The Embodied Way Podcast

“Will my culture thank me if I disrupt its complacency?” Zhenevere Sophia Dao asks some of the most piercing, identity-deconstructing and soul-generating questions of our time, while she also embodies the answers with deep, poetic presence and humility. In this episode, we speak to this rare teacher, philosopher, embodiment artist, poetess, and transgender woman,  about the mysteries and the politics of gender, and about what she calls “the transgender necessity”. Zhenevere takes us on an up-close and personal journey into her own process of reclaiming her true gender, and, with spellbinding urgency, invites us to consider the social need to not only accept but to celebrate transgender people as messengers of what is possible in a life– and in a culture. ABOUT OUR GUEST Zhenevere Sophia Dao is a poet, novelist, playwright, and director of the SACRA Theater Company in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A transgender woman, she is also the founder of the practice tradition of MogaDao and the MogaDao Institute. Zhenevere was a Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University, and has published fiction with Penguin Books. Find more about her work:  www.mogadaoinstitute.com   THIS EPISODE'S WISDOM BITE "Self-othering, or becoming trans inside of a culture or a self,  is what enables an absolute emancipation and a mythopoetic recreation of a new way of being in the world."  "The transgender person is not just to be accepted but to be celebrated as deeply needed and necessary: The self-othering that is a necessary part of a transgender person's emergence is actually a very important part of everyone psychological makeup. We often make great changes in our lives when we become ‘other' to ourselves. It is a powerful tool of transparency  to one's soul that everyone needs. And transgender people, we are masters at that, at self-othering– and of taking that self-othering into transformation and evolution."

What does it take for one to feel an utter and lasting sense of belonging––belonging to one's family, communities, and culture, belonging in one's body, belonging with a partner, and to one's own self? In this conversation with Canadian writer, teacher, and dreamworker Toko-pa Turner who authored the award-winning book Belonging, we contemplate the distinction between fitting-in and belonging, the reasons why non-belonging  is the silent pandemic of our times, the two lovers we must introduce within ourselves, and the competencies  we must learn and practice in order to experience belonging in a fragmented world.   

A brief and unprecedented episode, in which host Stefana Serafina discusses the coronavirus outbreak as a movement of archetypal  universal intelligence, a "raising of the voice of the the Wild Earth that is surging to make herself understood: Pressing pause now is only the start...." "Sit down together–but a new kind of together", Corona seems to be saying,  "Pause and come still,  as a global organization that now gets a chance to meditate on its impact on the much vaster organization of life." To share this episode from our webpage: http://www.embodiedway.com/coronathecrone/ To share this episode in the form of a written essay: https://www.intuitivedance.org/single-post/2020/03/17/Corona-the-Crone-We-Must-Be-Changed

Long before social injustice becomes obvious and explicit, our bodies  experience it, internalize it, and embody it as non-verbal patterns. In this conversation with Dr. Rae Johnson, a scholar working at the intersection of somatic studies and social justice, we expose the mostly unconscious behaviors that perpetuate oppression in an embodied way,  how oppression is experienced as a bodily felt sense,  and how we can learn to undo oppression through the body–– both as we experience it and as we inflict it on others. Rae Johnson, PhD, RSMT is a queer-identified scholar working at the intersection of somatic studies and social justice. Key themes in their work include the embodied experience of oppression, somatic approaches to research, and the poetic body.  They are the chair of the Somatic Psychology Doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and the author of several books, including "Embodying Social Justice".  https://raejohnsonsomatic.com/

On the importance of creating a culture of emotionally aware and expressed people, and the significance of allowing our bodies to express in a primal and liberated way, as an example of nature and its many states, storms, colors and changes. We speak with somatic healer, dancer, and embodiment facilitator, BERNADETTE PLEASANT, the founder of FEMME!, a modality for all genders. Tune in for this vibrant conversation about  how to harness the primal power and vulnerability of our emotions through the body, in a way that makes us freer, more alive, and more connected.    EPISODE'S WISDOM BITES:  Our bodies are created in the likeness of nature. Sunsets don't hold back. Rainstorms and the ocean get to be so many things; there is no one right way for them to be. And so we also get to be that expressive: We get to be water, we get to be gentle as a fine mist, we get to be still and inviting, we get to be ferocious, we get to be frozen, or warm. We get to be everything that is given to us by example of nature. And the invitation is that nature in no iteration   stays the same or operates in a thin or narrow margin. There is change, there is growth, there is color, there is beauty, there is barren, there is every-thing in nature! And our bodies too, our way of being, of moving, of emoting, are all of that– all the ways in which we can live our bodies as an example of nature.” “When my body is freeas it wishes, as opposed to traditional forms of dance, and I am feeling, say, rage,I am  not focusing on a pointed toe and an angle, but I get to bring whatever needs to move through me, in such a complete way that I feel wider after I move: I have given that which I am feeling the movement and the sound that it needs to express through my body. So I  often tell people to bring me their “too-much”. If they have ever been told that they were too much, I say to them, “Bring it to me! I want your too-muchness.” Those are the kind of people I want to run tribe with, to create a community with. If we get to be fully expressed through our bodies, imagine the lives we get to live.” More about Bernadette's work at https://livefemme.com Bernadette Pleasant is the Creator of Femme! a mind and body wellness modality, rooted in dance, sensuality, emotional and creative expression, inclusivity and empowerment for all. A  gifted somatic healer, dancer, and entrepreneur, Bernadette creates immersive experiences that empower and celebrate people of all genders, ages, sizes, and fitness levels. She travels the world to offer transformative embodiment and regularly leads discussions on emotional healing, inclusive movement, and embodied empowerment.  She is also a woman of color who comes from a long line of natural healers, and an experienced practitioner and teacher  of Pole Dancing, Nia, and African Dance. Her classrooms welcome participants without judgment and support them on their paths to finding comfort in their own skin.   

How does one know that they are standing at a threshold whose crossing is a promise that life will never be the same?  What gives us the power to move through the toughest, the biggest, or the most influential turning points of our lives? And why are the body and the heart, dance and community our best allies in both personal and collective rites of passage? Listen to Dr. Melissa Michaels weigh in on these powerful questions, and speak to the importance of finding one's soul path vs. getting on the “success path”.   ––––– Melissa Michaels, is a doctor of education, a movement– and rites-of-passage guide and facilitator, a youth mentor, a community leader and activist, based in Boulder, CO. She creates movement based cross-cultural educational opportunities focusing on the potential that is available at major life thresholds. Her work uses the expressive and social arts to establish body and heart as resources for authentic expression, and for mapping the journey from trauma to dynamic well-being. Recognizing the essential need for the body in our cultural conversations about how to serve the next generation, she has developed comprehensive programs, assisting youth and the adults who serve them in accessing their kinesthetic intelligence and their capacity to move with grace, focus, and freedom. Melissa creates safe and provocative learning environments that support individuals and communities in the embodied exploration of how creativity serves awakening and connection.  Melissa is the Founder and Director of  a couple of international somatic education and Rites-Of-Passage programs. She also founded Golden Bridge, the nonprofit organization that serves as the umbrella for her work and the work of the hundreds of emerging leaders who have come of age in her programs. Melissa is the author of the book, Youth On Fire: Igniting a Generation of Embodied Global Leaders. She is the mother of three daughters and a mentor for youth across the globe. Find more about Melissa's work at  http://www.goldenbridge.org/    

This conversation with Zhen Dao, creator of the Mogadao Institute tradition, is a mythopoetic, down-to-earth, and sensuous contemplation on rediscovering the true erotic nature of being as a return to our vulnerability and our need for each other. We speak about Eros beyond the impoverished cultural perceptions and modern exploits, and bring the erotic back  into the context of making full-body contact with one another and the living world, taking the great risk of  becoming spiritually naked in our mutual need for “other”, and letting ourselves be found and touched in our deepest longing.   ABOUT ZHEN DAO  Zhen Dao is the founder of the Daoist–based practice tradition of MogaDao, and the MogaDao Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a transgender embodiment master, poet, novelist, and writer on a variety of philosophical, and cultural subjects, and her teachings come in one of the most unique, spellbinding, and truth-telling voices of our times. Zhen is  also the director of the theater company SACRA: Immanence Theater in Santa Fe.  More about Zhen and the Mogadao Institute: https://www.mogadaoinstitute.com     THIS EPISODE's QUOTES “Eros is the enfleshing, the making flesh, of the longing for an extraordinary life. And what that means is the spiritual nudity to come out of your protective place and to expose the mutuality of need and long and desire that characterize the truth of existence.” “We no longer have faith that touching other people, either literally or emotionally or intellectually,  is an end in and of itself. When we lose that faith in contact as a reason to live, not as way to get some place else, but as an essential purpose of life– to be in contact, to bleed back and forth on each other emotionally, spiritually , sexually, sensually, intellectually, and to color our worlds and each other through our need– when we lose that faith we get relegated to performing, to being objects of entertainment, and relationships become about what they can produce.” “The soul colors itself in eros, and it cannot reveal itself without eros. The soul is frigid without eros.”    

MAKING SOUL FOR A TROUBLED WORLD, with Michael Meade   How to make more soul for a world that seems to be falling apart?  “What you love is the cure”, reminds us mythologist Michael Meade.  In this conversation with the renowned storyteller, author, and scholar, we speak about why it's of the essence to get closer to what you  love and do more of it, so you can be in conversation with your own soul, harvesting its timeless resources for living a meaningful life and making more soul for the world. Join us for this rich conversation on the significance of lunar knowledge, embodied soul wisdom, mythological acupuncture, and living with purpose in times like ours. “We all hope our lives have meaning. The way to make sure of that is to love what we love and make more soul for the world. When we make more soul through our personal genius,  life is more present, things are more connected, and the world secretly more united.”   ABOUT MICHAEL MEADE Michael Meade, D.H.L., is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. He has an unusual ability to distill and synthesize these disciplines, tapping into ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories we are living today. He is the author of The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of The Soul, Why the World Doesn't End, and The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul. Meade is the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artist, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples. For more information about Michael's work, books, and podcast:  www.mosaicvoices.org www.livingmyth.org THIS EPISODE's QUOTES “It can feel at first that we are falling, but really what we do is fall to the ground of the soul,  where we have each inherited deep resources for life. And in the soul there resides the genius of a person' life–– the spirit that is already there. There is a deep spirit in the soul of each person, and when things are falling apart, it is soul that we need to bring everything  back together.” “So we are experiencing in culture a loss of soul. And we are here to make more soul. It begins with the individual, with everyone's personal genius,  and once enough soul has been made by individuals, then we can reconnect to the collective and begin to change life. And our issues right now are so profound and widespread that we need many people's genius, and many people's soulful connections in order to build our way back to a meaningful culture, and a meaningful connection of culture to nature.”

Deya Dova is a ground breaking vocalist, electronic music producer and an international touring artist from Australia, who records her music live at sacred sites. We speak about the experience of merging body and earth and blending into the landscape as a way of giving voice to the land, and singing  the ancient human myths that can unite modern humans in new ways. Tune in for some live singing, newly released tunes, and this in-depth conversation with Deya Dova and co-producer Hamilton Barnett.     DEYA DOVA Synthesizing ancient songlines, tribal voices and inspired story telling with cinematic soundscapes, future bass and totemic beats, Deya Dova invokes temple mysticism and brings euphoric tribalism to the dance floor. Hailing from the expansive Nullarbor desert in Australia and now based in the Byron Bay Area, Deya writes, records and produces all of her intricate vocal work and also designs her costuming and album artwork.  Deya and her co-producer and husband Hamilton Barnett fuse into their music and performances the earthy humanness and sensual power of Deya's voice with the cutting edge futurism of Global Bass music. THIS EPISODE WISDOM QUOTES: “It's an incredible emotional thing for me to sing directly from the landscapes of sacred sites . As soon as I go to a sacred site,  I start to recall it, memories of it begin coming in, and the experience I have is of being imprinted with the landscape. All of these sites for me are relations. Each of them is a relationship and a deep love. They come up as a bunch of friends walking through the field and say “Speak about me, speak about me!” I listen without an agenda. It is an experience of symbiotic connection, when me and the earth become one; there is no separation. This ancient memory is surging up through the earth and the cosmos and it's the same memory that is surging through my own body. It's this DNA matching, we enter this dance and because I am a singer, it becomes expressed as sound.” “Paramount for me is the belief and the understanding that within each and every human being we have all the colors existing within us, the black, the red, the yellow,  and the white, and the mixture of all of those- which is so many of us are now, a mixture of all the colors, the five fingers on the hand, the five brothers and sisters who live inside each of us. My journey has been so much about connecting to each of those colors. I don't deny my black voice, I don't deny my white voice. I acknowledge and respect my red voice, I love and  appreciate my yellow voice, and I sing them all together as my brown voice. It is in this embodiment of the colors, the memories and the nations that are all inside of us, that we can really find reunification on the planet.” ~Deya Dova “There is a lot of hope in the indigenous voices  we hear that bring people together. We notice that there are voices that persist to keep separation and there are other voices that come from true leaders that look to unify the people going forward.” ~Hamilton Barnett    

On following the body's internal and evolutionary wisdom to generate new life. We speak to Tina Stromsted, PhD about the body as an intelligent orchestra always organizing for  healing and growth, movement as the language of the soul, and bringing light into the dark places of the psyche by using the body's guidance. A guided practice is offered at the end of the conversation.  ----- Tina Stromsted, Ph.D. is a Jungian psychoanalyst, dance therapist, and somatics educator.  She was a founding faculty member of the Women's Spirituality Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and a co-founder and faculty member of the Authentic Movement Institute in Berkeley (1993-2004). Currently she teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, the Depth Psychology/Somatics Doctoral program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and as a core faculty member for the Marion Woodman Foundation.  With 40 years of clinical experience, and a background in dance and theater, she teaches at universities and healing centers internationally, and has a special interest in the creative process, neuroscience, attachment theory, eco-psychology, and embodied spirituality. Developer of Dreamdancing, Embodied Alchemy, and Soul's Body Center, Dr. Stromsted's numerous articles and book chapters explore the integration of body, brain, psyche and soul in healing and transformation.   For more information visit  www.AuthenticMovement-BodySoul.com  More episodes @ www.embodiedway.com   THIS EPISODES WISDOM QUOTES   “We tend to split the body and spirit, we think of the body as matter as something to carry our head around, to perfect, to diet, to repress, to represent us in a particular way, rather than a deep living organismic collection of rivers and island and soft places and deep places and organs. The body is like an orchestra that, with all its tempos and rhythms and wisdoms, is always trying to let us know more about our experience: The nervous system works quickly like the high violins and the flutes,  and the organs, the viscera, are slower,  more like the cello and the base, the bones are more like the drums. If we bring our attention and curiosity to the life, the sensations, and imagery that arise from the body, when enough care and safety and cherishing are there,  the soul begins to light up the body. There is more consciousness, more electricity, more warm, the light within the dark body is beginning to grow: The body becomes an alchemist.”      “One way that we can discover what our bodies are trying to tell us through the less conscious, spontaneous movements that our bodies make as we speak is to slow down and get interested in our bodies' sensations, the signals that are trying to bubble up from the deep body, from the cellular wisdom, that level of intelligence, before it gets to the cranium, way before it gets to the reflective centers of the brain– when it's still liquid or hot or pulsatory, pre-verbal, before they move from the brainstem to the right (limbic, emotional) brain and across into the left brain, the language centers, way before that, there is a reservoir of intelligence that we often don't pay attention to.”  

When You Are Ready, Horses Will Find You: Discovering in The Common Body, with Paula Josa Jones PAULA JOSA-JONES, an author, choreographer, dancer, educator, and equestrian, in conversation with Stefana Serafina about the common body, the shared physical and nonphysical field of emotion, sense, communication, and love between all species. ABOUT PAULA PAULA JOSA-JONES, a choreographer, dancer, educator,  and equestrian, known for her visually rich, emotionally charged dance theater.   Her work includes choreography for humans, interspecies work with horses, dancers and riders, and film and video. Paula has been called "one of the country's leading choreographic conceptualists" by the Boston Globe and the Village Voice describes her work as "powerful, eccentric, and surreal". Her dances have been produced in Russia, Europe, Mexico and throughout the United States. She has taught at Tufts University, Boston University, and internationally. Paula is the creator of an interspecies company with horses, dancers and riders. Her book, Our Horses, Ourselves: Discovering the Common Body, will be published in September 2017 by Trafalgar Square Books. More about Paula's work and her book: www.paulajosajones.org/ This and more episodes at www.embodiedway.com

Vinn Arjuna Martí, award-winning choreographer, performer, master teacher, and  founder of  Soul Motion, in conversation with Stefana Serafina about the value of pausing amidst the moving moment, the exploration of self,  relationship, and the psyche through the shapes, energy, and movements of the body in motion,  and on the power of bringing dance to "the citizens", people from all backgrounds who find medicine in practicing one of the most ancient expressive arts.  Vinn Arjuna Martí is an award-winning choreographer, global performer, master teacher and founder of  the  conscious dance practice Soul Motion®. Vinn Arjuna has been teaching movement for over 35 years and along the way has trained and worked with many teachers, including Gabrielle Roth of the 5Rhythms. Arjuna has been passionate about bringing  dance and movement to people of all backgrounds and including those who have never trained or performed as dancers. He teaches around the world, and also  trains teachers and facilitators, while  also continuing  to be a student, guided by his curiosity and respect for others's teachings and ideas.   More about Arjuna's work at www.soulmotion.com   WISDOM QUOTES  ‘Movement is life. What is alive is in motion. So what I say to people who say they don't dance is,  I would like to explore with you, when two notes get together and  strike at the same time, and what shows up as a third force, I'd like for you and I to play with that, and to realize the unseen.”     “I always aligned myself with the citizen. Even as a technique oriented dancer, even as a member of the inner circles of 5Rhythms, something always spoke to my heart about wanting to include the excluded. Because everyone thinks, everyone moves… My heart has always been full of desire to reach all people, because all people can shift weight, and all people breathe, and all people focus attention, and all people can have a response… So it's always been a passion of mine to not keep what I have for the “initiated people”, or to somehow separate myself from the citizen."   “The pause-presence is a holy place. It is a whole place. When we pause within being present, the place, the space, the room have a “whole” vibration, a whole signature, a totality of all of us being, listening, doing, understanding, standing under un umbrella that we all share. Something occurs that is not the traditional reaction to stimulus. Pausing is spiritual work, no  doubt about it…. For me too It's too easy to be swept into reaction and to leave what my teacher calls the “base state”, which is that place of presence where the thinking mind is  on relax, and i am truly present to the continuation of what I call the movement moment… There is such great  medicine and  value of pausing within the movement moment, within the continuity of thought patterns, emotional feelings, sound, and shapes of the body, and saying: I am going to pause in the presence of what is occurring and shape-shifting right now, within and without.  For me, pause-presence is the most dynamic part of my dance: That opportunity to sense and understand my total body being guided and lifted and impressed by everyone in the room.”    

On restoring the balance, flow, and creativity  in a woman's life by reconnecting to  the “feminine root” of our bodies and the power inherent in the female anatomy, with Tami Lynn Kent,  author of Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body.   THIS EPISODE'S WISDOM QUOTES  “Encircles by pelvic bones, round and smooth,  the root of the female body is like a bowl. Here, in the womb, a woman will find the energy she holds for herself and for the mothering her creations. For centuries,  women have been the bowl- they have been basket makers weaving containers that held food and water just as their bodies held the energy of the children and home. In urban times and modern settings, female roles have been redefined, but a woman's body still holds or releases energy from the root.” “I feel that women are fundamentally disconnected from the pelvic bowl and part of that disconnection has to do with shame, and also with what they have learned about their bodies, which often comes in a very technical language that doesn't have the poetry and the mystery and the depth that our  bodies are really capable of, when indeed that's what we are: We are the beauty, we are the doorway in, we are where all life begins, we are the vessels. But working with women has shown me that not only they are disconnected, but they sometimes do not  want to connect, and part of the reason is all the meaning and associations and the language that we use regarding the feminine bowl.  So I started using a more poetic language of words that came from the earth and those resonated more deeply, and also poetry and song. That was my way of inviting women back into their own beautiful space and welcoming them to this home. Because this really is a home each woman carries within that holds all the medicine she needs for everything she will encounter. This space is capable of magic, really. When the life force comes down through this open doorway, this is a magic channel that all all want to be tuned to.”   ABIUT TAMI  Tami Lynn Kent is a women's health physical therapist who works with the creative energy of the female body, and the rebalancing of the female anatomy.  Tami is the author of Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body, Mothering From Your Center, and Wild Creative. She is is also the founder of  Holistic Pelvic Care, bridging together  the realms of modern medicine and traditional women's wisdom. In her own words, Tami is dedicated to teaching  women to access the potential of their bodies and to cultivate their creative energy that is meant to run through all aspects of a woman's life. More about Tami and her work at www.wildfeminine.com     ABOU STEFANA Stefana Serafina is an embodiment educator and facilitator, and the founder of Intuitive Body and Dance, a platform providing women with experiences and education towards returning to their  bodies' inherent intelligence, intuitive and creative wisdom, and sensual expression. Based in the San Francisco Bay, Stefana  has been dedicated to women's embodied empowerment since 2009, offering courses, retreats, and temple spaces to women in California, Europe, and online. Intuitive Body and Dance weaves together somatic and expressive arts approaches, women's temple traditions, intuitive self-expression, and earth-centered spirituality.  More about host Stefana Serafina's embodiment work with women at www.intutivedance.org       

On intuition and sensitivity as  higher intelligence and the power of embodied daydreaming and imagination as creative forces. We speak to Penney Pierce, author of 10 books on intuition and perception, about the importance of honoring one's body not only as the soul's only home, but also as the  powerful, intelligent system tapped into the unified field and capable of dreaming our desired realities into physical form– if given a chance.  Penney Peirce is one of the pioneers of the intuition development movement, who has researched and written about  inner energy dynamics, intuition, expanded perception,  dream  work and transformation since the 70s.  Penney is a popular author, lecturer, and trainer who has worked in the US, Japan, Europe, South America, and South Africa for 4 decades, coaching  business and government leaders, psychologists, scientists, and celebrities. She has been worked with The Center for Applied Intuition, The Intuition Network, The Institute for the Study of Conscious Evolution, and The Arlington Institute, and others. Penney has authored ten books, including  The Intuitive Way, Frequency, and  Leap of Perception. She lives in Ormond Beach, Florida. More about Penney's work: www.penneypeirce.com THIS EPISODES WISDOM QUOTES:  “Intuition is still not seen as the highest form of perception because we are so addicted to the left brain, to analytical and language oriented perception, which is linear and creates separation between the observed and the observer.  When you move more into the right brain, and into the body, you go into a direct communion– you can't observe what is happening because you are part of it. You don't have language anymore, you go into a direct, immersed kind of knowing.” “At any given moment we are materializing our body and our life based on a combination of love and fear. Love and fear act as filters. They are  like a sieve. The holes are love, it's how love gets in and makes one smart and beautiful and genuine. The solid parts are the  fear: the rigidity and the contracted, limited belief systems. And because so many of us are attached to the left brain and doing things right and controlling life, our fluidity in the body is limited, and chronic pain and and illness occur. So there is a process we are all in where we are clearing the rigidity and the fear  out of the  way it's been held on the body. As soon as you clear an emotional blockage, your body opens up. And if you move your body, you start clearing the emotional and mental blockages. It moves both ways- from the non-physical to the physical and vise versa.” More episodes: www.embodiedway.com More about host Stefana Serafina's work with women: www.intuitivedance.org   

On the importance of staying in our bodies, slowing down to be with our own body's living systems and sensitivity, and getting to know the deeper life of our anatomy as an antidote to the fast-paced, electronic world that is evolutionary new to the human body. Guest Andrea Olsen is a pioneering embodiment educator and expert on experiential anatomy, the author of  a triad of books on the human body and its creative and intuitive expression. For the last three decades  Andrea  has been a Professor of Dance  and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College in Vermont. She is a long time collaborator with embodied mindfulness pioneers  Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen of Body-Mind Centering and Janet Adler of Authentic Movement.   Andrea also teaches at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California,  bringing body education and mindfulness practices into graduate courses on global communication. This episode's Wisdom Quotes: “Understanding that body is part of Earth is an essential component of human awareness. Our bones, and our breath, and our blood are the minerals and the air and the water around us, so that when you arrive someplace new, after a few days of drinking the water or eating the food from that place, you become that place. So the idea of separateness starts to fade and this larger model of interconnectedness becomes more primary in our awareness.” “We are not naming the bones and the muscles to distance ourselves from the body but to consider these parts as family. To be able to name your femur or tibia or the fibula is like knowing your relatives and making the inhabitation of this wonderful structure that we're in more familiar while retaining the mystery.”   More about Andrea Olsen's work : www.andrea-olsen.com, www.body-earth.org   More about host Stefana Serafina's work: www.intuitivedance.org       

On taking back the  definition of "witch" and rewriting the myth of the women's power, with Judika Illes, an independent scholar, educator, and author of several books and encyclopedias, including the Encyclopedia of  Witchcraft, published by Harper Collins.  THIS EPISODE'S WISDOM QUOTES  Reclaiming “witch” cannot really be done without reclaiming women's power in general. Witches are defiant, in their power, and take pride in women's power… They are not beholden, they are independent in their power. They don't have to ask their father of their brother or their husband or son what they should do. Witches are the power in themselves.” Witchcraft is about knowledge, and it's about knowledge of the earth, knowledge of the elements, of the heavens and the water... The roots of witchcraft and shamanism go back to really primordial times when witches were the leaders and the heroes of their community.  The constant objectification of women's bodies paralyzes us. If we are constantly worried about what we look like, we can't be free... Dance is a way of summoning the spirits. Dance is a way to commune with the different forces of the earth, the different dimensions and beings. The most consistently reliable way of contacting them is dance. For more abut Judika Illes, visit her webpage: www.judikailles.com For more on host Stefana Serafina's work in women's embodied empowerment, go to  www.intuitivedance.org

OUR BODIES AND EARTH: ON WHY NATURE IS OUR PRIMARY RELATIONSHIP  A conversation about our bodies as aspects of Earth and nature as a human's primary relationship. On the need- and the luxury!- of attuning our bodies'  ecosystems to the wakeful intelligence of our natural world and romancing our inner and outer nature as a way of self-knowing. Host Stefana Serafina speaks to Jamie McHugh, an embodiment educator who has been on faculty at the Tamalpa Institute and JFK University for over 25 years. A somatic therapist and coach, Jamie is also the creator of Somatic Expression, a method for practicing the art  of conscious relationship between one's own body and the living landscape.   THIS EPISODE'S WISDOM QUOTES "Once we plug into the larger body of the Earth, we have more possibilities and choices for the fullness of our being to emerge. So in our daily lives, do we have simple little places of green, trees, and water? Where can we go in our immediate environment to settle into ourselves and resonate with the elements? What is essential for those non-linear and magical relationships between human and nature to happen is that we change our internal sense of time as well as our literal sense of time to allow those to happen. The tradition of Sabbath, of unplugging,  is very useful here: If we take one day out  of seven to unplug and journey into the environment, find a place and hang out there and give ourselves a chunk of time, we can take on the informing of that area. Magic, like earth time, takes time.” "Movement as a healing art is a kind of a hero's journey to shed our conditioning and our experience of being a body in modern culture." "We have to rediscover– How do we play as adults? How to enrich our movement repertoire? How do we allow our psyches and somas to loosen the tethers of who we think we are and allow ourselves to participate in our lives and landscape in a much different way?"  To find out more about Jamie's work, visit  www.somaticexpression.com   For more on Stefana's women's embodiment work, visit  www.intuitivedance.org/  

On this episode of the Women's Edition, host Stefana Serafina speaks to Shakti Malan, PhD about sexuality as a vital life force and the need to rediscover and embody its fluid, undirected flow in the female body as way of reconnecting to Earth, rebalancing the feminine principle, and liberating consciousness.  Tune in for a rich conversation on the body as a resource and an ally, the female sexual organs and the nature of sexual energy, Lilith and Eve, releasing sexual trauma and trusting the feminine flow again. Although this episode is under the Women's edition, it is a very educational one that you could share with your men partners, friends, and collaborators as well.  THIS EPISODE's WISDOM QUOTES: "The feminine principle is the sexual principle, there is no difference really between the feminine and sexuality... A feminine body is a round, fluid, undulating ocean of sexual energy that wants  to move in an undirected and explorative way....Female sexuality and our sexual organs are a gateway to our inner mysteries. When we return to the innocence of our bodies and our sexuality and stop using our bodies to please or get something from others, and when we return to a connection between our souls, hearts, and sexuality, then when someone enters into us, that entering is going ti be an entering into the inner mysteries of the Divine Feminine. And with conscious and devotional attitude to the act of lovemaking, the one who enters a woman's temple will knowingly be entering the mysteries of Divine Feminine, and will be transformed by her."   "For us women to really discover our sexuality, it's is a looking inwards. It's a closing of our eyes and imagining that we are looking down in the body. We need to feel ourselves from the inside out, which is the opposite of what most women experience because we are so attuned to our partners, children, and communities, and our sexuality can become so externalized... In the act of making love, for women the natural movement is very much like a river, a fluid, spiraling, circular movement,  not at all what we see in the porn movies, which is the back-and-forth, pumping movement, very goal-oriented toward the genital orgasm. In fact, women's bodies want to really deeply relax and go into the soft, fluid unwinding. And that is the gateway." ABOUT SHAKTI MALAN, PhD Shakti is an internationally recognized expert in embodied sexuality, sexual healing and utilizing our sexual force for personal and collective awakening. For the last decade she has been teaching men and women across the world to awaken consciousness in our sexuality and our bodies and release sexual trauma and body armoring. Her book Sexual Awakening for Women is a popular tantric workbook for women and a comprehensive manual for  healing sexual wounding and restoring the feminine principle in women's sexuality. To learn more about Shakti Malans's work and offerings, visit www.shaktimalan.com To learn more about host Stefana Serafina's embodiment work with women, visit www.intutivedance.org         

Host Stefana Serafina speaks to Ruby Gibson, PhD, about our bodies as record keepers and storytellers. According to Dr.Ruby's research and the  Somatic Archeology technique she developed, our bodies are much like archeological sites that hold the artifacts of our personal and multigenerational past– and through that, the capacity to "remember" the stories of our lineage and forgotten past and bring them to resolution and reconciliation.  Dr. Ruby Gibson is  an international educator, researcher,  and author. A somatic pioneer,  for the last 35 years she  has been bridging bodywork, transpersonal psychology, human behavior, shamanism, and spirituality into two unique techniques she developed, called Somatic Archaeology and Generational Brainspotting.   Dr. Ruby's research has focused on trans-generational healing and recovery, centrally through the body's memory and wisdom.  She  is the executive director of the Freedom Lodge, a nonprofit organization providing  historical trauma healing to Native American populations. She offers trainings and workshops internationally.    This episode's wisdom quotes:  "Our bodies   like Earth are the keepers of memory. Just like the Earth contains the historical library of life in its ruins, graves, trees, rocks and oceans, our bodies inherit the archives of our ancestors, in their cells, muscles, blood, and bones...When we wish to examine how we evolved as a culture and a species, we dig in the earth...To examine how each of us evolved as individuals or as family systems, and to explore the social and spiritual influences that have shaped us, we excavate our bodies."    "I believe it's the occupation of our generation to remember.  We have the resources, the capacity, and time to begin remembering pur familial and ancestral stories. We are not simply remembering  for ourselves.  What we can remember we can potentially cure. And that cure lightens the burden of the ancestors who came before us. From what I've seen, they are waiting for this generation to clean up some things that they weren't able to clean up. And we are also lightening up he load for the next 7 generations. "    Find more about Ruby Gibson PhD's work at: www.freedomlodge.org   For more about host Stefana Serafina's work with women, visit:  http://www.intuitivedance.org  

In this episode of the Women's Edition, host Stefana Serafina speaks to Chameli Ardagh, founder of the Awakening Women Institute, about women and their bodies' inherent wisdom as the bringers of a new dawn for the world. Chameli Ardagh is a leading pioneer in contemporary feminine spirituality, and has inspired thousands of women around the world with her breakthrough methods for living and embodying  feminine awakening. This Episodes Wisdom Quote: “A woman's body is a vessel for evolution. Not only the womb is a microcosmic experience of the greater cosmic creativity but a woman's body is aligned to the greater cycles of nature. When we come closer to our bodies, we come closer to the universal dance? the wisdom and rhythms that we have as a culture forgotten, and we live in the consequence of this separation from these rhythms, destroying ourselves and our world. So women are the teachers. We as a collective are waiting for the women to come forth and bring back this intimate knowing we have in our bodies about the cycles and rhythms and how the universe moves. Women through their bodies can guide us back to a sustainable way of living.”   To find out more about Chameli's work and teachings, visit https://awakeningwomen.com/   More about host Stefana Serafina's embodiment work with women: http://www.intuitivedance.org/  

Host Stefana Serafina speaks to Canadian author and teacher Philip Shepherd about sensitivity as intelligence, being in the world through our bodies,  and  why we can't live intelligently without returning to our body's capacity for deep knowing and presence. Philip Shepherd is an international expert on embodiment, and is the author of  New Self, New World: Recovering our Senses in the Twenty-first Century. He teaches his unique embodiment techniques around the world through his Embodied Present Process,  a method for returning to wholeness by healing the frantic, restless intelligence in the head and uniting it with the deep, calm intelligence of the body. This Episode's Wisdom Quote: “All of the body's sensations are forms of thinking. And there is this wound in our culture: We've divided our thinking from our being, with the mistaken believe that we can think better with a part of ourselves than we can with the whole of our being present. So that wound deprives us our thinking of the body's sensitivity- and our body is only bridge to the present? It is not until a perspective is brought down through the body and into the pelvic bowl and allow to integrate that it can rebirth as a sensitivity. And without sensitivity we cannot live intelligently. We can live in very clever ways, but not intelligently. “ To find out more about Philip's work and teachings, visit www.philipshepherd.com More about host Stefana Serafina's embodiment work with women: www. intuitivedance.org