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One of the intersections I love most, is the intersection between longing, loving and loss.

There is nothing that has brought me deeper in relation to life than these three.

Love, longing and loss have given me a sense of living that feel true, real, and meaningful.

Since I opened my wide eyes to this wild world, I have looked for where and how people carry love, loss and longing in their being. In their faces, in their voice, in the flickers of loss, love and longing in their eyes. I may not see many things with my eyesight, but I read a heart like a map, feel the hidden currents beneath a person’s words, see the way they hold their body because of love, because of loss, because of longing.

In sitting with clients daily in private practice, I am constantly amazed by how resilient our hearts are. There is something in our hearts that makes us humans so incredibly strong in holding our hearts. I believe it is exactly this intersection that does it– our capacity to love, to lose and to long

I have longed to understand the human psyche, to give language to the heart’s capacities, to become fluent in the nuances of its range. This is why somatics & embodied practice are important to me, because the heart expresses where words fall short. The heart’s language of love exists in feeling, in sensing, in emoting.

In my own loss, love and longing, I began to understand both the heart’s complexity and the unyielding reach of my heart’s devotion.

Life will have us meet the intersection of love, loss, and longing in many ways and shapes. Love comes in many forms– some as a revealing mirror, some in the loss of love, sometimes in the deep longing for it. Sometimes in the form where it shows us where we do not love ourselves yet.

Our heart and body are the vessels to initiate deep feeling. This capacity to hold the heart in this intersection is what I am devoted to continuously, because I know that our heart’s capacity to feel gives us the meaning in living life.

:: psychosomatic therapy & relational mentorship is opening in Feb - some slots available for 6 months container :: info + intake in bio ::

One of the intersections I love most, is the intersection between longing, loving and loss.

There is nothing that has brought me deeper in relation to life than these three.

Love, longing and loss have given me a sense of living that feel true, real, and meaningful.

Since I opened my wide eyes to this wild world, I have looked for where and how people carry love, loss and longing in their being. In their faces, in their voice, in the flickers of loss, love and longing in their eyes. I may not see many things with my eyesight, but I read a heart like a map, feel the hidden currents beneath a person’s words, see the way they hold their body because of love, because of loss, because of longing.

In sitting with clients daily in private practice, I am constantly amazed by how resilient our hearts are. There is something in our hearts that makes us humans so incredibly strong in holding our hearts. I believe it is exactly this intersection that does it– our capacity to love, to lose and to long

I have longed to understand the human psyche, to give language to the heart’s capacities, to become fluent in the nuances of its range. This is why somatics & embodied practice are important to me, because the heart expresses where words fall short. The heart’s language of love exists in feeling, in sensing, in emoting.

In my own loss, love and longing, I began to understand both the heart’s complexity and the unyielding reach of my heart’s devotion.

Life will have us meet the intersection of love, loss, and longing in many ways and shapes. Love comes in many forms– some as a revealing mirror, some in the loss of love, sometimes in the deep longing for it. Sometimes in the form where it shows us where we do not love ourselves yet.

Our heart and body are the vessels to initiate deep feeling. This capacity to hold the heart in this intersection is what I am devoted to continuously, because I know that our heart’s capacity to feel gives us the meaning in living life.

:: psychosomatic therapy & relational mentorship is opening in Feb - some slots available for 6 months container :: info + intake in bio ::

this one has been about beauty; about enchantment, about being in awe and in love in a way that is simple

this year’s cycle taught me that to find enchantment, shedding is needed.

above all, beauty, growth and love end up being worth shedding many skins for— just as the snake knows.

this one taught me again how grief fuels joy too, how pain can transform into beauty and spiral you down to a renewed perspective of what enchants you in life.

may my life be a testimony for this truth •

where clarity opened the way for things that turned out to be so undeniably right & clearly só meant in life.

the invitation sometimes is to compromise the comfortable for the actual truth of things.

that sometimes you have to shed in order to save your soul

moving from the old, the disintegration, to the new only just forming is no easy task— that is where you shed, where you’re broken open in a state of humility I have seen this year in so many.

that space is holy. it is where you can touch the divine through your own form

with a heart opened, I have seen again that love and beauty can be found in the most enchanting ways.

I circled back to old held loves with renewed perspective, some of it to shed, to let go,

most of it to be enchanted by through refreshed eyes. to circle back to who I love deeply, and what I love deeply, like lands to feel home to, men to behold, friendships, and coming back to old mythology, to tales, to my love for anthropology, and to dress, to sit with grandmothers, and deepen ayurvedic wisdom, yogic discipline, find new and old tradition, to moving beauty through my body, to ballet, and to clay.

to be enchanted by the beauty of life does include the inevitable pains to face, but to see too how beauty does safe the world.
how life does enchant, in its spirals, cycles, rhythms and oppositions.

the shedding, then the bedding, the enchantment, the home-coming— that is what I am enchanted by, and what I hope to be captured by.

🌹

📸 lastest 2025 capture by @photography_by_naline ✨

#embodiment #enchantment #beauty

this one has been about beauty; about enchantment, about being in awe and in love in a way that is simple

this year’s cycle taught me that to find enchantment, shedding is needed.

above all, beauty, growth and love end up being worth shedding many skins for— just as the snake knows.

this one taught me again how grief fuels joy too, how pain can transform into beauty and spiral you down to a renewed perspective of what enchants you in life.

may my life be a testimony for this truth •

where clarity opened the way for things that turned out to be so undeniably right & clearly só meant in life.

the invitation sometimes is to compromise the comfortable for the actual truth of things.

that sometimes you have to shed in order to save your soul

moving from the old, the disintegration, to the new only just forming is no easy task— that is where you shed, where you’re broken open in a state of humility I have seen this year in so many.

that space is holy. it is where you can touch the divine through your own form

with a heart opened, I have seen again that love and beauty can be found in the most enchanting ways.

I circled back to old held loves with renewed perspective, some of it to shed, to let go,

most of it to be enchanted by through refreshed eyes. to circle back to who I love deeply, and what I love deeply, like lands to feel home to, men to behold, friendships, and coming back to old mythology, to tales, to my love for anthropology, and to dress, to sit with grandmothers, and deepen ayurvedic wisdom, yogic discipline, find new and old tradition, to moving beauty through my body, to ballet, and to clay.

to be enchanted by the beauty of life does include the inevitable pains to face, but to see too how beauty does safe the world.
how life does enchant, in its spirals, cycles, rhythms and oppositions.

the shedding, then the bedding, the enchantment, the home-coming— that is what I am enchanted by, and what I hope to be captured by.

🌹

📸 lastest 2025 capture by @photography_by_naline ✨

#embodiment #enchantment #beauty

Like the old leafs coming of the trees, this fall was a disintegration, a warm release and looking deeper at what was left bare

The past weeks were a time of shadow work, and with it a lot of joy. Never loved this season as much as I have this time.

With candles lit, diving into myth, story and on the carpet in feminine practices, with pen to paper to inquire into outworn ways of being.

Being with all that comes up when you look into shadowy parts of self— its been a lot of feeling + giggling while loving patterns into wholeness. And inevitably feeling more light because of it.

And while being with the shadow, being also called into deeper love in a way I have not quite been met by yet. A way where my parts were welcomed with such warmth and peace, that it deepened love and safety in relation to self, and other.

Shadow work I love as a beautiful tool to love ourselves into more wholeness.
We all have limitations and kinks and quirks that serve their purpose in our lives until they really no longer do.

Habitual clenching, holding on, and worn out ways of being affect living in explicit and subtle ways. We’ve been conditioned. We are fragile creatures.
We need containment to safely move through, practice with and look deeper at the parts of us that no longer serve us. And it takes courage to feel and move through these parts and being witnessed in them.

I love the gentle rather than the cathartic. The intimate over the intense.
Anything we judge or shame cannot shift and ends up more into the shadow.

More of a diligent embrace. Of warmth (like fluffy skirts warm the hips!!)

More like acceptance and slow softening of what clenches our body. To slowly open. To allow time for the body to release. And for our souls whisper through it all. To really listen to the gentle nudges of whats up for release.
To create ritual around these parts so as to love them into wholeness and flourish in the joy beyond.

thank you fall 🌹

Like the old leafs coming of the trees, this fall was a disintegration, a warm release and looking deeper at what was left bare

The past weeks were a time of shadow work, and with it a lot of joy. Never loved this season as much as I have this time.

With candles lit, diving into myth, story and on the carpet in feminine practices, with pen to paper to inquire into outworn ways of being.

Being with all that comes up when you look into shadowy parts of self— its been a lot of feeling + giggling while loving patterns into wholeness. And inevitably feeling more light because of it.

And while being with the shadow, being also called into deeper love in a way I have not quite been met by yet. A way where my parts were welcomed with such warmth and peace, that it deepened love and safety in relation to self, and other.

Shadow work I love as a beautiful tool to love ourselves into more wholeness.
We all have limitations and kinks and quirks that serve their purpose in our lives until they really no longer do.

Habitual clenching, holding on, and worn out ways of being affect living in explicit and subtle ways. We’ve been conditioned. We are fragile creatures.
We need containment to safely move through, practice with and look deeper at the parts of us that no longer serve us. And it takes courage to feel and move through these parts and being witnessed in them.

I love the gentle rather than the cathartic. The intimate over the intense.
Anything we judge or shame cannot shift and ends up more into the shadow.

More of a diligent embrace. Of warmth (like fluffy skirts warm the hips!!)

More like acceptance and slow softening of what clenches our body. To slowly open. To allow time for the body to release. And for our souls whisper through it all. To really listen to the gentle nudges of whats up for release.
To create ritual around these parts so as to love them into wholeness and flourish in the joy beyond.

thank you fall 🌹

I am grateful that when I began a journey into a life of my own someone told me that the first steps anyone must take, are inward.

That by going within I would find an eternal well of gold and riches no worldly thing could buy.

That by going within I would find my self— the one free of story, free of suffering

And that when I felt there was no place for me in this world, that by learning the practice of opening to and discovering the true self that from there the rest would come easjer.

That true value and worth, would not be in attaining or gaining. Bur in meeting this self.

Nothing else would soothe quite as deep as to touch my own inner temple of divinity.

That when i’d be called into the dark, like we all will from time to time, it is for great reason. That we are being called into the very centre of being and into a bottomless well of light.

That I could choose love. As that is the core of it all, the essence there, within.
That Love has the power to heal all, disarm all. And that to choose anything other than Love, is a theft of your one precious life. That that love quiets fear. And that it is the only thing bringing you to your own blinding light.

Because everything that is waiting there, deep in the valley of your chest, is where we need to begin.

At the essence of your wealth and value and beauty.

And that the only way to get there, is the patience and the willingness to understand that you were and will always be the beauty you are searching for.

✨

#practica #somatics #somatictherapy #artofrelating #embodiment

I am grateful that when I began a journey into a life of my own someone told me that the first steps anyone must take, are inward.

That by going within I would find an eternal well of gold and riches no worldly thing could buy.

That by going within I would find my self— the one free of story, free of suffering

And that when I felt there was no place for me in this world, that by learning the practice of opening to and discovering the true self that from there the rest would come easjer.

That true value and worth, would not be in attaining or gaining. Bur in meeting this self.

Nothing else would soothe quite as deep as to touch my own inner temple of divinity.

That when i’d be called into the dark, like we all will from time to time, it is for great reason. That we are being called into the very centre of being and into a bottomless well of light.

That I could choose love. As that is the core of it all, the essence there, within.
That Love has the power to heal all, disarm all. And that to choose anything other than Love, is a theft of your one precious life. That that love quiets fear. And that it is the only thing bringing you to your own blinding light.

Because everything that is waiting there, deep in the valley of your chest, is where we need to begin.

At the essence of your wealth and value and beauty.

And that the only way to get there, is the patience and the willingness to understand that you were and will always be the beauty you are searching for.

✨

#practica #somatics #somatictherapy #artofrelating #embodiment

I never thought I’d write this 5 years ago
but winter has become my fave season of this year.

Back then, I was on all fours, on the carpet, feeling through deep grief, loss & the biggest heartbreak of my life thus far. The winters since never felt the same.

I think of that winter of heartbreak with a lot of love. Of a girl begged by life to feel it all. It was one of the most special & revealing times. In lockdown, crying every night, giving it to my candles and altar, while endlessly reading books on love, on devotion.

With a heart open, letting burn away what was never meant to stay. I treasure the depth of feeling that made me meet myself so truthfully.
It shifted how I live, love and relate today.

The phase that came after that quiet, aching winter was one of the most beautiful and expansive times.

Some mystics say it is that way— that where your heart breaks deeply, it is also where spiritual longing resides. Heartbreak holds the potency of breaking you open, shifting your entire world.

It did for me then– in meeting the man who initiated me into womanhood, a lot of business expansion, s’xual liberation, a book deal, and a writing season in Portugal

This summer felt like that winter back then. Breaking open. Quietly moving through it. Now, in winter, I feel the opening. And feeling love more deeply, feeling warmth, while the cold has always taught me incredible lessons.

I’ve recently been exploring the ritual phases of Advent: hope, peace, joy, love.
The 4 weeks leading up to the end of year. A time of soft anticipation, inward attunement, and honestly I am so ready for what feels like is going to be an ICONIC year ahead.

I may always long for places that hold my heart, like India, Indonesia, the tropics, colors, the spice there, yet it is right here those 4 ritual advent aspects are closer to heart now, and it’s SO cozy and candle-lit here too.

📷 of winter moments ✨
ps. love frieda’s words on nr 2!!

+ offering an end of your circle in Ams DEC 30th— calling in the new year: an embodied way of setting intentions :: link in bio

#love #intimacy #artofrelating #embodiment

I never thought I’d write this 5 years ago
but winter has become my fave season of this year.

Back then, I was on all fours, on the carpet, feeling through deep grief, loss & the biggest heartbreak of my life thus far. The winters since never felt the same.

I think of that winter of heartbreak with a lot of love. Of a girl begged by life to feel it all. It was one of the most special & revealing times. In lockdown, crying every night, giving it to my candles and altar, while endlessly reading books on love, on devotion.

With a heart open, letting burn away what was never meant to stay. I treasure the depth of feeling that made me meet myself so truthfully.
It shifted how I live, love and relate today.

The phase that came after that quiet, aching winter was one of the most beautiful and expansive times.

Some mystics say it is that way— that where your heart breaks deeply, it is also where spiritual longing resides. Heartbreak holds the potency of breaking you open, shifting your entire world.

It did for me then– in meeting the man who initiated me into womanhood, a lot of business expansion, s’xual liberation, a book deal, and a writing season in Portugal

This summer felt like that winter back then. Breaking open. Quietly moving through it. Now, in winter, I feel the opening. And feeling love more deeply, feeling warmth, while the cold has always taught me incredible lessons.

I’ve recently been exploring the ritual phases of Advent: hope, peace, joy, love.
The 4 weeks leading up to the end of year. A time of soft anticipation, inward attunement, and honestly I am so ready for what feels like is going to be an ICONIC year ahead.

I may always long for places that hold my heart, like India, Indonesia, the tropics, colors, the spice there, yet it is right here those 4 ritual advent aspects are closer to heart now, and it’s SO cozy and candle-lit here too.

📷 of winter moments ✨
ps. love frieda’s words on nr 2!!

+ offering an end of your circle in Ams DEC 30th— calling in the new year: an embodied way of setting intentions :: link in bio

#love #intimacy #artofrelating #embodiment

In a way, intimate relationship is like musicians jamming. The music is uniquely played because your love is uniquely played by you. You love in unique ways as universal love moves through your body. Like universal sound moves different through different instruments. Its all sound played in different ways. Just like love comes in different forms.

We can move love through our bodied in unique ways.

Love as a force, as energy, is universal, pulsing through our blood, as light moving from our eyes. Love is your openness, through body, through breath, through your energetic openness—

Often, we think getting love will fulfill us. But it is more fulfilling when love comes alive through our body.

We constrict the flow of love in many ways.

Physical examples are furrowing our brows, our chest clenched, our jaw tight. The openness of lifting your sternum, allows you to feel more open. This widens and opens your heart. And love naturally blooms through the body more easily.

Practicing to open the body is not new. Because you were born open. Children cry openly. Not clenched. They allow love to come through in different emotions. There is no hiding of the cry or the anger.

Open jaw, breath open. The sound coming through on the breath. That’s resonant.

With opened eyes, there is a light shining through. That is love. Opened love. Softened gaze pours love through eyes.

Feel your own body and feel how you are habitually clenching and constricting love’s flow through your body. Not to make yourself wrong but to become lovingly aware of it. That awareness will naturally relax it.

www.tessaschiethart.com/mentorship

#embodiment #living #loving #relating #somatictherapy #relationship #yogicintimacy

In a way, intimate relationship is like musicians jamming. The music is uniquely played because your love is uniquely played by you. You love in unique ways as universal love moves through your body. Like universal sound moves different through different instruments. Its all sound played in different ways. Just like love comes in different forms.

We can move love through our bodied in unique ways.

Love as a force, as energy, is universal, pulsing through our blood, as light moving from our eyes. Love is your openness, through body, through breath, through your energetic openness—

Often, we think getting love will fulfill us. But it is more fulfilling when love comes alive through our body.

We constrict the flow of love in many ways.

Physical examples are furrowing our brows, our chest clenched, our jaw tight. The openness of lifting your sternum, allows you to feel more open. This widens and opens your heart. And love naturally blooms through the body more easily.

Practicing to open the body is not new. Because you were born open. Children cry openly. Not clenched. They allow love to come through in different emotions. There is no hiding of the cry or the anger.

Open jaw, breath open. The sound coming through on the breath. That’s resonant.

With opened eyes, there is a light shining through. That is love. Opened love. Softened gaze pours love through eyes.

Feel your own body and feel how you are habitually clenching and constricting love’s flow through your body. Not to make yourself wrong but to become lovingly aware of it. That awareness will naturally relax it.

www.tessaschiethart.com/mentorship

#embodiment #living #loving #relating #somatictherapy #relationship #yogicintimacy

To place your feeling awareness fully within your own energy, body and being, and then with another, is your gift as a woman.

Coming back to the gift of your own energy. Of feeling, of relating, of loving.

It isn’t more strategies.
It is more depth.
It is being more relaxed.
More relational.
More open.
It is more capacity to feel, love and relate and live as that.

To feel people and love them into wholeness and into love.

The openness of your body and heart have a rippling effect on the world around you, the people near you, and the places you enter.

We need this capacity to feel, deepen and relate in our culture.

We need it in relationships.
In leadership.
The medical world needs this. Education needs this.
Systems need it.
The corporate world is desperately deprived of feeling capacity, of depth and relational skill.

Of skill that deepens rather than widens. Of skill that is relational, more than directional.

How can you take responsibility for bringing this?

How can you feel more deeply that who you are being in this moment matters?

What stands in the way of fully resting within your own energy, being, body as a gift to the world you live in?

—
www.tessaschiethart.com/mentorship
—
#relationlifetherapy #somatictherapy #mentorship #embodiment #love #theartofrelating #embodiedliving

To place your feeling awareness fully within your own energy, body and being, and then with another, is your gift as a woman.

Coming back to the gift of your own energy. Of feeling, of relating, of loving.

It isn’t more strategies.
It is more depth.
It is being more relaxed.
More relational.
More open.
It is more capacity to feel, love and relate and live as that.

To feel people and love them into wholeness and into love.

The openness of your body and heart have a rippling effect on the world around you, the people near you, and the places you enter.

We need this capacity to feel, deepen and relate in our culture.

We need it in relationships.
In leadership.
The medical world needs this. Education needs this.
Systems need it.
The corporate world is desperately deprived of feeling capacity, of depth and relational skill.

Of skill that deepens rather than widens. Of skill that is relational, more than directional.

How can you take responsibility for bringing this?

How can you feel more deeply that who you are being in this moment matters?

What stands in the way of fully resting within your own energy, being, body as a gift to the world you live in?

—
www.tessaschiethart.com/mentorship
—
#relationlifetherapy #somatictherapy #mentorship #embodiment #love #theartofrelating #embodiedliving

Pain can transform into beauty if we so choose to face the challenges between pain and beauty. My lived experience is my testimony to this.

I believe living & feeling come with a spectrum— the extent to which you can feel your grief, face the challenge, be with pain, is proportionate to your capacity to feel joy, see beauty and love deeply.

Beauty and grief lie close to one another. Pleasure and pain too.

Maybe we aren’t meant to ‘overcome’ every life challenge — some things only change by how we relate to them, not by them actually changing, whether it be partner, person, the situation, the challenge.

Often transformation asks for integration. The invitation is to relate deeper, see differently, to live more inclusively of all that we are, and to love more freely.

My heartbreaks have broken me open, multiple times. It has brought me true lessons in my capacity to love, my relational patterning, and the tenderness that comes with pain. My heart’s capacity to love enriched, revealed its depth, and I see beauty because of it.

My physical pain taught me to enjoy the movement I get to do every day. It defines my capacity to move pleasure through my body.

In limitation I have found some freedom too.

The losses let me hold dear the ones closest around me.

Fear teaches me to feel faith.

Sickness has taught me to take responsibility for my health, take no thing for granted in living.

Losing sight lets me love my sensual aliveness, deepens my taste for life, and fuels the sights of overwhelming beauty that surrounds me in the littlest ways.

Loving and relating to a man has been the most revealing mirror in where I hold back, and lean in unencumbered.

Life is inherently relational.
Life has a spectrum, a dance between polarities. And a harmony as we learn to relate deeply, to live that dance between opposites, to love the polarities with grace

and as we do, become more whole in living, more full with both the pains and beauty

🌹

#embodiment #beauty #pleasure #pain #relationalliving #somatictherapy

Pain can transform into beauty if we so choose to face the challenges between pain and beauty. My lived experience is my testimony to this.

I believe living & feeling come with a spectrum— the extent to which you can feel your grief, face the challenge, be with pain, is proportionate to your capacity to feel joy, see beauty and love deeply.

Beauty and grief lie close to one another. Pleasure and pain too.

Maybe we aren’t meant to ‘overcome’ every life challenge — some things only change by how we relate to them, not by them actually changing, whether it be partner, person, the situation, the challenge.

Often transformation asks for integration. The invitation is to relate deeper, see differently, to live more inclusively of all that we are, and to love more freely.

My heartbreaks have broken me open, multiple times. It has brought me true lessons in my capacity to love, my relational patterning, and the tenderness that comes with pain. My heart’s capacity to love enriched, revealed its depth, and I see beauty because of it.

My physical pain taught me to enjoy the movement I get to do every day. It defines my capacity to move pleasure through my body.

In limitation I have found some freedom too.

The losses let me hold dear the ones closest around me.

Fear teaches me to feel faith.

Sickness has taught me to take responsibility for my health, take no thing for granted in living.

Losing sight lets me love my sensual aliveness, deepens my taste for life, and fuels the sights of overwhelming beauty that surrounds me in the littlest ways.

Loving and relating to a man has been the most revealing mirror in where I hold back, and lean in unencumbered.

Life is inherently relational.
Life has a spectrum, a dance between polarities. And a harmony as we learn to relate deeply, to live that dance between opposites, to love the polarities with grace

and as we do, become more whole in living, more full with both the pains and beauty

🌹

#embodiment #beauty #pleasure #pain #relationalliving #somatictherapy

when I was 19, and first travelled to India by myself to study with a renowned yoga master in the south, I stayed with a family with 3 daughters. Staying there, among a women’s household, I received so many deep teaching. Sure, I stood on my mat in front of the master at 5 am 6 days a week and absolutely adored the practice. But those women? I shared so many giggles with them. They showed me the art of making chai— stirring the pot with such devotion, they showed me how they devoted to lakshmi, tk draw yantras at the front door, they showed me daily devotion. They showed me life as a ceremony. They showed me descendence into my body, rather than transcendence out of it. And that was so valuable for a girl who all her life had heard her body was doing wrong things no doctor or professional knew what to do with.

Still, every year, the mother sends me a message on my birthday, “girlyji, enjoy the flowers, bird, your heart on face and you living!!!” Its amazing.

From then on, ayurveda has been a path I have held more sacred than any, and that healed my body in ways I sometimes still cannot fathom. And over time the feminine path became home. As much as I still love my mat for practice, loving and living deepens for me in feminine practice, in relationship, and with women around me. I’ve sat in circle for many years in many different constellations of women. And it has been like that for many women for ages. To be around each other, create rituals, sit in circle, giggle about the men, relate deeper, drink tea, stir a pot, relax, soften, cry our tears, hold each other in grief and reflect each other in truth.

Yesterday was a first of the feminine embodiment circle I monthly host in Amsterdam now. It was simply beautiful. So nourishing, deepening, opening, softening and feeling the power we each hold within as women too. 🌹

Each circle has a theme orienting to liberating love through the body, releasing patterns of closure, and to relate more deeply in living and loving. ✨

the next one is December 5th :: link in bio.

—
📸 by dearest @project.radiance assisting during last September’s Initiatress training in Portugal with @templeofradiance

when I was 19, and first travelled to India by myself to study with a renowned yoga master in the south, I stayed with a family with 3 daughters. Staying there, among a women’s household, I received so many deep teaching. Sure, I stood on my mat in front of the master at 5 am 6 days a week and absolutely adored the practice. But those women? I shared so many giggles with them. They showed me the art of making chai— stirring the pot with such devotion, they showed me how they devoted to lakshmi, tk draw yantras at the front door, they showed me daily devotion. They showed me life as a ceremony. They showed me descendence into my body, rather than transcendence out of it. And that was so valuable for a girl who all her life had heard her body was doing wrong things no doctor or professional knew what to do with.

Still, every year, the mother sends me a message on my birthday, “girlyji, enjoy the flowers, bird, your heart on face and you living!!!” Its amazing.

From then on, ayurveda has been a path I have held more sacred than any, and that healed my body in ways I sometimes still cannot fathom. And over time the feminine path became home. As much as I still love my mat for practice, loving and living deepens for me in feminine practice, in relationship, and with women around me. I’ve sat in circle for many years in many different constellations of women. And it has been like that for many women for ages. To be around each other, create rituals, sit in circle, giggle about the men, relate deeper, drink tea, stir a pot, relax, soften, cry our tears, hold each other in grief and reflect each other in truth.

Yesterday was a first of the feminine embodiment circle I monthly host in Amsterdam now. It was simply beautiful. So nourishing, deepening, opening, softening and feeling the power we each hold within as women too. 🌹

Each circle has a theme orienting to liberating love through the body, releasing patterns of closure, and to relate more deeply in living and loving. ✨

the next one is December 5th :: link in bio.

—
📸 by dearest @project.radiance assisting during last September’s Initiatress training in Portugal with @templeofradiance

When I speak of the ‘feminine’ with the women & men I work with, I speak of the aspect of reality that is existence, experience, everything we feel know, touch, think, intuit.

The ‘feminine’ is the content and stuff of life. We are inhabiting the feminine, in a body, in experience.

For the western mind the word ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ is often hard to grasp as the terms get interpreted as male and female instead of energetics in all of life. These terms get deflated easily.

In Vedic and T•ntric scripture and in Taoist tradition these terms are described as shakti/shiva (experience/awareness) or yin/yang. I love the translation of ‘go and flow’ too.

The way we relate to the feminine is the way we relate to our own body, our emotions, thoughts, feelings, the earth.

This relationship is very disconnected for many.

I’ve learned to refer to this feminine aspect of exstince, of evolution, as Love. The pulse of love. And the way we feel the energy of love is very severed.

When I speak of feminine embodiment I speak of deepening your relationship with this energy within, and learning to live the energy of love through your body, expression, energy, in living, loving and relating.

a feminine embodiment practice brings
— a balance to our conditioned capacity to think with our innate capacity for feeling, which creates a depth in being
— inhabiting our body and caring for our body, emotions, feeling and being more nourishingly
* feeling the connection between our body and another body in relationships, including the earth

Embodiment creates a deeper relationship to aspects of ourselves.

Feminine embodiment creates a deeper relationship to feminine aspects of us, whatever body we inhabit. It creates a richness within us as we learn to live more from this energy.

✨ as this work is very potent for a woman’s body, im offering a monthly feminine embodiment circle — in amsterdam, for women — next one is Nov 7 :: link in bio, or comment ‘circle’

#embodiment #feminineenergy #polarity #energetics #deeperrelating

When I speak of the ‘feminine’ with the women & men I work with, I speak of the aspect of reality that is existence, experience, everything we feel know, touch, think, intuit.

The ‘feminine’ is the content and stuff of life. We are inhabiting the feminine, in a body, in experience.

For the western mind the word ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ is often hard to grasp as the terms get interpreted as male and female instead of energetics in all of life. These terms get deflated easily.

In Vedic and T•ntric scripture and in Taoist tradition these terms are described as shakti/shiva (experience/awareness) or yin/yang. I love the translation of ‘go and flow’ too.

The way we relate to the feminine is the way we relate to our own body, our emotions, thoughts, feelings, the earth.

This relationship is very disconnected for many.

I’ve learned to refer to this feminine aspect of exstince, of evolution, as Love. The pulse of love. And the way we feel the energy of love is very severed.

When I speak of feminine embodiment I speak of deepening your relationship with this energy within, and learning to live the energy of love through your body, expression, energy, in living, loving and relating.

a feminine embodiment practice brings
— a balance to our conditioned capacity to think with our innate capacity for feeling, which creates a depth in being
— inhabiting our body and caring for our body, emotions, feeling and being more nourishingly
* feeling the connection between our body and another body in relationships, including the earth

Embodiment creates a deeper relationship to aspects of ourselves.

Feminine embodiment creates a deeper relationship to feminine aspects of us, whatever body we inhabit. It creates a richness within us as we learn to live more from this energy.

✨ as this work is very potent for a woman’s body, im offering a monthly feminine embodiment circle — in amsterdam, for women — next one is Nov 7 :: link in bio, or comment ‘circle’

#embodiment #feminineenergy #polarity #energetics #deeperrelating

I’m guiding an embodiment circle monthly

This is for women who long to connect deeper to their feminine energy and their body in living, loving and relating.

This path of embodiment and feminine energy has brought me expression, awareness, the meeting of relational edges, the healing of relational wounds, the safety in my body, connection to my energy and intimacy with a man, a beautiful connection to the women around me, and a liberation of the love that is held within my body, heart and soul.

It teaches to be the embodiment of Love itself, in the many expressions that it comes in

This practice and circle is for
• deepening your relationship to the part of you that is constantly changing
• feeling, sensing, intuiting & enlivening your sensuality
• connecting to your heart, deepest longings, creative energy, and your relaxation
• deepening intimacy, eros, flow and love in your body and for your intimate relationship

There is so much beauty in deepening our embodied practice in a group of women—

As women we have a gift in learning in resonance with other women— through our body, energy and heart

And so, this is an on-going practice circle for women to learn and embody the practices of yogic intimacy, energetics and embodied love in a warm group of like-hearted women

to liberate love

monthly
in amsterdam

next ones
• extra Calling in the new year circle Dec 30th
• jan 16, 2026
• feb 6th, 2026

link in bio to join

✨

in gratitude to the ongoing years of study with dear teachers, thank you dear @wayofdevotion, @micboehm77
and the beloved late Sally Kempton 🫶

I’m guiding an embodiment circle monthly

This is for women who long to connect deeper to their feminine energy and their body in living, loving and relating.

This path of embodiment and feminine energy has brought me expression, awareness, the meeting of relational edges, the healing of relational wounds, the safety in my body, connection to my energy and intimacy with a man, a beautiful connection to the women around me, and a liberation of the love that is held within my body, heart and soul.

It teaches to be the embodiment of Love itself, in the many expressions that it comes in

This practice and circle is for
• deepening your relationship to the part of you that is constantly changing
• feeling, sensing, intuiting & enlivening your sensuality
• connecting to your heart, deepest longings, creative energy, and your relaxation
• deepening intimacy, eros, flow and love in your body and for your intimate relationship

There is so much beauty in deepening our embodied practice in a group of women—

As women we have a gift in learning in resonance with other women— through our body, energy and heart

And so, this is an on-going practice circle for women to learn and embody the practices of yogic intimacy, energetics and embodied love in a warm group of like-hearted women

to liberate love

monthly
in amsterdam

next ones
• extra Calling in the new year circle Dec 30th
• jan 16, 2026
• feb 6th, 2026

link in bio to join

✨

in gratitude to the ongoing years of study with dear teachers, thank you dear @wayofdevotion, @micboehm77
and the beloved late Sally Kempton 🫶

“if they look, give them an energy that they will be captivated by”, my father used to say with a smile

“it is about your radiance, beyond your appearance”.

We have this word in Dutch, ‘uitstraling’ — it means what you shine out, what light you emit, what you radiate

And radiance… is beyond looks.

From a young age I learned that how I carry my body has an impact
I saw that when I smiled softly, it relaxed the room that was staring at me
It taught me that an open body posture is trusted in confidence
And that the sparkle in my eyes softens the harshness in other eyes

That to embody these qualities is not necessarily to please another, or to avoid the pain that is also there when you attract unwanted attention, or that it is to seduce or perform,

But that it is a choice in how we hold our body, how we want to love the moment through our embodiment

I continue to ask myself
“If I will attract looks for the rest of my life (which I likely will!) then how do I want to be perceived, experienced, felt?”

To embody qualities of openness, of relaxation and lightness brings ME joy, brings me openness, brings me into how I want to experience and be experienced in life.

And this accounts for every woman who attracts attention (we all do, the feminine is captivating by nature, whatever the reason!)

How do you want to bring yourself? To whom do you want to open? How do you want to be felt through how you hold your body?

Our radiance is not to please others, not to impact others or get something we want— that is performance, or seduction at best.

Our radiance is the light with which we live and to embody that to me means having a trust in yourself, feeling a sense of belonging within your own body, and honoring the deeper layer of your beauty that is not only skin deep, but comes from your deep loving heart.

And that, that is magnetic, attractive, open

And you can give your radiance where and to who you want…
To your man, to a lover, to an audience, to yourself when you look in the mirror… that is your choice. 🌹

“if they look, give them an energy that they will be captivated by”, my father used to say with a smile

“it is about your radiance, beyond your appearance”.

We have this word in Dutch, ‘uitstraling’ — it means what you shine out, what light you emit, what you radiate

And radiance… is beyond looks.

From a young age I learned that how I carry my body has an impact
I saw that when I smiled softly, it relaxed the room that was staring at me
It taught me that an open body posture is trusted in confidence
And that the sparkle in my eyes softens the harshness in other eyes

That to embody these qualities is not necessarily to please another, or to avoid the pain that is also there when you attract unwanted attention, or that it is to seduce or perform,

But that it is a choice in how we hold our body, how we want to love the moment through our embodiment

I continue to ask myself
“If I will attract looks for the rest of my life (which I likely will!) then how do I want to be perceived, experienced, felt?”

To embody qualities of openness, of relaxation and lightness brings ME joy, brings me openness, brings me into how I want to experience and be experienced in life.

And this accounts for every woman who attracts attention (we all do, the feminine is captivating by nature, whatever the reason!)

How do you want to bring yourself? To whom do you want to open? How do you want to be felt through how you hold your body?

Our radiance is not to please others, not to impact others or get something we want— that is performance, or seduction at best.

Our radiance is the light with which we live and to embody that to me means having a trust in yourself, feeling a sense of belonging within your own body, and honoring the deeper layer of your beauty that is not only skin deep, but comes from your deep loving heart.

And that, that is magnetic, attractive, open

And you can give your radiance where and to who you want…
To your man, to a lover, to an audience, to yourself when you look in the mirror… that is your choice. 🌹

after 5 years of a life with many particular challenges and extraversion, of my parents divorcing, of my eye sight challenged yet (miraculously?) unchanged, after loving someone so deeply and losing love over and over, mending heartbreak 3 times, I have landed for now in a phase of life where I am ecstatically content and in love...

I’ve been in introversion for over a year. Embodying a new way in giving my gifts, while honoring the deep yearning for the unseen, for deepening my relationship with life and love even more, and a phase for welcoming motherhood.

Over the last year my private practice has run almost entirely through word of mouth, something which I always longed for. I love the imagery of sitting in a forest hut and people knocking on my door for guidance while I brew some tea. In a way, I live that. My home has been a sanctuary for rest, restoration, transformation, surrounded by water, amidst city-life. My friends call it Tessa’s temple.

When I inquired about my presence on an online platform like this, I choose to devote to long-form writing, offering circles offline, and those who long for a deep life, a deep love, are finding me for private mentorship.

Alongside that, what I long to do is write my heart out, and share just a little of it here. I’ve always longed for a simple yet deep life. For a feeling life. A private life, infused with the wisdom of body, heart and spirit. I have longed for this autumn, and winter— which is not only all around me in splendor and colour. But so alive within me.

I currently relish in curling up next to a beloved on the couch. Living together. Waking up to the candles already lit. My Ayurvedic apothecary and kitchen. The quiet and peace. I meditate more than in the last 5 years.

This is what life is for now. So in love.

x t

ps:: loving the words on the last slide ❤️‍🔥

#embodiment #deeperliving #deeperrelating #deeperloving #autumn #lifephases

after 5 years of a life with many particular challenges and extraversion, of my parents divorcing, of my eye sight challenged yet (miraculously?) unchanged, after loving someone so deeply and losing love over and over, mending heartbreak 3 times, I have landed for now in a phase of life where I am ecstatically content and in love...

I’ve been in introversion for over a year. Embodying a new way in giving my gifts, while honoring the deep yearning for the unseen, for deepening my relationship with life and love even more, and a phase for welcoming motherhood.

Over the last year my private practice has run almost entirely through word of mouth, something which I always longed for. I love the imagery of sitting in a forest hut and people knocking on my door for guidance while I brew some tea. In a way, I live that. My home has been a sanctuary for rest, restoration, transformation, surrounded by water, amidst city-life. My friends call it Tessa’s temple.

When I inquired about my presence on an online platform like this, I choose to devote to long-form writing, offering circles offline, and those who long for a deep life, a deep love, are finding me for private mentorship.

Alongside that, what I long to do is write my heart out, and share just a little of it here. I’ve always longed for a simple yet deep life. For a feeling life. A private life, infused with the wisdom of body, heart and spirit. I have longed for this autumn, and winter— which is not only all around me in splendor and colour. But so alive within me.

I currently relish in curling up next to a beloved on the couch. Living together. Waking up to the candles already lit. My Ayurvedic apothecary and kitchen. The quiet and peace. I meditate more than in the last 5 years.

This is what life is for now. So in love.

x t

ps:: loving the words on the last slide ❤️‍🔥

#embodiment #deeperliving #deeperrelating #deeperloving #autumn #lifephases

One of Love’s most essential and beautiful aspects to me

is the sense of being with someone where you feel like it is the most mundane, while at the same time the most exquisitely eclectic cosmic.

where being with them feels ordinary and extraordinary at the same time, where there is a true sense of grounding, with at the same time a fulfilling energy that encapsulates your heart so fully.

This is one of the gifts of life I treasure most— to meet someone.

Someone that may be another someone to many, yet is so incredibly unique to your heart. That there may be only a few in a lifetime that can touch you deeply, as deeply and as fully as you have met your own capacity to love.

Love is the deepest ache & longing of many hearts—

I love Love for this reason. Not only the romantic kind, but the kind of Love that encapsulates us in both pain and beauty, in ache and in ecstasy, in longing and in letting go.

I often remind myself of the moments I felt this all-encompassing feeling. To hold dear and treasure the incredible love stories and deep relating that unfolded from meeting love…

It truly amazes me how love has the power to make a complete stranger our most intimate companion. Yet, also, how our most trusted and intimate companion can become a stranger again as love changes, as we let them go, as lifepaths divert and love transmutes the form of relating.

The potency of what we can learn from love is incredible, if we so choose— how our deepest loving, our heartbreak, our letting go holds such wisdom about who we are, about the pain and beauty we hold within our hearts, about that whole spectrum that the force of Love has us feel.

A deep lesson in love personally has been letting go. Letting go of that one I loved so fully used to be an unnatural, counter-intuitive process.
It once took years to fully let go, and that process still holds some of my most treasured life lessons.

Loving has become more unencumbered, more real, more true to essence because of it.

How we meet love, how we let go of love, and how we relate not only IN love but AS the embodiment of Love, is perhaps one of life’s finest teachings, and one I do love.

🌹

One of Love’s most essential and beautiful aspects to me

is the sense of being with someone where you feel like it is the most mundane, while at the same time the most exquisitely eclectic cosmic.

where being with them feels ordinary and extraordinary at the same time, where there is a true sense of grounding, with at the same time a fulfilling energy that encapsulates your heart so fully.

This is one of the gifts of life I treasure most— to meet someone.

Someone that may be another someone to many, yet is so incredibly unique to your heart. That there may be only a few in a lifetime that can touch you deeply, as deeply and as fully as you have met your own capacity to love.

Love is the deepest ache & longing of many hearts—

I love Love for this reason. Not only the romantic kind, but the kind of Love that encapsulates us in both pain and beauty, in ache and in ecstasy, in longing and in letting go.

I often remind myself of the moments I felt this all-encompassing feeling. To hold dear and treasure the incredible love stories and deep relating that unfolded from meeting love…

It truly amazes me how love has the power to make a complete stranger our most intimate companion. Yet, also, how our most trusted and intimate companion can become a stranger again as love changes, as we let them go, as lifepaths divert and love transmutes the form of relating.

The potency of what we can learn from love is incredible, if we so choose— how our deepest loving, our heartbreak, our letting go holds such wisdom about who we are, about the pain and beauty we hold within our hearts, about that whole spectrum that the force of Love has us feel.

A deep lesson in love personally has been letting go. Letting go of that one I loved so fully used to be an unnatural, counter-intuitive process.
It once took years to fully let go, and that process still holds some of my most treasured life lessons.

Loving has become more unencumbered, more real, more true to essence because of it.

How we meet love, how we let go of love, and how we relate not only IN love but AS the embodiment of Love, is perhaps one of life’s finest teachings, and one I do love.

🌹

the path of embodied tan•tra is one I am immensely grateful for in my life

this last week of assisting the Initiatress x Rites of Passage training with 85 men and wonen by @templeofradiance has reaffirmed my love for this path •

My own journey and teachings is more rooted in deida’s yogic intimacy and liberating love within devotional relationship (my clients’ and my own), tan’tra has undoubtedly deepened my life for the last 5+ years

There’s a lot I can say about this path. I hold reverence for the t’tric spaces that are held in devotion & integrity.

The humans I meet on it devote to integrating all parts of who they are— shadow, light & dark. Masculine, feminine energies, and beyond duality. I love being among those devoted to enliven their life force, their eros, love, depth, rawness, their communications, ways of relating, and bringing playfulness, trust and their deep yes to life.

I love how this path welcomes the transmutation of our pain into beauty in an embodied way.

There is no community that has welcomed me with my looks, my limitations in sight, while this path has so deeply and beautifully invited me to feel my gifts and see myself beyond it all.

Sure, as an anthropologist, I see deep distortions too, like there are to any field, path, culture or community. Yet, in integral spaces, these tender pieces are brought in, included instead of repressed.

Last week assisting the amazing training, where men and women train alongside to then come together in a beautiful devotional field of love, presence and depth, has shown me yet again how deeply needed this world needs humans in their bodies, in their hearts and in ecstasy with life.

I’m in awe and in deep gratitude for this work.

And for spending 2 days integrating this week in my old home town near the ocean, ericeira 🫶

Now on the way to Amsterdam, to my clients in private practice, to teaching at university

— because if tan•tra taught me a thing or two, it is embracing the paradox of life, of wild while grounded in all of life, and to transmute any pain into beauty.

✨

the path of embodied tan•tra is one I am immensely grateful for in my life

this last week of assisting the Initiatress x Rites of Passage training with 85 men and wonen by @templeofradiance has reaffirmed my love for this path •

My own journey and teachings is more rooted in deida’s yogic intimacy and liberating love within devotional relationship (my clients’ and my own), tan’tra has undoubtedly deepened my life for the last 5+ years

There’s a lot I can say about this path. I hold reverence for the t’tric spaces that are held in devotion & integrity.

The humans I meet on it devote to integrating all parts of who they are— shadow, light & dark. Masculine, feminine energies, and beyond duality. I love being among those devoted to enliven their life force, their eros, love, depth, rawness, their communications, ways of relating, and bringing playfulness, trust and their deep yes to life.

I love how this path welcomes the transmutation of our pain into beauty in an embodied way.

There is no community that has welcomed me with my looks, my limitations in sight, while this path has so deeply and beautifully invited me to feel my gifts and see myself beyond it all.

Sure, as an anthropologist, I see deep distortions too, like there are to any field, path, culture or community. Yet, in integral spaces, these tender pieces are brought in, included instead of repressed.

Last week assisting the amazing training, where men and women train alongside to then come together in a beautiful devotional field of love, presence and depth, has shown me yet again how deeply needed this world needs humans in their bodies, in their hearts and in ecstasy with life.

I’m in awe and in deep gratitude for this work.

And for spending 2 days integrating this week in my old home town near the ocean, ericeira 🫶

Now on the way to Amsterdam, to my clients in private practice, to teaching at university

— because if tan•tra taught me a thing or two, it is embracing the paradox of life, of wild while grounded in all of life, and to transmute any pain into beauty.

✨

When I was in uni studying women’s bodyism, I studied the links between the repression of women’s bodies, and the role of desire in institutionalised religions.
I came to see that sometimes the purity of our longings wither and turn toxic.

Like with old clergy men and boys, and especially the repression of women’s bodies in some religions— while a woman’s deepest longing & desire is a superpower that defies patriarchal systems and empowers to create life.

It isn’t hard to see that when our deepest and most beautiful yearnings, desires and longings are covered by ambiguity, all sorts of aberrations and addictions start cropping up.

Desire is pure, whether it is our s’ual desires, or any human desire in life.

Sure, abstinence has its function, but forever?

Nothing unbalanced brings balance.

So I pondered ever since, what if we do not put desire in the dark, but bring presence to it?

What if we welcome all desire, not shame it?
What if we make love-making a holy action within our human capacity?

What happens when we caress our lover’s skin, as we become so intentionally curious about the nuance of the contact between our fingers and their body?

What if our lover treats all of our lips with complete attention?

I’ve seen how the power of presence softens the lines between self and other, between external cultural norms and authentic inner feelings and between awareness of pure desire vs. detached lustfulness.

It is difficult to objectify and abuse someone with whom you are fully present, with whom you completely slow down.

And in whose face you come to see the face of the divine by the presence you bring…

When we truly, deeply connect with our own desire, longing and yearning first, and then bring that with love and presence into the connection with another, that is where we welcome the divine in.

This, to me, is the dance of conscious intimacy, welcoming holy longing, deep desire and ecstatic yearning and is what deepens Love through presence, and what is one of the most sacred yet daring practices in Life

It’s what I love pondering over, in the light of cultural conditioning and the wellspring of wisdom that lives in our body.

💛

When I was in uni studying women’s bodyism, I studied the links between the repression of women’s bodies, and the role of desire in institutionalised religions.
I came to see that sometimes the purity of our longings wither and turn toxic.

Like with old clergy men and boys, and especially the repression of women’s bodies in some religions— while a woman’s deepest longing & desire is a superpower that defies patriarchal systems and empowers to create life.

It isn’t hard to see that when our deepest and most beautiful yearnings, desires and longings are covered by ambiguity, all sorts of aberrations and addictions start cropping up.

Desire is pure, whether it is our s’ual desires, or any human desire in life.

Sure, abstinence has its function, but forever?

Nothing unbalanced brings balance.

So I pondered ever since, what if we do not put desire in the dark, but bring presence to it?

What if we welcome all desire, not shame it?
What if we make love-making a holy action within our human capacity?

What happens when we caress our lover’s skin, as we become so intentionally curious about the nuance of the contact between our fingers and their body?

What if our lover treats all of our lips with complete attention?

I’ve seen how the power of presence softens the lines between self and other, between external cultural norms and authentic inner feelings and between awareness of pure desire vs. detached lustfulness.

It is difficult to objectify and abuse someone with whom you are fully present, with whom you completely slow down.

And in whose face you come to see the face of the divine by the presence you bring…

When we truly, deeply connect with our own desire, longing and yearning first, and then bring that with love and presence into the connection with another, that is where we welcome the divine in.

This, to me, is the dance of conscious intimacy, welcoming holy longing, deep desire and ecstatic yearning and is what deepens Love through presence, and what is one of the most sacred yet daring practices in Life

It’s what I love pondering over, in the light of cultural conditioning and the wellspring of wisdom that lives in our body.

💛

I’ve been quiet about this…

One of my dreams as a girl was to become a sexologist.

I never really shared my dream with many— sx to some is shameful, and I carried shame wanting to work in the realms of s.xuality.

But love-making has always touched my heart, and interested my mind.

To me, our s.xual energy is our creative energy, our life force, our vitality, one of the most potent forces in this universe.

I grew up with a quantum mathematician dad who taught me about the dance between consciousness and energy. With studying yoga, I saw and felt the polarities that exist in each human, translated into the western understandings of ‘masculine & feminine energies’, and how they come together to create Life– creatively, biologically…

By the time I was 18 & choosing a uni path, psychology was not for me. Labels, ‘dysfunction’, and systemic analysis of humanness– it did not appeal to a girl who was immensely challenged in her body at the time.

I wanted to study the bodymind, one whole— the energetics, the spiritual, the se.ual body, as described as ‘koshas’, or ‘bodies’ in ayurveda. I wanted somatics, embodiment. To include pleasure, pain, aliveness, attraction.

It took a journey to come here. I studied anthropology of human flourishing, female bodyism, lookism, alongside (ayurvedic) health & vitality, embodiment, somatics, relationship for fifteen years, then found the t.ntric tradition, and then come to the path of yogic intimacy to practice love through.

And over a year ago, I completed my formal training in somatic s.xuality, and became a s.xologist like I dreamt of.

Mostly, what moves me, is how we make love.

I believe the essence of our s.xuality is our return to the awareness that we are the embodiment of Love itself, and that our deepest yearning is to create life, feel alive, to flourish in life, while honoring pain and challenge too.

I know the beauty of flourishing in my own way in life, like with this work. This is the work I have been blooming towards, and I love and feel loved by this work— I feel alive and flourishing in serving the art of living, loving and relating with awareness and as the embodiment of Love.

🌹

I’ve been quiet about this…

One of my dreams as a girl was to become a sexologist.

I never really shared my dream with many— sx to some is shameful, and I carried shame wanting to work in the realms of s.xuality.

But love-making has always touched my heart, and interested my mind.

To me, our s.xual energy is our creative energy, our life force, our vitality, one of the most potent forces in this universe.

I grew up with a quantum mathematician dad who taught me about the dance between consciousness and energy. With studying yoga, I saw and felt the polarities that exist in each human, translated into the western understandings of ‘masculine & feminine energies’, and how they come together to create Life– creatively, biologically…

By the time I was 18 & choosing a uni path, psychology was not for me. Labels, ‘dysfunction’, and systemic analysis of humanness– it did not appeal to a girl who was immensely challenged in her body at the time.

I wanted to study the bodymind, one whole— the energetics, the spiritual, the se.ual body, as described as ‘koshas’, or ‘bodies’ in ayurveda. I wanted somatics, embodiment. To include pleasure, pain, aliveness, attraction.

It took a journey to come here. I studied anthropology of human flourishing, female bodyism, lookism, alongside (ayurvedic) health & vitality, embodiment, somatics, relationship for fifteen years, then found the t.ntric tradition, and then come to the path of yogic intimacy to practice love through.

And over a year ago, I completed my formal training in somatic s.xuality, and became a s.xologist like I dreamt of.

Mostly, what moves me, is how we make love.

I believe the essence of our s.xuality is our return to the awareness that we are the embodiment of Love itself, and that our deepest yearning is to create life, feel alive, to flourish in life, while honoring pain and challenge too.

I know the beauty of flourishing in my own way in life, like with this work. This is the work I have been blooming towards, and I love and feel loved by this work— I feel alive and flourishing in serving the art of living, loving and relating with awareness and as the embodiment of Love.

🌹

the work I do with men is one of the most beautiful aspects of my work

The men I work with are deeply monogamous, often high performing men who simply want to love their woman as deeply as they lead in business.

Most Fridays I have dedicated to sessions with men

It’s the day I love for it.

Venus-day, as we say in vedic and yogic traditions— the day for softening, nourishment, love, and, relating.

These sessions are infused with unfurling the dynamics of love, se.ual polarity, inner masculine vs. feminine energy, leadership, and caring for old patterns or wounded parts of the male psyche.

Jungian analysis, depth psychology and t-ntric philosophy and deida’s yogic intimacy work are my threads to draw from

And it shows— because the women tell me

And it heals me too.

It softens me to see how much love men have for the women in their lives, how much they really want her to shine, how they wánt to be the best for her despite the hiccups of daily life, family life or business life

Truly— most men want to see us shine. Want us happy, unbothered, relaxed, open.. not as a way to tell us how to be, but because they want to support, want to be there for us emotionally, do care to give us that sense of safety with them, and want to lead, and be present with us

It serves to remember this as women— beyond all our pains with men and the masculine.

And mostly these sessions with the men are so human— filled with little and big personal pains, real insecurities, old doubts, and what is at the heart of every human:

— the longing and yearning for the union with the Beloved, whether this is in the form of another human, whether in the form of the divine, or whether in fulfillment and an experience of fullness in the most sacred part of being alive— in Love

🍒 www.tessaschiethart.com/mentorship

—
#somatictherapy #depthpsychology #theartofrelating #embodiment #polarity #eros #somatics #yogicintimacy

the work I do with men is one of the most beautiful aspects of my work

The men I work with are deeply monogamous, often high performing men who simply want to love their woman as deeply as they lead in business.

Most Fridays I have dedicated to sessions with men

It’s the day I love for it.

Venus-day, as we say in vedic and yogic traditions— the day for softening, nourishment, love, and, relating.

These sessions are infused with unfurling the dynamics of love, se.ual polarity, inner masculine vs. feminine energy, leadership, and caring for old patterns or wounded parts of the male psyche.

Jungian analysis, depth psychology and t-ntric philosophy and deida’s yogic intimacy work are my threads to draw from

And it shows— because the women tell me

And it heals me too.

It softens me to see how much love men have for the women in their lives, how much they really want her to shine, how they wánt to be the best for her despite the hiccups of daily life, family life or business life

Truly— most men want to see us shine. Want us happy, unbothered, relaxed, open.. not as a way to tell us how to be, but because they want to support, want to be there for us emotionally, do care to give us that sense of safety with them, and want to lead, and be present with us

It serves to remember this as women— beyond all our pains with men and the masculine.

And mostly these sessions with the men are so human— filled with little and big personal pains, real insecurities, old doubts, and what is at the heart of every human:

— the longing and yearning for the union with the Beloved, whether this is in the form of another human, whether in the form of the divine, or whether in fulfillment and an experience of fullness in the most sacred part of being alive— in Love

🍒 www.tessaschiethart.com/mentorship

—
#somatictherapy #depthpsychology #theartofrelating #embodiment #polarity #eros #somatics #yogicintimacy

Life may not necessarily be about becoming happy, maybe more so, it is for you to become conscious. 🌹

One of the reasons most of us struggle so much with pain, with mental health, or emotional wellbeing is because somehow we’ve been taught to believe we need to be happy continuously, and that life is about highs, happiness and perhaps glamour.

And because we are taught this, we have not built capacity or skill to be with pain and hardship.

Yet life is about pain too.

About going through hard times

As often through it, you see what life is worth, truly.

What is meaningful, and what is beautiful to you.

Pain is inherently necessary to become a fully embodied human. And one of the most valuable questions I like to ask? — “can you be with it?”

Easier said than embodied for many.

— can you have panic, be emotional, grief-stricken to the bone and not need to fix it immediately? Not need to get rid of it, or override it with something?

— can you see that all that too is part of life?

That sometimes we find ourselves in phases where it may all feel too much, that you’ll doubt yourself, that your heart will be broken into a million pieces, or that the state of the world scares you, and that sometimes, you simply don’t know what to do.

That you don’t need to immediately fix that, or opinionate it. Override your feelings with analysis.

But to see that you’re invited to feel it. And that is is meant to feel shitty sometimes, that not feeling happy has meaning too.

To learn and trust that what will come through the pain in it is far more whole than the fragmentation you feel in always needing to be well put together, happy and ‘fine’.

Because, that actually feels heaviest.

🌹 www.tessaschiethart.com | somatic therapy & relational mentoring

—
#embodiment #deeperrelating #emotionalwellbeing #theartofrelatinf #bittersweetness #sanguine #psychology

Life may not necessarily be about becoming happy, maybe more so, it is for you to become conscious. 🌹

One of the reasons most of us struggle so much with pain, with mental health, or emotional wellbeing is because somehow we’ve been taught to believe we need to be happy continuously, and that life is about highs, happiness and perhaps glamour.

And because we are taught this, we have not built capacity or skill to be with pain and hardship.

Yet life is about pain too.

About going through hard times

As often through it, you see what life is worth, truly.

What is meaningful, and what is beautiful to you.

Pain is inherently necessary to become a fully embodied human. And one of the most valuable questions I like to ask? — “can you be with it?”

Easier said than embodied for many.

— can you have panic, be emotional, grief-stricken to the bone and not need to fix it immediately? Not need to get rid of it, or override it with something?

— can you see that all that too is part of life?

That sometimes we find ourselves in phases where it may all feel too much, that you’ll doubt yourself, that your heart will be broken into a million pieces, or that the state of the world scares you, and that sometimes, you simply don’t know what to do.

That you don’t need to immediately fix that, or opinionate it. Override your feelings with analysis.

But to see that you’re invited to feel it. And that is is meant to feel shitty sometimes, that not feeling happy has meaning too.

To learn and trust that what will come through the pain in it is far more whole than the fragmentation you feel in always needing to be well put together, happy and ‘fine’.

Because, that actually feels heaviest.

🌹 www.tessaschiethart.com | somatic therapy & relational mentoring

—
#embodiment #deeperrelating #emotionalwellbeing #theartofrelatinf #bittersweetness #sanguine #psychology

summer was here endlessly,

being in the seasons of summer for over 12 months & abroad all year, made landing home here in summer oh so slow and quiet, grounding and full of nourishment.

summer in the city, hot nights reading books while continuing the feeling of the village I’ve had while abroad in Asia and Portugal, but now just remaining firmly put on this little ‘princess’ island I find my house on in Amsterdam.

Feeling it all.
The small pangs. Missing and grieving being a part of this year. And then placing memories in new perspectives. With yoga and my journal, every morning, as usual. Letting my heart crack open, further and further. Embracing little wonders, and small delights.

Surrounded more by love here. With my devotion being with deepening my ayurvedic practices, studying more of sakta tan’tra, growing my home apothecary, and cooking, endlesssss Sundays cooking. And then feeding those I love.

Leaving the door open for loved ones to land here, together on the carpet. For late summer nights with (ice) tea, candles and giggles and rituals.

& now, ‘back to school’, getting ready for a semester teaching at university again— interpersonal skills, human communication, mentoring…

+ embodying another role at an amazing coaching institute, teaching quantum theory on how to embody & live life in effortless ways…

& with my somatic se.xology degree fully completed this summer

and in-person client work in my practice, welcoming somatically, emotionally, relationally.

While just sharing here what is alive, to serve with word and heart

looking forward to fall 🌹

xo

—
#sunmer #embodiment #somatics #teaching #cycles #nourishment

summer was here endlessly,

being in the seasons of summer for over 12 months & abroad all year, made landing home here in summer oh so slow and quiet, grounding and full of nourishment.

summer in the city, hot nights reading books while continuing the feeling of the village I’ve had while abroad in Asia and Portugal, but now just remaining firmly put on this little ‘princess’ island I find my house on in Amsterdam.

Feeling it all.
The small pangs. Missing and grieving being a part of this year. And then placing memories in new perspectives. With yoga and my journal, every morning, as usual. Letting my heart crack open, further and further. Embracing little wonders, and small delights.

Surrounded more by love here. With my devotion being with deepening my ayurvedic practices, studying more of sakta tan’tra, growing my home apothecary, and cooking, endlesssss Sundays cooking. And then feeding those I love.

Leaving the door open for loved ones to land here, together on the carpet. For late summer nights with (ice) tea, candles and giggles and rituals.

& now, ‘back to school’, getting ready for a semester teaching at university again— interpersonal skills, human communication, mentoring…

+ embodying another role at an amazing coaching institute, teaching quantum theory on how to embody & live life in effortless ways…

& with my somatic se.xology degree fully completed this summer

and in-person client work in my practice, welcoming somatically, emotionally, relationally.

While just sharing here what is alive, to serve with word and heart

looking forward to fall 🌹

xo

—
#sunmer #embodiment #somatics #teaching #cycles #nourishment

“Loving someone unconditionally doesnt mean you will do so forever in their presence. Love can be infinite, while relationship is a choice. And when you love as deeply, it does not mean to open relationally to those who can’t reciprocate. Sometimes continuing to love someone means doing so from a loving distance. You have learned that.”

Midnight conversations with the most loving men in my life, sharing each other reflections in love, life and relating, while summer is blooming open in ways that feel closer to essence than I held possible.

And integrating the lessons in love, that you can love someone so fully, so deeply. It too can mean to accept them wholeheartedly but there may be a point where their actions may be unacceptable to stay present to.

To choose not to be a part of their life or let them be a part of yours can be the most loving thing you ever did for you—

🕊️

These are the deep realizations, the reflections of long ago, the realities of relating now, and then rising beyond all of it together 🙌

#deeperrelating #embodiedliving #beauty #wisdom #love

“Loving someone unconditionally doesnt mean you will do so forever in their presence. Love can be infinite, while relationship is a choice. And when you love as deeply, it does not mean to open relationally to those who can’t reciprocate. Sometimes continuing to love someone means doing so from a loving distance. You have learned that.”

Midnight conversations with the most loving men in my life, sharing each other reflections in love, life and relating, while summer is blooming open in ways that feel closer to essence than I held possible.

And integrating the lessons in love, that you can love someone so fully, so deeply. It too can mean to accept them wholeheartedly but there may be a point where their actions may be unacceptable to stay present to.

To choose not to be a part of their life or let them be a part of yours can be the most loving thing you ever did for you—

🕊️

These are the deep realizations, the reflections of long ago, the realities of relating now, and then rising beyond all of it together 🙌

#deeperrelating #embodiedliving #beauty #wisdom #love

5 little nuggets as a love letter to the beauty of guidance as of late, that came through in work, in sessions, in living, loving, leading, embodying, embracing, experiencing, relating, reflecting and resourcing 🕊️

to artfully relate to all aspects of life, beauty and pain, to face challenge wholeheartedly, flourish from it and ask deeper questions so as to embody more of your essence. 🙌

#embodiment #deeperrelating #relationalliving #feminineembodiment #beauty #writing #wisdom

5 little nuggets as a love letter to the beauty of guidance as of late, that came through in work, in sessions, in living, loving, leading, embodying, embracing, experiencing, relating, reflecting and resourcing 🕊️

to artfully relate to all aspects of life, beauty and pain, to face challenge wholeheartedly, flourish from it and ask deeper questions so as to embody more of your essence. 🙌

#embodiment #deeperrelating #relationalliving #feminineembodiment #beauty #writing #wisdom

somatic therapy — it returns your body to its true essence and expression. It relaxes the patterns of tension within you, so you can come home to your wholeness— your openness, radiance, relaxation.

The patterns we hold hostage in our bodies open us when we release them.

Release the tension in your jaw, your belly, your thighs, your abdomen, and you will walk differently through this world.

And release can look gentle, doesn’t need to be cathartic at all.
Different somatic practices serve different patterns of the body.

Face your pain.
Transform it into beauty.

This is what the work does— it brings you from your pattern to your power.

Softness and openness come from being willing to go through the mud to return back home.

And so yes, the world will reflect you your openness as you have released patterns in the body. Your glow, your eyes that open, your sparkle.

The openness and changed disposition to and in life is what my clients start to see in themselves, what their partners starts to see, what the world starts to resonate with and reflect back to them, as they step into the world, wholly and in the fullness of who they are.

💛 www.tessaschiethart.com/somatictherapy

#somatictherapy #embodiment #openness #relaxation #dearmouring #sacreddearmouring #somatics #radiance

somatic therapy — it returns your body to its true essence and expression. It relaxes the patterns of tension within you, so you can come home to your wholeness— your openness, radiance, relaxation.

The patterns we hold hostage in our bodies open us when we release them.

Release the tension in your jaw, your belly, your thighs, your abdomen, and you will walk differently through this world.

And release can look gentle, doesn’t need to be cathartic at all.
Different somatic practices serve different patterns of the body.

Face your pain.
Transform it into beauty.

This is what the work does— it brings you from your pattern to your power.

Softness and openness come from being willing to go through the mud to return back home.

And so yes, the world will reflect you your openness as you have released patterns in the body. Your glow, your eyes that open, your sparkle.

The openness and changed disposition to and in life is what my clients start to see in themselves, what their partners starts to see, what the world starts to resonate with and reflect back to them, as they step into the world, wholly and in the fullness of who they are.

💛 www.tessaschiethart.com/somatictherapy

#somatictherapy #embodiment #openness #relaxation #dearmouring #sacreddearmouring #somatics #radiance

light-hearted and with joyful ease returning home from the desert of Sedona, Arizona, from a journey that was a vortex of release and a beautiful return to nourishment and feeling opened —

I likely have not been more grateful for anything this year than as I am for the man who welcomed me there— the purest love, presence, witnessing, and fun, roadtrips, sleeping under the desert skies, the depth, joy, just being and deep work I get to experience with and through him is just something I simply have no words for. It is beyond.

this man that has known me as deep as can be for the last 4 years, who has held me in my pain, my beauty, my BS and my truth. Who sees the multiplicity of who I am

gifting his magic of dearmouring, of healing ceremony and the deepest (t•ntric) bodywork I have experienced.

to transform pain into beauty through the healing depths of somatics, so as to return to the embodied expression that lies underneath patterns of closure —

to open to life, to release all that may stand in the way of experiencing essence, love and aliveness as life is meant for—

to face challenges so as to transform and to embody love with presence. 💛

this nourishment, support, and care that is there along the journey to help to become more aware.

now loving summer at home more than ever, appreciating all kinds of little and big beauty and pleasure.

ready for a chapter of feminine power and even more love allowing :)

—
#love #depth #beauty #presence #embodiment #relating #transformaton #feminineembodiment #sacredearmouring

light-hearted and with joyful ease returning home from the desert of Sedona, Arizona, from a journey that was a vortex of release and a beautiful return to nourishment and feeling opened —

I likely have not been more grateful for anything this year than as I am for the man who welcomed me there— the purest love, presence, witnessing, and fun, roadtrips, sleeping under the desert skies, the depth, joy, just being and deep work I get to experience with and through him is just something I simply have no words for. It is beyond.

this man that has known me as deep as can be for the last 4 years, who has held me in my pain, my beauty, my BS and my truth. Who sees the multiplicity of who I am

gifting his magic of dearmouring, of healing ceremony and the deepest (t•ntric) bodywork I have experienced.

to transform pain into beauty through the healing depths of somatics, so as to return to the embodied expression that lies underneath patterns of closure —

to open to life, to release all that may stand in the way of experiencing essence, love and aliveness as life is meant for—

to face challenges so as to transform and to embody love with presence. 💛

this nourishment, support, and care that is there along the journey to help to become more aware.

now loving summer at home more than ever, appreciating all kinds of little and big beauty and pleasure.

ready for a chapter of feminine power and even more love allowing :)

—
#love #depth #beauty #presence #embodiment #relating #transformaton #feminineembodiment #sacredearmouring

I’ve seen the strongest ones often are the softest ones, the humbled ones.

The hard things in life surely can toughen and harden us.
But when we truly deepen, relax open and yearn to relate deeper to life, there is something in facing and feeling it all & often we will find that life ultimately humbles us, softens us, or perhaps even tickles us into giggling at it all at times.

Perhaps the humbled ones dared to feel the things the toughest ones are learning to feel

Or the ones that softened did so because they were pushed to face everything— perhaps because toughening up was simply not a choice, pathway or option & softening the grips of control remained the only chance on the path forward in life.

And no one is immune to challenge in this life— for the human experience invites us to feel both pain and beauty.

Feeling, softening, opening is a gateway, experienced through the body.

The body that releases, that faces and relaxes around the hard parts, brings the softening and humbling– whether through the giggle, tear, the clenched fist..

That stiffness in your shoulders, that tightness in your belly.
The hardness and contraction you feel in your body
– often the body tells a deeper story of feeling.

Because the body does not only keep the score— the body keeps the story.
The story of your hurt, pain, grief, tension, and so of your joy, ease and bliss.

And the more you feel, the more you will be humbled and softened to release the grip and the holding in your body.

The more your body softens, the more your psyche is humbled and opened to life— not because softening and opening is some sort of fluffy thing, but because it is your original natural state.

Not because you positivize it away. Not because you are flimsy and ‘love-light’ only.

But because a feeling body, a relaxed body, a humbled psyche, are open to whatever life brings you, deeper into relationship to all life & has you embody more of who you are 🌹

— reflections on embodied living & deeper relating 🌹
#beauty #somatictherapy #embodiment #theartofrelating #somatics #embodiedliving #mentorship

I’ve seen the strongest ones often are the softest ones, the humbled ones.

The hard things in life surely can toughen and harden us.
But when we truly deepen, relax open and yearn to relate deeper to life, there is something in facing and feeling it all & often we will find that life ultimately humbles us, softens us, or perhaps even tickles us into giggling at it all at times.

Perhaps the humbled ones dared to feel the things the toughest ones are learning to feel

Or the ones that softened did so because they were pushed to face everything— perhaps because toughening up was simply not a choice, pathway or option & softening the grips of control remained the only chance on the path forward in life.

And no one is immune to challenge in this life— for the human experience invites us to feel both pain and beauty.

Feeling, softening, opening is a gateway, experienced through the body.

The body that releases, that faces and relaxes around the hard parts, brings the softening and humbling– whether through the giggle, tear, the clenched fist..

That stiffness in your shoulders, that tightness in your belly.
The hardness and contraction you feel in your body
– often the body tells a deeper story of feeling.

Because the body does not only keep the score— the body keeps the story.
The story of your hurt, pain, grief, tension, and so of your joy, ease and bliss.

And the more you feel, the more you will be humbled and softened to release the grip and the holding in your body.

The more your body softens, the more your psyche is humbled and opened to life— not because softening and opening is some sort of fluffy thing, but because it is your original natural state.

Not because you positivize it away. Not because you are flimsy and ‘love-light’ only.

But because a feeling body, a relaxed body, a humbled psyche, are open to whatever life brings you, deeper into relationship to all life & has you embody more of who you are 🌹

— reflections on embodied living & deeper relating 🌹
#beauty #somatictherapy #embodiment #theartofrelating #somatics #embodiedliving #mentorship

It is what the feminine does– to open, to envelop, to welcome in…And once we open, our whole being orients towards that which we open to, no matter if it is bad or good for us.

This happens in all of us, men and women– the feminine aspect of each of us, opens and closes. It translates in how we orient ourselves to substances that aren’t good for us, people who are not good for us, habits that do not serve us…

Once we open to something, and it gives us a (false) sense of fullness, we orient back to it.

Even if it is not safe.

That is why, especially if we are sensitive, it is highly important to value the preciousness of our energy. To protect it. To discern where we open. And where we close. That is why there’s so much talk about boundaries. Because especially for deeply feeling, sensitive feminine women, we need such discernment of who we let in.

Especially as women– our energy opens and closes, our heart opens and closes. And it matters what we let in… physically, emotionally, energetically.

I work on this kind of discernment and energetic agility a lot with women– where to open in life, and where to close consciously, how to feel that in your body, and how to stay in your power, where to walk in our openness, when to close our energy as we step into the world, where to bring ourselves fully, where to zip up our energy, where to lean out a little more…

Who we share our energy with, our bodies with, our emotions with, impacts us.

In relationships, friendship, at work, in dating, in engaging with another’s energy–

Using the power of discernment to be precise with where we put our life force energy helps– to ask; is it worth it to thought-loop here, open me to him, close to her, show this part of me here?

If you truly want to be met in your depth, start deepening your energetic agility to choose where and to what extend you want to bring yourself.

💫
—
#embodiment #energetics #agility #theartofrelating #discernment #love #energy

It is what the feminine does– to open, to envelop, to welcome in…And once we open, our whole being orients towards that which we open to, no matter if it is bad or good for us.

This happens in all of us, men and women– the feminine aspect of each of us, opens and closes. It translates in how we orient ourselves to substances that aren’t good for us, people who are not good for us, habits that do not serve us…

Once we open to something, and it gives us a (false) sense of fullness, we orient back to it.

Even if it is not safe.

That is why, especially if we are sensitive, it is highly important to value the preciousness of our energy. To protect it. To discern where we open. And where we close. That is why there’s so much talk about boundaries. Because especially for deeply feeling, sensitive feminine women, we need such discernment of who we let in.

Especially as women– our energy opens and closes, our heart opens and closes. And it matters what we let in… physically, emotionally, energetically.

I work on this kind of discernment and energetic agility a lot with women– where to open in life, and where to close consciously, how to feel that in your body, and how to stay in your power, where to walk in our openness, when to close our energy as we step into the world, where to bring ourselves fully, where to zip up our energy, where to lean out a little more…

Who we share our energy with, our bodies with, our emotions with, impacts us.

In relationships, friendship, at work, in dating, in engaging with another’s energy–

Using the power of discernment to be precise with where we put our life force energy helps– to ask; is it worth it to thought-loop here, open me to him, close to her, show this part of me here?

If you truly want to be met in your depth, start deepening your energetic agility to choose where and to what extend you want to bring yourself.

💫
—
#embodiment #energetics #agility #theartofrelating #discernment #love #energy

It’s insightful to see how you change by the environments you step into.

That by stepping into a space that is familiar to you, you can all of a sudden be shown how you’ve changed

This is what last week has been– a continuous revelation of change within me, while stepping in the unchanged of my home after months.

You are not separate from your environment, you are intimately connected to the spaces you inhabit, the earth you walk on, where you bring your body.

To see where you have grown can be shown by the spaces, places, situations & relationships you find yourself in.

Environment, beauty, and observation have always been intricately connected for me. As an anthropologist I learned to observe spaces, peoples, and places, and myself in & with them, as well as see how environments impact the psyche.

Whether we find ourselves returning to an environment, a home, a situation, or a person– this can reveal to us who we are now, by being reflected relationally.

Sometimes the familiarity of the reflection showing the actual changes.

Coming home, I am no longer the woman who left months ago; my inner landscapes have changed, as I have visited outer landscapes, while I giggle at the familiarity of it all as I sit here, with my tea, at my altar, on my carpet.

One insight? I am no longer a city girl, and see I likely never was. The reason my home is my haven of tranquility, peace, and quietude is likely because it balances the buzz. I love the city most at 6:30 am, when everyone is asleep & I am on the bike to yoga in the deserted streets. After a year in villages, I recognize my inner village girl more than ever as I live in the coziest neighborhood where I can nourish her within me, while softly setting foot in city life.

I love this interplay between the body and the environments to step into, the situations, and relationships you find yourselves in & how they inform you about life, deepen you in your own embodiment, and invite a sense of equanimity.

To be present and mindful of the environments you inhabit, and the transitions you make in and out of environments as a little rite — to have it show you your state of being — 💫

—
#embodiment #presence

It’s insightful to see how you change by the environments you step into.

That by stepping into a space that is familiar to you, you can all of a sudden be shown how you’ve changed

This is what last week has been– a continuous revelation of change within me, while stepping in the unchanged of my home after months.

You are not separate from your environment, you are intimately connected to the spaces you inhabit, the earth you walk on, where you bring your body.

To see where you have grown can be shown by the spaces, places, situations & relationships you find yourself in.

Environment, beauty, and observation have always been intricately connected for me. As an anthropologist I learned to observe spaces, peoples, and places, and myself in & with them, as well as see how environments impact the psyche.

Whether we find ourselves returning to an environment, a home, a situation, or a person– this can reveal to us who we are now, by being reflected relationally.

Sometimes the familiarity of the reflection showing the actual changes.

Coming home, I am no longer the woman who left months ago; my inner landscapes have changed, as I have visited outer landscapes, while I giggle at the familiarity of it all as I sit here, with my tea, at my altar, on my carpet.

One insight? I am no longer a city girl, and see I likely never was. The reason my home is my haven of tranquility, peace, and quietude is likely because it balances the buzz. I love the city most at 6:30 am, when everyone is asleep & I am on the bike to yoga in the deserted streets. After a year in villages, I recognize my inner village girl more than ever as I live in the coziest neighborhood where I can nourish her within me, while softly setting foot in city life.

I love this interplay between the body and the environments to step into, the situations, and relationships you find yourselves in & how they inform you about life, deepen you in your own embodiment, and invite a sense of equanimity.

To be present and mindful of the environments you inhabit, and the transitions you make in and out of environments as a little rite — to have it show you your state of being — 💫

—
#embodiment #presence

10 months i’ve been away from home, yet, in places that feel equally homely. 5 months portugal, 5 months thailand + bali.

— Home has always been deeply valuable to me, the having of a house to call ‘mine’ is a blessing and gift that I am all the more aware of in these times.

As a feminine woman, containment is what I desire in order to flow and deepen in life. And where else to find that in the structure of a home? To have roots that house my being.

Women create homes, in their bodies, in this world.

To create a home is to fill an empty space with love and beauty— its a feminine practice of creation and nourishment.

I see my home as my second most devoured temple (the first is my body— our truest home).

Ive been away from home much, but never left my rooted home this long. This time has been meaningful in many ways.

It has been a year of nourishment & my most beloved thing; beauty

Beauty in landscape, people, craft, culture, texture, nature, practices, love, togetherness.

In the oceans, and the jungles.
Mostly in the mundane. To stay in places long enough to connect with the environmnt, the land, rhythms and seasons, mostly the people, and to create daily ritual. The freedom to live, love & lead from anywhere yet to choose somewhere.

Creating home away from home, to feel home with another, to fill time with deepening connection— with the beloved, with the women in my life, with earthly practices.

A homecoming to tidal waves within me, and the undercurrent beneath those, where feeling is my prayer, to wander into intimate corners of my being, spending much time around water— to cleanse.

as I sit here I whisper ‘thank you’ to this body that houses my being through it all— all of life’s journeys.

The home that is essentially this body, having come home more than I can describe,

while now finding the keys deep down in my large suitcase, to open the doors again to my cute little temple in Amsterdam, where my body, home & roots began, and still come back to — apparently — as the current of life wants me to, for now.

+ 📸 snapshots of some of the beauty, the nourishment & the homely

10 months i’ve been away from home, yet, in places that feel equally homely. 5 months portugal, 5 months thailand + bali.

— Home has always been deeply valuable to me, the having of a house to call ‘mine’ is a blessing and gift that I am all the more aware of in these times.

As a feminine woman, containment is what I desire in order to flow and deepen in life. And where else to find that in the structure of a home? To have roots that house my being.

Women create homes, in their bodies, in this world.

To create a home is to fill an empty space with love and beauty— its a feminine practice of creation and nourishment.

I see my home as my second most devoured temple (the first is my body— our truest home).

Ive been away from home much, but never left my rooted home this long. This time has been meaningful in many ways.

It has been a year of nourishment & my most beloved thing; beauty

Beauty in landscape, people, craft, culture, texture, nature, practices, love, togetherness.

In the oceans, and the jungles.
Mostly in the mundane. To stay in places long enough to connect with the environmnt, the land, rhythms and seasons, mostly the people, and to create daily ritual. The freedom to live, love & lead from anywhere yet to choose somewhere.

Creating home away from home, to feel home with another, to fill time with deepening connection— with the beloved, with the women in my life, with earthly practices.

A homecoming to tidal waves within me, and the undercurrent beneath those, where feeling is my prayer, to wander into intimate corners of my being, spending much time around water— to cleanse.

as I sit here I whisper ‘thank you’ to this body that houses my being through it all— all of life’s journeys.

The home that is essentially this body, having come home more than I can describe,

while now finding the keys deep down in my large suitcase, to open the doors again to my cute little temple in Amsterdam, where my body, home & roots began, and still come back to — apparently — as the current of life wants me to, for now.

+ 📸 snapshots of some of the beauty, the nourishment & the homely

The reason people in my private practice and containers feel incredibly seen, safe and soft, is because within the cells of my body I hold all the experience for what it means for a human to be truly seen, heard, met, witnessed in all of who they are.

Beyond my studies, my lived experience is perhaps the most powerful testament for my work as a mentor and therapist in seeing people in both their pain and their beauty. .

I know what it takes to receive the most horrendous comments on my surface skin, while still holding an unshakeable feeling of fullness within myself.
To hold myself wholesomely in the face of injustice.

I know what it means to stand softly amidst thousands of eyes on me.
To be relaxed amidst exposure.

I know what it feels like in my body to truly be seen with love, met in the depths of my soul.
To have the eyes of a beloved see me deeper than I can see myself.

I know what it feels like to be seen in my pain, my hurt, my grief, my despair.
And I know the deep fulfillment when I am seen in my joy, pleasure, beauty, power and radiance.

I know what kind of seeing creates intimacy, and what kind of seeing creates division & separation.

My eyesight may be diminished in actual sight, but I know what it is to feel energy, o see Beauty in her true ways, to see with my body, to step into the room and know exactly the spheres between people, to feel everything that is unseeable, to go beyond what people tell or show me, and instead trust what their body tells me instead.

Within my cells I hold the visceral wisdom that something rarely is what it looks like
And that is powerful.

Graduating in anthropology and bodyism has only strengthened my understanding of observation, witnessing & cultural patternings within peoples and societies – it taught me about ritual and rites and finding meaning in being witnessed in human relationships.

All in all, truly seeing people at their depths is a passion, and a power, and something we can all cultivate in how we live, love and lead.

Embodiment helps us truly see and be seen.
To see yourself in all of you, inhabit that, and relate deeply from it 💛

—
#embodiment #deeperelating #intimacy #beingseen

The reason people in my private practice and containers feel incredibly seen, safe and soft, is because within the cells of my body I hold all the experience for what it means for a human to be truly seen, heard, met, witnessed in all of who they are.

Beyond my studies, my lived experience is perhaps the most powerful testament for my work as a mentor and therapist in seeing people in both their pain and their beauty. .

I know what it takes to receive the most horrendous comments on my surface skin, while still holding an unshakeable feeling of fullness within myself.
To hold myself wholesomely in the face of injustice.

I know what it means to stand softly amidst thousands of eyes on me.
To be relaxed amidst exposure.

I know what it feels like in my body to truly be seen with love, met in the depths of my soul.
To have the eyes of a beloved see me deeper than I can see myself.

I know what it feels like to be seen in my pain, my hurt, my grief, my despair.
And I know the deep fulfillment when I am seen in my joy, pleasure, beauty, power and radiance.

I know what kind of seeing creates intimacy, and what kind of seeing creates division & separation.

My eyesight may be diminished in actual sight, but I know what it is to feel energy, o see Beauty in her true ways, to see with my body, to step into the room and know exactly the spheres between people, to feel everything that is unseeable, to go beyond what people tell or show me, and instead trust what their body tells me instead.

Within my cells I hold the visceral wisdom that something rarely is what it looks like
And that is powerful.

Graduating in anthropology and bodyism has only strengthened my understanding of observation, witnessing & cultural patternings within peoples and societies – it taught me about ritual and rites and finding meaning in being witnessed in human relationships.

All in all, truly seeing people at their depths is a passion, and a power, and something we can all cultivate in how we live, love and lead.

Embodiment helps us truly see and be seen.
To see yourself in all of you, inhabit that, and relate deeply from it 💛

—
#embodiment #deeperelating #intimacy #beingseen

He asked, “what are you scared of?”

I told him

I was scared one day I wouldn’t be able to look into his eyes again.

That, sometimes I am so incredibly scared of the dark that I lay awake at night searching for the light, but also too afraid to turn it on, because that would illuminate everything.

Afraid to carry this alone, afraid to let someone in on it too.

I told him I had gone without eye-check ups for nearly 11 months now, and that by the time I will have my next checkup in a month, I have no clue what to expect.

“How can you live with this unknown?”, he asked, eyes filled with tears.

“I still don’t know sometimes”, I whispered.

“But what I do know is that I trust the paradox, of seeing and being seen. Of being witnessed, of being so afraid to lose my eyesight that that directly translates to my deep value of the intimacy that my sight gives me. That I will never take what I get to see for granted. To be able to look into someone’s eyes, as the most precious gift Love ever gave me. And that my ability to be with the pain of not seeing is directly proportionate to my ability to see Beauty”

And so I told him

“If my capacity to see light will fade one day– then I will have mastered how to look with my heart, and feel with my eyes. Until then I practice”

And we sat in a ritual, sharing our biggest fears with each other.
The light in his eyes brighter than I had seen any two eyes before.

Then he whispered into my ear it was time to practice.

He blindfolded me– my biggest edge.
And danced me through the room like his life depended on it.

Freedom, that is what it feels like to surrender to the mystery.

Held in the unknown, that is where I have learned to love more than anywhere else.

In the hands of a man I trust is where I open to feel the depths of all my fears,

where anything that stands in the way of loving the moment fully despite its pain is revealed.

For this is to dance in the unknown that Life is,
between ache and ecstasy,
between beauty and pain,
between love and consciousness,
between energy and awareness.

And I don’t want to be anywhere else then here, in these hands, in this dance of life

—
#theartofrelating

He asked, “what are you scared of?”

I told him

I was scared one day I wouldn’t be able to look into his eyes again.

That, sometimes I am so incredibly scared of the dark that I lay awake at night searching for the light, but also too afraid to turn it on, because that would illuminate everything.

Afraid to carry this alone, afraid to let someone in on it too.

I told him I had gone without eye-check ups for nearly 11 months now, and that by the time I will have my next checkup in a month, I have no clue what to expect.

“How can you live with this unknown?”, he asked, eyes filled with tears.

“I still don’t know sometimes”, I whispered.

“But what I do know is that I trust the paradox, of seeing and being seen. Of being witnessed, of being so afraid to lose my eyesight that that directly translates to my deep value of the intimacy that my sight gives me. That I will never take what I get to see for granted. To be able to look into someone’s eyes, as the most precious gift Love ever gave me. And that my ability to be with the pain of not seeing is directly proportionate to my ability to see Beauty”

And so I told him

“If my capacity to see light will fade one day– then I will have mastered how to look with my heart, and feel with my eyes. Until then I practice”

And we sat in a ritual, sharing our biggest fears with each other.
The light in his eyes brighter than I had seen any two eyes before.

Then he whispered into my ear it was time to practice.

He blindfolded me– my biggest edge.
And danced me through the room like his life depended on it.

Freedom, that is what it feels like to surrender to the mystery.

Held in the unknown, that is where I have learned to love more than anywhere else.

In the hands of a man I trust is where I open to feel the depths of all my fears,

where anything that stands in the way of loving the moment fully despite its pain is revealed.

For this is to dance in the unknown that Life is,
between ache and ecstasy,
between beauty and pain,
between love and consciousness,
between energy and awareness.

And I don’t want to be anywhere else then here, in these hands, in this dance of life

—
#theartofrelating

For most of us, aging has this impact, our body getting more frail.
For some of us an accident does it – a moment where we are so utterly confronted with the fragility of our body that the pain opens us to humility, to gratitude, to appreciation.
If we let it – then we feel the pain so fully that the ache turns into ecstasy.

Some of us find reverence for our body through the life we birth through our bodies.
Some of us are born into bodies that were never without challenge or limitation.

Life is fragile.
And life is lived through the vehicle that is your body.

Being a soul in a body, being formlessness put into form, is ultimately very limiting, whether you are aware of it or not.. I know– this is a deep realization.

Most of us will not realize the limitation of the body until the pain of limitation arrives, later in life.

The presence of pain, the luring of limitation, is that cliche that we only see what we had once we lost it– health, comfort, ecstasy–

In working with people in private practice, I always longed to work with the body as the gateway to our selves, through somatic psychotherapy, because it has us understand ourselves through the wisdom of our very own unique vessel— through the wisdom of this living, sensing, feeling body.

As a woman in a body with a distinct look + limitations beyond the looks of my body, I’ve learned the intricacy and beauty of reconnecting uniquely to the body, in a way that serves my life uniquely. Studying ableism, bodyism and lookism also gave me the understanding of what I had been living.

I talk with many many people– I know so many people who have something with their body that is not considered ‘normal’, but is unique to their experience in living their life.

I love honoring each and every individual vessel, and to guide in understanding and feeling our vessel in its unique ways, to find reverence for our body.

Honoring yourself through the wisdom of your body is a somewhat forgotten way of finding empowerment, resilience and beauty in this body and life <3

—
#embodiedliving #deeperrelating #somatics #somaticpsychotherapy #bodybasedtherapy #embodiment

For most of us, aging has this impact, our body getting more frail.
For some of us an accident does it – a moment where we are so utterly confronted with the fragility of our body that the pain opens us to humility, to gratitude, to appreciation.
If we let it – then we feel the pain so fully that the ache turns into ecstasy.

Some of us find reverence for our body through the life we birth through our bodies.
Some of us are born into bodies that were never without challenge or limitation.

Life is fragile.
And life is lived through the vehicle that is your body.

Being a soul in a body, being formlessness put into form, is ultimately very limiting, whether you are aware of it or not.. I know– this is a deep realization.

Most of us will not realize the limitation of the body until the pain of limitation arrives, later in life.

The presence of pain, the luring of limitation, is that cliche that we only see what we had once we lost it– health, comfort, ecstasy–

In working with people in private practice, I always longed to work with the body as the gateway to our selves, through somatic psychotherapy, because it has us understand ourselves through the wisdom of our very own unique vessel— through the wisdom of this living, sensing, feeling body.

As a woman in a body with a distinct look + limitations beyond the looks of my body, I’ve learned the intricacy and beauty of reconnecting uniquely to the body, in a way that serves my life uniquely. Studying ableism, bodyism and lookism also gave me the understanding of what I had been living.

I talk with many many people– I know so many people who have something with their body that is not considered ‘normal’, but is unique to their experience in living their life.

I love honoring each and every individual vessel, and to guide in understanding and feeling our vessel in its unique ways, to find reverence for our body.

Honoring yourself through the wisdom of your body is a somewhat forgotten way of finding empowerment, resilience and beauty in this body and life <3

—
#embodiedliving #deeperrelating #somatics #somaticpsychotherapy #bodybasedtherapy #embodiment

One of the deepest lessons in love for me has been in the deep hurt that comes with deep love. If you love deeply, it hurts deeply.

Life in many ways is a paradox, and this is one of those deep ones.

One that often goes unnoticed.
Until you find yourself so deeply with someone, or something, that love opens you so deeply that it hurts.

Love opens our fragile parts like nothing else does. And it is this very vulnerability that makes love profound and something we all long and yearn for as humans.

The deeper you care, the deeper you risk. And risk is potential for pain. Even amidst the hurt, there is beauty in the pain. And I love transforming pain into beauty, whatever the origins of the pain.

Through pain. I have often found immense beauty. I have found this many times in heartbreak– feeling ecstatic, feeling blissful, and being deeply in touch with the beauty of life despite hurt.

There is beauty in knowing you have allowed yourself to feel completely, to be so vulnerable, and to have the richness only love can bring.

It’s easy to protect your heart, to move away from feeling– but there is far more beauty to be found in feeling deeply. Without it, you will miss the beauty of life that comes in joy, warmth, reverence, connection and love..

And although love and sorrow are two sides of the same coin, they together are the greatest teachers if you ask me.

Bringing strength and fragility together as one.

With the ache in our hearts we can find ecstasy in our lives. Pain then is not something to endure, it is part of living and loving deeply.

Transforming pain into beauty brings a deeper relationship to life. 🌹

—
📸 beach moments on favorite grounds + lyrics of inspiration from sting in slides
—
www.tessaschiethart.com
embodied living | deeper relating
somatic psychotherapy • relational mentoring

One of the deepest lessons in love for me has been in the deep hurt that comes with deep love. If you love deeply, it hurts deeply.

Life in many ways is a paradox, and this is one of those deep ones.

One that often goes unnoticed.
Until you find yourself so deeply with someone, or something, that love opens you so deeply that it hurts.

Love opens our fragile parts like nothing else does. And it is this very vulnerability that makes love profound and something we all long and yearn for as humans.

The deeper you care, the deeper you risk. And risk is potential for pain. Even amidst the hurt, there is beauty in the pain. And I love transforming pain into beauty, whatever the origins of the pain.

Through pain. I have often found immense beauty. I have found this many times in heartbreak– feeling ecstatic, feeling blissful, and being deeply in touch with the beauty of life despite hurt.

There is beauty in knowing you have allowed yourself to feel completely, to be so vulnerable, and to have the richness only love can bring.

It’s easy to protect your heart, to move away from feeling– but there is far more beauty to be found in feeling deeply. Without it, you will miss the beauty of life that comes in joy, warmth, reverence, connection and love..

And although love and sorrow are two sides of the same coin, they together are the greatest teachers if you ask me.

Bringing strength and fragility together as one.

With the ache in our hearts we can find ecstasy in our lives. Pain then is not something to endure, it is part of living and loving deeply.

Transforming pain into beauty brings a deeper relationship to life. 🌹

—
📸 beach moments on favorite grounds + lyrics of inspiration from sting in slides
—
www.tessaschiethart.com
embodied living | deeper relating
somatic psychotherapy • relational mentoring

As women, we learn that we are valuable when we are ‘beautiful’ and so we perform beauty – you may be dancing your most sensual dance, you may exhibit your beauty very overtly, you may be the shiniest on the outside, or have the most voluptuous lips…

And not embody your beauty.

There is a path to integrating your beauty from performativity to embodiment as a woman.

And there’s nothing inherently wrong with performing your beauty– it is part of the evolution of a woman and her relationship to beauty and expression – we all go through phases where we perform beauty, and we all want to be beautiful — this is a holy and primal longing every woman has. And the quest to be beautiful in a more surface level way is rewarded in this society.

And there is something in performing your beauty – it can be empowering, it can be liberating, it can be self-affirming to portray your beauty…

Yet, there is something to performativity that does not quite satisfy your deep longing to be beautiful...

Relating to your beauty in the performative sense, over time, often leaves many women empty and not truly in relationship to their beauty..

At some point, you’re ready to deepen your relationship to beauty and expression.

This is where the women I work with are …

Where they long to embody beauty in a new sense, a deeper way, into a steeped relationship to embodied beauty…

Where beauty is not merely a product to apply to your skin, but it is also not the neutral self-acceptance that body positivity teaches.

This is divine beauty. It is seeing yourself through holy eyes.

This is embodying your beauty as a divine way of relating to the most exquisite sides of you, and coming into relationship with a deep pulse of light within you.

It is a different relationship. It is honoring your uniqueness, it is a natural way of expression, whether you use the product or not, and have the acceptance or lose it for a moment. It is a daily devotion to Beauty itself that shines through you.

A honoring of your expression through the body you live in and experience life through.

—
#embodiment #beauty #relationalaesthetics

As women, we learn that we are valuable when we are ‘beautiful’ and so we perform beauty – you may be dancing your most sensual dance, you may exhibit your beauty very overtly, you may be the shiniest on the outside, or have the most voluptuous lips…

And not embody your beauty.

There is a path to integrating your beauty from performativity to embodiment as a woman.

And there’s nothing inherently wrong with performing your beauty– it is part of the evolution of a woman and her relationship to beauty and expression – we all go through phases where we perform beauty, and we all want to be beautiful — this is a holy and primal longing every woman has. And the quest to be beautiful in a more surface level way is rewarded in this society.

And there is something in performing your beauty – it can be empowering, it can be liberating, it can be self-affirming to portray your beauty…

Yet, there is something to performativity that does not quite satisfy your deep longing to be beautiful...

Relating to your beauty in the performative sense, over time, often leaves many women empty and not truly in relationship to their beauty..

At some point, you’re ready to deepen your relationship to beauty and expression.

This is where the women I work with are …

Where they long to embody beauty in a new sense, a deeper way, into a steeped relationship to embodied beauty…

Where beauty is not merely a product to apply to your skin, but it is also not the neutral self-acceptance that body positivity teaches.

This is divine beauty. It is seeing yourself through holy eyes.

This is embodying your beauty as a divine way of relating to the most exquisite sides of you, and coming into relationship with a deep pulse of light within you.

It is a different relationship. It is honoring your uniqueness, it is a natural way of expression, whether you use the product or not, and have the acceptance or lose it for a moment. It is a daily devotion to Beauty itself that shines through you.

A honoring of your expression through the body you live in and experience life through.

—
#embodiment #beauty #relationalaesthetics

At the start of this year, I laid on a pristine beach. I had just come out of a tough year, with many setbacks in many different realms, and with many openings that were beautiful beyond my comprehension.

Laying there in the sand, I found myself in yet another moment of being asked to trust a flow of life, and found a deepened devotion in saying ‘yes’ to anything that life would bring me and I felt a joy with.

There is something about having faced challenges, having been to hell and backwards that softens our grip on life. Pain has a way of humbling us deeply, having us see that there is little to control in life, that there is a way to let life have its way with us– in many different facets.

Aside from the most joy I have ever felt in life, I am amazed what life has offered– blessing that I could’ve only received were I a full ‘yes’ to anything unfolding, the bitter and the sweet.

In all of my journey, and especially in a body that has its own way with me, being often misunderstood, the path has been about finding the balance between beauty and pain in life, and trusting all of life as the foundation to this balance.

That whatever I am faced with, when I soften, life flows in her own mystic way..

This is the feminine principle of life I am devoted to– the energetic aspect of reality that is experience itself – whether it is the thoughts we have, the sensations & emotions we feel, or the experience in life we have – anything that changes and is transient about life; this is the feminine principle. The part of the cosmos that is changing all the time.

The masculine principle being awareness– being intimately aware and conscious of the experience, of any experience, beautiful or painful. The aspect of reality that is constant, that lies deep within us as our soulfulness, the part of us that can observe our experience.

Shiva, shakti, yin and yang.

To be conscious of how life wants to flow– and to practice being open to it in all of its forms, the beauty and the pain, that is intimacy with life for me.

–

At the start of this year, I laid on a pristine beach. I had just come out of a tough year, with many setbacks in many different realms, and with many openings that were beautiful beyond my comprehension.

Laying there in the sand, I found myself in yet another moment of being asked to trust a flow of life, and found a deepened devotion in saying ‘yes’ to anything that life would bring me and I felt a joy with.

There is something about having faced challenges, having been to hell and backwards that softens our grip on life. Pain has a way of humbling us deeply, having us see that there is little to control in life, that there is a way to let life have its way with us– in many different facets.

Aside from the most joy I have ever felt in life, I am amazed what life has offered– blessing that I could’ve only received were I a full ‘yes’ to anything unfolding, the bitter and the sweet.

In all of my journey, and especially in a body that has its own way with me, being often misunderstood, the path has been about finding the balance between beauty and pain in life, and trusting all of life as the foundation to this balance.

That whatever I am faced with, when I soften, life flows in her own mystic way..

This is the feminine principle of life I am devoted to– the energetic aspect of reality that is experience itself – whether it is the thoughts we have, the sensations & emotions we feel, or the experience in life we have – anything that changes and is transient about life; this is the feminine principle. The part of the cosmos that is changing all the time.

The masculine principle being awareness– being intimately aware and conscious of the experience, of any experience, beautiful or painful. The aspect of reality that is constant, that lies deep within us as our soulfulness, the part of us that can observe our experience.

Shiva, shakti, yin and yang.

To be conscious of how life wants to flow– and to practice being open to it in all of its forms, the beauty and the pain, that is intimacy with life for me.

–

We learn to track our body in data– our heart rates, our speed, our calories, our sleep.

But data is devoid of depth.

It does not tell you about the heaviness you feel in your.
It does not tell you the reasons for the contraction in your chest.
It does not tell you why that right shoulder feels achy in certain situations.

For that, we need to be intimate with the wisdom of our own body.
For that, we need to feel.
For that, we need embodiment.

We live in a culture teaching us to distrust our bodies.

We can track everything.
But what do we trust?

I live in a body that balances between tracking and trusting for all of my life.

I have a condition inexplicable by the most educated since I was 6.
I have not had eye check-ups for the last 10 months, a risky choice I made myself, with lots of care.

A choice I made because I wanted to see the world & feel myself deeper beyond measure..

My body has needed heavy tracking, profound monitoring, and altering too.
All the while, I have learned to trust for the last 25+ years.

I feel my body more than any machine will ever understand.
I feel the slight changes that cannot be measured.
And these are no easy words to write– yes, I am scared of what I feel at times, my mind wants the tracking at times, yet I trust my body fully.

We live in a culture that urges us to give over our intuition to experts.
That demands answers beyond attunement.

The body becomes something to control & censor, to fight & fix.
It is in our language: we ‘fight’ the cells that give off the dis-ease, we ‘overcome’ the sickness, we ‘battle’ until we are healed.

And I do love the tracking, oh am I grateful for it every day.
But my body is not wrong when the tracking says so.

Embodied living, for me, has meant a lot in living in a body that has its own way.
To feel, to attune.
It made me trust beyond tracking.
And love beyond the labels.

I know how hard it is to not know, to have no answer and only sensation.

But feeling, being attuned to the wisdom of your own body, knowing how your body speaks to you and trusting that, is incredibly valuable.

Embodiment is valuable beyond measure 💕

#embodiment #deeperrelating

We learn to track our body in data– our heart rates, our speed, our calories, our sleep.

But data is devoid of depth.

It does not tell you about the heaviness you feel in your.
It does not tell you the reasons for the contraction in your chest.
It does not tell you why that right shoulder feels achy in certain situations.

For that, we need to be intimate with the wisdom of our own body.
For that, we need to feel.
For that, we need embodiment.

We live in a culture teaching us to distrust our bodies.

We can track everything.
But what do we trust?

I live in a body that balances between tracking and trusting for all of my life.

I have a condition inexplicable by the most educated since I was 6.
I have not had eye check-ups for the last 10 months, a risky choice I made myself, with lots of care.

A choice I made because I wanted to see the world & feel myself deeper beyond measure..

My body has needed heavy tracking, profound monitoring, and altering too.
All the while, I have learned to trust for the last 25+ years.

I feel my body more than any machine will ever understand.
I feel the slight changes that cannot be measured.
And these are no easy words to write– yes, I am scared of what I feel at times, my mind wants the tracking at times, yet I trust my body fully.

We live in a culture that urges us to give over our intuition to experts.
That demands answers beyond attunement.

The body becomes something to control & censor, to fight & fix.
It is in our language: we ‘fight’ the cells that give off the dis-ease, we ‘overcome’ the sickness, we ‘battle’ until we are healed.

And I do love the tracking, oh am I grateful for it every day.
But my body is not wrong when the tracking says so.

Embodied living, for me, has meant a lot in living in a body that has its own way.
To feel, to attune.
It made me trust beyond tracking.
And love beyond the labels.

I know how hard it is to not know, to have no answer and only sensation.

But feeling, being attuned to the wisdom of your own body, knowing how your body speaks to you and trusting that, is incredibly valuable.

Embodiment is valuable beyond measure 💕

#embodiment #deeperrelating

“You have no wrinkles”, she said, as I sat with 10 women, talking about injectables.

“You don’t have any stress in your face, your skin is smooth and glowy”

This topic of what I call ‘surface shine beauty’ is one I am passionate for & uncomfortable with at times. I call it surface shine; I believe there is a ‘pulse of beauty’ that is more than skin-deep..

I am the recipient of plastic surgery, albeit received very young for good medical reasons.
I wear the scars from laser treatment gone wrong on my face.

& in another life, I worked in the dermal industry— taught dermatology students, saw how women adjusted themselves too, worked in private practice on body image & skin acceptance.

I see the lure for women to adjust their skin & the deep longing to be beautiful in it.

This longing to be beautiful is as old as civilization. With the position of women, we happen to find ourselves in a time where longing for beauty expresses in the form of adjustment.

With my heart-shaped b’mark, I’m a woman who cannot choose this adjusting, even if I wanted to.

“How to relate to beauty when women around you choose to adjust while you will not have that choice?” – an inquiry that fascinates me.

Mostly, I learned to treasure my skin, give loving care to it, learned to relate to my skin beyond surface shine.

I love relating to the depth of radiance; the light and shine a woman has within her

I write this with so much love;
that light can be dimmed no matter how smooth your skin is

You can look model-perfect while no radiance or light shines through you

ánd you can defy every ‘beauty standard’ and be the most magnetic, radiant woman in the room.

If I could choose, maybe I would’ve adjusted my skin.

Yet, my skin brought me a deep relationship to beauty, made me value natural expression, showed me how wrong things can go, how precious our body is.

I don’t believe adjustments are only wrong, I’m grateful for the ones I received— the question perhaps is in the “why”?

Beyond it all, there remains something to a radiant woman, adjusted or not

So, I deepen my relationship to that

• • musings— curious about your relationship to beauty + your skin…

“You have no wrinkles”, she said, as I sat with 10 women, talking about injectables.

“You don’t have any stress in your face, your skin is smooth and glowy”

This topic of what I call ‘surface shine beauty’ is one I am passionate for & uncomfortable with at times. I call it surface shine; I believe there is a ‘pulse of beauty’ that is more than skin-deep..

I am the recipient of plastic surgery, albeit received very young for good medical reasons.
I wear the scars from laser treatment gone wrong on my face.

& in another life, I worked in the dermal industry— taught dermatology students, saw how women adjusted themselves too, worked in private practice on body image & skin acceptance.

I see the lure for women to adjust their skin & the deep longing to be beautiful in it.

This longing to be beautiful is as old as civilization. With the position of women, we happen to find ourselves in a time where longing for beauty expresses in the form of adjustment.

With my heart-shaped b’mark, I’m a woman who cannot choose this adjusting, even if I wanted to.

“How to relate to beauty when women around you choose to adjust while you will not have that choice?” – an inquiry that fascinates me.

Mostly, I learned to treasure my skin, give loving care to it, learned to relate to my skin beyond surface shine.

I love relating to the depth of radiance; the light and shine a woman has within her

I write this with so much love;
that light can be dimmed no matter how smooth your skin is

You can look model-perfect while no radiance or light shines through you

ánd you can defy every ‘beauty standard’ and be the most magnetic, radiant woman in the room.

If I could choose, maybe I would’ve adjusted my skin.

Yet, my skin brought me a deep relationship to beauty, made me value natural expression, showed me how wrong things can go, how precious our body is.

I don’t believe adjustments are only wrong, I’m grateful for the ones I received— the question perhaps is in the “why”?

Beyond it all, there remains something to a radiant woman, adjusted or not

So, I deepen my relationship to that

• • musings— curious about your relationship to beauty + your skin…

I find these beautiful questions, because often our bodies clench, harden and tighten around life experiences that challenge, hurt or impact us. We often ‘forget’ the free, joyous, unbridled expression that lies beneath what hurt us.

Before we got hurt, whether emotionally, mentally, physically, there was a sense of lightness, freedom in expression and a joy in being.

And so what happens when we release the hardness held in our body and return to a joy in being?

Feel into the places in your life that feel stuck, where do you feel hardness?
— where does that hardness show up in your body? Where do you hold tightness?

Where are you taking things too seriously, where does seriousness show up in your soma?

Sometimes hardness serves us, sometimes it no longer does.

How can you relax tension and turn to joy?

How can you bring more levity in your body?

What does it mean to trust in ecstasy beyond the ache?

What does joy feel and express like in your body, in your life?

The question of what joy feels like before we were hurt is one I explore often in private practice with clients because it is empowering to choose joy, not to ignore the hurt but use joy as something to return to, regulate with and rest in

I have transformed these questions into a little offering;

—- a joy in being :: a month-long journey into the essence of your joy

dm me ‘joy’ for the link to join - we start june 4th ::

#joy #empowerment #offering #embodiment #embodiedliving #somatics #healing #remembrance

I find these beautiful questions, because often our bodies clench, harden and tighten around life experiences that challenge, hurt or impact us. We often ‘forget’ the free, joyous, unbridled expression that lies beneath what hurt us.

Before we got hurt, whether emotionally, mentally, physically, there was a sense of lightness, freedom in expression and a joy in being.

And so what happens when we release the hardness held in our body and return to a joy in being?

Feel into the places in your life that feel stuck, where do you feel hardness?
— where does that hardness show up in your body? Where do you hold tightness?

Where are you taking things too seriously, where does seriousness show up in your soma?

Sometimes hardness serves us, sometimes it no longer does.

How can you relax tension and turn to joy?

How can you bring more levity in your body?

What does it mean to trust in ecstasy beyond the ache?

What does joy feel and express like in your body, in your life?

The question of what joy feels like before we were hurt is one I explore often in private practice with clients because it is empowering to choose joy, not to ignore the hurt but use joy as something to return to, regulate with and rest in

I have transformed these questions into a little offering;

—- a joy in being :: a month-long journey into the essence of your joy

dm me ‘joy’ for the link to join - we start june 4th ::

#joy #empowerment #offering #embodiment #embodiedliving #somatics #healing #remembrance

I have lost countless things, people, and bodily functions too— either indefinitely or for a time I didn’t know how long would be.
It taught me to be with the unknown.

I have sat with those undiagnosed, untreatable, those who’ve lost everything that was dear to them and more, and those who long, never to know if their love will come

The unknown aspect of life, with the joy as much as the grief that is in that..

When we are more explicitly confronted with not knowing how life will unfold, it brings us to the essence of what is true for us— values, what brings us joy, what and who we love.

And the relationship to the unknown asks of you to have a strong spine and a soft heart— to carry yourself wholesomely, while remaining open to whatever turn life may take you.

Being with the unknown is deeply rooted in your body, for your mind will not be of service here

as sometimes our body knows things we can barely understand.

And so, in the unknown, we learn to feel, and we learn to listen for what is true to us.

There is no room for control in relationship to the unknown.
Right there, is where you are asked to relinquish all things you think you can micromanage. This is where you realize there is quite little to be certain about.

And this will teach you, deeply.

What the unknown taught me most, is seeing the beauty in all small things.

To learn about pain, and true pleasure

About challenge, and celebration.

About savoring the moment, and slowing it all down.

There is something to the relationship to the unknown that is powerful,
for the simple fact that we have to let go of forced power we thought we had over our lives.

And somehow, finding ourselves in the unknown of life, for me, has become a joyful place, because it hold the potency to intimately connect to the very simple truths of what truly brings us joy in life.

— #reflections
+ sharing something soon to be with this kind of joy.

#embodiment #resilience #transformation #healing #somatics #beauty #theuknown

I have lost countless things, people, and bodily functions too— either indefinitely or for a time I didn’t know how long would be.
It taught me to be with the unknown.

I have sat with those undiagnosed, untreatable, those who’ve lost everything that was dear to them and more, and those who long, never to know if their love will come

The unknown aspect of life, with the joy as much as the grief that is in that..

When we are more explicitly confronted with not knowing how life will unfold, it brings us to the essence of what is true for us— values, what brings us joy, what and who we love.

And the relationship to the unknown asks of you to have a strong spine and a soft heart— to carry yourself wholesomely, while remaining open to whatever turn life may take you.

Being with the unknown is deeply rooted in your body, for your mind will not be of service here

as sometimes our body knows things we can barely understand.

And so, in the unknown, we learn to feel, and we learn to listen for what is true to us.

There is no room for control in relationship to the unknown.
Right there, is where you are asked to relinquish all things you think you can micromanage. This is where you realize there is quite little to be certain about.

And this will teach you, deeply.

What the unknown taught me most, is seeing the beauty in all small things.

To learn about pain, and true pleasure

About challenge, and celebration.

About savoring the moment, and slowing it all down.

There is something to the relationship to the unknown that is powerful,
for the simple fact that we have to let go of forced power we thought we had over our lives.

And somehow, finding ourselves in the unknown of life, for me, has become a joyful place, because it hold the potency to intimately connect to the very simple truths of what truly brings us joy in life.

— #reflections
+ sharing something soon to be with this kind of joy.

#embodiment #resilience #transformation #healing #somatics #beauty #theuknown

“How to live a life in support of the body and honor the capacity to feel deeply?”

I speak and work with so many women in search for this.

The sensitive women.
Those who are deeply empathetic, who feel A LOT, emotionally as well as physically.
Those with heightened senses
and bodies with limitations, in need for more rest, solitude and relaxation.

I see the lure of the burnout, the overwhelm, anxiety and overstimulation, the overextension all around me in women who try to uphold it all. I’ve seen the despair, the sadness and defeat, and the trying.

I witness the clenched jaws, the tightness in the bellies, the pursed lips and the contracted chests— for no fault of their own, as this is what a rushed world demands of a soft and sensitive woman.

What is needed for living life in honor of the body?

Early on in life I had no choice but to live that way. I simply live in a body that doms me to honor my vessel.

There is beauty in having a body with a strong upper limit— there is no way around, no pushing beyond, but to rest

I taught me to stay away from most of the lures in our society, through a myriad of ways, practices and daily choices— not always easy, but over and over choosing devotion to live life embodied.

I can tell you that living in support and honor of your bidy & nature isn’t beyond your reach at all. Actually, it is the most natural thing to return to.

And so, this is what I offer— the return to sensitivity, to rest, to riding the waves of emotion, with the boundaries, discernment, choices in place that allow the joy and celebration of softness, relaxation, contemplation, introversion

to bloom and flourish in living in support of our body and feminine essence regardless whether the dream is to work a 9/5 job, kickass in the boardroom, to have hands in soil all day, whether to attract a dream partner, longing for more intimacy in life, or whether in recovery from bodily challenge.

I offer to say– no matter what life path you walk, your body is your vessel through which you experience life, and your body works for you, never against you— will you listen?

—
a little offering to this is coming soon, dm me ‘being’ for the link ::

“How to live a life in support of the body and honor the capacity to feel deeply?”

I speak and work with so many women in search for this.

The sensitive women.
Those who are deeply empathetic, who feel A LOT, emotionally as well as physically.
Those with heightened senses
and bodies with limitations, in need for more rest, solitude and relaxation.

I see the lure of the burnout, the overwhelm, anxiety and overstimulation, the overextension all around me in women who try to uphold it all. I’ve seen the despair, the sadness and defeat, and the trying.

I witness the clenched jaws, the tightness in the bellies, the pursed lips and the contracted chests— for no fault of their own, as this is what a rushed world demands of a soft and sensitive woman.

What is needed for living life in honor of the body?

Early on in life I had no choice but to live that way. I simply live in a body that doms me to honor my vessel.

There is beauty in having a body with a strong upper limit— there is no way around, no pushing beyond, but to rest

I taught me to stay away from most of the lures in our society, through a myriad of ways, practices and daily choices— not always easy, but over and over choosing devotion to live life embodied.

I can tell you that living in support and honor of your bidy & nature isn’t beyond your reach at all. Actually, it is the most natural thing to return to.

And so, this is what I offer— the return to sensitivity, to rest, to riding the waves of emotion, with the boundaries, discernment, choices in place that allow the joy and celebration of softness, relaxation, contemplation, introversion

to bloom and flourish in living in support of our body and feminine essence regardless whether the dream is to work a 9/5 job, kickass in the boardroom, to have hands in soil all day, whether to attract a dream partner, longing for more intimacy in life, or whether in recovery from bodily challenge.

I offer to say– no matter what life path you walk, your body is your vessel through which you experience life, and your body works for you, never against you— will you listen?

—
a little offering to this is coming soon, dm me ‘being’ for the link ::

This beautiful analogy I learned from one of my teachers on the difference between therapy-based healing work and practice-based healing work.

We will all face times in our lives when we need to tend to our wounds, whether those wounds are physical, mental, emotional or spiritual– we tend to them, inquire into them, heal them with love, care, reflection and rest.

And there is a time when we integrate those wounds, where we learn to live life with them as a whole part of who we are, where our wounds are part of our lived experience, where it becomes our practice to bring ourselves into life despite the limitations, despite the scar tissue, or the twitch.

This distinction matters when we choose to heal a part of ourselves– to inquire whether what we need is therapy-based healing, or practice-based healing.

I love both, we need both. When we courageously choose to look at who we are in our wholesomeness, the healing we choose depends on what we encounter within ourselves and on our paths in life..

Do we need to heal, tend to, care, inquire and rest and reflect?

Or do we need to practice, embrace, expand, deepen, and courageously step in and bring ourselves into life, into our relationships, despite it all?

🌹
#therapeutics #therapy #practice #somatics #embodiment #empowerment #beauty #wisdom #healing

This beautiful analogy I learned from one of my teachers on the difference between therapy-based healing work and practice-based healing work.

We will all face times in our lives when we need to tend to our wounds, whether those wounds are physical, mental, emotional or spiritual– we tend to them, inquire into them, heal them with love, care, reflection and rest.

And there is a time when we integrate those wounds, where we learn to live life with them as a whole part of who we are, where our wounds are part of our lived experience, where it becomes our practice to bring ourselves into life despite the limitations, despite the scar tissue, or the twitch.

This distinction matters when we choose to heal a part of ourselves– to inquire whether what we need is therapy-based healing, or practice-based healing.

I love both, we need both. When we courageously choose to look at who we are in our wholesomeness, the healing we choose depends on what we encounter within ourselves and on our paths in life..

Do we need to heal, tend to, care, inquire and rest and reflect?

Or do we need to practice, embrace, expand, deepen, and courageously step in and bring ourselves into life, into our relationships, despite it all?

🌹
#therapeutics #therapy #practice #somatics #embodiment #empowerment #beauty #wisdom #healing

I love to be in the intimate depths of unravelling who we are & coming back into deep connection with our body, heart, and the living world around us.

Somatics and embodiment are the foundation of my work offering somatic psychotherapy and relational mentoring — rooted in the belief that healing happens when we slow down, feel, and become aware of how we relate to life, to others, and to ourselves.

Early on, life led me to first and foremost live in support of the body. I felt connected to the healing arts and therapeutic space amidst my own (bodily) challenges– blending the depth of trauma-informed therapy with the art of embodiment, self-inquiry, emotional maturation, and relational intimacy.

And I truly loved my studies in uni– in anthropology, (buddhist) psychology, (Indian) philosophy, and intersectionality while eventually completing an MSc in women’s diversity studies and bodyism.

The guidance I offer is informed by my academic background as well as my deepening in paths like depth psychology, Ayurveda, human flourishing, Kashmir Shaivism, feminine spiritual & sexual practice, yogic practice, and creative ritual.

I work both with women and men— to tend to our unique becoming in living, loving and leading.

Flourishing in life to me means a life lived in rhythm with the body. From the tenderness of being human, the celebration of our beauty, to the fierce grace of self-trust and resilience, creativity, and inner freedom — and to reconnect to the living intelligence of the body, and how to relate, flourish, open and root ourselves in the world.

the essence is in
𖦹 somatic psychotherapy & trauma integration
𖦹 embodiment, attunement & nervous system regulation
𖦹 inner leadership, self-trust & creative living
𖦹 s/x, love & relationship coaching through the art of relating
𖦹 the beauty way — creating a life of depth and grace

1:1 somatic therapy & mentorship is where I spent my time most, online and in person while teaching workshops and programs, and I love writing my heart out, always, for myself, and here —

→ for mentorship & inquiries
DM me, see link in bio or visit tessaschiethart.com

with love,
Tessa

I love to be in the intimate depths of unravelling who we are & coming back into deep connection with our body, heart, and the living world around us.

Somatics and embodiment are the foundation of my work offering somatic psychotherapy and relational mentoring — rooted in the belief that healing happens when we slow down, feel, and become aware of how we relate to life, to others, and to ourselves.

Early on, life led me to first and foremost live in support of the body. I felt connected to the healing arts and therapeutic space amidst my own (bodily) challenges– blending the depth of trauma-informed therapy with the art of embodiment, self-inquiry, emotional maturation, and relational intimacy.

And I truly loved my studies in uni– in anthropology, (buddhist) psychology, (Indian) philosophy, and intersectionality while eventually completing an MSc in women’s diversity studies and bodyism.

The guidance I offer is informed by my academic background as well as my deepening in paths like depth psychology, Ayurveda, human flourishing, Kashmir Shaivism, feminine spiritual & sexual practice, yogic practice, and creative ritual.

I work both with women and men— to tend to our unique becoming in living, loving and leading.

Flourishing in life to me means a life lived in rhythm with the body. From the tenderness of being human, the celebration of our beauty, to the fierce grace of self-trust and resilience, creativity, and inner freedom — and to reconnect to the living intelligence of the body, and how to relate, flourish, open and root ourselves in the world.

the essence is in
𖦹 somatic psychotherapy & trauma integration
𖦹 embodiment, attunement & nervous system regulation
𖦹 inner leadership, self-trust & creative living
𖦹 s/x, love & relationship coaching through the art of relating
𖦹 the beauty way — creating a life of depth and grace

1:1 somatic therapy & mentorship is where I spent my time most, online and in person while teaching workshops and programs, and I love writing my heart out, always, for myself, and here —

→ for mentorship & inquiries
DM me, see link in bio or visit tessaschiethart.com

with love,
Tessa

a dear Ayurvedic teacher once said to me “the true school of life is relationship”— meaning that we learn most in relationship

and mostly we think of relationship as one intimate partner or romantic connection, but all of Life is relational.

With intimacy and connection as the foundation, the art of relating teaches us not necessarily what to do in a situation, but rather how to relate

and it teaches us in many aspects of life

in relating to our body, our food, movement, rest, pleasure, the people in our life, the challenges in our life… all of life is relational.

the art of it lies in how we choose to relate 🌹

| www.tessaschiethart.com • relational mentoring, somatic therapy.

___
#relationship #wrtofrelating #intimacy #connection

a dear Ayurvedic teacher once said to me “the true school of life is relationship”— meaning that we learn most in relationship

and mostly we think of relationship as one intimate partner or romantic connection, but all of Life is relational.

With intimacy and connection as the foundation, the art of relating teaches us not necessarily what to do in a situation, but rather how to relate

and it teaches us in many aspects of life

in relating to our body, our food, movement, rest, pleasure, the people in our life, the challenges in our life… all of life is relational.

the art of it lies in how we choose to relate 🌹

| www.tessaschiethart.com • relational mentoring, somatic therapy.

___
#relationship #wrtofrelating #intimacy #connection

The deep pulse of the feminine is what the past 3 months have given me here in bali— after a year that was challenging, this 1st trimester of this year has felt like the deepest anchor and fullest gestation; a winter of rainy season within the watery waters of the womb space that this island always has felt like for me.

She nurtured me, cared for me, she gave me a time full of ease & deep joy.

She may have taught me yet another layer of what wholesomeness feels like as I laid my body on her lands. It feels like she has whispered to me in ways I couldn’t hear before, but were now clearer than the lightning she struck in her rainy season.

She. the great She. The feminine pulse of Life that is the magic cure of this island.

This time fed me, oh so well, stretched me, oh so well. Holy hands massaged my body in myriad ways, while wrapped in garments, sarongs & things of beauty.

All the while I cultivated consciousness, sat in emptiness, countless hours in lotus awareness.

This time was the dance of fullness and emptiness, of the shiva/shakti within me, and all around me—teaching me yet again we need inner union to become whole within ourselves.

This sense of inner union is the guidance to the seat within our self, our home, our throne.

this seat, this home— or ‘swastha’, my favorite Sanskrit word, meaning ‘being anchored in one’s seat’ or ‘taking one’s throne’— within our body, our holy vessel, our own soil.

Home-coming and being anchored is the very thing the science of life, ayurveda, teaches me, and that the yogic path lets me realize, and the t.ntric path brings me in unity with. Just like it did 14 years ago, when my journey on these paths started, with innocent first steps, here, on her land.

Thank you bali, until the next dance with essence.

#suksma #swastha

The deep pulse of the feminine is what the past 3 months have given me here in bali— after a year that was challenging, this 1st trimester of this year has felt like the deepest anchor and fullest gestation; a winter of rainy season within the watery waters of the womb space that this island always has felt like for me.

She nurtured me, cared for me, she gave me a time full of ease & deep joy.

She may have taught me yet another layer of what wholesomeness feels like as I laid my body on her lands. It feels like she has whispered to me in ways I couldn’t hear before, but were now clearer than the lightning she struck in her rainy season.

She. the great She. The feminine pulse of Life that is the magic cure of this island.

This time fed me, oh so well, stretched me, oh so well. Holy hands massaged my body in myriad ways, while wrapped in garments, sarongs & things of beauty.

All the while I cultivated consciousness, sat in emptiness, countless hours in lotus awareness.

This time was the dance of fullness and emptiness, of the shiva/shakti within me, and all around me—teaching me yet again we need inner union to become whole within ourselves.

This sense of inner union is the guidance to the seat within our self, our home, our throne.

this seat, this home— or ‘swastha’, my favorite Sanskrit word, meaning ‘being anchored in one’s seat’ or ‘taking one’s throne’— within our body, our holy vessel, our own soil.

Home-coming and being anchored is the very thing the science of life, ayurveda, teaches me, and that the yogic path lets me realize, and the t.ntric path brings me in unity with. Just like it did 14 years ago, when my journey on these paths started, with innocent first steps, here, on her land.

Thank you bali, until the next dance with essence.

#suksma #swastha

Many women have in some way diminished their expression. Being catcalled on the street as a girl, being seg.sualized or looked at in all sorts of ways— this all has an impact on a woman’s expression and the way she carries her body.

I sure had my own journey with expression myself in a body that is constantly looked at.

Many women go through stages of relating to their expression.
From dressing down, dressing up and from hiding to exhibitionism— we learn to express ourselves based on the responses we get & have gotten in the past that affected us emotionally.

Whether you dress all black, plain, colorful or fifty shades of bougey beige (hi!), whether you express sexy, wild, protective, sheltered, neutral— it carries meaning, and has impact.

The question is, are you expressing in a way that serves the moment you are in?

There is reason to close in certain situations.
There are reasons to open in others.
With a lover, you want to express differently than when you’re in delhi’s airport so to say..

do you bring your fullness or does it perhaps not serve? do you bring less of yourself where more of you is actually deepening the moment you’re in?

The feminine pulse within each of us, the energy we carry in our body, can be cultivated.

The cultivation of your expression as a woman is a skill—a skill I love to deepen with women in.

As women, we have a tremendous ability to impact the world around us with our expression.
ánd our awareness of our own expression, magnetism and attraction is key to living a more liberated, embodied and expressed life.

I sit with women who want to hide a little more from the world, or who are always stared at, women who never feel seen, or model-perfect-looking women who have shrunken their expression.

The way we carry our bodies impacts the world, but more so; it mostly impacts our own experience of our body, our being, and the fullness of our lives

🌹 relational mentoring • somatic psychotherapy • www.tessaschiethart.com/support

Many women have in some way diminished their expression. Being catcalled on the street as a girl, being seg.sualized or looked at in all sorts of ways— this all has an impact on a woman’s expression and the way she carries her body.

I sure had my own journey with expression myself in a body that is constantly looked at.

Many women go through stages of relating to their expression.
From dressing down, dressing up and from hiding to exhibitionism— we learn to express ourselves based on the responses we get & have gotten in the past that affected us emotionally.

Whether you dress all black, plain, colorful or fifty shades of bougey beige (hi!), whether you express sexy, wild, protective, sheltered, neutral— it carries meaning, and has impact.

The question is, are you expressing in a way that serves the moment you are in?

There is reason to close in certain situations.
There are reasons to open in others.
With a lover, you want to express differently than when you’re in delhi’s airport so to say..

do you bring your fullness or does it perhaps not serve? do you bring less of yourself where more of you is actually deepening the moment you’re in?

The feminine pulse within each of us, the energy we carry in our body, can be cultivated.

The cultivation of your expression as a woman is a skill—a skill I love to deepen with women in.

As women, we have a tremendous ability to impact the world around us with our expression.
ánd our awareness of our own expression, magnetism and attraction is key to living a more liberated, embodied and expressed life.

I sit with women who want to hide a little more from the world, or who are always stared at, women who never feel seen, or model-perfect-looking women who have shrunken their expression.

The way we carry our bodies impacts the world, but more so; it mostly impacts our own experience of our body, our being, and the fullness of our lives

🌹 relational mentoring • somatic psychotherapy • www.tessaschiethart.com/support

There is life waiting for you, and a season of blossoming upon you.

Life is composed of love and light, within the dark, as a seed in the soil waiting for the right condition to manifest.

It is laying dormant in the dark, and as soon as the light is there, it springs out.

And then you put all the love and energy to this seed, nourishing and nurturing it, letting this seed unfurl from the dark soil hiding itself in. and that sprouting, spring unfurling is a beautiful energetic love

You are that seed, and this is the way to tend to your own soil, your very own body and being, as there is something waiting within you to sprout, to unfurl

And with the right condition, the right love and light, it will.

The right light and right love manifests Life.

Life: a vibrancy, an unfurling of becoming ourselves, and a continuous thread that weaves us all.

Engaging with Life through the right condition of love, light and acknowledging the soil we come from.

No seed is the same, but all seeds grow from the same light, deserve the same love.

We are all part and parcel of that same life, that flows through the veins, arteries,, undercurrent and overcurrents within and around us,

And that flow, that thread, that pulse of life… it streams through us all.

🌸 spring equinox from luscious bali —
grateful for the winter rains here, closing season here, opening to the wildflowers of Portugal’s spring.

& so loving my pinky rose birthmark in this season, that shows her colour through the warmth, relaxation, rejuvenation, and the veins of openness within (quite literally)

www.tessaschiethart.com/support

There is life waiting for you, and a season of blossoming upon you.

Life is composed of love and light, within the dark, as a seed in the soil waiting for the right condition to manifest.

It is laying dormant in the dark, and as soon as the light is there, it springs out.

And then you put all the love and energy to this seed, nourishing and nurturing it, letting this seed unfurl from the dark soil hiding itself in. and that sprouting, spring unfurling is a beautiful energetic love

You are that seed, and this is the way to tend to your own soil, your very own body and being, as there is something waiting within you to sprout, to unfurl

And with the right condition, the right love and light, it will.

The right light and right love manifests Life.

Life: a vibrancy, an unfurling of becoming ourselves, and a continuous thread that weaves us all.

Engaging with Life through the right condition of love, light and acknowledging the soil we come from.

No seed is the same, but all seeds grow from the same light, deserve the same love.

We are all part and parcel of that same life, that flows through the veins, arteries,, undercurrent and overcurrents within and around us,

And that flow, that thread, that pulse of life… it streams through us all.

🌸 spring equinox from luscious bali —
grateful for the winter rains here, closing season here, opening to the wildflowers of Portugal’s spring.

& so loving my pinky rose birthmark in this season, that shows her colour through the warmth, relaxation, rejuvenation, and the veins of openness within (quite literally)

www.tessaschiethart.com/support

Beauty, to me, is so much more than shine, looks, glamour or gloss

I am so grateful for a father, who is a quantum mathematician, and who taught me early on in life there is so much more to beauty.

I was given insight into sacred geometry, universal laws, and harmony and balance that brings about Beauty and that this Beauty also lived within us.

There is something deeper to Beauty, a deep pulse, a deep radiance that shines from within.

We each hold this within, this inner radiance. It is a life force that can be cultivated to shine outwards into the world.

To me, beauty is in the order and harmony of nature, in energy, in rhythms and cycles, in the beat of our heart and the way we carry the body and see the world.

Beauty, more than only seen, is then lived.

🌹 #thebeautyway #beauty #empowerment #lifeforce #radiance #sacredgeometry #navajo

Beauty, to me, is so much more than shine, looks, glamour or gloss

I am so grateful for a father, who is a quantum mathematician, and who taught me early on in life there is so much more to beauty.

I was given insight into sacred geometry, universal laws, and harmony and balance that brings about Beauty and that this Beauty also lived within us.

There is something deeper to Beauty, a deep pulse, a deep radiance that shines from within.

We each hold this within, this inner radiance. It is a life force that can be cultivated to shine outwards into the world.

To me, beauty is in the order and harmony of nature, in energy, in rhythms and cycles, in the beat of our heart and the way we carry the body and see the world.

Beauty, more than only seen, is then lived.

🌹 #thebeautyway #beauty #empowerment #lifeforce #radiance #sacredgeometry #navajo

there are times in our lives that ask for deep healing— a healing that includes the understanding of mind ánd the wisdom of the body, healing that softens so it releases, healing that asks for our pain to be witnessed, so that it transforms into beauty. 🌹

— if the words resonate, subscribe to my newsletter where I send the occasional long-form writing (yes to slow content!)— dm ‘subscribe’, I’ll send the link. 🌹

there are times in our lives that ask for deep healing— a healing that includes the understanding of mind ánd the wisdom of the body, healing that softens so it releases, healing that asks for our pain to be witnessed, so that it transforms into beauty. 🌹

— if the words resonate, subscribe to my newsletter where I send the occasional long-form writing (yes to slow content!)— dm ‘subscribe’, I’ll send the link. 🌹

daily, I have people tell me their fears in their lives, their challenges and hardships.

with that, they also tell me their frustrations, patterns and how they can feel stuck.

I recently had a client tell me she was so scared to be betrayed that she started to heavily control the situation she was in

I love to shift perspectives.
To come to see that beneath her fear lies her care.
And that the control is merely a pattern to get her care met.

A pattern often is just a way to get our care, love and longing met in a way that doesn’t actually serve us— the pattern

Until we see the deeper layer;

that our patterns actually hold a beauty beneath them

and that that beauty IS our deep feeling, our deep care, our deep love and longing for something, someone.

• beneath the patterns we hold lies the beauty of the truth of what we actually feel

Once we see the deeper layer to our pattern (care, love, a longing), we see it differently too, and that’s where a pattern can shift

because anything you judge cannot shift

When you release your own judgements on your patterns, and shift your perspective to the beauty underneath, things in your life can shift for the better.

The care, love and longing can be shown more fully, more raw, authentically and truthfully

You can honor the beautiful aspects of the hardship you experience and hold yourself in it more wholesomely.

You can express the deeper layers of feeling more beautifully with those you are in relationship with too.

This is where we can flourish from— when we see beneath the patterns that hold us back, honor the deeper layers of feeling beneath them, relate differently to the pattern, and transform them into beauty 🌹

| www.tessaschiethart.com

#deeperrelating #theartofrelating #humanflourishing #embodiedliving #thebeautyway #lookdeeper #seetruth #empowerment #bittersweet #transformation

daily, I have people tell me their fears in their lives, their challenges and hardships.

with that, they also tell me their frustrations, patterns and how they can feel stuck.

I recently had a client tell me she was so scared to be betrayed that she started to heavily control the situation she was in

I love to shift perspectives.
To come to see that beneath her fear lies her care.
And that the control is merely a pattern to get her care met.

A pattern often is just a way to get our care, love and longing met in a way that doesn’t actually serve us— the pattern

Until we see the deeper layer;

that our patterns actually hold a beauty beneath them

and that that beauty IS our deep feeling, our deep care, our deep love and longing for something, someone.

• beneath the patterns we hold lies the beauty of the truth of what we actually feel

Once we see the deeper layer to our pattern (care, love, a longing), we see it differently too, and that’s where a pattern can shift

because anything you judge cannot shift

When you release your own judgements on your patterns, and shift your perspective to the beauty underneath, things in your life can shift for the better.

The care, love and longing can be shown more fully, more raw, authentically and truthfully

You can honor the beautiful aspects of the hardship you experience and hold yourself in it more wholesomely.

You can express the deeper layers of feeling more beautifully with those you are in relationship with too.

This is where we can flourish from— when we see beneath the patterns that hold us back, honor the deeper layers of feeling beneath them, relate differently to the pattern, and transform them into beauty 🌹

| www.tessaschiethart.com

#deeperrelating #theartofrelating #humanflourishing #embodiedliving #thebeautyway #lookdeeper #seetruth #empowerment #bittersweet #transformation

It was in the moments I was sick that I found reverence for my body.

The moments I could barely move, that showed me movement was what I wanted to devote to.

It was in the moments when my eyesight was recovering from surgery, and I couldn’t see, that I became intimate with smell, taste, touch…
And those moments once lasted a summer of 3 months of only that,
where life became slow, sensual to the touch, taste and smell.
Blurry but blissful. Dark yet light.

–being present to the sensations of life, of deeply living life with reverence to your body and your experience, of being with beauty and devotion in every moment.

The relationship to our bodies and the challenges there, has the potency for us to become intimate with the most important aspects of living. To not take living for granted, and to enjoy the ecstasy that lies within each moment. Regardless of what you see, taste, smell, touch, relate to, or hear, to find beauty there– exactly as the moment unfolds.

I’ve learned that we often think everything is super important until we are sick.
Because when we have that annoying cold, the life-threatening diagnosis, we often realize that this moment counts, and that it is lived from within the body. And that there was only ever one thing important. Your health. Your body. And that your body was the only place you’d ever really live.

And then there is the realization what a blessing a body without pain or discomfort truly is. I still have these moments, where pain transforms into beauty.

I hope you root into reverence to your body, I hope you devote to the very place you will only ever live.

I hope you see, smell, taste, hear and touch your own divinity in moments, especially the challenging ones.

I hope you find wholeness there.

I hope you take seat within your own body, like what in Ayurveda is called ‘swastha’; an anchoredness within your own being.

acknowledging that there is reverence for the body to be found in the very moments where you are challenged with your body.

To never forget, it is a gift to feel comfort in your body.

It is the only place of true belonging 🌹

embodied living | deeper relating | www.tessaschiethart.com

It was in the moments I was sick that I found reverence for my body.

The moments I could barely move, that showed me movement was what I wanted to devote to.

It was in the moments when my eyesight was recovering from surgery, and I couldn’t see, that I became intimate with smell, taste, touch…
And those moments once lasted a summer of 3 months of only that,
where life became slow, sensual to the touch, taste and smell.
Blurry but blissful. Dark yet light.

–being present to the sensations of life, of deeply living life with reverence to your body and your experience, of being with beauty and devotion in every moment.

The relationship to our bodies and the challenges there, has the potency for us to become intimate with the most important aspects of living. To not take living for granted, and to enjoy the ecstasy that lies within each moment. Regardless of what you see, taste, smell, touch, relate to, or hear, to find beauty there– exactly as the moment unfolds.

I’ve learned that we often think everything is super important until we are sick.
Because when we have that annoying cold, the life-threatening diagnosis, we often realize that this moment counts, and that it is lived from within the body. And that there was only ever one thing important. Your health. Your body. And that your body was the only place you’d ever really live.

And then there is the realization what a blessing a body without pain or discomfort truly is. I still have these moments, where pain transforms into beauty.

I hope you root into reverence to your body, I hope you devote to the very place you will only ever live.

I hope you see, smell, taste, hear and touch your own divinity in moments, especially the challenging ones.

I hope you find wholeness there.

I hope you take seat within your own body, like what in Ayurveda is called ‘swastha’; an anchoredness within your own being.

acknowledging that there is reverence for the body to be found in the very moments where you are challenged with your body.

To never forget, it is a gift to feel comfort in your body.

It is the only place of true belonging 🌹

embodied living | deeper relating | www.tessaschiethart.com

“Nourish me not with love but with the desire for love.” – Ibn Arabi. “Do not seek for water, be thirsty.” – Rumi.

I love the great mystics, the poetry & the devotion to Longing.

My dad had all the poetry books right there where I grew up.

Longing, and aching, missing, grieving—show a raw beauty.

When it comes to love & longing, the most ecstatic moments of my life were perhaps in heartbreak—on my carpet, winter outside, candlelight flickering, and in the ache of deep feeling and longing I tasted life more beautifully than ever before.

Our longing does not leave. It lingers beneath everything. Because longing is not about lack—it is about depth.

Our world does not teach us how to sit in longing. It tells us to chase, to reach, to grab the next fix—

Longing is not craving.
Longing is not wanting.
Longing is beyond fulfillment.

The moment you get what you want, another hunger will arise. But longing—that deep, holy ache—is different. It is the whisper of something beyond that the poets wrote about.

In the realm of Longing, I love how Sufism sees pain & separation not as a psychological event, but as a spiritual opening. Longing can lead us to become intimate with this one primal pain; the pain of separation. The pain of not belonging. Being born merely is separation.

When we allow the separation & longing to lead us deeper within ourselves, it can take us deeper in life, and in love.

I love to remind the women I work with of longing, as it is particularly part of our feminine nature (while also honoring the psyche & its beautiful wants & needs).

I’ve come to see that longing, and sadness, grief, and ecstatically missing hold such such súuuch beauty!

Longing is not meant to be solved or fulfilled.
I love that longing is meant to be lived. It is meant to bring you deeper. Because, as Rumi said—longing itself is a cure.

The cure is perhaps that it stretches your heart open.
The cure may be feeling deeply.
The cure may be to sit with what is.

If anything, our longing holds pain & beauty simultaneously. Let it move you. 🌹

www.tessaschiethart.com/support

#beauty #longing #love #embodiment #sufism #rumi #mysticism #poetry

“Nourish me not with love but with the desire for love.” – Ibn Arabi. “Do not seek for water, be thirsty.” – Rumi.

I love the great mystics, the poetry & the devotion to Longing.

My dad had all the poetry books right there where I grew up.

Longing, and aching, missing, grieving—show a raw beauty.

When it comes to love & longing, the most ecstatic moments of my life were perhaps in heartbreak—on my carpet, winter outside, candlelight flickering, and in the ache of deep feeling and longing I tasted life more beautifully than ever before.

Our longing does not leave. It lingers beneath everything. Because longing is not about lack—it is about depth.

Our world does not teach us how to sit in longing. It tells us to chase, to reach, to grab the next fix—

Longing is not craving.
Longing is not wanting.
Longing is beyond fulfillment.

The moment you get what you want, another hunger will arise. But longing—that deep, holy ache—is different. It is the whisper of something beyond that the poets wrote about.

In the realm of Longing, I love how Sufism sees pain & separation not as a psychological event, but as a spiritual opening. Longing can lead us to become intimate with this one primal pain; the pain of separation. The pain of not belonging. Being born merely is separation.

When we allow the separation & longing to lead us deeper within ourselves, it can take us deeper in life, and in love.

I love to remind the women I work with of longing, as it is particularly part of our feminine nature (while also honoring the psyche & its beautiful wants & needs).

I’ve come to see that longing, and sadness, grief, and ecstatically missing hold such such súuuch beauty!

Longing is not meant to be solved or fulfilled.
I love that longing is meant to be lived. It is meant to bring you deeper. Because, as Rumi said—longing itself is a cure.

The cure is perhaps that it stretches your heart open.
The cure may be feeling deeply.
The cure may be to sit with what is.

If anything, our longing holds pain & beauty simultaneously. Let it move you. 🌹

www.tessaschiethart.com/support

#beauty #longing #love #embodiment #sufism #rumi #mysticism #poetry

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