In this end-of-year episode, CJ reflects on the highlights and growth points that shaped his 2025. He speaks openly about “hitting the wall” when chronic pain entered his life, and how choosing to share his struggle created unexpected openings. By practicing presence instead of isolation, CJ found himself in deeper relationship with others.

He describes trying countless approaches to find relief—medications, exercise, physical therapy, breathwork and more. While nothing offered a quick fix, the experience “cracked him wide open,” and deepened his empathy. And it reminded him that living in a physical body brings challenges that aren’t always the result of our thoughts, despite what some New Thought teachings suggest.

Some seasons of life require patience and a long, committed effort. They invite us to stay present, even when the journey feels uncertain.

CJ recommends his interview with Jonathan Schechter on breathwork along with two books that supported him this year: Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening and Amoda Maa’s Embodied Enlightenment. Both writers speak beautifully about meeting life as it is and discovering presence even in discomfort.

Sharing this journey with his students has been one of the most meaningful parts of his year. As CJ says, we are here to walk each other home. Not to fix one another, but to witness each other with tenderness. To show up with presence. To remind each other that we don’t have to navigate the hard moments alone.

As we move into the holiday season, CJ invites you to practice presence with the people in your life. Hold a sense of love in your heart. Allow yourself to slow down, listen, and walk beside those you care about. We are Spirit expressed in physical form, and our presence is often the greatest gift we can offer.

He closes with an exciting announcement: beginning January 4, he will launch an online Daily Doodle Contest. Each day he will read a parable from his new book Spiritual Parable as a Daily Practice. Listeners are invited to submit drawings inspired by each story, and selected pieces will be included in a published coloring book next year.

Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

Dallas-based painter Matt Kaplinsky captures the spirit of place through a warm, folksy impressionism that blends nature, memory, and imagination. A self-taught artist inspired by Matisse, Van Gogh, and Bonnard, Matt paints with curiosity and flow—allowing each brushstroke to reveal where Creative Intelligence wants to go next.

In this conversation, Matt and CJ explore how the path of least resistance guides both art and life. Matt shares how his work continually “veers off,” and instead of fighting it, he listens to the subtle energies leading him downstream. From vivid cowboy scenes to delicate garden still lifes, each painting becomes a dialogue between effort and surrender.

Together, they discuss how art acts as a lens—not transparent like glasses, but a spiritual way of seeing. Through that lens, we glimpse a shared universe, where making and viewing art allows us to perceive more than the surface of things.

Matt reminds us: the best paintings happen when we stop forcing the outcome and simply flow with what is.

“If you’re alive and you can take in art, for a moment your brain is looking through the lens of the artist and glancing into a different sense of our shared reality.”

Learn more about Matt at www.mattkaplinsky.com and find him on Instagram @mattkaplinsky.

Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.

Today’s guest is Tina Jacobson, a lifelong artist and spiritual explorer from Australia whose creative journey weaves art, intuition, and healing. Raised on an animal-filled farm by creative parents, Tina has spent her life immersed in design, murals, and illustration. Her coloring books, including The Colorful Life Colouring Book, invite readers to reconnect with creativity as a gentle, spiritual practice rather than a task to complete.

Through years of self-discovery, Tina learned that healing begins by watching the mind. Once trapped in cycles of self-criticism and dark thoughts, she discovered that thoughts aren’t truth—they’re passing waves. Influenced by teachers like Michael Singer and Byron Katie, Tina began observing her thoughts instead of believing them, noticing how they affected her body. She reminds us, if you can bring that fear back to your body and feel at ease, you can’t change anything—but when you’re in your body, you’re closer to your intuition, and it will give you ideas on what to do. Fix yourself, heal the world. Use your body to bring dark thoughts to light.

Our conversation explores how coloring, movement, and awareness of the body can return us to presence and Creative Intelligence. Tina reminds us that love doesn’t mind when things fall apart—it simply observes. When we witness our thoughts without judgment, they lose their grip, and creativity becomes a path to freedom.

For more information, visit www.spiritualartisttoday.com.
CJ Miller’s books, The Spiritual Artist and Spiritual Parable as a Daily Practice, are available on Amazon.

You can follow Tina Jacobson on Instagram at: tinaacobsonart

Purchase Tina’s book here: https://www.winterandmann.com.au/product/tina-jacobson-colourful-life/

Tina’s new surf book is available here: https://www.stunno.com.au/

Want to learn more about CJ Miller? Check out his Spiritual Artist Retreats, 1:1 Personal Coaching, and Speaking Engagements at www.spiritualartisttoday.com. His retreats are designed to help you reconnect with your Creative Intelligence and express your true artistic voice. You can also find his upcoming schedule there, and his book, The Spiritual Artist, is available on Amazon.