Engaged Liberation

I got to chat with Christine Olivia, the author of, Remember Your Roots , A Child of Magic , and many other children’s books. She is a cacao ceremonialist and a Mayan Spiritual Guide initiate. She focuses on ancestral healing, supporting body, mind, and soul connection. She also supports the creation and development of Indigenous cacao farms and women’s collectives in Guatemala and Mexico, where h...

Arshiya Kherani is my brilliant friend, a serial entrepreneur, a change maker, and a truly beautiful soul. We both share this deep love and understanding of personal story, and how powerful it is, how telling ones story can heal, not only self, but community, while simultaneously building and strengthening community. It’s this love of story that led her to be one of the founders of PotLuck Stories...

This is one of my absolute favorite conversation on Liberation. Jorge embodies and own his liberation proudly. Jorge R. Gutierrez is a brilliant storyteller and artist, Emmy winner, filmmaker, and overall well of wisdom and genius. I have known him for a minute, but it was this quote on his inspiring twitter that made me reach out for a convo, “After Bo… This is a public episode. If you'd like to...

In other words, what’s gonna happen is gonna happen regardless of whether we are anxious about it or not. Like death, what’s coming is coming. I’m not saying ignore it, or just put it off in the back of your mind and say, I’ll consider that later. No, consider it now. But, why get anxious about it? Why not open your heart to it, let it in, let this moment in. Letting it in, opening our hearts to a...

But we love the drag, we love the human costume. We think it’s the peak physical experience, s**t, we think it’s the peak experience experience. We think it’s what we are. We fall into our characters, costumes and roles so deeply that we get stuck in them. We make internet bios and wikipedia pages dedicated to our characters. “Chris does this, is this, doesn’t do this, loves this, hates this, has...

This week I got to chat Liberation with the one and only Liz Plank, author of For The Love of Men , and the brilliant voice and thinker behind Airplane Mode (a must subscribe)! Enjoy! xo Engaged Liberation is a labor of love. But it is labor. If you love it, support it for less than $5/mo . Thank you! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to b...

Om is a beautiful and brilliant friend and Ayurvedic Chef based in Los Angeles. We are often found climbing together for hours (he’s a spider monkey) and chatting Liberation, so it felt fitting to share some of his wisdom with y’all. Enjoy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christopherrivas.substack.com/subscribe

Anytime I am able to chat with Paula, it is a good day. Paula is the founder of EMPRESS , a community-building agency dedicated to leveraging the power of culture to create a meaningful impact & build stronger communities! And she does leave meaningful impact and build community. I’ve felt it personally. She threw the greatest concert I have ever been too - life changing. Enjoy her genius. xo Enga...

Reta and I chat healing, surrender, and how all of it is sacred- all of it! Reta Moretti is the founder of Sacred Sisters and Creatrix Coaching. A certified life coach, yoga and meditation instructor, Reta seamlessly blends these modalities to guide individuals on transformative journeys to create a holistic approach to personal empowerment, connection to Self and connection to Mother Nature. Her...

A in-process showing from Act II of, Rough Magic, an Operatic Ritual The transcript: Again, you have to be logical. You know, if I know in this hotel room, they have food every day and I'm knocking on the door every day to eat and… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christopherrivas.substack.com/subscribe

Engaged Liberation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber. The world comes to you. But also, the world also comes from you.   What? Think of it like this - when you’re in a rush, everybody is moving to slow. Everybody is in your way. When you just got great news, all the hard work paid off, you got that second date or got th...

Awatif and I chat Design Thinking (Empathy is step 1), internal vs external revolutions, how she called me out for not speaking up about genocide, and whether sharing on social media actually has any benefit. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christopherrivas.substack.com/subscribe

There is a force and calling that compels me to keep creating, making, and sharing my art and my heart. Kafka calls this force “the indestructible.” It is a thing that so badly wants to show you who you are - but you must make the space to hear it and have the courage to follow it. Kafka says, that if you disobey it, it will tear you apart. Engaged Liberation is a reader-supported publication. To...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit christopherrivas.substack.com In this inaugural episode of the Engaged Liberation podcast on Substack, Megan and I talk about how annoying the question, “How are you?” is and so much more! I couldn’t be more honored to chat with her and to share this with y’all. You can find more of her amazing work, book, and brilliant meditations at h...

If you got dust in your eye you would take it out immediately. You wouldn’t say, “Oh, I’ll get to that later.” “I’m gonna get this thing out of my eye when I get home.” No, you’d get it out now. Right now. You’d stop whatever you were doing to see clearly.  And that’s how we get to treat anything that is keeping us wound up and bound. That’s how we get to treat anything keeping us from liberation....

A life dedicated to liberation can take on many different forms. It really depends on the circumstances of the day. Sometimes liberation will look like needing to love more, yourself, or someone else. Sometimes it will require listening more or actually listening. Beginner's mind listening. Sometimes it will require turning off your phone - actually turning it off off, not airplane mode. Sometimes...

“The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence… It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of o...