Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul
Are you feeling overwhelmed, disconnected from your body, or stuck in cycles of stress and trauma? Healing Her Story is here to guide you from feeling lost, isolated, and exhausted to feeling empowered, grounded, and deeply connected to yourself.
This transformative podcast dives into trauma recovery, somatic healing, creativity, and the profound wisdom of trauma-informed menstrual cycle awareness. Each episode offers practical tools, inspiring stories of resilience, and insightful conversations to help you reconnect with your body, break free from societal expectations, and align with your natural rhythms.
If you're ready to shift from surviving to thriving, join us as we illuminate the path toward healing, empowerment, and wholeness. It’s time to rewrite your story and embrace the life you deserve.
Start your healing journey today with Healing Her Story—a podcast created for women, by women, who are reclaiming their power.
Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul
Why Your Nervous System Responds Better to Curiosity Than Criticism
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This week's Healing Her Story episode explores something that doesn't get talked about enough in healing spaces.
Curiosity.
Not as a personality trait. As a biological necessity.
In this solo episode, Riva shares one of the most fundamental shifts she made in her own healing journey -- from relentless self-judgment to genuine curiosity. And why that shift changed everything. Not just emotionally. Biologically.
She opens up about the years she spent trying to force change. Meditating more, scrolling less, thinking more positively, losing weight -- all at the same time. And how every time she fell short, the inner critic got louder. The loop got tighter. And the change she so desperately wanted never came.
It wasn't until she discovered trauma-informed care that she understood why.
Judgment creates unsafety in the nervous system. And an unsafe nervous system cannot change.
In this episode she explores:
Why everything your system does is a protective strategy and not a personal failing
How curiosity literally primes the brain to form new neural pathways and learn
The dopamine connection and why curious people tolerate uncertainty and discomfort better
Why safety has to come before curiosity and the somatic practices that create that foundation
How to begin shifting from "what is wrong with me" to "I wonder why this is happening" -- and what that tiny shift does inside your body
If you have ever felt stuck in the loop of trying hard, falling short, and judging yourself for it -- this episode will finally help you understand why. And what to do instead.
Resources to Support You This Week:
Free Trauma Recovery Mini Course -- Three foundational pillars of trauma recovery with short somatic practices to help your nervous system move toward regulation and safety.
Our intro and outro song, Reclamation (Reborn), is an anthem of remembering.
This song was created as a companion for the healing journey, especially for women reclaiming their voices, their rhythms, and their belonging in a world shaped by patriarchy.
You’re invited to listen, feel, and let the music meet you wherever you are.
Looking for support? Here's how to go deeper:
- Book a Somatic Assessment: Your 75-min 1:1 virtual session to explore what your body is holding and shape a personalized care plan. Book Here
- Free Trauma Recovery Mini-Course: A self-guided intro to trauma recovery and nervous system care. Download Here
- 1:1 and Group Support: Virtual and in-person offerings. Learn More
- Meditations on Insight Timer: Guided practices for nervous system regulation. Listen Here
- Watch Reclamation: A music video and expressive arts project. Watch Here
Follow on Instagram: @healingherstorypodcast
Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Email riva@windsofchangesac.com or DM @healingherstorypodcast on Instagram.
