Whole Phil Phil Reese

Hear this snippet from my appearance on Refractive, with Johnny Guidry, then go subscribe, and listen to the full episode (and ALL his episodes)!

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Hear the episode featuring yours truly: https://refractivepodcast.com/podcast/12-steps-heal/

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Whole Phil early April
Welcome to The Whole Phil podcast, I am your host, Phil Reese, the DJ, that's my Facebook name, Really Phil Reese, that's my Twitter, and Phillip J Reese, that's my Instagram, my twitch, my dot com and my real life. Tweet me right now, hashtag #getyourwholephil and tell me about yourself. 
I am a loving, lovable, chubby, queer, sober, spiritual, vegetarian, feminist radical leftist web developer, and deejay in DC. This is the podcast where you get your whole Phil. 
I talk about whatever I want, with whomever I want, and do whatever I want, because there's no rules, no format, and no fucking censors. 
Let's start the show.


Today is Saturday, April10, 2021 and let me begin this show with an apology. It's been a few months since I've published and I'm sorry about that. If I'm being honest, I committed myself to doing the meditation series, and then fleshing it out became daunting and intimidating and then it paralyzed me mentally and creatively. And meditation should not do that. 
I didn't think I could continue the show unless I stuck to my meditation series, and then I just got into this negative feedback loop. 
While meditation is still very much a big part of my daily life, and has been for two years, I also am not ready to put this series together, I don't feel equipped just yet. When I started the series, there was a bit of the Dunning-Kruger Effect in play. Because I was doing so much meditation and already helping other people get more into meditation, I felt like I could do even more.
If you've never heard of it before, The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a proposed cognitive bias in the field of psychology that states that people of entry-level experience with a subject underestimate the true complexity of the subject or skill and overestimate their mastery of the subject. It's the opposite of imposter syndrome where people with mastery of a subject or skill doubt their mastery. 
I am not a master of meditation, by any means. And it will be a long time before I am. I hope to be some day, but for now, I still have some more learning to do. I have actually taken on new meditation teachers in order to do so in the right way.
When it became obvious to me that I had no business, yet, recording a podcast series teaching meditation, I realized I had to abandon the plan, and return to my old format. 
I do plan on returning to doing a meditation series in the future, but when I feel more confident in my ability to give the best direction to my listeners. Though I still encourage each of my listeners to do some learning on their own about how meditation can improve your life. I truly believe that it's life changing.
For now I'm going to get back to just sharing whatever is on my mind, and back to a regular publishing schedule.
I hope you're doing well, and thanks for staying subscribed in the mean time!


I hope you're enjoying the show. If you like what you hear, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, just search Whole Phil or go to bit.ly/findwholephil, and please drop me a rating. Tweet me at @reallyphilreese with topic ideas you think I should cover. 
Follow my Facebook page, Phil Reese the DJ, or my Twitter, @reallyphilreese. My facebook page or my website is the best place to see when my upcoming virtual dj parties are coming up, like my new Tuesday and Thursday afternoon short live sessions, Club 45. And, remember, if you enjoy what you hear here, you can throw me a tip via Venmo, to help support me while I'm out of DJ work. My venmo is at phil-dash-reese. That’s at p-h-i-l-dash-r-e-e-s-e.  
And, finally, remember, be good to yourself, love yourself, and we're all in this together.

Support Whole Phil by donating to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/whole-phil

Find out more at https://whole-phil.pinecast.co

This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter, @ReallyPhilReese, find me on Facebook, Phil Reese the DJ, see me on Instagram, @phillipjreese, and join the Club Fourty-Five group on Facebook, bit.ly/club45group. And as always, phillipjreese.com

Support Whole Phil by donating to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/whole-phil

Find out more at https://whole-phil.pinecast.co

This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Welcome to The Whole Phil podcast, I am your host, Phil Reese, the DJ, that's my Facebook name, Really Phil Reese, that's my Twitter, Phillip J Reese, that's my Instagram, my dot com and my real life. Tweet me right now, hashtag #getyourwholephil and tell me about yourself. I am a loving, lovable, chubby, queer, sober, spiritual, vegetarian, feminist radical leftist web developer, and deejay in DC. This is the podcast where you get your whole Phil. I talk about whatever I want, with whomever I want, and do whatever I want, because there's no rules, no format, and no fucking censors. Let's start the show.


Today is Saturday, October 23, and we’re going to start talking about getting started with a meditation practice.

This is going to be the first in a whole new multipart series on beginning a meditation practice. Right now I have 12 episodes planned, but that could expand.

A few months ago I did a podcast episode recommending meditation apps for beginners, but app or no app there are a few things a beginner to a meditation practice can do to make it worth their while.

A lot of us KNOW that we SHOULD be meditating, but the idea of getting started with something that seems so exotic and mystical can be intimidating. What even is meditation, anyway? What’s it do? What’s it for? How’s it done? What’s it like? Questions and uncertainties can hang over our heads and prevent us from getting started and just doing it.

So what even is meditation? Well, meditation can be a lot of things, and there are countless meditation traditions, some with religious affiliations, but what they all have in common is meditation is simply the practice of becoming intentionally aware of your thoughts and feelings and focused on how your mind is working. It’s basically watching what’s going on in your mind. So to what end? What good is watching my thoughts?

Well, it seems counterintuitive to think so, but we’re actually usually not very aware of what’s going on in our heads at any given moment. We’re not very focused on our focus! Modern American society is extremely fast paced and our attention is often split in a hundred different directions at once. It’s difficult to keep up with all of the things popping in and out of your conscious mind at all times. But this computer that we call our brain is constantly rewiring itself. The things popping in and out of our conscious mind are also affecting our subconscious mind. Connections are being made between ideas and sensations we have no control over, and this can lead us to mental anguish when we can’t get to the bottom of what’s bothering us.

There are many ways to unpack traumas and triggers, and conquer them, like good talk therapy. But a lot of people can also find a lot of relief through what’s become known as mindfulness meditation and other forms of mind-quieting meditation. It’s not a replacement for talk therapy but can do a lot of good for us in between sessions.

So how do you get from knowing that meditation can be helpful for you to conquering your monkey-mind with it? Well, lots of practice of course, and that practice starts with jumping into meditation now, regardless of whether or not you have any experience with it.

I’ve been meditating regularly -- almost every day and sometimes several times a day -- since early 2019 now, and I’ve seen a massive change in the way I handle situations that previously exacerbated my general anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder. Like me, you don’t have to have any formal training in meditation to get started -- you just need time and patience. This week, I just want to encourage you to try out meditation and commit to doing it regularly.

To get started with meditation, you will need to find a quiet spot with minimal distractions and you should set aside at least 15 minutes at first. The idea is to quiet your mind for a bit, so the more you can minimize distracting sounds and scents, and keep lig

Tweet me, Instagram me, or Facebook me! I am eager to get your thoughts!

Welcome to The Whole Phil podcast, I am your host, Phil Reese, the DJ, that's my Facebook name, Really Phil Reese, that's my Twitter, Phillip J Reese, that's my Instagram, my dot com and my real life. Tweet me right now, hashtag #getyourwholephil and tell me about yourself. I am a loving, lovable, chubby, queer, sober, spiritual, vegetarian, feminist radical leftist web developer, and deejay in DC. This is the podcast where you get your whole Phil. I talk about whatever I want, with whomever I want, and do whatever I want, because there's no rules, no format, and no fucking censors. Let's start the show.


Today is Monday, June 8, and We’re talking about self improvement culture in the face of a radical social paradigm shift.

It’s no secret I’m pretty woo-woo hippie-dippie, and I talk a lot about self-improvement, and the ways I am trying to improve myself all the time. I want to share with others the tips, tricks and coping mechanisms I have found that have been invaluable to deal with my addictions, compulsions, behavioral issues, depressive disorder and generalized anxiety. I believe that the search for serenity and peace is a just and prudent pursuit for any human and every human.

But we do not live in a vacuum. The world around us continues to turn even as we are doing work internally, and we are not exempt from having to interact with that change.

For me, at least, the goal of self improvement is to make myself more capable of making the world a better place. I believe that the point of life is to leave the world better than you came into it, to spread goodness. I can’t be at my best in my efforts to affect change in the world if I’m ignoring the mess inside that constantly gets in the way. But those two activities have to occur concurrently. I am doing no good if I completely shut out the world and everything happening in a misguided effort to find serenity for me and me alone. That’s not self improvement, as Tyler Durden says in Fight Club, that’s masturbation.

It’s impossible to be at your best to participate in the efforts to make change when you are still healing from past traumas or you are otherwise not doing the work you need to do for yourself to be able to dedicate yourself mentally to the fight in front of you, so by all means, a balance is necessary and good. You can’t be physically on the front lines of the protest every single day 365 a year. It’s impossible. You can’t be having difficult conversations with those in need of education 24/7, it’s too mentally exhausting. You can’t donate all of your money to the causes you believe in, you got to pay rent and utilities, and buy food and medicine first. As Lauryn Hill says “How you gonna win when you ain’t right within?” Balance your advocacy with time to heal.

But early in the past few weeks of protest, I perceived that a lot of the people I respected, from whom I have learned a lot about making myself a better person over the last year, were hesitant to dip their toes into the discussion of George Floydd, Black Lives Matter, Police Brutality and the protests. And many have unfortunately emphasized the internal work over the community advocacy as a response to this. In short, lots of self-help gurus are suggesting everyone just go meditate a while instead of protest and we’ll all be better off. This is a crock of shit.

Meditation isn’t a crock of shit, I’ve been meditating every day, even through all this, though I will admit my concentration has been shot, and my mind is wandering more than usual, and my meditations are shorter and less fulfilling than usual. But they are bringing me a little more peace than I would otherwise have. But I would not be authentically Phil if I wasn’t also doing what I can to push against the systemic problems I see in the society around me. I am here, after all to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Working to better myself, and provide guidance to others who a