Witch Sweat

When you find yourself more and more interested in non-ordinary states of consciousness and cultivating a deep relationship to Divine Intelligence, but have spent a dizzying amount of time apologizing, downplaying, or sanitizing your visions, gifts and ‘out-there' theories on reality, my friend, you may be hauling around the Mystic's Grief. Let's sort through some of that, shall we?   Grief Threads winter edition begins February 23 - are you in? Five weeks of cozy sewing and intuitive quilting while getting about the grief stored in our hearts and bodies.   Work with Narinder 1:1 or learn about her Death Midwifery Training. 10/10 recommend!   Book 1:1 Creative Coaching time with Melissa   Free Resources — Download Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on getting outta your head and into your body Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for hot spirit memes Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and first dibs on workshops and art Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals Erin Palovick made our stunning cover art

Oh lordy this is a big one for my artists and creative folk.  I asked my audience on IG to name some of the grievances they carry having chosen the artist's life, or from not feeling allowed to chose the artist's life. Ugh, devastating. You're responses were gutting, and very universal. So here's my hot take on each of them. Spoiler, it's a lot of tough love. So go make your art. Some topics covered: - feeling too broke to do the kind of art you wish you could make - feeling like your ship has sailed, and comparing yourself to other people who achieved 'success' early on in their journey - feeling robbed of a childhood where free, playful expression could be fully explored - fear around not having a clear direction - too many ideas and paralysis on where to start, overwhelm overwhelm overwhelm. 

A rebroadcast of a workshop I led recently on the power of moving grief and worry and anxiety out of the body through the exit route of the hands. Grief does not love to be analyzed or hyper fixated on through the channel of the mind. It's a visceral project, it requires our feeling and sensing self. How better to get about it than through moving our hands creatively with others.  The meditation is from 9:10 - 21:03 Grief Threads starts February 23 - Find your people, pour out the grief waters, listen to your fabrics, make something beautiful with a beginner's mind.  Small groups, intimate fellowship, new ways to see yourself and your life material.  Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for hot art memes Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals Album Art by Erin Palovick

Is it Anxiety or is it Life Grief? Solo episode dive into the difference between life grief and death grief. Thank GOD we are developing some maturity about the difference. I give much thanks that the cultural conversation is shifting and we are gaining some literacy around how much ~mental health stuff~ can be attributed to unprocessed and unmanaged life grief. Grief is the groundwater flowing under every aspect of our lives, and it has wisdom and gorgeous teachings for us if we are brave enough to move towards and not away from it. Book 1:1 Creative Coaching time with Melissa Mentioned in the Show — Join me for Grief Threads workshop - begins February 23 Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for hot art memes Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals Album Art by Erin Palovick

Buckle up, baby, we're jumping into the fascinating world of psychic medium Caroline Brown. Cherished by many for her incredible mediumship abilities, Caroline shares her journey from being an accountant to becoming a conduit to the Spirit world and helping people connect to their Beloved Dead. We discuss how to talk to your Spirit team when you're scared out of your gourd, and how to develop an ongoing relationship with them like you're yakking with your middle school bestie on the landline well past bedtime. It's easy to forget that we GET to ask for help from our Spirit Team - they're ALWAYS available for guidance, support, feedback and directives. It's just a matter of learning to refine our listening… Whether you're curious about the Spirit world or seeking to develop your own psychic capabilities, this episode brings us right into the heart of mediumship.   Mentioned in the Episode — Caroline's Website Join me for Enter the Sweat Portal - a workshop for creating your own daily somatic movement practice Book 1:1 Creative Coaching time with Melissa Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for hot art memes Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals

Ok my creative little gremlins, today we're talking about BEING SEEN. Ahhh the terror! the allure! the yearn! the repulsion! We're getting up underneath the complex layering of what it means to be successful by collective standards, and its requisite pressure to achieve widespread recognition, alongside genuine desires to be seen and acknowledged by many for your unique expression in the world. We're unpacking the energetics of putting yourself out there and dispelling the judgements we might carry about both being seen and not being seen! We also discuss the devilish phenomenon I like to call the 'what's the point voice' that loves to plague the raw beginnings of a creative act, and how that inner antagonizer maps onto our fears about being witnessed.   Love the episode? Share with a pal you think would dig. OR leave me a review - your feedback means a lot around here

Yikes ya'll, sorry to say it but being out of control is just such a vital part of being more creative. It's laying yourself at the feet of the MUSE, jugular exposed, giving up your Best Ideas to instead be ravaged by the strange unknowable force that is your true Creative Work. Buckle up and get cozy, we are getting freaking COMFORTABLE WITH UNCERTAINTY, and we're doing it through the lens of creative practice. We explore the different and distinct flavors of uncertainty, and how to deal with each of them. We are flying our freak flags high in the name of improvisation, going with the doggone flowsky and unclenching our buttholes and tight gripped fists so that we can actually create something real and honest with our lives yippeeee so fun let's go! Solo episode. A love letter to your weird little inner child artist. ilysm.

A cross-posted conversation from Nico Wolf's podcast Living Liminal, where Nico and Melissa chat about the intersection between ritual textile play, creative practice, and our Spirit work. They speak to the magic of hands, lost contexts of craft, and the necessity of the revival of recognizing the ways the Unseen world can inform the the gift of creative vision. They bring in threads from their upcoming collaboration Distaff Ways: A Threefold Alchemical Healing, Seership Training & Ritual Fiber Arts Exploration w/ the Wisdom of the Spinners & Weavers This collaborative offering starts online at the end of August and culminates with a 6 day in person artist in residency in Santa Fe, NM. This work is open to all levels of experience and genders.   Learn more about Distaff Ways here: https://www.schoolofliminalarts.com/distaff-ways and Nico Wolf   Book a 1:1 Creative Revival Session with Melissa   Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for hot art memes Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals

This week we've got LA-based dance artist/body wizard Stephanie Zaletel in the broadcast portal with us. GIVE THANKS! Church is served, honey! This episode is very much about the vital research of coming back home to yourself, your body and your essential creative voice, and the cost of not answering the call.  You KNOW we got up to some 12 step talk and wooooo baby the ancestral addiction to shame and emotional spirals that get lodged up in our tissues. Stephanie's exquisite research on the nervous system and somatic practices of care work and co-regulation are unmatched. The way she talks about her research and outlets for group practice is nothing short of stunning. Get somewhere soft and low to the ground to tee this one up.   Learn more about Stephanie HERE Follow I Care About Your Body on IG Stephanie's IG   Sign up for Melissa's Scrap the Plan workshop in August!   Book a 1:1 Creative Revival Session with Melissa Free Resources — Download Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on getting outta your head and into your body Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for hot art memes Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals Sound Clip: Magic Stars Retro Sparkle by smokinghotdog via freesound.org

This week we are buh-lessed to have Nico Wolf up in our radio sphere. She is a wizard of the healing arts, oracular arts, group ceremony, Earth wisdom ways, and Dreamwork. She is also herself a dreamboat, like an actual captain-facilitator of the boat that takes you to Dream World, and just a totally fascinating human to talk Spirit shop with. We discuss working with dreams in a devotional way, exploring group dream work, and understanding the role of dreams in shifting culture during unsettled times. Nico steeps us in the waters of liminal artistry - as in, becoming more and more literate in the wisdom of the cracks and in-betweens places within the web of known reality.   This episode will be a dang HOOT for anyone interested in: working with the language of Dreams as oracle, solace, and world-building material animist perspectives and interspecies relating water as a grief portal, water as a dream portal feeling like a spiritual or cultural orphan questioning the role of spiritual lineage when lifted out of land-based context the big ole tangle of white-bodied people grappling with their own severed indigeneity and raspberries as dream prophecy

This week we're talking breast lumps, the doom forecasting that comes with health scares and awaiting *results*, talking to angels, and our very good but mysterious pal SURRENDER. And, like, how to fall dizzyingly in love with the lumpy mess of reality precisely as it is right now.  Spoiler alert - I gotta clean bill of health, this is about the upgrade in consciousness we get when we let the stunning truth of our mortality have its way with us weeeeee    hey, I love you thanks for being here.   Book 1:1 Creative Coaching time with Melissa   Free Resources — Download Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on getting outta your head and into your body Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for hot art memes Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals

An episode for the artists, creatives and solo entrepreneurs out there who get bogged down by the idea of having to *do it all* all by your lonesome.  You've got other unseen forces up in your corner, who have your back, who are gassing you up and have secret lil intel to support your vision and work. Call them your guides, the angels, God, call them the indwelling consciousness of your projects and your art. Whoever they are, go talk to them, ok?? Momentum gathers rapidly when you enlist the *whatelseness* of reality as your collaborator. Enjoy

Oh lookie here, we are BACK baby. The AI bot that helped me audio engineer this episode thought it would be a good idea to title it "Savoring the Petite Droplets of Life Experiences" and they would be not wrong.   Listen to me try to make the parallel between the experience of fomo and an inflammatory yet very magical take on DEATH. Whoops another accidental episode on death stuff.  Sorry I'm congested here, when the mood strikes to press record, one jumps. The muse cares not for presence of phlegm.  ENJOY   Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals and jingle wizardry on the outro   Book 1:1 Creative Guidance time with Melissa   Free Resources — Go download Attention Reset - my free and fun art zine on reviving your road-weary attention More — Follow Melissa's Instagram for hot art memes Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for musings and studio news

Jimmy and Melissa air some things OUT. We're talking about the cost of an unexpressed life. We're talking about the cost of wrangling our true voices to be more palatable to institutions - for clout, visibility, legibility, resource access - and how the curated version of ourselves is like an addiction that must be recovered from, boy howdy! We're looking at the micro and macro impact of power differentials, and thinking about how so much of our behavior is about avoiding rejection from people and organizations that have more perceived power than us. Turns out rejection is a secret portal to becoming more of yourself, and improvisation is the medicinal lifeway we've all been searching for. OK!!!!   More about our guest — Find Jimmy on IG @j_jo

In this episode, we look at what's happening in G@za, specifically through the lens of social media, and the forces that want to keep us skewing towards nervous system collapse and disassociation. Spoiler alert: it's whiteness! It's the ‘soothing' lull of consumerism and capitalism! It's the unconscious practice of abdicating personal power! It's compulsive information guzzling as a proxy for participation! It's a habit of helplessness and prioritizing comfort in the face of inconceivable human suffering!  This episode will be of interest to you if: you are vacillating between taking in too much information and not enough information, and are trying to find a balance of staying informed and giving space to your grief you've been struggling to feel like you're ‘doing enough' for the liberation of P@les ti ne (and all of humanity, in fact) you're questioning this idea of enoughness when it comes to impact you are wrestling with the distinction between what is ‘turning away' and what is a necessary attention hygiene when logging off the apps or news. you want a space to think through the messy intricacies of how to be present, wide-awake, and of service to this global moment. you want to be more EXPRESSED but feel yourself putting the brakes on your voice and ideas and truth. Mentioned in the episode— Adrienne Maree Brown live on IG Book 1:1 Creative Guidance time with Melissa Free Resources — Check out Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on reviving your road-weary attention Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for podcast updates Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals

An episode for people who wanna get into the loving mystery and magic of death, dying and grief work. In this solo show, Melissa shares a story from a recent encounter with a dying person, and some powerful / hard-won lil gemstones of truth that have emerged since. Don't be scared! Let's normalize these convos and make it feel less bewildering and weird.  Ilysm thank you for being here ⚡️   **Join the waitlist for Grief Threads ~ doors opening for our Fall Cohort this Friday October 6, 2023** LINKS If you enjoyed the episode, check out — Your Palatability is a Liability w/ Narinder Bazen The Ancestral Hot Seat   Mentioned in the episode— Andrea Gibson interviewed by Glennon Doyle Book 1:1 Creative Guidance time with Melissa Free Resources — Check out Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on reviving your road-weary attention Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for podcast updates Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals

We are in search of more imaginative expressions of masculinity - in ourselves and in the world, who tf is with us?? Let's get into the energy of the nourishing and life-affirming badassery that is the sacred and dare-we-say intergalactic masculine principle. We talk Sedona vortexes, performative masculinity as a survival strategy, entity work, erotic power, desire, exhaustion, and MORE! This episode is a GRAND follow-up to last week's The Holy Fire of Other People's Opinions ~ having a relationship with the inner masculine can offer some major healing to our people-pleasing recovery journey…   More about our guest — Email Hez for Erotic Advisory Consults ~ hezstalcup@gmail.com Book 1:1 Creative Guidance time with Melissa Free Resources — Check out Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on reviving your road-weary attention Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for podcast updates Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals

This week Mel shares an excerpt from a recent mini-workshop on the cost of prioritizing likeability in the eyes of others. We unravel the tangled knots of codependency, living as if to placate others, and orienting to life as if you're always on the edge of being in trouble or needing to explain yourself. She shares a few somatic tools for loosening the grip of some of these learned habits and trauma responses, all in the name of getting more free and having more access to our DANG MAGIC.   Join the Getting Unpalatable Dance Class Tuesday, September 19 // 6-8pm est If you enjoyed the episode, check out — Your Palatability Is A Liability w/ Narinder Bazen Getting Cracked Open By the Divine w/ Dajé Aloh Book 1:1 Creative Guidance time with Melissa Free Resources — Check out Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on reviving your road-weary attention Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for podcast updates Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals

This week we are joined by the dazzling Dajé Alōh aka The Story Doula, and DANG do we get blessed by her presence. She takes us all the way to church and to the underworld beneath the church, and has us swinging from the rafters by the end of it. We talk recovery from fundamentalist Christian upbringing, and mining the jewels from the faith for a more creative, more gritty OF THE EARTH AND DIRT kind of spiritual fortitude. We talk about the patriarchy killing our relationship to worship and awe. We talk about how everybody can be a land-steward regardless of your location or occupation, and how our relationship to the land we live on has everything to do with our relationship to the Divine. I got drunk on the magic sauce up in this one. Enjoy enjoy, babies. LINKS More about our guest — Dajé Alōh's Instagram Dajé Alōh's Website Dajé Alōh's Podcast Kinspirit Mentioned in the episode— Join me for Getting Unpalatable this Friday 9/8/23 - a free mini workshop and conversation on de-prioritizing being likable to everyone so you can like yourself more. It's gonna be special and funnnnn Book 1:1 Creative Guidance time with Melissa Free Resources — Check out Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on reviving your road-weary attention Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for podcast updates Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals. Go listen to everything Ben has made, you won't be sorry! I love you, thanks for being here!

Mel takes us on a journey through the imagination and the realm of the ancestors, sharing a visualization tool for connecting to the big, fun resource that is your kindreds on the other side of the veil. Beginners and skeptics welcome! This is not about talking to dead people in a mediumship kind of way, but more like tippy-tapping on the back screen door of the ~beyond~ and recognizing that we really aren't ever alone. We have a team of guides that want to play, and we aren't expected to slog through life all by our lonesome. It's really just a matter of what we're paying attention to… We alsoooo talk about why you might feel shame, indifference, or avoidance altogether in connecting to the ancestors. Let's get into it!    Book 1:1 Creative Guidance time with Melissa Free Resources — Check out Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on reviving your road-weary attention Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for podcast updates Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals

What a death midwife-performance artist has to say about the habit of palatability. It miiiiight be killing you. The cultural program of *making other people more comfortable over authenticity* gets parsed out as Melissa and Narinder yuck it up and talk about the role of the sacred clown in society, the shadow side of performing your very likable personality, and what it takes to get thyself free from the program of living small. Buckle up baby, there are tears, there are spicy rebukes, there are confessions! Let's go! Thank you for listening, we love that you're here.

This week we are graced by fitness-pole star-movement legend Marlo Fisken, who is one of the most delightful, goofy, generous humans I know. We talk about the ways she empowers people to have more creative and unconventional relationships to their body and movement, and her tools for bringing as much play as possible into her world as an aid for doing hard things and disrupting the status quo. This conversation lit me all the way up. Marlo offers much inspiration and many delicious tools. Get into it!   More about our guest — Marlo's Instagram Marlo's Website   Free Resources — Check out Attention Reset - my free digital art zine on reviving your road-weary attention Stay Connected — Follow Melissa's Instagram for podcast updates Join Melissa's weeklyish newsletter for creative musings and studio news Big thanks to Ben Coleman for composing our theme music, and Gavin Bernard for vocals we love you, thank you for listening

This is the beginning of something. Let's gooooooo   Music by Ben Coleman - find more of his music at Ben Coleman Sounds on bandcamp Vocals by Gavin Bernard - he does not want to be found anywhere, enjoy this rare encounter with his baritone dulcetness