Come As You Are Podcast

A talk about the fairytales we grew up on, and how disturbing and mind-boggling it can be when you read them as an adult. There are always messages coming at us from the culture of our time - it’s not just fairytales of course, it’s films, television shows, things we learn from our families of origin, whatever is in the zeitgeist - those messages permeate everything. They are the water we’re swimm...

A talk about the gift of genuine, abiding, ride-or-die friendship with women. What that looks like, and what it does not look like. Your best friends will tell you the truth. They’ll tell it to your face, they won’t say it behind your back. They’ll apologize when they hurt you, just like you’ll apologize when you make mistakes. That’s how you build something real, and that’s how you know you’re on...

A talk about how hard it is to be living in a country that is breaking your heart and astounding you every day of the week, and how lots of people are having a very tough time right now. There is a lot to be gained by giving people the benefit of the doubt, by trying not to project or assume, by extending compassion wherever you can…but, there’s also a line where you have to take care of yourself....

A talk about the Signal group chat, of course, but in the context of the larger experience of dealing with people who will never be accountable. People who will look you directly in the eye and lie to you, or deny wrongdoing and then attack you - or anyone else - when called out. People who will assert you did not see what you saw, or hear what you heard. Maybe you know people like this, I do. It...

A reading of this week’s essay, and a talk about those relationships that devastate your heart because you’re in love with someone who leaves you no choice but to end things. When you look back you realize you were being tested from the start - you were being asked to tolerate things you never should have - and in the end the only choice was the pain that poisons you, or the pain that sets you fre...

A talk about the pain of living in a country where half the people look at a set of circumstances and feel horrified, and the other half look at the same set of circumstances and celebrate. And the difficulty in communicating when all trust in facts has been eroded and people give the same credence to anyone with a YouTube channel as they do to medical experts - often more. Also the concept of tur...

A talk about the pain and folly of trying to communicate with people who genuinely lack empathy, the frustration of feeling gaslit by people who claim to love you, and why it was so triggering for so many of us to watch a good man be double-teamed by two narcissists in the Oval Office … and walk away dealing with the most victim-blaming question of them all. What was he wearing? This is a public e...

A talk about what it’s like existing as a girl or woman in this world, and particularly in this country if you’re in the United States. And when I say “woman” I am including women who have babies, women who decide they don’t want to have children, women who deal with infertility, women who have lost babies, women who have raised babies on their own, Queer women, Black women, Brown women, Indigenou...

A talk about what we’re living through in the United States right now, and how dizzying it is for so many of us who are devastated, outraged and heartbroken, to see people in this country who are still on board with what is occurring in real time. It is hard to exist, to have a “normal” day going about your business when your government is in upheaval, democracy is on the line, and you’re scared f...

A talk about why it can take Herculean effort to advocate for yourself, to speak up when you’re hurting (or when you’re happy, sometimes), to put a value on the work you do - and why it’s worth it to push through, even though it can be so uncomfortable. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allyhamilton.yogisanonymous....

Thank you Cabot O'Callaghan , Danny Hoback , Prof's Progress , Rosie O'Regan , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allyhamilton.yogisanonymous.com/subscribe

You know those disaster movies when a group of six people knows a cataclysmic disaster is coming, and they have hours to warn humanity? And everyone is at a picnic, laughing, or in a movie theater, or park, or just going about their business, and somehow these six people are racing around trying to save the world - and no one is really understanding what’s about to happen? That’s a little bit how...

Years ago, I was volunteering in my daughter’s kindergarten classroom and I found myself sitting next to a five-year-old girl who understood more about empathy and compassion than any spiritual teacher I’ve met before or since. This is a talk about where we are in this country and this world - it’s a conversation about DEI and a whirlwind of other issues some of us are working hard to defend in th...

Keeping us enraged online is a way of distracting us from being engaged on the ground. Dominating the daily news cycle is the way to win, keeping people spinning about the latest outrageous and reprehensible thing is the mission. Rage is a product, and it’s being manufactured by people who profit when we spend our time clicking on links and screaming at each other over the internet. We are playing...

This is a talk about compassion, and how it doesn’t come with conditions. In an ideal world, if we see someone suffering, we want to help. We all understand this is not an ideal world, one has only to look at how many people on this planet are without shelter or food, or how much violence there is. We are becoming numb to the suffering of others. As the wildfires have raged throughout Los Angeles,...

A talk about what it’s like in Los Angeles right now as the wildfires rip through our communities leaving a wake of shock, loss, and devastation to a degree that is hard to fathom. A talk about the nervous system and the brain and what happens when you can’t make sense of a thing, even when you’re looking directly at it. A talk about grief, panic, and the importance of kindness. And an opportunity...

If you could have whatever you wanted in your heart of hearts, what would it be? How would life look and feel? Where would you live? What would change? If you aren’t used to asking yourself those questions, then maybe now - at the beginning of a new year - is a good time to start. This is a talk about why it might be hard for you to think about what you want, because maybe you stopped doing that s...

Oh, the holidays. They can be wonderful or fraught, or a total mixed bag. Maybe holidays growing up were generally joyful for you, or maybe they were stressful. If you grew up with divorced parents, or you’re divorced with kids yourself, you may find schedules and logistics tough, and also all the emotions that can come up if your family doesn’t look the way you thought it would. It’s easy (and hu...

The thing about grief is that one grief can open the floodgates to all the other grief you carry, as though a grief dam has broken in your heart, and now you’re flooded with feeling. Loss is never easy, whether it’s the loss of a relationship, a job, a way of being, or a person or pet you don’t know how to live without. It can leave you feeling untethered. It’s messy and it can be scary, shocking...

A talk about the lack of empathy, ethics, and decency in the U.S. Healthcare system, and the toll it takes when there is no safety net for the most vulnerable. I shared two very personal stories to illustrate what it’s like to deal with the trauma, violence and stress of a system that is supposed to be there when things are at the very worst, and the emotional, mental and financial cost that is in...

A talk about Alice in Wonderland and how it’s a metaphor about the loss of childhood innocence, and the pain and awkwardness of adolescence on the way to adulthood. Alice is sometimes too big for the spaces she’s inhabiting, and at other times she’s too small. She ‘s trying to figure out the rules, and exactly how much space she’s allowed to take up. We dive into the White Rabbit quote, “Don’t jus...

A talk about the people who love us and want us to be safe. The ones who see us clearly and cherish us exactly as we are - and what an extraordinary blessing it is to have people like that in our lives. Special shoutout to those Grandmas (and Grandpas) who leave an indelible imprint of love in our hearts. And a dive into what it means to be grateful, the importance of boundaries, the pain of feeli...

A talk about Adam and Eve, and all the stories that permeate our culture, teaching us about who we are and how the world works. Some of these stories teach us things about girls and women that it would be very good for us to unlearn. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allyhamilton.yogisanonymous.com/subscribe

A talk about what to do when the truth is stranger than fiction. Sometimes the best way to make sense of reality - as unfathomable as it may be - is to turn to mythology, folktales and fairytales. And then figure out how to rise like a phoenix, protect the people you love, and those who need protection, and remember that no one can ever take away the source of your power or your own brand of magic...

A talk about the U.S. election for those who are feeling brokenhearted and appalled. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allyhamilton.yogisanonymous.com/subscribe