Loss and the Somatic Unfolding
This morning I attended my friend Karen McPhillips’ Sunday yoga class, something I return to as a steady rhythm of self-care. As I moved slowly, breath by breath, I felt a potency arise in my heart. A quiet but powerful energy stirred as I softened into each posture, and an awareness grew: life itself was moving through me.
As I continue to consciously shed layers physically, spiritually, energetically I recognize that I’m also letting go of patterns that are not mine. Some have been passed down through lineage, others absorbed from the collective. With the passing of both of my parents my mother recently, my father four years ago there’s a growing sense of clarity. In coming into my whole self, I’m continually asked to release what isn’t mine to carry.
There’s grief in this process. But also, a widening.
An openness to what the Divine might be calling me toward a sense of longing for something beyond the visible. Synchronicity. Connection. Meaning. I find this in the expanse of the mountains, in the eyes of dear friends, in the beat of the music, and in the soft weight of my dog’s head resting beside me. These moments bring tears, yes, but also a profound gratitude for being alive.
And still, in the next breath, I feel the heaviness. A sense of powerlessness in the face of collective suffering. Not hopelessness because there is still hope but a sorrow for the unconsciousness that pervades so much of human behavior. For the ways we stray from connection, from presence, from what is life-affirming.
And yet, somehow, I am held in all of it.
This pain is real and I know I am not alone in it. I know that I can meet each moment with gratitude, abundance, and awareness. I can be present with the grief and the beauty. I can feel the ground under my feet, tend to my garden, show up for my relationships, and walk forward step by step with patience and a quiet belief in possibility.
This is the unfolding.
A somatic journey through loss, into deeper presence. A peeling back to what’s essential. A willingness to feel. To be real. To stay. Even when it hurts. Especially when it does.
I offer a variety of online and in-person yoga classes designed to help you release stress, improve focus, and perform better.
Check out my class schedule and offerings here.
Jennifer Degen
August 13, 2025
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