Gathering Gold

"Be glad of your human heart....Pity those who don't feel anything at all.” What if the meteoric rise of the romantasy genre isn’t about fae courts and dragon riders—but about our deepest and most human longings? Romantasy has taken the publishing world by storm. While some dismiss these stories as escapist fantasy, we believe their deeper power lies in how they illuminate the human heart. In this series on the alchemy of romantasy, we explore the mythic and psychological currents running through books like A Court of Thorns and Roses and Fourth Wing. Through the lenses of Jung and the Hero’s (and Heroine's) Journey, we examine the desire to individuate, to be truly seen, to claim inner sovereignty, to find belonging, security, and freedom—and to join with a soulmate who honors the self we are becoming. Join us as we ask why these stories resonate so profoundly right now, and what they reveal about who we are. References: Books & Series A Court of Thorns and Roses and A Court of Mist and Fury – Sarah J. Maas Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros Psychology & Myth Enneagram 4 type Jung & the collective unconscious The Hero’s Journey – Joseph Campbell Pop Culture Moana Frozen Monica Lewinsky’s podcast  Related Gathering Gold Episodes Escape Hatch Fantasies What Could Have Been You Do Not Have to Be Good Bonus: Books that Changed Us Join us on Patreon for bonus content and virtual gatherings: patreon.com/gatheringgold Some of our recent bonus episodes include: What Sheryl Forgot and Victoria's Experiment | The Slipstream of Time | Give and Receiving - Shudder - Feedback | The Problem with Pedestals | Are Intrusive Thoughts like Stray Cats?

In today's episode, we dip a toe into the icy waters of body shame: the waters that take our breath away, that make us run for cover. How do we anchor our bodies in the warmth of true safety, of acceptance that frees us to open up to life and all it has to offer? Sheryl explores themes of body shame, body love, and so much more in her course Sacred Sexuality. Registration for the next round closes on January 31st, and listeners of podcast can get a 10% discount with the code BodyLove-GG. Members of our Patreon community can find a code for 20% off over at our Patreon page.

In this month of January, the beginning of the New Year, some of us may be looking at our current habits and patterns, returning to practices that have fallen away, reinvigorating activities that have lost luster, and exploring new ways of caring for and connecting with our selves. Journaling might be one of those practices that you are thinking about engaging with -- or perhaps feel like you should do, but don't really want to. In today's episode, lifelong daily journaler Sheryl and never-journaler Victoria talk about the intentions and mindsets behind healthy, helpful journaling; the pitfalls of perfectionism; why Sheryl doesn't use a special, "beautiful" notebook for journaling; and two particular methods that Sheryl suggests for effective, supportive journaling.  References: 10 Percent Happier podcast episode: The Science Of Journaling: How Writing Reduces Overthinking, Rumination, And Anxiety with Dr. James Pennebaker The Country Commonplace Book by Miranda Hills Dear America and Royal Diaries series 10 Percent Happier podcast episode "How to Handle Your Inner Critic," with Amita Schmidt Internal Family Systems therapy Sheryl's book The Wisdom of Anxiety Morning Pages practice from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

As Sheryl and Victoria lean into the rhythm of the holiday season, resting and connecting with family at the end of the year, we invite you to return to our most-listened to episode of 2025. * * * “Energy moves in waves. Waves move in patterns. Patterns move in rhythms. A human being is just that, energy, waves, patterns, rhythms. Nothing more. Nothing less. A dance.” --Gabrielle. Roth Our heartbeat. Our breath. Our steps along the sidewalk. Our life happens in rhythms--breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat, step by step. We move in and out of seasons, feel a shift in tempo as our energy levels ebb and flow, fall into connection and disconnection with those around us.  In today's episode, we are exploring what it means to "live in the rhythm" of life, why it can be so hard in our contemporary culture, and how turning towards the natural world can invite us back into a dance that is humane and enlivening.  References: Wise Child, by Monica Furlong Gabrille Roth's 5Rhythms Mark Nepo Kelsy Leonard, "Why lakes and rivers should have the same rights as humans" The Nature of Reading Bookshop Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious 

In this solo episode, Sheryl explores the potency of the present moment. With personal reflections and poetry, Sheryl illuminates how much depends upon noticing, holding, and imprinting in our soul the extraordinary mystery, love, joy, and pain in the moments we wish we could extend for a bit longer, live over again, remember all of our days. References: Gathering Gold episode "How to Slow Down Time" William Carlos Williams poem "The Red Wheelbarrow"

At this time of year, it can start to feel like time is speeding up. The holidays are here already? It's almost the end of 2025? Didn't the year just begin?! In a culture that begins celebrating Christmas before trick-or-treaters have even begun knocking on doors, this sense of rush and speed is amplified at every turn. In today's episode, we are exploring the question: how do we slow down time? How do we shift our relationship to time, enter into deeper presence and flow, and savor all that we have--the present moment? References: Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock and How to Do Nothing, by Jenny Odell "Stop This Train," by John Mayer

In today's episode, Sheryl and Victoria unpack an idea explored in Sheryl's upcoming course Open Your Heart: A 30-Day Course to Feel More Love and Attraction for Your Partner: a pattern of criticizing and micromanaging your partner is a surefire way to close your heart and add bricks to a wall between you. Sheryl and Victoria name the historical, cultural, and societal influences behind the word "nag" or "nagging," which cannot be uncoupled from patriarchy and capitalism, then circle back to this question: when we are with a loving partner who is doing their best and trying to meet us halfway, and we still find ourselves quick to nitpick, criticize, and attempt to control them, how can we regain intentionality and find spaciousness to chart a healthier path forward?  References: Sheryl’s course “Open Your Heart: A 30-Day Course to Feel More Love and Attraction for Your Partner,” starting on November 15, 2025.

**Today, we are practicing what we preach: slowing down and giving ourselves a little break by re-airing this episode from last year. We hope you enjoy, and we are sending you well wishes for rest, rejuvenation, and tending to your own rhythms and self-care in this season of rooting!** Meaning making. Connecting to breath. Aligning with nature. So many actions, big and small, can help us dig a little deeper into the soil of time, anchor ourselves against the buffeting winds of change and demands, especially as we shift into a new season.   We recorded this conversation in front of a live virtual audience of Patreon community members, opening up the second half of the episode for group discussion on the topic of rooting into autumn.  We are so grateful to the insightful, compassionate members who added their wisdom about steadying ourselves amidst the busy-ness of autumn. How will you send some energy to your roots today? References: Rooted, by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

In today’s episode, we are slowing down and opening our hearts to the beauty and loss abundant in autumn, a season that can so poignantly reflect and hold our own grief. Sheryl shares reflections about the passage of time, her sons growing up, and the passing of her beloved soul cat Tashi. Victoria shares her recent experience of learning about the death of a friend she had lost touch with.  How do we meet all of the limitless forms of beauty and loss, gratitude and grief? What does autumn have to teach us about what it means to be human in this heartbreaking gift of a world?

We pick up where we left off in our last episode to discuss a few myths about relationships, unpacking commonly-held beliefs and prescriptions regarding our romantic/sexual lives, our choices about whether we want to be parents, and experiences of parenthood. By pulling apart the threads of these myths, we hope to encourage a greater sense of acceptance, compassion, and celebration of ourselves and other people, and the many ways we can lead healthy, fulfilling lives full of love and purpose. Don't forget to check out Sheryl's 9-Month Course: Break Free from Anxiety, which explores these myths and many other messages, stories, cognitions, and experiences that create and inflame anxiety.  References: Sheryl's 9 Month Course: Break Free from Anxiety It's a Wonderful Life: Mary the Old Maid clip  Book Lovers, by Emily Henry Mothers and Other Fictional Characters: A Memoir in Essays, by Nicole Graev Lipson Sheryl's appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show

Have you ever felt like you should be able to figure out and answer all of life's questions--immediately? That if you could just find the one right lifestyle and location for you, your life would be all shimmer and shine? That you should just find life and adulthood easier? That everyone else finds it easier? These are myths about life that have their fingerprints all over our psyches. They weigh on us and dredge up feelings of not-enoughness, pulling us away from the present moment and into traps of comparison and wishful thinking. These are the myths that we are unpacking and dispelling in today's episode, inspired by Sheryl's upcoming course: Break Free from Anxiety: A 9-Month Course on the Art of Living (which begins September 20, 2025).  Stay tuned for Part 2, a discussion of three more myths! References: Gathering Gold episodes about Escape Hatch Fantasies, Dropping into Your Body, and The Goodness of Ordinary Life Mothers and Other Fictional Characters: A Memoir in Essays, by Nicole Graev Lipson

We used to try to keep up with the Joneses--the family behind the picket fence on that beautiful street the next town over. Now it's not just the local Joneses that we're trying to measure up to, but the influencers on Instagram, high school acquaintances that we still follow on Facebook, our past selves and our future potential.  Comparison has always been the thief of joy, but in the digital media landscape, its storm cloud looms larger and darker than ever. How can we turn down the volume on this constant humming force? How can we soften in the places we feel aren't measuring up?  How can we turn our yardstick into a compass pointing us to our own sense of peace? These are the questions we're dancing with in today's episode.

There are many types of friendships, and they're all necessary. We need friends to chat with at work, neighbors to share metaphorical cups of sugar with. But we also need deep friendships built on a bedrock of safety--and those can be harder to come by. In today's episode, we are unpacking what it means to feel truly safe in a friendship. What qualities do we look for and offer to our friends in order to create a container of deep love and security? What are the values that we orient towards when we find a kindred spirit and realize we simply love them because we love them? And, perhaps most importantly, how do we repair when something shakes the foundation we have worked so hard to build?

We all want to experience joy, but sometimes it can feel out of reach. Sometimes, the more we chase joy, the faster it slips beyond our reach. And yet, as Sheryl so often teaches, what we water will grow. We can create conditions favorable to joy. In today's episode, we discuss joy as not a luxury but a necessity; joy as an act of resistance and a fraternal twin to grief; how joy lies hidden just beneath the surface of ordinary, everyday magic; and how we can tap into that magic with subtle shifts in our choices and perspective.  References: Sheryl’s new course: Reclaiming Joy  Why It’s Hard to Receive Good Things Adding Good Things The Healing Anxiety Workbook Join us on Patreon for bonus content and virtual gatherings: patreon.com/gatheringgold

Today's very special guest, Michael Alcée, is author of the book The Upside of OCD: Flight the Script to Reclaim Your Life. In our conversation, Michael explains what he means and does not mean when he talks about the "upside" of OCD; why Michael thinks all people with OCD start out as mini-existentialists and poets; and the key missing ingredient in many of our contemporary treatments for OCD. How can OCD be both meaningless and meaningful at the same time? What messages might OCD be trying to deliver to us, if we only know how to listen? All of this and more in today's episode.

It is a common refrain these days: we live in a culture of scarcity mindset. We are bombarded with messages of never enough, implicitly and explicitly warned that there is not enough money, time, attention, or even love for all of us. These messages shift us into fearful perspectives, limiting our ability to see and receive all the goodness around us. In a world where so many people are lacking basic survival needs and systems of care, we wrestle with dueling feelings of fear and guilt, aware that "it could be worse," and yet, struggling to feel into the fullness that we sense is right here, if only we could reach out and touch it. So, what is true abundance? And how do we contact it? That's what we're exploring in today's episode. References: The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu Gathering Gold Bonus Episode: "What’s for Dinner?" Documentary Happy (2012) The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist Gathering Gold episode "The Goodness of Ordinary Life"  

We're sharing a Patreon exclusive to our Gathering Gold feed today! In this episode, we're responding to our patron Jenny's question about how to deal with the discomfort and fear that comes along with stretching our comfort zones. We talk about values-based actions, purpose and meaning, our individual window of tolerance, and the importance of self-compassion. Visit patreon.com/gatheringgold to gain access to 30+ bonus episodes, with new ones coming out each month! 

Welcome to the 100th episode of Gathering Gold! Today, we take a moment to pause and reflect on what it has meant to commit to this podcast for four years and regularly make trips together to fill up from a well of nourishing waters--waters of deep listening, conversation, reflection, and compassion. We talk about how and why we have tried to make this podcast a refuge, how it has impacted our relationship as family/friends/collaborators, and in what ways it has changed our own behavior and ways of thinking. We hope this episode inspires you to take a moment to pause, appreciate, and reflect on one of your own commitments in life, how it has changed you, and what gold you gather from showing up again and again! 

In contemporary society, we face more choices--and more decisions--than ever before. This can sometimes feel like a curse as much as it is also a blessing, especially for those of us struggle with indecisiveness.  In today's episode, we discuss mindsets around decision-making that can help us find more ease around the little decisions ("What should I order from the menu?") and the big decisions ("Should I quit my job?").  References: Dr. Russ Harris article about hard decisions Sheryl's next round of her course, "Trust Yourself," starting on May 17th The Healing Anxiety Workbook April’s Gathering Gold bonus episode for the Patreon: Emotional Support for Spring Cleaning Marie Kondo Happenstance Theory of career development Past Lives (2023) The Serenity Prayer Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/gatheringgold

In today's follow-up to the Escape Hatch Fantasies episode, Sheryl and Victoria discuss the double-edged allure of ruminating on what could be? and what could have been?  They discuss the difference between a fantasy and a dream for the future, how to work with the energy of regret, and what we can learn from the film Past Lives (2023) about making space for longing, mystery, and acceptance in the face of our many life choices and experiences.