the womb room podcast episode 21:
why embodied practice is key to our sovereignty: a womb room invite with maura sternberg
Sister, I have a story for you.
Until recent years, I've always thought I had a pretty wide nervous system.
Meaning, I could “stay calm” in a lot of intense situations.
From family health crises, to attending births, to being an elementary school teacher (lol), I could remain grounded and “still” while people had BIG emotions.
And yet, it wasn't until I reached a new level of womb & p u s s y work that I realized… I actually didn't have much range for holding sensation.
I noticed that when a sensation felt uncomfortable or painful in my body, I wanted to push it away or numb out.
When a sensation felt good, I wanted to grip onto it or force it into something bigger.
Which made me wonder….was I actually grounded and present in all these areas of my life, or was I just disassociating or in a “freeze” state?
If you can relate to the following, this might be you, too:
You have a tendency to numb, suppress, or avoid big emotions or sensations in your body.
When things feel really good in your life, you either find a way to self sabotage or distract yourself
When you try to “feel your feelings," you shut down or feel yourself go blank
You notice yourself either gripping onto experiences and sensations that feel good, or pushing away the ones that are uncomfortable
What does this have to do with womb work, you ask?
Well, in short… everything.
In my world, one of the pillars of womb sovereignty is embodied expression – which is all about our nervous system regulation.
This looks like being able to hold big sensation (pain, pleasure, joy, grief, rage, creativity/sexual feelings) AND be able to move it through our body so these unprocessed experiences don’t get “stuck.”
So what does this type of nervous system tending look like for me now?
a daily short practice of expressing fear, rage or grief through my body
putting my hands on my own body, and often in my own pussy, NOT with the “goal” of pleasure but rather to build my capacity to be with what IS…which sometimes is (numbness, pain, restlessness, tension, discomfort)
Noticing the beliefs and stories I hold in my relationship to sensation, and how they co-create my life
I'm sharing this with you because I believe one of the most healing and impactful things we can do in stepping into our powerful is expanding our capacity to FEEL – and I want to invite you to join me in doing so.
This week on the podcast, I'm sharing a conversation between myself and Maura Sternberg, a Womb Room facilitator, ritualist and healing guide.
In it, we talk about why and how we practice embodied expression…and how you can join us!
Beginning this month, Maura will be hosting bi-monthly 30 practice sessions in The Womb Room – 30 minutes of guided embodied expression to support us as we expand our capacities to FEEL, so we can more deeply to access our power.
Whether or not you're in my year-long program, this is open to you! To hear our conversation and learn how to join us, watch our conversation here.
Just want the audio? Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts!
May you be held and honored in your full expression – and I hope to see some of you in our Practice Portal!