Episode #9 Falling in love with living – the how and the why
For most of us, falling in love with the absolute wonder of being alive is a distant dream. Nonetheless, changing how we feel is the goal of most self-help courses, a great deal of therapy and most of the routes that lead to alcohol and drug abuse.
Suppose we could do it intelligently, with a generosity-of-spirit that allows us really to fall in love with the act of living. So that each moment of life becomes a wonder, however it is lived?
In this final podcast of series 1, we take a look at this ultimate sticking point in our society. For many of us, feeling just isn’t safe and feeling good is either self-indulgence or self delusion. Or at least, that’s what we’ve programmed ourselves to believe.
But imagine a world where everyone was in love with living every moment of the day. Where we knew as a felt sense, that life was inspiring, and there to be explored. Where the magic of the days touched every interaction with ourselves, other people and the world around us.
None of this is impossible. Childhood trauma notwithstanding, we do have the ability to choose how we feel, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. I can open to the things that make my heart grow – or I can recycle the things that make it shrink. (With the coda that for some of us, our history of trauma is too great and we are hijacked by the impact of that on our bodies – therapy is a key resource and one to be used if at all possible.)
For most of us, though, we let our default feelings define the tenor and thread and weave of our lives. And we don’t have to. In fact, we need not to do this for any longer than we can help.
In this podcast, we explore the ways we can shift out of our defaults to something that lets us flourish. Because the world needs nothing less from us now.
Episode #9
Below are the academics mentioned in the podcast with their books. If you click the bold text, it’ll take you through to the relevant pages.
Jonathan Haidt – The Righteous Mind
Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma
Peter Levine – In an Unspoken Voice: how the body releases trauma and restores goodness
Stephen Porges – Polyvagal theory
Jonathan Franzen – What if we stopped pretending?
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THESE RECENT EPISODES
December Solstice meditation – suitable northern and southern hemispheres
Here’s our December Solstice Meditation for 2025 – please find a place and time where you can relax, take space for yourself, and build the connections to the web of life that will carry us forward.
Wild new stories: Weaving New Myths for a New Way of Being with Ally Kingston of Agency for Nature
How do we create the stories that will bring a whole new generation back to the web of life, that will help people find hope again, and lean into their heart’s yearning for connection, relationship, being and belonging?
Word Magic 2025 – Accidental Gods’ pick of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and podcasts through the year
Mandas’ pick of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and podcasts through the year…
Barefoot Economics in a world of Hobnailed Boots with storyteller Inze Aponte
If we are to build systems that meet our real needs we have to first understand what those needs are and start growing the stuff that will allow us to thrive: good food from healthy soils, safe and supportive homes and communities, space to develop and express our creativity, opportunities to increase our capacity for co-operation and kindness. As much as these, though, we need to understand what an economy is for – why it does what it does…
STAY IN TOUCH
For a regular supply of ideas about humanity's next evolutionary step, insights into the thinking behind some of the podcasts, early updates on the guests we'll be having on the show - AND a free Water visualisation that will guide you through a deep immersion in water connection...sign up here.
(NB: This is a free newsletter - it's not joining up to the Membership! That's a nice, subtle pink button on the 'Join Us' page...)



