Almost Awakened

Latest Episodes:

Almost Awakened: 067: Veronica Funess -Sex, Shame, and Negotiation Jan 26, 2021

Show notes

Today with sit down with Veronica Funess, Intimacy Coach in Training and we discuss sexual shame that exists within society. We discuss how healthy negotiation of sexuality can look. We discuss kinks, fantasies, and how to incorporate your most vulnerable and healthy self into a healthy relationship with your partner.
Veronica is a Graduate in Gender & Women’s studies with minors in Business Administration and Communication. She is passionate about helping others improve their relationships and honor their erotic selves. Veronica is training at the Somatica Institute and Studied Gender and Women’s Studies at The University of Arizona. Past experience includes providing and directing peer education and facilitation for sexual violence and healthy relationships programming, market research and PR internships, and client and customer service positions: boutique fitness membership advising, and serving and bartending at an elevated NYC Vegan comfort food bar.
A reminder when it comes to negotiating sexuality
“Within ethical and legal constraints, we all have the right to push for what we want from our partner (and to suffer the consequences for pushing too hard). Similarly, we also have the right to deny our partner’s requests (and to suffer the consequences for shutting them down). But we need to remember that nothing in a relationship happens in a vacuum—it is influenced by what came before, as well as what else is going on in the relationship. So generosity can be rewarded (and bad behavior can be punished) in more ways than one. Therefore, we have to keep the bigger picture in mind—what price am I willing to pay for this? If it’s worth it, then it’s worth it, but since life and relationships involve compromise and sacrifice, we have to consider the potential ripple effects.”
RESOURCES:
Somatica Institute
The Erotic Mind
Coming Together
Sex At Dawn
Mating in Captivity
Veronica Funess Linked In
Veronica Funess Instagram Page

Almost Awakened: 066: Phil McLemore & Bill Reel – What Is The Life Well Lived Jan 23, 2021

Show notes

My friend Phil McLemore comes back on the podcast and this time to debate the question of “What is the life well lived”? We talk about societies and individuals and how freedom versus control makes or inhibits space to be a growing responsible healthy adult who is happy with their life and producing a positive wake through how they move through life. We touch on drugs and sex due to the strong sentiments felt about this two topics and their polarizing nature to set the stage for this deep conversation around what leads to a life well lived and what leads to a wake of trauma, destruction, and self deception. This is one of the best if not the best conversation I have ever been part of and I hope you the listener will benefit from the push and pull as the two of us debate from somewhat different perspectives (and at times extremely different positions) what it means to “Live a Life well lived”
Resources:
Phil Mclemore and some of his written work
Becoming the Beloved PDF
Hindering the Saints PDF
The Yoga of Christ PDF
Mormon Mantras PDF

Almost Awakened: 064: Jonathan Westover and the Alchemy of Leadership Jan 10, 2021

Show notes

I sit down with my friend, Professor, Podcaster, and Author Jon Westover and we discuss his new book, “The Alchemy of Truly Remarkable Leadership: Ordinary, Everyday Actions That Produce Extraordinary Results”. We talk about what makes a good leader. What toxic leadership looks like. How good leaders foster principles like trust, diversity, inclusivity, and belonging. and Most importantly, I think, how good leaders create an environment for people around them to achieve and succeed. Jon truly is a great leader and you can tell that his words are congruent with his internal character. The world is a better place with humans like Jon around.
RESOURCES:
Jon’s LinkedIn Profile
Jon’s Book
Jon’s articles on Forbes
Jon’s Podcast

Almost Awakened: 063: Are We Not all Seeking Acceptance? Dec 15, 2020

Show notes

Bill talks today about how each of us is quirky, how each of us is seeking validation and acceptance. How we each are weird and have strange thoughts and yet each of us is fighting to reveal our true selves

Almost Awakened: 062: Moms and Thanksgiving Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

Holidays tend to bring up things within us and for Bill and his wife Amanda, this Thanksgiving was one of those. From Amanda’s emotional awareness of her daughter moving out of state to take the next step in their own lives, To Bill dealing with the one year anniversary of the loss of his mom, to sensing that life moves one and life doesn’t stop. Today is about how we all deal with life’s constant change.

Almost Awakened: 061: Vaccines, Anti-Vaxers, And Covid19 Nov 20, 2020

Show notes

Phizer just announced and two more companies right behind them announced they have arrived at a vaccine for Covid19. These Vaccines are showing a 95% effectiveness. And yet…. somehow 50% of the population has been turned off of seeing such as a positive. 50% of our population is skeptical about receiving these vaccines. Today on the Almost Awakened Podcast we talk about why people are scared of vaccines, why we perceive a link between vaccines and negative outcomes including Autism, and what Science has to say about Vaccines. NOT: We humans often have emotional connection to topics like this and such stops us from communicating to each other in ways that we can all listen and learn from each other. Please be aware of such as you engage the conversation regardless of where you stand.
RESOURCES:
https://www.historyofvaccines.org/timeline/all
https://www.immune.org.nz/vaccines/vaccine-development/brief-history-vaccination
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.24.3.611
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/ensuringsafety/history/index.html
https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-history/developments-by-year
https://www.livescience.com/57488-vaccine-safety-numbers.html
https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/are-vaccines-safe
https://www.vaccines.gov/basics/safety
https://apnews.com/article/us-news-coronavirus-pandemic-177b3ba382517392911c029ecbe74daa
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/19/covid-19-vaccines-who-gets-coronavirus-immunization-first/3778098001/

Almost Awakened: 060: Schizophrenia And How Hard Life Can Be Nov 16, 2020

Show notes

Today Bill discusses Mental Illness and specifically Schizophrenia. Bill uses as the back drop his uncle, who was the first case of mental illness he had ever encountered, a close person who Bill was responsible to help who had some showing of such disturbances, and a recent movie, “Words on Bathroom Walls”, he watched that deeply and honestly displayed the difficulties of Schizophrenia and mental disorder and challenges. Bill ends the discussion asking us all to sit with the challenge of such lives of those who live out these nightmares and those responsible for caring for them.
RESOURCES:
https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/what-its-like-to-have-schizophrenia#1
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-internal-experience-of-schizophrenia-2953095
https://www.jnj.com/personal-stories/i-have-schizophrenia-what-its-really-like-living-with-the-mental-illness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-H7iJMo4fc
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/not-the-whole-person/201710/what-its-really-live-schizophrenia

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-disorders/schizophrenia-signs-and-symptoms.htm
https://www.bridgestorecovery.com/blog/what-its-like-to-live-with-schizophrenia-separating-myths-from-facts/

Almost Awakened: 059: Bill Reel & Glenn Ostlund – The Path to Surrender Part 3 Oct 19, 2020

Show notes

Glenn and Bill tackle an audio series created by Michael Singer, author of the untethered soul, and use it as a springboard for their own Almost Awakened conversation. This is part 3 and the final part in this multipart series and the conversation in this part covers the actual process one needs to implement to deal with your internal disturbances, that are based on your lifetime of experiences, when they arise. The formula is to RELAX and RELEASE. That when a sensation begins within you because your expectations of what this present moment should look like, how others sghould interact with you or what the outside world should show up as, you just RELAX and RELEASE. We talk about what this looks like and what it means. But in the end it deeply involves you SURRENDERING your expectations of how the world outside of you shows up and you SURRENDER your need to coerce and manipulate the outside world into showing up differently.
RESOURCES:
Video Describing the “Relax and Release” Method
The Key to the “Relax and Release” Method
How to free yourself from negative thoughts
Michael Singer “The Great Breakthrough”
OTHER RESOURCES FOR FUTURE GROWTH:
https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Agreement-Practical-Self-Mastery-Toltec/dp/1878424610
https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Dawn-Stray-Modern-Relationships-ebook/dp/B007679QTG
https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Spirituality-Without-Religion/dp/1451636024
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225
https://www.amazon.com/Mating-Captivity-Unlocking-Erotic-Intelligence/dp/0060753641

Almost Awakened: 058: Bill Reel & Glenn Ostlund – The Path to Surrender Part 2 Oct 12, 2020

Show notes

Glenn and Bill tackle an audio series created by Michael Singer, author of the untethered soul, and use it as a springboard for their own Almost Awakened conversation. This is part 2 in a multipart series and the conversation in this part covers ideas such as the baggage we carry with us due to the good and bad experiences that have filled our life. How that baggage or “charges” are preventing us from living present and being at peace. That we are not our thoughts and we are not our feelings and we are not the world outside of us unfolding before us. And once we grasp these charges within us are deeply connected to how we react and respond within the world and often it happens in ways we are not happy with and which are not healthy. This episode is the bridge to the next conversation where we address how to show up in the world different so that we can release these charges and find more inner peace.

Almost Awakened: 056: Good Kisser and Bowling Oct 06, 2020

Show notes

Today Bill monologues about human development and some of the human behaviors he notices in others. How we move back and forth between doing good by others and shitting on them. How we manipulate in order to calm our own disruptions. How we struggle to let others be them. And how when we tell stories about others we often do the universe an injustice.
Closing song was “Hallucinogenics” by Matt Maeson
Good Kisser on netflix
Letting others be themselves 1
Letting others be themselves 2
compersion

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