<![CDATA[Embodied Soul - Blog and News]]>

<![CDATA[Embodied Soul - Blog and News]]>Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:14:05 +1200Weebly<![CDATA[Becoming all of me]]>Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:06:24 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/becoming-all-of-meI’m not the type of person to idealise anyone. Rarely do I notice celebrities and I don’t follow gurus.

So when someone impresses me and admiration arises, I pay attention. Because I know that person is here to awaken something in myself. Whatever qualities they have, there’s something in me that has elements of that too.

One wahine who has been impressing me lately is Tania Waikato. She first got my attention when she compiled a list of all the schools that declared they would uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi when the government tried to remove that obligation.

She’s a lawyer, and now she’s running as a candidate for the Green Party.
She also lifts (I think she mentioned going to world championships for weightlifting).

She’s a healer.
She listens deeply to her ancestors.
She is guided by wairua.

She’s articulate, well spoken, values-driven, and is uplifting her people while educating them about politics.

She’s smart and spiritual and athletic.

She’s an Aries Moon (just like me), and we have this tendency to dive right in. We take risks. We don’t spend forever waiting until we feel ready.

She posted a piece of poetry the other day with the comment:
“Yes I also write. Annoying I do all the things, I know.
If it’s any consolation, the tīpuna expect a LOT from those to whom many gifts are entrusted.”

That comment stuck out to me.
Because it’s not a comment from someone with low self-worth.
There’s no apology for being gifted.

What she’s showing me is how much she believes in herself.
And I realised that what I’m admiring isn’t any one achievement. It’s the integration.

There are lots of smart people.
Lots of athletic people.
Lots of spiritual people.
Lots of politically engaged people.

But it’s rarer to see someone who allows all of those parts to coexist without shrinking any of them.

Many people with multiple gifts spend years apologising for them, hiding them, or choosing one identity and abandoning the rest. They become the athlete, or the academic, or the healer, because being all of it feels like too much.

But here’s a lawyer, political candidate, and athlete who refuses to dim down her spiritual side to fit in.

What I see in her is someone who seems to have stopped apologising for who she is.

So many of us live below our potential.
We are gifted.
We can do many things.
But we are scared to be all of ourselves.
We are scared to step up and really live to our full potential.

I can write. I lift. I’m a healer and psychic. I was an academic and an athlete.

I was someone with a lot of potential.
And I struggled to believe that.

I thought I wasn’t smart enough to go to university. When I finally got there, my lecturers told me I should write books.

Because I’ve changed my path so often, and made so many course corrections along the way, there haven’t been many conventional markers of success.

At 45, I don’t yet have a successful career or a successful business.

I got straight A’s in my Environmental Studies degree and didn’t continue to postgraduate study, even though I received scholarships to do so.

Because I could see that the solution to healing the planet wasn’t going to be found solely through academia.

It required deeper work. Personal transformation.

So I left university with all that potential and spent the next four years meditating, doing yoga, gardening, reading hundreds of books, and learning who I really was.

From there, life unfolded in many directions. I became a solo mum, a yoga teacher, an energy healer. I walked the length of New Zealand, explored Embodied Processing work, started a business, got obsessed with heavy lifting, and became a personal trainer.

And because I’ve gone deep into many facets of my existence and explored myself in many ways, I can see where I still have room to grow.

I know enough to know there is still so much more to learn.
And I know my path has many more twists and turns ahead.

So I struggle at times with putting myself out there and offering my gifts to the world.

Because who am I to do this?
Am I ready to do this?

But what Tania Waikato has is purpose. She is here to do real, meaningful, transformative work in the world.

And I think that’s what she is nudging me towards.

Purpose.

Because when purpose is strong enough, self-doubt dissolves.

The question shifts from:

“Who am I to do this?” to “If I don’t do this, who will?”

And if I truly believe in what I’m doing, that my work is part of something bigger, part of healing and strengthening how people relate to themselves and the world, then that will propel me forward.

Not in a “be famous” kind of way. I’m not here for that.
I’m here to influence people within my network.

I’m here to help people become stronger in their bodies, more connected to themselves, and more trusting of their own inner wisdom.

For a long time, I underestimated the importance of that work.

I thought becoming a personal trainer was actually a bit lame.

Personal trainers aren’t known for being smart or spiritual, there’s a stereotype of them being quite one-dimensional.

It made it easy to dismiss the work I was doing.

As if helping people become stronger, more resilient, and more connected to themselves wasn’t important.
As if helping people trust themselves more wasn’t important.
As if helping people change their relationship with their bodies wasn’t important.

But it all contributes to our collective healing.

And all of this requires being much more than just a personal trainer.
It requires showing up as all of me.

Being all of me means I can be smart and intuitive.
Logical and spiritual.
Analytical and creative.
Grounded and connected to something greater than myself.

I don’t have to choose one identity and abandon the rest.

I don’t have to shrink parts of myself to make other people comfortable.

I can value science and still honour mystery.
I can care about evidence and still trust intuition.
I can be physically strong and deeply sensitive.
I can be all of me.

And perhaps that’s the deeper lesson I’ve been learning, and what Tania Waikato is reflecting back to me.

My purpose is to be fully myself.
And to encourage others to be fully themselves too.

Because we are all multifaceted beings.
We all carry gifts.
We all have something meaningful to contribute.
And maybe it’s time we stopped apologising for being called to it.

]]><![CDATA[Radiating prosperity in times of lack]]>Thu, 02 Apr 2026 02:11:30 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/radiating-prosperity-in-times-of-lackIt feels like, globally right now, there’s a quick descent into a mindset of lack.

A sense of tightening.
Of “everyone for themselves.”
Of resources feeling scarce, and people holding on more tightly.

I can feel how easy it is to get pulled into that.

One thing that reassures me, and also separates me from this collective slide into lack, is knowing who I am and what I’m here for.

I get a lot of self-awareness from contemplating the Gene Keys, for example.

If you haven’t come across the Gene Keys, it’s worth downloading your free profile and starting with your Activation Sequence.

The first sphere you’ll see is your Life’s Work. It’s often described as what you’re here to express in the world, what you offer to others, though not in a fixed or prescriptive way.

It’s more like a pattern you can observe over time. A set of frequencies that show up in how you move, what you’re drawn to, and where your energy goes.

For me, my Life’s Work is Gene Key 14.

Each Gene Key has a shadow, a gift, and a highest expression, the siddhi. We move through all three. It’s not linear, and it’s ongoing.

What’s beautiful about the Gene Keys is that it’s all about contemplation. It’s not a system telling you who you are. It’s a set of concepts you hold in your mind and discover meaning from in your own time.

At the shadow level, Gene Key 14 is about compromise.

It’s about misdirected energy, putting effort into things that don’t quite feel right.

I’ve spent a lot of years there, in relationships that felt like compromise, in living and work situations that drained me, and I can still fall back into it.

For me, compromise often looks like saying yes to the wrong opportunities.
Saying yes when I feel over-extended.
Saying yes out of guilt or obligation.
Saying yes just to be nice.
Saying yes to people who don’t really value or respect my time and energy.
Saying yes to something that doesn’t truly light me up.

I can feel the cost of that.
My energy leaks.
I feel under-resourced, bitter, and closer to burnout.

At the gift level, Gene Key 14 becomes competence.

Competence, to me, is continual learning, refining, and becoming resourced in what you do.

These days, I feel it in my business a lot of the time.
It’s not perfect, it’s still evolving, and it’s definitely more developed in some areas more than others. But the feeling of competence usually outweighs the feeling of compromise.

And I see it in the people I work with too.
Heavy lifting really is the perfect practice to move into competence.
When people start to lift weights, they become more capable, more grounded, more resourced in themselves.
They move out of compromise and into competence.

At its highest expression, Gene Key 14 becomes bounteousness.

Bounteousness is such a beautiful concept.
It’s a kind of natural generosity where your energy supports and enriches others.
You have abundance and you circulate it.
Bounteousness is like the sun, it gives of itself endlessly and tirelessly.

I often think of it like this:
At the shadow level, I’m a leaky wagon.
Energy in, energy straight out.

When I recognise I’m in the shadow and consciously choose to move through it to the gift frequency of competence, I retain more of my own energy. I feel solid in myself.
I’m competent and I trust myself more.

When I move toward bounteousness, that energy starts to circulate instead of leak.
And it circulates without depleting me.
I start “radiating prosperity.”

For me, bounteousness isn’t just about money or resources.

It’s about having time for all the things I want to include in my life.
It’s about being fiercely passionate about everything that I choose to do.
It’s about having gratitude and appreciation for everything I have.
It’s about simplicity, not having too much clutter, but just the right amount of everything.
It’s about being healthy, strong, fit and resilient.

It’s also about people.

In Human Design, I’m a conscious 4th line. Everything comes through my network.
And so the quality of my network is everything.

When I’m surrounded by people who feel good to be around, people who recognise, value, and respect me, the energy of bounteousness builds.

There’s ease.
There’s trust.
There’s natural reciprocity.

I felt this recently in my first workshop that included my deeper intuitive and somatic healing.

What stood out was the quality of people I attracted.
Everyone felt good to be around.
After the workshop, everyone said the same thing: “That felt like such a lovely group of women.”

Someone said: “It felt like we were all meant to be there.”

People who resonate with me and my energy come to me to experience being well-resourced and competent, and then they take it into their own lives.
As their competence is embodied, it evolves into bounteousness and it circulates.

This feels so important right now.
Because bounteousness is the opposite of “everyone for themselves.”
It’s the opposite of lack and scarcity.

It’s generosity.
Reciprocity.
Community.
Connection.
Gratitude.
It’s being part of something bigger than just survival.

It’s an overflowing wagon radiating prosperity.

You can’t get there just by having money.
If you’re hoarding, holding tightly, not sharing, you might have abundance of resources, but not generosity.

And without generosity, it isn’t bounteousness.
Because bounteousness is a feeling of having more than enough.

Bounteousness by definition doesn’t have any boundaries.
It’s about giving freely, generously, and abundantly.

In practice, that doesn’t mean I give away my money just to prove my generosity.
My generosity flows naturally from a place of competence and being well-resourced, not from obligation or self-sacrifice.

Generosity must be grounded in competence.
And competence has boundaries.
I must have a sustainable income so that my business can support people.
Giving away all your resources without first being competent is a form of compromise.

In practice, it’s about opening my energy, my time, and my attention, in ways that are sustainable and real, so it can truly circulate without depleting me.

For me, it comes back to this:
Noticing when I’m compromising, saying yes to things or people that drain me.
Choosing, where I can, to come back to competence.
To what feels aligned, grounded, well-resourced.
To what doesn’t leak energy.
Saying yes only to what I have the energy for.
Saying yes only to people who feel good to be around.

And from there, letting my energy be open.

So it doesn’t just support me, but flows outward, into the people and spaces around me.

]]><![CDATA[The Commitment Dilemma]]>Sun, 26 Oct 2025 03:14:31 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/the-commitment-dilemmaIt’s both a challenge and a privilege to work in a field where my livelihood depends on how committed people are to themselves.

So often I hear, “I really love your classes, I feel so great afterwards, but it’s so hard to get here.”

And the truth is, I can’t do that part for you. You have to show up.

All I can do is make the classes fun, effective, and engaging enough that you want to keep coming.

It’s a delicate balance, inspiring people to stay committed without shaming them when they can’t be.

I’m always aware of the tension between “stay consistent” and “listen to your body.”

I never want anyone to feel guilted into coming to class. Life can be a lot. I get that. I have autism and ADHD, and I’m a solo parent. I know how full and unpredictable life can be.

And we also want to go out and enjoy life, especially if your kids are older or you’re at a stage where you can finally prioritise yourself. You want to travel and take trips, (especially hiking trips!) After all, the purpose of getting strong is to enjoy life more.

That’s why I’ve done my best to design a payment and booking system that rewards consistency while allowing for flexibility.

If you message me and let me know you can’t make it, you’ll always be met with compassion and understanding. I respect honesty, communication, and self-awareness deeply.

However, I’m also running a business built around small class numbers, personal attention, and community. For this to work, I rely on people showing up regularly.

My business isn’t sustainable when there’s an influx of people one week and half-empty classes the next.

I also don’t want a huge number of people on my books. I want to know everyone, remember who you are, and what your body needs. I’d rather have a small, committed community than a revolving door of drop-ins I barely see.

This model only works when people commit, ideally at least once a week, and stay consistent as much as possible.

I can’t run a “just when you feel like it” fitness studio at this scale.

Ultimately, it’s up to the Motueka community to decide whether this kind of space matters enough to commit to.

And to be completely honest, (because I don’t want anyone wasting their time), strength training isn’t something to dip in and out of. You won’t see real benefits unless you show up regularly. It’s like brushing your teeth, something that deserves to be a high priority. If you skip it, it’ll cost you later. The same is true of your body: without consistent strength training, it won’t be resilient enough to support you as you age.

Those of you who commit weekly, or twice weekly, and pay for your class whether or not you make it, you are absolute gold. You make it possible for this studio to exist, and right now you’re literally covering the rent. I appreciate you deeply.

At the moment, I’m still open to new clients. You can try a class before you commit for just $20. A lot of people have said that it’s a bargain. The first session is often more like personal training because of how much attention I give each person.

This offer is only available for a short time though. There will come a point soon when classes are full and spaces will be reserved only for those who are genuinely committed.]]><![CDATA[Embodied Processing]]>Sat, 20 Sep 2025 05:54:23 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/embodied-processing]]><![CDATA[Showing up for yourself]]>Sat, 20 Sep 2025 05:52:09 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/showing-up-for-yourselfI’ve had a lot of people sign up with me recently, and then disappear. I know a few are sick, some are injured. But if I’m honest, my sense is that for many, this just hasn’t become a true priority yet. Even though you’ve paid for classes, you haven’t made the commitment to yourself to show up.

I get it. Life is full, and there’s a lot to juggle in a day.

But here’s my perspective:

I’ve been a solo parent since my daughter, who’s almost 12 now, was born. I’m not a solo parent who gets weekends off or holidays. I don’t have shared care with her dad, he doesn’t even live in the country.

I know how easy it is to put yourself at the very bottom of the list. For a long time, that’s exactly what I did.

When she was two, I started teaching yoga and soon after, my intuitive healing practice. I showed up for everyone else first. I poured myself into supporting others, and into being the best “gentle,” “aware,” and “natural” parent I could be. But underneath, I was running on empty. I got sick often, I neglected myself, and I didn’t realise how badly I needed to take care of me.

Eventually I burned out. I took a few years off to travel the country and live a more relaxed, nomadic lifestyle. But even then, I felt depleted. Being the only one caring for my daughter, road-schooling her and meeting all of her needs meant I never truly recharged. I had zero time for myself.

When we finally settled here in Tasman, I spent months recovering. But I was still neglecting myself. I let my daughter’s needs and home schooling commitments take priority over my own.

I remember the day I bought the gym back in Māpua. I tried to do a workout and my daughter wouldn’t stop interrupting me. I was in tears every day for the first couple of months, trying to get her to understand that I needed time for me.

It wasn’t until she went back to school at the beginning of 2024 that I finally decided to put myself first. I made a fierce commitment: my workouts would come first. Not because they matter more than my daughter or my clients, but because without looking after myself, I can’t show up for anyone else.

I haven’t missed a workout since.

It might sound small, but it was life-changing. I recharged. I got stronger. I saw results. My confidence and resilience soared. And I finally stopped abandoning myself in all areas of life.

Eventually my daughter accepted that I needed time for myself. She noticed I was a better parent when I made that time, and she started becoming more independent, enjoying her own space, too.

Now, my heavy lifting workouts go into my calendar before anything else. I fiercely protect them. They are scheduled before my classes, clients or any other commitments. They are non-negotiable. My mornings begin with meditation, morning pages, a short run, and mobility work. I make time for yoga every day (sometimes it’s an hour, sometimes it’s 10 minutes, but I don’t skip it). I do this because my health, strength, and nervous system are the foundation for everything else in my life.

I do a lot. I wake at 5:30 am. I own a business. I’m the only one financially supporting myself and my daughter. I teach classes, work with clients, and i’m training for my second ultramarathon. I handle all the childcare, cooking, cleaning, after-school activities. I have nobody to rely on but myself. And I’m highly sensitive, so I’m constantly absorbing the energy of those around me. I have a spiritual practice and I do a lot of inner work on myself so that I’m not overwhelmed by everyone else’s energy.

But out of all the things I do, my absolute priority is my own health, strength and wellbeing. Because I’ve learned that when these things are at the very top of your list, your capacity for everything else expands.
When everyone else is getting sick, I stay well, because I’m not running on empty.

Prioritising your workouts, your health, your body isn’t selfish. It’s an investment. It’s what will carry you into your 70s, 80s, and 90s with strength and independence. But it’s also what keeps you well right now.

When you don’t prioritise yourself, resentment builds up. You say yes to everyone else and no to yourself. And that resentment is a heavy weight to carry.

If you don’t prioritise yourself, no one else will.

You are the most important person in your life.

So let this be your reminder: it’s okay to put yourself first. Not just sometimes, but always. It might just be the most important decision you ever make.]]><![CDATA[Living Deliberately]]>Sat, 30 Aug 2025 22:33:45 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/living-deliberatelyOn my bathroom mirror growing up was a quote by Henry David Thoreau:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)

My parents didn’t instill much in me in the way of values, and we never had inspiring chats. But this quote quietly shaped me more than anything else has.
If there’s one thing I feel compelled to do, it’s live a passionate life—being fully present in whatever experience I’m having. I think 80% of health and longevity comes from that. It’s simply deciding that you will not have a mediocre life.

And that is a choice you make over and over again.

I’ve found myself in many soul-destroying situations where I had to choose to quit or leave instead of remaining quietly miserable. At first, it was terrifying to walk away—whether from a job, a group of people that didn’t feel right, or a stagnant living situation. But in my experience, when you say no to what doesn’t serve you, the universe supports you. Especially if it’s a conscious choice. Leave what doesn’t nourish your soul sooner rather than later, and harsh wake-up calls—burnout, crises, or accidents—don’t need to happen.

My experiments with intentional living started after enduring some really difficult experiences. I got married at 19 to a man I met online (the internet only got started when I was 16, so this was VERY early in the online scene). We met on a Smashing Pumpkins IRC chat room. I moved to the US and endured not only an abusive marriage but years of dead-end customer service jobs and no hope of a university education. I actually became suicidal.

My soul was dying. But I used every spare moment to devour books (starting with Thoreau) and read widely on everything I could find—spirituality, philosophy, literature. I gave myself the education I needed.

The first joyful and truly intentional thing I did was, after reading On the Road, quit my job to follow the Smashing Pumpkins around the country. I met Billy Corgan multiple times, and it was our chats (he actually sat down and talked with me) that got me out of a deep dark hole. Billy Corgan is one of the most passionate and inspiring people I’ve ever met. His giving me the time of day (as an obsessed fan) really made me value my life.

Then I came back to New Zealand and spent years doing what I was passionate about. I studied eco-tourism, outdoor recreation, environmental studies, ecology, and permaculture while exploring wild places. I volunteered as a hut warden for DOC, grew my own food, experimented with living money-free, and attended 13 ten-day Vipassana courses.

I had my daughter, explored intentional parenting, lived in intentional communities, house-sat, traveled to South Africa, took a yoga teacher training, opened a yoga studio, learned Theta Healing, ran women’s circles, lived in a van while road-schooling my daughter, and walked Te Araroa. Eventually, I moved to the place that felt most like home (which I recently discovered was where my ancestors first settled in the 1850s).

But living with intention isn’t just about choosing what you say yes to. It’s about creating enough space to actually engage in life fully.

Which is why I do one thing at a time. I focus intensely on the thing (currently, this business) and suck all of the marrow out of it.

And not just focusing, but creating space around your focus.

For example, I have spare time that I could fill with other activities, but I allow space for my passions to flourish. And I tell you, creating that space is hard. Being busy is not a badge of honour—it’s often a trauma response. When we fill all our free time with busyness, we aren’t truly living.

So often, we have to relearn how to be still, to make space, to simply be in the moment—fully present. The stillness side of Embodied Soul is designed to support you in feeling safe in your body, so you can live intentionally and focus on what’s most important to you.

If you’re curious check out my offerings for Restorative Yoga, Embodied Processing and Intuitive Healing.

]]><![CDATA[The Softer Side of Embodied Soul: Stillness]]>Fri, 22 Aug 2025 23:10:10 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/the-softer-side-of-embodied-soul-stillnessThe stillness side of Embodied Soul has been slower to develop. At first, I wondered if this meant people didn’t really want it. But the truth is, stillness is simply harder to reach than strength.

Strength has clear pathways, it has a culture that actively explores what works and what doesn’t. In recent years, thanks to researchers like Dr. Stacy Sims, we finally have methods that really work for women. Stillness doesn’t have that kind of roadmap yet. Science is only beginning to understand trauma, nervous system regulation, and emotional integration. Science doesn’t understand the soul. There isn’t a neat formula, often you spend years navigating away from ungrounded teachings, spiritual bypassing, or cult-like modalities that promise so much but deliver so little. There are so many holes to fall into along the way.

And beyond that, stillness itself is difficult. When you pause, all the internal clutter begins to rise. Your busy mind, brain fog, stuck emotions, dissociation, old grief or fear becomes very obvious. It doesn’t feel peaceful at first. It feels exposing, uncomfortable, sometimes overwhelming.

So it makes sense that people hesitate, take their time, or move slowly toward it. And I’ve had to learn to allow that slowness, to stop questioning whether it means stillness isn’t wanted, and instead to trust that people will reach for it when they are ready. Nobody is going to trust me unless I’m ok with allowing each person to come to this work in their own time. And that’s important, because I never want anyone to work with me out of pressure.

Here’s the thing: I’ve been doing the inner work for years. It’s slow. It’s not linear. It works in spirals and layers, and it is infinitely harder than picking up a barbell. Stillness is about facing the inner demons, the grief, the rage, the fear. It’s about drawing on your deepest inner resources and going to the depths of who you are. It’s messy.

And although I love working with people to get stronger on a physical level, I am a deep person, and I require depth in my work. Not offering the stillness aspect would mean holding back a part of myself that yearns to be expressed.

So, what does stillness look like in practice?

I’ve created a few different offerings which are designed as a kind of progression: It starts with Restorative Yoga, which evolves into Group Somatic Healing, and then Group Intuitive Healing. For those that feel called to take it further and delve into advanced energy healing work, there’s also Theta Healing courses. However, you’ll be drawn to the place that feels right for you to start. Your journey may not follow the format I’ve designed.

🧘‍♀️ Restorative Yoga: A Taste of Safety
Restorative yoga offers a gentle introduction to creating safety in your body. It’s a bridge from active movement to quiet, inward focus. A place to soften, settle, and begin to feel your body again. Hesitation to try restorative yoga is natural. Strength classes boost confidence, make you feel empowered, and expand your capacity to hold physical challenges. Stillness can feel very different: tender, exposing, and very vulnerable for some people.

I don’t embrace this idea of “vulnerability.” While it’s popular in healing circles, I don’t want to encourage you to be vulnerable. Vulnerability implies letting yourself be completely unprotected. That is not the goal. The goal is to build a container of safety first, developing a resource in your body that you can rely on. Only once you have that foundation can you discern when it’s safe to surrender, when it’s safe to feel fully, and when it’s safe to trust.

In Restorative Yoga, you’re simply exploring what it feels like to be safe and supported. You’re not processing trauma yet; you’re grounding into a cocoon of safety and reconnecting with your body.

🌱 Somatic Healing: Building a Reliable Resource
Once you’ve had that initial taste of resourcing through Restorative Yoga, the 5-week somatic healing course is where we really start to build the resource of safety into something reliable. Here, you learn to return to that sense of safety again and again, developing a deep familiarity with your body and nervous system, and an understanding of your emotions and patterns.

This course is experiential: you’ll feel grounded in your resource, begin processing suppressed material, and cultivate the capacity to hold your experiences with confidence. Safety becomes something you truly carry with you, not just a fleeting experience.

🔮 Intuitive Healing: Tuning Into Your Inner Guidance
Once you’re comfortable in your body and with your emotions, it’s time to listen to your intuition. In my 5-week intuitive healing course, you’ll learn to decipher the voices in your head, understand your strongest psychic senses, and connect to a higher truth. It doesn’t matter what name you give it: God, Source, Creator, we’re simply working with the energy of all that is.

This course is also about identifying the roots of your patterns: childhood experiences, ancestral trauma, and other influences, and understanding how they’ve shaped you. You’ll explore why certain situations appear in your life, what you are meant to learn from them, and how these insights help you tap into your higher purpose.

It’s a space to access your own guidance, rather than relying on someone else’s interpretation, and to strengthen your connection to your inner wisdom. This understanding allows you to move through life with greater clarity, purpose, and alignment

✨ Advanced Energy Healing: Recognising Yourself as a Healer
For those ready to take it to the next level, learning Theta Healing® is about recognising the healer within you. You’ll learn to work with energy consciously, access your own inner guidance, and create the life you truly want. You’ll become a certified Theta Healer and start to draw the people you are here to support.

Theta Healing gives you the tools to transform your own patterns, align with your purpose, and step fully into your potential. It was a magical part of my journey. Even now, before any major life transition (such as creating this business), I book a Theta Healing session for myself. It ensures everything flows smoothly and I don’t get stuck on the small hurdles.

🤝 1:1 Intuitive Sessions: Bringing It All Together
For those who feel stuck, want guidance, or are ready to go deeper, my 1:1 intuitive sessions integrate everything I offer. These sessions help you understand your patterns, like what keeps you from committing to a strength program, or why certain habits and fears keep repeating. We explore inner child work, ancestral healing, trauma processing, and maybe even your life purpose.

These sessions are highly personalised. I work with your energy, your body, and your story to help you identify the blocks holding you back and develop strategies to move forward. This is a space where you can bring all of your experiences together: strength, stillness, intuition, and begin to see the bigger picture of your growth and capacity.

1:1 sessions also have the option of creating a personalised exercise program, and we can offer ongoing sessions and support to help you stick with it.

💖 My Take on Stillness
Stillness isn’t about surrendering blindly. It’s not about laying out all of your vulnerability on the table. It’s about slowly building safety, strengthening your capacity to hold the uncomfortable stuff, and discerning when it’s truly safe to open. That container is what allows confidence, clarity, intuition, and stillness to flourish.

📅 Upcoming Offerings:
🧘‍♀️ Restorative Yoga: Fridays & Sundays at 5:15 pm (please book at least 3 hours prior).

🌱 5-week Somatic Healing group: one evening a week (1.5 hr sessions), 5 weeks — $150, 3–5 participants max.

🔮 5-week Intuitive Healing group: alternating with Somatic Healing, same price and format.

✨ Theta Healing® Basic course: 3 days, coming soon.

💜 Message me to register your interest or to learn more.

]]><![CDATA[Six weeks in my new space!]]>Sun, 17 Aug 2025 07:47:18 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/august-17th-2025I am SO grateful to have found this space.

The past couple of years have been difficult for me, emotionally and financially. I made a bad investment, trusted the wrong person, found myself stuck owning a gym in a community that wasn’t supportive of it.

Instead of walking away from the investment, I trusted my intuition. I knew that the gym in Māpua wasn’t the right thing for me, but there was something magic in the heavy lifting — both for myself and for others.

I knew that the gym was a stepping stone to creating something more aligned. I just didn’t know what it would look like exactly.

I spent a year keeping the gym afloat out of my own pocket, basically supporting someone else to make a living off of it, while I completed a personal training course and heavy lifting teacher’s program and mentorship. And I used the gym to deepen my own training and learning.

That period of time required a lot of trust that I was on the right track. The personal training course, which I was doing to get my REPS registration, was tough. It was filled with endless assignments and it had a toxic, body shaming tone.

I had conflicts with the tutors because our views on fitness and body positivity were at odds. It was a course designed by men, for men. There was no mention of women’s training needs being different to men’s or of what women need in peri and post menopause. They told me that if I didn’t focus on training people for aesthetics, I would never get any clients. It took everything I had not to quit.

I remember being so relieved the day I finally got the certificate.

The very next day I ran a 54 km ultra marathon.

It was my first ultra (first marathon as well), and I was very nervous. I was worried I’d be the slowest person on the course, coming in after dark. But I knew I had to attempt it, I’d put so much energy into training for it. I surprised myself by finishing in less than 8 hours. It was the most joyful experience ever. An initiation into a new phase of life.

The ultra marathon feeling so easy was a sign that life did not need to be difficult anymore. I’d done the hard work. I’d persevered. I’d trained. I’d studied. All while solo parenting. I’d carried other people and I’d lived off my savings for long enough. It was time to bring some joy, ease and abundance into my life. I’d earned it.

Completing that ultra marathon created a huge shift in my energy. I felt like I could do anything. I set a strong intention to create something that felt aligned with my soul. I set out to find a place where I could bring together all of my work.

And then, effortlessly, in less than two weeks, I found this place.

Everything flowed, like nothing I’d experienced.

Support arrived exactly when I needed it and my trust in the universe was restored.

Here’s the key though: I had to learn to trust myself first. I had to persevere through lots of hardship, and struggle before I was ready to stop compromising.

I had to go through the shadows and really feel the pain of carrying everything on my own.

That’s what I needed to get stronger.

And now, I feel like I am carried and I am held. Not by anyone in particular, there’s nobody there in the background to catch me, I don’t have anyone to go home to each night who supports me. But I trust that I’m carried by something far greater. The universe does have my back.

The universe also knew that giving it to me the easy way wouldn’t have made me so strong and competent. If any of this had come easily, I wouldn’t now feel so capable of holding space for all the people who will be coming to me for empowerment, support and healing.

Anyway, thank you so much to all my crew from Māpua who have stuck with me through this transition. You are amazing! I would have really struggled without you.

And thanks to all the wonderful, new people who have joined us!

I’m excited to watch this community grow.

]]><![CDATA[Why Strength needs Stillness]]>Sat, 02 Aug 2025 10:27:34 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/why-strength-needs-stillnessSome people are surprised when I say I’m teaching both heavy lifting and restorative yoga. Like those two things have no business being buddies.

But for me, they’re deeply connected.

I’ve always had a tendency to overtrain.
I was overtrained as a swimmer from a young age.
And when I walked the length of Aotearoa, I hiked 8-12 hours everyday. I walked the last third of the South Island without a single rest day.

Later, when I discovered heavy lifting, I brought the same mindset.
No rest days. Just keep going.
I even started training for an ultramarathon while building toward some quite heavy lifts at the same time.

And for a while, it worked. My body held up. No injuries or major fatigue.
But after a few months, my progress stalled and I reached some plateaus in both my lifting and running.
That’s when I realised something I’d missed.

Hiking, walking, swimming, and other endurance activities are very different to heavy lifting.

Aerobic movement is steady, rhythmic, and relatively low impact.
The nervous system can settle into it over time. Your body adapts and gets more efficient and you can get by with little recovery (every thru-hiker develops ”trail legs” where you can just walk and walk for hours on end).

Heavy lifting is different.
It requires short, explosive, anaerobic effort. It activates the nervous system.
It’s intense physically and neurologically.

This is why a rest day after a heavy lifting session isn’t optional.
Muscle is built between sessions, not during them.
Strength gets integrated in stillness, not in movement.
And if your nervous system isn’t recovering properly, you won’t get stronger.

This is why I always ask you to check in with your nervous system and your stress levels at the start of every lifting session.

Because how well rested and well regulated you are matters more than how much weight you lift.

It’s also why I’ll keep reminding you to sit down and rest between your sets, not do something else or try to be efficient (always hard for people when they first start).

One thing that helps me keep training the way I do without burning out is restorative yoga.

Prioritising that practice, after letting it drift into the background for a few years, has made a huge difference.
It gives my body space to soften and release tension.
It calms and regulates my nervous system.

Stillness isn’t always easy though.
I see it every time someone skips their rest period or struggles to stay still.
Often there’s a desire to be efficient, to keep moving.
But underneath that, stillness can actually feel unsafe.

When we stop, we often meet what we’ve been avoiding and that can feel overwhelming.
Particularly if your nervous system hasn’t known safety in a while.

That’s why I build a practice called “resourcing” into my restorative yoga classes.
Resourcing is about cultivating a sense of safety.
When you have that foundation of safety, being present with the body can slowly start to feel less overwhelming.
With practice stillness becomes possible, and eventually deeply nourishing.

This is why I believe heavy lifting and restorative yoga belong together.

I teach restorative yoga at Embodied Soul at 5:15 pm, Fridays and Sundays.
]]><![CDATA[Sustainable Yoga: A Class for Life]]>Wed, 30 Jul 2025 22:10:05 GMThttps://www.embodiedsoul.nz/blog-and-news/sustainable-yoga-a-class-for-lifeI’ve renamed my “Functional Movement, Yoga & Mobility” class to something simpler:
Sustainable Yoga.

What is Sustainable Yoga?
It’s still functional movement, yoga, and mobility — just under a name that feels less clunky.

Really, it’s yoga you’ll still be doing when you’re 90+.

I could’ve called it “modern yoga,” “anatomy-informed yoga,” or “functional yoga.”
But Sustainable Yoga felt right.

This practice:

Focuses on alignment that makes sense for your body — grounded in biomechanics and a modern understanding of anatomy. (Traditional yoga cues never made sense to me, but these ones do.)
Stays within functional ranges of motion, prioritising mobility (the intersection of strength, stability, and flexibility) rather than chasing passive flexibility, which can be risky if unsupported.
Uses movement that prepares your body for everyday life, not just for poses.

There’s less focus on what a pose looks like — we’re not aiming for some fixed endpoint.

It’s about how it feels in your body.

There’s also a fun, creative, playful aspect to this practice — often missing in serious yoga classes.

It’s never about “getting it right.”

We don’t do many traditional yoga poses — no sun salutations or sequences you’ve done a million times, but some familiar shapes are still there, adapted with more purpose.

For example, Ustrasana (camel pose):
In the sustainable version, we use a controlled lean-back from kneeling to strengthen the quads and core. It’s no longer a deep backbend — because really, when will you need that in everyday life?

This approach is intelligently applied. And deeply relevant.

We live in modern bodies, shaped by modern lives. We sit a lot. Even those of us who train regularly are still mostly sedentary. We need movement that counters that — adaptable, consistent, and woven into our daily routines.

The core principles of Sustainable Yoga:
*Boundaries*
Respect your body’s boundaries — we don’t push into extreme ranges of motion without support and readiness.
*Variety & Diversity*
Our brains and nervous systems thrive on novelty — so we explore creative, playful movement variations.
*Frequency*
We need more movement than one yoga class a week. You’ll learn simple movements to integrate into daily life.
*Restore & Support*
Rest and nervous system regulation are key to making movement sustainable — and to feeling well in your body.

But why still call it yoga?

This approach comes from Heart & Bones Yoga, one of the (best) teacher trainings I’ve done.

There were lots of thoughtful conversations in that training — about what yoga means today, and how to honour its roots while allowing for respectful evolution.

Ultimately, yoga is about union.
And that essence is still here.
The heart of yoga is still here.

When we connect to our bodies with kindness — through movement that’s compassionate, functional, and available to all — we are practicing yoga.

Sustainable Yoga is on at Embodied Soul Thursdays at 10am

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