Mindfulness Hidden in Plain Sight: Kira Higgs on Spiritual Longing, Presence, and Everyday Awakening

In this deeply personal and wide ranging conversation, Clayton sits down with Kira Higgs, author of Winnowing: A Memoir of Spiritual Longing in Secular Life. What began as a practical business book became something far more honest and alive: a memoir of the small, cumulative interior shifts that unfold quietly through a life of sustained mindfulness and intentional self awareness.

Kira shares the origin story of Winnowing and why she abandoned the business book on day two to write something truer. The conversation explores why stories carry something that instructions simply cannot, and what that means for how we learn, grow, and stay present in our own lives. Kira opens up about how a 30 day meditation experiment became a transformative daily mindfulness practice, and how that inner work created a surprising halo effect inside her professional consulting and leadership work, shifting entire teams into greater presence and flow without a single mention of meditation.

Clayton and Kira also explore the connection between mindfulness and athletic performance, looking at what happens when athletes release ego, stop performing for others, and return to the pure joy of their sport. Kira shares her own powerful experience of this on the squash court, a quiet, intimate shift into flow state that she describes as one of the most genuinely mindful experiences of her life.

The episode moves into profound territory as Kira describes her journey to be with her estranged father during his final weeks, and the unexpected grace that came from arriving with a clean slate, setting aside old grievances to simply be present. She also shares her practice of reading to the newly departed, a contemplative and spiritually aware act of compassionate presence that bridges the space between this life and what comes next.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt that quiet inner flame of spiritual curiosity but struggled to find the language or the courage to follow it. Kira offers a rare and honest look at what it means to pursue spiritual longing inside a secular life, not on a mountaintop or a meditation retreat, but woven into careers, relationships, losses, and ordinary mornings.

Keywords and topics include mindfulness in everyday life, meditation practice, staying present, spiritual memoir, self-awareness, inner growth, mindful leadership, flow state, intuition, grief and presence, mindfulness and athletics, contemplative practice, conscious living, spiritual longing, and personal transformation.

About Kira Higgs: Award-winning communication strategist, structural consultant, and author. https://kirahiggs.com/

Pick up your copy of Winnowing at https://www.amazon.com/Winnowing-Memoir-Spiritual-Longing-Secular-ebook/dp/B0GP695SZ9