Awakening the Nourished Woman Within

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Have you ever noticed how your relationship with yoga transforms the longer you practice? What begins as a simple desire for flexibility or stress relief gradually reveals itself as a gateway to your deepest self.

Yoga offers us this remarkable journey from surface-level goals to soul-deep transformation. As your body develops muscle memory and your nervous system attunes to the practice, you begin accessing parts of yourself that may have remained hidden for years. These are the layers where your authentic desires live—not the should-based goals society imposes, but the heart-led longings that feel like coming home to yourself.

These desires aren't small. They're expansive visions of living with joy, channeling your unique gifts, experiencing deeply connected relationships, and having abundant energy for the things that matter most. The beautiful paradox is that manifesting these desires requires both more consistency in your practice and a gentler approach—one rooted in devotion rather than obligation.

When yoga transforms from something you do to how you live, everything shifts. You're no longer forcing yourself onto the mat because you "should"; you're showing up because it nourishes you at every level. Your practice becomes a sacred container holding all of you—body, mind, and spirit. Even short sessions of 15-30 minutes carry profound power when approached with this reverence.

Perhaps most beautiful of all, this devotional practice connects you to something larger than yourself. Each time you roll out your mat with love rather than criticism, each breath practice and meditation becomes an offering—not just for your own wellbeing, but for those who came before you without these tools, and for all who will come after. This is soul work disguised as yoga.

Ready to deepen your relationship with your practice? Join our community of women exploring this path together in the Nourished Woman Sanctuary.

 Connect with me on Instagram @The_Nourished_Woman or visit www KeriMarino.com to learn more about mentorship opportunities.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to the Nourished Woman podcast, a space
for women on a growth andhealing journey who are ready to
live more joyfully and feeldeeply at home within themselves
, body, mind and spirit.
I'm Keri Marino, your host,somatic yoga therapist, mentor
and mama of three.
Let's dive in.

(00:33):
Every single one of us comes toa yoga practice or the growth
and healing work, because thereis some sort of longing from
within for a better version ofour lives.
And it may be a prettysuperficial desire at first.

(00:58):
Perhaps you want to be morephysically fit, or you want to
have a cal fit, or you want tohave a calmer mind, or you want
to be more flexible or havebetter joint health, and that's
totally cool.
Like so many of us walk into ayoga studio or roll out our mat
for the first time and clickplay on a video simply because
we've got some sort of a desireand somebody told us this might

(01:21):
help, and so we tried it out.
But as you go further into thatand as you become deeper in
touch with yourself, thesebigger desires and these soul
longings start to emerge.
And these are beautiful aspectsof you that sometimes can't be

(01:41):
accessed until we've got alittle bit of yoga under our
belt, because, truly, one of thegreatest gifts of your yoga
practice is being able to accessand have awareness of a
connection to these deeperlayers of yourself.
And once you've started to getsome muscle memory of that, once

(02:02):
your nervous system has becomemore attuned to that and you can
really find your way into thosesoulful layers of yourself,
you'll you'll know, you'll feelbrave enough to explore even
bigger desires for yourself.
And these desires areoftentimes really deep desires

(02:29):
like the feeling of being athome within your body and the
feeling of channeling your giftsinto the world in the most
heartfelt, sacred way possible,or giving birth to this totally
new version of you, not from aplace of I should, but from a

(02:52):
heart, intuitive I keep sayingit, but I mean it soulfully
resourced place inside of you.
That is like I am here for joyand I am here to play, and I am
here to experience the mostlife-changing version of my
marriage that is so full of loveand playful, and I am here to

(03:15):
be the kind of mother thatabsolutely enjoys my children
and has plenty of energy and isnot depleted or drained, and has
plenty of energy and is notdepleted or drained.
So those like, oh, like, oh, mygosh.
I get so excited just thinkingabout what these desires are for
you and I want to acknowledgethat you being able to actually

(03:36):
embody those desires and to liveas your version of the
nourished woman and to show upat that high level of energy, it
takes more consistency on yourpart.
It takes a different kind ofpresence and your old model of

(03:58):
how you show up, how often youpractice yoga or how busy you
allow your schedule to be, orhow little time you take to
really nourish yourself in amindful, conscious way or to
process your feelings or to loveon yourself and even just to
ask yourself what you want andwhat you need.
In order for you to channelthat soulful longing from within

(04:23):
you.
It requires more, and this iswhere your yoga practice not
only can help you find your wayinto this part of yourself, this
deeper aspect of self and Ilike to use the word self with a
capital s, because I mean wholeself, your body, mind, spirit
and life like that unification,that integration, that

(04:44):
harmonious coming together ofevery part of you.
It requires more and that morecan come from your yoga practice
, because when you practice yoga, you are not just doing
something physical for your body, you are accessing your deepest
parts of self.
You are coming into the pause,the space between all of the

(05:07):
thoughts.
You are leaving the world ofpush and perform and coming into
a place that is neutral andwhole and here to channel your
gifts in the wonderful way thatonly you can.
And so each time that you sitdown and you do a meditation or
you do some breath work or youdo your yoga practice, whether

(05:31):
it's restorative or active, ifyou are weaving in these
connections to your deepest self, then you are giving yourself
the bandwidth to go out and livethat version of your life that
you so magnificently want to,and I want to acknowledge that

(05:54):
this will come easier later on.
Or yoga therapist, what our yogapractice is like?

(06:19):
It's really hard to actuallyseparate it from life, because
yoga is the way that I live mylife, it is the devotional
practice, it is the groundingforce that I turn to over and
over again to hold me as I movethrough my days.
So, yes, formal practice ispart of that, like I do meditate

(06:41):
and roll out my yoga mat and dobreath work and chanting and so
many different aspects offormal practice, but also it is
simply who I am as I movethrough the world and I know
many of you listening to thislike.
It is simply who you are tolive from the vantage point of
yoga, as this guiding force andplace that you are held and

(07:05):
supported and this source ofnurturance in your life.
And if you are not there yet,then this podcast is just as
much for you.
This is absolutely a place foryou to start to build the habit,
build the muscle memory, learnhow to weave it into your life
so that it is simply somethingthat you move through your life

(07:29):
with, being held and nourishedand supported by.
And I want to just love on youwherever you are in this journey
and also love on that part ofyou that is doing the brave work
of saying I want more and Iwant better and I'm not going to
sit here and pretend that I canjust keep showing up the same

(07:50):
way and actually feel thedifference that I want to feel
in my life.
And I also want to love on thepart of you that's learning that
she can't force that, that it'snot about forcing something or
putting pressure or letting fearor scarcity be a motivating
force, but we are resourcingthis action and this follow

(08:13):
through as a devotional practice.
You are rolling out your yogamat because there is love behind
it and because you know thatthis is the thing that helps you
and nourishes you and supportsyou, and it's simply something
that you want to do.
You're not doing it because youthink you should.
You're not doing it because youthink your body is not good

(08:36):
enough as it already is.
You are loving on yourselfthrough this practice.
You are offering this practiceup to something bigger than you
and this, this like funnels out,like these things that you want
, these soul longings.
They're not just for you.
They're for your babies andthey're for past you and your

(08:56):
ancestors and the women who camebefore you, who didn't even
know how to put words to herfeelings or didn't know that she
could reach for the things thatyou're reaching for and the
level of abundance that you arecreating the space for in your
life, and these are for thewomen who will come after us and

(09:18):
all the other people on theplanet.
Like this is a devotional workthat you're doing.
This is a sacred thing that youare here to cultivate, and so
your yoga practice is not like.
It's not just thisthree-dimensional thing that

(09:40):
you're doing.
It is this sort of cosmic thingthat you are tapping into, and
when you do it more consistentlyand I don't mean like it has to
be a 60 or 75 minute practice,but I mean as that sort of I
live my yoga practice and Iweave my practice in regularly
and routinely in the ways thatreally work for me, like for me

(10:04):
as a mom of three.
I can tell you that I rarelypractice yoga for an hour at a
time.
In terms of, like, formalpractice.
My yoga practices are much morelikely to be 15 to 30 or 45
minutes, including any versionof how I practice yoga.
So you've you've got the freedomto make your yoga practice work

(10:27):
for you, and this is the likeloving kick in the booty to tell
you to think about it assomething more and to recognize
that that stuff that you'recraving soul, deep and heart led
and intuitively called to itrequires a different version of
you.
The kind of version of you whopays attention to how full she

(10:51):
is when she's eating, and thekind of you that actually does
the things that nourish you moreoften and manages your time and
energy in a different way.
And I know that, if you'relistening to this podcast, that
yoga is part of that tool, thosemystical tools in your tool
belt that you're using.

(11:11):
So I want to encourage you that, wherever you are whether you
already are living this as yourtruth, or whether you are
opening yourself up to this, ormaybe this is a brand new
concept that you devote a littlemore sacredness to every yoga
practice that you do.
It is not simply breath work, itis soul work.

(11:34):
It is not simply you doing ameditation on insight timer and
just like trying to calm downyour crazy monkey mind.
It is you aligning yourenergies.
It is you making that space.
It is you already steppingtowards whatever it is that
you're calling in, withouthaving to force it, but opening
yourself up to receive it.

(11:54):
If this episode resonated withyou, I'd love to hear about it.
Send me a message on Instagramat TheNourishedWoman, or on my
website, carriemarinocom, and ifyou're looking for deeper

(12:18):
support, mentorship or a spaceto feel held, I'd love to have
you join us inside the NourishedWoman Sanctuary.
The beautiful music that you'rehearing is from Shawn Johnson
and the Wild Lotus Band, and youcan find them on all streaming
platforms.