Episode Summary
Hello from the cloud forests of Central America! I’ve swapped the muggy soup-weather of Washington, DC for the misty clouds and drumming rains of Costa Rica this summer. My toes have never been muddier! It has been an immense blessing and privilege to split my time between the States and CR for the past year, and soak up some well-deserved peace.
You might notice, dear listener, that my voice sounds a lot more *calm* and perhaps a little annoyingly-zen in this episode. And that’s because I’m feeling more regulated than I have in months. I’ve replaced city sirens with howler monkeys, and it is truly amazing what a little audio-detox will do for your brain.
During this season of reflection, I have been learning a lot from the wind, rains, rivers, and trees themselves. These lessons feel ineffable, but I am doing my best to convert the learnings to words as best I can. And here, you have the first of many earthy musings from the Central Valley.
In this solo episode, I’m unpacking a phrase I lean on constantly in my teaching: every breath is a collaboration.
I take you on a little biology field trip, from taproot to alveoli. Picture a tree pulling water up through its trunk, breathing out oxygen through the tiny pores in its leaves. Now picture your own lungs doing the mirror image move: air travels down your trachea (basically your own personal tree trunk), branches through your bronchial tree, and lands in roughly two million alveoli where the real magic, gas exchange, happens. My point, felt right down at the cellular level: breathing solo isn’t a thing. Every inhale is a handoff between you, the trees, and the whole living world around you.
Then I get into water, the same water that’s been cycling through this planet since time immemorial, moving between bodies, sky, and soil, with my own lungs working overtime (hello, Starling forces and aquaporins) to keep it all in balance. I also bring in Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Theory of Water, which does a beautiful job marrying the poetry and revolutionary lessons Nibi provides.
When your nervous system practice is rooted in “I’m not separate from any of this,” it stops being just a personal wellness/self-care tool. It becomes a way to notice imbalance—in your body, your relationships, and the world around you, and to respond to all three with a little more care.
Themes Covered
The biology of breath: from tree stomata to human alveoli
Breath as an exchange, not an individual act
Water as a continuously circulating, ancient element — with a nod to Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Theory of Water
How the body regulates fluid balance in the lungs
Loneliness, individualism, and community as a nervous-system need
Co-regulation: syncing breath and nervous system with others
Somatic practice as a bridge to environmental awareness and reciprocity
Works Cited and Fun Other Resources:
Simpson, L. B. (2026). Theory of water: Nishnaabeg maps to the times ahead. Random House.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-66683-4_3
Coming Up
This month’s Root Shock ritual: a co-regulation practice — breathing with the trees. (Drops in two weeks)
A collab with Dr. Linh Le of the Return to Yin podcast on trauma-informed care and what it means to decolonize our healing praxis
The neuroscience of drumming (booyah!)
Did this episode spark a query, emotion, or hot take? Let me know by leaving a comment below! And hit “subscribe” if you want to see more material like this.
