Begin Anywhere: Less Script, More Presence
Begin Anywhere: Less Script, More Presence is a podcast about showing up as you are—without waiting for the “perfect moment.”
I’m Irina Pashina—coach, mentor, supervisor, facilitator, and speaker—inviting you into conversations and reflections that are recorded in one take, imperfect by design, and rooted in presence.
Each episode explores themes of authenticity, courage, leadership, transitions, and human connection, offering space to pause and notice what is unfolding in your own life.
This podcast isn’t about scripts or polish—it’s about what becomes possible when we trust ourselves and begin anywhere.
🎧 Join me to reflect, connect, and take the next intentional step on your own path.
Episodes
27 episodes
Episode 26: Aaaaanger and Connecting across Differences
Different situations in the last weeks sparked anger in me – many of them seemingly insignificant and yet important – and one of them made its way into this episode. I’m sharing it with spaciousness, a hint at healthy expression of emotions, an...
Episode 25: To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate
What is your relationship to celebration? What an unusual question, you may think. And one that has been on my mind for a long time. My relationship to celebrating – on big and small occasions – has been shifting over the years. I’m sharing ref...
Episode 24: Avoiding (again)
A pattern of avoiding wants to be seen. I’m speaking about the pattern of avoiding rest in this short episode. It knocked on my door again and I felt it in my bones. By bringing it here, I hope to invite you to see how avoiding is showing up in...
Episode 23: Relationship Landscape
What a mysterious episode title :-) Episode 23 comes rolling out a red carpet for reflection on and around relationships. What are they? Who are we in them? What is our relationship landscape or garden? Listen in and join the reflective mood ar...
Episode 22: On Seeing More
This episode was inspired by a brief and seemingly insignificant moment earlier today. My view this morning - as I was writing, and reviewing supervision materials - became a metaphor. A metaphor of seeing in our lives and our world...
Episode 21: Friction, Friction, Friction
Friction showed up as a door opener for me today. And I used it as such to record another episode and explore how events - small and big - can reveal so much in us and for us. What happens in us when things don't go to plan, when we have no ans...
Episode 20: Life in a Cup of Coffee
This episode was inspired by my cup of coffee… When I looked at it this morning, I saw so much: - the beauty of ritual - the energy of a gentle and powerful momentum - the scratches of a table exper...
Episode 19 – On Feeling Appreciated
This is probably the most imperfect episode I’ve recorded so far! Part of me feels the urge to record it again, part of me is amused, yet another part reminds me that my intention was to show up as authentically imperfect as I am. The theme of ...
Episode 18 - The Wisdom of No
This episode is about the No’s in our lives. Not the most pleasant topic perhaps. Or maybe it is? I would argue it’s just as significant as a Yes. It can be a re-direction, a point of re-orientation. A gift that may disappoint at first and reve...
Episode 17 - Stormy weather
This episode is about storms. Storms in life. Stoms in nature. Storms in our emotions. Real storms. Imaginary storms. And how the energy and metaphor of a storm lives through us and in us. And here, as always, is an invitation to re...
Episode 16 – On Completions, Pausing, and Becoming
This episode comes with a personal story of a forced pause in the middle of completion in the larger arc of becoming. When the body speaks, we need to listen and the wisdom it holds and shares with us (sometimes through in challenging signals) ...
Episode 15 – Happy New Year! What’s moving you?
Happy New Year! Here’s episode 1 in 2026, and 15th since the start of the podcast in September 2025. I could easily write “time flies!” and I just did, but this episode is not about speed or time. It’s a short reflection on what is moving me at...
Episode 14: Where is the script?
“Where is the script?” is a question that has been with me in the last months of 2025. Asked by a voice of one of the learning systems I have been part of it did express what was on the mind of many people this year. Don’t we al...
Episode 13: Transitions, transitions
🎧 Episode 13 – Transitions, transitionsI keep catching myself writing November dates in my journal. 😮 But it’s December now… so here’s an episode on transitions. Clearly there’s something from last month I’m still hold...
Episode 12: "Why would you do that?!?"
🎧 Episode 12 – “Why would you do that?”A genuinely asked question, a simple conversation. And tons of reflection and realizations. This is what this episode is about. “Why would you do that?” can be a tricky question. It can ...
Episode 11: On Listening, Depth, Connection
These three words – listening, depth, connection – characterized my last few weeks in painful and beautiful ways. I’m bringing them to episode 11 where I’m exploring insightful constraints, somatic wisdom, and the power of human listening and c...
Episode 10: Power is...?
This episode is a personal reflection on the meaning of power. What it is, how it shows up, and how our relationship with it can evolve over time. Power has so many meanings. Our relationship to our own power is shaped by our own unique meaning...
Episode 9: Who Are You Today?
This episode is an exploration of identity in motion. The fluid, ever-changing sense of who we are. I found myself reflecting on how much we change, sometimes subtly and sometimes profoundly, and how easy it is to cling to past versions of ours...
Episode 8: On Feeling Your Feelings
In this episode, emotions come to show themselves. It felt tender and vulnerable to reflect on my own relationship with emotions: how it has evolved, deepened, and softened over time. This episode is a personal tribute to emotions and an invita...
Episode 7: Pssst… Listen to the Silence
This episode felt more spacious. After days away from the day-to-day noise, it's silence that invited itself to the podcast. As the main character of these 18 minutes. Often avoided and labeled as unnecessary. it can be truly revealing and empo...
Episode 6: I don't know. Do you?
How does it feel to not know? And what does not knowing make possible? It can feel unsettling, even uncomfortable to let go of the need to know. Beyond the discomfort lies a gift of possibility and creativity. In this episode ...
Episode 5: Space and Choice (is all we need)
This episode is about space. Ironically, it turned out to be the shortest one so far. And hopefully filled with enough spaciousness to explore and begin anywhere around the topic of space and choice related to it. As always, no scri...
Episode 4: What Are You Wrestling With?
In this episode of Begin Anywhere, I share my reflections sparked by watching the World Wrestling Championships 2025. Wrestling is more than a sport - it’s a dance ...
Episode 3: What Are You Learning?
In this episode of Begin Anywhere: Less Script, More Presence, I explore the many shapes of learning—not just the knowledge we gain, but the ways it stretches us, transforms us, and invites us to become more of who we are.Learni...
Episode 2: Preparation is Everything... or is it?
The theme of preparation kept showing up for me recently—in my mornings, before work calls, during workouts, even in playtime with my daughter. It wanted to be explored. And what better way to do that than with presence and freedom?In Ep...