This week we're exploring a fascinating question that's relevant to all of us... what are we really capable of? What's the true potential of humans?

I'm exploring this with Ian Watson, who is an author, trainer and consultant. Ian's got soooo much experience in the field of  natural health and personal transformation. He's covered more ground in his quest to uncover the full potential of humans than most people would manage in several lifetimes!

We cover a lot of ground in this episode: why self-help techniques seem to stop working, how change really happens, what's going on with consciousness, happiness, the call to adventure and more. This is one of my favourite shows. :)

In this episode you'll learn:

• We attribute positive change to a self-help technique and then think if we do more of that technique, we think we'll improve further (which is rarely the case). Alternatively we go on to look for a new technique and start the cycle again. Recognising the real cause of positive change - an internal shift in perspective - means that we're less likely to go around in circles with technique after technique.

• Ian says that we continue to grow in consciousness over our lifetimes. We outgrow old ways of thinking, we start banging up against the edges of our beliefs and then we start to look for ways to create space for new ways of thinking.

• We can fulfil potential when we respond to the call to adventure instead of retracting through fear (Ian quotes Joseph Campbell' 'The refusal of the call for adventure' here). The unknown isn't a scary place - it's the place where everything that we're looking for resides.

How to parent teens the happy way... with Jacquie Forde

This is the second show we've done with the fabulous social entrepreneur, coach and business woman Jacquie Forde. I knew she'd be amazing to speak to on the topic of parenting teens and older children and flipping heck... she didn't disappoint!

Jacquie is married with three daughters and here she shares how she was always searching for the answer to be the best parent she could be and then when her eldest daughter was 17, she discovered something that transformed her approach to parenting.

Jacquie shares some incredibly touching and inspiring stories of how their family has changed for the better over the last few years. Yes, there were tears for both us. :)

Here were my best bits:

• Having an awareness of how thoughts and feelings really work has not just transformed how Jacquie parents her daughters but it's also given them far more resourcefulness and resilience.

• Giving up the belief that we have to be right all the time as parents makes for a much easier, closer relationship with our children. 

• Jacquie shared a story about one of her daughters learning from a bad experience with alcohol - given the love, trust and the space, our children will learn the lessons they need to learn for themselves.

How to give children a super start in life... with Piers Thurston

Piers is a top personal and business and is a father to two children - in this episode we explored how his understanding of 'quality of mind' has affected his parenting and has helped him to give his children a great start in life.

Here were my fave bits:

• Children are a great reminder to us of how we were born happy!
  
  
• Even when we have an understanding of how our minds work, we'll still get caught up in thought from time to time. That's just human and the more lightly we take those times, the more fleeting they seem to be.

• Preparing our children to live the game of life entails showing them that it is a game and our best chance of playing it happily, is to be open-hearted and open-minded.

How to home school the happy way... with Stuart Norman

Stuart Norman is a Transformative Coach and teacher of the 3 Principles understanding.  Stuart and his wife have been enjoying home schooling his daughter since last year so I thought he'd be a great person to speak to about how parenting can be a lot easier and more pleasurable than parents often believe is possible.

I loved Stuart's metaphor that life is more like a game of snap than the game of chess that we sometimes act like it is! This applies to life in general but has been particularly helpful for him and his wife in their approach to home schooling:

• We're not in control - life will play out in its own way, and that goes for our children too.
• We don't know what the future holds - understanding that means we worry less about how we can make our children conform to our view of what we'd like their future to be like.
• Learning (and life in general) is meant to be fun! :)

Life as a teenager with anxiety... with Sebastian Eck

Sebastian Eck realised that he was struggling with anxiety in social situations and dating when he was in his teens. Sebastian has since found a natural calm and confidence and has gone on to run workshops for people who are homeless and has created online resources for people seeking peace of mind.

Sebastian and I spoke about all kinds of areas relating to anxiety and the causes of it. Here were my best bits:

Seeing through his story of anxious
Sebastian realised that his anxiety was purely a belief that he'd created and believed. He believed he didn't know how to make a connection with others. He now sees he already has everything he needs - he can naturally connect with others, we all can once we drop the beliefs that are in the way.

The struggle to become whole
Sebastian described doing lots of self-help and self improvement work. He created a mask which allowed him to go out and socialise and talk to women but it felt like a struggle. What he has seen since he's already complete and that we all already  have happiness inside us.

Realising that he's not running the show
Sebastian described the huge shift of realising that he isn't the one who needs to make things happen, life is just coming through him, there's a force that's playing out and making life happen, without him needing to be in control.