Self-Awareness Episodes

In this podcast, host, Jeffrey Besecker discusses the significance of goal setting in defining one's purpose and achieving personal growth. While setting goals can be motivating, it can also lead to anxiety and unfruitful energy if not approached with balance. The podcast interviews a financial advisor and behavior coach, Chad Hufford, who recognizes that his role is more about behavior management than money management. Hufford shares his journey and highlights the importance of coaching peop...

In this episode of The Light Inside, host Jeffrey Besecker explores the importance of active listening in our increasingly polarized world. He is joined by professional communication coach, Jonathan Miller, who shares insights on how showing compassion, consideration, and thoughtfulness can lead to more authentic and engaging relationships. Discover the power of effective communication and how it can help us move beyond conflict and connect with others on a deeper level. Tune in to this though...

We all have our preferences.Everything from the clothes we wear, to the car we drive, and even our favorite flavor of ice cream. And typical of us, we each feel our preference to be the best option, not only for ourselves but for others as we. In reality, our core beliefs shape the way we view the world in many ways. This week, we also talk with neuroscientist, Dr. Mark Williams about how our beliefs shape our reality - and how we can use this knowledge to live a more fulfilling and harmonious ...

In this episode, guest, Rachel Lavin and host Jeffrey Besecker, discuss healthy ego development and empowering our ego to work for us rather than against us. "I struggled with that for so long until I just got tired of the chatter. I got tired of the anguish and I got tired of feeling like I wasn't living my authentic life." -guest, author, fitness trainer, and well-being coach, Rachel Lavin The guest, Rachel, is a personal trainer, health coach, body love educator, and author of the book "Don...

Emotions. They play an essential role in creating our perceptions throughout life. They signal awareness of our current circumstances and guide our day-to-day interactions. They determine, to varying degrees, our thoughts, feelings, and interactions. Yet, for many of us, putting our thoughts and feelings into words can be particularly difficult. Naming our emotions enables more effective self-regulation by engaging various mechanisms within our emotional and physiological systems. Our guest ...

Denial. We’ve all heard that somewhat childish joke. You the one - about how ‘it’s not just a river in Egypt’. Yet, when it comes to why we blame others, we often find ourselves swimming in a river of it. And when things truly fall apart, and our ability to navigate conflict floats south… Sometimes, as things go wrong, we're often quick to point fingers. And We frequently find ourselves deflecting responsibility; offering, instead - tons of denial. When it comes to blame, many theories exist ...

Marketing Professor, Dr. Aaron Ahuvia and host, Jeffrey Besecker discussed the psychology of love and how it applies to why people love 'things', with Aaron being the first to publish empirical work on the topic. They discussed how pleasure and identity are two factors that guide people to the things they love, and how love is connected to bonding in other mammals. Aaron Ahuvia suggests that loving something is finding it to be so excellent that you want to make it part of who you are. He exp...

Constructive criticism. Why does it often seem to so hard to find clear, direct, and honest feedback - And even more so, why is it that we can be so hard on ourselves? This podcast examines the difficulties of finding constructive criticism and how deconstructive criticism can lead to negative feedback loops, so-called demoralizing situations. The host looks at pattern interruption as a tool to break free from negativity, and also considers the triggers of self-loathing such as trauma, perfect...

In this episode, Clarissa, a 36 year old hairdresser from a small Midwestern town, struggles to find her place in the world amidst her family's criticism and judgements while navigating the power dynamics of experiential rationalization. Self-doubt. We often wear her blanket of insecurity like a well-worn and bloodied shield. Her insidious torment, a thunderous echoing in our ears. You have probably heard them - the millions of questions that sometimes filter through our mental framing as we co...

Our individual pursuit of growth and excellence does not always equate to joy, due to regular responses, beliefs and self-doubt. Today we learned that Hedonic adaptation, on the surface - can be beneficial. Yet taken to extremes, can lead to emotional dysregulation and destructive coping mechanisms. Judging our emotions can influence our psychological well-being, inhibiting our ability to effectively move away from dissatisfaction. Therefore, the trap of the hedonic treadmill creates anxiety, ob...

When Allen Klein, spurred on by the power of intention and the awe of childhood, sets out to march in the Macy's Day Parade, he discovers that life's greatest wonders can be found in unexpected places. "If you can't find the humor, that may be the second best thing you can do. Try to be positive about what's happening. Right, so the dictionary, if you look it up, one of the definitions, it's reverence mixed with fear and wonder." Allen Klein is a former set designer and author of multiple books...

Pain. Our emotional reactivity frequently causes it to surface as the emotional turmoil we feel. You’ve perhaps heard this clique, and often worn phrase - “We can’t grow without pain; or maybe - it’s discomfort”? But, what if we can and DO…frequently grow; in states that exist free of this existentially created and self-inflicted state of pain and suffering? "If you're feeling helpless, frustrated, and overwhelmed as you try to navigate the complexities of your autonomic nervous system." Desp...

When J. Stamatelos confronted his anxious insecurity; he discovered the underlying power of self-acceptance and the vicious cycle of validating oneself through the love and acceptance of others - creating a central conflict between self-validation and external validation. Courage. Perhaps it is the virtue that enables the existence of all others. True virtue is knowing the self - not by intellectual knowledge - but by pure silence. Seeing things with new eyes requires courage and uncertainty. Y...

2022. -- What a year, what an amazing journey, and what a fascinatingly thought-provoking ride. We couldn't have been more thrilled to share that ride with you; yet now, we turn our eyes toward, a new year and new chapters. But first, we hope to share a little insight with this mindful reminder... Every new year we do it - relentlessly piling more and more on our plates. It’s really exhausting, is it not? More to-do-lists. More goals. Bigger and better aspirations. Why? Because we are more-...

Screen time. It’s the new currency utilized when measuring how our children spend much of their time interacting with the world. With the holiday season upon us, many of us will be giving the gift of technical access to the young ones throughout our lives. Spreading accessibility to gadgets, games, and even communication or learning devices. Yet, with this gift comes empowering access to a connected world of data, influence, and interaction. A world that inevitably might also contain what is s...

Blind spots. We each have them. In the context of personal change, why is it we often settle for "good enough?” Our past emotional traumas amplify deflection and uncomfortable avoidance in most of us. with psychological blind spots that everyone else can see but us. So just how do we find these answers? - with a little daring, some honest reflection, and self-examination. One of the toughest self-awareness missions you can undertake is a direct seek-and-destroy attack on your own pockets of ...

Yes…At the behest of alienation, testing the current trends, harsh judgments, losing listeners, and the endless guffaw of our peers… It’s true that we gleefully offer a rather playful and hardy - Bah, humbug! Despite the popular beliefs about what it means to navigate a successful podcasting venture, the Light inside is rather boldly and haughtily disregarding those beliefs. Bucking the prevailing notion of redundant constancy, only to return to both renewed and refreshed - as our third season o...

Motion. It implies movement. With all motion inferring a dynamic “mover”. Matter is dormant, yet humans are an active power - a free will; so it stands to reason, there must be within them an immaterial principle. A guiding force - something BIGGER. Both immortal and eternal…Right? As our questioning turns to the soul, science leads us to challenge the consensus. Are we souls, bodies - or some divine combination of the two? One famous critic of the soul, Nancey Murphy captures this “leftover”...

Knowledge. It’s one of the only resources that grows as we share it. Yet sometimes, that’s not so easy. Why do we sometimes find it so difficult to share our knowledge? And furthermore - why does at times it seem so challenging to accept the valid input and constructive criticism of others? Since ancient times, when the words “know thyself” were inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, sages and philosophers have hailed the importance of self-knowledge. Modern research, however, has called...

Your inner voice. That light inside - the being that we are being. Society and our daily interactions seem to increasingly focus on exploring the concept of "authenticity." Even going so far as to question - Does a self exist at all? As a result, we are left scrambling to find a meaningful way to define when someone is acting genuinely and authentically. What does this seemingly mystical and confounding thing look like and how do we recognize it? Finding our “voice” is often attributed to bei...

Constructive criticism. Why does it often seem to so hard to find clear, direct, and honest feedback? And even more so, why is it that we can be so hard on ourselves? As we each move though our day-today lives, what happens when our self criticism becomes something worse- more sinister. While constructive criticism can often be both beneficial and effective. Destructive criticism, on the other hand, happens as we focus solely on our problems. This kind of feedback, offering no encouragement, ...

Happiness. Its often thought to grow in direct proportion to our level of acceptance. Yet, expectations frequently limit our ability to connect with the lives we lead. More than anything, our expectations often shape and color our perception of a possible reality; impacting those around us. And at times, they even become a self-fulfilling prophecy. After all… be careful what you wish for - it just MIGHT come true. We speak today with Embodiment coach and Transformational Healer - Desiree Cami...

By The Age of five, the word “NO’ is etched in our brains - happening at a startling 60,000 times. And for a long time, the only window to the mind was through introspection. This posed a methodological problem as a result of the unreliable and disruptive nature of meta-cognition — a state also known as” thinking about one’s own thoughts.” We often experience it — the cycle of negative thought patterns clouding our perception of life. Why is it perhaps, we tend to have a hard time with the wo...

If you joined us last week, you learned how our biases influence so much of our reality. Shaping and moving how we each see things.We also talked a bit about that great classic movie - the Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz is a fantastic movie that tells an allegorical story with many different layers and symbolism. Whether intentional or not - It was a great reminder that everything I need I already have if I only look within. -To see that light that already shines inside. What can we learn fro...