Clarissa Pinkola Estés and the Dangerous Old Woman
Authentic Living
We are excited that Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD comes this week to tell us about the unveiling of her long awaited audio work and online series called “The Dangerous Old Woman, Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype.” World renowned author of “Women Who Run With the Wolves,” which was on the NY Times bestseller list for 145 weeks, she is an internationally acclaimed poet, Diplomat Jungian psychoanalyst, post-trauma specialist, award-winning social activist and writer, as well as a cantadora, (keeper of the old stories in the Latina tradition). Dr. E, as she is affectionately...
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Mark Nepo and Authenticity
Authentic Living
Mark Nepo is an author, poet, philosopher, beloved teacher and cancer survivor who has, for thirty years, been exploring how we can stay awake and authentic when our wounds make us numb and hidden; how we can minimize what stands between us and our experience of life; how we can create a practice that wears down what thickens around our hearts and minds. And today we are going to talk to him about those very things, as we explore together the meanings and messages of his books, The Endless Practice and Reduced to Joy. The Endless Practice explores how the soul works in the world, and how by...
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Looking for a Happy, Healthy Relationship?
Authentic Living
We have arrived at adolescence in our understanding of relationship—in other words, we have a long way to go. But, well, what do we expect? Only 150 years ago, marriages were often still arranged in first world countries. We arranged for a good dowry, good property, money, inheritance, prestige, even good teeth and good hips. So this thing of marrying someone we love is new, and we have only begun the work of understanding how to do it. But you know what happens typically in adolescence: we fall in love and out of love very quickly. Unfortunately, that’s still where we are with this new...
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Talk to Me Like I'm Someone You Love
Authentic Living
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, Revised Edition: Relationship Repair in a Flash” (2013) containing a set flashcards that say precisely the right thing at precisely the...
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The Problem with Morality
Authentic Living
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 is going to point out that difference, as well as explore how authenticity gets us closer to a true...
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Are you being good, or being REAL?
Authentic Living
Most of us have been raised to be good. We were to share, be kind, be loving, say thank you when we didn’t feel grateful, say I’m sorry when we weren’t, hug people we didn’t want to hug and say we loved people we didn’t even know, much less love. But the idea of goodness held a magical quality for most of us. We thought that IF we were good enough, THEN we would be worthy, we would be loved and we could finally rest secure. We assume, therefore, that being real means being less than good—and the magic will go away. We know we have thoughts and feelings that we would call "bad." So,...
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It ain't necessarily so
Authentic Living
What we have heard and we’ve read in the Bible, well it ain’t necessarily so. So goes the old Porgy and Bess song. Perhaps they did not read Thomas Moore’s version, Gospel The Book of John, in which regardless of religion or atheism one discovers a deeper more meaningful spirituality hidden in the root meanings of the words used. Unfortunately, much of the work of John and others has been turned into moralistic dogma. But what we find in the root language is a more celebrative, deeply mystical and loving message. In Moore’s book we discover a different Jesus than the one described for...
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Love vs. Hate
Authentic Living
This show is a rerun, but the truths haven't changed. We live in a social environment now in which hate is overt, active and visible. Not so very long ago, in fact, 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 even a Christian thing. That, of course, we hate, for how could we feel any other way toward people of other races, other cultures, other skin colors and other sexual orientations, and gender identities. But hate is a response to fear. And fear is a...
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Who am I really?
Authentic Living
THE most important thing we can come to know in life is who we really are. But most of us have not been taught to know that person. Yes, we can look in the mirror and see ourselves, but most of us are looking at ourselves through what we perceive to be the image others have of us. Indeed, most of us have introjected a projection placed upon us by parents, and later others, who unconsciously need us to carry their projections for them. And since, as very young children, we need so badly to belong in our families of orgin, we just as unconsciously take on the roles that have been assigned to us...
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What is Spiritual Abuse and How do We Heal From It
Authentic Living
The terms spiritual abuse have, thus far, only been used to describe how Christian leaders abuse church members. But spiritual abuse runs far deeper and wider than can be described by any one religion. Spiritual abuse is abuse of the human spirit. While it's true that your spirit--your soul--can't really be damaged, it's also true that you can be split off from any conscious awareness of your spirit--and that's what spiritual abuse does. It is possible to live a life complete bereft of any conscious awareness of one's own spirit. That's what spiritual abuse can do. It can happen in any...
info_outlineJohn 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.