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Podcast

Ep. 149 How to Listen (and be heard) Better

This is a picture of Katie Silcox. The text reads, "Spirit Sessions: Find your true spiritual home with Katie Silcox."

Katie speaks to the Harvard studies on listening. We may think we are great listeners, but most of us could use some tips! Learn why being a great listener is also good for you, as well as techniques and meditative embodied methods that help you become a great listener. It truly is the medicine we need now in our polarized world!

In this episode you’ll hear: 

~ The power of listening to connect with others

~ How social media could be hindering our ability to be truly seen and heard

~ Tangible benefits of being a good listener, backed up by studies from Harvard

~ Katie shares some personal anecdotes as it relates to listening 

~ Great listening involves being present in your own body

~ How nonverbal communication matters for both listening and speaking 

~ Actionable ways we can practice better listening

~ Katie teaches an energy practice for intentional capacity building and deep listening

~ Join Katie and The Shakti School for the Embodied Ayurveda + Mystical Mind live in-person and virtual retreat May 6th and 7th. Live spaces are filling up fast, so register now to get in! Payment plan options available.

This episode is brought to you by PAAVANI Ayurveda. Use discount code SHAKTI15 at checkout for 15% off a one time purchase on paavaniayurveda.com

Female founded PAAVANI Ayurveda is an artisan line of small-batch, pure, organic health & skincare products formulated in Northern California. 

Handcrafted with the wisdom of Ayurveda, these gals seek to raise conscious awareness of the whole by practicing the philosophy of ahimsa or nonviolence in making their products. This means that their offerings are certified cruelty free and vegan and that PAAVANI carefully selects herbal ingredients that are sustainable, ensuring that plant medicine is abundant for future generations. 

In addition to mindful formulations, PAAVANI Ayurveda packages their products in glass to maintain the integrity of their herbal ingredients. Additionally, their labels are printed on recycled paper stock, using water-based inks that generate little to no paper waste & no harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs). 

With every purchase made with PAAVANI Ayurveda, you are supporting a female founded, small business that strives to maintain the health of not only your skin, but also our earth. 

Or Subscribe on iTunes

Learn more:

Ayurveda Certification

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From my heart to your screen,

Katie

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Do you feel the call for true healing? That rumbli Do you feel the call for true healing? That rumbling-in-every-cell plea to touch something sacred and connect with your authentic self? Then we invite you to THRIVE in 2026 by joining us in our Ayurvedic Wellness Coach Certification Training.⁠
⁠
These are the final few hours to redeem the hottest 🔥 deal on either Level 1 or Level 2 Ayurveda School.⁠
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You have just a few hours left to get an EXTRA $100 off the tuition price AND a WHOLE YEAR of Spirit Sessions Membership AND the Paavani Summer Sampler Kit as our love-gift to you for joining. ⁠
⁠
Just enter the discount code 🔆 SummerofLove 🔆 for the deal! ⁠
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Here are the incredible bonuses we’re gifting you:⁠
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💖 Additional $100 off earlybird pricing⁠
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🌿 3 FREE summer-cooling gifts from Paavani Ayurveda:⁠
 • Pitta-reducing spritzer (hello, heat relief!)⁠
 • Cooling body oil (because your skin deserves it)⁠
 • Soothing spice sack (like a hug for your digestive system)⁠
⁠
🌺 A special YEAR-LONG FREE MEMBERSHIP to our thriving Spirit Sessions Membership platform where you get immediate access to ALL of my Spirit Sessions meditations, classes, workshops and other resources. Plus! Immediate access to my ground-breaking CHAKRAS course (a $1000 value!) and LIVE monthly workshops with yours truly and special guests.⁠
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✨ A downloadable Ayurveda for Summer recipe book, straight outta' Katie's kitchen⁠
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👉🏽 The bonus offer ends tonight at midnight. If you know you are IN, claim it now. Just use the code SummerofLove at registration check out to receive the discount and ALL the gifts! Comment AYURVEDASCHOOL (one word) or visit the link in bio to learn more.
So, I failed math in college. Like… epically. So, I failed math in college.

Like… epically.

Like crying in a TA’s office while trying to understand what cosine even is.

Like I still actually have sweaty stress nightmares about not passing college calculus. 

Like, “Katie, maybe you’re more of a philosophy girl.”

And guess what?

They were right.

I was wired for a different kind of intelligence.

One that can’t be tested on paper or memorized from a textbook.

🌿 Ayurveda teaches us there are many forms of intelligence:

~ Emotional: the kind that lets sense the vibe in the room or the texture of your own feelings 
~ Mental: the wisdom to witness your thoughts without becoming them and to use the rational mind for good
~ Spiritual: the capacity to stay connected to Source, even when life is spinning
~ Embodied: the raw, embodied energy that lives in your hips, your gut, your heartbeat, your womb

This kind of intelligence doesn’t get you an A+ on a test.

It gets you a life you actually want to be inside of.
 
And here’s the BEST thing:

When you begin to grow these dimensions of intelligence - your digestion gets better.
Your sleep deepens.
Your nervous system chills the F out.
You cry and laugh more easily.
You start to trust your intuition again.
You feel more you.
 
If any part of you has been craving a deeper kind of learning—one that feels like coming home to yourself—

Then I want to gently invite you to explore our 2026 Ayurveda School Certification.

This isn’t just about herbs and doshas (though we love those too).

It’s about becoming the kind of woman who is wise, emotionally attuned, spiritually connected and deeply grounded in her own body.

The kind of woman who maybe failed math…(although we have several math and science GENIUSES in our school right now!)

but aced in love, healing, beauty and service.

🌞 Our Summer of Love enrollment bonuses expire tonight. If you’ve been waiting for a sign… let this be it. Comment AYURVEDASCHOOL (one word) to claim the biggest discount of the year + free gifts when you join us for 2026 Ayurveda School.
Sister, there are only 3 days left to join Ayurved Sister, there are only 3 days left to join Ayurveda School and snag our Summer of Love Bonus (AKA free gifts galore). 🌞🎁🌹🕯🌺 ⁠
⁠
This is your invitation into a yearlong, feminine-form journey back to your body’s wisdom and your Soul’s deeper purpose – where Ayurveda becomes a way of connecting with who you really are. ⁠
⁠
In our Ayurvedic Wellness Coach Certification Training, you’ll awaken your inner teacher, guided by myself and our incredible faculty of heart-centered experts.⁠
⁠
Now is THE time to enroll with the lowest tuition all year + insane bonus gifts. ⁠
⁠
👉🏽 Enroll by August 11 (that’s THIS Monday - just THREE more days!) and receive:⁠
⁠
💸 $100 off tuition (yes, on TOP of earlybird pricing - this is your last chance to join at the lowest price all year).⁠
⁠
💦 A free Pitta summer gift set from Paavani Ayurveda (includes your very own mini spritzer, oil + digestive spice blend).⁠
⁠
🫀 A FREE 1-year of the Spirit Sessions Membership, our heart-based community platform that includes monthly live workshops with me, access to our full spiritual resource library (over 100 practices) and my Chakras Course ($1000 value). That means you get to start learning with me instantly. ⁠
⁠
🌹 Katie’s Ayurveda Summer Recipe Mix Tape (30+ unctuous recipes for reconnecting with your sensuality through food, including my Hibiscus-Rose Damia Cooler, Coconut-Lime Cilantro Chicken, Pear + Damiana Digestive Smoothie and more).⁠
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Ayurveda School is a path for reconnecting with yourself, building confidence to serve with purpose and creating a career that actually fuels your soul.⁠
⁠
This offer ends in three days. Are you in?⁠
⁠
👉🏽 Comment AYURVEDASCHOOL (one word) to learn more.
I’m fifteen, the sun is setting behind the Bapti I’m fifteen, the sun is setting behind the Baptist church across the street, and I’m having my first kiss. I’m clutching a cherry Slurpee from 7-Eleven. My hands frozen, but my stomach warm with the butterflies of anticipation.

I’ll spare you the full awkward glory of it. Just know: it was thrilling only because it was my first kiss…but it was a little icky. The moment felt more like a nervous science experiment than a cinematic love scene.

And yet for years, I had fantasized about this kiss. I’d built altars to it in my Lisa Frank rainbow notebooks, baptized it in hot pink dolphin dreams. I prayed to the feeling of it—of being wanted, of being chosen, of being seen.

That imagined kiss? It was electric, perfect, Divine.

The real one? A little wet and weird. But also sacred in its own way.

Here’s what I know now: Desire isn’t the problem. It’s the path.

Our work is not to shut down desire, but to refine it.

To redirect it - not toward perfection or external validation - but toward our innermost self. 

Toward the Source.

Toward what is most true.

C.S. Lewis said it best about our desires (what a shocker): “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

It was always about your heart.

And it’s unstoppable, holy ache to remember who you truly are.

That ache? That’s the curriculum of our school.

Shakti Ayurveda School is a soul community. A real-talk, no-BS, deeply feminine journey into healing, desire, laughter and transformation.

Our Summer of Love sale is ending in just 4 days (lowest price + tons of free gifts when you join Ayurveda School).

Ready to go deeper?

→ Comment AYURVEDASCHOOL (one word) to sign-up + claim your bonuses. Just use code ‘summeroflove’ at checkout.

→ Comment MORE INFO to book a free connect call with our team.

→ Comment WISDOM to get instant access to our free Divine Feminine Ayurveda mini-course.
In August, the heat and fire of Pitta that built u In August, the heat and fire of Pitta that built up in June starts to rise to the surface, especially as moisture in our body begins to dry out. 🌞🍂 ⁠
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It’s time to soothe the lingering fire of summer while gently preparing our bodies for the cool, dry winds of fall.⁠
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Here’s your shopping list:⁠
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🌿 Mint: Naturally cooling and calming, balances Pitta heat and soothes digestion.⁠
⁠
🍑 Peaches: Juicy and hydrating, helping balance dryness (which is key this month).⁠
⁠
🍇 Grapes: Sweet, cooling, lightly grounding and Ojas-building.⁠
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🍐 Pears: Moistening and light, they combat late-summer dryness and calm heat.⁠
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🥒 Cucumbers: Cooling, detoxifying and deeply hydrating for tissues.⁠
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🥔 Jicama: Crunchy, sweet and grounding, perfect for balancing rising Vata.⁠
⁠
🍠 Sweet Potatoes: Earthy and nourishing, they stabilize and prep the body for fall.⁠
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💛 Yellow Squash: Moistening and light, supports digestion and balances Pitta.⁠
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🍎 Apples: Astringent and cleansing, they gently clear excess summer heat.⁠
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🍚 Quinoa: Light yet grounding, ideal as we transition from summer to autumn.⁠
⁠
🥛 Milk: (Organic + warm!) Nourishes and lubricates as dryness sets in.⁠
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🥥 Coconut Oil: Cools Pitta, moisturizes tissues and calms inflammation.⁠
⁠
🥕 Carrots: Sweet and earthy, they ground airy Vata and prep digestion for fall.⁠
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🧈 Ghee: Builds Ojas, lubricates tissues and strengthens agni without heat.⁠
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🍅 Tomatoes: For Kapha types, their acidity and lightness help stimulate digestion, but avoid for Pittas + Vatas.⁠
⁠
🌱 Mung Beans: Light, cooling and detoxifying, they balance Pitta while remaining easy to digest.⁠
⁠
✨ Our Ayurvedic Wellness Coach Certification is now enrolling for January and our Summer of Love sale ends in just FIVE days. ⁠
⁠
Enroll by August 11th with code ‘summeroflove’ at checkout & receive:⁠
⁠
~ $100 off tuition⁠
~ A free mini-gift set from Paavani Ayurveda⁠
~ 1 year FREE in Spirit Sessions Membership⁠
~ Katie’s Ayurveda Summer Mix Tape downloadable recipe book⁠
⁠
👉🏽 Comment AYURVEDASCHOOL (one word) to learn more or book a complimentary connect call with our team.

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