What is the path of Embodied Living?
The world taught me to live fully up in my head,
disconnected from feeling & emotion;
disconnected from the ability to sense into the world around me.
It broke me. And now, I witness the world around me in flames.
The embodied path is one of healing; the embodied path is one of connection:
With self, including all parts of ourselves (especially those that have been shamed and put into darkness).
With all that is more than self, because all life forms on this planet are intricately connected.
We learn to know ourselves as one. We heal as one.
What is alive in this space?
I created this space from the ground up to support you, as a sovereign human being, as we come together IN CONNECTION to work through our common problems that bring suffering to all life forms on this planet.
Life unfolds as an infinite web that connects us in far more ways than we tend to think. Here, let us learn to walk a path that no longer keeps us up in our heads (a space where we cannot fully comprehend all that is at play) as we step into an embodied path.
Here, may we find the healing that we are seeking across all living systems:
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us individual human beings, as we suffer physical, mental, and emotional ailments
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our communities, as we struggle to find common ground and find ourselves in constant state of battle
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our ecosystems, as we work together to do the BIG WORK that it will take to save our planet
Systems Biology meets Healing, Yoga, and Embodied Living
Once upon a time, I was taught to solve problems by isolating, breaking apart, breaking down, and calling upon the power of my human mind to come up with solutions I think are best.
I work differently today. While I still love to call upon the power of my human mind, and while I still love & honor the scientific process, I've found that the intelligence of each of our human selves goes far deeper.
Today, I teach an embodied approach to living life, and that begins by deepening into connection with all parts of ourselves. My practice is one that blends the yogic tradition (as I've been honored to learn it) with the path I've personally walked through life: one that centers on the healing power of connection with nature.
A new form of Temple Space
This space comes to life through our free Facebook Group.
Not a fan of Facebook? No worries - read on to learn how you can still be part of this community!
I invite you to join in circle and embodiment practice as we hold the intention of coming together in deeper connection and bring forth healing at all levels.
Through teachings, conversation, guided meditation, and yoga, I offer you an assortment of opportunities to walk a more deeply embodied path.
My offerings vary from short and simple practices (those that take seconds and can be called upon in any moment), all the way to full length yoga classes.
My highest intention is to create a community of heart-centered individuals seeking a collective path of healing. Along the way, may we be guided to our own embodiment practices that best serve each of us in deepest alignment with all that we are as our own, unique human beings.
Circle
When we join together in circle, our own experiences are witnessed and shared to create a whole that is greater than I could facilitate on my own. Circle is a space for conversation and practice as we see each other as equal.
Guided Meditation and Connected Teachings
My favorite practices are those that can be called upon at any moment. Whether alone in a quit room, out in nature, or in public, I am here to provide you with practice to support your every moment.
Here, I offer short and simple practices in combination with longer length guided practices for deepening in.
Gentle Yoga
Join me in an online yoga space consisting of pre-recorded classes and workshops to help you develop your own yoga practice.
My favorite way of practicing on the mat unfolds as a slow-paced, breath focused practice where we learn to more skillfully move our bodies as we move into deeper connection with all that is alive within our own selves.
While I no longer spend much of my time teaching full length yoga classes, I offer pre-recorded classes and workshop to guide you deeper into your own embodiment practice.
Embodied Activism
While this is not a requirement for this space, I recognize that many that find themselves here are feeling the same thing: hurting over the state of the world, and unable to see a useful path forward.
Here, we work through the grief, anxiety, and overwhelm that keeps us stuck. In this space, may we find our grounding and create space for aligned action - the kind that enables you to more fully show up to heal our world, without going into feelings of sacrifice or being stretched too thin.
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2. Join the We Are The Forest Email List
As a scientist & engineer (B.S.E., M.S.) I was trained to separate, isolate, break apart, and break down - all so that I could understand our world at a fundamental level and build it back up again in a vision of what I deemed to be "better." But all that breaking takes its toll...
It took me years to put myself back together again. Along the way, I learned so much about how it is we actually walk through life! This is where our work together begins 🙂
These days I no longer wear my science & engineering hat, but instead come to you as a healer, systems thinker, and embodied activist. Here, I bring you teachings & embodiment practice from a diverse set of traditions, letting go of tradition that keeps us set on a strict path so that we can work together towards a common goal.
We are in strange times.
Never before have we had access to so much abundance! And, never before have we been burdened by so much information and such immense suffering around the world.
I don't mean that suffering is new to the human experience. What I do mean is that, once upon a time, we were fully in touch with the world we lived in as is right here and right now, and we had no knowledge of what was going on around the world.
It's a blessing and a curse, isn't it? To behold such immense amounts of information about happenings around the world! This immense amount of information holds so much potential. Yet, more often it weighs us down and causes more harm than good.
Here, I would love to guide you through stories and practices as we share in the collective, staying firmly grounded in our own realities that are here and now; and, ever-evolving.
I spent my twenties immersed in yogic philosophy. I was in love with the wisdom that shone through the pages I read, and I knew that I needed to get into practice so I could experience the transformation that this wisdom tradition promised.
But I faced a serious problem! Any time I unrolled my yoga mat and stepped into a series of postures, I found myself instantly crippled with anxiety, and often times even going into a full state of panic. My whole being screaming at me to be anywhere but here.
Ultimately, I found my way to a series of yoga teacher trainings where I promised myself I'd get to the root of the issue. I did, and what I found shocked me, then sent me on my own journey where I could finally experience the healing and other deep transformation I was seeking.
Here, I offer you all that I've learned about cultivating our own embodiment practice. Maybe that involves the currently accepted movement practice that plays out on a sticky mat in a climate controlled room; or, maybe looks a bit more like my own practice.
Learn more about yoga and my unique teaching style (no sticky mat required)
Hi, I'm Katie Hemphill, a Biomedical Engineer (B.S.E., M.S.) turned healer, systems thinker, yoga teacher and embodiment coach
Once upon a time, I lived fully consumed with the power of the human mind. As a researcher, I followed one path after the next holding promise of understanding more and more about how precious this one organ truly is. But we all let the story of the power of the human mind get ahead off us, didn't we?
On a dark day in 2020, I woke up to a startling realization: all this attention we'd been giving to the power of our minds to understand and solve problems, we'd been missing the whole point! What's that, you ask?
Well, to point you to it, I invite you to tune into this moment right here, right now. Honestly, take that moment.
If you find this challenging or crave guidance, you are in the right place. It took me a while to unwind those patterns that kept me forever stuck in my head and away from the present moment.
Coming into a state of presence can be challenging. I am here to help you.
But we have big problems to solve!
Yes, yes we do. And if we're going to make a dent in the great mess of things us humans have made on this planet, it's going to take all of us showing up in the greatest state possible:
- grounded, able to be present in darkness as we call upon our gifts to shed more light
- in action, as we take steps that heal the world around us and keep ourselves alive and well
We come together to be in action as a collective; to heal as a collective
Healing with Mother Earth
When I was in my darkest days, there's only one thing that helped. It wasn't the yoga that often triggered my deepest darkness. It wasn't the mindfulness meditation that put me deeper into anxiety.
Rather, it was my time spent with Her. Nature.
Today, our great planet Earth is hurting. Just like we are hurting.
Today, I do teach yoga and meditation as possible tools for our healing. I do teach these as tools for taking us deeper into states of connection and as paths for deeper understanding.
Above all, I teach with Her. Mother Nature.
Join me on a path of healing for our own, individual selves. And, let me show you how it ties directly to the healing of the systems we are all part of.
Wow, does our modern world have a whole lotta problems! It's so easy to get lost in them as we battle our way through one challenge after the next!
But what if a great shift could happen if we, quite simply, were to change our perspectives?
It took me a while to be able to get out of my head and be fully in a lived experience of this world. Along the way, I learned many great practices to quicken this process. Join us here, in this space, and let us take the journey into this fuller, embodied experience of walking through this world.
I spent my first 2.5 decades of life learning to live fully in my head. Here, with the human mind on a pedestal, I was taught how to understand and control the world.
Then, one day while looking out on the world, I recognized that all that work to make our world better in the vision of our human minds... we had failed.
Watching the forests around me burning... witnessing my own world within burning... This world was no longer one I wanted to be a part of.
Come walk with me through the forest:
a collective space filled with interwoven beings,
each on our own paths through the trials that life brings - darkness & descent, creating space for ascent
shedding the heavy burdens that weigh us down
learning to dance through it all as we bathe in the illuminous light
each, one node in the vast expanse that is a infinitely complex web of life
We Are The Forest
A collective space for those on a path to know ourselves more fully in this deeply disconnected world we reside in
This space is here as a reprieve from the the constant hustle of the world. As we take a step away from a society that is ever-focused on hard work and progress, we find space to create our own grounded & embodied experience - one that provides us with the nourishment and clarity to move forward with more joy and less pain.
It's never about disconnecting from the world and the work that needs to be done; but, instead, is about questioning what our role really is while we are here, and questioning whether our efforts are truly leading us towards a better world.
Here, we are devoted to exploring the human experience and our connection to the greater world we reside in.
What is the role of our own needs & desires? And, can we be ever-more fully in tune with what these really are as we strip away the stories that have been put on us?
What are our roles in the greater networks that we are part of? In our communities? Our ecosystems?
What topics are explored within this space? Here, we step into an interwoven examination of topics that tug at my mind, heart, and soul as they relate to the health, balance, and connectivity of our own selves and our planet:
Paths to grand accomplishments and solving big problems
Systems Biology, Human and Planetary Health
Trauma, The Nervous System, and Healing
Creative writing through my experience as a trail runner, rock climber, and overall outdoor athlete & adventurer
Yoga teachings and guided practices
A timeline of my work that leads us into this space:
In 2017 I created Your Health, Reprogrammed as a space to explore the depths of human (patho)physiology and disease progression.
In this space, I continue to explore pathways through the lens of biochemistry, physiology, and other biology-based sciences to better understand why poor health states arise and how they progress into full fledged disease states.
Your Health, Reprogrammed
Out of the ashes of a torn down life and upside down world, I create Upward Slopes in 2020 as I began a deeper exploration into the question of how it is we can make choices and take action that leads to better outcomes:
- better health & well-being
- a greater sense of happiness & fulfillment
The journey begins with a focus on the individual, expanding outward into the greater networks that we are each a part of:
- our communties
- our dear planet
Upward Slopes
How could I possibly better organize the poetic yearnings for a better life, the healing of our world, and the deep grief for the grand mess of things we have made....
How could I possibly combine this with the strong desire of my mind to deeply understand how it all works - mechanistically - as I continue to be driven to piece it all apart and tie it back together again in structured models filled with complex pathways...
How could I possibly bring such a diverse collection of content together in a way that provides for interesting storytelling and useful teachings, and does so in a way that serves us human beings and our dear Mother Earth?
The answer - for it, I had to look outside of well-established structures and out into the complex workings of the true world we reside in.
