Episode 23 | Sarah Poirier: Using Somatic Integration To Build Trust With Your Body

Welcome To The Womanhood Podcast.

In this weeks’ episode, we’re meeting with Sarah to chat how we can all integrate Somatic Embodiment to build trust with our bodies; leading to a life-path that is clear and full of joy and purpose. 

This is a deep chat catered to womankind, so we specifically touch on female burnout cycles, and how this correlates with the luteal phase when aiming to build connection and strengthen self-trust with our bodies.

By listening to the episode, we’re inviting you to expand your own awareness on:

• Burnout cycles; from sympathetic to parasympathetic extremes and everything in-between.
• Somatic Practices used for deepening relationship with self, and strengthening self-trust.
• Avoiding the distractions, staying in your lane.
• Bringing intention and awareness to protective mechanisms by leaning into regulation and somatic embodiment.
• Holding space and grace for our humanness and tendancy to ‘back-step’.
• The Luteal Phase; the monthly medicine calling you to meet yourself with Somatic Integration.

Connect With Sarah: 

IG 📲 InstagramSarah - Somatic Healer (@creatinginneralchemy) • Instagram p…​

YouTube 📺  https://www.youtube.com/@Creatinginneralchemy

InightTimer ⏳ https://insighttimer.com/creatinginneralchemy

Website 🌐 https://sarahpoirier.podia.com/

Fb 👥  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555172728098

Connect With Me:

Book An Embodiment Session 🔮 A Free Chat With Me: https://www.somaticbody.com.au/book 

IG 📲 https://www.instagram.com/somatic.body/

Website 🌐 https://www.somaticbody.com.au

💸 Support the channel & get a shout-out in an upcoming episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568636/support

With Love, Shannon

🔻 Somatic & Energetic Integration Specialist for Women,

🔻 Creatress of the Feminine Harmony™ Program and the SomaCycle™ Method.

🔻 Feminine Systems Educator | Reclamation Guide | Ritual Facilitator

🔻 Foundress of Somatic Body™ - a space devoted to helping women reconnect to their feminine bodies.

00:00:50 Introduction To Sarah & What This Episode Is Covering

00:03:53 How Somatic Work Has Been A Big Part Of Both Our Journeys

00:06:46 Reflecting On Chronic Conditions & How Somatics Helped Heal Them

00:10:00 Discussion: How Do We Rise From The Rock-Bottom Of A Chronic Burnout Cycle?

00:13:01 Overcoming The ‘Shame Barrier’ When Healing From Burnout Cycles & Chronicity

00:16:19 Somatic Awareness: A Key Element A Lot Of Us Miss Throughout Life’s Cycles

00:18:51 Getting Real: Radical Self-Acceptance & Honour The Darker Chapters In Life

00:23:59 Crucial & Pivotal Moments At Rock Bottom That Can Change Your Life

00:27:28 The Empowering Connection Of Sovereignty & Somatic Work

00:29:30 Integrating Somatic Embodiment To Begin The Burnout Recovery

00:31:34 Titration Of The Contrasting Events & Chapters In Life

00:34:55 Finding The Correct Guidance & Support To Do The Inner Work

00:38:07 Meeting Yourself On Your Own Timeline & Honouring Your Healing Capacity

00:40:57 How Interoception & Staying In Your Lane Is A Radical Act Of Self-Care

00:43:17 The Importance Of Bleed Cycle (Menstruation) Awareness

00:46:26 The Link Between The Luteal Phase & Burnout (Freeze State)

00:49:18 How The Luteal Phase Is Your Monthly Invitation Into Regulate, Heal & Expand

00:53:10 Rebuilding From Distrust: How To Form A Trusting Relationship With Our Bodies

00:59:09 Navigating Acceptance Of Human Timelines (Not Just Our Own Timeline)

01:07:31 Expansion & Optimisation: Moving Further On The Path Of Burnout Recovery

01:12:20 Navigating Shyness & Comparison By Embracing Your Authenticity

01:15:35 Sarah & Shannon: Our Vulnerable Shares & Sisterly Connections

01:17:12 HOT TIPS: The Final Golden Nuggets From This Episode

01:19:47 Finalising The Episode & Whats Next On The Womanhood Podcast

Disclaimer: The information shared here is educational and does not replace medical advice or the care of a registered health practitioner. It draws on my training in Somatic Embodiment Coaching, Reiki (Usui L1–2), Womb Hara Therapy, Myotherapy, and my Health Science (Chiropractic) studies — offered as somatic and energetic education, within my scope of practice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to the Womanhood Podcast. I'm your host, Shannon, Somatic and Energetic Integration Specialist for Women, Founder of Somatic Body, and creatrice of the Soma Cycle Method and the Feminine Harmony Program. And I'm here to inspire you to reclaim your rhythms, remember your wisdom, and root into your womanhood. Each week I'll be discussing topics centered around our womanhood from a multifaceted, somatic, and energetic viewpoint, weaving together both science with spirituality and masculinity with femininity. We'll be talking cyclical natures and rhythms, intuition, instincts, ancient womb wisdom, and grounded embodiment strategies. Find yourself a cozy space and let's get started. Today I have Sarah with me, and Sarah is a somatic healer who helps women heal their relationships with themselves so they can find their purpose, leave toxic relationships behind, break free from self-abandonment, and step into the life they were always meant to live. So Sarah and I know each other pretty well. But for the listeners, tell us a little bit about yourself and where you came from and how you came into this line of work.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah, okay. I'm like, oh my gosh, where do I start? Um, I feel like my whole life, I pretty much knew that I wanted to help people. Uh, spent a lot of my life trying to help people who didn't want to be helped. And uh through that journey, just really learned a lot about myself. I would say learned a lot about boundaries. And now the work that I do is is a lot different. I help people who pay me. So I actually was a plumber for 12 years and so working in the trades, very blue-collar, very different line of work from what I'm doing now. And it's really taught me a lot, I guess, about listening to my body and coming into the somatic work that I do and learning learning the patterns, like learning the nervous system patterns, and now being able to look back on all those years through plumbing and working a career that was very misaligned and how hard that was on my body. Yeah, it was just it was a really, really long and crazy journey to get to where I am right now. And um I, yeah, I'm just so grateful and so happy that I found the somatic work and that I was able to shift careers and to create a life that I absolutely love because for so many years I really struggled. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do, right? I knew I wanted to help people, but I just didn't know how. And I had a mortgage and I have a daughter. So it's not like I could just drop everything and go to school and start over. That felt very overwhelming to think about, you know, to go back to school. I was, I thought about doing school for psychology for a while. And eventually I did end up actually taking a class, but I was just so discouraged by the thought of like, okay, I have to go to school for four plus years, which means I would have to continue plumbing for, you know, that much longer. And by the time I quit plumbing, I was just so, so, so, so, so done with it. My body was in a complete freeze state. And I didn't really know it at the time. It just, I think that a lot of people called freeze like burnout. Um, I do think that it's like kind of interchangeable, right? When we're in burnt out, we're typically in a free state. So I've been healing, um, healing from that freeze, I want to say, for like the last few years as I've been building my business. And yeah, it's just been, it's been such a journey. And I just I feel so grateful to be doing this work and to be able to serve women. You know, I think when you're called to help people, you just feel this pull. But then when you actually get to sit in circle with women or you get to hold space for women one-on-one, you really feel that it's almost like you're receiving as well. And you really start to understand like why you were pulled to this in the first place. It's like you get to give and you get to also receive.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Yeah, that's exactly what I was hearing just as I was listening to listening to everything you said, was that this journey from plumber to owning your own business that's somatic and energetic. For those of you who don't know, uh Sarah and I both do uh Reiki and somatic work. And so we're very aligned in that way. But that's everything I could hear from you is that like that four-year journey hasn't just been healing for the people that you serve, but also healing for yourself. And I can vouch for that as well, that since I started doing the somatic work, that's also been just as healing for me as it has been for everyone that I serve. And the other thing I noticed as you spoke as well, which I I mean to add on to it, I saw one of your stories that you posted the other day about how you were a plumber and you used to trudge around in the mud and how grateful you are now that you don't have to do that. And that's that that that's taxing, that's a toll physically. Yeah, but it doesn't just affect the the physical body, you know, it starts to integrate into our mind and our heart and our soul, and seeing what you've journeyed through with somatics compared to like what used to be you, you know, it's been a whole journey. I guess that's what makes the stuff that we do rewarding as well, like being able to see how we change other people's lives, but how it's changed our life too. Like we're truly living that we've got to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

That's where yeah, yeah, that's where the inspiration really does come from. And yeah, you you said it perfectly too, like fumbling over my words, words a little bit in the beginning, but really what led me here was my journey to heal myself and the desire to help other people. But you really do have to heal that relationship with yourself first, you know. And so that was a huge, a huge piece for me, yeah. And and plumbing, like very physically demanding. Also was smoking and drinking a lot of the time, big party girl. So on the weekends, I was staying up way too late, you know, not being kind to my body, and then going to work a very physical job during the week was very like just in itself so exhausting. And then all of these other habits and things start to follow where you're maybe not eating well because you're too tired and you stop taking care of yourself, and then you're not nourishing your body in the ways that it needs to be nourished. So it's like, you know what, it starts to affect you not just emotionally and mentally, but also physically as well. And so after so many years, it starts to create, you know, like sickness in the body. And I did experience a lot of chronic illness, and I'm still healing a lot of chronic illness in my body from all of those years of living a hard life.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Yeah. And it's amazing how we we always view it that way too. Like I'm still healing from all of that. But then something that I find really interesting that I witnessed in clinical practice when I was doing like remedial massage, myotherapy, chiropractic is people will come into me with an issue. Like I call it the pain body, right? When the pain in the body starts to arc up, whether it's inflammation or you know, an injury, they'll come to me and they'll go, How long is this gonna take to heal? Right? That's always a question, like how many times do I have to see you? How long is this gonna take? What's the financial investment long term? And I'll kind of say to them all, like, how long have you had the issue? This is in terms of chronicity, right? And for you, you were chronically taxing your body and your heart, your soul, your mind. I mean that all interlinks, but like, how long were you in that for? And then, like, how amazing is it that the body can then heal itself in a time that's usually at least half the amount of time, if not less. And I always used to say to my clients, for physical injuries, it was like, okay, well, if you've had this chronic issue for three years, let's say three months. Yeah, that's that was like the general guideline that we were trained to talk about with like muscular skeletal issues. But like it's so amazing that we can like our brains automatically shift to like, oh my god, it's been such a journey, such a healing journey, and it's taken so long. But it's like, how long were you in that state prior to that as well? You know? Yeah, it's crazy that we like to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Like, for a lot of people, yeah. For a lot of us, we've been like not kind to our bodies for our whole lives, you know? So it's like, yeah, this is you know, and I I I really do think like left unchecked trauma just gets worse and worse and worse. Like you might not even have had the worst seemingly a childhood, but if you don't deal with it, it starts to get worse. Like for me, you know, choosing men that hurt me and working a job that I hated and I was forcing myself to just continue showing up. And so it was very inauthentic to what my soul really wanted. And I think that in itself, like living out of alignment, causes you to get sick, very much so. Because your body is telling you the whole time, like, please stop, whether that's through like depression, anxiety, you know, freeze, fight or flight, whatever, like your body's giving you the signals.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

Yeah. And I think when you're in the midst of it, in the muck of it all, and you're experiencing all these like pain body symptoms, I like to say, whatever that may be showing up in the body. And you're in that state of like hypersympathetic, hypersympathetic being the nervous system, for those of you who don't understand that, but like hyper-sympathetic, go, go, go, rush mode, then down to complete burnout and dissociation from the body. Like, that's like a vicious cycle we could touch on, but like, how do we get out of that, right? How do we realize when we don't have that capacity in that moment, in that moment of burnout, in that moment of dissociating from the body, not knowing how to tap into the body? How do we get out of it? Um I mean, I have my own experiences in that, but I would love to hear yours. Like, how was it for you? Was there a defining moment for you that allowed you to be able to see the way out? Like to see the light and how to come through with it? Was it somatics that helped you? Like, what was it for you?

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Um, I wanna say it like honestly, it was even in like the last year that I truly realized like those deep patterns of burnout and and also like the patterns underneath that were driving that. Very much like a worthiness wound around needing to make money and needing to prove myself to be uh to feel worthy. And so it became very apparent to me when I started my business that I was doing that, right? Like I think when I was plumbing, I was just in that constant state all the time, that it was like my normal and I didn't really recognize it. But as I started my business, I started to see these patterns. And then like I'll bring titration into it where you'll see the pattern and you're like, okay, like I don't want to be like that anymore. So then you'll titrate to the other side. And you and I even talked about this the other day, where sometimes you'll titrate too far to the other side. So you're like in this toxic masculine go, go, go, and then you titrate to this, like maybe I don't want to say like toxic feminine, but where you're just completely just sitting there and doing nothing. And and that truly is like the cycle of going too hard and burnout, right? Like that's really what it is. So it's like finding smaller titrations, like noticing sooner, like, okay, hey, like I'm overworked, starting to overwork again. Okay, like let's get back into a healthy cycle. So I want to say that it really has been a slow journey of like titrating back and forth between too much go, go, go and then too much no go go go. Yeah. And and just every time the titration happens, it gets smaller and smaller. And I think that's I love bringing titration into it too, and especially when it comes to like identity shifts, because I think people give themselves such a hard time for not learning something the first time. And it's like, no, like this is these things take so much time to deprogram and to heal.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

And I feel like it can be a bit of a distraction too, like when we start to focus on the shame and put the shame into why didn't I see this sooner? Like I've been here before. Why didn't I pick up on that? It's like that's not what we should be focusing on, like that's a distraction. And like it doesn't actually, it's not beneficial to do that either. But we do it as humans. It's like it's to me, I feel like it's a protective mechanism that we distract ourselves by focusing on the wrong thing. Like it's like we get that, and it's like exploring your boundaries, you know. In somatic work, you and I will be familiar with this. We explore the boundaries of what feels safe and what feels not safe. Like there's that wall, that limitation that we we start to explore and invite in that exploration of going a little bit further past the boundary within the realms of what feels safe. And it's the same with that titration, you know, that journey of life in general. We want to be able to allow that to unfold as it is and to just bring a keep bringing awareness. I think that's what it is. Keep bringing awareness to just where you are now and and not making it mean something always.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

I think that's the beauty of somatic work too, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:14

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Just witnessing without judgment.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

Yeah. I was just editing a podcast that I recorded last week and I was talking about that conversation about money, but talking about how when we fall into old patterns and then it's like that shame spiral starts to happen, and you're like, oh, I'm falling into an old pattern. Oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm doing this again. Instead of just being like, it doesn't mean anything. Something happened. I did something, it doesn't mean anything. Keep going. You know, I think sometimes we get so attached to like, oh my God, like I messed up, I made a mistake. And it's like it really comes down to the perspective that you have and the mindset that you have around it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

And learning to be more gentle with yourself.

unknown 15:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

It's so easy to, and I think it like what you said with the titration, it depends on where you're at as well in the moment. And that's where it comes down to like just meet yourself where you are. Because, like you can say it's so easy to be hard on yourself, right? But then when you're in the feminine, you're in like the opposite of that, you're like nurturing yourself so much to the point that it's actually enabling you to just sit there and not move, you know. That's like that point of freeze mode where we go into like full burnout and like collapse.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

And then that's like how I describe it is exactly how you described it that toxic femininity. Like you can use whatever wording you want, but like it's toxic in the sense that we've gone too far into our feminine and stayed there for far too long. And then the same can happen when we're in like, so to speak, hustle mode and we're go, go, go. We're in that toxic masculinity, and you can think of it as fire and water. We're like burning the candle at both ends, or we're just in the trenches of this deep abyss of water. Yeah. I think that's how I always look at it is like come back to the elements and like yeah, literally underwater. Yeah, or burning the candle at both ends. And I love how you described that titration, just becoming smaller and smaller the more we bring our awareness into the present moment. And I feel like that's key, isn't it? Is just being in the present moment and being where you're at without the distractions of you know, focusing on things that don't really matter or overthinking. And that's where somatic work for me and I'm sure for you has been a game changer because it does allow your mind to take that back seat. And I say that all the time, but it does. It allows your conscious mind to quit with the protective mechanisms. It's like, hey, time to turn off here. We need to go inwards a little deeper and process without having to make meaning, just witness and process things. And that's really what creates the shift. Yeah, it's like that missing piece.

unknown 16:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

It reminds me of like a meditation, like when you're meditating and your mind drifts off, and then you go, oh, wait, come back, come back. And it's like that's what life is, you know, like you you're holding this intention for yourself to have a better life, to go where it wherever it is that you want to go. And you can like, you know, feel into that a little bit, and then you kind of titrate back into your old way of being, your old programming, and then you consciously go, Oh, wait, no, like this is actually what I want. So it's like you're almost like just continuing to bring the awareness back to okay, no, actually, this is where I want to go.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

I like that analogy. That's really cool. Yeah, yeah, that just came through. Yeah, I was gonna say, did that just come out of nowhere? That's cool. I like that. Yeah, I've never thought about it that way, but it is true. And I I love finding things in nature and in life that reflect our way of being as well. Yeah, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Because if you meditate, you're not like, oh my god, I'm such an idiot. I my mind drifted off again. I can't believe I did that, right? Like when you're meditating, you're just like, oh, oops, back to the present moment. Like if you're a meditator, you'll understand that. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

Yeah. And I feel like in today's society where there's just so many distractions digitally, tech like in terms of technology, too, it's so easy to stray from meeting ourselves with where we're at and being present with ourselves as well. Like that's an obvious one to talk about, right? But it is true. It's so easy. Even I catch myself. And it's not that I think I come back to somatic practices more than most people, or I come back to the middle. It's just that when I catch it, I notice it. And when I don't catch it, I don't notice it. And it's like you need to shame yourself for that either. I think shame just really prevents people from the ability to move forward every time they do catch themselves and bring awareness back. But it is, it's just accept I think acceptance is a thing we could talk about about as well. Accepting where you're at and accepting that you're a human, like there's humanness. And that's something I've always valued in our conversations that you and I have had together in the past, is that whenever I'm speaking with you, it feels as though you were on this pilgrimage to just continue to come back to I don't want to say authenticity, it has been overused, but it is. It's authenticity of where you are in the present moment. You know, and I've seen that a lot in you lately. I mean, I know you've been through a bit of a journey. I heard one of your previous episodes, um, you were interviewing someone and it was about being in the dark part of your life recently. What was the wording? Um being in the the dark mood.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Dark night of the soul. Dark night of the soul. Dark night of the soul. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

And you shared a little bit about your story and how you came around through to that. I know you've talked about it on your podcast, but for the listeners, would you, is there anything you'd like to share about that part of your journey and where you are right now?

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Yeah. Um, so that was at the end of my plumbing career. Um, I actually in this, in this, it was the summer, I had a really, really bad back injury at work plumbing, and was actually pretty much bedridden for the better part of the summer. So that was really, really hard. Originally tried to go back to work very quickly, and then I re-injured my back again. And at the time, my the partner, the guy that I was with, he went out of town like really, really far to work, like 11 hours away. And so I was all alone, bedridden. So it was always already very depressed. Like during the summer, I couldn't get out and I couldn't really do anything. And then I was alone and we weren't not in a good place. And then, yeah, going, having to go back to work after all of that. Well, my relationship is not in a good place. My body is like screaming at me, like, please get me out of this career. Right. And I I just remember I've never felt that kind of depression ever before. Like, I've been depressed lots. And I want to say, I always like to say, like, depression is your spirit's way of telling you that like this life does not match what my soul wants. And like it's your body's way of saying, like, get me the f out of here. And right. And so, like, that was like my body at its peak, being like, get me out of here. Like, I cannot live this life anymore. And I did, like, I still kept pushing myself through. Like, I was by myself. I had my daughter that I had to take care of. So every day I was waking up and going to work. And it literally like, it felt like I had to like pick up, like when I would think about I I don't even know how to explain this, but it literally felt like I had to pick up like my legs to like move them because my body was like, stop, please stop. And I remember like I didn't want to go to bed at night. I would stay up so late because I didn't want to wake up in the morning. If I went to bed in meant, I had to wake up. And yeah, those were just they were the hardest months of my life. I was truly just surviving. And it's like, I think it's funny how things really shift, like when they need to shift. Cause that was around that time that fall was when I found the somatic training. And so I was already kind of planning, like, okay, I need like I need to find my way out of this. And I was literally driving to work one day and I'm like, why don't I just do side jobs and quit my job and just do plumbing on my own a little bit and just start my business. And as soon as it's like, I'm like, how did I not think of this? Like all the like, how did I not think of this earlier? But I think everything is in the divine timing that it needs to be in. And I, you know, if I look back in my life, there were so many times during my plumbing career that I would get depressed and I wanted to quit. And then for whatever reason, things would get better for a little bit and I'd be like placated. So I'm like, okay, I'll stay. Like, whatever, we'll figure it out. Like it's okay. And I truly think that, you know, God was like, we need to shake this girl's life up so that she has no choice but to, you know, make the difference. Like we've been trying to tell her and she's not listening. You know, and I was just allowing myself to be blocked by these ideas, like, I didn't have money saved up. I didn't know, you know, what I was gonna do. I didn't know how I was gonna do it. Even starting my business, like the first couple of years of my business were a struggle because I'm I I had no, I was scrambling to make money and I was doing all kinds of other things. And yeah, so that was that was really hard. It wasn't easy. And sometimes I think if when you see all these things ahead, you get discouraged and you don't want to. So I just really think that I had to come to that point in my life that it was just it was no choice. Like I I truly felt that like I didn't want to live anymore. I truly did. Uh you know, I have my daughter, I would absolutely never, but that was the feeling inside. I didn't want to be here anymore. It I felt like I was surviving for my daughter.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

You had to get to that rock bottom in order to see that the harder path was the better path.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, it was honestly like overnight when I quit my job. I felt such a weight off that feeling of burnout that I had been feeling, that freeze lifted off immediately. And I did continue to struggle with my energy and chronic fatigue and all of my issues still later down the road. But it was so like everyone around me was like, You're a different person. Yeah. Like overnight, you're a different person. So that was really amazing. And I know a big part of my my purpose, my mission is to help people get there as well. And I've naturally attracted a lot of those people who are like fed up with what they are doing and want something better for themselves. And you know that I always had that feeling inside that my life was meant for something more. Like I always knew that, not like I'm special, but I always knew that normal life, like I wasn't meant for a normal life. I always knew that I was meant for greatness of some sort.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Yeah, like you felt like you didn't fit in with the norm. And so that the next thing is something different, right? Which is what makes it unique and special. Not special in a form of hierarchy, but special in the form of like just different. And yeah, again, it comes back to being authentically you, which is what the path you're paving. People see that, and when your energy shifted, you know, you talked about going through that dark phase and then your energy shifting, and people said you were like a different person overnight. That's that energy, the energy body, the soul shifting, because it's like you went through that depression where your your soul was saying, Hey, let's get the f out of this situation because it ain't working anymore. Like you're breaking down. And then you push came to shove, and then you made the change, and it was like instant. And I think that's where like that's that pivotal moment that we all have in life, maybe multiple times in life, right? Where people you it's not that you need the validation, but it's nice to know that other people have seen the shift. And I think your audience, especially when you're building a business, it is hard the first couple of years. I'm in my second year now, second, I think two and a half years in now, and it's tough. Like it's tough starting over again, and it's scary. Yeah, and it again, it's it's not about the validation, but it's nice to see that people see the shifts and the evolutions of you, and that the more you evolve, the more like-minded people are gonna resonate because they can see the journey you've been through. And I truly believe with when it comes to like somatic and energetic work, anyway, can only speak from that experience. When you're running a business like that and you're working with women, that the the type of audience that you'll attract, the type of women you'll attract, are the people who are going through or coming out of the thick of the journey that's very similar to what you went through. It's almost like you're paving the path forward. Not because they need you and they need to rely on you, but you're like that guiding light that allows them to see the way in their own way. And that's something I feel really passionate about too. And that I think that's I don't know if you're the same, but with somatic work, that's what I love so much is it's not so much about telling the person what to do, but just guiding the way and allowing the work to unfold for them, bringing them back to themselves and their sovereignty. Like you and I have talked about sovereignty so much, and that's again coming back to being you, right? Like, yeah, it's so magical that we have jobs that where we can empower people to do that.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Yeah. That's why I like I I truly see the value in getting readings. Like, I will get readings from psychics and stuff like that, but there's something to be said that's so empowering about embodying your own truth and coming to your own truth on your own. Because I don't know about you, but I've had phases in my life where I feel like I'm floundering and I'm, you know, I'm doubting myself and I know the answers deep down. And then I go and I seek somebody else out to sorry, answer those questions for me. But when somebody else is telling you what you already know, it doesn't land the same as when you explore it and discover it on your own through your own experience by observing like what's going on in your body and what's going on in your experience. The word embodied is kind of a buzzword, and it's not flashy or fancy or fun. But when you do somatic work and you feel the shift in your body and you realize, oh, this is what embodiment is, then you really have a different like value for that, for that word and for that experience.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Yeah, because you've actually experienced what the word means. And it's funny you bring that up. It's funny you bring that up because I just like as we're recording now, this will be released in a week. But I just released the previous episode where we talked about what it means to be embodied, what somatic embodiment is. And I was talking about it.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

And I just heard a clip from that.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yeah, and I think that's the clip I'm talking about. Yeah. Pivotal moment where something becomes embodied in somatic work. We're not just thinking about the concept of a word or a theory like embodiment, literally the word, we're starting to actually live it and experience it. And I just feel like when we're talking about like coming back around to burnout too, when we're in that state of freeze mode, we don't know how to get out of it. It's easy for us to sit there and not know what to do. But then once we start to take our mind out of it, and that overthinking shifts, that's that shift to embodiment. We can start to feel our way out. And that's what the body really is calling for when we're in that freeze mode. It's saying, hey, enough of the overthinking. And you do, you when you're in those low moments, you catch yourself overthinking and spiraling, and that's what keeps you in there, that moment. But you notice the moment you shift into embodiment, into feeling-based sensations, and like like feeling is in the body and emotions and energetics, we're out of the conscious mind. Then that's when we see that big shift. And I feel like even your example where you shifted from like, okay, enough is enough. I've been in the drudges, I feel like this is the end for me if I don't do something about it. And then you do something about it that was body-led, that was in body.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Because you lived it and you just you did it. You didn't overthink it, you didn't strategize, you just took the step. And for me, being a Taurus son and a cancer rising, being so like stubborn in where I am as a son, like a Taurus son, and then also a cancer rising, the softness in how I move throughout my day-to-day, that's been a big journey. And I feel like that's where somatic embodiment for me was the pivotal moment to like not just think my way through things and having to see the big picture first, but it's like, hey, just be bodyless, lead with your body. Yeah, you're a Taurus, you naturally want to be earthy and lead with the body. Like, and so it just very naturally fit for me. I kind of circle, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

I know, no, it all it all flows how it's meant to flow, but it's funny because that very much resonated with me too, because I'm a Pisces sun and a Virgo rising. So I really resonate with that push and pull between getting pulled, like wanting to flow and then needing everything to be like needing to control everything, I want to say. And so it's like this titration back and forth between like this is who I am. I love to flow, I love the ease, and then I also want to control and I want to have everything figured out. So yeah, it's very funny how we have these like polarizing pieces to our personalities, and it's it does happen like that very often.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

Yeah, you know, and like coming back to what you were saying about how you value energetic readings and card readings and things like that, even astrology, like what we're talking about now.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

I love learning about my contrasting, like conjuncting signs. For me, it's Aries. I have four Aries placements, but then I also have Taurus and uh my moon, which is Aries, is the complete square of my my my rising, which is um cancer. And they're complete opposite planets to my Aries is in moon and my cancer is in Mars, and they're like actually opposing, like they're square and conjuncts. And it's not that, like you were saying, it's not that we rely on that information to dictate where we go. I feel like when we do that, this is just again another protective mechanism to keep us where we're at. We're relying on someone else. We're not, we're not, we haven't learnt yet, or we haven't experienced it, at least not in a while, what it feels like to embody. And when I say not in a while, I believe that we're all born in this earth as children before the programming, before, you know, social and cultural programming to be body-led. Like it's it's an innate thing that's in us. And so it's not really like remembrance for me is a really big word at the moment because I think it it's not enough to say that we're here to learn and to expand. I think it's actually we're here to remember the way things are meant to be. And we know because when we start to live it and experience and embody it, we know that's the way because it's almost like we've been there before. Like we're remembering, we're not just learning and experiencing, we're remembering.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

That's why I love somatic work so much because it's like you're actually taking the time to witness what you're experiencing. How many people can say that they sat down and just were present with their bodies and their inner experience for, you know, an hour and a half or two hours? Like I struggle to do that for that long by myself. I will do minis and stuff, but it's such a journey to go inwards like that. And and yeah, like when you're saying like the astrology, the readings and stuff, they can be very validating, especially when you're especially astrology, I think too, when you're discovering these parts of your blueprint and you're like, oh, I'm actually meant to feel like that. You know, I think it can really take some weight off for people. But to me, the most important thing is that relationship to self and to learn to speak the language of your body and to speak the language of your soul, you know? Yeah. So yeah, I love that. That's why I love Semanic work so much.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

Yeah. I I've seen a lot of people who take card readings and astrology and you know, any other form of spiritual assistance and guidance so seriously and so like it's almost like they're pedestaling the other person so that they don't have to take the responsibility for themselves. Not because they don't want to, but because they don't know how to yet. And that for me was nice to have someone to tell you what to do. You tell me what's going on with me, and then that'll validate all of my previous behaviors and make me feel less shamed, right? Yeah. Right? Yeah. But when you meet an an astrologer or a Reiki master or anyone in the spiritual community who has walked the path of true embodiment, they will not be the people who tell you, hey, listen to me, and and this is what you need to do. They won't be telling you that. They won't be a like, never do this or always do this. There's no binary language there. And even I catch myself when I'm using that binary language, questioning, like, where's that coming from? They'll be using things like, This is what I saw, take what resonates and leave the rest. And that's something I love to say in any session or even in my feminine harmony program. I'll, it's that constant reminder of like, this is your journey. And that's where the somatic comes in. You're going to embody this and live it and experience it for yourself. This is what I see. But for you, you need to take what resonates of that and leave the rest and really trust yourself. It's about coming back to that self-trust. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

Yeah. Something that I love to do with my clients is to actually like help them connect to their intuition and sessions and then help them connect with their confidence, their joy, like all of the really juicy things that I think life is trying to offer us and help them try it on. You know what I mean? And yeah, and it's that's honestly one of my favorite parts about somatic work. I was drawn to it for the healing and the fixing kind of you know, mentality. I was very much on that path of feeling like I needed to figure out the root of all of my trauma and my issues and figure out how to process it. And don't get me wrong, like that happens along the way. But what I didn't realize was how amazing it was and how we can actually intentionally hold all of the things that we want in our body again back to titration, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not just about going into the wounds that need healing, but also what is the capacity in which we can expand and grow from those wounds. Like, where are we going with this? Now that we've expanded that next level more, it's like leveling up for ourselves. Yeah, I think that's really an important part is to just like not only process through, but like, where do we go from here? And like, and that's always such an important thing to question for ourselves when we've gone through a process, like a somatic processing of some kind and an embodiment of what has been happening. Okay, and it comes and goes in cycles. That's that titration, so to speak, similar same language. I always say that with breakey sessions, like energy sessions that I do online, is like this is gonna come through as a cycle for you. Like you just and and I feel like that wording really helps people see it as it this is this two shall pass, like as in this is just a season, you know? And that really helps us to be able to not put a timeline and pressure onto our healing journeys, and also to just keep it open-ended and come back to our journey and not have to compare to other people, like, oh, okay, well, they broke up with this person, and within a year they were over it and had met someone else. It's like, yeah, cool, but that's their journey, that's their season, and you've always got to come back to like there's my words. You're listening to my thoughts. Yeah, come back to like this. I literally just had a thought like that today. Well, there you go. I didn't even know why that was coming out, but it just kind of came out. So there you go, you needed to hear it.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

But like, yeah, it's yeah, I noticed myself that sometimes, you know, I'm single now, and there was a lot of grief for me during my last breakup to be single at 35 and just not being where I thought I was gonna be at this point in my life. And I just I saw somebody on Instagram and she was sharing. I heard her story at a festival last summer, and she was talking about how she had this breakup, and then she moved and she she met her husband, and blah, blah, blah. Anyways, and she was sharing about this experience she had with him. And and I was like, oh, like she, you know, she found her husband like not long after, and I'm like, what's going on with me? And then I had to remind myself, like, no, you're on your own path, and nobody else's timeline makes sense with yours. Like you are on your own timeline, always like coming back to that, and especially with comparison with where other people are at in their business versus me, always reminding myself, I'm on my own timeline. I'm on my own timeline.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

I'm on my time that that resonates with me right now. I'm like, I'm on my own timeline. Yeah. It's it's a good, it's a good phrase to remind ourselves. It's the permission to just be where we're at. And that's probably where I was going with what I was saying before. Like, that's a really great way to summarize it. It's like I am where I'm at. I'm on my own timeline.

unknown 40:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

I feel like having the awareness to meet yourself where you're at is the thing. It's like the key. And I don't want to say the be all and end all. It's like not the only thing, but I feel like for my journey and where I'm at right now, for your journey where you're at, it sounds like that's the the thing, you know. Yeah. The key to keep coming back to just where we're at and staying in our lane, like putting ourselves on the pedestal. What is our capacity? What is our journey? Rather than oh, that person over there, like I want to aspire to be them. It's like I feel like as a society, people are shifting from that like pedestal someone else and have them as a mentor to Yeah, the guru. Yeah, to okay, let's put my faith in me and my capacity. And that's I think where that somatic embodiment really comes in too, because we're starting to be body-led. We're not starting to think our way through it from witnessing someone else. Another part of, you know, we're talking about astrology and stuff, another part of that with my human design is that I'm a projector, and so I have that tendency to do that, to sit back, watch, learn from others. But what somatic embodiment has really gifted me is the ability to be able to go inwards and see my potential without having to do that, without having to pedestal other people and put faith in them more so than myself. Yeah. I think you mentioned not currently, but previously in another episode, when we're talking about projectors, you also have a family member. I I feel like it was your daughter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you see that?

SPEAKER_00 41:55

I'm a projector and she is. Oh, you are too. Yeah, I am too. Yeah. I don't know if I see it very much in her because I don't know. We're so different, I guess. And I don't know. In both aspects, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're so different in so many ways. So there's certain times where I'm like, wait, like, but I think that as she gets older, it's it's like we're gonna start seeing it more because she's she's in a phase right now where she's hanging out with her friends all the time and she just wants to be out and doing stuff right. But I very much, there's a lot of talk about like I'm always getting her to track her period and I'm always trying to have her, you know, we're just talking the other day about she's like, Oh, I think I am about to get my period because I'm really tired. I'm like, yeah, because you're in your lineal phase. So um, I really try to teach that in the importance of rest and stuff like that, but she's just yeah, not at the at a phase where it's super prominent for her, yeah, where I see that a lot in her. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But I do there are other parts of her that are very the same as I was when I was younger that I do see. And I guess where she is a little bit more quiet and she does watch and observe, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

Yeah, yeah. I was just thinking as you were talking then, though, that's actually really beautiful that you have given her the opportunity, even if she's not, it's not her timeline right now, but you've given her the opportunity to learn about her female body. This is another passion of mine is living secretly as women, not like a structured linear thing like a man.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

And I think that is so beautiful that you're offering that for her. Um while my mum was super supportive in encouraging me to trust myself, and you know, she'd introduce me to little spiritual things, she'd run baths after school and put dolphin meditation music on and lavender in the bath and all these magical things.

unknown 43:59

I

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Feel like as a society and a culture, my mother aside, and how amazing she was, we didn't have that growing up. We didn't have that education. And the generations before that, it was even less and less and less. It's starting to come in more. And um, yeah, I guess I'm just touched and moved by the fact that you're bringing that into your daughter's life, or at least giving her the opportunity to become more cyclically aware with what's happening in her body. That's really oh god.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

I wish I I wish I would have been on the journey I'm on now when she was younger. But I always, you know, tell myself too, like this is her journey, and her soul chose to walk this path. And and I can wish I think every parent or mom has mom guilt about not being who they wanted to be when, you know, when your kids were younger, uh, especially like when you go through a healing journey. But I I do think that it's not too late and it definitely, you know, makes a difference because, like you said, we never really got that, or I never really got that when I was younger. And even if she's not integrating it right now, I'm sure as she gets older, she'll start to, you know, integrate it more and more.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yeah. But I mean, even just having the invitation and the awareness there, we didn't have that. Like, yeah. What was it in sex ed school? It was just like, here's a banana, here's how you put a condom on. Um, yeah, you're gonna get your period, here's a pad or a tampon. Like that was it.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:25

Like guys have wet dreams. Like, that's how it happens. Like, that's that's pretty much it is so biological and just like methodical. There was none of that cyclical wisdom in there. And yeah, I mean, I would love to see that starting to be integrated into sex education in in the education system.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

That would be oh my gosh. I think that every girl needs to know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

Absolutely. And, you know, even for as long as I've been aware of it, I haven't even really started to integrate the cyclical living into my life really until this year. And I would say that that has been the difficulties that I've had during my luteal phases over this last year, have been that next the universe saying, like, okay, now it's time for you to heal this um like pattern in a deeper way, the pattern with freeze and the pattern with burnout and overworking. And it's really given me an opportunity. Like, one thing I was thinking of, I wanted to share when we were talking about burnout and being in a freeze mode, really specifically, is that when you're in that freeze mode, you I think that you know, you you get like all that shame and you you think like, oh, I should be doing stuff, whatever. No, like when you're in the freeze mode, just let yourself thaw. Like just be easy on yourself. And then once it's over, then it's like, now I can think about how can I protect myself so that I don't end up here again. And you're going to end up there again like a million times, you know? Like there's there's always gonna be things that are gonna happen that are maybe not necessarily in your control, or it takes like like the conversation we had the other week where we were talking about, yeah, like it takes time to integrate the cyclical living, right? You make plans and and then you go, oh shoot, that's like right during my bleed, or that's right in my lunch.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

To live in a binary, mundane nine-to-five, like yeah, like a masculine world, a man's world. And so it does take time to integrate it. Yeah, it's it's and I think what you were saying about the luteal phase and the freeze state, I feel like that phase, the luteal phase with each cycle, each moon that passes, each month, that's that point to freeze and thaw and to really mull over things um right before the pause of the bleed. And then from there it's that rebirthing into the next cycle. And I feel like that's the opportunity and the beauty of the lootil phase. We can turn what mass society seems to think the loot heal phase is, which is this is where the angry girl comes out, the PMS, you know, shark witches approaching. Like we can turn the potency and like medicine and wisdom of the loot heal phase into something beautiful. Like, and even just those words, like we can turn it into a medicine every cycle. And like it might not show up, like you say, the same way every time, but there's that opportunity to slow down, the opportunity to come into what some people would say is like more of a depressive state. But even just looking biologically and learning for ourselves, like no one educates this again in sex ed during the lithium phase, your hormones are gonna dip, you're gonna feel less confident, you're going to feel a little more self-doubt coming through, and some of the fear mindsets coming through, your emotions will be a little more sensitive. And if there isn't that time and space to freeze and thaw, to create space for yourself and start to introvert leading up to the bleed during that later. Then you do get irritated. And again, it's it's almost like that cycle of what you described your four years prior when you were plumbing and you were burning out and you were tirading. Titrating, tirating, what is the word? Titrating. Titrating, the pendulum was swinging. Um you know, you were going through that on a bigger timeline, like a bigger journey. And you take that and bring that into cyclical wisdom on a smaller scale. That that is the invitation every month as well, is to slow down.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

And to come into more of the feminine. In feminine harmony, I talk about the four phases and how they line up with different like mindsets and different uh nervous system states. And when we come into lutil, it is that opportunity to come back down into that free state. Whether, and when I say that, I don't mean like, oh, we should become depressed.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

Like it's not like go get everyone's not in a full-on free state in their luteal phase.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Yeah, their own experience of where they need to be, and every cycle is going to be slightly different. That's the other part of coming back to being you is like being where you were at in your luteal phase, no matter how familiar it feels to a previous pattern you've been through, you know, like that there's that thought of I've been here before. But it's like, have you really? And I talked about this in a previous thing. Like, do we really backstep? Really, truly.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

Because every cycle we go through brings a new seed of wisdom, even if it's only a tiny bit, you know? It's like if I'm even flanking, uh flaking, if I'm tracking that I'm I've already been here before, flag that, that's why it said flaking, flag that as a moment to go, okay. Well, how did I know I've already been here before?

SPEAKER_01 50:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:43

Because the truth of the matter is, is the reason I know I've been here before is because I've already gained wisdom from this. So like I'm not actually backstepping to that point. I'm already much more wiser than what I was previously having been in that pattern before. And I think that's such a nicer way to think about it. It's again getting rid of that shame of like, oh, I'm back here again. It's like actually, this is familiar. I love that. What can I learn from this? Because it's familiar. Like it's like bringing gratitude into it, into the experience instead of shame. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:11

Yeah. And I feel like my last luteal phase was exactly that. So like I can speak to real life example in the moment during my last luteal phase. And like you said, every month is different. It's not always necessarily the same. But I noticed that I was going into a freeze state. And I what I noticed, and and this is what I really think about specifically my luteal phase. And you can maybe speak to this on a more widespread level. But I think that when you're in your luteal phase and you are, you know, you're more emotional, you're more susceptible, all of the kind of unhealed parts will start to bubble up a little bit. It's like the veil is thinner. And so for me, it was like noticing, hey, like I'm in a freeze mode again. Am I going to force and push myself through this freeze mode that I used to always push myself through? Or can this be an opportunity for me to plan my life around not working during those days? And even just having that conversation with you a couple of weeks ago really helped me to have that aha moment of, yeah, I can create my life around, you know, I have my own business. Like I can choose, I can choose my own schedule. I get to decide. Right. And so it really helps me get to that deeper level of integration with my cyclical living. You know, I stopped planning workshops and events around my cycle, but they're still the everyday things that I was doing. And then I wouldn't make myself feel guilty if I didn't accomplish them because I was falling behind. But to be able to set this expectation for myself, you know, during those days, I'm not going to have anything planned. If for whatever reason I end up having energy and I want to show up, sure, go and show up. But to notice when that free state is coming on and to not force myself to do things like while I'm in that state. Because when you've pushed yourself when you're in a free state, not only are you prolonging that free state, but you're also creating almost a sense of distrust within your own body because your body is like, I'm giving her the signs that are saying please stop. And she's not listening. So, you know what I mean? Yeah, I love how you just phrased that.

SPEAKER_02 53:33

I'm like still taking it in because it like hit home. It's like, yeah, that does create the distrust. And it yeah, yeah, I like that wording better than disrespect because like when we're talking about that co-relationship, that co-regulation of our conscious mind and our body and all of its senses, that like unconscious aspect of us. When we're talking about the language of our body and co-creating that relationship, it's so much nicer to think of it as like, hey, I have the opportunity here to listen, or I can create more disconnect, distrust by not listening, you know. And it's not that either of the choices are wrong and right, or wrong or right in the moment. It's just we have the opportunity to be bring awareness to it and make the choice or not. And if, you know, in the next cycle of life we go through the next phase, we realize that that it happened, cool. Let's move on, let's not dwell on it and overthink it. And I think that's again just like meeting yourself where you're at, because we're not always going to have the conscious awareness. Like you can't force yourself to be conscious and aware, it just happens. It happens. And it does happen with devotion and practices, yes. But at the same time, if we're being called into a state of freeze and reflection, like you say, in the loteal phase, it's not a time to start pushing through it with awareness and logic and discipline. And that's why I believe when it comes to like discipline and devotion, they're similar things, but I feel like devotion is that softer aspect of discipline that we we kind of need more for the luteal phase. Let's create a little more flexibility, a little more fluidity, which is more the feminine as we drop into the luteal and bleed. And then we can come back to if it works for us, more of the discipline and the logic and the masculine as we approach ovulation, you know? And for me that works. Um, and it has worked for a while. And it's the funny thing is like feminine harmony program, I technically finished mid to end of last year. I think it was around September. And I finished it, but then there was like this last little module I didn't finish. And I feel like in alignment with what I was experiencing for myself on a personal level, it's because I wasn't ready to finish it. I didn't feel like I had fully integrated it for myself. And then once I realized that again and became aware, what it took seven months for me to become aware of that. What like seven moon cycles for me to like not listen to that aspect of myself? Am I gonna shame myself? No, I just go, huh, that was interesting. Yeah, I'm gonna learn from that now because I'm aware of that. Would it have helped if I'd punished myself to go, how did I not see that seven months ago? Like, no. And this is the beauty of coming back to just being with where you're at, with like a real uh what's the word I'm looking for? Just a real gentleness for ourselves. There's a better word, but I'm looking for it. Yeah, just having that reverence for ourselves and the connection that we're forming with our bodies, especially as women, especially as cyclical beings, where over the time and over the years it wasn't really taught, you know?

SPEAKER_00 56:35

Yeah, I agree. And I think doing the somatic work and and having that devo devotion and the discipline creates more of that safety in your nervous system so that you can have some separateness from being in those responses. Because like when I when I look back on my life, it was spent mostly in a sympathetic, a very anxious state with brief periods of you know, going into shutdown or depression. But it that really didn't start until I want to say the last few years of plumbing. Um, but you don't see it when you're that's your normal life, you know. And I I have a lot of clients who are they're like, oh, I'm not like I actually like I feel pretty regulated, or I've heard people say, Oh, I'm pretty regulated and I can see, you know, patterns or things that they do or the way that they're acting. And I'm like, um, okay. Um but once you can really find that safety in yourself, then you start to really notice when you don't feel safe and when you don't feel good. You know what I mean? It starts to create like that separation and it's clearer for you to see when you're falling into those cycles. The more safety you create in the system in your system, the more capacity that you have for yourself, you start to see the symptoms. The cost, yeah. Yeah. And when you when you start to build the capacity, then you start to have more awareness around it, right? Because when you're so overwhelmed and you don't have capacity, there's no room in your brain, in your mind to to notice, to be aware. You're just trying to survive.

SPEAKER_02 58:22

Yeah. And I think that's why, as women learning to live cyclically, that's where like that power of the lutil phase again comes in, because it's that moment each month for us to check in with ourselves. Like for me, that's my reminder. And it's it's almost like I talk about it being the MAGA phase where we start to collect our wisdom over the previous cycle. Where am I at? That's the calling to check in with where I'm at. Because often, like you say, we are humans, we don't always know that we're at a point where we need to check ourselves and to see where we're at and to bring awareness. And that just serves as such a beautiful reminder of like, hey, it's time to slow down. Let's just reflect and go inwards and see where we're at. It's like that beautiful calling each month to just to be able to do that and to give ourselves permission to do that. What I wanted to talk about though, I'm shifting gears a little because I heard you mention it just before how you were saying you saw someone going, Oh, I'm pretty regulated, and you're like, Are you though? And like, okay, I I want to capture that moment because when I heard you say that, I was like, oh my god, I've been there. As a somatic therapist, for me, it's been a journey because I've experienced it myself as well. A journey to learn when to share something with a client when we see something like that, and when they're not ready because they're not on that timeline yet. Do you know what I mean? It's almost like we're seeing ourselves and what we were like, and going, Oh my god, I know you're not there because I've been there and you're a hero of what I used to be, and I really want to help you here, to like stepping back and going, okay, they're on their journey, they're on their own timeline. It's almost like the opposite of what we're talking about. Like, I'm on my timeline, and I have to remind myself that. But then when we're working with clients, it's like they're on their timeline. I have to honor that. And like learning when they're ready to hear something and when they're not, is such a I want to say I don't think I've ever shared that with a client in that specific way.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:21

I've never said that. It would just be an internal thought where you're like, Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:26

That's what I mean though. That's the same with me. I'm like, okay.

unknown 1:00:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:30

And there have been moments like through energetic readings, especially, not so much the somatic work, because the somatic work is designed to hold space for people to just be without witness and to not really guide them. I think it's more when I'm doing like a Reiki debrief, like an energy reading debrief, right? You gotta go, okay, this is what I saw, this is what I witnessed. And depending on how they respond, is like learning, okay, should I go that next step deeper and tell her this next thing, or is she not ready to hear it? And there was actually one experience where I was doing a Reiki debrief with a client over Zoom. And right when I went to say something, the Wi-Fi would freeze every time. And then she on the other end, also very, very intuitive, was like, maybe I'm not meant to hear that part yet. And I'm like, you know what? You're probably right. Like, so that's more the experience. And I'm like, okay, yeah, she's on her timeline, she'll experience that for herself in good time.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

Yeah. Um, yeah. I think there's like better ways to word things too. Like sometimes I will say something like, Oh, like I noticed at the beginning of our session that you really um, your nervous system really wanted to go into like the edginess and like the things that were uncomfortable. And it took, you know, a little bit to get you out of that. And I'll be like, Did you notice that too? Like kind of bringing it in in that kind of way. Yeah. And again, it comes back to like embodiment, right? If you've ever had a friend that asks you for advice a million times, and yeah, you can tell them on your advice over and over, and then one day they come back to you and they're like, I think such and such, and you're like, I've been saying that.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

Oh my gosh, I used to have that with friends all the time growing up. I'm like, why ask? I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told you last time, and you're not gonna listen. So but then like we've been on the receiving end and the providing end of that too. Like, I can think of moments where I'm sure my friends have said things multiple, actually, I know, I'm not gonna deny it, have said things over and over again, and I just hadn't been in that point. I was in that point of resistance and that lack of awareness and wanting to drop in. Yeah, protective mode, protective mechanisms. And then it took me years to get past that. Yeah. And I remember when I'd lived that going back to that friend and saying thank you so much for all your patience during the two years having to watch me like and repeat yourself like a parrot. Thank you for your patience. Like, and she's such an amazing time. Sometimes we are welcome. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:05

Yeah, I totally resonate with that. And you know, that was my whole last relationship. I want to say I actually didn't talk about it a lot. Maybe in moments during like breakups or whatever, I would share. But other than that, I would keep it to myself because I'm like, you know, you're not you're not really being your best self right now, and you're not making the best choices for yourself. So I'm like, I'm just gonna shut up because I know exactly what they're gonna say. I already know the truth. Just not ready to do anything about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:36

Oh my gosh, that reminds me of the same timeline, the two-year period in my mid-20s. It was actually right before I met my current partner who I've been with for seven years, and we did a card reading. And she was this friend of mine was the first friend to teach me how to even do card readings in my actually kind of like 24 or 23. And we did this reading, and I got this devil card. And she's like, You know what this one is? And I'm like, Yes. She's like, Shannon, and I don't care saying this on the podcast. She's like, Shannon, you need to stop sleeping with a bunch of army men and just like be with yourself so that you can meet the right person. I'm like, I know. And like that devil card was like the representation of all these like sexual endeavors that I'd like really been enjoying, but like was such a distraction from me going inward and and being with myself and like really listening to what I actually wanted. Like, sure, that phase was really fun, and I'm glad I did it, I wouldn't have it any other way. But like it just reminded me of that moment when you said that. I'm like, this friend of mine was so patient, like and then that part she was like, Well, you know, it looks like you're ready to hear this now. And I was just like, uh, you don't even need to tell me I know it. I just have been denying it, you know? So yeah, it's so funny how yeah, I think it's like we do need to have that same, not even patience, but that same discernment and reverence for respecting people on the other end. Um, because I'm as a Taurus a little bit of an impatient person, and that's something I've had to not that I've projected it to my clients, but internalized a lot, is like they're not ready to hear this, they're not ready to hear this. What's another way to phrase it? And I think the way you described it is bringing in some somatics into it and getting them to query is such a beautiful approach. And I feel like that's something I could actually learn from in my Reiki debriefs as well, and like bringing that approach into the Reiki debriefs. So thank you for that. That's actually really helpful.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

Yeah, or even like making a statement and saying, like, does that feel true?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:33

Because like that's a lot of my sessions. I'm like saying what I see.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:38

But it's not always true. Like sometimes what I see is not what they feel, but giving them the opportunity to actually question what just happened and get curious about it, regardless of whether what I thought was true or not. It gives them the opportunity to be like, Oh yeah, that something happened there.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:54

Yeah. That speaks to me in the sense of creating more pauses during the debrief. Because when I'm doing the debriefs, I've gone. All these notes, and it's like I just word vomit everything. Not like so unconsciously that I'm not checking the facial cues and seeing that they're taking it in, but like giving them the time and pause to somatically cue them. Like, how does that feel for you? Does that resonate? Whereas normally what I do is like, here's everything I saw, take what resonates, leave the rest, see how that lands for you. Rather than doing that, creating a little more pause in between and going, Yeah, how does that land for you? This part ready to move on, you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:27

It could create a little bit more integration in the healing that they're receiving.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:32

Yeah. Which I naturally do with somatic sessions and with Wimhara sessions, but I feel like just even speaking to you here and being completely honest, I feel like I could definitely integrate that a little more into the debriefs with the energy sessions for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:45

Yeah, that could be really powerful.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:47

Yeah. Don't know what I did.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:51

We just unlock we just unlock things for each other.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:54

Yeah. Like the last conversation we had unlocked for you with your loot phase. So there you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

And that was, yeah, that was big for me. So uh yeah, it's it's just a a learning, a learning journey this life. Right. I'm constantly trying to find figure out more ways to support myself so that I can flourish. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:19

Yeah. And then even looking at that, right, is like figuring out when it's the right timing for ourselves to come back to that devotion of the taking the time, which I've seen you do recently, taking the time to sit back and reflect on like how far you've come and how grateful you can be for how much you've done for yourself. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:39

There's that again, that pendulum swing between let's keep moving and growing and let's take a moment to pause, self-reflect, and see how far we've come and celebrate that as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:50

Yeah, that's been really big for me lately because for whatever reason, I went back into my old journals and I read a lot of them and I was like, wow. I I was, I was kind of in a mindset of like I wasn't feeling good because the weather sucked, and I was again like feeling sorry for myself. Like, oh, I'm 35, I'm single, and like maybe my life will be better when somebody comes along. And I went back and read my old journals and just saw how much I was suffering, you know, 10 years ago and the men I was dating and what they were putting me through and the anxiety that I was feeling all the time. And it just made me realize I was like, I was like, oh my God, I like maybe my life feels a little bit boring right now, but I don't have crippling anxiety. I barely have anxiety at all unless it's situational. And I'm like, I need to be grateful for this, you know? And again, like, yeah, it's something I've been speaking on a lot lately is when you call something in, when you have these big dreams or these big goals for yourself, and it doesn't, it takes a long time to happen. But like when I look at myself, and I'll give the example of my business. I a year ago, I thought I would be way further ahead than I am in my business in a financial sense. And when I look at my life over the last year with these goals that I have of being, you know, having this, these goalposts in my business and all this stuff, everything that happened in my life changed and happened to support who I needed to become in order to have what I wanted. And I think that we miss all of these seemingly unrelated things that happen that are all supporting you becoming the person who can have what you want.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:38

Which is trusting the greater journey. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:41

Yeah. And I just closed out a six-month portal with my uh mentor that I'm working with, and we're starting a new one. So I was reading back on our conversations from right at the start, and I was just taking notes of all of the things that popped up in my mind, all the things that I moved through in the last six months. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, so much has happened. There's just a hummingbird outside eating from my bird feeder, and I had never seen a hummingbird here, so that's so beautiful. So for anybody who needed a little hummingbird sign, there it is for you. But yeah, all of these little things that are, you know, maybe not meaningful to that end goal, but they're actually really meaningful things that happen to you that have supported you on your journey, you know? And I I try to do it every week, but I don't. I would I would love to be doing it every week. And that's something that I would like to do because celebrating yourself is so important, especially when you're when you have these big aspirations for yourself, because we can get discouraged so easily. And I mean, I get discouraged all the time, right? There I have little moments where I'm like, oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:54

Yeah, and that comparison it is comes in, you start to compare yourself, especially as business owners, right? It's there, it's there all the time. If we're launching a business online, especially, because not only are we there providing the stimulus and the call to action for other people by posting our own stuff, we have that ability to be able to like go and see what other people are doing and compare ourselves. And it's so stimulating as a business owner to be able to see that too. And so it just like comes back to like coming back to your own lane and doing it.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:25

Sometimes it can be very expansive. Yeah. Yes. I have I have a bunch of reels saved on my Instagram for the moments where I'm feeling doubt. And and I find that often actually when I am feeling doubtful, a lot of those will pop up on my feed. It's like I've started to manifest them where you're like, Oh, I needed to hear that. Yeah. And then I even created a meditation for myself, not specifically for this, but where it's like, keep going, like people need this, and where I'm really like pumping myself up. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:57

Not so much similar, not as not exactly the same as that, but I created recently an audio that I ended up putting into the feminine harmony too, in a relationship part when it came to communication. And for myself, it was like, okay, this year I want to step up my leadership in the sense of like leading a podcast with a guest, which would be yourself right now, leading women's circles and facilitating just social womanhood events. So, in order to take that next step with my communication skills, I created an audio journey for like when I've got performance anxiety beforehand. I love that. I listen to that when I'm like really feeling it and I have the space to be able to do that beforehand. Um, like I have monthly womanhood web calls, and that's the one where I always well, I shouldn't say always, but I tend to get a bit of performance anxiety because I'm like co-hosting this hour to 90 minute roughly, and just leading a bunch of women. And sometimes I will deeply yeah, sometimes I will get like uh imposter syndrome and you know, performance anxiety in that sense. So I'll that audio's become a great treasure of mine. And that's another cool thing we can do as somatic therapists, right? Is we can create our self-guided intentional.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:06

Yeah, yes, yeah. I have one that I have been working with for what um to connect to self-trust. And it's actually very interesting. I noticed when I connect to self-trust, like joy comes through and gratitude comes through and confidence and pride. And I started to realize that when I connect to self-trust, that I'm actually connecting to authenticity, like my authentic who I am meant to be. And it that's clicked a whole bunch of stuff for me. I'm like, oh, like when you're being authentic, you feel all of these good things. That's your true essence. So it's like tapping back into that. Yeah. So tapping back to medicine, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I am in big time creator mode of doing things behind the scenes, but when you're living cyclically and you are healing chronic fatigue and chronic illness, it's like slow and steady wins the race. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So yeah, there's lots of lots of things coming out. So stay tuned for that. I'm excited to start sharing more content.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:15

Yeah, I'm excited for that too. I remember you sharing that that was gonna be happening. So I've like subscribed, subscribed to your YouTube channel, and I'm like ready to go. Again, like amazing. Yeah, you were like saying you you save certain things that you like to listen to for inspiration when you feel yourself comparing. Like you're one of the people where I've subscribed so that I can like see what's coming through. And even when you pop up in my feed, I'm like, this is the one I want to listen to, like making that choice to look at the people who again inspire you. And it's not like put them on a pedestal, but like that expansion that that provides you, and it kind of takes you away from the whole like comparing yourself to like stay in your lane and be inspired by like-minded people, people who exactly yeah, who are going to build you up, not make you feel like you're less than, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:02

And it's can be could be a fine line, and I do think it's like the energy behind it too, very much. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:10

Which is where it comes back to that sovereignty as well. Like, is that mentor or that leader that you're aspiring to or looking up to? Are they giving you the space and the ability to discern for yourself and to build that self-trust within yourself to like be body-led and self-led? Um, I think that's like a really important factor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:30

Yeah. I love our conversations and it's it's so nice to record because it just it does feel like that. It feels like we're just hanging out, you know, and it comes through like it just as a flow, and everything feels very authentic. And I I just feel so much gratitude for our friendship. Like for those of you who don't know, uh Shannon and I we met through Instagram a couple of years ago, and we've just been connecting more and more. Like over we've done sessions with each other, and she's been on my podcast. And I'm definitely want to have you on the podcast again to talk about cyclical living because I really want to bring that all your feminine harmony stuff to my world of people. Um, so yeah, I yeah, I'm just I'm really grateful for our friendship, and it's so nice to have somebody else who does the somatic work and we really get each other on that level, I feel like. So that's really nice, and yeah, and it just goes to show too that you know you can find community online. Yeah, it doesn't always have to be in person.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:37

Yeah, and I think just bringing light to the beauty of what technology can bring us as well. Because you know, we do we did even in this episode touch on like the downsides of technology and how overstimulating it can be, how comparing it can be, but also it can be very negative and amazing it can be in helping us network.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:55

Like I never would have known this life was oh sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:58

No, no, go for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:00

I was just gonna say I never would have known that this life was possible for me if it wasn't for social media.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:06

Yeah, yeah. Pros and cons to everything. So there you go. Yeah. Yeah. I think we'll wrap this up. Um what I will just invite before we finish up, is there any final thoughts or seeds of wisdom that you feel called to share as we wrap this up?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:24

Oh my gosh, I feel like I maybe used all of my nuggets and pieces of wisdom already. I think the biggest one would just be really, really honoring and really valuing the relationship that you have with yourself. Like that is the most important relationship that you will ever have in your entire life. And putting yourself first, like treating it like I had this thought the other day while I was like half asleep. And it was like self-love is like a marriage. You know, when I think when people talk about worthiness and self-love, it's such a vague, fleeting thing. Well, how do I get there? How do I find more more worthiness? How do I love myself? How do I build this relationship with myself? And when I compare it to a marriage, it's like because every single day you have to you get to choose. You don't have to, you get to choose to show up and to love yourself and to honor yourself. And to me, that's how I build the self-love. And I built the and building the relationship with myself. And again, like we spoke about self-trust. So just bringing that back, like summarizing, you know, I've had so many years of self-abandonment. So showing up and honoring myself and building that self-trust again. And yeah, just really bringing so much importance to that relationship to self has been such an important part of my journey. And I think is a big part of the medicine that I'm here to offer.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:50

Amazing. Which kind of leads me into my next question. If there was just one thing that the listeners and I could do for you today, what could we do for you to support your business, yourself? Oh, what you're offering?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:02

I would invite everybody to come subscribe to me on YouTube, follow me on Instagram. I have a Somatic Foundations course coming out that's all about the foundational aspects of somatics that really, really, really helped me connect with my body when I when I learned and just kickstarted this whole journey of uh deeper healing for me. So that's something I'm sharing. And then I offer my one-on-ones as well. And yeah, that's pretty much it for now. I've got my own podcast as well, Expanded Women Podcast. And if you guys want to go listen, Shannon and I have recorded an episode already, and I'm sure in the next month or so we'll be recording another one. So yeah, that's where you can find me.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:47

Sarah is an amazing healer. So if you feel called towards her in any way, just yeah, I'll be popping all of her connections and things like that in the show notes below so you can connect with her. And thank you to you and the listeners for your space and time during this episode. Um perhaps we'll be having it on the channel as well another time in the future, hopefully. Yeah, and um, yeah, I guess to the listeners, I will see you next week. Bye for now. As we finish this week's episode, remember that you are your own rhythm keeper. So just keep listening for that rhythm and keep coming home to you. Until next time, with love Shannon at Somatic Body.