The Ode To Joy Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Future Chaplain and weaver of words, Andi Scarbrough joins us to chat about using mixed media to journal the loss of a loved one. How can we use the somatic experience of Journaling to build a field guide of grief as if we were Wildlife Documentarians? Exploring taboo subjects like the loss of a child and suicide, Andi shares how she has used dance, poetry, and vocalizing to proce...

Send us Fan Mail Igniting the flame of Initiation when going through profound change. Cody Lovina, ER & Hospice Nurse, Birth Doula & Death Doula, is currently a Portal Priestess studying Tantra in Asheville, NC. We chat about moving through the initiation of heartbreak, allowing intuition to guide your healing process, and supporting loved ones through their passing.  We discuss: moving th...

Send us Fan Mail Elena met Jeanie during her Griefcation™ in Bali, two months after her father passed in 2016. Jeanie was instrumental in teaching Elena the mythology of the Hero's Journey as taught by Joseph Campbell. How can we use the framework of the Hero's Journey to see ourselves within our own mythology? Can we use these stories to provide comfort and perspective as we embark on a...

Send us Fan Mail Tahnee Taylor joins us from Australia to chat about taking time away to process grief. She carries a tapestry of wisdom with an intersection of Daoist and Yogic practices. Currently pregnant with her second child, she shares how pregnancy, birth, grief, and death go hand-in-hand.  We discuss: how Tahnee and Elena met in Peru in 2015 why Elena chose Australia for her Griefcation™ a...

Send us Fan Mail We discuss tools for grievers to navigate friendships as well as helpful tips for friends of grievers who are unsure how to support their bereaved loved ones.  Elena and Cassandra discuss: why relationships are difficult when grieving learning to ask for what you need when your "ride or dies" don't show up being surprised by the friends that do stick around give peo...

Send us Fan Mail Hana Rakshani is a Somatic Movement Artist who facilitates Contact Improvisation workshops in Ashville, North Carolina. Elena and Hana discuss how emotional release can come through tuning deeply into our organs and voices by way of curiously noticing. Hana shares her top tools for navigating tracking emotion in the body and how to release it somatically.  A juicy conversation ind...

Send us Fan Mail Inviting death into your life is a natural part of being a human.  In this episode, Lauren and Elena discuss their personal experiences with ego death, death as a spiritual practice, and how it informs holding space for a dying loved one and our daily lives.  We discuss: The seasonal nature of life and inviting in a Seasonal Practice The Way of the Trees -- see yourself as a seed...

Send us Fan Mail Author Nora Zelevansky shares her thoughts on what to wear to the funeral.  She brings in her expertise from a background in fashion and lifestyle writing to share her top tips for grief fashion, what to gift your bereaved friend, and how we can embrace everyday mourning wear in the turbulent times we live in. In our discussion, we weave in comedic excerpts from her book " Co...

Send us Fan Mail *Technically almost a Rabbi* Dave Yedid, who will be ordained in May of 2022 joins us this week on the topic: Beware of the Vultures. We discuss how to maintain boundaries when processing loss to prevent burnout from having others use your pain to work through their own. Sound familiar? Have a listen. “Boundaries are the distance at which I can love you and me simultaneously.” ― P...

Send us Fan Mail The first episode of our "Grieve Outside the Box" Book Podcast series brings a conversation with Yoga Educator, Author, and Conduit, Gail Grossman. She shares how her yoga practice informed her experience in supporting her mother's passing from lung cancer. In this episode we discuss: What is Anticipatory Grief? Being a caregiver for an ill loved one Denial during h...

Send us Fan Mail This *nearly* unpublished SOLO episode is a window into Elena's inner hypochondriac yogi monologue. She shares how the state of the world has propelled her into a loop of anxiety. You too? One minute she's at peace like a monk meditating in a mountain cave, the next a small twinge of pain sends her hurtling towards doomsday thinking. In a world where our news cycle is co...

Send us Fan Mail Luke is a reiki healer, breathwork & yoga teacher, and organizer of Earth School at Maha Rose North.  We chat about his book "Venus Juice: When I tried to live in LA" Elena describes the feeling of reading Luke's book as a combination of Clueless, Lana del Rey, Børns, and @gabyherstik. A delightful journey about his time working at a juice shop in LA after movin...

Send us Fan Mail   Jan shares how she came to Shamanism after living in a Christian Cult for 15 years.  We discuss: Jan's journey leaving the Cult after 15 years of abuse and soul loss How spirituality, therapy, and shamanism helped her through a mental health crisis Beginning her training with an Inuit Shaman who lived alone in the woods of Canada Her studies of world religions that inform h...

Send us Fan Mail A two-hour episode, are you for real? Absolutely. Rachel Oliver is the original thunder from the land down under, hailing from Perth, and currently living in the States. She joins us from Paris in this episode where we chat about living a life out loud, orgasms, protecting your energy as a powerful woman, being the token naked friend, burial rituals, and more. She is one of the ab...

Send us Fan Mail Musical Theater performer Kimberly Abrams joins the pod this week sharing her top tools for navigating tough times, how she found joy in permaculture farming when Broadway went dark in 2020, and her plans for an integrated acting studio of the future.  As a VIP member of the Dead Dad's Club, Kim shares how theater saved her life as a way to process the complex emotions that s...

Send us Fan Mail Sammy discusses coming out as a Gay man after being raised in a Pentecostal church by pastor parents, finding Joy through becoming a dancer, connecting to his path of sharing Joy as a fitness professional, and healing after the sudden passing of his father. He is the embodiment of resilience. Elena brought him on the show because, after all that he has been through, he manages to...

Send us Fan Mail The Postmodern Oracle joins us on today's episode. Ilona Pamplona shares the clarity she received on connecting to spirit when a work abuse situation brought her into a dark night of the soul. We talk spooky signs from spirit (and our dead Dads) that remind us we are on track. Ilona shares how she stays in alignment and connects to joy -- plus her top tools she'd take wi...

Send us Fan Mail How do we soften our grip on versions of past selves? How do we allow our personal practice to shift, ebb, and flow as we ourselves change? Is it possible to invite kindness into strict practices? How about paving a way that feels nourishing to a self that craves to be held? Jai Chand, an artist, poet, musician, and teacher of movement is shifting from Kundalini into an aligned an...

Send us Fan Mail Elena discusses the birthing of this podcast and her intention to cultivate conversations around moving through difficulty to embrace Joy. She speaks of the challenges she faced surrounding the passing of her father and what it means to move out of a long phase of hermit life and embrace this new 'coming out' by sharing herself openly. What does it mean to give yourself...

Send us Fan Mail Opera Star Jordan Weatherston Pitts and host, Elena Box, discuss what it means to find joy in daily life. How to navigate back to joy after dwelling in the depths of despair. What Opera is most joyful? What coffee is most joyful? Follow Jordan on Social Media at @jordanwpitts @tenorjordanpitts @petty_yende_official Or find him at jordanwpitts.com Support the show Buy your copy of...

Send us Fan Mail We consider what it means to connect to ancestry and whether we can choose our own Traditions when our lineages have run dry. How Mama Gaia can influence and guide our natural rhythms. We discuss what rituals, practices, and tools can bring one into a seasonal connection. Poetry, laughter, and reverence abide. Morgan Rose is a poetic Seasonal Teacher specializing in yoga. Access h...