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Embodiment Matters Podcast

Embodiment Matters Podcast

Written by: Carl Rabke and Erin Geesaman Rabke
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About this listen

 Embodiment Matters is an ongoing, rich conversation about what it really means to be embodied, and why and how embodiment matters so much in our daily lives and in our world. Our guests include wise and insightful teachers from the realms of somatics, Buddhism, meditation, social justice, psychotherapy, movement arts, bodywork, martial arts, neuroscience, environmentalists, indigenous teachers,​ and more. In our conversations, we explore a wide range of topics around waking up and being embodied, and offer guided practices to help return to your embodiment as a source of wisdom, guidance and intimacy with life. Your hosts, Carl Rabke and Erin Geesaman Rabke, have been devoted to waking up and being embodied for the last 25 years. They have extensive training and practice in The Feldenkrais Method, Yoga & Yoga Therapy, Structural Integration, Embodied Life, Buddhist Meditation, Tai Chi, Focusing, Ayurveda, and more. They share a passion for sharing potent practices that support people in becoming more embodied, more mindful and aware, more rooted in liberating kindness, and more free in all ways; as well as more able to bring their unique gifts forth to benefit the world. They live in Salt Lake City, and can be found at bodyhappy.com Alternative & Complementary Medicine Hygiene & Healthy Living Spirituality
Episodes
  • Practices of Presence and Why They Matter: A Conversation With Carl Rabke and Erin Geesaman Rabke

    Practices of Presence and Why They Matter: A Conversation With Carl Rabke and Erin Geesaman Rabke
    Jan 11 2026

    Practices of Presence and Why They Matter: A Conversation with Erin Geesaman Rabke and Carl Rabke

    In this podcast, we (Erin and Carl) dive into one our our favorite topics: practices of presence and why they matter.

    This is the first of a series of three podcasts on practices of presence, practices of depth and soul, and practices of reconnection are remembrance, and why they matter. These three interweaving practices are a foundation for the 13-month Refugia mentoring training the begins February 2026.

    In our conversation, we weave in some beautiful poetry and guided practices, so we get to experience practices of presence, rather that just talk about them.

    We speak of the challenge of modern life and how much our attention is pulled away from presence, with the pace of life, and phones and screens and all the information we digest on daily basis, and how our embodied presence is always right there, as the Zen saying goes, "closer than our own skin." And how important it is to have practices that help us remember and return over and over through the day.

    We also speak of growing an embodied ground, and how movement can either deepen the split and objectification, (doing something to our body) or can deepen intimacy with life. We also speak of how when we learn how to learn, and learn how to deepen presence through movemernt, that touches every aspect of our lives.

    We speak of the present moment as being vast enough to hold the past and future, to hold the ancestors and future ones.

    So many rich topics, quotes and practices in this conversation. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

    To find our more about our Refugia training, you can visit https://embodimentmatters.com/refugia/

    And to join us in our weekday online embodied meditation practice, you can visit https://embodimentmatters.com/meditation/
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Men of Depth and Soul: Living in A Good Way: A Conversation With Kedar Brown

    Men of Depth and Soul: Living in A Good Way: A Conversation With Kedar Brown
    Jan 6 2026
    In this conversation, we speak with ritualist, healer, and rites of passage facilitator, Kedar Brown, founder and director of the Rites of Passage Council. Our conversation meanders through a variety of soulful topics. Kedar opens the conversation with a beautiful prayer and invocation. We speak of what it means to live in a good way, to become who we are meant to be, and give our gifts to the world. We speak of the markings and indications of adulthood, and what happens in the absence of initiation. We also speak of the importance of remembering our innate ritual intelligence. We loved speaking with Kedar, and look forward to him joining as one of the guest teachers in our upcoming Men of Depth and Soul along with Francis Weller. You can find out more about Kedar and his work at ritesofpassagecouncil.org You can find more about the Men of Depth and Soul Class at embodimentmatters.com and ahealingbridge.com Kedar is the founder and director of Rites of Passage Council, an organization offering deep nature ceremonial encampments around the world. He is an internationally known ceremonialist, healer, intuitive and teacher of psychological and spiritual awareness with over thirty-five years of professional experience. Over this time Kedar has developed an effective and unique approach to emotional and spiritual healing by braiding together his depth of clinical knowledge of experiential psychotherapies with more nature based, indigenous wisdom teachings and healing methods from around the world.

    In 1994 Kedar apprenticed with Steven Foster and Meredith Little at School of Lost Borders in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the form and process of the vision quest ceremony and eco-psychology. He has also apprenticed for many years with Malidoma Some, PhD, initiated elder and shaman of the Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso, West Africa. Kedar has also had the honor and privilege to learn many valuable insights into healing from his apprenticeship with Cherokee elder and medicine person, Will Rockingbear.

    "I have known Kedar for a long time as a man of spirit with remarkable devotion to healing. He tends to his duty with royalty and ferocious commitment. As a man who hears the call of Earth and Nature, Kedar extends his hand to those in quest of change and transformation and is always willing to lead them into and guide them through a deep sense of communion with themselves. Having worked with him in a number of rituals and ceremonies and watched carefully the way he gives of himself to spirit, I have come to respect his priestly devotion to the sacred in Nature and in every human. His work deserves respect and reverence."~Malidoma P. Some´ PhD. Author, Teacher & Tribal Elder of the Dagara Tribe of West Africa.
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    1 hr and 25 mins
  • In the Absence of the Ordinary: A Conversation with Francis Weller

    In the Absence of the Ordinary: A Conversation with Francis Weller
    Dec 30 2025

    Greetings listener friends!

    This is a re-release of a conversation we had with writer, teacher and soul activist, Francis Weller in 2020. We are releasing some of our favorite conversations that are connected with the themes we will be exploring in our 13-month mentoring training, Refugia, which begins in February 2026. Francis will be one of the guest teachers, along with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Alexandre Jodun and Alyona Kobevka.

    We recorded this conversation just after Francis released the first version of In the Absence of the Ordinary was released as an e-book. The book was recently published in 2025, and is a beautiful collection of soulful and potent essays about the time in which we find ourselves. There is also an audio version with Francis reading that is lovely.

    In this episode, recorded in May, 2020, we jump right into discussing our global circumstances as what Francis calls a Rough Initiation. We explore Francis's suggestions for responding to overwhelm: self-compassion, turning toward our feelings, being astonished by beauty, and having patience. We explore what Francis calls growing an apprenticeship with sorrow, and the possibility metabolizing our sorrows into something medicinal for soul and for community. Francis speaks to a powerful quote from human biologist Paul Shephard, that states: "The grief and sense of loss, that we often interpret as a failure in our personality, is actually a feeling of emptiness where a beautiful and strange otherness should have been encountered."

    We explore this beautiful and strange otherness and so much more. We are sure you'll enjoy this beautiful conversation as much as we did. Many thanks to Francis for sharing his words and wisdom so generously.

    For more information on Francis and his work, visit francisweller.net

    For more information on our classes, grief rituals and Refugia program, visit embodimentmatters.com
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    59 mins
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