EP343: Following and leading are the same thing

What is this feeling we call restlessness?  It feels like something is off. There’s an agitation or irritation interpreted as something that can’t be felt; something needs to be different. . That’s part of it, and most of us live with that feeling much of the time. But then there is the movement away from that The post EP351: Resting in Restlessness appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

I’d been wanting to create an episode that I was tentatively calling “They aren’t your thoughts – Revisited”.  Then, a series of questions along the lines of “How do I stop thinking about this?” started popping up, which led me to write something about that, which led to this episode. They aren’t your thoughts. You aren’t The post EP350: How do I stop thinking about this? appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

We can all tell our story and it can feel helpful to do so at times. We feel seen and heard, our experience recognized by another person as valid and real-to-us.  But what seems even more helpful is sharing what’s beneath the story. Going to the simplest, most immediate thing. Something more like how it The post EP349: Where does it hurt? Asking the simplest, most direct question appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

This week’s episode speaks to a listener’s questions about self-compassion and surrender. Jay says they have a block to self-compassion. They want to know how one can access this self-love without talking yourself into it. There are so many threads in this question that lead to an exploration of feeling, expectations, blocks, what surrender is, the The post EP348: I can’t surrender or feel self-compassion. Responding to a listener’s questions. appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

There’s a progression that seems to happen.You might say it’s from gross to subtle.  Where attention shifts from being absorbed in abstractions, thoughts, representations, and relationships…to attention moving to much more subtle energies like sensations, sensory input, and maybe something like intuition or perception.Identity is viewed in these different ways. From gross thought and beliefs The post EP347: Unraveling ego at the feeling level appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

This week’s episode is a portion of a Community call with guest speaker Shenan Charania. This was one of my all-time favorite guest speaker calls and several in our community said the same.Shenan and I talk about silence, presence, regret, thought, and much more. Shenan shares his past as a gang member and his experiences The post EP346: Extremely This with Shenan Charania appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

In my recent silent retreat we explored the fact that nothing was happening.  All retreatants had to do was show up when the gong chimed and be quiet. Literally nothing else. Their entire day from 10am to 10pm was scheduled for them. Meals were prepared and served. Life for 6 days was unbelievably simple. And so The post EP345: Willfulness and positionality dissolve into silence appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

In this episode, I talk about how I work with common phobias.  First we look at what you’re really afraid of – It’s what you think (literally), not the thing you think you’re afraid of (flying, spiders, vomit, germs, etc.) Then, we look at the feeling aspect of the fear. The combination of imagination + feeling is The post EP344: Phobias – What are you really afraid of? appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

Following has been an important pointer for me over the years.  Following, or yielding to what’s already here, looking toward what wants to happen, absorbing, immersing, disintegrating, or melting into what is, being overwhelmed…these all have the flavor of following.And sometimes there’s a flavor of leading. Not following what the world says in terms of The post EP343: Following and leading are the same thing appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.

In this episode, I address a series of questions sent in by a listener. Hannah says she has performed horribly in past work environments and that’s not a thought, it’s a reality. Isn’t it that reality that’s causing her depression?She also gets that the past is over, but it still happened and it was still The post EP342: Being a failure, forgiving yourself, and the reality of the past: Questions from a listener appeared first on Dr. Amy Johnson.