The Happiness in Dark Times series this week focuses on some of the ideas from Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear.
Curiosity, creativity, joy, lightness, ease, and strength (as in internal fortitude) are all covered in this episode.
Melanie includes thoughts from the Jungian psychoanalyst, author, storyteller and curandera Clarissa Pinkola Estes, as well.
Elizabeth Gilbert's Facebook page here
More about Melanie Harth's transformation psychology services here
Continuing her solo Happiness During Dark Times series, Melanie presents a deep, thoughtful show based on writing by the visionary thought leader Charles Eisenstein.
Here's a little bit of part of this episode:
"A ceremony, then, is a special kind of ritual. It is a ritual done in the knowledge that one is in the presence of the sacred, that holy beings are watching you, or that God is your witness.
Those whose worldview has no place for the sacred, or holy beings, or God will see ceremony as superstitious nonsense or, at best, a psychological trick, useful maybe to calm the mind and focus the attention.
Now hold on ...
... as for the rest, you'll have to download the episode.
Charles Eisenstein website with the complete article here
Did you know that mindfulness, mindful awareness, and/or contemplative practices don't have to be formal, stick-in-the-mud things?
In fact, the more we can bring mindfulness into our everyday lives, the happier, more content, satisfied, and peaceful we are.
Listen in as Melanie shares a chapter of her book, called Happiness and Mindfulness: a Light-Hearted Guide.
The chapter? "Mindfulness, Dorothy, and That Yellow-Brick Road."
Here's a hint:
"I first learned how to cultivate a sitting meditation practice during a time in my personal and professional lives when I was in serious doubt that I’d be able to make it through another day of grinding misery.
Mindlessly having made decisions based on what others wanted me to do, I was left holding the bag. And it was a big bag of nasty stuff, can I just tell you?"
This is the 2nd episode of Melanie's Happiness in Dark Times solo series.
This is a quiet and intimate show, the first in a series of quiet, contemplative shows with Melanie. She shares some of her own writing, along with insights from thought leaders such as neuropsychologist Dr. Rick Hanson; Vaclav Havel, the great Czechoslovakian playwright turned dissident activist who became president of his country; and poetry selections.
All the readings were chosen to help soothe your soul.
There are lots of resources and creative ideas about finding happiness, no matter what's going on out there.
Here's a morsel for you to enjoy:
I will not die an unloved life.
I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid, more accessible;
to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.
~ Dawna Markova
free University of Pennsylvania's Happiness questionnaires here
the Gallup Polls' StrengthsFinder assessment here
Wowzer. This is a fasten-your-seatbelt show. Vince Kadlubek, the visionary co-founder of the internationally renowned interactive, experiential performance art space Meow Wolf, joins Melanie.
He's stepped away from Meow Wolf's day-to-day operations into the role of Executive Advisor.
Vince dives deep, talking about the role of imagination in starting from a sort-of starving artist local collective to running a multi-million dollar business with the backing of George R. R. Martin, no less.
How to curate an experience and contribute to the collective are part of this fascinating conversation.
Vince Kadlubek is also the founder of the consulting agency Spatial Activations. Here's the Facebook description: