United Bodies

Today we’re talking about pleasure. I can already tell that some of you are wincing. Pleasure is experienced in our bodies and keeps us full of aliveness—whether that’s the pleasure that comes from feeling sun on our backs, tasting our favorite treat, or from a steamy sexcapade.

We’re talking about it all today with the person who wrote a whole book  about its importance. adrienne maree brown is the NYT Bestselling author...

For many of us, spiritual health is a facet of our health that we consider less, perhaps even give less weight to or spend less time cultivating. There are many reasons for this. Spirituality can feel elusive, confusing, scary, and unknown. It can bring up religious baggage, ostracization, and pain. 

Religion is one of the most notable constructs of how people find and express individual and communal spirituality, but it’s also...

Moving your body, in any way you can, can be a liberating experience—to feel your power, your strength, your security and resiliency through a step forward, a dance, a roll or stroll through nature. 

Studies support this—movement has a profound impact on our brains: reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, encouraging creativity and ingenuity. Think about it: when we are babies, we move our bodies naturally. We are born with the de...

Content warning: child abuse

Trauma is everywhere we look. Most prominently, trauma is marked by a sense of powerlessness and loss of control. This is one of most overwhelming parts of experiencing trauma. It’s terrifying to lose control over our bodies and our lives. Recovery is then about regaining control over all that was taken from us. 

One tool that can help us is the act of writing our stories. When we are able to reclaim our ...

Welcome to the second half of United Bodies, where we’re focused on building the world we need. A huge part of building a better world is about imbuing our world with joy and there’s nothing that makes me feel more joy than laughter. I love to laugh and I particularly love to laugh about my own problems. This is what I think they call… coping. 

Laughter is contagious. It literally extends our lives. Laughter can also help ...

We are living in a time of collective mourning. Millions of people are mourning loved ones lost to COVID, others are mourning those lost to rampant gun violence or police brutality, and still others are mourning the smaller or slower losses: the loss of progressive illness, relationships, jobs. It can feel like everywhere we turn, there’s new loss. 

Grief is long, complicated, isolating, and devastating. It’s also something tha...

Content Warnings: This episode includes discussions of suicidality, psychosis, violence, and police brutality.

Over the last number of years, we’ve made significant progress in destigmatizing mental health care -- many of us openly talk about going to therapy, follow therapists on social media, and even trade tips on dealing with side effects of taking popular medication for depression and anxiety. 

However, this de-stigmatization ha...