Today's conversation is with Russell Delman.

Russell has been on a path of awareness for more than 50 years.

His teaching, and his life, are an integration of Zen meditation, Feldenkrais Movement, Compassionate Communication and Focusing. He credits profound teachers, especially his wife of 52 years Linda and his daughter Liliana, as the great gifts in his life.

In today’s conversation, Russell reflected on embodiment and presence as lived experience rather than something to be achieved. We explored how slowing down allows habitual, fear-based patterns to recede into the background, making space for a deeper field of awareness to come forward. Russell spoke about presence as a practice of sensing before reacting, and how embodiment offers a direct path back to authenticity, trust, and immediacy in daily life.

Throughout the conversation, we returned to resonance—how the body and nervous system communicate truth beyond concepts, and how relational attunement shapes what feels safe, real, and alive. Rather than offering techniques, Russell emphasized creating conditions for awareness to emerge, inviting a continual return to humility, vulnerability, and presence as the ground for connection, relationship, and meaningful change.

You can learn more about Russell at https://www.russelldelman.com/

If you are enjoying and getting something out of these talks, we'd appreciate it if you would leave a positive review of the podcast and subscribe to it through the platform of your choice. When you do this it really helps other people find us, and we greatly appreciate your support.

You can find more about Andrew at http://andrewrosenstock.com and http://RolfingInBoston.com

Many thanks to Explorers Society for use of their song " All In" from their majestic album 'Spheres' Please check them out here https://open.spotify.com/album/1plT1lAPWEQ1oTRbWOiXm3?si=eAL08OJdT5-sJ6FwwZD50g

Today's conversation is with Dr. David Vago.

David is a leading neuroscientist and advisor within the mindfulness, digital health, and psychedelic research communities. He currently serves as President of the International Society for Contemplative Research and holds academic affiliations with Harvard Medical School and the University of Virginia. With training from Vanderbilt, Harvard, Weill Cornell, and the University of Utah, Dr. Vago has held key research and faculty positions, including Associate Professor at Vanderbilt and Research Director at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. His background spans cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychiatry, and contemplative science, with postdoctoral fellowships in biological and social psychiatry, neuroimaging, and mind-body medicine.

Dr. Vago’s research explores the neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms linking mind, brain, and body in mental health, chronic pain, and wellbeing. Through a combination of neuroimaging, cognitive-behavioral, and phenomenological methods, his work bridges basic neuroscience with clinical application. As a scientific advisor and Research Lead for RoundGlass, he advances evidence-based innovation in digital health and wellbeing. A prolific author with over 100 publications and more than 15,000 citations, Dr. Vago is a recognized thought leader whose research has shaped the emerging field of contemplative science and continues to inform modern approaches to mindfulness and integrative health.

In today’s conversation, David shared how neuroscience, phenomenology, and contemplative practice converge in understanding embodiment. We explored his Spacer Model, which traces experience from bodily sensation through perception, cognition, meta-awareness, and action—revealing how identity continually re-forms moment by moment.

David spoke about interoception and the neural basis of felt experience, highlighting how awareness of internal states shapes behavior, emotion, and selfhood. He also introduced emerging research in bioenergetics, linking the brain’s energetic and glymphatic systems with traditional ideas of qi, prana, and subtle energy.

Throughout, he emphasized that awareness itself is medicine—that small embodied shifts ripple through our biology and relationships. His work invites us to see embodiment as a living dialogue between brain, body, and world—a path toward a more conscious and compassionate way of being.

You can find out more about David at https://contemplativeneurosciences.com/

If you are enjoying and getting something out of these talks, we'd appreciate it if you would leave a positive review of the podcast and subscribe to it through the platform of your choice. When you do this it really helps other people find us, and we greatly appreciate your support.

You can find more about Andrew at http://andrewrosenstock.com and http://RolfingInBoston.com

Many thanks to Explorers Society for use of their song " All In" from their majestic album 'Spheres' Please check them out here https://open.spotify.com/album/1plT1lAPWEQ1oTRbWOiXm3?si=eAL08OJdT5-sJ6FwwZD50g

Today’s conversation is with Aline Newton and Rebecca Carli-Mills.

For nearly forty years, Aline Newton has worked with dancers, athletes, engineers, trauma survivors, and anyone seeking greater ease, resilience, and connection to their body. Drawing on decades of experience as a Rolfer and movement educator, and insights from yoga, tai chi, Pilates, craniosacral, and visceral work, her approach blends science, somatic practice, and human curiosity. Her new book, Reimagining the Body, invites readers to understand the living, moving body not as a machine of bones and muscles, but as a sensing, adapting, meaning-making whole. She maintains a practice in Cambridge, MA, chairs the Rolf Movement Faculty at the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute, and teaches experiential anatomy at the Boston Conservatory’s Alexander Technique Teacher Training.

More at ⁠alinenewton.com⁠.

Rebecca Carli-Mills is a Certified Advanced Rolfer®, Rolf Movement® Instructor, and ISMETA-Registered Master Somatic Movement Therapist with over three decades in somatic education. With a background in dance performance and choreography (B.A., M.F.A.), her work bridges expressive and functional movement. A longtime student of Hubert Godard, she integrates insights on gravity, perception, and coordination with training in craniosacral, visceral, neural, and energetic osteopathy. A former Chair of the Rolf Movement Faculty and ISMETA board member, she teaches internationally and maintains a private practice in Bethesda, MD, supporting clients and students in discovering greater ease, agency, and enjoyment in movement and daily life.

Contact: ⁠carlimills@mac.com⁠.

In today’s conversation, Aline and Rebecca discuss their forthcoming book Reimagining the Body: Somatic Practice, Embodiment, and the Science of Movement, published by Handspring. The book draws on their decades of study with Hubert Godard, exploring how movement, perception, and gravity intertwine to shape human experience. Aline describes it as a “long walk through a landscape,” blending neuroscience, client stories, and experiential practices to help readers not only understand but feel embodiment and tonic function.

Together they reflect on Godard’s concept of tonic function, which reframes alignment from stacked mechanical “blocks” to a dynamic coordination with gravity—linking posture, emotion, and relationship. Their book bridges scientific clarity and somatic depth, inviting practitioners and lay readers alike into a living understanding of how we inhabit our bodies. Rebecca notes that the text meets readers at many levels, offering insight for beginners, practitioners, and scientists while maintaining a deeply human tone.

Aline and Rebecca also share their belief that movement itself is education—a process that empowers clients to participate in their own healing and awareness. They announced plans for slow reading groups in 2026, where readers can explore the book chapter by chapter, integrating the material into both practice and daily life. At its core, the conversation is a call to rediscover the body not as an object to fix, but as a living, sensing system through which we learn, relate, and become.

Reimagining the Body: Somatic Practice, Embodiment, and the Science of Movement is available from Singing Dragon, Amazon, and wherever books are sold.

If you are enjoying and getting something out of these talks, we’d appreciate it if you would leave a positive review of the podcast and subscribe to it through the platform of your choice. When you do this it really helps other people find us, and we greatly appreciate your support.

You can find more about Andrew at ⁠andrewrosenstock.com⁠ and ⁠rolfinginboston.com⁠.

Many thanks to Explorers Society for use of their song “All In” from their majestic album Spheres. Check them out here.