This episode is a reading of this week’s Substack reflection, Arriving Where We Already Are.

It explores the difference between changing our surroundings and actually settling into the present moment. Many of these writings began while walking, and recorded walks will begin appearing soon.

Read the essay:

https://bit.ly/3ZHRt9i

Watch companion videos:

https://youtu.be/2XyaSu8YWDU

This week’s reflection explores a kind of exhaustion that doesn’t resolve with sleep.

Many of us pause activity without ever leaving readiness, which leaves the body unable to fully recover. This conversation looks at what it means to truly disconnect and why real rest begins when nothing is required of us for a moment.

Read the full essay:

https://bit.ly/4rI0RFL

Watch the video version:

https://youtu.be/wRz2zHJDLDA

Learn more about Vital Healing and upcoming breathwork sessions:

https://www.vitalhealing.org/

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Vital Healing

A space for slowing down, reconnecting with the body, and returning to ourselves and each other.

In this episode, Keith Rowe shares the spoken version of his weekly Substack essay, The Cost of Constant Activation. This reflection explores how chronic nervous system activation shows up not only as outrage or urgency, but also as quiet vigilance, distraction, and numbness.

Rather than diagnosing or prescribing, this piece invites listeners to notice what constant activation does to our capacity for presence, empathy, and care, and why so much healing work begins in the body rather than in ideology or opinion.

Links:

Read the Substack essay: https://bit.ly/4qUv2K0

Explore Vital Healing and related offerings: https://www.vitalhealing.org/

Join the monthly online breathwork gathering: https://bit.ly/4qZUiPe

About Vital Healing:

Vital Healing offers breathwork, embodied practices, and reflective writing focused on restoring capacity, presence, and connection in a world that often keeps us braced and reactive.

In this episode, Keith reflects on oak trees, leaf litter, and what it means to release beauty into the world.

Inspired by The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy, this reflection explores how life is sustained through generosity, patience, and trust, both in nature and in our own creative lives.

Links and Resources

Read the accompanying essay on Substack: https://bit.ly/4tlZLkX

Youtube Video Version: https://youtu.be/SE2X32X2zjM

Explore more reflections and videos: https://www.vitalhealing.org/

SHOW NOTES

Listening to Winter

In this episode, I share a spoken reflection on winter, embodiment, and the quiet clarity that comes through work and presence. This piece grows out of recent hands-on restoration work at Cambridge Cemetery and reflects a seasonal shift toward slowing down, listening, and letting the body lead.

The spoken reflection is paired with video, including time-lapse footage from the cemetery work. If you are listening through the podcast and would like to experience the visual version, you can find links below.

Watch the spoken-word video:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/qzUuhvGSj-4

Read the written essay on Substack:

Substack: https://bit.ly/4bLE6Mi

Watch the full, un-narrated time-lapse of the cemetery work:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/6AWn71k2Kwk

This reflection is part of my ongoing work with Vital Healing, where I explores embodiment, presence, and the slow return to what is real through breath, movement, and time on the land.

Thank you for being with us on this Vital Healing journey, as we find our way back to ourselves and back to each other.

This week’s reflection comes out of some recent work along Piney Creek, where we put up two wood duck boxes and filmed parts of the process as it unfolded. The piece follows the work as it happened, choosing placement, adjusting along the way, clearing space where needed, and tending to what the creek had carried in during high water.

The spoken word is paired with a time-lapse video for those who want to see the work alongside the words.

Links

• Read the full Substack essay: https://bit.ly/3LtnAWM
• Watch the accompanying video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bIqLO4wrCG0
• Join our free monthly online breathwork session: https://bit.ly/4qZUiPe

Thank you for being part of the Vital Healing journey, as we find our way back to ourselves and back to each other.

Learning to Rewild with Barn Owls

Moving Away from Control and Back Toward Balance

Description:

This episode is a spoken reading of my latest Substack essay, Learning to Rewild with Barn Owls.

The piece grew out of recent work building nesting boxes on the land. While researching bluebird and wood duck boxes, I came across plans for a barn owl box and began learning more about how barn owls live, hunt, and support balance in an ecosystem.

Building the owl box from reclaimed wood became part of a larger reflection on rewilding, stepping away from constant control, and allowing the land and the more-than-human world to participate more fully.

A quiet time-lapse of the build is available in the companion video.
https://youtu.be/c4OpoCTxnjg

Links:

📖 Read the essay on Substack:

https://bit.ly/49vPt8J

🎥 Watch video version:

https://youtu.be/3Yw1F9_xxxM

Join the Monthly Breathe (live breathwork gathering):

https://bit.ly/4qZUiPe

This episode is a Christmas Eve offering.

It centers on A Christmas Carol, the film The Man Who Invented Christmas, and the story behind the story.

More than that, it explores how change happens in a human life, not through force or correction, but through reconnection, memory, and love.

This episode is meant to be listened to gently. Whether you’re walking, resting, or sitting quietly, you’re invited to let the words land at their own pace.

Read the full essay on Substack:

👉 https://bit.ly/3Y3VR1B

Visit the website:

👉 www.vitalhealing.org

Monthly Breathe:

A live monthly breathwork gathering focused on grounding, presence, and nervous system regulation.

👉 https://bit.ly/4qZUiPe

The Walking Pilgrim App:

Soon to be released! 33 Day walking meditations app rooted in breath, embodiment, and simple presence.

👉 https://www.walkingpilgrim.com/

Thank you for listening, and for walking this path together.