The Old Growth Podcast

Mental health is such an important topic, and Keegan Downer has an intense story. Chief Vision Officer of Mindful Meds, he has walked through so many trials throughout his life to get to where he is today. His story is vulnerable, and powerful.Keegan’s story into purposeful wandering begins with being raised with divorced parents who had very different perspectives on parenting and rules. His dad had a prolific drinking problem and operated on no rules. His mother was the opposite. In college, a one-night stand changed the perspective of the next 9 years of his life entirely and led to the beginning of his alcoholic addiction. It caused his very first taste of depression and anxiety. He started drinking after his shifts as a bartender, and the more that went on, the more it deteriorated him.“Kids aren’t really taught how to look out for mental illness. I was looking for someone to grab me from the back and save me, but it just never came… I could never catch this addiction.”After some very close calls with his health, he went to rehab, which changed his life and gave him the comeback he desperately needed. He then discovered the power of mushrooms, which led him to his business Mindful Meds.“I don’t know a way that can catapult you into a new way of thinking other than psychedelics of mushrooms.”Macro and micro dosing are both very helpful in mental health. Keegan himself does them every three months. Micro dosing might be one of the biggest breakthroughs in mental health history. You’re not supposed to feel the micro dose, you’re supposed to be fully functional. Keegan’s life story which led him to starting this business is truly inspiring, you do not want to miss hearing out on his truths.Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagramKeegan Downer - Founder of Mindful Meds: website | instagram

Capital T Truth will always lead you home. Small t truth will almost always lead you away. In this episode, Loren and Mackenzie are joined by good friend and mentor Greg German as they discuss Truth, unconscious beliefs and Akashic readings.What brought Greg to a place of purposeful wandering? Through some hard turns earlier in his life, Greg ended up in prison, where he realized ‘surrender is a beautiful lesson and way to live’. That experience completely transformed his outlook and enabled him to discover and listen to his intuition deeply for the first time.“The idea that we can be safer, or happier or more in power or more enough by power-steering our life in egoic ways of creating our identity and driving that is incomprehensible to me now. We must simply surrender. Make the choice to move love to whatever purpose puts in your path. Then you are wandering, and its blissful.”Greg shares with our hosts his new exploration into the practice of Akashic record readings. This is the repository of all knowledge that has been accumulated in consciousness, which can be accessed through an intentional process of meditation and chanting. Intuition is a big part of his human experience. And through his practice, he was able to more fully understand how all intertwines with beliefs.Beliefs are so powerful for persisting pain, for not thinking you’re not going to get that movement. Even if you objectively are doing the movement. Beliefs are so powerful.“Sometimes when people are hard to love but we make the effort, we find an incredible level of power and deep freedom and autonomy. This understanding that I have the will and power to love anyone. And every time I love someone, I feel free because that's the truth. That’s a superpower.” Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagramGregory German - Founder of LifeCraft: website | facebook | instagram  | linkedin

Have you ever been to toad school? In this episode, our hosts are joined by Helena and Segan from Earthlings as they dive deep into their journey with Psychedelics and how it allowed them to grow in their journey of purposeful wandering.Helena and Segan’s discovery of 5MEODMT helped them in finding alignment with purpose. 5MEODMT is a naturally occurring substance that’s in the venom of the Sonoran Desert toad (western border of Mexico and US). They use a synthetic version (vegan, for marketing purposes). It’s a Psychedelic substance which creates this sense of connection with love and universal feeling of connectedness that we all have. Everyone’s journey with it is different but can be described with a curating a deep feeling of unity and connectedness.So, what is the difference between the standard DMT vs. 5MEODMT? Molecularly they have the same base structure, but subjectively are very different. DMT is much more of a visual experience. 5MEO is much more of “a trip of your sense of being”. It’s a very emotional experience. Not very visual for most people.“People feel safe to release and express things that they haven’t been able to release and express in so many years.”Psychedelics do have very old roots, however, 5MEODMT holds more recent origins. Through Helena and Segan’s training in toad school and use of their intuition within their practices, they’re eager to help others find their own healing with the guidance of 5MEODMT.“It can be transformative, it's very powerful. But it’s only powerful if the person allows it. It only sustains if the person sustains it.”Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

How much do you know about your brain? This episode, our hosts are joined by Michelle, who comes from a rich background in both social work & wellness. She shares fascinating perspectives on cognitive behaviour and its role in our intuition.  Michelle’s story began with a great childhood, entering college at 17 with a good support network of family and friends. Then, her life came to a huge derailment. She found herself facing a lot of pressure in finding a job that tied with her community, and then life then got harder as she encountered loss, a car accident, and other unfortunate events.This then began her journey into purposeful wandering. Michelle LOVES talking about the parts of the brain. We live in a society that praises the cortical region (intelligence, skill sets, etc.) but we need to talk about those lower regions in the brain that impact our daily lives… our relationships, stress navigation, and emotions.“Be kind to your brain and body when frustrated, they’re trying to keep you safe! The understanding of our brains to help us survive, but also thrive and have relationships and navigate the fun parts of being human”Understanding the brain helps us zoom out and be able to work with the body instead of being more oppositional with it. Our body is basically always processing so much information without us knowing! You are the expert of your own life. Understanding and learning how to be more attuned with yourself and your body is essential. Stay curious my friends. Anastasia Petunina - AP Movement & Mobility: website | youtube | instagramLoren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

You’re only as good as you can recover. This week, Mackenzie & Loren are joined by jujitsu master Anastasia to talk about purposefully wandering in body movement and habits.Mackenzie first met Anastasia at yoga teacher training. Anastasia has been a competitive athlete since she was 8 years old, in swimming & jujitsu. She was always strict in herself to achieve those goals but didn’t have joy elsewhere. Her identity was tied with it. After retiring from being a professional athlete, Anastasia wanted to find a way to overcome her fear of flexibility, and yoga made her feel good.For her, purposeful wandering ties into mastering your body, being strong, flexible and comfortable in your body to be able to do anything. It takes 8 weeks for the habit to form and will never happen overnight. Life does go by pretty fast; 8 weeks might initially seem like a lot but then afterwards you realize it's really not as long!“The body definitely needs time for adaptations to take place – so you have to do things at a consistent pace for the body to actually want to change.”So, how did she go from a place of knowledge to a place of understanding? “Don’t just think about it – do it!” Take those principles recommended and put it into practice in your life. The mental level and physical level are completely different. Expectations can destroy you sometimes. Don’t let them hold you back but have them in check.A lot of times, curiosity gets the best of us. Use that curiosity not to get us distracted, take it, and use it to your advantage! There are so many subtleties in our body we can get curious about.Anastasia Petunia - AP Movement and Mobility: website | youtube | instagramLoren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

When was the last time you felt free enough to act like a child? This week, Steph joins the podcast to discuss how to reconnect with your childhood self, the power of writing, and more. It’s time to find the inner child in you!Steph is a colleague and friend of both Mackenzie and Loren, with deep connections in the health & wellness scene. His journey into purposeful wandering began with a desire to always keep the childhood vibes at play. So, how does one reconnect to their childhood self? Take something you liked to do as a child, something simple and safe and rediscover the beauty of it.Keeping that childhood spirit within a life of passion is where the wandering aspect comes into it. As we age, we start to take life a little too seriously, and need explanation for everything. But we can just wander… and enjoy it. We all have a big kid inside of us.“If you have a busy brain that won’t shut up at night, my goodness, write it down. It’s like taking a backpack off, your brain is empty, and it shuts down for you.”Steph also began journaling recently, which was a good way of brain dumping. The act of writing things down, so you can see it, exposes so much. It’s almost self-therapy. Through these discoveries that turned writing into a nonnegotiable daily task, Steph feels more attuned to his intuition than ever. And that’s powerful.Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

This week, we launch our first episode of our “Ordinary Leaders Series”, featuring Kai. Loren met Kai on the ski slopes of Vancouver, and instantly had a connection with his incredible story.Currently a regional director of a consulting construction management company, Kai lives out a normal career while living out his life in purposeful wandering. A significant portion of his life was spent in the Christian faith, specifically as a fundamental evangelical Christian, which he found to end up hollow, and this evolved into the journey into finding his own truth. What does life mean to him? How can you be a guide for others?Kai then distilled down all of his various teachings to basically come up with a personal philosophy boiling down to a simple purpose – to enable the people he interacts with in a way which propels them forward into their lives.“I want people to be in a better place in their life than they were before they met me. Where they can be true to themselves.”Life is short, and Kai compares talking to people like dancing. When you have a new partner, you need to learn how to lead and follow, and remember that every person you’re dancing with is a little bit different. Everyone tells a different story and walks in their own truth. Anyone that challenges you, or anyone that asks questions is a great thing. All you’ve got to do is know. Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

This week, Loren and Mackenzie welcome Chris to discuss his story and how Kundalini Yoga brought him into a place of purposeful wandering. Through his life’s ups and downs, he’s conquered the truth of letting go to let come.Chris had a very successful career in finance up to his 40s, living his life at a 10 rating on the societal scoreboard. However, he was headed towards a 0 internally. About 10 years ago, he hit rock bottom on his health and energy and needed a massive shift. Through discovering the practice of Kundalini Yoga, everything changed.What is Kundalini Yoga? It’s the technology of human consciousness, thought to be the fastest path to enlightenment for householders. A Kundalini Yoga class starts out with tuning in getting your body settled, then transitions to active movement focusing on specific body parts, savasana (or deep relaxation), and meditation.So, how did Chris go from a place of knowledge to a deeper place of knowing? Letting go to let come.“Enlightenment is about coaxing that Kundalini energy up through the spine, the chakra system, penetrating the heart and getting to the upper triangles (third eye, crown, throat) and from there achieving enlightenment and achieving universal consciousness. So, connecting the finate with the infinite.”Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

“Wander”: to move about without a fixed course, aim or goal. Wandering can be so powerful in our life because it can help us find new courses, new tracks in our life... rewire and find our purpose.How exactly did the term purposefully wandering come to be? The branches can be whatever you want them to be, there can be many paths that help you seek life. This is where wandering came to be for our hosts.“Wandering can be so powerful in our life because it can help us find new courses, new tracks in our life... rewire and find our purpose.”Being in awe of the unknown and open to all possibilities is so critical. A lot of us get bogged down by the mundane, seemingly overbearing tasks in our lives. Dealing with work, illness, family troubles – they’re all overbearing things that come into play for us. How can we help inspire those who feel like they’re aimlessly wandering? Try something new and use reflection. There’s no other way. It’ll energize you, and let you feel like you have the resources to do that thing. Small steps push your current path of capacity, now go see what happens! -Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

In this episode, Jay and Zaia from Psilosophy of Mind join our co-hosts as they open up about their own journey in purposeful wandering. From opening up to vulnerability, to getting in touch with intuition and growth as Healers, there’s some powerful wisdom you don’t want to miss.So, what brought them to a place of purposefully wandering? For Jay, it was sobriety, quitting drinking. That was the choice, the time to start life again. They then journeyed together in support of his sobriety. Zaia’s journey happened simultaneously but looked different. She had a childhood journey of abuse, then met Jay and found programs that let herself be vulnerable and find her own strength.“It was necessary, it was the undoing of all of my fake strength. The first time I’ve let myself be with sadness, which is real. Together we were both rebuilding together. Jay was learning how to be present; I was learning how to be vulnerable with my emotions.”Keeping safe has been most people’s primary goal, as opposed to we’ve recently consciously turned from doing things to keep safe, to doing things because it's delightful. They love to be delighted. Some ancient wisdom that’s kept them grounded includes Reiki, which allows oneself to bring in healing energy, and a channel to source. Energy healing is so intuitive. Once you start saying “I am” instead of “Can I”, you can dig deeper into that intuition.Build up that boldness, get support from community. Be present, be here right now, then go from there. To get present, you might have to get present with some of the things you don’t want to look at.-Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

“I think I am mildly intuitive with a big dose of curiosity.” This time it’s Mackenzie’s turn to be interviewed by Loren, who are both co-hosts of this show & co-owners of Canopy Wellness. She shares her journey, the importance of movement in her daily life, and why sleep is her superpower.Mackenzie’s purposeful wandering began in a yoga class, where she began reconnecting with herself, coming back into her body, and getting grounded through movement. Yoga has remained a daily practice for her life and has been a specific turning point to her journey.  She states it best - “It can just be one class that changes the trajectory of your life. Before that, I never thought I’d be teaching movement to anybody.”What does purposefully wandering mean to Mackenzie? Freedom with intention. Taking the moment to reflect and living with intuition and daily curiosity. Impostor syndrome has come into play during her career, but embracing the value of mentorship, embracing a daily routine, and living intuitively, have been key pillars of her life through this process.“I always approach my practice from a place of curiosity, then I’m not so hard on myself and I don’t think failing is a bad thing. I’m curious about when I succeed or when my body isn’t doing what I think it should be doing, but it is doing something that supports me.”Start slow, build gradually. Small, tiny insignificant steps to where you want to be.-Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

Welcome to our first episode! Today we are introducing our cohost and co-owner of Canopy Wellness, Loren Buccanfuso. We discuss her journey into purposeful wandering, fasting, her daily pillars, and much more.Loren went to college for chemical engineering and pursued that path until becoming a purposeful wanderer in 2017. She was looking for a career change and yearned to work with people in a meaningful way. She then met our other co host Mackenzie, and the rest is history!“Am I actually nurturing my body the way that it wants to with everything that I ask it to do, every single day?”Something important to Loren is the connection with food and nourishment. Nourish your body for all that you ask of it to you. She specifically is connected to the carnivore keto diet, and a strong believer in fasting. Fasting is an important part of evolution. It’s ancient wisdom.Intuition is also an important pillar in her life, it stems from building trust from yourself, and that deeper connection. Tap into your intuition – we all have access to it; we just need to trust and explore. We are responsible for our own selves. Take time and reflect on it.-Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram

Coming Soon: The Old Growth Podcast, a podcast brought to you by Canopy Wellness and co-hosted by two wandering women, Mackenzie Zavitz & Loren Boccanfuso. Holistic conversations inspired by ancient wisdoms and contemporary knowledge; For those who seek light through the branches of health, wellness, and spirituality.-Loren Boccanfuso & Mackenzie Zavitz - Canopy Wellness: website | facebook | instagram