Empowered Embodiment

It is such an honour to close the first season of Empowered Embodiment and tie off 2020 with this conversation with Kalah Hill, Freedom Doulah, Pleasure Activist and Receptivity Alchemist. A few weeks ago, in a private conversation I had with Kalah, she said to me "Black Feminism will save the world," and at that moment I knew I needed to have Kalah on the podcast. We talk about the necessary role pleasure plays in liberation, the interconnectedness of our liberation and how our individual pleasures/liberation will look/mean/feel different for everyone. Listen closely as Kalah rhymes off a number of her inspirations ranging from Audrey Lorde, Toni Morrison, Adrienne Maree Brown, Sonya Renee Taylor and Kalah's BFF, mutual friend and former guest on this podcast, Dana Regan.

We hope you enjoy this listen and find 1-3 simple ways to ritualize pleasure in your life. As this year comes to a close, Kalah wishes you the ability to find gratitude for 2020's gift of 2020 vision and dreams of a 2021 where we all dedicate ourselves to the work of becoming more receptive.

Clairandean (@clairitytarot) is back to give us a tarotscope for September 2020. The messages are strong and clear in this one - SCHEDULE IN REST. Rest will look different for everyone. Maybe it's one conscious cycle of clearing breaths. Maybe it's a weekend away. Maybe it's 30min a day. Whatever it is, cultivate the practice of prioritizing rest - giving yourself space to process, integrate, grieve, celebrate, acknowledge, grow, FEEL.

This conversation is near and dear to me because it is so personal to my identity, healing and self-discovery. Growing up, I had so much self-hate and shame around my Filipinx culture of origin. Until I met Caroline Mangosing, as a young adult, and the incredible humxns she was in community with - many of whom remain chosen family to me. They helped me reclaim my culture of origin, be proud of my identity and help me on my journey of healing empowerment. I think this conversation is important because it highlights the insidious impacts of colonization across generations and throughout a diaspora - which isn't unique to Filipinx. We talk about erasure, visibility, cultural appropriation, art+fashion as a vehicle of activism and the role that beauty+aesthetics can play in the revolution.

Check out Caroline's work and the blog post that inspired this conversation.

My friend Sarah Barnhart joins me for a conversation about The Middle / The Grey Area / The In-betweens and Intersectionality of identity. Sarah shares her experiences of being mixed race and queer and the anxiety of not-enoughness: not being black enough, not being white enough, not being gay enough, not being straight enough. What once was the source of limiting anxiety, Sarah has been learning to resource this source for empowerment and okay-ness. 

This episode is my very first live interview for this podcast and I'm joined by Dianne Bondy. Dianne Bondy is a social justice activist, author, accessible yoga teacher, and the leader of the Yoga For All movement. She has been loud about the intersection between wellness and social justice since 2011, becoming an "accidental activist" by inspiring many folks to find strength and resilience in their body regardless of size, skin colour, gender identity, ability, religion or any other marker that might be under represented in the wellness world. We talk about what inspired Dianne's work, the parallels between creating inclusive environments in yoga spaces and in the world at large, the difference between bigotry and racism and how we are all charged to amplify empathy.

This is a short pep-talk to help get your head in the game. YOU are a leader. Whether your believe it or acknowledge it.

Welcome to the Empowered Embodiment Podcast!

I am your host, Robin Lacambra, and in this podcast we explore ALL. THE. FEELS. In their full spectrum. We unpack different forms of self-care or self-keeping and the necessary role they play in community care. Movements, both physical and social. Creativity. Advocacy. Belief Systems. Ambition. These things can give us permission to feel and need what we feel and need. These things all intersect to show us how we can enact our intrinsic leadership and share our privilege, creating cultures of compassion where more folks feel like they truly belong.

There are so many pathways to feeling empowered. Hopefully, in listening to these conversations with artists, activists, wellness professionals, business owners and leaders of different sorts, you'll find your ways of anchoring into your body, leaning into your gifts and enacting your unique agency.

So thank you for tuning in. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for being down to do the work. Let’s do this.

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Find me at royolaroyola.com and @royolaroyola on instagram.