Liberating Beauty

In moments of uncertainty, it's all too easy to look outside of ourselves for answers. Whether that's consulting fifteen different people each time we make a decision or reaching for information about the future that we don't actually need to know right now, we send a signal back to ourselves: outsourced opinions are somehow more accurate than our own. This dynamic played out for Rebec...

Living into the fullness and beauty of who we are is more than designing new rules for how we show up in the world. We can change how we work, who we spend time with, or what we consume, but if we’re still exhausting ourselves, there is something deeper  - more ancient - on offer. The Somatic Code is a way of orienting ourselves to whatever situation we find ourselves in by asking: What does it fe...

Suffering is the cost of our unventilated stories and the actions we take when curiosity isn't present.  When interpersonal friction arises, it's easy to assume the issue belongs to the other person's unexplored shadow. We look outward to diagnose or fix the "problem," skipping the internal inquiry entirely. But what if our discomfort is an invitation for greater curiosity? W...

Walking the earth offers no shortage of challenges. Evenwhen our rational minds understand that a certain amount of turbulence is a natural part of being alive, our bodies and nervous systems may still feel depleted when we encounter everyday struggles. Feeling exhausted after a day filled with ordinary strain,Rebecca reflects on a different way of meeting the friction - one that doesn't requi...

As we wrap up our mini-series on the topic of creativity, Rebecca reflects on the lessons shared by her guests. More than anything, there seems to be something in the allowing of creativity - and the openness to receive it - that brings us into contact with the beauty and mystery that is ours to create.  As an expression of her creativity, Rebecca shares a poem about the goodness and the wellbeing...

What if presence is the doorway to creativity?  In this week's episode, we continue our Creativity mini-series - exploring how the present moment fuels our most creative lives. In this conversation, Ryan Erisman - a former Marine Infantry Officer, a regenerative farmer, and a leadership coach - recounts his most powerful experiences of presence, moments of wellbeing in a combat zone, and how h...

What if we can express our creativity even after we die? What encouragement awaits our creative lives when we open to what we cannot see or know for sure? This week’s episode continues our mini-series on Creativity, one of Beauty's kindred expressions. Rebecca shares a story about her father who, although no longer with us in this physical reality, found a way to message her about releasing wh...

What if creativity is the thread that leads us back to beauty - and to who we truly are? In this week's episode of the Liberating Beauty Podcast, we continue our mini-series on Creativity and its power to illuminate beauty even after years of its absence. Rebecca is joined by her dear friend Gail Jacob – a beloved pioneer in the field of developmental disabilities and a gifted textile artist –...

We tend to associate creativity with the forms it takes like painting, music, or dance. But what if creativity - like beauty - is a frequency more than a form? What if creativity is the experience of being ourselves whenever we open to expressing who we truly are?   Today's episode opens a mini-series on the topic of creativity, one of beauty's kindred expressions. Rebecca shares examples...

For years, Rebecca moved between beauty, spirituality, and transformation, sensing an underlying coherence she couldn't put into words. Then something clicked: what if beauty is an expression of Love? In this episode, Rebecca explores the animating life force of Love, often in forms we don't immediately recognize. Many wisdom traditions have long recognized that Love is not only what arriv...

There are passages in life that never make headlines. Some don’t even reach our conscious awareness. There’s no announcement. No ceremony. No room full of witnesses. Sometimes it's an ordinary Tuesday - a quiet threshold crossed, and then you just keep going. In this episode, Rebecca explores invisible thresholds - the quiet, interior passages that the outer culture doesn't often see or ho...

When the rules we live by start to feel like walls, it's worth asking who built them. Today, Rebecca takes us into an ordinary moment of unraveling - a computer that wouldn't cooperate - and the cascade of self-imposed questioning and expectations that came with it. Join us this week as we explore legitimacy traps - the quiet, exhausting work of proving our worth through rules and structur...

When we connect with time as fixed and unyielding, it can feel like a bully, pushing us forward or leaving us behind. Yet, the arc of our lives often tells a more generous story. Today, Rebecca welcomes author, sociologist, and spiritual practitioner Rebecca S. Krantz (Becca) to explore the mysterious, creative and even benevolent nature of time. Becca discusses her novel in progress, "Rootin...

“What will it look like for autistic adults and their allies to advocate for their needs when traditional supports are under attack and may no longer be available?” Invited to speak to this question at a recent conference, Rebecca brings her reflections to this personal episode, sharing her experience as a late-diagnosed autistic woman - one that has inspired her to reimagine advocacy through a fr...

Within each soul there is a quiet pulse of mystery thatdoesn't need permission. Yet many of us have spent years learning to quiet it, translate it, and to make it palatable. We might not even be able to feel it yet. In this episode, Rebecca invites you to linger in the parts of yourself that the world has never quite known what to do with, trusting the benevolence of our nature - our beautiful...

What if beauty feels unrelatable - even painful? For many people, beauty has never felt free from conditioning, and yet the longing for it lingers. In this episode, Rebecca brings listener questions to the center, learning from the places where beauty hasn't landed yet. What emerges is something unexpected: a definition of beauty that's still becoming, still moving toward the feeling of be...

In this episode, we delve into the etymology of encouragement: en- ("make, put in") and courage ("heart, spirit"). But this isn’t a grammar lesson! Rebecca reflects on why these times are encouraging us to inhabit all that we are and shares a poem that came to her as a call from her ancestors about the healing power of truth and bravery across time. To read the poem, “Why I Sin...

When we hear the word cancer, many of us experience fear, grief, or a quiet dread. And that makes sense. Millions of people around the world are diagnosed with cancer each year. For individuals who receive a cancer diagnosis, and for all the people who love them, the news of cancer can stop us in our tracks. However, as Rebecca explores today with her beautiful and brilliant friend and guest, Dr....

Throughout our lives, there are questions that yearn for our attention. In answering them, we touch the heart of why we’re here. In this episode, Rebecca tells the story of finding her question and the ordinary miracle that unfolded as she walked toward its answer. What are the questions that are waiting for you ? Resources: For more information about Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing...

In this episode, we explore what it feels like to come into contact with the spirit of beauty in every day moments. Rebecca shares examples of where she's noticing beauty in her life - often in unexpected places - and invites you to take a beauty inventory of your own. Host: Rebecca Paradiso de Sayu Original Music: Mapumba Cilombo Producers: Rebecca Paradiso de Sayu & Mapumba Cilombo Creat...

Welcome to the first episode of the Liberating Beauty Podcast! In this episode, we introduce you to our host, Rebecca and share what inspired the podcast to come into being and. We're so glad you're here. Host: Rebecca Paradiso de Sayu Original Music: Mapumba Cilombo Producers: Rebecca Paradiso de Sayu & Mapumba Cilombo Creative Directors: Rebecca Paradiso de Sayu & Mapumba Cilombo...