Awareness

“Our ego was created to protect us. It comes up as a protection mechanism.”

Part of our journey through life is to learn to navigate and work with the ego. The ego is a powerful force that can keep us trapped in a victim mindset, unconscious ways of being, and stories and narratives that aren’t conducive to the way we want to live. As a result, it’s tempting to try to ‘kill’ the ego. 

But what if a more powerful path is to learn how to befriend it.

In this episode, I’m talking with Rob Sirstins. Rob is a coach and teacher who helps people find their warriors within so they can change the narrative in their own heads and get on the path of their fullest potential. He’s also a published author whose latest book Ego of The Warrior, empowers people to partner with their ego instead of trying to fight it. 

I read the book, it greatly impacted my life, and I’m pumped that you can now tap into Rob’s brilliance through this episode.  

I’ve known Rob for a number of years now. He’s a dear friend and we attend many of the same healing communities together. Rob inspires me because he’s so deeply committed to the work. He’s someone who took his healing journey into his own hands – despite the challenges he’s faced. 

He was abandoned as a child, he experienced racism and a rock bottom that almost drove him to take his own life. His courage to discover who he really is created a space where the past no longer controlled his future. Today, Rob is a fierce leader who empowers others to claim their fullest potential. 

Tune into this episode to hear Rob and I explore: 

• Understanding the origin of the victim mindset. 
• Why our egos keep us trapped in disempowering realities. 
• Finding an awareness that dismantles the victim mentality. 
• The power of having people call you out on the things you can’t see.
• Why self-love is a fundamental aspect of dismantling the victim. 
• Why your identity fears self-forgiveness. 
• Developing tools to navigate your ego. 
• Asking for help. 
• And more…

Tune in now to discover some practical tips and suggestions – inspired by Rob’s personal experiences – that will help you dismantle your victim mindset and learn to befriend your ego. 

Consciousness doesn’t let wonderful things be marginalized.

The energy of intimacy is a powerful way to connect deeper with life. In turn, a quest for intimacy can transform your relationship with everything including yourself, your partner, your work, and the world. 

I met this episode’s guest at a retreat for people seeking greater levels of intimacy with themselves and their significant others. Stuart Sovatsky was a guest speaker and he blew my mind. When he spoke, EVERYONE listened to his every word. 

Stuart’s career has spanned over 4 decades. His experience and wisdom in the relationship, intimacy, and erotic art space make me want to bow. He’s been a marriage counselor for 44 years and was the first choice to co-direct Ram Dass’s prison ashram and the first in the US to bring yoga to incarcerated youth and the homeless mentally ill in the 1970s. He’s served at the office of the Dalai Lama and has taught spiritual practices and modalities across the world. He’s the author of multiple books including Advanced Spiritual Intimacy and Words From The Soul. He’s practiced kundalini yoga for 24 years and is the director of two psychotherapy clinics in the San Francisco Bay Area. He teaches at JFK University and the California Institute of Integral Studies. 

The way Stuart moves through life is so inspiring because he instills the concept of devotion and tantra at the core of everything. Stuart meets every person and treats every experience as if God is inside, which means his appreciation and reverence for life is far beyond what most people know is possible. 

In this episode, Stuart and I explore: 

• What is devotional love?
• Tackling polarity with shared human experiences. 
• The intense power of eye gazing as a devotional practice. 
• Defining tantra.
• The simplest secret for letting love in. 
• Balancing emotions through alternate nostril breathing.
• Experiencing the power of reverence. 
• Stay grounded by appreciating yourself. 

Tune in for a beautiful conversation about cultivating a profound reverence for life. It’s time to discover the power of finding a level of depth and potency in the everyday moments.

“When we choose to go into the darkest aspects of ourselves, change is exponential.”

For me, the first month of 2022 (really the last 5 months) has been infused with shadow work. I want to emphasize that I’ve been fully supported through my journey with mentors and coaches. Shadow work is deep and can be very uncomfortable. It pulls you through emotions and memories that can be hard to hold (which is why I always recommend you do this work with the right support).  

Shadow work has sparked exponential shifts for me, but it’s been confronting. This work sits at the intersection of tension, conflict, and resistance. It requires you to step into the discomfort and explore the darker side of your psyche. Where you feel entitled. Where you switch on victim mode. Where you’re attached to egoic beliefs about yourself. 

Shadow work is a practice to feel feelings you don’t want to feel. You cycle through pain and triggers. 

But when you surrender to the pain, confusion, and chaos into love, a new edge appears. It’s the edge of infinite potential.

And it’s at this edge that your quality of life expands exponentially.

The personal development world is very comfortable embracing modalities that spark an upward spiral. But if you never explore the darker aspects of self, you hit a glass ceiling that you can’t breakthrough. 

Shadow work explores the downward vortex, which is just as valuable and often unexplored. It’s the inner work I believe society needs to do – especially as we feel resistance to doing so (assuming we have the right support). 

Here’s an overview of what we explore in this important episode. 

• Creating a depth of insight from a mundane activity. 
• Why nuance is key as your healing journey unfolds.
• Redefining what it means to stay grounded. 
• The problem with spiral up positivity for our personal growth and healing. 
• Why relationships are powerful containers for growth. 
• Exploring the shadow side of overnight success. 
• Leveraging radical honesty as a gateway into shadow work. 
• The importance of learning how to communicate. 
• And more…

I’m pumped to share these experiences with you in this January reflection episode. As usual, your old friend Georgina is here to guide our conversation. Tune in, enjoy, and get a sense of the depth of transformation that’s available when you choose to dance in the dark.

“I don’t think I’ve found any greater amount of growth than I’ve found as a result of choosing to look into the shadow.”

Do you have emotions that you struggle to feel? Is there a dark shadow to your character that you’re reluctant to explore? Have you noticed an undercurrent of anger, shame, or guilt that bubbles to the surface every now and again? 

If so, you’re human. 

Most of us struggle to navigate and hold emotions associated with our shadow. As a society, we’ve labeled feelings such as rage or grief ‘bad’ and as such, we’re reluctant to feel them. 

The shadow can feel like a scary place to go. But when you have the courage to look inside, you tap into the most profound opportunity to release, heal, and step into a more authentic version of who you are. 

In this episode, I’m talking with the founder of Visionary Alignment, Jason Ayers. As an executive coach, Jason is gifted at guiding entrepreneurs to navigate their darker emotions to find more authenticity. His ability to hold people in their darkness continues to blow me away. It’s a reflection of who he is as a man, a husband, father, and business owner. He’s done the work (and continues to do so) and is a role model for others willing to step into the abyss. 

In this episode, Jason shares the story of how he reclaimed himself through an acknowledgment of anger. As a society, we label anger as bad, but like every emotion, it has utility. For Jason, anger was a form of protection that was concealing much deeper feelings of isolation, hurt, and powerlessness from a childhood experience. 

We also explore…

• Why we are so afraid of our shadow.
• Alchemizing feelings of resentment into compassion. 
• Redefining anger. 
• The difference between shame and guilt.
• What we can learn from the root of Jason’s anger.  
• Why forgiveness can become a form of spiritual bypassing. 
• How shadow work elevates self-awareness. 
• Discovering the gold that lies inside the hard stuff. 
• Inviting compassion by asking for help. 
• And more…

Developing the capacity to navigate and alchemize ALL our feelings is central to becoming grounded, centered, whole humans. 

Jason’s work and story are here to inspire you to feel into your shadow – so that you can ultimately set yourself free. I’m excited to see what this conversation opens up for you.

“Good CEOs think their feelings play a role, great CEOs know their feelings drive the ship or drive the bus.”

How do you make exceptional decisions? Can you leverage fascination to find your flow? What steps will ignite your mind and intuition to spark creative problem-solving? 

This episode’s guest is Rian Doris – the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at The Flow Research Collective. Partnering with Steven Kotler (the author of one of my favorite books on flow – Stealing Fire), this potent research and training organization is driven to understand the science behind ultimate human performance so people can walk through life as the very best version of themselves.

Rian’s soul-deep commitment to leadership development as a long-term field of focus has planted him in countless experiences where he’s been able to sharpen his understanding of this crucial field of human evolution. After a near-fatal head injury when he was just 13, Rian experienced “post-head injury malaise”, which hampered his teens with chronic fatigue, amnesia, and depression. As a result, he was forced to give up sports and instead focus on academia and entrepreneurship. 

What followed is a multi-faceted career that put Rian shoulder-to-shoulder with best-selling authors, pioneering neuropsychiatrists, and world experts in peak performance. As a result, Rian developed a rich understanding of what makes people show up as their best. 

Tune into this episode to hear Rian and I explore: 

1. What role do curiosity, fascination, awe, and wonder play in creating a fulfilling life. 
2. How to stop fear overriding your intrinsic motivation.
3. Why apathy is a bigger danger than fear. 
4. How task orientation drastically enhances performance in sport. 
5. What’s on the spectrum of decision-making. 
6. The difference between type 1 and type 2 decisions. 
7. The power of stepping away before making a decision.
8. The role of surrender when solving problems. 
9. Feelings as powerful data points in the decision-making process. 
10. And more…

The human capacity is exponential. The question is, are we equipping and nurturing ourselves to perform at our peak – or are we squandering the inherent skill sets and talents that allow us to perform in a peak, optimal way? 

This episode exposes our options for making exceptional decisions and creatively solving problems. Rian is incredible in conversation, super smart (he graduated top of his class in Philosophy at Trinity) and engaging, this episode is here to show you how you can leverage the potency of flow to perform at your peak. 

Check it out.

“When it comes to healing the body, one of the most fundamental things that we need to do is whatever action we take, if we don’t believe that it’s going to work, it will not work.”

How can you heal from the challenges that keep you from expressing and experiencing your fullest potential? Jena Sophia is a world-renowned Subconscious Specialist and Healer who’s helped thousands of people – including celebrities, CEOs, creatives, and billionaires – transform emotional stress and physical pain in record time. 

Jena has worked with the subconscious and various healing modalities since the age of 12. At the time, she was experiencing trauma, depression, and chronic illness, which led to her taking a lot of medications. She chose a path of self-healing, which empowered her to heal from all conditions and get off medication permanently.  

Through this personal healing journey, Jena cultivated a deep understanding of epigenetics and how our emotions, traumas, and ancestral influences affect how the physical body operates today. 

Combined with her deep understanding of the conscious mind, Jena guides people to step into their personal power and realign their energy so they can experience better health, relationships, success, and fulfillment. 

In this powerful episode, Jena reveals some of the practices and principles she’s used in her own life and with her clients for optimal results.

Jena has a depth of insight on the subject of holistic healing. She studied at Columbia University and SOAS University of London. She’s taught energy healing classes and stress management seminars for hundreds of corporate clients and university students. She’s also studied along with some of the top scientists and healers in the world and uses this knowledge in her holistic approach to becoming your optimal self.

Tune into this episode to hear Jena and I explore: 

1. What is the energy body? 
2. The reason we have to do so much work to remember who we really are. 
3. Understanding the role of the mind in the healing process. 
4. What is pain? 
5. Exploring the language of the subconscious.
6. A process for transforming challenging emotions and feelings. 
7. How to know which healing tools and modalities will work for you. 
8. How does resonance feel?
9. And more…

The way you work with your subconscious mind can change the way you show up for yourself and your life. From releasing emotional blocks to moving through challenging physical ailments, your power to heal is astounding. 

If you’re ready for a transformation and are curious about how this looks through an energetic lens, this episode is for you.