Magic Thread Media

What if intimacy is not about always being close, but about knowing how to stay connected to yourself while moving toward and away from the person you love?

Kristien has been sitting with the realization that some of what she calls caring may actually be caretaking. As Dr. Pavini helps her slow down and notice what happens in her body when she feels needed, Kristien begins to recognize the tension, urgency, and sense of worth that can accompany her impulse to rescue.

Then Dr. Pavini changes the conditions. What happens when helping Stijn means giving up something Kristien deeply wants for herself? The difference becomes easier to feel. Caring leaves room for both people. Caretaking asks Kristien to disappear.

Meanwhile, Stijn continues looking at his relationship with alcohol, the fear of sleeplessness that has followed him since adolescence, and the relationship he wants to build with his son. He also begins practicing something much less familiar: noticing his own body and internal experience.

By the end of the session, Kristien and Stijn are invited into a new kind of intimacy, one where closeness is not the only sign that the relationship is safe. They begin experimenting with distance, connection, and the possibility that two people can remain deeply connected without losing themselves.

What Begins to Surface

• The physical difference between caring and caretaking
• Why being needed can feel so powerful
• What self-abandonment feels like before we recognize it
• Learning to tolerate separateness without assuming the relationship is in danger
• Building intimacy while staying connected to yourself

This podcast focuses on relationship dynamics and is not intended to provide addiction treatment. If you or someone you love is struggling from the impact of untreated substance abuse, please seek support from qualified professionals who specialize in addiction.

If something major in your relationship needs to shift, Book a Free Clarity Call with Dr. Pavini at https://pavini.as.me/ to find out what's possible. On our call, we'll get clear on:

• What's actually happening right now
• What you're longing for instead
• Whether working together is the right fit
• One or two things you can start doing differently right now

You'll leave with clarity and a concrete next step.

Interested in being considered for a future season of Salty Sweet? Visit https://pavinimoray.com to connect with Dr. Pavini.

About the Host:

Dr. Pavini Moray is a somatic coach and Relational Life Therapy practitioner with a PhD in Somatic Psychology. For more than 15 years, Pavini has worked with couples navigating relationship crisis, intimacy challenges, rupture, and repair. Their approach blends Relational Life Therapy, somatic work, and trauma-informed care to help couples understand the deeper patterns shaping how they connect, communicate, and love.

https://www.pavinimoray.com/

Musical Attribution: Original podcast music composed by Luke Djordjevic

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

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Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

What parts of ourselves did we quietly leave behind when we learned how to be professional?

For some of us, it was singing. For others, creativity, play, vulnerability, or the willingness to connect with someone whose worldview looks nothing like our own. Somewhere along the way, being human can become something we carefully manage rather than something we fully inhabit.

Amy and Benjamin Mertz explore what happens when we bring those parts of ourselves back into the room. Drawing from the Black spiritual and civil rights music traditions, Benjamin describes how communal singing can dissolve defenses and reconnect people to joy, courage, and one another.

Their conversation expands into dialogue across differences, the importance of community when we feel stuck, making “good trouble” at work, and what it means to protect our humanity as AI becomes more present in our lives.

Hope, Benjamin suggests, does not have to be something we wait to feel. It can become something we practice through service, creativity, connection, and the way we treat the people around us.

Perhaps staying human is not something we accomplish alone. It is something we keep reminding one another how to do.

Moments That Create Momentum:

• We Were Made to Create – Explore why singing, dancing, and making art still matter even when no one is performing, competing, or trying to be the best.
• Freedom Is Not Individual – Discover how community can help us remember who we are when our own thinking has left us feeling stuck.
• Disagreement Is Not Danger – Hear how to stay expansive and hold space for our differences.
• Good Trouble Builds Resilience – See why speaking up in small ways can strengthen a team before a much larger storm arrives.
• Be a Hope – Recognize how hope becomes more tangible when we practice it through service, connection, creativity, and integrity.

About the Guest:

BenjaSoul is a composer, pianist and song leader who has led music of the Black Spiritual tradition for 20 years. He leads music at benefit concerts, protest actions, sacred services, and Black History workshops. He is currently the board chair of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, an immigrant rights and anti-incarceration nonprofit organization. He has worked in the Civil Rights space his entire life.

Benja is also a certified executive coach through the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute. He helped develop BEC's inclusive leadership programs and teaches Leadership presence with Dr. Mark Rittenberg's team at the Haas School of Business. He has facilitated leadership workshops across many industries, including healthcare, education, and tech. He is currently pursuing a Master's in History, focusing his thesis on the history of the Civil Rights movement.

When not teaching, performing, or causing good trouble, Benja is at home being the proud father of Isaiah, Sammy, and baby Amarachi.

https://benjaminmertz.com

https://benjasoul.com

Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity: htpps://http://im4humanintegrity.org

About Amy:

Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work.

She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality.

Connect with Amy:

https://createmagicatwork.net/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work

https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427

https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

What if birth, death, desire, decay, creativity, darkness, and renewal aren't separate events, but all part of one enormous, ongoing conversation between us and the cosmos?

What if we've become so disconnected from the rhythms of the natural world that we've forgotten something our ancestors understood instinctively: We belong to something larger than ourselves?

And…what if nature isn't something we're part of—but what we are?

Today we are #LiveInTheHive with Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D., an Australian author, scholar, ceremonialist, and creator of PaGaian Cosmology, an earth-based spiritual practice that brings together several wisdoms:

• Goddess/female imagery for the Sacred
• Pagan and pre-Christian seasonal traditions
• contemporary cosmology and evolutionary science
• ecology and our relationship to place
• feminism
• ritual, poetry, embodiment and ceremony
• the idea of Earth—and ultimately the cosmos—as a creative, living process.

I LOVED this conversation. Glenys is magical…full of wisdom, laughter, curiosity and powerful insights. I learned so much and could have talked with her for hours. We WILL have her back on the show.

Some key moments:

• Medusa – her children’s book, My Name is Medusa, published by Girl God Books (www.thegirlgod.org) that led to the creation of an anthology on Medusa.
• Glenys shares her journey from being a zealous Christian, to her study of theology and to her ultimate embrace and movement towards Feminine Wisdom and Gaia Spirituality.
• What is POIESIS?
• What is PAGAIAN? And what prompted the creation of it?
• Her exploration of language and poetry and its role in creating the cosmos.
• Resource: Brian Swimme - and his influence on her PhD work.
• How her understanding of The Crone has evolved.
• Her discovery of and relationship with ritual and ceremony.
• The revaluing of the dark aspects of life, just in time for the womb-ing time in the Northern Hemisphere.
• All this and SO much more.

About Glenys Livingstone

Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. has been on a Goddess path since 1979. She is the author of PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, which fuses the indigenous traditions of Old Europe with scientific theory, feminism, and a poetic relationship with place. This book was an outcome of her doctoral work in Social Ecology. She was born and lives in country Australia, where she has facilitated Seasonal ceremony for decades, taught classes, and mentored apprentices. Her new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony documents the synthesis of her work over the past decades. She teaches a year-long on-line course "Celebrating Goddess and Cosmogenesis in the Wheel of the Year" for both hemispheres.

https://pagaian.org/

https://www.youtube.com/@pagaian

https://www.facebook.com/glenys.livingstone

About Sandra Bargman

I help people find and express a more truthful presence through voice, storytelling, and deep listening.

My work draws on decades as a professinal actor, singer, director, coach, and as a spiritual counselor, bringing together vocal technique with emotional intelligence, mindfulness, breath and body awareness, and the transformative power of story.

My signature B.I.G. Approach explores Breath and Body, Intention, and Genuineness—because powerful communication isn't simply about what we say. It's about how fully we inhabit ourselves when we say it.

Whether I'm working one-on one or with a group, my goal is not to teach people how to sound like someone else.

It's to help them hear themselves more clearly—and have the courage to let that voice be heard.

http://www.SandraBargman.com

https://www.youtube.com/@sandraamazon

https://magicthreadmedia.com/services

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was brought to you in part by the Magic Thread Media Network. To learn more visit: https://magicthreadmedia.com/

What separates judgment from discernment? And why does that distinction matter?

In this Tiny Treasure, Cari explores the difference between judging from fear and discerning from awareness. While judgment often closes us off through certainty, discernment creates space for curiosity, compassion, healthy boundaries, and conscious choice.

Through personal reflections on comparison and the ways we protect ourselves, Cari invites us to examine our judgments with greater curiosity.

What might change if we stopped defining people by our conclusions about them and instead became more interested in what’s happening within ourselves?

Maybe real freedom isn’t in learning to judge less, but in learning to see more clearly.

About Cari:

Cari Jacobs-Crovetto is an executive and leadership coach and the founder of Brave Directions, where she works with senior leaders and C-suite executives to strengthen interpersonal and team relationships, navigate conflict skillfully, and deepen self-awareness, influence, and confidence.

Before becoming a coach, Cari spent three decades in marketing and product leadership roles across Fortune 100 companies, media networks, consulting firms, and venture-backed startups. In 2019, she was named one of Forbes’ Top 50 Chief Marketing Officers.

Cari brings together decades of operating experience with more than 45 years of Buddhist meditation study and practice, integrating deep inner work with practical leadership development.

She facilitates the renowned Interpersonal Dynamics (“Touchy Feely”) course at Stanford Graduate School of Business where she also coaches grad school students, leads meditation classes and leadership workshops, and hosts the podcast Finding Treasures in the Trash.

Her mantra: Fierce Heart — where compassion meets bold, badass leadership.

https://www.bravedirections.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carisf/

https://www.instagram.com/cari_bravedirections/

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

When it comes to creativity, wonderful friends and a bustling social life aren’t enough. We need the six relationships most important for creative health.

In her fifteen years of creativity coaching, Rachel Efron identified six creativity relationships: allies, mentors, role models, mentees, collaborators, and nature/spirit. If you have a couple of these, your creativity will thank you. If you have many of them, you’ll feel a synergy between your creatiivty and the world around you. If you have all six of them, god help this world handle everything you’re about to create!

Rachel explains the six relationships with personal anecdotes: her first experiences with each one of the relationships. Hear about her verbose first mentor. Hear about her shoddy piano teaching practice. Hear about her realization that she and the Pacific Ocean are both sparkly and salty. And discover the amazing power of each of the creativity relationships in your life.

A creative ally is a fellow traveler on the creative road. A mentor guides with the wisdom of experience. A role model gives you a map to your becoming.. Mentees remind us of how much we have to offer. Collaborators locate new aspects of our creative voices, and spirit/nature teaches us that when we create, we belong to the world around us.

The deeper invitation is not to surround ourselves with more people. It is to notice what our creativity needs relationally. Because sometimes the missing resource is not another idea, more discipline, or greater confidence. Sometimes it’s learning how to involve others in our creative process.

Sparks of Insight

• Creative connection has very little to do with popularity or social skill. What matters is whether the relationships in your life actually support your creativity.
• Six different relationships nourish six different dimensions of creative health: allies, mentors, role models, mentees, collaborators, and nature or spirit.
• Rachel’s first creative ally showed her what happens when two people become enchanted by each other’s creative process.
• Mentees may be one of the most overlooked creative resources. Serving someone is a straight line to our self-worth.
• It’s a beautiful thing to let the people in our lives be exactly who they are to us… to let our friends be friends and our parents be parents, and to seek creative connection in the six relationships where we know it will be.

Ready to reveal your creative Spark?

Download the Muzi app at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id6739667782 to take the Creativity Assessment, and uncover your Spark profile. Then email your Spark to Rachel at rachel@rachelefron.com for a chance at a Spark Reading, where Rachel will offer personalized insight into what your creativity most needs from you right now.

About Rachel:

Rachel Efron is an Oakland-based songwriter, producer, and creativity coach. She's released four full-length albums of original songs, plus written for such legends as Narada Michael Walden and Journey. Rachel is a premier songwriting coach for songwriters across the world, and has over fifteen years experience helping artists, leaders, and teams find their voice.

In 2022, Rachel turned her methods into a comprehensive framework and groundbreaking app, Muzi, to help everyone —artists and non-artists alike—access greater creativity in their lives.

email: rachel@rachelefron.com

website:https://www.rachelefron.com/creativity

Download the Muzi app at http://itunes.apple.com/app/id6739667782

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

What do we do with the stories, wounds, strengths, and unfinished work that arrive in our lives before we ever have a chance to choose them? In this deeply personal exploration of generational inheritance, Aaron reflects on the long arcs that move through families, carrying patterns of pain, resilience, memory, love, silence, and survival from one generation to the next. Through the story of his father, his own experience of fatherhood, and the final days they spent together, he considers what it means to become a conscious steward of what we have received. The conversation does not ask us to reject our origins or take responsibility for healing everything that came before us. Instead, it invites us to notice where repetition might become interruption, where silence might become truthful speech, and where witnessing itself may be enough. Somewhere between ancestor and descendant, each of us is adding another link to a chain, with the quiet possibility of deciding what deserves to continue and what might finally be allowed to end.

Invitations to Consider:

• We inherit more than trauma. Aaron considers how generations pass forward wounds and unfinished work, but also humor, courage, recipes, skills, tenderness, resilience, and the ordinary practices that help families continue.
• From repetition to interruption. Becoming aware of an inherited pattern creates the possibility of asking what needs to change before it moves into another generation.
• The responsibility is stewardship, not perfection. Aaron challenges the idea that becoming aware of generational pain means we must single-handedly repair everything that happened before us.
• Witnessing can itself be healing. Sometimes breaking a pattern begins not with fixing or confronting it, but with becoming willing to see and name what has gone unwitnessed.
• A father and son story comes full circle. Aaron reflects on caring for his father at the end of his life and unexpectedly becoming able to offer him some of the tenderness and protection his father had longed for as a child.

Light a Candle With Me

A candle is part of my nighttime recording ritual, which makes Keap Candles a natural partner for Circles|Edges. If you’d like to bring the ritual into your own space, explore Keap through my affiliate link HERE

When you purchase through this link, Circles|Edges receives a modest commission at no additional cost to you, helping support the production of the show.

You are also invited to dive deeper with me and join our circle at https://www.circlesedges.org/

About Aaron:

Aaron Tabacco, PhD, has spent more than thirty years guiding people through growth and change, often in complex and high-stakes environments. He currently serves as the Director of Staff Experience at a major academic health sciences university. With a background spanning nursing, neuroscience, education, coaching, and mediation, his work centers on helping individuals and organizations navigate identity, connection, and transformation with greater clarity and care.

Known for his grounded presence and compassionate communication, Aaron works with students, clinicians, faculty, executives, and senior leaders across healthcare and other industries. His approach integrates relational depth, reflective practice, and a commitment to creating more humane, integrated ways of working and living. He works in San Francisco, California, and lives in Vancouver, Washington, where he continues a lifelong engagement with writing, music, and the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest alongside his husband and three adult sons.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-tabacco-phd-83359b9/

https://lucusgroup.com/home

https://substack.com/@aarontabacco?r=b5ap9

https://www.youtube.com/@CirclesEdges

Email: aaron@circlesedges.org

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

This show was brought to you in part by the Magic Thread Media Network. To learn more visit: https://magicthreadmedia.com/

What happens when the voice you use against yourself sounds a lot like the parent who once hurt you?

Stijn returns to the teenage version of himself he would rather leave behind. At first, all he can feel toward that boy is contempt. But as Dr. Pavini asks him to look again, something else begins to emerge: courage, grit, determination, and a young goalkeeper who was competing at a remarkable level while receiving zero recognition at home.

A forgotten piece of Stijn’s story comes back into view, including the father who dismissed him, the parents who never knew what he had achieved, and the harshness Stijn still directs toward himself decades later. Dr. Pavini challenges him to interrupt that legacy, not only for his son, but for himself.

The conversation then widens to the relationship. Dr. Pavini names the pattern she sees between Kristien and Stijn: Kristien sacrifices, pursues, reassures, and tries to rescue. Stijn retreats, becomes emotionally unavailable, and uses alcohol as distance. Between them sits a third party that keeps much of their attention away from the vulnerability underneath.

If they want something different, both will have to come back to their own side of the relationship and take responsibility for the work that belongs to them.

What Begins to Surface

• The contempt we can inherit and turn against ourselves
• Rediscovering strength in the parts of ourselves we rejected
• How childhood invisibility can shape adult intimacy
• The pursuer and withdrawer pattern taking shape between Kristien and Stijn
• What happens when a third thing carries the vulnerability a couple avoids

This podcast focuses on relationship dynamics and is not intended to provide addiction treatment. If you or someone you love is struggling from the impact of untreated substance abuse, please seek support from qualified professionals who specialize in addiction.

If something major in your relationship needs to shift, Book a Free Clarity Call with Dr. Pavini at https://pavini.as.me/ to find out what's possible. On our call, we'll get clear on:

• What's actually happening right now
• What you're longing for instead
• Whether working together is the right fit
• One or two things you can start doing differently right now

You'll leave with clarity and a concrete next step.

About the Host:

Dr. Pavini Moray is a somatic coach and Relational Life Therapy practitioner with a PhD in Somatic Psychology. For more than 15 years, Pavini has worked with couples navigating relationship crisis, intimacy challenges, rupture, and repair. Their approach blends Relational Life Therapy, somatic work, and trauma-informed care to help couples understand the deeper patterns shaping how they connect, communicate, and love.

https://www.pavinimoray.com/

Musical Attribution: Original podcast music composed by Luke Djordjevic

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s reflection explores what changes when we give ourselves permission to stop pushing and make room for rest. By considering what rest truly means for us, we can begin to recognize where greater ease and flow may be needed.

Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What if the moment you feel most triggered is also an opportunity for wisdom to emerge? In this Drops of Light, Vish explores the tension between debilitated Mars and exalted Jupiter through Vedic astrology, sharing how a simple pause can interrupt reactivity and create space for a more thoughtful response.

Get your Personal Karmic Blueprint Reading - https://www.vishchatterji.com/karmic-snapshot

About the Host:

Vish Chatterji is an executive coach, Vedic Astrology teacher, author, and former business executive who helps people bridge ancient wisdom with modern life. After a career spanning engineering, entrepreneurship, and corporate leadership, he now guides leaders, founders, and seekers toward greater clarity through the traditions of Yoga, Meditation, Ayurveda, Vedic Philosophy, and Jyotish, the ancient science of light.

Through his coaching practice, Head & Heart Insights, Vish combines practical business experience with timeless spiritual teachings, inviting people to lead and live with greater awareness, purpose, and presence. He is the author of The Business Casual Yogi and Astrology Decoded, and serves as a Faculty Coach and Educator with the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute at UC Berkeley.

https://www.vishchatterji.com/

Where do Harry Potter and childhood trauma meet?

For author Barbara Latinka, the connection is deeply personal. Growing up with Harry Potter, she saw more than a magical adventure. She saw a neglected, mistreated child discover that he had power—and that his beginnings did not have to determine his future.

Years later, while working through her own childhood trauma in therapy, Barbara found a way to bring that possibility into her own storytelling.

Her three-book series, Spells for Surviving a Haunted Childhood, tells her life story through magical realism. Darkness becomes a shape-shifting monster. Generational trauma becomes a curse she is determined to break. And each chapter ends with a “spell”—meditation, grounding, and mindfulness practices recast as invitations to discover a little magic within ourselves.

In this moving conversation, Cari and Barbara explore how imagination can help us approach experiences we struggle to name—and how stories can offer more than escape. Sometimes, seeing ourselves in a character helps us feel less alone and imagine possibilities for our own lives.

Barbara shares her journey through a childhood marked by addiction, neglect, and abuse, the enduring love of her grandfather, and the importance of finding a therapist who could truly understand her experience.

Together, they explore what it means to be seen, to make room for difficult feelings, and to interrupt the patterns handed down through a family.

Trauma can move through generations.

But so can love.

And sometimes the magic begins when we discover that the story we inherited is not the only story we can tell.

The Treasures in the Trash:

• Stories can help us discover our own power – For Barbara, Harry Potter offered an image of a mistreated child whose future held belonging, courage, and possibility. Her books invite readers to imagine possibilities for themselves.
• Healing can have a language of its own – Shape-shifting monsters, generational curses, and grounding “spells” give Barbara a creative way to express experiences that once felt impossible to name.
• Trauma can be inherited, but so can love – Her grandfather’s love remained an inner source of support long after his death. The care we receive can become part of what we carry forward.
• Being seen matters—and finding the right support can take time – Barbara describes how a trusted friendship and a therapist who understood her childhood trauma helped her feel heard and supported.
• Difficult feelings deserve space without having to run the show – Barbara’s writing began with permission to feel anger and grief. Giving those emotions a place in her story helped her begin imagining what could come next.

About the Guest:

Barbara Latinka is a self-published indie author, homeschool mother, and full-time photographer. Her work has been recognized by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy as a mental health resource for trauma survivors and therapists. After keeping her story in silence for decades, Barbara finally released Spells for Surviving a Haunted Childhood into the world with the hope of helping others who have experienced similar traumatic upbringings feel seen, understood, and less alone.

https://linktr.ee/hauntedchildhoodspells

About Cari:

Cari Jacobs-Crovetto is an executive and leadership coach and the founder of Brave Directions, where she works with senior leaders and C-suite executives to strengthen interpersonal and team relationships, navigate conflict skillfully, and deepen self-awareness, influence, and confidence.

Before becoming a coach, Cari spent three decades in marketing and product leadership roles across Fortune 100 companies, media networks, consulting firms, and venture-backed startups. In 2019, she was named one of Forbes’ Top 50 Chief Marketing Officers.

Cari brings together decades of operating experience with more than 45 years of Buddhist meditation study and practice, integrating deep inner work with practical leadership development.

She facilitates the renowned Interpersonal Dynamics (“Touchy Feely”) course at Stanford Graduate School of Business where she also coaches grad school students, leads meditation classes and leadership workshops, and hosts the podcast Finding Treasures in the Trash.

Her mantra: Fierce Heart — where compassion meets bold, badass leadership.

https://www.bravedirections.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carisf/

https://www.instagram.com/cari_bravedirections/

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was brought to you in part by the Magic Thread Media Network. To learn more visit: https://magicthreadmedia.com/

What happens to your communication when someone pushes exactly the right button?

Strategy can disappear quickly when the nervous system feels threatened. We become defensive, rush to prove our point, or get pulled into the emotional energy of the person across from us. The conversation may still be happening, but we are no longer fully present inside it.

Amy and trial lawyer Jennifer Gardner explore what it takes to remain grounded when the stakes are high. Drawing from decades inside intense courtroom situations, Jennifer shares why self-regulation is not separate from effective communication. It is what makes clear thinking, presence, and persuasion possible in the first place.

Their conversation moves from grounding through the body to the deeper work of humanizing the person on the other side. Jennifer also examines the line between ethical persuasion and manipulation, including how likability, empathy, and emotional connection can be used either in service of understanding or as tools for control.

The goal is not to become impossible to trigger.

It is to recognize the moment you are losing yourself, return to what matters, and choose how you want to respond before fear, ego, or defensiveness chooses for you.

Moments That Create Momentum:

• Don’t Take the Bait – Explore why regulating yourself first can keep conflict from deciding how you communicate.
• Come Back to the Body – Learn how grounding and breath can help restore clarity when the pressure around you begins to escalate.
• Humanize Before You Persuade – Discover why understanding another person’s reality can make communication more compelling without abandoning your own position.
• Notice the Shadow of Persuasion – Recognize how likability and emotional connection can create influence, and when those same tools begin to feel manipulative.
• Hard Truths Still Need to Be Spoken – See how difficult conversations can create greater inner peace when your actions remain aligned with what you believe.

About the Guest:

Jennifer B. Gardner is a Los Angeles-based trial lawyer, speaker, and persuasion expert who helps high-performing leaders strengthen their executive presence, communication, and influence. She has operated her own litigation firm for more than 30 years and has handled complex business, real estate, and criminal matters through trial.

Jennifer holds executive certifications from the Wharton School in leadership, influence and persuasion, and neuroscience for business. Through The Edge Education, she teaches leaders and lawyers how to communicate more effectively, navigate high-stakes situations, and achieve stronger results with less stress.

https://jenniferbgardner.com/

About Amy:

Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work.

She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality.

Connect with Amy:

https://createmagicatwork.net/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work

https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427

https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

What if play belongs in your day before the work is done? Mia Sundstrom, CEO of the National Institute for Play, joins Amy Lynn Durham, founder of Magic Thread Media, to explore why we’re wired to play and what happens when we keep pushing that impulse aside. Carrying forward the work of her grandfather, pioneering play researcher Dr. Stuart Brown, Mia brings a fresh perspective to productivity guilt, childhood curiosity, and the pressure to be good at everything we enjoy.

Ahead of her TEDxClovis Play talk, Mia explores the connections between play, creativity, empathy, and human connection. She also raises a curious question for an AI-driven world: if we give machines room to experiment and learn through games, why are we leaving less room for people to do the same? From singing while getting ready to sharing a laugh at work, this conversation invites us to make a little space for play, even when there’s no score to keep or outcome to chase.

Your Play Preview:

• A closer look at the science behind our instinct to play.
• A fresh perspective on the guilt that creeps in when we make time for fun.
• The surprising connection between play and how we relate to one another.
• An invitation to rethink what counts as play in a world full of screens.
• A curious parallel between how AI learns and the space we give ourselves to experiment.

Learn more about the TedxClovisPlay: The Power of Play Event March 6, 2027 - https://tedxclovis.com/

About Mia:

Mia Sundstrom is the CEO of the National Institute for Play, a non-profit founded by her grandfather and pioneering play scientist, Dr. Stuart Brown. Mia is an internationally recognized speaker, delivering presentations to help society better understand play as a public health necessity and pathway to human flourishing in an AI world. Prior to her time at NIFPlay, Mia was a division 1 student-athlete and then coach at the University of Denver. instagra

IG: https://www.instagram.com/playinstitute/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-national-institute-for-play/

Site: https://nifplay.org/

About Amy:

Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work.

She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality.

Connect with Amy:

https://createmagicatwork.net/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work

https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427

https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

What happens to play when we feel pressured to fit in? Dr. Kerry Magro joins Amy Lynn Durham, founder of Magic Thread Media, to explore how making room for our differences can open up more opportunities for joy, creativity, and connection. An autistic speaker, best-selling author, and autism consultant for Netflix’s Love on the Spectrum, Kerry shares how his childhood love of basketball and theater helped him engage with the world and discover possibilities that went far beyond other people’s expectations.

Ahead of his TEDxClovis Power of Play talk, Kerry brings that conversation into our schools and workplaces, exploring bullying, belonging, and the assumptions that can leave people feeling excluded. From creating sensory-friendly Santa experiences to trying stand-up comedy, he offers a personal look at what play can make possible when people feel welcome to participate. It’s an invitation to get curious about our own ideas of playfulness, including whether the fun we’re creating makes room for everyone.

Your Play Preview:

• Rethink how the pressure to fit in can quiet our playful side.
• Explore how childhood interests can open unexpected doors.
• Discover where allyship and belonging enter the conversation about play.
• Meet the sensory-friendly Santa making room for more holiday magic.
• Consider when humor brings people together and when it leaves someone out.

Learn more about the TedxClovisPlay: The Power of Play Event March 6, 2027 - https://tedxclovis.com/

About Kerry:

Dr. Kerry Magro, Ed.D., is an award-winning autistic professional speaker, best-selling author, and autism consultant for Netflix’s Emmy-winning Love on the Spectrum U.S. and HBO’s Mrs. Fletcher. He has also worked as a writer for PBS KIDS’ Carl the Collector, featuring the network’s first autistic lead character. Nonspeaking until age two and a half and diagnosed with autism at four, Kerry discovered a love of theater that helped develop his communication skills and inspired a speaking career spanning more than 1,400 events, including TEDx talks and a Talks at Google presentation.

As CEO and president of KFM Making a Difference, Kerry champions inclusion through college scholarships for autistic students, grants for businesses that hire people with disabilities, and sensory-friendly Santa events. His books and online storytelling amplify autistic voices and challenge stereotypes, while his presentations help schools and workplaces address bullying, embrace neurodiversity, and create a stronger sense of belonging.

https://kfmmakingadifference.org/

About Amy:

Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work.

She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality.

Connect with Amy:

https://createmagicatwork.net/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work

https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427

https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

What happens when pulling away becomes the way you learned to stay safe?

After Kristien names the possibility that she may not be able to stay in the relationship if alcohol remains such a powerful presence, Stijn is left confronting something he has not fully considered before: his own choices have an impact on whether the relationship survives.

As Dr. Pavini turns the focus toward him, Stijn begins tracing a familiar pattern of withdrawal. Years ago, he retreated into a tiny boat cabin with bottles of wine and slowly stopped participating in life. Looking further back, he recognizes that leaving has been one of his oldest survival strategies, shaped by childhood abandonment and a father who offered criticism instead of connection.

Then the conversation takes an unexpected turn toward Stijn’s teenage son. Suddenly, the work is no longer only about his relationship with Kristien. It becomes about what gets passed down, what can still be interrupted, and whether Stijn can offer his son something he never received himself.

In one of the most tender moments of the season, Dr. Pavini asks what he would have wanted to hear from a loving father at 15. His answer is simple: “I love you would be nice.”

What Begins to Surface

• How withdrawal can become a lifelong survival strategy
• The difference between physically staying and emotionally leaving
• What happens when shame and secrecy begin to loosen
• Breaking family patterns before they reach the next generation
• The love a child needed, and the love a parent can still choose to give

This podcast focuses on relationship dynamics and is not intended to provide addiction treatment. If you or someone you love is struggling from the impact of untreated substance abuse, please seek support from qualified professionals who specialize in addiction.

If something major in your relationship needs to shift, Book a Free Clarity Call with Dr. Pavini at https://pavini.as.me/ to find out what's possible. On our call, we'll get clear on:

• What's actually happening right now
• What you're longing for instead
• Whether working together is the right fit
• One or two things you can start doing differently right now

You'll leave with clarity and a concrete next step.

About the Host:

Dr. Pavini Moray is a somatic coach and Relational Life Therapy practitioner with a PhD in Somatic Psychology. For more than 15 years, Pavini has worked with couples navigating relationship crisis, intimacy challenges, rupture, and repair. Their approach blends Relational Life Therapy, somatic work, and trauma-informed care to help couples understand the deeper patterns shaping how they connect, communicate, and love.

https://www.pavinimoray.com/

Musical Attribution: Original podcast music composed by Luke Djordjevic

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Today’s Edgewalker card explores how vision can emerge through presence and deep listening. When we slow down enough to notice what others may overlook, we create space to recognize possibilities, patterns, and guidance that can shape what comes next.

Start your own journey of reflection, creativity, and intentional growth with the Create Magic at Work Journal or bring the wisdom of the Edgewalker mindset into your daily life with your own copy of the Edgewalker Card Deck. You can find both at https://magicthreadmedia.com/experience

What happens when you step away from your everyday life long enough to see it differently?

After two weeks in Peru, I returned home changed—but not in the way I expected. I didn’t feel like a stranger to myself. I felt more myself.

In this solo episode of The Edge of Everyday, I reflect on what my time in Peru awakened in me, the extremes I encountered, and how encountering a different landscape, culture, and rhythm of life shifted the way I see myself and the world around me.

Sometimes, transformation isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about shedding the layers of expectation, habit, and familiarity that have kept us from fully experiencing who we already are.

Peru left me with questions, new perspectives, and a deeper appreciation for the moments we often overlook in everyday life. What is our relationship to time? What do we discover when we loosen our grip on what is familiar? And how do we bring the person we become while traveling back into the life waiting for us at home?

Join me for a personal reflection on travel, transformation, and the unexpected ways we find our way back to ourselves.

In this episode, I share:

• A quick recap of my two-week journey through Peru and the places that made the biggest impression on me
• The brutal reality of hiking at altitude—and my experience with altitude sickness
• The place that became my absolute favorite, and what made it so unforgettable
• The moments that challenged me physically, emotionally, and perhaps even spiritually
• What surprised me most about Peru and what I brought home with me beyond the memories
• Why I returned feeling not like a stranger to myself, but more myself than ever
• Somewhere between brutal hikes, ceremony, unexpected healings, and moments I still can't fully explain, something began to shift.In this solo episode, I share what I went looking for in Peru, what I encountered along the way, and the question I'm bringing home.

About Sandra Bargman

Sandra Bargman is The Sacred Disruptor—an actor, inter-spiritual minister, and voice, presence, and storytelling expert who helps people bridge the inner and outer worlds. She helps leaders and professionals find the voice to express what is true, the presence to embody it, and the story to make it matter.

Drawing on her background in performance, spirituality, and storytelling, Sandra challenges the assumptions, habits, and invisible scripts that shape how we communicate, connect, and lead. She helps people move beyond autopilot, speak with greater authority and authenticity, command a room without losing their humanity, and tell stories that resonate and inspire meaningful connection.

Blending practical communication tools with a deeper exploration of identity, truth, and human connection, Sandra brings an unconventional edge to professional development. Through her teaching, speaking, and podcast, The Edge of Everyday, she invites people to question the familiar, disrupt the expected, and discover new possibilities in how they show up in the world.

SandraBargman.com

MagicThreadMedia.com

@SandraBargman

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was brought to you in part by the Magic Thread Media Network. To learn more visit: https://magicthreadmedia.com/

What if astrology were less about predicting your future and more about understanding the deeper patterns shaping your life?

Vish came to Vedic astrology as a skeptic. Trained as an engineer and grounded in data, he had little patience for newspaper horoscopes or broad personality descriptions. That began to change when he started using Jyotish alongside Ayurveda and leadership coaching and repeatedly saw something more precise emerge.

Jyotish translates to the light of consciousness. Its purpose is not simply to tell us who we are. It asks what the soul is working through, what karma is active, and where there may still be room to respond differently.

A Vedic birth chart becomes less like a label and more like a map. Some patterns may be deeply fixed. Others may be softened or redirected through conscious action, spiritual practice, mantra, ritual, meditation, lifestyle, and remedies connected to planetary energies.

The deeper value of the system is not fear or fatalism. It is agency.

The chart may reveal where the terrain is difficult. But the point is not to surrender to it. The point is to see more clearly where grace is needed, where action is possible, and where conscious participation can change the way the journey unfolds.

Points of Light:

• Jyotish Is the Light of Consciousness: Vedic astrology looks beyond personality and prediction to ask what the soul is working through in this lifetime.
• Your Birth Chart Is a Map, Not a Sentence: Some karma may be fixed, while other patterns leave room for conscious action, remedies, and meaningful change.
• Behind Every Visible Problem Is a Deeper Layer: Vish traces business problems back through human, emotional, spiritual, and ultimately karmic roots.
• Remedies Are a Form of Participation: Mantra, meditation, ritual, color, music, movement, and spiritual practice become ways of working consciously with planetary energy.
• Astrology Should Create Agency, Not Fear: A system meant for soul evolution loses its purpose when it leaves someone feeling helpless, doomed, or frightened.

Get your Personal Karmic Blueprint Reading - https://www.vishchatterji.com/karmic-snapshot

About the Host:

Vish Chatterji is an executive coach, Vedic Astrology teacher, author, and former business executive who helps people bridge ancient wisdom with modern life. After a career spanning engineering, entrepreneurship, and corporate leadership, he now guides leaders, founders, and seekers toward greater clarity through the traditions of Yoga, Meditation, Ayurveda, Vedic Philosophy, and Jyotish, the ancient science of light.

Through his coaching practice, Head & Heart Insights, Vish combines practical business experience with timeless spiritual teachings, inviting people to lead and live with greater awareness, purpose, and presence. He is the author of The Business Casual Yogi and Astrology Decoded, and serves as a Faculty Coach and Educator with the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute at UC Berkeley.

https://www.vishchatterji.com/

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

Mentioned in this episode:

This show was brought to you in part by the Magic Thread Media Network. To learn more visit: https://magicthreadmedia.com/

What happens when accepting the person you love starts requiring you to let go of too much of yourself?

Kristien has spent years imagining a future where she and Stijn would eventually share a sober life. But as Dr. Pavini asks her to look more closely at that dream, a painful tension comes into focus: Kristien loves Stijn deeply, yet some of what she wants most from their relationship may never happen.

When Kristien describes letting go of those hopes in the name of accepting him as he is, Dr. Pavini names something she has not fully seen in herself: self-abandonment. From there, the conversation turns toward the resentment that can grow when we stay attached to someone’s potential, the difference between a boundary and a threat, and the difficult question Kristien has been avoiding: can she imagine a life without Stijn as her partner?

Stijn is also asked to examine his own pattern of taking responsibility for Kristien’s emotions. As they practice staying connected without trying to control, rescue, or fix each other, both begin confronting what it might mean to love without losing themselves.

What Begins to Surface

• When acceptance quietly becomes self-abandonment
• Grieving the future you imagined with someone you love
• The resentment that can grow from loving someone’s potential
• The difference between compassion and taking responsibility for your partner’s feelings
• Staying emotionally connected without controlling, rescuing, or fixing

This podcast focuses on relationship dynamics and is not intended to provide addiction treatment. If you or someone you love is struggling from the impact of untreated substance abuse, please seek support from qualified professionals who specialize in addiction.

If something major in your relationship needs to shift, Book a Free Clarity Call with Dr. Pavini at https://pavini.as.me/ to find out what's possible. On our call, we'll get clear on:

• What's actually happening right now
• What you're longing for instead
• Whether working together is the right fit
• One or two things you can start doing differently right now

You'll leave with clarity and a concrete next step.

About the Host:

Dr. Pavini Moray is a somatic coach and Relational Life Therapy practitioner with a PhD in Somatic Psychology. For more than 15 years, Pavini has worked with couples navigating relationship crisis, intimacy challenges, rupture, and repair. Their approach blends Relational Life Therapy, somatic work, and trauma-informed care to help couples understand the deeper patterns shaping how they connect, communicate, and love.

https://www.pavinimoray.com/

Musical Attribution: Original podcast music composed by Luke Djordjevic

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

What happens when the qualities that helped you succeed begin getting in the way of the leader you need to become?

High performers are often rewarded for knowing the answer, moving quickly, and getting results. But as responsibility grows, leadership asks for something different. The work becomes less about proving what you can do and more about creating the conditions for other people to do their best work.

Amy and Phyllis Sarkaria explore this transition through Phyllis’s book, Harvest: A Leadership Story, a fable inspired by more than a decade of participating in the olive harvest in Tuscany. Its central character, Emily, discovers that relentless speed can cause her to miss what is happening around her, including the impact she is having on her team.

Their conversation explores the learner’s mindset, leadership self-awareness, rescuing versus developing others, receiving difficult feedback, and why slowing down does not necessarily mean accomplishing less.

Sometimes the pause is what allows us to see the tree differently, notice what we missed, and recognize where our own habits may be limiting the people around us.

Sustainable leadership is not about losing your drive. It is about becoming intentional enough to know when to use it.

Moments That Create Momentum:

• What Got You Here Can Get in the Way – Explore why the habits that earn a promotion may not be the same ones that help someone lead well.
• Slow Down to Go Faster – Discover how presence and intentionality can prevent speed from creating more work, mistakes, and disconnection.
• Stop Rescuing the Team – Understand how constantly stepping in can limit development and keep leaders working below the level they should be leading.
• Feedback Only Works If You Can Hear It – Learn why receiving someone’s perception without defending yourself is essential to creating greater trust and safety.
• The Pause Creates Possibility – See how stepping out of constant busyness can create space for perspective, creativity, and a more sustainable way of leading.

About the Guest:

Phyllis Sarkaria is a certified executive coach, facilitator, and trusted adviser who works with leaders on one of the most consequential — and least examined — gaps in leadership: the distance between how leaders see themselves and how they're actually experienced.

Founder of The Sarkaria Group, Phyllis brings more than 30 years of corporate leadership experience to her work, including executive roles in human resources and government affairs. She has led functions as diverse as strategic planning, merger integration, and team effectiveness. Before launching her practice, she served as head of HR and internal coach to C-suite executives at Quidel Corporation, a leading multinational medical diagnostics company. These experiences shaped her deep understanding of organizational dynamics from the inside.

She is the author of Courageous Clarity: Navigating the Way Forward on Your Leadership Journey and Harvest: A Leadership Story. Together, the two books explore what it takes for leaders to close the gap between intention and impact — Courageous Clarity as a practical guide, and Harvest as a story that shows, rather than tells, one leader's journey to greater self-awareness, stronger culture, and more sustainable results.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/phyllis-sarkaria/

Get Phyllis’ book, Harvest: A Leadership Story, here - https://a.co/d/0gFKi0D7

About Amy:

Amy Lynn Durham, known by her clients as the Corporate Mystic, is the founder of the Executive Coaching Firm, Create Magic At Work®, where they help leaders build workplaces rooted in creativity, collaboration, and fulfillment. A former corporate executive turned Executive Coach, Amy blends practical leadership strategies with spiritual intelligence to unlock human potential at work.

She’s a certified Executive Coach through UC Berkeley & the International Coaching Federation (ICF) In addition, Amy holds coaching certifications in Spiritual Intelligence (SQ21), the Edgewalker Profile, and the Archetypes of Change . In addition to being the host of the Create Magic At Work® podcast, Amy is the author of Create Magic At Work®, Creating Career Magic: A Daily Prompt Journal and the founder of Magic Thread Media™. Through her work, she inspires intentional leadership for thriving workplaces and lives where “magic” becomes reality.

Connect with Amy:

https://createmagicatwork.net/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/create-magic-at-work

https://www.facebook.com/112951637095427

https://www.instagram.com/createmagicatwork

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnEm4h3fUgaq8qgvZpz6dGg

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you are enjoying the show, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

What happens when frustration is rising, but the conditions for reconciliation are there too? In this Drops of Light, Vish looks at the current Vedic astrology forecast and the tension between anger, wisdom, and diplomacy. With Mars stirring emotion and Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury supporting perspective and communication, he reflects on why this may be a meaningful window to revisit strained relationships, listen more carefully, and look for a path back toward harmony.

Get your Personal Karmic Blueprint Reading - https://www.vishchatterji.com/karmic-snapshot

About the Host:

Vish Chatterji is an executive coach, Vedic Astrology teacher, author, and former business executive who helps people bridge ancient wisdom with modern life. After a career spanning engineering, entrepreneurship, and corporate leadership, he now guides leaders, founders, and seekers toward greater clarity through the traditions of Yoga, Meditation, Ayurveda, Vedic Philosophy, and Jyotish, the ancient science of light.

Through his coaching practice, Head & Heart Insights, Vish combines practical business experience with timeless spiritual teachings, inviting people to lead and live with greater awareness, purpose, and presence. He is the author of The Business Casual Yogi and Astrology Decoded, and serves as a Faculty Coach and Educator with the Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute at UC Berkeley.

https://www.vishchatterji.com/