There's a kind of resistance that rises right at the edge of change — when something big is asking to move through you. We've been taught that resistance is something to override. Push through it. Get out of your own way. Do it scared.

But what if that pushback you're feeling — the shutdown, the procrastination, the discomfort, the annoyance — isn't dysfunction?

In this episode, I'm offering a reframe that might change everything: Resistance isn't always a block. Sometimes, it's your body saying "no" and pushing back -- where you used to abandon yourself.

And when you learn how to meet that energy — not override it, but actually feel it and understand what it's communicating — resistance becomes the path back to clarity, power, and deeply aligned action.

This is a trauma-informed, somatically rooted look at what's actually happening when "resistance" shows up — in you, or in your clients.

In this episode, we'll explore:

• Why resistance may a sign of healing — not sabotage

• The relationship between resistance, safety, and the fight response

• What's actually happening in your nervous system when you push back

• How override culture can retraumatize, even with good intentions

• The subtle signs of healthy protective energy coming back online

• What to do when nothing you've tried "works"

• A short guided practice to help you track and honor what's real

💥 Resources + Next Steps

🔹 Free Gift: Moving Through Upper Limits— This 3-part video experience reveals why expansion is so often followed by a snapback into old patterns — and how to finally shift this cycle at the root, through your nervous system.

🔹 Waitlist: 1:1 Integrative Somatic Nervous System Work For those ready to go deeper into nervous system healing, trauma resolution, and spiritual connection — through a body-based, intuitive process. 👉 Learn More and Join the Waitlist

🔹 Waitlist: Embodied Astrology Certification A first-of-its-kind certification for practitioners who want to integrate trauma-informed astrology with somatic work. Learn to read your clients' charts fluently while guiding transformation that lands in the body. 👉 Learn More and Join the Waitlist

💌 Stay Connected

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend. This work is meant to ripple — and your presence matters.

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission.

💡 Episode Description

What happens when you stop trying to fix your emotions — and instead feel the raw energy underneath them?

In this episode, I'm joined by two brilliant colleagues and dear friends, Dr. Leslie Carr and Julia de'Caneva, for a grounded, powerful conversation about how life force energy moves through the body — and what becomes possible when we stop overriding, bypassing, or spinning in the mind, and instead partner with the nervous system to let it reorganize and transform.

We talk about everything from public speaking anxiety to cancer, trauma, and collective grief — and how even the most intense emotions can feel strangely good when met purely as sensation in the body. This is an honest, real-world exploration of what it means to stay with what's true, and allow the intelligence of your nervous system to do what it knows how to do.

🔑 Key Themes & Takeaways

• Why emotions are expressions of deeper energy — and why this is important

• How nervous system work helps you access clarity beneath mental loops

• The moment Leslie's public speaking fear suddenly shifted to aliveness

• Julia's experience of body-based presence after cancer

• Grief as sacred — and how it honors what was and what matters

• Why presence is the medicine that unlocks transformation

• How individual regulation supports collective change

🌀Meet Today's Guests

Dr. Leslie Carr Leslie is a psychologist and an expert in how trauma, stress, culture, and digital technology impact the mind. She's been active in mental health advocacy and public psychoeducation for over fifteen years, with work featured in The LA Times, Bustle, and Ask Dr. Drew. She's the host of the podcast The Nature of Nurture and an e-course on mindful tech use. → www.lesliecarr.com

Julia de'Caneva Julia is a certified holistic health coach, blending her intuition, professional certifications, and lived experience as a cancer survivor to help people build intentional, meaningful lives. She's the founder of If It's The Last Thing I Do and co-founder of elemental, a platform for reconnecting humans to Nature through mindful practice. → www.ifitsthelastthingido.com → www.experienceelemental.com

🌿 Nervous System Alchemy: Live in LA

Leslie and Julia are hosting a powerful in-person workshop on June 7 from 3–5pm at Laughing Frog Yoga in Los Angeles. This event blends nervous system regulation, breathwork, and yoga into a community-based space for deep release, integration, and grounded aliveness.

→ register here

✨ Free Mini- Series from Rachel: Moving Through Upper Limits

If you've ever found yourself hitting a ceiling — emotionally, financially, or creatively — even when you're doing all the right things, this 3-part video series will show you why your nervous system might be holding the brakes... and how to release the pattern at its root.

→ start your journey here https://rachel-hardy.aweb.page/p/aea708d2-874b-48ea-8f0f-74b606361daf

💌 Stay Connected

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend. This work is meant to ripple — and your presence matters.

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission.

If you've ever felt hijacked by your own nervous system — caught in thoughts you don't believe, feelings you didn't expect, or patterns you thought you'd already moved through — this episode is for you.

This week, after an amazing date that stirred up more than I expected, I found myself right in the middle of an old loop.

And I used the exact process I turn to when everything's firing at once — sensation, thought, emotion, and meaning — and you need to find your way through without overriding anything.

We'll explore:

• What trauma loops actually are, and how they run under the surface

• Why your body sometimes reacts like the past is still happening — even when it's not

• The concept of overcoupling, and how past pain gets wired into present moments

• Why mindset alone can't resolve patterns that begin in the body

• And how to reclaim agency, in real time, without needing to feel calm first

This is about learning how to stay with what's uncomfortable, charged, or confusing — and still make a conscious choice.

🔗 Links & Resources

Join the Nervous System Sanctuary A self-paced space filled with somatic tools, practices, and real support for creating regulation in your body, every day. → https://rachel-hardy.xperiencify.io/sanctuary/learn-more/

Waitlist for 1:1 work Learn more about 1:1 Somatic work with me, and add your name to be notified when new spots open.

→ https://go.rachelhardy.com/hynsat-learn-more

Connect on Instagram Somatic reminders and astro insights for walking this path in real life. → https://www.instagram.com/rachel_hardy_coaching/

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission.

In today's episode, we're diving into a real (and often hidden) part of the growth process: how things can feel messier, heavier, or more chaotic right before they truly expand.

This is the work of capacity building — the nervous system learning how to hold more energy, more change, more life without defaulting back into old patterns of survival stress.

If you've ever found yourself wondering, "Why do I feel worse even though I'm doing all the right things?" — this episode is for you.

We'll explore:

• Why discomfort often signals true expansion (not failure)

• How the nervous system recalibrates during growth

• How to move through the "in-between" without shutting down or self-sabotaging

• What it really means to build capacity for ease, flow, and creation

Links & Resources:

🌿 Ready to start supporting your nervous system at a gentle, accessible pace? The Nervous System Sanctuary — a monthly space for steady growth, regulation, and ease.

🌟 Ready for deeper, transformational work? Heal Your Nervous System and Thrive — a 1:1 journey for soulful leaders and creatives ready to clear outdated survival patterns and step into greater freedom, clarity, and power.

My book on Amazon -- read my story here. "Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission.

What if your tiredness isn't a problem to fix… but a signal that your body is completing something?

In this short, real-time episode, I share a personal moment from my own journey—a day when a wave of full-body tiredness arrived, not as a breakdown, but as a breakthrough. We explore the connection between the recent Neptune-in-Aries shift, post-eclipse energy, and the body's natural cycles of completion.

You'll hear how I moved through the fog by feeling instead of forcing, and what it looks like to return to presence instead of panic.

These waves we're riding? They're not breakdowns. They're breakthroughs in motion.

We'll also explore:

• The difference between pushing through and feeling through

• Why building capacity is key to navigating energetic shifts

• What the body may really be doing when it's processing tiredness, fog, or emotion

• How to trust your body's intelligence

🌿 Interested in working with your nervous system at a deeper level?

Start slow and steady with my Nervous System Sanctuary membership— a gentle, accessible way to build real capacity and ease into lasting change.

Or, if you're ready for deep, transformational 1:1 work, explore Heal Your Nervous System and Thrive — my program for soulful leaders and creatives who are ready to clear outdated survival patterns from their body and step into greater ease, freedom, and creative power.

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission.

In this episode of Nervous System Alchemy, we're diving into one of the most important yet sometimes overlooked aspects of nervous system regulation: building capacity.

What does that actually mean? Why is it foundational to real healing and regulation? And most importantly—how do we do it?

I'll walk you through: ✔️ Why building capacity is essential for completing the stress response cycle ✔️ How stored stress and trauma accumulate when the cycle gets interrupted ✔️ What we can learn from animals about naturally discharging stress ✔️ Practical ways to start building capacity today—in small, do-able ways that won't overwhelm your system ✔️ Why healing isn't linear (and how to stay present even when it feels like a lot)

Resources & Next Steps

💬 Let's Talk: I'd love to hear from you! What landed for you in this episode? What questions came up? What would you love to go deeper into in future episodes? Drop me a note: [email protected]

🌿 Interested in working with your nervous system at a deeper level?

Start slow and steady with my Nervous System Sanctuary membership— a gentle, accessible way to build real capacity and ease into lasting change.

Or, if you're ready for deep, transformational 1:1 work, explore Heal Your Nervous System and Thrive — my program for soulful leaders and creatives who are ready to clear outdated survival patterns from their body and step into greater ease, freedom, and creative power.

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission. paulbriggs.bandcamp.com/

Welcome to a new chapter of Nervous System Alchemy—a podcast all about unlocking your creative potential and aligning with your most expansive self. In this episode, I'm diving into how my journey of nervous system regulation has led me to the freedom and flow I now experience, traveling the world full-time and navigating life from a place of presence and balance.

For most of my life, I lived in a state of chronic survival-- an autoimmune condition, depression, and a dysregulated nervous system. Through years of healing, I rewired my body and mind to create a life of ease, creativity, and resilience. In this episode, we'll chat about partnering with your nervous system to thrive, not just survive.

If you want to read more about my healing journey, check out my book: The Shape of Happiness: A Nervous System Alchemy Journey Into Joy

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• How nervous system regulation can transform your health, emotions, and creativity.
• The importance of staying present through discomfort and stress.
• What it means to live from a place of flow and freedom, even after years of struggle.
• How small shifts in your relationship with your nervous system can lead to big changes in your life.

Resources:

• The Shape of Happiness: A Nervous System Alchemy Journey Into Joy
• Find me on Instagram
  • Instagram (Travel & Nomadic Adventures): @rachel__explores
  • Instagram (Coaching, Somatic Work & Astrology): @rachel_hardy_coaching
• My website: www.rachelhardy.com

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission. paulbriggs.bandcamp.com/

Emergent Resilience 12 - Embodied Astrology: Opening the Heart to Abundance and Love with Venus in Retrograde

Retrogrades are a powerful opportunity for re-patterning the deep beliefs, feelings, and energies that unconsciously drive us.

Venus rules the heart center, and opening to receive more love. Because money is how we give and receive, Venus also rules our finances and money stories.

While Venus is retrograde in the passionate, fiery sign of Leo, you have a unique opportunity to dive into the hidden blocks around money and love... so you can release unconcsious blocks to attracting the love and abundance that you're here to experience.

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Discover your North Node Placement and how it describes your Soul's Mission. Download your complimentary guide here: https://bit.ly/SoulMission-guide

Subscribe to my channel for regular updates, and learn to read the story your natal chart holds: https://www.youtube.com/@rachel_hardy?sub_confirmation=1

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

connect with me...

FB group: The Resilient Goddess

IG: @rachel_hardy_coaching

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@rachel_hardy

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission. paulbriggs.bandcamp.com/

Emergent Resilience 11 - When the Mind Doesn't Want to Calm - 4 Keys to Connecting to Your Higher Wisdom

In this episode, I share about a personal healing journey that's happened recently, what I learned through working in my Akashic Records about my over-attachment to the mind, and the key practices that helped me shift out of being driven by the mind and into deeper connection with my spiritual gifts.

___

Ready to move through your Upper Limits by Regulating Your Nervous System?

Grab my three part video series, here.

___

keep in touch!

website: https://rachelhardy.com

FB group: The Resilient Goddess

IG: @rachel_hardy_coaching

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@rachel_hardy

_____

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission. paulbriggs.bandcamp.com/

My guest for this episode is Melinda Hughes, owner of The Strength Shoppe in Los Angeles. We chat about ...

• how nervous system healing and strength training support each other
• why slowing down changes the game
• what happens in the nervous system when you safely meet and push past limits
• strength training as a part of a healing path

For more information about the Strength Shoppe in Pasadena and Echo Park, CA, or about working with Melinda virtually, please visit https://www.thestrengthshoppe.com

___

Ready to move through your Upper Limits by Regulating Your Nervous System?

Grab my three part video series, here.

___

keep in touch!

website: https://rachelhardy.com

FB group: The Resilient Goddess

IG: @rachel_hardy_coaching

YT: https://www.youtube.com/@rachel_hardy

_____

"Grace" written and recorded by Paul Briggs and used by permission. paulbriggs.bandcamp.com/