169 Gay Pride, Mindfulness and Bullying Talk With Dear Mattie Host, Matt Marr

Matt Marr has a unique way of helping people with their problems and he uses his love of talking and his degree in Clinical Psychology to make a huge impact through his popular podcast, The Dear Mattie Show. Referred to by some, as the Gay White Oprah, Matt loves to empower his listeners and clients in ways they never dreamed of. As a Narrative therapist, Matt believes that our lives can be seen through a story metaphor with characters of Fear, Hope, Depression, and Addiction, all contributing to our narrative. Matt combines humor, therapy, heart, helpful advice and a guest host every week in a genuine effort to help people, but at the same time garner some smiles. If Oprah and Ellen had a baby on Dolly Parton's front porch, that's the Dear Mattie Show.

Contact Info

• Website: www.DearMattieShow.com
• Podcast: www.DearMattieShow.com
• Social Media: TheMattMarr

Most Influential Person

• Jessica Weissbuch - My friend who started Brave Trails with me. We would do mindfulness exercises in a group and she would start with the group every time and that would center us. She would focus on our breathing or filling our butts in the chair and that was quick and easy for me.

Effect on Emotions

• I think mindfulness has affected my emotions in that it has allowed my emotions to be what they truly are instead of what my fear or doubt or my shame almost mixed them up to be. They present as if they truly are into the soul of who I am instead of what kind of gets mixed up in fear and societal norms and things like that.

Thoughts on Breathing

• I'm lucky to be a trained singer because at age 13 you would have heard me talking about diaphragmatic breathing, what it is to take a good breath. If I'm having massage, or acupuncture, or a needle, I always just connect my breath. When I'm having pain, having joy, whatever it is. I was very lucky to learn that skill very young in life.

[show-notes-breathing]

Suggested Resources

• Book: Read a chapter of a book that gave you joy as a child such as Nancy Drew or a comic book.
• App: Spotify - There's one meditational singer I love named Girish who has a channel on Spotify. See www.GirishMusic.com

Advice for Newbie

Let perfection go away. Just get that out of your mind, because for me I felt like I needed to be always the straight A, perfect student. If I'm meditating I've gotta have pillows etc. No. Imperfect moments are great. One of the best places I think to cultivate meditation honestly is on the toilet, especially for a lot of my listeners. A lot of my listeners are women and they're moms and they don't have a lot of time and sometimes the bathroom is the only time that they have five minutes away from their kids. I don't think it's good to sit on the toilet for too long, cause you'll get hemorrhoids, but still, I always say, you have to go to the bathroom, so just sit and breathe deeply for two minutes and just notice the air hitting your skin. I've said that to people and they've said, 'wow, just that one little technique has totally changed the way I deal with my children'.