ALTER

A guided meditation to celebrate and make peace with your body.

This episode explores our embodiment. What it means to live in a body. The mind-body connection. How the body carries, and can clear trauma. Discovering and cultivating athleticism, and movement as medicine and empowerment. The body as a locus of vulnerability, courage, and spiritual life.

Learn more about and join the Alter Together Membership: https://www.nicolemeline.com/alter

Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicolemeline

A guided meditation to define your invaluable work.

You've probably heard the question, 'what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?'

But I think a juicier one is:

'What would you do even if you knew you WOULD fail?'

Because the process itself feels exhilarating?

What flight would be worth a fall?

This conversation with Carolyn Williams, the creator of Zephyr cycling studio in Bozeman, Montana is about creating what your heart demands, creating the thing you wish existed, and the courage it takes to do so, the wrestling match with fear and disqualification and risk, the hustle, and the graces, the flow that carries us as the universe conspires to support the work of our highest intentions.

I'm especially excited for you to meet Carolyn, as I'm leading another Alter Journeys retreat to Montana this June 12-16, and there are still a few spots open. I'll be teaching indoor cycling journeys at Zephyr and Alter at Foster Creek Farm, our retreat basecamp, in the rolling hills and ranchland just outside Bozeman. I cannot tell you how magical this place is. They call it big sky country for a reason. It expands you. And Bozeman is my new crush. Rustic, smart, secretly sophisticated, mountaineering, foodie town. This will be the third retreat I'm leading there because it's that magical. In addition to transcendent sweat parties, workshops, and gorgeous meals, we'll spend a day in the wilderness of Yellowstone. You can find details at https://www.nicolemeline.com/retreats – or on the shownotes to this episode at altertogether.com, and you can get a glimpse of past retreat magic on instagram @alterjourneys. I'd love for you to join the tribe in Montana, or on another retreat this year. Bali, Tuscany, Mexico, and Patagonia are on the horizon.

Frederick Buechner writes that vocation is 'where the fountain of your joy meets the well of the world's need'. So the sweet spot, the most satisfying work in our own personal zone of genius, vibration of calling, is this cocktail of bliss and service. Not that bliss is without hustle. This conversation is focused on the oscillation between hustle and flow, that moment when they combine, cross-fertilize into a mode that feels like operating in full power. Optimal being. It's where fire meets zen, for you.

We happen to be talking about Carolyn's journey to create Zephyr, but there's big, broad questions at play, that apply to creation and business, enterprises, and leadership of any kind. Carolyn and I talk about building invaluable businesses that are extensions of our heartspace.

Balancing hustle and flow as an entrepreneur

Defining success, Redefining the bottom line, and measuring our lives by the metric of joy

Cultivating collaboration over competition with people working in the same space

Creating a body-soul playground

And songs that have been lanterns on Carolyn's (and my) journey

So, join the conversation with Carolyn Williams…

I'd love to hear what this conversation stirred in you, so let's talk on social media, or leave a comment or question on the episode show notes pages on altertogether.com. And, as usual, look out for the guided meditation episode that accompanies this conversation to drop you into your heart this week, and sit with some of the questions we raised.

I hope you're inspired to begin the flights that are worth a fall.

A guided meditation to direct you heartward. What is your home frequency?

'Heartward:

Moving from the still center

through the noise

through darkness

through resistance

Making space for the heartbeat

the ache, the vision

however quiet, however fearful

THAT IS YOURS.

yours. for all of us.'

This episode explores meditation, restoration, integration, and waste—the ways we re-connect to the heart, and the cultural pressure these practices face.

We (explore) meditation as a spiritual technology of integration, a toolbox for growing through pain, confusion, desire rather than numbing discomfort. We discuss forms, history, rational and traditional theory, yoga as a broader and deeper practice beyond asana, visualization, and meditation's amplifying effects over time.

Nicole proposes fresh questions and challenges around your practices of rest, restoration, and integration to cultivate your inner state—the wellspring of your physical and mental health, and the main thing you share with others—and disconnect from the 'insufficiency industrial complex.'

What is your path home to whole-heartedness? What returns you home to yourself? Do you know the voice of your heart, your spirit?

ALTER is an ongoing, evolving conversation with you, so if you'd like to join the conversation and have a question or comment you'd like Nicole to read and engage with in upcoming episodes, please go to the Contact page on altertogether.com and leave an audio voicemail, send a message, or engage with Nicole and the podcast on social media at @nicolemeline or @altertogether on Instagram or @nicolejoymeline and @altertogether on Facebook and Twitter.

If you're not on those platforms, email Nicole via nicolemeline.com, where you can also sign up for the newsletter full of soul food - new blog posts, and the books, films, other podcasts, and wellness crushes.

If you'd like to support this podcast, you can join the community at altertogether.com. Click the link TOGETHER to discover an expanding collection of rich resources to support your growth and your igniting work in the world. Exclusive guided mediations and movement practices, live online conversations, a book club, and early access to Alter mentorship courses, events, and retreats, among other surprises. And please leave a review for the podcast on iTunes, which helps others find it and this community. I'm grateful you're a part of it.

Welcome to ALTER, hosted by Nicole Meline. This podcast explores the practice of transformation as a conversation between hustle and flow

Altering – changing, growing, becoming

And

Altaring – offering, surrendering, opening to divine conspiracy

Here are adventures in alignment and conspiracy, awake to all the grit, dirt, and complexity of our world, alert to the graces that come alongside the struggle, the hustle. A cocktail of soul food, new rhythms, and street wisdom. Encouragement – an infusion of courage – for the moments you need it most.

In episode 1, we ask:

Where does Hustle meet Flow?

Where does performance, with its exhausting hunger, meet hibernation and restoration?

Where does work meet grace?

Confidence meet vulnerability?

Focus meet openness and curiosity?

Drive meet play?

Alter with an 'e' and Altar with an 'a'?

How to become a joyful warrior for justice, peace, and your creative work?

How to grow and build at the pace of integrity and joy?

How to honor set-backs, revisions?

The next episode is a guided meditation to take you deeper into the themes of Episode 1.

For resources mentioned in Episode 1, see the show notes at: https://www.altertogether.com/shownotes/2019/2/27/episode-1-alter-altar

Alter is an ongoing, evolving conversation with you, so if you'd like to join the conversation and have a question or comment you'd like Nicole to read and engage with in upcoming episodes, please go to the Contact page on altertogether.com and leave an audio voicemail, send a message, or engage with Nicole and the podcast on social media at @nicolemeline or @altertogether on Instagram or @nicolejoymeline and @altertogether on Facebook and Twitter.

If you're not on those platforms, email Nicole via nicolemeline.com, where you can also sign up for the newsletter full of soul food - new blog posts, and the books, films, other podcasts, and wellness crushes.

If you'd like to support this podcast, you can join the community at altertogether.com. Click the link TOGETHER to discover an expanding collection of rich resources to support your growth and your igniting work in the world. Exclusive guided mediations and movement practices, live online conversations, a book club, and early access to Alter mentorship courses, events, and retreats, among other surprises. And please leave a review for the podcast on iTunes, which helps others find it and this community. I'm grateful you're a part of it.

Welcome to ALTER. This podcast explores the practice of transformation as a conversation between hustle and flow, altering and altaring. Hosted by Nicole Meline, this cross-genre, culture-shaping journey ignites imagination and explores personal and creative growth through bold stories, raw conversations, wondering meditations.

It's the dance of the leader, athlete, artist, entrepreneur committed not just to optimal expression, but to exceptional being. Adventures in alignment and conspiracy, awake to the grit, dirt, and complexity of our world, alert to the graces that come alongside the struggle, the hustle. Encouragement – an infusion of courage – for the moments you need it most.

Join the conversation at altertogether.com

For additional show notes, visit https://www.altertogether.com/shownotes/podcast-trailer