ABOUT

Everyone has the unique ability to change their world and become the person they’ve always dreamt about.

Quite possibly you feel like you aren’t where you want to be in life.

You’re not the happy person you used to be nor do you enjoy anything.
It’s hard to laugh, work, be in a relationship, or be around people.

You move about life the best way you can – one foot in front of the other – one breath at a time – because on any given day there are so many things to deal with. Life becomes overwhelming and it can make you forget to breathe or trip over yourself.

Finding Gratitude in Unusual Places
overwhelm online course

And if that wasn’t enough.

  • You turn on the TV and the news also shows you everything that is wrong with the world, 24/7.
  • Advertising at every turn tells you to do more of this, less of that.
  • You walk down the street and hear unwelcome advice from strangers.
  • The demands of work and family dynamics exceed your ability to “just handle it all”.
  • The cherry on the sundae: social media floods you with alerts telling you what is wrong with the world, sharing flashy ads that hit you with solutions to “overcome” – “fix” – “get rid” of everything!

If anyone tells you or promises you they can help you eliminate, conquer, or overcome all of the world’s troubles Run. (I’d run.)

FREE! Ultimate Anxiety Taming Bundle

Understand, minimize, and tame anxiety to create the life you love and the success you crave.

What you’ll get:

  • Understand that anxiety makes sense
  • Change your relationship with anxiety
  • Take an honest look at the things you do and how they impact anxiety
  • Concrete interventions for times of distress

It’s a tall order to live up to but what I can promise you is this: there are simple ways to live a good life.

 

Ways that can help you live, manage, understand, and minimize the impact of whatever is going on around you so you can be happier, calmer, and enjoy each day even if you encounter stress, overwhelm, or anxiety.

Life happens no matter what pace you walk or run through it – whatever you are trying to avoid will sideline you if you don’t get a handle on it.

And, when that happens, you won’t like it. You’ll move into resistance, close your heart and your energy will just plummet. Anything that gets in the way of what you want will eventually encourage you to shut down.

At that moment, slow down.

Take a deep breath.

Everything you embody at that moment – racing heart, hyperventilation, clenched jaw, adrenaline, nausea, and maybe even a sprint for the lavatory – is the rise of overwhelm and settling in of anxiety that is meant to help you and keep you safe. You just don’t know it yet.

Humans (like animals) are wired for survival and if you didn’t have these responses you probably wouldn’t be here reading this.

The emotions you’re dealing with right now are not your enemy.
It’s meant to address immediate threats.

You’re in good company with
James Scott Henson

This is for you.
This is for a loved one.
This is for your future generation.

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My Background
& Experience

The summation of my career and life thus far includes 20+ years of working with people on habits, goals, mindfulness, communication, and purpose.

My mission is to help you learn, understand, listen, watch and share how you can use my Simple Ways To Have A Good Life to go from where you are now to where you want to with improved happiness and freedom.

Everything I share comes from working with people and helping them simplify and alleviate the toughest parts of being human…

  • Former Licensed Social Worker
  • Licensed Professional Counselor for over a decade
  • Certified Mindfulness and Meditation Instructor
  • Certified Life Coach
  • Certified Business Coach
  • Bachelor’s in Social Work
  • Masters in Sociology
  • Masters in Counseling

My Story

After taking the most unconventional path through life, I finally figured out what the world could use more of and less of to live happily ever after.

Looking back on the past 30+ years, I know I caused a lot of people to suffer and created havoc for many others.

Life and people were confusing. I spent a large part of my life unconscious, didn’t think very much, and didn’t make decisions. I just existed.

I was selfish, stupid and blind, stumbling and flailing through life, I don’t think I was malicious, but I was destructive.

Life got dark pretty quick and remained chaotic for a while.
I used drugs and alcohol. I dropped out of high school. I wrecked my car and got thrown in jail for a while.

It might be funny now, but it was rough at the time.

It took the realization that I was going to die soon to change my ways from existing to living.

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And then we were pregnant.

The first time I held my son, I remember telling him that I was sorry he got screwed in the dad lottery. That was the first time that the idea of making choices to do better popped into my head. It’s sad; such a simple thing took so long to occur to me.

Life was a little comical after this as I tried to do the things I thought a smart person would do. I went to the library, but I ended up just getting books about cryptozoology (Bigfoot and the Mothman and stuff like that). One day, I picked up a book, but it wasn’t there, and in its place was A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking – it sounded cool so I grabbed it and it blew the top of my head off (in a good way).

I got really obsessed with quantum mechanics and physics and things like that, and that led me to a book called The Dancing Wu Li Masters. This was my first encounter with eastern philosophy, so I started reading about Zen Buddhism. Zen is the path that I’ve probably spent the most time studying.

I had no idea how foundational this would all be in my life, but it changed everything.

After I got my masters in Sociology, I had a job interview on the east side of town. As I backed out of my driveway I saw a little boy riding his bike up the street. He had a big black eye.

I don’t know why, but I heard a voice in my head that said “you are supposed to be a counselor”. I literally made a u-turn and drove over to the university near my house. They were interviewing for the new cohort that day, and I had enrolled in a Masters program before I left.

The university ended up hiring me to teach about a month later, and they hired me full-time as a campus mentor a little while after.

Everything just fell into place for me – the story of my life.

I had my counseling office and a successful business for 6 years, but I could tell it was time for a change.

I was doing the dishes one day looking out the window (right where I saw that kid riding his bike) when I heard that same voice in my head telling me that I was going to close everything up and stay home with our daughter when she was born.

I told my wife, we decided that was the plan, and then two months after she was born COVID hit and everything closed down anyway. I was ahead of the game because I had already done what everybody else was trying to figure out how to do in my field – go online.

I mean it when I say that God must recognize that I’m not very bright so the path is always very clear for me.

That’s what led me to where I am now.

I created Simple Ways To Have A Good Life because it’s what I’m supposed to do right now. I wish I had a better answer for that but it’s just the next step in the flow of life. I look at all the suffering and depression that I see in the world, and I want to help people with the things that are within their control.

Simple Ways To Have A Good Life is my way to share my life’s mission which is to teach people anywhere they are in the world, that anxiety doesn’t have to control you and take over your life – you need it to protect you.

Today, I aim to teach and help people who are serious about having a better life, and who are willing to take steps and do simple things to improve their existence.

Everything I create is meant to help you understand, minimize and alleviate the toughest parts of being human. In simple ways.

The freedom to choose what comes next has come from meditation and deep work as a lifestyle rather than a gimmick and I want to share that with you.

My commitment to you.

My Core Values guide me with all decisions, recommendations, selections, and topics I create and talk about.

Compassion

Everything I create or teach aims to be useful and helps bring a noticeable change to their lives.

I care about people and the things that are bringing them harm, whether this is uncomfortable or unpopular to say, I do it so they can be free to make the changes they need.

Authenticity

I’ve seen the effectiveness of what I practice and what I teach. I will always be me and not pretend I have all the solutions. I keep true to the things I believe in, about my struggles, and I admit when I don’t know the answer to something.

Freedom

I talk a lot about “freedom from” things as opposed to the “freedom to do” things.

I believe that freedom is a basic human impulse and none of us want to be tied down by things that are unhealthy to us.

What I share aims to help move people toward greater freedom in their life whether this is financial, emotional, physical, or in their relationships.

Gratitude

I am incredibly grateful to be able to share my work with you and every person who pays any attention to the work I do. It drives me to do more and do better for everyone.

I will often talk about about how we can always be grateful for 4 things:

1 . There is something instead of nothing
2 . This something is stable
3.  We have a conscious to experience this stable something
4.  We get to choose our relationship to that consciousness.

Integrity

Anything I have to say or offer is worthwhile and rooted in effectiveness. It also means I will not advocate for or encourage people toward things that are not going to be helpful to them, no matter how popular these things may be right now.

I practice what I preach. I don’t talk about or do anything that I don’t do myself, and I do my best not to speak on things that I don’t know anything about.

Curiosity

I am always looking for new things to share with people and there’s nothing they can do to make me judge or dislike them.

When somebody tells me something about their struggles or about things they’ve done they are not proud of, I am more interested in why they did what they did and aim to find a better way to do it – without judging them.

Optimism

My belief in people and my belief that the world is getting better and better and we can all be a part of that.

I do not know why anybody would want to take a class from somebody who doesn’t think you can accomplish the thing the class tries to teach you.

Responsibility

I take ownership of the things I do and take responsibility for my choices. My expectation is that other people do the same.

You are wasting your time trying to change something you do not have responsibility for.

Spending time with my happily ever after.

 

I do live a magical life these days….

I am grateful to be alive and able to celebrate the hard fights I’ve won. I’m grateful for the people that support me and the people who enjoy spending time with the happy, calm, focused person I’ve become through this journey – thus far.

I live in a small town in Texas, happily married to my wife, and a proud dad to our three children.

… and these are
my books.

Browse my latest works.

living nature

Living Nature: A 30-Day Journal to Help Us Return to Our Roots

30 days of mindfulness

30 Days of Mindfulness:
A Complete Introduction to Mindfulness
as a Practice, a Discipline, and a Lifestyle.

Love to read? Me too! These are some of my favorite books.

Meditations: A New Translation  -Marcus Aurelius, Gregory Hays

Meditations: A New Translation
Marcus Aurelius, Gregory Hays

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Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality
Anthony De Mello

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The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
Brennan Manning

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Siddhartha: A Novel
Hermann Hesse

demian

Demian
Hermann Hesse

Jump in and learn how you can navigate instead and lessen the impact it has on your life.

It’s time for your world to get acquainted and adjusted to one of the toughest parts of being human…

… instead of lying around enduring all the chaos it brings to your life, trying to do more, medicate, start bad habits, tarnish good relationships or hide…