The Gathering Room Podcast

We have been socialized to believe that instant gratification is both possible and desirable. It’s neither, of course, and in this conversation Martha reminds us of that fact. She points out that we can do anything one step at a time, including achieving enlightenment! Each step we take toward relief and away from suffering moves us toward the bliss of being. She shares an exercise to help us deta...

As world events continue to dish up unrest and upheaval, many people feel more easily triggered than usual. Since there’s so much potential for misunderstanding, Martha suggests we speak every word from the truest truths we possess. That way, if someone is triggered, we won’t react explosively. She also shares the “spot, stop, swap” strategy from Jay Shetty’s book Think Like a Monk as a way to ens...

After the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Martha says we don’t need revolution, we need a dissolution where personal suffering is washed away by enlightenment. She contrasts mindless rage and mindful anger, explaining that the former feels good in our amygdalas but is entirely unproductive while the latter gives us both insight and impetus to take meaningful action. Martha assures us that le...

The season of resolutions, vision boards, and intention-setting lists is upon us! Martha shares a few stories about the magic of creating mindful lists, including remarkably long ones and ones that describe our ideal partners in extreme detail. She implores those of us who make such lists to consider them tools or guidance systems for attracting what we want. She also explains the differences betw...

Sometimes when you think you’re losing your mind, you’re actually regaining your sanity. Martha talks about a colleague who’s coping with the stress of 2020 by buying a huge number of houseplants and explains that this behavior—and other unusual or new behaviors like it—are a reaction to broken culture. She says when culture breaks, our true natures rise. 2020 was challenging, but it also taught o...

The winter holiday season of 2020 has felt uncomfortably different for many of us, and Martha is eager to help reframe our year-end celebrations. Celtic Winter Solstice celebrations are about letting go of the year that’s coming to a close, cleansing, and releasing. She points out that many of us have experienced grief and loss in these past months and walks us through a guided meditation for crea...

Money is the single most emotional thing that human beings deal with on a regular basis. As we enter COVID December and much of the world is stressing about holiday gift costs and year-end taxes, Martha suggests we reconceptualize our relationships with money. She points out that committing to work on our emotional connection to money and cultivating an attitude of abundance and generosity can com...

Martha’s spiritual practices have helped her get through both physical and emotional pain and paved a path to bliss. But now that it’s getting colder, she’s not gravitating toward meditation and contemplation; she’s trading spiritual practice for staying warm in bed! In this episode, she discusses the cyclical nature of intention and relaxation in spirituality. (Originally aired: Nov. 29, 2020) Se...

Every one of us influences the world, but most of us don’t realize this. We focus instead on how much the world has influenced us. Martha points out that we can change this by shifting our attention. If we pay the most attention to people and events that have harmed us, those things will shape us. If we put our energy toward the people and events that have impacted us in positive ways, we can resh...

We’ve ALWAYS been sensitive to what others think of us, but now we are exposed online to more criticism, bullying, and mockery than we experience in person. Including things people would never say to our faces! Martha talks about how prevalent judgment-fueled anxiety and depression have become in the age of the Internet, explains the Spotlight Effect, and shares a psyche-shielding exercise from ps...

A few days before the contentious 2020 election, Martha delves into how American power systems were born and how they are continuing to evolve. She points out that the changes we’re witnessing can be unsettling (like all changes), which is why many Americans feel intensely fearful and worried. She encourages those of us who can become centers of calm amidst this panic to do so, since our energy ha...

Did you know that at just 5 weeks old, babies hit a major developmental milestone? The new kiddo in Martha’s household has just reached this age and is experiencing the associated burst of neurological development . . . which can be both overwhelming and unpleasant! That got Martha thinking about how adults ALSO experience periods of unexpected acceleration and growth. She shares 7 steps for copin...

Into each life, earthquakes must come. Sometimes they come in the form of a traumatic experience, sometimes a choice, sometimes a global pandemic … whatever the initiating event may be, it has a HUGE impact on your life. In this episode, Martha shares a Zen belief that when shaking starts within our lives, the only safe place to be is within the shaking itself. The most effective way to ride a wav...

Martha believes that material reality is an illusion. That we aren’t physical beings who generate consciousness; we are all part of a consciousness that’s busily generating a physical world. And that none of the good stuff that we’re here to gather is physical. We want the FEELING of being well-supplied, secure, loved. It’s the perception that matters! With that in mind, she shares an exercise to...

Maybe you’ve had a baby. Or a crisis. Or a time in your life when you just couldn’t keep up with all of your normal responsibilities. Since we live in a culture that forces people to believe that pausing our normal, everyday responsibilities is a massive personal failure, you probably felt awful. Martha urges us all to explore self-forgiveness in response to the nasty things our inner critics and...

Many of us have been waiting for the world to right itself. But when we focus on waiting, life can become unbearable. When we live in limbo, it creates some degree of suffering. In fact, Martha reveals her belief that the source of most suffering is misplaced focus: concentrating on a possible future and removing our attention from the present moment. She teaches us how to come home to ourselves t...

Have you noticed that even the busiest, most active people in your life are slowing down? Everyone seems to have an increased need for rest, downtime, and relaxation during these decidedly tumultuous times. Martha points out that this isn’t just natural, it’s radical and revolutionary! In fact, taking time to rest is one of the most seditious things we can do to bring down the patriarchy and resis...

Having just watched the film “Superhuman,” Martha is eager to talk about miracles! She’s had plenty in her own life—including learning to bend spoons and watching her son Adam create visible balls of light between his hands—and has learned that they are drawn into our lives at particular times. Specifically, when we get into complete alignment with what we feel in our hearts, what we know with our...

There’s a BIG difference between “hitting a rough patch” and feeling the Universe relentlessly pound you into the ground. In this episode, Martha recounts coaching a client who’s definitely in that latter category yet has remained remarkably clear of mind, heart, and spirit. She explains that sometimes life takes wonderful people and beats them down hard, over and over, in order to forge them like...

How can we approach situations loaded with racism, sexism, or other prejudice without becoming angry? Many of us are conditioned to believe that our anger will upset the system and should be avoided at all costs. Martha explains that, while this is true of anger without wisdom, anger that flows from the wise mind is an important source of courage. In fact, we NEED anger to catalyze change, especia...

Martha’s dogs, her son, and the COVID virus are teaching her a better way of being in the world. Instead of living life like it’s an endless to-do list, she has been living it as a string of sacred ceremonies. The disruption from COVID has caused her to savor her daily rituals: giving the dogs bits of toast, relaxing with the family before dinner, filling the birdfeeders. Martha shares instruction...

You may have heard the Buddhist adage that attachment is the root of suffering, but Martha believes it’s actually attachment to desire that’s making us miserable. She points out that if you become attached to wanting something negative to end, it gets worse and it lasts longer. Yet when you grip tight to something wonderful, it slips away! She shares an exercise from internal family systems therap...

We’ve been raised to believe that trying, striving, and constantly creating is the only way to live … but the pandemic has forced us all into a deep stillness. In this episode, Martha urges us to embrace the quietude and allow ourselves to be unbuilt so that we can get closer to our true natures. (This conversation originally aired on July 27, 2020.) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informa...

Martha confesses that she—like many of us—is feeling the weight of the racial tensions across America, the worries swirling around the pandemic, the endless economic fears, and more. How do we persevere when things are this hard for THIS LONG? She explains that everything in nature pulses and, if you pay attention, you’ll notice times of pressure and times of letting go. Simply noticing this cycle...

In this deeply emotional episode, Martha explains that while every human culture has created a sacred space where people can claim sanctuary, many of us feel unable to access any form of safety in modern times. She offers up a simple way to create personal sanctuary within ourselves through repetition and ritual, allowing us all to build a sacred place where no one can hurt us. (This conversation...