The Mountain Mystic Podcast
From yoga and embodiment to mountains and ultra running, I bring you a podcast that gets to the heart of the wild, messy, complex living of the modern human being.
Welcome to a new kind of ascension journey: an embodied spirituality for modern times — one that's grounded, centered in physical reality, as we explore what it means to be em-bodied as the wild, beautiful, creative human beings that we are.
I get it. Times are wild right now, and I don't mean that in a good way. Here, we find the path forward — one that keeps us grounded, centered in the spaces that matter most. And as we cultivate greater presence for the experience unfolding in every moment, we turn our gaze upward, reaching toward what's brighter, more beautiful, and entirely possible to experience here on Earth.
This is an embodied spirituality that demands we know this very real, very alive world — even as we simultaneously go within, know ourselves more deeply, and walk the discerning path of healing, transformation, and wild, deep fulfillment.
Here, I teach The Embodied Path — four steps toward a life fully inhabited:
- Grounding — coming home to the body, to the earth, to what's real
- Centering — finding your still point amid the noise
- Alignment — re-attuning to your true nature, and to Nature herself
- Discernment — finding your way through it all, clear-eyed and awake
The good news? When we do this work, we get to experience life for the joy, the wonder, the beauty, and the bliss that's actually here. And we get to face the very real, serious challenges our modern world is up against — with our feet on the ground instead of our heads in the clouds.
Brought to you by Katie, a modern-day Earth Priestess and Embodiment Coach, teaching skillful connection with self — and further, into connection with this planet Earth. Because you are not here in these times to be taken down by the dark chaos unfolding around us. And you're not here to embrace some spiritual bullsh*t that pulls you out of the grounded experience of what's actually happening.
More about Katie...
When I left my life as a Biomedical Researcher in pursuit of a path that could truly help heal the world, I didn't expect my greatest teacher to come in the form of Earth herself. But that's exactly what happened. With guidance from a diverse set of ancient wisdom traditions — yoga, tantra, Buddhism, shamanism, and more — and from some phenomenal modern teachers, I've carved my own path out of the modern industrial complex, learning moment by moment to choose what's healing, nurturing, joyful, and fulfilling. Here, I teach this so you can build your own Embodied Path too.
As a trail runner and rock climber, it's my bond with the great outdoors that taught me the deepest truths about our misalignment — with Nature, and with our own selves. Here, we step into conversation focused on re-alignment with our true nature. Through it, we find a better path forward as we heal the deep wounds cut into all living systems.
Systems thinking meets embodied living and holistic healing — brought to you by the mind of a Biomedical Engineer turned Yoga & Meditation Teacher.
The Mountain Mystic Podcast
Meditating In the Body, Not Out of It | Embodiment Practice #5
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Episode: Practice #5 — Embodied Meditation
Meditating In the Body, Not Out of It | Embodiment Practice #5
In this episode, we explore the fifth of the 11 Embodiment Practices: bringing your consciousness fully into your body, holding focus there, and entering a meditative state through the body rather than by leaving it behind.
Western spirituality has often taught us to treat the body as an obstacle — the vessel of suffering we meditate our way out of. This practice offers a different orientation: grounding more fully and skillfully into the body as the very place awakening happens.
We also dig into how this aligns with — and diverges from — Patanjali's dharana/dhyana/samadhi sequence from the Yoga Sutras, and where classical readings of absorption part ways with an embodied approach.
In this episode:
- Why "meditation" is a state, and how Practice #5 is the practice of arriving at that state in the body
- The dis-embodying tendency in Western spiritual culture, and what it costs us
- How dharana, dhyana, and samadhi inform this practice — and where this practice takes a different path
- What it means to let absorption happen into the body rather than out of it
Timestamps:
- 1:16 The Embodied Path - An emerging spiritual system for the modern, Western practitioner
- 8:00 Introducing Practice #5 - Meditation, and conscious connection to your whole body
- 18:50 Meditation - a deeper dive into traditional usage in the Yoga Sutras
- 24:00 What we accept and reject when it comes to long-standing traditions
- 32:30 Experiencing a meditative state
- 55:48 Guided body-based meditation practice
Connect to the greater picture
I created The Embodied Path as a modern spiritual system which attempts to guide us modern, Western beings into a more skillful experience of reality. Weaving together the teachings of the ages, it is each of our tasks to cultivate a spiritual practice that is aligned for the beings that we are.
The Embodied Path is centered on a 4-step path (Grounding, Centering, Alignment, Discernment) as we do our best to navigate the chaos of reality and find truth and meaning. The goal? That we are able to lift ourselves out of this hellish reality that mankind has made on Earth as we get to know the joy, wonder, beauty, and magic that already exists here. This is not about meditating our way out of the suffering of existence. This is not about building a rocket ship to another planet (because we destroyed this one). This is about living life as was meant to be lived on this most beautiful, nourishing, wonderful Planet Earth as these miraculous human beings that we are.
Learn more about The Embodied Path at ForestBody.com
Deepen into our community! Go to forestbody.com to sign up for our Newsletter so that you receive all offerings and are in the loop on exactly what is happening.
Join me in Earth Embodiment Circle! The newest addition to the many ways you can join me in practice and in community. Learn more here.
Deepen into practice in Membership - The Forest: A Library of Guided Meditations and Embodiment Practice. Learn more here.
Read my Earth Embodiment Ebook! We Are The Forest: Walking an Embodied Path of Collective Healing: Read it here
Deepen your grounding: Practice Earth Embodiment with my free Deep Roots Meditation
Find writings and deepen into guided practice on Substack or on The Mountain Mystic Blog
Follow my trailrunning and mountain adventures: @katiethemountainmystic
Music: "The Beat of Nature" from Pixabay
