The Guest House: "Gem Tactics"

It’s a bright morning in early autumn, and a few hundred of us are seated on wooden pews in a historic auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art. A murmurous sound fills the hall as friends greet each other beneath a painted mural of St. Francis — patron saint of ecology and animals, those who are invisible to the outer world, and this place, Santa Fe, that we call home. Philosopher and poet Davi...

In this rich conversation, I welcome meditation teacher Jonathan Foust to explore his remarkable 50-year journey of practice and teaching. Enjoy this deep dive at the intersection of meditation, mindfulness, and the evolving path of spiritual awakening. Jonathan offers listeners an inside look at a life-long path of self-awareness and transformation. He reflects on childhood experiences of disconn...

A few days ago, if asked, I would have said I lacked the spaciousness and sanity to write this month. I know it would have been an excuse born of scarcity and fatigue — but summer is flaring into autumn, and time can seem like a horse bolting for the barn in the back half of the year. In a recent advisory on parents’ mental health, the Surgeon General cited an APA finding that 48% of American pare...

“I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again,” wrote Georgia O’Keeffe to fellow painter Russell Vernon Hunter from her desert hermitage in 1932. I am writing to you today from a cottage along the rugged coast of New England. This is the kind of salt-cured day I often dream about from the desert. The atmosphere is low and thickly layered, daylight fused with a deeper blue...

Join me on our upcoming Iceland yoga and meditation retreat! Akureyri, North Iceland | October 4-11, 2025 The city of Akureyri was voted the #1 destination in Europe by Lonely Planet. Located on the longest fjord in the country, its mild climate and proximity to the Arctic Circle make it a bucket list, must-see destination. Join us for yoga, meditation, stunning views, breathtaking hikes, frozen w...

It’s the middle of the night, and somehow I have returned to the mountains and plains of Northern Kenya. In a language I can understand only while dreaming, I have been invited to skim mud from the surface of a freshly dug singing well with a carved wooden cup. Voices rise above the trumpeting of elephants and the bleating of goats. My body awkwardly recalls the gestures of this ritual. An upward...

In this episode, I am thrilled to introduce Rachel Rossitto, a dedicated practitioner of Earth-based feminine wisdom, women's holistic health, womb healing, and much more. For more than 15 years, Rachel has immersed herself in diverse spiritual and healing practices. Today, she offers courses, mentorship, and guidance to help women reclaim their divine feminine energy. Our discussion delves into t...

A young monk arrives at an old monastery. Among his daily tasks, he is assigned to replicate sacred church canons by hand. He soon observes that each replica is copied from a preceding replica and asks the abbot: “Father, is this not problematic? One mistake could perpetuate through every subsequent copy.” The abbot shrugs and responds, “We have been copying from copies for centuries.” But, wantin...

My guest today is Kasey Hendricks Crown. Kasey is a transpersonal psychotherapist. She's a clinical supervisor, a consultant, a wellness educator, and an activist who challenges traditional mental health paradigms and advocates for a balanced integration of scientific and spiritual perspectives, which I so resonate with. Kasey has over a decade of experience in facilitating healing for individuals...

Spirals began appearing in the Boyne Valley. First, in a dream when I was rounding cobblestoned streets searching for a place I vaguely remembered. Then, indelibly, among the neolithic moons carved into the mother stones at Newgrange in County Meath, where an invisible hand was believed to gesture to the dead on the briefest day of the year. The fiddle ferns seemed eager to converse at Ballymaloe,...

Tracee Stanley is the author of the bestselling books Radiant Rest : Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity and The Luminous Self : Sacred Yogic Practices & Rituals to Remember Who You Are - by Shambhala Publications. She is the founder of Empowered Life Circle, a sacred community and portal of practices, rituals, and Tantric teachings inspired by more than 28 years of studentship in...

Hatchling season has arrived along the coast of Florida.  With climate change, one can never be certain. Rising sea levels make tides ever higher and rising temperatures heat the sand on which this ancient ritual depends. I was disturbed to read recently that overheating can both kill nesting turtles and skew sex ratios to produce mostly female hatchlings. One can never be certain these days. Most...

Joshua Michael Schrei is the founder of The Emerald, a podcast that combines evocative narrative, soul-stirring music, and interviews with award-winning authors and luminaries to explore the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination. Throughout a lifetime of teaching, study, meditation and yogic practice, wilderness immersion, art, music, and public speaking, Josh has...

Jess is a polymath who lives and works in Washington, DC. She is one of those rare people who is deeply knowledgeable and articulate and able to synthesize a broad range of subjects. I truly love and admire how conversations can go from politics to literature, to history, psychology, to science, to pop culture. She is a longtime yoga and meditation teacher who leads long-form immersions and intern...

Wind marks the transition between seasons in Northern New Mexico. Dry wind — the kind that agitates the senses — and mud that coats paws and suctions around walking boots. Emblematic of its military-inspired moniker, March can seem like a landscape across which one must trudge from territory to territory. Dickens described the temper of this month in  Great Expectations : “It was one of those Marc...

Never in my life have I met anyone who felt music so intensely as my father. He could not help listening to it; when he heard music that pleased him he became excited and there was a contraction in his throat; he sobbed and shed tears. The feelings aroused in him were unreasoning emotion and excitement. Sometimes it excited him against his will and even tormented him, and he would say: que me veut...

Foundations of Mindfulness Meditation is now available as a six-week audio course! Build a seated practice. With guided meditations, insightful talks, and a detailed course guidebook, you'll have everything you need to establish the foundations of a mindfulness practice at your own pace. My guest today is Leigh Marz. Leigh is an author, leadership coach, and collaboration consultant. She’s led div...

Brene Brown wrapped the term “midlove” around herself like a blanket in her forties. The famous shame researcher rebranded this psychological classic in an essay called “ The Midlife Unraveling ,” in which she described the nearly universal longing for alignment that accompanies waves of realization of our impermanence at a certain stage of life. Here, she characterizes the tension between the res...

FREE for The Guest House subscribers - Brooke’s digital class, Unlocking Creativity for Wellness . Brooke is a certified brand strategist. She's a TED speaker. She's an artist, a designer, and host of the podcast The Art of Lost and Found . She also founded the internationally sought-after design studio called I Know A Gal. Brooke describes herself as a Creative Amplifier. Her genius zone is in he...

Of the many invitations for mindful self-improvement that landed in my inbox at the turn of the year, one piqued my interest — a daily sensory incantation from . The instructions are simple: set a timer for five minutes and record, without interruption and preferably with pen and paper, “close, meticulous, external” notes on your immediate surroundings. No interpretations, no personal commentary,...

To the New Year With what stillness at last you appear in the valley your first sunlight reaching down to touch the tips of a few high leaves that do not stir as though they had not noticed and did not know you at all then the voice of a dove calls from far away in itself to the hush of the morning so this is the sound of you here and now whether or not anyone hears it this is where we have come w...

Dear one — Your message arrived this morning as we were dragging the tree to the curb and packing suitcases in the trunk. Now at 35,000 feet, as is often the case when I am among the clouds, I find myself reflecting on your words.  What you meant about feeling heavy-hearted and adrift, I understand. Feelings are rarely single-noted, and our mandate is to bear witness in this paradoxical season. Wh...

David Keplinger is the distinguished author of eight collections of poetry — including his most recent book, Ice. He has received prestigious awards throughout his career and was honored as Scholar-Teacher of the Year in 2022 at American University in Washington, DC, where he has taught since 2007. He's also a dear friend and the only person I imagined featuring on this, our first podcast episode...

I’ve decided in recent years that waking up before dawn is the most practical thing I can do. When the morning is at its deepest, my mind at its most liminal, my children’s soft bodies still tucked warmly beneath their blankets, I can slip into the wilderness of an unobserved inner communion for a while. I’m careful not to overlay this practice with too much prescription, especially as the days sp...

A few references for working with gratitude this week … * Gratitude is a felt practice. It’s not a cognitive list-making process, nor is it the self-satisfied reassurance that could result from surveying the relative comfort and privilege of our lives. To feel gratitude, we have to pause and allow our subject to emerge, and then we have to train our attention on presence so that our hearts can nat...