Christina Dohr - Embodiment Coach

We begin TOMORROW!! 🔥
https://bit.ly/4aYoDFV

14th - 18th January, me and a bunch of wonderful teachers will share their wisdom round the clock!!

To stay sane in a world that's gone mad this is a FREE event.

Anchoring in the body has been a major support for me, finding resilience through connection to self, other and nature.

Join to:
✨ Learn about Embodiment
✨ Receive free coaching
✨ Get resilience tools
✨ Have some fun!!!

I will offer 5 sessions and host some wonderful teachers too.

Ever considered training in an embodied approach to coaching?

This is the best price you will get on one of the most comprehensive trainings out there 🧡

https://bit.ly/3Ld3I71

Only $999 for 2 more days

CEC 2024: Certification of Embodiment Coaching - Embodiment Unlimited Embodiment Unlimited - CEC 2024: Certification of Embodiment Coaching

Short course coming up!!!

Jump on if you feel you want to finish this year deeply connected to yourself!! 🌿✨💕

Re-Connect | Embodiment Coaching A journey of self-discovery and self-connection, where you'll learn to nurture a deeper, more profound relationship with yourself. This experience is

If you want to hear a little about my journey and take on embodied practices. Here is a podcast episode capturing some.

Finding Awareness and Choice through Embodiment with Christina Dohr, Episode 143 Awareness and somatics for the mind - body connection SUBSCRIBE *** https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5C_BeUkeyOCGTf7W6f2WnA?sub_confirmation=1 **See associa...

Shadow dancing “Your body is the ground metaphor of your life, the expression of your existence. It is your bible, your encyclopaedia, your life story.” - Gabrielle Roth

Go and explore. Become intimate with your own body. Find your edges. Find the light, the space, the joy with the naive curious playfulness of a child.
And equally embrace the dark corners, the unseen, the discomfort, that which is hiding and doesn’t want to be seen.

Welcoming all of it with kindness.



Photo credit: Boris Austin

Pushing - driving or self abuse?

Yesterday I taught a session on pushing pose and the main insight was that most of us actually need to push less in our lives.

Where in your life are you pushing yourself maybe a little too much?

Buying into the social expectations of performing and doing all the time. Not allowing for any rest or pause.

What is your relationship to rest? Do you allow moments to fully switch off? No phone, no input, no distractions. Maybe even a degree of boredom. This is where creativity finds its ground to grow and flourish. When the mind can wander and you get to rest, reset, resource.

Without rest, pushing yourself is self abuse.

When it’s a matter of laziness and stagnation, however, try this physical expression of pushing to get you going. Take a solid wide stance, one foot forward and Imagine you’re pushing a heavy object, exhale. This will kickstart your system and shift your state into activation. Pushing a wall or simply doing a couple of push ups works too.

The body is a beautiful gateway into changing states and patterns. And the Embodied Yoga Principals offer concrete poses to access any desired quality you might want more or less of.

Connect if you’re curious to learn more or work with me.

Vulnerability my old friend

Nowadays I can actually call vulnerability my friend. This wasn’t always the case. When I first sat down in this pose from the Embodied Yoga Principles system representing vulnerability, I wanted to jump up, shake it off and felt disgusted. A rather strong reaction to a simple pose, wouldn’t you say?

Hello shadows my old friend 🤍🖤

I wasn’t aware until then how confused and tainted my interpretation of vulnerability was.

Yes, I was familiar with Brené Brown and agreed in theory that vulnerability is strength. In theory.

In my embodied reality, however, it felt like manipulation, twisted seduction, and most of all, weak.

And I had always rejected weakness. So if being vulnerable meant being weak, then both were equally unfavorable.

With many years of martial arts training in my back pocket, I was also conditioned to take strong and balanced poses rather than this asymmetrical “weak” seat.

It all felt simply wrong.

But I chose to use this to inform my process of integrating these rejected parts of myself.

Looking back, I have so much gratitude for this simple pose and what it taught me. I did a bunch of work around disentangling the conflated understanding I had through embodied practices, distinction coaching and intention.

My relationship to vulnerability completely transformed.

What’s your embodied (mis)understanding of vulnerability?

✨If you want to learn more about EYP and similar poses, join the FREE Masterclass week starting today!!
👉Link in BIO

What’s your relationship to NO?

I see a lot of struggle around boundaries. Knowing, owning and expressing them. Respecting boundaries is an important part of the equation but let’s focus on setting them for now.

How easy is it for you to set boundaries? To say no?

The mind can create lots of stories and suggest that you should want something. Many of us are so conditioned to please, be nice, not offend that it overwrites our inner sense of no. We weren’t necessarily taught as kids.

Creating a gentle trusting relationship with your body can help get “data” beyond that. Build your awareness muscle by paying close attention to sensations, listening and noticing any contractions.

A powerful first step to understanding and setting boundaries is to slow down. If necessary, pause.

You might’ve heard that a maybe still means no. If you tense up, pause. Unless you get a full body YES, wait!

There is no need to do anything if you’re not ready. Gift yourself that moment to tune in, to feel.

Once you feel a no, don’t hesitate to express it! Expressing boundaries can be scary, but if you don’t, how can someone else know? Putting it off just results in compensatory aggression and resentment towards another that crosses the unexpressed boundary.

Let’s assume we don’t live in a world of mind readers with master empathy skills. It’s our job to speak up!

Assuming that people we choose to relate with want to respect our boundaries, let’s help them out. And those who don’t, get them out.

No doesn’t need to be harsh or abrasive. In fact, the better you become at noticing your boundaries and honoring them, the gentler yet more solid the expression can be. And it can always come with context.

“I don’t want this right now, but maybe tomorrow. Ask me again.” Not with apology but context.

It might take work and time, but I envision a world filled with empowered self-responsible and self-loving humans who can say no and receive no.

If you’re curious about more, feel free to reach out! And stay tuned for the upcoming Empowered Relationships course.

Do you show up fully authentically, open, raw?
Do you truly speak what is on your mind?

The last weeks have been about expressing more fully. I considered myself quite direct, honest, a good communicator, willing to show up unfiltered, especially in the context of loved ones, friends and family.

But I discovered there are always more layers.

Fear of rejection creates self censoring. We wear masks, play roles, choose selectively which part to show that is acceptable or more so lovable.

I discerned, judged, controlled and moulded parts and voices within me to fit my own ideal. Only to find an internal conflict growing bigger, entangling me and hurting others in the process. An invitation to step up, own and express the shadowy, flawed, ugly, unwelcome parts and join them at the table with the ones I deemed more likeable.

First step, admit them to myself, eroding identity constructs and challenging my ego that tightly held control. Then, more daunting, share them and face fears of rejection, loss and abandonment.

In the very human game of finding balance between authenticity and belonging, we seek safety from the latter and sacrifice the first. Instead they can be joined.

Showing up in full authenticity and vulnerability brought an unmet depth of intimacy, quality of connection and opening of the heart. The biggest gift. To meet another and be seen and met in this.
Rewriting narratives of limitations and requirements for love. Trusting in a deeper connection that cannot be controlled but is forged in the fire of absolute surrender.

It's a practice, a choice, every day, every minute, every encounter. Can we just show ourselves a little more? Shed a layer, drop a mask, let go of the need to protect an identity or ego we have constructed? Speak our minds, desires, boundaries, hopes, fears with kindness and compassion but not filtered by what we deem lovable? For ourself and others.

Trusting that radical honesty and transparency will reveal the people who genuinely love us for who we are not who we pretend to be.

Who's up for it?

What’s your relationship with PLAY?

I personally love it! Most of my adult life I was the odd one still rolling around in the grass, making cartwheels, climbing trees and enjoying to play.

As adults play can be quite limited. Board games, computer games, Scharade... Maybe you play in the bedroom (and I advocate that as a great way to keep sparks alive).

But what I am referring to here is a full body expressive innocent play, driven by curiosity, silly and free. This is rare amongst adults.

I rediscovered it in an adult context only when I found contact improvisation about 8 years ago.
Being in a room full of people who simply enjoyed themselves, their bodies, would be silly with each other, express freely, loudly and without concern for looking stupid. Running around like wild animals, chasing, laughing, rolling around and making funny noises. I immediately felt at home, energized and affirmed in my conviction that this is crucial for humans to stay healthy and well.

What do you do in your body when you read and imagine this scenario? Contract? Or open up and lean in with curiosity?

Engaging in uninhibited play when we’ve been taught since elementary school to behave ourselves, to sit still, to conform, to maybe not stand out too much or make a fool of ourselves can be daunting. It might be your personal nightmare. To play, improvise, without a map or instructions. To be seen in silly and maybe awkward ways.

If that is you, I highly recommend you take a leap and seek out this type of play in your life. The more daunting, the bigger and juicier the fruits you might harvest. Dare to express, to move, to sound, to be.

Play is where we get to discover ourselves anew. Move away from stagnant ideas of who we are and what we can or cannot do. Here “failure” yields joy and laughter. Play connects, keeps us young and alive. And it is one of the best ways to learn.

Let’s expand beyond playing on a screen and go outside again, regardless of your age!! Let’s play together!

📸: Patrick Beeleart

First steps to transform conflict

Most of us might see conflict as unpleasant and to be avoided. But there is an opportunity to bring you closer together.

When we argue with a friend, partner or family member it can become a ping pong game of reasons, justifications, explanations and defense. Focused on winning we look for strategies for rebuttal and what falls under the table is listening.

To transform conflict, we have to step out of the back and forth dynamic that takes a life of its own very quickly. How often have you forgotten what kicked off the fight but are still fired up and want to win? It’s like any competitive sports - we get invested. “Winning” doesn’t serve the relationship though.

Usually below what we fight about are deeper needs. Conflict can serve to negotiate boundaries, to deepen understanding, and be respected and seen in what we care about. Being seen, heard and acknowledged for having a certain opinion or request is powerful.
If we stop listening this doesn’t happen.

So the first steps are about listening. It doesn’t mean you have to change your mind or agree. The aim certainly isn’t to endure or put up with certain behaviors.

Listening to self diffuses charge, helps you ground, find Centre and thereby clarity on what you actually want. Maybe it is connection, maybe it is taking distance. But from a place of listening it becomes a chosen response rather than a reaction.

By listening to the other you can return to a conversation about what matters to both of you. You might learn something new about the other or your relationship. You might find solutions neither thought of before.

Conflict that escalates can become destructive and harmful and then listening is not enough. But listening is the first step when we notice a conflict or argument starting.

An inquiry

I advocate full authentic unashamed expression and welcoming all we are unapologetically.

I also value awareness of context, impact and responsibility of actions and words.

My emotions are valid and welcome in their entirety. And I still have choice on how to express.

If we talk about a spectrum of expression, one side the raw, wild, unfiltered, unapologetic, impulsive, force of nature, no regard for impact. Like a hurricane not considering the destruction it leaves behind. The other side: 'domesticated' - repress, hold and manage behaviour, desires and emotions to please and fit in. Historically the latter is seen as superior (human vs animal), but the suppression of parts of our human animal resulted in much unhealthy acting out too.

Recently, there's increasing push for a return to wild expression. To feel and allow our totality with its dark and light sides, stand in our individual truths, honour the internal experience. Especially around the wild feminine - to freely express, be emotional, flow, feel and allow. It is a wonderful reclaiming that on the background of centuries of repression!

And, there is a chance to bypass, maybe miss an opportunity for real authentic self-experience. I see indulgence and excuses to act out as a byproduct of this push. Where the impact of actions and words is pushed aside "because I need to and have a right to express myself fully", "This is my truth" etc.
In this there is a danger of creating an identity around that behaviour ("I am the person who is expressive") rather than tapping into actual authenticity.

Maybe to arrive at balance, the pendulum needs to swings in the opposite direction to cathartic, unrestrained and wild expression in order to reclaim access and permission. I don't think it is sustainable or necessary in the long run or all the time. There is always choice. A choice to be kind, compassionate and a choice how to act.

The attitude of having no choice over my actions and behaviour because "I am welcoming my emotions and won't repress how I feel" doesn't sit right with me and seems like an excuse to act out and abdicate responsibility.

(continued in comments)

Society and mainstream culture still largely promote the idea that being in a couple equals success. That one goal in life should be to get married and that the longer we maintain one relationship, the better. When a relationship ends, people can therefore experience shame and a sense of failure.
This is an outdated ideal stemming from past necessities and institutionalised forms of relating that promised more economic stability.

Nowadays, most people have more than one relationship in their lifetime and breakups are an inherent part of relating.

It’s time to approach endings in a different way, not by shaming or blaming but as an opportunity.

Four years ago I attended a talk by on new paradigm relating while going through a tough patch in my relationship at the time. I’m endlessly grateful for her perspective and words, especially on relationship endings.

“It is where most of the gold is” - where we can learn and grow the most. It’s the harvesting period, when we can look back and reap the fruits, learn from mistakes, admit, forgive, celebrate and appreciate. And the more consciously we can approach this part of a relationship, the more we honor its entire cycle and place in our life.

Looking back at my own journey, I definitely have a lot of gratitude for all my past relationships. They weren’t easy. None of the endings was fun or without heartbreak. But each one brought me deeper understanding of myself, unveiled different facets of my being and eventually opened me to a larger capacity to love. To project less, to know more clearly what I need and want and to respect my boundaries and limitations.

It is partly due to the intensity of heartbreak that i learned and grew each time. But it wouldn’t have gone in if I hadn’t been willing to consciously use it as an opportunity. Instead of holding grudges, hating or blaming, I chose to shed layers, let go, drop in, be confronted and face myself with all my flaws and humaness. And it’s made me a better partner.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Authenticity and attraction ✨❤️

I just lead a session on how to attract the right partner through authenticity.

The more you know yourself and allow yourself to express, the more fitting the people you attract will be.

If you hide behind a mask formed by social expectations, beauty ideals, behavioural prescriptions about what makes attractive, the chance is that even if you attract a lot of people, they might not actually be a match.
Formulas or pick up knowledge might get you hook ups but if you want to be fully met, you have to show yourself fully first. Facades crumble and in the end projection based encounters are short lived and potentially unfulfilling as you were not met for who you are.

To see and be seen, to meet and be met fully and deeply is intimacy.

And maybe gaining clarity on these three areas is a good start:

🔥 Your desires!
What are the things that bring you joy, make you feel alive, that you are passionate about? And what of that do you hope to gain from from a relationship? What do you want to receive, share or experience with another? And check as well if any of this can be met by yourself or other people in your life so that you do not actually ‘need’ a partner for it. To create more space and less expectation and make a partner more of a bonus on top of an already fulfilled life.

✋Your boundaries!
What will you not sacrifice for a relationship? Which activities, friendships or values? What will you not tolerate? Maybe someone else telling you how to talk, walk, dance, dress? Instead, choose to be supported in your activities, skills and in what matters to you. Someone that will encourage you and cheer you on.

🌺 Your gifts! What makes you a partner that someone is lucky to have? What do you want to share with another that you believe enriches their lives? Not the stuff you think you have to, but the stuff you WANT to give. Finding a recipient for your giving is as important as it is to receive.

So be yourself, the weirdest, most beautifully authentic, odd and funny, serious, quirky, wonderfully unique human you are. And the rest will follow!

Time apart can fuel a relationship and keep it burning 🔥

I’ve certainly spent times with too little space in relationships. And I’ve seen it play out from all sides:

When neither of us noticed the need for space, I’d after a while retreat internally, withdraw and it killed any desire for intimacy. We’d end up merely spending time AROUND instead of WITH each other.

If my partner would request space, it sometimes activated an anxious side. I was afraid time apart meant the end. I had to relearn trust and shift my focus from what I might lose to what I’m gaining while I have quality time with myself and other things in my life.

And when I requested space and was met with anxiety and clinging it lit up my avoidant side. 😆

Closeness is beautiful and creates safety, understanding, friendship, a strong bond, shared experiences, etc.

If you forget who and how you are without the other person however, a spark might get lost or drama emerges.

Even on a biochemical level we start becoming more alike the more time we spend with another person which can also come with a drop in attraction.

Spending time apart, engaging in separate activities, seeing different places and people and then coming back together to share about it can be so enriching ❤️✨

And I relate to those of you for whom the idea of space can bring up deep fears around abandonment. How much space feels safe depends on what you have learned about relationships and how safe you are in your attachment. And it’s a new negotiation in each relationship.

With conscious effort we can transform time apart and the stories attached to it (I.e. it’s an indicator for being unwanted, too much etc). It can become a choice to honour yourself and the relationship. Remembering sovereignty and independence can be wonderfully empowering. It can reset, refresh, bring newness, inspiration and clarity. And also greater appreciation for the time spent together.

So… what are the activities you’d love to do by yourself? What have you maybe neglected / not done because your partner wouldn’t join?

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