Curious Hearts

Vera Lester

A non-dogmatic spiritual podcast for people who did everything right and still feel like something's missing :: high-achievers, organizers, healers running on empty, and anyone carrying pain or grief they're tired of hiding. I'm Vera, and I don't have this figured out either-- just sharing some reliable paths back to your truest & steadiest self, and honest conversations with folks walking this path. veralester.substack.com

  1. 4d ago

    Ep. 42: Jenny Hughes

    Who’s taking care of the caretakers? It’s all I can think when I think about Jenny. It takes an especially generous heart to be a trauma therapist. To know the details of the worst of humanity, and still be able to find joy and hope — this is a lesson we all need. Jenny taught me about something called “vicarious trauma,” — which is one of the things she’s dedicated her work to. It turns out, your therapist is human too. Hearing all those stories, witnessing the extraordinary pain and suffering of being human — well, that can create trauma too. What do you do when being a trauma therapist is traumatic? You find a community. We know community is an essential part of a spiritual practice; and spiritual care is what those trauma therapists get when they reach out to other folk to help share the load. Jenny and I talked about how the simplest things are the most effective. The things that are so simple, they seem like they shouldn’t work? If every careworker carries the burden of their work, how does sharing it work? It seems too simple. The breath is like that too. It’s so simple, it shouldn’t work — but it does, every single time. Despite how it sounds, this episode is ringing with laughter and joy and so much love. Jenny and I have a special connection that you’ll hear about in this episode. P.S. Visit Nederland, we’re here and we’re ready for you. ------------------------------------ 00:00 Welcome & Meet Jenny 03:16 Growing Up in Nederland 11:46 Finding Yoga, Finding Wild Lotus 19:15 Holding Space Through Grief 25:15 Vicarious Trauma & Vicarious Resilience 34:52 Breath, Nature & What Nourishes Us Now --------------------------------------- 🌲 - Visit Ned: https://www.nederlandco.gov/explore-nederland 🎙️ veralester.com — work with me 📚 Jenny's books: The PTSD Recovery Workbook Triggers to Glimmers: A Vicarious Resilience Journal and Workbook 🌱 Jenny's work: The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective The BRAVE Method Follow Jenny: 📲 Follow Jenny: YouTube: @braveproviders Instagram: @braveproviders Facebook: The Vicarious Trauma Community with Jenny Hughes TikTok: @braveproviders This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit veralester.substack.com/subscribe

    Ep. 42: Jenny Hughes

  2. Jul 15

    Ep. 41: Pain as Spiritual Initiation

    This isn’t the episode I planned. Over the last week, I’ve been meditating and writing about compassion. But we can’t talk about compassion without first acknowledging pain and suffering. This episode may be a little heavier than usual — so if you don’t have the bandwidth, you have full permission to skip it. But I do want to caution you: we often want to skip pain and/or suffering. We do a lot to avoid it. To numb or distract, rather than to soothe. I can’t promise this episode is soothing, but I know it is a non-negotiable lesson in our spiritual life. There’s an old adage: Pain is mandatory, suffering is optional. I used to believe it. I don’t anymore. In fact, I think that suffering is one of the greatest teachers we have. It’s a profound initiation into spiritual life, and it’s a magnetic force field drawing us back to each other. If you have a body, you will have pain. What happens next is up to you. 00:00 - Intro 01:26 - Pain is guaranteed (physical, emotional, spiritual) 07:47 - Rethinking "pain is mandatory, suffering is optional" 09:54 - The RAIN technique 12:29 - Where suffering starts: blame, shame, and coping strategies 15:29 - Sarvam dukham: the root of this teaching 23:12 - How suffering deepens connection 25:44 - Tonglen and how to hold pain without fixing it Learn more: * RAIN technique — Tara Brach’s official overview and free guide: https://www.tarabrach.com/rain/ * Tonglen practice — Pema Chödrön’s instructions via Lion’s Roar: https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-practice-tonglen-meditation/ (Happy Birthday, Pema!) * Krishna Das (kirtan singer referenced for the “stuff sucks” translation): https://krishnadas.com/ * Eisenhower’s insistence on witnessing the camps — National Park Service overview: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/eisenhower-and-the-holocaust.htm * Bernie Glassman’s Zen Peacemakers and their witnessing work: https://zenpeacemakers.org/programs/ * Romanian orphanage research (Bucharest Early Intervention Project) — NPR coverage: https://www.npr.org/2006/09/16/6089477/researchers-still-learning-from-romanias-orphans What did you take from this episode? Where do you want to go next? If I can support you in navigating your own process untangling suffering, please look me up. Work with me: veralester.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit veralester.substack.com/subscribe

    Ep. 41: Pain as Spiritual Initiation

  3. Jul 9

    Ep. 40: Zia

    Sometimes everyday mystics are immigration lawyers. That’s the story of today’s guest. When I first met Zia, she was working as a local immigration attorney for a non-profit. (It is not a great time to be an immigration attorney, if you hadn’t noticed.) You’d expect someone with a caseload in the hundreds, hearing some of the most gut-wrenching stories all day would be hardened and jaded. But not Zia. Zia has a light in her eyes and an openness that is rare. She’s one of those people who sees you when she looks at you. Without words, you know that she can see right through all those masks and carefully crafted identities — all the way to the real you. Her path is similar to so many: raised religious, left the church (and G_d) and then found her way back again as an adult. She came back the Ram Dass way, if you know what I mean. Our conversation, like being with Zia, is grounded and spacious. We explore the deep human needs for belonging, finding purpose, and our silly search for certainty. I think my favorite part of this episode is hearing Zia’s commitment to Bhakti — a path of the heart, and learning to live in love all the time. This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. 00:00 – Meet Zia: student, teacher, immigration attorney 04:18 – A childhood between faiths: Bahá’í, Catholic, and belonging nowhere fully 21:56 – Becoming an atheist — and the trip at 41 that changed everything 31:04 – Bhakti, collecting traditions, and experience over doctrine 39:36 – Sound, surrender, and the difference between efforting and allowing 55:21 – The parking lot story, and closing thoughts This podcast is at home on Substack - but your review or rating wherever you listen helps other people discover and listen. If you liked today’s episode, I hope you’ll share a comment or a review. If you’re in a season where you’re doing your own work of coming back home to yourself, you can find ways to work with me at veralester.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit veralester.substack.com/subscribe

    Ep. 40: Zia

  4. Jun 24

    Ep. 39: The Transformative Practice of Humility

    Welcome back, Curious Hearts. And welcome to the most misunderstood and transformative spiritual practices there is. I did not understand humility for a long time — and I don’t think I’m alone in that. I think humility has been twisted and used as a way to force people into submission. For a lot of us, "be humble" was code for "shut up and do what you're told." So when I was asked to explore humility in my spiritual work, my defenses went up. It took some intense and gentle work to unwind humility from the part of me that had been forced to shrink and let go of agency. Humility is found at the crossroads of how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of time, and how much agency we have to completely change the future. And so it requires us to reckon honestly with both of those things: our smallness and our power. This episode is an introduction to how we explore our relationships to power, and how we can be responsible in those roles. And we close with my favorite questions that instantly shifts my perspective — especially about difficult people or situations. My aspiration is to be humble, to be teachable, and to be willing to learn and grow. If that sounds good to you, I think you’ll enjoy this episode. 00:00 Introduction 00:53 How humility got distorted 02:43 The paradox: small and powerful 05:41 Your relationship to power 11:53 Humility means being teachable 23:09 How to practice it 🌐 Work with Vera: veralester.com🎧 Follow Curious Hearts wherever you listen⭐ Leave a review if this episode landed #CuriousHearts #Humility #SpiritualPractice #MeaningfulWork #PersonalGrowth #SpiritualLeadership #PowerAndPrivilege #ConsciousLeadership #InnerWork #SelfAwareness #Compassion #Surrender #NewOrleans #VeraLester #SpiritualPodcast This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit veralester.substack.com/subscribe

    Ep. 39: The Transformative Practice of Humility

  5. May 28

    Ep. 38: Aycee Brown - Embody Your Magic

    I’m not interested in spiritual practices to escape the world. I long for practices that allow us to move authentically and skillfully in the world. That’s the kind of work this week’s guest, Aycee Brown, teaches. Aycee Brown’s new book Embody Your Magic is thesis in three short words. How do be bring our mysical, magical selves into our bodies and into the world.(One of my joys in hosting this podcast is finding people who share my ethos and making new friends instantly.) In a world that pulls us in every direction, where our to-do lists are never complete, and there is a constant hum of anxiety about something else we “should” be doing — finding a way to pause, turn off the noise, and come back to our bodies and our hearts is essential. And Aycee knows this intimately. When we turn away from the noise of the outside world and return to our inner natures, we connect to our innate wisdom. In the end, that’s what every spiritual practice is about: they are all pathways back into our own hearts. Aycee’s grounded presence in this conversation is also in the pages of her new book, and I’m grateful she’s doing this work — and that we all get to benefit from it. About This Episode Aycee Brown has been reading people’s charts since homeroom. A psychic medium, astrologer, human design practitioner, and MBA — she moves between the spiritual and material worlds without apology and without losing her footing in either. Her recently published book, Embody Your Magic, is the culmination of a lifetime of doing exactly that. We trace Aycee’s path from a near-death experience at four years old, -- which she believes activated her psychic sensitivity -- to a grandmother who taught her to decode her dreams without ever calling it spiritual training. We talk about finding astrology at 13 because she thought something was wrong with her, what it means to teach people to play the cards they’ve been dealt, and why she has always been able to see exactly what someone is meant to do — whether they listen or not. We close on something I haven’t been able to stop thinking about: in a world drowning in information, the most radical spiritual act right now might be turning it off. Getting back in your body. Feeling the grass under your feet. Aycee says it plainly and I believe her. Chapters * [00:01:59] Growing up with Unity, hoodoo, and a grandmother who decoded dreams * [00:06:32] A near-death experience at four — and what it awakened * [00:13:40] Finding astrology at 13 to figure out what was wrong with her * [00:18:35] What Aycee does professionally — and how it became a business * [00:21:01] What her spiritual life looks like today * [00:29:37] The most important spiritual principle right now: get back in your body Resources & References * 📚 Embody Your Magic by Aycee Brown: https://www.ayceebrown.com/embody-your-magic-book * 🎙️ Aycee’s podcast Is My Aura On Straight: https://www.ayceebrown.com/blog * 📚 The American Daughters by (New Orleans native son!) Maurice Carlos Ruffin https://mauricecarlosruffin.com/ * 📚 Dominion by Addie Kitchens: https://bookshop.org/p/books/dominion-addie-e-citchens/ * 📚 Malcolm in the Desert by Malcolm X’s daughter https://www.ilyasahshabazz.com/books/ or https://bookshop.org/p/books/malcolm-in-the-desert-wisdom-from-the-spiritual-transformation-of-a-civil-rights-icon-dr-ilyasah-shabazz/ * 💬 adrienne maree brown: “The revolution must be irresistible,” is a quote from Pleasure Activism: https://adriennemareebrown.net/book/pleasure-activism/ Work with Aycee 🌐 https://www.ayceebrown.com/ 📸 Follow Aycee on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ayceebrown/ 🎥 On Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ayceebrown Work with Vera 🌐 veralester.com 📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery 📸 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verarocks/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit veralester.substack.com/subscribe

    Ep. 38: Aycee Brown - Embody Your Magic

  6. May 14

    Ep. 37: The Dance of Change

    Welcome Back, Curious Hearts. I recorded this episode a couple weeks before you’ll hear it, and in that time there’s been a pretty significant change in my life. The details of the change don’t matter. What does matter is that I need the lesson right now just as much as anyone. When we resist change, we suffer. When we try to cling to the way things were, or what we think is “supposed” to happen — we suffer. When we try to influence, manipulate, or otherwise control other people or outcomes — we suffer. Often, by the time we let go of something we’ve been so clawed into, our hands our so sore and our claws so bloody that the pain of holding stays with us for a while. I believe all of our spiritual practices are preparing us for this truth: Change is coming. It’s coming for the things you love the most, and the things you hate. It’s coming for your body, your heart, your relationships, your career, your government, and even your identity. Whether you like it or you don’t like it, it will change. The story I share in this episode is one of my very favorites. I have spent years with it, studying it, teaching it, living it, and loving it. Like all the great stories, every time I tell it, I learn something different. I’m not sure it translates well to this format — but I hope you get something from it. Today, I am being present with what’s changing. I am releasing my attachments to the way I thought things were supposed to be, so that I can experience the joy of what is. All change brings grief. Learning to dance with grief is the path. The only thing I have experienced that doesn’t change is the Essence of Self. Call it Awareness, Soul, Spirit, Wisdom. I believe it is the drop of divinity that is present in all of us. It is the only refuge, and may all of our practice bring us back there. Home to our Curious Hearts. Chapters: 0:00 — Whether You Like It or You Don't 4:47 — The Pine Forest Sages 11:55 — Shiva Begins to Dance 0:30 — Shiva Girl and Hurricane Katrina 26:09 — The Serenity Prayer and God Is Change 🌐 Connect with Vera: veralester.com 📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery #CuriousHearts #TheologyOfChange #SpiritualPodcast #MeaningfulWork #YogaPhilosophy #Nataraj #SpiritualPractice #PersonalTransformation #ChangeAndGrowth #BhaktiYoga #OctaviaButler This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit veralester.substack.com/subscribe

    Ep. 37: The Dance of Change

  7. Apr 15

    Ep. 36: Tann Cordell-Schneider

    Ep. 36: Tann Cordell-Schneier: The Breath is Everything.Tann and I had never talked explicitly about our spiritual lives, but I have known for a long time how much she listens to the world around her. She has been my primary bodyworker for many years, and her way of practicing is unlike almost any other I have know. Her ability to be still, to listen to the body, and to do less is nearly unparalleled. I always suspected there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than I was told. It’s like there is a silent orchestra in the room as she is working — and her work responding to each note. It should not have surprised me how winding and diverse Tann’s spiritual background is — but somehow, it did. Tann’s willingness to soften, to welcome the moment, to open to breath could only have come from years of letting go, and letting go, and letting go. Embodiment is an essential aspect of spiritual practice. We are not just walking heads. Our bodies and our breath can connect us to G_d as quickly as prayer. This episode is a playful, light, heavy, open exploration of just that. Enjoy. [00:01:39] A Lapsed Rabbi Father & a Jewish Day School [00:12:52] Rehab, the 12 Steps & a Higher Power [00:18:37] The Breath as Connective Thread [00:30:01] A Daily Pranayama Practice [00:49:16] Softening as Spiritual Principle [00:54:54] Getting Comfortable with the Open Path Links: 🌐 Work with Vera: veralester.com 📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery 🔗 Connect with Tann: https://www.tanncs.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit veralester.substack.com/subscribe

    Ep. 36: Tann Cordell-Schneider

  8. Apr 6

    Ep. 34: The Prayer of Brushing Your Teeth

    I love thinking about meditation as “spiritual showers.”You don’t only shower once. Ideally, you shower every single day. Forever. You don’t shower well enough once that you suddenly are clean forever. That’s how meditation is. That’s how all of our spiritual practices are. The reality of this magical universe is that it is chaotic and unpredictable and random. Chaos births the dancing star, or whatever. We cannot control the universe, we do not need to manage it, but we can manage ourselves. We can tend to our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual states, and keep things in relative order. That order, even in the face of all this chaos, is the greatest example of faith I can imagine. May you find gentle order and subtle peace today. Chapters: [00:01:24] The Vedas and the origin of spiritual order [00:14:02] How we create systems of order — and when they stop helping [00:18:38] "I am not the general manager of the universe" [00:21:52] Physical hygiene as spiritual practice [00:25:28] Caring for mind, heart, and spirit [00:29:28] What it means to keep your channel clear Links: 🌐 Work with Vera: veralester.com 📅 Book a coaching discovery call: veralester.as.me/coaching-discovery This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit veralester.substack.com/subscribe

    Ep. 34: The Prayer of Brushing Your Teeth
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Ratings & Reviews

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About

A non-dogmatic spiritual podcast for people who did everything right and still feel like something's missing :: high-achievers, organizers, healers running on empty, and anyone carrying pain or grief they're tired of hiding. I'm Vera, and I don't have this figured out either-- just sharing some reliable paths back to your truest & steadiest self, and honest conversations with folks walking this path. veralester.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Vera Lester
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    43
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Vera Lester
  • Show Website
    Curious Hearts