Happy You Are Here Podcast

Bridget Lavin is a spiritual practitioner, previous yoga studio owner, and retreat leader. We sat down to talk shortly after she returned to Omaha, NE from completing her MSc of Science & Religion at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She now lives in Denver, CO.

We talk all things spiritual practices including how to let go (and what that even means) as well as the nuances of clinging to a particular practice as a form of suffering itself.

It was truly an enjoyable conversation that I hope you will enjoy too.

Sandy Irwin is a musical artist based in Omaha, Nebraska. 

She joined our show almost two years ago while working as Come Back Sandy. Over the following two years, Sandy's sound has transformed to incorporate more genres and collaborators. Now she heads up SAND and just released a 3-track project called Hourglass.

Kelsey Kowalski is an Omaha, Nebraska multi-disciplinary artist recently nominated for Outstanding Emerging Visual Artist by The Omaha Entertainment & Arts Awards. 

Kelsey shares about her journey of how her art has evolved since she started painting age five. That journey took her through recovery and relapse from alcoholism, surviving an abusive relationship, and finding community among other artists and creators in Omaha. 

Her artwork is a delight. It is vibrant, colorful, and often a bit (or very) psychedelic. As she says, she's trying to "give the world some more color."

In this episode, I sit back down with Jill Schrack to discuss past life regressions. Specifically we discuss the four past life regressions I've done so far in detail. We talk about the details of the experience and also the lessons arching through the stories. It's an exciting, deep, and sometimes funny episode.

Jill also happens to be my fiancé, so we recorded this episode in our living room with our dog Max in the background. Check out the HappyYouAreHere.Life blog for some pics of how cute he is. 😉

Find the Past Life Regression videos we talk about and more about Jill's business at https://www.mesmerisehypnosis.com/

Iram Gilani is a Pakistani-American author who has faced abandonment, physical and emotional abuse, homelessness, and a violent gun assault, but has risen from the depths of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder to be a voice for the abused and marginalized. 

We could use better vocabulary to describe the opposite of toxic masculinity.  

Jane Egerton-Idehen is an impressive Tech Executive, Author, and Speaker. She shares the mindset that brought her from a childhood of poverty in Lagos, Nigeria to being an influential executive and leading other young women to success.

To Jane, when it was out of her control wether her family would be able to provide her with a great school, new clothes, or even food to eat, she focused on what she could control. That is what led her to apply herself fully in school and later in her career.

Modita van Zummeren had 20 years experience as a medical doctor and struggling through depression. After fighting the depression for decades, she discovered how healing through depression is possible. This is the principle of her book, "Depression, a Stepping Stone Towards Bills".

Now she is trained as a therapist (in bodywork, gestalt, zen counselling), as well as a family constellator and facilitator of meditation.

Do you ever feel like you have a strong mindfulness or yoga practice but then when it comes to relationships you just lose it? Margo Helman specializes in staying mindful in the ways we communicate especially during conflict.

Margo Helman, MSW is a therapist and clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience. She shares a lot of wisdom in this episode about mindfulness as a mental health practice, how to stay calm but confident in a confrontation, and how we can mindfully relate to everyone we meet.

Would YOU like to learn how to eliminate PERSISTENT aches, pains, fears, phobias and debilitating emotions, such as anger, confusion, depression, that stuck feeling, etc.? No medication, no prescriptions, no surgery and no on-going therapy involved, just your past life memories?

Carolene Méli has been traveling full time for over ten years. Through her experience of "always being a guest" she excels as a guest experience consultant, helping companies optimize and improve the experiences their guests have.

In this episode we talk about how the ideas behind her guest experience consulting apply to so much more than resorts and hotels. An example we cover is a photographer. What kind of experience is your customer having before they show up for the shoot, during the shoot, and after? Those are all guest experiences.

Carolene has lived a fascinating life already and it was excited to get to talk to her about the mindset behind traveling. The way that traveling to new places and cultures opens your perspective and deepens your empathy for others. 

Jillian Schrack is a certified hypnotherapist, past-life regressionist, yoga instructor, meditation teacher, breath-work guide, and stress management coach. She deploys a huge toolset of practices to that she has used to successfully better her life and those of her clients. 

In this episode we dive into how hypnotherapy works, why it's beneficial to be in such a suggestible state of mind, and how it can be used for their highest good and changing lives. If you have a problem, you're stuck, or have negative thought loops that you can't seem to break free of, hypnosis can help train your brain to choose a different pattern.

Dr. Yishan Xu and Craig Inzana discuss the science behind sleep and how it interacts with our mental health. We also dive into what caffeine is doing to your sleep and why you need to pick a time to wake up and stick with it.  

The current pandemic has pushed most of us inside this summer for longer than we're used to. It has forced us-- for better or worse-- to examine the way we relate to our body, mind, and the spaces we occupy.

Lee Chambers is a  workplace wellbeing consultant, life coach, and environmental psychologist working with businesses and people through improving their mindset, habits, sleep, and careers. 

After losing his entry level finance job in the 2008 crash, Lee started what would become a successful eCommerce business selling video games online. He leans on his love for video games when he talks about his coaching. Throughout the episode we refer to improvement and problem solving through the lens of video games. We also discuss the valuable lessons and pitfalls that video games can offer people of any age.

He was hospitalized for three weeks and unable to walk for six months. He says he was offered physical support during this time, but never any mental support. That is where he dedicated himself to understanding the mind further. Lee finished school and became a Environmental Psychologist and coach. 

Jeff Cunningham, also known as Jeff The Entrepreneur, is on a mission to inspire 77 million people and start a coffee shop music studio in honor of his late brother. Jeff took the tragedy of his brother's death and has turned it into a fire that shows through everything he does.

Jeff also hosts the Make More Money podcast: the place for money tips, business, and everything entrepreneurial coming at you as often as possible. Ready to impact and change the world. 

Adam Moen is a mental healthcare consultant and app creator working on reducing the stigma and encouraging help-seeking behavior around mental and emotional health.

Avalo is Adam's app that brings together real people and mental health professionals for compassionate conversation 24/7.

This meditation is for those that might be struggling to integrate a state of equanimity and peace into making a change in the world. We often feel that, if we release into non-judgement about the way things are, how are we to make the change that needs to be made in the world. We will breathe into a calm, attentive state, and then discuss and consider this topic.

In this episode I discuss the way suffering grows if we are not careful. How this is particularly noticeable and important in times of open unrest. 

I also mentioned that I would share some podcasts from people of color in the show notes. I'm adding the two I specifically referenced here, but will be adding more later too.

Reverend Ben Fitzgerald-Fye joins the show to discuss his experience as a gay minister and progressive faith. Ben gets into the treatment changes with homosexuals, acceptance, and responsibilities within Presbyterian churches and religion as a whole. We also discuss Christian politics, justice, and the lack of empathy as society progresses, and how we can fuel it back into humanity.

By the end of this episode, you will learn to understand other people, have compassion for people, and deal with the things that have been swept under the rug. Stay tuned, and enjoy the podcast!

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About Ben Fitzgerald-Fye:

Rev. Ben Fitzgerald-Fye is a native of Punxsutawney, PA and now serving as the pastor of Scipioville Presbyterian Church and as Stated Clerk of The Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse.  He currently lives in Auburn, NY with his husband of 16 years and their 4 cat children.  Ben is a self-proclaimed “polity nerd” and a graduate of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary.  Prior to ministry, Ben received a degree in theater performance from Seton Hill College and worked for many years in human services with a focus on intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Ben is also a More Light Ambassador, a new designation from the More Light Presbyterians in an effort to offer access to more ministers and lay persons who are willing and able to engage on issues of inclusion in the church.

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You can find Ben Fitzgerald-Fye on...

Come Back Sandy is a musical artist and lyricist based in Omaha, Nebraska. Her music seeks to create community around values of mindfulness, patience, and courageousness and to create positive vibrations, peace, and comfort in this existence.

Chase is a content creator currently working on a full year of 30 Day Challenges related to various habits. In this episode we discuss why it is important to be mindful of our habits and how 30 day challenges can be helpful in becoming more aware of how those habits effect our everyday lives.

We've all got a lot of uncertainty going on in our lives right now. I wanted to take a break from interviews (more are coming soon) and discuss how I've been coping with these big changes.

This loving-kindness practice focuses on tapping into our inner sense of compassion and expanding that feeling to encompass everyone, including those with which we may feel ill will. 

It was originally used as part of a global meditation group coming together to connect over protecting our planet and each other through love.

The concept of "simply begin again" comes from mindful meditation practice. It's an important part of learning to apply less judgment to ourselves. In practice, it applies when your attention wanders, but in life, it can be an effective way to keep going when you fall off track.

Orion is a healer on many levels. He and his partner, Astara, run Illuminating Hearts. He is involved in various men's' healing groups in Omaha and soon will be starting his own tentatively named Man.tra.

We discuss the repression of emotions and other ways in which men need to relearn how we process things in order to live healthy, fulfilled lives.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend a beta-test of a hypnotherapy workshop here in Omaha. In this episode, I share some of the takeaways from that workshop.

Who are you? 

I don't mean the collection of things you identify as. The traits and experiences you tell others to describe yourself. Who is actually in there making those decisions and telling those stories?

An interesting concept is that the voice in your head-- that internal monologue most of us have constantly rambling on-- is not you. It's a part of you... but it's not you.

We'll discuss this for the whole episode with some concepts about how to conceptualize this AND why it is helpful for your mental wellness.

We all have addictions. Small habit loops that suck us into social media or watching videos for longer than we expected. Did you know these little things could be having a massive effect on your motivation and overall sense of wellbeing?

This episode talks mostly about recognizing some of these small addictions that most of us have. It's also about a practical way to reset those behaviors to a healthy level.

The term "Dopamine Fast" is a bit misleading, but that's what the internet is calling it. The idea is that "fasting" or cutting out some behaviors completely for a short period of time can help reset the systems those behaviors are effecting in the brain.

Here's a great, in-depth article on the subject if you want to do some further reading:

Depression can dig someone deeper and deeper into a pit of despair and deprive you of your energy, hope, and drive. The tricky part of depression is that it attacks the very things that would help you get better.

We haven't had a new episode in about a month. That is because I've been dealing with a particularly deep and extended bout of depression. This episode talks about what I learned from this one and the coping mechanisms I've learned over the years to climb out of the pit. Even if it has to be one grasp at a time.

Emotional mirroring is a natural part of human development. It's one way we feel empathy for each other and can communicate without words. There is a concerning trend in media that I only just noticed. Here is what to look out for and why you should care.

Are you familiar with the term Mettā (Loving kindness)? 

The last few mornings I have incorporated this into my morning meditation and it always triggers such an expansive, open, joyful feeling of love. I cry too. Every time 😂. It’s somewhat tears of joy, but there’s a bittersweet feeling to it. They are also compassionate tears for those suffering all over the world and those suffer that I know personally.

Even with that tinge of sadness, it feels amazing to feel so deeply every morning. It then carries through the whole day. There is a deep sense of caring for every person that crosses my path.

What are your experiences with feelings like this? Would you like to learn to cultivate them?