Unconditioning Movement

Why do all my injuries happen on one side of my body?

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 13:31:22 GMT

Applications are open for Posture in Motion.

A small-group posture and somatic practice for people who want to feel more at home in their body, move with more ease, and begin shifting the patterns that keep them tense, braced, or in pain. Apply here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/

“Why are all my injuries happening on one side of my body?” That was the question I kept asking after my car accident.

Literally everything was happening on the right side of my body:

jaw pain
neck pain
shoulder pain
foot pain
even eye pressure

I kept bringing it up to my medical team, my physio, and my chiro (and my kinesiologist, at one point), and they had no answer for me.

Even before my car accident, I always felt like something was off on my right side in single-leg exercises like lunges, split squats, etc.

A couple of years later, after being in constant chronic pain, through the postural restoration lens, I learned that my body was completely oriented toward the right side. Not because I’m unique, but because I’m human. It’s a pattern so many of us have, but mine got to an uncomfortable level after my car accident.

Here’s why the majority of humans are oriented toward the right:

Our heart sits in the left side of the rib cage, while more weight and organs are packed on the right, including the liver, colon, gallbladder, and more lung tissue.
Our inhale and exhale are different on the left and right. To be specific: the left ribs descend more easily because nothing is blocking them. On the right side, descending can be harder, but ascending is easier, and we have more respiratory capacity.

Usually, this orientation isn’t a problem. It becomes one after a significant injury, chronic stress, or anything else intensifies the pattern enough to cause discomfort.

Here’s what I did that made the biggest difference for me:

Step 1: Improve breathing mechanics

I began learning how to breathe through my diaphragm again. Not in a forced “take a deep breath” way, but in a way that helped my ribs, pelvis, and nervous system remember how to move together. This became the foundation for everything else because if my breath was still stuck in the same old pattern, my body would keep organizing itself around that pattern too.

Step 2: Sense the left side

I began re-learning how to use my left side. Through sensation and breath, I gave my brain and body access to a side I’d stopped trusting, so I could gradually shift out of the right-dominant pattern I kept defaulting to. This exercise helped me feel my left heel, left inner thigh, left hamstring, and left-side abs again, so I didn’t keep relying on my right side when I stood, walked, breathed, or exercised.

Step 3: Use my right side butt to shift weight into my left side

Healthy posture lets you shift your weight easily from side to side. Once I had a better sensory connection to my left, I still needed to learn how to shift from right to left. This exercise helped me practice that in a safe, supported position.

Step 4: Get my core to actually work

Once my breath and left side started coming back online, the next piece was helping my core do its actual job. Not bracing, gripping, or holding everything tight, but creating enough support through my ribs, pelvis, and deep abdominal system that the rest of my body didn’t have to overcompensate. When my core started working in this more integrated way, my shoulder, neck, jaw, and hip didn’t have to keep carrying the load for me.

If you keep experiencing pain or injuries on one side of your body, it is not random.
Your body has learned a pattern: a way of standing, breathing, shifting, bracing, or protecting that once made sense, but now keeps you stuck in the same loop.
Your body needs more options than one repeated strategy, so you’re not always relying on the same side to get through the day.

This is the work we’ll explore inside Posture in Motion: understanding the patterns behind your posture, pain, and movement habits, and learning how to shift them from the root.

Applications are open here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

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Hedi Shah
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👁️ Mindfulness Teacher & Bodyworker
🐉 Nervous system regulation, breathwork, and posture-focused strength training to target the cause of what keeps you stuck and in pain, not just symptoms.

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

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Prayer to Move from Scarcity to Abundance

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 11:22:22 GMT

On days when financial fear narrows your world, when your vision gets smaller, your body gets tense, and abundance feels far away, this prayer is an invitation to find a moment of stability in the midst of uncertainty.

Take a soft breath in through the nose and relax with a long exhale out through the mouth.

Let the breath breathe you instead of trying to breathe.

With each breath, notice where your body can soften its grip, even just a little.

Let this land on your mind and heart.

Why stretching hasn’t been working for you?

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 19:00:44 GMT

Stretching doesn’t work long term because the muscle that feels tight usually isn’t the real problem.

Imagine your body as a tensegrity structure, where stability comes from the balance between tension and compression.

If one cable is pulling too hard, you don’t always fix the structure by yanking on that one cable. That might temporarily change the shape, but if the whole system is still organized the same way, the tension will come right back.

Through this lens, your posture works as a living tension-distribution system. Your bones act like compression elements, while muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue create tension. They’re constantly negotiating how much tension and compression you need to stay upright, stable, safe, and moving forward.

So when one muscle feels “tight,” it isn’t simply short and in need of stretching.

It is holding tension because the whole system needs it for stability. It’s reductionistic to focus on one tight muscle as if it exists in isolation.

I personally struggled with hamstring tightness for a long time. Every time I went to physio or a chiro, I was prescribed foam rolling and figure-four stretching. I assumed I wasn’t getting results because I wasn’t doing them consistently enough. Years later, I realized the issue started somewhere else.

In my case, it was my pelvis. It was tilted forward, and I had basically no core stability, so my hamstrings had to work hard to stop that constant “falling forward” feeling.

In this video, I go deeper into how tightness is a protection mechanism and how to start addressing the root cause ↓

I’m opening a small group container called Posture in Motion for this exact reason: to help you understand your posture as a whole-body pattern, not just a collection of tight muscles to stretch. We’ll work with posture, breath, awareness, and movement so your body can find stability in a different way.

More details are coming soon. If this already feels like what your body’s been asking for, keep an eye out.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

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And if that’s not possible right now, please know that sharing my writing, referring my work, and telling someone about this space is also incredibly supportive. You can do it here.

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how to actually be seen? (chapter 5)

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:01:29 GMT

“I’m exhausted by all the ways you betray me.

You’re always go, go, go.

Every time I resist your plans, you bulldoze right through me and rush to the next thing.

You keep pursuing this sense of wholeness, but how can you be whole if you don’t see me?

I’m part of you, too.

Just because you know how to push through me doesn’t make me disappear.

Are you willing to see me?” -A resistance part

One of the things I’ve always been proud of is how quickly…

What helped me move beyond my health anxiety

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 13:22:23 GMT

I went back and forth on writing this for a long time. Part of me resisted because I don’t like normalizing things. It can make us believe there’s no way out.

But today, I decided it’s the right time.

I didn’t even know health anxiety was a thing. Which is strange, because I’ve been through many chapters of health issues before. I worried back then too, but I never experienced it to this level.

It started when a couple of my clients were going through cancer treatment at the same time.

Some of them continued their work with me while in treatment, and I was deeply concerned about them. Being that close to it did something to my psyche.

After that, I found myself worrying constantly about my health and the health of the people I love. It became obsessive.

Shortly after, I had a couple of health scares. They turned out to be nothing serious, but the fear stayed.

Even though I sensed this fear, I also resisted feeling it, like letting it in meant accepting defeat to illness.

Something shifted when I read the comment section of this YouTube video about health anxiety. Seeing how many people were struggling with something I thought I was alone in was such a relief. And one of the comments hit me hard. They said something along the lines of:

Isn’t it heartbreaking how much life we’ve lost to the fear of losing it?

Boom!

Something clicked.

This fear is a symbol of our deepest love for life.

I’m not sharing this because I have all the answers. I don’t. I’m figuring it out as I go.

But a few things have helped ↓

1. Prayer practice:

Prayer is the fastest way for me to choose love over fear. I finally recorded one specifically for health anxiety.

You can also listen to this on Youtube and Insight Timer

2. Sitting with protectors:

The parts of us that work so hard to protect us and make sure we’re okay. Internal Family Systems continues to be a powerful tool in my toolbox, and this protector meditation by Faithfully Growing is one of my favorites.

3. RAIN meditation by Tara Brach:

A practice I return to when I’m deep in fear. A chance to cultivate compassion for the part of us that needs to be seen: Recognize, Allow, Investigate, and Nurture.

Even though the spiritual “good vibes only” messaging can make us feel like we should never give in to negative thoughts, I keep learning (and re-learning) that it’s not about pushing the negative ones away. It’s about increasing our capacity to allow them.

Only when we let them know they belong do we get to experience peace.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning, and…

💚 When you’re ready, here are four ways I can help:

Hire me for Live Experiences: immersive, interactive wellbeing events (virtual or in-person) that bring the body back into the conversation, helping your audience build mental + physical resilience through nervous system regulation, breathwork, and posture-focused practices.

Join Live Experiences on Insight Timer: an opportunity to do monthly unconditioning practice, deep work sessions, posture classes, and prayers.

Body Check-in: a 2-hour online session to assess your body’s current state, identify patterns and hidden imbalances (posture, breath, nervous system tone), and leave with a clear, personalized plan (plus 7 days of support after).

Discover Your Body’s Story (Free quiz): a 5-minute pause to understand what your body has been trying to tell you, especially if you feel “wired but drained,” stuck in a loop, or disconnected from your deeper embodied wisdom.

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And if that’s not possible right now, please know that sharing my writing, referring my work, and telling someone about this space is also incredibly supportive. You can do it here.

Refer a friend

A Prayer for When You’re Stuck in a Negative Thought Loop

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 11:22:07 GMT

On days you feel consumed by negative thought loops, when your mind bullies you, scarcity feels louder than trust, and you can’t find your way out of self-attack, this prayer is here to interrupt the spiral.

Press play and tune in…

is it really awareness?

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 20:00:36 GMT

Is it awareness, or self-monitoring?

Is it awareness, or judgment?

Is it awareness, or control?

Awareness without connection to the senses is often just overthinking with better branding.

That’s where inner work can become a trap.

When it teaches us to explain ourselves instead of experience ourselves.
When it rushes to turn difficult lived experience into a lesson before we have actually sat with the wounded parts of us.
When it tries to make us more evolved, more regulated, more “healed,” instead of more honest, more compassionate, and more human.

Because then, it doesn’t set us free.

It only gives the human mind more sophisticated ways to protect itself.

And the very thing we began to help ourselves can become another reason we still don’t feel free.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

Subscribe now

And if that’s not possible right now, please know that sharing my writing, referring my work, and telling someone about this space is also incredibly supportive. You can do it here.

how to actually be seen? (chapter 4)

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 11:22:05 GMT

She stood in front of a mirror, holding a huge bed sheet.

She wasn’t tall enough to lift it to its full length, but she loved the feel of the fabric.

She’d use the sheet to create different outfits and maxi dresses, then walk around admiring what she’d made.

She’d do that for hours, entertaining herself while her young mom went back to school to finish high school.

This memory surfaced out of nowhere as I sat with the question: what did I enjoy doing as a kid, and how can I see my inner child’s natural gifts more clearly?

My first reaction was laughter. I often joke with friends that if I hadn’t grown up where I did, I probably would’ve gone into fashion and design. This memory completely validated that theory.

Even though I don’t plan to go into that field (unless the universe has other plans), over the past five years I’ve leaned more into my love for natural fabrics, sustainable fashion, and design. I’ve also been slowly letting go of the guilt, shame, and fear of being “shallow” that I picked up growing up.

This realization wasn’t new, but this memory had more to offer.

Here are the three things it showed me about being seen, and the last one felt like the most important lesson.

what would you do if you fully saw yourself?

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 16:55:11 GMT

Back in March, I kept getting this ping that something needed to change in the way I work with clients.

I needed more space to study, write, review client files, and keep deepening the quality of my work.

As a business owner, doing less is scary. Especially when things feel uncertain. But I made a choice that felt difficult at first, and a few months later, I can see how much better it is.

I now take one week off from client-facing work every month, and I only work with three 1:1 clients per quarter. Anyone beyond that goes on the waitlist for the next round. Check this out for 1:1 work.

This is the first time in my business that I’ve prioritized what I need in order to be my best at the work I do.

And, unsurprisingly, that extra week of uninterrupted attention gave me time to write.

A lot.

It also overlapped with an exploration I’ve been in: how to actually be seen.

The question I kept asking myself was:

What would you do if you fully saw yourself?

The answer was simple.

I would write.

I love writing. It’s how I make sense of the world.

My writing journey started in 2017, after I read The Artist’s Way, and I’ve written every day since. I just never really considered sharing it until I started Substack last February.

At first, I only shared small pieces of my personal writing, process, and behind-the-scenes thoughts in my weekly newsletter.

Then I looked at the analytics and realized some of the most-read pieces were the personal ones.

That still surprises me.

And when some of you book a call and tell me something I wrote resonated with you, I’m surprised every time.

Like… really? You read the stuff I write?

When it comes to Substack, the common advice is not to monetize until you have at least 1,000 subscribers. I’m only about a third of the way there, and I never saw my writing as something to monetize.

But during this “being seen” exploration, I started wondering:

Why not?

Because the truth is, it feels deeply vulnerable to trust that other people might support your writing.

To trust that they care about your work.

To trust that they want it to exist in the world.

What I’ve learned is that being seen has three parts:

See yourself.
Let yourself be seen.
Surrender how you’re being seen, because that part is out of your control.

So today, I’m excited, and a little nervous, to share that some of my Substack writing will go behind the paywall.

If you enjoy my work and you’re able to support it financially, I would deeply appreciate it.

Subscribe now

And if that’s not possible right now, please know that sharing my writing, referring my work, and telling someone about this space is also incredibly supportive. You can do it here.

Refer a friend

It helps this space grow, and it’s a strong reminder that this work matters.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

prayer for creativity and expression

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 11:01:11 GMT

On days that your creativity feels blocked, your mind is too loud, and you’ve forgotten why you began creating in the first place, tune in.

Take a soft breath in.

Feel the ground beneath you,

and allow this reach your heart.

This prayer in writing ↓

Today, I surrender to you the belief that I must suffer, force, or prove myself to create something meaningful.

Today, I surrender to you all conditioning that taught me my creativity is not worthy of being received, valued, and paid for.

May today I never confuse humility with denying the gifts you placed in me.

May today I remember that humility is bowing to the beauty of what you created in me, while arrogance is believing my judgment or their judgment of myself is more true than your design.

May today I relax enough to allow your gifts to create through me with ease and playfulness.

May today I let your love direct my footsteps as I’m creating this project.

May today I let my writing and creative projects bring people closer to you and their innate power.

May today I remember the joy, devotion, and deeper purpose that brought me to this creative path in the first place.

You know my ideas better than I do. Please remove the ones that are not of you, and replace them with yours.

May today you see through my eyes,

listen through my ears,

think through my mind,

and speak through my voice,

so my creative work becomes a clear channel for your truth.

May today I create, speak, and lead with you as my guiding force.

May today I move with your ideas swiftly but never rushed, guided by your wisdom to know when to speed up and when to slow down.

May I release every resistance to your rhythm, trusting the moments you ask me to move, and trusting the moments you ask me to wait.

I long for a life and a schedule where creative flow and the slowness to receive can live together: a life that gives, creates, senses, serves, and returns again and again to beingness, stillness, and peace.

Please teach me how to create such a life, and give me the capacity to truly enjoy it.

So it is!

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

earthy things I’ve been enjoying lately

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 10:11:17 GMT

Here are 10 things that have brought me joy, improved my quality of life, and inspired me mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. They’re in no particular order.

One

Notion

What can I say? Notion has become a dear friend since late last year. I initially started using it for client portals and content, but it honestly took over my life, and I never knew software could be this regulating. As someone who’s obsessed with learning and synthesizing information in my own way, it has helped organize my chaotic, creative brain. For the first time, I can actually understand my own process, haha.

I love it so much that I decided to make a video on how I use it to create my prayer series, and maybe even a book in the future.

Two

Sunscreen

Sunscreen and I have never had a good relationship. I try to avoid harsh chemicals, and it’s always been hard to find one that actually feels pleasant on my skin. But I think I hit the jackpot. This one is affordable, glowy, and genuinely feels nice to wear.

Link

Three

This book

This read has been so validating on the things that I intuitively knew and developed in my work. What I love about Feldenkrais is how he refuses to separate the body from the way we live, choose, perform, protect, and become ourselves. The idea of the “potent self” feels less like becoming more forceful and more like becoming less split inside: less “I should,” more “I want”; less bullying ourselves into action, more choosing from a place of clarity. I’ve read the digital copy, but had to have the hard copy around.

One note that really stayed with me:

“Orders to oneself should be given without willfulness, without tension, without bullying oneself and only for objectively valid reasons. Grown up must not treat themselves like they are children.”

Link

Four

Vitex

This supplement isn’t new to me. I was first introduced to it when I decided to heal my PCOS naturally. I know I tend to have lower progesterone production, and lately I’ve been intuitively feeling like I may need more support, now that I’m in a peri-menopausal phase. I can definitely see it in my breast tissue.

I worked with a herbalist last year and they made a tincture from vitex. Shockingly, even though my body felt great, mentally I wasn’t feeling my best had too many rage episodes, hehe. I also tried yam cream and it had the same mental effect.

With this supplement, I noticed the same thing at first, so I decided to only take it during my luteal phase. That worked beautifully for my body. I feel a difference in my overall mood, my period symptoms, and my breast tissue texture. I also take iodine with it.

Link

Five

Roses in my garden

I planted these roses last year and they almost died. I had no hope they’d make it to this year, but they not only survived, they’re thriving. They smell glorious, and every few days I pick one and bring it into my office. It feels luxury. I can’t wait to see them grow. They’re meant to crawl over the walls, so let’s see if that happens next year.

Six

XIAOMI Smart Band

I am sooooo late to the fitness watch game, which is ironic as someone who has been in the fitness world for this long. I always resisted because I didn’t like the idea of a watch telling me how I feel. But I was curious about the data and the long-term insights, and I wasn’t ready for a massive investment.

So I found this watch. It offers significantly more than I thought it would, looks sleek, and is very user-friendly. It has also been motivating to see the data.

Link

Seven

Dating and her grandma Shirley’s stories

My friend started writing dating stories, often “consulting” her late grandma Shirley. They’re short and delightful, and I can’t wait to read them when the notification hits. It’s wholesome, fun, and genuinely intriguing to follow.

Steph DeYoung

4: Signs

I associate the scent of roses with my Grandma Shirley. This is because she always stocked rose-scented toiletries in the guest bathroom that we used when we visited her growing up…

2 months ago · 2 comments · Steph DeYoung

Eight

Astrology and somatic

I’m curious about astrology. Even though I don’t follow it all the time, I enjoy noticing the synergies between what’s happening in the cosmos and how it affects our earthy lives. Last month I discovered on YouTube, and I’ve been obsessed ever since. She brings somatic into astrology, which is music to my ears.

The Inner Revolution

Returning To What Matters: July 2026

The Mars-Uranus conjunction in Gemini on July 4 brings the potential for some aggressive, hectic, and unexpected energies…

2 months ago · 9 likes · Dr. Jazz Nejat

Nine

Colorful pens

I love writing. I have a giant red notebook that I write in every day, and for years I’ve used only one black pen (Pilot VBall 7). Writing doesn’t feel the same without it. Lately, though, I’ve been craving more colours, so I found something close enough to the same sensation I get with my black pen. It has been joyful, to say the least.

Link

Ten

Back to gym

One of the greatest joys of my life has been movement, especially trying different things. After I moved to the UK (and through the whole COVID era), I couldn’t find a gym environment I actually enjoyed. That changed recently, I finally found my place.

I reconnected with that joy, and it gives me an excuse to get out of the house and make new friends in town while I dance, box, swim, strength train, and use the sauna regularly.

On top of that, they let you book a table tennis table. Last week, my partner and I went and played for an hour, a game we both loved as kids. FUN!

What earthy things you’ve been enjoying lately?

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

how to actually be seen? (chapter 3)

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 06:00:12 GMT

I was sharing my breakthroughs on being seen with a friend, long before I wrote about it here.

My friend said, “Wow, I feel like so many of my mental knots got resolved after you shared that.”

Then they said, “You could share this with your community, you know?”

But my first thought was, How?

My human mind couldn’t turn all of it into an educational piece of content.

There was no clear structure, and the more I tried to force one, the less it made sense.

Staying on the theme of authenticity, I paused.

I asked: if I return to أصل ’aṣl = “root/origin,” how would this want to be expressed?

And I heard:

you overcomplicate things

simplify

share it as is

your raw expression is enough

That’s why this series on how to be seen came to life.

How often do we complicate things just to make it make sense for others?

We edit ourselves to be understandable because we’re consumed by judging other people’s judgment of us.

Here is what came through:

Dear child,

You believe that, by default, every relationship might be hurting you.

You came to believe you are a victim in any exchange.

Because you learned you only belong by hurting yourself.

By ignoring your wants, needs, and feelings.

Yes, this might be what you learned early on, but it’s time to give yourself permission

to belong without losing yourself.

To let yourself come as you are,

without filtering,

without adding extra,

without complicating yourself.

Only then does your essence come through clearly.

Let it fill the room.

Then it’s clear where you truly belong.

And remember: clarity is the truest form of kindness, to you and the world around you.

{This is my personal essays on authenticity and being seen, subscribe for next chapter. Click to read chapter 1 and chapter 2 }

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

You don’t build real strength until you understand this

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 14:34:39 GMT

Most people treat strength and relaxation like opposites. But they are both sides of the same coin.

The extent to which you can build strength depends on the extent to which you can relax.

And the extent to which you can relax depends on the extent to which you can build strength.

One depends on the other

When I say relaxation, I’m not just talking about lying down or taking a bath. I mean the body’s ability to calm down:

to soften unnecessary tension
to breathe without bracing
to let muscles lengthen when they’re not needed
to feel safe enough to stop over-controlling

Because if your nervous system can’t relax, your body doesn’t really recover. It stays in a low-grade state of protection. And in protection mode, your training becomes a constant negotiation with tightness, fatigue, pain, and plateauing.

Strength is more than lifting heavier or building muscle. It’s a whole-body, whole-mind state. Real strength is also:

stability under pressure
the capacity to hold shape without gripping
the confidence that you can meet load and not collapse
the ability to create tension on purpose, then release it

What’s the hidden loop that keeps people stuck:

If you can’t relax, you often try to feel safe by tightening.

You clench when you stand.
You over-effort when you train.
You push harder when your body is asking for precision.

On the other side, if you don’t have strength, relaxation can feel unsafe.
Because without baseline strength and stability, letting go can feel like:

collapse
vulnerability
losing control

This is why so many people bounce between extremes: overworking and crashing, efforting and numbing, tightening and stretching, without actually changing the pattern.

You don’t need to choose between being strong and being relaxed.

You need to become someone who can do both. Because strength without relaxation becomes rigidity. And relaxation without strength becomes collapse.

So the first step in building real strength is to discern which side of the coin you’re stuck on.

If your body is always tense, always bracing, and you can’t properly relax, then prioritizing relaxation may be the most supportive place to begin.

But if you’re always meditating, stretching, breathing, and doing “relaxing” practices without enough body-strengthening work, your body may not need more softness.

It may need to lift some weights.

So you can build the kind of strength that makes relaxation feel safe.

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

Why deep breathing hasn’t work for you? (Here is what to do instead)

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 13:31:26 GMT

We’re a generation stuck on inhalation, and we’ve lost the instinct to exhale.

What I’m about to share must sound obvious, but unfortunately it isn’t.

For years, the only breathing cue I picked up from the fitness world was to brace for heavy squats and deadlifts. That’s useful sometimes, but it isn’t practical for natural human movement.

Then I went down the rehab route, chiro, physio, all the “fix the pain” appointments. Nobody explained breathing mechanics.

Then I stepped into mindfulness spaces and heard “take a deep breath” over and over, which most people translate as “pull more air in,” with little attention on the exhale.

Teaching proper breathing mechanics is one of the most important parts of the foundation phase of my work with clients, because you already take around 20,000 reps a day. If we can optimize that, we get leverage for everything we do in later phases. This phase alone genuinely transformed my posture and the way I move through the world.

Your body creates stability by managing pressure and tension like a canister, with the diaphragm at the top, the pelvic floor at the bottom, and the abdominal wall all around. On an inhale, the diaphragm descends and the ribs and belly expand, ideally in a 360-degree pattern.

Then comes the part most people are missing. On the exhale, the ribs soften down and in, and the abdominals, especially the obliques, gain tone. This improves the stacking of ribs over pelvis. This is often the most stable position for transferring force or absorbing impact, like during mid-stance, standing up out of a squat, or pressing a weight overhead.

An invitation that applies to movement and life:

Exhale on the hard part.

If you struggle with that, watch this video and learn how to increase your capacity for exhale with this single tool:

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

how to actually be seen? (chapter 2)

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 14:33:54 GMT

I said, fuck it, let’s book that trip to Italy.

My husband said, “Finally. Booking now…”

We’d been holding off on booking a vacation because things have felt so unstable, and I kept pushing us to postpone and save the money, just in case everything went wrong.

After we booked the trip, having something to look forward to lifted both our spirits after a really challenging year so far.

But I noticed there was still a part of me that wasn’t happy with the decision. It kept insisting it was irresponsible

At first I ignored it, but the shame kept growing, to the point where all the excitement for the trip got stripped away.

Finally, I gave in and sat with that part.

I realized it wasn’t actually worried I was being irresponsible. It was worried about what other people, especially family members, would think, that I was being irresponsible.

I was judging myself for what I imagined other people might be judging me for.

I deprived us of a getaway we both desperately needed because I was so focused on other people’s judgment about my life choices.

I asked this part, “How do you see me if I were someone else?”

It said, “You are brave, and I think you made the right call to go on this vacation.”

Suddenly my entire body relaxed and I felt seen by me.

It was a big surprise to realize, it was less about me judging myself, and more about me judging other people’s judgment of me.

What if being seen is not primarily about being witnessed by others, but about finally being witnessed by you?

Here is what came through:

Let’s do this and get it over with

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 10:11:55 GMT

“Let’s do that and get it over with.”

That’s what my dad always said when we were growing up,

even when we were supposed to go on vacation or celebrate a birthday.

For a long time, that became my mantra too.

Everything was something to get through, even the things we were meant to enjoy.

Everything carried this tint of misery and struggle.

Imagine how tense you’d get if, God forbid, you had to “get over” a challenging life circumstance.

Now it’s a phrase my partner and I use jokingly, to remind ourselves: why are we in such a rush to get over life?

We’ve been conditioned to believe that tension is the price of effectiveness.

If it doesn’t feel hard in your body, it doesn’t “count.”
If you’re not clenching, you must not care.
If you’re not under pressure, you’re probably being lazy.
Or maybe you think focus is only possible through tension.

School taught us to perform on demand. Productivity culture taught us that worth equals output. And somewhere along the way, many of us learned to motivate ourselves with a mix of fear and force:

Tighten up
Push through
Override our bodily signals
Earn rest later

As a culture, we have so much resistance to ease. Sometimes if something comes easily and naturally, we don’t value it as much. So we resist it, as much as we resist ease.

No matter how much I meditated, ease still felt foreign to me until I started doing posture work and experienced what a more relaxed body actually feels like. Once I had that reference point, I could tell right away when I’d left it.

Our tendency to tense up isn’t just a mindset thing to change because it’s how our entire nervous system organizes itself to get something done. It’s a whole package:

breath gets shallow
eyes narrow and lock
attention tunnels
jaw grips
neck shortens
shoulders creep up
belly hardens

It’s how we create control. If you reduce your degrees of freedom by getting stiff, life feels more predictable. You might lose ease, but you gain the illusion of certainty.

One of my favorite native prayers has a sentence in it that says:

Come and guide me, teach me to fight, fight with no war.

May today you and I fight with no war….

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

how to actually be seen (chapter 1)

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:03:38 GMT

I was texting back and forth with a friend about what it means to be seen in your gifts, and all things authenticity.

We usually text each other in Farsi, and I noticed that every time I tried to write “authenticity,” I had to switch to English.

Then it dawned on me: I don’t actually know what this word means in my native language.

I went straight to the translator.

The closest translation I found is اصالت (esālat), from the Arabic root أصل ’aṣl = “root/origin.”

Suddenly, I understood the word on a whole other level.

The theme of authenticity has been coming up for me strongly lately, especially since I slowed down back in April.

I kept asking myself:

What does it mean to belong and serve without betraying myself?

We never really know our true essence, even as kids. As we grow up, our need for safety and security shapes us.

We learn to edit ourselves to be loved and approved by family, and we start performing for our parents’ love and validation.

That same craving for security follows us as we move into society.

With social media, that need to perform (often in the name of authenticity) has reached a whole new level.

Here’s what I remembered:

Authenticity is expressing yourself simply because you exist, and your existence is enough.

And your existence is Love.

To truly embody this is to be free from judgment.

To be truly seen by you.

Imagine yourself on the stage of your life.

You may be the only audience, or one of many.

But what kind of an audience are you to yourself?

This is a series of personal essays on authenticity & being seen, read the future chapters here.

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

Your expensive ergonomic setup is why your back and neck hurt

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 10:11:30 GMT

My terrible work setup is better than your expensive ergonomic one

To the commenter on my recent LinkedIn photo working by the beach…

You know why?

Because you are not a robot…

There’s a whole industry built on DSE assessments and fancy office equipment, but none of it changes the fact that sitting at a desk for 8+ hours a day is not for the human body.

You are made to move.

I have worked with so many people with chronic pain who spent thousands of dollars on their work setup before coming to me.

You know what I tell them?

I cover it in the video. If you prefer the written version, keep reading:

1/ Diversify your work setup

Unlike what we’ve been told, finding the perfect ergonomic chair won’t fix all our pain and aches. You can optimize your desk all you want, your body and mind still need variety.

Physically, our bodies are meant to move and movement variability is critical to maintain healthy bodies, mobile joints and agility. Your joints and tissues adapt to whatever you repeat, so the longer you hold one position, the more your body starts to stiffen around it and the smaller your comfortable range of motion becomes.

Mentally, most people focus best in cycles. After about 60–90 minutes of sustained effort, attention and self-regulation often start to dip, which is why a reset can bring your clarity back.

These patterns are sometimes discussed as ultradian rhythms (often described as ~90-minute waves), but the exact timing varies by person and task. When we ignore the dips repeatedly, we tend to compensate with more tension, shallower breathing, and a higher stress load, and over time that can spill into mood, gut comfort, and sleep.

Try rotating where and how you work throughout the day. Here’s how:

Do an hour at your desk,
then take the laptop to the floor with it on a chair,
then the couch,
then a standing surface
Change position after each meeting
Set a timer as a cue to physically reset
And for certain tasks, build movement in from the start: take brainstorming on a walk, outline a post while you pace, record voice notes outside, etc.

2/ Ecstatic Deep Work Session

The ecstatic deep work sessions have changed my life, quite literally, in the past 18 months. The level of flow I experience is unreal, and it’s so fun with upbeat music that it feels illegal.

I’ve been co-working with friends all over the world using the Pomodoro technique and dance breaks:

25 minutes of focus work,
then a 5-minute break,
and in that break we dance for a minute or two.

It was so supportive that now I’ve got friends everywhere who’ve replicated it and do it with their friends.

Two things are super important: creating a fun playlist (here is mine), and not getting greedy when you’re in flow. When you’re in the zone, when your mind says don’t stop, when you think “just one more email,” take the break anyway. This won’t break your flow, it protects it.

I also started hosting these on Insight Timer for the past three weeks, and people have had so much fun. I’ll be hosting another one on Tuesday, join me if you have a task you want to focus on.

🗓️ Pin your calendar here: https://insig.ht/QQw9uNAzH3b

3/ Find Ease

So many of us have been told our posture is terrible and that we should fix it by sitting, standing, and walking upright like a robot. As if doing that will finally “fix” your posture, and all your pains and aches will magically go away. Unfortunately, it won’t work.

“Standing upright” will only keep you in pain. You can read more on this here.

Here’s what no one tells you:

An optimal posture is stable and relaxed.
It can round forward (flexion) and straighten up (extension) effortlessly.
It can move between flexion and extension naturally, without getting stuck in either.

So what’s the solution?

Take a moment and notice your body as you read this.

Can you gently find a position that feels more relaxed and easeful? The posture of neutrality practice is an easy way to create this reset in seconds, once you know how to do it.

Your body doesn’t need a perfect setup. It needs variety, rhythm, and ease. Change positions, take the break, drop the bracing. Do that for one day and notice what shifts.

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

🐉 Subscribe for more mindfulness, posture, and embodiment practices

….to help you move beyond the conditioning that keeps you stuck and in pain.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

3 lessons I learned after two months of slowing down

Sun, 07 Jun 2026 10:11:26 GMT

I’ve been moving extra slow since early April.

Life felt especially hard this year. I used work and structure around projects to create some sense of normalcy, and it helped.

Until two projects I’d built my month around fell through within a week.

And I noticed that, instead of being disappointed, my whole body exhaled.

I felt so grateful for the extra space.

The slower I moved, the more I could see where I’m still not living on my own terms.

In a culture that defines our worth by our performance, choosing to move slower can feel like you’re failing, falling behind, or wasting time.

But that discomfort is part of the unconditioning: letting your nervous system learn that you’re still safe, still worthy, even when you’re not producing.

The past two months of slowing down brought up a lot for me. Here are the three things I learned:

1/ Being and doing

I tend to get stuck in “doing” and forget how to be. It’s easy to let meditation and inner work become just another thing on the list. In modern life, we often treat meditation like a tool to produce something we want. Even the thing that’s meant to help us just be starts becoming about healing, clarity, abundance, a calmer nervous system, or better focus. Sometimes it’s even “so I can have more energy to do more.” It’s another to live a robotic life.

To actually experience being, we need to slow down long enough to arrive without waiting for the next thing. And when we do, our doing starts coming from our truest expression, not from pressure or another task on the to-do list.

In my experience, when we’re stuck in doing, enjoyment is the bridge back to being. This is a poem that came through for me. Press play, and may it resonate with you:

2/ Moving vs being moved

I truly believe movement is life. We’re made to move.

But so many of us move to escape something, or to control something. It can become addictive, not because movement is bad, but because we start to fear space. We’re terrified that if we stop, everything will fall apart.

In my own experience, there’s a big difference between trying to move and being moved.

Trying to move is what happens when you work so hard to force change because your worth feels tied to that change. Your movement becomes a reaction to something outside of you.

Being moved is different. You’re not reacting. You’re the force.

In my life, every time I moved from urgency, from escape, or from needing to make something happen, I ended up exhausted and feeling like I’d failed. When I let myself be moved, that’s when waves were created. It felt like alchemy.

These days I ask myself: am I being moved, or am I moving to escape and control?

3/ It feels illegal

The other day, I went to the beach and made an office with rocks. My background music was waves. I had a meeting with a stork, and got distracted by loads of colorful butterflies.

It felt so good to play, create, and “work,” but it didn’t feel like work. It was fun. Instead of having an agenda, I arrived as I am to see what wanted to come through.

Then I felt this strong instruction to write, not just anything, but a book. I always thought I’d write a book ten years from now, but it started pouring out of me. I wrote three chapters in one sitting, with insane clarity, on something I’d never even thought about before.

It made me wonder: slowing down feels illegal in our society because when you give yourself permission to slow down long enough, you dare to bend time. And when you do, you’re much harder to control in the robotic way of modern life.

I keep wondering: how can I lead a life that’s so fun and playful it feels illegal?

Press play and set the illegal tone for your day:

What would “living on your own terms” look like in one small, specific choice this week?

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

🐉 Subscribe for more mindfulness, posture, and embodiment practices

….to help you move beyond the conditioning that keeps you stuck and in pain.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

Why you feel exhausted all the time?

Sun, 31 May 2026 10:11:35 GMT

You’re not exhausted for the reasons you think...

Modern humans are not exhausted because they’re doing too much.

We’re exhausted because we’re doing the things we’ve been told:

we should do
or we should want to do

The louder this gets, the more vague our wants become.

Because “should”, or “should want”, often carries an element of “I don’t want to.”

Naturally, we need to exert a lot more effort for the things we believe we do not want to do.

I know this because I might be slowly coming out of “should exhaustion.” And for nearly 10 years, I’ve seen this exhaustion over and over again among my clients too.

We move through our days with a lot of chatter in the back of our heads, repeating our “should menu.”

Sometimes it gets so loud that it feels like a should attack.

The louder it gets, the less we’re able to hear what we actually want.

Some of us enter a state of paralysis, and some of us run around without knowing why.

And the most important part: we lose our sovereignty and sense of Self along the way.

In this video, I share the reason for your exhaustion in more depth, and I take you through a somatic practice to work through it and deepen your understanding of what is actually happening.

💚 When you’re ready, here are three ways I can help:

🐉 Subscribe for more mindfulness, posture, and embodiment practices

….to help you move beyond the conditioning that keeps you stuck and in pain.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer