Just read this: The Law of One – ‘The Ra Material’
Thinkers/Teachers
Artem Boytsov – True Freedom Teachings (great for deep, deep insight about the healing process, particularly understanding the nature of negative emotions and the process of releasing repressed emotions from the body)
Adan Spencer – An amazing and inspiring teacher of presence, embodiement, and self-kindness. Very good at untangling unhelpful thoughts and beliefs that are not serving us.
Byron Katie – An incredible teacher for learning to doubt the self-limiting, distorted beliefs. Her process The Work is centred around this and has transformed many lives – and it’s remarkably simple.
Dan Harris – Dan is very good at distilling why meditation is so important as a foundation for mental health and calm. His book 10% Happier is a fantastic introduction
Sam Harris – Waking Up is the title of Sam’s meditation app – filled with interesting conversations, as well as many guided meditations. It’s also the name of a book he wrote on secular spirituality.
Rupert Spirta – Contemporary spiritual teacher focussing on the nature of awareness and the ‘direct path’ to inner peace and happiness.
Alan Watts – ‘spiritual entertainer’ with incredible insight into the nature of experience, and of reality. A profound and tantalising sharer of Eastern wisdom for Western audiences.
Pete Holmes – Comedian-philosopher. Very good at making deep and important ideas about the mind and awakening available to a wider audience. Very entertaining to listen to.
Carl Jung – Hard to read, but extraordinarily powerful ideas. This is a chapter from a collection of his most quotable writings.
David Whyte – Poet-philosopher. Profound.
Bernardo Kastrup – ex-physicist and philosopher, founder of the Essentia Foundation.
Non-Fiction Books
The Master and His Emissary – Ian McGilchrist
The Matter With Things (Volume II better, easier, and more interesting than Volume I, but both good. Volume II absolutely incredible, cannot recommend enough)
Meeting the Shadow – The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature
The Wisdom of Insecurity – Alan Watts (first philosophy book I ever read. Life changing.)
The Book (on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are) – Alan Watts
Being Aware of Being Aware – Rupert Spira
Novels
Siddartha – Herman Hesse
SteppenWolf – Herman Hesse
Island – Aldous Huxley
PS: someone recommend me some. This list should be longer. I’ve been busy reading/writing non-fiction.
Podcasts
Ram Dass Here and Now
Know Thyself
10% Happier
Waking Up
Rupert Spira Podcast
Aubrey Marcus Podcast (sometimes)
On Purpose with Jay Shetty (sometimes)
The Matter With Things
Practices
Self-Kindness/Self-Compassion Meditation
Dream Journal – Get in touch and I’ll help you interpret them.
Trigger Journal – Get in touch and I’ll help you understand them and how to release them.
Judgements Journal
‘The Courage to Acknowledge’ – What might I here and now have the courage to admit, that in the past, I did not have the courage to admit – about myself, about others, about the world? Am I angry inside, hateful towards someone, ashamed of myself, fearful of something, grief-stricken about some unrecognised loss? Is there something I really want, but don’t know how to ask for? Is there something I really need to get off my chest, but don’t know how to say?
You don’t have to do anything with what you find. Just acknowledging it can be a weight off your chest. People spend years in therapy just admitting to themselves that they are not as happy as they thought, or that they secretly hate their parents, or really want to quit their job. Perhaps you can find the courage acknowledge things like this a little sooner…
CORE PRACTICE Emotional Processing with Music
Music can make us feel deeply safe in part because it captures our attention long enough to allow Bliss to sneak inside our chess. We call this feeling beauty, but it is qualitatively no different from the love that we feel in the presence of human being whose presence may be similarly helping us to feel safe.
Neurologically, the brain processed the experience of music in a remarkably similar way to if a human being is present – no doubt because music made by a human carries the imprint of the mind that created it.
I think we all know what it’s like to feel like a song by our favourite artist is ‘speaking to us’, mirroring us, or making us feel somehow seen or understood. Finding music that makes us feel safe is therefore a wonderful opportunity the modern world allows us to create a safe container for our own healing process, when it is inconvenient for us to find another human being to do so. In many cases, we simply may not trust another person to sit with us whilst we cry, or get angry, or experience shame, without recoiling in confusion or judgement. And many people cannot afford to see a counsellor once a week, let alone a highly qualified embodiement facilitator or psychotherapist. Music, here, becomes our replacement shaman, therapist, counsellor, facilitator or space-holder – providing a stable, reliable witness for us to feel, and then feel, and then heal.
Here are some insights from my own path:
Radiohead are the greatest I have found for sitting with the emotions around the confusion and struggles about the path, and about the human condition itself. Sit or lie with songs like Reckoner, Codex, Give Up the Ghost, Lotus Flower, Everything in it’s Right Place, and let what comes up come up. Skip if a song takes you somewhere where you feel unsafe.
Jon Hopkins. I have had some of my biggest breakthroughs listening to Jon Hopkins music. Music for Psychedelic Therapy makes me feel incredibly safe to go to difficult places internally. Ritual is a little more challenging, but is no doubt still a powerful accompaniment for inward journeying. Singularity is the most interesting and the most exciting in my opinion. All of his music is inspired by deep psychic exploration, so it all tends to fit perfectly with this kind of work.
The Strokes makes me feel safe to process anger and shame because their music resonates (re-sounds) with me because they too want love (grief), need love, don’t know how to get love (confusion), and don’t know what to do about it, fear the pain in them this has caused and …. you get the idea.
Stick them on shuffle and rock out to a mirror of your emotional world. Skip if too triggering.
Anges Obel’s music is lushous and perfect for a sense of both beauty and pain. If you can find music with this balance that works for you that is ideal, because it helps you feel good and bad, love and pain, at the same time, which allows you to let the unpleasant feelings out without it feeling like such a chore. I adore ‘The Curse’ and ‘Familiar’.
I have a playlist of my own called ‘Funeral Songs’ which is over a hundred of the songs that have played the most significant role in my life since I was a child. Though these songs range in mood and style, they all feel incredibly familiar to me. One of the key things we want in processing difficult feelings like grief and anger is to hold both pain and safety in our awareness at the same time. Music that is sad, or aggressive, but which you are very familiar with, is very good for this, because you have heard it enough times that you are not distressed by its darkness, its heaviness, or its violence, but instead Think of it like having a local show you around a country that you are unfamiliar with and, frankly, terrified of. The local at your side quickly becomes a familiar face, and helps you fel
I have found listening to a specific artist on shuffle, or a whole album by the same artist, helps to create continuity, which can contribute to a sense of safety. When I listen to Radiohead or Jon Hopkins whilst processing emotions, it feels like they are trip sitting me. This can feel safer than listening to a playlist that skips between different artists – as if your ‘trip sitter’ is constantly changing. Having said that, I have been working on playlists to give another option for emotional processing. If you’d rather some variety whilst processing, here are some playlists you may like.
