Vital Healing

There is an old idea that every so often the slate gets wiped clean.  Debts forgiven, the weight set down, everyone allowed to come home.  This week I sit with what it means to stop holding my own mistakes against myself,  and to welcome back the parts of me I had left out in the cold. This is a reading of the essay, published in written form at vitalhealing.org. Read it: vitalhealing.org Watch it...

There are moments when something in us gets triggered. A comment, a tone, a look, and we can feel it in the body. The mind starts to spin a story, and before we realize it, we’re no longer fully present. This meditation is part of The Walking Way , a series of simple walking practices for learning how to stay with what you feel and not pass it on unconsciously. Using a steady rhythm of breath and...

Have you ever walked away from a conversation and thought, what just happened inside me? Not something the other person did. Something that activated inside you. In this episode, Keith explores the moment we leave ourselves. The point where something gets triggered, the mind begins to build a story, and we start reacting to what we think is happening instead of what actually is. This piece is part...

In this episode, Keith reflects on how small moments of activation can carry forward into what comes next, often without us realizing it. This piece explores what happens when we don’t give those moments space, and how a simple pause can begin to change what follows. Practice A walking meditation titled Stay With What You Feel was created to go along with this piece. It offers a simple way to work...

A simple walking meditation to help you stay with what you feel without immediately reacting to it. If something from your day is still sitting with you, this practice gives you space to slow down, breathe, and be with it. You can walk, sit, or rest while listening. Watch If you’d like to follow along visually, a video version with natural walking scenes is available here: Watch on YouTube: https:...

There was a time I thought I was going to figure it all out. Now I’m realizing what I was really looking for was presence. This reflection came out of a Good Friday meditation from Richard Rohr that was shared with me by a friend, and one line in particular stayed with me: Jesus refused to pass his pain on to others. This episode explores what it might mean to interrupt that cycle, to stay present...

In this episode, I share a reflection from my breathwork journey on what it means to come home to the body. This piece explores how we begin to build safety within ourselves, soften, and learn to stay present with what we’re feeling. It’s not about fixing anything, but about being with ourselves in a more honest and supportive way. If you’ve been feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, or like you’ve b...

In this episode of the Vital Healing podcast, Keith reads this week’s Substack reflection exploring how breathwork became part of his own healing journey. The episode also introduces World Breathing Day , a global gathering where people from around the world come together to breathe in community. Keith will be assisting professional breathworker Kate Becker and her team at the New Orleans gatherin...

This episode is a reading of this week’s Substack reflection, Arriving Where We Already Are . It explores the difference between changing our surroundings and actually settling into the present moment. Many of these writings began while walking, and recorded walks will begin appearing soon. Read the essay: https://bit.ly/3ZHRt9i Watch companion videos: https://youtu.be/2XyaSu8YWDU

This week’s reflection explores a kind of exhaustion that doesn’t resolve with sleep.  Many of us pause activity without ever leaving readiness, which leaves the body unable to fully recover. This conversation looks at what it means to truly disconnect and why real rest begins when nothing is required of us for a moment. Read the full essay: https://bit.ly/4rI0RFL Watch the video version: https://...

In this episode, Keith Rowe shares the spoken version of his weekly Substack essay, The Cost of Constant Activation . This reflection explores how chronic nervous system activation shows up not only as outrage or urgency, but also as quiet vigilance, distraction, and numbness. Rather than diagnosing or prescribing, this piece invites listeners to notice what constant activation does to our capacit...

In this episode, Keith reflects on oak trees, leaf litter, and what it means to release beauty into the world. Inspired by The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy, this reflection explores how life is sustained through generosity, patience, and trust, both in nature and in our own creative lives. Links and Resources Read the accompanying essay on Substack:  https://bit.ly/4tlZLkX Youtube Video Versi...

SHOW NOTES Listening to Winter  In this episode, I share a spoken reflection on winter, embodiment, and the quiet clarity that comes through work and presence. This piece grows out of recent hands-on restoration work at Cambridge Cemetery and reflects a seasonal shift toward slowing down, listening, and letting the body lead. The spoken reflection is paired with video, including time-lapse footage...

This week’s reflection comes out of some recent work along Piney Creek, where we put up two wood duck boxes and filmed parts of the process as it unfolded. The piece follows the work as it happened, choosing placement, adjusting along the way, clearing space where needed, and tending to what the creek had carried in during high water. The spoken word is paired with a time-lapse video for those who...

Learning to Rewild with Barn Owls Moving Away from Control and Back Toward Balance Description: This episode is a spoken reading of my latest Substack essay, Learning to Rewild with Barn Owls . The piece grew out of recent work building nesting boxes on the land. While researching bluebird and wood duck boxes, I came across plans for a barn owl box and began learning more about how barn owls live,...

This episode is a Christmas Eve offering. It centers on A Christmas Carol , the film The Man Who Invented Christmas , and the story behind the story.  More than that, it explores how change happens in a human life, not through force or correction, but through reconnection, memory, and love. This episode is meant to be listened to gently. Whether you’re walking, resting, or sitting quietly, you’re...

This episode explores my journey through anxiety, years of depending on Xanax, and a fear of flying that kept me grounded for nearly two decades. It's about how the right practices can help us find our way out of patterns we thought we'd carry forever.  Explore how Breathwork, walking meditation, and time in nature slowly built the foundation I needed. Playing Native American style flute and learn...

Winter has a way of slowing everything down, and this episode follows the rhythm of that season. I read the full piece titled What Winter Is Teaching Me, a reflection on letting go, tending the land, and learning to trust the quiet work that happens beneath the surface. In this story we visit the oaks and beech trees that hold their leaves long into the cold months, and flow the still water shaped...

EPISODE 4: The Return from Babel - Finding our way out of the Machine. Paul Kingsnorth's "Against the Machine" opens a window into the modern impulse to measure, optimize, and control everything.  This episode traces that pattern from the Tower of Babel to our lives today and offers a way back through breath and presence. IN THIS EPISODE: The Machine as more than technology: a restless engine of c...

When Convenience Stops Being Enough Based on the essay available on Substack This episode explores a truth many of us carry quietly. We live with more convenience than any generation before us, yet something in us still hungers for depth, belonging, and a way of living that feels human. Through historical accounts of settlers who chose to remain within Native communities, the story looks at what h...

This episode is a spoken version of my essay Between Presence and Planning. It explores the moment in Marco Polo when the Empress and the Khan clash over fear, foresight, and the gift of staying rooted in the present. The reflection looks at the part of us that wants to breathe and the part of us that wants to prepare. It touches on the tension between resting in what is good right now and being s...

This episode is a spoken version of my essay The Sound of Belonging. I recorded it after a week at the Flute Harvest retreat in Encino, California. The piece reflects on music, breath, community, and the quiet ways we find our way back to ourselves. It is a story about listening, being seen, and letting my voice come forward with honesty. Thank you for listening. Read the full essay on Substack ht...