The Wild and Wise

Ep 35 : 
Eliza’s work helping babies sleep, move, and feel better revolves around her respect for babies and toddlers as whole people who enter the world aware, desiring to communicate and learn, and with the ability to process and self-heal within relationship. 

Her Conscious Baby practice employs unique approaches to non-cry-it-out sleep, baby-led milestone development, healing birth trauma, and parental attunement to non-verbal cues and crying.   

As a certified Aware Parenting Instructor, Infant Developmental Movement Educator, Body-Mind Centering® Practitioner, and trained Feldenkrais® practitioner, Eliza’s life-changing perspectives and respectful solutions toward common parenting challenges transcend “typical” parenting advice.  

In this conversation you will hear us talk about: 

• The emotionally charged nature of sleep in the family system 
• The connection of sleep and emotions 
• "Sleep is a state, not a skill" 
• Pent up feelings as stress as most common problem that interferes with sleep 
• Crying as a natural way to release stress 
• How learned habits of emotional expression can feel like instinct 
• The connection of parents early childhood experiences and patterns with their babies 
• Getting beyond the right or wrong of comfort nursing 
• Exploring the underlying needs connected to sleep : emotional expression, closeness 
• Crying in arms as a bonding experience 
• Potential of crying becoming a pathway for communication 
• The potential impact of cranial alignment and tongue tie on nursing, crying, and sleeping

Check out Eliza's website for free guides to helping Baby sleep and to stay in touch : https://www.consciousbaby.com/sleep/ 

FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/consciousbaby 

IG @consciousbabyeliza 

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ep # 34 
Mallika and Ashley have a conversation on raising children inspired by topics from the book Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff. 


You'll here us talk about: 

• The lack of meaningful work that children have the opportunity to engage in culturally 
• The pressure that comes from an expectation of parents always enjoying their kids 
• Finding a balance between focus on self and community 
• The potential benefits of inviting children to work on family needs from a young age 
• Shifting our internal orientation to acts of caretaking home as a sacred  
• Link to Kim John Payne's Simplicity Parenting 
• The power of presence in tantrums 
• Simplifying the way we ask for kids participation is daily tasks 
• Letting go of expectations that child will change behaviors quickly 
• Raising children to be embraced by life that's bigger then them 
• The importance of children integrating the needs of others 

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ep. #33 
If you've dipped your toe in the waters of yogic practice or philosophy, and you have if you've ever even googled "mindfulness", this conversation will deepen and clarify some of the common mistranslations and misunderstandings of how to live our lives while also walking a spiritual path. We especially explore the ways being a parent can often feel "in the way" of our spiritual goals and practices. The difficult distance between our ideals and reality. Kaya speaks so beautifully to the gift we can give ourselves and our children when we practice and live our spiritual journey as family. 

In this episode, I share about my own personal upbringing, raised in a yogic intentional community. Kaya also has a deep and meaningful relationship with this community, and we both hold so much love and respect for the teachings, the people and the beauty that is present there. While I do speak to some of my personal experiences and interpretations, I am sure they were unique to my own experience, my own family system and the projecting we as humans do onto others. So I ask you to hold what you hear with the awareness of both being true: reality and projection. 

Things we touch on: 

The misconceptions of practicing non-attachment 
The absolute and the relative realities we exist in 
Spiritual bypass 
Splitting of life into spiritual life and the rest 
The four stages of life 
How not to sacrifice your spiritual life 
Accepting or rejecting mental/emotional reactions 
We can model our humanity for our kids 
What family spiritual practice can look like 
Clarifying karma yoga and selfless service 
I do my work so you can do yours 
Where to start 

Kaya Mindlin is a Yoga therapist and educator who has been teaching the “softer side of yoga” for 19 years.
Learn more about Kaya's work at YogawithKaya.com  

Kaya's Instagram

Use the code "wildandwise20"for 20% off this ONLINE program: The Nectar of Action
Explore the most essential teachings for householders seeking true spiritual growth amidst the responsibilities of life.
BEGINS JULY 15 2021

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If you have enjoyed the show, please rate, review and subscribe in iTunes. 

You can also check out some of our other older episodes: 

Episode 2 - Baba Yaga and Our Wild Woman Intuition

Episode 3 - Exploring Our Inner Knowing with Kadhi Bo

Episode 4  - Earth Magick and Regenerative Ways of Living with Marysia Miernowska

Upcoming Offerings:

Want to join a F R E E virtual New Moon Circle? Click here 

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ep # 32 
John Wolfstone is back for another conversation with Ashley! They dive deep into the exploration of adult initiation, its function and its presence as a missing link to a more integrated and meaningful life. 

John is a storyteller, filmmaker, community organizer and a mentor for Rites of Passage work. John is a curious explorer and question asker.

You'll here us talk about:

• The loneliness of modern adulthood
• Almost all indigenous culture have rites of passage ceremonies into adulthood
• The functions of rites of passage : 1. Connecting people to their purpose in community 2. to mature the person so that they can become a generative adult
• Johns personal path of creating adult initiation for himself 
• Johns purpose of "help make human beings capable of being in service to the great turning"
• Bill Plotkins concept of moving from egocentric to ecocentric
• The shift to adulthood as the death of the hero
• Cultural practices of childrearing that interfere with the development of a sense of interconnection and humility
• Life phases and rites of passage through out the lifespan
• Village as a side effect of people tending culture
• A complete adult initiation requires mentors, elders, and youngers
• "That's what adulthood is, someone who is giving forth to a culture, and that culture is feeding the wheel of life."
• Acknowledging that we are living in an ecocide, creating space for grief
• Meeting "the river of grief" in the transition into adulthood
• Creating healthy containers to build our capacity to feel fully 
• Creating a "cultural basket" that is woven by strands of containership that are organic, and help you come back to your intelligence and the intelligence of life
• The importance of ancestry in adult initiation

To get to know John more and look into his offerings, connect with him on Facebook!

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ep. #31  
This conversation and episode is truly one of Mallika's favorite of all time. Lara Veleda Vesta is an author and illistrator, exploring  dís-ability, rites of passage, ancestral mythology, folklore and the sacred creative.  She lives with Myalgic Encephalomeylitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a disease caused by viruses and inflammation with an infectious trigger.  Prior to her illness, Lara was a university professor teaching classes in English and writing and a PhD student in Philosophy and Religion. 
Lara's deep work and knowledge of integrating difficult initiatory experiences, expanded by her use of ritual, research and linguistics, help her blend a beautiful weaving of return to old ways, old knowing and the deep peace that is available to us all. 


Explored in this episode:  

• Why narrative is so important to healing 
• Stages of initiation and rite of passage 
• Finding the joy available in healing 
• Reorienting our job/to-dos to come from spirit and ancestors 
• Sacred life is available to any one of us 
• Collective rite of passage this past year 
• Redefining our values and letting things go 
• How do we know when we are on a "return" 
• Ritualizing every aspect of the passage 
• Grief is part of the return and integration of the passage 
• Silence is integral for sacred work 
• The potency of being together in a ceremonial frame 
• Illness and disability were hallmarks of initiation in historic stories 
• The opportunity and communication that comes through as symptoms of illness 
• How to stay out of resistance to pain and other difficult symptoms 
• The power and potential of the millions of people who are ill or living with disability 
• What is your super power?
• 
  

Quotes from Lara:
"We need each other's stories so we can know what's survivable."

"What I have found useful is ritualizing every aspect of the process."



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Ep. #30
In today's episode, Mallika invites her friend, Elanne Kresser, to share a deep exploration of cultural healing and the hope for education that teaches our children to live within and honor the beautiful space we occupy, birthing a new paradigm of partnership, of tending and  of caring for all beings. 

Mallika and Elanne have been friends since 2013 and have been in conversation with each other about many topics, from conscious parenting and healthy relating styles, to the current paradigm of "compulsory schooling" and examining or shifting cultural constructs.

Elanne Kresser is devoted to the labor of birthing a world in which all voices, both human and otherwise, are honored. She has practiced in the Ordinary Mind School of Zen for two decades and directed The Dharma School for children for eight years, and her adult life has been dedicated to community-based, culturally-generative, earth-honoring education. She is a practitioner of ancestral and cultural healing and loves supporting others to reclaim their self-worth, life purpose, and sense of belonging. Her people hail from Bavaria, Bohemia, Jämtland, Sweden and England.

Elanne Kresser's Website

Peter Grey
John Taylor Gatto
"Weapons of Mass Instruction" By John Taylor Gatto

Things we touch on in this episode: 

• Feeling belonging with place 
• Personal wellness = "how able am I to meet the changing conditions of life" 
• Wellness is relational 
• Animism, at it's foundation, is relationship
• How teaching in today's system that is devoid of meaningful work
• The ancestors are who hands us our culture
• Depth of cultural healing available through getting right with our ancestors
• Tending ancestral connection through education 
• A new paradigm of relating and tending and caring
• The natural friction when shifting from an old to a new paradigm
• Distinguishing between education and compulsory schooling and the values at the base of the current schooling structure
• Ways that we can each play a role in starting this shift
• The possibility that we re-imagine schooling is here
• Homeschooling, free-schooling, unschooling, democratic schooling, and the movement for self-directed education
• What practical ways can this be implemented in a schooling setting
• The clarity that can come from ancestral involvement in these projects

Quotes from Elanne: 
Wellness requires relationally (12 min)
The ancestors are who hands us our culture (24)
Education is ultimately the transmission of culture (25)

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ep. #29 
Mallika explores and deepens into the framework of syncing our lives up with the phases of our menstrual cycles. She explains each of the 4 phases of the menstrual cycle and how they are mirrored by cycles in the natural world.  

Topics touched on: 

• Frames for cyclical living
• Tuning into phases of the moon
• Menstrual cycles mirrored in the natural world
• Micro and Macro lens of this framework
• Acknowledging for ourselves allows us to communicate to others
• Embracing the wisdom and the 
• How to help folx who don't have this biology understand the wisdom of listening to these cycles
• Practical tips for working your schedule in accord with our cycles

Spring/Follicular phase is a time for: Tending, watering, listening to your desires, brainstorming what's possible, loving and trusting with a young heart, feeling the energy of creation, acknowledging fruits of your labor that are starting to form.

Summer/Ovulatory phase for: Taking action, finding support, inviting and collaborating, selling your boss (or yourself) on the new business plan, being with old conflict in a new way, enjoying yourself and following your pleasure.

Autumn/Luteal phase: honoring what came to fruition, softening back into yourself, enjoying the bounty of your efforts, taking stalk of what didn't work, beginning to prepare for winter by recognizing where you need to conserve your energy or plan for more nourishment.

Winter/bleed phase is a time for: resting, nourishment, releasing what needs to go, going within, writing down your dreams, letting go of attachments, healing, being.


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ep. #28 
Ashley talks with Abigail Heins, a fellow water woman and a deep feeler, weaver, and healer.
This conversation was inspired by the cocreation of Ashley and Abigail to start a water prayer circle for women who are wanting to become mothers, which starts in May! 

Topics we touch on : 

• Wellness in relationship to openness to other beings, and flow of water 
• Abigails path to working with water through the water in the body 
• The lymph system as the body's inner rivers 
• The connection between sound, water, and creation 
• The whales, their songs, and some of their teachings 
• The waters connection to life and creation 
• Sound as a key to movement and water 
• The depth of the prayer to bring children into the world in this time 
• The seeds of the water mama circle 

Abigail is a womb guardian, a weaver, and a voice of the whales. Fertility, and the natural cycles of life has always been at the core of her passion and work. From teaching on natural birth control and womb blood empowerment, to sharing Ayurvedic breast massage and whale womb healings. Her offerings support people to root into the wisdom of their body and the wisdom of this earth. Intended to support the reclamation of our juicy, pulsing, sensual soul connection to life. Her current focus is to support the wombed ones prepare for conscious conception. To be anchored in their own vessels of love and indigenous roots in this earth, to birth the future generations of star children. You can check out her IG @whalewombweaving and her website ~ wombweaving.com 


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ep. #27
Mallika and Ashley dive into an area of Mallika's work that has sprung from her own healing journey - working with story, metaphor, myth and ancestral stories. Mallika and Ashley both share pieces of their own ancestral stories, how they honor the broader sense of self and working with the pain and discomfort they have been born to work with in their own stories.

Mallika is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California, currently living in North Carolina. While not practicing as a therapist, she is currently guiding women through re-membering ancestral wisdom, reclaiming their intuition and releasing patterns of self-inflicted pain. Mallika holds groups and individual sessions for moms to step into the unknown places with grounding resources, unconditional love and relational skills to lead them from fear and pain to whole, supported and strong ways of moving through the world.

Through Mallika's therapeutic skills, knowledge of yogic philosophy and practices, and experiences/trainings in conscious mothering, she discovered a responsive approach to working with her clients. In that work she brings humor, love and the ability to stay with the difficulties that arise. She eases clients through the painful and scary places to generate  nourishing support, deeply connected awareness, and to embody the blessings of their lineages.

What we touch on:

• Stories and myth help us know ourselves and our experiences
• Relationship between belonging and ancestral stories
• Impact of ancestral stories being erased through war, colonization and migration
• Ways that old ancestral experiences continue to be enacted and lived out today
• Being with individual pieces of stories as a way to deepen our relationship to parts of ourselves
• Coming to terms with having personal lineage lines in both colonizers and the persecuted 
• Finding this work through Narrative Therapy, Carl Jung's archetypes  and Gestalt Therapy
• Tarot as a source of metaphor and imagery
• They ways story lives outside of us and within us
• Awareness of expanded sense of self
• Being careful not to bypass the experiences of this life
• Our job is to be ruled by our prayer
• Difference between allowing feelings and being ruled by feelings
• Passing down of the internalized parent voice
• How our life, even the painful parts, are an offering to our ancestral healing
• What is Mallika's new program, Myth, Animism and My Ancestral Stories all about! 

Read more about Myth Animism and My Ancestral Stories

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ep. #26 
Ashley talks with Dr. Mia Hetenyi, a writer, ceremonialist, and grief doula. 
Their conversation weaves through many topics, with a continued thread of the power of the wild world to support our grief and lives. 

Topics we touch on :

• * Spring happenings in the landscapes we live with. The spring energy of waking up, growing, and shifting *
• *Our sense of safety impacting how open we are to tuning into eros and aliveness in land
• *Ancestral connection to specific landscapes*
• *How nature can help us recalibrate our worthiness and belonging* 
• *"Trauma doesn't exist in nature", grief and hard experiences move through the animal body*
• *Systemic racism and patriarchy impacting access to the wild*
• *The importance of children building relationships with the wild*  
• *Ways that Hungarian culture honors death*
• *Redwood trees supporting Mia's capacity to get sober and grieve* 
• *Addiction as a spiritual illness*
• *Feeling safe and held by sprit/nature/other as the groundwork for moving big feelings*
• *Cultural patterns of emotional suppression impacting our grief* 
• *Building relationship to the divine mother, and healing the mother wound*
• *Meeting resistance to taking care of the body* 
• *Lack of cultural containers for grief and the large amounts of unprocessed grief in this culture*
• *Grief opening our connection to our true self, and clarifying our relationships*

Dr. Mia Hetenyi is a grief doula for recovering humans. She serves as an inner guide, ceremonial facilitator and writer with a doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology. She has been an eternal student of all things related to the soul, psyche and the the devotional path of the Great Mother. Along with 25+ years of clinical experience, she has spent most of her life doing a deep dive into studying and practicing meditation, inner journey, ceremony and ritual, dream work and energy healing.

After recovering herself from addictions and experiencing an awakening to her soul, she fused her knowledge together to create an innovative approach to healing trauma, codependency, addiction and most ailments connected to difficulty grieving...the root of so much of our modern day suffering.

Dr. Hetenyi on Instagram
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Resources referenced:
The Sophia Code by Kaia Ra
The Smell of Rain on Dust by Martin Prechtel

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