Writings & Musings
Rested. Rooted. Radiant.
Insight and inspiration on living unhurried lives, overcoming feminine burnout, reclaiming our radiance and self-sovereignty and embracing our brilliance.
Is The Wisdom Within™ Somatic Practitioner Training Right for You? 6 Signs It Might Be Your Next Step
The word ‘somatic’ has become a bit of a trend, and the integration of somatic approaches in coaching has evolved the way in which we hold space for transformation.
We now know that working cognitively and reframing our thoughts alone are not enough to facilitate deep and sustainable change. Lasting change does not just happen at the level of the mind but needs to encompass the body, the nervous system, and our lived, felt experience.
The Wisdom Within™ Somatic Practitioner Training was born from that knowing.
Why Women Deserve Somatic Approaches That Honour Their Body, Cycles and Lived Experience
I’m often asked why my work centres women.
There are many reasons for this, but at its core, I deeply care about and believe in women.
I believe that when women heal, grow, take a stance for what they believe in, the world heals in some ways too, and it becomes a little more harmonious.
Many coaching approaches are based on the assumption of a one size fits all model. But women aren’t just smaller, more delicate versions of men’s.
We are also profoundly shaped by centuries of cultural conditioning, by the expectations we’ve internalised, and by the way the world meets us…
The Edge of Burnout: Listening to the Body Before It Shuts Down
Before we experience the full force of burnout, we often find ourselves in a confusing space.
We are still holding everything together, but beneath the surface, we sense that something within us has begun to fray and to deplete.
Even if a part of us knows that something needs to shift, we don’t feel that we have the time to pause, explore a more sustainable path, or recalibrate.
So while we double down to make sure that the veneer stays intact on the outside, on the inside, our heart races for no clear reason, our sleep doesn’t seem to restore us in the same way, and we wake up in the middle of the night with thoughts racing in infinite loops.
If this feels familiar, you could be standing at the edge of burnout.
The Tender Grief Beneath Women’s Anger
Last week, I was in a facilitated space with other women, exploring the theme of anger.
It’s a subject that can feel highly charged and deeply uncomfortable, particularly for women.
The conversation was deep, and the shares were nuanced and reflective.
What really transpired was the grief, the sadness, the lack of being seen that often sits tenderly beneath the emotion of anger.
For women especially, anger often surfaces from the grief of not being seen, not having a voice, living in systems that we don't feel we fully belong to.
Beyond Learned Helplessness: A Somatic Path For Women to Reclaim Their Energy, Voice, and Agency
When I look back on my experience of burnout, one of the most profound parts of that experience was the sense that no matter what or how much I did, nothing seemed to make any difference.
My efforts felt futile.
I was expanding every ounce of energy I had, and yet it felt like pushing against an immovable wall.
Most of the time, I felt like I was drowning.
For a long time, I gave increasingly more, believing that eventually, things would shift.
But over time, the ‘fight’ energy that initially mobilised me into action started to dwindle, and slowly I fell into what psychologists call ‘learned helplessness’. A subtle erosion of hope, an insidious and devastating settling in my heart that said: “What’s the point anyway?”.
How to Embody the Life and Future We Desire to Create
We are always embodying something.
It might be the forward urgency of our hectic schedule, the relaxed openness in our heart in moments of joy, or the way our body’s shoulders tighten when we feel stressed.
So much of what we embody isn’t chosen consciously.
It’s shaped by our history, our family, and the culture we live in.
Often, the patterns we have practised are what allowed us to get through, to cope, to keep going in challenging moments. They are deeply intelligent responses that have helped us to navigate life. Responses that we have unconsciously honed and perfected through repetition.
Understanding the Mind–Body Connection and How to Shift Old Patterns by Working Somatically
So many of the patterns we live with, like the endless late-night thinking loops, the automatic “yes” when we mean “no,” the crushing feeling of self-doubt, are often considered to be mindset problems.
But if you have ever tried to think your way out of them, you will know that reframing our thoughts can offer relief, but doesn’t address what might lie beneath and causes these thoughts to arise.
That’s because these patterns don’t begin in the mind.
They begin in the body.
Before these patterns became habits, they started as survival strategies. Unconscious, protective responses to moments when something in our world felt too overwhelming for our system to cope with: too much, too fast, too soon - or conversely, not enough.
The Missing Piece in Transformation: Why Awareness Alone Doesn’t Always Create Change
Maybe, like me, you have an insatiable curiosity for understanding why you are the way you are. You read all the books and articles you can put your hands on, listen to the podcasts, watch the videos … to more deeply know yourself.
And what an incredible and profound journey this can be! Truly life changing.
We gain so much awareness around our ways of being, behaviours, thoughts, beliefs, and the long-held patterns that we might want to shift.
We journal, reflect, share it with others where it feels right to do so.
We reframe our thoughts, clean up our mindset.
And yet, the patterns remain.
We know. And yet change isn’t happening.
The Somatic Path to Women's Empowerment: How to Cultivate the Inner Conditions for Growth
As women, we are told to own our worth, to take up space and believe in ourselves, as if empowerment was just a mindset shift away.
A simple choice we haven’t made yet.
For many of us, rather than feeling liberating, this can actually feel like more pressure and keep us stuck.
Even if we long to feel daring and empowered, something within us still hesitates, contracts, or resists in moments where we are invited to step up or forward.
However bright, intelligent and capable we are, deep within our system, something might not yet feel safe enough for us to expand into a fuller expression of who we are.
This is where traditional empowerment models can fall short…
3 Ways Somatic Coaching Is Different From Traditional Coaching Approaches
Somatic approaches are increasingly talked about, yet they can feel obscure or hard to distinguish from more traditional or cognitive ways of coaching.
In this blog post, we look at how somatic coaching might differ from more traditional approaches, and explore 3 ways in which somatic coaching can help facilitate deep transformation.
The Power of Living in Alignment
Most of the women I support are far more intelligent, creative, resourceful and brave than they often know. They might have built businesses, raised families, held space for others, and navigated challenges with incredible resilience.
Many find me at a point in their life where they feel a sense of weariness that goes beyond physical tiredness. An 'experiential' weariness.
They are exhausted from trying to fit into external frameworks that often don’t reflect what matters most to them.
They are tired of overriding the ever growing discomfort of living a life that might look good on paper, but might not feel vibrant or fulfilling on the inside.
They are experiencing misalignment - a growing dissonance between their inner and outer worlds.
And something within them is pulling them towards more alignment (although they wouldn’t articulate it in this way)…
Anxiety Relief for Women: Why Somatic Approaches Are the Key You May Have Been Missing
Anxiety has been a companion of mine for many years.
One I have learned to relate to differently, over time - and to develop a gentler relationship with.
I know I’m not alone in this.
So many women, especially as we begin navigating the hormonal shifts of perimenopause, or the identity transitions that come with midlife, find themselves living with an invisible undercurrent of anxiety.
Beneath the surface is a nervous system that is carrying too much activation, and is struggling to find a place to land.
If that’s you and you have tried all the tools, read all the books, but still find yourself struggling to feel more grounded, present, and at ease, I want to offer a different perspective.
One that goes beyond traditional ways of coping with anxiety, and begins in the body.
Finding Anchors in Times of Transition and Uncertainty
We all navigate moments where it feels like our life is becoming ‘undone’.
Whether that’s relationships ending, burnout, grief, uncertainty, collective unease, or natural seasonal changes in a woman’s life such as transitions into motherhood or the menopause.
In those times, it can feel like the stability we have known is pulled from under our feet.
Like a plant that has been uprooted, we become untethered, hanging in the liminal space between what has been and what is yet to come.
Leading in Times of Chaos: The Leadership We Need Now
Over the past couple of weeks I have been fortunate enough to attend a weekly group circle dedicated to exploring how to navigate times of chaos and polycrisis - it has been illuminating, tender and perspective shifting.
Simply being with others asking themselves similar questions, sharing our respective experiences and coming together to forge a path forward that feels true to each of us and the whole has been a gift.
It has crystalised even more deeply for me the need for us to come together, to co-create a path forward, to focus on our communities and the places where we can make a difference.
Trusting the Wisdom Of Our Body: 6 Ways Somatic Intelligence Can Help Us Live and Lead With More Presence, Wellbeing, Purpose And Confidence
Have you ever felt torn between what your mind (or the outside world) was telling you to do, and how your body felt about it? Perhaps you were considering applying for a new job, saying yes to an invitation, or considering how to navigate an argument with a friend, a child or your partner?
Have you ever ignored an inner nudge or a deep knowing, followed what you thought you should do, and regretted it later (wishing you could have a do over)?
Most of us are very aware of our thoughts, but much less so of the language of our body.
We often forget that our body holds deep wisdom.
In this blog post, I explore the power of our somatic intelligence: the wisdom of our body, this innate guidance system within us that can lead us towards more of what we truly desire: aliveness, clarity, confidence, or ease.
Restoring Inner Stability, Rhythm & Belonging : How Reconnecting With Nature Heals & Grounds Us
In my work with women, one of the themes that arises most often is a yearning to let go of always being the holder, a desire to soften the instinct to push forward and strive, a longing to exhale and let ourselves be held.
Under the strong facade and the ‘holding it all together’, there is a part of us who deeply wants to put it all down and feel held.
We long to rest in the deep knowing that we don’t have to do it all alone.
The Invisible Giver: Why Emotional Exhaustion Comes from More Than Just Doing Too Much
We naturally assume that exhaustion comes from doing too much. From overcommitting, overextending, and carrying too much on our plates.
And of course, this absolutely contributes to a sense of feeling physically exhausted and depleted.
But often, there is a deeper layer to our exhaustion, which we may not perceive.
It comes from giving without being met.
Pouring out without being poured into. Offering support without being acknowledged.
It’s the emotional exhaustion of being so reliable and endlessly available that our giving becomes invisible.
This kind of exhaustion is rooted in a lack of reciprocity, and beyond leaving us tired, it leaves us feeling hollow…
Slow Change is Sustainable Change - Why Somatic Approaches Work Differently
The world we live in is obsessed with quick fixes.
Productivity hacks and fast transformations are all the rage, and we are led to believe that real change happens in big moments: dramatic breakthroughs, radical shifts, quantum leaps.
But our body isn’t wired for these overnight changes.
Real, embodied transformation doesn’t happen in big bursts.
It happens in layers, over time, at a pace that our body and nervous system can hold.
This is why somatic approaches work differently. They are the antidote to our fast culture.
They show us that deep and sustainable change doesn’t mean pushing harder and faster, but moving at the pace of safety and integration, to allow the changes to gently ‘take root’ in our body.
Recovering From Burnout: A Somatic Approach To Healing And Flourishing Again
Burnout doesn’t come crashing down on us all at once. It’s more like a tap dripping - slow, steady, almost imperceptible - until one day, the tank is empty. It’s a gradual wearing away of our energy, our capacity, and our vitality. And because the slope is so gentle, we may not even realise how far we have gone until we are completely depleted.
For women, who often juggle caregiving, demanding careers, and conflicting responsibilities, burnout can feel like an inevitability - almost a byproduct of constantly holding multiple strands.
Burnout can often be accompanied by a sense of shame or a feeling of inadequacy, but it isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s our body’s intelligence at play saying “It’s time to stop, I can’t keep going like this”. Wisely, our body pulls the emergency brake on our behalf to stop further depletion.
Burnout is our body’s way of protecting us, asking us to pause, rest, and recalibrate.
From Fixing to Witnessing: A Somatic Approach to Embracing Our Whole Self With Compassion
When was the last time you experienced stress, anxiety, sadness or another tender or uncomfortable emotion?
Did you notice an instinctual urge to make it go away or fix it?
For many of us, fixing, numbing or suppressing our emotions has become a well practised way of coping in difficult moments.
We might pick up our phone and scroll through our social media feed, get busy with our to-do list, or eat food that feels particularly comforting - without truly noticing.
These strategies often serve us well for a while.
They may have enabled us to cope with emotions that felt too overwhelming to open ourselves up to, without the fear of drowning in them.
But they are not sustainable.
They often leave the underlying emotions unresolved.
