Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women

(#74) Somatic Embodiment, Metabolizing Anxiety & Integrating New Ways of Being

• Rae The Somatic Coach • Episode 74

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What if freedom isn’t found in being anxiety-free—but in learning to live with more presence, joy, and choice through it? This episode is a powerful invitation to reconnect with yourself through somatic healing, nervous system regulation, and embodiment practices that anchor you in a new way of being.

In this episode, we explore:
 🌿 Somatic embodiment – what it is, why it matters, and how it helps you feel more whole, present, and connected
🌿 The difference between managing anxiety and metabolizing it through the body’s wisdom
🌿 How movement, breathwork, sound, and nature regulate your nervous system and expand your capacity to feel joy
🌿 The path from overthinking and anxiety spirals to inner safety and emotional agency
🌿 A guided somatic practice to help you drop in, slow down, and meet yourself with compassion

You’ll also hear why "Coming Home to Yourself" is the essence of the somatic healing journey—especially as you navigate change, transition, and new seasons of life.

This is the final episode in a powerful mini-series that’s included:
 🔹 Ep 71: Nervous System Basics
 🔹 Ep 72: Tracking Sensation
 🔹 Ep 73: Inner Critics & Emotional Repatterning
 🔹 Ep 74: Integration and Embodied Living

💌 Sign up for the monthly newsletter to receive somatic tools, practices, and event updates.


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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 that you are tuning in for today's episode. So two front desk items before we dive into today's episode. The first is that, if you are a new listener, I did recently change the name of the podcast from the Radiant Life to Somatic Healing for Wellness-Focused Women. So I do plan on changing the intro and the outro eventually, but it just hasn't been changed yet. But anyway, if you are a new listener, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here and right now we are doing a. This is actually the last episode of a four part series called rewriting the story of anxiety, and so you can check out episode 71, 72, and 73. And then this is episode 74. And this is the last episode of that series. But, yeah, I'm glad you're here, and so if you are looking to stay connected, a great way to stay connected is to sign up for the monthly newsletter. So that is a newsletter that goes to your inbox on the 1st and 15th of every month and it includes a little toolkit. It has journaling practices, somatic practices, updates on events, podcast updates. So it's a great resource to have, and you can sign up for that through the link in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

So for today's episode, we're going to be talking about somatic embodiment, what that means. We're going to be talking about new ways of being making changes from maybe your past anxious self and what it looks like when you start really making some shifts in that area, and what it feels like when we move through the ebbs and flows and seasons of life. Do you feel safe enough to? Ebb and flow, is anxiety your default. So I totally understand that many times anxiety can be our default setting. That was how I operated for a very long time, which is what led me to becoming a somatic coach, becoming a breathwork facilitator, and it's why I'm so passionate about somatic healing.

Speaker 1:

And somatic healing itself is really about remembering who you are. So it's about really feeling understood in your body and understanding the wisdom that your body holds. Anxiety can feel limiting at times. It can look a lot of different ways social anxiety, worries, thought spirals, what if? And, worst case scenario, thinking. So anxiety can show up a lot in the mind and it can show up a lot in the body, and so with somatic healing, it's really about regulating your nervous system. So that's one aspect of it and that's what we covered in the first episode of this series, episode 71.

Speaker 1:

It's about getting familiar with the sensations in your body and also building the capacity and the safety to feel those sensations. This can feel very foreign and unfamiliar at first, and that's what we dove into in episode 72, which was the second episode of the series. And somatic healing can also look like getting familiar with the different parts that arise. Look like getting familiar with the different parts that arise the inner child, the anxious parts and learning how to understand and meet the needs of these different parts that sometimes can show up in our adult life and they're not always serving us. And so that was the third episode of the series, which was last week's episode, episode 73. And now here we are, episode 74. And this is, yeah, all about integration and how does safety and play and self-expression arise for you and is it accessible for you when you're experiencing anxiety? So all of this is a lot of the work that I do with my one-on-one clients and my signature program Rooted in Radiant, and it's something that you can build on, it's something that you get to discover about yourself. It's a very gentle process but it does include a lot of deep processing and you're really learning to sit with uncomfortable feelings, uncomfortable sensations, and you're learning to metabolize them and you're learning how your personal nervous system and your body and your breath do just that.

Speaker 1:

So a word that comes up often is the world of somatic healing, is somatic embodiment and the word embodiment and I think that word is becoming more popular it might just be the spaces that I'm in. I'm not. I never know if that's the case, because it's like I'm so in that world. It's like is it just my algorithm? Or is everybody seeing this word embodiment? I never know, but somatic embodiment really means using the intelligence of your body as a source of wisdom, as a source of understanding, and as a source of understanding and as a source of learning.

Speaker 1:

So with somatics, it's really focused on working with the body and it's this idea that your body remembers and your body is loaded with information for you to receive and you to learn from. So with somatic embodiment, it means understanding, reading and engaging with those sensations to develop awareness of the present moment, to feel more connected, to feel more whole, to feel more aware. It helps to also be compassionate and kind to ourselves and also to others, because it brings in a deeper layer of understanding and it's also something that you can access. So somatic embodiment of that experience of being in your body and listening to your body you can access that through your breath, you can access that through movement, you can access that through sound. So those are the three things that I always suggest. You can always go into one of those areas if you're looking to feel more connected to your body.

Speaker 1:

It's also a place that you can use as an anchor in how you choose to relate to a new way of being. So a lot of times, when you're on this path of healing or changing your relationship to anxiety or learning more about what anxiety means for you and how it shows up for you, on the other side of that, it can feel really unsettling, because if you are not allowing anxiety to drive and run the show, then what's the alternative thing Then? Like what's happening? So it can feel really unfamiliar at first, it can feel really unpredictable even and so it's. When you're working with the body and you're working with somatic embodiment and somatic healing, it's a great way to, it's a great place to land in for how you can relate to this new way of being.

Speaker 1:

And something that I always like to return back to is that, although somatic healing can be a slower process because you're working at the pace of the body and it's not something that can really be rushed, because everyone has, you know, a unique nervous system, a unique lived experience, but over time, as you begin to make these little shifts and these little understandings and these little changes, and you eventually expand your window of tolerance and you become more regulated. And I always like to say that even if you were to do like three to five minutes of breath work every day, even if you did that for a month, like three to five minutes of breath work every day, even if you did that for a month, like three to five minutes of breath work every day for a month, after that month you would feel different. So, cognitively, we like to understand you know all the different parts and all the different layers, and I think that's, of course, very important too. And also, if you were to put in a little bit of time every day, you would change your nervous system response from your default setting of being anxious. So it's something that you put in a little bit, a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time and over time things really begin to shift. And I mentioned breath work, but it could also be movement, it could also be walking in nature, it could be sound, sound healing, music, binaural beats. So there's a lot of different experiences that contribute to the somatic experience, to somatic healing, to somatic embodiment.

Speaker 1:

So really getting curious around how your body receives and responds to certain practices and when you start making those shifts and you start making those changes, from managing anxiety and anxiety really being at the forefront, you're able to begin to feel safe, and you're able to feel safe to be present. Maybe you begin to live with more freedom, more joy, more personal agency and choice, and that's really beautiful. It's a really amazing thing. That's kind of like what's on the other side of when anxiety stops running the show, um, and also you don't have to be completely anxiety free to be free, like I don't really think that's the goal. I think the goal is really to be able to understand your body, understand your nervous system, understand your anxiety, listen to it when it arises it has very important wisdom and information for you and, when it does arise, be able to sit with it and metabolize it and learn from it. And that in itself is a practice, and it takes some time to feel safe to be able to do that, because anxiety can be very uncomfortable.

Speaker 1:

So a little embodiment practice that I would love to share with you is it's a few questions and you can kind of just answer them or pause the audio and then answer them. But the first is what are you noticing in your body right now? What kind of sensations might be present, what kinds of thoughts or beliefs might arise? How do you feel emotionally right now? Maybe begin to notice the quality of the energy in your body, the quality of the energy in your mind. Are you feeling fatigued, energized, guarded, uh, contracted? And how is your breathing? Is it shallow, is it? Is it held? Is it in the chest, is it in the belly? And if there is a sensation present, see how it feels for you if you were to place your hand over the sensation and breathe into that feeling. And as you sit with the feeling, would you like to explore any movement in response to it? Does it feel like you need to stretch? Does it feel like you need to shake? Is there a movement associated with the sensation? And what might this feeling or sensation need from you right now? So that's a little bit of a taste of a embodiment practice. It's a bunch of questions and you can move through that slower, but the idea is that these questions are allowing you to get really connected to your body. So they're body-based questions. They're going to allow you to drop in a little bit deeper from your current experience and see what is there for you, with curiosity and all right. So that's what we have for today's episode.

Speaker 1:

I hope that you enjoyed this four-part series rewriting the story of anxiety and, if you want to stay connected, definitely sign up for the newsletter in the show notes. So so I hope that you have an incredible rest of your day, 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 were 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 am so happy that you're here and I cannot wait to talk with you on our next episode of the Radiant Life Podcast.