Uncomfortable Conversations with Gregory
105 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 6 years ago - ★★★★★ - 39 ratingsSometimes we need a little shove to get outside our comfort zones and figure out who we really are. Join world-traveling entrepreneur and best-selling personal development author Gregory Diehl as he leads different guests on introspective journeys through the deep things in life nobody likes to talk about: love, sexuality, relationships, drug use, travel, politics, spirituality, family dynamics, the meaning of life - or whatever it takes to deconstruct your fundamental sense of self and core values. Prepare to be talked down to. Prepare to reconsider everything you thought you knew about yourself and reality. Resolve the contradiction within you so that you can live a better life.
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Episodes
UCWG 104: Your Role in the Universe with Becca Tzigany
May 09, 2018 17:03 - 59 minutes - 44.6 MBBecca Tzigany is the author of the upcoming tantric spiritual memoir, Venus and Her Lover: Transforming Myth, Sexuality, and Ourselves (https://venusandherlover.com/). She believes the way to fix the world is to change how we view ourselves as part of it, including the stories we tell and how in touch we our with the most primal parts of our identities. This is the 3rd part of a new interview series of podcasts covering various interpretations of what is broken about the world and the chan...
UCWG 103: Integrating the Wisdom of the Past with Riley Alvarado
April 30, 2018 15:39 - 40 minutes - 35.3 MBThis is the 2nd part of a new interview series of podcasts covering various interpretations of what is broken about the world and the changes we can make to try to fix it. Click here to see the other episodes in the How to Fix a Broken World series.
UCWG 102: Personal Mythologies with Kyle Bennett
April 18, 2018 21:21 - 59 minutes - 47.7 MBThis is the 1st part of a new interview series of podcasts covering various interpretations of what is broken about the world and the changes we can make to try to fix it. Click here to see the other episodes in the How to Fix a Broken World series.
UCWG 101: The Unique Responsibility of Children
February 22, 2018 14:36 - 6 minutes - 5.2 MBDo not undertake the enormous social responsibility of procreation until you have liberated yourself of psychological pathogens and are prepared to help them develop their own ideological immune system to ward off corrupting influence. This is the 58th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and identity development. Come back tomorrow to continue the discussion or click here to see the other episodes in the Unceasing Self-D...
UCWG 100: Parental Attachments and Failings
January 14, 2018 10:57 - 10 minutes - 8.32 MBParents pass along the emotional loop of their suffering to their children, giving them the same arbitrary values and habits. You parents will always limit you so long as you grant them special privilege in your life. Only when you can see them as ordinary people, no different from anyone else, will you be free from their grasp. This is the 57th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and identity development. Come back tomo...
UCWG 099: To Gladly Suffer Fools
January 11, 2018 04:54 - 6 minutes - 4.57 MBA vitally overlooked ability of the exceptional class who intentionally pursue excellence in being is to segregate the presentation of their totality by audience and context. The majority of the human occupants of the world are both unwilling and unable to perceive the important parts of your character. To try to force them to is social and practical suicide. This is the 56th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and ident...
UCWG 098: Lost Causes and Moving On
January 10, 2018 10:25 - 5 minutes - 4.89 MBThe ability to recognize the changing nature of bonds is essential to their healthy function. This is especially true when circumstances evolve such that what was once a beneficial opportunity no longer serves its original purpose. Dissolution is as important as creation to human relationships. You cannot meaningfully love that which does not wish to be loved. This is the 55th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and iden...
UCWG 097: Apprentices and Protégés
January 07, 2018 19:57 - 6 minutes - 5.12 MBAs you ascend to the rank of master or teacher to the wayward youths who recognize within you the authority to help advance them, do not be so naive to let yourself get trapped in a perpetual state of absorption with your own authority. Yours is but a temporary position of superiority until the time comes that a passing student no longer needs you to get where he is going. This is the 54th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-disco...
UCWG 096: The Only Resolution that Matters this New Year's Day
December 31, 2017 13:03 - 12 minutes - 13 MBThe only thing that matters as you prepare to celebrate a turning about of the world is to resolve the need to make resolutions and correct the imbalance between who you perceive yourself to be and who you would like to be.
UCWG 095: Those Who Teach You
December 23, 2017 12:10 - 6 minutes - 5.3 MBNo one can show you everything. Just because someone has achieved a certain level of success, it does not imply they are capable of showing you how they got there. Many mentors are addicted to their role as teacher. They enjoy the power dynamic. They may feel threatened when a subordinate begins to overtake them. When this happens, they will develop unconscious resentment for you. Such a person can only ever teach you specific things. They cannot form a stable bond. Advice is just a starti...
UCWG 094: The Spaces You Create
December 18, 2017 14:20 - 7 minutes - 5.9 MBYou have the power to project infinite versions of the truth. Wielding this power, you must take great care with every impression you release into the world. In the aftermath of communication, there are always new expectations. You create novel structures in every mind you touch. There is no way not to shape perceptions. Monitor the expectations you set by your presence, or you divide into more than one version of yourself. You are united only when expectations match reality. You are then ...
UCWG 093: The Ethical Alternative
December 13, 2017 13:59 - 8 minutes - 6.64 MBNo one ends at the limits of their body. The good man knows that to function well with others, he must respect the dominion of anyone he allows into his moral system. He likewise must demand their respect in return. When all moral agents embody this level of mutual respect, order is finally attainable. Reputations pressure us to stay within the moral right. Destructive people will be limited in their potential. When each person can see the benefit in their own life to building harmony thro...
UCWG 092: Limitless Expression
December 07, 2017 14:47 - 7 minutes - 5.71 MBEverything you believe about yourself can be demonstrated externally. Every authentic emotion that passes through your awareness can either get caught and fester or make its way out in the world. The reason you do not do this with near perfect accuracy is that you are afraid. A wise person sees the potential behind the principle of all your expressions and all you can become. This is the 50th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-di...
UCWG 091: Communicate Your Mind
December 01, 2017 17:33 - 12 minutes - 10.1 MBBecause your ideas will stretch beyond the realm of conventional thinking, your only hope of having others understand you (let alone join you) is to develop exceptional communication skills. Communication is not limited to the words you say. You must learn to present yourself as something people can comprehend. You must, to some degree, fit into a category within their mental hierarchy of order. It is violent and painful for a typical person to have their categories challenged. This is the...
UCWG 090: Genuine Transparency
November 29, 2017 00:20 - 8 minutes - 7.43 MBYou live in a world that encourages you to acknowledge only what it warrants within you, neglecting what it contrasts with. You are trained to deny anything with the power to cause sorrow for the sake of social harmony. However you portray yourself, another world of emotion beneath the surface. Society taught you to appear comfortable at all costs, even when you are deeply troubled. You fear the social repercussions of sharing your insecurities, yet doing so publicly is the surest way to mov...
UCWG 089: Conflict and Dominance
November 26, 2017 23:25 - 9 minutes - 7.75 MBYou will be betrayed. You will be taken advantage of. Your trust will be broken and your kindness abused. In natural ecosystems, whenever animals come in conflict one of two simple conclusions is quickly reached. They leave one another alone or engage in deadly combat. The purpose of conflict is to restore or advance the social order. You either learn to communicate through conflict to arrive at a higher state of resolution, or you destroy the influence of your adversary in your life. This...
UCWG 088: Isolated and Alienated
November 13, 2017 00:30 - 5 minutes - 4.62 MBWithout the guiding boundaries of friends and enemies alike, we drift through the world without a place to fit into. We grow to be defined by how those closest to us see and treat us until we are nothing without their constantly reaffirming acknowledgment. This is the 46th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and identity development. Come back tomorrow to continue the discussion or click here to see the other episodes in...
UCWG 087: Antagonists and Enemies
November 10, 2017 15:17 - 5 minutes - 4.59 MBThere is always an “other”. An antagonist has much to teach you, for he is the personification of your struggles and weaknesses. He is a version of you that has become perverted in his principles. He enters and contorts your psyche because he is a living reminder of what lies waiting for you if you should fail in your quest. Every villain is, after all, a failed hero. This is the 45th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery ...
UCWG 086: Friends and Allies
November 06, 2017 19:47 - 6 minutes - 5.58 MBYour friends are your proto new family to replace the one you started with. They are how you experiment with relationship dynamics. But you must guard yourself against prematurely attempting to forge a deeper bond with a person for whom you share only incidental qualities. Real friendships are built on principle and ideological valuation. They survive the inconvenient trials of changing circumstance. You must know who you are before you can have a legitimate friend. This is the 44th part...
UCWG 085: The Influence of Peers
November 01, 2017 12:44 - 9 minutes - 7.21 MBWhat your peers can provide for you are foundational references for your own character development. They will teach you things that can only be known through experience. Love, pain, friendship, betrayal, and every other peak emotional dynamic happen when you extend your reach beyond the corners of your own mind to engage with separate entities. The base emotions you feel within yourself, joy, anger, remorse, relief, will take on powerful contextual connotations through the journeys you go on...
UCWG 084: Flowering Femininity
October 31, 2017 14:19 - 6 minutes - 5.6 MBA woman seeking validation through cheap attraction factors will never develop her own sense of self worth and internal beauty. Likewise, she will never be able to radiate this beauty outward, creating order in her environment and mending broken hearts. Her obsession with attention keeps her chained to immaturity. She needs to rise above it. This is the 42nd part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and identity development. C...
UCWG 083: In Search of Masculinity
October 29, 2017 22:01 - 10 minutes - 8.16 MBTo be a man who has embodied his masculinity is to live one’s life on an endless search for something. The object of that search changes throughout the stages of a man’s life and with the passing moods of each day, but he is always hunting for women, success, confrontation, challenge, answers, meaning, and more. This is the essence of being a man that most women will never understand, as their nature is to create beauty and attract things to them. Life never offers enough to a man. He is a...
UCWG 082: The Comfortable Exchange of Intercourse
October 29, 2017 01:19 - 8 minutes - 6.75 MBSexual intercourse is a conversation involving the most sensitive parts of the body and corners of the emotions. Until you can express yourself freely, simultaneously observing and learning from the subtle communications let out by another person whom you desire to know through deep interpersonal exchange, you will remain lost in childish fantasy of sexual conquest. You will not know the comfort that comes from total unification and removal of all barriers. You will not know yourself or them...
UCWG 081: Aesthetics, Lust, and Stimulation
October 27, 2017 12:02 - 7 minutes - 6.36 MBThe quality of sex with a person depends on so many variables beyond the immediate, surface-level aesthetic appeal they hold for them. Being slim enough, or having plump-enough breasts to give you an erection is only the first step in the process of sexual exchange and enjoyment. The man who holds instantaneous physical attraction as the highest end to the sexual experience has never experienced the depths of his own sexual awakening. He remains a boy, chasing after flashy images and shiny...
UCWG 080: The Romance That Reveals
October 26, 2017 12:43 - 10 minutes - 8.34 MBIntimacy and romance, especially in combination of the physical, intellectual, and emotional varieties, shows us parts of ourselves and the world that we did not know we were ready to explore. This type of love makes us act like we are fools, and this level of vulnerability often scars us, closing the door to returning there except in exercises in shallow lustful stimulation. Master this side of yourself so that you may share it with everyone who enters the inner sanctum of your identity, an...
UCWG 079: Agreeable Associations
October 25, 2017 10:45 - 8 minutes - 6.25 MBPeople share a fundamental need to bond with one another and form groups of mutual self-interest. The barriers ordinary people apply to this expansive process do not have to apply to you. You are not limited to bonding only with others who happen to have been born near you. They don’t need to share the same hobbies, or even speak the same language. You can seek out friends and partners no matter what superficial differences currently separate you. You can bond over the values that give your ...
UCWG 078: Showcasing Love and Emotion
October 24, 2017 07:29 - 7 minutes - 5.39 MBLove is a deeply abused phenomenon. At the most basic level, love is a shared sense of identity. Love is not limited to the romantic narratives we learn from dramatic storytelling. You can love an object because it helps you express who you are. It complements your sense of identity, helping you be more of yourself. You love a famous person because you see parts of them in yourself, or at least parts of them you wish were in yourself. You love another person in a deep and personal way becaus...
UCWG 077: Empathy and the Sharing of Identity
October 23, 2017 04:22 - 8 minutes - 6.64 MBOne of the hardest things in the world for exceptional people to accept is that the average human will never share their values. The fact that you pursue excellence does not mean you can expect others to. To hold this expectation is profoundly arrogant. It means you have not learned true empathy, for you cannot see other people as individual beings separate from you. It is a major emotional milestone to see other people as conscious entities, each experiencing their subjective reality in t...
UCWG 076: The World Is Not Only You
October 21, 2017 10:06 - 4 minutes - 3.75 MBIt is not enough to rest on your laurels in the personal domain alone. Though a necessary first step, what comes next is vastly more complex; its effects far more potentially profound. When you are ready, it is time to expand beyond yourself. Know, before you begin, that others have not chosen the same path as you. They live according to the unconscious instructions of their culture. This makes them a danger, for at any moment they could sacrifice their character for the sake of narrative ...
UCWG 075: Resetting the Self
October 20, 2017 09:14 - 8 minutes - 6.57 MBThe journey of heroic maturity climaxes in the confrontation of one’s deepest fears, even literal death, and emerging as a truer version of oneself. You must, sooner or later, face the pieces of yourself you have buried. It will hurt when you face them. It will hurt when you separate from that to which you are most attached. Emotional release relieves you when the separation is complete. Then you have the space to rebuild yourself better than you were before. Operating as your mature s...
UCWG 074: Slaying the Idealized Self
October 19, 2017 20:05 - 7 minutes - 6.23 MBYou cannot help but conceive of the world through the lens of internal categorization. Categories are useful filters for the intellect. Your mind filters reality into fine details, which overlap, sharing qualities that can be applied for specific functions. Categorization is what makes information useful, including information about what you are supposed to be. You develop your categories through observations, but more often the influence of people who came before you. If you allow oth...
UCWG 073: Reflection & Disillusionment
October 18, 2017 06:28 - 9 minutes - 7.93 MBTo realize what matters is only the first step in the journey to live out the narrative of your life. You then must adopt your values as principles to guide your actions. Though daunting as it may be, accept that you will never flawlessly live up to your own standards. No one is perfect in their actions. The heroic person is willing to try, without end, despite falling short of his ideals. Your resolve may be hard as iron, but resolve is not enough to make a difference. You are still slave...
UCWG 072: The Character You Aim For
October 17, 2017 05:44 - 10 minutes - 9.14 MBPart of the maturing process is coming to the realization that there are aspects to reality you care about more than others. If no one had ever told you what to spend your time on, you would have had to arrive at such a grand conclusion through your own meticulous investigation of the options. You would have to have become sensitive to your own nature so that you could observe how concepts and experiences affected you emotionally. With enough self-knowledge, you can begin to prioritize you...
UCWG 071: Guided Disruption
October 16, 2017 06:18 - 9 minutes - 7.53 MBYou cannot solve the problems of your existence with superficial pursuits that perpetuate the life you already know. The existential cause of deep suffering is a profound life spent without examination or challenge. The world thrives on keeping where you are, as that is where it knows how to reach you and act on your needs. The world has a proprietary interest in stunting your growth. Because of them, you are never able to go after what they want in life. You will never ascend to the profoun...
UCWG 070: Infinite Distraction
October 15, 2017 05:26 - 8 minutes - 7.14 MBYou face now a heavier burden than any generation before you. Choices abound in your life, but you will not always recognize them for the distractions they are. Because new options for entertainment are constantly thrust before you, you have never had real clarity. The fog of motion surrounds you. It is there in the background of all your memories, blinding you to your desires. The human world holds many dramas to keep you from fulfilling your identity. The environment we have built is nua...
UCWG 069: Acknowledging Your Darkness
October 14, 2017 06:00 - 11 minutes - 9.91 MBDenying your darkness can never cure you of its influence. Denial only temporarily pushes it away. The way to neutralize its harm is to understand it completely. You must reach a level of intimacy with yourself such that no stone of your personality is left unsearched, no matter what you find beneath. Then you and darkness can co-exist. Every superficially good person is frightened by their capacity for evil, limiting their ability to act. They must safely explore their darkness within the...
UCWG 068: Crippling Self-Sabotage
October 13, 2017 02:29 - 8 minutes - 6.79 MBEverything grows from the inside out. Having no inner foundation, you set yourself to fail at nearly all worldly events. You put no weight into what you are, subverting every action from within. A thousand false values flood you, drawing you in every direction that you do not wish to go. This is not what you seek, but what others seek for you. Holding so little regard for your own life, you cannot see what is obviously true about you. What you know analytically is undermined by your emotio...
UCWG 067: Unearned Self-Importance
October 12, 2017 04:51 - 9 minutes - 7.98 MBYou often wish a favorable thing about yourself were true, but this does not make it so. Reality only bends in its own way, never totally mastered or obeyed. A thought originating in your mind is no more real or important than any other. You alone are not the determiner. It takes practice and skill to align your mind with what is. If you don’t survey the territory before you engage, you run blindly into whatever awaits you. There is a separation between your internal and external experienc...
UCWG 066: Accurate Self-Confidence
October 11, 2017 06:55 - 6 minutes - 4.81 MBA person is, fundamentally, awareness of themselves. The way you see yourself changes everything about you. Thinking and feeling exactly as you are is the root of confidence. Any premise that strays from the mark of reality will color all your actions. To act as who you are, you must know who you are. Know it more than you know anything else that you know, for self-knowledge is the root of all other knowledge. There can be no doubt. Even the slightest hesitation will seize you. Any lingeri...
UCWG 065: Narratives of Selective Truth
October 10, 2017 06:48 - 9 minutes - 7.67 MBNarrative is what you’re paying attention to. No one can take it all in. Patches of reality cumulate in purpose. You select which parts of your observation matter. Narrative is the selective truth you are paying attention to. Knowing your narrative reveals your trials and goals. The people of the world have no idea what they are living for. They exist to continue existing, as it is the only thing they have ever known. Their purpose is simply as filler to perpetuate the state of affairs. Reco...
UCWG 064: Lifestyle Exploration
October 09, 2017 01:35 - 5 minutes - 4.38 MBIt’s tempting to settle into the life others give you. Your parents and other influences meant well when they gave it to you. Their limited vision shouldn’t become yours. Their starting conditions are only a launchpad for everything else on the spectrum of experience. This is the 22nd part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and identity development. Come back tomorrow to continue the discussion or click here to see the other...
UCWG 063: Adaptive Flow
October 08, 2017 06:54 - 8 minutes - 6.22 MBIn any new situation, deduce the changes required to get where you are going. Begin with simple changes that carry remarkable impact. What new information will you need to be functional? Recognize when things work differently than expected. Alter these expectations one by one until your map updates to the newly observable reality. This is the 21th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and identity development. Come back to...
UCWG 062: Revel in Trauma
October 07, 2017 04:45 - 7 minutes - 6.46 MBFor all your power, whether acquired or endowed, you still can only function in a rather narrow band of comfortable experiences. Step outside this range and the outcome is death. Approach your limit you will experience every trauma a human mind can. There is no way to expand this area except to march purposefully into trauma. This is the 20th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and identity development. Come back tomorro...
UCWG 061: Prioritizing Life
October 06, 2017 06:50 - 7 minutes - 5.67 MBBe selective in the battles you fight. Your mind will always seek a point of resistance to surpass. You will also fall into convenient loopholes that allow you to avoid resistance for a while. All progress happens against resistance. If you are not mindful, resistance will deluge you. Acknowledge what your mind is doing and reclaim the reigns. This is the 19th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to self-discovery and identity development....
UCWG 060: Owning Judgment
October 05, 2017 04:08 - 6 minutes - 5.29 MBYou cannot live without interpreting your environment, and each interpretation is an act of judgment. If you not practice this skill, it will consume your mind. Everyday events will affect you emotionally, even when they make no measurable difference in your life. You will let the stories you tell about an experience dictate your actions, regardless of what actually happened. Embrace your judiciary capabilities so that you can master their influence on your everyday life and the most importa...
UCWG 059: Arrived at Understanding
October 03, 2017 19:00 - 8 minutes - 6.53 MBThe everlasting pursuit of your life will be to make order in a universe where people suffer consequences because it is lacking. All great heroes do their unique part to bring the world a little further out of the chaos that prevents it from thriving. Every valiant act ever committed has made the world function better in a definite way. Your mark on the world will be set by how you bring enlightenment to an endarkened corner of mankind. This is the 17th part of a new daily short-hand serie...
UCWG 058: The Will to Act
October 03, 2017 03:10 - 7 minutes - 5.81 MBIntellect and creativity, without the ability to apply them in proportion to their stature, are tremendous burdens to carry. Their unfulfillment can lead to a hollow kind of psychosis that rots a talented mind from within. To be given ample faculties is a responsibility for which few young people prepare. Through chance, a seed of greatness appeared in you. Now the seed must grow. This is the 16th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases covering an integral approach to se...
UCWG 057: Creative Rearranging
October 01, 2017 20:24 - 11 minutes - 9.24 MBThe value of your mind does not reside in the totality of the information it maintains. More than a library, the functional mind creates new data from the materials it is given. Indeed, the knowledge you already hold can betray you if it prevents you seeing beyond its contextual boundaries. Whatever you currently know is not the limit to what can be known. The perspective provided by this knowledge will enable you to expand your thought facilities into the great unknown all around you. Beyon...
UCWG 056: Embracing Intellect
October 01, 2017 06:37 - 10 minutes - 9.01 MBThere is no more powerful, praised, and simultaneously detested quality than the having of a healthy intellect in an unintellectual society. From intellect, all meaning is produced out of raw experience. From meaning, all goals become possible. The rate and the manner in which you will grow depends in great ratio on the quality of your rational mind.
UCWG 055: The Light of Passion
September 30, 2017 05:05 - 8 minutes - 7.39 MBThough the mind is easily distracted, few practices will be able to capture your senses completely, pulling your total attention and occupying your information intake. Fewer experiences still will sustain integrated personal return on the investment of your time and attention. Make it your priority to identify what stimulates the deepest parts and occupy the spaces of your life with these motivating treasures. This is the 13th part of a new daily short-hand series of podcast releases c...