Wild Heart Podcast

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.In this episode, I’m joined by Omid Safi, beloved teacher and scholar of Islamic spirituality. Together, we explore feminine wisdom at the heart of Islam, embodied spirituality and the role of sexuality, and the way love rises to meet us, especially in seasons of grief and collective unraveling. We speak of women as carriers of spiritual lineage, of radical love as taught by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and the intertwined nature of love, spirituality, and the human experience.Omid Safi is a professor at Duke University specializing in Islamic spirituality and contemporary thought. A leading Muslim public intellectual, Omid is committed to the intersection of spirituality and social justice.Omid has published extensively on the foundational sources of Islam and Sufism. His Memories of Muhammad is a biography of the Prophet Muhammad.  His most recent book is Radical Love:  Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition (published by Yale). Omid is also deeply committed to liberationist prophetic traditions in the legacy of Martin Luther King, Rabbi Heschel, and Malcolm X.  He has been invited by the family of Dr. King to speak at Ebenezer Church on the relevance of Dr. King for today’s America, and has delivered the Martin Luther King keynote in the annual national MLK service.Omid often appears as an expert on Islam in the New York Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, PBS, NPR, NBC, BBC, CNN and other outlets. He is a recent columnist for On Being, and now has a podcast (“Sufi Heart”) at Be Here Now. His Illuminated Tours have taken more than a 1,000 friends from over twenty countries to Turkey and Morocco since 2002, and he is now offering Illuminated Courses for online offerings on spiritual traditions open to seekers of all backgrounds.If this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community at ⁠wildheart.space⁠Holy Lament: The Transformative Path of Loss & Longing with Mirabai StarrA spiritual container for those ready to turn toward loss and reclaim it as something sacred in a community of companionship, creativity, and soul-deep transformation. Through the alchemy of reflective writing, poetry, shared witnessing and sacred song, we invite you to explore the healing landscape of grief in a circle of loving presence. Learn more at wildheart.space/holylamentLinks:Connect with Omid: www.illuminatedcourses.comIG:  @brotheromidRadical Love:  Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition Translated and Edited by Omid SafiOmid’s booksConnect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow for 1:1 sessions focused on love: ⁠willowbrook.love IG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Connect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.I am so excited to welcome grief coach and poet Naila Francis to explore honoring loss as a pathway to living with more depth, authenticity and daring. In our conversation, Naila shares about her personal grief journey and we emphasize the importance of community support, embracing joy amidst sorrow, honoring all forms of grief, including the loss of relationships and pets, and the necessity of resourcing ourselves when tending grief. Naila Francis is a certified grief coach and death midwife, an ordained interfaith minister, a poet, and an accomplished writer.  As the founder of This Hallowed Wilderness, she helps people transform their relationship to grief and loss through one-on-one coaching, workshops, presentations, rituals and community grief tending. Naila is also a co-founder of Salt Trails, a Philadelphia collective normalizing grief through community rituals, and a recipient of a Leeway Foundation Art + Change Grant, as well as a Joyful Abundance Emerging Artist Commissioning Award. A former journalist, Naila profiled dozens of artists and entertainers such as Brandi Carlile, k.d. lang, Pink, Bobby McFerrin, and Yoko Ono during her career. She found her way to the vocation of companioning others through grief and dying after suffering several personal losses in her own life, including the death of her father in 2012.Since the death of her father, poetry has been a steady companion in Naila's life. A longtime writer who had penned her own poems and delighted in the words of other poets for years, she discovered that with this gaping absence in her life, poetry became a vital balm. Whether writing or reading poems, this creative practice allows her to open up to parts of herself, and to emotions, that can be challenging to access in a world that turns away from grief.Her poetry album, "Wonder Unsung," a collaboration with guitarist and producer Paulito Muse, is available on multiple streaming platforms.We are honored to have Naila woven into our Holy Lament offerings with Naila’s Poetry Cove where she offers selected poems, personal reflections, meditations and writing prompts and to have her beautiful presence in our world!Subscribe to Naila's newsletter: https://nailafrancis.substack.com/If this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community at ⁠wildheart.space⁠Holy Lament: The Transformative Path of Loss & Longing with Mirabai StarrA spiritual container for those ready to turn toward loss and reclaim it as something sacred in a community of companionship, creativity, and soul-deep transformation. Through the alchemy of reflective writing, poetry, shared witnessing and sacred song, we invite you to explore the healing landscape of grief in a circle of loving presence. Learn more at wildheart.space/holylamentLinks:Connect with Naila: thishallowedwilderness.comIG:  @thishallowedwildnernessConnect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow for 50% off 1:1 sessions before 2026: ⁠willowbrook.love IG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Connect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.In this episode, trauma specialist, art therapist and soul medicine guide Monika Denise Burkholder explores themes of belonging, the intersection of grief and trauma, and ways to expand our capacity to be with big human experiences. Monika shares her insights on trauma integration, the role of witnessing in emotional processing, and she and Willow investigate the significance of embodiment and pleasure in the context of grief. Their deep conversation dives into cyclical living, nature's influence on our emotional states, and the concept of soul medicine as a pathway to authenticity. Monika Denise is a medicine woman of the soul—an art therapist, trauma therapist, somatic practitioner, grief tender and songcatcher at the intersections of stone and river. With her basket of intuitive wisdom and practical skills, Monika Denise founded Four Moons Howl LLC where she offers Soul Medicine for the Souljourner. Women who are navigating inner and outer life transitions, overwhelmed with grief, or experiencing the impact of trauma are drawn to her grounded presence and empowering, transformative medicine as an ally on their journey. She offers 1:1 sessions and group workshops as well as collaborates on community offerings with other soulful practitioners. Monika Denise has tended the community for Wild Heart since its inception and co-facilitates embodied grief rituals and retreats as co-founder of Medicine For Our Times. As an artist, Monika Denise sells art for ritual, including pottery, earrings, and My&Moon, a lunar calendar for cyclical living. Twice a year, Monika Denise can be found co-guiding soulful canoe trips on the Green River in UT for The River’s Path. Throughout every thread of her offerings, Monika Denise is in service to living with access to the authentic self—empowered and free. Learn more at: www.fourmoons.earth@fourmoonshowlIf this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community at ⁠wildheart.space⁠Holy Lament: The Transformative Path of Loss & Longing with Mirabai StarrA spiritual container for those ready to turn toward loss and reclaim it as something sacred in a community of companionship, creativity, and soul-deep transformation. Through the alchemy of reflective writing, poetry, shared witnessing and sacred song, we invite you to explore the healing landscape of grief in a circle of loving presence. Learn more at wildheart.space/holylamentLinks:Connect with Monika: www.fourmoons.earthIG:  @fourmoonshowlConnect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow for 50% off 1:1 sessions before 2026: ⁠willowbrook.love IG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Connect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.In this episode, the inspiring artist, poet, performer and translator of Rumi’s poetry,  Haleh Liza Gafori explores love, ecstasy, and grief found in Rumi's work, as well as the transformative relationship between Rumi and his teacher, Shams of Tabriz. Haleh shares her personal journey with translating Rumi's rhythmic Persian poetry and what it has to share with us in these times.Haleh Liza Gafori  is a translator, performance artist, poet, vocalist, and educator born in NYC of Persian descent. Her acclaimed translations of poetry by the 13th century sage Rumi have been collected in two volumes, Gold (2022) and Water (2025).With ears tuned to the music of American free verse as well as to the subtleties of the Persian lines, Gafori aims to transmit the whirling movement and leaping progression of thought and imagery in Rumi’s poems into contemporary American poetry while uncovering how urgently and tenderly his poetry dialogues with our times.Sharing her passion for Rumi’s poetry and the liberating messages that pulse through them, she performs her cross-media performance piece in which she weaves recitation in English, commentary, and songs featuring Rumi's poetry in Persian, giving audiences glimpses of the astonishing rhythm and wordplay that pervade his original text. Learn more at www.halehliza.com @halehlizaOrder Haleh’s ecstatic translations of Rumi:GOLDWATERIf this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community at ⁠wildheart.space⁠Writing Across the Veil: Use Your Imagination to Connect to the Ancestors with Mirabai StarrOct 24-26Early bird rates before Oct 7A spiritually embodied writing practice to deepen our relationship with those who have passed Links:Connect with Haleh: www.halehliza.comIG:  @halehlizaConnect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow: ⁠willowbrook.loveIG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Connect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.In this episode,  the groundbreaking Muslim rapper, poet and activist Mona’s music is revolutionary and if you haven’t already heard it, I encourage you to listen and watch her jaw dropping music videos. Some of my favorite videos are Good Body, Hijabi (Wrap My Hjabi), and her new album Songs from the Mothership.Mona Haydar shares about creativity, spiritual discipline, drawing on love to animate our activism, motherhood and the liberatory power of music.Mona Haydar is a rapper, poet, activist and tireless God-enthusiast. She practices a life of sacred activism, poetry, contemplation and advocacy for living gently upon the Earth. In addition to playing concerts and gigs, she continues to perform her poetry, offers workshops and leads retreats as well as gives lectures and teaches workshops all over the world. She is the host of PBS mini series Great Muslim American Roadtrip.Learn more at www.monahaydar.com @themostmonaAsk A MuslimThe Great Muslim American RoadtripIf this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community at ⁠wildheart.space⁠Links:Connect with Mona: www.monahaydar.comIG:  @themostmonaConnect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow: ⁠soulinvocation.com⁠IG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Connect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.In this episode, visionary civil rights activist and faith leader Valarie Kaur shares about grief, Revolutionary Love, and community engagement in the face of personal and collective loss. We discuss the importance of embodying grief, the power of storytelling, and the need for deep solidarity in resisting authoritarianism. Valarie introduces the Revolutionary Love Compass as a tool for practicing love towards others, opponents, and oneself, emphasizing that love is a labor that requires community support. The discussion culminates in reflections on hope, forgiveness, and the transformative power of love in creating a more just world.Valarie Kaur is a renowned civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning documentary filmmaker, educator, faith leader, mother, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project.  For twenty-five years, Valarie has led visionary campaigns to tell untold stories – at the sites of mass shootings, inside America’s supermax prison and in the wake of hate violence. The communities she served taught her an essential ingredient to birthing a healthy future: love.A daughter of Punjabi Sikh farmers in California, Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School and holds several honorary doctorates. Her books envision a world rooted in the ethic of love – and show us how to get there- SEE NO STRANGER: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love, her children’s book WORLD OF WONDER; and her new book SAGE WARRIOR, an epic journey into Sikh wisdom and spiritual handbook for apocalyptic times. Today, the Revolutionary Love Project equips people with powerful tools to harness the love ethic for courageous action. Learn more about Valarie at www.valariekaur.com and The Revolutionary Love Project at www.revolutionarylove.org @valariekaur @revloveproject ⁠Revolutionary Love CompassIf this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community:If you or someone you know is grieving a miscarriage, pregnancy release, birth experience, parenthood transformation or supporting others through these events, you are invited to join Autonomous Midwife-Partera and elemental childbirth educator Aya Maria and Wild Heart co-founder Willow Brook to delve into the mysteries of existence, drawing upon ancient cosmologies and the wisdom of nature to guide us through the waves of grief.Grieving Loss Experienced During Pregnancy & BirthAug 3rd, 2025 Recording AvailableGrief is not a mistake. It is a sacred response to the profound love we carry. Whether your loss is fresh or long-held, our grief community Holy Lament with Wild Heart co-founders Mirabai Starr and Willow Brook offers a space of companionship, creativity, and soul-deep transformation. Through the alchemy of reflective writing, poetry, shared witnessing and sacred song, we invite you to explore the healing landscape of grief in a circle of loving presence. This is a spiritual container for those ready to turn toward loss and reclaim it as something sacred.Holy Lament: The Transformative Path of Loss & LongingLinks:Connect with Valarie: www.valariekaur.comwww.revolutionarylove.orgIG: @valariekaur @revloveproject ⁠Connect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow: ⁠soulinvocation.com⁠IG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Connect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.In this episode, expressive artist Adriana Rizzolo shares about the wisdom of the body, ancestral and spiritual Tantric lineage, grieving the father, intimacy, relationships and embracing mistakes. Adriana Rizzolo is the founder of Body Temple Church and the creator of Body Temple Dance, a trance space that welcomes grief and rage to be transmuted into aliveness through ritual, expressive arts including prayer-formance and intuitive movement. She is a 13 year sober trauma informed, Tantra aligned, spiritual mentor, mystic, somatic healer, adult sex educator, and guide to the unseen realms.Learn more at www.bodytemple.church and follow her on Instagram at @artofloving As Father’s Day season is upon us and we are holding you in our hearts if this is a tender time for you. We are currently preparing for the Temple of Shakti Retreat with Adriana Rizzolo, Willow Brook and Tammy Chow this Father’s Day weekend as an opportunity to heal our relationships with the masculine and embrace the father within. If this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community:Join award-winning author Mirabai Starr in the luminous high desert of Taos, New Mexico, where the veils between the sacred and the everyday grow thin.Through poetry, presence, and the written word, we'll gather in circle to reclaim writing as a spiritual practice—and your life as holy ground.Adriana will guide us in Body Temple dance to unleash your creativity and authentic voice.Ordinary Mysticism Writing RetreatOct 16-20, 2025You are invited to explore the electrifying wisdom of women mystics and goddesses across the spiritual spectrum who carry special medicine for our times.  Highlighting themes of longing for the divine and justice-making, we will support you in forging intimate relationships with these wisdom beings as living allies on your own journey. This is an invitation for people of all genders who yearn for a more wildly creative, tenderly inclusive space for transformation.Wild Mercy Virtual RetreatJune 27-29th, 2025Early bird rates before June 17th!Connect with Adriana: www.bodytemple.churchIG: ⁠@artofloving Connect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow: ⁠soulinvocation.com⁠IG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Connect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.In this episode, luminous author A. Helwa shares about divine love in daily life, her experience of learning from other traditions, expanding love for the divine and the mystical practice of trust and surrender. Her best-selling book Secrets of Divine Love illuminates wisdom from the heart of Islam.A. Helwa believes that every single person on Earth is deeply loved by the Divine. She is a writer who has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers through her passionate, poetic, and love-based approach to spirituality. Her popular blog @quranquotesdaily, was established while obtaining her Masters in Divinity, as a means of helping others overcome personal and spiritual struggles on their journey of experiencing divine love. With over 15 years of experience writing and speaking on Islam and spiritual development, A. Helwa draws from her personal experiences and traditional sources to help her readers access ‘Divine love in everyday life.’When Helwa is not reading at coffee shops, she can be found climbing mountains, camping in deserts, hiking jungles, or reading about black holesLearn more at  www.secretsofdivinelove.com and follow her on Instagram at @a.helwa_ If this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our community:Join spiritual teacher Mirabai Starr and activist Valarie Kaur to explore how we process grief and summon Revolutionary Love in the wake of authoritarianism. Together, they reflect on personal loss, collective mourning, and the power of love as a force for justice, healing, and transformation.Grief & Revolutionary Love in response to AuthoritarianismJune 4th, 2025Join Mirabai Starr in embracing longing as holy ground, fusing our personal desires with our wish for liberation and a collective dedication to gathering the world's suffering into our arms and transforming it in a free event called Fire of Desire.Fire of Desire June 8th, 2025Connect with A. Helwa:  www.secretsofdivinelove.com⁠IG: ⁠@a.helwa_Connect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow: ⁠soulinvocation.com⁠IG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Connect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com

Welcome back to the Wild Heart Podcast with Willow Brook where we explore divinity in daily life with themes of love, mysticism, grief as a spiritual path, and sensual embodiment.In this episode, Wild Heart co-founder Mirabai Starr shares about her latest book ⁠Ordinary Mysticism: Your Life as Sacred Ground⁠ and explores the mysticism of sensuality, relationships, grief and loss and how to unveil the sacred in the mess of our lives. Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author, internationally acclaimed speaker, and interspiritual teacher. Drawing from 20 years of teaching Philosophy and World Religions and a lifetime of practice, Mirabai shares her wisdom worldwide on contemplative living, writing as a spiritual practice, and the transformational power of grief and loss. She has authored over a dozen books including Wild Mercy, Caravan of No Despair, and renowned translations of sacred literature. Her most recent book, Ordinary Mysticism, has been praised by Anne Lamott as “a gorgeous, transformative, welcoming book for anyone who longs to feel more present, more alive, more joyful and aware of the holiness of daily life”. She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico. If this conversation opened your wild heart, we invite you to join an upcoming event with our commmunity:Join Willow Brook and Manny Fassihi for Connected, an exploration of communication as a spiritual practice. Weaving together ancient wisdom and practical tools for bringing sacred presence into our daily relationships, we will embrace communication and conflict as fruitful opportunities for personal transformation and deepened connection. ⁠Connected: Communication as Spiritual Practice⁠March 28-30, 2025Join Mirabai Starr in deconstructing unhelpful beliefs around grief and reclaim your authentic experience in community. We have all experienced loss, and whether someone you love died, you are going through a breakup, health diagnosis, or any other life-shattering change, your loss counts. In a world filled with heartbreaking violence and injustice, our personal and collective grief can become pathways to deeper connection rather than sources of competition or comparison.⁠Unraveling the Myths of Grief ⁠FREE event April 15-18, 2025 Offered a few times a yearConnect with Mirabai: ⁠mirabaistarr.com⁠IG: ⁠@mirabaistarr⁠Connect with Wild Heart: ⁠wildheart.space⁠IG: ⁠@wildheartspace⁠Connect with Willow: ⁠soulinvocation.com⁠IG ⁠@willow__brook⁠Thank you to the amazing Manny Fassihi for editing the Wild Heart Podcast!@themannyfestoplaymultitudes.com