Find Your Voice, Speak Your Truth Elissa Weinzimmer

Fall is ending. 2021 is ending. The podcast season is ending. (The pandemic does not seem to be ending.) And our resident astrologer Virginia Rosenberg is back on the podcast to share about many things of note going on in the cosmos. The big highlights: there’s Pluto/Venus conjunction in Capricorn this month, a Venus Retrograde, and Saturn and Uranus are directly square again too. If all this sounds like mumbo-jumbo - but you’re curious - Virginia explains it with incredible clarity. The basic idea is that our life as we’ve known it is ending. And it’s time to sow seeds for something new. Sending you so much love and an air kiss on this last episode before my sabbatical.

What does harmony mean to you? For me, it’s about living in alignment with and acceptance of all that’s going on. In this last solo episode of the season, I share how - slowly but surely - over the past six months I’ve started really listening to the voice inside of me that’s letting me know I need a big break. I’ll explain my plans to take a sabbatical and reflect on the uncertainty of not knowing what comes next. Here’s what I can trust: I know that by taking this step, I’m living in harmony with my inner truth. This episode is a vulnerable share and a pep talk to encourage you to do the same.

In 2012, Harper Spero learned she had a tumor in her lungs the size of a golf ball. After her subsequent surgery and that transformational experience, Harper began taking radically good care of herself. This included changing her health routines, and also starting her own business so she could be in charge of her work habits. When the pandemic hit, Harper became outspoken about her experience as an immunocompromised person, and the importance of making personal decisions that support the collective. In this heartfelt episode, Harper shares her story and speaks to the resistance many feel about getting vaccines and wearing masks. We may not like having to take these measures, but they’re the way we look out for each other.

When he was 23 years old, Coss Marte was removed from the streets of the Lower East Side and sentenced to 7 years in prison. In jail, Coss quickly learned that he was in extremely poor health. So he started working out in his cell and in the prison yard. Soon other inmates joined him. Then, an organization called Defy Ventures showed up at the facility and helped him learn how to turn his passion for fitness into a business venture. When Coss was released, he returned to the Lower East Side and opened CONBODY, a prison-style Bootcamp. Coss’ story is an incredible journey of grit and redemption and highlights the importance of caring for our body and our voice.

One day this fall, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, when I saw a post from my friend Josh. It was a screenshot of Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s response to President Biden’s mask mandate. Gov. Abbott wrote “Biden’s vaccine mandate is an assault on private businesses” and below in the caption Josh wrote “I DO NOT comply.” My first thought was “Eesh, I need to unfollow my friend Josh.” But as my finger moved to hover over the button my second thought was: “Elissa Weinzimmer... you’ve got one person in your feed who’s not in your silo of agreement. This is an actual chance to practice Conversation Culture.” In his comment, Josh had also said that he really wanted responses, especially from people who disagreed. So I took him at his word and instead of unfollowing, I commented. A real conversation ensued, and now we’ve brought that conversation to this podcast. Thank you so much Josh Trent, CEO of Wellness Force, for opening your heart to speak with me in a way that most of us avoid. Josh and I agree that these conversations - that really hearing each other - are the keys to creating change in our world. We hope this conversation is helpful to you, and if it ignites something that you want to share please reach out to either or both of us... we genuinely want to hear from you.

When you think of the word resistance, what comes up for you? My guess is that you (and most of us) think of resistance as something bad; as something to be avoided. But let’s ask a different question: What is resistance good for? I would argue that resistance - which I’ll define as the experience of feeling pressure between ourselves and something outside of us - is good for helping us understand and define who we are. In this solo episode that sets the month’s theme, join me to do a somatic experiment around the feeling of resistance, and explore why it can indeed be a very useful experience.