Embodied Power: How to Stop Running From Your Emotions w/ Julie Colwell
🤖 AI Summary
Overview
This episode explores the dynamics of power—power over, power under, and power with—not just in relationships but within ourselves. Psychologist and author Julie Colwell introduces her S.E.W. framework (Sensations, Emotions, Wants) as a tool for navigating emotional triggers, transforming reactive states, and reclaiming embodied personal power. The hosts and guest engage in a real-time demonstration of this process, revealing how honoring emotions can lead to self-compassion, grace, and deeper alignment.
Notable Quotes
- Our reactive brains persuade us that it's a good idea to stay in fear, but that's not how our bodies are supposed to work.
- Julie Colwell, on the inefficiency of prolonged reactive states.
- I make what I do mean something about who I am—and it doesn’t. Missing a ball doesn’t mean I’m a lazy bum.
- Sophie Chiche, reflecting on self-judgment during moments of vulnerability.
- Anybody gets to feel anything, anytime, for any reason. Leaning into those big triggers is a chance to move old pain out of the body.
- Julie Colwell, on the transformative power of emotional honesty.
🌟 Embodied Power: Understanding Power Dynamics
- Julie Colwell explains the difference between power over
(domination), power under
(submission), and power with
(co-creation).
- Reactive states often lead to hierarchical dynamics, where fear drives us to dominate or submit.
- True power emerges when we align with ourselves, relax, and connect with others, rather than reacting instinctively.
🧠 The S.E.W. Framework: A Path to Emotional Freedom
- S.E.W. stands for Sensations, Emotions, and Wants—a practice for navigating emotional triggers.
- Julie Colwell emphasizes the importance of tuning into physical sensations to identify emotions and uncover deeper desires.
- Sensations act as a bridge to shift out of reactive states and into creative, open possibilities.
💔 From Shame to Self-Compassion
- Sophie Chiche shares a vulnerable moment of sadness and regret tied to her past, using the S.E.W. process to move through the emotion.
- Honoring emotions without judgment creates space for healing and self-compassion.
- The hosts discuss how societal conditioning often teaches us to suppress feelings, but embracing them leads to greater presence and connection.
🎯 What Do You Really Want? Uncovering True Desires
- Once emotions are processed, deeper wants and longings can emerge.
- Sophie Chiche identifies her desire for grace and self-appreciation, reframing her self-criticism into gratitude for her personal growth.
- Julie Colwell highlights the importance of resetting quickly after setbacks, whether in sports or life, as a skill for resilience.
🏓 Emotional Triggers as Opportunities for Growth
- The hosts explore how moments of frustration, like missing a ball in pickleball, can reveal deeper emotional patterns.
- Julie Colwell encourages using triggers as opportunities to release old pain and reconnect with the present.
- The conversation ends with a playful suggestion to write S.E.W.
on a pickleball paddle as a reminder to stay aligned during challenging moments.
AI-generated content may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon as a sole source of truth.
📋 Episode Description
The power-over / power-under / power-with dynamic isn’t just something we have with other people, it often resides inside us.
When we override our emotions, suppress our sensations, and try to outmaneuver our discomfort, we manifest that dynamic.
We see it when we push past our sadness, armor over vulnerability, or try to exert power in ways that are loud and forceful instead of connected and quiet.
Maybe it’s thinking we need to toughen up and act like a badass in reaction to our sadness.
That’s what we think being powerful looks like.
But what if the real path to personal power was learning to stay? To breathe. To notice. To be with what’s actually happening in our body.
Most of us are in a constant, unconscious tug-of-war with ourselves. Trying to control, suppress, or outperform our inner experience. But emotional triggers are a huge opportunity many waste.
They are an invitation to move old pain through and reclaim our presence. This is what true, embodied power looks like.
In this episode, we’re joined by Julie Colwell, PhD, a psychologist, teacher, and author who’s spent decades training coaches and therapists in conscious relationship skills.
She takes us through her heart-centered S.E.W. practice to guide people back to alignment in moments that would otherwise spiral into self-judgment, shutdown, or struggle.
You’ll also witness us work through a real-time moment of sadness and regret using Julie’s process.
Things You’ll Learn In This Episode
-Feel to Flow Body awareness is the key to emotional freedom. Can connecting to our physical sensations shift us out of self-judgment and into grace?
-Power Over vs. Power With
What if our instinct to control others (or ourselves) is actually a fear response? How does hierarchy creep in during reactive states, and how do we choose co-creation over control?
-From Shame to Self-Compassion
Honoring our emotional truths creates space for transformation. Is there a way to meet our inner child with kindness instead of critique?
-What You Really Want Under every reaction is a deeper longing. How do we uncover our truest desires once we’ve moved the emotion through?
Guest Bio
Julie Colwell is a Psychologist, speaker, author, and guide for relationship transformation and the Founder of the Evolutionary Power Institute. Julie catalyzes relationships out of old, stuck patterns and onto the road of their innate creative potential. Her proven methodology can be applied by any willing person and embodied over time with the support of the dynamic Evolutionary Power Institute community she founded, as well as the vast library of books, videos, audios, and