Dealing with the Fs (Fear and Failure)

12/03/20 • 60 min

New Books in Spiritual Practice and Mindfulness

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: board games, Edge House, how to rethink “failure” with the replacement word “successandfailure”, facing our fears by asking for what we need, and a discussion of the book How to Human.

Our guest is: Alice Connor, the author of How to Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Messed-Up World. She is an Episcopal priest, a college chaplain, and runs Edge House. Alice is a certified enneagram teacher and a stellar pie-maker. She lives for challenging conversations and has a high tolerance for awkwardness. She lives with her husband, two kids and a dog.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. Her favorite board game is a version of Sorry! she invented with her dad long ago [directions provided in this episode.]. Christina seeks the extraordinary in the ordinary, writes poems about small relatable moments, and takes many photos in nature.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Enneagram Transformations by Don Riso
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
“The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research” in Journal of Cell Science by Martin A Schwartz
“The Guest House” poem by Rumi
Brene Brown’s TED Talk on vulnerability (not the one on shame)
The How To Human Study Guide (free download, on Fortress Press website)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/spiritual-practice-and-mindfulness

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Enneagram Transformations by Don Riso
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
“The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research” in Journal of Cell Science by Martin A Schwartz
“The Guest House” poem by Rumi
Brene Brown’s TED Talk on vulnerability (not the one on shame)
The How To Human Study Guide (free download, on Fortress Press website)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/spiritual-practice-and-mindfulness

Previous Episode

Daniel Simpson, "The Truth of Yoga: A Comprehensive Guide to Yoga's History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices" (North Point, 2021)

Much of what is said about yoga is misleading. To take two examples, it is neither five thousand years old, as is commonly claimed, nor does it mean union, at least not exclusively. In perhaps the most famous text—The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali—the aim is separation, isolating consciousness from everything else. And the earliest evidence of practice dates back about twenty-five hundred years. Yoga may well be older, but no one can prove it. Scholars have learned a lot more about the history of yoga in recent years, but their research can be hard to track down. Although their work is insightful, it is aimed more at specialists than at general readers.

Daniel Simpson's The Truth of Yoga: A Comprehensive Guide to Yoga's History, Texts, Philosophy, and Practices (North Point, 2021) draws on many of their findings, presented in a format designed for practitioners. The aim is to highlight ideas on which readers can draw to keep traditions alive in the twenty-first century. It offers an overview of yoga's evolution from its earliest origins to the present. It can either be read chronologically or be used as a reference guide to history and philosophy. Each short section addresses one element, quoting from traditional texts and putting their teachings into context. The intention is to keep things clear without oversimplifying.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/spiritual-practice-and-mindfulness

Next Episode

Richard S. Balkin, "Practicing Forgiveness: A Path Toward Healing" (Oxford UP, 2020)

Our relationships enrich our lives. Strong bonds with family, friends, and colleagues make our lives full and vibrant, but they can also be a source of distress or even trauma. Few relationships are perfect, and we often find ourselves let down by even the people we count on most; learning to navigate the challenges is vital to protecting our health and wellbeing.

In this book the author presents a model for forgiveness that addresses how we either repair relationships when someone has harmed us, or how we move forward when relationships are beyond repair. Repairing a relationship is not always practical. The model presented in this book can be helpful to promote self-healing and to either re-establish relationships with others or move forward when reconciliation is harmful or not possible.

Practicing Forgiveness: A Path Toward Healing (Oxford UP, 2020) draws on the perspectives of counseling professionals from across the country to explore contextual and cultural aspects of forgiveness with stories, humor, clinical examples, research, and empirical findings, while also considering the influence of environment and religion. The forgiveness process is a universal one, and this book serves as a resource to anyone wishing to gain insight into their own personal journey.

Richard S. Balkin is a Professor and Assistant Department Chair of Leadership and Counselor Education and Coordinator of Educational Research and Design for the School of Education at the University of Mississippi. He began his practice as a professional counselor in 1993 and has worked in academe since 2003. His counseling experience with at-risk youth was formative to his research agenda, which includes understanding the role of counseling and relevant goals for adolescents in crisis and counseling outcomes. Dr. Balkin's publications include textbooks on assessment in counseling, research, and the counseling relationship; published tests and technical manuals; peer-reviewed manuscripts; book chapters; and conference proceedings. For more information please visit http://www.balkinresearchmethods.com

Elizabeth Cronin, Psy.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist and mindfulness meditation teacher with offices in Brookline and Norwood, MA. You can follow her on Instagram or visit her website at https://drelizabethcronin.com.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/spiritual-practice-and-mindfulness