Hi folks! We have a new kind of Bewildered episode, called “The BeWild Files,” which will feature listeners’ voices and our responses. YAY!
Please find instructions below for sending a voice message to the Bewildered podcast. We love hearing from you, and while not every submission can make it onto the BeWild File episodes, we do try and listen to as many of them as we can.
How to talk to us? Read on!
(But first, a little tip about the kind of content that will be played. Keep the tone light, make the conundrum real and relatable, and extra points for absurdity and a quirky look at this bewildering world.)
Please check these instructions carefully, as we can’t use any messages that don’t adhere to these guidelines.
1. Using the Voice Memo (or equivalent) app on your phone, record a brief (45 seconds or less) message. At the beginning of your message, please say that we have your permission to use your voice on the podcast.
2. How do I do that? If you have an iPhone, there should be an app on your phone called Voice Memo. If you don’t, try Googling “How to record a voice memo on my [PHONE NAME] phone.”
3. When you have your message recorded, check that you’ve stated your permission at the beginning, you’ve checked that it’s less than 45 seconds, and you’ve saved it.
4. Email the voice file to our email address: BEWILDEREDTHEPODCAST@MARTHABECK.COM (note that there’s a “the” between “bewildered” and “podcast.”) You will receive an autoreply if your submission is received. If you don’t, double check the email address.
5. How do I email it? Google is your friend.
We can’t wait to hear from you!
This article originally appeared on Rowan’s Wild Inventures substack newsletter. To subscribe and get all Rowan’s posts in your inbox, head over to Wild Inventures on substack now.
Dear Rowan and Marty, WOW! What an absolutely wonderful podcast you’ve created!! I’m bingeing and loving every moment. It’s a pure delight to hear smart and funny women. Thank you, thank you!
Best, Susan Dean
Hi guys! (yep, I use that all the time too)
Firstly, thank you for the wonderful job that you do in creating this podcast.
I just listened to ‘The Productivity Addict’ and holy cow did you nail some fortuitous topics – not to mention give me a wonderful slice of time that was filled with out loud laughter (perhaps strange behavior in an office setting, but extremely welcome to me!) – thank you 🙂
Second thing to address… Martha, I too have the tsunamis of shame that will rear up out of nowhere and smack me. WTF is up with that?!? However, lately it seems that my thinking monkey brain is being even more sadistic and giving me flashes of intensely crystal clear moments of grief – so intense in my body that they create immediate tears and wrenching hollowness in my gut. My observer self can see what is happening, but my animal self still reacts. I (observer self) wonder why my brain is doing this, and why is it doing it at moments that I am trying to reach states of deep calm? It’s like a toddler screaming ‘LOOK AT ME!!’ It is also all the more powerful because it sneaks up on me in moments of stillness and sucker punches me. I honestly had the thought to call and leave a message for BeWildered asking about this all this week! I am still interested in the dynamics of what is happening here and I think it needs more investigation.
And now to move on to PERFECTIONISM… oh that sneaky bastard. I think that I am more of the Rowan type when it comes to this (though if I actually DO put something out there the gremlins definitely start in on the ‘people be judge-y’ side of things). When I have ideas for projects I will plan them to death instead of starting them/editing them/etc. I am a MASTER of detailed lists, diagrams, and sketches of how I want to execute something. I also get caught in the continuous fiddling with things to prolong being ‘done’ with them. I read a really good quote (but I can’t remember what book or person) that said something like ‘art never gets finished, you just get to a point and have to release it’ or ‘let it go’ – or something like that (I wonder if it was the ‘ship it’ guy). That was so spot on. Release the hounds!
I have a few projects that need my attention and I have been shying away from them because of those nasty thoughts that perfectionism puts in your head (not good enough, there is such a glut in the market how can you even DREAM of putting your work out there, ad nauseam). But, your comments on not releasing something as a kind of selfishness, and what good is something going to do living in a drawer – that struck a cord with me.
I have an UNDERPAINTING (yes, Marty you had me rolling with that story) that I have extremely high hopes of and doubts of being able to duplicate what is in my head.
AND I have a book that I wrote and have been trying to figure out next steps (and floundering horribly with). The ‘getting it out there’ is uncharted territory to me. I have also had some out of the box thinking on this project as well (see ‘glut in the market’ to stall enthusiasm). It’s just the DOING that has me stymied. I WANT to share and connect with people – I REALLY DO! The comment about the ‘worst thing in your life/cave/giving others a way to navigate it’ made me tear up.
EVERYTHING that the two of you talked about in this podcast spoke so deeply to my truth (and I have been living out of integrity for soooooo long). I know it’s a bit woowoo but your conversation was so specific and dovetailed a little too neatly with things that I need to work on. Now I just have to find the energy and faith to DO and figure out the HOWs.
Thank you both for the amazing work that you do, the wisdom you share, and the bright spots in my day that you create 🙂
Your podcast is keeping me sane. Every one is a gem that soothes my soul.
I’m trying to figure out how to study what I need to know and how to know what I need to study. My husband is dying of a strange cognitive disorder that has caused dementia. I’m afraid it’s genetic and has been increasing slowly for a long, long, time – maybe the entire 25 years I’ve known him. He has three kids, two of whom are ours together. I can’t stand to see their dear personalities disappear into this long deep well of sad incapacity, so I want to do the genetic & neurological research to really make a difference. CRISPR-cas technology can repair genetic defects. I want to make a real intellectual contribution to the effort. But, at 55, being low-income with a sick husband, Idon’t have the time, money, or perhaps even the brain power to get a doctorate in biochemistry & do post doc research. How do I get to that level though? I don’t want to do fundraisers and awareness work and leave research to the experts. I have a burning desire to be the expert. I want to do it non-traditionally. But how??? I don’t care about credentials so much. What I care about is real knowledge.
Just take one little step . See if you can enroll at a community college or local university and take a preliminary class to taste it out. Don’t look how long it will take or if you cannot afford it (the money will come if this is your passion and it sounds like it is ☺️). One little small step at a time and you might just see the magic unfold .
I just have to share- I just finished your bewilderment podcast about anxiety (I laughed out load several times, you guys are worth your weight in gold)
The subject was right on target- I too have a great life, yet still have anxiety.
I want to share 2 examples of my coping that you guys touched on.
1. everything is new, the past is lost: When I have anxiety I can’t talk down I simply say ” oh, we’ve already processed that, or oh, we already healed that”. I don’t even have to know why I’m anxious and this will work.
2. I love to watch golf while quilting. For some reason the voices calm me. Anyway, when a cheer goes up, I pretend it’s for me- works like a charm!
Bewildered podcast is a healthy, wholesome meal to be consumed daily.
Cave early is so fantastic thank you for doing the podcast so helpful
I love you, I do. Perish the thought that little me should offer a correction but I have to. On the productivity podcast, when you reference Schindler’s List, Oscar Schindler is not in regret in the way you are describing, it isn’t that he can’t appreciate the greatness of what he’s done because he can’t stop and accept the gratitude. It is regret over the careless expenditure of money for things like cigarettes, jewelry and excess at the beginning of the war when he was enjoying his lavish lifestyle instead of how every penny could have bought another jewish life. He is realizing the gravity of those foolish acts now in their full strength. Still love you and listen to every wise word!
Hello, thank you
never enough episode…yes and now I am trying to figure out what to do with the regret of trying to please and missing my life. My finish line was pleasing unpleasable parents and a midwestern culture which is happiest being miserable and pessimistic. Thing is these parents also have not wanted much to do with me outside of judge for my adult life. I wonder if others have had to pretend, they have had parents their whole life to those who have had them, otherwise it becomes a worse extended old war, and you fall into a doom vacuum. Yet, I am stronger for not staying a child like they often are in older adulthood without the autonomy.
Recently listened to podcast with Elizabeth Gilbert …. You discussed Pema Chodron and her comment about water clearing as you work on things and then see “all the junk underneath “. Wondering
about my issues with being an empath and as I am working on things I am feeling more distress of feelings from others or things going on in the world …I think I hid these feelings of empathy in my anxiety and as that is clearing my empathic feelings are more intense …
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