MUD/WTR: Trends with Benefits

Our consciousness exists within—and is shaped by—space and time, our parents and peers and the larger culture. We can invite ourselves to notice what we include in our awareness, what we leave out and how our contexts impact us. In that awareness, we can develop a value system, which helps us define our sense of self. Once we design where we place our attention, we can shape our experience; then o...

Living in a human body comes with its unique set of limitations. We have the capacity to soar to great heights, but also sink to some serious lows. Sometimes it takes all the energy we have just to get out of bed, shower or feed ourselves. So how do you make yourself feel better when it feels like you can't do anything? Today's episode offers some low-effort interventions that can help. If you dig...

Self-love needs to be a practice before it becomes an embodied state. But where to start? We thought it meant taking bubble baths and eating chocolate, but rituals of ease and pleasure only scratch the surface. So instead of giving you a list of strategies you've already heard before, I want to ask you: Who are you? What is love? And why does self-love matter to you? Nobody can answer these questi...

We know the fungi cordyceps can infect ants and manipulate their behavior. But could cordyceps evolve to control us? That's the premise of the post-apocalyptic TV drama, "The Last of Us." The show inspires mycelial horror as a mutant cordyceps infection causes human society to collapse. It flips the script on how we typically think of cordyceps, which is consumed to improve many aspects of health...

Shane Heath—founder and CEO of MUD\WTR—shares a ritual for how to overcome the voice of doubt as well as how to make the most of the 4,000 weeks of life each of us has, on average, on this planet. We also talk about the power of "Atomic Habits" by James Clear as we dive into MUD's new book club. If you dig this podcast please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds an...

We all want to be wanted, but sometimes we become so enmeshed with others that we lose our sense of self. Our boundaries waffle, our preferences dim, and we play host to other people's emotions, feeling grumpiness or anxiety that isn't actually ours. Today's episode answers a listener's question about how to separate what's yours from what's theirs so you can connect from wholeness, not habit. If...

Psychedelics blur where we bump against the limits of the self as an individual and something else begins. They inspire a sense of being connected to something larger than ourselves, of being one with each other and earth consciousness. How can we relationally and responsibly engage with psychedelics? So what's our responsibility to the plants and people and planet that make all transcendence poss...

Ever wanted to battle it out with your partner at night but they were too tired, and then the sound of them drifting off to sleep enraged you? Maybe you exchanged prickly words right before turning down the covers and wound up curled away from each other in fetal position, being careful not to touch. Rather than losing precious REM to talk things out, what you may need in these situations is a goo...

Change is hard, it can stress us out and disrupt our routine. It takes energy and sometimes giving up on a new habit is a guilty relief because we have a chance to recover from all that effort. But failing is part of the practice. So how do you pick yourself back up and try again? If you need a spotter, I got you, with six steps to a more compassionate, and realistic, approach to change. If you di...

We've all heard about how beneficial it is to have a gratitude practices. It improves your mood, health, and relationships by focusing on the good rather than dwelling on the bad. But what if you aren't able to feel grateful? What if you're stressed out, disappointed or angry? If forcing yourself to feel grateful is aggravating your anxiety instead of alleviating it, help is on the way. I have a p...

In The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine it is said: "People and nature are inseparable. In nature the cyclical movement of the heavenly bodies produces atmospheric influences that exert control over the rhythms of the seasons and is responsible for change to the myriad living and nonliving things…the coldness of winter forces inactivity and storing." Do you feel like you've been inactive and s...

The story of María Sabina, a curandera who helped bring psychedelic mushrooms to the west, shows the pleasure and pain that results when ancient medicine suffers a culture clash. So for all of you self-experimenting with entheogens to explore altered states of consciousness to be your best self, great! But…how are you helping those that help you help yourself?  Sara :microdose host If you dig this...

Do you spend most of your time feeling indecisive, second-guessing yourself and stressing over the smallest decisions? Chill. That just means you're a human being responding to a world that's been turned upside-down. Still, we need to be able to figure out what to make for dinner, which jobs to turn down and who to build community with.  In today's episode, I offer some general guidelines for how...

We all have core needs, but each comes with its own potential benefits and costs. We build towards stability, but crave variety; in order to create authentic connection, we need our individual integrity. To create a life of purpose and meaning, we need to find our personal balance between these complementary, yet contradictory motivations. Luckily, some wise guides have created a map of the six co...

FREEZE OUR FOUNDER: MUD\WTR's Shane Heath faces his cold plunge challenge TODAY at 4 p.m. PST. Place an order in the MUD\WTR store before then, and we'll add a little extra time to Shane's total plunge time. Tune in to watch it all go down on IG Live: @drinkmudwtr   We're also donating 5% of all new sales to the MINDS Foundation , a group that provides mental health resources in India. While you'r...

Some aspects of modern life are just flat-out exhausting. Working a job where you're underpaid and undervalued. The ongoing climate catastrophe and never-ending systemic oppression. And of course, our digital devices that keep us locked in a loop of competition, comparison and a compulsion to be constantly plugged in. But other things sneak up on us, slowly but surely draining us of our vitality....

Hollywood loves to sell us the romance of friends falling in love with each other.  But how do you go from friends to lovers when you don't have writers and directors telling you what comes next? In today's episode, I give you a script to follow when your best friend starts giving you butterflies so you have a shot at your own happily ever after. Sara :microdose host Relationship Anarchy Smorgasbo...

After serving 14 years in prison, 90 days of which were in solitary confinement, Chris Buroughs is now the director of Garden 31, a group that works to localize food production in San Diego's low income neighborhoods by training new farmers with a focus on formerly incarcerated men and women as well as those suffering from substance abuse issues. MUD\FILMS' new 'Rituals' series explores the enduri...

Thanks to our jobs, the way we monetize our hobbies, the endless multi-tasking and the constant notifications from our devices, we don't ever stop working. We don't rest.  We're in a culture of chronic stress and it's affecting our mental health. I'm not here to give you more stretches you can do at your desk to help you work longer. I'm here to teach you how to leave burnout on read.  Sara :micro...

After serving 14 years in prison, 90 days of which were in solitary confinement, Chris Buroughs is now the director of Garden 31, a group that works to localize food production in San Diego's low income neighborhoods by training new farmers with a focus on formerly incarcerated men and women as well as those suffering from substance abuse issues. MUD\FILMS' new 'Rituals' series explores the enduri...

Tired of people throwing their emotional garbage in your driveway, leaving you to clean up the mess? If you're done letting other people trash your energy, listen to today's episode for a practice that will help you clear out what's not yours, fill back up with the good stuff and protect you from the racoons of other people's problems. Sara :microdose host Exercise: Know what's yours, and what's t...

Joey Odom is the co-founder of Aro, a company that's working to address cell phone addiction. In the first half of this podcast, Joey interviews me. Then, we flip it around and I interview Joey (crazy I know), before diving into the dangers of digital addiction. Joey was introduced to me by the great Chris Keener of MUD\FILMS. Thanks Chris, Joey didn't disappoint. Kyle :macro host If you dig this...

Is someone living rent-free inside your head? If your mind feels like a big family dinner where everybody gives their opinion on how you should be living your life, and then you get stuck cleaning up their dishes, it's time for a quiet mind retreat. In this episode, I'll show you how to stop extra thoughts weighing you down, so your mind feels less like it's going home for the holidays … and more...

Mark Divine ( @realmarkdivine ) is a Navy SEAL Commander and Zen meditation practitioner. After a successful 20 year career as a Navy SEAL, Mark was hired to create a nationwide coaching and leadership program for the U.S. Navy's primary operations force. The program aims to give the SEALs the best leadership and mental management tools in the world, and to help them forge unbeatable teams that ac...

Sex and drugs are two of the most powerful tools we can use to alter our consciousness. Separately, they hold the power of transformation and healing. Because of this, they're hotly-debated, steeped in stigmas and assumptions, and heavily regulated. So if sex and psychedelics can shake up the status quo on their own, what happens when we combine them? How can we do so with intention? Exercise: Wha...