Have you said 'yes' when you didn't mean it or said 'yes' before you had the chance to really think about what it means for your life?

'Yes' is a deceptively simple word, yet more complex than it appears. Turns out there's different flavors of 'yes': clean/uncomplicated, polite, fear-based, hopeful, and exhausted. So how can you slow down, listen to your body, and consult your values before deciding?

We talk about small, joyful yeses (like stepping into sunlight), big life yeses (kids, jobs, relationships), and the cost-benefit scales and second- and third-order consequences that shape our choices. You’ll hear practical guidance on how to ask for time to decide, how to create safer spaces for others to answer honestly, and ways to bring more wholehearted yeses into your everyday (from music during laundry to savoring morning rituals).

If you’re wrestling with obligations, family dynamics, or fear-based decisions, this episode offers compassionate insights on self-trust, consent, and reclaiming agency — plus a reminder that you get to choose again and again. Tune in and find out how saying yes (or no) can be a radical act of presence.

Connect with Us:

• Sarah Koch: @radintimacy | radintimacy.com
• Bryan Russell: @sadhanayogaschool | sadhanayoga.com
• Suggest a topic: DM us or email podcast@radintimacy.com

Subscribe & Share: If this episode moved you, subscribe wherever you listen and share it with someone who might love it too. Let’s grow this beautiful, curious, intimate community—together. 💛

It’s the Holiday Season and you’re probably seeing the word “joy” everywhere — on cards, in songs, in well-meaning wishes. In this episode we get curious about what joy really is: is it just a brighter form of happiness, or is it something deeper and steadier? We riff on Khalil Gibran’s beautiful line — “your joy is your sorrow unmasked” — and how the full range of our experience can actually expand the capacity for deep aliveness.

We talk about the difference between happiness (a visiting smile when conditions are sweet) and joy (the quieter ground beneath your feet that can stay when the weather turns). Joy isn’t about denying pain — it can hold grief and light at the same time — which is why it’s such a radical, inclusive wish to send someone in the Holidays.

Practical and tender, we share three simple pillars for tending your joy: slow down and listen to your own heart, spend time with nature (even a single plant or a night sky can remind you you’re part of the miracle), and deepen intimacy with the people you care about. We also run through small, doable moves you can try today: pause and be present, cultivate gratitude, move your body, create without clinging to outcomes, and stop comparing your life to someone else’s highlight reel.

If you’ve ever felt hollow despite having the “perfect” holiday scene, this episode is for you — instead of chasing a pleasurable or happy moment, we offer ways to come back to a well of steady joy that’s always there when you practice for it.

Let's take a breath together and try some Loving Kindness meditation:

May you be safe and without fear. May you be healthy and strong. May you be happy and free from suffering. May you live with ease and joy.

Connect with Us:

• Sarah Koch: @radintimacy | radintimacy.com
• Bryan Russell: @sadhanayogaschool | sadhanayoga.com
• Suggest a topic: DM us or email podcast@radintimacy.com

Subscribe & Share: If this episode moved you, subscribe wherever you listen and share it with someone who might love it too. Let’s grow this beautiful, curious, intimate community—together. 💛

Do you often consider your intention before doing things?

In this episode we unpack what intention really means (the why behind what you do), how it’s different from goals or outcomes, and why it matters whether you’re setting an intention for yourself or for someone else. We talk about how intentions carry energy, how they can misalign with impact, and why checking that impact matters when you’re interacting with others.

Think of intention as the feeling you want to carry out of an experience — the way you want to feel after a yoga class, a conversation with your kid, or even your morning shower. It’s not only about the action; it’s about who you want to be in that action. We share concrete examples (teaching adjustments in yoga, connection with your kids, the tiny rituals of morning routines) so you can see intention in real life — both the small daily moments and the big, five-year visions.

We also tease apart intention, manifesting, and goal-setting. Manifesting is often more internal — calling things in and a type of receptivity that allow possibility in — while intentions give you direction and invite external steps. Both are useful. We recommend doing both: imagine boldly, then take practical, aligned steps toward it.

If you’ve never done intention work, start small: set an intention for a meal, a day, or a short yoga practice and notice how that changes things. Build trust by experimenting — small wins show you this actually works and makes bigger intentions feel possible. And remember to leave space for play and spontaneity; being intentional doesn’t mean being rigid or perfectionistic.

Want a simple practice? Clear your mind (walk, breathe, journal), imagine what you deeply want (no limits), then choose three things to cultivate in the next year. From there: what can you do today, this week, and this month to move toward those things? Check that compass often — daily, weekly, or at least monthly — instead of once a year.

This episode is also an invite: Vision and Vibes — a ritual-filled, embodied visioning workshop on Sunday, January 11th where we’ll use movement, cacao, guided meditation, and journaling to craft intentions you can actually live into. Even if you don’t make the workshop, the practice is simple, sacred, and surprisingly powerful.

Set an intention today — plant a seed for your future self!

Resources:

Register for Vision & Vibes - held at Aloha in Keene, NH

Connect with Us:

• Sarah Koch: @radintimacy | radintimacy.com
• Bryan Russell: @sadhanayogaschool | sadhanayoga.com
• Suggest a topic: DM us or email podcast@radintimacy.com

Subscribe & Share: If this episode moved you, subscribe wherever you listen and share it with someone who might love it too. Let’s grow this beautiful, curious, intimate community—together. 💛

We're excited to announce our first guests on the podcast — my stepbrother Jimmy and his partner Jackie!! We an honest, beautiful conversation about what family actually is. It’s less about blood and more about who shows up: the people who hold you through grief, who make English muffins at dawn, or who fly across the country for chemo.

Family came up as responsibility, duty, acceptance, and unconditional love, but also as something fluid you get to shape. We talked about addiction, caregiving, and those painful, unavoidable parts of family — and how those hard moments can also be the ones that deepen our bonds.

We swapped ritual stories — pizza nights, game and puzzle tables that spark real conversation, Sunday traditions, and shared projects — little customs that create safety and connection. Those small, repeatable acts are the glue: they give us reasons to overlap, to be together, and to become closer.

We also dug into labels and belonging: partners who aren’t married, family trees that don’t include every loved one, and generational ways of seeing things. The takeaway? You can expand your definition. You can choose to show up. You can be the kind of person who makes someone else feel like family.

If there’s one thing to walk away with: cherish the people who show up, make space for new traditions, and don’t underestimate how lucky and grateful you can be for the family you build. Now go call someone you love — maybe invite them over for pizza.

Connect with Us:

• Sarah Koch: @radintimacy | radintimacy.com
• Bryan Russell: @sadhanayogaschool | sadhanayoga.com
• Suggest a topic: DM us or email podcast@radintimacy.com

Subscribe & Share: If this episode moved you, subscribe wherever you listen and share it with someone who might love it too. Let’s grow this beautiful, curious, intimate community—together. 💛

Hi friends — the Holidays are here and we're unpacking one complicated (heavy, beautiful, messy??) word: family.

Family used to mean the people you shared a household with or the descendants of a common ancestor. In recent history the definition has expanded to include chosen family, step family, friends, and more. In this episode we wander through all the definitions and what they actually feel like in real life.

If I had to put it simply: family can be the blood you were born with, the people who raised you, the ones you’re building life with now, and the folks you choose when home doesn't feel safe. Sometimes it’s a neighbor who clears your driveway more than an uncle you only text at reunions. Sometimes it’s all living things — like the earth itself is reminding you you belong (as in Mary Oliver's poem Wild Geese).

We talk about how family shapes our nervous systems and our stories, how being a caregiver and being a child are two very different family roles, and how choices made in youth can echo for decades.

We also get real about the hard stuff: estrangement, shame, the decisions people make that push others away, and the grief of parents and kids who miss each other during phases of growth. There’s honest talk about how families can get stuck in expectations (hey, living vicariously through your kids) and how marriage, partnership, or legal status sometimes determines who gets welcomed into the fold.

We bring practical tools too — like the zones of intimacy (concentric circles of closeness) and a tiny phone hack: add a strawberry emoji to contacts of people you want to grow closer to. It’s an easy way to be intentional about relationships instead of letting them drift.

Boundaries come up as a form of love: Prentice Hemphill’s line — boundaries are the distance at which I can love you and me simultaneously — is our favorite. Boundaries can be temporary, a way to protect your energy while you heal, or a long-term shift when relationships no longer support your wellbeing.

We hold both gratitude and resentment at once — loving someone and being hurt by them — and talk about repair: when ruptures can be healed, when they can’t, and how sometimes life events reorder priorities so people move closer again. Ultimately family is an evolution, and sometimes it’s community, Sangha, or chosen kin that becomes the home you need.

Resources:

• Zones of Intimacy
• Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Connect with Us:

• Sarah Koch: @radintimacy | radintimacy.com
• Bryan Russell: @sadhanayogaschool | sadhanayoga.com
• Suggest a topic: DM us or email podcast@radintimacy.com

Subscribe & Share: If this episode moved you, subscribe wherever you listen and share it with someone who might love it too. Let’s grow this beautiful, curious, intimate community—together. 💛

Hey friend — Welcome back to That's So Intimate. We have a special treat for you - we're sharing our 10 Tips to survive and enjoy the Holiday Season. Are you familiar with the Holiday pressure cooker? If this time of year makes your chest tighten a little, this episode is like a warm hug. We share practical, gentle ways to move through the season with more calm, connection, and a lot less pressure. Think simple breathing techniques, honest boundaries, tiny rituals that actually restore you, and ways to find real connection instead of chasing perfection.

We talk about using the breath as your fastest reset (shorter inhales, longer exhales), choosing connection over putting on a show, and setting realistic boundaries around time, money, and emotional capacity. You'll hear how micro-moments of calm — stepping outside for air, sipping tea, or a quick walk — can change the energy of the whole day.

There’s space here for grief, awkward family conversations, and messes — because letting your feelings belong is part of being human. We remind you to stay hydrated and nourished, keep up your rituals that ground you (even five-minute ones count!), and soften expectations so the moment you’re in can actually be enjoyed.

If things get heavy, reach out — find a Holiday buddy (or two or three) to have on standby to text, call, or connect with. End the day with a tiny gratitude-and-release ritual to soothe your nervous system and sleep better. Go gently, and remember: the holidays can be messy and beautiful at the same time.

Connect with Us:

• Sarah Koch: @radintimacy | radintimacy.com
• Bryan Russell: @sadhanayogaschool | sadhanayoga.com
• Suggest a topic: DM us or email podcast@radintimacy.com

Subscribe & Share: If this episode moved you, subscribe wherever you listen and share it with someone who might love it too. Let’s grow this beautiful, curious, intimate community—together. 💛

Welcome back, dear listeners, to That's So Intimate. Bryan and I are back this week talking about the word generosity. The who, what, and why of giving and all it's complexities.

We start with the simple meaning of generosity: the act of giving more than what’s needed. But then we soften into the deeper layers — generosity as a flow of energy, a way of living from a sense of “there’s enough,” a practice rooted in the heart.

From there, we open the door to the shadow side of giving. We look at the moments when generosity stops being a simple offering and turns into something heavy, confusing, or draining:

• When giving comes with unspoken expectations

• When we hope to earn love or approval through our actions

• When we slide into martyr mode, putting everyone else first

• When generosity becomes a way to feel important

• When giving keeps us from receiving, staying safe behind the role of the “giver”

We talk about how these patterns often come from old stories: the need to be liked, the fear of not being enough, the belief that love must be earned through self-sacrifice.

Through a gentle yogic and spiritual lens, we explore the teaching of dāna from the Bhagavad Gita — the three kinds of giving — and how they help us see the difference between pure giving, ego-driven giving, and giving that harms more than it helps.

This episode reminds us that real generosity is balanced, honest, and rooted in choice. It’s not about losing ourselves. It’s not about keeping score. It’s not about being “the good one.”

It’s about letting kindness move through us in a way that respects our own needs as much as someone else’s.

We close with questions that invite reflection:

• Am I giving from fullness or fear?

• Do I feel tired or resentful after I give?

• What happens if I let myself receive as much as I offer?

This conversation is an invitation to practice generosity from the heart — without losing ourselves, and without tying love to the act of giving.

Connect with Us:

• Sarah Koch: @radintimacy | radintimacy.com
• Bryan Russell: @sadhanayogaschool | sadhanayoga.com
• Suggest a topic: DM us or email podcast@radintimacy.com

Subscribe & Share: If this episode moved you, subscribe wherever you listen and share it with someone who might love it too. Let’s grow this beautiful, curious, intimate community—together. 💛

Welcome to That's So Intimate. In this episode Bryan & I sit with the elusive, beautiful concept of time — what it is, how we feel it, and how it shapes the way we love, work, and live.

We riff on definitions (is time the measure of existence?), physics (Einstein’s relativity), and how perception warps the moments — why a day can stretch or fly, why grief and reminders of mortality make time feel suddenly precious, and why some cultures track time by tides and cycles while modern life measures it by productivity.

We talk about the cultural forces that shape our schedules — from sundials to standardized train time to the modern chronocratic push to equate worth with output-per-hour — and how that pressure can crowd out rest, ritual, and real connection. Then we get practical: small rituals that anchor us (weekly dinners, fireside evenings, a daily gratitude alarm, the high/low/prospect check-in with kids) and ways to align where you spend your minutes with what you truly value.

We also get real about trade-offs: money for time, travel vs. creature comforts, the impulse to “do more” vs. the gift of simply being. We ask gentle, powerful questions — what would you change if you had one year left? Who would you see more? What would you stop doing? — and offer a kind invitation to notice, prioritize, and choose intentionally without shame.

This is a warm, conversational episode about presence, mortality, and the everyday practices that make life feel rich. If it lands with you, share it with someone you love and lean into the small rituals that help time feel sacred. Let's get intimate.