Listeners, I am currently on break so I can focus on my writing and some much-needed rest. Until I return with new episodes on September seventeenth, I’ve curated a summer rewind series of fan favorites. If you’re new to the show, this is a great way to start, and if you’ve been here for a while, these episodes include gems you’ll want to hear again.

In this summer rewind episode, I revisit my conversation with yoga therapist and certified death doula Natalie Buster as we grapple with this question: How do you write about really tough, or even traumatic, life events in a way that connects with your audience and the truth, without losing yourself? It’s a question so many writers ask me. Natalie’s answers are ones every writer and creative needs to remain open hearted and true to their art and who they are. In addition to the roles I’ve already mentioned Natalie, is an actor, certified death doula, and podcaster who hosts the Before You Go podcast. Since this recording, she has also become the executive director for Abode, an end-of-life home that offers contemplative care for the dying. If you like this episode, consider giving a donation to Abode as a thank you for her generosity. I know she’ll appreciate it, and after having spent some time at abode, I know those who stay there will greatly benefit from it. You can find the link in the show notes.  But for now, let’s get to today’s episode.

Lisa Ellison [0:00]
Well, hello, Natalie Buster, welcome to the Writing Your Resilience podcast. I am just so happy to have you here, and happy 2025!

Natalie Buster [0:08]
Oh yes, 2025! I am so happy to be here too, Lisa. I love your podcast, and I’m just so grateful to be a part of this conversation today.

Lisa Ellison [0:19]
Well, I am super excited about all the things that we are going to dive into today because you have just a wide variety of skills, and you wear many, many hats. One of those hats, which I’m hoping you’ll just share a snippet about, is that you’re an actress, and you were just on tour.

Natalie Buster [0:37]
So, I just returned home from the Broadway national tour of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We toured a lot in the Northeast, a little bit in the Southeast, and I played the role of Grandma, Who as part of the ensemble. It was such a magical experience sharing the story of welcoming, inclusion, beauty, and family to people all over the country.

Lisa Ellison [1:06]
I got to see a picture of you on stage. Actually, it may have been backstage. I think it was on your Instagram. I definitely want to share that with people because you looked adorable.

Natalie Buster [1:17]
Yes, please do. Yeah, it’s very candy colored. The designers took their cues from the original book, I think, from the ’50s, and just made everything candy-colored and whimsical and just very delightful for the audiences to partake in.

Lisa Ellison [1:34]
I have one question about this, and it’s related to the wig. How heavy was it?

Natalie Buster [1:39]
The wig wasn’t bad. We had an amazing hair and wig specialist who traveled with us, and it was just really great. It was a big tower of pink curls, not heavy at all. But my costume, which is a big pod, we call them pods, was about 15 pounds. So, that was… I needed to do a lot of yoga therapy on myself before and after the show to take that weight.

Lisa Ellison [2:05]
Oh my gosh, I can only imagine. I would have thought it was the wig that was heavy, but not the costume. And yet, as you’re saying this, that makes so much sense, and it leads into one of the things we’re going to talk about today, which is the fact that you are a certified trauma-informed yoga therapist. Before you tell us what that is, is there anything else you’d like us to know just about you and the work you do out in the world?

Natalie Buster [2:28]
Oh, my goodness. I never in a million years thought that the two careers would unite in this way—theater and yoga. They really work hand in hand. And I think the trauma-informed aspect of the yoga work that I do can lend itself a lot to theater too, and I know we’ll go into that later. But as actors, we tell stories, and those stories aren’t always pleasant. You know, we tell the truth, and we share those stories with people, and that can have a traumatic effect on the actor, and on the recipient. And so, trauma-informed yoga therapy has really helped me step into the truth as an actor, take care of myself and others as I’m doing the work. Obviously, in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, it’s not a very traumatic story, but I’ve done a lot of plays that do have traumatic themes and so being able to work through that and still find myself at the end of that experience is where I think yoga can certainly help.

Lisa Ellison [3:28]
Yeah, and a lot of people who are listening to this podcast are writers. Many of them are writing about really tough experiences, and, you know, they know that as they’re writing, there’s a piece of them that is reliving that experience at the nervous system level. I would imagine something similar happens when you are an actor inhabiting a role. Can you tell us a little about what that’s like, in case someone doesn’t see the connection points?

Natalie Buster [3:57]
What I love about writers is that they are speaking their truth, and when they are crafting their personal stories and putting them on the page for other people to read, it can be traumatic, it can be triggering. It can be very opening as well, very vulnerable. And I think the same can be said about actors. When an actor goes on to the stage, if they aren’t rooted in the truth, the audience knows right away. They can pick up what you’re laying down, and if you are acting at it, if you’re playing at a character, you’re never going to be able to connect with the audience. Just as a writer, if you aren’t really delving into your truth and going there, you’re not going to be able to connect with your readers. And so, our goal is to connect with our readers, with our audience members, and to do that, we must be able to take care of ourselves so that we can step into that truth, so that we can go where we need to go to tell the story. And so, I see a lot of similarities between writers and actors. We’re both artists. We both create, we both tell stories, and we have people who consume those stories, and when we’re putting ourselves out there in that way, that can be vulnerable. So, at the same time, we have to make sure that we take care of ourselves so that we can continue to tell the stories.

Lisa Ellison [5:17]
Absolutely. And another thing that is hitting me as you’re talking about this, is the fact that we also have to be able to leave those stories behind when they’re complete, or when we’re off the stage, or when our writing session is done. And that can be harder said than done when you have really inhabited something, or you’ve gone there with your writing. When you think about your work as a certified trauma-informed yoga therapist, what does that look like when you’re working with someone?

Natalie Buster [5:46]
I am a big fan of ritual. I think rituals can really ground us. They can really help regulate our nervous system. I’ve studied a lot of the polyvagal theory, being able to use voice and somatic movement and breath work to regulate the nervous system through activating and toning the vagus nerve, I find to be really helpful. And so, I have created little rituals for before a session begins, and then after a session ends, and that session could be a writing session, it could be your time on stage as an actor. It could be a rehearsal or an audition. It could be a yoga session. So really, whatever that session means, these rituals bookend the session to create that healthy and safe bubble from which you can be creative and be honest, but then, to your point, Lisa, also being able to leave it behind when you’re done. How can you close the door and then re-inhabit your life in the present moment? And so, I call these little rituals, opening the shop and closing the shop, and I use it with all my clients, whether they’re death doulas, whether they’re yoga students, whether they’re actors, or just friends of mine that just need a little grounding support. And so, if you’d like, I could take you through a simple opening the shop ritual.

Lisa Ellison [7:18]
I would absolutely love that, because I’m a huge fan of rituals as well. And one of the things I tell people all the time is that rituals prime your brain to do something, whether that is to begin or to leave, and it is hugely helpful to your nervous system. And it’s one of the things that we don’t spend enough time on in our world that’s just go, go, go, busy, busy, busy, distract, distract. So yes, please take me through this. I love that.

Natalie Buster [7:47]
  You’re right, Lisa. So many times, we’re going from one thing to another without acknowledging that we’ve just done a thing. And when it comes to acting or writing, or doing yoga, we are asking ourselves to go to a very vulnerable place, a very sacred place, and so we need to honor that with ritual. So, my opening the shop ritual is like a recipe of sorts. It has four components, and so you can mix and match whatever you want to insert into these components. It’s totally up to you, dear listener and Lisa, but the four components are a centering practice that I like to begin with, and then some gentle breath work, whatever you’re needing. If you need to feel more energy, maybe an invigorating breath practice, or if you are really out of your mind, then maybe a more grounding breath practice, and then some somatic movement that can be very simple or can be a very strenuous vinyasa yoga routine, if you’d like, just depending on where you are and how much time you have.

And then I always like to end with an affirmation. And in yoga, we start with something called a Sankalpa, which roughly translates to resolve or intention, and it’s almost as if you’re calling on what already is. You know that you are just stepping into the energy of what is already true. So, for example, I am healthy, I am already stepping into the fact that I am healthy, and I am just giving it voice, and that can become my Sankalpa, and then that, in turn, can become an affirmation. I am healthy when I do what I love. I am healthy when I perform, when I write, when I tell my story.

So, why don’t we begin with a little centering practice? If your listeners are listening to this while they’re driving, don’t close your eyes. But Lisa, you and I can close our eyes if you feel comfortable doing so, maybe placing one hand on your heart and one hand on your abdomen. If your knees or your ankles are crossed, you may consider uncrossing them. And really planting your feet on the floor to feel the energy of the ground underneath you, bringing attention to your seat and the support of the structure beneath your seat, maybe behind your back, and then start to notice your breath. There’s an invitation here to follow your breath, noticing the temperature of your inhale, and does that temperature change when you exhale, noticing how your body responds to your breath. Where do you feel that connection to your breath? It may be in your abdomen, in your chest, at the tip of your nose…

Natalie Buster [11:14]
And then, as you’re ready, letting your hands come back to your lap, gently blinking open your eyes and taking in the room around you, noticing colors, textures, shapes, patterns. So, that’s just a simple grounding practice. It’s pretty feasible. You can do it sometimes without people noticing. I work with people who have some anxiety; they present to me with anxiety, and some of that anxiety is about what others perceive them to be doing, or how they are perceived by others. And so, I always like to say it’s nice that you can do a very subtle, quiet grounding practice just to come back into your present moment, your body, your breath, and your immediate surroundings. So, I start with that, and then we move into some breathwork. One of my favorites is box breathing.

Lisa Ellison [14:07]
I am totally zenned out, and I’m having to remind myself, like, but wait, you are also a podcast host right now. But it’s so lovely because it just takes all that energy that I have in my head that can get really fuzzy and really busy, and it slows it down, and it reminds me to be in my body, which is so important.

Natalie Buster [14:29]
Absolutely. And I like that you describe that fuzzy feeling. I know that feeling well. And I think a lot of times when we’re dysregulated, we identify with that feeling. “I am fuzzy, I am discombobulated,” but I liked what you said. You said, “I’m feeling a fuzzy feeling,” like it’s more, “I’m sensing this, I’m feeling this.” It’s not necessarily you. It’s something that is happening to you. And so, when that’s an external construct, then it’s something that we can work with. You know, we can use the breath practice. We can use some of the grounding practices to really come back to our true self so that we don’t have to identify with the buzziness.

Lisa Ellison [15:13]
I want to tease this out for listeners. There are two things you’re doing that I think are really, really important. When you think about the affirmations, which I know you’re going to get to, and you were just talking about, “What do we want to step into?” The words “I am” are so important for the things that we want to own. And then the experiences we have that perhaps are not our true self or things that are uncomfortable, we don’t necessarily want. Instead of resisting them or getting angry with ourselves about them, or frustrated, we can separate ourselves from them by simply talking about the fact that this is happening, and it’s an external thing, right? Like, that feeling was not me. It is just a thing that is happening, and that can be so freeing.

Natalie Buster [15:56]
Oh my gosh, totally. It’s a great meditation technique, I found too. I feel that buzzy feeling when I meditate, especially if it’s been a while. But a great meditation technique is naming—just naming distraction, distraction—or you can name whatever breath. You can name your breaths, and I find that helps identify those things that are not us, so that we can then come to our true essence.

All right. Number three, are you ready for the movement? Now we’re both seated, so we’ll stay seated. I’m just going to back up a little bit. One thing that happens a lot because we’re on our devices all the time and we start to get this hunched-over posture, is I like to just start with some simple shoulder rotations, yeah. And you know, you all know your bodies better than I do, so find the range of motion that works best for you. If you have a shoulder injury, practice that identification with knowing what fits best for your body and what feels right. And then maybe reversing the direction right away.

I feel this in my back ribs, and so I find that as a performer, as a singer, as a speaker, right now, I really want to have full access to my rib cage and allow that to really expand, so that I have my full breath capacity. I also love to just stretch my arms above my head. So, as you’re ready, maybe bringing your arms in a sweeping manner above your head as you inhale, and then exhale, flip your palms as you bring the arms back down to your side. Let’s do that two more times, inhaling arms up and exhaling arms down. And if you’d like, you may consider trying to time the breath with the length of movement.

So as long as it takes to move the arms up, that’s the length of your inhale. As long as it takes for your arms to come down, that’s the length of your exhale. And so, finding that connection between breath and movement can be a ritual for me that gets me out of the fuzzy feeling and allows me to be really focused and in the moment for the work that I have to do.

One thing that I’ll just describe—we won’t necessarily have the time to go through it now—but it’s called a joint freeing series, where you start with your toes. You move your toes with the breath. So maybe you crunch up the toes with an exhale and then stretch out the toes with an inhale. You work your way up, really connecting breath with movement, joint by joint, as you make your way up the body. Usually, I end with the jaw and so massaging the jaw and opening and closing the mouth a few times, but really finding that way to release any tension, any disconnect in different parts of the body.

We hold trauma and stress in our bodies, as they say, “The issues are in the tissues,” and so being able to at least mindfully work our way through that with breath and attention can really help us be at home in our bodies, so that we really can do this work of storytelling.

Lisa Ellison [19:09]
That’s so beautiful. And what I’m thinking about is that one of my practices I’m really working on is being more aware of my back. And I think for some of the reasons you talked about—the fact that, you know, we’re hunched over in front of computers all day—tends to make those muscles freeze in the back. And when those muscles are frozen, it does affect your breath. And what we do when we’re stressed is we hold our breath. So, if we want to have that full capacity and that full access to who we are, we must attend to what’s behind us as well as what’s in front.

Natalie Buster [19:44]
Oh, that’s so beautifully said. One technique that I like to guide my students through is a prone position. So maybe taking your hands and letting your forehead rest on your hands and then lying on your stomach and then focusing on the breath and really bringing your attention to the back body. See if you can direct at least the feeling of breath in the back body. That does wonders, and it gets people out of their heads a lot of times, because this is brand-new information. We’re used to thinking about the breath being in the front body, but it’s three-dimensional, and so allowing people to access that feeling in the back body, I think, can be helpful and powerful.

Lisa Ellison [20:25]
Yeah, and when we think about your voice as both a performer, which is what you do, or a writer—I’m doing a whole series on “Where does your voice come from? What is voice in writing?”—and it is so connected to the breath and to your ability to expand. And when you can practice these things in your body, and you really connect to that, that is something that you can then translate onto the page.

Natalie Buster [20:48]
I agree, Lisa. And in my career, translate onto the page and the stage. Yeah, because this is our instrument, right? Our bodies are our instruments. And in any kind of storytelling, your body—this is where the story lives—and then our job is to let that story flow from our bodies by having that attention and that awareness of where the voice is, where the breath is. And in writing, I think sometimes people are like, “Well, my voice comes from my head and my heart and this kind of thing.” But what does that mean? And if we can somaticize it and really bring it into a physical practice, I wonder if that would really help people get out of their heads and more into the reality and the truth of the story that they’re telling.

Lisa Ellison [21:38]
That sounds like another episode we might have this for.

Natalie Buster [21:43]
Yeah, I got all these tricks in the toolbox. But one thing that comes to mind is a practice that my mentor taught me. It’s called a vowel spiral, and we won’t have time to really dive into it now. But basically, you start with a certain vowel sound, and you bring your hands to your heart, and you feel the vibration when you say an “ah,” for example, “ah.” And really finding that vibration in the center of your chest, and then moving the attention to the throat, changing a vowel to see what works, down to the belly, up to the head—lots of resonators here—maybe down into the hips, and really feeling the depth of your voice, the depth of your awareness, and then finally, the crown of your head, and feeling how that connects them to the rest of the world and the people that we are telling our stories to. So, how can we move that voice through the body so that we can hit all the voices that we need to tell our stories?

I love that. Yeah, it’s like, so cool and trippy. I absolutely love it. And I could talk for days about this, but you know, as part of the ritual you may choose to kind of explore when you’re doing the somatic movement and the breath movement, you might want to add voice or sound to the breath. You might want to add sound to your shoulder rotations, just to shimmy and do a little “Hey,” you know, just to kind of bounce that sound around, and really getting that freed up so that your voice can be free and clear.

Lisa Ellison [23:13]
Give yourself permission to move and play. Play with your voice. Play with all these things is so important because it creates a sense of lightness and the energy that, yes, maybe you’re working on a really tough thing when you’re telling a tough story, and you can play. It’s not an either-or, it’s a both-and.

Natalie Buster [23:34]
Oh, I’m a big fan of “yes and” and “both-and” because it is all the things. That’s the human experience, right? As an actor, if I’m playing tragedy, I can’t be playing tragedy, or I’m going to lose everybody. I’ve got to play, to find the comedy, find the lightness in that to really tell the human experience, because that’s what happens, right? If something horrible happens to you, there’s usually also some off-the-wall crazy things that accompany that. And so being able to find the lightness in the tragedy, but also the depth and the groundedness in the comedy. And so being able to find that balance or the opposites, I think, can be effective in good storytelling.

Lisa Ellison [24:18]
Absolutely. And it’s so important because what often happens when people are working on a tough story is that what you’re remembering is the darkness, and what happens in your brain is what you remember gets reinforced, so then it becomes dark, dark, dark, dark, dark. And then you send this to your beloved writing community, or an agent or someone, and they say, “Where’s the levity? Where is that light?” And if you haven’t practiced finding it in other ways, it can be difficult to then find it in your work, because a certain neural pattern has been activated in the brain, and it doesn’t know how to switch out of it.

Natalie Buster [24:56]
In yoga, we call that samskara, which is like a rut, a groove, or that rut that we’re just digging deeper and deeper, and pretty soon that becomes unrelatable, right? It’s so dark, it’s so deep that it’s exclusive. It shuts the audience out. Where, if we can find the opposites, if we can find the levity, or that push-pull, the dynamics of it can be so thrilling for the reader, for the audience member. It can find a real great connection between the artist and the recipient of the art, the writer and the person who’s reading. I mean, it creates this really beautiful connection of honesty and truth,

Lisa Ellison [25:37]
And that is what we are all going for.

Natalie Buster [25:42]
So the final part of this Opening the Shop ritual is affirmation, and I love that you picked up on the “I am” statement. I often tell my people “I am” is a complete sentence. Maybe you start there, you come back to your grounding posture, whatever that was for you—feet on the floor, hands on body, eyes closed, if you feel comfortable doing so. You find that connection to your breath again, noticing the body response to the breath, and then maybe on an inhale, thinking to yourself the word “I.” On an exhale, thinking to yourself the word “am.” “I am.” “I am” as a complete sentence, you are, and from this complete sentence, from this building block, we can add on if we wish. I am healthy, I am peaceful, I am capable. I am a storyteller, I am a writer, I am an actor. There’s no end, right? I am capable of doing difficult things. I mean, it could be a long sentence, it could be a song, it can be a story. Maybe that’s how the story begins. But starting with that seed of “I am,”

Lisa Ellison [27:03]
 Yeah, and I think I was in a yoga class once. We did this more than once, but I think the Sanskrit for “I am” is Soham. Yes, yes, I’m getting it right. Yay!

Natalie Buster [27:15]
So hum. Some lineages say Sat Nam, but it basically comes back to “I am,” “I am that” or “I am.” And if you use the Sanskrit or a chant, or if you say it out loud, then you’re also tapping into that polyvagal toning of humming and using the different energy points in your mouth and your tongue to kind of activate that reality of being present, of being “I am.” And so, you can do it quietly, you can do it out loud. You can chant it, you can sing it. But I think the important thing is to do it in some way.

Lisa Ellison [27:51]
 And the more you step into what you want and how you want your life to be, and what your dreams are, the more you have the capacity to make them a reality. In the times that we are living in, which is going to be filled with lots of change, the more you can create rituals and do things like this, the more you’re going to set yourself up for success. Also, ground yourself so that regardless of what’s happening around you, you have the tools you need to move forward with what’s important to you.

Natalie Buster [28:24]
 It’s all about tapping into your resilience, like your podcast, Writing Your Resilience. You are resilient. You have gone through these things, these things happened to you. You are not the things, but you can tap into the experience and tell the story. And I think that comes with creating a safe space for yourself, with these rituals, with taking care of yourself. I found that to be so helpful when I was on tour, on the road. I might not have partied with everybody as much as I would have liked to, but I was able to stay the course by having these rituals and really practicing rest and self-care and quiet times. And I think for writers, it’s so important too.

Lisa Ellison [29:11]
 You cannot hear the voice of creativity if you do not make room for it. You know, I love what you said about how we are not the things that happen to us because you, in addition to the work you do with yoga and acting, you also are a death doula, and you work for this beautiful organization, Abode, which I have had the privilege of going to with you. And you work with people at the end of their lives. And that is such a sacred time, and it can also be a really difficult time where things are happening to people. How is all of this coming together for you in this work, and what are the people that you serve teaching you about what you need for your life, for creativity, and what’s really important?

Natalie Buster [29:59]
 This is such a great question. I never thought I’d be doing this work, but in a lot of ways, it really is another opportunity to tell a story. And so, we have a training program for end-of-life doulas at Abode, so that we can train people to do what we do, and the very first thing that we teach them is how to do nothing right—create the space. Because if you go in trying to fix everything, trying to be everything to everybody, because you’re right, it can be a very chaotic energy with a lot of family dynamics or different ideas of what death means. But if you can come in, and you’ve done the work, you’ve opened your shop, and you can just hold space, you can be a presence for this person, and that does more than I think people realize.

The doulas that I work with, who really know how to do that, create these bonds with the family members and with the person who’s dying that is so sacred and so precious. That’s what we all deserve at the end of life, not necessarily interventions or trying to fix and help and all that stuff, but someone who can just be with you, someone who can just hold your hand and listen as you tell your stories, to practice that deep listening of me as the listener, as the doula, not inserting myself into this situation, but to just let myself be a receiver of what this person is giving to me at the end of life. And it sounds so beautiful and easy, and it’s so hard to do, oh my gosh, yes, it’s so hard to be contemplative. You know, that’s our main word at Abode, our theme, our mantra, is to have that contemplative practice and that contemplative presence with our guests. We call our people who stay with us guests. And how can we do that authentically? And I think it’s by creating ritual. It’s by finding your own groundedness, your own awareness of yourself and how you show up so that you can then be of service to others and allow them to tell their stories. And that’s the biggest gift: I can continue to be a storyteller for these people who are at the end of life, but for me to tell their stories, I have to first be a listener and to really hold the presence for them.

Lisa Ellison [32:28]
And there are no higher stakes than the last time you can tell your story.

[Natalie Buster 32:34]
And so if you feel safe enough to be able to tell your story to somebody—a death doula, perhaps—that death doula better be ready to receive the story, because it is the most precious gift that anyone can give. And I have felt so fortunate to be at the bedside of people who are telling those stories and who are telling things that they may not have wanted to tell others, but they’re in a safe space now that they can share that. And sometimes some of the stories that I’ve heard and received have been hard for me to bear. We have stories that are not always pretty. How can I receive that story without it affecting who I am as a person? And I think that’s by opening and closing the shop, you know, so that I can be present, I can be there for the person, but that I can also close the shop and then go back into my life, so that I don’t take their stories with me. They’re not my stories. It’s their stories.

Lisa Ellison [33:36]
Yeah, and that’s such a healthy way to look at it, because we do want to embrace those stories for other people, but also, we need to have those boundaries. And what I would tell writers is that, when you are working on a story about something that’s really difficult, you’re writing about someone who no longer exists. There is you, the writer, who is the creator, but the character on the page is someone else, and they’re the one who owns the story, and being able to let them hold that story and own that story so that you, the person in the present, can go off and do all the other things that you’re meant to do, is such a powerful and important lesson to learn, and you are giving us just beautiful tools that we can use to be able to do that.

Natalie Buster [34:22]
Oh, thank you. It’s a practice. Let me tell you. I mean, I have, like, this overflowing toolbox over here. Do I use it all the time? No. Do I notice when I don’t use it? Absolutely. And so, it’s a practice. It’s a continual practice to set that ritual in place to make sure that I can give my full self without compromising who I am as a person in all three of these different things—like working with yoga students, being on stage, writing for things, and being with people at the end of life. How can I hold fast to who I am, I am, you know, coming back to that, but still being that vessel to tell the story? That’s the important thing. And it’s practice.

Lisa Ellison [35:10]
Yes, it’s practice. And knowing that there is no grade, and there is no end point, we’ll always be doing it. And I’ve noticed over the many years that I’ve gotten a chance to know you, you do these things marvelously, and I’m always in awe of all you’re able to do. And I know that other people are going to want the opportunity to get to know you and be in awe of you as well. Before we get to that, you also are a writer. In addition to all these things, you work on your own writing. What is the best piece of writing advice someone has given to you?

Natalie Buster [35:42]
Sit down and do it. Just do it. What always stops me, and some of the challenges I faced as a writer, is getting too much in my head. Like, oh, that story, no one’s going to buy that story. Or, oh my gosh, there’s going to be so many critics. Or, oh my gosh, like, who’s going to read this? I’m going to spend all this time pouring my heart out onto the page and then nobody’s going to buy or read the book. That’s none of my business. My business is to sit down, open the computer, and start writing. That’s all I have to do. And so, when I am successful at writing, I have a nice ritual in place, right? I do my opening the shop, I sit down, I give myself, like, let’s get to 2000 words, for example, two pages. And then after that, close the shop and be done. And if I can just commit to that, I’m a successful writer. It doesn’t matter what I’m writing. At that point, it doesn’t matter what I’m writing. I need to just write. And so, if it helps me to do the rituals, to create the sacred space, then I’ll be a successful writer.

Lisa Ellison [36:47]
I love that, and that is the most important thing you can do. You cannot work on a story if it’s not on paper or in your computer, wherever you put it, but you have to have it out of you, right? It can’t be in your head. So, if people want to connect with you, listen to your podcast, because you also have a podcast with Abode, what are the best ways for people to connect with you?

Natalie Buster [37:10]
The best way is on my website, and that kind of has links to everything, and that’s nataliebuster.com. You can find me on Instagram at Natalie Buster Yoga, and that’s where I really spend my time talking about yoga and end-of-life care and death doula stuff. I also have another Instagram profile that’s mostly about acting and using these grounding techniques for actors, and that’s at Grounded Actor Project. Those are on Instagram. The podcast you alluded to is called Before You Go, the official podcast of Abode, Contemplative Care for the Dying. It’s a mouthful, but if you go to my website, you’ll find a link right there, and you’ll be able to click on that and listen. We just wrapped up our first season. We’re getting set to start recording our second season, and Lisa, I would like to use this platform to officially invite you to be one of my guests on our podcast.

Lisa Ellison [38:07]
I would absolutely love that.

Natalie Buster [38:09]
No pressure.

Lisa Ellison [38:12]
I was almost like, will you marry me?

Natalie Buster [38:14]
Will you marry me? In front of all these people?

Lisa Ellison [38:18]
Ah, I look forward to it. And what I will say is that from listening to your podcast, you’re always posing these really interesting questions. It always gives me something to think about. And so, it doesn’t matter if you are interested in being a death doula, there’s going to be something there that is going to touch your life. So, I encourage all of you to listen to that, to check out all the things that Natalie Buster is doing, and you will be able to find all of that in the show notes. So, fear not if you missed what she said. It’s all there for you. I’m going to give you the last word, and I’m going to ask you, how would you like to close the shop on this session?

Natalie Buster [38:53]
Oh, good. I love that. Let’s just come back to grounding our feet on the floor, bringing our hands to our bodies, maybe a hand on the heart, maybe a hand on our abdomen. If you feel comfortable and you’re not driving, close your eyes, coming back to your breath, noticing its texture and temperature and then let’s repeat that Sankalpa. I on the inhale, am on the exhale, stepping into our truth, our essence. I am. And then when you’re ready, you can open your eyes. Thank you so much, Lisa.

Lisa Ellison [39:50]
Thank you, and I am so grateful that you are here today to share all of this with us.

Natalie Buster [39:58]
Oh, me too. This was such a pleasure. And I just adore you to pieces. So anytime I get to chat with you, it’s a good day for me.