Magic in the Moment: Mindfulness In Real Time | Podcast on RSS.com

Magic in the Moment: Mindfulness In Real Time

Magic in the Moment: Mindfulness In Real Time

by Clayton Platt

Mental Health Spirituality

Season 1

From the Court to the Cushion: Tennis Pro Emma Allen on Performance, Presence, and Holistic Health

What if the most important thing about competing had nothing to do with the score? Emma Allen grew up with a tennis racket in her hand and a philosophy professor for a father, which turns out to be a combination that changes everything about how you approach a game, a loss, a career, and a life. She competed professionally, traveled with her father and brother as her coaching team, and learned something that most competitors never do. The joy is in the gritty incremental growth, not the result. She describes feeling greedy for it. That career was derailed by injury. And what happened next is where this conversation gets genuinely surprising. Emma found her way to osteopathic medicine, discovered the profound impact of removing dairy, gluten, and processed sugar from her diet, and never had another sinus infection in her life. She stumbled into Joe Dispenza's work through a stranger in a grocery store who felt compelled to recommend a book. And she began building a framework that now forms the foundation of her Mindset Masterclass, a program she delivers to athletic teams, corporate organizations, and anyone ready to understand why emotional state is the foundation of everything else. Clayton and Emma explore what the neuroscience of language acquisition reveals about presence and performance, why the affective filter shuts down learning and how the same principle applies on the court, in a meeting, and in a relationship, and what it actually means to sit with discomfort long enough to understand what it is telling you. They also talk about something Clayton does not often get to explore on this show. Sound money, financial literacy, and why Emma believes that understanding the monetary system is one of the most impactful things a person can do for their own peace of mind and long-term wellbeing. This one is warm, wide-ranging, and genuinely fun. Find Emma at mindsetmasterclass.org.

What Music Teaches the Mind: Dr. Michael Ketner on Flow, Focus, and Showing Up

He had done everything right. The preparation was solid. The earlier rounds had gone well. And then came the moment that changed everything. Not a missed note. Not a technical failure. A thought. Someone told him he was the only candidate left. And somewhere inside, a voice said you have already won. The performance fell apart. Not because his hands forgot what to do. Because his attention had already left the room. Dr. Michael Ketner has spent his career inside that gap, the space between what a performer knows and what they can actually do when it matters most. Director of performance at the University of Pennsylvania's music department for more than twenty years, former orchestral trombonist, and now a coach working with musicians, leaders, and athletes, he brings to this conversation a depth of experience that is as practical as it is quietly profound. Clayton and Dr. Ketner explore what Timothy Gallwey's Inner Game books reveal about the performing mind, how the concepts of Self One and Self Two map onto what neuroscience tells us about the prefrontal cortex and flow, and what actually happens when a performer shifts their focus outward toward the audience, the music, the relationship, and why that shift changes everything. At the center of this conversation is a concept Dr. Ketner calls the invisible curriculum. The lessons that never appear on any syllabus. How to respond to a mistake in front of an audience. How to receive criticism from a teacher. How to hold yourself when things fall apart. These things get transmitted whether or not anyone intends to teach them. And they shape a performer, for better or for worse, long after the formal training ends. Clayton makes the case that most of us are living out that invisible curriculum right now. Absorbed somewhere along the way, never examined, quietly running the show. This episode is for anyone whose work has a performative dimension. Which when you think about it is most of us. About Dr. Michael Ketner: Director of performance at the University of Pennsylvania's music department: https://music.sas.upenn.edu/people/michael-ketner Orchestral trombonist, and performance coach: https://thejazzsanctuary.com/dr-michael-ketner/ Find his work through Greene Sport Psychology: https://greenepsych.com/our-team/michael-ketner-dma-msod/

Art as Medicine: Noemi Beres on Creativity, Grief, and Presence

There are things inside us that words cannot reach. Noemi Beres discovered this at her father's bedside in 2019. As he moved through his final weeks, she sat beside him cutting and pasting, working on collages in the dark. Not because it seemed like the right thing to do. Because it was the only thing that helped. The colors disappeared. Everything went black and white. And somewhere in that process, without naming it or planning it, she was putting her grief somewhere it could be held. Noemi is a self-taught mixed media collage artist who has called Cyprus home for fifteen years. She has studied art therapy, color therapy, and positive psychology. And what she discovered in those quiet hours beside her father, she later found confirmed in research. Art does something that words alone cannot. It gives form to what has not yet been spoken. This conversation goes to some unexpectedly rich places. Noemi shares what it actually feels like to enter a flow state through creative work, how the Mediterranean pace of life has changed her relationship with time and creativity, and why the label of artist is one that most of us have been talked out of far too early. She also makes a case that is simple and quietly urgent. We are all creative. Every single one of us. And the five minutes we spend scrolling before bed could be five minutes of something that actually restores us. Clayton and Noemi explore what awareness plus choice looks like in the creative process, why nature is one of the most reliable doorways back to presence, and what it means to make art not for an audience but for yourself. This one is an invitation to slow down and listen. Find Noemi: noemiberes.com LinkedIn: cy.linkedin.com/in/noemiberes Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noemiberesart/

Summer Series Ep 5: THIS Is The Bravest Thing a Person Can Do

MAGIC IN THE MOMENT IS NOW AVAILABLE: https://tinyurl.com/9vj477f6 In the summer of 2021 Simone Biles walked away. The greatest gymnast who has ever lived. The entire world watching. Her team counting on her. And she stepped back and said I need to take care of myself first. The reaction was enormous. And Clayton has been thinking about that moment ever since. In this fifth and final installment of the summer series, Clayton goes deep into chapter five of his new book Magic in the Moment, a chapter called Self Care Is Job One. And he opens it with a case that he suspects most of us need to hear more than we realize. What Simone Biles modeled in Tokyo was not weakness. It was an act of supreme clarity that can only come from a still mind. This episode is not about bubble baths and rest days. It is about the oxygen mask. The one every flight attendant in the world has been trying to get us to actually hear for decades. You have fifteen seconds of useful consciousness before hypoxia sets in. After that you are not helping anyone. You are one more person who needs help. Clayton draws on the research of Kristin Neff and her three components of self-compassion, self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness, and connects them directly to the sitting practice that most listeners already have in some form. He shares a story from his work in Stephen Ministry that reframed everything he thought he knew about caregiving. And he offers one question worth sitting with long after the episode ends. What do you need right now that you have not given yourself permission to have? This is the final episode of the summer series. And as Clayton says in closing, all five chapters taken together are pointing at the same thing. The practice of being here, really here, in this moment, with this person, in this life. This episode is brought to you by Meditation for Leadership. Leadership happens in the space before the decision. Meditation for Leadership helps you pause under pressure, notice what is really happening, and choose how you respond instead of react. Visit www.meditation4leadership.org to learn more.

Summer Series Ep 4: The Beauty of Beginner's Mind

MAGIC IN THE MOMENT IS NOW AVAILABLE: https://tinyurl.com/9vj477f6 When was the last time you walked into a situation completely sure you knew how it was going to go? How often were you actually right? In this fourth installment of the summer series, Clayton goes deep into chapter four of his new book Magic in the Moment, a chapter called The Beauty of Beginner's Mind. And he opens it with a story that is equal parts funny and quietly humbling. A ten-week-old puppy named Brody, and what happened when Clayton discovered that everything he thought he knew about dogs was almost completely useless. Not because he lacked experience. Because he was running on the wrong kind. This episode explores what the Korean Zen tradition calls don't know mind, the invitation to treat not knowing as rich territory rather than a deficiency to cover up. It looks at what neuroscience tells us about the brain's drive toward fast conclusions, what psychologists call cognitive dissonance and why we dismiss new information rather than sit with the discomfort of updating our view, and what all of it costs us in our relationships, our leadership, and our ability to actually see the people in front of us. Clayton also shares a question from Ajahn Chah, Jack Kornfield's teacher, that has stayed with him for years. And two of the most underused tools in everyday conversation that are simpler than you might expect. This one is an invitation to stay curious for just one extra beat. This episode is brought to you by Meditation for Leadership. Leadership happens in the space before the decision. Meditation for Leadership helps you pause under pressure, notice what is really happening, and choose how you respond instead of react. Visit www.meditation4leadership.org to learn more.

Summer Series Ep 3: Just Like Me - Why Connectedness Matters

When was the last time you got an invitation to a reunion and felt something you were not quite expecting? Not your polite reaction. Your actual gut reaction. Whatever it was, it tells you something. And that is exactly where this episode begins. In the third installment of the summer series, Clayton goes deep into chapter three of his new book Magic in the Moment, a chapter called Why Connectedness Matters. It starts with a college reunion, a decision to widen the aperture, and what happened when he did. And then it goes somewhere more personal than any episode of this summer series has gone yet. Clayton has been sober for over two decades. And in this episode he talks openly about what that journey has required, what it has taught him, and why none of it would have been possible alone. There was a time when naming a struggle like that felt like admitting a character flaw. He has come to believe the opposite is true. The neuroscience in this chapter is quietly startling. We are not designed to go through life alone. Not as sentiment. As survival mechanism. And the research on what loneliness actually costs us physically is something that deserves to land slowly. Clayton also introduces a practice he learned from Jack Kornfield called Just Like Me, a way of dissolving the identities that separate us and finding the human underneath the label. He walks listeners through a short version of it in the episode and leaves the full practice for the book. This one is worth sitting with. The book Magic in the Moment is available now: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Moment-Mindfulness-Real-Time/dp/B0H8MG5QS4/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4SmWJV8moy8iR63vT_TseTh1kJq6eEpQWgCvHc1ceE4.dPYXB4SY_GseDD9wtTlvR3wP2jzyOA_kX6EKmjl635U&dib_tag=se&keywords=magic+in+the+moment+clayton+platt&qid=1784666804&sr=8-1 This episode is brought to you by Meditation for Leadership. Leadership happens in the space before the decision. Meditation for Leadership helps you pause under pressure, notice what is really happening, and choose how you respond instead of react. Visit www.meditation4leadership.org to learn more.

Summer Series Ep 2: Two Ears One Mouth

What is the last thing you told yourself you would start once things settled down a little? That is exactly where this episode begins. In this first installment of a special summer series, Clayton goes deeper into the ideas at the heart of his new book, Magic in the Moment, Mindfulness in Real Time. Not reading it word for word, but using each chapter as a starting point for the kind of conversation this show does best. Personal, honest, and grounded in real life. Chapter one is called Start Where You Are. And Clayton opens it with something he admits is not easy to say as a mindfulness teacher. He is a world-class procrastinator when it comes to beginning things. He will wait for the right conditions, the right alignment, the right moment of readiness. And what twenty-five years of sitting practice has taught him is that the right time is almost never the real issue. The real issue is a voice. You probably know the one. It shows up whenever something matters. It sounds reasonable, even wise. And it is almost never telling the truth. This episode explores what meditation teaches us about beginning, why the wandering mind is not a problem to solve but a practice to return to, and how that same invitation available on the cushion is available right now in every area of your life where you have been waiting for the starting line to appear. It has already appeared. It is here. It has always been here. This episode is brought to you by Meditation for Leadership. Leadership happens in the space before the decision. Meditation for Leadership helps you pause under pressure, notice what is really happening, and choose how you respond instead of react. Visit www.meditation4leadership.org to learn more.

Summer Series Ep 1: Start Where You Are

What is the last thing you told yourself you would start once things settled down a little? That is exactly where this episode begins. In this first installment of a special summer series, Clayton goes deeper into the ideas at the heart of his new book, Magic in the Moment, Mindfulness in Real Time. Not reading it word for word, but using each chapter as a starting point for the kind of conversation this show does best. Personal, honest, and grounded in real life. Chapter one is called Start Where You Are. And Clayton opens it with something he admits is not easy to say as a mindfulness teacher. He is a world-class procrastinator when it comes to beginning things. He will wait for the right conditions, the right alignment, the right moment of readiness. And what twenty-five years of sitting practice has taught him is that the right time is almost never the real issue. The real issue is a voice. You probably know the one. It shows up whenever something matters. It sounds reasonable, even wise. And it is almost never telling the truth. This episode explores what meditation teaches us about beginning, why the wandering mind is not a problem to solve but a practice to return to, and how that same invitation available on the cushion is available right now in every area of your life where you have been waiting for the starting line to appear. It has already appeared. It is here. It has always been here. This episode is brought to you by Meditation for Leadership. Leadership happens in the space before the decision. Meditation for Leadership helps you pause under pressure, notice what is really happening, and choose how you respond instead of react. Visit www.meditation4leadership.org to learn more.

Flipping the Mic: Producer Jon Goehring on Presence, Storytelling, Mindfulness, and OCD

Every episode of this show starts the same way for you. You press play and a finished conversation appears. The music rises on cue. The pauses sit where they should. The moments that matter rise to the top. Today Clayton flips the microphone around. Jon Goehring of StoryTrust Media has been inside almost every episode of this show, not as a guest but as the person who sits alone with the raw recording, listening and watching closely, deciding what stays and what goes. He has heard Clayton stumble over names, restart sentences, and occasionally compete with a barking dog for the microphone. He knows this show from the inside out. And somewhere in that editing process, something unexpected kept happening. This conversation goes places that were not planned. Jon shares what it actually feels like to sit with someone else's story so fully that you stop editing from your own opinions and start listening from something quieter. He talks about what storytelling has always meant to him and why the medium keeps changing while something fundamental about it never does. And then he goes somewhere most guests do not. Jon opens up honestly about living with OCD, what it actually is beneath the cultural shorthand, how it has shaped his relationship with his own mind, and why the very act of editing a podcast has become one of the most reliable mindfulness practices in his life. Not because he planned it that way. Because the work itself keeps putting him there. Find Jon Goehring and StoryTrust Media at storytrust.media. The Limitless Leadership Lounge podcast is at limitlessleadershippodcast.com.

How Kindness Travels: What Stops Us from Being Kind and What Sets Us Free

Late night. Cross County Parkway. A flat tire. A really nice suit. And then three strangers pulled over. In this solo episode Clayton returns to a moment from the mid-1990s that he has been carrying for thirty years without quite having the language for it, until a recent episode of the podcast Hidden Brain and psychologist Amit Kumar's research on kindness finally gave it a name. What Kumar found across study after study is quietly extraordinary. When people perform acts of kindness they consistently underestimate how much it will mean to the person receiving it. We evaluate the competence of what we are offering. The receiver experiences the warmth of being seen. Those are two completely different things. And we keep talking ourselves out of acting because we are measuring the wrong one. The three men who stopped on that highway thirty years ago almost did not. Not because they did not want to help but because they were afraid of how they would be received. That hesitation, and what it cost them almost to act on it, is at the heart of everything Clayton explores in this episode. What does the pause between impulse and action actually contain? What would it cost us to simply make the offer, not solve the problem, not have the right words, just stop and say I see you? And what happens to both people when that threshold gets crossed? This one stays with you. Find Clayton at mindfulnessrealtime.com. The Friday morning sangha on Zoom is open to all.

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