Embodied Radiance Podcast

Kelly Gardner
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Health & Fitness
  • Weekly

This podcast is all about bringing yoga and life coaching together so you can bridge the gap between what you practice on the mat and how you live your life.

  1. 3d ago

    23. Open the Day: Awaken, Align, Envision

    Summary: Before we’ve consciously arrived in the day, the day has often already arrived in us. In this episode, the second bookend to last week’s Close the Day, we explore how to meet yourself before you meet the day. We’ll look at the space between waking and doing, and why a few intentional breaths can change how you enter everything that follows. Through the yoga idea of sadhana, we’ll see how ordinary morning moments become practice when we bring awareness and intention to them. Then we move through three simple movements: awaken, which brings you into your body; align, which connects you with yourself and something greater than the day’s demands; and envision, which asks not what you need to accomplish but how you want to meet the day. We’ll also explore the difference between intention and control, and why an intention is something to return to when life doesn’t go as planned. Plus the Thank You Breath, a simple practice that brings all three together: inhale thank, exhale you. Because the practice is the orientation, not the outcome. Transcript: So how do you begin your day? The alarm goes off, and maybe you reach for your phone automatically. Maybe your mind is already running through the meetings you have, the people who need something from you, the things you didn't finish from yesterday, and before you've gotten out of bed, your attention is somewhere else. Sometimes before we've consciously arrived in the day, the day has already arrived in us. Last week, we talked about intentionally closing the day through rest, release, and recovery. Today, we're exploring the other bookend because just as we can close our days with intention, we can also open them with intention. And there's an opportunity in that: we can meet ourselves before we meet the day. Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. [00:01:00] Welcome to the Embodied Radiance podcast, episode number 23. There's a space between waking and doing, and for many of us, that space is very small. The phone, the email, the news, the family, the mental list of everything that needs to happen can start pulling at our attention within seconds of waking. Nothing is necessarily wrong with any of [00:02:00] that. Many of those things are connected to the people and the responsibilities we care about the most. The more useful question is whether we have any contact with ourselves before we begin responding to everything else. Remember the movie theater image from our capacity episode? If the evening is when we begin emptying the theater, the morning is when the doors open again. You wake up with some capacity available after a night of rest, release, and recovery, and then before you've even made it out of bed, people start filing in. The phone alerts, the news, the calendar, the requests. A morning rhythm doesn't give you unlimited capacity, and it isn't about protecting yourself from life. It's really about meeting [00:03:00] life from a more resourced place so you can respond rather than react. And the space to create that doesn't have to be an hour long. It might not even be five minutes. Sometimes it's just a few breaths. In yoga, there's a word for a daily practice like this: sadhana. Sadhana means spiritual practice, and it can be meditation or pranayama, but it doesn't have to be separate from ordinary life. Awareness brings us into the present moment, and intention gives what we do there meaning. Drinking a glass of water or a cup of coffee, taking a few breaths, these can all become sadhana when we bring intention and awareness. I think of the morning in three [00:04:00] movements: awaken, align, and envision. So let's start with awaken. And I don't just mean opening your eyes, I mean arriving in your body, awakening your energy, your mind-body system. After several hours of sleep, you're shifting from stillness into movement, from dark into light, and from an inward state toward an outward state of engaging with the world. Simple practices done with a little awareness can help that transition feel steadier rather than so abrupt. They signal to the body that you're safe, and that gives you a clearer connection with yourself before the demands of the day begin. In Ayurveda, there are lots of traditional ways to do this, to [00:05:00] start your day, to create that inner safety. But I don't want them to become just another checklist for you either. So here are just a few that you can start to think about. Drinking a glass of water, often warm and maybe with a little lemon, after a night without fluids. Turning toward natural light, whether that's opening the curtains or stepping outside and noticing the air, the temperature, and the sounds. And breath and movement can be part of this morning ritual as well. Last week, we used a longer exhalation to help us settle in the evening. In the morning, you may want to do the opposite and welcome a little more energizing breath. A few stronger breaths or some spinal movements to get the breath and the energy [00:06:00] flowing and to release the stiffness of the night. If that feels like too much, even a few slow, natural, and intentional breaths can be enough. None of this is required either. The practice and exactly what you do doesn't have to be the point here. The function of it is. What helps you to arrive in your body? What helps you to become present before you start responding to everything else, to the world around you? That's the point of awaken. Now, once the body wakes up, we turn to the second step: align. This is a chance to connect with yourself, with your wisdom, and with something greater, with your [00:07:00] higher power, whatever that might be for you, but something greater than the demands that are waiting for you. For some people, that's meditation or prayer. For others, it's journaling, silence, or sitting quietly with a cup of coffee before the day starts talking. And for some, it's the recognition that we are a part of this grand universe. We are one soul living on this earth. Whatever it is, it's a way for you to align with yourself, to align with everything that you are a part of. For me personally, I have a morning meditation practice, and this made a huge difference in my personal health. Years ago in my 20s, I was [00:08:00] diagnosed with high blood pressure, and once I started practicing yoga and meditation and going to trainings, there was a challenge to meditate every single morning for 40 days. So I got a meditation app, i agreed to the challenge after I left this yoga training, and I set out to meditate for a minimum of five minutes every morning for 40 days. And that 40 days turned into 120 and then 365. And for years now, I have maintained this morning meditation practice. It has improved my blood pressure so much. It has helped me to focus on what I want and who I wanna be, and it has really helped me to align with how I wanna [00:09:00] show up in my life, how I want to handle challenges, and how I want to tune in and be present. The mind is naturally very good at noticing problems. To be able to survive, our mind is hardwired to notice what's missing, what's unfinished, what could go wrong, what could be a threat. That's useful, and we need it to be able to survive and stay safe. But when it's the only direction our attention goes, and when we start our day in that perspective, it shapes how we experience the entire day. This is one reason I love gratitude as a morning practice. Not because we're supposed to wake up and feel grateful for everything, and not because gratitude means ignoring what's hard, but [00:10:00] because of the energy gratitude creates. The practice of gratitude expands what we notice. It helps us to see what is already there, support, connection, beauty, the simple fact that we've been given another morning, which is never guaranteed. Gratitude trains our attention to take in more than only what's missing. Okay, so once we've awakened and aligned, we can turn toward the day ahead. Most of us are really great at asking, "What do I need to do today? What do I need to accomplish?" Envisioning asks something a little different: "How do I want to meet the day?" Maybe you have a full schedule, and you'd like to move through it with more ease and rhythm. [00:11:00] Maybe there's a difficult conversation coming, and you want to show up in courage and bring compassion. Maybe you're looking forward to something that you want to enjoy instead of rushing through it and checking it off the list. And I wanna be clear about the difference between intention and control. Intention says, "This is how I want to meet what comes. This is how I want to show up, who I want to be." Control says, "This is how I need the day to go. This is how I need things to happen." And we all know that life doesn't always cooperate. You can wake up intending to experience a peaceful day and be dealing with something totally unexpected by 9:00. That doesn't mean your intention failed. It means that life [00:12:00] happened. We aren't envisioning the day because we expect reality to obey our vision. We're orienting ourselves so we have something to return to when it doesn't. We're creating a vision of how we can show up at our best. And when we go one step further, we can feel into that quality in the body. If I want more ease, what does that feel like in my body? How am I breathing in ease? What happens in my shoulders? If I wanna show up in courage, how might I carry myself into that conversation? We get to experience a little of that quality before we need it. We're creating the muscle memory so it's familiar and available when we get to that point of our [00:13:00] day. I wanna share a simple practice that brings all of this together for you. I call it the thank you breath. You can do it when you first wake up, with your morning coffee, or any time you wanna reconnect to yourself. If you're somewhere right now that you can safely turn your attention inward, I invit

  2. Oct 22

    22. Close the Day: Rest, Release, Recover

    Summary There’s a difference between running out of energy and intentionally closing the day. In this episode, we look at how the way we end our days shapes how we feel the next one. We’ll explore a simple three-part framework for the evening: rest, which reduces the demand for more input and productivity; release, which gives the mind the closure it needs so it doesn’t carry the day into the night; and recovery, which sets you up for the best possible sleep. We’ll also talk about why we don’t have to earn our evenings, how a routine becomes a ritual, and how a slightly longer exhale (vishama vritti) can help your nervous system begin to settle. Plus the One Thing practice, a short closing ritual for acknowledging what you did, experienced, or learned today and letting it register before you rest. Because you don’t have to wait until everything is finished to close the day. You get to decide that the day is complete, even when the list isn’t.  Transcript [00:00:00] Envision this. You've made it through another day. You've worked, made decisions, answered questions, handled responsibilities, taken care of people, solved problems, and probably dealt with a few things you never saw coming. And now the day is winding down. So what happens next? Do you keep going until you fall into bed? Do you sit down, pick up your phone, and realize an hour later that you're still scrolling? Or do you have a way of actually bringing your day to a close? Because there's a difference between running out of energy and intentionally closing the day, and that's a distinction worth exploring. Last week, we talked about the rhythms we're already living and how to begin noticing whether those patterns still fit the lives we have now. [00:01:00] Today, I wanna focus on one particular rhythm, the way we end our days, the way we transition from activity and demands into rest, release, and recovery. And I have a really simple practice to share that can help you begin making that transition. Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance podcast, episode number 22. [00:02:00]  One of the things we've been exploring in my rhythm program is how much our evenings influence our experience of the following day. If we wanna feel good tomorrow, we have to set the stage for that tonight. Think about what happens when you've spent an entire day in activity. Your mind has been taking in information, you've been making decisions, anticipating what's coming next, and responding to the world around you. Your body's been moving through its own demands, and even when you physically stop working, that activity doesn't necessarily stop. You might be sitting on the couch while your mind is still at work. You might be lying in bed rehearsing a conversation. You may have finished everything you intended to do but still feel as though you haven't done enough. [00:03:00] We can stop the activity without actually making the transition out of it, and that's where intentionally creating an evening rhythm can become so valuable. Our nervous systems aren't on/off switches. We can't expect to spend an entire day doing, responding, managing, and then instantly shift into deep rest just because we've decided it's bedtime. The evening gives us an opportunity to make that transition gradually from doing into being. And when we create a closing ritual, we're communicating something to ourselves, the message of the activity of this day is coming to an end, and I can begin letting it go. When I think about creating a supportive evening rhythm, I think about three things: rest, [00:04:00] release, and recover. They're connected, but they're not exactly the same. Rest begins before sleep, and it's about reducing the demand for more input, effort, and productivity. Throughout the day, so much of our attention is directed outward. We're doing, deciding, responding, accomplishing. Rest gives us permission to stop producing. One question that I find helpful is, "Which part of me is actually tired?" Maybe your body is asking for stillness, or maybe your mind is asking for fewer decisions. It might be that your senses are asking for less stimulation, or your soul is asking for connection or play. Rest can look like spending time with someone you love, reading something just because you enjoy it, working on a hobby, [00:05:00] sitting outside, playing with your dog. Something that allows you to shift out of the constant demand and into an experience that doesn't require you to accomplish anything. And sometimes rest isn't about adding something relaxing to your evening either. Sometimes it's simply about stopping something that is creating more demand. Now, release is a little different. Reducing input isn't the same as processing what's already there. Release is about acknowledging what happened during the day and closing it so that it doesn't follow you into the night. Because sometimes the activity has ended, but we're still carrying it. Remember the movie theater we talked about when we explored capacity? Throughout the day, we've been inviting all sorts of things into those theater seats; [00:06:00] thoughts, experiences, conversations, emotions, responsibilities, decisions. By the evening, that theater might be pretty full. And what happens if everybody is still sitting there when we go to bed? One of the reasons our minds keep returning to the events of the day is that those things haven't been acknowledged yet. The mind keeps cycling back because it's looking for closure. A brief review of the day can provide the closure we're looking for. Not to analyze or problem solve, but to simply acknowledge this happened. I'm aware of it. I don't need to keep reminding myself. We don't have to completely process or resolve everything that happened, but we can give the day a moment of conscious recognition and give ourselves permission to set some of it down, like the [00:07:00] conversation we wish had gone differently, the unfinished tasks, the frustration we experienced, the thing we're worried about for tomorrow, and sometimes the belief that we should have done more. An evening ritual can help us acknowledge those things without continuing to carry them in quite the same way. Closing the day isn't declaring everything is finished, it's deciding I am finished for today. And then there's recovery. Recovery is about setting yourself up for the best possible sleep, because sleep is when real restoration happens. And the quality of our sleep is influenced by when we get in bed, but also by creating the rhythm of rest and release in the hours before. Creating [00:08:00] consistency around your sleep time matters. Our bodies thrive on rhythm, and going to bed around the same time each night helps your system anticipate and prepare for rest. Reducing stimulation in the evening, like bright screens, intense conversations, and activating content also gives your nervous system time to downshift. Creating an environment that supports sleep — darkness, coolness, quiet — that signals to the body that it's safe to let go and to go to sleep. These aren't complicated things, but they're also very easy to override when we're caught in the momentum of the evening. Recovery asks us to take our sleep seriously, not as the thing that happens after we've finished everything else, [00:09:00] but as an intentional part of setting ourselves up for feeling our best the next day. We don't have to accomplish all three of these perfectly every single evening. But rest, release, recover, these can give us a helpful way to consider what we actually need as the day comes to a close. There's something else I wanna mention here. How often do you get to the end of the day and evaluate yourself based on what you accomplished? "Did I finish everything? Was I productive enough? Did I get enough done?" And if the answer is no, do you feel like you haven't quite earned the right to stop? I think this is one of those places where our cultural conditioning can quietly shape our relationship with the end of our day, with rest, with release, and [00:10:00] especially with recover. We can become so accustomed to measuring the value of our days by our productivity that an unfinished list feels like evidence that we haven't done enough. But there is almost always something else that can be done. Another email, another load of laundry, another task, another thing to prepare for tomorrow. If we're waiting until everything is finished before we allow ourselves to rest, release, and recover, we may spend a very long time waiting. Recovery isn't a reward for completing everything. It's part of what allows us to keep living well, and sometimes the most supportive thing we can do at the end of our day is decide that enough has been done just for today. Not because everything is complete, but because the day is. This [00:11:00] is where I think the distinction between routine and ritual becomes pretty interesting. A routine is a sequence of things we regularly do. A ritual brings intention and meaning to something that we're doing. And the beautiful thing is that our routines can actually help us remember our rituals. Our nervous systems benefit from predictability. When we begin following a familiar evening sequence, that sequence itself can become information. We're closing the day now. The routine becomes the cue. An evening ritual doesn't have to be elaborate. Sometimes a closing ritual is as simple as turning off your computer and taking one conscious breath, or changing out of your work clothes, turning down the lights, putting your phone away, [00:12:00] taking a few moments to connect with someone you love. The activity itself can be quite ordinary. What makes it a ritual is the intention you bring to it. You're creating a recognizable transition, a way of saying, "I'm moving out of the activity of the day and into the evening." And our breath can become part of that transition,

  3. Oct 15

    21. Default or Design: Who Is Choosing the Rhythm of Your Life?

    Summary Most of the way you move through your days wasn’t consciously chosen — it just happened. You did something, it worked well enough, and eventually it became the way you do things. In this episode, we explore the difference between living by default and living by design, and introduce one simple question you can use to interrupt the autopilot: Default or design? Drawing on the Ayurvedic concept of dinacharya and a personal story about years of living against the body’s natural rhythms without knowing it, we’ll look at why defaults aren’t the enemy, how we inherit rhythms from our culture without ever questioning them, and why design doesn’t mean control. Plus a practice for assessing the fit of your current habits — not to judge them, but to notice what’s still working and what might be ready for a change. Because the small things we repeat become the rhythm of our days. And the rhythm of our days becomes the way we experience our lives.  Transcript How much of the way you live your life did you actually choose? What you do first thing in the morning, what you reach for when you're tired, how you spend the last hour before you go to sleep. Some of those things you've chosen intentionally, but a whole lot of them probably just happened over time. You did something once, and then again. It worked well enough, it became familiar, and eventually it became the way you do things. Our brains and our bodies are designed to find comfort in patterns. If we had to consciously choose every little thing we do, we would be depleted before noon. But sometimes a pattern created by default becomes a rhythm we're still living years later without ever stopping to ask whether it still works for us. So today I wanna give you one very simple question you can use to interrupt that automation. Is it default or design? Am I doing this because this is simply what I do, or is this actually how I want to live? Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance podcast, episode number 21. I've been teaching a lot about rhythm lately, and one of the things I want to invite you to recognize is this: you already have one. You don't need to create a rhythm for your life. There is already a rhythm to the way you wake up, work, eat, move, rest, connect, sleep, but it may be helpful to become aware of the current rhythm you're living in. There are rhythms in your body, there are rhythms in nature, and there are rhythms you've created intentionally or unintentionally through the way you repeatedly move through your days. Sometimes when we start thinking about routines or habits, we immediately jump to what we should add. Maybe I should meditate every morning. Maybe I should meal prep. Maybe I should exercise before work. Maybe I should stop looking at my phone. Maybe I need a better nighttime routine. But before we start adding anything, there's a more useful place to begin. And that's noticing what rhythm you're already living. Because we can't make intentional choices about a life that we aren't paying attention to. Now, default doesn't have to be another word for wrong. Defaults are incredibly useful. Imagine having to consciously decide every morning how to brush your teeth, which hand to use, where the toothpaste goes, what comes next. We automate repeated behaviors because automation conserves attention and energy. Some of the defaults in your life may support you beautifully. You may automatically reach for water when you wake up. You may take your shoes off the moment you walk through the door and immediately feel yourself arrive at home. You may call someone you love every Sunday. You may have a way of closing your workday that helps you transition into the rest of your life. Those are defaults, too. The question isn't how do I eliminate my defaults, it's, "are my defaults supporting the life I want to live, the life that I'm choosing?" Because a default can continue long after the circumstances that created it have changed. Some of our defaults weren't created by us in the first place. We inherit rhythms from our families, our workplaces, our culture, the people around us. Maybe you learned somewhere along the way that mornings are for rushing, that resting happens only after everything else is done, that you eat when the clock says it's time rather than when your body tells you you're hungry, or that evenings are when you can finally collapse and numb out because you've spent the entire day overriding yourself. You can live inside those patterns for so long that they stop feeling like patterns. They just feel like life. And this connects directly to what we talked about last week with the two currents of energy. Sometimes we need enough space from the momentum of our lives to actually be able to see the life that we're creating. Because without awareness, we can keep manifesting something that we never actually consciously chose for ourselves. So here's the tool. Over the next week, when you notice yourself moving through one of those ordinary patterns of your day, simply ask, "Default or design?" You pick up your phone before you get out of bed. Default or design? You automatically say yes before you've checked whether you actually have the capacity. Default or design? You make coffee, sit in your favorite chair, and give yourself 10 minutes of quiet before the day begins. Default or design? And remember, design doesn't always mean healthy, and default doesn't always mean unhealthy. Something you intentionally designed three years ago may not work for you anymore, and something that has become automatic may be one of the most supportive rhythms in your life. We're not grading the behavior, we're becoming conscious of it. That's the first job of the question. It interrupts the autopilot mode just long enough to ask, "Is this still how I wanna live?" There's a concept in Ayurveda called dinacharya, often translated as daily rhythm or daily routine. But it becomes much more interesting when we understand the intention underneath it. Ayurveda recognizes that we are rhythmic beings living inside a rhythmic world: day and night, activity and rest, hunger and nourishment. Our bodies aren't separate from those rhythms, and when our daily patterns work with those natural cycles rather than against them, something shifts for the better. We stop fighting our own biology. I learned this the hard way. For a long time, I was very much an "I'll sleep when I'm dead" kind of person. I would stay up way too late, not sleep well through the night, drag through my mornings, drink in the evenings to try to wind down, and I never really questioned any of it because this was what everyone around me was also doing. It just felt like life. It wasn't until I started studying Ayurveda that I even learned about how our bodies have these internal rhythms, that I really learned about our internal clocks. That there are times of day when the body is naturally primed for certain things: creativity, having more energy, digestion, rest, recovery. And that I had been working against those rhythms for years without even knowing it. I was a product of our arrhythmic culture, and I was feeling it. Once I learned another way, I couldn't go back. Dinacharya isn't about everyone adopting the same perfect routine. It's about recognizing that the way we repeatedly live our days affects the way we experience our lives. This rhythm also impacts how we see ourselves, how we present ourselves to the world. Our rhythms shape us, which means we can participate in shaping those rhythms. Designing your life doesn't mean controlling every minute of it either. Life is gonna life. Someone's gonna get sick, meetings are gonna run long, you're gonna have a bad night of sleep, the dog is gonna throw up on the rug. Your plans change, your energy changes, you change. The goal isn't to construct a perfect routine and then successfully force yourself to follow it no matter what. That's not rhythm, that's rigidity. Design means becoming a more conscious participant in the patterns you're creating. And when something isn't working, you don't need to make it mean that you've failed. You can simply experiment with it. So here's what I invite you to practice this week. When you notice one of those recurring patterns or habits in your day, start with the question we've been talking about: default or design? Did I consciously choose this, or is this simply something I've gotten used to doing? But don't stop there, because something that happened by default may actually support you really well, and something you intentionally designed for yourself at another point in your life may not work for you anymore. So once you've noticed what you're doing and you've tuned in to if it's default or design, then I invite you to think about it like you're trying on clothes. You know that moment when you put something on and you stand in front of the mirror, you're noticing the fit. Does this work for me? Can I move in it? Does it fit the person and the life I am living right now? And the answer may be yes. If it is, it still fits, keep wearing it. Not everything we notice needs to change. Maybe something started as a default, but it has become a rhythm that genuinely supports you. Or maybe you realize, you know, this used to fit me really well and it doesn't anymore. That doesn't mean it was a bad choice. It may simply mean that you've changed, your life has changed, your capacity has changed, what you need has changed. And it may just need a small adjustment. Maybe it needs a complete reboot, or maybe you're ready to release it altogether. That's where the experiment comes in. You try something on, you pay attention to the fit, and based on what you learn, you adjust. We're not looking for the perfect rhythm. We're learning to assess the fit. So this week, tune in and ask, default or design? And then, and does this still fit? If it does, I'm keeping it. If it does

  4. Oct 8

    20. Root & Rise: The Two Currents of Energy

    Summary Energy doesn't only move in and out — it also moves up and down. In this episode, we complete the energy series by exploring two primary currents in the chakra system: the liberating current that moves upward toward awareness and perspective, and the manifesting current that moves downward toward embodiment and form. We'll look at what happens when we get stuck in either direction — rising into awareness without ever rooting it into our lives, or moving through our days so deep in doing that we never rise above the momentum long enough to see clearly. Including personal stories about the lifelong learner's trap and how cultural programming keeps us manifesting lives we never consciously chose. Plus a practice for noticing the energy that's already moving through you — and learning to work with both currents consciously. Because awareness liberates us from what we've been unconsciously repeating. And the manifesting current allows that freedom to become something we actually live.  Transcript Over the last several episodes, we've been exploring energy, how we receive it, digest it, store it, and allow it to move back out through expression and release. Today, we're adding one more dimension to that understanding. Because energy doesn't only move in and out, it also moves up and down. In the chakra system, there are two primary currents of energy: a liberating current that moves upward and a manifesting current that moves downward. One moves us toward greater awareness, and the other brings that awareness into form. So one helps us rise, and the other helps us root. And we need both, because awareness that never changes the way we live isn't fully embodied, and action without awareness can keep us repeating the same patterns over and over again. Today, we're exploring these two currents and what becomes possible when we allow ourselves to both rise into awareness and root that awareness into the way we live. Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance podcast, episode number 20. Let's start with the upward movement. The liberating current moves from the root of the chakra system upward toward the crown. And I think the word liberating tells us something important about what this current is doing. As awareness rises, we gain perspective. We begin to see ourselves, our patterns, our beliefs, our conditioning, our lives differently. Something that once felt like, "This is just who I am," becomes something we can observe. We recognize a pattern, question a belief. We realize we have a choice we couldn't see before. We can become aware that something we've been carrying may not actually belong to us. And that awareness can create great freedom. This is one of the reasons awareness has been such a recurring theme throughout the podcast. We can't intentionally change something we can't see. Awareness gives us space and perspective and choice. It allows us to see beyond the limits of what we've previously believed was possible. That's the movement of liberation. We rise enough to see differently. And if you've listened to the podcast for any length of time, you probably already know what I'm gonna say next. Knowing something and living it are not the same thing. You can understand your pattern and still repeat it. You can know where the belief came from and still organize your life around it. You can know you need a boundary and never set one. You can have a beautiful insight in therapy, coaching, meditation, yoga, or while listening to a podcast, and then get up the next morning and live exactly the same way you did before. The awareness matters, but eventually that awareness needs to go somewhere. It needs to come back down. I notice this in myself as a lifelong learner. I can easily get caught in the pattern of growing my awareness without applying it, taking in more, understanding more, seeing more clearly without ever fully rooting what I know into how I actually live. This is one of the reasons I love leading my online group coaching program so much because it helps to bring me back into the embodied practice of the awareness I'm continuing to develop. The group holds me accountable to embodying what I teach, not only knowing it. Rising into awareness is necessary, and it isn't quite enough on its own. The manifesting current moves in the opposite direction, from crown down toward the root. This is the movement from consciousness toward form. An idea becomes a choice. A value becomes a boundary. An insight becomes a new way of responding. Or something we know becomes something we live. This is manifestation in a much broader sense than simply thinking about something we want and hoping it appears. Manifestation is bringing something into form. It's allowing what exists in consciousness to become embodied in the way we speak, move, choose, create, relate, work, rest, live our lives. And that's why I like thinking about this current as rooting. We're bringing something down into the reality of our lives. It's one thing to value rest, and it's another thing to close the laptop. It's one thing to believe that your needs matter, and it's another thing completely to communicate one. It's one thing to know that you want a different kind of life, and it's another thing altogether to make choices that begin creating it. The manifesting current asks, how does what I know become the way I live? Just like everything else we've explored with energy, neither direction is inherently better than the other. We can interrupt the movement in either direction. Some of us are really good at rising. We love insight, understanding, learning, reflection. We can read another book or take another training or listen to another podcast, and we can explain exactly why we do what we do. And all of that can be incredibly valuable. But sometimes we can keep rising into awareness because awareness feels safer than embodiment. Eventually, something has to come back down. The insight needs to meet the calendar. The value needs to meet the decision. The boundary needs to meet the relationship. Otherwise, we can become very conscious of a life that we're still not actually living. But the interruption can happen in the other direction, too. We can become so focused on doing, producing, managing, responding, getting through our days, that there isn't much space for awareness at all. And this is exactly what cultural programming can do to us. When we've inherited ways of living that have never been questioned, "Well, this is how we've always done it. This is the only way I know. This is the only thing I've ever tried," we can spend years, even decades, building a life we never consciously chose. We're moving, acting, deciding, but we're doing it largely from habit, from conditioning, from external expectations, without ever stopping long enough to ask, "Is this still true for me? Is this how I want to live my life?" Sometimes we need to rise above the momentum of our lives long enough to actually see the life that we're living. Because without awareness, it's very easy to keep manifesting something that we never consciously chose. This is why I keep coming back to the image of root and rise. If you've practiced yoga, you've probably heard some version of this before. Ground down to rise up. Feel your feet root into the earth, and from that connection, find length through the spine and the crown rising toward the heavens. But what I love about this image isn't that it's describing two separate things. They're happening together. The rooting supports the rising, and what we discover as we rise gets brought back down into the way we live. The rising gives direction to the rooting. And we can do the same thing in our lives. We rise into awareness, where we can see more clearly, gain perspective, recognize possibility. And then we bring that awareness back down into the body, into the conversation, into the choice we're making or the rhythm of our ordinary day. Rising awareness and rooted living. That's where these two currents really begin to work together. So as you think about these two currents, notice which movement feels more familiar to you. Do you spend a lot of time in awareness, thinking, learning, understanding, pondering, but sometimes struggle to bring what you know into the way you're actually living? Or are you really good at the doing, the moving and responding and accomplishing and taking care of what needs to happen, but then rarely create enough space to rise above the momentum and see your life from a different perspective? Neither is a problem to diagnose. We're simply noticing the movement. Where is energy getting interrupted? Do you need to rise enough to see or root deeply enough to live what you already know? Let's practice. Allow yourself to settle into your body. Notice the support beneath you. You can be standing or seated. And once you come into this presence, notice your breath. Before we do anything else, I want you to simply notice that energy is already moving through you. You don't have to create it or manufacture it. It's already here. Now let's tune in to the upward current. Imagine the upward current moving from the base of your spine toward the crown. Toward awareness, clarity, and perspective. From this rising, ask yourself, "What do I become aware of when I rise above the momentum of my day? What can I see from here that I couldn't see when I was fully in it?" It may be a pattern or a choice, a truth you've been knowing but not quite living. Let whatever comes up simply be information. There's nothing to solve here. Take another breath And now invite awareness around the downward current. Let that awareness begin to travel downward back towards your body, toward the earth, toward form. Like roots extending downward from the base of your spine into the ground beneath you. And from here, ask yourself, how does what I can now see want to take root? Is there a practice o

  5. Oct 1

    19. Expression & Release: Can You Let Energy Move?

    Summary: Energy isn't meant to only come in. In this episode, we complete the four-function series with the final function — expression and release — and explore what happens when energy has nowhere to go. We'll look at the difference between expression and offloading, why expressing before we've digested something can cost us, and why holding something far longer than we need to is its own kind of depletion. Including two personal stories: one about the memorable cost of expressing while fully activated, and one about sitting on something for four years before finally letting it become real. We'll also explore why release doesn't have to be dramatic, why expression requires a willingness to be seen, and how the simple question — what is ready to move? — can change your relationship with your own energy. Because the cycle was never meant to stop. Receive. Assimilate. Store. Express. And begin again. Transcript: Over the last three episodes, we've been following energy through the four functions of a chakra. We started with receiving, can I let it in? Then assimilation, can I digest and transform what I've received? And in the last episode, storage, can I keep what nourishes me? Today, we arrive at the fourth and final function, expression and release. Because energy isn't meant to only come in. At some point, something has to move back out. The idea that stays in your head never becomes anything. The boundary you know you need but you never express doesn't change the relationship. The emotion that has nowhere to go doesn't disappear, it just stays. Expression and release are both ways energy completes its movement through us. So the question today is: can you let energy move? Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance podcast, episode number 19. Expression is how something inside of us takes form in the world. We receive experiences, we digest them, develop wisdom, and store what nourishes us. But eventually, some of what lives inside of us wants to become something in the world around us. And until it does, something stays incomplete. What is true inside us needs expression in order to affect the way we actually live. That's what expression is, the way our inner world becomes embodied in our outer life. But not everything moving outward needs to become something. Some energy simply needs to be released. An emotion completes its movement through the body. A story has given us whatever wisdom it had to give. An identity no longer fits who we're becoming. Release isn't rejection. It doesn't mean something never mattered or that we were wrong to feel it, believe it, or carry it. Sometimes release simply means this no longer needs to remain in my system. And when something can move through rather than remain held, space becomes available for something else to move in, for something new to be received. This is where I wanna make an important distinction, and it connects back to something we explored in episode 10. Expression isn't automatically the same thing as healthy release. We can feel something and immediately discharge it, send the text, snap at someone, vent, post, react, and sometimes that gives us immediate relief. But relief and integration aren't the same thing. If energy comes in and we immediately push it back out before we've had any opportunity to digest it, we may not actually be completing the cycle. We may be simply discharging discomfort. I learned this in a fairly memorable way at a job that I had years ago. I was fully activated about something my coworker had done. I was really frustrated. I was v- in a very reactive place, and I was absolutely convinced that I needed to say something about it immediately. So I wrote an email to another colleague venting about the situation, and you know what happened. I then sent it directly to the person I was complaining about. That moment taught me something I haven't forgotten. When we're that activated, the energy wants to move so urgently that it doesn't always move wisely. What I needed wasn't to express it immediately. I needed to let it settle long enough to understand what I actually wanted to say and to whom. Healthy expression doesn't mean saying everything we feel the moment we feel it. Sometimes energy needs to move outward, and sometimes it needs enough time inside of us to be understood first. Expression after assimilation looks very different from expression before assimilation. Just like the other functions that we've talked about, expression can become interrupted in more than one direction. We can under-express, swallow our words, hide the idea, suppress the emotion, avoid setting or upholding the boundary. Energy accumulates because it has nowhere to go. We end up storing what was meant to move, and eventually the weight of that becomes its own kind of depletion. But we can also over-express, reacting before we understand what we're feeling, discharging our discomfort onto someone else, expressing because the energy feels intolerable to hold for another moment. Now, I've experienced both sides of this. That email story I just shared, that's what over-expression can cost. But I've also held other things far longer than I really needed to. I thought about creating my own coaching curriculum for more than four years before I actually did it. Four years of knowing it was something I wanted to build, something I believed in, something that was genuinely mine to create, and still not doing it. And then I almost did the same thing with this podcast. It lived in me for over a year before I finally let it become something real. So what was I waiting for? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. Certainty maybe, permission, the feeling that I was ready enough, that I knew enough, that the timing was right. But what I've come to understand is that some things don't become clearer just by being held longer. They become clearer by being expressed. The doing teaches you things that the thinking and the holding never could. The goal isn't maximum expression. The goal is healthy movement: giving something form when it needs expression, allowing something to leave when it no longer needs to remain, and developing enough discernment to know the difference. There's another layer to expression that I think is worth naming, especially given everything we've explored together around courage and disapproval tolerance. Once something moves from the inside of us to the outside, other people can encounter it. My idea can now be evaluated. My boundary can make someone else uncomfortable. My creativity can be judged. My affection may or may not be returned. And my truth could change a relationship. Expression becomes something visible that previously belonged to only us, and that vulnerability is real. Sometimes the interruption in the movement isn't that we don't know what we think, feel, want, or need. We know. We're simply not sure what will happen once we allow it to take form. So this is where the work that we've done around courage and disapproval tolerance becomes so directly relevant. Expression asks for something we've been practicing: allowing what is true inside of us to have a life outside of us even when we can't control how it's received. And that's no small thing. It deserves to be named. We sometimes imagine release as a huge cathartic event: a giant cry, a dramatic ending, the moment we finally let it all go. And sometimes release does look like that. But often it's much quieter. You notice you don't need to explain yourself anymore. You stop rehearsing the conversation so frequently. You realize that the old story doesn't have the same charge it once did. You unclench your jaw. You stop trying to make something turn out differently than it did. Sometimes release isn't something we force. It's what happens when something has been received, digested, and no longer needs to be carried. The grip simply loosens, and we notice, sometimes with a little surprise, that we've already let go. Now, throughout this series, we've been asking, where is energy getting interrupted in its movement through me? So today, the question is, where is expression or release getting interrupted? Are you holding something that wants expression, a truth, a boundary, a creative idea, an emotion? Or are you expressing something before you've had time to digest it, discharging discomfort before it has a chance to become understanding? And what might you still be carrying that has already given you what it has to give? The question isn't simply what do I need to get rid of, it's what is ready to move? so let's practice. Allow yourself to settle into your body. Find tall, aligned posture, and notice the support beneath you. Perhaps your eyes are closed, maybe they're open. But go ahead and notice your breath. And instead of beginning with a story of something you need to figure out, I want to invite you to begin with sensation. Notice where you feel energy in your body right now. Maybe there's warmth, tightness, buzzing, or heaviness, restlessness, or maybe it's something much subtler. You don't need to name what it means. Just notice. And then ask, does anything here want to move? You don't have to force it. Maybe your body wants to shift. Maybe your shoulders want to roll or your hands wanna move. You may wanna stretch or sigh. Maybe nothing happens at all. If it does, let the movement be small. Let your body have some choice. And then notice what happens when you allow energy to move without immediately needing to explain it. Take a breath And now ask, is there anything in me that wants expression? Not necessarily right this second, but maybe there's a truth, an idea, a boundary, something you wanna create. Simply notice what presents itself. And finally, is there anything that feels complete? Something that doesn't need more analysis, more effort, or more carrying? You don't have to make yourself release it. Just notice if there's anythin

  6. Sep 24

    18. Storage: Can You Keep What Nourishes You?

    Summary: You've learned to receive. You've learned to digest. But can you actually keep what nourishes you? In this episode, we explore the third function of energy — storage — and why so many of us are far better at retaining criticism than kindness, self-doubt than evidence of our own capability. Drawing on the Ayurvedic concept of ojas, the reserves that build through nourishment over time, we'll look at why self-trust isn't just about creating evidence — it's about retaining it. We'll explore how storage can become holding, why you deserve to be nourished by your own life, and how the simple practice of savoring can help nourishment register before you move on to the next thing. Including honest personal stories about the moments when evidence stops feeling available. Because what you've lived, survived, and built doesn't have to disappear. You get to keep it.  Transcript: Over the last two episodes, we've been following the movement of energy through the four functions of a chakra. First, we explored receiving. Can I let it in? Then assimilation. Can I digest and transform what I've received? Today, we arrive at the third function, and this one might surprise you a little bit because it's not about taking in more or working harder with what we have. It's about whether we can actually retain what nourishes us. Think about how this can show up in everyday life. You receive a sweet compliment and can genuinely let it land. You have an insight that changes how you understand yourself. You finish something difficult and feel incredibly capable. You have a day when you feel rested, connected, and like yourself. And then life creeps in. And the compliment is forgotten, the insight disappears the next time the old pattern gets activated, the accomplishment gets replaced by the next thing you haven't done. This isn't necessarily a problem with receiving or assimilation. It may be a problem with storage. Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance podcast, episode number 18. Healthy storage isn't about holding onto everything. It's our ability to retain what sustains us. Let's think about this through the perspective of physical digestion. Your body doesn't digest food and then immediately get rid of all of the nourishment it extracted from it. Some of that nourishment becomes available to support the system. And energetically, we need that same capacity. Every experience has the potential to leave something behind, not just a memory, but a resource, something that becomes part of what we can draw from. The question is whether those things remain available to us later. Storage isn't about how much we can hold, it's about whether we can retain and access what nourishes us. The lifestyle science of Ayurveda gives us a concept that I think captures this beautifully, ojas. Ojas is associated with vitality, stability, resilience, and the deeper reserves that develop through nourishment over time. And that last part matters, over time. One nourishing meal doesn't create lasting reserves. One good night's sleep doesn't create lasting vitality. One meditation doesn't create an endlessly regulated nervous system, as much as I wish it did. And one act of courage doesn't instantly create unshakable self-trust. But all of these things accumulate. What we repeatedly receive and assimilate can begin to build something within us. We create reserves. Something becomes available that we can draw upon later. Here's an interesting angle about our storage abilities. We don't seem to be universally bad at storage. We can very clearly remember that criticism someone made 10 years ago, or that mistake that we made, or the embarrassing moment, or the evidence that maybe we're not good enough. Meanwhile, somebody tells us that we're wonderful, and it's gone by lunch. So the practice isn't only about creating more positive experiences. It's about becoming more intentional about what we allow ourselves to retain. Because what gets stored shapes what feels available to us about ourselves, about what's possible, about what we're capable of. Every time we move through an experience, we potentially learn something about ourselves. You make a difficult decision and discover that you can handle whatever comes next. You honor a boundary and discover that you can tolerate someone else's disappointment. You try something new and discover that you are more capable than you thought. Those experiences become evidence, evidence of what you can do, what you can handle, who you're becoming. But that evidence only helps us build self-trust if it remains available to us. If every new challenge makes us forget every other hard thing we've navigated in the past, then we keep approaching our lives as though we're starting from zero, and we're not. We've lived things. We've learned things. We've practiced things. We've become more skillful. We've discovered things about ourselves that we didn't know before. Part of self-trust may be learning to retain the evidence of our own lived experience. And that's another way to think about healthy storage. Storage allows yesterday's wisdom to become today's resource. I think it's also important to say that healthy storage isn't about cramming more into the system. We live in a culture that often tells us more is better. More resources, more knowledge, more preparation, more in reserve. We can easily start to think that the goal of storage is to accumulate as much as possible. But healthy storage isn't measured by how much we're holding. It's about whether what we're holding actually nourishes and supports us. Whether we have resources available to draw upon when we need them. And this is where storage is different from the capacity we talked about in episode 13. Capacity is about how much we can hold and maintain- the overall bandwidth of our system. Storage asks a different question: What nourishment and resources are actually available within me? When we can retain what nourishes us, our functional capacity may even increase because we aren't beginning every experience empty-handed. We have reserves. We have experience and skills, relationships, practices. We have evidence and wisdom. We can draw upon what has already been built. Like every other function that we've explored, storage can become imbalanced. We don't only retain nourishment. We can also hold on to old identities, old stories, resentment, fear, expectations, and beliefs that may once have served us but no longer do. And I wanna be clear, the holding on was rarely random. We hold on to old stories because they once made sense of our experience. We hold on to old identities because they once kept us safe or helped us to belong. We hold on to fear because it once protected us. The holding on was protective, and that's worth acknowledging. But what once protected us can eventually become a weight we carry rather than a resource we draw from. Healthy storage requires discernment about what deserves continued space in our system. For now, we're simply noticing, what am I storing, and is it actually sustaining me? Like the other functions, storage can get interrupted. I can see this interruption in my own life, too. Even when something goes well, I have had a habit of not quite letting myself even arrive at the finish line before I'm already looking at what comes next. And that's not because I don't care, it's because storing nourishment, actually letting it become a resource I can draw from, is a practice, and it's one I'm still very much in the middle of. So where might storage be getting interrupted for you? Do you move past nourishment too quickly? Do you discount evidence of your own capability? Do you forget what you know when you're activated? Do you keep seeking something that you've already received? And perhaps most importantly, what have you already built that you keep forgetting you have? One way we can support healthy storage is through savoring. Savoring simply means staying with a nourishing experience long enough to actually let it register. And I think many of us have absorbed a belief somewhere along the way that allowing ourselves to feel nourished is indulgent, that savoring your own accomplishments is arrogant, that if you let yourself feel good about what you've done, you'll stop growing or become someone who thinks too highly of yourself. But here's what I wanna offer. You deserve to be nourished by your own life. Letting evidence of your capability register isn't arrogance, it's accuracy. Savoring a moment of connection or accomplishment doesn't make you lazy or self-satisfied, it makes you someone who is actually present for her own experiences. Savoring interrupts the habit of moving past nourishment. In savoring, we pause, notice, and feel it in our bodies. We let ourselves experience the satisfaction, connection, pleasure, pride, or nourishment for one more breath. We don't have to cling to the experience. We're simply giving it enough time to land. So can you let it stay long enough to become a resource? Let's practice. Allow yourself to settle into your body. Notice your breath. Notice the support beneath you. And take a moment to bring to mind one piece of evidence from your life. It doesn't have to be a giant accomplishment. Maybe it was a moment when you trusted yourself or handled something difficult, when you allowed yourself to receive support, or you acted courageously. Maybe you did something you weren't sure you could do. Let one moment come to you. Remember it. Where were you What happened? What did you do? And notice what happens in your body when you don't immediately move past it. Where within yourself do you feel the knowing of, "I did that"? I know this now. This belongs to my lived experience. If it feels natural, you can place a hand somewhere on your body where you feel that knowing. Anchor it in. And take a breath. Allow yourself to say, "I get to keep this." Not the moment

  7. Sep 17

    17. Assimilation: Can You Digest What You Take In?

    Summary: Receiving something is only the beginning. In this episode, we explore the second function of energy — assimilation — and the difference between taking something in and actually being changed by it. Drawing on the Ayurvedic concept of agni, our inner digestive fire, we'll look at why transformation isn't automatic, why more input isn't always more nourishment, and why rest is sometimes the most productive thing you can do. We'll explore what it looks like to under-digest — moving so quickly that nothing gets a chance to land — and what it looks like to over-process, chewing on something long past the point of usefulness. Plus a personal story about why modular learning changed everything, and a somatic practice for noticing what you're still digesting and what might be ready to become wisdom. Because experience itself isn't wisdom. Experience gives us something to digest. And through that digestion, something useful can emerge.  Transcript: Last week, we began exploring the four functions of energy: receiving, assimilating, storing, and expressing. And we started with the first question: can you let it in? We talked about healthy receptivity as permeability, being open enough to receive what nourishes us while discerning what we don't wanna let in. But letting something in is only the beginning because once something enters our system, we have to do something with it. Think about food. Eating doesn't automatically nourish you. Your body has to break it down, sort through it, absorb what it can use, and eventually eliminate what it doesn't need. And energetically, we are doing something very similar all day long with information, experiences, conversations, emotions, and everything else life brings our way. So today we're moving into the second function of energy, assimilation. What happens to what we receive once it's inside of us? Hey, it's Kelly G, Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance podcast, episode number 17. So what is assimilation? Let's take a moment to define this word because I think it's worth being clear about. Digestion is the process. Assimilation is the result. Digestion is what happens when we work with something, when we break it down, sort through it, metabolize it. Assimilation is what happens when something we've taken in actually becomes part of us, when it changes us. And you can receive something fully, genuinely take it in, without ever assimilating it. You can read the book, take the training, hear the feedback, have the insight. You can nod and say, "Yes, that's true," and still weeks or months later find yourself in the same old patterns making the same old choices and living from the same old stories. Something has to happen between having the experience and being changed by it. And that middle space, that's assimilation, where we work with what we've received, where we sort and digest and begin to determine what is actually useful, what belongs to us, and what we can release. And eventually, some of what we've received becomes something we can actually use. Ayurveda gives us a beautiful way of understanding this through agni. The word agni is translated as digestive fire. When we think about digestion, we usually do think about food, and agni is certainly central to how Ayurveda understands physical digestion. But the idea of agni is bigger than food. We also have to digest our experiences, our emotions, our thoughts, the information that is constantly coming in, the changes we're experiencing in our lives. Agni is about transformation. Something comes in one form and through digestion becomes something else. In terms of our four functions, agni is what helps us move from receiving something to actually assimilating it. Food becomes nourishment. Experience can become wisdom. Information can become knowledge. Challenge can become resilience. But it doesn't happen automatically, and that's an important point to note. Transformation requires digestion, and digestion requires time, space, and the right conditions. Just as our physical digestion can become imbalanced, our capacity to digest and assimilate experiences can also get knocked out of balance. We can take in more than we're able to process, move through things too quickly, or keep working something long after we've gotten what we need from it. Okay, so I've given you the example before that I love learning. Give me a new book, a new framework, a new idea, a podcast, obviously, and I am genuinely happy. There are times when new information creates real energy for me. It sparks ideas, opens possibilities, really gets things moving. But I also know the point where information stops being useful. I can feel myself move from focused and inspired to completely scattered and overwhelmed. At some point, I don't need more coming in. I need time to digest what I've already taken in. I actually made a conscious choice about this in my own training as a yoga teacher. Rather than doing a traditional 200-hour train-it-all-together-at-once type training, weeks of immersive back-to-back content, I chose programming that was offered in modules spread out over time with space between each one. I knew that was going to work better for me, and the difference that made in how I actually learned and integrated the material was significant. Each module gave me something to take away and live with, to practice, to teach, to notice in my own body and in my own life. And by the time the next module arrived, I had actually digested what came before it, and that meant I could more easily receive the next piece of information fully. That's learn and integrate, learn and integrate. Not just learn and learn and learn and learn and learn. There has to be space between the inputs for something to happen with what has already been received, and I think that rhythm, input followed by space followed by more input, is actually how we're designed to assimilate, not just in formal training but in our lives. And this is particularly challenging right now because we have almost unlimited access to input. There is always another book, another podcast, another expert, another answer. We can keep receiving without ever giving ourselves time to assimilate at all. At some point the system has to have space to digest. This is one of the reasons rest matters in ways that have nothing to do with being tired. Sometimes there isn't anything you need to do with it immediately. A walk, movement, sleep, quiet time, or simply allowing our nervous systems to settle is part of the assimilation process. In fact, sometimes trying harder to process something is the very thing that interrupts assimilation. We keep poking at the experience and analyzing it and explaining it and trying to extract the lesson before it's ready to be extracted. What we actually need is to give the system enough space to do exactly what it already knows how to do. We can also under-digest. We can move from one experience to the next without giving anything time to land. Experience, next thing, information, next thing, conversation, next thing. Nothing gets a chance to become useful because we never slow down enough to let it. And then there's over-processing. Replaying the conversation 12 times. Journaling about the journaling. Analyzing why we reacted the way we did, and then analyzing our analysis. Becoming convinced that if we just think about it a little bit longer, we'll arrive at the perfect meaning. There's a difference between digesting an experience and chewing on it forever. Digestion involves working with something and then allowing the process to continue even without our supervision. There is some trust involved in assimilation. Trusting that not everything has to be figured out in the moment that we experience it. In episode 10, we talked about the difference between offloading and integrating our experiences, and I asked the question in that episode, "What do I know now because I lived through this?" Assimilation is the energetic mechanism underneath that question. Experience itself isn't wisdom. Experience gives us something to digest, and through that digestion, something useful can emerge. Not necessarily a silver lining or a tidy lesson, but a knowing. I know myself differently now. I know what I need. I know what matters to me. I know I can survive something I wasn't sure that I could. That's assimilation. Something happened, you allowed yourself to experience it, you worked through it, and something became available to you that wasn't available before. So if the larger question for this series is, "Where is energy getting interrupted in its movement through me?", Today we can make that question more specific: Where is assimilation getting interrupted? Maybe you're taking in more than you have time to digest. Maybe you're moving so quickly that nothing gets a chance to settle. Or maybe you're working so hard to understand something that you're not allowing the process to happen without your supervision. And maybe there's something you've already experienced that is ready to become wisdom, and you haven't stopped long enough to notice what you know now. All right, so let's practice. If it's available to you, allow yourself to settle into your body, into a comfortable position, and notice the support beneath you, the furniture, the floor, the earth. And then notice your breath. And now bring to mind one thing you've taken in recently. You can keep it really simple. It might be something you learned, a conversation you had, something someone said to you, an experience you've been having, or an idea that's been lighting you up. Choose something that feels workable in this moment. Now, notice what happens in your body as you bring it to mind. You don't need to figure anything out yet. Just notice where in your body you feel it. Maybe there's a sensation like tightness or warmth or heaviness or movement. Maybe nothing particularly noticeable happens at all. Let

    17. Assimilation: Can You Digest What You Take In?

  8. Sep 10

    16. Receiving: Can You Let It In?

    Summary: Energy is moving through you constantly — but can you actually let it in? In this episode, we begin a four-part series inspired by Anodea Judith's work on the four functions of a chakra: receiving, assimilating, storing, and expressing. Starting with the first function, we explore why healthy receiving isn't passive, why being more open isn't the goal, and why the real practice is becoming more discerning about what we allow to reach us. We'll look at the difference between a wall and a membrane, why we sometimes filter out the very things that would nourish us, and how your inhale is already showing you that your body knows how to receive. Drawing on the yoga concept of prana, this episode invites you to stop reaching for more and become available to what is already here. Because sometimes what you've been looking for has already arrived. Transcript: For the last few episodes, we've been talking about energy. We started with capacity. How much can I actually hold? Then energetic discernment. What state am I in, and what do I need right now? And last week, energetic stewardship. Where am I putting the energy I have, and what am I cultivating with it? Today, we're continuing to talk about energy, but I wanna shift the conversation just a little bit. We've been exploring our relationship with energy, and now I wanna look more closely at how energy actually moves through us. Everything in our universe is made up of energy. Our bodies and everything else are built from little vibrating cells of energy. And we are constantly exchanging energy with the world around us. What we take in, what we do, who we're with, what we experience, all of these things have an impact on our energy all day long. Today, we're focusing on the fact that we have to be able to receive energy. You receive energy all day long through your senses. You receive information. You receive nourishment, support, ideas, connection. Life is constantly offering us something to receive, and receiving is one of the fundamental ways energy moves through us. So today, I want to explore the question: Can you let it in? Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance Podcast, episode number 16. This episode begins a four-part series inspired by the four functions of a chakra based on the work by Anodea Judith in her book Charge and the Energy Body. When we look at the chakras as living energy centers rather than just seven places in our body, there are four functions that I find really useful for understanding how energy moves through us. We receive, we assimilate or digest what we receive, we store what is useful, and we express or release energy back out into the world. So receive, assimilate, store, express. These aren't four completely separate things. They're parts of a living cycle. Energy comes in. We process it once it is inside of us. Some of it becomes part of us, and some of it moves back out. When energy gets interrupted somewhere in that cycle, we can feel it. So throughout this series, I want us to keep coming back to one larger question. Where is energy getting interrupted in its movement through you? Today, we're starting with receiving energy. I think we often imagine receiving as passive. Someone gives, we receive. Something comes toward us, we take it in. But healthy receiving is actually an active, energetic process because receiving requires some degree of openness. You can be surrounded by support and not feel supported. You can be deeply loved and have a hard time letting yourself feel loved. Someone can tell you something wonderful about yourself, and you can dismiss it before it ever has a chance to land. You can be standing in the middle of an absolutely gorgeous sunset while thinking about the email you forgot to send. The experience is available, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're receiving it. And I encourage you to resist using this as an opportunity to judge yourself. We're not gonna turn receiving into one more thing we're supposed to be good at. There are really good reasons we learn to filter what comes in. Our nervous systems are constantly determining what deserves our attention. Our experiences teach us what feels safe to open toward and what doesn't. Our boundaries help us decide what belongs inside our lives and what doesn't. So being as open as possible isn't really the goal. Discernment is. Because being able to receive does not mean being open to absolutely everything. I like to think of healthy receiving as permeability, not a wall and not a wide open door. Something more like a membrane maybe. Some things are allowed through and some things aren't. Imagine if you received absolutely everything available to you, every opinion, every request, every notification, emotional state, and piece of information asking for your attention. That isn't receptivity. That's overwhelm. And in the world we live in, there is almost no limit to what we could receive. So healthy receiving requires us to be able to ask, "What am I available to receive, and what do I choose not to let in?" This is where receiving and boundaries belong in the same conversation. A healthy boundary lets in what feels good, safe, and healthy for us. Thanks to Melissa Urban for this definition. And it keeps out what feels bad, unsafe, and unhealthy. A boundary isn't always a way to keep the world out. Sometimes a boundary is what makes it possible for us to safely open. I know if I can say no, my yes can become more genuine. If I know I don't have to take in every single opinion, I can become more available to feedback that I actually trust. If I know that I can close the door, I don't have to be afraid of opening it. Healthy receptivity isn't only about becoming more open. It's about becoming more discerning about what we open to. And then there's the other side of receiving. Sometimes we've gotten so good at filtering that we also filter out what might actually nourish us. We may filter out support, affection, recognition, opportunity. Someone compliments you, and you immediately explain why it isn't true. "You did such a great job." "Well, I had a lot of help." "I really appreciate you." "Oh, it was really nothing. Anybody would have done it." Something was offered, and instead of allowing it to enter, you may send it right back. We don't necessarily do this consciously. Sometimes receiving feels really vulnerable. Receiving means allowing ourselves to be affected. Something gets through the membrane. Something reaches us, and for a moment, we aren't completely in control of what happens next. If I let your kindness in, I might feel something. If I let myself acknowledge how beautiful this moment is, I have to slow down long enough to experience it. If I receive support, I might have to loosen my grip on the belief that I should be able to do everything myself. And if I receive this opportunity, I might have to acknowledge that I actually want it. Receiving asks us to let something reach us, and sometimes that requires more courage than we realize. There's a very simple way to experience receiving right now. It's your inhale. You don't have to earn the inhale. You don't have to prove that you've been productive enough to deserve it. You don't have to figure out how to manufacture it. The breath arrives, and your body receives it. So wherever you are right now, just notice your next inhale. Don't make it bigger. Don't turn this into a breathing exercise that you have to do right. Just notice something is coming in, and your body knows exactly how to receive it. And then notice the exhale. Something moves out, and another inhale comes. Another opportunity to receive. Receiving, releasing. Receiving, releasing. This exchange is happening all day long, and I think there's something really beautiful about remembering that receiving isn't foreign to us. Your body has been practicing it since the moment you were born. In yoga, we talk about prana as life force energy. And while prana is often associated with breath, it's bigger than the breath. Prana is the vitality moving through life. We are not closed systems generating all of our energy from somewhere inside ourselves. We are constantly in exchange with life, and that exchange asks something of us. Can I recognize what nourishes me? Can I make myself available to it? Can I let it actually reach me? And can I discern what doesn't belong? That is healthy receptivity. Not closed, not indiscriminately open, but available and discerning. So let's practice this. If it's available to you, allow yourself to come into a comfortable position. And before we do anything else, notice what is already supporting you, the chair, the floor, the ground beneath you. Something is holding your weight right now. See if you can let yourself receive a little more of that support, not by collapsing, just by noticing that you don't have to hold it all up yourself. Now notice your breath. Rather than pulling the inhale in, see if you can let the inhale arrive. Receive it and release. And then again, let the breath come to you. Receive and release. Now notice what else is already here. A sound, a sensation, a temperature of the air against your skin. You don't have to search for anything, just let the experience come to you. Notice what it's like to be receptive without reaching. And now if it feels okay, bring to mind something nourishing that is already present in your life. Maybe it's someone who loves you, something kind someone has said, a place where you feel at ease, a moment of true connection, something you're proud of. Whatever it is, you can let it be simple. You don't need to analyze it. And now just notice what happens when you allow yourself to receive it. Can you let it come a little closer? Can you let it land somewhere in your body? And if you notice yourself deflecting it, questioning it, minimizing it, or trying to move on quickly, just notice. That's also information

    16. Receiving: Can You Let It In?
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About

This podcast is all about bringing yoga and life coaching together so you can bridge the gap between what you practice on the mat and how you live your life.

Information

  • Creator
    Kelly Gardner
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Your Radiant Soul All Rights Reserved.
  • Show Website
    Embodied Radiance Podcast