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Episode: Working With a Brain That Doesn't Behave | Jeff Warren

Date: November 30, 2025

Overview

This episode focuses on how to meditate and stay grounded when living with a neurodivergent brain, offering practical mindfulness strategies for those who feel their minds are “too messy” for meditation. Meditation teacher and writer Jeff Warren shares his personal story of brain injury, ADHD, and bipolar diagnoses, and unpacks how he turned those challenges into a creative and honest approach to meditation. The episode, hosted by DJ Kashmir, is packed with candid insights, guidance on developing a personal “home base” for mental stability, and lots of humor.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Jeff Warren’s Unlikely Path to Teaching Meditation

• Origin Story (05:18–11:28):

  • Jeff started as a journalist, always interested in consciousness and altered states since childhood.
  • A life-changing accident at age 20 (breaking his neck while on mushrooms) led to a dramatic shift in consciousness.
  • The injury reactivated intense ADHD and eventually led to a bipolar diagnosis.
  • Investigating his altered mind spurred a curiosity about “how to work with” his own unique mental patterns.
  • Quote: “All of a sudden I saw my inner life in a different way because it was operating differently than it used to. And I got really curious what was going on.” (07:44 – Jeff Warren)

• From Journalist to Meditation Teacher:

  • Jeff wrote a book about the neuroscience of consciousness before discovering meditation.
  • Inspired by meeting Buddhist monks at science conferences, he began attending retreats and eventually trained with Shinzen Young, who urged him to start guiding meditations.

On Being a Neurodivergent Teacher

• Jeff’s Teaching Style (12:14–17:28):
  • Reluctance to see himself as a “teacher”:
    • “I’m just some dysfunctional dipshit on this planet earth trying to figure out how to get by.” (12:31 – Jeff Warren)
    • Initially felt unqualified but learned authenticity is his real value.
  • Blending creativity, humor, and neurodivergence into practice:
    • Jeff brings honesty about mental health struggles, inviting others with similar experiences to relate.
    • Emphasizes the "playground of practice," encouraging experimentation and personalizing meditation.
    • He enjoys inventing new meditation metaphors and inroads, treating consciousness itself as a creative medium.
    • Quote: “Consciousness is a creative medium. Tweaks to what you’re paying attention to can change your experience of reality. For me, that is very thrilling.” (14:36 – Jeff Warren)
  • Modernizing Dharma:
    • Focuses on using practice as a tool for showing up creatively and courageously in our challenging times.

The Concept of “Home Base”

• Definition and Purpose (17:28–21:48):

  • “Home base” means finding a stable, comforting focus in meditation—a breath, sound, sensation, or even intention—that you can continually return to.
  • Quote: “Meditation is about learning to become a home to ourselves.” (17:53 – Jeff Warren)
  • Jeff encourages choosing your own home base, creatively exploring what feels grounding to you.
  • Over time, this skill generalizes: meditation teaches you to come back “home” to yourself during regular life, not just on the cushion.

• Layers of Practice:

  • There’s the immediate, sensory focus during formal practice, and the broader life skill of returning to inner stability during chaos.
  • “You can only ever share what's true about your experience... since my experience has been so intense, I’m able to speak to that.” (13:07 – Jeff Warren)

The Role of Equanimity and Trust

• Navigating Difficult Emotions (21:48–26:25):

  • The practice is about regulating, settling, and building resilience — not escaping or “fixing” yourself.
  • Meditation trains you to “come back, come back, come back… to right here. From this place, begin to meet life.” (22:07 – Jeff Warren)
  • DJ Kashmir references the Plum Village motto, “I have arrived. I am home,” noting it’s about reclaiming home within yourself, not in any physical location.
  • Jeff reframes “coming home” as building trust in your capacity to face life — even its hardest aspects — from a centered place.

• Equanimity Isn’t Passivity:

  • Accepting the present moment isn’t resignation or approval of injustice:
    • “It’s equanimity with present moment experience... this exact thin slice of the sensory moment is what’s here.” (26:25 – Jeff Warren)
    • Only from accepting what's here can one respond wisely and actively to life’s challenges.

Jeff Warren’s December Meditations and Approach

• What Listeners Can Expect (27:37–29:46):

  • Jeff is teacher of the month for December; he’ll offer a series of guided meditations reflecting these themes.
  • The meditations explore “home base” in areas ranging from people-pleasing to managing substance influence.
  • Creative components include singing, robot voices, and an invitation to play with different home bases: intentions, values, imagination, or even embodied sensations.
  • Quote: “There’s nothing in human life that can’t be a home base… what you’re paying attention to.” (29:14 – Jeff Warren)

• Humor and Accessibility:

  • Jeff’s meditations are inclusive, creative, and “rangy,” resonating with the spirit of neurodivergence and curiosity.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Jeff on being a meditation teacher:

  • “The reluctance for me was like, what would I possibly have to share... But then you realize that is the thing you have to share.” (12:45)

• On consciousness as a creative playground:

  • “We live inside a creative medium. Consciousness is a minimal to tweaks... For me, that is very thrilling.” (14:36)

• On neurodivergence and authenticity:

  • “I’m able to speak to that and what I’ve done to manage that. That’s partly why I’m so interested in working with neurodivergent folks, because I myself have those differences.” (13:23)

• On “home base”:

  • “Anything can become a home base. And what's important is that it's something that you find you can be settled with, more or less, that you can connect to.” (18:45)

• Equanimity and social action:

  • “It’s not saying... accept that guy’s in office, accept that this is happening. That’s not what they’re saying, they’re saying this exact thin slice of the sensory moment is what’s here... From this place. How do I want to respond?” (26:03–26:25)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Jeff’s Journey to Meditation: 05:18–11:28
• Teaching Style, Authenticity and Neurodivergence: 12:14–17:28
• Concept of Home Base: 17:28–21:48
• Equanimity and Trust: 21:48–26:25
• December Meditations and Playful Practice: 27:37–29:46

Tone & Language

The conversation is candid and self-deprecating, blending humor and vulnerability. Jeff is both irreverent (“crazy flavor”, “dysfunctional dipshit”) and methodical in his explanations, making the episode inviting for skeptics and “fidgety” minds alike.

Summary Takeaway

• If your brain feels “too much” for meditation, you’re in the right place.
• The best meditation “home base” is the one that feels right for you, and it can be anything—breath, sound, sensation, even your wildest intention.
• Accepting what’s real in the present moment is not passivity—it’s the foundation of skillful action.
• Jeff’s creative, neurodivergent approach models a meditation practice as adaptive, experimental, and grounded in lived reality.
• Listeners can explore a range of inclusive, creative guided practices with Jeff throughout December.