To download any of these programs CLICK HERE. You will access VoiceAmerica Radio: they use the same titles as below. Use the episode directory on the right side of the page.
EPISODE 1 – Definitions
What does waking up mean exactly? Who is asleep? And what is” learning what your life is trying to teach you” all about? Why is your life your perfect teacher? On this show we explore the title of the program and talk about the spiritual adventure we are about to make into a deeper and more profound experience of life.
We explore the concept of consciousness, using inspiration from the 13th century mystic poet, Jelaluddin Rumi. We then outline the four basic strategies for waking up and living consciously.An important spiritual practice is offered so that the listener can experience for themselves the power and usefulness of the concepts and ideas being presented.
EPISODE 2 – Rumblings
We may be surprised at what arises when we first embrace and practice awareness. If we have really opened to awareness and trusted the process, then, usually, we will encounter emotions and fears which we have been ignoring, suppressing or denying, perhaps for some time. On this show we investigate one of the most common suppressed emotions and learn how to turn it into a powerful ally in our quest for personal and spiritual fulfillment.
EPISODE 3: The Necessity of Risk
When we invoke mercy for ourselves and others, our entire world shifts into a kinder and more compassionate place. This week we further our explanation and exploration of this powerful and life altering force. Then we shift our focus onto the necessity of risk in our spiritual voyage. Without risk we will never progress. Trying to avoid risk and experience real growth is like trying to eat your cake and have it too. It can’t be done. But we still try, over and over.
Special Guest: Dr. Janet Smith Warfield
Janet Smith Warfield is a retired attorney, author, publisher, workshop presenter, and consultant. Her book Shift: Change Your Words, Change Your World, an Amazon Best Seller, won the 2008 Indie Next Generation Book Award for Best New Age Non-Fiction, has been translated into four languages, and is being distributed throughout the world.Her website, www.wordsculptures.com won the 2008 Coalition of Visionary Resources Best Website Award. Janet serves wisdom-seekers who want understanding and clarity so they can live peaceful, powerful, prosperous lives. Through her unique combination of holistic, creative, right-brain transformational experiences and 22 years of rigorous, left-brain law practice, she has learned how to sculpt words in atypical ways to shift her listeners into experiences beyond words, transforming turmoil into inner peace.
EPISODE 4– Deepening Awareness
This week we review the four strategies for Waking Up: Awareness, Personal Responsibility, Inner Work, and Action. Our focus will continue on Awareness with our special guest Tim Freke, an internationally respected authority on spirituality. We will discuss the Mystery Experience and discuss Tim’s forward thinking philosophy.
Special Guest: Tim Freke
Tim Freke has an honors degree in philosophy and is an internationally respected authority on world spirituality. He is the author of over thirty books that have established his reputation as a scholar and free-thinker. Tim is pioneering an accessible new way to experience a profound spiritual awakening, which fully embraces our tender, vulnerable, flawed humanity. He has spent his life exploring the awakened state he often simply calls “the mystery experience and is able to guide others directly to it.
EPISODE 5 – The Gateway to Change –The Foundation of Personal Power
We begin this episode of with a short review of the awareness work we have been doing in the first four episodes. Rumi is going to help us with this task.
Episode 5 introduces personal responsibility, the second strategy for learning what our life is trying to teach us. Personal responsibility is picking up the reins, and taking charge of our lives; being the creator of a whole and unique self, our offering to the world. As we practice personal responsibility we also discover how it is the foundation of authentic personal power.
EPISODE 6 – The Voice of Reason
Spirituality is all about moving into the unknown. Joseph Campbell once said that “in our generation, the voice of reason is the guardian at the gate into the unknown.” What does this mean exactly? We will explore the spiritual path and why it is the path of the hero. We will explore some of the interesting lessons that we can learn from the hero archetype. What holds us back sometimes?
EPISODE 7 – Saying Goodbye to the Judge
Judgment is the greatest cause of trouble, harm and discord in the world, and there is no destructive force as intractable as righteous judgment. Despite its drawbacks, and all the pain, suffering and misunderstanding it causes, our world is completely enchanted by judgment. As we begin to learn what our life is trying to teach us, we also begin to see that, when we take up judgment, we are avoiding personal responsibility and stopping our personal and spiritual progress dead in its tracks. If we are serious about personal responsibility and manifesting personal power, we will need to learn to free ourselves from the sticky web of judgment. Learning how to eliminate our judging nature is wonderfully freeing and a very positive contribution to the world. The space that judgment vacates is the ground for compassion.
EPISODE 8 – The Ocean We Swim In. Personal Responsibility and Fear
In this episode, we begin with a discussion of the good medicine, humor. A sense of humor is one of the major attributes we can possess or achieve in life. Having a good sense of humor and being a thoughtful person are often companion qualities. But humor can be used in a negative way as well. Keeping our sense of humor in a positive manner is our goal.
After we talk about the good medicine, we look further into personal responsibility and fear. In an earlier episode, we saw how personal responsibility and personal power are interrelated. Now, we investigate some common beliefs about personal power and discuss how these beliefs differ from true personal power. In this segment we learn how to manifest true personal power; personal power that does not use fear as its basis.
EPISODE 9–The World Within You
John O’Donohue says, “A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world.” In this episode we begin our exploration of Inner Work, the third strategy in waking up and learning what your life is trying to teach you. We discuss our inner world and talk about ways we can access it and work with it. We use an old story as our guide. We discuss the importance of making time for ourselves to do our inner work. Inner work flows from personal responsibility, and now that we have decided to bring personal responsibility into our lives, we need to know how to use inner work to transform it into personal and spiritual growth.
EPISODE 10: Who Says So?
There are many paths and systems for doing inner work; for clearly identifying and dealing with our inner demons and for creating changes. We might decide that one great path has everything for us, or we might create an eclectic mix of practices depending on our temperament. On this show we discuss discernment. How do we choose the teachers and teachings or find the right path for pursuing our inner work? This can be a confusing process, and some guidelines are helpful.
No matter what course we choose, it is helpful to ask, “What is it I am really seeking?”
We will also be discussing ways to work with our belief system. Margaret J Wheatly says, “So much human behavior is habitual – and behind every habit is a belief – about people, life, the world. We act from the premise that if we can know our beliefs; we can then act with greater consciousness about our behaviors. Examining beliefs can become a compelling process.” In this episode, we will be reviewing an important practice we can use for examining beliefs.
EPISODE 11: Action!
On Waking Up, Learning What Your Life Is Trying to Teach You we have been exploring the first three strategies for waking up and embracing a conscious life: awareness, personal responsibility, and inner work. Through the practice of awareness we came into contact with the world in a conscious manner. By taking personal responsibility for our life, we discover the obstacles to our own evolution into a more loving, courageous and compassionate being. Through inner work we discover the resources and develop the inner skills that can overcome these obstacles. Yet, until we take action, by manifesting a new response, or a new way of being, and the world, we do not seal our learning in reality. It is still theoretical, and it has achieved no empirical value. We will never know if what we have discovered is true for us, or if the changes we have embraced in the inner world are effective or helpful in the outer world.
In the next few episodes John Earle shares actions and practices, we can use to create personal change, as well as change in the world around us. It helps to remember that, as he says, “ we are the only one who can change the world.” These practices are not just useful indicators of our own progress, but are also actions that bring a new level of compassion and kindness into our immediate world.
EPISODE 12 – Putting It All Together
What if your heart took over the creation of your reality? What would the world be like then? Rumi said, “A prince is just a conceit until he does something with generosity.” So it is with us. We can talk about love, but until we manifest it nothing changes. How can we do this every day? We change our daily actions into consecrated actions. In this episode, we review some powerful practices for bringing kindness, love and compassion into our everyday world. These practices are not about gaining merit or approbation. They’re done selflessly and although we are not doing this for a reward, the reward is huge both for ourselves and for those who we shine our light upon.
EPISODE 13 – Action – The Eyes Have It!
In this episode, we will be exploring two more action practices: connecting the eyes to the heart and deep listening. These compassionate practices, when introduced into our daily life, can create a positive impact on every person we meet. Many of us hope that the world will change into a kinder, more peaceful and compassionate place. Using these practices we can make a significant contribution to this goal. Remember, we are the one who can change the world and how we greet the world is one of the most effective and direct ways in which we can do this.
Special Guest: David Riklan
David Riklan is the president and founder of Self Improvement Online, Inc., the leading provider of self-improvement and personal growth information on the Internet. His company now maintains four websites.
His premier Self Improvement website, SelfGrowth.com, gets over 2 Million visitors a month. His company also publishes three email newsletters going out to over 500,000 weekly subscribers on the topics of self-improvement, natural health, personal growth, relationships, home business, sales skills, and brain improvement.
David’s first book – Self Improvement: The Top 101 Experts Who Help Us Improve Our Lives – has been praised by leading industry experts as the Encyclopedia of Self Improvement. That book’s success motivated him to continue publishing books which seek to improve the lives of others.
Using four, powerful but simple strategies, learn what the challenging stories in your life are trying to teach you. 
