Episode 7: Tender Touch, Practice vs Performance, and The Skill of Tracking | Aaron Johnson

“For me when I think of consent, particularly black bodies and animals and touch and the violations that have been historically in place and how we’re finding new language and new ways to be together, I feel like the question I often have is: can we slow down and acknowledge what’s happened? Can we see all the levels of choice that are given to folks, and all the ways that choice is not given to folks?” -Aaron Johnson

Join us for the seventh episode of The Lesson is Love, as I speak with Aaron Johnson, a facilitator, public speaker and touch specialist working to identify and interrupt barriers between people.

In this episode we talk about singing (and other activities) as a spiritual and life practice versus a performance, the importance of tender touch in our lives, consent, the practice of tracking to expand our awareness and cultivate safety for others, and how our relationships with dogs can teach us about community.

About the Host, Grisha Stewart:

Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. In 2022, she revealed the update to BAT 3.0 (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject). She presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. There are over 100 different courses in her innovative online dog training school, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is an avid conversationalist and enjoys exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.

About the Guest, Aaron Johnson:

Aaron Johnson is a facilitator, public speaker, and touch specialist working to identify and interrupt barriers between people. As co-founder of both Holistic Resistance and Grief to Action, Aaron takes the time to hold the stories of black people around homophobia, transphobia, internalized racism, and those that are Chronically UnderTouched. Because oppression is a part of historical and present American culture, the long-term impact of those trauma stories should be acknowledged and held as a map for our collective healing. Aaron Johnson practices and invites various methods of moving through these stories, such as the communal listening ear, sound healing, meditation, and closeness to the earth.

Links:

The CUT Project

Holistic Resistance

Grief to Action

Aaron’s Tedx Talk

Grisha’s website

The Grisha Stewart Academy

The Lesson is Love Podcast Webpage

Social Media:

Grisha’s Instagram Grisha’s Facebook

CUT Project Instagram

Holistic Resistance Instagram

Episode 6: Tapping, Embodied Healing Practices, and The Value of Re-Membering | Damon Silas

“We are whole mind, body, soul beings. And so to just do therapy with the frontal part of the brain is doing the rest of the body a disservice. It's doing the rest of your healing process a disservice. And not saying that for some people, traditional talk therapy might be their thing--and I love it for you--and our bodies hold so much valuable information as well, and I think it's important to acknowledge the messages that our bodies hold too.” -Damon Silas

Join us for the sixth episode of The Lesson is Love, as I speak with Damon Silas, a clinical psychologist, published author (From Mourning to Knight: Overcoming Loss and What's Your ACTION Plan? 6 Powerful Ways to Get Unstuck In Your Life Now), speaker and teacher.

In this episode we talk about what brings us joy, the importance of exploring the role our bodies play in healing, honoring our somatic experiences and integrating body connection into our healing and therapeutic practices, and the power of re-membering--learning (and teaching) new ways of navigating harm, healing and relating in self and collective community. Damon also leads us through a guided tapping session!

About the Host, Grisha Stewart:

Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. In 2022, she revealed the update to BAT 3.0 (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject). She presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. There are over 100 different courses in her innovative online dog training school, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is an avid conversationalist and enjoys exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.

About the Guest, Damon Silas:

Dr. Damon Silas is a clinical psychologist, published author (From Mourning To Knight: Overcoming Loss, and What’s Your ACTION Plan? 6 Powerful Ways To Get Unstuck In Your Life Now,), speaker and teacher. In his over 20 years in the field of psychology, he has worked with a wide range of populations and issues including but not limited to anxiety, grief and loss, and trauma. He is currently working as a contractor overseas, helping service members and their children adjust to and thrive within the military lifestyle. He also belongs to various mental-health related groups such as Movement Genius and Black Tappers United. When not living overseas, he resides in the Charlotte, NC area with his husband and two dogs, Lamont and Lola.

Links:

Grisha’s website

The Grisha Stewart Academy

Damon’s website

The Lesson is Love Podcast Webpage

Damon’s book, From Mourning to Knight: Overcoming Loss

Damon’s book, What's Your ACTION Plan? 6 Powerful Ways to Get Unstuck In Your Life Now

Movement Genius

The Tapping Solution

Mary Lou Seereiter’s Program, School For Mind-Body Centering

Social Media:

Grisha’s Instagram Grisha’s Facebook

Damon’s Instagram

Damon’s Facebook

Episode 5: Collective Culture, Systems Change and Choosing Ourselves | Lisa Moreno

“How might I take as good of care of myself as I took care of [my dog] Lily? How might I give myself as much grace as I gave her?” -Lisa Moreno

Join us for the fifth episode of The Lesson is Love, as I speak with Lisa Moreno, one of my dear friends and a systems-focused community activist currently working as a Behavioral Health Strategic Planner.

In this episode, we explore the affirmations we need to hear through the lens of those we love, learn about systems work for political change and the different cultures systems have in different cities, talk about how belonging and community responsibility are key for collective and individual practices of regulating, and discuss how making the choice to surrender a dog can sometimes be the most compassionate choice for both dog and human.

About the Host, Grisha Stewart:

Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. In 2022, she revealed the update to BAT 3.0 (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject). She presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. There are over 100 different courses in her innovative online dog training school, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is an avid conversationalist and enjoys exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.

About the Guest, Lisa Moreno:

Lisa Moreno is an advocate and change agent who is happiest when exploring and designing solutions to complex organizational and social challenges. She is a masters-level social worker and a policy generalist and brings strong systems and equity approaches to her work. She has worked in D.C, Alaska, and Colorado.

While her family roots are grounded in Colorado several generations deep, her paternal grandparents originated in Jalisco and Durango, Mexico. Lisa grew up as a military brat and continues to migrate every 4 or so years. When not working, she can be found deconstructing and rebuilding her house, training dogs, and making all kinds of things. She is proud to call Longmont, CO home for now.

Links:

Grisha Stewart’s website

The Grisha Stewart Academy

The Lesson is Love Podcast Webpage

Social Media:

Grisha’s Instagram Grisha’s Facebook

Episode 4: How To Be With Every Part of Yourself | Karen Faith

“We should always be our own safest person; it would be really alarming if we were not. But creating that safety takes some work. I know so many people do not have safety with themselves. If I had a mission that would be it, to just help people be safer with themselves.’” -Karen Faith

Join us for the fourth episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with Karen Faith, an ethnographer, strategist, empathy trainer and founder of Others Unlimited. In this episode we explore how to build a relationship with all the different parts of ourselves, the importance of practices like intentional listening and unconditional welcome, and what becomes possible when we feel safe with ourselves and each other.

Karen’s open and grounded presence and beautiful words made this such a wonderful episode to create. I hope that this conversation resonates with you and inspires you to make space for all the different parts of yourself.

About the Host, Grisha Stewart:

Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. In 2022, she revealed the update to BAT 3.0 (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject). She presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. There are over 100 different courses in her innovative online dog training school, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is an avid conversationalist and enjoys exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.

About the Guest, Karen Faith:

Karen Faith is the founder and CEO of Others Unlimited, a company that trains groups and individuals in the skills of observation and empathy. Karen Faith is an ethnographer, strategist, and creator of the Others’ curriculum. With two decades of experience in ethnographic discovery to inform marketing, branding, and product design, her work utilizes tools from multiple disciplines to empower teams to define, understand, and solve problems from the granular to the grandiose. Karen’s findings, talks and workshops have guided brands as diverse as Google, Amazon, Applebee’s, The NBA, The ACLU, Blue Cross Blue Shield, The Federal Reserve Bank, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

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Links:

Grisha Stewart’s website

The Grisha Stewart Academy

The Lesson is Love Podcast Webpage

Others Unlimited website

Karen’s Ted Talk

Social Media:

Others Unlimited Instagram

Grisha’s Instagram

Grisha’s Facebook

URLs (if the links don't show up for you):

Grisha Stewart’s website: grishastewart.com

The Grisha Stewart Academy: school.grishastewart.com/

The Lesson is Love Podcast Webpage: school.grishastewart.com/courses/podcast

Others Unlimited website: othersunlimited.com/

Karen’s Ted Talk: youtube.com/watch?v=gUV5DJb6KGs

Social Media:

Others Unlimited Instagram: instagram.com/othersunlimited/

Grisha’s Instagram: instagram.com/grishastewart Grisha’s Facebook: facebook.com/grisha.stewart

“I love songs that will give me the emotional reality of something I want to live into, so that I can feel it present tense and anchor that experience…and hold that experience as irrefutable proof of: ‘it’s possible to be there. It’s possible to get there.’” -David Wilcox

Join us for the very first episode of The Lesson is Love as I speak with David Wilcox, a transformative folk singer-songwriter and lifelong learner. In this episode we explore the power songwriting and music-making has in teaching us to access presence and creating space for possibility to flourish. As always, we also talk about dogs. Topics ranged from reactivity (“barking” in both dogs and humans) to the richness of our dog-human relationships. So much magic is created when people come together who love music, love dogs and love love. I hope this conversation resonates and gives you practical ways to live into your best case scenario.

Show Notes:

About the Host, Grisha Stewart:

Grisha Stewart is an author, international speaker, dog trainer, and online dog school facilitator based in Oregon, USA, who specializes in dog reactivity and canine empowerment. She’s been training dogs since 2003. Her two most recent books are Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs and The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners. In 2022, she revealed the update to BAT 3.0 (BAT 2.0 is still the best book on the subject). She presents dog training and behavior seminars around the world and lessons online. There are over 100 different courses in her innovative online dog training school, with more coming every few weeks from a variety of instructors, including Grisha. In addition to her professional pursuits and projects, Grisha is an avid conversationalist and enjoys exploring topics of connection, love, communication, and interspecies community.

About the Guest, David Wilcox:

More than three decades into his career, singer/songwriter David Wilcox continues to push himself, just as he always has. Wilcox, by so many measures, is a quintessential folk singer, telling stories full of heart, humor, and hope, substance, searching, and style. His innate sense of adventure and authenticity is why critics and colleagues, alike, have always praised not just his artistry, but his humanity, as well. In the 30 years and more than 20 records since — whether with a major label, an indie company, or his own imprint — Wilcox has continued to hone his craft, pairing thoughtful insights with his warm baritone, open tunings, and deft technique. He's also kept up a brisk and thorough tour itinerary, performing 80 to 100 shows a year throughout the U.S., and regularly deploying his talents by improvising a “Musical Medicine” song for an audience member in need.

Links:

Grisha Stewart’s website

David Wilcox’s website

The Grisha Stewart Academy

The Lesson is Love Podcast Webpage

From the Episode:

David’s Song “We Make the Way by Walking”:

Official Video on Youtube

On Spotify

David’s Most Recent Album, The View From the Edge (Spotify)

David’s Musical Medicine offerings

Talk With Me, a course offered through the Grisha Stewart Academy on learning to interpret your dog’s behavior to cultivate empathy and understanding

Social Media:

David’s Instagram

Grisha’s Instagram Grisha’s Facebook