Deun Ivory is back! In this mini-episode of the Black Girl In Om Podcast, Deun Ivory (she/her) joins Lauren Ash (she/they) in conversation around creative wellness and the Black Women Are Worthy movement. For those who are new to the show, Deun is the founder and creative director of The Body: A Home For Love, a 501C3 nonprofit and wellness membership space that shifts culture around how Black women heal from sexual trauma. They provide trauma-informed care, community, and creative wellness to black women seeking a safe space to heal and journey towards self-love. Deun is also the former art director for BGIO, so you’re sure to have interacted with her intentionally gorgeous work. In the episode, she affirms the power of channeling our creative energy toward healing our inner child and loving on ourselves. 

Deun and her team recently launched the Black Women Are Worthy movement with the intention of providing resources and care to Black Women survivors of sexual abuse. Their goal is to raise 2 million dollars to serve and grow a community of over 10,000 black women and to become the standard for trauma-informed care and creative wellness. The short film that catalyzed the movement is a stunning love letter to our undeniable worthiness as Black Women. It’s a must-watch experience filled with loving intention! Press Play to listen in on a joyful conversation between friends about creativity, healing, and sustainable joy. 

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 

• creative wellness and how art can be restorative and therapeutic
• knowing ourselves intuitively
• the Black Women Are Worthy movement (donate here)
• the body: a home for love

Connect with The Body: A Home For Love on their website thebodyahomeforlove.org

And find them on Instagram @thebodyahomeforlove

Watch the powerful short film and donate to the Black Women Are Worthy movement here: blackwomenareworthy.co

Award winning executive marketer, talent manager, and founder of boutique consultancy, Gild Creative Group, Tiffany Hardin (she/her) joins Lauren Ash (she/they) in conversation around conscious hustling and intentional partnerships. Tiffany is one of the phenomenal women co-creating the presence and impact of Black Girl In Om in the world. With great thanks to her wealth of knowledge, BGIO’s central intention of helping to facilitate intergenerational healing for Black women across the Diaspora begins with how we operate behind the scenes and ripples outward. She’s committed to supporting divine partnerships rooted in equality and equity that move our culture forward. 

In this episode of the Black Girl In Om Podcast. Lauren and Tiffany talk about creating pathways to success that are aligned with our purpose and that do not rely on proximity to whiteness or patriarchy. They get into the paradigm setting choices that go into building and sustaining a platform like BGIO, and offer insight into how to maintain business partnerships that are nourishing rather than draining. Tiffany shares her fulfilling journey of moving from unconscious to conscious hustling, and the decisions she’s made to get there. While white supremacist ideas of success surround us in the world and can tempt us to prioritize winning over integrity or community, we need not compromise our beliefs to get ahead. Press Play to listen in on a gem-filled conversation between friends and partners who are making big ideas into realities.

THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

• How Tiffany and Lauren met and began their partnership
• The foundations of healthy relationships between talent and managers
• Consciously equal and equitable partnerships 
• How internalized white supremacy and patriarchy can show up in Black workplaces 
• Decolonizing relationships
• Moving beyond overwhelm to a sense of control 
• How to effectively be of service as a leader 
• Holding space, for ourselves first, and then for others
• Creating frameworks for success outside of white supremacist standards of achievement

If you’re curious to turn your big idea into a reality, head over to GildGreativeGroup.com to learn more and get the ball rolling 

Find her on Instagram @Tiffany_Hardin

Check out BGIO’s Sleep EP mentioned in the episode here: bit.ly/BeautySleepBGIO

Hi community! BGIO founder Lauren Ash (she/they) is popping in with this special episode to announce that The Process: Unconditional Love begins tomorrow June 10th. This 28-day journey, exclusive for an intimate collective of members, will deepen into unconditional love and support with weekly group coaching with Lauren, a heart-chakra focused experience with special guest teacher Millana Snow (she/her) (Wellness Official Co.) and weekly community support. Rooted in the power of intention, spiritual rituals including meditation, Kundalini, and movement, storytelling, and journaling, those who fully commit to The Process will experience transformation. The Process: Unconditional Love is most rooted in an exploration of the root, sacral, and solar plexus chakra.

The journey kicks off on the New Moon in Gemini on Thursday, June 10th with our first group coaching call, and continues with 90 minute group coaching calls starting at 5:00 p.m. CST / 6:00 p.m. EST Thursday, June 17th, Thursday, June 24th, Thursday, July 1st. All calls will be live and recorded so that members unable to attend the call will be able to access the replays.

All those who enroll will receive:

• All questions answered during The Process group coaching sessions or during 1:1 sessions
• Group meditation and energy healing during weekly coaching calls
• Resource list for unconditional love and support
• Access to all content, including replays of weekly group coaching sessions, for the duration of their membership in The Circle
• Special guests, exclusive meditation and yoga playlists, and more!
• An invitation to The Process of Summer/Fall 2021 first (theme to be announced). It is required that you are a member of The Circle to access this.
• An invitation to The Process: Unconditional Love 30-day check-in. It is required that you are a member of The Circle to access this.

If you’re interested in claiming unconditional love as your center, we invite you to join us for this 28-day journey. Head over to https://bit.ly/3tZxGQ9 to claim your spot in the program. You can also find The Process: Unconditional Love by going to blackgirlinom.com and clicking on Offerings. Sign up soon before enrollment closes on June 17

If you’re curious to become a certified yoga teacher, or simply want to learn how to live a healthier lifestyle, you can sign up for Koya Webb’s Get Loved Up month-long yoga teacher training here: https://koyawebb.com/get-loved-up/

The life-changing book that Lauren mentions in the episode is called The Five Levels Of Attachment by Don Miguel Ruiz. You can order it online here from a local bookstore: https://bookshop.org/books/the-five-levels-of-attachment-toltec-wisdom-for-the-modern-world-9781938289453/9781938289453

Makkah Ali (she/her), Chicago-based podcaster, facilitator, and public speaker, joins BGIO founder Lauren Ash (she/they) in conversation around spiritual seeking and creating spaces for ourselves outside of the white gaze. Makkah is a multidimensional being who makes space for others to find peace and beauty in the many identities they claim. She executive produces and co-hosts the Identity Politics Podcast, which centers the voices of Black Muslim women and features new stories and perspectives about race, gender, and Muslim life in America. 

In this episode of the Black Girl In Om Podcast, Lauren and Makkah talk about their individual journeys of defining their relationships with God for themselves outside of anyone else’s expectations. Makkah shares about the many ways that wellness and Islamic faith seamlessly overlap in her life. Lauren and Makkah also discuss the power of intentional connection in a white supremacist world that banks on us feeling and being isolated from one another. Makkah encourages us to create spaces for ourselves outside of the white gaze so that we can self actualize and define our values for ourselves. Press play to get inspired! 

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’ll LEARN MORE ABOUT

• Lauren’s first yoga class ever that Makkah attended in Chicago
• The Smithsonian National Museum Of African American History and Culture’s traveling series, GOD-TALK, where both Makkah and Lauren spoke
• Makkah’s answer to the question, “what is God?”
• Makkah’s journey of creating a space outside of the white gaze through the podcast she executive produces and co-hosts, The Identity Politics Podcast
• What it means to flatten yourself, and how to resist pressures to do so.
• Lauren and Makkah’s journeys of exploring their multiple identities and creating space for all of who they are.
• What it looks like to define your relationship with God for yourself
• Finding a community where you feel safe to ask questions
• The ways that wellness and Islam seamlessly overlap in Makkah’s life

Note: This conversation was recorded in September 2019 while Makkah was the president of the Board of Directors of the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative. She now serves as a Director on the Managed Organizations Team at Arabella Advisors, where she works with philanthropic partners to develop, structure and maximize the impact of social sector projects. Makkah is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Crossroads Fund which supports community organizations working on issues of racial, social and economic justice in the Chicago area.

Follow Makkah on Instagram and Twitter @MsMakkah

Listen to the Identity Politics Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and find out more about the show at www.identitypoliticspod.com

For 20% off of Organifi’s delicious completely plant-based and non-GMO organic superfood blends, head over to Organifi.com/blackgirlinom and use code blackgirlinom

Natural hair care stylist Caprice Dominique (she/her/they)joins BGIO founder Lauren Ash (she/her) in conversation around naming and claiming our desires. Caprice has been blessing Lauren’s life and hair for several years with her healing hands and personal touch of love and compassion. She’s all about empowering Black women to own our unique hair journeys. She encourages us to love our hair and ourselves holistically, and affirms that self care is about so much more than the products we use on our hair or on our bodies. It’s also about our patterns of self-talk and our healing practices. Lauren and Caprice share how they keep their ancestors present, and how this active connection helps them to feel rooted in unconditional worthiness and a sense of belonging within the collective consciousness. As both women affirm, we deserve to have the things we want. Press play to listen in on a heartfelt conversation between friends about trusting ourselves to claim our blessings unapologetically. 

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

• Lauren’s and Caprice's hair journeys
• How Caprice takes care of herself during what can be at times a strenuous labor-intensive experience of giving care
• The importance of self care for wellness practitioners and caregivers
• Trusting ancestral guidance
• A prayer Lauren speaks every day
• The Sow The Seeds retreat experience that changed both Lauren and Caprices lives - Shoutout to Danielle Lyles Barton and Karlene Graham Perry for leading this beautiful offering
• Caprice’s self love rituals
• Trigger Protection Mantra, the song that Lauren’s friend Ananda sent her in a synchronistic moment

Keep up with Caprice and schedule an appointment with her on Instagram @CapriceDominique

For 20% off of Organifi’s delicious completely plant-based and non-GMO organic superfood blends, head over to Organifi.com/blackgirlinom and use code blackgirlinom

Hey Community! Lauren’s popping in to announce that 28 Days To Alignment, Black Girl In Om’s quarterly alignment and intention masterclass, kicks off this Tuesday the 11th with an intention-setting gathering. This program is all about you setting a clear intention in your life and learning Lauren’s personal rituals, journaling inquiries, and personal best practices for living a life of intention. Your investment in 28 Days To Alignment comes with 2 live group coaching calls with Lauren, 7 guided audio meditations, 4 recorded spiritual downloads, the 28 essential truths of alignment, and more. This self-paced but community interactive journey offers you life-time access so that whenever you’re in need of a reminder of how to return to clear intention and aligned action, you’re supported. All you have to do is show up!

If you’re down to enroll for the Spring 2021 experience, head over to blackgirlinom.com and click on “Offerings” to sign up. Use code BGIOPodcast for a special discounted price of $222 ($58 off)

Photographer, wellness guide, and artist, Taylor S. Hunter (she/her), joins Black Girl In Om founder Lauren Ash (she/they) in conversation around building self-trust and getting specific about our dreams. Taylor’s work is dedicated to affirming black women on their divine paths to self-love and self-discovery. Through her lens, she intentionally creates visuals that encourage us to feel seen and loved; inside and out. In this episode of the BGIO Podcast, Taylor invites us to expand our perceptions of self by stepping into all parts of who we are, shadows included. She shares that connecting with our inner child can remind us of who we truly are, and also nourish and protect our creativity. Lauren and Taylor discuss how we can build self-trust and avoid wasting time by looking to ourselves as sources of insight instead of defaulting to others. By being specific about our dreams and standing firm in our “no”, we create the conditions for our most resonant desires to become realities. As Taylor affirms, “your canvas is yours.” Press play to listen in on how both Lauren and Taylor are authentically co-creating the present moment with the universe. 

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

• The beauty and freedom in embracing change
• Taylor’s return home to New Orleans and how she’s creating a richly inspiring artist residency experience for herself there
• How Lauren and Taylor build self-trust
• The difference between purpose and career, and how they can inform one another
• How inviting the “no” can lead you to a resonant “yes”
• Ways to check in with how we truly feel in relationships
• Infusing relationships of all kinds with authenticity and ease
• Allowing our past, present, and future selves to inform one another through journaling
• How important it is to be specific about what we want in all areas of our lives
• The importance of intentional community for artists

Stay in the loop with Taylor on Instagram @goldentimetay 

Book a self-love session with Taylor, check out her beautiful work, and sign up for her lovenotes newsletter at taylorshunter.com 

For 20% off of Organifi’s delicious completely plant-based and low-sugar organic superfood blends, head over to Organifi.com/blackgirlinom 

Offer support to BGIO’s first physical healing space for Black women, Home, here: bit.ly/bgiogofundme

Spiritual warrior Dr. G (Doc/She/This Being) joins BGIO founder Lauren Ash (She/They) in conversation around the power of play and presence in the face of life’s transitions. Dr G is a clinical psychologist, death doula, writer, and multidisciplinary teacher who works with individuals to transform their adversity into the grounds for strength by bringing greater awareness to the harmony of body, mind, and spirit. Doc and Lauren offer that deep rest and surrender through Yoga Nidra empowers them to dissolve imposed identities rooted in capitalism and patriarchy. With those influences quieted, the void space between lives and between worlds becomes accessible. From that space, we’re able to connect with the immortality of our collective consciousness, and to our power as individuals living within that collective. Lauren and Dr G encourage us to seek out who we are outside of the constructed systems we navigate. Once we dissolve those edges of being, anything becomes possible.

Stick around after the conversation with Dr. G to hear a special Q+A with Soulful Vibes Co. co-owner, Sunny Brooks, all about accessible wellness and the power of ritual. 

THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

• The immortality of collective consciousness
• What ‘dissolving’ our identities looks like, and how it open us up to possibility and reclamation
• Intentionally wielding our power of choice
• The question that led to a breakthrough for both Lauren and Dr G at the life-changing retreat that brought them together
• How an active connection with Nature can awaken us to essential truths of growth and transformation
• Utilizing the power of play to transform your relationship with difficult situations
• How Lauren is returning to imagination and commitment
• Rituals from the Diaspora for facing and processing death that Dr G invites us to utilize in the present moment.
• The mantra that’s been helping Lauren to feel at home and at ease in nature.
• Making the impossible possible

Head over to http://claudelleglasgow.com/ to schedule an appointment with Dr G

Stay in the loop with Dr G on Instagram @garudagrin

If you were touched by this episode and are inspired to extend a heart offering to Dr. G, you can do so through Paypal @ClaudelleRGlasgow or Venmo: DrCGlasgow

Shop by intention at SoulfulVibesCo.com for whatever affordable, high quality, high vibrational, spiritual and metaphysical items you may need to get your spiritual practice started, or to supplement your existing rituals. Use code BGIO15 for 15% off your purchase

Follow Soulful Vibes Co on Instagram @soulfulvibesco to keep up with their many intentional offerings

#SoulfulVibes #SoulfulVibesCo #SoulfulVibesCoPartner #SoulfulVibesCoAmbassador

In this episode of the Black Girl In Om Podcast, co-founder and creative director of Freedom Apothecary, Bonkosi Horn (she/her), joins BGIO founder Lauren Ash (she/they) in conversation around reclaiming self care and wellness as our birthright. Freedom Apothecary is a space that centers Black women & WOC coming together in community along their self-discovery, healing, and wellness journeys through holistic lifestyle practices and rituals. All of the products they carry are nontoxic, clean beauty, and created by women. Lauren and Bonkosi talk about offering ourselves grace as we bring further awareness and active intention to what goes on and in our bodies. While mainstream wellness conversations can get a bad rap for being only for a certain type of person, Lauren and Bon discuss how true self care is our birthright as Black women. We deserve to prioritize our experience and nurture a relationship to self. Bonkosi is here to help us along this journey, and to connect us with a network of like-minded women through Freedom Apothecary! While their physical space is in Philadelphia, you can access an abundance of clean, women-founded offerings from them wherever you are through their website. True wellness should be accessible to everyone because, as Bon says, “It’s a right. It’s not a luxury.”

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

• How tapping into what she was craving positioned Bonkosi to dream up Freedom Apothecary
• Where to start when making a choice to divest from brands and products with dangerous ingredients.
• An App that helps you to choose the safest beauty and household products by allowing you to see what ingredients are in them and alerting you to which ones are toxic.
• Resources that help Lauren to feel more empowered in her choices around the products she uses
• Bonkosi’s advice for doing DIY skincare right
• Bon’s experience growing a brand that is centered on wellbeing specifically for women and women of color
• The process of learning to ask for help when you need it
• How motherhood encourages intentional prioritization and boundary-setting

Keep up with Bonkosi Horn on Instagram and twitter @Bonkosi

Freedom Apothecary is reopening, safely and slowly the first week of April, so head over to FreedomApothecary.com to find out more about their many offerings or to book an appointment at their Blend Bar!

For 20% off of Organifi’s delicious completely plant-based and low-sugar organic superfood blends, head over to Organifi.com/blackgirlinom

If you're interested in offering support to BGIO's very first physical healing space for Black women, head over to gofund.me/8de0022e

Lauren (she/they) announces that Black Girl In Om’s very first physical space, home, is coming soon to the Longfellow community in Minneapolis! In this mini-sode of the BGIO Podcast, Lauren takes us through the serendipitous journey toward crafting the vision and finding the perfect location to plant the roots of what will be an oasis of intergenerational healing and wellness for black people. Home will feature a black-sourced, organic herbal apothecary, diverse healing modalities from specialized practitioners, culturally-specific programming for black folk to heal and come together in community, a curated shop of essentials, and more. Even in the face of injustice, we can create heaven on earth right here, right now. The story of how home came to be is a testament to how walking in alignment with your purpose and staying committed to your vision inevitably attracts a resonant community along your shared path. Let the journey begin!

You can offer support to home by BGIO here.
To find out more about the space, head over to blackgirlinom.com/home-by-bgio

THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

• One of Lauren’s most frequent prayers
• How Lauren uses triggering experiences as fuel for catalyzing change for what she desires to see
  in the world
• Tracee Stanley’s acknowledgement of the three different pandemics we’re living through this cultural moment
• How Lauren manifested the space for home
• What it looks like to hold the vision and allow the vision to be made manifest
• A peek into what home will offer to the Longfellow community in Minneapolis and to children of the diaspora across the globe.
• Lauren’s journey with Human Design

In this episode of the Black Girl In Om Podcast, author and lineaged yoga teacher Tracee Stanley (she/her) joins BGIO Founder Lauren Ash (she/they) in conversation around why Yoga Nidra is the powerful healing practice the world needs. When we give ourselves the tools of rest, we build upon our strength, peace, and ability to focus on what matters. Yoga Nidra offers tools that allow us to hold space for ourselves fully first. From that place, we are able to truly hold space for others also. Lauren and Tracee discuss how paying homage to lineage in our yoga training and practice provides us with key context that positions us to connect more profoundly to source, and to find our own voices within long-standing traditions. Tracee encourages that bringing self-inquiry to everything we do can help us peel back layers of conditioning and experience to reveal our purpose and essential life force. She describes how nurturing a relationship with nature in our spirituality practice can open us up to further power and self awareness. This conversation is filled with nourishing gems, so get your journals ready! As Tracee says, “You are your most beloved. Lift yourself up like you’re your most beloved!”

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT

• Yoga Nidra
• What it looks like to truly hold space for ourselves
• Honoring lineage in your spiritual practice
• Allowing your unique voice to shine through your spiritual practice
• Moving from fight or flight to rest and digest
• Lauren’s Yoga Nidra journey and how she’s holding space for herself
• Yoga Nidra as a tool for manifestation
• Partnering with the unknown
• Tracee’s intention for her Book, Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity
• What a Rest Nest is and how to create one for yourself
• Incorporating nature in spiritual practice

You can keep up with Tracee on her websites traceeyoga.com and radiantrest.com

Follow her on instagram @tracee_stanley and twitter @Shaktidiva

Buy her beautiful book Radiant Rest Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity here!

Listen to her podcast Radiant Rest anywhere you listen to podcasts https://www.radiantrest.com/radiant-rest-podcast/

If you’re hoping to add more rest and ease into your life, head over to Organifi.com/blackgirinom for 20% off your purchase of completely organic superfood blends

Head over to blackgirlinom.com to join us in Black Girl In Om’s online sisterhood of black women committed to wellness, joy, and healing in community, The Circle. The Circle sources our members with empowering guides, divinely ordained connections, and culturally aligned resources for you as you expand into your most authentic self.