Show Notes

In this rich conversation, Mahshid Hager joins me to explore the deep connections between healing, place, ancestry, and belonging. We talk about what it means to reconnect to land after displacement, how our bodies carry the memory of where we come from, and the ways somatic practices help us rebuild relationship with place even when we feel far from home.

Mahshid shares her own story of growing up in Iran, living in diaspora, and finding her way back into a sense of rootedness through land-based ritual, creative expression, and nervous system work. Together, we reflect on migration, inherited grief, cultural loss, and the longing to belong — as well as the resilience, beauty, and wisdom that emerge when we let the body guide us back into relationship with the world around us.

Throughout the episode, we weave in conversations about slowness, pleasure, the seasonality of healing, walking as a somatic practice, and how land teaches us how to stay connected, even through change.

Timestamps

00:00 — Welcome & introducing Mahshid
02:00 — Mahshid’s early experiences of land, childhood, and cultural roots
04:00 — Growing up in Iran and the imprint of place on the nervous system
06:30 — Diaspora, migration, and the grief of displacement
09:00 — How the body remembers what the mind forgets
11:00 — Rebuilding relationship with land from afar
13:00 — The role of somatic practice in finding belonging
15:00 — Walking as a healing practice & listening to the land’s cues
17:30 — Creativity, ritual, and seasonal attunement
20:00 — What belonging means when you’ve lived in many places
22:00 — The tenderness of not feeling “from” anywhere
24:00 — Working with inherited grief & intergenerational patterns
26:00 — Softening through pleasure, presence, and sensory orientation
28:00 — The body as home: redefining rootedness
30:00 — Mahshid’s perspective on healing across cultures and continents
33:00 — How slowness supports nervous system repair
35:00 — Land as co-regulator: reciprocity, listening, and care
38:00 — Returning to ourselves through nature-based practices
40:00 — Closing reflections & what Mahshid hopes listeners carry forward

Resources Mentioned

• Learn more about Mahshid's work 

Submit your questions for the Q&A [here]

Photos and links from this episode: www.mindandmountain.co/podcast