Soul Search

In this guided meditation, you'll be invited to meet your inner child. You inner child is real and can be a resource to you. Getting in touch with them can be a way to heal old wounds that limit your sense of self worth and can also be a way to bring creativity, compassion and imagination back into your adult life.  But this experience, while freeing, can also bring up pain points from your c...

In this guided meditation, you’ll be invited to reflect on a person or a situation that you feel some resistance to. We are not talking about anything that threatens your physical or emotional safety. Instead, what we’re looking for is someone that you tend to quickly and harshly judge, or something that triggers feelings of sadness or guilt or anger.  These are normal human emotions, but we can b...

Feeling lost or stuck in life is not the same as being alone. The dark valleys we often walk through can help us see new possibilities for our lives and encounter assisting forces that show the way. We're not in control, but if we pay attention we'll find that Life itself is working for our healing and pointing us to a path toward wholeness. Music credit: The Sound of Swimming Underwater...

Life is full of demands. Sometimes it feels that you have to hold the whole world up on your shoulders. There's no time for pausing because it seems like it's not allowed. Use this affirmation to give yourself permission to slow down, breathe and take notice that in all your trying, you're never alone. Music credit: Everything, Everywhere by Alaskan Tapes  

It's easy to get trapped inside the belief that things won't work out for you and that you're just not worthy of peace or wholeness or love. But despite what you've heard, happiness in life is not a reward and suffering is not a punishment. Use this affirmation to silence you inner critic. You ARE worthy of good things like affirmation, acceptance, healing, forgiveness and love...

We tend to compensate for what we believe are our deficiencies by "adding on" in life. But reading books, listening to podcasts, buying more stuff won't necessarily get you to where you long to be. Use this affirmation to claim the beautiful mystery to you beneath what you hold onto that only life itself can reveal. Music credit: Simple Math by Alaskan Tapes

Shame is powerful. It's used to control people. As a kid you were taught to hide things about yourself you were taught were unpleasant. As an adult, they're now the parts of you that you've come to hate and won't show others. Use this affirmation to remind yourself that all of who you are is worth revealing and being fully accepted. You no longer have to hide. Music credit: Aft...

You were born capable of meeting people's deepest needs. But it has nothing to do with strength or intelligence or beauty, or anything else you've been taught to believe you need to be. Your compassionate, unguarded presence is what people need most from you and it is a gift you've always possessed. Music credit: Intersect by Alaskan Tapes 

We often see what lies ahead of us through the lens of fear. Use this affirmation to remind yourself that fear is there to protect you from being hurt, but it can also hold you back. Deep within you is a source of wisdom, strength and courage needed to walk your journey. Time of struggle can help you discover it. Music credit: Places by Alaskan Tapes

We all feel anxious at times. Use this affirmation to remind yourself that there is a calm, wise person deep within you that is capable of doing hard things. When hurt and guilt and shame lose their grip on you, this is who remains because this is who you are. Music credits: Of Woods and Seas by Alaskan Tapes

We all get stuck in negative thinking at times. Use this affirmation to reclaim the truth about who you are. You are worthy of love simply because you're human. It's not about how successful you are. And it doesn't go away just because you fail. Love is never earned. It just IS. Music Credit: When the Earth Yelled Back at Me by Alaskan Tapes

Dr. Joyce del Rosario has returned to her hometown of Seattle after being away for a while. She had a career serving under-resourced youth in the city and then at-risk moms in the Bay Area. She also earned a PhD in theology and taught at a prestigious seminary, but things changed and she's come home to find her way again. What can food say about who you are, when the world is making demand of...

Kris Smiley has had four cancers episodes, twenty plus tumors and multiple invasive surgeries. He knows what it’s like to face that cold calculating part of reality that doesn’t care about your plans or the things you love. Can you hold hands with what’s destroying you? Is there an answer to why it’s happening? This is his story about finding out. Be advised: This episode contains adult language a...

Nita takes us on a walk through the neighborhood where she grew up. It's more than a nostalgic walk though. There was something to the place that held spiritual significance. It’s where she came to learn about herself and feel at home in the world. There’s something important about holding on to your home, even if it’s now only a sweet childhood memory.  

Bernie Dickson is a photographer and mother of two special needs boys. Her profession requires her to see the world a bit differently than most of us. Hear the story about how photography and acceptance of her kids came together one  beautiful night. And how a community came around to support her.  See photos from her Acceptance Exhibit here .

As adults we tend to lose that unfiltered amazement of the world we had as children. Our agendas take over instead because we think wonder is a luxury we can no longer afford. But could it be that what we seem to have lost in our adult lives has never left us? And that recapturing wonder can reconnect us with what's always been most essential to us?

There is a different way to walk through life. A kind of walking not to get anywhere or to accomplish anything. Instead it's a walk to linger and to listen. Kirk Davis, a San Francisco native and community leader in the city's Bayview neighborhood, walks this way through his city. Often taking several hours, he intentionally listens to what the city is saying to him about the past and th...

Who are you? How we answer this question determines everything in life. Too often our culture answers it for us, taking us away from being in touch with who we truly are. The essence of the spiritual life is to reclaim our lost identity. Using a blend of storytelling and interviews, the Soul Search podcast is an up-close look at this journey, taking you below the surface of life to find your deepe...