Practice You with Elena Brower

On how we heal; trusting that you know what you need to heal, to thrive, to rest and to rewrite your story.

• 4:00 Journaling journey; Writing to heal, writing to get clear, writing to get kind and writing to get to know myself.
• 7:00 Giving young people the tools to to grow in emotional awareness. Healing by example.
• 9:00 Starting from scratch; Peach cobbler story – The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
• 12:10 Some people just are who they are and can't necessarily show up as we expect them to; Allow the adversity in your life to show you just how much you are learning.
• 15:00 Beginning to journal about trauma and baby steps to get started; It's never easy, but it's always worth it.
• 18:55 Writing about people in a potentially negative way with grace; Holding grudges keeping us from being free; Blaming our younger selves for the actions of our parents.
• 23:10 Pain Can Feel Like…, Healing Can Feel Like…, Both Can Feel Like…; Reclaiming your power
• 26:00 Finding therapy sessions, prayers, meditations, etc. not enough to sustain the healing work, and needing more support; Learning to trust I know what I need; Faith without works is dead.
• 29:00 Our healing is an act of community service. It is not just for us, but for everyone we come in contact with. The healed version of me recognizes the unhealed version of you.
• 31:15 Rewriting your narrative: Taking ownership over who you are and what you want to be; Making space for joy.
• 34:00 Nurturing your inner child. Pain that relates to pain from the past. Beginning to think new thoughts of joy and thriving. I am releasing to receive and I am open to what is for me.
• 37:00 Compassion and connection are essential to this work. Practicing and exercising our compassion, grace, joy, etc.
• 39:20 Healing is an active process; Choosing to walk away from titles as a reclamation of self. Writing the book I want to write, not the book people want to see from me.
• 43:05 Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism by Vanessa Machada de Oliveira
• 45:10 Things that bring me joy help me heal. We know that physically in our bodies there are endorphins and other things signaled when we laugh and smile.

Writing came into her life by way of therapy and the exploration of healing through journaling and mindfulness. The intention behind Alex's work is to build community & healing practices through literature & language.

Alex teaches workshops, courses, and retreats to assist others in finding their voices and create clarity in their lives & relationships. alexelle.com

On the necessary redefinition and reconnection to darkness as the medicine of compassion, and how our embrace of the unknown can change the world.

• 0:42 Introducing Deborah Eden Tull, Luminous Darkness, @mindfullivingrevolution
• 4:00 Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown; Redefining Darkness
• 6:30 Journey into 'Endarkenment'; 5 Aspects of Embodied Meditation and Spirituality
• 9:00 Through what perception lens am I perceiving right now? Original consciousness – consciousness free of the perception lens of overlay. Fixation with light -> fixation with rational mind.
• 11:45 Recognizing darkness as a great teacher of deep listening. The biases we carry.
• 14:15 Deeply questioning and examining our biases. Biases valuing light over dark. Understanding 'fertile' darkness.
• 16:15 Going through grief in a culture of sun shining. Learning to look within and reckoning with traumas.
• 18:15 Welcoming the full spectrum of light and dark in meditation. Waking up to the vitality and sacred teachings of darkness, as well as light.
• 20:20 The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom; "It is by staying present to what is that we find a freedom far greater than the utopia we are seeking."
• 22:20 Fierce compassion is a needed ally throughout our entire human journey. Presence is a transmission, an invitation into shared presence. Finding fierce compassion through mysterious illness. Finding a balance with gentle compassion.
• 26:48 Endarkenment invites us to open our heart to the dharma gate that exists just behind inconvenience and comfort. Obstacles do not block our path, they are the path.
• 30:50 Complications are auspicious, do not resist them. Cultivating a soft gaze. Attention follows the gaze of the eyes.
• 33:50 Living life is our meditation, sitting is just the formal part of practice. Learning to see with inner vision, or more clearly with the heart.
• 35:55 Seeing from wholeness and interconnection rather than the habit of fragmenting life and seeing through the lens of separation. Leading in the dark is a path of freedom from small self.
• 40:20 Liberation from the idea of success as binary. Success and failure can exist simultaneously. Liberation from the idea of success as a byproduct of our efforts. Co-creating with life while resting in emergence.

Deborah Eden Tull, the founder of Mindful Living Revolution, is an engaged dharma teacher, public speaker and activist. She spent seven years as a Buddhist monk at a silent monastery, now offering retreats, workshops and consultations internationally.

Eden teaches dharma intertwined with post-patriarchal thought and practices, resting upon a lived knowledge of our unity with the more-than-human world. Her books include Relational Mindfulness: A Handbook for Deepening Our Connection with Ourselves, Each Other and the Planet and The Natural Kitchen: Your Guide for a Sustainable Food Revolution.

Eden also teaches the Work That Reconnects, created by Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy, for transforming out pain and love for our world into compassionate action.

On social media as a teaching space; vulnerability as a bridge, and the possibility that virtual connections can bring about deepening relationships in real life.

• 0:42 Introducing Michell Clark; Empowering entrepreneurs and leaders; The Creative Summer Company – @thecreative.summer
• 3:05 Speaking from the heart, wrestling with complex feelings and giving grace to ourselves leading to connecting more deeply.
• 6:00 Writing at the intersection of all of our passions and experiences. Finding the commonalities between all different types of people.
• 8:40 Hip Hop – Tapping into emotions. Curiosity and eagerness to find commonality despite social standing.
• 10:40 Uncovering and understanding the stories in hip hop lyrics. Jeff Burroughs https://elenabrower.com/episode-63-jeff-burroughs/
• 12:45 The Creative Summer Company – Building a strong foundation, understanding values, learning while being playful. Webby Nomination
• 16:09 Social Media Specialist for the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Smithsonian) https://nmaahc.si.edu/
• 19:20 Taking a step back; Inspiring black artists – Kendrick Lamar – Stepping back from the pursuit of perfection.
• 22:00 Alex Elle – How We Heal – https://www.alexelle.com/ – The process of going back and seeing different versions of yourself as a means to understanding yourself in the present.
• 23:40 Understanding our own emotions. As parents, things we do not heal, we pass on to our kids.
• 25:58 Intentionally slowing down, deepening an awareness of self. Seeing new breakthroughs, opportunities, and new aligned relationships.
• 27:40 Give yourself half a day to do nothing. Shifting the narrative away from stay busy toward listening, learning and reveling in the self.
• 30:05 Expanding reach; having confidence in speaking, hopeful writing and choosing optimism. Offering depth in social media.
• 33:00 Tik Tok – An opportunity to be what you make it. The most aggressive 'choose your own adventure' social media platform of all time. Establishing guardrails for our social media/app usage.

Writer, mentor, creative leader, Michell empowers entrepreneurs and leaders to release self-limiting beliefs and actualize their full potential. Clark has built a community of over 600,000 human beings across Instagram and Twitter. He is deeply invested in leveraging his platforms, access, and skillset to build community.

In summer 2020, he and his wife, Duanecia Clark, founded their agency, The Creative Summer Co., which leverages strategy, content, design, and research to empower mission-consistent, Black-owned and Black-facing brands and businesses.

He resides in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Duanecia, and their daughter, Ada.

Michell's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellcclark/?hl=en

The Creative Summer Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreative.summer/?hl=en

On the vital day-to-day process of moving pain through the body, clearing the way for ease and efficiency in every realm of your life.

• 0:42 Introducing Rachelle McCloud; Mental Health Therapist & Emotional Wellness Coach; Finding this work through needing it.
• 2:25 Diagnosed with OCD; Energetic treatment and EFT; Our systems need a guide for processing fear.
• 4:25 Fear that is unprocessed shows up as compensating behaviors. When we are able to process the fear that compels this fright, we can actually process issues more quickly.
• 7:30 Fear centers in the brain process through the body, through movement and physical interactions. https://rachellemccloud.com/
• 9:10 Thought Field Therapy - Predecessor of Emotional Freedom Technique. Escorting shame through the brain's healing pathways.
• 11:15 Collarbone breathing. Key points for processing environmental toxins, jet lag, panic and anxiety.
• 13:00 Complex childhood trauma. To create health, we need to be able to process both the negative and the positive, integrated by the brain into accurate ways of being.
• 15:50 First generation Haitian and white American, raised with the white side of the family. Processing racism and lineage.
• 18:25 There was so much pain the last 5/10/20 generations, unprocessed and unspoken, that we are still unraveling these betrayals. Transformation happens when the pain processes through our bodies.
• 20:30 The brain registers rejection, betrayal and other painful social interactions from the same part of the brain that registers physical pain. From your pain neurons' perspective, a cutting comment registers the same to the brain as cutting or hitting.
• 22:40 Tapping desensitizes the pain so that the brain can resolve what's being held. The brain untangles the cognitive knots that cause disorder and dissatisfaction. https://rachellemccloud.com/blog/f/letting-comments-from-others-get-to-you
• 25:00 Inner World Transformation - https://rachellemccloud.com/online-course; Collarbone Breathing Exercise
• 28:40 The shift from the survival state to rest and digest can feel exhaustive, but that's the state of the body without the adrenaline and cortisol.
• 31:15 Problem solving is a front brain activity that lets us know that emotion and the information in there got the front of the brain.

Rachelle McCloud, LCSW is a Mental Health Therapist and Emotional Wellness. Through years of successfully helping clients move their anxiety, depression and trauma disorders into remission, she has developed a program that empowers people to skillfully get rid of symptoms and heal. She is also the facilitator of the Facebook group called Releasing the Baggage of Anxiety, Depression and Traumatic Stress where she delivers free trainings on leading interventions that work well for getting rid of symptoms, not just coping or managing them. Her mission is to empower people to do their own healing work effectively, safely and skillfully.

http://www.rachellemccloud.com

On the sacred metamorphosis of menopause, redefining this time of life from health crisis to empowerment, tenderness and leadership. On discovering the liberating power of menopause to awaken authority, purpose and belonging.

• 0:42 Introducing Red School; Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer; Wise Power: Discover the Liberating Power of Menopause to Awaken Authority, Purpose and Belonging
• 3:00 – Wild Power: Discover the Magic of the Menstrual Cycle and Awaken The Feminine Path to Power; https://www.redschool.net/; The Seasons of Menstruation
• 6:00 – Restoring the power of menopause – our inner ecology. An integrated process of growing down into ourselves. An initiatory journey of awakening. Evolving into menopause.
• 9:30 – Seamless entry into the menstruality journey. Weaving a thread of yes through the beginning of menstruation to menopause.
• 12:25 – Our experience of cultural dislocation from this initiatory path. Menarche, menstruation, motherhood and menopause are evolutionary tipping points in our life's journey.
• 15:20 – Seeing our 50s, 60s and 70s as one of the most fertile grounds of being – alive, creative and productive.
• 17:55 – 5 phases of menopause – Betrayal, Repair, Revelation, Visioning and Emergence. Cycle awareness applies across many areas of our psychological and spiritual development.
• 20:50 – Betrayal – Transformation involves dying to the old self and emerging new. Betrayal is the first moment of menopause where the deep initiatory process kicks in. It is the death of an identity.
• 25:40 – Repair – Emphasizing Rest and Healing. Rest is the medicine that allows the organic process of healing to move through us. Giving yourself kindness.
• 29:55 – Revelation – A subtle dawning of a new recognition of yourself. An acceptance and reception of yourself.
• 32:25 – Visioning – Full flourishing and receptivity of your capacity. Breakthrough with coherence.
• 37:10 – Emergence – Freshly minted clarity and innocence. Reborn, vulnerability and innocence as a buffer against bitterness and cynicism. "Second Spring".
• 40:50 – Ritual to anoint and celebrate yourself – 1) Name all the qualities you have discovered or recovered during menopause – all of your strengths and brilliances. 2) Forgive anything in yourself that you feel still needs forgiving. 3) State some clear intentions for your future. 4) Allow plenty of time for this ritual.
• 44:20 – Menopause can deliver us to a place of deep belonging within ourselves. Union is the heart of the menopause transition. Understanding and removing our barricades to intimacy.
• 47: 20 – Attunement tools for Leadership – Keep Council with Emptiness

  https://www.redschool.net/

  Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer, authors of Wild Power: Discover the Magic of the Menstrual Cycle and Awaken The Feminine Path to Power and the creators of the Menstruality Medicine Circle™, a brand new healing modality.

On redirecting and serving purpose driven professionals. A conversation looking at the connection of our purpose and our daily work.

• 0:42 – Introducing Amina AlTai – career realignment coach, proud immigrant, chronic illness advocate
• 2:55 – Doing work that we love in a way that honors our bodies, and who we are in the world, is our birthright. Developing 2 autoimmune diseases.
• 5:40 – What does it look like to stop and redirect? Leaving unhealthy spaces.
• 7:00 – Serving purpose driven people. Working with Amina for radical change. Signature 3 month program. New 5 month group program.
• 8:55 – Working with groups and individuals. 5-part framework – 1) Where our gifts are, 2) What we value in this world, 3) What we want to impact, 4) What brings us joy, 5) Our needs.
• 11:30 – Pricing for coaching and mentors, charging for time, charging what you're worth. Letting the higher self inform the pricing.
• 14:10 – Free options, freemium, low priced, mid priced and high end. Creating multiple entry points for people.
• 16:15 – Redefining ourselves many times throughout our adult lives. Consistently evolving and developing our studentship.

Amina AITai is a career realignment coach, proud immigrant and chronic illness advocate. A leading coach to notable female leaders and impact-driven celebrities. Amina's mastery is in connecting us to our brilliance and teaching us to live and lead from it each day. As a woman of color of Iraqi descent, she often works with marginalized communities to help them realize possibilities in a way that honors their particular lived experiences. She's a Success Magazine 125 Leaders to Watch Finalist, A Forbes Contributor, an Entrepreneur Magazine expert-in-residence and has been featured In The New York Times, goop, NBC, Entrepreneur and more. She is working on her first book, entitled The Ambition Trap, in collaboration with Penguin and The Open Field. Amina impresses me with her clarity, care and consideration. Her work spans from free teachings all the way to her signature program, Pivot to Purpose, for those leaving corporate work to step into your soul's calling, as well as for newer entrepreneurs who've started your business but don't feel fully in alignment yet.

Zivar Amrami is a healer and interdisciplinary artist. Born in the Midwest to an Iranian father and a mother of Norwegian descent, steeped from youth in Jewish mysticism, Zivar has a particular curiosity to that which unites and differentiates us from each other. As a photographer, therapist or circle maker, she peers beyond the layers of protection and unearths vulnerabilities and universal truths with grace. Zivar is a nurturer of women, creator of the Wisdom of Birth deck, a mother healing her own ancestral wounds. For strangers and friends, she bestows the innate gift of empathic witness. Zivar currently lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and two children.

• 0:42 – Introducing Zivar Amrami; Wisdom of Birth – 78 Card Oracle Deck of Guidance and Inspiration for the experience of Birth.
• 2:30 – Engaging with birth in a more powerful way. Healthcare systems looking down on you and treating you inferior.
• 6:00 – Reasserting boundaries in the hospital setting. Navigating spaces that are not in your best interest. Bringing awareness to the lack of advocacy for underprivileged people.
• 10:00 – February 13 Kickstarter for Wisdom of Birth Deck; Using cards during and after birth as a tool for connecting to our story of birth.
• 12:00 – Giving others the opportunity to feel witnessed and seen. When we are seen we are able to move through the world differently. Growing up on the edges.
• 15:40 – Buying a camera, street photography in Peru. Portrait photography. Working 1-on-1 with people. Painting and using different mediums.
• 17:30 – How do I honor this yearning to create and nurture my world while being a good mom to my children?
• 19:55 – The story of meeting Zach
• 24:40 – Zach Fredmen, The Epichorus, https://temenosnyc.com/
• 27:30 – The energy of words that have been spoken for many centuries. Mantras, prayers, etc.
• 29:55 – We often project onto our faith what we truly value internally. A study of children with stronger immunity with those with traditions vs those without. Belonging.
• 32:00 – Making spiritual exploration an open and safe space for our children's curiosities.
• 34:55 – Ways open. The companionship of an art form.
• 36:45 – @zivaramrami on instagram, Women's circles & 1-on-1 offerings

Zivar is an artist, devoted to spirit and story. She offers private sessions online and in person and hosts womens circles in support of healing and embodiment. Zivar lives in Upstate New York with her husband and two daughters.

https://temenosnyc.com https://theepichorus.bandcamp.com

Part 2 exploring binaries from 'Transitory Nature' and active meditative inquiry. A conversation on channeling intensity, sharing power and understanding our layers of awareness.

• 0:42 – Part 2 of Sue Hunt; Transitory Nature: Breaking Binaries For Integrated Being
• 1:30 – Hustle & Flow; How do we break this cycle? Healthy Hustle
• 3:58 – Work and service; Examining the exchange of pranic reciprocity. Qualifying success.
• 6:20 – Channeling intensity into the right activities. Using meditation to guard the misuse of intensity.
• 9:40 – Examining the hustle narrative from childhood. Expanding our elevated capacity asks us to develop 3 qualities – attention, intuitive efficiency, and proper energy use.
• 14:45 – 6th Binary – Root/Crown – Integrated Being;
• 17:10 – The Root/Crown binary arises anytime our earthly issues demand action and clarity, but we instead employ debilitating avoidance.
• 18:00 – Root connects us to bottom three chakras, earthly needs, basic needs, emotional needs; crown energy is the realized end of things.
• 21:05 – The shift from the protection of power to the sharing of it is key to integrated success. The grounding down myth.
• 25:00 – Groundlessness is when we're eroding the walls that have kept us imprisoned. What interpersonal and intergenerational causes this feeling of groundlessness? Groundlessness as a catalyst for growth.
• 27:30 – Understanding the escapist archetypes of our crown energy. The Intellectual; The Seeker; The Commercial Mystic; The Skeptic
• 30:40 – Karma/Dharma; Self-will and Destiny; To create and sustain.
• 33:30 – Developing awareness around the many layers of our understandings unlock what else is possible. The myth of self improvement.
• 36:30 – The just surrender myth. Uncovering karma through your natal chart.
• 38:30 – 9th Binary – Past and Future – Clairsentience; Presence and beyond presence. Are we present or are we fully open to so many different streams of information that aren't just coming through our sense portals?
• 41:15 – Meditation is where the binary gets resolved. The be present myth.
• 44:40 – Avoidance isn't always evil. Sometimes it's necessary and safe. The time heals myth. Active meditative inquiry.
• 48:40 – Through active meditative inquiry we can alter the expression of our structural inheritance with every thought, perception and action we take.
• 52:30 – Christians love God, Buddhists love lists. Honoring the good and bad parts of our lineage.
• 55:05 – Transitory Nature: Breaking Binaries For Integrated Being

Part I of a two-part conversation: on breaking binaries, freeing ourselves from reductive thinking and uncovering our own true nature.

On 'Transitory Nature' and exploring universal attributes of human consciousness. A conversation around pranic economy, and the expenditures of upholding binary worldviews.

• 0:42 – Introducing Sue Hunt; Transitory Nature: Breaking Binaries for Integrated Being
• 3:30 – 9 Binaries – Rooted in Reality – > 1) Private/Public; 2) Sick/Well; 3) Masculine/Feminine. Living Heart Action – > 4) Lack/Abundance; 5) Hustle/Flow; 6) Root/Crown. Higher Octaves of Consciousness – > 7) Attachment/Aversion; 8) Self-Will/Destiny; 9) Past/Future.
• 6:00 – Solving the divide between Private and Public. Using energy to prop up conflicting identities.
• 9:00 – Social engagement for younger generations; Roshi Joan Halifax; The Fruitful Darkness
• 11:00 – Using witness ability to watch ourselves from the ceiling of all kinds of scenarios. Noticing these expenditures.
• 14:00 – What voices in your head do you keep private? How do those voices encourage codependent behavior in the private realm? What private behaviors help me maintain equilibrium?
• 17:00 – Defining Codependency – Losing the sovereignty in our central nervous system, seeking validation in private or public spaces.
• 20:30 – Stop all gossip – an attempt to protect our own egoic projections. Stop pinning judgment, dislike, hatred or blame onto others. Stay very curious.
• 22:30 – Redefining the collective as a blank screen. In finding agreement in a certain sentiment, we are seeking recognition in the reflection. Seeking sameness.
• 26:00 – Take everything personally and take nothing personally.
• 28:10 – Sick vs. Well – Pretending we are sick to get attention. Understanding commercial wellness.
• 30:05 – 'Healing as Wholeness' myth – YOU ARE NEVER BROKEN. Subconsciously rooted in the sick/well binary of Broken and Fixed.
• 34:00 – Modern rites of passage – Mark transitions with a goodbye, then with a hello.
• 36:40 – Develop universal attributes of human consciousness. Continuously doing the inner work to excavate where manipulative femininity and toxic masculinity live within our own lives. 1) Creativity; 2) Discernment; 3) Intimacy; 4) Passion/Compassion; 5) Empathy; 6) Determination; 7) Sensitivity; 8) Intuition; 9) Equanimity; 10) Openness.
• 41:25 – Lack/Abundance – Pranic Economy
• 43:25 – Identifying anxious, lack-based abundant meta-dialog. Learning to grow our tolerance for ambiguity. Cultivating awareness and dismantling the binary between states of depletion and numbed out consumerism.
• 45:20 – What is the dominant feeling attached to an urge to spend or acquire? What inner truth am I avoiding by 'spending' energy in this way? What are the qualities of the source from which I am about to consume? Is this a sustainable energetic exchange?
• 48:20 – Consumerism as abundance; Why does the newness of an item make me feel better about myself?
• 51:05 – Who said alignment isn't scrappy? You have to get your hands dirty, you have to do the hard work, you have to fight for what you know is true.
• 53:50 – Ask yourself, is my vision of alignment and personal success respectful to the growth and success of others? Am i putting the work in day in and day out when no one is watching?
• 54:55 – On the deepest energetic level, do I steal from others or hoard resources? Consider coworkers, mentors, bosses, family, etc. Schedule unscheduled time for yourself.
• 56:40 – Genuine abundance – a more fluid understanding of equality and symbiotic exchange.
• 58:10 – Cultivating reaction-less neutrality. Curiosity for how we've reacted in the past.

On the teachings and vitality in discomfort, and the smallest moments of recognition and awareness that can quietly change us all.

A conversation surrounding the individual and group work of developing compassionate and diversely represented spaces.

• 0:41 – Introducing Rahshaana Green; https://www.rahshaanagreen.com/
• 3:20 – Inviting people to occupy and be in discomfort with me. Avoiding discomfort becomes a barrier in creating and maintaining community.
• 7:10 – Working with organizations on confronting and being with various aspects of tension and discomfort on behalf of diversity, equity and inclusion.
• 10:15 – The brain is naturally wired for bias and habit patterns. Even well intentioned, it may not be optimized for inclusion or equity.
• 12:45 – Facilitating belonging through the work we do. Less 'othering', more connection.
• 16:55 – Build a bridge; incrementally change the world.
• 18:15 – Yoga/Mindfulness/Compassion – based organizations risk bypassing this work because simply knowing concepts is not the same as daily application.
• 20:15 – Small things speak to the foundational shifts of introspection. Belonging in a space means the ability to show up in an authentic way.
• 24:55 – Go put yourself into a position that isn't comfortable. Listen and learn. Find opportunities to learn about ourselves in community.
• 27:30 – This is not just beneficial for people of color, or marginalized groups. We all learn and grow with diverse representation.
• 29:40 – The core of cultivating belonging – As our hearts grow, others feel seen, understood and heard.
• 32:30 – Create opportunities for you to get deeply uncomfortable with the status quo in order to change it. Create safe spaces around curiosity.