Deconstructing Yourself with Michael Taft

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What goes into making "a self," and how can we bring together the many aspects of who we are? Today Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson talk with meditation teacher, bestselling author, and podcaster (and their good friend) Michael Taft about moving from the spiritual to the secular and back again, ego dissolution, and how we can deconstruct ourselves. About Our Guest: Michael is a meditation teacher, bestselling author and neuroscience junkie. He’s been practicing meditation for over 35 years, and is the author of several books, including The Mindful Geek. Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube. Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction 1:30: Michael’s journey from the spiritual to the secular to back again. 5:00: LSD, yoga, and Shinzen Young 8:30: Reconciling the spiritual and the secular. 15:45: What is “deconstructing yourself?” 20:45: Ego dissolution and panic. 25:00: “Spiritual emergencies” and cautions around mindfulness. 29:20: Psychedelics and seeing the ego as an object. 31:00: Practices that help people see the empty nature of the self. 34:00: Key teachings for life’s long road. 45:00: A message to your younger self. 47:00: Recap Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month! Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Being Well, I'm Forest Hanson. If you're new to the podcast, this
0:12.2	is where we explore the practical science of last and well-being. And if you've listened
0:16.7	before, welcome back. I'm joined today as usual by Dr. Rick Hanson, so dad, how are
0:21.6	you doing today?
0:22.6	I'm really good, and I'm particularly tickled that we have this chance to talk with my
0:26.8	friend Michael Taft.
0:28.5	Yeah, so today is going to be a fun episode, I think, as we're joined by both a long time
0:33.3	meditator and a long time friend of yours and mine, as you said, Michael Taft. Michael
0:38.8	is a meditation teacher, best-selling author and neuroscience junkie. He's been practicing
0:43.6	meditation for over 35 years and specializes in teaching secular, mindfulness-based practices.
0:50.0	He's the author of several books, including The Mindful Geek and Nondualism, a brief history
0:55.3	of a timeless concept, and was also an early reader and editor of one of your bookstad,
1:00.4	Hard Warring Happiness. Michael's taught meditation at Google. He's worked on curriculum development
1:06.0	for the search inside your self-leadership institute, and finally, he's the founding editor
1:10.8	of the mindfulness meditation blog and podcast deconstructing yourself. So I'd like to start
1:16.4	if you're okay with it, Michael, with a quick background on you for listeners, and particularly
1:21.2	I'm wondering why you were drawn into meditation practice, particularly as a very secular person,
1:27.7	and having a very secular orientation in your own life. I wasn't always a super secular person.
1:33.6	I grew up with a lot of science and read a lot of science and did quite a bit of science
1:39.8	in high school and university and so on. So I do have a science background to a certain extent,
1:45.9	but in my family, it was definitely very non-secular. So both a lot of Christianity and a lot of
1:54.8	really wild out there stuff right under the surface. So it wasn't like visible, but
	...

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