How to Be Human

Organizational expert and founder of Organize That Effy Terry and I talk organizing. Effy is not only super organized but she's done a lot of educating about neurodiversity and how different brains need different systems. She is a big believer in finding a system that works for you versus one size fits all. One of the most refreshing things she offers is that being organized doesn't make you a better person, however it can aid your mental health. She blows my mind mentioning techniques such as body doubling and more. As someone who organization and tidying is not a strength I loved hearing Effy's take and how much compassion she approaches the work she does. Now if she would come organize my apartment.

Resources mentioned:

KonMari Method

Institute for Challenging Disorganization

Hoarders (Canadian version if you want to spot Effy :)

Where to find us:

• Effy's Website
• Effy's Instagram
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

Aja and I are back with Pt. 2 today!

I hope you are already familiar with Aja Barber and her work but if you're not buckle up. I was prepared for Aja to be unfathomably smart, and informative but she's also very funny and easy to talk to. Her book Consumed is a super informative, surprisingly easy read for such dense material and the planets aligned to let Aja and I have a conversation during Earth Month. We cover a lot of ground today discussing fast fashion, ways to challenge our consumption and some of the more insidious aspects of the fashion industry and how it relates back to colonialism. Thanks to Aja being so generous with her time and mind.

Resources mentioned:

Nooworks

Big Bud Press

Lora Gene

Céline Semaan and The Slow Factory

Where to find us:

• Aja's Website
• Aja's IG
• Support Aja's Patreon
• Buy Aja's Book
• Shop Aja's collection with Lora Gene
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

I hope you are already familiar with Aja Barber and her work but if you're not buckle up. I was prepared for Aja to be unfathomably smart, and informative but she's also very funny and easy to talk to. Her book Consumed is a super informative, surprisingly easy read for such dense material and the planets aligned to let Aja and I have a conversation during Earth Month. We cover a lot of ground today discussing fast fashion, ways to challenge our consumption and some of the more insidious aspects of the fashion industry and how it relates back to colonialism. Thanks to Aja being so generous with her time we chatted it UP so I broke our recording into two episodes because I didn't want you to miss anything and wanted to keep it digestible. (Control freak? Moi? Neverrrrrrr.) I hope you enjoy Part 1 this week and rethink any future Shein purchases moving ahead :)

Resources mentioned:

Nooworks

Big Bud Press

Lora Gene

Céline Semaan and The Slow Factory

Where to find us:

• Aja's Website
• Aja's IG
• Support Aja's Patreon
• Buy Aja's Book
• Shop Aja's collection with Lora Gene
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

Founder of Mood Barre, writer, and my beloved writing teacher Kate Devine is today's guest. We discuss the benefits of investigating your personal narrative, the connections between movement and writing, and the different ways self expression serves us. Kate is in deep service of creativity and how to foster it and believes in developing self awareness that allows you to express yourself more clearly and feel more expressed. Luckily she shared some of these helpful and thought provoking ideas and processes with me. We talk a little about how writing is it's own form of spirituality and she even agreed to read work in progress for us. What's better than story time?

Where to find us:

• Kate's Website
• Mood Barre (hint there's a free trial)
• Kate's Instagram
• Kate's Upcoming Classes
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

New York Times bestseller, and author of the very popular Wintering Katherine May joins me today to discuss her third book Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age . We discuss what lead her to see she needed enchantment in her life, the benefits of living in the mystery and how exhausting the dystopian future rhetoric is. I felt like her book Enchantment really summed up a lot of things I had been feeling and was thrilled to get to discuss them with Katherine.

Where to find us:

• Buy Katherine's Book
• Katherine's Website
• Katherine's Podcast
• Katherine's Substack
• Katherine's Instagram
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

I deeply appreciate the pragmatism Mari possesses. It feels like a refreshing and compassionate balm in a time when people are very quick with answers and solutions. The word embodiment has lost meaning for me at times because it was being so overused in the wellness community, and being weaponized. Good people are embodied! When in doubt moralize it right? But what actually is embodiment, what does it mean? It means in simplest terms to give shape or form to something, to make something tangible. Spoiler but something I really appreciate that Mari brings up and discusses is that embodiment isn't so much a destination we arrive at but a reminder of all that we possess within.

Where to find us:

• Mari's Website
• Mari's Substack
• Mari's Instagram
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

Artist and Author of the book Flowers and Their Meanings Karen Azoulay joins me today to talk flowers. We've been giving flowers meaning and using them in rituals since the beginning of time and I appreciate Karen's deep interest in that. I also love that she decided the 19th century book about flowers meanings needed an update. Karen's instagram is one of my faves where she is illustrating through the ages how we've used flowers in rituals and assigned meanings to them across the globe and time. It's also a feast for the eyes besides being fascinating. This conversation felt like a fresh breeze to welcome spring with and think about what's growing in my own life and what floral messages I want to send. Karen graciously decoded the meaning of the flowers I bought for the episode (I declared love for myself via tulip) and we hopefully will be starting a trend of sending your friends funny messages via bouquet.

Where to find us:

• Buy Karen's book
• Where to Find Find Karen
• Flowers and Their Meanings Instagram
• Leave a message on Speakpipe
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

Heather Hogan's magic is difficult to fully encapsulate. She has a fierce courage that allows her to embrace life and death with eyes wide open and with so much compassion. She's a life coach, tarot reader, Buddhist meditation teacher and a death doula. We discuss her experiences with death that lead to her embracing life and discovering death doula work. Heather believes passionately that most people's relationship with death could be more positive but we have to talk about it in order for that to happen so we do just that.

If you like the podcast please rate, review and subscribe. It truly means the world.

Resources mentioned:

Hospice care

Support Death Differently

Where to find us:

• Heather's Website
• Heather's Instagram
• Support Heather's doc Death Differently
• Subscribe to the How to be Human Substack
• Leave a message on Speakpipe
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

Vanessa Hardy is back and we're not just doing a business ladies parody talking quarterly reports we're delving back into the astrology that lies ahead. Vanessa tells us what Spring's astrology has in store for us in Q2. Who this quarter's heavy hitters are and what kind of vibes lie ahead. Vanessa breaks down what Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter have in store for us and who this may impact the most. Get clued into how this will affect your chart and...you know everyone else around us.

If you like the podcast please rate, review and subscribe. It truly means the world.

Resources mentioned:

Bad Pastor

Where to find us:

• Vanessa's Instagram
• Book a session with Vanessa
• Subscribe to Vanessa's Substack
• Subscribe to the How to be Human Substack
• Leave a message on Speakpipe
• How to Be Human Instagram
• Anna's Instagram
• Book a session with Anna

When you are going to talk staying with yourself seems like you should do that by yourself. I'm solo today discussing a topic close to my heart because I can't stop dancing with it. Self abandonment! How can we leave ourselves when we're always with ourselves? I get it into it. Chatting what it is, what makes me do it and how I'm learning to stay.

Resources mentioned in today's episode:

Dear Chelsea episode with Lori Gottlieb

Melissa Febos Abandon Me

Peter Matthiessen Snow Leopard

Mari's Newsletter

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)