How could embodiment help with moving from people-pleasing towards spontaneous & authentic expression?

The background - From people pleasing towards spontaneous and authentic expression

One of my clients, Layla, is facing challenges in her personal and professional growth because she holds back or tempers her expression because of fear of harsh judgment.

For example, she is afraid of being judged by family members, so she stays away from some topics on her podcast - topics that are very important to her, both as a person as well as a business owner. And this holding back inhibits her growth as a person as well as a professional.

Also, she holds back from expressing her love in ways that are most natural to her because she might be perceived as silly.

She told me that she would like to move away from this "people pleasing" behavior and instead express herself spontaneously and authentically.

Below is a story of one of our sessions together.

Arriving in the here and now & setting goals for the session

As always, we started our session with a meditation to arrive in the body, in the here and now. Because the present moment is where we are alive and where we create our reality.

Then we took some time to clarify the goal of the session including both Layla's feelings and the actions that she is taking or wants to take around the goal.

Attracting or magnetizing what we desire to ourselves

In the session, I used a combination of several tools to guide the client into their body, one of which was the magnetize tool - where we explore and open up to attract what we desire to ourselves. Here are some highlights from the session.

Awareness & acceptance of where we are

We started by going into the body and seeing what was alive within Layla around her desire. She mentioned feelings of fear and excitement and butterflies in her stomach.

I then asked her where is her desire with respect to her body. She mentioned it feels like it is outside her body.

Leaning into the sensations within

As we went deeper into the sensations, Layla came across a thought "The spontaneous expression is not meant for me." She also encountered a sensation of tired heaviness within her body.

As she took the time to feel the tired heaviness, she felt a shift within and a thought emerged, "The nervousness is still here, but that's okay."

From frozen tension towards pleasure

As she let herself feel the nervousness, her whole body stretched and she could feel the pleasure of this stretch. This stretching is common during embodiment sessions.

As she opened up to this pleasure within her, joyful memories of spontaneous expression with loved ones came up. And her whole body could feel that

"Authentic and spontaneous expression is natural, it has always been a part of me and I can lean into it."

Wrapping-up with the body's wisdom

During the session, Layla moved closer to embodying her desire of being authentic and spontaneous. By taking the time to be present with what was alive within her, she processed her fear which uncovered new insights for her.

She had started the session feeling like her authentic and spontaneous expression is outside of her. By the end of the session, she could feel that it lives within her and she can embrace it whenever she wants - whether through words, movement, sound or touch. And instead of fear, she felt pleasure and possibility.

And it is from a place of pleasure and possibility that we attract what we want towards us - because we see opportunities instead of hurdles.

If you want to see if embodiment can help you resolve challenges, you can schedule a discovery call here: https://calendly.com/beant-ux/discovery-call