Catching Z's: The Millennials Guide to Mindfulness: Recent Episodes
Nick Zolfo
This podcast is my journey as a curious millennial figuring out what it means to live fully through meditation by bringing on the greatest minds of our day.
Thanks for everyone's patience while I was VERY delayed in uploading this episode. There is no other guest I'd rather have on for my last episode then with the man that started it all with me, Zach Darmon.
The comradre picked up right where we left off and we reflected on what the podcast and what meditation has done for us in our lives, talking about some of our favorite guests and riffing on lifes biggest questions.
Thanks to everyone who tuned in over the 5 years of this podcast. If you'd like to connect with me in the future for any reason you can reach me at nickzolfo@gmail.com. Love you all!
Shauna Shapiro, PhD, is a professor, author, and internationally recognized expert in mindfulness and compassion. Nearly one million people have watched her 2017 TEDx talk "The Power of Mindfulness," rated one of the top 10 talks on mindfulness. Dr. Shapiro has published over 150 journal articles and coauthored two critically acclaimed books translated into 14 languages: The Art and Science of Mindfulness, and Mindful Discipline. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Mashable, Wired, USA Today, the Dr. Oz Show, HuffPost, Yoga Journal, and the American Psychologist. Dr. Shapiro has been an invited speaker for the King of Thailand, the Danish Government, Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Summit, and the World Council for Psychotherapy, as well as for Fortune 100 companies including Google, Cisco Systems, Procter & Gamble, and Genentech. Dr. Shapiro is a summa cum laude graduate of Duke University and a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, co-founded by the Dalai Lama.
Shauna and I chat about:
- How having spinal fusion surgery at age 17 got her into mindfulness
- "Hippie" Dad introducing her to the practices
- Mindfulness and pain management
- Happiness research
- Researching mindfulness in the 90s
- “What you practice grows stronger”
- Her latest book Good Morning I love you
- The resistance of self-love
- Choosing self compassion over shame
- Much more!
https://drshaunashapiro.com
Dr. Greyson’s interest in near-death experiences began just a few months after graduating from medical school, when he treated an unconscious patient in the emergency room who stunned him the next morning with an account of leaving her body. That event challenged his beliefs about the mind and the brain, and ultimately led him on a journey to study near-death experiences scientifically, leading to more than a hundred publications in medical journals. He co-founded the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), an organization to support and promote research into these experiences, and for 27 years edited the Journal of Near-Death Studies, the only scholarly journal dedicated to near-death research. Through his research, he has discovered common and universal themes in near-death experiences that go beyond neurophysiological or cultural interpretations, as well as patterns of consistent aftereffects on individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, values, and personalities. We chat about:
- His interest in Near Death Experiences (NDEs)
- Common themes across NDEs
- Are psychedelic experiences similar to NDEs?
- The brain during a NDE
- What happens after a person has an NDE?
- Lesson to be learned from NDEs
- What is Consciousness and where does it arise from?
- His book After
- Much more!
https://www.brucegreyson.com/
I had to get JP back on the show for my 100th Episode. At 96 years young, he emanates wisdom with every word. I let him guide the conversation and he wanted to share a couple of mantras and then we have a chat in between each of the chants. It was a true delight and we really get in the weeds on this one. Mantras chanted:
- Shanti Mantra
- Gayatri mantra
- Adi shankaracharya morning mantra
- Self-written song - Pilgrims of light
- A Jainism mantra
- Heart Sutra
Topics we weave in:
- Attachment
- Accepting death and what continues on
- Embodying religion or spiritual practices
- Eternal Love
- What is the soul?
Check out the first interviews with JP here:
Part 1
Part 2
JP's website
As a sought-after speaker, event facilitator and executive coach, Finnian has been dubbed “the Business Mystic” because of his unique ability to put consciousness into business and inspire leaders to find new levels of meaning and purpose through their creative endeavours. This approach flowed through his term as President of the Colorado Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) - the largest and most influential community of entrepreneurs in the world. Finnian helps people ‘love their path’ so they can feel content with a life lived in the now.
As an entrepreneur, Finnian built and exited two multi-million dollar companies in the financial industry. He’s the Creator and Chief Visionary Officer of Intentionality.com. Through the four paths of the Intentionality framework, Finnian guides people to be purposeful and aligned in their belief, thoughts and behaviors so they can feel more love in their life.
We talked about:
- Getting into meditation after a divorce
- How can you give yourself grace in tough times
- Pattern interrupting
- Viewing his divorce as a wonderful thing
- How we can let go of our past traumas
- The process of emotional clearing
- Equipping us with the tools to look inward at an early age
- Being intentional as a core value
- Harnessing the ego
https://www.finniankelly.com/
Alex was at a point in his life where he was throwing up his breakfast because he was so stressed and burnt out from his job. He ventured off to Australia to get away from this and find himself. His father passed away and this caused him to re-evaluate his life, turning to meditation. He went and got certified to teach meditation and has been doing it ever since. More recently, he dove into cryptocurrency and feels that it complements his spiritual practice and can provide financial freedom to those it was previously unavailable to. Alex and I chat about:
- Traveling to Australia to escape burnout from work
- The impact his father passing away had on him
- Getting certified to teach Meditation
- Mystical experience that connected him deeper
- His experience with going on 2 ayahuasca retreats
- Getting into crypto
- How he views spirituality and crypto complement each other
- Our roles as individuals in the crypto movement
- Enlighten with Alex
February 22nd Crypto Webinar
Enlighten with Alex website
Alex's Crypto community
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Aura Health 30 day free pass
Alex on Insight Timer
Hey everybody, this is my annual year in review where I reflect on the year that was. This was a year of a lot of growth mixed with a lot of pain. Such is life! I hope you enjoy my ramblings about my experiences and that they prove to be supportive to you in some way. I talk about: * Being more consistent with posting episodes and where I want the podcast to go * My 5th year of doing this podcast! * How difficult parenting is * Punching a wall and how that was a catalyst for a lot of growth * Starting therapy and leaning into who I am * Accepting and allowing * Self righteouness * Doing less
When Cesare was recommended to me by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche's team, I immediately knew it was going to be a special time with him. The depth by which he can articulate the many nuances of life was fascinating.
We talked about:
- How he got into contemplative practice through Christian Mysticism
- Finding a new way to look at life
- Getting introduced to Buddhism
- Influence after reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
- Finding out more about what already existed within you
- Following the Spiritual path
- How he relates to death
Cesare's website
Run Zen
Bodicharya Kent
Amanda Gilbert is a meditation teacher, lecturer of mindfulness at the University of Southern California, speaker, and author. She leads meditation for top companies like NBC, Paramount Pictures, W Hotels, Merrill Lynch, Macy’s, and YouTube. Before dedicating herself to teaching full-time, Amanda was the center director for the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center at the University of California, San Francisco, a world-renowned health psychology laboratory conducting scientific research and publishing investigations on the biological and psychological effects of mindfulness, meditation, and stress resilience. Her formal meditation training has been with UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, Deepak Chopra, and in the Insight Meditation tradition. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Amanda's new book, "Kindness Now" introduces her 28-day guided meditation program aimed at helping you become a kinder, more compassionate, and radically loving person. With each daily practice, you will learn how to be more resilient in the face of common stressors, including anxiety, feelings of depression, "imposter" syndrome, and social media comparison effects, and ultimately make meditation an essential part of your life and self-care practice.
I talked with Amanda about:
- Getting into meditation in high school
- Feeling at home during meditation
- How she describes "the mind"
- Being more heart centered
- The power of Love
- Honoring your identity
- Using your practice for the benefit of all beings
- How she chose Kindness for the topic of her book, "Kindness Now"
- The power of the heart practices or brahma viharas
- Living our truths
- What if we don't like the word Kindness?
https://www.amandagilbertmeditation.com/
Linda Leaming first traveled to Bhutan in 1994, and moved there three years later. This tiny Buddhist country hidden away in the Himalayas is a very happy place for many. Its king believes in Gross National Happiness instead of Gross National Product. Leaming has written two books about her life in Bhutan and how she learned to live more simply, how she laughs at herself instead of getting mad at others, and how she slows down to look for magic-- because it's everywhere. In Bhutan, she's known for using a salad spinner instead of a washing machine, and her village man makeovers. I had a great time talking with Linda as we explored:
- Being introduced to mindfulness through Bhutanese culture
- Going to Bhutan originally
- 4 pillars of gross national happiness in Bhutan
- Thinking about death 5 times a day
- Why thinking about death is constructive
- Being happy where you are
- Much more!
https://www.lindaleaming.com/
4 Pillars of Gross National Happiness
Maker Mind Newsletter where I discovered Linda
Ven. Thukten was born in a small village in Bhutan called Gelephu. She is 32 years old and 15 out of those she dedicated to the monastic life. Currently, she resides at Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in Southern India. Thukten is studying at Emory University as a Tenzin Gyatso Science Scholar. She thoroughly enjoys observing nature. Thukten was AMAZING to talk to. She walks us through so many topics:
- How her past lives influenced her becoming a nun
- What is karma?
- Mind training and why it's necessary
- What is consciousness composed of?
- How she views reaching enlightenment
- The 12 links of dependent origination
Explanation of Twelve links of dependent origination
Ora Nadrich is founder and president of the Institute for Transformational Thinking and author of Live True: A Mindfulness Guide to Authenticity. A certified life coach and mindfulness teacher, she specializes in transformational thinking, self-discovery, and mentoring new coaches as they develop their careers.
I had a great time speaking to Ora about what true transformation looks like and how to achieve it yourself. We also talked about:
- Starting off her meditation journey with TM and switching to mindfulness
- Authenticity
- How to define your authentic self
- The journey to authenticity
- What it means to go through a transformation
- Defining how you would like to change
- How to raise your consciousness
- Much more!
Ora's website
Lödrö Gyendon is a Buddhist monk living in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Raised in South Florida, Gyendon first encountered Buddhism in college when he was studying sculpture. He moved to Sravasti Abbey to deepen his study in 2011 and trained under the guidance of Bhikkshuni Thubten Chodron, before moving to Gampo Abbey in 2014 where he has lived and trained under the guidance of Pema Chödrön. We chat with Gyendon about: * How he was interested at looking for alternative lifestyles and ways of living and led him to being a monk * Difference in monastery, abbey, nunnery * Wanted to explore buddhism and the monastic life but needed refuge before he could be considered * Importance of lineage * Examining “Trust born from understanding, understanding born from trust” * His understanding with impermanence through his fathers experience of dying * Exploring the phrase from Thich Naht Hahn: “Would you freeze the whole ocean for the sake of one wave?” * Exploring the nature of mind * Transmitting vs. translating the dharma * Being American and taking on Buddhist vows * Disease of disembodiment and the utility of our bodies * Trisha hershe Nap ministry * Striving and how it can cloud our dharma practice. * Recognizing how painful attachment is * Much more!
Alan Stein, Jr. teaches proven strategies to improve organizational performance, create effective leadership, increase team cohesion and collaboration, and develop winning mindsets, rituals, and routines. A successful business owner and veteran basketball performance coach, he spent 15 years working with the highest-performing athletes on the planet (including NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant).
In addition, he's been a huge advocate for meditation for as long as he's been practicing. Alan is the real deal and I loved chatting with him for his combination of motivation and practical advice for life. Great perspective from Alan as we talk about:
- Finally getting into meditation after avoiding it for so long
- Why we should be open to trying new things for our wellness
- How important routine and preparation is
- Benefits that he’s seen through his meditation practice
- Importance of consistency and discipline
- His love for basketball and how that started
- Importance of mindset
- What his morning routine consists of
- Stories about his time with Kobe and why you should never get bored with the basics
This was another EPIC conversation, this time with Nun Tenzin Choyang. Choyang was born in Tibet and came to India to study Buddhist philosophy. She has been studying Buddhist philosophy at a nunnery for over 17 years. In between that time, she went to Emory University in the United State to learn science and scientific techniques. Currently she is continuing her Buddhist study in Mundgod near Drepung Loselling Monastery in India.
We talked with her about SO MUCH! Including:
- Feminism in Tibetan Buddhism
- Running away from tibet on a month long journey to India to become a nun
- The importance of studying logic
- How to introduce logic and investigation techniques to children
- What she thought the monastery was going to be and what it actually was
- The concepts of Emptiness and Compassion
- How to come to experiential knowledge
- Studying science at Emory and bringing that back to her nunnery to teach
- The value of hope
- How we can decipher our emotions correctly
- How we can lessen the power of the ego
- Using lovingkindness to show up authentically for others
- Reincarnation and Karma
- Social emotional ethics
Carley Hauck is a learning architect, leadership development consultant, author, speaker, and serves as adjunct faculty at Stanford University and UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. For the last decade, she has served hundreds of leaders and companies in Fortune 100 companies and high growth start-ups such as: LinkedIn, Genentech, Pixar, Clif Bar, Intuit, and Bank of the West. She helps them cultivate their recipes for resilience and create thriving workplaces and mission driven businesses. In her upcoming book, Shine- Ignite your inner game to lead consciously at work and the world, Carley guides readers on a transformational inner to outer journey to inspire a new workplace and world that works for everyone and prioritizes people and planet first. Carley’s writing and work has been featured in Mindful Magazine, Conscious Company Media, 15 Five, and Emerging Women. Additionally, Carley is the host of the inspiring Shine podcast.
Carley and I had a wonderful inspiring chat as we talked about:
- How her Yoga practice got her into meditation
- Why she’s drawn to wisdom and how she defines it
- What nature can teach us about our internal environment
- Layers of a spiritual journey and where she is at currently
- Moving from your Head to your heart
- Tapping into the resilience that is already within you and a resilience exercise
- Her organization Leading from Wholeness
- Her book “Shine: Ignite your inner game to lead consciously at work and in the world”
- Using emotional intelligence with conscious leadership
- How our perspective on others exposes your inner world
- Leaning into discomfort for healing
Shine Book
Carley's newsletter and podcast
Ven. Geshe Tenzin Damchoe was born in Dharamsala India and attended Tibetan Childrens Village (TCV) school until the 10th grade. After that he attended TCV Bylakuppe where he received a Bachelors of Commerce from St. Philomena’s college of Mysore University.
After graduating with his commerce degree, Geshe-la joined the Institute of Buddhist Dialectic school, where he spent over a decade studying Buddhist philosophy and earning the prestigious Geshe degree (which is equivalent to a PhD) from Drepung Loseling Monastery in south India. He later became a professor: teaching Buddhist Philosophy and Practices at Earlham College and then at Oxford University in England as a visiting scholar. Geshe-la now works at Sarah College for higher Tibetan studies as a program coordinator and renowned lecturer for Buddhist Philosophy studies.
Given his expertise, Marshall and I discussed with Ven Geshe-la:
- How he became a monk
- Prevalence of monks in tibet
- What does being a geshe mean
- How to keep your cup of knowledge from getting full
- Respecting others by thinking about their good qualities
- Self centered attitude vs. self-cherising
- Unconditional vs. Conditional love
- Interdependence of everything
- Two different types of meditation: Analytical and one pointed meditation
- Two different types of compassion: Emotional and Wisdom
- Positive influence western traditions have had on him
- How karma and murphy’s law share similarities
- 4 Noble Truths
- Contextualizing the four noble truths and 8-fold path as they pertain to coping and surviving the COVID-19 crisis.
- The utility of the identities we hold
- How Finding nemo shows us a great example of the 4 noble truths
Thomas J. Bushlack (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) is currently the Regional Director of Mission Integration with SSM Health in St. Louis, MO. He brings over 20 years of experience in higher education, public speaking, leading retreats, leadership coaching, and consulting in organizational development in mission integration. Tom’s expertise is in integrating Contemplative Practices with Ethics & Wise Decision-Making. He enjoys helping leaders to harness their innate capacity for wisdom for success in professional and personal life. As the creator of the Centering for Wisdom™ Assessment tool, and the founder of Kalon Enterprises, LLC, Tom knows the struggles of being a good leader and growing a successful business aligned with personal and corporate values – all in service to the common good. Based in Metro St. Louis, Tom lives with his wife, Anna, and their three young children.
https://thomasjbushlack.com/
https://centeringforwisdom.com/
Thomas' YouTube Channel
I reflect on the year that was 2020. The highs and lows and all the wonderful lessons that I learned because of having to go through it all. I talk about:
- Where the podcast is headed in 2021
- Life lessons from growing marijuana
- Experiences and thoughts on death
- Ram Dass' massive influence on me
- Love and Fear
Reach out at revibemindfulness@gmail.com !
Alex Stokes blog: How to Relax
Be Here Now
Becoming Nobody
Marshall and I met earlier this year and formed a very close bond immediately through being facilitators of the satsang we created, Unity Community. His depth of experiential knowledge and wisdom from all of the text he's read always make for a fascinating conversation. He talks about deep stuff while also making it digestible to any audience. There's something for everyone in this episode!
We chat about:
- Starting Meditation in College
- His trips to India with the Emory Tibetan Science Center initiative
- Being an Interdisciplinary studies major and studying compassion
- Cultivating compassion
- Where his thirst for knowledge comes from
- Using suffering to create meaning
- Compassion and Emptiness
- His Spiritual milestones
- What is the self?
- Couple of riffs on death
- Co-founding Source Wellness
- Much more!
Source Wellness
Marshall's LinkedIn
In a time where there is so much uncertainty and many reasons to be pessimistic about the future, Asha brings us a breath of fresh air and provides us insight that brings hope. As a Black Woman, those things don't come easy but Asha puts in the internal work to be able to show up in a meaningful way for herself and for those around her.
Asha Tarry is an author, an award-winning community mental health advocate, psychotherapist, and certified life coach. As a treating provider, Asha has 20 years of experience providing evaluations, diagnoses, treatment, and life-enhancing skills to children, adults, families, and couples.
We talk about:
- A book by Arrianna huffington that got her into meditation
- How to know what to say no to
- How mindfulness can help with trauma
- Allowing awareness to be held in a safe place internally
- Asha’s experience of the current racial climate
- Power of doing the work yourself first
- How she has a positive outlook on life during COVID and the social injustice
- Why cynicism doesnt serve her
- Her book: Adulting as a Millennial and the guidance it provides
- What goes into the difficulties of millennials coming into adulthood
- Finding your purpose innately
Asha's website
Ada Velonis is the Founder of Marmalade + Kindness. Born and raised in Melbourne, she has always had a passion for baking and cooking. Being of Greek descent, food has always played a prominent role in practicing her culture and shaping her identity. Her fondest food memories are those she spent learning traditional holiday recipes under the wing of her beloved grandmother.
Inspired by her own experience, she decided to create Marmalade + Kindness as a way to share her food journey with loved ones in Australia, and to encourage others worldwide to practice ‘mindful cooking’.
We talk about:
- How her love of cooking came about
- What mindful cooking is all about and why everyone can do it
- Why cooking is therapeutic for her and can be for others
- How Marmalade + Kindness came to be
- Her mantra of "practice makes progress"
- Her mother allowing Ada to be herself which has helped her in adulthood
- The inward and outward experience of cooking
- Why cooking in the kitchen doesn't always have to be Zen!
- Her favorite meal
- A wonderful guided meditation at the end with a beautiful poem
Marmalade and Kindness
"Thursday" poem
Andre is in tune with life in a very fascinating way. He reached the milestone of 24,000 minutes meditated so I had to have him on the show to talk about his journey. We chat about:
- Imitating Pop cultures version of meditation when he started
- How meditation has had a domino effect on his life
- "Metacognition of your own life's soundtrack"
- Recognizing the Unity of Humanity
- “Would a meditator do this?”
- How meditation influenced his decision making skills
- Meditation and it's utility during COVID-19 and the racial climate
- Much more!
Andre's Youtube channel
Janelle Christa is a Hollywood coach, actress, producer, and screenwriter, and creator of “conscious entertainment”. Having come from a history of affairs, divorce, and family dysfunction as well as a bi-polar diagnosis, she strongly believes that happiness is a choice. Janelle’s level of expertise sees her coaching celebrity clients and people from all walks of life seeking to bring fulfillment into their lives. Janelle is also a founder of conscious production company Le Murian Dreams. Her and I talked about:
- The power of visualizations that got her into meditation
- How her adverse experiences caused her to dig deep into herself and turn her life around
- The power of tapping into your state of being
- How influential hope was in helping her turn her life around
- Why we should share our vulnerabilities
- Creating Conscious Media and movies
- What being a member of the #zerofucksclub means to her
- Much more!
https://www.janellechrista.com/
Alex and I met through a couple of friends just over 2 months ago now. I immediately felt his understanding of the world and the way that he articulated it was something special, so I had to have him on the podcast. I know that you'll feel the same way after listening to our conversation. We talk about:
- His introduction to meditation
- How he got into Tai Chi
- How Tai Chi enhanced his meditation practice
- The power of letting go
- An explanation of Tai Chi and the Water method
- Experiencing our physical body
- An elegant explanation of our existence on this planet
- How Tai Chi has helped him during Covid and the climate of racial injustice.
- Much more!
Devon and Craig Hase are such genuine people and speak about the deep topics of Buddhist Dharma in a very accessible way. They spread joy through their words and lighthearted nature and have recently published a book, "How Not To Be a Hot Mess" that captures so much of what makes them great to talk to, and offers a practical guide to living in today's world.
- Devon's experience of unhappiness in college along with a Pema Chodron book that led her to meditation
- Craig's chaotic teen years that led him to meditation
- The difficulty of beginning a meditation practice for Craig
- Devon going to Spirit Rock in college and having a powerful experience there that made her want to continue diving in
- How Devon + Craig met
- Being married to someone who also practices meditation
- Their current experience with an "urban" retreat
- How being on a retreat during the global pandemic is
- What they love about Dharma practice
- How their book "How Not To Be a Hot Mess" came to be
- How the chapters of their books are based on the Buddhist precepts but with a more modern approach
- Why some people (myself as an example) turn to drugs and alcohol in our teen and early 20's
- Finding clarity in your life
- How they find the lighthearted moments of life
- Tips on applying How Not To Be a Hot Mess to the current global pandemic
http://devonandcraighase.com/
Stefanie was a joy to talk to. She started meditating about 5 years ago and didn't maintain that consistently. Recent events within her life have caused her to reconnect with her meditation practice and that just so happened to be in the middle of the current global pandemic. We talked about:
- Burnout in her first job caused her to turn to Meditation 5 years ago
- What drew her to meditation during times of personal hardship
- How being the child of an immigrant helped with her resilience
- Getting back into meditation 3 months ago
- Her self awareness and how she’s cultivated this
- How meditation has helped take ownership of her mind
- Meditation during the current pandemic
- Tips for beginning your meditation practice
- Creating a community around MYND
- Why it’s so important to have mental health resources accessible
Stefanie's Twitter
Mynd website
Email Stefanie!
Miles has been on a couple of year long retreats and has found each of his experiences only further fuels his curiosity and wonder about his mind and the minds of others. He speaks very deeply about the precious inner workings of life backed by close to 10 years of devotion to these practices. We talk about:
- Doing a 10 day vipassana reatreat prior to college
- Traveling to thailand to be ordained as a monk and how this was a profound milestone in his life
- Diving into a 2 month retreat with Alan Wallace after coming back from Thailand with the desire to keep his practice going
- What is Goenka?
- How his practice continues to develop
- How true curiosity has helped his practice
- Ajahn Sucitto and how he taught Miles to pay attention to his intentions during meditation
- The feeling of just scratching the surface that continues each day
- Understanding everyone as individuals
- Monasteries of the future and how those will look
- Co-founding Dharma Gates
- Feelings about the current global pandemic
https://www.milesbukiet.com/
https://dharma-gates.org/
Miles' Masters Capstone project
Sierre is a very interesting person to chat with. She combines a depth of knowledge with a thoughtful approach to looking at life. She's only been meditating for a little over a year and already speaks about life in delicate and amazing ways! We chatted about:
- How reading Andy Puddicombe’s book got her into meditation
- Mom’s present of Transcendental Meditation
- How she relates to her mind
- Experiencing silence of her mind
- How meditation influences her physically
- Presence and Decision Making
- Meditation and Appreciating K-Pop with her sister
- Timing around adopting a meditation practice
- How Design and meditation align
- Creating novel ideas through Meditation
- Liberating structures of design thinking and meditation
- What she’s excited about with her practice
- The hardship that comes with life
I left this interview feeling more connected to the world and felt like I had traveled around the world as well. Mag is a magnificent storyteller and has made traveling a center piece to her life and marrying those two things is wonderful to experience. We chat about:
- How she got the travel bug at 11 years old when she lived in Italy for 3 years
- Why she started journaling as an outlet from her difficult upbringing
- Feeling at home in many places abroad
- What travel allowed her to find out about herself
- How connection is important for what she feels makes a place feel like home
- Innate traits that we all possess as humans that she discovered in travel
- The importance of journaling in her adventures
- Common themes that arose in her journaling showing what she values in experiences
- The impact that her grandmother had on her instilling compassion in her
- Translating her journals to the book that she wrote, “Bowing to Elephants”
- How a moving experience with Elephants led to the title of her book
- Getting into meditation later in life after a masseuse advised her to
- How to forgive deeply and how she forgave her mother
- Her favorite food and country around the world
- Loving Kindness meditation to conclude!
magdimond.com
Aaron is so in tune with the tiny details of life and how they play out in our realities. He was so fascinating to chat with that I threw out just some random questions I'd been pondering in my head and he answered them with poise and an amazing amount of thoughtfulness with each word. He is dedicating the foreseeable future to the monastic life and I'm excited to see the great things he will do there and with everything he dedicates his energy to like the organization he's starting to get college graduates exposed to the benefits of monastic life! Truly an amazing conversation every second we shared together. Listen to us talk about:
- Practicing TM in Asia at 20 years old
- Rowing and how it showed him a different experience of his mind + body
- How Ashtanga got him more into a sitting practice
- Influential teachers in his life
- How he chose to begin living the monastic life
- The benefits he’s received in the monasteries he’s lived in
- How he views suffering and deals with it
- Inspiration for Dharma Gates and how it was inspired from his own experience after college
- How Meditation can give you the power of discernment
https://dharma-gates.org/
Cheryl has a contagious energy and speaks from her heart while she talks intensely about her struggles with anxiety. She's had a long career as a musician and she has a competitive drive that helped when she added meditation to her self-care routine. She's now over 600 days in to her practice and isn't looking back. We covered a lot of topics including:
- 10 years of anxiety attacks that led to her looking into meditation
- Her feelings against meditation originally
- Tracking her happiness and life factors for a year
- How she experiences panic attacks now being over 600 days into her meditation
- How she discovered her effective self care practices
- Writing sad music as a child and how she believes it helped her be a happy person
- Keys to expressing your true self
- What her meditation practice looks like
- Discoveries she’s had about herself through meditation
- Why meditation is so important to her
- Where her practice shows up the most in her life
- How music has influenced her practice and vice versa
- Creating her recent Luminary album in a desolate town in Greece
- What she values in the production of her music
- She shares with us one of the tracks from her new album that she added positive affirmations to!
New Album "Luminary"
Cheryls Website
Alex achieved a good amount of success in high school in both sports and academics. Little did he know the real world would give him a rude awakening that would eventually manifest in a panic attack. He turned to meditation after sifting through many self help guides and has seen great benefits since then. We talk about:
- Achieving a lot at an early age setting the stage for future stress
- How having a panic attack made him look at his life deeper
- How he seeks out self help info to gain an advantage and how this led him to meditation
- His recognition of his place on earth to get him through tough times
- The benefits that he received from meditation early on
- How to turn awareness into action
- How his competitive nature crept into his meditation practice and caused him to step away for a litle bit
- Where meditation shows up in his life
- How just breathing can be a game changer
- How meditation has benefitted him in Sales
- What his new years resolution was
Jeff has a breadth of knowledge that makes chatting with him a marvel. He has degrees in neuroscience and behavioral psychology as well as a masters of Buddhist studies from Hong Kong University. I was so eager to chat with him and get his thoughts that I threw a bunch of different topics at him and he did not disappoint with any of his answers. We talked about:
- How he found there was a push and a pull to get him into meditation in the first place
- How studies in neuroscience and behavioral psychology influenced the want to go deeper into meditation
- How clinging to labels can be detrimental
- Suffering from an eating disorder and needing to relearn how to be in his body with love
- An impromptu guided meditation on loving the body that you’re in
- How our minds influence our body and how to bring a better balance to this
- How mindfulness gives us a conscious choice in life
- Why it’s important to establish boundaries around appropriate use of technology
- The power of training your attention
- How what you’re feeding your body feeds your mind
- Using your pain to teach you about how to heal
- Making me rethink how I define meditation and how narrow minded it was!
https://jeffsiegelwellness.com/
Beauty is not only her name but also classifies the amazing energy she radiates when I talked to her. She has gone through some pretty traumatic experiences in her life and has chosen a path of healing rather than a path of self destruction. The strength and confidence by which she talks about each subject we cover is outstanding and you can feel how genuine she is living through her words (and so damn well spoken through her EP) We talked about:
- Her introduction to meditation through Yoga
- Getting certified as a yoga teacher through the Africa Yoga Project
- The experience of teaching yoga in a low-income area and why she did this in part to change the image of what a person doing Yoga looks like
- Her memories teaching kids meditation and yoga
- The rise of yoga in Namibia and what has contributed to it
- How she defines her healing and how it helps her get through her trauma
- Pushing through the “grunge work” of meditation and yoga
- The release of her new EP and how it was a great form of expression for her
- What’s next for her on her healing journey
- How staying in tune with her ancestors has helped her to make decisions that align with her inner self
Beauty's twitter
Heal EP
Tasshin is currently the Assistant Director at the Monastic Academy. Saying those words to 23 year old Tasshin would have made him laugh and he would have wrote them off. His journey and his transformation is truly fascinating. He talks from a place of experience about the foundational elements of what it means to be a human and speaks about them from a place of wisdom. He admits that by no means is he a perfect person and that he still has a lot to learn but I was blown away by the depth by which he understands life after only being at the Monastic Academy for 4 years. We chat about:
- How he was introduced to meditation growing up as a unitarian universalist
- How going on a week long retreat made him decide to dedicate his life to these practices
- How he decided to dedicate his life to a meditation practice
- Finding that Thai Buddhism wasn’t for him and how this led to the decision to join the Monastic Academy
- Difference in the Monastic Academy and a traditional monastery
- Tasshin’s desire to have more people learn from monastic teachings
- What Shinzen Young’s Unified Mindfulness is
- Peace Pilgrim and the 13 different characteristics cultivated through spiritual practice
- His experience with taking the bodhisattva vows
- How lessons are learned
- What a day in the life looks like at the Monastic Academy
- The idea of perception and behavior and how meditation helps with these areas
- Much more!
Tasshin's website
Tasshin's Twitter
Monastic Academy Website
https://www.peacepilgrim.org/
Dr Danny Penman is a meditation teacher and award-winning writer and journalist. He currently writes features for the UK Daily Mail, having previously worked for the BBC, New Scientist and the Independent newspaper. He is co-author of the international bestseller Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World. I talk to Danny about
- The paragliding accident that caused him to turn to meditation
- Why people come to mindfulness from a place of desperation
- Can meditation be abused for competitive advantage?
- Is McMindfulness harmful to mindfulness?
- How meditation has been around for thousands of years in different cultures
- If there are any other ways to receive the benefits of meditation
- How meditation gives us a “direct route” to our inner selves
- The way that he defines the difference in meditation and mindfulness
- How his latest book, The Art of Breathing, came from his own frustration about global adoption of mindfulness and how he made the book digestible for anyone who wants a thorough, quick introduction to mindfulness
- How he uses his PhD in Biochemistry to approach mindfulness
- 3 things you can do to change your life
- How seemingly random things in our lives are actually meaningful
http://franticworld.com/
Danny's Twitter
Heidi has been around the wholistic wellness world for a while, she holds a Doctorate in Psychology, is a Yoga Teacher, and teaches mindfulness based therapy to create a practice that looks at the whole person instead of just a couple of pieces. She has a ton of knowledge about what it takes to be a full human and she was a joy to chat with. We talk about:
- Her experience of meditation through getting into Yoga to lose weight
- Defining the spirit and why we don’t usually tend to our spirit
- What companies are doing for millennials to help feed their spirit
- What we can learn from the Baby Boomer generation
- Why studying psychology left her wanting to know more about Anxiety + Depression
- Why she feels we shouldn't talk about anxiety and depression as illnesses
- Her new book: Soothe: Your Mind-Body-Spirit Guide for Dealing with Crappy Emotions
- Difference in Resilience + Strength and when to use each
- How to use the phrase: Strong Like Oak, or Bend Like Grass
- Guided Meditation: Breathe the way you want to feel
Xenia was experiencing bouts of depression and even suicidal thoughts and she knew that she either had to make a change or that the path she was on wouldn't end well. She decided that she needed to leave her unfulfilling job and leave her home country of Germany. She decided to make a significant change by moving to Canada as well as taking up a serious self care routine that included meditation. She has since been living life more intentionally and even opened up her own business being a Millennial Coach giving advice to her fellow millennials on how to live a life of more intention. We chat about:
- What went into her decision to leave Germany and live in Canada
- How to get outside your comfort zone
- How diversity is so important for one's life
- Living a life of more intention
- Why Millennials are going through quarter life crises and what we can do to mitigate that
- How she was able to discover her authentic self and how you can too
- What little things we can do to bring kindness to others
Free Enough Coaching
Xenia's instagram
Xenia's Facebook
Toby Sola dove into meditation in his teens when he was introduced to some contemplative practices through a neighbor who was willing to share them with him. Lyme Disease then caused him to dive even deeper into a meditation practice in a time in need. I loved this conversation because you can tell how long he's been practicing and how deeply he's experienced the benefits of meditation. We chat about:
- His first introduction to meditation through a neighbor that was into shamanistic practices
- How Lyme Disease caused him to dive deeper into meditation
- How having Lyme Disease caused him to understand how to separate your thoughts from your physical experience
- What sweat lodges are
- Shinzen Young’s philosophy
- How Shinzen Young influenced him early on and how that lead to him working with him on BrightMind
- How Brightmind designed their app to be comprehensive but not complicated
- How as a tech company focused on mindfulness he looks at the iterative process
- Toby’s research on effective pedagogies of meditation and the results from that
- His guided meditation of focusing on sounds
Toby's Twitter
BringMind Website: Use code CATCHZ for 50% off your subscription!
Jakob Brewer has an amazing awareness about himself. He just recently started getting serious about meditation and achieved a milestone of 1,000 minutes of meditation time and I had to have him on to talk about his experience. We chat about:
- How a wild epiphany during meditation caused him to want to dive deeper
- Getting to 1,000 minutes of meditation
- Previous self care regiments prior to diving deep into meditation
- How Meditation has caused allowed him to not resent his thoughts
- How meditation has influenced his spirituality
- What he was most surprised about himself that he learned through meditation
- We tackle SIYLI’s July Dyad!
Jakob's Twitter
July Dyad
Jay has a lot of experience in the design field and you can feel the mindfulness influence that he brings to his work. The way that he approaches thinking about design concepts is refreshing and forward thinking. We chat about:
- Getting exposed to meditation growing up in India and being taught the gayatri mantra
- How a jam session turned into getting deeper into meditation
- The ups and downs of sitting on a 10 day retreat
- Tips of how to keep going when starting out in meditation
- Getting into human computer interaction design
- Taking feedback on his early design concepts in graduate school
- Why Technologists should take a hippocratic oath towards product design
- What good technology design looks like
- Being an Attention activist
- Why he’s hopeful for the future of mindfulness and technology
attentionactivist.com
jayvidyarthi.com
On this month's Catching up with Catching Z's, I talk about some recent conversations that I've been having with individuals about starting a meditation practice and the benefits it can have on your life. It's important to keep in mind why this practice is worth putting forth the effort and I dive into that on this episode!
Karen Salmansohn is hilarious and is wonderful to talk to. She embraces her journey in life and talks about concepts in very digestible ways. She talks about how she has applied this to her most recent book, Instant Calm, which has 2 minute sensory meditations in it and is available everywhere August 27th.
Pre-order it at the link below!
We also talk about:
- How she got into meditation
- Her new book Instant Calm and the power of sensory meditations (including chocolate meditations)
- Why sensory meditations are helpful beginning steps to a meditation practice
- Why she describes her books genre as "Self help for people who wouldn’t be caught dead doing self help"
- How meditation can be a selfie for your soul
- How meditation and other factors gave her wild success
- How she uses humor to “jiggle free your ego”
- In what circumstances humor can backfire
- If having celebrities endorse you comes with added pressure
Pre-order Instant Calm here!
https://www.notsalmon.com/
Brian Aikens is doing amazing work in Pennsylvania teaching kids SEL and changing their lives from the inside out. He has an amazing dedication to his craft and has a true passion for helping kids. We talk about:
- How stressing out in graduate school got him introduced to meditation
- What effects he feels today from meditation
- Bringin SEL techniques into schools
- Changes that the kids go through that he sees through SEL
- How SEL helps kids get a solid foundation for life
- Insight Minds
- Little techniques to bring SEL into the classroom
- How to get kids the confidence to succeed
http://insightminds.com/
Insight Minds Twitter
Stephan is a licensed psychotherapist as well as a spiritual teacher, and he has been a pioneer in the integration of Eastern wisdom and Western psychology and in the embodiment of awakened awareness in everyday life. We had a wonderful, life-changing chat about many things but the direct approach to mindfulness he teaches is truly a life-changing practice, at least it was for me! We also talk about:
- Finding Zen as his first meditative practice
- The idea of coming home and what it means to Stephan
- What he felt he wasn’t getting from his zen practice and why this led him to get his masters in psychotherapy
- Prescription use for mental health
- Blending Mindfulness and Psychotherapy
- His new book "Beyond Mindfulness: The Direct Approach to Lasting Peace, Happiness, and Love"
- Using the Direct Approach to Mindfulness
- Defining awakening
- The Myth of Striving
https://www.stephanbodian.org
Donald Altman was a fascinating person to chat with. His background is in psychotherapy, he's a former Buddhist monk, and grounded in a lot of research and science that comes through on almost every topic that we discuss together. We talked about:
- Being a buddhist monk at the age of 40 and how this formalized his meditation practice
- How a Cadbury chocolate egg at the monastery taught him a lot about understanding himself
- What studies show about our mind wandering and our happiness
- His latest book, Reflect, and how it can be used as it's own meditation practice
- Reflection vs. rumination
- The underlying reasons for mindless eating
- Uncovering the true essence of ourselves
- How to navigate the seemingly daunting task of facing our past trauma
- How research has shown the power that gratitude can have in our lives
Get Donald's new book, Reflect, by entering promo code DONALD10 when you checkout! Get it here: https://www.pesi.com/
Donald's website
Reflect Community
Upcoming E-course from Donald
https://www.trackyourhappiness.org/
Lyonzo Vargas is a special soul and you get that vibe the minute you hear him talk. I had a great time talking to him about how he got to where he is and how visualization meditations have helped influenced that path. We chat about:
- How anxiety as an artist got him to find meditation
- The pressures that he had as an artist
- Using visualization meditation to manifest things in his life
- Mario Kart reference to life and it’s various checkpoints
- How his meditation practice has influenced his vision
- How he views manifesting things in life
- How GLBLVLLG got started and how they diversify wellness
- How the GLBVLLG experience allows people to be their most authentic selves
- Why we lack the ability to be our most authentic selves in today’s world
- We tackle SIYLI's May Dyad
https://www.glblvllg.com/
Lyonzo's twitter
This was a very special conversation for me to have with my role model, my inspiration, my father, Mike Zolfo. It gives you some good insight into why I am the way that I am. We talk about the ups and downs of being a father, how he has viewed being a father, what being a father means to him and the joy that this has brought him in his life. He gives some advice to present and future dads and talks about how he and my mom instilled resilience in us. We share an emotional moment at the end where it all comes to a head and I realize the impact that my dad has had on me and on the journey of where I am today and how I am now passing this down to my son, Wylie. Love you, Dad!
Previous episode with my dad
Loch Kelly plain and simple changed the way that I look at mindfulness. He shares many wonderful tips about the technique that he has adopted he refers to as "effortless mindfulness". We tackle many other topics along the way.
- How a broadcaster talking about a quarterback with eyes in the back of his head got him into trying to do an early form of meditation
- Deliberate mindfulness vs. effortless mindfulness
- Traveling to Asia landed him in Nepal studying effortless mindfulness
- Why some of these ancient practices were kept secret
- Research backing this practice
- His “new normal” after practicing effortless mindfulness
- What his definition of awakening is
- How to practice effortless mindfulness
- His new book (in bookstores June 5, The Way of Effortless Mindfulness
https://lochkelly.org/
Sounds like a crazy headline but truly the only thing that I can use to describe my recent experience. Hard to interpret right now, and even saying that sounds crazy but know that y'all will be along for my exploration into this new found way of meditating!
Richard Miller Episode
Loch Kelly's website
Stephan Bodian's website
Amanda is a dedicated Yogini with over 20 years of practice and fifteen years of teaching. She teaches weekly classes at the studio which she co-founded in 2001 with MC YOGI, in Point Reyes, California.
Ten Thousand Buddhas by Amanda Giacomini is a worldwide, highly sought after art project, including large scale murals & fine art paintings. Featured on National Geographic Channel, New York Magazine, Yoga Journal, Yoga International, Mantra Magazine, Origin Magazine, Marin Magazine, LA Yoga Mag, and Tricycle Magazine.
Had an amazing, life-changing chat with Amanda about a lot of things like:
- experiencing formal meditation when she was 14
- going to asia when she was 19
- how art has played an important role in her life
- how the art in the ajanta caves made a lasting impact on her and was a catalyst for the 10k buddhas adventure.
- feelings when creating art vs. meditating
https://www.10000buddhas.com/
Samuel Johns is an entrepreneur and Ironman triathlete. While working with other ambitious individuals at fast-growing companies, he realized his mission was to coach individuals to identify and connect with their core values, and from there go on to build skills and habits to live with greater clarity, connection, and wellbeing. His background in business, athletics and mindfulness serve as pillars to his work as a coach.
Samuel and I had an amazing conversation talking about how he got into Mindfulness and how that has allowed him to excel as an Ironman triathlete. He shares the benefits that he is able to receive through his practice as well as how he got started being a producer for 10% happier. He is so well spoken and relatable and I know you will find value in what he has to say!
http://www.samueljohns.com/
This was a wonderful and unique experience for me to get to interview my mom for a special mothers day episode. We get into all of the wonderful things about being a mother of 3 from her perspective as well as her role as a teacher for 23 years and how that has influenced being a mother, and vice versa. Love you, Mom!
Thirty Million Words Book
I had the privilege of taking a 5 week Mindset Course through Potential Project and I share my biggest takeaways on this episode!
Potential Project
10% Happier interview with Potential Project Founder and Director
Larry Payne, Ph.D. is an internationally respected yoga teacher and back specialist. The L.A. Times named Larry “One of America’s most respected Yoga teachers”. He co-authored Yoga Therapy Rx, Yoga for Dummies and The Business of Teaching Yoga. Larry is founding president of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, founder of the Corporate Yoga program at the J. Paul Getty Museum, the first Yoga teacher to offer Yoga classes at the World Economic Forum, co-founder of the yoga curriculum at UCLA’s School of Medicine, and the founding director of the new Yoga therapy certification program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
In this episode we talk about:
- How him and richard miller met
- How he got into yoga and the people he was fortunate to study with
- How yoga is a stress reducer
- How Krishnamarchya adapted yoga to be about the individual (vini yoga)
- The evolution of today’s yoga
- What Prime of Life yoga is
- How Yoga Therapy started
- How his want for material things has changed over time
- What his purpose in life is
https://samata.com/
Prime of Life Yoga
International Association of Yoga Therapists
Class on Common Aches + Pains
Hava Rose was truly delightful to talk with. She talks about her introduction to meditation through the delightful voice of Eckhart Tolle on the audiobook version of The Power of Now. This led her to seek a deeper calling from within and begin to address what the universe was telling her. She speaks from a place of extreme awareness and does so in an elegant way. We got into a really touching conversation about her viewpoint about death and about how this has changed recently due to some events that happened in her life, some profound insight ensued! We then talk about her current company, Namaste Nourish and how food can be used as a wellness tool and a tool for a community to be built around! We also tackle SIYLI's April Dyad by discussing what happiness means to us! Something for everyone in this one.
Namaste Nourish
Hava Rose Instagram
April 2019 Dyad
I talk about the sources of inspiration for me recently! These include Dan Harris' 10% Happier podcast, Tanur Badgley's People of Purpose Podcast newsletter, and all the things that are happening in space right now!
10% Happier Podcast
People of Purpose Newsletter
SpaceX
Virgin Galactic
NASA
Lucia Giovannini is a former Italian supermodel turned best-selling author, spiritual teacher, transformational coach, environmental & animal activist, and author of 13 books. Her best-selling book, “A Whole New Life”, was first published in Italian and is now translated into eight languages, including an English version published by Hay House India.
Lucia provided me with a wonderful conversation about many things including:
- How she first got into meditation and how that ended up with her going to india for 2 months
- How she got into modeling and why she felt a calling to leave modeling
- Even being successful having thoughts of doubt and how to overcome them
- Her book a whole new life
- What neuro semantics are and how they can help us contribute to transformation
- The importance of spirituality in transformation
- Viewing Change as a process and not a thing
luciagiovannini.com
A whole new life Facebook Group
Lucia's Facebook
I chat with Jacob Aqua about his meditation practice, his super powers, the benefits he receives from meditation, and we tackle a random SIYLI dyad prompt from September 2017!
BONUS SCAT SINGING in the intro!
J. Aqua Wellness
J. Aqua Wellness Instagram
J. Aqua Wellness Facebook
September 2017 Dyad
Kate Starling leads us in a guided meditation about tuning into the sensations of our body and mind.
Kate Starling Catching Z's Episode
Kate's Instagram
Adam started his company, Wuf Shanti, when he was 9 years old after his grandfather Jack had passed away and they wanted to do something to honor his kind and compassionate spirit and carry on the mantras that he lived out. Since then, Adam (with the help of his mom) has written 7 books and has expanded Wuf Shanti to elementary schools and children's hospitals throughout the country! He even recently had the Mindful Kids Peace Summit for teenagekids where they tackled topics like Diversity, Kindness and Anti-Bullying, Tools for Kids to De-Stress and Cope with Emotions, and even Social Emotional Learning! We talk about all of the wonderful things he is doing and about what it is like being a teenager that is born with so much technology around them. Adam had amazingly thoughtful responses to everything and I had a great time getting to know him!
Wuf Shanti
Mindful Kids Peace Summit
Wuf Shanti Facebook
Wuf Shanti Instagram
Wuf Shanti Twitter
On this month's Catching Up with Catching Z's I talk about all of the wonderful moments of mindfulness that I gain through being a parent to my son, Wylie Boone Zolfo!
Email me!
Kevin Ellerton had achieved success at an early age in the real estate business, but this wasn't fulfilling him the way he thought it would. In the most unlikely of circumstances while he was trying to pick up girls in a bookstore, Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now" impacted Kevin in a profound way. This led to him going overseas and attending a monastery and his life would forever be changed from there. He has since went on to found Meditation Magazine and traveled the world talking to Guru's about the meaning of life. Listen as I chat with Kevin about these life experiences and how they influenced the creation of Meditation Magazine.
Kevin's Youtube Channel
Meditation Magazine Instagram
https://meditationmag.com/
Kevin Ellerton Website
Excited to bring to you another wonderful conversation on this months Meditators Among Us series. I talk with one of my colleagues Elayna Spratley about her journey into meditation. We talk about:
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being a workaholic and worrier and how meditation helps those things
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how her friends relationship with her mom changed through meditation and this caused Elayna to want to explore it deeper
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spirituality + meditation being complementary
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her profound moment of awakening
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February's Dyad!
SIYLI February Dyad!
Hari and Rasanath met in 2006 and the rest is history. They both joined the same Bahkti Yoga Monastery in New York and this has caused them to be able to see the world differently and share this with many other people. We talk about:
- First getting into meditation
- Pursuing careers in Film and Wall Street prior to joining the monastery
- How they held these jobs and were living in the monastery at the same time
- Balancing ambition and stress
- What their organization Upbuild does
- How their relationship together is the cornerstone for their work
- What it would mean to "live without masks"
- much more!
A world without masks
Upbuild Website
Today I talk about how the subject of death has been coming up a lot in my life recently and try and break down the perspectives that have helped me to further understand death in my own life and also how I still struggle with this topic!
I talk about Ram Dass' No Death, No Fear workshop in this episode and it looks like the sign ups have been closed down but I recommend signing up to receive future free retreat information!
Ram Dass website
MC YOGI Episode
Catching Z's Episode with JP: Part 2
Catching Z's episode with JP: Part 1
10% happier podcast with Frank Ostaseski
Oren Jay Sofer has been practicing meditation and diving deep into the subject of nonviolent communication for over 20 years now. He brings a deep knowledge about both of these practices to this interview. You will see that he applies these concepts when speaking as he has an elegant way of using pauses and really bringing your whole self to the conversation. I chat with Oren about:
- His new book, Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication
- How he got into meditation in high school
- Going to Asia and spending two years as a renunciate
- Clearing up (for me) what equanimity means
- How we can feel emotions without letting them control us
- What is non-violent communication?
- How contemplative practices can be applied to communication
- Leading with presence in our conversations
- Much more!
Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication
orenjaysofer.com
Email me!
On this inaugural episode of profiling the many different meditators in our communities, I'm thrilled to bring to you Leo Ortiz from Covina, California! We talk about his meditation practice of 3 years, and get to know Leo's mind blowing job making space parts as a Manufacturing Engineer at NASA JPL. At the end we both take part in this month's dyad from SIYLI!
Hit Leo up!
SIYLI January Dyad
Russ Rausch leads us in a guided meditation establishing how to trust and embrace our current life situation to allow us to take action in our lives.
Vision Pursue
Russ' Catching Z's full episode
East Forest has been the leader of underground ‘sound healing’ ceremonies around the world since 2008. Using music as a tool, he has trailblazed the field of organic tech,building bridges between the digital and natural world. Being fully independent and playing in
the private shadows allowed the sound of East Forest to emerge: an emotional and spacious musical lexicon with a sound that took shape out of a practical need to play solo for five to six hours while guiding a room full of listeners in deep meditation.
East forest and I chat about first knowing meditation was making an impact on him during a psychedelic experience. We also chat about how he got into doing the East forest ceremonies, how he got into doing the type of music he does, and the creative process behind this production. We also chat about his upcoming project with Ram Dass and how he had the amazing fortune of getting to go out to Ram Dass' home in order to record the album!
http://eastforest.org/
East Forest Twitter
On this episode I talk about things that are causing me to be awe struck and have a greater appreciation for the world and life that were given. I also talk about my alternative version to New Years Resolutions as well as why I'm using the #donthatemeditate phrase a little more nowadays!
Article on why Mushrooms contain Psilocybin
Demi leads us in this short guided meditation relaxing our entire body.
Moment on the Mat
Demi episode
Erik Severinghaus has learned a ton of lessons in his life from the business world, but none of the lessons may have been more transformational than when he decided that he wanted to climb Mt. Everest. I talk to Erik about being an entrepreneur at an early age and then how he got the crazy idea that he wanted to climb Everest. We dive into:
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His journey as an entrepreneur that led him to meditation
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early stress and anxiety as an entrepreneur
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overcoming limiting beliefs
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how he got the wacky idea to climb Everest
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what it's like to reach the summit at Mt. Everest
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biggest lessons that he learned about himself on the trip
Awesome episode with a lot to apply to every day life!
Email Erik here: erik@severinghaus.com
MC YOGI is a world-renowned yoga teacher, musician, and author on a mission to introduce yoga to large, mainstream audiences. His latest album, RITUAL MYSTICAL (feat East Forest), made history by going #1 on the Electronic charts (Aug 2016). In 2015, his ONLY LOVE IS REAL album debuted #12 Billboard Heatseekers + #24 iTunes Hiphop — featuring guest performances from Matisyahu, Trevor Hall, and Dominic Balli. In September 2017, MC YOGI released his first book SPIRITUAL GRAFFITI: Finding My True Path with HarperOne. He has performed and taught yoga everywhere, from headlining festivals and nightclubs to performing in the Forbidden City in China and even at the White House. When not on the road, MC YOGI and his wife Amanda teach at their home studio, Point Reyes Yoga, in Northern California.
MC YOGI made a lasting impact on me being a humble, genuine, wise man who's had experiences that some might not believe to be true, but that is what gave him the portal into yoga and meditation. He has a deep knowledge of hip-hop, yoga, music, and meditation all which he conveys through his music and his spoken word. We talk about if it makes sense to look for a guru/teacher, which spiritual teacher, dead or alive, would make the best MC, and about how he got into blending music and yoga to live out his greatest passions. We also talk about the content of his amazing book, Spiritual Graffiti.
I loved this interview and how much it felt like I was just talking to one of my friends about spirituality. MC has a way of connecting with people that is truly unique and helps you to understand why he is reaching millions of people through his music and telling others about his life experiences.
MC YOGI Website
Email me!
John Tarrant leads us in a beauitful zen meditation with the koan, "Not knowing is the most intimate"
John Tarrant full episode
Pacific Zen Institute
I do that wonderful thing that we all like to do this time of year, reflect on the year that we had! It's been an amazing year for me, but it wasn't without its down moments. I talk through the birth of my son and the wonderful things that has brought to my life as well as the departure of Zach from this podcast and the feelings that brought to me. I also review some of the guests that I had on the show this year and reflect on what an amazing year of guests it has been!!
In 2019, I will be doing some different segments talking to everyday meditators about their practice, so please reach out to me if you're starting a practice, thinking about starting one, or have been doing it for awhile now! I'll also be getting back into doing Facebook Live guided meditations on the 1st Sunday of every month so be on the lookout for those starting on January 6th!
Catching Z's twitter
Catching Z's Facebook
Send me an email!
Niraj is a fountain of wisdom and practical tips about how to live your life more naturally and to the fullest. He knows this stuff from his first hand experience as a former pharmacist that didn't subscribe to the techniques of prescribing a ton of pills to his patients, rather he made them healthy shopping lists. He was then diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and this caused him to seek out alternative methods to treating this and that is when he found yoga, meditation, ayurvedic medicine and many other things, including his true self. He's had a prolific career in music which he combines in his breathwork technique SOMA breath. We talk about this ancient psychedelic ritual and how he has incorporated it into what he teaches as SOMA breath today. The meditation at the end is unlike anything I've ever experienced as he combines music with rhythmic breathing and chanting to create a truly new experience with oxygen and your body.
SOMA Breath
What happens one hour after drinking a can of Coke
Heyo!! I talk about how my gratefulness practice is going and about how I'm going to EMBRACE the upcoming winter season!
Ice Swim: Feeling the power from the cold
Tom Mann leads us in a beautiful meditation of recognizing our own brilliance.
Welcome to the Quest
Three Tall Trees leadership
I had the absolute pleasure of having Richard Miller come on to the podcast. He is one of the foremost authorities on Yoga Nidra here in the United States and Worldwide. He has a very calm demeanor but he understands the world in a very unique way. We talked about:
-his intro to meditation through a silent yoga class
-experiencing others energies from across the globe
-What yoga nidra is
- What iRest yoga nidra meditation is and how it's been used for soldiers returning from war, cancer patients, people with multiple multiple sclerosis, and many more
-moving testimonials about iRest
-How to tap into your unwavering essence
- An insane iRest yoga nidra guided meditation at the end!
iRest
I share my journey through Sober October and what that experience was like from a meditative perspective as well as a gratefulness practice that I've begun with my friend Jacob Aqua. Also had a really cool moment with my wife recently that I share!
Guru Singh guides us in a beautiful meditation about relating to the infinite stranger that is the breath and our participation in breathing it.
Guru Singh Website
Guru Singh podcast episode
When I heard that Grace was "one of the coolest millennials" that Michelle Gale knows, I knew I had to get her on the podcast. She was nothing short of amazing. Being curious and getting introduced to yoga at a young age allows her to have a wisdom to her words that let you know she's done the work to get to where she is today. I talk to her about:
- Introduction to yoga/mindfulness early on
- Getting "answers" to her questions about life
- How to embody your mindfulness practice
- Her work with Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI) including her most recent trip to Rwanda
- How we can show up more as mindful millennials/humans!
- Much more!
Grace's Website
SIYLI
Shake Hands with the Devil book
My spiritual friend Jacob Aqua joins me on this episode of Catching up with Catching Z's as we explore SIYLI's Octobers Dyad question:
What does mindful leadership mean to you? What are some examples? How might you best cultivate mindful leadership for yourself?
Link to other Dyads and SIYLI resources
Mike Pearson leads us on a guided meditation for 2 minutes observing our breath in order to try and incorporate a practice into everyday life.
http://www.welcometothequest.com/
Thrilled to bring to you an awesome interview on a technique that I personally had no knowledge of before reading a couple of articles, Sophrology. You will hear about the roots of Alfonso Caycedo developing this technique in the 60's and how he studied eastern contemplative techniques to come up with this new self-development technique. We chat with Dominique, founder of BeSophro about how when she got her Masters in Caycedian Sophrology she had the unique opportunity to study with Alfonso himself and what that meant to her. Dominique was a wonderful soft-spoken guest that had a lot of powerful things to say about the technique that has transformed her life and how she is now able to bring that to all of her clients. She guides us through a brief sophrology exercise at the end, and that was a pretty unique experience!
Be-Sophro Website
BeSophro
The Life Changing Power of Sophrology
This weeks episode Nick addresses changes that are going on in his life, including some changes to the podcast. He talks about how meditation has helped him to get through these changes!
Lena Dicken leads us in a meditation incorporating going inward and outward.
Saltwater Sessions
Today we have the pleasure of bringing on two wonderful ladies, Justine and Rachel from LulaFit. They each bring a unique perspective as they've been yoga teachers for different lengths of time. In this episode you will hear us talk about:
- How and when they got into yoga
- The yoga exercise craze and what it means for yoga
- How to start a practice on your own
- As yoga teachers what do they look for in a yoga class?
- Working a job you're passionate about and how to do that yourself
- A wonderful loving kindness meditation at the end!
Lulafit Website
Books:
The Power of Habit
The places that scare you by Pema Chodron
Sharon Salzberg leads us in a very simple, calming meditation.
Sharon Salzberg interview
https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/
Zach and Nick chat about this months Dyad: What is one daily mindfulness or compassion practice that might help you develop your well-being? The well-being of others?
SIYLI Dyad Resources
http://humanetech.com/take-control/
We had the pleasure of having another one of the lovely gentlemen from MeditationWorks join us for this episode. This time we interviewed Josh Leider, Chief Marketing Officer and cousin of Co-Founder Jake Leider. Josh brought a unique perspective as he talks about how camp brought him into his mindfulness practice and how camp brings out the best in us. We talk about the benefits of in person meditation vs. app based meditation. Josh has some great perspectives to share as a millennial entrepreneur in the meditation space. Stay tuned for his meditation at the end!
https://meditationworks.com/
Jake Leider Episode
Jon Carson leads us in a short, simple breath meditation that can be done at any time to help keep us centered.
Jon's Twitter
https://www.mindfulcop.com/
Hope everyone had a labor-free, Labor Day. This week we are thrilled to have a one of a kind guest on our show Jalen Gildersleeve. Jalen not only has an amazing company called, MindHaK, but he lives his life with a passion, gusto, and relentlessness that should be used for a role model for all living beings. By the way! Stay tuned until the end for an amazing meditation to help you ease into your week! Jalen Gildersleeve LinkedIn
Nick and Zach chop it up about Search Inside Yourself Leadership Insitutues (SIYLI) August Dyad that asks this question: What is one meaningful, achievable change you would like to make in your work, life or in the world? How can mindfulness support you?
August 2018 Dyad
In this day in age where technology is creeping deeper and deeper into all the slits of our lives ,Susan Reynolds is doing something about it for the people who need it the most. Through Susan's creation of Mindhood, college students are taking a more mindful approach to their lives, whether that be school work, relationships, or mindful "beer pong"! Listen on how through Susans passion, the world is becoming a better place around her.
Mindhood Website
Susans Twitter
Tanur Badgley takes us on a very simple guided meditation fresh off of his 10 day retreat in Thailand.
People of Purpose Podcast
Tanur's Facebook
We all use our phones for many things in our lives (even listening to this podcast!), but what if we could be more intentional about that use? That's what Andrew Dunn is looking to solve with his app, Siempo. It changes our relationship with our phone. We talk with him about the app itself and how that got started and his involvement in trying to change the way we think about starting a company. Andrew shares with us his relationship with money, what gives him the most gratitude in his work, and many more topics!
Siempo
Zebras Unite
Center for Humane Technology
Mindhood
Zach and Nick talk about Nick's recent vacation and about Nick's most recent struggles brought about by not meditating and how he was able to get through this.
Guru Singh Newsletter
You can't draw the horse, unless you first become the horse" This episode we are thrilled to have Alonzo King on the show. Alonzo King is most known for his expertise in ballet choreography, but he's so much more than that. Learning at an early age from his parents during the Civil Rights Era, Alonzo understood the idea of suffering and sacrifice for something that is bigger than himself. Alonzo takes those life lessons and lets them fuel his love, energy, and appreciation for loge.
Alonzo King
Alonzo King Twitter
Holly leads us on a wonderful and simple guided meditation.
https://korumindfulness.org/