Authentic Living

Meagan O’Nan is one of those people who has a story to tell, a story that allows us to see the person behind the label. Her book is called Courage and she tells us that agreeing to disagree is no longer enough. Gay rights is just one of the many areas of bias and discrimination that run rampant through our country, and our world. Today we open the door to a further discussion.

Maybe we can de-stress in these times by turning down the volume of the terrible news we are getting almost daily. But the answer to real peace runs deeper than that. Many of us have heard that what is happening “out there” is “just an illusion." But is it? Perhaps, since we are living here on planet earth we need to consider having at least one foot here, even as the other is walking in another dimension. The answer here is to step into truth. To step into the truth of our nature. To step into the truth of the power and presence of who we truly are. To learn to trust the process of divinization that is always a part of our unfolding evolution. Tune in to this important message to learn how to find peace in the time of turmoil.

Most of us were taught that we were supposed to love all people, right? But what does that mean when it comes to those difficult people in our lives? Are we meant to pretend that we “love” them when we really just wish they would go away and leave us alone? How are we to deal with this? Well, there are lots of ways we do deal with difficult people. Some of those are healthy ways of dealing and others, not so much. Today we will not only discover some of the unhealthy ways of dealing, but we are going to talk about some practical and healthy ways of dealing with the difficult people in your life. You don’t want to miss this one.

Today we are talking to Dr. Don St. John, author of the book “Healing the Wounds of Childhood,” as this is one of the most important of all of the subjects we could discuss. Very often it is these wounds that keep us trapped, even as we are striving to get past them in some kind of way. How do we grow into our full potential while these wounds remain yet unhealed? How do we increase our ability to receive and absorb love, enjoy more life-giving love connections, deal more effectively with stress and improve our resilience and health all while expanding our sense of who we are? These questions and more will be answered during today’s show. Don’t miss it. Don St John, Ph.D., is a Psychotherapist, Somatic-Relational Teacher, Coach, Public Speaker and Author. He is an Authorized Continuum Movement Teacher and a Hellerwork Structural Integration Practitioner and Trainer. He has taught classes and given presentations in several states in the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Brazil. His book, Healing the Wounds of Childhood is based both in his own personal work, learning to walk the walk he talks, and in his work as a psychotherapist.

Why do all the great spiritual leaders down through history and even of the present teach of silence and stillness? Why is silence even a thing? Aren't we supposed to be working hard, striving after a righteous life? Aren't we supposed to be working hard to serve our brothers and sisters? Aren't we supposed to be doing the work of growing at all times? Why do they talk about stillness, about silence, about effortless effort? Well, perhaps it is because silence or stillness is the answer to everything. Maybe it is possible that our effort, our work, our doing could be the result of silence, of stilless. Don't miss this important message.

John Povlovitz comes to the Authentic Living show today to remind us of what could be the 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not be horrible.” He wants us to imagine what the world would look like if we all obeyed that command. He reminds us that the way we treat others is the most tangible and meaningful expression of our belief system. And he’s come here today to talk about his book: “If God is Love Don’t be a Jerk: Finding a Faith that Makes Us Better Humans.” In today’s world, where we see professed Christians carrying signs with Bible verses on them into the fray of an insurrection right along with Nazis and White Supremacists, one has to wonder what is happening to Christianity. John is going to tell us both what is happening and what we can do about it. Be here for this. Author of the book, IF GOD IS LOVE DON'T BE A JERK: Finding A Faith That Makes Us Better Humans (Westminster John Knox) John Pavlovitz is a pastor, writer, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. He’s spent nearly three decades teaching, studying, dissecting, deconstructing, and reconstructing the Christian faith. Committed to equality, diversity, and justice, John aims to teach a single, elemental truth: Faith in a supernatural being should make you a better human being. His blog, Stuff That Needs to Be Said, recently surpassed one hundred million views, and his previous books include A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, and Low.

Dr. Lindsay Gibson comes to us today to bring us some of her expertise on the subject of surviving and thriving even though one was raised by immature parents. The central challenge of our adult lives is unloosening the toxic ties in which we were bound by immature parents. In fact, I would say that we do not mature into adulthood ourselves until we can heal from the wounds and the distortions of reality presented to us by immature parents. Somehow this wound becomes the pathway to freedom, hope and authenticity when we can begin the process of recovery. Dr. Gibson is going to talk to us today about her latest book, “Self-Care for Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents.” Don’t miss it. Lindsay C. Gibson holds both a masters and doctoral degree in clinical psychology. She has been a psychotherapist for over thirty-five years, working in both public and private practice. In the past, Dr. Gibson has served as an adjunct assistant professor for the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology, teaching doctoral students clinical theory and psychotherapy techniques. She specializes in working with adults on personal growth and dealing with emotionally immature family members. Dr. Gibson is the author of four books: Who You Were Meant to Be, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, Recovering from Emotionally Immature Parents, and Self-Care for Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. She has also written a monthly column on well-being for Tidewater Women and Tidewater Family magazines for over twenty years. Her website is available at www.drlindsaygibson.com. Dr. Gibson lives and works in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

We are so happy to have Dr. E back again to the Authentic Living show to talk to us about her third part in the Sounds True online event series, The Dangerous Old Women, entitled The Joyous Body. We do tend to either focus wholly on the body as image, or leave it out entirely from our conscious experience until it acts up. And we rarely if ever think of the body as a repository of joy. It’s a work horse to be whipped into shape, or it’s just a ball and chain we carry around that sometimes gets us into trouble. But what if the body were incrementally tied into the soul? If that were true, wouldn’t we want to do more with it than just keep it enslaved to the ego? If you don’t quite know what to do with this material essence of who you are, this show is for you. Or, if you struggle with body issues of any kind—this show is for you too. Come learn from one of the world’s most profound keepers of wisdom what gifts your body has to give to you. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD, is an internationally recognized scholar, award-winning poet, diplomate senior Jungian psychoanalyst, and cantadora (keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition). She is the author of the bestselling book Women Who Run with the Wolves (Ballantine 1992, 1995), which sold over a million copies, the multi-volume audio series The Dangerous Old Woman (Sounds True, 2010, 2011), and the topic for today, from that series, The Joyous Body. For more information about the author, please visit http://www.clarissapinkolaestes.com.

How did you grow up? Did you grow in a sea of toxicity, where parents were abusive, immature, addicted and/or emotionally or physically unavailable? Were they ambivalent toward you, being kind and considerate one minute and unkind, inappropriate or abusive the next? What did you learn about life and about yourself from that formative period in your life? What did you learn about religion and/or about spirituality? How has that period of time impacted your spiritual experience today? Are there ways that you still struggle with spirituality because of those early experiences? Or perhaps you are unable to have spiritual experiences at all because of those early experiences? This show will be an exploration of the impact of toxic parents on spirituality. Don’t miss it.

The afterlife is one of, rather, THE biggest mystery of life here on plane earth. Most of us are curious about it, and have serious questions about what will happen after death. Well today we have some answers as explained by our guest today, medium Hollister Rand. Do you have questions? Wouldn’t you like to know? Well, Hollister Rand has written the book, “Everything You Wanted to Know About the Afterlife, But Were Afraid to Ask.” And she asks and answers some of those questions. Don’t miss this unique opportunity. Hollister Rand is an internationally renowned medium known for her extraordinarily detailed work. Hollister's first book, I'm Not Dead, I'm Different, was released by Harper Collins. Her award winning book Everything You Wanted to Know About the Afterlife but Were Afraid to Ask, was published by Beyond Words/Simon & Schuster in May 2020. Her TV and radio appearances include Oxygen's Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, SiriusXM's The Seance with John Edward, Coast to Coast with George Noory, KOST FM's Angels in Waiting, and KBIG FM's Radio Medium.

Since the beginning of time, it seems, we have thought that we had to fight the good fight. We had to fight for good over evil. And so many a person has spent a lifetime trying to discern the difference between the two and trying to err on the side of goodness. But what if you knew that that very battle is doing more harm than good? What if you knew that the battle between good and evil is actually preventing your wholeness? But, you say, how can we stop the battle—won’t evil just take over? That’s what we fear, isn’t it? Yet those who have managed to establish wholeness no longer fight any battles between good and evil—rather they have integrated all aspects of self. Want to know more? Tune in.

Today we are very fortunate to get an opportunity to talk to bestselling author Andrew Solomon, writer and lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts and winner of the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. He is an activist in LGBT rights, mental health, and the arts. His latest NY Times bestselling book, and the subject of our interview today, entitled Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, is also the winner of several awards, including being chosen at among the NY Times Ten Best Books of 2012. It has been called “A bold and unambiguous call to redefine how we view difference… A stunning work of scholarship and compassion (Carmela Ciuraru, USA Today) distinguished similarly by many other notables for its exceptional profundity, compassion and insight. Today we are going to take an intimate look at this entire concept of loving differentness. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to gain insight into the power of love.

When we think of empowerment, we don't generally think first of peace, but rather of things like confidence, self-assurance, assertiveness and other like traits. We think of the ability to confront others, to draw appropriate boundaries, to address and meet our own needs. And all of those things do bring empowerment, but at the base of all of these things is a sense of authentic inner peace that allows us the grace to perform with confidence, self-assurance and assertiveness. In other words the source of true empowerment is peace. So, how do we go about finding peace and how do we access it regularly enough to authenticate our empowerment? That's what we'll be talking about today on Authentic Living. Don't miss it.

For some in the Western world considering the divine as feminine not only seems impossible, so engrained have we become with the masculine archetypal God, but for some is thought to be blasphemy. But in the history of sacred wisdom the divine is often found in the feminine archetype. Our guest today, Meghan Don, is the author of The New Divine Feminine, in which she describes several methods, several stories, and many meditations for accessing the divine feminine. Why would we need to do that? One answer is that wisdom itself, found in the sacred texts as Sophia, is feminine in nature. Another is that the feminine archetype leads us inward to find our deepest authentic selves. If you are seeking a deeper union with the divine, this show is for you.

Have you ever wondered why there is so much suffering in the world? Why is the Ukraine, for example, going through such awful suffering? Some people actually stop believing in a benevolent Universal Source because of such suffering. Well, today, we are going to interview Simran Singh about her new book, “Living: The Seven Blessings of Human Experience,” in which she informs us that our challenges, our conflicts and other difficult experiences are actually blessings. The seven blessings are: Challenge, Obstacles, Conflict, Chaos, Darkness and Death—which she says are secret passageways to personal empowerment spiritual growth and your highest potential. If you are currently facing or have ever faced any of these experiences, this show is for you. Don’t miss.

David Vito Gregoli has created a masterpiece of music by translating into music the Bhagavad Gita. A while back we interviewed Lissa Coffey who wrote an accompanying book to go with Gregoli’s music entitled, “Song Divine: With Commentary: A New Lyrical Rendition of the Bhagavad Gita.” And today we are interviewing the author of the music “Song Divine: The Bhagavad Gita Rock Opera,” in which he creates music from the meaning of the Bhagavad Gita and for which he has won much acclaim. A guitar virtuoso and a man with diverse talents in music from rock to classical, the author of this sacred music brings the seeker a profound new sense of the meaning behind the powerful and profound sacred writing of the Bhagavad Gita. You are not going to want to miss this show.

What is it that keeps us from living authentically? Well at least a part of it is the illusions, delusions and lies we believe that keep us from even considering that there is such a thing as the authentic Self, or that we can live an authentic life. We are so encumbered with these illusions, delusions and lies that we cannot see, are literally blind, to the authentic Self and its messages and urgings. This show is going to expose those illusions, delusions and lies for what they are, and tell the truth about the authentic Self. The truth exposed here today can create a breakthrough, so that you can begin to see, and begin to integrate the authentic Self. Don’t miss it.

We hear it every day now on the news, see it in our social media sites, it’s literally everywhere: we are a divided nation. So divided are we that we have two different realities, or so it seems. One media gives us one form of reality and all the other medias give us an entirely different form of reality. This has made it possible for the people on both sides of the divide to call the other side liars—and absolutely believe that they are telling the truth. There is hate on either side of this divide. So, how will we ever get beyond it? Well, first we absolutely need leadership that does not promote the divide, but encourages our Oneness. But beyond that there is much to see in the Oneness that is a critical and deeply spiritual element of even our very division. We are going to locate and elucidate that Oneness during this show. Don’t miss it.

It is true that one of the things we fear the most is our own fear. We want it to go away and leave us alone. We want to feel safe, warm and cared for. We want to trust life. But fear just keeps getting in the way. We may try to outweigh it by being tough, strong and loud. We may try to erase it with drinking/drugging. We may cave to it by living in a small little hole for a lifetime. But fear--it is the monster in the closet. So, what can we do. This show will wisely offer solutions to the problem of fear. Particularly in this time when a majority of the country is living in fear--we need to know what to do about fear. Don't miss this important show.

We have learned so much about how we should love, that we don’t know much about how we are loved, and how we do love. There is so much that we should be thinking, feeling, doing in the name of love, that we don’t realize how much of it is actually false, fake, ingenuous. What is really going on behind all those shoulds? Have we yet begun to be certain that we are loved, deeply loved by the divine and the Self? Have we come to understand the specific and very individualized ways in which we love? This show is going to put us in touch with love. Be here for it.