What My Nervous System Needed Wasn’t a quick Fix, It Was to Be Held
In Ancient Greece, the womb was often associated with mental and emotional states in women.
Lets talk about it...
It was referred to as the “wandering womb” and thought to be capable of wandering throughout the body influencing a range of symptoms, from emotional distress to physical pain.
Today we know there is an interconnectedness between our wombs and our nervous system via the vagus nerve and hormones do indeed impact mental health.
The research is ongoing and lacking because women were not allowed to be part of clinical studies until the 1990s due to the complexity of their hormones, and the modern psychology model built today separated the mind and soul from the body, but I have high hopes as medicine is changing and the mind, body, and Spirit connection in women is beginning to be honored and redeemed.
We have a long way to go considering the OBGYN model & educational system today is built on a foundational framework that began in 1800s and it continues to fragment a woman’s body into pieces rather than viewing it as a whole.
I share this because I believe it needs to be talked about in the context of maternal mental health and pregnancy. Many women suffer because of this and there are many missed opportunities for healing.
I’ve spoken to many women who have shared experiences of what I am going to share with you today, as I share a piece of my own journey.
As the fascia in my uterus has been expanding throughout pregnancy, new emotional imprints and memories stored in my body have been surfacing and have needed to be tended to, processed, and released.
And recently I had a life changing experience where I was able to take my processing and releasing to a deeper level.
I was held and contained by a group of women, they sang to me, and showered me with love as I stepped into the water at the Flying Pool in Corfu.
For context, I was invited to a water birthing symposium where midwives and doulas gathered to explore the depths of how water impacts fertility, birth, and memory.
Over 25 traditional birth workers gathered from all over Europe and I met some incredible women.
Honestly I didn’t know what to expect, and I was nervous. But the gaze and presence of these women felt different, as if they were fully present and could truly see me, not in a judgmental way, but in a way that offered trust and invited curiosity.
On the day of one of the experientials, I was asked to step into the water with a group of other women, and before stepping in the water I noticed my body felt tense & constricted, my breath quickened, and my heart rate increased...but I chose to pause, breathe, pray, and surrender to the process.
As I fully immersed myself in the water, I noticed it was the perfect temperature, and my body softened a bit.
We did an activity and then one of the leading doulas looked at me and said, “we would like to offer an experience to you.”
She then invited me into the experience, into being held in the water, and as soon as I leaned back and began to float, I burst into tears.
The water and her touch offered a space of containment and safety and when our body feels safe, emotions and memories often surface.
For me, I felt overcome with deep grief about becoming a mother without my own mother, I felt anger over how unfair it felt. I felt anger over past sexual traumas. I felt fear over the unexpected. I felt shame over a desire to be held but struggling to receive this woman’s compassionate touch because I have been hyper independent for so long that I recoil when touch by a loving mother archetype is offered to me, and have been hurt when I have let other women in or reached out.
It was as if I had stepped into a vortex, but I continued to surrender and trusted the women and my body.
As one of the doulas continued to hold me, she said, “let me actually hold you, put all your weight on to me and let go, I didn’t realize it but I was bracing and attempting to hold myself, but when she gave me that invitation, I felt my body physically release into her arms and soften even more.
When I did, another woman placed her hand on me and said, “you are safe.”
Tears continued to overwhelm me and as I cried, I could hardly breathe at first because I was holding on to so much emotion, afraid and slighly embarrassed to actually release it, but the same woman who held me, began to rub my diaphragm and she loudly sighed and said “breathe with me,”resourcing me with her calming breathing rhythm and with the sound of her breath, to help me deepen mine. I exhaled and melted into her arms.
As the women gathered around me and I remained held, they began to sing to me. It was in a dialect foreign to my own but I could feel the love and mothers blessing. My tears continued to flow as I remained held I eventually began to return to a state of calm, groundedness, & feeling lighter.
They didn’t rush me, they didn’t question me, they didn’t shame me, they didn’t bypass me, they remained floating with me in the water, just fully present, witnessing my process and holding a safe container for me.
Containment is medicinal and powerful when done in a loving way.
It gives space to our physical body to naturally follow the grieving process, for our biochemical emotions to rise to the surface, be metabolized, and then released.
In today’s society, we have developed the habit of suppressing, numbing out, or avoiding, or bypassing this process. But when we do this, we create rigidity and tension in our bodies and it impacts our health.
I’ve witnessed this countless times in my clients, but this experience took my intellectual knowledge and helped me fully integrate it into embodied knowledge.
Many will read this and think, “that sounds woo woo, and memories don’t live in the body.”
But many people do not realize there is a difference between explicit memories and implicit memories. Our bodies are incredibly designed and new research on interoception is diving deeper into this concept.
Explicit memories involves the conscious ability to recall certain facts and events, while implicit memory involves unconscious influences on behavior, often without conscious awareness of the past experiences.
Implicit memories live in our cells and fascia and can pattern the structure of our bodies. They begin while we are in the womb.
This is why studies are now showing the impact of maternal stress on the life long heath of her baby.
Implicit memories can live in our system and remain unmetabolized and can turn into patterns like bracing as if you’re waiting for impact, guarding, tension in your diaphragm and shallow & restricted breathing.
These patterns can contribute to chronic disease in the body, fuel chronic pain, and impact our mental health.
They can also create rigidity in our lives, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
This is where containment can come in and offer so much healing. But the truth is, we have severed the mind from the body and this embodied wisdom has been lost, along with opportunities of healing.
Somewhere along the way, community and villages started to look different and knowledge became intellectual rather than a combination of both intellectual and visceral (embodied). Containment began to look like quick hellos and shallow conversations. As a result, stress became internalized rather than metabolized and our collective health has been impacted, emotionally, physically, and Spiritually.
And yes this has even infiltrated Christian communities.
There has been a severance of the mind, body, & Spirit within the body of Christ.
As I continued integrating this experience, I could not help but wonder: what would our relationships within the body of Christ look like if we increased our capacity to offer the gift of containment and presence to one another?
Bearing one another’s burdens in love (Galatians 6:2). Including struggles with sin.
There’s a deep need for a rebirth and redemption of embodied Christianity and community, can you sense it too?
Want to learn more about your mind, body, and Spirit connection? Join us inside the Aligned and Renewed wellness collective where we bridge the gap between biblical truth and holistic wellness to help you confidently care for your body, regulate your nervous system, and show up with clarity, energy, peace, and resilience.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
Regulate your nervous system and release chronic tension stored in the body
Rewire your brain and break free from old patterns by understanding the neurobiology of trauma
Optimize your gut health and reduce symptoms like bloating and constipation
Improve your sleep and restore natural rhythms of rest
Balance your minerals, blood sugar, and hormones for lasting energy and vitality
You’ll also be invited to our monthly support group calls—led by our Integrative Somatic Practitioner, Johnna—for ongoing encouragement, deeper processing, and a safe space to grow.
✨ Join a sisterhood that walks alongside you, encourages your growth, and celebrates every step of your healing journey. Because true healing happens in community, not isolation. You were designed to thrive, not just survive. Your new life is waiting✨
