Navigating Our Way Between Fear and Safety

In this 2023 conversation with Justine Willis Toms, poet-philosopher Mark Nepo shares how we can have a direct connection to the attending guiding spirit within. Nepo helps us understand that the heart plays a central role in how our life-force manifests, and considers it one of our greatest resources as a conduit for our intuitive mind. 

Nepo gives us an analogy from India regarding how to meet fear and pain, which we often inflate, and provides a practical suggestion in “right-sizing” them. He suggests that we describe one, two or three reliable truths which are our personal foundation and which we can return to as we meet the challenges of daily life. He also writes about how the 'net of relationship' distributes our suffering.

Mark Nepo is the author of many audio learning projects and over 20 books including:


- Reduced To Joy (Cleis Press 2013)
- Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close To What Is Sacred (Free Press 2012)
- The One Life We’re Given: Finding the Wisdom That Waits in Your heart (Atria Books 2016)
- More Together Than Alone: Discovering the Power and Spirit of Community in Our Lives and in the World (Atria Books 2018)
- Drinking from the River of Light: The Life of Expression (Sounds True 2019)
- The Book of Soul: 52 Paths to Living What Matters (St. Martin’s Essentials 2020)
- Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity (St. Martins’ Essentials 2022) 
- Falling Down and Getting Up: Discovering Your Inner Resilience and Strength (St. Martins’ Essentials 2023)

Interview Date: 6/30/2023     Tags: Mark Nepo, heart mind, head mind, Dante, The Divine Comedy, inner guiding spirit, honor, Indra’s net, fear, inner guide, Philosophy, Personal Transformation, Relationship