What is a Good Life? #129
Conversing With God with Neale Donald Walsch
On the 129th episode of the What is a Good Life? podcast, I’m delighted to welcome our guest, Neale Donald Walsch. Neale has written 40 books on contemporary spirituality and its practical application in everyday life, including his new book GodTalk: Experiences of Humanity’s Connections with a Higher Power. Neale is the bestselling author of the Conversations with God series, of which seven of the nine books made the New York Times bestseller list. Book One remained on that list for 134 weeks. His titles have been translated into 37 languages and have been read by millions of people around the world.
In this conversation, Neale discusses his journey in exploring humanity’s relationship with God, emphasising that neither God nor love is transactional. He also shares the experiences that led to his first bestselling book and the life mission that emerged from those dialogues.
This conversation invites us to engage with life in a way that contrasts with many cultural norms—by embracing love, deep understanding, and meaningful connection with others.
The weekly clip from the podcast (4 mins), my weekly reflection (3 mins), the full podcast (67 mins), and the weekly questions all follow below.
1. Weekly Clip from the Podcast
2. My weekly reflection
“Life informs life, about life, through the process of life itself.”
This conversation was recorded a few weeks back, and when listening to it over the weekend, this line really stood out to me. It's a sentiment—and felt sense of experience—that is becoming more and more apparent.
I’ve been saying for a few years now that my life is essentially governed by two principles: can I pay attention, and can I be myself?
There’s been no plan in place for a little while now—just a deep trust, and a kind of logic to this notion: What could possibly create a better future for me than paying as much attention to what is here now?
Alongside that, it’s about expressing what I sense this particular form of life I am is meant to be. Reducing inner and outer incoherence as much as possible—and acknowledging it whenever that’s not the case.
Not from some grim striving toward mental perfection, but to keep as little filter as possible between myself and life, for life to inform itself further through the process of my experience.
It was the same when I became a father. I didn’t feel the need to read books or make plans—just a deep trust in the nature of life itself, that I could instinctively care for another form of life.
It’s the same in all my relationships, really: can I pay attention to the people around me in the moment? Thinking about it now, that’s probably the main reason I don’t carry a phone with me anymore.
Of course, this doesn’t make life easy.
It makes it incredibly simple in some ways. And in fairness, I suspect I’m lucky in how much contentment I experience.
But it can also be frightening—frightening to my sense of comfort, and to the sense of uncertainty I’ve become very intimate with.
This isn’t some clichéd idea of “getting comfortable with the uncomfortable,” or that every moment is a growth opportunity.
We often associate “flowing with life” with ease. But whether you think of yourself as living life, or life as living you, growth or evolution will be part of it. Birth and death, too.
Much like relationships: whether you pay them attention or not, some friction, rupture, and repair seem inevitable if there’s to be any depth, intimacy or growth.
Whatever I might consider this life force to be—whatever nature it is I assume I’m aligning with—it’s always moving.
We might point to certain life moments when we really listened, felt deep trust, or heeded some call. But the truth is: it’s a daily interaction.
Bold moves, when necessary, are great—especially if they leave us more in alignment with ourselves. But it’s not as though this energy then switches off and says, “You’re done.” It seems to be a constant becoming. A natural inclination toward perpetual growth—with its own seasons, of course. I’m not suggesting some linear or demanding sense of growth or change.
In a recent conversation with a former guest of the podcast—someone who’s been on this path a long time and who sees us as living a very similar life—he admitted he’d been hiding a bit from what life was asking of him. Hiding from the significance of what his particular life force was experiencing.
I don’t know about you, but when I say I’m unsure what to do next, often I’ve already been visited by several images or ideas that feel like too big a leap. Or perhaps I suggest to myself that I just need to rest.
More and more, I suspect we’re being asked to trust those calls. That the only thing holding us back is being caught between two stools: trust and doubt.
That life never asks too much of us. That the same intelligence that creates a baby without our thinking minds won’t let us burn out. It’s our resistance—our conditioning, our fear—that drains us. Not life itself.
The absence of plans, the letting go of certainty—these are no small things. Especially when there’s no utopian vision of what a “flow state” actually looks like in real life. You will remain human with all the glorious messiness and misunderstandings that can entail.
But when I’m living this way, nothing feels more alive. Like I couldn’t imagine asking for a fuller experience of aliveness. Honestly, any more would frighten the bejaysus out of me!
And while the waters at the surface of my ocean may be choppy at times, there is also a deep stillness. A sense of belonging. A sense of home within whatever this fragment of life was meant to be.
It has me thinking of what life may be asking of me now, and as I listen, it seems rather clear. I can understand why I sometimes resist, but more and more, I am seeing it as a welcome invitation to collaborate. With a wiser partner than I, ushering me along a path I was born to walk.
What about you, what do you hear?
3. Full Episode - Conversing With God with Neale Donald Walsch - What is a Good Life? #129
4. This week’s Questions
What is life asking or informing you of now?
Have you ever experienced a clear sense of communication with God, a higher power, or life itself—however you define it?
About Me
I am a coach, podcast host, and writer, based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. I started this project in 2021, for which I’ve now interviewed nearly 300 people. I’m not looking to prescribe universal answers, more that the guests’ lines of inquiry, musings, experiences, and curiosities spark your own inquiry into what the question means to you. I am also trying to share more genuine expressions of the human experience and more meaningful conversations.
If you’re interested in exploring your own self-inquiry through one-on-one coaching, my 5-week group courses, or fostering greater trust, communication, and connection within your leadership teams, feel free to contact me via email or LinkedIn.