Trans Resilience is…
What is “trans resilience”?
I love the word “resilience.” Webster’s has two definitions. The first is “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” The second one is more interesting: “the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress.” At first look, it seems likeContinue reading “What is “trans resilience”?”
Dear Cisgender Erotic Embodiment Teachers
Unlike my usual posts, this post is written for cisgender embodiment facilitators. Content Warning: lots of explicit language for genitals. You are a cisgender erotic embodiment teacher with the desire to be inclusive to trans folks in both the language you use and the events you offer. I have some perspective to gift you regardingContinue reading “Dear Cisgender Erotic Embodiment Teachers”
Elements of Embodiment, Part 9: Erotic Exploration in Safe Containers
Erotic experiences can sometimes be a challenge for trans folks. Some of that comes from our own experience of dysphoria, and our relationship to parts of our bodies that can provide erotic pleasure. Part of it can come from a disconnect between the roles that we think we should play, or be expected to play,Continue reading “Elements of Embodiment, Part 9: Erotic Exploration in Safe Containers”
Elements of Embodiment, part 8: Sensual Explorations
Many trans folks, because of dysphoria, discomfort, or feelings of vulnerability, feel cut off from their bodies, and cut off from feelings of pleasure. Truthfully, in our society, many people feel that way for a variety of reasons: ways were were socialized in childhood, trauma, and/or feelings of self-judgement about our bodies. Being fully embodied,Continue reading “Elements of Embodiment, part 8: Sensual Explorations”
Elements of Embodiment Part 7: Learning About Consent
We are taught, from a very young age, that we don’t have complete control over our bodies. And if we grew up with families that wanted to police our gender, we might have felt that we had to be dressed, and act, in ways that we didn’t want. If we were socialized as female, weContinue reading “Elements of Embodiment Part 7: Learning About Consent”
Elements of Embodiment, Part 6: Experiments in Conscious Movement
So far, we’ve explored paying attention to our body sensations, learning to recognize emotions in our bodies, holding our bodies and ourselves with compassion and curiosity, and finding pleasure in simple touch. In this post, I’ll talk about how to experiment with conscious movement, and how that can help you come home to your body.Continue reading “Elements of Embodiment, Part 6: Experiments in Conscious Movement”
Elements of Embodiment, Part 5: Learning to Find Pleasure in Simple Touch
Our skin is amazing. Besides keeping us intact, and protecting us from the elements, it is also an exquisite sensory organ. And our hands are have the most nerve endings of any part of our bodies except our genitals. But we are most used to using our hands, not sensing what our hands encounter. ThereContinue reading “Elements of Embodiment, Part 5: Learning to Find Pleasure in Simple Touch”
Elements of Embodiment, Part 4: Cultivating Self-compassion and Curiosity About Your Body
In our process to make our bodies truly a home, we need to cultivate self-compassion and curiosity about our bodies, our sensations, and our experience of our bodies. I spent many years repressing and disconnecting from the sensations and feelings of my body, because they were unpleasant. I also judged my body because it didn’tContinue reading “Elements of Embodiment, Part 4: Cultivating Self-compassion and Curiosity About Your Body”
Elements of Embodiment, Part 3: Emotions in Our Bodies
I used to spend so much time in my head. Of course, I inhabited a body at the time, like everyone. But I didn’t really feel it much. That’s because for so many years growing up, feeling in my body didn’t feel good, or safe. So I simply stopped. This wasn’t a conscious choice –Continue reading “Elements of Embodiment, Part 3: Emotions in Our Bodies”
Elements of Embodiment, Part 2: Learning to Pay Attention to Body Sensations
I spent a long time ignoring my body. I ignored my body because I didn’t like my body – it didn’t feel like it was “me” – and especially after puberty, I lived entirely in my head. When I absolutely had to pay attention to my body, because I was sick or injured, I resentedContinue reading “Elements of Embodiment, Part 2: Learning to Pay Attention to Body Sensations”
Elements of Embodiment: Part 1
I’m starting a multi-part series on embodiment. You can read here a little basic information about what I think conscious embodiment means. I want to dive into what the journey of embodiment can look like for trans and gender-expansive folks, and how you might embark on your own. Of course, every trans and gender-expansive personContinue reading “Elements of Embodiment: Part 1”
Transgender Day of Visibility
Today, March 31st, is the International Transgender Day of Visibility. And as all of the social media, news and emails about this day surround you, remember that no matter what, you, as you are, in this moment, are valid and lovable. Perhaps you can’t be visible, because you haven’t started any transition, and you areContinue reading “Transgender Day of Visibility”
Divine Abodes, Part 4: Sympathetic Joy
The fourth Divine Abode, or quality of heart and mind that is an important part of our practices of resilience, is “sympathetic joy” (mudita in Pali). Sympathetic joy is our ability to find joy in another person’s joy and good fortune. Joy can be, and should be contagious. Often, however, when we see other people’sContinue reading “Divine Abodes, Part 4: Sympathetic Joy”
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