Awake In Relationship

063 When war and rumours of war are everywhere in the news how we personally relate to uncertainty and show up for others matters more than ever. The temptation to harden our hearts and join the chorus of polarizing voices is difficult to resist. However, it doesn’t matter what side of a conflict we identify with or the opinions we hold. Toxic certainty, hatred and fear are contagious and the real enemies of peace...

062 From Silicone Valley tech bros to stressed out single moms, many people are proclaiming the therapeutic virtues of micro dosing for enhancing creativity and mental health. Micro dosing involves the consumption of a sub perceptual, fractional quantity of psilocybin or LSD, typically 1/5th to 1/20th of a recreational dose...

061 The modern world is filled with connectivity, yet for so many people the need for authentic connection goes unmet. Even in a long term relationship we can hide our vulnerability and true desires, sometimes for decades. When we avoid having the important and risky conversations with the people we love we miss a precious opportunity for deeper intimacy and healing old wounds. The questions we ask have the power to illuminate and transform any relationship for the better...

060  For anyone who has loved and lost you know how much it can hurt when the fairy tale ends. Neuroscience has shown that social and emotional pain stimulate the same regions of the brain as physical pain. However, while heartbreak might be the price we pay at the end of a relationship it doesn’t mean we have to suffer. The grief that follows breaking up is an invitation to mend our most primary relationship, the one we have with ourselves...

059 Artists and creators have always held a special station in life, even if their work goes unnoticed.  It is the artist who sees the details of life that we often miss, speaks truth to power and imagines into existence new ways of being. Central to the creative process is the source of inspiration, the Muse. When the Muse is present middling art and science is elevated to greatness. The Muse awakens the senses and ignites revolutions...

058 If your New Year's resolutions include improving your social fitness this holiday replay is for you!

The promise of online social platforms was access to an infinite pool of new friends and possible mates.  However, rather than making the search for love easier, the apps have trained our brains to select connections  based on the shallowest metrics. For anyone with a heartfelt desire to find love the daily grind of swiping left and right can feel soul destroying...

057 Ecological anxiety is new diagnostic label describing a complex of physical and emotional symptoms related to existential dread and despair around the state of the environment. Extreme weather events like wild fires, floods and hurricanes in combination with politicians slow walking meaningful change is causing many, especially young people to give up on a hopeful vision for the future...

056 The Oct 7th attack on Israel has ignited a new hot war in the middle east and a polarizing  information war online. For many people around the world the conflict  between Israel and Palestine touches old wounds of injustice as a cycle of religious violence repeats again and claims more innocent lives. If anything has been learned from this war it is that history is complex and good and evil are indistinguishable in the fog of war...

055 There are few things in life more ephemeral than money. Those who seek an enduring happiness and freedom through a path of awakening often find themselves rich in spirit, but constantly struggling to keep the lights on, literally. This is especially true for creators, social entrepreneurs and heart based business owners who lead with their values. Survival and success requires that we first go through the fire of reconciling our relationship with money...

054 The struggle to reconcile the better angels of our nature with powerful, earthly desires of the flesh is familiar to anyone on a spiritual path. Historically vilified and repressed by religious intuitions and the state, our sexual energy often hides in the shadows. Unexamined, it remains as a juvenile object of fascination or worse, a corrupting influence to avoid at all costs...