Tina 00:00:00 I have a treat for you guys today. I have a special guest coming on. Her name is Stephie Bowers. She works with women, helping them learn to mother themselves by connecting with nature and movement. She uses photography, biodynamic meditation, breathwork, and somatic dance. She offers very unique experiences in person and online. So let's get into today's conversation. You're listening to the Soul Aligned Self-care podcast. I'm your host, Tina Stinson, and I had a stroke at the age of 39 from stress and burnout that shook my world. Now I'm laying it all out. The deep level self-care practices and mindset shifts that I needed that kept me healthy, balanced, and thriving. Join me in this intimate space as we explore healing, resilience, and the soul's journey to alignment. This is where real conversations about deep level self-care happen.
Speaker UU 00:01:01 Let's get into it.
Tina 00:01:10 Hey, Stevie, welcome to the Soul Aligned Self-care podcast. How are you doing today?
Stevie 00:01:15 I'm really good. Thank you for inviting me.
Tina 00:01:18 Oh yes.
Tina 00:01:19 I'm so excited for our conversation today. So to get started, could you tell the audience a little bit about yourself and how you kind of got into what you do?
Stevie 00:01:28 So it's been a very long process. I've spent many years exploring different healing modalities to bring me into my body. and I started exploring it when I hit a time in my life that was really, really hard, and I was surviving. I wasn't living, I was on the road to have my ovaries removed and all of these things. It was a very intense time. I couldn't be with myself. I avoided any feeling, really, even though I felt like I was feeling all of these things, and. But I just felt so overwhelmed. so I started looking into somatics, and body healing and embodiment. Embodiment was a big one for me. And through that and nature, I came into my body and it was a very intense experience. it took me until I was 30 to start exploring that. And I was a mother at this time and just felt so disconnected from being a mother and coming into that from a place of, I suppose, trauma.
Stevie 00:02:52 I just had so much stored in my body and I just had this guilt and shame and didn't want to connect with myself, even though I felt like I had already done the work, if that makes sense.
Tina 00:03:05 Oh yeah. Absolutely. It makes a lot of sense. So when you talk about, I guess I'll go towards Somatics first because not everybody now I, I know exactly what you mean by that, but not everybody knows what that means. So could you explain what that means to you, like doing different somatic practices.
Stevie 00:03:25 So the somatic practices, what it means to me is bringing wholeness into my body. it it means connecting with compassion, and exploring energy blockages within the body. my, my favorite modality, modality with that is, shaking and tapping. there to that really stuck for me and and dance. they really helped me explore different blockages in my body without actually having to speak about them. And I think that was the power in it. Like I had done talking therapies, I, I had spoke to counsellors and it just seemed not to shift anything.
Stevie 00:04:14 And with Somatics, it helped me release these blockages without having to go into the specific events that caused the trauma. which it was just eye opening for me to, to go into that and be like, oh, I'm you would feel yourself moving something. But not knowing exactly what it was but feeling lighter as a result. And it took time. It didn't happen straight away. And through the different exercises that I did, they it would come in stages. So if I would do a shaking practice, sometimes I would be crying. Other times I would, I would be laughing. Other times there would be sound coming out of my mouth and I'd be like, where is this coming from? and then I would always finish with like a really beautiful grounding meditation at the end to come back into my body and kind of integrate, which I think that's really important. If you're doing Somatics is the integration afterwards? so for me, yes, Somatics is coming to wholeness. It's reconnecting with your body. It's because your body tells your mind so much, but it's kind of cut off sometimes, and you're stuck in the headspace of the false narrative and the cycles where once you come into your body, it's like you go to your body before your head.
Stevie 00:05:47 And that's just it's a life changer. It's a game changer. Once you you reach that point. Definitely.
Tina 00:05:55 Yeah. So when you talk about shaking and tapping and dance, I mean, most people know what you mean by dance, but, what do you mean by, like, shaking and tapping?
Stevie 00:06:06 So shaking. So there's different modalities that I've done. The one that I offer, with women and then classes, where I live, it's all powered through music. And you, you start with, like, a light bounce in your knees, and you allow your breasts and your belly to wobble, and you bring a shake in your body. So you shake your hands, your arms, and you really bring your attention inward. and, and you allow your body to shake, and you shake every part of your body. And it's such an inward exploration. and it allows you to kind of go into your body and release different blockages from doing that. And it's fun, but also very inward at the same time.
Stevie 00:07:00 So it's a full body shake. He's like, yeah, it's really good. It's lots of fun and it's about kind of celebrating the letting go of that stagnant energy, like loosening the grip.
Speaker 3 00:07:13 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Stevie 00:07:15 I remember a woman I did my training with. she explained it as loosening the grip rather than letting go. You're just loosening the grip so it can transmute into something else. And I really, really liked that visual of that.
Tina 00:07:29 I like that too, I think. I don't think people realize how much these energies get stuck in our body. And then when we don't do these somatic practices and when we don't, I mean, I think we suppress connecting to our bodies on purpose because we're in pain. And so working through this is like, like such a release. So you're releasing these energies from your body. And I love doing shaking practices. I think it's yeah, I think it's really it's really a great way. for me, I like doing it when I'm, like, frustrated or even, like, stressed or anxious.
Tina 00:08:08 I think it really works for me when I'm in those different instances on like a lighter sense, you know, not even going into like the, you know, releasing trauma and stuff like that, using it daily just to release those energies from your body so they don't build up. I like doing it just for that too, you know? I just feel like there's so many different ways you could use shaking. It's so beneficial. to your to your body. What about tapping? Are you talking about EFT tapping or.
Speaker 3 00:08:38 Yeah.
Stevie 00:08:39 Yeah, yeah. just to go back onto the shaking, I think it is a way of. Yeah, like me and your emotions day to day, and exploring that one woman that I work with said she works in a school setting, and she says sometimes she can feel the the overwhelming feeling coming up and these frustrations. And she goes into the store cupboard and she's like, oh, I did a shake today, Stevie. She gives me a message and I'm like, that's so good because you're letting it move through you.
Stevie 00:09:09 So yeah, definitely to deal with frustrations and even activating yourself if you feel like you're, kind of getting that paralysis that sometimes we get and out of our body. So yeah, completely agree with you that daily, daily meeting yourself with that is definitely powerful.
Tina 00:09:27 And how do you use, tapping in your life and with your clients?
Stevie 00:09:33 Shopping for me is to give affirmation to yourself to come in to celebrate. I do a lot of, positive affirmations with the tapping, so tapping this fleshy bit on your hand, on the head, the face and yeah, adding positive affirmation, saying you're worthy. All facets of your being are worth love. And I think sometimes we can shame different facets of ourselves or have like guilt and shame around aspects of our humanness. And I really think that all aspects of our being deserve love and compassion. And I think tapping can come into that and really bring more compassion into the body. Yeah. Worthiness.
Tina 00:10:21 Yeah, I like, I, I like tapping also. I love using it like in the morning to start my day.
Tina 00:10:28 Just feels good in the morning to me. I'll talk. Going back to you talked about embodiment and you was saying that this was the this was the thing that really helped you when you were healing. Right. Can you explain what you mean? by embodiment, like what it means to you and maybe talk about that a little bit.
Stevie 00:10:48 Embodiment for me is meeting my body every day. So every day I'll meet my body and I meet her where she is. So I don't have expectations of where she needs to be or where I was. I meet my body, where I am now, and I really honor how I'm feeling. And then from that I will, I will dance, I will shake. So all come. So shaking, tapping, moving, walking. All of that falls into embodiment for me. so even walking and just pushing my belly out and taking a walk really slow and just observing everything that's embodiment, it's about really connecting with the outside, but also feeling it in the body.
Stevie 00:11:34 That's what it means to me, if that makes sense. it's about really like channeling what you're feeling and giving it light to express. Like, sometimes that can look like just stretching. Like I can just lay on my bed and just stretch and hug myself or. Yeah, anything that's embodiment to me, it's connection is that connection to the physicality and the spaces in between.
Tina 00:12:06 Yeah. Would you also, do you think it's like being present, like being really, really present with yourself?
Stevie 00:12:15 Yeah, definitely. It's it's definitely about being present and honoring how I'm feeling in my body and asking my body how it's feeling and giving myself compassion. I think embodiment is me and yourself with compassion daily and kindness, which is really hard. but the more that you do it, the easier it does become. Obviously some days are so harder than others. but yeah, embodiment is about being present in your body and for me, embodiment. As soon as I kind of started exploring that, when I'm, I really notice when I'm out of my body now.
Stevie 00:12:51 and that's actually uncomfortable where it didn't used to be. It was familiar and safe before. But now that I actually feel safe and it's kind of that real, authentic safety when I'm out, I, I definitely notice that feeling of being disconnected from my human body, or spirit or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. so, yeah. Embodiments. Yeah, it's kind of all of it. It's all of it in one, isn't it?
Tina 00:13:18 Yeah, absolutely. When you're working with women, what kind of process do you go through with them to help them start to, you know, get to that point where they feel like they're connected with themselves and is there like a time period that it takes for someone to get there, or is it always different because everybody's dealing with different types of traumas and circumstances in their lives.
Stevie 00:13:45 I think everybody's different and I think everybody just has to meet themselves where they are in that moment. I obviously I do in-person workshops, which, kind of snippets, and take people on embodiment journeys and, activation meditations, which can be really powerful.
Stevie 00:14:08 but the online containers that I do, they're generally six weeks, and they're just really gentle guides into me and your body. So these are like daily practices that you can do five minutes. So they're not they're not like do an hour a day or it's it's like I say do five minutes. But if five minutes is uncomfortable, just do one minute and play around with the time. because it's really hard to meet yourself. there's a lot. There can be lots of Distance. because your body likes staying in what's familiar and doesn't want to change. and stepping into something new is scary. so the course is generally a very gentle. It's it's very light. and within that we'll do shaking tapping dance. and there'll be activation meditations within that as well. And group exercises. so yeah it's all about gentleness and meeting yourself where you're at. I don't think you can force healing. and I think for every person it's different. yeah, definitely. And I, I think there shouldn't be that pressure because the work never ends.
Stevie 00:15:26 Like you're always doing the work.
Speaker 3 00:15:28 Yeah. and it's about.
Stevie 00:15:29 Being able to meet yourself and handle the day to day. and then I think the more you meet yourself, the easier it is to move those blockages. It just takes time.
Tina 00:15:39 Yeah, I think that's really important. What you said about, there's not really an end to the work. Like, it's just it's just you getting better at being yourself and and expanding and learning. And so putting that timeline on when am I going to feel better really just adds to the stress and the.
Speaker 3 00:15:59 Anxiety of the moment.
Stevie 00:16:01 Yeah, definitely. And I think it's that thing of we're not actually broken. We don't need to be fixed. it's about reconnecting with your authenticity and who you are as who you are, like who you actually are authentically. And I think we can get lost in, we can get lost and out of our bodies through life events. And it's about meeting yourself with that daily compassion and self-love, no matter where you are.
Stevie 00:16:29 on if you're in deep depression. Just being able to be like, this is where I am now. My body is wanting to stop, but still giving yourself love in that time. because I think there's so much pressure to be better. Be. Well, be somewhere over there six months later where it's right now, where you actually are. So. Yeah, it's it's never ending. Is it? Like, people are like, I'll do this and you'll be healed? Well, no, that's that's unrealistic.
Speaker 3 00:16:59 Yeah, yeah.
Stevie 00:17:00 Just give people tools to be able to meet themselves with more love. I think.
Speaker 3 00:17:05 That's very.
Tina 00:17:06 Important. The tools are very important. So talking about tools, you do an activation meditation. What does that mean? Activation meditation.
Stevie 00:17:15 It's, biodynamic meditation. So generally most most of them are guided with music as well. and generally it will be rising through space. So you start off at the floor and there can be many themes and intention set. So, for example, I could be like a call in an intention that you need to move forward today or calling something that you need more of in your life, or think of a quality that you want to harness.
Stevie 00:17:49 And through the meditation, we'll call that in and you'll feel that in your body. And then we move with it. So you kind of embody that quality, you embody that intention. And then we move, up through space, up to standing and then back down. so it's allowing that quality to actually, like kind of penetrate you in a way and kind of come into the cells and the spaces in between. And it's guided with me talking, and music and I think it's. Yeah, powerful when you allow yourself to drop in because your eyes are closed, but you're kind of letting it kind of come into your body, you know?
Tina 00:18:31 So I'm, I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. When you're doing the meditation, do you actually physically move your body and actually stand up and then go.
Speaker 3 00:18:40 Back down or it's.
Stevie 00:18:42 It's so say I, I say to my clients, lay down your seed. You're under the soil, call him what you want to grow. And then I ask them, I give them the invitation to slowly start growing.
Stevie 00:18:58 so they come from that seed, and I ask them to slowly start growing and then eventually come to standing. Generally the journeys are 20 minutes to an hour. within that sometimes I add in some shaking as well. and then the integration, at the end laying down and re grounding. So yeah, it's, it's moving, it's somatic cuz it's energetic cuz it's saying just move your fingers like, how does it feel to move your fingers with this intention. It's, it's very embodied and activating. it. So yeah, it's nice to share that with people.
Speaker 3 00:19:36 Yeah, that's really cool.
Tina 00:19:38 I like that. And you do that in person or do you also do that online to sometimes.
Stevie 00:19:44 So I do that in person and I also run free ones online because I really want, them to be accessible. I feel like I, I know that it's hard for a lot of people right now, so I generally offer like monthly, sometimes every other month I'll do a workshop, and the next one I'm doing is A Dance with grief, which is going to be exploring grief, but through an activation meditation and exploring releasing, grief and dancing with grief.
Stevie 00:20:18 So it's it's kind of not a celebration of grief, but it's meeting that grief head on with compassion and love. So that's the next one. And generally they're different themed. and what's a life for me? and I kind of share that. but yeah, the in-person ones. Yeah. I love doing them in person as well. It's different online.
Speaker 3 00:20:40 yeah.
Stevie 00:20:40 And but yeah, I do like doing them online and in person.
Speaker 3 00:20:45 Still powerful.
Tina 00:20:46 Talk more about the dance because we didn't really talk about that. How do you integrate that into your practice?
Stevie 00:20:52 The dance I think it's important for people to find out how that body moves. I'm not a professional dancer. I did a course last year, and the the woman, running the course is a professional dancer, and she took us through different ways of moving, and she's like, oh, God, this is extra special of just learning how you move and working, whether it's stiff and exploring, moving in spirals and circles and waves. because it creates more creativity.
Stevie 00:21:26 How you move is how you kind of move through life, isn't it? So incorporating that in the courses and within the workshops, I think is important, and creating that kind of free flow exploration so people can explore how they move and create something. So move that stagnant energy and kind of transmute it into something else and yeah, move. because like, there's no right or wrong way to do it. And that's the thing. It's and that's what I always remind people, like, there's no wrong or right way to move or dance. Like you don't have to be anything other than yourself. yeah. Like, yeah, I'm not a professional dancer, but I love to dance, and I think lots of people do.
Tina 00:22:12 Oh, yeah, I think so too. So where are you in the world?
Speaker 3 00:22:18 I'm in the.
Stevie 00:22:18 UK and I'm in a place called Plymouth.
Speaker 3 00:22:21 Okay.
Stevie 00:22:22 which is, I'm in the perfect location because I'm 20 minutes from the sea and 20 minutes from Dartmoor. Which is this like eight chin wilderness? with lots of, like old granite structures and water, which is really nice.
Tina 00:22:39 Oh, that's beautiful. And that's where you do the in person workshop.
Stevie 00:22:42 Yeah, that's where I do the in person. Yeah.
Tina 00:22:45 Okay. And, how can people find you and connect with you? Where do you hang out?
Stevie 00:22:52 so generally online, I'm on Facebook or Instagram. I, I can't manage much social media.
Tina 00:22:59 I know, tell me about it.
Speaker 3 00:23:01 It's,
Stevie 00:23:02 I find it a lot. so, yeah, I'm on Instagram or, Facebook. So Facebook at Stephie Bowers and Instagram, it's the feral flower movement.
Speaker 3 00:23:13 Okay, I love that. Yeah.
Stevie 00:23:17 I've also got a group, which I have people in which I just put lots of free stuff in, just like little movements and invitations for the week in which people can find on Instagram or on the Facebook. There's a link there.
Tina 00:23:32 Okay. Is that under feral, flower movement or.
Stevie 00:23:36 Yeah. Yeah, it will be there.
Speaker 3 00:23:37 Yeah.
Tina 00:23:38 Okay. Okay. That's wonderful. Do you have a website or anything like that?
Stevie 00:23:42 I do have a website, which is, Stephie bowers.com.
Stevie 00:23:47 it's a little bit messy, so apologies for.
Speaker 3 00:23:51 I'm sure.
Tina 00:23:52 It's fine. Just so people could really find.
Speaker 3 00:23:54 And connect with you.
Tina 00:23:55 I will definitely put those in the show notes so that they could find you and connect with you. And hopefully somebody from Plymouth is, is listening or from that area that could do some of your in-person workshops, because I feel like it would be kind of like magical to do in person with you. Do you ever do these in nature? Outside.
Stevie 00:24:19 Yes, yes, yes. So I've got, one coming up soon which will be outside. So I've got it's, Is is interesting because it's finding a place where people can drop in fully. but I'm in. Me and my friend, are talking about it. She's a drummer, and we were thinking of doing them outside. They'd be really amazing.
Speaker 3 00:24:39 Oh, yeah.
Stevie 00:24:40 No shaking workshop. Yeah, definitely.
Tina 00:24:43 Oh, that would be so much fun. Oh, it's been such a pleasure talking to you.
Tina 00:24:47 And I think it's great what you're doing in the world and what you're sharing with people. I think it's very different, but absolutely beautiful. And I hope that people reach out and connect with you and start to embody, create embodiment or however I should say that with themselves, connect with themselves and be present with themselves. So thank you for everything you do. Thank you for sharing your story, and thank you for being a guest on the podcast.
Stevie 00:25:13 Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I feel really honored to share space with you and connect and see you. So thank you.
