This episode explores my journey through anxiety, years of depending on Xanax, and a fear of flying that kept me grounded for nearly two decades. It's about how the right practices can help us find our way out of patterns we thought we'd carry forever.

Explore how Breathwork, walking meditation, and time in nature slowly built the foundation I needed.

• Playing Native American style flute and learning to make mistakes without shutting down
• How anxiety shaped my body and my life before I understood what was happening
• Discovering breathwork in 2019 and what it opened up
• Qigong, walking meditation, and rewilding my mind through time in nature
• Stepping away from Xanax in late 2024 after thirty years
• What self-care can actually looks like when it includes both tenderness and courage

PRACTICE: Begin with something small. A breath deep into your belly. A slow mindful walk. A warm bath that helps your body soften. These are simple things that don't ask you to perform, only to listen.

WORK TOGETHER: If something here resonated and you're curious about working together, I offer exploratory calls. We look at where you are, what you're navigating, and whether breathwork or embodied practices might be the right support for your path.

Schedule a call: https://bit.ly/48DM7jm

LINKS & RESOURCES:
📖 Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4a7qudO
🌬️ Join monthly breathwork sessions: https://bit.ly/4qZUiPe
🌐 Learn more about Vital Healing: https://www.vitalhealing.org/
🚶 Walking Pilgrim App: https://www.walkingpilgrim.com/

Winter has a way of slowing everything down, and this episode follows the rhythm of that season. I read the full piece titled What Winter Is Teaching Me, a reflection on letting go, tending the land, and learning to trust the quiet work that happens beneath the surface.

In this story we visit the oaks and beech trees that hold their leaves long into the cold months, and flow the still water shaped by the beavers along Frenchs Creek.

I share more about the birds and wildlife that show up in this season, including some simple ways to support native species in your own area. We talk about bluebird boxes, wood duck boxes, and how habitat work on even a small scale can make a real difference.

If you feel drawn to participate in this kind of care where you live, you will find helpful links and resources below.

Wood Duck Box Plans

Eastern Bluebird Box Plans

Cornell Guide to Nest Boxes

Connect and Go Deeper

Monthly Breathe Session

Vital Healing Substack

Walking Pilgrim App Updates

Thank you for listening and for being part of this work of tending our inner and outer landscape.

EPISODE 4: The Return from Babel - Finding our way out of the Machine.

Paul Kingsnorth's "Against the Machine" opens a window into the modern impulse to measure, optimize, and control everything.

This episode traces that pattern from the Tower of Babel to our lives today and offers a way back through breath and presence.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• The Machine as more than technology: a restless engine of control that shapes our entire civilization
• The ancient pattern from Genesis to today: building towers, measuring worth, forgetting we're human
• What the Machine cannot hold: breath, presence, love, and the truth of being human
• How confusion keeps us divided while missing the larger pattern
• Finding our way back through the body, one breath at a time

PRACTICE:

Place one hand on your belly.
Inhale slowly through your nose, letting your belly expand.
Exhale twice as long as the inhale. Feel your shoulders drop, jaw soften.
Try this three times and notice what shifts.
Every word begins here, in this quiet exchange between body and world.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4pwEkuE
Join monthly breathwork sessions: https://bit.ly/4qZUiPe
Learn more about Vital Healing: https://www.vitalhealing.org/
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7ofzKHTnyUQ
Walking Pilgrim App: https://www.walkingpilgrim.com/

CONNECT:
If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear about it. info@vitalhealing.org

When Convenience Stops Being Enough

Based on the essay available on Substack

This episode explores a truth many of us carry quietly. We live with more convenience than any generation before us, yet something in us still hungers for depth, belonging, and a way of living that feels human.

Through historical accounts of settlers who chose to remain within Native communities, the story looks at what happens when freedom and connection live side by side. Their experiences reveal something about our own longing to feel part of a world that nourishes rather than numbs.

We follow this thread into the present and ask what it means to return to ourselves in a time marked by speed and distraction. The episode ends with a simple invitation to step outside, slow down, and reconnect with what feels real.

Read the full essay:

Substack When Convenience Stops Being Enough

Join the Monthly Community Breathwork Session:

Follow this link for details and to join the mailing list for our free online gatherings.

Sign Up Here!

This episode is a spoken version of my essay Between Presence and Planning. It explores the moment in Marco Polo when the Empress and the Khan clash over fear, foresight, and the gift of staying rooted in the present.

The reflection looks at the part of us that wants to breathe and the part of us that wants to prepare. It touches on the tension between resting in what is good right now and being steady enough to meet what comes. These two inner voices live inside every one of us. Somewhere between them is the art of living with clarity and peace.

Thank you for listening.

Read the full essay on Substack

https://www.vitalhealing.org/p/between-presence-and-planning?r=5skhm9

Join our monthly Breathwork session @

https://bit.ly/4qZUiPe

This episode is a spoken version of my essay The Sound of Belonging. I recorded it after a week at the Flute Harvest retreat in Encino, California.

The piece reflects on music, breath, community, and the quiet ways we find our way back to ourselves. It is a story about listening, being seen, and letting my voice come forward with honesty.

Thank you for listening.

Read the full essay on Substack

https://www.vitalhealing.org/p/the-sound-of-belonging?r=5skhm9

Flute Harvest with Clint Goss and Vera Shanov

https://www.clintgoss.com/calendar.html

Aris Flutes

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArisFlutes

Join our monthly Breathwork session: https://bit.ly/4qZUiPe