This week I’m joined by my favorite person again (Lois) for a very special conversation on the Creative Living Principles!!!!

We had way too much fun recording this episode (delirious nap-drunk and caffeinated as always), and ended up covering the first six principles from our list of 21 Creative Living Principles:

1. Your voice isn’t fragile. Don’t treat it like glass.
2. Art needs to be honest, not beautiful.
3. You don’t find your voice, you remember it.
4. Perfection is a cage. Mess is where the magic lives.
5. Protect your mornings (or at least one part of your day) that belongs to no one else.
6. Let it be shit before anything else.

We talk about surfing wipeouts, learning languages badly, humiliating ourselves publicly, and why all of it is essential to making real art. We also go deep on what it means to put banks to the river of creativity—and why messiness is not just inevitable, but fertile ground.

At the end, we share this episode’s workbook exercise from Creative Living: How to Write a Bad Poem. This one is about letting yourself be bad, letting go of perfection, and finding truth in the process.

If you want the worksheet for today’s episode (and last week’s too), DM us “After Hours” on Instagram and we’ll send it to you.

GUYS WE ARE GETTING VERY CLOSE TO LAUNCHING CREATIVE LIVING BTW!!!! Stay so tuned ♡

This week I sat down with my beautiful friend and absolute force of nature, Marina Girgis, Expansion Round 5 queen and the visionary behind Vivacious Retreats. After Marina's 10 day Advanced Shadow Work retreat in The Netherlands, we went down the rabbit hole of shadow work as a path to liberation, and how bringing your shadows into the light is often all that’s needed to alchemize them.

If you’ve been in Marina’s orbit, you already know: she has a gift for making life feel juicier, fuller, more alive. Being in her presence makes you want more: more depth, more beauty, more LIFE!

In true stellium Scorpio fashion, we went beyond the veil in this conversation. 

We talked about:

🐅 The relationship between creativity and shadow (spoiler: the bigger your gifts, the bigger your shadows).

🐅 Integration, safety, and how to actually do shadow work in a way that’s embodied, somatic, and transformative — not just intellectualized.

🐅 Marina’s recent 10-day advanced shadow work retreat in the Netherlands and what she uncovered about shame, belonging, and the power of being truly witnessed.

🐅 Why true leadership means being willing to have your own shadows called forward — and how that creates cultures, not cults.

🐅 The gold hidden inside the parts of ourselves we’ve most disowned.

This is one of those episodes that’s both raw and deeply practical, where you’ll feel seen in the stories, but also walk away with frameworks and tools you can bring into your own life. YAY.

If you’ve ever struggled with feeling “too much,” “not enough,” or like you’re carrying shadows that hold you back from your full voice and expression: this one is for you!

As Rumi says, “where there is ruin, suspect treasure.”

Dive in loves the gold is waitinggggggg

Connect with Marina:

🐅 Marina's Instagram

Eclipse Season & The Virgo–Pisces Portal: Shape-Shifting, Service, and Expansion

YAY another series!

This week I was joined by astrologer + strategist Kessli Hall for a deep dive into the eclipses lighting up the Pisces–Virgo axis. Think of this as your Eclipse Survival Kit as equal parts cosmic forecast and grounded reflection on how these transits are showing up in our lives, our businesses, and our bodies.

From shape-shifting identities to the karmic purge of outdated systems, we explore what it really means to expand during a season where the sky is asking us to release, recalibrate, and reimagine what service and leadership look like.

Whether you’re eclipse-curious or you’re already tracking every degree in your chart, this conversation will help you ground into safety while leaving space for the quantum leaps eclipse season always delivers.

What we unpacked:

🐟 Why this eclipse season feels like a time-bend portal (and how to work with it)

🐟 The Virgo–Pisces polarity: perfection vs. surrender, doing vs. being

🐟 What Saturn in Pisces + Jupiter in Cancer are asking us to embody right now

🐟 How eclipses show up in business: goals, launches, and capacity to hold more

🐟 Practical reflection + journaling prompts for navigating eclipse energy

🐟 Why “service ≠ worth” is the medicine of this season

Journaling Prompts from Maia:

1. What identity, belief, or pattern are you ready to release in service of who you’re becoming?
2. Where are you clinging to Virgo energy (perfectionism, hyper-criticism, endless doing)?
3. Where can you invite in more Pisces energy (trust, surrender, imagination)?
4. Where are you equating your worth with productivity or output?
5. What log are you ready to place on the collective fire of storytelling during this eclipse season?

Key Dates to Know:

• September 7th → Full Lunar Eclipse in Pisces (Blood Moon)
• September 21st → Partial Solar Eclipse in Virgo (aligns with the Equinox)

Resources & Links

• Connect with Kessli on IG
• Kesslihall.com

So many of us live in functional freeze without even realizing it — stuck between “go, go, go” and total shutdown. Outwardly, we look like we’re functioning fine. Inside, we feel numb, resistant, disconnected, and unable to truly rest or create.

In this deeply grounding conversation, I am joined once again by my beloved sister and somatic therapist, Isabel Taylor, to unpack what functional freeze actually is, why society depends on it, and how you can begin to notice its signs in your own life.

Together, we explore:

🧊 What “functional freeze” looks and feels like day-to-day

🧊  The nervous system mechanics behind it (sympathetic + parasympathetic blending)

🧊  Why rest often feels unsafe — and how to prepare your body for it

🧊 The difference between capacity vs. “regulation” (and why capacity is the key)

🧊 How capitalism keeps us outsourcing dopamine instead of resourcing oxytocin

🧊 Practical ways to support yourself when you notice freeze tendencies: gentle movement, orienting, breath, social connection, and more

🧊 Why expanding capacity (not eliminating stress) is what allows you to hold more of the life you desire

This episode will give you the language and tools to recognize functional freeze in yourself, understand it with compassion, and take small, powerful steps toward building safety and capacity.

Join us for A State To Create!

Our 7-week program blending somatic practice and business mentorship is back for round 5! Learn to expand your capacity, dissolve shame, and create from a grounded, regulated state. 

Join the next round here!

Welcome to Creative Living After Hours, where we remember how to tell the truth.

In this first episode, Lois + Maia sit down (chaotic, laughing hysterically, and fully unfiltered as per usual) to talk about what it really means to live creatively — not just to make things, but to inhabit life through the lens of creativity as a FORCE.

We cover:

💧 Why “creativity as optimization” isn’t it (and why we’re not here to give you 5 hacks to be more creative)

💧 What happens when you stop measuring your creativity by output and start measuring it by how alive you feel

💧 The myth of “writer’s block” (hint: it’s your nervous system, not your lack of ideas)

💧 Why creativity lives in the body — especially in the sacral energy center — and how to tend to it

💧 How to create a relationship with your voice so it actually sticks around

💧 The messy, chaotic, fertile “mud” that precedes every evolution (and why we love it)

💧 What truth in creative expression actually means — and how to return to it when you’ve been parroting the voices of others

💧 The role of fear in art + how to build a relationship with it instead of fighting it

In Creative Living After Hours, we’re not talking about “creative performance”. This space is about stepping into the vortex of creativity as a way of being, letting it pull you in, and learning how to dance with the chaos instead of resisting it.

Your practice for this episode:

We’re sharing a page from the Creative Living Workbook (Vol. 1) — 12 daily prompts to help you build a sacred writing practice.

Choose one prompt a day, write freely (unedited + uncensored), and see what happens when you commit to a conversation with your own voice.

✨ To get the workbook page, DM Maia or Lois on Instagram with the word AFTERHOURS and we’ll send it to you.

Or, you can also get it right here.

SO MUCH LOVE,

L + M

Stories are not just the way we make sense of our lives, they are the way we shape CULTURE. In this episode, I sit down with my dear friend and muse Chelsea Riffe, podcast coach, host of In My Non-Expert Opinion and Expansion round 4 queen to explore how using your voice goes far beyond visibility.

Who else but the queen of resonance herself to talk about how YOUR story matters. We talk about how our voices ripple into culture, how to recognize when your body is asking you to pivot, and how Chelsea herself trusted her inner signals mid-launch (During her time on the Expansion Mastermind!) doubling her results OVERNIGHT while creating deeper alignment with her work.

Ugh, and so much more. Where to even begin but luckily I don’t have to tell you anything else because you can dive in RIGHT HEREEEEEEEEE ❤️‍🔥

This conversation is a reminder that each time you speak your truth, you’re adding another log to the collective fire of storytelling. You’re shaping what we’ll remember, what we’ll inherit, and what culture will carry forward.

Your voice is not just personal expression. It is up to YOU if you want to shape culture or let silence decide for you.

The only question is: what story will you tell?

Inside the episode:

• The difference between visibility and being known
• How storytelling shapes culture and legacy
• Why mid-pivot moments are often the most expansive
• The body’s role in guiding aligned decisions
• How your voice creates ripple effects beyond your personal brand

Connect with Chels

• Instagram: @chelseariffe
• Podcast: In My Non-Expert Opinion
• Website: chelseariffe.com

Pitch Perfect

Okay who’s coming to round 4 of her signature program Pitch Perfect??? I AM 🤍 and If you want to be there, Chels has given us a 100$ code! Use T2TPODCAST at checkout, see you there!

• Use code T2T to join: Pitch Perfect

There comes a moment in every transformation when the old identity no longer fits—but the new one isn’t fully formed yet. That’s where the real shape-shifting begins. 

In today’s episode, we talk about shapeshifting as a nervous system skill, what it really takes to shed outdated identities, and how to sit with the fertile discomfort of the “space between.” I share the behind-the-scenes of my own most recent quantum leap (and it's crash lol), how I reprogrammed my Reticular Activating System, and all the somatic integration tools I used to move through expansion without glitching.

This one is for the shapeshifters, the threshold walkers, the ones who know that growth isn’t linear—it’s cellular.

This is the episode I've been preparing for all my lifeeeeee (:

In Today’s Episode, We Talk About:

🦋 What shapeshifting actually means (beyond aesthetics and personas)

🦋 The real reason your nervous system resists identity change

🦋 How to use your RAS (Reticular Activating System) to rewire perception and spot quantum leap moments

🦋 Why “getting there” is a trap—and how to become them before the evidence shows up

🦋 My full-circle moment in Japan, and how it triggered the final embodiment of her new identity

🦋 Micro-experiments to build safety around your expansion

🦋 What it means to repot your nervous system after a big shift

🦋 Integrating the chaotic parts of you instead of exiling them

🦋 The metaphors of the mud, the cocoon, and the marble—and how they hold the codes for transformation

🦋 The actual neuroscience behind why you keep looping (and how to break free)

This Month’s Giveaway! 🎁

As always, I'm sending love back to this amazing community. Here’s how to enter:

⭐ On Spotify: Rate ⭐, follow ✅, and leave a comment 💬 on any episode

⭐ On Apple Podcasts: Rate ⭐ and leave a written review for the entire show

At the end of the month, one winner will receive:

🔥 Vision – My Notion planner & second brain for turning thoughts into things

🔥 Wealth – My Notion money home + wealth manager

🔥 The Vault – A 3-month access pass to my full somatic and mindset practice library

And as always:

Tag me on IG @maiaben if this episode cracked you open, brought clarity, or helped you see yourself.

Expansion PSA: my 4-month deep mastermind (Expansion) is opening its doors to the waitlist only on May 5th (5.5 at 5:55 PM EST). If you’ve been feeling the pull to dive in, make sure you’re on the waitlist right here—spots do tend to fly (as in, fully booked within a day or two kind of fly).

And about this very special episode:

The person that changed my life is here. We’re diving deep into somatics, nervous system regulation, and self-sabotage with my somatic therapist, sister, and somatic queen, Isabel Georgina Taylor (@isabelgeorginataylor). This conversation is one of my most personal and expansive to date—a behind-the-scenes on what actually changed my life last year, how SE (Somatic Experiencing) helped me melt my freeze, and why you cannot override your nervous system’s definition of success.

🌬️ Isabel’s story: from failing her grades and surviving trauma in Uganda to building a purpose-led career in somatics

🌬️ What somatic experiencing actually is and how it works

🌬️ The link between overwhelm, procrastination, perfectionism, and the nervous system

🌬️ What self-sabotage really means (hint: it’s not a personality trait)

🌬️ How to feel safe taking big leaps — without frying your system

🌬️ Why success might feel unsafe, and how to work with that truth

🌬️ What happens when you work with your body’s intelligence instead of against it

🌬️ Nervous system snacks you can use right now to calm down & come back online

🌬️ The number one reframe that changed my life and business last year

🌬️ our ✨special announcement✨

THE MOST SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

You’re the first to know: we’re co-hosting a brand new round of A STATE TO CREATE — Isabel’s signature program for getting out of freeze and finally doing the thing

🧠 Isabel = nervous system queen

🔥 Maia = momentum queen

🫂 Together = you actually do the thing

🗓 Dates:

→ Waitlist opens May 12th—(waitlist gets £500 off)

→ Public launch May 19th

→ Program starts June 3rd

30 spots only

A State To Create waitlist

WHERE TO FIND QUEEN ISABEL

Instagram: @isabelgeorginataylor

NERVOUS SYSTEM SNACKS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Orient yourself: look at the corners of the room, take in your environment
• Notice your breath: don’t change it — just observe
• Feel your support: feet on the floor, seat under you
• Voo breath or gentle sighs
• Scream into a pillow (advanced but iconic)
• Ask: “What is my body trying to tell me?”
• Affirm: “Thank you body for protecting me. I got it from here.”

This Month's Giveaway!

I'm doing a giveaway for early listeners! Here's how to enter:

⭐ On Spotify: Rate ⭐, follow ✅, and leave a comment 💬 on any episode

⭐ On Apple Podcasts: Rate ⭐ and leave a written review for the entire show

At the end of the month, one winner will receive these three things:

🔥 Vision – My Notion planner for turning thoughts into things

🔥 Wealth – My Notion money home + wealth manager

🔥 A 1:1 Mentoring Call – To break your own ceiling

And of course:

Tag me on IG @maiaben if this episode sparked something for you. See you next Thursday for more thought-to-thing magik

Here's a different one 🌬️

The spirit doesn’t need proof. The spirit needs presence.

Let's talk about all things Spirit. Not the aesthetic, not the performance, not the “how to feel aligned” kind of bullshit. Nope! This one is about what happens when you stop chasing clarity, purpose, or healing—and create a life quiet enough for something bigger to find you.

I’m sharing the story of what happened when I hiked 230 kilometers through the Himalayas (again), what that journey revealed about animacy, presence, and belonging—and how it completely changed my relationship to “spirituality.” 

This one’s part memoir, part myth, part reminder that you don’t need to go searching for the divine. You just need to slow down enough to notice: it’s already here.

In Today's Episode, We Talk About:

🌬️ The one question I’ve been asking for years: “What is it that makes the Spirit return to us?”

🌬️ What happened when I hiked 230km across the Himalayas, and how it unraveled my packaged idea of “spirituality”

🌬️ The moment the Divine Mother found me—and the absurdity of how hard we try to find something that’s already breathing us

🌬️ How spirit lives in rhythm—not in performance, productivity, or “good vibes only”

🌬️ Animacy and belonging—how spending time in Nepalese + Tibetan villages reminded me that everything has eyes

🌬️ Why we don’t need more awakening—we need more remembering

🌬️ Why presence is the only true spiritual practice

This Month's Giveaway! 🎁

I'm doing a giveaway for early listeners! Here's how to enter:

⭐ On Spotify: Rate ⭐, follow ✅, and leave a comment 💬 on any episode

⭐ On Apple Podcasts: Rate ⭐ and leave a written review for the entire show

At the end of the month, one winner will receive these two things:

🔥 Vision – My Notion planner for turning thoughts into things

🔥 Wealth – My Notion money home + wealth manager

And of course:

Tag me on IG @maiaben if this episode sparked something for you. See you next Thursday for more thought-to-thing magik

A spicy one. In this episode, we dive into the Unknown and explore the art of releasing control so that life can actually meet you. And for this conversation, I brought in the personification of the unknown himself—Tom, my partner—who’s lived a life of radical trust, jumping into the unknown over and over again. We talk about intuition, navigating uncertainty, and what it really takes to expand beyond what you thought was possible.

Three years ago, I packed my entire life into a backpack and flew to Nepal, answering a call that made zero sense on paper—but my gut knew better. It was the most terrifying and liberating decision I’d ever made. And now, full circle, I’m back in Nepal, standing in the aftermath of that choice, realizing just how much life doubles down when you stop gripping so hard to the plan you think you want.

IN TODAY’S EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:

🧩 Why gripping onto your plan is actually blocking the one meant for you

🧩 Tom’s experience trusting the unknown and making decisions based on pull, not fear

🧩 What intuition actually is (and no, it’s not just “signs”)

🧩 How we get stuck in outdated visions of ourselves—and how to break free

🧩 The Hero’s Journey, The Call to Adventure, and why most people resist it

🧩 “The Threshold” and why fear always meets the edge of desire

🧩 What happens when you stop controlling and start receiving

🧩 “The only way out is through the fire”—why big manifestations come with big initiations

This one is deep.

Mentioned:

🧩 BUY TOM'S BOOK: Sunflowers At The End of Time

This Month's Giveaway! 🎁

I'm doing a giveaway for early listeners! Here's how to enter:

⭐ On Spotify: Rate ⭐, follow ✅, and leave a comment 💬 on any episode

⭐ On Apple Podcasts: Rate ⭐ and leave a written review for the entire show

At the end of the month, one winner will receive these three things:

🔥 Vision – My Notion planner for turning thoughts into things

🔥 Wealth – My Notion money home + wealth manager

🔥 A 1:1 Mentoring Call – To break your own ceiling

And of course:

Tag me on IG @maiaben if this episode sparked something for you. See you next Thursday for more thought-to-thing magik