Our Nature: Conversations about the relationship between nature, spirituality, and well-being

This week I’m chatting with April Valencia, a photographer, textile artist, sustainability consultant and private chef. She’s shot for Apiece Apart, Levi’s Made and Crafted, Sezane, Gjusta, among others, cooked for Yola Mezcal and the ICA in London, and she’s also on the board at the Elizabeth Street Garden in Manhattan. My dear friend Caroline Ventura introduced us because she knew I was heading to LA for three months and thought we’d enjoy meeting each other. What started as a leisurely meal in Venice, turned into a friendship, and I’m so excited to share this interview with April for what I believe is her first podcast interview. I wanted to speak with her because she’s had such a wide ranging, varied life - from being married at 21 and working at Trump Tower in New York, to losing her brother and finding herself alone in the jungle of the Yucatan, April’s life has shifted and evolved as she’s grown into herself.

Nature teaches us that the only permanence is change, and April’s journey feels in harmony with nature. It’s always changing, hard to define, and that’s precisely what makes it so vibrant and beautifully complex. Be sure to listen all the way to the end of this conversation because April shares an important perspective for anyone struggling with a chronic health condition, or simply anyone who feels overwhelmed by often conflicting and confusing health advice. With that, let’s get into my conversation with the wonderful April Valencia, who actually just celebrated her birthday on Monday. Enjoy!

Welcome to a very special episode of Our Nature. On the last episode of the podcast, I spoke with Water Healer Jobi Manson about water, and its power to transform us through its inherent wisdom. Jobi leads people into their creative expression through water immersion experiences in the ocean, which she calls “Sefaris.” She came to this practice through her own transformational relationship with water after a life changing accident almost left her permanently paralyzed. In order to have the proper context for this episode, I encourage you to go back and listen to Jobi’s incredible journey on the last episode of Our Nature, episode 23, if you haven’t already.

Originally, we had the idea to record a part 2 of that episode after I had been on a Sefari so you could all get a glimpse into what that experience was like, but because we’re social distancing right now, that wasn’t possible. So I wanted to offer the next best thing, perhaps an even better thing! A chance for all of you to experience water’s creative power through a bath ritual and meditation hosted by Jobi Manson. What I love about this offering is that we have an opportunity to connect with the most powerful element in nature from wherever we’re sheltering in place (as long as you have access to a bathtub). It was always my hope for Our Nature to provide simple, practical things you can do to connect with the natural world and in turn, yourself, in the most accessible way possible. And, this feels like one of those offerings.

Please visit ournaturepodcast.com for full show notes.

There’s no better way to celebrate Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary than by sharing an episode that focuses on the life giving element of water. Jobi Manson is a water healer, a creative director, photographer, entrepreneur and designer. She believes that “nature is the key to a creative life” and helps guide people into their creative expression through water immersion. Jobi calls these experiences “Sefari’s” or rebirth water experiences. Think of them as adventures into one’s creativity by inviting in water’s inherent wisdom.

For Jobi, water is the most powerful and essential element within all forms of life, one that helps us feel and move our emotions with ease. She’s led Sefari experiences for people such as the Founder of Toms Shoes to the Founder of Conscious City Guide, among others. In this episode we discuss: what makes water so unique and healing, how water can be the key to unlocking our creativity, what happens during a Sefari experience, Jobi’s path from surfer to Sefari guide, the serious accident that changed everything for Jobi (wait until you hear more about this profound experience), how we can better understand our emotions and feelings in order to be with them differently, and how we can more easily flow with the waves of our lives.

This week, I’m speaking with Azita Ardakani all about biomimicry, which according to Azita, is about revealing nature’s strategies to solve problems or create new innovations. She’s currently studying biomimicry at Arizona State University, but prior to this, Azita had an incredibly successful career living in New York City as the founder of Lovesocial, a communications agency that landed her on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. I don’t want to give too much away because I think Azita should share her story in her own words, but Azita chose a radical path and left her agency and life in New York for an extended moment of pause and contemplative connection with the natural world. Her story is nature’s story - resilient, complex, full of opposites, and ever expansive.

This week’s episode is an incredibly fascinating conversation about music and sound with Andrea Cortez. Andrea is a board certified music therapist, sound artist and sound meditation instructor. She specializes in studying the effects of music on the brain and body to help people rehabilitate from brain injury and neurological disorders. She founded the Mind Body Music center whose mission is to utilize and promote music’s inherent therapeutic and healing qualities in order to elevate the minds, bodies and hearts of others. Her work has brought her to playing music for animals and even with plants using a fascinating device called Plant Wave that detects electrical variations in plants and these variations are then translated into pitch messages that play musical instruments. Be sure to listen to the end of the episode to hear more about how Andrea composes music with plants. Throughout the conversation you’ll also have a chance to hear samples of music that Andrea has composed with plants and compiled into her Secret Song of Plants album. If you want to learn more about Andrea, her teachings, and journey into the world of sound, tune into her podcast called Sound Meditation Radio.

Welcome back to Season 2 of Our Nature with the authentic and delightful Kerrilynn Pamer of CAP Beauty. Kerrilynn is the co-founder of natural beauty store CAP Beauty and the co-author of the bestselling book “High Vibrational Beauty,” which combines mantras, meditation, natural skincare recipes, and practices with the aim of helping you achieve natural radiance. What I love about Kerrilynn is how open and real she is. She doesn’t claim to be perfect, to have it all figured out, but rather, she’s a work in progress, as all of us are. In this episode we discuss Kerrilynn’s journey to from the fashion industry to eventually founding CAP, how she defines beauty, why the word “natural” is often misused, elitism in the wellness industry and the simple practices that are free (but profound), how to be well when you don’t have a lot of money, what high vibrational beauty means to Kerrilynn, and the personal practices that keep her physically, emotionally and spiritually well. I chose this conversation to be my kick off for season 2 because I believe we all want to feel beautiful, and I think Kerrilynn does an incredible job of articulating what multi-dimensional beauty really looks like.