Ep. 100 Embracing Silence: The Golden Path to A More Peaceful Existence
Release Date: 03/25/2025
126. Taking Up Space with Ease: A Somatic Meditation for Confidence & Grounding
LaidOPEN Podcast
In this guided somatic meditation, I’m inviting you to explore what it feels like to take up space with more ease, confidence, and choice. We’ll work with bone breathing, grounding, body awareness, energetic boundaries, and visualization to notice the ways we may habitually shrink, harden, or disconnect from ourselves when we feel threatened, insecure, ashamed, or uncomfortable being seen. From there, we’ll practice expanding into our full length and width while staying connected to ourselves and our surroundings. I’ll also guide you through a visualization practice for moving through...
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125. The Somatics of Presence, Pleasure & Expansion: Taking Up Space After Trauma
LaidOPEN Podcast
In this episode, I’m exploring the somatics of presence, pleasure, and expansion—and how our experiences can shape the way we physically and energetically move through the world. People who feel confident often take up space naturally. They stand taller and wider, breathe more easily, move with intention, and carry a sense that they have a right to be heard. But for those of us who have experienced trauma, abuse, oppression, shame, or simply learned early on that being visible wasn’t safe, taking up space can feel much more complicated. Our bodies adapt to what we experience. We may...
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Ep. 124 Guided Chakra Meditation to Clear Energy, Build Better Habits & Trust Yourself
LaidOPEN Podcast
In this month's Chakra Clear Out, I invite you to explore the relationship between structure, habits, and self-trust. We often think of structure as something external—our schedules, routines, work, or commitments—but our internal structures shape our lives just as profoundly. In this guided meditation, I'll lead you through each of the seven chakras, helping you release inherited beliefs, outdated patterns, and energetic habits that no longer support who you're becoming. As we move through each energy center, you'll reconnect with your own energy, strengthen your intuition, and reflect on...
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Ep. 123 Guided Meditation for Beginners: Managing Anxiety, Overthinking & Gaining Perspective
LaidOPEN Podcast
If you’re new to meditation, or finding yourself caught in cycles of anxiety, stress, or overthinking, this guided practice offers a place to begin. In this Chakra Clear Out from my Anarchist Medicine series, I guide a simple meditation designed to help you create internal space, ground in your body, and reconnect with perspective. Rather than trying to stop thoughts or force calm, this practice explores neutrality—the ability to observe what is happening inside you without immediately reacting to it. Together, we work with grounding, visualization, and attention practices that support...
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Ep. 122 What Is Meditation? How to Start a Meditation Practice (Even If You’ve Never Meditated)
LaidOPEN Podcast
What is meditation and how do you start? Charna shares a gentle, beginner friendly introduction to meditation, mindfulness, and practice. Have you ever wondered what meditation actually is... and whether you're doing it "right"? In this special introductory episode, I'm stepping away from interviews to talk directly about meditation: how I found it, why it became foundational to my healing journey, and how you can begin a meditation practice without pressure, perfection, or needing to clear your mind. Drawing from decades of experience in somatic work, mindfulness, embodiment practices, and my...
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Ep. 121 Cut Energetic Cords & Reclaim Your Power | Guided Chakra Clearing Meditation
LaidOPEN Podcast
Are you carrying energy that doesn’t belong to you? This guided chakra clearing and cord cutting meditation is designed to help you release energetic attachments, reclaim your energy, and clear emotional residue from past relationships, family systems, creative partnerships, religious conditioning, and other draining connections. In this meditation, you’ll learn how to: • Call your energy back to yourself • Release energetic cords and attachments • Clear emotional and psychic overwhelm • Strengthen energetic boundaries • Ground your nervous system • Restore clarity, intuition,...
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Ep. 120 Ancient Wisdom for Modern Bodies: Josh Schrei of The Emerald
LaidOPEN Podcast
What if your trauma isn't something to extract, but something that has shaped you the way weather shapes an ancient tree? In this episode I sit down with Josh Schrei, creator and host of the beloved Emerald Podcast, for one of the most expansive and nourishing conversations I've had on this show. Josh brings the wisdom of animist and mythic traditions to the very modern problem of living in a fractured, overstimulated world, and what emerges is a roadmap for healing that goes far beyond talk therapy. We explore why ritual is actually trauma work, how the cycles of nature are mirrored inside...
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Ep. 119 The Pattern You Can’t Break Might Be Part Of Your Soul Contract with Gellyahnah
LaidOPEN Podcast
Ever feel stuck in the same patterns no matter what you try? You might be living out a soul contract. In this episode of LaidOPEN Podcast, Charna sits down with Gellyahnah, a channel for divine wisdom and spiritual guidance, to uncover how your karmic and spiritual blueprint might be shaping your life, and how to break free. What you’ll discover in this episode: The difference between soul and spirit What a soul contract really is How your birth name rules impact your path The origins of sound frequency and energy healing How karmic patterns show up in your body and relationships Tools for...
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Ep. 118 Everybody’s A Little Bit Psychic: Developing Psi Ability Using Social RV App with Chase McCarty
LaidOPEN Podcast
If you've ever wondered if anyone can really develop their psychic abilities? This episode is for you. I sit down with Chase McCarty, the creator of Social RV, an app that gamifies remote viewing, intuition, and all the weird little psychic skills you didn’t think you could train. We talk about psi abilities like remote viewing and intuitive perception. Chase shares how he went from a skeptic to someone who built a digital space to help people train their intuition and perceptual capacities in a structured, measurable, and safe way. We talk about what psi really means, not as...
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Ep 117 Spiritual Resilience for Uncertain Times featuring Gabrielle Felder
LaidOPEN Podcast
In this episode of LaidOPEN, I’m joined by Gabrielle Felder, author of . We talk about returning to spiritual lineage, writing about Ifá as a living oral tradition, and what it meant for Gabrielle to publish this work after being raised Baptist. She shares how being on ancestral land in the American South changed her relationship to history and belonging. We explore Oshun and Obatala, gender expansiveness in Yoruba cosmology, burnout and joyful militancy, and how to remain spiritually grounded in times of cultural instability. LaidOPEN offers intimate conversations at the intersection of...
info_outlineIn this episode, Charna Cassell discusses the profound topic of silence, featuring an interview with Justin Talbot Zorn and Leigh Marz, authors of 'Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise.' They delve into experiences and practices from their book that encourage finding clarity and peace amidst external and internal noise. The conversation covers the political and cultural relevance of silence, its role in addressing trauma, and techniques to incorporate it into daily life. The episode concludes with an invitation to listeners to reflect on their personal relationship with silence.
Show Notes
00:00 Introduction to the Concept and Need For Silence
00:22 Personal Experiences with Noise and Silence
03:39 Introducing the Justin Talbot Zorn and Leigh Marz
05:37 Exploring Noise and Silence
07:11 The Impact of Noise on Wellbeing
10:35 Navigating Noise in Relationships
13:18 The Role of Silence in Healing
17:06 Mindfulness and Meditation
23:35 Embodiment and Silence
29:13 Finding Personal Pathways to Silence
31:08 The Essence of Silence
32:13 Scientific Insights on Silence
33:00 Holy Uselessness and Capitalism
36:05 Silence and Healing from Trauma
37:49 An Invitation to Silence
41:10 Self-Acceptance and the True Self
42:37 Sphere of Control and Influence
45:45 Cultural Perspectives on Noise
49:26 Silence as a Tool for Justice
50:40 Practical Exercises for Silence
55:11 Final Reflections and Farewell