Happiness Vs. Wholeness: What should we be striving for?

Today we explore the colors of your Modern Magic painting and the emotions they evoke. A bit longer of a guided mindfulness practice than usual but you'll be taken through a short breathwork practice to help you settle in and then moved through questions to explore as you look at your painting. Every mindfulness practice is created to help you slow down, tune in, and go deeper bother internally and within the painting that spoke to you. See how the colors of your favorite paintings are working on you.

In this meditation, you don't need a painting as we'll be closing out eyes as I walk you through a visual meditation. This pairs with my archetype deck of cards and booklet but works well to if you need some grounding and a clear understanding of where you want to go from here.

Our culture is hell bent on logic and telling you how you're supposed to feel. But that's the gift of art, it allows for true emotion to emerge–positive or negative. In this mindfulness practice we'll explore your reactions to this painting before anyone else told you it was good or bad. The intention is for you to build trust with yourself and to recognize that your body knows so much more than your mind has to be able to articulate. In this episode we'll explore what it feels like to trust your gut, to recognize what you love and not just what society tells you to love, and a breathwork practice that will help you create space and ground you so that you can truly feel what your intuition is telling you. Your intuition was never the problem —the noise in the way is.Come back to this painting & this podcast when you need to remember what you knew first.

There's less guidance in this practice and more space for you to explore the painting in front of you in your own way. We so often are bombarded with sound and encouraged to consume that simply sitting with a piece of art, in silence can feel like we aren't doing enough–there's that curse word again...enough! But art as medicine works on you slowly, it settles in, seeps into the skin, and creates the space you are craving in your life. By practicing the mindfulness of silence you are giving yourself permission to witness beauty and let the healing be done to you, nothing that you have to do.

Lectio Divina is a contemplative practice of sacred reading. Not for information, but for transformation. You return to the same passage slowly, letting it open layer by layer until something in you opens too.In this episode, your painting is the passage. We'll move through stages: seeing the whole, choosing one detail, inhabiting that painting, and returning to the full painting to receive what it has to say now. This is not art appreciation. This is art as a doorway.Settle in. You're about to go somewhere.

Before and during the Black Lives Matter campaign that grew in 2020, I was completely unaware of what unconscious bias was and that I could possibly have any. I was unaware of what it was like to be a person of color in America and that our experiences could be so vastly different. All that to say, I’ve learned a lot from Dameda JoLynn over the last year. Not only because she so kindly share’s her black experience and helps me to understand the world in a new way, but also because she has shined a light on the ways I too have been a part of the problem and opened up new ways to be a part of the solution. By no means do I have it right (or even close to right) but bringing things to light is the very first step to making any sort of change, and that’s what Dameda helps do in her anti-racism work when working specifically with white people. So.. let’s bring some things to light.

Let's talk about sex. While this isn't my favorite conversation to be had–I'm highly uncomfortable by the conversation of sex based on my upbringing–I think it's an important one. And who better to talk to than Alyssa Manny who isn't afraid of any conversation. Alyssa is the owner of Ohana Yoga and Barre in Denver, Colorado. Her mission is to evolve and help others to evolve too. To help others to open their hearts in ways they didn’t think possible. This starts with the journey to loving ourselves and our bodies then expands to loving those around us. And she adds an emphasis to this for those who have been marginalized or oppressed. Which is why she continues to find ways to make Ohana a truly inclusive space for all to heal. In this episode we talk about • Spiritual Upbringings • Our relationship to pleasure and sexuality • How "good" and "bad" morality issues have effected our relationship with sex • Removing shame when talking to kids about sex And so much more. For the full show notes head to ShopModernMagic.com/Sexuality For this episode's art head to ShopModernMagic.com/product/Sexuality

Kemetic yoga is a newly rediscovered Egyptian practice with roots that outlive that of the yoga we practice now. Unlike Indian yoga that was made for the elite and men, Kemetic yoga was created for all the people. Men and women of every background, focused on soft movements that highlight the divine feminine and only features a limited number of postures to explore. It’s a style of yoga that’s making its way back and I’m so excited to share more of this amazing practice with you from someone who really knows what she’s talking about. Ali  Duncan is a complete Life Coach, Clairvoyant, Tantrika, Energy Healer, Spiritual Guide, and Teacher. For over 16 years she has combined the world of quantum mechanics, frequencies, emotions, and body wisdom to move her clients from their past, into the present and support them in creating a healthy, vibrant future. And I cannot wait to share with you our conversation on Kemetic yoga. So without further ado, here is Ali Duncan... On this episode we talk about: • Ali's spiritual life like growing up• What brought Ali to yoga in the first place• How did Ali discover Kemetic yoga• The story behind Kemetic Yoga• How this style of yoga been received by Ali's students and why it feels so different from our usual practice • How does Kemetic Yoga bring us back to the spiritual parts? • What home means to Ali For the full show notes head here.

What is happiness and how do we even pursue something that we can’t fully grasp? Maybe happiness isn’t the destination. Maybe it’s just a guide on the map to where we really want to go. To a place of wholeness.  Join me as we walk through this world of wholeness vs. happiness and which is the right fit for you…….. For the full show notes head here Shop this episode's cover art here

As defined by Joanne Sienko Ott, St. Catherine University, "The literature describes the crone archetype as a pre-existent form in the collective unconscious that embodies instinctive ways of channeling wisdom, inner knowing, and intuition, guiding us through the transition of life, and going inward to bring forth the light for transformation." Only with age can we receive the gifts of the crone. To know life through personal experience and to be able to share what we’ve learned with others. We aren’t guaranteed to reach this phase in our life so wouldn’t it be wonderful to actually honor this stage instead of dread it? On this episode Janet Reichart, counselor, Reiki Master, and End of Life Doula, talks with Katie Leigh Jackson about her personal experiences with death, preparing for the death of a loved one, honoring those who have passed, and understanding what an end of life doula even is. Check out the full show notes here. Purchase this episodes Archetypal painting here.