Connecting To Your Sensual, Sacred Ground with Dr. Sonali Deepika

Do you want to be able to trust your body? Are you ready to listen to it’s guidance?

In this week’s podcast I’m talking with Dr. Sonali Deepika, M.D., ABIHM, a holistic and integrative physician and Sensuality Coach, on how to connect with and honor your Sensual Sacred Ground to feel better in your body, ignite your sensuality, and enjoy more compassionate self love.

Listen below, or tune in via: Apple Podcasts,Stitcher or Spotify.

(Complete transcript below)

This week I have the pleasure of talking with my friend and colleague Sonali Deepika Nanayakkara M.D., ABIHM. Sonali is a holistic and integrative physician with a passion for guiding people to honor the sacred nature of their bodies and to connect to the deep wisdom which lies within.  She spent nearly 20 years in Chicago studying and practicing conventional medicine, specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry.  Along the way, she developed a keen interest in holistic forms of healing and became passionate about the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda. Her path eventually led her to complete a coaching program which integrates the ancient wisdom of Tantra and Taoism with modern science regarding sexuality, sexual healing and embodiment practices.  She currently serves as a  senior teacher for the Vital and Integrated Tantric Approach (VITA) Coaching Program and practices as a Sensuality Coach.

You can find more about Sonali and her upcoming events and offerings HERE.

Follow her on Insta HERE.

Hope you enjoy this podcast, and if you know someone who would enjoy this episode, please share!

Join in the discussion on this episode and more in my free Facebook Group, Find Your Feminine Fire HERE.

Listen here or tune in via Apple Podcasts,Stitcher or Spotify.

Amanda Testa (00:02):

Hello, and welcome to the Find Your Feminine Fire Podcast. I am your host, Amanda Testa. I am a sex love and relationship coach, and in this podcast, my guests and I talk sex love and relationships and everything that lights you up from the inside out. Welcome. Hello everyone. And welcome. And I am very excited today because I am talking with a, amazing friend and teacher Dr. Sonali Deepika, and I am thrilled today because we're going to be diving into really all things around sensuality and really awakening that in the power that we have within us. And I am excited for Sonali to be here today. Thank you so much again, and I just really love your story as well. Kind of what led you to go from being, you know, being in medical school, being a psychiatrist, and then, you know, kind of shifting to really embodying, you know, the body and how you integrate that and Ayurveda and all the different modalities that you've studied over the years to kind of bring this, this different awareness and opportunity for awakening for women. So, yes. Thank you so much for being here.

Sonali Deepika (01:15):

Thank you Amanda,. I'm so honored Having followed you from a far for a little while now, we've been working alongside each other and It's so great to be here.

Amanda Testa (01:27):

So yeah, I'd love just to start with, you know, as you mentioned, we actually have been working together this past year as senior teachers for the Tantric Institute of Integrated Sexuality. And I love you have such a beautiful transmission, just like such love and you know, this gentle power about you that feels so delicious to receive. So I'd also love, you know, just to share a little bit more about you and kind of what led you on this journey. If you can tell,

Sonali Deepika (01:56):

I would say this, I'll say this about journeys that they can take such unexpected twists and turns. So let's say for, let's go back four years, four years ago, if you've been like, Oh yeah, you're going to be working with women with sensuality and all these things. No, that was never, never on my, on the horizon. For me. It wasn't anything. The thing, you know, that, that I was, that was in my field that was in my world at all, which is probably quite telling.

Sonali Deepika (02:30):

It's probably part of what, you know, somewhere along the way, there was like, you know, something missing that, that brought me To this point. But I will say I do. I find it for me very helps me when I think about my own journey to go back to part of where my initial motivation had been.

Sonali Deepika (02:53):

So that had been, I already was in medical school. So I got there all the kinds of ways, so many exams, so many things, and Like, This is what I, you know, should be doing. And then there were even some detours in that where at one point I'm like, well, I guess I'm not doing that. And then I got into the medical school going through having like ditched all the applications and like, I guess I'm not doing it. So it wasn't like totally smooth, but then I was in it and halfway in it, there was a tragedy for me. There was a, a trauma that I think so many of us have that somewhere on our path.

Sonali Deepika (03:30):

For me it was a traumatic loss. And so my younger brother who is my only sibling. He took his life when I was halfway through medical school. So this had a profound impact and I found myself being this empath. Like I am like, I was right away like connected to the way that he died. That affected me in my life, in my just like personal life. But it also affected me in terms of, Oh, how do I want to help people? You know, what path do I want to follow so that I can be of most service. And that felt like psychiatry. That is not why I went into medical school. That is not at all.

Sonali Deepika (04:19):

What was driving me, I wanted to work with kids. I was like, I'm going to be a pediatrician. My father was a pediatrician, he's retired, but he was a pediatrician. And I was like, alright, that really motivated me. And suddenly this, this path happened, this, this twist, you know, happened this, this loss. And I felt like, yeah, I'm going to go into this. And I did. So I went into psychiatry and then I specialized to work with children. So I was working as a child and adolescent psychiatrist. And there was a lot of,

Sonali Deepika (04:50):

Part of that was so rewarding. It was so rewarding for a certain time. It was so rewarding to actually delve into emotions and what was going on in a person's inner life. And especially when I could do what I could to intervene with youth and kind of help shape their path because that's, I think that's always

Sonali Deepika (05:11):

Where I was like, let me work with youth in some way, and really have, you can have Little shift and it has a big, a big change in their, in their trajectory. So it was, it was good for awhile until it just wasn't rewarding anymore. Like I'm not, I don't really feel like I'm having the effect that I want. I don't even, I wasn't believing in it as much. And what really was Missing for me was a holistic component, like looking at the whole person and where they are in their journey and what's affecting them. And in psychiatry, I mean, it's a valuable field. But it, it does tend to get pushed into this like medication kind of thing. And and that also start, there's nothing against medication. I do think it can be helpful, but I've always felt and do to this day. Like it's a small piece of a whole, a whole shift that needs to be happening at whole change and looking at body soul relationships, the context and, you know, energy, all these things. So that led to me finding Ayurveda and studying that while being a psychiatrist,

Sonali Deepika (06:31):

And, finding a very big clash there because Ayurveda is all about ,well it's a lot of things. It's a huge, vast science, but it's, it's all about prevention. I mean, I read that there are five, there are like six different stages of illness. And it's like the sixth one is where Western medicine intervenes. And that makes sense. And so it was like, Oh my gosh, what are we doing? There's the subtleties there's there's places to feel into the, we can each, when we get aware you know, with our senses and our experiences, we can start to notice, Oh yeah, something's not right over in this area. And we can course correct. We can balance Ayurveda is about finding balances, opposites, and, and then bringing the whole system into a state of balance. And it's an active, ongoing process. It's not a, like you get there and it's done.

Sonali Deepika (07:33):

I was fascinated by it fascinated. And so I, I started learning a lot about that. And that led to, at some point getting invited by my mother's friend, right when I was like, I need to do something, I need a change. I need to do something. I don't know what exactly something has to change cannot go on. And it was having an effect on me. Like I was not thriving at all. You know, something like I need to do something. And my mother's friend who invited me to go to Sri Lanka, that's where my parents are originally from. And they had this Ayurvedic resort. And it was like that, you know, that perfect, like timing, chance and opportunity, you know, coming together that led me to go there. So I, I find that part of this journey, I haven't even gotten to the other part, but you know, just what I shared was a motivation from a place of pain. I find that like my initial work in medicine was driven by that. Like, I felt this guilt, about my brother, I also have struggled with depression and in my life. And it was like, okay, I'm going to help. I'm going to help. I'm going to help, but it's coming from this, this kind of place of pain. And once I got to Sri Lanka, once that didn't quite out for me, and I discovered Layla Martin's work. Everything starts to shit. Then it's like, Oh, pleasure. How about we focus on that for a change?

Sonali Deepika (09:07):

Sounds like a new thing for me.

Sonali Deepika (09:09):

Yeah. So that, that was that, that was a big part of the journey. And I also think of the, in my body, what started to happen. Cause I was so like in my head, I was so focused on, you know, using my intellect knowledge, all these things I had learned in this part of my training was basically knowledge-based, you know, it's like how this works out. That works how the physiology works, how medicine works, how, you know, how all these things are connected. And so there was a journey in my body from like my head, from my mind to my heart, my body, my pussy like all of that started to get, you know, In line. That was a beautiful journey. Took a lot of time because there's a lot of resistance when there.{laughing}. So I think about those two really big factors of

Sonali Deepika (10:14):

What's what's motivating me. And it was, it definitely was coming from this painful, like suffering kind of place, but wanting to wait to help and wanting to do good things that it was coming from there. And so it was challenging. It was, it was challenging kind of work for me and to like a place of pleasure where I can focus on my own pleasure. What brings me pleasure? Who do I want to help? How do I want to help people? How do I want to feel in my body when I'm doing all of that? Which wasn't part of my, it wasn't in my awareness before.

Amanda Testa (10:51):

And I think what you said, you know, first of all, I really I'm so sorry about your brother and just want to send you some love around that. But you know, also in your journey, you know, you're spoke to numerous times about how there was this drive to help and to, you know, create that change in the trajectory of someone's life at an earlier age. And I like how that visual, you said, you know, it can really make a difference. And then also realizing like at the root of all this, there was, it was like based in like this painful pursuit of kind of trying to come at it from a different way and then kind of when pleasure knocked on the door. And, and I think it's so interesting because so many people will be like, well, pleasure sometimes feels like such a trivial thing. And I love sharing alternative perspectives around that. Cause I totally disagree. And it's not just, it's a big thing. And so I'm wondering for you to like, you know, what was that, how did kind of that door open because you mentioned it was a really hard shift to move down at first, what kind of helped you to realize, wow, there's a different way.

Sonali Deepika (11:58):

Yeah. I mean, I think this is where all the things start to come together, you know, because Ayurveda is also about being in a state of, of ease of comfort, of pleasure, you know, in a way. And that's how it's like, if you, if you ask us in Western, in Western medicine, what does it mean to be healthy? It's often the absence of some kind of disease. That is how we look at it, but in Ayurveda, that was like, no, it was much more about thriving and enjoying and really being in a, like in a comfortable place in our mind, body, spirit and all of that. So started kind of with this and then, you know, this work took it to a whole different level that I hadn't thus far been it's in there. I'm sure, but I hadn't really encountered in Ayurveda made that so much sense. And it was like, Oh, let's, let's really get into pleasure. Let's go there

Sonali Deepika (13:02):

I did her (Layla Martin's) online course Obliss which was like this whole, you know, awakening in itself. And then that led to applying for her coaching program, which I'd never in a million years was thinking like, it's amazing, but I just didn't. I had done a lot of training, and thougt to myself, Is this something that I need? But really, I did. I did, at that time I did a retreat that was kind of right at this point it was Layla's retreat. And it was, I was halfway through my time in Sri Lanka, learning more about Ayurveda it wasn't quite going right. And I went to this retreat that she called Wild Bliss and for a reason, it was incredible, .

Sonali Deepika (13:47):

Yeah. But that's when I hit resistance, a lot of resistance. I was trying to do breath work. I have all this, like, what is this? I don't know what's supposed to happen here, [laughing} so much going on in my head. It took a while. And then it took a while, you know, to really like, Okay, let me just let that be. Let me just focus on the sensations in the body and what's there and what's alive, what's present. And I really think that pleasure is it's part of a sign of health that we can experience pleasure. And, you know, we might not always experience pleasure in everything we do, but even that understanding that things will happen and we can regulate ourselves and come back into some state of comfort. It might just be a state of accpetancefor a little while, you know, before we can get back into actual feeling, more pleasure, but it is something that we are wired to feel and experience. And he gets left out of medicine. I don't think anyone talked about it and certainly the training had nothing to do with it. So, and.

Amanda Testa (15:20):

It's funny how you mentioned too, you know, being obviously in medical school, you obviously, you know, studied very hard and there's so much around learning and the knowledge and obviously in Western medicine. And I think too, just in growing up at least here in the U S where I grew up, you know, around that push push culture of you gotta like learn everything and you gotta be the smartest. And I think when it comes to pleasure, what's funny about, oftentimes for people coming into this, if that's the mindset like very much in the intellect and knowledge, it's, you can't really "good student" your way into pleasure. Right. Which I think is so funny. Cause I remember too, first doing this, like, is this, how do I do this? Like, is this right? Like I want to make sure I'm doing it exactly right. I got a doll, all the steps I'm like, no, no, no, no. That's part of the unlearning. It's like, you can study your way into your body. You have to just be. Allow it.

Sonali Deepika (16:11):

It's like, that's exactly what I hit. It's like, wait, I don't get it. Give me the steps Help me out here. I don't understand. Right. And same.

Amanda Testa (16:24):

And then, I mean, yes, there is a structure that you can be guided through, which is so helpful. And that's why it's so wonderful to have a coach or a mentor to work with. But once you kind of get it, that's kind of the intention. I feel like a lot of this work it's to teach you to fish, so to speak, it's like not to, just to give you an experience. Yes. That's part of it, but also teaching you how to do it for yourself.

Sonali Deepika (16:45):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And that's that's so it, I mean, that's really like in this work, I find it's being the guide being there, being present, giving maybe some, some gentle guidance instruction, maybe a little bit, but it's really allowing someone to make that journey because that's where the magic is.

Amanda Testa (17:13):

Yes. I love how you touched on how can have pleasure as a measure of health. Cause I feel like, I mean, it is true our, our overall health that has to be viewed holistically. So if there's a problem in one area, there's usually some disharmonies in other areas. So if you feel totally disconnected from your sexuality or you have no libido or no sex drive, like all these things are just often times symptoms of other things going on. Yeah. And so I think I like this holistic approach around working through those kind of things.

Sonali Deepika (17:46):

Definitely. Yeah. I mean, the way I think about it too, is, in order to feel pleasure, we have to be in our like in our nervous system. We have to be in our window of tolerance. Right. So, so many things will push us into fight flight, freeze, appease, and we can be in these States and we aren't actually fully experiencing what's going on around us. We're not fully sensing and we're stuck in these places. So there's something where just that, just thinking about the nervous system, that way brings us into holistic health, because so much goes into all of that. And once we can do what we need or make the shifts that we need to get into this place where we can feel pleasure, it's a, it's a good sign, you know?

Amanda Testa (18:43):

Yeah. And I think too, like you mentioned. Yeah. And I think you mentioned too, it's like just noticing how, whatever you're experiencing, you know, you can find a way to find more presence or comfort there. Not necessarily like pleasure can look like a lot of different things. Right? Yeah. And, and the other thing too, I love, I love how you speak a lot to sacred ground. Like I am sacred ground viewing yourself as sacred ground. So I would love if you could speak to that a little more, if you don't mind.

Sonali Deepika (19:13):

Yes. I love that. I love, I am sacred ground. To me it's a mantra and I didn't, another woman came up with that at a retreat. We had to come up with these "I am" statements and mine was, I still remember, it was a few years ago, I was, "I am love lit up". That felt really good to me. I liked it. And then she came out with, I am sacred ground and afterwards I was like, Oh my God, like that actually, I felt it in my body. I felt that it throughout my body and, and reached out to her later when I was coming up with different things about what this business was going to be, and she was so gracious. She's like, I think that, you know, it might have come through for you to use it. But sacred ground to me is it really is about thinking of our body as a temple. Like, like appreciating it that way with that kind of reference. And it's with that, that we can make decisions about how do we treat the body? How do we treat this temple? What do we invite in? And what kind of boundaries that I think is also very important and in health and wellbeing, it's like having boundaries whether the comes to relationships, whether it comes to different kinds of stimuli, like we can choose. There's some things we cannot choose. Granted things happen to us in our lives, but there are things that we can choose even when it comes to what social media we take in, what do we watch? What are we listening to? What definitely, what are we eating? You know, and this is this idea of being that it's about being the most loving and compassionate and kind to our bodies to this temple.

Sonali Deepika (21:11):

That's ours, it's ours that we got from the time we came into the world and that we'll have until we leave. And so how do we want to treat this body, this entity.

Amanda Testa (21:25):

That so beautiful. I love that. And the, I am sacred ground and really viewing your body that way. One of the things I find so interesting was an interesting side effect of this work around sexuality that I wasn't expecting is having such more appreciation and adoration for my own body. Like no matter what form it's in, I, you know, just feeling like so much more accepting of myself.

Sonali Deepika (21:50):

That's so beautiful. And I think that's such a, it is like, Oh, like you said Amanda, It's almost like a side effect. Like you're doing things and maybe focusing on pleasure and having a lot more pleasure in life or, or, you know, choosing what would be most pleasurable. Like I think that's a way in, and then, and then suddenly it's like, Oh, how do I take care of this, this body that's giving me the pleasure. That's allowed me to experience this. How do I choose? Like, that's really, there's so much empowerment around that.

Amanda Testa (22:30):

Yeah. And maybe you would share if you feel like this is doable, perhaps a couple of things that you could, that you'd like to invite in as people are on the path of moving into more pleasure and more honoring their sacred ground, what would be some things that you could maybe recommend?

Sonali Deepika (22:51):

Such a good point there. So there's so many things. I mean, honestly, what, what comes to mind is really this, this practice that I've been calling sensual self care, it's like sensual, self care, sensual self-love. And it's like I was saying, it's that it's making those choices about what, what feels the most loving, what feels, what feels so kind compassionate, what feels good, what feels pleasurable to the body. So, Ayurveda is full of that, I didn't even realize it when I found it untill I was going into Ayurveda, there's really a whole practice, a whole science around self-love.

Sonali Deepika (23:45):

So, so there's a lot to say, I suppose when I'm thinking of, but, but I, I think it can just start with something as, as simple, as turning into the body, putting hands on the body and asking and just asking what would be most loving for me to do in this moment and, and letting that, that guidance be, what, what helps make the decisions around that? So that could be about, it could be about eating something, drinking something, it could be about massaging. It could be about taking a rest or it could be about being more active. Like actually, what would be great right now is to go for a walk, do something more stimulating. So like that's what happens with Ayurveda too, is that we're working in, in balances, what stimulating what's calming, what's grounding. And so I think that's a, it's a really good practice to start to, to tune in because there's lots of ways to look, look up, you know, what I should be doing or look into self care practices are so many things out there.

Sonali Deepika (25:00):

But I think what is so valuable, what's really priceless is tuning into the body more and letting it like listening to its guidance, to its wisdom and letting that be what drives our actions.

Amanda Testa (25:18):

You know, I love that so much. And I think, you know, as you mentioned, you know, when you tune in, you can do that anywhere, right. It doesn't necessarily, I mean, you can do it while you're working. You can do it while you're taking care of kids. You can do it when you're doing whatever. It's like just really tuning in and being like, what do I need right now? And I like how you mentioned it can be so simple as I need to drink some water, I need to go to the bathroom or, cause I know sometimes when people are so busy or they feel so overwhelmed, those are things like you can't always do. So it's ridiculous. But I remember for myself starting this journey, like to go to the bathroom when you need to go to the bathroom, okay, you don't have to hold it for two hours because you can't get to the bathroom or you take care of someone else.

Sonali Deepika (26:04):

So true. And I think that's, what's so baffling in some ways about how we're conditioned. And certainly I can tell you, it happens all throughout medical training. We're not allowed to listen to our bodies. We're going to be staying up all night. We're going to be doing, you know, not eating. And I mean, I'm not saying like we starve and all this stuff that it's just, there's an encouragement to just push and push and study and do this and do that. And it's like, you lose, you lose all contact with wait, what is most loving to my body? What is my body wanting in this moment? You that's an extreme of course, but just in our lives, like you say happens all the time with like all the other needs and all the things that have to get done to some basic yeah. Water, water would be good. Let's hydrate. Let's use the bathroom. {laughing}

Amanda Testa (27:02):

Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. That's a beautiful in the station of like how to kind of start like moving into this more. Yeah. And I'm go ahead.

Sonali Deepika (27:15):

Well, I was just going to say like, it's, like you said, it's just the start, but it's such an, just ease in to that. Because once we get into habits, like once we start to create these habits of self loving, self caring practices, even as I'm going to use a bathroom. As soon as I feel the need, even something like that, then we start to get so much more tuned. We get attuned when we're, when we're not doing that, we're not listening. Our bodies will give us, give us a signal. It's like, there's , I don't know, few months during the quarantine, I did an elimination diet because I have to check in with an inflammation and a thyroid condition, all these things.

Sonali Deepika (28:02):

But it was really interesting. What came out of that, One thing that really stuck with me is that our body, if we're not listening to our body, it stops sending signals. It's Very intelligent, highly intelligent. So like with the food example, let me just share, like I found out, well, tomatoes are not as good for me and I've eaten tomatoes my entire life. But when I kept eating them, eating them, like, I didn't know that I was just eating my body, stopped giving me any signal that this was causing inflammation, that this was a problem. I had to cut it out. I had to stop. And then I started getting the signals. And then there's something similar about this process of starting to listen, just starting to listen and starting to do some things. And then there's more, there's more signals. There's more invitations. Cause the body's kind of like, Oh, this person's actually going to do something good for me. She's gonna listen.

Amanda Testa (29:10):

It's two way conversation. It's like, Oh wait, you're actually listening. I'm going to keep talking now. Thanks.

Sonali Deepika (29:21):

Yeah. Yeah. I want to say one more thing about that. And I know this comes from Ayurveda, which is another, like very basic. I love these little pearls of wisdom, but once there's, there's a notion, a concept in Ayurveda that when our body is in balance we crave the things that keep it in balance and a contrast when our body's out of balance, we are craving the things that keep us out of balance. And so it's an interesting, it's, it's a little bit of a catch 22 there. Cause we have to pay attention to what are we craving? What are we wanting? But for me, it took me back to many of those years doing medical training and practice where yeah, I craved fly French fries, pizza. I was quite out of balance. And it's like, this is what happened. So when we slow it down and start to do the things that are so loving and caring and kind we can, get back into balance and our bodies will help us.

Amanda Testa (30:36):

Yeah. I like that visual. And I think, you know, what you mentioned too, is really that prevention piece. It's like when you are taking care of yourself in general, as a whole, you are inviting more health and more aliveness and more vitality in all areas of your life, in your body, outside of your body and your relationships. It really all is so connected. And I think it's funny too, how you mentioned, you know, you crave certain things. If you're in balance that help you stay in balance. If you're out of balance, you crave things that keep you out of balance, which kind of reminds me a little bit if kind of a trauma response in a way, right?

Amanda Testa (31:12):

So you maybe have these unhealthy patterns that you've created for yourself, but they're your best friends because they've kept you safe all this time or they've saved your life at some point. And so it's like, it feels good to be there to bring those things in or you want them, you crave them, but it's like kind of teaching your body. Well, this is a little more of what you need to be feeding yourself and it's okay. So you can dip in and try some. And of course you can go back and then dip it and try some more and then you slowly shift the balance, right? So then you are craving. What's good for you.

Sonali Deepika (31:41):

Yeah. Yeah. And it is, it is, it's so slow and subtle and also bringing compassion when we can bring compassion to the part of us that is craving the things that we know it's not healthy. That makes such a difference too. So when we can just bring compassion to the whole process, my body is craving this because it is bringing some sense of comfort. It's bringing some kind of balance. It's just not doing so a healthy way, but something is, is off balance within me. And this is why I'm craving these things. And this is why I'm doing these things. And to bring that like compassion and love to, to, to viewing all of that makes such a difference versus shame, guilt, you know, punitive kind of things that we can do.

Amanda Testa (32:42):

I know I've done that. Of course, me too. I beat myself up for years. I don't know what possessed me, but for some reason earlier today, I like picked up this journal from 1994. I don't know why I was like, for some reason, I was like thinking about this period of time where I was living in Jackson hole, Wyoming.

Amanda Testa (33:00):

I was just turning 21 that summer. For some reason, I was like, Ooh, I'm going to pick this up. But I just was like, Oh, sending so much love to myself because it was just so mean to myself. Right. Just so much self bashing. And it's interesting just as you grow and can look back and have more empathy for parts of yourself. But I think anytime you can do that, right? Like even now during the quarantine, there were times where like, yeah, I'm gonna eat a bag of chips and I'm going to enjoy every chip because I want to just stuff my feelings right now. And I have full awareness about what I'm doing. Exactly. Oh, you're in the window. It's fine.

Amanda Testa (33:36):

But like also noticing when it's like, okay, now you've been doing that for a couple of weeks. Now it's time to like dial it in. Right. But, but that's just, we, we it's like, I think the more we understand our patterns in our bodies and the more we can be kind to ourselves and kind of understand why the patterns are there, what, what to, you know, how to kind of bring ourselves back more into balance. I like that. Yeah.

Sonali Deepika (34:00):

So true and I had something similar where I was, I was actually really just talking about, Oh, I had the sweet tooth and you know, it's like, that's one thing I know, but I can enjoy and not, you know, not feel bad and just same thing. Like, I'm just going to sit, I'm going to enjoy I'm going to savor it all. But I was doing that a bit like several days. So chocolate, chocolate cake, various things. So I'm like, yeah, okay. Maybe it's time to like, just bring that.

Sonali Deepika (34:35):

And sometimes, you know, not probably not right in the moment of like eating chocolate cake or, you know, eating, I love chips, do what you sweet salty, snacky things, but afterwards, or when we're in like a neutral place, it is a point of asking. We can ask, you know, what, what am I really wanting? Like what do I really want here? What is my body really needing? And that can really help us to go go deeper as well. Because a lot of times with sweets, I mean Ayurveda, the different doshas, it's like sweets unrelated to kapha, but it's a, which is really nurturing and, you know, can feel really grounding, but it's the, it's the, you know, unhealthy version of the kapha. And we can have a healthier version, you know, we can find, you know, being put ourselves at like a warm bath or like, you know, something that feels really good and warm, and snugly and nurturing. And that can just that sense. We looking at the senses of what is it that we're actually really wanting in the moment.

Amanda Testa (35:47):

And I love how you share what you can do when you feel like you need that And so I feel like I could just keep talking to you forever. I'm like, Oh my goodness. So I definitely want you to share where people can learn more about you and how to work with you. But I also want to just check in and see, you know, was there maybe a question that you wished I would have asked or something that you really wanted to make sure we talked about?

Sonali Deepika (36:10):

Just wanted to share, because I think we actually didtalk about it, but I just want to share that what's come up for me more recently in this work, in this work with sensuality is, is like these three pillars kind of thing to me and they overlap. I actually think I'm like Venn diagram, they overlap, but the self-love, which we talked a lot about sensuality, which we have talked about. And for me, that's really this embodied piece, embodiment work. And then the sovereignty piece of how our wholeness acknowledging wholeness and acknowledging that we are complete as we are. And then we, and then being able to interact with others and move through the world from that place of not needing others to fill us, but more we can choose from this place of wholeness, how we, how we relate to others then.

Amanda Testa (37:12):

Oh, that's so beautiful. Thank you so much. And Sonali, it's such a pleasure to talk to you and I know you've got some fun events coming up and all kinds of great ways to connect. So how can everyone connect with you and find more about what's up?

Sonali Deepika (37:27):

Well, I have my website, www.iamsacred ground.com and that's hosting events and things. And I do want to get up. I can something that I can share, you know, for everyone I don't have yet there, but I also have my Instagram that I'm slowly building slowly but surely. And that's, @Iamsacredgroud.

Amanda Testa (37:48):

Yeah. Beautiful. And she's got some beautiful content there, so make sure to follow her. And I am sacred ground.com. Also her Insta. I am sacred ground. And thank you so much again for joining today. Such a pleasure and thank you all for listening and we will see you next week. Thank you so much for listening to the find your feminine fire podcast. This is your host, Amanda Testa. And if you have felt a calling while listening to this podcast to take this work to a deeper level, this is your golden invitation. I invite you to reach out. You can contact me at www.amandatesta.com/activate. And we can have a heart to heart to discuss more about how this work can transform your life.

Speaker 3 (38:36):

You can also join us on Facebook at Find Your Feminine Fire group And if you've enjoyed this podcast, please share with your friends, go to iTunes and give me a five star rating and a raving review. So I can connect with other amazing listeners like yourself. Thank you so much for being a part of the community.