Podcast appearances and mentions of Nina Simons

On this show, in honor of the upcoming Bioneers Conference in Berkeley at the end of the month, we focus on the enduring legacy of 94-year old elder Oren Lyons, Onondaga Chief and a beacon of Indigenous culture and environmental activism. We explore Oren's insights from the 2024 Bioneers conference, his reflections on the Haudenosaunee principles of peace, and his impassioned plea for a value shift towards communal living and environmental harmony. His keynote address was entitled To Survive, We Must Transform our Values. Discover the unwritten history of Turtle Island and the wisdom that could lead humanity to a more just and sustainable world. Bioneers [https://bioneers.org/] is a nonprofit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Founded in 1990 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by social entrepreneurs Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, they act as a hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio More Info: Bioneers Conference https://conference.bioneers.org/ Oren Lyons, “We Are Part of the Earth” Sacred Lands Film Project: https://youtu.be/bSwmqZ272As?si=crGAyku6eCrFwbaC Oren Lyons on The Wizard of Oz, Sacred Lands Film Project: https://youtu.be/t8ttzSwYFa8?si=43nbAQNXGPcz1ZuI More on Oren Lyons: https://wilderutopia.com/international/earth/oren-lyons-on-the-unity-of-the-earth/ Oren Lyons, a Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan who serves as a Member Chief of the Onondaga Council of Chiefs and the Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Haudenosaunee peoples), is an accomplished artist, social and environmental activist, and author; a Professor Emeritus at SUNY Buffalo; a leading voice at the UN Permanent Forum on Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples; and the recipient of many prestigious national and international prizes including The UN NGO World Peace Prize. Casey Camp-Horinek, a member of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, is a longtime activist, environmentalist, actress, and author. Her work has led to the Ponca Nation being the first tribe in Oklahoma to adopt a Rights of Nature statute and to pass a moratorium on fracking on its territory. Casey, who was instrumental in the drafting of the first International Indigenous Women's Treaty protecting the Rights of Nature, works with Indigenous and other leaders and organizations globally and sits on the boards of WECAN, Movement Rights, and the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs. Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Episode 218 Photo credit: Oren Lyons

DEBORAH EDEN TULL, founder of Mindful Living Revolution, teaches the integration of compassionate awareness into every aspect of our lives, bridging personal and collective awakening in an age of global change. She is an engaged Buddhist teacher, spiritual activist, author, eco-dharma educator, and facilitator of The Work That Reconnects, a field created by Buddhist scholar and eco-philosopher Joanna Macy for transforming our love and pain for our world into compassionate action. Eden teaches dharma intertwined with post-patriarchal thought and practices, resting upon a lived knowledge of our unity with the more than human world. She has practiced meditation for 30 years and  trained for seven and a half years as a Buddhist monk at the Zen Monastery Peace Center, a silent Zen monastery in the Sierra foothills. She has been teaching for over 20 years. Eden's teaching emphasizes relational presence, acknowledging the personal, interpersonal, intrapersonal, transpersonal, societal, ecological, mystical, and global impacts of embodied dharma. She has worked with a wide range of audiences, from dharma students and spiritual teachers to those practicing or teaching secular mindfulness, to concerned citizens, activists, leaders, and change agents, to parents, schools, inner city youth, nonprofits, corporations, and people who are incarcerated. Eden taught for many years with UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, and has been collaborating with Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers since 2012, on the topics of Regenerative Leadership, Women's Leadership, and Sacred Activism. She is also a member of the national Eco-Dharma Advisory Committee of Buddhist teachers and leaders in the eco-dharma movement. Eden has a special gift for facilitating mindful inquiry and fierce compassion, and bridging personal, ancestral, and collective healing. Weaving dharma with her embodiment of animism, deep ecology, shadow work, somatic awareness, ancestral healing, and conscious movement/dance, she helps people release limiting beliefs and collective biases that have been passed down over generations. She draws upon her own experience of navigating loss, illness, and trauma, guiding people to embrace the mystery and celebrate the value and alchemy of light and darkness as teachers of love. Having lived in or taught about sustainable communities and organic gardening/permaculture for decades, Eden weaves the essential wisdom of nature into everything she teaches. She currently resides in the mountains of western North Carolina, originally Cherokee land, with her husband Mark. She offers retreats, workshops, and consultations nationally and internationally, integrating presence and partnership with nature. Eden feels that the most important aspect of being a teacher is continually being a student. She continually immerses herself in trainings and retreats, recognizing direct experience as our truest guide. She works closely with mentor Pam Weiss, author of A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism, to deepen her embodiment of Soto Zen Buddhism in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi.

DEBORAH EDEN TULL, founder of Mindful Living Revolution, teaches the integration of compassionate awareness into every aspect of our lives, bridging personal and collective awakening in an age of global change. She is an engaged Buddhist teacher, spiritual activist, author, eco-dharma educator, and facilitator of The Work That Reconnects, a field created by Buddhist scholar and eco-philosopher Joanna Macy for transforming our love and pain for our world into compassionate action. Eden teaches dharma intertwined with post-patriarchal thought and practices, resting upon a lived knowledge of our unity with the more than human world. She has practiced meditation for 30 years and  trained for seven and a half years as a Buddhist monk at the Zen Monastery Peace Center, a silent Zen monastery in the Sierra foothills. She has been teaching for over 20 years. Eden's teaching emphasizes relational presence, acknowledging the personal, interpersonal, intrapersonal, transpersonal, societal, ecological, mystical, and global impacts of embodied dharma. She has worked with a wide range of audiences, from dharma students and spiritual teachers to those practicing or teaching secular mindfulness, to concerned citizens, activists, leaders, and change agents, to parents, schools, inner city youth, nonprofits, corporations, and people who are incarcerated. Eden taught for many years with UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, and has been collaborating with Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers since 2012, on the topics of Regenerative Leadership, Women's Leadership, and Sacred Activism. She is also a member of the national Eco-Dharma Advisory Committee of Buddhist teachers and leaders in the eco-dharma movement. Eden has a special gift for facilitating mindful inquiry and fierce compassion, and bridging personal, ancestral, and collective healing. Weaving dharma with her embodiment of animism, deep ecology, shadow work, somatic awareness, ancestral healing, and conscious movement/dance, she helps people release limiting beliefs and collective biases that have been passed down over generations. She draws upon her own experience of navigating loss, illness, and trauma, guiding people to embrace the mystery and celebrate the value and alchemy of light and darkness as teachers of love. Having lived in or taught about sustainable communities and organic gardening/permaculture for decades, Eden weaves the essential wisdom of nature into everything she teaches. She currently resides in the mountains of western North Carolina, originally Cherokee land, with her husband Mark. She offers retreats, workshops, and consultations nationally and internationally, integrating presence and partnership with nature. Eden feels that the most important aspect of being a teacher is continually being a student. She continually immerses herself in trainings and retreats, recognizing direct experience as our truest guide. She works closely with mentor Pam Weiss, author of A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism, to deepen her embodiment of Soto Zen Buddhism in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi.

This week, we focus on the enduring legacy of 94-year old elder Oren Lyons, Onondaga Chief and a beacon of Indigenous culture and environmental activism. We explore Oren's insights from the Bioneers conference, his reflections on the Haudenosaunee principles of peace, and his impassioned plea for a value shift towards communal living and environmental harmony. His keynote address was entitled To Survive, We Must Transform our Values. Discover the unwritten history of Turtle Island and the wisdom that could lead humanity to a more just and sustainable world. Bioneers [https://bioneers.org/] is a nonprofit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Founded in 1990 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by social entrepreneurs Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, they act as a hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges. We also share Oren Lyons – “We are Part of the Earth” from the Sacred Land Film Project, part of Earth Island Institute. Oren Lyons also decodes the classic story "The Wizard of Oz", from a Native American perspective. L. Frank Baum's tale as a Utopian American Dream soft-peddles an anti-nature-prejudice amid dazzling urban-industrial landscapes. This bias manifests at the expense of the Earth's resources, and contributes to today's environmental, economic, and social collapse. Finally, we include an excerpt from the Indigenous Forum at the Bioneers Conference in Berkeley, California. Recorded by friend of the show Janet Sager in March 2024. The panel is entitled Listening to Wisdom Keepers. We feature the moderator, Alexis Bunten, co-director of the Indigeneity Program at Bioneers, a song from Greg Castro, and discussions from Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, and of course, Oren Lyons. For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio More Info: Bioneers Conference https://conference.bioneers.org/ Oren Lyons, “We Are Part of the Earth” Sacred Lands Film Project: https://youtu.be/bSwmqZ272As?si=crGAyku6eCrFwbaC Oren Lyons on The Wizard of Oz, Sacred Lands Film Project: https://youtu.be/t8ttzSwYFa8?si=43nbAQNXGPcz1ZuI More on Oren Lyons: https://wilderutopia.com/international/earth/oren-lyons-on-the-unity-of-the-earth/ Oren Lyons, a Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan who serves as a Member Chief of the Onondaga Council of Chiefs and the Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Haudenosaunee peoples), is an accomplished artist, social and environmental activist, and author; a Professor Emeritus at SUNY Buffalo; a leading voice at the UN Permanent Forum on Human Rights for Indigenous Peoples; and the recipient of many prestigious national and international prizes including The UN NGO World Peace Prize. Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs. Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Episode 215 Photo credit: Sacred Land Film Project

In this episode, Kimberly Carfore returns to the podcast to talk about this year's Bioneers conference, which was held in Berkeley, California on March 28-30. Bioneers is a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization based in New Mexico and California. Founded in 1990 by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Bioneers (a neologism for "biological pioneers") focuses on the value and wisdom of the natural world, emphasizing that responses to problems must be in harmony with the design of natural systems. The conference is broadly interdisciplinary and cross-sector, with academics, artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and social innovators meeting to address the pressing challenges facing life on Earth. Kim discusses her experience at the conference, focusing especially on some of the speakers who presented at the Indigenous Forum.

"Consciousness creates MatterLanguage creates RealityRitual creates Relationship" - Oscar Mira-Quesada quoted by Nina Simons in podcast #218Part of our moving towards a healed and healthy culture for humanity is rewilding our relationships with ourselves, each other and the earth. A key part of this is building rituals that have meaning for us in the context of these relationships. Connecting to the cycles of the earth is a straightforward ritual that acknowledges, honours and respects the world we live in and our place within the planetary cycles - and our own.This guided visualisation walks us into the moment of balance between the long nights and the long days, the restorative time of winter and the outward-acting time of summer, between being to doing.  Please take time for yourself to sit quietly, perhaps light a candle, or otherwise create a space out of time that has meaning for you. It doesn't have to be at the moment of the equinox, whenever that is for you, wherever you are in the world, it's the connection that counts, the marking of the day.  And you don't have to limit yourself to one pass through - please feel free to explore this more deeply than one single iteration. If you want other, similar journeys, they are a whole host in the Accidental Gods Membership Programme. For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, where you are moving from doing to being, from the long days to the long nights, this meditation is more appropriate. I mentioned Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy and our discussion of Initiation Cultures and Trauma Cultures, which was in episode 208. 

Nina Simons is a women's leadership pioneer and co-founder of Bioneers. She is the author of the book, Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. In this episode, Karen talks with Nina about the landscape of yin leadership, a kind of leadership that values spaciousness, nature, relationships, and ritual.    Resources for this episode can be found here: http://daringtorest.com/podcast/88  

Get ready for Women's History Month! In this episode, Jocelyn talks to Nina Simons, author and co-founder of Bioneers. They talk about the importance of human connectivity to each other and nature. Nina shares her unexpected path to leadership and listening to others helps her growth. Follow Nina on Instagram @1ninasimons. To learn more about her journey and her book, visit https://www.ninasimons.com/. To learn more about Bioneers and the annual conference March 28-30 - https://bioneers.org/. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/inscribinginclusion/support

Today on the show I interview Sylvia Ghazarian, Executive Director of Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project, the largest national independent abortion fund. As former Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women for 12 years, she has championed policy advocacy on healthcare, poverty, domestic/sexual violence and human trafficking in Los Angeles. Sylvia is from California, and identifies as middle eastern and a woman of color.We discuss:Importance of our national abortion fund and the need to destigmatize this common health procedure.Thinking Bigger Than Roe as we head into what would have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade.How leadership development and career paths can be formed in unexpected ways.She recommended the book Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown and the documentary The Burning Times.Some other podcasts about Roe vs. Wade:326 50 Years of Ms Magazine with Kathy Spillar296 Reclaiming Abortion as Healthcare With Joan LaMunyon Sanford I want to personally invite you to the Bioneers Conference. As Bioneers celebrates its 35th-anniversary conference, the urgency of transformative change is starkly evident. It is more important now than ever that we connect and scale brilliant social movements to enact the kinds of breakthrough solutions that this earth needs. The clock is ticking. The call to action resounds: We must recognize our collective power, understanding that what we do to one another resonates with our treatment of the Earth.Previous episode with Nina Simons, the co-founder of Bioneers, https://wellwomanlife.com/captivate-podcast/297show/Register now for #Bioneers2024 at conference.bioneers.org Use discount code WellWoman20!The Well Woman Show is thankful for support from Collective Action Strategies – a consulting firm that supports systemic change so that women and families thrive, and by the Well Woman Life Movement Challenge Quiz at wellwomanlife.com/quiz

Alyssa Calder Hulme: [00:00:00] Welcome to the women of ambition podcast. I'm your host, Alyssa Culler Hume. And today we have a fantastic guest on our show. Nina Simons is co founder and chief relationship officer at Bioneers and leads it's every woman leadership program throughout her career, spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and. Philanthropic sectors. Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age, and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust, and leadership development. She co edited Moonrise, The Power of Women Leading from the Heart and authored Nature, Culture, and the Sacred. A Woman Listens for Leadership, which is the book we're going to talk about here today, was released as a second edition in 2022 with an accompanying discussion guide and embodied. Practice. Nina received the Goy Peace Award with her husband and partner, Kenny Ausubel for pioneering work to promote nature inspired innovations for restoring the earth and our [00:01:00] human community, which is pretty incredible. So thank you so much for being here, Nina.  Nina Simons: Thank you, Alyssa. It's great to be with you. Um,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: this is your beautiful book. You can see it behind her if you're watching the video. Um, it's beautiful. This artwork is fantastic. Um, and I, I'll just start by saying that, you know, I, I get reached out to by a lot of PR teams and different people wanting me to promote the material. And, I'm really picky, but yours is the first one that I, I read and I really loved and am deciding to share it because, um, I think what your, your message here is, is really incredible. It's really holistic. And I think it's something that we really need to talk about. So thank you so much for, for me, for writing this book and publishing it. And. Talking about being like a feminist as a white woman who's trying to, um, decolonize perspectives, understand privilege, um, and also, [00:02:00] um, someone who's been in that space for so long. You have a lot of wisdom to share and a lot of experience. And I, I'm just really grateful that you're putting that out in the world and being vulnerable. So thank  Nina Simons: you. Oh, it's my honor and privilege. I feel really grateful to get to do it. Thank you, Elisa. Okay,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: so, I, so this book is about women's leadership, um, and you talk about it from your own personal experiences and then in working with other, with other leaders in, In lots of different communities, um, can we start maybe talking about, uh, what Bioneers is and where that word comes from, because I was really intrigued by that. Nina Simons: Sure. Sure. Well, the word was coined by my husband and partner because it's a contraction of biological pioneers. Okay. And the idea behind it was he started looking to find really innovative and effective [00:03:00] approaches. To healing our relationships with ourselves, each other and the earth and what he found was that some of the great innovators out there, many of them were looking to nature to heal nature and so there were nature sourced solutions and that's where the word Bioneers came from. But. Bioneers started as an annual gathering. Um, we started it in 1990 and over the years it has grown and grown and evolved tremendously so that now there is an annual face to face in person conference of about a year. 2500 or 3000 people, but there is also an incredible wealth of media that we put out. So we produce a radio series that wins awards many years and, um, a great newsletter and a lot of what motivated Bioneers in the first place was the recognition. [00:04:00] That the mainstream media tends to carry the bad news, but not the good news of the world. That's being born. And especially in this time when there's so much destruction and violence and coming apart, we all need to remember to give some of our time and energy to the world. That's being born because it's incredibly uplifting and inspiring and full of role models. And, and, um, that's what Pioneers is. And, um, what else did you ask me? I think that was the main question. No,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: it, it was. Um, one of the things that you talk about in your book is the difference between a Bioneer and a Pioneer. And how as in the Bioneer space, you are looking to To create with the world instead of imagining it as a blank space that doesn't have, um, life already living and I don't know, I'm not articulating it very well. Your book says it so much more [00:05:00] beautifully, but, um, co creating in that world with indigenous people with local knowledge with local plants and flora and fauna and all of those things. You speak maybe a little bit. to that? And, and why is that a revolutionary concept to an American white person?  Nina Simons: Oh, that's a great question. Well, and it's interesting as you frame it, it very much parallels my exploration with leadership because, um, what I've realized as a woman with all the privileges that having white skin gifts me in this country, um, and a fierce determination to become a better uh, anti racist, a better white ally, um, and to learn deeply what it means to do that. Um, part of what I've learned is that we actually need to invest in our own humility, and I think that's parallel to what you were asking because, um, [00:06:00] you know, Western civilization Tends to have us think of nature as resources and in fact an indigenous worldview thinks of nature as relatives And imagine how differently you would relate knowing that the trees and the Soil and the mycelium and the, you know, all of the elements are your relatives, rather than just resources to be mined or extracted or used. Um, so it really is about, you know, for me, what I've come to understand from all these years of immersing myself in both the challenges we face and. This amazing fount of solutions has been that, um, that the solutions we need are largely already in form all around us. And that what we need to do is quiet [00:07:00] our egos and our tendency toward hubris to learn from the allies that surround us. And that actually includes, um, people of different backgrounds. People of different classes and ages and orientations that I think a lot of what we're facing right now is a need to transform our culture by shifting our culture within ourselves first so that we relate to difference as a virtue rather than as an obstacle to be overcome. Alyssa Calder Hulme: Yeah, I, I love that in your book, you talk about a shift in culture and cultural change from a me to a we, and I, I really, I think that's such a succinct, fantastic way to, to talk about that. Um, and so I want to talk now about. In your book, you talk about leadership and being labeled as a leader and kind of your initial, um, being repulsed by that title and kind of your [00:08:00] transformation through that. So I would love to, I'd love to dig into that and then how your position and privilege as a leader has allowed you to exercise that humility and grow and learn with other people with maybe less privilege. Um, so, so talk to us a little bit about. Um, that stigma of leadership and, and maybe in conjunction with ambition, because I think it's a very similar stigma when a woman is trying or is in that place. Nina Simons: I do too. And it's been interesting to think about in relation to your podcast and recognize that, you know, social scientists have long observed that in our culture, when we raise boys, we raise them to crow when they achieve something. Whereas when we raise girls, we tell them not to crow, we tell them to be silent, to hold it to themselves. And really the models of virtue that [00:09:00] boys and girls are raised with are very, very different. And what I found When I was first called a leader, um, I was about 40 years old and I, I really didn't like it. I knew I was supposed to be flattered, but really I felt like it painted a target on my back. It was not a title I had ever aspired to. And. I knew from Bioneers that the earth is calling us all to be leaders now. And so I had to figure out how to reconcile those two things. And as I started convening women leaders, they would all come together immediately disavowing that they ever thought of themselves as leaders. So I found that it was a bigger issue than just me. And I think, you know, it relates to the, what you were just citing of the transition from a me culture to a weak culture, because really, um, I've done two books [00:10:00] now exploring leadership and how we are all co inventing and co creating new models of leadership. And, you know, I did that First, by exploring all of the talks from all of the leaders I most admired at Bioneers, and then deconstructing them to find patterns of how were they similar, and how were they different than my mental model, and, uh, and what I found was that they were all motivated from the heart, not the head. They were motivated by an internal passion to serve or defend or protect something. And not by a title or a graduate degree, um, they were often people who stepped up to do something when they didn't even know exactly what they could do. And it wasn't until they were in it that it began to reveal. And, And they [00:11:00] were, they were also people who, whose concept of leadership was involved sharing authority and sharing power. And so, you know, increasingly, I came to appreciate the Gloria Steinem thing of leaders are those who lift each, who lift others up. No, and, and as I explored that, I realized how important it was to both have your own sense of dignity and self love, but to have that balanced with humility so that you can recognize the gifts and talents and those around you and generously support them without feeling Threatened by the zero sum game of patriarchy that if someone else is good at something it means you're not so uh So I mean this latest book is sort of the latest Evolution of my thinking about leadership. It also talks about a lot of the [00:12:00] data about Women throughout the world and how their leadership is affecting change And, and how much, um, the research is proving that when women lead, everything gets better, you know, and so I think of the old model of leadership as an I model because it was driven by ego and personal achievement, you know, and, and I think of the new model that we're all co creating as a we model. Yeah,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: I love that. And that, I mean, it blends so well into my research on ambition, um, in terms of, you know, when we're looking at gender roles where men are socialized to be individualistic and to be competitive and to be climbing and, um, are expected to be in those leadership positions, but from that ego place and from that, um, Stamp of approval of a title or, uh, income or [00:13:00] education or whatever it is. And now women are, are exercising in these places, but we're showing up in new ways and we're showing up with different gifts and with different values and priorities. And then when we're given the title of leader, it doesn't sit right, or it feels wrong. Um, And I, and, or ambition, I ask people to be on the show and they're like, Oh, I'm not ambitious. I'm like, well, let's talk about it. Cause I think you might be. And I think that maybe what you're scared of is actually some of the values that people have linked with those words that, that don't fit. Um, yeah, I love, I, one of the things I love about your book is that you talk and cite so many different. Women and groups and, uh, people from all over the world and talk about how their collaborative community based relational practices and different values are really starting to change the world and how the power of the [00:14:00] grassroots movements across the world and how they are. Are changing our society. Um, how as a leader, uh, with a platform, um, I know you've done a lot of work to create leadership spaces, uh, that account for differences in, um, Class and race and lots of different perspectives and places like that. What was it like to start engaging in some of that work to try and make your spaces more equitable and accessible to people who have been systematically disenfranchised?  Nina Simons: Well, you know, there was a pivotal moment in my learning about that, Alyssa, when I read a book by a woman named Linda Tar Whalen called Women Lead the Way, and what she cites in that book is that until any minority Has reached at least 30 percent in a group, they [00:15:00] don't feel flanked enough to fully show up. And that was revelatory to me and my co facilitators. And at that moment, we agreed that we would set a minimum of 30 percent women of color in our trainings and that we would have a woman of color on our facilitation team. So that one third of the facilitation team was, was a person of color and everything shifted dramatically as soon as we did that. Um, You know, I think in a nutshell, it was in some ways scary to me to embark on that steep learning curve, but in other ways I felt really compelled to do it, and in retrospect, I feel really proud of myself that I embraced it so fully, and that in fact, I've reached a point in my life where I have Profound friendships and [00:16:00] relationships with women from all walks of life, and I feel like it's gifted me, you know, one of the things I think, Elisa, about this work is that people often talk about how hard it is, but they don't often talk about how rewarding it is. And I have found it to be some of the most rewarding work in my life. And it's gifted me some opportunities to experience in an embodied way what Dr. Martin Luther King called Beloved Community. And there's nothing like it, you know. It also helped me to understand Why the patriarchy has been so invested in socializing us to be in competition with each other rather than an alliance with each other. Because I think one of the most powerful things in the world is women in deep intentional alliance who can grow each other's leadership, [00:17:00] um, faster, better, deeper than anything else I've ever seen. So that's, that's some conditioning to get over. Yeah,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: absolutely. I know so many white feminist women of my generation are trying to, uh, be allies and do anti racism work, and there is so much, so much work left to be done. And then, you know, at some point, there comes a time when it's time to start actually enacting some of those things we're learning, and I, it's scary to move from a learning place to an action place, and then it's, I mean, Speaking for myself, like it's vulnerable to try and reach out and, and start that inclusive journey because it will most certainly involve some direct correction and education from the people around me. And, um, [00:18:00] I think what you're saying, it is a very vulnerable thing to, to learn something and then to try and change an organization and to, to make that big shift of who are we inviting and who are we putting in those positions of power and making those shifts. And I see it happening. And, you know, there are all kinds of companies with different quotas and they're trying to get certain rates of leadership in different areas. Um, it sounds like you did it. Fairly quickly and a steep learning curve, as you say, how did you, uh, so one of the phrases in your book is, uh, discomfort, resilience, learned, like that's part of that humility and letting go, um, allowing to be uncomfortable and to be educated and to continue to grow and listen to other people. What was that like? And, uh, you talk about. You know, getting feedback about cultural appropriation and, and [00:19:00] those types of things. Can you speak to that process and the humility or learning  Nina Simons: curve? Yeah. I mean, I think, I think one of the things that it requires is really coming face to face with having been raised by a culture that is deeply embedded in white supremacy. And so, you know, when you face that, when I face that in myself, it causes me to look at the stereotypes I carry, you know, my assumptions that someone may know less than me because they have a different background or a different color of skin. Um, and in fact, The more that the doing has taught me, I mean, I think studying and learning with other white people is really important and really necessary, but also, um, I think it's taught me a kind of [00:20:00] humility to understand that, you know, I'll give you an example. Um, early in my women's leadership work, I remember saying to a room of mixed women that I was raised in a home where anger was not expressed. And as a result, I didn't really know how to have a healthy relationship to anger and that I suspected that that might be true for many or most women. And I had an African American woman immediately push back and say, Not true in our culture. You know, I, I was raised to express my anger in a great and healthy and strong and quick way. And I thought, Wow, okay. Well, that's something I have to learn from you, you know, that's great. Um, so I think Let's see I think the other thing about it that I want to say and I I write about this in a longer essay in the book is that it's one thing to [00:21:00] learn about white supremacy and the racist history of our nation from your head. And it's another thing to feel it in your heart. And some of the hardest anti racism training experiences I've ever had has been witnessing other white people only respond from their heads. And they either get defensive or they have a rationale or, but But the truth is, um, we are living among people who are experiencing painful events due to the racism deeply embedded in our culture every single day, many, many times a day, and sometimes it's it involves fear for the life of their Children, you know, um, and. And so it requires really extending your empathy to somebody else's experience, and similarly, [00:22:00] as I've learned about Indigenous peoples and the horrors that we have inflicted on them, that this nation has, um, I find myself having tremendous amounts of empathy and compassion, and And then the trick is, how do you turn that into some sort of action? Because knowing about it, thinking about it, talking about it doesn't mean squat until you do something about it. And that means helping in whatever way you can. But it also means not falling into the trap of becoming a white savior. Instead, coming in a humble way to say, I want to be of service. How can I help? Tell me how I can help you because only they know what they need really. And, um, and put me to work, you know, I'll wash dishes. I'll take out the trash. Tell me what you need. Um, So, I mean, I guess that's the [00:23:00] best I can do in a generalized form. Yeah.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: So I want to mention today too, we are recording this on Memorial Day in the United States. The day that we remember people have passed away, our ancestors and our loved ones. And For me, a part of this process has been coming to terms with, with my own family history and the complicity in the settler colonizer state and in the patriarchy and, um, a lot of the contradictions that are there, that it's really tempting to paint a really pretty picture of pioneers or pilgrims, or, you know, the settlers that built this cabin and worked so hard to settle this area. And it's, It's, it's so many complicated overlapping truths of also, um, genocide and rape and, um. And land theft. And death and destruction. Yeah. Yeah. Land theft and, and continual [00:24:00] occupation. Here I am. Yeah. In Utah. I have no ancestors from Utah. And I'm still here. Yeah. And, um. It's, it's a paradox and it's hard and it's uncomfortable. Um, and I have children. So part of my work is to teach them about all of that and try and model how to continue to exist and then what to do next. Um, because I think if I'm running away from it in my own family system and my own family culture, like I can't. I'm not going to do anything on a greater scale that's actually helpful, you know. Nina Simons: Yeah, I sure do. And we're surrounded by so many examples of people who, you know, there's a saying, uh, in the healing communities that hurt people, hurt people. Yes. Right. And, and so what you're facing, Alisa, is very much an opportunity to break the chain and [00:25:00] to, um, to really choose something different for yourself and your kids. And I applaud you for doing so. It's a big deal.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: Thank you. Yeah, it, it's hard. And it's vulnerable to, to put myself in positions to learn and to be corrected and to be told, um, that I have a limited perspective. But, but like you're saying, there's, it's not just all pain there. Like, there's so much beauty in learning. Uh, one of my. Favorite examples of this recently is, um, in the resistance to the Dakota access pipeline, uh, the Lakota people established a resistance movement and it was led by the indigenous people of the area. And there were lots of activists and other native people that came to help. And proportionately the, the local native people were a very small fraction at the end. Um, but everyone continued to function. under the guidance of that leadership and under that sovereignty. And I, it's such a [00:26:00] beautiful story that is just a fraction of what was going on there, but that, that sovereignty and that leadership and that respect that was able to function, I think for almost like 10 months in that space allowed for a much larger work to happen. And it's a beautiful example of how. Leadership and sovereignty is not, it doesn't have to be this dominating power, but it can be this community agreement to recognize leadership in these beautiful spaces and with indigenous values. And, um, it brings me so much hope. So I can, I can feel what you're saying about the resilience and the hope and the leadership and the learning that comes from engaging with these stories that also hold so much  Nina Simons: pain. Yeah. Well, and, and frankly, there is a, a fierce commitment to surviving and thriving in many Native communities. And [00:27:00] it's huge. You know, I, I recently heard a friend whose son was at Standing Rock, and she's a Native woman, and she said, I'm so grateful for what my son learned there because he learned that you don't ever put lives at risk without checking first with the life givers and the life bearers. So you go to the women first for their permission if you're going to consider something dangerous. And he, she said, I'm so grateful he learned that. You know, and it made so much sense to me. I thought, wow, what if before we went to war, you know, we had part of our constitution was a council of elder women. They would consult before going into war. It would change everything. Revolutionizing. Right?  Alyssa Calder Hulme: Yeah. And in your book, you talk about, uh, the Iroquois Confederacy and the, uh, [00:28:00] The  Nina Simons: Haudenosaunee. Thank  Alyssa Calder Hulme: you. Yes, I read it. It's, it's weird to say it out loud. I'm not used to that. Um, Haudenosaunee and how they have that council of women. Yeah. And that is, you know, that was the inspiration for a lot of the, um, the feminist movement in the United States.  Nina Simons: And the U. S.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: Constitution. Yes. And I, I have, I have, um, Iroquois ancestry and I'm so proud of that piece and I, it's, it's a very small fraction, but I'm like, ah, I want to connect with that part of, part of my ancestry as well because, oh my goodness, we have so much to learn. I have so much to learn. Um. Okay, so many things that we could, that we could talk about here. Um,  Nina Simons: You know what? Can I jump in for a sec? Oh, please do. Please do. Okay. I was realizing as I was anticipating being with you today that I was thinking about my own relationship to ambition. Oh, yeah. And, and what I [00:29:00] realized was that I've never had ambition to be rich or a celebrity. I've never had that kind of ambition. The kind of ambition that I have had has been a promise to myself that before I die, I'm going to live out what my soul brought me here to bring. And that's a form of ambition, I realized, you know, and certainly, you know, I enjoy being well used. I enjoy feeling like I've contributed something that's really Helped move something, um, that I care about and I work with a number of women who are quite ambitious and I love that they're ambitious because, you know, they're, they're sort of natural born competitors and, and. Why shouldn't we all have that within ourselves? You know, a [00:30:00] desire to excel. So I think, you know, part of what I talk about in the book is this idea that I call full spectrum leadership, and by which I mean, having access to all of our human capacities at any given time. And if the feminine is the receptive and the masculine is the active, why shouldn't we have all of it? I mean, of course, as whole human beings, that's my aspiration.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: No, I thank you for, for bringing us back to that, uh, cause I, I do want to explore that more. Um, one of the things I'm cautious of is engaging in a binary of, um, and it's ironic because you know, the name of the podcast is. Women of ambition. And so I'm engaging in that in, in a division by calling out experiences of women. Um, so I am cautious of that, but as you're saying, being holistic [00:31:00] people, exploring all pieces of our identity, making sure that's in balance, you know, it's not just women reclaiming femininity, but it's also men reclaiming that part of their leadership as well. And having that holistic experience. Um, Can you maybe speak a little more specifically about the different ways that, uh, feminine leadership comes across? I know there are so many examples in your book.  Nina Simons: Sure. You know, there's There's a phrase from the late 60s feminist movement. I don't remember which number it is, but I can hardly keep track. Are we in the fourth  Alyssa Calder Hulme: right now? I think that's  Nina Simons: what we're in right now. But, um, you know, feminist scholars started writing about all our ways of knowing. And reclaiming all our ways of knowing. And that phrase really [00:32:00] resonates for me. Um, what I've realized as I've explored my own self and cultivating myself to, to full flourishing, which is how I think of it. Um, and I hope I'm continuing to cultivate myself until the day I die, right? So that, that involves taking risks, being vulnerable. Um, what I find is that I almost have practices to turn down the volume on my mental capacities and turn up the volume of the knowing of my heart, of my emotions, of my body's Knowing and intelligence, and also of my intuitive or spiritual understanding and relationship to the sacred, to my ancestors, to the invisible world, you know, scientists are proving all the time that, uh, the invisible world [00:33:00] actually exists, and that in fact, it may have a far greater influence on events than the part that's visible and palpable to our five senses. So, so what I've found is that as I'm growing toward my full flourishing, and I should say all this self cultivation has led me to a place, Elisa, where I'm feeling more, um. authentic, more fully integrated, more free and more trusting of all of the parts of myself than I ever have in my life before. And I want that for everyone. It's just so wonderful to feel. And I, I look back and I think, well, I kind of wish I'd learned it sooner, but I'm not sure I could have, you know, so it, we'll each take whatever time we take. Um, Okay, what did you ask me? Ah, okay. Feminine leadership. So, you [00:34:00] know, what it looks like to me is recognizing that our emotions exist for good reason. Whether we're in a female body or a male body, emotions are communications from nature about something that we need to pay attention to. And in fact, of course, as we all know, in our culture, Hollywood produces movies that they call chick flicks that are all about relationship and emotion and men don't think those movies are for them. But I personally believe that if we could institute publicly acceptable, safe venues for expressing both grief and anger, we could Dial down the amount of violence in our culture almost overnight. I think it's just huge. So, you know, one of my favorite examples was a woman [00:35:00] at one of our, uh, trainings who was a labor organizer. And she described sitting at a table with a room full of men and how she was so passionate about something that she was crying. And she didn't apologize. She was the leader in the room. She didn't apologize. She spoke through her tears. She said, I'm weeping because I care so damn much. And they all really got it. And I thought, wow, what an incredible role model. Um, you know, and, and part of what, uh, we did on those retreats was to unpack the conventional forms of leadership where leaders, think they know the answer to everything, right? And, and to juxtapose it with new models of leadership where it's safe and okay to say, I don't know, does anyone have a better idea? Or does anyone have experience with this who can help inform us? I think we're all [00:36:00] moving toward much more shared, egalitarian, team based models of leadership. And that the more comfortable we can get with that within ourselves. So that we can see it as a, as a accomplishment, not as a failure to be sharing power. Um, the quicker and better we're going to transform our world. Yeah, I,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: I totally agree with you.  Nina Simons: That's beautiful. I mean, there's another thing that I would say too, is that, you know, Part of this all was ignited, uh, when I first saw a film online called The Burning Times, and I began to understand through that film and the research that I did, um, subsequent to that, that all of the systems of our society had transformed during this three to four hundred year period in European history that had correlatives all over the world. [00:37:00] And that everything associated with the feminine became devalued, and everything associated with the masculine became elevated. And, uh, and so for instance, you know, being embodied is a gift of the feminine. Um, literally we birth literally . Well, that's right. Exactly. Exactly. And how many men do you know who are comfortable in their own bodies? Yeah. You know? Um, so they can only feel anger. Well, how crazy is that? Yeah, right.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: They're very emotional. But it can only come through in one way. That's not healthy. .  Nina Simons: No, and especially not at a time when there's so much. Lost going on and so much pain and suffering. I mean, honestly, if you're not feeling grief, you're not paying attention. Um, because there is a lot of that going on and it's painful and real. Um, so, you [00:38:00] know, I think, I think that. Uh, freeing ourselves of the old conditioned mental models and then aspiring toward, you know, how can we embody our whole selves? How can our creative self become part of our leadership? How can our playful self become part of our leadership and how powerful that could be really to say, I don't know, what do you think? You know?  Alyssa Calder Hulme: Yeah. I, I really appreciate that. Bye. Bye. humor can be one of those really transformational pieces. Um, I'm learning, I'm learning so much right now from, um, queer and trans people in terms of creation and joy and extravagance and flamboyance. Um, and, and same, especially with, uh, black feminist women, um, in their liberation movements and rest and healing and spirituality and wholeness and all [00:39:00] these textures of self that I. I might not even be aware of or might not even think about bringing forward in those places and, uh, we just, we need each other and, and as we're talking about these emotions and, and lack of touch with ourselves, um, you know, I think about the, the lack of our public ceremonies and, and morning processes and celebrations and these community experiences that we, um, That our people had long ago, or maybe we've lost in our current day. Um, and you talk a lot about the women that are bringing those kinds of ceremonies back and you talk about personal ceremonies. Um, can you speak maybe a little bit to that and how that. Works to integrate those parts of ourselves or or exercises them maybe I don't know. What do you think?  Nina Simons: Well, you know, I think what you're referring to. I refer to as [00:40:00] rituals and I Maybe 15 years ago or so. I was gifted to To experience a ceremony by a Peruvian teacher named Oscar Miro Quesada, and at the end of about an eight hour ceremony, he said, if you remember only one thing, remember this, consciousness creates matter, language creates reality. Ritual creates relationship and even though it was the wee hours of the morning, those words landed in me like, and I have used them to cultivate myself for now a long, long time and found them really helpful. And one of my favorite examples is just a really simple one where I realized one day that when I got out of the shower, I would look in the mirror. And I'd have all [00:41:00] these voices go off in my head about my hips being too wide, or my belly being too round, or my butt being, you know, all of those things, right? And I realized that each day I was doing violence to myself. And that I had to not only stop it, but replace it. And so I made up a ritual where I found a body oil that I really liked and, um, added essential oils to it until the scent really pleased me as a first thing in the morning kind of a thing. And so then I, you know, I held myself accountable for every day getting out of the shower and anointing my body with that oil. And while I did it. pouring love into my body and telling it what I was grateful for and what I appreciate about it and thanking it for all [00:42:00] the ways it supported me. And it, you know, it only took, takes two or three minutes a day. But what I found was that if I invent a ritual to strengthen some part of myself and hold myself really seriously accountable to doing it every day. Somewhere around six or eight weeks, I can feel a change in myself. And, um, so I find that really helpful, you know, and, um, similarly, I realized on our women's retreats that it made me nuts every time I heard somebody refer to a room full of women as guys. I was like, no, we are not guys. I'm a  Alyssa Calder Hulme: California girl. I am totally, I totally do that too. So I'm trying to change my language. It's hard. It's hard.  Nina Simons: Well, I'll tell you what helps. I love calling them guyas. I would be like, look, we're all Gaias, okay? Let's do [00:43:00] that.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: I like that. Because then you can change it mid word when you realize it's happening. Nina Simons: Exactly. And how wonderful to be addressed as a planet. Yeah.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: So is, have you, have you moved those rituals and things into? practices with other people. I can see that as being something that's really powerful in friendships or even in like a business setting or a collaboration space. What does that look  Nina Simons: like? Well, you know, a lot of what I talk about in the book is the power of women's circles. There are a lot of great authors who've written about this. Um, but the truth is you can do it. With one or two or five other women and, um, you know, there's a wonderful ritual that we do, we did in our retreats that we called compost and cauldron. Yes, I wanted to  Alyssa Calder Hulme: talk about that because I love the idea of compost rather than like throwing something away. So please. [00:44:00] Right.  Nina Simons: Okay. So basically the ritual is this. You observe each day. What do you want to let go of? What have you observed in yourself that you're ready to give back to the earth because it's no longer serving you? And it could be a self limiting idea. It could be. Uh, a habit that you have, you know, it could be anything, but it's something that you really want to ritually lay down to the earth and know that, like with compost, it becomes food for the earth. It's not waste, it's not trash, it just becomes food. And what you put in the cauldron is what you're cooking on for yourself. And so, you would go around the circle and each woman would say, I'm composting this. that I saw myself do when I compared myself to the woman who walked in the room. And I thought, Ooh, I have the wrong shoes. I'm not dressed right. I, I, I'm not nearly smart [00:45:00] enough compared to her, all those things. I'm composting that and I'm going to put in the cauldron how good I felt. When she appreciated my idea, right? I love that, yeah. I know. So, and what happens is that everyone in the circle benefits from it because we, you realize that these things that we have, so many of them are shared and so universal and it takes it out of the me and the individual and puts it more into the circle of we're all healing from this crazy culture that has given us a lot of conditioning. that doesn't serve our best interests, our best flourishing. And so when we do it together, it becomes more lighthearted. You know, we all can mirror each other. And I think the other thing that I found about working in circles with women is that often others can see us [00:46:00] much more clearly than we can see ourselves. And so it can be very helpful after you're working with somebody in a circle. That you know, or you know pretty well, and you can say to them, you know, when I do my own self assessment, what I notice is that, uh, A, B, and C are some of my strongest gifts or talents, but I don't know if you see me that way. How do you see me? What do you think are my strongest gifts or talents? And what do you think are my areas that I could be strengthening or, or, you know, where I should turn to another for help? Um. Because that's cultivation. That's an investment in each other's leadership. And it's so helpful.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: I love that. It's that vulnerability and practice, that humility that we were talking about.  Nina Simons: Yes,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: exactly. Investing in and lifting each other up. Um, Yeah, I, I think that's just another, [00:47:00] another kind of ambition to, to practice that when it, when it might feel so, um, unnatural initially.  Nina Simons: Well, I think, I think like anything, you know, it's a muscle that when we practice, it becomes stronger. And I think also just to tie it back to our earlier conversation in relation to racial justice, you know, it's very important that we as white women don't go to women of color and say, teach me, what's it like to be a person of color or what do I need to learn? Because that's a kind of, um, uncompensated emotional labor that white people tend to lay on the backs of people of color. And so it's really important that we educate ourselves. Both about the history of slavery and colonialism and racism in this country, but also, um, about [00:48:00] our own relationships to our ancestors. So we're not going to them saying, you know, here, fill up my culture cup with your culture. No, we have to have our own. Alyssa Calder Hulme: So that, that was one of the other things that I was thinking about as you're discussing this, um, because I know a lot of. A lot of white presenting people have been very separated from their indigenous cultures and practices and rituals. And so a lot of us are, are seeking them out and we can, um, we can appropriate from other cultures in ways that we might not, in our ignorance, might not realize are damaging, um, and then, and learn and change, but then also in kind of, Trying to create our own rituals, even if we don't realize we're adopting something from another culture, um, but then we can be educated and learn and grow. I think that's kind of my fear in that way is that I will in learning something that's helpful to my spirit and to. Um, learning and growing, then learn that I have [00:49:00] adopted that without permission from another culture unknowingly, um, is that just, do I just need to keep being humble and, and learning? Nina Simons: Well,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: it happens so inadvertently, you know what I mean? And it's genuine. And then the impact is so painful to others. And so I'm just grappling  Nina Simons: with that. You know, one of the things that I've learned from my contact with indigenous peoples is protocols are really important. And what that means is you don't borrow from another culture without citing the source. And so, if you learn something in a book, cite the author. If you learn something from a teacher, ask their permission before you share it again. Because there is something about honoring others sovereignty that is so central. To the dignity of people trying to heal from all these centuries of oppression. And it's when we do things [00:50:00] without citing the source, without asking permission, without honoring where it came from, that's when it's really cooptation.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: Yeah. Yeah. I thank you for that. I think part of my, my issue is I don't always realize that something comes from another culture. Yeah. And I guess at that point, all I can do is Ask for forgiveness and learn and adapt in the moment. Nina Simons: Ask for forgiveness if you hurt somebody. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. Culture is a nebulous thing. And we learn from and with each other constantly. We are fundamentally social creatures. And, and culture is always evolving. So, you know, there is a way that that line is not nearly as as clearly drawn as some people would imagine. And so I think you just have to practice witnessing [00:51:00] yourself and being clear about your intentions. And, you know, one of the things I like to remind myself, Alisa, is that doing racial justice work as a white person means having both a thick skin and a thin skin at the same time. Yes, I agree. I love that because I want to open myself to really feel other people's experience and the truth of that and the pain of that. And at the same time, I want to have a thick enough skin that I recognize that when I make mistakes, it doesn't mean I'm a bad person. It means I have to. Pay attention and learn and apologize if it's appropriate, but it doesn't hurt me to make mistakes, really, you know, and, and so I think it's an art that we practice and get better at being thick skinned and thin skinned at the same time. Alyssa Calder Hulme: Yeah. And then, and then having you taking the privilege and the [00:52:00] position or whatever we have to actually go and act on that knowledge and, and help people. Cause we can't just learn something and crumple inward and not do anything about it and just feel guilt. Like that is not. That's not the point. And I also don't want to be, yeah. And I also don't want to be so scared of doing something wrong that I'm not engaging in reaching out and being vulnerable. So, I mean, it's a, it's a tricky balance, I think, but, um, you know, one of the things you talk about is. Engaging in community and in listening to one another and growing together and it's vulnerable, but that's I think that's part of that leaning into that feminine side that has been so undervalued for so long. Nina Simons: It's true. And I love that you mentioned earlier. That, um, you named rest as part of reclaiming the feminine and, you know, I have a teacher who taught me that spaciousness is where the feminine [00:53:00] flourishes. And I thought, huh, in this culture that is so focused on hyper productivity and, you know, how many of us have to do lists. that are way too long and don't give ourselves spaciousness, even for 10 minutes in the middle of the day to just chill and go quiet or sit, um, and be, be in spaciousness. I think that that's a vastly underrated, undervalued experience that, um, can help all of us who are ambitious and leaders and caring about flourishing into our best selves. Um, that's a practice that's worth cultivating and believing in because it also helps. Me to remember to value myself deeply, you know, not in a hallmark way not in a narcissistic way but in a like [00:54:00] I you know, this body is the instrument of my purpose my soul's purpose and Taking good care of it for the long haul is not selfish it's an act of leadership and one that I I hope we all do because we are living through an epidemic of burnout and um, that doesn't help anybody. It just perpetuates the, the dying system.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: I agree. Um, you know, I have three daughters and I, and you're talking about leadership and self care and you know, every time they walk in on me taking a bath or laying down and reading a book. Or painting or something that feeds my soul. It's like, I'm not doing it for show, but they see me and they will take my lead on those types of things. And every time, you know, I burn myself out, it goes that way too. So yeah. Um, yeah, I, I'm remembering now the, some of the rituals that I've created for [00:55:00] myself where when I'm menstruating, I. I slow down and I build in time and space to take a special bath with a special candle and, um, you know, Epsom salts or some things. But, uh, it's, it's been interesting for me to use my own body rhythms to remember that the world is not built for me. Every day is not the same. I'm on a cycle, engaging with the moon, engaging with the stars and being like, yeah, every day is not the same. I'm not a man, I don't have those hormones. And, you know, taking that time to reconnect. with that feminine side that's cyclical and changing is, is really beautiful.  Nina Simons: It is. And it's a beautiful capacity that women have to connect with earth cycles that way, you know? Yeah. So cool. It was very powerful to me to learn. That in many Native American [00:56:00] cultures, the tradition of banning women from sweat lodges when they are on their moon time did not come about because of any belief that the women were dirty. Quite to the contrary, it came about because of the belief that women on their moon time have a more direct connection to the sacred. So there you have it. Yeah, I,  Alyssa Calder Hulme: I have, I have indigenous friends that have been, um, leading and teaching me in some really beautiful ways. And they continue to emphasize that to me and talk about how in their society, women don't need the sweat lodge because they have their own ceremony. It's an excess. It's an extra, but the men. require it because they don't have that in their, in their biology. And, you know, I, it's such an interesting thing to learn about and I'm still just scratching the surface on that, but that's been part of my, my [00:57:00] coming back to self ritual, because then it does allow me to do all the many other. Outward things that I want to do, but yeah, you know, we have to have balance across all parts of ourself. Yep  Nina Simons: Yes, we do  Alyssa Calder Hulme: Okay, well we are gonna wrap up here, but thank you so much for for coming on and sharing these things just a Beautiful, gorgeous book. I can't wait for other people to read it and to share it even more. Um, is there anything in closing that you want to share with listeners, with ambitious women?  Nina Simons: Well, I would say, um, That it's worth checking out Bioneers because the role models there are amazing and the conversations are amazing. Um, the URL that's kind of great is bioneers. org slash NCS book because then you can download a free copy of [00:58:00] the introduction to the book. And. Um, if anyone does do that and does read the book, I would ask humbly that you put a review on Amazon because they count and they're hard to get. And I'm very honored to be offering this book to the world and to your listeners, Elisa, and, and thank you so much. What a treat to be with you.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: Yeah, you're very welcome. Um, is Bioneers still, do you still do in person conferences?  Nina Simons: We do once a year, um, in the Bay Area in Berkeley, uh, in late, uh, March of next year. And we also have a great newsletter and radio series. And that's free to any station and, um, just a lot of great resources online. So it's very much worth, and I'll be teaching actually an online course in August on sacred activism. So if [00:59:00] that's of interest, then sign up for the Bioneers newsletter and you'll hear all about it.  Alyssa Calder Hulme: Okay, good. Yeah. I, I really want to go to the March conference. Um, I'm going to be in grad school next year, so I'm not sure how busy I'm going to be, but. How great. Yeah. Well, and I, I'm trying to, I would love to, I'm in sociology and I'd really love to work with nonprofits and grassroots efforts and especially women, um, and gender equity and things like that. So it's all very, very close to home for me. It's very exciting.  Nina Simons: That's so  Alyssa Calder Hulme: great. Well, I love hearing about these resources. So thank you so much. Um, and yeah, we'll point people to your book and to your website and they'll get to check you out there. Thank you so much for being on the show, Nina.  Nina Simons: Thank you, Elisa.

Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership with Nina Simons In Nature, Culture, and the Sacred 2nd Edition, Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons offers inspiration for anyone who aspires to grow into their own unique form of leadership, one replete with resilience and joy. Informed by a plethora of multicultural and Indigenous wisdom keepers who are leading ways towards a regenerative future, this guide takes readers on an inspirational journey that's both visionary and practical. It speaks to shedding self-limiting beliefs, leading from the heart, and discovering beloved communities as they cultivate their own flourishing and liberation. Nina is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all. She speaks and teaches internationally at schools, conferences, and festivals, and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women that share practices for regenerative leadership through reclaiming wholeness and relational mindfulness. For more information, please see her website, www.ninasimons.com *************************************************** For more information about BITEradio products and services visit: http://www.biteradio.me/index.html To view the photography of Robert at: http://rpsharpe.com/

How does each of us find our sovereignty, our sense of what it is to have agency and be alive in the world, and align this with the part in all of us that is anchored in compassion, connection and empathy?  How, in short, do we encounter and encourage our own sovereign feminine?Dr Maggie Ostara is a long-time friend of the podcast - she was with us in episode 116 when we talked about finding our purpose in the world: What's mine to do, what's yours to do and what's ours to do together?  I've put a link to this in the show notes in case you want to go back and listen.  Since then, Maggie has written the international Amazon best-seller: Feminine Sovereignty: Eight Pillars for Regenerating Ourselves and Our World.  It was published towards the end of last year and I've been wanting to talk to Maggie ever since.  Her book is absolutely of our time and for our time: it's courageous and hard-hitting in terms of its dissection of where we are, but it's full of compassion and wisdom and embodied exercises that you can do as you go along.  And as you'll hear in the podcast, in 2024 she'll be offering the Feminine Sovereignty Explorers Club and the Feminine Sovereignty Leadership Incubator based in the principles of the 8 Pillars.  She's a certified Human Design and Quantum Human Design Specialist, Level 4, a certified Radiant Body Yoga Instructor, and a certified Clarity Breathwork Practitioner. She supports her global audience through her thriving YouTube channel and works with clients 1:1 and in groups.So this is a perfect sequel to Nina Simons last week - yet again, we are talking about ways of finding the god within - and engaging outwards with the world. Maggie's previous Accidental Gods episode #116 https://accidentalgods.life/daring-to-risk/Where to buy the book and/or get the first 50 pages for free FeminineSovereigntyBook.com Where to find out about the Feminine Sovereignty Explorers Club FeminineSovereigntyBook.com/explorersclubWhere to find out more about the Feminine Sovereignty Leadership Incubator FeminineSovereigntyBook.com/incubatorWhere to find out more about Human Design SovereigntybyDesign.com and YouTube.com/maggieostaraphdSusan Harper, Master Teacher of Continuum ContinuumMontage.com Where to find Maggie on Facebook Facebook.com/maggiesaleostaraWhere to find Maggie on Instagram Intstagram.com/SovereigntybyDesign

"Consciousness creates matter,Language Creates Reality,Ritual creates relationship' - Oscar Miro-Quesada  quoted by Nina Simons in her book 'Nature, Culture and the Sacred' One of the extraordinary privileges of hosting a podcast like this is that I get to talk to some of my heroes, to ask questions, to have a conversation about the things that really matter.  This week's guest is one of these.  Nina Simons is an author, a leader - and we'll hear how that word was imposed on her and then she learned to embody it, she's a visionary in the deepest sense, and I would say, in a world that is crying out for the wisdom of elders, she is an elder, a wisdom-bearer, someone who has brought deep humility and authenticity to the whole of her life.  In more outward terms, in 1990, she co-founded Bioneers, which started off as a conference and has grown into one of the foremost trailblazers of the movement for a whole and healed earth. On the website it says 'We act as a fertile hub of social and scientific  innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.' Nina is also a writer. She's a co-author of 'MoonRise: the Power of Women Leading from the Heart' and then more recently, she wrote Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, which is the kind of book that opens new doors, it's got the crackle of authenticity and the deep wisdom of someone who really does listen, to the earth, to other elders, to her own body, who has the capacity to walk the earth, asking, 'what wants to come through me?' without presuming to know the answer and then the integrity to write what comes.  And what came in that particular walk was this: "This is no time for small talk. This is a time for mythmaking. This is a time for epic poetry. This is a time to tell the tales that will become our compass for the days ahead. " So, with this as our guiding light, please enjoy the conversation. Nina's website https://www.ninasimons.com/Bioneer's website https://bioneers.org/Nature Culture and the Sacred (Introduction is available for Free Download here) https://bioneers.org/ncs/Bioneers Learning https://www.bioneerslearning.org/Bioneers You Tube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@bioneersNina on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ninasimonsauthorNina on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-simons/Nina on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/1ninasimons/The Burning Times Film https://youtu.be/34ow_kNnoro

A Sustainability Now interview with Nina Simons, author, speaker, teacher and co-founder of Bioneers Join us for a thoughtful and visionary conversation with Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers and author of the top Nautilus award winning book, Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. Nina invites us into what she calls “full spectrum leadership;” leadership that reclaims our human wholeness, that values the wisdom of our hearts, our bodies, our intuition, dreamtime and our ancestors. She calls for regenerating leadership in service to Mother Life in a way that values being as much as doing and is committed to learning how to live in right relationship with nature while reclaiming our fullest human capacities. Throughout her career, spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. Additionally, along with her husband and partner Kenny Ausubel, Nina is a recipient of the revered Goi Peace Award for “pioneering work to promote nature-inspired innovations for restoring the Earth and our human community.” Nina's book: Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for LeadershipPreview on Bioneers | Buy on Bookshop.org Bioneers website If you like what we're doing, please support us and help spread the word https://www.patreon.com/sustainabilitynow

Welcome back to the Mother Tree Network! In today's episode, we have the incredible Nina Simons joining us to share her wisdom, experiences, and insights.Nina starts off by discussing her unique practice of creating an altar around a tree to protect her New Mexico home from wildfires, which led her to deepen her relationship with the land and feel a sense of sacredness. “And there was a huge wildfire, the biggest in New Mexico's history.   I reached out to a friend and she said:. Make an altar around a tree that you love. And that became my practice. Putting flowers around the base of the tree and feeding it with water and sometimes with wine and with prayer.  And sending the prayer down into its roots and up into its branches. Nina then dives into her book "Nature, Culture, and the Sacred," focusing on women's leadership and racial equity and justice.She passionately emphasizes the importance of strengthening the feminine within everyone, not just women, as the repression of the feminine has had a profound impact on society as a whole. Together, Aminata and Nina explore the significance of diverse leadership and racial equity, discussing the challenges and lessons learned from convening diverse groups. They delve into the importance of creating safe spaces, discomfort resilience, and the need for love and acceptance in racial justice work. Cultural humility is also a key concept highlighted, acknowledging the embedded white supremacy and implicit bias that exist in society.Nina shares her personal experiences with cultural humility, the conflict in Israel and Palestine, and the importance of listening with the heart. But the wisdom doesn't stop there. Nina shares her profound experience with a plant mentor, Apache Plume, and the lessons she learned about revealing beauty, camouflage, fertility, and growing in community. The conversation takes a personal turn as Nina discusses her transformative process in her 60s, recognizing her white privilege and conditioning, and the importance of slowing down and making deliberate choices.Nina's deep connection with nature and its capacity to heal and regenerate shines through as she shares her journey of finding solace and stability in nature. This episode is filled with deep wisdom, personal experiences, and a call to honor the feminine in ourselves and the world. You can learn with Nina by checking out her Every Woman's Leadership online class in 2024.  https://www.bioneerslearning.org/everywomans-leadership-nina-simonsNina's BioNINA SIMONS is Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, and leads itsEverywoman's Leadership program. Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. Support the showMother tree Network Podcast--Where Spirituality and Earth Wisdom Meet Racial Justice and Women's Leadership. Want to become your unlimited self and evolve the planet?Go here to get the Mother Tree podcast + Show Notes sent to your inbox https://www.dramandakemp.com/podcast

This week, I'm thrilled to share a few of my reflections and takeaways after reviewing my top episodes of all time after 3 years of podcasting. This will be our 168th episode. The primary goal of this podcast episode is to connect with my audience. What have you liked over the past 3 years? What haven't you liked? And indeed what would you like to see more of? The primary categories we've covered in this time are: Social ImpactSustainability, Regeneration and CircularityHealth & WellnessGenerally, there have been 2 formats to the show. The first is the primary format -- interviews. The second is solocasts -- which are journalistic deep dives in to a particular topic, book or issue. The third is a screen shared commentary with a few different guests in a panel format (though these are rare). And we've also shared bonus episodes, where I have guested on other shows, primarily in the health & wellness space that I call my professional home. Our top podcast after 3 years of podcasting are: Tied for 1st: Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation with Paul Hawken https://caremorebebetter.com/regeneration-ending-the-climate-crisis-in-one-generation-with-paul-hawken-5-time-best-selling-author-and-environmentalistTied for 1st: Scary Smart: Scary Smart: How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Our World with Mo Gawdat, Bestselling Authorhttps://caremorebebetter.com/scary-smart-how-artificial-intelligence-will-change-our-world-with-mo-gawdat-bestselling-author 2nd: Indulge In A More Responsible Coffee with Mokhtar Alkhanshali, CEO of Port of Mokha, Producers of World-Renowned Coffee from Yemenhttps://caremorebebetter.com/indulge-in-a-more-responsible-coffee-with-mokhtar-alkhanshali-ceo-of-port-of-mokha-producers-of-world-renowned-coffee-from-yemen3rd: Eat To Beat Disease: Reimagining Our Healthcare Systems With William W. Li, MDhttps://caremorebebetter.com/eat-to-beat-disease-reimagining-our-healthcare-systems-with-william-w-li-mdSo where do we head from here? Questions: What do you want to see more of? Interviews? Solocasts and deep dives by yours truly? Both? Something else?Do you want to continue to hear about health and wellness topics? Other topics?Is there something you feel this podcast is lacking that would make it better? It could be news updates, or a second episode each week. While I'm not able to promise these things right now, if I hear from you that they're important enough, I may be able to move mountains and make it happen. Who do you want to hear from on this show? YOU CAN RECOMMEND GUESTS -- AND EVEN ASK TO COME ON YOURSELF! What's the worse that could happen? I could say no -- but we could also become friends IRL the way Beth Craig and I have. The sky is the limit! Dream BIG.How do you provide this feedback? Simple! You have several options: Submit a contact form on caremorebebetter.com and tell me what you think. Subscribe to our newsletter! You'll receive a survey to complete anonymously (or you can tell me who you are -- your choice)Leave a review with your recommendations and thoughts on podchaser or Apple Podcasts / iTunes. Find instructions on how to do so right here: https://caremorebebetter.com/how-to-leave-a-review/ Send me a DM on Instagram! https://instagram.com/caremore.bebetterLove the show? Subscribe, rate, review, & share! https://caremorebebetter.com Follow us on social and join the conversation! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@caremorebebetter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CareMore.BeBetter/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CareMoreBeBetter LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-more-be-better

Cheryl Esposito welcomes Nina Simons, a social entrepreneur, and co-founder of Bioneers, writer and thought leader in women's leadership. Her previous roles include President of Seeds of Change and Director of Strategic Marketing for Odwalla. Nina says that we are operating with an inherited definition of leadership that does not serve us in the 21st century. It carries with it assumptions that play out in actions, structures of organizations, implicit as well as explicit agreements of societal norms. Nina implores us to develop a new practice of leadership: “It is the correlations between inner awareness and outer work, and celebrating the interconnectedness of environment, health, social justice and the sacred” that are key to this evolution in leadership. What are the unspoken assumptions in your own leadership? Join the conversation to explore your own shift in consciousness!

#53 - Join us for a wonderful conversation with Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons on remembering and reclaiming our sacred relationship with the Earth. In this episode, Nina shares wisdom on learning directly from Nature, rekindling sacred relationship, and how we can engage in the innovative work of restoration in each moment. She offers deep insights on how spaciousness and community allow for co-creating a culture of thriving in the world that is currently emerging and being born. She also offers an experiential understanding of how leadership requires us to be in a dance of listening to address social, racial equity, and environmental challenges, and how we are being called into a new level of our humanity to meet this world in the most balanced and centered way. Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. Bioneers is a nonprofit that uses media, convening, and connecting to lift up visionary and practical solutions for many of our most pressing social and ecological challenges, using a whole-system approach. Nina is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all. She speaks and teaches internationally at schools, conferences, and festivals, and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women that share practices for regenerative leadership through relational mindfulness. Throughout her remarkable career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age, orientation, and more to create conditions for mutual learning and leadership development.  She produces and speaks at large-scale events to work intimately to help small, diverse groups of women leaders knit together to strengthen each other's work pursuing intersectional healing and ecological justice. Nina studied Theater Arts and Psychology at Cornell University. In addition to writing the first and second editions of Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership (Green Fire Press), Nina co-edited 2010's Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart (Park Street Press), which explores the flourishing, passionate forms of leadership emerging from women on behalf of the earth through the prism of more than 30 essays from successful women leaders.You can find Nina at: https://www.ninasimons.com/ and https://bioneers.org/On instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1ninasimonsOn facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nina.simonsNina's book: https://www.ninasimons.com/writingFor more info visit Sara's website at: https://www.multidimensionalnature.com/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/multidimensional.nature/facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saraartemisia.ms/facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/plantspiritherbalismYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@saraartemisiaLearn how to communicate with plant consciousness in the free workshop on How to Learn Plant Language: https://www.learnplantlanguage.com/

If you're hoping to linger with the bigger questions of personal and collective healing, this conversation is for you. Host, Bethaney Wilkinson, interviews Nina Simons about the role self-cultivation and personal healing plays in the work of addressing the many crises we're facing as a species. Nina Simons is co-founder of Bioneers and serves as its Chief Relationship Strategist. She is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about the power of women to transform the world, reaching racial and gender justice, indigeneity and rekindling a sacred relationship to nature, while co-creating a just transition that's regenerative, loving and peaceful. She speaks internationally and co-facilitates transformative leadership offerings that integrate Relational Mindfulness, Restoring the Deep Feminine and The Work That Reconnects. Nina co-edited Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and recently wrote the award-winning book Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. She was named a recipient of the Goi Peace Award in recognition of her pioneering work through Bioneers to promote nature-inspired innovations for restoring (reciprocal relationships among) the Earth and our human community. You can access our conversation transcript here. Learn more about A More Beautiful Way at www.amorebeautifulway.co --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bethaney-wilkinson/message

Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer of Bioneers. In conversation with Matthew Monahan. Watch this episode on video: https://youtu.be/uysNzM_3XCc Watch a preview: https://youtu.be/z5GiQsGTszI Bioneers: https://bioneers.org/ Nina's website: https://www.ninasimons.com/ THE REGENERATION WILL BE FUNDED Ma Earth Website: https://maearth.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@maearthmedia Community Discord: https://maearth.com/community Podcast Feed: https://feed.podbean.com/theregeneration/feed.xml RESOURCES Nature, Culture and the Sacred book by Nina Simons: https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Culture-Sacred-Listens-Leadership/dp/1732841403 Women Donors Network: https://womendonors.org/ Daughters for Earth: https://daughtersforearth.org/ The Burning Times film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burning_Times Solidaire: https://solidairenetwork.org/ Fritjof Capra: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritjof_Capra Zainab Salbi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zainab_Salbi RELATED INTERVIEWS Kenny Ausubel (Bioneers): https://youtu.be/e_1bnUAro0g Lynne Twist (Pachamama Alliance): https://youtu.be/p3yb1jJ48cI Justin Winters (One Earth): https://youtu.be/XWWI0mOBJUc This interview took place during Bioneers 2023: https://bioneers.org SOCIAL Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/maearth X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/maearthmedia Lenstube: https://lenstube.xyz/channel/maearth.lens Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maearthmedia/ Mirror: https://mirror.xyz/maearth.eth LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/maearth/ Lenster: https://lenster.xyz/u/maearth Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maearthcommunity TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@maearthmedia

On the latest episode I'm joined by the inspiring Nina Simons, co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, an innovative nonprofit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. She co-edited "Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart," and authored the book "Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership," which won Nautilus awards in the categories of Women in the 21st Century and Social Change & Social Justice. During our conversation we discuss:Nina's awakening to the wisdom of the Divine Feminine, or "Mother Life," as she says, via the groundbreaking documentary "The Burning Times"Why she feels like so many of our cultural problems can be traced back to an imbalance between the masculine and the feminineHow her work through her 30+ years of co-producing Bioneers has been informed and guided by Indigenous allies, and what's she's learned in the processHow her own understanding of gender bias has helped deepen her understanding of racial biasHow deepening with the wisdom of Sacred Feminine has also invited her home to herselfShow NotesIf you'd like to know whose ancestral tribal lands you currently reside on, you can look up your address here: https://native-land.ca/You can also visit the Coalition of Natives and Allies for more helpful educational resources about Indigenous rights and history. I'm so excited to announce the launch of the Home to Her Academy, a school dedicated to seekers of Sacred Feminine wisdom! To learn more and register for my upcoming class, "Home to Herstory, Home to Your Story," please visit www.hometoheracademy.com. And while you're there, don't forget to sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date with upcoming classes. My book, “Home to Her: Walking the Transformative Path of the Sacred Feminine,” is available from Womancraft Publishing! To learn more, read endorsements and purchase, please visit  https://womancraftpublishing.com/product/home-to-her/. It is also available for sale via Amazon, Bookshop.org, and you can order it from your favorite local bookstore, too.Please – if you love this podcast and/or have read my book, please consider leaving me a review! For the podcast, reviews on iTunes are extremely helpful, and for the book, reviews on Amazon and Goodreads are equally helpful. Thank you for supporting my work!You can watch this and other podcast episodes at the Home to Her YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@hometoherGot feedback about this episode or others you've heard? Please reach out on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hometoher/ ), Facebook  (https://www.facebook.com/hometoher)You can learn more about Nina at her website, https://www.ninasimons.com/. You can also find information about her book, "Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership" at bioneers.org/ncsbook, follow her on twitter at ninabioneers;  Facebook: ninasimons; and  Linked In: Nina SimonsHere are a few of the many wonderful resources Nina referenced during our conversation:The Arica School: https://www.arica.org/ (you can also find information about the Enneagram here)Changing of the Gods:  https://changingofthegods.com/Cosmos and Psyche, by Richard TarnasThe Burning Times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ow_kNnoroNina referenced epigenetic trauma. This Scientific American article provides more information: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-parents-rsquo-trauma-leaves-biological-traces-in-children/"Women Lead the Way," by Linda Tarr-WhelanLyla June's article, "Reclaiming Our Indigenous European Roots": https://moonmagazineeditor.medium.com/lyla-june-reclaiming-our-indigenous-european-roots-64685c7fc960Some excellent information on Decolonizing Thanksgiving, from Bioneers: https://bioneers.org/decolonizing-thanksgiving/Related podcast episodes:The Healing Power of Art with Arla Patch: https://hometoher.simplecast.com/episodes/the-healing-power-of-art-with-arla-patchThe Opportunity of This Moment with Jyoti Ma: https://hometoher.simplecast.com/episodes/the-opportunity-of-this-moment-with-jyoti-ma

Our guest today, Nina, Simons, believes that the root of many social and environmental problems we face today can be traced back to a fundamental imbalance between traditionally masculine and feminine attributes – and she has the evidence to back that up. In her latest book, Nature, Culture, & The Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, Nina demonstrates how interconnected many modern problems really are and she lays out the ways in which we might overcome them, with women's leadership and Indigenous wisdom at the forefront. Alongside her husband Kenny Ausubel, Nina is the co-founder of Bioneers, a nonprofit with a mission to platform common-sense solutions to social and ecological challenges with a whole systems approach. In 2017, she and Kenny were the recipients of the Goi Peace Award. In addition to Nature, Culture, and the Scared, Nina is the author of Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women's Woes and Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart.Show NotesNature, Culture, & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership by Nina SimonsNina Simons WebsiteBioneersEcological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women's Woes by Nina SimonsMoonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart by Nina Simons with Anneke CampbellThe Burning Times DocumentaryThe Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future by John Gerzema and Michael D'Antonio Key Words: Nature, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Environment, Ecosystem, Spirituality, Sacred, Feminism, Women's Leadership, Patriarchy, Patriarchal System, Indigenous, Indigenous Wisdom, Healer, Wellness, Climate, Climate Change

What 3 words would you use to describe a leader whom you admire?  A leader who you know can succeed in our VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, & ambiguous) world?I'm guessing that your three words will be a mix of both feminine and masculine traits.  In other words, effective leaders operate using full-spectrum leadership.In this episode, Nina Simons, co-founder & Chief Relationship Officer of Bioneers, shares her journey to full-spectrum leadership, emphasizing the importance of embracing diversity and honoring differences. In this episode, you will be able to:Unlock the benefits of full-spectrum leadership in fostering an inclusive and diverse work environment.Appreciate the role of relational intelligence and emotional maturity in shaping successful leaders.Uncover the power of sacred activism and its potential to transform the modern workplace culture.Resources:Nina's websiteBioneers websiteFollow Nina on LinkedInShow notes for for exclusive episode insights, resources, and the transcriptGet Coaching on Demand!Get quick answers to your leadership questions with our new way to support you, Pocket Coach!Like having a coach in your pocket, I'll be there to help you through leadership challenges any time you need it, within the flow of your work.Learn more and sign up for one of our limited launch price spots here.Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teri-m-schmidt/Get 1-on-1 leadership support from Teri here: https://www.strongertoserve.com/coachingSet up a free discovery call with Teri: https://calendly.com/terischmidt/discoverycall

Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. Bioneers is a nonprofit that uses media, convening, and connecting to lift up visionary and practical solutions for many of our most pressing social and ecological challenges, revealing aregenerative and equitable future that's within our reach today.  Nina is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, andco-creating a healthy, peaceful,and equitable world for all.  She speaks and teaches internationally at schools, conferences, and festivals, and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women that share practices for regenerative leadership through reclaiming wholeness and relational mindfulnessHer book Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership offers inspiration for anyone who aspires to grow into or inhabit their own unique form of leadership with resilience and joy. The book draws on Simons' own personal learning and extensive experience with women's leadership development... to reconnect and defend people, nature and the land, both practically and spiritually.

Leadership: what does it mean to lead in our times? Perhaps our times are requesting that we all express leadership in our own unique ways and forms. Etymology of the word leadership reveals root words that mean to go and also to guide. We might perceive leadership as going somewhere together with others, with being the important preposition. Because many of us have become jaded by modern leadership, influenced by patriarchy, tyranny, hierarchy and racial, social or gender inequalities. Nina Simons, Co-Founder of Bioneers, joins us to share her investigations of leadership in her book, ‘Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership'. Ours is a time that yearns for a new, feminine, inflected and heartled vision of leadership. Where might it lead us collectively, at the local and global level? Many Indigenous peoples around the world hold understandings and perceptions about leadership that are inherently more spiritual, circular, communal and collaborative than what many of us have experienced or been taught in traditional schools or by society at large. May we redefine and expand our notions of leadership, for much is at stake for the natural world, especially including ourselves. Some indigenous communities speak of the bird of humanity that has been flying too long with one wing. Now is the time to return to balance and fly with two wings for the benefit of the world. Nina Simons is here to explore the potentiality of leadership for our shared future. Extended Interview: https://www.patreon.com/posts/nina-simons-83808655 Fall in love with a place, a people, with children, a cause, an organization, a creature, a species - anything that really lights you up. Then give yourself to it in some form of purposeful action…Then see who else is committed to it. Who else is in this river you've opted to swim in, on behalf of our collective future? Bring all of yourself. - Nina Simons, Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership Nina Simons is Co-Founder of Bioneers [https://bioneers.org/] and Author of ‘Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership' [https://bioneers.org/ncs/]. She leads the Bioneers Everywoman's Leadership program. Bioneers is a nonprofit that uses media, convening, and connecting to lift up visionary and practical solutions for many of our most pressing social and ecological challenges, revealing a regenerative and equitable future that's within our reach today. Nina speaks and teaches internationally at schools, conferences, and festivals, and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women that share practices for regenerative leadership through reclaiming wholeness and relational mindfulness. Her personal website is https://www.ninasimons.com/. Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth. Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt Hosted by Carry Kim Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Episode 178

Join Jackie in an enlightening conversation with Nina Simons, Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer of Bioneers, as they explore the profound intersection of nature and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Discover how Nina's transformative experience in a biodiversity garden led her to establish Bioneers and become a renowned social entrepreneur, speaker, and author. Gain insights into the vital role of embracing diversity in both the natural world and human social systems, and learn how the resilience of diverse ecosystems can inspire inclusive and thriving communities. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from a trailblazer who has dedicated her life to promoting nature-inspired innovations for a better future.Diversity Beyond the Checkbox is brought to you by The Diversity Movement, hosted by Head of Content Jackie Ferguson and is a production of Earfluence. Like this show? Leave us a rating and review!

Join Jackie in an enlightening conversation with Nina Simons, Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer of Bioneers, as they explore the profound intersection of nature and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Discover how Nina's transformative experience in a biodiversity garden led her to establish Bioneers and become a renowned social entrepreneur, speaker, and author. Gain insights into the vital role of embracing diversity in both the natural world and human social systems, and learn how the resilience of diverse ecosystems can inspire inclusive and thriving communities. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from a trailblazer who has dedicated her life to promoting nature-inspired innovations for a better future.Diversity Beyond the Checkbox is brought to you by The Diversity Movement, hosted by Head of Content Jackie Ferguson and is a production of Earfluence.

In this episode, Raquel and Jennifer are joined by Nina Simons - co-founder of Bioneers, and a social entrepreneur passionate about reimagining leadership, restoring balance to the feminine and masculine, and helping to heal relations with ourselves, each other, and the Earth. She is also the author of Nature, Culture & The Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership where she offers practical guidance and inspiration for anyone who aspires to grow into their own unique form of leadership on behalf of positive change.How to reach Nina:www.ninasimons.comwww.bioneers.orgMentioned in this episode:The Burning Times - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ow_kNnoroLet Raquel and Jennifer know what you think about this and other episodes of Madness Cafe on IG @madnesscafepodcast or by email at madnesscafepodcast@gmail.com.And don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you listen!Thanks for listening and responding!

Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. Bioneers is a nonprofit that uses media, convening, and connecting to lift up visionary and practical solutions for many of our most pressing social and ecological challenges, revealing aregenerative and equitable future that's within our reach today.  Nina is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, andco-creating a healthy, peaceful,and equitable world for all.  She speaks and teaches internationally at schools, conferences, and festivals, and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women that share practices for regenerative leadership through reclaiming wholeness and relational mindfulnessHer book Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership offers inspiration for anyone who aspires to grow into or inhabit their own unique form of leadership with resilience and joy. The book draws on Simons' own personal learning and extensive experience with women's leadership development... to reconnect and defend people, nature and the land, both practically and spiritually.

If you're looking to reinvent your definition of leadership into a more integrated and full spectrum lens to make the changes you want to see in the world visible, and to liberate who you were born to be, you're in the right place. This is a very special episode. Today I'm so honored to be talking with Nina Simons, an award winning writer, and social entrepreneur who's been paving the way for feminine leadership. She is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. Bioneers is a nonprofit that uses media, convening, and connecting to lift up visionary and practical solutions for many of our most pressing social and ecological challenges, using a whole-system approach.  Nina is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all. We are also discussing her book, Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership.    Her book offers inspiration for anyone who aspires to grow into or inhabit their own unique form of leadership with resilience and joy.  The book draws on Simons' own personal learning and extensive experience with women's leadership development…to reconnect and defend people, nature and the land, both practically and spiritually.

We were so completely enchanted to meet this month's podcast guest! Nina Simons is an Award-Winning Author and the Co-founder of Bioneers. Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. Grab your coffee and get ready for an inspiring conversation about the Unique Gifts That Women Bring to Leadership with our new friend, Nina Simons. ***** ABOUT OUR GUEST: NINA SIMONS is Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, and leads its Every Woman's Leadership program. Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. She co-edited Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and authored Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership—was released as a second edition in June 2022 with an accompanying discussion guide and embodied practices. The first edition won Gold Nautilus awards in the categories of women, intersectionality and social justice. Both books are being used to inspire and ignite learning in individuals, circles and classrooms. Nina serves on the Advisory Council for Daughters for Earth, and in 2017, received the Goi Peace Award with her husband and partner Kenny Ausubel, for “pioneering work to promote nature-inspired innovations for restoring the Earth and our human community.” Past honorees include Bill Gates, James Lovelock, and Deepak Chopra. Connect with Nina: Read the book! - Circle with friends regularly, and practice, to build courage and grow your leadership capacity well - Visit www.bioneers.org/ncs/ to explore bioneers world, and get a free download of the book's intro. Facebook personal: https://www.facebook.com/nina.simons LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-simons/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ninabioneers Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/1ninasimons/ Websites: www.bioneers.org/ncsbook ; ninasimons.com ; conference.bioneers.org ***** Enjoyed this episode? We'd love to feature you! Take a screenshot and share it with us on Instagram. Be sure to tag us - @raymateam - so we can share your AH-HA moments on our IG stories. (Also, be sure to leave a review on iTunes or Spotify.) ***** MUST HAVE LINKS & RESOURCES: Join the Rockstar Leaders Membership Podcast for monthly support at https://www.raymateam.com/rockstarleaders-membership. Apply for Private Coaching with Coach Raychel or Coach Mandy at https://www.raymateam.com/rayma-team-coaches. Learn more about our Corporate Leadership Training and Team Building at www.raymafoundations.com. Shop our books on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/26Q8KFDAT9XQ8. Listen to more podcast episodes at https://www.raymateam.com/podcasts/fearless-feminine-leadership. Follow us on Instagram and send a DM with any questions at https://www.instagram.com/raymateam/.

When someone says to me, “would you like to have a conversation about nature, culture and the sacred?” - the answer is always YES, which is how this interview came to be. Today, I get to share a conversation with the dynamic author, leader and organizer, Nina Simons.Nina is the Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers. Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. ​She authored Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership—which was released as a second edition in June 2022 with an accompanying discussion guide and embodied practices. The first edition won Gold Nautilus awards in the categories of women, intersectionality and social justice. Both books are being used to inspire and ignite learning in individuals, circles and classrooms. In this conversation, we talk aboutMeditation as the subtlest form of self-loveArchetypal feminine vs gendered feminine and why this is what is missing from our worldThe intertwining of the sacred and activismGenerational traumaThe overlapping crisis of our time - indigenous issues, racial equity, gender balance and the environmental crisisNina also references a documentary, The Burning Times, that changed the trajectory of her life. You can watch The Burning Times here: https://youtu.be/34ow_kNnoroLearn more about Nina and her work here: https://www.ninasimons.com/Learn more about Bioneers here: https://bioneers.org/Special thanks to today's sponsor: Baronfig - Baronfig's line of “Tools for Thinkers” includes guided journals, notebooks, writing instruments, bags, accessories, and so much more. As an avid journaler, I am obsessed with their guided meditation journal, dream journal and their basic Confidant notebooks! Get one for yourself at baronfig.com and use code MindfulMinute to save 10% on your order by April 27. Trust me, it's worth it!Sign up for my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/dBYEUL to receive free mini meditations each month, creative musings, and more.Make a donation or learn more about my free offerings and live classes by visiting merylarnett.com.IG: @merylarnett #meditatewithmeryl

Let us be Dance partners in the Choreography of Creation Offering Ourselves as Accomplices to Nature's Guiding Genius Caroline welcomes, convener of Woofy Women (Council of Unreasonable Women), Culture Doctor, co-founder of Bioneers, Constellator of Community- Nina Simons! perfectly! as Pluto enters Aquarius. Guides us to remember the origin of life is Community (Bruce Dahmer) & Symbiotic Mutualism are our manners. Now! the Community of all Beings, conjures and implements the bio-mimicry resolutions to all we humans have imposed on  our kin… Some trickster genius is scheduling us… Nina be our Guest today, as the Moon, exalted in Taurus is exactly where it was when Nina was born — It's image: “An electrical storm illumines the skies, and forest below… Balancing with Natural Forces.” Woo-hoo! www.Bioneers.org www.ninasimons.com   Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership (2nd Ed.) Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons offers inspiration for anyone who aspires to grow into their own unique form of leadership, one replete with resilience and joy. Informed by a plethora of multicultural and Indigenous wisdom keepers who are leading ways towards a regenerative future, this guide takes readers on an inspirational journey that's both visionary and practical. It speaks to shedding self-limiting beliefs, leading from the heart, and discovering beloved communities as they cultivate their own flourishing and liberation. “Readers who are well versed in the leadership genre will find this book distinctive for its continual emphasis on community and ways of understanding, while those less familiar with the topic may find it a unique, holistic introduction. A smart, informed guide to developing inclusive leadership skills.” —Kirkus Reviews     Support The Visionary Activist Show on Patreon for weekly Chart & Themes ($4/month) and more… *Woof*Woof*Wanna*Play?!?* The post The Visionary Activist Show – Nature, Culture, and the Sacred appeared first on KPFA.

Whether you lead a team of subcontractors, have a full staff, or are responsible for people in other areas of your life, leadership plays a role in many aspects of your life. When you're an energetically driven human, it's easy to get emotionally involved in your leadership role.So how do you embrace your energetic self with strategic leadership? Today we're talking with Nina Simons about finding and leaning into your own unique version of leadership so you can lead from your soul but get shit done.In this episode, you'll learn:Not feeling like a leader and the process of owning that roleMagic happens when you're in tune with yourself and lead from the heartNew trends, current challenges and necessary changes for today's leadersThe power of putting down your guard and being vulnerable and curiousHow to cultivate and hone in on your own personal style of leadershipWhat to consider when leading from a distance“How does it feel when you're all in?”Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. She is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all.Resources from this episodeCheck out Nina's book Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens For Leadership.Over at Bioneers you will find videos, amazing podcasts, a newsletter, and an annual conference about game-changing social and scientific innovators with breakthrough solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.Join the Gutsy Collective -  a community of energetically driven female entrepreneurs + visionaries who desire meaningful growth – mentally, physically, and energetically. Join us online or in-person for monthly mentorship to reignite your fire and get the answers you seek..Alignment Sessions: get fast + clear answers – 90-min individual coaching sessions designed to help you realign your energy and get a clear action plan so you can save time and start growing.1:1 Coaching with LauraAura – My mission is to help you align and simplify so you feel confident, trust your intuition, and expand in ways that make you feel alive. I combine energy work with grounded, practical action, and together we'll acknowledge the limiting beliefs and habits that may be holding you back while leaning into who you truly are and how you work most efficiently.Connect with Nina SimonsInstagram: @1ninasimonsLinkedIn: Nina Simons Website: ninasimons.comConnect with LauraAuraTikTok:  @thatlauraauraInstagram: @thatlauraauraWebsite: LauraAura.comSupport the showTHANK YOU, GUTSY TRIBE!We love, love, love to read your comments, feedback, and reviews. If you haven't yet, drop us one below! Your review might even get highlighted within one of our gutsy love posts or on our website.https://podcasts.apple.com/ar/podcast/the-gutsy-podcast/id1445481970

In honor of Women's History Month and Gender Equality Month, Holly Corbett, VP of Content for Consciously Unbiased, spoke with Nina Simons, author of Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, for this episode of Breaking the Bias. Nina is also the co-founder of Bioneers, a nonprofit she started with her husband, that focuses on innovative solutions for some of the planet's biggest social and environmental issues. In this behind-the-scenes interview, Nina talks about her personal journey to embracing her own power and leading from the heart, the history of a time when women were prosecuted in the thousands or even millions for using their voice, and how joy is a bigger motivator than guilt when it comes to advancing equity. The 34th annual Bioneers conference is happening in Berkeley, CA from April 6 to 8, 2023, and Nina is offering the Consciously Unbiased community a 20% discount on registration by using the code: Nina20. If interested in attending, you can register here. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/consciously-unbiased/message

In today's episode I'll be speaking with Nina Simons, Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, who leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. Throughout her career, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development.  Today we'll talk about her book Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. The second edition just came out in June, 2022, with an accompanying discussion guide and embodied practices. You can find Nina's book and information about Bioneers programs and events here: https://bioneers.org/ncs/ Nina mentions Deborah Eden Tull's book Luminous Darkness: https://geni.us/5cqQ Watch The Mycelium is Listening (that Nina mentions toward the end of the episode): https://youtu.be/X56fh6MfdOw If you enjoy our conversation, please share this episode and subscribe! To learn more about Buddhism through my free courses, click here: https://geni.us/freecourses  Or get my book for beginners, The Buddhist Path to Joy, here: https://geni.us/buddhistpathtojoy May you and all beings be well. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/buddhist-wisdom/message

In Episode 118, Nina Simons, Co-Founder & Chief Relationship Strategist at Bioneers, joins Melinda in an honest conversation about ways to reinvent leadership by embracing intersectional allyship. They draw from Nina's book, Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, and explore how women from diverse backgrounds possess unique talents that can be leveraged in leadership. They discuss how intentional allyship can help individuals cultivate and showcase their greatest strengths. They also delve into how a deeper understanding of the intersectionality between environmental, social, racial, and gender justice can enable us to become better advocates and allies.Use the code ‘NCS20' to receive a 20% discount on the Bioneers 2023 Conference.About Nina Simons (she/her)Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. Bioneers is a nonprofit that uses media, convening, and connecting to lift up visionary and practical solutions for many of our most pressing social and ecological challenges.Nina is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all. She speaks and teaches internationally at schools, conferences, and festivals, and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women.Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age, orientation, and more to create conditions for mutual learning and leadership development.In 2017, Nina was a recipient of the Goi Peace Award, presented annually to individuals who have made outstanding contributions toward the realization of a peaceful and harmonious world.In addition to writing the first and second editions of Nature, Culture, & the Sacred, Nina co-edited 2010's Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart (Park Street Press).For educational resources from the episode, visit https://ally.cc.Connect With Nina On SocialLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nina-simons/Facebook: facebook.com/ninasimonsauthorTwitter: twitter.com/ninabioneersInstagram: instagram.com/1ninasimonsConnect With Us On SocialYouTube: youtube.com/c/changecatalystTwitter: twitter.com/changecatalystsFacebook: facebook.com/changecatalystsInstagram: instagram.com/techinclusionLinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/changecatalystsProduction TeamCreator & Host: Melinda Briana EplerCo-Producers: Renzo Santos & Christina Swindlehurst ChanPodcast Rocket: Rob Scheerbarth & Nina Rugeles[Image description: LEA promo and photos of Nina Simons, a White woman with short curly brown hair, a colorful beaded necklace, and black shirt; the light blue book cover of Nature, Culture, & the Sacred; and host Melinda Briana Epler, a White woman with blonde and red hair, glasses, red shirt, and black jacket.]Support the show

Nina Simons is the co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, a nonprofit that champions visionary and practical solutions for many of our most pressing social and ecological challenges. Nina is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all. Throughout her remarkable career, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age, orientation, and more to create conditions for mutual learning and leadership development. She has written the first and second editions of “Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership.”https://www.ninasimons.com/

What does Nature, Culture and the Sacred teach us about becoming the leader we need to be: for ourselves, our communities, and the Earth? Plenty, actually! As the world we inhabit crumbles around us, its takes courage, humility, deep listening skills and activism to create a safer world that is respectful of women, people of marginalised identities, and greater values than chasing money and power to create resistance and change. And what can we singularly do about it? My guest on the new episode of Wild Flow podcast is Nina Simons, Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, a nonprofit that features and connects practical and visionary solutions for transforming how we relate to ourselves, each other and the Earth. Nina is recipient of the Goi Peace Award, and throughout her career, she has worked with over a thousand women leaders who are diverse across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. She produces and speaks at large-scale events to work intimately to help small, diverse groups of women leaders knit together to strengthen each other's work pursuing intersectional healing and ecological justice. This conversation inspired me so much. We touched on:Nina's connection to her cyclical nature and the sacred in her post-menopause, Her journey from theatre studies to change-maker and activist,To how we can decolonise and decondition our beliefs around what leadership is, so that more women and underrepresented peoples can step into their leadership roles,How we can re-establish Eldership, especially by encouraging post-menopausal women to share the harvest of their life lessons, And how we can mentor young people to bring in their fresh ideas and energy to help change the world. With much more besides... If you are leading the way in your community, in your work, or your family, this is for you. And if you resist embodying your full leadership potential, this too is a powerful transmission to receive. Find all the show notes, free book excerpts and 20% off the Bioneers Conferece at https://charlottepointeaux.com/nature-culture-and-the-sacred-reimagining-leadership-for-women-with-nina-simonsThanks so much as ever for supporting me to host Wild Flow Podcast! It means such a lot to receive your ratings, reviews, and to be tagged in your IG stories @charlotte.pointeaux.coach! Please share with your soul sisters who are learning to honour their cycles and live as an embodied cyclical woman too, so they can receive the wisdom they're searching for. Find the full show notes at https://charlottepointeaux.com/podcast/ Charlotte xxx PS: Would you love to belong to a soul-nourishing sisterhood of women who are deeply connected to their inner seasons, cycles and body's wisdom? If so, I'd love to invite you to become a treasured member of our Wild Flow Coven membership and Subscribe for your free cycle magick rituals guides. Want to dive deeper and be held in your own private container for inner healing? Find my coaching and programs here at https://charlottepointeaux.com/coaching/

On this episode, author and social entrepreneur Nina Simons reminds us that in a fact driven culture, sometimes it's important to return to the emotional, physical, and even spiritual in order to balance the conversation. In a world full of 8 billion unique individuals, how can we learn to listen to each person's unique experience and perspective? Can we integrate the rational with our intuitions, and embody some of the shifts we'd like to see in the world? About Nina Simons: Nina Simons is the Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers. She is a social entrepreneur passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy and equitable future for all life on Earth. She co-edited Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and authored Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership—released as a second edition in 2022 with an accompanying discussion guide and embodied practices. The first edition won Nautilus awards in the categories of Women in the 21st Century and Social Change & Social Justice. Nina serves on the Advisory Council for Daughters for Earth, and in 2017, received the Goi Peace Award with her husband and partner Kenny Ausubel. For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/60-nina-simons To watch this video episode on Youtube → https://youtu.be/qIXFwwOdvlo

There is growing evidence that when women are in leadership leading from their feminine, we all win. And when men also lead from their feminine, the world rejoices. This is not to say that men need to exhibit feminine qualities, no, it is coming from a space where the goal of leading is for win-win, nurture and upliftment instead of for the goal of gaining power through control. How can we as a society create that change in our leadership landscape? On this episode, I chat with Nina Simons on: Why feminine leadership (this applies to men and women) will shape our future Bioneers - who are they and what do they do? Why storytelling is how we transform culture The importance of indigenous wisdom Plus so much more!⁣ Nina is the Co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist of Bioneers.org featuring practical and nature-based visionary solutions for many of our most challenging social and ecological challenges. Over time, she has worked with over a thousand women leaders who are diverse across disciplines, races, classes, ages and orientations to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development.  She is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and co-creating a healthy, peaceful, and equitable world for all. She speaks and teaches internationally at schools, conferences, and festivals, and co-facilitates transformative workshops and retreats for women that share practices for regenerative leadership through relational mindfulness, She's also the author of Nature, Culture and The Sacred.   For more about Nina Website - www.ninasimons.com Website - www.bioneers.org Facebook - www.facebook.com/nina.simons Instagram - www.instagram.com/1ninasimons LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/nina-simons-47a1355   Book recommendations Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens For Leadership by Nina Simons Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart by Nina Simons, et al.   For more about host KaKi Lee Website - www.kakilee.com Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/kakiverse888 Instagram - www.instagram.com/kakiverse888 Check out KaKi's Signature Coaching Program - Unlimited Abundance Academy - www.kakilee.com/unlimited-abundance-academy Interested in working with KaKi? Have an Abundance Tea

Our guest this week on the pod is Nina Simons. Nina is the Co-Founder of Bioneers and serves as it's Chief Relational Strategist.  She is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about the power of women to transform the world. Her new book is called Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. And a special thanks to members of the Awarepreneurs Community for sponsoring this episode! Resources mentioned in this episode include: Bioneers site Nature, Culture & the Sacred book Bioneers Conference The Mycelium is Listening video Plants of the Southwest seeds Bryon White Awarepreneurs interview Deborah Eden Tull mindfulness site

Self-care is the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health. “Not a year of my life has missed a baptism by ocean, not one. Why this relationship between mother and water, breaking waters. We are born from what is fluid, not fixed. Water is essential, a mother is essential. The ocean as mother is mesmerizing in her power, a creative force that can both comfort and destroy.” Terry Tempest Williams Nina Simons is Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women leaders across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development.  ​ She co-edited Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and authored Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership—was released as a second edition in June 2022 with an accompanying discussion guide and embodied practices.  ​ Favorite snack includes lime and jalapeno flavored corn chips and dried golden berries.   LinkedIn Nina Simons Bioneers Facebook Instagram Music-"Homesick" Copyright 2018. Written by Shireen Amini. Produced by Shireen Amini and Mike Davidson of Plaid Dog Recording (Boston, MA)

It is time for Mother Earth, women, children, water, and all the qualities of the Feminine to be held in esteem once again.— Andrea MenardWomen's leadership roles are changing from the old patriarchal leadership paradigm to a more feminine-inflected style that focuses on a well-rounded, healthier approach to business and community. They show up in the world with integrity, creativity, and a willingness to collaborate and communicate. But even more importantly, Feminine leaders have emotional intelligence. They use their skills in emotional expression, communication and implementation to raise and diffuse any situation. Emotional intelligence quickly being recognized for its importance in the work place and the world we live in today I am thrilled to have this inspiring conversation with Nina Simons: Co-founder and Chief Relationship Officer at Bioneers, and leads its Everywoman's Leadership program. Throughout her career spanning the nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, corporate, and philanthropic sectors, Nina has worked with nearly a thousand diverse women to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. She authored Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership released the 2nd edition in 2022 with discussion guides and embodied practices, the first won two Nautilus awards. We will be doing a deep dive into this book on how women can create positive change through embracing thier feminine and leading from the heart.What you will Learn:About co-founding Bioneers and how Nina's being awarded led to a self inquiry on what it means to be a leader as a woman (6:13)Cultivating Leadership Intensives stories of transformation (12:40)"The Burning Times" 300 year dark history, the persecution of women and how the effects are still being felt today (17:04)How epigenetics is showing how trauma is being passed on through the lineages (20:34)A simple self love ritual to pour love into your body (25:18)Questions to ask to develop a clear assessment of your gifts (41:57)The call for the Men as well (50:26)Resources:Book: Nature, Culture & the Sacred Book: MoonriseFilm: The Burning TimesConnect with Nina:WebsiteBioneersInstagramFacebookLinkedin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You won't want to miss this episode where my guest, Nina Simons, engages us in a fascinating discussion on leadership that is probably unlike one you've experienced before. I'm throwing out floaties to those who need them because we are swimming in the deep end this entire episode! (My favorite!)  Some takeaways from this chat include: How to step into leadership by surrounding yourself with other women leaders so you can support and accelerate each other's learning. (And men need this, too! It's not always a “good ol boy's club.” It could be strong male bonds that are needed as much as women need to support women!) What leading with diversity and equity at the forefront looks like, and how belonging is such an easy offer to extend. What relational intelligence is and how prioritizing relationships in designing and planning projects and outcomes is critical for success. Carl Jung's feminine vs. masculine energy concept and how our society has historically devalued the qualities we associate with feminine and hyper-value the qualities we associate with masculine, despite the fact we all have both. What has changed since the pandemic, and how our illusion of certainty and security was ripped away. What Bioneers is up to by guiding the healing of our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the Earth… …plus SO much more. This episode is a must-listen-to for any woman who struggles with limiting beliefs and any man who wants to better understand the history of women and how we have arrived at where we are today emotionally and psychologically. Tune in on the website, on your favorite listening app, or check it out on YouTube! About Nina Simons As co-founder and Chief Relationship of Bioneers.org, Nina Simons draws on her extensive experience with multicultural leadership development in her work as a social entrepreneur, producer, and culture worker passionate about reinventing leadership, restoring the feminine, and establishing racial, gender, and environmental equity. She is the author of the award-winning second edition of Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, which is available in paperback, kindle, and audiobooks.  She has experience in non-profit, for-profit, and philanthropic organizations, so I am so happy to share her knowledge and comprehensive perspective with you today. Connect with Nina Simons LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-simons/ Amazon Author Profile: https://www.amazon.com/Nina-Simons/e/B07NJJG7FF%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share Nina's Website: https://www.ninasimons.com/ Bioneer's Website: https://bioneers.org/peoples/nina-simons/ Buy Nina's Book, Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens For Leadership https://tinyurl.com/45fy3umn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stacy and Brenda talk with Nina Simons, a social entrepreneur and co-founder of Bioneers. This was a beautiful conversation on becoming a white ally, balancing the macluine and feminine energies in the world, and re-discovering the sacredness in nature and culture for deep healing of the world.What is Bioneers?How do you see that leadership is being redefined, and what does gender have to do with it, and how'd you get there?We discuss rebalancing of the 'feminine' + "masculine" and what this looks like and how we can truly balance these energies?What does marrying the Sun and moon mean? And how can we come from this place? What is relational intelligence and how can we cultivate this as a culture? How can we become a white ally and become dedicated to racial justice and beloved communityHow does doing the individual reflection and self-cultivation she writes about in her book, Nature, Culture, and the Sacred, will result in a whole system change?How can we cultivate forms of leadership that enrich all people, our relationships with the natural world, and lead to healthier outcomes?How can more women in leadership would improve all systems worldwide. 67% of people globally believe the world would be better if men led more like womenWhat can we do to stand together and grow each other's courage, skills, and leadership. How can we transform leadership from the inside, out to effect positive in the challenges we face on a personal, planetary, and geopolitical level?What are some of the solutions to our current global challenges must include nurturing and lifting up a more gender-balanced, heart-centric, integrated leadership style that prioritizes relationship before task? What do these longer-term vision and values look like?What does political reform in the future look like for you?Nina Simons, a social entrepreneur and co-founder of Bioneers, has innovated ways of regenerating community and remembering interconnectedness. She's worked with over a thousand women leaders who are diverse across disciplines, race, class, age and orientation to create conditions for mutual learning, trust and leadership development. Her award-winning book is Nature, Culture, and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, and her earlier book is Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart.This episode is sponsored by Tom Paladino at Scalar LightTom Paladino with Scalar Light. Sign up and receive your 30 day free scalar light healing at https://www.scalarlight.com. Listen to our interviews with Tom and the amazing benefits and healing potential in episodes #73, 78, 90 and 103.Nina Simons Links: bioneers.orgninasimons.comFacebook: ninasimonsauthor Twitter: ninabioneershttps://www.nfb.ca/film/burning_times/Be the Love Links:Website: https://www.bethelovepodcast.com/Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bethelovepodcastFacebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bethelovepodcast Instagram: @bethelovepodcastPatreon Website: https://www.patreon.com/bethelovepodcastTo donate to the Kimote Foundation: https://gofund.me/969a4863Your Empowered Soul: A Natural Pathway to Healing Anxiety and Depression

Nature, Culture, and Finding Your WHY Leigh Martinuzzi · 1057 Nina Simons – Nature, Culture, and Finding Your WHY In this episode, Nina shares her tips and thoughts on how we can follow our passion, find our purpose and create our Why! After a great career working with many to help find their purpose, Nina … Continue reading 1057 Nina Simons – Nature, Culture, and Finding Your WHY

***THIS IS AN EXCERPT*** Transformational women leaders are restoring societal balance by showing us how to reconnect relationships – not only among people – but between people and the natural world. This astounding conversation among diverse women leaders provides a fascinating window into the soulful depths of what it means to restore the balance between our masculine and feminine selves to bring about wholeness, justice and true restoration of people and planet. Join Alice Walker, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Nina Simons, Sarah Crowell, Joanna Macy and Akaya Windwood to imagine a future where women, children, men and the planet can thrive.

www.ninasimons.comwww.bioneers.orghttps://www.missingwitches.com/2022/08/11/ep-156-wf-nina-simons-the-earth-needs-us-all-to-be-leaders-now/ 

One of the current challenges of feminine leadership is knowing when to draw the line between sacrifice and martyrdom. Historically, women have been socialized to serve as mothers and wives. From this conditioning arose the belief that self-worth is directly related to how many people they nurture. It's true that leadership is about lifting others up, but it shouldn't be at the expense of personal well-being. The opportunities for growth, challenge, and leadership are endless. How does one discern when to say yes and when to say no? Keep in mind that a “no” is not a closed door; it may lead you to somewhere different. Before making a decision, ask yourself: Is it a cause you care about? Will it contribute to the cultivation of the self? It also helps to examine the sensations in your body. These sensations serve as signals; reclaim your body's intuition. Another important area to apply discernment is in regard to motivation. Are you serving because it is a conscious choice or is it out of habit? Is it for yourself or is it to meet outside expectations? The practice of self love can combat the compulsion to overperform. Listen to your body, heart, and spirit intently. Nina Simons is an award-winning social entrepreneur and visionary thinker. She is co-founder of Bioneers and its Everywoman's Leadership program. Her work currently focuses on writing, speaking and teaching about women, leadership, diversity, nature, systems thinking, leading from the heart, and restoring the feminine in us all.   What we discuss: 02:51 - Nina's leadership journey 11:24 - How to create boundaries 18:14 - Socialization of martyrdom 26:01 - Discern choice from compulsion 32:10 - Reclaim the body's wisdom 39:32 - Realize untapped potential 44:38 - What's the message of the Divine Mother to us?   Learn more from Nina: Websites: ninasimons.com & bioneers.org