Unconditioning Movement

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:

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.

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.

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

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?

Reflection questions: How do you think other people judge you? And how do you adapt your behavior/choices to avoid that imagined judgment? How do you see yourself in the very thing you fear other people are judging you for?

Here is what came through:

Beloved child,

Drop the judgment.

You’ve been told to judge yourself

because your innocence was labeled as stupidity.

It’s like a treasure buried under layers of conditioning

to protect you,

to control you,

to make you small.

They show up as:

a fear of being taken advantage of,

an apology in your spine,

being too bright, afraid it will take attention away from others.

Release all of it.

Your innocence is your essence.

Carry it gently, as if you are carrying the most expensive treasure you ever laid eyes on.

It’s your divine gift.

It’s you.

Your essence 💚

{This is my personal essays on authenticity and being seen, subscribe for chapter 3.}

💚 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

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, subscribe for 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

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

Harmony > Balance

Sun, 24 May 2026 10:11:55 GMT

“Balance” has become the polite word for managing ourselves inside a culture that runs people like machines. And it is not working. The number of people who experience anxiety, depression, and chronic pain is increasing every day. And the language of balance keeps multiplying.

Work-life balance

Find your balance

Get your life back in balance

Keep things in balance

A balanced lifestyle

Add yours to the list….

The fitness and active rehab world is no exception. We hold balance up as the gold standard.

“Get even.” “Fix the imbalance.” “Make left match right.”

But that didn’t work for me or so many of my clients

Because we are not designed to be balanced.

We are designed to be in harmony.

Our body is naturally asymmetrical. Left and right are different by design.

Your heart sits on the left, while more mass and organs sit on the right, including the liver, gallbladder, and parts of the colon. You literally carry life differently side to side.

Even breathing is not identical left to right. The left rib cage often has an easier time descending because there is simply less underneath it. The right side can have a harder time descending, but often has an easier time expanding and ascending, and tends to have more overall respiratory capacity.

Source: Postural Restoration Institute

Your brain is asymmetrical too, which is more common knowledge.

One hemisphere tends to specialize more in details, language, and linear problem-solving. The other tends to specialize more in context, pattern, and emotional tone.

They are meant to work together, not to be equalized. So the goal is not to force a perfect “middle.” The goal is to build harmony between the two so you can experience a sense of equilibrium in your system.

Chasing balance alone limits how well we understand the real system at play: body, mind, and nervous system working together.

Balance is about equalizing parts so nothing tips too far. It often turns into monitoring, trade-offs, and constant correction.

Harmony, on the other hand, is about relationship. It is coordination, adaptation, and recovery.

Harmony is a felt sense...

Where are you overcorrecting yourself in the name of balance?

💚 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

How your identity and breath shape your posture and vice versa?

Sun, 17 May 2026 10:11:41 GMT

Posture class is in session…

Deep dive into the intersection of posture, identity, and breath, and how nervous system patterns and life conditioning shape the way you stand, move, and relate to the world and how to uncondition yourself.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that our posture is a conscious choice, and if we walk around robotically long enough… we’ll finally transform our posture and stop the pain.

But your posture holds you, not the other way around.

Your posture is how you’ve learned to respond to life, it’s systemic.

Stress, trauma, familial and cultural conditioning, even the roles we take on in our relationships and work shape how we stand, sit, and move.

Some of us overextend, pushing through and holding everything together with tension.

Some of us shrink to take up less space, rounding our shoulders and collapsing inward.

Others are caught between opposing forces, never quite settling into a posture that feels natural

Discover your body’s story here → https://hedishah.com/your-bodys-story-quiz-hedi-shah/

These patterns show up not only in our movement but also in how we feel and relate to the world.

A posture stuck in collapse can lead to exhaustion and a sense of powerlessness.
A posture locked in rigidity can create tension and burnout.

The good news is that just as these patterns were learned, they can be unlearned.

And in this workshop, you’ll learn how to work with posture through breath, nervous system regulation, and identity, so change actually sticks.

💚 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

This is the sign you've been asking for

Mon, 11 May 2026 13:22:52 GMT

Your enjoyment is your answer

Your joy is the bridge between doing and being

You get stuck in doing and forget your being

You resist your joy because it’s the very sword meant to change this outdated paradigm,

but the system keeps sucking you in.

It’s not your fault, it’s how they hold you hostage.

All you need is to remember what’s on your heart.

It’s always been this:

unconditioning yourself from the “should”s that make your joy wrong

You are afraid this won’t work.

You know they succeed when they no longer need to keep you captive.

You do it willingly,

with the way you judge yourself

with the way you beat yourself

with the way you deprive yourself of yourself

But child, it’s time to step out of this jail and ask:

what if you design a life so joyful that it feels illegal?

The answer to that is your sign…

💚 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

The “As If We Broke Up” Experiment

Sun, 10 May 2026 10:11:49 GMT

47 days ago, I had a moment….

that led to “breaking up” while staying in my relationship with my husband.

Basically, I decided to act as if we had broken up, so I could see who I would become, what I would choose, and where I had been using the comfort of being “a couple” as an excuse to stay complacent.

Here’s what happened leading up to that moment:

One morning, I was FaceTiming a dear friend who was going through a painful breakup. Even though I knew she was hurting, I could not ignore what else I was witnessing. A kind of wildness was returning to her, along with a deep sense of conviction and aliveness. I felt moved by her energy, and I found myself wondering when the last time was that I had felt like that.

Later that same day, I was scrolling on Pinterest (of all places) and came across a girl talking about something similar. She said she was acting as if she had broken up inside her relationship, not to end it, but to interrupt the stagnation and comfort that had started to make her feel unsatisfied.

Her story landed in me. Paired with what I had seen in my friend earlier that morning, I felt a strong pull to start an experiment.

Before that let me give you a backstory on how we got here:

My partner and I dated long-distance for 2.5 years. I was in Canada and he was in the UK. In the middle of the pandemic, I moved to the UK. We both moved to Manchester, where we didn’t know a single soul. Then we worked from home, with rare interactions outside our bubble, mostly just trips to see family and friends when we could.

Caspian Sea, Iran

A year and a half ago, we moved again, this time to a small town in the northwest of England. We lost the little community we’d built, and we had to start over again.

And again, it was mostly just me and him.

Yes, I started litter picking with neighbors and helping with our local garden. But day-to-day, we only really have each other to rely on. We are working from home, with very little opportunity to meet people.

After those moments of clarity, I sat down and asked myself:

Where do I say no to opportunities to socialize and get out of my comfort zone because the comfort of our couple habits is easier?
How would I show up differently if I were actually broken up?

So I began a practice of noticing, in real time, where I was relying on the relationship to meet needs I could meet myself, where I was using it as an excuse to not take risks, and where it had become a soft place to hide.

And then I started doing the opposite.

St. Bees Beach, UK

A tangible example: I’d been trying to make friends locally, but I had this story that it wasn’t worth expanding my Bumble BFF radius beyond 15 minutes. When I checked the app again, I caught myself. Why wouldn’t I widen it?

I expanded the distance. And I ended up meeting someone who lives 40 minutes away.

We had one of the deepest, most stimulating conversations I’ve had in a long time because I chose to go a little further than what was convenient. Not only did I potentially make a new girl friend, but I also got to enjoy a solo road trip with my fav playlist, which I had not done in a while.

Basically, I decided to spread my wings while still being in a relationship. Sometimes we slowly cut our own wings, little by little, because staying open and alive requires us to keep choosing movement, risk, and growth.

I’m planning to keep this going for 3 months and see what happens. All I need to do is organize one social activity per week that pushes me outside of my comfort bubble.

Unconditioning is not prescriptive. It is about finding out what medicine you need. Even though I cherish the comfort and safety I have in my relationship with my husband, which we need more than ever in this world, in this phase of life stepping out of that comfort is what feels most supportive.

What is your medicine these days?

💚 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

Unconditioning My Relationship to Prayer

Sun, 03 May 2026 10:12:00 GMT

I remember lying on the ground after a powerful meditation. I felt gooey and relaxed, and tears were streaming down my cheeks.

The first thing I wrote in my journal was: “How could I forget this?”

My connection to the divine.

A deep remembering that there is a loving presence all around us.

This was back in 2020, during my Heart Resonance Practitioner training. That process opened my sight and restored my relationship with the Creator.

I realized there is a difference between meditating to relax or “work on yourself,” and meditating to connect with this unexplainable force.

Shortly after, I was introduced to writing prayer. It became one of the most powerful practices I have ever tried. The level of mind-body coherence I experienced was unmatched.

And yet, I was afraid to go all in.

On the surface, the reason was logical. I carry a deep resistance to indoctrination.

As someone who was Muslim by birth, and who has seen how religion can be used to suppress people, I could not fully let my guard down.

But there was another layer too. Whenever I connected deeply through prayer and meditation, life moved fast. Something shifted quickly. I was unconsciously scared of the momentum and the trust it asked of me.

This year has been challenging on many fronts. There were moments when I dropped to my knees and asked for help because my humanness and all of my nervous system regulation toolkit did not feel like enough to carry me forward.

After one of those breakdowns, I was on a Zoom call with a group of beautiful women. I shared what I was feeling and said I was craving a prayer practice. They volunteered to join me.

We began with an 11-day prayer practice together until the Equinox (and it still going), which Iranians celebrate as the new year. Shout out to you lovely humans 💚

Since that day, so much has changed for each person in that group. It was a huge reminder of the power of community, and of praying together for the life and world we actually want.

Lately, I also have been getting pings to record more prayer practices. I also noticed my only prayer practice on Insight Timer went semi-viral. I do not think I can ignore it anymore.

In the meantime, if you are craving a prayer practice too, you can start with this:

💚 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

my history with anger

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 10:11:55 GMT

I grew up carrying an unbearable amount of anger.

My mom felt attacked by it. She was on the receiving end of my anger more than anyone else.

My dad pretended it did not happen.

But they never asked why I was so angry, basically all the time.

Often, the people closest to me, like close family members or romantic partners, would become the targets of these outbursts.

Other people had no idea about this side of me.

The first time I truly felt what was underneath my anger was when I started writing every day, after reading The Artist’s Way.

But the outbursts continued. I was just more aware of them.

When I started dating my husband, then boyfriend, Navid, he was the first person who did not feel offended by my anger or leave the room because of it.

He would sit with me in my anger, which was something I had never experienced before. I couldn’t bear sitting with myself in my anger.

And when the anger finally passed, a heavy sadness would wash over me. Under it was this raw sense of unworthiness. Part of me even wished he would leave too, just so I would not have to feel it.

At that point, the effect of my anger on our relationship was so clear, and I wanted that to change.

Here are the two practices that helped me loosen anger’s grip on my life and relationships…

1) Inner child work:

Inner child work finally showed me where my rage was coming from, and it was the most surprising thing I had learned about myself.

As a kid, I watched women get manipulated and controlled, then swallow their pride and carry on as if everything was fine.

In those moments, I wanted them to get angry. I wanted them to refuse. I wanted them to choose themselves and, in doing so, choose me too.

That rage came from the helplessness I felt as a girl, watching it happen and not knowing how to stop it. I hated that reality. Inner child work helped me go back and give my younger self what she needed then, so I could finally close the loop.

2) Embodiment work:

Learning to stay in my body while anger moved through me was one of the most transformative experiences of my life. At times, my mind genuinely wondered if it could devour me.

It taught me something I could not think my way into. Sensations are meant to be sensed, not controlled. When I stopped trying to override them and started letting them be felt, they shifted.

As I grew my capacity to feel the intensity of anger, I also grew my capacity for everything else. I could feel sadness, tenderness, pleasure, clarity, and choice.

I can honestly say I metabolized that rage. It has been years since those outbursts. I still get angry. I am human. But anger does not control me like it used to.

I recorded a unique embodiment practice to help you process any pent-up anger.

Go on a walk and press play:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

What keeps me sane these days..

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 10:11:37 GMT

As we go through life (especially with the state of the world), we keep meeting the same fork in our unconditioning path:

Are we going horizontal or vertical?

This distinction between what I experience in my body and mind when I go vertical versus when I go horizontal is what has kept me sane lately.

Let me explain:

We go horizontal when we spread outward to control the moment. This is the part of us that tries to play “god.”
We go vertical when we come inward to meet the moment. This is where we accept our humanness and let God, Spirit, or Life Force move through us.

When I choose a horizontal path, I often notice one or a few of these sensations:

my body tenses up (ribs flared and knees locked)
I go numb
I feel an argument going in front of my head
I negotiate for my rightness
I’m scattered and disconnected from myself and my surroundings.

This is when we are:

leaning on stories, people, situations, and familiar habits as a crutch
spreading our energy outward to manage, perform, overexplain, or stay comfortable
quietly reinforcing the patterns that keep us stuck and in pain

Reflection question:

What do you sense in your body when you choose the horizontal path?

On the other hand, when the axis shifts to vertical, when I stop spreading my attention outward and bring my senses back online, here is what I notice:

my body relaxes
the rush melts away
my mind goes quiet
I feel what wants to be felt the most
my grip softens (physically and/or metaphorically)

It reminds me of this song each time:

If you’ve been in my Monthly Unconditioning Practice, you’ve heard me play it. Join the next one here.

This is when we are:

choosing love over fear
returning to sensation, breath, and the information your body is giving you
listening to what’s true beneath the noise
choosing differently without abandoning yourself or rushing into polarized “either/or” sides, whether that pressure comes from inside or outside

Reflection question:

What do you sense in your body when you choose the vertical path?

When I’m in horizontal mode, my mind gets stuck in survival. In those moments, noticing my automatic body patterns helps me shift faster than trying to think my way out of it.

I first noticed this axis shift through posture work.

For me, posture of neutrality is a physical doorway into the vertical path.

It is the moment your body says:

“I don’t need to brace for what’s next.”
“I can have readiness without armor.”
“I can be here without performing.”
I can exist without overexplaining or justifying myself.

Posture of neutrality is a quick somatic reset that helps me find the next-softest, most grounded version of myself, so I can respond instead of react. You can try it here:

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

Rehab failed me after my car accident

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 10:11:36 GMT

My career started purely through a physical and biomechanics lens, nearly 10 years ago.

Originally as a personal trainer, then specializing in Joint and Spine Mobility.

Those methods helped after my car crash…

Until they didn’t.

My accident was the beginning of an entirely new way of understanding our human body, now through the nervous system perspective.

Because it’s never just your mind or just your body.

It’s the integration of both.

Nothing creates lasting change because we live in a system that separates them.

Most approaches like mindfulness, pilates, strength training, physio, chiro… treat them as separate.

And worse, they only focus on symptoms, never root causes. Never what’s actually causing your pain.

So, no matter how long or how intensely you “treat” your symptoms, you’ll always fallback into conditioning patterns that will keep making your pain comeback.

Not here, tho.

Here, I integrate nervous system work, breathwork, and posture-focused strength training to help you move beyond what keeps you stuck and in pain.

Because without the combination of the three, you’ll continue “treating” your pain forever while falling back into the patterns that will keep demanding that treatment…

Stop the loop with Your Unconditioning Path.

Start with a Body Check-in: https://hedishah.com/body-check-in-hedi-shah/

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

She thought it was a leg problem

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:55:43 GMT

She came to me with a persistent pain on the outside of her leg, thinking it was an “IT band problem”, (a connector from our hip to our shin).

That’s what she’d been told. That’s what it felt like.

Constant pain along the outside of her leg, sometimes traveling all the way down towards the inner part of her knee.

Every workout became a question mark, “Will this make it worse today?”

And a lot of times, it did.

It got bad to the point it affected her confidence and trust in her own body.

Because Sharon was doing everything “right”:

Yoga. Pilates. Strength training. HIIT.

Trying harder. Tweaking form. Pushing through.

But the more she pushed, the more her body pushed back. She started feeling frustrated and scared.

Scared that if nothing changed, she’d have to stop training. Scared she’d feel weak, stuck, unhappy in her own body.

Deep down, she just wanted to feel strong again. And trust that her effort would actually make a change.

When we met, we started with an assessment, and what I saw immediately was this:

The pain was showing up in her IT band, but the pattern started upstream.

Her pelvis wasn’t getting the support it needed, her ribcage and breathing weren’t helping her move efficiently, and her nervous system was living in a “brace and push through” mode.

Something had to give, and in her case, it was her leg.

So, instead of chasing the painful area, we worked with the whole system that was creating the overload. We worked on everything that was creating the problem:

I assessed and re-assessed, we never “guessed” our way through.
We improved her breathing. Our breath is how our ribcage, core, and pelvis organize.
We regulated her nervous system. An always braced body doesn’t adapt to life.
We built pelvic stability and real core strength. The kind that stops hip flexors and low back from hijacking everything.
Then we started posture-focused strength training, progressively and sustainably.

Her IT band pain is gone.

She can feel her core in a way she couldn’t before.

Now she has actual stability.

And she lifts, heavy.

But even bigger than that… she trusts her body again.

She’s not afraid of pain. She’s not trapped in the “no pain, no gain” nonsense.

She trains less, recovers more, and gets better results.

She also told me something that I’ll never forget:

“I appreciate the range of work you do… I can show up no matter how I feel, and I know I will leave feeling better.”

I know you’ve been stuck in a similar loop.

Trying harder, doing more, and still battling with recurring pain. Please:

You don’t need more intensity. You need a plan that matches your body, and someone who can see the pattern underneath the symptom.

I’m that someone!

Start Your Unconditioning Path with a Body check-in: https://hedishah.com/body-check-in-hedi-shah/

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

The most restorative thing to heal a knee injury (day 3)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:55:41 GMT

I get myself into a super slow walk as soon as I can. Walking is one of the most restorative practices for posture.

At this point, I’ve already done the check-in from Day 1 and Day 2, and I’ve listened to what my body is trying to communicate.

Now, I’m focusing on anti-inflammatory knee exercises, then my pelvis’ stability, and adding a few feet exercises to prep my body for my walk.

Rhythm matters a lot here, that’s why you’ll learn how to do a relaxed arm swing in this video too.

I may even play a rhythmic song, because your auditory cortex is connected to your movement cortex.

Getting into a steady rhythm can create real changes in how we move.

And if the pain still feels alive, I do a soften pain practice so I can stay regulated throughout the whole process.

If these last 3 days helped you, just imagine what it will look like when the process is built for the pain you’re feeling, your patterns, and your life.

With me always by your side, making sure you’re on the right path.

That’s Your Unconditioning Path.

Book a Body Check-in: https://hedishah.com/body-check-in-hedi-shah/

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

Healing my knee injury (day 2)

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:55:54 GMT

When I’ve covered the basics, like we did yesterday, I zoom out.

I rarely find only focusing on the injured area productive, so I do a quick assessment to see where I’m restricted on a postural level.

Historically, I am right oriented (my body naturally shifted to the right), so I double check if that same pattern is loading my right side, and in this case my right knee.

Depending on the result of the assessment, I take the pressure off by focusing on my pelvis’ position, plus neurological and breathing exercises that help bring my pelvis into a more stable place, and by doing that, alleviating my knee pain.

I also stay active.

What often happens with injury is we get so consumed by it that we stop doing anything that lifts our mood or reminds us we’re still capable.

It can take trial and error to find exercises that do not trigger pain. In my case I did an upper body session while spending the whole time reinforcing a better pelvis position.

I know you may have tried a lot of things to heal your pain but nothing sticks.

And it never will because the pattern underneath was never addressed (that’s what I’m doing this week for my knee).

That’s what we work on in Your Unconditioning Path. Start your path with a Body Check-in: https://hedishah.com/body-check-in-hedi-shah/

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

I injured my knee last week, here’s what I did to fix it (day 1)

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:55:14 GMT

First, do not panic.

Then, 1) I do a psycho-somatic check in:

Is there an emotional layer here, or is it mostly bio-mechanical?

I’ve come to believe they are deeply connected, so I look for what I can address right away.

Mine was very personal so I’m not ready to share, but as an example your body might be saying you’re controlling too much, so you bring in an awareness practice immediately.

Then, 2) I avoid movement that increases pain, and I add movement that feels safe.

We’ve been told to ice and rest, but that’s outdated.

Movement is one of the best anti-inflammatory tools we have. I look for options that do not cause pain, like knee CARs (see video below).

I use a lot of FRC style work here, meaning I move the joint in its available range of motion, no matter how small, because it gives me control and options to modify.

I’m sharing my own process publicly, but inside Your Unconditioning Path I tailor it to your body and your life.

Because I know you may need that kind of support, start with a body check-in: https://hedishah.com/body-check-in-hedi-shah/

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer

Unconditioning, fresh out the oven

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:11:50 GMT

December 17th, 2016, was the day I officially became a certified personal trainer.

A few days later, I got my very first client.

They were a work friend who had basically been waiting for me to get certified so they could finally have a PT :D

My work has evolved so much since those days.

This year, my business turns 10.

And it feels like I’ve been preparing for a rebirth.

The past 15 months have been about:

letting go of what no longer works, internally and externally.
bringing all the pieces of my work together so I can finally see the full canvas.
fully owning what makes my work unique and where I can serve best

And, luckily, two beautiful souls came into my life to help me bring it to life.

Big gratitude to Joel and Patrícia from GrowingDesign for being the support I always thought was impossible to find.

There’s discomfort in letting go of what previously worked.

But there’s also a sense of peace when you finally take that step, put your foot down, and say, “This is where I stand for now.”

Like a dear friend said, looks like this rebranding process has been self-affirming, and I couldn’t put it any better.

It really has been.

The more I stripped away the clutter, the more I landed on this:

The pain and stuckness we’re experiencing comes from a life of deep conditioning.

So I’m here to help you uncover it, address it, and finally move beyond modern-life pain.

And today, I’m on the edge of my seat to share what we’ve been cooking for the past 7 months.

Sizzling 🥵

It’s hot… 🔥 And ready to serve!

I mean my very freshly new website.

Want to see the full menu?

hedishah.com

In honor of this milestone, I dusted off my podcast and pulled together 5 meditations I use the most in my 1:1 client work so you can try the exact practices I come back to again and again on your unconditioning path. Let me know your pick!

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer