The Calming Ground Podcast

About The Calming Ground Podcast

This podcast offers a space for busy people to go to for inspiration, wisdom, to learn from one another's struggles and transformations, as well as to receive actionable steps to relax, gain confidence, and move forward with the life they long to experience.

Publisher

Elizabeth Mintun

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Oct 2023

Latest episode

28 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

166 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   28 Oct 2026

   166 - Protection Practices for Unraveling Times: A Conversation about Nervous System Regulation & Rest with Michelle C. Johnson

   What if caring for yourself is one of the ways you keep showing up for the world? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun sits down with Michelle C. Johnson, an author, activist, spiritual teacher and director, racial equity educator, and intuitive healer. Michelle leads retreats, workshops, and healing work nationwide centered on healing individual and collective trauma and returning to wholeness. In this conversation, Elizabeth talks with Michelle about what it means to regulate the nervous system in a world that feels untethered. They explore why rest can feel like collapse at first, and how to work with the guilt of caring for yourself while others suffer. Michelle describes leading a week-long healing retreat for frontline community leaders, who reminded her that “our people are dying.” She shares how that same truth can become the reason to pause, rather than the reason to skip it. This conversation is for activists, caregivers, healers, and anyone feeling the exhaustion of this moment who is looking for practices that sustain them. Key Takeaways Self-care and collective care are linked. Tending yourself isn’t separate from caring for the community; it’s how you stay present for the people who rely on you. Exhaustion may show up when you finally rest. When you’re given space to down-regulate, deep fatigue can surface. That’s a normal part of the process, not a sign something is wrong. Protection isn’t about walls. Practices like a circle of protection or imagining yourself as a “transparency” let you receive others without absorbing everything. Resources Michelle’s website (books, workshops, retreats, and her weekly Thursday newsletter): michellecjohnson.com (https://www.michellecjohnson.com/) Instagram: @skillinaction (https://www.instagram.com/skillinaction) Connect with The Calming Ground Email: elizabethmintun@thecalmingground.com (mailto:elizabethmintun@thecalmingground.com) Website: https://thecalmingground.com (https://thecalmingground.com/) Facebook & Instagram: @thecalmingground If this episode spoke to you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a reminder to rest. 🌿

2. 

   21 Oct 2026

   165 - Why Do I Dread Winter? Seasonal Anxiety, Chinese Medicine & Nervous System Regulation

   Have you ever stood under a beautiful autumn tree and felt your stomach knot up because all you could think about was the coming winter? In this solo episode, host Elizabeth Mintun explores the anticipatory dread so many of us feel as the light shortens. Drawing on nervous system science and the Five Elements of ancient Chinese medicine, she reframes winter dread as the body’s protective forecast, and invites us into a gentler, more seasonal way of living through the darker months. Elizabeth explains how the nervous system works as a prediction machine that remembers last winter, and how autumn’s Metal element (grief and letting go) leads into winter’s Water element (stillness, depth, and conserving our reserves). She also looks at why the holidays sometimes sharpen winter dread. The episode closes with a guided qigong practice. Key Takeaways: Anticipatory winter dread is your nervous system bracing. According to Five Element theory, autumn (metal) asks us to grieve and let go, and winter (water) invites us inward to rest and conserve. The nervous system is a prediction machine, primarily using evidence from the past. Resources For 1:1 coaching and/or to ask any questions or share reflections, contact Elizabeth at elizabethmintun@thecalmingground.com Website: https://thecalmingground.com/ (https://thecalmingground.com/) Follow along: @thecalmingground on Facebook & Instagram If this episode offered you a moment of ease, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use some space for slowing down. This episode is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for clinical care.

3. 

   14 Oct 2026

   164 - Wendy Videlock on Poetry, Nature, and the Practice of Paying Attention

   After a deer escapes danger, she shakes her whole body before she goes back to grazing. We humans, poet Wendy Videlock says, tend to “build a monument” to our fear instead. What could we learn if we paid closer attention to the wild? In this episode, host Elizabeth Mintun sits down with Wendy, a poet, painter, and teacher. She lives on Colorado’s Western Slope, where she serves as poet laureate of Western Colorado and writes the syndicated column The Barefoot Laureate. Her poems and essays have appeared in Best American Poetry, The New York Times, and O Magazine, among others. In this conversation, she reads from her newest book Desert kin. Wendy talks about the landscape as “the first temple,” how grief holds mixed emotions, the value of releasing fear, and the writing prompts she gives her creative aging students. This episode is for anyone who wants to meet the world with a little more curiosity and a little less fear. Key Takeaways: Write about what you see and it will tell you what you feel. Describing the outer world often reveals the inner one more honestly than writing about ourselves head-on. Change the pronoun and tell it “slant.” Writing about yourself as “she,” “he,” or “they” creates distance and can make room for more imagination and compassion. Practice and ceremony, not mastery. The joy is in the process of writing and discovering, with curiosity rather than the outcome. Resources: Wendy Videlock’s website: https://wendy-videlock.constantcontactsites.com/ (https://wendy-videlock.constantcontactsites.com/) Wendy’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendy.videlock/ (https://www.facebook.com/wendy.videlock/) Episode 157 - conversation with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-calming-ground-podcast/id1704337948?i=1000785952537 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-calming-ground-podcast/id1704337948?i=1000785952537) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4XO0qgL0m7cRhtnNSaTBKG?si=frCx4tZxSDGpLaOVVV2e2Q (https://open.spotify.com/episode/4XO0qgL0m7cRhtnNSaTBKG?si=frCx4tZxSDGpLaOVVV2e2Q) For 1:1 coaching and/or to ask any questions or share reflections, contact Elizabeth at elizabethmintun@thecalmingground.com Follow along: @thecalmingground on Facebook and Instagram Subscribe to The Calming Ground Podcast so you never miss an episode. If you loved this conversation, please share it with a friend! I f this episode resonated with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little more calm and curiosity. Thank you for listening.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.9 / 5

18 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 63 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

98

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

71

Contact The Calming Ground Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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