On rest as the way to reclaim your brilliance, at the altar of now.
Octavia Raheem is a mother, author, yoga teacher and practitioner, and activist. She has received national attention for her work training yoga teachers and diversifying the yoga and wellness industry. Her work as a yoga professional focuses on practical tools to teach individuals how to manage stress, anxiety, and fatigue through yoga and meditation in a way that is accessible to all levels/abilities, and restorative to the nervous system. Her work has been featured in Yoga Journal, Mantra magazine, Well+Good, CNN, WXIA, and Atlanta Magazine.
Excerpt from Rest is Sacred by Octavia F. Raheem:
Divine One of Rest,
You said come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. You said I will fight for you; you need only to be still. You said be still and know. And here we are. Here, being this portal within these pages. Here, being this place. Here, at this altar called right now. We come in gratitude for our Ancestors who are well enough in spirit to tend to our wellness. Because of them, we found a way to rest. We made a way to rest. We are here to reclaim rest as our birthright. Let it be so.
On the temple of your regular life, and the daily practices of attention, surrender and wonder.
Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author, internationally acclaimed speaker, and a leading teacher of interspiritual dialogue. In 2020, she was honored on Watkins’ list of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People. Drawing from 20 years of teaching Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos, Mirabai now travels the world sharing her wisdom on contemplative living, writing as a spiritual practice, and the transformational power of grief and loss. She has authored over a dozen books including Wild Mercy, Caravan of No Despair, and God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Mirabai has received critical acclaim for her revolutionary contemporary translations of the mystics John of the Cross, Teresa of Ávila, and Julian of Norwich. Mirabai offers the fruit of decades of study, teaching, and contemplative practice in a fresh, grounded, and lyrical voice to a growing circle of folks inspired by the life-giving essence of feminine wisdom. Mirabai continues to teach seminars, workshops, and retreats, both in person and through her online community Wild Heart. She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
On the soul of our work, the re-indigenizing of our minds and the vital force of sisterhood.
<ul>
<li>(2:21) - Nisha's Background and Family Life </li>
<li>(4:09) - Hiro Boga's Influence on Nisha's Work </li>
<li>(7:55) - The Concept of Devotion and Partnership </li>
<li>(10:43) - Civilization and Disconnection </li>
<li>(15:26) - The Muse and Creative Practice </li>
<li>(23:37) - Global Sisterhood Day and the Importance of Friendship </li>
<li>(36:43) - Cultivating Friendship and Community </li>
<li>(42:52)- Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts </li>
</ul>
Nisha Moodley is an integrative leadership coach that holds her work – and our collective work – within devotional, animist relational ways. Nisha has 15 years of experience leading mastermind groups, online courses, and nearly 60 retreats. She was first trained to work with subtle energy nearly 30 years ago, and has since received in-depth Health Coach and Executive Coach training, become a Family Constellation facilitator, and deepened her practice through breathwork training, Ancestral healing, and archetypal studies.
All of these teachings and modalities (and others) are integrated for guidance that works not just on the level of mindset, but also through much deeper listening and moving.
Nisha is the mother of two small children, a newbie land steward, constantly seeking to understand the deeper systemic and historical implications of the individual and collective challenges we face today, weaving those considerations into the work as well.
On bringing joy to justice; learning how to bear witness to our oppressive patterns and tendencies; fierce compassion as a quality of mind, heart, body and spirit.
Dr. Kamilah Majied is a mental health therapist, clinical educator, researcher, and consultant on advancing equity and inclusion using meditative practices. Drawing from her decades of contemplative practice and leadership, Dr. Majied engages people in experiencing wonder, humor, and insight through transforming oppressive patterns and deepening relationships toward ever-improving individual, familial, organizational, and communal wellness.
Author of Joyfully Just: Black Wisdom and Buddhist Insights for Liberated Living
On the origins of our best behavior, managing undue shame and the price women pay to be good.
On radical self-responsibility and reprocessing our childhood shame to empowerment and creativity.
Sophie Schauermann, LCSW is a licensed therapist and parent coach based in Denver, CO. Her passion and expertise lie in supporting highly sensitive children (and their parents) in harnessing their sensitivities into their superpowers. She is the founder of Rooted Rhythm Therapy and Parent Coaching, which was born out of the belief that children must get to know the beat of their own drum in order to confidently reach their potential…and that the best kind of parent is one that is Rooted in their own Rhythm.
Sophie supports her clients with Synergetic Play Therapy, EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing) Therapy, and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. She has over 10 years of experience working closely with children and families in many settings, including the Harvard Medical School’s laboratory for youth mental health, the public school system, community based mental health programs, and now in private practice. Her greatest learning, however, lies in her personal story of healing and growth into the person that she is today. Sophie is the proud wife to another therapist and bonus mama to two amazing kiddos that she couldn’t imagine life without.
On resetting after betrayal and spiritual abuse, shifting self-loathing, and service as crucial to our healing.
Ryan Haddon is the Director of Programming at Sage + Sound’s dedicated space for mental and emotional fitness, called The Study. She is an old friend, a certified Life and Spiritual coach, a clinical Hypnotherapist and certified meditation teacher with over 18 years of experience with hundreds of clients around the world.
A sought-after public speaker for corporate retreats such as the international talent agency CAA, for three Tapping Solution Summits, Visionary Women and more.
On hospicing modernity, an invitation to hold many paradoxical layers of complexity, to stretch your heart, to know vulnerability as your strength.
Dr. Vanessa Machado de Oliveira Andreotti has served as a Latinx professor at the University of British Columbia, now Dean of the Faculty of Education of the University of Victoria.
Dr. Andreotti is a former Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change and a former David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education. She is the author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism (2021) and one of the co-founders of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures (GTDF) Arts/Research Collective. Most of her published articles and OpEds are available at academia.edu.
She began her career as a teacher in Brazil in 1994 and has since led educational and research programs in countries including the UK, Finland, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Brazil, and Canada.
Andreotti works across sectors in international and comparative education, particularly focusing on global justice and citizenship, Indigenous and community engagement, sustainability, and social and ecological responsibility. Her research examines relationships between historical, systemic, and on-going forms of violence, and the inherent unsustainability of modernity. Andreotti is one of the founding members of Gesturing Decolonial Futures Collective (decolonialfutures.net) and Teia das 5 Curas, an international network of Indigenous communities mostly in Canada and Latin America. She currently collaborates with these groups to direct research projects and learning initiatives related to global healing and wellbeing in times of unprecedented challenges.
On activating compassion through our simplest offerings of forgiveness, care, gratitude and respect.
Paula Ara was raised in Detroit by a Japanese mother, and did Zen training in Japan. She obtained her Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Harvard University in 1993 and is now the Eshinni & Kakushinni Professor of Women and Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California. She is the author of Bringing Zen Home: The Healing Heart of Japanese Women’s Rituals, Women Living Zen: Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns, and Painting Enlightenment: Healing Visions of the Heart Sutra. Her work has been a tremendous force in my own spiritual formation.
(5:32) - Cancer treatment, body connection, and self-love.
(11:35) - Resilience, grief, and legacy after cancer diagnosis.
(18:07) - Starting a foundation and creating a membership community for personal growth.
(24:59) - Spirituality, self-forgiveness, and patience with a guest speaker.
On steady practices of self-awareness to redefine yourself as often as you wish, and trusting yourself in any situation to make strong choices that serve.
On the importance of self-trust, repression v. suppression, the vitality of solitude for development of our intuition, and the prioritization of feeling over discursive thinking.
Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, Eboni Banks is an Intuitive Healer and Author who has been aware of her intuition since childhood. She is from a lineage of healers and wellness practitioners on both sides of her family. Eboni’s maternal great-grandmother read palms for a living in the 1940s. Her late father was a social worker and hypnotherapist who owned and operated a private practice mental health clinic. Eboni's inspiration to serve others began as a child while spending time in her dad's office and observing his healing work.
As a trauma survivor, Eboni has learned to use her wealth of inner spiritual resources to thrive on her own healing journey and is now inspired to teach people how to do the same. To access their intuition to heal the stuck parts of their lives that prevent them from living their desired life.
Eboni's main spiritual gift is Clairtangency, which means clear touch and is the ability to receive information and impressions through touch.
She is passionate about charitable work and has worked with nonprofit charities for the past 13 years as a development consultant, targeting social justice, pediatric healthcare, and equitable education. In 2016 Eboni received the Osborn Elliott Award for Outstanding Community Service for a volunteer-led organization she founded, which taught people living in Brownsville, Brooklyn, about the importance of incorporating plant-based eating into their diet.
Eboni considers herself a mystic and enjoys exploring the balance of physical and non-physical life. She practices yoga, meditates, and listens to mantras in her spare time. Eboni currently lives in New York City, where she shares her thriving spiritual practices with clients.
On presence, living on a prayer, devotion and what it means to pause.
Originally from Lima, Peru, Cynthia is a first-generation Latina immigrant to the States, currently living in Texas. As a meditation and mindfulness teacher, mentor, and lifetime student, her two greatest passions are creating and teaching. Cynthia’s deepest joy is to see her students and clients befriend all aspects of themselves to live a more present and compassionate life, one breath at a time.
Cynthia has been teaching in-person and online since 2018. For her, teaching is not only sharing the practices and wisdom she’s learned from her teachers, but also being of service to her students and clients to teach/mentor for her own experience. Cynthia’s meditation classes may include Sound Healing, Kirtan, Mantra meditation, aromatherapy, minerals, journaling, and many other holistic healing modalities.
She loves to travel around the world for work and play. Cynthia’s other passions are painting, watching the waves of the ocean, drinking coffee or matcha, and chasing sunrises. She dreams about going to Bali, Indonesia and leading meditation retreats around the world.
Digital meditation programs and classes for self-study: https://www.cynthiaredhead.com/programs
YouTube channel with free resources: https://www.youtube.com/@cynthia.redhead.meditation/
On prioritizing our connections with our ancestors as a way to elevate our work and the quality of our present relations.
On empowering women in business, prioritizing integrity and creating a global movement.
As Founding Executive and Chair of the Board of doTERRA, Emily Wright has been fully immersed in the global essential oils market since the mid-90s. Empowering people on both sides of the bottle, she loves creating intentional connections and unifying teams for a common cause. She is a champion of doTERRA’s business model, focusing on providing tools to help nurture physical and emotional wellbeing while helping people reach their personal goals. Emily's relentless desire to source the world’s most pure and potent essential oils continues to lift communities in sourcing regions as she places her whole heart into doTERRA’s purpose: helping the world heal.
Emily and her husband Korey are the parents of four beautiful children and three adorable grandchildren, her pride and joy.
On the causes of, and possible solutions for, autoimmune struggles. On resolving the trauma signature so many of us carry.
On resilience, via the wisdom of our ancestor Ralph Waldo Emerson. Seeing our character reflected in our opinions of the world. Shifting our lens to acknowledge our uniqueness, practicing surmounting our subjectivity in order to steep ourselves in reality as it is with empathy, equanimity and insight.
Mark Matousek is a bestselling author, teacher, and speaker whose work focuses on personal awakening and creative excellence through transformational writing and self-inquiry.
His books include Sex Death Enlightenment: A True Story, The Boy He Left Behind, When You’re Falling, Dive, Ethical Wisdom: The Search for a Moral Life, Ethical Wisdom for Friends, Mother of the Unseen World, and Writing to Awaken: A Journey of Truth, Transformation, and Self-Discovery. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and publications, including The New Yorker, O: The Oprah Magazine, Details, Tricycle, Good Housekeeping, and Harper’s Bazaar.
He has blogged for Psychology Today and offers courses in creativity and spiritual growth around the world. In 2013, Mark founded The Seekers Forum, a global online community for non-sectarian spiritual dialogue. He is on the faculty of The New York Open Center, The Omega Institute, 1440, Esalen, The Rowe Center, Hollyhock, and Blue Spirit, Costa Rica.
He lives with his partner in Springs, New York. His new book is Lessons From An American Stoic.
From the wild edge of intuition, women's health, inner presence and full embodiment, a peek inside the hearts of wise, engaged women.
Seraphina Capranos is a clinical herbalist, homeopath, and initiated priestess with a practice spanning over two decades.
As well as being a deeply engaging teacher and speaker, she has a clinical practice on Salt Spring Island. Her unique blend of gifts straddle the vast worlds of plant medicine, homeopathy, and ritual and ceremonial magic. She is a sought after international teacher who has taught thousands of students since 2008. She is the CEO and founder of The Center for Sacred Arts.
From The Wild Edge is a ground-breaking virtual program that weaves a rich tapestry of Myth, Herbal Medicine, Modern Science and Ritual, taught by Seraphina and Dr. Karley Denoon. Blending expert health and hormonal guidance, herbal medicine, enriching community learning, elevating your understanding of what it means to heal as a woman in our times, From The Wild Edge might be a relevant course for you.
ELENA means 5% off the course at this link. Enrollment closes Sunday May 12, 2024.
On redefining power, living and leading without apology, spacious parenting and the perceptions holding us back.
One of Australia's leading credentialed coaches for female executives and entrepreneurs, Kemi Nekvapil is an author and a highly sought-after international speaker, a flower farmer, a wife and mother, and a solid friend. She's studied leadership and purpose at The Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan and trained with Dr Brené Brown to become a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, working with teams and organisations to create daring leaders and courageous cultures. Kemi is a facilitator for The Hunger Project Australia and a regular interviewer of industry icons including Elizabeth Gilbert, Martha Beck and Marie Forleo, and she hosts the number one ranking podcast The Shift Series. With a level of compassion and wisdom only gained through extraordinary life experience, Kemi is a powerful advocate for connected, value-based living.
On shifting the way we perceive our capacities as humans and as parents, focusing on relational connection and possibility.
In Work, Parent, Thrive, Yael shares practical strategies from clinical psychology and social science to better manage the conflict and enhance enrichment in work, parenting, and the balance of these meaningful roles. While these strategies won’t create more hours in the day, they can shift how we label our experiences, revise the stories we tell ourselves about working and parenting, and recognize the value we get from each role on its own, and in combination with one another.
Yael Schonbrun, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, assistant professor at Brown University, co-host of Psychologists Off the Clock: A podcast about the science and practice of living well, and mother of three. Yael’s academic research explores the interaction between relationship problems and mental health conditions. She has authored chapters in several books and has written dozens of scientific articles. In her private practice, writing, and podcasting, Yael uses evidence-based science to help individuals and couples learn to manage work, parenting, and marriage in more effective and fulfilling ways. She draws upon treatments that integrate ancient Eastern philosophy with scientifically backed practices. Yael’s writing on work, parenting, and relationships has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Greater Good Science Center, Behavioral Scientist, Kveller, Lilith Magazine, The Wise Brain Bulletin, Psychology Today, and Motherly. Her new book is Work, Parent, Thrive: 12 Science-Backed Strategies to Ditch Guilt, Manage Overwhelm, and Grow Connection (When Everything Feels Like too Much).
Yael lives outside of Boston with her husband and their three small comedians.
On the Way of Tea, the practice of service, the meaning of presence and the medicine of silence.
Mia Maestro most recently wrapped Oscar-nominee Jose Rivera’s Castro’s Daughter, directed by Miguel Bardem. She appears in the Apple+ Scott Z. Burns’ climate change anthology Extrapolations
Mia is a citizen of the world, traveling, surfing, scuba diving, and warming her spirit through the practice of Cha Dao, The Way of Tea. She’s passionate about prison reform and serves tea to the incarcerated through Healing Dialogue and Action in the state of California.
https://miamaestro.com
On the ecological, mythical and cultural understandings that shape our history of extraction and exploitation, and how one conversation can truly make a difference in our future.
Founder and executive director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Osprey Orielle Lake works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to build climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a decentralized, democratized clean-energy future. She sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and on the steering committee for the Fossil Free Non-Proliferation Treaty. Osprey’s writing about climate justice, relationships with nature, women in leadership, and other topics has been featured in The Guardian, Earth Island Journal, The Ecologist, Ms. Magazine and many other publications. She is the author of the award-winning book Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature. Osprey holds an MA in Culture and Environmental Studies from Holy Names University in Oakland and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area on Coast Miwok lands.
https://ospreyoriellelake.earth/
https://www.wecaninternational.org/
On death, grieving, service, and releasing our fixation on redemption.
On fostering spiritual kinship and community, a plea to stay in the fold of love and civility, and recipes to fortify the truth of our interbeing.
Dr. Pamela Ayo Yetunde is a pastoral counselor, writer, instructor and speaker. She did her post-doctoral work at Harvard Divinity School, earned a Doctor of Theology in Pastoral Counseling from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, earned her M.A. in Culture and Spirituality from Holy Names University in Oakland, CA, and her law degree from Indiana University of Law. She is a Community Dharma Leader certified by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. Her articles appear in Buddhadharma, Lion's Roar, Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies, Religions and Feminist Theology. She is an interfaith pan-Buddhist practitioner. Ayo is the author of three books: Casting Indra’s Net: Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community (2023, Shambhala Publications). Black and Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us About Race Resilience, Transformation and Freedom co-edited with Cheryl A. Giles (2020, Shambhala Publications). Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law, and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care (2020, Palgrave Macmillan).