The Calming Ground Podcast

It's 2pm, you've read the same email three times, and you're reaching for another coffee. What if that afternoon fog is actually one of the most reliable signals your body sends all day? In this episode, your host Elizabeth Mintun (licensed psychotherapist, certified qigong teacher, and mindfulness coach), explores what's really happening in your nervous system during the afternoon energy dip, and...

What if the spaces in between - the breath before the inhale, the dusk before the dark - hold more wisdom than anything we're chasing?  In this episode, yoga nidra teacher and bestselling author Tracee Stanley joins host Elizabeth Mintun to explore liminal space, daily ritual, and the practice of coming home to yourself, one breath at a time. Tracee explains liminal space as the in-between mo...

You know it's time. The relationship, the self-talk, the job… maybe you've known for a while. And still, you haven't moved. In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores the question that's been showing up in client sessions, community conversations, and her own life lately: I know what I need. So why can't I get myself to move? Drawing on nervous system science, this episode offers a gentler wa...

What if there was ancient wisdom that might be able to help us during the season of summer?  In this solo episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores the fire element from qigong and Traditional Chinese Medicine and what it means to tend your inner flame rather than just feed it. She opens by reading her poem, written in a parking lot after dropping her daughter off at camp - and uses that moment...

What if the parts of you you've been hiding - even from yourself - are actually your greatest source of power? In this illuminating conversation, host Elizabeth Mintun sits down with Melanie Ryan, psychotherapist, Buddhist teacher, shamanic practitioner, and creator of the Golden Shadow Method. Melanie explores how the unconscious holds not just our wounds, but also our greatest gifts, and how anc...

What if you are already whole, just as you are?  In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun shares a very personal story of her painful divorce, navigating the complexities of a blended family, and spending years immersed in self-development. She talks about how nature, forest bathing, qigong, and simple mindfulness practices helped me move from striving toward wholeness to recognize that wholene...

What if the most powerful thing we can offer each other isn't a strategy, but actually just a kind reminder? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun addresses what it really means to return to presence, to yourself, and to what sustains you. She covers Harvard research on mind-wandering and why it matters for your wellbeing, the Sanskrit concept of smriti (mindfulness as remembrance), why our nouri...

What happens when grief feels too heavy to hold with words alone?  In this moving conversation, host Elizabeth Mintun sits down with Kelsey Moro, dance movement & creative arts therapist and founder of Riverbend Grief. Kelsey explores how grief lives in the body - and how movement, breath, ritual, and community can help us reconnect to ourselves after loss.  In this conversation, Kel...

What happens when the thing you’ve spent years trying to hide becomes the very thing that sets you free? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun sits down with author and writing coach Melissa Petro for an honest conversation about shame, storytelling, identity, and the courage to be seen. Together, Elizabeth and Melissa explore the healing power of writing, the difference between secrecy and priva...

Is it okay to invest in your own steadiness and self-care when we’re in these tumultuous, uncertain times?  In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun addresses several reasons why self-care might feel almost impossible to justify right now - the economic pressure, the relentless news cycle, the guilt of slowing down when the world feels like it's shaking. Rather than brushing those objections of...

Most of us try to think our way through hard seasons. We analyze, prepare, and mentally rehearse until we feel ready for whatever comes next. But what if calm isn't something the mind can manufacture?  It's something the body has to experience.  In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores two archetypes from the natural world - the river and the roots - and how returning to these anc...

There’s a reason your shoulders may drop when you step outside… A reason your breath may deepens near water… A reason something in you may relax a little when you pause beneath a tree. In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores what’s actually happening in your body and nervous system when you spend time in nature, and why something so simple can feel so profoundly restorative. Blending perso...

When was the last time you did absolutely nothing ? Not scrolling. Not multitasking. Not “resting” while mentally running through your to-do list…. If that question makes you feel a little uneasy, you’re not alone. In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores why slowing down can feel uncomfortable, restless, or even threatening . Beneath the surface, this isn’t about discipline or willpower; i...

Most of us have been taught that growth means pushing through, figuring it out, or getting it “right.” What if real growth comes from learning how to stay present at your edge? In this powerful conversation, host Elizabeth Mintun sits down with Jaye Marolla to explore a very different approach to leadership, growth, and self-awareness. Drawing from over a decade as a bodywork practitioner, Jaye sh...

If you’re a woman in your 40s or 50s feeling exhausted, anxious, disconnected, or “not like yourself”… this episode might impact how you understand what’s happening. For example, what if it’s not just stress… or even your mindset? In this powerful conversation, host Elizabeth Mintun sits down with Daniela Hess, the co-founder, spiritual director, and lead educator of the organization Great Energy....

What if the restlessness, irritation, or quiet longing you’ve been feeling… isn’t random? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores the deeper meaning of spring through the lens of ancient Chinese medicine - not just as a season, but as an internal shift happening within your body, emotions, and energy. She unpacks the Wood element; the energy of growth, movement, vision, and new beginnings,...

“This book is an invitation: an invitation for you to find and adorn your own inner temple. To return to it again and again. To create rituals that speak your language, carry your symbols, and guide you through chaos and into clarity.” — Jean Culbertson Sutton, Ritual Well What if the small things you already do - lighting a candle, holding a meaningful object, pausing with a cup of tea - are actu...

What happens when we slow down enough to truly feel our bodies? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun sits down with assisted stretch practitioner Lisa to explore the transformative potential of assisted stretching and body awareness. Drawing from nearly two decades of experience in massage therapy and training in Thai yoga massage, Lisa shares how slow, supported stretching can help people recon...

If you’re living with chronic pain or pelvic pain - but medical tests keep coming back “normal” - this episode is for you. In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun is joined by Sarah Highland, pelvic floor therapist and AASECT-certified sex counselor, to explore how chronic pain is created by the brain and nervous system, especially pain that doesn’t show up on scans. This conversation addressed the...

Have you ever promised yourself you’d say no, set a boundary, or speak up… and then said yes anyway? In this episode, the last of the People-Pleasing Mini-Series, host Elizabeth Mintun explores why self-trust is hard, why guilt and old patterns show up, and how you can begin making changes with compassion and steadiness. Elizabeth addresses why understanding the pattern isn’t enough to shift it, h...

What if the opposite of people-pleasing isn’t selfishness… but self-trust? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores people-pleasing through a compassionate nervous system lens, understanding how it often begins as an adaptive survival strategy rooted in relational intelligence, emotional attunement, and a deep value for harmony and connection. She looks at how immediate relief, identity rei...

What if people-pleasing is your nervous system doing exactly what it has learned to do to keep you safe? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores people pleasing through the lens of the nervous system, specifically the fawn response, a survival strategy organized around connection and safety. Rather than trying to “overcome” or shame this pattern, we look at why it made sense in the first p...

What if feeling stuck offers information worth listening to? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores the idea that stuckness is often a form of discernment. When we feel stuck, it’s usually not because we don’t care - it’s because something meaningful, complex, or emotionally layered is asking for time and attention.  Rather than reacting to the discomfort of uncertainty with striving...

What if doing less could actually teach us more? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun interviewed Marcia Miller, a lifelong teacher and Reiki Master, and meditation coach. In this conversation, Marcia reflected on her transition into a later stage of life - one shaped less by striving and productivity and more by discernment, nourishment, and listening. After decades of teaching and running a la...

What if the reason growth feels exhausting isn’t because you’re doing it wrong - but because the frame you’ve been given is subtly pressurizing you? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores how the dominant frame of self-improvement can reinforce the belief that something about us is deficient or needs fixing. While growth and awareness are valuable, when they’re rooted in pressure rather t...