Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women

(#53) Finding Safety in The Body, Breathwork for Anxiety, and The Power of Gratitude

• Rae The Somatic Coach • Episode 53

Share episode

In this episode, Rae shares about the topics of safety and gratitude and how they are important components to healing, especially when experiencing  anxiety. Tune in to receive: 

  • How breathwork supports anxiety relief and nervous system regulation
  • The importance of feeling safe in the body and practical tools to cultivate safety
  • Why safety is the foundation for emotional processing, personal growth, and manifestation
  • The power of gratitude as a practice for shifting perspectives and connecting with abundance
  • Somatic approaches to embodying gratitude and creating a heart-centered life

Schedule a 1:1 Breathwork Healing Session (30% OFF for September SALE!)

Join ILLUMINATE: Flower Essence Intensive
BLOOM: Breathwork Healing Experience
Apply for The Embodied Woman: Private Coaching & Breathwork

WORK W. ME
Inner Alchemy Somatic Breathwork
Clarity & Release Somatic Coaching
Event Schedule

CONNECT
The Monthly Newsletter
DM on IG
Website
Subscribe & Review Apple Podcasts
Follow & Rate Spotify

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:

To kick things off, I want to share a few front desk items, a few updates, and then we'll dive into today's topic. So today I'm recording this here. It's on Sunday. Usually I record during the week, but I didn't have the chance to. So here we are, and it's been an awesome weekend so I was able to go to the Kygo concert. I'm a big Kygo fan me and my husband and it's also our birthdays this month. Our birthdays are one week apart, which is fun, so we were able to celebrate with our families. So it's just been a really nice weekend, definitely feeling lots of just gratitude and love and just such a nice weekend.

Speaker 1:

And then on Thursday last week we had a breathwork of the month class, which was really beautiful. It was all around letting go in harvest season and this theme just lands so hard for me I know that our last episode was on this topic. It just feels really aligned for the month and the season that we're in, and I'm not sure what the intention will be for October just yet. I'd like to kind of see what is coming up intuitively. So stay tuned for that. But it was a really beautiful group and a really great class for that. But it was a really beautiful group and a really great class, and one of the attendees it was her first time doing breathwork and so one of the questions that she had asked was how does breathwork help with anxiety, and I really love this question. It's something that has really helped me personally on my journey and it's also just so integral to the work that I do with my clients, and I'm just so grateful for finding Breathwork and for having such a big part of my life, because it was such an integral tool for me, being able to move through so much anxiety and grief and still, to this day, something that I use all of the time. So I really really find it helpful for anxiety. So I thought I'd share a little bit more about how and why it's helpful for anxiety here.

Speaker 1:

So when we are experiencing anxiety, we might be identifying a lot with that emotion and oftentimes it can feel really strong and overwhelming, depending on how intense the anxiety is. And what breathwork allows us to do is really be present in our bodies and really allow the mind to rest and build up this capacity for safety and this capacity for having a different way that our nervous system can be present, so we're able to experience it something different. And then, because we've been able to experience something different, we now have another way of being. We have another way of relating in the world, of showing up, and with breathwork you're able to release any kind of stored energy or old trauma that may be living in the body. So it's not necessarily your typical mindset work. It is more really relating to the body and being able to release something from that place and increasing your capacity to feel safe in your body and also for you to experience a different state of being. So there's a lot that goes into how breathwork helps to like regulate the nervous system and how it helps with anxiety, and it's just such a powerful practice, something that is great for doing, whether it's like something that you want to do daily or something that you want to do in like a longer session a few times a month to supplement your current practices. It's just a really great practice to have an experience. So for the month of September I've been offering one-on-one breathwork healing sessions, and in October I'll also be offering those again, but I think I'm going to add an option for 60-minute sessions as well. So definitely stay tuned for that, and if you're looking to schedule for the month of September, definitely check that out, the link in the show notes. I know the dates have been going pretty fast, so if it's something that you're interested in, definitely reserve that so you can get your time in before the month is up.

Speaker 1:

And then one other topic that I wanted to share about that will kind of lead us right into our first topic for today is I've been working with one of my private clients for about two years, which is so beautiful. I love working with people really over a long period of time because we end up building this just incredible relationship and it allows us to just go deep and we're both able to receive so much from the experience. And recently, with this private client, our time came to a close and it was such an incredible experience and she shared with me so much about. You know what she received and you know, with consent, I'm sharing all this story, but one thing that she reflected back to me was that I was able to be a safe place for her and I was able to teach her what it felt like to feel safe, and I was so moved by this reflection and I'm just so grateful for the time that I was able to share with her.

Speaker 1:

Safety is really the foundation for anything that we want to do. If you're feeling any kind of hard emotion, if you're feeling stuck, if you're feeling unsure, self-doubt, really shame, guilt, grief, wanting to manifest something, wanting to move forward, safety is at the foundation of being able to move through any kind of emotional challenge that we might be experiencing, and it's so integral to what we need and once you've learned this skill of being able to feel safe in your experience, because unfortunately, so many of us either weren't taught the skill of feeling safe with our sensations in the body and different emotions and unfortunately may not have had safe experiences Little T and big T trauma. That's the reality. And so the first topic that we'll be talking about today is safety Definitely feeling lots of gratitude for the time that I was able to share with her. And that leads us right into the two topics for today's episode.

Speaker 1:

So the first topic we're going to talk more about safety and what it means to feel safe in the body. I know the first time that I under or even heard about this concept of feeling safe in the body, I had no idea what it meant. And then the second topic that we're going to talk about is gratitude. So let's dive in. So this concept of really feeling safe in your body, I think is something that I personally had never heard of, and I remember the first time when someone had asked me how safe do you feel in your body on a scale from one to 10? Really had no idea what they meant and it kind of was the very, very tip beginning first step of like learning more about the body.

Speaker 1:

And for someone that was very anxious at one point and really spent a lot of time in her mind, being able to connect to my body and feel safe in my body was so pivotal for my experience and has helped me so much. And I always love to start there with one-on-one clients and really build this foundation. Creating safety within your body, within your nervous system, really allows you to have the ability to observe your experience, so you're going to be able to observe your thoughts and emotions without necessarily identifying with them. And from this place of feeling safe to be with an experience from an observing standpoint instead of like identifying with it, then you can move more into that practice of embodiment and the practice of feeling present and being in your body, so feeling present with what sensations are alive for you. And I'll share a practice in a minute or two of how you can kind of like build this tool of feeling safe in your body. And you know, part of the human experience is, of course, spending so much time in our minds and it's through this practice of safety and through this practice of embodiment that we can move our awareness away from this mental chatter and closer to the voice of our intuition, to the voice of our heart, to the voice of you know, our soul, our spirit guides, listening to our ancestors. Like you, can go into so many different things when you feel safe to be in your experience, and I can. I can even share for me me personally.

Speaker 1:

A lot of my symptoms of my anxiety were somatically based. You know, I had a lot of pressure on my chest, a lot of. I felt like I couldn't breathe. Sometimes I was so anxious, just like running to the next thing. And really being present in your life and really being present with what is is so much calming, so much more calming. It's just like so much more juicy. And having a place of safety in our lived experience allows us to have that ability to, you know, reject thoughts that are not useful, reject old way of being, old patterns, and really honor all of our emotion but not identify with it. And when you're able to honor all of your whole lived experience and not feel so attached to it because you feel safe to hold it, you feel safe, to just like be present with it. You're going to be able to hear that sound of your intuition and the sound of your heart and your soul, and all that a lot easier.

Speaker 1:

So how do we start this safety practice in our day-to-day life? So I have a few questions, a few journaling prompts that would be supportive. So the first one is when do you feel the most safe? So when in your life do you feel that you're in a safe place? Where do you feel the most safe? What makes you feel the most safe? Who makes you feel the most safe? And what is your strongest memory for safety? I like this last one because it allows you to resource from a place that feels really safe. So this could be anything. This could be like a place, a memory, a person, like what is your strongest memory for safety? And then the last prompt would be using the mantra it is safe to feel in my body, or it is safe to be in my body. Where in your body feels like a safe place? So this could be your hands, this could be your heart, this could be your belly, it could be absolutely anything. And while you're going through this practice and you're searching for this part in your body that feels like a safe place. You also might find some places that don't feel so safe, and that's okay too. So, just allowing the duality of the experience to be what it is and this is something that can take time for it to build and it's a skill that, once you have it, you can really move through any challenge, any kind of stickier emotion, really feeling connected to your safety and your power, because you're going to have this place that feels like you're safe, even though you're feeling stronger and uncomfortable emotions and sensations. So if you do end up doing that safety practice, definitely let me know how it goes. You can send me an email or a DM on Instagram. I love to chat with you guys and I'm also here to answer any questions or elaborate on anything too, so you just let me know.

Speaker 1:

And then, moving into our second topic for today's episode, we are talking about gratitude. Today's episode we are talking about gratitude and disclaimer here, of course, that when it comes to gratitude, sometimes we can do this fun thing called spiritual bypassing and that's like let me move around what I'm actually feeling and be avoidant and just get to gratitude as fast as I can. So we're we're not doing that, no spiritual bypassing here. We're just talking about gratitude and how we can practice it, how it shows up in our life, why it's powerful and all of that, all that good stuff. So definitely, if there's something that's coming up that's uncomfortable, build that tool of safety and then use our tools to move through it. That way we can get to gratitude and it feels real good. So I have no idea how I know this, but it is World Gratitude Day on September 21st. I must have saw that somewhere, no idea, but maybe I dreamt about it. I have no idea, but that is what sparked today's topic.

Speaker 1:

So what is gratitude? Why does it matter and what does it help us with? So gratitude is a practice or a way of being that really allows us to feel thankful and show appreciation for something or someone or life in general, and in that process it returns us back to this frequency of kindness and open heartedness and presence. Gratitude is something that I think a lot of people talk about having like a daily practice around, because it allows us to move into that observer state, especially if we're going through something that's challenging. It allows us to move into a state of observing and trying to find and shift our perspective and also just feel very thankful and grateful for what is going well. So it's a great practice to have, of course, and I think it's helpful for doing exactly that shifting our perspective, connecting to, you know, our heart space, connecting to kindness and joy, and it's a, you know, definitely a higher frequency emotion to be feeling.

Speaker 1:

So, using a somatic approach to connecting with gratitude is how can we connect to gratitude using our body right? So like a body-based connection to this frequency. And there's three ways that I think we can do that. The first is really connecting with your heart space, and for some this might be challenging. The heart space can hold a lot of pain, so maybe this isn't the way that feels good for you, but definitely connecting with the heart space, and I'll share a few practices for doing that as well. The second is knowing what gratitude feels like in your body, so similar to the practice with safety. The second is knowing what gratitude feels like in your body, so similar to the practice with safety, where you find a space in your body that feels really safe. You can do the same thing with gratitude. So maybe when you're feeling really grateful, elated, joyful. There's like a buzzing in your chest or there's like your arms or something like that Like knowing what that feels like in your body will be really helpful because you can connect with that feeling. And then the third is knowing that we are made up of so much abundance abundance in our life, abundance in our bodies and that there is more than enough to go around. So this like body-based connection to the frequency of abundance. So what does abundance feel like in your body and how does that show up? What does it look like for you? So the three ways are connecting with the heart space, connecting with what gratitude feels like in your body, and then connecting with what abundance feels like in your body as well. And then, when it comes to really bringing gratitude into your daily life, there are so many different ways that you can do this, and I'll share a few here that I think are really powerful, because they do include the body and energy. You know that I love that approach.

Speaker 1:

So the first one is really being present with what is and allowing what is to be. So this kind of connects to the intention of our last breathwork session, but really being present and allowing what is Like I allow what is to be here, I allow it to be present and being grateful for all of the small little things that you see in that presence. So it could be like the smallest things that had happened throughout your day or that are happening in your day-to-day life. It could be for like the functioning of your body, like your hands and your legs work and your teeth allow you to eat food, and like it could just be for like the smallest, smallest things and when you get really, really, really present with what is and you allow everything to be exactly how it is, nothing needs to change, nothing needs to be different. We're grateful for exactly how things are. It allows you to see those like little micro moments, and this is something that you can do from the minute that you wake up. It's something you could do in the middle of your day, on your lunch break, on your drive home from work, before you go to sleep, or when you lay down to go to sleep, kind of like reflecting on your day, seeing what you're grateful for. If you listened to a previous episode about earth angels, I feel like this kind of goes into this practice as well. So getting really present with what is and being grateful for all the little things that you see when you get present with what is.

Speaker 1:

And then this second practice is one of my personal favorites. It's called a love and kindness meditation. I believe it's a Buddhist practice, but don't quote me on that and it's something that you can. You can find this practice on YouTube. You can find it on insight timer, um, any, I would like to believe. Probably any like meditation app probably has this practice in some form.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure they're all a little bit different, but basically the practice walks you through these four different steps, and the first step starts with may I be filled with loving kindness, may I be well in body and mind, may I be at ease and happy. And then the second step is the same mantra, but it walks you through referring to someone that you don't really know or interact with. So this might be like the barista at the cafe or the mailman, or just someone that you see but you don't necessarily like have a relationship with. Then the third step it walks you through this mantra, but it refers to someone that you do know. So maybe it's like a parent or a friend or partner or a coworker or something like that. And then it walks you through the same mantra in the fourth step but refers to the world. So I really like this practice. I think it's great for connecting with love, connecting with kindness, finding gratitude, and it's also like you receive from this one, but then you also give to. So if you're in a state of like feeling, um, like you can do something like that, like you don't necessarily need to just like tend to your own self in that moment, then this practice can be really nice.

Speaker 1:

And then the third practice that I would love to share with you is a breathwork practice. So I like to call this breathing into the heart. It's a heart-centered breath and what it looks like is taking a six second inhale through your nose. While you're doing that inhale, you're sending that breath into your heart and then, as you exhale for six seconds through the mouth, that breath is coming out through the heart. So if you want to kind of like visualize in your mind like a circle that's going like in through your nose, out through your heart and then so on, it kind of continues and it's like a circle that goes outside of your chest as you continue this six second inhale into the heart through the nose and six second exhale through the mouth, out through the heart. So, using this visualization, as you do the breath, so, using this visualization, as you do the breath, and you can kind of set your timer for four minutes, do this heart-centered breath, the six, six heart-centered breath, and then, when you release the breath because after doing that for four minutes, it will be pretty activating when you release that breath, that's when you meditate afterwards and that's when you meditate on gratitude. And I just love this breath pattern and this practice. I think it's so nice, I think it really connects you to your heart space, it opens you up and it's just a really great practice to have in your toolkit.

Speaker 1:

If you try out any of these practices or if you have any questions about any of them, send me a message, send me an email, dm. We can chat it up. And if you're looking to dive in even more, you want to cultivate more safety, you want more gratitude in your life or you want to understand how to connect to it in your body, you can always join me at next month's breathwork group or schedule an individual session for the month of September. They are still on sale, currently for 30% off. So thank you so so much for tuning into today's episode.

Speaker 1:

I am so grateful that you're here and I hope that you have an incredible rest of your day. I hope you have an incredible rest of your week and I will talk to you soon. 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 RayTheSemanticCoach. 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.