The Ode To Joy Podcast

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You can be disciplined, capable, and doing “all the right things” and still feel wrung out. That’s the tell. I’m pulling apart the illusion of control and the sneaky way it turns love into pressure, ambition into tension, and responsibility into burnout. I’m coming to you raw: a sick week, a house full of termites, financial stress, and a long hospital day supporting my mom through heart surgery. Life is not neatly packaged, and neither is resilience.

We talk about the belief that keeps so many of us stuck: if I just do it better, market it better, plan it better, then the outcome will finally be safe. I share what it’s like to realize people still don’t know about work you’ve poured your soul into and how that can trigger the urge to control the narrative. From there, we move into humility, not as making yourself small, but as releasing the need to orchestrate everything and letting your life be lived through you. We ground it in simple, embodied practices, from noticing tension in the body to practicing letting go in everyday choices.

Because death is always the sharpest teacher, we also go there. As a death doula, I explain why control doesn’t just exhaust us in life, it can make death harder too. I offer three core truths, plus journaling prompts to help you loosen your grip, build trust, and find your way back to joy even when you can’t know what happens next. If this lands, subscribe, share it with someone who’s carrying too much, and leave a review with a few stars so more people can find the show.

THREE ELENA TRUTHS

• You are not exhausted from doing too much—you are exhausted from trying to control too much
• The work is not to master life, but to meet it as it unfolds
• The way you practice letting go now is the way you will meet death later

JOURNALING PROMPTS 

• Where in my life am I trying to control an outcome instead of meeting what is actually here?
• What am I afraid would happen if I truly let go in one area of my life?
• Where is life asking me to trust instead of force?
• What does “support” actually look like for me right now—am I allowing it?
• If I knew I could not control the outcome, how would I choose to show up differently this week?

A Two-Day Immersion into Death, Devotion & Conscious Living

July 25–26

Beyond the Veil Festival is not a typical gathering—it is a guided passage into that space.

A two-day immersive experience devoted to exploring death not as something to fear, but as a powerful teacher for how to live. 

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Resilience isn’t a personality trait. It’s a return path, and you can practice it in the middle of real life.

I’m Elena Box, shamanic practitioner and death doula, and I’m pulling the thread that runs through everything I teach about joy: preparing to meet death well. That may sound heavy, but it’s strangely freeing. When I stop treating resilience like “pushing through” and start treating it like coming back to center, I get more choice in the moments that used to hijack my body and my mind. I share the quotes and wisdom that guide me, from Carl Jung to Marcus Aurelius, and why studying the Bible for the first time has surprised me with themes I see across so many spiritual traditions: forgiveness, devotion, and surrender.

We also talk about the spiral nature of healing using the river metaphor: you never step into the same river twice, because you are not the same person when you return. I bring this down to ground level with a personal story of running into an estranged family member and what it looks like to pause, notice capacity, and stay present without needing the perfect response. This is mindfulness with teeth, nervous system awareness, and spiritual practice that actually works when the stakes are high.

Then I widen the lens to caregiving, supporting aging parents, and the practical heart of death doula work: dignity for the dying, reducing fear through understanding, and creating more space for closure, legacy, and peace. I close with three core truths and journaling prompts you can use all week to treat daily life as sacred practice.

If it resonates, subscribe, share it with a fellow caregiver or sensitive soul, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

• You will meet the same moment again—but you will not be the same person
• Your life is the ceremony; the practice is happening in the ordinary
• The more you turn toward death, the more fully you learn how to live

• Where in my life am I being asked to return—not avoid?
• What am I afraid to feel right now, and what might be waiting on the other side of that feeling?
• How have I changed since the last time I faced a similar challenge?
• What would it look like to treat my daily life as sacred practice?
• If I were preparing for death—not in fear, but in devotion—how would I live this week differently?

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Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
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Resilience doesn’t always look like powering through. Sometimes it looks like turning the lights down, telling the truth about what your body is doing, and letting yourself be held long enough to finally let go.

We sit down with Andonia Fthenakis, a multidisciplinary artist and integrative healing arts practitioner specializing in sound and vibrational therapy. Together, we unpack how ritual and sound healing can help women rebuild inner authority, especially when life feels like it’s collapsing from the inside out. We talk about why authentic release matters, what it takes to create nervous system safety, and how community practices like moon circles give us a way back to ourselves through movement, breath, voice, and vibration.

We also get practical about how to begin if you’re new to this world. What should you look for in a sound bath or spiritual practitioner? How do you use discernment when you’re in crisis and just need help? And how do you reconcile earth-based tools like crystals, incense, and ceremony with a religious background without turning any path into dogma? We share grounded ways to listen for “true north,” care for your energetic hygiene, and step into spring with real cleansing, including a simple but powerful burning ritual for releasing what you’re done carrying.

Andonia also shares a defining resilience story: choosing a home birth without family approval, holding steady in her choice, and reclaiming “my body, my choice” as a lived spiritual practice. If you’re craving more trust in yourself, deeper community, and a more embodied relationship with healing, this conversation will meet you there. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more listeners can find these stories and tools.

Resources:

Join Andonia's Whattsapp Group Ecstatic Healing Long Island

Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akouie.alchemy/

Visit Andonia's Website: https://www.akouie.com/

Upcoming Offerings from Andonia:

Sun, Mar 22 

Akouie Healing Arts Space

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Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
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We explore resilience as private devotion, how to stay loyal to art and truth without external validation, and why choosing expression over silence protects aliveness. Death work, theater, motherhood, and the athlete-of-joy mindset shape a practical path back to self-trust and creative fire.

• resilience as the unseen training for joy
• death, annihilation and the cost of silence
• the regret portal as a signal that you still care
• theater as temple and a call back to art
• motherhood, identity and making space to create
• Elena Truths: art vs self-abandonment, embarrassment vs silence, resilience as devotion
• practical tools: 15-minute creative devotion, one boundary weekly, one uncomfortable truth, move your body, ask what you’d regret not attempting

1. Where have I abandoned myself in order to maintain harmony?
2. If I knew embarrassment wouldn’t kill me, what would I create?
3. What version of me am I grieving right now?
4. What am I afraid will happen if I succeed?
5. What is one non-negotiable creative act I can commit to weekly — even if no one responds?
6. Am I measuring my value by revenue, validation, or devotion?
7. What would “training as an athlete of joy” look like this month?
8. If I look back five years from now, what would I regret not attempting?

If you feel called, it would mean so much if you could go ahead and, you know, drop us a review, maybe throw us a couple of stars. If there are five of them, even better.

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Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
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We map a path from overwhelm to ethical action by treating joy as a trainable practice and the nervous system as our guide. We name the moment, metabolize rage into clarity, choose one sustainable lane, and pace for the marathon with somatic tools and information hygiene.

• grounding in the ethos of moving through difficulty to reach durable joy
• regulation, recovery, and return as athletic training for the nervous system
• naming collective grief, fear, and rage without collapsing into it
• capacity, integrity, and the courage to act imperfectly
• reframing rage as boundary data and directing it into action
• sustainable civic steps and choosing one focused lane
• information hygiene and media boundaries to protect health
• somatic practices for discharge and repair: walking, shaking, crying, breath
• support for caregivers to pace for the long road
• three truths on regulation, imperfect action, and values-aligned joy
• journaling prompts to turn feelings into clarity and steps

If you feel called, it would mean so much if you could go ahead and drop us a review, maybe throw us a couple of stars. If there are five of them, even better.

Choose 1–3. Keep it simple. Keep it honest. Do it imperfectly.

Regulation

1. Where do I feel the current political moment in my body?
2. What signals tell me I’ve consumed enough information today?
3. What reliably brings me back to center?

Rage & Boundaries

1. What am I most angry about right now?
2. What boundary does that anger reveal?
3. If my rage had a wise job, what would it be?

Voice & Integrity

1. Where have I been silent out of fear of getting it wrong?
2. What value feels non-negotiable for me right now?
3. What does integrity (not perfection) look like in my life?

Action & Capacity

1. What is one action I can take sustainably this week?
2. What is one action I can release without guilt?
3. How do I want to pace myself for the long road ahead?

(Remember: This is a marathon, not a sprint.)

Joy as Practice

1. What brings me back to joy after engaging with heavy topics?
2. How do I train my nervous system to recover?
3. What does being an athlete of joy look like this week?

Choose one lane. Bookmark the rest.

Civic Engagement

Find Your Elected Officials

🔗 https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

U.S. Capitol Switchboard

📞 202-224-3121

(Call and ask one clear question. You don’t need the perfect script — just your voice.)

Immigration Support

Immigration Advocates Network

🔗 https://www.immigrationadvocates.org

ACLU – Immigrants’ Rights

🔗 https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights

Survivor-Centered Support

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)

🔗 https://www.rainn.org

National Women’s Law Center

🔗 https://nwlc.org

Investigative Journalism & Court Records

ProPublica

🔗 https://www.propublica.org

CourtListener

🔗 https://www.courtlistener.com

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Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
Follow on IG @elenabox

Send us Fan Mail

Feeling spun out by the headlines and the heat online? We name the collective dysregulation many of us are sensing and offer a humane path back to steadiness: grief literacy, nervous system care, and joyful integrity that doesn’t require disengaging from what matters. I share why doomscrolling is a trauma response, how the body interprets constant input as threat, and what conscious, bounded engagement looks like when staying informed starts to cost your aliveness.

Together, we unpack a practical compass for hard times: think globally, act locally, regulate personally. That means honoring limits, then turning attention to small, consistent acts of care in your neighborhood—checking on an elder after a storm, sharing groceries, making eye contact, or supporting a local pantry. We also challenge binary thinking and dehumanization, choosing to see the person across from us while refusing to use hatred as a coping strategy. Joyful presence becomes a form of resistance, a way to stay human without collapsing into apathy or burning out.

You’ll also get tactile tools to metabolize grief and release charge safely: submerged screams in a bath, rage rooms, angry walks in the woods, long exhales that reset the vagus nerve, cold-water resets, and a simple news boundary ritual followed by a hand-wash to signal completion. We close with a joy ledger practice and focused journaling prompts to clarify what’s truly in your control—your attention, your relationships, and your care for vulnerable people nearby. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs steadiness today, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find a humane way back to joy.

Journaling Prompts

• “What am I actually grieving beneath my political feelings?”
• “Where has my nervous system been asking for rest?”
• “What does joyful integrity look like for me right now?”
• “What is one small place I can show up locally this week?”
• “What happens in my body when I step away from the noise?”

Support the show

Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
Follow on IG @elenabox

Send us Fan Mail

We unpack the lie that joy is a feeling you earn and reclaim it as a daily practice that builds resilience. We explore how joy coexists with grief, why breakthroughs without integration burn us out, and how small rituals train the nervous system to return to center.

• dismantling myths of joy as reward, feeling, or circumstance
• the spiral nature of healing and identity
• practicing joy before the result through repetition
• consistency over motivation and gentle returns
• joy and grief coexisting without canceling each other
• ordinary rituals that regulate the nervous system
• three core truths to carry through the week
• journaling prompts for practical integration
• noticing returns, softening, and steadiness

Three Elena Truths: Pick one to carry you through the week

1. Joy is not a mood. It’s a practice.
2. Resilience isn’t pushing through. It’s returning to yourself.
3. You don’t wait for the life you want—you practice it in small, livable ways.

Journaling Prompts:

• Where am I waiting for joy instead of practicing it?
• What is one small way I already know how to return to myself?
• If joy were a practice, not a feeling, what would it look like this week?
• What feels kind and doable right now?

Once a month I send out the Calliope’s Quill newsletter with journaling prompts and notes, sign up at www.elenabox.com

Support the show

Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
Follow on IG @elenabox

Send us Fan Mail

We explore resilience as the act of returning to self when triggers, change, and grief surface, using a candid story from our multigenerational home and practical tools to recenter. Joy and grief travel together; small embodied steps create space, clarity, and repair.

• taking the result as the path as a daily practice
• balancing motherhood and work while rejecting perfection
• multi-generational home dynamics and compassionate repair
• naming the wobble without dramatizing it
• grief, death cleaning, and the emotional labor of objects
• letting go as love, not erasure
• somatic resets that bring you back to shore
• journaling prompts to turn insight into action
• joy and grief as companions, not opposites
• resilience as devotion to your life

Practices / Journaling Prompts

• What am I ready to release right now?
• What feels heavy that doesn’t need to be carried?
• Where can I create more space — physically or emotionally?
• What helps me return to myself when I’m triggered?

If this has been beneficial for you, reach out let me know how this landed for you let me know what tools really resonated with you and also if there’s anything that you’re like actually "I felt like that was a crock a BS"  -- let me know!

 www.elenabox.com

It would mean so much if you could drop us a review maybe throw us a couple of stars if there are five of them even better!

Support the show

Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
Follow on IG @elenabox

Send us Fan Mail

What if the destination could walk beside you today? We dive into a living, breathing practice of becoming—one that honors grief, invites your future self into the room, and remembers what your inner child always knew. Set against winter’s slow rhythm and a tender anniversary of loss, we explore how to “take the result as the path,” a tantric insight that transforms identity work from a someday project into embodied, daily choices.

I share how early motherhood, creative ambitions, and the honest fatigue of life all meet this practice. We focus on orientation over overhaul: five mindful minutes in the morning, a mantra repeated on a walk, and tiny cues that change posture, breath, and presence. You’ll hear how descent work—supported by rituals like a home sauna for grief—prevents spiritual bypass and deepens resilience. Instead of pushing through, we cultivate meaning while staying with what is raw and real.

Along the way, we revisit inner child threads, future-self embodiment, and shamanic perspectives on elder wisdom already watching our path. You’ll get clear journaling prompts to surface the one aligned step for this week, plus language you can use when doubt gets loud. This is practical spirituality for people who want to become themselves on purpose: compassionate, grounded, and a little braver each day.

If this resonates, follow along, share with a friend who’s cocooning, and leave a review so more listeners can find their way to this work. Then tell me: what quality will you embody for the next 24 hours?

Journaling Prompts

• Who am I becoming in this season of my life?
• What qualities does that version of me embody?
• Where am I right now — honestly and tenderly?
• What is one small way I can take the result as the path this week?
• What is being asked to die so something truer can live?

Resources

WFDU 89.1 Public Radio

Imagine Meditation by Boreta and Ram Dass

The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries by Bill Plotkin

Maria Cutronia, Master yoga teacher based in NYC/Brooklyn

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

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Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
Follow on IG @elenabox

Send us Fan Mail

Forget the sprint. The first days of 2026 don’t demand a reinvention; they invite a softer landing. We open the year by easing the pressure of “new year, new me” and leaning into winter’s honest rhythm—quiet, composting, and the courage to let what’s done be done. Instead of chasing goals at full tilt, we practice resilience as repair and resourcing: small rituals, steady breath, and the simple act of choosing one feeling to guide the year.

We talk about the long corridor from Thanksgiving to New Year’s and how joy, grief, and old patterns can collide. That mix doesn’t mean you failed; it means you’re human. You’ll hear a humble story of a neighborly New Year’s—karaoke, an early bedtime, shared intentions—and why keeping it intimate can be more potent than grand ceremony. We explore the nervous system’s timeline (spoiler: it doesn’t reset on January 1), why winter is the void in many traditions, and how shedding precedes clarity. If you’ve felt behind, scattered, or tender, this is your permission slip to arrive slowly.

We also offer a grounding practice—three breaths, a quick inventory of what you’re carrying, and a one-word intention that pivots from achievement to feeling. Then, a set of gentle reflection prompts helps you identify what sustained you, what drained you, where resilience appeared imperfectly, what grief still asks for care, and what support would make the year more spacious. From practitioner vulnerability to practical resourcing, we center companionship over fixes and sustainability over hype.

Journaling / Reflection Prompts 

• What actually sustained me these past few months?
• What drained me more than I expected?
• Where did I practice resilience—even imperfectly?
• What am I still grieving, even if life looks “good”?
• What kind of support would make this year feel more spacious?
• What can be simple this year?

If this conversation helps you breathe easier, share it with someone who needs a softer start. Subscribe, leave a quick review, and tell us your one-word intention for 2026—we’d love to hear it.

Book your one-on-one Session at www.elenabox.com

Support the show

Buy your copy of Elena's book "Grieve Outside the Box"
Follow on IG @elenabox