This is an exciting one, friends!

Stephen Porges is the visionary scientist who gave us polyvagal theory—a framework that’s reshaped how the world understands trauma, safety, and human connection. His work has influenced everyone from therapists to meditation teachers to parents trying to soothe a colicky baby. And now he’s here with us, alongside his brilliant co-author Karen Onderko, to talk about their new book and the Safe and Sound Protocol.

This episode is part science, part storytelling, and part live experiment.

In this conversation, we talk about:

* The origins of polyvagal theory and why it changed the trauma world forever

* How the Safe and Sound Protocol helps bodies shift out of defense and into connection

* Wild stories of teens, adults, and even toddlers in a sound cube discovering safety for the first time

* Why “safety” can sometimes feel scary (and what to do about it)

* The nervous system’s three favorite things: context, choice, and connection

And then, because we’re all about real-time practice over here, Jeff guides Stephen and Karen in a short meditation. Afterwards, Stephen deconstructs it through a polyvagal lens, showing us how context, choice, and connection are the nervous system’s love language.

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We make this show with love, laughter, and absolutely no corporate overlords. If it lights you up, help us keep it going with a paid subscription!

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This is one of those conversations we’ll be talking about for a long time. It’s science, but it’s also about how to be human together. How to tune our bodies toward safety and open the doors to connection.

✨ Know someone who’s been geeking out on the nervous system, or just trying to figure out how to feel safe in their own skin? Share this episode with them!

Thanks for practicing with us,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

Links

* Stephen Porges

* Karen Onderko @ The Polyvagal Institute

* Book: Safe and Sound: A Polyvagal Approach for Connection, Change, and Healing

This week on the Pod, we’re joined by the luminous Sherri Mitchell: Indigenous rights attorney, activist, ceremonial leader, and the author of Sacred Instructions.

We dive into the birth canal of this moment — a world in transition, contracting and expanding as it labors to bring something new into being. Sherri doesn’t shy away from the pain, confusion, or cultural clusterf*ck of our times and she also doesn’t wallow. Instead, she offers radical clarity, vision, and a deeply embodied path forward.

Together, we explore:

* What it means to live through a species-wide rite of passage* The vibrational power of oral traditions and why sound is sacred science* Why “triggered” might just be the most misused word of our generation* How to move beyond naming the water we’re drowning in, and start swimming toward land* The 80/10/10 rule for building the world we actually want

And then Sherri guides us in a practice of remembering, of dreaming the world we want into being, and dreaming ourselves into the kind of people who can live there.

As Jeff put it: “You can dream a better world. But you have to dream yourself into it too.”

This conversation is a balm, a fire, and a wake-up call. If you’ve been overwhelmed, heartbroken, or teetering on the edge of despair, listen in. It’s about metabolizing this moment into wisdom, vision, and action.

We make this show with love, laughter, and absolutely no corporate overlords. If it lights you up, help us keep it going with a paid subscription at mindbodpod.com

Know someone who’s been thinking hard about how to show up in these strange times? Share this with them too!

Thanks for practicing with us,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

This week on the pod, we’re joined by writer and teacher Sarah Selecky for a beautiful, funny, and surprisingly deep exploration of writing as a contemplative practice.

Sarah teaches writing as presence. As a way of being and noticing. She helps writers get out of their own way so that something real and alive can come through the page (or the google doc 😅).

Together, we explore:

* the overlap between writing and meditation

* how honesty transmits (and why you can feel when a writer is lying)

* the difference between trying to write and being a clear channel

* creative shadow work and what we’re most afraid to say

* the value of plain, unadorned description

She guides us through three simple exercises that can unlock creative flow.

By the end, we were lol’ing, moved, and filled with the kind of wonder that has no agenda. Just a pen, a page, and the shimmer of real presence.

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We make this show with love, laughter, and absolutely no corporate overlords. If it lights you up, help us keep it going with a paid subscription.

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This is a great episode to write along with! Grab a notebook and come join us.You can also watch the full video over at MindBodPod.com.

Know someone who could use these exercises to shake some creative goodies loose? Pass it along!

Thanks for practicing with us,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

This week on the pod, we’re joined by Chan teacher and sociologist Rebecca Li for a luminous practice session in Silent Illumination, a deceptively simple, deeply transformative form of open awareness meditation.

Rebecca guides us through a full-body relaxation and easefully invites us into the “method of no method,” offering a living glimpse into this subtle and powerful practice. As we settle into presence together, she shares insights from her lineage, her own experience, and her new book Illumination.

We talk about:

* Why relaxation isn’t the goal, but the doorway

* How even trying not to try can become a subtle trap

* What happens when presence meets real-life loss and grief

* The radical possibility of not fixing anything, just being

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We make this show with love, laughter, and absolutely no corporate overlords. If it lights you up, help us keep it going with a paid subscription!

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This one is full of practical wisdom, unexpected laughter, and real-life Dharma. Whether you’re new to open awareness or have been sitting for decades, Rebecca’s gentle clarity and precision will meet you right where you are. 🫠

Pop into the comments to share your reflections: Did the “method of no method” shift anything? Did it feel natural? Impossible? Familiar?

Thanks for practicing with us! See you next week.

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

This week, we’re in conversation with therapist and longtime Focusing teacher Serge Prengel about the transformative power of slowing down and listening from the body.

Serge is one of those rare people who seem to live from a deeper layer of presence. His work blends Focusing, Somatic Experiencing, Core Energetics, and Polyvagal Theory to support real, embodied change.

What stood out for us was how relational this practice is. It brought us into a slower, softer place of deep listening, where we could fully meet each other’s nervous systems.

We explore:

* What Focusing actually is (and isn’t)

* How to feel into what’s “not fully formed yet”

* The role of safety and vulnerability in a therapeutic or relational container

* Why this is a two-way street: the listener is as active as the talker

* How to turn everyday conversations into profound practices of connection

We also talk about what it means to be in right relationship: with yourself, with others, and with the felt sense of a moment that’s still unfolding.

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Wanna watch this as a video pod? Check us out at www.mindbodpod.com

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* Learn more about Serge and his work

* Check out the Active Pause Podcast

* Explore the Proactive Twelve Steps

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This one’s relational, tender, and surprisingly intimate. Drop in and tell us what moved in you:

Thanks for tuning in. Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

This week on the Mind Bod Adventure Pod, we get our somatic groove on with tapping wizard and trauma therapist Mirjam Paninski. Miriam guides us into the world of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)—a deceptively simple practice where tapping acupressure points while speaking truth can open up big shifts in the body, mind, and heart.

It’s part therapy, part ritual, part emotional plumbing.

In this episode, we explore:

* Why EFT is becoming a popular trauma modality (and how it stacks up to EMDR)

* How tapping calms the nervous system and gives stored emotion somewhere to go

* Ancestral trauma (your body might be carrying Grandma’s fears!)

* What happens when you stop bracing and start releasing

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We make this show with love, laughter, and absolutely no corporate overlords. If it lights you up, help us keep it going with a paid subscription!

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Also: find out why EFT works so well with kids, how it can be used in war zones and post-shooting trauma support, and why tapping might be the pre-meditation dimmer switch you didn’t know you needed.

🎯 Practice highlight: Miriam guides us through a powerful tapping sequence that opens into inner child healing. The result is some surprising nervous system release in real time (spoiler: Tasha’s jaw melts, Jeff yawns like a lion).

Check out Mirjam’s Group Work: The Conscious Tapping Tribe- For $100 off 6-month membership: use code MINDBOD100- For 20% off yearly membership: use code MINDBOD20

This one’s playful, poignant, and weirdly effective. Tap along with us and let us know how it lands in your nervous system!

Thanks for tuning in. Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

This week on the Mind Bod Adventure Pod, we sit down with Dr. Joel Schwartz, a psychologist and one of the early architects of the Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy movement.

Joel is known for speaking truth to systems that pathologize difference — and for offering a way of working with our minds that’s healing, joyful, and radically humane.

In this episode, we explore:

* Why the “pathology model” of ADHD and autism misses the point

* The emotional toll of masking and code-switching to survive

* What actually helps when someone is overstimulated (spoiler: not deep breathing)

* Reclaiming movement, joy, and the right to stim without shame

* An unexpected practice that ends in synchronized swaying and yodel-singing!

Joel brings brilliance, humor, and zero tolerance for the rigid norms that ask neurodivergent folks to contort themselves into “acceptable” versions of humanity.

Along the way, Tasha reflects on late-diagnosed spectrum-y traits, Jeff gets real about rejection sensitivity, and we all momentarily dissolve into giggles about somatic intelligence and… mosh pits.

✨This episode is both a call to arms and a warm hug — a guide to seeing difference not as deficit, but as creative, embodied, meaningful expression.

We make this show with love, laughter, and absolutely no corporate overlords. If it lights you up, help us keep it going with a paid subscription! ❤️

Connect with Joel’s Practice: Total Spectrum Counseling

Now it’s your turn! Let us know what this episode and practice shook loose for you:

That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in.

Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

This week, we sit down with relational facilitator James-Olivia Chu Hillman, whose teachings on radical responsibility, integrity, and unconditional positive regard are already shifting how Jeff shows up in relationship… and how Tasha tries not to ghost people who annoy her. 😅

Together, we explore:

* The four core skills of relating well

* why being “right” isn’t the same as being relational

* Why saying “I agree” can be the most disorienting move in a conversation

* What it really means to take responsibility—without shame, and without blame

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The Mind Bod Adventure Pod is a community-supported project. If you like these adventures, consider helping us keep the lights on with a paid subscription! ❤️

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And we wrestle with the tension between compassion and boundaries, support and self-abandonment, and the paradox of allowing versus control in both meditation and relationships.

✨ “Integrity has a cost,” James-Olivia reminds us. “But so does losing it.”

Whether you’re conflict-avoidant, righteousness-prone, or deeply tired of your own relational fuckery—this episode offers a compassionate (and funny) mirror.

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The Afterparty (watch at www.mindbodpod.com)

Jeff breaks and Tasha explores why setting boundaries and advocating for oneself can be both challenging and powerful.

Let us know in the comments what this episode shook loose for you.

K, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!

Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

What if happiness wasn’t just a feeling but something you could train and reinforce?

This week on MindBod AdventurePod, we sit down with Dr. Axel Bouchon, a neuroscientist and biotech entrepreneur who spent 20 years searching for a cure for depression—only to realize he’d been asking the wrong question. Instead of curing sadness, he discovered the source code for happiness—a set of six neurotransmitters that shape our emotional landscape.

In this episode, Axel takes us on a guided tour of our own brains, revealing:

* Why depression can’t be erased—but happiness can be cultivated

* The six neurotransmitters behind different flavors of happiness (it’s not just dopamine!)

* How to “train” yourself for more joy, resilience, and long-term well-being

* Why laughter, nature, music, and even bass drops all play a role in happiness

* How our best memories act as anchors—and why taking photos might actually make us happier

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The Mind Bod Adventure Pod is a community-supported project. If you like these adventures, consider helping us keep the lights on with a paid subscription! ❤️

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We also dive into Matter, Axel’s innovative app that helps reinforce positive neural pathways by engaging with your own peak memories—those moments that spark deep joy, connection, and meaning. It’s a fascinating look at how we can actively shape our emotional landscape for greater balance and well-being.

This episode is part neuroscience, part meditation, and part mind-expanding happiness experiment—so get ready to light up your brain in real time.

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LINKS

* Learn more at: Matter.xyz

* Download the Matter app: matter.xyz/app

What’s your most happiness-inducing memory? Let us know in the comments!

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The Afterparty

The Pod is about to get way weirder… we’re turning these Afterparty sessions into full bi-weekly episodes! We’ll talk, unpack, guide short practices, sing, dance—who knows what else—all in the spirit of bringing you deeper into our weird worlds as practitioners, teachers, and friends. Coming in APRIL! 🎉

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K, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!

Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

What if the secret sauce to navigating the world isn’t hustling harder, fixing yourself, or achieving inner peace like it’s an item on your to-do list—but something way simpler and right under your nose?

This week on the Mind Bod Pod, we sit down with Oren Jay Sofer, a meditation teacher, communication wizard, and all-around wise human, to talk about his book, Your Heart Was Made for This.

We dig into the deep but wildly practical ways we can meet life’s chaos with more presence—and fewer panic spirals:

* Why patience and courage might actually be magic powers

* The giant, thorny question—should we even have kids?? (Yup, we go there)

* Why the “I don’t have time for practice” excuse is a lie (and what to do instead)

* How self-care, spirituality, and social action are actually the same weird beast

--------The Mind Bod Adventure Pod is a community-supported project. If you like these adventures, consider helping us keep the lights on with a paid subscription! ❤️--------

This episode isn’t about adding more stuff to do—it’s about seeing that your life, exactly as it is, is already the practice.

Oren has a way of making wisdom feel like a quiet ‘of course!” you forgot you knew—the kind that lands gently, like a deep breath or a long walk in the park.

Let us know in the comments what thoughts, feels & practice revelations wiggled loose for you during this episode!

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The Afterparty

PS… Big Afterparty Upgrade Incoming! 🚀

The Pod is about to get way weirder… Instead of just lil Afterparty snippets tacked onto episodes, we’re turning these sessions into full bi-weekly episodes.

That means just the two of us, showing up candidly—diving into the questions, quandaries, and delightful existential messes arising in our own lives.

We’ll talk, unpack, guide short practices, sing, dance—who knows what else—all in the spirit of bringing you deeper into our weird worlds as practitioners, teachers, and friends. Coming very soon - Stay tuned! 🎉

K, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!

Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️