Thanks for everyone's patience while I was VERY delayed in uploading this episode. There is no other guest I'd rather have on for my last episode then with the man that started it all with me, Zach Darmon. The comradre picked up right where we left off and we reflected on what the podcast and what meditation has done for us in our lives, talking ab…

Shauna Shapiro, PhD, is a professor, author, and internationally recognized expert in mindfulness and compassion. Nearly one million people have watched her 2017 TEDx talk "The Power of Mindfulness," rated one of the top 10 talks on mindfulness. Dr. Shapiro has published over 150 journal articles and coauthored two critically acclaimed books transl…

Dr. Greyson’s interest in near-death experiences began just a few months after graduating from medical school, when he treated an unconscious patient in the emergency room who stunned him the next morning with an account of leaving her body. That event challenged his beliefs about the mind and the brain, and ultimately led him on a journey to study…

I had to get JP back on the show for my 100th Episode. At 96 years young, he emanates wisdom with every word. I let him guide the conversation and he wanted to share a couple of mantras and then we have a chat in between each of the chants. It was a true delight and we really get in the weeds on this one. Mantras chanted: Shanti Mantra Gayatri mant…

As a sought-after speaker, event facilitator and executive coach, Finnian has been dubbed “the Business Mystic” because of his unique ability to put consciousness into business and inspire leaders to find new levels of meaning and purpose through their creative endeavours. This approach flowed through his term as President of the Colorado Chapter o…

Alex was at a point in his life where he was throwing up his breakfast because he was so stressed and burnt out from his job. He ventured off to Australia to get away from this and find himself. His father passed away and this caused him to re-evaluate his life, turning to meditation. He went and got certified to teach meditation and has been doing…

Hey everybody, this is my annual year in review where I reflect on the year that was. This was a year of a lot of growth mixed with a lot of pain. Such is life! I hope you enjoy my ramblings about my experiences and that they prove to be supportive to you in some way. I talk about: Being more consistent with posting episodes and where I want the po…

When Cesare was recommended to me by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche's team, I immediately knew it was going to be a special time with him. The depth by which he can articulate the many nuances of life was fascinating. We talked about: How he got into contemplative practice through Christian Mysticism Finding a new way to look at life Getting introduced to Bu…

Amanda Gilbert is a meditation teacher, lecturer of mindfulness at the University of Southern California, speaker, and author. She leads meditation for top companies like NBC, Paramount Pictures, W Hotels, Merrill Lynch, Macy’s, and YouTube. Before dedicating herself to teaching full-time, Amanda was the center director for the Aging, Metabolism, a…

Linda Leaming first traveled to Bhutan in 1994, and moved there three years later. This tiny Buddhist country hidden away in the Himalayas is a very happy place for many. Its king believes in Gross National Happiness instead of Gross National Product. Leaming has written two books about her life in Bhutan and how she learned to live more simply, ho…

Ven. Thukten was born in a small village in Bhutan called Gelephu. She is 32 years old and 15 out of those she dedicated to the monastic life. Currently, she resides at Jangchub Choeling Nunnery in Southern India. Thukten is studying at Emory University as a Tenzin Gyatso Science Scholar. She thoroughly enjoys observing nature. Thukten was AMAZING …

Ora Nadrich is founder and president of the Institute for Transformational Thinking and author of Live True: A Mindfulness Guide to Authenticity. A certified life coach and mindfulness teacher, she specializes in transformational thinking, self-discovery, and mentoring new coaches as they develop their careers. I had a great time speaking to Ora ab…

Lödrö Gyendon is a Buddhist monk living in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Raised in South Florida, Gyendon first encountered Buddhism in college when he was studying sculpture. He moved to Sravasti Abbey to deepen his study in 2011 and trained under the guidance of Bhikkshuni Thubten Chodron, before moving to Gampo Abbey in 2014 where he has lived and t…

Alan Stein, Jr. teaches proven strategies to improve organizational performance, create effective leadership, increase team cohesion and collaboration, and develop winning mindsets, rituals, and routines. A successful business owner and veteran basketball performance coach, he spent 15 years working with the highest-performing athletes on the plane…

This was another EPIC conversation, this time with Nun Tenzin Choyang. Choyang was born in Tibet and came to India to study Buddhist philosophy. She has been studying Buddhist philosophy at a nunnery for over 17 years. In between that time, she went to Emory University in the United State to learn science and scientific techniques. Currently she is…

Carley Hauck is a learning architect, leadership development consultant, author, speaker, and serves as adjunct faculty at Stanford University and UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. For the last decade, she has served hundreds of leaders and companies in Fortune 100 companies and high growth start-ups such as: LinkedIn, Genentech, Pixar, Clif Bar…

Ven. Geshe Tenzin Damchoe was born in Dharamsala India and attended Tibetan Childrens Village (TCV) school until the 10th grade. After that he attended TCV Bylakuppe where he received a Bachelors of Commerce from St. Philomena’s college of Mysore University. After graduating with his commerce degree, Geshe-la joined the Institute of Buddhist Dialec…

Thomas J. Bushlack (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) is currently the Regional Director of Mission Integration with SSM Health in St. Louis, MO. He brings over 20 years of experience in higher education, public speaking, leading retreats, leadership coaching, and consulting in organizational development in mission integration. Tom’s expertise is in…

I reflect on the year that was 2020. The highs and lows and all the wonderful lessons that I learned because of having to go through it all. I talk about: Where the podcast is headed in 2021 Life lessons from growing marijuana Experiences and thoughts on death Ram Dass' massive influence on me Love and Fear Reach out at revibemindfulness@gmail.com …

Marshall and I met earlier this year and formed a very close bond immediately through being facilitators of the satsang we created, Unity Community. His depth of experiential knowledge and wisdom from all of the text he's read always make for a fascinating conversation. He talks about deep stuff while also making it digestible to any audience. Ther…

In a time where there is so much uncertainty and many reasons to be pessimistic about the future, Asha brings us a breath of fresh air and provides us insight that brings hope. As a Black Woman, those things don't come easy but Asha puts in the internal work to be able to show up in a meaningful way for herself and for those around her. Asha Tarry …

Ada Velonis is the Founder of Marmalade + Kindness. Born and raised in Melbourne, she has always had a passion for baking and cooking. Being of Greek descent, food has always played a prominent role in practicing her culture and shaping her identity. Her fondest food memories are those she spent learning traditional holiday recipes under the wing o…

Andre is in tune with life in a very fascinating way. He reached the milestone of 24,000 minutes meditated so I had to have him on the show to talk about his journey. We chat about: Imitating Pop cultures version of meditation when he started How meditation has had a domino effect on his life "Metacognition of your own life's soundtrack" Recognizin…

Janelle Christa is a Hollywood coach, actress, producer, and screenwriter, and creator of “conscious entertainment”. Having come from a history of affairs, divorce, and family dysfunction as well as a bi-polar diagnosis, she strongly believes that happiness is a choice. Janelle’s level of expertise sees her coaching celebrity clients and people fro…

Alex and I met through a couple of friends just over 2 months ago now. I immediately felt his understanding of the world and the way that he articulated it was something special, so I had to have him on the podcast. I know that you'll feel the same way after listening to our conversation. We talk about: His introduction to meditation How he got int…

Devon and Craig Hase are such genuine people and speak about the deep topics of Buddhist Dharma in a very accessible way. They spread joy through their words and lighthearted nature and have recently published a book, "How Not To Be a Hot Mess" that captures so much of what makes them great to talk to, and offers a practical guide to living in toda…

Stefanie was a joy to talk to. She started meditating about 5 years ago and didn't maintain that consistently. Recent events within her life have caused her to reconnect with her meditation practice and that just so happened to be in the middle of the current global pandemic. We talked about: Burnout in her first job caused her to turn to Meditatio…

Miles has been on a couple of year long retreats and has found each of his experiences only further fuels his curiosity and wonder about his mind and the minds of others. He speaks very deeply about the precious inner workings of life backed by close to 10 years of devotion to these practices. We talk about: Doing a 10 day vipassana reatreat prior …

Sierre is a very interesting person to chat with. She combines a depth of knowledge with a thoughtful approach to looking at life. She's only been meditating for a little over a year and already speaks about life in delicate and amazing ways! We chatted about: How reading Andy Puddicombe’s book got her into meditation Mom’s present of Transcendenta…

I left this interview feeling more connected to the world and felt like I had traveled around the world as well. Mag is a magnificent storyteller and has made traveling a center piece to her life and marrying those two things is wonderful to experience. We chat about: How she got the travel bug at 11 years old when she lived in Italy for 3 years Wh…

Aaron is so in tune with the tiny details of life and how they play out in our realities. He was so fascinating to chat with that I threw out just some random questions I'd been pondering in my head and he answered them with poise and an amazing amount of thoughtfulness with each word. He is dedicating the foreseeable future to the monastic life an…

Cheryl has a contagious energy and speaks from her heart while she talks intensely about her struggles with anxiety. She's had a long career as a musician and she has a competitive drive that helped when she added meditation to her self-care routine. She's now over 600 days in to her practice and isn't looking back. We covered a lot of topics inclu…

Alex achieved a good amount of success in high school in both sports and academics. Little did he know the real world would give him a rude awakening that would eventually manifest in a panic attack. He turned to meditation after sifting through many self help guides and has seen great benefits since then. We talk about: Achieving a lot at an early…

Jeff has a breadth of knowledge that makes chatting with him a marvel. He has degrees in neuroscience and behavioral psychology as well as a masters of Buddhist studies from Hong Kong University. I was so eager to chat with him and get his thoughts that I threw a bunch of different topics at him and he did not disappoint with any of his answers. We…

Beauty is not only her name but also classifies the amazing energy she radiates when I talked to her. She has gone through some pretty traumatic experiences in her life and has chosen a path of healing rather than a path of self destruction. The strength and confidence by which she talks about each subject we cover is outstanding and you can feel h…

Tasshin is currently the Assistant Director at the Monastic Academy. Saying those words to 23 year old Tasshin would have made him laugh and he would have wrote them off. His journey and his transformation is truly fascinating. He talks from a place of experience about the foundational elements of what it means to be a human and speaks about them f…

Dr Danny Penman is a meditation teacher and award-winning writer and journalist. He currently writes features for the UK Daily Mail, having previously worked for the BBC, New Scientist and the Independent newspaper. He is co-author of the international bestseller Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World. I talk to Danny ab…

Heidi has been around the wholistic wellness world for a while, she holds a Doctorate in Psychology, is a Yoga Teacher, and teaches mindfulness based therapy to create a practice that looks at the whole person instead of just a couple of pieces. She has a ton of knowledge about what it takes to be a full human and she was a joy to chat with. We tal…

Xenia was experiencing bouts of depression and even suicidal thoughts and she knew that she either had to make a change or that the path she was on wouldn't end well. She decided that she needed to leave her unfulfilling job and leave her home country of Germany. She decided to make a significant change by moving to Canada as well as taking up a se…

Toby Sola dove into meditation in his teens when he was introduced to some contemplative practices through a neighbor who was willing to share them with him. Lyme Disease then caused him to dive even deeper into a meditation practice in a time in need. I loved this conversation because you can tell how long he's been practicing and how deeply he's …

Jakob Brewer has an amazing awareness about himself. He just recently started getting serious about meditation and achieved a milestone of 1,000 minutes of meditation time and I had to have him on to talk about his experience. We chat about: How a wild epiphany during meditation caused him to want to dive deeper Getting to 1,000 minutes of meditati…

Jay has a lot of experience in the design field and you can feel the mindfulness influence that he brings to his work. The way that he approaches thinking about design concepts is refreshing and forward thinking. We chat about: Getting exposed to meditation growing up in India and being taught the gayatri mantra How a jam session turned into gettin…

On this month's Catching up with Catching Z's, I talk about some recent conversations that I've been having with individuals about starting a meditation practice and the benefits it can have on your life. It's important to keep in mind why this practice is worth putting forth the effort and I dive into that on this episode!…

Karen Salmansohn is hilarious and is wonderful to talk to. She embraces her journey in life and talks about concepts in very digestible ways. She talks about how she has applied this to her most recent book, Instant Calm, which has 2 minute sensory meditations in it and is available everywhere August 27th. Pre-order it at the link below! We also ta…

Brian Aikens is doing amazing work in Pennsylvania teaching kids SEL and changing their lives from the inside out. He has an amazing dedication to his craft and has a true passion for helping kids. We talk about: How stressing out in graduate school got him introduced to meditation What effects he feels today from meditation Bringin SEL techniques …

Stephan is a licensed psychotherapist as well as a spiritual teacher, and he has been a pioneer in the integration of Eastern wisdom and Western psychology and in the embodiment of awakened awareness in everyday life. We had a wonderful, life-changing chat about many things but the direct approach to mindfulness he teaches is truly a life-changing …

Donald Altman was a fascinating person to chat with. His background is in psychotherapy, he's a former Buddhist monk, and grounded in a lot of research and science that comes through on almost every topic that we discuss together. We talked about: Being a buddhist monk at the age of 40 and how this formalized his meditation practice How a Cadbury c…

Lyonzo Vargas is a special soul and you get that vibe the minute you hear him talk. I had a great time talking to him about how he got to where he is and how visualization meditations have helped influenced that path. We chat about: How anxiety as an artist got him to find meditation The pressures that he had as an artist Using visualization medita…

This was a very special conversation for me to have with my role model, my inspiration, my father, Mike Zolfo. It gives you some good insight into why I am the way that I am. We talk about the ups and downs of being a father, how he has viewed being a father, what being a father means to him and the joy that this has brought him in his life. He giv…

Loch Kelly plain and simple changed the way that I look at mindfulness. He shares many wonderful tips about the technique that he has adopted he refers to as "effortless mindfulness". We tackle many other topics along the way. How a broadcaster talking about a quarterback with eyes in the back of his head got him into trying to do an early form of …