The Community Health Project: Recent Episodes
Alexandra Burns
2020 has impacted us beyond measure. The Community Health Project’s aim is to create a sense of community by empowering people through education, health and wellness tools, and navigating life’s difficult moments with humor and vulnerability. Rather than allowing our struggles and problems to pull us down, let’s open up conversations to help us connect in our shared human experience, find common ground, and create safer, healthier communities.
How do we know who we want to be? How can we better choose where we channel our energy? Let's discuss how to stop negotiating ourselves away from a life we truly want. How to shift towards gratitude, love, purpose, and passion. I like to share my thoughts on some useful concepts I think are relatable and universal to self-growth and healing. I touch on the concept of "dharma". In the yoga community, one definition of the concept can refers to an individual's personal mission or purpose. If an individual is following their dharma, they are pursuing their truest self, thus, supporting all other beings in the universe by playing their true role. The result? Self-realization and enlightenment. When your life is aligned with your dharma, it brings a sense of joy and peace. I believe discipline can be a channel to freedom, an opportunity to lean into what we love and away from drama, unhealthy relationships, and poor lifestyle choices. I'll share my strategies on connecting with the concept of "discipline" in a way that creates a new relationship to the word. One that feels more friendly and welcoming, instead of harsh and punishing. We talk about how we can use this view of "discipline" to no longer negotiate away from our path and live up to our purpose!
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In part two of our holiday series we discuss the impact the holiday season can have on chronic physical and mental health conditions. More importantly, we talk about how to support your overall health with specific examples, ideas, and suggestions to help you make the most out of your holiday season by enjoying what you love while supporting the mind and body. While this is tailored around the holidays, these ideas can be useful all year round! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/communityhealthproject/support
The most wonderful time of the year can also be fraught with unrealistic expectations and tons of pressure that can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Come hangout with me as we discuss some ways to approach the holiday season with intention to answer the question: What is most important this holiday season? How can we use that intention to create a sense of balance, meaning, and purpose?--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/communityhealthproject/support
Death can be a scary, uncomfortable topic. I have experienced multiple losses in my personal life, as well as worked with hundreds of patients and people managing terminally ill diseases and preparing for death. Personally and professionally, I have learned firsthand how the dying can teach us about living. Some common threads of regret experienced by those that are dying we will explore in this episode:
"I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
"I wish I hadn't worked so hard."
"I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings."
"I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends."
"I wish that I had let myself be happier."
One of the biggest lessons for me was that the dying don’t regret what they FAIL AT, they regret what they didn’t TRY.
This episode explores a topic that makes us feel uncomfortable: how do we approach and come to terms with the meaning of our life? How can we learn to stop putting things off and letting fear keep us from fulfillment? We have a finite amount of time on earth. We can honor the lives of those we love and respect by learning from them, creating change in our own life, and being examples for the future generation. This episode can be hard to accept, but refreshingly worthwhile in living the life you truly want, right now.
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DIY costumes, trick-or-treating, costume parties, scary movies, hot vs funny mode, freaking the eff out in a scary corn maze and wondering why you signed yourself up for this while your friends laugh hysterically (ahh good times). We're here for it all to get you in the halloween spirit.
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In light of the season finale of House of the Dragon (aka "game of thrones" or "song of ice and fire show" as I tend to call it because I struggle to remember the name), I thought we'd talk about fraught relationships this week. Relationship challenges are something everyone will experience: going through a dry spell, feeling bored in your relationship, feelings of jealously, poor communication, fighting about chores/responsibilities, financial difficulties/disagreeing about money, doubting your relationship, the added responsibilities/strain of a growing family, keeping up with the Joneses, fertility issues, childrearing issues, impacts of poor health/illness/disability, getting busy and spending less time together, fighting about family/extended families, partner is falling into bad habits (gambling, drinking, not taking care of their health, spending too much time on social media/phone, excessive shopping, hoarding, porn etc.), feeling as though you're growing in different directions, the list (unfortunately) can seem endless. Maybe you can relate to A, B, or C... or maybe you've a relationship veteran who's like "D all of the above!".... you're not alone. This one is about how sharing those struggles with others can be appropriate and highly beneficial in gaining perspective and understanding the relationship on a deeper level. We're all carrying around massive amounts of emotional luggage to the airport of life, yet often trying to stuff it into a pretty carry on when you know damn well it’s over 50lbs and you need to take inventory and check that sh!t. There's one thing I know for certain in life, from struggle comes the greatest resiliency and growth you will ever know. You got this :)
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Forgiveness is a process. When schitt hits the fan in life, inevitably someone will give you the good old advice of: “oh, just get over it”. Accidentally step in dog schitt on a walk? Get over it. Stuck behind an asshole in traffic? Get over it. Some comedian tells what you deem as an “offensive” joke… AT A COMEDY SHOW? Get over it (and then stop going to comedy shows). But “getting over” significant hurt, pain, betrayal, trauma in your life is never on a timeline.. and PSA… you have nothing to “get over”. sometimes the schitt life throws at us becomes part of your fabric, it moves in and takes us space physically, mentally, and emotionally.. for days, weeks, years. it’s okay. It’s normal. You’re not alone. You’re growing. You’re recovering. You’re healing. Little by little however long you need. There’s no timelines. No expectations. Feel your feelings (and then go find some comedy to watch and laugh your ass off because that schitt is medicine). 👏🏼✨✌🏼--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/communityhealthproject/support
Fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of rejection, self-doubt surrounding our creative abilities, fear of the unknown… these are some of the challenging aspects to the creative process (especially in the beginning phases of a new project, idea, or venture). I wanted to share my experience and offer some insight and ideas about how to move forward. I believe we ALL have an innate creative side to us that we can harness to enrich our lives and connect to ourselves, one another, and the communities around us. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/communityhealthproject/support
Failure is a bitch… or is she? I like to say she’s a bitch that I love. I’ve failed so many times in life (and will continue to do so) that I could just start my own “Alex’s Biggest Fails” podcast. But as exciting as that sounds, I’ll just break it down a little bit here. Listen to find out why failure needs more love in your life. 🎙--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/communityhealthproject/support
Well here we are.. welcome to the Community Health Project. Thanks for pushing through the awkward beginnings- don’t worry people, it’ll be a good time. I want this project to be a place to broadly discuss two umbrella subjects that collectively have the greatest impact on our daily living: health and community. Health and a sense of community is something we all share. I believe most people are good. I believe we are all more connected than we are divided. I hope the topics I ramble about highlight that. I hope this podcast can create a sense of community in your life, a place where you can come to feel connected and cared about. Anything goes with me. Sometimes advice. Sometimes personal stories. Sometimes humorous rants. Sometimes educational info. Sometimes everything in between. Thanks for hanging out with me. Looking forward to a lot more of it. -A--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/communityhealthproject/support
Have you been trying to work on your stress, anger, anxiety (whatever shitty thing) but nothing seems to be working the way you hope for. Do you want to throw your gratitude journal out the window? Do you struggle with the same shit over and over sometimes? There’s probably an aspect to your mental well-being that you’re missing out on. There was for me. It’s time to talk about Bad Mental Habits and how to deal with them.