What is a Good Life? #163 - Listening To The Mighty Heart with Dr Scilla Elworthy

Feb 24, 2026

Dr Scilla Elworthy, three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and peacebuilder, who founded Oxford Research Group and Peace Direct. She talks about why the heart always tells the truth. She explains using heart rhythm and meditation to stay present. She recounts meditators supporting diplomacy and the growth of The Mighty Heart program.

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ADVICE

Make Quiet Time To Hear Your Heart

Set aside quiet time and practice meditation to calm the mind so the heart's voice can be heard when making important decisions.
Elworthy regrets not learning this earlier and recommends cultivating the quietness the heart needs to speak.

ADVICE

Use Heart Rhythm As A Presence Check

Use the rhythm of your heart as a practical presence check: place your hand on your chest and breathe to regain calm and focus.
Elworthy describes how syncing with heart rhythm stabilizes physical actions like climbing and sharpens presence.

ANECDOTE

Meditators Holding Space Beneath Diplomats

Scilla had meditators quietly sit beneath a sensitive diplomatic meeting to ‘hold the space’ without hearing the content.
An American participant, amazed by the meeting's tone, was later introduced briefly to one meditator.

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Dr Scilla Elworthy is a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics from 1983-2003. She founded Peace Direct in 2002 to fund, promote and learn from local peace-builders in conflict areas, was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003, the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2020, the GOI Peace Award in 2023. Her TED talk on nonviolence has been viewed by over 1,500,000 people. She founded The Business Plan for Peace to help prevent destructive conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world, based on her latest books - The Business Plan for Peace: Building a World Without War (2017), The Mighty Heart: how to transform conflict (2020), and The Mighty Heart in Action (2022).

In this wonderful conversation, Scilla and Mark explore why the heart is the one faculty that will always tell you the truth, how learning to listen to it transformed her work with diplomats and military leaders, and why she believes the world is entering an era of profound change led by those willing to lead from the inside out.

This is a conversation for people who sense there's a deeper way to live but haven't yet learned to trust it.

For more from Dr Scilla Elworthy's work:
Oxford Research Group: http://oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/
Peace Direct: https://www.peacedirect.org/
The Mighty Heart: https://mightyheart.co.uk/

For more from Mark McCartney:
Newsletter: https://www.whatisagood.life/
Website: https://www.mmcleadership.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mccartney-14b0161b4/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whatisagoodlife
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markcmccartney

00:00 – Introduction
02:06 – Why the Heart Doesn't Lie
07:07 – The Rhythm of Your Heart
10:46 – Learning to Meditate Deeply
15:02 – Meditators Beneath the Diplomats
21:04 – Inner Intelligence in Others
27:51 – Who Am I, Really?
33:45 – Nourishing a Hurting Heart
42:52 – The Mighty Heart Program
46:39 – What Is a Good Life?