Health, Wealth and the Pursuit of Happiness

Everyone in this life is on, what can be referred to as, a journey. Let’s assume in this context, that one’s journey starts at point A and ends at point B, with many stops and stays along the way. In this episode we explore Joseph Campbell’s take on this through his “Hero’s Journey” work. We interview Marion Moss Hubbard, Ph.D., founder of Heroic Journey Consulting which helps individuals and organizational leaders facilitate personal, organizational and global transformation through human consciousness development. What that means for the listener of this week’s podcast episode, is the opportunity to reframe one’s life in the context of a powerful story about courageously facing life’s challenges with heart and grit, in order to live fully and authentically. When we are able to do this, we come from a different consciousness about ourselves that results in contributing to the world from a more evolved state of being. That shift brings out the best version of us and that positively impacts, not only ourselves, but also those around us. Learn more and listen to Marion’s Heroic Journey and the model she uses to transform herself and others. It’s well worth the ride! To your inspired, heroic self, Mark What We Discuss: • We start with Marion’s “heroic journey” • Lesson learned on her journey • Personal growth as a marker for being on the “right path” • Dropping the baggage that tethers our soul and authentic self • The difference between an intellectual connection and spiritual connection • Going through the transformation process in one’s journey • The tipping point from Texas to a sabbatical in Sedona, AZ • Marion’s journey from Sedona to Seattle • The story of Peace Pilgrim • Universal deeper truths we all know intuitively • Examples of Marion’s self-discovery during her questioning of “what’s true for her?” • The difference between Knowing with a capital “K” and knowing with a lower-case ”k” • Knowing what’s really true for you and how do we “Know” that? • Marion’s story overlaying her heroic journey • Creating our sacred container from our life experiences on our own heroic journey • Seeing our challenges as part of our triumph in our heroic journey • The Seven Stage Labyrinth Model archetype for one’s heroic journey • Vertical alignment of spirit and true self at the intersection of the labyrinth core • How to stand in truth by peeling away the nontruths and stepping into our divine-self • Mythological time vs earth time • Catalysts for growth are always found in personal and group relationship trials • What’s your story? What do you want? What’s your intention? • Writing your own story from outside yourself as the detached observer • Ways of reconnecting from a state of disconnection Supporting Resources: • You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay • All about Peace Pilgrim • I Need Your Love — Is That True? by Byron Katie • A New Earth Podcast by Eckart Tolle and Oprah • Joseph Campbell Interview by Bill Moyers • Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell • Story Telling by Annette Simmons • Paul Selig Website • Jane Roberts work • Heroic Journey Consulting by Marion Moss Hubbard

We continue the conversation around another of the 14 constructs of well-being as presented by Psychology Today. The importance of well-being has been widely acknowledged over the past twenty years by psychologists. But the concept itself is surprisingly complex. In a recent study which aimed to bring some order to the confusion, Dr Ylenio Longo at the University of Nottingham, in England, examined the similarities and differences in the six most widely used theoretical perspectives on well-being. Looking for similarities and differences across the six theoretical perspectives in how they defined well-being, he identified fourteen distinct and recurring constructs that are used to describe well-being: happiness, vitality, calmness, optimism, involvement, self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-worth, competence, development, purpose, significance, congruence, and connection. Here we tackle self-acceptance as defined as “accepting yourself the way you are.” What does that mean? How do we that? Can we fully accept ourselves? Do you accept yourself? Fully? Completely? Listen in as we carry on with some interesting banter exploring acceptance and the successes and struggles we endure as find ways to accept ourselves. To you well-being and fully accepting who you are, Mark What We Discuss: • A recap from the Phycology Today constructs that contribute to a sense of well being • Acceptance and “who” and “what” are we that do accept • Needing to know who we are • How we define ourselves • What parameters we use to that inform our acceptance of ourselves • Navigating in the world with our five senses • Love’s relationship to acceptance • What’s the opposite of acceptance? • Understanding the different nuances associated with words as we define them • Mark’s model of acceptance for himself • Acceptance as a process for many of us • Being confident of who you are in the world • Aries’ struggles with sharing our podcast with his tribe • Mark responds to Aries’ discomfort with how others respond to what he says • How Kundalini yoga shines the light on your behavior and thoughts • Accepting the fact that we make mistakes • Other interesting examples of challenges with self-acceptance and dealing with actions that have negative consequences • Tools used to support acceptance • Acceptance and the stories we tell ourselves • Are there moral issues with how we deal with accepting ourselves • Some of the suffering that Aries deals with around acceptance of others’ behavior • Acceptance as a life long endeavor Supporting Resources: • The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman • The Book of Ho’oponopono by Luc Bodin M.D, Nathalie Bodin Lamboy, Jean Graciet

There are many facets of living a life of well-being. A lot goes into that recipe. One often overlooked, but key ingredient is congruency. What does it mean to be congruent, and how does it contribute to one’s state of well-being? Congruency in this context is all about alignment. It is living and being fully aligned with what is true for each of us. That is, in alignment with who we are as our human persona as well as living in alignment with our spiritual persona. Behaving, speaking, thinking… and living each moment in congruency with one’s beliefs and values will almost assure one of a sense of being well. Look at your life. How are you living? Do you know what is and what isn’t congruent for you? To your life of well-being! Mark What We Discuss: • A little back story from Mark’s battle with self-worth after what he felt was an embarrassing experience • Defining congruency • How do we see ourselves? • What tools can we use to better understand ourselves? • Who are we? • Are we our name? Are we our body? • Is there a duality of self? Physical-ego and spiritual-true nature? • Aligning congruency with one’s soul • Our natural state of being • Frequency congruency: What’s do we mean by that? • The choices we make regarding chasing thoughts • Discovering what is NOT congruent with your true nature • Exercises we can do to help us learn what is congruent with themselves • The need to grow • Are you living from a place of Spirit? • Knowing your Unique Ability • The role feelings play and how we deal with them • The importance of exploring, sharing and discovering our feelings • Are you living the life you really want to be living? • Are you being the person you want to be? Supporting Resources: • The One Thing by Gary Keller • The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod • Unique Ability by Catherine Nomura

In this episode, we get down to the nitty-gritty. What happens when we find ourselves at the intersection of theory and real-life. Aries and I share our own experiences when life throws a “self-worth” test at us.

In financial planning we talk about a client’s net worth and we create net worth Statements as snapshots of what they are worth financially. More importantly though is our self-worth and the resulting self-worth statement we create for ourselves and then reflect back out to world around us. In this episode Aries and I take a break from the interview format and discuss some key contributors to our well-being. At the top of our list is self-worth. We share what noted sages and authors have said about self-worth along with its role in our overall happiness and well-being. We get into the nitty gritty and the effect a positive and a negative self-worth can have on the quality of our lives. Most notable is how many people struggle with their worthiness. It’s plagued humankind for as long as recorded history, but is not addressed directly and talked about in the mainstream. Here we explore the subject more deeply to help bring some awareness to your understanding and sense of your own self-worth. Join us down the rabbit hole on this one. It will be worth the ride. To your inspired life and more! Mark What We Discuss: • A review of the top 14 constructs of the sense of well-being • The definition of self-worth • Great quotes on self-worth • Measuring your self-worth • The importance of your self-examination of one’s worth • Worthiness and Value • Are some more worthy than others? • The role of belief and thinking affecting our self-worth • Taking responsibility for the life you are living • Self-esteem vs self-worth • Of value, lovable and incomprehensive worth • Knowing your worthiness. How do we do that? • Knowing and receiving unconditional love • It comes down what we really value in life • The top five things we measure for self-worth 1. Our appearance 2. Our net worth 3. Who we know 4. What we do 5. What we achieve • Do we have a choice as to how we accept our self-worth? • Lesson’s learned awareness of one’s self-worth through human measurement systems • Going forward as to how we can build up our self-worth • Boosting the acceptance of you are as you are • The role of self-care to developing good habits and actions around your self-worth Supporting Resources: • The Big 14 constructs of well-being: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-doesnt-kill-us/201708/what-exactly-is-well-being • The self-worth scale: https://positivepsychology.com/self-worth/