Em Capito, LCSW

Em Capito, LCSW Soulful Resilience Therapist, Writer, Yoga & Meditation Teacher. Founder of Madrona, a nonprofit community of art and wellness for all beings.

This week: “We are authors of impressive fantasies, weavers of perceived control. Given enough time in outer friction, w...
06/19/2026

This week: “We are authors of impressive fantasies, weavers of perceived control. Given enough time in outer friction, we eventually face an inner breaking point, beyond which lies some measure of inconvenient truth...

In ancient Indian philosophies, much attention was given to how we take action in life.

The term karma is seen as action that binds us. We are attached to the outcome, leading to that delusional cycle of perceived control and the resulting exhaustion, burnout, disappointment, and frustration.

Kriya, on the other hand, is effortless action. We’ve all experienced kriya while watching a sunrise, opening a door for a stranger, or losing all sense of time in the midst of a creative endeavor. It is not the absence of suffering, it is the surrender of expectations.

Life is an unpredictable river. Some of us can stubbornly drag our attachments upstream in a grand Sisyphean effort for an impressive distance. Eventually, we are blessedly exhausted, at which point we can let go and try to trust the flow.“

Overdue photo cache from a week of meditation in my heart land…which has led to being beautifully disconnected from soci...
06/19/2026

Overdue photo cache from a week of meditation in my heart land…which has led to being beautifully disconnected from social media in general.

Much gratitude to Two Arrows Zen for a tremendous experience as a community and with the land 🙏

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,There is a field. I’ll meet you there.- RumiThis week: “…Seeking understan...
06/12/2026

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I’ll meet you there.
- Rumi

This week: “…Seeking understanding and taking accountability is rooted in a solid sense of self where blame is no longer relevant, and works to both engender trust and peace in our chosen relationships, but also to quickly disengage from people who currently lack the maturity to meet us there in Rumi’s field.”

💌 Read free now ➡️ Substack link in bio

You are not surprised at the force of the storm—
you have seen it growing.
The trees flee. Their flight
sets the bouleva...
06/12/2026

You are not surprised at the force of the storm—
you have seen it growing.
The trees flee. Their flight
sets the boulevards streaming. And you know:
he whom they flee is the one
you move toward. All your senses
sing him, as you stand at the window.
The weeks stood still in summer.
The trees’ blood rose. Now you feel
it wants to sink back
into the source of everything. You thought
you could trust that power
when you plucked the fruit:
now it becomes a riddle again
and you again a stranger.
Summer was like your house: you know
where each thing stood.
Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins.
The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.
Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have.
Be earth now, and evensong.
Be the ground lying under that sky.
Be modest now, like a thing
ripened until it is real,
so that he who began it all
can feel you when he reaches for you.
- Rainer Maria Rilke

After the Two Arrows Zen Earth & Sky meditation retreat, I am diving into conflict - or rather, the surprising capacity that one can find in a formerly trauma-reactive body with just a few simple skills. It’s wildly different to sit in conflict with a calm body.

I’m writing about this in a series of posts on Substack in case you want to join in (link in bio) ❤️

This week, part 1 in a series of skills and reframes toward calm, confident and curious conflict resolution: “Like many ...
06/06/2026

This week, part 1 in a series of skills and reframes toward calm, confident and curious conflict resolution:

“Like many of you, I was raised in an environment where conflict was terrifying. It was loud, unpredictable, degrading, sometimes violent, and almost never a logical result of my own misbehavior.

We also simply didn’t talk about feelings. The only resolution that was role modeled was splitting up.

I learned: others’ anger leads to pain and abandonment. If I felt angry, I learned to swallow it down and withdraw...”

💌 Read free now ➡️ Substack link in bio

🕊️

When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’...
06/05/2026

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
By: WENDELL BERRY

🦫

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.” - Thich Nhat HanhWriting to you from the...
05/29/2026

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Writing to you from the midst of a week-long meditation retreat in the gorgeous Utah desert:

“…The ego seeks to maintain the borders of our identity. Exploring beyond them threatens the safety of the status quo (even when we deeply wish for change). And so, we resist.

Coming into this experience, I became increasingly anxious over the loss of control and competence required to expand into new terrain…

…The stressors accumulated for 24 hours into a compelling story about escaping back home to my warm bed, son, cat, kitchen, and a bundle of free time.

There it was, the pivotal decision of every challenge: withdraw or surrender…”

💌 Read now ➡️ Substack link in bio

🧘🏼‍♀️

This week: Do you ever question your prior self’s audacity?…I am heading south for a week-long Zen retreat cradled in th...
05/23/2026

This week: Do you ever question your prior self’s audacity?

…I am heading south for a week-long Zen retreat cradled in the red rock beauty of Capitol Reef.

I am certain the frayed edges of my anxious self will be well-served by time to sit still long enough to return my feet to the ground, to release yet again the expectations that lead to striving, to surrender into the current of life’s beauty.

Given the pre-departure checklist, much of it overdue, I find myself with one foot already in the desert, toes wiggling in the sun-warmed sand, and the other triaging the impossible.

And perhaps that is the essential practice: there is always more than can be done, why do any of it without full presence and gladness? As the Zen proverb so astutely observes, “Let go, or be dragged.”

💌 Read the full post now ➡️ Substack link in bio

✅🧘🏼‍♀️

An ode to my reliable writing partner ❤️“In reverie they emulate the noble moodOf giant sphinxes stretched in depths of ...
05/23/2026

An ode to my reliable writing partner ❤️

“In reverie they emulate the noble mood
Of giant sphinxes stretched in depths of solitude
Who seem to slumber in a never-ending dream“
- from Cats by Charles Baudelaire

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South Jordan, UT

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