Finding safety and self-acceptance within

Hi hi, you beautiful soul! How’re you? I hope you’ve had a suitably rich and fulfilling week.

Without further ado, here’s Friday Feels! My weekly dispatch from my world of coaching, meditation and breathwork.

1. Song of the week

Peaceful Garden by Buddha’s Lounge (Listen on Spotify or watch on YouTube)

I have very much been enjoying this track from Buddha’s Lounge this week 🧘 Yes, it does sound like the background music in a spa or a wellness centre, but there’s a reason they play this sort of music in places like that! I find it deeply relaxing, and I thoroughly recommend having it on whilst you meditate, or relax in a lovely, warming bath (oh, to have a bathtub in my house!) It’s delicious in breathwork as well!

The next breathwork workshop is Sunday 6th February, with the theme of rest and reset. Get your ticket here.

2. Quote of the week

“The single most important issue for traumatized people is to find a sense of safety in their own bodies.”
― Bessel van der Kolk MD

Having moved through some big shifts personally recently, I have connected to a deep sense of safety within myself. So this quote from Bessel van der Kolk – a psychiatrist and researcher into trauma – really resonates. Another quote that comes to mind is that “our issues are in our tissues” i.e. much of our stress and emotional baggage stores up in our physical body. So in order to recover from stress, trauma and emotional turmoil, we must first learn to feel safe in our body. And from that place of presence and awareness, we can then start to explore what the body signals are showing us. See my point about triggers below!*

Bessel van der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps The Score, is one that many therapists and psychotherapists recommend that their clients/patients read. I also thoroughly recommend it! I studied it as part of my Breathwork training. A heads up though: it can be quite triggering to read, so bear that in mind when you pick up a copy!

3. Practice of the week

The Presence Process! I have been following Michael Brown’s Presence Process since November just gone, and it’s been really profound. It’s been helping me to uncover deep layers within my psyche, which can be accessed through body sensations*. For example, if I get triggered by a particular person or circumstance, it has helped me to invite in full self-responsibility: “if I feel it, it is mine”.

Recently, in exploring a trigger, I uncovered something I did not want to remember. Turns out, what was triggering about the situation was not really the other person at all! It was the feeling within myself that I was trying to avoid. Once I was able to see that – to have that awareness – I allowed myself to feel the feelings. And to know that it was safe to feel emotional discomfort and express them (there’s been a lot of spontaneous crying this last week! Fortunately my neighbours are very shouty so I don’t feel awkward being noisy when I need to 😉).

Following this, the trigger became neutralised and I no longer felt that same agitation. This is what our emotions are giving us: clues! 🧩 We’re receiving pieces of the puzzle, all the time. Information through our nervous system of unintegrated emotional charges from childhood events. And this is how we can be free of triggers, rather than avoiding, suppressing or numbing.

That’s where our freedom lies! By moving through triggers, not avoiding the discomfort, but by being with it. As you process triggers, you break free from cycles of reactive behaviour that keep you stuck, feeling frustrated and unable to make new habits stick.

4. Article of the week

​Kali is the 3,000-year-old feminist icon we need today, QZ​.com

I’ll be honest: the first time I heard of Kali was in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a firm childhood favourite film! ‘Kali Ma!’ And in later years, I was painted as this epic Hindu goddess (I recall the decapitated men’s heads being painted on certain parts of my body that were extra ticklish!) She is so powerful and I have loved discovering more about her, and this article does an excellent job.

“Kali is the Goddess of transformation – which only comes through destruction. She represents the fearless, empowered and devoted energy within you. She is ferocious and creates great turmoil to eradicate everything that doesn’t serve you.

You may fear the conflict she brings, but it can liberate you from anything holding you back. She sets you on the best path to your highest evolvement. Invoking her may not be the prettiest picture, but it will give you the necessary push to make vital changes in your life.

If you’ve been holding on to anything that’s preventing you from becoming your highest self, embrace Kali for the greatest transformation of your life!”

What would it feel like to welcome in destruction? And see it as a creative force clearing the way? Rather than holding onto the old?

🔥🔥🔥🔥

5. Client win of the week

At my weekly Wednesday evening breathwork session, there was a beautiful moment of someone really allowing themselves to feel their deep fear. They felt very afraid of losing someone they loved. So they held space for themselves to feel it 🙏

They resisted trying to fix it, solve it or push away the emotion… instead, they had the courage to just feel it and be with it. That’s cultivating deep self-acceptance and expanding their window of tolerance to be with intense human experiences like the fear of illness and death.

It was poignant to witness and I am grateful for their courage and their vulnerability 💖

Work with me

Mindset class

I am launching a kick-ass mindset class later this month, themed around getting your shit together! If you’re feeling a bit flat, demotivated or scattered right now, I know this will lift you! 💪 And if you’re feeling pumped and fired up already, then this will give you some extra clarity on where to focus your mojo 🔥

Keep your eyes peeled for an email with info on the free mindset class this January 👀

Breathwork workshop

I am also hosting another 3-hour in-person Breathwork workshop (ticketed), on Sunday 6 February, exploring ways to invite more rest into our lives, to allow our minds and bodies to reset. To find out more and to book your place, click this link!

That’s it for this week’s Friday Feels!

Big love,

Briony

xx

​​P.S. What is this Friday Feels email about? In case you’re reading this for the first time (hello!), I post a weekly blog with snippets from my world of coaching, meditation and breathwork. My intention is to share useful, joyful or interesting tidbits, which may serve you in some way 🙏