Mind

[Best Of] Trip Report—Oprah's Vision Tour: Your Life In Focus

[Best Of] Trip Report—Oprah's Vision Tour: Your Life In Focus

Aired 3/8/20 — just before the pandemic hit! This is the last major event I attended live . . . replaying now for some thought-starters to help shape our 2021 new year visioning :)

This week’s Pivot Podcast is a field report from seeing one of my heroes live! I attended Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour: Your Life in Focus in Brooklyn in early February, and I was so curious going into this event that I thought you might like to hear about the experience and key takeaways.

Oprah is inviting a different headliner from each stop on the tour (ours was Michelle Obama), so if you want a peek into other cities and guests, listen to her Super Soul Conversations podcast — she’s had equally wonderful conversations with Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/158.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes. Next up: We’ll be kicking-off the new year together on January 13 and I’d love for you to join us!

249: Self-Defense Strategies with Sensei Ando Mierzwa

249: Self-Defense Strategies with Sensei Ando Mierzwa

“Your smile is your shield and your sword.” That’s just one of many wisdom gems from today’s guest and longtime Pivot advocate, Sensei Ando Mierzwa. He’s sharing many of the principles from his free self-defense basics course on turning intuition into action, the importance of projecting (and feeling!) confident, ignoring social niceties when it comes to making “bad guys” uncomfortable, and how to maintain a zen state even in tense situations. I hope you love this conversation as much as I did!

Ando’s Free Course: Self-Defense Basics

❤️ Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/249

[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 7: On Spirituality and Small Business (July 2018)

[Best Of] Penney & Jenny 7: On Spirituality and Small Business (July 2018)

Happy summer, friends! I’m taking a short break to pause and design what’s next for the podcast content-wise. Please enjoy this series with Penney Peirce, released M/W/Fri in keeping with my latest experiment.

Penney is consistently named as a listener favorite when I get feedback notes, and after our first interview together we jokingly started naming these follow-up conversations “The Penney & Jenny Show.” Until now, these interviews were spread out over the last four years — now they’ll be bingeable as a consecutive series :)

🗣 Want to help shape what’s next? Take the listener survey if you haven’t already! http://pivotmethod.com/survey »

📝 View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/podcast/penney7 »

***

Original air date: July 15, 2018

I'm delighted to bring you the seventh (!) episode in a side series of this podcast we affectionately call the Penney & Jenny show :) It's a growing set of conversations with one of my dear friends and mentors (friendtors), Penney Peirce. We had so much fun during our first interview together that we added a second . . . which became a third . . . and so on, until it was a regular feature on the Pivot Podcast!

This week we're riffing on the intersection of spirituality and small business—how we apply intuition, transparency, non-physical realms, and personal practices toward business-building, attracting clients, and earning a living in a way that feels easeful and joyful. You can check out all of our interviews here, and for easier listening, tune in on our SoundCloud playlist.

242: Nahko—Take Your Power Back + "Love Letters to God" Live

242: Nahko—Take Your Power Back + "Love Letters to God" Live

Nahko is an artist, a seeker, a storyteller, and a medicine man through soulful music. I love that his music sits at the intersection of deep personal introspection with social justice activism.

Although we didn’t discuss it in this conversation, Nakho was born as a result of human trafficking—his birth mother gave him up for adoption when she was fourteen years old; he was nine months old, then raised in Oregon just 20 minutes away. You can learn more about that in these conversations with Untangled: Take Your Power Back and with Rachel Brathen: Believe In The Good Things Coming.

Nahko and Medicine for the People has provided the soundtrack to everything important in my life these last five years: solo journeying, writing and then launching Pivot, meeting my husband, getting married, and navigating the 2020 coronacoaster.

🎵 Listen to the end for a special acoustic performance

📝 Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://pivotmethod.com/242

🎧 Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call: http://pivotmethod.com/insider

194: Deep Souls with Kathryn Haydon

194: Deep Souls with Kathryn Haydon

Pivot Insider and creativity expert Kathryn Haydon is back to discuss her emerging studies of Deep Souls, building upon her background in education and creativity. As she describes in her article, 7 Strengths of Deep Souls: The Thinkers We Need But Rarely Understand:

"Is Everyone a Deep Soul? The underlying traits that fuel deep soul strengths are universal characteristics of creative thinking. Research shows that nearly all of us have an intense combination of these strengths in early childhood, but they get dulled over time—especially during our school years. Deep souls, however, have resisted this dulling. They can't help it. The intensity of their ability to think differently cannot and will not be stopped.”

Listen in as we discuss the seven strengths, and how to best support and encourage the deep souls around you in life and work.

View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/194

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask

🦠172: Self-Care for Empaths and HSPs with Sarah Santacroce

🦠172: Self-Care for Empaths and HSPs with Sarah Santacroce

If you ever feel like a sponge for the energy (and moods) of people around you, particularly during times of massive change or crisis; if you feel flooded by emotion, overwhelmed with empathy, more sensitive than usual to sights, sounds, and media; and/or hit with powerful bursts of intuition, this episode is for you.

Sarah Santacroce and I recorded a two-way conversation for Pivot and her podcast, Gentle Business Revolution (be sure to also check out the PDF of her manifesto, Gentle Business Revolution Manifesto).

View full show notes from this episode at http://pivotmethod.com/172 »

What’s on your mind? Submit follow-up questions for a future conversation at http://pivotmethod.com/ask »

158: Trip Report—Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour

158: Trip Report—Oprah's 2020 Vision Tour

This week’s Pivot Podcast is a field report from seeing one of my heroes live! I attended Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour: Your Life in Focus in Brooklyn in early February, and I was so curious going into this event that I thought you might like to hear about the experience and key takeaways.

Oprah is inviting a different headliner from each stop on the tour (ours was Michelle Obama), so if you want a peek into other cities and guests, listen to her Super Soul Conversations podcast — she’s had equally wonderful conversations with Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at http://PivotMethod.com/158.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes. Our next session is coming right up on Wednesday, March 11 — I’d love for you to join us!

[Best Of] 91: Divine Time Management and Putting Faith Forward in Business and Love with Elizabeth Grace Saunders

[Best Of] 91: Divine Time Management and Putting Faith Forward in Business and Love with Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Originally posted March 2018 — part of a “Best Of” series as I get caught up from a round of travel and puppy-adjusting :)

When my friend Elizabeth pivoted from time management author and coach to divine time management, her faith-based practice of "trusting God's loving plans for you," and with the release of her new book in November, I wanted to have her on the show. But I was nervous at the same time.

Is it okay to put faith forward in business? On the podcast? I'm not Christian—would that adversely affect the interview? Would it be divisive in any way for listeners? Our culture prides a separation of church and state, but what about spirituality and business?

In the months since Elizabeth's book launched, I have been sloooowly finding the courage to talk about these topics more prominently on the Pivot Podcast. And believe me, coming from an atheist-turned-agnostic, this was not an easy or obvious choice. But my soul's curiosity and passion for finding deeper meaning in our work says YES. I am grateful to now be exploring people and philosophies of many ranging faiths on this show.

With that, let's dive into this week's awesome episode! I love Elizabeth's advice on loosening the reigns of control, paying attention to inner stirrings, and her vulnerability in sharing how she has surrendered her timing around finding love. 

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/podcast/divine-time.

152: Glowing in the Dark with Kristoffer 'KC' Carter

152: Glowing in the Dark with Kristoffer 'KC' Carter

This week’s episode is another one of my favorite formats, just two new (soul) friends shooting the breeze in what we’ve dubbed a “podcast tango” :) Given that we both have podcasts, we decided to just hit record and do this joint conversation, neither of us officially interviewing the other. I hope you enjoy this conversation jam with insta-BFF Kristoffer “KC” Carter (shout-out to our mutual mensch mentor Jonathan Fields who introduced us!), whose new podcast This Epic Life is one I know you’ll also love. We deepen our budding BFF-ship and discuss the BIG topics of life—including death, dips, permission to shine, business pivots, his yogic and meditation practices, and much more.

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/152.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes.

143: Transmogrify with Neil Pasricha

143: Transmogrify with Neil Pasricha

“I don’t even care if we talk about the new book,” Neil said as we started our Skype call, while I thumbed through dog-eared, underlined, and marked-up pages of the You Are Awesome galley. Ooh, fun!

Knowing I have a tendency to focus too much on the paper artifact in front of me while interviewing authors, rather than what’s True and present in the moment, I decided to chuck all my potential questions and just shoot the breeze with a longtime blog-friend (February marks our ten year friendiversary!).

Neil was on the Pivot Podcast in the early days (check out 44: Want Nothing, Have Everything: The Happiness Equation with Neil Pasricha), and that episode has been a long-time listener favorite. I think you’re going to love this unfiltered, unplanned conversation every bit as much!

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/143.

134: East Forest on Infinite Existence and The Guru Within

134: East Forest on Infinite Existence and The Guru Within

“When you witness a dark thought – you witness it, and love it. You love your dark thoughts. The witness is part of the soul, and the soul loves everything.” —Ram Dass from “Dark Thoughts”

In this episode, East Forest joins us to discuss his latest album, Ram Dass, and his time in Maui to record these exclusive new teachings from an enlightened master. After capturing Dass’ words of wisdom, East Forest returned to his studio to compose this incredible soundtrack to beautifully support each songs’ subject. Together we explore themes like balancing guru worship with finding wisdom within, music as soul medicine, infinite existence, and creative expression. You know, the good stuff :)

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/134.

Enjoying the show? Pivot Podcast is listener supported—consider donating to become a Pivot Insider and you’ll get access to a private monthly Q&A call where you can ask me anything, and discuss the latest books, tools and topics I’ve shared in recent episodes.

131: Indistractable with Nir Eyal

131: Indistractable with Nir Eyal

What’s the difference between distraction and traction? Why don’t we do the things that we know we should do? And how can we learn from techniques that tech companies use to hook us into their products in order to redirect our attention toward what we really want to be, do, and create in the world?

Nir Eyal and I discuss these topics and more in this week’s podcast conversation based on his new book, Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. He also outlines the four steps of the Indistractable model: master internal triggers, make time for traction, hack back external triggers, and prevent distraction with pacts.

128: Ultralearning with Scott Young

128: Ultralearning with Scott Young

Imagine landing in a country and not allowing yourself to speak your native language even once (for many Pivot Podcast listeners that’s English), even with your roommates or fellow travelers. You’d be diving into the deep end, but you’d integrate FAR more quickly and effectively than if you took the “pop out of the bubble” approach, of only speaking the second language when you’re comfortable, thus never truly gaining traction.

As Scott Young, author of Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career, describes it — the bubble method is the equivalent of getting cold water splashed into your face every day and never having a chance to adapt. That’s the difference between most approaches to learning and ultralearning, which he defines as stretching outside of the limits where you feel comfortable through strategic, intense, self-directed programs.

In this episode, Scott walks us through several of his 9 principles that underlie ultralearning: metalearning (Draw a map), focus (sharpen your knife), directness (go straight ahead), drill (attack your weakest point), retrieval (test to learn), feedback (don’t dodge the punches), retention (don’t fill a leaky bucket), intuition (dig deep before building up), experimentation (explore outside your comfort zone).

120: Mantras in Motion with Erin Stutland

120: Mantras in Motion with Erin Stutland

What’s the difference between affirmations that feel fake and those that actually work? How can you move your body in a way that also transforms your mind? What falls under the category of spiritual bypassing versus actual transformation? Join me for a conversation with one of my favorite New York friends, Erin Stutland, as we discuss her new book: Mantras in Motion: Manifesting What You Want through Mindful Movement.

[Best Of] Live Fiercely, Study Deeply . . . While Earning a Living — with Jonathan Fields

[Best Of] Live Fiercely, Study Deeply . . . While Earning a Living — with Jonathan Fields

"Uncertainty may bring unease, but it also brings a vital energy, the exhilaration of creation. Without uncertainty, there is no possibility." —Jonathan Fields

As I get up to speed in my first semester at Union, I’m re-launching a few of my favorite podcast episodes from four years of archives: I hope you enjoy some of these oldies but goodies, particularly if you missed them the first time around! Here’s a conversation I loved with dear friend and mentor Jonathan Fields, from October 2016.

Jonathan Fields' mission is to "live fiercely and study deeply." How does he do that while earning a living? That's what we unpack in this week's episode. According to Jonathan, "There are only two ways to earn a living: you're either solving a problem or delivering a delight. If you're lucky and creative, you do both simultaneously."

Jonathan—or "JF" as I like to call him—has been a longtime mentor whose pivots have inspired me and countless others at every turn: from lawyer to yoga studio founder to author of three books, Jonathan is now studying and embodying what it means to live a good life. We recorded this episode from his plush velvety couches at Good Life Project Headquarters (aka his apartment on the Upper West Side) — I hope you enjoy this off-the-cuff conversation as much as I did. Be sure to grab Jonathan's new book, How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom, out this week! And his free recently released Unbusy Manifesto

[Best Of] Martha Beck on Enlightenment and Messages our Bodies Send

[Best Of] Martha Beck on Enlightenment and Messages our Bodies Send

As I get up to speed in my first semester at Union, I’m re-launching a few of my favorite podcast episodes from four years of archives: I hope you enjoy some of these oldies but goodies, particularly if you missed them the first time around! Here’s a conversation with one of my author superheroes, Martha Beck, who says “Suffering is a sign you are about to be woken up again.”

This week we tackle a tiny little topic—enlightenment—with one of my all-time favorite authors and thinkers, Martha Beck. I have read all eight of Martha's books (two or three times each) as they helped me through some of my biggest transitions in life and work. Martha is someone who blazes her own trails and has inspired me to do the same time and time again. 

I admire Martha for her tremendous courage. She's been through hell and back, from leaving the Mormon church despite getting death threats and her entire family disowning her, keeping her pregnancy after finding out her baby had Down Syndrome and her Harvard colleagues suggested otherwise, or following her body's signals to turn away from the academic life that was making her sick, and even saying no to Oprah when it didn't feel right to say yes.

[Best Of] Rebirth: On Fear, Flow, Love and Magic with Kamal Ravikant

[Best Of] Rebirth: On Fear, Flow, Love and Magic with Kamal Ravikant

As I get up to speed in my first semester at Union, I’m re-launching a few of my favorite podcast episodes from four years of archives: I hope you enjoy some of these oldies but goodies, particularly if you missed them the first time around! Here’s a conversation I loved from January 2017 with Kamal Ravikant :)

What lies on the other side of our fear? According to Kamal Ravikant, magic. "That's the promise of the heart," he writes in an early chapter of his wonderful new book, Rebirth: A Fable of Love, Forgiveness, and Following Your Heart. This is one of my all-time favorite Pivot Podcast conversations: Kamal inspires courage in vulnerability, living with an open heart, and road-tested practices on loving yourself and living your truth. Every moment of talking with him was a delight, and I hope you enjoy this week's conversation on life's biggest topics as much as I did! 

115: "People are People" — Exploring Neurodiversity with Mark Rufino

115: "People are People" — Exploring Neurodiversity with Mark Rufino

Mark Rufino is a social worker and audio engineer, who works with adults with developmental disabilities and their families. However, even the term "developmental disability" or "intellectual disability" is becoming a misnomer. Mark is part of a growing movement of people who believe it's time we upgrade our old way of thinking "that we need to fix you to fit into our society."

The term neurodiversity is growing in popularity, and implies that there is no “normal” way of thinking and “autistic” way of thinking, for example; we are all wired to do different things. I think you'll love this conversation around exploring what's behind behavior, Mark's emphasis on deeper listening (in surprising and novel ways), and his reference to a book that states "the opposite of anxiety is not calm, it’s trust.”

113: The Seeker's Journey with Daniel Aaron

So many of us are on a seekers journey—looking for greater knowledge, wisdom, healing, insight and transformation. And may even the ever-elusive holy grail of enlightenment, whatever that means. If you ask me, I believe we have three primary purposes on this planet: to learn, to love and to serve. And of course, to enjoy life along the way :) 

Daniel Aaron is a fascinating fellow seeker who describes his own journey as guided by a divine power, as he explores all variety of mystical and practical practices and shares them with thousands of others through yoga, sangha (community), and coaching. His mission is "to bring in a new era, where the new-normal is love and truth – kindness, authenticity and radiance – for all beings, of every species." I hope you enjoy the this week's conversation! 

Check out full show notes from this episode with links to resources mentioned at PivotMethod.com/podcast/daniel-aaron. Enjoying the show? Make my week by donating just $1 and episode at Patreon.com/pivot.

More About Daniel Aaron

daniel-aaron.jpg

Daniel Aaron is a teacher, writer, and human potential coach with a half century of joyous seeking and more than 25 years of experience in yoga and personal transformation for thousands of others.

Creator of the world-recognized Daniel Aaron Yoga Teacher Trainings in 2005, Daniel also founded the Radiantly Alive Yoga studio in Ubud, Bali in 2012. He is a seeker of wisdom, mystical and practical, and how we can apply it to radically upgrade our lives.

From enlightened gurus to the deepest therapists, cutting-edge nutrition, fasting and cleansing Ashrams, centers and caves, Maine to Bali (with a few hundred vistas along the way), he has lived everything from an excruciating childhood (which was also full of love) to helping others find everyday, guaranteed joy and entrepreneurial brilliance (including his own massively painful lessons and mistakes). 

Topics We Cover

  • His chaotic childhood upbringing, a crucial realization at three years old: “There’s got to be more than this"

  • Being orphaned at a relatively early age amongst parents and siblings

  • How he pulled himself out of hopelessness and turned to a path of seeking

  • Discovering astrology in his twenties despite previously thinking it was ridiculous

  • Describing himself as “He is as ordinary as ordinary can be.”

  • We shine and are our best selves when we accept all parts of ourselves

  • What inspired him to start Radiantly Alive—and how he knew it was time to leave

  • Seeker’s mission: awaken, heal, discover, learn

  • Pain and difficulty as a signal to move on, no longer living his dharma (true path)

  • Creating a virtual sangha, or community, to amplify individuals’ vibrant lives - creates an energy unto itself

  • Buddhism, “It’s hard to awaken on one’s own”

  • Satsang: “Gathering of people in the name of truth” - it’s about our intention when we come together

  • To live a spiritual life in a way that is fulfilling and also contributing to the world

  • What’s behind his philosophies that “his religion is his life,” and his passion in studying "The real yoga of life, beyond the physical fitness practices”

  • Patanjali’s teachings of ahimsa, doing as little harm as possible (non-violence), and satya, or honesty and authenticity—the key to it is to live both of those at the same time

  • His mission is to bring in a new era, where the new-normal is love and truth – kindness, authenticity and radiance – for all beings, of every species.

  • "A world where an aberrant act of meanness creates a ripple of alarm that immediately engenders a response of love and understanding so powerful that it melts the pain and meanness and harmony is restored.”

  • What we are all needing to learn as a culture, the gifts of the darkness: we can’t afford to have division, what we need is inclusion

  • The Fantastic 4 of his daily rituals: The importance of daily practices to remember where he’s set his compass coordinates and stay connected to hope and positivity

  • The Sun Breath exercise and why it’s so powerful to raise frequency or vibration

The Seeker's Journey with Daniel Aaron

Listen below or on iTunesSoundCloud, YouTubeOvercastStitcher, or Google Play Music:

Check out other episodes of the Pivot Podcast here. Be sure to subscribe via iTunesGoogle Play or SoundCloud, and if you enjoy the show I would be very grateful for a rating and/or review! Sign-up for my weekly(ish) #PivotList newsletter to receive curated round-ups of what I'm reading, watching, listening to, and new tools I'm geeking out on.

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112: Whose Voice is in Your Head? Perfection Detox Round Two with Petra Kolber

112: Whose Voice is in Your Head? Perfection Detox Round Two with Petra Kolber

I am beyond lucky to have the brilliant Petra Kolber as one of my best friends in New York City, and just delighted to celebrate her book launch this week!! It's been a long journey, and one that forced her to confront the very message of her book: overcoming the inner critic and imposter syndrome because "the world needs your voice, not your perfect silence."

As I wrote in the show notes for our first Pivot Podcast interview in January 2017, Petra just radiates joy and truly walks her talk. When she enters a room, it lights all the way up with her positivity, passion for life and joie de vivre.

But that doesn't mean she hasn't wrestled with her own dragons, particularly around perfectionism (as have so many of us). Coming from decades in the fitness industry, Petra struggled with the pressure to be perfect in looks, body, business, and beyond. 

As a two-time cancer survivor, she is passionate about waking people up to the precious gift of time. Her mission is to inspire people to move more and to fear less, so they can stretch their dreams, strengthen their courage muscle, and build an inspired life full of joy and gratitude. In this follow-up show we explore her book publishing process ups and downs, moving past the mirror, the platinum rule (a favorite new concept!) of self-compassion, and much more.