When things get overwhelming, one of the ways we remain resourced is by returning to our values and the commitments we can make to putting those values into action.

What does it feel like to be safe?

If you’ve never truly felt safety, how do you know it when you see it? And if you’ve only ever felt safe, how would you begin to imagine its lack?

What is the feeling of safety? Can it be learned?

Under the right conditions - Yes

Safety is a Skill.

Intentional embodied practice is the catalyst for lasting change and transformation - both individually and collectively. Practice asks us to reflect. It asks us to identify what we value, what we most care about, and what we envision for life moving forward.

Practice calls us into presence and awareness. It asks us to recognize the ways we have been shaped - the ways we have been conditioned by dominant culture, and the ways old survival energy continue to show up and drive our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Embodiment is a practice. Embodiment is care in action. It is a state of being that we return to - it is not a state where we remain permanently. Being embodied is what allows us to move through the world as our most compassionate, wise, authentic Self.

The practice of compassion is essential to living an embodied, connected, full life. Compassion is our ability to witness and embrace the suffering, pain, vulnerability, and discomfort within ourselves and others - with a heartfelt intention to hold space, and offer support and care. As we experience suffering in our own lives, as well as when we hear about the suffering going on across the globe - especially the violence happening to the people of Ukraine, and the oppression of trans and queer folks here in this country - compassion as a practice can be an invaluable anchor.

Are you feeling rested? Is your heart feeling open? As a global community we have been living through so much the past few years. We don’t fully realize the impact of a stressor/crisis until we are on the other side of it, and we are still in this. Even though dominant culture tells us to push forward, keep going, act as if all is “back to normal”, and ignore what is going on around us - we can remember to pay attention. We can remember to feel, we can remember to turn towards one another, we can remember to center care.

Ahimsa, one of the most cherished yogic principles, means non-violence in Sanskrit. Non-violence applies to the emotional and physical manner in which we interact with the world. We often forget that ahimsa also applies to how we treat and interact with our inner selves.

Over time and through screens, the event became something even more intimate than we had imagined. The gatherings among strangers became an experiment in facilitating connection to individual embodied experiences in a disembodied virtual space. It was also an exercise in how to practice cultivating a felt sense of connection with each other while holding space for uneven experiences of ongoing collective trauma, loss, and grief.

A quick note to warmly welcome you here and introduce myself. My name is Kelly Caul, my pronouns are she/her, and I live and work here on occupied Osage land, also known as St. Louis, MO. I am the Founding Director of Empowered Spaces, and I am so glad you are here. This blog is new for Empowered Spaces, and this will be a space where you will have the opportunity to hear from our Empowered Spaces family members about who they are in the world and the work that they do. As we get started, I wanted to share a little bit about myself.

Bronwyn Morgan (she/her) is the Founder/Resident Teacher of Bliss In Me Meditation, where she facilitates a modern approach to meditation. Bronwyn believes that stillness, love, peace and compassion are the keys to a liberated and free world and to a deep inner peace steeped in divine wisdom. She teaches in a very engaging and fun style and makes unlocking the challenges to stillness more approachable and accessible in today’s busy world.