First, this will become a required and free-to-new-students first “course” for any future Indie Birth Midwifery School students. So, if you recently found us or have been waiting to enroll you have till June 1. We will begin this new “Beyond the Mind” cohort in July and it will set such a fabulous foundation for these future midwives.

A teaching that was passed to me that I am honored to witness in real life (both in myself and other women) is that this BODY JOURNEY is a new language. It’s actually like learning….Japanese (to me; this a language I feel like I cannot make sense of). I asked the students in this class, how patient would you be with someone learning English? Probably really compassionate. The same goes as we are learning to feel inside our bodies, which is no small feat and a topic that needs to come first. What does this mean? And how??!

I read a post recently from someone that considers themselves an expert in the somatic education field and I was not impressed.

It felt to me like this person had literally forgotten what it feels like to be new to this work and to feel awkward and even discouraged; not to mention overwhelmed since feeling in the body is something most of us were taught NOT to do from a very young age. ANNDD everyone that is alive has experienced trauma. We are not easy cases, in these human bodies.

This post said something about somatics being a way of life, not a switch one turns on and off and that was really helpful for me to read. Because it FEELS like a switch we turn on and off for a while, as this new language comes into embodiment.

It is NOT a lifestyle for people just learning and the idea that it “should be” right off the bat is not only inaccurate but paints this picture (which is all too common among women) that learning the language of the body is yet something else we won’t be “good enough” at.

A lifestyle takes time and intention; whether it is to reform the way we eat or in our spiritual practices. We can not make that switch over night, if we want to feel good about ourselves and the slooowwwwww path to healing.

Learning to feel the body can be an exercise in humility. It does not need to be a “lifestyle” but rather it may become one when we are ready (sounds like birth, to me!).

I don’t consider myself an expert on much, other than what I uncover in my own self. Rather than putting this journey on a pedestal and make it something it’s not, I come back to the simplicity.

Learning to feel in our bodies is our birth right. We have bodies for a reason! And so miraculous and amazing and beautiful they are. We can choose to treat them like wise, sovereign beings, or we can choose to treat them like unfortunate children who can’t ever get it “right”.

It’s literally in our cells and our ancestry to feel and to consult the body. It is very 2024 and humorous that we need “courses” to learn the inside of ourselves! But we can have compassion for the modern day life we live which has gotten us to this point. (Versus our ancestors who lived and breathed “trauma healing” as a matter of ceremony, ritual, and daily life).

We are not those people. We live now, in different times and in a disconnected reality.

Embarking on this inner journey of life (and of birth work) is for the ones that want to feel. It is not something anyone must do, but when called, it certainly makes life more rich. When we can be with the sensations it’s amazing what we are shown.

PS I love exploring all of these questions in my one on one sessions. I recently added multiple sessions (and a discount) to encourage more of you to explore this.