Bewildered

Have you ever had the sense of being pulled towards something...but you had no idea why? Martha and Ro call this mysterious feeling “the pull,” and they’re talking all about it in Episode 55 of BEWILDERED®. They share examples of following the pull in their own lives and how it led to some truly beautiful outcomes. Listen to the full episode to find out what the pull is, why our culture doesn't re...

Anxiety in the culture—what exactly is going on there?  That's what Martha and Ro are trying to figure out in this special Anxiety Files episode of Bewildered. As a society we create structures to control things and keep us safe so we don't have to feel afraid. The irony is it doesn't work—because being controlled is also scary!  Join Martha and Ro for the full episode to learn how to use your rig...

Anxiety is like breathing for Martha and Rowan…maybe it is for you too? If so, you are sooo not alone! All over the world, anxiety is skyrocketing, and Martha and Ro are exploring this subject in depth over a series of special Bewildered episodes they’re calling The Anxiety Files.  While the culture's "solution" to anxiety is to avoid discomfort, avoidance only shrinks our world, not our anxiety....

Most of us are plagued with the fear that we're not doing enough—it's practically the fuel our culture runs on. We're pressured to constantly do more and more, and we're taught that suffering is necessary for success.  But where is the finish line? And does "enough" exist? Tune in for this episode of Bewildered to learn why doing enough is NOT the way out of the fear of not doing enough—and the wi...

In this BeWild Files episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro answer a question from listener Kathryn about how to live a balanced life each day instead of bouncing between extremes. While our culture demands high-level productivity all year round, the rhythm of nature flows between extremes—and we're meant to follow a similar rhythm. If you're ready to let go of the cultural model of regularity in yo...

Martha and Ro are doing something completely different for this episode of Bewildered, teaming up with their friends Eric Zimmer and Ginny Gay from The One You Feed podcast.  Tune in as they talk about what drags you into the path of least resistance versus what pulls you toward becoming your best self, how to reject negative cultural influences to find your true nature, and how to navigate a cons...

When it comes to the topic of jobs, the culture has a lot to say—and all of it is scary. There's a strict path we're expected to follow, which we've been led to believe is the only logical way. In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro talk about different ways to earn a living, and how what we often think of as "logic" is just cultural messaging in disguise. If the traditional job path doesn't...

In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro answer a question from listener Josephine, who's trying to understand and overcome her resistance to doing things that are good for her. The culture tells us that if something is good for us, we should just do it! Otherwise, we need to punish ourselves. There's only one problem with that: Punishments don't work. To learn how Martha and Ro use kindness a...

In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro talk about drift patterns, the cultural currents we can get stuck in that could be carrying us far away from our true nature. One function of cultural patterns is to "save" us from having to make choices. If you do what the culture says, you might feel safe for a while—but at what cost to your soul? To find out if you're drifting in a current that's wro...

It’s another BeWild Files episode of Bewildered, and Martha and Ro are answering a question from listener Gazit, who's trying to co-parent with a difficult ex, and the experience does not feel joyful or authentic. Martha says when trying to navigate any painful situation, the first step is to stop pretending it's going to be easy.  By staying in your integrity, you can observe a difficult situatio...

There will always be hard things we have to do in life. That's just a given. So how do we go about doing them without suffering?  Martha and Rowan say the key is freedom, and in this episode of Bewildered they explore ways you can do difficult things while still feeling like you have a choice. While the culture encourages us to push beyond our limits into genuine suffering, Martha and Ro look to N...

In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Rowan are talking all about emotional energy—the moods, feelings, or intentions that come across without any words or physical action. This kind of energy can be a powerful teacher and director of the decisions we make, but our culture doesn't teach us how to understand what we're sensing. (In fact, it rejects the whole idea.) To find out more about emotio...

Have you ever bravely shared your authentic self, only to agonize over it later thinking you shared too much? We've all been there. It's what Brené Brown calls a ‘vulnerability hangover,” and Martha and Ro are taking a deep dive into the subject in this episode of Bewildered. With insightfulness and humor, Martha and Ro share their experiences with vulnerability hangovers and reveal the "culture w...

Our culture teaches us that we should jam as many things as possible into our days, and many of us learn to equate success with how many things we've checked off our to-do lists or how much stuff we've acquired. In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro discuss our culture’s fixation on counting and hoarding—and how this cuts us off from experiencing true abundance and joy. To hear Martha and R...

Do you enjoy setting goals but have a harder time reaching them? In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro talk about how to travel from where we are in life to where we want to be—and how our cultural conditioning often trips us up. Instead of the relentless pace of work we're taught is necessary to achieve our goals, Martha and Ro offer a sustainable approach rooted in joy.  For their insight...

Procrastination. We’ve all been there.  In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro explore why we procrastinate (hint: cultural conditioning strikes again) and how we can find our way out of it by listening to—and negotiating with—the wild parts of ourselves that are in revolt. It’s a conversation full of insights and highly effective tools—including a real-time coaching session with Martha and...

Many of us buy into the cultural idea that there is only one way to parent, and if we do it correctly, things will turn out okay, and everyone will approve of us. But when grown children leave home, parents don’t get to keep the identity they held for so long, and that can feel scary. On this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro discuss the challenges of launching grown-up children and findi...

Can we be free from the culture if we still use language? That’s the question Martha and Ro discuss in this episode of Bewildered. While we are all encased in the language we learned as children, when we learn a new language, we become aware that language is arbitrary and always evolving—and no one language can give a complete picture. Listen to the full conversation for Martha and Ro’s entertaini...

Blowing up your life—why such violent imagery? Martha and Rowan say it’s because the culture is so powerful you need an explosion to break out of it!  On this BeWild Files episode of Bewildered, they talk about making the decision to upend your life and the criticism we face when our choices don’t match the culture’s expectations. It’s a conversation about how language shapes culture,...

The culture believes there’s always a single right choice, and if you don’t make that right choice, you could end up wasting your whole life. So is it any wonder a lot of us freeze in panic when faced with making a decision? On this BeWild Files episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro talk about how we can move past “decision paralysis” to find guidance in the liminal spaces, and ho...

Martha and Ro are back with another BeWild Files episode of Bewildered to discuss things that YOU, their listeners, are trying to figure out. This episode is all about codependency—sacrificing your own needs for those of someone else—behavior that can lead to exhaustion, resentment, even illness. And yet, our culture calls it “virtuous.” The good news? We can unhook from codependency t...

Our culture stresses that we should never, ever give up on anything, no matter what the cost to our happiness or health. Yet our bodies have a way of telling us when something isn’t right—first in a whisper but eventually, a scream. On this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Ro advocate for what they call “caving early”—giving up the moment you sense something isn’t right fo...

Martha and Rowan have a very special guest on this episode of Bewildered—the incredible Elizabeth Gilbert!  The bestselling author of EAT PRAY LOVE joins Martha and Ro to discuss the question: Why is our culture so hostile toward women who are single and childless by choice?  What follows is an engrossing conversation about the lies that benefit the patriarchy, the saving grace of oversensitivity,...

It’s that time again on Bewildered…Martha and Ro are bringing you another installment of The BeWild Files, where they talk about things that YOU, their listeners, are trying to figure out. In this episode they dive into questions from listeners Judy, Bryony, and Annette about masculinity and the pursuit of peace, how to explore identity beyond the binary, and the difference between wan...

Culture teaches us to strive for stability—and that once we have it, we’re never meant to change. But in nature, everything is always changing, including us. In this episode of Bewildered, Martha and Rowan explore the fascinating process of letting go of an old self to become a new one and the undefined “space for dreaming” that exists in between.  Don’t miss this insightful and...