Two colorful koi fish jumping out of a calm river under a starry night sky with the Milky Way visible. The scene is surrounded by trees and power lines, with the text 'The Reality Check Podcast' at the top and 'Awaken to Your Highest Calling' at the bottom.

REALITY CHECK

Discover your divine purpose, heal your soul, and awaken to your highest calling.

Join Zachary Phillips on a journey towards living a more examined life with talks delving into the nature of reality, the search for meaning and the pursuit of happiness.

Listen below or via: iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, & YouTube.
Want to work with me? Book a 1:1 session.

Reality Check Podcast Zachary Phillips Reality Check Podcast Zachary Phillips

How To Respond To Anxiety, Triggers & Dysregulation | Ep 276

This is an informational talk on how to reduce the severity, duration, and impact of panic attacks, triggers, and dysregulation.

We start with the core reminder: you are not in danger, this will pass, and you can support your system back toward steadiness. From there, the talk focuses on combining acceptance with action through practical reframes and body-based strategies, including breathwork, present-moment orientation, progressive muscle relaxation, and movement as a way to discharge stress and restore regulation.

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Can You Love Yourself Whilst Fixing Yourself? | Ep 275

You don’t have to choose between the journey and the destination.

Most self-improvement and inner peace approaches lean hard in one direction, acceptance without growth, or growth without self-love. But real, sustainable, purpose-aligned change needs both.

Inspired by Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), this short talk offers a simple framework for holding acceptance and improvement at the same time.

What if you were able to love yourself whilst fixing yourself?

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The Beauty Of The Sea | Ep 274

'I closed my eyes to the beauty of the sea, shielding the fragile part of my soul that still believed in an untainted moment. As I walked away I couldn't help but feel...'

In this episode share a story of healing and self-acceptance through poetry.

Using the symbolism of water, nature, and floating, I’ll guide you inward, into the parts that learned to brace, shut down, and survive.

You will leave hopeful for your own process of returning back to the self.

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The Vulnerability Of Positivity | Ep 273

I recently returned from a men’s work retreat through the Island of Men: a transformative program designed to help men connect and heal.

I left with two main takeaways.

1: There is a tremendous male loneliness and meaning epidemic. Men feel alone and unsure of what they are doing, why they are doing it, and feel like they have no one to talk it through with.

2: There is vulnerability within positivity and success.

I was asked about my purpose and realized that I was already living it (a journey over destination kind of thing), and I chose to do an improve comedy workshop over the deep introspective darkness exploration and healing that I would usually explore.

Why? Because doing so felt more expansive (scary) than not. I realized I am more than fine to share my pain and shadow, but not my light.

This was revolutionary. I now realise that I need to explore and express all aspects of myself.

Reminder: You are invited to join the December Self-Care challenge in the Art of Self-Connection community. Lets stay sane this festive season!

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NOT My Annual Fuck Christmas Episode… AKA: How To Stay Sane This Festive Season! | Ep 272

Usually around this time of year I talk about the pain that this time of year can bring: extra commitments, financial burden, overwhelm, and forced socialization.

This year I am looking to actually make something positive come from the festive season, so I am inviting you to join in with a self care challenge.

For the month of December, pick one small act of self-care you can do every day to stay grounded and regulated. Something that feels nourishing, simple, and doable.

eg:

  • Music

  • Reading

  • Take a bath

  • Meditation

  • Nature walk

  • Exercise

  • Cup of tea

  • Journaling

Or choose something you’ll cut back on this month to ease the pressure.

When you’ve chosen your practice, join The Art Of Self-Connection Community (it’s free) and share what you will be working on and why.

Lets stay sane this festive season!

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How Language Is Keeping Us From The Divine | Ep 271

Language is flawed, and it keeps us from touching the divine.

Every time we try to communicate, we start with a felt sense (thoughts, emotions, sensations) and we’re forced to translate that into code. Words. Sounds. Symbols. Then we hope the signal survives the noise. That nothing gets lost through misunderstanding, projection, or the limits of whatever medium we’re using…

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How To Live In Harmony | Ep 269

The four principles of how to live in harmony to: move slowly, breathe deeply, and focus broadly, with compassion for all.

In this short talk, I introduce these principles as a gentle form of guidance towards inner peace. When combined and embodied we they help us to begin to connect, both to our true self and to the world and all in it…

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Turning Fight, Flight, Freeze and Fawn into Flow | Ep 268

When faced with extreme and overwhelming situations we do whatever we can to survive. Typically this involves one of four responses: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn.

If this approach to stress works, we survive. Good in the moment, but often that survival comes at a cost. Unless we are able to appropriately process the event, both mentally, spiritually, physically, and socially, we may begin to generalize our fight, flight, freeze, and fawn response into a way to approach all aspects of life.

This is not ideal because these survival mechanisms are not always appropriate for what is arising in the moment. But because it worked in the past, because it kept us alive, we default into using them again and again and again, even when they are now clearly maladaptive and causing more harm than good…

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Fear is Temporary, Regret is Forever | Ep 267

It’s all too easy to let fear stop us from acting when it matters most. Not just in the big, cinematic moments of bravery, but in the small, everyday chances for connection and emotional release. There is a saying that goes, ‘fear is temporary, regret is forever,’ and it rings painfully true.

In this short talk, I share four moments from my past that I regret, offered in the hope that they inspire you to take the actions you need, so you don’t carry unnecessary regrets of your own…

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How To Release Trauma From The Body | Ep 265

Intuitive Guidance is the process I am using to help 100’s of people each week to release trauma from the body. It holds to the premise that the body keeps the score. Simply put, what we don't or can't process (trauma) manifests over time as illness, injury, psychological blocks, and stress. The good news is that by turning our attention to the body, connecting to it, and allowing it to express, it will begin to release trauma from the body…

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The Art Of Manifestation | Ep 264

The art of manifestation gets a bad wrap, tied in the minds of most to questionable woo-woo ideas that seem fanciful at best. But manifestation is real, and the methods it works on are simple and obvious once explained and embraced.

Simply put, we manifest what we focus on because we are primed to find and act on them.

In this episode I share two tracks, the first is a talk titled ‘how manifestation really works’ and the second is a guided meditation called ‘powerful manifestation visualization’.

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Is It Time To Take That Leap Of Faith? | Ep 263

There comes a time when we know we need to act, but nonetheless find ourselves blocked by fear, or inertia, or confusion, or some other unnamable emotion.

It is then when we must take a leap of faith - despite the possibility that we may fail. In this talk I discuss how I have taken a leap of faith and offer guidance on how you can do the same.

If you are struggling to do what you know you must, this one is for you!

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A Gentle Return To Self - Guided Meditation

In today’s session I share with you a guided meditation that weaves together mindfulness, breathwork, healing visualization, and mantra, inviting you to soften, slow down, and reconnect to the self and the moment.

You can follow each cue or simply sit and listen. This space is here for you. Let the words, breath, and stillness meet you as you are.

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