Tag: spark my muse

EPS 49: The “Death Class” Trend – Guest Erika Hayasaski

Welcome to Spark My Muse!

Every Friday is a conversation with a guest. My guest today is Erika Hayasaki. She teaches workshops in nonfiction writing and classes in digital storytelling at the University of California, Irvine, where she is an associate professor in the Literary Journalism Program.

In her career as a journalist Erika’s seen many tragedies, but it was her involvement with Norma Bowe, the instructor of an unorthodox and very popular course at Kean University called “Death Class”, that showed her a completely different way to think about death and living and initiated her celebrated book project by that same name.

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Erika’s website is here.

GENERIC CAPTION hayasaki_091123_sz.jpg date shot 102909 photo by Steve Zylius/University Communications Erika Hayasaki arrived at UCI in September. She joins the faculty as an assistant professor in the Literary Journalism Program after working for the L.A. Times in their New York bureau.

Her book based on the Death Class.

 

SHOW NOTES

MIN 1 [Feb gift giveaway Facebook.com/sparkmymuse]

MIN  3 Erika’s journalism career and background.

MIN 7 Her spiritual religious context and upbringing / objectivity

MIN 12 How she was introduced to “Death Class” at Kean University with Norma Bowe,

and how the book about “Death Class” came about.

MIN 16 Field trips, general interest, fear of death, loss of a loved one, coming close to death are reasons people take the class.

 MIN 19 Seeing an autopsy and death up close and how that changes you.

MIN 21 A renewed appreciation and outlook on life and the preciousness of living. Less anxiety around death and disaster after the class.

MIN 23 How we get exposed to death or stressful things in life and how we can process the scary things in life better.

MIN 25 Death anxiety is relieved more when people process through the ideas around death.

MIN 26 The afterlife and processing death in social contexts.

MIN 27 The “Death Salon” or “Death Cafe” or “Death Dinners”

exploring with art, socially, and with food the concepts and reality of mortality.

MIN 29 Alternative burial movement happening. We have become removed from the entire process like we used to be from the birth process.

MIN 30 How we grieve a loved one. How the Amish care from their dead.

MIN 32 Being with someone as they die.

MIN 34 CLICK for death salon reading list

MIN 35 Her uncle’s near death experiences.

Thank you for listening!
I hope you come back Wednesday for a new episode called Soul School.
If you enjoyed the show, please poke around and listen to other episodes and share the show with a friend!

xo
-Lisa

 

 

 

Soul School – Lesson 18 – What you don’t know about Intuition

Thanks for coming by to listen to Soul School today. You can scroll down to the “Click to Listen” button below.

• Each Wednesday is Soul School! And now, if you want to go deeper, I offer something more: a video class based on the Lesson. To take part in that, you just subscribe as a supporting patron.

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Worksheet – lesson 18 [VARSITY CLUB] – click here
 

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On Friday, stop back for the next episode release of the week–a conversation with a special guest!

This time writer and award-winning journalist, Erika Hayasaki on the fascinating rise of “Death Salons” and the increasingly popular classes in Universities across the United States related to death. These trends reflect a cultural shift of people trying to get better acquainted with their own mortality and ease the anxieties that come with being so separated from terminal illness, end-of-life, dying, burial, and grief processes common in modern times and affluent cultures.

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xo
Lisa

EPS 48: Free Will, Luck, and Psychopaths- Guest Diana Hsieh

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Spark My Muse releases two audio episodes per week. 
WEDNESDAYS are SOUL SCHOOL episodes ( power-packed short episodes for everyday life. )

FRIDAYS are conversational interview style episodes with guests from a wide variety of backgrounds on interesting topics to get you thinking.

Today we are talking about control: Free will, luck (chance), and the power of nature versus nurture in how things in life turn out for us when it comes to these sorts of things. If you enjoy the show, share it with someone, or write a review on iTunes!

Today’s guest is Diana Hsieh, PhD in Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder

© Mark Stevens 2010
© Mark Stevens 2010

SHOW NOTES

MIN 6:30

Aristotle’s Ethics

What control in life entails.

MIN 8:00

The power to do something or not do something.

The conditions for moral responsibility and the knowledge of what we are doing.

MIN 10

Psychopaths and DNA. Nature, nurture, and moral responsibility.

James Fallon. Smithsonian Magazine article.

MIN 12:30

Environmental conditions and choice.

Maybe nature and nurture is a false dichotomy.

Blaming people who are raised in tough circumstances and keeping people accountable for their choices too because they know the consequences.

MIN 16:30

Common sense view that you reach an age where you know better.

MIN 18

Self knowledge is powerful. We all have tendencies we have to overcome.

MIN 19

In character building it help when we understand what we have control over and what we don’t.

Know what alternatives there are.

MIN 22

In defense of praise and blame. (How we can improve and be morally responsible.)

MIN 23

Make progress as best as you can.

MIN 24

Is morality relative? Whose morality is right?* (see my note below)

MIN 26

Looking at the practical effects of morality.

Value-based morality.

MIN 28

philosophyinaction.com

philosophyinaction.com/moralluck

*my note: This line of inquiry poses something interesting about a common worldview (though largely an unconscious one) in American culture and it is a discourse quite popular in some circles also about “culturally relative morality” vs. morality sourced and referenced in a Creator who is objectively good and perfect. C.S. Lewis reflects on this in his book “Mere Christianity”. If you are interested in commenting about this in any way, you can do so at the FACEBOOK group PAGE here.

 

Soul School – Lesson 17- Love What Was Lost

• SOUL SCHOOL comes out every Wednesday!
• On FRIDAYS return for a fascinating guest interview/conversation. (FIND THE other ones HERE.)

IF you enjoy Soul School, you represent the core listeners of Spark My Muse. Kindred Spirits.

Pay close attention for something new this month. I’m calling it Soul School-Varsity Club. (I was going to call it “Master Class” but, well, OPRAH…and it sounded a little pretentious for me to say it like that… So, nope.

Varsity Club is an access point to dig deeper into the Soul School topics because they interest you and you want to hear more. The Varsity Club is like upgrading from just a bite of cake to a slice of cake. MMM cake.

I’ll go into greater depth in video lessons, offer one-to-one opportunities to meet with me once a month if you want to, do some Q & As, have helpful devotional/worksheets resources for you to use, and also some extra goodies for a reasonable subscription cost.

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Let me know what you think about the Varsity Club idea and if you’d like to be a part of it. What do you think should be included? I’d love to hear from you as I work out the details…just CLICK HERE to let me know.

More info will come soon.

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When I recorded today’s episode I was alluding to Matt Khan’s work, but I used my own analogy of a WHITE FLAG on the hill of your heart.

• Here’s Matt’s book about loving loving what arises.

EPS 47: Specific Behaviors That Lead to Happiness – Guest Benjamin Hardy

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I like to define happiness as “sturdy joy” and there is some science that shows us that specific behaviors increase it in our lives. Benjamin Hardy’s article on the topic caught my attention and I had to have him on the podcast to share his findings.

Scroll down for detailed show notes and don’t forget to come back every Wednesday for a “Soul School” episode and each Friday for a special guest episode.

 

BenjaminHardy

Ben is a writer and a PhD candidate in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Clemson University.

Ben’s twitter

Ben’s website

SHOW NOTES

MIN: 1

Slipstream Time Hacking the book and Ben’s philosophy on “experienced time” and perceived reality.

The movie Interstellar

MIN 4:
Shortcuts to goals.

Medium

MIN 7:30
How do you define “happiness”?

State of mind no matter the circumstances.
Do something every day that terrifies you.

MIN 9:
Living according to your beliefs.

MIN 10:
Principles vs. moods
“every principle has a promise”

Happiness cannot be directly pursued. Happiness comes first (not after you get something or somewhere). “Happiness is the way.”

MIN 12:00
The Myers-Briggs test and being future thinking and not here and happy now.

Kolbe A Index text

MIN 14:30
“Be where you are.”

MIN 16:00
Studies show that Anticipation is better than the actual thing.
The Soul School episode on that very thing.

MIN 18:30
High Stakes and no exits and “the point of no return” and big promises

MIN 19:30
Tim Ferriss the stick works better than the carrot.

MIN 20
The endowment effect

MIN 22:00
#8 Do something every day that terrifies you.
Darren Hardy “Be courageous 15 seconds a day.”

Our anticipation builds up fears to think the outcome or experience are much worse than they actually are.

Push yourself to grow.

MIN 25:30
Most risks are inflated by our perceptions.

MIN 28
We adapt during our experiences. We can take on challenge to create growth.

MIN 29
#9 Put the important before the urgent

Defend the important from the urgent thing that suck away time from you.

MIN 32
Put things in order.

MIN 34
“If you wait for too many tomorrows you’ll find that you got a lot of empty yesterdays.”

Steven Covey

MIN 36
Setting time limits and realizing what your time is worth.

MIN 38
#10 Forego the good to pursue the best
Bad on your values.
“Never let a goal to be accomplished be more important than a person to be loved.”

Jim Collins “Good is the enemy of great.”

MIN 40:30
Ben’s goat farm experience with his wife Lauren.

WWOOF

VIDEO

Read the whole article:

The Secret to Happiness Is 10 Specific Behaviors