OMTimes Radio Archives

Transformation 101: The Ego

Aired Tuesday, March 17, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

“We believe we are running around as a body. This organism, little more than an agglomeration of water, somehow comes to constitute ‘us.’ All of our senses confirm this; we seem to be contained by this agglomeration, encased within it and acting on its behalf. According to everything the world shows us, we are this body. I use the words ‘believe’ and ‘seem to be’ for a reason: in truth we are not bodies. You are not a body, and neither am I.”

This is a direct quote from my book Decide, and the basis for this week’s episode of the series Transformation 101. Let us get raw, real, and most of all radical this week as we take a look at what is—and what isn’t—reality.

Everything we see and experience in the world seems to confirm our separate and independent existence. That is, of course, until it doesn’t. Spiritual practice—whatever this means to you—aims to bring us more of the “until it doesn’t.” Call this sense of a separately-existing self the ego, and call spiritual practice the way out.

Join me this week as we take a closer look at our supposed individuality and the pain it really causes us to hold on to the ego as the basis of our existence. Experience the truth that the mind is not dependent on the physical body through a guided meditation, and consider some of the ways that you are not as constrained as you might imagine. Also, consider what you can do, right now, today, to bust through the myth of a separate existence and take constructive action to know your Self.

And what constitutes constructive action? Spiritual practice, of course.

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#Transformation101 #TheEgo #EGO #TomásGarza #DecideToTransform #SelfGrowth

Transformation 101: Love and Fear

Aired Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

This week, let’s get back to basics. First off, all transformation is an inside job. Personal growth takes place at the level of the mind; this in fact applies to all growth.

Join me over the next three weeks for Transformation 101. We will cover some of the basics of personal growth and spirituality, for in case you were wondering, they are one and the same. Transformation takes place at the spiritual level.

We begin with love and fear. People have many labels for feelings and emotions, all of them with different levels and gradients, all separated and subdivided into different categories for our analysis, discussion, and ultimately confusion. You heard that right: our confusion. In truth there are only two emotions: love and fear. Every label that we use—such as anger, joy, frustration, lightheartedness, etc.—belongs to one of these two categories.

We are all talking to ourselves constantly, hearing and participating in a dialogue. There is always a voice in your head. No, you are not crazy, unless of course you listen to the voice of fear. When you do that, you keep yourself stuck and small, you experience fear’s manifestations—you get frustrated, sad, etc.

The alternative is to listen to the voice of love. This helps you go big in life, experiencing relief, lightheartedness, happiness, and a sense of purpose. This is the voice to listen to.

Fear keeps us from moving. Love impels it; it is extension. Every moment of every day we have a choice: love or fear, and which we choose determines the course of our life. Have you chosen wrongly in the past? No worries—we all have. Right now, in this moment, we get to choose again.

Let it be empowering to you that you can choose. Plug into love. Call it God, Source, whatever. This is your power. Tap into it. Thrive.

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#Transformation101 #TomásGarza #DecideToTransform #SelfGrowth

The Beginning of Something: Seasons in Our Lives

Aired Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

Do you fear change? Be honest. Most of us do. At least on some level, the idea of re-inventing yourself is terrifying. While we follow adventurous people on social media and dream of one day picking up and radically changing our circumstances, the reality is that most of us stay put. Fear keeps us right where we are—even if right where we are is dreary and unhappy.

Last week on the show we took a look at a traveling season, namely my adventures over the past two-and-a-half years with my wife Cindy while living in the Mexican state of Yucatán. This season has now drawn to a close, and a new chapter begins.

With the beginning of a new chapter come many of the same questions that arise during the ending of a season in our lives. What is this going to look like? How long will this last? What are the lessons to be learned? Also, if we’re honest, we ask ourselves whether we will enjoy this new time, whether it will be fun and prosperous, even if we’re doing the right thing by launching into this adventure in the first place.

Join me as I broadcast live from the site of our new adventure, namely our home in Phoenix, Arizona. We will discuss an adventurous, curious attitude, which is what I encourage people to cultivate. We will cover topics such as taking calculated risks, having fun, and most importantly trusting your instinct and intuition, which will always guide you. In the short term, you may have things to release and lessons to learn—so your gut may not lead you straightaway into bliss—but it will always lead you to what you need to learn, the people you need to learn it from, and the place in which you are to learn it. In short, you always get exactly what you need.

Listen in and be inspired! Cultivate a sense of wonder and adventure. Could there be a new chapter just waiting for you? If you know the answer is yes, will you embrace it?

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#Season #TomásGarza #DecideToTransform #SelfGrowth

The End of Something: Seasons in Our Lives

Aired Tuesday, February 25, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

Each period of our lives, each “season,” exists to teach us something. Each season challenges us, nurtures us, and provides space for us to grow. Whether the season lasts a few days or several years, the passing of a chapter in our lives provides time for reflection, for celebration, and serves as a large-scale model for any process of growth and change.

Join me this week as I take you through a season in my life and share the lessons—the good, the bad, and of course the ugly. If you feel like a large growth period is right around the corner for you—or if you would like one to be—you will want to tune in.

Here is the summary: in the fall of 2017, sick to death of the western Oregon rain that falls in a slow, steady drizzle from October to May, my wife Cindy and I decided to sell our house, get rid of or store our belongings, and go to live in Mexico. We craved some tropical sun—and good street tacos!

For most people it would not be easy to just sell your house, pack a couple of suitcases, and go to live in another country, and it wasn’t for us, either. What we found, though, was that by letting go of our old lives a new way of life and new ways of being opened up to us. In the process both of us have reinvented ourselves.

While we may be thrilled with where we are now versus where we were when we began, the process was not always easy and has been full of challenges. At times, it has been agonizing. Now, however, as we prepare to leave Mexico and bring this season to a close, we are both thrilled with who we have become, largely because we had the courage to begin the process in the first place.

If you’re thinking about massive change, tune in. You may just be inspired to create it!

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#Season #TomásGarza #DecideToTransform #SelfGrowth

Cindy Garza – Our Concepts Around Health, Wellness, and Spirituality

Aired Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

What are your ideas about health, wellness, and spirituality? For some of us, these are fundamental pillars, a constant presence in our lives. For others, these may be wishful thinking, a distant goal to be pursued but never achieved. This week on Decide To Transform we take a closer look at why. We take a closer look at our unhelpful concepts.

Join my lovely and amazing wife Cindy Garza for an encore appearance on the show. Cindy is a longtime coach and teacher of fitness, health, and wellness. She owned a women’s health club in Oregon for 21 years, has served as a yoga instructor, and currently assists clients with comprehensive transformation through her business Awaken Opportunities Coaching.

Last week on the show we examined the relationship between spirituality and health and wellness. This week we take it a step further by identifying the concepts we all hold about these components of our lives. In some cases, these concepts may help us, but in most cases they limit us; they keep us stuck and block action.

We invite you to consider some of your concepts around health, wellness, and spirituality. For example, are you feeling like you’re stuck with the body you have right now and just have to learn to deal with it? Do you view weight loss as impossibly hard, fitness as a pipe dream, spiritual growth something for Tibetan monks but never for you?

Whether your concepts are blatant or more subtle, Cindy has a solution for you. Tune in this week for helpful tips on identifying and moving beyond negative concepts and truly allow for growth and transformation in your life.

For more information about Cindy and how you can work with her directly, visit her Facebook business page: https://www.facebook.com/awakenopportunitiescoaching/

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#CindyGarza #Health #Wellness #Spirituality #TomásGarza #DecideToTransform #SelfGrowth

Cindy Garza – Health, Wellness, and Spirituality

Aired Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

What does spirituality have to do with your health? What if the answer is everything? In today’s world it is easy and tempting to separate physical health and the spiritual realm. People focus solely on objects like the body while ignoring the spirit and the mind. Even the most strenuous gym workout, however, is not solely about our biceps or our legs. There is always more—so much more.

Join me this week on Decide To Transform as I welcome a very special Guest Teacher—my wife Cindy Garza. Cindy owned a women’s health club in Oregon for 21 years and today serves as a Health and Wellness Coach. She assists her clients in creating lifelong transformation—and not just in the physical body.

Cindy believes that what goes on in a person’s mind has a profound impact on any health journey. If a person wants to lose weight, for example, there is so much more involved than simply eating less. Cindy consistently finds that the people who enjoy the most success are those who incorporate their inner world with their outer world, in other words the ones who embrace their spirituality as a key component of the journey.

Enjoy the show this week as Cindy talks in depth about her own journey with health and spirituality, her triumphs as well as her struggles. Tune in as she answers listeners’ questions and shares her expert insight into real personal transformation.

Health, wellness, and spirituality—the three cannot be separated.

To submit questions to the show for Cindy to answer, send an email to: tomas@tomasgarza.com

For more information on Cindy and her Health and Wellness coaching practice, please visit her Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/awakenopportunitiescoaching/

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#CindyGarza #Health #Wellness #Spirituality #TomásGarza #DecideToTransform #SelfGrowth

Commit to Loving Yourself

Aired Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

Do you love yourself? I mean do you really, truly love yourself, honor yourself, invest in and care about your deepest well-being? Some of you might say yes; others might ask what I mean by this. Join me this week on Decide To Transform as I explain.

To some people this question may sound weird. For a number of reasons, many of us do not feel worthy or deserving of love from the most important source of all—ourselves.

Without self-love, we founder. We get involved in bad relationships, toxic work environments, and our health can slide downhill. Misery can surround us.

This does not have to be. Each and every one of us can choose to love ourselves. What does this look like? No matter what the external form, self-love revolves around a decision and a commitment. Decide to love yourself, that you are worthy. Then, commit to yourself, and put this love into practice.

There are many forms of self-care. You might take up a habit such as physical exercise, or you might switch jobs. What matters truly, though, is that you make a switch internally, by insisting on yourself in a healthy manner, creating healthy boundaries if needed, and demanding the most basic of requirements: respect.

The benefits of committing to love yourself are truly transformational. Still don’t think you’re worth it? Consider the impact on others when you don’t love or care about yourself. What message are you sending to your kids, your family, and your peers?

Commit to loving yourself. If you have, join me this week to help strengthen your commitment. If you haven’t, join me to learn the practical benefits and to get inspired. Experience a short guided meditation on self-love, and commit to yourself. The whole world needs you.

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#LoveYourself #LovingYourself #TomásGarza #DecideToTransform #SelfGrowth

Lisa Berry – Self-Talk Transformation: Unconscious Success

Aired Tuesday, January 28, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

It matters how we talk to ourselves. In fact, self-talk is its own unique language. It may not occur to us from moment to moment, but we talk to ourselves constantly, and we feed ourselves with messages. Are we feeding ourselves love and positivity, or are we forcing ourselves to swallow garbage? How often do we actually pause to think about it?

No matter where we are or what we’re doing, our minds are always racing, leaping from one thought to another. In other words, we are talking to ourselves. We chatter, and our mind chatter has meaning. It has meaning because it directs and influences the course of our lives. We can use it to create wealth, happiness, and prosperity, and we can also use it to make a world of poverty, sickness, and fear. The beauty of it is that we get to decide. We get to consciously select thoughts that will go to work for us and program our subconscious mind, so that we’re always moving in the direction of success and our highest Self.

Join me this week for an encore appearance by my longtime friend Lisa Berry as our Guest Teacher! Lisa is the host of Light on Living on OMTimes Radio and a podcast trainer. Her motto is “Wellness for all” and she returns to the show with her trademark joy, exuberance, and vi-brant energy. This week she continues our discussion of self-talk trans-formation, answers listener questions, and helps us “workshop our minds” by addressing listeners’ real-life self-talk scenarios.

You can look forward to even more fun this week! Learn some valuable tips about orienting your mind and life toward happiness and prosperity. In other words, recognize how you are getting in your own way and learn some easy techniques for getting out of it. Join us—happiness awaits you!

Connect with Lisa Berry at http://www.lightonliving.com/

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#LisaBerry #SelfTalkTransformation #UnconsciousSuccess #DecideToTransform #SelfGrowth

Selfish in a Good Way: The Importance of Self-Care

Aired Tuesday, January 21, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

Of course we need to give. We give to others, we give to causes, organizations, charities, but what about ourselves? It may sound obvious that we need to care for ourselves, but so many find this difficult. They may even neglect self-care completely. Do you?

If you consider yourself a caregiver, a nurturer, one who loves to serve, prepare to be challenged this week. Take time out of your routine to look within and to be really, truly honest with yourself. Ask: “Am I caring for myself, too?”

If you answer in the negative, there is no time like the present to change course. Indeed this is the only time there is, so when else would you? Self-care is critically important, and each of us deserves it.

Self-care can take many forms. A number of these take very little time to accomplish, so leave that “I’m too busy” excuse at the door! For some people this can mean a daily practice such as journaling or meditation. For others this involves exercise, a walk in the fresh air, preparing and eating a good meal. The forms are as limitless as your creativity. No matter how you package it, self-care is absolutely critical. If your cup runs dry, how can you truly give to someone else?

Join me this week as we discuss the importance of self-care and how easy it is to incorporate into your life once you decide to do it. If you professionally or habitually care for others, please make sure you tune in: this could be the wake-up call you need!

I invite you to consider how you care for yourself, and if you don’t, I invite you to consider what you can start to do right now, today. As you think about the possibilities, enjoy a guided virtual “tour” with me as I take you through one of my favorite self-care rituals.

Take time for yourself; the world needs it, and you do, too!

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#SelfCare #ImportanceOfSelfCare #DecideToTransform #TomásGarza #SelfGrowth

Creating Some Space: Techniques for De-stressing

Aired Tuesday, January 14, 2020 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST

Let’s face it: life is a constant ball of stress sometimes. Work overburdens us; the bills pile up. The kids need your attention, you’re running behind schedule, etc., etc., etc. It is easy to feel like your life is living you, not the other way around.

So, what can you do to calm yourself down?

Well, you could always take time off of work—or quit your job—and hop a plane to Costa Rica. Not an option? Okay, never fear: there are plenty of things you can do right here, right now to de-stress yourself, to gain control of your life, your mental state, your emotional state, etc.

Does that sound good to you?

I hope so. It’s no fun, after all, to feel like everyday life is running over us. When it is, we are doing nothing more than existing. Forget about living your purpose if you are constantly stressed-out and frantic. You might not ever open up the space to figure out what that purpose is.

So let’s talk about that: space. When it comes to our personal transformation, we’re not talking “space” as in planets and galaxies. Instead, we’re talking about mental space, opening gaps between thoughts in our constant mental chatter. In these intervals—however brief—we can pause to examine ourselves and our lives. We can make some different choices.

That is what personal transformation is all about: making different choices. If your choices are not serving you, you will need to make different ones. When and where, then, do you make them? In these gaps, in the space you clear for yourself.

Join me this week as we examine a handful of easy-to-put-into-practice, beneficial techniques for opening up some space in your life, space to choose differently. Each one of them is effective and none of them takes a lot of time. The rewards, though, can be far greater than the time spent. Talk about a high-leverage activity! Join us and start to put some of these into practice in your life. Open up some space for yourself. See you Tuesday!

Visit the Decide to Transform show page https://omtimes.com/iom/shows/decide-to-transform/

Connect with Tomás Garza at https://tomasgarza.com/

#DecideToTransform #TomásGarza #SelfGrowth #DeStressing #CreatingSomeSpace