Story + Meditation = Healing. I met Astral Shaman in a meditation and healing workshop more than a decade ago. I immediately fell in love with his Scottish lilt–the way words sound like song, warm and welcoming, literally music to my ears. As a child, I lost my own Jamaican accent after starting first grade …Read More
Category: Podcast
Meditation: Space
Don’t think of a purple elephant! What do you do? … You think of a purple elephant. Let’s use the science of the mind in our favor. What you focus on is what persists. Let’s practice shifting our focus onto space. If your mind goes to the tightness and dense spots, just shift your focus …Read More
Meditation: Reclaim Your Story
What if you could hit the pause button? If your inner storyteller is moving down from one worst case scenario to the next, the stress and tension are building up. The body does not distinguish between real stress and imagined stress, so when the mind (and the news) is playing the same story over and …Read More
Meditation: Square Breathing
Learn the technique of Square Breathing to balance the nervous system. When we are stuck in an anxiety state of chronic sympathetic overdrive, breathing meditation can activate the parasympathetic relaxation and down-regulate the nervous system. The breath is always in the present moment. As we slow down to meet the breath, the nervous system will …Read More
Meditation: Favorite Place
“Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.”– Ajahn Brahm In this time when everyone is struggling with mental balance, I have decided to use this podcast/blog to create a series exploring the types of meditation and offering audio online. We live in uncertain times. While …Read More
#32: Storytelling Renaissance (Mary Lou Williams)
“Storytelling is not a lost art, but a found art!” Mary Lou Williams moved to South Florida to retire from a career in teaching and decided to take up a second career as a professional storyteller. In this interview … Find a local storytelling group in Florida at flstory.com. Living the Present Moment – Podcast …Read More
#31: Spirit of the Shamanic Drum (Stephen Cavitt)
“What we are hungry for in the Western world is a reanimation of spirit.” ~ Prof. Stephen Cavitt The shaman enters the dream-like state to bring back wisdom, guidance, and healing. There are many ways to navigate the multiple layers of reality. One of those ways is the drum. Many shamanic traditions use the hypnotic …Read More
#30: Plant Medicine ~ Ayahuasca Church (Ryin Cornett)
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~Hippocrates The term “plant medicine” is often appropriated today to mean the mind-altering substances like ayahuasca, mescaline, and psylisibin. These “plant medicine” ceremonies have become trendy as a quick route to escape the mundane ordinary world and have a “spiritual experience.” As a certified nutritionist, Ryin …Read More
#29: Freedom Schools (Jim Gregory)
“That’s not going to happen, it hurt too much just to tell this one, I would never be able to tell the rest of the story.” Jim Gregory began to unravel his painful stories with the support of the oral Storytelling community, and he did manage to tell the rest of the story. As a …Read More
#28: Lawyers Protecting Children (Corey Huffman)
Legal Aid is a non-profit private law firm that protects the vulnerable by providing free legal representation to low income families for victims of domestic violence, children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned, families who are at risk of homelessness, seniors and veterans who are denied access to health care or other benefits, and …Read More