YSM Conversations

Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon
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Welcome to YSM Conversations — a gathering place for women who sense something deeper is calling. Together we believe that the most profound adventures begin within — and that when women gather in deep conversation, something ancient and necessary awakens. Open the door to a new conversation, through Generative Listening – weaving together generations of wisdom and listening beyond the ears to restore the intelligence your body has always carried and integrate soulfulness into the adventure of your life. This is restoring and connecting to the deeper current running beneath it all.

  1. 1d ago

    042 ~ The New Paradigm of Peace Part 1: The Force That's Pulling Us Forward

    What if the thing pulling you forward is the same force that holds the universe together? This is Part 1 of The New Paradigm of Peace — a new two-part conversation that picks up right where the Three P's series left off. Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon open with a short reminder from the final minutes of the peacekeeping conversation, then follow the thread all the way into Danielle's own crystal story: a tree, a fire, and a stone she thought she'd given away for good. You don't have to know where the pull is taking you. You only have to let it pull. Together YSM explores: • Danielle's crystal story — leaving a smoky quartz crystal in a tree's "hidey hole" at the end of a retreat, the fire that burned the site down years later, and finding the crystal exactly where she left it • Why it doesn't have to be peacemaking or peacekeeping — craving, creating, and being as three steps along the same path, not three competing answers • The grounding metaphor: what it actually takes to plug into a new frequency without frying yourself — in the body, not just the business • Victoria's binary star detour, and the reminder underneath it: nothing — not a sun, not a system, not a woman — evolves in isolation • The moment gravity enters the conversation as "one of the weakest forces in the universe" — and the question it leaves open about what's actually pulling us toward what's next Part 2 picks up exactly where this leaves off — gravity, black holes, and what it actually means to trust something you can't see the other side of. In this episode: [00:00:56] A reminder from the final minutes of the peacekeeping conversation — the three "peace somethings" it ended on [00:01:20] Welcome to a new conversation — entering The New Paradigm of Peace [00:02:18] Danielle's crystal story: the hidey hole in the olive tree, the fire, and finding it intact years later [00:08:42] Why it doesn't have to be peacemaking or peacekeeping — craving, creating, being as one path [00:11:33] The grounding metaphor — plugging into a new frequency without frying yourself [00:14:11] Victoria's binary star detour — nothing evolves in isolation [00:15:17] Gravity enters: the weakest force in the universe, and what it has to do with peacekeeping [00:15:39] Where Part 1 leaves off: "What's the force pulling us forward? I don't know." 🕊️ If something in you is already sensing a new frequency and doesn't have words for it yet, get Permission to Pause — a free 10-minute guided audio practice for exactly that moment. 🌿 Visit Victoria's website. 📺 Subscribe to our channels for more Generative Listening — where listening deeply to the Self, to each other, and to the intelligence of the Universe opens a door to something genuinely new.

  2. Oct 15

    041 ~ The Three P's Part 3: Peacekeeping's Antidote Is Presence

    What if peacekeeping is the clue that there wasn't peace to begin with?This is Part 3 — the final conversation in the Three P's series — moving through each of the three limiting patterns one at a time: people-pleasing, perfectionism, and peacekeeping. In this episode, Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon sit inside peacekeeping, and the question that opened the whole conversation: is it peacekeeping, or is it peacemaking — and does the difference even matter?The distinction surfaced at a live gathering the week before, when every woman in the room, asked to talk about peacemaking, kept saying peacekeeping instead. Danielle and Victoria follow that small slip all the way down — through the groundskeeper who tends an inner peace versus the manager who keeps the outside calm no matter what's happening underneath, through a body-based experiment where each word (peace, peacekeeping, peacemaking, craving what being peace is) lands in a completely different place in the body.*Peacekeeping asks you to manage the outside. Presence lets you rest in the inside — and let the outside be whatever it's going to be.*Together YSM explores:• The insight that reframed the whole conversation: if you're peacekeeping, there wasn't peace to begin with — that's the pattern of managing calm instead of holding it• Inner peace vs. outer peace — the groundskeeper who stewards peace from within versus the pattern of keeping a room, a family system, or a relationship peaceful on the outside while there's contraction underneath• A live body-scan experiment: where "peace," "peacekeeping," "peacemaking," and "craving what being peace is" each land differently in the body — and why that difference matters more than getting the words right• Why peacemaking isn't always the pattern to release — there are peacemaking actions genuinely aligned with standing up for something, on behalf of yourself or someone else• What's next: a new conversation seeded by this one, exploring peace creating, peace craving, and peace beingThree episodes, three patterns, three antidotes: Play for perfectionism, Pause for people-pleasing, and — underneath all of this one's circling — Presence for peacekeeping. Not a fix for any of them. Just what's underneath, when you stop managing long enough to notice it's already there.In this episode:[00:00:00] Welcome to YSM Conversations — Part 3 of the Three P's series, diving into peacekeeping[00:02:10] Naming the third pattern, and the live gathering where everyone said "peacekeeping" instead of "peacemaking"[00:04:17] The core insight: if we're peacekeeping, there wasn't peace to begin with[00:06:59] Teasing apart inner peace vs. outer peace — the groundskeeper who stewards versus the manager who keeps things calm on the surface[00:12:09] Why this pattern is harder to pin down than people-pleasing or perfectionism — and what that difficulty itself is pointing to[00:18:40] A somatic experiment: where "peace," "peacekeeping," and "peacemaking" each land in the body[00:23:01] Craving what being peace is — the felt sense of peace within as stable ground, no matter what the outside looks like[00:27:00] What's next: peace creating, peace craving, peace being — seeding the next conversation📅 Save the date — December 29, 2026, 4:00 PM Pacific / 7:00 PM Eastern: a live conversation on embodiment, listening to what's underneath the managing. Registration link coming soon — keep tuning in to The Way of YSM podcast for it.If you want to talk it through directly before then, book some time with Danielle:https://danielleys.com/calendar🌿 Visit Victoria's website:https://victoriamcmahon.com📺 Subscribe to our channels for more Generative Listening — where listening deeply to the Self, to each other, and to the intelligence of the Universe opens a door to something genuinely new.

  3. Oct 8

    040 ~ The Three P's Part 2: People-Pleasing's Antidote Is Pause

    Pause is the antidote to people-pleasing — and it starts with space, not withholding.This is Part 2 of a three-part series moving through each of the three limiting patterns, one at a time — people-pleasing, perfectionism, and peacekeeping. In this episode, Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon sit inside people-pleasing, and its less-obvious twin, over-giving: the pattern of flooding a conversation, an offer, or a relationship with so much energy that there's no room left for anyone else to step forward and meet you.Danielle opens with a story from her own business — a Soul-deep container she kept giving away for free because she wanted it in the world so badly, and the resentment and lost momentum that quietly followed every time. Victoria meets it with an image from her own kitchen: her seasoned, matriarchal dog looking at Danielle's over-excited puppy and asking, "Can you tone it down a little, baby doll?" — the difference between a mature invitation and a flood of "come, come, come, come, come."*Where over-giving fills the room, pause leaves a door open.*Together YSM explores:• Why over-giving so often gets mistaken for generosity — and the resentment, lost steam, and quiet discouragement it builds when the giving isn't checked against what's actually aligned• The puppy-and-matriarch-dog metaphor for why flooding a container with energy can leave no space for someone else to step into their own readiness• The difference between a mature invitation — "come along if it resonates" — and an urgent one that makes a yes feel more like compliance than choice• Self-training as the practice of pausing before the automatic giving, to feel in the body whether it's coming from authenticity or from the fear of not being needed, liked, or enough• What's next: the final conversation in the series on peacekeeping, and December's live gathering on embodimentOver-giving is loud. Pause is what makes room for an actual yes.In this episode:[00:00:00] Welcome to YSM Conversations — Part 2 of the Three P's series, diving into people-pleasing and over-giving[00:03:38] Danielle's story: offering a soul-deep container for free, and the resentment that followed[00:08:15] Victoria's reframe: how over-giving floods the space someone else needs to step forward and meet you[00:09:46] The puppy-and-matriarch-dog metaphor for mature giving vs. urgent over-giving[00:13:25] Readiness: are we actually ready to let go of people-pleasing, and what do we get from the pattern?[00:16:40] Self-training as the practice of maturing — pausing to ask who the giving is actually on behalf of[00:20:44] Spiritual robbery: when over-giving leaves no room for someone else's own maturity[00:24:50] Next steps — the final Three P's conversation on peacekeeping, and the December 29 embodiment gathering📅 Save the date — December 29, 2026, 4:00 PM Pacific / 7:00 PM Eastern: a live conversation on embodiment, listening to what's underneath the pause. Registration link coming soon — keep tuning in to The Way of YSM podcast for it.✨ Book your free Threshold Assessment with Danielle:https://danielleys.com/calendar🌿 Visit Victoria's website:https://victoriamcmahon.com📺 Subscribe to our channels for more Generative Listening — where listening deeply to the Self, to each other, and to the intelligence of the Universe opens a door to something genuinely new.

  4. Oct 1

    039 ~ The Three P's Part 1: Perfectionism's Antidote Is Play

    Play is the antidote to perfectionism — and it starts with a simple switch: from plan to play.This is Part 1 of a three-part series moving through each of the three limiting patterns, one at a time — people-pleasing, perfectionism, and peacekeeping. In this episode, Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon sit inside perfectionism, the most pervasive of the three, and ask what actually lives underneath a lifetime of being told you're "so good because you're so perfect." The answer they land on together: play — the wiggle of a new puppy, the dance around a kitchen missing one ingredient, the willingness to add one more thing just to see what happens.Danielle names the switch precisely: where the perfectionist plans A through triple-A, the invitation is to trade the planning for playing — and when you catch yourself over-preparing, to ask, "how can I make this more fun?" Victoria brings the felt sense of it from her own kitchen: the brow furrow of trying to make a meal perfect versus the ease of dancing between ingredients, following what's rising instead of what's scripted.*Where perfectionism plans for certainty, play trusts what's rising.*Together YSM explores:• Why perfectionism is the most pervasive of the three limiting patterns — and how society celebrates it right up until it swings into all-or-nothing perfection• The felt difference between planning and play — the brow furrow of over-planning versus the wiggle and flow of being in the kitchen, in conversation, in the body• Impeccability versus perfectionism — the difference between bringing your whole self forward and needing to get it right to feel like you belong• How to find the pause before you act, and feel in the body whether you're moving from fear or from authentic expression• An invitation into The Permission Circle, the six-week container opening this fall for women ready to practice imperfectly togetherThe brow furrow is information. So is the wiggle.In this episode:[00:00:00] Welcome to YSM Conversations — introducing the three-part series and diving into perfectionism[00:02:27] Why perfectionism, people-pleasing, and peacekeeping show up far beyond the holidays[00:08:00] The societal celebration of perfectionism — and how "you do everything right" sets us up to not know how to fail[00:14:49] The antidote: play — the switch from plan to play, and the question "how can I make this more fun?"[00:17:33] What play feels like in the body — puppy wiggles, kitchen dancing, and finding your own signs of flow[00:24:58] Impeccability versus perfectionism — telling the difference between fear and authentic expression in the pause before you act[00:28:38] An invitation to practice imperfectly, together[00:30:25] Introducing The Permission Circle — a six-week container opening this fall🔑 The Permission Circle is open — six weeks to choose joy, connection, and ease with Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon (Fall 2026 enrollment closes October 4):https://thewayofysm.com/thepermissioncircleUse code READY2PLAY for the discount mentioned in this episode.✨ Book your free Threshold Assessment with Danielle:https://danielleys.com/calendar🌿 Visit Victoria's website:https://victoriamcmahon.com📺 Subscribe to our channels for more Generative Listening — where listening deeply to the Self, to each other, and to the intelligence of the Universe opens a door to something genuinely new.

  5. Sep 24

    038 ~ Self-Excavating Part 5: The Gems That Time Reveals

    The Hope Diamond, unpolished, just looks like a rock. As you remove the layers, that's when time says: yes. It's ready. In Part 5 of the Self-Excavating series, Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon arrive at the close of the journey through containers — and at the heart of what makes Excavation different from forcing: trust. Trust that time is not a deadline but a container. That what isn't emerging yet has layers still to uncover. And that every step on the path — even the ones that felt like logistics — was the archaeology all along. The gems are already in you. Time is the container that reveals them. Together YSM explores: • Trusting time as a container — what changes when you stop relating to time as a deadline and start letting it move with you, toward what's ready to emerge • The Hope Diamond teaching — why showing the gem before it's been polished doesn't serve it, and how this intelligence operates in every business, relationship, and creative life • YSM's 11 months as living proof — how the conversation that became a masterclass that became an immersion was always Excavating one layer at a time, at the pace Source required • "Oh sh*t, we're doing it" — on recognizing that every logistical decision on the path was meaningful, and what it feels like to connect the dots retroactively • The grandmother spider teaching — why piecemeal access to Source is by design, and what this extraordinary moment in human evolution is asking of us The radiance was always there. Time just knew when to show it. In this episode: [00:00:00] Welcome back — Self-Excavating Part 5: The Gems That Time Reveals [00:01:37] Danielle: trusting time — what forcing costs, and what the layers are still uncovering [00:03:08] The word that wanted to be heard: "Radiant" [00:03:25] Danielle: the Hope Diamond — as you remove the layers, time says: yes, it's ready [00:03:42] Victoria: YSM's 11 months as living proof — from conversation to masterclass to immersion [00:05:45] Danielle: "Oh sh*t, we're doing it" — every step on the path was informing the next [00:09:48] Danielle: the grandmother spider teaching — why piecemeal access to Source is by design [00:12:16] Danielle: the immersion — tools, the container, and self-excavating together 💎 Join The Way of YSM Gathering: https://thewayofysm.com/gathering-sep26-registration ✨ Book your free Threshold Assessment with Danielle: https://danielleys.com/calendar 🌿 Visit Victoria's website: https://victoriamcmahon.com 📺 Subscribe to our channels for more Generative Listening — where listening deeply to the Self, to each other, and to the intelligence of the Universe opens a door to something genuinely new.

  6. Sep 17

    037 ~ Self-Excavating Part 4: The Living Archaeology

    The breath is Source. The flute is the body.Neither can play a song without the other — and the song is your full life.In Part 4 of the Self-Excavating series, Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon explore what the living archaeology actually asks of us: letting the body experience the full spectrum, following that aliveness outward into the field that holds it, and discovering that Source is always, in every moment, in relationship with you.The living archaeology moves through the body, into the field, into the hand that has always been holding you.Together YSM explores:• The breath and the flute — why Source and the body need each other to create, and what opens when we stop getting stuck in the woes of being human and start inhabiting the delight of being alive• The fullness of being alive — Danielle's classroom story and what opened when she stopped performing happiness and started experiencing everything• The body container within the field container — how the living archaeology opens outward: from the personal to the relational to the infinite• Source is always in relationship with you — and what becomes available when you open to all of it, including the parts you've been told you shouldn't feel (including abundance, and everything you actually want)• The hand and the fingers — the image that shows why being in relationship with the field multiplies your reach in ways the individual body container alone cannotRest into the net. Let it hold you. The Excavation goes deeper from there.In this episode:[00:00:00] Welcome back — Self-Excavating Part 4: The Living Archaeology[00:01:17] Danielle: "We can do stuff" — the breath and the flute, why the body is how Source creates[00:03:19] Danielle: what opened when she stopped performing happiness and started experiencing all of it[00:04:23] Victoria: happiness as an interesting word — energy flowing in all its forms[00:05:02] Victoria: the pivot — the body container within the greater field container[00:07:03] Victoria: Source is always wanting to be in relationship with us — it can't not be[00:08:12] Danielle: the hand and fingers — why the individual finger alone is not that useful[00:09:08] Victoria: Source as the net that holds us — and the interplay of rest and restlessness💎 Join The Way of YSM Gathering: https://thewayofysm.com/gathering-sep26-registration✨ Book your free Threshold Assessment with Danielle:https://danielleys.com/calendar🌿 Visit Victoria's website:https://victoriamcmahon.com📺 Subscribe to our channels for more Generative Listening — where listening deeply to the Self, to each other, and to the intelligence of the Universe opens a door to something genuinely new.

  7. Sep 10

    036 ~ Self-Excavating Part 3: The Prism and the Sieve

    The body is a prism. Source pours through it.Whether it leaks – or focuses into the shape of your Soul – is the whole practice.In Part 3 of the Self-Excavating series, Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon explore the intelligence of restlessness: the difference between agitated energy that leaks through you like a sieve, and excited energy the body holds and focuses – like a prism – into the direction your Soul is calling.Self-Excavating moves through the body first. The body is the container. And what you do with your energy inside it changes everything.Together YSM explores:– The sieve and the jellyfish – two diagrams of energy flow that reveal whether your life force is leaking out or circulating toward something alive in you– Vrittis and the Yogic science of energy: why scattered, nervous energy depletes – and how presence brings it back into the body as forward motion– The body as prism – how Source energy pours through you, and how the body, held as a true container, focuses that white light into the rainbow of your unique expression– The Soul in the body: the Yogic philosophy of an infinite thing within a finite being – the beautiful, necessary tension of being exactly here, in this form, on this planet– The Care Bear question – which superpower archetype is streaming through your particular prism? (A question YSM invites you to sit with – and to ask the people who know you best.)Presence builds the container. And it's the container that lets the light move through.In this episode:[00:00:00] Welcome back – Self-Excavating Part 3: The Prism and the Sieve[00:00:56] Victoria opens: the restlessness that's filled with anticipation and aliveness[00:02:45] Danielle: the sieve and the jellyfish – two modes of energy flow from the heart[00:05:01] Victoria: vrittis and the Yogic science of directed, purposeful energy[00:07:45] The three pillars of Self-Excavating: presence, Generative Listening, and curious inquiry[00:08:00] Danielle: the body as prism – Source light becomes your unique rainbow[00:10:07] The Soul within the body – the philosophy of the infinite within the finite[00:11:38] Victoria's inquiry: what is the depth and gift of being in a body container?💎 Join The Way of YSM Gathering: https://thewayofysm.com/gathering-sep26-registration✨ Book your free Threshold Assessment with Danielle:https://danielleys.com/calendar☀️ Visit Victoria's website:https://victoriamcmahon.com🎧 Subscribe to our channels for more Generative Listening – where listening deeply to the Self, to each other, and to the intelligence of the Universe opens a door to something genuinely new.

  8. Sep 3

    035 ~ Self-Excavating Part 2: The Field Bigger Than the Two of Us

    What if the "Self" in Self-Excavating isn't just you?In Part 2 of the Self-Excavating series, Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon arrive at a reframe that changes everything: the capital S Self at the center of this practice isn't the individual ego — it's the Whole Self, in connection with all Beings, with the field itself.The container for Self-Excavating has never been just you. It's been you, and another, and the field you create together, and Source — nesting inside each other all the way down.Together YSM explores:• Capital S Self: the reframe at the center of everything — how "Self-Excavating" shifts from solitary to collective the moment you understand which Self is actually doing the unearthing• Containers within containers: the Russian nesting doll of held space — personal container, the container of relationship, the field of YSM, and Source as the largest container holding all of it simultaneously• The archaeological site and finer tools: how returning to the same field with more practice yields finer and finer discoveries — what changes when you've spent two years learning each other's layers• YSM as a Self-Excavated container: the realization that YSM itself was built through Excavation — two people in conversation, discovering a field larger than either of them, available to anyone who listens• Shine, doubt, shine again: the honest rhythm of what Self-Excavating actually looks like — not linear, not always triumphant, but always revealing the next layer of WholenessYSM is expanding. And this episode ends with an invitation: come Excavate together, live.In this episode:[00:00:00] Victoria opens: picking up from Part 1 — now into the ideas behind Self-Excavating[00:00:32] The phrase revisited: does "Self-Excavating" mean doing it alone?[00:01:08] Capital S Self — rejiggering what "self" in Self-Excavating really means[00:02:07] On the soul-being container: designed to move forward in growthful ways[00:03:37] Containers within containers: personal, relational, the field, and source[00:05:42] The ease of being held: Danielle on the Russian nesting doll of space[00:06:14] The archaeological site: finer tools with more practice and time in the field[00:07:13] YSM specifically: two years of learning each other's layers[00:08:06] YSM as a Self-Excavated container — and the field that holds all who listen[00:09:19] Victoria's own Excavation through YSM: no longer concerned about being visible[00:10:01] "Source is smiling. They got it."[00:10:14] Shine, doubt, shine again — the honest rhythm of Excavating[00:11:24] Interwovenness: pulling one thread reveals everything else[00:12:03] What was Excavated about YSM itself: from conversation to field[00:15:46] The expansion: YSM is growing — inviting the field into live events[00:16:39] The masterclass invitation: Self-Excavating, September 8, 2026✨ 💎 Join The Way of YSM Gathering: https://thewayofysm.com/gathering-sep26-registration✨ Book your free Threshold Assessment with Danielle:https://danielleys.com/calendar🌿 Visit Victoria's website:https://victoriamcmahon.com📺 Subscribe to our channels for more Generative Listening — where listening deeply to the Self, to each other, and to the intelligence of the Universe opens a door to something genuinely new.

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About

Welcome to YSM Conversations — a gathering place for women who sense something deeper is calling. Together we believe that the most profound adventures begin within — and that when women gather in deep conversation, something ancient and necessary awakens. Open the door to a new conversation, through Generative Listening – weaving together generations of wisdom and listening beyond the ears to restore the intelligence your body has always carried and integrate soulfulness into the adventure of your life. This is restoring and connecting to the deeper current running beneath it all.

Information

  • Creator
    Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    42
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Danielle YS and Victoria McMahon
  • Show Website
    YSM Conversations