Embodied Radiance Podcast

Kelly Gardner
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Health & Fitness
  • Updated 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. 1d ago

    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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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?

  5. 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?

  6. Sep 3

    15. Energetic Stewardship: Choosing Where Your Energy Goes

    Summary: You've learned how much you can hold. You've learned to read the quality of your energy. Now it's time to do something with that awareness. In this episode, we explore energetic stewardship — the practice of consciously directing your energy toward what you want to cultivate. Through the yoga teaching of brahmacharya and the framework of the koshas, we'll look at the three ways we use energy: spending on the ordinary requirements of life, replenishing what we've used, and investing in what we want to grow. Plus why the return on an investment doesn't always come back in the form you expected, why investment-only living is just as unsustainable as spending without replenishing, and a guided practice returning to the movie theater — this time to actually make a choice. Because energetic stewardship isn't about perfectly managing your life. It's about consciously participating in it. Transcript: Over the last few episodes, we've been building a relationship with our energy from the inside out. First, we talked about capacity. How much can I actually hold and maintain? And then last time, we talked about energetic discernment. What state am I in, and what do I need right now? Today, we're adding the next layer. What am I doing with the energy I have? Because energy is a resource, and like any resource, we can use it unconsciously, or we can learn to steward it. That's what I wanna talk about today. Not protecting your energy from everything, not hoarding it, not trying to eliminate anything that requires effort. Stewarding it. Consciously deciding what deserves this precious resource and what you want your use of it to create. Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance Podcast, episode number 15. Energy is meant to be used. That might sound obvious, but I think it's worth saying because somewhere in the conversation about protecting our energy and tending to our capacity, it can start to feel like the goal is to use as little energy as possible, like energy is something fragile that we're supposed to guard. But you spend energy living your life: making dinner, doing laundry, working, driving, answering emails, taking care of people, making decisions, having conversations. All of these things use energy, and that's not a problem. It's life. Energetic stewardship isn't about trying to stop spending energy. It's about becoming more conscious of the different ways we're using it. And I think there are three that are particularly useful to look at: spending, replenishing, and investing. Spending is the energy required to live your life. Replenishing restores energy that you've used. And investing uses energy now in service of something you want to cultivate. All three matter. So let's start with spending. Sometimes you spend energy because something simply needs to be done. The laundry isn't necessarily an investment in your personal evolution, you just need clean underwear. And I actually think it's important to say that because not everything has to have a deeper purpose. Sometimes life simply requires energy from us. Then there's replenishing. This consists of things like sleep and rest, nourishing food, quiet time, play, connection, whatever actually restores your system. Replenishing helps refill the resource you've been spending. And finally, investing. Investing asks us to put energy towards something now because we wanna cultivate something over time. If we're building strength or health, skills, confidence, when we're using creativity, building connection, self-trust, a greater capacity, all of these things ask us to invest energy now for that return in the future. And here's what makes investing tricky. Investments often require energy before they do return anything. Exercise requires energy. Learning requires energy. Having the hard conversation requires energy. Creating or building something requires energy. Setting a boundary can require a tremendous amount of energy. So if our only measure is, "Did this make me feel more energized?" we can make some decisions that won't move us toward what we want in the long run. The better question then becomes, "What am I cultivating with the energy I'm using?" So this brings us back once again to the yoga teaching of brahmacharya. We've been deepening this idea over the last few episodes. First, I honor my capacity has limits. We saw brahmacharya as allocation of resources, and that we have a specific amount of resources before we need to replenish. Then I learned to recognize my energetic state and what I may need to come back toward balance. And now I choose how I direct the energy that I have. That's stewardship, and stewardship is different than control. We're not gonna perfectly optimize every single ounce of energy that we have. Some weeks life simply asks more from us. Sometimes we don't get to choose how every bit of energy is spent. Sometimes our investment doesn't create the return we hoped for. But we can become more intentional about our overall relationship with this precious resource we have within us. When we start to focus on questions like, "Where is my energy going? What is restoring it? And what am I actively choosing to cultivate with my energy?" we become effective stewards of this resource. Yoga gives us an additional framework that I think is also very useful for us to look at here, and that's the koshas. The koshas are often described as five layers of our being. They are a map of who we are. There's the physical layer, your body; the energetic layer, which is your life force energy, and very closely tied to your emotions; the mental layer, made up of your thoughts and the stories that you tell yourself; the wisdom layer, where we can tap into discernment and intuition and our deeper knowing; and the spiritual layer, which is associated with connection, meaning, and bliss, that sense of wholeness or being a part of something larger than yourself. And these aren't five separate little compartments. They affect and interact with one another constantly. They're all within us, which means we can spend energy in one layer and receive a return somewhere else, and I think that's where the idea of investment becomes even more interesting. Maybe you spend physical energy taking a walk. Yes, you're investing in your physical body, but perhaps what you receive is mental clarity. Maybe your thoughts settle. Maybe you can hear your inner voice a little more clearly. Maybe the idea you've been trying to force suddenly arrives. The investment crossed layers. Or maybe you spend emotional energy having a difficult conversation. You might be exhausted afterward, but what did you cultivate? Greater intimacy? Congruence? A stronger boundary? Evidence that you can trust yourself to say what needs to be said? That is all evidence of a return. Maybe you spend mental energy learning something new. The obvious return might be knowledge or a skill, but perhaps what you really gain is feeling confident, self-assured, possibility, a clearer sense of purpose. And maybe you spend an afternoon helping someone else. That might cost physical and emotional energy, while the return you receive is connection and meaning. The return doesn't have to come back in the same form in which you spent the energy, and that matters. Because sometimes the things most worth our energy are not the things that immediately make us feel more energized. There's another important piece here. Calling something an investment doesn't mean you're guaranteed the outcome that you want. You can invest deeply in a relationship and still have it end. You can invest in a business idea that doesn't work out. You can spend months learning something and then decide it is not for you. You can take a courageous risk and still get a no. That doesn't automatically mean the energy was wasted. Sometimes the return is different from what we expected. Maybe the relationship taught you what you need. Maybe the business showed you what you're capable of. Maybe discovering what isn't for you helped to clarify what is. And maybe that no that you got built evidence that you can survive rejection and still stay connected to yourself. We don't always get to control the return. Energetic stewardship isn't about guaranteed outcomes. It's choosing what you believe is worthy of cultivation and choosing how you relate to yourself once the result arrives. And I don't want you leaving this episode thinking spending bad, investing good. It's not that simple. Sometimes you just have to do the laundry. Sometimes your family needs something. Sometimes your job requires more than you expected. Sometimes life costs energy, and that's why replenishing matters so much too. Because if you're constantly investing, if you are spending but never restoring yourself, that's creating an energetic debt. And if all you ever do is replenish but never invest, you may feel rested but not necessarily be building toward anything that truly matters to you. So this isn't about finding a perfect ratio, it's about becoming conscious of the balance that works for you in this moment, in this hour, this day, this time of your life. So I invite you to tune in. What are you spending energy on? What is replenishing your energy? And what are you investing your energy in? And does the way you're using your energy reflect what matters to you? That's stewardship. Okay, so for today's practice, we're going back to your movie theater. If you're able, I invite you to close your eyes and take a few full, deep breaths here. And then envision your movie theater. A couple of episodes ago, I invited you to stand in your theater and notice what was filling the seats, things like your work, relationships, responsibilities, your worries and your dreams, decisions that need to be made, things you're creating, things you're carrying. And you didn't move anything yet, you just noticed what was filling the seats. So now I invite you t

    15. Energetic Stewardship: Choosing Where Your Energy Goes

  7. Aug 27

    14. Energetic Discernment: What Do I Need Right Now?

    Summary: Most of us are really good at overriding ourselves. We ask what we should do long before we ask what we actually need. In this episode, we explore energetic discernment — the practice of learning to read your own energy so you can respond to yourself more wisely. Drawing on the yoga philosophy framework of the three gunas — rajas, tamas, and sattva — we'll look at the living qualities of energy moving through you throughout any given day, why none of them are inherently good or bad, and how noticing what state you're in changes everything about how you care for yourself. Plus your breath as a real-time energy indicator and a personal story about what happens when something you love becomes too much of a good thing. Because energetic discernment isn't controlling your energy. It's knowing it. Transcript: In the last episode, we talked about capacity, how much you can hold and maintain, and why tending to it matters. I asked you to imagine your capacity like a movie theater, to look around at everything sitting in the seats right now. That includes your work, your relationships, your responsibilities, your worries and your dreams, your emotions, the decisions that you still need to make, and to simply notice how full your theater currently is. And you didn't kick anyone out yet. We're still not kicking anyone out today. Because before we start making decisions about where our energy goes, I think there's another important skill to be built. We need to learn how to read our own energy, asking ourselves questions like, "What energy state am I in right now? What is happening inside of me? And what might I actually need?" This is energetic discernment. And I think of discernment a little bit like getting to know a new friend. When you're getting to know someone, you pay attention. You start to learn what lights them up and what overwhelms them. You learn when they need encouragement and when they need some space. You learn when maybe they want to rest and be still, and when they want movement and action. You learn them. Energetic discernment is learning yourself in the same way. Not who you were six months ago, not who you think you should be, not what someone else says you should need. You as you are right now. Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance Podcast, episode number 14. I think a lot of us are really good at overriding ourselves. We tend to ask what we should do before asking what we need. We're tired, but there's more to do. We're overstimulated, but we pick up our phone and take in more. We're feeling stuck and heavy, but we sit when what we might actually need is to get up and move. We ask ourselves questions like, "What should I do? What's next on the list? What would be more productive? What do other people need from me or expect from me?" And we can go through an entire day responding to those questions without ever stopping to check in and ask, "What is happening inside of me right now, and what does my system need?" Those energetic discernment questions create a pause so that we can check in with what is best for us in that moment. And yoga gives us a really useful framework for understanding what we find there. It's the framework of the gunas. The gunas are three living qualities of energy present throughout nature and throughout us. They are rajas, tamas, and sattva, and these are sometimes taught in a way that creates a hierarchy. Sattva is good, rajas not quite as good, tamas is bad. But that misses something really important, the fact that we have all three within us and we need all three. These are living energies constantly moving and interacting with one another. So let's look at them. Rajas is the energy of movement, activation, stimulation, passion, drive. It helps us to build momentum. It gets us moving. Rajas helps us to create, act, initiate, pursue, change. You need rajas to get off the couch and do something, and sometimes you need more of that type of energy. Then there's tamas. Tamas is heaviness, stillness, stability, grounding, inertia. Tamas slows us down, and again, that isn't inherently bad. We need the energy of tamas to be able to be still enough to sleep. We need enough stability to stay grounded. Sometimes the ability to stop, become still, and do absolutely nothing is exactly what our system needs. And then there's sattva. Sattva is clarity, balance, harmony, and presence. Sattva isn't necessarily high energy. It's not necessarily excitement. It's more like a sense of coherence. You're here, you're clear, you're connected. There's an ease and steadiness to your energy when you're in a sattvic state. All three of these qualities are moving through us every day, all day. The practice isn't to eliminate rajas and tamas so that we can become perfectly sattvic people. The practice is to notice what's here, respect that we have all three within us, and move toward the energy that would be most beneficial in any given moment. They all serve us. So do you ever check in with which energetic state you're in? Think about how different you can feel throughout a single day. Maybe you wake up feeling heavy. You don't wanna get moving. Your thoughts feel slow. Your body just wants to stay exactly where it is. There may be tamasic energy present. And then a few hours later, you're working. Your brain is firing. You're moving from one thing to another. You're answering messages, making decisions, getting things done. There's rajasic energy there. And maybe later on, you go for a walk outside. Something settles. Your mind clears. You feel more present in your body. You can hear your thoughts clearly. There's sattvic energy present there. These moments are all simply states that we are in, and states change. They move. They don't mean that anything has gone wrong. But where this awareness becomes useful is when we stop trying to respond to every state in exactly the same way. If I'm feeling heavy, stagnant, and stuck in tamas, maybe what I need is movement, music, a walk, a conversation, something that brings in a little rajas and gets the energy moving. But if I've been going, going, going all day, if I've been working and thinking and talking and consuming and producing, and my mind is racing and my body can't settle, I probably don't need more stimulation or more movement. More rajas isn't necessarily the medicine for excess rajas. Maybe I need to slow down. Maybe I need to quiet. Maybe I need grounding. Maybe I need to put the phone down. The question isn't how do I get rid of the state? It's what would support greater balance in me right now? And that is discernment. One of the easiest ways to begin noticing your energetic state is something that you're already doing all day long: breathing. Your breath is constantly responding to your experience. Think about what happens in your breath when you're startled. Think about your breath when you're excited or anxious or concentrating really hard on something or deeply relaxed. Your breath changes. Sometimes it may be fast, sometimes shallow. Maybe you're holding it. Maybe you suddenly take a huge sigh, or maybe your breath becomes slow and heavy or quiet and spacious. Your breath is information. And I don't wanna turn this into another set of rules. Fast breath doesn't automatically mean rajas. Slow breath doesn't automatically mean tamas. A deep breath doesn't mean, "Congratulations, you have officially achieved sattva." Human beings are much more interesting and complex than that. Instead, what I invite you to practice noticing is simply, what is my breath doing right now? And then, what about my body? Do I feel activated? Do I feel heavy? Do I feel clear and spacious? Do I feel restless or braced? Do I wanna move? Do I wanna just curl up? Do I wanna take in more? Do I desperately need less? You don't have to interpret every signal perfectly. You're just learning the language here. What I think is really important, and that I invite you to recognize, is that your answers are always allowed to change, and they will as you change. Something that feels sattvic for you right now may not feel sattvic at all in six months. Something that brought you the exact rajasic activation you needed during one season of your life may eventually become over-stimulating. And something that once felt really heavy or stagnant may become the stillness and grounding your system desperately needs in another season. The gunas are living energies, and you are a living system. You are made of energy. You are changing. Your life is changing. Your capacity is changing. Your nervous system is changing. So energetic discernment isn't creating a permanent list of what's good for you. It's staying in relationship with yourself closely enough to know what's true right now. And that's why this connects so beautifully back to brahmacharya. Last time we talked about brahmacharya in the perspective of the right use of energy. But the right use of energy requires discernment. It requires knowing yourself well enough to recognize, "What energetic state am I in, and what would support me right now?" I see this in my own life all the time with learning. I love learning. I love to take in new information and see new perspectives. Give me a book, a new idea, a podcast, a new framework, a new way of understanding something, and I can feel myself come alive. Learning can create a beautiful amount of Rajas for me. Ideas start moving, connections start happening, I wanna create, I wanna teach, I wanna know more. And that can be exactly the energy that I need, until it isn't. Because there's also a point where I can start to recognize that I'm taking in more than I can actually do anything with. I can't let one idea settle because I've already reached for the next one. The thing itself hasn't changed. I still love learning, but my energetic state has changed, and now what supports me might be the opposite of taking in more. Maybe I ne

    14. Energetic Discernment: What Do I Need Right Now?

  8. Aug 20

    13. Capacity: Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should

    Summary: We live in a culture that celebrates doing more, handling more, and needing less. But what happens when we perform beyond our capacity for too long? In this episode, we explore what capacity actually is, what it looks like when we've exceeded it, and why tending to it is one of the most countercultural — and necessary — practices we can embrace. Through the lens of the yoga principle of brahmacharya, we'll look at capacity not as a fixed limit but as a living system that grows through tending rather than pushing. Including a personal story of burnout, the signs that your system is asking for attention, and a guided practice using the movie theater metaphor to help you get an honest picture of what you're currently holding. Because just because you can doesn't mean you should.  Transcript: We live in a culture that teaches us a very specific perspective about what it means to be capable, productive, and valuable. And we receive it in messages that sound something like this: "Do more. Handle more. Be more. Never stop. Never slow down. Never need too much. Rest is laziness. Limits are weakness, and saying no is selfish. Oh, and if you're tired, well, just push through because everyone else is tired, too." Most of us absorb these messages so early on and so completely that we stopped questioning them. We learned to perform beyond our capacity, saying yes when our whole body was screaming no, taking on more because we could, without ever stopping to ask whether we should. And here's what I've learned the hard way. Just because you can doesn't mean that you should. Today we're talking about capacity, what it actually is, what happens when we ignore it, and how to start tending to it like the precious resource that it is. Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance Podcast, episode number 13 Capacity is about how much you can hold and maintain. I really like to think about capacity like a movie theater. Every theater has a limited number of seats, and that limit isn't a flaw in its design, it's a feature. It exists for safety, for functionality, for the experience to actually work the way it's meant to. And your capacity works the same way. Internally, you have a finite number of seats in your theater, and those seats can be filled with all kinds of things: your commitments, your relationships, your emotions, your obligations, your mental load, your unprocessed experiences, your worries, your grief, your to-do list, even your dreams and the things that you're excited about. Here's something we sometimes forget: good things take up capacity, too. Starting a new job can be wonderful and still take up capacity. Travel can be exciting and still take up capacity. Creating something you love can be deeply fulfilling and still take up capacity. Capacity isn't a measure of whether something is good or bad. It's simply an honest measure of what your system is currently holding and working to maintain. And when every seat in your internal theater is full, and especially when people are standing in the aisles and sitting in the floor, the system stops functioning as well. Things get missed, small frustrations feel big, and decisions become harder. You may have less patience, less creativity, less ability to respond thoughtfully instead of reacting. And here's another thing. Until some of those seats become available, there is nowhere for something new to sit. There is no space for more responsibility. But there is also no space for rest, no space for joy, for creativity, for connection. There's no space for the things that you actually want to hold. You may technically be able to cram one more person into that theater, but that really doesn't mean that you should. Several years ago, I was pushing through and functioning way beyond my capacity, and I told myself a story that you may be familiar with. Things like, "I'm fine. You know what? I'll sleep when I'm dead. I can handle this. I should be able to handle this. This is just how it is right now." But my body knew differently. Before work, I was having panic attacks. At night, I was drinking way more than I should, not because I wanted to, but because I needed something to try to help me wind down. I was exhausted, but I couldn't sleep. My digestion was a mess. My skin was a mess. My body was sending signals in every possible direction, and I was doing everything I could to manage or ignore the symptoms instead of listening to what they were telling me. I was holding way more than I could sustainably maintain. My doctor started talking to me about an autoimmune disorder diagnosis. And whether or not every symptom could be traced directly back to stress, what became impossible for me to ignore was that my body was struggling. I was struggling. I couldn't continue in this way. My body had been asking for my attention for a long time, and I hadn't been listening. In fact, I was programmed not to listen. But here's what's really important: there were so many signs before I got to that point, and there often are. Maybe your body starts to speak louder. Maybe your patience starts to get shorter. Maybe your creativity and your joy disappear. Maybe everything starts feeling harder than it should. None of those are signs that there's something wrong with you, that you're doing it wrong. They may simply be signals that you are living beyond your capacity, and they deserve to be listened to. There's something that happens when we consistently exceed our capacity. We begin living in what I think of as energetic debt. We're spending more energy than we're replenishing. And just like financial debt, we can sometimes do that for a while. We borrow from tomorrow, and then tomorrow comes and we borrow again. But eventually, something comes due. We'll explore this concept more over the next few episodes. But for right now, I invite you to simply notice, are you living within your current energetic means? Because our culture doesn't encourage us to explore that question at all. It celebrates the person who sleeps the least, works the most, needs the least support, and somehow keeps saying yes. Yoga offers us a different perspective. In yoga philosophy, there's a concept called brahmacharya. It's often translated as moderation, but I really like to think of it as the right use of energy. It's the allocation of your energetic resources. It's not deprivation or restriction. It's stewardship. How are you using your energy? How are you taking care of your energy? Recognizing that your vital energy is a resource and becoming more conscious of how you use it, that is one of the most valuable things you can do. And just because you have energy available doesn't mean it's wise to spend it all, or to spend it in ways that are enforced from external expectations. Just because you're capable of carrying something doesn't mean that carrying it is the best use of your capacity. That's brahmacharya. It's discernment about how we use our energy. Now, here's something else that's really helpful to know. Capacity isn't fixed. The amount you can hold today is not necessarily the amount you'll be able to hold forever. But capacity grows through tending, through care, not through constantly overriding it. Think about physical fitness. You don't build strength by exercising as hard as you possibly can every single day without resting. Eventually you'll break down if that's the way you go about it. Muscles grow through a cycle: exertion, recovery, adaptation. The recovery isn't getting in the way of the training, the recovery is part of the training. I think our emotional, mental, and energetic capacity works in much the same way. Rest isn't the opposite of growth. Recovery isn't evidence that you're weak or lazy. Replenishment isn't something that you earn after you've finally done enough. These are part of how we build a system capable of meeting more of life without losing ourselves inside of it. And I wanna speak directly to burnout for a moment because I know many people have experienced it, myself included. Sometimes after burnout we begin telling ourselves another story. "Maybe my capacity is just small. Maybe I'm fragile. Maybe I can't handle very much." And the fear of burning out again can make us want to protect ourselves so carefully that we start living smaller than we actually are. But experiencing burnout doesn't necessarily mean you have a small or fragile capacity. It may simply mean you have been carrying more than your system could sustainably hold for much too long. Maybe you were overriding your signals, maybe there wasn't enough recovery, maybe you didn't have enough support. Maybe you just didn't have the awareness or the permission to tend to yourself along the way. And that's very different from deciding, "I can't handle much." Expanding capacity isn't about proving how much you can carry. It isn't about pushing harder or taking on more before you're ready. It's about developing a relationship with your own system, your body, your mind, your intuition, your energy, so that you know what's manageable for you right now. So that you can hold what you're currently carrying more sustainably. And so that when life does add more, because life will, you have the awareness and the tools to meet it without burning out, without losing yourself, without breaking down. The goal isn't a bigger load. It's a more honest, responsive, and sustainable relationship with the load you're currently carrying. Okay, I wanna bring you back to the movie theater analogy for our practice today. So if you're able, I invite you to find a comfortable position and to close your eyes for a moment. Take a breath here and imagine your internal theater. Picture all of the seats in front of you and begin noticing what is sitting in every seat right now. Work, relationships, responsibilities, decisions you need to make, something you're worried about, something you're grieving, a proj

    13. Capacity: Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should
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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.

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  • Creator
    Kelly Gardner
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Your Radiant Soul All Rights Reserved.
  • Show Website
    Embodied Radiance Podcast