When Dance Does the Healing: An Embodied Experience of Learning to Love Myself Again
When I lived in Spain for a few years during my early twenties, something happened where my safety as a woman was threatened.
During the first morning back in my small Spanish city, after a trip to the U.S. and a long flight from Alaska, I woke up early and jet-lagged, and went for a walk—alone.
It was a beautiful day without a single cloud in the sky. And as I walked along the curvy, winding cobblestone streets and watched the shop owners begin their opening rituals for the day, I felt so carefree and full of joy to be back "home".
I did a circle around town, then walked back into my neighborhood—in the historic district—when I suddenly got an intuitive feeling that I was being followed.
I turned around and saw a man walking far enough behind me not to worry, and some other people off in the distance on the old city streets.
"No biggie", I thought. The usual. I continued on.
Then, when I turned the corner to approach my doorstep, someone came rushing around the bend and grabbed me from behind.
The man who was walking far enough behind me not to worry.
He tried to get me to open the doorway into the corridor of my building. I removed the key from my door and tried to run, but he caught me as soon as I could even get off the doorstep.
After some shuffling and struggle between me and this man, I managed to break away and I ran to catch the first car that just so happened to come racing down the narrow cobblestone street.
Cars never drove down that street. But, that day. I was glad this car did.
The man, with a bloody gash in his forehead from one of my attempts to fend him off with my house key, walked away and disappeared around a narrow corner, as if nothing had even happened.
I’m sure I don't have to tell you how shaken up I was after this. If you're a woman and you’re reading this, you may have even experienced an event similar to this before. It may have even been much worse.
The fact that women (and anyone who identifies as a woman) feel unsafe walking around just because they're not men...and that this fact is kind of normalized...is absolute insanity.
Why is it normal for women to experience this kind of violence against our bodies? Why do we even have to protect ourselves in this way, while men don't really even have to think twice about these things (not as frequently at least)?
When I told the police, my colleagues, and my friends about what had happened that day, I was met with various reactions.
Most people didn't want to hear about it. It made them really uncomfortable.
If they were women, it made them afraid. There was even a woman who got angry that I was telling her about it. Most men didn’t have much of a response. My boyfriend at the time felt helpless and angry.
Others presented the solution of taking self-defense classes so that I'd feel safer and better able to defend myself the next time. (Would there be a next time??)
When I asked myself how I wanted to handle the situation, I came up with something you might not expect...
Dance.
I immersed myself in all forms of dance that required me to shake these hips like my entire life depended on it, because it almost felt like it did.
I dove head first into belly dance, salsa, bachata, flamenco...all the forms of dance that I could find that would allow me to express myself in a way that felt healing and empowering to me as a woman.
Every day of the week, I moved and danced out all of my fears and frustrations in those classes and, eventually, I started to feel good about my body again. I started to feel more personally empowered and I felt more confident.
I also learned to trust my intuition and my body's responses to things—like when it told me that someone was following me that day. And, I learned how to become more discerning about the situations I put myself in and to have better boundaries.
I learned how to take better care of my body and love my body. I decided that drinking and hanging out in smoky European pubs wasn't my idea of fun anymore. I wanted to do what it took to nurture my body and treat her well.
I decided that loving myself and sharing my story was more important than keeping quiet in order to avoid making others feel uncomfortable.
And I wasn't about to put myself in anymore situations that would possibly compromise any of these values.
There's still work to be done about the fact that women feel like they need to make up for thousands of years of patriarchal oppression of the feminine.
But, for now, as we work our way into more freedom of expression for the feminine, we can take refuge in these three things:
1. True love, respect for, and reverence for our bodies, ourselves and the feminine.
2. Becoming the embodiment of love and compassion.
3. Sisterhood. Opening our hearts to connection and healing with other women.
That's why I created Embodied Love for us.
I'm calling in 10 women who want deeply healing, private embodiment and Human Design support (as well as sisterhood and other magical tools -- like dance) and want to receive the flow of well-being, expansion, and magnetism. Who want the abundance, the beauty, the sensuality, the intimacy, the playfulness, the joy, and the pleasure. And who want to expand their capacity the receive and hold all of this in their lives and relationships as a result of finally feeling safe and regulated enough to open their hearts to it.
If you're feeling any resonance with this, we begin now.
Find the details for Embodied Love >> right here. <<
✨And, never forget, you are valuable, you are a powerful force of nature and you are SO loved.
Korynn xo
P.S. Just to be clear, this is not a course. This is a journey, an exploration, a softening, a receiving, a stepping into an embodiment of love for yourself that will result in you naturally being able to show up as an empowered feminine woman, leader, mother and/or lover, and heal your relationships with others, the masculine, and even money.
It takes loving yourself first. And it takes openness, courage, devotion, and it takes practice (not effort). You will be practicing safe love embodiment each and every week of the program -- and you’ll have my loving support and encouragement along the way.
Learn more here
