Hi, I’m Joanne Cary. Welcome back to The Embodied Soul Podcast —
a multidimensional space intended to support you in living, being, and remembering the embodied soul you are.
This week’s episode is a little quieter… a little more subtle.
And honestly, that feels very fitting for where I am right now— and where many of you may be as well.
I’ve been in a pause, as many of you know.
A kind of rebirthing of identity.
Not pushing forward, not launching something new — just listening, releasing, and letting something reorganize from the inside out.
And in that space, there haven’t been any big, grand ideas.
But what has been showing up are subtle markers… quiet shifts… and signals that something very real is happening, even if it doesn’t look dramatic from the outside.
So today, I want to explore the subtle signs of alignment —
the things that often begin changing long before we consciously name them.
If you’re ready to join me, pull up a comfy chair, invite in your Soul,
and be open to receiving exactly what you need to live, be, and thrive as the embodied soul you are.
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THE BODY BECOMES THE YES / NO
One of the first things I’ve been noticing — and hearing from others as well — is how clearly the body begins to speak.
Not metaphorically.
But in unmistakable, embodied ways.
For me, this has shown up as very tangible, physical responses:
• a contraction or expansion in my belly
• my posture subtly pulling back from something or softening into it
•facial “ick”- you know like the scrunched up-type face like you just sucked on a lemon-look - before I ever have a thought
• sometimes even my hand lift up in a clear “no” before I can explain why - It’s like my body already giving me the answer before my mind has even registered the question.
This has come up around food…
around how I want to spend my time… who I want to spend it with…
and especially around spiritual offerings — both ones I’m consuming and ones I’m considering creating.
And what’s different now is that the signal arrives before the reasoning.
And I want to name this clearly:
this isn’t about becoming more sensitive.
It’s about the nervous system no longer overriding itself.
There’s less negotiation.
Less justification.
And more immediacy.
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WHEN RESONANCE QUIETLY WITHDRAWS
I want to share a couple of concrete examples for you.
Recently, I felt into a 21-day challenge offering.
Nothing was “wrong” with the offering itself
But my body was very clear:
I don’t want to be regimented. I don’t want to be forced into a structure.
There wasn’t drama around it.
Just a clean no.
Another example: I’ve noticed some newer offerings in the spiritual space that feel strangely flat to me — almost what I’d call “spiritual corporate”. Polished. Certain. But not alive for my system.
And my body went: nope… nope… nope. And my hand lifted as if to block it or stop it from coming nearer.
And at first, that reaction had me questioning myself.
Why such a strong response?
And what I later realized was that this wasn’t really about them at all.
At the time, I was quietly contemplating my own offerings — which still haven’t fully landed yet by the way.
And my body, my Divine Self, was saying very clearly to me:
Not this way.
Not based on what has been.
Something new wants to emerge.
So the “no” was more of a shielding.
It was guiding.
It was not judgmental.
Ok Now, I can feel people asking—Is that discernment or is that judgment?”
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JUDGMENT VS DISCERNMENT
So let’s take a few minutes to talk about the distinction between judgment and discernment — because this comes up a lot, and it’s often misunderstood.
Judgment is interpretive.
It narrates.
It assigns meaning.
It often references values, standards, or comparisons.
And it usually wants justification.
Judgment tends to come with a tightening in the body.
There’s often a story attached, and sometimes even a subtle sense of superiority, or even a defensiveness.
It feels charged. Sometimes even righteous.
For example:
“I didn’t like that because it felt manipulative… inauthentic… ego-driven.
You know what I mean, right?
Now — that doesn’t make it bad. It just tells us where the information is being processed within us.
Discernment, on the other hand, is pre-interpretive. Pre-meaning.
It arrives before explanation.
Often quickly. Often quietly.
It doesn’t need language right away.
Discernment tends to show up as sensation — a closing, a pulling back, a loss of availability, a movement away from.
The mind may catch up later… or sometimes it doesn’t.
Because discernment doesn’t need to convince anyone.
It simply says:
This isn’t for me.
It might feel like:
Something in me closed. I’m not available for that any longer.
For me, discernment feels like a clean “no” — without a follow-up argument.
Judgment usually wants to explain itself.
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Now, here’s an important piece.
We’ve been taught — explicitly or implicitly — that judging others is bad.
Unspiritual.
Something to get rid of.
So when a strong reaction arises, many of us immediately say:
“It wasn’t judgment because…”
And I want to gently reframe this.
Judgment is not the opposite of discernment.
It is often discernment passing through the mind on its way to the body.
Judgment isn’t a moral failure.
Very often, it’s discernment that hasn’t fully learned to trust the body yet.
So what does this really look like?
Early on, the body sends a signal —
Then the mind jumps in quickly to interpret it —
Then meaning gets assigned —
and a story appears to explain it, justify it, or make it acceptable.
Now that doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong.
It means your system is learning.
And over time, discernment becomes more somatic and less conceptual.
And the difference feels kinda like this:
Judgment tends to be charged.
It needs explanation.
It often wants agreement.
Discernment is quieter.
Cleaner.
And often says simply:
“This isn’t for me.”
The work isn’t to eliminate judgment.
The work is to notice what the body knew before the judgment formed.
So if you notice judgment showing up alongside discernment, that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.
It usually means your system is still learning how to trust sensation before explanation.
At first, discernment often needs language.
And later, it simply needs permission to be heard.
That’s maturation — not perfection.
And one more important thing.
Explaining something after the fact does not automatically mean judgment is active.
A better question to ask is:
• Does the explanation feel charged?
• Does it need agreement?
• Does it tighten the body?
• Or is it simply descriptive?
Sometimes language isn’t defense — it’s integration.
And here’s a simple practical check you can try:
Notice whether the explanation comes before the “no”… or after it.
If it comes before, the mind is leading.
If it comes after, the body led — and the mind is orienting.
Neither is wrong.
One is simply earlier in the learning curve.
And finally, this matters:
Judgment only becomes harmful when
• it’s used to elevate the self,
• diminish another,
• or override bodily truth.
Momentary judgment during learning is not harm —
it’s feedback.
And trying to eliminate it too early often slows discernment rather than deeping it.
AND this is where awareness matters.
Not all judgment is moving toward discernment.
Sometimes it’s simply a fear-based reflex — a way the mind tries to regain control or certainty.
The difference isn’t found by analyzing the judgment —
it’s found by noticing whether you’re aware of it as it happens.
So again, the work isn’t to stop judging.
The work is to listen more closely to what the body knew
before the judgment appeared.
And the reason this distinction matters
is because these subtle inner shifts are often the very evidence
that something is changing —
even when it doesn’t look dramatic from the outside.
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SUBTLE PROGRESS WE DON’T COUNT
This is the part I really want people to hear.
Because many of you have been doing a lot of inner work and wondering if anything is actually changing.
Here are some subtle markers you might not be counting:
There’s less inner debate. This is where you used to go back and forth internally…
analyzing, justifying, second-guessing —
and now it’s just a quiet knowing. You don’t debate it. You simply move.
There’s faster recovery. This is where being out of alignment, in the wobble, out of balance used to linger — emotionally, energetically, sometimes for days —
and now you notice it sooner and return to yourself more gently.
There’s neutrality around triggers. This is where things that used to trigger fear, anger, judgment don’t hook you in the same way—
and now there’s more of a neutrality.
Not bypassing.
Not suppression.
Just witnessing without engaging.
And it’s really cool to feel that. For me, it feels like seeing through new eyes.
The charge just isn’t there.
There’s boundaries without drama. I’ve also noticed I don’t feel called to explain myself or my choices the way I used to.
Inner alignment matters more than being understood now.
And this wasn’t a conscious decision on my part.
As old beliefs released and my body came more online, boundaries became… obvious.
Not aggressive.
Not confrontational.
Just… of course I’m not doing that.
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RECALIBRATION AS ALIGNMENT
And there’s one more subtle marker of alignment I want to name — because it’s often misunderstood, and it can be unsettling if we don’t recognize it for what it is.
As we move through shifts in frequency, identity, or embodiment, the way we feel, sense, see, connect can temporarily become unclear.
What used to feel really vivid, might feel fuzzy.
What used to feel connected, might feel distant. Or gone altogether
What used to flow easily, might feel paused.
I’ve noticed this many times in my own experience.
Each time I move through a major release or a significant shift in frequency, the way I perceive my inner visual space becomes less clear for a while. I can feel even a bit disconnected — and then, when it returns, I see that the clarity is actually far greater than it was before. The resolution of the images, the scenes are so much clearer, and brighter, and deeper.
What’s happening isn’t loss in the moment.
It’s reorganization.
The old access point dissolves
before the new one comes fully online.
And because we’re not taught to recognize this phase, it’s easy to assume we’ve done something wrong — that we’ve gone backward — when in fact, we’re in the in-between of integration.
And so I want to say this very clearly:
What feels out of alignment in these moments is often a marker of moving into alignment.
I’ll restate that:
What feels out of alignment in these moments is often a marker of moving into alignment.
It’s a recalibration.
A resetting of the system.
A necessary pause while the body and soul reorganize to hold a new level of embodiment.
This, too, is alignment — just not the kind that announces itself loudly — the kind that we often like.
Sometimes the clearest sign of change
is that the old way no longer works —
and the new way hasn’t fully revealed itself yet.
And one of the ways this recalibration and integration often continues — especially when the mind steps aside — is through our dream and liminal states.
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DREAMS & LIMINAL SPACE
And this is where, I want to share something that feels genuinely amazing to me —
not as something everyone should be doing, but as one expression of how communication with our spirit, with our higher self can evolve.
For years, I’ve worked with dreams.
But my conscious relationship with the liminal space — that space between sleep and waking — really began after reading one of the Seth books, by Jane Roberts, on dreams.
At the time, I honestly thought it wasn’t working.
I was tracking my dreams diligently… paying attention…doing the steps suggested…
but not having the experiences Seth described.
And then — you know, like six years later — here we are.
The communication is responsive.
It’s ongoing.
If I ask a question in that space, the teaching continues.
If I don’t understand and say so, the answers comes almost immediately, in the next scene, in the next transmission.
So sometimes what we plant doesn’t sprout on our timeline.
And I want to say this clearly:
not everyone remembers dreams.
Not everyone works consciously in the liminal space.
And that doesn’t mean nothing is happening in these spaces.
It may simply mean the intelligence is integrating quietly — without imagery.
But the biggest shifts for me over time has been how I relate to difficult or scary dreams.
I now see them as a blessing.
They’re the psyche, the soul processing fear and lessons in the unconscious —
so they don’t have to play out in our lived lives.
If I have a difficult dream now, I actually say:
Thank you for letting that process in the dreams, so I don’t have to live that type of experience in my waking life.
Not all soul lessons need to be lived in your physical reality.
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So with all that said, if you’ve been feeling like nothing is happening…
if you’re in a pause…
if the clarity hasn’t arrived as thought —
I invite you to notice what’s quietly reorganizing beneath the surface.
Less debate.
Clearer boundaries.
More trust in what your body knows.
That’s not stagnation.
That’s integration at work.
If this episode of Embodied Soul resonated with you,
Please follow, share and leave me a 5-star review
it truly helps get this work out to those who will benefit.
And thank you for spending this time with me.
I look forward to being with you again on the next episode of Embodied Soul .
