Last Fall at Soul Camp West, I got up on stage for the talent show and sang for the first time in my life with my dear sister (and doppelganger) Gina Turner.
Before that, I had banned myself from singing anywhere except karaoke or the shower. Because “I wasn’t a singer” and had a “crap voice”. And then I realized, “Wait, I’m doing the same BS I did with dance”.
I used to be terrified to walk into a freeform dance class because I wasn’t a “dancer” and here I am years later teaching woman how to release that BS and find their soul’s unique dance.
Nowadays, I sing all the time.
As part of my morning practice…
In kundalini class…
And in my car.
Not the usual high-pitched karaoke-style singing you would have found me doing most of my life but straight up heart-belly-and-soul-singing.
I do this, not because I want to sing on an American Idol-style reality show or record an album.
I do this because it’s my new edge… leaning into this form of self-expression.
I do this because it’s a chance for me to remember how scary it can be for my clients, students and teacher trainees to stretch into their edge as “dancers” or movement practitioners.
(No part of me wants to share this but below is a video of the performance, edited for the sake of your ears… #jkNotJoking…
But I gotta walk my talk, sing my song, dance my dance… right?)
A year ago, during the summer eclipse season of 2018, I spent a month with a mystery illness (*ahem* ascension symptoms) where I coughed for a month straight.
Around that time, I had given myself a 30 day singing challenge. Because of this exact thing. This idea of stretching myself into a self-expression that feels uncomfortably unfamiliar.
(Of course, my overachiever went a little crazy and I had Mariah AND Whitney on the playlist.)
Either way, the challenge had to be aborted because I was hacking up a lifetime of trauma and throat chakra closure… my body’s subtle way of reminding me that you cannot override your nervous system with ambition.
But after I healed, I promised to add in singing into my practices as a way to keep my throat chakra clear. This time, I learned about pitch and that Ayla Nereo was a better match for me than Mariah.
The same thing applies to movement and dancing embodied. The point is not to look good or perform for anyone, ever…
…The point is to release the BS stories,
Strip yourself of the crap messaging you got about your body, your femininity and your sensuality,
And to find your unique form of expression…
Your truth.
We all run around doing everything from chanting mantras in languages we don’t understand (that’s me!) to tapping on our faces (also me!) to walking on hot coals (NOT me!) so we can find the same thing… the feeling of wholeness.
Spoiler Alert. This wholeness comes from connecting to your truth. Which literally cannot NOT exist. It’s your truth after all.
Embody strips away the nonsense, the BS, the stories, the programming, the messaging that you have lodged in your muscles, that you have written into your neural pathways, that you have absorbed into your cells…
And brings you back to your truth…
The only thing you are truly searching for.
Let’s do this together.
Embody Teacher Training begins July 22 and we have a few more spots left.
In addition, I’ve opened up 2 scholarship spots for woman who can demonstrate financial constraints and/or belongs to communities/minorities that have less visibility in the personal development space (such as LGBTQI, WOC, single moms, citizens of developing countries, etc.)
Deadline for scholarship application: July 10.
Apply here.
Deadline for regular application: July 15
Apply here.