eloquent

“Distracted from distraction by distraction”

Look around: we’re in an inescapable loop of distraction.  

How do we liberate ourselves from this endless cycle? 

Borrowing from the great poet TS Eliot, this episode offers some advice. 

I hope that it’s helpful! 

Check out my sister channel Finneran’s Wake for profound, long-form conversations. 

Like, subscribe, and share with friends!

“As I in hoary winter night stood shivering in the snow, 

Surprised was I with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;

And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near

A Pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear.” 

Robert Southwell

I hope that you enjoy this bite-sized Pneuma Nugget! 

Please consider sharing this episode with a friend and subscribing to this channel for more sleep stories, meditations, and soothing content! 

Visit my YouTube page @pneumabydanielfinneran. 

Email me at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com

Instagram: @danielethanfinneran

X: @DanielEFinneran

“A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it”. 

- George Moore 

I hope that you enjoy this bite-sized Pneuma Nugget! 

Please consider sharing this episode with a friend and subscribing to the channel for more sleep stories, meditations, and soothing content! 

Visit my YouTube page @pneumabydanielfinneran. 

Email me at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com

Instagram: @danielethanfinneran

X: @DanielEFinneran

And visit my sister project on YouTube/Podcast platforms, @finneranswake, where you’ll find endless great conversations.

“We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others…” 

Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, inventor, and philosopher, came to this realization about humankind in the 17th century. 

It remains as true today as it was back then. 

In this episode, we discuss living an “imaginary life” in the mind of others, as opposed to embracing our real existence in the pursuit of truth. 

I hope that you enjoy this meditation! 

Please consider subscribing to this channel for more sleep stories, meditations, and soothing content! 

Visit my YouTube page @pneumabydanielfinneran. 

Email me at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com

Instagram: @danielethanfinneran

X: @DanielEFinneran

And visit my sister project, @finneranswake, where you’ll find endless great conversations.

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) was a Polish-English novelist. 

He was born in 1857 and died in 1924. 

His twenty years spent as a sailor in the British merchant navy inspired many of his literary works, among which Heart of Darkness is most highly acclaimed. 

In this episode of “Fall Asleep with Me”, I read this work’s opening scene. It takes place on the tranquil waters of the River Thames. 

Please consider subscribing to this channel for more sleep stories, meditations, and soothing content! 

Visit my YouTube page @pneumabydanielfinneran. 

Email me at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com

And visit my sister project, @finneranswake, where you’ll find endless great conversations.

Sweet dreams! 

“How interesting (it is) to trace the history of a single raindrop!” 

In this guided meditation, we’ll join the American outdoorsman, conservationist, and writer John Muir as we contemplate the dramatic life story of a single raindrop. 

Muir was a man of extraordinary depth. 

In this episode, we’ll accompany him to lofty poetic heights–high, in fact, as the craggy summits atop which he made his home–before following him and his raindrop down to the oceans, rivers, puddles, and flower cups in which they came to rest.

I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing I enjoy better than watching the rain fall. It’s a divine spectacle of nature, a beautiful production of sound and movement than which there’s simply none more wondrous in all the world.  

Hopefully this mediation enhances what is, quite without my meager contribution, a transcendent experience.  

If I succeed, please give this episode a “thumbs-up” or a “five-star” rating. 

Share it with friends, colleagues, and loved ones. 

Return to it any time you’re stuck inside on a rainy day. 

And subscribe to this channel! 

You can now watch this episode on my YouTube channel. Just search, “Pneuma by Daniel Finneran” and immerse yourself in the stunning images. 

With affection,

Daniel

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 - 1965) was an Anglo-American poet. 

A devout Christian, Eliot was an important figure in the Modernist movement that sprang to life in the first quarter of the 20th century.

"Four Quartets", a uniquely sublime work by which all his other poems are eclipsed, addresses the theme of time. 

It's a theme on which, as you doubtless know, so many of our meditations here on Pneuma are based. 

I think that you'll enjoy it. 

Subscribe, like, leave a five-star rating, and share this with friends. Send me poem recommendations at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com

Thank you! 

Daniel

Time Stamps: 

0:00 - Burnt Norton

11:35 - East Coker

29:52 - The Dry Salvages

46:45 - Little Gidding

Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take

Toward the door we never opened

Into the rose-garden.

This is an excerpt from the first poem of TS Eliot’s masterpiece, “Four Quartets”. 

It is, in my opinion, the most memorable part of “Burnt Norton”.

In this episode, we’re going to meditate on the theme that Eliot presents: Regret. 

Be sure to listen to my prior episode about remorse. 

What is the one thing you regret most? 

If you care to divulge, send me an email at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com or comment below. 

Be sure to visit my sister project, @finneranswake on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. I think you’ll really enjoy it; Finneran’s Wake is where I have deep, probing, provocative conversations with a multitude of extraordinary people from all walks of life. 

-Daniel

“Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of life.”

In Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 masterpiece, “Jane Eyre”, Mr. Rochester issues this stark warning to young Jane, the novel’s titular character and heroine. 

In this episode, we’ll focus on remorse, contrast it with regret, and implement techniques to relieve us of its heavy burden. 

I ask you, dear friend and listener, which of the two do you think is worse: 

Remorse? Or regret? 

Share your thoughts in the comments section below, or send me an email at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com 

If you do, I’ll dedicate an entire episode to your thoughts. 

Be sure to visit my sister project, @finneranswake on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. I think you’ll really enjoy it; Finneran's Wake is where I have deep, probing, provocative conversations with a multitude of extraordinary people from all walks of life. 

-Daniel

Join me for an Alternate Nostril Breathing Session! 

This simple breathing technique, to which I commit a few minutes every single day, is deceptively powerful. 

Not only does it invigorate me with fresh oxygen and vital energy, but it helps to balance my body–the left side with the right. 

This episode is a simple tutorial to which anyone can follow along. 

If you like this content, be sure to subscribe to the channel! 

If you really want to stimulate your mind, check out my sister channel, @finneranswake, on which I hold conversations with a variety of interesting guests. 

George Eliot (the manly nom de plume behind which Mary Ann Evans cloaked her true identity) was an English novelist. 

She lived between 1819-1880.

Her most famous work, “Middlemarch” is also one of the finest in the English language. 

In this episode of “Fall Asleep With Me”, I read one of my favorite scenes: that in which Will Ladislaw and Dorothea Casaubon (finally) express their love—in word and deed. 

Please consider subscribing to this channel for more sleep stories and soothing content! 

Thank you. 

What if you had to live your life not only once, but innumerable times over? 

Would this be a blessing? A curse? 

Would you delight in the opportunity to live it again? 

Or, if you haven't lived such a good life thus far, would you bewail the prospect? 

In his work, "The Gay Science", Friedrich Nietzsche explores this idea. He does so through his doctrine of "Eternal Recurrence", of which the Pre-Socratic philosopher, Heraclitus, is acknowledged to have been the originator. 

In this meditation, we take up the doctrine of Eternal Recurrence and think about it deeply. 

Please send your comments to pneuma.finneran@gmail.com

With affection,
Daniel

The concept of the Unimaginable “I” is one to which, so far as I can tell, the Czech-French writer, Milan Kundera, is chiefly responsible for having given life. 

Kundera, twice expelled from the Czech Communist Party (of which he was, in his youth, a devout member) published a book in 1984 entitled The Unbearable Lightness of Being, about which I talk, at some length, on my sister channel, Finneran’s Wake (Check it out on Podcast/YouTube!) 

In the book, Kundera contemplates the idea of the Unimaginable “I”, to which today’s episode is dedicated. 

If you find this content different and stimulating, enlightening and soothing, do consider giving it a “thumbs-up” or a five-star rating. Be sure to share it with friends and family and subscribe to this channel. 

With affection,

Daniel

To breathe deeply into the abdomen with the diaphragm–that’s precisely the way in which Nature intended us to breathe! 

And yet…

We’ve unlearned this simple technique (for which a remedial lesson is urgently needed!)

Together, let’s relearn how to breathe properly. 

Follow along, and–within a few minutes’ time–you’ll significantly improve the quality of each breath. You’ll lower your stress, improve the structure of your palate and face, and appear much more confident and refined. 

Be sure to subscribe to this channel and share it with a friend and a family member. 

Check out my other channel, Finneran’s Wake, on which I conduct long-form conversations with an amazing cast of guests. 

With affection,
Daniel

Since its inception in Autumn of 2022, Pneuma has accumulated 50,000 downloads (almost exclusively on Spotify)!

I just want to take this opportunity to THANK everyone for supporting this channel and for helping our community grow. Behind every number is a person, a deeply complex and unique human being, to whom I extend my sincerest gratitude. 

It’s my goal for Pneuma to become the FIRST (and perhaps only!) place you visit when in need of a soothing voice and a thoughtful word. 

A soothing voice and a thoughtful word: To you, dear friend and listener, I’ll never fail to deliver these things. 

Affectionately yours,

Daniel

Are you ready? 

Here’s the secret: 

Gaining mastery over your emotions is as simple as replacing one word with another. 

When angry, do you say: “I am angry”? 

Try this: the next time that you’re visited by the emotion of anger, simply substitute the word “feel” for “am”. 

“I feel angry” is much different from “I am angry”. 

Feelings are fleeting. They are visitors to which you can either open or close your door. Being is a bit more permanent. 

Once you perceive your emotions as visitors, you can gain control over their coming and going. 

I hope this meditation is helpful! 

If so, please subscribe to this channel and share this episode with an (overly emotional!) friend.

Be sure to check out my other channel, Finneran’s Wake, on which I host profoundly insightful and endlessly edifying conversations. 

With affection,
Daniel

Through winter-time we call on spring,

And through the spring on summer call,

And when abounding hedges ring

Declare that winter’s best of all…

–WB Yeats

Is it not the case that we’re incessantly looking ahead to the future? 

That we very seldom stop and appreciate the season in which we’re living? 

That we live not in the present moment, in the sacred “here and now”, but in the distant times and places to which our hopes and fears drag us?  

No more! 

In this episode, we’ll discuss how to live in the “here and now”! 

Borrowing from the wisdom of the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats and the American Transcendentalist, Henry David Thoreau, we’ll learn how to “live in each season as it passes”. 

We’ll learn how to be fully present and immersed in the Now. 

Tell me: Do YOU live in each season as it passes? Or are you constantly yearning for a cooler, or warmer, or more festive time of year? 

Respond in the comments section below! 

Be sure to “like” this episode and share it with a friend and family member. 

Subscribe to my channel for new material!

In a previous episode, we meditated over a question than which, in my opinion, there simply is none bigger, more profound, nor more important: 

“TO BE, OR NOT TO BE”. 

(Or, in other words: to keep on living, or to give up and die).

This is the famously quotable line with which Act III of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” opens. 

Hamlet, the troubled Prince of Denmark does what he does best: he dithers. I suppose, ultimately, he decides NOT to be (a decision for which nearly everyone close to him suffers). 

In “Paradise Lost”, the great epic written by John Milton, an unlikely proponent of the “TO BE” position, Belial (one of Satan’s fellow demons!) comes forth and answers Hamlet. 

He says, in short: 

“To be no more; sad cure; for who would lose, 

Though full of pain, this intellectual being”? 

Join in this fascinating meditation as we explore a devil’s “pro-life” response to Shakespeare’s Hamlet! 

Become a part of the Pneuma family (16 members strong!) by subscribing to this channel. “Like” this episode, give it a good rating, and share it with a loved one. 

Leave me a note in the comments section below, or send me an email directly at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com

Check out my other project @finneranswake, available on YouTube and Podcast streaming services. 

May you enjoy tranquility and bliss! 

zzzzZZZZzzzz

😴😴😴

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to this episode of “Fall Asleep With Me”.

In this series, I read classic bedtime stories to which you can (and most assuredly WILL) fall asleep. 

Tonight’s episode is a sleepy, dream-inducing reading of “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak. 

For what it’s worth…

I’m not so sure the mischievous, misbehaving, wolf-boy Max is totally deserving of the hot supper (served to him in his bedroom, mind you!) to which he returns, but it’s a fantastic story regardless. 

I think you'll enjoy it. 

Tell me in the comments below: should Max have returned home to his hot supper? Should he have gone to bed hungry? Should he have stayed with the Wild Things? 

Please subscribe to this channel for many more sleepy bedtime stories and soothing meditations to which the whole family can listen along.

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got

Till it’s gone…

The legendary Joni Mitchell (to whom the Counting Crows don’t hold a candle!) said it best: “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”. 

GK Chesterton, the great English essayist, cultural critic, and Christian apologist of the early 20th-century wrote something very similar in his article, “On Being Moved”. In it, he said: “For it is the point of all deprivation that it (deprivation) sharpens the idea of value”. 

The joined and timeless wisdom of Mitchell and Chesterton will be the focus of today's meditation. 

Use it to cultivate a sense of gratitude, to expand your consciousness, to calm your nerves, and to reflect on the objects–be they little or big–that you possess, but seldom appreciate. 

I hope that you enjoy this episode. 

If so, be sure to subscribe to this channel for MUCH more original content to come.  

“Like” this video, share it with a friend and loved one, and comment below.

Send me an email directly at pneuma.finneran@gmail.com

Visit my sister channel, finneranswake (finneranswake.com), on which I host long-form conversations with fascinating people. 

Affectionately yours,

Daniel