In this episode of the Wisdom & Wanderlust Podcast, Michael and Robyn talk with Hannah Gresser, a soulful, audacious and compassionate traveler. Hannah was struck with wanderlust at the age of 15 during her first international travel experience in Brazil with her father. Since then, she has dedicated her life to transformation and helping people evolve and become the best versions of themselves through plant medicine and most recently, breathwork.

Hannah shares how her lifelong battle with anxiety and depression led her to plant medicine, which then helped her discover the power of breathwork for her healing. She walks us through some simple tricks to calm the mind and body in a few short seconds. She also discusses her new home in Hawaii and the wisdom she is learning from the indigenous cultures there.

"With breath and with creating these really short mini practices, that’s actually creating a more sustainable longer term change like domino effect than these huge breakthrough meditations that go on for a week. Those are great and I have so much fun and I have profound insights that come from them, but it’s the daily practice of breath and the daily practice of yoga and movement that really sinks in to a whole other level of being and embodying." - Hannah Gresser [05:56]

"I realized that breath can do exactly the same thing that all of these medicines can do, but almost… I don’t need to go and reach for anything. All I have to do is *takes a deep breath* and that’s the medicine." - Hannah Gresser [15:53]

"Breath is always available and always possible." - Hannah Gresser [20:13]

"I just want to tell everybody and share this simplicity of what I’ve learned: that it can go as simple or as complex as you like. And at least at this point in my journey, simplicity is what’s been the most helpful." - Hannah Gresser [23:41]

"The Hawaiian culture is deep. This culture is so deep and it’s so rich. And being here even just for the two months that I’ve been here, it’s taking me on this wild journey of realizing how much myth relates to the life." - Hannah Gresser [44:50]

What You Will Learn:

• [00:01] Intro
• [03:16] How to make it too small to fail
• [08:37] Meeting Hannah Gresser
• [09:46] Her different adventures and journeys before Hawaii
• [13:17] Where her interest in plant medicine came from
• [16:50] How breathwork superseded plant medicine to her
• [21:35] If there was a breathing technique she had a master
• [23:56] The simplest expression of breathing
• [32:39] Five qualities or breath
• [35:16] How to remember to breath
• [40:37] Correlating different personality types with different types of breath
• [41:55] Resources to learn more about these practices
• [43:38] Where to contact Hannah Gresser
• [47:32] How she’s changed her outlook about plant medicine
• [52:14] What is Holotropic Breathwork
• [55:27] Outro

Resources:

• Hannah Gresser’s website
• Email Hannah Gresser
• Master John Douglas
• Wim Hof

In this episode of the Wisdom & Wanderlust Podcast, Michael and Robyn talk with Lena Papadopoulos, an award-winning intercultural educator, facilitator, speaker, life transformation coach and aspiring astrologist. Lena’s approach is a unique alchemy of her educational and professional background in sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology, international education, experiential learning and leadership development. Using intercultural learning as a catalyst for self-discovery, she works with her clients to help them break free from cultural conditioning so they can reconnect with themselves, embody their unique potential and make a positive impact in the world.

Lena discusses the intersection of intercultural education and life coaching and how the two complement one another. She talks about Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions and whether people can change from introverted and individualistic tendencies to extroverted and collective tendencies over the course of a lifetime and places lived. She also talks about the differences between our life, soul and right now purposes and how to find these for ourselves.

"All the change that we want to see in the world and in bringing people together and in bridging cultural divides and differences and whatever, it all starts with the self." - Lena Papadopoulos [10:03]

"So many people use difference as this way to reinforce division or some kind of divide, but it’s such an amazing learning opportunity, right? The most innovative things are created when very different types of people come together because they bring different perspectives." - Lena Papadopoulos [16:43]

"I think that our core life purpose, our true truest purpose, is to return to the truth of who we are." - Lena Papadopoulos [40:49]

"Why does that matter to me? Because I was always the weird Greek girl. I was always sort of like I don’t belong here in this place. I don’t make sense here. This place doesn’t make sense to me, and also stuff with my family and things that I experienced at school. Like all these things made me feel othered, made me feel not wanted somehow or too much in some way or not enough in some way, right? So of course, yeah, I want other people to not feel that." - Lena Papadopoulos [43:58]

What You Will Learn:

• [00:01] Intro
• [02:33] Lena’s life in Oaxaca, Mexico
• [05:33] Her favorite and least favorite place to live
• [08:17] Where she got her start as an intercultural educator
• [11:58] Her definition of culture
• [13:56] How culture influences how we see the world
• [17:10] If she focuses on similarities and differences while she travels
• [19:09] How she prepares for the destination
• [22:05] Where she got her spontaneity trait
• [24:43] Things she does that helps her connect with people and culture
• [28:15] How adaptable are people to certain elements of culture
• [33:14] What is Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
• [35:08] How people can learn more about cultural assessment with Lena
• [37:49] Shifting to other realms
• [41:57] Difference between life and soul purpose
• [44:45] What gets in the way
• [47:59] Where to contact Lena Papadopoulos
• [49:01] Rapid fire questions
• [51:48] Outro

Resources:

In this episode of the Wisdom & Wanderlust Podcast, Michael and Robyn talk with Mel Miles, a coach, writer and a chief soul officer at Soulcation Coaching and Retreats. Her mission is to give stressed out, overworked professionals the space and information to rewrite their own story and find the freedom they’ve always wanted.

Mel talks about what it took for her to make the transition out of the corporate world into entrepreneurship and the lessons she gained from a year-long trip around the world. She also discusses how to lean into rest and play as keys to success. Listen as she shares how to build a life you don’t need a vacation from.

Warning: Explicit content

"I just want to speak to anyone who’s listening to this who feels stressed out, overwhelmed, burned out particularly in the time of COVID, that those feelings are so valid." - Mel Miles [11:25]

"No one ever taught me how to actually feel my feelings and that it was safe to be in sadness and grief and pain, which I know are five core emotions that we as humans have to experience." - Mel Miles [13:38]

"I always say when the pain is bad enough that you are finally willing to take action to choose yourself." - Mel Miles [15:55]

"When you’re actually going through a season of transformation, how you change your life is not through picking your next job and going all in to kill it. How you do it is lots of iterations and lots of experiments, and it’s the people who are willing to try on different identities, whether it’d be in their work life or their lifestyle, are the ones that can finally land in what’s true to them." - Mel Miles [24:49]

"I do believe that people with privilege are ambassadors to support the freedom of others." - Mel Miles [37:01]

What You Will Learn:

• [00:01] Intro
• [01:45] Why Playa del Carmen
• [05:28] Melody to Mel
• [10:59] The catalyst for what she’s doing now
• [15:47] Why she took a year to travel
• [18:15] What freedom means to her and Michael
• [22:50] A profound moment that changed her life
• [26:48] Why she remembers the next yellow arrow
• [28:55] The parable of businessman and the fisherman
• [31:19] The top five regrets of the dying
• [36:24] If freedom is a choice & what prevents people from that choice
• [46:27] Some mindsets to adopt while traveling and bring home
• [49:39] Mel’s business, Soulcation
• [51:50] Rapid fire questions
• [56:42] Outro

Resources:

• Mel Miles’ website
• Soulcation Podcast
• Mel Miles on Instagram
• Mel Miles on LinkedIn
• My Ayahuasca Death and Rebirth
• Mel’s 7-Step SOULFUL Framework
• Free masterclass: Five Shifts to Heal Emotional Overwhelm & Burnout