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June 7, 2024 47 mins

What if your body, mind, and spirit could unite in perfect harmony? Discover how the ancient principles of yoga can guide you to this profound state of embodiment, where being fully present in your physical form meets mindfulness and soulful awareness. Imagine source energy as gold, and learn how each of us is a unique expression of this divine essence, experiencing life through our senses and emotions. We challenge traditional views that see the body as sinful, proposing instead that our physical existence is a sacred manifestation of source energy.

Explore the true power of your emotions with us. Anger, sadness, joy, and fear—all are vital indicators from our broader selves. Learn how these emotions communicate essential messages and guide us toward understanding our needs and desires. We discuss the societal conditioning that often leads to the suppression of these feelings, resulting in a disconnection from our gut and heart. By embracing our emotions, we can shift from a life led by past experiences to one filled with present possibilities and authentic existence.

Embark on a journey towards self-love and body alignment. Discover practical methods for achieving embodiment, such as somatic work, dance, and connecting with nature. Hear personal stories and techniques for aligning with your soul's desires, emphasizing the importance of nurturing your body through grounding, syncing with moon cycles, and self-massage. Whether you're seeking to reconnect with yourself or looking for practical self-care tips, this episode offers heartfelt insights and actionable steps to help you embrace your true self and lead a more empowered life.

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If you would like to be a guest on this podcast or would like to support this work, visit www.leavingthechurchtofindgod.com where you can contact Melissa and or make a donation. Follow along my journey on IG at @authenticallymeli and find more in depth content on YouTube at Diary of an Authentic Life.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Aloha, godpod, welcome back.
I'm so happy to have you hereToday.
I'm going to speak aboutsomething that's really, really
important to me embodiment.
So there's something recentlyI've come to understand because
I've done yoga for a long time,and there is this principle of
body, mind and spirit.
And I think, like just me,being my human person, like a

(00:21):
lot of us took this veryliterally and thought you know,
body, mind, spirit is, you know,I get my body healthy and get
my mindset right and get myspirit right, where I'm in
alignment and body, mind, spirit, then I'm good.
That's the union that we'relooking for, right, because yoga
actually means union.
It's the union of body, mindand spirit.
So what I've realized is thatit goes so much deeper than that

(00:46):
, that the body part isembodiment, the mind part is
mindfulness, a gay presence, andthe spirit part is
understanding that there is abroader perspective, that is,
our soul and letting that partof us lead.
It's a union, literally, of mybody being in this body, my mind

(01:13):
being mindful, being able touse this calculator I have in my
head to be mindful of the worldaround and within myself, and
then mindful of the world aroundand within myself and then
being led by my soul.
That's a union like a balanceof the three is really what

(01:37):
we're looking for, right?
So in embodiment, I just feellike these are all.
So there's so much to talkabout with these three parts
that I'm going to actually breakthis into a three-part series.
I don't know if I'll play themback to back or not, but there
will be three coming and we'llhave the other two, but I'm just
really going to stick to thisone today as much as I can.
So what is embodiment?
Embodiment, by definition, is atangible or visible form of an

(01:58):
idea, quality or feeling.
It's the representation orexpression of something in a
tangible or visible form.
So if we think about sourceenergy, what is source energy?
Some people call source energyGod, some people call it the
universe.
I'm going to use source energytoday because I feel like it
just really maintains thecontext of what I'm talking

(02:19):
about, and by doing that, whatI'm referring to is that
everything is energy, everythingis made of energy and there is
a source of this energy.
Eckhart Tolle described it asgold.
I felt like that was such agreat metaphor because it really
is like that, and I and I breakthat metaphor down so much,
more and more, even though, gosh, the first time I read the

(02:42):
Power of Now was almost 20 yearsago.
But I really love this metaphorof gold.
So think about God, right, asgold, or source energy as gold,
like there's all of the gold inthe world, that's God.
Or in the universe galaxy, whoknows?
I think maybe there's gold onother planets, but we've got

(03:03):
gold, we got gold here, right.
So they think that's God.
And then, like, I could be agold ring, I could be pure gold,
but I'm not all of gold.
So when I talk about us beingGod in the flesh or us being an
extension of source energy, thisis what I'm talking about.

(03:24):
Like I am pure gold, but I'mnot all of gold.
There's more gold than justwhat's here in Melissa, right?
And if we want to go deeperinto that analogy, we could
think about breaking it.
Like, say, there's all of goldand then we break it down into
gold bars, right?
So we got a gold bar and thenthink of that as kind of like,

(03:45):
maybe like a soul group, andthen that soul group gets broken
down into pieces and then thosepieces get melted down and put
into other pieces.
And that's what soul groups areright, like there's this one
hole, and then we just kind ofgo down into groups and groups
and groups and groups, but we'reall part of this whole right.
So, no matter how you break itdown, I'm still gold, I'm still

(04:07):
God.
Does that mean that I'm all ofGod?
No, but I am God, so are you,and Jesus actually said this.
There's still a scripture inthere now and then about it, and
there are also a lot of it thatwas taken out in the Gospel of
Thomas.
But we are God in the flesh.

(04:29):
So embodiment is therepresentation of source energy
and an expression of self in andthrough the body.
So if we think about thatdefinition of embodiment, that's
what it is.
We are a representation or anexpression of something.
That representation orexpression is source energy in a
tangible form.
That's the expression of ourphysical bodies, right?

(04:50):
So why?
Why would God want to be ahuman?
Well, I feel like it's becauseGod wants to experience itself.
Because we have all theseamazing senses.
We get to see all thesebeautiful colors and things and
movement, and there's so manythings that we can see.

(05:11):
We get to smell.
We can smell good smells, badsmells, but there are like
millions of smells that we cansmell.
We get to feel.
We get to feel all of theseemotions, like this huge
spectrum of emotions.
But we also get to physicallyfeel the sense of touch.
We can sense things.
We can feel things in themetaphysical.
There's all of these sensesthat we have, that are part of

(05:35):
us being a body, and God chosethat, or source energy chose
that in a way that, however yousee, consciousness is happening,
but in the expansion ofconsciousness, we were created,
we evolved, we developed to bewhat we are in the way that we
are, as an expression of sourceenergy.

(05:58):
In the church we're taught fromday one that we're born, that we
are born into sin, that becausewe have a body, that we are
born into sin, that because wehave a body, that we are bad,
that everything that our bodywants is bad for us.
Basically, that the body is thesource of bad.
I saw a meme yesterday oh, itwas so good.

(06:20):
It was talking about how thefirst sin that a woman ever
committed was eating.
Right.
And we can go into thepatriarchy and all that later.
But it's true, the original sinwas like Eve eating an apple
apparently right, that is such ahuman experience to eat, to

(06:40):
taste, to use our bodies.
So it's been framed to us fromthe beginning that our bodies
are a sin, that our bodies arethe problem, that our bodies are
something that need to beaccounted for, controlled,
maintained, apologized for.
There's so much bad connotationwith the body because of this,

(07:04):
because by being embodied, byallowing ourself to be a
representation of source energy,our power is infinite.
Our power is unlimited, and ifyou want to control people, you
disempower them.
And one of the quickest ways todo that you disempower them.

(07:28):
And one of the quickest ways todo that is to disembody them.
And we have been disembodied.
I feel it started long ago,started so long ago, but we have
been disembodied by the churchto the point where I don't know
if you've caught the episodewith Dr Christina Cleveland, but
we were even speaking of thisand how she was working with Dr

(07:50):
Tina Sherman-Sherer, I believe,and it was expressed that
millennial women who grew up inthe evangelical church, whether
they were sexually abused or not, show all of the signs of
sexual assault because they weresexually abused or not, show
all of the signs of sexualassault because our bodily
autonomy was so taken from usfrom the beginning.
So, but whether you're in thechurch or not, especially being

(08:12):
a woman, the patriarchy, all ofit, like our bodies are just
laced with shame.
Our bodies are presented to usto be something that is to be
controlled, to be manipulated,to be like watched over in this
hypervigilant way, like we haveto keep our body under control.

(08:33):
Sexual feelings are bad, likesexual urges are bad.
You know, the urge to eat isbad, the urge to do anything is
bad.
Even our emotions are usedagainst us and our emotions are
part of our body.
There are no bad emotions.
I'm just going to go ahead andsay that there are no bad

(08:54):
emotions.
Are there emotions that areuncomfortable, painful even?
Yes, absolutely, but there areno bad emotions.
Now you might say, like whatabout greed or violence or
intimacy?
Those are not emotions.
Intim might say like what aboutgreed or violence or intimacy?
Those are not emotions.
Intimacy is a good one, butstill those aren't emotions.
Those are actions that cause anemotion or that are stemmed

(09:14):
from an emotion, but theemotions that we have are
indicators.
It is a way that our soul, ourbroader perspective, my portion
of gold, speaks to me, my human,through these emotions.
It says to an example anger,especially the church.

(09:38):
Gosh, the church loves to harpon anger and how evil anger is,
but it's not true.
Anger actually activates change.
Anger is there to let us knowthat there is something that
feels unjust or wrong, that weneed to change.
Rage, rage shows us where we'rebeing neglected.

(09:59):
When we go into rage, it'sbecause there is some part of us
that is being neglected that isjust screaming and crying to be
seen and to be fulfilled.
Sadness Sadness is a reminderthat we are finite.
It's a reminder to look atwhat's good.
It gives us a contrast offeeling.

(10:19):
On the other side of sadness isjoy, and our sadness shows us
our joy.
It moves us towards joy.
It lets us know this is sad,this isn't joy.
Like where, where can I move inmy life to bring me back to joy
?
Grief Grief it's an expressionof love.
The depth of grief matches thedepth of love that you have for

(10:41):
whatever it is that you feelthat you've lost.
Confusion Confusion is a callto clarity.
Joy is a reminder of the beautythat's available to us.
Love invites us to lean intowards where that source of
love is coming from Jealousy.
It shows us what we really want.

(11:01):
Being jealous of someone isn'tbad.
It is if you use that to try totake that person down or take
that from that person.
But when you use that jealousyas a cue to let you know that,
wait, I'm jealous of thatbecause I want that for myself,
that's a beautiful indicatorFear.
Fear keeps us alive in ourbodies.

(11:23):
It keeps us from unalivingourselves.
Right, all of these emotionshave purpose.
They're all part of our body.
So when we start denying ouremotions, then we start to
become disembodied.
This happens especially throughthe church.
But just as humans in generalThink about us as children, like
when we're toddlers, we are inthe feels right, we are very

(11:46):
much in those feelings and weare in our gut feeling, the gut
reactions.
It's not a like, my feelings arehurt feeling.
It is a gut feeling.
I don't like this.
This feels bad, this is notwhat I want.
We get these gut reactions toour feelings.
And what are we told?

(12:07):
What are we told?
We're told that they're bad.
Don't cry right now.
No, you're not supposed to cryabout that.
Oh, get over it, move on, it'sokay, suck it up, suck it up,
move on, you're okay, you'reokay.
You know we get told this andtold this and told this and it
conditions us to stop listeningto that gut.
It conditions us to stoplistening to those feelings.

(12:27):
And then when those feelingscome up, we think, oh, that's
bad, let me run from thatfeeling.
Instead of leaning into it andseeing what it's trying to show
us, we run from it and we hideit and we stuff it down and we
cover it up.
So then we continue to grow andthis is our phase of being
separated from our feelings,from our gut feelings, and then

(12:54):
we get into our adolescence andthen we start coming into our
heart.
If you think about the vagusnerve, this is how it begins,
right?
It goes from the gut up,through the heart, all the way
up.
So if we're thinking from thevagus nerve, we've already cut
it off at our bellies.
Right Now we go into our heart.
We're in our adolescence and wefeel, oh gosh, we feel, we feel
everything with our hearts.
All of the feelings are so big.

(13:14):
They're big heart feelings.
You know so much feelings.
You've all been throughadolescence.
You know what I'm talking about, right?
So these heart feelings, andwe're told we're too emotional
to get over it, to be an adultto not feel that way Over and
over.
We're shamed for our emotions,we are punished, we are tamed,

(13:41):
basically from our hearts.
So our gut emotions have beencut off.
Now our heart emotions are cutoff, and what that does is we
keep moving up that vagus nerveand it puts us in our head.
And, yes, our head is veryuseful.
We kind of need this thing tobe alive.
But by our head I mean ourminds.

(14:01):
And while our minds havepurpose, our minds are excellent
for problem solving and likevery tactical human things, our
minds are not supposed to feelfor us.
Our gut and our heart issupposed to feel for us, but
when we've cut those things off,then we're dependent on our

(14:22):
mind and we spend our livesliving from our mind, making
decisions from our mind,weighing out pros and cons.
Does this make logical sense?
The problem with that is thateverything that our mind knows
is based on past experience.
So all these decisions thatwe're making are being made
based on past experience, notbased on the infinite available

(14:44):
abundance that's in front of us.
But no, it's all based on ourpast experience, because that's
all.
Our mind has to go on, butwe've completely become
disembodied and we are living inour mind.
At this point, the mind ismaking the choices.
So if you could see like howthis becomes a problem.
Right, we start living our life.

(15:05):
We choose our partners, wechoose our family structure, we
choose our jobs.
We choose all of these thingsfrom our minds.
And then we wonder why we'renot happy.
We wonder why we feelfrustrated and stuck or no
matter what we do, something'snot right.
It just doesn't feel right.

(15:25):
This isn't what life issupposed to be like.
Life is supposed to be fun.
This isn't.
Why is it so hard?
It shouldn't be so hard.
Why is everything so hard?
Well, this is part of thedesign, the design of the
manipulation of how the churchand how society has used our
bodies against us.
If we're stuck in our mind andwe're constantly trying to
problem solve the cycle thatwe're recreating, then we're not

(15:49):
making change, we're notrevolutionizing, we're not
evolving in the way thathumanity is meant to evolve.
We've gotten into this powerdynamic, the struggle that we're
in this is the design of themanipulation.
Also with media.
You know, the media keeps usdistracted.
The news keeps us filled withfear, so that we keep watching.

(16:11):
The social media keeps usfeeling insecure and like we're
not enough and we get they useour dopamine against us.
We get stuck in these cycleswhere we're not enough and we
get they use our dopamineagainst us, like we use.
We get stuck in these cycleswhere we're distracted.
All of this is keeping usdisembodied.
We have been convinced no,thanks to patriarchy.

(16:31):
We've been convinced that ourbodies are a problem and that
they're supposed to look a veryspecific way, and if they don't,
then we need to change them, weneed to fix them.
We've got to keep all of thesemetrics really healthy and work
ourselves into the bone until,like we're just like in this

(16:52):
schedule, this routine of tryingto tame and control our bodies.
I don't want to skip past this.
One of the things of going backto the church is that we
weren't allowed to dance.
I mean, we were allowed todance if it was in spirit.
Right, we're shouting, runningaround the church, but we
weren't allowed to dance becausethat was like enticing men.

(17:12):
That was moving our body in asexual way.
It was enticing men.
Blah, blah, blah.
Dancing is one of the quickestways to get back into your body.
I don't think that that is anaccident.
We are taught that sex isshameful and that we need to
stay away from sex and all ofour sexual feelings are bad and

(17:35):
need to be repented for, andthat ways that humans present in
their bodies if it's not onthis binary, then it's bad or
it's wrong and just so manythings that take us away from
our body, that disembody us andthat just keep us in our minds
constantly in this struggle, inthis cycle of trying to keep up,
of trying to get it right.

(17:56):
When we're living in ourthinking minds, we're
interpreting these emotionsthrough a lens of comparison, so
it's more of a signal.
But when we're living embodied,we recognize these feelings as
cues.
They are always meant to bringus back to ourselves, to our own
knowing.
As we tune in, we become moreattuned to these feelings.
It's like you sharpen thatknife, you sharpen that tool the

(18:18):
more you use it, the sharper itgets right.
And working with these feelingsempowers us to live
authentically because it lets usknow what our broader
perspective wants.
So, going back to broaderperspective, we're talking about
the gold, right?
My broader perspective is myportion of gold in this life,
like Melissa's portion, mynecklace or whatever I am, and
that perspective knew when itchose to be me before it came

(18:42):
into this life before itincarnated, that part of me knew
what I wanted to experience inthis life.
So that that part of me chosewho I would be born to, what
body I would have, whatexperiences I would have, who
would be in my life so that Icould have those experiences
that my soul wanted to have.
Some people believe it's forthe evolution of soul.

(19:04):
Some people believe it's simplyfor the experience.
I don't know, but I do knowthat I chose this life.
There was something that reallychanged for me about that,
because I used to be so hard onmyself.
I've struggled with my weightsince I was about 10 years old.
I was so, so hard on myselfabout my body and so mean to my

(19:25):
body.
I've, you know, dealt withdisordered eating.
I was anorexic for many years.
I have been through all of that.
But I got a lot kinder to mybody when I realized that I

(19:45):
chose it, when I realized thatthis is the body that my soul
chose to live this life in.
It's exactly the body I'msupposed to be in.
I chose this body and it'sperfect for me.
It's gotten me exactly where Ineed to be.
It's helped me experienceexactly what I was meant to
experience.
This is my body and I love itand I'm going to take care of it
.
Once I had that understanding,it really changed things for me.

(20:08):
I started looking at myselfdifferently, I started speaking
to myself differently.
I just really started to comeback into my body.
So, going back to the soul part,this broader perspective, my
soul chose this body and knewwhat it wanted to experience in

(20:30):
this life.
When I experienced discomfort,it's not wrong or bad, it's just
the distance between where I amas the human and where my soul
wants to be, the broaderperspective, the bigger part of
me.
So the soul exists outside ofthe body.
They say like three to fivemeters in every direction.

(20:53):
I don't know how to measurethis, but this is like what
people say.
But our body is in our soul,not the other way around.
We're not just like a meat suitwith a body and a soul inside
of it.
We're a soul carrying around ameat suit.
So so my broader perspectiveknows what I really want.

(21:15):
It knows the desires of myheart, my soul, because it feels
what I feel, and when I don'twant something it knows the
opposite is what I do want.
It starts creating and drawingin what I do want, right.
So when I feel discomfort afeeling that would normally be
perceived as bad oruncomfortable it's really the
distance between my soul, whatmy soul knows I want, and where

(21:39):
I am or what direction I'm goingin.
That's not meant to alarm me,that's meant to give me a cue to
be like oh, I actually want tocome back here because this is
more alignment with what my soulwants.
So people talk a lot in the newage world about alignment, being
in alignment, and that's whatit is.
It's aligning yourself to whatyour broader perspective knows

(22:02):
that you desire.
It's not because this man up inthe sky decided our purpose.
And we're out here, littlesoldiers, living out a purpose
that somebody else decided forus.
That is not it at all.
We chose this, the I am.
I am Melissa.
Who is that I?
That I is the one who choseMelissa.
So I know I'm getting deep inhere y'all.

(22:24):
This is just beginning.
The more we bring ourselvesinto alignment with that body,
the mind and the soul, the moreauthentically we are living.
By living an embodiedexperience, we're able to enjoy
the experience of being human.
Coming back to this experience Ihad with choosing my own body.

(22:44):
It's really helped me change tohow I see myself.
So now when I look in themirror, I don't look for flaws.
When I look in the mirror, Ilook for things that I love, and
that has completely changed mymindset and everything.
And I've actually I stoppedtrying to lose weight.
I really just started listeningto my body and eating what it
was telling me and not feelingbad about it and just like

(23:08):
really just nourishing myself,and when I eat I'm hungry, and
when I'm tired I rest, andthat's that's just the number
one for me.
And when I want to move, I, andthat's that's just the number
one, um for me.
And when I want to move, I move, you know.
So I started letting my bodylead.
I started coming back into mybody and letting those cues lead
me, and the irony of that isthat I like weight is falling

(23:29):
off of me.
I've lost.
I don't even know Cause, Idon't weigh myself, but the last
time I was weighed I had lostalready over 30 pounds, just
from not doing anything, justfrom being myself, from loving
myself, from not trying to, like, force myself into compliance,
just from acceptance.
And so I'm actually working on abook.

(23:50):
I'm working on life by booksright now.
They're all going to come outone day, I promise, but I'm
actually working on one rightnow.
It's, you know, get fit bybeing yourself, and that is is
what's happening.
It's by living authenticallyand living in alignment with my
body, mind and soul that it'sjust happening naturally.
And now, especially now thatsome weights come off, I just

(24:12):
can't stop moving.
I'm like wanting to go forwalks all day long, stretching
all the time, like I literallyhave caught myself doing karate
punches in the air every daybefore bed, like I just have all
this energy and excitement inmy body.
So, um, it's working.
I can say that.
But by living an embodiedexperience, we're able to enjoy

(24:36):
the experience of being human.
So I spent much of my lifetrying to control every part of
myself to be what the worldaround me was telling me I was
supposed to be.
Now I understand that the wholetime, like she was here for me,
nudging me, waiting for me tolisten, loving my body.
It's not only made my mind lovemy physical form, but it has

(24:59):
deepened the bond between mysoul and my human.
It's a harmony that I don'thave the words to explain.
It's an overwhelming feeling oflove, of confidence, of
satisfaction and of fulfillmentjust by existing.
Like I big myself up so much,it's nuts, like seriously, and
it's not a, I'm not trying, Ijust feel that way, like I'll

(25:22):
walk by the mirror and mybroader perspective just looks
at me as like I love you, you'redoing amazing, keep it up.
Like I'm so proud of you.
Oh, I love that about you andit's genuine, it's not forced,
it's genuinely like a union ofmy body, mind and spirit.
My broader perspective and Iare in harmony and my broader

(25:49):
perspective is super stokedabout it, and so is my human.
So it's all working really well.
I've been saying like I feellike I'm having a love affair
between my human and my soul,because that's what it feels
like.
It's just this happiness oflike yeah, this is what we're
doing, you know, not because I'mperfect or not because I

(26:10):
figured it all out or got it allright, but just because I'm
embodied, because I'm enjoyingthis experience of being me in
this body.
So how do we get there?
How do we come back into ourbodies?
Well, there's a lot of ways.
One that I found especially inthe moment, is when I'm feeling
overcome by emotion ordistracted or just overwhelmed

(26:34):
in any way, or just like notfeeling present I go into my
senses.
What do I smell right now?
What do I feel right now?
What do I hear right now?
What do I see right now?
So I start going into my sensesand getting back into my body.
That's one easy, immediatething you can do at any time.

(26:56):
Another thing that has reallyreally helped me to become
embodied is dancing.
Dancing is I.
You know, I always said this.
When I see hula, I tear up.
I don't care if it'sfive-year-olds doing hula, it
touches me.
Something in my soul recognizesit and feels very happy about
it.
The way I see hula is likeliterally and it's funny because

(27:18):
I described it this way beforeI started doing hula.
And then, when I started doinghula, I realized that it was
actually exactly what it is andit's just receiving the energy,
the huna energy, the energy fromthe earth and expressing it in
physical form, and that's whyit's so touching and so
beautiful.
It's just this true embodimentof earth energy and it's just.

(27:39):
It's just delicious.
It's delicious.
If you haven't seen a good hula, google Mary Monarch and start
watching some videos and youwill see what I mean.
Chicken skin for days.
But that's the thing is aboutdance.
It's like, even with Africandance I mentioned this a lot
because it's been such a pivotalprocess for me is using African

(28:02):
dance.
When I listen to African, thesevery sacral opening, these
pelvic opening movements, andthen I start watching, like
African dancing, like oh yeah,this is somebody.

(28:22):
Some part you know isrecognizing this.
You know we all came, likehumanity came, from Africa,
right, so some part of me isrecognizing this music and knows
how to move to it.
But there's opening and openingmy pelvis, like for one, our
sacral center is where ourcreativity comes from, right,
but like opening that sacralcenter, it just releases

(28:43):
something.
It just in my intuition and myenergy and it really, really,
really brings me back into mybody.
There are other ways Somaticwork.
If you don't know what it is,look it up.
I also feel like this isattributed to my weight loss is,
instead of working out, I dothese very slow, easeful
movements that release cortisolfrom the body, release trauma

(29:07):
from the body.
I know that's a big part too ofthis transition for me is doing
trauma work and really gettingto my core.
Wounds for me is doing traumawork and really getting to my
core wounds and feeling thosewounds, allowing them to be felt

(29:27):
.
I feel like all of this hasworked in tandem to really it's
bringing me into my highestversion of self, and I freaking
love it.
I'm going to need this bodyworking well, because I got
stuff to do, y'all.
So you know.
Somatic work, yes, yes, yes,100% do it.
Being in nature, being in nature, I won't stop saying it.
In fact, that just inspired me.

(29:47):
I think I'm going to do a wholeepisode on it.
Have I already done an episodeon it?
I don't know If I haven't, I am.
If I have, I'm going to do itagain.
Being in nature, y'all.
It is also an embodiment ofsource energy.
This earth, this planet andevery little aspect of it it's
all an embodiment of sourceenergy.
So, being connected with that,realizing that we're not here

(30:08):
alone or that we don't own thisplace, that we're not in
dominion over it in the way thatwe're meant to just take it as
our own.
We're meant to work together asa community and by connecting
with nature, by speaking tonature I promise you, if you
listen, it will speak back byspeaking to nature, by putting

(30:28):
my feet on the ground andconnecting with earth energy.
Gosh, if I'm tired or if I havea headache or if I just feel ick
, that's my answer.
I take off my shoes and I goput my feet in the dirt, put my
feet on the ground and let thatenergy come up through my body.
That is a great way to getembodied, to swim, to be in the

(30:49):
water.
Gosh, feeling the water on yourskin will bring you in your
body in a second, especially ifit's cold water.
And one thing I didn't realizeuntil I moved here, which is
kind of ironic If you gotmountains, you got waterfalls.
There's mountains anywhere inyour state or anywhere near you.
There's some waterfalls.
So I had only known I grew upjust like minutes from multiple
waterfalls.
I had no idea I would have beenthere every time I turned

(31:09):
around.
Go get you and go get some ofthat ice, cold waterfall water.
It will bring you back intoyour body like that.
Or ice baths Everybody's doingthat.
Now, right, I don't know.
I don't know if we're going totalk about that with embodiment,
because I think I feel like Ileave my body when I go in an
ice bath.
Oh, until I get out of it, andthen I feel like a million bucks
.

(31:29):
But okay, the moon cycles.
I'm going to speak from this,from being a woman.
But men, this works for you too.
You also have a moon cycle.
We just are more aware of oursbecause we bleed.
But, man, you also have a mooncycle.
So someone told me this and Itried it and it works.

(31:50):
Gosh, many, many years ago.
And she said you know, if youstart talking to the moon, your
cycle will sync up with it.
I'm like cool, so I did.
I started talking to the moonand my cycles, like within one
or two cycles I was on a fullmoon cycle, which means I start
my menstruation the day of thefull moon or in that like couple

(32:13):
of days around the full moon.
Now, at the time that was a lotfor me.
I wasn't embodied at all and itmade me crazy.
So it was a little too much.
So I got myself off the mooncycle for many, many years but
recently felt called to get backon it and I have.
I've gotten myself back on themoon cycle and it's incredibly

(32:33):
powerful.
It increases the intuition towork in this cycle with the moon
.
But even like I said, if you'renot bleeding, you can still do
this.
Just start talking to the moonand it will naturally happen.
I know that sounds nuts, buty'all nature, it's not just like
hanging out doing nothing, it'salive.
It is aware of us.
Someone posted a meme recently.

(32:54):
It was like did you actuallymade it into a reel and reposted
it Because I loved it so much?
But it was.
Did you ever wonder if thetrees and flowers like to look
at us too?
You know, and they do, they do.
I know this is going to soundnuts, but I don't care.
I have this big fern.

(33:15):
It's a huge fern I'm talkingabout like the.
The stems, the leaves of theseferns are like five feet, like
they're huge.
The stems, the leaves of theseferns are like five feet, like
they're huge.
And this fern loves toaggravate me when I'm working in
my yard and I willintentionally, or if I'm around
my water heater.
There's a certain it's in mylaundry area, there's a certain
area that I'm in and I'llintentionally stay away from the
fern because it'll scare me.

(33:35):
I always think there's acentipede on me and I think it
gets a kick out of it orsomething, because no matter how
far I stay away from this fern,it will find a way to touch me.
It will touch me in the back,the back of my neck.
It's always somewhereunexpected and it always makes
me jump and I swear this fern isjust like laughing inside.
But I don't know if you've triedthis.
But you can literally gooutside, go sit by a tree, give

(33:58):
yourself a couple of inches, notsomething where it's going to
happen, something that you sitby a tree.
Give yourself a couple ofinches, not something where it's
going to happen, something youcan't doubt, but also where it's
possible.
Don't go two feet away.
Give yourself a couple ofinches from like a limb and be
like if you, if you're aware ofme, touch me and just hold
yourself.
Still, I have never had thisnot work.
It will move, the wind willblow, something will happen.

(34:20):
It just kind of inches its wayover and it will touch you.
I promise, do it, try it if youdon't believe me, but cycling up
with the moon cycles has beenreally great as an embodiment
practice for me, because I alsoschedule myself around the moon
cycles.
If this sounds like a lot, Iactually created this back to

(34:42):
nature planner and journal whereevery week of the moon cycle is
labeled.
So when you're making yourschedule.
You can schedule with the mooncycles, because the first week
of our moon cycle is more forcollecting on the things from
our last cycle, starting newprojects, all that you know,
like really new freshness, right.
The second week of our mooncycle is about investing in

(35:08):
those projects, furtherdeepening those projects.
It's more of that movement,right, when you're doing the
really energetic, active stuff.
The third week gets morereflective.
It's a reflective cycle whenwe're reflecting on our month
and what you know we're going todo next, and then we go into
our rest and planning cycle.
So each week of the moon cyclehas a different purpose.

(35:29):
So by cycling ourself with themoon, it brings us back into
embodiment in such a huge waythat will make a very positive
impact on your life.
I promise, once I realized thatI was not bipolar, that I just
am really, really happy thosefirst two weeks of the month and
then kind of go into a restingstate the other two weeks.
I realized that it was.

(35:51):
I know when my moods are goingto happen.
I don't feel like I'm on moodswings, because I exactly know
how I'm going to feel, becauseit's based on the moon cycle.
I'm not crazy, I'm not moody.
I'm on the moon cycle, we allare, and when we don't realize
it, the cycle that we're on itcan just feel like it's hitting
us out of left field.
Now, I know these things.
I can plan my life around itand I don't plan a lot of social

(36:12):
stuff when I'm going to be in aresting and reflective time.
I don't plan resting andreflective stuff when I'm going
to want to be active and gettingstuff done.
I want to take advantage ofthat time to get stuff done and
that way, when my resting timecomes, I don't feel bad.
I can just rest and enjoy itand appreciate it the art of
doing nothing.
So another one is yeah, sothat's about working with your

(36:37):
body instead of trying tocontrol it.
Another one is self-touchmassage.
You know, if you give yourselfa hug if you're watching the
video you can see I'm doing itright now If you give yourself a
hug, it actually has the sameeffect as if someone else gives
you a hug.
You can like put your hands onyour face.
It's a great way to comfortyourself.
I was using a lot of thesetools during the pandemic, that
first couple of months, when Ididn't see or touch another

(36:59):
human, my dog at the time wasjust like enough, lady, you've
touched me enough.
Like, leave me alone.
So the self-touch is verytherapeutic, but also like
massage.
Maybe I should do a YouTubevideo on that.
I think I'm going to do aYouTube video on that.
Keep an eye out.
On self-massage, I learned thatwhen I was in massage school

(37:20):
and I actually still have all ofthe stuff, but I do it myself
on how you can give yourself amassage and there are longer
ways to do it.
But I, you know, basically Ihave this oil, like castor oil
mixture, I use when I get out ofthe shower and I massage it in.
I massage it into my legs andmy arms and I like really feel
the muscles and massage it.
You know that will bring usback into our bodies, just

(37:42):
touching.
But I'm going to do that.
Keep an eye out.
I'm going to make a YouTubevideo on self-massage so that we
all have that Listening to yourbody and acting accordingly.
If you're hungry, eat.
If you're tired, rest.
If you're energetic, go usethat energy.
You know, like, listen to ourbody.
If something in our body islike that's a no, that's a hard

(38:05):
pass, y'all listen to it.
I went on a date gosh about ayear ago and I knew within
seconds I don't know how manyseconds, but it was within
seconds that that wasn't a matchfor me and practically
everything would say that he wasa good match.
Like there are all these thingslining up that would make that
person a good match.
But I knew immediately I waslike in my body, was like nope,

(38:27):
but I was like, okay, I'm here,we both come this way, I'm just
going to humor it and it was awaste of an hour of my day.
So it wasn't a waste because ittold me that the answer's
already there.
So you know, I listen to thatnow and the more we listen to it
, the louder it will get, theeasier it is to listen to.
Plus, you kind of build faithin it.
The more you listen to it, themore you see how it works and

(38:48):
then you're going to keep doingit because it works.
And you know, prioritizing restwe're not machines.
We're not born to produce,we're born to create and there
is a big difference.
So, allowing ourselfprioritizing rest, prioritizing
play, joyfulness, play Like.

(39:09):
Remember being a kid?
I've got the 90 days of playgoing on.
It's free, you don't even haveto give me your email address.
Go find it.
It's liveallowcom, up at thetop.
You can click on 90 days ofplay and all the stuff is there.
Getting in your body, playing,finding joy Like these are ways
to get embodied.
Doing nothing, staring intospace, like literally doing

(39:29):
nothing.
Yesterday I gave myself thewhole day to do nothing because
I was trying to work the nightbefore and the inspiration
wasn't coming.
I was feeling like I know Ihave all these things I'd like
to do, I'm just not feeling it.
So I just stepped back and waslike, okay, we're just going to
take a break, and I didn't doanything else mentally the rest
of that night.
And yesterday I just insistedthat I not do anything

(39:50):
productive.
I did go get groceries becauseI need to eat, but I really just
gave myself time to not think.
I didn't listen to any podcasts, I didn't even listen to music
in my car.
I just like gave my brain abreak, gave myself a break to do
nothing.
Right, not allowing ourselves tobe machines.
We are not machines and nottrying to restrict our bodies

(40:12):
into submission.
Right To try to fast ourselvesinto submission or cleanse
ourselves into submission orwork ourselves out into
submission, like, just let ourbody be our wild bodies, right.
And the cool thing about thatis when you do, the health and
all of that other stuff comesnaturally.
You don't have to try, it justcomes.

(40:33):
The more embodied I get, themore I just naturally do my oil
pulling in the morning withouteven thinking about it, the more
embodied I become.
The more of a skincare routineI get, the more embodied I
become.
The more I move, the more Itake care of myself, the more
aware I am of what I'm eating.
I'm not trying to do any ofthose things.
I'm being embodied and that isthe byproduct of it.

(40:56):
So you know, I think about thiswith your body is like we have
this saying in the South thatyou catch more flies with honey.
And it's like how does it feelfor you when somebody insists
that you do or be something thatyou are not or that you cannot?
That's how our body feels,right?
We're trying to like you knowyou catch more flies with honey

(41:18):
than you do vinegar.
You pour vinegar on the bodyand you make it do all these
things, try to force it andyou're going to get resistance.
But when you give it honey andyou be sweet to it, then it's
going to naturally want to showup for you, right?
That's just.
It's just.
It all works together.
We don't have to try anythingin life.
The more we be, the moreauthentic we become, the more

(41:45):
all of the things that we wantto be, do and have become a
byproduct of that Kindness,softness, space, listening,
moving, trusting, thanking yourbody, loving your body, being
grateful to your body forgetting you this far, for
getting you from point A topoint B, from letting you know
when it's hot and that you needto cool off, or you would die,
from letting you know whenyou're too cold and you need to

(42:06):
get warm or you would die.
Like thanking our body, beinggrateful to our body for what
it's giving us.
I've spent much of my lifetrying to control every part of
myself to be what the worldaround me was telling me I was
supposed to be, to be what theworld around me was telling me I
was supposed to be.
But the more embodied I become,the more authentic I become,

(42:32):
the more that I just love theway that I am, the way that I
was born, the way that I amright now.
Flaws, and all the morebeautiful my life becomes, the
more fulfilling my life becomes,the more fulfilling my life
becomes, the more satisfying mylife becomes, the more peaceful
my life becomes.
So it's about this, thisharmony, this holistic approach

(42:53):
of harmonizing the body, themind and the spirit, having the
embodiment, having themindfulness, allowing our souls
to lead.
That's all together.
I'm doing these as threeseparate things embodiment,
mindfulness and being soul-ledbut they're all working together
.
One cannot exist without theother.
So, thank you, thank you forbeing here, thank you for

(43:19):
listening.
I hope that this has comeacross in a way that makes sense
, that's understandable.
I really appreciate you beinghere, showing up with me week
after week, if you are wantingto be.
Oh yeah, I don't want to forget.
One of the main, main mainthings that has really helped me

(43:40):
is breath work.
One of the main, main mainthings that has really helped me
is breathwork.
Doing breathwork has brought meinto my body in ways that just
really allows me to feel thefeelings, the feelings that have
been stored in my body foryears and years that weren't
able to be felt, because when wedon't feel our feelings, they
don't go anywhere.
They just hide in our body, inour cells, and in breathwork
those parts come out and I getto feel them and see them and

(44:01):
love them, and that has been ahuge part of my embodiment
practice.
So I am offering breathworksessions Now.
I am a trained breathworkfacilitator.
You can work with me in person.
There's a whole protocol that Ihave for working in person, but
we can also do it online.
Protocol that I have forworking in person, but we can

(44:24):
also do it online.
It is just as powerful, just aseffective.
So if you're interested indoing some breath work and
working through that, you canget in touch with me online.
Livealau, a-l-a-u.
It's the alchemy ofauthenticity.
Livealaucom you can contact methere.
You can contact me on Instagram.
At AuthenticallyMelly.
You can contact me throughYouTube.
There's so many ways to get intouch with me.
But if you would like to do someembodiment work, do some breath

(44:47):
work together, I'm here for you.
Let me know if you would liketo work together in other ways,
untangle some of the ways thatyou feel stuck in your business,
in your life, in any areas ofyour life.
If you're wanting somecompanionship on this journey
back to yourself, I am here foryou.
I am offering one-on-one worktogether and leading you back to

(45:11):
yourself so that your soul canlead your life.
If you're interested in workingwith me in that capacity, just
reach out here.
If you want to support the show,it's in the outro, but just in
case you skip it, get on there.
Leave me a five-star review.
Friends, I know you're lovingthe show because you keep coming
back and watching it, so pleaseleave me a review so that other

(45:32):
people can love it too.
Also, be sure to subscribe orfollow, so that you don't miss
an episode.
That helps you and it helps me.
So let's do it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for being here.
As always, I love you and stayauthentic.
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