Welcome to Belonging, a podcast that explores being alive in the age of loneliness.

Becca Piastrelli is your host and guide on a journey of courageous reconnection as we explore topics like ancestral wisdom, cultivating meaningful community, living with the seasons and cycles of the earth and your body, and what it means to be a good ancestor.

Apple Podcast

Stitcher

Spotify

Soundcloud

Google Play

Thank you for listening to the Belonging podcast! If the show has supported you in some way, I invite you to contribute to the tip jar. Your contribution helps me keep it going.

Episode #104: Madness as Initiation to Transformation with Clare Foale

Episode #104: Madness as Initiation to Transformation with Clare Foale

Clare Foale is a Mum, a creator, a space holder, a brink walker and an ocean lover, living on Garigal Country in Australia. Together, Clare and I have an open and vulnerable conversation about our experiences with delayed postpartum depression. We share the moments...

Past Episodes:

Episode #103: From a tech-paced career to an earth-paced life with my husband Tim Piastrelli

Episode #103: From a tech-paced career to an earth-paced life with my husband Tim Piastrelli

So much has changed since I last had my husband Tim on the podcast. We became parents. We decided to leave California. We bought a house in...

Episode #102: Returning the Bones of the Earth with Marysia Miernowska

Episode #102: Returning the Bones of the Earth with Marysia Miernowska

Marysia Miernowska is a teacher, author, Earth activist, green witch, folk herbalist and healer rooted in the Wise Woman Tradition of Healing. She...

Episode #101: Lessons from my journey with delayed postpartum depression

Episode #101: Lessons from my journey with delayed postpartum depression

While I often talk about mothering on the podcast, it’s been a few seasons since I shared a personal reflection on being a mother. So this episode...

Episode #100: The Women’s Circle with Anoushka Florence

Episode #100: The Women’s Circle with Anoushka Florence

Anoushka Florence is a teacher, an author, a circle-tender, and a mother. She is the Keeper of the Mama’s Village, the Mama of The Goddess Space,...

Episode #99: Keeping Grief Weird with Tracy Benjamin

Episode #99: Keeping Grief Weird with Tracy Benjamin

Tracy Benjamin is a food photographer, stylist & blogger based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this episode, we have a tender conversation...

Episode #98: Being Alone in Nature with Nicole Antoinette

Episode #98: Being Alone in Nature with Nicole Antoinette

Nicole Antoinette is a writer, podcast host, and community-builder who is super into long-distance hiking. In...

« Older Entries

Follow me! @beccapiastrelli

156 12

🐺 To choose a wild life is to reclaim the ways our animal bodies and communal hearts once innately knew how to be on this exquisitely designed and precious planet.

And to choose is to also forget and them remember again - often over and over. I am a suburban-living mom who is typing this caption on a magical internet computer phone, AND ALSO a human being who is remembering and reclaiming what it means to live a more sacred, fulfilling life. To gather with community. To grieve what is lost. To navigate rites of passage with honor. To bring ritual to every day (even the hard ones). To live and breathe in a seasonal, cyclical way.

Remember this: we are not robots or machines built to be statically one way all the time. We were meant to wax and wane, inhale and exhale, winter and summer - in our bodies, in our nervous systems, in our creative work.

Follow me @beccapiastrelli to keep learning and sharing. I’ve got lots more to share with you. 🐺

Also, because I know you’re going to ask, my dress is by @sister.nettle

110 3

Ritual matters. And so many of us feel a loss of it - or even a feeling of “I don’t know howwwwwww.”
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
But really - I bet you have some dearly held rituals you do already. Maybe you see them as simple routine or habit or even superstition. What makes something a ritual is the meaning or intention you infuse into it.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I invite you to think about how you can take what you already do daily - first sip of coffee, morning shower, feeding your kids breakfast, washing your face before bed - and infuse some meaning or prayer into it.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
You’re one step closer to a life of ritual craft. 😉
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
**If you are ritual curious and want more encouragement and inspiration around it, check out my email newsletter, called Slow & Seasonal, that I send out twice a month. You can sign up by going to beccapiastrelli.com/subscribe or hit up the link in my bio**

311 11

When I talk about ancestral connection practices, some of y’all’s eyes glaze over because you associated this word “ancestor” with things you aren’t really interested in. We can talk about why that is another time, but what I want to say to you here is this:

This work of connection to lineage isn’t just about knowing and building relationships with those who came before you - it’s about seeing yourself as an ancestor in the making.

To understand the vast web of connection that we are all a part of is to realize that, someday, our descendants (whether they be by blood or by body of work or by influence) will be telling the stories of our lives around their fires. Just as much as we look back to the ways people lived in the times before us, the children of the future will be doing the same about us.

So I don’t know about you, but that encourages me to not only try to fully LIVE this one precious life we are given but to also do it in a good way. To walk this earth with integrity and understanding of our impact on the generations to come. And to heal the patterns of pain and neglect that have come before.

You are an ancestor, too. May that be the fuel to keep the healing going.

**If you are interested in this ancestor/lineage stuff, I’m going to be leading a live session of my Tending the Flame Home Practice just on the other side of Halloween/Samhain (the Witch’s New Year). It will be super nourishing (including an ancestral potluck!), and fun (altar building! Smoke cleansing bundles!) and I would love for you to join. Watch this space to learn more soon.**

66 0

We’re approaching a year since this beautiful book was birthed into the world and it’s been so nourishing to see it weave its way to you all. Thank you for sharing with me photos of the book and what’s resonated with you. It was so fun to sign books IRL yesterday at the @rainorshinegathering in Los Angeles. It reminded me just how beautiful and helpful this creation of mine is. May it continue to serve!

Reel recorded by @mamanielaco 🤍

250 13

That’s right: your internal seasons won’t always match up with the weather outside 🍂

I think we can get caught up in how we’re supposed to feel when a calendar date hits and it tells us what season we’re in.

Ex: spring should be a season of possibility and planting new seeds for our visions! 🌱 Autumn should be a season of harvesting all the we created with a feeling of abundance and gratitude. 🍁

And while I find those general themes to be guidelines for supporting me living in a seasonal cyclical way (and NOT in a robotic, static way), I know firsthand that our internal seasons don’t always match the weather vibe. I had an internal winter that lasted over spring summer and fall. I was down, internal, tender, and dreamlike - all things we might associate with the winter season. And I was doing it during a heat wave, not a snow storm.

All this to say: to acknowledge and give space to your internal seasons is to embrace a seasonal way of life. What matters is your noticing, giving care, and remembering you are not a static machine robot thing without feelings and cycling energies.

✨ I talk about seasonal living in my bi-weekly email newsletter, called Slow & Seasonal. If you’d like to receive it, check out the link in my bio ✨

114 2

New episode alert!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
@clarefoale is a Mum, a creator, a space holder, a brink walker and an ocean lover, living on Garigal Country in Australia.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Together, Clare and I have an open and vulnerable conversation about our experiences with delayed postpartum depression. We share the moments beloved practitioners finally helped us see we weren’t okay. The strength it took to acknowledge our pain when so many people dismissed it. The ways our depression was separate from our love of our children. And the power of letting your family witness how you take care of yourself.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This conversation is medicine, and I hope you’ll listen to it, especially if you enjoyed my solo episode on postpartum depression.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
To have yourself a listen, search "Belonging" wherever you listen to podcasts or click the link in my bio 🎧

122 5

After taking a few years off from hosting in-person experiences, I’m so excited to announce that The Rooted Magic Retreat is happening again January 5-8, 2023 on the soft and wild land of northern California, and I’ve got an epically enchanting experience planned. ✨
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
A sacred weekend where you will experience the weaving of your ancient wise self into your modern life + remember how to access deep and lasting connection.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Early January can be so focused on hitting the ground running and #goalcrushing. But you and I know the truth of living a seasonal life is this:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The dream must come before the seed can be planted.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This retreat is a space for you to dream in your seeds for the coming year - by remembering your roots and tending to them in a nourishing and communal space.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Let's come together. Let's deepen our roots. Let's remember our magic.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
During this retreat, we'll be:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- Gathering together in circle under the first Full Wolf Moon of the year
- Taking space to reflect, journal, and journey together on the dreams taking seed in the coming months
- Getting our hands into ancestral folk practices to cultivate a deeper sense of earth and community connection
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We will be staying at a 5-acre, high-end wellness and retreat center on the ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok people (in Nicasio, CA). We will be gathering to eat in the main house, circling together in the exquisite 30-foot yurt, and sleeping in a beautifully restored barn, main house, and there are a few glamping tents as well. At night, we can gather around the outdoor fire pit, cozy up on the couches in the main house with a cup of tea, or take a dip in the hot tub.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If you want to join us, check the link in my bio or send me a DM! Looking forward to gathering under the soft pines with youuuuuu 🌲

274 14

✨Good witness - it’s an art that takes time and practice to refine. ✨

I literally caught myself this morning with a friend who wanted to vent to me responding with a related story. She heard it gracefully, but as soon as I was done talking I realized it wasn’t what she asked of me.

So much of what we want from each other is to be deeply heard and help and seen as the heroes of our own stories. Even as tears and snot are running down our faces, we don’t want to be fixed or told that our emotions are too much or bowled over with someone else’s related experience.

And sometimes….we all need a little reminding. If you are the person doing the sharing, let them know what you are needing (“I would love for you to simply listen”) and if you are the one doing the listening, ask what they are needing (“Are you looking for advice or reflections? Or do you need me to simply listen?”).

This simple method of communicating can go a long long way toward building intimacy and trust in adult friendships and community building efforts. 🤜 🤛

✨For more shares about friendship and community, follow me @beccapiastrelli or sign up for my newsletter - called Slow & Seasonal - link in bio.✨

322 19

Fall Equinox Feels, am I right? 🍂

I love how our bodies yearn for the next season. And I know fall coziness is a big desire for a lot of us! How are you welcoming the season?

868 20

Here in the northern hemisphere, the autumn equinox is a time of equal balance of day and night before the dip down into longer nights and shorter days.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
From an agrarian ancestral perspective, the autumn equinox is a time to count our blessings and feel the abundance of life before the decline of the light. This is a powerful time to face your fears to remind your inner wise self that death always leads to rebirth and the light always comes after the dark.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
So I invite you to join me in this ritual to face the coming darkness. Take a look at all the steps and - should you want to adapt it for your space, your community, or your preference - do just that.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Remember you are the crafter of your rituals - a sacred life is your birthright.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
**And if you want to learn more about ritual, seasonal living, and rites of passage, sign up for my free newsletter, called Slow & Seasonal. Link is in my bio or head to beccapiastreli.com/subscribe**
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

49 1

A word about ritual craft…
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Those prompts again:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
What is your intention with this ritual?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
How do you already or how would you like to embody your intention with this ritual?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
How might you adjust it or add to it to expand the meaning of it for you?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
**And if you want to learn more about ritual, seasonal living, and rites of passage, sign up for my free newsletter, called Slow & Seasonal. Link is in my bio or head to beccapiastreli.com/subscribe**
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

79 4

I was so caught up in the fact that it's fire season in California that I nearly forgot to notice the beauty and plentifulness of these harvest times - despite the heat waves and dry grasses and scratchy throat from smokey air.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This land is exquisite and I love it.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Beginning my months-long goodbye tour to this place as we prepare to migrate east brings sob to my throat. I am doing my best to cultivate intimacy and care as the seasons turn towards darker days and the rains to come - we hope we pray. @eliza.feelings introduced me to Terry Tempest Williams' Erotics of Place - we call to the land - and the land calls back. And right now I am in a long, slow, grief and devotion filled goodbye to this precious precious place.