Waking Up With Ryan

When you hear the word miracle, what comes to mind? Something supernatural? An extraordinary event that defies explanation? Most of us think of miracles as rare exceptions to the ordinary workings of the world. But what if we've misunderstood them completely? Drawing on a provocative teaching from *A Course in Miracles*, Ryan challenges the very distinction we make between the miraculous and the everyday. It's a surprising invitation to reconsider what we believe is possible, the limitations we've come to accept, and the extraordinary nature of something we rarely stop to question: ourselves.

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What if you didn't have to feel better to find something beautiful in your day? Ryan opens up about a period of heaviness he's been moving through and a conversation with his dear friend Emmanuelle that offered an unexpected kind of comfort. Rather than trying to cheer him up or convince him that everything was okay, she reminded him of something small but powerful: the glimmers of light that still find their way into our darkest chapters. Featuring a heartfelt voice message from Emmanuelle, this episode is an invitation to notice the little moments that might otherwise pass us by.

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What if the monsters we dress up as on Halloween have more to do with us than we realize? Ryan traces the holiday’s origins to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when the boundary between the living and the dead was believed to grow thin. Drawing on Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow, he explores the curious ways we celebrate fear for one night while spending much of the rest of our lives trying to avoid it. Beneath the costumes, haunted houses, and ghost stories lies a surprising invitation: to consider what we’ve hidden away inside ourselves, and what might happen if we finally allowed those parts to be seen.

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Money, relationships, health, work, family — life can feel like an endless series of problems demanding our attention. And just when you finally solve one, another seems to take its place. But what if all those seemingly unrelated struggles have something in common? Ryan shares an idea that fundamentally changed the way he understands life’s challenges: that beneath the countless problems we spend our days trying to solve lies a single, deeply ingrained belief we rarely stop to question. It’s an invitation to step outside the exhausting cycle of fixing, striving, and worrying, and reconsider what might actually be keeping us from peace.

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You’ve spent your entire life building an understanding of who you are. Your name, your history, your personality, your accomplishments, your struggles — all the things that make you, you. But what if the most important discovery you could make about yourself begins with admitting that you don’t actually know who you are? Drawing on a provocative passage from A Course in Miracles, Ryan explores why the mind clings so fiercely to its familiar identity, and how the simple willingness to question everything you think you know about yourself might open the door to something extraordinary.

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There’s something heartbreaking about looking into the eyes of a child and knowing that life will inevitably bring them pain. As Ryan watches his daughter grow, he finds himself wishing he could protect her from the disappointments, heartbreaks, and struggles that shape us all. But alongside that wish is a different kind of prayer — one that reaches far beyond his own family. Continuing yesterday’s reflection on seeing others as they truly are, Ryan explores what it means to love someone without being able to shield them from life, and the extraordinary possibility of wishing something deeper for the people we cherish.

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Every night as Ryan rocks his six-month-old daughter to sleep, he says a prayer that he hopes will shape their relationship for years to come: “Dear God, help me remember who she is.” It’s easy to see the innocence and wonder in a newborn, but what happens as the years pass, disagreements arise, and our ideas about the people we love begin to overshadow who they really are? Ryan reflects on the stories we accumulate about one another, the ways those stories shape our relationships, and the possibility of seeing even the most familiar people through entirely new eyes.

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What if love isn’t something you have to find, earn, or even learn to give, but something you’ve been all along? We spend so much of our lives searching for love outside ourselves, while the noise of our own thoughts can make it difficult to recognize what’s already there. As Ryan concludes a week devoted to building an inner foundation of peace, gratitude, acceptance, and forgiveness, he turns to the one thing that holds them all together. It’s an invitation to question the limits of who you believe yourself to be, and to discover what might change if you moved through the world knowing that love isn’t something you lack, but something you are.

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Why is it so difficult to forgive someone, even when we know that holding onto resentment only hurts us? We all encounter people who disappoint us, frustrate us, or cause us genuine pain. And sometimes, the things they’ve done feel impossible to look past. But what happens when we begin to see people as something more than their worst moments? Continuing this week’s exploration of building a foundation for daily life, Ryan turns to forgiveness — not as a way of excusing someone’s behavior, but as a way of freeing ourselves from the judgments that keep us disconnected from others, and ultimately, from ourselves.

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What happens when the person who encourages you to find peace is struggling to find it himself? Ryan shares something deeply personal about a darkness that visits him from time to time, and the complicated relationship he’s developed with it over the years. It’s a vulnerable conversation about the pressure to be okay, the quiet ways we turn against ourselves when we’re not, and the possibility that even our most difficult seasons have something to offer us. A gentle guided practice follows, inviting you to meet yourself exactly where you are.

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It’s often the moments when life feels most fragile that bring everything else into focus. After a frightening medical emergency, Ryan finds himself confronting questions that are easy to overlook in the rush of everyday life. Have we told the people we love what they mean to us? Do we really see them, or have familiarity and frustration clouded our vision? Through a deeply personal experience, Ryan reflects on the things we take for granted, the love we leave unspoken, and the extraordinary gift of having someone in our lives.

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How do you stay grounded when life seems determined to pull you in every direction? Between the demands of everyday life, unexpected challenges, and the stories our minds tell us, it’s easy to lose touch with the peace we know is possible. Ryan draws on the imagery of a towering tree and the deep roots that keep it standing through a storm to explore what it means to build a foundation within yourself. A gentle guided visualization invites you to discover a place of safety and stillness you can return to, no matter what the day brings.

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Ryan sits down with spiritual teacher and bestselling author Marianne Williamson for a wide-ranging conversation about A Course in Miracles, the teachings that changed both of their lives, and what decades of spiritual practice actually look like when life gets hard.

Marianne takes Ryan back to the 1970s and the strange series of events that first brought A Course in Miracles into her life, before unpacking its central ideas about fear, love, forgiveness, and the power of the mind. She opens up about emerging from her most recent presidential campaign and spending a year reckoning with what had happened — forgiving others, confronting her own mistakes, and eventually arriving at a much more radical idea of personal responsibility.

They explore why Marianne believes psychic pain should be listened to rather than simply suppressed, why forgiveness isn’t about excusing what someone did, and how carrying old grievances into the present can cause us to miss the very opportunities life is putting in front of us. Marianne shares one painful example from her own past — a lunch she entered carrying a grievance, only to discover afterward that the woman across the table had actually come to her seeking help for her husband.

Along the way, Ryan and Marianne talk about spiritual teachers and ego, fear as the absence of love, the difference between surviving and truly moving beyond what happened to you, and the daily work of choosing differently when life gives you another chance. This is a conversation about what it means to move spiritual wisdom out of the realm of ideas and actually live it.

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Why does spiritual awakening sometimes feel like such an uphill battle? Drawing on a metaphor from spiritual teacher Adyashanti, Ryan compares the journey of awakening to a rocket fighting against gravity. Just as a rocket needs tremendous force to escape Earth’s gravitational pull, we must work against the deeply ingrained beliefs and habits of the ego that keep pulling us back into old ways of thinking. But Ryan explores what happens when that pull begins to loosen, and life’s challenges no longer have the same power over us. A guided practice follows, inviting you to balance the effort of spiritual growth with something equally important: the willingness to soften, surrender, and trust that life is carrying you forward.

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What if your most important spiritual practice happens after you leave the yoga mat or meditation cushion? Ryan explores why meditation, yoga, and prayer are only preparation for the real work of spiritual growth: how we show up in everyday life. It’s easy to feel peaceful during a morning practice, but what happens when someone pushes your buttons, a relationship becomes difficult, or an old habit takes over? Drawing on A Course in Miracles, Ryan challenges us to see life’s conflicts as opportunities to practice what we’ve learned, take responsibility for our reactions, and choose a more loving response. A short guided meditation follows, preparing you to carry that awareness into the challenges of the day.

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You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com.

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Why does spiritual awakening sometimes feel like such an uphill battle? Drawing on a metaphor from spiritual teacher Adyashanti, Ryan compares the journey of awakening to a rocket fighting against gravity. Just as a rocket needs tremendous force to escape Earth’s gravitational pull, we must work against the deeply ingrained beliefs and habits of the ego that keep pulling us back into old ways of thinking. But Ryan explores what happens when that pull begins to loosen, and life’s challenges no longer have the same power over us. A guided practice follows, inviting you to balance the effort of spiritual growth with something equally important: the willingness to soften, surrender, and trust that life is carrying you forward.

Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello

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You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com.

See https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the meaning of life isn’t to accomplish anything, but simply to be alive? Drawing on the words of philosopher Alan Watts, Ryan challenges the idea that we’re here to build successful careers, achieve our goals, or make something of ourselves. Instead, he explores the possibility that our deepest purpose is to notice, appreciate, and participate in the extraordinary life already unfolding around us. When we stop treating life as something to conquer, even our ambitions can become expressions of joy and gratitude rather than struggle. A guided practice follows with a simple two-word mantra for remembering the gift of being here: “Thank you.”

Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello

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What if you've been praying for the wrong thing? Ryan challenges the way we often approach prayer — asking God or the universe to change our circumstances, solve our problems, or give us what we want. Instead, he suggests a more powerful kind of prayer: asking to be changed ourselves. Rather than praying for an easier life, what if we asked to release the fears, limiting beliefs, and sense of separation that keep us from remembering who we truly are? A guided practice follows, inviting you to surrender those old beliefs and make room for love, abundance, and a deeper sense of possibility.

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Not every insight needs to become something you immediately share. Ryan reflects on the early days of his own awakening, when every new realization made him want to tell everyone — and how even that enthusiasm can become another way for the ego to take over. Instead of turning wisdom into a new identity as the “spiritual person,” he invites us to let each insight take root like a seed, giving it time to be tested, lived, and absorbed until it becomes part of who we are. A guided practice follows, trusting that the deepest wisdom doesn’t need to be announced — it reveals itself in how you live.

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When life is good, we want it to stay that way. When life is hard, we’re afraid it will. Ryan explores the one thing we can count on in either case: everything changes. Our bodies, circumstances, relationships, thoughts, and seasons of life are always in motion — and attaching our sense of safety to any of them puts us on shaky ground. Instead, Ryan asks us to look beneath everything that comes and goes and notice what remains. A guided practice follows with a deceptively simple question: “What is always here?”

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