Curious Hearts

Welcome back, Curious Hearts. And welcome to the most misunderstood and transformative spiritual practices there is.

I did not understand humility for a long time — and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I think humility has been twisted and used as a way to force people into submission. For a lot of us, "be humble" was code for "shut up and do what you're told."

So when I was asked to explore humility in my spiritual work, my defenses went up. It took some intense and gentle work to unwind humility from the part of me that had been forced to shrink and let go of agency.

Humility is found at the crossroads of how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of time, and how much agency we have to completely change the future. And so it requires us to reckon honestly with both of those things: our smallness and our power.

This episode is an introduction to how we explore our relationships to power, and how we can be responsible in those roles. And we close with my favorite questions that instantly shifts my perspective — especially about difficult people or situations.

My aspiration is to be humble, to be teachable, and to be willing to learn and grow. If that sounds good to you, I think you’ll enjoy this episode.

00:00 Introduction

00:53 How humility got distorted

02:43 The paradox: small and powerful

05:41 Your relationship to power

11:53 Humility means being teachable

23:09 How to practice it

🌐 Work with Vera: veralester.com🎧 Follow Curious Hearts wherever you listen⭐ Leave a review if this episode landed

#CuriousHearts #Humility #SpiritualPractice #MeaningfulWork #PersonalGrowth #SpiritualLeadership #PowerAndPrivilege #ConsciousLeadership #InnerWork #SelfAwareness #Compassion #Surrender #NewOrleans #VeraLester #SpiritualPodcast

I’m not interested in spiritual practices to escape the world. I long for practices that allow us to move authentically and skillfully in the world. That’s the kind of work this week’s guest, Aycee Brown, teaches.

Aycee Brown’s new book Embody Your Magic is thesis in three short words. How do be bring our mysical, magical selves into our bodies and into the world.(One of my joys in hosting this podcast is finding people who share my ethos and making new friends instantly.)

In a world that pulls us in every direction, where our to-do lists are never complete, and there is a constant hum of anxiety about something else we “should” be doing — finding a way to pause, turn off the noise, and come back to our bodies and our hearts is essential. And Aycee knows this intimately.

When we turn away from the noise of the outside world and return to our inner natures, we connect to our innate wisdom. In the end, that’s what every spiritual practice is about: they are all pathways back into our own hearts.

Aycee’s grounded presence in this conversation is also in the pages of her new book, and I’m grateful she’s doing this work — and that we all get to benefit from it.

About This Episode

Aycee Brown has been reading people’s charts since homeroom. A psychic medium, astrologer, human design practitioner, and MBA — she moves between the spiritual and material worlds without apology and without losing her footing in either. Her recently published book, Embody Your Magic, is the culmination of a lifetime of doing exactly that.

We trace Aycee’s path from a near-death experience at four years old, -- which she believes activated her psychic sensitivity -- to a grandmother who taught her to decode her dreams without ever calling it spiritual training. We talk about finding astrology at 13 because she thought something was wrong with her, what it means to teach people to play the cards they’ve been dealt, and why she has always been able to see exactly what someone is meant to do — whether they listen or not.

We close on something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about: in a world drowning in information, the most radical spiritual act right now might be turning it off. Getting back in your body. Feeling the grass under your feet. Aycee says it plainly and I believe her.

Chapters

* [00:01:59] Growing up with Unity, hoodoo, and a grandmother who decoded dreams

* [00:06:32] A near-death experience at four — and what it awakened

* [00:13:40] Finding astrology at 13 to figure out what was wrong with her

* [00:18:35] What Aycee does professionally — and how it became a business

* [00:21:01] What her spiritual life looks like today

* [00:29:37] The most important spiritual principle right now: get back in your body

Resources & References

* 📚 Embody Your Magic by Aycee Brown: https://www.ayceebrown.com/embody-your-magic-book

* 🎙️ Aycee’s podcast Is My Aura On Straight: https://www.ayceebrown.com/blog

* 📚 The American Daughters by (New Orleans native son!) Maurice Carlos Ruffin

https://mauricecarlosruffin.com/

* 📚 Dominion by Addie Kitchens:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/dominion-addie-e-citchens/

* 📚 Malcolm in the Desert by Malcolm X’s daughter https://www.ilyasahshabazz.com/books/ or

https://bookshop.org/p/books/malcolm-in-the-desert-wisdom-from-the-spiritual-transformation-of-a-civil-rights-icon-dr-ilyasah-shabazz/

* 💬 adrienne maree brown: “The revolution must be irresistible,” is a quote from Pleasure Activism: https://adriennemareebrown.net/book/pleasure-activism/

Work with Aycee

🌐 https://www.ayceebrown.com/

📸 Follow Aycee on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ayceebrown/

🎥 On Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ayceebrown

Work with Vera

🌐 veralester.com

📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery

📸 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verarocks/

Welcome Back, Curious Hearts.

I recorded this episode a couple weeks before you’ll hear it, and in that time there’s been a pretty significant change in my life.

The details of the change don’t matter. What does matter is that I need the lesson right now just as much as anyone.

When we resist change, we suffer.

When we try to cling to the way things were, or what we think is “supposed” to happen — we suffer.

When we try to influence, manipulate, or otherwise control other people or outcomes — we suffer.

Often, by the time we let go of something we’ve been so clawed into, our hands our so sore and our claws so bloody that the pain of holding stays with us for a while.

I believe all of our spiritual practices are preparing us for this truth: Change is coming.

It’s coming for the things you love the most, and the things you hate. It’s coming for your body, your heart, your relationships, your career, your government, and even your identity.

Whether you like it or you don’t like it, it will change.

The story I share in this episode is one of my very favorites. I have spent years with it, studying it, teaching it, living it, and loving it. Like all the great stories, every time I tell it, I learn something different.

I’m not sure it translates well to this format — but I hope you get something from it.

Today, I am being present with what’s changing. I am releasing my attachments to the way I thought things were supposed to be, so that I can experience the joy of what is.

All change brings grief. Learning to dance with grief is the path.

The only thing I have experienced that doesn’t change is the Essence of Self. Call it Awareness, Soul, Spirit, Wisdom. I believe it is the drop of divinity that is present in all of us.

It is the only refuge, and may all of our practice bring us back there.

Home to our Curious Hearts.

Chapters:

0:00 — Whether You Like It or You Don't

4:47 — The Pine Forest Sages

11:55 — Shiva Begins to Dance

0:30 — Shiva Girl and Hurricane Katrina

26:09 — The Serenity Prayer and God Is Change

🌐 Connect with Vera: veralester.com

📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery

#CuriousHearts #TheologyOfChange #SpiritualPodcast #MeaningfulWork #YogaPhilosophy #Nataraj #SpiritualPractice #PersonalTransformation #ChangeAndGrowth #BhaktiYoga #OctaviaButler

Ep. 36: Tann Cordell-Schneier: The Breath is Everything.Tann and I had never talked explicitly about our spiritual lives, but I have known for a long time how much she listens to the world around her.

She has been my primary bodyworker for many years, and her way of practicing is unlike almost any other I have know. Her ability to be still, to listen to the body, and to do less is nearly unparalleled. I always suspected there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than I was told. It’s like there is a silent orchestra in the room as she is working — and her work responding to each note.

It should not have surprised me how winding and diverse Tann’s spiritual background is — but somehow, it did. Tann’s willingness to soften, to welcome the moment, to open to breath could only have come from years of letting go, and letting go, and letting go.

Embodiment is an essential aspect of spiritual practice. We are not just walking heads. Our bodies and our breath can connect us to G_d as quickly as prayer.

This episode is a playful, light, heavy, open exploration of just that. Enjoy.

[00:01:39] A Lapsed Rabbi Father & a Jewish Day School

[00:12:52] Rehab, the 12 Steps & a Higher Power

[00:18:37] The Breath as Connective Thread

[00:30:01] A Daily Pranayama Practice

[00:49:16] Softening as Spiritual Principle

[00:54:54] Getting Comfortable with the Open Path

Links:

🌐 Work with Vera: veralester.com

📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery

🔗 Connect with Tann: https://www.tanncs.com/

I love thinking about meditation as “spiritual showers.”You don’t only shower once. Ideally, you shower every single day. Forever. You don’t shower well enough once that you suddenly are clean forever.

That’s how meditation is. That’s how all of our spiritual practices are.

The reality of this magical universe is that it is chaotic and unpredictable and random. Chaos births the dancing star, or whatever.

We cannot control the universe, we do not need to manage it, but we can manage ourselves. We can tend to our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual states, and keep things in relative order.

That order, even in the face of all this chaos, is the greatest example of faith I can imagine.

May you find gentle order and subtle peace today.

Chapters:

[00:01:24] The Vedas and the origin of spiritual order

[00:14:02] How we create systems of order — and when they stop helping

[00:18:38] "I am not the general manager of the universe"

[00:21:52] Physical hygiene as spiritual practice

[00:25:28] Caring for mind, heart, and spirit

[00:29:28] What it means to keep your channel clear

Links:

🌐 Work with Vera: veralester.com

📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery

Conversations with folks like Neel are the reason I started this podcast. I wanted to normalize spiritual life. It’s so much more common to hear people share deeply personal stories — we talk about finances and sex and taxes and death so much more than our grandparents.

We were taught not to talk about politics or religion. We talk openly about our politics these days.

But somehow, spiritual life is still so private.

Religion is complicated -- its need to be right divides us. I believe sharing our spiritual life, our spiritual experiences, while our deeply held spiritual beliefs bring us together.

Neel shares one of my favorite meditation truths: we don’t practice to become something we’re not. We practice to let go of all the things that get in the way of who we are meant to be.

I’ll say up front: Neel talks fast. It’s a reflection of how fast his mind is.

All our minds move so fast. Meditation shows us that, eventually just allowing the mind to rush while we stop trying to catch up. We just let the mind run, and allow ourSelves to rest.

My suspicion is that Neel’s urgency and speed are central to his success in starting and growing a business, and allows him to shift and pivot as the technology world does.

Meditation allows for all the unnecessary racing to fall away, so that the real urgency of the work — solving problems, serving clients, building teams — can shine. And, clearly, thrive.

There’s so much else in this conversation for you — gems about non-attachment, spiritual parenting, and finding and following purpose.

So delighted to share this conversation with you. Can’t wait to hear your takeaways and insights.

Keep your heart curious and your mind quick,

Vera

Chapters:

* [00:02:54] Growing up culturally Hindu in small-town South Carolina

* [00:09:42] The path from nihilism to entrepreneurship — and Katrina

* [00:16:46] What Neel’s spiritual practice looks like today

* [00:24:56] Dharma, karma, and running a business with spiritual principles

* [00:33:24] Raising kids with purpose without the pressure

* [00:49:33] “Stoic Christian Hindu agnostic” — how Neel defines his faith

Links:

🌐 Work with Vera: http://veralester.com 📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery

🔗 Connect with Neel Sus: https://www.instagram.com/neelsus/🔗 Learn more about Susco: https://suscosolutions.com/

#CuriousHearts #SpiritualEntrepreneur #HinduPhilosophy #TranscendentalMeditation #Dharma #BhagavadGita #FourAgreements #SpiritualGrowth #MindfulLeadership #MeaningfulWork #SpiritualPractice #ImmigrantStory #SpiritualParenting #PersonalDevelopment #VeraLester #NeelSus #SpiritualPodcast #MantraMediation #ConsciousLeadership #StoicPhilosophy

One of the greatest gifts of my work is the people: they’re people doing extraordinary work who are committed to their own growth. Sierra is no different — but in additional to all of that, I feel eternally humbled that she trusts me.

I officiated Sierra’s wedding at Congo Square in New Orleans. If you don’t know Congo Square, you should: it’s the birthplace of all American music. Enslaved Africans had one day off a week on Sundays, and it was there in Congo Square that they gathered to sign, dance, and feel the freedom in their spirits. Those rhythms blended with Carribean and Latin American sound to eventually inform Jazz, the Blues, and what we now call Rock’n’Roll and Hip Hop. All of it.

The music matters to me, because of how those beats and voices carried forward ancestral wisdom, grief, and hope. The energy in Armstrong Park, just across Rampart Street from the French Quarter, is palpable.

I was not sure it was appropriate for me - a white lady born in Virginia - to interface with those energies, but Sierra trusted me.

That was the beginning of our incredible collaborative work - which we talk a little more about in this episode. Dr. Austin-King is an expert in Black feminist thought, and brings it down to earth in her everyday life.

This is an episode about how to stay connected to the generations that came before us, and how to wisely navigate the world for the future generations. I especially loved hearing from Sierra about how she’s teaching her kids about a spiritual life that is grounded in family history.

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

* 00:00:25] Introducing Dr. Sierra Austin-King

* [00:05:45] Growing up: folk traditions, ancestral altars & Catholic school

* [00:13:50] What Sierra’s spiritual practice looks like today

* [00:21:14] Rest as birthright & the body as ancestral altar

* [00:24:56] The spiritual principles guiding her right now

* [00:34:23] What healing actually feels like — and why it’s hard

Welcome back, curious hearts!

Thanks for your patience with me during my Mardi Gras hiatus. These are high holidays for me, and the energy of costume making and celebration really takes over. And then recovering and getting back to “normal life” is its own effort.

I seriously considered recording a whole episode about making my costume — including how I choose the theme, what I learned while I was making it, and what it’s like to be out on Mardi Gras dressed as a giant Wild Thing. If that’s something you’d like, let me know in the comments!

This week’s episode covers one of the most challenging paradoxes there is in a spiritual world, and I think we rarely talk about it.

I think most folks with a deep spiritual practice are ashamed of their doubt. They think it’s evidence of their inadequacy, and often are trying to eliminate it.

What if there’s no God, and prayer is just me talking to myself in the middle of the night? What if this murti is just a statue? What if meditation is just settling our nervous system, and it’s nothing more complicated than that?

Before I set on this path, I thought I just “wasn’t spiritual.” Other people believed, and I didn’t. It was black and white. I was jealous of the people who had faith, but I wasn’t one of them.

Then, life stepped in. I had no choice but to make a decision to believe. It doesn’t mean my faith is unwavering. I have doubt all the time. And now, honestly? I don’t trust people who pretend like they don’t.

Once we make friends with our doubts, things change. Our faith is no longer about “getting it right,” or being the perfect practitioner. Instead, it’s about fumbling through, with compassion and curiosity for ourselves and the Divine.

I hope you enjoy this episode, and I’m curious your thoughts!

[00:00:03] Introduction

[00:00:24] Faith vs. belief — what's the difference

[00:05:07] Why humans cling to certainty

[00:07:05] When certainty falls apart: Hurricane Katrina

[00:08:46] Faith as a choice, not a feeling

[00:15:39] Faith requires doubt — not the absence of it

🌐 Work with me: veralester.com

📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery

📸 instagram.com/verarocks

#CuriousHearts #FaithAndDoubt #SpiritualPractice #SpiritualGrowth #MindfulLiving #YogaTeacher #SpiritualCoaching #MeaningfulWork #PersonalDevelopment #IntuitiveGuidance #SpiritualPath #FaithJourney #SelfDiscovery #ConsciousLiving #MindBodySpirit #SpiritualPodcast #VeraLester #HurricaneKatrina #InnerWisdom #SoulWork

My aspiration in the interview episodes of Curious Hearts is to reflect the extraordinary diversity of human spiritual life. Our internal worlds are the closest understanding we have of the Divine: vast, extraordinary, and always inspiring. No wonder we’re so curious.

The magic of this conversation with Sam Reynolds is that his personal spiritual journey is a microcosm of how much is available to us when we follow our hearts — from boxer to childhood preacher, from radical atheist to dedicated Muslim, from strategic skeptic to visionary astrologer. These adjectives can only skim the surface of our conversation, which I know you’ll enjoy.

I was introduced to Sam at the the Northwest Astrology Conference in May of 2020, where he gave a keynote about the power of astrology in those radical shifting times to connect us to each other and to ourselves. He was so inspiring, I immediately registered to study with him, and have been honored to call him friend since.

You’ll hear in our conversation what a skilled teacher he is and why he was a preacher — his language is vivid, detailed, and makes you think deeply.

We also talk about the mythic quality of astrology, our responsibilities to being in righteous community, and how he’s making sense of his spiritual life these days. He surprised me!

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

00:00 – Introduction to Sam Reynolds03:00 – Childhood faith, church, and early mysticism08:00 – Atheism, conversion, and becoming a child minister14:30 – Leaving the ministry and the loss of certainty22:00 – Black nationalism and intellectual searching27:30 – Astrology as a spiritual turning point34:30 – Traditional astrology, Kabbalah, and study41:30 – Islam, practice, and eventual departure49:00 – Ancestral veneration and a spirituality beyond dogma

Connect with Sam

If you’d like to learn more about Sam’s take on astrology, be sure to sign up for his newsletter and keep and eye out for his upcoming classes — both in person and online. He’s an excellent teacher and I really appreciate how he holds that space.

You can find everything you need at: https://www.unlockastrology.com/

Work with Me

If you’re craving support on your spiritual path or seeking more meaning in your work, you can explore ways to work with me at veralester.as.me/Coaching-Discovery.You can also reach out directly at [email protected] or connect with me on Substack.

#CuriousHearts #SpiritualJourney #AstrologyPodcast #SamReynolds #FaithAndDoubt #SpiritualPractice #Astrology #AncestralVeneration #Mysticism #Humanism #ReligionAndSpirituality #SpiritualPodcast #MeaningMaking #LivingTheQuestions

In this episode, I reflect on the practice of self-study and why it matters so much in moments of cultural upheaval, confusion, and pain. When the world feels overwhelming, it is tempting to turn all our attention outward. But lasting change asks something deeper of us. It asks us to look inward with honesty, curiosity, and care.

I explore self-study as a spiritual practice found across traditions, from yoga and meditation to Christianity and 12-step communities. I talk about svadhyaya, the yoga practice of self-reflection, and why self-study only becomes helpful when it is grounded in witnessing rather than self-blame or self-improvement.

We begin with the body, because we all have one. Through breath, movement, journaling, and reflection, the body becomes a living curriculum for understanding how we’ve been shaped, where we get stuck, and where freedom is possible. When practiced with curiosity and compassion, self-study becomes a way of relating more honestly to ourselves, to one another, and to the mystery that made us.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, notice your patterns, and stay present with what you find without judgment. Self-discovery, practiced over time and in community, can be a quiet and powerful form of devotion.

Chapters

00:00 Opening reflections and why self-study matters right now03:58 What self-study is and why it needs a foundation of witnessing06:12 Self-examination across spiritual traditions08:55 Svadhyaya, yoga, and the role of disciplined practice11:36 Self-study in relationship and community16:27 The body as curriculum for self-discovery21:10 What’s coming next for Curious Hearts

Work with me

If you’re craving support on your spiritual path or seeking more meaning in your work, you can explore ways to work with me at veralester.com.

You can also reach out directly at hello AT veralester.com or connect with me on Substack.

#CuriousHearts #SelfStudy #Svadhyaya #SpiritualPractice #Embodiment #SelfReflection #YogaPhilosophy #ConsciousLiving #InnerWork