This Most Unbelievable Life!

Empathy as a Skillful Practice

Hey all! This episode is a bit of a departure from our usual podcast format. This one is an exclusive Cheri Spiegel production on the topic of Empathy. As Cheri talks through in this episode, unlocking empathy takes a little bit of work, and it takes some skill to fully engage with it throughout a lifetime. Sometimes, when we really look around honestly at the world, as it is, it can break our hearts, and the pain and suffering of it can sometimes be too much to bear all at once. How can we know how much we can engage with it, and act upon it, without falling into despair, shutting it down in response, and turning it off completely? Give Cheri a listen on this one, and see what you think of our framework for engaging with empathy as a lifelong practice to live a full and complete life. Living with empathy is hard work sometimes, but we really do believe that empathy comes naturally to us, and that life really is richer, deeper, and more meaningful with a skillful empathy practice.
Of course, this includes self-empathy. More on this in the podcast!
Thanks all!

Discovery Requires Our Curiosity...and Our Openness

Do we have an interesting episode for you today? Well, we certainly think so! Ironically enough, we didn't intend to discover anything particularly new when we recorded this episode. Instead, we simply planned to share what we learned about the concept of discover through the workshop we've offered entitled "Discover: Exploring Needs as They Emerge In College Contexts." While we did share a bit from that experience, we got an invitation to really explore what it takes to be open to discovery when...a young man knocked on the door of the room we were recording in and asked, curiously enough, where he might be able to learn more about recording a podcast! You'll hear Cheri start to get distracted as she's finishing a sentence and then you'll be treated to Paul and Cheri debriefing the experience and using it as a tool to think through the things we agree one needs to accept if they're going to move into discovery mode! For quick reference, we provide them below here, but listen in to hear us talk through them - and for our most curious recording experience to date!
To become a discoverer, you must first meet and accept the following things:
You do not know all there is to know.
You do not currently see all that there is to see.
Other beings know and understand things you do not.
Other beings have occupied spaces and experiences that you have not.
You are limited in your capacity to know, experience, and understand.
Your current way of seeing may inhibit your ability to see as others do.
Depending upon your background, experiences, and abilities, some of these premises might be more or less difficult to accept.

Reflection vs. Rumination, Or What Things in Our Lives are Parkable?

This is Episode 117 of the This Most Unbelievable Life Podcast! This episode looks at the concept of reflection and its importance as a way of processing and moving us forward in our lives (more traction!).  We contrast reflection with rumination, which can cause us just to spin our wheels! Building on our car metaphor, we walk through an exercise we love using in our shared spaces, "The Parking Lot Reflection." If you're interested in using this tool yourself and/or with groups you lead, consider purchasing the PDF and PPT downloads we offer up on the brand new TMUL Etsy Store!

When Life Asks us to Pause, How Might We Show Up?

Welcome to Episode 116 of the Podcast! This episode takes a look at our deepening understanding of what it means to have a pause practice. We take a look at instances of when we get to choose to pause, as well as times when pausing is thrust upon us. It's something that we'll all have to engage with eventually. What is the skill set for this?

Compassion Gives You Traction

Hey all! Well, we're back!
In this episode, we take some time to catch folks up with all we've been doing over the past 8 months, and to begin to share some of the ideas we've been developing over the past academic year. We're excited to be recording again, and we hope you enjoy this one!
If there is a path that we're on in this life that leads to where we want to go, what provides the traction that lets the wheels grip the road to move us forward? Spoiler alert... we say it's compassion. 
Thanks everybody!
Paul and Cheri 
 

Episode 114 - The Joyful Celebration of Compassion, Certificates, and the Paradox of Existence

Hey folks! 
This episode was recorded fresh on the heels of our latest Compassion workshop on our campus, and this being at the end of a busy couple of weeks, the conversation is pretty wide ranging! Since we have the tools of practical, embodied compassion in our hearts and minds as we offer workshops to our community, naturally, the conversation reflects on that. 
This conversation curiously, but somehow naturally, flows into a discussion of the eternal question, “what is all of this?” Give this one a listen and let us know what you think the benefits of a compassion-based life might be as we explore this topic ourselves!
Thanks folks! 
P + C
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https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter
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Episode 113 - How We Spent our Summer Vacation!

Aaaaaannnd were back! It was quite a summer for us over here, but not too much of what we were up to was visible - thus, this episode! As we get the creative podcast juices flowing once again, give this one a listen and hear what's been pulling us away from the microphone, and what we're working on as we fire it back up.
Thank you for your patience, folks! It's good to be podcasting again!
P + C
This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup!
If you’d like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here’s the link!
https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter
Social Media Links
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email
Support the Podcast!
We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 112 - ”Seeing What Is Around Us, with Honesty” (Mindfulness at Work Series, Chapter 3)

Episode 112 - "Seeing What Is Around Us, with Honesty"
Hey folks! 
This episode brings us a chat about chapter 3 in Maria Arpa’s book, “Mindfulness at Work.” This chapter, for us anyway, describes where the real work starts! When we turn our magnifying glass to all that is around us in the workplace, or anywhere for that matter, what do we notice, what do we like, and what could use a little attention? We especially like the use of the metaphorical magnifying glass in this chapter. With that, we can see things up close, or we can see them from farther away. Is it the details that we like or don’t like, or is it the whole thing, in its entirety? 
Let us know what you think about this one! Next time, Chapter 4 - “The Conflicts!”
If you’d like to pick up the book, “Mindfulness at Work,” by Maria Arpa, here is a link to the book from the publisher page : 
https://www.quartoknows.com/ourbooks/bookinfo.aspx?ean=9781782409342&bkey=39221980
Thanks folks! 
P + C
Shoutouts
A big shoutout to the Zoom corporation, the makers of some of the best, affordable sound and video equipment out there. Notice that we seem to be into video now! Check us out on YouTube!
This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup!
If you’d like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here’s the link!
https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter
Social Media Links
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email
Support the Podcast!
We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 111 - ”Finding the Space to Do your Work” (Mindfulness at Work Series, Chapter 2)

Hey folks! 
In this episode, we talk through Chapter 2 of Maria Arpa’s book, “Mindfulness at Work.” The title of this chapter, “Freedom & Sustainability,” seems to us to be about how we might find a way to operate in a joyful, mostly resistance-free way in the structure of our workplace. We live with this contrast between doing what we want, and needing to pay the bills. How do we find a middle ground in this that might be more than merely acceptable? Can we find ways to do the work we love to do AND hold a steady job, or does that require a total change in the container in which we operate?
Give this one a listen and let us know what you think! Next time, Chapter 3 - “The Honest Audit!”
If you’d like to pick up the book, “Mindfulness at Work,” by Maria Arpa, here is a link to the book from the publisher page : 
https://www.quartoknows.com/ourbooks/bookinfo.aspx?ean=9781782409342&bkey=39221980
Thanks folks! 
P + C
Shoutouts
A big shoutout to the Zoom corporation, the makers of some of the best, affordable sound and video equipment out there. Notice that we seem to be into video now! Check us out on YouTube!
This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup!
If you’d like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here’s the link!
https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter
Social Media Links
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email
Support the Podcast!
We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife

Episode 110 - ”Waking Up” (Mindfulness at Work Series, Chapter 1)

Hey folks! 
In this episode, we talk through Chapter 1 of Maria Arpa’s book, “Mindfulness at Work.” The title of this chapter, “Wake Up & Smell the Coffee,” seems to us to be about acknowledgement. It starts with the acknowledgement that we are where we are in the workplace because we accepted things as they were, made decisions, even unconscious ones, on how to best operate in the environment we found ourselves in, and reacted and responded to situations as a result of the causes and conditions of our lives. As Maria Arpa writes, “By remembering and acknowledging those experiences, you will understand their effect on the choices you have made about work and can begin to take steps to remedy this.” 
Give this one a listen and let us know what you think! Next time, Chapter 2 - “Freedom and Sustainability!”
If you’d like to pick up the book, “Mindfulness at Work,” by Maria Arpa, here is a link to the book from the publisher page : 
https://www.quartoknows.com/ourbooks/bookinfo.aspx?ean=9781782409342&bkey=39221980
Thanks folks! 
P + C
Shoutouts
A big shoutout to the Zoom corporation, the makers of some of the best, affordable sound and video equipment out there. Notice that we seem to be into video now! Check us out on YouTube!
This Most Unbelievable Newsletter Signup!
If you’d like to get the Official TMUL Newsletter in your email inbox each and every month, click on the link below and sign up! All sorts of nifty tidbits in there in the months to come, including some guided meditations. Here’s the link!
https://www.thismostunbelievablelife.com/newsletter
Social Media Links
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Email
Support the Podcast!
We'd love your support! If you would like to help out, here is the link to our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/thismostunbelievablelife