Episode 37: Life's a Garden, Dig it / Cultivating Soul Food, Community, Hope, and Fun! With Stacie Vanags of Teaquila Farm
Release Date: 07/08/2022
Grey Matters Now
Shelby Stanger is the host and creator of the hit podcast, Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production and the author of the new book Will To Wild. Shelby started the Wild Ideas Worth Living podcast on her own though and it became SO popular and influential that REI purchased it in 2020. Like her adventurous podcast guests, Shelby is a true badass and trailblazer whose trails have led her to major wild outdoor adventures, writing a book, large speaking engagements and even most recently a Ted Talk. Over the years, her work has appeared everywhere from Outside Magazine to...
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Samantha Colicchio is a San Diego-based writer who focuses on feminism, sex, and mental health. She writes regularly for lifestyle and wellness blogs and she is currently working on a book of nonfiction. To me, she is Sam my sweet neighbor and friend that is apparently also humble and a VERY talented writer. I knew nothing of her phenomenal writing skills until she recently wrote an article that was featured in the Huffington Post. It is a brilliantly written, brave, very transparent and vulnerable account of her struggles with Relationship OCD, a relatively new subtype of the disorder. May is...
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Enjoy: "To enjoy something is to take delight or pleasure in something." Upcycling: “The act of taking something no longer in use and giving it a second life and new function. In doing so, the finished product often becomes more practical, valuable and beautiful than what it previously was.” Ed Lewis started his first business in 1996 right out of college and since then his goals have shifted significantly. In the beginning work was all about self and making a living… admitting that in his twenties he couldn’t see too far past himself. photo credit: In 2005 after experiencing...
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Mary Cap is a sound healer based in Carlsbad, CA where she lives with her husband and son. After leaving a fast paced and high stress career in the hotel wedding & events industry to be a stay-at-home mom when her son was born, she found herself feeling lost in both identity and direction after about a year of being at home. Experiencing depression for the first time in her life, she began to unravel the layers of trauma and conditioning that she realized were affecting her everyday life, relationships and ability to live life to the fullest. This “dark night of the soul” led to a...
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A couple of years ago I started following a social media account Salted Spirit because I was so drawn to the beautiful images of this cool waterwoman podcasting and serving tea at the beach from my ultimate dream recording studio - a vintage Westfalia named Salted Carmela. This beautiful salted spirit is Stacie Vanags and she was creating something way deeper and more comprehensive than just beautiful images. Her mission was to make her way around Southern California, hosting Salted Spirit podcasts, workshops and cultivating COMMUNITY for waterwomen. Her workshops focus on...
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One common tool in everyones wellness, healing and navigation toolbox and mentioned in every podcast episode is breath. Yes - we need breath to exist, but we also need it to live and thrive. Whether we feel stuck, paralyzed, escalated or ungrounded by the weight of the world or everyday challenges, breathing is our vehicle to navigate forward. Our breath is a powerful and exciting tool that can take us many more places than just forward. A guide and expert can show us how to utilize this tool we carry with us everywhere, to unlock new spaces and experiences. As a surfer,...
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Best selling author David Magee, formerly a columnist for Newsweek, a former daily newspaper and magazine publisher, and the author of many books about businesses and sports figures began to shift his focus when he wrote wrote an article for the front page of the local paper in 2016. This personal article ripped the bandage off a wound, to air out and share for a greater good and healing all around. It began with these 2 sentences: "A new freshman class started at Ole Miss this week and I wish I could tell them ALL this story. It’s about my oldest son William, who was a freshman in 2008, he...
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Tina Page is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of California. She has been creating and holding safe space for individuals for over 20 years. In both informal settings as well as in structured therapy settings she utilizes intuitive wisdom and best practice approaches that support each individual in their journey. For the past 3 years, she has provided therapeutic services on-line and has worked with people all over the world. Her ability to connect and create a safe and compassionate space while challenging her clients transcends technological limitations. She has also been a big...
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On June 11, 2020 I recorded Episode 25: Healing Trauma Through Surf Therapy and Waves of Love With Natalie Small LMFT and Leanne Tibiatowski. Groundswell Community Project a sisterhood of inter-sectional womxn holding safe & brave space for individuals and communities to find their healing, power, and belonging in Mother Ocean’s Waves. Since our last podcast GSCP realized that the world was in need of a specific resource for processing grief. Waves of Grief: Their Waves of Grief community drop-in groups were birthed out of response to the various types of personal and communal grief that...
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Meet the Aqua Dolls The band is composed of a power trio Melissa / vocals & guitar Keilah / vocals & bass Jackie/ vocals & drums And... their amazing manager Jaysea Devoe who is always behind the scenes taking care of business! This was Jaysea's 3rd time on the podcast. In her 1st episode, a teenager's guide to balance, we discussed how valuable her foundation, light, and tools would be as she navigates through life and things become more challenging. It has been a gift to follow her growth and evolution into her new role and how her foundation and light were so important in...
info_outlineA couple of years ago I started following a social media account Salted Spirit because I was so drawn to the beautiful images of this cool waterwoman podcasting and serving tea at the beach from my ultimate dream recording studio - a vintage Westfalia named Salted Carmela.
This beautiful salted spirit is Stacie Vanags and she was creating something way deeper and more comprehensive than just beautiful images. Her mission was to make her way around Southern California, hosting Salted Spirit podcasts, workshops and cultivating COMMUNITY for waterwomen. Her workshops focus on techniques and strategies for work/life balance, pursing passions, mindfulness and resilience.
Turns out Stacie has a background in mental health and the abbreviated version of her full time job is to help large companies develop innovative plans that prioritize the mental health of their employees.
So …everything this generous salted spirit is offering through social media, workshops, newsletters and websites is completely from her heart - pure organic passion projects. Amazing and selfless huh?!!! Well It gets even better and more fun and she is sharing even more as she takes the world along with her and her husband in an unvarnished evolution to design a happier, healthier and more sustainable life. Stacie invites the world to join them in this pursuit via the creation of Teaquila Farm .
Teaquila Farm documents their journey building an urban farm in Ventura, California as they lean into sustainable urban farming practices, gardening, composting, planting for biodiversity, raising backyard chickens, and more! More indeed… In doing this she is really really expanding her community. A community of folks that are creating foundations together rolling their sleeves up getting their hands in the dirt, getting grounded, creating healthy nourishing gardens, creating growth root to rise growth and hope for the future.
I love my garden so much - it grounds me and nurtures me and feeds me.
Through Teaquila Farm it has been super fun to connect with others that have so many seeds of wisdom and tools to share.
When we connect, even if it’s virtually, we create community gardens and right now we need grounding and a lot of community!
I love this snippet from Teaquila Farms latest newsletter:
"You take a bunch of selfies with a strawberry and immediately forget about all the time, money and energy you invested to get a single strawberry, and it's aaaaaall worth it.
Life is sweet, you've officially started urban farm life.
These small victories in the garden keep us encouraged, but nature also keeps us humble.
Nature reminds us we cannot control the outcome or speed things up to meet our human timeline. There is a basket of lessons just waiting to be dished up to us over time if our hearts are open to listening. Audrey Hepburn said to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow."
Thanks Stacie and Teaquila Farm for the hope, light and heaps of fun!
Planting New Thoughts, Weeding Out the Old - GoodTherapy
IG
@teaquilafarm
@salted_spirit
@mindandsoil
www.mindandsoil.com
To learn more about gardening's mental health benefits check out Mind & Soil's guide to Mindful Gardening.
Music: Mahana by Abe Lagrimas, Jr.