Episodes

Agility

Episode

Alignment: Connecting Our Experience with Our Values

“When our life is aligned to what truly matters, that is when we experience the most enduring joy.” In this episode, Dr. Pam King explains the 3rd step in the 5 A’s of Agility for Spiritual Health. Alignment is the process of becoming more reflective, drawing connections between our thoughts and emotions—and our beliefs, values, habits, and the experiences that shape us. This is the step where we look for our intentions and expectations and hold them up to our raw experiences and the possible meanings associated with them. We begin by identifying what’s true or what’s false in our...

Agility

Episode

Awareness: Non-Judgmental Reflection on Our Emotions and Thoughts

It’s not easy to reflect on our emotions without judging them or running away from them. It’s difficult to stay with challenging or frightening feelings and thoughts. But to cultivate awareness means taking an open, curious, and non-judgmental approach to observing our minds. More than simple or immediate observation (like Attunement), awareness asks us to get curious and reflect on our feelings, emotions, thoughts, and the landscape of experience we discovered in step one of attunement. What emotions are coming up for us? What thoughts keep coming into our consciousness? In this second step of the 5 A’s of Agility...

Agility

Episode

Attunement: Paying Attention to Our Feelings, Thoughts, and Sensations

What’s happening right now? What do you feel? What physical sensations are present from head to toe? The first step in practicing the 5 A’s of Spiritual Health is Attunement—a simple, direct process of connecting to reality, perceiving your experience of the present moment, and paying attention to our physical sensations. It’s as simple as a clear-eyed consciousness: listening, feeling, acknowledging, being aware of basic sensations. In this episode, Dr. Pam King explains attunement and the foundation it lays for cultivating greater agility and adaptivity. She oconsiders theological and psychological grounding for the benefits of attunement, and offers practical techniques,...

Agility

Episode

Agility and Adaptation through the 5 A’s of Spiritual Health

How can we cultivate agility and adaptivity in our chaotic, shifting times? Dr. Pam King offers a research-backed cycle of practices to incorporate into the rhythms of your daily life—helping you navigate change and work through life’s obstacles. She calls them the 5 A’s of Spiritual Health: Attunement, Awareness, Alignment, Activation, and Assessment.

Spirituality

Episode

A Psychology-Backed Framework for Healthy Spirituality

“Spirituality is deeply rooted in love, enables us to receive and experience love from beyond ourselves, and enables us and invigorates us to live out love as ourselves.” The precarious times we live in fill us with anxiety. The rifts and shifts of culture, politics, and religion are leaving us feeling unmoored, disconnected, and alienated from ourselves and each other. And a psychologically informed approach to spirituality is the antidote. In this episode, Dr. Pam King discusses why spirituality is so essential to the human experience, and how it operates as the antidote to the culture of anxiety and despair...

Spirituality

Episode

The Six Facets of Spiritual Health with Pam King & Dan Koch (You Have Permission)

Pam King joins licensed therapist Dan Koch on his podcast, You Have Permission, for a discussion of the six facets of spiritual health. Announcement! With & For Season 2 is dropping on January 5, 2025! And until then, every Monday from September to December, we’re sharing some shorter clips, practical features, and other talks or interviews featuring Dr. Pam King, to offer insight into what it means to thrive and pursue spiritual health.

Mindfulness

Episode

A Practice: Dr. Cynthia Eriksson Body Scan for Awareness

Dr. Eriksson guides you through a practice of scanning the body to cultivate awareness of sensation present there. This technique is an important first step – regulation – of building a resilience practice.

Practices

Episode

A Practice: Dr. Lisa Miller on Closing Doors so Others Can Open

Dr. Miller leads you through a practice where you imagine two doors – one red and one yellow. The red door is closed to you and the yellow door is open. How can you use this practice to understand opportunities and direction for your life? How can you identify how you have been guided along the way?…

Practices

Episode

A Practice: Dr. Richard Davidson on Gaining Insight

Dr. Davidson leads a brief meditation on gaining insight into a struggle present in your life. Envision how things might be different with a different set of beliefs and expectations about the situation.

Practices

Episode

A Practice: Dr. Lisa Miller and Your Table of Spiritual Companions

Dr. Miller leads a brief meditation where you set a table before you with those who love you and ask them to tell you what you need to know now. This practice helps develop a connection to a deep kind of spirituality that is intuitive and imaginative and helps one to feel loved, held, guided, and never alone.

Practices

Episode

A Practice: Dr. Cynthia Eriksson on Grounding in the Body

Dr. Eriksson guides a meditation practice to connect you to your body and space in order to cultivate a sense of safety and calm. The twisting motion and identification of the space grounds and settles the parasympathetic nervous system.

Practices

Episode

A Practice: Dr. Richard Davidson on Developing Awareness

Dr. Davidson leads a practice to bring awareness into our bodies and into the present moment. This practice is intended not only to build capacities for awareness but to develop compassion for others.