Oh the holidays stir up so much trouble for so many of us in different ways. When Christmas is blue, what are some things that might help and how can we find our way through this season as best we can? All roads always lead to paradox.

We love playing with friends! Mark Yaconelli, storyteller, facilitator, and author of his newest book-Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us, joins us this week talking about the power of our simple and sacred stories. So much goodness packed into this episode and you can learn more about Mark's work at howstoriescansaveus.com.

In just one week there have been two mass shootings that we are aware of--Club Q in Colorado Springs and a Walmart Break Room in Virginia. There's so much tangled up with guns and God and fear and ambivalence and the reality that we live in this kind of culture. It's hard on souls, and there's a lot to lament--and, lament isn't always super coherent.

Yeah, long COVID is real. Like so many things related to COVID, a lot of us are ready to not be talking about it, thinking about it, or moving our lives around for it. But in reality, this illness continues to impact millions of people. This conversation is with our friend Joy Shroeder, a yoga instructor and kindred spirit and least likely to end up with a debilitating illness. But here she is. Losing health--no matter what the way--is no small thing; we learned a lot in this conversation that we didn't know and it was so helpful.

Being, Sovereign, Bringing it all Together - This is the last of our 5 part series on the 4 Gateways as a framework for growth--Thinking, Feeling, Doing, Being with the archetypes of Magician, Lover, Warrior, Sovereign. This quadrant is one of the most underutilized for so many of us and in this episode we lean in to the part that can help bring the others all together.

Tuesday November 8th 2022 is Midterm Elections in the USA, ack! It's a hot mess with so much on the line. If you haven't voted yet, please get it done! If you want to support an organization helping voting access in the most significant of ways, support Black Voters Matter at blackvotersmatterfund.org.

"Doing" energy is different for everyone. Some of us have really strong Warrior energy that can be exhausting--doing, doing, doing--while others have a hard time moving things into fruition. This 3rd quadrant in the 4 Gateways conversation explores bringing some of the "doing" into greater balance.

In this episode we dive into the Feeling quadrant in this 5 part series processing the Four Gateways, a framework for greater emotional and relational health that we're riffing on as we start this season. Some of us over-feel, over-love, over-empathize, and some of us are shut down, taught to suppress certain kinds of feelings to protect ourselves. There's no perfect balance but considering where we can practice and grow helps.

So many of us are masters at overthinking everything. This is part of the 4 Gateways series--Thinking, Feeling, Doing, and Being--and this episode is centered on the "Magician" or thinking quadrant and ways it can over-function, under-function, or with some practice and intention, become healthier.

Thinking, Feeling, Doing, Being - there's no such thing as perfect balance but we can keep developing ways to live more soulfully and integrated. The 4 Gateways are a tool to help us consider these aspects of ourselves and this episode is just an overview and a launching place for future conversations.