Soft Like Water

in search of home + Farsi YT channel is LIVE!

Whenever I’m stuck in my head

Whenever I feel burdened by our corrupted system

Whenever being human feels like too much

Water is my escape

Water is where I return to my body

Water is where I feel connected to something greater than me

I remember I am of water

I am of nature

I am

I run a wellbeing circle for a group of entrepreneurs every month and water became our teacher for the month of May.

For me, water also became a mirror.

I’ve been moving through a stream of emotions since returning from my birth country, Iran

Three weeks surrounded by the scent of orange blossoms, the arms of family, the taste of home.

But it wasn’t just nostalgia I brought back.
It was a homesickness delayed by 14 years.

I left Iran at 22, convinced I’d never look back.

But something in me has shifted.

Now I find myself asking a question I once thought impossible:

"What if I went back to where I came from?"

Time is strange.
Once in early days of immigration, in Vancouver, someone screamed at me over a parking spot:
"Go back to where you came from!"

Back then, it stung.
Now, it echoes inside me, from my own lips.

The truth is:
Nothing fits perfectly anymore.
Not Iran.
Not here.
Some parts feel too tight.
Others, too loose.

I feel like water
Fluid. Searching. Uncontained.

Maybe I was never certain.
Maybe pretending certainty was just another survival tactic.

What if this uncertainty is healing?

For the first time, I don't just see the pain of my people
I see their resilience.
Their creativity.
Their joy.

Maybe I bulldozed through too much when I first immigrated
Rushing to adapt, skipping the grieving to secure “belonging”
Now, I’m letting it catch up to me.

I’m letting myself soften.
Like water.
Not collapsing.
Not resisting.
Flowing.
Persisting.
Without explanation.
Without apology.

Today, I’m sharing a meditation I created to help you do the same
To cultivate softness when the world tells you to harden.

To keep flowing when fear tempts you to freeze.

Because sometimes the most radical thing we can do is feel it all
And still move.

Also... I did a thing!

I finally started a Farsi YouTube channel, something I’d been circling around for years but never fully considered... until now. It felt like the right time to bring all of me, in all my languages, into the work.

If you're curious to see me speak in Farsi (and get a glimpse into how this work translates across cultures), feel free to check it out.

And if you’re one of my Farsi-speaking subscribers, I’d be so grateful if you shared it with your people, especially if you think it might resonate.

Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,

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Hedi Shah
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👁️ Bodyworker & Mindfulness Teacher
🌊 Teaching change makers to uncondition their bodies, nervous systems, and voices from systems built to keep them small so they can move, speak, and live with sovereign power.

📲 Website | Youtube | LinkedIn | Insight Timer