Mystics in the Matrix

Melaney is a Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm)/Nanoose, Snaw’naw’as woman who, from birth, was fostered out and then adopted into a White settler family during the 60s scoop. Later in her life, Melaney reconnected to her Indigenous culture, wisdom, family and way of life and now holds a unique and powerful position as a bridge between worlds and cultures - the 'Western' and her traditional Indigenous ways of living and being.

When I met Melaney at a Work That Reconnects workshop on Bowen Island, we didn't share many words, but were immersed in a deep group process moving through ecological grief, and showing vulnerability with one another as we allowed our truths and personal pain over the state of our post-colonial, neoliberal, extractivist economy and culture to surface. Melaney led our entire group of over 20 people through the KAIROS Blanket Exercise - "a unique, participatory history lesson – developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers and educators – that fosters truth, understanding, respect and reconciliation among Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples" (https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/). This was a very somatic experience of the atrocities experienced by Indigenous people in Canada. It unzipped me, and took me from knowing about the genocide of Indigenous people on an intellectual level, to feeling it and understanding it on a much deeper more cellular level. Her leadership is powerful and she speaks her truth without fear. A medicine woman - of this, I am certain.
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In this conversation, Melaney also touches on what it looks like to be an ally for Indigenous peoples and the value of relationship building and resourcing the Indigenous (First Nation, Metis, Inuit) communities you live alongside. She shares the importance of centering Indigenous cultural revitalization and healing, and how that healing is part of the healing of the whole world.
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This time and conversation was a gift from the moment I entered Melaney's space, the food she shared with me (I mean, homemade focaccia bread!) to the depth of her sharing, and the warmth that emanated from her deeply wise and truth-telling being.
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This is a medicine conversation. I invite you to make some tea, settle in and join us.

To stay connected with Melaney, you can follow her on...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melaney.G.lyall
Instagram: @melzeagle https://www.instagram.com/melzeagle/

Thank you for listening. Thank you for hearing.

Amber Samaya


Show Notes:

Learn about the Musqueam Nation - https://www.musqueam.bc.ca/
Chiros Blanket Exercise - https://www.kairosblanketexercise.org/
Learn about the 60's scoop - https://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/features/the-sixties-scoop-explained
The Work that Reconnects - https://workthatreconnects.org/
Reconnecting To Life workshop on Bowen Island (that Melaney and I participated in - highly highly recommend!) - https://reconnectingtolife.org/
Wet’suwet’en Strong: SUPPORTER TOOLKIT - http://unistoten.camp/supportertoolkit/

Music:

In Paler Skies, by Blue Dot Sessions from the Free Music Archive (Creative Commons License) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions

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In this episode of I'll Have What She's Having, I get to talk with the powerful and brave, Jenn Plotnikoff. Jenn is a Sacred Fear Alchemist and the best of the best kind of coach, and she gives us some deep insights into how our relationship with fear is probably in need of a shift in perspective. 

This is a longer conversation that covers many areas directly related to our experiences of fear across the spectrum - be it anxiety, panic attacks, or low-lying chronic stress, to those moments when you are catching a huge wave and need to stay on top of your board! (FYI, Jenn is a surfer-chick living in Mexico and so you'll hear some good surfing metaphors!)

The highlights: 

• Patterns of experience as a new framing for trauma
• Recognizing our bodies as an animal and tuning into the innate intelligence it holds
• Resourcing and anchoring safety through visualization practice (link to practice below!)
• Getting curious about your fear responses and letting your body do what it needs to do
• The wound of disembodiment - how being "here" is hard but necessary to claim!
• Paying attention to the dynamics of fear and learning where to position yourself the waves are approaching! 

The waves will keep coming, but we are all learning how to ride them together.

To access a beautiful resourcing safety guided visualization generously offered by Jenn, follow this link to the audio file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7cd7fl7gykmji9l/Resourcing%20Memory%20Meditation.m4a?dl=0

To connect with Jenn, you can follow her socials:
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/movedfromwithin/ or @movedfromwithin 
Personal Page: https://www.facebook.com/jenn.plotnikoff
Instagram: @jennplotnikoff
Deep Courage™ online self-study program: http://www.movedfromwithin.com/deep-courage-online/?fbclid=IwAR2wTxOUMZ7-m1lb3jevpGLpgjjAUrRYMLhjODumvom5IrrhBOrWx17cvlg

With heart,

amber samaya

Show Notes:

Poems Read Aloud:
'Coyote' - by Amber Samaya
'Go to the Limits of Your Longing' - by Rainer Maria Rilke

Music:

Opening music, "Threads" by Ebb and Flod from Epidemic Sound

Music for Podcast intro and Outro, "Karma Cat" by Dyalla (Creative Commons License)

"Something Wonderful" by Alan Piljak from the Free Music Archive

"We Forgot" by Ayla Nereo, Creative Commons License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/) from the Free Music Archive.

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Sarah Leanne Hart is a lot of incredible things all wrapped up in one very ripped and very caffeinated package! An accomplished pro climber, MEC Ambassador, facilitator, public speaker, student of radical social work, globetrotter, and coffee enthusiast! The latter being the magic elixir that makes all the former possible. In our conversation, we traverse the peaks and valleys of Sarah's life, and clip the following bolts: 

• Managing an injury AND a multifaceted, busy schedule 
• The personal challenges that led Sarah toward embracing Feminism and how she works towards equity for women
• Sarah's dedication to empowering teenage girls through the Learning to Lead program (Minerva Foundation)
• The transformation from "white" Feminism to Intersectional, inclusive Feminism
• Working on her Bachelor's Degree in RADICAL social work 
• Navigating post-colonized systems, and the valuable learning coming from Indigenous communities
• The importance of critical thinking and humility as we move through the complexities of the world 

So excited to share this chat with you.

To connect with Sarah online do one or all of the following...
Instagram: @sarahleannehart
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.hart.963
Website: https://www.sarahleannehart.com

Show Notes:

Minerva BC, Learning to Lead: https://minervabc.ca/learning-to-lead/

National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/

UNDRIP: UNDRIP_E_web.pdf

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Intersectional Feminism: https://www.law.columbia.edu/pt-br/news/2017/06/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality

Readings and Book Mentions:

Living A Feminist Life, by Sarah Ahmed

Lifting Hearts Off the Ground: Declaring Indigenous Rights in Poetry, by Lyla June Johnston and Joy Devito {Reading from Chapter 7, Article 7 and response poems}

Coming Back to Life, by Joanna Macy and Molly Brown {Reading from Chapter 2, pg. 21-22, "What Is Pain For The World?"}

Climate: A New Story, by Charles Eisenstein

Music: 

Opening music, "Ghosts of the Rail" by Gabriel Lewis from Epidemic Sound 

Music for Podcast intro and Outro, "Karma Cat" by Dyalla (Creative Commons License)

Wildlight’ by The Polish Ambassador, Creative Commons License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/) from the Free Music Archive.

Leverage, by Infinity Ripple from Epidemic Sound 

A Temporary Solution by Inifinity Ripple from Epidemic Sound 

Wood Carver’s Lament by Amber Samaya from Soundcloud

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Midweek Musings are short segments in which I share reflections, poetry and prose, creative exercises, and many other supportive goodies.

This week I reflect on the idea - There's something R I G H T with you.

That's right - you and I - we're magical creatures in a complicated world. I've noticed a trend among women of striving for self betterment - the grow, get big, be more, get more, be unstoppable, kick ass ideology that can sometimes come at the expense of honouring the R E A L HUEmxn emotional responses that occur for us as we are exposed to the intensity of the globalized, colonized, pathologized world we find ourselves embedded in. There is anxiety...there is depression or sadness...there is anger...confusion...ambivalence...the need to slow down. A spectrum of natural responses to living with eyes and heart open. To being that kick-ass awesome feeling and sensing womxn that you are.

And so this is a call to honour your natural, intact, HUEmxn responsiveness. You can still grow, improve, actualize, and show up excellent in your life, but I encourage you let yourself experience your suppleness, your affectedness, your full emotional spectrum - the intactness and rawness of your empathy.

We are interbeing.

I end with an original narrative poem about an experience I had - supple, open, feeling my pain for the world - in the grocery store a while back...

With heart,

amber samaya


Show notes:

The music included in this episode included...

"What Once Was" by Gavin Luke from Epidemic Sound (https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/VLMCHp0SIs)

and

"Dreams Become Real" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) from https://filmmusic.io

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Today's podcast guest, Juliette Woods, is an incredible mix of mystic, mother, spiritual guide, creative, and earth spiritualist. 

In our conversation we talk about...

• The concept of a 'slow-cooked' life and regenerative self care 
• Tending to ourselves by tuning into our innate capacities, seeking emancipation from the paradigm of overdoing
• The recognition that we are re-learning how to be in circle and the balance between patience, openness, compassion, boundaries, and...well, we'll figure it out eventually! 
• Considering what is means to 'hold space' or be 'sending' energy to someone #gettinspiritual #woohoo
• Recognizing the places we need to perhaps reclaim ourselves
• Cultural appropriation and a gentle invitation to be ever more vigilant with our language
• Making conscious transformations in your business - even when it's a bit challenging
• Being in service to LIFE through acts of connection and contemplation (and some good ole ironic humour) and Juliette's photo project and 'devotion of trash removal on the West Coast of Canada', Lost & Found. Please Claim.

We cover a lot of ground in this long-form conversation that feels like a lengthy stroll down the beach on a drizzly day...picking up wise little stones...giving the selkies a wave hello and wink or two...remembering the seal skin tucked away in our own closets.

You can connect with Juliette in the following ways:
Website www.3foldbalance.com
Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/juliettewoods
Instagram:
@3foldbalance 
@juliettefaewoods - for the Lost &Found. Please Claim photo series
YouTube: Spiritual Practices playlist channel (3 Fold Balance) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8qlZ09BZtA&list=PLIfbKrW_YgIq4XcN34-St64g7iOoc0rpN


Show notes:
Namaste (meaning): https://chopra.com/articles/learn-the-meaning-of-namaste

Transcendental Meditation healing violence - Study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2158244016637891

Shiloh Sophia - Poem - Let Me Gather Myself: https://www.shilohsophiastudios.com/let-me-gather-myself/ 

Lost & Found. Please claim - Juliette's beach cleanup garbage photo series: https://www.instagram.com/juliettefaewoods/

Joanna Macy - The Work that Reconnects: https://www.joannamacy.net/main

Music: 

Opening music and music behind the poetry read was "Bittersweet" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com), License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Music for Podcast intro is "Karma Cat" by Dyalla (Creative Commons License)

And you heard the song "Slow Decay" by Ingrid Witt (Creative Commons License) during our conversation from Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/7DgxuKxluN

Support:

You can engage in reciprocity with this show by supporting me - Amber Samaya - on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ambersamaya

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The podcast formally known as I'll Have What She's Having has been reborn and retitled, the Mystics in the Matrix.

This serves as my introduction to the Mystics in the Matrix, the 'why' behind the re-naming, and the intention and energy this podcast now holds. Times and seasons change, and we change with them. This is adaptation, movement, melting, and allowing myself and offerings to be reshaped with grace.

About Mystics in the Matrix

This is a podcast with humble roots in my experience with circle-based communities, committed to sharing our wisdom traditions, cultural richness, ancestral teachings, and hard-won personal insights in the service of co-making a beautiful world. The intention within my heart as host is to curate a welcoming and sensual space that brings ease to the nervous system, as well as the heart/brain activation that sparks creativity, openness, and receptivity. 

This podcast is an etheric meeting place for those free-lancing ‘mystics’ of our current cultural, technological, and mycelial matrix. The highly sensitive, the deeply insightful, those ‘taken up’ on the wings of imagination, attuned to the subtle music of the earth, open to brushing up against other bodies, beings, ideas, and lifeways with curiosity rather than fear. Those whose hearts live in stubborn refusal to harden, choosing to remain soft and permeable, and in service to the Sacred aspects of Life. Those who delight in the path of wisdom, embrace multiple ways of knowing, accept what is not known with humble uncertainty, and practice the subtle art of spell-breaking in a spellbound world. 

The conversations herein are walkabouts in the woods, lanterns in hand, in which we explore what interconnects us, what separates us, the structures in our world that harm and those that heal, and the beautiful, good things that make life bearable, incredible, magical. These conversations live outside of the halls of academia, they hold paradox rather than polarization, they espouse curiosity with one another and with life, and recognize the folly of metanarratives. 

May hearts, brains, and bodies ‘light up’ around this charitable fire. I invite you into spaciousness, fellowship, care-fullness. There is room at this table for you, the candles are lit, and a lending library is open.

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