What if stress isn't the problem—but how you've been taught to respond to it is?

In this conversation, Mike Zoun breaks down why chasing calm keeps you stuck. Through heart rate variability (HRV) measurement and somatic practices, Mike reveals what your body has been trying to tell you all along: that symptoms aren't problems to fix, they're messages to listen to.

You'll learn about the three types of stress your nervous system experiences (and why each needs a different response), and how to build capacity to hold whatever arises—not just feel better temporarily.

This is about listening to your body as your most committed ally—speaking to you with unconditional love, showing you where you're out of alignment, where you're overextending yourself, and what needs your attention.

KEY TOPICS:

• Why what you think might be “good for you” isn't the same as what's actually good for your body
• The three types of stress: mental, emotional, and physical (and how to respond to each) Heart rate variability (HRV) and what it reveals about hidden stress
• Building nervous system capacity vs. chasing calm
• Authentic expression as nervous system regulation
• Why emotions only last 90 seconds (and what keeps you stuck)
• Movement as medicine: when your body needs activation, not stillness

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Your body's stress response is information, not malfunction
• Meditation isn't always the answer—sometimes your body needs movement
• True healing means building capacity to feel more, not numbing symptoms
• Authentic expression regulates your nervous system
• Your body speaks with unconditional love—until your last breath

ABOUT MIKE ZOUN:

Mike Zoun is the founder of The Present Edge, where he helps clients understand their nervous systems through HRV measurement and embodied practices. His work focuses on building capacity to feel and process emotions rather than managing or suppressing them.

Connect with Mike at www.thepresentedge.nl

Connect with the Garden of Becoming:

• Instagram: @gardenofbecomingpodcast
• Email: hello@gardenofbecoming.com

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In this deeply embodied conversation, sacred sexuality facilitator Briana Cribeyer reveals why our relationships trigger our youngest, most wounded parts—and how to practice showing up as adults in love. Whether you're monogamous, non-monogamous, or single, this episode offers revolutionary insights about nervous system regulation, desire, and the daily practice of truly meeting another person.

What You'll Learn:

Understanding Your Nervous System in Relationship:

• The "back heart" practice for coming back to your full body
• How to move at the pace of the nervous system that needs the most regulation
• The practice of merge and unmerge—being with yourself while in connection

Working With Desires:

• Why naming what you want feels so dangerous (and how to do it anyway)
• What to do when your desires don't match your partner's
• The core childhood wound that stops us from speaking our truth

Lessons From Non-Monogamy for Everyone:

• How to remeet your partner with fresh eyes after years together
• The practice of conscious beginnings and endings within long-term relationships
• Why we're actually in relationship with multiple people even in monogamy

Jealousy, Grief & The Big Feelings:

• How to honor jealousy as information rather than something to fix
• Why we need to grieve losses we never processed as children
• The relationship between feeling rage and accessing joy

Inner Child & Teenager Work:

• The practice of giving yourself what your younger parts needed
• How attachment styles predict your adult relationship patterns
• Moving from intellectual understanding to embodied awareness

About Briana Cribeyer:

Briana Cribeyer is a facilitator, trainer, and founder of Sacred Sexuality Rising. With a rich background in social services, non-profit management, and education, Briana blends her expertise in sociology and sustainability with deep spiritual practices rooted in movement, prayer, and shamanic healing. Her journey has taken her from the Midwest to the mountains and forests of Colorado, New Hampshire, and Washington, as well as abroad to Japan and South America, where she cultivated a profound connection to earth wisdom and womb medicine.
As a lead trainer for Intuitive Tantra and a facilitator for the International School of Temple Arts (ISTA), Briana guides individuals and communities toward transformation, healing, and self-empowerment. Her work emphasizes radical love, self-responsibility, and the belief that through these practices, we can shift the collective trajectory of humanity.
Her workshops and sessions are an expression of her deep commitment to cultivating connection, community, and alchemical transformation.

Resources Mentioned:

• Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott
• Dr. Stacey Ellis - Liberation Workshops (inner child and inner adolescent work)
• Attachment theory literature
• Somatic Experiencing (body-based trauma healing)
• Rumi's teachings on lover and beloved

Connect with Briana:

• Website: https://www.brianacribeyer.com/
• Instagram: @she_boldly_goes_
• The Sacred Portal - Briana's membership program with monthly coaching and master classes

This episode contains mature discussions about relationships, sexuality, intimacy, and emotional processing. While educational in nature, listener discretion is advised.

Garden of Becoming explores the messy, beautiful work of becoming whole. Subscribe and follow for conversations that go beneath the surface.

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @gardenofbecomingpodcast
• Email: hello@gardenofbecoming.com

Review and Share: If this episode resonated with you, please leave a review to help others find this show, and share it with someone who needs to hear this message.

Have you ever felt defined by your worst moment? Like one failure, one mistake, or one traumatic experience has become the story of who you are?

In this raw, honest conversation, I sit down with Pushcart Prize-winning poet Dr. Ravi Shankar to explore how writing can literally set us free—whether we're behind bars or trapped in our own stories.

Dr. Shankar went from being the youngest tenured professor in Connecticut College history to spending 90 days in jail. What happened inside those walls changed everything. Now he teaches creative writing to incarcerated people using "bibliotherapy"—the practice of using writing as a path to healing.

In this episode, Ravi shares the exact prompts and practices he uses to help people transform pain into power, face their shadows without drowning in shame, and break free from the labels society has placed on them.

This isn't just about writing. It's about liberation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Writing gives you back control of your story. Even if you can't change what happened, you can reclaim your narrative.
• Shame is a soul-eating emotion—but it can hollow you out to create space for greater empathy. By connecting with the parts of ourselves we're ashamed of, we learn to forgive ourselves and others.
• You don't have to share what you write. The act of pouring out your experiences is deeply therapeutic, even if no one ever reads it.
• When you fail spectacularly, you become less afraid of failure. Rock bottom can be the foundation for reinvention.
• If you get stuck, write: "I don't know what to say." Then keep writing. Free writing isn't about perfection—it's about generating material.
• Writing can reach through generations. It's not just about processing your own trauma—it's about healing ancestral wounds.

WANT TO TRY IT?

Start with these three prompts:

• "Someone said..." (opens the door to memory)
• Write from the perspective of an object in your childhood room
• Take a trip across town and write down everything you see/hear (side entry into your story)

ABOUT DR. RAVI SHANKAR:

Dr. Ravi Shankar is a Pushcart Prize-winning poet and author of the award-winning memoir Correctional, which chronicles his 90 days in jail and the men he met there. He teaches creative writing at Tufts University, bringing college classes into correctional facilities to help incarcerated people heal and reclaim their voices through bibliotherapy. He's authored 18 books and appeared on NPR, PBS, and in The New York Times.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Books:

• Correctional by Ravi Shankar
• The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
• My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem

Concepts:

• Bibliotherapy: Using writing to promote healing
• Wabi-sabi: Finding beauty in imperfection
• Kintsugi: Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold
• The epistolary method: Writing letters to your past/future self

Connect with Ravi:

• Instagram: @laremerpurpler
• Website: poetravishankar.com

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• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
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Want more episodes like this? New episodes drop weekly every Tuesday. Subscribe to The Garden of Becoming wherever you listen to podcasts.

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @gardenofbecomingpodcast
• Email: hello@gardenofbecoming.com

What if the words you use every day are creating the life you're living—for better or worse? In this conversation, coach and organizational development expert Hendrik Berberich reveals how language functions as technology, shaping not just what we communicate, but the reality we experience."

Hendrik shows how we can use language as a tool to reprogram our patterns, our emotional states, and who we're becoming. Drawing from 15+ years of experience, he proves that change isn't mysterious—it's methodical.

Key Takeaways:

• The power of "yet": How one word opens neural pathways to possibility
• Need vs. Want: Why this language shift reduces anxiety and increases motivation
• The Four-Ear Model: How the same sentence can be heard four completely different ways
• From retrospective to real-time awareness: The five stages of behavioral change
• Understanding emotional distinctions: The difference between jealousy and envy, shame and guilt, grief and sadness
• The three rooms: How to move from anxiety to wonder, resentment to peace, resignation to ambition
• Why emotions only last 90 seconds (unless you reinforce them)
• The biological truth: Your reptilian body, nervous system, and neocortex are always in conversation

What Makes This Episode Special: Hendrik demonstrates these concepts in real-time—catching himself experiencing embarrassment, naming what's happening in his body, and redirecting. Self-awareness as it actually happens."

About Hendrik Lasse Berberich: Hendrik is a coach, experience designer, and organizational development specialist who has spent over 15 years mastering the intersection of language, emotion, and embodiment. Born in Germany and having traveled to 20+ countries, he brings deep intercultural wisdom to his work. Trained in linguistic and emotional competencies, somatic frameworks, Art of Hosting, Collective Leadership, and Complexity Facilitation, Hendrik helps individuals and organizations move from unconscious patterns to intentional becoming.

Connect with Hendrik: Instagram: @hendrikberberich Website: www.hendrikberberich.com

Resources Mentioned:

• Brené Brown: "Atlas of the Heart"
• Byron Katie: "The Work" (theWork.org)
• Mark Manson: "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck"
• Schulz von Thun: Four-Ear Communication Model

Review and Share: If this episode resonated with you, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear this.

Garden of Becoming explores the messy, beautiful work of becoming whole. New episodes drop weekly every Tuesday. Subscribe and follow for conversations that go beneath the surface.

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @gardenofbecomingpodcast
• Email: hello@gardenofbecoming.com

What if the healing you've been searching for isn't in another app, book, or wellness trend? What if it's literally growing all around you?

In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Andrea Jaramillo - a public health nurse, certified forest therapy guide, grief and ceremony holder, and founder of Forest Nurse - to explore forest bathing as medicine for our modern burnout.

Originally from Ecuador, Andrea has spent her nursing career walking with people through life's biggest moments, from birth to death. Through this work, she discovered that nature isn't just nice to have - it's medicine we all need.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why slowing down is a radical act in our culture
• How to introduce yourself to new land like meeting a friend

• Why your anxiety and burnout aren't personal failures but collective symptoms
• Practical ways to begin forest bathing in your own backyard and how to turn your morning coffee into sacred ritual

• How we heal collectively, not individually

Garden of Becoming explores the messy, beautiful work of becoming whole. New episodes drop weekly every Tuesday. Subscribe and follow for conversations that go beneath the surface.

Connect with us:

• Instagram: @gardenofbecomingpodcast
• Email: hello@gardenofbecoming.com

Connect with Andrea:

• Instagram: @forest.nurse
• Website: https://forestnurse.com
• LinkedIn: Andrea Jaramillo

Review and Share: If this episode resonated with you, please leave a review to help others find this show, and share it with someone who needs to hear this message.