Psychotherapist Lisa Tahir gives us tips to heal our energies
Today we’re joined by the fiercely compassionate and uniquely intuitive Lisa Tahir. She’s a licensed social worker, psychotherapist, podcast host, founder of Psychoastrology and published author whose book is endorsed by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.
Lisa grew up in New Orleans and moved to Los Angeles on a whim to expand her social work practice and follow her dreams. She now has two offices and frequently travels between both cities with her cats. She continually works to break the limitations that she felt were holding her back from her passions of life. These include helping people heal, meditating, working out, writing, teaching, and spending time with loved ones.
Lisa is on a mission to help individuals uncover their core wounding through their natal placement of a lesser known planet called Chiron. Tune in as we chat about everything under the stars, including the art of glassblowing, the power of thought, the healing frequency of love and even our biggest kitchen failures.
Thank you for listening to today’s thoughtful episode.
In this Episode
[01:09] Jason introduces Lisa and they immediately bond over how they’re both podcast hosts. Lisa tells us the origins of her show.
[02:21] Jason and Lisa recount recent trips they’ve had to Hawaii, and how they both ended up in Los Angeles. Lisa details her tale of moving to LA on a whim, and Jason shares a similar experience.
[06:11] Jason asks Lisa to highlight the biggest differences between living in LA and New Orleans. Lisa explains it’s a matter of how open and closed the heart and mind are in each city.
[08:02] Jason is interested in the specialized work Lisa does. Lisa tells us that she is a licensed therapist and does glass blowing in her free time. She also patented an ADA-compliant glass blowing wheelchair guide through her YES Foundation.
[09:48] Lisa and Jason also discuss the importance of having passions in life and the limitations that people impose on themselves when trying to achieve them or being hesitant to pursue them.
[11:38] Lisa mentions that someone’s “Chiron placement,” could have a lot to do with why people behave and act or don’t act when trying to pursue a goal or passion. She also gives us a quick lesson in Greek mythology and its relationship to astrology.
[13:52] Lisa gives Jason an astrological reading based on his natal Chiron placement, and explains how the traumas he experienced as a boy could have influenced his entrepreneurial spirit and personal relationships.
[23:52] Jason wants to learn more about couples therapy and Lisa’s experience in that realm. Lisa explains that knowing one’s limiting beliefs can greatly influence how to overcome any issues you may be facing in a relationship.
[25:33] Lisa goes into further details about meditation and frequencies, and how varying frequencies can help provide effective meditative and healing experiences. Love, for example, has its own frequency and healing properties.
[29:19] Jason is curious about how Lisa began researching Chirons and frequencies. Lisa explains that the root of her interest was wanting to improve her mental health and well-being to better serve her clients.
[32:27] Jason decides it’s a good time to plug Lisa’s book. Lisa gives us the backstory and how she sent an email to His Holiness the Dalai Lama asking for endorsement which inspired her to change some aspects of her life to better connect with the spiritual leader.
[35:19] Jason and Lisa talk about the importance of starting the day with positive energy, and share the methods they use to maintain that energy.
[41:11] Jason mentions that he’s been learning about energy awareness and Lisa asks him to summarize what he’s learned about it and explains why it’s so important.
[43:01] Jason is skeptical about how one can change another’s negative perception of them. Lisa assures him that a great way to start is through self-forgiveness, self-valuation, and seeking help.
[46:14] Jason asks Lisa how she stays positive while helping her clients with their traumas and issues in their lives, and how he’d like to be one of her clients.
[47:30] Jason has heard that Lisa has coined a term and asks her how it was created. Lisa tells us that it spurred from her book and also gives readers and listeners a big takeaway they can gain by reading it.
[51:44] Jason rewinds to the topic of glass blowing and is interested in how Lisa got started, and if she’s seen the glass art at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Lisa proceeds to give us more information about the artist behind the glass at the famed resort.
[54:06] Jason would like to know more about Lisa’s work with the ADA. Lisa details how her patented workbench has already helped bring joy to some in the disabled community, and how she needs more support to build and deliver more of them.
[56:13] Jason and Lisa wrap up the show with “Hennessey Heart-to-Heart.” We learn more about Lisa and Jason through questions ranging from their unusual talents, strange experiences, kitchen fails, and the biggest lesson Lisa has learned.
[01:14:56] Jason thanks Lisa for joining him for today’s show and Lisa gives us more avenues that we can further connect with her and her energy.
Transcript
Jason Hennessey: Well, I have Lisa here with us at Hennessey Studios. Thank you for coming on The Jason Hennessy Podcast.
Lisa Tahir: Jason, thank you so much for having me. This is such a delight to be here in your studio.
Thank You.
Yeah.
How do you pronounce your last name?
It’s Tahir, like Tah is here. My dad is from Pakistan, so I am half Pakistani, first generation and half Irish from New Orleans.
Ah, see, I got Irish in me, obviously with the last name Hennessey.
Right, totally.
Well, it looks like you are in your element because you do podcasting, right?
I do.
Tell me a little bit about that.
I started All Things Therapy in 2016 when I came out to LA actually 7 years ago and some of my friends had podcasts and shows, I found that in life, some of the things we’re most excited to do, we’re also just as scared sh*tless to do sometimes. And so, I had both of those emotions going on, and I knew you have to do this. So, I’ve been on LA Talk Radio doing All Things Therapy. Yesterday was episode 277.
Congratulations.
Thank you. And I’m going to have you on in the new year. So I look forward to continuing this.
So exciting. That’s what we do. I love this because I build friendships over this too.
Me too.
Uh-huh.
It’s awesome.
It is awesome. Yes. Just new connections and stuff. So I seen you were recently in Hawaii?
I was.
Nice.
I was; a dear friend invited me. It’s been on my bucket list and she’s a native Hawaiian, and her and her mom had me go to Kona and it was really beautiful. Have you been?
I’ve been to Maui twice.
Oh, I’ve heard that’s gorgeous too.
So pretty. Yeah. It’s just like, if you want to go clear your head, that’s a good place to do it.
It was. The papayas were so delicious. They were different than American grocery store papayas.
Uh-huh. Well, the thing that was interesting about Hawaii for me was they eat rice with breakfast, and I was- never done that before. And so, here I am getting eggs and they’re bringing rice with this.
I know, it was different.
I’m like, “This is kind of cool. Now I want to crave rice with my breakfast here at IHOP.” They don’t do that. Well, I’m glad you were able to kind of go and fill your own cup if you will, just kind take care of yourself.
Yeah.
So I see that you split your time between two places, LA and where’s home?
New Orleans. Have you been there?
I love New Orleans.
I figured you would, you have that energy that you would just really vibe it.
Yeah. I’m big into music. New Orleans is one of those places I don’t go often, but I’ve been there probably maybe like six times.
Oh, that’s awesome, that’s frequent.
There’s so much culture and personality about New Orleans, right?
Yeah.
You don’t get that anywhere.
Right, and it’s easy. People are friendly and I really love- it’s like a place for my soul. And LA has actually become that too, Jason. I’m so lit up here by the things that people do and the natural beauty that I feel, like, my heart is just in love with both places.
Yeah. And so, do you get back home often or what?
I spend about 6 months in each city.
You do?
Yeah.
So you really divide your time in two places.
Yeah. It’s been progressive over the years. I started coming out to LA maybe a couple of weeks out of the month, and just felt led intuitively to spend a bit more time as I felt more comfortable, and it’s evolving.
Nice. Yeah. And what was your path to LA though? What brought you to LA?
I feel like maybe a midlife crisis as they call it. But when- on my 43rd birthday, I literally woke up and was like, “I have to live somewhere else because so many people from New Orleans don’t ever live anywhere else since it’s just so easy.” And as you know, it’s fun, it’s festive, it’s beautiful in some ways like the old Oak trees. And I’ve always had a desire to come out to the West Coast and a friend invited me to check it out.
And I came out here, Jason, didn’t tell anyone. Signed a year’s lease on my office. I talk about it in my book and started… I asked if I could live in the office because at the time I couldn’t afford a second home and I didn’t want to leave completely and they said, “We have a good feeling about you, sure.”
So for almost two years, I showered at a 24 Hour Fitness down the street and lived in my office, and like, figured it out until I could. So I talk about in my book, like progressively living into your dream in whatever way you can, that sometimes the means aren’t obvious, but the path will unfold before you.
Sure. Yeah. Sometimes the universe speaks and you just start to listen to it, right?
Yeah. I know that happened in your life when you, I think, went out to Atlanta, brought your family?
Yeah.
And was that when you were working as SEO of the company Rocket?
EverSpark Interactive was the agency that we started in Atlanta. Yeah. It’s so weird how life just, kind of these little decisions and it’s like… And next thing you know, you meet this person. Now you’re moving across the country. And all of a sudden, your kid watches TV and he wants to be an actor, and then we’re moving the opposite direction.
Right, to LA.
Yeah. It’s fascinating how the world works like that.
Absolutely.
What do you think is different about living in LA versus New Orleans? What’s different? What do you like about each of the different cities?
The difference that strikes me the most, and I’m curious what you think having been in both places, is to me, the South and New Orleans is so openhearted. You meet someone, it’s like, “Come over for dinner. Let’s go have a drink.” And yet can be closed-minded to new ideas, to new thoughts. New Orleans is big about, “We’ve done this 200 years, why change it?” The trash still isn’t picked up regularly, and the mail often doesn’t get delivered each day, and we’ve all learned to just compensate for that. But I’ve noticed there’s open-heartedness yet some closed-mindedness.
And in LA, there’s such open-mindedness, yet I’ve experienced a little bit of closed-heartedness at times. People being fearful to really be their authentic selves because of what someone might think or how they might be perceived. And so, I try to embody and embrace both open-heartedness and open-mindedness, because I think that’s how we’re the most happy, and I’m wondering what you think about that.
Yeah. So, I don’t have experience, obviously, living in New Orleans, but when I lived in Georgia the big difference to me was when we moved into a neighborhood, it’s like the neighborhood does everything together. They do pizza parties, they all meet at the school bus and they get to know each other, they bring you cookies and drinks.
In LA, we just moved into a neighborhood and we might know like one neighbor, everybody kind of keeps to themselves. And it might not be every neighborhood, but it just seems more welcoming I guess, if you will, in the South there.
Yeah. So I think I’ve learned the challenge in the South is not to close your mind, keep your mind open with your heart, and in LA, it’s to keep your heart open along with your mind.
Yeah. We’ll get into your book obviously, but I want to talk about what you do for a living because you do some specialized work. So kind of give me the scoop of what you do.
Sure, Jason. I have been a licensed therapist for over 20 years. I’m a social worker and licensed in Louisiana and California. And I started therapy at 21 when I was young, and that’s really what opened me to want to help people in this way, that I grew up in a family that there wasn’t a lot of empathy. It was very like performance-based love, and that caused me to be very critical and hard on myself.
And I feel like I entered therapy to unlearn some of those patterns, because sometimes, things that once worked for us don’t as we get older, and that was the case for me. And so, I love being a therapist. I do all virtual therapy now, online through Zoom and FaceTime, Skype, or phone. And I work as a podcaster. My book now, as an author. I also started a nonprofit called The YES Foundation. Because for fun, my passion is glass art. I blow glass and cast glass.
I saw that, uh-huh.
Yeah. And I noticed that glass blowing isn’t Americans with Disabilities Act compliant for people in wheelchairs. And I did some work in ADA compliance in my undergrad years. And so, I worked to get a US patent on an invention to help people blow glass from their own wheelchair. And I built a prototype that I donated to a studio in New Orleans. I’m excited to move more into that, Jason, as time goes on, to help get people to help me with what’s next because I’m not really sure. I just know I want this to be out in the world.
Wow. That’s fascinating. It seems like you’ve found your purpose with that.
Yeah.
Yeah. Sometimes people go their whole life and never find their purpose.
And I think there’s a lot of talk about that, Jason, what is our purpose? And I believe it’s self-assigned, we get to choose. I’m wondering what you think about that.
I think for me personally, I think first you have to find your passion. And a lot of times people don’t find that, a lot of times people are afraid to pursue their passions in life. And so, they never really truly find their purpose because they couldn’t even find their passion first. So just like we talked about having the courage to, if you got an idea, pursue it, right?
Yeah.
If you’re passionate about something, go figure out a way to do it. Right?
Mm-hmm.
But I think sometimes people get so scared of change, that they just kind of get stuck into their everyday life and nothing ever happens and they just kind of go on it day-by-day and the world never becomes exciting. They never open themselves up to what the possibilities are.
Yeah. Well, you’re certainly not one of those individuals from what I’ve learned about your past and really finding your way.
Yeah. For me, I’ve mentioned this on another podcast, like as a kid growing up, I didn’t have a lot. And so, I didn’t come from money. And so, as a kid, I was money-motivated personally. And so, when you’re very money-motivated and you don’t have anything to lose, you’re willing to take a bigger risk because if everything comes crumbling down, it’s okay because I’ve been to where I’m going to end up anyway and I’ve survived. So yeah.
That gives you great confidence.
It does, I think. Yeah.
And it’s actually reflected in your Chiron placement that I know we’re going to be talking about today.
Ooh, Chiron. So tell me more, a Chiron placement. So what is a Chiron placement?
So Chiron, first and foremost, in astronomy was discovered in 1977 by an astronomer named Charles Kowal here in California. He noticed this, it’s a minor planet and also a comet in astronomy that orbits between the planets of Saturn and Uranus, and it has an odd elliptical orbit. So Charles Kowal named it Chiron after the centaur in Greek mythology, who’s the founding father of the healing arts. And in astronomy, this was the first of the centaur class, planets and comments. So he harkened back to Greek mythology and Chiron. You know when you go to the doctor and there’s the staff of medicine, the snakes?
Mm-hmm.
Chiron gave that to Asclepius. So we kind of know who Chiron is in a way because mythologically, he taught pharmacy, botany, therapy to the Greek gods. And then in astrology, which is a symbolic language, a snapshot of where the stars and planets were when each of us were born, Chiron is a placement that speaks to this area of… It’s on a spectrum, there’s vulnerability and there’s core wounding. And so, depending on your life experiences is how you encounter this placement.
And there are things like if Chiron’s an Aries, this speaks to a wounding or a vulnerability in your sense of value and worth, to where you might be successful on paper but you never feel like you’re good enough. So these Chiron placements in a sign, Gemini, Taurus, Scorpio really speak to the areas of our lives that we’re not super public about. We might hide those aspects of ourself. We might feel like we’re not good enough. We could even feel shame around some of these things that we’ve experienced. And so, I don’t know if this is a place to kind of bring in a little of your Chiron or not to help that make sense?
Sure. Yeah. I think where we’re headed because it was funny when I was asking Whitney, she’s like, “Yeah, I was looking forward. I was going to get a reading.” And I’m like, “Ooh, maybe I’ll get a reading.” So I’m totally open to it.
Yeah. Because I think it’ll help make it more user-friendly to understand Chiron and I’ll talk about my Chiron as well, an Aries. Your Chiron placement is in the sign of Taurus. And so, actually I lay out my book in a way to be sensitive with yourself as you’re exploring these themes. And I talk in the beginning of the book about creating the container for change and it’s really about being empathetic and understanding, compassionate towards yourself because the things that are revealed are usually areas of your life that have been challenging, they’ve been difficult. And so, you want to approach it with some sensitivity. And so, I’m thinking that in talking about your Chiron placement.
What information do you need from me? Is it my energy or just my date of birth?
Yeah. It’s your date of birth, your place of birth and your time of birth.
And my time of birth?
Yes. And the time of birth isn’t necessary to know your Chiron sign. The time of birth reveals the astrological house, 1 through 12, that Chiron is found in. Since I had your time of birth, your Chiron is in the sign of Taurus in the seventh house. And the seventh house speaks to partnerships and contracts, both business related and marriage related. But your Chiron is a core wounding of vulnerability by neglect.
And so, what this placement speaks to is that you have been, because I sense you’ve been healing this through your work that you’re doing, that you’re someone who’s been really hard on himself, you’ve expected a lot. And when you don’t meet those benchmarks or parameters, you’ve been self-deprecating at times, like, really harsh and harsh inner critic and that there may have been some neglect that you experienced growing up. And I don’t know if that’s true, that’s just what my work has sourced and produced.
And for some people even, there’s been sexual abuse with this placement, something that’s caused them to be misaligned even with their body image. They might have struggled with body image and feeling like you’re good enough in that way. And so, to compensate this personality, this individual with the Chiron at Taurus has really become financially driven to prove to themselves that they’re valuable, that they’re worthy.
And it looked like when I studied a bit about your career, that definitely financial success has been one of the benchmarks you’ve enjoyed in your life, pursuing things, yet I couldn’t help but be sensitive to the criticism that you might have also, kind of, turned against yourself. And I wondered if that’s been true when you’re growing up.
Well, you’re spot on about all of this so far. As far as self criticism, oh absolutely. I don’t think my work is ever done. I don’t ever just get complacent. I’m always kind of pushing, pushing. I just can’t relax. When you said neglect, my big thing is making your mess your message. Thank you, Whitney. She kind of helped me see that. Whitney is our producer. As a kid, neglect would be, I guess my father had left my-
Wow. Okay. I didn’t know that.
Yeah. And so, left my mom who had me when she was only, I think she just turned 18. Her birthday’s January 10th and I was born on the 27th. And so, she just turned 18 and had me. And so, we got evicted, didn’t have a lot of money, didn’t have a car, walked everywhere. And so, now don’t get me wrong, I had loving grandparents and that was fine, but I guess there was always that neglect of like, why did my father leave?
Of course, and questioning yourself as a young person, I imagine.
Oh yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I was a popular kid, I played sports, and lived a great life.
Again, this placement has such a propensity to compensate and finding their way, which I’m hearing that you did.
Yeah. I guess I did, when you kind of look at it in hindsight like that.
And yet, the deep healing comes through consistently being attentive to, I don’t know if there have been moments in your life. I know there have been in mine when something happens and we’re triggered. A trigger as in, an unhealed energetic attachment. It’s an area of vulnerability that we might develop a pattern around protecting.
And for you, that self-criticism is what would come up for you and feeling like you blew it or fucked up and then just softening that. And even being really gentle to the… You hear a lot about the inner child. And so, for Chiron and Taurus, this inner little boy that you were, really nurturing him, like really playing. I think for you, play would be important in your life as an adult.
Oh, for sure. Yeah.
And I sense that you do. Even this is play and fun for you, right?
Uh-huh, totally is.
Yeah. So to keep on that.
Yeah. I think as a kid, I always envisioned like, “Hey, I want to have David Letterman‘s job someday.”
Oh my gosh. Yeah. So here you are.
And so, here I am, I’m forcing it to happen. I don’t wait around for it to happen, I kind of make it happen.
Mm-hmm. You initiate.
I try to. And I’ve taken bold risks before. My life hasn’t been a success, I mean, there’s all kinds of failures that you learn from and start over but you end up stronger, I guess.
Right.
Yeah.
Even you bringing up the word failure, Jason, I tend to be like that there aren’t failures. I feel like it’s all learning, and I wonder what you think about that.
Oh, for sure. Yeah.
I sense that. Yeah.
So my whole personal message is failing forward.
Oh, I like that. Yeah.
Yeah. You fail forward, right?
Yeah.
The whole company is about that. In fact, I was just on a call with Liz, who’s our Director of Communications at the agency. And she’s like, so what are you excited about in 2022 and what are we concerned about in 2021? And I’m like, “Well, we failed a lot in 2021, but we learned.” And I said, “But I look forward to all the failures that we do in 2022.”
Wow. That’s a different way to frame things, seriously.
It’s a different perspective. Yeah. And I truly mean that because we’re going to fail, but that’s how we grow stronger.
That mindset is so important in healing from, be it our Chiron, vulnerability and wounding or other things in life. It’s all about the way we look at things, and then the language that we use about those things. And when something happens for me that’s upsetting, I’ve started to go to, I get to go through this, like I get to go through say, even if it’s a breakup. I’m going through these feelings of sadness because I love someone. And that’s really what’s more important than whatever loss there is happening, to focus on what the gain is, what was the foundation of that experience? Usually, something positive.
Sure. Yeah. So it’s interesting because I’ve read a book called “Love Languages.” I think it’s The Five Love Languages, right?
Yeah.
And so, my wife and I, we’ve been married 23 years. She is a Gemini. She is exactly the opposite of me.
Okay. And you’re an Aquarius.
I’m an Aquarius, right. And we’re born the same year. Her birthday’s June 16th. My birthday’s January 27th. So almost six-
It’s ’78, right?
Yes, ’78. We’re almost six months- Like almost-
Wow. Yeah. Literally opposite.
Completely opposite. But in life we’re completely opposite too. Now physical characteristics, we’re opposite: black hair, blonde hair; blue eyes, brown eyes. So all of that, personality, completely opposite. It’s the whole story of opposites attract, that’s me and my wife. So my love language is positive words of affirmation. And you kind of nailed it because as a kid, I was kind of, like I need to do better. I got to be proud of myself.
You had to learn to affirm yourself.
Yeah. And so, now that’s kind of what I look for. And we didn’t read this book until after being married for 20 years. And so, wish I would’ve known that a long time ago. Her love language is gifts, she loves gifts.
Yeah. It simplifies things to know each other’s love language for sure.
It totally does. So is there such a thing as opposites attracting, do you think like that or?
I think there is, as far as when we see someone that has qualities that we feel like we’d like to have more of or that we lack, that we’re often drawn to someone who really embodies those qualities, and it feels really positive. I think sometimes there can be issues there as well, if you don’t fully understand each other’s, even, vulnerability. And for a relationship, it’d be really cool for you and your wife to put into my interactive website the date you got married, for instance.
April Fool’s Day.
Oh wow. Okay. And then April 1st, and then pull up the Chiron placement of your relationship because it can speak to the area of vulnerability. But after 23 years, I sense intuitively you have a handle on things.
We do. Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, it was not easy. You know what I mean?
Right.
After marrying somebody that- we only met, we only knew each other a month and a half when we got married.
I think that’s awesome.
Crazy story, right?
Yeah.
But yeah, 23, what will be 24 years later, we’re still hanging along.
And even Chiron being in your seventh house of marriage, of partnership, it’s the area that has actually helped you heal the sense of neglect that you experienced being neglected because to have a partner that, I’m sensing, really attuned to your need for those positive words of affirmation can be so deeply healing to that younger part of yourself.
Totally. Even when we had kids, we had children, I was going to do whatever we can to work in the marriage so that I didn’t, kind of, create that experience that I had with coming from a broken family personally, right?
Yeah.
So I think that conditioned me to, kind of, fight for what we believed in and why we did it. So this is fascinating stuff. So now do you work with couples like that? Do you do couples therapy where you use that? I’m just saying.
I love doing couples therapy. And when a client comes to me, Jason, I don’t require that they purchase my book and work from it, but it’s an added layer that helps you understand your patterns. And that’s what the Chiron effect is, which the title reflects. As you were saying earlier, that you mentioned it a few minutes ago, having to do, and this is my paraphrase, the life that we live is dictated by the thoughts we believe to be true about ourselves.
1,000%. Yeah.
That’s what generates our beliefs, that’s what dictates the people, places, and things that we habituate every day. And I see us all as little planets in our own solar system orbiting others, other people orbiting us. And like you were saying, people tend to limit themselves when we’re talking about purpose and meaning and passion because they might feel like they can’t live their passion for various reasons.
And so, The Chiron Effect is really about having an understanding of your largest limiting belief because that’s as far as you can go. And once you know what that is like for you, the neglect that you experienced, for me, it’s Chiron and Aries with a wounding vulnerability, my sense of value and worth, my self-esteem. And so, to not limit ourselves because we have that area of vulnerability to support, encourage, and prop ourselves up emotionally so we can step into those roles that, for you, you’re seen and heard in a powerful way.
And for myself as well, being an author and a podcaster and therapist, going beyond my limitations because of what I believe was true for myself. And again, tapping into frequency that we brought up, what frequency’s about. You hear people talking about vibes, good vibes, bad vibes, that actually is measurable in the unit of Hertz.
And science has discovered that everything vibrates, everything that’s matter. This table vibrates at a frequency that’s measured in the unit of Hertz. And our thoughts carry frequency. The frequency of joy is higher than the frequency of depression. And even this is so powerfully illustrated, Jason, that genetic biochemists are using this frequency.
Yeah. You have some tools.
Yeah, tuning forks.
Let’s explain this for those that are listening.
528 Hertz, which is, genetic biochemists are using this to repair damaged and broken DNA. This frequency is the frequency of love. Isn’t that cool? Can I come play it in your ears?
Please do. Yes.
Because you can really tune up your brain.
Okay. She’s walking over here, putting this in my ear. Wow. And it’ll just kind of go like that. Frequency of love. Who would’ve thought love had a frequency?
Yeah. And the reason why this is effective for me to place it on either side of your head is that the brain, the neurons in our brain are really open to sound frequency. That’s why music moves us. Like the chords, and A, B, C, D, correlate to a frequency, an emotional state that it puts us in. And the neurons in our brains are super receptive to changing and adapting based upon the sound frequency that we expose our brain to.
That’s why using tuning forks like this and meditation are powerful ways to change, passively, our brainwave state. And so, on YouTube, there’s a lot of cool meditations pairing sound frequencies that you can just close your eyes and listen to every day for 5, 10 minutes.
Just play it on YouTube.
Yeah. To help up-level your mind at the level of neurons.
I mean, I do listen to like, I’m that weird guy that will tune to YouTube and listen to focus music.
Yeah. I do too.
I’ll search YouTube: “Focus music.”
I do, when I’m writing. Totally.
Totally. And you just play it in and it just kind of plays in the background often a browser and you-
And do you find it helpful?
So helpful.
I do too.
So helpful. You don’t realize it, but it’s just kind of playing in the background and it allows… Sometimes it kind of brings out my creativity, relieves stress, there’s all kinds of things that it does just by, kind of, playing some music like that.
Absolutely. And bringing up creativity, your Chiron placement in Taurus speaks to being really intuitive as well. And I sense, as I learned a bit about your story and moving to Atlanta and then out to LA because your son is an actor, and that you’ve been intuitively led. So, just to know that that is definitely a part of how you heal and just a way for you to direct your life is through your intuition.
Sure. Yeah. I mean, that’s my whole world, like getting married after knowing somebody for a month and a half.
Totally. You felt it.
I’ve been moving to LA and the story of my life is that, just kind of, quick gut reactions based on your intuition.
It’s great that you’re following that. Yeah. Keep doing that.
Yeah. Sometimes my wife is like, what are you getting us into now? But she’s been along for the journey and has somewhat supported it.
That’s awesome. Yes.
Uh-huh. Wow. So how did you discover this? When did you become curious about this and why did you become curious about this?
It was about 5 years ago, when I started to meditate about 5 years ago. And I was wondering, personally, for my own personal mental health journey and process, and for my clients, like universe, what is beyond this narrative of our problems?
People are so problem-oriented, problem-focused. And I was like, “I want to be about the solution. Let’s be solution-focused, solution-aligned. What can I contribute to my clients and my own life to just, kind of, I know so much about the past and what’s happened, what about the future we want to create?” And that was actually when I heard in meditation, like in my mind, that little whisper, “Chiron.” And that’s when I started to research and it sent me down a 3-and-1/2-year rabbit hole of writing and researching this book, and wanting to incorporate psychology, spirituality, and taking personal responsibility for our lives as the healing.
Astrology is like the diagnostic point to learn what your Chiron placement is. But I believe we heal by taking responsibility for our lives. And even though the worst things that have happened to you might not have been your fault, but even if there was like 1% of responsibility that you contributed, to understand your 1% is so important.
And even if there was 0%, like in the cases of trauma and children being abused, to understand that you can heal from that, and forgiving yourself. Self-forgiveness is another principle of the book. I think we’re often taught to forgive others and forget that forgiveness is for us, first and foremost. So it just all kind of happened as I was asking, What’s next? What can I contribute? And then that led me to studying sound frequency. You know how things just felt, like going on Google searches?
Yeah.
And then I find a book and then I’m listening to someone speaking about it. And then I-
Curiosity.
Yeah. Curiosity in these areas and then wanting to share it with others because it’s been so helpful to, kind of, spiritually hack your life by using sound frequency and meditation. And I use this pendulum, I didn’t expect to go in this direction, to help confirm “yes.” The pendulum says yes for-
Based on decisions that you need to make in life.
Yeah. And back and forth for “no”. And I’ve used this for several years to help me confirm yes or no questions.
So what she’s wearing for those that are listening is like a necklace pendulum.
It’s saying, “Yes, this is-”
Is there a certain name for that if somebody wanted to buy that on Amazon?
Yes, this is Penja*. And actually there’s a jeweler here in LA, Miranda Hope, she makes these by hand, mirandahope.com. She’s amazing. She makes these and they’re just stunning. This is smoky quartz and moonstone, and which have different properties. So you can buy a pendulum necklace based upon the properties you want to enhance. If it’s your intuition or clearing your throat chakra, she makes them with those kinds of specifications.
Wow. I’m going to get one.
Yeah. Miranda Hope. She’s awesome.
I will, yeah. This would be a good time to plug the book.
Okay.
So what is the name of the book?
It’s called the Chiron Effect: Healing Our Core Wounds through Astrology, Empathy, and Self-Forgiveness.
Got it. And when did the book come out?
My book came out in November of 2020 with an endorsement from His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama–
Is that right?
… Which is such an honor for me, Jason. Yeah.
That is an honor for anybody, is that right?
Yeah. And I actually sent him an email a year before from an ego place like, “Wouldn’t that be cool for the Dalai Lama?” And I knew when I hit send, “Okay, you’re not hearing anything.” Because my, kind of, state of mind was really ego driven, not heart driven. I asked him actually 2 years in advance of my book coming out for an endorsement. And I knew when I hit send, you’re not in the right headspace.
So how do you even get his email? You know what I mean?
It’s findable. I can share it with you if you like.
That’s awesome. I love it.
So I asked myself and the universe, who do I need to become to receive the endorsement of His Holiness? And I started hearing things like, you need to stop being rude to the Cox cable people in New Orleans when you’re having a problem and you’re on the phone for 45 minutes and you start using curse words, not at them but like, “I don’t have time for this shit.”
So easy to go in that direction.
Yes. And I heard the universe say, “You have to stop that immediately. You need to just be more present in the grocery store line, get off of your phone, ask the person how they are, and care about it.” So I noticed the universe leading me to, kind of, clean up these little areas of my life having to do with compassion towards strangers.
And as I did that, I started to really feel the Dalai Lama in my meditation, kind of that presence of his compassion and openness. And I heard one day, again, that little voice in your mind, “Send me your book. I want to read it.” And within 2 weeks he sent me the most beautiful letter of endorsement. He read every page. And he spoke about, though he’s not a student of astrology, The Dalai Lama believes that the methods to heal through compassion and self-forgiveness that I talked about are the keys to healing humanity’s greatest sufferings and he believes that my book will help readers. And it’s like, wow.
Oh my God. It doesn’t get better than that, it really doesn’t. It’s like, “Mother Teresa wrote the foreword to my book.” It’s like, “Wow.”
So he was so gracious in that.
So first of all, that’s awesome. Congratulations on that, congratulations on the book.
Thank you.
It’s available, I’m assured, bookstores, Amazon, everywhere probably.
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. I’m looking forward to reading it.
Well, I have one for you to sign and give you today.
Awesome. Thank you.
You’re welcome.
I will read it because we’re going to build a friendship after this too.
Yeah.
But what you were just talking about, like, you get in a call with Cox cable, you get pissed off. This is kind of how I perceive life, it seems like every single morning you wake up with it’s almost like gasoline in your car. Every morning you wake up with an energy tank, and you have a full tank of energy and the world is going to try to pull you into either the negative energy tank or leveraging some of your positive energy, right?
Mm-hmm.
And so, sublimity, you don’t think about that. But when you are in tune with your energy tank, you can be more deliberate in how you use your energy, right?
Mm-hmm.
That’s kind of how I try to go about life. And so, I always try to have a positive energy and positive outlook, and being optimistic about things. But most of the world I think, gets kind of dragged into the negative energy, even though they don’t want to be. And it’s just like, you had a great day but somebody else had a bad day, and now they’re venting to you and all of a sudden they’re kind of bringing you into their negative energy world, right?
Yeah. And what makes that so for them versus you is kind of the deeper question. I hear you moving into.
Yeah. You have to kind of like, interrupt it. “Hey, listen, make aware of it. This is negative. How can we talk about?” But sometimes there’s just real things that you have to be negative about, like grievance and death, and things like that too.
Sure. Of course.
But what’s your thoughts? Do you study energy too?
I do. And for me, what you’re speaking about, Jason, is addressed best, I found, with a morning routine. And for myself, I am so convinced that the first few minutes of every morning, before I look at an email or a text, is just to say thank you, a gratitude practice.
Get my cup of coffee and just spend the first few minutes, even if it’s 5, just closing my eyes and just being really grateful for a new day and asking the universe to help this day go well, help me speak well today on your show, and be a vessel for what people need to hear today. And just that everything is smooth and that I’m able to just be who I came here to be, and just asking for others in my life that their life goes well.
And when you do that consistently, your life starts to change, your days go smoother. And even as you encounter people that don’t have your same practice or habits, you’re able to deal with them more easily, without taking on their energy. And I wonder what you think and your morning routine even, practices that you employ.
Yeah. In fact, actually I took that one step further and we didn’t do this intentionally, it was somebody that had committed suicide in a group that I belong to, it’s a business group. And so, like, how can we all know that we’re all going to be okay and we all support each other? And so, one of the things that we did was we created a gratitude partner. And you just text each other every morning just something simple, grateful for the weather today.
Oh, I love that.
You just get an accountability partner. And every morning you just wake up and it’s like, “What are you grateful for?”
Wow. You know somebody’s going to reach out to you and you’re going to reach out to someone.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, that’s beautiful.
Yeah. So this way, now you have an accountability partner, somebody that’s listening to you and then they just reply back with what they’re grateful for. And there’s days that go by where maybe you kind of miss, you’re on vacation and being pulled in six directions but just accountability to. But that’s so powerful to start your day with gratitude.
It is, and I’m sorry about the loss of a colleague and a friend.
Thank you. Yeah. No, I appreciate that. That’s part of how I start my day. And then usually me, I kind of do get pulled into some of the regular, like, I drink a cup of coffee. Maybe that’s not the best way to start your day.
Oh, I do. I love black coffee, Jason, in the morning. Oh my gosh. It’s awesome. That hot cup of black coffee, it’s my favorite thing.
There it is, right?
Yeah.
But then now, man, most of my day is spent on, like, Zoom all day, meetings. And so, sometimes that could be a little draining at the end of the day.
Unplugging is important. How do you do that? It’s so important.
It’s really hard. And in fact, right now I’m not doing a lot of that. I try to take Wednesdays as my creative days where I try not to book too many meetings, but usually because I’ve got so many different things in businesses and this and that, and calls. So I’m usually on Zoom from like 7 o’clock in the morning to 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
Wow. That’s intense.
It is intense. And so, at the end of the day, you feel exhausted.
And even if you’ve just been sitting there because it’s an energy exhaust drain.
It’s just mentally exhausting.
You’re giving your energy, your presence through the device, which can be a little limiting sometimes, I think.
And then you get home and then my kids come home, my wife wants my attention, right?
Yeah.
And they haven’t been using that same energy all day, they’ve been using different types of energy, like running in the park and playing, and this and that, right?
Yeah.
Not saying my energy’s better than theirs, nothing like that, but it’s just different. But come the end of the day, it’s like, “Whew, I just don’t want to talk right now. I’ve been talking all day.”
Do you take that time for yourself? I think it’d be important even for you to go for a walk, do something outside.
I try to do that. Yeah. I’ll say, “Hey, I’m not going to jump on Zoom. I’m going to be on a call.” And I walk through the neighborhood, just kind of like… Yeah.
Yes. I think it’s important. Every day, I’ll take a walk or go to the gym or both, when it’s possible, and leave my phone to have some phone free-time when possible to just really be with my own thoughts. And in the event that you can’t, you can still check in with yourself. As you’re in the bathroom, “Hey, how am I doing today? What do I need?” And just asking yourself that question throughout the day can help you then set that up for yourself.
Sure. Well, that’s awesome. I just learned about energy awareness recently. That’s just fascinating.
And how would you define that?
How would I define energy awareness?
Yeah.
I think it’s contagious for sure, and I think that it’s kind of like magnets, right?
Yeah. Absolutely.
If you are walking around positive energy, positive things tend to happen to you. If you’re walking around with negative energy, a lot of negative things happen to you. It’s like you’re setting yourself up and you might not be aware of it. So if you’re listening, try to be conscious of your energy.
And what you’re saying, it’s so important. And we hear it in so many different ways yet it’s really scientifically true that like you’re saying, our mindset, the thoughts that we’re ruminating on that no one else sees but us, the more you can authentically make them serve you in a positive way that does attract because again, it’s about this frequency, this vibration. Our thoughts carry a measurable frequency measured in Hertz. Our words as well, our words are just our thoughts in clothing that we present to the world.
So it can be helpful that old adage, if you don’t have something positive to say don’t say anything. And there’s really some value to that until you can get your own inner alignment in a higher state, by doing things that you love as much as you can or being around people that really fill up your love tank as much as you can, and just to really every day be about that a bit. That it’s not about perfection, it’s just progressing in these healthier ways for ourselves to feel happier, because then we do attract and generate better experiences as you were saying.
Yeah. So you had mentioned about self forgiveness, right?
Yeah.
Can you really forgive yourself? Because it tends to believe, like, if you were an alcoholic your whole life and that’s kind of the atmosphere that your kids grew up with, and now they’re kind of forever impacted by that. And now that’s your narrative, that’s who you’re known as. So other people know you as, “Oh, he wasn’t really a good father. He was an alcoholic, or this or that.” But how do you change all the other different connections to that?
Sure. That’s a really good question and great scenario to address because for the person who is in that scenario of the alcoholic that has chronically potentially not shown up for people, not been there for your kids, for your loved ones, and then the shame that’s generated that has caused you, I imagine, to drink more from the guilt and such, you need the most forgiveness because it’s through having empathy for ourselves that I am certain for that person there were things in childhood that happened that people didn’t show up for them, and they didn’t develop the coping skills to be able to address life as it happened in a healthy way.
And then escaping. Addiction is really about escaping. And at some point addiction develops a primary relationship with you, your brain gets hooked on the alcohol or the drugs. So it’s beyond just your willpower.
Understood. Yeah.
And so, the forgiveness piece can be really important, and to make those amends to others and address your own healing and get the support that you need. It’s a progressive journey, self-forgiveness, and healing from addiction, that you have to really progressively forgive yourself as you’re able and get the support you need to really step into that more and more.
So what I’m hearing is you can change your character and how people perceive you.
I believe that you can, I mean, it takes some deep, insightful, getting in there with yourself, holding yourself accountable. That self accountability piece again, you can definitely do it.
And there’s all kinds of scenarios. I just use that one, right?
Yeah. It’s a big one. It’s a good one.
There’s all kinds of vices, gambling, drugs, you name it. And there’s probably people out there that are listening to this. Knock, knock, what’s that frequency? That you can change. Sometimes you have to start by forgiving yourself though, it sounds like that’s-
And valuing yourself enough that you deserve to give yourself this chance to really silence that inner critic that all of us have to one degree or another, and even looking at what those self-critical thoughts are and changing them, wanting to. And I think it really takes a support system, be it therapy, a recovery program in this scenario. And even like you said, your gratitude text to have that accountability partner, we all need that.
Yeah. That’s key. You do need help.
Yeah. And it’s okay to ask for it.
Yeah. I don’t really ask for help, I never do. I don’t know why I’ve never-
Well, I think you have a lot of self accountability, Jason, you’re really accountable to yourself as am I, so you are your own accountability partner and that works as well.
Yeah. I guess you can do that. So as a therapist, you probably hear all kinds of stories and there’s troubles and you’re getting inside people’s personal lives. Does it ever drain you? How do you stay positive?
Yeah. I’m nodding my head as you’re asking me the question. It does, and I can honestly say that’s why I have to really make it my business to keep my self-care habits, my morning meditation, the gym is a play. I love working out. I used to be a fitness instructor for fun.
So for me, I feel like I play when I go to the gym. And I need that to clear my head of everyone else and everything else. And like, even going to Hawaii recently, to take a trip, to go have fun with friends, to lighten up. What it takes to work with other people’s pain and help them because I love doing that, yet I also have learned doing this over 20 years, I have to take just as good care of myself as the care I’m providing in working with others every day.
Got it. Sure. Yeah. Well, I would love to have you talking to me on a regular basis.
Thank you.
Yeah. You’re very comforting. It’s very easy to talk to you.
Thank you. I appreciate that. As you, it’s easy to talk to you as well.
I heard you coined a term.
I did.
You did. So what was that term?
It’s the term psychoastrology. And I trademarked [the term Psycho-astrology] to define this inner relationship between our personal psychology and our natal astrology. So it’s just simply for me Chiron, since that’s what I study and put out. These vulnerabilities and woundings how they interface with our personal psychology, our family of origin and then now in our adulthood, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and really having the power to change that to live a different life.
Interesting. And when did you coin that term?
When the book came out, a year ago.
Is that right?
Yeah.
I’ve never coined a term, but maybe I will in my life. That’s a bucket list thing, right?
Yeah.
So if somebody picks up your book and they read it, what is the takeaway that you want people to get from reading your book?
I want people to know that they can actually really live more of the kind of life that they want, and live their deepest desires and their fantasy. When you ask someone, I’m going to ask you listening, if you close your eyes and think, “If I could wake up tomorrow, what would I like my life to look like? What would be different?” And to write those things down and then start progressively taking those baby steps even if the baby step is googling that dream vacation that you can’t afford in this second.
And the universe will start as you do the practices of this book of cleaning up your thoughts, which inform the beliefs you have about yourself. And then you start taking different actions, that’s what changes your life. And I want people to know how valuable they are. I don’t think we hear that enough and it’s something we need to tell ourselves, the self-affirmation.
My book has affirmations in it for every placement of Chiron that you’ve experienced, there’s specific affirmations that I’ve written for you and take away steps. So practical things you can start doing today to change this pattern of not getting what you want or desire into actually living the life you want. I like practical wisdom, Jason, I love philosophy and-
Instead of theoretical-
And so, I like both. So there’s practical and the theoretical wisdom.
Yeah. Well, you seem like you practice what you preach.
I do. Thank you.
I did see a tweet that you said, “You create your future with the power of your intention. Intention is simply the conscious act of determining your future now.”
Absolutely. Yes.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah. I truly believe that. That’s a big thing for me too, is like, I truly believe that you can create the future that wasn’t going to exist anyway.
Yes. I feel that as you say it. Absolutely true.
Really good. It’s just a matter of taking action, right?
It is.
It’s like, if you’re single and there’s an attractive person that you’re attracted to.
Approach them.
Approach them, right?
Yeah.
Because if you don’t, you’re not going to create the future that wasn’t going to exist anyway.
Exactly. And Jason, in the spirit of this today, this date in particular, there’s a new moon and the new moon is a really great time. There’s energy, since we’ve been talking about energy, present for new beginnings to manifest things we want. And so, I encourage you listening, you might want to jot down a few things you’d like to manifest and burn them in your sink, releasing them to the universe in a ritual kind of way, and maybe keep a running log of them. And as the future unfolds, notice which one of those intentions that you specified start to manifest, because they will.
And it’s based on a new moon you said?
The new moon is a wonderful time for new beginnings. And the full moon can be a time for completions and endings. And so, today is actually a new moon and it’s a good time. Later, I plan to write a few things I’m grateful for that have happened and burn them in my sink and just ask for a few more things I want to see.
Yeah. Such a powerful thing to look up into this sky and see that beautiful big moon just staring at you.
It is.
I don’t know, I get satisfaction from that personally.
I do too.
Yeah. So I want to talk about, you mentioned it earlier, but glass. How long have you been into the art of, is it glass blowing? Is that the term?
I cast glass. That’s where you scoop glass in a ladle. It’s an industrial process. The glass is 2,300 degrees and I get suited up in this leather protective gear, scoop it and pour it into sand molds and steel molds. I do blow some glass like cups and bowls for fun and gifts. And that’s been a passion for about 25 years, like it’s my therapy, one of my forms of therapy.
Okay.
Yeah.
And you just kind of, all of a sudden, somebody introduced you to it and you did it?
Actually, when I was in grad school at Tulane back in New Orleans, I wanted to take an elective art class and I was flipping through the catalog before everything was online, and I just saw “Glass Blowing.” I didn’t really know what that was, Jason. And I got in the class and it was an instant… Have you ever done something and it’s like, you’re meant for this?
Yeah.
It was an instant fit and I’ve never stopped. It was just this super fun thing and challenge. It’s so challenging because glass is going from a liquid to a solid, so you have to keep reheating it so it doesn’t literally crack and fall off on the floor or it doesn’t get so hot, like drips down as a glob on the ground. It really absorbs you in the moment. And I think those are the things that you can fill your love tank with, those experiences and activities that bring you to the present moment, and glass does that for me.
Every time I go to the Bellagio, I look up into the sky. I’m not sure if you’ve been to the Bellagio?
No, but I’m going next week-
Are you really?
… With some high school friends. I hadn’t been to Vegas in 20 years and I’m going to the Bellagio. Yeah.
When you go to the Bellagio look up in their lobby because it’s a very famous glass artist.
Yes. That’s right.
I have worked at his glass school for eight summers in Stanwood, Washington called Pilchuck.
Yes. So he has a big glass museum in Seattle. I’ve been there.
Yeah. It’s beautiful.
It is so cool.
I haven’t been there in a long time, but it was beautiful.
It was so beautiful when we were there. Yeah.
He’s been instrumental in the American glass art movement to really bring the Murano, the Italian artist to teach in America. He was instrumental in glass being here in the US.
Fascinating. Another person I have to go google and learn more about.
Yeah.
So it’s amazing how we talked about you found your purpose and it sounds like the purpose is doing stuff with the ADA, right?
Mm-hmm.
So you invented a specific wheelchair, is that right? Is that what you said?
It’s actually just a modified glass workbench where the person can wheel their own wheelchair and it protects them. It was super simple, the modification, and it allows people in their wheelchair to blow glass or cast glass, without leaving their own chair.
And do events? Do you actually-
I’ve only done one outside of Atlanta in a town called Americus, Georgia, where Mobile Glassblowing Studios, I hired them to build the prototype and did teach a 16-year-old boy with autism to blow glass. His mom and grandma were crying. It was really emotional. And then I had that, it’s called “The CHAIR-iot,” my prototype shipped to Yaya Artists in New Orleans. It’s a glass studio. They work with kids and adults.
So when I go to New Orleans in a couple weeks, I want to really jump in to how we can get some classes going. I’ve tried to work interface with The Wounded Warriors to get, again, I’m not sure. So if anyone’s listening and has some ideas for me, please let me know how to get this going and out in the world.
And how do they contact you?
The easiest is probably NOLATherapy, my website, or on social media: @nolatherapy.
Nice. Okay. What’s your vision with that? Are you hoping that maybe somebody comes and maybe gives you some money and you can kind of really start mass producing these?
Yeah. My vision is for these benches to be in every glass blowing studio around the world or as many who want to incorporate people with disabilities, to teach them, so they can have this joy as well.
Oh, I think that’s amazing.
Yeah. Thank you.
I love that. Well, it’s another thing that maybe I’ll find a glass blowing studio here in LA. Is there?
There is one, KT Glassworks. I can send you the info.
Please.
And I’ve taken lessons from the owner. He’s really awesome.
That would be a cool date night thing with my wife and I, for sure.
Yeah. It’s really wonderful. He’s a great teacher. You will come away with some cups that you can actually use and drink out of. It’s really awesome.
Talk about something that you’ve never done before, right?
Yeah.
How cool is that? All right. So now we’re at a segment that I like to call “Hennessey Heart-to-Heart.” And just a mixture of just random questions and you just answer them with whatever comes to your mind.
Sure.
So the first one is, do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert?
I used to be totally just an extrovert and I feel like I’m becoming a bit more introverted. And so, I’m a mixture of both, but I need my times of introversion to then get out in the world and be an extrovert.
I’m the same way. I can speak on stage to 10,000 people and feel very comfortable and confident. But sometimes when I bump into a room where there’s five people and I’m like, “Oh, I just kind of want to go back to my room here. I’m a little uncomfortable here.” So I guess you could be both.
Exactly.
Yeah. What makes you feel accomplished?
Oh gosh. This today with you, I feel accomplished. I feel like a sense of really living my purpose, lit up, like thank you universe, this is it. This is one of my favorite things to do, like doing a show like this with you.
Connections.
Yeah. Connection. Meeting and value, our conversation is so high-quality and authentic, it makes me feel the best ever.
Okay. Good answer. What is a deal breaker for you in a relationship? And it doesn’t have to be a love relationship but any relationship, what’s a deal breaker for you?
Okay. The first thing that came to mind, because I did think love relationship, is chronic pot smoking. I know there’s medicinal value and medical purposes, I’m all for that. But for me personally, just that would be a deal breaker. But in friendship it would be, I really value honesty and authenticity and trust. Someone I can trust.
I like authenticity. Trust is a big deal. This is a weird question. If you were a pair of shoes, what kind of shoes would you be and why?
Oh my gosh. That’s a good one.
We get you to think here, see?
Yeah. I would be, almost like these shoes I’m wearing, these Donald Pliner; a beautiful yet comfortable pair of leather or pleather boots that are stylish and sexy, but also comfortable.
Love it. Beauty and comfort, right?
Yeah.
What’s your most unusual talent?
My most unusual talent. Jason, I’ve never even thought about that. Can you help me? Can you maybe share yours?
Wow. You’re putting this back on me as I go to drink my-
I’m a therapist.
I pass it over to you, the ball, and then you throw it right back to me? What is my most unusual talent? I would say my most unusual talent would be… This is hard when you think about it.
I know. This is a challenge.
Most unusual talent. I’m stumped here.
I mean, I’m thinking things like I can sometimes laugh at myself, but that’s kind of lame. That’s not really a talent. I need some help with this.
I would say back in the day I used to break dance, maybe?
Oh, that’s good.
Is that an unusual talent? Can’t do that now.
Okay. When I was in college, I would do keg stands. But I don’t do that anymore.
That’s an unusual talent. We don’t break these-
Maybe not New Orleans.
I guess your unusual talents change over the years. And now I live a pretty boring life. So I got to find some more unusual talents.
Okay. I’m going to challenge myself to find an unusual talent for next time.
There you go. Okay. And those listening, what is your unusual talent? Think about that. What’s something I would never guess about you?
Oh God. I think you’d never guess, but since I wrote this book on being authentic and healing, that I have had low self-esteem for a lot of my life. I hid it through performance, through achievement, yet for me, when I stumbled upon this Chiron in Aries for myself having to do with the vulnerability and my sense of value and worth, it really made my whole life make sense that I’ve hid behind…
Even my US patent and the workbench and the nonprofit, these things that I felt good about for a bit but it never seemed to give me this deep, long-lasting feeling like I’m enough until I really found this Chiron material and started to affirm myself. If I never do a motherf**king thing, I’m good enough, seriously. And I hope that speaks to someone, that it’s really not all this performance-based stuff that causes us to really love ourselves, it’s loving ourselves regardless.
Sure. Wow. Well, you certainly have confidence about you now, for sure.
Thank you.
Let’s see here. What is your biggest kitchen fail?
Oh man. So simple, pita chips. You get pita bread at the grocery, just cut it up, put some olive oil, put them in the oven. Do you know those bitches will burn? I mean, I’m not even exaggerating, Jason, the whole oven was on fire; flames in just like 3 minutes. I’m calling my friend and her husband like, “I don’t know what to do.” He’s like, “Stop opening the oven, it’s just air. Let the shit burn.” And it was just pita chips. That was an epic fail, I mean like very scary. So be careful when you make homemade pita chips, not to overcook them.
So for me, my biggest kitchen fail would be, you go to Costco and they’ve got the Vitamix guys out there, they’re blending smoothies. And it’s like, “You can throw rocks in here, it works.” You know what I mean?
Yes.
They’re making all kinds of stuff and you stand there for like an hour because you just want to know like, “What am I going to get next? Soup? Okay, cool. Banana juice?”
So we end up buying this thing and we bring it home and we unpack it, and we start making the recipes, like strawberry bananas. Every night we’re using it. It doesn’t happen so much anymore after you’ve had it for a while.
So I get this crazy idea. I’m like, “I’m going to make marshmallow cream with it.” So I take a whole bag of marshmallows. I put it in, I pushed the button down, it’s like… That was then, the engine just completely fails.
Burns.
Right. It just burns out. So I’m the first person to kind of break the Vitamix within literally like 24 hours of kind of having the thing. So anyway, for those that have a Vitamix, you can’t make marshmallow cream in it.
That’s a good one.
Yes. Have you ever sent a text to the wrong person?
I have. But there was not any grave consequence from what I remember.
Got it. In fact, actually, there’s a story recently. It’s really funny.
Okay. Yeah. What is it?
Where a group of high school kids from Michigan, they played basketball together. And so, they created a FaceTime group. And sometimes you end up on these things, now all of a sudden you’re in this group text, right?
Yes, totally.
This was like a FaceTime group thing on Facebook, or whatever. And so, they added all these numbers, but they got one person that they knew their digit wrong. And so, they ended up getting like a linebacker who plays for the Tampa Bay Bucs who was in the locker room at the time, and he is answering. He is like, “What’s up?” And there’s like these six kids saying, “Who are you?”
I can’t remember the linebacker’s name. Then they’re passing the phone to some of the superstars like Tom Brady gets on, he’s like, “What’s up kids?” So just one number wrong and the next thing you know you’re talking to all these people. Here’s another funny thing too, you should get to know your number neighbor. You know what I’m talking about?
No.
So it’s the person that has the same exact phone number as you, but just one digit, either below or above.
Would you text this person, “Hey”?
Why don’t you text your number neighbor right now? Text them and see if they get back to you.
Okay. Let’s see.
Yes.
Okay. Help me out with this. This must be these games you play.
Yes. So let’s text your number neighbor, you can either go above or below.
Okay. I’m going to do like say the area code, just change your number?
Yes. So the same area code, the same three digits, the same next three digits, but the last digit of your number has to be above or below.
Okay. Got it. And what am I going to say to them?
And you’re just going to say, “Hey, number neighbor.”
“Hey, number neighbor. How are you today?”
“Since we’re neighbors, I just figured we should know each other.”
“How are you today?”
There you go.
Okay.
And then just send it.
I just sent it.
Who knows, that could be like a spark that maybe that’s the person that invests in your non-for-profit.
Okay. I’ll claim that. Sure.
See, who knows?
Who knows? Okay.
Wrong text.
Okay. This is fun. I’ll let you know what they say.
There it is. Let’s see here. What is one of the funniest things you’ve seen a kid do?
Funniest things I’ve seen a kid do. There was this great, I think a YouTube, you might have seen it, this little boy, his grandma’s letting him make cookies but he’s eating sugar and he’s getting so hyped. The grandmother, he’s grabbing the dough.
I’ve seen that.
Have you seen that?
Yes.
I’ve watched that so many times because the boy, he’s…. It’s so ridiculous. He’s like, eating everything.
And you’re like, “Not yet, hold on. They’re just trying to make cookies.”
Right. And the grandmother’s trying to not laugh. That was really, actually awesome.
That is cool. If you can eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Oh my gosh. Sushi.
Sushi?
Yeah.
Okay.
What about you?
Definitely not sushi.
No? Okay.
I’m not a sushi kind of guy.
What would it be for you?
Chicken noodle soup.
Oh wow. Okay.
Yeah. I think chicken noodle soup would be… I like that. Who’s the one person you can talk to about anything?
Oh, my dear best friend, Beth Carter in New Orleans. She’s the first one that comes to mind. I could even prank her silly shit and she’s just a wonderful person.
That’s awesome. And do you talk to her often?
I do. Yeah.
That’s cool. What’s one thing that people always misunderstand about you?
The first thing that came to mind is I’ll hear a lot, you’re so intense. And I used to think I had to change that or that means there’s something wrong about me. And then I realized I am intense, and I love that about myself. I’m thorough, I’m really curious. I actually care. And so, my intensity, I think, is because those are qualities that I embody, and for others, it might make them uncomfortable because maybe they’re not as present or maybe they don’t care as much or maybe they just haven’t cultivated those qualities. So I don’t have to change. That’s been a big learning lesson that it’s not a bad thing to be intense.
No, not at all. I appreciate the intensity. If you could make one rule for a day that everybody had to follow, what would that rule be?
I’m trying to think if I should make it funny.
Where can you take this here?
Right. I’m just thinking this because I love my sweet kitty cats that I have. I think that everybody would have to pet a cat.
Pet a cat?
Yeah. Pet a cat, because people sometimes are scared. I fly with my cats from LA to New Orleans and sometime-
You do?
Yes. Security, I mean, TSA agents are running away. They seem all tough like, “Oh my God, I’m scared of cats.” So people would have to pet a sweet cat to learn that they can be super sweet.
And what’s your cats’ names?
Baby and Jiggy. A girl named Baby and a boy named Jiggy.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Very cool. Speaking of animals, if you had a pet parrot, what would you teach it to say? This is where you can get funny if you want.
Oh my gosh. “You’re an asshole.” What would you teach your parrot to say?
Well, I have a funny story. So somebody that I knew had a parrot and the parrot would learn some of the words that the owner would say. And so, one of the things is, one time he was in the shower and he’s taking a shower, and just kind of doing his thing. And some solicitors come knocking on the door. Knock, knock, knock, and he’s in the shower. And the parrot has learned to say, “Come in.”
This is a true story. So anytime somebody would come to the house, knock on the door, the parrot would scream, “Come on in.” So he got out of the shower and there’s two people there trying to either sell him something or pass their religion to him, or whatever the case may be, but that is a true story.
Can I ask you a question?
Yes.
It’s one of the ones you asked me earlier that I think is so clever. If you were a pair of shoes, what would those shoes be?
Ooh, we were just talking about.
I like that question.
Yeah. To be honest with you, it would be the same sneakers that I’m wearing right now, which would be comfortable but a little abstract. Something that’s kind of like, I’m a child of the ’80s and so that neon, what I’m wearing right now is what you don’t see here in the video is a nice neon. But I’m very classy, black and white, but still I can be creative too.
Yeah, I like that.
So good question. Let’s see here. Would you rather have a nosy neighbor or a noisy neighbor?
Oh gosh, both of those are undesirable. So I can’t say neither?
No. You have to pick one.
Okay. Nosy, because I feel like I could handle that.
Okay. Yeah. Noisy would get a little too much. You’re trying to sleep, playing the guitar, drums, right?
Yes.
Would you rather eat a stick of butter or a tablespoon of salt? That’s such a hard question.
I know, it is. I go with the tablespoon of salt. What about you?
Oh, butter. Yeah, I think so. That’s probably not the healthiest thing, but it tastes better.
Okay. Can I put the salt on a margarita?
Yeah. There you go. What’s the strangest thing to ever happen to you?
Okay. There’s been quite a few strange-
You want me to go for mine and then you wait?
Yes, please. That’d be awesome.
Okay. So you think about yours?
Yeah.
So for me when I was, I don’t remember, I don’t know, like 14 years old, went over to my friend’s house, laying on the bed. We’re doing homework. I’m on the bed, he’s on this couch thingy. I could vividly see it, and we’re just doing homework. And all of a sudden I hear, “Ka-chu, ka-chu, ka-chu, ka-chu.” I’m like, “What the heck is that?” And I don’t do drugs, I never did drugs. And so, I look over to the right-hand side and he has like this George Washington piggy bank that was literally just kind of like shaking in air.
What?
No joke. I vividly remember it because I even asked him, because he’s always said that his house was haunted, all kinds of weird things happening. I grew up in Long Island where there’s the Amityville horror house and all this stuff, but the houses are really old. And so, that was the strangest thing that I can vividly remember happening. And I’ve never seen any other type of weird stuff like that ever in my life again, but that was the one thing.
Yeah. That’s super paranormal.
Yes.
Okay. Mine that came to mind is really different, but I remember what… And say the question again, something that’s really?
Strangest thing that has ever happened to you.
Okay. I was in like fourth or fifth grade. And in New Orleans, I don’t know if you were doing this in Long Island if you were living there. Do you remember World’s Finest Chocolate? Did they have World’s Finest Chocolate, the candy bars that were a dollar that you sold door-to-door?
Yeah.
And everyone knew they’re a dollar and I think they were throughout all of my childhood. And so, I decided to sell them for $2 and keep the extra dollar. And I made, like, all this money and I was like, “Why are people spending $2?” I was kind of like, “Are they really that gullible?” Until this one parent was like, “It’s not $2, Lisa, it’s $1.” I was like, “Oh my God, please don’t tell my mom. Nobody said anything.” And of course she did and I got in trouble. But I remember thinking, “I can’t believe people are believing me that it’s…” It might have been my first little entrepreneur business in fourth or fifth grade.
I like that. My son, Zach, had a YouTube channel and we would do skits when he was really young. We’d go to like, Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank and they’d do this car show and he would interview people, and we’d make really fun videos. One of the things that we did was we went to Trader Joe’s, and you know how Trader Joe’s has their own version of their Oreo cookies. I can’t remember the name of them, Trader Cookies or something. They bought like a bunch of boxes of cookies and they set it up outside like, you know, the Girl Scouts sell cookies.
Yes.
But they’re selling Trader Joe’s cookies to people that are just coming out of Trader Joe’s for like $10 a box.
Were people buying them?
No. They kicked quickly off of the premises. And you can go youtube the videos, “Zach Hennessey Trader Joe’s.” It’s really funny, for sure.
That’s good.
Last question. What is one lesson that you’ve learned in life that you wish the whole world could learn too?
It’s a lesson that I think I’m still learning is to really… You know that book, The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz? And he talks about not taking things personally, but to me it comes down to giving people the benefit of the doubt. And that’s been hard for me being somebody that was critical with myself and in turn with others at times. Just really learning I intend to continue to be better and better, giving people the benefit of the doubt, and that I think if we all did that, the world would just be easier, our relationships and moving through life to just be: not take things so personally.
Got it. I love that. Don’t take things so personally. We’ll end on that note. Thank you so much. This has just been such an awesome podcast. I appreciate you coming down here, giving me my first reading.
Awesome.
Thank you.
It’s an honor and pleasure.
And I’m looking forward again. Tell everybody your book, how everybody can buy it and how they can reach you and follow you.
Thank you, Jason. It’s awesome to be here with you and anyone listening can go to my website, NOLATherapy.com. It stands for New Orleans, Los Angeles Therapy or Barnes & Noble, the brick-and-mortars, online, Books-A-Million, walmart.com, Amazon. And if you have a favorite local bookstore, just go in and give them the title or my name and your-
Do you have the title again?
Yeah. The Chiron Effect: Healing Our Core Wounds Through Astrology, Empathy, and Self-Forgiveness. And your local favorite brick-and-mortar can order it for you so you shop local.
Perfect. And then how do they follow you on social media again?
There it is.
Yeah.
Well, thank you. I look forward to doing your podcast during 2022.
Thank you, Jason. Yeah, I’m looking forward to that.
Yes.
Absolutely.
Thank you.