Zen in the Art of Monday Morning

A PODCAST ABOUT THE PRACTICAL, REAL-LIFE, DAY-TO-DAY APPLICATION OF MINDFULNESS.

A 10-episode series (plus one bonus episode) by OM Collaborative is now available.

Listen below, or on Apple Podcasts (iTunes), Spotify, and most other major podcast platforms.

We hope you enjoy the show! If so, please consider rating and reviewing on Apple Podcasts (iTunes). Send us an email at info@om-collaborative.com, we’d love to connect and hear what you think.

Episodes

Click episode title for notes, sources, and transcripts.

Part 1 - The Story

What if the path to contentment, purpose, and inner peace is right in front of us, but we just can't see it yet? In this first part (of 10) of Zen in the Art of Monday Morning, we explore Zen's origins over 2500 years ago in northern India with the first person to really get a handle on how our minds aren't always our best pals, what he discovered on his own search, and what it can mean for us today.

Part 2 - Black is White

We continue our Zen road trip from India to Japan, with Buddhism taking a pit stop in China for a few hundred years to hang out with one of the predominant philosophies, Taoism (spoiler alert: they really hit it off). Fear not, dear listeners! This is not all academic history blah blah… Monday morning is just around the corner, after all.

Part 3 - This Magic Moment

Our Zen road trip reaches its destination in Japan. We follow the finger pointing to the moon and talk about Zen practice for a little bit, and then explain what all of this has to do with Monday morning.

Part 4 - Roommate from Hell

How do I evict the jerk living in my own head? When I encounter a problem that I have the answer for, then my own inner dialogue can my best buddy - my ace-number-one copilot, but when I don't have the answer... my copilot can be hmm... less than helpful (to put it mildly). Part 4 - Roommate from Hell is about the not-always-so-awesome relationship many of us have with our own inner dialogue (and a mindfulness strategy for how to handle it when it starts to go off the rails).

Part 5 - Sales Pitch

I don’t know what I don’t know if I don’t know that I don’t know it. So how do I know? This week, I walk through the single most important daily activity in my entire life - meditation. While increasing in popularity, the practice continues to carry a stigma of being difficult, new-agey, time-consuming, or something that takes months or years before it pays dividends. None of this is true, so… What’s it gonna take to get YOU in a daily meditation routine, today?! It’s the sales event of the year! Discounts available. Operators are standing by.

Part 6 - A Backpack of Rocks

Memories can be wonderful - so can thoughts about the future, but when they become stories that drive thoughts of guilt, regret, anxiety, or dread, then they’re like a backpack of rocks - they weigh us down and can make it hard to stand up at all. What will it take to be able to put this backpack down?

Part 7 - Ancient Wisdom

Our most ancient wisdom is about 2,700 years old, but our species is about 300,000 years old - what took us so long? Maybe to know who we really are as humans, we need to remember what was true of us right from our start - to remember wisdom that is even more ancient than our own written history. Maybe we need to go back even further; to connect with what is so simple and grand that it is self-evident and shared among all beings across all time.

Part 8 - Your Job

So... what do you do? Not what do you do to make a living, but what do you do to make a life? This week is all about our jobs, our purpose, and if there is a difference between the two.

Part 9 - The Big Me

When life throws punches, how can I be the person I most want to be? Like everyone, I have the potential to be good, to make a difference, to not be baited, to have courage, integrity, and honor - to be the Big Me. The problem is... I also have the potential to be exactly the opposite: entitled, impatient, rude - the Little Me. How can I operate exactly as I want and need to?

Part 10 - Origin Story

Who you are and where you come from. Every superhero has an origin story, and this one is yours.

Part 11 - Love is a Roundtrip (bonus episode)

What if I had exactly what I needed in this very moment - the thing that would make everything all right? What if everybody did?