3 Things We Dive Into In This Episode:

1. The power of taking SPACE instead of filling every moment of your life with a stimulus
2. The impact of releasing emotions that have been stored in your body through somatic practices like breathwork
3. What it means to have a regulated nervous system, and how somatic breathwork helps you reach nervous system regulation

📘Resources

• Check out the Whole Full and Alive online course if you enjoyed this podcast!

• Whole Full and Alive episodes:
• Episode 1 - Wholeness: How to Feel Complete as You Are Now
• Episode 6 - Intuition or Anxiety: How to Tell Which is Making the Decision
• Episode 8 - Openness: Accepting Life As It Is, While Also Honoring Your Desires
• Episode 12 - Feeling It All: Reflections From 6 Months of Heartbreak, Change, and Adventure
• Episode 14 - A Healing Space: Things to Look For in a Therapist + More With Amanda Vasquez
• Release restrictive dieting, break free from body shame, & create habits that help you live fully! Sign up for my nutrition coaching program and community, Whole, Full, and Alive, and get a FREE 20 Minute Discovery Call!
• Connect with me and reach out to her to learn more about somatic breathwork on her website and Instagram 

📌Episode Highlights

[02:46] No Shame About Who You Are

• I've felt that I sounded too fiery in my past few episodes.
• People are often too critical of themselves. However, being whole, full, and alive means showing authenticity.
• My fiery side and softer side are both parts of me - and I feel no shame about being who I fully am.

[07:27] Losing My Soul

• I felt like I lost my soul during the end of my time in New York and the closing of my last long-term relationship.
• The soul is the intangible essence unique to every person. I needed an internal sense of safety and regulation to save mine.
• On a recent retreat, I learned about the impact of somatic breathwork and started practicing it.
• Despite the constant travel and change, I found a constant, healing relationship in my somatic breathwork sessions with my facilitator.
• Somatic breathwork saved my soul. With it, I undid the limiting belief that I was inherently a bad person.

Caitie: “I feel like I could admit to mistakes that I've made in the past. I could admit to things that I feel shame about and know that I'm still good, that I'm still okay, and that I'm still lovable. These things are not actually unlovable about me. These things are actually things that I've learned from and grown from.”

[19:37] Taking Space For Yourself

• It’s rare for people to take the time to sit, be with themselves, and tune into their bodies.
• Too often, people try to fill every part of their lives. We end up suppressing our emotions and pushing through them.
• Taking space allows you to process, learn, and heal from your experience. It's in silence where intangible energy can be processed and exchanged.
• When you take space, you don’t suppress, ignore, or distract yourself from feeling your emotions.
• Another option is to have someone else hold space for you. 

Caitie: “Having space gives you the ability to digest your experiences. It gives you the space to actually integrate all the things that are happening to you in your life. And learn something from them, heal from them and kind of crystallize them into wisdom. That sounds a little cheesy. But having space allows you to really integrate all the experiences you're having in your life.”

[30:18] How to Practice Somatic Breathwork

• There are multiple ways to practice breathwork other than somatic. Some types use over-breathing or relaxed breathing techniques.
• When practicing somatic breathing, you first inhale and exhale through your mouth. This action stimulates your nervous system and helps you feel what needs to be released.
• Next, hold your breath for a moment. During this time, you might feel an intense download.
• Finally, go into the regulating phase. Inhale and exhale through your nose to regulate your nervous system.

[34:44] Releasing Emotions

• The first half of your breathwork allows you to feel the suppressed emotions that have built up within your body.
• If you don’t let yourself fully feel and integrate these emotions, your body will gravitate towards similar experiences. 
• I harbored feelings of deep sadness and unworthiness. Because of that, I tended to have relationships with people who treated me inadequately.
• Your body stores traumatic experiences. No matter how much you intellectualize or try to think through it, it won't be processed until you fully feel it.
• Somatic breathwork allows you to process and release that emotion that’s keeping your body in a survival state.

[40:03] Space for Both the Good and the Bad

• As you practice somatic breathwork, you move from stimulation to relaxation of your body. A regulated system like this can help you feel soothed, safe, and at peace.
• When I started practicing, I found I was more able to be neutral and look at my life experiences without getting stuck.
• One of my facilitators was able to hold space for his parents. He talked about his parents' difficulties and how they loved him with grace and neutrality.
• Somatic breathwork can help you achieve a capacity for things to be good and bad simultaneously.

[44:21] How Somatic Breathwork Helped Me

• After I released so much, I could fully receive each experience of my life. 
• Breathwork also helped me stop avoiding my body. I could further process the emotions within me and feel safe.

Caitie: “When you take space to really just breathe, and let yourself feel and be with yourself fully, you're open to receiving life, you're open to receiving presence.”

• I could see the world without the lens of trauma.
• Therapy can help you understand and process your experiences. It can help you navigate relationships, make decisions and create meaning.
• However, your body continues to remember and hold everything. Breathwork allows you to release what you've experienced.

[50:56] Learning to Hold Space with Deep Breathing

• Somatic breathwork was my anchor throughout my travels.
• It changed my view of life and the world and helped me improve at holding space for my clients.
• Through breathwork, I learned to stop rushing and to slow down to create space.
• It's vital to trust that every person has an innate intelligence. Their body is trying to protect and regulate them.
• Don't assume you know what's best and push your agenda. Instead, assess the other person's experience and give more space for them to be able to feel and release.

[54:09] This Week’s Processing Prompt and Actionable Experiment

• Processing Prompt: What do you want to receive?
• This question