spirituality & social impact (w/ Matthew Abrams)

So I interviewed someone great for the podcast.

And about 30 minutes into our interview, he said something that really hit me.

He said, “Spirituality is a way for us to hold fear AND hope simultaneously so we can respond and not just react.”

I’ve been feeling so much fear in the weeks since the inauguration. We are floating around in uncertainty — it seems like some new, horrible, discriminatory policy gets announced every other day. And while our phone calls are working (they are!!), it’s unbelievably easy to get discouraged.

Enter my podcast interview with Matthew Abrams.

He’s brilliant.

Matthew leads an organization called Mycelium, an environment dedicated to helping people reach their full potential. What’s more, he’s leading a workshop in Costa Rica about the intersection of spirituality and social change. Be still my heart. (As if that weren’t already cool enough, he also helps companies and entrepreneurs apply these principles.)

Anyways. So flashback to me, Annika, paralyzed and depressed by fear, hopping onto a podcast interview with Matthew. He helped me put the current political situation in context, and reminded me the purpose of spirituality in all of this… It was the most refreshing hour of my week. No… month.

Matthew and I talked about:

• What spirituality is
• What spirituality has to do with social change
• Matthew’s own story of getting off the conveyor belt of life and how he created the conditions he needed to show up fully in his purpose
• How anyone else can discover their purpose (yeah, we went there)
• And last but not least, the greater spiritual purpose of the current political turmoil

So go ahead and give this one a listen.  Word-for-word, from my notes during the interview: “I got chills.”

And then forward it to someone who needs a good pick me up this week.