Podcast appearances and mentions of vanessa scotto

This week I sit down with Vanessa Scotto, co host of the Bliss+Grit Podcast. Vanessa holds two masters degrees, one in Chinese Medicine and one in Transpersonal Psychology. She is also certified practitioner of the Realization Process with Judith Blackstone. Vanessa has a private practice where she mentors and coaches individuals from all walks of life.    Vanessa and I discuss her upbringing and current spiritual practices and beliefs. Vanessa walks us through the definition and formulation of generational trauma. She imparts how each one of us can work to heal our own lineages of trauma. We discuss the unique path of awakening and internal growth. Vanessa shares the ways in which we can overextend ourselves in self-improvement and she helps the audience identify how to know when that line has been crossed--so we can return to self-love and self-compassion.     To find out more about Vanessa head over to her website or follow her on Instagram @vanessascotto and make sure to check out her podcast Bliss+Grit    Podcast Production: Written, directed, and edited by Krista Xiomara Produced by LightCasting Original Music by Mr. Pixie Follow this podcast on Instagram @ianwpodcast 

What does it mean to be embodied? To start cultivating embodiment, we can often begin by bringing more focus to what it's like to inhabit our body rather than just where we are. The body does a lot more than just act as a vehicle to move the brain around from place to place. Brooke Thomas uses a variety of methods and media to help others onto the path of embodiment. As she joins this conversation, she brings lots of excellent insight into that process to help us start connecting to our genuine lived experience. On Today's Episode of A Healthy Curiosity: What embodiment means to Brooke What the three dimensions of experience are How she starts to help people learn to check in with their bodies Why ease is hallmark of discernment Walking through a sensory practice that Brooke uses to help people start shifting their being Brooke Thomas works in a variety of ways to teach about how to cultivate a relationship with our bodies, and therefore with our being, and how that can have a profound positive impact on an individual and collective level. At its core, her work is a lived inquiry about what it means to shift out of a mental/conceptual lens and into an embodied/experiential lens. This shift truly changes everything about how we meet ourselves and the world. She is a Realization Process teacher who works with clients one-on-one as an embodied coach, and does group work within the online embodied practice community, Liberated Being. She was a Rolfer in private practice for 20 years prior to this work. She has run two podcasts, Liberated Being (formerly known as Liberated Body), and Bliss + Grit, which she co-created with her friend Vanessa Scotto. Links: Judith Blackstone Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich Connect With Brooke Thomas: Website Liberated Being Liberated Being Podcast Bliss and Grit Podcast YouTube Instagram Facebook -- Apply to work with Brodie 1-on-1 Find out how to enroll in the Level Up course (on sale through the end of 2020!) Want to practice attuning to Fundamental Consciousness? Download a free meditation here. You'll also be subscribed to Brodie's delightfully infrequent newsletter; of course you can unsubscribe at any time.

This talk is an excerpt from a longer guest teacher gathering with Vanessa Scotto which took place on May 15th 2020. Vanessa Scotto may sound familiar to you- she is a very dear friend of mine the co-creator of a podcast we ran together for 4 years titled Bliss and Grit which was dedicated to embodied awakening. She is a Teacher, Mentor and Coach in private practice who has dedicated over two decades to exploring the dynamic interplay of the Mind, Body and Spirit. She holds two masters degrees in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Transpersonal Psychology; and is a certified practitioner of the Realization Process with Judith Blackstone. With a background in Eastern philosophy, Contemplative Psychology, Mysticism and somatic meditation, Vanessa takes a holistic approach to transformation, self-realization and self-love. You can find out more about Vanessa’s work at vanessascotto.com. And more about Liberated Being at liberatedbeing.community.

Today's Conversation is with Brooke Thomas.Brooke works in a variety of ways to teach about how to cultivate a relationship with our bodies, and therefore with our being, and how that can have a profound positive impact on an individual and collective level. At its core, her work is a lived inquiry about what it means to shift out of a mental/conceptual lens and into an embodied/experiential lens. This shift truly changes everything about how we meet ourselves and the world. She is a Realization Process teacher who works with clients one-on-one as an embodied coach, and does group work within the online embodied practice community, Liberated Being. She was a Rolfer in private practice for 20 years prior to this work.  She has run two podcasts, Liberated Body which is now beginning again under the name Liberated Being, and Bliss + Grit, which she co-created with her friend Vanessa Scotto. In today’s conversation we talk about the Liberating Being community, her podcasts, social media/reality online personas, embodied coaching, client's "anatomy pop-quiz" and knowing when it's time.You can find more about her work at www.brookethomas.me and www.liberatedbeing.communityAs always, we hope you enjoy the show. If you like what we are putting out, please share positive reviews at wherever you listen to us from. And feel free to share with friends. We’d greatly appreciate it as we are doing these podcasts for your enjoyment and education.You can find more about Andrew at andrewrosenstock.comAnd more about Nikki at nikkiolsen.comMany thanks to Explorers Society for use of their song " All In" from their majestic album 'Spheres' Please check them out here https://open.spotify.com/album/1plT1lAPWEQ1oTRbWOiXm3?si=eAL08OJdT5-sJ6FwwZD50g

Join me for a conversation with Vanessa Scotto that challenges all the self love memes we see every day and takes us into the longer and more winding path to reaching a place of self love.We talk about: Self compassion as a gate way to self love.Cognitive approaches to self love versus self love that happens on a cellular level. How difficult it can be to absorb and accept love from others when we have experienced abuse, trauma and mistreatment.How Vanessa used to believe that if anyone really knew her, they wouldn't love her and how she got to a place of self love in her life.Vanessa Scotto is a Teacher, Mentor and Coach in private practice who has dedicated over two decades to exploring the dynamic interplay of the Mind, Body and Spirit. She holds two masters degrees in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Transpersonal Psychology; and is a certified practitioner of the Realization Process with Judith Blackstone. Vanessa is also the co-host of the Bliss and Grit podcast; A show devoted to intimate conversations about awakening and embodied spirituality. With a background in Eastern philosophy, Contemplative Psychology, Mysticism and somatic meditation, Vanessa takes a holistic approach to transformation, self-realization and self-love. For more information on mentorship or upcoming classes with Vanessa please go to www.vanessascotto.com or go to www.blissandgrit.com to tune into her podcast.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=21191833&fan_landing=true)

“Wounded healer points back to something that we both hold really sacred, which is like, we're all human beings here. And we're never not human beings as long as we're in one of these things called the human body.” ~Brooke Thomas  Vanessa Scotto is a Counselor, meditation teacher, and Chinese Medicine practitioner whose work integrates spirituality and psychology. In her early 20's, Vanessa's own struggle with depression and anxiety catapulted her on an academic and personal journey. Along the way she earned two Master’s degrees and logged over 20 years of clinical practice.  Brooke Thomas has been in practice as a manual therapist (Rolfing practitioner) and movement educator since 2000. She is also the creator of the Liberated Body podcast. Her work is devoted to uncovering and celebrating how truly wondrous our bodies are; These gorgeous organisms that connect us to our deepest clarity, our world, and each other.  Together, they host the podcast Bliss and Grit: conversations about being on a spiritual path in the modern world. Vanessa, Brooke and Sarah discuss their personal calls to attend to their own healing process, the identity deconstruction that comes with trauma work, and the many paths to healing. Let’s be friends! You can find me in the following places... Website: www.headhearttherapy.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WoundedHealr/ https://www.facebook.com/HeadHeartTherapy/ Instagram:  @headhearttherapy Twitter: @WoundedHealr @HeadHeart_Chi

Co-dependency has been such a big pattern for both of us that we’re back again deepening our conversation on the differences between co-dependency and interdependency. Meaning, what would an end to co-dependence look like in relationships? The pictures we can receive about what it means to heal co-dependency can be someone who does not empathize and is not moved into service by the suffering of others. This couldn't be farther from the reality of empathic souls. Of course we care when people suffer, and of course we want to help- often it’s genuinely loving to offer our support. All of this is to say that there is no formulaic answer, it’s more about bringing awareness, attunement and discernment to our relationships. However, we do have some tips to offer based on our experience that can help you gain insight into when you’re interdependent vs codependent. Join us as we explore our own shifts away from co-dependent patterns and all that can arise as we open our hearts in relationship to others. For more information on Bliss + Grit, or on the hosts Brooke Thomas and Vanessa Scotto, please go to www.blissandgrit.com, where you can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Join us on instagram at @blissandgritpodcast

This week I sit down with Vanessa Scotto, co host of the Bliss+Grit Podcast. Vanessa holds two masters degrees, one in Chinese Medicine and one in Transpersonal Psychology. She is also certified practitioner of the Realization Process with Judith Blackstone. Vanessa has a private practice where she mentors and coaches individuals from all walks of life.    Vanessa and I discuss her upbringing and current spiritual practices and beliefs. Vanessa walks us through the definition and formulation of generational trauma. She imparts how each one of us can work to heal our own lineages of trauma. We discuss the unique path of awakening and internal growth. Vanessa shares the ways in which we can overextend ourselves in self-improvement and she helps the audience identify how to know when that line has been crossed--so we can return to self-love and self-compassion.     To find out more about Vanessa head over to her website or follow her on Instagram @vanessascotto and make sure to check out her podcast Bliss+Grit    Podcast Music by: Mr. Pixie   Podcast Art by Arte y Alma   Podcast Sponsor:    This weeks podcast is sponsored by Saged - A spiritual community based app, that provides you with the support and tools you need to sustain your spirituality and daily practices. Download Saged for free from your iPhone or Android App Stores!   Follow this podcast on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @ianwpodcast

*This episode contains upcoming changes to the format of Bliss + Grit. Please tune in to stay up to date. It’s different to change to get out of pain then it is to change out of an intuition or a new vision. In this weeks episode we’re exploring meeting change and transformation, and most specifically, what happens when something you love changes; when rather than moving away from something painful, you’re getting the internal signal to change something you love or have valued in the past. This conversation is arising out of a recent process of change we are having with Bliss + Grit, but holds so much relevance to the conversation of transformation at large since one of the primary fears that can arise in an unfolding process is the fear of losing something or someone we value. Together we explore the new change that has presented itself for Bliss+Grit, how we navigated that, how we’ve met other changes in our lives like divorce, and how we can hold ourselves as we go through the process of transformation. For more information on Bliss + Grit, or on hosts Brooke Thomas and Vanessa Scotto, please go to www.blissandgrit.com where you can find episode resources, information about coaching sessions and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

This week we are answering a patron’s question about something that is up for them in their life. It contains a lot of nuance about how to be with other people’s emotions without feeling overwhelmed, as well as how to receive kindness and love without feeling overwhelmed by that either. The shortened version of the question is: “When I do let myself feel my emotions deeply I frequently get super overwhelmed and times that I am center of attention or receiving heartfelt love and support are still very uncomfortable for me in groups.  Why is it so difficult to feel deep emotion in myself and from others still?” In answering the question we talk about: The vulnerability of intimacy and connection Somatic approaches to receptivity and feeling safe in our bodies The energetic charge of trauma and how it makes a soma feel “too full” to be able to take in anything new How that charge can “off-gas” or burn off like clouds as we heal Conditioning around needing to be non-reactive and how to inquire about that Ability to receive joy and goodness and blocks to that How to shortcut shame at not being “farther along” in our healing process For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please go to www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please go to www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

Today on Bliss + Grit we are speaking with our special guest Jane Clapp. Jane is a departure from our typical guest who speaks on spiritual awakening, but we love all that she has to say about trauma informed mindfulness and nervous system regulation interventions to transform overwhelm. She is a mindful strength and movement coach, a trauma informed embodied resilience expert and a Jungian Analyst in training. Brooke took a class with her called Fawn to Fierce that she really appreciated and we thought this topic of moving from Fawn to Fierce was perfect for all of us, and we are so glad we followed our intuition. We had a lot of fun with this interview and we are sure you will too.  In this episode we are speaking about:  - What the fawn survival strategy is and how it can look in your life  - How one can address trauma and limiting beliefs through somatic interventions - How to work with one’s nervous system in an intelligent way.  To find out more information about Jane Clapp and her upcoming Movement for Trauma training please visit www.janeclapp.com For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please go to www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please go to www.patreon.com/blissandgrit  

Today we are discussing what we could call living from truth. I had an experience not long back where a mentor of mine was asking me to say exactly what I wanted, and I noticed a freeze response. This opened up for me a new depth of experience around what it really can feel like to live from truth, as opposed to following the momentum of past conditioning and habits. Many of us say we want to be authentic or know our true nature, or the truth of reality, but what does that really mean? We’re kicking it off by getting into some teachings from Adyashanti, and of course diving into our own experiences and challenges in stepping into greater alignment with our inner truth.  In this episode we talk about:  Adyashanti’s teachings on truth and agency  Matt Kahn’s book, Everything is Here to Help You  What it means to follow a living path and meet life as an invitation How thinking incrementally and focusing on becoming “more aligned” can be helpful  The embodied experience of choosing truth  For more information on Bliss + Grit, or one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

Today we are talking with Dr. Gail Brenner, a clinical psychologist whose practice and teachings are unique because of her non-dual perspective grounded in deep and practical truths about peace and happiness. She is the author of two books, The End of Self-Help, and Suffering is Optional. We are primarily discussing her most recent book, Suffering is Optional. You can find more on Gail’s work at www.gailbrenner.com. In this episode we talk about:  What Gail means by “optional suffering” since we know we experience suffering in our lives.  What conditioning is and how it affects our lives.  What thoughts have to do with suffering.  The limiting identity of unworthiness and how it plays out in life.  How life without thinking is not, "lying on a couch like a blob".  The value and power of curiosity.    For more information on Bliss + Grit, or one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

[Flashback Tuesday] In the second episode Vanessa interviews Brooke so that listeners can get to know her a bit and hear the shape her path has taken and is taking thus far. For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

[Throwback Tuesday] In the first episode Brooke Thomas is interviewing Vanessa Scotto about the shape her path has taken and is taking thus far. For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

[Flashback Tuesday] In this episode we are speaking with our very special guest and friend Jeannie Zandi. Jeannie has been on our show before and today is offering some profound, must-hear insight on yin and yang that we are so excited to share with you.  Our conversation touches upon so much including what true power looks like, the imbalances our culture has perpetuated, what healing would look like through the lens of yin and how we can move forward together in dismantling the conditioning that has led to so much pain. For anyone exploring healing on both a personal and collective level this episode is for you. She put words to a revolution we’re just now realizing we’ve already been a part of.  Jeannie is truly such a force of love. She is the director of Living as Love, a nonprofit organization dedicated to seeding a culture of the Heart on the planet, inspiring, teaching and supporting people to live from their essence as Love.  A year before the birth of her daughter, Jeannie was plunged into a dark night of the soul that culminated in a radical shift of consciousness. She is known for her fearless clarity, tender mercy toward humanness, and a juicy, poetic and often humorous style that draws from Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Christian mysticism and the ongoing revelation of fully engaged living.  Residing in Colorado, she travels widely in the US, bringing a down-to-earth embodied teaching of living as love. For more info on Jeannie and the upcoming course she speaks about in the episode please go to www.jeanniezandi.com  For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

[Flashback Tuesday] Our guest today, Neelam, is a direct disciple of Papaji, and she has been holding satsang internationally since 1996. She runs the non profit, Fire of Truth Satsanga. Neelam’s unequivocal commitment to truth helps students turn inward again and again to release underlying patterns of conditioning which block the recognition of their true nature as Presence. The clarity and discriminating wisdom that are intrinsic to this awakened state are given freely by Neelam through Spiritual Inquiry, as she invites her students into the same recognition of truth that her teacher Papaji transmitted to her. In Our conversation with Neelam we talk about coming to know yourself as presence, what trust in your true nature means, and how the genuine experience of that trust can change our lives, what true freedom is, and how we can discern the difference between when past is arising, and playing out it’s habitual patterns and using it’s built up momentum, and when we are actually present. We discuss in detail what Awakening and the capacity of the nervous system have to do with one another, what trauma actually is, and how to get out of the grooves and charges of the past so that we can truly be here and not in a remembered past or imagined future. We were also grateful that Neelam spoke so eloquently about tenderness and kindness as the true marker of if we are in the present, and how treating ourselves with tenderness can be the real alchemical agent. For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

[Flashback Tuesday] In this episode we’re excited to catch up with each other and integrate some of what we have experienced recently in the presence of so many amazing guest conversations, in particular our recent one with David Thomas. We’re exploring conditioning, again, but after being with David we’re posing the question to ourselves “what if it’s all conditioning?” What if, while we are in ego consciousness, all of our thoughts are simply products of our culture and lineage that become habitual? And if so, what would that mean about how we can shift out of our chronic patterns of suffering? For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

[Flashback Tuesday] Today we are talking with David Thomas. David is a self-realization teacher, speaker, and writer living in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Through the practice of Self-inquiry and meditation, he has acquired a deeper understanding of the inner self and true liberation. David now seeks to support individuals in their pursuit of self-realization through his writing and speaking. The insights he shares within his videos, quotes, and poems are created to help nurture the healing of individuals seeking release from their pain and suffering. All of his teachings come from his personal experience, so he gives an inside perspective from being lost in ignorance to finding the truth within. We were both immediately struck by what a bright light David is. He has a very clear way of pointing out what conditioning actually is- how we are programmed and how we lose connection to life. His clarity on what the Being is- what direct experience is- versus our thoughts about ourselves can really rock your world in this talk if you sit with it. And his insights on the dark times we are living in as a result of how we have been forced to shut down our hearts is spot on. David points out That the heart always sees the truth, is always speaking the truth, but we are so cut off from it that we don’t feel it breaking and crying out. He also talks about the power of rock bottom. That when you are really broken, that that is when you are closest to God- and you can use that as a way immediately into God. Listening to David you can really feel what it means to be a Being who is living from the perspective of eternity- who is out of the way we think about time, and who understands the creator natures we all have at core. It was an absolute joy to talk with him. You can find more of his work via his YouTube channel, which is Enlightened Mindz. For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit  

[Flashback Tuesday] John J. Prendergast, PhD, is a psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and founder and editor-in-chief of Undivided: The Online Journal of Nonduality and Psychology. John met his first teacher, Advaita master Jean Klein, in 1983 and began studying with one of our favorite teachers, Adyashanti, in 2001. For 23 years John was also a professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco where Vanessa Scotto went to grad school. He is the author of an amazing book called In Touch; How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself. We first came across John on the Buddha at the Gas Pump podcast where we were immediately drawn to his simple, yet profound, integration of Psychology and Spirituality. After Brooke Thomas sat with him on a weekend retreat a few months back we knew we needed to bring him on for a conversation we could share with all of you. In this conversation we cover so many topics including how to trust yourself and tune into your intuition, how to access genuine safety, and why the Ego is doomed to fail. This conversation is a delight and a revelation that can affect you for years to come. For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

[Flashback Tuesday] Today we are having a conversation with Loch Kelly. Loch is the author of Shift into Freedom, and the creator of the recent audio course offering through Sounds True, Effortless Mindfulness Now. He is a meditation teacher, psychotherapist, and founder of the non-profit, Open-Hearted Awareness Institute. Loch has collaborated with neuroscientists at Yale, UPenn and NYU. He has been teaching seminars, supervising clinicians and practicing awareness psychotherapy in New York for 30 years. It’s also worth mentioning that he teaches in our favorite lineage, the human being lineage! Which makes him a perfect teacher to have on Bliss+Grit. We so admire how he talks about awakening as a normal developmental potential for all human beings, and how his approach is so practical and available. We talk about how the answer to any question related to relieving suffering is always the same: shift. We also discuss how to shift, and Loch offers several experiential practices throughout our conversation. So you don’t get to just hear about it, you can experience it for yourself. For more on Loch Kelly, please visit: https://lochkelly.org. For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

For this episode we zoomed out and explored: What is Bliss+Grit about exactly? More specifically, after nearly three years, 127 episodes and lots of personal healing, inquiry, and exposure to different teachers and practices: What is our working model of healing and transformation? How does conditioning store in us and how to we untangle that? And, importantly, if we aren’t our conditioning, what are we? It’s an ongoing lived inquiry more than a nailed down blueprint, and it’s more about building bridges between systems that are evocative of human potential rather than of picking a team and declaring it the winner. But here you go, at this juncture, this is where we’re at!  In this episode we talk about:  How conditioning stores in the body, the mind, and our energetic patterns What do we consider optional suffering?  How do we de-condition ourselves?  What the nervous system has to do with it.  What are we when we aren’t our conditioning?  Our view of building bridges and connecting disciplines so that each of us can have our unique lived inquiry into our own lives, rather than a blueprint system.  For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please go to www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please go to www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

In this episode we are sharing our conversation with our guest Jill Blakeway.  Jill is the founder and director of The YinOva Center in New York City and the author of several books, including her most recent book Energy Medicine. She is the host of CBS Radio’s popular weekly podcast, “Grow, Cook, Heal”, which Vanessa Scotto has been a guest on, a teacher of gynecology and obstetrics at the Doctoral Program at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and a renowned authority on alternative medicine and women’s health. For more information on Jill Blakeway go to www.yinovacenter.com. In this week’s episode with Jill, we discuss her new book Energy Medicine.  Together we discuss:  What resonant bonds are and why they’re important to understand Research that shows how the power of our minds can affect machines  Teachings Neale Donald Walsh with Jill on manifestation and choosing love vs fear  Proven healings that can happen through energy fields How interconnected we all are and the research that proves it How to adjust your energy field in working with patients  How “energized” cell medium was found to change cancer markers in cells  What a “meaning field” is and why that’s important  Research on charlatans in the healing and spiritual worlds  This conversation is fun and full of research and interesting facts on the existence of energy. We’re really excited to share it with you.  For more information on Bliss + Grit, to become a show patron, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com.

This is one of our favorite kinds of conversations: where the nervous system, trauma responses, and the spiritual path intersect. We are looking at the four F’s of trauma response: fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. We are talking about how these normal, healthy responses can become identities and therefore keep us from fully nourishing lives. And in particular we are honing in on fawn, also called please, appease, or tend and befriend, since we haven’t spoken in as much detail about this particular response. But boy howdy do we know it from the inside out! If you consider yourself an empath, this one might strike a chord for you too.   In this episode we discuss:  The fawn trauma response, also known as please, appease, placate, or “tend and befriend”.  How we can continue acting out “stuck” trauma responses so frequently that they become meshed with our personalities and identities.  Examples of what the 4 F’s look like as identities.  How shame holds these responses in place.  How you can’t put down by swinging the pendulum to the opposite extreme, which can be re-traumatizing, and ways you can instead tenderly begin to shift out of chronic states.  For more information on Bliss + Grit, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

This is the second part to last week’s conversation with the author, speaker, and teacher Will Pye on his newest book, The Gratitude Prescription. We first interviewed Will almost a year back on his book Blessed with a Brain Tumor and enjoyed our talk so much that we invited him back to hear more about what he calls ‘radical gratitude.’ As someone who had a spiritual awakening in the aftermath of receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer, we find his teachings and recommended practices of gratitude to be very embodied, grounded and deep.  We left off last week discussing why truth can be difficult to meet if we don’t have self-compassion. We pick up again with Vanessa asking Will to speak more on how personalizing our suffering can be problematic.  In this episode we are speaking about:  How personalizing our narratives and experiences of suffering can increase our pain  How Will dealt with his own suicidal thoughts and depression  How removing the label from experiences like depression can shift our relationship to it  How building resilience is important in building the capacity to navigate difficult circumstances with a state of gratitude  Why a regular practice can be so important in shifting our experience of life  How to become more “grace-prone” We also have an extra bonus for you because towards the end Will guided us through a beautiful gratitude practice that you can listen to over and over again.  To find out more information about Will Pye please visit https://willpye.com/ For more information on Bliss + Grit, or one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com. To become a supporting member and join our forum please visit www.patreon.com/blissandgrit

Today we are speaking with Will Pye for a second time! Will is an author, speaker, and teacher, and we had our first conversation with him about his first book, Blessed with a Brain Tumor, and today we are talking about his most recent book, The Gratitude Prescription.  The embodied practice of gratitude has become a centrally important part of our own practices this year, and so we wanted to talk with Will about the deeply experiential practice of gratitude and how it is fundamental to the functioning of the human being, and how it can actually change your life.  We had so much fun talking with Will that this is a conversation in two parts. Part 2 will air next week. And if you want to find more of Will’s work, visit willpye.com. In this episode we are talking about:  Gratitude as the realized state of God: the peace, love, and joy of what we are.   The setup of this realm that we tend not to look for the good or the abundance.  Gratitude as the mental practice of clarity.  The data on gratitude as a remedy for depression.  Gratitude is not a directive to bypass what is happening in the world.  How to absorb, or digest, gratitude and get its full nourishment.    To find out more information about Will Pye please visit: willpye.com. To become a show patron, please visit: www.patreon.com/blissandgrit For information on Bliss and Grit, including information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please visit www.blissandgrit.com.  

Today we are sharing the second part of our conversation with our guest Lisa Wimberger. Lisa is the creator of Neurosculpting, which is a self-directed neuroplasticity protocol. Specifically, it is a mental training process that quiets our fight-or-flight center and activates our prefrontal cortex, which is the mind’s seat of our compassion and empathy. We had so much to discuss that we made this interview a two-parter.  In this episode we are talking about:  How energy relates to your nervous system. The importance of focusing on your body in your spiritual practice.  How our past narratives filter our present moment experiences.  The trouble technology creates for your vagus nerve. How your “spirits design” can influence your choices.  To find out more information about Lisa and Neurosculpting please visit https://neurosculptinginstitute.com/ For more information on Bliss + Grit, to become a show patron, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please go to www.blissandgrit.com.

We have a special guest today: Lisa Wimberger. Lisa is the creator of Neurosculpting, which is a self-directed neuroplasticity protocol. Specifically, it is a mental training process that quiets our fight-or-flight center and activates our prefrontal cortex, which is the mind’s seat of our compassion and empathy. Needless to say, we had a lot to talk about. In fact, We so many shared passions and inquiries in common with Lisa that we are airing this conversation as a 2-parter. Stay tuned next week.  If you want more information on Neurosculpting you can visit neurosculptinginstitute.com In this episode we are talking about:  How meditation and spiritual paths can be used to dissociate further into a freeze pattern of the nervous system. Lisa’s extreme experience of a nervous system caught in freeze, and how recovering from this adaptation is different than someone recovering from flight or fight patterns.  Why going from freeze to “bliss” is too big a step.  How to consciously choose when we need to be in our limbic nervous systems versus when we can move to a different state. How the stories we tell about our lives (internally to ourselves) are built on the foundation of what information our nervous system’s received when we were very young.  For more information on Bliss + Grit, to become a show patron, or to get information about one-on-one coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please go to www.blissandgrit.com.

Have you ever worried that if you were to truly shine as bright as you could you would make others uncomfortable? Or have you noticed moments where you shut down your own potential or thriving? You also may believe that your needs, your emotions or your presence is just simply too much for people. The fear of “being too much” can be a very common one, especially in empathic circles, and can create patterns of inhibition that keep us settling for less-than. We’ve experienced this fear in our own lives, in our own ways, and that’s why in this episode we’re speaking about: How we can manage our own aliveness to make others comfortable  How fear can tell us that our thriving will take away from others or cost us our connection  How to spot those protective strategies and move through them into embodying more wholeness in your life   How sometimes we can be “too much” for others, but that has nothing to do with our essential self  For more information on Bliss + Grit, on becoming a show supporter or on coaching with Brooke Thomas or Vanessa Scotto, please go to www.blissandgrit.com 

We were thrilled to spend time chatting with the hosts of the Bliss and Grit podcast Vanessa Scotto and Brooke Thomas who have conversations about being on a spiritual path in the modern world. It was so fun for us to share stories and geek out about awakening in contemporary life and how each of…… Continue reading #20 Round Table with Bliss and Grit Podcast creators Vanessa and Brooke

John J. Prendergast, PhD, is a psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, and founder and editor-in-chief of Undivided: The Online Journal of Nonduality and Psychology. John met his first teacher, Advaita master Jean Klein, in 1983 and began studying with one of our favorite teachers, Adyashanti, in 2001. For 23 years John was also a professor of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco where Vanessa Scotto went to grad school. He is the author of an amazing book called In Touch; How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself. We first came across John on the Buddha at the Gas Pump podcast where we were immediately drawn to his simple, yet profound, integration of Psychology and Spirituality. After Brooke Thomas sat with him on a weekend retreat a few months back we knew we needed to bring him on for a conversation we could share with all of you. In this conversation we cover so many topics including how to trust yourself and tune into your intuition, how to access genuine safety, and why the Ego is doomed to fail. This conversation is a delight and a revelation that can affect you for years to come.

For the past 3 years I have talked with somatic visionaries about new paradigms of understanding about the human body- and today is the final episode of the show. I have had the great honor of exploring inner space with the exceptional people I got to interview, and with all of you listeners who have formed such a warm and inquisitive community. For the final episode my dear friend Vanessa Scotto- who is also my co-host over at my new show Bliss and Grit- is talking to me about the whole Liberated Body journey. How it began, how it evolved, what some of the biggest a-ha highlight moments were for me, and why my work is now focused on embodied spirituality.

Jill asks psychologist and life coach Vanessa Scotto how our emotions affect our health. Vanessa explains how we can free ourselves from the pain that we store in our bodies so we can move forward.  

Life coach and psychologist Vanessa Scotto tells us how to be fully embodied in a way that allows us to experience a deeper connection with ourselves, other people and to our higher power. Vanessa talks about ways we can allow ourselves to feel our feelings deeply and why accessing our inner knowing helps us to find peace.  

In the first episode Brooke Thomas is interviewing Vanessa Scotto about the shape her path has taken and is taking thus far.

Meditation and wellness guru Vanessa Scotto joins Lady Lovin' to talk about the power of meditation and mindfulness, even in the bedroom.