Two trauma survivors can survive in two different ways — neither right or wrong, neither better or worse. From that, two frameworks can be built. And both can be valid.

Two trauma survivors can survive in two different ways — neither are wrong.

This past year, I accelerated in a way I’m still integrating. Lately I’ve been noticing how certain teachings that once ignited me don’t spark me in the same way — not because they’re wrong, but because I’m individuating. I’m finding the edges of my own path, and learning to hold multiple truths at once.

One of the teachers who impacted me most is someone I respect deeply. He taught me how identity, imagination, and perception shape reality. He lived through extreme trauma — prison violence, near-death — and survived by mastering the imaginal realm. He changed his life through meaning, focus, and identity transformation. That deserves reverence.

His work asks:
“Who do I imagine myself to be?”
“What identity am I embodying right now?”

That changed me. It shifted how I built my business, how I saw myself as a creator, and how I remembered my own divinity.

But there’s another truth.

Some trauma survivors survive through top-down mastery:
If I can control my perception, I won’t drown in my sensations.

Others survive through bottom-up mastery:
If I can regulate my sensations, I won’t drown in my perception.

Neither are “better.”
They’re just different doors into the same house.

Permission to Individuate

When I started imagining and stepping into identities like “cherished woman”, there was no somatic template for that in my body. I wanted the identity — but my nervous system didn’t believe it yet. I had to work bottom-up. I had to build the capacity to feel what I was imagining.

That’s when I started noticing the dissonance between imagination and embodiment.

“Just imagine differently” works beautifully for the nervous systems that can.
But not every nervous system can.

For some people, imagination is a bridge.
For others, it’s a bypass.

When I talk about nervous system capacity, I’m not being trendy. I’m being literal.

Dysregulation isn’t jargon. It’s a physiological experience:

• racing thoughts
• rumination
• shutdown
• hypervigilance
• dissociation
• panic
• numbness
• compulsive scrolling

Dysregulated’ isn’t jargon. It’s literacy.

Most people are not dysregulated because they “imagine badly.”
Most people are dysregulated because:

• the amygdala is wired for threat
• headlines activate trauma templates
• the body carries generational memory
• the world doesn’t feel safe
• their kids ask questions they can’t ignore

I resonate deeply with my mentor when he says, “If you feel like shit...stop imagining shit.”
And there’s validity there — what we focus on has consequences.

But another truth also lives here:

“Don’t imagine that shit” works optimally if:

• your nervous system is regulated enough not to spiral,
• you don’t have children asking about war and death,
• you aren’t carrying generational trauma,
• you can compartmentalize reality on command.
• Most of the people I teach can’t.

Not because they’re weak or unspiritual,
but because their nervous system is telling the truth.

Children especially don’t do Neville Goddard.
Children do nervous systems.

They dysregulate because:

• death is real,
• violence is confusing,
• the world is big,
• and their brains aren’t fully formed.

Children don’t do Neville Goddard. Children do nervous systems.

A mother’s nervous system absorbs that reality through:

• questions,
• empathy,
• responsibility,
• vigilance.

So some people heal by imagining safety.
Others need to feel safety before they can imagine it.

And the world needs both.

Where the Two Worlds Meet

When I started my business, the imaginal act lit the match.
But my somatic work kept the flame going.

The vision was imaginal:

• family wealth
• slow mornings
• meaningful work
• people who love paying me

But the execution was nervous system work:

• tolerating visibility
• receiving money
• uncertainty in love
• boundaries
• post-trauma embodiment
• regulating shame

I couldn’t bypass that anymore.
I bypassed it for far too long.

I had to learn to feel safe enough to imagine more.

Which is why I now see that imagination and somatics aren’t in competition — they’re complimentary.

One regulates meaning.
The other regulates sensation.

Together, they create capacity.

Some people imagine safety. Others need to feel safety first. The world needs both.

So the question isn’t:

“Which method is right?”

The question is:

“Which door does this body need to use to walk home?”

Because sacredness is easier to remember when you’re not bracing for impact.

 

Reading about nervous system literacy is one doorway.
Feeling it in your body is another.

If you want a simple place to start, I recorded a 3-minute breath practice on YouTube — supportive for grounding, presence, and nervous system regulation.
→ Watch the practice 

And if you want to go deeper, Elements of Embodiment is a 4-week somatic immersion.
We begin with Water — fluidity, emotional attunement, and softening.
Recordings are available if you can’t attend live.
→ Join the immersion