Stay With the Question with Joey Lott

In this episode of The Spiritual Artist Podcast, CJ Miller speaks with coach and author Joey Lott about the actual nature of experience, the limits of the thinking mind, and the freedom that becomes possible when we stop trying to control every sensation, emotion, or moment of discomfort.Joey shares his own journey as a long-time spiritual seeker who once believed peace would come through elevated states, spiritual practices, and finding the “right” answer. Over time, he discovered that true freedom did not come from escaping experience, but from becoming genuinely curious about what is actually happening in the present moment.Together, CJ and Joey explore chronic tension, social media triggers, somatic awareness, creativity, and the courage it takes to live from the unknown. Their conversation invites listeners to stop collapsing life into labels and instead remain open, curious, and alive to the mystery of direct experience.Three key themes emerge throughout the conversation:• The actual nature of experience — learning to meet life directly rather than immediately labeling or resisting it. Joey invites us to look beneath labels like anxiety, depression, stress, or pain and ask, “What is actually here right now?” Instead of rushing to fix, explain, or escape discomfort, he suggests meeting experience with curiosity.• Staying with the question — discovering that openness and inquiry can sometimes be more transformative than rushing toward certainty or answers. Rather than using questions only to find quick answers, Joey describes inquiry as a living practice. The question itself can open space, soften urgency, and keep us from collapsing life into rigid certainty.• The body as a doorway to aliveness — recognizing chronic tension, bracing, and overthinking while allowing the body to reconnect us with presence and authentic living. Joey talks about chronic bracing, tension, and the way many of us live from the thinking mind. By noticing the body and allowing feeling to reawaken, we begin to experience life more directly, even when it feels messy, uncomfortable, or unknown.CJ and Joey also discuss creativity as a spiritual practice, the role of music and memory in awakening aliveness, and how true creativity often emerges from stepping into the unknown rather than repeating what is already familiar.For more information about Joey’s work or to schedule a coaching session, visit joeylott.com. His book, “The Best Thing That Never Happened,” is on Amazon..Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

Have you ever had a week where you questioned whether your work even mattered?In this deeply personal episode, CJ Miller shares a raw recording captured just minutes after receiving a handwritten letter from a young artist on the West Coast who had read his book, The Spiritual Artist. The unexpected letter arrived during a week filled with doubt, uncertainty, and questions about purpose. What CJ discovered inside the envelope moved him to tears.The letter speaks about creativity, surrender, solitude, spiritual identity, emotional sensitivity, and the longing to create from something deeper than recognition or success. It also reflects on artists like Kandinsky and Georgia O’Keeffe, the pull of New Mexico, and the search for a more meaningful artistic life.This episode is not polished. It’s human.A conversation about what happens when something you create quietly reaches another person in a profound way.Sometimes we never know if our words, paintings, podcasts, or presence matter.And then one day… a letter arrives.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

In this episode of The Spiritual Artist Podcast, CJ Miller sits down with writer, actor, and creator Lyn Alicia Henderson for a heartfelt conversation about Affirmative Prayer, intention, and the deeper power behind words. Together, they explore the idea that prayer does not have to belong to organized religion or rigid doctrine. At its core, prayer can simply be understood as a conscious declaration of truth, alignment, and connection. Lyn Alicia beautifully reframes prayer as something much closer to affirmations, intention-setting, and speaking from an awareness of the greater Creative Intelligence already moving through life.Throughout the conversation, CJ and Lyn Alicia discuss how many people have become uncomfortable with the word “prayer” because of painful religious experiences, yet still embrace practices like affirmations, mindfulness, and visualization without realizing they arise from many of the same spiritual roots. Lyn Alicia explains that Affirmative Prayer carries a different feeling because it is not begging for something outside ourselves. Instead, it is recognizing and declaring the qualities already present within us through our connection to Spirit. The discussion moves naturally into nature, consciousness, energy, and the interconnected intelligence visible throughout creation. From the migration of birds to the balance of ecosystems, CJ shares how observing nature helped him understand Spirit as a living demonstration rather than merely an abstract belief.The episode also explores the emotional and even physiological effects of prayer and intentional thinking. Referencing ideas connected to the HeartMath Institute, Lyn Alicia describes how practices rooted in love, compassion, gratitude, and affirmative language can influence both our internal state and the atmosphere around us. She speaks about prayer not as helpless pleading, but as a grounding practice that harmonizes the mind, body, and emotions during uncertain times. The result is an uplifting and practical conversation that invites listeners to move beyond fear of spiritual language and rediscover prayer as a deeply human act of alignment, clarity, and conscious intention. For more information, you can follow Lyn on TikTok by searching for @pry.slay76 or on Instagram at @lynalicia.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

In this episode, CJ discusses his recent temper tantrum—what triggered it, how it unfolded, and what it revealed about anger and being human. What started as frustration over a faulty mop quickly turned into something bigger, exposing a deeper reaction that many of us try to avoid or suppress.He explores the idea that emotions are energy in motion, and that anger, when acknowledged and allowed to move through the body, can actually clear space rather than create harm. CJ shares insights from past experiences with emotional release and reflects on how quickly we judge ourselves for having these moments, especially when we think we’re supposed to be “aligned.”CJ also introduces the concept of “forward leaning”—those times when we’re pushing, forcing, or trying to control outcomes instead of listening and allowing. Through this honest moment, he invites listeners to notice their own patterns, soften their response, and return to a more natural state of alignment and creative flow.And if you’d like to go deeper into this work, you can find CJ’s books The Spiritual Artist and Spiritual Parable: A 40 Day Practice on Amazon.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

In this rich returning conversation, artist and former creative director Jason McDonald shares the lived spiritual practices that shape his creative process. From studying Buddhist philosophy and living alongside monks in India and Thailand to completing a three-month silent retreat, Jason describes an ongoing “excavation of self” that continues to deepen his sensitivity as an artist.We explore how his work is guided by a felt relationship with what he calls the creative field of intelligence — a living energetic presence that can inform artistic decisions beyond planning or technique. Jason speaks about entering a listening state while working, sometimes responding intuitively to subtle energetic impressions, and at other times following precise inner prompts that guide geometric forms and compositional structure. For him, the orientation toward something sacred allows artistic expression to become a conveyance of truth, goodness, and beauty in culture.Our dialogue also reflects on the idea that the artist’s sensitivity is not simply personal but relational. Through presence, humility, and a willingness to move beyond ego-driven control, creative work can become a partnership with a deeper intelligence. We discuss his evolving concept of “levity energies,” the importance of listening to the field rather than focusing on materials or outcomes, and the role artists can play in transmitting inspiration in a complex world.The conversation closes with reflections on parables, storytelling, and shared spiritual inquiry — exploring how creative language and symbolic imagery can help people remember an inner connection they may have forgotten. Ultimately, this episode is about meeting one another in sensitivity and discovering how artistic practice can become a reverential exchange with the intelligence that moves through all of life.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

What if the tension you carry every day is not random… but communication?In this deeply personal episode, CJ shares his journey through unexplained physical pain and the surprising realization that the body holds its own intelligence — one that speaks not through words, but through sensation. After months of medical tests and treatments that offered little relief, he began to recognize a deeper pattern: chronic tension caused by living in a constant state of urgency.This talk explores the powerful distinction between what CJ calls “run mode” and “rest mode.” In modern life — shaped by social media, nonstop news, and pressure to achieve — many of us rarely allow the nervous system to return to a truly restorative state. The result can be fatigue, anxiety, creative blockage, and persistent discomfort.Through simple practices like body scanning, mindful walking, improving sleep, and learning to be present in ordinary moments, CJ invites listeners to rediscover a calmer rhythm of living. He reflects on how creativity, healing, and emotional clarity often emerge not through more effort, but through intentional restoration.This episode is both a reflection and an invitation: to listen more carefully to your body, to question the cultural obsession with constant productivity, and to experiment with spending more time in a state of ease.   Because sometimes the most profound creative breakthrough begins when we finally stop running.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

In this short, reflective episode, CJ shares a personal memory of traveling alone to Santa Fe during a stressful season of life and studying with his mentor, abstract painter Virginia Cobb. What remains most vivid is not a technique or critique, but a quiet moment on a patio — coffee in hand, mountains in the distance, and a teacher who asked for nothing but presence.Through this story, CJ explores how the practice of simply meeting each moment has gradually reshaped his life. He reflects on learning to recognize the body’s signals, releasing the pressure of constant achievement, and allowing thoughts about the past or future to soften. This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen inwardly, and discover how clarity can arise when we stop pushing and begin to be.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

In this fascinating conversation, CJ Miller speaks with psychotherapist and author Deborah Sandella, creator of Regenerating Images in Memory (RIM) and author of Goodbye, Hurt & Pain—a powerful approach that helps people access emotional healing through imagination, intuition, and body awareness.Dr. Deb explains why modern culture has become overly dependent on logic and problem-solving while neglecting the intuitive and emotional intelligence stored in the nervous system. Drawing on neuroscience research—including the work of trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk—she describes how deeply held experiences are often stored as images and sensations rather than words.Through RIM, participants close their eyes, turn inward, and allow spontaneous images to arise from the body’s emotional memory. These images act as translators, revealing insights that the thinking mind alone cannot access. In this episode, CJ even experiences a brief guided example during the conversation, uncovering a powerful image that speaks directly to the emotional weight many people carry in life.Dr. Deb shares why emotional healing is not about “solving” problems but about sensing, trusting the body’s wisdom, and allowing imagination to reveal the deeper truth of what we are experiencing. She also introduces her concept of the Emotional Operating System, reminding us that we are born with innate resources for resilience, curiosity, and healing.For artists, seekers, and anyone interested in the intersection of creativity, psychology, and spiritual growth, this episode explores how intuition, imagination, and body awareness can reconnect us with our inherent wholeness.Learn more about Dr. Deborah Sandella and the RIM method: Visit deborahsandella.com to explore her work, books, and training programs, including how to become a certified RIM facilitator.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

What if excellence doesn’t come from pressure, but from presence?In this episode, CJ welcomes UK-based sculptor and former world champion archer Ian Edwards, a man who has lived at the highest levels of both elite sport and masterful craftsmanship. Ian has competed internationally for Great Britain and spent decades refining his artistic practice. And through both disciplines, he discovered a simple but transformative truth: performance rises naturally when the mind becomes quiet and the heart leads.Ian shares how intense competition didn’t create anxiety for him. It created presence. As pressure increased, his mind grew still. The quieter it became, the better he could shoot. He recognized this state from a lifetime of sculpting, that moment where there is no self, only you and the work. A state he calls Performance Through Presence.Together, CJ and Ian explore the unseen intelligence quietly guiding our lives, the deeper order revealed through synchronicity, and the frustration that arises when we chase outcomes instead of honoring what we love. Ian speaks openly about growing up severely dyslexic, not fitting into traditional education, and discovering that presence gave him access to his full potential. They discuss how the conceptual mind can rob us of our ability when it leads, and how true fulfillment arises only in the present moment.You are not separate from life unfolding. You are part of it. And when the mind serves the heart, something extraordinary becomes possible.To explore more of Ian’s sculpture and writing, visit his website and follow him on Instagram at instagram.com/ianedwardsstudios for a deeper look into his work and philosophy.Listen. Slow down. And return to presence.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

Matthew West’s Imperfections reads like a lifetime inventory—the running list we keep of everything we wish we could fix, hide, or improve. The song names that familiar inner critic: the voice that keeps tally, weighs the good against the bad, and often decides we come up short.CJ also reflects on his own experience living with a non-essential tremor and vision changes following LASIK surgery—conditions that once felt like limitations, but ultimately shaped a distinctive visual language in his art. What first appeared as obstacles became collaborators, influencing mark, movement, and perception in ways he could never have planned. In that sense, the song becomes personal: a lived reminder that even what feels broken or unintended can become part of a singular creative voice.This reflection is a reminder that there is no piece of you that must be edited out before you are worthy, useful, or whole. Nothing is wasted. Nothing is excluded. Even what you once judged becomes material for growth, creativity, and grace.Listen in, and if the song resonates, be sure to check out Imperfections by Matthew West on Spotify.Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.