EP106- How to Integrate Your Spiritual Self with Your Human Experience

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What if the path to enlightenment isn't about ascending away from your human experience, but diving deeper into it? 

In this week’s episode, intuitive business mentor & spiritual wellness mentor Lindsay Schroeder joins Aimee to explore the dangerous trap of spiritual bypassing and reveal why your body holds the key to true awakening.

Lindsay shares her expertise, offering a refreshingly grounded approach to consciousness that honors both your spiritual essence and your beautifully human experience.

She takes us through:

- Spiritual bypassing to avoid dealing with uncomfortable emotions and bodily sensations 

- How spiritual awakening is deeply intertwined with nervous system work

- The difference between feeling your feelings vs. telling stories

- Practical techniques to complete emotional cycles from root causes rather than quick fixes

- Reframing “negative” emotions rather than trying to bypass them

- Descension as a spiritual practice, going deeper into your human experience 

And so much more!

Lindsay Schroeder is a Spiritual Wellness Mentor, Intuitive Business Coach, and Priestess. She is called to support those who are awakening & ascending. She believes in the marriage of the practical & the energetic, the scientific & the esoteric.

Her work is here to support you on the pathway from unaware to conscious creator. Your outer world is just a projection of your inner reality, perception is everything, and Lindsay is here to help you break that down, integrate it, and embody it.

Connect with Lindsay

https://our-are.mykajabi.com/awakening-guide

https://our-are.mykajabi.com/embodiment

instagram.com/ourandare

Connect with Aimee:

Instagram: @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 wanting to get in touch with your higher self, with your bigger, more perfect being self that exists somewhere out there? Many of us who've been on a spiritual path are very enticed by this idea of enlightenment and becoming so much bigger and grander than our human self. 

Well, today we're going to explore the challenges and the pitfalls of creating a separation between your spiritual self and your human physical self in a body. I'm going to be talking with Lindsay Schroeder. 

She is a spiritual wellness mentor, intuitive business coach, and priestess, and she's called to support those who are awakening and ascending. Her work is here to support you on a pathway to conscious creator. We're going to explore the intersection of the scientific, the somatic, the physical body, and the more higher, quote-unquote spiritual planes. 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. Hello Lindsay. It's so nice to meet you. I'm really excited for this conversation today. 

L: Thank you so much for having me here. I'm really excited for this conversation. It's an important topic both personally and one that I think is so overlooked in the general public and in the spiritual community specifically. Yes. 

A: I mentioned this idea of a higher self, or that there's these spiritual realms, even that idea of ascending. If we look at it from a linear point of view, it looks and represents a certain way of viewing things, but we're going to be exploring a more multi-dimensional way of working with that and maybe picking apart some language today. 

Why don't we explore, just right off the bat, this concept that a lot of people listening may be aware of, of spiritual bypassing? When we talk about something like spiritual bypassing, maybe you could first give us your definition of it. 

What does that look like through a somatic lens, through the lens of being in a body, of being like a spiritual being having a human experience or having a bodily experience? 

L: Yeah, such a good question. I love the way that you phrased that. I mean, before we started recording, you and I were talking about it and that separation that we see when we talk about the higher self or the spiritual self or even that beautiful statement that I love of we're a spiritual being having a human experience, it does have that tone to it that elevates the spirituality above the corporeal nature of being human. 

Spiritual bypassing to me is a massive umbrella topic, but let's really focus it down like you're saying to the somatics. What I feel around spiritual bypassing and specifically the somatics is that when we use spirituality as a vehicle to wave at the body and not engage with the body, not be present in the body, when we use spirituality to elevate into the higher chakras to move into practices and processes like opening of the third eye, astral traveling, remote viewing, lucid dreaming, all of these beautiful practices that are up and out. 

And yet we haven't regulated our nervous system and we're avoiding triggers instead of being able to shift our relationship with triggers. We're doing ourselves a disservice and when we focus just on the linear ascension moving up and up and up and we separate ourselves from this deep understanding that dissension, the roots, how deep our roots go down is the only way to allow the tree to grow higher and higher. 

One of my favorite quotes that's actually in my ascension workbook is the tallest trees have the deepest roots. And so when I'm teaching ascension, I'm talking about how important it is to go both down into the dissension, into the body, into the juiciness of what it means to be human so that we can experience the magic of spirituality, but it's that it's rooted in the body, that it's rooted in this physical experience because we are as people one of the only beings that gets to have this essence inside this specific vehicle. 

So having a body, being gifted a body, getting this beautiful experience of like my soul's inside this beautiful container for this experience, that is the magic. And it's so easy for us these days to skip over that and try and ascend up and out of the body. 

A: And what do you think are the biggest reasons that we want to skip that? 

L: Life is hard. Being a human is really hard. And with everything that's going on around each of us, I mean, if you poll the audience, everybody has so many of these different factors. 

And there are so many different factors that when you talk to anyone and you really listen and get connected to them, they're big hurdles, they're issues, they're overwhelms, they're fears, they're scarcities, they're so real. And yet there's so many other things to also be considering that yes, spending three hours in meditation, feeling all nice and warm and fuzzy, expanding the third eye, getting to contact guides a lot of times. 

And personally, I've done this so many times, that's easier. That feels safer. It becomes safer and warmer and more contained to actually get up and out of the body versus dealing with a lot of times what happened to us prior to our awakening, our awareness, our adulthood, and really supporting all pieces and parts of the self. It's a lot of times easier to focus on the up and out than the deep and within. 

A: Yes, that's very beautifully said. And I love the metaphor of the tree. I've actually been thinking about this in terms of our nervous system, the way that most people have awareness for the most part is in that upward direction. They are very mental. They're in their mental body, as you're describing maybe in their spiritual body, as they're awakening, quote unquote, it's coming through in a mental framework. It's coming through in a vision, through our eyes. It's coming in these ways that we're sensing things kind of up here in this upper range. 

You could imagine the branches of the tree in the sunlight. But at the same time, unconsciously, what's also going on is the roots, is the development of the awareness in our body. And it's really uncomfortable to start getting more and more aware of your body. 

As your consciousness is expanding and your awareness is expanding, your awareness of your physical body is probably also expanding too. But it feels murky and uncomfortable. And like you mentioned triggers when those triggers are coming up, it's like getting present to sensations that you weren't present to before. Like on a very visceral, somatic level, it's like, what does a trigger feel like? It feels like discomfort in your stomach. It feels like a weight in your chest. It feels like a heavy feeling at your toes curling up. 

There's all kinds of different ways that getting triggered about something shows up in our physical body. And as you said, that's not pleasant. And so if we could skip over that to the next part, why wouldn't we want to do that? 

But maybe you can speak to this from your own experience. It's like, you know, is there ever a shortcut where we can just get past our body? 

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L: The short answer and the long answer is yes and no. So like, yes, there are things you can do that will bypass it. And for a while, you feel like you figured it out. Like the first few times that I found these like quick release or quick presence things that would regulate my nervous system, like when I started sleeping with a weighted blanket, I was like, ooh, I got this, like problem solved. Okay, I'll do this one nice thing for my body. 

And then I'll just keep staying focused on this outside, this outside, this outside. But what you were just saying, it really pointed out two things that I have found so much of our generation are the foundational pieces of why this has become so easy for us. Number one, I think a lot of us were brought up being told to suppress our feelings and to push down what now, when we want to descend, when we want to somatic, now we're having to relearn what it means to actually be in the body and listen to the body. A lot of us were told things like crying is for babies, or we were put in time out and separated when we had emotions and feelings. 

A lot of us were brought up to follow the rules, be a good kid, you know, make it through. And a lot of that caused such a problem. It taught us to shove it down. It taught us to quiet it. And we weren't pairing that with, okay, now when you get home and you have the space, here's how you unpack your feelings. So I think those two things have just built this infinity loop of most people don't actually know how to feel their feelings. 

Like I have taught courses and master classes, and trainings, and included it in my memberships. And the number one thing we start with, I'm like, you telling the story in your own mind or out loud of the situation that brought about that physical sensation is not the same thing as feeling your feelings. Like you were describing sensations, what is happening, my toes are curling, there's a pit in my stomach, my face is flushing. 

Those are sensations. A lot of times, when we're describing our feelings, we're saying what somebody said to us and what happened. We're telling the story, and we're not focused on what's happening inside my body. 

And so this combination of our emotions being pushed down and being told, like, that's not what we're dealing with. Like that's not the answer. That's not the solution. That's actually not worth it. 

It needs to be pushed aside. In addition to the fact that in schools, you're not taught how to feel your feelings. You're not taught how to describe what anger feels like when it boils up from your root and then slips out through a reaction. We're taught to be quiet. 

A: Yeah. Well, and then that mental framework that a lot of us are starting life from, as you said, taught to suppress our sensations and not even know how to interact with them, taught to suppress the feelings and the corresponding sensations, and just be in our linear thinking brain about it. 

Our linear brain, even just the definition of the term linear, it craves beginning, middle, and end. And so it wants to find, it wants so that we've finished that chain of events, and it's done. And there's a certain kind of satisfaction, I think, that we get psychologically, even in our nervous system, closing that loop. It's done now. 

And so we want to hop ahead and skip ahead to the done part. What you're speaking to is that middle space. And that's why I had that kind of question: is there a shortcut? Is there a way through that middle space where we don't have to feel our feelings? 

And like you said, short-term answer maybe possibly, and those short-term tools are not to be knocked, like they can absolutely be part of the process, right? If you're having like an intense emotional response and you're driving a car, it might not be the right time. You know what I mean? Like, eat something. 

L: And able to move through it when you need it, like, oh my God, I just dodged that accident, or oh my God, my boss said, hey, can I talk to you? And you had the full-blown panic attack. 

And then he's like, hey, I was thinking about getting lunch for the team. You're like, okay, now I have to like go into another meeting and I need to regulate quickly, or your anxiety pops up before you're giving that presentation. These quick fixes are helpful, but they're tools. 

They're not really solving the root, learning a new process, and they're not helping you to complete those cycles. And so I find when we start to cheat and we start to do these like quick fixes and we aren't coming back, then once you actually get hit with, okay, now we need to complete this cycle, you have so many that are open that once you start focusing on one, you are unendated. You are overwhelmed and you short-circuit yourself. 

So this situation that could have been closing the loop on this one situation actually brings up all the open tabs that you have in your computer short circuits and shuts down. And I'm finding that that's what's happening to a lot of people, is that we have found these quick fixes, but we're not looking and from a very Western perspective, this is like our total ML of like, let's just solve the symptoms and let's just pretend that a root cause is like, not a yada, not a thing, no worries, just keep plugging and chugging. 

But when you actually face it, a lot of times this happens when people have their awakening or really start to explore consciousness or you find that one book like the four agreements or something opens you up and you start to have this broadened perspective that takes you from that linear mindset to, oh, wow, what if it's all connected both inside me and outside me, and then you're presented with all these open tabs. 

A: Yeah, I love that. That's a really great way to look at it in terms of the open tabs because I felt that I've personally felt that cavalcade before when, you know, there's too many things that you really have left loose ends, right? 

You're just sitting around and then one thing just tips everything over the edge and then it's like all the things that, you know, you weren't dealing with just come crashing down on you opening, you know, a closet door full of like stuff you've been shoving in there, right, for weeks and months and years. 

And, you know, I think it's the accumulation that, you know, really can sometimes frighten people from like, you know, doing the real work that needs to get done. Because the thing is, is it doesn't all happen in one session or one meeting or one retreat, right? 

It is a long-form process that takes place gradually with time and consistency. And that's why reorienting to dedication. Maybe you can speak to that because, you know, our spiritual, you know, awakened self can be really powerful in helping our human self. 

And I think that in a way that's kind of, you know, if we're put things in a linear framework, like our spirit is here to help our human self, to be in service to it, you know, not to be like the human self is my little, you know, vehicle slave. It's like, no, like our spirit self is there to guide and help our human self through these heavy-duty unravelings, right? Can you speak a little bit to that? 

L: Yeah, I love the imagery of the different ages being like the physical body and the higher self that, like, when you're a little kid in your human body, your higher self might be guiding you before you understand what gravity is, before you understand what like, ooh, that's too hot. And it's like helping to keep you safe. 

But later down the road, when you're older in a physical body, your inner child then becomes your higher self and is reminding you of play and of being present and of how enjoyable the tactile sensations are, getting to see and getting to smell and getting to taste. So I think instead of us looking in that linear fashion to look more holistically and say, yes, in every moment you are both a body, you are both a mind, but you are so much more than that. 

You are those memories and you are those sensations and you are those experiences and you are the work that you are doing. And you're the awareness that you can connect to, and you are these magical pieces of yourself experienced inside your body. So feeling like your spiritual self is all around you and you can actually fill your physical body with more and more and more of your soul, your essence, your higher self, that which you believe in, because there's so many different labels and titles for this. 

And I really encourage everybody listening to just take the one that fits you and then kind of like let the rest fall into the the fall to the wayside. So if you believe in soul, then think about it as when you are connected, you can bring so much more of your soul into your body. If you're much more energy-focused or maybe you believe in, you know, an auric field or you believe in your electromagnetic body, depending on your perspective, but your energy, your focus, your presence, you can bring it more into the body. 

And that for me is this desension process of a lot of times I can't feel my ankle or my knee or my left ring toe. But when I do the work of the discipline of the practice of regularly getting back into the body, and like you're saying closing some of those loops just being present, just like you're working with the computer, I love that little Instagram of like, there's 87 tabs open, one's playing music, I can't find it. And truly just like I had to learn how to turn my computer off at the end of the night. 

When I started working with tech, I didn't do that, I left it on all the time. And that's exactly how so many of us treat our bodies of like, yeah, yeah, I put some food in there, I put some water in there, I run around really intensely, but like, do actually sit and get present with my body. So when you were talking about doing the work and focusing on that more disciplined piece and really understanding that the spiritual experience is beautiful and is big, but it's about integrating, it's about bringing it into the body and bringing it into a sense of being and somatics helps so much with embodiment, bringing it into the body. 

So it's not just something the mind knows, it's not just something we can see with the third eye, but it's something that we feel, we understand, we experience, and that we can work with over and ove,r versus some of our more like retreat experiences that are up and out there. And then we're always reaching for those, those are tools, those are beautiful experiences. But I really think the key with those big type experiences is it is teaching you and showing you, and presenting to you that that is fully available inside your own self with only your own self. 

So that's a lot of the place that I work when people do work with plant medicines, retreats, big experiences, like you go to a breath work, you know, facilitated weekend and you're like, I naturally dropped DMT in my head. And that is something that you are able to do consistently with your own body. That is an embodiment practice of being able to do that with only yourself. 

And I think that's a piece that's not talked about when you're reading the write-ups of a retreater, learning about plant medicine, about the integration piece, being even more important if you want to utilize that experience and not just have that experience, not just go to the movie, see a movie, but what's the metaphor, what's the lesson of that movie? 

A: Right. Yeah. And how am I taking that with me when I go and making it part of my day-to-day experience? You know, it's interesting. I think like the body practice element to it is it's one of these things that we have a lot of models for in terms of fitness and yoga and all these different ways that we can experience our body and any of those ways of moving or being in our body can be done somatically, meaning with that feedback and acknowledging and honoring that ongoing moment feedback and dancing with it and learning from it. 

Or it can be done not so somatically, which is to ignore your sensations and push through it. Oh, that's starting to hurt, but I'm just going to keep going because I'm a badass and I'm strong and I'm tough, right? And I'm just going to muscle on through this, right? Whatever that is, you know, or, oh, I don't want to look bad. I want to look good. So I'm not going to stop doing what I'm doing right now. 

I don't want to stand out and seem like a bad student. Any of the stories, right, that would keep us in that place of disconnection, right? And what's crazy is that you can't really see from the outside, like in a picture or in a video, what someone is experiencing internally, right? It's not something we can see from the outside. 

We can't, we can't know what that person is experiencing. I was just talking about this with one of my clients last night. It's like, we have these visual, and again, this is that mental framework model for, you know, what it looks like, or, you know, what it should be like. And the truth is, is that it's very individual and it's very like imperceptible to someone else. 

It is a personal interior experience, right? And then, then where I'm going to bring the spiritual side in is that as we tune our spirit to our own physical body, that's when it's not seen, but it's sensed. We can start sensing in another person, in another being, in another group or an activity. We can start sensing whether or not it is a space or a person or a system that encourages integration or encourages unconsciously, most of the time, disconnection. 

Can you speak to that sensing, kind of like that animal quality of being able to sense in once you have that, that kind of loop going between your, your spiritual body and your physical body? 

L: Yeah, I think a great example of this is like you're speaking to in like a gym or a class where you're focused outside of yourself versus focused inside of yourself. And I'll use the expression of, are you telling your body what to do as a performance for you? Once again, I am the driver in my head going, okay, body, do this, pull this, push this, look like this, versus, okay, I am allowing this class, this workout, this lift, this run to bring me into connection with my body, to ask my body to listen to my body. 

Am I just giving directives or is this a feedback loop? And I think that's a place to start when we are trying to get deeper and more connected into the body for the benefit of like you're saying, when you get further into your body, when you are more connected and you're not just telling your body what to do and forcing it forward, like you're driving a horse or driving a car or playing video games, because a lot of us run our bodies like we're playing video games, left, right, AB, AB, and we're trying to get it to do exactly what we want pushing through, like you mentioned, like, oh, it's supposed to look like this, even if that's not growing the muscles like the class is intended, I'm just trying to hold that position. 

So when we can shift from do, do, do to that feedback loop of, okay, I'm asking for this, we're doing this together, we're integrating those two pieces, we are becoming more our body as well as more our essence. And when we do that, we resonate with others who are also doing that too. So you tend to be able to pick up on more of who is having that both internal and exterior experience. 

And those are the types of people where when you're resonating in that way, you are automatically drawing that to you, you are signaling to others like that that you are doing that, and you start to find these resonant experiences, be that in your actual workout class, be that with friends, sometimes it's with the same people that you can unconsciously interact with all the time. 

But when you tap in, it encourages them to tap in. And if you're both available for that, you get these beautiful little pockets of both of us being more present than we typically are. And when you feel that, when you experience that, when you're in that bubble, it is the euphoric like a retreat, like a medicine like this, but you start to acknowledge that, oh, I'm creating that in and of myself, because I'm choosing to sink in to focus more. 

And when I focus more internally, and I'm more present in my body, my fullness has more experience, my human and my being here. And when we focus that on someone else, the connection is completely different. 

And like, that's what so many of us are really looking for is like in this crazy world with all of these exterior things with pain bills and living in a capitalistic society and dealing with the patriarchy and like all of this when we can have these true moments of connection, where it's not just your body connecting, but it's your being connecting, but it's connected to your body connecting and you're just going back and forth and back and forth. That to me is the true ascension and dissension right here on planet Earth, where you can really bring that heaven to the physical plane. 

A: That's beautifully said. I think that like, that sort of reframes, you know, all of the, I guess you could say, systems that have us separating those things. It really calls into like view, oh, it's the same, it's the same dynamic here, we're just looking at it at it in a totally different way, right? And that maybe it never really was, you know, that separated clunky thing. I think of that in terms of like, you know, in my own physical somatic practice, my physical body, like the size of clothes that I wear and like all of these outside markers, it's changed somewhat. But how I feel on the inside has changed way more. 

Right. And so it's again, you could be doing the same thing. You know, someone who's listening to this who has the framework of speaking about, you know, God and a higher power could be talking about it. But in talking about it, they're connecting to their physical felt experience of that. 

And they're experiencing, you know, a blossoming and a resonance of connection and love. Right. And maybe 10 years ago, they could have been saying the same words, but it could have not been having that effect. It could have been having the effect of producing more shame and disconnection and confusion. Right. 

L: So every, every day, for the most part, I'm pretty good about this. But I have a practice for connection. And the second part of this practice is a movement in my body after I ground, then I start to get connected in my body. 

And I do the same physical movement pretty much every time I do this. And I wait until it's enjoyable. I wait until it's pleasurable. I wait until it feels good. And sometimes this can take me five seconds. 

And other times it can take 15 minutes doing the exact same movement. Just like when we look at ourselves in the mirror, a lot of times what we're seeing isn't changing, but how we're seeing what behind whose eyes, what eyes am I looking at myself through can completely change how I feel about me. 

And I think that really speaks to what you're saying of like, yeah, these little outside things, they might change a little bit, but it's the inside that the connection to myself. And what are we doing consistently? Not just those experiences, but in what way can I be systematic, consistent, disciplined about this, regular about this, not necessarily stringent or forced, but in what way can I allow myself to connect regularly? 

A: Yeah, the word devoted is coming to mind. 

L: Oh, great word for that. Yeah, a practice, a ritual, almost a prayer with the self and of the self and to the self and for the self, a living prayer, a living ritual. 

A: Yeah, yeah. And I know I tell my clients all the time, like sometimes not practicing is your practice. Yes, right. Because you know, the consistency and the regularity that you're speaking of, it starts to really build those new neural pathways to experience a new way of being to experience more of is you're saying your essence and yourself. And then there are periods of time that we go into the murky shadows of things again, right? 

There's like the kind of, as you say, dissension. And I know for me, as I started to feel like better and better in my body, and then I would go through these like kind of, I guess I'm going to use more of this terms that are out there that I'm sometimes like, I'm not sure that fits anymore, the self sabotage moments, where I'm like a potato on the couch, and I haven't like washed my hair and like I let the laundry pile up. 

And I'm just feeling bad, right? And instead of like correcting myself or shaming myself for feeling bad, right? And going like, Oh, yourself sabotaging, you know, and because even just that term is like rather violent, it's like, Oh, what if this was also like a communication? What if this was also part of my awareness practice to be in this state and be present and aware while in this state? Yes. 

L: I think that brings us right back to the completing of the emotional cycles. Like a lot of times when we get into those places, it's because we have so many of these open tabs, these cycles that need to be completed. 

And because there's so much going, it is asking us to come back into focus with just the self, not with the to do's not with the like what I normally get accomplished, not with this outside, but can we focus can I still feel good and right and true with me, even when there is a pile of laundry, even when I do have dirty hair, even when I did, you know, last minute tell my friend like, Hey, dinner's not going to happen tonight for me, like I'm staying in tonight. 

And instead of like, you're saying berate the self use that language of self sabotage, all of a sudden I'm at war with myself attacking myself. Can I like take some deep breaths and separate that out here that exterior and have a moment of feeling good in my own body, even with the pile of laundry, even with the dirty hair. 

And that for me is really like what ascension was described to me enlightenment was described to me when I first learned about it this like, Oh, you ascend to this better place, like, Oh, you get up into the the bubbles and the clouds and everything's great. We are able to access that here on planet Earth when even when all of that is going on. We can have a beautiful experience and sometimes that is just for a few moments. Like you're saying those days where we are a potato on the couch, it might not be the majority of that day. 

But throughout that day, even with these heavy things weighing me down, can I have a moment of breath or can I have a moment of figure eight with my hips where it feels really good. And I'm like, that's it. That's my heaven on earth today. 

And it's okay if it's only 60 seconds instead of the majority of my day and letting that natural flow of bringing my human and being together because we are human, we're not just being. 

A: Yeah, it's this is this is where I've been working a lot in the last few years because as you and maybe you can speak to this too, but as you follow your passion, as you get more and more like excited about being here, right, then you just automatically start to take on, you know, I wouldn't say like more stress, but you take on bigger bites of things. 

Yes, you know, you're like, you're ready for it. And in taking on those bigger bites of things, you have to recalibrate your physical body and your capacity and your self care also has to increase. And that's a learning process, right? 

Because you're you're heading into new territory, right? So maybe you can speak to kind of like as an intuitive business coach. What are some of the questions you ask people to gauge like how balanced those places within themselves are? 

L: Like, can we handle the thing that we're asking for? Like you're seeing bites. So a lot of times when I'm working with solepreneurs, the like, I'm not just an entrepreneur, but I'm actually following my Dharma and I'm weaving that with business. That's a lot of self-reflection. It's a lot of inner work because all of your inner stuff comes out into your business. 

So you're inspired and you're following your passion and you're doing the good work and you're sharing it with the world and you take that big bite and you're like, okay, I'm ready to oftentimes it's up level the money, up level the number of people or the depth that I'm able to affect, interact, offer to people or what it is that I want to physically put out there into the world. 

And we have once again from the mind, we have these pictures, we have these ideas. And I oftentimes start with, okay, but can your body physically handle that? Can your nervous system handle that? 

Can your nervous system handle that dollar amount? Do your systems have the ability to take in that influx of clients? Like you're telling me how many people you want in that program. Do you have the automations ready for that? 

What's the onboarding process like? Is there a part of your physical body that, when it thinks of that, panics and wants to shut it out because it's not prepared and not ready for it. So a lot of times when we are doing things like launching or buying new companies or merging or bringing like the first time you hire somebody in your business, ooh, solo entrepreneur is the first time that you give away a little bit of that death grip of like, no, no, no, I do everything and you give it to a VA or you give it to a marketing manager or you pay somebody for ads, your nervous system needs to be calibrated for that. Otherwise, it's not going to be the like amazing thing you think it's going to be, a massive lesson. 

And then we'll get to the amazing turnaround of that. But calibrating the nervous system, allowing the body to hold and handle, and move through that. You mentioned really growing your self-care of how do I take care of myself now that that's a whole new experience, whether or not the whole day changes for yo,u or month or week, that holding that experience is very different when you start to really take that bigger bite and allow yourself to leap to grow to soar. 

A: You know, and as a, I feel like I've probably been a solepreneur and I didn't even know that term for so many years, right? And the way you described it, like I've seen that word out there, but the way you described it was just like very precise, and like I got it. And I was like, yeah, like, I've been doing that, like pretty much my entire career has been that I, you know, started practicing yoga at 19 and 23. 

I was a yoga teacher traveling globally, you know, and now I've transitioned to a completely different type of movement that I teach now, right? But that, that passion and the I am my business, my business is me, that feeling of being kind of like intimately spiritually merged like purpose, passion, and what I do for a living, right? It's, it's a very intense place to be because, and for the people who are listening to this, you can probably relate, like you don't feel like you're able to turn off. 

You feel like you're always on. And that's kind of like the dark side or like the heavy side to things, right? But the, the brilliance that's possible is that, you know, any work that you're doing, anything that you're going after, you have your whole beingness behind it, right? You have so much that is going to keep this thing going. 

And so once again, as you're describing, it becomes that like, that balance, like how rooted am I in my daily practice, in my self-care, you know, in attending to my physical body so that I can show up the way that I am desiring to, right? And that, and that those roots are going to, I guess, match the, the creative vision, right? Again, going with that tree model of like, as below, so above, as within, so without, right? 

And, and that's a dance. And I think that, you know, in my 20s, when I look back on like how I taught yoga and how I practiced, it was not very somatic. I didn't even know what the word somatic meant, you know, and I really did burn myself out for people who know my story. I ended up in chronic pain as a yoga teacher, as a world-traveling yoga teacher who on Instagram looked really good. But inside was having a, you know, pretty horrific experience on a daily basis, confusion and pain in my body. 

My body was screaming at me, right? And, you know, as someone who's guiding other people in building their business, I think that what you're offering is so essential. And I'm very grateful that like I met people very similar to you when I first started out. And I was already, you know, aware of the what can happen, the what can happen when we get disconnected, even when, yeah, even when we have that really grand vision and grand purpose, right? It can become something that drives our physical body to, you know, to pain and destruction, right? 

L: Yes, so much so. I think when you are a soulpreneur and so many soulpreneurs, like you're saying, I've been that for so long, and I didn't necessarily have the language. 

Yes. When you put yourself up against someone else who is not doing it in that way is just an entrepreneur or has a career, but is not, Oh, I live, breathe, sleep, like every little bit of both who I am and what I do is all like infused. 

You're not only dealing with the difficulty of business, the pitfalls of business, the hurdles of business, the roadblocks of business, you are also dealing with all of your personal roadblocks, hurdles, issues, pitfalls, and it's showing up in your business because it is you, even if it's just little pieces and parts and facets, like with my business, yes, I'm teaching like feel your feelings or a long time ago, I was teaching, you know, about the moon and about manifestation. 

That's not all of me. That's not only who I am, but there's a piece of my true heart and soul, like you, when you're offering these movement, you're like, this is what I'm dedicated to. 

This is what I believe in. It's a manifesto, so to speak. And when you're offering that to the world, when you yourself or you, your business is having a lack of confidence or questioning self or the moment where you start teaching something that's a little bit at your edge, or you're pushing your own personal work and yet you're still teaching this old stuff that you believe in, but is the foundation of your practice that you're not really focused on anymore. 

How do you continue to do both of those things? And these are facets of being a solepreneur that is not very talked about. And there's not a lot of solution and support. There's not a lot of community to really face that. 

And yet so many of us are like, how do I do this? It's a whole new way of doing business. And I really believe that, like, this is going to help shift our planet. This is helping to match the upgrade that our planet is going through, that this is how so many of us are working through our own personal things. Instead of you focus on your nine to five, and then you go home and you have this tiny little amount of time to work on you. 

You're like, no, I'm going to put me into my business, and everything is going to be this personal practice and professional practice. And when you get over some of those humps, you really, you get the success both personally and professionally. You make that bag when you move through your personal stuff in your professional business. Right. 

A: And that gets us back to kind of this idea of like, we're not going to jump ahead. Our body won't really let us jump ahead to that next level of income, to that next, you know, grand vision that we have without first having dealt with all the open tabs, without first having dealt with and having a game plan to consistently take care of our physical health and well-being on a very visceral felt sense plane. 

And as much as feeling your feelings is uncomfortable in the beginning, I think that what you're speaking to is that it can get beautifully married with our spiritual practice. Those moments that you're describing when you're in the pit of it, and I've been there, you know, and, and that's something I think is so important about language. I've been thinking a lot about like this term that I used to, I don't know, it used to just be so much more in my brain when I was younger, like depression, oh, I'm depressed, right. 

And like, it's very, you know, descriptive. And even as I'm saying the word depressed, like people who've been through that, like, know that feeling, right? But, you know, what if I were to use another word to describe it that allowed for more spaciousness, you know, and what they used to call depression, for like, you know, centuries was melancholia. 

And that word has like a completely different resonance. It like, there's beauty to it, melancholy, there's grace in it, you know. And so sometimes it's not just the reframing, right, mental reframing of what we're experiencing, but tapping into that spiritual self that's always there, that's part of our energy field that can hold space for the little human who's, you know, at this moment, Mary, maybe very little, maybe the infant self, or as you said, the child self, you know, the core wound self, who's like having a really shit day, you know what I mean? 

Like, that sort of dance and playing with all of that is, is so, it's so different than what we've been taught. It's so different than the pigeonholing and the thing that we think we want to escape from by spiritual bypassing. Yes. 

L: This idea that we want to like move through it quickly, like we just want to check it off. I encourage you guys to like, just suspend your judgment for just a moment and really consider this. Because what we're talking about is having a process that works for the self, that allows you to complete these cycles, that allows you to be in the body when you might, oh, nope, no, thanks. I want to get up and out. 

I want to bypass and remove. But once you shift your perspective, once you work with it differently and you find a way that works for you, realizing that you have an open tab becomes exciting, becomes, okay, like, I'm just going to go give myself a little bit of time. And when you connect with those different parts of yourself, like sometimes it is a pre-language need a pre language trigger. 

So sometimes I'm sitting in the fetal position and I'm rocking and I'm just like letting some tears come out. But I'm listening to that feeling, I'm listening to that emotion, I'm listening to that thing. And I give it to myself right away. 

And all of a sudden, I feel immediately better. And especially coming from a history of trauma, coming from a history of awakening, coming from a history of all these things, closing that tab, completing that cycle and watching it like float off like a little dove from my like magicians hat. Such euphoria to know that like when I am hit with that when I am faced with that when I go from unaware to ooh conscious observer, I see it, I got it, I can do something with that. 

It becomes so exciting. And it takes you out of this perspective of happiness is a destination. And it turns it into joy. Happiness is the means of travel. And so both your body is the means of travel and joy and happiness and awareness. You realize, Oh, even in my melancholia, even in my grief, even in my sadness, even in my overwhelm, I can experience pleasure in the body. 

I can't experience euphoria. And that really brings the enlightenment down here into the body. And I think that's truly what it's about. Like the ascension enlightenment of like all of a sudden, we like dematerialize and we're not physically here anymore. 

I don't think the majority of us are actually aiming for that. I think we're aiming for this presence of both that like, can I have this deep enjoyment of my life, even when insert outside things, insert outside up people insert blah, blah, blah and feeling like, wow, yeah, I can still fully choose this, fully be present with this. And oh my goodness, actually enjoy my grief or sadness or overwhelm, give my body what it's asking for. I'm listening now. I'm here with me now. 

A: And there is a part of me that does enjoy my bitchiness. You know what I mean? Like just actually never talked about. Yeah. And that if I just let myself be grumpy and let myself be and I don't and I've gotten better at it with my husband with like having him understand that, you know, it's not personal. 

And like if I'm seeming kind of like rough around the edges today, like I'll tell him, you know, like I had a really big event at my house. And sometimes when I have these really big outpouring of energy, and I do a really big event, there's like grief afterwards. There's like a little bit of pain afterwards. And I usually need like a day, you know, or at least half a day of like rest, you know, and the grumpiness and the bitchiness comes in as a way to get that space, you know? 

Yes. And so I've just started being able to communicate that more clearly so that he knows, you know, that I'm a little down today. So if you notice me with this like grumpy look on my face, and I'm not super responsive, it's because I'm in like a feeling right now that I'm letting myself be in, but I'm actually enjoying a little bit. I'm enjoying my bitchiness right now. 

L: Instead of trying to cage her, and then she turns into a wild animal who's going to fight way out. No, I'm going to let her express my daughter has been the grandest teacher in that way. Because what the first time we watched Inside Out, and she saw disgust, she was like, oh my God, I love that her body started doing it. And she was like, that's disgusting. And started to try and like stomp it down of like, oh, don't say that about food. Like, oh, don't say that about this. 

And like, after a while, I like reframed it for myself and was like, she is expressing this new emotion, this new sensation, this new feeling like, okay, let's find the space where that gets to be. So now we talk all the time about like, who's at the control panel? Oh, anger is at the control panel right now. Like, okay, does that mean you need more space? 

Or you want some alone time? Or you need, you know, to like angrily color instead of like the delicate color and really creating this space for things like our bitchiness, our pettiness, like, oh, if my partner and I'll do the petty back and forth, I'll like, oh, let's dream up like, what's the most petty and we like let it out, but it's not at each other. Like you're saying I notify my husband like, Hey, it's time. So like, here's the blast zone. 

If you enter the blast zone, just know it's not about you like, I'm there and finding these healthy ways to really allow it out instead of calcifying it down. Right. 

A: And shaming it and making it wrong and making it bad and making it mean something permanent about us. 

L: Right. Yes. Yeah. Integration of the human experience. Beautifully yeah. 

A: Oh, this has been such a wonderful conversation, you know, as people are listening here to you, they're probably wondering like where they can learn more and where they can find you. So do you have any projects or things that you're currently working on that you'd like to share? 

L: Yes, I would love to share. So right now I am at the preparation stage for launching my new membership, which is called the spiral path. So it is based on a 13 month calendar, which is really like talking about how we can align with the rhythms and the cycles. New Year's has always been a difficult thing for me. I'm like January 1st, New Year, it's like, and I'm from Chicago. So it's cold. Everything's dead. 

I'm like, this is not the newness time. So I decided instead of launching my membership at the beginning of the year that I would launch it the new moon before the solstice and really focus on like, okay, how do we warm up? How do we prepare? 

How do we shift from the inner winter to a spring? And so my new membership is all about redoing and re looking at inner work for productivity, not just inner work for the doing to do the inner work, not just meditation to get good at meditation, but inner work to get good at life to see these results like we're talking about today, not just ascend and have this beautiful experience up here, but not enjoy your physical life. 

It's about bringing those two things together. So if you want to get a taste of some of the work that I offer, I'll provide you the link with my free awakening guide, which we've talked a little bit about and speaks to the deepest roots, create the tallest trees. And I'll also send you guys the two part embodiment practice that I love that I offer because it shows you behind the scenes of my own embodiment practice, which I think is really important. 

And as a movement specialist, letting people see the weird stuff that we do in our real practices, I think is so important. So the first part is just like watching me be present with my own practice. And I explain all the why I'm doing this and why I'm itching, why I'm moving that way and why this no fancy lights, no fancy makeup, no fancy outfits, just like my true real practice. 

And then I offer a guided practice so that after you have gotten all the discomfort out by watching me do weird stuff, hopefully you will be very encouraged to then allow yourself to be a little bit weirder, a little bit more authentically expressed, a little bit louder, a little bit more primal, and really create a space for your body to engage as much as our minds and our imaginations engage with our practices. 

A: I love that. Yeah. Being the weird one first is such a great way to break the ice and allow other people permission to enjoy their full range of possible humanness. So I love that. 

I think that's fantastic. And what's your handle? Where can people find you? 

Do you have that website? I mean, that stuff will be in the comments. But some people I know listen and I'm like that. I'll just listen and look it up. 

L: My Instagram is going to be the main place while we're figuring out where off the meadow we're all going to go as these new places are blooming. My Instagram is still my main space and my handle is hour and hour, O-U-R-A-N-D-A-R-E. If you've checked out this podcast, please send me a direct message. Tell me what stood out to you. 

Tell me what you're focusing on. I love to hear your reaction stories because from a conversation, this juicy, the thing that stands out for you, it tells me so much. It shows me so much. So please engage, reach out. Let me know that you listened and what spoke to you. 

A: Oh, fantastic. Yes. So as we're kind of closing our conversation here, is there any last words about this whole process of inner alchemy, bringing our soul to connect with and hold space for our human experience and giving our soul ways to learn from our human bodies or is there any last words of wisdom here that you'd like to offer? 

L: Yes. I know that the upper chakras are bright and shiny and so exciting, but I want to encourage everybody to really explore the root, the connection, the sinking deeper into the body, the sacral, the expression of creativity and sensuality. And I want to put a specific caveat with the sensuality, sensuality for the self first and foremost, being able to conjure and create and stoke that internal fire with yourself and for yourself. 

And then chakra number three, the one that gives me the most difficulty that I forget about all the time, our solar plexus is our center of self. So really working deeper into the descending into the body, being with the body and allowing yourself to move in a way that not only is your body listening to what you're telling it to do, but that you start to have a two way conversation. Okay, I'm asking my body to sway and now when I allow my body to do what it chooses, am I noticing that it's moving in a different way? Is it getting more like a tick and less flowy? 

Is it more stark? Am I stretching and pulling out some tension where I'm able to listen as much as I'm able to tell? And kind of just like our breath that we're going back and forth between the two of those, that as a standalone practice of encouraging you to not only tell and guide, but to listen and receive, that can be a game-changer of a practice. So if you've never explored somatics in a deep way, try just that. After you're done with the episode, just close the eyes, take a couple deep breaths, tell the body one thing and then give it some space to listen. 

A: I love that. Yes. And the intuitive movement and very similar, but different to like the somatic kind of movement tool that I use, like there's so much that can be found in like just going with the practice of going with and not pulling against or away from ourselves, but leaning in as they say. So thank you so much for this beautiful conversation. It's been totally on point, and I loved everything that you were able to transmit and share. And I really look forward to continuing to be connected to you. 

L: Thank you so much for having me here. Phenomenal questions. I loved being able to explore something that's so important to both of us with such an expanded perspective and kind of like build this little offering for people. So I hope you guys enjoyed as much as we enjoyed recording it. Thank you. 

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.