Hey all! This episode is a bit of a departure from our usual podcast format. This one is an exclusive Cheri Spiegel production on the topic of Empathy. As Cheri talks through in this episode, unlocking empathy takes a little bit of work, and it takes some skill to fully engage with it throughout a lifetime. Sometimes, when we really look around hon…

Do we have an interesting episode for you today? Well, we certainly think so! Ironically enough, we didn't intend to discover anything particularly new when we recorded this episode. Instead, we simply planned to share what we learned about the concept of discover through the workshop we've offered entitled "Discover: Exploring Needs as They Emerge…

This is Episode 117 of the This Most Unbelievable Life Podcast! This episode looks at the concept of reflection and its importance as a way of processing and moving us forward in our lives (more traction!). We contrast reflection with rumination, which can cause us just to spin our wheels! Building on our car metaphor, we walk through an exercise w…

Welcome to Episode 116 of the Podcast! This episode takes a look at our deepening understanding of what it means to have a pause practice. We take a look at instances of when we get to choose to pause, as well as times when pausing is thrust upon us. It's something that we'll all have to engage with eventually. What is the skill set for this?…

Hey all! Well, we're back! In this episode, we take some time to catch folks up with all we've been doing over the past 8 months, and to begin to share some of the ideas we've been developing over the past academic year. We're excited to be recording again, and we hope you enjoy this one! If there is a path that we're on in this life that leads to …

Hey folks! This episode was recorded fresh on the heels of our latest Compassion workshop on our campus, and this being at the end of a busy couple of weeks, the conversation is pretty wide ranging! Since we have the tools of practical, embodied compassion in our hearts and minds as we offer workshops to our community, naturally, the conversation r…

Aaaaaannnd were back! It was quite a summer for us over here, but not too much of what we were up to was visible - thus, this episode! As we get the creative podcast juices flowing once again, give this one a listen and hear what's been pulling us away from the microphone, and what we're working on as we fire it back up. Thank you for your patience…

Episode 112 - "Seeing What Is Around Us, with Honesty" Hey folks! This episode brings us a chat about chapter 3 in Maria Arpa’s book, “Mindfulness at Work.” This chapter, for us anyway, describes where the real work starts! When we turn our magnifying glass to all that is around us in the workplace, or anywhere for that matter, what do we notice, w…

Hey folks! In this episode, we talk through Chapter 2 of Maria Arpa’s book, “Mindfulness at Work.” The title of this chapter, “Freedom & Sustainability,” seems to us to be about how we might find a way to operate in a joyful, mostly resistance-free way in the structure of our workplace. We live with this contrast between doing what we want, and nee…

Hey folks! In this episode, we talk through Chapter 1 of Maria Arpa’s book, “Mindfulness at Work.” The title of this chapter, “Wake Up & Smell the Coffee,” seems to us to be about acknowledgement. It starts with the acknowledgement that we are where we are in the workplace because we accepted things as they were, made decisions, even unconscious on…

Hi Everybody! We have a bonus episode for you this time! It’s just a little short one to let you in on what’s been going on over here at the TMUL shop. Long story short… acknowledging limitations! There are times in our lives when we discover that we can’t do it all (blah blah blah - the same words we’ve heard all our lives). We do hit limitations …

Hey folks! This episode marks the first in a seven-part series where we discuss the book, “Mindfulness at Work,” by Maria Arpa. As we work to bring our contemplative practices more fully developed into all aspects of our lives, we naturally ask, “how might we do this at work?” What we do on nights and weekends is one thing, what we do on the job, h…

What, indeed, is the advantage of embracing the practices of mindfulness in the workplace? So often, we hear of businesses and organizations promoting mindfulness at work, and working on ways to institutionalize mindful approaches and activities, such as yoga, meditation breaks, and other holistic invitations. Is a 10 minute breathing break in the …

We all have heard about workplace burnout, and there are whole books - many books - written about this topic. We sometimes think that if we REALLY loved our job, and if we were really happy with our work, we wouldn’t ever actually experience burnout. What if, however, occasional bouts with burnout were an inevitable part of any work that we do? If …

What if compassion in the classroom was the foundation of the environment, rather than something “else” that you “ought” to do as a teacher? So often, we, as academics, are left with the thought that good classroom practices are “something else” that we have to do on top of the content that we teach. In this episode, we talk through the possibility…

Hey folks! From tea imagery to coffee! Where we go: into the grind! Truth - there are times when our days are easy, and there are times when days are hard. Sometimes we find joy in the daily little things, yet, sometimes what happens is met with resistance. Stuff happens, both expected and unexpected, and we look for opportunities for ease when we …

Hey all! Question… what do you think of tea? Throughout the course of the day, we drink a lot of tea! We enjoy it in the morning, after class, sometimes during class, in workshops that we host, and in meetings, with friends, colleagues, students, and even on our own. Most of the planning and conversation that we have, between ourselves and with oth…

Here’s an episode about fire! At last! How have two fire signs (one a Leo, the other, Aries) gone this long without tackling this topic? Well, it’s taken us a bit of time to learn to understand our own fire! Check this one out and hear more about how we have come to accept what fuels us and aim our “fire” in ways that help us - and those around us.…

Hi all! When was the last time you really had to take some time to figure something out? If you’re anything like us, the times when we have the A-HA moments are quick and sudden, but they only really occur as the end of a much longer, more involved investment of time, energy, confusion, familiarizing, and quite often, struggle! Rather than the A-HA…

Hey folks! Hello beloved podcast listeners! Here it is, at long last (for us anyway!) - podcast episode 100! Question for you…. How do you honor the 100th time you do something? Just like with some other milestones, such as birthdays and New Years’ Day, in many respects it’s just another day. Likewise, in many ways episode 100 is just like any othe…

Hey folks! Welp, we’ve done it! 99 Red Record Buttons later and we’re here: Episode 99! And here’s a spoiler: if you listen to this one all the way through, you’ll get to hear Paul’s excellent interpolation of “99 Red Balloons”! The same tune - in a totally new context! And…well, that’s kinda the theme this week! We’re thinking about times with the…

Have you ever attended an event wherein you find yourself with others gathered around a round table with tons of forks and spoons and the expectation for polite and witty dinner conversation? For us, as academics, we have found ourselves in these situations most commonly at conferences, but these circumstances often emerge at weddings, fundraisers,…

Ah! The first episode of 2022! This one’s an interesting exercise in time travel! We recorded it on December 27, knowing it will be released on January 4, while Paul is away at a meditation retreat! As a result, this episode bridges 2021 and 2022, and we’ve let that reality become the theme of the episode. We look once more at New Year’s plans and …

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome to the final episode of 2021! We recorded this one fresh on the heels of visiting places that we might call, “home,” as in, “home for the holidays” or something like that. As we talked through our respective trips and how they went, it became curious to us that it’s not quite clear what we mean by the word, “ho…

Episode 95 - Mindfulness and Resilience Happy Solstice, everyone! This week, we’re sending out something a little different. A little while ago, Paul was afforded the opportunity to present for an annual Wellness Summit, and had the presence of mind to press the record button before he began! The episode for this week is that recording, and our own…

Hello, all! Well, the inevitable is upon us, and who are we to not acknowledge it fully? The holiday season is fully here, and once again we feel whatever that need is to embrace tradition, and we consider how it is that we might fulfill and/or satisfy our real, or perceived, holiday obligations. Traditions are one thing, and they’re great! Many of…

Hello, everyone, and happy December! Well, has it been? Has it been happy? What about joyful? Is your month starting off full of joy? Are you noticing when joy emerges or when it seems to be in short supply? This podcast episode emerged from an unexpectedly joyful experience Cheri had recently…in a Lyft. Her driver was the personification of joy! H…

Hello dear listeners! Have you ever had that situation where someone says something to you, and you’re just left thinking… “why would they say that???” Sometimes it’s not just what they say, but also how they say it, and sometimes even that is innocuous enough, and the weirdness is just the identity of the person saying it! It’s so funny all the va…

Hello, dear podcast listeners, and welcome to episode 91! It’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S., and many of us are gearing up for holiday festivities with friends and family. For some, there may be traveling, food in abundance, and friends and family galore! What better time for a light-hearted conversation about boundaries? We realized in the r…

Episode 90 - Trying and The Wisdom of Yoda November. Ah, the month where we get to start saying: “goodness, it sure is getting dark early, ain’t it?” We in Virginia come to notice this phenomenon, of course, as a result of the shift in time that’s experienced as we shift the clocks for Daylight Savings. It’s a curious thing, Daylight Savings, if yo…

Hello listeners! If you are a frequent listener to this podcast, you probably know by now that we take great pride in trying to do a good job of it! From interesting and timely content and topics, to the quality of the audio, we do our best to create a delightful and informative, possibly thought provoking experience for you. We think we usually do…

Many of us, beginning at the time we are born, are told what to do, what we should do, what work is important, and which jobs and careers are the best ones to have. Jobs, careers, and livelihoods are sold to us as packaged items from which to choose from, and how to best prepare ourselves to qualify for a particular one. Some of us even took a test…

What, dear listener, does it mean to be “resilient,” and what, exactly, is “resilience” anyway? As many of us may find ourselves encountering a form of return, or re-emergence from (or event within!) pandemic life, we might be led to believe that resilience is something like grit, tenacity, or toughness while something difficult or downright trauma…

Have you ever wondered what life is like for the extras in a movie? Or what life is like for the friend or the sidekick? Oftentimes, it seems to us, we don’t imagine ourselves as the side character in this saga called life. Instead, we might be tempted to greet each day as though the camera is focused on us and asking for a perfect take on the acti…

Hi folks! This episode comes with a bit of a trigger warning! In this episode of the TMUL podcast on storytelling, some tales were told that describe some minor, but memorable injuries that one or the other of us have suffered in our lives. No worries though, no surprises here. We tucked those away at the end of the episode and if that’s not your j…

Episode 84 - We're Not Meant to Do This Alone! Throughout the last 18 months, one obvious and particular question about our shared existence on this planet has been laid bare, front and center, and asked for all to answer with their own experience: what is the value of participating in shared experience? Paul mentioned a couple of episodes ago that…

Once upon a time, Paul "shoulded" us! Can you believe that? It’s true. And what did he insist we should DO? Write excellent shownotes for each of our episodes! From the very beginning, we’ve not been content with simply offering a podcast to the world, but we’ve felt we SHOULD provide our listeners with great shownotes. No one asked us to. No one h…

Hello listeners! Here it is: the last episode before we pivot into Fall (and thus into season 7)! As has been a trend in many episodes as of late, this one was recorded right on the heels of some travel by Paul to visit some family. What’s special about this bit of travel, however, was that, as so often happens in this life, things did not end up g…

Hey folks! Here's a question for you! What is the magic that you are interested in beginning to the world today? Is it the magic that you are supposed to do? Need it be done the way it's “supposed” to look? Or is what you bring to light in your life what you WANT to do, done the way that only you can do it? Is the magic in your objective, or is it …

Lately, Paul and Cheri have been thinking of this podcast as a historical narrative of the pandemic - from Episode 1, which we recorded on the last week of February 2020, and weekly since then. From episode to episode, what was it like for us? What were we seeing, feeling, and thinking? What did we notice, and what were we not noticing? Throughout …

Hello listeners! One of the things that we notice when we talk to folks, when we talk to each other, when we're in groups having a chat, or even when we're alone in our own thoughts and experiences, stories seem to be at the center of everything! We tell stories about ourselves; we tell stories about each other. Story serves many functions: it work…

So, folks… fear. Fear is a big one! When we look around, we might see it, or signs of it, everywhere. Why do people do so many of the destructive things that they do? What is the basis for all of the political discord we see in the world today? Why do we feel like it’s so dangerous to go outside, or to a social event, or to a school or campus? Why …

This week we’re releasing something a bit different, folks! Different... but we hope you’ll find it useful, no matter who you are! What we have here is actually a recording of a presentation Cheri gave with her professional academic hat on. She gave a plenary talk at Old Dominion University's Annual Spring Conference on the Teaching of Writing on A…

Welp, as the title pretty clearly states, this is a conversation about how we identify ourselves, and each other, and what that does to us. At the beginning of just about every episode, and for no real reason that we ever thought too deeply about, we refer to each other as, “Dr. Spiegel,” and “Dr. Fitzgerald.” This, of course, is not what a lot of …

After a couple of weeks of summer travel and the logistical challenges of coordinating recording times, we’re back to our regular routine! A normal podcast recording session, and a return to the comfort of doing things in ways that we’re familiar with for quite some time! Those words in bold face type above…. Yeah, we’ve been hearing those words qu…

Now you see, there are plans that we can make, and everybody loves a plan, right? There’s comfort in knowing what is going to happen, at least approximately; it can feel fantastic! This knowing can provide a sense of safety: we can prepare for it, we can set some expectations on when, where, and how things might progress, and we can see it as a sig…

Hey all! Well, that’s a curious title for a podcast episode, isn’t it??? Cheri hopes you read it with the cadence of this seemingly unrelated (but perhaps quite parallel) Monty Python skit. So what's hanging out in your fridge? Is it all full of life and potential? Or has much passed its prime? Dedicated listeners may have noticed that recently we’…

Episode 72 - We're Still Talking about Shepherd's Pie! Shepherd’s Pie… or is it Cottage Pie… Paul’s still not entirely sure exactly what the distinction is, but Cheri knows it has something to do with a choice of meat. What we both do know is that it’s usually not an item baked in an oven in the middle of Summer when it’s over 90 degrees outside. S…

Paul and Cheri recorded a podcast commercial!!! As much as we would like to announce that it went great and that it’s ready for deployment, we have to admit... it did not go as planned. Part of the reason why that might be because, well, it wasn’t planned! So much of what we do comes naturally, spontaneously, with flow, purpose, and ease, we though…

Hi listeners! There’s this funny word that gets used quite often, more specifically in gardening, and more broadly and generally in the context of self-reflection, contemplation, and wellness, that Paul had always found curious. That word is “cultivation.” When we cultivate the garden, that looks like one thing, and there is a tool for that. What d…