The Spacious Body | Abigail Rose Clarke

This week we’re hanging with Abigail Rose Clarke, an author, artist, and somatic facilitator. Tasha’s been a fangirl of her Instagram for ages, so this one’s a long time coming. Abigail’s approach to the somatic lives in a sweet spot: grounded by science and expanded by magic and art.Case in point: her new Body Oracle Deck that is 80 cards of juicy art and body-based invitations, anatomy, and enchantment 😍🔮✨Our jumping-off point today is the interstitium — a network of fluid-filled space in the body. It was discovered only recently, once imaging technology finally got good enough to see tissue as it really exists in a living body, instead of squished flat under a microscope. It turns out that this space makes up about 20% of your body. You are, quite literally, one-fifth space!What does that revelation mean for us?It means we get to reimagine the body and reconnect with it in a truer way. From something that is solid, fixed, and defined to something that is fluid, spacious, porous, and alive. Closer to how the body actually feels from the inside.-------------We talk about:- The interstitium: the spacious 20% of you that you’ve never thought about- The difference between identifying with the “hard mass” of the body and attending to its fluidity and space instead- Reframing bipolar rhythms, grief, and other hard states as expansion and contraction rather than pathology- Why “unhooking” the frontal lobe, even for a minute, can shift the whole nervous system- Abigail’s new Body Oracle Deck, and why a deck can live with you in a way a book can’t-------------The Mind Bod Pod is a community-supported project. If you like these adventures, consider helping us keep the lights on with a paid subscription! ❤️-------------The Adventure:Abigail leads us into the interstitium through movement. She has us close our eyes and picture the body as sea kelp! Rooted to the ocean floor but swaying, floating, held by fluid on all sides. We let ourselves sway with it, feeling both anchored by gravity and lifted at the same time.Then she guides us deeper, into the tiny channels beneath the skin carrying interstitial fluid through every part of us, and invites the brain itself to rest back into the skull, no longer working to think its way through anything.Let us know in the comments what your floaty “sea kelp” felt like!-------------Send this to someone who loves to (or needs to) get into the body’s juicy spaciousness: Share-------------K, That’s all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!Love always,🧘🏽‍♀️ Tasha & Jeff 🧘🏼‍♂️Subscribe on Substack: www.mindbodpod.com/ Get full access to The Mind Bod Adventure Pod at www.mindbodpod.com/subscribe