Dreaming Ourselves Alive

On humility as leadership, indigenous wisdom, and why transformation begins in your nearest relationships. With Laura Pastorini, hosted by Amel Murphy.

What if the future isn’t something you control, but something you have to learn how to listen for?

Laura Pastorini joins Amel from Cabo Polonio, a remote coastal village in Uruguay with no electricity, where time and attention move differently.

They speak about what happens when you bring CEOs, activists, and indigenous leaders into the same room, and stop trying to control the outcome. Laura shares how leadership shifts when you listen to the moment rather than impose a plan; including a vision council that was completely redesigned at the last minute because the field demanded it.

Running underneath is a more disorienting idea; that real change might not start at scale, but in how you show up in your closest relationships.

“We say that we humans are fertilisers of the soil, so that our role is to be fertilisers.” — Laura Pastorini

EPISODE GUIDE

Opening and introduction

Laura in Cabo Polonio; place, presence, and disconnection from modern systems

From anthropology to embodiment; a lifetime of working with systems and the body

The dream: activating basic goodness in a time of disappointment

Fragmentation as the core problem; why sectors cannot solve this alone

Ecosystem leadership in practice; CEOs, activists, and indigenous leaders in one room

Indigenous wisdom and design; listening to what the moment requires

The vision council that changed at the last minute

Humility and control; what leadership looks like when you let go

We are fertilisers; a different orientation to being human

Transformation starts close; relationships as the ground of change

Closing seed; agency, trust, and beginning where you are

ABOUT LAURA PASTORINI

Laura Pastorini is Lead of Development and Learning at the Presencing Institute in Latin America. With a background in social anthropology, systemic therapy, and embodiment practice, she works across sectors to support leadership and systemic transformation. Her work integrates Theory U, indigenous knowledge, and social presencing theatre to develop ecosystem leadership across the region. She is based in Uruguay, often working from remote coastal communities.

www.presencing.org https://www.socialpresencingtheater.org

• Instagram: @laura_pastorini
• Facebook: facebook.com/laura.pastorini.9
• LinkedIn: Laura Pastorini

ABOUT AMEL MURPHY

Amel is the founder of Embodied Beings. She grew up between cultures, and it was the body, not the book, that first taught her what belonging feels like. For over twenty years, she has worked at the intersection of personal healing and collective change, supporting leaders, communities, and changemakers to come into right relationship with themselves, each other, and the world around them. This podcast was born from that inquiry, and from the belief that stories, told honestly, are medicine.

www.embodied-beings.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelmurphy

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Music by HappinessInMusic from Pixabay

On belonging without safety, pleasure as resistance, and what the body remembers when the world forgets. With Sage Hayes, hosted by Amel Murphy.

What does belonging actually feel like in the body, especially when the world doesn't feel safe?

Sage Hayes has spent over two decades working as a somatic practitioner, and this conversation gets to the heart of what that means in practice. Not the theory of it; the lived, embodied reality of trying to stay connected to yourself when survival keeps getting in the way.

Sage and Amel explore why safety and belonging are not the same thing, why pleasure is the first thing the nervous system sacrifices under stress, and what it actually takes to keep returning to yourself, your community, your aliveness, when the world makes that very hard.

"We're worth it without having to do anything for it." — Sage Hayes

EPISODE GUIDE

Opening ritual and introduction

Sage on Peaks Island, the Wabanaki people, and gender as a both/and

Displacement, adoption, and the pull toward belonging

The dream Sage is attending to: disrupting violence, rekindling connection

Belonging and safety: do we need one before we can have the other?

Justice in the Body: what it means to feel justice inside when the world won't give it to you

Pleasure as practice: why survival mode crowds out joy, and how to find your way back

Amel's story from Zimbabwe: the women's circle, the heavy walk, and the shake

Listening between the lines: rhythm, elders, and nature as teachers

Sage's closing seed: who we are is worth it, together

ABOUT SAGE HAYES

Sage Hayes (she/he/they) is a healing arts practitioner with over two decades of experience in Somatic Experiencing, bodywork, and biodynamic craniosacral therapy. They are an ecstatic dance DJ, a facilitator of family and systemic constellations, and the founder of Justice in the Body, a somatic wellness practice grounded in the question: what can justice in our body feel like today, even in conditions of ongoing injustice? Sage lives on Peaks Island, Maine, with their dog Thelma Jean.

https://embodiedliberation.com/

ABOUT AMEL MURPHY

Amel is the founder of Embodied Beings. She grew up between cultures, and it was the body, not the book, that first taught her what belonging feels like. For over twenty years, she has worked at the intersection of personal healing and collective change, supporting leaders, communities, and changemakers to come into right relationship with themselves, each other, and the world around them. This podcast was born from that inquiry, and from the belief that stories, told honestly, are medicine.

www.embodied-beings.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelmurphy

STAY CONNECTED

Share this episode with someone who needs it.

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Know someone whose story belongs in this podcast? Tell us; we read every message.

Music by HappinessInMusic from Pixabay.