This week, we go deep into the spiritual heart of psychedelics with Celina de Leon, founder of the Circle of Sacred Nature Church, and adjunct faculty at the Graduate Theological Union. Celina has spent 20 years working with ayahuasca – or yagé, as it’s known in the Kamentsa indigenous community of Colombia, her root lineage.

We talk about the contemplative practice of yagé, its unique characteristics, and how it opens us up to benefits beyond individual mental health. So much goodness!

The main thing is we go into ceremony – we experience how the deliberateness and care of ceremony takes us into the sacred present.

In Celina’s guided practice, we feel into the mystery of this and try to articulate the remembering that happens… although, of course, no words can ever be adequate.

So friends, come experience it with us :)

The Afterparty (watch at mindbodpod.com)

Tasha and Jeff get personal about some of the benefits of exploring psychedelics over the long-term, but also some of the ways they can be destabilizing. No one needs to do psychedelics, but if you do, be responsible: Find an experienced community that understands how to hold a safe container, and …. pace yourself!

We also get into a great discussion about how to think about teachers and communities of practice at a time when there are not enough deeply experienced teachers to go around.

Let us know in the comments how this practice was for you!

K, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!

Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

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 direction

Cara’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.com

The Afterparty

Where 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 HERE

K, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!

Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️

In this episode we welcome Caverly Morgan, former Zen monk and author of The Heart of Who We Are. Caverly is also the founder of Peace in Schools, a teen-centered mindfulness curriculum for teens.

We jump right into it with a discussion of how teens very naturally want to challenge many of the culture’s bogus assumptions – in her words, teens “are on fire with wanting to dismantle what’s not real.”

We start with a beautiful breath practice that Caverly uses in high school classrooms. “Dental-mental floss”: back and forth through the center, expanding and grounding.

From there, we discuss goodies like:

* the primacy of subjective experience* letting go of the need to find the “right way”* shifting towards what works for your situation and what helps you suffer less* the role of lineages and teachers* the joys of many practices … and how none of them may even be going anywhere!

The Afterparty (Watch at www.mindbodbpod.com)

In this week’s party time, we wax excitedly about concerns that are close to our hearts, which is to say WEIRD SPIRITUAL S**T. We discuss whether there is a universal direction in the contemplative path, one true in all cultures (if so, what might that be?). We talk about how different practices are designed to address different problems or needs, and how these change from culture to culture, person to person, and even - within each person - week to week and moment to moment!

NB: there’s a lot of thumbs up emojis in this… Tasha’s macbook was going berserk and apparently fervently agreeing with everythign we said 👍🎉 Enjoy!

*The Afterparty will move behind the paywall in January! For real this time! Become a paid subscriber to continue being privy to these strange discussions…

Let us know in the comments how these practices landed for you!

K, That’s all for now. Thanks for tuning in!

Love always,

🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️