The Stories We Tell The Stories We Tell

As we approach the end of our first season, we wanted to take a look back at our favorite moments of wisdom from each of our guests. Please enjoy our look back at season one.

Thanks for listening and thank you to all of our guests from our first season. We're going to take a few weeks off to plan and record season two with a bunch of  fantastic new guests, new topics, and new stories.

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Sometimes the smallest most insignificant decisions can lead to the biggest impact. After all, we make decisions all day, "Will I go for a run or sleep another 30 minutes? Do I want to make dinner or order in? Take the new job or stay put?"  But sometimes, those tiny, seemingly unimportant decisions can also shape the course of our lives. Do you take the time to reflect? Can you see the moments when the small decisions created the big change? Do you accept the moments when the world slipped off its axis and life just changed? Can we learn to recognize these small moments that had the big impact and are we able to see the lesson in the change?

Kristina Wandzilak is the founder and president of Full Circle intervention and sober-living communities, and has been a leader in the addictions industry since 1995. She is a mother, an author, a television personality, and interventionist. She is also a former addict who ended up homeless on the streets of San Francisco — willing to do anything to survive. But the game-changing decision that would alter the course of her life was at the age of 15, when she had a crush on a boy who drove a VW bus.

Sense of self can be a tricky thing. We all have an idea of who we are, and who we want to be, and that reflects many things: the world around us, our own personal histories, goals, traumas, family. It can be easy to distract from your sense of who you really are, to numb with drugs, or alcohol, or even keep your eyes glued to your phone instead of pursuing something that will make you happy. While falling into a pattern of distraction and numbing can be very easy, lifting yourself out of it can be much harder.

Today’s guest, Lisa May Bennet, always knew she was a writer. However, in college, as the idea of becoming a writer transitioned into the often scary practice of writing, she leaned on the distraction of alcohol from having to pursue her passion. Because if you never pursue your passion, you cannot fail. It wasn’t until several years later that she made the choice to put alcohol aside and rededicate herself to her writing; Lisa didn’t fit the traditional definition of an alcoholic, but this is precisely what made her journey more difficult. Her friends and family diminished her struggles, claiming she was fine and didn’t need to change at all, but
Lisa knew better.

What does it mean to find your true calling? For some of us, it means discovering our inherent passion. It means having a gift and sharing it with the world. For others, it means doing something that makes you happy. That makes you feel whole. That makes you feel free. But finding your calling doesn’t come without compromise — and sometimes — sacrifice.

Until the age of 18, Krushnaa Patil wanted to be a dancer. She was certain that was who she was meant to be — that is until she climbed her first mountain. Through mountaineering, Patil discovered a sense of freedom that she had never felt in her “normal” life, and in 2009, at the age of 19, she became the youngest Indian to climb Mount Everest. She was also the first Indian woman to reach the highest summits in Antarctica, South America, and Europe, having completed ultimate peaks in six of the seven continents. But in pursuing her calling, Patil was faced with the difficult decision to accept help from the person she was trying to be free from.

The concept of duality teaches that life is created from a balance of opposite or competing forces. Where there is light, there is darkness. Where there is stillness, there is movement. And where there is life, there is also death. But these dual forces are not just opposite — they are also complementary. Acknowledging and facing our own mortality can make for a richer life. Experiencing a brush with death — or a brush with life — can have a profound impact on us. It changes us. And it’s important to reflect on the moments when death teaches us about life.



Rabbi Steve Leder is the senior rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles and the best-selling author of five books, including “The Beauty of What Remains” and most recently, “For You When I’m Gone.” Rabbi Leder has officiated more than 1,000 funerals over the course of 30+ years, but it wasn’t until his father’s passing that he understood the truth about death, and the duality between Steven Leder the Rabbi and Steven Leder the son.

Setbacks are a part of life: little misfortunes like traffic on the  way to work, or big obstacles like the loss of a job or friend, or  something you may have even taken for granted. However, it's in these  moments that we must embrace the struggle, when we must love ourselves  enough to struggle, and to acknowledge that this, too, is part of our  story. Each stumbling block we encounter can humble and remind us that  our journey is never over.

"Love yourself enough to struggle"  has become a personal motto for this week's guest, Dray Gardner. After  years of sports and motorcycling, Dray's back went out in 2005. Instead  of exploratory surgery, Dray opted for a more wholistic approach and  started a 30-day yoga challenge. Then, a seizure behind the wheel of a  car in 2009 nearly paralyzed Dray for good. Instead of giving up, he  returned to the yoga mat as a beginner and started his journey all over  again.

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