Regina Leffers, Ph.D. is the retired Director of the Center of Excellence for the Built Environment, and Professor of Sustainable Construction for the College of Engineering at Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her undergraduate degrees are in Psychology and Philosophy, and her doctoral degree is in Philosophy from Purdue University. She teaches classes on consciousness and meditation and has practiced meditation since 1980. She is the author of: Sustainable Construction and Design (Pearson 2009), I Am A Miracle Magnet: (In Ten Easy Steps) (CreateSpace 2016), The Green Age: Transforming Your Life Choices for the 21st Century (Green Age Press 2011), What Is Consciousness (Regina Leffers 2019), Rethinking the Heart of Being Human (CreateSpace 2013), My Darling: Memoirs of a Buddha Girl (Regina Leffers 2023) and This Is Consciousness (Regina Leffers 2025)

Interview Date: 12/5/2025

Tags: Regina Leffers, consciousness, facets of consciousness, Spiral Dynamics, love and fear, gratitude practice, meditation, alpha brainwave, beta brainwaves, heart coherence, body awareness, embodiment, vagus nerve, nervous system regulation, fear to love, expanded awareness, interbeing / oneness, nature as teacher, redwood grove / big nature, personal altar of gratitude spiritual growth, self-development, unconscious patterns, emotional regulation, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Science

The RAIN Process (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) reminds us to pause and reconnect with a wise and compassionate presence allowing us to align our lives with our hearts. It can assist us when we get lost in unconscious, mental, emotional reactivity, fear, and are living on “autopilot.” RAIN is a healing process available to us that opens us to our inner radiance. Tara Brach, PhD, is an internationally known teacher of mindfulness, meditation, emotional healing, and spiritual awakening. each month. Tara is the senior teacher and founder of Insight Meditation Center of Washington, DC. and she produces a weekly podcast. She is the author of many books including Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your world with the Practice of RAIN (Viking 2019), Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (Bantam 2004) and True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart (Bantam 2016)

Interview Date: 1/24/2020 Tags: MP3, Tara Brach, RAIN process, Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture, mindfulness, compassion, fear, shame, anger, somatic, allowing, Viktor Frankl, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, failure, difficult emotions, vulnerability, Alice Walker, Babemba tribe of South Africa, kindness, attention changes our brain, BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits, Personal Transformation, Meditation

Mary Mackey, Ph.D. is a novelist, screenwriter, and poet. She is Professor Emeritus of English and former Writer-in-Residence at California State University, Sacramento. During her twenties she lived in the rain forests of Costa Rica. Recently she’s been traveling to Brazil incorporating her experiences in the tropical rainforests into her fiction and poetry. Her historical novels include Earthsong Series - covering the lives of the people of Neolithic Europe and Immersion (iUniverse 2013), Her books of poetry include Travelers with No Ticket Home (Marsh Hawk Press 2014), Sugar Zone, winner of the 2012 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence, Breaking The Fever (Marsh Hawk Press 2006), The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams: New and Selected Poems 1974 through 2018 (winner of Eric Hoffer Book Award 2019).

Interview Date: 11/27/2019 Tags: Mary Mackey, poetry, adventure, rain forest, army ants, jungle, rural Kentucky, regional microknowledge, ecosystem, Gees Bend quilts, Portuguese, ancestral quilts, fevered dreams, Earthsong Series of novels, Elizabeth Bishop, Art & Creativity, Women’s Studies, writing, Ecology/Nature/Environment