Episode 2- Soulful Connection: Reclaiming Your Breath, Stillness and Identity

Sometimes the most radical act is to pause — to breathe without urgency, to sit without proving, to remember who you are beyond what you do.
 This week on #SoulfullyAlignedPodcast, we’re reclaiming your stillness, your breath, and your identity.

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Transcript

Maxine Bingham: 0:00

Welcome back, beautiful souls. You have found your way here to this moment, and I truly want to honor the courage that it took for you to press play. This is not just another podcast episode. This is a sacred invitation back to you, back to your essence, and back to your truth. So many of us are walking through life, disconnected from the parts that matters most, and it's not by choice, but it's by necessity, by trauma, by routine, and by expectations, we become so accustomed to being what others need, that we completely forget who we are at our core. In today's episode titled Soulful Reconnection, reclaiming Your Breath, stillness, and Identity. We are not going to be fixing anything because you are not broken. We are not striving. We are simply remembering. We are gonna move through three soul deep segments. The first will be reclaiming your breath, and that's when you return to the sacred rhythm that connects you to presence, peace, and your body's inner wisdom. The second will be reclaiming stillness, and that's when you're gonna learn to sit with yourself and access the guidance that can only emerge from silence. And the third and final section will be reclaiming your identity, and that's remembering who you are when you're not performing, not proven, or not people pleasing. This isn't about becoming someone new, but this is about coming home to who you already are. So take a moment, place your hand over your heart, close your eyes. Breathe now. Let's begin. When we disconnect from our breath, we are disconnecting from our life force. We begin to live on autopilot rushing instead of resting bracing, instead of opening and survive in instead of thriving. Here is what that may look like. Chronic fatigue. Because your nervous system is in constant alert mode, shallow breathing that keeps your body in fight or flight anxiety that feels unmanageable because your body doesn't know that it is safe, feeling like you're never truly present. just drifting, reacting, managing. You may not even realize how long you've been holding your breath until you start to breathe again. So what does it mean to be disconnected from our breaths? To be disconnected from your breath is to be disconnected from your life force. It's like you're walking through life with a fogged mirror between you and your truth. You're moving, but you're not rooted. You're speaking, but you are not anchored. You're not truly inhabiting your body. What you're doing is you're hovering above it, anticipating the next thing, bracing for the next demand. So in the mind. What this will look like is your thoughts starts to race and it never, seem to slow down. It looks at anxiety that continues without any form of relief, overthinking everything from emails to emotions to conversation. You may have a sense of always being on. but never feeling in control, feeling mentally scattered or feeling ungrounded. In the body. It will show up as shallow breathing that tightens in your chest, tension in your jaw, pain in your neck, or discomfort in your stomach. You may start to feel lightheaded or dizzy. Because you're under pressure, you'll have trouble sleeping because your body doesn't believe that it is safe and you're always on edge. Even when nothing is happening in the soul, you're feeling spiritually anchored or numb. A loss of inner guidance. Your intuition begins to grow silent. You disconnect from joy, passion, and your creativity. Trying to pray or meditate feels difficult, or it's something that you just can't access. It's a deep ache for peace that you just cannot name. You were never meant to brace your way through life. You were meant to breathe your way through it to feel safe in your own chest, to take up space, inhale fully, and live unapologetically present. So I want you to let this moment soften you. Let this be the breath that reminds your body, your mind, and your soul. I am here now and I'm not going to abandon myself anymore, so I wanna share a story with you, and it's the day that I realized I was just holding my breath as though I was underwater. I can remember that day so vividly. I was sitting in my car, I was parked in my driveway. I felt like I just couldn't get out my car. My body felt like stone. It felt heavy. I had just left work where I was smiling, nodding and agreeing, and while doing so, everything inside me felt numb. And then I began to realize. I felt numb because I was holding my breath, not just during the workday, but I have been holding it for the days and weeks that has passed. I was trying to be composed, I was trying to be productive. I was trying to be palatable. But in that moment, in that moment while I sat in my car, I placed my hand on my chest. And I took a breath and whispered to myself, you know what, Maxine, it's okay to breathe. You are safe, and it's okay to love. That moment changed everything for me. I was able to wipe my tears away as I got out of my car and started to feel like myself again. So we are gonna do some breath reconnection practice. I want you to sit comfortable your feet grounded. Place one hand on your heart and one on your stomach. Now. Inhale slowly through your nose for four seconds. Hold for four seconds. Now I want you to exhale gently through your mouth for six seconds. Go ahead and repeat this for several cycles, and as you're doing this breath work, here are some affirmations for you. I am here. I am safe. I deserve to take up space. My breath is sacred. Your breath is your anchor. It is your guide, and it reveals your state of being calm or anxious, grounded, or stress. When we begin to reclaim our breath, we are telling our nervous system that we are safe, and that one message. Begins the process of us reconnecting. Here are some journal prompts for you. Where in my life have I been holding my breath? What does it feel like when I allow myself to fully exhale? Where can I pause and invite breath into my day? Now we're gonna take a look at the second part of our podcast, and that's reclaiming stillness. There is a cost of disconnection from stillness. When you avoid stillness, here is what it's costing you. You become addicted to doing even when your body is begging you to stop and rest. You lose connection with your body and also with your inner wisdom. You make decisions out of panic or pressure, not with a sound mind. You lose access to the divine, quiet voice of your soul because now your mind continues to race. You begin to feel spiritually dry and emotionally overextended. Stillness is not emptiness. Stillness is fullness. Without the noise, it's the sacred space where you are able to reconnect. I wanna share a second story with you, and this is just my battle with being busy constantly. I wore my busyness like a armor.. It was like a protection.I said yes to everything until my soul became tired and started to whisper. No. Then came burnout, foggy mind, physical exhaustion. Emotional detachment in desperation. I started to enter a silent retreat. I started to learn how to sit in silence with myself as uncomfortable as it was for me, and it was there in the silence that I learned who I truly was, that I met myself again. I am now going to do another guided stillness practice with you. So if you're somewhere safe, I want you to sit or lie down. Close your eyes and let your breath settle. Now listen, silence may feel unfamiliar, but just stay with it for a moment. Place one hand over your heart. And affirm stillness is safe. I am not my productivity. In my stillness, I return to what matters most to me. Stillness doesn't mean that nothing is happening. Stillness is where everything meaningful begins. Stillness is where your nervous system begins to reset and your intuition awakens. Your body begins to soften, and your soul begins to speak. So here are some journal prompts for you to go along with stillness. When did I start believing stillness was unsafe or unproductive? What part of me is afraid of silence and what does she need to feel held? How can I create sacred stillness even for five minutes a day? Now I want to look at how you can reclaim your identity. Disconnection from your true identity can feel as though. being everything to everyone, but no one to yourself is feeling lost even when you're busy. Constant people pleasing, not knowing what you love or what you want. It's living a life that looks good but doesn't feel good. Your soul self has been waiting. Patiently for you to remember. Remember who she truly was. I once introduced myself only by what I did. You know, when people ask you who you are, you will tell them what you do for a living, and then someone ask me, but who are you without the titles? Who are you when you're not? Your profession. When they asked me that question, I froze because I really didn't know who I was. Yes, I am a sister, I am a coworker. I am a friend, I'm a daughter. But to tell them who I truly was, I just didn't know. That moment when I, that question was posed to me. That made me really stop and think I began the slow, beautiful, brave return to me. That's what that question did for me. I pondered on that question for a week. Who am I? And as I asked myself that question, I had to take up my journal and I had to write who I was each time. that my definition came up. Each time the answer came up in my soul. I sat and I wrote down who I was. So I would like to do a guided visualization with you, and that's meeting the true you so close your eyes. I want you to picture your younger truest self before the burnout and before all the masks that you are wearing. I want you to walk towards her, hold her hand, and now I want you to say to her, I see you. I choose you. I'm coming back for you. Let her merge with who you are now because who you once were is very different than who you are in the present moment. This is wholeness. This is remembering. Let's pause here and clarify something very powerful. Soul identity is not the same as the roles that you play. Roles are the titles and expectations that's assigned to you, whether it's a mother daughter, professional, caretaker, or leader. They are important, but they are external and often they're shaped by society. So identity is who you are at your core. It is timeless, unshakeable, divine. It's the truth of who you were before the world got to you. When you live only from your roles, you often feel as that no one sees you. You often feel unexpressed and restless, but when you return to your soul identity, you begin to make decisions from alignment and not out of obligations. You express your truth with clarity and courage. You feel worthy simply because you are sure your roles may change, but your soul identity never does. Here are some journal prompts for identity beyond your roles. Ask yourself. What parts of myself have I silenced or hidden to be accepted? What brings me joy without needing validation? What does it look like to show up as my whole self this season? Here are some closing affirmations for you. I want you to say these aloud or silently with your hand on your heart. I am returning to me. I breathe with intention. I rest without guilt. I remember who I am. I honor my softness and my strength. I am no longer disconnected. I am soulfully aligned. I would like to thank you for walking the Sacred Path with me today. You showed up for yourself in a way that many never do, and that alone in itself is powerful. I would like you to come back to this episode. Anytime you forget who you are, let it guide you back home. So until next time, stay rooted. Stay true and stay soulfully aligned.