Authentic Living

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.

One of the most difficult challenges of any relationship is communication. How do we say what we mean without lashing out, or hurting the ones we love the most? Unfortunately, we tend to go to the extremes on this one: We either shut-down, or we lash out. Neither of those two options work, however, to create the intimacy that a relationship needs to grow. Nancy Dreyfus has come to our aid here with a beautiful book, “Talk to Me Like I’m Someone You Love,” containing a set flashcards that say precisely the right thing at precisely the right time. What a beautiful idea. Nancy is a Transpersonal Psychologist who works with many relationships on this very issue of communication, and came up with this idea for her clients. But now we can all benefit from it—so today we are going to be talking about the how-to of communicating at the most difficult times in relationship. You are not going to want to miss this one.

A large part of the world has lived for centuries into a concept of sin that has us sinning from the moment of our birth and being unable to stop sinning until we die. This belief has people disavowing, dismissing their personal light, their personal power and their personal divine nature. So much of religion in the Western world is based entirely on this concept of sin. Even the very idea of salvation is based entirely on the sinful nature of humanity. But what if it isn't true? What if the concepts, as we have built them, are based in a duality trance state that has us believing we are separate from God when it is clear, even from the Christian Bible that there is no such separation? What if we really are the gods Jesus said we were? What if we really are a little lower than God as the Psalmist said we were? What if sin is simply unconsciousness? Be here for this important conversation.

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.

Spiritual abuse is abuse of the human spirit—the place in human consciousness where we can most easily access the Divine, in whatever form we see the Divine. Spirituality is not a belief. It is not a thought. It is not a behavior or a group of behaviors. Spirituality is an experience. Typically, it is an experience of the Divine, or of a higher consciousness. The simple fact is that people are being robbed of such an experience when they are taught what and how to think, what to believe and what truth is and isn’t. Particularly, when people are taught that there is only one right religion, they are being secluded in an environment in which the possibility of having a spiritual experience is limited to that one religion. There are several other ways in which a person might be spiritually abused. If you are a religious or spiritual person, if you lead people in any kind of spiritual capacity, this show is for you.

Angela Wix is here with us today to tell us how to fully unite our hidden spiritual life with our everyday reality. She knows how hard it is to talk to others about spiritual gifts, so we keep them hidden. Her book, The Secret Psychic helps readers learn how to practice their psychic and spiritual abilities even when they’ve not been able to open up to those around them. So, today she is going to help us learn how to connect with and use intuition, how to recognize and receive spirit communication, and how to eventually reveal your true self to others. Don’t miss it.

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.

…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 all those questions. Today, we are going to get some of those answers from Hollister. Don’t miss this unique opportunity.

Today we are going to talk about a very uncomfortable topic—but a topic which is an inevitability for most, if not all of us. We are going to talk about how to handle loss and in this case, great loss. Our guest today is Dr. Ann Clark, author of “Healing from Great Loss: Facing Pain and Grief to Recover Your Authentic Self.” Is it possible that going through the devastating experience of such a great loss can become medicinal? Can loss become the impetus to developing an awareness of the authentic Self? The answer to both questions is a resounding YES. And we are going to learn how that happens in today’s show. If you are experiencing, have experienced or will experience a loss of any kind this show is for you. Don’t miss it.

Are you one of the many people who provide soul care to other humans? Thomas Moore, bestselling author of “Care of the Soul,” comes again to the Authentic Living Show to discuss his latest book “Soul Therapy: The Art and Craft of Caring Conversations” in which he guides caregivers to therapy of the soul. He once taught us how to care for our own souls and now he teaches how we may care for the souls of others. The category of soul caregivers includes all who provide care for others including all manner of mental health therapists and ministers, spiritual directors, and even friends and family. We often know how to advise—usually based on our own personal experience—which means that we tell others what we think they should do. But how do we reach and bring a soul to care for itself? Don’t miss this profound conversation.

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.

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.