Last call for Posture in Motion

The next round of Posture in Motion starts Monday. If you’re considering joining, applications for this round close Saturday at 11:59 p.m. UK time (tomorrow night). You can always apply for a future round, but this is your last chance to join this one.

Posture in Motion is a small-group posture and somatic practice for people who want to feel more at home in their bodies, move with greater ease, and begin shifting the patterns that keep them tense, braced, or in pain.

Apply for Posture in Motion before Saturday at 11:59 a.m. UK time.

A new direction for my work

I made some major decisions in business over the few months.

1. I’m fully letting go of fast content, or what I like to call “quick fuck” marketing. LinkedIn was the last platform where I was still posting regularly, and I’ve decided to stop giving it my constant energy.

   Even though I left Instagram years ago, part of me was still holding on to this way of keeping my work visible. The fear of missing out kept me from fully closing those channels and creating the mental space to share and promote my work differently. I’ve finally made the call to let them go.

   For now, the places where you can actively hear from me and follow my work are YouTube, Spotify, Substack, and Insight Timer. These platforms give me more space to share work that is slower, deeper, and more aligned with how I want to create.

2. I’m no longer accepting new 1:1 clients. This has been one of the bravest business decisions I’ve made in a long time. After sitting with it carefully, I’ve decided that, moving forward, my unconditioning work will happen in groups.

   I’ve seen how powerful it can be to practice alongside others, witness each other’s growth, and remember that healing does not have to happen in isolation. Group work creates space for community, shared healing, mutual support, and meaningful connection.

   This feels like the direction my work is asking me to follow. If that ever changes, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Focus and dance with me

I’ve been hosting live Embodied Focus Sessions on Insight Timer, usually at 10 a.m. UK time, with occasional evening sessions too. We pair 25-minute focus sprints with dance breaks and fun music, giving you a chance to reset your nervous system, loosen your body, and return to your work feeling clearer and more focused.

These sessions are for you if you struggle with procrastination, overwhelm, or the stuck energy that makes starting difficult. They’re also a great fit if you work at a desk, feel your body tightening throughout the day, and want some accountability while creating in community. You might even access a level of flow that feels almost illegal.

Bring whatever you’re working on, such as writing, admin, creative work, or studying, along with water, tea, or coffee and enough space to move.

Follow me on Insight Timer to be notified when new sessions are scheduled.

Monthly Unconditioning Practice

It’s that time of the month again. Let’s come together for our Monthly Unconditioning Practice on Insight Timer.

This live practice helps you reconnect with your body’s innate wisdom, move beyond what keeps you stuck, and rediscover who you are beneath the conditioning. We’ll follow our inner rhythm and the pulse of the music to find our way back to the wild self.

Each month, we gather for:

• Nonlinear movement set to music to release tension and emotional residue

• Guided reflection to integrate what the month has brought

• Intentional planning to enter the next cycle feeling grounded and resourced

Save your spot for the next Monthly Unconditioning Practice.

Prayer, set to music

I’ve been deepening my prayer practice this year, and I’m still amazed by how powerful it has become.

As I wrote these prayers, I kept wishing I could turn them into music so I could sing and dance with them. When I told my husband about the idea, he said, “Why not use AI?”

So we started turning my prayers into songs together. It has been such a wholesome, playful, and meaningful experience, and I’m excited to share this creative adventure with you.

You can listen to the songs here.

This one is my favorite ↓

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

Last few days to join Posture in Motion!

Apply here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/

Entry is by application so I can make sure the group feels like a well-matched, supportive container for everyone.

This is a 13-week 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.

In mainstream movement and rehab spaces, we hear a lot about how to “fix” your lower back, hip flexors, and tight hamstrings.
But we rarely hear about the actual bone they all connect to…

Your pelvis.

Back in the day, when I was dealing with persistent lower back pain and intense hamstring tightness after every strength workout, I remember visiting a chiropractor who said,
"Wow, one of your legs is shorter than the other and your hamstring is really tight. Here is a figure four stretch and some foam rolling. Do these all the time."

Years later, I learned:

1. My leg was not shorter. My pelvis was rotated toward the right, which made it appear that way.

2. My hamstring was not tight for no reason. It was protecting me. My nervous system was holding tension to keep me from falling forward because I had no core or pelvic stability.

3. Stretching was not the solution. I needed to restore stability in my posture. (You can learn more about why I no longer rely on stretching by reading the post below)

Pelvis stability is foundational to how we orient ourselves in space and how we experience safety.

Everything is more interconnected than you think. There is a strong relationship between:

• The pelvis and the diaphragm

• The pelvis and the feet

• The pelvis and the jaw

• The pelvis and your shoulders

I could go on and on.

Your pelvis is meant to move in eight directions. But we usually only hear about anterior and posterior tilt. There is more:

• Hiking and dropping

• Shifting left and right

• Rotating left and right

When we lose this natural movement, whether from lifestyle, injury, trauma, or pregnancy, it creates a chain reaction.

We might experience knee pain, lower back discomfort, or even symptoms we rarely link to the pelvis, like bladder control issues. In my case, it also showed up in my jaw.

In the third session of Posture Reset on Insight Timer, we explored pelvis stability:

1. How your pelvis actually works

2. A gentle self assessment

3. Breathing mechanics (yes, again, because it matters every time)

4. Sensory based exercises to restore stability

The structure of this session is very similar to how each session is designed in Posture in Motion. These sessions are different from your typical yoga or stretching classes. They are grounded in sensation. We use the brain and body together to feel things you may not have noticed before.

As some of my clients say, it is humbling. From the outside, it may look like you are not doing much, but inside, you are sweating, shaking, and feeling more than you expected.

So go slow. Stay curious.

Let me know what stood out to you. I would love to hear.

👁️ What has your body been trying to tell you?

The way we hold ourselves matters. Not just because of how it looks. But because it shapes how we live, how we relate, and what we’re capable of imagining. Let your body speak. Let it interrupt the collective war and offer you a new way of being entirely.

Discover your body's story

Client’s Unconditioning ↓

Apply for Posture in Motion ↓

Posture in Motion is a small-group posture and somatic practice for people who want to feel more at home in their body, move with more ease, and start shifting the patterns that keep them tense, braced, or in pain.

Apply here

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

ONLY ONE SPOT left for Posture in Motion!

Apply here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/

Entry is by application so I can make sure the group feels like a well-matched, supportive container for everyone.

This is a 13-week 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.

“Engage your core.”

What’s the first thing you do when you hear that?

Maybe you suck in your belly. Brace as if you’re about to be punched. Or hold your breath and carry more tension into the movement.

You hear this cue everywhere, yet hardly anyone explains what core engagement actually means or what it should feel like.

Even during my personal training certification, I wasn’t taught how to explain it clearly. It was treated as if saying “engage your core” should be enough.

It isn’t.

Your core isn’t a single muscle, and it isn’t something you need to grip as hard as possible. It’s a coordinated system that includes:

• Your diaphragm

• Your pelvic floor

• Your transverse abdominis

• Your obliques

• The muscles that stabilize your spine

These parts need to respond together as you breathe and move. When you constantly pull your stomach in, brace too forcefully, or hold your breath, you may create tension without building useful, adaptable strength.

So what helps this system coordinate?

Your breath.

Your diaphragm sets the rhythm. As you inhale, it descends and helps create pressure through your trunk. As you exhale, your abdominal wall and pelvic floor can respond. Core engagement is this changing, coordinated support, not a rigid position you have to hold all day.

When your breath can move freely, the rest of your core has a better chance to respond to the task in front of you—whether you’re lifting, walking, reaching, or simply sitting at your desk.

Try this now:

1. Place your hands around the sides of your lower ribs.

2. Inhale softly and notice whether your ribs expand into your hands, not only forward, but also sideways and into your back.

3. Exhale longer (building to 8 seconds) and feel your low ribs come down and in as your abdomen responds.

4. When you notice the subtle engagement in your core, keep it integrated as you take your next breath.

5. Repeat a few times without forcing, gripping, or trying to make the breath bigger.

If you want to put this into practice, follow the class below. I’ll guide you through using your breath and movement together so you can build a core that feels strong, responsive, and supportive.

This is the kind of work we explore inside Posture in Motion, my 13-week small-group program combining posture-focused movement, breathwork, and somatic awareness. You’ll learn to understand your body’s patterns and build more ease, mobility, and strength without forcing yourself into a “correct” position.

Only one spot left - Apply here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

Subscribe now

We clicked right away. I felt a deep connection to Molly’s energy and the beautiful work she’s doing in the world. So when she started her podcast, The Modern Mammal, and invited me on, I immediately said yes.

I knew we would have an amazing time because Molly and I can talk for hours. In this conversation, we talked about the body, healing, identity, the nervous system, and what it means to stay human in a world that constantly pulls us away from ourselves.

We also explored something I deeply believe:

Your posture is not just how you stand. It’s how your body has learned to hold you.

Your posture holds the hours you spend sitting, the injuries you’ve pushed through, and the tension you barely notice anymore. It can also reflect how you’ve learned to adapt to your family, culture, work, and environment.

This doesn’t mean pain is “all in your head.” it reminds us that our body is a whole system. Your muscles, breath, nervous system, history, and surroundings are connected.

We’re often taught to look for the faulty part: the tight hip, weak core, or rounded shoulders. Sometimes that helps. But looking at each part in isolation can miss the relationships shaping how your whole body feels and moves.

I also share how I navigate routines and movement, and what it means to uncondition ourselves, even from the things considered “good” for us.

Listen to my full conversation with Molly ↓ (The audio is a bit clunky in places, but it’s worth a listen if you stick with it.)

After the podcast, I offered Molly a Body Check-in session. Here is what she shared:

You can read Molly’s full Substack article here:

Modern Mammaling

What Your Posture Reveals About You

New podcast is LIVE: On Posture, Pain and Unconditioning…

Read more

a month ago · 4 likes

And if this conversation has you wondering what your own posture is holding, and you’re ready to explore it in a supportive space, I’d love to work with you.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

Subscribe now

ONLY ONE SPOT left for Posture in Motion! And early bird pricing ends on the 15th.

Apply here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/

Entry is by application so I can make sure the group feels like a well-matched, supportive container for everyone.

This is a 13-week 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.

Last week, I shared why so many of us have neck tension and this week we dive deep into forward head posture.

This isn’t the usual advice to stand up straight, pull your shoulders back, and tuck your chin in like a robot, hoping your posture will suddenly transform.

The cookie-cutter approach to fixing posture often assumes your body is “wrong” or “stupid,” and that you just need to force it into the position you want.

Before I give you any exercises to “fix” the problem you’re here for, we need to ask a better question: why is your posture like this in the first place, and what does your body actually need?

The simple answer is survival.

To go deeper, let’s look at this through two lenses: the psychosomatic lens and the biomechanical lens. I’m separating them for clarity, not because they happen independently. They’re intertwined and shape each other.

1/ Psychosomatic lens:

The way your body physically adapts in response to emotional, psychological, or nervous-system experiences. Your posture is not limited to muscles and bones. It is the story of your lived experience. It shows how you learned to adapt in order to belong.

To your family.

To your culture.

To the larger systems you were born into.

When we start to understand these layers, we can better see how our body has been shaped by them. You can read more about the psychosomatic adaptation of this posture in this article ↓

2/ Biomechanical lens:

Forward head posture serves a purpose. It’s a compensatory strategy that can make breathing easier because that forward position opens your airways.

One common reason for this posture is a compressed rib cage.

{There are other factors too, like airway issues, mouth breathing (often from chronic congestion), poor tongue posture, or not enough jaw and upper palate expansion while growing up. If the rest applies to you, consider working with a qualified myofunctional therapist to address the root cause first, then come back to the tips in this article.}

Every time we breathe, our rib cage needs to expand 360 degrees for effective breathing. But so many of us today have collapsed rib cages, can’t access the diaphragm well, and end up relying heavily on the neck muscles to breathe.

In this video, I share three exercises that go beyond stretching or strengthening the neck to “fix” forward head posture. Instead, they target what’s driving you into that position in the first place.

This is the deep 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.

Only one spot left - Apply here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

Subscribe now

You may have tried stretching, strengthening, yoga, Pilates, physio, or bodywork. Some of it may have helped, but the same patterns keep returning.

Posture in Motion is a 13-week, small-group posture and somatic practice to help you understand your body, move with more ease, and shift the patterns keeping you tense, braced, stiff, or in pain.

We’ll explore the relationship between your posture, breath, nervous system, and movement through:

• Live teaching and guided movement sessions

• Breathwork and somatic exploration

• Postural self-assessment

• Simple practices you can use between sessions

• Space for questions, reflection, and personal feedback

• Built-in integration weeks, giving you time to practice, notice what’s changing, and let the work land

13-Week Structure:

The group is intentionally limited to 8 people, so you won’t be lost in a large class following generic instructions. You’ll have space to understand your own patterns, ask questions, receive feedback, and learn alongside others.

Only 3 places are still available. If you feel drawn to joining, I encourage you to apply soon rather than waiting until the program begins.

To take advantage of the early-bird price of £450, or £160 every four weeks, you must submit your application before 15 September 2026. Applications received after this date will be offered the regular price of £550, subject to availability.

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

If you’re ready to move beyond pattens that keep you stuck, build a more grounded relationship with your posture, breath, and movement, I’d love to hear from you.

Each topic combines a practical teaching class with an embodied practice class. You’ll learn the ideas, experience them in your own body, and then have time to integrate before moving forward. We’ll also explore how posture is shaped by stress, protection, identity, culture, and the environments your body has adapted to.

Practical details

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Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

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/

I thought I had to live with neck pain for the rest of my life.

My neck hurt when I worked out, stretched, and even when I walked.

I tried all the mainstream tips and tools (chiro, physio, adjustments, stretches, you name it), but nothing created lasting change until I learned this:

A lot of us have become habitual neck breathers. We use the muscles in our neck to help us breathe, and we do that (on average) 20,000 times a day.

But your neck is not meant to be your main breathing muscle. Your diaphragm is.

It’s like asking a small assistant to run the whole company. They can step in during busy moments, but if they’re forced to carry the entire operation every single day, they burn out.

That’s what happens to your neck. It’s meant to support your breath when you need extra effort (like during exercise or stress), not to carry every inhale and exhale all day long.

This extra effort can:

• Create tension in your neck and the rest of your body because your body is basically mimicking a stress-breathing pattern.

• Reduce the quality of your breath and oxygen intake, which can keep your nervous system in a more alert, survival-oriented state.

• Disrupt the natural expansion and contraction of your rib cage and diaphragm, which directly affects your ability to engage your core properly. Your core needs that 360-degree expansion and contraction to activate efficiently.

• Reinforce the feeling that your body can’t fully relax or stabilize because your breath is constantly sending a subtle “something is wrong” signal to your nervous system, while your core loses the support it needs to create true stability.

Once I understood my neck issues weren’t rooted in my joints or muscles, but in my breathing mechanics, everything changed quickly. Within a week, I noticed the difference. Over time, the new pattern became natural, and these days I rarely do these neck exercises.

For me, that came down to three steps:

1/ Get your primary breathing muscles working again

Although we recognize the importance of diaphragmatic breathing today, many still confuse it with belly breathing. In this video, I break down how to optimize your breathing pattern ↓

2/ Let go of neck muscles

Learning diaphragmatic breathing can significantly reduce tension in your neck. However, if you’ve been stuck in this pattern for a long time, you may need extra support to release that tension. In this video, I demonstrate a gentle yet powerful exercise to help you fully release the habit of relying on your neck for everyday breathing. ↓

3/ Let your nervous system negotiate equilibrium

Breathing mechanics matter, but your breath is also deeply connected to your nervous system. If your body has been holding tension for a long time, it may not soften just because you tell it to relax. Sometimes, it needs time, safety, and a different kind of attention. This meditation is here to help your system meet the tension without forcing it, and gently invite your body back into a state where ease feels possible again.

Think of it as creating the conditions for your neck, breath, and nervous system to remember that they don’t have to stay on guard all the time.

Listen on Spotify

If there’s one thing I want you to take from this, it’s that the answer doesn’t always live in your muscles or joints. Those are often symptoms of a deeper conditioning pattern. When we look at the body more systemically and holistically, we have a much better chance of changing the outcome.

And when we approach it that way, everything gets less forceful. Less “how do I fix this tight muscle?” and more “what pattern is my body asking me to understand?”

That’s exactly the kind of work we explore in Posture in Motion.

Inside the program, we look at posture as a living pattern, not a static position. We work with breath, nervous system regulation, mobility, and body awareness so you can stop chasing temporary relief and start building a body that feels more stable, supported, and at ease.

If your body has been tense, braced, or in pain, and you’re ready to understand what’s underneath it, applications are open now.

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

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

Subscribe now

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/

Even in meditation, I was performing.

We live in a system that praises perfection and makes our humanness wrong. A system that turns worth into a finish line, one more way to keep us running, learning, consuming, and proving.

So many of us try to feel safe through control. We use spiritual practices to overcome life instead of allowing it.

For years, I did the inner work and pursued spiritual practices, hoping that one day I’d finally become superhuman and rise above my humanness.

But my body had its own way of interrupting that pursuit.

After years of chronic neck, back, and foot pain following my car accident, I came to posture work out of desperation. I thought I was there to fix my pain.

Instead, my body showed me all the ways I’d learned to brace, perform, and hold myself together in my relationship to the world, to life, and to the divine.

My pain began to dissolve but something deeper happened too. Posture work became the least expected, and most powerful, doorway back to spirituality.

And this Rumi poem says that more eloquently than I ever could…

This poem has been a muse behind Posture in Motion. The “weaving of a basket” is where posture becomes spiritual, but the whole poem is the journey that takes us there. To me, this is the practice of unconditioning, and the body gives us the doorway in.

Allow me to be your posture-meets-literature teacher for a second….

When your nervous system stays in a constant state of stress, defense, or holding, you stop breathing fully into your rib cage. Your muscles stay gripped. Your tissues lose their natural slide and glide. Physical symptoms are a response to something deeper.

Feldenkrais writes about how our need for security is tied to dependence, and how much of human activity is shaped by the craving for independence, approval, affection, or attention. This is part of what “drying up” means. The body starts organizing itself around survival: Am I safe? Am I loved? Am I approved of? Am I doing this right? Even when it costs us our sovereignty.

And yes, we need these patterns to survive. Especially as children, this is how we stay connected, protected, and alive.

But as adults, we get to choose. We can start to notice the old patterns instead of being run by them. The problem is, by then, many of those patterns are already deeply conditioned into our body and mind. They no longer feel like strategies. They feel like who we are.

This part brings to mind a body that has learned to stay in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn in order to feel safe. This is also where so much posture advice gets it wrong. We’re often told to sit up straight, pull our shoulders back, brace our core, and hold the “correct” shape. But if the body is already organizing itself around survival, more holding is rarely the answer.

Dry wood snaps in the wind. A body that only knows how to brace eventually loses its ability to respond.

Your posture is not a position to maintain because it’s a dynamic conversation with gravity, breath, emotion, and life. A healthy spine is meant to ripple, absorb, soften, and micro-adjust with every breath and step.

Somatically, “detachment” isn’t numbness, dissociation, or spiritual bypassing. It’s a return to sovereignty. It’s the moment the body begins to unhook from old survival contracts: the need to perform, control, be approved of, stay protected, and hold everything together.

If “drying up” is the body organizing itself around old safety, and the branch that can’t bend is what happens when those patterns become deeply ingrained...then detachment is the beginning of a new reference point for safety. It’s a shift from being ruled by who we were conditioned to be, toward becoming who we actually are, what Jung called individuation.

This is when your nervous system capacity expands to hold the “and,” the bridge between the dualities of this human life and all the paradoxes we experience. The body develops a new baseline of trust and safety, one that makes space for us to simply be. We no longer have to fight harder to make sense of it all. The body can go from defense to ease. The jaw unclenches. The shoulders drop. The glutes stop gripping. The breath finds more room.

This is what becomes possible when the body is no longer organized around old safety.

This is the core goal of working with your posture somatically. We aren’t trying to force your body into a rigid “correct” alignment. We’re restoring suppleness. When you free yourself from adaptive posture patterns, allow your breath to move freely, and let your pelvis and ribs organize, you get genuine support from the inside out.

A fresh branch can be woven because it has enough life in it to bend. It doesn’t collapse, and it doesn’t resist every touch. It can participate.

To me, this is a metaphor for life. For learning to trust what Dylan Thomas called “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” The same force that moves the flower into bloom, moves breath through your ribs, and teaches your body how to meet life.

This is what it means to let the Tao, life, God, or Source move through you. Your body stops trying to control every shape, and begins to organize itself around what life is asking of you.

This is why posture work became spiritual for me.

It didn’t teach me how to hold myself together better.

It taught me how to notice all the places I was still trying to.

The jaw. The ribs. The pelvis. The breath. The need to be approved of. The need to be safe. The need to become some perfected, untouchable version of myself before I could finally relax.

And slowly, my practice became less about fixing my posture and more about building enough trust in my body to stop performing being human.

To soften without collapsing.
To be shaped without disappearing.
To participate in life instead of bracing against it.

This is the work we do inside Posture in Motion.

We don’t fix your posture by forcing your body into a better shape, but listening to the patterns your body has built around old safety, and gently giving it new options.

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

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

Subscribe now

On days when you feel behind in your life, when the fear says you should have done more by now, this prayer is here to help you release the pressure, return to love, and trust the timing of your path.

Read more

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/

You sit down to write an email.

Within seconds: shoulders tense, jaw clenched, face serious, fingers gripping the mouse like it might run away.

Maybe you even hold your breath a little. For some of you, this started hours before this moment, just from thinking about it.

And yet you could write the exact same email without any of that. The words on the screen weigh nothing. So what is all that extra effort doing there?

That extra effort has a name. Moshe Feldenkrais called it parasitic movement: unnecessary, habitual muscular effort that tags along with an intended action and quietly drains you. Extra tension that does nothing for the task at hand.

Now raise the stakes a little. Maybe you’ve been procrastinating on this email for days, telling yourself you should have sent it already. Maybe it’s an email where you set a boundary or say no. Maybe you’re reaching out about an opportunity and you catch yourself rewriting every sentence, putting in all this extra effort just to make sure they like you. Notice that nothing about the task changed. Everything about how you’re carrying it did.

This applies to so many other scenarios in life.

As a society, we’ve been conditioned to believe that the more effort we put into something, the more valuable it is (and the more worthy we are). We learn this early: who do I need to become to be loved, seen, safe, valued, and, basically, to belong? You can read more on this ↓

My unconditioning work, personally and with clients, has been about unlearning the layers that answer that question for us. Layer by layer: the brace in the shoulders that says “take me seriously.” The softened voice that says “don’t take up too much space.” The over-efforting that says “see how hard I’m trying.” Each one made sense once. Each one kept us safe, liked, or included. This is what I like to call the domestication process, and it’s deeply connected to survival. You can learn more on this here ↓

With every extra parasitic movement, our capacity to do the same task from our sovereign self decreases because our inner resources get spent on things that don’t actually help. We can even end up staying busy doing things we don’t want, because the goal is no longer to get what we want. It’s to prove we’re trying hard enough.

Over time, it drains our potency and energy. And when we’re less connected to our Self, what happens? More anxiety. More uncertainty. Feeling incapable, like we’re not enough. I could go on.

We all have moments where we have an idea, act on it right away, and then boom, there’s deep satisfaction. There’s freedom in it. Sometimes we even see how it moves other people, too.

Go back to the email example: if you focused only on writing the email (without the extra, unnecessary effort, physically or emotionally), how would you do it?

People experience the answer to this question differently.

For me, I feel: I just am.

Others might feel relaxed, content, at ease. Pick yours.

In Posture in Motion, one of the things we go deep into is this topic: understanding our conditioning, noticing our parasitic movements (especially the ones we use to justify our belonging), and how they impact our posture.

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

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

Subscribe now

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,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

Subscribe now

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.

Read more

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 ↓

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

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

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…

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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:

Share

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.

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

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

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

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…

Read more

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,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

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.

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.

Read more

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.

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,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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

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:

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,

––––––––––––––––––
Hedi Shah
––––––––––––––––––
👁️ 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