Look to the Light: Body and Transformation. A Podcast Interview with Jenny LePage, BCST, LMT
/Jenny was invited as a guest on the podcast At the Heart of It: Conversations on Who We Are, interviewed by Danielle Nicholas, Somatic and Leadership Coach, based in Bozeman, Montana. This podcast interview includes enlightening conversation around the shifts in consciousness we are experiencing in these times.
Both Apple and Spotify versions of this podcast are included below so you can choose your listening preference!
Podcast Description
Jenny LePage is a massage and craniosacral therapist in Boulder, Colorado. She is also doing Shiatsu work and finds herself in the role of helping people through their spiritual awakening process.
Welcome, Jenny!
For more information, or to get in touch with Danielle, visit her website at www.daniellenicholas.com.
Podcast Transcription
Intro: (nice music playing) Welcome to At the Heart of It, Conversations on Who We Are with Danielle Nicholas. Join us to explore and engage in discussions on those topics near and dear to our true nature. For more information, or to get in touch with Danielle, visit her website at daniellenicholas.com. Enjoy the show! (nice music playing)
Danielle: So, I’m here today with Jenny LePage. Jenny is a massage and craniosacral therapist in Boulder, Colorado. She’s also doing Shiatsu work and finds herself in the role of helping people through their spiritual awakening process. She is also one of my dearest friends. Welcome Jenny!
The idea for this podcast has been growing for some time but really came into light when you and I were sitting along the side of the Madison River during Thanksgiving. What do you remember from that day and that scene?
Jenny: Well, Hi Danielle!
Danielle: Hi Jenny!
Jenny: Thanks. It’s fun to be here today. That day that we were on the Madison river around Thanksgiving time, it was November, and it was a blustery day. We had this really really strong wind whip up, and it was so intense, it was spinning these little tornadoes in the water and shooting, spraying at us. It was just such an elemental experience, and we sat down right at the edge of where the sun was turning to shade, and the edge of where the wind was meeting us. And had we walked any farther we probably would’ve gotten soaked, but we stayed right there, and we sat down and talked… and we talked about what we’re doing with our lives, and what we’re doing with our work, and our most meaningful work, our authentic and spiritual work. And we talked about the direction those things are evolving in and started talking about how we’re working with expanding our audience, really connecting with a wider group of people. And we started interviewing each other practicing our podcast interviews. (giggling) Here we are!
Danielle: (laughing) Excellent
Jenny: Yeah. One thing that we talked about a lot on that day was a lot about water, and Yin, and the feminine power and different ways that the feminine is coming into balance, and that’s one of the really big things happening in our world right now, and in our own personal lives. It’s this process of turning to a spiritual and a more centered way of being.
Danielle: Ok, Jenny, so you’re a massage therapist, a Biodynamic Cranial Sacral practitioner, Shiatsu practitioner. How do you see the connection to something larger in the way that you do this work? Tell us more.
Jenny: Well, the way that I see a larger connection is that…it’s like we’re all part of the same unified field. And these modalities are different windows, kind of like a different turn of the kaleidoscope, a different way in, a different path to the truth or to the center, a different way to work with that same thing, and (it) manifests of course in infinite ways, so we’re able to access that source through many pathways in ourselves. What I see a lot is overlapping places, specifically in the body, overlapping places…where the meridian system might overlap with the cranial sacral system. The anatomy structures are really all pointing to potent and powerful places into a person’s reality, kind of like vortices or something, like an opening into a place that can initiate a lot of transformation, maybe where a lot of different things are stuck and maybe where things can shift.
Like, for instance, there’s this place in the back of the head, the back of the cranium, the external occipital protuberance, that big bump on the back of your head. And there is a little divot there, and that is an acupuncture point, or Shiatsu point, a meridian system point, called toku 17 in Japanese or du 17 in the Chinese system. And right at that same point is something called the straight sinus, underneath it, that leads right to the center of the brain. And then that center of the brain is our initial point of conception. When we are first created, when that sperm meets the egg, there’s this ignition that happens, this spark of light, and what happens is that everything, who we are, forms from that place right there.
So, it’s a really powerful thing to be able to access that through different systems, they kind of overlay on top of each other and there is a lot of crossover. And sometimes when we access these more potent places it can lead to deeper layers of transformation and restore health in a different way, and sometimes in a way of karma, karmic or ancestral lines, as well as just our current lifetime stuff.
Danielle: I love all the different layers and the way they interact with each other. It’s kind of…the Venn diagram, right, the center of the Venn diagram, how that really holds a lot of power and truth, and like we were talking about, it’s an opening for transformation. It’s super cool.
And you talk about how you find yourself more and more in the role of helping people through their spiritual awakening process, so I would love to hear a little bit more about that, and then what you see the role of the spiritual, kind of in your everyday life.
Jenny: That’s a great question, Danielle. I really see a lot of shift that is happening in the world today. We all do—there’s a lot of bigger world things happening, a lot of destabilizing, uncertainty. And a lot of things happening with the climate, a lot things with the global economy, things that are creating these situations that are compressing us in a sense. They’re making us feel like the world as we know it is not the same, it’s shifting, it’s like the ground underneath us is disintegrating, and something new is arising. And so what that does for a lot of people is that it sparks an awakening, an awakening process. And what happens is that our reality is all of a sudden unknown, because we don’t know what is happening, or what is coming next. What this can do is trigger or initiate a growth experience in us. And maybe it is something that has been to some degree predetermined or set up. There’s a lot of astrological and prophetic stories pointing to this particular time that are moving us through this experience. But what it can do is that it allows us to see things in ways we haven’t seen them before and question our reality in ways that we might not have before. All of a sudden, we spent two years with our partner, or whoever it might be, locked up in our pandemic situation, (this) is one potential example, and all of a sudden, we see things that maybe we hadn’t seen before, and learn things about ourselves and our relationships we hadn’t seen before.
Are we in the right job, are we doing the right life, are we living in the right town, with the right partner? Are we really following our soul’s journey? Are we living our life path? Some of these deeper questions really get stirred up. It’s like…that opening arises, and when we look into it, we see that it has no end, it has an infinite depth…to who we can become, and what our potential might be. And so, as we are forced to look inward and into our own center more, what comes from that is really an authentic truth. And it can shake people up because sometimes it’s not really aligned with what our outside reality is at the time. So, we might realize we need to change.
And that can happen in different ways for different people. Sometimes there’s a really kind of classic movement, what people call the kundalini energy, this rise coming up the sacrum, up the spine into the cranium and out. And that experience for people can be both blissful and really really difficult and terrifying at times, too, because it’s a movement of energy that kind of plows through and bolts through us, and sometimes it can get a little stuck. Like, if there are things we need to work on like maybe something with our life’s purpose, our life’s work, we might be feeling something related to the gut area, the solar plexus, that chakra there where the energy might be getting a little bit stuck or caught up. And there’s something to work through, something we can’t quite digest about our place in the world at this time that needs to shift, so maybe someone is feeling really nauseous all the time. Or maybe something is getting stuck in a little different place, maybe the heart, or maybe the voice or the throat, or the third eye or the crown chakra, a little bit more of a spiritual or visionary opening or challenge or obstruction. So, what can be helpful is to see where, more clearly, what might be a little bit locked up, and either we work through conversation or do some work on the table, maybe working with cranial sacral system to help that energy find its way with a little bit more grace and sort of soften its edges. The conversation, I find, can be helpful to normalize these experiences. We don’t have a lot of knowledge and ability to guide in our western medical systems or otherwise, so people can feel like, oh their system, their nervous system might just be going haywire, or why are they not able to sleep all of a sudden, or why do they feel sick, or why do they feel like they see so many more layers to reality and yet they feel so much less understood, and they’re looking for help but they don’t really know how to do it, or maybe they get put on an anti-psychotic drug in the western world. Maybe that’s helpful and maybe it’s not. Maybe there’s a way to help the system using its own wisdom, its own source, its own center to help that person use their own system to move more into a path that is aligned with their truth. And a lot of times connecting with the bigger matrix helps with finding a sense of wholeness.
One of things that people struggle with is feeling so separate and like they’re kind of stumbling through these things on their own. And in reality, we’re going through a collective awakening. And each of us as individuals is part of that, and we can also draw from that collective field, those bigger resources too. So, it’s kind of like a give and take process. Sometimes it can be grounding just to have a conversation that’s more normal like that. Like, Oh, this is what’s happening, and I don’t need to freak out, it’s difficult, but, ok. Maybe I need to not eat so much sugar and activate my system when it’s already so charged. And maybe it’s gonna be more helpful to eat some more roots, root vegetables, or stand on the earth and connect with nature and move more into a natural slow time. So, I might have those sorts of conversations, or do that type of work and help find center and wholeness in that way.
Danielle: Thank you Jenny. I love A) you give the nod to where western medicine can help step in and do its job when it’s needed, and also the social aspect of awakening and of normalizing it, and the importance of community and conversation around those things. How do you find…you work on so many different levels…how do you find on the physical, if someone’s kind of going through an awakening time, how do you find, the work on the table, you know your hands-on work, how do you find that assisting?
Jenny: Really what I do is listen to each person’s system and let that direct me—and also direct me, if I’m really allowed to, to whichever modality. Maybe multiple modalities might be happening in the same session, depending what the person needs. There might be a place that is really kind of slow and sluggish in the system. Like, if we’re working in the cranial sacral system, there might be a place, like…there might be a ventricle in the cranium, a place where cerebral spinal fluid flows, that might have a sense of fogginess, or it might seem a little clouded. And so what I might do is bring my awareness to that place and follow the person’s connection with Health that never goes away, their tidal rhythms that are the natural rhythms that we all have and experience, and where that is different, I will bring my attention and energy and allow that deeper source, what we call in the cranial sacral system, we call the Breath of Life, coming from the Dynamic Stillness, the void, the Tao we might call it, the source, the center, the midline, and allow that wisdom to come up and do its work. And really, it’s kind of like a quantum mechanics, quantum physics thing—that just being the witness changes the outcome in that sense. And really, it’s that approach in particular, is, it’s hands on but in some ways, it’s hands off, not putting my own intention in but trusting that there’s a wisdom, a life force that is deeper than my ability to think through something and allowing that to happen. And each person’s system knows to the greatest ability what their system is going to benefit from most and what they’re capable of. So maybe sometimes that thing that I think is the jackpot, like ooh there it is right there, it might not be quite ready to shift. Maybe the system doesn’t have the vitality available to it to make that big change at that time. And so it might be telling me…if it’s not moving, it’s not moving, it’s not really ready to change…it’s too much for the system. And so then it might be that I move to a sort of smaller fulcrum, a smaller area, that might be the first thing that it’s able to reset and start from there. So, it’s really listening to somebody’s system.
Sometimes it might be the meridian system that calls out and there’s maybe a particular point or a particular meridian that is really showing itself, both through what the person is presenting to me, and also through what their system is telling me when I’m tuning in to it when I’m touching it. Maybe there’s sort of a charge, that’s telling me this thing needs to be moved, or maybe it’s sort of like a feeling of an emptiness, like a deficiency, that something needs a little more of…to be refilled, to be nourished. And so, I might let the system direct me in that way. Or maybe it’s a little more like somebody has an adhesion in their jaw, in their TMJ, or maybe it’s a tendon that’s a little bit obviously out of place in the shoulder or something like that; then it might be a little bit more of a simple adjustment. Ok, let’s just move that, and we’re gonna help that person’s system find health that way. It cannot be understated how much easier it is to do our work if we’re not suffering. So, there are different ways to go about it, and there’s really no right or wrong way, but more so what that person needs at the time and what I’m able to offer from the modalities that I work with.
Danielle: I love it, Jenny. And I love the work with the subtleness, right, to open up the whole… for more clarity and healing. So how did you get started doing this work? Just kinda the nutshell version. I know you have a long and amazing story, just kind of nutshell version.
Jenny: Well, the time I have spent working in the outdoor field was really a great precursor, a great background, to working with people more directly, and more hands on, and in a more subtle way also. So, the wilderness, the natural world, really helps us find our own center. There’s a natural rhythm that we all have, being made from this earth, from this solar system, right, the whole galaxy, universe…that we’re intimately intertwined with it. So, the more we attune to those natural life forces, the more that we open our own ability to heal and be whole. So, working with people in bodywork in the modalities I do now and in the ways I do now kind of feels like a natural extension of those things.
Danielle: I love it. That’s great. And nature is such an amazing teacher, and we’re both so fortunate to live in areas where there is natural abundance, which is really cool. Any last things, Jenny, that you would like our listeners to know? You talk about the center, and connection with source, those kinds of things. Any last thoughts you’d like to share with us?
Jenny: Thanks, Danielle. One thing that I find myself telling people over and over and over, especially, especially in these times, these challenging times is to look to the light. So, one thing—as we’re going through these awakenings, these awakening experiences—one thing that happens is that we see so much darkness. We see a depth of evil, even, in the world, and suffering, that it can feel really heavy and it can be really hard and difficult for people when we really touch into that depth. And while it’s important to recognize that it’s there, the thing is that it’s important to look to the light. So really our orientation is the most important thing. So, we orient to the light, we orient to the center, and what we’re doing here is a constant practice. We lose our way, we find our way, we forget, and we lose our way, okay, then we come back, we keep this practice going. So, we don’t have to think that we need to be perfect, and we don’t have to think that a spiritual path or a journey to wholeness is all about love and light—that’s part of it, but it’s also a practice that we keep looking in this direction and recognize that we will never actually get there. There is no there, we’re constantly turning toward the light and turning toward the center and using that orientation as the thing that is moving us closer to our true selves, closer to our nature.
Danielle: Thank you, Jenny, for this very hopeful and optimistic orientation. Right, I love it, orientation, keep orienting to the light. It is a practice just like as in our meditation practice, returning to the breath over and over again. We’re returning to the light over and over again.
Thank you spending the afternoon with us, Jenny, and I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day.
Jenny: Thank you, Danielle. It’s an honor to be part of your podcast today.
Final: Thank you for listening. for more information or to get in touch with Danielle, visit her website at daniellenicholas.com. See you next time!
End of Transcription