Practice You with Elena Brower

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.

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Rosemerry Trommer

    On the facets of grief, the joy in the depths, and the presence we bring.   (0:00) — Introduction and Guest Introduction   (3:23) — Rosemerry's Son Finn   (6:05) — Grief and Connection with Finn   (11:53) — Exploring Darkness and Light   (18:39) — Metaphors and Connection   (24:30) — Meadow and Listening   (28:15) — Talking to the Dead   (29:53) — Rosemerry's Work and Resources Devoted to helping others explore creative practice, Rosemerry is co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast on creative process, co-founder of Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal), and co-leader of Soul Writers Circle. She directed the Telluride Writers Guild for ten years and co-hosted Telluride’s Talking Gourds Poetry Club for another ten years. She teaches and performs poetry for mindfulness retreats, women’s retreats, teachers, addiction recovery programs, scientists, hospice, literary burlesque and more. Clients include Craig Hospital, Business & Professional Women, Think 360, Ah Haa School, Desert Dharma, Well for the Journey, and the Women’s Dermatological Society. She performs as a storyteller, including shows in Aspen at the Wheeler Opera House, at the Taos Storytelling Festival, Page Storytelling Festival and the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. Her TEDx talk explores changing our outdated metaphors. For five years, she performed in the Telluride Literary Burlesque. She has been writing a poem a day since 2006, posting them since 2011 on her blog, A Hundred Falling Veils. In 2023, her poems can be heard daily on the Ritual app, The Poetic Path. Favorite themes include parenting, gardening, ecology, love, science, thriving/failure, grief and daily life. She has 13 collections of poetry, and her work has appeared in O Magazine, A Prairie Home Companion, PBS News Hour, American Life in Poetry, on fences, in back alleys, on Carnegie Hall Stage and on hundreds of river rocks she leaves around town. Her poems have been used for choral works by composers Paul Fowler and Jeffrey Nytch and performed around America. Her most recent collection, Hush, won the Halcyon prize. Naked for Tea was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. Other books include Even Now, The Less I Hold and If You Listen, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. In 2023 she released All the Honey; Beneath All Appearances an Unwavering Peace (a book for grieving parents with artist Rashani Réa); a book of writing prompts, Exploring Poetry of Presence II; and Dark Praise, a spoken word album with Steve Law. She’s won the Fischer Prize, Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge (thrice), the Dwell Press Solstice Prize, the Writer’s Studio Literary Contest (twice) and The Blackberry Peach Prize. She’s widely anthologized including Poetry of Presence, How to Love the World, The Path to Kindness, Send My Roots Rain, Come Together: Imagine Peace, Dawn Songs, and To Love One Another. She’s been an organic fruit grower, a newspaper and magazine editor, and a parent educator for Parents as Teachers. She earned her MA in English Language & Linguistics at UW–Madison. One-word mantra: Adjust. Three-word mantra: I’m still learning.

    35 min
  2. 21 JUN

    Nan Seymour

    On our imperiled bodies of water, focusing on the majestic Great Salt Lake, and the urgency of divesting from harm. (0:00) - Introduction to Nan Seymour and Her Work (3:18) - The Great Salt Lake and Its Significance (6:06) - Human Impact and Environmental Concerns (9:07) - Efforts to Protect the Lake (13:58) - Hope and Future Actions (18:23) - Nan's Poetry and Personal Connection (26:01) - Community Engagement and Future Plans (31:27) - Closing Remarks and Resources Nan created River Writing in order to foster voice and authentic connection. Everyone is welcome in her circles. This community-held writing practice was designed for anyone willing to pick up a pen. A recent PBS documentary highlights River Writing as a method of repair for what is broken in our relationship with the natural world. Her debut poetry collection, prayers not meant for heaven, was published by Toad Hall Editions in the summer of 2021. Nan's story lake woman leaving, a modern myth, was awarded the 2022 Alfred Lambourne prize by Friends of Great Salt Lake. As the poet-in-residence on Antelope Island, Nan led day-and-night vigils on behalf of the imperiled Great Salt Lake throughout the 2022 and 2023 Utah State legislative sessions. During her weeks on the receding lake shore, she assembled the praise poem called irreplaceable, ;a collective love letter containing over 400 individual voices from lake-facing citizens. The epic ode is a community cry for this essential ecosystem's full restoration. In the May 2023 special issue of Desert Report, Nan offers a reflection on relationship with the lake from the perspective of two winter vigils. Nan continues to advocate for Rights of Nature, legally defensible personal rights for ecosystems, including Great Salt Lake. Her work gives voice to their inherent right to live, flourish, and evolve in natural way. The words emerge from a devotion to repairing the breach between humans and the rest of the sentient, singing earth.

    32 min
  3. 24 MAY

    Chelsey Luger

    On the ways in which we can respectfully learn from Indigenous cultures about creating instances of meaning, integrity, health and happiness. The Seven Circles encompass a series of interconnected, intersecting circles to help us all live well.  (0:00)- Introduction and Guest Introduction (2:54) - Overview of "The Seven Circles" (3:49) - Movement as an Antidote to Addiction (10:28) - Connection to Land and Environmentalism (16:46) - Spiritual Aspects of Land and Prayer (21:46) - Ceremony and Its Role in Wellness (38:11) - Resources for Allies and Cultural Revitalization (38:42) - Final Thoughts and Gratitude Chelsey Luger is a writer, multimedia journalist and wellness advocate whose work focuses largely on reclaiming healthy lifestyles and positive narratives in Indigenous communities. She is Anishinaabe, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa (maternal) and Lakota from Cheyenne River and Standing Rock (paternal). She holds a BA in history and Native American studies from Dartmouth College, and an MS in journalism from Columbia University. Luger has written for the Atlantic, Self Magazine, the Huffington Post, Well + Good, Indian Country Today and more. She is a former VJ (on-air talent), script writer, and producer for NowThis News. She is a trainer/facilitator for the Native Wellness Institute and is the cofounder of Well For Culture, an Indigenous wellness initiative. Luger has worked as talent, cultural consultant, producer, content creator and copywriter for brands such as Nike, Athleta On Running and REI. She is originally from North Dakota and now resides in O’odham Jeved (Arizona) with her husband, Thosh Collins, and their children. Chelsey and Thosh are the authors of The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Wellnow available everywhere books are sold.

    39 min
  4. 10 MAY

    Ash Canty

    On serving and shifting the narrative around death, dying and our transition to the other side. On entering into deep heart healing and becoming ourselves. (0:00) - Introduction (3:01) - Ash's Journey and Personal Background (7:04) - Ash's Work and Certification (13:13) - Ash's Approach to Death Coaching (14:57) - Stories of Helping Clients (29:25) - Ash's Retreats and Private Spiritual Coaching (39:05) - The Impact of Healing on Generations (43:25) - Final Thoughts and Gratitude Ash Canty is a wonderfully queer, Afro-Indigenous-made Psychic Medium and Death Walker, supporting others to consciously and gracefully face their death. Ash's work serves those actively dying as well as those wishing to feel more connected to their own spirit in everyday life. Ash also supports you in connecting with loved ones with mediumship readings, guiding you in transforming your grief into even deeper wells of meaning and aliveness. This work of walking with grief and death found Ash after being diagnosed and hospitalized with a chronic illness called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. It was in their most challenging days and scariest moments where death was close---that Ash realized what it was they would offer to this world. "It was when I began to face my own death from my long term chronic illness that I was initiated in the astral plane by my grandmother Ida Canty, who was in spirit. She told me I would be supporting others in the physical world, lessening their fear of death and being a bridge of communication from the spirit realm to this physical realm." Certified as a death care provider through Alua Arthur's Going With Grace program, Ash's hope and prayer is to bring about healing from the other side and a profound peace regarding life after death. https://www.thesovereignspiritmedium.com/

    47 min
5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

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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