Redeeming Disorder

Listen now (109 min) | We're back to interviews on Redeeming Disorder! Guided meditations 1-12 will remain up on the podcast for your use whenever you like, and in the meantime, it feels good to get back to real stories of mental disorder. Today's story is a special one whose subject matter hits home for me: Todd Herzog's struggle as an alcoholic. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (41 min) | You did it! Congrats on graduating from this 12-day meditation challenge. Review what you learned anytime through this final meditation tying it all together. I’m wishing you love and well-being in both practice and life. Support Redeeming Disorder by contributing to their Tip Jar: Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (25 min) | This meditation’s opening quote is from the Pirkei Avot of the Rabbinic Jewish tradition. It is also the last opening quote of the meditation series, as tomorrow's final episode will be 'practice-only.' Turning the page to 2021, I'm wishing you the best in practice, and the best in life! Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (40 min) | Today we deepen our practice into one of open, "choiceless" awareness. As you’ve learned in 10 days, attention is a wildly unstable force, and we don’t always get to choose where it goes. In life and in practice, the light of our attention will shine unpredictably on object after object. Can we "choicelessly" accept whatever emerges from the dark? Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (41 min) | Begin coming into your own practice and making your own choices! You will choose 1) your primary object of attention; 2) your use of mental noting techniques; and 3) the degree of openness in your practice. Today I guide you into guiding yourself; tomorrow we take your self-directed practice to a new frontier: Open Awareness. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (34 min) | Where, in your body, do you feel like the ‘you’ is? Your head? Heart? Gut? We continue deeper into embodied practice today, working with exercises of touch points, precise attention and body scans. This meditation’s opening quote is from Luke 17:21 of the Holy Bible. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (34 min) | When you're with a physical sensation, you're with the present moment. Today we start working with a new and simple (but powerful) technique: Body Scanning. This meditation’s opening quote is from the Bhagavad Gita. Support Redeeming Disorder by contributing to their Tip Jar: Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (29 min) | This challenging meditation marks the halfway point in our 12-day meditation challenge. For the first time, we use primary objects of attention (a.k.a. "anchors" of attention) other than the breath! The opening quote is from the 17th century French mathematician, philosopher and Catholic theologian, Blaise Pascal. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (27 min) | Mental Notes: ~ Feeling, Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Tasting. ~ Thinking (including "analyzing," "remembering," "imagining," etc.). ~ In (or "rising," or alternative). ~ Out (or "falling," or alternative). ~ This meditation’s opening (and closing) haiku is from the 17th century Zen monk and poet, Matsuo Basho Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (28 min) | In the practice of Metta, or Loving-Kindness, we wish goodwill toward ourselves, toward others, and ultimately toward all beings. This meditation’s opening quote is from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a Hindu guru of nondualism. May all beings be happy. ❤️ Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (19 min) | Can you see a thought as a thought? Today we introduce the technique of “mental noting” to create some space from our thoughts. This helps us see a thought for what it is — an ephemeral something-or-other that comes and goes, and doesn’t need to be a problem! Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (18 min) | Learn a basic but powerful concentration technique: Counting Breaths. By counting the breaths, we can cut off the momentum of the trains of thought that pull us away, invite a sense of calm, and establish the conditions necessary for insight. Support Redeeming Disorder by contributing to their Tip Jar: Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (17 min) | Begin your journey with this simple 10-minute meditation about being here, now, with this — the breath. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (20 min) | There has never been a better time to start meditating than right now. It's no panacea cure for mental disorder, but meditation can transform your consciousness and your experience of the world. In this 12-Day Meditation Challenge, we start from square one; Guided Meditation 1 is an easeful 10-minute introduction. The lengths of our meditations will increase gradually over the days, but will only exceed 30 minutes once, averaging 23 minutes. Also increasing will be the meditative skillset you build as we traverse the landscape of meditation, covering the major styles of practice and leaving you fully prepared to continue practicing. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now | A teacher’s true impact on the world isn’t seen directly, and isn’t measured. It exists instead abstractly, as a butterfly effect projecting through the lives of students they’ve guided. In Cullen’s and my case, this guidance was in sophomore year U.S. History. Yet, it also extended beyond the classroom, in large part thanks to the unconventional culture of my high school. At the Paideia School, we had discussions (often about race, gender and charged social issues) in a Socratic method, called our teachers by their first names, and frequently grew close with them. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (94 min) | I met Nate Schorr right after Redeeming Disorder’s first episode; he reached out after hearing me on RHAP (Rob Has a Podcast) because, for him, it was something like two worlds colliding — he was a Survivor fan who also happened to work for one the largest grassroots mental health organization in the world: NAMI. NAMI stands for the “National Alliance on Mental Illness,” and Nate worked specifically at NAMI Wisconsin, finding himself quickly moved by stories of mental health challenges and journeys. It was through those stories that he came to better understand his own mental health, and through that work that he came to have the thoughtful and knowledgeable perspective he shares today on the podcast. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (68 min) | Laura Bocianski was my co-host at the start of Redeeming Disorder, and in this 2018 conversation, she returns to the podcast to share her story in greater depth. Be sure to check out Laura's brand new podcast, Invisible Lions! Invisible Lions Podcast: Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (64 min) | Olivia joins me on the podcast to combine two powerful perspectives ― that of a psychiatric nurse, and that of a young woman who's seen mental disorder around her since childhood. She speaks to the struggles of her patients, of her family and of herself, and covers a multitude of topics: Mental health in the LGBTQ community, media depictions of mental illness, self-harm, attempted suicide and, per the podcast's title, empathy. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (76 min) | Since even before her 2016 TED talk (link below), Lauren has been on a journey of self-discovery, awareness and acceptance. She has built a resilience and introspection through struggles with self-harm as a teenager and with her mental health in general. She's gained a lot of perspective through the difficulty, and now shares her journey ― relives many of her past pains ― with the intention to help whoever needs to hear it. May this conversation serve as a reminder that you aren't alone, and things can always get better. Subscribe at reiman.substack.com

Listen now (129 min) | “I’m not against medication; I’m against medication being positioned as a commercial where there’s a dark cloud over you, you take a pill, and then the sunlight comes out and it’s this miracle pill. Because of those commercials, I spent two and a half years lying in a bed. I wasted two and a half years of my life in hell, chasing a new pill.” — Eric Kussin Subscribe at reiman.substack.com