My Life is the Medicine

Laura and Chuck have a fun, engaging conversation exploring life and how her life and career “fell apart” at one point, but led her to discover the forces that have directed Laura to engage more with her art to make award-winning archetypal, mythological, and fairy tale inspired films that represent well how these patterns show up in our modern lives. We touch on some of the forces we experience in life including internal poverty, invisibility, community, belonging, and aloneness.

Laura was a graduate student in clinical psychology but eventually switched majors and earned her M.A in theatre. In 2019 Laura began making stop-motion films focused on fairy tales. Now Laura is an award-winning stop-motion filmmaker and educator. Laura's focus is on animating fairy tales and mythic stories for personal and collective transformation. She is inspired by the work of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and Michael Meade. Laura's films are made in her basement in Chicago. Her screening events are filled with heart and questions for the soul.

https://lauralewisbarrfilms.com

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Hosted by Chuck Hancock, an ordinary human who has lived life in many roles like software engineer, psychotherapist, group facilitator, school teacher, orphan, adoptee, father, brother, mentor, coach, ceremonialist and more. Chuck is a weaver of wisdom from modern-day psychology to ancient wisdom of indigenous and European philosophy, creating alchemy from everyday American life. You can learn more and work with Chuck via www.reconnectingtoournature.com for nature-based coaching or www.innerlifeadventures.com for licensed psychotherapy or email directly [email protected].

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In this second part of the conversation, Godwin and Chuck diver further into a rich conversation about the riches he has from growing up in a time of famine in Ghana. We cover a lot of ground, literally and metaphorically, discussing his experiences in Africa, Europe, and the United States and how he has been able to adapt and thrive in many different cultures, all the while never losing sight of who he is, what his life is about, and what he has to offer the world. We talk about how he has learned to observe people and patterns deeply, and he shares his thoughts on health and challenges in our lives.

Godwin Abotsi - Sweet Africa Dance Ensemble

Godwin Abotsi is a traditional dancer from the Volta region in Ghana, West Africa who specializes in the sixteen regional dances of Ghana. As a premier dancer whose craft has taken him all over Ghana and beyond, Godwin uses his expertise in traditional Ghanaian dance and music to effectively teach students of all levels about the beauty of African sounds and rhythms. Godwin began his career at the age of 10 when he was selected for a pilot community-based arts program directed by the National Commission on Culture in his community of Mamobi in Accra. Since then, he has worked and collaborated with several groups in Ghana and abroad. He has also traveled to Austria, Germany, South Africa, and South Korea to pursue his craft. Godwin Abotsi also loves working with children and has worked at various K-12 schools in Ghana. Mr. Abotsi offers dance performances, workshops, and private lessons in Ghanaian traditional dance forms and teaches a variety of rhythmic styles for both sacred and social dances. He has also developed Sweet AfroAerobics, an aerobic exercise routine that takes place to the beat of drums. Godwin enjoys giving back to his community and fundraises to promote educational opportunities for disadvantaged children in Ghana. For more information, please email him at [email protected] or call him at (970)646-8209.

https://web.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089970916287

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Hosted by Chuck Hancock, an ordinary human who has lived life in many roles like software engineer, psychotherapist, group facilitator, school teacher, orphan, adoptee, father, brother, mentor, coach, ceremonialist and more. Chuck is a weaver of wisdom from modern-day psychology to ancient wisdom of indigenous and European philosophy, creating alchemy from everyday American life. You can learn more and work with Chuck via www.reconnectingtoournature.com for nature-based coaching or www.innerlifeadventures.com for licensed psychotherapy or email directly [email protected].

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My Life is the Medicine is a podcast hosted by Chuck Hancock. Chuck sits down to have conversations with ordinary people to look at how everyday life has provided numerous lessons and initiations already that we sometimes overlook. In our age of abundant information, it is easy to get lost in “self-help” books, and social media “experts,” or continue to seek the “one” therapist, coach, healer, retreat, training, etc... seeking more, new, bigger, or better experiences ignoring what is already available to you right here, right now. The wisdom of your own experience from your own life. Drawn out by engaging in a relational dialog.

In the age of abundant experts and gurus, we take the subversive stance that you are actually the only expert you need for your own life. By looking closer at your own life experiences – both the ones that felt good and the array of challenges you had, you can harvest all the wisdom and medicine you need to guide your unique life and offer your unique gifts and wisdom to the world. We have conversations with ordinary people to look closer at how everyday experiences of living life have shaped us and taught us profound lessons. Often we don’t think much of our choices and experiences, but in reality, they all have a profound meaning. Instead of just moving from one thing to the next, we can slow down and pause to integrate the initiations that life has already provided, to become even more whole, balanced, and able to bring the medicine of our life, the medicine we’ve already been given, into the world.

In the second part of the conversation, Mandy and Chuck continue exploring the vast terrain, tension, and challenge between western-oriented and traditional nature-based philosophies, Kronos (linear/quantitative) and Kairos (soul/spirit/qualitative) time, meaning-making, story creation, paying for healing work, masculine patriarchal goal/objective-oriented work versus really listening and following what's being called for from someone's soul and life journey, being honest about not knowing and not guaranteeing an outcome for clients, ritual, ceremony, sweat lodge, relationship to ancestors, tending plants, and how all of this informs the ecosystems of our lives. Mandy shares from her experience with significant trauma and how a long road of ceremony, coaching, and therapy has led her to pursue and share a wealth of wisdom for our world. This is the second part of the conversation. Be sure to catch the first part first so you don't miss out on any of this rich medicine!

Mandy is a ritual artist, medicine maker, nature-based mentor and guide. She’s a farmer, sister, daughter, teacher, storyteller and perpetual student. She’s a seeker, a lover of life, a dancer and a ceremonialist. Born on the front range of Colorado (on the lands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne and Ute peoples), she is deeply connected to the mountains and the wild places, and when not tending her garden might be found foraging food, wildcrafting medicines or climbing mountains. She’s also the founder of Old Ways Wisdom—a place to bridge the gap of disconnect in these wild times by rekindling the old ways and fostering relationship with the land, our bodies, and the ancient wisdom in our bones through deep story work and ancestral skills. Her own lived experience of surviving trauma has led her down a path of recognizing the critical layer of emotional and spiritual recovery from the challenging experiences life can bring us, and has led her deep into her own apprenticeship with the mystery of sacred initiation. Mandy is in service to the remembrance of our wild selves; to a partnership between nature, creativity and soul; and to the wisdom carried in our bones waking us up to what is most important in our lives. You can find and connect with her at www.oldwayswisdom.com

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Hosted by Chuck Hancock, an ordinary human who has lived life in many roles like software engineer, psychotherapist, group facilitator, school teacher, orphan, adoptee, father, brother, mentor, coach, ceremonialist and more. Chuck is a weaver of wisdom from modern-day psychology to ancient wisdom of indigenous and European philosophy, creating alchemy from everyday American life. You can learn more and work with Chuck via www.reconnectingtoournature.com for nature-based coaching or www.innerlifeadventures.com for licensed psychotherapy or email directly [email protected].

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In this solo episode, Chuck explores a phrase one of his mentors used to use, “It’s All About Relationship.” Avoiding the common themes about the qualities of relationships and advice about how to do relationships or labels of healthy or unhealthy relationships, Chuck hopes to expand our perspective on what a relationship is and what it contains and can reveal to us. With an invitation to look at all the different relationships we have with people, systems, nature, ourselves, our history and experiences, parts of us, and our thoughts and emotions in general or specific (ie - how we relate to sadness, joy, anger or specific thoughts that we accept and others we may reject) and more. Rather than looking at how to shape a relationship or even worse, a person into being how we want it to be, what if we actually look at ourselves and how we relate to everything and everyone inside and outside of us? Are your relationships all similar or do you have a lot of different experiences in relationship? Where do your relational patterns come from? We also start to look at the differences in short-term vs long-term relationships and how they reveal different things. This is the first exploration into relationship itself on this podcast and due to the vast nature of the topic, it is incomplete and will likely be explored further in the future. But there is still plenty here to start to expand your perspective on all that your relationships are holding for you.

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Hosted by Chuck Hancock, an ordinary human who has lived life in many roles like software engineer, psychotherapist, group facilitator, school teacher, orphan, adoptee, father, brother, mentor, coach, ceremonialist and more. Chuck is a weaver of wisdom from modern-day psychology to ancient wisdom of indigenous and European philosophy, creating alchemy from everyday American life. You can learn more and work with Chuck via www.reconnectingtoournature.com for nature-based coaching or www.innerlifeadventures.com for licensed psychotherapy or email directly [email protected].

Support the show