Taking the Result as the Path

What if the destination could walk beside you today? We dive into a living, breathing practice of becoming—one that honors grief, invites your future self into the room, and remembers what your inner child always knew. Set against winter’s slow rhythm and a tender anniversary of loss, we explore how to “take the result as the path,” a tantric insight that transforms identity work from a someday project into embodied, daily choices.

I share how early motherhood, creative ambitions, and the honest fatigue of life all meet this practice. We focus on orientation over overhaul: five mindful minutes in the morning, a mantra repeated on a walk, and tiny cues that change posture, breath, and presence. You’ll hear how descent work—supported by rituals like a home sauna for grief—prevents spiritual bypass and deepens resilience. Instead of pushing through, we cultivate meaning while staying with what is raw and real.

Along the way, we revisit inner child threads, future-self embodiment, and shamanic perspectives on elder wisdom already watching our path. You’ll get clear journaling prompts to surface the one aligned step for this week, plus language you can use when doubt gets loud. This is practical spirituality for people who want to become themselves on purpose: compassionate, grounded, and a little braver each day.

If this resonates, follow along, share with a friend who’s cocooning, and leave a review so more listeners can find their way to this work. Then tell me: what quality will you embody for the next 24 hours?

Journaling Prompts

• Who am I becoming in this season of my life?
• What qualities does that version of me embody?
• Where am I right now — honestly and tenderly?
• What is one small way I can take the result as the path this week?
• What is being asked to die so something truer can live?

Resources

WFDU 89.1 Public Radio

Imagine Meditation by Boreta and Ram Dass

The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries by Bill Plotkin

Maria Cutronia, Master yoga teacher based in NYC/Brooklyn

The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcoming Joy And Resilience
• 1:16 Dad’s Song And Ancestral Presence
• 3:01 Winter Cocoon And Gentle Pace
• 4:12 Vision Without Self-Abandonment
• 6:00 Taking The Result As The Path
• 9:45 Future Self As Daily Companion
• 12:00 Inner Child And Remembering
• 14:00 Descent Work And Soul Initiation
• 16:05 Grief Practices And Sauna Ritual
• 17:00 Morning Micro-Practice And Mantra
• 18:40 Embodied Enlightenment And Service
• 20:30 Journaling Prompts For Becoming
• 22:00 Death Doula Work And Tools
• 24:00 Resilience, Joy, And Integrity
• 26:00 Offers, Workshops, And Next Steps
• 28:00 Closing Blessing And Review Request

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Ode to Joy Podcast, a show where we talk about joy. How do we cultivate it? How do we maintain it? And what are the things that get in the way? I am your host, shamanic practitioner and death duela, Elena Box, coming to you with another very special episode from our season, all about resilience. I hope you enjoy. And maybe you have a little cup of tea going. Maybe you're folding laundry, maybe you're out on a walk. However way this is finding you, from my heart to yours, I'm so happy you're here. So let's get into it. I'm very excited about today's episode. Guys, this is so wild. I'm just realizing today is January 8th, which is kind of wild. It's, I mean, if you know me, you know I love eights. And actually, I'm realizing as I'm speaking, this is the 10-year anniversary of my father's passing. Oh wild! You and me, we're here, we're in this together, having this epiphany. No wonder he came through this morning. I was dancing in the kitchen with my daughter, as I do, as per usual, and the song Runaway came on. The radio, retro radio, retro radio, shout out to Public Radio. Thank you so much, W Fairly Dickinson University, WFDU. We love them. So Runaway comes on, and I'm in there dancing with my baby, and I just feel my dad come through so profoundly and deeply. And that was his song because when he met my mother, they were in a bar in Chicago where they were both living and working as architects. And he came up to he had a band, of course, cool guy. And he went up to my mom and he was like, Hey, do you know how to sing Runaway? And she was like, Yeah, for sure. Turns out she's, I mean, she's a pretty good singer if you're listening to this mother. And that's how they met. And so, like, throughout my entire childhood, that was this song that was really just woven into so much of I guess my life. And so, yeah, shout out to dad. Thank you. How wonderful. So there we are. So happy you were with me for that experience. And so, we're gonna just call him in to uh really oversee this entire episode and and how it all lands. And yeah, how cool is that? All right, I'm gonna have to go talk to my mother about it later. We're gonna cry. But how cool, 10 years. I mean, woo-hoo. So if you are on this journey called life with me, you probably know that death, dying, and all that comes with that, the grief, and also the rebirth is a huge theme in my whole life and has been, honestly, since he was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2012, and he ended up passing in 2016, exactly 10 years ago at this point. So, so huge that we're here together, and here we are, 2026. We're landing ourselves in this moment. We're still in winter, it's cold outside, so we're very much still in this cocoon. If you listened to the episode last week, you know that this is not a huge time for reinvention. So we we're gonna be taking it slow. We're gonna be enjoying the ride. And I had a really huge reminder of this this week and how I'm sort of choosing to be in this time where it's not a full speed ahead season. We're still in the cocoon time, we're still in the hibernation time, and most importantly, we're still in the soul excavation time, which is like the coolest time. And so I'm in this time where I am putting my calendar together for the year. I don't know about you, but I do love a big calendar posted on the wall. I want to see all the months, okay? I want to see all the dates. And I like to think about okay, so what are my goals for the year? Like, what are the things that I want to see happen this year? And I'm feeling this is gonna be a big year. I don't know about you, but I feel like it's gonna be a good one. And so here I am at the same time, also in early motherhood. I have a little baby who's one year old, and you know, I'm tired. Mama's tired. We're still, you know, I'm still doing all the things, trying to move forward and all the while mothering. Okay, so we all have things that happen in our lives. We all are doing the work, we're all getting things done. And so, how do we hold vision without abandoning ourselves in the present moment? That's what I'm sitting with. How do we hold vision without abandoning ourselves in the present moment? Okay, okay, okay. So last weekend I was having a little like uh I don't know how to say it. I I have been feeling a little down. Who knows? It's the holidays. I mean, I've spoken a little bit to this in the last few episodes. The holidays are a lot. We're still digesting it all. And I needed mama, mama needed a little like, hey, let me orient myself back into who Elena is and even just find out who she is in this moment. So I took myself into the city and I took a class with my teacher, Maria Katrona, who I've been studying with since oops, 2013. She is a true master yogi. And she spoke in the beginning of class about this Buddhist tantric idea called taking the result as the path. Okay. Taking the result as the path. Now, listen, I'm not an expert. I am not even, I couldn't even call myself a Buddhist, but having been in the world of yoga and spiritual teachings and all these things, I call myself a buffet-style spiritual person, a spirit spiritualist. Um I think it's a really great teaching to bring into life. So wherever you are, however way you identify, I'm sharing this because it really resonated and resounded in my living, my lived experience. And so this is how I understand it. Okay. You don't wait to become who you want to be. You don't wait to become who you want to be. You practice as if you already embody the qualities you're moving toward. Okay. The result becomes the path, right? It's not like a someday thing, it's a now kind of a thing. Okay. So I, this is kind of how it's been hitting and landing with me is that I'm asking myself this really simple question, which is who am I becoming and how would she move through this moment? Okay. So especially in seasons of death and rebirth, which is like my jam. I'm constantly like, gosh, I'm dying, I'm reborn, I'm dying, I'm reborn. And that's the work that I do with people. And I love it, clearly. It's what I do. And it's all about identity shifts and grief or postpartum or even just like a creative evolution, which is super juicy. Um, this time last year, I was listening to Rick Rubin's book, which I definitely want to dive back into. Oh, I believe it's called The Creative Act. Ooh, maybe it is. I'm not sure, but it's a very, very good one. So for me, sometimes during these moments of like death and rebirth, the self-doubt and the imposter syndrome get really freaking loud. Like every time I start to envision who I'm becoming, the goals I have, the reach that I want to have, the impact that I want to have, really, you know, my sole purpose kind of big, big stuff. The who the hell do you think you are voice comes in, right? And all of the fears that come with that. And there's a lot. So listen, I'm over here with a cancer moon, which is a disaster for those who are, you know, in the know-how of astrology. Very, very emotional. We just had a cancer cancer full moon. Um, but yeah, my emotions can really take over and sometimes really derail me. So if this is you and you also can get a little bit derailed, um, consider this practice. So it's been helping me in this last week um just really reorient myself instead of spirals. So taking the result as the path. I literally wanna, I wanna like embroider it and and and and frame it and and put it over my mirror because it's pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. So we're going for embodiment, not perfection. Okay, I'm also a Virgo over here. So perfection, again, I always say progress, not perfection. Um, we're going for embodiment, not perfection. So this isn't about self-optimization or discipline. Listen, if you're a biohacker and you're like, I love it, like go for it, go for it. You know, but more than anything, what I want to drive home here is that it's about embodiment and letting the future version of you walk beside you. So this one's huge, at least even from a shamanic spiritual perspective, is that the future version of you, the grandmother version of you, already exists. And she's looking back at you now in this time and space. So your future self is already watching the whole thing go down, right? So let the future version of you of who you're becoming. Maybe it's not grandmother self yet, maybe. Or maybe you're like, yes, I'm really embodying my elder self. We love that. We love elder wisdom, but we're letting that future version of you walk beside you. Oh my gosh. Just gonna put this little tidbit in there. I was thinking about this literally as I was hanging out with my daughter, who's, as I said, one year old. And I was thinking about her, like the future version of her is also present and with us. And she's like a 26-year-old, like cool chick. And that's just a fun thing. So all of our future selves are walking with us. So again, this isn't like a measuring stick of like you need to be this, this person, but it's more as like a companion. Okay. So sometimes it's, you know, it's it's how you speak to yourself. Sometimes it's how you structure your day. Sometimes it's choosing something aligned instead of just comfortable. Okay. So that's the thing. Sometimes we can get kind of frozen and go back into what's comfortable instead of what's gonna push us into really like starting to spread those seeds and plant those seeds of who we're becoming. So the path and the destination are not separate. All right. And that's what that's that's that's where we're really at right now is it's it's pretty quant, it's pretty quantum. All right. If we're speaking about it from a spiritual perspective, it's pretty quantum. And the other part that I want to weave in here, again, from the spiritual perspective, is bringing in the whole inner child thread. Okay, so we're we're looking at this from the whole really life of you, your whole life, the whole line of you is all present here. So this concept of taking the result as the path, um, it really naturally opens up into inner child work as I've been really digesting it. And so I'm remembering to sort of ask myself, like, who did who did you imagine becoming when you were little, right? What did you long to feel? You know, I was like, I want to be free, I want to be creative, I want to be expressive, I want to feel safe, I want to be alive. You know, I had these uh visions of I remember looking at myself in the mirror as like maybe eight-year-old and just imagining myself as this wonderful, luminous, fabulous creature, which listen, I feel. And I also feel, you know, I'm I'm one year into motherhood. And if you're a parent, you understand like some of those threads of that spark, it's sometimes hard to weave back in because sometimes we feel like we don't have time. And so I'm trying to find really practical ways of keeping my finger on that pulse. And sometimes it's very simple, and it's literally just reminding myself I'm taking the result as the path, which helps me sort of just stand up a little bit straighter or, you know, give give myself a little bit of a zhuzh of the hair, or, you know, choose the clothes that I'm wearing for that day. Maybe I'm not putting on sweatpants for the third day in a row, you know, maybe I'm putting on a little outfit because why not? Every day is an occasion. So treating it as such and reminding myself what the little girl version of me had, you know, what her what excited her. And so that's the invitation that I have for you is, you know, remembering back to who did you imagine becoming when you were little. So becoming isn't necessarily about adding something new, it's often about remembering. And so that might even mean finding a little photo of you. Maybe you're I'm thinking literally of myself, of like me and my little dress-up costumes, which I had many, and bringing that back in and finding ways to play in that way again. So it's it's big work. It's big, big, big, big work. So another little thing that I've been chewing on lately is I'm revisiting Bill Plotkin's work. So if you're familiar, he wrote a book called Soulcraft, which I read when I was getting ready to go do my vision quest, Vision Fast in the forest for a week, overseen by my teacher, Jan Lucier, who we love. Um, and his book, I mean, he's he's just a fantastic writer, and I highly recommend his work. I'll put his uh books into the show nights, show nights. So I recently started his book called The Journey of Soul Initiation, and it's all about the idea of descent instead of bypassing, which is like really the juiciest bit of work. I mean, it is my work. It is saying, like, hey, this is an opportunity to go in and down and descend into the deep soul work that is presenting itself. And so I feel very much I'm in this state of soul initiation where I'm now a mom. I feel so much creative power coming through, and I'm excited for what's coming, and I'm excited to really build a life that I feel fulfilled by because the other thing that I've really been chewing on since my daughter was born is, you know, I have to remember that as I'm telling her as she's growing older, hey, you can do whatever you want. You can be whoever you want to be. That means I need to live by that example. I cannot have regrets, regrets, right? I cannot have regrets of not doing the thing and not showing up in my fullness, in my full embodiment of what lights me up and what sets my soul on fire. Because if I'm not doing that, I can't say what does she have to look up to, right? That's what I'm really thinking about. So again, I'm in this moment of a bit of um of a soul descent as I'm coming into this next iteration of self and I'm in the cocoon. We're in the winter, right? So that means I'm I'm letting something old fall away so that something truer can emerge, right? So this is like super aligns deeply with taking the result as the path. Um, becoming often requires grief, not just vision. I'm gonna say that one again. Becoming often requires grief, not just vision. So I don't know if you've been listening. We got a sauna. We did, we did, we did. And if you've read my book, you might remember there's like a whole chapter where I'm talking all about my love for the sauna. And it's one of my favorite places to grieve. Okay. If you come to sauna with me, you better bet we're gonna be, we're gonna be growling, we're gonna be grunting, we're gonna do some primal screams. Things get wild in there. And I'm loving it every single night since my husband built it. I have been in there doing the work, and I have to say it's been a huge help for me as I'm as I'm in this cocoon and I'm letting go of gosh, so much grief. And that's the thing, too, is that sometimes I don't even have to name it, it's just moving through me. And what a beautiful gift. Shout out to my beloved. Thank you for building me a sauna. So, for you, dear listener, thanks for sticking around. Um, I have some little tips for you. So, how to practice this gently. We're we're all about being gentle and kind to ourselves, right? So, here's my suggestion for you. Maybe five minutes in the morning if you have it. Okay, five minutes, pretty simple. We can even set a timer. We love a little timer. Invite the version of you who feels aligned and alive. Invite the version of you who feels aligned and alive. Okay. Notice how she breathes. Notice how she moves, notice how she holds herself, okay? Ask what is one small way I can live from that place today? Okay. No overhaul, no pressure, just orientation. And it might be something that's even just a whisper of that essence of this version of you who feels aligned and alive. It might just be a whisper of that. But ask yourself, what is one small way I can live from that place today? It might be an accessory, it might be a little lipstick, it might be a perfume or a heel. I don't know. Look at me. I love dress up. Whatever that means for you, notice how she breathes, how she moves, and how she holds herself. Okay. Just a little invitation. And if it gets too gimbly jangly jongly and you're like, I don't know what to do, orient yourself. I'm taking the result as the path. I'm taking the result as the path. I'm taking the result as the path. Really great when you're going on long walks and if you start to feel a little bit down, okay? I'm taking the result as the path. Woo! And you just stand up a little bit straighter, maybe a little bit of smile, maybe you greet your neighbors. And here's the other thing that I want to really bring in here. So again, not a Buddhist teacher, scholar, any of these things. But when we think about inviting the result as the path, from what I understand it from a Buddhist perspective or spiritual perspective, and how I have practiced it in the past, is one might invite in sort of the vision of what it is to be an enlightened being into yourself. So there's this really great meditation, and I am going to link it in the show notes. It is a meditation by our guy, the guy, Ramdas, with a really beautiful music accompaniment. And he essentially invites you and teaches you how to invite in this sense of an enlightened being into yourself. And so identifying as someone who is pure love, pure joy, pure conscious awareness and not just the good, but also the bad, the all that is, the yin and the yang, the the all that is encompassing it all. So the practice of this, the taking the result as the path is essentially putting yourself in that state of who am I as the most embodied and enlightened version of myself. How do they show up for themselves? How do they show up for their neighbors, their friends, their community? How do they greet people? You know, what what Is the lasting impact that people have after coming into contact with you? Okay. So as you're walking around, you're like, oh, I am taking the result is the path. Oh, it feels good. Yeah. And it can feel good. And why not? And why not just allow yourself to have that little spring in your step? It's a good way to have a little anchor. And again, that doesn't mean that we're just bypassing. That doesn't mean that we're like, I'm actually really sad, but I'm pretending. You know, it's inviting in the all that is, which sometimes can be huge waves of grief. And it's it's it's calling it all in and remembering that you are all of that. Um, I am that. Okay. Oh, it's big. It's big, it's really, really big. So that's kind of where I have been also reminding myself. And here's the thing: if you are whatever practice, whatever religion, you know, whatever deities you want to invite into this, you can also do that. If it doesn't mean that you want to envision perhaps even yourself, perhaps you're inviting in Christ consciousness or any of these saints, even, you know, how can you bring that essence into who you are and how you're living and how you're choosing to step forward every single day? And people might even be a little bit like, oh my gosh, what has she been doing? And you're like, I'm taking the results as the path. That's all I'm doing, right? No pressure, just orientation. No overhaul, just orientation. I got a couple of journaling prompts for you. Again, remember, no pressure to write these all down because they're in the show notes, right? Let's take it easy, let's take it cool. Remember, you can pull out your phone. You don't even have to be fancy about it. You don't even have to take out a pen. However way, maybe you're just listening and responding on your own. Okay. Listening, thinking about your response to yourself. I got a couple questions for you. Are you ready? Question number one. Who am I becoming in this season of my life? Yes. What qualities does that version of me embody? Where am I right now? Honestly and tenderly, where am I right now? What is one small way I can take the result as the path this week? What is being asked to die so something truer can live? Oh, there are some good questions here, and I'm gonna be chewing on them myself this week. I'm really excited to hear how this lands for you. So feel free, add a little comment. You know, send me a DM however way you want to get in touch. Um, I'd love to hear how this lands for you. So let's just bring it all back because here's the thing, you know, even with this last question, it's like it's so the name of the game here. What is being asked to die so something truer can live? All of this ties into my work as a shamanic death doula. Okay. This is like the heart of what I do. So I sit with people who are, you know, dying, who are in the world of death and dying, family members, perhaps even those who are having their dying experience. It is a true gift and a privilege to be in that space. And I am honored every single time I am an invite, am invited in any way. And I also sit with people who are in grief and loss. That can also mean divorce or identity collapse or even loss of home or community or sense of self. So grief isn't just about what ended, it's about who you are now. And that old version of you can't exist. So I'm here to be a compassionate witness to assist you in moving through it. Now, this doesn't mean that I'm a crutch. This doesn't mean that I'm someone. Listen, if you were thinking of putting me on a pedestal, please don't. Listen, what I do is I give you tools so that you not only feel held through it, but that you also have ways in which you can continue to work on it on your own at home. And remember, after every session, we have integration calls and you get your own integration homework, which is very personalized, very I spent a lot. Honestly, I have written some masterpiece integration guides. I'll send it out and I'm like, oh gosh, like Chef's Kiss, that one was gorgeous. So you always have tools as you're moving through this. And remember that when we tie it back into resilience, which is the whole name of the game here for this season on the podcast, remember that it doesn't come from pushing through. Okay. So it comes from orienting toward meaning while staying present. So as this all ties in together, we're remembering that taking the result as the path allows grief and vision to coexist. So again, here I am on this journey of life with you as a human, constantly learning, constantly changing, constantly growing. And I'm here to be that person who's willing to sit with you in the depths. I love a good descent. If you want to sit in the mud together, we'll sit in the mud. So remember, I'm here for you. And I just want to really remind you, and even just speaking it out loud for myself, to about really the bigger vision of all of my work. And so this work lives in the realm of big human questions, right? Like I don't do small talk unless I absolutely have to. Like I'm here for the real juice, which which these big human questions are how do we live well? How do we meet change consciously? And how do we become ourselves on purpose? I'm gonna let that last one land. We're gonna take it home. How do we become ourselves on purpose? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. So all of this work, it's rooted in intimacy, it's ritual embodiment, and real transitions. I mean, joy is joy is really my north star is how can we move through all of the deepest, darkest depths? And that doesn't mean that to attain joy, we're bypassing pain. Okay, so joy is walking forward with integrity while the ground shifts. How do you hold yourself up a little bit higher, even when everything seems to be breaking down around you? That's resilience, that's moving forward with integrity. That is the real joy. I love, I love it, I love it, I love everything that I do. So listen, here's a little invitation for you. If you're standing at one of these thresholds in your life, this is exactly the work that I support. So, in case you didn't know, I offer extended private shamanic energy medicine and death do list sessions. Okay. I also and I also offer ongoing support containers for consistent guidance and integration. So if you're like, I need to see somebody every single week, I have clients who they come to see me and then they go to see their therapist and we kind of work together and the work can really build on each other. So if that is something you're interested in, definitely I am available. I also do workshops and group experiences. I'm putting together a really delicious ritual performance workshop called Die BeforeYou Die. So stay tuned for that. Um, and again, this is really just for people who are ready for real transformation. So we're not doing surface level stuff. We're not doing like surface level inspiration. I'm here for the depths. So you can explore a little bit more of that by going to www.alenabox.com. And remember, the links are always in the show notes. So yeah, we're gonna close it out there. And I just wanted to give you a couple of tutre reminders, which is that you are not behind. You're not late, you are becoming, you are taking the result as the path. You are taking the result as the path and let your life teach you how to walk it. Juicy stuff right there. So listen, it has been an absolute joy, as always, to tune in here with you. And I feel so blessed to be gracing your ears today. And I'm really just excited to continue this conversation. So please reach out if you have any anything you want to share, any any ways in which this landed for you. Um, maybe you send me like a little selfie of you taking the result as the path, and I will be doing the same. So we're all on this journey called life together, being human, being messy, um, but being cute some of the time, also, right? Probably a lot of the time being a little cute. So, yeah, really happy to be here with you, and I'll talk to you again very soon. This has been another episode of the Ode to Joy podcast. It is my sincere joy to bring you these episodes every week. And listen, if you feel called, it would mean so much. If you could go ahead and, you know, drop us a review, maybe throw us a couple of stars. If there are five of them, even better. And just sending you so much love. I'll talk to you again very soon.