Danielle Austin, LMFT, Shine Counseling Services, LLC

01/16/2026

One of the most suppressed aspects within us is the instinctual body.

After living in survival for so long, many of us learned to make a home in our minds. The mind is the ultimate authority.

Thinking became "safer" than instinct. Controlling the body became "safer" than listening, acknowledging and trusting its instinctual needs and impulses.

And it’s not just personal. It’s cultural. In our society, instinct is often regarded as something to rise above. Something that can’t be trusted.

So the instinctual body learned very early that it wasn’t welcome.

When the instinctual is repeatedly ignored, dismissed, or overridden, it doesn’t disappear.
It contracts. It hardens. It goes underground. It freezes.

Over time, this disconnection builds up inside the system. Survival activation accumulates.
Unexpressed rage and grief stay trapped in the tissues. And we begin to feel it through the body.

Tightness that doesn’t seem to resolve. Digestive issues. Anxiety. Shallow breathing. Difficulty sleeping. A sense of being braced or guarded from the inside. Confusion around safety and danger. A disorientation.

The instinctual body plays a central role in regulation and co-regulation. So, if we are to become a more regulated individual and society, we need to bring the instinctual body online.

2 ways to empower the instinctual body

1. Make a habit of recognizing the instinctual body throughout your day. Pausing and being curious about how it is making itself known to you at that moment. Maybe through the breath. maybe through a sensation. Maybe through an impulse. Maybe through a softening. Say, "Oh, this is you. Hi. I see you," and be with that for 1 minute.

2. A simple Practice: Holding the fearful mind with compassion, exploring the instinctual body gently

The course Safe To Feel is the place where you can explore and embody this. It's a guided, nervous-system-honoring path that helps you rebuild safety with your instinctual and emotional body.

Comment “Safe” or visit my profile to join.

Love,
Ally.

01/16/2026

01/15/2026

You can’t force someone to grow.
But you can change your responses, your boundaries, and your access.

When you do, the patterns that once hurt you stop working.

That’s not punishment… it’s wisdom.

01/15/2026

Q: “Why does my body still feel triggered, even with so much healing work?”

The true aim of inner work isn’t healing. It’s inner connection. Inner work is an invitation to come closer to yourself, including to your body, even when it still feels triggered, reactive, or distant.

Let everything you engage with in the name of healing move you toward self-connection, not away from it.

Touch your body not only to release the stress of the day, but to offer something that may have been missing for a long time: presence, care, and recognition. Touch your body because for years it may have been neglected, dismissed, or met only through urgency or fixing.

If you feel a sense of disconnect when you do this, let that be here too. Don’t force closeness. Notice the distance. Accept where you are. Being aware of the disconnect and allowing it to make sense and exist, it is a form of connection.

Frustration with a triggered body often points to layers of disconnection from the body. The body isn’t asking to be fixed. It’s asking for the connection it never felt.

Place a hand on your body and say, softly, “I see you now. I’m here with you.” Then notice what your presence does. How does it feel for your body to be acknowledged without being rushed or corrected?

You can be deeply connected to your body and still experience triggers. In fact, with more connection, triggers often become clearer, softer and arise earlier. But they’re met differently. With more space. Less fear. More understanding. The body feels heard.

Don't aspire to an experience where your body isn't triggered. Aspire to an experience where your body is triggered, and you can still remain connected.

You can be deeply connected and still unhealed in the ways you want to be healed. Healing is what naturally emerges when inner connection is more present.

If you want to anchor into this kind of embodied connection, the course Safe to Feel offers a gentle, guided path to rebuild safety, trust, and presence in the body, and let that connection inform both your healing and your life.

Comment "Safe" or visit my profile to get started.

Love,
Ally.

01/15/2026

01/15/2026

Have you ever guided your attention toward your body with the intention to connect, stayed with the experience for a few moments, and then noticed how quickly the mind steps in?

“I shouldn’t feel this way.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Am I doing this right, or am I going to retraumatize myself?”

The mind starts doubting, questioning, distracting, and becoming anxious or panicky.

And because there’s often a strong identification with the mind, you get carried away by its storyline. The thread of thought takes over, and the somatic experience remains secondary.

The anxious, doubting mind becomes you. Notice how you speak, "I'm doubting my somatic experience", "I become anxious." "I panic." This tells there's no space to hold the mind.

The nervous system responds to what you identify with. If you identify as "the one who doubts", the nervous system will probably collapse or freeze. If you identify as the "one who monitors every experience in the body", the enrvous system will probably fawn or flee.

This is why one of the most transformational skills on this path is learning to hold two experiences at the same time, neutrally. In this case, the doubting, distracting mind and the body, with whatever is present.

The practice is to keep a neutral stance, some inner space, and say: “I see you, mind but I'll explore the body.”

Let the patterns be.
Stay with both mind and body.
Accept both.
Allow sensation.
Orient back gently, again and again.

Do this in short moments, even a few seconds.
Consistently.
With trust.
With curiosity.

Meeting the mind with acceptance and neutrality while continuing to explore the body is one of the most transformational practices on this path.

I created a FREE GUIDE to help you soften the all-consuming mind and learn how to align mind and body towards feeling, especially when feeling intensity, vulnerability or uncomfortable feelings.

You can download it here https://content.awakenwithally.com/emfreeguide

Love,
Ally.

01/14/2026

Comparison makes everything feel urgent.
Growth rarely is.

You don’t need to match someone else’s timeline to be doing meaningful work.
Some seasons are for building, some for resting, some for becoming.

You’re not behind.
You’re exactly where this part of the process happens.

01/14/2026

As a psychologist in private practice, I also ran groups at a substance abuse center for men. Most of the men had been in and out of prison. It was there that I learned the dark stories and deep childhood trauma that caused them to spiral into crime and drug use.

Those stories shared that will stay with me for a long time.

Crime, addiction, assault, and the other harsh things we deal with as a collective society are not random. They are reflections of what people have witnessed, who their role models were, and the support and autonomy they were (or were not given.)

As a culture we are so focused on success and accomplishment. We focus on how things appear and ignore how they feel. We don’t speak about generational trauma cycles and the epigenetic weight our ancestors carried. We keep so many things in the dark, not realizing those dark secrets eventually become dark actions.

If we want a safe and secure society, we have to have the courage to face our unresolved trauma. We have to speak openly about toxic family systems. We have to have boundaries around things and difficult conversations that set the foundation for people to do the inner work.

The evil that we see in our world comes from wounds. Deep wounds. Wounds of inadequacy or envy. Woulds of shame or rejection. The problem is these wounds don’t show up in a blood test. They’re invisible to most people. No one can rescue you from them. They heal only when you commit to no longer living on the pain of autopilot. They heal when you recognize you were gifted with conscious choice and commit to new (small) choices, every day.

The CCD has called adverse childhood events (ACES) a major health risk. From heart disease, to chronic conditions, to substance use the science is clear. But there are also emotional risks that effect and infect our entire culture.

Once you see it, you can unsee it.

Break the cycles, end the “evil”