The Meaningfulistic Podcast

#15 - Catholic CBT with Greg Nolan

Greg Nolan of Birmingham UK is an accredited psychotherapist who has been working in Mental Health Services for nearly two decades. His practice is informed by a Christian perspective of the psyche (soul) and our relationship with the world around us. His core premise is that our intellect and free will govern our passions as enumerated by St. Thomas Aquinas. Greg does a great job of explaining the Thomistic understanding of the spirit, soul, and body composite, in a way that anyone with an open mind can understand.
Greg Nolan has his course on Overcoming Depression with Catholic CBT available online through his website that is christian-psychotherapy.co.uk and it is available to anyone who is struggling with depression and is open to the Christian concept of the human soul.
The difference between the soul and the spirit...
https://youtu.be/R2_t7nW6MZQ?si=xUuErdqr5R3Djb8v
https://youtu.be/60bb3n8YV44?si=-Unw-xM1E8c6gafm
 

#14 - The Meaning of Image and Thought

"Whereas the truth is that fullness of soul can sometimes overflow in utter vapidity of language, for none of us can ever express the exact measure of his needs or his thoughts or his sorrows; and human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars." - Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
https://www.yalom.com/books
https://emersoncentral.com/texts/nature-addresses-lectures/nature2/chapter1-nature/
https://www.instagram.com/meaningfulistic/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/498726518921895
 
 

#13 - Artheology with Steve Thomason

Follow the Cloud: "Every day I wake up and die to the myth that I am in control of my life."
Steve Thomason embraced his God-given artistic talent and his passion for ministry and combined them into "Artheology" = Art + Theology. His illustrations and animations have helped others to understand complex ideas and make them easy to remember and teach to others. He is the creator of a Cartoonist's Guide to the Bible.Steve Thomason is an associate professor of Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at Luther Seminary, a post-Evangelical, missional, neo-Lutheran theologian, rostered in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and an artist. 
I stumbled upon his vast catalogue of work while searching for an image to compliment the book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. 
A Cartoonist's Guide to the Biblehttps://cartoonistbible.com/
A Visual Book Review of The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidthttps://www.stevethomason.net/2018/09/17/a-visual-book-review-of-the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt/
Thketches: Social Trinityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe78DHHgF_s&ab_channel=SteveThomason
Robert Kegan's 5 Orders of Consciousnesshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW4LTqRJDW8&ab_channel=SteveThomason

#12 - The Enneagram and Christianity with Psych Apologist Dr. Jay Medenwaldt

In this episode, I enjoy a meaningful conversation with my first Ph.D. for the podcast, the Psych Apologist, Dr. Jay Medenwaldt. Have you ever wondered how personality tests can be so eerily accurate? What is the Enneagram and can Christians use this enigmatic tool to promote their spiritual growth? Dr. Jay demystifies the Enneagram and breaks it down based on scientific psychological research. Learn more about the Forer effect, cognitive bias, and how easy it is for our minds to trick us into believing in something.
https://www.jaymedenwaldt.com/p/about-me.html
The Enneagram: A window into the soul or a waste of time? by Dr. Jay Medenwaldt
Is the Enneagram Legitimate for Spiritual Growth? by Dr. Jay Medenwaldt
The Traditional Enneagram
The Enneagram: Spirituality it is Not by Father Mitch Pacwa
George Gurdjieff 
Gurdjieff Sacred Dance (see 3:00 and 4:30)
Gurdjieff Sacred Dance (modern)
Books:
The Enneagram, Helen PalmerThe Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, Richard RohrThe Road Back to You, Ian Morgan Cron

#11 - G.K. Chesterton and Baloo the Bear

What do G.K. Chesterton and Baloo the Bear have in common? They both believe in the bare necessities of life, of course. Logic and Faith both have their limitations and problems when taken in exclusivity. Balance the scales and be Meaningfulistic! Enjoy this meaningful journey through how I synthesize psychology, religion, and philosophy (bohemian as it may be).
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton audiobook
1947 Jungle Book
Disney's The Jungle Book - The Bare Necessities
 

#10 Extreme Ownership and Podcasting

This episode covers a short summary of the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin and how the impact of this book changed my life. I have been molded by the philosophy and psychology of Jocko Willink and the mental toughness that he embodies as a former Navy Seal Team leader. The Jocko Podcast was also my introduction to podcasting and has been instrumental to this endeavor. "GOOD!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8&ab_channel=JockoPodcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljqra3BcqWM&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
https://echelonfront.com/
https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057

#9 - Being Sensitive with Kendall Ryan

Kendall Ryan is a Human Resources Generalist with a gift of intuition and knowing how to read people. Our conversation is about being sensitive and how that is not a weakness. Men and women both fall into the spectrum of sensitivity and the world needs to hear how to appropriately address sensitivity through the lens of coping mechanisms and emotional intelligence. She discusses how emotions play into the five core concepts of emotional intelligence: social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and motivation. 
Get more of The Meaningfulistic on Instagram, and TikTok, and join the Facebook Group or email me at meaningfulistic@gmail.com.

#8 - Patron Saints with Deacon Matt Rust

Why do Catholics pray to saints? Deacon Matt Rust tells the amazing story of his special relationship with St. Padre Pio and the miracles that he has seen in his life through intercessory prayer. We talk about the vibrant community of faith with our heavenly brothers and sisters and how their prayers benefit us by virtue of their proximity to God. I ask him about how Christian men can pray to embrace more feminine qualities to be more complete. "We as the body of Christ are the bride of Christ, and so we as a whole take on these feminine, wifely attributes that make us submissive to Christ."
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles." Hebrews 12:1
Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was an Italian Franciscan Capuchin friar, priest, stigmatist, and mystic.
Books:The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of AvilaThe Life of St. Anthony the Great by Athanasius of Alexandria

#7 - Masculinity and Sensitivity with Sadiq

Is a man less masculine if he is sensitive? Men have been wrongly taught to suppress their feelings and it manifests later as addictions, depression, and violence. Male vocalists used to evoke passion, empathy, and a genuine yearning for love. A transition happened in music and media with the advent of drugs and the proliferation of a new false narrative for masculinity: money, power, and promiscuity. Sensitivity and emotional Intelligence can be used as a tool to become a more well-rounded individual. Sadiq of "An Honest Look at the End" podcast offers insights of his personal life and how we should take responsibility for the narratives we choose for our lives.
An Honest Look at the End? https://youtu.be/_Z4MqgvLymk
References:The Highly Sensitive: How to Find Inner Peace, Develop Your Gifts, and Thrive by Judy Dyer
Tupac Shakur 1988 High School Interview (minute 34:00)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_XT9-C5Qu8&t=461s
PSYOP Ghosts in the Machine:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA4e0NqyYMw
John Vervaeke's "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis" Episode #5: Plato and the Cavehttps://open.spotify.com/episode/3OzAKnjjkocZlGEv0q9Dkv?si=3fcdd5a362cd45f7

#6 - More Than Entertained with Brennan Garriques

In this episode, I have a meaningful conversation with Brennan Garriques, one of the founders of MoreThanEntertained.com. The vision of the website is to live in a world where the entertainment industry is used to prompt reflection on the divine. His article Lightning McQueen: What to do With Freedom, drew me in with its in-depth analysis and references to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Brennan Garriques quotes:
"The definition of virtue is the habitual disposition toward the good."
"I definitely was in touch with the ache in my chest there's like a painful experience of something, I don't know what.
"As I came into my faith more and more, I interpret now that painful experience in my chest, that something, as being God. Like an invitation, that painful longing, that I experience that I feel is a longing for God and a longing ultimately to be in heaven."
"Maybe write about it and talk about how we find God in secular entertainment; in movies, and music and books and maybe encourage other people too. And show them how we do it so that they might also be able to recognize truth, goodness, and beauty and elements of the divine in every day." - Brennan's idea at the core of morethanentertained.com
"Every encounter with beauty calls us to something, moves us to something."Greek word for beauty (kalen) means "to call" or "to becon".
Other Meaningfulistic quotes:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines freedom as “the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own responsibility” (CCC 1731).
"All of humanities problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone" - Blaise Pascal
"I asked the sea and the deeps, and the living creeping things, and they answered, 'We are not thy God, seek above us.'" - St. Augustine, Confessions.
"Beauty will save the world" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot. For Dostoevsky, "beauty” transcends aesthetics, and is what inspires the best in us, our aspirations for what is good and true, and what connects us to each other.
"There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be." - Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen
“Good food is like music you can taste, color you can smell. There is excellence all around you. You need only be aware to stop and savor it.” –Chef Gusteau, Ratatouille
"For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man." (CCC 1)
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” - C.S. Lewis