Send us Fan Mail

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.

Support the show

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

Send a text

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

Support the show

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

Send a text

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.

Support the show

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