Ep 98 - Retreat to the Boundless Earth with Aimee Takaya, Jai Knight, and Saewon Oh

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Are you feeling overstimulated and disconnected from yourself? If you’re looking to slow down, tune into your body, and rediscover the joy of being alive through movement, nature, and deep self-awareness, this one’s for you!

In this week’s episode, Aimee Takaya sits down with Jai Knight and Saewon to explore how modern life affects our nervous systems—and how reconnecting with nature and somatic practices can bring us back into balance.

Together, they take us through:

- How overstimulation fuels anxiety and impacts our well-being

- How nature and somatics can calm an overstimulated nervous system

- Jai Knight’s shift from toxic art materials to natural alternatives for healing

- Saewon’s deep connection to flower essences and intuitive plant wisdom

- Why intuition and embodiment are more powerful than memorization

- Aimee’s personal transformation through somatic movement

And so much more!

SAEWON 

Short bio for podcast: 

Saewon is an artist, energy worker, flower essence maker, hypnotherapist, and founder of Sun Song, an embodied research and ritual lab that explores the intersections of plant, human, and planetary consciousness through vibrational essence therapy. 

shop-sunsong.com

JAI

Short Bio for podcast:

Jai is a land-based interdisciplinary artist exploring transformation through collaborative ritual, immersive experiences, hand-poke tattoo ceremony, and visual art. Their practice bridges personal and collective memory while engaging with environmental and spiritual connections grounded in sensory and emotional experience. 

jaimeschmidtarts.com

AIMEE

Follow Aimee Takaya on: IG: @aimeetakaya 

Facebook: Aimee Takaya 

Learn more about Aimee Takaya, Hanna Somatic Education, and The Radiance Program at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.freeyoursoma.com⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠

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A: Hey there, listener. Have you been overstimulated, anxious, doom-scrolling your night away? Are you running from your body because it's a tense or uncomfortable place to be? What if there is nothing wrong with you? 

What if the world you live in is unnatural to your nervous system? Today, I'm speaking with Jai Knight. They are a land-based transdisciplinary ritual artist. I also have Saewon Oh, a flower essence practitioner and healing artist, and we are going to explore the benefits of retreating into nature and somatically releasing the weight you have been carrying to the boundless earth. So stay tuned. 

A: Every day there is a forgetting, and every moment there is the possibility of remembering. Remembering who you truly are, awakening to your body, to the inner world, to the experience of being alive. Here is where you find the beauty, the joy, and here is where you free your soma. I'm your host, Aimee Takaya. I'm here to help you move from pain to power, from tension to expansion, and ultimately from fear to love. 

A: Hello. It's so good to see both of you on the podcast. You've been on this podcast before, but now I have you both together here at the same time. So yay. 

S: So nice to be here. 

J: Yeah. 

A: Yeah, you were both here last season. I had a beautiful interview with you, Saewon, all about the somas of plants and the vibrational energy of plant medicine. Went away. It's a very gentle plant medicine that you use and practice with and connect to. And then, I had an amazing interview with you, Jai, about art and the ritual tattoo work that you do. And both of you have just been very fun and exciting people for me to get to know over the last year. 

I've loved working with you somatically and sharing this really special movement practice. And now I get to have you both on the podcast to explore these ideas today about why it's so important for us as practitioners, but also for everybody at large, people listening to this podcast, people living in cities, to get back to a more natural way of being in our bodies. 

So maybe I kind of orient a little bit for those who haven't listened to the previous podcast episodes, which I super recommend if you're someone who's just found out about this podcast, go back to last season, check out the other interviews, but maybe you can introduce yourselves. So Jai, can you kind of say a little bit about how is what you do as an artist connected to a natural way of being in your body, but also like for people that you work with? 

J: Yeah, well, I studied painting and was really interested in, and I have always been an artist, and have always been interested in creating very large-scale work that's really emotive, like, and move around. I was like covering myself in my paint and like just really immersing myself in the experience of creating art, and I actually got sick from using chemical paint at some point.

And also was thinking a lot about like trauma and processing PTSD, and then that turned into like exploring what is the trauma that collectively we're experiencing and moving through, and how I started analyzing the materials that I was using as I was actually getting sick from them, and also they weren't really coming from the art. 

They're very processed materials that were pretty toxic and could cause cancer, and so I actually over 10 years ago started exploring natural alternatives to materials that I work with in my artistic practice, which includes minerals and plant and fungi, pigments, working with natural fibers, and then also just like working with human energy and the body and experience, and it's been a profound journey for me that I feel grateful that I've been able to share with others what I've been learning and integrating into my life out of necessity. 

A: Yeah, right. I mean, it's a pretty confronting thing to get sick from doing something you love and having to reassess like the how it's being done. I have my own personal story with yoga that was kind of like that, you know, like I injured myself a lot in my yoga practice because I wasn't aware of how I was going about it, right? 

Like how the paints were affecting your physical body, even as you were doing something that had good intention, right? Like it's a very confronting thing to realize like, oh, there's something that I haven't known about this practice or this literally this art supply or this material that is now like I'm being confronted with that reality that like there's something that needs to shift in my awareness and in my actual practicing of this art. 

J: Yeah, that is interesting that we both share that, have it? Yeah. I actually can move forward. My body won't let me. 

A: Yeah, I mean, I think like many people experience that like, you know, at a certain point in their journey, right? Like some kind of limitation we come up against. Yeah. And for you, Saewon , maybe you can say a little bit about working with plants and working with flower essences and that vibrational medicine is obviously very much like an earth-based modality, right? And what drew you to this? Like how did you start to connect with this as something that was like, oh, this is for me, this is very meaningful? 

S: Well, when I first started getting interested into, well, I've always loved plants, but when I first started to realize, oh, I could go to herbalism school and learn about herbs and learn about the different properties of plants and all their healing qualities and magical qualities, you know, that was exciting. 

But then I ended up going into this niche of working with flower essences and really thinking about the energetics and the subtle energetics of plants. And part of that actually was also because I wasn't so interested in just, or it kind of naturally developed in the way I was communing and relating to the plants. 

I didn't necessarily just want to like read a bunch of lists of actions and memorize them all. I wanted to really feel like I knew this plant within my being in a more embodied, intuitive way. And so I just sort of, I guess, like tried to amplify the dials on those parts of me and my processing. And that's how I tend to work with the plants and teach people how to commune with the plants as well. I was inspired by one of my teachers sharing like, you know, or she was saying like the number of plants that you know about doesn't necessarily qualify you as a greater herbalist. 

It's more so like how well you know a certain amount of plants or the whatever the plants that you're bonded with and that some shamans only work with one plant. And so I was like interested in just deepening that relationship. And so I, you know, I make my own flower essences, and every single time I do that, it's a ritual unto itself, and it's a communion and it's a whole experience that I feel like I'm cataloging in my memory as like a very felt sense. 

And so doing that practice and then also sharing essences with people and having them meditate with them and go on journeys with them, it opens up these intuitive like, you know, psychic channels that we can go into trans states with the most subtle list of energies and being able to do that with the land itself in nature and connecting with the plants out there, connecting with the rocks and the stones out there. I feel like that, you know, is just such powerful work, and it not only, I feel like it's a process where the plants are our teachers and their teaching is how to tune better into ourselves. 

A: Yeah, yeah, I mean, when you first described that you take people on like flower essence journeys, I thought that was really cool because I actually had a knot known that that was like a thing that one could do like my mother had been into like the box flower remedies and like, you know, given me rescue remedy as a kid and maybe some people listening like have used flower essences is just this like, oh, I just going to drop this in my mouth and then go about my day. 

But like that, you create ritual around it that you create a container with it for people that you give guidance and like, direction in that process that cultivates their connection with that particular plant, I think is like super cool. And I really hadn't heard about that before meeting you. So, yeah, it's exciting. 

S: Thank you. I'm excited to do more of that together. 

A: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, in terms of as a Hannah somatic educator and a person who has gone through a somatic transformation myself, one of the key points that really my mentor Eleanor Chris Wilhanna kept inviting me to realize was that somatics goes with everything, that there's no opposition to other modalities when we're talking about a true somatic experience of some kind, because it is just your body. 

It's the way your brain works. It's the way your nervous system works, the way, you know, you're built, right? And so when I am like out there in the world now, instead of having this like slight competitive edge that I once had as like a, if I'm really honest, it was like a bickering yoga teacher, which like, if you've ever done hot yoga, there can be this ego there, which is like, this is the better yoga than all other yoga's. This is the dogmatic kind of style of this is like the thing that's going to like heal you, right? 

And I was in that bubble for such a long time, it took me time to like break out and go, wait a minute, this experience of being in my body and being connected to my body goes with all these other modalities. It goes with plant medicine, whether it's vibrational or, you know, more strong forms, right? It goes with different kinds of artistic practices and meditative practices, because it's just opening up your body's ability to be with all of these different experiences, whatever it is, right? 

And so that's been really mind blowing for me to just break out of, you know, a more like structured linear viewpoint and instead ask the question, like how does the somatic movement and the somatic body work that I do enhance and connect and sort of stimulate our ability to connect with other practices, right. How are other practices like an enhancement to our somatic experience? And so that's something I'm like really excited to explore like with both of you more and more. 

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A: You both have done this somatic work with me. So how does the somatic movement, right? The somatic body work that you've both experienced with me, how does it connect to your other practices? Like how does it connect to your chosen modalities? Like what has becoming more somatically aware in your body shifted or you know opened for you when you are guiding others or practicing your art and your work yourself? 

S: Yeah, that's such a great question because I feel like your work is, has been so transformative on so many levels. I mean, on the most basic just feeling good in my body, like I had suffered from pretty chronic like tension in my body for a really long time. And it just felt like something that just sort of omnipresent in my life. 

But you've really taught me that the body can literally release that and I don't actually have to be in that chronically tense place anymore. And so it's just in general brought more ease and pleasure into my life. And that of course helps me to get out there more into nature and to feel more in my body doing anything that I'm doing. But I also, something I've been meditating a lot is just this principle of contracting and then releasing. And I'm just noticing I'm applying that pattern to a lot of things in my life as well. 

And you like applying those principles to the way the mind works, even around the ways we contract and hold on to ideas or thinking. And then being able to, I see it as like going into a maximum and then surrendering into another form of maximum of deep relaxation. And it's bringing me a lot of trust in the process of things and helping me to let go more, helping me to be more in the flow, which in general just helps me be more creative. So I feel like it's just been supportive for so many different things in general of just how I show up in the world. 

A: I love that. Yes. And it's kind of a wild thing because for those of you who are listening to the podcast, who've like never experienced this type of somatic movement, it's very subtle in the beginning, right? In the beginning, it's like, am I even doing anything? Like how could this help my neck or my back or those tense places that I've been rubbing like a foam roller against or like doing these intense, deep stretches? Like how could this tiny little movement do anything at all? 

Right? But then it does. And the more that you practice this, it's not really subtle after a while. It's like very real. It's like, oh, I feel all this tension in my back or my neck because of something I did or some, you know, emotional experience I was having. And then you do your little movements and it's like, your body knows how to let go. 

Right? So I like, in the beginning, I've had people describe the movement. They're like, this is like homeopathic movement. And I was like, I like that. 

I have to agree. And in the beginning, when you're not familiar with flower essences or homeopathy, it can feel like so super subtle. But then the more you work with it, your sensitivity increases. It's not so subtle anymore. Right? 

S: Yeah, I just think there's similarities there of just bringing out importance to the subtle and almost like the more subtle you can get. Actually, your awareness begins to expand and it's not so subtle anymore. 

A: Totally. Yeah. Jai, what about you in terms of how like the somatic practice, because, you know, you actually already were familiar with the term somatic when you met me and in terms of like, I mean, Saewon was as well, but in terms of having had other somatic practices that you were introduced to, or even people that you had learned things from, you know, what was so different about this compared to what you had already done? 

J: Yeah, the somatic work that I was engaged with before I was introduced to Hannah Somatic through you was somatic experiencing, which was a lot about just like, startling, moving emotion and like revisiting moments of trauma and like allowing my body to release them. And it was a very like, it was a container. And it was very intense, like a lot would come up. 

And then it would be like a lot of integration after that, which was extraordinarily helpful. And this feels like something that's more easily integrated. And Ulf does release trauma because there have been moments where I've been working like when I was in, was it revived when I was in? 

A: Yeah, yeah. 

J: Where I was really releasing a lot in my hip. And I actually opened up suppressed memory. And so it's interesting that like working within the subtle actually has the same capacity to find those experiences through just following the body's tension and releasing rather than like going into a story and then kind of pendulum dating and like, they're both valuable, but this it felt like finding it through my body without a story attached to it. 

And I think in general, having this practice in my life now, it's just really regulating for my actual body because of the work that I do as a hand-poked tattoo ritual artist, you know, I'm in this position all the time. And also my client is in a position all of the time where maybe like just having a moment to reset. 

And I do like neck resets with my clients and like also just on my own when like in between because that work can be really intense. And like same with, you know, I think my wild practice when I'm like in the forest, like cutting vines to then like pound into fibers that then become paper, like it can be a really physically intense process. I think being a wild being is felt like super easy on our bodies and our animal selves have been like untrained or like programmed to not have these natural releases that I think a lot of creatures still have access to. 

And so this feels like a really important aspect to like bring into the rewilding context of like, okay, well, if we're using our bodies in these like ways to lift these heavy things and like move in these strange ways and, you know, cut firewood and tall water, like all of those tasks are strenuous. And so having on a somatic for me has been a way to just ground and like let my body recalibrate. 

A: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's like when you relax out of attention pattern, right? And you both have experienced this and probably some people listening who've ever done a class with me or a workshop or anything like that have experienced it too. When your muscles like actually stop clenching away from the earth, they like relax and you actually land on the earth more. 

Like you're literally not lifted away from the earth, you're relaxed on the earth. And I think that what you're saying, Jai, is like very important because if we're looking to live in a more natural way, and I love to get into kind of like the unnaturalness of the world that we think is so normal that we just like the soup that we just swim in, right? But if we're looking to live in a more natural way, or even just looking to de-stress and come out of like the daily stresses that are accumulating in our brains and bodies, right? 

We have to have a reliable way to reset. And a lot of us, I mean, from my experience, like I had a bunch of different tools that I would use to try to get some relief and some of them worked a bit, but it was like I only had the ability to relax to whatever my baseline was. Like this was my lowest baseline that I could get to and it was still pretty tight, right? 

And then with Hannah Somatics, it's like we keep lowering that baseline, lowering that baseline. So now you have like so much more available in terms of what is possible through relaxation, you know? So other practices, once again, like meditation, like, you know, even other practices that are strenuous, you have more of an ability to do those things when you're not starting from a place of already being at like baseline tension is like 80%. 

And if I go past 95, I'm cramping, right? Or I get a migraine or my lower back goes out or whatever it is, like, can we just keep inviting your nervous system to lower that baseline? So like, when I think, when I speak with clients about, okay, you have this pain in your body, it's an accumulation that's been building over time. 

It didn't happen overnight, but it did start becoming painful at some point on that journey. And then there's looking at, okay, car accidents, injuries, like, you know, different emotional traumas, but there's also just like being in the world that we are in and being a person in this modern age. So I'd love to explore with you both, like, the ways in which the world that we are living in most of the time, as I said in the intro to this episode, is actually not very natural to our nervous systems. 

So I know for you, Jay, you spent some time growing up in more of like a wild environment. And then how does it feel like to enter, you know, civilization after these times, you know, not just in your childhood, but in general, when you kind of transitioned from wilderness life to back into a city, what impact do you feel? 

J: I really wanted to live in a city growing up. And so I ended up moving into Buffalo for a couple of years. And that was the longest sentence that I lived in the city. But after doing like a three month solitude experiment in the wilderness and coming back to society, it was wild how intense everything was. And both on both sides of the spectrum of like, Oh, there's a street, like, it's not the moon, it's a streetlight. 

Like even just a streetlight was really intense. And having people being able to access me at all times through my phone was also really intense. And it felt really intrusive. My nervous system definitely like pulled back like, okay, I'm just available for everybody at any time, or anybody who hasn't been at any time, the internet so overwhelming. 

Too many things, vehicles, like just the momentum, the movement, the stopping, like that whole thing. And then on the other hand, it's like, Oh, running hot water, like, I don't actually have to gather water and then gather wood and then make a fire and then move all of that water into a playroom going to bathe. So I think that there is like, definitely ways in which our society has made more comfort for us, shelter, heat and food. 

And also at the same time, like in the outer world, the movement and the fast pace and the lights, like, I think all of those things, especially like going from that three months in the wilderness to like coming back, it was really obvious, like, how much input I was having to process through like an extra have an extra filter of like, Oh, this isn't just like wind, water, air, fire, this is like advertising. Like, oh, I have to process that. 

A: Or just the collective energy of like a bunch of people all in like the density of one area. You know, I love what you're saying because there's this term that I use a lot when talking about like our nervous system and its habituation. So we make habit like anything that we're experiencing regularly, our nervous system gets used to it and makes it habit makes it invisible almost it's like when you first put your underpants on in the morning, if you wear underpants, right? Like you feel them on your body, they're like there, they're like a little pushing into you. And then as you go about your day, like you don't feel your underpants anymore unless they're like really weird or uncomfortable, right? 

You know, like they just become invisible. That happens to us as well. When we live in cities, we grow up and we are maybe living in a dense area our whole lives. And our nervous system as a human body gets used to that. But just because it got used to it doesn't mean that it's your natural state. You know, and so for many people, like, you know, it's the same thing with like trauma. Like if you've been through something traumatic early in your life, your nervous system, your body might be tuned at a certain level of stress that's not actually you. 

And if you started to go about that process of healing that experience and healing your nervous system, you might get to meet like a whole nether version of yourself that you didn't even know existed, because your nervous system had made those sensations that, you know, that pace of your heart, all of it normal, right? So what you're saying like makes sense that you drop out of that, you take yourself out of that stressful environment, right? Coming back in is going to feel a lot different, right? Yeah. And three months is a long time. 

Like that is a long time to spend outside the human bubble, right? And you know, so I just want to orient some of our listeners to part of this conversation today and this project, right? We are hosting a retreat in Arizona, and it's going to be a three day retreat where we're going to get to unplug, where we're going to get to drop out of the collective noise and stimulation, right? 

And get to experience like a micro version of kind of like what Jai is describing, where your nervous system gets to recalibrate to something more natural, right? So for you, Saewon, like when you think of the value of, like you said before, connecting with the land, connecting with plants, you know, the floor, the flana, the rocks, the trees, the environment of a space. And you know, how does that help your nervous system or people who you work with in general help their nervous system drop out of the stress of like all the stuff that we're constantly like affected by? 

S: Oh my gosh, so much. It's so true that we just get acclimated, right? And that's our coping mechanism. And that's how we survive in this world. And it kind of just shifts our bandwidth so that we're focusing more on like the loud and the heavy and the intense and everything else. It's relegated to this realm of like subtle and like almost invisible and non-existent. 

But the reality is, is that we as humans, it's natural for us to commune with plants to be able to intuitively tap into the plant world and the earth and greater wisdom. And I always like to remind people that, you know, this is not something that only certain special people can do. It's like our innate birth, right? 

It's how we're wired, but we're just, it is how we're wired, but we're just, you know, we've been coping because we've been so traumatized by so many things. Ultimately, we're just been shaped, you know, we're having to focus our intentions on only certain stimuli. And so I find that the plants in combination with literally just listening, like creating a space where we can just tune in and listen and can allow us to open up caverns of our psyche that already are there. 

We're not creating something new. It's like remembering. It's really a thing. And I do find that doing it, ROOPS is helpful because we are interconnected beings. Our nervous systems are wired to connect with one another. And so when we're all together, it creates a, you know, we can co-regulate together and amplify that attention and amplify the sensitivities. And yeah, I just feel like it taps us into this other part of ourselves that, you know, we've been told is like not real. Like this other more existent part of the intuitive parts of ourselves that are not real. 

And it's so true. I think we do need resets. So we do need torn plug. I mean, same thing for our body, like our gut flora, right? Like they say, like you have to take, if you have gluten sensitivities, you should take at least like a month or so break to like, you know, regenerate a new colony of bacteria and as it's like the same thing with our nervous systems, I think we have to entrain our nervous systems and expose it to something else. 

And then we can keep that memory with us and kind of, yeah, just know that it's possible. Because I think a lot of it is also our minds feel, tell us that create limitations for us on how we can feel on, you know, on how capable we are of, um, yeah, tuning in and receiving and just being and a different way? 

A: Yeah, well, I mean, our mind, I think of our, you know, my mind is like a protector, it's like always trying to like protect me, you know, and look out for things and like analyze stuff so that I best prepared for things, right. And so when we are tuned up in our nervous systems, when there's a lot that we've taken on consciously or unconsciously, right, our mind can get very, like rigid and defensive and like not very open to the different possibilities that there could be. 

And I find that as we're, you know, we're somatically releasing, like especially in this movement practice, there's more possibilities that like open up. And so that's why, you know, okay, I just did this somatic movement practice, I'm open, I'm opening more to like, what's possible for my nervous system to experience. And so then the idea here, you know, in a retreat setting is like, now we have these different spaces and offerings, we have these different things for you to engage with now that there's this opening and this more possibility, right, of what could be experienced in yourself. 

So I'd love to explore because we, you know, as we were collaborating and talking about creating this experience for people together, we come up with this term, boundless earth. And I really loved this phrase and I feel like we all connected with it like right away. And it's this idea, I think of like, we are so bound in our daily lives, like you said, Jai, like people are just available, like you text someone texts you, they think of you or whatever and they text you and then they're like waiting for your response. 

It's almost like this little energetic cord that's just been like created in your direction that is like now on you to like do something with. And like, as you said, say one, like we're built to connect and so we do want to, you know, for the most part, like we want to respond to the people that are reaching out to us, we want to be participating in the world. 

And at the same time, there can be like an overload, an overwhelm from all the ways in which like just being out in the world like ask something of you. And so this idea of being bound less is not that like, oh, we're just gonna like let go of everything and you're not going to be connected to the world anymore, you're going to be like sovereign and I, you know, this isolation, like it's, I love these words like boundless or painless, because it's just less, it's not bound free. It's just less, less bound. 

There's still that connection. There's still that like beingness of like, I'm available for the world, but I'm not as overwhelmed by it. I'm not as bound by it. The earth is like that we are bound by gravity to the earth. And yet we can also be free with that limitation. 

Right. We can also develop ways of traveling and moving and being in the world where we can feel like we're flying, whether it's astral projection or literally like an airplane, right? Within that limitation of the bounds of reality, we can still feel less bound. And so that's kind of like part of what I feel we're bringing into this experience for people and what I would love like the listeners here to consider like even if like this, you're listening to this and like the retreat is over or like you, you know, live somewhere crazy and you can't come. 

But just that idea that there are ways, there are practical ways that you can be less bound by whatever modern lifestyle you have been living that is starting to feel more and more suffocating or clenchy, right? So in terms of like what we're all bringing to the table here, for getting back in touch with the rhythms of the earth, like you and IJ like definitely had this vision of like waking up with the sun, which some people do that, but they do it like in this way busyness and getting ready for work. 

Both you and I have attended like meditation retreats, right? And sometimes at like a meditation retreat, you wake up like really early and you meditate first thing. In terms of like your own experience with this, you know, what starts to shift in you when you're waking up with the sun and the first thing that you do is something mindful? 

J: I think it just sets the tone for me for the day. And it's kind of reclaiming myself also, reclaiming my connection with myself and with the earth and my connection with the dreams that I had and also just a reconnection to the elements too, to like ground my day and like, okay, the sun is rising and this is the temperature of the air to just like bring and start my day with simplicity and in a world that's just so, that can be like so, so complicated. 

Like that, us humans have made like very complicated and it's really easy to go into those distractions and I'm not immune to that. But I think when I do commit to myself and especially in retreat settings or, you know, post retreat at Linger, and it kind of sets a seed for that to continue on, that it just creates a drastically different experience than my day, like today. 

Today I woke up outside with the sun and had tea with the sun and I can already tell like my mood in comparison to yesterday where I had to, I was building an art installation and like, or like I had to be present for an art installation with actually breaking it down that there was this poll or I was like, okay, I got to get my messages and like, yeah, that's okay to me, it is this way of also kind of reciting and reclaiming my own sovereignty in my own body and my being and my spirit in my heart and like with the earth. So for me, it's like setting the table for the day, 

A: like setting the tone for the day. Totally, I agree. And also when we wake up, like we're in this liminal space for a while still, like if we allow ourselves to be, if we don't immediately jump into like the stuff we have to do, you know, but like let ourselves kind of be in the sleeping mode, right? And there's like value in that. So in terms of like, you know, the offerings that you're bringing to this retreat, say one, like, how do you feel that when we are more in rhythm with the earth, what opens up for us on like a energetic and vibrational level? 

S: I think to put it simply, it's just greater aliveness. And I, you know, keep coming back to this word, but our intuition, like our other senses are deeper knowing our wisdom. I think all those things are natural within us, but they get so hijacked by the way our world is designed. 

There's just so much predatory capitalism out there. And so even, you know, I know one of the things sometimes a lot of people talk about struggling with this, like trying not to like look at your phone first thing in the morning. But I love thinking about Jay first thing in the morning, communing with the sun and the elements and receiving that information. Because when I think when the word boundless, I think of, you know, alive and abundant and infinite, like this true regenerative life source that we can feed our living bodies with. 

But if we're immediately tapping into this other force, you know, that is actually designed to extract from us and slowly kill us inside and like, take away our attention, take away our mindfulness, you know, we're kind of becoming like, you know, food for this other entity. And so I think that's why there is so much talk about sovereignty these days, because there's literally so much parasitic death capitalism around us. 

That's, and its only intention is to extract and to profit. And, you know, that's the big shadow and enemy that in our world right now, and that we have to build up strength against. Continue to remember like, Hey, there's this other life force there that we can plug into. There's this other aliveness, there's regenerative practices that we can engage with. And so I think that for me, like the plants have been such a teacher and the earth has been such a teacher. 

And I'm learning more and more that it's so simple to unplug from one kind of thinking and existing. And that subtle shift can tap us into this whole other cavern of remembrance within us. And if we can tune into that and use that as a compass, then, you know, even though we all live in this crazy world, like we can maneuver away through it. 

A: Yeah, beautifully said. And it is so true, like describing like that corridor, that need, that just comes off of like our cell phone. And like sucks us in. Yeah. Did you have something to say about this, Jay? 

J: Oh, I just feel like you articulated that so well about just how extractive our culture is and how there is like this other form. Yeah, I was just feeling like grateful that you brought that into the field because phrase keeps coming in for me in different groups that I'm a part of. 

And like what you were sharing, say one brought it back for me. And it's moving at the speed of relationship, rather than at the speed of get shit done. And to me, that applies so much to like plants, like relationships beyond human, like all the ways that we relate to anything, like moving at that speed. Yeah, I really like that. 

S: I love that because yeah, it's not just, you know, it's like seeing everything as living phenomena all around us. And so relationships with everything around us, including people, it's not just creating a divide between what's nature and what's human, or what's nature and what's, you know, yeah, that phrase is so amazing. 

J: Yeah, I think my friend, Craig, offered that one to me. And it also, yeah, it reminds me of the anthropocentrizing our process, like during this time of like major Anthropocene and also like mass extinction collapse, like how do we like counter that? 

A: Right, because when we feel that like pressure, kind of going back to this pressure that you might feel internally by living in a world that is not designed to calm and soothe your nervous system, but is designed to kind of aggravate things so that you keep busy, right? 

Get that, as you said, get shit done. And like, what is it like when we are kind of in that space of recognition, like, oh, this isn't me, I am not this, I am not this like stress, I am not this like anxiety, right? And who am I then? 

Who am I when I drop out of that? And that's like such a powerful question to not just ask, but experience, experience the answer to that question, because sometimes there are no words, like we can talk about it, but it's an experiential process to be with who am I when I drop out of that vigilant state out of that running, chasing, get shit done person, right? 

S: That's well, and it does require a lot of time and space to uncover that. And I love that back to relating, you know, at our retreat, we're going to be doing all kinds of relating, like, we'll be relating to the earth, we'll be relating to our bodies, and relating to one another. And yeah, I just kind of had this thought when you were talking, like, how in general, I feel like we're, you know, because the world is the way it is, that forms a negative relationship with our external stimuli, because there's so much we're having to fight against or protect against. 

And so we're in this constant fight or flight, really. And what a gift to be able to take ourselves away from that, and then to take off that armor, and then re approach the relating with all the things I mentioned from this safer place. And it's like, wow, who am I without all my protection? It's that's like a huge discovery that people are going to get to experience. Yeah. 

A: And I mean, I think of these kind of I've been running retreats now for several years. And it's like, what happens in a retreat for you on a personal level is a beginning of something new. 

That's what I've seen over and over with clients and people who've come to retreat, even a day retreat, but especially when you have several days to unwind and drop out of the patterning that you've been stuck in, right? It is an opening. And what opens for you is not just happening those three days, it kind of opens over the next year of your life. It's like, there's really big and massive shifts, you know, like I had one client who is an artist, and they came to a retreat and were very contracted about their art, and were very fearful, especially when it came to like their music. And like, it felt like this big ask to like, share their music with other people. 

And a year later, this person is recording with professional musicians in front of other people. And I was like, Hey, do you realize that you planted a seed for this last year when all that stuff came up at the retreat about not wanting to be seen and heard? And you somatically, like, were with that and experienced it, and we're conscious of it, instead of it just being this noise in your head in the background all the time, you like, let it be known. And in letting these things be known, they start to dissipate, they start to shift, they start to open without any force. 

Right. And a year later, like you're doing something that you couldn't even imagine yourself doing last year at the retreat. Or if you did imagine it, it was like this really scary thing. It's just like one example, I'm sure if you think back on retreat experiences that you've been through, it's like you would step into this new vibrational energy of your own energy of yourself, you connect with that. 

And it's not as easy to forget it. It vibrates out like in ripples, like through the rest of your week, your year, your month, right? Like, do you guys have something to say about that? Like on a personal note, like something you've experienced like that? 

S: Yeah, really, it's the way you describe it. It really, it's really like opening up a portal and just stepping through. And once you have created that deep of a shift within yourself, there's really no turning back. And then the integration process itself is also very profound. But I think that that seed planting and that being in the depths and finding that shift within is so pivotal because that's closest to the core. And so, you know, similar to hypnosis work, like if you can do it in the subconscious, then that will then ripple out into the manifest world. 

But if you're trying to create change in the more conscious, like exterior realms, like, and then there's something under the surface in the subconscious that's preventing you, whether it's a limiting belief or, you know, just like some internal initiation that hasn't happened. An internal clenching. An internal clenching. Yeah, then whatever you try, try as you can to like push through and force things is just not going to work. 

You continually have pushback. And so, yeah, just creating a retreat space for, you know, it's truly magical, you know, it's truly, it is like spell work being able to plant that in a very specific space and time. 

J: Yeah, this is, yeah, really exciting. I feel like with ritual and tattoo work, for me, I feel like ritual in general, that could be so many different things, like ritual can mean something different for every person, but I think the main thing for ritual that makes a ritual, a ritual is that it's going into a place one way and leaving another way. 

And like a portal, and like Saewon said, and like Aimee, you were mentioning too, it's, yeah, and so I feel like with the work that I do in the world, and also like just within my own experience, even with tattooing, and integrating like these different modalities together, like including flower essences as a support, and including kind of somatic as a part of the work, having for me like a ritual to find a symbol and to plant that symbol on my body as a prayer or a spell to remember and consciously meet every day as I meet my body. 

It creates this ripple effect until like, I can like, I'm like looking around my body, I'm like, there's a couple that, there's a bunch that have like the intention was set, and then it was a constant reminder, and then now it just is a part of me. Like I don't actually, it's like I don't really even see the tattoo anymore, because it became integrated into my life. 

And that to me is also like doing work with spigels or symbols or runes or with flower essences and with somatics, like we just are, I feel like a way to integrate a new way of being or maybe even an old way of being. 

A: Yeah, well, it's back to habituation, right? Like, but we can habituate good stuff too. We don't just have to habituate stress, like we can habituate new patterns of being that are beneficial, not just to us, but to everyone around us. 

S: That's reminding me that one of the things that we're going to be doing, I mean, we're going to be doing lots of different things related to somatics and art and medicine making, but we're going to be making an essence and out there, and it's going to be, you know, we're going to co-create it together, but there will be the land and the rocks will be involved in it. And every essence is also an environmental essence, but the intention of it is to be able to create medicine from this portal space that we're creating, and then be able to take that home with us. So you have this bottle with this specific vibration of this time and place. 

And so as you bump up against the world again, and, you know, fall into old patternings, you have this vibrational medicine to help support us and re-entrain and remind the body of this whole other experience that we had had that was very real and continue to help, yeah, bring us back to that space as a tool to, you know, continuously bring in so that, you know, what we experienced wasn't just like a trip, you know. 

A: Yeah, it was a learning process. It was something you learned and like, we're able to metabolize. And as Jay said, like, make part of you. And I love that, you know, you're pointing to the way like this flower essence will follow them, like they'll have this, it will be something that they're continuing to use after the retreat is over. 

It's the same way with the movements that you're going to learn, the somatic movements, like, you're going to do them repeatedly, we're going to do them, like every morning, you're going to have like a longer workshop with me too, you're going to walk away, not just with some videos that I'll send you, but like, there will be a feeling in your body that you can recreate, laying down in your bed or wherever you are, that you can tell your body to unclench and to turn off the stress that keeps rising up, because it's going to like, we're going to step back into the world and drive our cars and do all the things. And so, how are we providing support for people who've just gone through this beautiful experience, right? And each one of us has different tools for that. 

J: Yeah, I feel like not all chime in with the post-retreat, so I'm excited to be sharing the ritual process of creating a symbol that comes from an intention to call in or the seed that we're creating, and we'll be creating that from charcoal from the fire that we're going to be getting the retreat with. 

And so, the practice of like finding that symbol will be there, and the practice of turning this ink into an ink will be there so that this can be carried through if it's ever something that wants to be done again, and also the ink itself will be given to people to take home so that they can be with their own creation and keep making that symbol on a piece of paper or on their skin as they continue to step into the world where the wild is pushed into the corners of contained parks and bring that wildness into their daily life. 

A: Yeah, no, I'm so excited for this, and I think that there's so many people who need this kind of break from their daily experience of stress and overwhelm and anxiousness. And like I said, I'm not separate from this struggle. I end up on my phone looking at another cat video or whatever I'm doing or looking up, I'm watching a movie and I can't even like be present to the movie. I'm like, who's that actor? 

I've seen him somewhere before, and I'm like reading Wikipedia while I'm supposedly watching a movie. Like you guys have something like that before, right? Like, and yet with my attention so split, it's like I feel this deep call to return to that simplicity, that full presence, right? And so I love that not only recreating a container for people to experience that deeply, but then there's these little tools. 

They're not so little, they're little, but they're like powerful tools that you're going to be walking away with. You're going to learn some new way of being with your nervous system, and you're going to have a reliable tool to orient you back to that presence of being, that true part of yourself. So this is incredibly exciting for those who are listening to the podcast, right? And are curious about this, we're going to have a link in the show notes to the retreat. We're doing various price points based on what's available at this space. It's a beautiful 40 acres in Arizona, just like four hours from Joshua Tree, California, and it's remote. 

It is off grid, all of its powered by solar. It's such a beautiful space. I wish Molly could be here to tell everybody about it. 

But yeah, I'm incredibly excited. The other thing we're doing with this retreat that I think is important is we're allowing and including children in the experience, right? So I will be bringing my son, perfect timing for him to pop in, and we will have spaces for a few other children to be included in this experience. So as we're wrapping up here, and we've explored this from so many beautiful angles, what kind of person are you calling in to this experience, they want? Who do you want to meet here in this retreat? 

S: That's a great question. I think anybody who has, you know, it's just really needing a break who may be struggling to trust, trust in the greater, trust in the earth, you know, trust in the earth, trust in one's own body, trust in processes, trust in the inherently healing nature of what it is to be alive. And also maybe feeling disconnected from not only the other intuitive self, but their creative self as well. 

And, you know, I love how there's these, you know, this is going to be an emergent process, like everybody is going to have to go through this process of discovering their symbol or discovering, you know, what medicine they want to create, or, and also like what's existing in their bodies. And so people who are curious and willing and wanting to tap into something more real and wild. Beautiful. 

A: Yeah. And what about you, Jai? Who do you imagine like coming that's just going to feel like, Oh, this was made for me. 

J: This was exactly what I needed. I love everything. Like, I echo, say one invitation, and I'll just add like, those who feel like there's not enough time, where it's just like, Oh, there's just never enough time. I'm like, I'm just going so fast. I don't have time to sit down. Because I think that's such a societal, like when we're so in the wheel and in the, in the machine, it feels like there's just not enough time. 

I feel like this is an opportunity for people to really just like shift that time, that experience of time, really start to slow down and like come back to the rhythms of earth. So like, I think mothers are a great, this is a great opportunity for mothers because there's so much expected out of mothers in our society to like, just be constantly on. And so to me, it's like just, and even if like, if we're mothers of like a company, like it can be a mother in so many ways, and it doesn't need to be gendered either. Like, if you feel like you're constantly having to be attentive to everything, and there's not time to just be held, I think this is a space where we can learn to like release and be held. 

That's my hope is like, be held by the earth and be held by the rhythms. And then this like, this thing came up, but it's like, if there's this little tiny voice inside of you, that's like, I just want to go to the forest or like, we're not going to be the forest, but like, I just want to be like, under the stars, near fire, like I just want to be dancing, I just want to be weird. 

But there's no space for being weird, because I'm like living in this suburb or city or whatever, like working in this office building, like, we want to like reclaim if there's someone who's like, I feel like I'm weird, but I just don't know how. I think that this is a great space for that. 

And I can be whatever it wants to be, like even just the way we move our bodies when we're dancing, or the way we're painting, or the way that we go for a walk, all of that. So yeah, I'm excited to meet whoever decides to join us. 

A: Yeah, whoever says yes to this experience. And yeah, it's always such an adventure to create a retreat or to create an experience for others, because you simultaneously are creating something for yourself too. You know, like we are creating this for the people who are going to join us, but we're also creating this because we need this, you know, we need this for various reasons and various ways. And we've all experienced the benefit of something like this before. 

And we all have these unique skills that we're bringing to the table to co-create. And so yeah, I just, for anyone listening who's feeling called to this, you can add us, you'll find us on the show notes, add us on Instagram, reach out, ask questions, we are here and available to answer your questions, interact, and learn about your specific needs, right, or what kind of experience you maybe have at previous retreats for better or worse, right? Because this is really an opportunity for us to pay it forward, right, the skills and the things that we have cultivated at this point. 

We're here on earth to give back once we have received what we, you know, once we're full, it's like, oh, I have more to share with others. So you definitely said. Yeah, wonderful. Well, any last words of wisdom or anything you'd like to add before we sign off today? 

S: I just want to add that it's going to be so fun and I feel so excited. And I love that potentially we'll have children with us and just feel like it'll be a chance for us to like be in our own inner child as well. 

J: And play. Yeah, I'm also just feeling excited to see what unfolds in this. Yeah, how witnessing myself and also witnessing all of those people coming in, I love how we can see how someone comes into this space, including ourselves, and then feel like the power of the container of like, oh my gosh, the difference between the beginning and the end, and then ongoing and how that integrates. So I'm just looking forward to like witnessing that transformation. 

A: Yeah, absolutely. Oh yeah. And you know, you'll be leaving with the flower essence with the ink and also with a somatic movement class because how I do all my retreats is that you have an integration class with Zoom with all the people who are at the retreat, right? 

Whoever's available. That's something we do post-retreat at all of my retreats because it's important, you know, especially if you've spent like three days with some people and you know, some facilitators and you've opened stuff up, like let's check back in and let's make sure that you are integrating this well before you're just, you know, no longer in the fold, so to speak. 

So yeah, I'm absolutely thrilled to be co-collaborating, co-creating with both of you. And for those of you listening, connect with us. We'd love to hear from you and yeah, enjoy the rest of your time in your daily life knowing that there's opportunities. There's opportunities to let go of the stress you've been carrying and come back into your true nature and back into the earth. 

A: Hey there, friends. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I would love to hear your thoughts. Follow me on Instagram @AimeeTakaya and send me a DM about this episode. I'd like to thank you for being part of this Somatic Revolution and if you'd like to support the podcast and help more people learn about somatics, consider leaving a review or a rating.

And finally, if you'd like to have the experience of relief in your tight hips or back and learn to understand what your body is really saying to you, visit YouCanFreeYourSoma.com. I can't wait to share with you what is truly possible. Bye for now.