Welcome to Conscious Conversations
Explore the power of being true to yourself, embrace transformation, and practice the lasting power of authentic living in a free to all, safe virtual live podcasting environment.
Join us for this rare opportunity to experience profound conversations with people from all walks of life on topics that matter and aren’t often discussed on the spiritual path.
Each conversation will empower you to embody one of the nine steps of the spiritual hero’s journey of The Way of the Goddess book. These hallmarks of each conversation will then empower you to convert what you listen to into your own embodied wisdom:
Deep Listening: to the live recording of an episode of the True to Yourself Podcast
Q & A: an opportunity to ask any questions you have on what you heard
Application: a practical reflection and/or activity from The Way of the Goddess and/or interviewee’s books
Sunday, July 21st
Join Us Live
On Zoom
Sunday, August 4th
Join Us Live
On Zoom
Sunday, August 18th
Join Us Live
On Zoom
One of the most profound moments on my spiritual journey was when I was made to apologize to so-called ‘spiritual gurus’ for their transgressions towards me. This marked the last time I would ever betray myself to gain the love and approval of others, no matter what kind of authority they possess. It was the birthing moment of the True to Yourself Podcast. Having gone through this dark experience with false gurus has instilled in me the value of discerning who is a true guru, which to me, means one who awakens the guru within you. After a period of five years of digesting my past experiences with false gurus through writing and continually striving to live by what I wrote in my book, The Way of the Goddess, I have intentionally created this community to be a truly safe space in which to heal. I pre-screen all guests to ensure they share mine and my organization, The Ancient Way’s values, of integrity, empathy, and humility. You can learn more about my spiritual training, personal and professional background here.
About Your Host, Ananta
The Story Behind Conscious Conversations - from Ananta
In our modern, globalized society, we are culturally conditioned to hide behind many masks. Expressions like “be a man,” “suck it all up,” and “big girls don’t cry” block us from feeling our true feelings, and expressing our authentic self. Eventually, it can feel like some part of us is dying inside. Because it is.
One thing I’ve always found particularly fascinating from the ancient holistic health wisdom tradition of Ayurveda is the way it explains digestion. In Ayurveda, digestion is understood to be like a fire. When you don’t have enough fire, you can’t digest your food. What you eat, in this situation, sits in your stomach, raw and unprocessed. Our emotions and life experiences work in the same way.
When you don’t do the work it takes to process, digest, and assimilate your emotions into fuel and “nutrients” you can integrate into your being, they become toxic and stay in your body and mind way past their expiration date. The toxicity of unprocessed food, along with difficult emotions and life experiences, is the root cause of many disease, per ancient Ayurvedic wisdom (and this is now being corroborated by modern science, too).
This is why, for me, I could only fully, and irreversibly, heal from eating disorders (a process of slowly committing suicide) by understanding their relationship to the childhood trauma I experienced. It was only in “digesting” those painful experiences that I tried for many years to avoid facing that healing came about. I embraced that entering the fire of transformation meant being willing to face my own shadow (the parts of myself that I disowned), look straight at what scared me the most, and see and recognize all kinds of masks I wore as defense mechanisms against being vulnerable and real.
But I didn’t heal all by myself. The process of transformation began for me when I was 16 years old student, at a Catholic, all-girls high school in Toledo Ohio. There, I had the great fortune of meeting Mrs. Trish Sanders, a beautiful motherly being, who was also a speech and drama teacher extraordinaire.
Have you ever heard someone laugh with their whole heart, soul, and belly? And so fully, uninhibitedly, and loudly that you can actually locate where they are sitting in a large auditorium full of people with the sound of their laughter?
That was the power of Mrs. Sanders’ laughter. In the ancient Vedic spiritual tradition of Navratri, a nine-night goddess celebration, there is a mythological goddess named Kushmanda. Goddess Kushmanda is called the Smiling Goddess, and the meaning of Kushmanda is “little cosmic egg.” After taking on the ferociously loving form of Chandraghanta, who teaches us how to shed our masks, the warrior mother goddess Durga transforms herself into Kushmanda, the mother of the whole universe.
Before the universe came into being, when darkness ruled, Kushmanda produced a little cosmic egg with her beautiful smile. This served to fill the universe with the radiant light of the sun. Kushmanda lives in the land of the sun and gives energy and strength to all beings, who she created from her vast being. She is so powerful and loving that she even guides the Sun God!
After creating the universe, Mother Kushmanda created beings to dwell in her divine cosmic creation. Kushmanda is the cosmic egg of all creation on earth, and she also lives our hearts. The fact that she is smiling reminds us that we too are our most creative when we are smiling and feeling positive, courageous (a quality of the heart), and strong.
To know Mrs. Sanders was to know the power of Goddess Kushmanda. As a high schooler, the kind of seeds she planted in my young being empowered me to become like that magical cosmic egg myself, to rewrite the script of intergenerational traumas, forgive all kinds of abuses, and learn to love myself unconditionally. She helped me find and use my own voice, too, in service of Truth and healing for all beings.
I remember the toxic stress and unhealthy thinking habits my teenage self had when I met Mrs. Sanders.
‘Oh my god, if I don’t get an A+ on the next physics exam, how am I ever going to get into the college I want to go?’ I used to worry. I always felt so worried about achieving the next thing. And then the next. And scrambled to juggle studying for physics with student council activities, volunteering to help other students, interning at the doctor’s office after school, and then learning public speaking through being part of Mrs. Sanders’ speech team. I constantly felt overwhelmed as a student, expecting much from myself.
As soon as I’d walk into Mrs. Sanders’ Green Room, however, I would feel all my stress and worries melt away, and feel more present to the moment. Upon walking in and sitting on the couch and seeing Mrs. Sanders’ smiling face, a warm feeling of acceptance, kindness, and the truest love I’ve ever felt enveloped me into its safety. It was in those moments that I felt so at home in a way that I did not even feel at my own home growing up in an environment of violence and hostility, inside and outside the home.
Mrs. Sanders had a peculiar way of making you start to look at your problems in a different way, so that they could no longer be so in your face. And you felt that you could conquer anything, including America’s number one fear, of public speaking. Which we did. Because she gave us this safe place to process what we were experiencing, and to express ourselves authentically, and powerfully.
When Mrs. Sanders died in June, 2023, I felt extremely grateful my sister and I could attend her memorial service together. We laughed - and cried - our way through the entire extraordinary event, it was truly a celebration of a great soul.
Afterwards, as we ventured into her Green Room one more time, as adults, I felt astonished to see hanging outside the door a poster I had given as a gift to Mrs. Sanders when I graduated high school so many years prior.
“I have arrived. I am home. My destination is in each step.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
There is a picture accompanying this quote, of feet with flowers surrounding them. In the ancient Vedic spiritual tradition, which I had studied in for over a decade, we have a concept of ‘the lotus feet of the guru,’ and venerate the feet of the respected teachers who have walked before us, that we may follow in their footsteps.
It brings tears to my eyes, even today, as I share this, as I now understand the message I shared with her, that home is not a physical place, but rather a spiritual space in which we are true to our higher Self. And in doing so, feel connected with all living beings.
In the Navratri goddess tradition, there is a dance we perform each fall, called Garba. We do the garba dance in a circular way around the bright flame of a lamp in the center of the dance. The light at the center of the garba dance represents the reproductive power of the Divine Feminine. This is a power we all, male, female, and non-binary, possess, because it is the spiritual power we all have to give birth to the most authentic version of ourselves.
Conscious Conversations is my way of following in the footsteps of Mrs. Sanders, my beloved Goddess Kushmanda teacher, and extend her welcoming Green Room experience to anyone seeking a safe space to let down your guard, and find solace and refuge in community. It is a place where we can dance, laugh, and cry together. As we celebrate, at the same time, that light, that symbolically resides at the center of the garba dance, representing the power we all have to give birth to the most authentic version of ourselves, and which connects us with all living beings in a beautiful, endless, circular dance of life.
Welcome home, to your true Self.
"I came into this community a hot mess. Anxiety through the roof, depression, strained relationships, and… low self-confidence. I'm still a bit of a hot mess, but with a lot more self-awareness, inner strength, new coping skills, a powerful sense of community, and a deepened sense of connection to the Divine within me. The 9 steps took me down new winding roads that leave me both breathless and excited. It's a lifelong journey I'm happy to be on."
- Tabetha Hedrick, Education Content Editor for BERNINA of America, Developmental Editor
What People Are Saying
“Not only did Ananta's empowering approach to teaching strengthen me personally, but being part of her program also connected me with a beautiful family of light she created, which has become my soul tribe. Most of us are not connected by blood but we are by our souls, by our positive vibrations and our desire to seek light and the highest truth within ourselves. I feel the most content I have ever felt.”
- Nachi Chopra, Business Transformation Leader and Emotional Intelligence Enthusiast, New Jersey, USA
"Ananta holds light for me, reminding me of who I know myself to be. She continues to see the goddess within me that I am still learning to adorn with love and acceptance. Ananta’s heart and vision are supplemented through the people she brings in, and the intention through which she connects us all. This community, it is a garden. The fragrance of each person mesmerizes alone but surrenders itself to the much greater melody of the garden as a whole. Ananta and her guests redefine love, wholeheartedly seeing each individual and holding the stories of each sacred."
- Shweta Bhatt, Artist and Former Consultant
"I would recommend learning from Ananta and her guests because the topics being taught are life changing, from inside out. There is a nearly tangible aura of love and acceptance amongst her and her fellow contemporaries and with the students in her classes. Despite the large, vast ocean of spiritual wellness knowledge that can appear daunting at first, sessions are structured very clearly, communication about what is expected is exact, and the immersion into each topic is easily digestible to the human intellect."
