerges from experimentation rather than certainty
This is not a conversation about neat solutions. It's about learning how to work inside the mess, with curiosity, humility, and courage.
About Adam Kahane
Adam Kahane is a director of Reos Partners and a leading facilitator of complex change processes around the world. He has worked with leaders from business, government, and civil society to address some of the toughest systemic challenges - from democratic transitions to climate change and economic inequality.
He is the author of several influential books including Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems: The Catalytic Power of Radical Engagement and Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don't Agree with or Like or Trust).
Learn more about Adam's work:
- https://www.reospartners.com
- https://www.adamkahane.com
If this episode landed for you:
- Follow and message Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge — some public, some subscriber-only: https://substack.com/thebetsyreed
- Work with Betsy: coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: https://www.betsy-reed.com
"The world doesn't need us to be perfect; it just needs us to be present." Betsy has been a meditation teacher for 10 years, and in that time, her own practice has changed. Before leading a 'Senses Meditation,' she swears a bit, she quotes singer Billy Bragg and invites you to meditate. The answer to 'crunchy times' is not to escape them, to seek to 'ascend' and get away from the very real discomfort happening to you. The answer is sometimes to just be human in the midst of it, to realise that a regulated nervous system doesn't necessarily mean you're calm. So step into your body, set aside 10 minutes or so to do this meditation - whether walking, driving, in the gym or sitting in your bed - and enjoy being with yourself. Whatever that feels like right now.
If you'd like more:
- Betsy records bespoke meditations, so if you'd like to commission some to accompany you through life right now, get in touch.
- Follow and message Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed
What happens when you revisit something you once said with conviction… and realise you'd express it differently today?
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy reflects on the strange experience of discovering that one of her older episodes, The World Is Evolving. Are You?, has quietly become the most downloaded episode in the 5 years this podcast has been produced.
So she went back and listened. And cringed.
This episode is about the discomfort of encountering your past thinking in public, and the quiet, ongoing work of evolving how we speak about the world and our place in it.
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Revisiting past ideas and noticing what has changed
- The gap between what we believe and how we express it
- How privilege can show up subtly in tone and framing
- The tension between personal agency narratives and structural realities
- What it means to evolve in public rather than in private
- This is an episode for anyone who has ever revisited their own work and realised they might say things differently today.
If this landed for you:
- Follow and message Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge — some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed
- Work with Betsy: coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com
What if indifference isn't always apathy, but is sometimes rooted in discernment?
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy explores intentional indifference as a mature, regulated response to a world that constantly pulls for reaction, access, and emotional labour. Not the numb, checked-out kind, but the kind that comes from knowing where your energy actually belongs.
This episode is about withdrawing attention without withdrawing integrity. About choosing not to engage - not because you can't, but because you won't.
In this episode, Betsy explores: * The difference between avoidance and intentional indifference * Why over-responsiveness is often mistaken for care (and leadership) * How indifference can be an act of self-respect, not dismissal * What it means to stop being "available for extraction" * Indifference as a nervous-system skill - not a mindset trick * How leaders, creatives, and sensitives burn out by caring too broadly
This is an episode for anyone who has been told they're "too much," "too intense," or "too available" and is ready to practice cleaner, quieter power. If this episode landed for you:
- Follow and message Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for (Voice) Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed
- Work with Betsy: coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy speaks directly into the current moment: politically, socially and somatically.
Recorded in February 2026, amid rising authoritarianism, surveillance and collective nervous system overload, this episode is a grounded, unsmoothed reflection on what it means to stay human, regulated and ethically awake when the world feels volatile.
Anchored by a teaching from Thích Nhất Hạnh, Betsy explores the idea of war loops: the internal patterns of fear, urgency, compliance, reactivity and self-betrayal that quietly rehearse the very dynamics we say we want to resist.
This is not a political analysis or a call to action. It's a nervous-system-level inquiry into freedom, leadership and choice, especially for those embedded in corporate or institutional systems who find themselves asking, "But what can I actually do?"
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- What Thích Nhất Hạnh meant by "uprooting war from ourselves"
- How authoritarian dynamics are rehearsed internally through unregulated nervous systems
- The difference between response and reaction in moments of pressure
- Why smoothing, complying or "keeping things nice" is not neutrality
- How self-regulation becomes a form of ethical and political agency
- What it means to tolerate discomfort without outsourcing your values
- How leadership begins with interrupting internal war loops
Mid-episode nervous system practice: A short, grounding regulation exercise designed to interrupt fear-based loops and restore choice before analysis or decision-making.
Closing inquiry + practice: Betsy guides listeners through a reflective somatic inquiry: Where is the war within me? Exploring how internalised pressure, urgency, contempt or shutdown show up — and how to contain them without judgment.
This episode is for listeners who are paying attention, feeling the cost of that attention in their bodies, and wanting to stay clear, calm and human without turning away.
A gentle invitation after you listen: No fixing. No forcing. Just noticing:
- Where you feel pressure to comply
- Where you override your own signals
- Where you rehearse domination, contempt or self-erasure
- Where choice becomes possible again through regulation
If this episode landed for you:
- Follow and message Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps)
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed for Voice Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only: substack.com/thebetsyreed
- Work with Betsy: coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com
In this expansive and clear-eyed conversation, host Betsy Reed is joined by journalist and leading sustainability commentator James Murray, founding Editor-in-Chief of BusinessGreen. Together, they explore what it means to stay awake, human and oriented in the face of accelerating climate risk, AI and systemic uncertainty.
Recorded at a moment when climate tipping points are no longer abstract projections but lived realities, their dialogue flows between science, politics, technology and psychology. Betsy and James examine how climate change has become a kind of "theory of everything", shaping economics, geopolitics, migration and everyday life, and what it takes to remain informed without tipping into paralysis, denial or performative optimism.
With honesty and nuance, they discuss the real risks in the future, the breakthroughs already underway, and the inner work required to hold the tension of either a potentially catastrophic or a potentially bright future. Because, right now, we don't know which we are heading for. This is a conversation about choosing informed optimism as a practice not a posture, and about learning how to stay in relationship with complexity rather than turning away from it.
In this episode: * What climate tipping points really are and why they matter now * Why climate change has become a "theory of everything" for modern life * The emotional and psychological impact of watching seasons, systems and certainties shift within a single lifetime * Where real hope lives: clean tech, adoption curves and the pace of innovation * Carbon removal, regenerative approaches and what comes next * The tension between democratic processes and the urgency of climate action * Navigating the information Wild West without losing discernment * What it means to practise informed optimism in dark and uncertain times
About James Murray James Murray is the founding editor-in-chief of BusinessGreen, the UK's leading publication covering the green economy, net-zero transition and sustainable business. He launched BusinessGreen in 2007 and has spent nearly two decades reporting on, analysing and challenging the evolution of climate policy, clean technology and corporate responsibility. In 2020, he was named Digital Editor of the Year at the AOP Awards. His work is widely read by policymakers, business leaders and sustainability practitioners navigating the transition to a low-carbon economy.
- Read James' piece The Climate Theory of Everything
- Check out the Business Green website
Connect with Betsy
- Instagram: @thebetsyreed
- Like, subscribe and leave a 5-star review wherever you listen to podcasts to help more people discover The Discomfort Practice
- Check out Betsy's new, more personal Substack, (Voice) Notes From the Edge, to get her 'hot takes,' deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes insights
In this intimate solo episode, Betsy records from the threshold: posting unscripted, later than planned and exactly when it needed to be shared.
Recorded in January 2026, after what she calls the personal "meat-grinder" year of 2025, this episode is a love letter to anyone doing something alone: building, healing, choosing integrity, setting boundaries or standing between versions of themselves in a quiet, liminal space.
This is not a pep talk. It's a nervous system-level offering for those moments when life goes quiet and the stories about aloneness get loud.
In this episode, Betsy explores: * Why aloneness is not a failure, but often the felt experience of integrity * How liminal spaces show up when we stop abandoning ourselves * The difference between being alone and being unsupported * Why quiet seasons often arrive right before a new chapter * How support doesn't always look like people (and what else counts as support) * Letting go of the macro stories we attach to those moments when we feel alone
A simple nervous system practice: Betsy shares a gentle, grounding breath practice she calls "the you don't have to do anything breath", designed to bring you back from spirals of story into the present moment.
You'll be guided to:
- Breathe in for four
- Pause gently
- Breathe out for six
- Repeat 4–6 times
Along with a simple anchoring phrase: "You don't have to do anything right now. You are allowed to pause."
Resources mentioned: * Focusmate – quiet online coworking sessions with a stranger for gentle accountability and presence - https://app.focusmate.com/ * Audiobooks and podcasts as regulating companions, including books by Brené Brown * Routine as support: food, movement, breath, tidying, eye contact with yourself * Co-regulation with animals (especially dogs or cats)
A soft invitation: Listeners are invited (no pressure) to notice what support already exists and what could support them:
- One place that calms you
- One voice that steadies you
- One practice that brings you back
- One person (or future version of you) who has survived this before
No forcing. No fixing. Just presence.
If this episode landed for you: Betsy would love to hear what resonated, what didn't, and what you'd like more of.
You can:
- Follow and message her on Instagram @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a five-star review (it truly helps). Here's Apple and Spotify for easy access.
- Join her on Substack at The Betsy Reed, where she shares Voice Notes from the Edge - some public, some subscriber-only - for those who want a closer seat to her thinking, practices and lived evolution thebetsyreed.substack.com
- Work with Betsy For coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and the People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com
- Check out Embodied Leadership Lab for monthly leadership circles and quarterly planning sessions (starting ahead of Q2 2026): www.embodiedleadershiplab.com (it'll take you to Betsy's website)
In this powerful solo episode, Betsy explores what it means to live, lead, and stay human in what philosopher Antonio Gramsci famously called "the time of monsters" - the in-between space where the old world is dying and the new world is still struggling to be born.
Recorded at the close of 2025, this episode is an invitation for anyone standing at a threshold: the end of a year, a relationship, a job, an identity, or an old way of being. Betsy reframes overwhelm, grief, and exhaustion not as personal failure, but as signs of initiation - evidence that you are awake, feeling, and participating in the birth of something new.
This is a reflection, a transmission, and a practice for those navigating collapse with consciousness.
In this episode, Betsy explores: * What "the time of monsters" really means, beyond politics or villains * Why exhaustion, grief, anger, and sensitivity are appropriate responses right now * How collapse acts as an initiation into embodied sovereignty * What embodied leadership actually looks like (and why charisma isn't the point) * Why boundaries, nervous system regulation, and saying no are revolutionary acts * How initiations happen in ordinary moments - emails, conversations, rest * The difference between being "nice" and being kind (especially to yourself) * Why monsters are often teachers and how they accelerate your path * How to practice the new world instead of talking about it
A reflection exercise to take with you: Instead of measuring your life by achievement, try asking:
- Where did I meet monsters (and what did they teach me)?
- What parts of me am I letting die?
- What new world am I quietly embodying through my boundaries, voice, and presence?
- How am I practicing the future I want to live in?
A gentle practice shared in the episode: Betsy introduces a version of the "Just Like Me," her favourite compassion practice, a simple but radical way to soften separation, regulate the nervous system and practice leadership through humanity.
Links & Resources
Subscribe to Voice Notes from the Edge on Substack For deeper access, weekly voice notes, behind-the-scenes sovereignty reflections and a front-row seat to Betsy's inner world: thebetsyreed.substack.com
Subscribe and follow The Discomfort Practice Wherever you listen to podcasts. Here's Apple and Spotify for easy access.
Work with Betsy For coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and the People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com Check out the brand spanking new Embodied Leadership Lab for monthly leadership circles and quarterly planning sessions (starting ahead of Q2 2026): www.embodiedleadershiplab.com (it'll take you to Betsy's website)
If you enjoyed this episode * Subscribe, rate, and leave a written review: it genuinely helps * Share it with someone navigating their own edge * Join Betsy on Substack for deeper, more intimate exploration
This is a good one from the archives - back in January 2023, when memories of the COVID-19 pandemic (and the trauma) was still fresh. Betsy interviewed Pilar Garrido, who was Minister for Economic Development in Costa Rica during the pandemic and went to work every day determined to 'lead from love.' This is posted toward the end of 2025, a year in which many of us have witnessed leadership and counter reactions that come from fear or ego, not love. It's a particularly poignant, beautiful episode to remind us that it IS possible to lead from love, and that each of us can choose to lead - whatever our sphere of influence - from love. -- A recap of the original episode: In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, Betsy talks with political scientist and economist Pilar Garrido. They chat about her experience leading a sustainable economic development policy in Costa Rica for a green and inclusive economy, as well as designing projects to create public benefit. Pilar has long been a key figure, using her previous role as a Government Minister to steer Costa Rica's ambition to be one of the five countries piloting the Sustainable Development Goals. SDG's were launched by the United Nations in 2015. Their aim is to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030, all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
So, buckle yourself in for this episode and be inspired by a politician who governs with both heart and strength. She has served as Chief of Staff, Deputy Minister, Minister of Planning and Policy, Technical Secretary of the Sustainable Development Goals in Costa Rica and as Costa Rica's co-ordinator of the Economic cabinet. Pilar has since moved on to become Director of Development Cooperation for the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), based in Paris; it's a role that allows her to bring her style of leadership-with-heart to her work on a global level.
Key Points Discussed:
- The discomfort Pilar experienced whilst becoming a politician and minister at a young age, especially during the Pandemic, as she describes as being like on the front line (5:20)
- Choosing to work from a place of love (08:20)
- Making difficult choices and creating policies to protect people during the Pandemic (12:20)
- Pilar's journey from political scientist to advisor to politician (14:50)
- Costa Rica's initiatives to put humanity and sustainability first, before economics (23:40)
- How to have a big impact in politics: where your job is not forever (27:00)
- Part of Pilar's legacy: diversifying an economy that has previously heavily relied just on tourism, so that it is healthy and robust (31:00)
- The IDG framework (that Costa Rica are one of the first countries to pilot), which aims towards eradicating hunger, poverty, sustainability and ensuring human rights. The IDG's (Inner Development Goals) consists of five dimensions: Being (relationship to self); Thinking (using your brain); Relating (and caring about others in the world); Collaborating (social skills and society) and Acting (driving change) (36:40)
- How everyone can do something small, that will collectively make a big impact (46:00)
- Pilar's optimism for the future (51:10) If you want to get a front-row seat to Betsy's innermost thoughts as she evolves into a more embodied, sovereign human - her messiness, her breakthroughs, and her real-time reflections - subscribe to her Substack, Voice Notes from the Edge.
It's where she shares the unfiltered pieces of her journey she can't share anywhere else.
Links & Resources Subscribe to Voice Notes from the Edge on Substack For deeper access, weekly voice notes, behind-the-scenes sovereignty reflections, and a front-row seat to Betsy's inner world: thebetsyreed.substack.com
Subscribe and follow The Discomfort Practice Wherever you listen to podcasts. Here's Apple and Spotify for easy access.
Work with Betsy For coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and the People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com
If you enjoyed this episode + Subscribe, rate, and leave a written review: it genuinely helps + Share it with someone navigating their own edge + Join Betsy inside Voice Notes from the Edge on Substack for deeper, more intimate exploration
In this very personal 20-minute solo, Betsy steps into the uncomfortable, liberating terrain of boundaries as a pleasure practice - a theme that emerged from her 2025 words of the year: alignment and precision. This episode is a transmission on sovereignty, somatic truth, and what it means to teach the choreography of your life through your energy, not your explanations.
She reflects on a year of deep pruning of relationships, dynamics, and energetic leaks, and how that pruning has become sensual, sovereign, and delicious. She shares what it has meant to listen to her body's YES and NO, to shed old versions of herself, and to step into a more coherent, embodied expression of leadership.
And, unexpectedly, she reveals how a Mastín-Labrador mix named Casper became her clearest mentor in embodied leadership, clean energetic signaling, and learning that access is a currency.
This episode is for anyone feeling the pull toward deeper clarity, deeper alignment, and deeper sovereignty in how they give (and withhold) access to their life.
In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why "alignment" and "precision" became her seeds for 2025
- How somatic intelligence (and a feeling of full-body NO) has driven a year of pruning
- Why boundaries aren't protection, punishment, or games, but pleasure, rhythm and choreography
- What her dog Casper has taught her about leadership, energy, and clean signals
- Why access is a currency and why sovereign humans manage access, not people
- The archetypes she released this year, from spiritual narcissists to emotional toddlers
- The ancestral roots of fawning and the embodied roots of sovereignty
- How boundaries create intimacy, not distance
- An invitation to treat your next boundary as a pleasure practice
And this episode comes with an invitation: If you want to get a front-row seat to Betsy's innermost thoughts as she evolves into a more embodied, sovereign human - her messiness, her breakthroughs, and her real-time reflections - subscribe to her Substack, Voice Notes from the Edge.
It's where she shares the unfiltered pieces of her journey she can't share anywhere else.
Links & Resources Subscribe to Voice Notes from the Edge on Substack For deeper access, weekly voice notes, behind-the-scenes sovereignty reflections, and a front-row seat to Betsy's inner world: thebetsyreed.substack.com
Subscribe and follow The Discomfort Practice Wherever you listen to podcasts. Here's Apple and Spotify for easy access.
Work with Betsy For coaching, consulting, speaking, embodied leadership sessions, upcoming community circles, and the People Like Us dinners across Europe: www.betsy-reed.com
If you enjoyed this episode * Subscribe, rate, and leave a written review: it genuinely helps * Share it with someone navigating their own edge * Join Betsy inside Voice Notes from the Edge for deeper, more intimate exploration
In this very personal 20-minute solo episode, Betsy steps into her own edge. She announces the launch of a new offering: Voice Notes from the Edge, her Substack home for the people who want deeper access to her world, her thoughts, her voice.
This episode is a transmission - an intimate reflection on sovereignty, devotion, and the kind of people who choose to walk with you not because they "follow" you, but because they recognise themselves in your voice and work.
She shares why she's creating a paid sanctuary, because she's ready to be witnessed more deeply in order to help others feel ready to be witnessed themselves, and what it means to build a community of companions. She invites you, if you feel the pull, to step inside and join her in her living room. In this episode, Betsy explores:
- Why she's launching Voice Notes from the Edge - and why now
- The real purpose of creating a paid sanctuary (and why it's not about money)
- How The Discomfort Practice has evolved into a more intimate ecosystem where she can share her inner world
- What it means to create a gang, a council, a gathering of people committed to their own sovereignty
- Her own edge in being more visible, more vulnerable, and more herself
- An invitation into her sanctuary, as equals choosing dept
Links & Resources:
Subscribe to Voice Notes from the Edge on Substack For bonus episodes of The Discomfort Practice + raw, behind-the-scenes sovereignty reflections thebetsyreed.substack.com
Subscribe and like The Discomfort Practice podcast home wherever you listen to podcasts - here's Apple and Spotify
Work with Betsy for coaching, consulting, speaking, upcoming community circles and People Like Us dinners in various European cities, check out her website www.betsy-reed.com
If you enjoyed this episode:
- Subscribe, rate, and leave a written review
- Share it with someone who is navigating their own edge
- Join Betsy inside Voice Notes from the Edge for deeper, more intimate explorations
In this deeply moving conversation, host Betsy Reed welcomes back longtime friend and activist Isa Noyola, Director of the Border Butterflies Project at the Transgender Law Center, to explore what it means to live, love, and lead on the frontlines of collective liberation. Recorded in October 2025, their conversation travels from shared memories of queer resistance and joy in the American South to the stark realities of immigrant detention and the rising tide of authoritarianism. Through it all, Isa reminds us that trans joy, softness, and connection are radical acts of resistance, and that redefining our relationship with "the monsters" is how we stay human.
Together, Betsy and Isa revisit the beginning of their friendship and activism, after meeting at a conservative Christian university, reflect on the resilience of marginalized communities, and discuss how to sustain hope and energy when the world feels overwhelming. It's a powerful, vulnerable, and timely dialogue about courage, community, and the necessity of beauty and joy in dark times.
In this episode:
- Queer resistance and trans liberation in a shifting political landscape
- The ongoing fight against ICE detention and criminalization of migrants
- How language, history, and cultural memory shape identity
- Pacing activism without martyrdom
- Trans joy and softness as political acts
- Redefining your relationship with "the monsters" — and finding freedom in that
About Isa Noyola Isa Noyola is a first-generation Mexican trans Latina, cultural strategist, and movement visionary focused on collective liberation. She serves as Director of the Border Butterflies Project at the Transgender Law Center, advocating for the release of trans women in ICE detention and the abolition of systems that dehumanize migrant communities. A pioneering activist and national leader in the LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights movements, Issa's work blends fierce care, strategic imagination, and deep compassion to push for systemic change and collective love.
Connect with Betsy
- Instagram: @thebetsyreed
- Subscribe and leave a review to help more people discover The Discomfort Practice
- Keep an eye out for Betsy's new Substack community to get her 'hot takes,' deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes insights (coming soon).
Please do subscribe, share, and leave a 5-star review if this conversation stretched your comfort zone...
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy reflects on what it means to live and prosper beyond capitalism's conditioning. She's been recently moving through a deep personal detox and life transition and explores how WildFit, a nutritional and emotional reset, has become a catalyst for examining - well, everything. Her relationship with productivity, prosperity, and self-worth as well as with why and what she eats.
Betsy talks about how capitalist systems teach us to see ourselves and others as "human resources," valued only for what we produce, and how unlearning that story requires reclaiming rest, coherence, and trust. She shares how seasonal rhythms where she lives in southern Spain have guided her to align more closely with her own natural cycles rather than external expectations of constant output.
From re-writing internal scripts ("Time is cyclical and you are always in season") to stepping back from work that doesn't value her, Betsy invites listeners into a deeply human conversation about redefining abundance - not as accumulation or achievement, but as reciprocity, alignment, and integrity.
She speaks candidly about shame around financial safety, the myth of "adulthood = stability," and what it means to build true sovereignty as a single woman and creative professional. And she reminds us that the energy of abundance isn't about efforting or proving: it's about coherence, trust, and allowing life to hold you.
This is a raw, tender, and deeply reflective episode about creating post-capitalist abundance in practice: relational, regenerative, and grounded in self-trust. --
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with others who might need a little inspiration! Help us spread the word by leaving a five-star and written review, and use #BeTheChange #TheDiscomfortPractice on social media to share your journey. Follow Betsy on Instagram @thebetsyreed
What does it mean to stay human in the age of AI? In this episode ,BetsyI welcomse back Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic - psychologist, author, and provocateur - to explore how technology is reshaping not just what we do, but who we are becoming as humans. From dating-app algorithms to digital narcissism, Tomas explains how AI mirrors our worst tendencies—bias, impatience, distraction—and why true curiosity always involves discomfort. Together they look at how efficiency can be inhumane, what “realistic optimism” about AI sounds like, and how we can reclaim what makes us unique: connection, creativity, and care. In this episode we explore * AI as a mirror: Why our algorithms don’t invent new flaws so much as magnify our existing ones — bias, impatience, distraction, and the cult of efficiency. * The erosion of curiosity: How the “microwave for ideas” that is generative AI can dull our hunger for the unknown — and why true curiosity always involves discomfort. * Efficiency vs empathy: Why speed and optimisation are, by definition, inhumane — and how slowing down may be the ultimate rebellion. * A realistic optimism: The hopeful case for AI as a co-pilot that de-biases decisions, automates drudgery, and frees us to re-invest in what makes us uniquely human: connection, creativity, and care. * Our responsibility: The uncomfortable truth that we’re still driving the car. AI isn’t ethical or unethical — we are. Learning to steer is the task of our time.
Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a Professor of Business Psychology at University College London and Visiting Professor at Columbia University. He’s an international authority on psychological profiling and talent management, author of I, Human and Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders (and How to Fix It), and a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review. Connect Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic — tomaschamorro.com | @drtcp Betsy Reed — @thebetsyreed | thebetsyreed.com Please subscribe, share, and leave a 5-star review if this conversation stretched your comfort zone...
In this episode, Betsy reflects on the question she’s been pondering deeply: “The world is changing fast. Are you changing with it? Are you being the change you want to see in the world?”
She explores how we can shift from being stuck in the narratives of fear and decline to consciously creating our own story and living a life that reflects joy, love, and curiosity. Betsy shares her own experiences with metaphysical study and coaching, offering both inspiration and relief for anyone struggling with the idea of “purpose.” Instead of worrying about finding your one purpose, she encourages you to follow curiosity and love as your guides to becoming the change.
This episode is an invitation to step back, reframe your perspective, and recognize the everyday power you hold to shape the world around you.
Key Moments: [00:00:32] – Betsy introduces the guiding question: The world is changing fast — are you changing with it?
[00:02:15] – Exploring the trap of collective narratives about decline and how to step outside of them.
[00:04:40] – Betsy shares her journey with metaphysical study and working with coaches to consciously design a life she loves.
[00:08:12] – Reframing the stress around “finding your purpose” — why curiosity and love may be your truest compass.
[00:11:05] – Betsy reflects on her daily practice of choosing joy and love to shape the kind of world she wants to live in.
[00:13:48] – The closing reminder: your thoughts, feelings, and actions ripple outward — ask yourself, “Am I acting from love or from fear?”
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform, and don't forget to leave a 5-star rating and a written review. Your support helps Betsy grow this community and reach more people who are ready to embrace the growth that discomfort can prompt. Follow her on Instagram @thebetsyreed. Let’s get uncomfortable – together…
In this episode, Betsy dives deep into the transformative power of small, everyday actions. Drawing on personal experiences, she talks about how individual action can actually drive collective impact. What's your role in creating change? From environmental stewardship to social justice, the episode explores the interconnectedness of personal responsibility and bigger collective change. Betsy shares her own experience of leading change, on a personal and on a bigger level.
The episode concludes with a powerful call to action, encouraging you to take a step toward 'being the change you wish to see in the world.' Betsy shares actionable tips for incorporating positive habits into daily life - because consistency is truly key. We hope you're left inspired to take action to co-create a better future. It IS possible.
- [00:00] - Betsy introduces 'be the change' and talks about her own experience
- [03:45] - She explores what 'change' means in our quickly-changing world
- [06:30] - She touches on real-life examples of changemakers
- [09:15] - Betsy offers some practical advice for creating change personally
- [13:30] - Final thoughts and a call to action
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share it with others who might need a little inspiration! Help us spread the word by leaving a review, and use #BeTheChange #TheDiscomfortPractice on social media to share your journey.
Welcome to Season 5 of The Discomfort Practice! In this first interview of the new season, Betsy Reed is joined by Thea May, a communication coach for ‘Edgewalkers and soul-led leaders.’ Together, they explore the theme of ‘edginess’ and dive deep into the discomfort of breaking away from outdated communication norms to create a world where we can all thrive. Thea shares her journey, the power of embodying discomfort, and how to ‘scale ourselves to meet the messages that move through us.’ This episode is packed with insights that will inspire you to embrace your own edges and communicate more authentically, but we’re betting you’ll feel like you were sitting at a kitchen table, just listening to friends.
Key Moments:
- [00:01:05] - Betsy reflects on over three years of podcasting and introduces the theme of Season 5: Edginess.
- [00:01:54] - Introduction to Thea May, her work as a communication coach, and her unique approach to soul-led leadership.
- [00:06:06] - Thea shares a pivotal uncomfortable moment that shaped her journey as an Edgewalker.
- [00:13:49] - Thea discusses her name change from Dolly to Thea, representing a significant shift in her identity and work.
- [00:21:04] - Diving into the edges of communication, poetry, and identity as core elements of Thea’s life and work.
- [00:30:06] - Thea introduces her three-part communication process: Tuning in, Hooking in, and Opening out.
- [00:32:15] - The power of confident introverts and the shift from power-over to power-with communication.
- [00:45:34] - The importance of scaling yourself to meet the size of your message.
- [00:51:03] - Betsy shares a personal story about receiving (the other) Betsy Reed’s hate mail and what it taught her about resilience.
- [00:52:07] - Thea emphasises the importance of building confidence through low-risk discomfort practices.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform, and don't forget to leave a 5-star rating and a written review. Your support helps us grow our community and reach more people who are ready to embrace the discomfort of growth. Follow us on Instagram @thebetsyreed for more behind-the-scenes content and updates. Let's get uncomfortable together…
She's baaaack. Well, I'm back. If you don't know me yet, I'm Betsy Reed, and I'm obsessed with the value of discomfort. The juicy, hot, cold, annoying, uncomfortable feeling of being outside of our comfort zones... and pushed to expand. Pushed to perhaps discover things about ourselves that are getting in our way. Or forced to innovate, to forge new pathways, to walk away from the things we thought were forever and create a new reality.
Over the past four seasons, I've talked to some truly inspiring guests about the value of discomfort in shaping them and what they do in the world. And I've gotten a lot less uncomfortable doing solo episodes, where I just waffle on about myself and my life. (Apparently those are a lot of listeners' favourite episodes, so there you go - the subjective nature of discomfort!)
Season 5 will be launching fully in early September 2024 so please subscribe, like and leave me 5 stars and written reviews wherever you listen to podcasts. I record this podcast out of love, rather than any fancy-pants ambitions to make money from it, so you sharing it really does help it reach new ears and I need your help.
Settle yourself in, have a good listen, and let's get uncomfortable together. xx
In this final episode of Season 4 of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy looks back at some themes that arose over the course of the year+ it has spanned, before taking a brief hiatus to prep the launch of Season 5 in March 2024. What she found in looking back was some striking themes - the greatest of which was love. This has woven its way into many episodes, including: Episode #76 with Kim Polman, founder of Reboot the Future, whose ethos is based on the Golden Rule
Episode #84 with Daze Aghaji, who talked about creating change from a place of love Episode #86 with Pilar Garrido, Minister for the Economy in Costa Rica during the Covid-19 pandemic Episode #110 with Dr. Terence Lester, a public policy advocate for people experiencing homelessness
Betsy’s own solos have focused a lot on love, with a couple of favourites linked below:
Episode #82 On loving all parts of yourself
Episode #98 A love letter to introverted moments Betsy would love to hear from you. Get in touch via any of the platforms listed below to let her know what you have found helpful, uplifting or positively challenging, as well as what you’d like to hear more about or hear an interview with in Season 5.
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on email
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media! Be sure to come back for Season 5, launching in March 2024.
In this solo episode, Betsy journeys her way through a personal question at the moment: 'What am I meant to be a channel for on this earth? What is meant to come through me?' It's a very personal question, and there are no wrong answers. She talks about experimenting with being a channel for love, and how that has transformed her life in just a short span of a few months.
As with most of Betsy's solo episodes, she leads listeners through practical steps to uncover their own answer to the question she's pondering. What 'special sauce' are you meant to bring to whatever is meant to flow through you? And what is that 'thing' you already probably channel into this collective existence?
Settle yourself in and prepare to enjoy this brief, meaty episode.
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy's website
Rate, Review and Share.
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
In this episode, Betsy speaks to Dr. Terence Lester, an activist and scholar who focuses on bringing justice to those suffering from poverty and racism.
The founder of LoveBeyondWalls.org and The Dignity Museum, he is also the author of three books: 'I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People,' 'When We Stand: The Power of Seeking Justice Together' and 'All God's Children: How Confronting Buried History Can Build Racial Solidarity.' Three ideals drive Terence: (1) anyone can make a difference, (2) we don’t live forever, (3), and it’s worth dedicating one’s life to ensuring no one feels invisible. This explains his life and work.
Betsy and Terence chat about Terence's own life path, from highschool dropout who himself experienced homelessness and spent time in jail, to accomplished scholar, public policy PhD and an advocate for those experiencing homelessness who has received numerous awards for his work. They discuss the impact being un-seen and excluded from community has on a human soul experiencing homelessness and dive into the concept of dignity as something every human intrinsically deserves.
Settle yourself in to listen and prepare to be inspired (and possibly challenged) by this interview.
Connect with Dr. Terence Lester:
- Website: terencelester.org
- The Dignity Museum and Love Beyond Walls
- Twitter / X: twitter.com/imTerenceLester
- Instagram: @imterencelester / @lovebeyondwalls / @dignitymuseum
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy's website
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
Looking back at your life, at some of the things that have been difficult or even traumatic, how have those things actually been part of your path to becoming who you needed to become? And how have some of the most difficult things you might have gone through actually been divinely chosen training to create the ‘architecture’ of your life, or gain skills you needed to deliver your mission in the world?
Betsy thinks out loud while asking these questions and shares how she has come to appreciate how she now appreciates her own Fundamentalist Christian upbringing for the spiritual practices and discipline it provided. Because those are the practices that helped her to become who she now is.
Give yourself space and a bit of time to dive inside and apply the questions Betsy asks to your own life and background, then feel free to get in touch! Let Betsy know how this episode lands for you, and what gems emerge as you ask the questions she poses. Settle yourself in, and let’s get uncomfortable…
Connect with Betsy: * Betsy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed/ * Betsy on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed/ * Betsy’s Website: https://www.betsy-reed.com/
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
We're trying a new thing over here and have dug out a great episode from our archives. This is a revisit of Episode 55, which is a juicy, insightful interview with Paul William Davis, an intuitive personal advisor, an entrepreneur, a best-selling author, an award-winning business growth consultant, speaker with the best Irish accent you're likely to hear all day, lol. Betsy and Paul deep dive into how you go about figuring out what your personal purpose is and how important intuition - your 'knowings' - are (and you'll get an idea of why Betsy includes it in the coaching framework she has developed and uses with her own clients).
Tune in for some beautiful insight into how you can 'tune into' your intuition and create the life you truly want because you've taken the time to listen to signs you might be being sent by the Universe. Rushing through life and missing them could be causing you immense frustration or struggle, but that doesn't need to be the case. So if you're struggling or know someone who is, or might even be encountering some mental health challenges, Betsy and Paul cover that. They talk about how not knowing your purpose in life can be the greatest trigger for depression (and how to address that).
So whether you're listening to this toward the end of the year in 2023 or another time of year, take some time to consider your own purpose and how you might live it more deeply, more powerfully, and more easily and happily in the coming year or months.
Connect with Paul William Davis: * Paul’s Website: www.paulwilliamdavis.com/ * Paul on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauldavisdublin/ * Listen to his Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-executive-code-personal-mastery-insights-with/id1509268157?uo=4
Connect with Betsy Reed: * Betsy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed/ * Betsy on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed/ * Betsy’s Website: https://www.betsy-reed.com/
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
This solo was recorded in November 2023, off the back of a 5-day spiritual retreat with teacher Sabrina Lynn in Ibiza, in which 22 wild souls went deep into their shadows. And healed themselves, their ancestral line and things they didn't even know they were healing for the collective.
Shadow work is a term that many know and some of you might not. They are the part of us we haven't yet owned. The things we're ashamed of, don't want to deal with, won't look at, don't want to acknowledge are part of us. We stuff them in the basements of our souls, convinced that dealing with those things will kill us. But what they actually need is love - to be escorted into the light of consciousness and integrated, so we can decide what role they should (or shouldn't) play in our lives. Because if you look around you in the world out there at conflict, at the painful things we do to each other as humans, you can bet at the root of all of it is unhealed personal and collective shadows.
Betsy talks about her own path into shadow work, of healing her inner child so she can step more fully into herself as a mature adult. So settle yourselves in and prepare to get uncomfortable. See if any part of this episode speaks to you. And if it does, feel free to reach out. DM Betsy on Instagram or contact her through her website. She always loves to hear from you.
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy's website
Check out Betsy's teacher Sabrina Lynn talking about shadow work on her podcast, Rewilding with Sabrina Lynn here. Rate, Review and Share.
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop her a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
In this episode Betsy is joined by Carlos 'Charlie' Zimbrón, Co-Founder and CEO of Fuckup Nights, as well as The Failure Institute. Betsy and Charlie say the word 'fuck' a lot cuz... clue's in the name, really. So if you enjoy 'swear words' as occasional punctuation and appreciate a free-flowing, un-edited conversation, you're gonna LOVE this one.
Fuckup Nights has become a global movement driven by community of people who share professional failure stories on a monthly basis in 200+ cities in 62+ countries. It's a link I often share with the execs who take the online course I lead for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Because, as Charlie talks about in this episode, failure, resilience, innovation and creativity are all inextricably linked - and necessary.
Few things are more uncomfortable than failure, but feeling safe enough to share and celebrate fucking up as part of the process of innovation (and of being human) is an important aspect of creating a better world. Charlie shares the story of how a good old carne asada with mezcal among a diverse group of friends in Mexico City, mixed with a desire to be able to 'see behind the curtain' and hear the REAL story behind the speeches we've all heard at confererences, led to the birth of Fuckup Nights. Settle yourself in, grab a mezcal, check out the link to Fuckup Nights and prepare to enjoy this episode.
Connect with Charlie and Fuckup NIghts:
- Fuckup Nights on Instagram
- Fuckup Nights on YouTube
- Fuckup NIghts Website
- Carlos Zimbrón on Instagram
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Linkedin
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Be sure to subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop Betsy a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. And please do tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
In this episode, Betsy talks about a subject that is near and dear to her heart (and her life): living magically. She talks about her own experience of having created a life that is full of synchronicity, support, ease, alignment and, well, MAGIC. As is her way, she encourages others to 'let things be magical' and talks about how she has learned to stop getting in the way of letting life and the good things that are meant for each of us flow. She also talks about the importance of trusting the timing of things you might want to happen - or to manifest.
Listen to Betsy's insights on the ways she has found greater flow in her life, by creating practices and consistency over the years so that she can trust her intuition, know what she truly wants and trust that what is meant to come to her will and what is not meant for her will leave.
So get yourself a cup of tea or take a walk, press play and hear all about Betsy's 'Mariah Carey Approach to Manifesting,' and why the phrase 'HOW is not my problem' is part of unlocking the greatest gifts life has sent to her lately.
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review and Share.
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. Please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop me a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into Betsy's other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
In this solo episode Betsy revisits a topic she loves to talk about: how her changed relationship with ease - and having greater ease with being at ease - has positively impacted her work, her productivity and her understanding of the world.
She shares why she's become evangelical about helping others to create more ease in their lives, stepping away from the conditioning that 'the grind is the thing' and examining their own relationship with NOT choosing ease. Maybe you can relate to this: Is hardship, struggle, feeling like you've worked really hard perhaps an 'existential kink' for you? Do you feel you don't deserve magic, or abundance, or pleasure in your life unless you've worked for it?
Betsy walks you through how to create a 'Week of Ease' for yourself, as an experiment and as a way to step back and observe your relationship with ease. She shares how scheduling naps and weekly date nights by herself has helped her to recalibrate her natural un-ease with ease, and helped her to build it into her life as a habit.
So settle yourself in, get comfortable to get uncomfortable, and step on The Discomfort Practice train with Betsy. We promise this one's a good one...
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop me a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow the audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk to the mighty Oyinkansola ‘Oyin’ Adebayo, the Founder and CEO of Niyo Enterprises, which is an ecosystem of brands that exists to economically empower Black women to be builders of high-impact ecosystems. Oyin’s personal purpose is to empower Black women globally to upskill, transform their careers and create a world-class black female ecosystem of entrepreneurs. Niyo Bootcamps has trained over 500 black women to be upskilled in various tech roles through the “Black CodHer” Bootcamp & Black Disruptor bootcamps, several of whom have gone on to create their own tech businesses or work for big-name companies. Oyin arrived in the UK at the age of 12 from Lagos, Nigeria and struggled to fit into a culture in which she was suddenly an immigrant. That, combined with her awareness of the poverty she saw in her native Nigeria, led her to start focusing on social-impact work even while still in school.
Fast-forward to now and she’s still working to make life better for young women, their families and wider communities. We talk about why and how the world doesn’t work for the majority of people, how focusing on race and racial justice must be more than just philanthropy and how leaders need to be having more uncomfortable conversations in order to truly make the world work.
It’s a zesty conversation with some great soundbites for your brain to grab onto and chew over as you go about your day. Please do enjoy it!
As mentioned in this episode - Nik Govier’s episode on The Discomfort Practice
Connect with Oyin:
Niyo Enterprises
Oyin’s LinkedIn
Oyin on Twitter
Oyin on Instagram
Niyo on Instagram
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop me a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow the audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media.
This one is a bit of a chuckle, friends. I recorded it in August 2023, on the day I was marking seven years of living in Spain. I reflect on seven year cycles and who I've become over the past seven years. Who I've rediscovered I am, as I've let go of conditioning that kept me from being my truest, most powerful version of myself.
In that seven years, the UK left the European Union in the most ill-conceived divorce in a while. I got married and left my marriage, in one of the best-conceived ideas in a while.
As I wade into the discomfort of getting more personal on this podcast, this one felt like it hit a sweet spot. I danced on the edge of my own discomfort, as I shared from the heart, no filter, about myself. But it also felt freeing.
So may you find some 'moments' for yourself as you listen. Some messages that resonate in your soul. Some moments that make you smirk or laugh out loud. Some truth about yourself as I share my truths about myself and who I'm re-becoming in this time of rapid change and change in consciousness. Some will step up to a higher consciousness and some will not. But if you're here listening to this, you're with me. We're stepping up...
Listen, subscribe, rate and share. More heartfelt requests on that below.
Connect with me:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Linkedin
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop me a five-star and written review, follow, and share. Get in touch! And don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media.
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, I speak to Isidra Mencos, who was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain, about her journey through life as a young woman who grew up under Franco, a repressive dictator, and came of age as Spain was massively changing after his death.
We talk about what happens when a young woman who grew up in a place where kissing in public was illegal finds herself suddenly free to explore whatever she wants.
Speaking to Isidra was something of a bridge between my US past and my Spanish present. There are definite parallels in our backgrounds. Isidra moved to the US in 1992 to complete a PhD at UC Berkeley in California. Following that, she established herself as a teacher at Berkeley, a writer and editor, and a corporate executive. In 2016 she quit her plush corporate job to finally focus on her lifelong dream of being a creative writer. She has been widely published in literary journals and general interest magazines, but what drew me to Isidra was the recent publication of her memoir, Promenade of Desire, which narrates the journey of the shy María Isidra as she experiments and evolves.
We talk about the beauty of desire and the freedom that exploration - sexual and otherwise - can give all of us to become who we truly are and to love our full selves. Our conversation took us to some uncomfortable yet juicy and important topics. So come get uncomfortable with us… and find pleasure in the episode if you can!
Connect with Traver:
- Isidra’s Website
- Buy and read Isidra’s book, Promenade of Desire
- Isidra on Instagram
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media. And buy Isidra’s book, Promenade of Desire :-)
This is episode 100 of The Discomfort Practice! I reflect back on how focusing on discomfort as a path to wisdom and finding my own superpowers has reshaped my perspective since launching the podcast in October 2020.
Join me for a guided exercise in which you have the opportunity to reflect on what uncomfortable circumstances you've experienced over the past few years and gain a perspective of gratitude for them.
As a 'birthday gift' for episode 100, I ask you to please subscribe, like, leave me a 5-star and written review and SHARE an episode with someone to help me reach new ears.
Thank you for listening and I look forward to having you join me for the next 100 episodes.
Get in touch:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy's website
- Betsy on Linkedin
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I’m talking with Charles D. McCarrick, entrepreneur, inventor, lead visionary (or ‘Chief Comedian’) and lead scientist of Micro-Ant. With more than 10 patents to his name, he pioneers and supplies unique equipment to the communications industry. Charles' most defining characteristic is enthusiasm—for new ideas, for the people who work with him, and for continuous improvement. By cultivating people's confidence and creativity, Charles has forged a top-notch team that delivers new technologies into the hands of customers and value to investors.
In this episode, we’ll talk about his own life lessons and how they have transformed him, as he talks about his book “Lessons My Brothers Taught Me” that was published in 2022. It’s built on the idea that you are your own business - your own brand. One review describes it as ‘the funniest business book I’ve ever read,’ which in my estimation is high praise indeed.
We dig in deep to the process Charles has developed called the 4S Transform - Saleability + Sensibility + Sustainability + Scalability = Success. The crux of Charles approach is that the quality of one's character plays a dominant role in the success of any transaction, personal or professional. Settle yourself in for this inspiring episode. Enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
- Making the difficult decision of having to let go of an employee (and also friend) in business. How it was a life-defining moment in his life and changed Charles’ perspective in business. (4:00)
- How the impact that character has in your success in life and business. (8:00)
- Defining your motivation for going into business and how that affects your success. (10:20)
- How Charles became an inventor: with 10 patents under his belt. (19:30)
- Charles believes the key to his success is the ability to do mathematics in 3-dimensional images. (20:10)
- The 4S Transform process that is essential to success: saleability, sensibility, sustainability and scalability. (25:30)
- Understanding what motivates you is critical, built from your character, that drives you in business. (39:38)
Connect with Charles:
- Charles’ Website
- Charles on Twitter
- Charles on Linkedin
- “Lessons My Brothers Taught me” on Goodreads
- “Lessons My Brothers Taught me” on Bookshop
- “Lessons My Brothers Taught me” on Amazon
- Tim Collings Episode (Tim introduced me to Charles)
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop us a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
This solo definitely builds on past solos about transitions and life processes because, surprise surprise, I’m still in a big life transition. This is a love letter to other secret introverts and to quiet moments. It’s to those of you out there who crave quiet and alone time and to just be left alone for a while - regularly or from time to time.
Right now I need and crave a lot of solitude, a lot of quiet time, because I'm going through a big internal process and building the architecture of my life for the coming years. It’s about running a business, but it’s also about becoming. Being who I need to be to deliver what I feel is my mission in the world.
I’m currently spending a lot of time letting things flow, letting things drop into place and letting things ‘occur’ to me. And to do that I’ve created a quiet little bubble of beauty and solitude and I am loving it. Because it allows me to hear my intuition. To guide myself. To not get tangled in the noise of ‘shoulds’ or ‘shouldn’ts’ or simply the thoughts of others.
I encourage you to challenge any narratives you have around allowing yourself to take time to be quiet, to be introverted, introspective. Because this is what a lot of us need right now and it’s what the world needs us to choose to do. It’s in that space that you can connect with who you ARE and what your instincts tell you.
It’s also space that we all need to change our narratives and thinking that really won’t serve us as we move into a new stage of human history, and a new stage of your individual life.
Please do reach out to me if this episode resonates and you’d like to reflect on your own ‘knowings’ and thoughts around some of the things I talk about and your life right now. I’m here to support you and I would love to connect. Enjoy and big love to all of you listening.
If you’d like to learn more about Human Design, as mentioned in the episode:
- Find out what type you are and download your chart at My Human Design
- Read about what Human Design is in this Goop article.
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s website
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Don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a 5-star and written review on this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps me to reach new listeners and, hopefully, to reach someone on exactly the right day with exactly what they needed to hear. Let me know what you think of this episode and others!
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I’m excited to bring back a past guest: cultural consultant, performance producer and content creator Matisse Dupont. Matisse has spent the last decade facilitating interactive lectures and workshops on gender, sexuality, culture and identity. I enjoyed witnessing their evolution on social media - from being a TikTok-er famous for educating others about gender to showcasing their talents as a multi-disciplinary artist to founder of volunteer-run LGBTQIA+ community theatre company, The Queer Theatre Project. Matisse and I explore their life changes and public persona.
In this episode, we focus on that and explore how Matisse has realigned and reconfigured who they are publicly to reflect where they are personally. They’ve recently navigated burnout as a content creator and dealt with a concussion, which stopped them using technology at the height of their TikTok fame. Matisse shares how time away from what they had become known for opened up space to re-assess and enjoy other aspects of themselves and their talents. We talk about how creating a mindfully artistic practice can open up space to explore - and how you don’t ever have to stick to just one thing for the rest of your life.
Matisse is an inspirational example of how you can completely change your life, realign with your purpose and not get caught up, staying in the constraints of what people already know you for (or your comfort zone). Settle yourself in for this refreshing and motivating episode. Enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
- Shaking up the Discomfort Practice, having Matisse introduce themselves. (1:30)
- The discomfort of changing trajectory: from having a successful career and being known as an expert in a field to then starting something completely new. (3:30)
- How dealing with a severe health issue affected Matisse as a successful content creator and gender educator. But how this time out, gave Matisse perspective. (5:50)
- How the social media algorithm was dictating the way to unauthenticity and interacting on social media in a combative way, as well as leading to burnout. (13:00)
- How Matisse’s love of art came out of this period of discomfort in their life. (18:20)
- Meditative quality to painting as a creative outlet. (22:00)
- The transformative practice of not feeling stuck to one job or creative outlet, and being able to constantly evolve and transition. (31:00)
- Matisse’s leaving message: “Change takes time, but not as much time as you think it’ll take.” (40:00)
Connect with Matisse:
- Matisse Website
- Matisse on Instagram
- Matisse on TikTok
- Matisse on Youtube
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop us a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with Michael Youngblood, co-founder and CEO of Unsettled, an award-winning travel community for those who embrace the unknown and value meaningful human connection. He has worked in more than 60 countries, collaborated with the White House on entrepreneurship and global development, advised Fortune 100 companies on remote work, and has taught courses on entrepreneurship and globalisation on behalf of the U.S. State Department. Previously, he was the Managing Editor of Innovations journal, a publication about entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges that is jointly hosted by MIT, Harvard, and George Mason University. Michael is a member of the inaugural TED Residency, a member of Sandbox, and an avid sailor, mountain biker, and global explorer.
Michael and I discuss Unsettled’s manifesto as a process and a guiding philosophy for how to live, through embracing the uncomfortable and the unknown. MIchael shares his own thoughts on navigating anxiety and depression in work and life, and the importance of taking time for self-reflection. We explore some ‘beautiful questions,’ and hopefully help those listening to discover something themselves with those questions (or discover their own questions to help them explore and find their way of being, living and doing in this rapidly changing world). Many of us know that we can’t do things the way they’ve always been done, so this is a timely conversation. Just know that you’re not alone. Enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
- The uncomfortable childhood experience of holding hands with his adoptive black sister and being the target of hate speech, showed Michael early on the levels of prejudice and inequalities existing in the world. And how that led to him studying social sciences, as the pathway he saw to change social structures. (5:40)
- Michael views all questions as beautiful, as they open you up to possibilities, whilst seeking new answers. (13:00)
- What is your dream underachiever job? (17:20)
- Getting clear on what is important to Michael, with time and space for self-reflection. Opening yourself up to new opportunities, that reflect your desired lifestyle and pace of work/life balance. (27:20)
- Unsettled manifesto: being more than a travel company. It’s a process and philosophy for living: embracing the unknown and the uncomfortable. (32:30)
- How Michael has dealt with and found tools to overcome anxiety. (42:40)
- 70% of people quit a job within 18 months of an Unsettled travel experience. (47:40)
- How to create your own reality. (57:30)
- Michael’s affirmation that he comes back to at the end of every day: “Despite everything, today was a great day.” He has choice and agency to see today as a great day, despite what might have happened in it. (1:00:00)
Connect with Michael:
- Unsettled Manifesto
- Michael’s TED Talk “Discovering Your True North”
- Michael’s Blog on “Becoming CEO Of Unsettled”
- Michael on Linkedin
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
-
Betsy on Linkedin
-
What is a Beautiful Question?
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop us a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
A few months back, when I was sitting in a mushroom ceremony, I got the message loud and clear ‘It’s safe now to be powerful.’ And it was a message that I knew was for me, but also one that I had been given to share with others. And, so, in this episode, I talk about what the world needs from you. How it needs you to be able to un-block those parts of you that you’ve censored, shut down, inherited shame around because your ancestors shut that part of their power down to be safe. I ask a few questions in this short, unscripted, completely spontaneously-recorded episode. I know this is meant for someone, so if you've found this episode and something has really 'landed,' I'd love to hear from you. Some of the questions I ask in this episode:
- What of your own power are you denying or rejecting?
- What parts of you are you afraid to bring to the world?
- What parts of you are you keeping out of the limelight, out of your work, out of your consciousness because they’re so dangerous you’re scared to bring them to the world?
- What would the impact be if you allowed yourself to bring yourself fully to the world, in all of your power?
- What would change?
If you ever find yourself thinking ‘I wish I could…’ ‘I CAN’T do that…’ it’s pointing you toward something that you probably need to bring to the world. That’s part of being fully powerful in the world.
'It's safe now to be powerful.' This message is important as we go through this particularly wild time in human history. Because what the world needs from you, what a lot of us need from you, is for you to be fully powerful.
. Listen to this episode, chew it over, enjoy, and let Betsy know how you found it. Please pass it around like a good book. Like it, leave The Discomfort Practice 5 stars and a written review wherever you listen. As always, thank you for your time. Stay uncomfortable...
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with Nik Govier, the Founder & CEO of Blurred - a fast growing global management, sustainability and communications consultancy based in London. She is a regular feature in PR Week’s Top 10 Power List and was named PR Communicator of the Year in 2021. But the last five years have been a whirlwind of personal challenges and change, from leaving her previous business with nothing after building it for 12 years to facing a cancer scare during the pandemic.Nik is proudly neurodiverse (dyslexic and ADHD) and, having decided to be very public about having had six miscarriages, she is an outspoken advocate for a ‘charter for female health’ in the PR sector, which is predominantly female.
How did Nik not only survive, but thrive, with a new business and sense of mission? In this episode, we’ll talk about how she has navigated a loss of identity, the importance of no agenda meetings with people you don’t know and the profound power of a coach - for you and your team - among many juicy topics we dive into. Nik most certainly chooses guts over fear. She shares how she went from being the mindfulness class sceptic to its greatest advocate and what strengths she finds in neurodiversity (and why she hires neurodiverse people).
Nik really leads the way by showcasing the benefits of having a diverse team force and creating policies and approaches which not only support, but protect her team’s health. She’s created a business that can hold the future, because it has the perspectives needed to create diverse solutions to tricky problems. So get comfy and tune in. Enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
- How the discomfort of Nik’s childhood with undiagnosed Dyslexic and ADHD and having school reports unfairly categorizing her as lazy and careless has led her to spending her entire professional career proving people wrong. (6:20)
- Neuro-diversity is a superpower for Nik, but she recognises that is the case, because she comes from a middle class supportive background. (8:10)
- The motivation behind having a diverse workforce, and what that looks like. (11:30)
- How having a workforce that is diverse is fundamentally about bringing different skill sets, ways of thinking and perspectives that enrich the workplace and the team working there. (19:20)
- Dealing with complex issues with systems that support her diverse team-force. Supports her team with a grief policy (including issues such as miscarriage, menopause, transition, fertility, etc). Providing coaching, support, financial support, time-off and flexible working. (22:05)
- Blurred is built on a foundation of principals surrounding diversity and supporting your workforce, which lead them to instantly receiving a high rating from B Corp (certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency regarding inclusivity, policies, etc). (29:50)
- Nik’s own discomfort practice: meeting strangers, which has led her to the House of Lords to meeting fashion photographer Rankin. (42:30)
- How a mindfulness body scan is the only form of meditation that works for Nik, for an ADHD or easily distracted brain. (45:10)
- Lasting message: even if you are neurodiverse, introverted, dyslexic or from a disadvantaged background: you have everything you need. Find a place and space that can accept you, and if you can’t, build one. (53:30)
Connect with Nik:
- Article on how Nik made it
- Blurred Website
- Nik on Instagram
- Nik on Twitter
- Nik on Linkedin
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop us a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
In this solo episode, I reflect on the chaos, the confusion and the landing back in Spain after 3.5 happy months in Mexico. I wonder 'Did I do the right thing in coming back here?' muse aloud about 'Why am I here?' and navigate through my own process of feeling like I've landed in chaos... and I'm not sure why.
I share a reading from the School of Metaphysics, where each Module I study as I go through training to become a certified Metaphysical Therapist, is completely aligned with whatever is going on in my life. Every time we expand, every time we unblock a part of our lives that needed to be unblocked, every time we get closer to fully remembering who we are and how powerful we are... we will experience discomfort. Chaos is what shows us what we really want to stop doing or who we want to stop dragging with us.
I talk about how 'taking my hands off the wheel' is something I'm trying out - because my ability to steer my life is limited by my own imagination and experience.
So for some Betsy Musing Out Loud, as well as some hopefully helpful thoughts on how to navigate the unknown and appreciate chaos, give it a listen. And reach out if it's landed for you. Email me at Betsy@betsy-reed.com / IG me @thebetsyreed and spread the word. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop me a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help me grow the reach of this podcast. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with entrepreneur, author and someone I’m rather a big fan of, Margaret Heffernan. We chat about Margaret’s sixth book Uncharted, which lays out an inspiring picture of what can lie on the other side of uncertainty - which is a discomfort we as humans naturally avoid. We also dive into her own practice of surrendering to experiencing discomfort, by which she has not only learned new things, but grown as a person.
Margaret's TED talks have been seen by over 15 million people. You read that right! 15 million people. She's also written six books (so far). Her third book Wilful Blindness is one that I picked up last year and found more incredibly relevant now, during a pandemic, than ever - even though it was published in 2014. It was a finalist for the Financial Times Goldman Sachs Best book award and the Financial Times named it as one of its “Best business books of the decade”.
Margaret has done a lot of things and done them all well. She worked in BBC Radio for five years where she wrote, directed, produced and commissioned dozens of documentaries and dramas. But just to add to her cool points, she then also produced music videos with Virgin Records. She was once described by the Financial Times as the most formidable lobbying organization in England, which is high praise indeed. She bought and sold leading Internet businesses as a chief executive and was named one of the Internet's top 100 by Silicon Alley reporter in 1999. She's won many, many awards.
Margaret really is a leading thinker and her now-or-never attitude is so inspiring, so tune in and enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
- Taking the experience from discomfort to euphoria: being encouraged by her father as a teenager to ask for forgiveness rather than permission (6:00)
- That experience has helped support her in her speaking engagements now: she speaks freely. Saying what others are thinking, but are too afraid to say (8:00)
- How writing a BBC play, opened up Margaret to looking at where abusive attitudes to nature come from (16:18)
- How important it is to do something, however small. Margaret became part of her local Parish Council and hosted events to help people reduce their energy consumption, carbon footprint and enhance biodiversity (23:38)
- How positivity is contagious: you can be the catalyst for change (26:30)
- Surrendering to the practice of experiencing discomfort in many different parts of her life, has helped Margaret not only learn new things, but grow as a person in so many different ways (33:02)
- How ethical decisions being made by economists are a disaster waiting to happen (42:58)
- How reframing the way you view uncertainty in your mind, can actually open you up to new exciting possibilities (49:54)
- How the early death of Margaret’s first husband when she was 30 gave her a really visceral experience that it’s always now or never time. That is how she lives her life (56:46)
Connect with Margaret:
- Margaret’s Website
- Margaret on Twitter
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop us a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
I sat down to intentionally record this episode without any notes and with minimal preparation, because I felt strongly this was a message that needed to come through me. It's one I needed to articulate and it's something someone out there needs to hear.
The message is this: turn off the external noise so you can hear yourself and tap into your own wisdom. I've been given wise counsel and channeled messages from intuitives three times in the past month to 'cut out the external influences for a while in order to gain clarity and confidence in your inner knowing, to set loose your creativity to do what you need to do in the world.' And one of those intuitives (@lisaintuitiveguide on Instagram), without knowing anything about me, told me what it is I am meant to do in the world. And it is EXACTLY what I do in the world, though you might not know it from the official wording of my website.
So I've done a cull - of emails I'm subscribed to, of social media accounts I follow - and am still circling what this 'diet' from external influences is meant to look like. But in having to un-subscribe / unfollow those external influences that flow to me every day, I began to realise a) how many there are and b) how much I want to rely on them for confidence in my own intuition. My own 'knowings.'
So this episode is me planting a flag at the beginning of a process of creating quiet - of turning off all of the radio noise - so I can hear my own voice. My own intuition. My own knowings. And if that lands for you, I invite you to do the same.
Reach out and let me know if you're going to do the same. I'd love to hear your process and share mine. Feel free to connect and to share this episode with others.
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with Dan Schnur. We chat about the discomfort of his career trajectory: going from being one of the top Republican political strategists and campaign officials in the US to leaving and not affiliating with any political party. (In a bi-partisan political system where you’ve been a big player, that’s a big move.) Dan gives an elegant master class in how to leave your comfort zone, forge your own path and stay true to yourself when everything shifts… and shifts again. Because that’s just life.
Dan’s resume is impressive. He previously worked on four Presidential and three Gubernatorial campaigns, as one of California's leading political strategists. He served as the national director of Communications for the 2000 Presidential Campaign of US Senator John McCain, and was the chief media spokesman for California Governor Pete Wilson. He's been an advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He's the founder of the leading University of Southern California (USC) LA Times state-wide political pol and currently teaches courses in politics, communications and leadership at UC Berkeley.The list could go on…
Join us for Dan’s remarkable, humble and thoroughly enjoyable style and story about the process of going through discomfort to create your own freedom on the other side. Enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
- As a college undergraduate, Dan was not particularly academically motivated and he was asked to leave. Even though it was uncomfortable moment, Dan was able to see this as an opportunity to move to Washington to pursue his interest in Politics (6:30)
- One of Dan’s favourite quotes: “If you don’t take risks, nothing good will happen.” And how taking risks has played out in his life (11:20)
- The risk Dan took from having a successful career the Republican Party to leaving to become an Independent Politician (16:10)
- The generation that leads society out of a crisis, is one that is exceptional (Gen Z) (31:50)
- The News by definition is going to look for conflict and controversy. It’s easy to sucked into that narrative, as all the acts of kindness aren’t reported on (42:20)
- How interacting with others with different views is uncomfortable, but is needed in order to grow and learn (52:20)
- How helping others energises Dan: when you do something that puts someone else in a better mood, it boosts your mood too (57:40)
- Dan quote: “For every decision I ask myself: What’s the best thing that can happen? What’s the worst thing that can happen? The overwhelming majority of the time, the worst thing that can happen, isn’t that bad. So it’s worth a try.” (1:04:18)
Connect with Dan:
- Dan on Twitter
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop us a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
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In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with my former client, friend and general badass Selina Donald. Selina has done so much already in her life, so prepare yourself to be inspired to think differently. She has worked on large-scale events, such as the Olympic and Para-Olympic opening and closing ceremonies and Vivian Westwood’s climate revolution. She worked on England’s 2018 World Cup bid for the Rio Olympics and has been part of the senior management team for ITV events. She co-founded the sustainable events agency The Bulb, which helps companies produce sustainable, creative and meaningful events. She also often passionately speaks on issues of women’s empowerment, female entrepreneurship and gender equality.
We chat about the current unsustainable practices of the creative and events industry, and how Selina has been proving through her own work that it’s possible to be creative, exciting and environmentally responsible. We will get into what sustainable brands can do when their events don’t reflect their company values (because, spoiler alert, they often don’t). We also dive into how Selina structures her day to allow the time and space to make conscious, sustainable choices in her own life and business.
This is a super fun episode full of laughs, so tune in for Selina’s inspiring story and so much more. Enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
- How Selina being a vegetarian as a child triggered her to how sustainability could be applied to her career (3:40)
- The discomfort but also movement that has come in the events industry, because of the Pandemic, which has ended up working to Selina’s advantage (10:40)
- How the discomfort of the failure of her first business Bulb 101, made her take a step back and come back with knowledge from the failures and resurrected into a sustainability consultancy for event organisers (12:55)
- Being burnt out and moving back in with parents at age 35, with no savings and no pension (17:00)
- How learning to put a value on her time made Selina charge for her worth and say no to things that don’t reflect that. Protecting both her energy and her time (21:15)
- The power of saying No (24:50)
- The environmental and sustainability issues that the Event industry faces (29:40)
- Making the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies the most sustainable events possible. As well as bringing sustainability to the forefront (36:35)
- Working on Lush’s naked packaging and other brands/artists on recycled materials (38:05)
- How Selina’s hatred for her legal career took her through another story of failure to an exciting career (48:25)
- How composting at events is not actually a viable sustainable option (54:10)
Connect with Selina:
- Selina on The Bulb website
- Selina on Twitter
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop us a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
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How can you create habits that support you through times of stress, that help you to create milestones in your day and life, to function optimally? In this solo episode I share ways in which I have created more rituals over the past year and talk listeners through the science-based approach I teach clients to set habits. My intention in recording this solo is to help others consider how they might better support themselves by taking a moment to become more conscious of what habits they’d like to set and to take tangible steps to ensure they happen.
Intention often needs action to bring it to life, so I hope this little solo helps listeners to do just that!Enjoy listening and share with me what habits or rituals you decide it’s time to create for yourself. It might just be starting your day with a thought about what you’re grateful for, or doing squats while you brush your teeth or setting reminders in your daily calendar to pause and breathe (all of which are things I have done or am currently doing). Reach out and let me know, and if you want support, just ask!
You can find me on Instagram @thebetsyreed or email me at hello@betsy-reed.com
Don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a 5-star and written review on this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps me to reach new listeners and, hopefully, to reach someone on exactly the right day with exactly what they needed to hear. Let me know what you think of this episode and others!
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with innovator and designer (among many other things) Leyla Acaroglu. We chat about how small incremental changes are not enough any more to save society from climate change impact, but instead need to change systems and approaches to regenerate our planet, in order to survive. We discuss how important design is in creating that change and take listeners on a journey with us, so you don’t have to be left wondering what you need to know. Leyla loves problems, because she understands that they are just challenges in disguise!
Leyla’s insight breaks through some deeply-entrenched environmental folklore around things like recycling and discusses the true impact of the products and materials we use every day. As a designer and consultant, that’s just how Leyla sees the world.
So plug yourself into this episode and enjoy hearing Betsy talk to an award-winning designer, sustainability provocateur, social scientist and entrepreneur who creates tool and businesses that design a sustainable and regenerative future. Leyla is a mainstage TED speaker, a LinkedIn Changemaker and a United Nations Environmental Programme Champion of the Earth.And she's also the founder of the UNSchool of Disruptive Design.
This is a juicy episode that challenged Betsy’s thinking, so tune in for Leyla’s positive story and so much more. Enjoy!
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk with political scientist and economist Pilar Garrido. We chat about her experience leading a sustainable economic development policy in Costa Rica for a green and inclusive economy, as well as designing innovative financial instruments for critical public investment projects. We will also get into what adaptation for climate change is. Pilar leads with a human touch, transforming our ideas of what a leader should be.
Pilar has been a key figure, using her government minister role to steer Costa Rica's ambition to be one of the five countries piloting the Sustainable Development Goals. SDG’s were launched by the United Nations in 2015. Their aim is to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030: all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
So, buckle yourself in for this episode and be inspired by a politician who governs with both heart and strength. She has served as Chief of Staff, Deputy Minister, Minister of Planning and Policy, Technical Secretary of the Sustainable Development Goals in Costa Rica and as Costa Rica's co-ordinator of the Economic cabinet. A woman of many talents!
This is an inspiring episode, so tune in for Pilar’s positive story and so much more. Enjoy!
Key Points Discussed:
- The discomfort Pilar experienced whilst becoming a politician and minister at a young age, especially during the Pandemic, as she describes as being like on the front line (5:20)
- Choosing to work from a place of love (08:20)
- Making difficult choices and creating policies to protect people during the Pandemic (12:20)
- Pilar’s journey from political scientist to advisor to politician (14:50)
- Costa Rica’s initiatives to put humanity and sustainability first, before economics (23:40)
- How to have a big impact in politics: where your job is not forever (27:00)
- Part of Pilar’s legacy: diversifying an economy that has previously heavily relied just on tourism, so that it is healthy and robust (31:00)
- The IDG framework (that Costa Rica are one of the first countries to pilot), which aims towards eradicating hunger, poverty, sustainability and ensuring human rights. The IDG’s (Inner Development Goals) consists of five dimensions: Being (relationship to self); Thinking (using your brain); Relating (and caring about others in the world); Collaborating (social skills and society) and Acting (driving change) (36:40)
- How everyone can do something small, that will collectively make a big impact (46:00)
- Pilar’s optimism for the future (51:10)
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, follow, like, and/or drop us a five star and written review. Share this episode with others and help spread the word and grow our audience. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
If you’ve listed to some of my recent solos and interviews, you’ll have picked up that I'm on the cusp of entering a new stage of life. I’ve packed up my life in Barcelona, put my things in storage, finished up my academic year as a Professor and am headed to Mexico on a one-way ticket in just a few days. The preparation for leaving one stage of life and stepping into the next has gotten me thinking a lot lately about transitions and nature and my place in the whole rhythm of things. And, during the deep discomfort and anxiety that has come up as I’ve been in the deep discomfort of not knowing what comes next, of a big transition, I haven’t been the nicest or happiest or most serene version of myself. It's been interesting to observe and it’s gotten me thinking about a snake shedding its skin. As a Wyoming Kid, I have always been taught that, during seasons when you know rattlesnakes are shedding their skin (which they do regularly), do whatever you can to avoid them because they’re scared and blind and MEAN. They can’t see very well, so they’re more likely to strike. But then I started learning more about the process of a snake shedding its skin - and WHY it sheds its skin regularly - and it all started to feel like a very relevant personal metaphor for big moments of transition.
So settle yourself in and consider how this metaphor might be relevant for you, and be sure to listen to the end, when I share one of my favourite poems of all time, Desiderata by Max Ehrman.
Don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a 5-star and written review on this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps me to reach new listeners and, hopefully, to reach someone on exactly the right day with exactly what they needed to hear. Let me know what you think of this episode and others!
In this episode, I chat with a young leader who got me excited and optimistic about the future. Daze Aghaji is a climate justice, regeneration & well-being activist with a fascinating story and a skill at delivering it. You are in for a real treat with this interview, as. Daze shares how growing up with an awareness of climate change has shaped her and Generation Z. We talk about how climate change is not the issue, but, rather, toxic systems are - and climate change is just a by-product of them. She shares her own story, as someone who is disrupting, innovating and inspiring change, leading by example and showing the impact young people can have in demanding serious action on climate change.
Daze is a multi-faceted talent and climate activist from London who focuses on regenerative culture intersectionality; radical social justice and youth political engagement in her work. She herself lives with intersectionality as a black woman, a daughter of immigrants from Nigeria and as a professional who grew up in poverty.
In 2019, (before the pandemic took off), she was the youngest candidate to stand in the European parliamentary election. Daze’s advocacy for racial systemic change has led her to work with many leading charities, NGOs and grassroots changemakers around the world. She has strong ties with the climate movement, Extinction Rebellion, and she's currently a creative director at Earthrise Studios, which is an environmentally focused media company, as well as a consultant for a variety of NGOs. She's also an artist in residence at Vitalogy, and a monthly contributor to Sky TV's climate show. She gave a TEDx talk in 2021 that I loved was about how we're going to solve climate change. Stay tuned for her inspiring story and so much more.
In this episode, I chat with the Founder & CEO of IONATE, inventor Matthew Williams. He is a systems architect by nature, mechatronic engineer by education, design leader and facilitator by passion. Having spent his career in the front seat of global systems-engineering companies, Matthew is equipped with a unique insight on how to build the most efficient electrical systems. Sustainability and where we get our energy from is increasingly important to our survival and thriving on this planet, because we can't continue to run on the type of resources that we've used for power in the past.
Matthew is originally from Australia. And early on, he recognized the technological disconnect between power grids and energy transition, basically getting away from fossil fuels. So his mission for the past 10 years has been to tackle this challenge. Matthew and his team at IONATE are building the technology backbone of a productive, decentralized and decarbonized power system of the future. Matthew is on his way to be the OG of the new way we create and run the power grid. As well as sharing uncomfortable moments in his business and personal life, Matthew shares an empowering outlook on how he deals with public speaking, failures and setbacks. Stay tuned for his inspiring story and so much more.
Key Points Discussed:
- The discomfort in Matthew’s childhood from being an introvert and choosing a customer service role to confront his struggle has helped him in later life with public speaking (5:17)
- How Matthew uses his understanding of the amygdala (the brain almond): and that the physiological response to fear, anxiety and excitement is the same to help with his public speaking (8:16)
- Overcoming business failures and how that’s helped him shape the success of his new business Ionate (11:13)
- The technology Matthew and his team have invented to create a functional way to deal with the worldwide issue of utilizing renewable energy and overcoming the issues of connecting it to the grid (18:24)
- How the technology is also about bringing down energy bill costs (24:47)
- How an early life lesson from his father about dealing with setbacks in a less emotional, more rational approach has been an inspiration for him (27:37)
- How a combination of a good engineering brain, a planned approach and also passion for creating change helps him overcome nervousness or fear that he encounters (42:32)
Connect with Matthew:
- Matthew on Linkedin
- Ionate Website
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this solo episode I 'think out loud' about what has been coming up for me during a time of stress and anxiety, as I transition from one stage of life to the unknown of the next. Prompted by a recent podcast episode by Shaman Durek on 'witnessing all parts of ourselves,' I ask myself and you, the listener, questions like:
- What do you default to when you're anxious?
- What parts of your shadow side does stress bring up to be recognised and healed?
- How can you treat the parts of yourself you DON'T love the way you would a small child who's just learning a skill, instead of punishing that part?
I then tell you what I intend to do instead to interrupt my narrative, my perfectionist tendencies and my meanness to myself when my current stress brings up things I want to stuff down or punish. I take you through a process I teach (and will be practicing more), based on the science of building habits (because we all function the same way on this) to mindfully recognise, interrupt, practice (think or act differently) and reset our shadowy narratives and habits.
So settle yourself in and listen to me process out loud. I hope this is helpful for you too, as you hear my very real, very current process. It's uncomfortable for me to go through, and to share publicly, but that's my own Discomfort Practice and I welcome you to share yours with me on social media or by contacting me at Betsy@betsy-reed.com!
Don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a 5-star and written review on this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps me to reach new listeners and, hopefully, to reach someone on exactly the right day with exactly what they needed to hear. Let me know what you think of this episode and others!
In this episode, I chat with Leadership Coach and Founder of Inspire My Day – Tiffany Cheng. Tiffany shares what she learned from growing up in China and the disappointment she felt from her parents; who left her with her grandparents because she was not a boy. We talk about the work/life culture difference she has found living in Belgium, and the discomfort of juggling her corporate goal led career path and family life and how that ultimately didn’t work. Tiffany shares how leaving corporate life very recently has already brought her into a place of living a more abundant and empowered life, even as she’s still establishing herself (and getting used to the different pace and tasks) as an entrepreneur.
Tiffany helps senior leaders overcome influencing decisions and communications to drive change at work; so they can achieve their business goals, realize their career purpose, grow personally and accomplish what they set out to achieve. She shares a compelling backstory on what led her to leave corporate life in order to pursue her passion and launch her business Inspire My Day. Stay tuned for her inspiring story and so much more.
Key Points Discussed:
- The discomfort in Tiffany’s childhood, which helped shape who she is. (4:27)
- Living in China and finding role models in powerful American women (14:08)
- Experiencing the difference in work ethics between China and Europe, whilst working at Volvo (20:09)
- Landing Tiffany’s dream job that she had envisaged 16 years prior, and the discomfort that it brought: taking her away from her family (25:06)
- Leaving comfort of corporate life to launch her dream business (29:33)
- The struggles of being an entrepreneur (44:11)
- What Tiffany’s business Inspire My Day is all about (46:41)
- Why making 10 year plans in business is important (1:09:36)
Connect with Tiffany:
- Tiffany’s Website
- Tiffany on Linkedin
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I am super excited to welcome back, Traver Boehm. This is his second time in this podcast - and that is because he is awesome (which you will discover when you listen). Traver founded the UNcivilized men’s movement, and is inspiring millions of men around the world to shift their experience of masculinity by combining the primal masculine with the divine masculine, combining strength and consciousness.
He's the author of the books, Today I Rise, and ManUNcivilized. UNcivilized is about harnessing the inherent primal power and leadership of men and coupling it with the deeply conscious divine masculine. Traver is a specimen of ‘classic masculinity,’ as a former CrossFit gym owner and an MMA fighter, but he's also a licensed acupuncturist who does yoga and meditates. So I’d say he’s a balanced man.
Our conversation is largely unscripted and it took us to uncomfortable yet beautiful and timely topics. Traver talks about the need for people, especially men, to find connection and shares insights on how men can find healing and support, which is not something society says they usually get to have access to. We talk about one of his focus topics - what “The Nice Guy” looks like and why “Killing the Nice Guy” is important.
Curious? Good. Join us in this exciting, uncomfortable, and high-value conversation. I hope it ignites a fire within to step into your true self and let it ripple out to be part of the healing this world needs. Send it to men you know and keep the conversation going.
Key Points Discussed:
- Traver’s recent experience in Costa Rica and other incidents that made him realize how fragile life can be and that people need help, especially with mental health (02:52)
- Killing the nice guy (11:16)
- The need for men to reach for connection under challenging times (14:30)
- Taking out the things that stop you from being magical and powerful (16:39)
- What to do to help people, especially men, who are still on track to break themselves (21:42)
- People need time and a chance to repair the trauma brought by the recent pandemic (27:55)
- Why do people not feel like they don’t have permission to change the things that are quite self-destructive(30:28)
- How can men be with the discomfort to want to change, process it, and where they go from there (33:03)
- How men can find that safe support (38:46)
- Getting back to what’s real (43:21)
- The Nice Guy (45:35)
- The covert contracts (51:21)
- Why kill the Nice Guy (55:52)
- Traver’s discomfort running buddies (1:03:35)
- Imagine how it would feel to have people around to support you on a shitty day (1:08:20)
- Connection is even more valuable right now (1:10:37)
- Believe (1:13:01)
Resources Mentioned:
- Man UNcivilized
- Today I Rise by Traver Boehm
- Man UNcivilized by Traver Boehm
- The UNcivilized Podcast with Traver Boehm
Connect with Traver:
- Traver’s website
- Traver on Instagram
- Traver on YouTube
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this solo episode, I warmly welcome you to Season 4 of the Discomfort Practice podcast. As always, in this new season, you will find conversations with creatives, activists, leaders, scientists and a host of others about conscious discomfort, the role it’s played in their lives and the value of discomfort in us moving forward as a society. But what’s going to be a new ‘take’ on discomfort – and something I’m really excited about this season – is that it is likely to be a little more raw and unscripted. It will include interviews with those I consider the pioneers of discomfort and solo episodes which dive into the stories of my own heroes of discomfort, as well as more about my own personal journey and thoughts. As always, I’ll aim to model that embracing discomfort and choosing not to be ‘good’ can instead free you to bring something great to the world. As someone who deeply values and pursues consciousness and healing, I want to bring that to you, and to the world. So settle yourselves in and let’s get uncomfortable this season. I hope it’s a pleasure…
Key Points Discussed:
- How the Discomfort Practice was born out the discomfort of Covid lockdown. (0:12)
- Season Four’s focus on the OGs of discomfort: the pioneers. Interviews with Betsy’s modern-day heroes; as well as delving into the stories of past heroes. (3:24)
- Betsy delves into her past and her own discomfort journey. (3:38)
- Society tells us we need to be good, but what about if we reject the idea of being good, in order to fulfill our greatness. (8:15)
- This season will be a little more raw, unfiltered and unscripted. (9:21)
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
As with all of my solo episodes of The Discomfort Practice, in thise one I share what’s on my mind just now, and it’s the most personal I’ve gotten yet. In fact, I even get a bit weepy.
I talk about walking into The Void - the shapeless, undefined unknown in which all things are unclear. It’s a bit anxiety-inducing at times, but it’s also the place where evolution and transformation take place. I don’t know when my time in this current iteration of The Void is going to be end, but I am certain that I will flow out of it when I or whatever is being shaped for me is ready.
So click ‘play,’ settle in for a few breaths with me and take a brief moment out of your day to listen, to feel, to let this land with you. And if you yourself are in The Void, know that you’re not alone. We are going through a collective awakening, so there are many of us there. And it’s going to end well…
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop me a five-star and written review, follow, and let me and others know what you got out of it. Don’t forget to tune into my other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
As with all of my solo episodes of The Discomfort Practice, in thise one I share what’s on my mind just now, and it’s the most personal I’ve gotten yet. In fact, I even get a bit weepy.
I talk about walking into The Void - the shapeless, undefined unknown in which all things are unclear. It’s a bit anxiety-inducing at times, but it’s also the place where evolution and transformation take place. I don’t know when my time in this current iteration of The Void is going to be end, but I am certain that I will flow out of it when I or whatever is being shaped for me is ready.
So click ‘play,’ settle in for a few breaths with me and take a brief moment out of your day to listen, to feel, to let this land with you. And if you yourself are in The Void, know that you’re not alone. We are going through a collective awakening, so there are many of us there. And it’s going to end well…
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop me a five-star and written review, follow, and let me and others know what you got out of it. Don’t forget to tune into my other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, I sit are with someone who has truly ‘walked his talk’ - and is still walking it in a very impactful way. Paul Dunnis a four times TEDx speaker and was one of the first 10 People in Hewlett Packard Australia. After starting at HP - one of Australia's first computer companies - he founded the Results Corporation, where he’s worked with more than23,000 businesses. He's been honoured as a Social Innovation Fellow in his current home of Singapore, featured in Forbes magazine with Sir Richard Branson as a ‘disrupter in business’ and written several books, including one called The Firm Of The Future, which is widely regarded as one of the most important of its type ever written.
His unique business development programs are nowused by an estimated 226,000 companies in the world. Paul is not one to let the grass grow under his feet, so he’sspending his “retirement years” enabling other leaders, business owners, and enterprises to define their purpose. Paul now serves as the Chairman of the consultancy firm, B1G1, enabling businesses to connect and give back in new ways, and creating over 289 million giving impacts globally.
We talk about the role of leaders and employees infacilitating transformational change, creating positive impact on the world and helping to put purpose at the heart of the companies that they lead and work for. Paul also explained what a “Giving Impact” is and how it works, so listen in for that.
This is a jam-packed episode, full of beautiful ideas about how people like us can transform the world and the world of business, so tune in now and enjoy.
Key Points Discussed:
- Paul’s shaping moments with Jim Rohn where he made a transition from his job leading to what he’s doing now (05:44)
- Connection, meaning, and purpose (17:09)
- Purpose higher than ourselves leads us to thrive (23:11)
- It’s how we show up (27:25)
- Learning takes place at the edge of chaos (31:12)
- What is a Giving Impact (32:23)
- The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world (40:46)
- More about giving impacts and the people involved (45:29)
- Democratizing the whole giving process (49:08)
- Filtering the people you work with (51:27)
- Being an “actionist” (55:59)
- Having a more emphatic, intuitive, and creative leadership (1:02:18)
- Rewilding yourself (1:05:25)
- What excited Paul about the future (1:07:46)
- What makes your future become more powerful than your past (1:10:10)
Resources Mentioned:
- Paul Dunn in B1G1
- B1G1: Business For Good
- The Firm Of The Future by Paul Dunn
- Teeming by Tamsin Wooley-Barker
- Nicola Sturgeon
Connect with Paul:
- Paul on LinkedIn
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, I sit are with someone who has truly ‘walked his talk’ - and is still walking it in a very impactful way. Paul Dunnis a four times TEDx speaker and was one of the first 10 People in Hewlett Packard Australia. After starting at HP - one of Australia's first computer companies - he founded the Results Corporation, where he’s worked with more than23,000 businesses. He's been honoured as a Social Innovation Fellow in his current home of Singapore, featured in Forbes magazine with Sir Richard Branson as a ‘disrupter in business’ and written several books, including one called The Firm Of The Future, which is widely regarded as one of the most important of its type ever written.
His unique business development programs are nowused by an estimated 226,000 companies in the world. Paul is not one to let the grass grow under his feet, so he’sspending his “retirement years” enabling other leaders, business owners, and enterprises to define their purpose. Paul now serves as the Chairman of the consultancy firm, B1G1, enabling businesses to connect and give back in new ways, and creating over 289 million giving impacts globally.
We talk about the role of leaders and employees infacilitating transformational change, creating positive impact on the world and helping to put purpose at the heart of the companies that they lead and work for. Paul also explained what a “Giving Impact” is and how it works, so listen in for that.
This is a jam-packed episode, full of beautiful ideas about how people like us can transform the world and the world of business, so tune in now and enjoy.
Key Points Discussed:
- Paul’s shaping moments with Jim Rohn where he made a transition from his job leading to what he’s doing now (05:44)
- Connection, meaning, and purpose (17:09)
- Purpose higher than ourselves leads us to thrive (23:11)
- It’s how we show up (27:25)
- Learning takes place at the edge of chaos (31:12)
- What is a Giving Impact (32:23)
- The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world (40:46)
- More about giving impacts and the people involved (45:29)
- Democratizing the whole giving process (49:08)
- Filtering the people you work with (51:27)
- Being an “actionist” (55:59)
- Having a more emphatic, intuitive, and creative leadership (1:02:18)
- Rewilding yourself (1:05:25)
- What excited Paul about the future (1:07:46)
- What makes your future become more powerful than your past (1:10:10)
Resources Mentioned:
- Paul Dunn in B1G1
- B1G1: Business For Good
- The Firm Of The Future by Paul Dunn
- Teeming by Tamsin Wooley-Barker
- Nicola Sturgeon
Connect with Paul:
- Paul on LinkedIn
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, my guest is someone whose work I have followed for a while and am always impressed by. She's also part of a ‘power couple’ I admire deeply. Kim Polman is an international public speaker, a polymath, and a citizen of the world. She's an American by birth, has lived all over the world and has lived in London (where she’s now based) for many years.
She’s been an environmentalist for decades, has taught music and is vice chair of a charity dedicated to literacy for blind and visually impaired children in East Africa. But, most importantly for the focus of our interview here, Kim is an avid advocate of the Golden Rule, ‘treating others and the planet as you would wish to be treated.’ In 2016, she and Stephen Vasconcellos-Sharpe invited 25 of the world's most respected leaders and thinkers, like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Vice President Al Gore, to talk about Golden-Rule roadmaps for business and government.
In our conversation, we focus on what the Golden Rule means for leaders - and in real life for everyday people. Kim talks about the ripple effect of ‘doing to others what you would want done to you’ in the world of work and in the world. We touch on the value of connection and interconnectedness and how that flavours any action we take. Kim unpacks the discomfort of change through the metaphor of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. It’s messy and a little bit gross… but the end is worth it.
So, join us as we reflect together on what happens when the Golden Rule guides a leader or a business, and how it is exactly what we all need to shift our thinking, our behavior and the world around us. Because we are all connected and any individual can make a difference.
Key Points Discussed:
- How everyday life news brought discomfort to Kim that inspired her in her journey (05:10)
- The simplicity of the golden rule that cuts through the world’s complexity (08:20)
- The hunger among leaders to embrace the golden rule (12:44)
- How the golden rule emerge as Kim’s guiding principle (15:24)
- The personal becoming public (16:56)
- Work communication guiding rule: Kindness first (20:01)
- The appreciation that we are all connected and giving empathy and compassion (22:03)
- A Marshal Plan for the environment (23:51)
- The need for balance (25:17)
- The necessary discomfort of knitting together and activating the imaginal cells (27:48)
- What are you feeling hearing this principle (31:00)
- It’s the storm before the calm, and you are not alone in this greater desire for connection, walk on (34:22)
- How to apply the golden rule today (35:58)
- The awareness that the old way of doing things just isn't working anymore and coming with a new way of thinking (41:32)
- The importance of being rather than merely doing (47:39)
- Surviving the lockdowns and learning lessons from the experience (53:07)
Resources Mentioned:
- Reboot The Future
- Reboot The Future Facebook Page
Connect with Kim:
- Kim on Reboot The Future
- Kim on Twitter
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
I've been on a roll with solo episodes, after admitting they are part of my discomfort practice. And then I met the summer 2022 heatwave in Europe. Barcelona summers are usually brutal, but this one has been particularly rough. But it's also been quite clarifying. Having very little energy creates utility: what do I actually want to put my energy into?
Extreme weather, discomfort, pressure - all of these can be forces to help each of us clarify what really matters and let go of the things that we're tired of putting subconscious effort or energy into. For me, that's meant realising some of the grudges or bitterness I've been holding onto and asking myself 'Do I really have energy for this?' The answer has been a resounding no, so I talk about the rituals I build into my calendar regularly to give myself space to let go of whatever comes up to be let go of so I can imagine and step into the most magical, joyful version of my life possible.
So, join me and, as you listen, see what comes up for you that you're ready to stop tripping over to make space for the truly great life you can lead.
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice. If you enjoyed this episode, please drop me a five-star and written review, follow, and share what you've loved about it. Don’t forget to tune into my other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
Back due to popular demand, here’s a bonus meditation for you. I lead you through a meditation on the question ‘What do I need to give myself?’ Whether you’re tired and stressed or feeling fine it’s a great question to ask yourself regularly. Because as the great RuPaul says (I love drag queens, so here you go): ‘Honey if you can’t love yourself how the hell you gonna love someone else?’ EXACTLY. So, join me in this special meditation episode to find out - and then give yourself - what you need.
Key Points Discussed:
- Getting into a meditation position - standing, sitting, lying down, etc. (00:41)
- Getting present with what’s going on with your body and mind (01:32)
- Thinking about what you need to give yourself (03:18)
- Thinking about what is getting in the way (04:18)
- Giving yourself what you need (05:43)
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this solo episode, I ask ‘What do you want to suck at?’ Because if you want to be good at something, you need to suck at it first. So perhaps ask yourself ‘What have I always wanted to try or to be good at?’ I share my thoughts on trying new things - or not! - because you’re afraid you’re going to suck at it. Oliver Berkman, a great writer, talks about sucking at things. The experience of sucking in itself expands you and takes you to a place of discovery. Yes, it is uncomfortable, but that’s where the fun stuff happens.
So, come join me, listen in, and do the personal activity I lead you through toward the end of the episode. Get out of your comfort zone with me and see what expands within you or around you when you decide to go forth and suck at something.
Key Points Discussed:
- Learning only takes place in discomfort (00:33)
- What have you always wanted to try or be good at? (02:04)
- Sucking at something and becoming good at or just trying it out (03:27)
- The value of trying something out and not caring whether you suck at it or not (05:13)
- The wonder of discovering the potential in the things that you are going to try out (07:40)
- It’s not that scary sometimes (08:54)
- A personal activity for you to do (09:28)
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, I am joined by a rock star in his industry, Matt Peacock. Matt is currently a partner at a London-based strategic and creative advisory firm called Blurred, where he provides specialist counsel to clients on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG), risk, sustainability, social purpose, and corporate transparency.
Together, Matt and I discuss important and relevant topics about how to lead and support others to step away from things that are not working and actually create positive change in your organization and more broadlyin society. Matt sheds light on some mindsets that hold us back and talks about strategies to break free and step into action to make things happen. And Matt gets shit done, I can tell you that. We talked about how important it is now for business communicators and governments to focus on doing things differently, as well as communicate well with each other onthe tricky issues and trends they have to grapple with. We also talk about our responsibility as individuals and communicators in the age of digital and social media ito fact check information and responsibly communicate and connect to others.
In every episode of season three of The Discomfort Practice Podcast, we're focusing on the discomfort of change. So, give this episode a listen and let me know what your steps might be for creating the world you want to live in.
Key Points Discussed:
- Matt’s uncomfortable moments when working with organizations that knew they need to change but don’t (04:12)
- When Matt was a reporter with BBC and faced with ‘absolute evil,’ facing the frustration of listeners who don’t want to listen (06:32)
- ‘don’t-look-up’ syndrome (09:09)
- Unpleasant truths are disruptive (10:03)
- The inexorable momentum syndrome - a false narrative (14:00)
- How to help people step away from things that are not working (16:14)
- What leaders need to be uncomfortable about that they’re not (25:36)
- Businesses making more difference to the world faster than then politicians could (33:26)
- How to exercise the key trait that leaders or everybody must demonstrate over the coming months and beyond (41:47)
- The cult of disempowerment (45:56)
- Making the change happen (52:33)
- How to be wise consumers of information (56:55)
- Stepping into the skin of those who are opposed to you (1:06:08)
- The Net Zero transition (1:08:17)
- Discomfort is a life force (1:13:19)
Resources Mentioned:
- Don’t Look Up
- Matt Peacock Joins Blurred as Partner
Connect with Matt:
- Matt on LinkedIn
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I’m speaking with someone I’ve known for many years - the fabulous Shannon Houde. Shannon is the founder of Walk Of Life Coaching, and for more than two decades, she's mentored and trained over 1000 change leaders, and used over 3000 hours with them to maximize their personal brands to advance impactful careers. She's had her own impact on the world by helping others find theirs and does it very well and she shares some insight if you’re wondering how you or someone you know can map out how to ensure your career is more purposeful and impactful.
Shannon chose Impact Coaching to combine her diverse experience as a hiring manager, a business coach, and a CSR consultant for brands like Adobe, Deloitte, BlackRock, and WWF. As an ICF-ACC certified coach. She’s also a ‘Meta Coach,’ trained by and involved in teaching Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence Certification Program, and she also works with the Game Changer Index. She recently published her first book: Good Work, How To Build A Career That Makes A Difference In The World. And the title says it all!
She shares wisdom with those who might be thinking, “I really do want to have more impact on my career, but I'm not sure how.” That's what Shannon lives to do. So, click the play button now, and discover more nuggets of wisdom to help you up-level your impact on this world.
Key Points Discussed:
- Shannon’s uncomfortable experiences that shaped her to want to serve others and make a difference (04:20)
- What is an impact coach (07:21)
- The Oprah of Impact (09:01)
- The type of impact people need to have and what’s getting in the (11:53)
- The imposter syndrome (16:32)
- How does bringing emotional intelligence into the coaching look like (19:33)
- What is a Game Changer index (22:03)
- The kind of impact we need to see these days (25:08)
- Finding your impact (31:58)
- Careers and roles that help people make more impact (32:31)
- Having a greater impact on what you do (37:55)
- Writing a book to help more people bring impact (41:42)
- Having a vision board and the result it brings (44:48)
- What’s exciting about the future (54:52)
- “Change is never painful, only the resistance to change is painful.” (56:55)
- You got this! (57:39)
Resources Mentioned:
- Good Work, How To Build A Career That Makes A Difference In The World by Shannon Houde
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- Why Woo-woo Works by Dr. David Hamilton
Notes from the interview
-
Shannon has been called ‘The Oprah of Impact’ :-)
-
She’s seen the biggest surge in ESG / sustainability roles ever in her 13 years as an impact coach, keeping an eye on trends in this space.
-
‘Anyone anywhere can be in an impact role. You don’t even need to change careers.’
-
Shannon vision board post + link: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/content/?fromMember=%5B%22ACoAAABQuMABF39e-gnrcv6I3GlGEsGC-PF8xEQ%22%5D&keywords=shannon%20houde%2C%20mba%2C%20pcc&position=0&searchId=0f71f48e-1a48-4173-ad5f-b874d5c2a5ac&sid=B!X&update=urn%3Ali%3Afs_updateV2%3A(urn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6928317933500698625%2CBLENDED_SEARCH_FEED%2CEMPTY%2CDEFAULT%2Cfalse)
Vision board: https://lnkd.in/ez4i7tXG
- https://walkoflifecoaching.com/
Connect with Shannon:
- Shannon’s website
- Shannon on Facebook
- Shannon on Twitter
- Shannon on LinkedIn
- Shannon on Medium
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share what you enjoyed about this episode. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media. We live in a world of algorithms and you really do help us reach new listeners!
In this episode, I’m excited to speak to David Richman. David is an entrepreneur, author, public speaker, endurance athlete, and philanthropist who brings the lessons learned in his life to enrich and inspire others. He pushed out of his comfort zone as a sedentary, overweight smoker stuck in an abusive and unhealthy marriage to seek true satisfaction in his life. That meant quitting an addiction to focusing on what others wanted out of him, and go full-throttle for what he wanted for himself.
What happened as a result is inspiring. In his first book, Winning In The Middle Of The Pack, David focused on how to get more out of ourselves than we ever imagined. More recently, he wrote Cycle Of Lives, an Amazon bestseller, in which he shares the stories of people overcoming cancer. He first started to form the idea for the book in 2007, when his sister was in the last few weeks of her battle with brain cancer. So, he set out on a nearly 5000 miles solo bike ride across the United States, in which in just six weeks, he visited most of the participants for the book, which chronicles 15 people's unique emotional journeys with cancer as caregivers, patients, loved ones, doctors, etc. He went through the various traumas in their lives as they told him their stories, and how that affected their experience of life and of cancer. He also explores in the book issues that are truly human, and often uncomfortable to talk about like suicide, abandonment, loss, survivor guilt, abuse, fertility issues, and the way people deal with trauma. 100% of the book's net proceeds have gone to cancer-related charities picked directly by those whose stories are in the book. It's a beautiful ethos from start to finish, and it goes without saying that it's inspirational, insightful, and evocative.
So, come join me in this wonderful conversation about life, loss, and the profound meaning to be found in transformational, uncomfortable journeys.
Key Points Discussed:
- David’s very first endurance event that has affected him emotionally, physically, mentally, psychologically, in his most waking and aware moments, and also subconsciously (05:58)
- Doing things you don’t know the answer to (11:25)
- Getting enough experience in that realm of uncomfortableness to learn with absolute certainty when it's okay to quit (12:14)
- David's current discomfort practice - the Ironman (17:41)
- Lessons David learned on his 5000-mile bike ride from California to Florida, and then to New York for his book Cycle Of Lives (26:16)
- A story about Joshua through his medical journey (31:46)
- Why David has 15 stories in his book (25:59)
- How the stories affected David personally (39:06)
- Are you afraid of living? (42:40)
- Experiences bring deeper and more profound meaning to trite quotes (47:32)
- Taking the discomfort experience and making it beautiful for others to learn from (51:47)
- Forming connections with people when we or they are going through difficult times to make the journey better (54:03)
- What gives you hope for the future (58:18)
- Take that step to reach out and connect with that person you know who is going through a really difficult time (1:00:00)
Resources Mentioned:
- Cycle Of Lives, by David Richman
- Winning In The Middle Of The Pack, by David Richman
Connect with David:
- David Richman's website
- David on Twitter
- David on LinkedIn
- David on Facebook
- David on Instagram
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, I share what’s been on my mind lately, and I hope it lands with you as the listener. I talk about trust. Life really becomes difficult when we can’t trust - it messes with our nervous systems, our relationships, our ability to concentrate, our outlook on the world. It’s not hard to see a massive lack of trust right now in the world, after some massive collective core-shakers like pandemic, war and the ongoing erosion of confidence in leaders and governments.
When we let fear overtake us, we stop trusting to protect ourselves. But we can’t live there. That is why it is important that we start to re-build trust in smart ways. We can start with a focus on building trust in ourselves. Which isn’t necessarily easy. So in this episode I take you through a ‘mindful micro’practice’ to guide you to a place where you trust yourself. Because that is the place where you can be creative, open, compassionate, and brave. It’s where you can find the answers to your questions, because you really do have all the answers inside yourself. And once you can trust yourself, the world is far less scary. It gives you a safe place to stand to connect to others, to find your purpose, to live out loud. And that’s what the world needs from us all.
Key Points Discussed:
- We are connected and we create collective energy (01:14)
- Trust and its decline (01:53)
- Distrust is now society's default emotion (04:14)
- Building an ability to trust ourselves (07:10)
- A micro practice to help you get to a place where you trust yourself (10:13)
- Building trust and stepping away from fear starts with yourself (14:00)
Resources Mentioned:
- 2022 Elderman Trust Barometer
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
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In this episode, it is my honour to introduce to you the (amazing people and) filmmakers, Anne Macksoud and John Ankele of Old Dog Documentaries. I first came across them through their film with Joanna Macy: ‘Climate Crisis As A Spiritual Path.’ It has reached international audiences with its powerful message on climate change and reconnection and personally moved me. John Ankele started his career as a producer of radio and TV programming in the 1960s, using mass media to empower faith communities advocating for civil rights, protesting the Vietnam War or struggling against apartheid in South Africa. He’s also an ordained Presbyterian minister and a student of Zen and Shambala Buddhist traditions who has been involved for many years in interfaith dialogue around contemplative practice and social justice. Anne Macksoud spent 17 years as a teacher of English literature, photography, and music, first bringing documentaries into her own classroom on a regular basis before transitioning into filmmaking herself. She believes that film is a powerful means to an end to open minds and hearts and, as a result, has been working with John since 1985.
Together, Anne and John produce documentary films focused on the subtleties of human experience and the complexities of our collective challenges. In this episode, we talk about Anne’s and John’s formative life experiences and how that brought them together and eventually led them to interview Joanna Macy.
We weave in quotes and references to Joanna Macy’s life’s work as an educator and activist, so we consider her our third guest on this episode. Together, we talk about the value of discomfort and we can all face our current collective discomfort over issues like climate change and pandemic with hopeful hearts.
So, enjoy this chance to get to know Anne and John, the work they passionately give to the world, and get familiar with Joanna Macy. I hope that it gives you a deeper awareness of your connection to us, to others and to everything.
Key Points Discussed:
- A quote by Joanna Macy - Environmental Activist, author, and scholar of Buddhism, General Systems Theory, and Deep Ecology (00:32)
- Moments in Anne’s life that shaped her passion for social justice (07:49)
- When John lost his mother, father, and then his brother, all during his time in East Africa and realized that nothing lasts and set him on a spiritual path with a mission to the world (10:21)
- What led Anne and John to interview Joanna Macy(13:48)
- Overcoming the narrative of disconnection (21:58)
- How the Joanna Macy interview video eventually reach international audiences (22:56)
- Anne and John’s intention for the Joanna Macy interview and what they want to bring to the world - Leading people to productive discomfort and hope in action (25:51)
- How knowing and/or meeting people who are doing the work of the moment benefits and empowers us (35:41)
- The importance of supporting each other in expressing sorrow (39:06)
- We owe it to the young people, to not allow ourselves to breakdown, fall apart, and not get back up and show up (46:28)
- What gives us hope? (49:10)
Resources Mentioned:
- Joanna Macy: Climate Crisis As A Spiritual Path
- Joanna Macy
Connect with Anne M. and John A. on the Old Dog Documentaries:
- Old Dog Documentaries
- Old Dog Documentaries on LinkedIn
- Old Dog Documentaries on Vimeo
- Old Dog Documentaries on Facebook
- Old Dog Documentaries on Pinterest
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
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In this Discomfort Running Buddies episode, I am joined by an awesome person and friend, Blaire Caplan. Blaire is a certified Life Designer and Mindset Coach. She is a healing presence that serves as a guide on people's personal journeys and helps people manifest their most authentic selves by unlocking answers and unleashing power from within through co-creation and life design. Also, she set up the Lonewolf District, which is dedicated to creating safe spaces in external environments and internally within oneself, and to help people grow, heal, and evolve.
Blaire and I discussed brilliant insights on going through a tough time, what you can do when you are in it, and what you can do to come out of it stronger, better, and even either finding or strengthening your purpose in life. We also talked about understanding that things are not happening TO you but FOR you.
We definitely had a free-flowing wisdom-packed conversation that will surely nourish your soul for growth so click play now and join us in this exciting run!
Key Points Discussed:
- Showing up despite of… and keep doing it (02:31)
- Blaire lost her brother due to police negligence and how this shaped her into who she is now and what she does (04:51)
- What a session with Blaire looks like (09:09)
- Bringing humanity back to humanity through hope (10:15)
- Life designing with people (13:15)
- Being brave and kind (15:56)
- Blaire’s witness in times of discomfort (18:00)
- You can witness yourself - Observing your life outside of yourself (19:36)
- There is no such thing as failure (23:15)
- Why me? What this?... Why not? (25:04)
- The power to give everything around us a purpose and find our purpose (31:32)
- Love is allowing ourselves to be truthful to ourselves and speak the truth out when it is needed (37:30)
- Having hope and a good company in times of discomfort (40:10)
- You are loved and you are allowed to be wherever you need to be because you need to grow (42:32)
Resources Mentioned:
- The Untethered Soul, by Michael A. Singer
- The Lonewolf District
Connect with Blaire Caplan:
- Blaire’s Website
- Blaire on LinkedIn
- Blaire on Instagram
- The Lonewolf District Community on Facebook
- Blaire on Pinterest
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice, I speak to Jennifer Moss, a journalist, author, speaker, and strategist driving the conversation towards healthier workplace cultures. She's the award-winning author of Unlocking Happiness At Work and a frequent writer for Harvard Business Review and SHRM. She's also a member of the United Nations Global Happiness Council and contributes to the annual Global Happiness Policy Report.
Jennifer recently published a new book, The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise Of Chronic Stress, And How We Can Fix It, which has been described as 'an important and timely book.' (But that goes without saying.) It helps leaders and individuals prevent burnout and create healthier, happier, and more productive workplaces.
Jennifer and I talk about how working cultures and institutions contribute to burnout and what strategies can help prevent it. If the Covid19 pandemic has shown us anything, it's that self-care is important.
In Season 3 of The Discomfort Practice, I'm focusing particularly on the discomfort of change and rediscovering or creating new ways of being in this world and shaping society. So this conversation with Jennifer is important, interesting and, hopefully, exciting.
Join us as we get insightful on how employees and leaders can transform cultures and workplaces into places where people can actually be truly human, where they can flourish, and where they don't end up burned-out.
Key Points Discussed:
- When Jennifer’s husband was paralyzed and how this circumstance has led them to actually start the career of identifying how psychological fitness, emotional, intelligent well-being plays a role in life satisfaction, and also satisfaction at work. (05:23)
- What is toxic positivity (09:00)
- What causes burnout and what people can do to prevent and address it (11:38)
- How working cultures and institutions have contributed to the burnout and how they can do better (14:19)
- How the pandemic ramped up burnout (22:02)
- Our way out from this burnout - A burnout prevention strategy (25:33)
- Having cautious optimism in facing these changes and discomforts (30:47)
- Some elements in the future world of work and what it is going to look like (35:41)
- Measuring the ROI in preventing burnout in the workplace (41:07)
- The role of leadership in enforcing being human at work (46:06)
- The United Nations Global Happiness Council and what they do (51:15)
- What’s next for Jennifer Moss - Looking into the human experience of work post-pandemic (57:13)
- “Burnout is not your fault.” (59:20)
Resources Mentioned:
- The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise Of Chronic Stress, And How We Can Fix It by Jennifer Moss
- The United Nations Global Happiness Council
Connect with Jennifer Moss:
- Jennifer’s Website
- Jennifer on LinkedIn
- Jennifer on Twitter
- Jennifer on Facebook
- Jennifer on Instagram
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice I get the chance to sit and talk to someone I’ve admired for a long time. Aja Barber is a well-known and respected stylist, author and activist who focuses on telling the truth about the human and environmental devastation caused by the fast fashion industry.
We talk about the stark facts of fast fashion:
-
80% of garment workers in the world, the majority of whom are not paid a living wage. Unionization is crushed and they are vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, simply to produce the tee shirt we casually pick up in a shop and buy with delight because it’s ‘cheap.’
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10% of greenhouse gas emissions (which contribute to the rapid acceleration of climate change and the irrevocable loss of natural resources) is caused by the fashion industry.
-
We live in an age where paying workers a fair wage has become a marketing tool – something brands celebrate about themselves – because it’s so uncommon they feel justified in using that as positioning. When it’s actually basically admitting that exploitation is so embedded in our systems of production and consumption – of fashion and everything else – that it’s actually worth noting when someone pays the workers at the end of their supply chain anything but wages that keep them in poverty.
-
Many brands produce 50 fashion lines a year – that’s nearly one a week – and marketing and the culture around us has programmed us to buy buy buy, simply to feed their business model. So that dress you buy to wear once is making billionaires richer while keeping the poor poor.
Aja and I talk about many of the great points in her recent book, Consumed: the need for collective change, colonialism, climate change and consumerism. Aja urges listeners to think about the human behind the label and choose not to buy any new clothes for one week – or even longer. To break a habit of consumption that is literally consuming our planet and propagating human misery.
So pull up a chair, settle in and let’s get uncomfortable together!
Follow me on Instagram @thebetsyreed
Find Aja Barber @ajabarber
Order Aja's Book via her website or anywhere you like to order books: https://www.ajabarber.com
In this episode, I talk to Tim Collings, CEO of 4I leadership. Tim is also a leadership coach, guiding on strategy and organizational design to help individual leaders and organizations create a sustainable future. Tim is also a fellow podcast host, producing the “Better World Leaders Podcast”, on which I appeared a few episodes back. On it, he speaks to leaders on a quest to make the world a better place.
Tim talks about current leadership styles, many of which are based on authority or hierarchy, and how this type of leadership fails to have the impact society and our planet desperately need. He posits (and I agree) that anyone can be a leader, because leadership is a set of qualities and capabilities, rather than a position in a hierarchy. Valuable leadership traits include foresight, flexibility, resiliency, and taking responsibility for the system each is part of.
Tim observes that emerging leaders often have a sense of interconnectedness which helps them innovate to tackle the pressing issues of our world/ systems. We talk about rediscovering old wisdom in the form of ancient societal constructs, which are based on relationships between beings and the land.
Tim gives listeners a great laundry list of authors basing their work on systemsn design and leadership on insight into nature.
Tune in as we speak about the need for innovation, leadership, and sustainable growth that doesn't crash our planet or exploit humans.
Find and tag me on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed. Follow my own discomfort practice as you catch up on other episodes. Listen anywhere you like to listen to podcasts or via the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com
Key Points:
- Do we have the right leaders? (06:00)
- Enable individuals as leaders (07:00)
- I am the part of the problem; it is the privileges that have made me successful (08:50)
- The real feudalism (10:50)
- Wisdom gained from our ancestors (11:50)
- Ancestral frameworks (15:30)
- Qualities of a right leader (16:20)
- Do we have leaders who can change the dysfunctional system (19:40)
- Emerging leaders and the hope of innovation they bring in (21:07)
- Book recommendations (25:03)
- Permaculture and regenerative food systems (28:00)
- Defining slow work (30:22)
Connect with Tim Collings:
4i leadership
Connect with Betsy Reed:
Betsy on Instagram
Betsy on Twitter
Betsy on Linkedin
Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
A Better World Leaders Podcast
The Australian Financial Review
Active Hope: How to Face The Mess We're In Without Going Crazy by Joanna Macy
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop me a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice Podcast, I go solo to talk about one of my favourite topics: finding and living our unique personal purposes in every area of our lives.
Knowing what your personal purpose is serves as a beautiful compass to guide you through life. It's something no one can take away from you and can be a lifeline when life gets chaotic or confusing.
I guide you through a little exercise to help you uncover your own personal purpose. Echoing what past guest Paul Davis and I talked about in episode 55, your purpose isn't necessarily revealed through your passions or what you're good at. It's something that your gut instinct recognises when it hears or sees it. And that means creating space to hear and listen to yourself. So in this episode I talk about a really useful exercise suggested by leadership expert Simon Sinek on dropping into your body and asking some questions with a friend. Getting out of your head and into your 'somatic responses' - listening to your gut feeling - helps you to know things that your head can't necessarily know.
Once you've uncovered a vague or precise understanding of your purpose, WRITE IT DOWN. That allows us to employ more of our senses in understanding and embracing your purpose, as well as implanting the information in our brains. And that's often when a deeper understanding emerges.
So get yourself comfortable to perhaps get uncomfortable! :-) Allow yourself to be present with this episode, take a breath, and let your understanding of your personal purpose emerge - maybe for the first time or maybe as a revisit to things you already know. What's even just one area of your life where you can better or more fully then live your purpose?
I can tell you from experience (and by witnessing those I admire) that living a purpose-driven life is powerful, it's what the world needs from each of us, and each of us can absolutely know and live our personal purpose. So enjoy this episode and let me know how it lands with you.
Find and tag me on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed. Follow my own discomfort practice as you listen other episodes of this podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts or via the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com
Like, subscribe, leave me a five-star and written review and share with others. It really does help.
Key Points:
- What is your personal purpose and how to live it in all areas of your life (05:10)
- Finding your purpose in life (11:01)
-
1 Listen to yourself (12:11)
-
2 Write it down (14:29)
- Living your purpose (16:22)
- Get comfortable (17:06)
- Betsy’s final thoughts (25:09)
Connect with Betsy Reed:
Betsy on Instagram
Betsy on Twitter
Betsy on Linkedin
Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
Future Women X
Paul Davis’s Episode
Simon Sinek
Maggie Newton
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
I sit again with Adam Nosal who was my first guest in season 3. I asked him to help me kick off the season and set the tone as we talked about ‘how to have nurturing, nourishing conversations’ in what turned out to be the first two episodes of this season.
Well, he’s back and we chat about consensus and disagreement, with special reference to Joe Rogan’s recent controversial Spotify podcast episodes and the ensuing backlash, with people like Neil Young and Brené Brown leaving the platform in protest.
To recap, if you missed what happened: two Joe Rogan podcast episodes were flagged because the experts he interviewed aired views on COVID and the COVID vaccination that are currently considered controversial, based on our ever-changing and evolving understanding of this pandemic. So Spotify and others called it ‘misinformation’ and censored it.
Adam and I set up some ground rules for ourselves - including ‘not being overly careful out of fear’ - before we dive into talking about how important language is, how information overload today can be overwhelming and how it’s more important than ever to be able to navigate conversations in which we disagree over topics that trigger our deepest fears. Adam gives great quote, as usual, throughout the episode and our intention throughout is to give listeners something to pause and chew on.
We talk about how phrases like "misinformation" are often not useful, as our understanding of “facts” is fluid, evolving, and changing over time. But once someone has taken a stand on something - calling it right or wrong - it can be very difficult to change their minds, because they’re invested in a particular position.
One of my favourite of Adam’s lines here is “truth is becoming weaponized in some areas of our conversation, and the invitation for us to stand with each other in a time of huge complexity is not being accepted”.
We discuss the need to be diligent, find balance, avoid being reactive, and judging the credibility of information we come across to prevent the spread of harmful information or narratives. We also need to recognize the importance of relationships and the damage that comes from mocking or taunting other people or groups.
We propose that the best way to avoid the spread of misinformation is simply to pause and do nothing in the spur of the moment. Wait. Breathe. Process. Then maybe leave it.
I throw in my usual dose of perspective on the necessity of exposing ourselves to discomfort and intentionally seeking out challenging conversations with ideas and people we know we probably won’t agree with. Consensus is often NOT desirable. It’s boring and makes our comfort zone smaller, our conservatism bigger, our potential for innovation and breakthroughs non-existent.
Keep listening to the Discomfort Practice Podcast for more inspiring stories like these.
Let me know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed, and tag me. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes via the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favourite podcast platform.
Key Points:
- Why consensus is not helpful (02:41)
- The issue of Joe Rogan Spotify episodes introduction (06:53)
- Dangerous misinformation (08:45)
- Importance of self-censorship (13:18)
- Government’s COVID 19: Contrasting information (19:35)
- Information sources (22:20)
- Stick to your ideas, but yet respect others (27:35)
- Irrational misogyny of governments and lawmakers (35:08)
- Reflect, upon yourself – Have I taunted or mocked someone (36:00)
- Understand other’s perspectives and face discomfort to get better (41:00)
- Pause between words (43:50)
- Have conversations with curious intent not with prejudice (49:57)
Connect with Adam Nosal:
Adam on Linkedin
Adam on Twitter
Adam on Facebook
Connect with Betsy Reed:
Betsy on Instagram
Betsy on Twitter
Betsy on Linkedin
Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
Louis Theroux
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice Podcast, I am joined by Rasia Pouncie, who shares insights on how she’s made it through her own ‘dark nights of the soul’. Rasia is a spiritual mentor, coach, and lightworker with a Master's degree in Mental Health Counseling. In her work as the Mystical Healing Guide, she weaves together the threads of her personal path and journey as a mentor and life coach to assist others in reaching their highest frequency and living their ideal life.
Rasia takes us on a journey of discovery as she describes her own life as a teen growing up mixed-race, feeling out of place and experiencing prejudice. She shares the rich perspectives of holding both colonizer and colonized lineage in her DNA and the healing she has brought to her own generational trauma and to herself.
Rasia and I talk about Ayahuasca and its healing qualities as a traditional plant medicine. We explore how she was introduced to it, how it has positively impacted her health and overall well-being and taken her on a journey of its own.
Rasia and I swap thoughts on our collective future in terms of trauma, environmental and social breakdown, and in this time of the COVID 19 pandemic, and how we can overcome challenges and the ‘dark night of the soul’ many of us are experiencing because of these factors.
We talk about the concept of ‘spiritual bypassing’ and how sometimes NOT being ‘good vibes only’ is often the route to true spiritual evolution and being authentic.
We can't dodge the dark hours of the soul if we want to get someplace good. It's how we came into being in this world - literally pushed out of the birth canal. It’s dark, it’s scary and it could actually kill you. You don’t know if it will or won’t until you finally emerge into the light. Enjoy listening to this episode, as I certainly enjoyed recording with Rasia.
Keep tuning to the Discomfort Practice Podcast as we bring you this and many more inspiring stories.
Let us know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed, and feel free to tag me. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes on the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favourite podcast platform.
Key Points:
- Introduction and Background of Rasia Pouncie (03:55)
- Rasia explains the meaning of “Dark Night of the Soul.” (08:01)
- Rasia shares about the Ayahuasca medicinal plant, how she was introduced to it, and how it has allowed her to stay whole, healed, and healthy. (15:12)
- Rasia talks about the riches and perspective of holding lineage into her DNA and the healing it has brought to her. (26:32)
- Healing past generational trauma. (32:48)
- Rasia's thoughts on our future in terms of trauma, the environmental and social breakdown, and the pandemic and what needs to be adjusted. (35:36)
- Rasia sheds light on how one can get dragged down by fear. (45:13)
- How people want to do the right thing, be enlightened, and seek to transcend being human. (51:31)
Connect with Rasia Pouncy:
- Rasia’s Website
- Rasia on Instagram
- Rasia on YouTube
Connect with Betsy Reed:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
- Mystical Healing Guide
- Midnight Special Movie
- Aubrey Marcus Podcast
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share and leave me some comments on social media. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favourite ones on social media!
In this episode, I sit down with Meghan Bonhomme to dive deep into identifying happiness and self-care. Meghan is a professor in Canada, who owns and funds “The Lovely Human School” with a mission to help individuals realize their true potential and take care of themselves. The school offers an eight-week curriculum to provide people with the roadmap to live the life they aspire to. The Lovely Human School began as a result of discomfort, Meghan narrates that she was always a people pleaser who substantially drained “herself”. This insight cleared the door for self-discovery by allowing her to be free of others' expectations. She then integrated the knowledge from books and experiences, which she began to share with others. This unique blend turned into a curriculum, which kept growing with time. The scheduled self-care group attracted people who we're dealing with a variety of issues and wanted to share their experiences. As a result, instead of having to delve through the darkness alone, people were able to move together. People's attitudes alter negatively as a result of challenges, and these changes rob them of their enjoyment and genuine potential. Meghan recommends, identifying the stress or the factor which overwhelms us and changing our perception towards it. She believes that humans are designed to love and share happiness.
Meghan also shares an excerpt from Michael A Singer's book "The Untethered Soul," in which the author compares a thorn to a trauma. The simple act of removing the thorn would solve many problems. We, on the other hand, protect the thorn (trauma) because we are afraid of the agony it may cause. At moments of discomfort, we have to sit and reflect on the challenges and the way to navigate around them. "One thing that is in your control, that you can choose is happiness," she continues, quoting Viktor Frankl's book "Say yes to life." Disciplined small daily practices can help us build resiliency and align ourselves to our goals and aspirations.
We relate to fact that stress is a reminder of discomfort which equips us into better humans.
Let us know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag us. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes on the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform.
Key Points:
- Coming out: the moment of discomfort (05:06)
- The curriculum of the Lovely Human School (10:55)
- Breathing! It all starts there (14:33)
- Not everybody will like your work and that is absolutely okay! (19:34)
- Why don’t I feel worthy? (21:50)
- My contribution to the world is more when I love myself (23:09)
- Untethered Soul (30:24)
- The perspective of stress is bad for us (33:33)
- Ask how can I support your happiness (48:41)
- Self-care is not a privilege, it can begin with simple breathing techniques (50:50)
- Approach for help, people are there waiting to help (53:53)
- Your potential is infinite (56:10)
Connect with Meghan Bonhomme:
- Meghan on Instagram
- Meghan on Linkedin
- Lovely Human School
- Meghan on YouTube
- Meghan on Facebook
- Meghan on Pinterest
Connect with Betsy Reed:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
- Sunday Self-Care Club
- Chicken Soup for The Soul by Jack Canfield
- The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer
- Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything by Viktor E. Frankl
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode of The Discomfort Practice Podcast, I am joined by special guest Jane Duncan Rogers. Jane and I discuss end-of-life preparation. This includes preparing for what happens after you die, but it also includes ensuring measures are in place to make sure your last days are enjoyable. Jane is CEO of "Before I Go Solutions", a non-profit dedicated to ensuring the procedures are in place to provide the end-of-life care you deserve. Jane and I talk about the life we leave behind after death and how to ensure that we live the best life possible as we come to an end.
Jane shares her personal experience with bereavement and grief by talking about the death of her husband. Jane speaks raw and vulnerably about her husband's end-of-life experience and how they both became closer than ever in this time. I also talk to Jane about the physical world we leave behind, our household, our belongings, and our digital life, and how to prepare all aspects for when we are no longer here.
I have an open and honest conversation about the belief that we are only inhabitants of the body we are in and that inside of us is something unique that makes us who we are. Jane speaks about her spiritual journey and how her husband's death made her realize that we are not just bodies. We are all so much more.
I ask the question: "What is the legacy that I want to leave behind?" and "What can I do to leave a positive impact on this world?" Join us in this episode!
Let us know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag us. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes on the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform.
Key Points:
- The death of Jane’s husband and how it changed her life forever (04:00)
- Finding strength through adversity and how to view loss as a gift (06:30)
- How Jane wrote her best-selling book by being vulnerable and authentic (10:00)
- We are much more than the body we inhabit (12:00)
- The benefits of end-of-life planning for the people you love (22:00)
- How to make the most of the time you have (25:00)
- The difference between bereavement and grief (32:00)
- The legal aspects of end-of-life care (34:00)
- Advanced care planning, how do you want to live whilst nearing the end of your life? (35:00)
- Our digital lives and what we leave behind (36:00)
- The importance of documenting and taking care of things before you die (40:00)
- How can you be a good ancestor, and what legacy will you leave behind? (50:00)
Connect with Jane Duncan Rogers:
- Jane on LinkedIn
- Before I Go Solutions’ Website
- Jane on Facebook
Connect with Betsy Reed:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
- Before I Go Print Workbook or Fillable PDF
- Before I Go: The Essential Guide to Creating a Good End of Life Plan by Jane Duncan Rogers
- Gifted By Grief: A True Story of Cancer, Loss and Rebirth by Jane Duncan Rogers
- How to do a Good Death | Jane Duncan Rogers | TEDxFindhornSalon
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In this solo I recorded the first half before heading into five days of intense meditation between Christmas and New Year 2021, and then the second half of the episode afterward, reflecting on what came up. Having done the same retreat in 2020, my 2021experience was entirely different. What came up for me was how I want this coming year to FEEL - and an associated word: REDISCOVERY.
Pausing to ‘clear the channels’ at the end of 2021 really set me up for a 2021 full of joy, in which I magnetised and manifested fulfilling work, a great romantic relationship and a truly joyful year. My 2021 retreat was an entirely different personal experience from the previous one, and in this episode I encourage listeners to 'move toward the scary' and make time to find and do a meditation retreat.
Once you’ve discovered the magic of making time and space to do your inner work and listen to your own intuition, there’s really no going back to old ways of being.
Enjoy this episode, as I hope you always do, settle yourselves in and let me know how you plan to get uncomfortable in order to rediscover your own magic, your own powers and your own joy.
My at-home retreat was with www.escuelatranspersonal.com
Let me know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag me. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes on the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favourite podcast platform.
‘Tis the season of joy, giving and reflecting on the year that has been. In this solo episode of the Discomfort Practice, I share my insights on gratefulness and self-care.
Since my podcasting journey began, I have realized that interviewing people isn't as difficult as I had thought it would be. In fact, it comes quite easily to me and is a joy. But on the other hand, recording solo episodes has been a stretch for me - my own ‘discomfort practice.’ Why would anyone want to listen to me waffle on for 10 minutes or more?
I’ve found the best way for me to spot the things that are meant to be part of my discomfort practice is to pause and see what’s scaring me. What gives me a little quiver in my guts. THAT’S usually where the juicy stuff lies. The stuff I need to spend time with and get to know better. The things that scare me most are usually the things that I need to step toward.
Which brings me to the power of reflection. A lot of my guests are experts in this, and that’s no accident. It’s so easy to blame lack of time as the reason for not taking time to pause, to reflect, to contemplate what we’ve done. And now, as we launch into a new year, is a great time to do that. Otherwise, it’s so easy to simply focus on the weight of our perceived failures, without the balance of also celebrating our achievements.
In this solo, I take you through an exercise to pause, breathe and reflect. This is something you can do any time, anywhere to take a few deep breaths, drop in and then write down what comes up for you. List at least 10 of your achievements, take a moment to be grateful, and maybe also address the areas where perhaps you’ve fallen short on something. Read the list out loud to remind yourself of what you've accomplished even at the most trying times of the pandemic. Let your body feel the release of happy hormones and a sense of joy. Failures and self-sabotage might be unpleasant, but they also stretch and shape us into better humans, if we’re conscious of them.
If you are also a busy person, raise your hand. Decide with me to still take time to pause, breathe, drop into your own senses and reflect. Enjoy this episode and the time I would like to gift you to reflect and recognize yourself.
Key Points:
- Trying something new (00:27)
- Record videos to observe self for the better self (00:45)
- Accelerator Tuesdays with Female Solopreneurs (04:00)
- Excuses for not reflecting for reviewing (06:10)
- Art of being grateful (07:04)
- Scribble your thoughts, all of them. The answers to your questions are there (11:07)
- Recognize discomfort for self-development (19:09)
Connect with Betsy Reed:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
- Red Clematis Coaching Services Ltd
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In yet another thought-provoking episode of The Discomfort Practice Podcast, I’m speaking to Matisse DuPont, an artist, educator, and consultant in gender, sexuality, and identity. Matisse has a Master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies and has been showcasing their talents/creativity on their informative, delightful, and binge-watchable videos on social media. They offer individual and institutional gender consultation services and inclusivity consulting and cultural competency training concerning transgender, non-binary gender, non-conforming individuals, and the LGBTQIA plus community. I found my chat with them truly enlightening to my understanding of gender.
Matisse takes me on a fascinating journey of better understanding how our sexuality gets intertwined with gender, pronouns, culture, and a whooole lot of other aspects of gender. Their distinction between physical sexuality and internal sexuality is a fascinating way to look at it, understanding that humans have varied sex hormonal ratios which cannot be used as a criterion to distinguish gender. Our cultural/societal taboo has made conversations about gender needlessly uncomfortable - like an itch - which can be resolved by educating and developing self-awareness. This is core to Matisse’s work as an educator.
Matisse is on a mission to spark creativity and curiosity, which they believe is possible only when people shed the societal norms and express themselves - which is where gender education plays such a crucial role. We wade into a fascinating rumination on what would happen if children’s minds were left to their natural, infinite creativity rather than constricted by current binary models.
We both believe that it is important to feel true to their body and not merely because of our physical characteristics or the norms of the culture we belong to. The arbitrary lines of gender categorization are getting diffused with time.
Tune in as we tackle the discomfort of gender preconceptions in this podcast.
Let us know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag us. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes on the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform.
Key Points:
- The Moment of Discomfort (04:41)
- Pronouns, do we need them (09:47)
- My evolutionary journey from a little boy (10:10)
- The concept of Non-binary and queer (17:50)
- Assigned sex, biological sex doesn’t translate to sexuality (23:00)
- People are uncomfortable with themselves (25:21)
- The pseudoscience of a male and a female body (31:41)
- The reality of sex is complicated, physical characteristics or hormonal ratios is not a parameter for sex determination (37:14)
- Have empathy for other people who are also having a different complicated relationship to gender (43:35)
- The world if all children are raised in a non-binary way (50:00)
- Why are we still CIS-gender (56:00)
- Support the movement (59:09)
Connect with Matisse DuPont:
- Matisse’s Website
- Matisse on Instagram
- Matisse on TikTok
- Send Matisse an Email
Connect with Betsy Reed:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
- In the Life: Interview with Kate Bornstein, Leslie Feinberg
- Matisse’s Newsletter
- Matisse’s Art
- Book or Gift a gender consultation
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I am in conversation with Kyle Redman, who’s based in Sydney, Australia, where he’s the research and design project manager at New Democracy Foundation. NDF aims to build citizens’ trust in government decision-making. Kyle previously worked with international partners to design democratic innovations in Eupen, Fortaleza, and Madrid. He has also co-authored the “United Nations Democracy Fund Handbook Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections”, and “The A, B & C of Democracy”.
Kyle begins by describing the time at university, where he was unhappy in his choice of computer science as his focus. He talks about this as a pivotal moment of discomfort, when he decided to discontinue his computer science degree and pursue a Bachelor of Arts instead, which turned out to be life-changing.
This pivot led him to apply for an internship at New Democracy Foundation, which later led to a full-time job there. His work now involves extensive traveling, engaging with a diverse and representative range of people, gaining their insights, and putting forward their ideas to influence policymaking that reflects those it seeks to impact. Another aspect of his job is to raise awareness and educate people about bills being passed, involving citizens in the democratic process and informing government about real, pressing issues they face.
Citing examples of bills on same-sex marriage, abortions, climate change, and community laws, Kyle emphasizes the potential capacities of citizen assemblies.
We agree that politics is about solving problems of people and NDF is facilitating this process. He acknowledges that his work profile has been extremely gratifying and is fuelling his passion. Kyle concludes by recommending “The Scout Mindset” book by Julia Galef and suggests that we the citizens must change our soldier mindset and advance towards the scout’s problem-solving mindset, which would be of greater benefit.
Let us know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag us. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes on the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform.
Key Points:
- The Moment of Discomfort – How Kyle’s discomfort in university paved the way for a gratifying career (06:37)
- What is Kyle’s domain and what motivates him at New Democracy (14:00)
- The other side of the confirmation bias (20:30)
- The pros and cons of the American system of democracy, why Americans don’t care about politics (22:34)
- The optimized politician’s brain: win elections by convincing people to vote (28:00)
- Politics is a game; don’t hate the player, hate the game instead (29:11)
- Young politicians lose track of their goal in fundraisers; citizen assemblies would help young politicians for deliberative politics (31:00)
- People vote in their interests. But facts and awareness can overturn their interests (34:00)
- Citizen assemblies: An approach to solve community problems, planning laws, same-sex marriage legislation, amendments of abortion laws, and environmental laws. (36:10)
- Our political systems are 200 years old and they are fit for the present but much less for the future (40:56)
- Where and how to reach out to begin? “you start advocating for change that is not goal-oriented, but is process-oriented” (41:50)
- The Scout Mindset and the Soldier Mindset: Book recommendation (44:00)
Connect with Kyle Redman:
- Kyle on Twitter
- Kyle on Linkedin
Connect with Betsy Reed:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
- New Democracy Foundation
- The A, B & C of Democracy: Or Cats in the Sack by Luca Belgiorno-Nettis and Kyle Redman
- Politics as a vocation by Max Weber
- Democracy R&D
- The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't by Julia Galef
- Change Politics
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode of the Discomfort Podcast, I speak to Judith Favor who is an author, former professor of theology, and retired minister from the Quaker church. I admire the Quaker church because it’s grounded in restful practices like contemplation and reflection, which I discuss in-depth with Judith. Judith’s mission is to bring spirituality and well-being to the world through her career as a spiritual guidance coach and we discuss what she means by ‘spiritual guidance’ and the practices she guides others in to find inner peace. We talk about her time in a Buddhist monastery and Judith shares how she found her current spirituality following a near-death experience.
No matter your faith or beliefs, Judith and I agree in this episode on the importance of taking moments of quiet to reflect on life and the importance of quiet and contemplation to find calm and inner peace. This is by no means a comfortable practice, but by opening yourself up to discomfort - by practicing discomfort - and simply sitting with all feelings that might arise during quiet contemplation, we can often find the answers within. This episode concludes with a guided Sabbath Practice in ‘not knowing,’ guided by Judith Favor. Join us for a moment of peace as you take time to sit in the discomfort of the unknown.
Let us know your thoughts on Instagram or Twitter @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag us. Follow my own journey through my discomfort practice and catch up on past episodes on the podcast microsite https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com or find The Discomfort Practice on your favorite podcast platform.
Key Points:
- The Moment of Discomfort – The moment that Judith faced death and had her life-changing spiritual experience (04:30)
- What does it mean to rest in a sacred presence? How Judith conquered excruciating pain through her spirituality (06:30)
- Where it all started - Judith’s visit to a Buddhist monastery and how this was a founding moment in her spiritual journey, but not in the way you might think (09:00)
- How Judith became a spiritual director (11:30)
- Judith’s family history – a story of working-class pioneers (12:30)
- What is spiritual guidance and what is the benefit? (13:00)
- How to make yourself available to moments of wisdom through contemplation silence (16:30)
- A practice of being aware of your body and feeling the Holy Spirit within (18:00)
- The role of discomfort in contemplation and why it is important to not shy away from uncomfortable thoughts and feelings (20:00)
- Judith discusses her novels and how the discomfort she felt when learning her family history, inspired this story (22:00)
- Sometimes the best advice is no advice. How to let others answer their own questions and what are the questions you don’t want to know the answer to? (36:00)
- The Sabbath and its importance in life. The benefits of taking a day of rest and how to implement this into your life (50:00)
- A guided Sabbath Practice on not knowing, with Judith Favor (53:00)
Connect with Judith Favor
- Judith’s Website
- Judith on Facebook
- Judith on Linkedin
Connect with Betsy Reed
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned
- Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
- Spiritual Directors International
- Friending Rosie: Respect on Death Row by Judith Favor
- River Flow: New & Selected Poems by David Whyte
- Sabbath Economics: A Spiritual Guide to Linking Love with Money by Judith Wright Favor
- The Companion Journal 52 Weeks of Love & Money: For Sabbath Economics by Judith Wright Favor
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Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode of The Discomfort Podcast, I talk with one of the people I adore when it comes to intuitive business, Paul William Davis, and together, we took a deep dive into how we can all find our life’s purpose, and how to truly tap into intuition.
Paul is an intuitive personal advisor, an entrepreneur, a best-selling author, an award-winning business growth consultant, speaker, and more.
Paul gives great insight into how we can all become more in tune with our intuition, and how we can all manifest our best life by taking the time to listen to the signs from the universe.
Paul discusses the signs to look for from the universe, that can be a guiding force which he refers to as – the feathers, bricks, and truck. These are the life events that are nudging us (or sometimes sweeping us) to the path we should be following. Paul and I discuss mental health, and how lacking purpose in life can be the greatest trigger for depression in so many people.
It is evident that commercial success, which lacks purpose, does not equate to happiness. We then take a look at the global decline of mental health due to the pandemic, and we look towards the future and discuss how we can all, as one human race come together to help one another and save our planet.
Post your thoughts on @thebetsyreed and feel free to tag us. Follow our journey as we reach out of our comfort zone on https://thediscomfortpractice.libsyn.com
Key Points: * The Moment that Changed Everything – The catalyst that led Paul to find his true life’s purpose (04:00) * The reality of corporate living, and how we are not always as happy as we may seem (07:00) * What is purpose? And what is our true meaning in life? (10:00) * How our purpose in life is waiting in our subconscious (16:00) * How the universe guides clients to find Paul, right as they need him (18:00) * The effects of a global pandemic on the human population, how it has been the catalyst for so many in the search for their purpose (22:00) * Paul’s personal experience with fine-tuning his intuition (30:30) * The untold story of the pandemic – the mental health of humanity (37:45) * How we all need to come together to tackle climate change (43:00) * Hope for the future through purpose (49:00)
Connect with Paul William Davis: * Paul’s Website * Paul on Linkedin * Send him an email * Listen to his Podcast
Connect with Betsy Reed:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s Website
Resources Mentioned:
- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
- EVOLVE by Paul William Davis
Rate, Review, Learn and Share Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In my latest solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, I’m excited to dive into some of my current self exploration as part of my own discomfort practice.
I have gotta confess: doing these episodes has been the real edge of my own comfort zone. It is truly uncomfortable - part of my own discomfort practice - to reveal myself on the Internet. Not the professional persona, not the stuff that’s already public. The real stuff going on in my life right now, set loose for others to interpret through their own filters. Yikes.
But I have found my new comfort zone, which is actually really the aim of a discomfort practice: to watch the edges of your comfort zone melt and expand. And then you find yourself with a spangly new expanded comfort zone. And that's where I am now: comfortable with the level of self exploration that I'm doing out loud. Because I am (contrary to popular perception), quite a private person.
This episode covers themes such as finding the energetic leaks in my life, the things that might be causing misalignment and holding me back from living my purpose. Whether it’s a corner of my home that needs to be cleaned or a grudge I realise I’ve been dragging around.
For me, being aligned is about being in my purpose and having all the pieces of my life working to help that flow. We all have a purpose. Your purpose comes from the essence of who you are. And you find it by tapping into and listening to your deep inner knowing about why it is you're on this earth this time around. And for me, I'm very clear on my personal purpose. I'm here to work with people with power to create new systems that actually work for everyone on this planet. And from that everything flows.
So sit back and have a listen and let's get uncomfortable together.
Follow me on Instagram @thebetsyreed
Like, follow, subscribe, leave reviews and share The Discomfort Practice and help me reach new ears.
In the latest episode of The Discomfort Practice, it was such a treat to interview journalist and fellow media professional, Irish Syrian journalist and activist, Razan Ibraheem.
Razan is a multi-faceted woman with an impressive career. She’s had a high profile, passionate ethos-driven career in journalism, spoken to the UN and worked in a news agency focusing on addressing misinformation in the media. She also sits on the Amnesty board in Ireland and her work has led to her being named International Woman of the Year by Irish Tatler in 2016. Because she is also incredibly glamorous and beautiful.
We talk about Razan’s deeply personal connection to the tragic situation in her native Syria. While studying in Ireland, Syria imploded into civil war, leaving her unexpectedly unable to go back, suddenly classified as a refugee. She turned this discomfort and her considerable energy to volunteering to help refugees in Greece for two years. Razan says “The people I met and the stories I heard from Syrian refugees changed my perspective on life.”
Connect with Razan Ibrahim:
- Razan on LinkedIn
- Razan on Instagram
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
- Betsy’s website
Rate, Review, Learn and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I was delighted (and a little bit awestruck) to speak to Kasia Urbaniak, the Founder, and CEO of The Academy, a school that teaches women the foundations of power and influence. Kasia's perspective on power is unique. Over the course of nearly 20 years, she has worked as a professional Dominatrix, practiced Taoist alchemy in one of the oldest female-led monasteries in China, and obtained dozens of certifications in different disciplines, including Medical Qi Gong and Systemic Constellations. Since founding The Academy in 2013, Kasia has taught over 4,000 women to radically increase their power, agency, and influence.
Using practical tools, The Academy graduates transform their lives by breaking the york of “Good Girl Conditioning” They step boldly into leadership roles within their relationships, families, workplaces, and wider communities. They become adept in the art of verbal self-defense against bulldozing, bullying, and gaslighting. Women are the most critical, yet least represented voices in determining the future of our world and there’s never been a better time than now to have women participating in fully meaningful conversations with as many people as possible. It can start here for you, so join Kasia and me as we discuss how you can liberate yourself from conditioned responses and learned behaviors to unleash the true power of female nature within you and live a full life in accordance with your desires.
Key Points Discussed:
- How discomfort shaped her life and destiny and revealed her path (05:49)
- Setting up The Academy unintentionally when she was in her own journey of understanding power as a woman (10:11)
- Why women should stop taking best-supporting actress roles in their own lives (14:06)
- Unpacking the Good Girl Double Bind: The No-Win situation for women (17:40)
- The superficial war between the good girl and the independent woman (22:14)
- To be Submissive or Dominant: Kasia’s brilliant explanation of power (27:50)
- The detriment of domesticating our desires and why the core of the dominant experience is being submissive (40:08)
- Mastering the art of playing with No (46:28)
- Women finding their power and using it well, and what it does for the world (57:20)
- Feeling mystified, deeply curious, and privileged in the midst of an unpredictable world (1:03:47)
Resources Mentioned:
- Unbound: A Woman's Guide to Power By Kasia Urbaniak
- The Academy
Connect with Kasia Urbaniak:
- Kasia’s Website
- Kasia on LinkedIn
- Kasia on Twitter
- Kasia on Facebook
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I chat with Philip Clayton, the President of the Institute for Ecological Civilization (EcoCiv.org), which works internationally to support multi-sector innovations toward a sustainable society through collaborations between governments, businesses, policy experts, and NGOs. He’s also president of the Institute for the Postmodern Development of China, which works with universities and government officials to promote the concept of ecological civilization through conferences, publications, educational projects, and ecovillages. Philip works at the fascinating (and not un-controversial) intersection of philosophy, theology, and science.
He has increasingly focused on where climate science, ethics, religion, social philosophy, and ecotheology intersect, along with the tricky questions those intersections often raise. Philip holds the Ingraham Chair at the Claremont School of Theology where he directs the Ph.D. program in comparative theologies and philosophies, as well as being affiliated faculty at Claremont Graduate University. A graduate of Yale University, he has also taught at Williams College, California State University, the University of Munich, the University of Cambridge, and Harvard University.
He has published two dozen books and some 350 articles. Philip and I had a rich, dynamic, and truly fascinating conversation around the value of sitting with personal discomfort rather than suppressing it so we can collectively contribute to bettering our lives and the world as a whole. We also dive into how common themes across religion and science can be leveraged to build a global movement of passionate changemakers who together create a shift toward a more compassionate and sustainable world. You really won’t wanna miss this episode, which is a dance between a theologian trained in improv and a campaigner trained in mindfulness. See you on the other side...
Key Points Discussed:
- The moment that totally shifted his focus in life (06:06)
- Why he contributed to creating the Institute for Ecological Civilization (10:15)
- The everyday magic of movement activism (14:25)
- Advocating for wellbeing economics to ensure the delivery of human and ecological well being (17:11)
- Living at the intersection of science and faith (20:55)
- Why some religions have an easier time aligning with science while others don’t (25:32)
- Holding two different views at different times: How science and faith can come together more (28:57)
- How to build a movement of people from different religions who are also motivated by very different things (36:37)
- Climate Justice: The number one overarching justice issue for the planet (39:12)
- Embracing literal discomfort in order to cut back our carbon footprint and live in a more sustainable way (43:14)
- Learning how to win by practising discomfort (49:30)
- Analyzing the growing consciousness of connection in the world (55:28)
Connect with Philip Clayton:
- Philip’s Website
- Philip on Facebook
- The Institute for Ecological Civilization
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I had a chat with Alina Siegfried, a New Zealand-based storyteller, narrative strategist, systems change advocate, TEDx speaker, and award-winning spoken word artist whose stage name is Ali Jacs. Alina’s journey in storytelling and communications has taken her through environmental advocacy, political issues campaigning, social enterprise, crowdfunding, arts, and community development. In her role as the founding communications lead of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, she’s helped bring together a global community of 500 world-leading entrepreneurs, investors, artists, and system change leaders to develop transformative solutions to pressing global challenges.
Her book, A Future Untold: The Power of Story to Transform the World and Ourselves, will be published at the end of this month (October 2021), and is centered around Alina’s own 15-year journey through storytelling and creating narratives for systems change. With the current widespread awareness that the systems upon which we rely on are harming us and our planet, there’s a great need to come up with radical solutions that we can use to shift those systems. Alina will share some solutions with us and tell us how we can use storytelling to challenge and trigger ourselves to seek out discomfort in order to find new ways of being and acting. Stay tuned for more of our inspiring conversation.
Key Points Discussed:
- Announcing herself as gay to an audience of 700 people during a TEDx ChristChurch talk she was doing and how it changed her life (05:07)
- Understanding the power of storytelling (11:08)
- Listening to the stories of others so we can work towards addressing polarization (16:21)
- Changing our relationship with certainty in order to hold space for paradox (20:48)
- Why we need to move away from our individualistic way of life to build wide-scale collectivism (23:25)
- How storytelling can unite us (25:47)
- Tackling the luxury of privilege in avoiding uncomfortable conversations (30:53)
- The inspiration behind writing her book and what the process of writing it was like (36:00)
- Creating new myths for humanity to bring people together (45:01)
Resources Mentioned:
- A Future Untold: The Power of Story to Transform the World and Ourselves By Alina Siegfried
Connect with Alina Siegfried:
- Alina on LinkedIn
- Alina on Twitter
- Alina on Facebook
- Alina on Instagram
- Alina’s Website
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I chat with Becky Burchell, a talented and inspiring Arts Producer and Curator who specializes in “Hopeism” - the idea that sharing stories of hope through the arts can help us to imagine and create a better future. Becky is the founder of CHANGE Festival, a new arts festival in the UK which she created as a platform for inspirational performance, music, discussion, and workshops that invited audiences to consider their own role in manifesting positive change.
Becky has previously curated big-name festivals as an Arts Producer (like the UK’s Bestival and Camp Bestival), creating areas and experiences across artforms from circus to carnival parades to spoken word. Becky has also worked with folk artist Sam Lee to produce the renowned Singing With Nightingale conservation event series, where musicians perform duets with wild nightingales in the woods.
The World We Made premiered at CHANGE Festival 2019 and was a groundbreaking new play that Becky envisaged and produced, set in 2050, and inspired by pioneering environmentalist Jonathon Porritt's book of the same name. Becky is also a Fellow of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, an internationally renowned research centre at the University of Surrey. Fellows explore what prosperity can mean in a world of environmental, social, and economic limits. we talk about how the arts can play a vital role in supporting all of us to be innovative, courageous, and caring in the ways we create change both within our own lives and collectively.
CHANGE Festival 2021 will take place at Warwick Arts Centre in the UK from November 5-7 and is offering a hybrid online offering. As part of this Betsy will be leading two online workshops - ‘Resilience Bootcamp: training for the future’ on November 6th and ‘Leadership Bootcamp: throw out the rulebook’ on November 7. Both are welcome to all and accessible from anywhere in the world (as long as you have an internet connection). They’re donation-based, so come along and if you can pay for a place for someone else too!
Key Points Discussed:
- The journey that led her to creating and launching the CHANGE festival (05:42)
- Taking a completely different approach to activism and how to balance out the doomism all around us (14:30)
- How people have changed in what they want from entertainment (18:48)
- Inspiring change through festivals and the arts in general (21:10)
- Employing playful activism to bring about a better future (28:20)
- Rise Up: Why the upcoming CHANGE festival will be based on this theme (36:01)
- Highlighting the story of Rachel Carson, the unlikely activist (40:03)
- Having productive disagreements while still working together to make the world a better place (43:14)
Connect with Becky Burchell:
- Becky on Twitter
- www.ChangeFestival.org
- Chettle Village on Instagram
- CHANGE Festival’s ‘Resilience bootcamp: training for the future’ with Betsy on November 6th
- CHANGE Festival’s ‘Rise up and lead: throw out the rulebook’ with Betsy on November 7th
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow, and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I’ll break down what implicit biases are, how they cause unconscious discrimination, impact relationships, and how we interact with the world. See how you can discover your own biases (because we all have them) so you can address them and be a bigger and better human. It’s all about conscious awareness of something that is largely unconscious (implicit biases). Knowing that is freeing.
While a lot of people might like to believe that they don’t have any biases, the reality is that we all do, whether we like it or not. Someone might even express explicit disapproval of a certain attitude or belief while still harboring related, unconscious biases. That’s unconsciously stressful because that means we aren’t aligned. (And people can hold positive or even negative associations about their own race, gender, religion, sexuality, or other characteristics.)
The good news is that implicit biases aren’t set in stone. We all have the opportunity to ‘begin again,’ as Buddhism teaches us and which I talk about. It’s always possible to adopt new attitudes, to grow, to change. The first step is awareness. I can’t wait to see the amazing change we can make in the world if we each take a brave look at ourselves and are willing to do some work on anything we find there that doesn’t align with our vision for a better world. I’m in this with you. Onward...
Key Points Discussed:
- The jitters of sharing my thoughts online when cancel culture is such a Thing (00:44)
- Discovering and addressing our implicit biases (03:00)
- Taking a bias test and finding out my own implicit biases (05:49)
- Where our biases come from and embracing the fact that we can “begin again” (07:11)
- Applying your newly found consciousness towards doing something about how systems in the world are oppressing people (10:34)
- Getting uncomfortable to make the world a better place before the discomfort comes to you (16:11)
Resources Mentioned:
- The Harvard Implicit Bias Tests
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review our show wherever you get your podcasts, and share how the episode has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I’ve interviewed Martin Roberts, the Director of eLearning at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). Martin leads CISL’s open, customized, and blended digital learning programmes and is an expert in digital education, sustainability, and business leadership. He’s worked in diverse sectors around the world, including the private and public sectors in several African countries, where he built the capability of leaders to address their natural resource challenges.
Martin has a track record of creating ambitious and commercially successful digital learning programmes with proven impact and has a set of unique skills and experience that have enabled him to support leaders and their global companies to achieve transformational change. He has a passion for democratizing learning and promoting engaging and accessible educational opportunities for future learners in blended and online formats at the scale needed to accelerate change and address challenges in the 21st century. Tune in as he shares his incredible back story and wisdom around the power of digital learning, sustainability, addressing global inequality, the future of leadership, and the role of business in solving critical problems in the world.
Key Points Discussed:
- Why he works towards addressing the enormous gaps in inequality that he came across working in sustainability both in Africa and the UK (05:10)
- Working with business and wider sectors to scale his impact quickly and improve the lives of more people (08:29)
- Contributing to the empowerment of individuals and organizations to take leadership so they can tackle critical challenges (10:06)
- How he works as part of the establishment without being part of the problem (13:29)
- Putting purpose at the very heart of leadership (15:51)
- The importance of understanding the interconnectivity of sustainability (19:00)
- Future of leadership: Being more open to listening and collaborating with others and why more female leadership is necessary (21:46)
- Being a leader without necessarily having the formal title of leadership (25:24)
- What CISL is doing to improve access to their digital learning courses for people who can’t afford them or don’t have access to technology (32:38)
- What needs to be done to ensure more diversity in leadership (35:44)
- Being uncomfortable as a leader to keep moving forward and being innovative (39:16)
Connect with Martin:
- Martin on LinkedIn
- Martin on Twitter
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
In this episode, I’ll be sitting down with Ben Bowen, the Co-Founder, and CEO of Shared Path Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation in Australia. Shared Path is a social enterprise that aims to incubate indigenous entrepreneurial talent and business skills. They develop small enterprises and micro-businesses to use as training grounds for indigenous people to develop their own capacity and their own enterprises. That enables indigenous communities to positively impact social issues and achieve economic independence through business development and community capacity. Access to tech and skill in working with it also gives them the freedom to stay on their ancestral land, rather than having to relocate to cities to find work.
Ben is an indigenous Australian whose ancestors were the original inhabitants of what’s now known as Sydney’s inner west. He has been a professional athlete, a corporate coach and facilitator, and a designer of innovative health and education programs. Ben will share the Shared Path backstory and talk about some of the embedded biases in the tech industry that affect indigenous communities, the indigenous success model (and what we can learn from it to ensure much needed collective change), and the opportunities and empowerment that technology has been bringing to indigenous communities who are adopting it (Like language preservation and remote access to jobs). Stay tuned for that and so much more.
Key Points Discussed:
- The standout moments that changed his life and now drive who he is and what he does in the world (04:25)
- Promoting the meaningful education of indigenous kids so they can take advantage of local opportunities to grow their communities (06:25)
- How the idea for Shared Path was conceived and how they have leveraged technology to achieve their mission (10:35)
- Helping the wider community rediscover relevant and valuable but forgotten indigenous wisdom (16:48)
- Why it’s critical to free ourselves from the systems that make it more difficult to change and be adaptable (22:01)
- The massive impact of bias in tech on indigenous communities (24:22)
- Technology to the rescue: How indigenous communities are continuously empowered by the technologies that they adopt (31:44)
- Riding the Covid wave to better represent indigenous communities and link them with the rest of the world regardless of their location (36:40)
- Employing technology to facilitate cultural preservation (41:15)
- Reflecting, Inspiring, and Growing: The power of the indigenous success model (46:29)
- Seeing past our deficit and bias to see indigenous communities as who they really are (50:44)
Connect with Ben Bowen:
- Ben on LinkedIn
- Ben on Twitter
Connect with Betsy:
- Betsy on Instagram
- Betsy on Twitter
- Betsy on Linkedin
Rate, Review, Learn, and Share
Thanks for tuning into The Discomfort Practice! If you enjoyed this episode, please drop us a five-star and written review, follow and share how it has benefited you. Don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite ones on social media!
This second part of the conversation with Adam covers his tech startup Tula and mission to help people find ways to truly connect via tech platforms.
If you haven't checked out the first half of this conversation, go back to episode 44; it really lays the groundwork for this one. It's all about how we manage conversations in which we can disagree without having to hate each other.
Connect with Adam & find out more about Tula on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamnosal/
In this first conversation of Season 3, Betsy & guest Adam Nosal talk about their opposing vaccine decisions & co-host a nurturing conversation in which they disagree, learn some things and still like each other. We hope you find it enjoyable, thought-provoking and productive.
Check out episode 45 for the second part of this conversation, focusing on Adam's tech startup & mission to help people make tech more human.
Find Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed to get more info about Adam and Tula
After a wee summer break, Betsy is launching a shiny new season. She'll focus specifically on the discomfort of change and how each guest's work is helping to shape, evolve and innovate how we think, act and ARE in creating 'the new human experience,' in which all beings and this planet can truly thrive.
Dive into this season, explore past episodes and join Betsy in exploring the usefulness of discomfort.
Find Betsy on Instagram and Twitter @thebetsyreed
Share this podcast with other people!
This is basically a love story to naps. Betsy talks about how the stillness of 2020 revealed her super power: when she is well-rested opportunities and invitations come her way. Hear her talk about her Human Design journey as a Projector.
The Discomfort Practice will be taking August off, so catch up on episodes you haven't listened to yet, get some rest yourself and tune in for Season 3, launching in September.
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Nicole Lohse is a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner whose work helps people listen to their bodies and move past the blocks that are stopping them from living a fulfilling life.
Betsy and Nicole talk about somatics, neuroscience, trauma and discomfort and Betsy does a bit of somatic experiencing herself.
Find Nicole on IG @nlohse and Betsy @thebetsyreed
In this Discomfort Running Buddies chat with Betsy's IRL friend, voiceover artist Jen Carr (who's also a mindful eating coach), they talk about stepping into their gifts, what it took to give themselves permission to use their voices and speak up in the world, and how following what's easy has taken them amazing places.
They shoot the shit on vocal technique, the value of breathing, power poses and other juicy nuggets on how to unleash your voice and personal power on the world.
Find Jen's voice on the Passport podcast. She's on IG @mindandplate
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Marilise de Villier's book 'Roar' is an inspirational story about dealing with the bully in her life, finding her voice and having the courage to ROAR! As a writer and coach, she's passionate about giving vulnerable people a voice and helping people to get over their biggest obstacles to live their best lives.
Betsy & Marilise talk about lessons in submissive & dominant power via pro dominatrix Kasia Urbaniak's book 'Unbound,' when life shows you you’re ‘climbing the wrong mountain’ the power of being able to ask for help. Mmm, juicy.
Marilise's Tedx talk from June 2021 is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za6AMABaBtA
You can find her on IG @marilisebasson
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Chitra Nadarajah leads the climate emergency work at England's largest county council. In her native Malaysia she worked in environmental issues before moving to the UK, establishing her career & starting a family.
Betsy & Chitra discuss Chitra's experience as an Asian female leader in a largely white male environment and as a single mother to a mixed-race teenage daughter. They chat about the joy of personal style & creating work-life balance.
Find Chitra on IG @chitrasthings
Betsy is @thebetsyreed
In this episode, Betsy shares the edges of her own comfort zone just now. She talks about quitting things and leaving space, the freedom of shaking off fear of disappointing others and how fear of 'being difficult' is a massive energy suck.
She also invites listeners to contribute to the planning of Season 3, launching in September and focused on the discomfort and inspiration of 'stepping into the new human experience.'
Get in touch if you like: betsy@betsy-reed.com / IG @thebetsyreed
In the second 'Discomfort Running Buddies' episode, Betsy talks to one of her IRL friends about trauma.
Betsy talks to her friend Luis Amaro, an art director & professional wrestler from Venezuela who experienced significant violence due to the ongoing instability in his home country. Betsy talks about childhood trauma and abuse, & both discuss how trauma has shaped them, how they've healed & how it's accelerated personal growth.
Luis is on IG @louchakao
Betsy is on IG @thebetsyreed
Flaviano Bianchini is a scientist, the Founder of Source International & a Fellow of the Ashoka Foundation. His work on the extractive industry's impact on local environments & communities has led to the modification of mining laws and practices in Latin America.
Betsy & Flaviano chat about what's in our smartphones, how the scientific approach can help us navigate fake news & what it's like to live with death threats because of his work.
More on IG @source_int
Ashoka Foundation is on IG @ashokaglobal
Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
María Scharrón-del Río, Ph.D. is Associate Dean of the School of Education & Professor of the School Counseling Graduate Program at Brooklyn College. They're a leader in GLARE (GLBTQ Advocacy in Research & Education), committed to the development of multicultural competencies in counselors, psychologists, & educators.
Betsy & Maria chat about the role of education in making space for all people to show up as themselves in all of their intersecting identities.
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Jean Callanan's international corporate career spans well-known names like Unilever, Waterford Crystal & Guinness. She runs 'strategic thinking consultancy' Momenta Hub & is Chair of the Irish Hospice Foundation, which promotes discussion of death, dying & bereavement.
Betsy & Jean chat about burnout, leaving corporate life, hiking the Camino de Santiago alone & the need to have uncomfortable but necessary conversations about death & dying.
The Irish Hospice Foundation provides a 'Think Ahead' guide for planning & recording wishes for key details related to illness & death.
Jean is on IG @jeancallananmomenta
Betsy is @thebetsyreed
Hannah Vaughan Jones is an Emmy-nominated journalist & broadcaster for CNN International and Sky News. She & her husband, fellow newsreader Lewis Vaughn Jones, publicly documented their struggles with infertility in a widely-watched YouTube series 'Our IVF Diary.'
Betsy & Hannah talk about how experiencing failure has been freeing, how to support those going through IVF & what Han has learned through infertility.
Find Hannah on IG/Twitter @hvaughanjones
Follow Betsy on IG/Twitter @thebetsyreed
Christina Bradley is a creative coach, author, former actress & founder of The Creativity Campus.
Betsy & Christina talk about how everyone is creative but often need to give ourselves permission to connect with & nurture it. Betsy shares how she reconnected with playing her cello after having had to leave her instrument behind when moving to another country. This is a juicy, joyful episode. Enjoy!
Find Christina on IG @the_creativity_campus_official
Betsy is on IG/Twitter @thebetsyreed
Scott Robinson is a Senior Lecturer at The Academy of Applied Movement Neurology who brings his background in competitive sports to his work helping people to rewire their nervous systems to live the lives they truly want to live.
Betsy & Scott chat about how our nervous systems and subconscious programmes determine our wellbeing, and can hinder or help us to live our best lives.
Find Scott on IG @the.brain.guy
Follow Betsy on IG/Twitter @thebetsyreed
After a tech shitshow of a week, Betsy gave up on salvaging the interview she had wanted to post and recorded a solo episode on how uncomfortable it is to fail. On some of the neuroscience of failing and discomfort. And on how important it is to ask for help, say no or let yourself rest if you are also a recovering control freak overachiever like she is. Enjoy. Relate. Get in touch.
Find Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Become a Patreon supporter to access bonus content www.patreon.com/thediscomfortpractice
The Rev Fred Davie is an openly gay, Black ordained minister who's Executive VP of Union Theological Seminary, Chair of the body providing civilian oversight of the NYC Police Department & a Commissioner for the to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
Betsy & Fred chat about the power of just showing up, focusing on the flow rather than the barriers & how to step into the full expression of everything you are.
Betsy's on IG @thebetsyreed
Patreon = patreon.com/thediscomfortpractice
Sometimes being someone who practices discomfort means being able to step away and find comfort. Here's a brief meditation recently given live by Betsy that can help you find your way back to your natural state of inner silence. Whether you're sitting, lying down, walking somewhere or driving, tune in and get quiet...
In this solo episode, Betsy talks about recent news that Patrisse Khan-Cullors, co-founder and volunteer Chair of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, has recently bought herself some nice properties and the media and 'activist types' have expressed outrage. Betsy asks, 'What does it say about us that we require our heroes to be martyrs, and we attack them when they aren't? What are we avoiding in ourselves?'
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed Become a supporter & access bonus material at my Patreon
Roopa Mehta is President of the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO), leads the Sasha Association for Craft Producers in India and has been a champion of conscious consumption since the 1970s.
Betsy and Roopa talk about whether or not life is actually 80% discomfort, the power of anyone to have a positive impact and whether or not Covid has made people more conscious in their purchasing decisions.
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Become a Patreon supporter to access bonus material from Betsy
This is the first 'Discomfort Running Buddies' episode, in which Betsy talks to one of her IRL friends who's a companion on the path of inner exploration and challenging and supporting each other to get uncomfortable in order to evolve. She's joined by Catherine Garner, a former medical professional whose deep understanding of comfort and discomfort informs her work as an artist.
Each Wednesday at 16.00 CET/15.00 BST /10 EST Betsy & Catherine will be hosting #ComfortZoneChats on Clubhouse, where anyone can join and listen or contribute to discussion on the theme of the week in a safe space. April 7th's chat will be on 'comfort vs discomfort.'
The link to the chat is here. So save it in your calendar and come join us!
Find Catherine on IG @catherinegarnerartist
Betsy is @thebetsyreed
Explicit content alert There is a healthy amount of swearing in this episode, so if that's an edge of your comfort zone you're happy to keep where it is or you have children around, you might want to skip this one or grab your headphones.
Traver Boehm is a former MMA fighter who's also an acupuncturist, TEDx speaker and the founder of #UNcivilized, a movement inspiring millions of men to shift their experience of masculinity.
Betsy and Traver talk about how cage fighting gave him a fundamental relationship with discomfort, how men's inability to express emotion is literally killing them and how the UNcivilized movement is changing that.
Follow Traver on IG @traverboehm and find out more about his book, his talks and the UNcivilized movement on his website manuncivilized.com
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed and become a Patreon supporter to access bonus material!
In this latest solo episode of Season 2, Betsy talks about how revealing her personal life on this podcast is part of her own discomfort practice, and how to find the balance between stepping into her full powers while not traumatising herself. She talks about her intention in running her 'sex book club' and commits to give the world what it needs from her - holistic, glorious, flawed. Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Become a Patreon supporter to access bonus material!
Maggie Murphy is the General Manager of Lewes Football Club in England. Lewes is a fan-owned club and the first in the world to pay its male and female players equally.
Betsy and Maggie talk about sports as a platform to lead social change and how important great communications are when changing norms.
Find out more about Lewes FC (and even become an owner yourself!) at https://www.lewesfc.com/owners
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Become a Patreon supporter to access bonus material from Betsy
Maria Beatrice Giovanardi's communications research led her to notice the Oxford English Dictionary (& Google) definition of 'woman' was outdated, largely negative & sexist. She started a Change.org petition to change that & in November 2020, following 34,000 signatures, the OED changed it.
Betsy & Beatrice discuss how language is everything & her next focus on changing the Italian dictionary's definition of 'woman.'
Follow Beatrice on Twitter @mbgiovanardi
Find & add your name to the petition by following Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
And become a supporter to access bonus material for The Discomfort Practice podcast
Robin Sundaram is the son of Sri Lankan immigrants to the UK, a trained economist & a key person leading sustainable sourcing for the world's biggest food company.
Betsy & Robin chat about finding allies for positive impact within a big corporate, working with dairy farmers & how to bring your true self to work to be a leader wherever you are. Prepare to be uncomfortable & inspired...
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Become a Patreon supporter to access bonus material!
Aine Rose Campbell is a model, producer, activist & founder of The Model Mafia, a collective of nearly 400 models supporting each other & making a difference on issues like #MeToo & climate change. Betsy & Aine talk about the power dynamics in modelling, the negative impact of fashion, the beauty of community & Aine's own discomfort practice. Betsy also reveals far more than she intended to about her own background. On the Internet. Welcome to Betsy's own discomfort practice... Find out more about the Model Mafia Find Aine on IG @ainerosecampbell Become a supporter & access bonus material at Patreon www.patreon.com/thediscomfortpractice Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Ed Gillespie is a keynote speaker, writer, serial entrepreneur & futurist. He’s co-founder of the Global Goals Accelerator, a board member of Greenpeace UK & author of ‘Only Planet – a flight-free adventure around the world' & a poetry collection, ‘Songs of Love in Lockdown.’
Betsy & Ed chat about when optimism is insulting, creativity in lockdown & collective wake-up calls. We ponder the future of work and life, find reasons for realistic optimism & end with one of Ed's poems.
Check out Ed's podcasts:
The Great Humbling
The Futurenauts
Buy 'Songs of Love in Lockdown' on Etsy.
Become a Patreon supporter of The Discomfort Practice to access bonus content and share the looooove and follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed
Welcome to Season 2 of The Discomfort Practice! Betsy talks about some of her upcoming guests and invites listeners to get in touch to suggest guests - leaders, activists, educators, artists and other extraordinary people whose experience of discomfort has shaped who they are and what they do to make the world a better place.
Become a supporter to access bonus episodes and meditations: www.patreon.com/thediscomfortpractice
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed & keep in touch.
Julia Dujmovits is the first Austrian to win an Olympic gold medal in snowboarding and the founder of RE/Mind company, a tech company using technology to get a billion people breathing together for a minute a day. Julia lives life on the edge of her comfort zone as an elite athlete training for her next gold medal, and as an entrepreneur.
Betsy and Julia talk about 'letting go to flow,' crashing as a necessary part of learning and how meeting guru Ram Das on Richard Branson's Necker Island changed the course of her life. https://remindunite.com https://www.ted.com/talks/julia_dujmovits_one_step_out_of_1000 Become a supporter by joining us at www.patreon.com/thediscomfortpractice Follow Betsy & keep in touch on IG @thebetsyreed
Along with hosting this podcast, Betsy is also a meditation teacher. Any time you're feeling overwhelmed or uncomfortable, take 10 minutes to sit, listen, centre yourself & set yourself a bit more free with this meditation.
Follow Betsy on IG @thebetsyreed and @betsyreedyoga
Music attribution Deep Relaxation Preview by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5726-deep-relaxation-preview License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
2020 felt like both the longest decade & best year of Betsy's life. In this episode, she sits with the discomfort & ponders what's come of it.
Look for Season 2, launching January 31st, with special bonus content for Patreon supporters -www.Patreon.com/thediscomfortpractice
Lend Betsy your feedback! DM her IG @thebetsyreed or email hello@betsy-reed.com:
* What questions do you have about discomfort?
* What guests or discomfort-related topics would you like to see featured?
Khandiz is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work ranges from high fashion makeup artist to fine art installations. Originally from South Africa, she's a self-educated, impactful and passionate activist who's focusing her creative talents and knowledge on challenging and ups killing the beauty industry and film and tv industries to have a more positive impact on the environment and the humans who work in these industries. Betsy and Khandiz talk about the content and impact of the products in our makeup bags and bathroom cabinets, greenwash and how art isn’t beautiful if it has an ugly impact. Find out more about Khandiz at www.vujadecreative.com Follow me on Instagram @TheBetsyReed & Support me on Patreon at www.patreon.com/TheDiscomfortPractice
Steve Whiteley is a writer, director, producer & comedian whom the British Comedy Guide recently called ‘One of the pioneers in the new wave of online comedy.’
Betsy & Steve talk about the role of discomfort in comedy & our ability as those in the audience to sit with discomfort, the benefit of mindfulness on creativity & how ego gets in the way. Steve talks about being a beginner with each new project - from his first standup shows to directing a tv pilot - & how his Buddhist practice centres him.
You can find more of Steve’s work via his website stevewhiteley.co and on IG @offkeysteve Follow me on Instagram @TheBetsyReed & Support me on Patreon at
Sophie Anderson is an expert in alignment. She's one of only 15 chiropractors in Europe specialising in upper cervical care, & is a Human Design guide, helping others find and live their personal design through this powerful energetic mapping system.
Betsy & Sophie talk about the impact of discomfort on the nervous system, Human Design and how discomfort can actually get worse as you start to heal.
You can find your Human Design by going to mybodygraph.com Sophie can be booked for online Human Design readings via her website The podcast Sophie refers to is 'The Expanded Podcast' by Lacey Phillips. Check out her interviews with Jenna Zoe on episodes #1 & #23. You can support The Discomfort Practice on Patreon
Follow Betsy on Instagram @TheBetsyReed and @betsyreedyoga
Bodhi Eira Jones is a flow state expert, binary-breaking revolutionary and the founder of KaiFlow, a practice that’s described as 'martial arts for the mind.’ Betsy and Bodhi talk about how breaking up with binary thinking can help to unlock and unleash our deepest, raging creativity, how Bodhi’s gender fluidity means getting to reinvent themselves every day and how 2020 has given space for us to reexamine our lives and reality. Find out more about KaiFlow and their new Rebel Majesty programme by going to kaiflow.com You can support The Discomfort Practice on Patreon
Follow me on Instagram @TheBetsyReed and @betsyreedyoga You can support me on Patreon at www.patreon.com/TheDiscomfortPractice
Follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed
In this solo episode, Betsy talks about 2020 as the massive stirring stick to bring up some deep, dark... STUFF. We're all facing our individual and collective shadow sides - the 'dark side' of the ego. And it's only through healing it that we can move forward.
Become a patron of The Discomfort Practice here: www.patreon.com/TheDiscomfortPractice
And follow Betsy on:
Instagram @thebetsyreed and @betsyreedyoga
Twitter @thebetsyreed
LinkedIn thebetsyreed
Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is an organisational psychologist, prolific author and entrepreneur whose latest book is called ‘Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And what to do about it).’ Betsy and Tomas talk about why society prefers male incompetence to female competence, how most leaders are failing to lead by avoiding discomfort, how cultivating comfortable work cultures get in the way of the innovation needed to tackle pressing issues and how 2020 has forever changed our expectations of work. You can find out more about Dr Tomas at drtomas.com
Check out his writing on Forbes here
Support The Discomfort Practice on Patreon for the cost of a coffee a month.
Follow me on Instagram @TheBetsyReed and @betsyreedyoga
Isa Noyola is a well known and respected translatina activist and trans leader in the US. She talks about her work to end ICE detention of trans migrants, what it’s like to come out as trans when you’re a first generation Mexican American pastor’s kid and how none of us is free until all of us are free. Betsy & Isa talk about being free to express the feminine in a patriarchal world, the strong values and community organising experience their religious backgrounds gave them both and reasons to be optimistic, even in (and especially in) difficult times. You can find out more about Isa’s organisation, Mijente, here: https://mijente.com
You can support me on Patreon at www.patreon.com/TheDiscomfortPractice
Follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed
Kirsty Schneeberger MBE is a distinguished environmental campaigner, leader, and CEO of London-based conservation non-profit Synchronicity Earth. Betsy and Kirsty talk about the truly uncomfortable facts around species decline, environmental degradation, climate change and political inaction. They end up in paradigm shift and the importance of living with the heart as we collectively face our 'butterfly soup’ moment, knowing some beautiful shifts will occur while still living in the dark.
In this quick solo episode, Betsy talks about being in the unknown - in a pandemic, recording while not knowing the results of the US Presidential Election, unsure of where Brexit negotiations will leave her as a British person resident in Spain. She talks about being in the 'butterfly soup' moment and how sometimes, stepping back from discomfort and nourishing ourselves is the way through discomfort.
You can find Betsy’s Patreon at www.patreon.com/TheDiscomfortPractice
And follow her on:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed/
Twitter https://twitter.com/thebetsyreed
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed/
Dr. Mick Jackson is the Founder of WildHearts, which works with business and channels its profits back into projects that help humankind. His life-changing moment (and the reason he set up WildHearts) came after a harrowing adventure that involved carrying his dying sherpa for four days after his lungs collapsed while climbing Broad Peak and K2.
Betsy and Mick talk about getting comfortable with discomfort, how travel helps us to see the world through the perspective of others, how anyone can be an entrepreneur, and how he’s had to pivot his business model and successful MicroTyco programme- and created unexpected impact - as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns.
Follow Wild Hearts Group on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/wildheartsgroup/
Check out their website at https://www.wildheartsgroup.com
Follow them on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/wildhearts/
Watch their videos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/thewildheartsteam
And see them on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/wildheartsgroup
Nick Bridwell is a writer and journalist living in Plano, Texas. The murder of George Floyd by police was the catalyst to prompt him and long-time friend, performer So Sique, to create the Uncomfortable Conversations podcast. It’s a place for real conversations about the social issues plaguing modern-day America - conversations people haven’t had but need to.
Betsy and Nick talk about Nick’s fresh decision to quit his job to pursue work he feels is more aligned with his purpose, the value of dialogue with people you know will disagree with you, and how uncomfortable it can be to say what you value and want.
Find Nick on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nickbridwellwriter/
And check out his writing on his website www.nickbridwellwriter.com
Follow Uncomfortable Conversations on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/uncomfortable.convos/
On their website at www.uncomfortable-convos.com
And watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuiOzmANXa7jQu12Lb7wctQ
Lucie Lincoln is a writer, content creator, organisational culture expert and host of the podcast ‘Almost Grown… Up,’ the podcast ‘for Millennials who don’t want to grow up but have unfortunately realised they might have to.’
Betsy and Lucie talk about being ‘discomfort running buddies’ together in Barcelona, how excruciating it can be to put creative projects into the world and explore the idea that the current global discomfort (we’re - hopefully - mid-pandemic at this stage), just might be a golden opportunity to nurture our creativity and a collective shift as humanity.
You can follow Lucie on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/lucie.lincoln/
Find out more about her creative projects on her website www.lucie.lincoln.com
And check out her podcast ‘Almost Grown… Up’ on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/4rOAkVNfZl1CFwZX984Abp or wherever you listen to podcasts
Jonelle Lewis is a yoga teacher, mentor, brand ambassador and respected figure in the London wellness industry (and is currently based in Los Angeles). For years she’s pointed out inconsistencies around lack of diversity, sexual harassment, cultural appropriation and privilege in the yoga and wellness world. With the spotlight on #BlackLivesMatter and systemic racism in all areas of society, Jonelle has stepped into her voice and been invited to contribute her wisdom more widely.
Betsy and Jonelle talk about ‘spiritual capitalism’ in the modern yoga industry, how Western yoga teachers need to be honest about the spiritual roots of yoga, calling out hypocrisy productively and how practicing discomfort with others provides community and accountability. Betsy confesses that, as a yoga and meditation teacher who escaped an oppressive conservative Christian background, she gets triggered by the idea of being a ‘pretendy white Hindu.’
You can follow Jonelle on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jonelleyoga
And get info on her yoga workshops on https://www.jonellelewis.com
Welcome to The Discomfort Practice, where this first episode is being re-posted late, due to technical issues posting it. In it, Betsy invites you into her own discomfort practice as she puts it all out there on the Internet, talking about coming from a conservative Christian family, coming out of the spiritual closet and reflecting on the pivotal moment over 17 years ago when she realised her White Privilege was a superpower to be used to hold space for those who don't have it.
Follow Betsy on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thebetsyreed
Her yoga account https://www.instagram.com/betsyreedyoga
Her website: www.betsy-reed.com
Her LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/thebetsyreed