#11 A Place of Truth: On Depression, Shame and the Courage to Return

#11 A Place of Truth: On Depression, Shame and the Courage to Return

Sound • Scent • Shade • Presence • This episode is about coming back — after a long silence, from a dark place, to a microphone that was waiting. I've been living with chronic depression. And this time I decided not to tiptoe around it — not to soften it, not to dress it up. Just to name it as it is, and speak from exactly that place. I reflect on shame, on the gap between knowing and being able, on the exhausting performance of wellness we put on just not to be judged. And on two unexpected encounters — a conversation with psychotherapist Esther Perel, and a short video featuring Polish artist Filip Cembala — that found me when I wasn't looking, and offered something I hadn't realised I needed. This episode is for anyone who is still searching. Who hasn't arrived yet. Who wonders if that makes them a failure. It doesn't. If you'd like to share your thoughts or reflections, I'd be glad to hear from you. 🌐 Find out more: healpod.annayfantidis.com

The Sensory Pause #2: Mapping The Day Through Scent

Sound • Scent • Shade • Presence •A sensory pause for everyday scent awareness. I’d like to invite you to move through your day guided by your sense of smell, following your nose as you notice the scents of coffee, books, nature, and those small aromatic moments — sometimes even an unexpected aroma hotspot — that anchor you in the present. A quiet way to reconnect with your body and the living moment through your most immediate sense. If you’d like to share your thoughts or reflections, I’d be glad to hear from you.🌐 Find out more: healpod.annayfantidis.com

#10 Caregiving and Grief: When Family Hurts

Sound • Scent • Shade • Presence • This episode explores the grief of caregiving — and what it means to stay present when family wounds remain unhealed. I reflect on a tender, difficult Christmas spent at my parents’ home: the refusal of a well-meaning invitation, the slow mourning of a mother slipping into dementia, and the ache of witnessing what is slipping away. In a night-long conversation with a close friend, I was reminded that the deepest healing sometimes happens in silence — and that sacredness lives in deeply felt presence, not performance. If you’d like to share your thoughts or reflections, I’d be glad to hear from you. 🌐 Find out more: healpod.annayfantidis.com

#9 The Healing Power of Tears: The Language of Crying

Sound • Scent • Shade • Presence • Why do we cry, and what happens when we let the tears come? In this episode, I reflect on the quiet language of crying—the way emotional tears can bring release, lighten what’s heavy, and say what words can’t hold. I share a bit of the science behind why our bodies need to cry, but mostly, I wonder about what we feel: the relief, the shame, and the way tears can open a path to healing when nothing else can. Because tears are a language all their own. If you’d like to share your thoughts or reflections, I’d be glad to hear from you. 🌐 Find out more: healpod.annayfantidis.com

#8 Stigma: The Invisible Mark

Sound • Scent • Shade • Presence •What if the mark of depression wasn’t invisible after all? What if you could see it — in silence, in the way people back away, in the questions that sound supportive but cut like glass? This episode reflects on the ancient meaning of stígma — “a wound burnt into the skin” — and how we still carry those marks, now etched into identity. Drawing from lived experience, I reflect on how stigma traps us in circular patterns — how pain is questioned, dismissed, or silenced, and how unhealed wounds can echo across generations. Because not all coping is healing. And healing begins where silence ends. ⁠If you'd like to share your thoughts or reflections, I'd be glad to hear from you. 🌐 Find out more: ⁠⁠⁠healpod.annayfantidis.com [https://healpod.annayfantidis.com]