Grief In the Body: How to Heal Through Body Wisdom w/ Abby Hildebrand
Release Date: 10/15/2024
Be. Play. Love.
Most people don’t think of themselves as creative. We say, “I’m not artistic,” or “I can’t perform,” and leave it at that. But the truth is, creativity isn’t reserved for the select few. It lives in everyone. It’s baked into how we think, feel, dream, and respond to the world. The problem is that most of us were taught to shut it down. We were told to color inside the lines, follow the rules, and keep things appropriate. Over time, we stopped expressing the weird, wonderful parts of ourselves and started believing that creativity belonged only to the professionals. But...
info_outlineBe. Play. Love.
In a world that worships productivity, we’ve traded our inner spark for efficiency and completely lost the creativity that’s vital to flow. For many of us, this disconnection with our creativity goes back to childhood. This is where we were taught not to be weird. Where we were trained to do things in one specific way, and forced to correct ourselves when we didn’t. For years, we’ve heard negative things that have shaped how we feel about our creativity, so no wonder we’ve suppressed it. But without play, coloring outside the lines, and trusting the parts of ourselves that don’t...
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You’re standing in front of a mess…clothes, memories, identities…scattered on the floor. A rod gives out, a shelf falls, or maybe your inner structure does. It looks like chaos, but it might just be intuition telling you: it’s time to release the weight, it’s time to let go. Whether it’s a closet full of old identities, a childhood belief you’ve outgrown, or a lingering fear that you’re still “too much,” life finds ways to show us what no longer fits. But what if that collapse isn’t a failure but an invitation to release, integrate, and reclaim ourselves? It’s a shift...
info_outlineBe. Play. Love.
Creativity isn’t just a skill, it’s a lifeline in a play-deprived society. When young people feel unseen, unheard, and unwelcome, they shut down. Their development gets interrupted. Their story gets cut short. But give them the joy of movement, and a place to express their creativity, and something transformational happens. They come alive. Not because someone told them what to say or how to be, but because someone finally asked: Who are you? And what’s inside you, waiting to be expressed? In this episode, we explore what happens when we stop trying to “fix” kids and instead create...
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The power-over / power-under / power-with dynamic isn’t just something we have with other people, it often resides inside us. When we override our emotions, suppress our sensations, and try to outmaneuver our discomfort, we manifest that dynamic. We see it when we push past our sadness, armor over vulnerability, or try to exert power in ways that are loud and forceful instead of connected and quiet. Maybe it’s thinking we need to toughen up and act like a badass in reaction to our sadness. That’s what we think being powerful looks like. But what if the...
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Here’s an uncomfortable or even painful experience many people are having right now. Losing a friendship over differing political views or fundamental values. It hurts…but what if it’s also a window into something deeper? In today’s cultural climate, the divide between people often goes far beyond a simple disagreement or differing opinions. It can reveal a far deeper truth: when values clash, friendships can break. But what does that rupture reveal about how we relate, how we build trust, and how we stay open in moments that hurt? Most of us are taught to manage difficult emotions by...
info_outlineBe. Play. Love.
Sometimes, the danger isn’t real, but our bodies still act like it is. You’re stuck in traffic, someone you love is upset, or a friend doesn’t text back, and suddenly, you’re spiraling. Your heart races, your thoughts scramble, and before you know it, you’re either fixing, fleeing, or shutting down. What’s happening? In a world that constantly pushes us to stay in control, we forget how to stay connected, to ourselves, to others, and to the moment. But our bodies remember. They hold wisdom, intuition, and the capacity to guide us, if we’re willing to...
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There are many ways we try to heal. Therapy, meditation, breathwork, movement, and mindset work - just to name a few. These paths are powerful, transformative, and often life-changing. But sometimes, despite all the tools and effort, there are places within us that remain untouched, places our intellect can’t quite reach. We’re exploring one such threshold, where healing stops being something we do and becomes something that happens to us at a cellular level. Where transformation drops from the head into the body through the quiet, mystical intelligence of mushrooms. Journeying...
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We all do it. When there’s silence, ambiguity, or the absence of clear feedback, we fill in the blanks with stories. But here’s the problem: our minds don’t reach for generous interpretations. They default to criticism, fear, and doubt. Whether it’s giving a talk, navigating a friendship, or reflecting on ourselves, we often assume the worst, even when reality is far more kind. Evolutionary survival instincts, societal conditioning, and inner critics keep us stuck in fear-based thinking. What if there was a powerful alternative (spoiler alert, there is!) - reconnecting to the...
info_outlineBe. Play. Love.
In our world, productivity and creativity occupy two different buckets. The former is functional, necessary, and purposeful. The latter is frivolous, chaotic, and irresponsible. It should be put on the back burner so that we can focus on “more important things.” As a result, creative expression ends up as an afterthought, something we can only do after the real work is done. The problem is: so many of us end up feeling disconnected from our creativity, cut off from a vital resource for resonance. What if instead of putting off creativity for later, we could integrate it into...
info_outlineAs mothers, we truly get to experience the magic and miracle of the female body as we carry our babies. Growing another human being makes us bring attention to our bodies in a profound way.
But at the same time, that beautiful experience gets interrupted in the birthing process, especially when it’s a traumatic one. Because the process of having a baby is governed so heavily by the mechanics and medicine of it, we can lose that connection with our bodies and struggle to reignite it. Perhaps you stop feeling safe in your body.
Or you escape into your brain to make sense of it all. Or you start feeling like you didn’t deliver (pun intended) on what’s expected of you as a woman.
Bringing attention to our body wisdom allows us to reclaim our bodies, but first, we have to grieve. We have to move through the sadness and feelings of loss in order to heal. If we learn to be with grief, our internal landscape expands and creates room for more joy, love, connection and self-love.
How do we heal ourselves through giving our bodies attention? How do we work through the aftermath of a difficult birthing process? In this episode, we’re joined by our good friend and collaborator Abby Hildebrand. She shares her journey into motherhood and how she’s reconnected with her own body.
Things You’ll Learn In This Episode
-Reignite the conversation with your body
As women, society gives us so many reasons to not feel safe in our bodies. How do we reclaim the connection and find the safety in ourselves?
-Birth and rebirth
Having a baby is a beautiful experience but a traumatic birthing process can leave us feeling like strangers to our own inner landscape. How does this emerge and show up?
-The friendliest way to be with grief
There’s a huge difference between riding the wave of grief and picking at a scab to continue the suffering. How do we let the grief move through us?
Guest Bio
Abby Hildebrand is a trauma-informed Breathwork Facilitator, Perinatal Mental Health Advocate, Emotional Transformation Guide, speaker, author and CEO of Wellness Creek Consulting. As an experienced human connection and development leader at a successful engineering firm, Abby thought motherhood would be a breeze in comparison. After navigating the ups and downs of postpartum anxiety and depression, she has dug deep into what creates massive emotional transformation and is on a mission to empower mothers everywhere to take control of their own health and wellness, one breath at a time.
About Your Hosts
Kathlyn Hendricks, Ph.D., BC-DMT*, is an evolutionary catalyst and freelance mentor who has been a pioneer in the field of body intelligence and conscious loving for over forty years. Katie has an international reputation as a presenter and seminar leader, bodifying the core skills of conscious living–authenticity, response-ability and appreciation–with conscious enthusiasts from many fields. She is the co-author of twelve books, including the best-selling Conscious Loving, At The Speed of Life and Conscious Loving Ever After: How to Create Thriving Relationship at Midlife and Beyond. Katie has been a successful entrepreneur for over forty years. She specializes in turning concepts such as commitment into felt experience and igniting new actions that emerge from the inside out. Her unique coaching and leadership programs have generated hundreds of body intelligence and relationship coaches in the U.S. and Europe. She co-founded the Spiritual Cinema Circle and the virtual Body Intelligence Summit. Katie has appeared on over 500 radio and television programs and traveled well over one million air miles as the ambassador for the work that she and her husband Gay Hendricks have developed.
Sophie Chiche is a seasoned coach and consultant who has traveled the world working with thousands of people and dozens of teams. With a passion for fully expressed living, Sophie coaches, and facilitates group sessions to help people and teams remove what gets in the way of them living their most meaningful lives.Not only does she work with clients to design the life they want, but she's also developed methods, mindsets shifts, and healing modalities to create it elegantly. Born in Paris, raised in Barcelona, and lived in LA for 30 years, Sophie now lives in the middle of nowhere Arizona, where she rides her Harley with her boo, Wall. And plays a lot of pickleball.
Being Current - rebuilding trust in choices