EP 35: (Season 2 Finale!) How Simple Can Be Sacred With Jenn Tardif of 3rd Ritual

The idea of simple being sacred is a concept that my friend Jenn Tardif introduced me to and it’s a frame for what we’ll be exploring in this episode. I’ve wanted to have Jenn as a guest on Our Nature ever since the podcast launched, so I’m incredibly excited that she’s sharing her wisdom with us on this Season 2 finale episode.

Jenn is the founder of 3rd Ritual, a global collective that creates mindful objects, botanical blends, and esoteric content, all of which are intended to help us move half as fast and notice twice as much. Jenn is a mother, a teacher, and a lifelong student of Taoism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, yogic philosophy, numerology, and sacred geometry. She’s also a certified aromatherapist, a mentor to new and aspiring leaders in the wellness world, and a ritual guide who's led ceremonies for rites and celebrations all over the globe. I absolutely love everything Jenn creates because she does so with grace, intention and impeccable taste. She is one of the wisest people I know and it is an honor to welcome her to the Our Nature community.

We're recording this in fall—a season that can be anxiety-inducing for many, especially in 2020, so we're going to delve deeper into some of the practices that can help us harmonize with our surroundings, inviting, in turn, a greater felt sense of safety in our own skin. In this episode we touch on the origins of 3rd Ritual and its offerings, the 3rd Ritual Retreat, an auditory respite delivered in podcast form, the symbolism and meaning of the seasons according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, what nature can teach us about dualism and binary thinking, ways to connect with nature from wherever you are, the difference between “ritual” and “routine,” and Jenn’s personal rituals for these times. As a way to put intention into practice, Jenn is going to lead us through a short guided breathwork ritual for the season so that we can check in with body, mind and spirit. Stay tuned until the end of the episode (after the last five questions) to experience that special offering.

“A hammer is just a hammer. But it’s you, by way of your intention, that either uses it to build something or destroy something.”
“We’re always surrounded by natural patterns, but when there’s a moment of tension, it means that there’s resistance at play, and that might or might not be conscious. It’s really a resistance to the flow of movement that’s occurring around us and within us.”
“A tree isn’t always sprouting new leaves. There’s a time in which it almost looks dead. And, it’s going to come back to life, and that’s exactly as it should, because nothing is permanent, it’s in constant flux.”
“It feels so bad to rest and to not be doing something if the metric that you’ve decided matters most is your output and your productivity.”
“When we view our lives through this binary lens of good or bad, or good or evil, then we can lose sight of that constant ebb and flow that’s actually much more nuanced and impermanent.”
“I think of rituals as way of remembering because ultimately the state that we aspire to access isn’t something new, it’s not something foreign. It’s not taking ourselves somewhere we’ve never been. It’s a returning to.”

Resources

Show Notes

3rd Ritual’s tools and techniques that bring people into greater harmony with the natural world
All about the Bel
The origin story of 3rd Ritual
What inspired Jenn to create the 3rd Ritual Retreat
The seasons according to Chinese medicine and the meaning of fall
The difference between knowing and doing and why that’s ok
What nature teaches us about binary thinking
How Jenn aligns 3rd Ritual with nature while existing within a capitalist system
The business “no-no” that Jenn purposefully. ignores
Why we have an epidemic of loneliness
Why Jenn calls 3rd Ritual a collective and not a company
From intention to practice: ways to connect with nature from wherever you are
The difference between "ritual” and “routine”
Jenn’s rituals for these times
The Last Five Questions
A guided breathwork practice for the fall season

Connect with Jenn:

The Last Five Questions

What is your favorite place in nature?
Ocean.
What is the animal, mineral or plant that resonates with you the most?
A panda.
What is one thing we can do right now to connect with the natural world and bring more harmony into our lives?
Put our phones down. Look around. Breathe deeply. and give thanks.
What’s the greatest lesson nature has taught you?
That nothing is permanent.
Complete this sentence: Nature brings me…
Life. Joy. Reverence. Connection. And a sense of groundedness.

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