In this video I answer the question some people have about why it is not sufficient or appropriate to have our friends, spouse or community members as accompaniment in our interior journey.

In an earlier video I talked about how self-knowledge and community requires us to grow in solitude. However, we also cannot grow in genuine solitude all on our own! In this video I explain why that is and why we need the right people to facilitate our inner journey to…

We often hear of the importance that being part of a community plays in our journey of faith. But an emotionally mature and spiritually healthy community cannot exist without solitude. In fact both community and self-knowledge requires solitude.

When we are troubled, we long for reprieve. But do we only pray to escape our messy reality? Or can prayer become a means for us to become more present to God's loving presence with us in the midst of our reality?

What are the four layers of self-knowledge? How are they relevant to our interior journey into authenticity and wholeness? This video elaborates on the post I made on my Instagram (@animann) and Facebook (@integroformation) accounts.

There's a certain point in our spiritual journey where Self-Knowledge becomes especially critical for us to continue making progress towards union with God. In this video I share what the point is and why it is so.

If self-love is important in deepening our relationship with God, then what about self-denial? Are the two compatible? In this video I share how self-denial that comes from a place of scarcity and insecurity is not truly loving, and that we need to be patient in our interior journey because…

How can we love what we do not know? Or really come to know what we do not love? When it comes to relationship, knowing and loving are intimately connected. So it matters for us to consider what we mean by "knowing" someone. If you are someone who desires to…

This video explains the nature the online course A Leader's Spirituality which I teach. It is meant to help those considering taking the course to make an informed discernment as to whether this offering fits what they need and are searching for.

Good leadership is usually associated with confidence, ability, strength and impact. But what about the interior landscape of the leader? More often than not, what we experience on the inside is lack of confidence, vulnerability, doubt, and anxiety over our weaknesses. This tension between our interior reality and the exterior…

What is distinctive about leadership for a lay Catholic, whether we are exercising leadership in our families, at work, or in church communities and ministries? We are called to exercise a leadership that is both temporal (here and now) and eternal, AND we are called to holiness through our lives…

How do we respond when we encounter our shame? Do we try to deny it, deflect it, defend ourselves from it, or could there be a way to face it with faith and hope and thus not be defeated by it? In this video I talk about a Christian response…

While the reasons for committing to healing and wholeness are many, the main reason that drew me into this journey and which keeps me going even when it is challenging is this: I want to be able to LOVE WELL. In other words, I deeply desire to have healthy and…

Who doesn't wish to have clarity and focus in knowing our personal calling? In this video I talk about 3 reasons why even those of us who embark on retreats and a spiritual discernment process can often still struggle to gain clarity about our calling. These are certainly not the…

Do you ever feel like you have to strive harder to deepen your relationship with God yet striving does not seem to bring you greater intimacy with Him? There are times when focused striving helps our interior journey, but our striving can actually be an obstacle when it replaces LISTENING…

In this time of grave international suffering and crisis with the war in Ukraine, the need to pray for the world is greater than ever. Today, 2 March 2022 is also Ash Wednesday, and a day Pope Francis invites all Christians and people of good will to fast and pray…

When we are in performance mode we expect to be assessed, evaluated and we seek to impress. There are times when we need to be in performance mode but what if that's how we approach our whole life? In this Ann Chat I muse about what happens when we don't…

How do we maintain our course towards greater authenticity and integrity when our Church is rocked by scandal? In this video I talk about how important it is to acknowledge and include our emotions in our response instead of denying, repressing, or bypassing them. I also share some tips and…

Have you considered whether the kind of faith formation you are receiving is appropriate for the season and stage of your spiritual journey? One major yet little understood reason why we struggle to grow in our relationship with Christ is because the kind of formation we find or receive does…

Are you stressed during Chinese New Year? Hate the feeling of having to give a "progress report" of your life to relatives who want to know about your marital/family status, work, studies etc? Here are some simple reminders to help keep you calm, grounded and prepared to honour your boundaries…

How can we make our spiritual journey more "doable" when it has so many inherent challenges? How about making it less complicated than it has to be? Here's a suggestion as we enter a new week on how to live our spirituality in a more integrated way: Simplify & Make…

This short video is for those of you who strive to be a "good Christian/Catholic" and are hard on yourselves for never being quite "good enough". Just a gentle reminder that it's all about the relationship with God and that relationships can be messy at times and don't always look…

Many of us who desire to continue to draw closer to God and seek a life of fuller meaning get stuck because the formation and resources we receive do not meet us sufficiently in our PARTICULAR, SPECIFIC realities. There is value in learning about universal and objective truths (i.e. things…

“Genuine epistemic objectivity is the fruit of authentic subjectivity.” - Bernard Lonergan SJ In this IG live recording I offer a philosophical take on why truth cannot be arrived at without subjectivity, and why to LIVE what we believe, we need to take the subjective human experience seriously. This video…