Emily Bailey

November 15, 2025

Moon + Fire

What If Everything You're Feeling Is Your Medicine?

Emily Bailey

November 15, 2025

Moon + Fire

Note: Episode 30 Show Notes are available at the end of this entry.

What if everything you've been trying to control, manage, and perfect about yourself is actually an invitation?

What if the rage you're working so hard to calm is medicine? What if the grief you're trying to transcend is a portal? What if the sensations you've learned to override are actually your body speaking its most sacred wisdom?

In our culture, we're taught to treat our bodies as projects. Something to optimize, discipline, improve. We learn early that feeling too much makes us weak, dramatic, uncontrolled. We're rewarded for keeping it together, for pushing through, for being in control.

But what if the real power lies not in being in control, but in being with?

The Descent

There's a word I recently learned from Raphaëlle Normandin that keeps echoing in me: descent.

Not the kind of descent that means falling or failing. The sacred kind. The kind that cracks you open and unravels who you thought you had to be so you can become who you actually are.

Raphaëlle describes her own descent beginning the moment her first son was born—time stopping, everything softening, being cracked wide open not just physically but spiritually. For the first time, she slowed down enough to listen to her body, her baby, her instincts.

Many of us have experienced these threshold moments. Birth, loss, illness, heartbreak—times when our carefully constructed armor simply couldn't hold anymore. Times when we had no choice but to feel.

And in those moments, we discover something revolutionary: our bodies are not problems to fix. They're portals.

From Control to Presence

We spend so much energy trying to be in control. Control our emotions, control our responses, control how others perceive us, control the outcomes.

But Raphaëlle invites us into something different: the power of being with.

Being with our rage instead of trying to transcend it. Being with our grief instead of rushing to heal it. Being with the trembling in our bodies instead of calming it down.

She offers a practice so simple it almost sounds too easy:

Lay on the floor. Breathe. Let your body tremble. Don't try to calm it. Ask: "What wants to be felt right now?" And then... feel.

This is sacred work.

Not because it's elaborate or requires special tools or training. But because it requires us to release the one thing our culture has trained us to grip most tightly: control.

Everything You're Feeling Is Your Medicine

In this week's episode of Moon & Fire, Raphaëlle shares something that stopped me in my tracks: "Even our rage can be devotional."

What if the feelings we've been taught to suppress—rage, grief, raw desire—are not evidence that something is wrong with us, but invitations to come home to ourselves?

What if your body isn't betraying you when it trembles, when it resists, when it refuses to perform? What if it's actually guiding you toward what you most need to feel, to know, to become?

Raphaëlle describes the body as a "sacred calendar"—with its own rhythms, its own seasons, its own wisdom about when to expand and when to contract, when to feel and when to rest.

When we honor this, we stop betraying ourselves. We stop pushing. And we begin to belong to ourselves in a way the world can't touch.

The Invitation

If you're exhausted from trying to fix yourself, from managing and controlling and perfecting, this conversation is for you.

If you're ready to discover your body as a portal rather than a project, this is your invitation.

Listen to my full conversation with Raphaëlle Normandin on Moon & Fire: "Sacred Descent: The Power of Being With, Not In Control." (Check it out below 👇)

Because maybe—just maybe—the way forward isn't through more control. It's through the sacred descent of finally letting yourself feel.

What would shift if you stopped trying to fix yourself and started listening instead? I'd love to hear your thoughts—share them with me via email: emily@wholeandwild.com

Listen to Episode 30:

EPISODE 30 SHOW NOTES

Episode #30: "Sacred Descent: The Power of Being With, Not In Control with Raphaëlle Normandin”

Brief Description:

In this powerful conversation, Emily sits down with Raphaëlle Normandin to explore what it means to initiate back into our bodies—not through performance or perfection, but through sensation, slowness, and shadow. Raphaëlle shares her journey of being cracked wide open at her son's birth, describing it as a sacred descent and unraveling from who she had been into who she was becoming.

You'll discover why everything we're feeling is not too much but our medicine, how to shift from being in control to being with what arises, and why even our rage can be devotional. Raphaëlle guides us through her simple floor practice—laying down, breathing, letting the body tremble, and asking "what wants to be felt right now?"—revealing why allowing the trembling rather than calming it is sacred work. She opens up about releasing her armor and discovering that true strength doesn't hustle but trusts.

This conversation offers permission for women ready to feel what they've been taught to suppress—rage, grief, pleasure—and meet themselves there with reverence. Perfect for anyone who's tired of treating their body as a project and ready to discover it as the portal it truly is.

Key Quotes:

Invitations from this episode:

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Emily Bailey

November 14, 2025

Moon + Fire

The Exhaustion of Independence: Why We're Starving for Village

Emily Bailey

November 14, 2025

Moon + Fire

Note: Episode 29 Show Notes are available at the end of this entry.

There's an exhaustion I keep witnessing in the women around me. Not just the tired-from-a-long-day kind. The deeper kind. The kind that comes from carrying everything yourself.

Managing the household, showing up for work, being present for relationships, maintaining your wellness practices, handling the emotional labor, remembering all the details, holding it all together.

We're so good at it. We've learned to be efficient, capable, independent. We pride ourselves on not needing help, on figuring it out, on handling our own stuff.

But here's what I keep wondering: What if we were never meant to do it all ourselves?

The Individual Paradigm Is Breaking Us

We live in a culture that worships independence. Self-made. Self-sufficient. Self-reliant.

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Don't be a burden. Prove your worth through what you can accomplish alone.

These messages run so deep we don't even question them anymore. We just keep pushing, keep managing, keep trying to be consistent and show up the same way every single day regardless of what our bodies, our cycles, or our souls are asking for.

And we wonder why we're so tired.

But what if the problem isn't that you're not doing enough or not strong enough or not disciplined enough?

What if the problem is that you're trying to thrive in a paradigm that was never designed for collective beings living cyclical lives?

We Were Meant for Village

Our ancestors lived in villages. Not because they were less capable or more dependent, but because they understood something we've forgotten: we are not meant to do life alone.

Raising children, caring for elders, managing households, creating and working, celebrating and grieving—these were always communal experiences. There were hands to help, eyes to witness, hearts to share the load.

The village wasn't a luxury. It was how humans were designed to live.

Somewhere along the way, we lost this. We traded village for isolation, collective wisdom for individual achievement, interdependence for independence.

And now we're drowning in the effort of trying to be everything to everyone while our souls are starving for genuine connection.

From Doing to Being

Here's what struck me most in this week's conversation on Moon & Fire: calling village back into being is less about what we do and more about who we're being.

It's not another thing to add to your to-do list. It's not about organizing more events or joining more groups or forcing community to happen.

It's about releasing the grip on control and trusting sacred nudges. It's about shifting from relational mistrust to openness. It's about honoring cyclical rhythms rather than forcing constant productivity.

It's about remembering that the constructs of proving our worth through forceful pushing, of having to do everything ourselves, of being valued only for what we produce—these don't serve us. They never did.

What Becomes Possible

When we begin to shift from the individual paradigm to remembering our village nature, something magical happens.

Ease. Freedom. Relaxation. Magic.

Not because life suddenly becomes perfect or simple, but because we stop carrying everything alone. We stop betraying our cyclical nature to fit into linear expectations. We stop forcing ourselves into boxes we were never meant to inhabit.

We remember that we're allowed to need each other. That interdependence isn't weakness—it's wisdom.

The Invitation

If you're exhausted from trying to do it all yourself, if you're craving deeper connection, if some part of you remembers that there's another way to live—this conversation is for you.

Listen to this week's episode of Moon & Fire: "We Were Meant for Village: Creating Community Through Being, Not Doing" with Emily Race-Newmark (check it out below 👇)

Because maybe what you're craving isn't just rest or a better schedule or more discipline.

Maybe what you're craving is village.

What's your relationship with community right now? Are you trying to do it all alone, or are you finding ways to call village back into being? I'd love to hear—share your thoughts with me by email - emily@wholeandwild.com.

Listen to Episode 29:

EPISODE 29 SHOW NOTES

Episode #29: "We Were Meant for Village: Creating Community Through Being, Not Doing with Emily Race-Newmark”

Brief Description:

In this inspiring conversation, Emily sits down with Emily Race-Newmark to explore "revillaging"—the practice of returning to a village paradigm and creating the community connection we're truly meant for. Emily shares her beautiful story of trusting intuition to find their home, including the moment she felt nudged to make muffins for neighbors, which led to discovering their perfect house through prayer, ritual, and following sacred inner wisdom.

You'll discover why community building is more about who we're being than what we're doing, how revillaging is a creative, relational, and spiritual practice that honors our cyclical nature, and what her "moon school" experiment looks like—gathering families around new and full moons. Emily helps us understand why the constructs of doing it all ourselves or proving our worth through forceful pushing do not serve us, and how releasing relational mistrust opens us to the village life we're destined for.

This conversation offers guidance for women feeling isolated and overwhelmed by trying to do everything alone, and provides a vision for calling community back into being through cyclical wisdom, ritual practices, and feminine receiving. Perfect for anyone feeling called to build community but unsure where to start, or ready to shift from the depleting individual paradigm to collective connection.

Key Quotes:

"We were meant to live, age, raise children, and be part of a community, a village, and this isn't something of a far away country or time."
“If you want the village, if you want community, you actually don't have to do a bunch of things. It's not about more action steps and to-do lists. It's more about honestly shifting to the state of being a villager."
"Village is this thing that we actually have around us right now and we just need to kind of tap into that frequency and that existence that's already here."
"What I need is what the earth needs and I can actually just like make this my lifestyle to address all of my values and what I care about."
"That was rebillaging kind of in a nutshell—what would have been a transactional experience became this really relational experience."
"An experimental mindset is a really helpful paradigm shift—everything doesn't have to be perfect. If only two people show up that wasn't a failure. What did I learn in that process?"
"The shift she made was I'm actually going to pause, say hi, make eye contact with my barista. Maybe ask their name. That does nothing. It's not additional work. It's just a shift in who she's being."
"We're trying to live within an individual paradigm when we're actually meant for a collective one."
"We now are like parenting together. Our children are not siloed. We're all jumping in as like one collective parent body."
"There's great loss when we miss out on the wisdom that can come through our differentness and the perspectives that we wouldn't have accessed."

Invitations from this episode:

Practice Being a Villager This Week Choose one daily routine moment (getting coffee, grocery shopping, walking the dog) and shift from doing mode to "villager being" mode—make eye contact, say hello, ask someone's name, be present with the people already around you.

The Experimental Mindset Challenge Try one small revillaging experiment this month without attachment to outcome—bake something for a neighbor, start a conversation at the park, leave a note, host a simple gathering—and observe what you learn, regardless of the result.

Answer the Question: Who Am I as a Villager? Journal or reflect on what you would offer your village (not based on your job title, but on what lights you up, what you want to learn, what you love to share).

The Sacred Pause Practice After planting any intention or seed (whether for community, a project, or a dream), practice the pause—trust what you've planted before rushing to the next action step.

Connect with Emily Race-Newmark

Follow her on Substack (Emily Cares) or Instagram (@RevillagingMama)
Explore Emily’s one-on-one offering "Revillage Your Life"
Join The Third Space community for group revillaging practice

Check out Emily's offers here

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Emily Bailey

October 31, 2025

Moon + Fire

The Ancient Art of Making Magic from What You Already Have

Emily Bailey

October 31, 2025

Moon + Fire

Note: Episode 28 Show Notes are available at the end of this entry.

When I was seven years old, I spent entire afternoons in the backyard making "soup."

Not the kind you eat, mind you. The kind you make with whatever you can find - dandelion stems, flower petals, interesting rocks, water from the hose, maybe some dirt for texture. I'd gather my ingredients with the seriousness of an alchemist, mixing and stirring with complete absorption, convinced I was creating something genuinely magical.

My mother would watch from the kitchen window as I crouched in the grass, lost in this work of combining, transforming, infusing ordinary things with intention and wonder.

Looking back now, I realize I wasn't just playing. I was practicing something ancient and essential - the fundamental human impulse to take what we have and create something meaningful from it.

The Question I Know You're Asking

Over the past few weeks, I've been sharing about resonance work on my podcast - the practice of attuning to your deepest purpose, learning to recognize your body's wisdom about what truly aligns, and trusting your resonant yeses and dissonant nos.

The teachings have resonated deeply. Women are waking up to the truth that this work isn't luxury - it's actually the most productive thing we can do.

But I also know what happens when we hear about practices like this. There's a voice that immediately shows up - sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly - asking:

"This sounds beautiful, but when am I supposed to do this? I can barely keep up with what's already on my plate."

I know this voice intimately. I've heard it in my own head countless times.

We've been taught that meaningful spiritual practice requires carved-out time. A meditation cushion. A quiet room. Thirty uninterrupted minutes. Ideal conditions that most of us never actually have.

So we wait. We tell ourselves we'll start when things calm down, when we have more space, when circumstances align.

But what if everything we've been taught about how to do this work is keeping us from actually doing it?

The Soup-Making Wisdom

That little girl making soup in the backyard understood something crucial: you don't need special ingredients to create magic. You need presence with what you already have.

She wasn't waiting for the "right" materials or the "perfect" recipe. She was working with dandelions and dishwater and discovering what happened when she brought intention to the ordinary.

This is exactly what I want to invite you into with your resonance work, your spiritual practice, your connection to purpose.

Not as something separate from your life that requires special time and space, but as something you weave into what you're already doing.

You're already brushing your teeth. Making tea. Driving to work. Preparing meals. Washing your face. Moving through transitions between activities.

These aren't interruptions to your sacred work. They're the ingredients.

The Myth We Need to Release

There's a pervasive belief that transformation happens in grand gestures - in weekend retreats, in elaborate rituals, in dedicated practice time that we carve out from our "regular" lives.

And while those experiences can be beautiful and powerful, they're not where sustainable transformation actually lives.

Sustainable transformation happens in the accumulation of small moments of consciousness, woven consistently through your days.

It happens when you stop treating your spiritual work as something separate from your life and start infusing your life with spiritual presence.

It happens when you bring a different quality of attention to what you're already doing, rather than waiting for the perfect conditions to begin.

What Layering Actually Looks Like

I call this practice "layering" - taking something you're already doing and adding a layer of intentionality, awareness, or meaning to it.

You're already making your morning coffee. What if, while the water heats, you placed a hand on your heart and asked: "What does my purpose need from me today?" What if you stirred an intention into that beverage - literally visualizing a quality you want to embody dissolving into the liquid like honey?

You're already brushing your hair. What if you used that repetitive, rhythmic motion to consciously braid in what you want to call forward and brush out what you're ready to release?

You're already brushing your teeth twice a day for two minutes. What if that became your built-in time for a resonance check-in about a decision you're facing?

You're already moving through transitions all day long - between home and work, between tasks, between activities. What if those threshold moments became opportunities for one conscious breath, one brief check-in with your alignment?

You haven't added anything to your schedule. You haven't created a new obligation. You've simply brought more of yourself to something you were doing anyway.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Here's what I've discovered in my own life and witnessed in the lives of the women I work with:

The practices that stick aren't the ones we do in addition to our lives. They're the ones we weave into the fabric of our days.

When we stop waiting for ideal conditions and start bringing presence to the moments we already have, something shifts. Our ordinary activities become doorways. Our daily routines become rituals. Our mundane tasks become vehicles for transformation.

The tea you're drinking becomes a reminder of your intention. The drive to work becomes an opportunity to attune to your resonance. The act of washing your face becomes a ceremony of releasing what isn't yours to carry.

You're not just going through the motions. You're creating meaning. You're practicing presence. You're strengthening the very muscles of consciousness that allow you to recognize and honor your deepest alignment.

The Invitation

This week on the Moon & Fire podcast, I'm diving deep into exactly how to do this - sharing specific practices for braiding resonance into your hair, stirring intention into your tea, brushing awareness into your teeth, and weaving consciousness into every ordinary moment of your day.

These aren't vague concepts. They're practical, accessible practices you can begin using immediately, without adding a single thing to your already-full schedule.

But more than that, I'm inviting you into a fundamental reorientation:

Your sacred work doesn't require more time. It requires more presence in the time you already have.

You don't need to wait until life calms down or circumstances align. You can begin right now, with what's in your hands, with the very next ordinary moment.

That little girl making soup in the backyard? She knew that the magic wasn't in having special ingredients. The magic was in the attention she brought, the intention she held, the consciousness she wove into the act of gathering and combining and creating.

You have everything you need already. The raw ingredients are all around you.

The question isn't whether you have time for resonance work. The question is: are you willing to bring resonance to the time you already have?

Ready to learn the specific practices? Listen to this week's Moon & Fire podcast episode: "Braiding Resonance Into Your Days: Making Sacred Work Accessible" (check it out below). I share detailed practices for layering consciousness into your morning beverage, hair care, transitions, meals, and more - all without adding a single minute to your schedule.

And if you're navigating a major life transition right now - if you're at a threshold between who you've been and who you're becoming - these layering practices become even more essential. They're how you maintain your connection to yourself and your purpose while everything else is shifting.

What's one activity you already do every day that could become a vehicle for your sacred work? I'd love to hear what you discover when you start bringing consciousness to the ordinary.

Listen to Episode 28:

EPISODE 28 SHOW NOTES

Episode #28: "Braiding Resonance Into Your Days: Making Sacred Work Accessible”

Brief Description:

What if your most powerful spiritual practice didn't require carved-out time, but instead happened while you're brushing your teeth, making your morning tea, or driving to work?

In this episode, I explore the practice of "layering"—bringing intention and awareness to the activities you're already doing every day. Drawing on my childhood love of making "soups" from gathered ingredients, I share how to take the raw materials of your ordinary moments and infuse them with meaning.

You'll learn specific practices for stirring intention into your beverages, braiding awareness into your hair, weaving resonance into transitions, and creating consciousness from the breath between activities. These aren't additions to your already-full life—they're ways to transform what you're already doing into sacred practice.

Plus, I share why these practices become especially essential when you're navigating major life transitions, and invite you to tomorrow's free Sacred Passage workshop.

Key Quotes:

On the fundamental human impulse: "We're all born with this capacity. Watch any toddler with a spoon and a bowl, and you'll see them naturally stirring, mixing, combining. There's something deeply satisfying about taking ingredients - whether they're herbs and water or moments and meaning - and creating something that's more than the sum of its parts."
On the myth of separate practice: "We treat our most important work as something separate from our daily lives, something that requires special conditions we don't currently have. But the most sustainable, transformative practices aren't the ones we do separately from our lives. They're the ones we weave into the fabric of our days."
On what layering means: "Layering means bringing conscious intention to that moment - maybe stirring in a quality you want to embody that day, maybe using those few minutes while the water heats to check in with your resonance. You haven't added anything to your schedule. You haven't created a new obligation. You've simply brought more of yourself to something you were doing anyway."
On stirring intention: "This isn't just metaphorical. You're programming your nervous system, creating an embodied association between this daily act and the quality you're invoking. You're making meaning out of the mundane."
On braiding awareness: "Hair has long been associated with power, intuition, and connection to the divine feminine. When you tend to your hair, you're tending to these energies. With each cross of hair, you're creating a physical manifestation of what you're calling in."
On transition moments: "These transition moments are already happening dozens of times a day. We're not adding anything - we're just bringing consciousness to the spaces between, turning them into opportunities for attunement rather than mindless rushing."
On the breath between: "This single breath becomes a reset button. It's a micro-pause that interrupts the momentum of unconscious rushing and creates a tiny space for presence. You're no longer careening from one thing to the next on autopilot. You're creating conscious transitions, tiny doorways of awareness."
On the accumulation of small moments: "Transformation doesn't happen in grand gestures. It happens in the accumulation of small moments of consciousness, woven consistently through your days. These aren't frivolous add-ons to your 'real' work. These are how the real work happens - not in addition to your life, but infused into the fabric of your life."
On taking raw ingredients: "You're taking the raw ingredients of your ordinary day - tea, hair, teeth, transitions, breath - and creating something nourishing, something that feeds your soul while you're feeding your body, that attunes you to purpose while you're moving through practical tasks. This is the soup-making impulse grown up."
On the core invitation: "Your resonance work doesn't require more time. It requires more presence. It doesn't need special conditions. It needs your willingness to bring consciousness to what you're already doing. You don't have to wait until life calms down or circumstances align. You can begin right now, with what's in your hands, with the very next ordinary moment."

Call to Action:

Choose one layering practice this week and notice what happens when you bring consciousness to something you're already doing.