Episodes

Thomas Moore comes back to the Authentic Living show today to talk to us about his latest book: Ageless Soul: The Lifelong Journey Toward Meaning and Joy. As you know, Moore is the bestselling author of Care of the Soul, a book that changed the world at a core level, for we began to be willing to invite soul into our daily lives. Today we will talk with him about the soul of the aging process. This process is one which most of us fear at some level, and one which our society tries to youth-enize...

The answer to finding peace in times of turmoil is not to turn off the TV and live in ignorance masking as bliss.

While many spiritual leaders are teaching that we should stay uninvolved in the real dilemmas of the world, there are others who are teaching that we are responsible as spiritual advocates for our part in bringing about the essential evolutions of the collective mind. Some are teaching that we should turn off the TV and spend our time in a constant state of bliss by affirming that all of the life out there is just an illusion. Well, I say, if it’s an illusion, it is a collective one, one for whi...

When life events, difficult circumstances and relationships come our way, we tend to get all caught up in what is going to happen next, and what strategy we can use to make it turn out the way we want it to. To do any less than that, it seems, would be to lay down and let life roll over you. But there is a way to be fully involved, yet fully surrendered to a deeper more authentic process that is happening always throughout all of our life events, circumstances and relationships. We can learn to ...

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? Tha...

The book, “Letting Go of Good: Dispel the Myth of Goodness to Find Your Genuine Self” is out! It came out yesterday. And today we are going to explain how a person might really dispel that myth, how they might actually begin to live from the genuine self. Discover how to stop living from guilt, from trying to be good, and learn how to get real. Learn to use your personal powers, powers that are inherent to your very nature, to handle relationships—both personal and professional—genuinely, and wi...

We tend to think that “being good” is the same as being genuine. But what the book, “Letting Go of Good: Dispel the Myth of Goodness to Find Your Genuine Self,” proves is that it is very possible to strive after goodness, while living a very false existence. In this third episode of the countdown to the launching of that book, we discover some surprises regarding a breakthrough approach to this problem. First, we discover that difficult emotions, unlike what we are taught, are meant to give us a...

It’s hard to imagine that there could be a problem with “being good.” But the problem is that it is a poor substitute for a true sense of worthiness. It is in fact, based in a mythology that there is a standardized form of goodness that, if we can activate it, will somehow remove from us any sense of unworthiness. And so there are many of us, identified as “good guys” who are giving up their authenticity in an attempt to compensate for a deep sense of unworthiness. In this case, our lives are ru...

Does guilt run too much of your life? Do you find that you are making many of your decisions based on whether or not you might feel guilty if you don’t…or if you do? Do you strive to please, help and take responsibility for others? Then you may have a “good guy identity,” and believe it or not, this identity is deadly. This is the first of several shows that will provide a countdown to the launching of the book, “Letting Go of Good: Dispel the Myth of Goodness to Find Your Genuine Self” which is...

We are currently living in some very difficult times. Times of darkness, times of betrayal, times of fear, times in which we cannot trust the people in power to do the compassionate and humane thing. How do we learn to thrive in the midst of those flames? Eckhart Tolle talks about the difference between pain and suffering, and what we shall see, in today’s discussion, is that the difference is the difference between despair and thriving. These circumstances in which we find ourselves today are d...

The word spirituality is thrown around quite a bit, with all manner of people calling themselves spiritual. But if you ask them what this word means the definitions vary and are often vague. For many it means to pray a lot. For others it means to meditate a lot. For most it means living a moral life, doing the right thing. For most spirituality must fall under a certain religion. But what if spirituality is not something we do, but something that does us? What if spirituality is a process—much l...

We welcome Lissa Coffey back to the show today to talk about her wonderful little children’s book entitled “The Four Pearls and the Four Squirrels.” Lissa is an Ayurveda expert, hypnotherapist, sociologist, author and life coach. And this little book brings together all of her knowledge in one easy-to-understand approach to happiness. Children are subject to so many influences and we, as parents, teachers, relatives and friends of children have that power-to-influence over our children. What are...

There are many spiritual teachers who are teaching us that all of life in this world is actually an illusion—that the reality of life is that there is no suffering, no pain, no drama—just the gentle peace of nirvana—the life beyond the veil of matter. Is that true? If so, what are we doing here, what is the meaning of life if it is all just an illusion anyway? But what if life is not an illusion—doesn’t that lead us to the same questions? Why do we suffer? What is the meaning of a life filled wi...

Generally speaking, we think of morality as a good thing. People should, we think, honor certain codes of behavior in order to prove that they are good people, and in order to maintain order in the world. But what we don't commonly know is that morality can often be a poor substitute for authenticity. We don't know it, but we are commonly doing the right thing, instead of doing the true thing. Yep, that's right, there can be a big difference between what's right and what's true. And today's show...

We live in a social environment now in which hate is overt, active and visible. Not so very long ago, in fact, just prior to the election of our current President, hate was hidden, covert, and only active in a passive/aggressive fashion. But there are many people out there today who are trying to tell us that hate is a good thing. That it is an essential survival skill. That, of course, we hate, for how could we feel any other way toward people of other races, other cultures, other skin colors a...

We have lived for so long and so deeply entrenched in the good/evil paradigm that we truly believe that striving to be good, and fighting the so-called good fight against evil is the business of being a person. Indeed, we think it is the business of life. But what if we knew that the ONLY thing we need to do is peace. What if peace were how we survive? What if peace were how we negotiate with others? What if peace is how we form relationships? What if peace is the body? What if peace is the soul...

There is a form of religion that has, over the past 10 years or so, taken over larger and larger portions of the American psyche. It is a religion made up more of fear of evil than love of and from the divine. It is a religion made up more of laws and judgement than compassion and redemption. It is a religion which allows plenty of room for hate, and recrimination of other people--and it is led by a leadership that Jesus would have called vipers and white-washed sepulchers. These modern-day Phar...

On several previous shows we have referred listeners to meditation as one of the most effective of ways to get in touch with the authentic Self. Today, we are going to be examining some meditation tools created by Michel Pascal, and used by Google, Harvard University and other major organizations to reduce stress. We will explore this from the angle of spirituality as well as physicality, mind and body. Many people say that meditation is too hard, and takes too much time. But our guest today pro...

To date, most religions have wanted to claim their own God. In the West the Christian religion has claimed that their God is the only God. That every other God is actually a false god. But what if, like Pope Francis says, we are all meeting the same God in different ways. What if, in fact, each religion, each language of each religion, each ritual, each path, each prayer is but a different language meant to reach but one divine entity, a universal entity who knows we each have different ways of ...

Over the past 20 years or so, there has arisen among spiritual teachers a certain mythology that has sunk its teeth into the psyche of the New Age, New Thought, Human Potential Movement adherents along with those who call themselves spiritual but not religious. It is the idea that fear opposes love. This idea is translated to mean that when one loves, one should not feel fear, and vice versa. It is based in the Biblical tenet that perfect love casts out fear. But we've got some real misunderstan...

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 prob...

Today there are many Americans who are frightened, angry and being chased around by some of the more primal emotions regarding survival. Short of everyone in the country immigrating to Canada, what can we do about these emotions? Many tell us that we should somehow make these emotions go away because they are negative. But what if there is no such thing as a negative or a positive emotion? What if we've been labeling these emotions based on societal demands for compliance for a flat-line of emot...

How do we manage a culture in which there is such diversity, while maintaining unity? The current political scene has revealed much about what is yet unresolved in the collective American psyche. We've seen hatred, misogyny, abuse, and profound unwillingness to even consider the option of acceptance of diversity. So, what do we do with that? How can we find unity in that? Well, the journey to wholeness that is a part of our collective unconsciousness, has not been halted in its tracks because wh...

Currently many people are seeking a spiritual practice that offers real results, such as, personal transformation and life change. Today we are talking to Greg Marcus, PhD, practitioner and coach of American Mussar. His book 'The Spiritual Practice of Good Actions: Finding Balance Through the Soul Traits of Mussar' will be the topic of our discussion as he leads us to understand some of the specific practices that are meant to bring everyday life into alignment with spiritual values. Mussar is a...