This was a thoughtful and illuminating Podcast in which we discussed Music, Creativity and Mental Health. Themes in this conversation included: Jon's latest album "Therapy Notes" and explore the therapeutic role of music in processing emotions and life experiences; how music can help transform difficult experiences into something bearable and beautiful; the relationship between creativity, mental states, and environmental conditions; how meditation helps Jon access creative mind states; creativity as an integrating process that allows individuals to trust their own process more; the concept of love and its spiritual dimension, especially as it involves surrender; how the music industry rewards narcissistic behavior and has become a social media popularity contest, while offering little financial security; how Jon credits a more structured lifestyle focused on regular exercise, healthy eating, and balance, for his career longevity while managing multiple creative pursuits including music, acting, and visual art. It was a wonderfully diverse conversation and I hope you love it too.

This Q & A explores issues arising from 'Mastering Difficult Conversations Part 1 (What's Going On?)'. Topics discussed included: how nurturing trust over time makes subsequent difficult conversations much easier; the distinction between naive and mature trust; the distinction between reacting and responding, and how we can use analysis of conversational dynamics to shift to responding; the importance of preparing for difficult conversations; and the development of confidence in one's ability to navigate difficult conversations well.

The first of this 3-part series on mastering difficult conversations begins by describing 'what's going on' when a conversation is difficult. We see that the threat system in our brain is activated when there is low trust and this inhibits our capacity to think collaboratively and creatively. By contrast, we generally want there to be high trust so we can experiment and create together. So the first task is to assess the dynamics: to see what states in ourselves and in the other person need shifting to create more trust. The following podcasts explore how to do that.