Explore the intersectional qualities of pleasure, presence and embodiment in this rich conversation with the luminous Vanessa Muradian (she/they), a sexologist, embodiment explorer, yoga facilitator and founder of womxn-focussed sexuality and wellness business Mia Muse.

When Vanessa launched Mia Muse 10 years ago she was filling what she saw as a crucial gap in the market – sex-positivity that was neither far-out nor tacky. Today that offering has expanded to workshops, sensual yoga and sexual education to support womxn on their journey towards intimacy, eroticism and pleasure.

 This episode explores:

• The relationship between masculine and feminine qualities (or yang and yin, shiva and shakti, or active and receptive) within us and our wider world
• Cultivating and elevating your erotic identity
• Knowing your pleasure deep listening to your body’s needs
• How sensuality has been sexualised, and expanding it to a much broader experience of daily life through our senses
• Unlearning and relearning (redefining) our relationship with sensuality and unravelling inherited or cultural beliefs

It’s a full and deep (and sometimes sticky) conversation and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.

Find out more about Vanessa over on Mia Muse's website and Instagram.

As I mention in the show, I'm preparing to wrap up this season of Moving Inward shortly. To stay in touch make sure to sign up to Moving Inward's newsletter, which will be the primary place to connect.

Birth educator, counsellor and attendant Rhea Dempsey supports women and birthing people to feel empowered and more prepared when navigating child birth.

Known around the world for her earthy pragmatism, she's attended more than 1,500 births and is transforming our attitudes and and approach to birth.

This episode originally aired on the Dumbo Feather podcast and is a modern exploration of birthing babies, birthing mothers and healing the birth narrative with great care.

Show Notes:

• You can learn more about TEND: Yoga and Relaxation for Anxiety here.
• You can learn more about Rhea’s work over at Birthing Wisdom
• Rhea’s conversation with Berry Liberman, Dumbo Feather’s heart-stirring editor-in-chief here
• You can find out more about Dumbo Feather over at their website, instagram or podcast page.

Today’s guest jo buick (she/her) is a wise and thoughtful voice on the intersection between healing, embodiment and social justice. As an educator, meditator and trauma-informed yoga facilitator, her work explores the role of somatic and body-focused practices in fostering an alignment of our inner values and outer actions, especially in relation to mending the broken structures and systems of our time that need repair.

To begin this work, say jo, we can first look to nurturing the needs of our minds and body and their role within broader healing.

jo is the Director and Co-Creator of collective being, a not-for-profit that offers trauma-informed and healing-centred yoga and mindfulness programs in community. I've had the great pleasure of training with jo and it's an enormous privilege to have her on this show.

We discuss:
- Trauma-informed yoga: What it is and how it might deepen our connection with our body.
- The role of our healing in social justice and social change work.
- How to integrated embodied mindfulness and body-based practices into daily life.
- Healing inequity within yoga and wellness spaces.
- Creating an alignment between our inner values and outer actions.
- The fascinating neuroscience behind nervous  system regulation.
- How personal care practices can allow us to  'show up' for the causes we care about.

Show notes:
- Join me for Moving Inward's first course, TEND: Yoga and Relaxation for Anxiety
- jo buick: website and instagram
- jo's REST course
- collective being: website and instagram
- Resmaa Menakem, On Being
- Yoga for HumanKIND Trauma-Informed Training

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

Could this unique moment in history be experienced as a rite of passage, individually and together? 

Dr Arne Rubinstein believes so. As the founder of The Rites of Passage Institute, he says it provides an opportunity to experience transformation where we might emerge from the 'cocoon' of this experience into a way of being that is more meaningful, more loving and more whole. 

In this episode we discuss:

• What does a rite of passage look like during a pandemic?
• What is a ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ rite of passage
• How we can reframe our thinking of major challenges
• How we might create a new vision for our lives
• How to introduce ritual and reflection into our experiences

This episode is an invitation for you to consider how you might frame this enormous experience in your own life and how you might want to live on the other side.

• Find out more about Dr Arne’s work over at The Rite of Passage Institute’s website or Facebook or Instagram.
• Dr Arne’s facilitating a six-week online course on the Rites of Passage framework that can be found here.
• Keep in touch with Moving Inward on the website or Instagram.
• Receive three guided practices to create calm.

We often talk about the importance of promoting mental health, but what can we do on a practical level to change the cycle of negative thinking and create healthy habits for our mental wellbeing? 

Pippa Baker a Principal Master Instructor with Mental Health First Aid Australia (MHFA) and offers training in schools, workplaces and the community to help people effectively respond to mental health issues.
It's a brilliantly practical and compassionate training about helping ourselves and helping those we love.

In today's episode, Pippa shares:
+ What are the signs to look out for if someone is struggling?
+ If they are, how can you hold space for them without trying to "fix" the problem?
+ How can we improve our confidence to have these conversations with those with love?
+ What are the routines we can create to foster our own mental wellbeing?

This episode is a must-listen - whether it's for yourself or for supporting the people you love.

You can find out more about Pippa over on the podcast's show notes:
www.movinginward.com/episodes/pippa

Lifeline on 13 11 14

Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636

Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467

Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800

Headspace on 1800 650 890

Berry Liberman embodies a way of being that is steeped in purpose.

As the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the beloved Dumbo Feather magazine, and the Co-Founder and Creative Director of Small Giants, she lives in service to meaning and gifting the next generation a way of life that is richer, deeper and more whole.

In today's episode, Berry shines a light on the big ideas, frameworks and practices that she draws upon in service to leading a meaningful life; a rallying call to stand up and consider what meaningful difference you might like to offer too.

Learn more in the show notes: movinginward.com/episodes/berry
Follow the conversation over on Instagram: instagram.com/moving.inward

The world has been upended in 2020. What began as a decade with great hope has become a time that’s turbulent and tender. As Moving Inward comes back for season four, Kayla asks old and new guests from the show how we can meet this moment and what does wellness look like in a global pandemic? Their response:

Crisis can create great change.

Here’s how.

You’ll hear from:

• Kate James, Best-Selling Lifestyle Author, Coach and Mindfulness Teacher
• Berry Liberman, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Dumbo Feather and Co-Founder and Creative Director of Small Giants
• Jamie Marloo Thomas, Wayapa Wurrk Co-Founder
• Pippa Baker, Principal Master Instructor with Mental Health First Aid Australia
• Dr Arne Rubinstein, Doctor and Founder of the Rites of Passage Institute

The show notes about these incredible guests and their offerings are available on the website: MovingInward.com.

Keep in touch with the show over on Instagram at @moving.inward

There is power in people and places that hold us when we are at our most vulnerable.

Gabrielle Nancarrow is a birth and pregnancy loss doula, circle holder and the founder of Gather, an inclusive space for women and non-binary people to come together and witness one another’s journeys. It’s a special place.

As you’ll hear in this conversation, Gabrielle came to this work from a sense of deep inner knowing that the culture and expectations that she was encountering while pregnant were not serving her, and it inspired a shift in her life and career to retrain as a doula to help women and to hold safe spaces.

This episode centres around about the power of growing quiet to listen to the deep well of wisdom within, of community care and of allowing ourselves to be held by others - particularly when we’re at our most vulnerable.

It’s a heartfelt, warm and tender conversation.

If you’d like to explore Gather’s offerings, head to the website at: https://www.gatherwomenspace.com/ or at Instagram at @gatherwomenspace

And another note here that this episode deals with themes of pregnancy loss and miscarriage, and that this may be challenging for some people to listen to. If you do find this, and want somebody to talk to, you can call Sands at any time. They offer confidential, non-judgemental, compassionate phone support to anybody experiencing grief from the loss of a pregnancy or baby. Their Australian number is 1300 072 637.

If you'd like to reach out at any point, you can contact me over at instagram at @moving.inward or at [email protected].

Enjoy X

Tara Judelle is an internationally renowned yoga teacher and the co-creator of Embodied Flow, a school of transformational yoga that weaves together hatha yoga, somatics, movement meditations, tantric philosophy, and transpersonal psychology. It elicits the experience of stepping into flow as meditation in action.

I have admired Tara's beautiful work through Embodied Flow for many years, so I was delighted to sit with her for this conversation. It surpassed even my wildest expectations.

We explore:

• Embodied movement - how we experience our essential selves through the body-mind
• Flow states - what they are and how we can step into them
• Tara's life path and how she moved from filmmaking in Hollywood to co-creating Embodied Flow
• The language and instruction of the body
• Stepping into resistance as a doorway to the practice

If you'd like to practice with Tara, she generously recorded a meditation to accompany this episode. You can also find her over at Embodied Flow, TaraJudelle.com and Glo.com.

This meditation is a bonus companion to an interview with internationally renowned yoga teacher and the co-creator of Embodied Flow, Tara Judelle.

If you haven't listened to that episode yet, head over there first to hear more about the philosophy and approach of Embodied Flow, which is a school of transformational yoga that weaves together hatha yoga, somatics, movement meditations, tantric philosophy, and transpersonal psychology. It elicits the experience of stepping into flow as meditation in action.

Once you're ready to practice, find a comfortable place to turn inward and enjoy this beautiful recording with the illuminating Tara Judelle.

And, if you'd like to practice further with Tara, you can find her over at Embodied Flow, TaraJudelle.com and Glo.com.

Enjoy.