Episodes

Send us a text After several weeks of hearing from others about how they think about self-care given their particular experiences of life, we turn our attention today to thinking about the community. Who do we turn to when we need help? And fo that matter, do we believe that we can turn to others? Or do we tend to live with the feeling that we have to do it all alone? Join us as we talk about how being both givers and receivers of care has been not only life-giving but absolutely life-changin...

Send us a text Join us as Ryan Bauers, Consultant and Organization Development Specialist, shares with us about why self-care is so important in the business environment and how it positively impacts those businesses. Hear about his own journey that led him to finding self-care so important: working to the point of total exhaustion, receiving from mentors who offered him a new trajectory, and now living that out on a daily basis. Do you desire to work in or to lead in environments that feel s...

Send us a text For those who have a tendency towards helping others, feelings of guilt and shame can often lead to overworking. And what’s more, depending on our family or cultural contexts, we may not even feel permission to do what we need to do in order to keep ourselves feeling whole and healthy. Join us as Rev. Dr. Beth Brown shares with us about what helps her continue to feel centered and grounded. Be inspired and encouraged to advocate for yourself and for others, to be a part of crea...

Send us a text As we continue our series on self-care, Sarah Kiser joins us to share her experience of being a healthcare professional at a time when 87% of people in the field are reporting experiences of burnout. For many of us, our career experience changes as we age. Our lives become fuller, our responsibilities grow, and the margins of life for self-care get smaller. We invite you to join us in being a witness to the story of healthcare providers like Sarah and to allow the wisdom of her...

Send us a text Today we are joined by Mary Bouras who is sharing with us about what it has been like to be married to someone in the military. Mary comes to us with over 2 decades of experience, including nearly a dozen moves, motherhood, and a career. Join us as she shares candidly with us about what has created balance and stability in a life that can easily feel unbalanced and unstable. Find out what she had named for herself as her must-do’s and what she does when even the must-do’s need ...

Send us a text As we begin a new year, we embark on a new series, talking to people from a variety of fields to discover: What do you do for self care? And is there anything you do for self care that might help me? Spiritual Directors spend a lot of time listening to people’s stories, which means we have to have ways to release those stories and find personal fulfillment ourselves. Join us as we talk about what we do to help us feel whole and restored. Hashtags Poetry, Yoga, Retreat, Music, Spor...

Send us a text In our fourth and final week in this series, we talk about one very key but, perhaps, unexpected tool that can bring about restoration and connection in our lives. In a busy world, we’ve become accustomed to turning our attention away from even the simplest things that can help us bring the being side of ourselves into balance with our doing side. Join us as we talk about how awe has helped each of us shift when we felt we needed it most. Additional Resources Book: Awe by Dacher K...

Send us a text Today we take time to talk about some of the barriers that can come into play when we’re looking to bring our doing side into friendship and balance with our being side. And in particular, we get down into root causes because, oftentimes, we may find ourselves using similar words to the people around us. But our inner motivations and our particular needs may be quite different from those of our neighbors. Join us as we talk about how we can evolve in our journeys towards onenes...

Send us a text As we continue our Being With series, we turn our attention to the lens of Body, Heart, and Mind, asking the question: How can we strengthen what is already innate within us while also exploring areas of ourselves we maybe don’t visit as often? Life is often so full that our lives can begin to feel disconnected and unintegrated. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead we can discover what is speaking to us, what emotions are arising, what our bodies are trying to tell us. A...

Send us a text Do you ever feel like your relationship with the Divine is more transactional than relational? Can you relate to that feeling of just wanting someone to be with you over and above wanting them to fix your problems? During the busy month of December, we’re offering a series that extends an invitation to bring the “doing” side of ourselves into balance with our “being” side. Join us as we embark on this journey towards a connection with the Divine that allows for more flow and fr...

Send us a text We conclude our “What is” series with the topic of Pilgrimage. What is it and how is it done? What does pilgrimage share in common with exile and in what ways does it differ? Is pilgrimage always life changing or do some people return feeling as though not much has changed? Join us as we talk about this journey of the soul. May the conversation inspire your path. Additional Resources Podcast: Ep 21 The Sacred Space Inside Today from The Contemplative Life Hashtags...

Send us a text As we continue our exploration of words we may hear in contemplative circles but not know what they mean, we turn our attention to the experience of Divine Listening, allowing sound to become a part of our meditation and prayer experiences. Many have found Audio Divina to be a helpful tool for becoming aware of Divine Presence, connecting the mind-heart-body, and spending time in discernment, to name a few. Join us as we talk about the many ways to engage this practice. Additi...

Send us a text This week’s podcast invites us to look around the world with wonder, curiosity, and an openness to Divine Presence. Visio Divina, a form of contemplative prayer, offers us the chance to pause, to notice, and to become aware of what is stirring within. And while some amount of controversy has arisen around forms of prayer that appeal not only to the mind but the mind-heart-body, it is also the case that many have returned to these ancient forms of prayer - as if seeing again for...

Send us a text As we talk about ways to practice and promote unity and cooperation between our communities of faith, we are joined by Rev. Kerri Parker, Executive Director for the Wisconsin Council of Churches. Join us as Kerri shares with us about why this is passionate and meaningful work for her. Listen as she helps us consider how we can become more ecumenical, both personally and as communities of worship. Consider with us what it looks like to find common ground, even as the particulars...

Send us a text This week, we continue our “what is” exploration, looking at a Benedictine practice that has been used to help people discover and live out their values. Join us as we talk about the creative ways that people today are employing this ancient practice and how you can use it both for personal and community purposes. For those of us who experience feelings of overwhelm and days of exhaustion, this practice could be for you. Additional Resources Book: Wisdom Distilled from the Da...

Send us a text What does it look like for us to sit in silence, whether it be for two minutes or twenty? As we sit in that silence, what do we do with it? Is it a time for rolling over the to-do’s of our day, for sitting with an image or a phrase? Is it something we do alone or with others? On this week’s podcast, we explore the ins and outs of Centering Prayer - its origins, the “rules,” why we sometimes need to interpret those “rules,” and why we find the experience so enriching and groundi...

Send us a text As we continue our “What is” series, we turn our attention to prayers that use words, which may well be the most popular form of prayer in Western culture. Join us as we talk about the many personal and communal ways that prayer can lead us to transformation. Consider with us why it is absolutely okay that the words of yesterday may not fully encapsulate what is true and authentic for us today. And take some time to wonder in what ways kataphatic prayer might be beneficial for ...

Send us a text Do you ever wonder about the value of sitting in silence or of rhythmically repeating a word or phrase over and over again? Join us as we talk about the many possibilities that we (and others we know) have discovered for engaging this prayer practice - a form of prayer that exists specifically for helping us connect with - and encounter - Divine Presence. While it may seem counterintuitive to spend any amount of time in extended pause, what practitioners report time and time ag...

Send us a text On this week’s podcast, we begin a new series, exploring words that are often heard in contemplative circles. Our journey through this series begins with Contemplative Prayer. Join us as we consider how this form of prayer tends to expand and open our awareness in ever-deepening ways, how we discover layers we may not have been aware of before, and most profoundly, how our connection to Divine Presence becomes more accessible in our day-to-day lives as a result of these many an...

Send us a text Many of us can relate to feeling like there’s just too much, that whatever we’re doing is never enough, that the things we’re facing are more than we can bear. We live in a culture that is constantly calling us to more and that asks us to continually be at the top of our game. On this week’s podcast, we talk about why so many of us revert to numbing when we begin to feel those feelings of overwhelm, stress, and exhaustion. We examine how the contemplative life can help us in th...

Send us a text Do you ever feel sort of blah, like you’re neither quite happy but not necessarily depressed either - just, sort of, in the middle? On this week’s podcast, we explore reasons for why this feeling can occur. We talk about when this might be a good thing for us, when it’s okay to just rest in that space. But we also talk about what to do when this is less of a good thing for us. Join us as we talk about how the contemplative life can help us tend to what is going on, both interna...

Send us a text Ever feel unsure about what to think? Find yourself having trouble expressing yourself? This week’s podcast leads us to talking about how using our contemplative practices can be of use when we’re feeling too much inner swirl. Whether we’re trying to get back into the swing of things or we just don’t know where to go next, feeling jumbled is an experience common to us all. And because no two people or situations are exactly alike, the things that each of us needs in any particu...

Send us a text For those who aren’t sure if their questions are welcome, for those who have physically been relocated, for those who are wondering if they need a new community, for anyone feeling spiritually without friends or company…This week’s podcast aims to encourage the one who is feeling grief and loss spiritually. It is okay to name your feelings. Join us as we talk about what it looks like to return to balance in this area of our wellbeing - because when one part of us is feeling unw...

Send us a text Teresa of Avila was a nun in the Carmelite Order who lived during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. Her life and her writings speak to us about what it looks like to truly find union with God in the midst of our struggle and difficulty. She teaches us that this deep connection with the Divine is not just for the spiritual giants but for all of us. On this week’s podcast, we spend time asking: Is it possible to have a deep and meaningful connection with the Source of all life...