60 Mindful Minutes

“Living simply luxuriously is a choice, a decision to find what fascinates and delights you…” says author and blogger Shannon Ables. Join us for a discussion about what it means to cultivate the art of living well, design a life filled with everyday delight and how to orient yourself toward feeling good.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a nomad? Imagine packing up your life, getting rid of everything, getting on a plane and never looking back. Whether that sounds like a daydream or a nightmare, it’s fascinating to know that there are people out there in the world, people with kids no less, who have chosen to orient their entire lifestyle around travel.

We are all participating—in our life, our family, our culture—but the question is, how intentional are we being about our participation? Your life is meaningful. It has purpose. This week’s guest invites us to wake up to what we are creating and could be creating with intentional communing

My guest today is Andrew Parker, Founder & CEO of Papa, a technology platform that connects college students to older adults for companionship, assistance and transportation. Basically, as Andrew defines it, it’s a grandkid on demand, and it has the potential to not only address practical needs for older adults, but it also faces the loneliness crisis head on

It doesn’t matter if you’re a parent or a CEO, a surgeon or a hockey coach, the principles of brain function and neuropsychology are universal. When we can understand what’s happening inside the brain when people we love get upset or frustrated, as well as feel joyful and safe, we can create better connections and relationships with those around us. By the end of this episode you’ll have a new skill that can exponentially make your family and work life better.

Researchers have found that having a sense of our purpose positively impacts our health and longevity. But what if you don’t know your purpose? What if you feel like you just can’t figure it out or maybe, secretly worry that you’re the one lone human that didn’t get one? Today’s guest has spent much of the past decade building a life and a business that helps people discover and articulate their calling

Most of us have heard the research that says the average mind thinks between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. But have you ever really contemplated what these thoughts are exactly, and even more out there, who’s thinking them? For those of us in pursuit of a more peaceful inner world and a more harmonious outer world, the idea of having a cloudless mind is worth considering.

There’s a method to building vibrant, living cultures where people are nourished by a deep sense of belonging and mutual care. Today’s guest has identified seven time-tested principles for growing enduring, effective and connected communities. These communities could be small, like your immediate family, or they can be larger, like a thriving yoga studio or a church with a congregation 10,000 strong.

We live a hurried, jam-packed life. The days and months fly by in a flurry of routines and commitments. We're constantly in motion with a never-ending onslaught of distractions to occupy our minds and hearts. We need to come home to ourselves and take ourselves off autopilot. With love, compassion and zero judgement, we need to wake ourselves up. For me, a daily centering practice is an amazing wake up tool.

We all need places we can retreat to that allow us to come home to ourselves, to feel centered and find a sense of calm in this dizzying world. It’s hugely restorative to claim a personal spot, even if it’s in the tiniest corner of our home, to create a sacred space. We weren’t meant to be so disconnected from ourselves and so distracted. We all need and deserve sanctuary

Raising kids that become social activists might seem like a lofty goal, especially when many of us adults haven’t figured out how to fit volunteering and social activism into our own lives. In this episode, my co-host (Andy Hill of the Marriage, Kids and Money podcast) and I speak with an award-winning author and educator about how we can all start to see ourselves as part of a greater whole.

Togetherness happens around food. Meals, when we let them, can be the richest and most important social connectors in life. Built into the making and consuming of our food are all sorts of rich opportunities to feel connected, but only if we take advantage of those opportunities and mine those moments. This week we speak to Chef Kathleen Blake about food and togetherness

Parenting isn’t easy. Just when we think we’ve got one stage mastered, our child develops and grows to a new stage with a new set of challenges for us to rise to and adapt with. We often hear parents of grown children say, “Enjoy it. It goes so fast.” They say this wistfully, almost mournfully, like they wish they could go back and do it all again in slow motion. We can’t slow time, but we can parent with intention. Carrie shows us how.

We hear a lot about the importance of being more present, almost to the point of it becoming a cliché. But when we stop to actually think about what it means to be in the present moment, it’s kind of laughable that we don’t seem to be naturally oriented to be there, because the present moment is where our life is. All the striving and creating and collecting and cleaning is all for the purpose of having this thing called “my life.” And yet, how often am I actually “in” my life?

Our vacation time, especially when it’s limited to just a few weeks out of the year, feels so precious. Plus, considering that travel uses up so much time, energy and money, it makes sense that we’d want to get it right. In this week’s episode, we connect with author and researcher Jaime Kurtz to unpack the secrets of better and more meaningful travel