Body Based Decisions, How to Love YOU & the Power of Embodiment: A Conversation with Jenna Ward | Ep. 32

Chanci Dawn: 00:00:00

Hello, dear friend, thank you so much for joining me here. I have, oh my gosh, you're gonna love this interview today. There's so many goosebump moments. You know all of the interviews I do. I'm always blown away like the gifts that these guests bring to this show. I just feel so blessed. I feel so incredibly honored and blessed that they all come on and share them for you. And today is absolutely no exception. Our guest it moved from being a clinical hospital pharmacist, to founding the school of embodied arts. She is my teacher, she is my mentor. She her passion is really helping women get out of their heads and into their bodies to be able to live the most magnetic sensual and radiantly alive lives. That is what we're all about here on his show. So, I am so so honored to have Jenna Ward join us. I know you are going to love every single second, please share this episode. Everyone needs to hear it. Enjoy.

Chanci Dawn: 00:01:11

This show is about freedom. Freedom from your constant struggle with food and letting the size of your thighs determine your worth. Join me weekly for no hold back unfiltered girlfriend kind of conversations that will inspire, teach and empower you. As we tune into our own body's wisdom and tune out of the diet industry live. We can live our most radiant, pleasurable and fulfilled lives. My name is Chanci Dawn. I'm a non diet nutritionist embodiment and mindset coach. But most importantly, I'm a woman on a mission to grow a deeply connected and conscious relationship with food and my body. And I'm here inviting you to do the same. Let's go.

Chanci Dawn: 00:01:59

Welcome, Jenna,

Jenna Ward: 00:02:01

this is so great for having me.

Chanci Dawn: 00:02:04

This is I just feel so honored to have you on this podcast because it was truly going through training as a feminine embodiment coach that really oh my gosh, is so many hours spent on my mat, in practice leading up to this podcast to even being able to go yes, this is what I want to do. I want to create this, I want to put this out there. It was a huge part of what I worked on myself as I was going through the training. So I just want to thank you and start with that because you are the CEO of the school. So I would I've already introduced you. But why don't you tell us about the school and how people can find you and more information about the school itself? Because we have a lot of coaches who listen to this podcast who will be interested. Yeah,

Jenna Ward: 00:02:55

well, thank you everyone who's listening. And I'm Jenna Ward. I'm an Australian, as you might hear from my accent, but I'm joining our conversation today from my second home, which is Rotterdam in the Netherlands. And as you have so kindly and warmly already shared, I am a feminine embodiment coach myself, but I also am the founder of the School of embodied arts. And we also train professional coaches we've had about 500 coaches come through our program in the last five years. And a big focus and emphasis in our work is our personal resonance and mastery in our own embodiment, as practitioners. So that's not to say I'm perfectly embodied all of the time because I am not I'm a huge work in progress myself. But devotion to a more body based way of living and deciding and operating and creating in the world has has deeply revolutionized my life and continues to just make life richer and more enjoyable and deeper, which is what I really yearn for. So like you I'm often on my mat doing different in various types of personal mastery and embodied movement practices, most days of the week, to help keep me sane and connected to my sense of kind of spiritual connection and my sense of sensuality in this always changing body. That's a practice embodied movement practice is one that I never I never really knew what embodied movement practice was growing up in for a long time pretty much like the first three decades of my life. But now that I found it, it really feels like a thing that can connect me to me almost like if my body is the church, then on Sunday instead of you know going and kneeling on a Pew I get on my mat and I move so I'm so grateful to my body for showing me that practice and also for the various embodied movement teachers that I've had over the years, that have supported me to have this connection, because I just don't know how anyone does live without it.

Chanci Dawn: 00:05:14

I agree. I don't, I'm like, wow. And I don't know how coaches coach without it. As you know, like it, it has become such an integral part of my own life and of my clients life and of my practice it is, I just feel like it is the missing link in so many areas of our lives.

Jenna Ward: 00:05:37

The coaches who don't use it, I'm sure are really good people doing good work in the world, but their coaching just is having a conversation with calendars and minds, and not including anything from the neck down, which, which is how most of our culture is organized, our calendars, what needs to be done, and then our minds what we're thinking, you know, there's so many different modalities and ways of coaching that are focused on mindset, beliefs, reprogramming our thoughts. And all of these can be really valid. But if we're only dealing with the part of our body from the neck up, it's like driving the Titanic fully not appreciating that 90% of the iceberg under the water, like the rest of our body is an important part of the equation. And to dismiss it is akin to the Titanic's Pete like, you know, it's not ultimately going to be a path to success, in my opinion. But that's also how my body is configured. You know, I yearn for more depth and feeling and richness and intimacy. Those are things that kind of like feels really boring and dry and kind of what's the point when I don't have those things. And perhaps there's some people that aren't orientated that way, and that are very happy just with their to do lists and their mindset and their calendars. And that's not right or bad, and absolutely not shaming anyone for their decisions. They might just be orientated differently to me, but I'm here to do me and do it very well. So

Chanci Dawn: 00:07:08

yeah, perfect. I love that. I'm here to do me and do it very well. Yes. That is so powerful. So Janet, how where can people find you? And yes,

Jenna Ward: 00:07:19

sorry. Yeah, so I live online at Jen award.co. And then you'll find if you're interested, we have an at home embodied movement practice. It's called Primal feminine flow. So that's a great resource. If you are, like me, I'm a mom and a wife and just an everyday suburban kind of woman that also wants, like a feminized embodied devotional practice. So that's a great movement practice you can do at home. Also, at Jenna ward.co. We have the feminine embodiment coaching certification. And that's for people who might be interested in becoming a coach, or we have a really big directory of many of our past graduates. So you can also find a really skilled, feminine embodiment coach that you know, has great credentials.

Chanci Dawn: 00:08:05

Wonderful. Thank you for sharing that. That's just so great. And it's funny as you're saying that I'm like, I just love how source the universe God works. I don't actually remember even how I found you.

Jenna Ward: 00:08:17

Isn't this happens so much. Yeah. So many people. We asked, How did you find us? No, I'm not really sure.

Chanci Dawn: 00:08:24

It's sort of like my soul just knew. And it was like, oh, yeah, here you go. That is really interesting. You're the first guest that I haven't been like. So this is how I got to know you and found you. And I'm like, oh, yeah, Jenna, you just you were there because you were meant to be. And that's really neat. So that Yeah, and that's interesting. That's not only my experience. Yeah,

Jenna Ward: 00:08:45

it is common experience of people finding us, like less than 25% of people say, oh, you know, there's definitely like, Oh, I heard you on this person's podcast, or blah, blah, blah, recommended you or I've worked with this type of coach. And so then that still happens. But it's the majority of it is magic.

Chanci Dawn: 00:09:04

Yeah, absolutely. Oh, yeah. I got goosebumps magic. Love it. Okay. No.

Jenna Ward: 00:09:09

So I have a bit of an unconventional business strategy, just aside.

Chanci Dawn: 00:09:15

Works like that is yes, actually, I was talking to a business coach not that long ago. And she's like, chancy. Your business plan is magic. Like that is what? Really drop into that. And she knows me. And I'm like, You're right. And then as soon as I did the next day, I got a call from their trade center. I was sharing with you that I'm working at now saying, Hey, are you interested? I'm like, Yes, magic. Thank you. So I found you and all of this. Great. So let's, I want to get into the magic of your own experience with embodiment and how that has really transformed your relationship with your own body, okay. And this obviously this podcast, it tastes like freedom is about healing your food with relationship and are here you're living your relationship sorry with food and your body. And embodiment is a huge part of this, right? I, this is totally bodied eating. Okay, so this is what it's all about. So that's why I wanted to have you on here as my mentor as my teacher in the arts of embodiment to talk about your own experience. I love your story. So if we could go back to when you were a pharmacist, okay, and what was happening there and the disconnection and just let's just get into it. Tell us all Jenna.

Jenna Ward: 00:10:45

Once upon a time, I used to be a clinical hospital pharmacist and I worked making chemotherapies and on wards with like, you know, beds and beds of patients that I would have to see. And I managed a team of pharmacists, and I was very efficient. But I was in my 20s. And I was kind of at the top of my career path at that time, looking around at this very dehumanized, kind of form of let me fix you medicalization that the hospital system was in. And I really just had this sense of, what am I doing here? And what is the point of this. And at that time, I was actually dating a guy who was really into alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, kinesiology. And he kind of showed me this other side of health care, this more alternative, holistic, ancient, different practices. And so I myself actually began to train in different types of energy medicine, which I was really happy about, because I had also suffered from adult acne pretty much my entire life. So I went on the pill when I was about 13, or 14, and had been on it for over a decade, to the point that I had become a Minarik. So I had just stopped having a cycle, because my body was so out of whack, and yet, I was still having adult acne. So I thought, Okay, well, I've tried all the drugs that I can for acne, maybe something in this, like new, magical kind of witchy alternative world will help me. So a lot of the whole first years of me learning alternative medicine was simply it was me looking for a new career path, for sure. But it was also looking for, is there a way that I can just like, fix this imperfection in my body? Because I really saw this acne as something that, you know, as we do with modern and conventional beauty standards, I had deeply internalized the idea that I couldn't be beautiful or loved without perfect skin. And I was also dating a total douchebag at the time who, who was telling me the same things like don't put on more weight, make your hair more blonde. You know, why don't you have makeup on today? Your skin doesn't look so great, like terrible stuff like this. What was I doing with this guy? Like I was a successful successful in my career path smart. Like, even though they opened like, in a to a degree I didn't like, what was I doing with this guy? So around this time,

Chanci Dawn: 00:13:29

I think we all have, yeah, one of those. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

Jenna Ward: 00:13:38

And it's like this is where without knowing the language of embodiment, and the language of the feminine. It was around this time where I was dissatisfied with my body dissatisfied with my relationship, dissatisfied with my career, that I really began to ask, What am I doing here? Who am I appeasing with all this? This guy is not treating me that great. Like, I'm not feeling that great in my body, even though I have an able body, which is actually like a glorious body. And I started doing some, some essential embodied dance around this time. And I really believe that was very pivotal and beginning to wake up this sense of this innate sense of beauty and power that I feel lives within all of us. When we speak about sensuality, a lot of times many of us start to think about sex and performance or, like sexy performance in lingerie where you have to be a certain size. That's not what I'm talking about when I'm talking about sensual embodied dance. I'm talking about reclaiming this, like the erotic nature of just being in enjoyment of your own body. So I began to also do some of this embodied sensual embodied dance. And as a result of all of this dissatisfaction or All these different quadrants, and earnestly beginning to search and probe for something more, even though I didn't know what I was doing what I was doing through all those explorations was coming back to what is the heart of my desire? What is it that I really want? What is it that turns me on? How can I be more alive inside me? And these are all questions that we can't think our way into. We can only answer these questions through direct lived experience of the internal sense. The internal hungers and feelings. What is my truth? Where is my Yes? What am I hungry for? What's non negotiable for me. And so it was through this inner exploration. And what that felt like was, it was like, inside my body. I just had never inhabited my body. Before I was all up in my head. I had all the bright it was like fluorescent, brilliant lighting up there, all the lights on sparkly, clean, everything meticulous. But from the neck down, I was like this abandoned warehouse. So all these different explorations around moving my body, considering alternative medicine and alternative arts, all these different avenues in began to bring my awareness deeper down into this abandoned warehouse and get more in contact with all of those inner feeling fingers and desires. And as a result of that, things began to change very quickly, I quit the job, and transitioned into working I initially worked as a kinesiologist, which is a form of energy medicine practitioner, left the guy, I was

Chanci Dawn: 00:16:41

gonna ask the douchebag still around.

Jenna Ward: 00:16:46

Like, see you later, dude, you can't handle how much woman I am. Yeah, it was a huge shift, a huge shift in who I had been in that relationship. Now, this isn't to say that getting into your body means you have to totally change your life. Because it doesn't mean that but that's what it did mean for me to be in integrity. And what was actually so interesting was that I just decided to love my skin, as it was. I just decided that I would. And it sounds simple. I decided to love my skin. It wasn't really like that was actually this process of allowing my heart to crack open with a lot of snot and tears and messy feeling of all of the shame and pain and rage and hate I had directed at myself and my skin for decades. And allowing all of that to be felt so that I could rediscover the love that existed at the heart of it. So I also began to love my skin, I didn't just decide to do it. It was a process a process that involved embodiment, kind of really how I discovered embodiment, coaching was through through going through that process with my skin. And lo and behold, like within the following two to three months, my skin totally cleared up. And I have never had acne since Wow, my cycle came back, I started to cycle regularly, my body just like the few little things and they I believe, like my experience of acne and not having a cycle during that time. That was huge to me at the time. But in the scheme of things, like I'm an able bodied person I and I see now like such an insignificant other, really, although it seemed like the Mount Everest of my life at the time. And all those things just began to get back into sync just effortlessly as I re inhabited, and genuinely just really loved this body and made more and more decisions from that place.

Chanci Dawn: 00:18:42

That is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. And I really love how you reiterate it that is it is a process we talk about that a lot here where if you've lived your entire life believing the conditioning and feeling disconnected from your body that you are not enough and that you have to look a certain way in order to be valid truly right when we're the whole not enough or too much aspect of feeling not enough and how we'd love to go from here where you know, entry level feeling not enough actually disdain for the body to love. But it is it is a process it steps one foot in front of the other and and consciously deciding and then learning from being it's, it was really it was learning how to have a relationship with her my body and how to listen to her and let her know that she can trust me that we are here in this together. And so that's what I'm hearing from you write with your skin. It was a couple of months in this practice and coming home to yourself. And I did another podcast with Paula another one of the graduates and We were talking about start with respect. And this is like what you were saying, looking at what really matters, I'm going to come home to myself, and I'm really gonna grow myself. And this is a part of that respecting your body, and she absolutely responds. And then as you continue this relationship, the love will grow, if that is what you're working towards. So yes, I love this process, you explained. And I feel

Jenna Ward: 00:20:27

that the love is always there, deep down, it's just living under what we have generated and what we have internalized. So I'm sure you speak at length about all of the different BS, beauty standards and ideals of like I too, have internalized a lot of those standards. And even though I'm aware, and don't consciously agree with those standards, doesn't mean that my body hasn't soaked up that toxic messaging app because it's the soup that we all swim in. So my body holds this unconscious, unwanted internalization of the standards, even though in my head, I don't agree with them, and I don't subscribe to them. And underneath that is then all of the accumulation of what I've told myself and felt and thought as a result of applying their standards, to this shape and this form and this color and this size. And under that is love. And I have to in the embodiment model, I can't get to the love by ignoring all the other shit that's on top of it. Absolutely. I've got to be willing to feel all that if I'm going to feel any of it.

Chanci Dawn: 00:21:45

It's like the layers peel back all the back all the yes, it's that frozen tension, right, like liberated. And then within when we talk about frozen tension on here, so listeners know what that is. So this is the language we speak. And absolutely underneath that I love that you pointed that out. The love is always there because we are love. We are love. So coming from that place of let's just dig in. And it's like I have this visualization of this spring and all sudden it's like June the love is gushing out. Right. Like that is that is so beautiful. Oh, yeah, that are that I just like, that just makes me feel so happy. You know that that's available, that that is available to us in the culture and the society and all the conditioning, that we live in that awareness and then going forward. And yes, it's work. But oh, you know, getting on your mat. Like when I first started primal feminine flow. At first, I was like, This feels really kind of awkward. And then it's Wow. And now my body craves the practice. Now my body's like, Oh, yes, we haven't done that in a while. Right. So can you chat about that your experiences with that because you talked about sensual dance, and like the primal feminine flow. This is part of the offer you chatted about in the beginning and one of the my first experiences with embodiment. So Jana, yes, I'd love to hear more about that.

Jenna Ward: 00:23:15

So, in Primal feminine flow, I'm gonna call it pff. For short, it's a form of embodied movement practice, and I use it every single day as my devotional practice, it helps keep me sane, if I'm decompressing from the little and sometimes big stresses of the day. It helps keep keeps me sent connected to like a heartfelt sense of spiritual devotion. For me, I feel my devotion, my religion in life is connecting to that wellspring of creativity that is like the feminine color what you will God universe, like whatever it is that you devote to, or that nourishes you, I can connect with that through this practice. It also keeps me essentially alive because it's in my body and joining my body. So I use this practice, maybe formally on my mat, or informally just in little movements and moments throughout my day, constantly. But I did not always how this came about was how this very very first came about for me was I had always done yoga asana is where you put your body into a position. And I had gotten to know my body more by by doing these yoga postures and asanas but I used to then go and try and do yoga at home and put myself in these poses, and I love yoga, totally nothing against yoga, by the way. But as I was putting myself in these poses, and in these positions, I would just feel or have this sense that my body wanted to move in a certain way. So instead of me saying this As a heart opening pose, let me put myself into the pose that opens my heart, I would just feel my heart want to open and move in a certain way and sound in a certain way. And so I was observing this happening. Because shock like newsflash embodied movement practice is something that like you, like me, for a lot of us, it can feel really awkward because we don't operate like this in the real world. But if you watch a toddler, I've got a three year old, she's just doing embodied movement practice all day long, she notices what she feels in her body. As she moves in sounds as that she doesn't suppress or filter, she doesn't appease or contain or contort herself, she doesn't become a chameleon, to hide what it is, even if and when it's socially unacceptable. She's gonna learn to do that. And the more and more she learns to do that the weaker and weaker this connection with the kind of innate and primal impulses of her deepest innermost knowings will be. And that, ultimately, is the process of civilization, which to a degree is valuable, like, I don't want someone paying just like on my doorstep, because that's uncivilized. But at the same time, like, it's really sad, I think, for so many adults that we just don't know how to move our body freely, unless somebody tells us the pose we should be in.

Chanci Dawn: 00:26:23

And this is what I'm thinking here in the patriarchal society like that influence when I think about women, and the the movement and the flow. It's for us where there's this idea of, you know, sensuality, sexuality, even caring that like sensual energy, can be like, Oh, well, she's sleazy, or she's sweaty, or look at her trying to be all sexy, because it's like, for the man's pleasure for the man's attention or whatever seeking and, and it's so beautiful to be able to claim it and own it as no, this is my practice for myself. And I'm moving in the world as I do. And I'm showing up in the energy that I am because this is being true to me. And it absolutely has nothing to do with that outside aspect. So I really think you know, that's a big part of it. Like I look at my little girl, I have little went to she's 15 now, but I remember she Yeah, she would just move her body. And it was, like very sensual, very just in it. And there was a little bit I remember a bit of discomfort for me going, Oh, is that gonna bring her the wrong attention? Oh, is this something I should correct? Is this something I? Oh, sweetie, you know, don't shake your hips like that. And, you know, like little torque movements or whatever. And it's, it's a very interesting thing going, right? How do we model for our children, especially the our girls, and in how to be embodied and honor her for her. And that's what matters?

Jenna Ward: 00:28:03

This is a very valid question. And I don't have the perfect answer. It's an ongoing point of tension slash discussion between my partner and I, and how we parent our three year old because I've not done this before, and it's evolving. But it's very interesting, this exploration because I know as a woman, the power, the clarity of decisions, the sanity, the wellness, that comes to me when I'm able to be in my body, x. And that doesn't mean I want to walk down the supermarket aisle and like break into spontaneous interpretive dance and shave you do every night

Chanci Dawn: 00:28:39

be there. So whatever,

Jenna Ward: 00:28:42

whatever. So but but, you know, this is a practice that personally, I do majority, I do my formal practices in the safety and security of my own home. But I bring subtle little flavors of this to just who I am and how I show up in so many ways of my, in my day. And it's it has been revolutionary. For me, I don't actually know how I would make a decision without this practice. Because this practice also builds a skill of sensitivity and a skill of connecting and be in partnership with my body. So when it comes time to make a decision about how to parent my kid, or how to run my business, or where to take a vacation, I'm consulting my body, which I have the skill to do as a result of this practice. So it's like this is actually a fundamental effing life skill. Yes, you need to learn multiplication, but you also need to know how to make body based decisions. Because if you're making a decision that's not a full yes in your body, then that's when we're making decisions, often to appease other people or to apply a set of standards that aren't And celiac Orn and that's where we begin a very slippery descent into dishonouring our body and allowing things to be done to us or to be complicit in things which actually can be really traumatizing to us. That's not to say your traumas, we experience our own food fault, because that's absolutely not the case. But there are certainly times in my own history where I know I've been so dishonouring to my body, because I've applied sets of standards that weren't my own. To me, yeah.

Chanci Dawn: 00:30:37

Yes. So teaching this to our children, to our daughters. It's absolutely critical. I hope now, right, I'm like to grow up to for your daughter, your little three year old to grow up with you, as her mom, modeling this, teaching this being this, that is such a gift.

Jenna Ward: 00:30:58

Well, to be honest, it's quite selfish, because I want to do some morning writing every morning, and I need to do and I enjoy doing a movement practice every day. And I like having a little altar with all my witchy intentions and candles. Yeah, so my kid now just does morning writing and journaling with me, she draws little pictures in her own journal, we do our movement practice, she dances with me, she has a little section on my altar, so that she can feel included, and actually just helps me to get all the things that I need. That she's passively getting this really great education. So I'm very happy for that.

Chanci Dawn: 00:31:35

Absolutely. Definitely a win win. So let's talk about we were talking before I pushed record, about the two main Pinnacle moments in your life where you, embodiment has really helped you come home with your relationship with your body. One was with the boyfriend and your skin. And then the other was actually when you were pregnant with your little girl. So this is a beautiful segue talking about her and you know, this experience, and let's chat about that. Jenna, can you share pregnancy? What happened there and, and moving forward? Well,

Jenna Ward: 00:32:16

probably two of the biggest things around pregnancy with my body would be one how I decided to birth and also how I have found being in my mom body. Now, I must at least one size bigger than my kids three. So it's not like she's a newborn. And I kind of I never really had a pre baby body to get back to you know, which is common in our culture. I instead have done the exact opposite. I just went slower, and I've kept going slower. So but those would be like the two big aspects. So firstly, then about how I decided to birth. So it was so interesting to me when I was pregnant and considering how am I going to birth this baby. i How are we going to birth this baby knowing that my body is the one that's doing it. I had this really unsupportive GP who said, Gee, I just hope you're not going to be one of those hippies and have one of those home births. so irresponsible. So what my GP told me and my general practitioner, I thought, you know, what message that I'm getting from my body is that I absolutely know how to do childbirth. My body was literally designed to do this. It's been doing it for hundreds 1000s of years. And I had a low risk I was her low risk pregnancy. So it was safe for me to birth at home with our homeless team. And yet my family was in really strong opposition to it. They I couldn't remember like, a more medicalized family background. And they also had, I assume, have a similar opinion to my GP, which is that it's irresponsible decision. So it was actually really edgy because I felt a lot of pressure. My husband was also not sure about it. So I had a lot of people around me who were really unsure or totally dismissive of this option of home birth, but my body was like we want to give birth at home, we want to be uninterrupted. We want this to be a devotional experience that like doesn't necessarily mean we have the option of going to a hospital. It was really edgy that I decided it felt edgy for me that I just because I felt like I was going against the grain of our culture. And so I didn't tell my parents that I was birthing at home because I didn't want to be responsible for their emotional management of the situation. I was just there to do me and do my babe and do it really well. And I was so and I also got myself really well resourced with a lot of different books and people that had home birth and we had a beautiful experience with no complications and a super healthy baby. Wonderful. I'm so I was a little bit sad. surprised at my level of conviction in that, because consciously my head knew there can be some risks, we want to make sure we've got all of our bases covered. And yet, the felt sense of connection with my body was a 200%. F Yes, we've got this

Chanci Dawn: 00:35:18

actually goes.

Jenna Ward: 00:35:20

Sorry. I was gonna say it goes so deep.

Chanci Dawn: 00:35:23

Yeah, yeah. And that goes back to what you were saying about. Your practice allows you to make really powerful decisions for yourself. And you always go back to that to make the decision. So because you already had that connection, and this practice, your body was like, Absolutely. This is how we want to birth. Absolutely. We are capable. Oh, yeah, you to honor that, and then have this beautiful experience as a result? Well done.

Jenna Ward: 00:35:50

Yeah, I feel really proud of me. Yeah, I feel really proud of me. And the other thing that then happened was, so as a result of then giving birth to my child, and breastfeeding and putting on weight was I just have this really different body. Now, the body that's softer and more rounder, and it has stretch marks, and my boobs are Sagir and they don't sit in my bra the same way. And when you take a photo from this angle, my chin has a little bit of extra juice just at the bottom of it. And my eyes get a bit squinty here and, like all these little softening and things, and I would have to say that it's not 100% of the time, like I, I, it's 90%, it's 99% of the time, look at this body. And I just think, wow, like grew a whole child and birth that child and took care of it. And just such a wonderful body, like, Oh, I just have so much love and reverence for it. And what a great job it did. I think that there's probably a time at some point where I will feel a genuine urge to do something different in terms of like I have a healthy body, it's a bigger body, but it's a healthy body. And I'm really good with that. And if that changes, I'll just stay tuned to the messages of my body if and when that wants to change. But right now in this season. And it is as a result of just all of like years and years of years of this devotional practice, I just feel so good and well and supple and solid. You know, me and me. And that also kind of surprises me at some level as well.

Chanci Dawn: 00:37:37

How come?

Jenna Ward: 00:37:40

The cultural narrative is so strong, about get back to your post body, be a post pre baby, blah, blah, you know what I'm saying? Like, get? Yeah, get your body back, get back to size, whatever. And I hear it and I see it. And I noticed that and it kind of like runs through my mind. Sometimes, but it doesn't have any weight or any place to land or fester inside of me. There's no room for

Chanci Dawn: 00:38:14

your body. Available for that. Yeah, yes. Yeah. And I love when you even like say soft like the way I'm watching you on video, there'll be a clip for people to see us on video you in your living room and me and my boyfriend's closet, like I'm in here. But when I see you say soft and the way your body moves, and the way you speak that it is absolutely it's it's part of your sensuality. Like this is yes. And I created this human and gave birth to her. And this is where my body is as a result. And that is beautiful. That is so wonderful.

Jenna Ward: 00:38:59

It feels really revolutionary in a tiny, small, humble little way.

Chanci Dawn: 00:39:04

Yeah, yeah.

Jenna Ward: 00:39:06

And it also just concert like I'm I'm so interested in creativity and fulfillment of my artistic like potential as a human. So it also feels that it's actually just such a path of ease to be an enjoyment and ease with this. Because then my lifeforce and creativity actually gets to be fed into something that's more nourishing and fulfilling and actualizing to me, something that really turns me on instead of working hard for something that I'm not even that interested in.

Chanci Dawn: 00:39:41

Absolutely talk about magic, right. It really really is. And yes, and I've always been, like curvy, and I really resisted that a lot and I my whole story. Everyone listens to my story. It's always on here. That's Episode One, two, you can also listen to it, but it's like torture my body control her try to put her into this box like disordered eating, led into a complete eating disorder. And my body was just like, Come home to me, right? Like I have so much to offer you. And it was through many years of healing. But really the cherry on top, which I really now believe is actually the foundation of it is the embodiment practice. It felt like the cherry on top it felt in the beginning, like, oh, wow, okay, this is really wonderful. And like I said, awkward at first, but then going into it, and now, it's so absolutely foundational to my relationship with my body and how I move in this world and what I create in this world, and I'm hearing this from you, too, and I just find that is, it's such a gift to ourselves, to be able to come home to ourselves in this way, and then be led into the world that we have, we're so blessed to be in, but it's a it's a challenging world to be in. So when you can make these, you know, body based decisions and when you can get on your mat and appreciate your body and I come out of the shower now. And the part of my body that I always really stuck struggled with my stomach and my thighs. And now I genuinely look at my stomach every day when I come into the shower. And I don't just go oh, okay, I respect you. I love you, you know of your stretch marks, and I had three cesarean so it's like three cesarean scars, or whatever or one but a big one. And now I look and I'm like, Oh, look at you. Like, Ah, really? Like, oh, yeah, like look at that curve. And look at this, like, the way your stomach is. It's so soft and so sensual. And I just feel so beautifully feminine and all of it without resisting. Now, just moving into that, like we were saying acceptance, appreciation, which I hear a lot in your, in your words for your body appreciation, and ultimately that love and then it life just gets so juicy.

Jenna Ward: 00:42:18

There's so much life force available for more. Yeah,

Chanci Dawn: 00:42:21

absolutely. Ah, Jana, this is so good. I would love it. If you could share one last pearl of wisdom for the listeners something that you would just love for them to know.

Jenna Ward: 00:42:36

Hmm. Wow. Many, many things. I think the key piece that is really useful to reemphasize, we've been speaking a lot in our time around, becoming sensitive to our body and embracing our body and this actual, genuine love of self of body. And what I would just lovingly whisper is that I've described this during our podcast today as this being a skill. And if it's a skill that you didn't learn, or you're not really sure how to do, or it's a skill that you're still imperfect at, I'm still imperfect at it too, by the way, just really want to emphasize that that doesn't make you less embodied, or less divine or less in any way. In fact, those parts of you that sometimes have that struggle to be sensitive or to feel or to love or to genuinely embrace, my little pearls of wisdom would be those parts of you that struggle is actually a deeper aspect of you, which can love those parts. So don't try to fix them. They don't need fixing. No part of you needs fixing. Just take a moment to see if you can contact that deeper part of you that can love the aspects that might still be catching up with the full beauty that you really are. Yeah, because in all this self development kind of space, we can sometimes accidentally get caught in the ideas that I've got so much further to go and so much that I need to fix, which misses the message that loving all is the solution, including loving those bits that are struggling.

Chanci Dawn: 00:44:42

Oh, that is yeah, I'm gonna listen to that probably 20 times over again

Chanci Dawn: 00:44:54

I'm glad you do because it needs to be heard and understood and really imprinted as to Truth because it absolutely is. And thank you. Thank you Jenna for that. And thank you so much. You've all You're welcome. It's just been such an honor having you on here and I'm so I just everyone you need to follow her download that the primal front feminine flow. And yeah, like come home to yourself, This is what this is all about. And Jenna, thank you for the work you do in the world, thank you for coming into my life however that was. And that for this wonderful coaching certification that you made possible for myself, and, you know, on behalf of my clients and the listeners to like, so much of what we have going on here with this podcast and everything. It's like, Yes, I can't even express my gratitude for what you do and what and what it's created in my own life and in my business, and in my clients and listeners. So you are, you're so valued. And I really, really appreciate you so

Jenna Ward: 00:46:04

yea deeply thank you deeply for having me and for everyone who's joined us and listen to really appreciate it, you and being here.

Chanci Dawn: 00:46:13

Wonderful. Well enjoy the rest of your night. I see it's dark there. It's morning here. So thank you for coming. And listener, please share this with your best friend, she needs to hear it. And if you've already shared this with your best friend, share it with her best friend. Let's just get this out. Everyone deserves to come home to their body to really repair our relationship with our body and learn to appreciate food for what it is this nourishment this beautiful gift, we have to love ourselves more. So let's get this message out. I love you. Thanks for listening. Until next time.