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Categories

Now displaying: December, 2019

092 | Design, Yoga & Being Held Through Heartbreak with Kelly Robinson 0

Dec 13, 2019

Kelly and I are so excited to welcome you to our Big Island Women’s Retreat! (http://risingwomenleaders.com/retreat) We will be joining together on the Kona coast April 17 - 22 for a week of nourishing self-love and adventure. Join us to swim with dolphins, snorkel the incredible coral reefs, and join together in prayer, ritual and sisterhood.

It’s an honor to introduce you to dear sister Kelly Robinson today on the podcast! She is a kind soul I met on pilgrimage in Egypt one year ago. We quickly bonded, sharing stories of love and hope with each other over the past year. I was honored to celebrate her birthday with her on the Big Island of Hawaii this past October, and am sooo excited to go back with her for our Wild Heart Retreat for women this April.

In this episode we discussed:

Kelly’s background designing offices for growing companies like Airbnb, Soundcloud, and Headspace
Finding balance in spiritual growth, career, sisterhood, love, family, and adventure
How our Wild Heart Retreat came to be
Death, Birth, and Rebirth
The Big Island and all its magic
Sovereignty - what it means and what Kelly has been learning after releasing a relationship this year
What wisdom Kelly has for those of us experiencing grief or heartbreak
Our experience swimming with dolphins!

Stay in Touch with Kelly:

With a deep understanding of the importance of space and its impact on how we work, live, feel and relate, Kelly designs environments centered on improving health and wellness, inspiring meaningful interaction, and deepening our connection to the planet. With a successful track record of building functional homes for pioneering companies like Airbnb, SoundCloud, and Headspace, she marries business sense with a passion for nurturing the spirit.

Inspired by the beauty of the natural world, Kelly is driven by a deep desire to positively change the way we connect with our environment and ultimately, how we treat our planet.

Outside of her work with design, Kelly is a yoga teacher, a birth doula, a meditation practitioner, and a seeker. She is passionate about sisterhood, women's empowerment, plant medicines, and the path of priestesshood.

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091 | Sacred Birth, Rhythm & Raising Women's Voices with Hope Medford 0

Dec 6, 2019

After touring for years around the world with Nahko & Medicine for the People, Hope Medford decided to have a baby. In this episode, Hope and I discuss her journey of becoming a doula and midwife, what it has been like to attend over 450 births and her experience of performing in front of thousands as drummer for Nahko & Medicine for the People.

"There's something about being with a woman giving birth that just doesn't even compare to performing on stage in front of thousands of people"

In this episode we discussed:

Hope’s first experience attending a birth at 19 years old
Her journey to becoming a midwife and experience of attending births
The benefits of water birth
How Hope first felt called to the drum
Hope’s journey to becoming a mother and giving birth to her daughter at home in water
Raising women’s voices and how we can lift each other up
The energy of the Big Island of Hawaii and MAnaFest, the festival she puts on each year there in honor of the sacred feminine

Stay in Touch with Hope:

Website: www.sacredbirthpath.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hope-Medford

Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/TheFlipside29

Hope is a creative force.
Following spirit and serving humanity as her guides, Hope has walked many paths flowing from & returning to the same source.
Hands in the dirt, beating drumskin, brushing color across canvas, holding a newborn babe, or gathering the tribe; Hope thrives when steeped in raw, fresh energy pulsing around her. She is a visionary who sees the positive direction she wants the world to move toward, and takes the steps she can to manifest it.

Touring Internationally and playing drums with Nahko and Medicine for the People since they were first heard of, Hope and Nahko shared a chemistry and frequency which catalyzed Medicine for the People to catapult from busking in the streets to performing in front of well over a hundred thousand people in a few short years. Nahko's music has a message that served as a call to the global conscious community for justice, truth talking, and positive social change. We were a part of a very special movement. Our music was bringing people together who were healing and wanting to make the world better.
To Hope, that was one more step in her journey.

Before that, Hope was a midwife, assisting over 450 births, primarily holistic home and water births, in Africa, Bali, and the US. Protecting the next generation has always been sacred and close to her heart. Birth is the moment a fresh soul enters the world and a woman transforms though an extraordinary rite of passage to become a mother. Hope has always felt honored to spend endless hours by a woman's side in her most primal and powerful birthing moments. The humility and awe in holding humanity in its first breaths have given Hope a deeper connection, compassion, and grounding in life.  This has inspired her to work to raise awareness about families' birth options and the importance of their choices. Hope created Artemis Healing Arts education program and taught natural birth classes in Peru, Brazil, Bali and at Findhorn Ecovillage, in Scotland, as well as in the US.

For Hope, the drum has always been a tool of spirit.   Her first teacher was Babatunde Olatunje, who encouraged her to keep playing, and to always play with love. Drums have taken her around the world; Hope studied with teachers in Brazil, Peru, and West Africa. She shared the drum with children in India and taught rhythm to youth groups in Guatemala. Hope has taught over 2,500 students of all ages; she uses drums to facilitate empowering women's voices in workshops and confidence building with at-risk youth groups. Drums are a powerful connection to our ancestors. As ancient healers have always known, when infused with positive vibrations & intentions, drums are potent medicine.

Hope's connection to nature began as a child and continues to flourish. Hope co-founded an urban non-profit permaculture education site, Tryon Life Community Farm. Hope coordinated the education program for years, teaching sustainability techniques such as natural building, permaculture gardening, social ecology, and the arts. Hope participated in the Global peace walk for 8 years. She later served for 3 years on the Board of Directors of Honor the Earth, the environmental justice non-profit protecting indigenous lands in North America, founded by Winona La Duke and supported by the Indigo Girls. Most recently, Hope has allied with the protectors of Mauna Kea, who currently have been standing in peaceful protest for months to prevent development on sacred indigenous land in Hawaii.

Much of her passion is expressed in rich color and paint.  Painting since she was a child, Hope has experimented with nearly every artistic medium she could get her hands on. As a result, many of her works are mixed media, often incorporating wood, feather, stone, metal, pencil, marker, watercolor, and acrylic - integrating them into delicate lines and powerful bold swaths of color to tell a story of women's power, strength and beauty. Creating images of empowered women has been a life long devotion; in response to being raised in a world where women have not been treated fairly or equally to men, and the earth has been ravaged due to this imbalance between masculine and feminine forces.. Her art is currently shown at the beautiful Wild Heartist Gallery in Hilo, Hawaii.

Hope's Musical Journey continues forward, she has recorded 3 solo albums, and her sound has been described as 'hypnotic world beat with maternal soul'. Recently when Hope evacuated Hawaii in the 2018 lava flow, she temporarily relocated to the Blue Ridge Mountains where she began a new musical project, a trio of women called CedarWing, described as 'world soul folk with a groove'. CedarWing recently recorded their first album which has not yet been released! ...wait for it!!

Hope co-founded MAnaFest music, arts & education festival in Hawaii in 2015, inspired by the transition from touring full time with Nahko, to giving birth to her daughter. While playing at festivals across the world, Hope recognized the imbalance of the number professional male performers to female. She is committed to helping women find their voice and share it! MAnaFest is a festival that honors the sacred feminine; it is run by women, featuring over 25 female performers, 25 workshops led by women, 5 female live artists, dancers, ceremony, red tent, grandmothers council and more- all on the beautiful grounds of tropical permaculture retreat center and spa! MAnaFest is inclusive of all people, everyone is welcome. There is a grandfathers council and purple tent to honor men and gender fluid community. 2020 Clear Vision is the theme of this upcoming 5th annual MAnaFest Jan 24, 25 & 26 - Join us! (manafestival.org)

Hope loves to teach and give back to her community. Join her on the Big Island of Hawaii for one of her upcoming juicy workshops:

Raising Our Voices - 3 day music empowerment workshop, teaching alongside professional songstresses Mama Crow and Mary Isis, Jan 28, 29 & 30 (starting after MAnaFest)

Wild & Natural Birth - 5 day DONA certified doula training co-facilitaed with Jesse Remer, international DONA certified trainer, Feb 19-23rd and

Creative Spirit Art Journey - 4 day Spring Equinox immersion in the creative process, integrating ritual, art & community March 19-22.

Connect with Hope and find out more about her work by visiting her website: www.sacredbirthpath.com

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090 | The Foundations of Ayurveda with DeAnna Batdorff 0

Dec 1, 2019

This interview has been a long time coming! I’m so excited to introduce you today to DeAnna Batdorff, founder of the Ayurvedic school and center where I teach yoga in my town of Sebastopol, CA. The dhyana Center is a true gem. It opened its doors to its new space in the heart of downtown Sebastopol the same year I moved here and has been a community hub for me ever since. They host yoga classes, kirtan, community events, and have a self-care studio featuring a steam room, different kinds of saunas, clawfoot bathtubs and a cold plunge.

In this conversation DeAnna and I discuss Ayurveda, her first love of herbal medicine, travels to India, and what it took to follow through on her big vision.

In this episode we discussed:

How DeAnna discovered herbal medicine and ayurveda
How we often know what we are here for from a young age
DeAnna’s stories from treating Ayurvedic patients at an ashram in India
Basic Ayurveda principles… what does Vata, Pitta, Kapha mean?
The beginnings of The dhyana Center Ayurvedic school

Stay in Touch with DeAnna:

Website: www.dhyanacenter.com

Instagram: @dyanacenter

DeAnna Batdorff began her career of service in 1987 and founded the dhyana Center of Therapeutics in 1995. She is a practitioner and educator of Indian and Tibetan Ayurveda, a massage therapist, western herbalist, nutrition counselor and clinical aromatherapist.

Currently, she oversees the dhyana Center in Sebastopol, California. More than 600 students have graduated from her Ayurvedic educational program in the years since its inception and DeAnna enjoys helping her students grow their own practices at the dhyana Center or around the country. DeAnna has been a featured lecturer in self-care summits as well as offered a personalized self-care essentials class to her community. She has instructed medical staff in integrative care best practices in area clinics to bridge the gap between western medicine and holistic health. Whether in a radio show interview or reading a client’s pulse, she is dedicated to spreading her motto that “self-care is the best health care we have.”

DeAnna has supported well over 100,000 clients in her Ayurvedic practice and is ultimately an advocate for preventative health and what it means to stay or become healthy for each individual. As a world-traveler seeking to collect global approaches to the common imbalances all people face, DeAnna has been a leader in providing wellness empowerment to all populations, from high-risk patients to the aging community to the youngest children. She views herself as a clinical practitioner and educator working with all facets of the life journey, from pregnancy and labor support to death and dying with dignity. Auto-Immune Disorders are known to be her specialty, as well as working with high-risk health issues and rehabilitation.

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