The Path That Meanders: Plants, Sovereignty & Trusting the Redirection with Christena Shreve Elza

Some conversations make more sense after you’ve lived the next chapter. This is one of them.

In this episode of In My Experience, recorded March 16, 2026, I’m joined again by my good friend Christena Shreve-Elza. We talk about plants, creativity, shamanic yoga, personal sovereignty, and creating a life that genuinely feels like your own.

Christena and I share a love of landscaping and working with our bodies. We talk about how healing it can be to get outside, transform a space, make something beautiful, and physically see the results of your work.

With more than 25 years in the plant industry and a background in interior design, historic preservation, and yoga, Christena has begun combining her gifts through shamanic yoga. She shares what happened when she brought movement, music, meditation, rattling, spirit, and intuition together for her first community class.

Our conversation moves through plant intelligence, natural building, religion, history, food sovereignty, AI, and the importance of thinking for ourselves. We also talk about getting quiet enough to hear our own guidance and remembering that constant productivity is not the only way to live a meaningful life.

The part that gets me is what happened near the end.

I told Christena I kept hearing September. I could see myself traveling to Tennessee and somehow meeting her in Georgia.

And boy, was I right.

I’ll be returning to Tennessee in September after moving my cob-building workshop to the later session. Following the move into my camper and everything it took to get on the road, I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and underprepared. Instead of forcing myself through it, I changed the plan.

I was already feeling strong astrological themes around change and reconsidering commitments when an unexpected opportunity to address an issue with my truck shifted my timeline again.

I had also traveled to Tennessee after being invited by the monks to volunteer at their community. I believed I would begin August 1, but the day before, I felt deeply conflicted. I cried, listened to what was happening in my body, and began muscle testing my plans. Every answer came back as a solid no, and I kept being led to stay where I was.

So that is what I’m doing.

This experience reminded me that trusting yourself doesn’t always look like confidently moving forward. Sometimes it means admitting you’re tired, changing the plan, or pausing at the last possible moment. The invitation can be real and the destination can be right while the path—or the timing—still changes.

We talk about:

• Healing through plants, landscaping, and physical creation
• Christena’s first shamanic yoga class
• Architecture, cob building, and natural design
• Plant intelligence and our relationship with nature
• Questioning inherited stories and systems
• Balancing technology with intuition and creativity
• Trusting redirection instead of forcing a plan

Christena Shreve-Elza is soon to be published an author, landscape designer, plant professional, yoga teacher, and shamanic yoga facilitator. She is also the author of Plants Like People.

Follow Christena: Instagram

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