Holistic Life Navigation

In this episode, we welcome back Ixchel Lunar! Ixchel and Luis discuss the role of time in their lives including how time is hyper local, what it means to attune to the rhythms and the cycles of the land, why we often judge ourselves and others for honoring the pace of their body, what they've learned from observing turtles and sloths, and how we allow time to be stolen from us. They also rev...

In this episode, we are joined by Eileen Knott. Eileen offers individual healing sessions for a variety of health concerns such as pain-both physical and emotional,  nightmares, obsessive thoughts, grieving, feeling stuck, and addictions. Eileen was also a student of the Holistic Life Navigation course last year. Eileen and Luis explore why healing in an ongoing, iterative process. Both share how...

Finally, she's back!! In this episode, Luis is joined by herbalist and astrologer Aemen Bell to discuss the many, many benefits of oatstraw. Aemen and Luis discuss how oatstraw is neither a depressant or a stimulant but rather a nourishing herb that helps to bring us into our true nature. They also discuss the wisdom they've gleaned from oatstraw, what it means to have energy from a sour...

In this episode, Luis explores how attuning to the now, i.e. remaining in our safe center even when ruptures may be happening around us, provides us the resourcing to deal with threat as it comes. Threat is very really and exists all around us. But the question we have to ask ourselves is, is my body responding to remembered threat, anticipated threat, or threat that is actually in front of us rig...

In this episode, we are joined by Maureen Gallagher, PhD. Maureen is a licensed psychologist, Somatic Experiencing faculty member, and Inner Relationship Focusing trainer. She is also a teacher of Luis. Maureen and Luis explore what it means for us to relate to our body's and sensations vs identifying with them. They discuss how transitioning to a place of witness or observer of their bodies...

In this episode, Luis explores how we can begin to move through numbness. We can often describe numbness as not feeling anything at all but in reality, numbness is a sensation -- it is the sensation of the lack of sensation. Numbness also carries with it a negative stigma; something that is wrong with us. However, numbness is our body's healthy response to overwhelm. It is our body's bou...

This Holistic Life Navigation's 100th episode! To mark this occasion, we pull back the curtains and we meet the entire Holistic Life Navigation team. Luis, Marika, and Camille share what brought them to trauma healing work, their perception of trauma healing as a business, and how their relationship with money has evolved over time. We also get to know a bit more about their past lives -- Lui...

In this episode, Luis explores how we can find safety in nature when human relationships don't feel safe. A byproduct of colonization is our tendency to view nature a resource we should dominate vs a relative we can relate to. Traumatized nervous systems can often find it difficult to r co-regulate with human beings -- but what about non-human beings? What other beings around might we regular...

Jaguar Mary X is an artist who says "I believe that it is my role as an artist to activate and be part of a remembering of the transforming power of communal space. I agree with Nina’s Simone’s dictum that the mission of the artist is to 'respond to the times in which I find myself.'" In this episode we explore their journey of becoming ungovernable, how they are challenging th...

In this episode, Luis explores how manifesting can keep us from building the capacity to be with the present. When focusing on what may come in the future, we are focusing on what we want rather than what we have. Manifesting isn't bad. But how can we also find ways to attune to the calm, joy, or beauty that is happening around us? For more information about Luis's work, please visit: ww...

This episode is so deliciously wonderful. We had the honor to sit down and speak with A'Lelia Bundles, the great-great-granddaughter of Madam CJ Walker. This episode is all about resiliency and intergenerational wisdom. A'Lelia generously shares what she learned about her lineage as she was writing her great-great-grandmother's biography. We explore how a woman who was the very firs...

Out of all the things we explore on this podcast, who would've thought beans would be the most controversial? So we had to invite Karen Hurd, the Queen of Beans, back to the show to help sift through some of these bean myths.  In this episode, we cover the common concerns and fears people have about beans including: Why do beans give me gas? Don't beans have a lot of antinutrients? Don&a...

"You're not overreacting, you're overcoupled." In this episode, Luis explores how we can begin the work of recognizing when our bodies are being reminded of a past traumatic experience and how we can uncouple that from situations where there is no threat present. For more information about Luis's work, please visit: www.holisticlifenavigation.com You can get instant access...

"I'm not weird, I'm  just from somewhere different." Today's episode is all about honoring our "weird" -- the call to break from the norm, standard, or "right way". Aiyisha Castillo  is a Somatic Therapist, Intuitive Bodyworker and Yoga Teacher.  She felt called to enter into the holistic field after returning from a 2 1/2 year trip to Africa.  Her love...

In this episode, Luis explores how we can affirm our bodies' boundaries while also exploring from a place of curiosity vs. judgement, i.e. how to turn judgment into curiosity to heal trauma. Our brains work really hard to categorize things into "safe" and "threat" consistently. Not knowing is scary because it invites vulnerability. When we have a traumatized system, we sen...

Nisha Mody is a 'healing hype girl"! What stands out about Nisha is her practice of noticing the joy along with pain. This practice of seeing joy as complex, nuanced, and juicy is so important. It is very easy to mistake this practice for bypassing but Nisha shares with us how this is critically different. Bypassing is when we ignore the event or the impact of the event on us. However, a...

"The first alter of our ancestors is the body." This quote from Amber McZeal beautifully illustrates the connection between relating to our bodies, the land, and our lineage. To move from colonization to decolonization, i.e. be in relationship with rather than dominance of, applies to our bodies just as it applies to land. When we're in relationship with our bodies, we're in re...

Today's episode is all about building capacity for difference: having the capacity to express our differences and having the capacity to receive the differences of others. Camille Leak is a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Practitioner and the Community Manager for Holistic Life Navigation -- in these roles, she helps to facilitate uncomfortable conversations. She is also and a former...

Today's episode navigates whether we use our energy to change others or connect to ourselves. Why do we so often devote our energy to changing, motivating, or even talking about others? Releasing the need to change others in order to find safety in them, allows us the energy and space to begin to find safety in ourselves through self-relationship and embodiment. For more information visit: ht...

Today's episode is SO good. I welcome past students and current members of my membership to talk about the topic of the sovereign body. It's a strange idea at first: the body not being us. However, the more we practice it and notice it, the more obvious it becomes and the more helpful it becomes. Why? Because we're able to actually relate to it as its own being, instead of a thing t...

Today's episode navigates how to thaw and move out of a freeze response. In it, I attempt to release the stigma from freeze response as being unmotivated, lacking willpower, or lazy. Instead, we can actually honor the sophistication of the freeze response and understand that it needs help thawing. Somatic embodiment and self-relationship allow us to help the freeze response thaw so that the b...

Today's episode is all about honoring our nature. Not who we want to be or think we should be: but where we are in this moment and how we can nurture that to thrive. Megan Kierstead is a coach for people with ADHD & neurodivergent expressions. In this episode she shares some helpful tools for being functional with a unique nervous system. Specifically: your feeling of dysfunction are real...

Today's episode navigates the difference between the questions Who Am I?  & Where Am I? Releasing the need to "know" myself for the practice of being with whatever is in myself at that moment allows me to be relate to all parts of me. Notice the difference in your body as you listen. For more info visit: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com. You can get instant access to all o...

On today's episode, I welcome back Brigitt Thompson. We speak about money through the lens of somatics & trauma. How we value it, what we have overcoupled with it, and pieces of wisdom & personal experiences from Brigitt's book Trust Yourself With Money . Take your time through this episode. Notice what comes up in your body to speak to you about your relationship to money and wh...

In this episode, I speak about the four responses our bodies have to trauma: fight, fight, freeze, and fawn, Each response serves the purpose to help you survive a potential life threat. We're all here because of these automatic responses. Learning the nuance of each response helps us better recognize them when they're "turning on". Through this recognition, we create a relatio...