all that we are with amisha ghadiali (formally known as the future is beautiful)

How can our stories be useful to our communities and become live saving myths and ecologies? In this episode Amisha talks to Sophie Strand. Sophie is a writer and thinker that takes us to new heights and deep crevices on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her first book of essays ‘The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Masculine’ was published by Inner Traditions in Fall 2022. Her eco-feminist historical fiction reimagining of the gospels ‘The Madonna Secret’ comes out in Summer 2023. Amisha and Sophie speak about the magic of myth-making and the possibilities of adjacent live-saving realities they open up; places where we may envision humankind as part of an ecological niche. Sophie shares about her life with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare genetic connective tissue disease that affects her entire body. By recognising the porousness of her body, she reveals the messiness of decay, ego death and life’s anxieties. As a result she brings alive life-affirming myths and new ideas around communities rooted in the deep wisdoms of the compost heap. They delve into healthism and its exiling consequences. They reveal that its prevalence in Western medical paradigms and New Age spirituality, holds us personally responsible for coming into normativity distracting from the nourishing essence that exists within our diverse survival strategies. Sophie speaks about Eco grief, a natural outcome of Earth that is surviving outside its window of tolerance.  We learn that sharing our profoundly messy and psychedelic stories along with the small fixes we have learnt through survival is an important form of activism that boosts our communities; whilst gathering in dance and joining hands to distribute feelings of grief and anxiety might be our lighthouse of survival. Links from this episode and more at allthatweare.org

How do we grow steady legs of resilience in uncertain times? In this episode Amisha talks with Ronan Harrington, a resilience expert and accomplished voice on the transformative power of adversity. He advises organisations and institutions on how to move from Burnout to Resilience and counts Deloitte, KPMG, Sky, the UK Government and Oxford University amongst his clients. He has held a variety of roles bridging personal and societal transformation as lead futurist to the British Foreign Office, co-coordinator for the political strategy for Extinction Rebellion and founder of Alter Ego, a European network of political leaders and activists growing connection between spirituality and politics. Ronan speaks about his strive to transform the political frameworks of our time by introducing spirituality and mysticism into its mainstream to forge deep cultural change. He believes that political acts can be acts of grace and his work with Alter Ego, was a space to decondition and nourish political leaders and activists into integrity. Amisha and Ronan share their personal histories of burnout and chronic health conditions, and how it has affected the way they move in the world. They recognise that attempting cultural transformation requires us to have a well-resourced support structure; financially, spiritually, emotionally and physically. Ronan talks about his work as a resilience leader finding ways to equip us with soft foundations and strong cores that can move with the tremors of our time. We learn that our times call for us to increase our forms of resilience in ways that enable us to embrace dualities, and to hold ultimate grief and ultimate possibility at the same time; muscles we need to grow to be able to fly closer to the sun. Links from this episode and more at allthatweare.org

How do we live in harmony with the land, with ourselves and each other? Opening our new series Amisha speaks with Seth Tabatznik and Tasha Stevens-Vallecillo of 42 Acres. 42 Acres is a regenerative estate and wellbeing retreat in Somerset, UK, developing living examples of the much-needed transformations of our times, through our connection with nature, self, and others. Seth Tabatznik is an avid proponent of regenerative, diversified, and decentralised systems, and co-founder and CEO of 42 Acres. Tasha Stevens-Vallecillo is head of land and food at 42 Acres. With 13yrs off-grid living, she has accrued skills in fossil fuel free farming, expertise in foraging, outdoor mushroom growing using ancient techniques and 'bee-centric' beekeeping. Her role is to support 42 Acres towards their collective vision. In this conversation we hear about 42 Acres and its wide-reaching philosophy and practices that honour planet and people as thriving community. Tasha shares deep insights into 42 Acres experiences of agriwilding and the impact it is having on their inner & outer landscapes. Seth speaks about broken philanthropic systems and how his work with Be The Earth supports localised regenerative futures by creating new funding models that drive funding towards women, grass roots indigenous communities. We learn that we need to experiment with new ways of living, new ways of being in order to create systems that support life on Earth to flourish and that Nature retreats, such as envisioned by 42 Acres, are the transformative experiences that will open us up to live in the wild gardens of our true integrity. Links from this episode and more at allthatweare.org

How can we nurture what we have in order to meet the unique challenges of our life? In this special episode our host Amisha Ghadiali welcomes us into the new year. Amisha’s prayer for 2023 is that that we find a way to be as generous as possible with each other, with ourselves and with tapping into the bigger picture. Amisha has been hosting ‘all that we are’ fka ‘The Future Is Beautiful’ podcast for 6yrs exploring the weave between activism, the sacred, creativity & regeneration. She has hosted many retreats, workshops, programmes and rituals around the world. She creates brave, tender and inclusive spaces. Amisha shares personal reflections and insights gathered during the past few years. This challenging period of adjusting to profound life changes whilst facing obstacles encountered during the expansion of ‘all that we are’ have granted her a new perspective on how we can meet life’s challenges that lay ahead.  She reflects on systems of oppression and how we may navigate the real impacts these have on our futures, our sense of community, autonomy and inner balance. Amisha speaks about the practice of Beautiful Leadership. She tells us about ‘all that we are’ membership, which as been attuned to bring us into cycles of reciprocity. She invites us to join her early Spring offering, a ‘Beautiful Leadership Retreat’. We learn that understanding our spirituality is what brings us a sense of power and presence, which will helps us to live with humility, to connect with ourselves with integrity and generosity, and to lead with creativity and intuition. Links from this episode and more at allthatweare.org

How do we shift culture and guide the change?  In this season’s final episode Nina Simons, award winning social entrepreneur, visionary thinker and co-founder of Bioneers speaks with Amisha, founder and host of ‘all that we are’, this podcast & global community platform exploring the weave between activism, the sacred, creativity & regeneration. Amisha is a leadership mentor, author and experienced facilitator with a gift of bringing people into connection with themselves, each other and the Earth. She creates brave, tender and inclusive spaces and has hosted many retreats. workshops and rituals around the world. Her book “Intuition” published by DK Books is out now. Amisha and Nina talk about the importance of transforming cultures of oppression by creating thriving and non-judgemental communities rooted in reciprocity, adaptability and creativity. Amisha reveals the deeper layers and challenges of what it takes to flourish the ‘all that we are’ podcast and community whilst wholeheartedly leaning into these values. She shares a compelling invitation to join ‘all that we are’ membership; a way for each one of us to be proactive in the cultural transformations we crave and so urgently need across the globe. They explore how new forms of leadership are cultivating our sense of agency, our intuition and the diversity of our personal gifts laying the foundations for entirely new economies and networks; hybrids that are guided by philosophies and sciences of indigenous cultures, nature’s wisdom and traditional Western systems. We learn that listening to our gifts and tending to our vulnerabilities, creativity, self-care and trusting our intuition is a way to engage with persistent crisis and with our communities that let’s us embrace all that we are.  Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How can we expand our spirituality and activism to serve the challenges of our time? For this very special episode, we are giving you a peek into our recent learning journey with a treasured guest faculty. ‘From Me To We’ is a gathering of conversations and somatic experiences around the most urgent themes we live amongst. It is an invitation to journey into the heart, to feel into new ways of learning and unlearning; to tend to the seeds of wisdom that live within us all. Through 6 speaker sessions, embodiment experiences and community space, we delve deep into how we may embrace polarity and the complexities of now, how we may dismantle new age spirituality, understand our privilege, and give rise to engaged activism; essentially how we may embody a spirituality of wholeness, that is more expansive, inclusive, and honours our connection to the Earth. This episode shares some of the wisdom from this course, and it is an invitation for you to join us. You will hear 26 voices in this episode amplifying the energy of this collective journey with the intention of breaking down the divisive structures we live within. These sparks of conversation reveal the complexities of challenges we are facing during these times. They open new viewpoints and emphasise possibilities of how we may open our wings into all that we are.  You are now invited to take this journey in your own time, at your own pace with unlimited access to the recordings. This is offered on a sliding scale, and this week, when you join our membership of 'all that we are' it is offered as a gift.  You can access and join ‘From Me to We’ https://community.allthatweare.org/from-me-to-we/  Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How do we understand and change our reality? In this episode Amisha talks to Beau Lotto, a neuroscientist and world-renowned expert in perception. Beau’s research explores the ways in which we experience the world through our own versions of reality. By illuminating principles of perception he has helped individuals and companies transform their approach to creativity and innovation. Beau is the founder of the world’s first neuro-design studio, Lab of Misfits, which takes a disruptive approach to research, partnering with brands and research institutes to blend science, art and performance to explore pivotal principles in current culture. He is a sought after public speaker and author of ‘Deviate: The Science of Seeing Differently’. Amisha and Beau talk about the remarkable power of our minds. Beau takes us into the deeper layers of his research sharing vivid examples of how our past experiences shape our perceptions, define our behaviour patterns and become meaningful experiences. He explains how our brains encode the histories of meaning and generate future behaviour patterns and perceptions. Beau reveals that we have the power to expand our identities and experience ourselves as diverse beings when we change our perceptions. They talk about the how we are the source of our lived patterns and that shifting these is possible by taking agency of the context that these were created in. We learn that bringing wonder and awe into our lives increases the possibility of change. The possibility itself lies within becoming self-aware and self-honest, and aligning our actions and words with our values, intentions and insight, which changes the context of our egos and our past patterns. This process expands our identities offering us to live an authentic, diverse and fearless life. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How do we harness our life force to protect the Earth? This episode is a special tribute to Polly Higgins ‘Earth Lawyer’, a visionary barrister, author and environmental lobbyist, who devoted all her time to one client - the Earth. Since 2010, she lobbied the UN Law Commission to recognise ecocide as an international crime making the word “ecocide” globally understood inspiring parliamentarians, ecologists, lawyers to artists. It was a proposal Polly envisioned to become a powerful law to protect the Earth and its diverse ecologies and communities; an economical and political game changer. We initially aired this episode in late 2018, and Polly passed away shortly after. Polly’s life’s work continues to be of urgency to protect the future of this beautiful planet and its people. Amisha and Polly speak about how Polly’s ecocide quest began with a powerful thought, ‘the Earth is in need of a good lawyer’, which crossed her mind whilst continuously witnessing big transnational corporations, fossil fuel extraction, Monsanto industrialised agriculture, ExxonMobil, causing massive destruction in the world. She describes this as a ‘critical choice point’ that called her to step into her higher life purpose. Polly shares how international laws are created and how forging financial access to bring vulnerable Nations to the table of negotiations of ecocide laws became a vital part of her mission. She reveals that gifting culture and growing law literacy were the predominant modus operandi driving her teams’ mission to expand our communities of resilient Earth protectors. We learn that life presents all of us with tiny windows of opportunity to completely change our lives and that of those around us. These are tipping points of radical change where we can harness our life force to serve humanity and Earth. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How do we cultivate the skill of belonging? In this episode Amisha talks with Toko-pa Turner, who founded the Dream School in 2001 blending the mystical tradition of Sufism in which she was raised with a Jungian approach to dreamwork. She is the author of the award-winning book ‘Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home’, which explores the themes of exile and the search for belonging. Sometimes called a Midwife of the Psyche, Toko-pa’s work focuses on restoring the feminine, reconciling paradox, and facilitating grief & ritual practice. Amisha and Toko-pa speak about dream practices and how the symbolisms of our dreams are a language that can bring us into alignment with nature. Toko-pa reveals how her intention to bring dreaming back to the people may be able to regulate the global psyche by helping us work through our inner conflicts. Together they imagine governments as dream councils and the impact this might have on addressing the humanities crisis relating to climate change, racism, poverty, greed and our fear of otherness.  Toko-pa shares deeper insights into her book ‘Belonging’ and how we can develop competencies in overcoming exile in a world that undervalues our dreams. She talks about understanding such experiences of exile and rejection as coming into deep relationship with our integrity and belonging with ourselves and the wider living world.  We learn that when we pay attention to our dreams it connects us with our deepest source of creativity and collective visions that can help us see into the past and the future. It is a way for us to become interested in the diversity all around us. We all hold a different part of the puzzle to building a world where we belong. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How can we anchor into our deeper intelligence? In this special episode Amisha Ghadiali, the host of this globally acclaimed podcast that weaves together activism, the sacred, creativity and regeneration, shares an insightful and heartfelt flow of consciousness.  She believes that the challenges we are facing during these pressing times offer us the opportunity to be supported by the right practices and guidance so we may connect with the truths of who we are. Amisha has a gift of bringing people into connection with themselves, each other and the Earth. She has hosted many retreats, workshops, programmes and rituals around the world. She creates tender and inclusive spaces.  She shares a deeper insight into the different offerings she has created overtime from Presence Collective membership with its community that kindles collaborations, friendships and sharing community, her nourishing one-to-one offerings and the Beautiful Leadership mentoring.  Amisha’s work offers us ways to plant new seeds, to connect deeper with our intuition, be guided in processing grief and eco grief, to shift patterns and expand our creativity whilst learning practices, breath work and pranayama. We learn how all these powerful offerings can support us to connect with our deeper intelligence and be fully present in our gifts, help us tune into our resilience and joy, and provide us with necessary skills to navigate the challenges in this world of relentless distractions. We hear about the tree whispering, little poems of contemplation she shares with her community and how the essence of her offerings connect us with earth and the great cosmos, all reflections of our souls. She shares about her most recent summer solstice pilgrimage to Stonehenge, a time for anchoring sacred rituals that can provide clarity and power whilst opening us to receive wisdom and guidance.  Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

In this episode Amisha speaks with Vanessa Andreotti, a Brazilian educator and Indigenous and land rights activist. She is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities, and Global Change at the University of British Columbia. She is one of the founders of the ‘Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Arts/Research Collective’ and part of the coordination team of the "Last Warning" campaign. Vanessa is also the author of ‘Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and Implications for Social Activism’. Amisha and Vanessa explore what it means to live and die well in systems of dominant cultures. They share that we have developed limited capacities to face our mortality and to hold pain, hence are ill equipped to weather the storms of climate catastrophe, the rise in violence and the global mental health crisis.  Vanessa believes that the point of life and death is to prepare people to become good elders and good ancestors. They talk about the value of elders in our communities and the importance of their life’s teachings to be passed around so we can connect with generative ways of being that activates responsibility beyond ourselves. Vanessa reveals that we have to find balance and connection, we need to break codes of worthiness, behaviours of consumption and numbing pain in order to live considerate and fulfilled lives within the bigger metabolisms where we belong.  We learn that collective pain we are experiencing needs to be held by collectivised hearts. Seeing ourselves as a continuum of life, letting go of aspirations, idealisations and projections allows us to move beyond individualistic conditioning into relationships and responsibilities beyond ourselves. In turn this brings us closer to living in radical tenderness and balance with each other and the more than human world. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How can we follow our creative dreams and build sustainable livelihoods? In this episode Amisha speaks with Abby Poem, a yogi, musician and energy healer living off-grid in the Ibiza mountains. Abby's music is inspired by the colours and spirit of India and its culture of prayer. Her music carries the essence of deep transformation and brings forward a sense of hope. She has recently released her debut album ‘Change Will Come’. Abby is the co-founder of ‘Perception’, a creative yoga hub in Ibiza embracing research at the cross section of spirituality and neuroscience. Abby shares her personal journey of finding her creative voice and following her dreams of living off-grid and becoming a songwriter guided by singing circles and kitans. Inspired by permaculture living, she now lives by herself in a solar powered and rainwater sustained off-grid house. This way of life has atuned her to nature’s seasons. In summer she lives a social life and during winter she hibernates in solitude. It has empowered her to unfold her full creative expression as a songwriter creating a first crowdfunded album. Together they speak about ‘Perception’, the yoga hub bringing together spiritual practices and neuroscience in research on how spiritual modalities can transform our behaviour patterns. It will provide data for people on the impacts of their spiritual practices on their neurological pathways. The findings will establish scientific evidence and trust that the practices we are growing are having the impact and establish the state of balance we are hoping for. We learn that what touches people is real creative expressions. In order to find our true creative expression and authentic voice we have to find the courage for our hearts to be seen and heard in all their rawness. We have to tune into the melodies of change that are constant new beginnings offering us to shape new norms. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How can you be an activist in a world of crisis?  In this episode Amisha talks to Tamsin Omond, a communications and campaigns strategist, inspirational speaker and author. Tamsin has consistently shifted public conversation on the climate and ecological emergency. They have organised a number of high profile protests, co-founded a Suffragette inspired environmental campaign - Climate Rush, coordinated Save England's Forests coalition, founded a CIC - The Momentum Project - that mobilises the community surrounding London City Airport, led global corporate campaigns as Head of Global Campaigns at Lush Cosmetics and been a founding member of Extinction Rebellion. They are also active in queer uprising; a theatre maker and the author of two books - ‘RUSH! The Making of a Climate Activist’ and ‘Do Earth: Healing Strategies for Humankind.’ Amisha and Tamsin speak about climate activism and how environmental movements have changed over the past decade bringing new demographics into taking radical action on climate. Tamsin shares their ingenious strategical approaches mobilising communities in impactful environmental campaigns. They reveal their collaborative methods of addressing vast crisis and injustices impacting our global communities. They talk about the trauma that exists in movement spaces due to overexertion and how activists can grow sustainable movements by prioritising living a balanced life. Tamsin reveals the intimate and public unfolding of their trans non-binary identity in a transphobic culture. They emphasise the importance of connecting with supportive community when facing indoctrinations and impermeable walls of society when we live with invisible identities. They share their alignment with their true identity and the liberation, joy and sense of belonging it gifted them. We learn that kindred community is an essential ingredient for our future survival. Tamsin recommends that making connections, talking to people on our doorsteps and growing friendships with someone unexpected can shape trusted networks that increases our resilience and possibilities for growing self-sustaining community strategies. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org 

How can we filter and trust information in a world of misinformation? In this episode Amisha talks to Marcus Gilroy-Ware, an interdisciplinary writer and scholar working on media, politics, technology and capitalism. He is author of 'After the Fact? The Truth about Fake News' and 'Filling the Void: Emotion, Capitalism and Social Media'. Amisha and Marcus talk about how information exists in this time of post truth. They speak about the overwhelming effects misinformation, fake news, conspiracy theories and conflicting information are having on our ability to make sense of the world. Marcus believes that vast amounts of money and power are invested to ensure that we don't know where we are going as a society; a theatre of confusion that is a cultural, social and political problem perpetuating our sense of uncertainty. They speak about how this confusion and uncertainty effects our personal and collective visions for the future as it is replaced with survival mode eroding our sense of agency and our sense of connection to aspirations we might hold for our future. Marcus shares his insights into conspiracy theories and how they stem from feelings of disempowerment, which does not necessarily coincide with real disempowerment. Together they explore how we can establish filters of trust that can help us see through the confusion of headlines, conflicting information and language manipulation we are exposed to by mainstream media and social networks. They spark awareness that our filters often determine how we understand the world, what kind information comes to us and what information sources we trust. We learn that filtering information means that we have to be discerning and cultivate nuanced relationships to our sources of information. We have to accept that our worldview will always be partial. We need to cultivate productive disagreements, solidarity, kindness, and a sense of humbleness in the face of knowledge allowing ourselves to be patient and to be open to being wrong and not knowing.  Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How do we repurpose capitalism to create an inclusive and regenerative future? In this episode Amisha talks with Daniel Epstein, the founder and CEO of Unreasonable Group, an organisation dedicated to supporting an international Fellowship of 310 growth-stage entrepreneurs who are profitably solving global issues. The Unreasonable Collective offers a diverse community of individuals the ability to invest into ventures operating at the intersection of impact and advanced technologies. Daniel was named by Fortune Magazine as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. He has been awarded Inc. Magazine’s “30 under 30 entrepreneurs”, and Forbes identified him as one of the “top 30 most impactful entrepreneurs.” He received the prestigious “Entrepreneur of the World” award along with Richard Branson & the President of Liberia at the Global Entrepreneurship Forum. Beyond his capacities at Unreasonable, Daniel is a frequent keynote speaker, moderator, thought-leader, and advisor. Daniel shares his ideas on ‘repurposing capitalism’. He believes that leveraging it as a powerful tool can create a better future; one that prioritises regeneration, equability and inclusion with family, health and wellness, and spirituality at the heart of our communities. He shares some of the awe-inspiring businesses supported by Unreasonable Group offering promising and profitable solutions for creating this better future by addressing some of our biggest global issues whilst creating positive impact for planet and people. Together they recognise entrepreneurship as an embodied experience that is guided by intuition; our ‘faster’ intelligence. It is often romanticised leading to burn out for a lack of access to long term support by high value mentors, community and financial backers. We learn that valuing our time as our most high value commodity, creating rituals, solid support systems and putting wellness first lay the foundations for growing meaningful businesses that will sustain our futures. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org 

How can we cultivate ceremonies of transformation and belonging? In this episode Amisha talks with Isla Macleod, a ceremonialist who facilitates rites of passage ceremonies, rituals, retreats and healing journeys. Through her work of attending to the more-than-human world, Isla fulfills the service of a traditional medicine-woman, providing a bridge to the unseen and restoring balance to the web of life and to help heal our separation from the natural world. Devoted to remembering and reimagining the indigenous ceremonies of her Celtic ancestors, Isla has spent time living in solitude in the woods, apprenticing with the Yew clan. At the heart of her work is the practice of learning how to meet death in a good way, to enhance the richness of life, and prepare for becoming a well and wise ancestor. Isla shares her personal journey seeking earth based spiritual practices amongst the Yew trees embracing the lunar calendar traditions of her Celtic ancestors. Her rites of passage and shamanic training with trees as witnesses affirmed a sense of belonging to the more than human world.  Together they speak of the loss of ceremony in Western cultures and the consequences for our sense of belonging. They talk about the importance of ceremony to bring alive our intimate relationship with the sacred and the natural cycles of transitions. Isla speaks of the importance of rites of passage rituals as vital pauses that can help receive the wisdom of our elders and open ways for communities to hold us whilst we let go of phases of life and emerge into the new phases as whole beings. We learn that living in cyclical and ceremonial reciprocity with nature’s wisdom keepers hones our visceral sense and our sense of belonging. It offers a way to be curious about our darkness, to  tend to grief and death, to align with our integrity and embody our human potential. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org  

How do we inspire and live the change? In this episode Amisha talks to Becky Burchell, a Futures Producer. Becky’s practice is Hopism :: sharing stories of hope to inspire change. Her work is at the intersection of the arts, environmentalism and social justice. In 2019, she launched CHANGE Festival to elevate people, ideas and narratives that celebrate bold new ways of living, where humanity and the natural world are both able to thrive. Becky has created a play ‘The World We Made’ and a short film series ‘Rise Up’ in response to the environmental and climate crisis.  They talk about how we can live better in community and how creating projects together creates a culture that invites inclusion.Becky tells us about the democratised community of Chettle, a Heritage Village in Dorset, UK, where she lives with her family. In Chettle, the houses and land have been owned outright for generations; no interest being paid to banks and all savings passed down to the people that live there. This breaks all norms and has flourished a hopeful village, where living in community is possible. Together they plant trees reinstating local orchards, they are creating a community food hub taking over the village shop adding a cafe, and they are building a mixed agro ecological farm, all community owned. She shares how ‘all that we are’ fka ‘The Future Is Beautiful’ podcast has influenced her personal work and what they are doing in the village making elements of conversations real and tangible. Becky reveals that thinking about climate change fundamentally guided the direction of her work, and in search for answers and community to imagine a better future, she created CHANGE Festival. She believes that the Arts has a pivotal role to play in helping us understand and navigate the vivid and complex changes we are facing due to climate change. We learn that sharing hopeful and inspirational stories offers ways to build resilience and hopeful community cultures that can face challenges during uncertain times. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How can we experience our bodies as diverse resources for liberation? In this episode Amisha talks to Ava Riby-Williams, a queer, British Ghanaian/Indian visionary. Ava acts out life purpose as a creative facilitator, Yoga teacher, activist and artist who encourages play and promotes diversity in all of life. Ava is driven by the importance of making healing possible for marginalised communities as a tool to unwind trauma, whilst learning about the cycles, which oppress them in order to share teachings on equity. Ava’s work encourages us to become our own inner teachers, recognising ourselves as divinity and in unity. With over 10 years of Yoga, creative practise, facilitation and performance experience, her teaching is often woven with song, poetry and play as a way to deepen our capacity to Love and experience life. For 2022, Ava is developing a new series of somatic movement workshops. Together they explore ‘From Me To We' our upcoming learning journey and the embodiment journey’s Ava will be hosting within. Drawing inspiration from biomimicry and the patterns of nature, these collective journey’s are seeking to connect us with our bodies’ senses letting our weekly themes percolate and ripple into diverse physical experiences that are seeds of change. Ava speaks about her sexual identity and the shame that is often attached to being queer and gender-fluid in our heteronormative world. She reveals a traumatic personal experience that has caused her waves of grief and how she integrates the complex dualities of this into her life with grace. Ava believes that trauma and grief is an embodied experience and can show up as collective physical dis/ease. These collective experiences tend to be systemically de-contextualised turning them into culture deeply affecting our marginalised communities. We learn that her work with spiritual embodied practices is intended to open pathways for us to reconnect into our divine essence overcoming personal and ancestral blocks igniting transformation that brings us individual and systemic freedom.  Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How can we reimagine and redesign online community to serve the future of our wildest dreams? This special episode is a call to action where we turn the tables on Amisha Ghadiali, the wonderful host of ‘all that we are’ this globally acclaimed podcast, where we offer deep, insightful, unedited conversations weaving together activism, the sacred, creativity and regeneration. Amisha has a gift of bringing people into connection with themselves, each other and the Earth. She has hosted many retreats, workshops, programmes and rituals around the world creating tender and inclusive spaces. Amisha shines a light on our new offering ‘From Me To We’, a learning journey where a faculty of 18 speakers, all of which have been on the podcast before, will be gathering for conversations around urgent themes arising from the pressing times we live in. In speaker sessions, embodiment experiences and community salons, we delve deep into themes that explore how we may embrace polarity and complexities of now, how we may dismantle new age spirituality, privilege and notions of white saviorism and give rise to engaged activism and so much more.  ‘From Me To We’ is a one of a kind invitation relevant in the here and now with the intention to offer a unique journey where something may emerge and move us in new ways; a journey of dynamic healing and transformation; a journey where the wisdom of everyone that's present can be shared in reflections, questions and the yet unexplained that may arise.  Amisha reveals the challenges of sustaining a podcast and community that is entirely funded by its own members and free of advertising. The idea for ‘all that we are’ membership community app - launching soon - blossomed since she was craving an online community space where members can actively contribute to the work we do and where our network can meet, spark connections and collaborations across the globe away from being stalked by corporations and advertisers. She believes we have to try and find beauty in these wild times by connecting to each other in new ways and by supporting each other to become resilient, adaptable, intuitive beings. The new name and all of the offerings we are launching provide a space where such things can blossom. We hear from Hely Cameron, new curator at ‘all that we are’, sharing her journey from being a podcast listener to turning into a member of the team. We learn that the new membership community app will have a podcast class club, a space for people to come together to share their insights and inspirations garnered from our podcast episodes. There will be a workshop area that includes offerings on how to work with eco anxiety, how to live more in flow, how to trust our intuition and so much more. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How can we reimagine and reorient our curiosity during civilisational crisis? In this episode Amisha brings together Sophie Strand and Bayo Akomolafe. Sophie is a writer, who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. She believes strongly that all thinking happens interstitially between beings, ideas, differences, mythical gradients. Bayo is a poet, philosopher, psychologist, professor and chief-curator of the Emergence Network. He curates this earth-wide project for the re-calibration of our ability to respond to civilisational crisis. Sophie and Bayo unfold a playful conversation taking us on a wild journey of how we might research the sacred, investigate that which interconnects us and re/imagine education. They consider that our troubling times call for us to become prolific in indeterminate research that takes it away from academia and humanist claws; forms of research that allow for playful, tactile and intimate spaces, where our bodies are ecological experiments and investigations into past ecosystems, where we might allow furniture to do research and allow for the fact that the weather is doing research with our bodies. Emerging from their intimate enquiries is a call for animist reorientation that fundamentally questions our conditioned point of view and serves as an invitation to marvel at the invisible, the uncertainties and the deep questions it raises. Inviting people into spaces to share food is an ‘outrageous’ and simple invitation where new enquiries can sprout from our bewilderment. They encourage us to understand our bodies as psychedelic, sensory portals that do not need medicines to encourage our ecological awakeness. We learn that every decision is an opportunity to risk doing the most interesting thing. Blossoming our curiosity will open up our understanding of the sacred as an emergency and simultaneously as an emergence, where we may understand ourselves as patterns rather than matter. This alternative opens spaces where we can re-orient, articulate hope, and think about the future as computational, algorithmic, cybernetic flows beyond us during civilisational crisis. Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How can we imagine and practice freedom in this time of limitations? In this episode Amisha speaks with adrienne maree brown, a writer, activist and Black feminist. adrienne is the author of ‘Grievers’, ‘Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Meditation,’ ‘We Will Not Cancel Us’ and ‘Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good’ and many more important books that help us create transformative strategies and movement for our time. She is the co-host of the ‘How to Survive the End of the World’ and ‘Octavia’s Parables' podcasts. Amisha and adrienne explore ideas on how we can come to imagine and embody a future in which we are free. adrienne shares that the visioning of our futures is a fundamental practice that can create alignment between our behaviours and visions. It is a way to grow our individual practices into compelling futures; futures that we want to be alive for, futures that are free and that can become large-scale community freedom movement.  Together they acknowledge that we live in a time of spiritual awakening where we are learning to grieve. We exist in crumbling systems that can no longer continue if we wish to continue as a collective species. adrienne shares that rituals of grief and spiritual practices are a way to prepare ourselves individually and at a systemic level to let go of systems that we are embedded in and often comforted by. adrienne believes that we are closer to our free futures than we have learnt to believe and that the structures of western school education distract us from envisioning the kind of humans we need to be to participate in this future.  We learn that in order to embody the visions for our compelling futures we must be willing to practise honesty and boundaries, allow ourselves to experience pleasure, make ourselves vulnerable and engage in relational learning to co-vision in relationship with others in our communities. We need to question the construct of linear time and imagine it as layered, moving in many directions, in cycles, something that is mysterious and therefore opening up possibilities for spiritual shifts and for what our actions could mean.  Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org  

How do we imagine and flourish a future in times of wild interruptions? In this episode Amisha talks with Jason Bayani, poet, author, educator and arts organiser. His poetry books ‘Amulet’ and ‘Locus’, the latter nominated for the Northern California Book Award, and his solo theater show ‘Locus of Control’ explore the experience of identity of Pilipinx-Americans. His poems are oral histories, tales of magic and myth, ‘creatures of excess’, as he describes them. Jason is the artistic director of ‘Kearny Street Workshop’ in San Francisco, the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific American arts organisation in the country. Jason shares a flow of collective insight embracing intuition, embodiment and grief, which he gathered during a Bioneers event with Nina Simons, both him and Amisha attended. This rich reading offers signposts and profound questions for navigating our current time.  Together they speak of the search for uninterrupted spaces of silence where our dreams and imagination can flourish, where we can reclaim and provide ourselves with soulfulness. They speak of the importance of giving ourselves permission to ‘disappear’ into these spaces as a way of dissolving the pressures of productiveness impressed upon us, and as a necessity to flourish creative visions and expressions for the future. Jason reveals that artists are pivotal in igniting our dreams. An artist’s way can help us dream ourselves into new realities beyond the current systems and crisis of imagination. He believes that artists have ways of stirring the severely limited view of beauty, which we are able to see in this world right now. We learn that seeking the tenderness of our creativity, unfolding it at its own pace and trusting this process is where we will visit the real depth of our creativity, where we will reconnect with our identities and root into our intuitive experience. This process will bring forth our true expressions, spark our imagination and help us engage in meaningful ways during times of wild interruptions.   Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How do we flourish potential and change within our community?  We are emerging from a nourishing hiatus with a new name and new offerings, and are welcoming you back with a special episode; a collective message from our team.  Since we started this period of reflection evolving our vision for what the ‘The Future Is Beautiful’ might become, our team of femme has organically grown to hold all that we hope to unfold. From Britain to South Africa to Turtle Island, in this episode we will share some of our deeper yearnings for the future.  We speak of our origins, how and why we connected with this podcast and with Amisha, our inspiring podcast host. We recall previous episodes where we heard from Claire Dubois, Alnoor Ladha, Nasreen Sheikh and Tiokasin Ghosthorse; episodes which sparked our imaginations and stirred the deeper layers of our hearts in new ways. We reveal our personal ‘medicines’ that kept us sane and our joy alive during these challenging pandemic times and we share our visions and yearnings for the future of your wildest dreams. We reflect on ‘All That We Are’, our new name and the offerings we have brought alive during these past months. ‘All That We Are’ exists to offer a space of sanctuary, where we share podcasts, a place where you can come and be in kind company; a place where you can learn, unlearn and connect to your own wisdom, where we celebrate, explore and deepen our perspective on all that we are, and on all that we are becoming.  Links from this episode and more at www.allthatweare.org

How do we meet our future during times of great change? In this special episode Amisha Ghadiali, our inspiring host, shares how we are evolving the vision of this podcast bringing into alignment its essence of community, truth and goodness with the potency and priorities of current times.  Time has come, where we seek to move away from the name ‘The Future Is Beautiful’ into something that will open up our community in new ways and make the wisdom of vision and creativity we share more accessible whilst addressing the polarity and challenges of our time. Amisha invites our listeners to meet this future with their suggestions for our new name. She talks about our new community app, to be launched this year; a beautiful space that embodies what we share on this podcast.  Amisha entices us to join our latest offering, ‘The Weave’; a nourishing recharging experience during this Autumn Equinox with special guests, including Richard Rudd and Mac McCartney.    She reminds us that if we wish to refine or redefine what it means to be a leader at this time or if we are simply seeking to find our ways of contributing and inspiring each other, use our privilege, our voice or our economic power in new ways, her Beautiful Leadership Immersion & Mentoring begins next week offering a space to explore ways to align and connect with our own essence by clearing subconscious patterns and planting new seeds of qualities that become part of who you are over the time. 

How do we harmonise the complexities of being human whilst honouring ourselves as beautiful beings of nature? This episode is part of our collaboration with ‘Noisily Festival - Mind, Body and Soul’, where we explore the theme ‘We Are Nature’. This LIVE panel took place on 12th June 2021 as part of the Avebury pilgrimage. In this episode Amisha shares a conversation with Charlotte Pulver (E124), a modern day alchemist, Chris Park (E141), an active member of the order of ‘Bards, Ovates & Druids’, prolific beekeeper, enthusiastic storyteller and folklore wisdom keeper, Jimena Paratcha (E140) mother, community leader, conscious entrepreneur and horsewoman with 20 years of working in the social justice sector and Bruce Parry (E5) explorer, documentary filmmaker, author and indigenous rights supporter. Together they embarked on a beautiful pilgrimage in Avebury exploring how we can recognise ourselves as beings of nature and harmonise the complexities of being human by reconnecting with nature’s essence, its rhythms and wisdom. They share their insights into reasons why we have become disconnected from nature and the impacts this has on our humanness, cultures, communities, and on nature itself. We hear how we can honour our collective sense of grief and trauma that is offering the opportunity for us to find new ways to reconnect back to our land and our heritage. They reveal profound personal experiences and teachings from different cultures that have broadened their understanding of nature and inspired personal practices of connecting to their inner universe and their surroundings more empathetically. They explore how we can form ceremonial rituals and ways of life that awaken and ground our Youths in a sense of being that instills a knowing that we are part of something greater than ourselves. We learn that pilgrimages afford us spaces where we can step into meaningful, spiritual, liminal experiences where magic happens, where we can be inspired and marvel at the world and open ourselves up to receive the medicines of nature’s abundant gardens for restoration, transformation and belonging. Links from this episode and more at www.thefutureisbeautiful.co

How can we embrace folklore wisdom traditions as life teachings and nourishing life strategies for the creation of a thriving world? In this special episode Amisha shares time with Chris Park, an active member of the order of ‘Bards, Ovates & Druids’ for nearly 25 years, a prolific beekeeper, enthusiastic storyteller and folklore wisdom keeper. He lives on an organic farm, and as a druid priest, he has worked as celebrant and teacher with schools, wildlife trusts, local authorities, mental health projects, communities, families and more, aiming to strengthen our connections to the natural environment and each other whilst building knowledge, skills & thriving community. Chris hosts ceremonies and gatherings around the U.K. and within a sacred grove at home. Most recently he co-created a bee-themed podcast ‘Living Beeing’ interviewing artists, musicians, bee-scientists, beekeepers and apitherapists together with friends Verity Sharp and Patrick Randall. Chris takes us on an insightful journey into the nature-based spirituality of Druidry, a tradition that survives in folklore and the stories of our landscapes, and evolves with generations. Being a priest and active member of Bards, Ovates and Druids’ has inspired Chris’ unique lifestyle and enables him to share inspiring creative strategies for creating thriving communities living in reciprocity with our natural world. Chris shares a flow of folk tales, song and mythologies taking us into ‘the other world’, the imaginary realm, where we experience magic, symbolism, mischief and exceptional power reminding us of the rich tapestry of life. Every traditional folk tale gives great traction into the natural world with themes, mottos and symbolism, trees, plants and animals, stars, rocks and spirits of nature. He believes such stories can be cathartic and restore our separated sense of connection to the natural world, to oneself and one's ancestry and bring forth a sense of well-being and belonging. Together they explore his work as a sustainable beekeeper and apitherapist. Chris shares that bees are ancient teachers reminding us of the cycles of life and the interconnectedness of our world with nature. In exchange for keeping them well and thriving, we receive their medicines of honey, pollen propolis, royal jelly from time to time, bee venom, wax and beehive air. We learn that putting down roots and drawing closer circles around our communities inspires a village sufficiency that is vital for our greater communities to thrive and keep on growing. And if we are not growing, then we must start growing food or plants or gardens, as they will bring us happiness. Links from this episode and more at www.thefutureisbeautiful.co 

How can simple ways of living in beauty and balance forge effective change in a turmoiled world? In this episode Amisha talks to Jimena Paratcha, mother, community leader, conscious entrepreneur and horsewoman. With 20 years of working in the social justice sector, Jimena is the founder of Action for Brazil's Children's Trust and a founding partner of Street Child United. An activist at heart, Jimena today focuses on campaigning for Fossil Free Sussex and Ecocide Law. She has been initiated into the Siddha Kundalini lineage, Nature Mysticism of Andean Peru and is currently studying Equine Facilitated Therapies. She is a Guardian of the Yawanawa and Tukano people of Amazonian Brazil, a partner of the Akasha Retreat Centre in Rio de Janeiro, a trustee of TreeSisters and a founding member of Friends of the River Medway. Jimena shares her story of origin and key steps of her life’s journey as a mother raising three children and as a generous activist supporting communities and addressing the growing environmental crisis. She reveals that her personal healing has helped her move from a place of embodied awareness and balance enabling heart-led choices reflected in her work with TreeSisters and Friends of the River Medway in Sussex, a project that weaves together practical, legal and sacred spiritual priorities to honour and care for the vitality of the local rivers. Amisha and Jimena explore the importance of motherhood and how living atuned to nature’s and our own inner cycles provides vital moments of calm that connects us to our inner voice and creativity.  We learn that growing practices of spaciousness and stillness will align us with our bodies intelligence, our feelings and physical sensations, rather than our intellect. This simplicity of being in our bodies is a powerful way to bring alive a gentle way of living in beauty and balance, from which we can activate more effective change in our local communities and society at large. Links from this episode and more at www.thefutureisbeautiful.co 

How can we sense and cultivate our intuition as a life skill that helps us foster thriving communities? In this special episode Lexy Alea Kay speaks with our host Amisha Ghadiali of this globally acclaimed podcast, The Future Is Beautiful, that weaves together Politics, Spirituality, Creativity and Sustainability offering us deep, insightful, unedited conversations with inspiring guests. Amisha has a gift of bringing people into connection with themselves, each other and the Earth. She has hosted many retreats, workshops, programmes and rituals around the world. She creates brave, tender and inclusive spaces. Amisha shares her insights into what it means to live in flow with one’s intuition and the abundant possibilities we open up when we cultivate this essential life skill. Her latest book ‘Intuition’ delves into 9 principles and 53 practices gathered to help us connect with and grow our intuition. Her latest offering ‘Intuitive Flow’ is a 4week journey that integrates themes of the book to help us create a deeper relationship with our inner world learning how to trust our intuition and to unfold life from that place.  Amisha’s offerings are underpinned by her desire to create spaces where we can connect with our own natural intelligence so we may flourish thriving communities that embrace us for who we are, that offer support and camaraderie with the challenges we face whilst honouring our cyclical reciprocity with nature. She tells us about the The Future Is Beautiful community app, to be launched this year, that albeit it being a tech space, is designed with the intention to lead us into a space as beautiful as a forest beautiful forest; a space of gathering, connection and redefining of priorities where we can share and receive each others gifts, insights and ways of life that can strengthen our communities. Links from this episode and more at www.thefutureisbeautiful.co 

How do we reveal and embody our magnetism and authenticity through our style choices? In this episode Amisha talks to Kerry Wilde, a Slow Fashion and Women’s Empowerment advocate who’s work harmonises Spirituality, Sustainability and Style. Kerry believes that dressing is a way to create a new culture of Authentic Beauty and loving Self-expression and that the future of fashion is rooted in the Art of Adornment and Soul Style. Kerry trained in Reiki, Yoga, Feminine Embodiment and Womb Healing. She is the Founder of Art of Slow: an online platform to educate and bring awareness to the frequency of our clothing, an ambassador for the Empowerment Collective, an initiative set to eradicate Slave Labour, and she recently launched the ‘Art of Womxn’ program. In this conversation Amisha and Kerry speak about the ‘art of adornment’ and ‘soul style’ as ways of dismantling insidious cultural beauty norms and myths. They explore how these can become powerful forms of authentic and emotive expression aligned with our personal values, spirituality and unique sense of beauty. Together the share insights into fast and slow fashion, and the impacts of these on beauty culture, planet and people. Kerry shares her awakening into style and adornment as spiritual practices catalysed by her personal experiences working in Fast Fashion, and raised as a mixed race woman in a white family. She talks about her explorations of somatic and embodiment practices for trauma resolution and for growing our felt sense of authenticity and intuition; powerful style guides that birth our magnetism. We learn that to fully transmit our beauty, royalty and serenity through our style means that we need to let go of misguided perceptions and masks we wear. Letting go of these, and the old pieces in our wardrobes, is a way of releasing constructed identities that no longer serve us; a way of aligning with our wellbeing and the essence of ourselves as we start to inhabit the natural harmonic place of resonance with who we are. Links from this episode and more at www.thefutureisbeautiful.co 

What would a new story of human progress look like if we reconnected with nature and worked with nature as partner? In this episode Amisha talks to Andres Roberts, a human development guide who’s vision is to reconnect us with nature. Andres brings together innovative approaches to leadership aiming to forge change that embraces the wisdom from ancient cultures and deep work with nature. He is the founding partner of the ‘Bio-Leadership Project’, co-founder of ‘Way of Nature UK’, and a guide to contemporary rites of passage that support deep transformation. Amisha and Andres explore the power of rekindling our lost relationship with nature and the potentiality it holds for carving out a new story of human progress where we live in reciprocal partnerships with nature, technology, engineering and human intelligence garnered from ancient wisdom traditions and the failings of extractive culture. Andres shares his experiences of guiding people on nature quests; formative experiences of observation and listening to nature that restore a sense of belonging and release us from culturally dominant patterns of separation. He shares his work with Bio-Leadership Fellowship, a community that brings together likeminded businesses and intelligence from all over the world seeking to foster a new culture of progress in reciprocity with nature and community based on five core stories that are emerging in the world. We learn that nature is our greatest teacher and a paradise that affirms the sacredness of life. Everything is in constant flow and changing, and tuning into life’s fluidity will ground us and provide the capabilities to be adaptable during times of upheaval and uncertainty. Nature guides us into understanding our vital role as part of the natural world. When we rekindle a connection with nature, a new intelligence emerges, a sense of wholeness, beauty and wonder grows, that naturally pulls us into visioning a more beautiful world. Links from this episode and more at www.thefutureisbeautiful.co