The Practice of Embodied Soul Purpose is the ability to distinguish between intuition guiding your choices or anxiety running your life.
I’m Christel Arcucci, you’re listening to the Soul Purpose Podcast, the lightning path of embodied spiritual awakening with shadow and light integration. Quit people pleasing, create healthy boundaries, reclaim power, and live your soul purpose legacy.
I based this podcast upon the assumption that every adult has experienced trauma int their life. Trauma can include events that are obviously difficult, like a car accident, illness or injury, a pet dying, having surgery, giving birth, death of a loved one, divorce, buying a house, losing a job, being bullied or getting robbed. The struggles of your own or a loved ones addiction, or a history of abuse or abandonment.
Trauma also includes events that FELT traumatic and may have been dismissed as “no big deal.” Like being left with a baby sitter, not getting a part in the 1st grade play, or being told you can’t sing. On the surface these events can be easily overlooked yet they may leave traumatic imprints.
The level of trauma in the body, mind, and heart all depends on how you learn to regulate your nervous system during and after a traumatic event.
I believe everyone has trauma to unwind and integrate.
A key component of embodied trauma integration practice is learning to distinguish between your intuitive body wisdom guiding your choices and your pain body wounding running your life.
Keep in mind your pain body wounding is not bad or wrong, you are not broken for struggling with anxiety or depression, the hardest life lessons are often the greatest teachers. The key teaching of this podcast is to recognize when the pain body is hijacking your brain is trying to convince you that it is in charge and the CEO of your life.
Let’s start to distinguish choices from your intuitive body that are low importance and how your wounding, survival strategy or the mind’s override mechanism will try to derail and control you.
The reason this happens is because your mind is literally designed to keep you in safety, which means keep you in what is familiar, even if it’s unhealthy.
As Carl Jung said, “until you make your unconscious, conscious it will rule your life and you will call it fate.”
Your task, should you choose to accept the challenge is to face your shadows and learn the inner landscape of programming vs transformational change.`
First practice is getting dressed in the morning or planning your outfits at night. Take a moment and a deep soul body breath to ground and connect your mind, body, and heart. Feel your feet on the floor, take a deep breath, gently move your body and bounce to bring your awareness from mind down into your heart, down into your hips.
Listen to episode 5 for more information the soul body breath practice.
Stand in front of your closet and ask, “what is the best color or outfit to wear tomorrow in order to step into my greatest soul-centered power?” Or change the request to speak directly to your desired experience or outcome. “In order to generate more money.” “In order to enjoy delightful collaboration with my clients or partners” name the specific outcome or experience you want to have that day.
Keep breathing and notice what your mind says and notice what your body guides you to.
Often you will have an exciting first inspiration yet your mind may try to logic you out of taking action since your brain is wired to keep you safe by keeping your life and choices familiar even if it’s unhealthy and or you are unhappy.
When your mind is disconnected from your heart and intuitive body wisdom your wounded parts will try to lead, this is not meant to demonize your mind. When your mind is disconnected from the heart and body wisdom, it can tell you all manner of stories that are not true, supportive or rooted in intuitive body wisdom or intuition. So at first when you start this practice the mind is going to try and take control, “listen to me, I’m the boss.”
Making healing choices from a deeply rooted connection takes time and practice. Be an observer when you’re standing in front of your closet and ask who is leading?
Love or fear?
Intuition or anxiety?
Intuitive body wisdom or pain body wounding?
Getting dressed in the morning there is no great risk, nothing is at stake if you follow general protocol yet still allow yourself to play.
After you ask the question and then listen, listen, listen.
Open your mind to how you receive the guidance, some people will hear words, some will want to scan your clothes with your eyes or hands until you feel it, others will have a deep knowing.
Here’s an example:
My mind says: wear the teal colored dress.
My intuitive body says: wear the the coral skirt, and purple top.
Take a breath. Pause. Listen to voices and explore the feeling signature of each voice and its essence in the moment.
Is it love or fear?
Is it intuition or anxiety?
When you start this practice you may experience discomfort in listening to your intuitive animal body wisdom.
As I selected this random example just imaging standing in front of my closet my mind said, “Wait, those are really bold colors together, do they even go together? What’s going on?” Even this is a made up example my mind is overriding the intuitive guidance yet I have done enough practice to know the difference between wounding and wisdom.
As I build trust in my intuition, I’m going to trust myself and make this choice to wear this outfit and go on with my day.
Eating is another great place to experiment with this practice. When you sit down to eat or choosing what you’re going to have for a meal. Ask your intuitive body from a place of deep connection.
Become anchored in your place of connection by taking deep breaths, feeling your body, recognize where you are in time and space, then ask, “What can I eat for lunch, that will support the highest expression of my body, mind and soul right today? Or to boost my immune system or help me feel clear and awake?”
If you’re choosing from a menu or choosing from your refrigerator, pay attention to what your mind says and what your intuitive body says.
These two practices are a great place to start, as you become aware of what you wear and what you eat and notice how often your Intuitive body and the override mechanism of your mind pull you into different directions.
The next stage of unwinding, healing and learning is to distinguish between wounding and wisdom would be in attending certain events, going to a party, an event or meeting someone new.
If you are in a phase of deep trauma where there’s a fear of going out, there can be healthy fear that comes from wisdom, and then there’s wounded fear that comes from trauma, the pain body and wounding.
Fear is not bad so be careful not to automatically connect feeling afraid with wounding. It’s important in your healing that you learn what emotions, feelings and sensations are rooted in truth vs where you can stretch yourself to expand your comfort zone.
Make it your practice to discover where and when to challenge yourself in a way that is rooted in wisdom and not in wounding because the wounded fear will push you to do things when the cost is too great.
I have unknowingly pushed myself too far many times when attending workshops, trainings or business events when I’ve said, “you have to go, you’re gonna miss out, you need this information, if you don’t get this information your business will fail.”
Okay, that was a really good example of wounded fear driving. You can feel and hear the FOMO and threats present in that example of self talk.
When I was working on this in my own practice many years ago I was attending a lot of business events. Most of those events were in hotel conference rooms with recycled air, fluorescent lights with no windows, tight seating back in the day. When we used to do that with 50 to 500 people, the is not my ideal environment, it’s hard on me.
I was actively working on this intuitive body healing practice to restore my intuition I would negotiate with myself, and use my inner guidance to help me select the best choice for the outcome I desired.
For example if there is a two day business building event I am considering attending, I connect my breath with my body-mind, to decide if I was even going to the event by asking, “will this event support me and my business to create a bigger impact and make more money?”
If the answer is yes, then I would choose which sessions to attend based on my intuitive body wisdom. There were generally morning and afternoon sessions sometimes evening sessions with lunch and dinner break.
Examples of how I plan my day, I would attend the morning session and then leave after lunch, or I would show up at the end of the lunch break and attend the afternoon session.
Sometimes I would be guided to walk out in the middle of a session, sit on the sun, or walk around the block, and then come back for the next session. I let my intuition guide me and it became easy to distinguish when wounding or fear was trying to control me.
Yes, I was missing information yet as I rebuilt trust with my intuition I always ended up hearing the information I most needed or magically meeting someone to collaborate with on a project I was working on.
The FOMO fear/wounding voice would jump in and declare, “if you don’t attend EVERYTHING your business is going to fail.”
My bone deep intuitive animal body says, “that is not accurate information. You are speaking from fear and wounding, no thank you.”
The intuition and wisdom body is not rooted in fear, it’s not an urgent, emergency type of feeling when you receive guidance.
When my intuition is guiding me and it is actually an emergency it feels grounded, rooted, clear, firm, direct, kind yet confident.
The fear and wounding voice uses, threats, shame, FOMO and false urgency.
As you practice you will begin to recognize the fear program and rebuild trust instead.
I want to restate this teaching in another way to make sure it lands since this is often life changing for my clients once they get it in their bones.
If we go back to the business events example. Pause, breathe, feel your feet on the floor and anchor yourself in the present time and say, “honey. I love you, and I’ll be at the sessions that I need to be at.” I trust that what I need it’s available and will be provided when I need it.”
When you’re in a place of deep connection body, mind, heart and soul you’re rooted in your being, what you need, shows up.
The soul body breath practice is helping you weave your body, mind and heart together. In order to notice when and how your trauma and wounding pulls you off center.
Soul body, breath and present moment awareness helps anchor you in trust, connection, willingness to face hardships, shadow aspects, wounds and being okay with the things that you miss out on.
This practice will help you to choose what you attend or what you do. Each time you consciously select the places that you stretch and challenge yourself for positive and empowered choice you are healing your entire animal body intuitive system
Stretch yourself in ways that it’s easier to heal, think about increasing trust in your intuitive body like increasing your physical capacity. If you are learning to do the splits and can’t even go halfway down, it would be unwise to overriding my body’s limits and wisdom forcing yourself into the splits on the first day.
If you have perfectionist tendencies keep in mind and heart that you will not do this perfectly and forcing yourself with an override approach would likely get you injured, but take your time with patience, sensitivity and persistence every day you will increase your capacity and restore your intuitive animal body wisdom.
Journal prompts (visit Soulpurposepodcast.com for a printable version)
I encourage you to write without stopping and without editing. The answers are your perspective and experience, there’s no right or wrong, yet the practice itself often highlights your personal relationship with wounding and wisdom, intuition and anxiety,
What’s the difference between wounding and wisdom?
Write a magical example of your intuitive body?
How does your pain body trick you into thinking it’s the CEO?
How can you tell the difference?
Wounding:
Contraction/hardening/urgency/frenetic energy/demanding/bossy/shaming/making wrong/either or thinking/controlling
Wisdom:
Solid/confident/grounded/quiet/clear/knowing/certain/grounded/kind/focused/unconditionally loving/having choice
Wisdom is knowing how far to go.
Wounding is shaming yourself for making a mistake.
Just like if you have a yoga practice that wisdom of knowing how far to go in a pose.
Wisdom is trusting yourself and to challenge yourself when not to challenge yourself, so that you’re anchoring our choices from a place of wisdom, and not from wounding because when your make choices and push ourselves and challenges ourselves from a place of wounding, it can traumatize yourself or create new trauma.
My invitation to you is to take on one or more of these practices. Practice in your everyday life with small things that are low risk, where there’s no great cost in learning, to distinguish between intuition and wounding or love and anxiety.
The focus of this podcast today is to anchor yourself in your being and whatever ways you do that. Connect body, mind, heart, and soul. Come into the present moment and learn to distinguish when your intuition is guiding you. When your wisdom is guiding you, or when your wounding, pain body or anxiety is trying to push you forward and control you.
Thank you for being here, it’s a pleasure to walk the soul purpose path with you.
You’re listening to the soul purpose podcast, the lightning path of embodied spiritual awakening with shadow and light integration. Quit people pleasing, create healthy boundaries, reclaim power, and live your soul purpose legacy.
You can access the Free Soul Success Journal & meditation and all episodes of the podcast and all the goodies mentioned in this episode at soulpurposepodcast.com/10
I believe in you and the magic power of your soul.
For more revolutionary teachings and tools please follow on your favorite podcast app or visit soulpurposepodcast.com. I look forward to connecting with you on the next episode.
I am sending you so much love!