Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Want to dive deeper? Check out the full interview with Dr. Lem to learn more about the powerful benefits of nature here: youtu.be/F7FtdXiNffk?si=Cn-hRYv8-SO9jBxd
Spring and summer are here — the perfect time to get outside and soak up the season. 🌞🌿
To inspire you, here’s a short clip from our interview with Dr. Melissa Lem, a physician who literally prescribes nature to her patients, exploring why nature is so good for us.
There are two psychological theories explaining nature's benefits:
🌿 Attention Restoration Theory suggests nature helps our brains recover from the constant overload of city life — traffic, screens, and noise 🚦📱. Nature offers calm, gentle stimulation that restores focus and eases mental fatigue.
🌿 Stress Reduction Theory shows that nature lowers cortisol (your stress hormone), relaxes the body, and boosts your immune system. Even the scent of pine trees or microbes in the soil can help. 🌲🌱
Nature isn’t just a break — it’s medicine. 🍃
Want to dive deeper? Check out the full interview with Dr. Lem to learn more about the powerful benefits of nature here: youtu.be/F7FtdXiNffk?si=Cn-hRYv8-SO9jBxd
Spring and summer are here — the perfect time to get outside and soak up the season. 🌞🌿
To inspire you, here’s a short clip from our interview with Dr. Melissa Lem, a physician who literally prescribes nature to her patients, exploring why nature is so good for us.
There are two psychological theories explaining nature's benefits:
🌿 Attention Restoration Theory suggests nature helps our brains recover from the constant overload of city life — traffic, screens, and noise 🚦📱. Nature offers calm, gentle stimulation that restores focus and eases mental fatigue.
🌿 Stress Reduction Theory shows that nature lowers cortisol (your stress hormone), relaxes the body, and boosts your immune system. Even the scent of pine trees or microbes in the soil can help. 🌲🌱
Nature isn’t just a break — it’s medicine. 🍃






![Bonus Episode - Craig Stanland (Meditation, Suicide, Prison Nicknames, and More…)
Hereby, we would like to introduce you to a brand-new kind of episode on The IPS Podcast: bonus episodes. In these bonus episodes, you get the chance to spend some more quality time with some of our guests as they take over the podcast.
In this first bonus episode, you get to spend some more time with Craig Stanland, a reinvention architect, TEDx speaker, author, and coach who appeared in the previous episode on the podcast which was Episode 028: Life After Prison – Craig Stanland: Losing Everything You Have and How to Start Over.
Show notes and links for this episode can be found at https://theipsproject.com/2021/07/bonus-episode-craig-stanland/
Here is a short bio about Craig so you know a little about his story and why I interviewed him in episode 028 for the podcast:
In 2012, Craig made a decision that would change his whole life. He exploited the warranty policy of one of the world’s largest tech companies for his own financial gain.
Eventually, however, just under a year after Craig began operating his scheme, the FBI came knocking on his door in October 2013.
He was arrested and eventually sentenced to 2 years in federal prison, 3 years of supervised release, and payment of $834,307.00 in restitution.
Living with feelings of shame and guilt of going through this and losing his wife, his house, and his job set Craig on a totally different path in life.
Today, Craig is a reinvention architect, TEDx speaker, author and coach. He recently published his first book, Blank Canvas How I Reinvented Myself, delivered an incredible TEDx Talk titled How I Learned My Greatest Worth in Federal Prison, and is helping countless people live more fulfilling lives through his coaching.
The interview I did with Craig (episode 028) is truly an incredible episode that goes in-depth on the topic of making a mistake, living with shame, how to work through it, and how to forgive yourself.
Therefore, if you enjoy this bonus episode with Craig, you will love the interview.
With that, I will let Craig take over from here. Please enjoy this first bonus episode of the podcast with Craig Stanland.
❓Questions & Timestamps⌚
Intro 00:00
- This question might seem totally out of the blue, but I noticed you had two tattoos on your lower arm. Did you have them before your time in prison? Or did you get them after? What do they mean? [03:32]
- What was something you did not share in your TEDx Talk that you wish you had? [08:31]
- The days can often be more manageable than the nights. Because at night all kinds of thoughts can come to the surface. Knowing you were going to prison, what thoughts often kept you awake? Or what did you do before you went off to bed? [11:10]
- What did your daily routine look like in prison? [13:25]
- Your nickname was Smiley. Why do people in prison give all these nicknames to each other? [17:58]
- What were the prison inmates you met like? What lessons did you learn from them? [19:38]
- Who is Ed? Can you tell us something about him? When did he enter the picture? [25:25]
- From what I gathered you read a lot of books in prison... Which books did you read and which ones helped you the most? [31:24]
- Was it in prison that you tried meditation for the first time? What convinced you to start meditating? And what did it do for you? [36:56]
- Someone listening right now might have suicidal thoughts. With the experience youve had and having worked through these feelings... What could you suggest to them? [38:47]
- How did you rebuild trust again after breaking that of your loved ones like friends and family? [43:21]
- What could you suggest to people who feel like there is no hope in life because of something they went through? [45:08]
End 47:46
Connect with Craig Stanland:
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/craig_stanland/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/cstanland
Blank Canvas: How I Reinvented My Life after Prison
Blank Canvas is a meditation on our remarkable capacity to rebuild and reinvent our lives. Through powerful storytelling, Craig proves that our greatest adversities do not have to be the end. Sometimes, they can be our greatest beginning.
To find out more and order your copy, check out the book on Amazon. https://amzn.to/3pB1e6b
Connect with The IPS Project:
WEBSITE: https://theipsproject.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TheIPSProject
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/the_ips_project Bonus Episode - Craig Stanland (Meditation, Suicide, Prison Nicknames, and More…)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YNdj2_u3g6I/mqdefault.jpg)



