Our Friendly World with Fawn and Matt - A Friendship Podcast on Belonging & the Art of Friendship

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school, but if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you haven't learned anything"- Muhammad Ali. " Friendship is a priceless gift that cannot be bought nor sold, but its value is far greater than a mountain made of gold. For gold is cold and lifeless. It can neither see nor hear. In times of trouble...

Barry Lane, the ambassador of love and kindness, troubadour for loving-kindness is with us again, this time from Uvalde, Texas. Barry travels all over the place and he not only teaches kindness, but he spreads kindness everywhere. He goes to schools. He works with children, he's given TED Talks. In this episode, we discuss what is stronger love or hate?  How do you mend a broken heart? Where to fi...

We continue the subject we talk about frequently, which is emotional currency and the ability to pick how we choose to spend this. How much do we want to invest? Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in an emotion that we forget that we're investing in all this life-sucking stuff. But when we do, and we say "zero," it's FABULOUS because we feel free, because we are free. We're energized.  the fact th...

I have an objection! I mean, they constantly say when people don't have friends when they're lonely, it's going to cause cancer. It's going to cause heart problems. It's like smoking 10 packs a day of cigarettes. It's like all they do is scare people. Thanks. Thanks for grabbing a headline and then dropping us off a cliff and saying, okay, bye-bye. I wish we had the audience the massive audience t...

Let's talk about rest. R e s t. We're always going, going, going! Doesn't the world to you seem like everything is speeding up faster and faster, and that time is going by incredibly fast, like a rollercoaster fast? Today's episode is on the value of rest and all the different types of rest we need to look at. There are 7 different ways of rest that our bodies need. And when we rest, we are better...

Everything is a gift, but it's not your responsibility to accept every gift that's given to you. Just because someone offers you something, does not mean you have to accept it.     The word "gift" has been around for a long, long time, and when you get into German and you break it down, it basically means to give or receive, or natural talent. But if you keep looking further into the etymology and...

Someone you help out that you love, who also loves you may turn on you. We've all heard the term “hurt people hurt.” The people who have hurt in them, who've experienced some sort of abuse (emotional pain or even physical pain) tend to lash out. Not everybody does that, but it's kind of like having a wound and you have to let the puss or whatever is in there come out. We live in a world where we'r...

Friends In Real Life. We've spent so long sequestered where the relationships that we had had were primarily virtual. They were over the phone, they were on video chat, but they weren't tactile, they weren't "I'm right in front of you." So things like when I'm texting, I can curate. When I'm Facebook posting again, I can curate. I can choose to write out a paragraph and then delete it and then wri...

Revealing authenticity is one of the major things that keep us from having true friendships and good relationships. This week, we explore the reason for when we expose our feelings, it feels like we create even more problems and we're oftentimes left to be misunderstood. And it just creates more of a situation where you have to talk about it and we don't talk about things. So things are left unsai...

What is Hypergrowth Mode in Friendship? What happens if someone's not growing and you've grown or you are not growing and the other person has grown; if you have an open mind about it, you can still connect and be together. But that's where you can't be so locked into certain belief systems. So if, let's say you've grown so much and you come back. . I'm like, what happened? And you tell me your ex...

     Matt explores the findings of Leon Festinger who was trying to figure out how people like to arrange themselves into groups, peer groups, social groups, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so he started really trying to get an understanding of what that means.      It's hard to measure yourself against other people in your peer group because peer groups are now infinitely huge and you make c...

Have you ever had that person, that friend that was the worst? Like, you wish you had never, ever met this person? There may be people out there that are your enemy, that could do things to you that will disrupt and destroy what seems like everything including your sense of hope. Because of their actions and because of the situation that you were interlaced with, they could also be the spark and t...

This week we go over the top 5 types of kindness and the top 5 places kindness can be displayed.  It's said that one of the reasons why people stop and aren't kind is because kindness takes time (either they have no time or they perceive that they have no time). We think that kindness does not take time. Kindness has many ways. One way could be in the way you look at someone. Smiling, for example,...

We can think of each person and ourselves as a different kind of element (earth, fire, water, air and space), and explore how these elements work together. Some elements love each other; they support and nurture each other while some elements like fire and water are enemies; destroy each other and they need to remain separate. What does all this mean in accordance to our relationships? How can we...

We're talking about telling it like it is, not being worried about looking ugly, and not allowing ourselves to get so offended. Everyone goes through moments where they get offended in a friendship. But have you noticed that in our current culture, as soon as someone gets offended, it's the end of the friendship? Relationships have become disposable because it's so easy to just avoid a person or a...

How to make friends when life has changed? How do we make friends when our life has completely changed? And that change could be a move, it could be being in a completely different situation, a new job, people we love passing away, or we give birth, become parents, etc, etc. Things open and close. Things happen, and life changes. That's when we start looking around to see if we have friends for re...

The invisible line, the invisible barriers that we need to be aware of that will set us free. So the invisible barriers we are dealing with that hold us to certain places in situations, the invisible barriers invisible lines that keep us from connecting to each other. They're all over the place and they come in so many different forms. We discuss some invisible acts of power when once we realize a...

we all need someone that has our back. We all need someone to confide in. Today we explore the meaning of CONFESSION and realize that it is something more than a religious act; that it is a way to release negativity from our hearts. But how do we know which person or people in our lives we can trust to do this with? The Confidante - TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Fawn: There is a reason why so many songs c...

A reminder from Goethe: For five minutes a day, look at something beautiful, listen to something beautiful, and think of something beautiful, especially so when you're not feeling so well.    This week we focus on what to do when we don't feel well, and what to do when friends don't feel well.   TRANSCRIPT - Checking in on A Friend Feeling Under the Weather [00:00:00] Fawn: Welcome back everybody....

This is not a sad or any kind of sad love story. No, this is a happy thing. This is another baby step  (what we can all do to improve our friendships and our zhuzhiness out in the world, and how we can get to the point where we're creating beautiful bonds). The notebook is one way.  It is a beautiful tool to pay attention to the people we meet to get a good understanding of who they are, what they...

Case of the missing couch, FedEx, and the opportunity to meet friends; the opportunity to make friends in almost every situation, even situations where it seems like, things are awry. Proof that friendship exists everywhere.   Transcript [00:00:00] Fawn: Welcome back everybody. [00:00:01] Matt: Hello, [00:00:02] Fawn: this is Fawn and Matt. Case of the missing couch and FedEx and the opportunity t...

This is our very first episode in a public place with in-person live conversations at the local coffee shop!!!!!!!!!!!! Wanting to lead by example, Fawn and Matt share their meet-cute moment on their friendships with Marianne, Danielle, and Hillary. This conversation is all about how to notice the magic, being brave enough to see people, say "Hello" and go further by sparking conversation, creatin...

Why it's so important to end things on a proper note so that you can have a great new beginning; from friendships to jobs, to moving to a new place. How You End is How You Begin [00:00:00] Fawn: Hello? [00:00:01] Matt: Hello? [00:00:02] Fawn: Hi. Oh, so bears trucks, neighbors, wire transfers, bears documents. It has been [00:00:12] Matt: nuts. What a long, strange trip it's been [00:00:15] Fawn:...

A toast: "Here's to those who wish us well, and those who don't can go to hell." Don't let those turkeys get you down. I love turkeys. You know, when we talk about people we don't like and we compare them to pigs or cows or turkeys, it makes me sad because I love all these animals. What's a good word to describe people who just get you down, the ones who take you away from your good path? I'm not...

Goethe said "he who cannot draw on 3000 years is living hand to mouth." We explore our history and think about this quote by Goethe as we wrap our ethics series. We explore so much, including  Goethe, the four ideals, prosperity, the satisfaction of desires, moral duty, spiritual perfection, Lao Tzu, "Tao te Ching," living simply and honestly, the idea of reciprocity and much more.   TRANSCRIPT [0...