In this special 10-minute guided meditation from Raw, we pause amid war, heat, and division to honor both the call to act and the need to rest. Through the rhythm of breath, we explore resilience—the balance between rising with strength and softening into renewal. The meditation closes with a Hebrew blessing, offered as both prayer and poetry, for strength and peace.

Raw is a podcast of unguarded conversations and practices about resilience, morality, and healing in the shadow of war.

Subscribe on all podcast apps or join the newsletter at WithAnouk.com

What does it mean to meet conflict—not with reactivity or avoidance—but with presence, clarity, and a willingness to go deeper?

In this episode of RAW, Anouk sits down with therapist and conflict facilitator Gary Reiss and Aikido teacher and meditation guide Miles Kessler—two longtime friends who bring decades of experience in trauma healing, martial arts, and group facilitation.

Gary shares insights from his work in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including collaborations with trauma experts on both sides. Drawing from Process-Oriented Psychology, he explores how we can access the wisdom hidden within personal and collective tension—even, and especially, in heartbreaking times.

Miles brings the perspective of Aikido, a martial art rooted in harmony and non-resistance, and how its philosophy can help us engage conflict with grounded strength rather than force.

Recorded during Gary’s recent visit to Tel Aviv, where the two were leading joint events, this conversation invites us to reflect on what it means to respond—not react—in the midst of profound uncertainty.

For more episodes, reflections, and guided meditations, subscribe to RAW on your favorite podcast platform.

Sign up for Anouk’s newsletter at withanouk.com to receive updates, transcripts, and new conversations exploring resilience, morality, and healing in times of war.

About the Guests:

Gary Reiss is a therapist, author, and international trainer in Process-Oriented Psychology, also known as Process Work—a therapeutic approach for navigating personal, relational, and societal conflict. He has worked extensively in Israel and the Palestinian territories, collaborating with trauma experts on both sides. Gary integrates psychology with Taoism, shamanism, and Jewish mysticism in his work.

Miles Kessler is a 6th Dan Aikido teacher, meditation guide, and founder of the Integral Dojo in Tel Aviv. With dual lineage in the Iwama Aikido tradition and the Burmese Mahasi meditation tradition, Miles brings embodied wisdom to his teaching and facilitation. He also leads Aikido Without Borders, a non-profit dedicated to peacebuilding through practice.

In the aftermath of the Israel–Iran escalation — amid an ongoing war, summer fatigue, and collective grief — this short guided meditation offers a place to pause, ground, and soften.

Led by Anouk, this 10-minute practice invites you to rest into your body, name what’s present, and gently cool the nervous system. Whether you're feeling tired, tense, or overwhelmed by the heat within and around you, this meditation offers a quiet refuge to return to what’s steady and alive.

Breathe. Soften. And remember: you are not alone.

For more meditations and conversations on resilience, war, and the human spirit, follow RAW with Anouk.

 

Dr. Rick Hanson is one of the most respected voices in psychology—a New York Times bestselling author, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and a world-renowned teacher of emotional healing and resilience. His groundbreaking work blends neuroscience, mindfulness, and practical tools for inner transformation.

In this urgent and intimate conversation, recorded as Iranian missile barrages rained over Israel, Dr. Hanson speaks about what happens to the brain and body under constant threat—and how we can stay steady, compassionate, and connected when everything around us feels unsafe. We talk about intergenerational trauma, the science of epigenetics, and how moments of connection—even in war—can begin to rewire the nervous system toward healing.

He also shares simple, research-backed practices for calming the body, supporting children while feeling afraid ourselves, and staying open-hearted in a time of sirens, shelters, and sorrow.

This episode was recorded at home, without studio equipment, during a period of lockdown. My voice is hoarse, my kids were nearby, and the audio is imperfect—but the conversation is deeply human, generous, and needed.

If you’ve been feeling frayed, frightened, or overwhelmed—this conversation is for you.

 

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

📌 Apple Podcasts

📌 Spotify

📌 YouTube

📩 Subscribe to my newsletter: www.WithAnouk.com

📸 Follow on Instagram

This guided meditation is an invitation to pause and reconnect with a deeper sense of wholeness, even in the midst of pain or uncertainty. You’ll be gently guided to relax, tune into your breath and body, and soften around the places that feel fractured—without needing to fix or change anything.

Whether this is your first time meditating or a familiar practice, you’re welcome just as you are. If your mind drifts, that’s completely normal—simply notice and come back to your breath or the sound of the words. That gentle return is the practice.

Inspired by Leonard Cohen’s line, “There is a crack in everything—that’s how the light gets in,” this meditation offers space to rest, feel, and remember your quiet strength beneath it all.

You can subscribe to RAW podcast meditations and conversations wherever you get your podcast.

If the podcast resonates, please share it with someone else who might enjoy it.

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

📌 Apple Podcasts

📌 Spotify

📌 YouTube

📩 Subscribe to my newsletter: www.WithAnouk.com

📸 Follow on Instagram

What if mindfulness wasn’t just a wellness tool, but a moral imperative—especially for those in power?

In this episode, neuroscientist and mindfulness teacher Dr. Nava Levit-Binnun joins Raw to explore how contemplative practice can deepen our resilience, expand our capacity to hold complexity, and transform the way we meet this moment of crisis. Drawing from her background as the director of the Sagol Center for Brain and Mind at Reichman University, Nava shares how mindfulness has helped her navigate war, trauma, and uncertainty—not as an escape, but as a way to stay grounded in clarity and compassion.

We explore:

Why mindfulness should be a prerequisite for leadership

How the practice expands our window of tolerance

Where to begin—especially in times of personal and collective upheaval

How mindfulness reshapes the way we experience and respond to reality

This episode is part of a new rhythm: Raw will now alternate weekly between interviews and guided meditations. You can find the latest meditations—especially created for this time of great difficulty—on the podcast page.

If this conversation resonates, please rate, review, or share with someone who may need it.

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

📌 Apple Podcasts

📌 Spotify

📌 YouTube

📩 Subscribe to my newsletter: www.WithAnouk.com

📸 Follow on Instagram

This short guided meditation is an invitation to return to your breath in the midst of uncertainty, conflict, and emotional overload. Whether you're walking, driving, or sitting, you don't need to close your eyes or be a seasoned meditator. All that’s asked is your presence.

Inspired by a poem from Yehuda Amichai, this practice offers a soft landing for your nervous system. It’s not about escape. It’s about remembering your humanity—one breath, one heartbeat at a time.

This is for anyone feeling unsettled, skeptical, or simply in need of a moment of stillness.

Subscribe to RAW wherever you get your podcasts, or visit www.WithAnouk.com for more.

On this episode of RAW, I speak with Yossi Klein Halevi—author, historian, and public intellectual whose voice is vital in conversations about Israel, Jewish identity, and moral complexity in times of crisis.

Yossi was born in Brooklyn to a family of Holocaust survivors. His father, a Hungarian Jew, survived the war as a teenager by hiding for months in a frozen ditch in the forests of Transylvania—a story that shaped Yossi’s worldview and sense of Jewish responsibility.

He moved to Israel in 1982 and is now a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. His acclaimed books include Like Dreamers, about the paratroopers who reunited Jerusalem in 1967, and Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, a courageous effort to bridge one of today’s most painful divides.

We talk about the current war and what it reveals—about Israeli society, leadership, and the nation’s soul. We explore how the shadow of the Holocaust continues to shape Yossi’s view of the Jewish state, and the impossible tensions between survival and conscience.

We also touch on Yossi’s long-standing meditation practice, and how it helps him stay spiritually elevated and emotionally grounded through heartbreak and chaos.

This is a conversation about moral clarity and humility. About fear, grief, memory—and the quiet practices that help us stay human.

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

📌 Apple Podcasts

📌 Spotify

📌 YouTube

📩 Subscribe to my newsletter: www.WithAnouk.com

📸 Follow on Instagram

Don't miss an episode—tune in and be part of the conversation that matters.

For more updates on episodes, tools for resilience and wellbeing, and inspiration, subscribe to our newsletter at WithAnouk.com.

Today on RAW, I speak with Ruti Dariel—mother of three, psychotherapist, expressive arts therapist, and certified parenting coach with over 20 years of clinical experience.

Ruti’s journey is deeply personal and profoundly relevant to this moment. A few years ago, despite her professional expertise, she found herself facing questions many parents know intimately:

How do I truly connect with my child when things get hard?

How do I set boundaries without losing myself?

How do I respond to frustration and aggression in a way that actually helps?

Especially as a mother of highly sensitive children, Ruti realized that many conventional parenting tools simply didn’t reach far enough. Her search for deeper understanding led her to the attachment-based developmental approach, through years of study at the Neufeld Institute and beyond.

In this conversation, we explore the emotional toll of living—and parenting—through war in Israel. I asked Ruti:

How does ongoing conflict affect our children, especially the more sensitive ones?

How can we stay emotionally present when we’re anxious and afraid ourselves?

What can we do when our kids act out or shut down—and how do we help them find resilience and hope?

And how do we talk to children about things like fear, bereavement, and the future in ways that are age-appropriate and honest?

Ruti offers not just wisdom, but warmth—a sense that we’re not alone in our struggle to show up for our children in such uncertain times. This episode is for any parent asking: How do I hold my child’s heart, even when mine feels heavy?

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

📌 Apple Podcasts

📌 Spotify

📌 YouTube

📩 Subscribe to my newsletter: www.WithAnouk.com

📸 Follow on Instagram

Dr. Dalia Marx—one of the most respected voices in contemporary Jewish thought and liturgy. We talk about how October 7 and the war since have brought profound and rapid changes to the world of Jewish prayer: the language, the focus, even the urgency. Rabbi Marx also shares her reflections on the Jewish responsibility to bring our hostages home, and the prayers—old and new—that have sustained her through these past eighteen months.

It’s a moving, grounded, and deeply thoughtful conversation with someone who has dedicated her life to holding the sacred and the human, side by side.

🎧 Listen & Subscribe:

📌 Apple Podcasts

📌 Spotify

📌 YouTube

📩 Subscribe to my newsletter: www.WithAnouk.com

📸 Follow on Instagram

About Rabbi Dr. Dalia Marx

Rabbi Marx is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Professor of Liturgy and Midrash at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem. She is the first woman in Israel to hold a professorship in liturgy and is a trailblazer in both academic and spiritual circles.

Her work bridges scholarship and lived practice, and she is the author of several books, including When I Sleep and When I Wake: On Prayers Between Dusk and Dawn. She’s also a contributor to the new Israeli Reform prayerbook, and a leading voice in shaping how prayer responds to collective trauma, grief, and hope.