The Ode To Joy Podcast

Welcome to "The Ode to Joy Podcast," a thought-provoking and uplifting show dedicated to exploring the transformative power of creativity, self-expression, and the pursuit of joy. Join us as we embark on a journey to discover the hidden depths of the human spirit and the boundless capacity for personal growth and fulfillment. In each episode, we dive deep into the stories of remarkable individuals who have embraced their internal muse or genius. Through their trials and triumphs, we explore the obstacles they faced in nurturing their muse and the strategies they employed to share their personal genius with the world. We believe that every person possesses a unique wellspring of creativity, waiting to be tapped into. Our guests share their firsthand experiences, guiding listeners through their own creative journeys, and providing invaluable insights and inspiration along the way. From artists to entrepreneurs, writers to musicians, a

The Ode To Joy Podcast is a health podcast hosted by Elena Box, with 74 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Elena Box hosts The Ode To Joy Podcast, a health show with 74 episodes published.

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  The Ode To Joy Podcast

  Chaya Hannah Cohen: Integration After The Breakthrough

  Aug 13, 20261h 9mS3

  Send us Fan Mail A powerful retreat can crack you open, but what happens when you go back to laundry, traffic, deadlines, and people who do not speak the language of your experience? I sit down with Chaya Hannah Cohen, a shamanic breathwork, bodywork, and sound healing guide and death doula, to get honest about the part of transformation nobody posts about: integration. We talk about what it means to let go after the breakthrough and why “more ceremony” is not the same as growth. Chaya shares a core principle that has guided her work with thousands of people through ceremony and somatic practice: we can only move at the speed of safety. We unpack common post retreat mistakes, how to ground big visions without taking them too literally, and why the ultimate ceremony is often the most ordinary moment, where you practice patience, boundaries, and kindness in real relationships. From there, we drop into the body. We explore why you cannot think your way into healing, how breathwork and sound can support nervous system regulation, and why being witnessed in community helps trauma, grief, and joy move without overwhelming you. Chaya also reflects on her Peru dieta, sacred reciprocity, and how plant medicine integration can invite deeper humility and discipline, not just peak experiences. We close with death awareness and lineage healing, including the conversations we hope you have with parents and grandparents while you still can, from care wishes to music, rituals, and the kind of environment that feels most nourishing. If you want practical integration tools grounded in breath, community, and embodied wisdom, this one is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who is in a big transition, and leave a review so more people can find this support. Resources: Chaya Hannah | Feelings Felt Shamanic healing · Breathwork · Bodywork · Sound healing · Psychedelic integration · Coaching Chaya Hannah works at the intersection of somatic healing, shamanic practice, and Jewish mysticism, offering trauma-informed support for those navigating the tender terrain after deep ceremonial or psychedelic experience. Her 1:1 sessions weave breathwork, intuitive bodywork, craniosacral therapy, and sound healing into a personalized container for nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and integration. She also offers group ceremonies, workshops, and retreats — including immersive gatherings in NYC and the Sacred Valley of Peru. If you're feeling activated, tender, or simply needing to be held as your experience continues to unfold, her work is a gentle and grounding place to land. ✦ www.feelingsfelt.com · @feelings__felt Possibility Portal: Women’s Retreat in Peru Join Chaya Hannah and Sunshine for an intimate seven-day women’s retreat in Pisac and Peru’s Sacred Valley, November 16–23, 2026. The experience includes yoga and intuitive movement, shamanic and holotropic breathwork, sound healing, integration circles, nervous system regulation, ritual and ceremony, sacred-site visits, elder wisdom, and plenty of space for rest and integration. https://www.feelingsfelt.com/peru-women-s-retreat International End of Life Doula Association (INELDA) Chaya trained with INELDA in end-of-life doula care. INELDA offers education and training for people interested in supporting individuals and families through dying, death, and end-of-life care. https://inelda.org/ Death Café Chaya mentions Death Cafés as a way to gather in community and have open, honest conversations about death and mortality. Find a Death Café near you or learn how to host one. https://deathcafe.com/ Reforesters Laboratory A community space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where Chaya offers gatherings including her Possibility Portal work, bringing together practices such as meditation, music, plant wisdom, art, and community. https://reforesters.io/ Support the show Buy your copy of Elena's book " Grieve Outside the Box " Follow on IG @elenabox

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  The Ode To Joy Podcast

  Elyssa Jakim: Letting Go Of AI Robot Writing

  Jul 30, 202655 min

  Send us Fan Mail AI can produce words in seconds. But what happens to our voices, attention, and creative courage when we hand over the messy, human process of making something true? In this episode of The Ode to Joy Podcast , Elena Box sits down with longtime friend, creative mentor, non-AI conversion copywriter, book muse, and screenwriter Elyssa Jakim for a conversation about artistry, surrender, motherhood, grief, and creating in the age of “robot writing.” Elyssa shares why convenience is not the same as creativity, what it has been like to navigate a “void” season in her business, and how hyperachievement can become a survival response. She also reflects on birth trauma, financial insecurity, receiving support, and the death of her father, renowned translator Boris Jakim, whose devotion to language and literature shaped her own creative path. Together, Elena and Elyssa explore what AI cannot replicate: lived experience, shared history, human witnessing, and the unexpected insight that can spark something entirely new. Elyssa also shares what she is building now, including the Temple of Venus and her Own Your Artistry Salon for writers and soulful entrepreneurs ready to reclaim their voices and creative process. This conversation is an invitation to stop outsourcing your expression and return to the beauty, difficulty, and aliveness of making something real. As Elyssa says, “If we can’t be bad and get better, then we don’t get transcendent human creativity.” There is nothing like the real thing. Connect with Elyssa Learn more about Elyssa’s work: https://www.elyssajakim.com/ Explore the Own Your Artistry Salon: https://www.elyssajakim.com/own-your-artistry-salon Follow Elyssa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elyssajakim Read The Dressing Room on Substack: https://dressingroom.substack.com/ If this conversation resonates, subscribe to The Ode to Joy Podcast , leave a review, and share the episode with a friend who is tired of the AI haze and ready to return to their own creative process. Support the show Buy your copy of Elena's book " Grieve Outside the Box " Follow on IG @elenabox

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  The Ode To Joy Podcast

  Beth Clayton: When Your Inner Good Girl Tries To Run The Show

  Jul 6, 20261h 4m

  Send us Fan Mail You can feel it when your old life still “works” but your body has already started to leave. Beth Clayton joins us to talk about threshold moments, the ones that don’t respond to hustle or optimization because they’re asking for an identity death. We trace Beth’s path from acting to coaching, somatic mentorship, and ceremonialist work, including the tender grief of putting down a beloved dream and the unexpected freedom that can follow a chosen crossing. We also unpack a pattern so many women live inside without naming it: the good girl as a nervous system protector. Beth shares how “good girl syndrome” isn’t just people pleasing, it can look like overachieving, cool detachment, avoidance, or doing it all alone. We explore how protectors form through conditioning, attachment pain, and patriarchy, and why your mind may feel liberated while your body still braces against truth, power, intimacy, and pleasure. From somatic work to ritual and end-of-life awareness, we talk about what helps you cross without getting dragged: being witnessed, making space for grief, and learning to relate to protectors with curiosity instead of war. We close with the inner elder, the part of you that can take life seriously while holding it lightly, and how connecting to that wisdom can change what the past even means in your body. Three Truths from this Episode 1. Every transformation requires a death. Real transformation isn’t about optimizing yourself—it’s about crossing a threshold. Every new version of you asks you to grieve a version you once loved. Sometimes we choose that crossing. Sometimes the crossing chooses us. Either way, becoming requires letting go. 2. Your protectors aren’t your enemy. The parts of you that procrastinate, overachieve, people-please, avoid conflict, or try to stay in control aren’t broken—they’re protecting something. The invitation isn’t to fight them, but to get curious, listen, and allow them to become guides instead of guards. 3. We aren’t meant to cross thresholds alone. Whether you’re grieving, becoming a mother, changing careers, ending a relationship, receiving a diagnosis, or simply becoming more yourself, witnessing matters. Many of life’s biggest initiations go unnamed. Healing begins when we allow ourselves to be accompanied through them. Journaling Prompts What version of myself am I still trying to keep alive, even though I know she’s ready to be released? Where in my life am I standing with one foot in my old world and one foot in my new one? Which of my “protectors” tends to show up most often—my people pleaser, my overachiever, my perfectionist, my avoider, my lone wolf? What is she trying to protect? Where am I waiting to be dragged across a threshold instead of choosing to cross it? What grief in my life has never truly been witnessed? What part of me is asking to come home? Practices to Explore This Week Name your threshold. Instead of waiting until life forces change upon you, ask yourself: What threshold am I standing at right now? Simply naming it often changes how you move through it. Have a conversation with your protector. Instead of trying to silence the part of yourself that’s scared, perfectionistic, controlling, or avoiding… Ask: What are you protecting me from? What do you need me to know? What would help you feel safe enough to soften? As Beth reminds us, you don’t fight your protectors—you invite them in. Create a ritual of release. Thresholds deserve ceremony. Write a letter to the version of yourself you’re releasing. Thank her. Name what she protected. Read it aloud. Burn it, bury it, or place it somewhere meaningful as a physical marker that you’re crossing into a new season. Resources Beth's Website Follow Beth on IG: @bethclaytoncoach Beth Clayton’s Good Girl Protector Quiz , a free assessment to discover your primary protector archetype and learn how it shapes your relationships, purpose, money, and self-expression. Beth’s work can be found through her website, Instagram, and Substack, where she teaches on the Good Girl, Sacred Rebel, embodiment, and threshold work. Beyond the Veil Retreat (New City, New York) : Beth will be leading Crossing Thresholds: Living What Death Teaches , a transformative workshop on using the wisdom of death to navigate life’s many initiations. Through somatic practices, guided reflection, and journaling, participants will explore what they’re ready to release, what is waiting to emerge, and how to move through life’s thresholds with greater courage, clarity, and embodiment. Watch Beth's TEDx Talk on Self Sabotage “Something truer is coming in—but not without loss.” Support the show Buy your copy of Elena's book " Grieve Outside the Box " Follow on IG @elenabox

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  Episode #4

  Why Becoming More Yourself Requires Grieving What No Longer Fits

  Jun 30, 202632 minS4

  Send us Fan Mail Something wild happens when your life hits a season you can’t “power through.” I’m sharing a personal update I’ve been living inside of lately: pregnancy, the humbling first trimester, and what it forces me to release when my usual productivity stories stop working. If you’re a mom, a caregiver, a go-getter, or anyone moving through change, this is for the days when success looks like making it to bedtime and calling that sacred. We talk about tiny rituals as spiritual practice and realistic self-care. Not the fantasy of two uninterrupted hours, but the two-minute practices that bring you home: lighting a candle, making tea, watering a plant, stepping outside barefoot, taking five deep belly breaths, or putting your legs up the wall. I share how these micro-rituals build steadiness, protect your peace, and help you reorient when your nervous system is loud and your mind is spinning. Then we go deeper into community as medicine. I reflect on the kind of relationships that don’t just validate you, but actually help you remember who you are. That also means grieving false belonging, noticing where familiarity isn’t alignment, and trusting your nervous system before your thoughts catch up. We unpack expansion vs contraction, boundaries around gossip, and why nature is such a powerful teacher when you’re tempted to hurry. If you’re craving depth and ceremony, I also share details on t he Beyond the Veil retreat (July 25 to 26 at Woodmont Day Camp in upstate New York) and what we’re creating together with shamanic journeying, grief wisdom, and sacred space. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show. ✨ Three Elena Truths Your nervous system often recognizes what belongs long before your mind catches up. Tiny daily rituals have the power to keep you connected to yourself when life won’t make space for long spiritual practices. Every meaningful life requires grieving the relationships, expectations, and identities that no longer align with who you’re becoming. 📖 Journaling Prompts Where in my life am I staying because it feels familiar rather than deeply nourishing? Which relationships leave my body feeling expansive? Which leave me feeling contracted? What tiny ritual could help me remember myself every single day? What version of myself am I grieving right now? If I trusted my nervous system more than my fear, what would I lovingly let go of? 📚 Resources & Quotes Mentioned Books The Creative Act: A Way of Being — Rick Rubin Explore more of Joseph Campbell’s work on mythology and the hero’s journey. Quotes Mentioned Carl Jung: “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” Marianne Williamson: “Your playing small does not serve the world.” Lao Tzu (attributed): “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Joseph Campbell: “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” Inspired by Rick Rubin: The goal isn’t to be finished; the goal is to stay connected to the work. 🌿 Mentioned in This Episode Subscribe to Elena’s monthly newsletter for podcast updates, retreats, classes, and reflections. Book a complimentary discovery call for Shamanic Energy Medicine, Death Doula support, or private yoga. Distance sessions are available worldwide. 🌙 Beyond the Veil Immersion Retreat Join Elena and a collective of experienced death doulas, spiritual practitioners, and ceremonial guides for a weekend exploring death, grief, ritual, and living more fully. July 25–26 (Day Passes Available) You’ll experience: Shamanic journeying Workshops on death, grief, and end-of-life care Sunrise yoga Ceremony Community around the fire Practical tools for supporting yourself and others through loss Learn more & register: Beyond the Veil Immersion Retreat⁠ Connect with Elena Website & Newsletter: elenabox.com⁠ Book a Discovery Call: Work with Elena⁠ Support the show Buy your copy of Elena's book " Grieve Outside the Box " Follow on IG @elenabox

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  Episode #3

  Death Awareness As A Path To Joy with Korona of Omnia Mirari

  May 16, 20261h 11mS4

  <p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>Death is the one certainty we all share, yet most of us are trained to avoid it until it forces a reckoning. We want a different relationship with mortality, one that doesn’t glamorize darkness but uses death awareness to sharpen what’s real, tender, and worth living for. <br/><br/>We’re joined by Korona, founder of Omnia Morari and an end-of-life doula, to talk about “remembering home,” the fear beneath the fear, and why impermanence can feel so threatening in modern culture. We dig into what happens when a society removes death from...

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