Awareness That Heals

During times of intense emotions, it is frequently not easy to change our feelings, but with dedication, we can learn to identify them and respond with empathy and wisdom. By acknowledging and clearly seeing our emotions—without allowing them to take control—we can develop greater self-compassion. Our feelings are just one part of ourselves, and there is another inner voice that is often referred...

In this episode, Robert and Dave discuss how to trust wise thoughts when you're suffering. They emphasize the importance of not distancing or judging our feelings but rather accessing our inner wisdom to guide us. This involves being able to operate at two levels simultaneously: respecting our challenging feelings while finding a place inside of us that wants to care. By doing this, we can stay op...

In continuation of our guided meditation series, Robert offers a practice on self-compassion, which is the missing ingredient to lasting change. This guided meditation also includes a discussion surrounding its purpose and how it can be directly helpful to you, no matter what challenge you might be facing right now. Intellectual awareness of our emotions is crucial, but even that is not enough to...

Robert continues with the second installment of the Guided Meditation series where he emphasizes the importance of becoming aware of difficult emotions. This episode takes this awareness and clarifies how to integrate it with our heart and self-caring. Robert and Dave invite listeners to focus on practice. This immersive next step puts us in a position to start moving toward well-being and not get...

A warm welcome to season two of the Awareness That Heals podcast. During this season, Robert will offer a series of Guided Meditations that will work in conjunction with his book, Awareness That Heals . These short meditations are both personal and accessible in order to allow the listener to focus on themselves in a more intuitive way. Robert and Dave cultivate a safe space to feel and observe, w...

Robert welcomes back Susan Hough, counselor, philanthropist, and life partner, to explore how each of us carries on the central feelings we had with our original family. These repeated behaviors are usually outside of our awareness and show up most strongly in our intimate relationships. Robert and Susan discuss why we need to heal childhood patterns while talking candidly about their past relatio...

This week Robert discusses core childhood relationships and how they can unconsciously affect us in our adult lives. He is joined by his life partner and fellow counselor, and philanthropist, Susan Hough. We are guided on how to use awareness of our feelings and needs by using the Introspective Guides , which can be found at  AwarenessThatHeals.org , Robert talks through identifying each of your s...

Using the Introspective Guides , Robert and Dave pick up where they left off last week on the topic of Neurotic Responsibility. This imbalance in relationships is part of our conditioning and can be hard to recognize. It occurs when one person in the relationship feels the problems around them are much more their responsibility than they rationally are. It feels good to give and can last for a lif...

Robert and Dave dive right into this week's episode with something Robert likes to call, Neurotic Responsibility. This term refers to someone who takes on the problems around them more than is rationally warranted. It occurs when your partner is upset and you focus mostly on what you might have done to cause it, even though you already have likely admitted it outwardly and inwardly feel guilty, in...

Robert kicks off the episode with a guided meditation. Relax into his words as he grounds into the moment and melts defenses that may be blocking you from accessing your inner wisdom and heart space. Using the Introspective Guides , Robert delves into how we can face our challenging emotions with curiosity. Recognizing that part of us wants to care instead of rationalizing or blocking challenging...

Pretty much everyone you talk to these days has some emotions related to the country, gun control, global warming, or the war in Ukraine with an awareness of being overwhelmed. What isn't reliably there is the question, Do I want to care for this emotion and How can I navigate in the world with some positivity? Robert and Dave will continue their focus from last week with specific challenges uniqu...

Here we are, listening to the news and hearing about elections, global warming, the dangers of nuclear war, the invasion of Ukraine, and we are feeling freaked out. Wherever you are on the political spectrum you are bound to be dealing with some level of anxiety connected to the direction our world and country are going. Robert and Dave assure us this is perfectly normal, and in fact, a good sign...

Most of us view anger and resistant emotions as something that we want to avoid. The idea of being with our anger and having a relationship with it is not something we have normally been taught. Robert presents an alternative for caring for ourselves while we are challenged in this way. These steps are a guide to setting up the ideal conditions for us to be fulfilled in our individual lives and to...

This week Robert concludes the telling of his journey through the hardest 10 years of his life as he navigated finding balance both emotionally and chemically after his kidney transplant. For many years he could not feel the joys of life. He had to dig deep to further develop his capacity to use inquiry, will, and focus on the intention to find what thoughts would be possible and helpful. Hopefull...

Robert continues with his story from last week about facing the biggest challenge of his life. He spent 10 years experimenting with medicine to find equilibrium after a kidney transplant. Join him and Dave as he shares the stories and the lessons he has learned with the hope that his journey will help you, the listener, navigate from your challenges into being a true ally for yourself and not comp...

Robert shares his journey, with Dave by his side, as he learned to coexist with the deep discomfort, pain, and imbalance of his kidney transplant medication. Feeling good was inaccessible for 10 years. Through this path, he developed a deepening of his practice inquiry by asking questions of what was truly possible given his state of exhaustion from sleep deprivation, which was due to an unusual r...

This week Robert and Dave continue to look at how we can care for ourselves at crucial times and how we can practically utilize new tools for us to be resourceful in our lives when it matters the most. Robert and Dave will be using the Introspective Guides , which can be found at AwarenessThat Heals.org as a simple way to start on the path toward integrating what is challenging. The hope is, that...

Robert has never seen a time when fear and anxiety were more prevalent in the world. How we deal with our fear and anxiety is not only important in our relationship with ourselves, our love life, friendships, and family members that have opposite politics, but also in our relationship to our very survival, the survival of our planet, and democracy. It is possible to give yourself space to just fee...

At times it is difficult to barely tolerate our experience when we are in situations or emotions that are challenging, which can trigger us to go into fight or flight mode. Join Robert and Dave as they explore common real-life situations that can be difficult and how to take better care of ourselves in the moment or close to it. Money or personal insecurity, anxiety about the state of the world, o...

Insecurity is a trigger that signals our defenses to take action. It causes one to veer into criticism, withdraw, and beyond. Then, for most of us, a judgment comes either against ourselves or is deflected outward. Using the Introspective Guides , Robert provides grounding for us to stay with these feelings, give them their due, breathe into them and begin to understand them. This space gives us a...

Today, Dave shares his shyness and vulnerability around being uncomfortable with how tall he was growing up. His defense around this sprouted in the form of the excessive need to please, often at the expense of himself. This action robs one of being mutual.  This episode exposes the need and importance of being able to share our insecurity and humanness.  Then have others take care of you as much...

e all have conditioning, whether we recognize it or not. Layers upon layers of influence from our parents, friends, and culture. We are generally led in the direction where the biggest variable is personal achievement, financial security and family loyalty, and rarely do we focus on some kind of greater interconnectedness to the world. It is so important that our identities grow beyond our immedia...

The baseline of the majority of people throughout history, barring many of the indigenous peoples of the world, has not significantly prioritized how to live a connected life to both our planet and those less fortunate than us. This baseline definition of normal has meant serving society's main values and standards such as success, wealth, taking care of family, being popular and having some fun....

In this episode, Robert and Dave discuss the experience of anxiety that is prominent for so many and highlight what to do when you are experiencing it. Many people's initial reaction is to distract and run in the other direction, but suppressing anxiety will only make it grow. When anxiety arises, take some time without trying to change it. Let anxiety breathe so you can increase your acceptance a...

Welcome to the start of a new series of The Awareness that Heals that will be working directly with The Introspective Guides for "Challenging Feelings & Emotions," as well as "Essential Needs & Qualities." Both can be downloaded for free on our website awarenessthatheals.org. These guides will help identify a list of the most common needs that we all have, are often unaware of, or unable to articu...