"The mark of a wild heart is living out the paradox of love in our lives.

It's the ability to be tough and tender, excited and scared, brave and afraid—all in the same moment.

It's showing up in our vulnerability and our courage, being both fierce and kind (...)

Not only are tension and contradictory pieces OK and normal—they're the magic sauce.

Sometimes beautiful. Sometimes terrible. Always deeply human."

Brené Brown

Wholeness lives in the intersection

For a long time, I thought healing meant fixing what was broken—choosing light over dark, clarity over confusion, compassion over shame.

But true healing isn’t about choosing sides. It’s about welcoming all of it.

It lives in the intersection—where your light meets your shadow, where joy sits beside grief, where courage walks hand in hand with fear.
it's about somehow holding it all at the same time.

“Only the paradox comes anywhere near to comprehending the fullness of life.” - Carl Jung

When two truths exist at once

We’re often taught that contradictions mean we’re confused or inconsistent. But the deeper I go in my own journey, the more I see this:

• You can feel shame for something you’ve done and still hold yourself in compassion and also accept it.

• You can be proud of how far you’ve come and grieve the parts of you that were never loved.

• You can want to grow and fear what that growth will require.

This isn’t bypassing, weakness, or inconsistency. It’s profoundly human.

When we stop forcing our emotions to compete and allow them to coexist, we start living in embodied truth—an essential step in somatic healing and emotional integration.

What the mind labels, the body feels

Your mind wants answers. It wants timelines, meaning, logic, a tidy “before” and “after.”

But your body speaks a different language: sensation, contraction, expansion, release.

And your spirit? It simply knows.

While the mind analyzes pain—where it came from, what it means, how to fix it—the body carries it:

• Tight shoulders

• Shallow breath

• Clenched jaw

• Frozen belly

• Numbness or dissociation

As trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk writes in The Body Keeps the Score:

"The body keeps the score: it remembers what the mind forgets."

Beneath it all, the soul whispers: this is not who you are. This is old energy asking to be felt and released.

Emotion doesn’t need to be solved—just met

Through Soma Groove and my own somatic practice, I’ve learned this: emotions aren’t puzzles to solve. They are guests at the table—here to be seen, felt, and allowed to move through.

• When sadness rises, can your mind witness without merging with it?

• When fear appears, can your body feel it without storing it?

• When joy bursts open, can your spirit expand without clinging?

This is embodied presence. It’s not about fixing yourself—it’s about making space for all of you.

Your nervous system wants you to feel it all

Many of us grew up in chaos, neglect, or emotional suppression. We learned that feeling was unsafe.

So we suppressed, numbed, smiled when we wanted to scream, and overthought instead of sensing. I see it every day in my practice, with Groovers and in my 1:1 clients - pure anger being tamely disregarded under a polite smile, an acknowledgement of deep sadness filtered through irony or comedy... The tools that kept us safe and wanted...

But the nervous system doesn’t regulate by avoiding hard feelings—it regulates by feeling them safely.

Gabor Maté reminds us:

"The attempt to escape from pain is what creates more pain."

Allowing yourself to fully experience your emotions—grief, joy, fear, love—is what restores nervous system balance and builds emotional resilience.

Compassion is not a concept—it’s a practice

Self-love isn’t an Instagram quote. It’s a full-body experience.

In our inner worlds we often lose it, yes we can rationally understand it, and choose compassion for us as much as for others, but the truth is that when we fail, when we miss the mark, when we get something wrong, so often we lose that heart centered presence. Ask yourself honestly, how often are you generous with yourself:

• Your breath softens when judgment rises.

• Your hand rests on your heart when shame surfaces.

• You speak to yourself as you would to a child—gently, without conditions.

We speak and dream of unconditional Love, mostly from others or towards others... But, can you love yourself without conditions?...

Love doesn’t erase pain. It holds it in a bigger space.

This is what we practice in Soma Groove

Soma Groove is not just movement. It’s not just breathwork. It’s a safe, living space where your full self is welcome, especially the parts you’ve learned to hide.

Every session is an invitation:

• Not to change, but to remember

• Not to fix, but to feel

• Not to analyze, but to allow

Slowly, your nervous system learns: it’s safe to be all of me here.

This is community—not the kind that asks you to stay positive, but the kind that says:
Bring your grief. Bring your joy. Bring your fear. Bring it all.

You don’t need to choose sides with yourself anymore

You can be both a masterpiece and a work in progress.
You can be whole and healing.
You can cry and still be powerful.

This is not contradiction. This is Surrendering to Paradox. This is freedom. This is embodiment.

This is home.

Let’s practice together

If you’re ready to step into the intersection where your wholeness lives, here’s how and where we can meet:

• Soma Groove Sessions – Breath, movement, and presence to feel your emotions in motion. Available in Algarve, Lisbon, Porto, and online.

• 1:1 Therapy, Coaching & Mentorship – A safe, guided space to explore your patterns with curiosity, not shame.

• Retreats & Immersions – Transformative, embodied experiences in nature, join the next one "Desert Experience" in Marocco coming up in October 25'.

• Online Programs & The Soma Library – Brand new member space on the website - Digital Programs & Soulful Resources. Make sure to jump on the "Coming Home" online program starting in October 25'.

You don’t need to wait until you’ve “figured it out” to start. You just need to choose presence.

Your wholeness is already here. That’s where we’ll meet.

With love,

Vanda
Founder of Soma Groove

photo taken during Spring Awakening Retreat by photographer Massimo Pardini