August 15, 2025 • 18 mins
George Noory and author Kate Manser explore the meaning of life and the benefits of evoking feelings of aliveness, why life seems to go faster as you get older, and the importance of appreciating the things you do today because you may not get to do them again.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on
iHeartRadio and.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome back to Coast to Coast George Nori with you.
Kate Manser with us helps mankind feel more alive. She's
spent the past decades studying transcendence, meaning and what makes
us happy and die happy. Her book is called You
Might Die Tomorrow. Your website is linked up at coastocoastam
dot com. Kate, welcome back. Have you been hey?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
George?
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I am feeling beautiful and grateful to be back with
you tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Five years where'd the time go?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And a heck of a time it was?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I believe it was March first, twenty twenty. We were
blissfully unaware of what was to come.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Look where we are today now, Katie, still alive. We
talked a lot about dying. Five years ago. You were
more into a feeling a live bid. What changed?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You know?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
For many years I really was obsessed with this idea
that mortality awareness is the hey to everything that we
look for in our lives, right, courage, presence, clarity, perspective.
And a few years ago I realized that while I
am still very passionate about the power of being aware
that we could die tomorrow. What I'm really passionate about
(01:17):
is above that, and that is what mortality awareness does
for us. It helps us feel alive in our lives.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You've got a podcast going now called be Alive, Right
I Do?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
I Do. It's I'm closing in on one year, which
is really exciting.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
How do people listen to you?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
People can listen to me on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.
And I love featuring people on my show who have
broken from the mold, who live in unconventional ways, and
who talk about the psychology and philosophy of feeling alive
and mortality awareness.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
The song that led into you Mac the Knife, sung
by Bobby Darren, who died at the age of thirty
seven years old. That's highway robbery when you go that early,
isn't it?
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It is, you know, And that's really what caused my
really my awakening back in twenty fifteen. I had and
I spoke with this five years ago when I was
on the show, but I had three friends die in
the span of six in six months in unexpected, unrelated events.
And I don't know if you've ever experienced about of
(02:26):
thanatophobia or death anxiety, but It certainly SAPs the aliveness
and presence out of life.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
But that's where I found myself for a whole.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Year, until I realized that, you know, George, I pretty clumsy.
I could probably die climbing the stairs, let alone all
of the myriad other ways. And what I want to
focus my time and energy on in this beautiful, fragile
life is living rather than the fear of dying.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I've had three friends die over the past seven four
and four years, three of them, and it's a tough time.
It's you really miss them sometimes. One guy was an
entertainer in Saint Louis. He's still on YouTube. His videos
are and whenever I get a little down because you
(03:14):
miss the guy, I watch him on YouTube and feel better.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
He's right there with you.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
How do we feel so more of it? Sometimes? So
with death, Katie.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
You know, death is, I would argue, probably the greatest
and most universal.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Fear that all humans share.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
And yet it has such power to remind us that
we're not dead right now.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
And you know, we can choose to.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Again expend our limited time and energy in life on
being afraid of dying, or we can choose to embrace
this fact of life and leverage it for the kind
of life that we want to live.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Now, you talk about feeling alive, what do you mean
by that?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Well, you know, we're physically alive from the day that
we're born, right We're breathing right now, our hearts are beating,
our lungs are filling and contracting with air. But there's
more than that, isn't there. There's a sensation of feeling alive.
And so when I talk about feeling alive, it's more
than just the physical, biological aspect of being alive. It's
(04:28):
a different thing to have a meta awareness of our aliveness.
And I'm here tonight to talk about how it's really
a superpower that having this meta awareness of our aliveness is.
It's sort of a self reflective recognition that I am
here now, I'm alive. When we spend so much of
our lives in autopilot, that is the awareness that can
(04:51):
really pop us into presence, gratitude, and the vibrant experience
of being alive.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
What are alive for moments?
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Oh? Well, let me tell you about the first alive
moment that I ever experienced. It was it was an
ordinary day May twenty fifteen, and I was taking my
dog out in Austin to It was a walk disguised
as a potty break, and you know, I was just
standing there like a totally ordinary day, and suddenly this
(05:23):
sensation started to come over me. I noticed the color
blue of the sky, and then I noticed the green
leaves against that blue sky. Suddenly everything began to become technicolor.
But before I knew it, it went deeper and I
began to realize. As I looked down at my hands,
I realized, this is my body.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I am alive. I'm standing here, this is my life.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
And in that moment, that was just a truly awesome,
as in full of awe moment that I had never
really actually become aware of my life before.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And at that time, I was thirty years old, and
you know, that was really what kicked off a.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Whole, you know, long era of research and excitement about
being alive. That helped me realize that once you start
to cultivate these alive moments in your life, because that
first one came about spontaneously for me, but you can
actually cultivate them. Next time you're sitting in your home
and you're just curled up on the couch, and maybe
(06:29):
your dog is curled up on the floor by the
window and you have sunlight coming dappling in and you're
suddenly like, Wow, what a beautiful moment. Become aware of
your aliveness in that moment, and it will do two things.
Number one, it will heighten that moment to a degree
that you won't believe and help you remember it more
long term. And number two, it can help you actually
(06:52):
neuroplastically train your brain to feel more alive on an
everyday basis.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Kittie, why does it seem the time flies by the
older we get?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Oh, the age old question, the age old question.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Do you think that our responsibilities perhaps grow.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And we get more wrapped up in the day to
day life?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Maybe, but it still flies by? It is.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
And that's why I'm such a proponent of these live moments,
Because as I've been experiencing this meta awareness of my
aliveness and these alive moments over the past about ten years,
I've actually felt time slow down.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I've felt a lot of my problems, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Warped down in perspective and rise from the weight of
my shoulders.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I found that my life has become more wonderful.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
And you know what, George, I find that I remember
more of my life when I have this meta awareness
of my aliveness.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
These moments stick out in time. I mean, think about it.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
You've probably had a moment where you were maybe on
a big hike and you're on top of.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
A mountain, or you're on vacation that you just remember
that moment.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
But imagine if you could have a moment like that
on any ordinary day of your life.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
And that's what feeling alive can do.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
By feeling alive, do we have any remorse?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Ooh, great question? Any remorse?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
You know, it's a beautiful thing to be in the
present moment that I know for sure. You know, really
the past and the present they're far off in the distance,
but the present moment is where everything is happening right now.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And you know, in the.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Present moment without the past and the future, I don't
think there really is any remorse. It's just experiencing the
vibrant and richness of the here and now.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
What do you think of the saying live every day
like it's your last.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Well, George, you know I wrote a book called You
Might Die Tomorrow? Ye, So I H yeah, I mean,
I think that I went through a big problem actually
when I wrote that book.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Because when people hear that live.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Each day like your last, you might die tomorrow, our minds,
I discovered, people's minds go immediately to, oh, I should
quit my job and travel the world, or you know,
I should eat brownies every day and spend all my money.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
But truly, that's not it.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
And the reason that I'm qualified to come here and
tell you that is I did quit my job and
travel around the world. I did really live for the
present moment.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
But you know that trip ended. I traveled around the
world for a year and a half and I came back,
and you know what I had to do.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
I had to come back to bills and traffic, and
I had to get another corporate job and just reorient
myself in normal life.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And that was when I really discovered that.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Learning how to feel alive on any ordinary day is
the true greatest quest of our lives. Our lives, and
while any life, any good life, will be dotted with
big moments choosing to have children, maybe getting married, changing careers,
writing a book, doing a cool project, these big meaningful things.
(10:14):
I really believe that these small meaningful things and these
alive moments are what truly makes up the quality.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Of our lives.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Can we take tragedies Kate and turn that into a
feeling and a live moment? Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Man, Well, you know I've experienced heartbreak.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
I've been broken up with and I've broken up, I've
experienced loss.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
We're human.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
And you know, there's actually psychological research out there that
shows about mystical experiences.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And we can experience mystical.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Experiences non ordinary states of consciousness.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
In many ways.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
We can do yoga, breath work, we can take a
nature walk, we can evoke in a live moment, we
can take a psychedelic drug. But there's actually proven research,
and you know, the philosopher and spiritual teacher Byron Katie
is a huge proponent of reminding us that our dark
nights of the soul too are mystical experiences.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I know when I've been in deep grief, it's.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Painful and it's raw, but there isn't a liveness in there.
It is it is this fullness of emotion.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
How do you keep positive with negativity all around us?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
The zoom out there's to me, there's nothing like the
zoom out. And so you know, at the top of
this this segment, you said, Hey, Kate, last time you
came on here, you talked about death, and now you're
here to talk about aliveness.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So clearly I really like to think about big ideas.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
And the reason that I like to zoom out from
the myopia of my life, I call it the washing
machine of life, the dentist appointments, the you know, the
political upheaval, the you know, everything that we stress about
on a day to day basis, when we zoom out
from that and we think about I am alive, I
am not dead, and yet I will one day die.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I am breathing.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
It's just things go into perspective in a way unlike
anything else. And so that is what I find is
the best way to stay positive.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And when you talk about death, do you talk about
death for the individual or for the individual's friends and people?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
He knows, you know, it's a within the Buddhist tradition,
it's a something that they recommend to do, is to
not only remind yourself that that we are going to die.
There's the three remembrances. I am of the nature to
grow old, I am of the nature to sicken, and
(12:50):
I am of the nature to die.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Those are the three remembrances for ourselves.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
But in Buddhism they also recommend that you know, you
have the concept of impermanence. So when you give your
parent or your friend a hug, imagine like it might
be the last hug that you give, and let that
hug be as deep as it would be if you
knew that it was going to be the last hug
that you would give.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
That's kind of sad, though, wasn't that.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
It is? And it sort of depends on your beliefs.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
You know, I'm on Coast to Coast, one of the
greatest radio shows where we've got a lot of people
with open minds who believe in a lot of exciting ideas.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And you know, if you believe that.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Perhaps there is some type of afterlife or maybe we
get another rodeo opportunity to come back, then I think
the perspective of.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Death again widens and zooms out.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
A little bit where it's perhaps not an ending, but
some type of continuation.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
There's a little child two years old, three years old,
doesn't think about life and death. They just exist. They're happy,
they're sad. How does it affect them?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Well, they have the secret sauce, George, They've got that
secret sauce of being so profoundly in the present moment.
And that's what we're recapturing with these alive moments, is
that childlike wonder and that state of awe. So I'll
tell you a quick story. I started leading these walking
meditations after I had visited tick not Hans monastery in
(14:27):
France called plumb Village, and there I got to experience
tick not Hans version of walking meditations.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I was so inspired.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
I came back to Austin and I started leading them myself.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And I've led hundreds of.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
People through my walking meditation over the years, and most
of those people have never meditated in their lives. Well
through the experience that I created where I help them
tap into their aliveness. These people would come. This was
done through Airbnb experiences, so they're on vacation. They come
and they have no idea what to expect. Help them
(15:00):
tap into their aliveness in a very open and gentle way.
And George, I have to tell you, within ninety minutes
on this meditation walk, I've got these people walking around
this beautiful sculpture garden in Austin like they're on acid,
but they are completely sober.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
And so that's what we're recapturing.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Is this, you know, reaching out and touching a tree,
feeling the awe experience of the colors and shapes and
sensations of being alive.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
What should we be grateful for? Kid?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
You know, I.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Ran into an issue with my book again where a
lot of people wanted me to tell them exactly how
to live a good life, Tell me how do I
live a good life? Tell me exactly what should I
be grateful for? But truly I believe these are very
deeply personal value choices, morals, right, and so I can't
(15:57):
really tell people what to be grateful for. But what
I I do believe is that feeling alive is the
basis for gratitude. And if your life feels like a
dumpster fire, if the world feels like it's falling apart,
I always come back to I am alive, I am
not dead, and this is my life, and that sensation
(16:18):
of being alive taps me into a level of gratitude
that really nothing else can in my experience.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Can you teach someone to be happy?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
I try. I mean, you can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make them drink. So I really believe
that it comes down to our mindset.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Absolutely is a huge part of it.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And so again with feeling alive being the great basis
for gratitude. If I can teach someone to tap into
that aliveness and that childlike wonder, if even for a moment,
then yes, I believe that we can learn how to
be happy. But you know what's important to differentiate here
is that I'm not saying that if you tap into
your life and experience and evoke these alive moments, that
(17:03):
you're going to be walking on sunshine and.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Clouds for all the days of your life.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
But what I can promise is that when's challenge comes,
and that is a big when, not if, because life
is made of challenges and stumbling blocks and obstacles, but
when that challenge comes, that you will be primed to
move through it with grace and presence and perspective.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
You were on a mission to help humankind feel more alive.
Is that easy or difficult?
Speaker 4 (17:34):
You know? A wise bucchini in France. I once asked her.
I said, I had this burning question. I was at
Plumb Village and we were allowed to ask one question
of the nun at the end of this retreat that
I was at, and I went there and we sat
under this beautiful fig tree, and I welled up and
I asked her this question that was burning in my soul, George,
(17:56):
I said, how how can.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I be the best teacher of this message in this wise? Bukini?
She looked at me, and I'll never.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Forget her face just looked so beautiful and so peaceful,
and then she said something that I'll never forget.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
She said, your life is the message.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern, and go to Coast tocoastam dot com
for more
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on
iHeartRadio and.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome back to Coast to Coast George Nori with you.
Kate Manser with us helps mankind feel more alive. She's
spent the past decades studying transcendence, meaning and what makes
us happy and die happy. Her book is called You
Might Die Tomorrow. Your website is linked up at coastocoastam
dot com. Kate, welcome back. Have you been hey?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
George?
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I am feeling beautiful and grateful to be back with
you tonight.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Five years where'd the time go?
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And a heck of a time it was?
Speaker 4 (00:36):
I believe it was March first, twenty twenty. We were
blissfully unaware of what was to come.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Look where we are today now, Katie, still alive. We
talked a lot about dying. Five years ago. You were
more into a feeling a live bid. What changed?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You know?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
For many years I really was obsessed with this idea
that mortality awareness is the hey to everything that we
look for in our lives, right, courage, presence, clarity, perspective.
And a few years ago I realized that while I
am still very passionate about the power of being aware
that we could die tomorrow. What I'm really passionate about
(01:17):
is above that, and that is what mortality awareness does
for us. It helps us feel alive in our lives.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
You've got a podcast going now called be Alive, Right
I Do?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
I Do. It's I'm closing in on one year, which
is really exciting.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
How do people listen to you?
Speaker 4 (01:36):
People can listen to me on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.
And I love featuring people on my show who have
broken from the mold, who live in unconventional ways, and
who talk about the psychology and philosophy of feeling alive
and mortality awareness.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
The song that led into you Mac the Knife, sung
by Bobby Darren, who died at the age of thirty
seven years old. That's highway robbery when you go that early,
isn't it?
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It is, you know, And that's really what caused my
really my awakening back in twenty fifteen. I had and
I spoke with this five years ago when I was
on the show, but I had three friends die in
the span of six in six months in unexpected, unrelated events.
And I don't know if you've ever experienced about of
(02:26):
thanatophobia or death anxiety, but It certainly SAPs the aliveness
and presence out of life.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
But that's where I found myself for a whole.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Year, until I realized that, you know, George, I pretty clumsy.
I could probably die climbing the stairs, let alone all
of the myriad other ways. And what I want to
focus my time and energy on in this beautiful, fragile
life is living rather than the fear of dying.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I've had three friends die over the past seven four
and four years, three of them, and it's a tough time.
It's you really miss them sometimes. One guy was an
entertainer in Saint Louis. He's still on YouTube. His videos
are and whenever I get a little down because you
(03:14):
miss the guy, I watch him on YouTube and feel better.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
He's right there with you.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
How do we feel so more of it? Sometimes? So
with death, Katie.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
You know, death is, I would argue, probably the greatest
and most universal.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Fear that all humans share.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
And yet it has such power to remind us that
we're not dead right now.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
And you know, we can choose to.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Again expend our limited time and energy in life on
being afraid of dying, or we can choose to embrace
this fact of life and leverage it for the kind
of life that we want to live.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Now, you talk about feeling alive, what do you mean
by that?
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Well, you know, we're physically alive from the day that
we're born, right We're breathing right now, our hearts are beating,
our lungs are filling and contracting with air. But there's
more than that, isn't there. There's a sensation of feeling alive.
And so when I talk about feeling alive, it's more
than just the physical, biological aspect of being alive. It's
(04:28):
a different thing to have a meta awareness of our aliveness.
And I'm here tonight to talk about how it's really
a superpower that having this meta awareness of our aliveness is.
It's sort of a self reflective recognition that I am
here now, I'm alive. When we spend so much of
our lives in autopilot, that is the awareness that can
(04:51):
really pop us into presence, gratitude, and the vibrant experience
of being alive.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
What are alive for moments?
Speaker 4 (05:01):
Oh? Well, let me tell you about the first alive
moment that I ever experienced. It was it was an
ordinary day May twenty fifteen, and I was taking my
dog out in Austin to It was a walk disguised
as a potty break, and you know, I was just
standing there like a totally ordinary day, and suddenly this
(05:23):
sensation started to come over me. I noticed the color
blue of the sky, and then I noticed the green
leaves against that blue sky. Suddenly everything began to become technicolor.
But before I knew it, it went deeper and I
began to realize. As I looked down at my hands,
I realized, this is my body.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I am alive. I'm standing here, this is my life.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
And in that moment, that was just a truly awesome,
as in full of awe moment that I had never
really actually become aware of my life before.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
And at that time, I was thirty years old, and
you know, that was really what kicked off a.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
Whole, you know, long era of research and excitement about
being alive. That helped me realize that once you start
to cultivate these alive moments in your life, because that
first one came about spontaneously for me, but you can
actually cultivate them. Next time you're sitting in your home
and you're just curled up on the couch, and maybe
(06:29):
your dog is curled up on the floor by the
window and you have sunlight coming dappling in and you're
suddenly like, Wow, what a beautiful moment. Become aware of
your aliveness in that moment, and it will do two things.
Number one, it will heighten that moment to a degree
that you won't believe and help you remember it more
long term. And number two, it can help you actually
(06:52):
neuroplastically train your brain to feel more alive on an
everyday basis.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Kittie, why does it seem the time flies by the
older we get?
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Oh, the age old question, the age old question.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, I don't know.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
Do you think that our responsibilities perhaps grow.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And we get more wrapped up in the day to
day life?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Maybe, but it still flies by? It is.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
And that's why I'm such a proponent of these live moments,
Because as I've been experiencing this meta awareness of my
aliveness and these alive moments over the past about ten years,
I've actually felt time slow down.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I've felt a lot of my problems, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Warped down in perspective and rise from the weight of
my shoulders.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I found that my life has become more wonderful.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
And you know what, George, I find that I remember
more of my life when I have this meta awareness
of my aliveness.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
These moments stick out in time. I mean, think about it.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
You've probably had a moment where you were maybe on
a big hike and you're on top of.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
A mountain, or you're on vacation that you just remember
that moment.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
But imagine if you could have a moment like that
on any ordinary day of your life.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
And that's what feeling alive can do.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
By feeling alive, do we have any remorse?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Ooh, great question? Any remorse?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
You know, it's a beautiful thing to be in the
present moment that I know for sure. You know, really
the past and the present they're far off in the distance,
but the present moment is where everything is happening right now.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And you know, in the.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Present moment without the past and the future, I don't
think there really is any remorse. It's just experiencing the
vibrant and richness of the here and now.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
What do you think of the saying live every day
like it's your last.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Well, George, you know I wrote a book called You
Might Die Tomorrow? Ye, So I H yeah, I mean,
I think that I went through a big problem actually
when I wrote that book.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Because when people hear that live.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
Each day like your last, you might die tomorrow, our minds,
I discovered, people's minds go immediately to, oh, I should
quit my job and travel the world, or you know,
I should eat brownies every day and spend all my money.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
But truly, that's not it.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
And the reason that I'm qualified to come here and
tell you that is I did quit my job and
travel around the world. I did really live for the
present moment.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
But you know that trip ended. I traveled around the
world for a year and a half and I came back,
and you know what I had to do.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
I had to come back to bills and traffic, and
I had to get another corporate job and just reorient
myself in normal life.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And that was when I really discovered that.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
Learning how to feel alive on any ordinary day is
the true greatest quest of our lives. Our lives, and
while any life, any good life, will be dotted with
big moments choosing to have children, maybe getting married, changing careers,
writing a book, doing a cool project, these big meaningful things.
(10:14):
I really believe that these small meaningful things and these
alive moments are what truly makes up the quality.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Of our lives.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Can we take tragedies Kate and turn that into a
feeling and a live moment? Oh?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Man, Well, you know I've experienced heartbreak.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
I've been broken up with and I've broken up, I've
experienced loss.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
We're human.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
And you know, there's actually psychological research out there that
shows about mystical experiences.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
And we can experience mystical.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Experiences non ordinary states of consciousness.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
In many ways.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
We can do yoga, breath work, we can take a
nature walk, we can evoke in a live moment, we
can take a psychedelic drug. But there's actually proven research,
and you know, the philosopher and spiritual teacher Byron Katie
is a huge proponent of reminding us that our dark
nights of the soul too are mystical experiences.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I know when I've been in deep grief, it's.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Painful and it's raw, but there isn't a liveness in there.
It is it is this fullness of emotion.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
How do you keep positive with negativity all around us?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
The zoom out there's to me, there's nothing like the
zoom out. And so you know, at the top of
this this segment, you said, Hey, Kate, last time you
came on here, you talked about death, and now you're
here to talk about aliveness.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
So clearly I really like to think about big ideas.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
And the reason that I like to zoom out from
the myopia of my life, I call it the washing
machine of life, the dentist appointments, the you know, the
political upheaval, the you know, everything that we stress about
on a day to day basis, when we zoom out
from that and we think about I am alive, I
am not dead, and yet I will one day die.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I am breathing.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
It's just things go into perspective in a way unlike
anything else. And so that is what I find is
the best way to stay positive.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And when you talk about death, do you talk about
death for the individual or for the individual's friends and people?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
He knows, you know, it's a within the Buddhist tradition,
it's a something that they recommend to do, is to
not only remind yourself that that we are going to die.
There's the three remembrances. I am of the nature to
grow old, I am of the nature to sicken, and
(12:50):
I am of the nature to die.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Those are the three remembrances for ourselves.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
But in Buddhism they also recommend that you know, you
have the concept of impermanence. So when you give your
parent or your friend a hug, imagine like it might
be the last hug that you give, and let that
hug be as deep as it would be if you
knew that it was going to be the last hug
that you would give.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
That's kind of sad, though, wasn't that.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
It is? And it sort of depends on your beliefs.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
You know, I'm on Coast to Coast, one of the
greatest radio shows where we've got a lot of people
with open minds who believe in a lot of exciting ideas.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And you know, if you believe that.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Perhaps there is some type of afterlife or maybe we
get another rodeo opportunity to come back, then I think
the perspective of.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Death again widens and zooms out.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
A little bit where it's perhaps not an ending, but
some type of continuation.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
There's a little child two years old, three years old,
doesn't think about life and death. They just exist. They're happy,
they're sad. How does it affect them?
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Well, they have the secret sauce, George, They've got that
secret sauce of being so profoundly in the present moment.
And that's what we're recapturing with these alive moments, is
that childlike wonder and that state of awe. So I'll
tell you a quick story. I started leading these walking
meditations after I had visited tick not Hans monastery in
(14:27):
France called plumb Village, and there I got to experience
tick not Hans version of walking meditations.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
I was so inspired.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
I came back to Austin and I started leading them myself.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
And I've led hundreds of.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
People through my walking meditation over the years, and most
of those people have never meditated in their lives. Well
through the experience that I created where I help them
tap into their aliveness. These people would come. This was
done through Airbnb experiences, so they're on vacation. They come
and they have no idea what to expect. Help them
(15:00):
tap into their aliveness in a very open and gentle way.
And George, I have to tell you, within ninety minutes
on this meditation walk, I've got these people walking around
this beautiful sculpture garden in Austin like they're on acid,
but they are completely sober.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
And so that's what we're recapturing.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Is this, you know, reaching out and touching a tree,
feeling the awe experience of the colors and shapes and
sensations of being alive.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
What should we be grateful for? Kid?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
You know, I.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Ran into an issue with my book again where a
lot of people wanted me to tell them exactly how
to live a good life, Tell me how do I
live a good life? Tell me exactly what should I
be grateful for? But truly I believe these are very
deeply personal value choices, morals, right, and so I can't
(15:57):
really tell people what to be grateful for. But what
I I do believe is that feeling alive is the
basis for gratitude. And if your life feels like a
dumpster fire, if the world feels like it's falling apart,
I always come back to I am alive, I am
not dead, and this is my life, and that sensation
(16:18):
of being alive taps me into a level of gratitude
that really nothing else can in my experience.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Can you teach someone to be happy?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
I try. I mean, you can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make them drink. So I really believe
that it comes down to our mindset.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Absolutely is a huge part of it.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
And so again with feeling alive being the great basis
for gratitude. If I can teach someone to tap into
that aliveness and that childlike wonder, if even for a moment,
then yes, I believe that we can learn how to
be happy. But you know what's important to differentiate here
is that I'm not saying that if you tap into
your life and experience and evoke these alive moments, that
(17:03):
you're going to be walking on sunshine and.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Clouds for all the days of your life.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
But what I can promise is that when's challenge comes,
and that is a big when, not if, because life
is made of challenges and stumbling blocks and obstacles, but
when that challenge comes, that you will be primed to
move through it with grace and presence and perspective.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
You were on a mission to help humankind feel more alive.
Is that easy or difficult?
Speaker 4 (17:34):
You know? A wise bucchini in France. I once asked her.
I said, I had this burning question. I was at
Plumb Village and we were allowed to ask one question
of the nun at the end of this retreat that
I was at, and I went there and we sat
under this beautiful fig tree, and I welled up and
I asked her this question that was burning in my soul, George,
(17:56):
I said, how how can.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
I be the best teacher of this message in this wise? Bukini?
She looked at me, and I'll never.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
Forget her face just looked so beautiful and so peaceful,
and then she said something that I'll never forget.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
She said, your life is the message.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern, and go to Coast tocoastam dot com
for more
The Best of Coast to Coast AM News
Host
George Noory
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