Advertise on podcast: Waking Up With Ryan

What if you could use the very mind that distracts you to become more present? Ryan pulls back the curtain on the practice he uses before recording each episode — quieting the mental noise so something deeper than his own thoughts can come through. He explores how an untrained “monkey mind” can cloud our experience like grime on a window, and how intentional language can turn that same mind into a tool for awakening. A guided practice follows with the words Ryan uses himself to become open, available, and receptive: “Dear universe, use me. Let me be a vessel.” Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if everything you think you know is getting in the way of what’s actually here? Ryan explores a paradox at the heart of awakening: the deeper you go, the less certain you become. Drawing on teachings from Buddhism, Christianity, Socrates, and Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, he makes the case for a “beginner’s mind” — releasing our need to know, explain, predict, and control so there’s room to actually experience what’s in front of us. A guided practice follows with a mantra for meeting the day without all the answers: “I do not know, and I am open.” Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three weeks into fatherhood, Ryan keeps hearing the same warning: the moments you’re desperate to get through may become the ones you’d give anything to have back. From changing diapers and folding laundry to walking the dog or driving your kids to school, ordinary life can feel like a list of tasks to finish rather than a life to actually experience. Ryan explores what changes when we bring our full attention to these seemingly mundane moments — and the miracles hiding inside them. A guided practice follows with one simple reminder: “This is my life, and I am here for it.” Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The feelings you’re afraid will overwhelm you aren’t the problem — believing you can’t handle them is. Ryan uses the image of a rock dropped into a small bowl versus a vast lake to explore what happens when fear, worry, and other difficult emotions enter our lives. Rather than resisting those feelings and turning pain into suffering, the practice is to expand our sense of who we are and discover how much we can actually hold. A guided meditation follows, inviting you to become the lake: expansive, undisturbed, and capable of allowing every ripple and wave to pass through. Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stop trying to figure it all out. After a chance conversation with someone facing a major career transition, Ryan challenges the impulse to think, strategize, and force our way toward the “right” answer. Instead, he makes the case for asking the universe for guidance — and actually trusting what comes back. Ryan shares how that surrender has shaped some of the biggest decisions in his own life, from love and family to career and home. A guided practice follows with a simple invitation: “I am willing to be shown.” Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the first thing you did each morning wasn’t check your phone, run through your to-do list, or brace yourself for the day ahead? Ryan leads a short breath practice designed to ground you before the world starts pulling at your attention. Using a simple four-count inhale, hold, exhale, and hold, you’ll release tension, reconnect with your body, and create more space to meet the day with choice instead of reactivity. The practice closes with three questions from A Course in Miracles — an invitation to loosen your grip on what happens next and become more available to guidance, connection, and the unexpected. Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ryan sits down with actor Taye Diggs for a deeply personal conversation about the drive to keep achieving — and what happens when you finally stop. Taye opens up about growing up around poverty and abuse, being bullied for his dark skin, and discovering a sense of belonging and possibility through theater. He looks back at joining the original cast of Rent, becoming an unexpected sex symbol in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and the ambition that kept him chasing the next level even as his dreams were coming true. They explore how divorce and fatherhood upended the life he thought he had figured out, why even spirituality can become another form of striving, and the possibility that after a lifetime of searching, the next step isn’t another practice or achievement at all. Maybe it’s simply learning to stop, sit with what’s there, and hear the words: “Relax. You’re okay.” Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if your spiritual practice is actually helping you avoid the very emotions you need to feel? Ryan explores spiritual bypassing — using ideas like “fear isn’t real” or “it’s just the ego” to stay disconnected from pain, anger, sadness, and resentment. He explains why emotions that aren’t fully felt don’t simply disappear; they stay stuck, shaping how we move through the world. A guided practice follows, helping you meet discomfort without resistance, recognize awareness as your true nature, and repeat: “I am willing to feel whatever arises.” Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Modern life makes it easy to avoid stillness — and the uncomfortable emotions that surface when there’s nothing left to distract us. Ryan uses the invention of electric light as a metaphor for how we’ve learned to escape the “dark,” both literally and within ourselves, where fear, pain, insecurity, and old wounds live. But avoiding those places keeps them unhealed. A guided practice invites you to become still, meet the darkness without resistance, and recognize the growth and life force that can emerge when you’re willing to be present with what you’d rather avoid. Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You didn’t lose your light as you grew up — you learned to protect it. Ryan explores how childhood hurts, rejection, fear, and vulnerability teach us to close off parts of ourselves, building walls that can later block creativity, connection, love, and self-expression. The way back isn’t to become more confident or radiant, but to feel what those defenses were built to avoid. A guided practice follows, inviting you to revisit those old protections, let the wall fall brick by brick, and allow the light that’s been there all along to shine through. Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us decide who deserves our love based on how they act, whether we trust them, or whether they love us back. Ryan challenges that habit with a different idea: love doesn't have to be a response to someone else — it can be the way you choose to move through the world. He explores how judging who is "worthy" of love keeps us contracted, while seeing beyond personality, history, and ego helps us remember our shared humanity. A guided practice follows with the mantras "I am love," "I love," and "I choose love." Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Those on a path of growth tend to be great givers — and terrible receivers. Ryan flips the script: refusing to receive isn't humility, it's denying someone else the joy of giving. You're deserving of receiving simply because of who you are, not what you do or give. A guided practice with the mantra "I am willing to receive" helps open you into that flow, plus a nudge to ask for the support you actually need. Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inspired by a scene from The Madison, Ryan explores why the best thing you can offer someone you love isn't advice — it's your presence. Real support means trading "here's what you should do" for genuine curiosity and the question "what's true for you?" A practice follows, guiding you to hold the people in your life — and eventually the whole world — in that same spacious, non-judging support. Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While filming in the Himalayas with a living saint, Ryan's heart began pounding uncontrollably at the sight of an unfamiliar village — moments before being told, "You lived here." Ryan shares this personal past-life experience not to convince anyone of past lives, but as a reminder of how easily we forget the divine amid life's practicalities. Includes a guided practice for welcoming in the universe's miracles and reconnecting with the moments that once shook you awake. Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Underneath every fear — money, relationships, health, purpose — is one root fear: the fear of death, born from believing you are your body. Ryan unpacks the idea that you're the energy driving the vehicle, not the vehicle itself, and shares the teaching "die before you die" — letting the belief in a separate, limited self fall away now, rather than waiting for your final moment. Closes with a practice built around the mantra "I am loving awareness." Tell Ryan about yourself! https://wakingupwithryan.com/hello Follow on Substack (@WakingUpWithRyan) You can follow Ryan on Instagram (@wakingupwithryan), YouTube (@wakingupwithryanpod), or visit wakingupwithryan.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.