Episode #101: Isidra Mencos on Lust and Pleasure as a Pathway to Self-Discovery
Release Date: 08/20/2023
Episode #112: Season 4 Wrap-Up
The Discomfort Practice
In this final episode of Season 4 of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy looks back at some themes that arose over the course of the year+ it has spanned, before taking a brief hiatus to prep the launch of Season 5 in March 2024. What she found in looking back was some striking themes - the greatest of which was love. This has woven its way into many episodes, including: with Kim Polman, founder of Reboot the Future, whose ethos is based on the Golden Rule with Daze Aghaji, who talked about creating change from a place of love with Pilar Garrido, Minister for the Economy in Costa Rica during...
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Episode #111: Betsy By Herself on What You're Meant to Bring to the World
The Discomfort Practice
In this solo episode, Betsy journeys her way through a personal question at the moment: 'What am I meant to be a channel for on this earth? What is meant to come through me?' It's a very personal question, and there are no wrong answers. She talks about experimenting with being a channel for love, and how that has transformed her life in just a short span of a few months. As with most of Betsy's solo episodes, she leads listeners through practical steps to uncover their own answer to the question she's pondering. What 'special sauce' are you meant to bring to whatever is meant to flow through...
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Episode #110: Dr. Terence Lester on Opening Our Eyes to Things We’d Rather Not See
The Discomfort Practice
In this episode, Betsy speaks to Dr. Terence Lester, an activist and scholar who focuses on bringing justice to those suffering from poverty and racism. The founder of LoveBeyondWalls.org and The Dignity Museum, he is also the author of three books: 'I See You: How Love Opens Our Eyes to Invisible People,' 'When We Stand: The Power of Seeking Justice Together' and 'All God's Children: How Confronting Buried History Can Build Racial Solidarity.' Three ideals drive Terence: (1) anyone can make a difference, (2) we don’t live forever, (3), and it’s worth dedicating one’s life to ensuring no...
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Episode #109: Betsy by Herself on Appreciating the Things That Have Made You
The Discomfort Practice
Looking back at your life, at some of the things that have been difficult or even traumatic, how have those things actually been part of your path to becoming who you needed to become? And how have some of the most difficult things you might have gone through actually been divinely chosen training to create the ‘architecture’ of your life, or gain skills you needed to deliver your mission in the world? Betsy thinks out loud while asking these questions and shares how she has come to appreciate how she now appreciates her own Fundamentalist Christian upbringing for the spiritual...
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Episode #108: From the Archives - Paul Davis On Following Your Purpose
The Discomfort Practice
We're trying a new thing over here and have dug out a great episode from our archives. This is a revisit of Episode 55, which is a juicy, insightful interview with Paul William Davis, an intuitive personal advisor, an entrepreneur, a best-selling author, an award-winning business growth consultant, speaker with the best Irish accent you're likely to hear all day, lol. Betsy and Paul deep dive into how you go about figuring out what your personal purpose is and how important intuition - your 'knowings' - are (and you'll get an idea of why Betsy includes it in the coaching framework she has...
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Episode #107: Betsy by Herself on Exploring Her Shadow Side
The Discomfort Practice
This solo was recorded in November 2023, off the back of a 5-day spiritual retreat with teacher Sabrina Lynn in Ibiza, in which 22 wild souls went deep into their shadows. And healed themselves, their ancestral line and things they didn't even know they were healing for the collective. Shadow work is a term that many know and some of you might not. They are the part of us we haven't yet owned. The things we're ashamed of, don't want to deal with, won't look at, don't want to acknowledge are part of us. We stuff them in the basements of our souls, convinced that dealing with those things will...
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Episode #106: Carlos Zimbron on Fuckup Nights and Why Celebrating Failure is Important
The Discomfort Practice
In this episode Betsy is joined by Carlos 'Charlie' Zimbrón, Co-Founder and CEO of Fuckup Nights, as well as The Failure Institute. Betsy and Charlie say the word 'fuck' a lot cuz... clue's in the name, really. So if you enjoy 'swear words' as occasional punctuation and appreciate a free-flowing, un-edited conversation, you're gonna LOVE this one. Fuckup Nights has become a global movement driven by community of people who share professional failure stories on a monthly basis in 200+ cities in 62+ countries. It's a link I often share with the execs who take the online course I lead for...
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Episode #105: Betsy by Herself on Making Magic
The Discomfort Practice
In this episode, Betsy talks about a subject that is near and dear to her heart (and her life): living magically. She talks about her own experience of having created a life that is full of synchronicity, support, ease, alignment and, well, MAGIC. As is her way, she encourages others to 'let things be magical' and talks about how she has learned to stop getting in the way of letting life and the good things that are meant for each of us flow. She also talks about the importance of trusting the timing of things you might want to happen - or to manifest. Listen to Betsy's insights on the ways...
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Episode #104: Betsy by Herself on Creating Ease for Yourself
The Discomfort Practice
In this solo episode Betsy revisits a topic she loves to talk about: how her changed relationship with ease - and having greater ease with being at ease - has positively impacted her work, her productivity and her understanding of the world. She shares why she's become evangelical about helping others to create more ease in their lives, stepping away from the conditioning that 'the grind is the thing' and examining their own relationship with NOT choosing ease. Maybe you can relate to this: Is hardship, struggle, feeling like you've worked really hard perhaps an 'existential kink' for...
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Episode #103: Oyin Adebayo on Empowering 1million Black Women
The Discomfort Practice
In this episode of the Discomfort Practice, I talk to the mighty Oyinkansola ‘Oyin’ Adebayo, the Founder and CEO of Niyo Enterprises, which is an ecosystem of brands that exists to economically empower Black women to be builders of high-impact ecosystems. Oyin’s personal purpose is to empower Black women globally to upskill, transform their careers and create a world-class black female ecosystem of entrepreneurs. Niyo Bootcamps has trained over 500 black women to be upskilled in various tech roles through the “Black CodHer” Bootcamp & Black Disruptor bootcamps, several of whom...
info_outlineIn this episode of The Discomfort Practice, I speak to Isidra Mencos, who was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain, about her journey through life as a young woman who grew up under Franco, a repressive dictator, and came of age as Spain was massively changing after his death.
We talk about what happens when a young woman who grew up in a place where kissing in public was illegal finds herself suddenly free to explore whatever she wants.
Speaking to Isidra was something of a bridge between my US past and my Spanish present. There are definite parallels in our backgrounds. Isidra moved to the US in 1992 to complete a PhD at UC Berkeley in California. Following that, she established herself as a teacher at Berkeley, a writer and editor, and a corporate executive. In 2016 she quit her plush corporate job to finally focus on her lifelong dream of being a creative writer. She has been widely published in literary journals and general interest magazines, but what drew me to Isidra was the recent publication of her memoir, Promenade of Desire, which narrates the journey of the shy María Isidra as she experiments and evolves.
We talk about the beauty of desire and the freedom that exploration - sexual and otherwise - can give all of us to become who we truly are and to love our full selves. Our conversation took us to some uncomfortable yet juicy and important topics. So come get uncomfortable with us… and find pleasure in the episode if you can!
Connect with Isidra:
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Buy and read Isidra’s book, Promenade of Desire
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