Authentic Living

Why is it so very difficult for us to imagine that we are One with all, and that all is One with us? Why is it that we feel so very separate from the divine and each other? Why does any one of us ever feel lonely? Today we are going to answer those questions to the best of our ability given the mystery that is Oneness. If you suffer with feelings of guilt, shame, emptiness, loneliness, differentne...

If you know anything about the Buddhist philosophy, you know that one of its primary principles is detachment. We are not to attach ourselves to people, places, things, events, circumstances or situations. But how does one live one's life without attaching to these things? Isn't that what life is all about—really appreciating and enjoying and being part of these relationships to the accoutrements...

There is not one single miracle, not one single answered prayer, not one single period of bliss or peace that does not involve at least a temporary state of surrender to divine Self. That said, however, that is not how we think. Not only is the whole idea of surrender a difficult one for us to consider, but the whole idea of Self as divine is all but intolerable to many. So on today's show we are...

We have all been taught to believe in a dualistic frame of reference. All of our lives have been built upon this premise--our religions, our families, our financial institutions, our healthcare, our work ethic and our very sense of ourselves. To take a different tack is to give enormous energy to thinking and living differently in a world that requires that we stay the same. Not only the same as w...

Have you found your deepest ancient roots? No. We're not talking about your genealogy, though that can certainly be a part of it. We're talking about the deepest collective archetypal memories found in the corpuscles of your blood and the marrow of your bones. And of how your personal psychology connects to this. These two, can unite to create a primal essence, which is at least an aspect of the a...

Here we are again at another new beginning. At least it is one that most of us recognize as a new beginning. The problem, however, with new beginnings is that we think we have to throw out the old to have the new. We think of it in very black and white, purist terms. But what if you knew that you didn't have to eliminate anything to have something new? Things don't die when new things are born. Ra...

This is that time of year when we talk about it. We sing about it. We even pray about it. But no one really believes that we are actually going to have peace on earth, right? I mean, look around man! You can't really believe that this crazy place is going to one day be all peace, love and joy, right? We are not those people. We are not the people who can facilitate this. We are people who are weak...

What do we do with the enormous suffering created by such things as deadly illness and trauma? They say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But when the miracles come, what is it that happens within us, around us, about us? What is it that transforms us? Mark Nepo is coming back to the Authentic Living show to discuss his latest book, Inside the Miracle, in which he reveals his own miraculo...

There are many spiritual teachers teaching that we should practice gratitude as a daily, even hourly part of our routine—so that we will maintain a positive outlook, increase our mood, decrease our stress and make us generally nicer people. Two problems with that: 1) when we add "should" to gratitude it ceases to be gratitude and becomes a duty; 2) anytime we add a "so that" to our spiritual routi...

If you are like most people, at some point in your life you begin to think that lasting peace or happiness will forever elude you. You may have had periods of satisfaction or contentment but deep, abiding peace seem to be impossible. This is a profound moment of possibility, because for the first time you are wondering about one of the most basic elements of the living experience—our own peace. Wh...

What can you expect to happen next in your life? Will you get that job or relationship you want? Or not. What if it doesn't happen? What will you do then? Better yet, what will you believe then? What do you imagine is supposed to happen in your life? What about what you deserve—what do you deserve to happen in your life? What if you don't know? Are you doing something wrong? These questions and mo...

Today we are very fortunate to get an opportunity to talk to bestselling author Andrew Solomon, writer and lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts and winner of the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. He is an activist in LGBT rights, mental health, and the arts. His latest NY Times bestselling book, and the subject of our interview today, entitled Far from th...

We all have major life transitions, which come in many different forms. But these difficult times can be thresholds to a new adventure. How do we take the challenge to turn what appears to be a block or even a death, into a threshold? Rabbi Sherre Hirsch has come today to talk to us about her 2nd book, Thresholds: How to Thrive Through Life's Transitions. Rabbi Hirsch is the first female Rabbi, wh...

Have you ever looked back over your life and thought to yourself, "I've been had?" Well, don't feel alone, many of us have experienced deliberate gotcha's perpetrated by those who want to manipulate, abuse or control us. But there's a bigger story—a more global story to this whole thing of manipulation, and Eldon Taylor is here today to tell us about it, and how we may avoid falling prey to it. Hi...

Joan Borysenko is back this week for the third time to talk with us about guilt, for guilt can be a major block to our resilience factor. Her latest book, "It's Not the End of the World: Developing Resilience in Times of Change" will be combined with one of her earlier books, "Guilt is the Teacher, Love is the Lesson" in an in-depth discussion of this devilish master craftsman of our lives. In the...

What is it that keeps us from living authentically? Well at least a part of it is the illusions, delusions and lies we believe that keep us from even considering that there is such a thing as the authentic Self, or that we can live an authentic life. We are so encumbered with these illusions, delusions and lies that we cannot see, are literally blind, to the authentic Self and its messages and urg...

When we experience a loss or a defeat, we often feel a great deal of pain. Added to that pain is also a self-judgment, self-recrimination, that has to do with our effort to spiritually by-pass grief altogether. Many are teaching that to have the typical feelings of grief means that we are unwilling to let go, or that we are " staying stuck" in anger—one of the natural phases of acceptance of any d...

Today we are so honored to have Iyanla Vanzant here to talk to us about her latest book, Forgiveness: 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Everything. Iyanla Vanzant, NY Times Bestselling author; host of the number one reality show on the OWN network, Iyanla: Fix My Life; and frequent guest on Super Soul Sunday and Oprah's Life Class, is easily one of America's most profound spiritual leaders, who empo...

We get lost in the holes in the sidewalk of our psyches. These holes are like the traps made for wild animals in the wilderness, all covered up with brush and dirt, so that we think we are just continuing on the path. But suddenly and without our knowing how, we fall into the hole—we are lost again. We've fallen into that old complex, that old default position. We don't know how we got there, we d...

Most of us have been taught that loving others is our job, our duty—that we must love others in order to be considered to be good citizens of the world. But love, real love, is not a function of striving. It is not a function of "should," or duty or loyalty or any other of those favorite words we use to shame ourselves into compliance with the duty of love. Love is not a duty. Love is an impulse....

Rosanne Cash comes to the Authentic Living show this week to discuss her latest book, Composed: A Memoir, the powerful, poetic and poignant story of her own inner journey, which touches us at a deep essential and spiritual core. Rosanne is one of America's preeminent singers and song writers with fourteen albums and eleven # 1 singles to her credit. Her albums, which reach people from across the v...

With so much information floating around out there in the spiritual world about how to manifest abundance and, in the secular world about how to attain your goals, it's difficult to consider such concepts as staying in the moment. Michael Brown, our guest today, helps us bridge the gaps. Author of two books we'll be talking about today, "The Presence Process" and "Alchemy of the Heart," as well as...

Today we are very fortunate to get an opportunity to talk to bestselling author Andrew Solomon, writer and lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts and winner of the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. He is an activist in LGBT rights, mental health, and the arts. His latest NY Times bestselling book, and the subject of our interview today, entitled Far from th...

Most of us have been raised to be good. We were to share, be kind, be loving, say thank you when we didn't feel grateful, say I'm sorry when we weren't, hug people we didn't want to hug and say we loved people we didn't even know, much less love. But the idea of goodness held a magical quality for most of us. We thought that IF we were good enough, THEN we would be worthy, we would be loved and we...

The first question before that, of course, is "Can people really change?" Well the answer is "yes," but we've all heard about those Road to Damascus changes that leave us scratching our heads and waiting for them to change back, right? Well, Bruce Grierson, author of the book, all about these kinds of changes, and entitled "U-Turn," is going to talk to us about the mystery of this kind of complete...