Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women

(#52) The Art of Letting Go and Grounding Practices for Self-Regulation

• Rae The Somatic Coach • Episode 52

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In this episode, we dive into the art of letting go during transitions, exploring how to ground yourself and ease the process of release. You'll discover practical techniques for self-regulation, including breathwork and meditation, and learn how to navigate the duality of emotions that often accompany change. Tune in to receive: 

  • Learn the mantra "I allow letting go to be easy" to help facilitate emotional release.
  • Discover three essential practices for grounding and self-regulation
  • Understand how breathwork can reduce stress and regulate the nervous system
  • Gain insights into starting a meditation practice and overcoming common misconceptions

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Disclaimer: Please remember that the information shared on this podcast is intended to inspire, educate, and support you on your personal journey. It does not substitute for professional mental health advice. I am not a psychologist or medical professional. If you are experiencing distress, mental health challenges, or medical conditions, please seek help from a qualified professional.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Radiant Life Podcast. I'm your host, rae, the Somatic Coach, and I'm here to support you in healing your past, living in the present and creating your future so that you can become the most centered, embodied and happiest version of yourself. Each week, I'll be bringing you episodes to help you navigate life's challenges, ease stress and tension and learn more about holistic healing, spirituality and wellness. If you're interested in becoming the best version of yourself so that you can live the life of your dreams, then you're in the right place. Subscribe to the podcast and the monthly newsletter and follow me on Instagram and TikTok to know when new episodes are released each week. I am so happy that you've landed here. Let's dive in. Welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, I'm Rae, I'm a somatic coach and breathwork facilitator, and if you aren't new here, welcome back. I'm so glad and grateful that you are tuning in for today's episode.

Speaker 1:

We have a few different fun topics that we'll be diving into today, but to kick things off, we'll start with what I'm calling the front desk items. I heard this on another podcast and so I'm borrowing it. I like it, and so just kind of these things that we'll check in with about before we dive into the rest of the episode. So, for anyone that participated in the giveaway, I'm so, so, so thankful and grateful for all of the kind words, and it was just so nice to be able to do something like this to kind of celebrate one year of podcasting, and it was a lot of fun for me too. So to pick the winner, I use this website it's called wheel of names where you put in all the entries and then you spin a wheel, and it's so fun. It has, like these little like sound effects and it really feels like I'm winning something too, so it's super fun. It really feels like I'm winning something too, so it's super fun, and so that's what I did.

Speaker 1:

So for this podcast giveaway, the winner is Melly A3. So the username was Melly, underscore A, underscore three, and this was for a one-on-one breathwork healing session. I'm super excited for these. These have been really, really nice. They're 90 minutes, they're virtual and they include somatic coaching, somatic breathwork, energy healing and just a really nice way for you to feel supported and experience somatic breathwork. So, melly, underscore eight, underscore three, I'm excited. Reach out to me and we will kick things off.

Speaker 1:

And for anyone that entered, or just in general, who wanted to do a one-on-one breathwork healing session. You are in luck because this month, for the month of September, I'm running a sale that is 30% off of all one-on-one breathwork healing sessions. So this sale is, yes, for Labor Day weekend, but also because September is my birthday, so it's kind of like a birthday month sale and I'm excited. So if, if you didn't win, but you really wanted to check out that sale, um, sign up, I'll put the link in the show notes for you to kind of check out that schedule. And then, if you read the monthly newsletter that was sent out actually today because I'm recording this on september 1st, so it went out sunday morning the theme is around letting go and harvest season and that is what the theme is for this month's breathwork class. So it's going to be coming up on Thursday, september 12th, at seven o'clock PM EST and it's all based around letting go. And so I also put together a little discount code just for podcast listeners and that code will be in the show notes as well. So if you book through the show notes if you choose to come I would love to have you there you get a nice 30% discount. So that's a virtual breathwork class. It's all based around letting go. It includes meditation, somatic breathwork and some integrative journaling at the end. So these classes are always nice and beautiful and wonderful to be in community.

Speaker 1:

And that leads us to the first topic of our podcast for today. So for the first topic, I'm going to kind of build on this theme of letting go and if you saw and read the monthly newsletter, the mantra of the month for this month is I allow letting go to be easy. And the reason why I chose this mantra and this theme is because, even for myself personally, I've been going through this journey over the past few weeks of just really like shedding and like letting go. And there's so many little things that have shifted and have changed in my personal life and my business in so many different ways. And I think it's just so cyclical with the seasons, like summer is ending, we're moving back into fall it's not here yet, but Labor Day weekend you do feel like that shift, so like leaning with that flow and leaning into those changes.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes we can tend to hold on, we can tend to kind of like tense up, which is understandable, and some of the challenges that we might face is that we don't know what is on the other side of these changes, and that can bring up some different fears, doubts, uncertainty, and then there's also this other flavor of things are out of our control, and some of it is out of our control, and so how do we allow this process to be easy, which is the mantra I allow letting go to be easy and so there's three ways that I'd love to share with you that will kind of let this process unfold in a way that, yes, it might be painful in some ways, but also can be very nourishing. So the first is honoring your experience. So what are your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your beliefs? What is this experience bringing up for you? And really allowing yourself to be met in all of those places. So there's no force, there's no uh, you know good vibes. Only you, uh, have full permission to feel the full human experience and be in all the waves of emotion, and there also might be some duality. That's present too. So if you're feeling grief, shame, uncertainty, fear, you might also have a sense of relief. That's present too. You might also feel like you have more spaciousness, you might feel closer to joy, all of these things. So you might be experiencing some dualities.

Speaker 1:

So really just honoring your experience, your personal experience of wherever you're at and whatever the experience is bringing up for you, which leads us to part two, which is practicing self-compassion. So this is something that I've definitely talked about on the podcast before. I would say that this self-compassion is one of the biggest things that I've taken on for myself and learned for myself in doing all of the work that I do really. So in doing somatic coaching, in doing breath work, all of the modalities that I'm drawn to for my own personal healing, all of the modalities that I'm drawn to for my own personal healing what's on the other side of it for me has been a lot of self-compassion. I think we can be so hard on ourselves sometimes and we can feel like we want to and should maybe have all the answers or we should always be feeling a certain way and that's just not the case. And so really practicing self-compassion with whatever is coming up for you and honoring your experience.

Speaker 1:

And then the third is asking for support. So when things are happening and they might cause some dysregulation for us, it's really helpful to have someone that is regulated, that you can work through something with. So support like for me, having my own personal support is really what allows me to be present in my day-to-day life that I just really enjoy having a team of people that support me in some way, team of people that support me in some way, and I encourage, if there's anything that you're bumping up against with this season of change or with just letting go in general, lean on the support around you, whether it's family, friends, a professional, whatever it looks like for you. But asking for support and allowing yourself to receive it is really helpful for going with this mantra of I allow letting go to be easy. And I think one very relatable, tangible example that might be coming up for some of us is the beginning of the school year. So a lot of our society and then even some of our professions if we're a teacher or we work in the school system you can feel that change of going from the flowiness of summer, the vacations of summer, to back to school and back to the day to day and back to the routine, and that can bring up so many different emotions. It could be excitement, like maybe you're excited for going back to school, or if you're again, it depends on what, what you're connected to in the school system. But there can also be this sense of grief of oh no, like summer's ending, like what's going to happen now, how's the rest of the year going to go, things like this. So a very easy, relatable example that might be applicable to you.

Speaker 1:

And shifting into the second topic of today's episode, I've reflected on what are the most recent questions that I've been asked and thought that these questions, specifically, would be helpful to share around for harvest season and in this season of letting go. So they're all a little bit different, but they all definitely apply and are helpful. So the first is how do you meditate? And I thought this question was so good because oftentimes I think people have some, like they don't have as much clarity around, like what meditation is and how to do it and all of this stuff. So I think the first thing that is helpful for meditation is giving yourself some structure, like giving yourself either when you're going to start and when you're going to end. But I always recommend guided practices, especially in the beginning, because that structure is already there, right, they're starting and they're ending. You just need to create the space to be able to do the meditation.

Speaker 1:

So great resources for that insight timer. I absolutely love um. I use the pause breathwork app, which is more breathwork than meditation, but also a great um, a great resource. And then I love the gabby bernstein app. That's something that has a lot of different meditations on it. And then I do have a free resource called Breathe Easy and that includes four guided practices.

Speaker 1:

And then I'll also say that allow yourself to be present in your experience. So remove any distractions when you're listening to the audio or when you're creating some time for you to meditate, put your phone away if you're not using it for meditation. Like really set yourself up for success, to be able to be in quiet and be in this five to ten minute experience. And then the third thing that I would say is helpful for meditating is knowing that you can't do it wrong. It takes practice to be able to meditate, of course, especially for long periods of time, because silence can be really uncomfortable for people. So, especially when we have so much stimulation in our day-to-day lives, meditation can be like what we're quiet. This is not what I'm used to. So give yourself the time and space, give yourself the structure, allow yourself to be present, remove any distractions and know that you can't do it wrong when you're taking those moments to get quiet and be in your body and be present.

Speaker 1:

The second question that I've been asked recently is what does breathwork help with? I thought this was a great question as well, and breathwork is helpful for so many things. It really depends on your personal intention, and this is why I always create space in the beginning of a individual session or a group session for crafting and setting your own intention, because I like to use the analogy of GPS, like maps, and your intention is that red dot on the map and I might be facilitating, so I might be guiding you through an experience. So maybe I'm the wheels of the car, but you are driving the car and your intention is the destination that we're going to. So without that destination, we're just driving around, we're just kind of cruising and really setting your intention will be able to use breathwork based on, like what you're looking to receive help with.

Speaker 1:

So some intentions that breathwork can help with creativity, stress relief, presence, emotional release, self-compassion, self-love, trust, joy, manifestation, beliefs, reclaiming your energy. And it's great if you struggle with meditation, also because it is an active practice, so you'll be able to focus on your breath and quiet your mind more effectively, and then, in general, breathwork definitely has so many benefits it can help to reduce stress and anxiety, improve your mood, it can help you to get better sleep and improve your focus, and it can help you with learning how to regulate your own nervous system. So it's a tool that you have in your toolkit, depending on what kind of breathwork you're looking to do. But integrative breathwork is something that's eight minutes or less and that's something that you know you can do on your break at work. You can do it in the car, not while you're driving, but while you're parked in a safe place. You know you can do it on a break, sitting outside, on your lunch break, you know. So there's what's great about breathwork is that it's something you always have that you can use, because you always have your breath.

Speaker 1:

And then also, just to relate this question of what does breathwork help with to the theme of this month's newsletter, letting Go and Harvest Season, meditative breathwork, like a one-on-one healing session or even the group breathwork class, is so helpful for releasing and letting go, because our bodies remember so much of what has gone on in the past and it stores so much stress and anxiety and when we give it the time and space to go into this place where our mind isn't necessarily active and we're really, in a sense, in a place of calm and safety, that can really allow for a release and allow that letting go process to be a lot more gentle. And then the third question that I've been asked recently is do you offer virtual services? And of course, yes, I do so. Right now, all of my services are virtual, whether it's a one-on-one breathwork healing session or a group breathwork class, right now they're all virtual at this time. Then the fourth question that I've been asked recently is what is different about somatic coaching? So I love this question.

Speaker 1:

Somatic coaching is really focused on having a felt sense and understanding of what your body is communicating to you. So the word soma in somatics is from the Greek origin and it means the whole body or the whole living organism. So with semantics it includes the whole lived experience of the human experience, and so that includes the wisdom of the body, and oftentimes we don't know that this is an option, like I remember for myself the first time I did a somatic based practice and someone asked me I think they asked me where is safety located in your body. So they asked me, where is safety located in my body? And I was like, what are they talking about? I had no idea what that meant about. I had no idea what that meant. So it's taken me personally years to understand and feel safe with listening to my body's voice, and this is exactly what I work with my clients on.

Speaker 1:

The foundation, really, of somatic work is built on creating that safety so that you can feel safe, to feel connected and quiet and observing of your experience. I've shared this before but oftentimes when I would be feeling anxious, I would feel it in my body. I would feel, you know, pressure on my chest or just pressure on my shoulders, lots of somatic responses to my anxiety. And when someone started asking me about those sensations and what that felt like, I was like, oh my goodness, this is so interesting because I had never had that perspective before. So really cool stuff and there's just so much wisdom that you can receive that goes beyond like thinking positive or mindset, and which is great, of course, but it goes like a little bit deeper than that. It goes beyond that and that's when you can get into like the inner child work and inner child healing and no-transcript. Different thoughts, feelings, emotions and beliefs might be communicating to you based on how you're feeling in your body, and so all of that is why I'm so passionate about somatic coaching. It's, it's, yeah, awesome.

Speaker 1:

And then the next question that I was asked about recently is what is grounding? Recently is what is grounding? So this was a hard one for me to put into words, and on the same day that I was asked this question, mel Robbins made a post about grounding, so I'm going to share a little bit of her structure for that answer, because she broke it up into four categories and I thought it was really helpful, and so that's the four categories that I'll share with you here. But grounding in general is a practice that involves connecting with the earth's natural electrical charge, and it can also be known as earthing. Four different categories. The first is emotional grounding, and so I would describe that as self soothing and emotion, by either listening to a soothing sound this could also be like sound bowls, singing bowls, breath work, somatic shaking, inner child practices to help you to feel safe in an emotion that you're feeling. So emotional grounding.

Speaker 1:

And the second is mental grounding, so this could look like doing an adult coloring book meditation. This could look like journaling out all of your thoughts, doing like a brain dump practice or going for a walk just to clear your head, so doing a practice that will mentally help you to feel grounded. And then the third is spiritual grounding. So having an object that feels safe to you or something that helps you to feel connected to universe, source, spirit, whichever word you like to use, and sometimes people use crystals for this, so maybe people keep a crystal in their car, in their pocket or in their purse, or something like that. Another way that you could spiritually ground is if you're into like pulling cards, whether that's tarot cards or any kind of cards, something that will help you to feel spiritually connected and open up to different signs around you. So that way maybe you could even have like a conversation with your guides, something like that, where you feel connected and spiritually grounded. And then the fourth is physical grounding. So putting your feet into the ground or laying down on the earth. This could look like walking in the sand, gardening, and if you've heard of or have a grounding mat, this would be helpful for really all of the categories, but definitely applies to physical. You could also like notice the clothes on your, making contact with your skin or feeling a texture around you, doing things that will bring you back into like physically feeling connected to your body. Gary Brucka is also another great resource to look up. He talks a lot about grounding in general, so that's definitely a good resource to check out if grounding is something that interests you.

Speaker 1:

And then the last question that I've been asked recently is what have you learned from one year of podcasting? And this was such a fun question. Yeah, so I broke it up into kind of three different areas, because I feel like I have learned a lot from the past year, and the first category is podcasting in general. Right, so just learning how to podcast. That looks like learning how to record and editing, ideating different ideas, learning different versions and styles of episodes, learning about what my own capacity was for podcasting and all of the different tech that goes into what I do for podcasting, like my version of it.

Speaker 1:

And then the second aspect that I've learned from one year of podcasting is definitely personal growth. So this, for me, looked like doing something before. I felt like I was ready, or doing something, even if I feel fearful while I'm doing it, knowing that that's okay, listening to my own needs and pace of what I need. One big one that I learned for sure was to stop trying to be understood. So, ultimately, something that I've moved past is trying to like make sense basically, and when I was trying to make sense, it feels like you're like filtering yourself um, but I'll always be growing, of course, and like trying to be a better speaker and all that stuff. But when you feel like you're trying to make sense, it doesn't come out as authentic. So just really allowing myself to just speak and speak freely and know that my message will resonate with the people that it's meant to. So I let go of trying to be understood and this took a huge weight off of my shoulders and podcasting has been so helpful for that form of growth. That's been huge for me.

Speaker 1:

And then the third would be being an act of service. So sharing knowledge is an act of service and knowing that my personal story and other people's personal stories too, of course, like guest experts sharing our stories can be really healing for each other because it lets people know that they're not alone, and that has been really helpful to learn from one year of podcasting. So it's been. It's been a lot of fun and I'm really grateful that I get to do this as part of my work, and that's what we have for today's episode.

Speaker 1:

So thank you so much for tuning in for today's episode. I know we covered a lot of information on a few different topics. I hope that you join us for this month's group breathwork class on letting go and harvest season or in a one-on-one breathwork healing session. So, if you are feeling the transition of this time of year like I am, I hope that you are gentle with yourself and, yeah, I hope that you have an incredible rest of your week and I will talk to you soon.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. If you are moved or inspired, please share with me by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It means the world to me and I am so appreciative for your support in helping my podcast grow. If we aren't already connected on social media, head over to Instagram and TikTok and follow me at Ray the Somatic Coach. Make sure you check out the show notes of today's episode for links connected on social media. Head over to Instagram and TikTok and follow me at raythesomaticcoach. Make sure you check out the show notes of today's episode for links to freebies, opportunities to work with me and ways we can stay connected outside of the podcast. I'm so happy that you're here and I can now wait to talk with you on our next episode of the Radiant Life podcast.