In this episode, I’m out on a chilly spring walk in Anchorage, answering listener questions that have been waiting patiently (some for months 😅). We explore how nervous system work shows up in real life — from anxiety on solo outdoor walks, to navigating chronic pain and hypervigilance, to the very real stress of running a business.

We start with a question about anxiety in remote outdoor settings, unpacking how the nervous system responds to real risk — and how to work with that through both practical preparation and somatic tools like orienting, resourcing, and coregulation.

From there, we move into a nuanced conversation about chronic pain and hyper-awareness in the body — exploring how to approach somatic work without reinforcing hypervigilance, and how to build the skill of widening awareness to include more neutral or pleasant sensations.

We close with a question about business stress, perfectionism, and the feeling of never being “caught up.” I share how working with cycles — rather than constant output — has been essential in building a more sustainable and humane way of working.

This episode is a reminder that nervous system work isn’t separate from daily life — it’s woven into how we walk, work, create, and care for ourselves.

00:00 — Spring in Anchorage + listener Q&A intro
03:00 — Anxiety on solo outdoor walks
04:30 — Real risk vs. nervous system response
07:00 — Building skills + safety planning
09:30 — Hypervigilance + orienting toward safety
11:30 — Resourcing: internal + external supports
13:30 — Competent protector + coregulation
17:30 — Transition to question on chronic pain
18:30 — Hypervigilance in the body
21:30 — The “problem → fix” loop
23:00 — Widening awareness (zooming out)
24:30 — Loud vs. quiet sensations (pain vs. ease)
27:00 — Tracking neutral + pleasant sensations
29:00 — Why body scans can backfire
30:00 — Transition to business + stress question
31:00 — Entrepreneurship as a growth edge
33:00 — Working with cycles vs. constant output
35:00 — Creative cycles + completion
37:00 — Resting on the “backside of the wave”
38:30 — Perfectionism + letting things be enough
40:00 — Slowing down as a learned skill
41:30 — Future episode ideas + closing reflections

- Get all the information about Summer Strong here! 

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Show Notes
In this episode, I’m out on a spring walk in Alaska, exploring the idea of play as a resource — and how play can support our nervous systems in meaningful, practical ways.

I share a story from a long backcountry ski trip that shifted my perspective from struggle into play, and use that to explore how play isn’t just something we do — it’s a nervous system state we can learn to recognize and cultivate.

We talk about how play lives in the balance between challenge and safety, why it’s essential (especially in hard or uncertain times), and how it differs from avoidance or “escape.” I also share how this concept is showing up in somatic workouts — especially the practice of uncoupling intensity from stress.

Along the way, you’re invited into a simple somatic exploration to notice what play actually feels like in your body, and how you might begin to access it more often — both in obvious “play” moments and in everyday life.

This episode is an invitation to reconnect with play as nourishment, as information, and as a way to support yourself through both challenge and joy.

Timestamps
00:00 — Walking in spring + introducing play as a topic
02:00 — Play as a nervous system resource
03:00 — Why play matters (especially in hard times)
04:30 — Story: wilderness ski classic + caribou moment
08:00 — Shifting from struggle into play
09:30 — Play as a nervous system state
12:30 — Summer Strong + somatic workouts
14:00 — 10 foundational somatic skills (new class)
17:00 — Cultural messaging about play vs. work
18:30 — Play vs. avoidance / escapism
20:00 — Balancing challenge + pleasure (counter vortex)
22:30 — Play as nourishment, not bypassing
24:30 — Practice: accessing play in the body
26:00 — Noticing sensations of play
27:00 — Nervous system explanation (sympathetic + ventral)
28:30 — Homework: noticing play in real life
30:00 — Expanding play beyond “fun activities”
31:30 — Play + curiosity in everyday moments
33:00 — Safety + nervous system awareness
35:00 — Applying play to workouts + intensity
36:30 — Uncoupling intensity from stress
38:30 — Play as an indicator of safety
40:00 — Bringing play into daily life + movement
41:30 — Why play supports growth + learning
42:30 — Connection, shared rhythm, and play
44:00 — Closing: go forth and play

- Get all the information about Summer Strong here! 

Submit your questions for the Q&A [here]

Photos and links from this episode:
www.mindandmountain.co/podcast

In this episode, I take you on a coregulation walk through a snowy April evening in Anchorage — inviting you to walk alongside me (physically or in your imagination) as we explore how movement, noticing, and connection can shift our nervous systems.

We start with a simple idea: noticing as a practice. Tuning into small details in nature — light, texture, shapes — can create meaningful shifts in how we feel and how we experience the world.

From there, we move into a gentle guided walk: feeling your feet, finding your pace, and imagining what it’s like to walk with a good listener. You’re invited to share what’s on your mind, notice your surroundings with curiosity, and let small moments of delight land in your body.

Along the way, I share stories from past adventures — including a slower, more adaptive backcountry trip — and reflect on how we might approach this upcoming summer with more intention and support.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, notice more, and take one small step toward connection.

00:00 — Introducing the coregulation walk
01:00 — Spring light + seasonal energy
02:30 — Noticing as a practice
05:00 — Invitation: what do you want to learn or practice?
06:20 — Walking physically or in imagination
08:30 — Summer Strong + seasonal transition
12:15 — Guided walk begins
13:00 — Finding your pace + feeling your feet
14:40 — Imagining a good listener
15:00 — Sharing what’s on your mind
18:30 — Noticing your environment
20:00 — Finding small delights
21:30 — Storytime: walking + sharing
25:00 — 2022 trip + slowing down
30:30 — Adapting when things don’t go as planned
33:00 — Bear encounter
36:00 — Trust + relationship with nature
38:15 — Moose encounter
41:00 — Summer reflections + intention
42:40 — Future offerings + ideas
44:00 — Check-in: how are you?
45:00 — Grounding + feet
46:00 — Noticing something delightful
47:00 — Sharing awe + connection
50:00 — Closing

- Get all the information about Summer Strong here! 

Submit your questions for the Q&A [here]

Photos and links from this episode:
www.mindandmountain.co/podcast

Show Notes
In this episode, I’m recording outside in Alaska during a bright late-March day — walking alongside a creek and letting the environment shape the conversation. From here, I explore the idea of feeling ready — and how readiness is often a nervous system state, not a prerequisite.

I share how I moved from feeling tired and foggy into a state where I could record, using small steps like voice noting a friend and going for a walk. This opens into a larger conversation about why we wait to feel ready, how energy is often created through action, and why starting small isn’t a compromise — it’s the strategy.

We also explore the tension between the parts of us that want to move forward and the parts that don’t, and how to work with both through a gentle, somatic lens. The episode closes with a short guided practice to help you find a more supportive way to begin.

This episode is an invitation to rethink readiness and take one small step forward.

Timestamps
00:00 — Walking + orienting to the moment
02:30 — Feeling ready as a nervous system state
05:20 — Seasonal transitions + birthday reflections
08:30 — Summer Strong + timing across seasons
11:45 — Waiting to feel ready
12:50 — Not feeling ready (personal example)
14:30 — Warm-ups + scaffolding
17:00 — Titration: small steps + check-ins
19:50 — Readiness isn’t required
24:30 — Mis-measuring the gap
28:30 — Energy comes after starting
30:00 — Starting small is the strategy
33:20 — Titration + pendulation
36:30 — Trusting yourself without full readiness
39:45 — Transition into practice
42:45 — Guided practice begins
47:45 — “Ready” vs “not ready” parts
52:00 — Supporting the “not ready” part
53:00 — Bringing parts into relationship
55:30 — Closing

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Photos and links from this episode:
www.mindandmountain.co/podcast

In this episode, I’m sharing a gentle somatic practice recorded during the Spring Equinox — a time when the light is returning and the pace of life begins to pick up again. As we transition out of winter, our bodies may still be craving the slowness, darkness, and reduced sensory input that supported rest during the colder months.  

This episode offers a simple, accessible practice for creating moments of sensory rest — even as the external world becomes brighter, busier, and more stimulating. Through supported touch and intentional positioning, we explore how to give the eyes, jaw, and ears a break from their constant work, allowing the nervous system to downshift and receive support.

Rather than trying to force relaxation, this practice invites you to notice contact, support, and subtle shifts in the body. As each sensory area is given time to rest, we explore how slowness and ease can emerge naturally when there is less being asked of the system.

This episode is an invitation to build small pockets of rest into your day — to remember that your senses don’t always need to be “on,” and that even brief moments of reduced input can offer meaningful nourishment for your nervous system.

00:00 — Recording during Spring Equinox & seasonal transitions
02:00 — Why our bodies may crave rest as light and activity increase
03:30 — Setting up for the practice: supporting the head and hands
04:30 — Covering the eyes: creating darkness for true visual rest
07:00 — Noticing the muscles around the eyes soften
09:00 — Expanding awareness to the rest of the body
10:30 — Slowly reintroducing light with eyes closed
11:30 — Supporting the jaw and noticing contact
13:00 — Letting relaxation emerge through attention, not effort
15:00 — The role of the jaw, throat, and communication
17:00 — Transitioning to the ears: cupping and softening
19:00 — Letting the ears rest from listening
21:00 — Noticing habitual effort and allowing new patterns
22:30 — Transitioning out of the practice
23:30 — Reopening the senses धीरे and integrating the experience
24:30 — Carrying the effects of sensory rest into daily life

Submit your questions for the Q&A [here]

Photos and links from this episode:
www.mindandmountain.co/podcast

In this episode, I’m recording from Central Park in New York City during a training weekend — my first real visit to the city. As someone who lives in Alaska and is deeply connected to wilderness environments, being in such a dense urban landscape sparked curiosity about how our nervous systems interact with city life and where nature fits into that experience.  

This episode explores how we can support our nervous systems in urban environments by intentionally noticing moments of sensory nourishment and connection with the natural world. Through reflections from a rainy walk in the park, I explore practices like orienting through the eyes, seeking out “micro-nature,” and allowing small moments of delight to land in the body.

I also explore a series of open questions about how our bodies relate to different environments — from long sight lines and horizon views to the experience of walking on uneven ground. Together we consider how evolution, personal experience, and modern life might all shape what helps our nervous systems feel most settled.

This episode is an invitation to experiment with your own sensory awareness: noticing where your senses constrict or expand, what environments help your body soften, and how even small encounters with nature can support regulation and connection — no matter where you live.

00:00 — Recording from New York City & first impressions
02:00 — Growing up in small-town Alaska and adjusting to city environments
04:30 — Orienting through the eyes & noticing sensory pleasure
07:00 — Why delight and pleasant sensory cues nourish the nervous system
09:00 — Sensory constriction and overwhelm in urban environments
12:00 — Opening the senses intentionally in the city
14:00 — Long sight lines, horizon views, and nervous system settling
17:00 — Evolution vs. lifetime adaptation in different environments
21:00 — Exploring how built environments affect regulation
23:00 — Walking in cities vs. walking on uneven natural ground
27:00 — The role of feet, balance, and the vestibular system
30:00 — Relating to the land through movement and sensation
33:00 — Co-regulation with the natural world
36:00 — Discovering “micro-nature” in urban environments
39:00 — Noticing small moments of beauty and letting them land
41:00 — Questions to explore in your own environment
43:00 — Accessibility, paved paths, and bridges into nature
45:00 — Closing reflections from Central Park

Resources: 

An ‘orchestra from Hell’: A firsthand account of the Halong flood

'A whole new concrete jungle': A typhoon evacuee lands in urban Alaska.

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Photos and links from this episode:
www.mindandmountain.co/podcast

In this episode, I’m recording from snowy Alaska during the early days of March — a time when the light begins returning quickly after the long winter darkness. Seasonal transitions can bring a surprising amount of activation to the nervous system as the body adjusts to changing rhythms and the anticipation of what’s coming next. 

This episode offers a gentle somatic practice for finding stability inside times of change. Through orienting to the present moment, noticing sensory resources, and exploring how the body relates to past, present, and future, we experiment with ways to support the nervous system when things feel uncertain or in flux.

Using the image of kelp rooted in the ocean — anchored at its base while moving fluidly with the currents — this practice explores how stability and flexibility can exist together. We also reflect on how resilience in nature often comes through connection, reminding us that we don’t navigate change alone.

This episode is an invitation to find a stable base inside yourself while allowing movement and adaptability as life shifts around you.

00:00 — Returning from travel & recording from snowy Alaska
02:00 — Seasonal transitions and the rapid return of light
05:00 — Why times of change can feel destabilizing for the nervous system
07:00 — Anxiety as a signal of future-oriented activation
09:00 — Beginning the practice: orienting to the present moment
12:00 — Noticing sensory resources and sources of support
14:00 — Exploring past, present, and future through body positioning
17:00 — Leaning back into the nourishment of past seasons
19:00 — Finding center in the present moment
20:00 — Leaning forward into anticipation of the future
22:00 — The kelp metaphor: rooted and moving with the current
26:00 — Stability through flexibility and spinal movement
28:00 — Resilience in nature: trees, architecture, and adaptability
30:00 — Co-regulation, ecosystems, and the “forest” of community
32:00 — Closing reflections on stability and moving through change

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Photos and links from this episode:
www.mindandmountain.co/podcast

Show Notes
In this episode, I’m recording from Villa de Leyva, Colombia — sitting beside a waterfall in the Andes as I reflect on internal safety as an antidote to perfectionism. What began years ago as a drive to perform, achieve, and avoid mistakes has slowly transformed through somatic work, entrepreneurship, and lived experience into something much softer: a growing capacity to feel safe even when I’m imperfect.

I share stories from my early twenties living in Colombia, where my perfectionism showed up through language — studying hard, avoiding mistakes, and feeling intense shame when I got something wrong. Returning now, decades later, I notice how different it feels to speak imperfect Spanish from a body that no longer equates mistakes with danger. Through the lens of nervous system work, I explore how perfectionism often develops as a strategy to manage activation and vulnerability — and how building internal safety can begin to uncouple “mistake” from “shame.”

This episode is an invitation to gently untangle the places where your body may still believe that being perfect is what keeps you safe. Together, we explore how orienting to support, practicing co-regulation, and accumulating small moments of safety can soften protective patterns over time — allowing more freedom, play, and growth in the process.

Timestamps
00:00 — Recording from Colombia & orienting to place
03:00 — Returning to a formative chapter of life
06:30 — A guided pause: noticing support and safety cues
09:30 — Perfectionism as a nervous system strategy
13:30 — Early achievement, shame & language learning
17:00 — Entrepreneurship, grad school & breaking perfectionism
21:00 — Mistakes as information rather than identity
23:30 — Building internal safety through somatic practice
26:00 — How safety changes the experience of imperfection
28:30 — Untangling over-couplings between mistakes & shame
30:00 — Closing reflections from the waterfall

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Photos and links from this episode: www.mindandmountain.co/podcast 

 In this episode, I reflect on the role of imagination in times of uncertainty — and how dreaming forward isn’t about escaping reality, but about expanding what feels possible in our bodies and communities. Recorded as both a personal reflection and a collective inquiry, this conversation explores how our nervous systems shape what we can envision, and why tending to regulation can open space for creativity, hope, and meaningful action.

I talk about the tension between staying informed and staying resourced, the importance of orienting toward what we care about, and how envisioning the world we want can be a grounding practice rather than a bypass. Through a somatic lens, we explore what it means to hold grief and possibility together — allowing imagination to become a steady companion as we navigate complexity.

This episode is an invitation to notice where your attention goes, to gently expand your capacity to imagine supportive futures, and to stay connected to what feels life-giving even in challenging times.

00:00 — Welcome & naming the moment we’re in
03:00 — Why imagination matters right now
06:30 — Nervous systems and the limits of what we can envision
10:00 — Staying informed without becoming overwhelmed
13:30 — Orienting toward what we care about
17:00 — Grief, uncertainty & possibility coexisting
20:30 — Dreaming as a practice, not an escape
24:00 — Expanding capacity for hope and creativity
28:00 — Community, connection & shared vision
31:30 — Small actions that align with imagined futures
34:30 — Letting imagination support regulation
38:00 — Holding complexity with gentleness
41:30 — Closing reflections & invitation to keep dreaming

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Photos and links from this episode: www.mindandmountain.co/podcast 

In this episode, I share a time-sensitive invitation and the deeper somatic framework behind it: how we meet collective intensity without bypassing, dissociating, or burning ourselves out. Recorded in the midst of February’s unfolding events, this conversation explores why tending to safety and defending what we love are not opposites — but complementary nervous system capacities.

I reflect on the ways our nervous systems respond to overwhelming information, the limits of catharsis as a strategy, and the importance of cultivating embodied access to protective energy. Through the metaphor of “Mama Bear energy,” I explore how anger, grief, and fierceness can be held with presence, titration, and relational support — rather than discharged in ways that leave us disconnected from our experience.

This episode is an invitation to practice both tenderness and protection, to move toward intensity with skill and choice, and to imagine what becomes possible when we learn to ride the full wave of activation and settling together.

00:00 — Welcome & a time-sensitive announcement
03:00 — Living inside collective intensity
06:30 — Deep diving vs. looking away
09:30 — Why embodiment matters more than catharsis
12:30 — Introducing “Tend & Defend”
15:30 — Mama Bear energy as protection rooted in love
18:30 — Titration, presence & riding the wave
21:30 — The three phases: co-regulation, burn & build
24:30 — Why safety is rarely absolute
27:30 — Accessing protective responses in the body
30:30 — Power, identity & embodied healthy aggression
33:30 — Practicing boundaries and self-protection
36:30 — Imagining what we want to build together
39:30 — Closing reflections & invitation

 

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Photos and links from this episode: www.mindandmountain.co/podcast