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My Best Life

Peter Kolakovic

Join Peter for deep, soul-stirring conversations with spiritual teachers, yogis, healers, conscious creators and everyday people as we explore the path to alignment, joy, and purpose. In every episode, Peter asks his guests one defining question: "What does it truly mean to live your best life?" From inner healing to intentional manifestation, discover diverse perspectives on how to create a life that feels good on the inside, not just one that looks good on the outside.

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#45
Monday · 59 min
#45 - What Went Quiet: Helen Armstrong on Finding Your True Self
Something happens when you spend years being told you’re “too much.” You learn to edit your feelings, soften your instincts, and trade your real voice for whatever gets approval. I sit down with Helen Armstrong, a former HR executive in financial services who built a high-status career while quietly losing touch with the most vibrant parts of herself. Her story lands right on the fault line many high achievers know well: your life can look successful and still feel strangely numb inside. We talk about masking at work, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and how identity gets fused to performance. Helen also shares what it looked like when her body began protesting: thyroid and throat issues, heart palpitations, fatigue, stress patterns, and big weight swings that mirrored how much emotional weight she carried. From nervous system regulation to learning how to hear a “true” inner voice under the monkey mind, she names the subtle ways we disconnect from ourselves long before we quit a job or blow up a life. Then we move into the work she does now through Claris Vox, or “clear voice,” including energy healing, vocal toning, and releasing trapped emotions with tools like the Emotion Code. We unpack the difference between safety and worthiness, and the coping responses that keep us “safe” while shrinking us: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. Helen also explains “voice beyond words,” her ability to connect with people who can’t communicate through typical channels, including those near the end of life, and what that taught her about love and fear. If any part of you has gone quiet, this conversation offers a way back. Subscribe for more, share this with someone who’s been dimming themselves, and leave a review with one line: what went quiet in you? https://www.helenarmstrong.life/ https://www.instagram.com/helenarmstrong.life/ Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#44
November 2 · 30 min
#44 - The Sacred Ordinary: Finding Wonder in Everyday Life
Your life might not need to be more extraordinary. It might need you to notice it again. We start with the most unglamorous place possible, an average morning, and ask why some moments sparkle while others blur into background noise. The answer leads straight into a problem most of us feel but rarely name: hedonic adaptation. The dream becomes normal, and normal becomes invisible, until we’re chasing the next upgrade just to feel something. From there, we explore a different path to meaning and well-being: changing the quality of attention. Zen Buddhism offers a practical lens that doesn’t require a mountaintop. Thich Nhat Hanh’s simple instruction “When you’re washing the dishes, wash the dishes” becomes a blueprint for presence in real life, the kind with traffic, teenagers, and long grocery lines. We talk about why the “real practice” often starts after meditation, and how ordinary chores can become a doorway instead of an obstacle. We also connect this to the psychology of awe, including research by Dacher Keltner, and why awe isn’t reserved for vacations and bucket lists. Wonder can come from kindness, music, a tree, a garden seed becoming a plant, or the sheer strangeness of consciousness and a body that keeps itself alive. Along the way, we name the risk of turning mindfulness into another performance review, and we hold a more honest truth: life can be hard and still contain beauty worth noticing. If any of this hits home, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. What’s one ordinary thing you’ll try to notice today? Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#43
October 26 · 1 hr 4 min
#43 - Beyond the Trip: Stephan Kerby on Psychedelics, Consciousness, and Transformation
A psychedelic experience can blow the doors off your sense of self, hand you a once-in-a-lifetime insight, and still leave you unchanged a month later. That tension sits at the heart of my conversation with Stephan Kerby, co-founder and lead educator at the Mindscape Psychedelic Institute, where he trains facilitators in trauma-informed psychedelic work and integration. We get specific about what makes 5-MeO-DMT (often called Bufo) so different from psilocybin, LSD, and “traditional” DMT. Stephan describes a largely non-visual, deeply embodied experience that can dissolve identity and open a non-dual reference point people usually associate with long-term meditation and contemplative practice. We also explore the upside and the risk of that kind of rapid ego disruption, including why “ego death” language can mislead people into thinking insight automatically equals maturity. From there, we move into the parts most people skip: integration that actually sticks. Stephan breaks integration into grounding, meaning-making, and living from the insight through repetition, nervous system regulation, and real-world habit change. We talk trauma, somatic release, informed consent, facilitator boundaries, why some participants feel unsafe, and how an exploding psychedelic industry can drift into spiritual performance instead of solid ethics. Stephan also shares why he advocates for synthetic 5-MeO-DMT to reduce harm to the Sonoran Desert Toad and to keep the conversation grounded in conservation and responsibility. If you care about conscious living, psychedelic integration, non-dual awareness, and doing this work with humility and safety, hit play. Then subscribe, share this with a friend who’s curious about psychedelics, and leave a review. What’s one “gold nugget” insight you’ve actually managed to live? https://mindscapeinstitute.org/faculty/stephan-kerby/ https://www.instagram.com/mindscape_institute/ Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#42
October 22 · 45 min
#42 - The Way that cannot be Named: Exploring the Wisdom of the Tao te Ching
Some ideas feel true the moment you hear them, even if you can’t fully explain why. We start with that tension at the heart of the Tao Te Ching: “The way that can be named is not the eternal way.” If the deepest reality can’t be pinned down by words, what does that mean for how we search for meaning, certainty, and control in everyday life? I walk through why Lao Tzu’s paradoxes aren’t evasions, they’re invitations to experience life more directly. From there, we explore the Tao as something closer to the natural unfolding of existence than a concept you can hold in your hand. Using the wave and ocean metaphor, we question the hard boundary we draw between “me” and “the world,” and what changes when we remember our dependence on nature, relationships, and conditions we didn’t create. That shift opens the door to one of Taoism’s most practical images: water. Water doesn’t compete, it adapts, it yields, and it still shapes landscapes over time. We connect that to conflict, identity, and the quiet power of listening without needing to win. Then we dig into wu wei, often called effortless action, and why “try harder” is sometimes the wrong tool. Sleep, meditation, music, and flow state psychology all point to the same lesson: the best action is often responsive rather than forced. We also talk desire, contentment, the usefulness of emptiness, humility, leadership, and the surprising kind of personal growth that comes from subtraction, not accumulation. If any of this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review, what’s one place you’re ready to loosen your grip? Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#41
October 19 · 1 hr 4 min
#41 – When the Body Speaks: Rosanne Nieboer on Chakras, Yoga, and Inner Wisdom
Something weird happens when your life looks “good” on the outside but you still feel unsettled inside. That disconnect can make you second-guess yourself, overthink everything, or push harder when what you really need is to listen. I sit down with Rosanne Nieboer, a yoga teacher, chakra practitioner, and host of the Chakra Way Meditation Podcast, to talk about what the body is trying to say when the mind keeps spinning. Rosanne shares the moment she hit a wall, including an intense bout of unexplained hip pain that cracked open a new way of seeing healing through the chakra system. We break down chakras in simple, grounded terms, how they relate to real-life patterns like boundaries, confidence, communication, and intuition, and what “blocked” versus “overactive” can look like in everyday experience. We also talk about why a holistic chakra reading looks at the full picture, not just one “problem area,” and how trauma, stress, and emotion can show up as sensations you can actually work with. From there, we zoom out to the deeper purpose of yoga beyond fitness and flexibility. We explore how ordinary poses reveal self-criticism, comparison, and the urge to push past limits, plus how pranayama can support the nervous system and help shift out of fight-or-flight. Finally, we tackle meditation for people who swear they “can’t meditate,” reframing success as awareness and spaciousness, not a silent mind, and offering guided meditation as a practical entry point. If you’re curious about chakra balancing, somatic healing, breathwork, and meditation for stress, this conversation will give you language and tools you can try immediately. Subscribe, share this with a friend who feels stuck, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. https://chakra-way.com/ https://www.instagram.com/yogawithrosanne/ Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#40
October 15 · 27 min
#40 - You are going to die: So how should you live?
You are going to die, and so am I. That fact can sound bleak, but when we stop treating it like background noise, it becomes one of the cleanest lenses we have for meaning, priorities, and attention. I walk through a set of traditions that have faced mortality head-on, not to be dramatic, but to get honest about how we’re spending our days. We start with modern life’s strange arrangement: death is constantly on screens, yet kept far away when it is real. From there, we step into Ancient Egypt and the Egyptian Book of the Dead, using the image of the weighing of the heart as a powerful prompt. If nobody asks about your job title, money, or followers, what do you hope your heart contains, and what do you wish you had taken out? Then we travel to Tibet and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, where the bardo names the in-between states that show up all through life: endings, identity shifts, losses, and uncertain transitions. Buddhist mindfulness of death (maranasati) and the lived experience of impermanence through vipassana meditation point to the same urgency: stop assuming you have unlimited time. Stoicism and Marcus Aurelius add a bracing perspective on fame, status, and why so many worries shrink when you remember you’re finite. I offer two grounded practices, the one-year question and the deathbed test, to turn reflection into action without blowing up your life. If it resonates, subscribe, share this with someone you love, and leave a review so more people can find it. What would you change today if you stopped postponing joy? Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#39
October 12 · 1 hr 1 min
#39 - The High Road: Len May on Cannabis, Consciousness, and Intention
Two people can take the same THC gummy and end up in completely different realities, and that’s not just “tolerance.” Len May joins us to explain how cannabis genetics, human DNA, and pharmacogenomics change the way cannabinoids and terpenes land in your body. Len’s journey starts with an ADD diagnosis, prescription meds that helped him focus but numbed his emotions, and a first cannabis experience that quieted the mental noise and unlocked real flow. That personal puzzle eventually led him from activism and dispensaries into plant genomics, human genomics, and building EndoDNA. We get practical with cannabis science without losing the plot. Len breaks down the endocannabinoid system and why it matters for homeostasis, then zooms out to the full plant story: THC and CBD are only part of the picture, and terpene profiles can shift effects from calm to stimulation. From there, we go deep on why edibles can be a “perfect storm” for some people, how cytochrome P450 genes impact THC metabolism, and why THC has a narrow therapeutic window where “more” can quickly become anxiety, paranoia, or a rough multi-hour ride. We also talk mindful cannabis use, set and setting, accountability, and how to think about dependence versus using cannabis as a tool. Finally, we tackle the big question behind personalized medicine: who owns your genetic data, and what should real privacy look like as AI-driven health platforms grow? If you care about safe dosing, cannabis anxiety, terpene effects, or truly personalized wellness, this conversation will change how you think about the plant. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share this with a friend who has had a bad edible experience, and leave a review with your biggest question about personalized cannabis. https://www.lenmaycoaching.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lenmaydna/ Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#38
October 5 · 57 min
#38 - What is your fear trying to tell you? Kelly Keefe on healing, purpose and trusting yourself
Fear can feel like a stop sign, but what if it’s actually a signal flare from the part of you that still thinks you’re not safe? I sit down with Kelly Keefe, a transformational coach, Reiki master teacher, speaker, and author of Rise Above Fear, to unpack what fear is beneath the story, and why “just push through” often backfires when the nervous system is still bracing for an old wound. We get practical and honest about how the subconscious mind and imagination can create real stress in the body, even when the threat is only hypothetical. Kelly shares her own turning points, from early adversity and major life changes to a surprising doorway into Reiki energy healing. We talk limiting beliefs formed in childhood, how the ego searches for proof that you’re “right” about being not enough, and how body mapping can help you catch fear in real time by noticing tension, tightness, and shutdown patterns. From there, we widen the lens: spiritual traditions that frame fear through impermanence, love, and presence, plus grounded tools for sustainable transformation. Kelly breaks down Reiki in clear language for curious skeptics, explains energetic alignment, and shares what it means to live heart-centered through her work at the Heart Space. We also explore writing as a sacred act of listening, why stories can teach what direct instruction sometimes can’t, and a powerful reframe of purpose as the medicine you bring to the world. If you’ve been circling a change and waiting to feel “ready,” this conversation offers a new way to relate to fear without letting it drive. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share this with a friend who’s stuck at the edge of a leap, and leave a review so more people can find the show. https://thekellykeefe.com/ https://www.instagram.com/thekellykeefe/ Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#37
October 1 · 13 min
#37 - When the World Winks: Synchronicity, Signs and the Mystery of Meaning
A dream says I backed my car into something, and hours later I’m standing outside staring at a shattered rear windshield, trying to decide whether I should laugh, panic, or listen. That jolt of “was that a sign?” is the doorway into a deeper question: how do we take meaningful coincidences seriously without making claims we can’t support? I share another moment that still stops me cold, a squirrel in a park that falls from a tree seconds after I remember a video of the exact same thing. From there, I explore Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity, the feeling of an inner event and an outer event meeting with startling timing. We talk about why the brain is so good at pattern recognition, how selective memory and confirmation bias can make the “hits” glow brighter than the countless “misses,” and why acknowledging that doesn’t erase the value of the experience. We also get practical. I break down a simple, grounded way to respond when something feels like a symbol or spiritual sign: pause, describe what actually happened, ask what it brings up in you, then give your interpretation time before acting. Along the way, I connect this to mindfulness and meditation, not as a code-cracking tool, but as training in noticing how quickly we turn life into a story and how much opens up when we wait a beat. If you’ve ever wondered about dreams, signs, symbols, synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who loves a good mystery, and leave a review. What coincidence still stays with you, and what did it feel like in your body when it happened? Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#36
September 28 · 1 hr 1 min
#36 - Find your North Star: Brigitta Dau on creativity, intuition and living your values
Your brain can understand what needs to change while your body stays braced, tired, and stuck in familiar loops. That gap between insight and action is where so many good intentions die, so we brought on Brigitta Dau to talk about change as a whole-person process that includes mind, body, energy, and creativity. Brigitta is a certified life coach, Reiki master, author, speaker, and craft teacher, and her path from professional acting to coaching gives her a rare lens on identity shifts, reinvention, and self-trust. We get into the practical heart of her work: values based living. Brigitta explains why “having values” isn’t enough until you turn them into verbs and start acting them daily, even when your job, schedule, or season of life feels limiting. We also explore creativity as medicine and why the fear of making “bad art” keeps adults from the very play that would restore their energy. If you’ve ever said “I’m not creative,” you’ll walk away with simple exercises to reopen that door and use your hands to quiet overthinking. Then we move into energy hygiene, boundaries, and the modern attention crisis. Brigitta breaks down Reiki in clear, approachable terms and shares small daily practices for clearing what isn’t yours, calling your focus back, and noticing when you’re leaking energy through people pleasing, multitasking, or doomscrolling. We also talk social media detox strategies that actually work, plus how to find your North Star by letting values lead your goals rather than chasing someone else’s map. If any part of this hits home, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation. What’s one boundary or value you’re ready to live more boldly this week? https://www.brigittadau.com/ https://www.instagram.com/brigittadaucoaching/ Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#35
September 24 · 30 min
#35 – [Solo] - Who am I? Ramana Maharshi, Alan Watts and the mystery of the Self
“Who am I?” sounds like the kind of question you can solve with a better explanation of yourself, but that’s the trap. Your job, your story, your beliefs, your personality, even your spiritual identity can all be true and still miss what the question is pointing to. We explore why the mind’s best answers often become fresh concepts that keep you stuck at the level of thought. We draw from the contemplative tradition of self-inquiry, including Ramana Maharshi’s Atma Vichara and the neti neti approach of “not this, not this.” Instead of collecting new beliefs like “I am awareness,” we slow down and investigate what’s happening in direct experience: sensations in the body, thoughts as they appear and vanish, emotions that rise and fade. If you can observe all of that, what exactly is the observer? We also bring in Alan Watts’ wave metaphor, the subject-object problem of trying to “find” the one who is looking, and the sneaky upgrade known as the spiritual ego. We talk about meditation, identity defense, and why even powerful mystical or psychedelic states can become just another story the mind tells. The episode closes with a short guided practice you can do wherever you are, pointing you back to the simplest fact of being before labels attach. Subscribe to My Best Life, share this with a friend who loves mindfulness and nonduality, and leave a review if the inquiry lands for you. What do you notice when you stop answering and simply look? Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#34
September 21 · 1 hr
#34 - Joe Hehn - From grief to self-mastery: Finding meaning after losing everything
One phone call can split your life into a before and an after. For Joe Hayne, it was his wife’s cancer diagnosis and the grief that followed her death. What he does next sounds dramatic on the surface, quitting his job, putting everything in storage, and taking a one-way flight to South America, but the real story is quieter and harder: learning how to stay alive when you don’t want to die, yet you also don’t want to live. We talk with Joe about the pressure of chasing external validation, the negative bias of the mind, and why so many of us can “do everything right” and still feel empty. Joe shares the spiritual experiences that cracked his worldview open, including uncanny synchronicities, dreams, and messages that pushed him to ask bigger questions about consciousness and meaning. From Nepal to India to China to Europe and the Middle East, he studies Buddhism, Taoism, Stoicism, and Sufism, then distills what they have in common: presence, acceptance, and the ability to respond instead of react. Joe breaks acceptance into three practical targets: accepting yourself, accepting the circumstance, and accepting others. We dig into impermanence as a daily tool (including his “midnight” reminder), and his definition of self-mastery through a simple mantra: I’m proud of myself, I’m doing the best I can, and I believe in myself. Joe also explains how he teaches these ideas today through mindset coaching, self-care practices, and evidence-informed tools like CBT and NLP, including inside corporate workshops and one-on-one work. If you want a grounded approach to mindfulness, grief recovery, and living with purpose, hit play, then subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more people find the show. https://joehehn.com/ https://www.instagram.com/joe.hehn Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#33
September 17 · 22 min
#33 – [Solo] - The attention trap: Reclaiming your mind in a distracted world
You know the feeling: you grab your phone for one small, legitimate reason and suddenly you’re twenty minutes deep into videos you never meant to watch. That isn’t just a goofy habit. It’s a clue that our attention is being trained, pulled, and monetized, often without our consent. We talk about why modern life feels so interrupted, how the attention economy works (notifications, infinite feeds, autoplay, and the psychology of unpredictable rewards), and why the real question isn’t “How much screen time do I have?” but “Who is deciding where my attention goes?” We also zoom out. Attention isn’t only a productivity skill; it’s how life becomes vivid. If your mind is always elsewhere, days blur together, meals lose their taste, walks lose their color, and even the people you love can start to feel like background noise. We explore the spiritual side of attention too: silence can bring up anxiety, loneliness, grief, or dissatisfaction, and distraction can become a way to avoid what’s true. That’s why reclaiming focus can feel uncomfortable at first, and why it’s so worth it. From meditation to daily habits, we keep it practical. You’ll hear simple experiments you can try today: pausing before you unlock your phone, protecting the beginning and end of your day, single-tasking, restoring small pockets of boredom, turning off nonessential notifications, and choosing something worthy of sustained attention. Try the brief one-minute practice near the end, then see what changes when you “notice and return.” If this helped you, subscribe to My Best Life, share it with a friend who’s tired of endless scrolling, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What is one small change you’ll make to protect your attention this week? Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#32
September 14 · 1 hr 1 min
#32 - Michael Dorfman - Longevity in action: How to thrive in your 80s and beyond
If you’ve been told your best years are behind you, Michael Dorfman has a different message and he’s living it. Michael is a health and nutrition coach, investigative author, and speaker who’s 84 and a half, plays pickleball regularly, and says he doesn’t just “get by” in his 80s, he thrives. We talk about what it really takes to build longevity, high energy, and resilience without getting lost in diet wars, fear-based health headlines, or the idea that decline is inevitable. We dig into the long-term case for a whole food plant-based diet, why ultra-processed foods quietly wreck health, and why fiber may be the most underrated longevity tool in the modern American diet. Michael shares the heart disease story that shifted his trust in conventional care, plus what he’s learned from the Blue Zones: plant-forward eating, daily movement, strong community, stress relief practices, and purpose that pulls you out of bed in the morning. Then we get practical and a little unconventional. We explore “positive stress” and resilience training through meditation, breathwork, intermittent fasting, hot and cold showers, and functional movement like crawling and hanging. The bigger takeaway is mindset: the identity you choose, the curiosity you keep, and the responsibility you take for your health can shape how you age far more than most people realize. If you want more energy, better habits, and a clearer plan for healthy aging, listen now. Subscribe to the podcast, share this with a friend who needs hope about aging, and leave a review telling us which practice you’re trying first. Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#31
September 10 · 24 min
#31 – [Solo] - It’s Not About Touching Your Toes: The Deeper Meaning of Yoga
Yoga gets sold as flexibility, fitness, and stress relief, but that version leaves out the part that actually changes a life. We start with a simple question: when you say “I do yoga,” do you mean poses, or do you mean a way of meeting your mind, your breath, and the people around you? I share how I began yoga in my early forties as the least flexible person he knew, and why that disadvantage became a teacher. An unconventional doorway, including cannabis and an intuitive stretch that unlocked real tension, turns into a deeper commitment to embodiment, discipline, and curiosity. The takeaway is not that anyone needs a substance to practice, but that yoga begins when we learn to listen to the body instead of performing for an imagined audience. From there we widen the lens: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras on stilling the fluctuations of the mind, the difference between forcing control and cultivating quiet awareness, and why asana is only one limb of a much larger path. We talk pranayama as more than “breathing bigger,” the eight limbs of yoga, and the everyday power of yamas and niyamas like non-harming, truthfulness, non-grasping, contentment, and self-study. The Bhagavad Gita brings it home with “yoga is skill in action,” a practical framework for work, conflict, parenting, ambition, and disappointment. If you’ve ever wondered what yoga philosophy looks like in real life, press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who thinks yoga is only stretching, and leave a review with the one place you want to practice “off the mat” next. Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#30
September 8 · 1 hr 1 min
#30 - Sharon Salzberg - Love is an ability: Meditation, loving-kindness and beginning again
Pain doesn’t disappear because we avoid talking about it. Sharon Salzberg explains why Buddhism’s willingness to name suffering can feel like relief, even like belonging, and how that simple honesty helped redirect her life after a childhood marked by loss and instability. From that starting point, we follow the thread that took her to India at 18 and into the intensive meditation training that later helped bring Insight Meditation and loving-kindness into Western life through the Insight Meditation Society. We get practical about what actually changes when you practice: concentration to steady attention, mindfulness to meet whatever arises without clinging or pushing away, and loving-kindness (metta) as the quiet force that keeps the whole path humane. Sharon also flips a common fear on its head: the mind wandering is not failure. The real skill is noticing you’ve drifted and returning, again and again, building resilience you can use with distraction, stress, and the pull of your phone. Then we go deeper into the heart practices. “Love is not a feeling, it’s an ability” becomes a framework for self-talk, repair after mistakes, and showing up for strangers without forcing a mood. We also talk about compassionate boundaries, what forgiveness is and is not, and why daily life, interruptions included, is the real testing ground for mindfulness meditation. If you want a grounded conversation on mindfulness, loving-kindness meditation, compassion, and real-world practice, press play. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/ Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#29
September 3 · 30 min
#29 - [Solo] - The Shadow Knows Your Name: Meeting the Parts of Yourself You’d Rather Avoid
You ever notice how we “work on ourselves” in the brightest, safest places and still keep losing the same keys? We start with a simple streetlight story, then walk straight into Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow: the parts of your personality you learned to hide in order to stay loved, safe, and accepted. And no, the shadow isn’t just cruelty or greed. It can also be your buried confidence, your creativity, your strength, and your honest desire to be seen. We dig into why the shadow shows up so loudly in relationships through projection. When someone’s behavior triggers an outsized reaction, it may be pointing to something you don’t permit in yourself. We also talk about spiritual bypassing and wellness culture, where “good vibes only” becomes a sophisticated way to deny grief, anger, fear, and real boundaries. Compassion matters, but it doesn’t mean pretending nothing hurts. From meditation and Vipassana to dreams and psychedelics, we explore the tools that can reveal the unconscious, and the hard truth that insight isn’t the same as integration. The work meets you in ordinary life: criticism, disappointment, conflict, and the moments you feel defensive. Our aim isn’t perfection. It’s wholeness, the capacity to hold contradictions consciously and act with responsibility. If you’re ready to stop running toward the light and start carrying it into the dark, listen now. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with the trigger you’re learning to understand. Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#28
August 31 · 1 hr
#28 – Bryan Blackmon – Beyond rock bottom: Sobriety, self-worth and the journey back to yourself
Rock bottom isn’t always one catastrophic event. Sometimes it’s years of noise inside your own head, until one morning the noise stops and you finally hear the truth. Brian Blackman knows that silence. After a long run through alcohol, heroin, meth, homelessness, jail, and prison, he reaches a moment that changes his direction for good: looking in the mirror and hearing four words that land like a life raft, “You are worth it.” We talk through what addiction feels like from the inside, why so many assumptions about people struggling with substance use are wrong, and how anger and old family wounds can quietly steer your choices for decades. Brian also shares the habits that keep him grounded now: gratitude before his feet hit the floor, protecting his morning from outside inputs, sitting in stillness, reading Stoic wisdom, and closing the day with a gratitude journal and meditation. It’s a real-world look at mindset, discipline, and recovery that doesn’t rely on perfection or overnight change. Brian also tells the story behind Crab Crew Life, the coaching community he built after going viral online. He breaks down the crab as a symbol of resilience and adaptability, the “crab mentality” that pulls people back down, and why his coaching starts with listening and one percent gains that add up like compound interest. If you’re rebuilding after addiction, burnout, or a personal collapse, this conversation offers a grounded path toward self-worth, community, and a peaceful life. If this resonates, subscribe, share the episode with someone who needs a fresh start, and leave a review so more people can find these stories. Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#27
August 27 · 26 min
#27 - [Solo] - The Cosmic Joke: Psychedelics, Rebirth and the Mystery of Being
A single day can split your life into “before” and “after” and sometimes that dividing line is not a milestone like marriage or illness, but a few hours of radically altered consciousness. We tell the story of a first high-dose psilocybin mushroom journey from the inside: the moment a quiet lake seems to wake up, the choice to put on eyeshades and go inward, and the heavy, unmistakable message that lands like a bell, “you must die to be reborn.” Not physical death, but the surrender of an identity you’ve been protecting for years. From there, the experience turns strange and tender at the same time: an operating-room atmosphere that feels like spiritual surgery, the sense of presences nearby, and a return-to-the-womb feeling that blurs memory, time, and self. Then the pressure breaks into the cosmic joke, laughter so deep it topples you off the couch, followed by music that stops being background sound and becomes a whole-body event. We talk about time distortion, the temptation to slap labels on everything, and why it’s honest to admit you don’t know what was literal, symbolic, neurobiological, or something else entirely. But we don’t leave the story at visions. We go into psychedelic integration and what actually lasts: the comedown, nausea, and the way perception can stay open in everyday places like a museum. We share how noticing one small shift around alcohol created enough space to quit a long habit, and how meditation, yoga, and breathwork became the quieter practices that turn a peak experience into a real life. If you care about set and setting, harm reduction, ego dissolution, and what “transformation” looks like after the trip ends, hit play. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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#26
August 24 · 58 min
#26 - TeZa Lord - Beyond the veil: exploring consciousness, psychedelics and the mystery of existence
Your outer life might not be attacking you at all; it might be reflecting you. That’s where our conversation with TeZa Lord goes fast, starting with Carl Jung, the shadow, and the uncomfortable truth that real change begins inside the mind and nervous system, not in the headlines. TeZa is an author, artist, yogi, and meditation teacher with decades of seeking behind her. She shares the moments that cracked her world open, including a Nantucket UFO sighting later tied to Project Blue Book, and how it pushed her to stop accepting secondhand “truth.” From there we explore what she means by spirit as consciousness and oneness, why she doesn’t try to “prove” spirituality to skeptics, and how lived experience often reshapes the limits of what we think is possible. We also dive into plant medicine and psychedelics, the Indigenous roots of divination plants, and why these therapies are resurfacing through PTSD, anxiety, and modern overload. TeZa talks about safety, guidance, and integration, and why many people naturally turn toward yoga, breathwork, and meditation afterward. Her own path includes scoliosis, trauma, Transcendental Meditation, and a kundalini awakening that revealed the mind-body connection in a way she couldn’t ignore. Finally, we connect spirituality and ecology, framing Gaia and Earth care as a practical daily practice: use less, think better thoughts, and heal yourself so you can show up differently in the world. If you found something here that landed, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. What idea are you taking into your day? https://tezalord.com/ Love these conversations? Support My Best Life and help keep inspiring stories like this coming.
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