Alight

Akilah Martin, Ph.D., is first and foremost in partnership with soil and water. Akilah earned her BS degree in Soil Science from Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University and her Doctorate from Purdue University in Agricultural and Biological Engineering. Her professional interests include enhancing relationships of individuals and communities to natural resources. Her teaching and scholarly/research interests are centered in soil and water quality in urban communities. Current projects involve food sovereignty, Chicago Grows Food, Advocates for Urban Ag, life expectancy and health inequalities, installing rain gardens to create a "sponge town", and building container gardens for "growing your own groceries." Akilah is abundantly living life through two core values: Freedom and Joy. To that end, she is a certified coach specializing in building vibrant relationships. Her website is www.amrootbuilders.com Find her on Instagram at amrootbuilders. 

In our conversation Akilah discusses:

• How growing up with a science teacher mother and studying science in her youth, then plant science in college, took her to soil science, a PhD at Purdue, a successful academic career, and now a full-time focus on community development with an emphasis on soil and urban agriculture.
• How the concept of ‘freedom’ guides her life, her coaching, and her community development work.
• The overwhelm she can feel as someone trying to address suffering in her community, and the damage to people’s bodies that she witnesses in communities experiencing layers of environmental contamination. 
• How empowering messages can build more momentum than suffering-based messages.
• Why being synergistic in her contributions keeps her from feeling pulled in too many directions, and what kind of self-care practices sustain her.
• How her urban agriculture advocacy is supporting urban water access, food access, nutrition, and Chicago Grows Food, which has been offering Grow Kits to residents as part of their Grow Your Groceries Campaign. Assessing and addressing contaminated soil from industrial urban uses.
• How people can break away from food insecurity and into food sovereignty. “People are getting more interested in that because they see how their food really impacts their health. And honestly it impacts your mental health at the top—what your brain is able to do.”

To hear more from Akilah, find another interview on Humans & Nature at https://www.humansandnature.org/recovering-indigeneity-a-conversation-about-food-health-and-wellbeing 

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Dr. Cara Gubbins is a scientist, intuitive, and global thought leader for a new way for people and animals to live together in harmony. She is the best-selling and award-winning author of 5 books about the natural history of animals, animal wisdom, and personal growth. For nearly a decade she has been a successful animal communicator, connecting people more deeply to the animals that they love most.

She is also the creator of how to Talk to Your Pet, the proven 4-step system that teaches anyone and everyone how to communicate intuitively with their pets or with any animal. Each month in the Animal Wisdom Circle, she guides members to receive spiritual guidance from all kinds of animals, helping everyone become the best versions of themselves that they can be. Twice a year, she hosts online summits, bringing together experts from around the world to share their wisdom on animal communication and healing, conservation, and spiritual growth and evolution.

Cara's mission is to inspire our global community to live the lives they're here to live by connecting with animals, nature, and Spirit; saying "yes" to themselves and their dreams; and remembering that there is always time to play. Learn more about her work at CaraGubbins.com

In this episode, Cara Gubbins shares her journey to becoming an animal communicator who works with companion animals and wild animals and teaches others this skill:

·       How she transitioned from a conventional career as an ecologist, feeling she couldn’t bring her intuitive and spiritual abilities into her work, to a career where she blends science, intuition, and spirituality and no longer feels divided.

·       How she asks animals questions such as “What do you need? How can we help you?” “What is important to you and how do we honor your process?” 

·       Why this skill is teachable and learnable, with tools that make it easier, and what her process of learning was like. “I had this ability inside myself all along; I just didn’t give myself permission to access it. Once the blocks were removed I could refine and practice that ability.”

·       “The science, the biology, is showing me that we [humans and animals] are exactly the same. So why do we think we’re different?...What I hear from animals is that they are beings on all these levels just like we are.” 

·       How our scientific measurement and new advances in science are helping us see animals in their fullness, understand their likeness to us, and understand the concept of ‘energy.’ We discussed how now our culture needs to catch up with scientific and spiritual advancements in understanding.

·       What she learns from companion animals with health issues and those at the end of their lives, and how this has influenced her spiritual viewpoint. “There is a bigger experience than just the three-dimensional physical world we live in.”

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Stephan Harding Ph.D., is the Resident Ecologist at Schumacher College and the author of Animate Earth: Science, Intuition, and Gaia and the app, Deep Time Walk.  Stephan understands Earth, or Gaia, as an organism whose systems and inter-relationships we can know both scientifically and intuitively. We need a loving relationship with Gaia in order to restore her and ourselves, and we need to switch from control to awe, he explains. He advocates that we view ourselves as participants “in a cosmos suffused with intelligence, beauty, intrinsic value and profound meaning.” His concept of holistic science reveals how we can approach the natural world through not only a scientific lens as typically understood, but also the lenses of intuition, feeling, and sensing. 

Hear Stephan’s thoughts on:

·       How to find your ‘center’ so you can live a life friendly to yourself, your neighbor, and the planet as a whole. “There is a deep center in ourselves and in nature. We can allow that to grow in us, and that’s what makes us happy, and what helps nature.”

·       Why he recommends finding your own Gaia Place: “It’s very important to have a Gaia Place where I can just go to be with Gaia and look and listen…What is going on all around me? How is it connected to my self or center? … If everyone has a Gaia Place, we can have a real ecological society.”

·       Why it is not an irrational act to connect emotionally or spiritually with Gaia. Connecting with nature feels good, and feeling good is objectively healthy. “If you deny that, you’re hurting yourself as well as hurting the world…We are nature, so nature has to be good for us.” “We are a multi-variant organism: we haven’t just got thinking: we’ve got our feeling, our sensing, our intuition. We need to feel all those in relation to Gaia.”

·       “I love science, but we [scientists] do treat the world like it’s dead, a machine. That’s wrong—because it makes you feel awful!” “A deep knowledge of what it means to be connected to Gaia is what we’ve been missing in our culture for 400 years.”

·       How being ‘spiritual’ is to have some sense of “where all this is going and how it could turn out really well, for us and for Gaia.”

·       His current work on bringing psyche, science, and alchemy into conversation together.

“Gaia needs us to be humble and simple”--Stephan Harding

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Rachel Pfotenhauer holds an M.A. in Counseling and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, as well as a channel of Earth. She channels Earth’s healing energy to assist clients with health problems such as anxiety, PTSD, and chronic infections. She offers classes and retreats that mentor participants in connecting to Earth energy and consciousness. Her website is www.vast-earth.com    
 
In this episode, Rachel and Helen Claire Harmon discuss:

• How you can easily connect directly to Earth 
• Why we’re meant to live in partnership with Earth
• Why connecting to Earth improves your well-being & hers
• How connecting to Earth is a source of heightened intuition, self-awareness, and immunity
• How acknowledging Earth as your life partner & a source of healing can bring you clarity about your life & awareness of how to contribute to Earth's regeneration.

"You can connect to Earth anywhere. She wants to build an intimate relationship with you. When you really recognize that you're meant to be here in relationship with your soul and Earth as one, it gives you meaning and is a beacon of guidance for you."--Rachel Pfotenhauer

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Follow The Alight Institute on Instagram at @alight.institute https://www.instagram.com/alight.institute/ 


We're happy to hear your thoughts at  [email protected] 

This podcast is for you if you believe in, or want to believe in, regenerative transformation for humans & Earth.

In this opening episode, Helen Claire Harmon discusses why now is the time for sacred co-creation between humans and Earth. Hear how this podcast supports your desire to contribute to a new era of thriving for people and planet. Humans & Earth episodes allow you to:

• Find your contribution to well-being for people & Earth
• Hear from experts in ecological regeneration & teachers of Earth-based spirituality
• Receive insights & practices to implement
• Experience guests' visions of how wonderful life can be as we repair Earth & co-create with her for our own healing & thriving.

This is the time to cultivate your brightest, most exciting, most nourishing ideas about how gorgeous life can be for humans, plants, animals, ecosystems, and the Earth as we humans learn to live responsibly and regeneratively. Tune in to Humans & Earth for inspiration & practical resources.

Kindly leave us a review so more people can discover the show, and SUBSCRIBE to receive quick access to new episodes.

Follow The Alight Institute on Instagram at @alight.institute https://www.instagram.com/alight.institute/ 


We're happy to hear your thoughts at  [email protected]