Highest Self Podcast 278: Connecting To Your Wild Woman in Quarantine with Michaela Boehm

 

Just because we’re in quarantine, doesn’t mean we have to stay domesticated! In this episode, I discuss why now is more important than ever before to connect to your primal, liberated wild women and the energy of Kali Ma, whom we are working with in Rose Gold Goddesses. I’m then joined by Wild Women’s Way author Michaela (who has taught the likes of David Deida) to discuss her tips to let ourselves be free, unleashed and relaxed in our bodies during this time. If you’re spending a lot of time at home and feeling a bit disconnected from your free feminine (aren’t we all!?) this episode is for you!

Being part of a conscious online community is more important than ever before. Leave your anxiety behind and get the support, connection and inspiration your soul has been craving in Rose Gold Goddesses, the sacred sisterhood all about becoming your highest self. Doors open now at rosegoldgoddesses.com

Receive up to $2250 off my alma mater Institute for Integrative Nutrition, plus How To Write Your Dream Book Course and TWO high-level business coaching webinars with me at integrativenutrition.com/sahara

 Intro + Outro Music: Silent Ganges by Maneesh de Moor

Discover Your Dosha (Mind-Body Type) with my free quiz: iamsahararose.com

Connect with me for daily Ayurvedic and modern spiritual wisdom at Instagram: @iamsahararose Facebook.com/iamsahararose Twitter.com/iamsahararose

Order Eat Feel Fresh: A Contemporary Plant-Based Ayurvedic Cookbook and receive my Essential Oils for Your Doshas E-book FREE here: eatfeelfresh.com/book

Learn more in my best-selling book Idiot’s Guide to Ayurveda: https://www.amazon.com/Idiots-Guides-…
Available wherever books are sold!

Subscribe to the Highest Self Podcast on iTunes and SoundCloud
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
https://soundcloud.com/highestselfpod...

By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the entire contents are the property of Sahara Rose, or used by Sahara Rose with permission, and are protected under U.S. and international copyright and trademark laws. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational purposes. No other use, including, without limitation, reproduction, retransmission or editing, of this Podcast may be made without the prior written permission of the Sahara Rose, which may be requested by contacting [email protected].

This podcast is for educational purposes only. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.

Transcript

Episode #278: Connecting To Your Wild Woman in Quarantine with Michaela Boehm
By Sahara Rose

[0:12]

Namaste. It’s Sahara Rose and welcome back to The Highest Self Podcast, a place where we discuss what makes You, Your Soul’s Highest Evolvement. 

[0:20]

If it’s your first time listening, maybe this quarantine experience has brought you deeper into your spiritual practice – I welcome you!

And if you’ve been here for the past year; two years; three years – this Podcast is almost three years old – and honestly, it has not felt like any work at all for me, because it has been so in flow, and I am so grateful to have created this incredible Podcast Community, three years ago now, so when we’re going through this global Vipassana, we are able to come together and have these deeper conversations.

[0:55]

So, in my last Highest Self Podcast – Solocast I spoke a lot about what we could do right now in shutting off the external noises and allowing our connection to Source to come through; our guides to speak to us; our clarity to unveil, because if all we’re doing is scrolling through other people’s timelines, then we are going to be trapped in their timeline and not fully experiencing and observing our own. 

So the signs of what we are meant to do and where are meant to go, and what we are meant to let go of are all around us. However, if all we’re doing is waking up and scrolling, even if we think that person’s really smart, or really spiritual, or really wise, but if all we’re doing is watching their stories, we’re receiving what Source has to tell them – which is not what Source needs to tell you. 

So this is why it’s really important for us to take those times to really just go within ourselves; to go deeper into our personal embodiment – and that is what this Highest Self Podcast is all about. 

[2:00]

So, if you know anything about me, you know that I am a modern-day Goddess (as it says on my Instagram). I am all about awakening the Divine Feminine; I have a Membership Community called Rose Gold Goddesses, a Sacred Sisterhood Collective all about honoring the Goddess within, with weekly workshops. Each month we work with a different Goddess that I channel for that month according to the collective energy that I pick up on, and the Goddess for this month of April that came through was Goddess Kali Ma. 

[2:30]

I genuinely, before this, I never even thought we would with Kali Ma in Rose Gold Goddesses, because she’s such a powerful Goddess that it was just too much for the average person, but we’re in it – whether we are choosing it or not, we are going through the most massive global awakening on a planetary scale, and there’s no escape from it. Every single person has had their deepest, darkest fears show up in front of them, and it has also been given the opportunity to go inwards, to look at what’s happening between your four walls and really sit with yourself and see “What am I ready to let go of? What needs to die for the New to be reborn?”

So in a way – yes, it is the end of the world as we knew it, but that’s what we wanted. We weren’t happy with the systems; we weren’t happy with our Government; we weren’t happy with our financial system and healthcare system, and all of these things. So, essentially, things need to collapse in order to come anew and we need to stay present within that process and not lose ourselves in the trying to understand and explain (and this and that). 

I know the Mind is tempted to try to understand it all but even if we spend all of our time on all the websites; we’re never going to figure it all out. 

So it’s really our opportunity right now to sit within ourselves; to ask ourselves “What do I really want? What is in my control? How I spend my days creates my life!”

So, instead of trying to figure out what’s happening in the external world, let me focus on what is happening in my internal world. 

And this is really our opportunity right now to connect to the aspects of ourselves that we haven’t before. 

[4:12]

So, Kali Ma, the Goddess of Transformation, of Death, of Rebirth, of the Womb – the Womb, the great unknown, the portal between two worlds; the place of complete darkness where all light comes forth – the Womb, the very portal that each and every one of us has come through on this Planet to be of a part of.    

[4:32]

So, Kali Ma is about, essentially, burning down the house – burning down the house! Not because it’s to bother you but it’s because that house was not serving you – Burning down all that is not in your highest alignment so you can pave the path for what is.

So this is essentially what the energy is that we are going through in a collective scale right now and it really begins within. 

In the Vedas we always say “As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.” What that means is, you are a reflection of the world, and how you feel on an individual level creates the vibration that sets the world forward. So, if we want to have a world that is more free, more truthful, more liberated, more joyful, more expressed, that begins with ourselves. We don’t put ourselves in a box and scroll aimlessly, and get into fights with people on the internet, and be stressed out, and this and that – what’s the world going to look like then? because you are creating the world. Even in your separation, your energy is still creating the world.

So this gives us the opportunity to decide “What do I want to be like? “I’m in the cocoon right now, in the end of this metamorphosis, who am I waiting to become? What kind of colors and patterns do my butterfly wings want to have?” And if we wait for things to go back to as they were, or we try to just hold onto everything from the past, we’re not going to turn into the butterfly that we are meant to. 

[6:09]

So, for me, I’ve taken this opportunity to, first of all, finish my book, my next book “Discover Your Dharma” – I’ve finally finished it, it was a year of writing and editing, and lots of re-writing, and finally I turned that in. I have created so much bonus content in Rose Gold Goddesses – we just did an epic dance party with 500 people, on Zoom, on video, where I DJ-ed a set that I played that was all like reggaeton and tribal music, and dance hall, and bachata and 2000s hip-hop. And 500 of you guys on video camera were wearing your animal prints and your tribal gear, and we were all just dancing and it was so much fun, it was honestly the most fun I’ve had this entire year of 2020, and genuinely because it was so incredible to be in your energy.

And, I’ve been painting; I’ve been learning dance choreography – I’ve been doing a lot of dancing; and just connecting to my body and taking things slower and getting off that hamster wheel, and realizing that I would spend so many of my days just like “Next, next, next” so piled up with an endless to-do list, that this opportunity has given me that space like “Okay, these are the couple things I’m going to do today and the rest of the day I’m going to play and I’m going to be, and I’m going to connect to my body” because isn’t that the whole point of this life? We work so hard so we can be free but we give up our freedom for our work. 

So, right now, this is our opportunity to connect to that part of us that has been longing to be played with, that inner child of yours; that wild woman of yours.

[7:50]

So, Kali Ma is a beautiful reflection of the wild woman because she is fierce, she is primal, she is connected to her Divine Feminine. If you look at a picture of her, she has wild hair and bare breasts, and a garland of sculls and a human head. And you could think she’s scary, but really, she represents that fierce, primal, raw aspect of the Divine Feminine that really we have collectively been so cut off from. 

[8:18]

So, because of societal conditioning, school, our parents etc. we have been taught, essentially, “Sit down! Cross your legs! Don’t wear something too short, boys might look at you and you might get in trouble; you might get hurt from them! Be quiet! Oh, now you’re too soft! This, that!” We’ve been told from the outside world that has been trying to sculpt us into the patriarchal view of a submissive woman. And we are awakening to the domestication that has happened and saying “No, this is not serving me. I am not Sally from next door who’s going to have fresh baked cookies for you and always look perfect for you, and have perfectly shaped legs and go to church every Sunday” whatever the hell it is that your societal conditioning wanted you to be, we’re not willing to do that. We are ready and fully capable of being our most radical, awakened, wild selves.

[9:15]

So what does that wild woman mean? We’re going to tap into it deeply in this Episode, with our guest Michaela Boehm who wrote “The Wild Woman’s Way” – the book I absolutely love! But the wild woman is just you in your rawest form; you without the rules; you without that voice in your head that’s telling you what you’re supposed to be like – “Oh, people won’t take you seriously if you do that; people might laugh at you; you’ll lose this job” whatever it is.

So, I’ll share a little bit about my experience of really awakening this wild woman within me.

[9:46]

So, the wild woman is in everyone. There’s no one that doesn’t have that archetype, but for some of us it’s more pronounced – as I teach the Goddesses, certain Goddess energies are more pronounced. So some women are born with that, Kali Ma (wild fierceness), and for others, it’s less of a primary archetype, but it’s still there; and then conditioning often suppresses it. 

[10:07]

So, growing up, I had it, but it was definitely not one of my main archetypes. I prided myself in being very artistic, and creative, and smart, but definitely not wild or fierce. First of all, I never liked to play sports at all, so I wasn’t like a super-outdoorsy kind of person, but it started to come through when I would dance. I remember when I turned 13, that menstrual age – I had always been dancing, since I was 3 years old, but suddenly my dance had changed and it was sexy, and my dance teachers were like “What happened to you this summer?” but I was just popping, locking, tropping, I wanted to do all the sexiest moves, and it was interesting because I wasn’t like that, I had never had my first kiss before; I definitely didn’t have boyfriends; I didn’t really dress like that, but when I would dance, it would just come through in this part of me that just wanted to be fierce and sexy. And I remember I had this canopy bed and I would use the poles and pretend I was a pole dancer; and I just loved that fantasy of me being on a pole and dancing; and I talk about this a lot on the Podcast – but our sexuality develops at a very, very young age. We are born sexual creatures but a lot of parents want to be in denial of the fact that your child has sexual urges, even if they don’t know what sex is, this is innate in all human beings. 

So, a good Episode I did on this was with sexologist Shan Boodram, (if you just google Highest Self – Shan Boodram) it’s a really good one on how the sexuality develops within ourselves and it’s just a part of our being. So that part of me really started to arise in dance – I finally found that container that I could just let her out and that was the dance floor; that was when I was feeling fierce in my body and safe to be my complete expressed and wild self. 

And I feel like in many ways it helped me to not get on a path that I was maybe doing drugs or drinking a lot, or other ways that people try to bring out their wild woman side, especially when they don’t have an outlet for it. So, in a way, dance saved me because I could just be raw, nasty, on the floor. When I went to college I started to take pole dancing and chair dancing, and then I got very into twerking (which I’m super into now), and belly dancing – and these have always been my expressions, my space to feel safe with them. But a lot of women have never connected to the wild woman that’s in them, but maybe it comes out in the bedroom and that’s like that place that you’re just free, and unleashed and connected; or maybe it’s when you are naked outside – you just love being a nudist and having the sun touch your breasts; or maybe it’s when you’re camping and you just love camping and putting together your tent and thinking about your survival and you just feel so raw; maybe it’s when you’re drumming – drumming has been a huge one during this quarantine, I got a drum and I’ve just been drumming so much just watching YouTube videos, teaching myself how to drum; maybe it’s singing, just something primal comes out of you, this guttural sound that is so ancestral, that’s just coming through.

[13:15]

We all have this side to us and when you let her out you realize how much wisdom is in this side of you; how much depth; and also how much suppression has been put on her, not just in our lifetimes, but all of our ancestor’s lifetimes. All of our mothers who were never even taught to connect to that sides of ourselves; and our grandmothers who maybe would’ve gotten in trouble or gone to jail had they expressed that side of themselves. Going back to the witch trials (we did a great Episode, with me and Magic, on embodying your inner witch) but the women who were basically burned at the stake for being “a witch” were women who were connecting to that wild woman essence; thay were going to the woods and were singing with their sisters; and were dancing; and the patriarchal church could not understand what they were doing and said “You are crazy” and killed them for it. 

So, a lot of us have it in our DNA that it’s not safe for me to be wild; that if I’m wild I’ll get in trouble, I’ll get hurt, I’ll get killed, I’ll get raped. And this is real because it hasn’t been safe for us – most of us didn’t have mothers who said “Yeah, be raw and free; and roll on the floor and grunt; and twerk your body, that’s how you release stagnant energy.” I would be amazed if you had a mother that taught you that – that’s incredible, what a gift your soul chose. Most of us do not have that at all, most of us, if we started to do that, we would’ve been sent to boarding school or something. 

So because of that, our wild woman has been very dormant, very asleep, and this quarantine is the perfect opportunity for you to bring her forth. Because maybe the things that you were shy to do in front of other people; maybe you’ve always really wanted to really one and get sexy in your hips and do circles, but you’ve always felt that you don’t look good or you don’t know what you’re doing etc. so you’ve never done it on a dance floor let alone in a club or something. So, now you’re at home and you get to do it, you get to play that music; you get to get in your body and get on the floor and look at the mirror and make eye contact with yourself. Maybe you haven’t had time before to go slow and caress your body, and take a bath and just stroke your inner thighs, and rub oil into your skin and into your breasts, and let yourself just feel sensual and awakened because you didn’t have time to do that before and now you do, so instead of wasting the time on social media, what if you took a really sensual bath and maybe had a self-pleasure practice at the end of it? We get to be the lover that we’ve always wanted, it is not outside of us, it is within us. Most of us are seeking rapture to be, essentially, taken over by this sexual energy. This is the yearning of the Divine Feminine to be raptured, but what if you raptured yourself; what if you caressed yourself; what if you loved yourself; what if you fed yourself chocolates and grapes and strawberries while massaging oil into your scalp and listening to your favorite music and adorning your room with rose petals? Let yourself be your lover, and I know you might say “Well, I have a husband who’d think that’s really weird, or I have kids”, or whatever it is – well, first of all, they’re not going to learn to love themselves if they don’t see their mother or their partner doing that. So, it is very important, no matter what is going on in your life that you carve out some time for yourself, for your wild woman to be released, because that is you in your purest and truest form. You need to still connect to that part of yourself even if you are in a maternal stage in your life (that you have children) that wild woman is still there. And when you don’t allow that wild woman to come out, she turns ratful; she turns into yelling and snapping at your kids and at your husband, and feeling unloved and unsexy which makes you angry; which makes you actually go more into your masculine. So maybe “Mommy’s going to have some alone time right now”, you close and you lock the door and you dance, or you massage yourself, or you take a bath, or you do a ritual or you light some candles, and just bring in more sensuality into your day. Maybe you diffuse some essential oils; or you just wearing an outfit you feel really good in, or you do your hair, or something that just makes you feel more in your feminine and more beautiful.

[17:37]

So, there are so many ways to connect to your inner wild woman and I thought that this would be a really powerful Podcast to have right now because so many of us are feeling super domesticated; we are feeling trapped in our homes; we’re feeling disconnected to the part of us that travels and gets lost in the jungle, and hikes. And I share in the beginning of this interview with Michaela that I have been having, non-stop dreams of myself in the jungle, naked, swimming, dancing, drumming, in a trance to the music – missing that because I was actually supposed to be in Bali performing and teaching in Bali Spirit Fest, and missing that part of myself who is really, in a way, been dormant because I have had so much work in the past year or so, since I last went to Bali, but I have been making it my priority to bring her out. And now I actually feel more connected to her than ever before because it’s not just when I go to Bali; so it’s not just when you go to a retreat or when you go to an ecstatic dance, but make it a part of your everyday life. So I am just making dance a part of my everyday life; something that I just do; it is a part of my self-care practice, my exercise (I drink my tea and I dance) and it has so deeply connected me to my wild woman. And has just made me radiant, people are like “Your skin is glowing, you look so good!” I’m like “I haven’t had any sun, I’ve been in my apartment, but I’ve just been dancing and shaking. I did a whole shaking tutorial in Rose Gold Goddesses as part of the Kali Ma Circle, and we have a whole 20-minute shaking tutorial on how to just connect to that primal energy and just grunt and scream, and let it out. So you can find all of that inside Rose Gold Goddesses (the link is over in my show notes, rosegoldgoddesses.com).

But this is really the time to connect to your inner wild woman, let her come out; let her be free; let her roar and scream, and howl at the moon, and roll on the ground, and just be connected to the Earth because Earth is not just feeling our feet on the ground, while that is extremely powerful, but if you’re in a place that you just can’t do that right now – Goddess! You have Earth inside of you – your Womb! Our Womb is the Earth; our Womb is the Portal; our Womb is the vacation; the goal; the answer; everything that we’re really seeking already exists inside of us. And as feminine body beings, our womb is our most powerful energy! When you can connect to that aspect of yourself, that beautiful all-knowing grounded crystal that you have inside of you all the time; the portal between the two worlds, you realize that everything that you are seeking is already inside of you. 

[20:21]

So, I also have my whole Womb Meditation too, in Rose Gold Goddesses, and just deeper work to connect to your womb; your yoni; your physical feminine body. And as I talk to Michaela in this Episode, it is so important for us as women to realize that spirituality is not about leaving the body; it’s not about disconnecting from your body; it’s not about levitating, it’s actually about being in your body, it is embodiment – to be here, in your physical form; in your womb; in your yoni, on Earth. That is actually the highest spiritual practice because we’re not leaving anything but we’re fully in the experience, immersed in all of our senses, and awareness of all things happening, and realizing our self as bliss – which is who we truly are – Ananda. 

So, I invite you to take this feminine approach to spirituality and connect to your inner wild woman at this time. 

[21:18]

So, without further ado, let’s welcome Michaela to the Highest Self Podcast. 

_________________________________________________________ 

[21:23] Advertisement

And before we get started, I’d love to share with you this special offer. 

Are you that person that all your friends and family members come to when they need Wellness advice? Are you constantly looking up new ways to heal and balance your Mind, Body and Spirit (and including listening to this Podcast)? Well, have you ever considered having a career becoming a holistic Health Coach where you get to decide your own hours, work with people, tackling the subjects that you are most passionate about and having financial freedom along the way? Well, I’m so excited to be teaming up with my very own Alma Mater Institute For Integrative Nutrition to offer their biggest discount yet. You’ll receive $2,250 off tuition, an extra bonus that they’re offering just with my Highest Self Podcast listeners, on how to launch your dream book. This course is going to get you super-clear on what your book is about and how to bring it out to the world. I’ve created a webinar for you on how to have a thriving business as a Health Coach, so using social media, creating passive income, how to have a waiting list of clients and become the best known coach in your niche with raving testimonials; tickets to a live, upcoming IIN conference where I will be meeting you over there – super excited to connect – and a bundle of all digital wellness guides like – Ayurveda, Self-Love, Whole-Food Eating, etc. So, all you have to do is head over to my show notes, you’ll see the link there, it’s the little ‘bit.ly’ link, it’ll take you right there, you’ll be able to receive a sample class, check out the curriculum, get all your questions answered. And, I’m soul excited to have you on this mission, raising the vibration of the planet together as a Health Coach. Again, head over to my show notes, you’ll see the link right there and I’ll see you inside.  

What’s your Dosha?

Well, if you want to find out, I invite you to take my quick little quiz over on iamsahararose.com and in a couple questions I will let you know the exact percentages of Doshas in your Mind and in your Body, and email you a free 3-day mini course on how to include Ayurveda into your modern lifestyle.

So head over to my website iamsahararose.com to discover your Dosha today.    

[23:36] End of Advertisement

________________________________________________________                                                             

[23:40] Interview

[23:42] Sahara:

Welcome Michaela to the Highest Self Podcast, it’s so great to have you here. 

[23:45] Michaela:

Thank you for having me.

[23:48] Sahara:

So the first question I would love to ask you is what makes you Your Highest Self?

[23:54] Michaela:   

Well, we need to find out what do you consider ‘the highest self’ because there’s the aspirational highest self and then there’s the truest expression of who you are, so I think, I’m assuming you mean the truest expression of who you are. But it’s very important to feel that because sometimes when we hear ‘highest self’ it’s an unrealistic standard we set for ourselves based on what we think we should be. And within the kind of aspirational striving of being something that we’re actually not – there’s a lot of suffering, and there’s a lot of spinning of the wheels based on wanting to be something or trying to achieve something that’s neither needed nor feasible. 

So, when I think of highest self, I think mostly of the truest expression of who we are, kind of an unabashed, being ourselves, regardless of what the societal, or internal, or external (through friends or family or employment) requirements are. So that’s that.

And then you were saying what makes me? I don’t know what makes me tap into it. I think I have finally arrived at the place where I’m just who I am, and I’m pretty good and comfortable being myself without excusing myself for being too loud; too much; too old; too young; too whatever.

So, I think for me, it’s not so much an action, it’s more the reminder of who I am as a woman and then as a human being; where I’ve come from and the knowledge that I’ve llanded somewhere, actually feel pretty good about it. 

[25:54] Sahara:

Beautiful! You’re just completely in that embodiment, there’s no separation.

[25:59] Michaela:

No. It’s not to say that there isn’t ever, because of course we all have movements, but for the most part I’ve landed somewhere where I’m just me and that embodies 24/7, so to speak.

[26:14] Sahara:

Beautiful. And I think that so many people right now are finding the tools and the practices to become so integrated into their lifestyle that it’s no more this striving, it’s just “This is how I live my life!” 

[26:27] Michaela:

Right! And I think that’s important so that you’re not constantly aspiring to something that can’t be had. 

[26:35] Sahara:

So, I absolutely love your work; I love your book “Wild Woman’s Way”; I love your Podcast, and just learning from you. You have taught so many people who inspire me, and I am so honored to have you here, on the Podcast, especially at this time when – I have been having these recurring dreams where I am naked in the jungle, dancing, and swimming, and in a drum circle, and I wake up and I’m like “Shit! I’m in quarantine!”  

And I think so many of us are feeling so disconnected right now from that Earth, Wild, Primal, Soul Energy inside of us – so I would love your tips just to tap into more of that essence given then situation that we’re in right now. 

[27:17] Michaela:

Yeah, well, there’s two aspects of this. One aspect is the cold, hard reality of ‘Here we are’ – I just got off a call with my women’s group and people were essentially saying the exact same thing – people dreaming of being high; people dreaming of being out in Nature and things like that, and that is something none of us in the Western world have experienced really. We haven’t had a situation where we were forced to do things that we didn’t want to do and be places we didn’t want to be, so, there’s an actual reality there that we have to accept, and that is very, very painful, but when you pull out from there a little bit, then you can look at the fact that we’ve just been really lucky – we’re not incarcerated; we’re not in a refugee camp without a place or a country to go. We all still have running water and electricity, and food supplies that might not be as ample but you might have to use a wash cloth instead of toilet paper (boo-hoo!) but at least we have these things. So it’s not the worst set of circumstances you could find ourselves in. And within ourselves and circumstances, we still have a lot of internal freedom and when you look at real practice, not the self-indulgent ‘Well, we like to do things because they make us feel cool’ practice, but the practice that creates a life of substance, and depth, and joy. Then we can look at the fact that you can do those practices regardless of the circumstances. And you hear this sometimes, for instance in Tibetan monks who were incarcerated, you hear that there a lot, who were essentially saying “Well, this is not much different than being on retreats. It’s horrible circumstances, but in my mind, and in my body, and in my practice, I am still rested; I’m still whole; I’m still complete.” And that’s definitely true for us in that set of circumstances – yes, we’re not able to be naked in the jungle (which sounds so good) – I just spoke with a woman who is in New York City in a tiny little apartment and things like that, but nobody has taken our internal resource and our internal landscape away. So you can still be in the jungle, naked, in your own apartment; you can make it warm; you can make it dark; you can have a shower or a bath; you can grab some oils; you can put some music on; you can close your eyes; you can create a set of circumstances that still access that kind of sensation. You can still travel internally in your Mind, in your practice, and that is by the way, what good practice is, that you can pull it out and you can access it in the not ideal circumstances (whatever they are – a refugee camp; incarceration; being in a hospital; being unemployed; all of those kind of things) – you still have your inner landscape.

[30:44] Sahara:

Yes, so beautifully said. Right before this, this YouTube video popped on that was like a follow-along African dance class, and I just did it because I have been missing that jungle energy. And I did this beautiful African dance class and my body really didn’t know the difference; I still feel like I’m dancing with people, I’m still doing the movements and I’m still feeling the ecstasy move through me. And of course we could say “I want the human touch; I want the actual sound of the drums” but right now we’ve just got to see how far we can take the things available for us and make them our own. 

[31:18] Michaela:

Yeah, exactly! And that’s why I’m saying we all have internets; we all have still means to connect. So, it’s really a time to turn towards the discomforts, and work with the discomfort knowing that, on the grand scale, this is a fairly limited amount of discomfort, but train ourselves to have kind of fortitude and the strength to move towards, and turn towards, and make the best. And I was just saying this as well on the previous call – I’m on the road for travelling and teaching, and I love it. To me there’s barely anything as ecstatic as getting on a plane or getting off a plane in a different country (so that’s not possible, of course). And also, I’m nomadic by nature, and at the same time, there’s so much to be gained in a time of being on retreats, so to speak, and so I’ve really done, what you just described which is gone to dance teachers that I don’t get to see ever because I’m on the road, and now I can do it at home. 

And also, I’ve noticed, some things I probably wouldn’t do in public because I’ve never done them and it’s awkward; or I don’t want to do another 1.5-hour of something because I just have enough time or stamina or whatever. And so, now, that everything’s online, I go and do a half an hour of a class that I wouldn’t usually do an hour and a half.

[33:00] Sahara:

What have been some of your favorites?

[33:03] Michaela:

I did some really strange, modern dance class (that was very strange) and I do a lot of dance that I really enjoyed because I didn’t have to do an entire 1.5h because that would have been a little too much for my liking. I’ve done hip-hop classes, twerking.. 

[33:27] Sahara:

We love twerking here on the Podcast.

[33:28] Michaela:

Oh yes, I did too. I’ve done all kind of things that you wouldn’t necessarily see me do in public (also because I just don’t have time to go to certain things, and I live very remotely, I live far outside the city nowadays). So there is ways that we can engage that we’ve never been able to engage, and now’s the time to play with that. 

[33:52] Sahara:

Yes! I always tell people, you know, a lot of times we don’t feel comfortable in a dance class or ecstatic dance because we feel like “I don’t know how to connect with my body the same way other people do” but this really gives us such a great experience to get weird; to get on the floor; to growl; to do the moves that you’re not sure how it looks in public, because you’re comfortable and you’re safe. I think like a lot of us feed off the energy of other people, so getting into those ecstatic states on our own feels a little bit like unchartered territory for us. 

So what do you recommend for people who deeply desire to let go and be in their bodies, but don’t even feel comfortable on their own?

[34:30] Michaela:

Well, if you don’t feel comfortable on your own, there’s only one way to learn how to be comfortable on your own and that is doing it. There’s no other way around that; there’s no magic button you press and then suddenly you’re good. Anything that is outside your comfort zone, you can kind of get into by dipping your toe in the water; and then the second toe; the third toe, and so and so. 

And so what I would suggest doing is picking something that you have strong affinity for (something that you always wanted to do) or where you maybe have a memory of having gone there, and it was really good. Let’s say you went to an ecstatic dance class at the end of Burning Man or something like that, you were so expanded and amazing. So you have a memory in the body of that state, and then you do it by yourself. And it might feel awkward, and it might feel like you need somebody to do you, but after a little while, the body will take over. So that’s one way of doing it.

The other way of doing it, and this is not for the faint of heart (but if you’ve got nothing else to do you can do that) is to go so long that your own internal resistance isn’t going to call you back (whatever that is). So, if you tend to not be comfortable with more than 10 minutes, do 15 minutes; if you tend to stay in your head for an hour, do an 1.5h, and just play with going (because you can hurt yourself doing ecstatic dance). So, just go with relaxing into the discomforts till that pops into the ecstatic state. And that’s something that anybody should know how to do for themselves anyway because when we need other people in the external circumstances to do us (so to speak) then we’re almost dependent on other people and there’s no real freedom or empowerment in that.

[36:38] Sahara:

I 100% agree and I was doing these every day Instagram Live, and I would dance, and people would say “Where are you? It’s 1pm!” And I’d say “You are dancing alone, it’s just your idea that I am on the other side of the screen that’s giving you permission to it, but really, you’re dancing on your own!” So I feel like, a lot of times as women, we need someone else to be doing something and then we feel comfortable, and I think opportunity is allowing us to just do it because you feel like dancing, not because it’s 1pm. 

[37:07] Michaela:

Right, exactly! And like I say, that’s super-important because that’s where true empowerment lies. And then from there, you’re no longer dependent on circumstances, or outcomes, or conditions, and that’s really, really powerful. 

[37:22] Sahara:

And I love what you said of stretching your limit of how long you can do something because I have noticed, even if I’m doing a dance or anything, there’s a little bit of time it takes to drop out of the mind and into the body, and every day that’s going to look different for every single person, but if you don’t push past that, you’ll never get that completely embodied state that we’re seeking. And the fact that we’re at home, and then this other, kind of homely instinct that kicks in, so I’m dancing and I’m like “Oh, the pillows are out of order; and there’s the dishes; and there’s this” and then I start looking around my house and I’m like “Well I can’t dance until everything is fixed and everything is clean!”

So how do we let ourselves be wild in this highly domesticated setting?

[38:04] Michaela:

Well, there’s pros and cons, right? So, one of the pros for having the perfect setting is that it does influence your nervous system. So there is something said about creating order out of chaos, and having an environment that’s conducive to your body feeling good. It’s not that easy; it’s not impossible, as a matter of fact, in the way that I was trained, you are actively exposing yourself to very unpleasant environmental circumstances so you learn how to relax. But in the beginning, there’s really something to be said about entering your body into beauty, and order, and cleanliness, so you can relax – so that’s fine. But when it becomes kind of the “Well, let me tend to the little tiny bits of daily life so I don’t have to tend to myself” – then that’s not a good thing to do. And in that case, what you’ll do is, you turn away from the irritants – so just don’t look at the stuff! Look at something that is beautiful (there’s something in the room that’s beautiful) and actively work with that irritation to pop out by not popping out, because we can use a whole bunch of stuff to not have to feel (and that is something that we tend to do as humans where we just don’t want to feel that deeply because it’s very unpleasant at times). Even the ecstatic or extremely pleasurable can be unpleasant. 

So, for instance, when I teach around pleasure, there’s always an aspect of kind of pushing out the pleasure threshold (because that’s really important) and that’s what you want to do with this. You want to notice these things that make you want to pop out (like little bubbles out of water) and not let that happen – and just turn your attention back to the body, back to the movement, back to beauty, back to sensation, till that urge passes. And you’ll notice it passes, and if it doesn’t pass after let’s say three or four times, well then, maybe it’s something that needs to be attended to. 

[40:31] Sahara:

Yes, exactly! And I think we have been so conditioned as a society to put our domestic side before our wild side, so when we’re getting into our wild side, our domestic side is like “Who are you to be wild right now?! You have thing to do!” So we think that I have to have my life in order, and then fun is the thing that might just happen along the way, but prioritizing fun and prioritizing pleasure is not something that we were brought up to do, so, our nervous system (when we start doing it) is like “No, no, no, you’re breaking the rule honey!”

[41:01] Michaela:

Yeah! And that’s an internal conflict that we’ll all have to work with. It’s that we’re willing to break the rules that are not really our rules, they’re not – nobody needs to do the dishes anymore, nothing happens if you don’t (except that you don’t have a clean plate to eat from).

[41:26] Sahara:

Even more wild!

[41:28] Michaela: 

Exactly, you can just eat out of your hands. But the ‘have to’ is an externally imposed by us (for the most part). We don’t have a lot of the rules and requirements that, let’s say, our grandmothers had, or even further down the road, our great-grandmothers, where there was a lot of pressure and convention. And we have unconsciously, or sometimes, societally, taken over these things that are no longer necessary or even applicable, and use them to keep ourselves out. When you really, really step back, there’s very few thing you ‘must’ do. And within the things you ‘must’ do, you can always reframe them as “This is something you choose to do because you decided to.” And that’s a growing up of a certain way is when you kind of take full responsibility for everything that you’re doing, and that includes your pleasure – which is very, very important because pleasure in itself might be frivolous, but pleasure in the context of living and surviving, and thriving, is not frivolous at all. And it’s important because it’s an engagement with the senses, and it’s an engagement with life itself. And within that, your pursuit of aliveness in the body, I define the wild woman as the woman who’s connected to Nature (her nature and the Nature around). And so that’s not necessarily squatting in a corner eating off a dirty plate, it’s the move towards what is deeply connected to yourself, about yourself. 

[43:19] Sahara:

I love that so much! And I think so many of us right now are reawakening to the fact that we took that for granted; we took the fact that we could have danced in a circle and been in Nature, and done all of these things for granted, and now that it’s not there, we’re wanting it so much. And I think, in a way, that Earth was like “You guys don’t appreciate me enough, so I’m going to show you what it’s like to live without putting your feet in my beautiful dirt so you miss it so much, so when you come back to me, you are kissing at my feet!” 

[43:48] Michaela:

That’s right, exactly! Because, how often have we really done the thing that we’re missing now? And that’s the invitation! The invitation is always to come back to what’s most important to you and find the way to do that, and not defer that for when your career is fine, or when you’ve found the perfect partner, or when the circumstances are just right. It’s a ‘do now’ or ‘never’ kind of a situation. And we don’t remember that till there is some disaster or situation that makes us.

[44:25] Sahara:

So I always saw those memes like “Nine months after the quarantine, there’s going to be all these pregnant women” and I’m like “Really?! Who’s having a lot of sex right now?” I feel like people are very stressed out and there isn’t that much polarity because you’re literally stuck in a room with your husband or partner.

So, how can we create more polarity in our relationships when we’re literally spending all of our times together, and all of our shadows come to the surface and we kind of need to be everyone for our partner, and also prioritize personal pleasure?

[44:56] Michaela:

Well, I think you have to look at this in the short run and in the long run. I think that we are still in a moment in time in this situation where we have to consider short-term solutions, and short-term solution is not creating sexy time. Short-term goal is stabilizing the nervous system; stabilizing communication; stabilizing harmony at home, and the understanding of your partner. That’s really the most important thing right now. I’m sure you’ve heard the domestic violence cases have gone off the chart, which is heart-breaking and so distressing to me personally (very distressing). So I think the important piece for all of us is to go “Okay, well, yes, maybe we’re not having crazy hot sex” and you know what – that’s okay, because what we really need to do is take care of each other; understand each other; ask the questions that support your partner; do the things that make it so you don’t want to kill them (literally or figuratively); giving a bit of space; and spending a bit of time in different parts of the house; asking how somebody’s doing; and demanding very little from them. I think that’s really, really important because polarity (there’s a whole bunch of stuff that can be said) the most important this is that, most people when really stressed, fall into one of two categories.

– One category is they just want to eat – eat and nurture, and kind of shut down.

– The other one is actually, they want to have lots of sex. 

So, there are people like that, who in an extreme stressful situation just want to have sex, and they engage, almost in, reckless behavior around that, you see that, and you actually hear that. Where people invite people they don’t even know into their apartment for weeks on end just because they want to have some sex, and that’s the thing to do in quarantine, all kinds of crazy…

[47:14] Sahara:

Are there quarantine sex parties or has that ended? Are people going into it with masks and testing themselves?

[47:19] Michaela:

I don’t think so, but what has happened is people hook up on Tinder and then just get to one apartment for 2 weeks to have sex, and they don’t even know the person or like the person. And also people who are in somewhat casual relationships, that are now suddenly having that person come to their house and stay there because that’s the safest thing to do. There’s even a term for it now, it’s called “Corona Cuffing.”

[47:46] Sahara:

Oh my gosh, you get to know someone real fast! ,

[47:49] Michaela:

You get to know somebody really fast! So, there are people like that but for most people, they don’t really want to have sex, they want comfort. And there’s nothing wrong with giving the body and the mind comfort, to begin with, because we are in a crisis situation, and this is a disastrous set of circumstances. And all of us will know people who are sick; and know people who have died; and know people who have lose their jobs and are about to lose their home, all those kinds of things. And within that, creating harmony is more important than creating polarity. 

Now, if we are two months in, or so, and this isn’t letting up, then other things apply. But at that point, we are no longer in the kind of triage part – the first, getting the system under control in a crazy circumstance, and we can actually put structure in place. And the structures that are put in place then are the same structures that always apply, which is delineating activities; clearly not muddling together, let’s say a business-home activity, and sexual activity, spending some time apart (even if it’s just one sits in a living room; one sits in the bedroom rr if you only have living room, one is in the bathroom, one is in the living room); so spending time apart and doing things with and for the body, to bring the body on line. So, all of those things that always apply to polarity will apply then, but it’s really not something to put pressure on yourself or your partner in the middle of a real crisis. 

[49:40] Sahara:

Yeah, I think that’s really well said because a lot of us, we think “Oh, well, now something’s wrong with my relationship because we’re having as much sex; and there’s not as much of a spark; and that’s another thing that’s going wrong right now” and just to understand that you’re more like bears hibernating together, potentially, right now, like two cub bears want to pounce on each other. 

[50:00] Michaela:

Exactly, that right! And if you look at it once again in the context of, let’s say, you have just lost your country and you are trying to make it to safety (in Greece or something like that) and you are dragging your five belongings and your child across some parched landscape – sex isn’t what you’re looking for! This isn’t much different. It feels different because we’re home and in our environment, but for the body and the nervous system it’s an enormous threat. And within enormous threat within our system, our priorities have to change, and now is not a good idea to have heavy conversations or work on that in a lost polarity. Now is the time to show up; understanding; nurturing; communication; in mutual acts of service. If you are lucky enough to be quarantined with somebody, focusing on touch for nurturing and nourishing versus touch for turn-on (to begin with), and then like I said, if this becomes the new normal, then you work on it differently, but that’s not for now.  

[51:16] Sahara:

Yes, so well said! And I know a lot of people, right now, are quarantined alone. And I think they feel very guilty, first of all, about having the self-pleasure practice right now, and they’re so in their heads. 

How can we get back into the body and not check what’s the latest on CNN?

[51:35] Michaela:

Right! Well, you said it very well! You can check what’s the latest on CNN – if you do, that will create more of that stress response. So one good strategy is to have a source that you trust (whatever your that source is) and most of those sources have news briefings.

So for instance, I get an email every morning that has a news briefing in it, and it has all the different aspects of the stuff that’s going on, and that’s all I check. And then in the evening, before I go to bed, I’ll check a local (we have like a County Announcement where they have the local cases) and I’ll do that in the evening when they bring out the newest statistics. And that’s all I do, I don’t go on there at all. Because the thing is, if you’re doing the things that you’re supposed to do, you don’t actually have to check because it’s not getting worse for you (you’ll find out when it gets better) but it’s not getting worse for you. So, all you need to know is – is there any imminent threat to your existence or is it loosening up? (That you can ascertain one thing in a day). And the rest of the time, you have to focus on keeping your body and your mind in optimal conditioning. And so pleasure, and that does not necessarily have to be self-pleasure in the sexual way, but you could self-pleasure by drinking your water in a nice cup – which is what I do while putting moisturizer on my hands and massaging my hands every time I wash my hands (which is a lot) and using all the opportunities we have through the day to give our body a touch, and pleasure, and aliveness. And if you do have the bandwidths to do actual sexual self-pleasure, then you can also put that into context of giving your body an optimal environment because of course we do know that pleasure helps the immune system and it keeps our hormones as even as they can be, and it opens our body, and it opens our hearts. And so, you can look at it from the standpoint of self-care, and the standpoint of doing the best for your body you can. 

And I was saying this on my call to my Woman’s Course an hour ago or so – what I have to do because I have an enormous amount of work (I’m writing a book and we’ve just launched a new online course, and events have been cancelled, and so I can work 14 hours a day, no problem, if I wanted to and I sometimes do), and so I had to go “Well, what if these are my last few weeks on Earth? What do I want to do for myself, with myself?” And the answer is certainly not emails or organizing my closet, the answer is doing my practices, engaging with my animals, having pleasure in the body, feeling alive, feeling connected. And so, of course, we all have to do the work; and of course we all have to do what gives us sustenance, but at the same time we can pivot away from the drama of it all and focus on the real drama which is what would you do with your precious life if it’s coming to an end? which it always could and is, for some people, and not just old people. 

[55:16] Sahara:

Yes, and I think that’s always been the case, as you’re saying, and now we’re just aware of it and this awareness of it is really allowing us to see the fragility and the gift that life is.        

[55:26] Michaela:

Right! Exactly! Because you can step out of the house and get hit by a car and that was that. So, pleasure and self-pleasuring is not an indulgence if it’s held within the context of a bigger life. Yes, if you’re on some trip where that’s the thing that you do because it makes you feel validated by other people – meh, it’s a bit boring, right? But if you actually look at it as an expression of who you truly are, and if you connect with the deeper movement towards aliveness of your organism, then it’s a perfectly fine and reasonable thing to do.

[56:07] Sahara:

Yes! And I’d love to know a practice you recommend to listeners when they can feel themselves going into the fear spiral, the overwhelm, this feeling that they have no control of what’s happening, to kind of just get back, grounded, into the body and into the senses.

[56:23] Michaela:

The best way to do that when we’re in a fear spiral is to actually just move vigorously. You can’t be afraid and dance vigorously at the same time, it’s very hard to maintain that, simply because once your body starts moving and it’s very important to bring a lot of movement. Did you say you did an African dance class?

[56:48] Sahara:

Yes, and I’m a big twerker and shaker, and all of it.

[56:52] Michaela:

The lower body – get into the things; get into the butt; shake the whole lower body; circle the hips; stomp the feet; everything that brings the energy down. And when the energy comes down that automatically takes down that catastrophic looping away. 

[57:12] Sahara:

I love that! And I’ve been sharing my shaking practices; just playing some beautiful tribal music and shaking; and having the audible sound. And I think a lot of the people right now, again, it’s coming to that (even if they’re alone) “What will my husband think? What will my neighbor think? What if they hear me?” 

So how can we drop that people-pleasing nature that we have in ourselves that’s preventing us from being fully expressed and unleashed in our authenticity?

[57:41] Michaela:

Right now we could go, well what if our life depends on it, would you really care if the neighbors hear you? Probably not, right?! You could also think that, within reason, because some things are annoying to other people, but within reason, you’re giving them permission to also express themselves.

So, in general, it’s a good idea to always put your practice in the service of all beings and not just yourself. And so if you can feel that your expression and your shaking out your body and doing the things that you need to do is not just for you, it’s also for your husband, your children, your neighbors, your community, then it’s a bit easier to step out of that self-contractedness. 

[58:30] Sahara:

Yes! And I love that – what if your life depended on it? I think we would look at it, again, in that different lens and I think we look at something again like shaking or dancing as still slutty, as something that a good girl doesn’t do, and because of that we have this guilt around doing it – so I love that context of “What if this was your life force? What if this was what fueled you up for this entire experience (who God knows how long it’s going to be)?”

[58:58] Michaela:

Exactly! And then it’s taken out of the context of what’s wrong or you’re not being good and all of that, into you’re actually doing something that serves everyone.

[59:11] Sahara:

I love that! And I’d also love to ask, in terms of meditation, I know a lot of women, they feel like meditations that were taught are very Shiva-consciousness; very about the masculine; the awareness; the separation from the body. How can we bring more of that femininity, and that presence, and that Shakhti into our meditation practice?

[59:31] Michaela:

Well you have to consider that having that Shiva-consciousness is not necessarily a bad thing, even for a woman. We all need to also be able to have intense focus and stillness, and the ability to see things through and set the boundary and be organized. So, you don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water, so to speak, not everything we do as women has to be feminine because we also need our internal masculine to be cultivated and strengthened. And particularly if tend to be fussy and all over the place, and not so able to straighten yourself, you might want to do a little bit more of that kind of meditation.

So, for instance, when I wrote the book, I alternated between that kind of very still meditation and moving meditation. And sometimes, when I would get too all over the place, and my creativity made it so I could no longer actually write or focus, then I’d sit still and I’d actually bring myself to that kind of a space. And then if I got too rigid, then I did moving meditations (movement, non-linear movement, dancing, things like that). So that’s the first consideration is that it’s dogmatic to say that we shouldn’t be that – we might need it; these are all just tools. And in a good tool chest you have tools for everything, and all of those tools are sharpened and ready. So you can look at it and go “Well, what am I needing to acquire skills in or tools in?” And if that kind of focus and consciousness is something, then you do that. If that’s not your thing because you tend towards freezing and anchoring down, and not wanting to feel, well then you just do a moving meditation. And anything would be considered a moving meditation where you focus on one thing and you do that in movement. 

So dancing is a moving meditation, if you’re not talking on the phone at the same time, or watching a movie or reading your phone. But, lying in a bath tub is a form of meditation, particularly if you put attention on your body and you touch your body with the mindfulness on the body. So that would be bringing more of the flow into it is the engagement of the senses, but when you feel very overwhelmed and all over the place, you might want to actually do a little more of that.

[1:02:15] Sahara:

I love that! And I think that that is very important because sometimes when we learn about these feminine practices we think “I’m a woman so from now on I only do feminine practices!” And it’s a very important point to say a lot of women (all women) we still do need that focus and that masculine drive.

I’d live to know your languaging around masculine and feminine. Do you see it in this more – the masculine is the focus – is the power, and the feminine is more the subtlety and container? Because sometimes working with the Goddesses I look at Durga, I look at Goddess Kali Ma, and they’re so fierce, but we would look at these qualities as masculine. So how do you see the languaging? 

[1:02:56] Michaela:

I think that’s very dangerous languaging and particularly when masculine is equated with men and feminine is equated with women. You can be extremely fierce and that be feminine; you can be extremely creative and receptive, and that be masculine. So, I think it’s really, really important to not get stuck on these terms so much. And when you look at it within the principles of Hindu Goddesses for instance (you mentioned Durga, and Shiva, and Kali Ma) these are principles, they’re not actual men and women, they’re internal principles. And within the internal principles, each human being has a driving, organizing force, and a creative chaotic force. And in order to function fully as a human being, both of those need to be properly cultivated and expressed. And so, for instance, when we do work with the Goddesses, what we’re working with is the exulted qualities of that driving force. 

And so, Durga, for instance, has both really exulted, what you would then call masculine qualities, and really exulted feminine qualities – and both those make a female Goddess, but particularly Dugra has an enormous fierceness, and on the other hand, she’s considered the perfect wife. So, there’s the opposition of those principles is what makes being interesting and also exulted. So, I don’t subscribe to “Women do this; men do this” and “If you do this you are masculine” because you can do all kinds of things as a woman that make you kick ass – one of my big heroes is Annie Oakley. Annie Oakley was a master Marx woman in the Wild West, and she could shoot like very few people could; and she actually toured with like a show through the West – shooting. You could say shooting is a very masculine thing, and it was at that time (in the Wild West) something that was predominantly done by men, but not only because most prairie women and pioneer women had to have guns and had to kill and shoot to survive and eat, and stuff like that. So, there’s a photo of Annie Oakley and she’s in this classic American West, corset, long skirt, high-necked dress, and she has this long, long hair done up in this elaborate thing – and she’s looking into a mirror and she’s holding her gun. And you see her from behind so you can see her face in the mirror, and you can see her gun, and you can see her tiny little waist. And it’s so kick ass to see, at a time where women had so little rights and so little opportunities, her taking the right to be who she was – fully. She didn’t wear pants and cut her hair, she was fully expressed as a woman – was it convention or because she liked it, we don’t know, but she was fully expressed as a woman and she had some really strong masculine ability as a sharp-shooter; and also as a woman who was able to make her own living in a time when that wasn’t okay and stuff like that.

So I think I’s really important to divorce ourselves from any kind of dogma or lens because when we go into this whole masculine and feminine thing, we are essentially just regurgitating 1950s housewife bullshit with a country twist, and our mothers and grandmothers didn’t fight for that, and we shouldn’t fight for that. We should be who we are and optimize our gifts for ourselves in the service of anyone however that looks. 

[1:07:21] Sahara:

Yeah, imagine if Annie Oakley read a book and she’s like “I’m God, so masculine, I need to stop with this gun! What’s wrong with me? I should be dancing right now!” Maybe she danced, too. But I think that so many people now, that when they start to learn about this stuff, they then put this pressure on themselves “Oh, I’m so masculine!” and they divorce themselves from actually what they were born with; what they are here to create; and they think that there’s something wrong with me “I’ve been conditioned the wrong way” whereas, maybe you were here to have your gun, or basketball, or whatever it is.

[1:07:52] Michaela:

Exactly! And for instance, I’m really, really, really good at being organized! I am such a stickler for structure and my lists and my stuff, and I’m allowed to say that, that’s a natural gift I have. I can get a lot more done in a of couple hours than most people can in a week because I have a natural gift. And how I know it’s a natural gift and not some kind of coping mechanism, it actually makes me happy. My body’s relaxed and open, I’m all happy with my lists and my getting stuff done – I have no suffering around that and it actually helps everyone around me. So, yeah, you can say that that’s a masculine trait, I don’t see it as such, it makes me fully expressed as a woman and as a human being. So I think it’s very important that we don’t make ourselves go into yet another round of ‘we are wrong’ because when a woman says to herself “I am too masculine” – well what’s the difference between that and when she was a housewife in the 50s in a nice little outfit, with the casserole? Now we have sparkly outfits and we do belly dancing, but it’s the same bullshit, different day! 

[1:09:13] Sahara:

Absolutely! If it’s not authentic to you, it’s just another role that you’re playing! And it would be so fascinating to see, if we didn’t even have any lanuaging around any of this stuff, how we would have shown up in the world? You know, without trying to fit under any kind of label, or I think a lot of it is to be desirable to the opposite sex and we think “Oh God, I have to wear a flowy skirt and do the yab-yum and devote myself as a tantric Goddess” and for some people I think that is completely them in their authenticity; and for some people it’s just this new age costume that they’re wearing.

[1:09:48] Michaela:

Yeah, and also, it’s not true of them and there’s so much tension. So you see, you see it all the time the people sitting on each other’s laps and have no idea what they’re doing, and they’re so stressed by it – and of course that’s the opposite to the full flow of energy. It’s much better to know less and look less cool, but actually feel, and perceive and connect. And not everybody is that kind of a person, and when we kind of condition ourselves to have to be a certain way, we’re still in shackles.

[1:10:24] Sahara:

Yes! Letting ourselves be completely free; exposing ourselves to all of the possibilities out there, and then also not pressuring ourselves and jumping too fast into something that we don’t even feel comfortable with because that’s actually going to just cause more damage for our nervous systems. 

Well, I love all of your wisdom, I could talk to you for hours and I know my listeners are feeling the same way.

So how can people connect with you, read your book, sign up for your courses?

[1:10:50] Michaela:

I’m assuming you’ll post my website on your show notes? So, michaelaboehm.com and there’s online courses; there’s The Wild Woman’s Way online Course; there’s the Awakening the Pleasure Body Course, which are both at home, self-guided stuff. Once we are out of quarantine, there’s also loads of in-person events I do.

The book is out everywhere, it’s “The Wild Woman’s Way” and a good place also to check out stuff is on my Instagram, and on the website there’s also a tab that says ‘listen’ – there’s a ‘news’ tab and a ‘listen’ tab both of which have enormous amounts of free content.

So, my Podcast is mostly answers I’ve given to people having specific questions; and teachings; so there’s lots of free stuff. I think there’s about 80 hours of free teaching on the Podcast now. 

So there’s lots people can do if they feel up to it.

[1:11:48] Sahara:

Yes, I love that you’re teaching at such a more advanced level, and for the people who have kind of dove into this work and are wanting to get more into the core of it – I just love you approach and I listen to your “Wild Woman’s Way” on audible, and I love listening to your voice narrating it, I would be in the bath tub doing all of the practices, so thank you so much for creating that. And I can’t wait to read your next book. 

[1:12:09] Michaela: 

Yes, it’s coming! I think 3 weeks from now I’m going to take a writing retreat, I might as well use this time here and write a book. 

[1:12:19] Sahara:

I can’t wait to read it. Thank you so much for being with us today.

[1:12:20] Michaela:

You are very, very welcome, thank you!

[1:12:25] End of Interview

__________________________________________________________ 

[1:12:26]     

Can everyone go [sound]? That’s what we’ve been doing in Rose Gold Goddesses, just the [sound] to connect to our inner Kali Ma or Shakhti or wild, feminine, fierce, powerful and pure energy within ourselves. 

[1:12:43]     

I love Michaela’s work so much! Be sure to check out her work “The Wild Woman’s Way”! 

And if you’re interested in tapping into your Divine Feminine; your inner wild woman; your creative woman; your abundant woman; your compassion woman; your sensual woman – all of these aspects of yourself – we have them available for you in Rose Gold Goddesses!

Every single month we are working with a new Goddess energy. As soon as you join you’ll have access to all 7 archetypes we’ve already worked with; my master classes, workshops (essentially it’s your gym membership without any of the work). Imagine having an App where you have 2000 Spiritual Soul Sisters who wanted to talk about how are you evoking the inner wild woman in your life?; here’s the music I just danced to on my floor; here’s the practice I just did – having that community is priceless! And it’s going to be really hard for us all to connect to our inner wild woman when we are the only ones that we know doing it.

So this is why I created Rose Gold Goddesses, it’s now almost a year old, and we’ve created such an incredible platform of women just coming together – if you are interested in spirituality that is embodied; you like to meditate and you like to twerk – Rose Gold Goddesses is the community for you because it’s really connecting all aspects of the Divine Feminine in a way that truly never has before because I realized that there was a lot of the ascension, meditation and that stuff; and there’s a lot of the raunchy stuff. But how can we bring this expressed, pure, wild, ecstatic but also abundant; also in her power; all of these aspects of the feminine integrated into one form? And that is really what it is, in my opinion, to work with the Goddess, the Divine form of the Feminine.

[1:14:32]     

So, if this is striking a cord with you; you’re interested; you’re curious; you’re eager to be part of a community; receive the content and take this quarantine opportunity to really merge with your highest, most embodied self, then I invite you to join us in Rose Gold Goddesses – you could find that over at rosegoldgoddesses.com and I have that link in the show notes too.        

[1:14:56]     

If you loved this episode, I would love to send you a free gift which is the first half of my unreleased book “Eat Right for Your Mind Body Type“. This is a different book than “Eat Feel Fresh“. My first book ever which is not released anywhere, and I am gifting it exclusively to those who leave a review of my podcast in the iTunes store. So all you’ve got to do is head over to iTunes where you’re maybe listening to this podcast and leave a review, take a screenshot that you’ve left it and email it over to me at [email protected] and I will send you back the first half of my unreleased book “Eat Right for Your Mind Body Type“, which goes all into Ayurveda, Doshas, Plant-Based Nutrition, Body Types – all of the things in a really fun and engaging way. So this is my gift to you for free for supporting the podcast. Every single review I personally read. It really helps the podcast be listened to by more people so we can raise the vibration of the planet together, and I am soul grateful to have you on this journey.

Thank you so much for listening and I’ll see you on the next episode. Namaste.

Episode 278: Connecting To Your Wild Woman in Quarantine with Michaela Boehm
By Sahara Rose

Scroll to Top