The Gathering Room Podcast

• How to Stop the Spin

  These days life can seem extremely chaotic—have you felt it, too? Whether it’s the noise of the world or the noise of your own thoughts, there’s so much happening and so many things to think about that it can really get your head spinning with questions like: What am I supposed to be doing? Where is my attention supposed to be? How do I rest my heart? The good news is this: You already have a still, magnetic center within you, and on this episode of The Gathering Room podcast, I share how you can access it. The world can be chaotic, confusing, and sometimes absolutely terrifying—but that’s only when we let ourselves spin. It’s not about escaping the chaos but finding your still center within it. One effective way to connect with the point of stillness within each of us—what I call the “inner compass”—is meditation. I’ll lead you through a version of my Space, Stillness, and Silence meditation to help you let go of tension and allow your nervous system to regulate inward. I’ve only just begun to realize how when you center yourself in that place and allow it to be enough, the answers to your questions about the most trivial things and the most immense things will come without effort into your consciousness. There is an intelligence and a love so great for you that hears you in your confusion and amidst the terrifying cacophony of this world. Ro and I recently took Lila on a trip to the Central Park Zoo, and it was pure pandemonium in New York City: screaming kids, crowds of parade-goers, Hare Krishna worshipers, blaring bands, and all of it bathed in the city’s current signature scent…weed. As we were driving home through all this chaos, Lila declared, “There’s a lot of music in this town, girls!” before promptly falling asleep in her car seat. This reminded me that stillness is always available—even in the loudest moments of life. There’s no need to rush or try to fix everything. Your destination is right here in the present moment. Be here now. Your inner stillness holds the answers to your questions, even those you haven’t asked yet. When we ground ourselves in the space, silence, and stillness and stand in the huge wide plain where there is no one but you and your compass that is pointing straight into your own being, your presence becomes the portal. It opens to the instructions for what you need to do next. If you’d like to hear more about trusting your inner compass, how to stay creative amidst chaos, and how to find the answers you’re seeking, tune in for the full episode. We’ll take a collective deep breath and ground ourselves in “the still point of the turning world” together. Join me! CONNECT WITH US Follow Martha on Instagram The Gathering Room Show Notes Join Martha for a Live Episode of The Gathering Room via Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Special Guest: Chase Jarvis

  I’m thrilled to be joined by my guest Chase Jarvis for this special episode of The Gathering Room podcast! Chase is an award-winning artist, serial entrepreneur, and bestselling author, who has a new book out called NEVER PLAY IT SAFE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO FREEDOM, CREATIVITY, AND A LIFE YOU LOVE. This remarkable book helped me take a few big leaps in my own life, and I hope that listening to my conversation with Chase will inspire you to do the same. Enjoy! CONNECT WITH US Follow Martha on Instagram The Gathering Room Show Notes Join Martha for a Live Episode of The Gathering Room via Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• Frantically Going Nowhere

  Do you ever feel like a hamster running on a wheel? Hamsters may love to scurry, but it tends to make us humans anxious and exhausted. Unfortunately, we live in a world that constantly pressures us to keep up with an increasingly frantic pace. And while we run faster and faster, the only place we ever reach is burnout. It’s when we start to get to burnout and the wheel is still going so fast that we start to get frantic to keep up. In this episode of The Gathering Room, I’m talking about how you can get off the hamster wheel by taking tiny, true steps towards whatever brings you a sense of relief. By “tiny, true step” I mean any small movement or action that feels like relief to you, like a relaxing exhale. In fact, a relaxing exhale could be the one tiny action you take. Or standing up to stretch. Or taking a bathroom break. Or doing just five minutes of any creative practice.Whenever you’re feeling frantic or overwhelmed, taking one tiny, true step is enough to move you toward peace. And then if you do it tomorrow and the next day and whenever you feel exhausted and frantic, those tiny movements toward relief will start to change everything. Remember: You are meant to live in peace, and nature never requires you to do more than you can do in peace. Although embracing this mindset can be challenging in a society like ours that values constant busyness, you have to trust that small steps are enough to radically transform your life. Try it and see.To learn more about the profound transformation that can come from taking small steps toward your true destiny, tune in for the full episode. We’ll even take a small step together by doing my guided Space, Silence, and Stillness meditation. Join me! CONNECT WITH US Follow Martha on Instagram The Gathering Room Show Notes Join Martha for a Live Episode of The Gathering Room via Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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  30:16
• Anchoring into Kindness

  There’s no question about it—we are living in chaotic times.We’re all trying to be happy and at peace, and we often think we need to find external circumstances that are conducive to those states. But did you know that there is a bedrock of stillness and kindness that we can drop into, no matter what’s going on around us? In this episode of The Gathering Room, I’ll guide you to this still, calm place through a very special meditation that you can revisit any time you feel tempest-tossed. As my partner Rowan, recently pointed out to me, self-kindness can always be accessed by recognizing that the universe is essentially kind. We can cultivate stillness in our chaotic world by aligning ourselves with this universal kindness.I had never thought of kindness as being the essential component of the universe. So I started doing meditations and thought experiments where I focused on the kindness that there is in the world and began to anchor myself into that—and that’s what I’ll be teaching you in this episode.I have a new take on our usual Space, Stillness, and Silence meditation, and it involves imagining yourself as a point of consciousness above a stormy ocean and dropping a thread of consciousness into the depths to reach the stillness at the center of the earth.By learning to find and anchor into this stillness—which is the same as universal kindness—you can find peace and stability, no matter what the circumstances. We are all on an odyssey in this life where the journey is the goal. We’re heroes who have taken the call to adventure, and we’re here for the adventure itself. Tune in for the full episode to anchor into universal kindness and learn how it can help you see the good in difficult situations, help you navigate loss, self-doubt, and other turbulent situations, and help you become a safe harbor for others. CONNECT WITH US Follow Martha on Instagram The Gathering Room Show Notes Join Martha for a Live Episode of The Gathering Room via Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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  33:01
• Kindness Creates

  It is a weird world out there right now, and if you’re like me, you’re feeling more than a little anxious. Anxiety has been called the mental illness of our time, but in fact, it’s not a mental illness. It’s an understandable reaction to an abnormal world that we never evolved to handle. As I’ve written in my book Beyond Anxiety and talked about at length, creativity is the opposite of that anxiety. However, there’s a crucial step you must take to go from anxiety to creativity, and you cannot skip it. That step is kindness. Kindness is the greatest creative fuel in human existence, and in this episode of The Gathering Room, I’m sharing the 5-step exercise I follow to cultivate kindness toward myself, get out of anxiety, and generate creativity and joy.In fact, for the first time ever on The Gathering Room, I’m recommending that you bring a pencil and paper and work through this exercise with me. It’s fun—and powerfully effective.You start by identifying and acknowledging your negative feelings, whether you’re feeling anxiety, anger, sorrow, or something else. Imagine the part of yourself that is feeling this way as a separate entity, and you are the compassionate observer.Ask this part of yourself how it’s feeling, and then offer this three-word phrase, which is probably the most powerful thing you can do to heal yourself or another human being: “Tell me everything.”The vast majority of people, including our inner parts, just want someone to sit with them and witness what’s going on inside them. And this act of kindness—of listening—gives a place for the pain to flow. Every time you make the choice to be kind to yourself, you are creating a whole new brain that is going to be a lot happier and more creative. This will lead you to the one way that you can create beauty that no one else ever could, your unique contribution to the world.To work through the full five-step kindness exercise with me, be sure to tune in for the full episode. I’ll also guide you through my Space, Silence, and Stillness meditation as that is one kind thing I often give myself when I’m in an anxious place. CONNECT WITH US Follow Martha on Instagram The Gathering Room Show Notes Join Martha for a Live Episode of The Gathering Room via Facebook See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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