Awareness That Heals

Over the last few episodes of Awareness that Heals , Robert and Dave have explored how developing new practices can help us take care of ourselves through both life's biggest challenges and daily moments. These practices are being defined and refined clearly, as it is so important to understand the meaning behind each of them. It is for this reason that this episode illuminates exactly what is mea...

We all need to set a boundary or two at various points in our lives. But, how do you go about it? Do you communicate your needs and feelings clearly? Or do you throw unsuccessful hints, hoping that the other person quietly picks up on your discomfort and unease? While knowing your boundaries is powerful, setting and then enforcing them clearly and with consideration is a whole different equation. ...

One of the main aspects of Inquiry, or the act of asking beneficial questions to take care of yourself, is to do it without judgment. Asking precise guiding questions is how you can take care of yourself, despite your feelings. In this episode of Awareness that Heals , Robert Strock takes us through a few moments of his life. He shares how his own Inquiry and the subsequent guidance he continues t...

Every year, most of us make new resolutions and set new goals to achieve. We're constantly encouraged to strive for external success markers and status symbols. All things that can significantly impact how we live. But what about maximizing your quality of life? From previous episodes, we know the answer to this is — learning how to ask beneficial questions — inquiry.  Inquiry is when you begin as...

When you first start engaging with sincere questioning, it can be challenging to remember what it's all for and find the motivation to keep going. After all, as Robert and Dave discuss in this episode, being aware of your feelings, thoughts, and emotions and actively engaging with them to become better is not something we're taught. In fact, it's almost counter-cultural. So then, why is it vital t...

It's always a great idea to ask how to help. Whether the person you're asking is yourself or a loved one, asking shows your awareness that there's a need. The art of asking questions can improve and expand our quality of life — inquiry is one of the best and clearest ways to find and shape your best self.  Today, as you listen to this episode, take a moment to ask yourself — "What is the challengi...

Sometimes, moments of strife can feel like you're drowning underwater. Unable to call for help, not sure if anyone, including yourself, can hear you. Learning how to ask questions that can help you support yourself is like equipping yourself with an oxygen tank. You're not out of the water yet, but you're able to breathe a little better.  The art of sincere questioning is an experience of love. It...

When it comes to forging your best self, inquiry and wisdom guidance are two key facilitators. Inquiry is sincere questioning that sparks awareness with simple suggestions of support and direction. Wisdom guidance involves giving yourself and others the space to think, act, and develop qualities that are most beneficial without carrying any judgment. It's present inside us all—but can you access y...

Host Robert Strock begins by acknowledging that many of us reach a point where we realize that life is not as fulfilling, enjoyable, or satisfying as we had hoped or imagined. We all have patterns of behavior and thinking that we were taught early in our lives. Almost all of us have patterns that prevent the peace and happiness we desire. Strock asks listeners to identify a pattern or patterns tha...

Host Robert Strock discusses and uses examples of how developing our self-inquiry can help move us beyond the conditioning of our past. Many of us get caught in the emotions and the experience of our challenges. We may try to give it our best efforts but often aren't aware of our essential needs, actions, or qualities that are necessary to guide us. It is very helpful to download the free The Intr...

Robert Strock explores the continuing path to our own wisdom, a path that does not come cheap and leads us to become our ever-changing best selves. There's a need for sincerity as we learn how to access our inner wisdom without imposition. We access our wisdom by leaving behind moral pressure established from previous relationships or societal expectations and revering our own genuine state of ask...

Host Robert Strock moves deeper into the practice of self-inquiry and how it leads us to examine our quality of life. We return to the question of what is our repeating challenging emotion? As we move through the process of inquiry, we can start looking at whether or not our decisions help take care of everyone at the proverbial table or only a small group of people. It's a process of looking at o...

Self-inquiry and guiding questions lead us toward our unique and deeper truths. We learn more and more who we truly aspire to be, and not dominated by our conditioning. We can start with questions like, "What do I need to do for my quality of life? What do I need to let go of to open the door to a greater experience of purpose, a priority for me?" Through a pattern of questioning, we can readjust...

Host Robert Strock leads listeners through the process of using friendly mind and our inner knowing to address difficult relationships in our lives. If we can approach them from a standpoint of causing the least damage and most understanding for both parties, we can have crucial conversations to support ourselves with challenging feelings and relationships. This same skill comes into play when inq...

To grow beyond the conditioning of our upbringing and, ultimately, hundreds of years of human conditioning, we have to be honest with ourselves and develop our ability of self-inquiry. If we can take a step back and ask ourselves how much our conditioning is running our lives, we can begin to move in a different direction. A direction that includes seeing ourselves as world citizens responsible fo...

Host Robert Strock teaches about learning to face the truths in our lives. Self-inquiry can teach us to see, prioritize, and let go of patterns that aren't beneficial to our personal progress. The process of building awareness of our thought and behavioral patterns can help us steer our rudder in the right direction, rather than beating ourselves up or withdrawing because of our perceived weakness...

Host Robert Strock discusses the importance of identifying and listening to our own wisdom. We can learn to value paying attention to whatever our challenging emotions are at any moment. This is a major victory. It's a part of identifying what are our essential needs so we can guide ourselves toward the best version of who we are. We can ask ourselves "What is it that we most need?" and refer to t...

Host Robert Strock teaches the process of moving from self-criticism to pivoting and accessing our own wisdom through self-inquiry. The process starts when we face challenging emotions. In these moments, we ask ourselves questions, searching for the best of who we are. What is our best self, our best actions, best communication, and best attitudes? These questions will guide us toward the thoughts...

Host Robert Strock explores how a growing awareness around our own confusion affects self-rejection during serious health or medical changes. It's inevitable to feel loss, emptiness, or fear during drastic life changes. We need to learn to acknowledge our feelings around these challenges. Otherwise, we will increase feelings of depression or agitation rather than deepening acceptance, understandin...

Host Robert Strock and guest Dave discuss the process of finding the wise part of ourselves that has the ability to speak with an understanding, compassionate inner voice. With this voice, we can identify self-rejection and see it as an emotion and not feed it with continuous thoughts. We also need to be careful not to succumb to premature transcending, where we think we're beyond our challenging...

Host Robert Strock discusses the long-term process of identifying our challenging emotions and how we can work through them. We are individuals with differing experiences and upbringings. Those experiences affect how we respond to difficult emotions and eventually can turn into self-rejection. We have to look deep within ourselves to identify the actions and thoughts that can lead us away from rej...

Host Robert Strock digs deeper into developing self-acceptance and balance as we continue on a journey through challenging feelings. Misconceptions about self-acceptance can lead to causing undue harm to others, especially when dealing with anger. However, true self-acceptance comes when we express ourselves with sensitivity, thoughtfulness, and honesty. Part of self-acceptance means saying yes to...

Host Robert Strock discusses the value of learning to identify our own challenging feelings, questioning them, and continuing to grow and develop as a person. Each of us must learn that outside standards don't have to define us. It takes time to develop the autonomous self that can name, question, and grow. Self-rejection keeps us from realizing the autonomous self because we get caught in a react...

Host Robert Strock discusses the continuing process of developing self-compassion. Difficult emotions elicit many predictable "normal" forms of self-rejection, such as withdrawing, anger, or fixing. However, normal doesn't mean healthy. We can learn to accept challenging feelings as part of our human experience while learning to stop patterns of self-rejection. As we learn to recognize our forms o...

Host Robert Strock discusses how to continually develop self-compassion by identifying the healing intentions that lie at the heart of who we are. All too frequently when we have challenging feelings, we react in negative emotional l ways, which is an expression of (usually unconscious) self-rejection. That's when it's time to remind ourselves that our feelings aren't the most important part of wh...