Untangle, The Podcast From Meditation Studio

Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness, habits and human nature. She’s a highly acclaimed writer, known for her ability to distill and convey complex ideas—with levity and clarity. She’s the author of many bestselling books, including her breakout memoir, The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, and The Four Tendencies, which have sold millions of copies in more than thirty languages. Her most recent book is Life in Five Senses.  She’s also host of the popular podcast, Happier with Gretchen Rubin, and founder of award-winning Happier app, which helps people track their happiness-boosting habits. TO kick off 2024 we invited Gretchen to talk with us about how we can inject more happiness into our lives and how we can cultivate new habits with greater ease. She challenges us to make our ’24 for 2024’ list to identify our aims for the year. There’s no one right way to make your list—you might create different categories, follow a theme, choose all fun item

Chris Winter is a neurologist, sleep specialist, and author of the book, "The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It." He explains why we’re a culture of poor sleepers and how we got that way, and includes five things we can do to improve our sleep right now. Spoiler alert: an attitude change might be the best tactic of all. • Understand how sleep works and the ways in which food, light, and other activities act to help or hurt the process • Learn why sleeping pills are so often misunderstood and used incorrectly—and how you can achieve your best sleep without them • Incorporate sleep and napping into your life—whether you are a shift worker, student, or overcommitted parent • Think outside the box to better understand ways to treat a multitude of conditions—from insomnia to sleep apnea to restless leg syndrome and circadian sleep disorders • Wade through the ever-changing sea of sleep technology and understand its value as it relates to your own sleep struggles  Encore. Resource: The Slee

New! This interview is for anyone…all of us…who’ve ever felt the sting of loss. Our guest is Gina Moffa, Clinical Social Worker and Author of the new book, “Moving on Doesn’t Mean Letting go. A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss.” Gina is wise, compassionate, and passionate about this very complicated topic.  We discuss how difficult loss can be — especially in a culture where we’re encouraged to stay strong and keep our feelings to ourselves.  But, she says, “we don’t have to choose between falling apart or staying strong while grieving our losses. The art of living lies in the fine mingling of letting go and holding on." Grief hurts whether it’s the death of someone you love, the end of a friendship, a breakup, or an ambiguous loss. We all experience it. And even though it's one of the most universal human journeys, grieving isn't something most of us know how to do. It can be isolating, confusing, and profoundly painful. Gina gives us a toolkit, if you will, to wade through these difficult feelings. We are

Today's guest is Oren Jay Sofer. Oren teaches Mindfulness, Meditation and Nonviolent Communication in secular and Buddhist contexts. He holds a degree in comparative religions from Columbia University and is deeply engaged as a certified trainer in Marshall Rosenbergs' work in Nonviolent Communication. His first book, Say What You Mean, offers valuable approaches and practical tools for communicating, and for handling the most difficult conversations. His new book, Your heart Was Made For This, combines his decades of training in Nonviolent Communication, Buddhism and Contemplative Practice and applies this wisdom to many of the pressing issues we face today…climate chase, oppression, anxiety, burnout…more.  He offers us clarity and strength to meet life’s immense challenges with courage and balance. His book offers ways for us to strengthen our hearts and nourish the qualities that can help to transform the world.  Resources: Orenjaysofer.com Choosemuse.com/meditationstudio: Free meditations! Learn more abou

Today's guest is Dr. Emeran Mayer, a Distinguished Research Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is a world-renowned gastroenterologist and neuroscientist with 35 years of experience in the study of clinical and neurobiological aspects of how the digestive system and the nervous system interact in health and disease. We discuss his bestselling book, The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health. The book combines neuroscience with the latest discoveries on the human microbiome with lots of insights on the biological link between the mind and the digestive system. He shares the science behind the mind-gut communication pipeline…and discusses how we can harness the power of this connection to take charge of our health and listen to the innate wisdom of our bodies. Our favorite quote: “The time has come for us to empower ourselves to be the engineers of our own interna

Today’s guest is Dr. David Spiegel. He is Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Center on Stress and Health, and Medical Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine all at Stanford University School of Medicine.  Dr. Spiegel has more than 40 years of clinical and research experience studying stress and health, pain control, sleep, hypnosis, and more. He’s published thirteen books on these and other topics.  In this interview, we talk about Hypnosis. Why are some people are more susceptible than others? What’s the difference between hypnosis and self hypnosis? How can we use hypnosis for sleep, stress, anxiety, depression, stress, phobias, pain or trauma? When I asked him for a simple definition of hypnosis he said "hypnosis is simply a state of highly focused attention. It's like looking through the telephoto lens of a camera, what you see, you see with great detail, but you're less aware of the context." I found his insights and the tools he offered extremely

Guest Interviewer: Ariel Garten. Encore episode. Could “energy healing” be real? Do phenomena like manifestation really work? If it does, could we possibly understand how? Dr. Shamini Jain, scientist, and clinician at UCSD, shares her amazing studies of the biofield, and the evidence she and other colleagues have that demonstrates that this might be more real than we thought. Check out hundreds of free meditations on Meditation Studio App. Go to Choosemuse.com/meditationstudio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Todays guest is Hersch Wilson, an Interesting guy with many passions, but none more important than being with and learning from the dogs in his life. His new book, Dog Lessons: Learning The Important Stuff From Our Best Friends shares his insights on the powerful presence of dogs in our lives and the transformative lessons they can teach us about love, loyalty, grief, and more.  Along the way, he was also a volunteer firefighter and wrote an award winning book called "Firefighter Zen, A Field Guide for Thriving in Tough Times."  He considers Dog Lessons a meditation on the truths dogs can teach us. From universal values like loyalty and curiosity to practical lessons on napping, playing, and avoiding a serious fight. It’s all pretty darn good advice. One of his big messages is that dogs help us remember that life is short and we must celebrate it wherever we can. They often help us find refuge, quiet and peace in this very complicated world.  This is a bit different from our usual untangle interviews, but I c

Today’s encore episode is with Martha Beck, a PhD, Harvard-trained sociologist, world-renowned coach and New York Times bestselling author. She has published nine non-fiction books, one novel, and more than 200 magazine articles. She’s also known as Oprah’s Life Coach . Her most recent book, The Way of Integrity, Finding Your Path to Your Your True Self, is an Oprah book club selection and a NY Times best seller.  In The Way of Integrity, Beck presents a process that anyone can use to find a sense of purpose, emotional healing, and a way to be free of mental suffering. Much of what plagues us— negative habits and patterns, too much people pleasing, staying in stale relationships or careers— happen because we are out of touch with our true nature. This signals a split from integrity — which very often is unconscious and fueled by cultural norms and traditions that lead us in directions that aren’t, in fact, right for us. Getting back in sync with what is true for us brings us into alignment and this is where w

Dr. Wendy Suzuki is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology in the Center for Neural Science at New York University. She was also recently appointed as Dean of NYU’s College of Arts & Science.  In her book, Good Anxiety, Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion, she used new and established neuroscience to share how we can harness our fears to feel better, think better, and do better. We discuss why anxiety is so misunderstood and how we can turn it into a superpower. Much of it is pretty darn practical.  Her other book is called Health Brain, Happy Life, here she discusses how we have the power to activate our brains.  Her favorite line: Exercise is the most transformative thing we can do for our brain today.  Her major research interest continues to be brain plasticity. She is best known for her extensive work studying areas in the brain critical for our ability to form and retain new long-term memories. More recently her work has focused on understanding how aerobic exercise can be used

Guest Interviewer: Ariel Garten, Muse Co-founder. Encore. Dr. Adrian Owen, a renowned neuroscientist, discovered that individuals in a persistent coma could still communicate- and he went one step further and listened to what they wanted to say. He’s also performed the largest sleep and cognition study in the world, and demonstrated why brain training apps are bunk, and what we can do to sleep better and improve our own conscious function. Dr. Owen is a Professor at The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Canada and the former Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging. His research combines neuroimaging (MRI and EEG), with cognitive studies in brain-injured patients and healthy participants. His lab studies patients who have sustained brain injuries that result in disorders of consciousness. They also study patients with neurodegenerative diseases in order to understand more about the causes and consequences of the memory, perception and reasoning problems that many of t

Todays guest is Mitra Manesh. She is a senior mindfulness educator at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, best known for her storytelling and innovative teachings.  Mitra is also the creator of the Mindful Attentionist Coaching (MAC) program — an inside-out deep dive into what she calls a life of choice and wellbeing. In this interview, she’s shares her wisdom on everything from how to be an attentionist to how to be in relationship with others.  A little definition to get started: She defines Attentionism as an awakened way of believing, feeling, and living. It's about taking charge of your attention and learning how to use it intentionally. She says there are three steps that can help you become an Attentionist— Decide where you want to place your attention.  Notice when your attention has wandered away. Bring it back and place it where you intended to be.  More about Mitra @ mitramanesh.com Free meditations - @ choosemuse.com/meditationstudio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adcho

Today’s guest is Dr. Ellen Hendriksen. This is her second appearance on Untangle to share her expertise on all issues related to anxiety. She’s a clinical psychologist who focuses on releasing anxiety so that you can be more of your authentic self. Ellen serves on the faculty at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders and is the author of How To Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety. Her scientifically-based, zero-judgment approach has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Oprah Magazine and many other media outlets.  She defines anxiety as a close cousin to another familiar emotion, which is fear. Fear is immediate. Fear is when the snarling dog is running at you. Fear is when the bus is barreling down the road at you. Anxiety is also fear, but it’s fear cast to the horizon. It’s fear out in the uncertain future.  And she discusses social anxiety.  It’s not surprising, she says, that at the heart of social anxiety

Guest Interview with Ariel Garten. Did you know that the way you breathe can energize or relax you? That a simple hack can help with snoring and sleep apnea? That your lung volume can relate to your longevity, and that your lung volume can be expanded with simple exercises? James Nestor takes us on a fascinating trip into the breath, explains how and why different breath techniques work and will transform each breath you take for the better. His Book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art explores the million-year-long history of how the human species has lost the ability to breathe properly and why we’re suffering from a laundry list of maladies—snoring, sleep apnea, asthma, autoimmune disease, allergies—because of it. James ended up traveling the world in an attempt to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. Encore. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest is Ian Andersen, cofounder of the Sunnyside app,  Sunnyside is an app designed to help individuals discover and adopt a more mindful approach to drinking so they can reach their own personal goals.  It’s focused exclusively on moderation and mindfulness, not sobriety. Ian and his business partner, founder Nick Allen started this company because they wanted to support people to find a balanced approach to drinking. One that would help them be healthier and more aware. In this interview, we discuss this moderation based approach, along with how and why this makes a difference in our mental and physical Health.  Sunnyside is partnering with Muse for Soberish October. This joint initiative wants to support individuals seeking mindfulness in their drinking habits. Again, balance….not sobriety. Visit choosemuse.com/sunnyside to learn more about how you can participate in Soberish October and win some great prizes. Again, what makes this approach different is that it’s not an all or nothing approach to

Today’s guest is Dr. Rick Hanson — a Psychologist and NY times Best Selling author of several books, including the book we discuss in this interview “Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence." He shares how we can hardwire our brains for happiness using practices that help us cultivate and experience the good in our lives while reducing our natural negativity biases. He shares why is it easier to ruminate over hurt feelings, negative feelings rather than to bask in the warmth of being appreciated or positive feelings. ? The negative stuff is like velcro…it sticks to us. But it doesn’t have to.  He says we can build our inner strengths and capacity to override the brains habit of defaulting to pessimism.  He suggests a simple method that uses the hidden power of everyday experiences to build new neural structures full of happiness, love, confidence, and peace. Encore. Visit rickhanson.net to see what he’s up to.  And don’t forget to check out your free 30 days with the m

Today’s guest is Judson Brewer, a Psychiatrist, Neuroscientist and Author who specializes in the field of mindfulness and addiction. He is widely recognized for his work on understanding the mechanisms of craving and developing effective strategies to overcome addictive behaviors. One of his notable contributions is his research on the "Hunger Habit." He discussed this in his book, The Hunger Habit: Why We Eat When We're Not Hungry and How to Stop. The Hunger Habit is a concept that explores the parallels between overeating and other forms of addiction. Brewer's research suggests that the root cause of many addictive behaviors, including overeating, lies in the craving and reward-based learning processes of the brain. Brewer's approach to breaking the Hunger Habit revolves around mindfulness. He believes that by bringing mindful awareness to our eating behaviors, we can develop a deeper understanding of our cravings and make more conscious choices. Mindfulness allows us to observe our thoughts, emotions, and

Today’s guest is David Nichtern, a senior Buddhist teacher who has been practicing and teaching meditation for over 40 years. He is also a highly regarded, award winning composer, producer and guitarist, as well as the founder of two record companies. David has recorded and played with Stevie Wonder, Jerry Garcia, Paul Simon and many others. And to round out his background, he’s also a business consultant and author of the book, Creativity, Spirituality and Making a Buck — which is what we discuss today.  David’s grasp of spirituality, mindfulness, music and entrepreneurship make him a unique animal, so to speak. The underlying principle of this book is that it’s possible to move toward balance, prosperity, happiness, and basic sanity in our lives as human beings. The core of the operating system that will get us there is recognizing how our minds work and how the world works to deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. He shares useful advice and practical tools for integrating all of wh

Today’s guest is one of my favorites of all time. When I first interviewed Parker Palmer, the writer, teacher, poet and all around wise and soulful human — it was near a birthday that was giving me some pause as I was feeling the weight of time passing. I felt such a rush of pure humanity from listening to his words. It was the best birthday gift. The book we discussed is called On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old. It’s one of 10 amazing books that he’s authored. He says we must accept all of who we are…our wholeness and our brokenness. Wholeness involves integrating your imperfections along with whatever degree of perfection you may have achieved. It means embracing brokenness as an important part of our lives. It all belongs. I loved when he said that our hearts stay supple when we learn to embrace the little heartbreaks of everyday life. Eventually, he says, we can say...Yes, I am my strengths and my weaknesses. I am my successes and my failures. I am a source of light and I can be

Andrés González is a Puerto-Rican American teacher, author, and musician. He has taught yoga and meditation to diverse populations worldwide for twenty years and is a Co-Founder of the Holistic Life Foundation, founded in 2001. Andrés is a certified Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and maintains a B.S. in Marketing and an MBA from the University of Maryland. His teaching and music center around the liberation of marginalized individuals and communities through personal empowerment, healing, and love. Let Your Light Shine is his first book.  Ali Smith is a teacher and author, born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Ali’s life-long study of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness has served as the impetus for his pioneering work bringing trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness to underserved youth–and influencing education curriculum worldwide. He is the longtime Executive Director of the Holistic Life Foundation, a non-profit organization he co-founded in 2001 that brings yoga and mindfulness