Do you ever notice recurring emotional or physical patterns in your life? Today, Aimee Takaya chats with Wyld Lee, a certified 5Rhythms teacher, to explore how movement can unlock deep healing and help release trauma stored in the body.
The 5Rhythms practice blends free movement with structured energetic exploration, allowing participants to reconnect with their bodies, process emotions, and rediscover their true essence.
Wyld shares her personal journey, from experiencing trauma to finding profound transformation through dance.
In this podcast episode, Wyld takes us through:
- How 5Rhythms serve as a moving meditation to release stored emotions
- Why recurring physical or emotional patterns may be messages from the body
- The connection between dance, trauma healing, and nervous system regulation
- The importance of repetition and practice in somatic healing
- How movement can help cultivate self-trust and deeper emotional awareness
- The role of facilitators in creating a safe space for emotional exploration
And so much more!
Wyld Lee is a certified 5Rhythms Teacher and Family Constellations facilitator. She is trained in Sound Therapy and Energy healing, which she employs alongside her role as Seer and Guide through her business, Wyld Fempyre. Her mission: To burn down our collective domestication, one human at a time. She also recently published her first book, The Transformation Map - A Guidebook for Your Soul.
Wyld Lee is a sensitive and awkward animal whose native tongue is dance. She is here to inquire, inspire, and encourage others to do the same.
Wyld enJOYs the work she has created through Wyld Fempyre - a commUNITY of women committed to healing and evolution through creativity, self-intimacy, and ritual. This work can be explored at www.wyldfempyre.com and her socials @wyldfempyre
Wyld also teaches the 5Rhythms, a moving meditation practice that literally woke her up to life and its magic.
This work lives at www.wyldlee.com and her socials @wyldleedance
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.
LISTEN WHILE READING!
A: Hey there, listener. Have you noticed patterns, maybe mental or physical or emotional patterns that seem to go on and on in this circular way inside your body and your consciousness?
Has this ever felt frustrating? Maybe even like a never-ending cycle upon cycle of experience? And what might those cycles be trying to inform you of? What might those things that you're experiencing over and over might be saying about the way that you're living your life or the way that you're connecting to your body?
We're going to explore all of this and more in today's podcast. I'll be speaking with Wild Lee, a certified five-rhythms teacher, family constellation facilitator. We are going to explore the way that this particular practice, Five Rhythms, has helped Wild change the trauma stored in her tissues. 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. So nice to meet you.
W: So nice to be here, Aimee. Thank you so much for inviting me.
A: Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm very curious about this dance method. I love dancing. It's a big meditation release for me. As a somatic educator and facilitator, dance is an element that I think is really important when we're talking about freeing ourselves from patterns, especially patterns of pain.
Patterns of pain in our bodies don't, they're not separate from patterns of pain emotionally and psychologically. And so I really do believe in the power of dance to shift things on a massive scale for a person. But this method I'm not familiar with, and I'm really excited to learn more about it with you today.
When we think of dance, and I think music in general, we can all kind of agree that it has to do with rhythm, and with these repeating patterns that loop, that's what makes up a song, that's what drumming is.
That's what we experience within our bodies. We've got this built-in drum right here of our heart, but I'm curious, particularly five rhythms, and this method, how does it differ from or compare to other more kind of organized and institutional forms of dancing?
W: Fantastic question. So in the five rhythms, we actually refer to it as a moving meditation or a movement meditation. So while it does explore the free and liberated movement of your animal body, it also has a very deep cosmology where we give the mind a job to do, where as we move through what is called a wave, an hour-long dance, that has a very specific map that we take our dancers through so that different energetic qualities are explored in the body, and through the repetition of committing to this practice, of showing up to a regular dance practice, going to the classes and workshops, and learning the method, you begin to train your mind to move through the body parts during the dance meditation.
So while we are dancing our own dances and moving quite freely, we are telling the mind, okay, here we are in the first rhythm of flowing, we're going to give our attention to the feet and really feel the feet as we are moving, and then as we move to the next rhythm staccato, we give our attention to the hips and we explore how do my feet attach to my hips, and so on and so forth through all five of the rhythms and through continual practice, it becomes this instant drop-in meditation where we can quiet the mind, the chatter stops, and we actually befriend the animal body and are able to listen and hear the messages that it's giving us all day long, all the time, but most of us are not in tune enough to actually pick up on them. Does that make sense?
A: Yes, yes, so it sounds like there is like a formula in an organization to the process, and yet there's also like a lot of play within the process for people to kind of move in ways that feel good to them or explore their own felt awareness in the moment.
W: Absolutely, you know, we believe very much in the five rhythms on the process of repetitions, meaning we show up with the capacity that we are and we trust that the lessons and the learnings slowly are transmitted to each of the bodies that are in the room.
For example, during any given class, a facilitator offers what's called a demonstration where we actively move our own body through the five rhythms, so there aren't a lot of words, it's more of a body-to-body experience of learning to see the way we did as children, how these different energetics move through a system, and so it's through that, I love that word playful, through that playful exploration and that curiosity that people slowly begin to blossom.
It's not about pressure, it's not about doing the steps or doing it correctly, it's about being in your own dance, while also knowing that there is a rich and deep osmology that you can follow that is a proven method for healing yourself and I am a living example of it.
A: Yeah, so you mentioned, you know, a 10-year journey to become a certified teacher, is that usually how long it takes for someone to become certified or was that your particular pace that your body and your soul needed?
W: Yeah, so this practice really values teachers taking a long path because you mature through that process, through those repetitions, and in the five rhythms, there are actually five levels of maps that one can explore, whether you're training to be a teacher or not. The first map is the wave map, which is just the physical embodiment practice. The second map is the heartbeat map, where we explore the emotional body through physical movement.
The third map is cycles, where we explore the life cycle, we explore our relationships with mother, father, we dance with our own birth and our own death. The fourth map is mirrors, where we dance with our ego and how our ego characters show up in our lives. And the fifth map is God's sex in the body, where we are dancing with the archetypes of life. So this is a really rich cosmology, and to become a teacher, you must go through each of those maps a minimum amount of times, and each of those maps are a five-day deep dive process. So it's a very intense movement, and it is highly encouraged for people to go slow to walk the maps and then have time to integrate them. So it's not a fast 90-day, here's your certification process.
It truly is designed to create leaders who are embodied in themselves, who have done a very, very thorough exploration of their own shadow selves and are able to then show up compassionately and hold a room full of people as we all come back into the community and start learning how to share space and be animals together.
A: Wow, it sounds very thorough, and I really respect that kind of length of process. My training was three years in length, and that's because I did it the fast track. So, like six nine-day modules and hours of clinical work between modules, and some people don't complete in three years; they take much longer with it.
And there really wasn't any pressure to finish soon, except that I had my dad who was already certified in it, kind of like, come on, girl, you can do it. I'll support you. And I'm like, okay. But I recognize, yes, I had that contact with my dad giving me this body work and working with. I was kind of already doing this work and building the skill level with it before I even started the training. So kind of along those lines, like, did you have a background in dance or teaching movement before entering like this modality?
W: Good question. So I consider myself a lifelong dancer. Some of my favorite pictures of myself under two with these huge headphones from the 70s, just like proven, you know, I'm almost 50 at this point. So I have been a dancer, but no, I was not a space holder for somatic practice. I did receive my yoga training about 20 years ago for pre-natal, postpartum, and children's yoga and found a lot of joy in that. But when I attended my first five rhythms dance, 11 and a half, 12 years ago, something inside me lit up, and I recognized a piece of that inner child that I hadn't really connected with in a very, very long time.
So no, I had not held that. And I was in a stage of my life as a single mother with two boys. I'm working a lot, building my own businesses that I did need space to make this certification occur. And I like to say it was the biggest thing I've ever committed to beyond being a mother, like really doing this thing and prioritizing it. And I had no idea the journey that it was going to take me on. It has been profound and rich and heartbreaking and enlivening. Everything in between.
A: Yeah, so it was like a 10-year gestation before you gave birth to your, like, a new self. Although it sounds like with these rhythmic ideas, like, there's probably a death and birth of selves and, you know, parts of yourself, like all the time in this process, because it gets you in touch with, again, that rhythm, that cycle, right?
W: Exactly. Yeah, I'm walking these maps, you know, maybe once every two years for each particular map, but I also had a weekly, twice a week dance practice. I have transformed so many times. The word we use in the five rhythms practice is a shape shifter. I feel like a massive shape shifter. And I am profoundly grateful for the tenacity and resilience that this practice has gifted me through this process and the trust that I have in my feet in my ability dynamic and continue changing in a world that is requiring it of us.
A: Right, right. Yes. And so, like, let's kind of go back to, you know, when you started the practice or even maybe the first few years of this training process, right? What particular challenges were you facing that this practice started facilitating, like a shifting? You know, was it physical pain in your body? Was it psychological emotional wounding? What was it that was kind of at the forefron,t and what kind of layers started to move?
A: Did you know that your muscles are holding on to thoughts, memories and feelings? If you have a tight neck or back, you're not just getting old. You're experiencing a buildup of tension from the life you've lived. Most people don't know this, but there is a part of your brain that can reverse and prevent chronic tension. When you relax your muscles, you not only move better and regulate your nervous system, but you also free yourself from the grip the past has over your body. So you can live with freedom, confidence and enjoy your life now. How does that sound? Join me, Aimee Takaya, and discover what my clients are raving about at youcanfreeyorsoma.com.
W: Absolutely. So I am a rape survivor and I have a lengthy history of sexual assault and abuse to this beautiful animal body. And despite decades of mental health therapy, it was this practice that allowed me to unlock the final key of that unraveling so that I can just say this out loud and not feel any feelings about it.
Like, I feel pretty neutral. Like these things happen to me, and my body been able to share her story through my dance practice. I have shed so many tears on a dance floor. I have been able to de-armor the animal body and recognize how many ways I was not allowing myself to have true and rich connection because I had had my trust broken in the past. And how do you explain that to someone that I can have a dance practice and it teaches my body how to come back into relationship with the other by first coming back into relationship with myself?
A: Well, it's hard to explain if somebody hasn't experienced a somatic modality before and also experienced a teacher that has been profoundly shifted by a somatic modality because it's like, again, not just what you're doing, it's how you're doing it. And as you mentioned before, the length and the depth that you're going through to become a teacher, the teachers are carrying that imprint in their nervous system that you're co-regulating with it.
You're connecting with during a session. It's not just a dance class like Zumba, which most people would think a dance class, right? It's something that is much more, you know, nearly and somatically connected within our physical body. It's not just movements, it's embodied movements. Exactly.
W: And there is a concept in five rhythms where we are as the facilitator, one of my main jobs is to track and hold the unified field, meaning I like I have hawk eyes on the room. I am watching the energy move.
I am tracking people. I keep the space safe enough for you to explore. I can't say it's a safe space because the things that arise can feel incredibly agitating and dangerous if you've not begun to experience somatic healing. But through this in depth training, I feel so skillful in holding a space and allowing these things to unfurl. And I sense it is that confidence that I have in the practice that translates the confidence in other dancers to begin exploring these depths. Right.
A: Well, as you said, like you're coming from a more neutral space with your own history and your own patterns in your body, you know, this practice has helped, it sounds like it's helped you unwind and neutralize some of the charge that was being held. And so that is a certain level of confidence that, you know, the things that are difficult are not going to persist and persist. They can be softened and gradually neutralized over time as we hold, you know, a sense of confidence and safety that we can experience them and it's not going to destroy us. Right.
W: And I'll bring back that word playfulness because that is a big part of my vibe on a dance floor is really bringing in a sense of ease, no pressure, an opportunity to play. And these things will just naturally and effervescently arise to the surface when there is that sense of no pressure. And I just want to say that because people can sometimes hear these conversations and be like, I don't know if I've got it in me, go there or explore that, you know, I'm just wanting to come and sweat and get my groove on.
And that's fine, too. But in these types of spaces where the intention is held so strongly, where there is a sacred altar set up to hold the space, where the facilitator builds this incredible map of music that is going to take you through a journey. And you're in a room, particularly that contains seasoned dancers who know the practice already. It's magic to watch a room unfold and allow their feelings to come to the surface. Yeah.
A: Yeah. And I mean, I like to tell people with this like the somatic healing process when they're new to it. And maybe you have, you know, an opinion or review on this that's similar, which is that, you know, we can trust your body to unleash and unfurl at its own pace and its own timing. And so whatever is showing up or not showing up for you, we're going to trust that that's what your body's ready to go through.
That's what your body's ready to process. And so some people, you know, I do these somatic movement events at my, you know, like a day retreat or something like that. And sometimes people are like, Oh, how intense is this going to be? Like, am I going to be like crying and writhing on the floor? And I'm like, well, you know, some people experience emotional releases, but it's not super common for, you know, for a beginner, for a first time person to have that experience.
Maybe, you know, some circumstances, they might have an emotional release the next day when they're at home in their personal space, and they're not observed anymore by anyone in their nervous system is down regulating even further after the somatic work that we've done. Right. So it really is not, it doesn't have to be an extreme experience. It can be little by little bit by bit over time. Right. Yes.
W: The magic of repetitions. And I use the word titration a lot that when we begin to trust the animal body, we can trust that they know how to titrate experiences.
They know how to allow the right amount to come through. Because your body's entire job is seeking for homeostasis in every level, mind, body, heart, and soul. Like we can trust that. That is what your body is ultimately seeking at all times is balance and health. And yeah, leaning into that full trust that in and of itself is a huge step. Most of us don't trust our bodies yet. Right. We have so divorced from the natural language that is always speaking to us.
A: Yeah, well, that's a powerful point to bring up. And maybe, you know, we can loop back on some of the, you know, this idea of feeling frustrated with the rhythms that you've been on, you know, kind of like being frustrated with the patterns, you know, you have someone coming to you and they're frustrated with, you know, every time I dance or move, like my lower back hurts, or every time I get up to dance, I feel self conscious.
And they're saying it like this repetitive thing. It's a thing that happens often in a pattern for them. And they're observing that pattern with, you know, frustration or anxiousness. You know, what would you say about the pattern they're observing and what it might be saying or not saying? Like how might they start interacting with it? Absolutely.
W: So I find that the most common response when there is a pattern is that we are resisting it. Of course, you don't want to feel pain. You don't want to feel discomfort or self consciousness. But the creator of the five rhythms, Gabrielle Roth, she is quoted often as saying, the only way out is through the only way out is through. And so if we have a pattern, my suggestion is how do we lean into it?
How do we stop the resistance and actually listen to what it's telling us? And through my own personal process and working repetitions and staying with it, the body gives us these patterns or these shapes or these impulses through the nervous system to tell its story. It's telling us a story. And we may or may not ever understand it. It may be something connected to an occurrence that happened in our lives. It may be the way we slept the night before.
I don't need to necessarily always know the information to know that your body is simply telling you something and wants attention. We slow down. We slow down and we work the repetition. We sit with it.
We're like, okay, if my low back is really hurting, can I slow down and be with that long enough to see it all the way through? Is there a spot where it releases? Is there a place where the shape changes and I suddenly get a memory that comes to mind, or I get a smell or a taste in my mouth? Something in the body changes. And it's amazing what happens with that simple decision to stay with it.
A: I love that. It's very, very parallel to what I was trained with, which we call going with or the art of going with the muscle pattern, the tension pattern, instead of pulling against it. So instead of focusing on, you know, when we have a tight muscle, like stretching it out, in my method, we go into the contraction and slowly come out of it. And then go into the contraction and slowly come out of it. And then we do the other side. And when we do the other side, there might be a little stretching. But what we're focusing on is what's being engaged, right? And going with the pattern. You know, and if it's pulling a lot when you go the other way, you're like, oh, this wants more attention, right?
This muscle needs a little more love before I go to the other side. And so I don't know, you know, what you're describing sounds like it's a different system in terms of like how it's being done. But it sounds very congruent in terms of what I've understood about unwinding pain and tension. And yeah, so I'm intrigued.
This is very exciting. When you work with people in, you know, groups, is it something that's practiced primarily in person? Do people do this online? What's the difference?
Do you feel if it's being done online? What changes? And this is always just a great question to ask with somatic modalities. And how does it change when we're not in person?
W: Absolutely. So there wasn't a lot of online five rhythms experiences until the pandemic changed a lot of work for a lot of people. And now there is a very healthy, robust online practice. And what I have felt is of course, when there is an in person element and experience, you get that nervous system regulation, you get the group animal experience, which is quite different. But I've had profound happenings online, particularly if there is a facilitator who is very skillful in like monitoring. And my sense is it depends on how large the group is.
If everyone is willing to keep their camera on and connect, if the facilitator is skillful enough to really bring the group animal together, or if it is a one on one experience, I've had very potent one on one experiences with facilitators who are watching just your body and talking you through a wave or through a particular rhythm, very potent, very potent work.
A: Very interesting. I mean, I'd love to actually ask another question and sort of on the lines of, you know, you mentioned people having their camera on and how that changes things. And like there's a, you know, having your camera on letting yourself be seen, it changes things energetically, even within the context of an online space. You know, and since you seem to have, you know, had like a varying different experiences, what kind of things do people do or not do in online spaces that allow for the energy exchange to occur, you know, whether we're talking five rhythms or some other kind of, you know, online versus in person experience.
W: You know, my personal sense is that we're all connected energetically, we can all feel each other in my other business, wild vampire, you know, I do a majority of my work via zoom.
And so I know that that connection is possible. And sometimes I have seen in larger groups, five rhythms and other groups, if people are not fully engaged, where you see them, they have maybe children running around, they exit often screens going on and off, there's just not a commitment to the process. I personally feel impacts the entire group animal, we can all feel it, we can all just feel if someone's in or out.
And you can kind of feel that in a room as well, like if someone goes and it's getting on their phone, they leave the room often, especially when there is perhaps someone else having an emotional release happen. And no judgment, right, like we all have our own capacity levels, we have a big piece of my work in the five rhythms and the work we are doing as a collective in our healing process as humanity is learning how to share space and recognize the impact we have on each other. Right.
A: And it's, it's not just energetic space. I mean, it is energetic space, but it's our physical body space. And I think one of the things I've noticed with, you know, everything going very zoom, you know, since the pandemic is that there's certain orientations that we have in person that we just don't get to have when we're on a zoom call. Like you don't know how tall somebody is. You don't know what their physicality feels like. You get like this tiny little bit of information about who the wholeness of who they are. You're not seeing them, you know, in this whole multi-dimensional layer.
And I think like you said, it is possible, especially if you have an energetic sensitivity to connect with someone in a deep, you know, kind of whole way, but it's still never going to replace, like I said, that physicality of being in their actual presence. Right. Right.
W: Absolutely. It's a totally different game, but quite useful if someone doesn't have, let's say your modality or five rhythms in their location. You know, I am so blessed to live where I live. I have, including myself, three five rhythms teachers. There's always a class to go to, but not everyone has that. Right.
A: Yeah. How widespread is this practice? I mean, internationally there is there a scene like, you know, how many, do you know, how many practitioners are worldwide?
W: This is a global practice. We have over 900 teachers worldwide. The practice is translated in so many languages. You can go to most countries and find at least one teacher. It's spreading rapidly and I'm so excited to be part of the movement. I am so excited. It's one of the most treasured memories of mine was going through my final year of teacher training in a cohort of almost 90 people and there were only six Americans and it was so fun. It was so fun to be like, Oh my gosh, so many beautiful humans and we're all coming together with this passion and drive to support people healing in our communities. I visualize it as like this spider web that goes around the entire globe and where all these little threads connected all the way around. And there's a particular practice called sweat your prayers that happens every Sunday morning.
And this happens all over the globe. And it is just a 90 minute dance practice where you come and you bring what you know of the five rhythms to your community. So not a lot of guidance. It's just a place to practice. And just to know that there are other humans following their feet and doing this practice worldwide every Sunday with me. It just reminds me how human I am and how connected we really all are.
A: That's beautiful. That's just so lovely. I love when you know, I got to travel a lot internationally as a young woman and being able to see like with your own eyes and be in the physical presence of people from all over who are committed to their own personal healing journey who are committed to doing what they can to help other people. It's really inspiring. And so I absolutely can like almost feel into like what level of like joy and bliss and excitement it would be to be in that 90 person training.
Right. I'm curious, let's go back to this concept of shape shifting because you say this is a term that is kind of used throughout the culture of this practice. What particular ways has your body shape shifted that you feel as a result of this somatic work in this particular way? Like compared to what how your body was organized before you started this practice? Yeah.
W: So just to clarify shape shifter is one of the archetypes. So I recommend anyone read Gabrielle Roth's books. She has several books out maps to ecstasy connections and sweat your prayers.
They give a really great breakdown of the cosmology so that you can mentally grok it before you go feel the room of a fiver them's practice. So for myself, my body, I had no idea how rigidly I was holding myself, particularly on the right side of my body. I had a lot of clenching and a real frozenness in my hips, which is very common for sexual assault survivors, you know, we tend to close the hips off.
We don't want to really bring attention to ourselves. So just from a physical standpoint, I have received unwinding and openness and I'm still learning still working with it, but finding more flexibility, more freedom, more movement for myself, I would say the biggest healing has come through the emotional component, allowing myself to release all of that stuck emotion and tension that was in my body and in my tissues.
And through that process, just being confident and comfortable in my own skin. Like number one, I can just dance goofy and like have fun. I can cry on my knees in a room of 50 people and not feel any self consciousness whatsoever. Sometimes, my practice takes me to the floor, and 10 years ago, I would have never gotten on my hands and knees in front of strangers.
That is such a vulnerability. I am so comfortable in my own vulnerability that it is a transmission for others to be like, Oh, we just can be animals and we can do what we need to to find more movement, more freedom in our bodies and to be present with what the body is actually requesting.
Like for example, right now I am healing from a dislocated kneecap. Many people would think, Oh, your dance practice is over, but my dance practice has actually deepened. I have learned how to dance in a chair. I have learned how to dance leaning against a wall. I have learned how to listen to the patterns that had weakened my left leg in a certain way that allowed this injury to occur. Like, Oh, I've always turned to the right. How interesting that is.
A: Yes. Yes. Well, it goes right back to the pattern that you mentioned earlier, which was the clenching and the tightness on your right side. You know, and what with the method that I work with, we identify these full body patterns of contraction. And so I still have things. Similarly, like with the somatic work I've done, my body doesn't hold the same patterns. I used to have hypermobile joints.
I say used to and I'm so happy that I don't anymore. I have the proprioceptive awareness and control that my legs don't bend backwards anymore. And I'm not pulled into the banana legs, hips forward thing that was just my normal for a long time. But still, even though I feel so much more loose and comfortable, as you said, like it's an ongoing practice that we keep, like you said, with repetition, we keep learning and our body keeps communicating with us.
There's those channels of communication. And so there may be, you know, like an echo, I like to recall it like an echo of that clenching on your right side. That's part of what is pulling things in that direction that you're always turning to the right. Like those pathways are still there and you're still in that process of learning from them and getting that information, right?
W: Yeah, it is a lifelong learning, just like healing. It's not a one and done kind of thing. It's part of being human. That's why we're here. And then you get to add on top of that. Oh, this little animal body is also going through perimenopause. I'm also aging and in a different stage of life than I was 10 years ago. This is the icing on the cake of five rhythms for myself, is that it's a practice that you can literally do your entire life. If you are human and you can move, even if it's just your eyes or a pinky finger or an elbow, you can do this practice. You can be in your body and explore yourself and learn more about who you are.
A: Yeah, this is wonderful. And I'm so happy to learn about this and I'm so happy to share this with our audience and the people who are out there. So maybe you can give us a little sneak peek into how this practice or this work relates to the other work that you do as a seer, as a guide, as how has this somatic practice given you the capacity to explore those other things and in what way?
W: Yeah, so I am an intuitive and I've done that work for several decades and adding the somatic component just really rounded out what I'm able to give people because I am now so cognizant of how our nervous systems regulate with one another and watching an animal body and how it shifts and moves while someone is sharing a story, while someone is having an emotional release. I'm able to have this holistic framework in which to hold someone in a one-on-one experience. So I call them instinct and intuition sessions where we really get to go through what's coming up for you.
You have space to speak, you have space to receive guidance, and we have an opportunity to move with the body and really integrate how all of that knowing goes from the brain down into the system. So it's a very well-rounded approach to finding relief when you're feeling in chaos.
A: Beautiful, yeah, and I think that I've really since discovering and practicing somatics at the depth that I was privileged to receive it and experience it. It's such a foundational piece that I wish humanity knew more and more about. That's why I have this podcast. It's why I want people like you to come on and share because I didn't know about this particular method of it, even within the niche of somatics that is relatively small.
There's still millions of people who've never even heard that word, you know what I mean? But we don't know about each other. We don't, even within the somatic world, we're not aware of each other and these different ways that people can be creating this foundational piece inside of themselves, this sense of connection.
And as you put it, like being alive to our animal body and connected to that part of ourselves in a way that is reverent versus diminishing or there's a whole opposite side of the spectrum here where your body is just this dumb animal that you're trying to override to get to a higher consciousness or a higher framework and that's what sets us apart from animals and all of that. And what we're speaking to here is having real respect for our animal nature, having real respect for the way that our unconscious communicates with us, you know, in our unconscious mind, I believe it's our body, you know, it's our nervous system, it's our autonomic processes, right?
W: Yeah, these bodies are so wise, just I am dumbfounded at the amount of things my body does in a given minute that I am totally clueless about running my heart and my lungs and my adrenals and my kidneys, all of these things and to think that this is not a wise being is so immature.
A: Yeah, I mean, I am with you on that. And yet I do remember a time before I became somatically aware in myself that I felt like my body and the messages and the things that were going on were just a big annoying inconvenience, you know, and I was frustrated and I felt like my body was punishing me or that God was punishing me through my body because it didn't understand, you know, what these messages are saying.
I didn't know how to start communicating with them. You know, when before we started recording, you said that movement is the native language, primal pathway to healing, where we connect to our unconscious through our physical body, right? And that's one of the values of repetition is that movements are meant to be repeated. That is literally what walking is; that is what the beating of our heart is, right?
I love this idea that it's the native language of all humans and not just humans like other beings as well. It's, you know, if you go real quantum with it, it's the nature of reality to be like rhythmic here, you know, and what has occurred for you, even in this like healing process of having an injury again and having like a layer of limitation, you know, how do you think you're experiencing this particular cycle and pattern that you're in differently than you would have if you didn't have these somatic tools?
W: Yeah, that's a great question. So I am a friend to my body, and that is the difference. I see myself as divinity as soul in my animal body. I've been gifted this beautiful body to have this ride with and that is so different from my 20-year-old self and the way I view this body and to refer to your previous point.
I speak about this in my wild vampire work. I believe that the bulk of us have gone through a real domestication process and that is the reason why we are so divorced from the animal body and our ability to listen and hear what they are trying to tell us. It is the reason why we have so many issues with staying hydrated and eating well because we don't hear the natural impulses of this animal that came into this world knowing exactly what you need every moment of every day, right? Like I watch my dog. My dog knows in the spring to eat the fresh greens that are coming out. Nobody taught him to do that.
He just knows that it's time to clear the liver and eat some bitters, right? And this happens in that age span of, you know, four to seven. We start going to school. We're told we can't go to the bathroom when we need to, that we can't have water except at prescribed times, that we only get food. When we're told to, there is this hierarchy that gets employed, and we are told neck up is the only valuable part of us and the rest of it is simply a transportation unit. Right.
And we don't remember how really wise everything below the neck actually is. And when I think about them finding neurons in our guts and in our heart and how we have literal brains going all over our system. If I could just go back to that young version of myself and say, stop listening to everyone else and start listening to your gut. Imagine how life might be different.
A: Yeah. You know, it's if you're reminding me, my son asked me this question last night. He's six, and he asked me, does your body ever do anything without your brain telling it to? And my first response was, well, your brain is not just up here.
It's all throughout your entire body. So, there's all of these things that are happening all the time, right? You're breathing, your heart's beating, you know, you reach over to pick something up, and you can just do it without having to think about it.
You just manifest though that cup of tea is now in my face, right? That is not something that you have to consciously think about. And it's only when we lose that control that we start to realize how valuable it is. I could think about like, when you have a respiratory issue and suddenly breathing is a labor and it's difficult and you can't breathe through your nose, you know? And like, I remember times like that, I'm like, oh, gosh, when I can breathe easily again, I'm just going to be so grateful for that. And then of course we forget, you know, but that one particularly I've had that, you know, enough repetitions of that thought enough times that there are moments throughout my day when I take a deep
W: breath and and then getting to the place where you're like, oh, my nose is clogged. I'm so grateful that my body is showing me what I need. Now I need to do assault rinse. Now I need to take vitamin C, like really becoming caretakers of bodies.
That's what this knee is teaching me now, really becoming true caretakers from a place of gratitude, even in that work. Right. Right. Makes such a different process. You know, a lot of my clients come in and they're like, I'm too busy for self care, this self care thing. It becomes this gross task that nobody wants to put energy in. And I ask if this was a newborn baby, would you be so resentful? Would we be so resentful of caretaking this thing that needs love and needs support? How can we turn those eyes towards ourselves? Beautiful.
A: Oh, I love that. I love that you brought in like the infant self and like, you know, that's one of the things that I often will describe when in the movement practice, I teach we're focusing on the letting go part of movement and how does it feel to really slowly, slowly like surrender your weight down onto the surface that you're lying on or sitting on to just feel that like letting go. And in the beginning, it's like people sort of plop, but I describe that as like kind of like dropping the baby, like a little bit, right?
We're like not giving it that time to really sensitively place it and let it go onto the surface, you know, on the bed. And, you know, that idea that there's a tender, gentle, sensitive part of us that we can attend to like we would a little baby. I just think that's wonderful that you brought that in because I think people forget that they forget that they were once a baby and that they still are a baby self and an infant self inside. Yeah.
W: And that caring for that baby can be joyful. It can be a beautiful process. Like, can I fall in love with oiling my feet and allow it to be such a beautiful experience?
A: Yeah. So then this is where, you know, I feel like on the shadow side of what you're talking about here, this is where some of that programming comes in that we've received at some point that we, you know, the worthiness thing and the not enoughness thing or the too much thing, these different beliefs and conditioning that we have that have us thinking we don't deserve that time to rub our feet and enjoy it, you know, that there's something wrong or sinful or, you know, lazy about taking that time to attend to our body and to groom or, you know.
I even had the weird hangups about it in my teens where it was like, you know, it's in my grungy phase where I was like, oh, I'm not like brushing my hair or showering because like that's vain. Like, I like judged it as like vanity and that I was going to be different than those girls who are like really vain and spending an hour and a half on their hair before school, right? Like, and there's layers to it because you can see how it was also like a way for me to like, you know, deal with some inferiority and some fear that I had, you know, of like my value or my worth, that comparison thing, right? There's so many layers of it that are going on that that can be behind that I don't have time for self-care. Right? Absolutely.
W: And then there's the whole social being socialized female and what that means and objectification and your value as your looks and it's this transposing self-care is not about what you're offering the other. This is offering the animal body. And so for myself, it really helps to be like, I am, and my animal body i,s and we are here together, right?
So I am giving to my animal body. This is not for my partner. This is not to be attractive. This is not all of those things you're mentioning here from your teenage self.
A: Right. From that third-party perspective of seeing ourselves from the third party instead of first person. Exactly.
W: And quite frankly, rebelling from a system that you inherently knew was incorrect, right? You did value for your beauty, even though you're a beautiful human, you wanted to be valued for your essence. Makes so much sense.
A: Right. Yes. Well, and you know, we're kind of like pulling back the hood on like the underneath unconscious stuff that's going on, right? And that can be really uncomfortable because we don't even realize like, oh, I've done therapy. I've worked on myself image. I'm comfortable wearing lingerie, but why is it that I'm still resisting rubbing oil on my feet? Why is it I'm still resisting taking that extra time to just chill and relax in the evening and not stay, you know, in the hustle, you know, past 8pm?
W: Right. Right. Which is all mindset. It's a mental game. It's a conditioning that we're moving through. And ultimately, it's an act of self-violence to not take those times and really listening and caring for. And it's not good or bad or right or wrong. It just is. This is what we've been given in this life, and we are all moving through a major collective rewiring of how to interact. You know, I look at the animal body as the microcos,m and until we can all learn how do I hold space for myself?
How do I tend myself? How do I share my energy without oversharing and without undersharing, you know, the things we learn on the dance floor, how do we share space? And we don't know how to if we are not each individually resourced inside of ourselves. I believe it all begins with self-love at the end of the day.
A: Yeah, absolutely. And saying yes to a Fibretherm's class, saying yes to that somatic movement, healing workshop that you're curious about, you know, hopping on a call to learn more about, you know, someone like you is a it's stepping in that direction of self love. It's saying, I'm ready to begin whatever it might mean to love myself. Right?
W: Yeah, through it all. Because these bodies with us through it all till the day we die till our last breath, like this body is my best friend. And most of us have been trained to resist the body going back to what happens on the dance floor. We resist the pain, we resist the messages, because the truth is life is uncomfortable.
It is uncomfortable to be a human animal alive on a planet that is toxic and having its own struggles. It is uncomfortable to be alive in civilizations that are not set up to support thriving. It is uncomfortable. And we have more options than we have ever had to distract ourselves and numb ourselves out and not be present with the discomfort. And yet we are not going to shift until we are able to collect to be with it.
A: Yeah. And that's where that rhythm, that cycle can kind of like go all the way full circle, and then not keep perpetuating in that particular way, we can get back into our natural rhythm and not stay stuck in these, you know, pain rhythms or rhythms that are trying to get our attention rhythms that Hey, something's something's out of alignment. Something's not working here. Right. Yep.
Beautiful. Oh, well, it's been absolutely magical talking to you. I'm very intrigued. So if you have enjoyed this conversation, if you're also intrigued, definitely check out Wild's work. You have a workshop coming up. You wanted to mention.
W: I do. Yes, I'm teaching a workshop called my Animal Body at March 28 through the 30th, 2025 in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon, where we're going to be going through the waves map and in particular the L map, which for myself is a tool for recognizing our nervous system when we are in a triggered response and actually utilizing our dance practice as a way to move through that response so that you can walk away literally having a tool that you can work for yourself whenever life is overwhelming and you need some relief. I'm really, really excited to explore this topic. Wonderful.
A: And so this is an in-person event.
W: This is an in-person event. Yes.
A: Okay. Right on. Well, hopefully like listeners, if you are nearby, if you are on the West Coast in that area, it sounds like a tremendously beautiful time. I'm looking forward to learning more about your practice, Wild, and thank you so much for coming on the show today.
W: Thank you for having me. It's been a joy. Yeah.
A: Do you have any last words of wisdom or something that's coming through to share before we say goodbye?
W: Yeah, there's just plenty of time and it's okay to slow down.
A: Yeah. Beautiful. Thank you. I feel like I needed to hear that today too. So thank you so much. Of course.
W: I needed it also.
A: Right. Right. Well, we're in it. We're in the soup. We're in the collective stuff that's all going on and we're part of it. And you know, how much can we turn that love back towards ourselves and like come home? Right?
W: Yeah. Yeah.
A: Beautiful. All right. Love to this conversation. Thank you so much, and we'll talk again soon.
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 somantics, 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.
Comments