115 ~ Body Scan (Tool Box Edition)

Catherine & Brenda guide a Body Scan that turns stress into clear signals and shows how somatic awareness supports desire-led choices. Breathwork, curiosity, and small resourcing moves help you feel safer, softer, and more honest with yourself.

Episode Highlights:
• why a five-minute body scan builds self-trust
• naming sensations to separate signals from stories
• lengthening breath to calm the nervous system
• breathing into tension and letting it speak
• using humming, hand-to-heart, and grounding as resourcing
• choosing a one percent action for support
• integrating presence into daily decisions and desire

You can find our links to book calls with us if you're interested in working one-on-one with either one of us.  Links to message us are in the show notes. We would love to hear from you xoxo

Chapters

• 0:00 Hosts Reintroduce Desire Practice
• 2:36 Why Body Scans Build Self-Trust
• 3:18 Guided Body Scan Begins
• 8:30 Breathing Into Tension And Story
• 10:20 Resourcing And Gentle Self-Talk
• 12:20 Closing The Practice And Reflection
• 12:53 Coaching Invitation And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:07

Welcome to Desire is Medicine. We are two very different women living a life led by desire, inviting you into our world.

SPEAKER_00: 0:16

I'm Brenda. I'm a devoted practitioner to being my fully expressed true self in my daily life, motherhood, relationships, and my business. Desire has taken me on quite a ride, and every day I practice listening to and following the voice within. I'm a middle school teacher, turned coach and guide of the feminine.

SPEAKER_01: 0:36

And I'm Catherine, devoted to living my life as the truest and hopefully the highest version of me. I don't have children, I've never been married, I spent equal parts of my life in corporate as in some down and low shady spaces. I was the epitome of tired and wired, and my path led me to explore desire. I'm a coach, guide, energy worker, and a forever student.

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

Even after decades of inner work, we are humble beginners, on the mat, still exploring, always curious. We believe that listening to and following the nudge of desire is a deep spiritual practice that helps us grow.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12

On the Desire as Medicine podcast, we talk to each other, we interview people we know and love about the practice of desire, bringing in a very important piece that is often overlooked, being responsible for our desire.

SPEAKER_00: 1:26

Welcome back to the Desire as Medicine podcast. This is Brenda. I am joined with my absolutely amazing and incredible co-host, Catherine. My partner in crime over here. I should say partner in desire. Partner in helping our listeners have exactly what they want in their life. How about that? Because that's what we really want. That's what we go to bed thinking about over here. She's melding amen. So in our last episode, Catherine and I dove into a body scan. And what it is, it's something that Catherine and I both use, not only in our own personal practice, but we do it with our clients as well. And the purpose of it is to reconnect with yourself and know what is happening in your body. Not for the purpose that you have to do anything about it, but to get to know yourself more, to understand your body. Because being connected to yourself and your body is one way to get closer to your desires, to having what you want in your life. And there is nothing better than being connected to yourself. And this is possible anywhere you go. And if you're sitting there listening, going, oh my God, nope, not me. I've never been able to do that. Don't worry, because we have a treat for you today. Catherine will be guiding you through this body scan. So if you've ever said anything like, I can't slow down, or my body's tight all the time, or I'm always stressed, this practice is for you. So I'm going to hand it over to Catherine to take you on this beautiful body scan. Welcome. Thanks, Brenda.

SPEAKER_02: 3:24

To another episode of the Desires Medicine Podcast. Thank you for listening, family, friends, loved ones. I'd love for you to take this moment to just take a deep breath in. If you need to drink on the do whatever you need. Whenever you're ready to reconnect with yourself. Whenever you feel like uh oh, I'm no longer in my body. Uh-oh, I'm about to do something really big. And you're just going to do a short rundown and check in with yourself. Check in with your body. It's simple, it's fast, it's elegant. And you're just going to pause, listen, and notice. Again, watching your inhale and your exhale. Seeing if you can lengthen both of those to a five-second inhale, five-second exhale, scanning your body for sensations, emotions, feeling into the state of your breath, any thoughts that are passing your mind. This practice isn't to fix anything, it's just to gather information. As you breathe, you're going to scan your head, forehead, eyes, nose, cheek, lips, throat, clavicle chest, arms, fingertips, belly, thighs, legs, feet. See if there's any tension anywhere in your back, upper, lower, coccycks. See if there are any thoughts that are passing through your mind, and you're just noticing, you're just gathering information. If there's tension, can you breathe into that location? If you're hearing a story, can you just be with the story? No judgment. If you're hearing something or feeling something, can you ask that something? Who are you? What do you have to say? Can you check in with your breath? Can you be with whatever's coming up for you with curiosity and love and compassion? What are you noticing in your breath? Is it shallow? Is it fast? Or something else? What thoughts are passing your mind? How do you feel now? You're just noticing your body's signals, noticing what your body's saying to you, and listening. And as challenging as it may be to listen, because maybe you want to fix or jump in, just notice it. As if you're on a train and you're just watching it pass. Notice how you were feeling before you started to scan, and how you're feeling now. Did you have any realizations as you scanned? Did you tap into some intuition, a thought that may have popped up for you? In tough times when we feel maybe out of body or like we want to disassociate, or we're just having a tough time, maybe feel stressed, stressed, or off. It's good to notice where do I feel it? And breathing into that location in the body. And then just asking yourself, what can I do for me right now that would have me feel even one percent more resourced? Is it taking a few more breaths where I lengthen my inhale and lengthen my exhale? Is it potentially just breathing into my throat? Maybe it's humming. Maybe it's once again touching my hands and my heart and telling myself I am safe. I'm loved and I belong. Whatever version is coming up for you is perfect. Nothing is wrong. Everything is perfect. This is just a conversation between you and you. That is all. Collect yourself. Maybe you wiggle your fingertips, your toes. You just move your body and jiggle a little. As you land back in yourself, and if your eyes were closed, you can slowly start to open them. If your eyes were open, start to look at what is in front of you. Maybe it's a bookshelf, a mug, or a lamp. So you can just land back in your body and in the space that you're in. Collect yourself, and at this time, you can either write down your thoughts or go do that one percent. Big inhale, big exhale as you land in the present moment and come back in. And that is it. That's the body scan.

SPEAKER_00: 11:13

Thank you, Catherine. That was really beautiful. Our bodies know the truth. Our bodies have so much to say to us. It's just waiting for us to listen. There's nothing to fix. It's just about reconnecting and listening to ourselves. So thank you for that. And listeners, if this meditation helped you, this body scan helped you, even feel a little bit more connected to yourself. Imagine what could shift or be possible when you practice this kind of presence with yourself consistently. Catherine and I both help women in our one-to-ones. Use this type of somatic awareness to transform anxiety, stuckness, emotional overwhelm into flow and ease. You can find our links to book calls with us if you're interested in working one-on-one with either one of us. The links are in the show notes. We would love to hear from you. And with that, may all of your desires be and even better than you can imagine. Until next time. Thank you for joining us on the Desire is Medicine podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 12:41

Desire invites us to be honest, loving, and deeply intimate with ourselves and others. You can find our handles in the show notes. We'd love to hear from you.