How rooted are you?

I haven't been home in over a year.

I haven't seen my parents and my deepest soul friends. The house I grew up in and the streets I played in. I miss the crispness of the air that is unavailable in the thick humid air of Singapore, where I live. The past three years living away from home, and especially the last year of no travel, has deepened a sense of rootedness in my body. It has allowed me to deeply practice sourcing my energy and sense of home internally, not externally. This is a key principle of feminine embodiment. 

When I worked in finance and hated my job, I'd match the displeasure with booking last-minute yoga retreats or escaping to Ibiza. Anything to get that immediate sense of relief and gratification. When I found myself in one-sided friendships or challenging relationships, there was a sense of needing to flee and start over again. Anything to overcome the discomfort and fear of confrontation, and feel at ease as quickly as possible in my body. There was a pattern of seeking external change to feel better internally. If I just change my environment I'll be happier. If I just find a new partner, I'll be happier. Sometimes this was true, I was happier with a new partner! Other times, well... I was just being my usual flighty self. 

This tendency to want to escape or flee is not dissimilar to the trauma response flight (our fight, flight, freeze in-built survival mechanisms and trauma responses), and many of us are feeling this lack of control and desire to flight in extremes in these times. 

If you are a Vata-natured person (in Ayurveda - Vata is one of the unique blueprints called a dosha), there is a very natural tendency for airiness, scatteredness, wanting to fly away and be free! Freedom, expansion, travel, and independence are vital life ingredients for this woman, more than any other type. 

Combining Ayurveda's doshas, trauma and the nervous system, and feminine embodiment are life-changing in learning to continuously and holistically return to a sense of grounding, calm, and tangible rootedness in your whole being. Because especially for me and many of the women I speak to, feeling anxious, scattered, depleted, overly in the mind, and even debilitated has become the norm. Perhaps it has been your natural state for quite some time, even before the pandemic. 

I know in my body, that a more aligned way is possible. Mainly, a way that is rooted in ancient, feminine, embodiment wisdom that is thousands of years old and the most recent somatic, trauma science. 

The Feminine aspect of us (regardless of gender identity) is concerned with expression, feeling, flowing, and the subtle sensations inside the body. This body is the only instrument we have to live, eat, work, and play within this life. Yet, when we are in a fight, flight, or freeze state our vital Shakti-prana or life-force energy is constricted, unable to flow, and forms somatic patterns in the body. This might feel like a chronic tightness in the neck and shoulders, tension in the jaw, a holding in the pelvis. Perhaps you sense it as hyperactive energy around your head and a shallow breath, particularly if you are of a Vata-nature. 

Knowing how to work with your Feminine energy, combined with your Ayurvedic dosha and unique survival responses, is key to feeling deeply rooted for the long term, and in those moments of wanting to flee to have a set of practices and rituals to guide you back home to your body. 

Back to the sense of rootedness, freedom, openness, expansion powered from within your body (not through external, quick or short-term gratifications). 

Rooted to the core of who you are and tapped into the infinite potential that lies within your beautiful body. 

So tell me, how rooted are you? What does feeling rooted even mean to you?

If you are curious about how feminine embodiment coaching and working with your Ayurvedic dosha might support you, let's chat. 

May you find rooting and expansion in these times. 

I’m here for you.

Sharandeep x