A Quiet Voice

Eileen Brady is a qualified Tai Chi and Qi Gong teacher with over 15 years of experience in the West of Ireland. She speaks on Tai Chi, Qi Gong, listening to your body, and how to move stress out of your body. 

On her website, she states:

"My wish is that as many people as possible experience the joys and depths of Taichi and Qigong and start their own internal journey."

In this episode, I chat with a poet, artist, lyricist, and Irish rapper, EG3R BEVR.

Pushing through creative resistance as a young artist, creativity vs. performance, how messed up mental health asylums are, and how rap is a vessel for political truths.

Find EG3R BEVR on Instagram @egerbevr

Listen to EG3R BEVR On Soundcloud:

In this episode, we take some creative lessons from the hermaphroditic slugs that are invading my house. 

There is a deep relationship between how we connect with ourselves, each other, and the land around us. Neglecting even one can lead to the whole system being out of balance. The Healing Spirit Festival, founded by Garoid Teevan, is one such way to celebrate the Summer abundance and Lughnasa. It’s taking place 4-6 in Cavan and offers a family-friendly place to explore many holistic healing modalities like sweat lodges, drumming circles, cacao, meditation, breathwork etc. I hope to see you there, and if you are coming, message me @aquietvoicepodcast on Instagram. 

Creative and spiritual growth often comes after a crisis because in rebirth they pursue alternative means to heal themselves and deep empathy to help others. Aisling McGreevy’s story is not any different. She suffered anxiety after her busy sales job became quiet during the recession. Her health improved tremendously once she started reflexology, reiki, and other holistic modalities. Now, with Ruby Rua Holistic Therapies, she combines her diverse background of healing therapies to match the right one for every client. 

In this episode, we explore the conflicts between the intuitive and rational mind and how we can become blocked from our innermost feelings as adults. We talk about flower essences, access consciousness, meditation, and how they can help people heal emotionally and physically.

Often the most beautiful aspects of life lay right beside the harshest and if we can just find a way to wait it out, they can deliver romantic partners, new opportunities, landscapes, and other extraordinary experiences. There is deep meaning in suffering if we only look to see it. The trick is we often only get that meaning and wisdom afterward when we look back in hindsight. How far back in your life do you need to look to find an inherent wisdom or beautiful order?

This episode explores how synchronicities can be the most unlikely guides on spiritual and creative paths. We talk about the symbolism of the yew tree and some wisdom I received while visiting the oldest yew tree in ALL of Ireland. Also, I get swallowed into a crowd of stale beer and vape smoke at a Florence and the Machine concert. 

Fire ceremonies dot Ireland on June 23rd, St. John’s Day. This episode is about the first Shamanic Fire Ceremony I was invited to attend. Wary from my experience in cultish ceremonies, I was apprehensive, but what I found ushered me into a deeper study of Ireland’s shamanic roots. 

Amidst the flickering flames of a mesmerizing fire ceremony in the woods, we witness the transformative power of ancient rituals. Drum beats and communal sharing create a profound connection, leaving us curious about the complexities of spirituality and the role of leaders.

Tune in to this thought-provoking episode of "A Quiet Voice," where we explore the power of mystery and the serenity of embracing it. Let the gentle whispers of this episode ignite a spark within you, inspiring your spiritual journey with an open heart and a willingness to listen.

I’ve been edging closer to burnout than I would like to admit. I can become too entranced by the summer and work myself to the bone while the weather is good. We don’t always have to make hay while the sun is shining. Too much hay-making, and we get a little more than out of balance and out of touch. This week's rain has me reflecting on how nature provides opportunities for rest and reflection.

This podcast is perfect for you workhorses who, like me, keep going long after we’re told to stop. Listen if you’ve ever struggled to find the balance in work during the summer or have looked for a way to describe this feeling.

In this episode, we use the rain, Robert Moore’s manly archetypes and Trungpa’s Great Eastern Sun to reflect on how we can get out of balance by following our thinking mind through task lists. The thinking mind can bring us opportunities but too much, and we begin to overthink into fear and scarcity. 

Picking up on the last episode, we explore another avenue around how goalsetting can lead us astray. Ireland is primarily fields and green pastures since their time as colonized land. Now they are planting trees to fulfill a climate goal but not doing so correctly. Ireland's Sitka spruce forests are a quick means to reaching a goal and illustrate how we can become lost by pursuing a goal over a lifestyle. Get ready to rethink your approach to goals and discover the beauty of interconnected living.

Find out how the dominance of Sitka spruce trees disrupts the balance of native biodiversity, showing us the consequences of solely focusing on individual goals. We'll also share insights from the brilliant Tony Robinson, adding a touch of wisdom to our quest for a more balanced and harmonious existence.

In this episode of "A Quiet Voice," we look candidly at the dark side of goal-setting and its potential to lead us to burnout. Our culture is hooked on goals, and it's time to question their true impact. Join me as I share Hunter S. Thompson's Letter to Hume, where he challenges the status quo and emphasizes prioritizing lifestyle over rigid objectives.

We'll explore how our obsession with goals often distracts us from accepting our authentic selves while examining nature's transformative lessons. Let's break free from the toxic cycle and discover the wisdom of embracing a more holistic approach to spirituality, creativity, and personal growth.

Meditation can be a challenge for some of us even though the idea of being at peace with our thoughts is appealing. What separates those who meditate once in a blue moon from those with a daily ritual? We may hear about people who go to an ashram or meditation house for 3 days or a week to meditate all day and be silent. If you are anything like me, though, before you could even consider doing something like that, you want to hear first-hand experience. 

In this episode, A Quiet Voice welcomes Irene Kennedy, a career and wellness coach with a long history in tech, who just finished a two-week Goenka-style meditation retreat in Ireland. I picked her memory for insight from experience and how it shapes her meditation practice. This episode is for novice or never-meditators to avid meditators who want to take their practice to the next level.  

Follow along with Irene Kennedy’s work here: 

Hundreds of people visit the Boheh Stone twice yearly to witness a Celestial Phenomenon. Or it could be seen as people gathering twice yearly to witness a "solar probability." Which one sounds more exciting? 

In this episode, we explore the unique history of the Boheh Stone in Westport and how it brings Irish people in touch with an ancient ancestral tradition. There’s a little more at the end, but you have to listen for that. Enjoy

Share your thoughts with me on Instagram by tagging me @aquietvoicepodcast.

At the end of a long day, when work is on my mind, I am dazzled by the gleaning of a LED screen. It frustrates me to no end, yet it captures me nonetheless. Everywhere culture seems more and more surface level as it falls prey to these digital traps. Why do I resist the still silence of the day in favor of a flashing screen?

We also explore eye contact and how it can open us to inner vulnerability. This episode is ideal for those who shy from eye contact with strangers or loved ones. Or for those who wonder why they struggle to resist digital surfaces. 

Share your thoughts with me on Instagram by tagging me @aquietvoicepodcast.

Would you believe me if I said that you were a good person? Picking up from our last episode about picking up a priestly hitchhiker, we dive deeper into the sense that God, Guru, and the Self are all the same thing. It’s easy to read, “Yes, sure, that sounds good.” How do we realize it? How do we feel, see, and sense it?

In this episode, as in all others, we explore examples of how the guiding voice, A Quiet Voice, seeks to help us into a place of acceptance and love.

I hope you enjoy it. 

Share your thoughts with me on Instagram by tagging me @aquietvoicepodcast.

Doubt and impatience are two common barriers to burgeoning creatives. In this episode, I look for lessons about how to open the present moment beyond what we’re feeling, and I share a story of picking up a hitchhiker who turns out to be more than I could have expected.

This podcast invites you to join the Quiet Voice Podcast Group, a space for community and creative growth. 

In this delectable episode, we explore death and ice cream cones and what we can learn by confronting or embracing the end of each. This picks up on the previous episode and continues to explore barriers to creativity or renewal, in general, we experience from time to time. There’s also a hot take on mental illness that almost didn’t make the final podcast cut. 

Be well and enjoy.

This podcast invites you to join the Quiet Voice Podcast Group, a space for community and growing more into ourselves together. 

On a strange, sudden snowy Irish Spring day, all the flowers are covered in white frost, but the Daffodil stands tall and reminds us of an ever-present hope which continues to call us back into creativity. No matter how long we go without creating, we always have a thread back to the path.

It’s an episode for creatives in whatever stage - stuck, sure-footed, or curious.

In this episode of A Quiet Voice, Colin explores techniques that helped him to return to making podcasts after a hiatus and how to look beyond negative thoughts like shame or regret to renewal.

This podcast invites you to join the Quiet Voice Podcast Group, a space for community and growing more into ourselves together.

Nature is a restorative place to come back into the center of ourselves. The crisp ocean water can crack through even the toughest emotional states while the whisper of forest leaves lulls us into a tranquil headspace. What can we do, though, when we are not able to get into a forest, ocean, or field? How can we ground in place, wherever we are, and erect shelter from the most turbulent emotional storms. 

In this episode, I invite you to learn some quick grounding techniques and follow along in a short grounding practice to notice how your emotional states can change. 

This episode is a partnership with NAMAWE herbal skincare. It is an invitation to bring more awareness to wellness in a holistic sense. As Maria, the founder of NAMAWE believes, your whole health starts with skincare. Soap is just the beginning. 

Check out the Gift Sets for yourself on NAMAWE's Website (Shipping to Ireland, UK, & EU) Sorry, USA listeners. :(

Many emotions are signals or messages that can bring healing to overlooked areas but we can't work through them when we are swallowed in fog.  Many can be remnants of old memories or trauma and become debilitating when triggered at the wrong time. 

We always have a centered emotional state to which we can return.

Breathwork can bring peace and calm to even the most turbulent emotional days. In this episode, we explore a couple of techniques that can be deployed in an instant in which we need a little distance from what our body and mind are feeling. To take a little...breather.

This episode is a partnership with NAMAWE herbal skincare. It is an invitation to bring more awareness to wellness in a holistic sense. As Maria, the founder of NAMAWE believes, your whole health starts with skincare. Soap is just the beginning.

Check out the Gift Sets for yourself on NAMAWE's Website (Shipping to Ireland, UK, & EU) Sorry, USA listeners. :(

How do we know when we have sacrificed too much in a relationship? Love of a partner can get in the way of one's own personal passions and dreams. This episode introduces my partner's, Maria, business and why I put this podcast on hold in order to pursue the entrepreneurial dream with her. 

The next two episodes are part of NAMAWE's Breath Deep Christmas Collection. Each Christmas bundle receives a link invitation to audio content inviting them to use the dark, reflective winter months as a chance for rebirth. Regular listeners of A Quiet Voice can enjoy both episodes without the purchase of the gift set. 

This is our way of building a bridge between our passions and helping people begin to look at their health in a holistic manner. Mind, body, & Spirit. 

I hope you enjoy.

Check out the Gift Sets for yourself on NAMAWE's Website (Shipping to Ireland, UK, & EU) Sorry, USA listeners. :(

This podcast is your invitation to join the Quiet Voice Podcast Group, a space for community and growing more into ourselves together.

Croagh Patrick stands over Westport, Ireland and Clew Bay like a pyramid. For more than 1500 years people have climbed the mountain for spiritual purposes and many do so around Lughnasa, August 7th even today. It is the site of many rituals and ceremonies including ancient neolithic sites older than the Egyptian pyramids. Lughnasa is officially the 7th of August. It is the midpoint between the Summer and Winter Solstice and marks the beginning of the end of Winter. But the winter darkness is not upon us yet

In this episode, we explore the ancient history behind one of Ireland’s most sacred mountains, Croagh Patrick. It is a story of lost history and how it informs present traditions. But more so, how can we lean into the rhythm of the Celtic Calendar to reflect upon our own place and standing at this time?

Listen to episodes 002B & 009 for more on the Celtic Calendar and Croagh Patrick sacred sites.

I used to believe that everyone was trying to scam me, and steal from me, whether time or money I didn’t want to be hoodwinked into becoming a fool. But a real fool believes that and surrenders their strength to that illusion. As I started to open to a more spiritual interpretation of the world, I ventured into a crossfire between how my intellect wants to interpret the world and how my intuition pulls me in a new direction. Let's explore that some more. 

In this episode, I tell a story about my introduction to dowsing and how it helped me to surrender to the intuitive way. I let down my barriers - all the logical mind’s illusions and just opened up to allow life to happen.

Don’t just listen but practice with me. In this short meditation, we put into practice what I discuss in episode 018: 18th Century Deep Sea Diving & 3 Powerful Focus Points for Finding Calm amidst Chaos. This is your invitation to start a new and powerful practice on your own terms and in the best way for you.

Thanks for listening.

If you have ever brushed off meditation as something that’s “too hard” or felt like you “can’t focus,” this podcast is for you. Diving deep into a meditation practice can be a daunting idea. Just the word “practice” seems to stop me in my tracks, as I believe meditation is not ever something we “should” or “must” do. “Focus” is too strong a word for what we are aiming for. Instead, if we can find a gentle point of attention and discover a comfortable posture or state of mind within ourselves

In this episode, we explore three objects of meditation - points where we can gently place our attention and let go. First, the imagination can be a doorway into a clearer state of mind. Breath is a natural rhythm and warm sensation that can anchor us into a deep state of rest. Even the body can be a starting point with all its pains and discomforts.

Don’t just listen but practice with me in part two.

Thanks for listening.

I'm finding it easier to talk about my past but still hesitant to go into details. Nonetheless, I share about my previous work and life in Washington D.C. and how what I’ve learned living in Ireland helps me see through perfectionism and toward more mindful living. Taking on a different pace of life and learning to let go more and more each day.

This episode discusses how culture pushes us to prioritize progress over the simple, daily living. As a result, some of us feel pushed into boxes we never volunteered to enter. Recognizing it is the first step toward getting out of our own way. A lesson from Ram Dass closes the podcast to return to the spirit of detachment.

Thanks for listening.

Technical podcast problems are afoot, which is why we’re talking about self-doubt today. Even the strongest among us have bouts where belief is hard to find, where we don’t see the point anymore and start to lose sight of the journey for fear of the destination. It’s not just me, right?

In this episode, we are finding wisdom from a supermarket teller, chai lattes, and going to try a little exercise to see the edge of emotions - to open the cage and let the bird sing. Too much? Well, it helps me in a pinch.

Thanks for listening.

This is a deep one, I'll admit. It's all about the in-between places, the threshold between an ending and a new beginning can be the most frightening parts of life. Periods of great change can be the points at which we quit and try something else or feel we must give up entirely. Yet, if I can try to sum up in one word how to make it through such tenuous times without being stuck paralyzed.

Detachment.

In this episode, we look at how to navigate these types of changeable periods - liminal periods. Nature leaves us life lessons in liminal space if we look for it. It offers guidance in the moment and asks us to investigate how our whole life is a liminal experience. Birth to death. Sounds scary right?

Thanks for listening.

Have you ever followed a nice creative streak only to break down the closer you came to being finished? The finished product can elude us like the moving finish line - always one step further until exhaustion defeats us. Are we making headway or chasing our own tail? The way out of our creative blocks may be as simple as reexamining our sense of standards.

In this episode, we are looking at how ecosystems and nature provide insight into how we can walk a creative path. As I continue to reflect on why I stopped making this podcast for a couple of months, I look for insights from yardwork and nature.

Thanks for listening.

Sometimes we need a little help to get back into the swing of inspiration. We may like to think that we can pick ourselves up and walk back to the path but our thoughts can get in our own way - keep our heart trapped in a cage. The calling to open the cage often comes from others - friends, family - who share their wisdom often without even realizing their effect.

In this episode, I reflect on why it is important to open our hearts to those who wish to help us and how the Quiet Voice can come from even casual conversation - if we only listen. Are you closing down from your support network and making your creative journey into a personal struggle? Listen and remember you are not alone. Each day is a new start and another chance to open to your radiance.

Thanks for listening.

Hello, again! Spring is here and the Sun is burning through the clouds. What better time to start a creative project? We are not back from the dead but resurrecting with Spring’s rebirth energy. Do you feel the sun and see optimistic faces? Are you seizing renewal energy and moving towards all you desire?

In this episode, we dive into a creative rebirth by dipping a toe into why this Podcast was on an unscheduled hiatus. Even the strongest creativity currents kick us down into the depths of doubt. All we can do is stand back up and start again with new vigor.

You are invited to turn a corner and set down some of the sluggish habits hanging on our backs from Winter.

Thank you all for your patience.

A storm on an Irish island rattled me to my core but taught me a powerful lesson in forgiveness and healing.

All of us have memories, people, places we long to forget and can snatch us from even the sunniest of days when we least expect it.

The storms between our ears can be stronger than anything around us but we can’t navigate our world or become our strongest self - much less listen to the quiet voice - unless we find peace amidst emotional currents.

How do we grow roots deep enough to keep even the strongest emotional storm from uprooting us?

In this episode I revisit a moment amidst a painful period of my life. One that I often long to forget yet it informs so much of the reason why I’m here today.

This episode is an invitation for you to begin to love the parts of yourself that cause you the most pain.

“My spine feels like its splintering.” Am I meditating correctly?

If you’ve ever thought about meditating or tried it and thought you did something wrong, then this episode is for you. It’s a vulnerable dive into my first time trying just a 15 minute meditation in a Shamabalan Center in Asheville, NC. When I thought that pain is part of the process and my pride got in the way - and still often does.

Before I was nearly dragged into a meditation center by friends trying to help me rediscover what it meant to be ALIVE, I thought meditation was done in mountains or only in monasteries.

I had lost myself through the tasks of modern life, yet the relationships, grocery shopping, due dates, and distractions didn’t keep me from discovering powerful magic by stepping outside of time.

This episode is about rediscovering a felt presence of strength by stepping outside of time and our habits to let magic find us and discovering a little inner presence.

The end of January usually brings some disappointment as all my New Years Resolutions start to lose their shine. I begin to think that this year will be no different from the last. February, though, brings a shift in energy away from Winter’s survival mindset and closer to Spring’s rejuvenating light.

Imbolc, one of the seasons on the Celtic calendar, the Wheel of the Year, gives us all an opportunity to connect with a natural rhythm found only in ourselves.

Forcing ourselves to live according to another’s story or bending to the will of another’s schedule can cause problems. Stress, depression, anxiety can be relieved when we learn to follow our own internal rhythm.

In this episode, we explore the energy of Imbolc and why we need not be discouraged if our year is not going as we had hoped from the start. Connecting to the Hear and Now lets us begin to see that what is happening in our world does not have to happen to us.

Between the flashing fluorescent lights, zoom calls, putting on a friendly face for customers, or being on our feet for 8 hours, we all give away our energy at work.

If we are not careful, then we will carry the drained feeling of the workday into our homes and pass them onto our friends, family, and loved ones.

With just a little slow-breathing, visualization, and intention we can wash away the “drip” of the day - as the Buddhists call it - which causes our shoulders to tighten and leaves our jaw clenched.

In this episode, I guide you on a short, intuitive meditation to cleanse your energy, and mine, of the day’s work. Use this meditation to ease into your home and resting state deeper and be more present in your non-work life. 

I thank you for walking this path with me and want to know your thoughts or insight.

What do a first kiss, a step onto the stage, and a job interview have in common?

Leaps into the unknown. Hurling ourselves into an abyss but feeling the intensity of life flow through our bodies.

Many of life’s most magical moments require us to trust our inner strength to perform and not overthink. Too much thinking or digesting information can bring stress and a myriad of health problems along with a sense of being STUCK.

We must learn to trust ourselves in order to pursue a fully lived life and not become ensnared by others’ wishes, expectations or let another write our story.

In this episode, we explore how to begin an inner dialogue by letting intuition begin to be our guide to knowing our inner yearning.

I talk about how a magical tarot card reading with a psychic medium opened my eyes to how my body can be an instrument of wisdom and deep insight.

Whether the doorway to the boss’s office, the first morning of a healing journey, or any such moment when your chest quickens and shoulders tighten, where do we look to find enough courage to trust the abyss? How do we start to see the universe, as saints and sages do, to be a feather bed?

The more we can disconnect from our past, the less trauma and pain begin to become ideas of our future. We begin to open up to the felt presence of being alive and all the possibilities that come with it.

In this episode, we explore a quick evening ritual that can help us disconnect from our past and restore our openness to tomorrow by feeling our inner radiance. Miracles and the magic of a fully lived life are all around us we just have to begin to cultivate presence to see.

Thanks for listening!

What happens when we let go of expectations and allow for the unpredictable and unexpected to brighten our journey? In this episode, we continue to explore the deeper ideas in threshold thinking. 

Artists, poets, and philosophers tell about what happens to your life when you learn to leap off the abyss. My hope is that as you see ledges in your own life - new jobs, new relationships, new opportunities, or crises - that they do not paralyze you with indecision or fear but open you to new ideas and a sense of adventure.

The meditation in the previous episode was designed to help you dip your toe into another experience of consciousness. It is one thing to listen to my spiritual journey stories but quite another to feel yourself begin to dig into the felt experience of being you. 

What you discover is your own secret, unexplainable to anyone else. Expectations, though, and preconceived notions can cloud meditation just as they can our life - a lived creating experience.

In this episode, I invite you to take a few minutes to discover a way into the felt experience of being you. When was the last time you let yourself just be in your complete wholeness rather than a part of something else? It is a gift that comes without expectations but as a time to sit just outside your frame of scattered stresses, worries, and wonderings. Try this short, 10 minute, meditation for a little inward discovery of a secret that only you can know and experience.

The words I say are just echoes of many past meditations and retreats I’ve done. I recorded this meditation as an experiment for myself as much as other listeners. Some things can only be felt and not told.

I thank you for walking this path with me and want to know what you felt or didn’t feel.

As we all finish out a dynamic 2021 I, and likely you, tend to reflect upon progress since the beginning of the year. Dangerous questions like: Where am I compared to January? How do I feel on an average day? Seem to spin in my mind. I didn’t record this podcast near the end of the year, but it seems very appropriate, and I hope that it offers you some peace in what can be a stressful time of reflection looking into the new year.

In this episode, you will learn what the labyrinth can teach us about walking life’s path whether occupational, spiritual, or creative. The labyrinth is an ancient and rich symbol of life, death, renewal, but much more can be found by exploring the experience of walking it. At the end of the episode is an exercise to help us sink into each step rather than always anticipate the next turn. I hope you enjoy it.

December 21st is the Winter solstice day and though overlooked by our Modern calendar, it can be a secular way to ring in the holiday season. We can welcome balance by exploring the darkness during these long nights until the day brings us into spring and abundance.

In this short extra episode, we dive into how the Celts and pre-modern Irish people observed the solstice through megalithic structure and myths. What can we learn from beginning traditions that hold celestial events in reverence?

Pictured is Westport’s Killadangan Winter solstice complex (the one I describe in the episode).

Write to me with your questions or let me know how you are celebrating the solstice at:

aquietvoicemedia@gmail.com

Read more about the Newgrange Winter Solstice at their website

What can fairy forts, Irish hares, and campfires teach us about our inner voice? 

In this episode, I share a story of a skirmish between my logical and intuitive minds near a fairy fort and I begin to wake up to mysterious wisdom contained in a flame. You will learn how looking is the first step to seeing and how wisdom is all around us if we just take a moment to look without judgment. Takedown the logical filter and you may be surprised what you’ll find.

Now available on Google and Apple Podcasts

First off, welcome to the beginning of A Quiet Voice. Thank you for listening. 

There are many places I want to take you, the listener, from how Nature presents hidden wisdom to my shamanic studies in Western Ireland. “A Quiet Voice” is not a podcast about me, Colin. I’m nobody special. It’s about you, and I hope these podcasts can be a positive kickstart for you to open your introspection and search for inner guidance that can bring you to your most authentic purpose. One step at a time, we can walk that journey together.

In this episode, I explore how seasons present natural thresholds for eternal renewal and invitations to disconnect from our past. Memories are just biology, but the smell of a grill on a Summer’s day shapes our expectations in the same way a car accident can cause creeping anxiety every time we buckle the seatbelt. A chance encounter with a stranger turned mentor gave me a possible way out of this predicament. It’s not a quick fix but a way to “show up” and be present more in your life.

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