Holding Nothing with Elena Brower

Next post I’ll share about festivals and finding more love in NYC. Promise. For today, while my son climbs a giant rock face, regulating my nervous system with a short reading from Alive For It All by Cynthia Kear and sitting with you. On how stillness helps us widen and soften the weave of the mind, so the matters with which we’re working with can move freely through. Sit begins at 08:40; reading is epic and worth it. Side note: Arranging to offer retreat here next year.

Our bookshelf of late, with Lisa Olivera, Rev. Cynthia Kear, Stephen Jenkinson Nadia Narain, Amy Kurtz, Erica Bassani and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Aching for the lands burning, the friends struggling. Celebrating the glimmers of safety, care and love. Reading as an act of revolution, resistance, activism.

Update: James is healing super well after laminectomy, pain-free after forty years! Travels have been full of life, beauty, friends and fresh food, all the mercies of moving about. We are sending love and thankfulness for your notes of care and concern after my previous post. Thank you. Mean it. Context.

Welcome to Hold Nothing, a column dedicated to practice, study, listening and learning. This week’s post is free.All paid subscription revenue is donated to causes benefiting women and girls. As a subscriber here, you’ll be invited to comment on all posts, access the archives and attend monthly Live Gatherings. If you have financial need, scholarship subscriptions are available; message me here. Gateless gate; Tassajara Zen Mountain Center entrance bridge. Contacting the deeper constant.

“It’s me, Ellen,” she said. Took me some seconds to place her. We’re exiting a dharma talk by a dear teacher, the legendary Wendy Johnson, author of Gardening At The Dragon’s Gate, and my mind is on Wendy’s vivid turns of phrase, her invitations to the fire and water of the teachings, of our times. It’s my babysitter from when I was little. Ellen Abrams. Twin of Eve Abrams, both legends in my mind.

Playback speed × Share post Share post at current time Share from 0:00 0:00 / Transcript Yoga across a lifetime. Cyndi Lee's new book, Long Life Yoga, is a resource for life. The year is 1998. I’m taking a day off from work to take a yoga class at Crunch gym, with a teacher whom I’ve never met.

Exactly the evidence and the answer we need to help us detach from tech and practice relational resilience. The Power In Your Hands is out June 2nd, 2026. Pre-order your copies now. Please do consider gifting to the younger ones if you’re inspired. And thank you Vanillery Garden (Natalie), Suzanne Dokes, Sammy Wan, and many others for tuning into our live. It’s wonderful to learn this science, and these practices, and be together.

The Portal opens. This recording introduces you to what we’ll share, how we’ll gather, and the benefit of being with us for this coming year. For women, no prescription covers a settled nervous system, intentional rest, and ways to attend to what matters most, in the quiet corners of our lives. Attention and care are radical, biological acts. Our bodies need integration, stillness, and stability for these transitions, and we aim to offer pockets of safety and refuge for your system and being.

Join us live Tuesday, May 26th. We’ll be live, here on Substack, at 2.15pm ET / 11.15am PT for a brief overview of our new yearlong program, WOMEN: The Portal. Join us live to learn more, before we begin. Click this link, or the button just below. https://open.substack.com/live-stream/214568 Join live session Learn your body, receive guidance and protocols for your practices and your heart-mind, and co-regulate with other women. Explore WOMEN: The Portal here.

Hold Nothing I have been at home. 0:00 Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -19:51 -19:51 Paid episode The full episode is only available to paid subscribers of Hold Nothing I have been at home. The wonder of women and turning mishaps into the path. Welcome in. Today’s audio includes a brief opening sit then a reading of this piece, with extra notes. Savoring The Frozen River during baths while traveling to teach retreat, marveling at the magnificence and resilience of women.