How To Create Healthy Relationships On a special episode of Pretty Spiritual Podcast, we’re talking about spiritual tools in love relationships. It’s only in really intimate relationships that we are seen in all our moods and aspects. In other words? There’s no hiding the parts of ourselves that we don’t like or that we’d rather other people not see. So join the fun as we share the relationship-building tools that help us be our best selves in romantic partnerships. We’ve all had our relationshi...
Jan 30, 2020•36 min•Ep. 48
What Is Spiritual Bypassing? This time on Pretty Spiritual Podcast, we’re going to dig into a topic close to our hearts: spiritual bypassing. First off, what is a spiritual bypass? John Welwood coined this term to talk about a trend he observed in spiritual communities. Spiritual bypassing is when we “use spiritual ideas and concepts to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks.” Often, we fall into the trap of spiritual bypass...
Jan 23, 2020•30 min•Ep. 47
What Is Emotional Regulation? This time on Pretty Spiritual Podcast we’re delving into the topic of emotional regulation. How do we make sense of and work with huge feelings without hurting ourselves ? Can we start by dipping our toes into the unfelt feelings we think might destroy us? Rather than getting swept up helplessly by the big feelings, how can we learn to be active participants in our emotional lives? If you’ve had a confusing relationship with your feelings, this episode is for you. N...
Jan 16, 2020•32 min•Ep. 46
How To Have A Spiritual Experience Today on Pretty Spiritual Podcast, we’re talking about spiritual awakenings. If you feel overwhelmed or confused or intimidated, we can totally understand. We weren’t sure what people meant when they talked about spiritual experiences until it happened to us. No, a spiritual awakening doesn’t necessarily involve a white light, burning bush, or celestial fanfare. (But no disrespect if it did... in fact, we might get a little jealous !) It turns out we get to dec...
Jan 09, 2020•29 min•Ep. 45
How To Stop Being Jealous This time on Pretty Spiritual Podcast, we tackle the swamplands of jealousy. (Remember how we felt about self-pity ?) It's going to be a little cringey. Don’t worry, us too! In episode 39, we’ll look at this feeling, investigate its common causes, and see what it has to teach us about ourselves. Wondering how to overcome jealousy? Come join the party! Jealousy is one of those emotions that’s so hard to look at directly because it can feel toxic for so many of us. But to...
Dec 29, 2019•36 min•Ep. 39
How To Stop Blaming Others This week on Pretty Spiritual Podcast, we’re looking at all the reasons we play the blame game. Some of us are really quick to place the blame on others (do the words it’s all your fault mean anything to you?). For others, it can feel natural to pick up the blame that others are putting down. Don’t worry, though. We’ve got plenty of experience to go around! So how do you usually play the blame game? Are you someone who habitually makes life problems about someone else?...
Dec 19, 2019•35 min•Ep. 44
Money Matters This week your spiritual bffs are talking about money. We’ll give you all a moment to stampede away and then another moment to let the dust settle. Anyone still with us? To those of you who are still here, get ready for the uncomfortable fun ahead! Though it’s often something we’d rather deny or avoid, we’re looking at our relationships with money in today’s episode. More than just looking at financial stress , we’re digging deep to uncover our core attitudes about enough. Money is...
Dec 12, 2019•33 min•Ep. 43
Sensitive Material Ahead Sweet friends, we want to let you know that today’s episode is a sensitive one. We’re talking about self destructive behavior and this content may be triggering for some listeners. If this episode starts to feel overwhelming or triggering, we’ve got plenty of other episodes you can check out. All we have to offer is our own experience with this topic, but if that isn’t what you need, we wholeheartedly encourage you to find the support you need. We want to reiterate that ...
Dec 04, 2019•57 min•Ep. 42
Going Through Changes This time on Pretty Spiritual Podcast, we’re talking about how to find our way through difficult changes in our lives. How flexible and emotionally resilient are we when adapting to change? How can we meet the small ups and downs, as well as the big life transitions, with perspective and a positive outlook? Welcome to the in-between place. Let’s get cozy! So what exactly do we mean when we talk about going through life changes? We’re talking about changes in behavior s, geo...
Nov 27, 2019•47 min•Ep. 41
Find Your Spiritual BFFs This week on Pretty Spiritual Podcast we’re talking about lifesaving moments of spiritual friendship and encouragement. Thought we invented the term “spiritual friendies”? We actually borrowed it from the Pali phrase kalyana mitta or spiritual friend. Today, we’re lucky to have a strong sense of spiritual community in our lives. But it wasn’t always like this. When first starting out on spiritual paths, each of us experienced loneliness, fear of people , and a deep sense...
Nov 13, 2019•42 min•Ep. 40
How to Build Self Confidence This week your spiritual besties are taking on the topic of self confidence. Whether you’re overly confident or tend toward lack of confidence, we hope you’ll join in. If you’re anything like us, you might vacillate wildly between the two. Or better yet, feel like both at once. Are you the most amazing piece of dumpster trash in the whole world? Or an egomaniac with an inferiority complex? Yay, you’re amongst friends! We’ll start episode 33 by sharing about the ways ...
Nov 09, 2019•43 min•Ep. 39
Happiness Is A Choice… Wait, What? This week your spiritual besties are talking about what it’s like to choose an… attitude of gratitude. Did you just vomit a little bit in your mouth and have to swallow it? Don’t worry, we can relate. If talk of gratefulness still makes you a little queasy, we made episode 32 just for you! If you’re struggling with being grateful, we have definitely been there. What happens when we’re resisting this attitude? Often we’re judging what’s here or grasping after so...
Oct 30, 2019•39 min•Ep. 38
Let Go Of Those Painfully High Expectations Are you someone who has really high expectations of yourself and others? We can totes relate. But what happens when people don’t live up to them? If you’re anything like us (and if you’re reading this, we’re starting to suspect you are), the answer is suffering. That’s why this episode is all about noticing and releasing unrealistic ideas about how we think life should be going. They say that happiness is reality minus expectations. But the truth is th...
Oct 26, 2019•45 min•Ep. 37
What Does It Mean To Be Spiritual? This week’s episode is about what spirituality looks like when life just shows up. Instead of our usual episode routine, we're letting go into the moment and just sharing where each of us is on our spiritual path right now. In other words? We're going to relax and trust the process of spiritual growth and development. So, what does that actually look like? We'll fill you in on the places we are struggling and how we draw on the strength of our spiritual communi...
Oct 08, 2019•45 min•Ep. 36
This time your spiritual best friends are talking about misguided emotional dependency. It’s a word we’ve all heard before, so what does codependent mean? And more importantly, how do we notice this pattern and shift it in our lives? Wondering, what is codependency? Here are a couple of definitions we like: your mood, happiness, and identity are defined by the person you’re interacting with or you sacrifice your own needs to try to meet the needs of others. While this pattern can apply to a part...
Sep 25, 2019•38 min•Ep. 35
What Causes Fear? Today we’re talking about how to overcome fear. To start, what is fear? We’ll borrow this definition: an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. How does it look different in our minds and bodies? How do our bodies respond physically to threats? And what do we add in terms of mental anxiety, past trauma, and learned behaviors? We’ll start by looking at what causes us to feel afraid. Since it’s a natural and necessary experience, we want t...
Sep 18, 2019•40 min•Ep. 34
This time, we’re taking a nice, long look at avoidance behavior and tools for overcoming procrastination. Rather put off listening to this episode until later? We get it! So, what is procrastination? James Clear defines it as “the act of delaying or postponing a task or set of tasks” and calls it “the force that prevents you from following through on what you set out to do.” No matter our personal flavor, we all relate to this phenomenon. And, come on, avoidant coping makes sense. If there’s som...
Sep 11, 2019•31 min•Ep. 33
Get Off Your Phones This week, we’re looking at cell phone addiction (or dependency?). What’s happening for us when we’re watching TV while scrolling through our phones and generally not wanting to be present in actual reality? We all know the feeling of picking up our phones to perform a discrete task and then remembering, as we put them down half an hour later, that we forgot to do that thing. We all know what it feels like to get sucked in when we’re looking at phones. Where does this screen ...
Aug 31, 2019•33 min•Ep. 32
How to Set Boundaries This time your spiritual bffs are talking boundaries. First off, what are boundaries? Why do we need to talk about them? And how could something so uncomfortable actually help take care of us? First, we’ll talk about how we started learning to communicate needs. We’ll focus on how to set boundaries, especially when we feel the pull of urgency and expectations. Then, we’ll look at examples of what verbal boundaries can sound like. Plus, we’ll talk about what it feels like to...
Aug 22, 2019•32 min•Ep. 31
Not quite sure how to trust yourself? Does the phrase, ‘trust yourself,’ seem laughable or downright dangerous? We feel ya. Many of us don’t know how to hear our gut feeling or tap into our innate intuitiveness. As a result, we spend years shoving that quiet heart whisper down and attempting to drown it out with cell phone obsession, spending money, food, substances, and straight up avoidance. In this episode, your spiritual best friends dive into the ever-elusive topic of spiritual intuition, h...
Aug 15, 2019•32 min•Ep. 30
We hear a lot these days about the benefits of meditation. But if you’re new to the practice, you might be wondering, does meditation actually work? If you’ve been at it for a while, maybe you’re a little jaded with your mindfulness routine. What does meditation do? And why meditate, when it can be so terrifying, uncomfortable, or just plain meh to slow down and be still? In episode 23 your spiritual besties talk about the benefits of mindfulness and share our experience with the question. We’ll...
Aug 07, 2019•35 min•Ep. 29
Do you get annoyed when people say that you should just let go of something that’s bothering you? It’s that little word *just.* If letting go were a matter of just doing it, surely we’d have done it by now. Heaven knows we’ve tried hard and long enough to control that process ourselves! That’s right, spiritual friendies, episode 22 is all about how to let that shit go. Moving on from something that has been occupying our mind and our heart isn’t always a straightforward process. Often it require...
Jul 31, 2019•33 min•Ep. 28
Dealing with Anger Grrr! In episode 21, we’re taking a look at what causes anger and what messages this intelligent emotion might have for us. Above all, we believe feelings are a healthy and normal part of the human experience. So how can we let anger be our spiritual teacher? What would be different if we could let our anger be... spiritual? Yup, we’re really going for it! We’ll start by sharing our experiences with pent up anger and what it was like for each of us when we first started lookin...
Jul 24, 2019•34 min•Ep. 27
Finding Yourself & Loving What You Find Today we’re talking about experience and how we relate to it. What is experience, anyway? How do we relate to what we’re thinking and to our state of mind? And is it possible to bring mindfulness and love to our relationship with self and our direct experience so that we can be okay no matter what life looks like? We sure hope so! First, we’ll share what it has been like for each of us on this inward journey. We’ll talk about the ways we’ve learned to ...
Jul 16, 2019•37 min•Ep. 26
Can people change? Yes, according to neuroplasticity. And, yup, it involves a lot of work and plenty of patience. Today we’re looking at how to use spiritual tools for changing habits, patterns and behaviors that no longer serve us. Many of us who are wondering how to change a habit can get stuck in self-loathing and aversion in the process. So normal! That’s why we especially want to talk about how we can be kind and gentle with ourselves when we’re deep in the work of acknowledging and address...
Jul 09, 2019•39 min•Ep. 25
Today we’re talking about how to live in the moment. There’s a lot of talk about how to be present and live in the now. Is this just some new agey, feel-good jargon or is it an actual spiritual reality that’s possible for each of us to practice with moment by moment? (We’re sure hoping for the latter!) If we believe that living in the present is a possibility, how do we actually do that? How do we be present when life gets really uncomfortable and hard? We’ll start by talking about disassociatio...
Jul 03, 2019•30 min•Ep. 24
This week, we’re grappling with acceptance. Wondering, “what is acceptance?” We’ll start off episode 17 by sharing how we make sense of this spiritual principle, what we think it is and what we’re pretty sure it’s not. Then we’ll each share our personal struggles with how to accept things as they are. We’ll dig in and talk about the reasons acceptance can feel so counterintuitive and problematic for so many of us. Spoiler alert: accepting something doesn’t mean we like it or condone it. It’s jus...
Jun 26, 2019•35 min•Ep. 23
We talk about prayer kind of a lot. So if you’re wondering why, what is prayer, or how to pray, we made episode 16 to start a conversation with you! We want to open up the conversation about prayer so that it can include everyone. Whether you use prayer to talk to god or consider yourself an atheist or agnostic, we’ll share how we believe this spiritual tool can work across the board. At the end of the day, maybe it doesn’t matter if you want to know how to pray to god or just how to connect to ...
Jun 19, 2019•36 min•Ep. 22
Stop Self Victimization We’re looking at the weird and sticky topic of self-pity. We’ll start by asking: what is self pity? If you’ve been stuck in a chronic cycle and want to learn how to stop feeling sorry for yourself, come join our spiritual pity party. We’ve got a whole bunch of experience with this topic. More importantly, we have suggestions that have helped us find our way through. In other words, we've got spiritual tools like compassion and mindfulness. To start, we'll talk about our o...
May 15, 2019•28 min•Ep. 21
Wondering how to calm anxiety and stress in your life? In episode 14 your spiritual bffs dive into the topic headfirst. Most of us have stress in our lives, so how can we learn to make friends with it? We’ll talk about ways to deal with stress and let you know about our most effective stress management techniques. We’ll focus on in-the-moment meditation and mindfulness for anxiety and stress. Plus, we’ll also share where we’re struggling with stress reactions and what it looks like to pick up sp...
May 10, 2019•31 min•Ep. 20
