“When we don't listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don't, others will abandon us.” 

― Terry Tempest Williams

Stop trying to make things complicated and feel what feels good.

It’s simple. We have been given these amazing things called ‘bodies.’ They have the potential to act as maps for our lives. Your map is different than my map, and all of our maps lead back same place buried in the earth they come from. How we get to that place is called ‘life.’

We are spinning through space at an inconceivably fast pace, that happens to be precisely fast enough to keep us from flying off into space. Our bodies are made up of the same chemicals that compose the universe, which means that the universe is sustained in one of its infinite forms in our bodies. There is a chance that no thing has a purpose and that every action is a meaningless piece of a pointless drama in the history of the universe. But there is an equally likely if not greater chance that our lives are perfectly crafted to perform a specific role in this meaningless blip.

Our bodies are our first guarantee. Take a second to feel your body. To move into your eyes that are moving across this page and processing lines that form words that form meaning that move into your brain. Feel your brain. A lump of muscle, floating in a fluid approximately the salinity of the sea, transmitting thought through a series of cords running down your back. Feel your back. Feel your spine. Feel…

Do you feel yourself trying to escape your body? Or are you able to move through each piece and see it as it is?

Feel your hips. Feel the fat on your hips. Feel the joy of the meals you ate, and the conversations you had over the meals you ate, and the laughter and frustration and love you shared over the food that your body has chosen to store on your hips. Feel your thighs and their tightness from carrying you through your days, or supporting you at your desk, or wrapping themselves around your lover while you make love…

Feel what it feels to think about making love. Do you lean in or do you run away?

Your body is a map to yourself.

If you want to get really good at figuring out who is right for you, and why you do the things you do, and how to start living a life that is more in line with the life that you want to be living… step into your body. We run from our bodies. We cover them up and deny them and force them into ways of behaving that do not serve us. And our bodies serve us, because we ask them to.

There is a shift that happens when we ask our bodies what they need. When our bodies are given room to stretch out and take up their space in the world, they re-align with the frequency of the materials they are made of. Scientists and poets both call this ‘intuition.’ Intuition is a noun whose definition means that someone uses quick understanding to interpret but without using reasoning.

I believe that we have normalized subjecting our bodies to lives that are wholly unsuited for our bodies. We have normalized sitting in desks, and offices, and at computers, and standing for 10 hours and we expect our bodies to do this. When we deny pain we deny pleasure. And by denying the pain of pushing through ways of life that do not honor our bodies, we deny ourselves access to the map that we are made of.

Our bodies are laid out to attract the energy that sustains us. This means good food, good love, good touch, and good movement. Our natural movements are geared towards the ancient ways of our survival, though finding this way in the frame work of our current culture is the challenge. Our cities are built on efficiency, not the curiosity of what it means to be human. We have to work for our curiosity, to establish ourselves within our places and to navigate the emotion of creating community.

I’m here to shake up the system. Not to throw up middle fingers and fight it, but to challenge it to support the lives that it sustains. I’m here to help you reclaim your self so that I can reclaim myself and we can find the way back to the map that we are made of. Because the truth is, that each map fits together. They are all connected. And if we can find a way to settle into our selves so wholly that nothing can shake us, we will be able to feel which way is right for us.

The relationships that are good for us will feel good and the ones that feel heavy will teach us lessons as we lean into the discomfort. We will learn which paths not to take, and which ones lead us deeper into our selves that sustain the whole. We will learn what is good, for us, based on how others receive the pieces of us that are good for them. Our strength will lie in our ability to be vulnerable. And our purpose will dance with unwavering faith on the edge of the truth that we are meant to be here.

Stop creating complications and settle into the body you are made of. It knows.