Embodied Awareness in a World That Pulls Us Apart
The Battle Within & the Path Back to Embodied Awareness
The Norse Myths
I often draw on the myths of Yoga and Eastern traditions when teaching mindfulness and embodied practice, but these stories aren’t from my own ancestral lineage. I hold deep respect for them, honour where they have come from, and have learned so much through their teachings.
Still, I often feel the deep call to go way back to where my own bones might remember the whispers of the stories, told around a fire.
I trace my lineage steadily back for many generations in northern England and then beyond that to the lands of Scandinavia, and the equally as ancient myths of the Norse gods and goddesses.
One of the guiding voices from these stories is Freya, goddess of love, war, magic, fertility, sensuality, grief, and fierce presence.
She is soft, yet strong.
Sensual, yet strategic.
Both a warrior and a weaver of spells!!
To me, Freya holds something we’re all searching for: a way to be whole. She embodies integration—not as perfection or peace, but as tension held with grace.
The Battle of the Gods
In the Norse creation myth, the Aesir - sky gods of power, order, intellect, and breath, led by Odin—go to war with the Vanir - earth-bound gods of fertility, intuition, magic, and embodied knowing. The Aesir crave the Vanir’s mysterious gifts, especially their deep spiritual magic.
It becomes a brutal and unresolved battle.
At the heart of the Vanir stands Freya, their most powerful figure, a seidkona, a sorceress and high priestess (OK, let’s call her what she is: a witch!). She is killed by the Aesir three times by spear. But each time, she rises stronger. Eventually, she becomes immortal, initiated not just as a goddess, but as a teacher.
In a rare act of humility and peace, the two factions exchange hostages to form a tentative truce. Freya is sent to live among the Aesir. And it is through her presence, not conquest, that they begin to learn new ways of knowing.
She doesn’t end the war.
But she transforms the terrain where it happens.
Through the light of her awareness, through her way of being, Freya becomes a bridge. She holds the wisdom of both nature and consciousness. She has lived the battle in her own body. She carries both the wildness of magic and the strength of a warrior.
She doesn’t take sides.
She shows us how to stand between worlds and still stay whole.
Our own Inner Split
This story echoes our own inner battles:
Mind vs Body
Rationality vs Instinct
Productivity vs Presence
Control vs Flow
Sometimes, it shows up when we feel something deeply in our body, but override it with logic or fear.
“I’m a yoga teacher - I should feel calm.” (Yep this one is mine!!)
“Everyone says this job is a good opportunity - I must be overreacting.”
“This isn't the time to rest; I need to push through.”
Other times, our body storms the gates of our mind.
A flash of rage. A collapse into anxiety.
Someone pushes our buttons, and we react, not from clarity, but from wounding.
Both are real. Neither is wrong.
But when we lose the capacity to hold both, we lose connection to ourselves.
Returning to the Ground Beneath the Battle
Embodied awareness isn’t about silencing the mind or dismissing the body.
It’s about listening to both, and responding with compassion.
As Tara Brach might say, when the mind overrides the body, we ask with curiosity:
“What belief or story am I unconsciously living from?”
And when the body reacts in ways that feel overwhelming or automatic, we draw from trauma informed practice, explored by authors such as Bessel van der Kolk and Gabor Maté:
“What is my body remembering? What is it asking me to feel, hold, and heal?”
Freya doesn’t walk away from the war. She enters the battlefield with presence.
She doesn’t force peace. She brings magic, wisdom, and sensual knowing.
She doesn’t eliminate tension. She holds it.
This Is the Work of Embodied Awareness
Not choosing sides, but becoming the ground that can hold them both.
We see the same split mirrored in the world:
Intellect vs Nature in climate collapse
Capitalism vs Earth’s rhythms
Urban expansion vs sacred wild places
Our inner and outer worlds are not separate.
The way we listen to our bodies matters, because it’s all connected.
In Service of Wholeness
May we stop trying to win the war between mind and body.
May we stop choosing sides within ourselves.
May we become a fire at the centre, like Freya, where all of our experience is welcome.