Morning Routines – Sacred Embodiment Style

by | Aug 14, 2023 | Uncategorized

Morning Routines - Sacred Embodiment Style

In this episode, I am getting into morning routines, sacred embodiment style. Instead of telling you what to do, I’m going to share a few stories, read a poem, and invite you into what I share about my morning routine, Body Love and Reverence, and the beautiful ripple effect falling in love with your body creates (spoiler: it has to do with way more than what you look like!)

I always do a birthday offering, and this year is doubly exciting. There’s a celebration coming up in September to celebrate my birthday and 10 years of the School of Sacred Embodiment, plus I share details about the CHERISH retreat happening in Spain, Fall of 2024.

If morning routines allude you or you’re tight on time in the morning and tend to skip it, I hope this episode gives you space for your own sacred morning embodiment practice to emerge, since as I like to remind people constantly, something is always better than nothing.


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In episode 436 of the Embodied Podcast we discuss:

In episode 436 of the Embodied Podcast we discuss:

(2:45) How sensual language inspires embodiment practice

(4:12) A poem inspired by my Sacred Embodied Specialist class

(7:22) My personal sacred embodiment morning routine and the practice of noticing yourself

(10:17) The value of Body Love and reverence

(12:24) How intentional connection creates a ripple effect throughout your day no matter how long you take to do it

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Work with me:

Special offer:

Stay in touch:

Quotes from this Week’s Episode of the Embodied Podcast: 

  • Rather than tell you what I think you should do. I’m going to tell you a few stories. I’m going to read you a poem. And we’re going to invite you to feel into what I share in a way that might allow your own simple and sacred morning embodiment practice to emerge. 
  • Embodiment is a beautiful way to start to enhance the lens through which you experience yourself, your body, other people, other people’s bodies, and you could maybe even start to see beauty, maybe see energy, maybe see power, maybe see emotion.
  • If you could do a little something every morning, soon, your weeks, your months, your seasons, and your years become completely more embodied experiences for you. Because these things add up, they become automatic. 
  • There’s some kind of connection and recognition in taking yourself in visually and physically.
  • Self love and body love and reverence are transformational forces. If they were contagious, if they spread, if we had a friggin pandemi of that and we were breathing that shit in off of each other, we would shut down entire industries, shift the environment, shift the culture, really change life as we know it on this earth.

How was this episode for you?

Was this episode helpful for you today? I’d love to know what quote or lesson touched your soul. Let me know in the comments below OR share the episode on Instagram, tag me your stories @elizabethdialto, or send me a DM!

About the Embodied Podcast with Elizabeth DiAlto

Since 2013 I’ve been developing a body of work that helps women embody self-love, healing, and wholeness. We do this by focusing on the four levels of consciousness – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

In practical terms, this looks like exploring tools and practices to help you tune into the deep wisdom of the body and the knowing of the heart, which I believe are gateways to our souls. Then we cultivate a new relationship with our minds that allows the mind to serve this wisdom and knowledge and soul connection, rather than override it, which is what many of us were taught.

If you’ve been doing self-help or spiritual development work for a while, these are the types of foundational things that often people overlook in pursuit of fancier concepts that often aren’t practical or sustainable. Here, we will focus on building these strong foundations so you can honestly and thoroughly embody self-love. If you’re feeling it, subscribe to the show, and leave us a review wherever you listen from. You can also keep up with show updates and community discussions on Instagram here.

Transcript for Episode 436 “Morning Routines – Sacred Embodiment Style“:

Elizabeth DiAlto  00:00

And by rebellious I mean, healing and liberating. If you’re a regular listener, you’ve heard me say this before, women falling in love with themselves, period, but their bodies especially for reasons well beyond how we look, right. Like when I say love your body, I’m not asking you to love how your body looks, you could never love how your body looks, and still love your body very much. And that is without a doubt one of the most transformational experiences any of us can imagine.

Elizabeth DiAlto  00:17

Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode number 436 of the Embodied podcast. I’m your host, Elizabeth DiAlto. And today we’re getting into morning routines, sacred embodiment style. Sacred embodiment style means that I’m not going to give you

Elizabeth DiAlto 00:31

Already laughing about it. I don’t know why it’s making me laugh. But I do know why it’s making me laugh. But if I told you, it would require me to like talk shit about people, so. But I’m also not going to edit that out. Because I want you to know that I think there’s some people out there who are just doing way too fucking much and stressing people out more than they’re helping. So that’s all you need to know about my mischievous little giggle there. But I am not going to give you a list of things that you should be doing between like 5am and 7am. In the morning,

Elizabeth DiAlto  01:03

I’m not going to tell you what time you should make up. I don’t give a shit. If you make your bed if you meditate. There’s so many things that people say this is the right way to start the day. I don’t care if you drink lemon water. Here’s what I’m going to do in this episode. Rather than tell you what I think you should do. I’m going to tell you a few stories. I’m going to read you a poem. And we’re going to invite you to feel into what I share in a way that might allow your own simple and sacred morning embodiment practice to emerge. Because that is always how we do embodiment at the School of sacred embodiment. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  01:32

Like it says on the about page at the website, untamed yourself.com. I am a matchmaking mystic here to help guide you home to yourself. So I offer practices and frameworks that will help give you structure but ultimately always invite you into building the confidence, the desire, the faith and the curiosity for discovering what is best for you, which ultimately means sourcing the answers from your own soul, or your wild soul, as we like to call it around here. So I hope by the end of this episode, you will be inspired to find even a very small, short or simple pathway to a part of yourself that has needed your attending. Because here’s also something we talk about a lot in the School of sacred embodiment, something in terms of practice, something is always better than nothing. And everyone, literally everyone has at least two to five minutes a day to connect with themselves. If you have more than that, less, do more, use more indulge. But truly, two to five minutes, if that’s what you have, you could absolutely make that amount of time connection to yourself. Totally worth it every single day. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  02:45

So let’s begin. We had our first practice teaching jam with my class of 2023 Sacred embodiment specialists. On the day I’m recording this, it was two days ago on Saturday. And we were focusing on technical and sensual cueing, so instructing people to move their body, but also sprinkling in sensual language and imagery to create a deeper, more felt a meaningful experience. So for example, there’s a difference between someone saying, stretch your arms out to the side, then reach them straight up over your head, fingertips pointing up, and someone saying, stretch your arms out to the side, feel the energy and the strength flowing from your shoulders, all the way through your fingertips, then reach your arms up overhead, imagining that you can touch the sky, or even feel a cloud with your fingertips. Be difference, right? The next morning, all that sensual language was still rolling around in my brain when I sat down to write this podcast episode, and I realized what was coming out might be a poem. Now words are certainly a big part of my craft, but I am not a poet. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  03:54

So I felt a little awkward. I’m not gonna lie, but I decided to just have fun with it. So I’m calling this poem a good morning. And here it is. I’ll probably post it on substack, too, in case anyone wants to read it. Although if you go to the show notes page, there’s always a transcript, you could scroll down and read it there too. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  04:12

All right, good morning, I place my feet on the ground and I look at my toes. This signal of a new day moves through myself and my body knows it’s time to get up and I really need to pay. But before I do that, let me stretch out like a tree. With my feet firmly rooted on the metaphorical Earth. I take a moment of reverence for my whole body because she is my church, the magical chain and my God he begins to awaken. After the first two or three intentional breaths that I’ve taken. I acknowledge my roots and my core solid and strong. I reached for the heavens and make my short body long. I’m almost 40 now so sometimes there’s pain. I use my breath to gently send love to ease any tension or strain. 

I touch myself No, not like that. As I open my mouth wide exhaling like a big cat, and the mirror, I say hello to every inch of my skin. As I appreciate the sacred home I get to live in. I made sometimes long for the tighten tone figure of many years pass. But then the great mystery reminds me that nothing is meant to last. I juggle my thighs, my belly, my arms and my breasts, I take a deep breath and I lift my chest, I then have another and feel my ribs expand, I massage my head with one or both of my hands. Sometimes I even give myself a little kiss. As an I love you girl comes out of my lips. Finally, I take that pee before what comes next. When I have back to the bed for another glorious stretch, I roll my shoulders before I pray, I locate my diaphragm and begin to sway. I’m breathing more deeply now and I take a gentle twist, I extend my arms up and I circle my wrists, the muscles come alive all the way down my back hello spine, I twist the other way, feeling more supple. This time, I relish in the miracle of being a soul in this skin. 

And last but not least, I pray. And now my day can begin. 

Now I have to tell you, I do all those things almost every morning, not always in that order. But I really do step out of bed and take a moment before I stand up to look at my toes. I don’t just feel my feet on the ground, I see my feet on the ground before I even stand up. And I’ve been doing this for longer than I can even remember. But somehow, I only realized it that morning as I looked down at my toes. And for the first time acknowledged that this is really something I do every single day, I don’t just roll over and get out of bed, I very intentionally put my feet on the ground and look at my toes. And I’m making a big deal out of this. Because just looking at your body, whether you do that in the mirror, are you just doing it by something like I just mentioned, looking down at your toes or maybe you look at your hands, there’s some kind of connection and recognition in taking yourself in visually and physically, that could become a very holy and sacred practice. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  07:22

So I look at my toes and then I press my feet into the ground. And then I feel my leg muscles activate all the way up through my glutes and stand up and take the same stretch. And I make the same stop in front of the mirror before I pee literally every single day. Hello, everybody quick break in the show. And if you’re hearing this commercial, it is leading up to September 2023, where we are celebrating two things longtime listeners and followers know that every year around my birthday, which is September 14, I always like to do some kind of birthday sale or some kind of birthday offering. This year we also happen to be celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the School of sacred embodiment. So it is a double exciting celebration this year coming in September, two things that I am releasing that I am super excited about. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  08:15

Can I say the word exciting. Any more times in this little announcement, our D cherish retreat which is happening in the fall of 2024. This is going to be a retreat about self love and body love and reverence. It will be happening in southern Spain, October 31 to November 6 2024 If you want the details about that retreat, and if you want to receive like the first offer, which is going to include a discount of 10% for the 10 year anniversary of the School of sacred embodiment, get yourself on the retreat interest list by going to untame yourself.com forward slash retreat dash interest. And as well I will be launching my body love and reverence course in September, you do not need to get on an interest list for that I will be announcing that far and wide and giving everyone and anyone an opportunity to join that. And that’s it y’all, the birthday anniversary celebrations are coming. Stay tuned, they begin on September 18.

Elizabeth DiAlto  09:21

So then I can get back in bed and stretch comfortably. And I don’t always take that stretch on my bed. Sometimes I have a yoga mat rolled out in front of my altar, which is my bedroom. Sometimes I get on the floor. And I vary up the stretching and the maritime a little bit day to day. But that first moment again, when my feet hit the ground and I look at my toes is the same every day. And something just struck me about that as so simple, but also profound on that particular morning. And again I said earlier in the episode, if you only have two to five minutes to connect with yourself, find something so simple. And I realized That was my simple little anchor point. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  10:02

And for me, I’m a person who tends to have time in the morning, I don’t have kids or spouse or I don’t have to get up and get to a job on time or anything like that. So that’s that’s the beginning of my practice. But there’s no reason why that couldn’t just be the practice. Embodiment has become such a popular term, as have all kinds of phrases and movements like body positivity, body liberation, body neutrality, and I’m about to toss two more into the mix, body love and reverence, which is really one term body love and reverence, I keep them together. And another episode coming up soon, I’ll talk about what love and reverence are and what they look like in relationship to the body. And why I think they actually are crucially important for all humans, and especially women. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  10:49

And by important, I mean, rebellious. And by rebellious I mean, healing and liberating. If you’re a regular listener, you’ve heard me say this before, women falling in love with themselves, period, but their bodies especially for reasons well beyond how we look, right, like when I say love your body, I’m not asking you to love how your body looks, you could never love how your body looks, and still love your body very much. And that is without a doubt one of the most transformational experiences any of us can imagine. And having again, that self love, that body love and reverence is a transformational force. That if that was contagious, if that spread, if we had a friggin pandemic, if we were breathing that shit in off of each other, we would shut down entire industries, shift the environment, shift the culture, really change life as we know it on this earth. Now, do I think we’re anywhere close to that reality? No, I do not. But I do. I’ll tell you about the possibility all the time. And that’s important to do too. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  12:01

Now, if you would like a little more guidance around some rituals that you could do in the morning, there’s a free download at untamed yourself.com forward slash rituals, that’s actually called am and pm rituals. Because again, like I said earlier, the morning is a great time to do at least a little something, some again, that’s why I made such a big deal about looking at my damn toes, right? You might be like, really, we’re still talking about the toes. But just a little, a little something in the morning, little intentional connect, makes a ripple effect through your day. Right. And then one of the things I learned about practices is the compounding effects. So if you could do a little something every morning, soon, your weeks, your months, your seasons, and your years become completely more embodied experiences for you. Because these things add up, they become automatic. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  12:56

And then when that when something like that becomes automatic, a little self acknowledgement, a little self appreciation, admiration observation in the morning like that, through a reverend eye, a loving eye and appreciative eye, that becomes part of your way of being, which means that throughout the rest of your day, you’re probably going to look at yourself like that in different contexts. And beyond looking at yourself like that, you’re probably going to look at other people like that. Since I’ve been engaging with myself in this way for so many years, I will often notice very small, sensual details about people and just find it so stunning, so beautiful. So enameling, you know, like a crow’s foot or a smile line on someone’s face or a freckle or their skin tone or just the way their skin glows or looks so soft, or the color of somebody’s nail polish and how it complements you know, their energy or whatever. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  13:55

And it’s just a beautiful way to start to enhance the lens through which you experience yourself, your body, other people, other people’s bodies, and you could maybe see beauty, maybe see energy, maybe see power, maybe see emotion, and just again, have respect and reverence for the great mystery that is pulsing through all of us. And back in my poem at the end I said, relish in the miracle of being a soul in this skin. That’s what this is really about. And that’s why I do encourage you to do at least a tiny something in the morning. So that every day starts out with a little bit of relishing in the miracle of being a soul in your skin. Right and then if you want to do a little something in the evening to you got a little lunch break or something. 

Elizabeth DiAlto  14:48

Do a little something the middle the day, so many people make it seem like you have to organize your life around having like a 3045 minute hour long The 90 minute morning routine and then you gotta like wind down and do all this shit before bed. And if you’re listening to this again, if you have a lifestyle that allows for that amazing to beautiful thing. If you don’t, you do not need to miss out on the benefits you doing what you can do any given day is the perfect amount for you. Perfect allow for you. So again, if you want some more ideas, you want a few practices, some playlists, suggestions, some journaling prompts, go to untamed yourself.com forward slash rituals. This is a super short last week’s episode was kind of long. This week’s episode is kind of short. So that’s it for today friends. We’ll be back next week.