283 - Heather Lovegood, Part 1 - Surrender in the Face of Fear of the Unknown
“It is an act of resistance and resilience to stay connected to that pure thing within you, that source.” - Heather Lovegood
I’m a firm believer in the connectedness of everything. Healing happens at the intersection of spirituality, science, and Indigenous wisdom. Sure, each principle can (and has!) exist in its own sphere, but the true magic is in the mix.
Heather Lovegood agrees. She’s a holistic bodyworker and lymphatic drainage expert who provides healing-centered, trauma-trained services to clients in Chicago. She helps people build the capacity to identify and release buried, inflammatory emotions–those squishy, sticky, and often devastating sensations that our bodies hold onto in the wake of complex trauma or prolonged periods of stress.
“It’s very intuitive,” says Heather of her skill set. Her massage offerings focus on gentle contact and rhythmic motion along the lymphatic pathways rather than muscle manipulation. She works with the body’s energy and the memories that may arise in response to her touch. “We know that cellular memory is a thing,” she observes. “We're moving cells, tissues, and fluids. They carry wisdom and they carry the wounds.”
Heather also offers Somatic Experiencing, a therapy technique that helps clients develop skills for regulating their nervous systems and managing day-to-day provocations. “Much of the first bits of that work is to take the fear out,” she explains. “When the fear is out, we can access a little bit of curiosity, and then things can flow through like a wave.”
But surrender is hard work. As Heather shifted from a career in dialysis towards the holistic arts, she had to let go of biases she’d developed in response to a family member’s religiosity. “I couldn't say the word God without wanting to vomit,” she recalls. A massage teacher eventually expanded Heather’s understanding of and appreciation for the life force (often shorthanded to “God”). “I got to a place where I was like, oh, this is what God means for me. This is something I can get behind,” she explains.
Heather embraces the spirituality and wisdom embedded in Indigenous practices like Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Native American healing traditions. “There was no separation of spirit and body,” she observes. There is the root of healing and, possibly, the antidote to our current disconnection.
Join Heather and me for part one of this conversation.
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GUEST CONTACT & BIO
A long-time student of life, Heather Lovegood’s own healing path led her to the healing arts, specifically bodywork. Drawing from these tools for both her personal practice and her work with clients has been the deepest gift and greatest of teachers.
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