Arash's World Podcast

Arash Farzaneh
Arash's World Podcast

Arash’s World Podcast aims at providing outstanding, practical & useful tips and advice for your personal and professional health, wellness, well-being, and happiness by focusing on psychology, philosophy, and spirituality by embracing and following the holistic model.

  1. 20 JAN

    Love as the Ultimate Cure: Sigourney Award Recipient Dr. Merav Roth on How Psychoanalysis and Literature Can Help Deal with Trauma and Bereavement

    In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Dr. Merav Roth, a recent Sigourney Award Recipient for her work as a psychoanalyst and cultural researcher aiding and supporting trauma survivors and bereaved families while also contributing to the field of literature by examining it through a fascinating and insightful psychoanalytic lens. We discuss both conscious and unconscious processes that occur when facing and responding to severe trauma, suffering, and extreme loss as has been the tragic and heartbreaking reality after the October 7th massacre, the taking of hostages, and the Gaza War. Dr. Roth provides various examples from her own work and experience dealing with such horrendous and devastating cases and situations. Moreover, we discuss how the arts, poetry, and literature have the potential and the power to inspire and transform us in different ways; at the same time, psychoanalysis is more than a tool and a technique to uncover and bring up hidden thoughts and unwanted emotions as it can pave the way for self-discovery, growth, and healing. When reading a book, both the conscious and the unconscious mind of the reader is engaging and interacting with both conscious and unconscious processes and aspects of the writer resulting in a type of meeting of unconscious minds.   As a result, the arts can change and transform us, can give us hope and help us reconnect with the beauty of the world, but ultimately, it is love that is the ultimate cure to help us process and deal with the pain, loss, and suffering that we face and encounter in life.

    46 min
  2. 18 JAN

    Shed Your Skin, Find Your Roots, and Plant New Seeds: Letao Wang on The Year of the Wood Snake and Healing

    In this episode, I have the great pleasure of talking to Letao Wang who specializes in Chinese and Western astrology, mythology, Tarot Cards and who is also the founder of The Healing Kingdom where he provides a wide range of counselling services. He also created two oracles with beautiful decks and guidebooks: The Oracle of the Mythic Heroes and The Oracle of the Celestial Deities. With the Chinese New Year of the Wood Snake approaching, I took the opportunity to ask him about his projections and predictions regarding opportunities and potential challenges in the coming year. As he explains, there will be a significant shift from Dragon yang energy associated with authority and power to a more receptive period with the wise and intuitive Snake representing yin energy. Moreover, it will be a time for shedding the old skin but also finding and connecting with one’s roots and foundations. We also discuss the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western approaches and Letao explains how they are complementary and can be combined to present a fuller picture. In fact, the mental health field would greatly benefit from incorporating and integrating spirituality to make its paradigm more holistic. Finally, we talk about synchronicity and serendipity as well as how we can have a sense of destiny and fate by also allowing room for free will and personal agency. We cannot merely blame the stars for our conditions and situations but need to take personal responsibility and not be driven by a false sense of justice where we feel we have been wronged or that the world is unfair or biased against us. As Letao explains we are seeds that contain many possibilities and potentialities within and although we do not choose the seed, we can take care of it, cultivate it, and make it bloom and flourish.

    43 min
  3. 19/10/2024

    Be More and Flourish: Human, Social and Natural Biodiversity and the Politics of Being with Wisdom Seeker Thomas Legrand

    In this episode, I have the great pleasure of speaking with Social Scientist and Sustainability Practitioner Thomas Legrand, author of “Politics of Being: Wisdom and Science for a New Development Paradigm” who is also involved with the UN initiative of Conscious Food Systems Alliance. We discuss the importance and necessity of biodiversity both in our natural and social world and how each person ought to be provided with the opportunities, resources, tools, education, and support to reach their full potential. By changing our definition and understanding of economic growth and switching the bottom line from a “having” to a “being” mode, everyone could benefit in the process. Moreover, it is also vital to change our view and outlook on mental health in general. Currently, there is too much focus on issues and problems but a more positive approach in the lines of positive psychology and positive psychiatry could aim at boosting each and everyone’s wellbeing level. That said, it is still important to consider and look at the influence of individual and collective trauma and how healing could not only help us connect with ourselves and others on an authentic and much deeper level but also motivate us to take positive action and increase pro-social and pro-environmental values and behaviours. We are on the cusp of a vital transformational wave and by emphasizing being and spirituality and our connection with other human beings and our natural habitat, we can not only face and overcome the upcoming challenges and crises but use them as an opportunity to build a better, more hopeful and joyful world for ourselves, our children, and al the subsequent generations to come.

    42 min

About

Arash’s World Podcast aims at providing outstanding, practical & useful tips and advice for your personal and professional health, wellness, well-being, and happiness by focusing on psychology, philosophy, and spirituality by embracing and following the holistic model.

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