Brave School

Recorded at the end of Summer, Narinder and I discuss our shared experiences growing up in religious fundamentalist communities and how it shaped our perspectives on life. We explore the beauty and romance in everyday living and the importance of calling forth the beauty in this world. Narinder also shares her journey as a death midwife and the role of death midwifery in society. We discuss the concept of forgiving this realm, embracing death as home, and the importance of wonder and unconditional love. Key Takeaways: Embrace the beauty and romance in everyday living and call forth the beauty in this world. Death midwifery is about midwifing society as we transition to the world we want to see. Death is home and understanding its temporary nature can lead to a sense of peace. Shift our perspective on systemic problems and focus on connecting with and loving the individuals in front of us. Find wonder and enchantment in life and honor the beauty that wants to be revealed. About Narinder Bazen Narinder Bazen serves in these curious times as an artist, Death Midwife, Death Midwifery trainer, and Enchanted Life Guide. Her work centers around midwifing society, as we let go of the world we knew to take hold of the world we want to see for ourselves. Find Narinder on the Internet: Instagram Website

Pain is mycelial. This episode is dedicated to sharing in prayers for Palestine and recognizing how we can each own our role in the global revolution our world needs. Key Takeaways of this Episode: Prayer is a form of energy work that allows us to imagine new possibilities and work towards change. We are interconnected as a global community and have a responsibility to support and stand in solidarity with those experiencing suffering and injustice. Prayer and energetic resources can provide comfort and encouragement to those in need, even if we can't directly change the actions of world leaders. Each individual has a role to play in the revolution, whether it's through prayer, activism, or creating healing structures for others. The power of prayer lies in its ability to connect us and create a collective field of healing and support. Places to Donate: Doctors without Borders Amnesty International Dar Al-Hiraj Islamic Center

How do you know if you have spiritual gifts? What are the signs that your spiritual gifts are coming online? In this week's episode of the Kinspirit podcast, I continue our mini-series on Spiritual Gifts by sharing some of the key signs that your spiritual gifts are coming online and how to work with them. I also share some key things to watch out for that will help you to stay grounded, discerning, watchful, and in your body without shutting your heart down from the experience that you are having Here are the five key signs that your spiritual gifts may be activating: Your dreams take on more meaning and sometimes feel prophetic. Your inner world starts to feel more rich, sensitive, and abundant. You start to feel things intuitively before they begin to happen. You start to become more sensitive to other people's experiences. You start to feel genuine grief at the state of the world and your community. Here are five things to look out for when your gifts are activating: A racing feeling in your heart, trembling in your body, and a feeling of being lifted or airy. Feeling unable to control emotions, feeling hypersensitive to other people's experiences or sad things. Feeling unable to leave the house to be around other people or socialize. Feeling unable to take in world news with collapsing. Hyperfixation of figuring out what is happening inside of you and around you, searcing for answers. Here are three things to support your process: Ritual, Ceremony, Spiritual Systems, and Gathering Spaces Community, Teachers, Guides, and Elders Embodiment Practices that Root You to the Present and to the Earth

Carly Mountain, author of Descent & Rising: Women's Stories and Embodying the Inanna Myth, joins the podcast to discuss the psychospiritual descent to soul and the wildly misunderstood sacred rites of passage that many women secretly experience. She emphasizes the importance of calling this wisdom back into the lives of women and normalizing the nature of both descent and rising as part of the feminine path. Carly explores the concept of sacrifice and the need to let go of certain aspects of ourselves in order to rise and embody our true selves. She also highlights the role of desire and pleasure in the journey of descent and rising, and the importance of compassion for ourselves and others as we navigate these transformative processes. Key Takeaways: The psychospiritual descent to soul is an initiation that challenges every notion we have of ourselves and our lives. The path of descent and rising is a humbling rite of passage that delivers us through the depths of our embodied subconscious to meet the seat of our own power and vulnerability. True desire leads us towards what we are supposed to be doing in life, but it also requires sacrifice and vulnerability. Rising requires us to be more truthful with ourselves about our capacity, needs, and desires, and to reach into communities of support. Compassion for ourselves and others is essential as we navigate the journey of descent and rising. About Carly Mountain Carly Mountain is a psychotherapist, women's initiatory guide, breathworker and author of Descent & Rising: Women's Stories & the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth. Her work has evolved over twenty years of working with sacred practice and space holding. She lives in Sheffield, England with her husband and two daughters. Website: carlymountain.com Instagram: carly_mountain

There's something that happens when we walk through a soul-level initiation: we discover that we may have extrasensory gifts. These gifts don't often feel like "gifts" at first. Sometimes they feel intense, like the veil is a bit thinner than we thought before. If you're like many people, you take to google to try and figure out what's happening to you. Perhaps you have dreams or premonitions about things that haven't happened yet. Perhaps you feel more sensitive to other people and environments. These experience may sound cool and exciting, but they are not always pleasant. They come with a tax to the body. It doesn't always feel pleasant to perceive the mixing of many people's energetic cocktails through your one little body. It's not always fun to wake up from dreams that feel prophetic, but a have a tinge of fear or darkness that we may not feel comfortable holding or working with. When discovering your spiritual gifts for the first time, it's really important to be supported. It's really important to have tools, technology, and wisdom in your corner for when the spiritual initiation takes you into territory you've never gone into before.

In this episode with Sarah Wildeman of Our Common, we explore the complexity of relationships and our connection to land and place. We discuss how important it is to witness each other honestly, hold space for generative conflict, and allow ourselves to process harms that may occur within our community bonds. We also delve into the ways in which our relationship with the land can teach us new ways of connecting and being together. We hope this episode supports you in your inquiries into interconnectedness and the wisdom of understanding ourselves as part of a whole system, a wider web of relating. About Sarah Wildeman Sarah is a leadership & relationship dynamics coach, community-builder, and founder of Our Common - a coaching and consulting practice serving community seekers, community builders, and existing communities. Nearly a decade of community-living, and years of experience working and coaching in complex organizational dynamics, has equipped her to work with people to navigate nuanced relationships with authenticity and courage, empowering individuals and teams to get creative and create lasting change. Her work includes leading community conversation, running a re-villaging group, hosting nature-based retreats, and coaching with leaders, teams, and living-communities. Sarah grew up in a home focused on hospitality, and mutual-aid, where shared elements of life with friends and neighbours was considered ‘normal'. With her own young-family, she lived in intentional-community for close to a decade - including living on shared land with other singles and families while sharing meals, work, and chores etc. She's spent the last 4 years setting down roots in the BC Okanagan, where she and her family seek to live in alignment with their core-values of environmental stewardship, community-care, and local-impact, through small daily choices. Sarah brings a collaborative whole-system approach to all her work, making space for collective grappling,  encouraging courageous action, and helping us to remember we're never truly alone. Find Sarah's Work: Instagram Website More Links: Autumn Study Group – Women Who Run with Wolves Thresholdkeeper Retreat, Mendocino, CA – 11/2 - 11/5

Welcome back to the Kinspirit podcast! In this episode, we explore the concept of radical inherent belonging and the importance of living from a place of deep connection to the Earth. We discuss the role of the sun as an archetypal medicine and how it supports us in our journey toward our culture work. We also redefine the idea of Earth Stewardship, emphasizing that it goes beyond land tending and encompasses all aspects of our lives and contributions to culture. Key Takeaways: Living from a place of radical inherent belonging shapes how we love, create, and contribute to the world. Earth stewardship is not limited to land tending; it includes all aspects of our lives and contributions to culture. The sun's medicine supports us in our journey of ascension and helps us root deeper into the Earth. Embracing our mythocultural role requires a deep sense of belonging and connection to the Earth. Quotes: "We are always moving in and out of life, death, life cycles, which is why I feel so undisturbed that this medicine that is moving through Kinspirit is moving through its own life, death and life cycle." "The sun not only calls us forward, but invites us to get deeper and deeper in our sense of relationality with the larger order." "Earth stewardship is culture work. Every part of what we bring forth through our lives is Earth stewardship." "The only path to truly step into the expression of your culture work is to come from a place of radical, inherent belonging." Links Mentioned Creative Devotion Discussion Series – Santa Fe, NM – 8/25 Women Who Run with Wolves Study Group – Autumn Study Group Mapping Change, Shaping Futures: A Workshop and Intro to the Astrology of Your Culturework – 9/1 Storykin Small Group – Starts 9/20 ⁠Thresholdkeeper Retreat – 11/2 - 11/5⁠

This week, David Bedrick, an elder dedicated to the work of Unshaming, joins me on the podcast to discuss what it means to step into the transformative potential of eldership. We explore the ache for elders in our culture and the necessity of imparted wisdom, courage, and insight. David shares his personal journey of finding his path and the role of elders in guiding and supporting him. Together, we discuss the quality of humility, the power of embracing the darkness, and the regenerative nature of forgiveness as a path of heart. About David Bedrick David Bedrick is an elder dedicated to the work of unshaming our culture and our world. He is the founder of the Santa Fe Institute for Shame Based Studies and the author of several books, including "Talking Back to Dr. Phil" and "17 Women's Stories of Hunger, Body, Shame and Redemption." David's upcoming book, "Unshamed," will be published in 2024. Summary: David Bedrick, an elder and founder of the Santa Fe Institute for Shame Based Studies, joins the podcast to discuss the concept of eldership and the importance of stepping into this role in our culture. He emphasizes the need for elders to embrace their path of heart and share their wisdom and experiences with others. David also explores the significance of humility, death, and regenerativeness in the journey of becoming an elder. Key Takeaways: Eldership is not just about age, but about embracing a path of heart and sharing wisdom with others. Humility is essential for elders, as it allows them to acknowledge their mistakes and share their experiences with others. Embracing periods of death and rebirth is a crucial part of the journey to becoming an elder. Regenerativeness is a key aspect of eldership, as it involves continually renewing and recreating one's own life. Links: David's Website David's Instagram Unshamed: Monthly Medicine

Hello new listeners! Welcome to the Kinspirit Podcast. Inside of Kinspirit, we are dedicated to the work of bridging the gap between the everyday and the sacred, exploring change, initiation, and crafting a better world. This podcast aims to inspire listeners to notice subtle shifts in themselves and in the culture that can lead to powerful outcomes and systemic change. By centering the soft body, the nervous system's need for sweetness, safety, and truth, this podcast explores how to integrate multiple dimensions and realities into crafting futures for ourselves and future generations. Through conversations with various guests, we will delve into concepts of cultural wholeness, the medicine of initiation, the seasons, and change. We'll be asking questions like, “How might we craft futures of wholeness? What does that look like, taste, feel like? What does it look like in our work? In our relationships with ourselves and each other, and in our relationship with the mystery and our myths? How can we allow wholeness to be centered in our human evolution and global creative processes? How can we craft a vision of the future that can hold all of us?" We hope these episodes to support you in your own inquiry into these questions. Thank you for listening. Enjoy.

Daje welcomes listeners back to the Kinspirit Podcast after a brief hiatus. She shares her decision to move back to New Mexico after initially planning to move to California. Daje also announces changes to the Thresholdkeeper Retreat and introduces the guest for this episode, Sabrina Monarch, an astrologer and host of the Magic of the Spheres podcast. They discuss the themes of Saturn in Pluto and how to work with current Pluto transits. The conversation explores the concepts of soul fracturing, transiting high and low places, the somatic integration of different realms of reality (digital, physical, akashic), and how to become a reality artist. About The Guest: Sabrina Monarch is an astrologer, novelist, mystic, romantic, and philosopher. She hosts the Magic of the Spheres podcast and has a background in evolutionary astrology. Sabrina is known for her interdisciplinary and evolving approach to astrology. Summary: In this episode, Sabrina discusses the themes of Pluto in Aquarius and Saturn in Pisces and how they relate to our personal and collective experiences. She explores the concept of high and low places, how to integrate of different realms, the challenges and opportunities that come with these transits, and how to become a reality artist that can dance with the transits rather than become overcome by them. Sabrina emphasizes the importance of intentional participation and how astrology is here to guide us through these times of great change. Key Takeaways: Pluto in Aquarius invite us to explore the realms of the soul and the mind, and to integrate different perspectives and experiences. The transits of Pluto and Aquarius can help us seek breakthrough and higher perspective, allowing us to navigate challenges with more agency and wisdom. It is important to seek higher knowledge and expanded perspectives, while also acknowledging and integrating the shadow aspects of ourselves and our experiences. Pluto in Aquarius encourages us to be reality artists, actively co-creating our experiences and engaging life through multiple realms and dimensions. The integration of different realms and timelines requires a willingness to experiment with reality, while also grounding ourselves in the present moment. Links: Sabrina Monarch's website Magic of the Spheres podcast Sabrina Monarch on Instagram

Weaving a New Story of Courage, Power, and Purpose on the Earth Lately on the podcast, we've been transiting the realms of sacred rites of passage, thresholdcrossing and initiation. We've been exploring what it looks like to embracing our natural cycles of life / death / change / initiation and recognize the medicine that each of these stages offer us. In this episode, I sit down with my sister, Ashley River, Ceremonial Tattooist, Facilitator, Co-Founder of School of the Sacred Arts: A Mystery School for Ceremonial Tattoo and Co-Visionary of the Thresholdkeeper Retreat, happening on July 27 - 30 in the coastal redwoods of Mendocino, CA. We both met in Santa Fe, NM in a time when we were both transiting through powerful initiations that matured us and woke us up to deeper layers of the medicine, work, and vision we're both individually called to birth. Part of what has forged our friendship is the recognition of how terrifying it can be to step out into your work and medicine with past life (a present life) karmic memories of being burned, hung, tried, and exiled while putting your everything into birthing vision into the world. In this episode, we explore what it looks like to deeply surrender to the potent medicine our initiations invite us into. We talk about how the purpose of initiatory medicine is to lift us up into a higher beauty and an expanded capacity to step into our unique potential. I'm so excited to co-host Thresholdkeeper with my sister Ashley. You can find out more about her medicine, her School of the Sacred Art and our work together below: About Ashley River Ashley River is a multidimensional artist, ceremonialist, author, teacher, mystic, and threshold guide. She is the creator and teacher of a healing modality of ceremonial tattoo alchemy called Soul Tattoo®, the Author of Tending to the Sacred, and Messages from the Heart of the Divine oracle deck, Host of Weaving your Web podcast. co-founder of Feminine Voices retreats and School of the Sacred Arts school for Sacred Tattooing. Her work is a devotion to desire, feminine liberation, soul expression, and creative empowerment through the deep and wild evolutionary path. www.ashleyriver.co About Thresholdkeeper Retreat Thresholdkeeper is a midsummer, threshold-crossing respite for healers and medicine keepers in the redwood forests of Mendocino, CA taking place on July 27 - 30. This is a retreat for the ones who hear the unmistakable call to surrender to the wisdom of the Pysche's Song. It is for those who know that their life's work is to traverse the deep world – the liminal spaces of mystery, death, change, birth, and initiation – in order to gather the ingredients of the medicines they know will serve their people in these times of immense cultural change. Thresholdkeeper is for those who honor that the path of becoming is not rainbows and fairies, but the daily work of firmly walking upon rich, dark soil of a changing Earth. Learn more about Thresholdkeeper at the link below. https://www.thresholdkeeper.info/

I first heard the term psychospiritual descent to soul from Bill Plotkin, eco-depth philosopher and SoulCraft Guide who has dedicated the last 40 years of his life guiding people through nature-based soul descent. In the introduction of his book, Journey to Soul Initiation, he refers to himself as a "Cocoon Weaver", apprenticed by the archetype of Death. Reading Plotkin's work for the first time a year and a half ago was a homecoming of resonance. He languages the rite of passage of the psychospiritual descent to soul like no other I've read. In this episode of the Kinspirit podcast, I share five practical things to consider while moving through soul descent. If this episode finds you at just the right moment, I pray it supports you and reminds you of what's awaiting you on the other side. Mentioned in this episode: ⁠Women Who Run with Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes⁠ ⁠Descent & Rising: Women's Stories and the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth by Carly Mountain⁠ ⁠Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin⁠ ⁠Journey to Soul Initiation by Bill Plotkin⁠ Learn more about Thresholdkeeper Retreat: Thresholdkeeper is a midsummer, threshold-crossing respite for healers and medicine keepers in the redwood forests of Mendocino, CA taking place on July 27 - 30. This is a retreat for the ones who hear the unmistakable call to surrender to the wisdom of the Pysche's Song. It is for those who know that their life's work is to traverse the deep world – the liminal spaces of mystery, death, change, birth, and initiation – in order to gather the ingredients of the medicines they know will serve their people in these times of immense cultural change. Thresholdkeeper is for those who honor that the path of becoming is not rainbows and fairies, but the daily work of firmly walking upon rich, dark soil of a changing Earth. Learn more about the Thresholdkeeper Retreat at ⁠www.thresholdkeeper.info⁠

Rewilding is a concept that has gained much popularity in recent years as the pandemic has peeled back the layers of industry and challenged our global relationships with consciousness, our priorities, and our politics. There are many conversations to be had about rewilding our external lives through learning to garden or farm, by taking a closer look at how fast we're moving as a world, and by choosing to raise our children in ways that benefit their spirits and their wholeness. But what about this idea of rewilding the idea internal aspects of society? Our thoughts, our inner landscape, our conscious minds, our mental wholeness, and our souls? How can our ways of orienting to the world be benefited by rewilding the inner landscape of the soul? It felt incredible to sit down with Bethaney Wilkinson and discuss these things. While we didn't come away with concrete step-by-step answers, together we did ask some incredibly valuable questions that we hope will spur you on in your own relationship with these matters. About Bethaney Wilkinson Bethaney Wilkinson (she/her) holds space for change as a writer, facilitator, leadership coach and spiritual director. She is author of The Diversity Gap: Where good intentions meet true cultural change (HarperCollins Leadership), and hosts a podcast by the same name, which has been downloaded over a quarter of a million times worldwide. She is also the lead writer and curator of A More Beautiful Way, a blog and podcast series dedicated to slowing down, simplifying, and finding the Sacred in our everyday lives. She has dedicated more than a decade to exploring the intersections of community, racial justice, and social change—specifically in the organizational context. When she's not leading racial equity efforts for teams, or sitting with folks exploring their spiritual journeys, you can find her stewarding a one acre homestead called Cedar Wilde  with her husband Alex and their two dogs, Isla and Bear.

In this episode of the Kinspirit podcast, I talk about the realities of queer / feminine rites of passage and the psychospiritual descent to soul. These realities are the secrets (or the mysteries) that many women carry and have been taught to silence themselves in the same ways we have been taught to hide and hush our blood, the realities of childbirth, and the ways of the psychic nature. When I sought to create a study group for Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book, Women Who Run with Wolves this Spring, I was nearly after plunged into a psychospiritual descent of my own that cracked open a layer of awakening in me that I would not have been able to access if I treated my experience the way many women are taught to treat their experiences – through the lens of skepticism, partial digust, and trying to "figure out" whats wrong." What I learned is that you can't "study" the goddess. You have to embody her. You have to live her. These mysteries that she offers us are not just cute annecdotal stories. They are medicines to be kept in vials on our belts at all times as we descend into the vast wild dark of the future. We each, in our own way, are living these myths. The ancient stories of Wild Woman, La Loba, La Heusera, Inanna, Persephone, Ixchel, Isis, Hecate are not just tales to memorize and sound smart with. They are guideposts to help us find our way as we live in the world. If you want the medicines of the deep world and the magic of the mystery in your life, you have to surrender your body, your pride, and the construct of your knowing. Because if we're listening, we know that to live – to really live – we have to honor the fact that the life will call us to journey the depths, the womb of the world, and be reformed there. At the gates of the deep world, we are each asked to shed our preparations, achievements, accolades, studies, shields, and weapons before we enter. The underworld of the psyche is a vast and viscously dark place. None of the preparations will do any good there. We have to come bare. We have to come curious. We have to come naked. Mentioned in this episode: Women Who Run with Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes Descent & Rising: Women's Stories and the Embodiment of the Inanna Myth by Carly Mountain Nature and the Human Soul by Bill Plotkin Journey to Soul Initiation by Bill Plotkin Learn more about Thresholdkeeper Retreat: Thresholdkeeper is a midsummer, threshold-crossing respite for healers and medicine keepers in the redwood forests of Mendocino, CA taking place on July 27 - 30. This is a retreat for the ones who hear the unmistakable call to surrender to the wisdom of the Pysche's Song. It is for those who know that their life's work is to traverse the deep world – the liminal spaces of mystery, death, change, birth, and initiation – in order to gather the ingredients of the medicines they know will serve their people in these times of immense cultural change. Thresholdkeeper is for those who honor that the path of becoming is not rainbows and fairies, but the daily work of firmly walking upon rich, dark soil of a changing Earth. Learn more about the Thresholdkeeper Retreat at www.thresholdkeeper.info and use the code Kinspirit25 at checkout to receive 25% off your your registration until May 24.

There is a reason why we need Spring and Sunrises, Births, and New Beginnings. We can't swim in the depths and death of the underworld forever. Our bodies crave the cyclical way. Our bodies crave the knowing that there will always be a second chance waiting for us around the bend somewhere and at some point in the future. Otherwise, what would be the point of living? Spring offers us that chance to remember that grace, grace is woven into everything. There is no eternal damnation except for through our own choosing. And even if we did choose it — even if we did choose to fracture ourselves off into the darkness forever, there is always a hand that is reach in to pull us out. We only have to say that we want it. We only have to say that we want the resurrection. We want the shift. We want the turning. We want the warmth of the cool spring dawn. Seasonal Prompts through the Four Directions: North – Society – The Nurturing, Generative Adult – What about this season drew you into deeper harmony with yourself and clarity about your role in the world? What do you know now about who you are that you didn't know at the beginning of Winter? What did the dark of the of mid-night season reveal? East – Spirit – The Innocent, The Sage – What revelations are now unfolding within you? What newness is taking root? What wants to be welcomed into your world? What is being born? South – Soil – The Wild Indigenous One, The Inner Child – Where do you feel these initiations taking place in your body? What is the Earth saying about your reformation? What progressions can you see? What desires do you have? Where do you feel the safest and most at home? Are you accessing your wonder? Your delight? Your sense of sensuality and play? Where are you finding the most liberation in your body, your community, your voice, and your home? West – Soul – The Muse, The Inner Beloved – What parts of this season have invited you witness your inner mysteries? What poems, songs, images are playing agains the screen of your imagination? What shadows have greeted you there? What are growing in courage to face? Can you access the beauty in these shadow-aspects? What parts of yourself are you learning to deeply love in this? Link to workbook will be uploaded by 3/19. Check back then!

In the circles that I weave in, there is a lot of talk about death. And not only the end-of-life kind of death, but the death of culture, ways of relating, identities, and ways of being, too. Ironically, I find this conversation to be so life-giving. As more and more people are shifting from the “concept” that something is wrong and into hands-in-the-soil style investigating, Death, Grief, Change begin to be more present topics in conversation. From the lens of my own lineage of learning, I see the work of restoring and re-storying our grief rites as intercession and prayer work. Grief is not just sadness. It is a complex abiding. It is prayer. It is acceptance. It is the work of holding change. I call on Adrienne Marie Brown's framework in her book, Holding Change: a book about facilitation and mediation in the emergent strategy way. She says, “It is time to move towards ways of being that are focused on listening to each other deeply and accepting each other, whole. We need to learn ways of being in space together that help us see beyond false constructs of superiority and inferiority without asking us to sacrifice what has shaped us. We need to study being receptive and nonjudgmental with each other, letting the earth and community hold us until we remember we already belong. I believe holding change can be sacred work, and I'll admit it is most satisfying to me when the sacred is palpable in the room.” I feel humbled and receptive to this way of being with our stories, our lives, and our bodies. There is so much to learn from grief. There is so much to learn from change. There is so much to learn about how to hold the realities that are unpeeling before us while also holding the futures and potentials that are ready to be brought forth. This work of re-storying our grief rites and the ways we hold death is our culture is slow work. It's presence work. And I'm so thankful for this powerful conversation with Alexis Sabatino who has committed her life's work to support the collective in recalibrating the ways we hold ourselves through change. About Alexis Sabatino She is the Founder of the global women's movement, She Heals Collective. She is a Healer, Mystic Teacher, Storyteller, Intuitive Coach, Rebirth Midwife, and "Rites" Facilitator. She guides women through sacred rites of passage into wild soul embodiment. Her passion is in resurrecting the wild self within by returning women to their ancient roots, original language, womb wisdom, alchemical bodies, and authentic soul essence. The She Heals community is in devotion to the evolution and rewilding of Womankind. Relevant Links: Follow her on Instagram Visit Her Website Here

Initiation is a sacred part of being with the human experience and an art for our culture to reclaim in the emergence of our age. Through the medicine of initiation we get to witness our capacity, our gifts, and the potency of our potential in the world. It's through initiation that we learn how to meet the edges of life and grow in flexibility, inner-resource, and discernment. Karla embodies medicine of sacred initiation and essence liberation: the power of being true and non-hierchical with ourselves. I appreciate her voice on being with subtle addictions, moving through and navigating romantic distortions and navigating the life / death / life cycles of change. You can learn more about Karla and follow her work at the following links: Instagram Website

In today's podcast episode, I sit down with Ari Felix, writer, astrologer, world-builder, and dreamtender to chat about traversing the taboo realms of money, power, communion, and presence.⁠ From Persephone's descent into the underworld to exploring the ways we tend to over-identify with our seasons of death, darkness, strain, and shadow, Ari and I spare no amount of depth in this powerful non-linear conversation about the necessity of soul descent in the building of the inner world.⁠ We recorded this episode directly after Taurus / Scorpio eclipse season in November 2022 and it was perfect time to affirm fresh new narratives about what is possible when we are present to ourselves, our desires, and our truths as we live, grow, and pursue our futures.⁠⁠ Listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts. I can't wait to hear how this one lands for you.⁠⁠ About Ari:⁠ Ari Felix is a multidisciplinary philosopher and mystic dedicated to living in veneration of the Planetary Ancestors (including the Earth). Their work is about emotional transmutation, dreaming new worlds, and building those worlds through visionary power and spiritual freedom. They are an experimental guide interested in taking creative risks to provide experiences that support people to feel radiant. They want dreamers and worldbuilders to know that who they are is everything they need to create their dreamworld.⁠ Ari uses the pronouns they / them and you can find them on instagram at @saltwater.stars or book an astrology reading, tend a class, or learn more about what they're up to at saltwaterstars.com.

When I was actively deconstructing my Christian faith back in 2016, I wondered, "Is it possible to evolve my faith, beliefs, and values without dissolving into bitterness, hatred, or deep regret? Can I stay soft in this process? Can I remember goodness?" Now, six full years later, after having this conversation with Josh, I truly believe so.⁠= Growing up Christian, I was taught some really harsh truths about the world, heaven, hell, and God. I was taught that humans are no more than depraved animals doomed to separation from the divine unless we engaged in certain salvation protocols and rituals of faith.⁠ But with time, I learned that there was more to being human that the doctrines for life I was given. There's a deeper narrative available of grace and self-kindness that beckons us to recognize our radical and inherent belonging on Earth.⁠ In this conversation with Josh Perez, former Young Life director, Enneagram Expert, and multi-disciplinary storyteller, we traverse the territory of spiritual evolution and finding the courage to embrace new faith narratives that are expansive, nurturing, and edifying to hold.⁠ This podcast episode strikes a deep chord for me and I can't wait to hear how you're holding it, too.⁠ About Josh⁠ Josh is a creative with a multidisciplinary approach to storytelling — exploring the spaces where being human and artistry meet. California born, Albuquerque raised. He's been dwelling in the southwest desert for the past 17 years and recently relocated to Denver, Colorado. ⁠You can find him on the internet at www.justjoshperez.com and @justjoshperez on IG.⁠ Enjoy!⁠ ⁠

Today's podcast episode is an invitation to perceive a more honest Winter through the lens of the Four Directions. In one of my most recent personal Substack posts, I wrote about how the stories we're often given about Winter, don't seem to line up to what Winter actually ends up feeling like in our bodies. And instead of continuing on cycles of feeling guilty for not resting enough, being "jolly" enough, or hibernating enough, what if we could rewrite our relationship with Winter to be more aligned to what feels authentic in our forms? Energetically, Winter is the season of depth, imaginative rest, and sacred responsibility. In the wheel of the four directions, Winter stations North, holding the medicine of the Nurturing, Responsible, and Generative Adult. In the Northern Hemisphere, we transit through the zodiacal seasons of Capricorn (our work and place in the world), Aquarius (who we are in the context of ecosystems and community), and Pisces (the deep world and the futures we're imagining). It's so interesting how in Western culture, we almost only see Winter as a time for holidays, feasting, dormancy, and sleep, but there is so much more happening energetically and beneath the surface of the sleeping Earth body when her skin gets a little cold. Beneath the frozen surfaces, our individual and collective bodies are teeming with the spirit of potential. There is a lot to establish about ourselves in the Winter. What would it look like to lean into this? Relevant Links: Rewriting Winter: Prompts for Imagining a More Honest Winter through the Lens of the Four Directions Greeting the Polypoetic Self Workshop Replay Follow us on Instagram at @theregenerativemystic Follow us on Instagram at @kinspirit Substack: Kinspirit Substack: The Story Doula

What does it mean to become ecological? This is the burning question behind today's podcast episode with Kelly Moody. These days especially, the word "ecology" has been cycling around internet, sparking many, many conversations about what it means to establish new relationships with each other and the land. In this episode, Kelly and I discuss why becoming ecological is not so much about what we "know" about nature, but about recognizing our inherent relationship with the Earth, each other, and all things else. About Kelly Kelly Moody is the main curator behind the Ground Shots Project and Podcast as well as is one of the CO-collaborators of the Colorado Trail Plant-a-go project. She grew up in rural southern Virginia near the border of North Carolina in tobacco and muscadine country. Growing up here, she went to her grandma's house daily as a child, where fresh biscuits and iced tea were a regular necessity. Her other grandma was a determined plant lady who started a nursery business on the outskirts of their small rural town, which remained open for almost 50 years. Kelly grew up hiding with her sister in the tropical greenhouses, taking craft classes in the small nursery workshop, shelling green beans and canning tomatoes. These experiences of being on the family farm, working with plants and creating followed Kelly into her adulthood. The past decade she has spent living simply in different landscapes studying plants, ecology and craft, writing about the land, growing food and herbs, or honoring her wanderlust by living on the road. She received a B. A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies in 2009 from Christopher Newport University in Virginia. She has studied herbal medicine, land tending, ecology and botany with Rebecca Golden in southern Vermont, Paul Strauss and Chip Carrol at the Goldenseal Sanctuary in southeast Ohio, Luke Learningdeer and Marc Williams in western North Carolina. She apprenticed with Juliet Blankespoor and attended the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine in Asheville, NC in 2013. She helped manage the gardens at Dancing Springs Farm in Asheville, NC from 2014-2016. She studied book arts and paper-making at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. She taught hide tanning techniques for classes held by the medieval bookbinder Jim Croft at his rural Idaho homestead from 2017-2019. She has completed a handful of art + activism focused artist residencies and workshops including Signal Fire's month-long Wide Open Studios program during the summer of 2017 in the Pacific Northwest and in the fall of 2019 in the Southwest. These programs greatly influenced the trajectory of her work connecting creativity and human relationship with ecology. In Summer 2020, she hiked the Colorado Trail documenting plants on foot and made notes on wild food and medicine gardens found along the old Ute pathways. Her educational work over the years has included holding classes on hide tanning, plant ID, wild foods, medicine making, natural dyes, nutrition and gardening. Kelly's interest in storytelling and cross-cultural dialogue comes from both an upbringing in the small-town rural south and the inspiration of meeting people while living on the road. Learn more about her work at the links below: Her Blog + Shop: Of Sedge and Salt Follow her on Instagram here and here Other links: Our new workshop, Greeting the Polypoetic Self Follow the Regenerative Mystic Podcast on Instagram Follow the Kinspirit on Instagram

What does it look like to be current and liberated in your storytelling work? Can you taste the potency, joy, life, and potential of your medicine? In this episode with Megan Febuary, we talk about the power of story as world-building work and how when we allow ourselves to honor our bodies in the creation process, we grant ourselves the opportunity to draft works that offer powerful medicine that is joyous to create and relevant to this time. In this episode we explore: Growing our capacity to create new stories. How a trauma-sensitive approach to storytelling opens us to up to flow and the power of our voices. Stepping into the true power of being a storyteller in this day. How the work of transforming ideas into digestible forms, especially through the lens of a trauma-informed approach, is the work of wonder, power, and magic. Human Design as a language for style, rhythm, voice, and the true expression Practical ways to use Human Design to support discipline and self-expression in the creative process. About Megan Megan Febuary is an author, trauma-informed writing coach, and founder of the storytelling platform For Women Who Roar featured women's voices from around the world. She has published thousands of works of women and helped hundreds write their books and heal their story. She is currently working on her second book. Links: Follow Megan on Instagram Follow For Women Who Roar on Instagram Your Book Year - Writing Coaching For Women Who Roar Podcast For Women Who Roar - Online Publication For Women Who Roar - Print Poetry Collection

In this episode, Taria and I sit down to explore hunger, nourishment, sensitivity, and reciprocity with food. As a breast cancer and eating disorder survivor, a highly sensitive James Beard award-winning french-trained chef, nourishment guide, and gustatory synesthete, Taria moves through the world with a raw conviction and deep wisdom about how humanity's relationship with food is aching for a revolution. In this episode we explore... How food is the first place we learn to stop trusting our inner knowing. How eating disorders and body dysmorphia are deeply connected to the larger food systems at play and how we've been disconnected from our relationship with nature and intuitive nourishment. Her story of growing up impoverished, hungry, and sensitive to her environment and food. How she found a voice through food, flavor, and spice and her journey into new realms of communication through taste. Relevant Links: Follow Hunger as Lover on Instagram Follow Today We Eat Well on Instagram Bon Apetit: How CBD Chocolate Saved my Life by Taria Camerino Fearless Innovation by Taria Camerino

Marie Eve Laflamme is an Eco-Depth Psychologist and Art Therapist who is on a mission to provide beauty seekers with a safe and imaginative space to go deeper into their relationship with Self. In this episode, Marie Eve shares her own journey of making meaning through spiritual and psychological crises, using her experiences to artfully shape a life and path of radical belonging with the Earth. In this episode we explore: Deconstructing Evangelicalism and how this portal of spiritual disintegration opened Marie's heart to explore a more true-to-her relationship with Spirit. Spiritual and Cultural Loss and how her journey to Mexico supported her to appreciate the richness and truths of her own spiritual and cultural lineage. Making Meaning from Crisis and how Marie uses her art practice and her relationship with the seasons to weave a new story of who she is and why she's here. Anchoring into the Earth and the Seasons and how the Seasons provide us an accessible framework for reclaiming belonging and remembering who we are in essence. Relevant Links: Follow Marie Eve on Instagram Marie's Website

Recorded in the Spring of 2022, so much has since happened in both my and Rachael's lives. So much has evolved. This episode is a testament to the beauty of trusting change. Change comes to bring us an opportunity to grow in wisdom and depth. Change comes to bring us an opportunity to parse, understand, see, and love ourselves a little more deeply. Change comes to bring the outer structural shifts that are needed in order to support our inner evolutionary cycles. Honor the change happening in your life. Honor the disintegration. Honor the parse and the parts that make themselves evident on the other side of change. Trust your wholeness, your seasons, your body, and cyclical time enough to know that goodness is coming. Integration is coming. Joy is coming. Truth is here. About Rachael Rachael Maddox is a seasoned guide to healers & CEOs, as well as a 2-time author, podcaster, DJ, and full-blood witch. Her work for the last 13 years has centered around facilitating personal and collective post-traumatic growth, and as such, Rachael has taught hundreds of coaches, therapists and guides the art and craft of safe and effective trauma resolution. Most recently, Rachael has devoted to supporting leading edge entrepreneurs in coming into their most radically aligned medicine – the kind that serves both them and the world, simultaneously. To learn more from Rachael, dive into her books, Secret Bad Girl and ReBloom: Archetypal Trauma Resolution for Personal and Collective Healing at rebloomtogether.com, or tune in with her podcast and magical Dance Temples at rachaelmaddox.substack.com. She also writes and shares regularly on Instagram at instagram.com/rachaelmaddox. Relevant Links Rebloom: Archetypal Trauma Resolution for Personal and Collective Healing Secret Bad Girl by Rachael Maddox Rebloom Our World Podcast with Rachael Maddox Free Embodied Trust Rebloom Meditation Free Rebloom Coherence Course Introduction Rebloom Coherence Course Follow Kinspirit on Instagram www.kinspirit.org

In this episode, I share a bit about Quantum Selfhood, our core theory of change, and a mythos for discovering our wholeness through relating. Quantum Selfhood is the understanding that all aspects of reality are extensions of the self. And that even at the smallest fragment of measurement, there is no corner of the cosmos that is not in some way related. In this episode, we explore: What is quantum selfhood? Where does this term come from? Why quantum selfhood sits at the center of our core theory of change. The four pillars of Quantum Selfhood: Soul, Soil, Society, and Spirit. The three ways we desire to activate relationship to these four pillars through our work in Kinspirit: Soul Remembrance, World Building, Rites of Passage Work The seven symptoms of our lost rites of passage and why we need new stories, myths, and rites of passage in order to realize new futures for our world. The three rites of Quantum Selfhood that we'll explore in our work in Kinspirit: Essence Liberation, Sacred Ecology, Ritual Communion Learn more about Kinspirit and our work at www.instagram.com/kinspirit

Update episode! Brave School is now Kinspirit. In this episode, I share quite a bit of behind-the-scenes of how I've been navigating change, spiritual death, and regeneration the last season. Inside of this episode, I explore themes of... My Move to Santa Fe – Sickness + Facing off with Burnout Radical Rest and Radical Death Calling my energy back from Burnout and Donning Sovereignty Breaking Rapport and Deep Grief in Letting Brave School Go Dialing in and Finetuning the Vision Unplugging from a Mechanistic Relationship with Work Developing a Reciprocal Relationship with Current, with Soil Learn more about Kinspirit at www.instagram.com/kinspirit

Reclaim Creative was founded in 2020 by Allie Chamberlain - an architect, slow fashion advocate, and self-taught sewist who comes from a long lineage of Appalachian and Western Kentucky quilters. Offering a fresh take on clothing, their garments are crafted from repurposed and vintage textiles - most often vintage quilts that are decades, if not one hundred years old. They are made with love, often made by hand, and hold heritage within their threads. This process of restoring forgotten textiles is just one facet of the way that Allie sees beauty in the forgotten world. Tune into this episode to learn more as we chat social media, entrepreneurship, textiles, restoration, community-centered design thinking, and seeking community restoration. About Allie Chamberlain Allie Chamberlain is an architect, slow fashion advocate, and self-taught sewist - comes from a lineage of Appalachian and Western Kentucky quilters. Growing up, she was always taught how to quilt, sew, and make her own garments, but it wasn't until architecture school that she really began to value the power of repurposed textiles. She has worked for a sustainable fashion company, co-owned a second-hand clothing shop, practiced architecture at three firms, and is currently running her own repurposed textile business - reclaim creative. Resources Mentioned: Reclaim Creative - Instagram Reclaim Creative - Website About Brave School: Brave School is an institute of dreaming for wild-hearted creatives and entrepreneurs who are looking for an alternative, embodied, and regenerative approach to business and brand strategy. Through this approach, we host gatherings, workshops, and a membership that supports creatives in shaping and sharing their work with the world. We exist to support creatives in creating their true soul work, building evolutionary companies, and earning a viable revenue in the process. Building Brave Membership Upcoming Events and Retreats Own Your Voice Mini-Course

"Your skin does not separate you from the natural world. It's a bridge through which the external world flows into you. And you flow into it." - Alan Watts Many of us go through our lives seeing our skin as a gentle boundary between our inward selves and the outside world. But what if the skin is actually a mirror – a porous portal between our souls and the soul of the world? In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic Podcast, we chat with Kalpana Arias, founder of Nowadays on Earth to chat about how to grow ecosomatic consciousness: the capacity to commune with and be attuned by the natural world through the body. In this episode, we explore how to communicate with nature and the collective benefits of forming a relationship with the natural world that not only affects our individual and local systems but has the potential to impact the world at large. Keynotes of this Episode: 06:26 - Kalpana's take on direct observation 09:51 - What is the language of nature? 12:17 - Conversation is in our movement 15:11 - The skin as an interface and we are a collective of mirrors 17:01 - What is the myth of individualism? 19:00 - Living Systems Theory 26:00 - Growing your language and getting in tune with your body 19:15 - Dropping in and being present with our bodies 33:00 - Expanding time through the body About Kalpana Arias Kalpana is a tech-anthropologist, climate activist, and ecosomatics educator currently working at the intersection between technology, nature, and urban design. In 2020 they founded Nowadays On Earth; a platform advocating for contact with nature in the digital age as a response to our global deprivation of green spaces and our need for human-nature relationships for individual and planetary wellbeing. Resources Mentioned: Living Systems Thinking Alan Watts - Your Skin is Not a Boundary About Brave School Brave School is an institute of dreaming for wild-hearted creatives and entrepreneurs who are looking for an alternative, embodied, and regenerative approach to business and brand strategy. Through this approach, we host gatherings, workshops, and a membership that supports creatives in shaping and sharing their work with the world. We exist to support creatives in creating their true soul work, building evolutionary companies, and earning a viable revenue in the process. Building Brave Membership Upcoming Events and Retreats Own Your Voice Mini-Course

In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic podcast, I'm talking about what essence liberation is and what I mean by that term. I talk about how I relate to my identity as a black queer futurist regenerative mystic in the conversations about regenerative paradigm, the creative process, and mysticism. Learn more about the Regenerative Mystic podcast at www.braveschool.co/podcast. Follow us on social media at @theregenerativemystic / @braveschool.co / @thestorydoula

What is your sense of belonging? Do you feel graciously knitted within a family, a chosen family, or a community? Do you feel able to show up in your true essence and be deeply received in your nature? Do you feel supported to be whole by the community you desire to connect to? In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic Podcast, I speak with Teo Montoya, a Human Design Analyst, a Metamodern Myth Mender, and Indigenous Futurist. His work focuses on the intersections of individual growth and healing, reconfiguring kinship and deep relationality for an emerging global collective in crisis. He supports individuals in creating a personal myth that contextualizes their gifts, healing, ancestry, meaning, spirituality, and purpose in a land-based ecology of reciprocity. In this episode, we discuss how it is natural to want to belong to a community and to connect to others even though the modern world isn't very supportive of the complexities of what that means and the grace it requires. To step towards true relating, we have to get to the base of belonging, too. Belonging means that we get to honor our essence and show up as we are to community with all the complexity that comes with it. “When we feel safe enough to be seen, that's the only time that we actually feel safe enough to relate authentically.” We discuss metamodernism and why it's about being rooted deeply in Earth's story and the dissolving of black and white thinking. What we're exploring with meta modernity is that there's a meaning crisis and a meta crisis. The meta crisis is the collapse of the ecosystem and politics, while the meaning crisis is the collapse of the personal mythology and what it means to find belonging in place, people, symbology, and time. “We need new meta-narratives for the world as it is to help bring us into context.” We explore our skepticism with the “new paradigm” concept and explore a relationship with how we create a new earth where we are rooted in placehood and community, while also advancing technologically and medicinally. It is important that we socially support people to be healthy, whole, and healed so we can build a culture together. Are you living your true essence? What is your sense of belonging like? Living your true essence is about being sincere in who you are. When we're fully seen in our true essence in relationships, we get a different context of where we belong. “When our essence is expressed, it's sincerity.” Don't miss the episode to hear more on belonging, relating, and showing up to your true essence! In This Episode You Will Learn: [0:29] The importance of community as part of the human experience. [11:12] Understanding why we need to belong to relate and show up authentically. [26:13] What it means working within a metamodernism foundation as humans. [36:17] How to create a culture of nurturers where we're held to who and where we are. [52:19] How expressing your true essence is about being sincere and authentic. [1:09:37] How the beauty of music allows people to connect on a deeper level. Resources Mentioned: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arch.remnant/ Website: https://archaicremnant.com/ Metamodernism: Wild Mind by Bill Plotkin

How often do you show grace for yourself? On the other side of showing grace to yourself lies abundance, joy, clarity, and resources. It is important to embrace the parts of yourself that you've rejected to start seeing more. Ksenia Brief is an energy architect supporting leaders in playfully nourishing the world with their unique medicine through social media. She started as a blogger with a full-time social media manager job for a personal image consulting company before she went full-time as a wellness content creator running her blog Breakfast Criminals. She's on a mission to empower business people without a point of entry to social media to do it in their own unique ways. She talks about the deep and intuitive listening path she's following when it comes to social media and how she balances to find alignment. “There will always be distractions from the outside world that will invite us into being off-balance with our inner and our body intelligence.” Ksenia is currently immersed in what feels most alive, which is about valuing not working as much as working and valuing the growth and transformation that happens within the process of work as much as the results. She has learned to say no to things that might sound exciting financially but not feel as exciting to her body and spirit. She has found that creating space and going for her highest truth, joy, and growth, is when the money follows. What if every aspect of ourselves including the judgmental and self-criticizing parts are all parts of the whole? Disintegration is necessary for the creation of something new. You must redefine what's aligned with you instead of allowing social media algorithms or the universe to define success for you. “I can't expect the universe or social media algorithms to redefine success for me, it's about me choosing to build that depth and trust my voice, medicine, and joy.” It's time to drop the shoulds of how you should show up. Recognize what your patterns are, stop comparing yourself with others in the same space as you, and leave space for a miracle. “Miracles come in places where we hold space for them.” It's only you who can choose to be in your essence daily, to be the main character of your life without waiting for any external validation. “It takes trusting that your contribution is unique and your voice is unique and choosing that every day no matter what the world tells you.” Listen in to learn more about the power of choosing your most abandoned parts and honoring your worthiness. In This Episode You Will Learn: [0:11] Ksenia on the listening path she's on this season and how that is going. [6:32] How she finds a balance between her inner work and what comes from the outside. [14:15] How to focus on what feels good for you and stop paying attention to the metrics. [28:50] Why disintegration is necessary as part of our wholeness. [35:05] Define success with what aligns with you instead of allowing social media to do it for you. [42:30] Learn how to honor your true essence and avoid following the linear path. [47:00] The power of showing up in your true essence and not waiting for external validation. [52:06] Learning how to be in your presence and to show up fully in who you are. Resources Mentioned: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ksenia.brief/ Website: https://www.kseniabrief.com/

The power of life lies in our willingness to witness death. Something must die for something new to come to life. What would it look like for you to allow the birth of something new to happen in your life? In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic Podcast, I speak with Rebecca Wilson, a spiritual midwife with the purpose to support women to birth themselves, their creations, and their legacy. Her first midwife experience was with herself after losing her mom at 19 and not knowing how to navigate the loss of her “home”. Rebecca's journey has been that of death and life, loss and gain, grief and love, and the creation cycle, which is why she's never afraid of speaking about death. We're born through an expression of creation, and in order to thrive in the cycles of life, we must create to be a part of the source we came from. “As something dies, something else is born and as something is born, something has to die or shift.” What lives in your fear of loss? In your fear of death lies your fear of life, it is in being comfortable with death that you become comfortable with life. It is always the moment we say we can't do it anymore that something inside of us surrenders to something greater than our ego. You have the power to create a new reality, and all you have to do is own that power. “Underneath all of the fears that we have, is the fear of our own death, and in that, we have the fear of life.” She explains why you must be willing to allow death to happen for something new to be born into you. Being who you're truly here to be is the greatest gift you can offer anyone. When you're unapologetically yourself, you permit others to be themselves. “To be open to that which wants to pour in, we must be willing to pour out.” The power of showing up as your authentic self and knowing you're enough leads to abundance. How your life unfolds for you allows you to be you, and it's only by being you that you will achieve your power. You need to be yourself for the universe to thrive, and it wouldn't be the same if you didn't exist. Listen in to learn more about the power of showing up as yourself and letting go for new experiences to happen. Resources Mentioned: Website: https://rebecca-wilson.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebecca_wilson_/ Learn more about the Regenerative Mystic Podcast at www.braveschool.co and braveschool.co on Instagram.

Pleasure, power, and presence all work together and rely on each other to bring about change, impact, structure, and support in the world. What would it look like to deeply acknowledge the role of pleasure in your work -- to reconstruct your relationship with work and stop feeling like it has to be hard and painful in order to be successful? What would it look like to start authoring your relationship with work through the lens of pleasure?. In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic Podcast, I talk about pleasure, power, and presence in work and our being. I describe how work to me meant creating more struggle, disease in my body, sickness, and more dissatisfaction in the past, and how I broke that cycle in 2020 after listening to what my body was asking for. “When you slow down and you allow yourself to come into present time, you will notice that the earth and the cells are birthing themselves.” [18:26] We must learn how to become present so we can tap into our power. Work doesn't have to be driving in the fast lane, it is in slowing down and being present that we experience change. Listening to what wants to happen allows us to become resourced with new information that propels us forward into the future. “When energy moves, work is accomplished.” [20:03] When you're in the presence and pleasure is the standard for work, the power that's cultivated from the information that you're resourcing is moving the work towards more pleasure. You have to allow yourself to learn new information to avoid the same past traumas from repeating themselves. This new information comes through listening to what is available to channel power. Do you believe you're worthy of a relationship with work and your beingness that is full of pleasure? “It doesn't matter what you do, the way that you're being in your body with pleasure is going to impact the world.” [35:25] In This Episode You Will Learn: [2:20] What pleasure, power, and presence mean to me. [3:31] Deconstruct what you were taught about work and start authoring your new relationship with it. [8:48] How I redefined my definition of work and tapped into my power by being present. [16:15] How to slow down and come into the present time to experience power. [19:58] Why pleasure is the new standard for how we design our work, world, and wholeness. [26:08] How to listen through pleasure and learn new information that channels power. [29:06] The power of pleasure in the design and our wholeness. [32:20] How to tune into pleasure and change your world to be in your true power. Register for The Practice of Pleasure: A Discussion-Based Workshop and Ceremony for Cultivating a New Relationship with Sacred Work https://www.braveschool.co/the-practice-of-pleasure

How audacious are you to show up as yourself? You have power when you choose to show up as yourself. Astrology allows you to have an intimacy with yourself, to look in the mirror with yourself without judgment, and become who you came here to be. “The more that I was myself, the more success I was creating in business.” In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic Podcast, I speak with Ayesha Durrani, astrologer, and business oracle. Ayesha discovered astrology on the internet 19 years ago, and it made her feel seen as she had never felt before. It made her find sense in life and saw it as an orchestrated harmonious interaction of different consciousness of the planets. She allowed it to happen to her effortlessly without forcing herself to become an astrologer. Ayesha explains how growing up she traveled and got uprooted more than 10 times, which made her different. She always thought that life, success, and money were not for her and had a goal to just survive. She later was able to incorporate astrology into her business and realized that the more she showed up authentically, the more success she was creating in her business. “Your greatest success and prosperity are only going to come from you being more of yourself.” We discuss why it's important to stop judging what you have chosen or wishing for different things. Instead, believe that you chose who you are and then find the best way to include all the different parts that you are. Understand that you're not just one thing but different parts of yourself that exist and express in different environments. “We're not just one thing; we're different sides of ourselves that exist in different environments and have different needs.” In This Episode You Will Learn: [0:53] How discovering astrology 19 years ago helped Ayesha find sense in life. [6:16] Ayesha's journey to accepting her gift of being different and showing up authentically in business. [14:05] The power of being audacious to be yourself without fear. [23:56] How to feed the astrology archetypes, plus how you can feed yours by shining your light. [36:04] Understanding the different parts of yourself and how they show up in different environments. About Ayesha of Oath Oracle: Ayesha Durrani (also known as Oath Oracle) is an astrologer and business oracle, serving New Earth leaders to create overflowing prosperity with their soul gifts. The premise of her work is that our birth chart is the instructional manual for creating our Heaven on Earth. When we live (and do business) in alignment with our energetic blueprint, we become attuned to the rhythm of nature and the cosmos. This empowers all areas of life and allows us to quantum leap into powerful levels of fulfillment, wealth, and purpose. Ayesha lives in the wild west coast of BC, Canada. When she is not teaching or serving her private clients, she is hiking, swimming, dancing, and reading. Resources Mentioned: Website: https://oathoracle.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oath.oracle/

How do you define the line between your creative work and entrepreneurship as an artist? Are you undercharging yourself due to the fear of rejection and going against the norm? As an artist, you have to be honest and figure out for yourself where the line between your creative work and entrepreneurship lies. In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic Podcast, I speak with Paris Woodhull, an illustration artist based in Knoxville, Tennessee. Paris always wanted to become an artist growing up, which she became, and believes that her childhood shaped who she is and all of her perspectives today. Paris as an artist had undercharged herself for years but later discovered the benefits of charging higher, which include high-level clients who trust her as an expert in her field. She explains why you don't have to undercharge or underprice your creative work just because your mentor is doing so. In This Episode You Will Learn: [1:18] Get to know Paris – her childhood background and her artistic journey. [7:56] How to be smart about pricing your work as an artist without outside influences. [17:15] Paris's journey with mental health and how she's learning to be with herself with wholeness. [31:04] Learning how to show up as your authentic self and not for outside approval. [37:47] How to stop allowing people including yourself to make you feel small as an artist. [50:59] The way to allow yourself to feel safe to charge more for your work. Resources Mentioned: Website: https://pariswoodhull.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pariswoodhull/ Learn more about Brave School at www.braveschool.co.

Are you living with reactivity to what you're experiencing inside? Always in your mind trying to solve things when you should take the opportunity to get curious about what you're reacting to. What would it feel like to pause your inner monologue and instead create an inner dialogue with yourself? What would it look like to feel safe to ask your body why you're freaking out? We invite you to sit down with your body and listen to what is happening inside knowing that you are a layered being -- physical body, mental knowing, and essence, which are all equal and incredibly important. In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic Podcast, I speak with Taylor Way, an energetic strategist, human design expert, and emotional intuitive. She looks at energy and strategically works with it. She helps people unpack the narrative in business and is passionate about prioritizing what she's feeling inside. Taylor spent much of her childhood lonely and stuck in her head, which negatively affected most of her experiences. She later learned that she has a talent to manipulate people to buy, which drove her to quit her branding job and live life from both her mind and body. “I relearned everything through the lens of human design in the context of being a digital entrepreneur.” Taylor describes her journey to discovering her value in what she's doing and being successful in it. Her magic lies in being rooted in the energy of knowing the value of what she's doing. “Can you stand in the mirror and repeat to yourself and feel so deeply in yourself that this is exactly what you're meant to be doing?” “Can you trust yourself enough to keep showing up, to keep speaking to the layers of the nuance, to keep allowing people to see what's underneath this, and let your light be received? Taylor believes that we're conditioned to the inner monologue and the process of deconditioning is creating a dialogue, having a conversation with the resistance. She created a container (The Grey Area Offer) for people to be able to go in and have someone reflect and encourage the curiosity inside without judging that they feel like victims inside and instead explore it. You wouldn't want to miss this deep conversation I had with Taylor Way! In This Episode You Will Learn: [6:40] The power of having an inner dialogue to understand the happenings of your body. [13:20] How Taylor works with energy to help others unpack the narrative in business. [17:44] Taylor's background story before relearning everything through the lens of human design. [25:02] How to see the value in what you're doing and be successful in doing it. [34:42] The Grey Area Offer – helping people explore the curiosity and victim inside without judgment. [47:26] How to impact others by voicing what you're seeing and allowing it to manifest in the earthly plane. Resources Mentioned: Website: https://www.wayofbeingyou.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beingtaylorway/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-way-44a82285/

How do you connect with the ecosystem around you? Are you valuing others and deepening your human experience of this witnessing? The earth is speaking through us to look inside and to show up constantly in the ecosystem around us and leave it better than we found it. It is time to fuse tradition with what exists today. “We are the ancestors of this time.” [21:11] In this episode of the Regenerative Mystic Podcast, I speak with Malika Avani, a creative consultant, documentary film-maker, internationally recognized facilitator of soul songs, and founder of "The Healing Drum.” Malika has been a custodian of the healing drum for 9 years. The healing drum is about coming back to the cyclical body, rhythmic body, and a rhythm that is a lot more regenerative and less into the ways of creating. She teaches people how to own their voices, birth their own soul songs, and come back to the practice of drumming. Malika is also moving into business creative consultancy to support creatives to birth a system that supports them in their creation process. We talk about the creation of an ecosystem rooted in the crossroad of shamanism and business. Malika explains how she's living out her ancestors' lives while still fusing tradition with what exists today and refuting the idea of neo-shamanism. She was taught to show up with grace to the local communities everywhere she goes – to walk with humility in the land of others and bring reciprocity. It is time we stop romanticizing indigenous tribes and allow them to experience the tail end of capitalism if that's what they desire. “A lot of people want the wisdom of culture but they don't want the struggle.” [31:56] It is important that we investigate the tradition/lineage that we're practicing, where it comes from, and try not to omit certain things we don't know how to sit with. We should be vigilant not to bow down to certain structures that no longer serve us. We need to celebrate diversity, to proudly grow things to connect with the earth without trying to take a culture from others. “Being in a space of leadership is also knowing that you are going be the first one showing up into the room and call out certain energetics.” [48:05] Listen in to learn the importance of connecting the inner with the outer and learning through the birthing process of your business. You will also learn how you can shift your value system into the profoundness of the in-between spaces of communities. In This Episode You Will Learn: [5:47] How to connect and create a relationship with the ecosystem around us. [14:12] Malika on living like her ancestor plus the rise of neo-shamanism. [25:36] How to show up with grace, humility, and reciprocity when walking through the land of others. [30:00] Why we shouldn't be romanticizing indigenous cultures as outsiders. [39:00] How to promote diversity by honoring where we come from and celebrating other cultures. [47:40] The work it takes to birth a business authentic to yourself and the mother. [1:01:01] Malika on how she's helping people come back into creating a sacred business with the self. Resources Mentioned: Website: http://healingdrum.earth/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehealingdrum.earth/ Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/malikahealingdrum/

In this episode, I share a bit about how we got here. From Day 1, January 2020, the essence of Brave School (as an idea, an entity) has always contained this vision of "dreaming our world back into wholeness." In those beginning days, I, Daje, wrote a lot about what it could look like to have a "politics of dreaming". I wove it into the most present modality alive in my work, brand strategy, because brand strategy provides straightforward, tangible, and grounding systems for us to channel beauty into the culture. I honestly didn't see any difference between the power of the nervous system and the power of a strategic system -- they both help us carry stories that can make way for transformation. Both systems are wired to build, heal, comfort, serve, solve, and hold space for our wholeness to be birthed in waves upon iterative waves of innovation in the world. In the building of business entities, and ideas, if the physical body and the stories they hold were the brick, then brand strategy could most certainly be a mortar of some kind. Back when Brave School began as a 6-week Brand Strategy Intensive in January 2020, I couldn't have imagined that this door would lead to exploring wholeness, belonging, authenticity, and voice-honoring magic in the work, but I'm so glad it did. In this week's episode, I talk about what I think Regenerative Mysticism is. I share how we got here. About Structure as Medicine: Structure as Medicine is a free 90-minute workshop about reimagining the role of structure, strategy, and systems in the creative process. This workshop is a space for you to recognize and appreciate your wholeness, to surrender to your body's knowing, and to the power of the systems, structures, and strategies that already exist in your natural landscape, ready to support your vision. Learn more here: https://www.braveschool.co/structure-as-medicine

The Regenerative Mystic Podcast seeks to ask the question: How can we design futures that center our wholeness? I decided to change the name of the Brave School Podcast to the Regenerative Mystic podcast because this new moniker tells a fuller story of our content and expression. While I recognize the new title presents two very prominent “buzzwords”, I believe the new moniker will be more recognizable to those who are searching for conversations that not only center the rebuild of our cultures in a new earth futurist mythology but also explores how we long contribute to the design of futures that center collective wholeness. Regenerative Mysticism responds with grace and curiosity to the globally shared, innate, and ineffable desire to escape the horrors of our realities by manifesting a new one – one that holds little to no corruption, where everyone feels “safe”, and all resources are inexplicably accessible. Regenerative Mysticism describes the work of returning of re-wholing ourselves and holds the tension that though this sounds ideal, cultural re-wholing is a design challenge that invites us to radically evolve our human conscious awareness and our capacity for connection and change. Regenerative Mysticism seeks to explore the middle ground between already and not yet, by asking questions about how and what we innovate in our journies back to the wholeness. Much of our content will continue to weave stories of the creative process and entrepreneurship because I personally believe that these topics are central to designing new cultures. In this next evolution of the podcast, Regenerative Mystic is asking the question, “How can we design futures that center our wholeness? How can we design futures of grace, human-centeredness, and nurturance? How can we build cultural containers that can hold this vision of our expression of our humanity with wholeness?”

Are you ready to connect with the earth and live with your wild heart? To move past the ingrained lies and go back to community living like we were meant to? In this episode of the Brave School Podcast, I speak with Rev. Briana Lynn, a Nature-Based Guide who supports youth, students, magical influencers, coaches, speakers, C-levels, change-makers. She helps them get in touch with their Spirit, integrates (heal) all past trauma, & live with their hearts WIDE open to the divine in their fullest expression of WILD love. Rev. Briana has always had a relentless passion for life and love for people. She grew up in a mostly Latino and farming community in Southern California, which fascinated her. She now lives in a community in Belize where she's learning how to listen and be a bridge as she deconstructs the white supremacy from her ancestors. “The best thing that I can do with my privilege is build the stage and invite others onto it.” [16:54] It is time we get back on the land and create a village that is good and safe for humans. To start growing our own food, to embrace cultural diversity, and talk about all the things we've put under the radar. We're hungry to be whole villagers again, and it is when we align with that vision that abundance will flow. “Anything that we've allocated to the government, federal, or state we have to reclaim in this lifetime to truly be spiritual people.” [30:39] For those in the Saturn Return, continue having conversations about connecting with the earth, entrepreneurship, and abundance while spending time with those who can nourish us. Continue being conscious about your relationship, how you're spending your time, and the rituals you're having. Strive to get better during your Saturn Return – allow your masculine to protect the divine feminine. To build a relationship with your masculine so you don't have to look for it externally. “What induces orgasm is full presence, full safety, and full freedom.” [1:11:44] In This Episode You Will Learn: [3:08] The deconstruction and learning space that Rev. Briana is in right now. [11:55] How she's creating a better space for people of color as a white presenting woman. [20:55] How to evoke the energy of equality where each party receives the best. [34:52] Understanding that we're co-creating our human experience. [41:00] How we can create heaven on earth by awakening and restoring life. [47:27] Rev. Briana on how she got here and her love for connecting with plants. [56:45] How to connect with your masculine to protect your divine feminine during a Saturn return. [1:03:00] Understanding what is a true orgasm and how to achieve its full force. [1:12:19] The power of the GP$ (pussy) – the decision-making framework. Orgasmic Oracle https://theearthtemple.com/orgasmic-oracle • Online w/ optional in-person event! • Available to pussyhavers/women • 11-weeks of Bliss A deep dive into the ORACLE that you are:

Are you ready to take ownership of who you are and make the reality you want to live? When you show up to the energy of creation, you can collaborate with the Universe/God to make the reality you want to live in. In this episode of the Brave School Podcast, I speak with Pea the Feary, an Afrofuturist artist, and mystic. Whose work is about possibility, potential, beauty, and realization. Through their work, Pea is creating beauty while opening portals for others to do the same if they would like. She wants creatives, non-linear, multidimensional geniuses to know they can thrive in this world. You can be yourself, be free, and have power over your reality, and Pea is here to share that message. Listen in to learn how timeline jumping allows you to create your own reality even when you're feeling stuck. You will also know why timeline jumping isn't selfish or wrong because it's about accessing your reality in all regards. In This Episode You Will Learn: [8:37] Pea – the combination of Teatree oil and a rocket ship. [11:32] Pea's strict Christian background and how it formed her relationship with spirit. [13:38] How she shifted her communication and relationship with God to her “big” self. [20:04] How human design allowed her to access the creative potential within. [30:07] Timeline jumping – shifting your state of being/vibration to more of you. [38:02] How to stop lying to yourself with spiritual bypassing, and instead use timeline jumping. [42:50] Pea explains how death makes her feel as if not losing anything. [48:20] Understanding the creative processes can be defined as timeline jumping. [54:08] Pea shares some of the things she's working on. Connect with Pea the Feary: Website: https://www.peathefeary.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peathefeary/ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/2F4BheKmjESMDZGwMOn2d8?si=psHZV9BSSre3IGLAQtKYsQ App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/spacious-network/id1584729027 Resources Mentioned: The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: https://www.amazon.com/Spontaneous-Fulfillment-Desire-Harnessing-Coincidence/dp/B000133Q1G/ref=sr_1_1?crid=LWXXQMMTEPIU&keywords=the+spontaneous+fulfillment+of+desire&qid=1641594898&s=books&sprefix=the+spontaneous%2Cstripbooks%2C82&sr=1-1 What is Human Design: https://www.jovianarchive.com/Human_Design/What_is_it Pea the Feary, Timeline Jumping: https://www.peathefeary.com/customshop/timeline-jumping-audio Maryam Hasnaa, Timeline Jumping: https://www.maryamhasnaa.com/timeline-jumping The Spacious App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/spacious-network/id1584729027 Soulection: https://soulection.com/

Where is the line between your story of success and the stories you see floating around on the internet? What does it look like for you to come home to your true desires and your experience in the creative process? What would it look like for you to clear your channels of the noise of voices gathering like a barrage at the door of your vision? Do you truly want it all? Or are your true desires more subtle? Finer? Specific? I recognized that being a Strategist wasn't a purpose of mine, it was just my ego taking over and it became clear to me that I am here to be myself. My value proposition is to hold space for creatives to breathe in their process, to have an expanded capacity. I'm not going to run away from the unfolding that's happening in my life; I surrender to the seed of desires in my heart. “I am no longer defined by external standards of what success should look like or what I think I should be.” [16:43] In this episode of the Brave School Podcast, I dive deep into some of the lessons 2021 taught me and what I'm embracing in 2022. I am committed to being in integrity with what my soul is here to do this year. Now I know I've come here to share the seed of my desires, and I need to be in my authority and move past the ego of being shy and small and into being bold and big. I am not here to have it all, I'm here to have the life that is the most resonating and reflective of my soul's deepest desires. The deep desires, unlike external desires, they're the desires that drive you to create, which is what I'm surrendering to reach mysticism. “I am committed to being in integrity with what my soul is here to do.” [18:39] The archetype of the mountain is about the real jewel that's inside the mountain – to go up you must go in. You have to stop looking outward or the way other people are doing it to fulfill you. Find joy, celebration, and neutrality when you see other people experiencing their life and in their entrepreneurial journey. Then, turn inward without using their metrics as a barometer for your success. “I'm here to have the life that is the most resonate and reflective of my soul's deepest desires.” [26:48] How are you setting yourself up to explore in the spring? How is the ecosystem of your soul doing? Are you exercising spiritual hygiene? What is your internal and relational ecosystem right now? Are you setting up the right modalities for your desires to happen at the right time? You have to allow your desires to happen by creating the containers that will allow you to birth them into your life. It is time to surrender to the seed of your desire by getting low and going in instead of pursuing the isolating path up the mountain. How are the energies of January supporting the work you're here to do on the inside? I invite you to see the seed of your desire as good and define the courage to decern the difference between your ego's path and your heart's path. Dial-in. This is the month to get clear about where you end and the culture begins. This is the month to attune to your values and vision with discernment and a listening ear. This is the month to locate your clarity and fine-tune the channels and the paths to get to where you're going. You have a unique way of crafting a vision that is worthy of being honored and kept sacred. What would it look like to fortify your systems? To clear your channels? To structure energetic boundaries that protect your sense of devotion to your vision and creative practice? Register for Voice of the Soul https://www.braveschool.co/voice-of-the-soul

High Sensitive Intuitives are seeing things in different ways. Period. I believe it's going to change the world. I didn't know that I needed to build nervous system resilience in order to own myself and exist in the world. I didn't know that I needed to practice self-compassion to do it. I thought it was normal to live your whole life in a survival / stressed / collapsed response. I thought it was normal to exist in constant anxiety and that that's just how living in the world is—carrying the weight and belief that something was always "wrong" with me. This is why self-kindness became my constant mantra. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to yourself. I wrote a book of poems about it and filled countless journals. I wrote all of my songs about it. Spirit was guiding me into learning how to see my tenderness as valid, valuable, and normal. I couldn't fully see it until I decided to eject from the nightmare of trying to keep up with the patriarchal-capitalistic world. I couldn't see it until I decided to stop looking for someone to be my safe place and start to own myself and become the true support I needed to thrive. Resources The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr. Elaine Aron New Earth Mystery School by Maryam Hasnaa Free Workshop: Register for Coming Home to the Market Upcoming Immersion: Register for Slow Branding II

In this episode of the Brave School Podcast, we sit down with Eso Tolson to talk about how design systems, style, and standards can be used to inspire a sense of wholeness in the culture. Eso is a lettering artist and brand strategist who creates work rooted in affirmation, pride, and community that allows people to feel safe and inspired. At Cheers Creative, a Memphis-based brand and web consultancy, he teaches branding through strategy and storytelling for creative professionals, thought leaders, and social causes. As a lover of community, pop culture, and inner-city life, he uses lettering to highlight current events and promote positive social messages and affirmations. https://www.instagram.com/coolurbanhippie/

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to consistently attract clients that are amazing to be in a creative process with? Clients, who feel values-aligned and are willing to trust the containers you've created together for transformation to occur? Or, perhaps you're someone who is at the very beginning stages of your entrepreneurial journey and you'd like to begin the process of identifying the clients you'd like to work with. In this episode, Michael and Daje identify five strategic components for attracting resonant clients: A Focused Intention The Ability to Share with Conviction A Clear Invitation The Willingness to Test and Experiment Patience + Devotion to the Commitment to find Resonance ABOUT SLOW BRANDING Register Here: https://www.braveschool.co/slow-branding Slow Branding is an invitation to connect with the real-life stories your community of customers are living. Gone are the days where white-walled feeds hold long-term relevance. And though there's nothing wrong with constructing highly aesthetic Instagram feeds and investing in expensive visual identity systems and packaging, if it does not center the relationships that we're developing with the people we're serving, the stories they are living in, or the resources they are looking for, aesthetic marketing is little more than manipulation. Slow Branding is about the willingness to slow down and listen to our audience's real desires and challenges while speaking wildly specific truths to their needs. Despite popular belief, your brand is not your logo. It's not your color palette or photography or the aesthetics in your Instagram feed. Your brand is the story your customers believe about your business. Slow Branding is an invitation to see how the story of your business intersects with the real stories your customers are living. Profound beauty and real solutions can be found in the tensions your customers are experiencing. Your brand is the story that meets them there. In Slow Branding, you'll learn to... - Craft a value proposition that speaks the language of your community's desires and needs. - Conduct human-centered market research that enables your brand to provide relevant solutions to the right people. - Deepen the relationship between your business and your community with intentional culture, iterative design, and somatic wisdom.

We are wired to connect and be a part of a global ecosystem. Strategy is not about finding and conquering what we think is ours to take. It's about becoming integrated with all that is and all that surrounds us for the sake of creating more beauty, more humanness in the world. This is a re-post from my interview with Miranda of Mariposa Journal where we discussed Dharmic Creative Work. Enjoy! From the Healer Series: Daje aka @thestorydoula is an Intuitive Strategist & Creative Process Guide, the creator of Brave School and y'all they are so, so much more. In this episode, Daje so poetically speaks about: the intuitive embodied strategy of keeping our ear to the ground, to the soil, listening to our ancestors. bravery as the willingness to belong to ourselves. the flowers telling us the story of our wholeness before we even are able to conceive it. & the profound beauty that can be found in tension. Free resources from Mariposa: Guide on Herbal Nervines: Herbs to Drop into the Body. 5 Day Back2Nature Challenge.

There was a moment not too long ago when I was feeling rather emotional and a little lost. I was facing so many challenges in my business. I felt like a failure as a leader and a CEO. I was being so hard on myself. I felt untrustworthy and curious about why God had called me to this work in this field. Me, a college drop out with half an education. Me, a femme. A woman. Skin, black. No support systems outside of my immediate partnership and chose family. I could see myself spiraling into a story of victimhood. My mentor told me to go outside and surrender my body to the earth. They told me, "Go and lay in the dirt. Naked, if you can. Surrender. Let the earth restructure you." And I did that. I woke up the next morning. And it was like my body knew what my soul needed. I walked out into the enclosed backyard and I stripped completely naked. and I lay my body against the cold wet dewy grass. The dirt underneath me felt like a sponge for my body. And I remembered. I remembered that I was apart of everything. I remembered that it wasn't about me. That this was an "us" thing. Me and earth and my guides and the plants I consume and the air I breathe. I remembered that I was apart of a bigger story and I baptized myself in that ocean of belonging. I surrendered my tearful, hiccupy breath to the dirt. I remembered that everything I needed had already been provided. Everything I need to know, the earth held. And it was time to pay attention to her guidance. Her wisdom. Her cycles. It's because everything we need to know in building business is a mirror of how Mama Gaia operates. You have everything you need inside of you. Even when it all feels elusive and unclear. Slow down. Clear the space. Make ritual. And Listen. ABOUT SLOW BRANDING Register Here: https://www.braveschool.co/slow-branding Slow Branding is an invitation to connect with the real-life stories your community of customers are living. Gone are the days where white-walled feeds hold long-term relevance. And though there's nothing wrong with constructing highly aesthetic Instagram feeds and investing in expensive visual identity systems and packaging, if it does not center the relationships that we're developing with the people we're serving, the stories they are living in, or the resources they are looking for, aesthetic marketing is little more than manipulation. Slow Branding is about the willingness to slow down and listen to our audience's real desires and challenges while speaking wildly specific truths to their needs. Despite popular belief, your brand is not your logo. It's not your color palette or photography or the aesthetics in your Instagram feed. Your brand is the story your customers believe about your business. Slow Branding is an invitation to see how the story of your business intersects with the real stories your customers are living. Profound beauty and real solutions can be found in the tensions your customers are experiencing. Your brand is the story that meets them there. In Slow Branding, you'll learn to... - Craft a value proposition that speaks the language of your community's desires and needs. - Conduct human-centered market research that enables your brand to provide relevant solutions to the right people. - Deepen the relationship between your business and your community with intentional culture, iterative design, and somatic wisdom.

Failures, Pivots and Challenges are a Natural Part of the Creative Process So many creatives carry a wound of abandonment and a fear of rejection around walking through failure. There's this fear that if we fail, make mistakes, or create frustration with our clients through the mistakes we make, that we are doomed to be outcast and rejected forever. So many of us have experienced such intense cases of abandonment and rejection that we even believe, fully, that this experience of being cast out is something we deserved––we called for it. We "deserved" to have it happen. We deserve failure. It's deserved punishment. But this is not true. Your failures do not define you. You define you. You are a self-defined being. And when you decide who you are, will you allow your body to follow suit? Mediation is an intentional move to change the conditions and dynamics of a relationship. In many situations, it is a move from reactive and chaotic, dysfunctional conflict into intentional and potentially generative conflict. From Holding Change by Adrienne Maree Brown, pg. 126, Intentional Adaptation Mediation Ignore the tangents, follow the feelings. Sometimes tangents are a part of the process. Sometimes. Often they are a brain and memory loop. Your nervous system is lit up and triggered. Literally travelling through time / space and into a past moment, causing your body to live into that past moment too. Following the feelings--sorting through and naming them can help us to come back to the present and find what we need. Ask hopeful questions like, "How do your feelings connect to what you need most in this moment?" Try to move into what you can control. You can't control people. You can't control the internet. You can't control if Zapier or Google has a lil break down. But you can control your self to some degree. You can at least breathe. So, take a breath and ask, "What is the essence of what you want to happen with yourself right now?" Change is the only constant. Chances are you're f*cking up because something wants change. It's not because you're inadequate and incapable of being reliable, resourceful, and ethical. And change toward a desired outcome is possible. It is possible to have a successful system, a setup, a business that suits all of your needs. These mistakes are not your identity. And the more quickly you can come to terms with the fact that the story of your "wholeness" actually does include all of you. And not just the brightest, most vibrant. The more quickly you can see yourself, the more options will present themselves to you. There are as many options as there are aspects to your being. Links: https://psychcentral.com/lib/cognitive-distortions-negative-thinking#how-to-stop https://whitepicketfencecounselingcenter.com/tag/cognitive-distortions/ Holding Change by Adrienne Maree Brown

Sometimes, it's not even about jealousy. Sometimes, you just don't even have a frame of reference for your own deservingness. This was also me. Doing excellent work for less than what was equitable. I wanted to “earn” my stripes in “the industry”. But the stripes I earned were deeper levels of poverty and hustling, giving away my high-quality effort and seeing everyone else (especially my clients) as more worthy than me. This was backwards. Upside down. But it's a big story in our paradigm. This is why I believe so many women are on mission to help others raise their rates and break out of this matrix–this bogus story that some invisible industry god is requiring you to pay your dues to "the industry" before you can even think about affording to ethically receive the levels of equitable resources that are required to build sovereignty and sustainability. If that's you, be kind to yourself for "missing the assignment". You can open your eyes now. See it all in front of you. It's real. It's possible. Be honest about what you can do. Own what you bring. Your equity is possible. I hope this episode encourages you to keep going. By the way, I'm opening Brave Session again to only 10 spots this season. Find a link to how you can book a 90-minute intuitive strategy session with me here: https://www.thestorydoula.co/brave-sessions. After we sell out, I'll be closing this container until the next quarter. The Building Brave Membership is also still open for enrollment. You can learn more about it here: https://www.braveschool.co/building-brave-2

Welcome back to the Building Brave podcast. In this episode, we discuss the importance of Building Strategic Foundations so that as the market shifts and culture changes, you have something sturdy to continue building upon instead of finding yourself lost in a sea of tactics and strategies. we invite you to consider the following thoughts: Coming home to your body and developing trust in your inner compass is deeply foundational, strategic work. There is permission to leave behind dogmatic / culty / manipulating marketing tactics that leave you flailing in the wind and develop real relationships with your customers, your business, and the marketplace. Change is the only constant. Fractal evolution is our pattern as a humanity. Consider building strategic foundations that support growth, evolution, and the capacity to hold change and transformation instead of hide from it. There is radical medicine in seeing your business as a separate entity from you. It is a portal for liberation and radical change in the collective. It is not your whole identity. It does not have to carry the weight of your whole purpose in the world. It is an entity worthy of boundaries, respect, relationship, listening, and care. Perhaps your only role as a founder is to nurture its growth through providing leadership, frameworks, and direction. About Building Brave Building Brave kicks off the season on October 5th. Building Brave is an intuitive strategy membership for wild-hearted creative entrepreneurs who long to show up without selling out their souls to the internet. This intuitive strategy membership is for empaths, intuitives, and highly sensitive creators who have a keen desire to witness cultural evolution. This is a space to cultivate devotion, to forge connections, and pave the path forward with honesty, clarity, and direction. Learn more about Building Brave here: https://www.braveschool.co/building-brave-2