The Mind Bod Adventure Pod

This week on the pod, we’re joined by writer and teacher Sarah Selecky for a beautiful, funny, and surprisingly deep exploration of writing as a contemplative practice.Sarah teaches writing as presence. As a way of being and noticing. She helps writers get out of their own way so that something real and alive can come through the page (or the google doc 😅).Together, we explore:* the overlap between writing and meditation* how honesty transmits (and why you can feel when a writer is lying)* the difference between trying to write and being a clear channel* creative shadow work and what we’re most afraid to say* the value of plain, unadorned descriptionShe guides us through three simple exercises that can unlock creative flow.By the end, we were lol’ing, moved, and filled with the kind of wonder that has no agenda. Just a pen, a page, and the shimmer of real presence.-------------We make this show with love, laughter, and absolutely no corporate overlords. If it lights you up, help us keep it going with a paid subscription.-------------This is a great episode to write along with! Grab a notebook and come join us.You can also watch the full video over at MindBodPod.com.Know someone who could use these exercises to shake some creative goodies loose? Pass it along!Thanks for practicing with us,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

This week, we’re in conversation with therapist and longtime Focusing teacher Serge Prengel about the transformative power of slowing down and listening from the body.Serge is one of those rare people who seem to live from a deeper layer of presence. His work blends Focusing, Somatic Experiencing, Core Energetics, and Polyvagal Theory to support real, embodied change.What stood out for us was how relational this practice is. It brought us into a slower, softer place of deep listening, where we could fully meet each other’s nervous systems.We explore:* What Focusing actually is (and isn’t)* How to feel into what’s “not fully formed yet”* The role of safety and vulnerability in a therapeutic or relational container* Why this is a two-way street: the listener is as active as the talker* How to turn everyday conversations into profound practices of connectionWe also talk about what it means to be in right relationship: with yourself, with others, and with the felt sense of a moment that’s still unfolding.-------Wanna watch this as a video pod? Check us out at www.mindbodpod.com------* Learn more about Serge and his work* Check out the Active Pause Podcast* Explore the Proactive Twelve Steps------This one’s relational, tender, and surprisingly intimate. Drop in and tell us what moved in you:Thanks for tuning in. Love always,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

This week on the Mind Bod Adventure Pod, we sit down with Dr. Joel Schwartz, a psychologist and one of the early architects of the Neurodiversity-Affirming Therapy movement. Joel is known for speaking truth to systems that pathologize difference — and for offering a way of working with our minds that’s healing, joyful, and radically humane.In this episode, we explore:* Why the “pathology model” of ADHD and autism misses the point* The emotional toll of masking and code-switching to survive* What actually helps when someone is overstimulated (spoiler: not deep breathing)* Reclaiming movement, joy, and the right to stim without shame* An unexpected practice that ends in synchronized swaying and yodel-singing!Joel brings brilliance, humor, and zero tolerance for the rigid norms that ask neurodivergent folks to contort themselves into “acceptable” versions of humanity.Along the way, Tasha reflects on late-diagnosed spectrum-y traits, Jeff gets real about rejection sensitivity, and we all momentarily dissolve into giggles about somatic intelligence and… mosh pits.✨This episode is both a call to arms and a warm hug — a guide to seeing difference not as deficit, but as creative, embodied, meaningful expression.We make this show with love, laughter, and absolutely no corporate overlords. If it lights you up, help us keep it going with a paid subscription! ❤️Connect with Joel’s Practice: Total Spectrum CounselingNow it’s your turn! Let us know what this episode and practice shook loose for you:That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in.Love always,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

What if happiness wasn’t just a feeling but something you could train and reinforce?This week on MindBod AdventurePod, we sit down with Dr. Axel Bouchon, a neuroscientist and biotech entrepreneur who spent 20 years searching for a cure for depression—only to realize he’d been asking the wrong question. Instead of curing sadness, he discovered the source code for happiness—a set of six neurotransmitters that shape our emotional landscape.In this episode, Axel takes us on a guided tour of our own brains, revealing:* Why depression can’t be erased—but happiness can be cultivated* The six neurotransmitters behind different flavors of happiness (it’s not just dopamine!)* How to “train” yourself for more joy, resilience, and long-term well-being* Why laughter, nature, music, and even bass drops all play a role in happiness* How our best memories act as anchors—and why taking photos might actually make us happier------------------------------------The Mind Bod Adventure Pod is a community-supported project. If you like these adventures, consider helping us keep the lights on with a paid subscription! ❤️------------------------------------We also dive into Matter, Axel’s innovative app that helps reinforce positive neural pathways by engaging with your own peak memories—those moments that spark deep joy, connection, and meaning. It’s a fascinating look at how we can actively shape our emotional landscape for greater balance and well-being.This episode is part neuroscience, part meditation, and part mind-expanding happiness experiment—so get ready to light up your brain in real time.------------------------------------LINKS* Learn more at: Matter.xyz* Download the Matter app: matter.xyz/appWhat’s your most happiness-inducing memory? Let us know in the comments!------------------------------------The AfterpartyThe Pod is about to get way weirder… we’re turning these Afterparty sessions into full bi-weekly episodes! We’ll talk, unpack, guide short practices, sing, dance—who knows what else—all in the spirit of bringing you deeper into our weird worlds as practitioners, teachers, and friends. Coming in APRIL! 🎉------------------------------------K, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!Love always,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

In this episode, we remix therapy and healing with Angela Ai, a syncretic teacher practitioner of Core Energetics, Radical Aliveness, and Human Design.What the heck are these modalities? Good question!In a nutshell: they’re different ways to get insight into — and intuitive contact with— the human experience. Into our internal patterns, our relationships, and the ways we meet the world.This is an adventure for the taxonomy nerds among us. Enjoy!The Mind Bod Pod is a community-supported project. If you like these adventures, consider helping us keep the lights on with a paid subscription! ❤️Watch The Afterparty (available at www.mindbodpod.com):In this here After Party, Tasha and Jeff talk about how they are in relationship with each other, cause it’s fun to talk about friendship and our patterns and all that. Then they blab more generally about “maps of consciousness” like the Enneagram, the Zodiac, Tarot, Human Design and so on, whether they are objectively “true,” or more like subjective psychological tools, or some mystical combo of all that.Let us know what you think in the comments!K, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!Love always,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Cara Lai is awesome. That’s the first thing to say. She is humble and real and willing to explore a heated topic without having any easy prepared answers. Backtrack! Cara is a dharma teacher, artist, Mom and former therapist. These days she mostly teaches meditation retreats and a fun online drop-in class called “Meditate Your Face Off!” (Jeff: Be still my heart.)Our subject is the shitstorm happening on planet earth – in the Middle East, the Ukraine, the US, and other hot spots – and whether everyone should be speaking out. We recorded the episode back in May 2024; things are no less urgent today, seven months later. People have very strong opinions on these issues, and very strong opinions both about what should be said, and who should be saying it.We talk about things like:* How we can approach polarizing conversations* What role anger and shame play in how we relate to each other* How mindfulness and compassion might move us in a different directionCara’s guided mindfulness practice comes late in the episode, at 34 minutes. It’s a compassionate inquiry into what’s happening for us – in this moment – that we feel we can’t bear. “It’s hard to have a heart,” she says. In learning to stay present with our own experience, we also learn to stay present with others, even those we disagree with. The episode ends with a conversation about belonging, trust, and sharing our unique gifts with the world.Thank you Cara!LINKS* Cara’s website: caralai.org* Cara’s Podcast: adventuresinmeditating.comThe AfterpartyWhere Tasha and Jeff chat about global culture, neurodiversity, and the privilege of living in this time. What new creative responses to the world’s challenges are waiting to emerge? That, friends, is the true promise, which Jeff immediately degrades in the final two minutes, when he curses and asks for money and then gargle-chokes on some grapefruit LaCroix bubbly water. The whole denouement is exceedingly stupid and immature and should have been cut – but! –well, it made Tasha laugh very hard. And that’s what matters.AND NOW: SOME EXCITING NEWS!We’re stoked to announce our first Mind Bod Adventure Squad Retreat. It’s an opportunity to get wild and embodied and very present with us.It’s going down at the Omega Institute, June 8-13, 2025. We love our community and want to practice with you IN PERSON. Come explore!REGISTER HEREK, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!Love always,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Well, this one is cool. It may change your meditation practice and – if you stay with the inquiry – your life. You’d hardly know how ambitious it is though, from our guest Kevin Schanilec’s humble, deadpan delivery.Kevin is a long-time Buddhist practitioner from Seattle who has formalized a process for seeing through what Buddhists call “The Ten Fetters.” The fetters are fundamental (mis)beliefs we hold about how the self and world exist. Most of us don’t even realize they are beliefs – we are unconsciously inside them, which causes us to suffer in all the usual human ways.What’s wild is that we don’t have to live according to these beliefs. With practice and commitment, we can learn to let go of each one and experience a corresponding drop in suffering and an increase in fulfillment. And Kevin shows us how…For the purposes of this episode, we focus on the 4th and 5th fetters: desire and ill will – aka, our human compulsion to act on our various likes and dislikes. Kevin’s guided practice tries to show us that in our present experience, there is actually no inevitable reason to react to anyone, or anything.If we are quiet and open and curious, we can follow the chain of reactivity back, and find out, as weird as it may sound, that nothing in our direct experience actually kicked it all off. We don’t have to react to anything. For Kevin, this is a freedom worth cultivating. In his words, “we get off that rollercoaster of extreme highs and extreme lows,” and start to respond to life in a more sane, effective, and compassionate way.We get into all this and so much more! Kevin has such a refreshing perspective on the normalcy of the whole self-realization process.Jeff says: “I now do this practice all the time – maybe more than any other Mind Bod Pod practice – and it works for me, every time. I have less reactivity in my life in general, and I consider this practice central to that.”So give it a shot! You can also find other inquiries on Kevin’s website.LINKS:* Kevin’s site: simplytheseen.com* liberationunleashed.comThe Afterparty (go to www.mindbodpod.com to watch!)In this Afterparty, Tasha and Jeff talk about how Kevin’s logical style of spiritual inquiry can be a great fit for the Western mind. They also talk about how there are many other ways and paths. And then they talk about what it means to be your own teacher: How we need the traditions and experienced guides to go deeper, but ultimately we are the ones taking care of ourselves and directing our path.Then, to quote the AI they asked to summarize this Afterparty, “Tasha and Jeff conclude with a lighthearted reflection on the elusive and omnipresent nature of enlightenment.” 😅Let us know in the comments how the fetters practice landed for you!K, That’s all for now. Thanks for tuning in!Love always,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe

Welcome Tim Hwang, an occupational therapist in New York City's public school system. Tim’s specialty is teaching mindfulness to young people with “disabilities classifications” - Autism, ADHD, and so on. Some of these teens are into the practice, some are bored by it, and some are highly resistant to it. And that’s what we get into!Tim, Tasha, and Jeff all have experience teaching meditation to young people, so there’s much insight-sharing and general tomfoolery. Unsurprisingly, Tasha and Jeff revert to their rebellious teen selves when Tim starts guiding them in his GROW practice - an acronym that means Ground, Relax, Open, Warm (the heart).Good times! This episode is for anyone interested in supporting young people - whether you’re an educator, a parent, or a teen yourself.We get into:* emotional regulation* customizing meditation for neurodiversity & ADHD* how to use “five-finger breathing” to calm down* the role of community,* and how teens can find their own unique pathways to practice.Tim - thank you, friend! And to all teens: feel free to ignore everything we say and do it your own way 😅 One-finger breathing!Then join us for The Afterparty video! And let us know in the comments at www.mindbodpod.com how you liked the GROW practice!K, That’s all for now! Thanks for tuning in & see you next week.Love always,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe