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Why Spirituality Isn't a Solo Journey: 3 Years of the Woo Curious Podcast Three years ago, Eileen sat down in front of a microphone with her dear friend Ellie and started talking about all things woo. She suspected she wasn't alone in her curiosity. She had no idea just how right she was. In this special birthday episode, the first of Season 4 of the Woo Curious Podcast, Eileen reflects on three seasons, 150 episodes, and the thread that has run through all of it: that we are more alike than different, that the loneliness so many of us carry is collective, and that the spiritual path was never meant to be walked alone. In this episode: ● Where it all began: two friends behind a microphone, a lot of curiosity, and very little idea what the show would become ● What dozens of conversations with women from around the world have confirmed about the human experience ● The paradox of speaking into a microphone alone while being genuinely, energetically in community ● Why the isolated, individual spiritual healing journey is a product of capitalist, patriarchal structures, not a feature of real spirituality ● We are wired for interdependence, not independence ● Eileen's hope for Season 4... more embodied, more communal, more grounded in actual practice ● The new Wise Wild Woman Collective Facebook group (open to all to join!) ● A love letter to the Woo Crew, and an invitation to reach back "I am not a guru sitting on a mountaintop spouting gospel. I am a wayfinder, stumbling along, clearing the path, taking wrong turns, telling you not to go that way because there's brambles down there, and sharing as best I can the wisdom I have acquired on this journey so far." - Eileen🎁 Birthday bonus: Use code WOOCREW33 for 33% off anything on https://www.myluminouslife.ca/ **only 3 available, first come first served** 🔮 Unleash Your Inner Witch starts October 26th https://www.myluminouslife.ca/unleash-your-inner-witch🌿 Join the Wise Wild Woman Collective on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1P8ZStodwW/ 🎙️ Leave a review, share with a friend, reach out; it means more than you know Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony: https://www.myluminouslife.ca/wheel-of-the-year-ceremonies Subscribe to Eileen on Substack: https://wisewildwomanhearth.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/101667/92633449696855773/share Order Awaken to the Magic Within https://www.myluminouslife.ca/awaken-to-the-magic-within Connect with Eileen on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/iameileenmarch Follow Eileen on Insight Timer https://insighttimer.com/iameileenmarch Send Eileen an email at [email protected]

Join Eileen for the next cohort of Unleash Your Inner Witch https://www.myluminouslife.ca/unleash-your-inner-witch What happens when the high-achieving, driven version of you starts to cry for help and the universe turns up the volume until you have no choice but to listen? In this episode, Eileen sits down with Kat Reilly, bestselling author of Legally Zen, courtroom lawyer of nearly 20 years, and devoted single mom. Kat's path to spirituality wound through two bad concussions, near kidney failure, a toxic relationship, and the terrifying decision to write a book that outed her as someone who meditates and goes on retreats — while also being a serious lawyer. Spoiler: the reception was almost entirely a nothing burger. This conversation is warm, honest, and full of the kind of practical wisdom that actually lands in a busy life. In this episode: Two concussions, near kidney failure, and what it took for the universe to finally get Kat's attention The psychic who told her she needed to slow down... right after she'd just finished slowing downWhy knowing something intellectually and actually embodying it are two completely different things, and why most of us are still stuck in betweenThe pattern of replacing achievement goals with spiritual goals, and how we end up doing the same thing in a different arenaHow Kat creates space for spiritual practice as a single mom with a demanding legal career (hint: it's less precious than you might think)Why celebration is actually behavioral psychologyWhy the reception to her book was almost universally positive in ways she never expected The free Zen Extras kit is available right now at https://entouragemedia.ca/legally-zen/ "Learn to discern what is your true inner wisdom versus what is all the noise. Before all the noise comes in, there's often a kernel of truth. That's the one to listen to." — Kat Reilly BIO: Kat Reilly is the best-selling author of Legally Zen - her debut book. Kat is a courtroom lawyer of nearly 20 years, a devoted single mom and, now, an author. She currently lives on Vancouver Island. When she is not working, momming, or writing, Kat can often be found out in nature, or on her back deck with a strong coffee and a good book. Kat realized long ago that she was not like other lawyers; she is a deeply feeling empath who has, for the last many years, been on a quiet quest for something 'more'. Follow Kat on Instagram @legallyzen_katreilly Join Eileen for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony: https://www.myluminouslife.ca/wheel-of-the-year-ceremonies Subscribe to Eileen on Substack: https://wisewildwomanhearth.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/101667/92633449696855773/share Order Awaken to the Magic Within https://www.myluminouslife.ca/awaken-to-the-magic-within Connect with Eileen on Instagram / iameileenmarch Follow Eileen on Insight Timer https://insighttimer.com/iameileenmarch Send Eileen an email at [email protected]

Your animal sees everything. The good days, the hard days, the moments you'd rather not admit to. And they love you anyway — unconditionally, completely, and without agenda. In this episode, Eileen sits down with her dear friend and fellow Wild Medicine Energy Healers Training graduate Rose Stroh, an animal communicator and energy healer who gives animals a voice and helps people deepen their connections with the animals they love. This conversation is part origin story, part practical guide to animal communication, and part genuinely moving testament to what our animal companions are trying to show us about ourselves. In this episode: * Growing up with every domesticated animal imaginable, and how that innate connection became the foundation of Rose's work * Type 1 diabetes as a teacher: how a health crisis cracked open the path back to alignment * Two trips through corporate and what it took to finally leave for good * The senior foster dog who sat with Rose through one of the hardest seasons of her life * Diesel, Lucy, and the extraordinary story of an animal who told Rose six months in advance that he was leaving * What actually happens in an animal communication session and why animals often have wisdom for the human that has nothing to do with what they came to ask * Why animals won't spill your deepest secrets * Animism in practice: how Rose works with the consciousness of rooms, doors, and spaces * The difference between cats and dogs in how they show up in sessions "They see everything we do. They know all of us and they love us unconditionally anyway. Our souls are entirely bared to each other." — Rose Stroh Send Rose an Email: [email protected] Take a peek at Rose's Website: www.Rosestroh.com Follow Rose on Instagram: //www.instagram.com/rosestrohanimals Take a look at Roses's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/RoseStroh Sign up for Unleash Your Inner Witch: https://www.myluminousife.ca/unleash-your-inner-witch Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony: https://www.myluminouslife.ca/wheel-of-the-year-ceremonies Subscribe to Eileen on Substack: https://wisewildwomanhearth.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/101667/92633449696855773/share Order Awaken to the Magic Within https://www.myluminouslife.ca/awaken-to-the-magic-within Connect with Eileen on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/iameileenmarch Follow Eileen on Insight Timer https://insighttimer.com/iameileenmarch Send Eileen an email at [email protected]

Balance isn't a fixed point you reach and hold on to. It's a breath a moment of equilibrium, before the shift. In this solo episode, Eileen explores the autumn equinox through Celtic history, the Wheel of the Year, the magic of the Harvest Moon, and a reframe of balance that might change how you carry it in your body. As the light and dark pause in ta moment of equality before the Wheel tips toward the dark half of the year, there's wisdom in this moment for us. In this episode: Why the autumn equinox is called a quarter day, and how it differs from the cross-quarter fire festivalsThe word Mabon: where it actually comes from, why Eileen doesn't use it, and why it's completely fine if you doThe three harvest festivals of the Wheel of the Year and where autumn equinox sits among themThe Harvest Moon: why it's called thatThe luteal phase parallel: how the body turns inward in autumn just as it does in the second half of the menstrual cycleWhy the common understanding of balance as a fixed equilibrium point is both appealing and impossibleWhere in your life things may have gotten rigid or out of alignment, and what this season is asking you to release"There is a day where the light and the dark are exactly equal — but it's one day among 365. It's a breath, and then it tips again." Get on the waitlist for Unleash Your Inner Witch Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within  Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email

What if children aren't just pretending when they play make-believe, what if they're doing something we've forgotten how to do? In this solo episode, a spark of insight during a remote energy healing sends Eileen down a rabbit hole that connects make-believe, the Celtic Otherworld, adult play, and the virtue signalling we do with our busyness. It's a shorter, wandering, genuinely fun episode and it ends with an invitation to find the magic in the mundane before the dark half of the year begins. In this episode: The moment during a remote energy healing that sparked everything: make-believe as an entrance into non-ordinary states of reality and a connection to the OtherworldHow children lost in play might be doing something remarkably similar to what we do with drums, breath, or walking meditationThe Celtic Otherworld: overlaid on our world, accessible through the mists, and increasingly close as we move toward SamhainWhy adults struggle to really play, even in spaces specifically designed for it like Dungeons & DragonsThe rebellious act of suspending societal expectations long enough to just... pretendBusyness as virtue signallingWhy timelines are often self-imposed, and what becomes possible when we decide to make our ownThe autumn equinox, balance, and the invitation to take some things off your plate as we move toward the dark half of the yearThe food-fork-hat game Eileen played as a child at the dinner table, and why it might be the best thing you hear today"Where might you be virtue signalling by your busyness? And where might you inject a little bit of play or make-believe back into your days?" Sign Up for Rooted: Plant Allies for the Autumn Equinox Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Get yourself on the Unleash Your Inner Witch waitlist Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within  Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email at [email protected]

Have you ever felt inexplicably drawn to a place? There's a reason for that. In this episode, Eileen sits down with Charlie of Celestia Terra, certified locational astrologer and astrocartographer, for a conversation that begins with leaving a cult and ends with the radical idea that the land loves you back. Charlie's practice centers on reciprocal relationship with the land as the foundation of astrocartography, not the transactional "where should I move to get rich" version you might have seen online, but something far deeper, more grounded, and more beautiful. This conversation covers the origins of the practice, how to begin exploring your own map for free, and why reconnecting with the land where you live currently might be the most important thing any of us can do right now. In this episode:-Growing up in 20 acres of maple forest in Terracotta, Ontario... and being born into a cult-What finally prompted Charlie to leave, and why leaving a cult (or any high-demand community) is never the easy way out-How running ultra marathons, working in a natural food store, and hearing about a flower that talked back slowly rebuilt her relationship with the divine-What astrocartography actually is: your natal chart as a world map, combining the Earth's memory of the moment you were born with your own-The difference between planetary lines and local space lines, and why the transactional version of astrocartography misses the point-How to explore your own map for free using Astro Click Travel-Remote activation: how to work with your astrocartography lines without ever leaving home, through ethical sourcing of art, food, plants, and relationships-Why the land where you are right now already holds something for you — and how to begin that relationship today-Astrocartography as ancestral and past life work, especially for those with gaps in their lineage knowledge "If you yearn for a place, it yearns for you back. You're part of the land. The land loves you." — Charlie of Celestia Terra EPISODE LINKS & RESOURCESFROM OUR GUEST — CHARLIE OF CELESTIA TERRA LISTENER OFFER:Use code CURIOUS20 for 20% off any appointment on the site. Offer expires December 31, 2026. How to Read Your Astrocartography MapWhat Is Astrocartography? Connect with Celeste on Instagram Follow Celeste on TikTok Follow Celeste on Bluesky Follow Celeste on Threads WITH EILEENJoin Unleash Your Inner Witch Attend the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You? Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within Connect with Eileen on Instagram Follow Eileen on Insight Timer Send Eileen an email

Have you ever been in a room that felt safe, until suddenly it wasn't? In this impromptu solo episode, Eileen shares what happened when she found herself in a business course this week alongside someone whose values turned out to be so far from her own that it sent her into a spiral of questioning: the room, herself, and what it means to know where you actually stand. From that moment of disillusionment came a values post she's been meaning to write for years along with this episode which is the expanded, unedited version of that. It's honest, it's political, it's personal, and it's an invitation to get clearer on the ground you stand on. In this episode: -What happened in a business course that made Eileen want to vomit, and what it cracked open -The difference between holding space for different perspectives and not tolerating dehumanization -Reciprocity, entanglement, and care for all beings: the three pillars of Eileen's values-The collapse we're living through, and why division serves the systems causing it -Coming back to enough: what most of human history can teach us about abundance, sharing, and skill -An explicit statement of values: trans rights, Black Lives Matter, Free Palestine, land back, water is life -Why Unleash Your Inner Witch exists, who it's for, and why the waitlist is open now "If you dream of a world where every body in their full expression is loved and accepted exactly as they are — I want you inside this space." Join Unleash Your Inner Witch Attend the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within  Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email

What if your body has been trying to tell you something for years and the missing piece is simply learning how to listen? In this episode, Eileen sits down with her dear friend Meg Aris, mindful movement teacher, somatic coach, and founder of Wise Moves with Meg. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis as a teenager, Meg's relationship with her body has been one of deep, sometimes painful, and ultimately profound befriending. That lived experience, along with years of study, is woven into everything she teaches. This conversation moves through autoimmune illness and its unexpected gifts, the difference between acceptance and resignation in the body, the wisdom available in elderly bodies, and a quietly revolutionary question Meg asks in almost every class she teaches: "And what else is here?" In this episode: -Sitting in a bedroom window as a child, looking out at the stars, and knowing there was something bigger -How rheumatoid arthritis at a young age set Meg on her life's path through yoga, Pilates, and eventually somatic coaching -Why a severe flare-up that left her unable to hold a water glass became the turning point that deepened everything -The difference between acceptance and resignation and why it's so important to understand -Why we're wired to notice pain and not flow, and what it takes to consciously redirect attention -Wisdom from working with elderly clients: how finding what the body can do lights the whole thing up -The Wise Body Immersion: a three-month online journey through anatomy, embodiment, reflective writing, and community -What happens when women share the stories their bodies are telling them and how that witnessing ripples -The question that changes everything: "And what else is here?" "If we can just slow it down for a moment and acknowledge 'this is where I am, can I love myself here?'" — Meg Aris Join Meg's Wise Body Immersion Connect with Meg on Instagram Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within  Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email

What happens when you've made the decision, done the work, and the relief just... doesn't come? In this solo episode, Eileen gets honest about where she's at: her house is listed but unsold, her plans are on hold, and she's been sitting in a prolonged stretch of uncertainty that has quietly taken a toll on her creativity, her energy, and her ability to show up the way she usually does. Rather than pretending it's fine, she's naming it and offering a reframe that might be exactly what you need if you're in your own version of the messy middle right now. Drawing on her years of experience as a midwife, Eileen shares a birth metaphor that captures the particular difficulty of this limbo state, and gently but honestly explores what it means to give yourself grace when your nervous system is under a stress you've been telling yourself isn't a big deal. In this episode: The Wild Roses Women's Festival and what a thousand women considering each other looks like in practiceWhat matriarchy actually means and what it isn'tThe "epidural metaphor": why making a decision and not getting the relief on your desired timeline is its own specific kind of hardWhy our brains will always choose the known hell over the unknown heavenHow prolonged uncertainty impacts the nervous system, creativity, and daily capacity, even when you tell yourself it shouldn'tThe difference between spiritual bypassing and genuinely trusting the process while also acknowledging that something is hardThe shift from "I have to" to "I get to" and why it isn't toxic positivity when you do it honestlyPermission to have reduced capacity and to stop beating yourself up for it"Certainty is a myth, but really not being able to make a plan impacts all of the parts of your life, even if you try to tell yourself it's not a big deal." Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within  Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email

What if your intuition has been speaking all along, and the real work is simply learning to trust it? In this episode, Eileen sits down with Kelsey Anderson, an energy intuitive, author, and host of The Reclamation Podcast, whose path from corporate burnout to embodied spiritual practice mirrors so many of the journeys explored on this show. Kelsey's work through her community Reclamation Rising centers one core truth: the answers you're seeking outside of yourself were always within you. This conversation moves through postpartum awakening, the dangers of spiritual bypassing, the leap from corporate life, and what it actually means to come home to your body rather than escape it. In this episode: How Kelsey's body broke down in her mid-20s and launched her into spirituality out of sheer necessityThe good girl conditioning and masking that kept her performing rather than trustingWhy a true spiritual awakening is a homecoming to the body, not an escape from itPostpartum as a portal: how motherhood cracked open Kelsey's relationship with self-trust and interdependenceThe difference between strong and independent versus strong and interdependentIntuition as a threat to control: why women in their intuitive power become far less controllableLeaving corporate: how Kelsey went from two incomes to one, downsized everything, and built her work over seven yearsWhat to do if you want to live more intuitively but don't want to leave your corporate jobHow Kelsey's new book The Signal: Listen to Your Intuition Through the Noise of Modern Life arrived in five days of channeled writing she couldn't stop "When I trusted my inner voice, it was little pings, little whispers. Simple in the moment, but when you add them all up, it's compiled into your overall wellbeing." Visit Kelsey's website Follow Kelsey on Spotify Connect with Kelsey on Instagram Subscribe to Kelsey's Youtube Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within   Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer Send Eileen an email

When did you last stop long enough to enjoy the fruits of your labour? In this solo episode, Eileen explores Lughnasadh, the ancient Celtic harvest festival, and the invitation it carries for our modern lives: to pause, look back, and actually celebrate how far we've come. Drawing on the mythology of the god Lugh and his foster mother Tailtiu, and the lens of Elise Loehnen's On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good, this episode looks honestly at why celebrating ourselves can feel dangerous, and what it might mean to finally let ourselves savour what we've accomplished.In this episode: -What Lughnasadh is, why it matters, and how to think about timing (August 1st, August 7th solar midpoint, or August 12th lunar — and why all of them work) -The three harvest festivals of the Wheel of the Year and how Lughnasadh sits as the first and most celebratory -The history of Lughnasadh as a season of fairs, markets, games, and community gathering and why it held its traditions longer than almost any other point on the wheel -The mythology of Tailtiu: who she was, what she sacrificed, and what Lugh's games in her honor ask of us today -Why rushing past our achievements without celebrating them is a form of disrespect, both to ourselves and to those whose sacrifices made it possible -Pride as a "sin" and how that conditioning keeps women especially from claiming what they've built -Sloth as a "sin" and the fear underneath it: if I slow down, I might not start again -A practical invitation to look back at the last six months and name what you've actually grown "She worked herself to death so that we don't have to. To honor her, I think we should be enjoying... the fruits of our labours" Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within  Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email

What if the most revolutionary thing you can do right now is introduce yourself to your neighbor and ask to borrow some salt? In this episode, Eileen is joined by Amber and Taylar, co-hosts of the Waking Up the Witch podcast — a storytelling show exploring life, death, religion, spirituality, sex, magic, and everything in between. Amber owns Moon Be's Wellness, a witchy brick-and-mortar boutique in southern Oregon, and is a Reiki master and psychic gifts teacher. Taylar is a hairstylist, community connector, and self-described magic-maker who believes her gift is helping people see their own power. Together they also run Moonlight and Magic, an events company bringing witchy community together in person. This conversation wanders beautifully through spiritual origin stories, the return of village culture, what manifestation actually means when you strip away the toxic positivity, and why authenticity might be the most powerful thing any of us can offer the collective right now. In this episode: -Amber's origin story: a Wiccan mom, healing oils made from kitchen spices as a child, Reiki, and the psychic gifts she once thought were a curse -Taylar's path: Catholic kindergarten, The Secret, a psychic hairstylist, too much wine, one shared microphone, and a podcast born from pure curiosity -Why the witch wound still shows up in how we hide ourselves, even from the people closest to us -The difference between fitting in and authentic belonging, and how living authentically is what plugs you into the collective circuit board -Why the law of attraction falls short without community, action, and reckoning with systemic harm -Victory Gardens, borrowing cups of sugar, and why the village is both the antidote and the answer -The healing that can only happen in relationship, not in solo inner work -Asking for help as a radical act, especially for women conditioned to never be a burden -Why spirituality doesn't have to be serious: it can be lipstick at the grocery store, a bird outside your window, or dancing at the gay club on Saturday "Get comfortable being uncomfortable. That's what leads you to the parts you're supposed to be in this world, in your community, in the revolution." — Amber "Spirituality can be silly and playful and messy. It's really just asking you to be present." — Taylar Connect with Amber and Taylar on Instagram Check out the Waking Up the Witch Patreon community Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email

What happens when the thing you think will finally make you lovable, the right look, the right body, the right approval, never actually arrives? In this episode, Eileen has a conversation with Whitney Walker, licensed marriage and family therapist, recovery coach, and host of the Women Waken podcast. Whitney specializes in addiction, eating disorders, trauma, and spirituality, and she doesn't shy away from her own story: severe bullying, a debilitating eating disorder, addiction, and a self-worth built entirely on external validation that nearly broke her in her early twenties. This conversation traces Whitney's path from that rock bottom to recovery, sobriety, and a spiritual awakening rooted in self-love, and widens out into a larger conversation about the return of the divine feminine, sovereignty, and what a more conscious, balanced society could look like. In this episode: -Whitney's years of disordered eating, addiction, and the belief that being attractive was the only path to being loved -The therapist who first asked her, "Isn't there more to you than your appearance?" -The book and quote that cracked something open: "Trying to love yourself from the outside in is a doomed prospect" -Why getting sober and healing her relationship with food opened the door to a spiritual path -A trip to the UK that connected Whitney to her Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry, and the calling that followed: bring women together -The difference between conscious and unconscious masculine and feminine energy -Sovereignty as the most powerful tool available to any human right now -Why systems built on greed and exploitation are inherently unstable, and what might take their place -The role of truth and transparency in personal and collective healing "The greatest wisdom you can ever find is within you. You are your own greatest source of wisdom." — Whitney Walker Whitney's Website: Www.Womenwaken.com Find Witney's Podcast on Apple or Spotify Subscribe to Witney's Youtube channel Connect with Witney on Instagram Follow Whitney on Facebook Join Whitney on LinkedIn Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within  Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email

"I don't belong anywhere." If you've ever felt this way, even in a space that felt safe and welcoming, this episode is for you. In this solo episode, Eileen explores why so many women feel like outsiders even in rooms full of people who love them, and unpacks the crucial difference between fitting in and true belonging. Drawing from a recurring pattern she's witnessed inside the Wise Wild Woman Mentorship, and from her own lifelong relationship with this exact wound, Eileen breaks down why belonging has to start as an inside job, and why vulnerability, as uncomfortable as it is, is the only real path there. In this episode: The difference between fitting in (which requires shrinking) and belonging (which requires showing up)The two reasons "nobody understands me" often feels true, and what to do about each oneWhy self-knowledge and self-acceptance have to come before belonging to othersThe question most of us have never asked ourselves: what do I actually want, outside of what's expected of me?Why vulnerability never stops feeling vulnerable, and what we're actually building when we practice itDiscernment in vulnerability: why it matters who you open up to, and how to ask if someone has capacityThe fear of being "a burden," and why that fear so often keeps us from the connection we're cravingHow practicing vulnerability gives other people permission to do the same"In order to belong, we must feel understood. And in order to be understood, we must be willing to show up and share ourselves." Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within  Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email

What if the most radical spiritual act available to you right now is saying hello to your neighbor? In this episode, Eileen is joined by Stephanie Keiko Kong — public speaking and digital marketing strategy coach, theater artist, yoga therapist, and community weaver whose practice centers BIPOC, femme, and queer thought leaders. Growing up in Hawaii with a deep land-based relationship to the natural world, Stephanie brings a perspective on spirituality that is at once ancient, practical, and quietly revolutionary. This conversation wanders beautifully in ways that will light up your mind and body. From Sanskrit mantra and self-hypnosis to the psychedelic power of group singing, from the colonization of our bodies to the radical simplicity of hyper-local community care. It's one to sit with and return to. In this episode: Growing up in Hawaii with a land-based spiritual practice and the heartbreak of realizing not everyone lives this wayThe divine mundane: how a cup of tea, a Beyonce song, or a slice of bread can be a portal to the sacredYears of dedicated Sanskrit mantra study and the humbling moment of realizing she'd been missing the whole pointThe "transcendence bias" hiding inside Western interpretations of Eastern spiritual traditionsSelf-hypnosis, group singing, and drumming at 147 BPM... a few of the many doorways into non-ordinary states of realityWhy plant medicine is compelling for so many Westerners, and what it offers that hasn't yet been colonized"Severance from land is empire's first consent violation" — a teaching from Ihilani Cho that reframes everythingThe magic of hyper-local community care and why change at that scale is both simple and inevitableCuriosity as a revolutionary practice, a spiritual foundation, and the prerequisite for genuine compassionPlaying Hamlet as the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival's first ever non-binary Hamlet, and what that meant for the queer arts community in Honolulu "Thank you for staying curious in a world that would rather have you smile and nod and shut up." — Stephanie Keiko Kong Find Stephanie on Instagram Sign up for Stephanie's email list at her website  Check out Stephanie's upcoming program Liberatory Leadership beginning in late July Join me for the next Wheel of the Year Ceremony Subscribe to Eileen on Substack Take the Which Witch Are You Quiz Order Awaken to the Magic Within Connect with Eileen on Instagram  Follow Eileen on Insight Timer  Send Eileen an email