At Raindrop Movement, we believe there are four main reasons why we all feel disembodied.
How did we get to a place where we need to disconnect from inner parts of us? Or, looking through another lens, what gets in the way of full embodiment?
From trauma to patriarchy stress disorder, this article will help you uncover why you may feel disconnected from your body and of course, how to easefully, and safely come back to it.
Trauma is at the origin of our disembodiment
We live in a world where almost every individual has or will experience some level of trauma. However, more and more people, for the sake of research or their own personal development, are slowly getting genuinely invested in ancient and new forms of health and well-being — be it mental, emotional, spiritual, or energetic. As a result, we now have access to precious information on the vast impact of trauma on our overall sense of self.
We have also learned from people who devoted their life to researching trauma such as Gabor Mate, Peter A. Levine, Bassel Van der Kolk, Pat Ogden, and many others, that trauma is not about the event itself but about how we experience it.
In the words of Nada Mesqui, Founder of Raindrop Movement, trauma is any event, or set of circumstances, that rips apart our sense of safety, belonging, or worth.
If you take that in for a moment and feel into your own experience of safety, belonging, or self-worth being ripped apart, and pulled underneath you, what memories or events immediately come to your awareness?
And even if nothing comes to your mind, it is almost certain your ancestors have experienced a fair share of traumatic events in their time. As written by Dr. Resmaa Menakem, author and trauma Specialist, "Trauma is routinely passed on from person to person - and generation to generation - through genetics, culture, family structures, and the biochemistry of the egg, sperm, and womb. Trauma is literally in our blood."
What trauma have your ancestors gone through and how might it still live inside of you?
Our responsibility, as conscious beings, is to recognize the potential signs of trauma —persistent harmful patterns, consistent anger, anxiety, panic attacks, chronic pain, insomnia, numbness, and disassociation — and to safely work towards healing it.
In our Foundation of Feminine Embodiment Certification program, you will learn easy ways to help you — and those around you — regulate your nervous system, increase your capacity to connect to all parts of your body wisdom and receive guidance from your own internal felt sense. We will slowly increase your somatic awareness and sensitivity and teach your brain it is safe to be fully present in your body.
Our next cohort will start in March 2025, join the waitlist to receive more details about it and a special discount!
Constant Stress
The second element that disconnects us from our body is consistent stress.
The sad truth of our society is that if you are a functioning member of this collective, you are probably stressed. If you are a parent on top, you are definitely stressed.
Stress in itself is not so much a problem. Some researchers such as Hans Selye even talk about the “eustress” which is the short-term stress that motivates us and propels us into action.
In other words, stress is not inherently bad. Stress can be a mobilizing force of energy. It becomes a problem if we are not creating conscious moments to release it. Very much like anything else in our body: if it’s not digested, it becomes toxic.
If you do not have the space to openly share your daily challenges, process what has been on your shoulders, and release it emotionally, physically, and energetically, it will start eating you up from the inside.
Stress manifests in our body as an increase in cortisol — our body’s primary stress hormone — which can lead to high pressure, anxiety, muscle tension, digestive issues, and nausea. Cortisol rises when our nervous system is in constant “fight or flight” mode due to overstimulation of some kind.
Our “all work, no play” mentality forces us to prioritize productivity over pleasure and makes us addicted to constant “doing” which for most of us equals overexposure to stress.
So, how can we create a safe space to release stress? Through more play!
Play is the most natural antidote to stress. When we play there is nothing to achieve, there is nothing to be vigilant about, and very little to control. Play is how we allow our nervous system to self-regulate. Play is the fastest, most enjoyable, and affordable way for adults to release stress.
You could take an intuitive painting class, a writing workshop, a pottery course, a dance class… Whatever allows you to surrender all your “to-do lists” and be in playful presence with all of your parts.
Other efficient ways to work with stress are to decrease exposure to external stimulation — time off work, time in nature, tech detox — to create a container for emotional support such as coach, therapist, woman’s circle, and of course, physical exercise.
When choosing what kind of physical exercise suits you, I would suggest you look at it through the lens of fun and play rather than achieving a certain goal which can become just another source of stress very easily.
Our Raindrop Movement weekly classes offer just that — an opportunity for you to step out of your thinking and into your sensing body to regulate your nervous system.
Join us every Thursday at 7 p.m. CEST.
Negative self-talk disconnects you from your body
The third reason why we are disembodied is negative self-talk or judgment, a.k.a inner critic, impostor syndrome… You name it!
Because we are used to live solely from the neck up, we have lost touch with reality and become slaves to our thinking minds. Unfortunately, this is where most of our fears, doubts and insecurities live.
When we glorify our intellect and neglect other forms of our wisdom, we find ourselves either living from the past and in constant worry of repeating the same “mistakes”, or in the future based on anxiety about what might go wrong.
When we return to our bodies, we return to the present moment. From here we can reconnect to parts of us that live in our hearts and our guts and then we can make a choice on which part to listen to and which conversation to engage in.
When we speak to ourselves, we speak to our cells! Every living part of our body is receiving the energy, the frequency, the vibration of our words, emotions, and thoughts. Therefore, it is crucial to be aware what are we feed ourselves with.
You might still choose at times to follow your rational mind or maybe you will choose to go with your heart or gut. Be it what may, you will feel at choice and that puts you in a far more empowering state than being at the mercy of your fear and anxiety.
Most of Nada’s 1-on-1 work revolves around expanding her client’s somatic, emotional, spiritual, and mental awareness so that they can reconnect to their internal guidance system and design a life that is in alignment with their highest potential.
If you’d like to receive fierce support in that way, book a discovery call with Nada, because we only have this “one wild and precious life”, as beautifully said by Mary Oliver. So, let’s live it fully!
The Patriarchy Stress Disorder
Yes, we are talking about the fourth and final major reason why all women are collectively disembodied —The Patriarchy Stress Disorder.
This last contributor to our feminine disembodiment has been brought to light by the work of Dr. Valerie Rein. Her book Patriarchy Stress Disorder: The Invisible Inner Barrier to Women's Happiness and Fulfillment allows a deeper understanding of the collective, transgenerational trauma that anyone who identifies as female holds in their body.
Even today, in this “modern” society, women carry the cellular imprint of feeling unsafe and not good enough. Think about it — for thousands of years, being born with a phallus was a sign of immediate worth.
Being born a woman meant you needed to earn your worth. Our worth was conditioned, and in a lot of places still is, by our capacity to give birth and take care of others.
With our lives having less value than a man’s life, our existence was also more threatened. And even if this does not seem completely true today — knowing that there are over 130 million girls who would strongly disagree — think about your mother and your grandmother, how safe was it for them to walk around the city alone or to speak their mind in public?
Their fear still lives in the cellular memory of your epigenetic quilt. Our epigenetics carries the memory of the environment in which our cells were developing. In other words, you carry particles of your mother’s and your mother’s mother lived experience in your body. Some research, like Dias & Ressler, even suggests up to 5 generations behind.
These types of transgenerational conditioning can be healed when we allow ourselves to reach beyond the levels of the mind. Because even if we can cognitively understand this, our mind has nothing to associate with it — no memory, nor lived experience — and so it will keep running away from it.
This is where energy healing is needed.
Our Founder Nada Mesqui works with a modality called VortexHealing®.
VortexHealing is derived solely from Divine energy and consciousness, and where the Divine Source for that healing art is guiding the movement of that energy and consciousness. The Divine is the Transcendent, Immanent, and Utterly Unfathomable Source of All, but also has different pure Expressions of Itself that can act as a Source for various kinds of lineages, whether spiritual, religious, or in this case a healing/awakening lineage.
VortexHealing can be used to help with physical conditions or to work on emotional issues, or clear blockages in the body's energy system, or energize the meridian pathways, and liberate any transgenerational and/or karmic core level conditionings.
If this sounds like something you’d like to experience, book a discovery call to learn more about it.
And if all of these feels overwhelming and too expansive to even make that first step, we invite you to return to the basics. Can you honor your body’s basic needs?
Can you pee when you need to pee?
Eat when you are hungry?
Drink when you are thirsty?
Rest when you are tired?
Meeting your body at it most essential level will instantly send a message to your autonomic nervous system of being “open & willing to stay in good partnership” with your body.
So, it that is all you have the capacity to hold, trust it is already enough!
With fierce love always,
Team Raindrop.
