Radical Massage Therapist Podcast - Sophia F1 240913

4:17PM Nov 14, 2024

Speakers:

Krista Dicks

Keywords:

body image dysmorphia

anorexia warning

radical massage therapist

career benefits

life coach

Ayurveda principles

healing journey

yoga teacher

women's circles

divine feminine

emotional release

nature connection

self-awareness

daily routine

holistic healing

Just giving you a trigger warning for this episode. We talk about body image dysmorphia and anorexia. So if this episode is not for you, I completely understand and we'll see you next time. Hello, radical massage therapist, and welcome to another episode of the radical massage therapist podcast. My name is Krista. I'm a registered massage therapist in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and I'm also a clinic owner, been massage therapist for 18 years and a clinic owner for just under two years. Lucky for you, I am not the radical massage therapist, but you are. I really appreciate you being here to learn more about the benefits of a career in massage therapy. Whether you have been in this profession for a long time, you're brand new or you're just thinking about it, the benefits are freedom, flexibility, financial success and fun, fun, inside and outside our work. My guest today is Sophia wood massacut. She is a certified life coach, 500 hour yoga teacher and Ayurveda practitioner. She guides courageous women to reclaim their power and create a life that is aligned with their most authentic essence, known in the community for her empowering yoga classes, wellness programs and women's circles, Sophia also provides one on one support, inspired by nature and empowered through the heart. Sophia is teaching and methodology come from the ancient wisdom and healing system of Ayurveda, tantra yoga, the chakra system and masculine and feminine energy principles. I really appreciate Sophia being here so that she can explain a little bit more about what Ayurveda is, how it can benefit us as practitioners, and also how it might benefit your clients. I hope you enjoy this episode with Sophia. Sophia, thanks so much for being on the podcast today.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited. Yeah, I'm excited

to have you too. Um, tell me about your morning. So far,

my morning started outside yoga flow, five sturdy. Yes, it's a little bit early, but I love those times in the morning. And then I had a beautiful oatmeal outside of my coffee, and then started to just take notes for our chat today.

Amazing. I saw you posted yesterday about a giant like sweet potato cookie that I would love the recipe too. So I'll talk to you about that later. But anyway, I would love to just jump in to what we're going to talk about today. I think it's going to be a little bit all over the place when it comes to your journey. I really wanted to come on here to to chat with you about your like, your A your PETA yoga experience, because it's new to me, and think it's like a word that we hear, and it sounds very out there, but I feel that it's just important again, part of the podcast is just trying to educate massage therapists and body workers and just general health care about how, Like, what is out there, and what else we have to offer our clients. And if we don't know what what it is that you do, then we can't refer. And we also can't be of benefit to our clients. We don't know if it's right for them, if we don't know exactly what it is. So I really appreciate you coming on here. That's definitely a place that I want to go to share that. But can you describe a little bit about how you became into the line of work that you do? I've experienced your work through different modalities, through yoga, through women's circles, and then through sessions myself with you, but can you describe your your journey so far? Yeah,

thank you. Thank you for that space to share my story. I'll try and make this concise as possible, but yeah, so my journey basically started a couple years ago, but it's been very predominant in my 20s. The biggest challenge I was facing my 20s was this feeling that I wasn't enough. Like, if that's the underlying key thing from my healing journeys, like she didn't feel as though she was good enough. And

do you feel comfortable sharing how old you are now? I'm 30. Okay, all right, not that far off from from your journey.

Yeah, and this bio, it's a constant work in Providence, but for the sake of me sharing this, let's say, like, especially the beginning of my 20s, I didn't feel I was good enough. And this all was catalyzed, actually, by a relationship falling out. And I consider myself like a not a hopeless romantic, but a very like romantic and hard on sleeve type person. And I thought I was gonna marry this guy I was 18. I was like, This is it. This is it. And it didn't happen that way. And that. Really was like the first like, drop that kind of let everything kind of go in that after that, I was super controlling of what I could control, which was my looks, so my exercise routine and my food, and that was, in hindsight, a way for me to control what I could because I couldn't control his decision to say no, thank you, right. And it led to a lot of insecurity, body dysmorphia, eating disorder, that came about as well, and just an over control like I would run half marathons, maybe twice a week, like and really control what I ate, not go out and socialize as much. And the Sophia before was bubbly. She didn't really care that much what she ate. Yeah, she put on her freshman 510, pounds. But like I was happy, like in beginning of university, and then it was just like, it like I closed in, I literally, like I was hurt, I was in pain, and the way I was coping was through over exercise, over eating, and just this need to control what I could because I couldn't deal with the uncertainty and the out of controlness of life, and particularly of this person, that kind of broke me right, but on my side, it was not his fault at all, is I allowed myself to go Through that, that suffering for many years like it was until, until another relationship came. So I had some, I had, I have very high, big ego. So my parents were trying to get help for me. But I had this, I can do this myself, type of attitude, which didn't help, but I also really, actually wanted to get better, because I noticed my hair was thinning. I didn't have the proper nutrients my body needed. I lost my period, which was the biggest thing. And those signals, like I was like, okay, like, this is like, I reached a point maybe four years in that I was in this cycle and lost like 25 pounds in a year. Two years, it was a lot. And where I was, like, something has to change. And I was trying to get tools, but through my own means, which made my healing journey very slow and very like three steps four, four steps back, like it was writing, right until I found Yoga, and this is where I I had this moment where I was like, there has to be something more. Like I had too many I'm on the floor wailing and crying. I was impatient. I was easily triggered, right? I was unfulfilled, like I felt as though there was something more to life, to this governmental work I was doing to all the like to my either two relationships I had that I was seeing a pattern in them only reaching or being with men that were emotionally unavailable. Like there was some accumulated patterns that I was seeing in myself and in what I was attracting that brought in an aha moment of like, okay, you're gonna have to go to another healing modality. And as a cabinet, I had spoken to my general doctor, and I had gone to an endocrinologist, and there were just question marks. They were just question marks everywhere from, let's say, Western medicine perspective. And I was like, I'm going to another kind of area, and ultimately, like through my curiosity and my innate, deep desire to know myself so well and to really deep into the truth, into the root cause, which is innately, like part of my nature. That's when yoga found me, and then Ayurveda found me, and then being an entrepreneur and doing my own thing found me and saying goodbye to like the nine to five grind. Anyways, so I'll leave it at that. Okay.

Well, thank you for sharing so many, yeah, so many, so much of your experience, I think a lot of women in their early 20s can probably relate to, did you really identify yourself as like with this, that first relationship that that sort of broke you, because I feel like again, a lot of women in their 20s. Might have this experience, and I did as well. So when I was finishing massage school, one of one of my early 20s relationships, I felt like my life was just going to revolve around his, so that when we broke up, I was at a loss. I didn't know where, like what my direction was, other than massage therapy. Thank goodness I was in massage school at the time to kind of give me that focus and ground me. But did you feel like you really identified with this individual that you were sort of like tied to, to their life, that when that was broken, then you completely lost who you who you were, yes

and no. I think this first love that I had was very intense. It was very fiery, and I was attracted to very many aspects of him. Now I was too young to have actually found this self identity for myself, like, um, this. I have my own path, and I'm gonna leave this all for him. I just thought, like, I was still in university. I was first year, so I was still in this, like, discovering myself, and like, wow, I'm really attracted to this, and it was my first sexual encounter. So that really bonded, like, that sex piece really bonded me, so that's why I'm answering yes and no. My second, really intense relationship, and the only actually other, really, I could say really, really intense relationship I had was six years, and that's really where I had to make a decision, it's me or the relationship. And before I had decided with him that I went for the relationship, I chose the relationship. I was starting my career here. And then I said, No, this was about I was 26 years old before COVID, and I moved to Costa Rica, where he was. And I said, You know what? My career can wait. I'm choosing relationship. And then that didn't work out, came back because COVID hit. And then this is where I learned, actually, to, you know, I don't always need to choose relationship, because that's my tendency, because, and I think it's a lot of women we're wired to love, to connect, to give, to overflow, to allow this of love and to to to want to merge with another. But what I'm noticing for myself, it's like, but I can still have also, like, an ambition, you know, an ambition to do my own thing, and to me, for me, that's very important, to have my own thing, and ultimately, I'm looking for for a partnership, to be able to meet me where I'm at, right but I had to make that decision of, like, I love you, but I'm not going to like, right now this is not serving me. Like, I can't show up 100% for a relationship, because I need to show up for what I'm creating right now in the world.

Yeah, and you're still on that creation process. Yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting. Yeah, yeah, wonderful. So then what's next? After you discover Yoga, you know, you've you've already, like, at this point, you're not in the nine to five anymore. You're pursuing your own business in in what you do now, what would be the next? How do we bridge that gap between finding yoga and where where you are now?

Yeah, so I guess this takes me back to COVID time. So that's when I had my nine to five, let's say, government job, and I had taken a couple programs, online programs, with an Ayurvedic school that also does trainings abroad and Yoga and Ayurveda, holistic healing, they call it. And then I decided, through their online programs, I was like, I really like this. I want to take their their yoga teacher training, which was going to be the second one, so three hours advanced one. The first one I took in Guatemala. I was also in government. I just took the time to go and do that. And that was just a basic foundation, a Vinyasa and Ashtanga teacher training. But the second one, when I came back, I knew after the first one, I was like, There's something here. And that was November 2021. I was already like, it was already, it's ingrained in me. Okay, so the I already like was manifesting, leaving the government. But I gave it time. I gave it time to clarify for my heart to speak, the clarity that needed to come out. And then I reconnected with my Ayurvedic teacher, and she said she's offering in Costa Rica in May 2022, a 300 hour teacher training. And I said, like I just, I felt it within me. It's like, This is it? Uh, like, this is it. But I can't deny that I was torn, because there was my boss government that said, Well, if you stay two more years, you can get indeterminate, and then you could take a used sabbatical, which was very tantalizing, right? So my decision, I could say, like it was, I just felt it, and I said no, and I left, no. There's probably two months of me going back and forth and being like, you know, doing the pros and cons list, like, which was speaking to an aspect of me that I didn't trust yet, that intuition, that deeper knowing I was afraid, I was afraid of not knowing, like, what's going to happen? Because my plan was, do that one month training in Costa Rica, go to Nicaragua for a year, teach, get immersed in this yoga lifestyle, right? The one that you deeply desire, to allow yourself to connect other people that are like minded, to be in your zone, to see if she's what what is for you. But that meant, obviously, to forego financial security and knowing what's going to come, which is, like, very scary for a controlling person. So fast forward, I did that. I had the conversation with Bosch. She was very understanding, and mentioned, I remember her where she's like, Are you sure? And I had a split second where I was like, I was sweating, but I was like, Yeah, I'm sure. And that to me, I think, was the the first moment where I'm like, you can trust yourself. Like, that was the first practice of like following through with a gut feeling and an inner knowing that I already had. And the more I did that after that, the more I follow my intuition, the more I trust in myself, right? So that's and that was in April, 2022 I made the decision, and here we are in 2024 Yeah, amazing. I guess bridging the gap to finish that is like I went to the training I did a year in Nicaragua, which was beautiful, but I just noticed it wasn't self sustainable. I felt a deeper calling to build community that I was trying to do over there, but it was kind of half ass working. And I was like, Wait a second, the people that need it most are actually at the source, which is are here in Canada. So I was like, what, what would it feel like to come back here? And a caveat that I think people should know is I realized in my healing journey that the biggest trigger is my mom. Everything comes back to my relationship with my mom, and my mom is in Ottawa, so I had a deep aversion to Ottawa, right for a long time, right? So coming back to the place that kind of started it all, in a way, was very healing, and like allowing myself to be here long enough to see myself through, to learn the lessons I need to learn, right? Has been, like, really transformational, and I'm still here, right? So there's a reason why I'm still here, even though there's some parts from you, like, you could be here and there and there, it's like, but I'm here for a reason right now,

rebuilding Exactly, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Well, thank you for sharing. I love, I love when I hear entrepreneurs, or just humans in general, talk about, like, intuition, and following that intuition. I love the like the journey of an entrepreneur as well. You know, I love that you had a supportive boss, you know, you burned the boats by just, you know, like you could have waited two years and then had sort of that security of that sabbatical year, but you decided to just go for it and trust yourself and do it. So that's really encouraging as well. Because again, like, I think even in massage therapy, we can get caught up in like, what else am I? What else can I do? And and, I mean, certainly my podcast is to promote the benefits of a career in massage therapy, but at the same time, I never want to convince anybody to stay. And if you know they they use the career to leverage themselves and get elsewhere. It's just, it's wonderful. So you're back in Ottawa, and what are you building now? What does what does your business look like? What are your goals right now?

So I actually created the Art of Being Well. So my business in during COVID, but it was such a part time gig because I was working full time. So now that it's a full time gig, the s. Essence of The Art of Being Well is really a creating a safe space for women to remember their divine feminine essence. Like that, in a nutshell, is what it is now, how we go about that. That's the fun part. That's where I realized I'm multi passionate, and I'm interested in a lot of things, and I allow myself to pull from my various interests. So my toolbox has a repertoire that is expanding, but for now, it's mainly Ayurvedic principles. So nature based, so working on the five elements that we all have access to, and kind of becoming like our own little alchemists, let's put it that way, to help our body strengthen its vitality, to cultivate energy and to be able to maintain that balance. Because from this state of balance, I believe that we are able to, first of all, remember our true nature and to take more aligned, clear, focused action. So there's a there's a big word that I love to use, and it's allowing, right? I'm allowing myself to be who I am meant to be. And this speaks to like, the very like caged approach, and the structured, overly structured approach that I was brought up in. And I think arguably, a lot of our Western society are brought up in, right? You should. You're going to grow up to be this, right? So Ayurveda is honoring your own unique essence and ensuring that everything you do, your pursuits, the experiences you have, the people you attract in your life are inspiring you and aligning you more and more to your soul's purpose here on Earth, right? So ease is harmony in mind, body, soul, dis. Ease is not harmony. So it's the opposite, and that usually manifests in I feel unfulfilled. Sometimes it's this feeling you can't really put words to, right? I'm always constantly ill, like I'm sick a lot, right? I have a sore throat, like these, these physical manifestations in our physical body, usually there is an underlying current of disease, of misalignment, like you're not in alignment. And Ayurveda offers us tools and practices. Yes, diet is there, but also lifestyle, right? Energy management. Who are you hanging out with, right? What are you pursuing? Like, are you in alignment? And these could be big questions, like, Am I in the right career, or they could be smaller choices, like, well, is the food I'm eating? What is it? What does it impact in my body and mind? Do I get, like, acid reflux. Do I get bloated? So it's it's all about self knowledge. Self knowledge is power when you know yourself the world has no power over you anymore. Yes, of course, we honor the ever changing cycles and rhythms of nature, that's the essence, but we're able to flow with the changes more easily. We're not resisting it. Same thing for life. Big changes are coming your way, instead of resisting and blaming and criticizing and judging and playing the victim, right? It's like we can we accept change for what it is? See it as an opportunity for growth, an opportunity to pivot. We can also catalyze that change right from a deeper connection with our body, from our witness and body from our heart, like that, intuition like that. It's time to change, versus being forced to change, which is usually the case from external circumstances such as COVID was an example, a death in the family, right? A firing from a job. Okay?

So two, two things that I want to recap on, or just get your clarification. So I love everything that you said. I think that was a really wonderful explanation, and I want to really share with listeners then these are where I like the holistic healing and. Ayurveda, like comes in, is that it helps us to align with the the person we're meant to be, essentially, and then that allows us to do our best work, right? So bringing, bringing that into our lives is then going to just only make us a better, a better person. And like you said, there's diet involved, there's lifestyle. And I also want to go back, so that's really great for us as individuals, as practitioners. We need that. And then these are also cues that we can listen for from our clients as they're coming in to see us in practice, that there could be some unrest, there's unfulfillment, there's these dietary, you know, concerns that they might have, discomforts repeating pattern like patterns that we that keep, they keep coming back to us for and although you know we're we're there to help them physically, we can offer More by knowing somebody like Sophia to offer them that, that little bit of an extra, you know, boost in their in their wellness plan, and that can also help, it'll met. It'll show up in the physical as well, of course, because then, then our job is getting easier, because now they're coming to see us for new reasons or different reasons, or there's coming to see us, because it's, it's a wonderful thing. So is that, Does that clarify, essentially, just the piece of my understanding of Ayurveda, because I've had, I've worked with you, and when people ask, what is it? I'm like, oh, you know, we talk and all of this stuff. And then they're like, oh, okay, but then, but bringing it together is is essentially it helps you become the best person you can be, so that you can do the best, the best work exactly,

exactly. So we're working with your prokruti and your vikru T so those are Sanskrit words. Prakruti is essentially your natural essence, and this doesn't change. You're born with a unique, bioenergetic blueprint. Let's put it that way, and it's made up from the combination of elements. So the five elements, space, air, fire, earth and water, we all have them, right? We're all part of nature. We're part of this creation, of this universe we live in. And essentially, our Prakruti never changes. What it can be definitely influenced, though, right? So we're influenced by a lot of different factors, such as the season, such as a colleague at work, right? Such as food that you take in our environment has a bunch of things that's ever changing that impacts us, right? So everything out there is a reflection of everything within here, so within so without. Because if we see nature out there, we can start to gain inspiration and wisdom from her and say, Whoa, I also have this within me. So how can I maintain that balance? So recruity, this is key, because this is telling you, essentially, your state of imbalance. So to make this super simple, as an Ayurvedic practitioner, and using Ayurveda, I'm not going to say I'm saying a practitioner, because I'm not a doctor. I want to put that out there. I'm not a doctor. I use Ayurveda as one of my tools in my holistic healing modality. But I would first look at the vikruti. So let's say your Prakruti based on the elements, based on your dosha. You are a vata. Okay? Vata is the combination of air and space. So vata, you're creative, right? You're flexible, you're social. Those are some characteristics of a vata dominant person. You're coming to me and you're saying, Sophia, I'm so anxious. It's Fall season, also vata season. I'm anxious, I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed. I think I bit off more that I can chew like and I can I can see it and feel it in you. You're speaking really quickly, right? Maybe your eyes are open just like I'm like, they like right now and then moving around. I'm fidgeting. These are all signs that I can feel in you that there's a vat of virus going on in this moment. So your vikru T is your current state of imbalance. So I would address that and in order and bring that back into balance. In that state of balance, back to your recruit, to your natural essence, right? And your natural essence is literally leveraging your strength so that you can be in your strength and leverage your gift as a vata dominant dosha personality, right? Because if we're always being pulled by external circumstances that are causing us to get off balance. So I'm always anxious and stressed. And I use that as an example, because that's the tendency in our western world. Vata is the king dosha, right? It's usually the ones we always want to balance first. Okay, if we're constantly in basically fight, flight or freeze mode, then we'll never be able to live up to our fullest potential. And in this example, it's being creative intuition. So earth and air and space elements, if we think about it, I'm connected up there. So as a vector dominant person, I can channel insights. I am spiritually connected. My meditation is on point. It's easier for me to meditate, right? But if I'm off balance, I can't sleep, I can get lost up in that world, and I can't ground myself and ground my ideas and creative energy into like manifesting it into the 3d world, so that it benefits our community, right? So this is where we start playing with these, and how I would address that as well. There's one formula that I always say that you need to know that I share with my clients. I work with opposites, balance and like, increases, like, right? So if you're high in air and space. Element opposite of that is Earth. Earth and water, the more like grounding, kind of heavy elements and energies, right? So earthing like get your bare feet on Earth eat foods that are grounding. And now it's a beautiful time for this example, because we're transitioning to fall, right? So we don't want to eat the salads anymore, or the popcorn or the the dry things, because that's first of all going to aggravate our digestive system. We're going to get constipated. There's too much air, right? I want the warmth, the nourishing, the grounding, the pumpkin, the squash, the root veggies, I want to sip on that turmeric, golden milk, right, which also helps me to sleep properly, because if we're in a season that's high in vata, I'm prone to insomnia. So you have your dinnercharia, which is your daily routine that I'd be offering. So a routine for your day that would be that pacifying in this example. And I'd also look at our season right, wherever you're at in the world, like, for example, now it's fall. It's coming into fall. So that's where Rita Chayo comes in, which is your seasonal routine. And they go hand in hand. So ultimately, the wellness guide that you'll be given, or how I approach this, it's very personalized, because yes, we can say, Sophia, everybody has the elements. So wouldn't it be the same for everybody? No, right? Or we're all going in the same season, where we're all going through fall, but you will be going through fall differently than me. Yes, there's a season commonality that is vata dominant right now, but you may be more vata and I may be more pitta, right? Pitta is more fire, more Go, go, go. So I might want to get things off my plate, because I naturally have this competitive, ambitious at like nature to me. So my daily routine may look different from yours, so I hope that sort of clarify,

yeah, no, I think that was a great example, and a great understanding of like, yes, we're all going through the same seasons, and although we we can adapt, and should adapt to those seasons, but they are still going to look different for everybody and how it's also more important to connect with somebody Like, like like you with the experience. This isn't really something that we're going to be able to piece together on our own. It really comes from from the experience that that you can offer as well. Amazing.

Yes, what I love, though, ultimately, my job is done, and I feel the most fulfilled when my client doesn't need to call on me anymore, right? It's when and what's the beautiful thing about Ayurveda is that it's so common sensical, like we naturally, like Mother Earth naturally gives us her fruits and veggies for each season, because that's exactly what our body needs in that season, so that we maintain in that state of balance within right we naturally say, naturally, probably won't go for the. Ice cold drink or ice cream in the thick of winter, you may say, I love ice cream. I do it anyways, whatever. That's fine. That's cool. Okay, you do you. But your body probably will be like eat first of all. Your digestive system will be completely Kahoot. But it's not natural tendency, just like our natural tendency is to have lighter food salads in the summer, because usually it's hot and humid, so we're naturally craving these foods. The idea is to come back to that innate intelligence and to actually reconnect with our bodies. Because if we're part of nature, if we're part of this creation, who is to say that we don't have that intelligence within us, the Universal Intelligence, is within each and every one of us, in the cell of our body. We know what we're doing, essentially, is preparing our bodies and creating the right environment for our bodies to do its thing, to heal, to detox, right and to give it the right nutrients, the right to Create an environment where it is, mind, body is functioning optimally, so that we can show up as our best self in the world and do what we're meant to do, basically living in your dharma, in your purpose, like Krista is here to do podcasts. Maybe you don't know this yet, but maybe this is like, your soul's like, yes, yes, right? Yeah,

amazing. No, I love that. And it is always so interesting. How far away we have gone from that intuition, from that knowing, from it is, it is very strange. I mean, I'll, I'll give a an interesting example, like, I used to live in the Caribbean, and I don't know, even in February in the Caribbean, super hot, gorgeous, but I would still crave like, soups and stews. So I was this, like, weirdo that was making like, soups and stews in the middle of February in the Caribbean, like, because I just felt like that's what my body wanted. And I'm not always that in tune with my body. We both know this, but like, it was really strange how I just, I was like, Yeah, you know what. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with this. But, but, yeah, would that be an example of, like, how we just have that innate, you know, like flow of seasons, and that's when our body just knows what's best for us. Or was that just completely off, because I should have adapted to the Caribbean lifestyle in this example, that

you shared ideally, yes, if you did, if you were connecting intuitively and honoring the desire and the innate craving of your body, then you would have probably gone for a lighter meal or seasonal taking the seasonal fruits and had coconut Water more often, or cucumber salads or mint or whatever was available there, right? And yes, and this speaks to perhaps a disconnection you had, right? Or this, this need to attach yourself to what feels familiar, right? But to this case, it may have been just this lack of intuitive awareness, right? This is why this connection with the body is so important. And really, Ayurveda is about re sinking ourselves up to the natural rhythms and cycles of nature that we experience out there, but also in here. And as women, we're privileged in that we have our own cycle as well, where we have our lunar cycle, so we can live with that cycle as well. But yes, ultimately, you want to tune in and say, Well, what would feel really nourishing? And you can do this daily. What feels nourishing today? Does the soup feels nourishing? Maybe it did. Maybe the truth in that moment was a soup really feels nourishing. And maybe for you, the soup is related to a memory of I remember my grandmother giving me this soup when I was feeling sad, right? So behind every action, usually it's tied to a feeling, right? I don't need to dive into this, because this is maybe a topic for another time, but the emotional aspect, for example, the food and emotions are so deeply connected the limbic system, right? So. So being able to discern, am I eating actually based on the intuition of my body, or am I eating for emotions, right, based on emotions and an association of something like a it could be a stress response, or I just am feeling a bit lonely and sad, and I feel like filling myself up. And what? What fills me up the most is that nice, warm soup, or it can also be a pot of Nutella, true story. Yeah, right, regardless of the season,

amazing. At the beginning of the conversation, you really emphasized women getting in touch with their divine essence. Is that really something? I think it might be obvious, but is that really something that we're we're distancing ourselves from, and you're offering a way for us to to reconnect with that?

Yes. So this, this is really the fun part, where I guess my journey has brought me to this reclamation, essentially, of our divine essence. And I'm going to add Divine Feminine essence, because I'm noticing it in people that I attract in and in my own journey, I was so disassociated from my body and not allowing myself to feel pleasure because I had closed off my heart. But our power lies in our Oracle, our intuition wisdom lies in this vessel, right? So this is when we dive into divine feminine, divine masculine. But before I can go into that, it's this observation I have of many women that are like they're caged from childhood up, caregiver society, you name it. There's so many ways that the modern woman believes she needs to act in a certain way, which tends to be very masculine oriented, because it's the truth we live in a masculine oriented society that values productivity right above everything, that values like this, this ambition, this grind, this kind of pursuit of goals. And we see women in suits and women working a lot with trying to do it all with, like, caregiver with kids, maybe having less kids because they put their career first. They want to, like, be independent and and be in like stepping into that power. But if it's there's nothing wrong with that, unless it's coming from a place of fear, a place of wounding, right? So the reclamation of the divine feminine is the softness, right? The creativity, the flow, the ability to rest the again, the word comes in, am I allowing myself the time and space for what fills me up? Or am I always being pulled to do things for others, to please others, whether that's my partner, my boss, my kids. I see this so much, and the underlying current which I'm observing, which is basically what I felt, is this, I'm not good enough, or I'm not worthy or deserving of rest of time off, or I don't believe now that my creative Time, My Time for pleasure, right? Whether that's self pleasure in the form of touch, in the form of dance, in the form of enjoying that sunset or that morning sunrise, that slow walk like that. It's not worthy of taking time out of the day for it, because it's not productive. It's not getting me anywhere. But when you start to reconnect to those little moments, right when you start allowing to nourish that divine, that feminine essence within you, right to just be in nature. Then you notice that that nourishment feeds into your pursuits, to how you want to express yourself and express this essence in life, in your goals, in your dreams, right? So it goes hand in hand, like we we all have, whether you identify as a female or male, this feminine and masculine energy within us, right? And it's our job to be able to integrate them both into. Wholeness that is the essence of our journey. Here, right? The masculine is a structure, the direction, the focus, right is the goal. Orientation is the the container. It's like the sky, just consciousness. I'm here. I'm present, the feminine essence. She loves to play. She's like, whoa. She's fluid. She's always changing. She's like the weather, okay, this is a good analogy. Now the masculine essence is in service to the feminine. And again, we both have, we all have these energies. So our job is to be able to hold ourselves through the ever changing aspects and nature of life, right, and to allow our feminine essence to do her magic, to do her thing, to manifest love joy, also to express her pain, her grief, her anger, in a safe way, held in the safe container. And too often, I see women either disempowered in their feminine basically, if you see the feminine as water and masculine as like rigid kind of Earth, you're either overflowing, kind of just like bleh, like a river with no river bank, so you're all over the place, right? People pleasing and just constantly, maybe just like crying all the time, just maybe like an emotional wreck. Or you're super, super in your like, your tight butt in a suit, very like, completely, like, no feelings. It looks as though you have no emotions. You're dry. You're like a river with no water, very rigid. Like, okay, so it's you have both. You have I'm noticing females, females, mostly females. Males have feminine essence too, and you have them both. So it's up to us to first notice what's my tendency, like, where am I right? And to know that it's okay, right, and that you have tools and practices that you can use, such as Ayurveda, having your daily routines and rituals, if you're let's say more in the emotional overflow type, your daily ritual, your dinner taking, the Ayurvedic concept will be, how Can I hold myself and create safety within me? Right to be able to, like, witness my emotions first within me without kind of, like splattering them on everybody else or playing the victim? Because a lot of people in that emotional water energy are playing victim,

right? Are you able to give an example about about what just a small, like a piece of homework would be for somebody like that,

yeah? So

to create safety. Yeah,

yeah. Create safety. Okay, so this one is huge. I just did a three day challenge on especially cater to people that have a people pleasing behavior, good timing. Creating safety is essentially being able to come into your body. Because when we don't feel safe in our body, our nervous system is turned on, right? We're either in fight, flight, freeze or fawn. So the fawning, the fourth type, is when we people please. So I'm morphing myself and chameleoning myself. I'm trying to please everybody else. But ultimately, this is pointing to an inability and an acknowledgement of the feeling I actually don't want to feel in my body, the pain, the grief, the sadness. So the first thing is being aware. The second step is safely entering my body, so grounding right when I feel the need to people, please, when I feel sadness coming up, or reef, or any emotion coming up, which is the water element. Can I hold myself and actually allow myself to feel that? And a lot of people don't, because that's when we go off to our coping mechanism. Let's put it that way. For me, it was exercise food, right? That was my numbing, right? But when I was able to hold myself, man like you, allow yourself like in a safe space. So where is your safe space? So a step before. That after acknowledgement, I'm feeling this coming up in my body, this is going to happen like I feel tears or I feel anger, whatever it is, take space. You need to have a safe space in your place, whether that's in nature, if it's not in your if, if your stressful environment is your home, then you have to have a safe space somewhere else. Ideally in nature, I have a sit spot. I remember in my most terminal time, there was one particular tree that I'd go to and the tree again. Tree strong like the symbolism of the tree rooted in like that gave me that energy where I was safe. I felt safe to allow that water to release. Some people have their safe space in their home. They have a little nook. So with the women I work with, one of the number one things is, let's create a safe space for yourself. Where is it that you can retreat in your little woman cave? They call it men. Have their men cave. We know that women, we can have our women cave too. So you create that safe space so it does need to be big, you can have your altar. I have an altar here. I have some feathers, some seashells, an inspirational my tarot deck, a little flower and a tree. Just symbolism, right? You create it. You make it your own, but you want that space where you feel safe to release and be like, Okay, what's coming up? And be curious and be like, Okay, let's This is energy that needs to move through you and out, because what happens? And if it doesn't move out, it it is suppressed. So every time we numb, every time we people please, every time we have that cookie that not that cookie, that pot of Nutella, that excess or we don't allow ourselves either excess or deficiency. We don't allow ourselves that self pleasure, right? Whatever that is for you, then it's like it's suppressed and kept in the body as tension, as stiffness, as numbness. We are disconnecting from our feelings, thus we don't even know what we need or want or truly desire, because we're so used to numbing ourselves. So how is it that we can live an authentic and fulfilling keyword, fulfilling life, if I'm not actually in alignment and connected to what is my truth, to what I deeply long for. I'm going to put it out there. Longing goes a deeper, a layer deeper than what I need. So recap, self awareness. What is my tendency? Right? Am I water element? I'm constantly emotional wreck, or am I like, sticking the buck for a lack of proper analogy, and very rigid and hard on myself and and really overly driven for the work aspect? Where am I all pointing to a nervous system deregulation I don't feel safe in my environment, or a belief that I need to do more or to please others in order to get the love and to feel as though I belong, to feel connected to something. Because ultimately, women were wired that way for love and connection. We want the flow of love. The thing is, are we coming from a place of fear of rooting, or are we actually coming from a place of love of truth? So it doesn't mean that the feminine essence is like, la de da. I'm just gonna like, stay next to the river and dance and chant. It could be that for some but for a lot of people. For women I work with, they're caregivers. They have lives too. They deeply want to connect to that aspect. So there's ways that you can add that element in, right into your daily life. So just to end this kind of monolog here, I call it the no agenda time slot. I think I share this with you. This is the time slot when you're like, if you want to add in like, let's say you're always working, always ambitious. Like, really high in that like, ambitious drive. It's like, well, if you're wanting to look to connect more to the Divine Feminine essence, where's the play? Where's softness, the rest the creativity, the touch, the sensual aspect. Sex is another topic, but for a lot of us, it's kind of like. Crunchy taboo. We're still kind of like children in that sense. Like, you know, it's kind of like, not okay. Now it's maybe getting more okay, but it's like, wait a second, like, what about that? Right? So, is there that 15 minute practice you can do each day, right, where you don't have anything to do for anybody else, or there's no goal in mind, but to please yourself. Now, that's a thought, an idea.

Yeah, I love that. And I mean, it can, it can look like, like anything like you said. It's just a no agenda, a time to be creative, to play like, what do you need? Is it just like a little dance party in the kitchen for yourself? Or is it taking the time to, you know, like color, or, you know, to maybe write in your your journal, or like a short story, like just taking that time and and relaxing that it's about, it not being productive. That was certainly a challenge for me, and still is an ongoing challenge. That I'm such a productive person, that I'm always, I'm always wanting to accomplish things throughout my day, if I'm even though I don't like the nine to five, I still think about my day as, like, there's working hours and then there's like play hours, and I've always I feel brought up to also do the work first, and then you get to play, or then you get to enjoy life. But if I never like the work is never done. So I never gave myself that play or that that creative time, or without it feeling like it needed to be productive or turn into something. So I certainly appreciate that as a practice that is a challenge for me, which is really interesting as well. But I do appreciate that aspect of it, and I know I want to, like, be mindful of your time as well, and I feel like we're covering a lot, and I feel like I've gone completely off the notes that you gave me as well. So we've got lots more to talk about in another episode when we go back to the masculine and the feminine as well. Can this also be influenced by, and I'm sure you touch on this with the who, who you work with is, is your environment, the people you're hanging out with because that might call you to be more masculine in certain situations. I feel as women, so you know it can. Can, obviously the environment that we put ourselves in, but also the individuals we surround ourselves with. Can that influence our masculine and feminine like flow as well? 100%

Yeah, so you and the quote for this, you create what you attract. Like the Law of Attraction comes into play here, but we always have to remember the self responsibility aspect, right? So if I am looking to tap in more into my divine feminine essence, and I noticed that my environment is very masculine oriented. But I can't change my environment. Let's say that's work, and I'm going to an office and I'm working, and it's very highly masculine. I can do my part and nourish and cultivate that feminine aspect for myself, right? And the thing is, where I see people getting stopped is the feeling that they have to conform to this environment. But we, I'm all about self empowerment, where, you know, maybe you want to come in with a dress instead of a soup. Let's put that example out there, right? Because that particular dress, or dress to you, symbolizes this feminine essence. For you, it's not for every woman, but for you, it is perhaps we are inevitably going to have to come face to face with a belief, right, that and a fear, perhaps, that I'll be rejected, that I won't belong in this space, right? But what I've noticed is that the more and more you allow yourself to actually give yourself what you truly crave, and if in that moment, it's like, man, right now I feel like wearing nice earrings, high heels and a dress, because to me, that's the expression of the divine feminine in this moment. Maybe it's not every day, but in this moment it is. So I'm going to dress that way, and I'm going to show up that way. You are going to start attracting your tribe, your community, and yes, you will perhaps trigger some others, and you have to be able to be okay with that. And this is where there is what we can control and what we cannot, and we have to be very clear on that and be okay with people slowly leaving our lives, because inevitably. When you are starting to walk your truth and are aligning more and more to the woman that you're becoming right and allowing your desires to be like coming up and to honor them by taking action, for example, by wearing that dress instead of your typical Well, I'm gonna wear the suit again, just because that's what everybody else says, and that's what's expected of me. And I put this because usually it's a belief that we have, that we have to dress this way. I digress, we are inevitably going to repel some and it feels crunchy, especially as a woman, because that means I'm losing love and connection. So our tendency is to want to grab and try to fix our environment, or try and get to people understand, no, no, you have to be able to lean back and say, like, this is how I'm showing up. And of course, it's gonna feel crunch at the beginning, because it's a new habit. You're building a new way of showing up that you're showing the world like this is this is me, and if you're not okay with this, that's okay, because I know that the people that are going to be okay and that actually are going to support me, right? They're going to come into my life. So that's where there's that law of attraction coming in, right? So in an essence, it's you. You get to create your own reality, that's the thing. But you need to be okay with having people not be okay with what you're doing, how you're showing up. And this is why number one work is that, am I okay with who I am? So that creating safety for yourself, allowing yourself to feel your emotions, knowing that your emotions are not bad, right? Because a lot of us, we've been taught, like, don't be sad, like to suppress our emotions, to completely numb, though, right? But no, our emotions are superpowers, if we allow them to be, because they're always pointing us right. They're pointing us. They're guiding us into what is in alignment, what is not in alignment, right? So it's always this reconnection to the body this I'm safe here. I'm grounded, another beautiful practice. I'm sitting here, super accessible. If you're feeling nervous, you're feeling okay, I'm getting on my growth edge, like this. Doesn't feel comfortable when I want to do this. Let's say this. It's like I'm feeling this come through. And instead of trying to people please, for example, or trying to to just completely suppress this, this emotion, and start doing something else. I'm gonna put my feet on the ground, take your shoes off, hand on your womb, hand on your heart, two powerful intuitive centers. Close your eyes, take a deep breath. Exhale through the mouth. You're I'm safe in my body. I'm safe to be here in my body. You can continue with the cleansing breaths and with the affirmation for as long as you need right? This is one part and or another version. This sometimes is not available because the energy that wants to move through you so strong, depending on how suppressed it's been, that you need to dance, you need to you need to rage a little bit. So this is when you may want to take a step out of the meeting you're in, perhaps, or even the room you're in in your house, and to allow a bigger release. But the essence here always is, am I allowing the energy that needs to run through me come out? Not half ass. It actually like fully allow it in the expression it wants to come through. Is it chanting? Is it vocalizing? So another thing is, ha, right? Another step is inhale through the nose, exhale. Ha, so you're dropping into the body, and you're actually as you're opening your vocal cords, you're adding a deeper release, and you're entering into your heart space.

Again. We can go on and on, but I'm gonna stop myself.

I think those are, those are great practices as well. I love that. It's possible that we could end on that, or is there something that we we need to touch on before we wrap up? Today, I would, I would love to help people understand what it looks like to work with you, and how they how they can work with you. If that could be, if that's something that we can talk about, or if you have another. Or agenda. I'm happy with that too.

We could end with ways that people can get to know a little bit more about me and how they can work with me. But I guess to wrap it up, if I can, it's this notion of balance so important in the kind of two topics we've talked about Ayurveda, mast and feminine energies. It all comes back to, am I honoring my truth? Am I acting from a space of imbalance, right, misalignment, or am I actually in my center, grounded in my truth, right? And the way that I'm grounded in my truth, the way that I can access that, is through the alchemy of my emotions, right? The only way that I have experienced, that I'm experiencing also with my clients, is when there is some sort of energetic release, so that you can come into stillness, into silence, where I can access the intuition of my heart. And only from this space can I actually take action. And for a lot of people, for a lot of women, it's nature. I'm in nature. I feel connection. I feel guidance. I feel supported. I feel as though I am part of this web of life, Mother Nature. So if I can offer that as kind of, maybe a huge practice, if you may not have already a nature based practice, get out into nature, unplugged, right? If the season still allows barefoot, walk on the soil, get into a pond or a lake, just get yourself and feel for yourself. What element am I most attracted to? Right? What element soothes me the most, grounds me the most, cleanses me the most right? Water is cleansing. Air is liberating, freedom. Earth is very grounding and nourishing. Space is like this horizon, this imagination, this perspective shift, gazing on the horizon, tiking up to a mountain top, right, fire, the fire Island, the sun. That's your soul. That's this this brightness in you. That's the energy the moon. Let's begin. That's the reflection. So find a way to connect back with nature and allow her to give you the medicine you need in the moment. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna end with that and and share a couple offerings. I did mention the free guide I'm creating. I haven't created yet. It's on my to do list, and I know you mentioned this episode is going to be released in November, so that's essentially a about 30 page guide with daily routine for the fall season. So I did one for the summer season that is in my website under freebies, and for the fall season, it will be in the same structure. So I'll start with an introduction to Ayurveda, then to the season of fall, and then go into diet, herbs, lifestyle routine, and then end with a couple recipes as resources. So that's one way, that's kind of free way to get access to me. I also work with people, one on one in a four week container, which is a holistic healing approach. We have our Ayurvedic consultation of 90 minutes to start, and then there's three other sessions. They're 60 minutes long, and this is when we're assessing and adjusting from the protocol, from the wellness guide that I've shared with you. And that could also include embodied practices, so we can do a little bit of yoga, some breath work, meditation, and this has really intuitively guided from the moment, and who is showing up and how they are showing up in that moment. Okay, for some people I've worked with, they just like to talk, right? And they get the insights, and they go along. For some others, I'm noticing, okay, they're coming through, and they're very anxious. We're going to start with less ground and meditation, okay, and another way more group setting. If you're in Ottawa and you're listening to this, I'm offering women's circles monthly. The first one will be in September. You'll be hearing this in November. So there will be two other ones, so I do them. Monthly. So for now, it's November 16, and the other one is December 14. Those dates may change, so always recommend it if you have Instagram to follow me. And hopefully we'll, we'll leave the for sure my handle there so that you're, you're, you're checking my bio link, but because that's where I update all of my offerings, and finally, the workshops. So I will offer also monthly workshops online. This one is going to be online, and the one in November is going to be navigating the sea of emotions. And in December, it's the art of heart centered communication.

Wonderful. What is your Instagram handle? There just you can, you can see it on here. And I still, I will put the link, of course. But what is it?

Yeah, so it's at the Art of Being Well 93 that's my the business one, and then my personal one is at Sophia with mascut 93 and I post my stories. I do them on both I'm more active, let's say, for reels on my personal, but for business related like workshops and offerings. My posts are going to be mainly on the The Art of Being Well, excellent.

Well, thank you so much for sharing today. Sophia, I really enjoyed all of your your insight, and I hope this gives massage therapists and body workers and anyone else listening just a great opportunity to learn what it is that you do, how it can benefit them, and then also, if you do work with other individuals, how you can offer it to them as well.

This was fun. Thank you so much for having me. You.