Writer, speaker, and life coach Martha Beck is the author of ten books, some of which, to her continued astonishment, are bestsellers. Readers can get a monthly hit of her unique blend of humor, science and spirituality in O, The Oprah Magazine. Martha recently published her first novel, Diana, Herself: An Allegory of Awakening, which Elizabeth Gilbert has called “a perfect book.” Today we dive into one of her books, Finding Your Way In A Wild New World and so much more. We dive into topics like how Martha originally got on the path, what motivated Martha to originally change the way she lived, nature can heal and healing your true nature, how suffering is a strong motivator and how to pay attention to it before it gets too bad, developing stillness of the mind by asking a few key questions, when the student is ready, the teacher appears, the technologies of magic, how everything has a consciousness, bending spoons, Martha's top 3 daily practices for seeing in a brand new way, how to be present with intense emotions, navigating the storm before the calm, and so much more.

My guest today wrote two of my favorite books on applying the principles of brain science, and the best part is... he makes it super simple to understand AND practice. Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best-selling author. His books are available in 26 languages and include Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. He edits the Wise Brain Bulletin and has numerous audio programs. A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA and founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, he’s been an invited speaker at NASA, Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and other major universities, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. His work has been featured on the BBC, CBS, and NPR, and he offers the free Just One Thing newsletter with over 120,000 subscribers, plus the online Foundations of Well-Being program in positive neuroplasticity that anyone with financial need can do for free. We dive into topics like what is neuroplasticity, what creates fundamental change in the nervous system, how to cultivate inner resources, about 1/3 of what shapes us is hard wired into our brain while about 2/3 is learned behavior, nerves that fire together wire together, how do we start to interrupt the path of doing life on automatic, how to manage and learn from your own thoughts and feelings, how the brain evolved to be "velcro for the bad and teflon for the good”, what is negativity bias, the practice of Taking in the good... turning good moments into a great brain, becoming competent at your own interior, what Rick's practice looks like for taking in the good, and so much more…

While seeking alternative educational models for my own children and learning some key insights from my wife, I came across the work or Pat Farenga and Growing Without Schooling. Patrick Farenga brings more than 34 years of fieldwork, advocacy, and personal experience (he and his wife unschooled their three daughters) to help parents and children learn in their own ways. Pat is a writer and education activist who addresses academic and general audiences about working with children, not on children, to help them learn. Farenga worked closely with one of the founders of the modern homeschooling movement, the late author and teacher John Holt, and published Growing Without Schooling magazine (GWS) from 1985 until it stopped in 2001. GWS was the nation’s first periodical about learning without going to school, started by Holt in 1977. In today's episode we are going into the educational system, and then unpack what the unschooling revolution is all about. We dive into topics like, how the educational system is long overdue for an upgrade, what is unschooling, the origins of unschooling and deschooling, growing Without Schooling, the conditions we have set up around how to learn and why it's not the most optimal, the true statistics of how many Americans actually have college degrees and what that really means, how education is actually part of the problem of our social structure, the truth about college debt, and so much more…

Fully Raw Kristina (Kristina Carillo Bucaram) is a pioneer in the local, organic food co-operative movement. The founder of the largest raw, organic produce co-operative in the U.S., she has been 100% raw for over 11 years. An exemplification of all that she wishes to create, she is a leading visionary in the raw movement, especially in Houston, TX. Kristina’s inspiration for being FullyRaw came after she was able to rid herself of Hyperglycemia at the age of 18 eating nothing but a low fat raw vegan diet consisting solely of fresh fruits and vegetables with few nuts and seeds. At the age of 20 before she graduated college, she started the non-profit organization called Rawfully Organic. This organic produce co-operative in Houston, Texas grew from 12 people in her living room to thousands of families in the greater Houston city limits. Besides being the chief goddess co-operator of Rawfully Organic, Kristina has made a living coaching and inspiring thousands of others to be FullyRaw for the past few years. She is the author of The Fully Raw Diet and also the creator of her latest company called FullyRaw Juice, LLC. We dive into topics like, Kristina's story of transformation, being Fully Raw for almost 12 years, going from being in and out of the hospital at 87 lbs to turning everything around with raw food, understanding the difference between refined sugar and fruit sugar, the problem and challenge with self-diagnosing, the birth of the Rawfully Organic Co-Op, a 52,000 member co-op, the largest in the country, the natural evolution of each of Kristina's 4 businesses, moving forward even when things are scary or uncertain, and so much more…

Sometimes, relationship can be tough no navigate. When you put two people in the same house, add kids, work, and the inherent challenges that come along with modern schedules, friction is bound to come up. I find myself often joking about how we aren't ever taught in school how to successfully navigate our own emotions and how to be successful in relationship. That leaves it up to us to learn by example from role models who have relationships we admire, or find that information through books, classes, blogs, and other media. My guest today has really helped me understand how relationship can take on many forms through her book Love Cycles: The Five Essential Stages of Wholehearted Love. Linda Carroll—MS, is a writer, psychotherapist and a love/life coach specializing in relationship issues of all kinds for both singles and couples, assisting people in their life transitions. If you are in relationship or have tried to navigate relationship and still find yourself scratching your head wondering how it all works, then you will love today's episode. Linda unpacks the 4 Love Cycles and we also talk about some of the most common marriage and relationship misconceptions and what to do instead. We dive into topics like how love is not merely an emotion but a daily action we practice, who to listen to and who not to listen to when it comes to love, understanding how love happens and how to make it sustainable, how love can come and go in a relationship and what to do about it, the 5 Essential Stages, the bio-chemistry of love and what actually happens to your brain when you fall in love, how falling in love can actually impair our good judgement, the number one fear for men and for women in relationship, how to find common ground in a any argument by understanding each others values, doing the regular actions of love even when you don't feel like doing it, the new standards of relationship, and so much more…