Things That Will Help

Welcome to Season 3 of Things That Will Help. Buffy begins this season right in the middle - in media res.  She discusses the idea of the threshold, and how we are always in the middle, on our way up, or on our way down, from just about everything. What are your practices, and your sacred spaces, when you're in the middle? Can you make time, instead of waiting for the perfect time? What can y...

Bravery does not require an absence of fear. Bravery acknowledges the fear and does it anyway. This week's stories include tales of doctor office visits, angel cheerleaders in the form of middle school teachers, closet cheetahs and tigers, and the bravery to leave a marriage. You will leave this episode feeling enlivened, bolstered, and just maybe your flicker of bravery blooming into a full...

Have you ever felt the wide, encompassing experience of grace? If you're not sure, this episode will light up the ways grace can be lived, felt, and experienced. This grace is not a grace that drains the tank, and Buffy elucidates the exceptions that are massively important to consider in the deliverance of grace. She tells tales of Elvis Presley's Memphis home, the illegal scattering of...

What do Freddy Mercury’s teeth, twins, and extreme introversion have in common? This week’s invitation is to consider your Truxel and polish it. (What’s a Truxel, you ask? You’ll have to listen to find out). 🌱 Find the accompanying playlist to this week's episode here . 🌱 Leave a tip in Venmo: @BuffyTTWH 🌱 Become a supporter of the podcast on Patreon! Patreon members support the production...

This week, Buffy delivers stories of slowing down and celebration through the metaphors of Speed Bumps and Parades.  Listen to tales of temper tantrums and raging inner fires, and how speed bumps can be a tool for course correction and parades a tool for recalibration. Your energy is currency, and speed bumps and parades will help you in spending and celebrating your energy in a wise and mindful w...

We spend so much time considering how other people think of us, rather than tending to the core of who we are - rather than remembering ourselves. If you stripped away all of the personal hurts, injustices, and trauma that have covered you up, and made you self-protect over the years, what would be underneath that? What's the quality you come by most honestly? In this episode, you’ll learn ho...

Did you know that mutts are generally healthier than purebred dogs? Buffy talks about why that makes sense, and shares stories of Anusara yoga, "guru moments," and how cherry-picking the sweet fruit from various systems can help you build your  own personal system of integrity, intuition, and wisdom. 🌱 Find the accompanying playlist to this week's episode here . 🌱 Leave a tip in V...

Well… it’s election week, and even though Buffy recorded this before we knew the results, her message is simple: roll out the red carpet for your feelings. Be in their bigness, their complexity, and their fullness. Don’t skip over them. Are you celebrating this week? Feel it. Grieving? Feel it. And, no matter what, remember: we can’t abide in feeling by ourselves. Find your people, be in community...

What do you believe in? What do you give a damn about? In this episode, Buffy talks about the high stakes moment in time we are living in, a time where neutrality and silence can have dangerous consequences. She asks you to consider what you, right now, you are hooking your hitch to. You’ll hear mosh pit metaphors, wrong-place-wrong-time stories, and a great wide call to yoke your beliefs to your...

Beauty marks are daily, sense-based, present-tense small treasures that are hopeful, happy, and good. Small lighthouses. They don’t negate anything hard, but they help one to remember the beauty amidst the difficulty.  She reads the original Things That Will Help by her brother Benjamin, who was the catalyst for this podcast. There is so much difficulty these days. No matter what you are managing...

Intuition: it’s really simple, and it’s really hard. It is, like most things, a practice. The voice of our intuition is always there, but we listen selectively. Buffy weaves stories of torn ACLs, blue necklaces, and a dangerous hot springs encounter, which will have you both holding your breath and breathing more deeply afterward. This week, get quiet enough to hear yourself. Get low enough to the...

Do you ever find yourself minimizing your suffering because of how it compares to other suffering in the world, in your community, in your family? In this episode, Buffy talks about the insidious trap of comparative suffering - the way it stifles your story, makes small your grief, and in the end, really doesn’t help anybody. Listen to stories of apology, struggling creatives, and the way hidden s...

Between the rapid fire news cycle and the pandemic of 2020, we are square in the middle of collective resilience training. Buffy reframes the idea of resilience from “bouncing back” into a new picture of “bouncing forward.” Resilience isn’t really possible if we get too nostalgic about the way things were - we have to stick in the present tense, and to build and bounce forward from challenge and d...

Buffy extends the idea of“birth” out of the sole context of birthing a child, and into the world of birthing ideas, business, creativity, relationships, and family structures. In our creative lives, an incubation period is necessary, and how when we over-share, or share too soon, we jeopardize a vital, healthy birth. “When we let things marinate in the dark, they build blood, bone, and nutrients,...

This episode is entirely devoted to the book “See No Stranger” by Valarie Kaur. Valarie invites us to transition into a new, vibrant world through an embodied description of how the individual body meets the collective body, and where the two are dependent on each other. She invites us into an ethos of “revolutionary love:” a love that is electric, proactive, and leaves space for sacred rage. This...

Are you tired of hauling other people’s expectations? And, are they really their expectations, or just what you think they are? The topic of shattering the myth requires deep self-inquiry, especially when it comes to deciding what’s ours and what’s not ours to haul on the next leg of the journey. Shatter the myth that you came with, you’ve been perpetuating, or what’s been perpetuated for you. Thi...

In order for magic to touch down, curiosity has to be in the room. Buffy talks about curiosity from the standpoint of creative processes, and curiosity in relationships. Expect stories of vibrant art and choreography, patience, tiny discoveries, and the power of the pause. She mentions Robyn Thayer, whose work you can find on her website or Instagram ; scholars and authors Harriet Lerner and Brene...

Most of life exists in the gray spaces, where we are waiting for the next move to become clear, or we are recovering from the move we just made. (Or both.) When so much time is spent in the gray areas, what can we do to stay anchored to what’s real and present? Buffy riffs on this and more through stories of gardening, The Pineapple Year, and presence. Buffy references Livia Shapiro - visit her we...

Buffy spins stories of self-generated fires - why they matter, how they’re useful, and what's possible when the ashes settle. Expect tales of forest fires, the deep South, and grannies to support themes of growth, bravery and freedom. In this episode, Buffy references Mizuta Masahide, Paulo Coelho , John Lewis , and Frederick Douglass . 🌱 Find this week's playlist Part 1 and Part 2. 🌱...

Every person has a rich story of paradox, and we don’t always get the privilege of hearing someone else’s story. Buffy tells stories of masks, the kindness of strangers, and feeling “pale at the pool,” all in service to the lesson of how empathy and building bridges can support more connection and kindness. In this episode, Buffy references Lisa Foote. The poem she reads is "Once the World Wa...

When you stand still as a practice, you create space for solutions, clarity, and opportunity to rise. This week’s stories include gaslighting, prophetic dreams, and sticky-sap essential oil as Buffy illuminates the invaluable role stillness plays in our lives to become clear and aligned. In this episode, Buffy references Anne Lamott , Tere O'Connor , and Michael Singer. 🌱Find this week'...

One of Buffy’s long-time teachings addresses "fairness" and leaning into the balance of our own unique gifts in partnership - both in love and like. The stories she spins includes those about contact improv classes, podcasting, snow-driving, and more. In this episode, Buffy references Cheryl Strayed , Lauren Myracle , and Yanara Friedland . 🌱 Become a supporter of the podcast on Patreon...

Rituals are like sandbags that deliver a sense of safety, comfort, and wellness. They help us remember that our being alive is significant. Buffy’s stories of ritual, from supper rituals to priests’ blessings to book smelling (really!) will have you considering how you weave ceremony and tradition into your own life. In this episode, Buffy references StarHawk , Elizabeth Gilbert , and Wind Hughes...

Buffy weaves the theme of trust and surrender through tales of dance, social media, childhood, grief, and practice. How do you weather the dark? Where do you go in the face of fear, rage, and uncertainty? See yourself in these stories of softness and suppleness and surrender to the battleground of being human. In this episode, Buffy references Anne Lamott and Dan Rather . 🌱 Find this week's...

We need conscious boundaries in our life - it’s a potent practice of deep self-care. In this episode, Buffy talks about how we can bring more consciousness into our lives through reimagining boundaries, the role of feedback, and the role our people play in this conversation. Your sense of boundary whispers its needs - and when you tend to them, the results reveal themselves in all corners of your...