B Is For Being

There are so many people talking about self-love, acceptance, meditation, connection, consciousness, ego... and it all just feels a little bit fake.It's like everyone only partially understands what they're talking about but shares it like they're an enlightened master. It just makes me cringe!What's the point of even sharing if we're all dismissed as 'just another self-proclaimed spiritual master who doesn't really know what they're talking about', resulting in no one taking anyone seriously!?These feelings became so strong that I had no motivation to produce this week's episode. So I decided to explore what was behind these feelings and share my findings with you.In this episode I uncover the core belief which was behind these highly critical feelings for others and myself, for sharing our journey.

What an amazing year 2016 has been. A year full of growth, learning and expansion for everyone. I’m amazed at how much I’ve learned this year and lost track of the times I smashed through my comfort zones.This is the episode where I take a look back at the year that was 2016 and share my biggest learnings, my biggest fears and the most powerful episodes I produced this year.Grab your listening ears and hit play on the last episode of 2016.

When we are born we aren’t given a manual which tells us the person that we are. No one else can tell us the unique things we hold inside of ourselves or how we feel like expressing it. Knowing these things is part of the process of self-discovery. Today I’d like to share a tool with you that has made it much easier for me to dive into myself and discover my inherent ways of being and expression. The tool itself is just a simple list of the people you admire. However, instead of stopping there, by looking more closely at exactly which aspects of a person we admire we can learn which part of us is admiring those parts in them. In this episode I share with you the people I admire at the moment and go through the process of identifying exactly what it is I admire about each of them. Knowing what we admire in others puts us in a position to be able to make more energising and fulfilling decisions for ourselves more often. Join me as I go through my own discovery process using this tool.

Michael and I were housemates this year and would regularly find ourselves deep in conversation in the kitchen on topics of psychology, philosophy and the nature of the universe. The thought of recording these conversations often came up but never eventuated until now. This week's episode is a little different as I purposefully left the topic of our talk undecided. I let my questions come from a place of genuine curiousity instead of the expectation to make the best podcast episode in the world, and really, this is how all of our conversations have started in the past. We talk about the experience of performing on stage, why hip-hop is Mike's primary form of expression and Mike shares a heartfelt message to his 15 year old self when he was having a hard time in life. Michael has a degree in psychology and is an Australian hip-hop artist focused on spreading awareness and understanding through his music for us to re-connect with ourselves and each other.

This is Part 2 of my talk with Luna. Here's Part 1 of our talk if you missed it. The Artist’s Way, written by Julia Cameron, is a well known tool for understanding and clearing the blocks which hold us back from knowing and expressing our creativity. In this episode, we go deep into the tools which The Artist's Way provides and share our own experiences of going through the course and the continued use of the tools well after completing the 12-week course. I began my Artist’s Way Journey at the end of 2012. I had just finished my degree in Film and was at a dead end creatively. I had so many film ideas and wasn’t working on a single one of them. I would procrastinate big time and do anything not to work on them even though I wanted to! Sounds crazy right? I knew my creative expression was blocked and that I was afraid of making a film which no one liked or making a film in the wrong way, but I didn't know why I was feeling this way. My mum had a copy of The Artist's Way and I would often find it laying a

Luna is a poet and multidisciplinary artist who has worked across the fields of theater, puppetry, design, film and even circus. This little list only covers a portion of her creative experiences. From an early age she was expressing complex emotions, like the emotion of confusion, using water colour paints. She is no stranger to the creative journey and the different challenges and obstacles which can arise along the way. We sat down and talked about finding the balance between self-time and social-time, how to manage the expectations we we bring to our own creative process, and some of the ways we can make space for our unique creative voice to come through. This is Part 1 of my talk with Luna. Stay tuned for Part 2 which will be up next week.

I had a pretty good childhood but there was still a fair amount of anxiety, fear, blame, and impatience thrown around. There are small events and big events in life which leave us with psycho-emotional wounds to carry around. Often we have no idea these wounds are there because they only come to the surface when they're triggered. I feel these wounds are a guaranteed part of life, unfortunately understanding and healing them is a different story. As a kid I wasn't given the tools for healing and unless I went looking for them I wouldn't have any idea it was even possible to understand and heal my wounds. This is a passionate episode. I share my thoughts and detail why I've dedicated my life to the discovery of tools both known and unknown.

Usually we’re going to experience some fear when taking a big step into a new experience; moving out of home, travelling overseas, starting a relationship - these are things we may genuinely want for ourselves but find ourselves unable to take action because where afraid of what this new experience will bring.In this episode, I share five actionable reminders that have helped me become clearer on my next big step and allowed me to take progressive action towards achieving it.

Elliot is continually stepping out into the unknown and challenging his comfort zone. He does this seemingly unaffected by the judgements and beliefs of others. I asked about the earlier years of his life and he shared with me that things haven’t always been like this. As a kid he was cut down for asking too many questions and experienced rejection from others when sharing his early video projects. As a result he stopped sharing himself with others. But overtime he’s managed to step outside external judgements and beliefs and express himself with even more freedom and authenticity. We look at how we can give the gift of listening to each other; how Elliot steps outside his comfort zone, and his latest project - 30 Days of Dance - which involves him dancing in public everyday for a month, making himself vulnerable for all to see and encouraging others to join him in this open form of expression.

When I learned that my beliefs were behind the thoughts I was having and the feelings I felt I realised if I changed my beliefs I could also change how I experienced life.I also learned that beliefs continually reinforce themselves through the experiences they create - the experience made up of our thoughts and feelings.I saw that these experiences were always related to the original belief. If the belief was negative I would experience negative thoughts and negative feelings; if a belief was positive I would experience positive thoughts and positive feelings.This belief - thought - feeling - experience process continually reinforces the original belief as the experience it creates has originated from it.While practicing being in the present moment I noticed that any difficult experience I was having felt easier and less overwhelming, and I also noticed that I had more space to decide if I wanted to keep being in that experience or choose a different experience entirely.In this episode I share the process I’v

I lost myself a bit this week. Actually the past few weeks I’ve been trying to become really clear on the value I’m offering with B is for Being and look at how I can provide you with more valuable takeaways with every episode. I began to look at how other successful bloggers and podcasters were sharing with their sizeable audiences. I thought, ‘they are definitely doing something right if they have so many people listening. I just need to do what they’re doing and I’ll have a bigger audience too. They had catchy titles and spoke with reassuring authority. Great, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll write catchy titles and speak with more authority. With this new perspective I begun to explore possible topics for this week’s episode, and as I started writing from this new perspective I noticed a sense of dis-ease and tension building. Something didn’t feel right. I’d forgotten something really important. The essence of why I was sharing. I lost trust in how I was sharing. I was doubting that how I was sharing cont

It’s been a big week. I’m in the process of refining what I share with you and part of that process has involved me asking myself a lot of questions. Some of which are: who exactly am I trying to reach with what I’m sharing, and what was it that inspired me to start sharing in the first place? All of these questions got me to look back at my own journey. As I looked back at the last 3 years of my life, I realised a lot has changed for me. Two areas of my life have undergone significant change. My creativity and my relationships with others. In this episode I share the journey leading up to the realisation which compelled me to start B is for Being and take a look at why it’s at the core of everything I share. Buckle up, it’s story time!

Practicing self-acceptance can be challenging while we're holding beliefs that we should be thinking, feeling, doing or being something different to how we are. Unconditional acceptance of ourselves has the power to completely dissolve our strongest beliefs of inadequacy. In this episode I take a look at two of the dynamics which can result from using self-help material before we've accepted our current mental/emotional state. These dynamics can keep us running in cycles of inadequacy and seeking temporary relief without ever actually addressing the core of the problem. I share some of my own experiences and challenges with self-acceptance and how I realised I was using self-help material against myself instead of for genuine self-understanding and growth.

A raw look at two of the biggest limiting beliefs my parents passed on to me and the tools I used to discover they weren't to blame. As kids we were around our parents almost everyday. We looked to our parents on how to relate to the world around us, and just like a thirsty sponge we soaked up everything they showed us - both the good and the bad. We watched our parents go through their own struggles and took note (usually sub-consciously) of how they reacted to certain situations, certain people and certain  feelings they were experiencing. But why would our parents show us things which would make our lives harder and healthy connections with others more difficult? Why would our parents treat themselves and others poorly in certain situations? These were the questions I had as I began to dig deeper and deeper into my negative reactions which were causing trouble in my own relationships with others. Show Highlights and Takeaways Our parents have given us a lot of helpful positive beliefs and also

I met Eve at OM Power Yoga. She is my Yoga teacher. Her classes are fun, spontaneous and not afraid to flow in a different direction. Her studio offers much more than your average dose of downward dogs. It has organically evolved into a thriving social hub with regular after class chai-time and spontaneous hangouts quickly becoming the norm. Eve’s dynamic and ever-flowing energy has been a cornerstone of this evolution, but Eve’s own evolution has been far from average. Following a period of intense accidents, Eve decided to make some changes in her life – to start making decisions for herself based in love instead of fear. In the second half of this episode we dive into why it’s felt so difficult to take care of our needs around other people and share some practical tips which have made this process much easier, resulting in our needs being taken care of and others feeling respected.

Tim's life is flowing with creativity, authentic relationships, and expansive personal growth that's taking place at an exponential rate. The first time I met Tim I was blown away by his solid sense of Self and I noticed he wasn't looking to anyone to see how he should act or what he should do next; he was simply and completely just being himself. During our conversation I discovered Tim hasn't always lived a life of such grounded flow. He experienced a big shift in his life at age 14 and then again at the age of 18. With the help of some powerful self-discovery tools he began a conscious journey into himself to release blocked emotional energy and become aware of his limiting beliefs and genuine needs. There's a lot of heartfelt sharing in this episode. I share some of the fears I've encountered on my own journey to self-expression, and Tim shares the tools he's used to create the enriching and dynamic life which is unfolding before him everyday.

Completely owning our thoughts and feelings is one of the most liberating things we can experience. Without a dependency on external events to make us feel a certain way we are empowered to create a life driven and validated completely from our Selves. But it's difficult to feel self-empowered without a grounded foundation within our Selves. In this episode I look at how we can develop our Self-integrity and trust so we can begin owning our inner-experiences and removing our sense of value from the outcomes of external events.

An experienced insight meditation teacher and psychotherapist, Anton Eastick carries a wealth of information about the workings of the mind and the effect trauma has on our lives. Coming from a Buddhist philosophy, Anton offers unique insights about the nature of trauma and how we can begin to understand and move through it using meditation and mindfulness techniques. I’ve experienced huge benefits in well-being from meditation and remaining aware of the thoughts and emotions I feel in my body. But I wanted to dive deeper with Anton to find out how the practice of meditation and mindful ‘watching’ actually works to heal our past traumas and brings us into a space where authentic action is possible – responding solely and uniquely to the moment in front of us.

Self-described as a 'peacemaker', Peter brings members of the public together through social actions–like dancing on a train–to show us that we’re not bound by the stories and expectations of our society, our family or our friends. In fact quite the opposite. The message is: we can, and will, create our own unique story. A story true to our inner-calling, a story which both fulfills us and inspires the rest of humanity to do the same. I had to know what Peter’s own journey had been so far and how he’d discovered his inner-voice. We sat down and dived right into his early years and the things which needed to happen before he could start blazing his own path in life. This episode is packed full of the good stuff.

Amendment notice: This interview has been amended for the purposes of anonymity. I spoke with a member of The Liberators at this year’s Blazing Swan. The Liberators International is an organisation which creates flash mob events around the world to remind people of our shared human connection and the ability we all have to express ourselves authentically. Initially we were talking about the things we’d like to let go of, but the conversation naturally opened to include much more than that. In this episode he shares his journey of self-liberation and how he’s moved through some of his strongest insecurities around body image and dancing in public, and realised his fears were nothing more than social conditions which he had accepted as the definite way to behave. We also talk about forming ‘whole-relationships’ where neither individual is needed by the other to feel complete, but instead both people support each other’s growth and development while staying true to their own needs and personal interests.