We put on blindfolds and stepped into the dark. This episode is an experiment in presence — recorded in the season of cocooning, when the pull inward is strongest. From witchy cauldrons and mountain meditations to volcanic caves and the feet of a frightened child, we explore what it takes to become the container for your own experience. Meandering through systemic coaching, breathwork, and Internal Family Systems, we arrive at a simple truth: you can't hold space for anyone until you know what you're holding space for within yourself.

📍Chapters

00:00 Intro 

01:15 Welcome & the context: cocooning in the darkest time of the year 

05:35 The experiment: blocked vision, masks on 

06:37 Game: Brewing a witchy cauldron for holding space 

12:33 Stories of mountains 

18:53 The mountain's consciousness 

23:08 Inside the mouth of a volcano 

28:37 What is holding space about? 

36:00 Making your energy available: healing circle in Brazil 

40:33 Center yourself first: holding space in breathwork

43:06 Holding space through the body: the daughter's feet story

46:41 Providing an energetic blueprint 

49:12 Becoming the container: expanded boundaries and blown glass 

57:25 Holding space for others vs holding space for yourself 

1:00:42 Do you need to know yourself to hold space? 

1:06:53 Holding space as creating a container for emergence 

1:13:50 Nature as anchor: the forest that made you whole 

1:18:37 Referencing self vs referencing externals 

1:24:22 Masks off: reflections on the darkness experiment 

1:26:47 Parting reflections

1:33:20 Outro

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Commons license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

Some conversations have a mind of their own and go in unexpected directions. In this episode, we started off trying to answer one question, but in the end, the discussion flowed, making us explore something that was emerging in the field even though we were not aware of it. From identity changes to cultivating the garden of our inner parts to the elusive existence of the “true self”, it all could be described by one question: what happens when we stop trying to be someone?

📍Chapters

00:00 Intro 

01:15 Welcome & setting the stage 

02:33 The Game: Identity as a costume 

20:02 Working with inner parts: a machine or a garden?

37:06 Inner scapes: cultivated garden vs wild forest

44:18 What collapses when you stop performing? 

52:43 Being, soul, ego & the Forrest Gump question 

1:03:16 The fluidity of identity

1:06:11 The energetic frequency of who we are 

1:09:07 The true self — does it exist? 

1:14:11 Shapeshifting 

1:17:11 We are humus

1:20:30 What identity is dissolving, forming, emerging? 

1:34:31 Parting reflections 

1:37:54 Outro

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Commons license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

Should we kill the ego or befriend it? In this episode, we explore the ego not as an enemy to destroy, but as a fluid interface between consciousness and the world. Through reflections on creative collaboration, improv, and the art of being selfish, we discover that the real problem isn't having an ego — it's losing awareness when one of our personas hijacks the controls.

📍Chapters

00:00 — What Should We Do With the Ego?

03:09 — When Ego Disrupts Group Flow

07:20 — Why “Getting Rid of the Ego” Doesn’t Work

11:40 — Ego as Boundary: Where the Self Begins

15:46 — What Happens When the Self Has No Borders

21:21 — Ego as the Interface Between Inner and Outer Worlds

23:46 — Identity as a Living, Shifting Narrative

30:20 — Why Structure Is Necessary for Flow

34:55 — When the Word “Ego” Gets in the Way

38:53 — When Ego Shifts From Play Into Control

43:49 — Playing a Role vs Being Taken Over by It

49:20 — Intensity Isn’t the Problem — Loss of Awareness Is

54:30 — The Observer Helps, But It’s Not the Whole Answer

1:05:10 — Living With the Ego Instead of Fighting It

1:10:38 — Staying in Relationship With Ego Over Time

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Common license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

Why is it so hard to just be? In this episode, we have set out to untangle the tension between doing and being, but instead fell into an endless rabbit hole trying to understand what being even means. Come to explore with us why stillness feels threatening, what forces pull us into constant motion, and whether being exists without awareness. Through winding reflections on cats, human bodies as machines, and collective consciousness, we discover that being isn't the opposite of doing — it's about fully occupying the experience.

📍Chapters

00:00 — Welcome to Life in Flow

01:52 — “Staying in Bed for Two Weeks!?”

05:28 — “Laziness Feels Like Anxiety and Guilt”

08:40 — Are We Afraid of Being?

09:05 — “My Biggest Fear Is Not Being Valuable”

10:46 — Doing as a Condition for Love

12:45 — “What Place Do I Occupy If I’m Just Being?”

14:46 — Helping, Saving, and Moral Worth 

18:08 — Occupying the State of Being 

20:45 — Essence vs State: Ser and Estar 

24:45 — Visible vs Invisible Planes 

27:40 — Does Being Require Awareness? 

35:30 — Being and what shapes identity (outside in or vice versa?)

47:57 — What else can be occupying my state?

1:14:00 — What Would Help Us Live More in Being?

1:14:53 — How We Can Shift Time

1:23:27 — Collective Being and Shared Fields

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Common license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

Why does the word “value” feel so heavy? In this episode, we unpack the tension between worth as something we perform versus something we simply are. Through our usual game of flow, we question whether value is a shell we need to crack open, a game we've learned to play, or something we'd be better off living without entirely.

📍Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Life in Flow

2:52 – Valere: value as strength + aliveness (not performance, achievement, or proving).

16:07 – Worthiness in the body: tightness, anxiety, and bracing for judgment.

19:50 – When value collapses: freeze response, numbness, and “nothing matters” energy.

21:10 – Beauty, femininity, and worthiness: expansion vs the mind’s “it’s unsafe.”

23:04 – The body’s deeper question: “Am I beautiful enough to expand into the world?”

31:52 – When value becomes a system: conditioning, hierarchy, and who gets to feel chosen.

36:52 – Childhood conditioning: how being “good” becomes the currency of love.

37:54 – People-pleasing decoded: earning approval instead of living from truth.

44:01 – Rebellion vs perfectionism: different strategies, same wound—“I must earn love.”

52:45 – External validation vs authenticity—and the paradox of becoming “invaluable.”

53:07 – The fake scoreboard: the moment you see external value isn’t real (but still runs us).

54:00 – “Invaluable” as a spiritual paradox: beyond measurement, status, and comparison.

55:20 – Cracking the Shell: releasing the identity built to prove your worth.

59:33 – A kindergarten bans “good”: what changes when praise is removed from identity.

1:21:43 – Healing value: what if we stop measuring ourselves completely and just be?

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Common license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

Do you have moments when nothing works and you can’t seem to find the way? We all have those dark moments from time to time. In this episode we decided to play creatively with darkness and reframe our relationship with it. Through raw reflections on desperation and surrender, we discover that darkness might not be something to escape, but a necessary part of the journey worth playing with and learning from.

📍Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Life in Flow

01:42 – When Nothing Works: The Experience of Hitting Darkness

05:10 – Refusing the Pain Olympics

07:29 – Working With the Body, Not the Story

08:15 – Metaphors of Darkness: Wells, Labyrinths, Monsters

10:48 – “No One Is Coming to Save Me”

14:47 – The Weight That Changes Reality

17:25 – Building Somatic Resilience Before Going Deeper

21:41 – Nature as a Regulator: Receiving Strength From the Outside

26:27 – Facing Fear With a Steady Core

31:26 – Trusting the Pull of the Future

38:57 – The Spiral: Power That Can Destroy or Create

42:10 – What Darkness Is Actually Teaching Us

52:23 – Darkness as Hibernation, Not Failure

1:10:41 – The Gifts of Darkness & What Emerged

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Common license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

What if loneliness is not something to fix, but something to shape? In this intimate conversation, we explore loneliness not as a curse, but as a profound teacher. Through personal stories — from feeling excluded to finding solace in the forest — we uncover loneliness as both a wound and a doorway to connection, creativity, and love.

📍Chapters

00:00 — Welcome to Life in Flow

01:22 — When Loneliness Takes Over

03:24 — What Loneliness Feels Like (Before We Explain It)

08:53 — When You’re the Only Witness

10:35 — Depth, Dark & Light, Song, Beauty

13:22 — Alone Isn’t the Same as Lonely

17:29 — Loneliness in Loud Rooms

21:22 — Being the Only One

23:26 — Losing the Knife

26:37 — What Exile Does to the Body

32:29 — When the Group No Longer Fits

35:22 — More Than the Human Animal

45:37 — What Loneliness Is Shaping

50:39 — Remembering Love

01:10:32 — Loneliness is a state that needs to be shaped

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Common license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

What shifts when we truly listen — without judgment, filters, or the urge to fix? In this episode, we explore radical acceptance, the art of presence, and how our inner states shape every interaction. Through improv games and real-time experiments, we discover that listening isn't just about hearing words — it's about creating the field where connection and flow become possible.

📍Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Life in Flow

03:16 – A Game That Loosens the Mind

08:46 – How Reality Lands in the Body

09:28 – The Hidden Pressure Behind Listening

15:18 – How Judgment Silences Connection

17:03 – The Listening Question That Changes Everything

19:52 – The Courage to Ask for How You Want to Be Heard

22:29 – Agreements That Make Space Sacred

29:18 – How Taking Things Inward Changes the Field

37:09 – When Presence Becomes the Only Way Forward 

47:02 – Trusting What Emerges Beyond the Rational Mind 

57:42 – Radical Acceptance: Meeting in the Human Center 

01:06:12 – Welcoming vs. Filtering: The Felt Difference

01:14:52 – The Inner Question Shaping the Field 

01:33:19 – Surrendering the Perfect Self to Let Flow Lead

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Common license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

What pushes us to transcend and expand our sense of self? What if the loneliness we all feel is an invitation --- not a wound? In this episode, we explore belonging not as attachment to a group, but as approval, welcome, and space to simply be. From breathwork revelations to Russian banyas, we follow the somatic thread of what it means to feel held by life itself.

📍Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Life in Flow

04:21 – Somatic Improvisation Game: “Transcendence”

06:40 – Sadness as a Pathway to Love

09:19 – Touching the River of Collective Emotion

12:06 – Going Beyond Your Human Form

16:01 – Transforming Pain Through Generations

20:11 – Transcendence as a Daily Life Practice

21:15 – Transcendence as a Hobby

24:36 – Moments When We Felt Part of Something Greater

31:06 – Belonging to Your Own Timeline

40:17 – The Power of Deep, Unquestionable Approval

53:39 – Can Belonging Be Created on Purpose?

57:58 – Higher Self, Energy Work, and Self-Approval

01:00:16 – Peeling Away Social Conditioning & Becoming Porous

01:11:23 – Being Held by Life, Nature, and Other Humans

01:18:12 – What We’re Taking With Us

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Common license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter

What roles do we play in our lives, and how do we choose them? Are they imposed on us, and can we escape them? In this conversation we explore social conditioning as both a cage and a mirror — from family expectations to cultural norms, from gender roles to invisible leashes we carry inside. What lies beyond these layers, and how can we return to our essence while still living in society?

📍Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Life in Flow

01:42 – What shapes us? The unseen force of conditioning

03:11 – The Zoo Game: how environments train us

07:17 – Are we living in invisible cages?

08:33 – Instinct vs. obedience: the “leash effect”

12:52 – When love becomes a role you must perform

16:38 – Family scripts: responsibility, success & pressure

23:25 – The inner check: “Is this actually me?”

25:04 – The motherhood story: desire, biology, or expectation?

29:49 – Identity at the crossroads of culture and biology

37:22 – Beyond roles: touching the essence of who we are

43:57 – Gender and identity: the fluid self beneath the labels

48:42 – Rediscovering the wild self through nature

1:04:57 – You’re always conditioned by something—so what frees you?

1:06:32 – Choosing your way: awareness, fluidity, and self-trust

Find us here:

* Life in Flow Podcast

* Yulia Bogdanova

* Polina Khodova

* Irina Mishina

💌 Resources used under Creative Common license:

Music “Echolocation” by airtone, source: CcMixter