In 2019 Charley Zheng went on a trip of a lifetime, an expedition to the Afghanistan’s Big Pamir. This was a very planned trip, led by a user experiences studio called Studio D. In this episode she talks about finding her sense of self among a foreign landscape. She describes her role as the expedition documentarian and how she grew her confidence as a photographer and expedition member.

Read more about her experience in this beautifully written essay: https://medium.com/studio-d/a-short-walk-76ae06942c76

I spoke with Sloane, a food freedom coach and wellness expert. Sloane helps women drop restrictions & diets to find food freedom and eat intuitively. She teaches woman how to drop all restrictions to eating and learn how to trust themselves to make very conscious aligned choices around eating through blending teachings in nutrition, mindset and spirituality.

We spoke at length about what it means to have food freedom including what it means to listen to your body and intuition when choosing what and when to eat.

In the conversation, we discuss:

✨ what does Food Freedom mean

✨ the connection between struggling with food/eating and your beliefs about yourself

✨ the importance of accepting where you are NOW so that you can use that as a starting point to learn how to eat without restrictions

✨ a discussion of the meaning of the word ‘balance’ and the concept of the ‘grey zone’

Contact Sloane: https://www.instagram.com/sloaneelizabeth

I spoke with David, a therapist based on Portland Oregon. David works with clients to understand what is going on that is causing them pain and helping them find tools within themselves to work through the pain and trauma to emerge on the other side stronger and more informed.

We spoke at length about attachment theory and how different attachment styles show up in our personal lives and especially within relationships.

In the conversation, we discuss:

✨ what is an ‘attachment style’

✨ how different attachment styles show up for individuals within relationships

✨ how to work through childhood conditioning that would have created specific attachments in order to live more supportive and healthy lives as adults

✨ how to approach issues within a relationship through the lens of attachment theory

Contact David: https://www.naturalmindcounseling.com/

The first episode of the year is a solo episode by me! In case you haven’t ‘met’ me yet, my name is Anna and I host this podcast. I also recently started offering mindset coaching. This solo episode is an expanded talk on the topic of routine & intentions, which is often the kind of topics I like to speak about.

This episode is all about how to use your time with intention through creating a variety of routines that support your greater intention for the kind of lifestyle you want.

I discuss:

✨ creating a workday routine that is fits your personal needs

✨ a reframe how you think about the resource of ‘time’

✨ how to reframe the idea of productivity

✨ how to introduce greater intention into the way you spend your personal time

If you’d like to hear more about these topics, follow me on insta  @create_newpaths.

I spoke with Eryn, a practitioner of a variety of healing arts. She is a tarot reader, breathwork facilitator, and Reiki Master, as well as the host of the Living Open podcast. Eryn works with people to help them embody their authentic selves. Through breathwork, rituals, reiki and other methods, she guides clients towards reclaiming their sense of wholeness and feeling worthy of love.

We spoke at length about the use of rituals for self-care, and about specific practices that support the feeling if being seen.

Contact Eryn: https://www.living-open.com/

I spoke with Maria, a clinical herbalist, who works with plants to support and heal the body and spirit.

Maria creates personalized blend of herbs to address a variety of health concerns. She works closely with every client to understand what is happening with them and only then does she create a recommendation that best suits them. In her clinical practice, Maria combines elements of Western Herbalism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Ayurveda for a wide variety of healing plants. She finds joy in formulating herbal tea blends from her personal apothecary with organic herbs from a variety of small-owned farms in the U.S. and Greece.

We spoke at length about her passion for plants, the mythology around healing in ancient Greece and how the same plants used thousands of years ago are still around and supporting us today.

Contact Maria: www.thegreekherbalist.com

I spoke with Adam, a meditation practitioner and teacher. He regularly practices different forms of meditation including breathwork, visualization and Qi Gong. Adam teaches both contemporary and ancient meditation techniques. His meditation workshops ensure that participants will actually "feel something" and leave with expanded awareness for when and how to meditate.

The meditation techniques he works with create on-the-spot stress relief and long-lasting energy boosts.

We spoke at length about the ‘energy cleaning’ that is directly connected with the various organ systems in our body. Especially moving meditations such as Qi Gong, serves to balance and clean our energies by moving our body in specific choreography. During the conversation, we practiced a few techniques to deeper understand the effects of meditation. Watch the episode on Youtube for a more interactive experience.

For this episode, Adam led a few practices during the conversation to show the powers of meditation through breathwork, visualization and Qi Gong.

Contact Adam: www.relaxwithadam.com/in-the-garden

I spoke with Yarrow, a creative coach, artist , writer and podcast host.

Yarrow finds daily rituals to be important elements in self-care. In our conversation we discuss how ritual can be employed at any stage in life, to mark the bringing and end of life events, the end of a day or to celebrate or mourn a life transition.

Published this year, Yarrow’s book Rituals is an approachable, inclusive guidebook that will help you create meaningful rituals for everything from heartbreak to transitions and creative projects.

Contact Yarrow: https://www.yarrowmagdalena.com

I spoke with Lunna, a dancer and dance teacher who combined various movement games and methods to help build body awareness.

Lunna trained as a professional dancer and worked in a dance company before leaving that world and transitioning to focusing on her unique method of learning movement. She sees movement and touch as an important part of the human experience. Through dance, one can begin to see into their behavioral and emotional patterns. Lunna is passionate about exploring all that our body has to offer in movement and expression. Her classes include movement games and the freedom to try various dance practices that help anyone get more in touch with the movements of their body.

For this conversation, we spoke about what it means to have body awareness, how to start building awareness of our movements and how isolation can become a creative outlet for crafting a unique expression of yourself.

Contact Lunna: @lunnagg on instagram

I spoke with Natalie, an energy healer who employs a blend of different modalities in order to hold space and provide a safe container for healing and transformation.

Natalie trained as a psychologist yet life introduced her to other forms of healing through connecting with energy work and techniques such as Emotion Code. She sees healing as a way for all of us to clear out the density that trauma creates in our bodies and rediscover the true essence of our beings by reconnecting with our hearts and bravely living from that space.  She believes in the power of healing both individually and in community. 

For this conversation, we spoke about the topic of conflict. Conflict is a multi-layered topic which we approached from various frames of reference. We discussed what makes conflict feel so difficult to navigate and how you can practice self-care by noticing tiggers and working on breaking behavioral patterns that lead to conflict.

Contact Natalie: https://tendingyourspirit.com