Healing

The reason I’m willing to go into the deepest aspects of myself is because my soul, my heart is really craving safety.

This episode of Stay Grounded is my reflection for the month of October. Looking back, this month was themed in two core halves. During the first two weeks, I found myself exploring ways to elevate my communication skills. After some triggers in my interpersonal relationships, it became clear that some of my learned communication patterns were ineffective and disempowering. I know communication is a challenge for a lot of us. After all, we often learn shitty communication from shitty communicators! 

In this episode, I hope to share with you some insights and discoveries I made this month that could empower you too. 

Another huge theme was learning how to feel psychologically safe. The more I explore my own healing journey, the more I uncover deep, core wounds. Learning how to be OK with my imperfections and flaws was another big theme this month – and one I talk about in detail in this episode. 

As usual, my dear friend Georgina El Morshdy is here to hold space and guide us as we navigate this conversation about authenticity, expressing your needs, and having the courage to be imperfectly you. 

Here are some of the key takeaways you’ll hear us discuss: 

1. The power of cultivating self-awareness at this point in our history.
2. The role interpersonal relationships play in creating safety in your body. 
3. What it means to create psychological safety. 
4. Communication as a gateway to having your needs met. 
5. Deepening into my Human Design and learning how to be a Projector. 
6. The danger of mind reading and asking for words of affirmation. 
7. Allowing myself to be messy and imperfect. 
8. Exploring why we’re so afraid to feel. 
9. Creating space between our feelings and our reactions. 
10. And more…

The monthly reflection episodes are a key part of my monthly routines and rituals. The more I’m able to use hindsight as a tool for amplified self-awareness, the more I’m able to release the things that aren’t mine – and reclaim the parts that are. 

It’s my hope that my reflection inspires you to deepen into your own.

This past year has been a masterclass in surrender.

How would you navigate your way through an experience where you lost your core business overnight?

Earlier this year, Dom Quarticcio accidentally sent an email about porn he’d written for his men’s group to his corporate clients. 

That email made his reputation toxic to the point that all his contracts were canceled and deposits were pulled from his bank account. 

During a sacred plant ceremony, Dom asked his soul the question. “What the f*ck just happened?” 

The answer was clear, powerful, and specific…. “Hey, dude, you said you were really serious about helping 10 million men get on this path. You’re straddling the fence and now you have no other choice. And you’re welcome.”

What happened next is a powerful story of what’s possible when you surrender to the wisdom of your soul and the calling of your heart. 

Dominick Quartuccio is the founder of The Great Man Mastermind, a series of masterminds for men who are ready to stop lone-wolfing their lives. 

Dom co-hosts The Great Man Within Podcast and is an international keynote speaker on topics centering men’s personal development, such as high-performance habits, designing a purpose-driven life, and why men need community. He is also the author of two books: Design Your Future and On Purpose Leadership. His work has been featured in the New York Times, on NPR, and the TEDx stage.

In this episode, Dom and I explore:

1. Learning to surrender so you can co-create with the universe. 
2. What happened when Dom sent an email about porn to the wrong list. 
3. How Dom navigates the dance between fear and freedom. 
4. Learning to trust there’s a bigger plan that the universe can see. 
5. Dom’s experience with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
6. The power of clearing your mind through ‘Morning pages”.
7. COVID as the great accelerator. 
8. Getting to the source of what you want to feel. 
9. Creating safety to allow emotions to be explored. 
10. The boardroom of emotions & the four steps to emotional fluency.
11. And more…

Dom is always so candid about his journey and his experiences. His vulnerability and openness clear the path for others to dive deeper into themselves so they can surrender to what is. 

This conversation is a beautiful reminder of the power of surrender. I hope it inspires you to trust that the universe will cv-create with you to achieve your dreams. 

I’m trusting my own spirit over my mind and over what anybody else thinks.

Reflection is a fundamental practice that runs through everything I do. Recently, I’ve been finding a lot of value in revisiting old conversations – especially those I’ve had on this podcast. It’s why I knew I had to re-release this episode with Makhosi Candiss Pitts. 

Makhosi is an Abundance Activator & Authentic African Shaman who helps seekers create an extraordinary business and life using mindset, mindfulness, and metaphysics mastery. 

She guides people to develop their intuition and cultivate the courage to trust their personal truth – so they can create limitless abundance, unparalleled freedom, and exceptional impact.

In this conversation, we explore what it takes to find your calling. How you can know when to listen to your heart and how to turn down the external noise and clutter so you can get at your truth and experience unlimited abundance and unparalleled freedom. 

Makhosi has had an indelible impact on my own spiritual path. If you’re a spiritual seeker who’s ready to go deeper, you’ll love her energy as well as resonate with her own story of transformation and insane personal growth. 

Here’s a taste of what we explore: 

1. Why do humans crave a sense of sovereignty?
2. What does it feel like to be a sovereign being?
3. How do you know when you’re experiencing oneness? 
4. How do you learn to trust your intuition? 
5. How do you know what to trust in the present moment? 
6. What is freedom? 
7. Was there a time when you were afraid of making a big decision? 
8. Makhosi’s journey to becoming a shaman.
9. And more…

If your soul is ready for more impact, freedom, and abundance, this episode is essential listening so check it out. 

When we’re experiencing peace, we’re authentically being who we are.

I recorded this conversation with spiritual leader Panache Desai the weekend before the first COVID lockdown changed the world. This conversation happened at a pivotal point in my life when I’d been seeking deeper levels of self-love, but I didn’t know how to access it.

Then Panache came into my life…

Panache is one of the most enlightened humans I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. In fact, this conversation – recorded live in Austin – became the catalyst that sparked my wild rollercoaster ride of 2020.

I’m extremely excited to re-release this episode because it holds so much wisdom about self-love, acceptance, peace and surrender. Panache has an incredible message about embracing your enoughness which is both healing and empowering. I can’t wait for you to tap back into his magic.

Panache Desai is a visionary thought leader and a life catalyst in the area of human development. This incredible human has appeared on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, he’s collaborated with Depak Chopra and has worked with everyone from Neale Donald Walsh to Joe Dispenza, Brian Weiss, Ram Dass, James Redfield, and other luminaries in the fields of spiritual and personal development. Panache is also an international bestselling author and at this pivotal point in human history, he’s published a new book – You Are Enough – Revealing the Soul to Discover Your Power, Potential, and Possibility. 

Here’s a taste of what Panache and I discuss:

1.  Why Panache’s daughter forced him to surrender to the uncertainty of life – and the beautiful healing journey that happened as a result.
2.  The priceless gift of struggle and suffering.
3.  What does peace and surrender feel like?
4.  What is the essential self?
5.  Does ego ever help us play at our highest level?
6.  How can you get to the point where you feel enough?
7.  What we have to learn about enoughness from squirrels.
8.  What role does the mind play in helping us live our higher self?
9.  Tools to make your mind the poster child of the heart.
10.  The power of the breath.
11.  The five commitments of enoughness.
12.  What is presence?

I guarantee this episode will inspire a new way of thinking; leaving you empowered to approach today’s world with a sense of hope, faith, and peace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJdx_SxWHsg

The breath knows us better than we know ourselves.

On average we breathe around 20,000 times a day, but how many of those breaths are conscious?

Breathwork is a practice that can deepen your awareness, cultivate presence, and help you find, release, and move through discomfort in your body. Best of all, this tool is accessible to all of us and it’s completely free.

I’ve been exploring the power of the breath more and more over the past few years. Breath is the thread that flows through so many healing modalities and it always blows my mind how something so simple [and natural] can be profoundly potent and powerful.

In this episode, I’m interviewing a breathwork practitioner – Zach Rehder – for a deep dive into the myriad of ways that breathwork can elevate your life.

Zach Rehder is an international teacher, speaker and healer. Through a series of awakenings, he became a channel for messages and energies that heal, unlock and awaken human potential. His work enables individuals to dissolve barriers and free themselves from negativity, limitation and lack.

Zach travels to facilitate seminars and workshops and regularly hosts teleclasses and online programs. He provides remote and in-person private sessions for clients from around the globe.  Many clients have experienced amazing, inexplicable healings and awakenings through Zach’s programs and sessions.

In this episode, Zach and I explore:

1. Why are we so unconscious of our breath?
2. What is the best way to breathe?
3. Why Zach decided to dedicate his life to breathwork.
4. A daily practice that brings more agency to the breath.
5. Learning to be present with the discomfort.
6. The links between meditation and breathwork.
7. What does truth feel like?
8. Leading from presence, not thought.
9. And more…

Breath is a powerful way to connect with the present moment and feel more deeply into your body and your being. This beautiful conversation is a gateway into a breathwork practice – and a tool that can serve you in any moment of your life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV7V3nzOXao

To get to that emotion, to get to that connection that I think we all crave, you have to be a good listener.

Humans have been connecting through stories since time immemorial. There’s something about stories that hook us in, build meaningful connection, and even leave us forever changed.

This episode’s guest has been extracting and telling other people’s life stories for decades. Mike O’Krent’s journey started in 1996 when he spent four years interviewing Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. [Now the USC Shoah Foundation.]

This life-changing experience inspired Mike to master the art of listening – honing his interviewing skills to bring out the heart and essence of his interviewees.

Through Mike’s work at Lifestories Alive, powerful stories don’t have to be left in the graveyard. Instead, they can be captured as a legacy for future generations to tap into their ancestry.

Tune into this episode and discover some powerful tips and techniques that will sharpen your own listening, storytelling, and conversation skills. You’ll also discover what’s possible when you tap into the art of listening and set an intention to know another human on a deep and meaningful level.

Check out these episode highlights:

How Mike felt interviewing Holocaust survivors.
What are the healing aspects of telling your story?
“The chill of the sigh” and the feeling of telling the story.
Mike’s incredible tip for being a better listener.
The power of clarifying questions.
How personal stories heal families.
Interviewing centurions.
How do you encourage someone to tell a story they don’t believe matters?
The reason WHY? is such a powerful question.
Where Mike’s passion for capturing stories comes from
Questions to ask to unlock a life story.
The power of finding your own story.
And more…

As a podcaster, I’ve seen for myself how conversations evolve and deepen as my own listening skills develop with practice.

I loved speaking with this master storyteller and I know you’ll take so much from Mike’s wisdom.