Enter the Mystic's Garden

The Truth Your Body Won't Let You Ignore

Your mind can explain almost anything. Your feelings can romanticize what hurts. Your ego can even dress self-abandonment in noble language. But the body is harder to fool. Yoga teacher and therapist Nicky Yazbek brings her grounded, compassionate presence to the Mystic’s Garden for a conversation about the truths we carry in the body — especially those that restore our inner authority and vitality. At the heart of this conversation is the altar question: what have we placed at the center of our lives? What are we protecting, serving, defending, or refusing to let go of? And what does the body reveal when something has been receiving more devotion than it deserves? This is a conversation about nervous system regulation, embodiment, healing, authenticity, and the strange honesty of fatigue, anxiety, contraction, resentment, and loss of vitality. Not merely as signs that something is wrong with you, but as signals calling you back to wonder, joy, and the kind of truth your body can meet with a “hell yes.” Links mentioned in this episode: Nicky Yazbek’s podcast, The Connected Community [https://open.spotify.com/show/2XuFQfGWnfcN3YEv7PM0uS] Nicky’s interview with Ellen M. Laura on Human Design [https://open.spotify.com/episode/61GzoZHgBW2HwFokJOrMXW] Created and hosted by Ellen M. Laura. [https://ellenmlaura.com/]Produced and edited by Darrell K. Whaley.Music by Ani Williams, [https://aniwilliams.com/] “Mag-Ma-of the Deeps,” from the album Return of the Silent Ones, used by permission. Get full access to Velvet Realms with Ellen M. Laura at ellenmlaura.substack.com/subscribe [https://ellenmlaura.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The Day a Song Healed My World

As I continued to explore the three questions at the heart of this season — Who is in your bedroom? Who is in your kitchen? What’s on your altar? — this episode became a living answer. My longtime friend Brian Kimmel came into my home with warmth, music, and the kind of presence that clears the space without needing to explain or fix anything. He offered a song, a prayer, and the laughter needed to soften what grief had made heavy. The people we allow close to us shape the atmosphere of our lives. Some people drain the room. Others help us remember safety, tenderness, beauty, and joy. In this episode, Brian’s song becomes a doorway into presence, healing, and the quiet return of wonder. Bella, my feline companion, of course, adds her own perfectly timed contribution. Created and read by Ellen M. Laura. [https://ellenmlaura.com/] Produced and edited by Darrell K. Whaley. With deep gratitude to Brian Kimmel [https://briankimmel.com/], [https://briankimmel.com/] whose song, laughter, and presence are at the heart of this episode. Music by Ani Williams [https://aniwilliams.com/], [https://aniwilliams.com/] “Mag-Ma-of the Deeps,” from the album Return of the Silent Ones, used by permission. Get full access to Velvet Realms with Ellen M. Laura at ellenmlaura.substack.com/subscribe [https://ellenmlaura.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

A Return to Quiet Wonder and Joy

If this offered you something meaningful, please share it. This space grows through the kindness of readers and listeners who share it. This podcast is for you, those who’ve known moments—or even whole seasons—of deep inner peace, wonder, and mental clarity, and who now find those experiences more fragile, fleeting, or harder to access. Here, we ask what has entered your inner life, who belongs there, and what must be guarded. If you’ve touched real stillness and real awe, and then watched something disturb that inner life, this space is for you. We explore the questions that cut closer to the truth: Who is in your bedroom? Who is in your kitchen? What’s on your altar? These conversations explore the deeper transformations that help us protect what is precious and reclaim what is sacred. Created and read by Ellen M. Laura. Produced and edited by Darrell K. Whaley. Music by Ani Williams [https://aniwilliams.com/product-category/mp3cd/], “Mag-Ma-of the Deeps,” from the album Return of the Silent Ones, used by permission. For more of my offerings, visit: Ellen M. Laura [https://ellenmlaura.com/]. Next episode: Full Moon, May 1, 2026. Get full access to Velvet Realms with Ellen M. Laura at ellenmlaura.substack.com/subscribe [https://ellenmlaura.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

A Prelude to the Mystic's Garden: The Healing Frequency

The Healing Frequency, narrated by my dear friend Mary Jean Valente and drawn from a piece I wrote years ago, was first recorded nearly fifteen years ago, yet its message remains strikingly alive. Some truths do not expire. They wait beneath the surface of time, ready to return when they are most needed. I am sending this forth with the hope that it may offer a needed tone of healing in these tender and turbulent times. Mary Jean gave this piece a rare presence—steady, luminous, and intimate without becoming sentimental. What she brings is not simply narration, but atmosphere: a voice that makes space for reflection, inner quiet, and return. This offering also feels like a fitting threshold piece for the podcast, Enter the Mystic’s Garden. The larger arc of that work is about renewal—how we move through disorientation, exhaustion, grief, and creative wintering toward something more alive, more rooted, and more true. Before there are conversations, stories, and reflections, there is a need to pause long enough to hear what is happening within us. This meditation belongs to that space. You might listen in the early morning, at twilight, or whenever you need a small clearing in the day. Let it be a place to recalibrate. A quieter room inside the storm. May it reach those who need it.May it bring calm, remembrance, and light. With love and gratitude,Ellen Laura [https://ellenmlaura.com/] Get full access to Velvet Realms with Ellen M. Laura at ellenmlaura.substack.com/subscribe [https://ellenmlaura.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]