In this exploration of divine connection and emotional awareness, Madison Margolin and communication coach Tsiporah Gottesman Bortz frame communication as a sacred practice for healing and self-expression.
Learn more about Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and its developer here.
This time on Set & Setting, Madison and Tsiporah have a conversation about:
- Tsiporah’s connection to Ram Dass after his death, and asking his spirit for guidance
- How spiritual teachers make themselves known in auspicious ways
- Seeing our life as a movie: objective narration in order to gain more perspective
- Linking NVC & Hisbodedus (a Jewish practice of personal and heartfelt conversation with God)
- Tips for people who have communication blocks with the divine
- Bringing mindfulness and deep listening to our conversations
- Tuning into feelings rather than language
- Communication as a type of prayer and accessing the deepest part of us that wants to be expressed
- Keeping a “feelings & needs” journal, allowing our feelings and needs to exist
- Moments of peace through Katonah Yoga, a hatha practice woven with sacred geometry and metaphor
- Psychedelic experiences and seeing how psychedelic life can be without plant medicine
“Stagnant water is like a swamp or puddle. Healthy water is a river you can drink from, it’s moving, it’s alive.Those things inside of us that can feel really heavy, when we allow them to move,the stagnation starts to go away and life force moves through us. It’s moving to allow it to be part of us, when it can be alive in us it doesn’t create lethargy or stagnation. Hisbodedus is this way of expressing from our heart, speaking to creation, and staying big and alive even when we feel like something is closing in on us.” –Tsiporah Gottesman Bortz
About Tsiporah Gottesman Bortz:
Tsiporah Gottesman Bortz is a communication coach, mediator, and teacher with over 15 years of experience guiding individuals and groups in practices of presence, awareness, and connection. She teaches yoga, most recently through Katonah Yoga, and has completed Vipassana meditation training, which continues to inform and shape her work.
Her approach to communication is rooted in Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication and is enriched by somatic practices, including Somatic Experiencing. She supports people in cultivating deep self-understanding and the ability to remain present and grounded, even in the midst of challenge.
Tsiporah also draws from her experience in integration work, helping individuals make sense of and find meaning in profound inner experiences. Keep up with Tsiporah on her Instagram.
About Madison Margolin:
Madison Margolin is a journalist & author straddling California, New York, and Israel-Palestine, focused on psychedelics, cannabis, and Judaism (in jest, she’ll say “Jews & Drugs”). She also covers culture, policy, and science. She is passionate and curious about how people can transcend their minds to access something greater than themselves — be it through psychedelics or God, meditating, creating art, or something somatic, she has set out to explore the various ways people nourish their souls. These days, she works as an editor at DoubleBlind, the print and digital magazine she co-founded, covering psychedelics and where they intersect with mental health, spirituality, environmental justice, and social equity. She also co-founded the Jewish Psychedelic Summit and hosts Set & Setting on the Be Here Now Network. Madison released the book Exile & Ecstasy in 2023. Learn more about Madison’s work at madisonmargolin.com