Embodiment & Self Trust With Phoebe Leona – Episode 29

Phoebe Leona is the Founder of the nOMad Collective & creator of somatic practice, Mvt109TM and 500 E-RYT. Phoebe is an author, dancer, yoga teacher, and guide who helps people feel more embodied through somatic, movement, and expanded awareness practices to become more empowered in who they are, who they are becoming, and have a greater sense of belonging. She has been a teacher and guide for over 20 years but it was after a year of extreme loss in 2013 when she found herself in the vast open space in between her old life and a new life, that she dove deeply into her practices and began her company,nOMad to help others through their own transitions and spaces in between.

Throughout that time, Phoebe also developed her own movement/somatic practice, Mvt109TM for students to fully embrace the freedom of moving in their bodies, transform old and held patterns, and reclaim the vibrations & stories they want to bring to life. Her Mvt109TM practice is featured in her course on DailyOM. Phoebe also finds joy in sharing her story to help others in their own transformation. You can learn more about Phoebe’s story on her TEDx Talk, her podcast The Space in Between, her chapter in the multi-authored book, Caged No More, and her solo book, Dear Radiant One that is now available.

Connect with Phoebe

WEBSITE: www.phoebeleona.com

nOMad Website: www.thenomadcollective.org

Mvt109: www.mvt109.com

Personal IG: phoebeleona.love

nOMad IG: thenomadcollective

The Space In Between Podcast: The Space In Between Podcast

0:02 My guest today on the resonate podcast is Phoebe Leona. Phoebe is an author, dancer, yoga teacher and guide, who helps people feel more embodied through somatic movement and expanded awareness practices to become more empowered in who they are, who they are becoming. And to have a greater sense of belonging. Phoebe has been a teacher and guide for over 20 years. But it was after a year of extreme loss that she found herself in the vast open space in between her old life and a new life. And that is when she set up her company Nomad to help others through their own transitions and spaces in between. Welcome, Phoebe, thank you so much for joining me today. I’m so pleased that you’ve been able to come on my podcast in its new iteration, the resonate podcast, I would love for you to talk a little bit about some of what you did with your podcast, because this could be a way to, to let everybody know that it’s okay to tune in Word to decide what you’re going to do at different times and not just think we need to, you know, keep going with things we start. So tell us a little bit about your podcast first. And what happened there?

1:18 Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me here. Aideen. So I started a podcast, I think it was in 2018. And it was called the space in between, it’s still out there out in the ether of podcasts land. And I had this intention of it, because I was previously that spring, I think I started in the fall that spring, I had been invited to do a TEDx. And I did not know what I was going to do with my TEDx. And actually, this is a perfect for you know where you are, you’re all about talking about speaking your truth, and speaking with intention and, and what resonates with you in really stepping into the power of your story. And so when I was invited to do this TEDx, I was actually somewhat scared to tell my story. But I knew that I was being called to tell my story, my story is of being raised by my father, who was a Vietnam vet who dealt with severe PTSD. And that really affected my childhood and brought trauma to my own experience. And so I wanted to share a little bit of the story, the healing that happened when he passed away, and how it really invited me into stepping into my own story and owning my power. And inviting the person watching the TEDx and the audience, to invite them into their own role as whatever it is that they’re, they’re being called into. And so when I finished the TEDx, I, as a performer, as a dancer, I always, you know, you probably resonate, this was as a singer, like, I would feel this high of performing, and thinking, Ah, there’s such this level expansion. And then after there’s that low of like, okay, because then it’s like, you want that all the time, to a certain extent, and you went to the space of expansion, and you don’t know what to do with it. So I said, you know, there was so much power, and healing in telling my story and being on stage, and I danced with my in my TEDx as well. And it was like a feeling of coming home. And I thought, Wow, if I could provide that space for other people to share their stories of their spaces in between their transitional times, those times that look like heartbreak, that look like fear of stepping into the unknown, whatever it might be for them, whatever space in between meant for them. And I wanted to create, you know, a safe place for them to share that. So that’s where I started the podcast back then. And it was really beautiful. We had a lot of beautiful people that I knew who were already in my life, they were my guests, I would do a little bit of Dharma talks, as well. And I would also just randomly meet people, like whenever I travel, I bring kind of my little setup and, and I’d say, Hey, can you know, you’re really interesting, can we sit down and have a chat, and I would just record it, and I’d put it out on the, on the podcast. So that was probably the first year to have the space in between. And then we came into the pandemic. And we weren’t able to be with people because that was my actually my only role was we had to be sitting together in the same room. And then here’s the pandemic and I was like, Ah, my only role is done. And so what do we do? So I still felt that there was a need to, to share and we had the, you know, the beauty of zoom. So we just went and brought it to zoom. But there was something that was shifting and I think it was more of my own internal shift, and figuring, okay, I’m in my own space in between and I’m going to communicate that with my listeners. But I also am having a hard time communicating because I just really need to look at it. So I took a break. I took a couple have brakes, because I just needed to be a witness of my own inner journey of the space in between during that time. And I came back and we did, you know, probably a season. And it just didn’t feel like it was clicking like it had been that magic was kind of gone. So I took another break. And then I came back this this earlier this year, because I had my own book, that was my story and, you know, 300, page 300 pages this time. And I felt like let’s have conversations around this book, you know, how we deal with our own emotions, those especially the shadow emotions, like fear, and anger and guilt and shame. And I’d love to just have conversations with other people who, you know, dance with those emotions, or bring them out into the light if they haven’t really been public with how they voiced that. So that those were the conversations earlier this year. And then I thought, Okay, I need another break again. So I just allow it to ebb and flow. And, you know, it kind of goes against the grain of, you know, what they say in the business world is like, be consistent. But I really needed to, you know, and I think you resonate with this, because your intuitive voice coaches, like, I had to go with my intuition. I didn’t want to keep forcing the conversations that didn’t, that weren’t flowing for me as the facilitator of the space.

6:23 Yeah, sure. I mean, there’s so much you’ve said, and in what you’ve just said, I just like, I could keep talking to you for hours about some of the things that you’ve mentioned. That idea of expansion, and retraction as well. I think that, you know, in the business world, especially like, if you work in sales, they’re like, Oh, you’ve got need to increase your sales by 10%, this year at 10%. Next year, 10%. Like, there’s this idea that everything is in a constant expansion. And I know the universe partly isn’t a constant expression. But the reality is, if we look at nature, we see everything in cycles. So I love that you submitted and surrendered to that, that feeling of change. That’s not always easy. Did it? Did it feel like tricky to you at that time?

7:20 You know, I talk a lot about this. And a lot of my teaching and my book to is that I’m, I’m dear friends with chaos. And chaos is I think of chaos, is that what you just described of like that expansion, and then contraction, it’s, you know, there are times that there’s just so much we’ll be saying in Sanskrit and yoga, like varieties, like the fluctuations of the mind and life. And that’s like, that’s expansive state, but it can also look like chaos is, you know, in not in the best way, shape, or form, you know, just like a lot of noise. So, I, you know, I’ve embraced that ebb and flow of what chaos is. And so yes, it does feel uncomfortable, but then I’m like, ah, here we are, again. And a lot of the work that I do in my in my embodiment, practice movement, 109. And the teaching that I do is really, to how to feel, first of all, safe in your body, feel safe in your environment, so that when we go into those spaces of expansion, or what feels like the anxiety of chaos, that we can have these tools to ground ourselves and say, Okay, I am stepping into this space that doesn’t feel familiar, doesn’t feel comfortable, there is a mass amount of change in my life. But I know that this is safe, my body, my body safe, my people around me are safe, you know, and kind of identify that to take the next step into the unknown. And then the next step, and then the next step.

8:53 For sure, because it’s a, there is a need to feel somewhat safe in order to change anything. Because that that feeling of I can count on myself or I can count on where I live, or that’s the root chakra energy, right? Once that is a little shaken, it needs a little bit of reestablishment. And something has to kind of come back into that air that part of our lives that feeling of you know, is it safe for me to be here, that was one of my mantras for a long time, you know, my affirmations? You know, I’m safe all as well. It’s safe for me to be here because in so many ways, it can feel unsafe. But if you pare it down, and you look at it more carefully, you can find that that safety in your own body, but not everybody can feel that right. What do you think the challenge is for most people are around that, but just like, I’m here, this is my body and I’m safe here like what blocks us from feeling that

10:02 So much, I mean, one we were conditioned not to be in our bodies from, you know, from a very early age, especially with our emotions, when emotions come up, we were taught to clamp down on them and not feel anger because it’s not appropriate or not cry, because you know, you don’t want to look like a wimp, or whatever that story is. So first of all, you kind of ignore those emotions that are manifesting in your body. So we just sort of live up in the brain and let the body do whatever it is illness, injury, all of those are just messengers of trying to say, Hey, pay attention to me. And if we don’t, if we’re not, if we’re conditioned to not feel that, then those messages get louder and louder, until we do listen. So that’s one reason is that we’re just conditioned to not connect to our body. The second is, if we had some sort of level of physical trauma that could be sexual trauma that could be in a car accident, whatever it might be, we have dissociated from our body, right? We no longer feel that the body is safe, because it was violated or abused in some way. So when what happens is when we experience trauma, our brain actually takes us offline, right, the hippocampus, like takes us offline and says it’s not safe to be here. And so then when we come back into a homeostasis, those memories of that moment are fragmented. And so what happens in life is, if we have any sort of little trigger of that memory, we might not consciously realize it, but then our brain goes again, hey, we’re not safe. And so it takes you into a hyper or hypo arousal state. And so that hypo arousal state is like the numbness, the shock, the not feeling your body. But the hyper arousal state might be like, anxiety, it might be like that really high fluctuation of energy. And so you just don’t like feel like your body is a safe place to be you’d like want to leave and flee and in your environment, or your body and kind of numb it or something with alcohol or drugs. So there’s a there’s a lot it’s, as you can see, I really let I have your explored,

12:13 for sure. And I’m so glad you have because how can we truly express ourselves? If we can’t come back to ourselves in that way? Yeah, you know, how can we, you know, find that thing that we’re passionate about, or find that thing that we want to express in the world? This is like, foundation level, I’d like to express myself, but you know, I can’t be with myself. And that has to heal sometimes. So what’s what, what are the steps? Like, how do you? How do you start processing any of that?

12:49 I mean, first, the first step to anything is awareness is the transformation, right? Just being aware that, oh, I don’t feel safe in my body, or oh, I don’t feel safe in this relationship or situation or whatever it might be, to just to first identify it, and then pause and really become that witness of, of being with whatever that does feel uncomfortable. And then saying, Okay, well, what do I need? The next question is, is okay, what do I need to feel safe? Again, maybe it is talk therapy, maybe it is doing some sort of somatic movement practice, maybe it is working with someone like you to, you know, speak into my truth and you know, feel power through my voice. You kind of look at, like, what it is that doesn’t feel safe and comfortable. And then say not to go to the full extreme, because that might be like too disorienting, but just say, Okay, well, what can I feel safe in this moment, right now? Do I need a person that I trust? Do I need a home that feels warm and cozy, so that outside world, right? So you have to define what that is for you. And then you do it, right? You take that leap, and you lean into that and trust it, and then you’ll build that strength over time. And then you’ll be able to go outside, you know, that comfort zone will start to expand? Right? You’ll step a little bit outside of the comfort zone, and then you’ll see oh, this is fine. Right? This is actually now you’ve expanded your comfort zone. And then you step out a little bit more and a little bit more, as opposed to like going all the way to the space of expansion. Right? And it’s like, oh my gosh, I’m so far out here and I have no like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m dangling around in space and time and it’s like you don’t feel safe out there. So you go and you can tract completely into that little ball. So it’s like testing your limits, testing your edge, knowing your boundaries, setting up clear boundaries for yourself, so that you can continue to ensure way out. I kind of I’ve been sitting with this idea of spiritual awakening and how we’re all really waking up, I think the pandemic was a huge trigger for a lot of us. And we’re all having a spiritual awakening collectively, some are a little bit ahead of others, some are just like, What the hell’s happening here, right? We’re kind of all over the place on, on the system, you know, on the like, on the scale of it. But we’re all having a collective spiritual awakening. And what I feel is really important for people like you and me who are facilitating or like maybe just a couple of steps ahead of the person that we’re helping, it’s like not to take them so far away from their center, that they can’t handle it. And it because a lot of what I’m reading right now, in this beautiful book is like, psychosis, like schizophrenia, and psychotic episodes look a lot like spiritual awakening. And so if you’re having this expansive state of being like an altered state of consciousness, and you’re not integrated, you don’t feel safe, then it can, you know, become fragmented and become a psychotic experience. It’s really fascinating.

16:08 I know, that is understands, like, I know myself, I went from being in London for about a year or two and not doing well over there. But being very stubborn about that I should be there. Even though I wasn’t earning enough money. Even though I hated my boss, even though I was only working part time, even though I was living on a friend’s floor, almost all of those things, and my dad came to London and he handed me these letters saying, from my family, were worried about you. And when I came home to Ireland, I moved back in with my mom and I didn’t leave the house for six months, except to go to Mass. And then I found meditation, I felt my fan mantra meditation, I think my mother would have preferred if I stuck with mass anyway. I found my way, you know, and, but that it’s like that when you when you have to look at what you are doing. And you realize it’s not working. It’s not working on the things that I want, that I think I should be moving towards, maybe they’re not what I should be moving toward, maybe I don’t know, what I need, maybe I’m not choosing my right next step. And for me, it was it came a lot down to not being fully accepting of, of exactly where I was, because I was always trying to be a two or three steps ahead of where I was. And I wasn’t really dealing with what was really right there. And I had to surrender. And I had to take all of those goals out. And I stopped dreaming. But that was a good thing for me. Because I was so much in my dream of the future that I wasn’t being in my body and I wasn’t being in my reality. And from choosing to be where I was from being okay, what’s the simplest thing I could do with my life? What? What can I do from my little hometown? What can I do on my little laptop from here? And where is there a start your own business course, like down the street? You know that? Where can I get support from the government, if I’m not working, all of those simple things that were of the moment helped me to gain that feeling of? Yeah, I can, I can be here like, and I can be happy here and not be dreaming and not be looking so far ahead. So there’s, I think so many of us go through, if it’s not a phase, that for a period of time, it can be this, some people are feeling constantly this constant self-kind of questioning, should I be doing this? Should I be doing this? Am I doing the right thing? How do you develop that trust in those choices? Like how what do you say to people like you’ll know it’s the right thing if?

19:04 Oh, that’s a hard question. Honestly, because I’m still learning it for myself, and I think it is, I think it is a very personal experience of how do you trust your intuition. It’s under its first understanding what your body is saying to you, right? Like sitting here right now I’m speaking to my body feels really relaxed. I feel that my voice is strong and powerful as I’m speaking these words. I’m not questioning it. I don’t have like an inner dialogue. I’m just like, super present with you. So that right now for me feels like truth. Right? Now, if I go out and I get on another podcast after this and the person and I are not resonating and maybe he or she is kind of like questioning me in a way that I feel like they’re attacking me then my body’s gonna feel contracted it, I’m going to start to be like sweating a little bit. And we’re going to start to say, what the hell? Why did I say yes to this person? Like I, you know, and I’m going to start to feel different. And so for me, it’s really being the observer of okay, how do I feel in those safe and comfortable positions? How do I feel when I’m not? Right? And just first of all, knowing what your truth is, right? What does that feel in your body just doing the day to day things, and when you’re slightly outside of it, and then it’s like those bigger choices, those bigger decisions to make, you can start to listen, and just like, What I often say to my students is, ask a really simple like, yes, no, or like one word, you know, a question with that would receive Oh, yes or no, or like one word statement? Right? And if you ask that question, and you feel that, yes, like, it just lands in your body, and you decide wetlands in your body is that’s it? If it were if it says no, or if it says that one word, but if it starts to go in the head, and it’s like, well, but that is it. And these are the pros? And these are the cons and data. It’s like, you don’t know yet. You don’t know yet. And it’s okay. Right? Those are the varieties. Those are the fluctuations of the mind. And it’s because it hasn’t landed in your nervous system yet. It hasn’t landed in your body yet. And that’s okay that your intuition doesn’t know yet. You need more data, right? I always talk, I always talk to my girlfriends, because I’m single, and I do the bumble thing. And I was like, Well, you know, I’m just collecting data, like, I’ve just swiping right, or swiping left, and I’m asking these questions, and I have no attachment to it. But I’m just collecting data. And it’s not the data from that person. Like I’m asking the questions. I’m actually collecting the data like, oh, wait, when I look at this person, I read his profile, or when I have these conversations, how does my body feel? Yeah, like, how am I responding to that? Am I getting like super anxious and excited? Because I used to feel that that was like, oh, it’s love. It’s passionate. And it’s, and I was like, No, that’s actually anxiety, Phoebe. That’s an old pattern that you feel like, ah, yeah, you know, that chaos? That’s not going to bring you any sort of constant stability, safety. And so, yeah, it’s all about collecting data.

22:21 Yes, I love that. Because one thing, I’m just going to share this to our listeners, when I was learning to trust myself, someone suggested that I practice using it in a restaurant when I looked at a menu. And so I would, I would scan the menu and instead of reading it, specifically, I would read the headings, say, okay, starters, main course, whatever. And I, one of them would usually I would get a like a, I’m kind of interested in that there’ll be a bit more curiosity or something. And then I would scan the things and I actually try not to read it too carefully. Like, I would just go, and I go down. And I’d see if I got a little bit of an energetic by just my energy field, noticing what was on that menu. And sometimes I second guessed myself, obviously, but I was getting so good at choosing things that I would that I’d be really happy with. You know, the way sometimes you when you’re when you’re ordering, and you’re like, Oh, I wish I’d ordered something else. That just wasn’t happening to me anymore. I was actually checking Yeah, so I think you can use it as well for buying clothes. I’m like, I always second guess, oh, I need a new sweater. And other than that, I’m not sure. I’m fussy. I don’t want the fit to be wrong data. So now I’m trying. I had to remind myself these things. I try to go okay. Is it like calling to me? Is there a yes, like a real yes here? Because if it’s a maybe I’m not sure I should bother spending the money. You know? So that’s my little take on if anybody’s trying to figure this out for themselves and want something simple to practice on?

23:59 Yeah, okay. Well, I love that. And I was kind of thinking about, like, when I order when I order food at a restaurant and read the menu, if I don’t know it. That’s really, I kind of feel like I do something similar, but I didn’t really consciously say that. But have you also noticed, for me sometimes, like I sort of self-sabotage, like, like, I’ll choose something that I know I don’t want. But I’ll still go for it. Like, oh, you should just try it and go outside of your box. And then it’s like, I really didn’t want that. And I really want my person the other person got. So that’s a conversation to look at to like, why did you do that? Why are you not going to enjoy this meal now? Anyways?

24:47 Absolutely. It’s because that’s the feedback, right? So we made we were trying to trust ourselves and we’re trying to make these choices and figure out what is really true for us. And then it will test it in different ways. And we’ll make the decision for different reasons sometimes. But the feedback is what tells us that was the right approach to take or not. So that’s why I try not to think overthink it, I’ll just go with that, that, that curious feeling. And if I think when we start thinking, and that’s the brain kind of kicking in, and it just, it’s that left, right brain, you know, analysis. So there’s there, that’s just feedback. And it’s good to get feedback. And it’s good to test it to, to know for next time and like not to be kind of, you know, hard on ourselves in those times. Like, that’s how I feel, you know, things changed for me when I started meditating. Because I started to trust myself, again, in small ways, and very small ways, like just simple things. And I didn’t, I didn’t know that I didn’t feel like I needed to know. And I didn’t expect myself to know No, and the way I had done, I kind of presumed I know, I knew what I wanted. Now I’m like, I don’t really no, like, so it makes it easier for me, you know, we’ve moved like in the last two years to Michigan, my husband and I, we may be moving again next year. And I keep reminding myself, I don’t actually know, necessarily where we’re meant to be. So I need to just trust my next small little step. And it feels like the right step. And it feels like oh, yeah, and I’m curious about that step, then I’ll, I’ll take it, I’ll take it step by step, instead of having the right direction in life, I feel like I just started taking the right next steps in life. And that’s paid off, for me at least. So it can be worth someone else. You know, some of our listeners may want to consider it as an idea. And we’d love to find out what people think as well. So if you watch this, or listen, sorry, to the podcast later, and let us know what you think and get in touch with me and Phoebe, we’d love to find out more.

27:08 Yeah, I’d love to. I definitely resonate with that. I think sometimes if we don’t, we definitely don’t know, what it what is out there. I mean, we might have an idea of. But what has helped me in terms of trust is actually looking back and seeing those moments where I didn’t know what the next step was. And I did something right, you had to do something in order to move it through time and space. And to see that it was still good. Like it was still safe. Like even though it might have felt like a turn down the wrong, quote, unquote, wrong road. I still got something out of it. I still am was good. Like, I still had an opportunity, I might have had an opportunity there that I didn’t even know. So that helps like seeing the evidence of the past really helps me stay grounded in the present. And say, you know what, I don’t know where my next move is. And I’m most in similar places you like I don’t know if I’m staying here. I don’t know if I’m moving back to New York. I don’t know if I’m going somewhere completely different. But I’m just like, you know what, I didn’t know back then either. And I was still good. So I’m just going to be good with like what you said the next step. And trust that that bigger thing out there is calling me and I don’t know what it is yet. Like I hear that little voice. But I don’t know where it’s coming from yet. It’s okay. Yeah. Yeah,

28:34 Yeah, that’s beautiful. And I think one thing that I found reassuring my mentor Calodagh, who I’ve interviewed for my podcast previously. And she said to me, Aideen, I know you’re going through big changes again. But remember, when you went through all that before, you didn’t have a husband, you didn’t have a business, you didn’t have the resources that you have, you didn’t have all these great clients. Just think of like that, you’re in a completely different place now going through change. And you’re bringing all of that with you. So sometimes when we’re going through something similar again, we can feel that it’s like that, that, you know, we’re the body is remembering this fear of change. But in fact, neither of us is in the same place that we were back then we completely we’ve up leveled in different ways. And we’ve gotten stronger and more understanding of others and more honest understanding of ourselves. So it’s, it’s, it’s really, it can feel more exciting this time, you know, because we’ve already proven once we get we can get through those things.

29:44 Yeah. I love that what you said that because you said you were feeling triggered of the past have, you know, that experience that you were in before? And this is the moment I mean, even though that wasn’t labeled probably as trauma. It was still a stressful event. All event for you, right? So there was a micro trauma. And so our body is actually responding to that fight or flight. And so that’s why it’s really important to do things like embodiment practices, where it’s like, right, that awareness is the transformation of going, Ah, right, you recognize that, like, Oh, I’ve been here before, that is why I’m feeling what I’m feeling in my body. But then to witness like you said, I have a husband, I have a business, and I have some other cushion of stability or support or resources. And I also have some resources to take care of myself. Now I have meditation, right, you didn’t have meditation back then. Now I can move my body. Now I can sing whatever that tool is. Like, you can use those so that you can step and elevate or transcend to that next level.

30:50 Beautiful. Yeah. We’ve kind of come to where I’d normally start winding things up. But I really don’t want to wind things up with your TV. And then I love. So I’m not going to you know, I’m just trusting my instincts here.

31:03 I love it. I’m fine. Wherever you want to go. I told you, I’m yours.

31:09 Oh, thank you. Thank you for trusting me with that. I would love to talk a little bit more about this idea of embodiment. Now I have a lot of people listening probably from Ireland and places like that, that this word embodiment, it might be completely new to them. What do you mean by embodiment?

31:25 I love that you asked because I think it is also a new buzzword. The other word that I use interchangeably as somatic. And both of these are most just the gist of it is being in your body. Understanding that your body is your friends, right? Because we were saying we’re conditioned to not feel that. Being able to identify the sensations, the emotions, the energy, all of that is just energy, the energy that is in your body, making friends with it, seeing that it’s a messenger that it really just wants to be seen, heard and felt. And then also noting, noting that you have a choice, and how you want to express it, or how you want to release it, or how you want to manifest something new. That’s really the work that I do. And I do that primarily through movement and meditation and inquiry. Can you but there’s so many other ways like you.

32:21 Yeah, I know this I love. You can interrupt me as often as you like, I love it.

32:30 And you and you teach embodiment to with your voice, right? Yeah, because

32:34 we can’t sing until we become very present, you know, and become present to the emotions that we’re feeling, actually is because songs are usually quite emotional. Do you have any, like simple practice that someone could do at home right now that would help them with embodiment?

32:53 Well, so I have this little fun acronym called it’s play. And so you can do this anytime, anywhere you can play anywhere you want. And so all it is, is just simply P is for pause. So just pause what you’re doing. L is for Listen, just simply take a moment listen to be there a sensation in my body? Is there a feeling? Is there a dialogue, right? Like, is the mind going in circles or all over the place? Just listening and acknowledging it? A is activate? How do you want if you’re not in a desired state of being? How do you want to feel? Right? As you’re taking this moment of pause and listening? How do you want to feel on the other side of it? And then why is just to say a full body? Yes. And to give whatever energy that needs to be released or manifested or activated or expressed? You say that thick? Yes. So if I’m in a situation where I’m, you know, driving, and I have road rage, and like Gah, right out of nowhere, just like pausing and like, pausing that dialogue and like, okay, still driving, listening to me, like, what is this? Really? Where’s this really coming from that guy that just cut me off? Is that really, am I really going from zero to 10? Like, for no apparent reason? Because of this one person. It’s like, okay, I’m listening to what my body’s feeling. I’m feeling heat, I’m feeling rage, whatever that might be. I might be feeling adrenaline because I was scared that, you know, I might, you know, get in an accident, whatever that might be. I’m listening to it. And I’m also becoming aware of the bigger dialog of why that moment was happening, right of why it became into that moment, and then activating like, Okay, I don’t want to feel that anymore. So I’m still driving. I’m still not in a place where I could like fully, like, scream or express it. So I’m just going to take some deep breaths, right. So you start to activate that and I’m saying a full body yes to that. So that’s like, kind of a little example of what you could do in that moment.

34:57 Well, I think that’s awesome. Was everybody He needs that that idea of just pausing. Just the P actually, if you could do that.

35:08 You could just stop a P Yeah.

35:12 Yeah. If you do pause it does, like if the pause kind of implies that you’re kind of tuning in a little bit as well. So I love that. Yeah. So P L ay pause, lesson activate. Say yes.

35:26 Yeah. And actually, we were just said the P, like, just stop at P that we started to laugh at. That’s actually amazing that we’ve said that, because when we have moments of fight or flight, like what I just the description, I just said, if somebody’s cutting you off, what happens in our body is that chemicals, stress hormones, or chemicals are being released in our body like adrenaline and cortisol. And if you ever have noticed, like when dogs get in a fight, have you ever seen dogs get in a fight? And then when you tear them apart, they go off? And they like pee on something? Right? It’s one there. Yes. Like, we’re always like, Oh, they’re marking their territory? Yes, they are. But also, what they just did was they had these chemicals to keep them in that fight mode. And then they were like, Okay, that’s over and they went and they released the chemicals through their urine. That’s why we sweat to. So also to acknowledge when we’re in those moments where we can’t fully express it, those chemicals are still being flooded through our system. And we have to give it an outlet. Like, we have to let it out through screaming, we have to let it out by shaking out the body, whatever it might be for you. So that we can kind of release that story. Right?

36:36 Well, that’s also a good excuse, if you’re in. Yeah, if you’re in a situation with other people, you could say, Hey, I just need to use the restroom. That gives you your moment of pee pause, or apologies if anyone’s offended by our talk.

37:01 So tell us a little bit about the ways that people can you know connect with you, Phoebe and work with you or do embodiment work with you? What kind of services do you offer?

37:12 I love this, this question because you and I had a personal conversation about this yesterday and how we offer so much to the world because we’re both so passionate about what we do. The easiest way is to just go to my website, my name Phoebe leona.com. And we can work privately together, you know, working on this embodiment practice of identifying what it is that you’re presently going through in your life or an actual experience in your body. They usually mirror each other, they often are almost 100% near each other, you might just not be conscious of it. So I love facilitating that space with people. So that’s one way. And I do have a book my book dear radiant one came out earlier this year, by the time we’re this airs, it’ll be almost a year ago. And that’s my memoir. And it’s also practices that helped me through my own healing journey. So there’s that and that’s also on my website. And then there’s lots of other experiences, like retreats and online programs. And you just go to my website and dance around there and see what resonates with you. And if you’re still not sure how you want to work with me, but you feel connected to just send me an email, we can get on a 30 minute call and see what feels good.

38:31 That’s lovely. Because it is one thing to figure out what resonates within ourselves. But then when we get what I think when I started to really trust myself, then I started to connect with people differently. Like I started to know who was I want to say to have on the podcast or who I wanted to, you know, get support from or what you know, massage therapist I wanted to go to and I think that’s really that that’s part of this journey is starting to trust your choice and starting to trust that you know, maybe it is worth your time and your money to connect with someone if that feeling is there within you that it would be beneficial. If we can stop second guessing ourselves in those situations. I think we can evolve a little quicker.

39:24 Yeah, and I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge you because have we known each other for what two weeks you know we met in a in a serving circle and it took a little time to meet but you that is your superpower what you just said is your superpower of being present with yourself and trusting who to connect with and you have for me been this angel of connecting me with really beautiful, beautiful people including yourself. So just thank you and when I acknowledge you for that, so you’re doing good work and trusting your intuition? Thank you say so myself.

40:07 And it all comes down to practicing it. It really does. If anybody’s wondering how do you do that you just have to practice. Is there anything else you’d like to say to the listeners before we wrap it up?

40:21 Think just landing kind of where you just said is, you know, it’s the practicing the intuition. It’s echoing what we said, today of being safe in who you are now in your body in your environment, your situation. And then just testing your edge and building that trust and testing that edge and continuing to practice it continuous to continuously showing up for yourself continuously, not knowing what’s out there, but know that there is something out there for you. And with you. And I, yeah, just echoing what we said already. That’s beautiful.

41:01 Because I’ve really feel that each of us has such a significant life. However insignificant, it might feel to us. We are all important. And we all have something. We all have something, even if it’s a conversation or a smile, or a note that you write to someone, we all matter in different ways. And I just love the work you do Phoebe and I encourage any of our listeners to connect with you. Or to do that play exercise. That’s always good. I’m always going to laugh and I want to think of it because of the way the conversation went. I love it. I love it. And you know, being fun. And even that idea of being playful is something I talk a lot about in my work. Because when we’re playful, it’s like, we activate more of our mind and our hearts and we take our pressure off. We’re not being as self-critical and a lot allows a lot of good things to happen. So try the play exercise be a little playful everyone and we look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Resonate podcast. Thank you so much Phoebe for joining me.