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Practice You with Elena Brower

Content and conversations for times of transition and change. Join me in discussion with renowned luminaries and dear friends to explore life's myriad transitions, our understandings and our responses. What does it mean to be present, to shift our perceptions, to engage with the world meaningfully, with dignity and care? With respect for the ancient practices and the modern wisdom that continue to inform and elevate our exchanges, each episode is an invitation to Practice You.
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Practice You with Elena Brower
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Now displaying: 2023
Feb 18, 2023

On the teachings and vitality in discomfort, and the smallest moments of recognition and awareness that can quietly change us all.

A conversation surrounding the individual and group work of developing compassionate and diversely represented spaces.

  • 0:41 – Introducing Rahshaana Green; https://www.rahshaanagreen.com/
  • 3:20 – Inviting people to occupy and be in discomfort with me. Avoiding discomfort becomes a barrier in creating and maintaining community.
  • 7:10 – Working with organizations on confronting and being with various aspects of tension and discomfort on behalf of diversity, equity and inclusion.
  • 10:15 – The brain is naturally wired for bias and habit patterns. Even well intentioned, it may not be optimized for inclusion or equity.
  • 12:45 – Facilitating belonging through the work we do. Less ‘othering’, more connection.
  • 16:55 – Build a bridge; incrementally change the world.
  • 18:15 – Yoga/Mindfulness/Compassion – based organizations risk bypassing this work because simply knowing concepts is not the same as daily application.
  • 20:15 – Small things speak to the foundational shifts of introspection. Belonging in a space means the ability to show up in an authentic way.
  • 24:55 – Go put yourself into a position that isn’t comfortable. Listen and learn. Find opportunities to learn about ourselves in community.
  • 27:30 – This is not just beneficial for people of color, or marginalized groups. We all learn and grow with diverse representation.
  • 29:40 – The core of cultivating belonging – As our hearts grow, others feel seen, understood and heard.
  • 32:30 – Create opportunities for you to get deeply uncomfortable with the status quo in order to change it. Create safe spaces around curiosity.

 

Feb 11, 2023

On the life-giving, natural practice of listening well, the core of poetry and the inextricable ties between Buddhism and true shamanism.

On The Shamanic Bones of Zen and the practice of zazen as a portal for wisdom. A conversation addressing the importance of ritual and ceremony in connection with our self and ancestors.

  • 6:15 – The Naked Nothing – Joy in just sitting. Being awake to life.
  • 8:10 – Discovering poetry. Being a conduit, writing the essence of something, and finding a voice in writing poetry.
  • 12:05 – Letting go and finding new words. “Explaining magic strips the ocean of its waves.”
  • 14:45 – Who will show up in an inner monastery for poetic solitude? Rituals and Ceremonies are to be lived.
  • 17:00 – Recognizing the parallels and merging of the shamanism and zen. The power of ritual and ceremony.
  • 19:25 – The daily devotion to things unseen. ‘Zazen is good for nothing.’ Not looking to gain anything, but seeing deep into life.
  • 24:45 – Becoming completely intimate with yourself. Through this intimacy, the possibility of intimacy with another arises.
  • 27:00 – Chanting spells – In transporting the breath the inhalation must be full…
  • 29:20 – The practice and purpose of zazen. Zazen is a portal for wisdom. Chanting gives you the rhythm that goes along with the stillness and silence. The indigenous bone is the voice of the drum.
  • 32:15 – Celebration and initiation rituals; speaking to the ancestors is part of many earth based traditions. The ancestors are inside of us, we are them.
  • 36:20 – Taking the vows; standing at the gateway of freedom; making the vow to live a particular way; receiving a new dharma name.
  • 40:40 – The Gate of Sweet Dew; To engage the body and mind in ritual and ceremony will reveal the soul and spirit of your own life.
  • 51:10 – You cannot achieve Buddhist teachings. There’s nothing to show that you have become accomplished, but there is a way of seeing how life is experienced through each other.

 

Jan 28, 2023

On the impact of rest in our mind and body. The science behind supporting the nervous system. Virtual restorative yoga teacher training. 

Jillian Pransky, author of Deep Listening, is an international presenter and a certified yoga therapist. Jillian is creator of Mindful Of Rest: An Online Retreat, The Art of Conscious Rest: Restorative Yoga Teacher Training, as well as Yoga Journal’s Restorative 101. She teaches regularly at prominent wellness centers throughout the country such as Kripalu, Omega, Esalen, 1440, Blue Spirit.

A student of Pema Chödrön’s work since 1998, Jillian infuses her yoga classes with mindfulness practices, compassion, and ease. For over 25 years, she's been teaching people all over the world the principles of deep listening through restorative and slow flow yoga and mindfulness practices. Her message is simple but potent: slowing down, turning inward, and deeply listening to our body and heart is perhaps the most meaningful form of self-care work we can do. When we are more compassionate and connected with ourselves, we are able to be more compassionate and connected with others and the world around us.

Jillian's seamless style of working simultaneously with the body, mind, and spirit, while attuning with nature and the environment, creates inspiring classes, community connections, and an integrative healing experience. 

Jan 21, 2023

On the prospect of slowing climate change with our smallest actions, to shift the temperature of our planet in real time.

A conversation around ‘The Carbon Almanac’ exploring the power of shopping our values, the impact of economic demand on climate change, and hope for the future through accountability in rectifying the global temperature.

  • 0:41 – Introducing Diane Osgood; The Carbon Almanac; https://dianeosgood.com/
  • 3:00 – Diane’s passion for people shopping their values; understanding economic behaviors based on demand.
  • 6:10 – Getting involved with The Carbon Almanac
  • 9:00 – As an individual, how can I engage in with a systemic issue that is a result of how our economy is built, how our energy systems are built, politics, etc?; ‘The Tyranny of Convenience’
  • 14:05 – What is climate change?; The Greenhouse Effect
  • 18:00 – The impact of 1 degree Celsius; understanding the changes we are currently facing.
  • 20:40 – Whose job is it? The roles of government, business and individuals in creating change. The Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda – > Power, Road Transport, Steel, Hydrogen, Agriculture.
  • 25:51 – UNFCC – > United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Kyoto Protocol; The Paris Agreement
  • 29:00 – The Indigenous Youth of Panama; All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson
  • 33:25 – Youth led climate litigation
  • 37:00 – Influential artists and climate change


Diane Osgood; Ph.D. is a pioneer in corporate sustainability. For over 30 years she has helped companies to innovate, manufacture and sell sustainable products that are better for the planet, and for the people. She believes that everyone has a shopping superpower, to purposely use your wallet to build a better world. Diane is passionate about sharing tips and strategies that anyone can use in day to day life to help address climate change. She is a contributing author and chapter editor of bestseller, ‘The Carbon Almanac.’

Jan 14, 2023

On life’s myriad transitions and how we refine our responses in our relationships, our wellness, our households, our work, and in our practices.

Jan 7, 2023

Nadia Bolz-Weber is an ordained Lutheran Pastor, founder of House for All Sinners & Saints in Denver, Co, the creator and host of The Confessional Podcast and the author of three NYT bestselling memoirs: Pastrix; The Cranky, Beautiful Faith Of A Sinner & Saint (Re-released 2021), Accidental Saints; Finding God In All The Wrong People (2015) and SHAMELESS; A Sexual Reformation (2019).

She writes and speaks about personal failings, recovery, grace, faith, and really whatever the hell else she wants to.
Read more from Nadia in The Corners.

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