In this short, we explore the importance of naming our emotions at a granular level as well as exploring how “negative emotions” may be (1) protecting us while (2) keeping us from what we long for. The more fluency we gain in naming our emotions and how they function to protect but also limit us, the more agency—which expresses itself as choice and freedom—we will have in our lives.

In this Short, we confront our human and cultural tendency to focus on what we don’t have rather than what we do. This pressure keeps us from being here and now, in reality, which is the only place we can experience joy. Through focusing on what we have rather than what we want, we can shift everything about our perspective. As always, we explore tangible practices to catalyze this shift in mindset.

In this Short, we confront the pervasive pressure that the word “should” can exert in our lives. In considering how we actually change—becoming the people we want to be—“should” has very limited power to transform us at our deepest levels. Instead, we must practice being held, which requires a different energy and orientation to life. As always, we explore practical ways to put such a shift in mindset into action.

In this Short, we explore a simple two-step practice for seizing the day rather than letting the day seize you. The practice is straightforward: a commitment to spend a few moments in a slow, unhurried posture combined with a consistent engagement of your “grounding story.” In this episode, we explain what a grounding story is, how to create one, and how you can use it to pursue freedom and clarity every morning.

In this Naming the Real Short—a bonus episode in our Storytelling Series—we explore the idea of “discharging a loyal soldier,” which is releasing a belief/part of us that kept us safe but now keeps us stuck. By thanking the part, releasing the part, and re-assigning the part to a new role, we can transcend the places where we’ve got mired and move to greater flourishing.

The person that we are includes many parts, organized around our true Self. But many times we feel stuck, because we believe our most frustrated or seemingly dysfunctional part is our actual identity, or because we don’t how to integrate our parts into a greater whole. In this episode, we consider the reality that you aren’t crazy for talking to yourself—far from it! That, in fact, dialoguing with our various parts can release us into freedom. To that end, we consider a rubric for having mindful conversations with our parts, which can call our entire being into wholeness and flourishing.

In this episode—our first Naming the Real SHORT—we explore the two primary ways that Celtic spirituality helps us see the world differently than the way promulgated by Western Imperial Christianity.