Episode 203 - The Feminine Art of Trusting Your Body Again
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Key Topics of This Episode
Body trust • embodiment • nervous system regulation • intuition • feminine embodiment • self-trust • feminine nervous system • somatic awareness
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Episode Description
Do you ever feel unsure how to hear or trust your body?
Do you ever worry that listening to your body would mean abandoning all your responsibilities, or losing momentum on hard work?
Do want a relationship with your body that feels luscious, grounded, and steeped in self-trust, but aren’t sure where to begin?
In today’s episode, The Feminine Art of Trusting Your Body Again, Mary Lofgren explores the how to rebuild body trust and befriend the wisdom of your body's voice.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How to understand the hidden language of your body
How to tell the difference between true desire and nervous system distress
3 simple ways to rebuild self-trust
How to listen to your body's intuitive urges without reacting on impulse
How to restore a sense of clarity, confidence, and friendship with your body
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Show Notes
🌸 Free Download: A Five-Minute Practice to Get Back in Your Body
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Episode Transcript
Below is the full transcript of this episode on how to reconnect with body wisdom, and rebuild self-trust through embodiment practice.
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The Feminine Art of Trusting Your Body
Hello, beloved beings, welcome to today's episode How to Rebuild Trust with Your Body. So something that's really common when I start working with a new embodiment coaching client. Is they want to trust their body, but when they try to tune in with the voice of their body, it's really confusing. Is this the voice of my body or is this just the voice of my mind? Is this the voice of my fear, or is this the voice of intuition? Am I needing rest right now, or am I just wanting to procrastinate and self-sabotage? And maybe you can relate. Maybe you've asked yourself those same questions.
And today I want to take you through some of the most precious jewels in my collection of wisdom that I've learned over the last decade plus of both professional and personal practice in the embodied arts. And the inspiration for this episode came not only from just my experience with clients and my own experience of trusting my body, but from developing tools and resources for folks that helped you attune to that authentic voice of the body. Because it's really common in the middle of a busy morning. At 3:00 when you've been sitting at your desk, kind of hunched over for the last six hours to try to make contact with your body and feel like nobody's home. Nobody's picking up the phone or to hear your body scream out in desperation about how much your life sucks because it's in distress.
And one of the things we'll talk about today is that with all of the voices inside and around us that are screaming for our attention, maybe it's human voices. Maybe it's the voice of social media calling for your attention. Maybe it's your to do list. Maybe it's anxiety. It can be hard to hear the body, and that the body really responds to slowing down, leaving the noise of the world outside. And just like any other friendship. A soft, genuine, connected relationship of listening. Your body loves to go into the metaphorical coffee shop with its best friend, aka you, and find the luscious, quietest corner couch to curl up next to a stack of books and slowly, steadily be in connection. And I've recently created one of these resources that is a velvety drop in to get back into your body, particularly in moments where life feels loud, where your mind is spinning, where you may be caught in a spiral. And it's a five minute audio practice called five Minutes Back in Your Body, and you can download it for free at Marie Lofgren. And share it with a friend. I think we can all use a little bit more velvety regulation. You know, in my work, that is really the thing I'm most passionate about is tools to regulate our nervous systems and to create more coherence between our minds, our hearts, and our bodies in ways that feel really delicious. A lot of nervous system advice is really modeled around a more masculine model of the nervous system, and for feminine beings who really thrive in regulating through lushness and sensory experience and art and emotional connection and beauty and co regulation, it's like we really need a different style, a different path of entry into the body. And so may you enjoy this velvety drop in with my compliments and with my pleasure. And let us now dive into our gems on how to listen to and trust this beautiful, resplendent, radiant expression of the soul that we call the body. So something that I find really interesting is the way that the word trust and truth have the same origin. Are you trust truth? Truthful. Truth's trustworthy. Worthy of trust. And the origin of the word. Trust has a few meanings that all have relation to one another. Confidence in steadiness, protection, support and where will begin is by talking a little bit about the language of the body. So the part of the brain that is considered our thinking brain, the prefrontal cortex, is one of the chambers of the brain where we process language, logic, reason, linear thinking. and the prefrontal cortex understands and sorts information really, really well. And its orientation is typically looking outward. So reading information from your environment, scanning for danger to keep you safe. And what we commonly call the voice of the body, you know it from a scientific and nervous system perspective, I think is hard to narrow down to one particular system, because there really is this complex network of what's called introspection, which is the drawing of our attention and awareness in towards our inner signals, like our heartbeat and our hunger and our emotions, our sensational awareness. You know, a trust in my gut and knowing in my heart these are all examples of that network that make up this inner knowing and these parts of the brain. Our older, more ancient, more subconscious, as in below the prefrontal cortex, sometimes described as our more reptilian brain. And these parts of the brain don't often recognize language.
It's not their language of origin to understand words. Their language of origin are things like image and symbol and touch and sensation and the more subtle aspects of relationship. So I can't remember the stat off the top of my head, but the vast majority of our communication comes not from the words that we say. That's a very small percentage, but the look in our eyes, the placement of our spine. You know, these all send subconscious cues that either turn up or turn down our own receptivity. One of the things I love about Koya inspired movement, which is a movement method that I teach and has been a really core element of how I've learned to be friends. The voice of my body is at the start of class. We will set out Oracle cards and each card has an image and maybe one word or phrase, and we pull a card. And sometimes there's the opportunity for partnered sharing, where your invitation is to complete the sentence. This is the perfect card for me today because. And by looking at the image and looking at the phrase or just, you know, that one word, that vibrational frequency of gentle or knowing or breakthrough or compassion, it's like something awakens in us. I just pulled a card as I was talking about that. And there's a rainbow parrot and lilies and pansies and deer and this winding river with mountains in the background. And the phrase is, be gentle with yourself. And. I don't even really need to see that phrase in order to experience my own perception of the messages that are in this card for me, in this moment. And that's a great example of the way that symbol and animal archetypes and these things that aren't limited to the communication of words, awaken something in our bodies. And so this is our first gem, is that when you are communicating with your body or asking your body for guidance or wisdom, working with words or linear ways of thinking are not really going to get us there, because it's like talking to a person who's only ever spoken French in German. It's not that they don't want to understand or build connection, it's that it's not possible without that common language. And so with your body. Some of the ways that your body may communicate are through this recognition of image, like we talked about with the Oracle card. Sometimes when I'll be working with a client, you know, it'll be some knowing that appears in the body. Say the heart. And I'll say, is there an image? Is there color? Is there a texture? And it'll come up something like.
It's like an emerald at the center of my heart. Or it's like there's this eye at the center of my pelvis. Like this glimmering eye of wisdom. And two, the more linear mind. That might sound like poppycock. It might sound like you're imagining something, and that's fine. The linear mind gets to have that opinion, and I encourage you to go a little bit deeper and ask, what is my body trying to tell me through this image? And you may need to do a bit of practice in understanding and interpreting. Like I remember my girl Winnie, my pup who passed away a few years ago. Sometimes I could tell she was trying to tell me something like there was something she needed, something she wanted, and I'd have to get up and I'd be like, do you want a toy? Do you want to go outside? Do you want some water and really do some practice with interpreting her messages? Until I started to know her better and be able to read these non-verbal signals. And I remember an emerald in my heart was one of my own images that came up in a session where I was being coached, and when I look back on that, it's like, hmm, what was my body communicating there? And I was doing a session on something that I felt a lot of fear about. And just when I tune in with that sensation, I mean, this session happened five years ago, but I still remember the sensation in my body now. And that color of the emerald is so regal, and an emerald cut is so elegant. And already, as I just even say those words and describe that image, my spine comes a little taller and I feel more confidence in the face of anything that makes me feel afraid. So that is gem number one is speaking in the language of origin of your body. Which image is just one? You know, there's all sorts of ways that the body communicates that we won't fully go into today, but sensation, emotion, impulses and urges, your energetic tone, the pace of your breath. You know, these are all ways that the body sends signals of, hmm, I like this. Move closer to this or mm, I don't like this. Let's move away from this or let's take a break from this.
And if understanding your body on a deeper level is something that you crave, I am here for you. And later this month, I'm going to be sharing some new diversified ways to work with me. Typically, the only ways that I work with clients are through the Sanctuary Online Community membership or through one on one coaching packages. And later this month, I'm really excited to introduce a brand new offering that has been in the works for a long time, and that the five minutes to back in your body is just the snowflake on the tip of the glorious iceberg that this beautiful new offering is. So stay tuned and download that free offering if you'd like a little teaspoon taste of what's to come. Our next gem is similar to the first in that in order to build trust with your body and speak its language with more ease and fluency, you may need to experiment with trusting it at times where it doesn't make sense. So have you ever had this feeling of like you're driving in one lane and all of a sudden you just get this feeling that's like, get in the left lane or. It's the middle of the day and you get a craving for a strawberry tapioca boba tea. I'm using that as a wild example. I don't even know that I've ever had one of those, because dairy is not my friend, but it's an example of like a wild hare that you might ordinarily toss to the side of like, well, that doesn't make sense, or I've never even had one of those, or it's 3 p.m. I can't have one of those now. And the invitation here is to explore trusting the voice of your impulse, your sensations, your knowingness, without them needing to prove themselves in advance. So when I think about teaching a child self trust, for example, you know, we don't teach a child's self trust by keeping them in the nest safe from harm forevermore, nor do we kick them out of the nest when they're still without feathers and flailing. We give them these micro opportunities to explore and to take healthy risk and to build that sense of trust within themselves. And this is true in relationship to your body. You know, sometimes I think this idea of trusting our inner knowing, trusting our body, trusting our intuition can be painted as this kind of magical thinking catchall solution to everything. But sometimes you might get in that left lane and think, hmm, I don't know why I got over here. Nothing happened. Nothing happened around me. And it does not matter when it comes to building trust with the body. It's a matter of being willing to listen and willing to trust, even without all the information as to why that urge or impulse is presenting itself. And sometimes when we imagine taking on this experiment, it might feel like, oh, God, well, if I trusted my body, I would just eat chocolate covered potato chips all day and never go to work. And that is a great example of the impulses of the body when the nervous system is in distress. And so our final gem has to do with another neuroscientific nugget.
And that is that when the body. Is detecting threat or does not have what it needs to regulate. It will get pretty loud and feisty. So a great example is if you haven't gotten great sleep the night before and you're dehydrated, your perception of your life, of your body, that ability to connect with your intuition is going to be really staticky. Whereas if you got great sleep and you're hydrated and you've been in nature that day and you've connected with people you really love and satisfying ways. Typically your outlook and your connection to your impulses and your instincts is going to be more clear and coherent, because there isn't that bracing of the nervous system to be in fight or flight or survival mode and survival mode. You know, another word for that is simply searching for safety. And when we can't anchor in that sense of safety, the voice of our body is going to sound a lot more impulsive because it's. Desperate to get its needs met. And some of the ways, you know, there are many, many ways that one can help to relocate that anchor within oneself when the body is in distress. Breath is one way. Reducing the amount of stimulation is one way. You know, sometimes when I'm feeling foggy or distracted or like there are 1,000,001 things circling my brain and I'm totally lost in the whirlwind. I'll just put my feet on the floor and I'll just press them into the floor beneath me, and I'll take my hands, and I'll press into my thighs and I'll close my computer. And, you know, just that removal of stimulation and turning towards grounding sensation sends a signal to my nervous system. Oh, I have unplugged from the chaos. I am plugging back in to the earth, to grounding gravity and sensation, to this ability to have introspection and know my own inner terrain and converse and communicate with my own inner terrain.
And then the body begins to relax a bit. And that is when we get into this sweet spot of the voice of the body and the voice of the mind being reunited in a place of coherence. And as I mentioned at the start. Breath is one way, sensation is one way. Sensory pleasure is another way. Image is another way. And so to close today's episode, if that sounds good to you, to have a tool in your back pocket of how to get back into your body through real methods of regulation that are both scientific and sensational and are attuned to the needs of the feminine nervous system. For, as I said at the start, a more plush path of entry into the body that is designed specifically for the needs of the feminine nervous system, and I'm bursting at the seams to tell you more. As I shared, there's going to be a lot more on this topic this month and more free offerings to plug you into this knowledge. Because I have to tell you, Learning the nature of my feminine nervous system and how. Traditional nervous system advice and regulation advice wasn't designed for the system. That I have changed so much about my life, and I am so passionate about getting this information into the hands of women and feminine creatures. And so stay tuned and head to Mary Lofgren for a little extra support in five minutes of getting back into your body. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. It is always an honor to dance across the airwaves into your eardrums and your heart, and I will see you at Mary Lofgren and in our next episode.
A soft, velvety practice for when you need to step out of the noise and come back home to the refuge of your heart.