BRAVE NEW YOU | Podcast for liberated transformation

This is the first episode of Brave New You with video and my ASMR mic. You’re going to want to listen to this with headphones 🎧If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, the video may not available. Go to bravenewyou.substack.com to watch as well as listen. The extra visual intrigue is worth it :)I spent the first 30 years of my life burdened with the self-perception of a White Man. I will forever remember the depth of that Ache: the deep realization, clear to me from a very early age, that being White and being Male meant that I was going to be missing out on a lot of wealth and magic. The irony of it is absurd.I don’t share this to ask for pity. Neither for myself, nor on behalf of any other White Men, especially not those wreaking havoc on our planet and bodies.I share this to point out a deeply ironic paradox: White Men, out of an existential poverty and powerlessness, have cast all their Others as physically and materially poor and disempowered. Or as I put it in a post a few days ago:In some ways, I’ve taken the “easy” way out (lol, more irony) by transitioning. There’s nothing easy about it, of course. But I sometimes wonder if it may actually be easier, or at least just as hard, as unburying oneself from beneath the suffocating rubble of White Maleness.In this episode of Brave New You, I will take you on an ASMR-like journey into the paradox of gender and race binaries. I am convinced that we need to speak honestly about the existential poverty of Whiteness and Manhood if we are ever going to find a way out of this clusterfuck that Patriarchy has gotten us all wrapped up in. We need to see Patriarchy for what it is: not some all-mighty force of Evil, but an immature spoiled little brat of a child who needs some boundaries and a hug.I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Check out the wild and sumptuous musings of my dear friend and mentor Adriana Rizzolo: This thought-weave feels like an unraveling and is definitely not complete. I welcome all authentic and honest contributions and perspectives.How does this land in your body and heart? What feelings does it evoke? Where does it ring true? Share a thoughtful comment below 👇BRAVE NEW YOU is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

This weekend, I sat at a cozy East-London café over brunch with a group of friends from what feels like my deep past. Over bloody marys and pornstar martinis, we shared our coming-out stories after all growing up in the same repressive Christian environment. 16 years ago, we were all sitting in the same church pews -- and here we are at our gay friend's wedding discussing BBLs and swapping raunchy sex stories. Enjoy xx Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

Come sit with me in the storm and listen — listen to the poetry emerging from cracked hearts and flooding tear ducts. Sit with me and remember that ALL IS NOT LOST and that only by getting intimate with our fear and darkness will we ever remember that which is indestructible in us.With everything that is coming to light right now and all the dark cruelty that is surfacing, we choose to gather and together create a space of resource, nourishment, community and skillful training for the labor of birthing a new collective reality. Happy Endings is a 7-week online container for finding, releasing and channeling your deepest grief & pleasure. There is still space to join us, we start in two weeks (February 19th), every Thursday at 17-18:30 Portugal time.with so much love and fierce courage ❤️Avril Aysha Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

Death is uncomfortable and ugly. But we cannot birth our new selves without talking about what needs to die and getting really creative and skillful about how we channel our grief into a life-giving kind of dying. This week we explore the surprising ways in which pleasure, grief, death and hope are intimately intertwined. Join me and an intimate group of brave humans in learning how to use pleasure to expand our capacity to hold grief in my upcoming course Happy Endings. This is a 7-week somatic training experience that will give you new tools to encounter the pain, anger and overwhelm in your personal and collective life. Come learn new survival skills for a world that feels like it’s so often coming….to its end.When: Thursday at 17:00-19:00GMT, starting February 19, 2026Where: Zoom + online community environment + private Telegram groupRead more and apply to join here.You can also reach out to me on Instagram to learn more, I’m always happy to have a chat!with radical tenderness,Avril Aysha Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

If there is one thing that I’ve learned from my journey of transformation it’s that we desperately need each other in order to transform.The people around us reflect our identities back to us all the time. Parents, children, siblings, colleagues — we are all constantly caught up in a game of enacting roles that are defined by how others expect us to behave towards them.And the quickest, most sustainable way to make drastic change happen for yourself is to ask your closest circle to start to treat you as if you have already changed. When the people around us start to expect us to behave and relate as our « insert your goal here: more confident, wealthy, feminine, masculine, balanced, boundaried, succesfull … » selves then we don’t have to hold the weight of that new standard alone. Our community can hold it with us and we can blossom into our expanded self while being witnessed (and celebrated! throw parties!) by our closest ones.I have become a woman, a delicious she-being, partly out of my own choice, autonomy and determination. But a large part of me becoming a woman has also happened because I expressed my desire to become a woman to my closest friends and asked them to start calling me by a different name and pronouns. These dear ones hold my woman-aspiration with me and reflect it back to me every time they speak my new name. Your deepest dreams of who you desire to become might feel unreachable. And they might well be unreachable if you try to reach them alone. Go out of your comfort-zone and share your dream with a few trusted friends…and I guarantee you that you will surprise yourself and the people around you with how quickly you will transform.We are the self-fulfilling prophecy we’ve been waiting for.I love you,Avril AyshaLink to Mikey’s truly magical one-man show: https://www.instagram.com/a.la.mike/ Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

My darling — welcome to my juicy, vulnerable, all-paws-off-the-brakes Christmas gift to you ☺️This is the first part of me baring my heart, skin and soul about my journey towards physical transformation. Strap yourself in because this storyline is FILLED with vulnerable reveals, impossible synchronicities and mind-bending nuance…and this is only the beginning.May these words meet you in that magical border-place of tender softness and wild autonomy. May you find within you the courage to open your own pu$$y portals and pave the way to your bravest potential.I love you AyshaBRAVE NEW YOU is supported by listeners like you. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

This week, in the middle of a truly autumnal tossing and tumbling, we take some time to inquire into our relationship to our roots. In this journey of infinite expansion and growth…how do we feel about the people and places and versions of ourselves that we come from?My parents are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary today (congrats mom & dad if you’re reading! 🥂) and it reminds me of the very basic fact that no matter how much I may change and grow in this lifetime…I would not be here if it wasn’t for them.How do you feel about returning to old things? Leave a note in the comments, I would love to hear from you.BRAVE NEW YOU is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

Desire is what pulls us forward into the future we long to create. And where there is desire, pleasure is never far away 😊In this episode we explore the intricate dance between the pleasure, the vulnerability and the trust of expansive transformation. To open yourself up to the fullness of your potential means opening yourself up to full pleasure of life…and to trust that life is out to pleasure you. And that can feel like risky business, especially for those of us with nervous systems that have been hurt by life (hint: that’s all of us ;) Enjoy this juicy exploration of unapologetic PLEASURE - and may she stir up some unstoppable yumminess in your cells! 🔥with so much love,Avril Aysha~~PS here’s a little snapshot of the Pu$$y Altar I talk about at the start of the episode 😼 Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

Dive into the messy thrill of surrendering your attachment to coherence with me. In this episode we explore all the ways we compromise our authenticity in order to appear or feel like we "make sense" to other people.Do you have questions about this episode or topics you would like me to discuss in future episodes? I would love to hear from you!Substack: bravenewyou.substack.comInstagram: @brave.new.you Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe

My love,Welcome to the first episode of the BRAVE NEW YOU Podcast! 🤩 Freshly channeled from devotional hyperspace at 5am in the morning and delivered straight to your ears.I invite you to take a moment to sit down somewhere comfy, with a candle or a cup of tea and join me on this journey of Great Unravelling. The journey of finding in yourself the soft place of courage where you can take off the layers that hold you back from stepping into your boldest and brightest potential.Let this first episode be a delicious appetizer; a chef’s kiss to your ears, to your heart, to your soul.May we find out together how Great it is all going to be.with all my love,Avril AyshaPS — If you’re new here, you’ll find a library of somatic movement and meditation resources already waiting for you on the homepage and under “Resources”BRAVE NEW YOU is supported by readers and listeners like you. Consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to keep the juices flowing 💦 Get full access to BRAVE NEW YOU at bravenewyou.substack.com/subscribe