Addiction Recovery and Creating Safety Through Somatics with Amanda Weiss

Free Your Soma with Aimee Takaya

Amanda spent most of her adolescence and adult life escaping the physical experience in her body. This took many forms, but ultimately looked like addiction of some kind:

-Alcohol and substance use

-Over-exercising (s very socially acceptable addiction!)

-Controlling her diet and disordered eating

And other small ways in which she would avoid the feelings, sensations, memories and pain that she held in her body.

As a gymnast, an athlete and beautiful young woman, this pain that she experienced (which was, simultaneously, mental, emotional and muscular) was not something anyone could see from the outside. This made it even easier to escape the truth, since her experience was mostly invisible to the world, sometimes even to those who knew her best.

This strategy to keep moving forward, despite the pain within was a intelligent strategy of her soma and even though it was painful, messy and unhealthy in so many way: it served a purpose: a twisted attempt to keep her safe by avoiding intimacy with her own body.

Back in 2018, Amanda and I met while training and teaching at the same Yoga studio. She had recently discovered the realm of somatics through the book "The Body Keeps The Score". The concept of holding your life experiences and emotions in your body and it having an impact made complete sense to her, although it felt monumentally huge to try to address. She got in touch with me and we did a series of hands on sessions and she became one of my on-again-off-again students. Over the years, I watched Amanda be simaltaeously drawn to and repelled by this subtle, powerful, movement practice.

When I began to develop the Radiance Program, she was one of my biggest cheerleaders. Finally in the winter of 2022, Amanda heeded the call of her soma and joined the 6 month program, feeling it was time to reorganize herself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually: SOMATICALLY.

In this intimate interview, Amanda shares:

-What kept her from fully embracing this practice

-Her addictive patterns and how they related to stress/trauma

-The way somatics has shifted her body and changed her relationship to exercise

-The little known way that Yoga and Exercise can become a mindless escape tool

-Her personal internal experiences as her body began to truly relax and open

-How relationships in her life have shifted since joining Radiance

-How she cultivated somatic safety in her body and how it feels to finally be connected

AND SO MUCH MORE!

Amanda Weiss is a Trauma-informed Yoga Teacher and an Operations Manager for a Start-Up Tech Company. She spends her time hiking and exploring the natural world with her two doggies and her long-time partner. She is a recent graduate of The Radiance Program and now incorporated somatic movement into her yoga classes as needed.

To find out more about the Radiance Program go to www.freeyoursoma.com

Next round starts Nov. 4th! Podcast listeners save $500!

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