Hello, my name is Susan and I suffer with fibromyalgia and a whole list of things but I enjoy encouragement and encouraging that's the most important thing. I love to garden however I had back surgery in August and now I have to have a total knee done so no gardening for me this year which is hard cuz that's my therapy

As I focus on my breath more and more, moving away from the judgments and analysis of the head, I notice that I need fewer and fewer words to describe myself. The breath has become my safe haven, as it has for Buddhists and mystics for centuries before me. I need very little thinking at all when I am with the breath, because life in all its glory reveals itself to me without any need for commentary. I never needed to define myself. I never needed to keep updating versions of myself. Sure, I did need to release old, outdated ideas of who I thought I was: the victimised, the abused, the slighted, the belittled, the wrongly perceived. But who perceived wrongly in the first place, other than my mind? All of that can go. I do not have to fight for myself anymore. I am life itself, expressing itself as life in a particular form. That form shifts and changes over time, but that does not change who I am fundamentally. I Am still life itself. It was only thinking that separated me from life and isolated me from other forms of life expressing themselves differently from me, but they too are still fundamentally life itself. There really is no separation between us, except in thought, of course. My new mantra now is slow down - thinking - and breathe; or more accurately let life breathe and express through you. With love ❤️

Hi everyone! I'm Jamie, from NYC. I've been a social worker/educator for 36 years, and a life coach for 10. I've been very curious about bodywork for some time and joining this platform was a no-brainer for me. I have zero experience in bodywork or breathwork and am excited to go down this path. I participated in the 3-day workshop in April. It was my first experience doing like. @Steven Jaggers @Nadeem Al-Hasan @Adam Carbary In June, I facilitated a virtual session using Body Mapping (in the NYC school system) - completely out of my comfort zone but did it anyway. 300 people attended, and 251 people completed the voluntary feedback form. I was shocked! Some of the feedback: "This was an amazing experience! I wish all staff and kids could experience how healing this is." "It helped me look at the stressors I am experiences and gave me a chance to relax." "It gave me permission to take care of myself." "I left feeling calmer and more grounded." "I could feel my heavy head and shoulders tight but then I started to release the tension. It felt like I was getting a massage." "It was such a healing session. I feel human again." @Steven Jaggers You are such a gift! I am so excited to learn from you. If this is how it starts for me I can only imagine the impact I will have.

I walked into my latest somatic breathwork session carrying the kind of truth that hums under the skin. The guide asked questions that felt less like prompts and more like spells unlocking old doors. The first one hit like a blade: “I am consumed by my weakness physically and in relation to others.” That’s what rose from my body — not my mind. Raw. Unfiltered. Ancient. The breath intensified, and the next question came: “Where are you isolated?” The answer wasn’t about loss — it was about clarity. My awakening isolates me. Seeing my own patterns stretches me away from people who still live inside their narrow lenses. Then the breath built again — louder, hotter, more primal. The guide asked: “Who do you want to be?” And fear surged first: I want to live forever. Not in flesh — in vitality, in mobility, in the ability to live fully without being held down by age, weight, or hesitation. And right on the heels of that fear, the inner critic attacked — sharp, cruel, familiar. The voice that tells old stories about my body, my habits, my worth. The voice that tries to collapse my lens with the filter of shame. The voice that drowns out the ancient wisdom of my body trying to rise. Only after the fear, after the inner critic, after the collapse, did my truth finally land: Acceptance is the key to my freedom. Acceptance of all of me. Acceptance as rebellion. Downregulation softened everything. The next question arrived like a warm hand on the shoulder: “What do you love about yourself?” The truth rose clean: I endure, I cut through, my fire answers to no one. Only then — in the calmer rounds, as I watch the colors spiral into yin‑yang shapes as my system settles — did my future self step forward. Her message was simple and exact: I want to move without judgment from self or others. That was her truth. Her definition of freedom. To be the BAD ASS that I am — there is no fear to hold me back. Because fear is just the inner critic pretending to be prophecy. I rose from that session remembering something old and sharp:

Hey Somatic Insiders, I’m Katie, a newly trained Soma+IQ Somatic Practitioner! As part of my certification training, I’m offering a free group Somatic Session to those ready to reconnect with their body, health & spirit. All I'm asking for in trade is feedback after the session. If you feel called to this work, click the link below and get on my calendar! https://calendly.com/skatiebutler/somatic-breathwork-session Excited to support your journey 🌬️