April 6, 2015
This week is the first in a series of shows focusing on the pervasive addiction to “busy-ness” that so many of us experience. Between our work, parenting, volunteer and personal obligations, the pace of life can be fast and chaotic. How can we make sure that we are doing our best to be aware of our relationship to our busy schedule, and how can we find peace in the center of all of that? We’ll lay the foundation for our inquiry on this topic with a frequent guest who can help us explore our habits and tendencies to create our chaotic schedules.
Markus Kasunich is a frequent guest on the Mind Body Spirit Living show and we eagerly welcome him back this week to provide insight on the topic of “busy-ness”. Markus is Holistic Life & Consciousness Coach, Spiritual teacher, Healer, and Professional Speaker whose key focus is helping clients reveal the unlimited potential of their True Self. He offers private sessions, online coaching, and facilitates retreats, events and classes all over the globe. Markus is also an artist and has been a featured artist in gallery showings.
For more information about Markus, go to www.markuskasunich.com.
April 4, 2015
For many people, meditation is an essential part of their daily routine and spiritual practice. Meditation can be especially helpful in providing an opportunity to bring centeredness, peace and calm to each day. What does research show us about the value of meditation in helping us find balance in life’s daily frenetic pace, and how can we easily incorporate it into our lives? Our guest this week brings extensive knowledge about meditation practices to our discussion to help us better understand the tool that it can be.
Cortland Dahl has practiced meditation for more than twenty years and has studied Buddhism around the world. He has spent time on retreat in monasteries and retreat centers throughout Japan, Burma, India, and Nepal, and for eight years lived in Tibetan refugee settlements near Kathmandu.
In 2000, Cortland received a Master’s Degree in Buddhist Studies from Naropa University. Since that time, he has interpreted for various Tibetan lamas and taught courses on Buddhism and meditation throughout the world. He founded the Rime Foundation in 2004 to aid in the translation and preservation of Tibetan Buddhist literature. In 2009, this non-profit organization was transformed into Tergar International, a global meditation community under the guidance of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
As an author and translator, Cortland has published numerous works on Buddhist meditation practice, including Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen Preliminaries; Great Perfection, Volumes I & II; and Deity, Mantra and Wisdom: Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, as well as works on classic Buddhist philosophical texts, such as Middle Beyond Extremes and Distinguishing Phenomena from their Intrinsic Nature.
Cortland currently serves as Chairman of Tergar International and as a Senior Instructor for the Tergar community. He lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin, where he is pursuing a PhD under the guidance of renowned neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds.
Cortland is interested in exploring the interface between the body, the mind, and the brain, and especially in the question of how meditation and other contemplative practices may help us cultivate positive qualities like compassion and resilience. His current work focuses on the effects of long-term meditation practice on aversive conditioning.
For more information about Cortland, please go to http://tergar.org/about/instructors/ or http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/cihmPeople_Grad.html#cDahl
April 2, 2015
Does managing the pace and responsibilities of your daily life seem like hard work? Or do you feel that you need to be “busy” to feel engaged and important in your life? Our culture sends us mixed messages about being “busy”, but there is a way to use our minds and physiology to help us find a place of ease.
Our guest this week, Dr. Christine Carter, brings her professional insight as an author and speaker on work life balance, and her personal experience in finding her own way of focusing on personal priorities to do less and accomplish more to our discussion.
After receiving her B.A. from Dartmouth College, where she was a Senior Fellow, Dr. Carter worked in marketing management and school administration, going on to receive her Ph.D. in sociology from UC Berkeley.
Now a sociologist and senior fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, Dr. Carter, is the author of The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Work and Home (January 2015) and Raising Happiness (2011). Presenting the latest neurological and psychological research on positivity, productivity, and elite performance, she demonstrates a wonderful paradox: by doing less we can actually accomplish more.
Dr. Carter has been quoted or featured in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, the Boston Globe, as well as Good Housekeeping, Parenting, Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, Fitness, Redbook, and dozens of other publications. She has appeared on the “Oprah Winfrey Show,” the “Dr. Oz Show”, the “TODAY” show, the “Rachael Ray Show,” “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer”, PBS, as well as NPR and BBC Radio.
Dr. Carter also writes an award-winning blog, which is frequently syndicated on the HuffingtonPost, PsychologyToday.com, PositivelyPositive.com, Medium.com, and several other websites.
Dr. Carter is a sought-after keynote speaker, “translating” psychology, sociology, and neuroscience into simple start-here strategies. Using anecdotes from her own chaotic, and often hilarious, real-world adventures—as a working mother with 4 kids—Dr. Carter brings lab science alive in talks that have been called “transformative,” “life-changing” and “phenomenal.”
For more information about Dr. Christine Carter, go to www.christinecarter.com.
April 1, 2015
As we move through life, we gather many experiences, beliefs, and philosophies that inspire and ground us, and help us define who we think we are. At some point, however, all of these influences can become a jumble of ideas in our minds that can create a “clutter” that prevents us from clearly navigating through the “busy-ness” of our day to day lives. How can we get clarity on the role of our faith and beliefs in navigating to a calm place of peace? Our guest this week, Pastor Ben Johnston-Krase, will share his perspective on how we can clear through the spiritual clutter that is creating un-needed “busy-ness” in our lives.
Ben Johnston-Krase is an organizing pastor of Farm Church, a new church development that invites the spiritually curious into a life-practice of Christ-centered faith and service where Christ’s rituals of feeding, teaching, and healing are couched in the growing, collecting, preparing and serving of food.
Ben previously served as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Racine, Wisconsin. Prior to his ministry in Racine, Johnston-Krase served as a pastor for campus ministry at University Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. But, ministry was not his first career path.
Upon receiving a degree in English Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he taught middle school English for five years in Sterling and then Plano, Illinois. An experience working with high school youth during his final years of teaching motivated him to pursue a seminary education, and in 2002, he graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL with a Masters of Divinity degree.
Ben leads a blessed life with his wife Karla, and their three daughters.
To learn more about Ben and Farm Church, check out the website, www.FarmChurch.org, our facebook page, www.facebook.com/FarmChurch.org, or check out this article from the Presbyterian News Service: https://www.pcusa.org/news/2015/3/23/dreaming-church-no-steeples-buildings/
Markus Kasunich is a frequent guest on the Mind Body Spirit Living show and we eagerly welcome him back this week to provide insight on the topic of “busy-ness”. Markus is Holistic Life & Consciousness Coach, Spiritual teacher, Healer, and Professional Speaker whose key focus is helping clients reveal the unlimited potential of their True Self. He offers private sessions, online coaching, and facilitates retreats, events and classes all over the globe. Markus is also an artist and has been a featured artist in gallery showings.
