Daily Alchemy

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Daily Alchemy

Holistic Therapy, Clinical Somatics &
Open Floor Embodied Movement
1:1 + WORKSHOPS + RETREATS

31/10/2025

✨ From Numb to Noticing ✨
Somatic ways to gently wake up your body when you’ve gone still inside.

Sometimes what feels like calm is actually our body in a protective freeze. When that happens, the kindest thing we can do isn’t to force energy, but to gently invite it back.

Here are 5 ways to reawaken your body safely when you notice you’ve gone numb or distant:

1. Orient to Safety
Look around your space. Let your eyes land on something neutral or beautiful.
Name five things you can see.
Orientation reminds your nervous system: I am here, and it’s safe enough.

2. Touch & Temperature
Hold something cool or warm. Press your palms together.
Run your hands along your arms or legs.
Temperature and touch increase proprioceptive feedback and signal aliveness.

3. Move Something Small
Start at the edges — wiggle your toes, roll your wrists, stretch your fingers.
If that feels okay, stand and shake or sway.
Movement helps thaw the freeze without overwhelming your system.

4. Sound & Breath
Hum. Sigh. Exhale with sound.
Let your breath move through your ribs, shoulders, and jaw.
Vibration awakens the vagus nerve and brings life back through voice and breath.

5. Re-enter Slowly
Notice what shifts — warmth, tingling, emotion, breath.
Stay curious, not forceful.
Coming out of freeze is a process of trust, not a push.

💛 Take it slow. Presence builds through small, consistent moments of safety and awareness.

29/10/2025

When you’re healing from trauma, progress looks more like a spiral than a line. Each return brings new awareness, new capacity, new gentleness.

Your system is learning that it’s safe to soften. 🌬️

Let’s walk this spiral with compassion.

22/10/2025

Have you ever thought you were calm — but later realised you were actually checked out?

It’s easy to mistake dissociation for calm because both can feel still.
But stillness can mean two very different things —
one is presence, the other is protection.

When the nervous system senses danger, it may slow everything down.
Heart rate drops. Breath softens. Muscles release.
From the outside, it looks peaceful… but inside, we’ve gone somewhere else.

If shutting down helped us survive in the past, the body learns to equate numb with safe.
So now, that same stillness can feel soothing — even though it’s disconnection, not calm.

Here’s the difference:
✨ Calm is stillness with presence.
🌀 Dissociation is stillness with absence.

Calm feels connected, sensing, alive.
Dissociation feels distant, hazy, gone.

Neither is wrong — both are survival responses.
The work isn’t to get rid of dissociation, but to help the body feel safe enough to come back.

Learning to tell the difference is how we begin to return home —
to our breath, our sensations, our aliveness.

💛 Curious to know more - I am here to help! Feel free to message me your questions 😊

21/10/2025

CALM vs DISSOCIATED
They might look the same: soft eyes, still body, quiet mind, but what’s happening inside tells a different story.

Calm is presence.
Dissociation is absence.

Calm comes from safety.
Dissociation comes from protection.

Have you ever thought you were calm when really you were frozen, spaced out, or just holding it all together?

Both states are part of your nervous system’s wisdom. One invites connection, the other helps you survive.
The work isn’t to judge either, but to notice where you are, and gently find your way back home to your body.

I can help you discover what your nervous system is really telling you 🤎

16/10/2025

REGULATION ≠ CALM

We often mistake calm for being regulated.

But regulation isn’t about perfection, it’s about connection.

Sometimes it looks like deep breaths and stillness.
Sometimes it’s tears, shaking, dancing, or letting a sound rise that’s been waiting inside you for years.

Your nervous system doesn’t need you to hold it all together, it needs you to listen.

To feel what’s true.
To move what’s stuck.

When we allow our bodies to express what they’re holding, whether that’s stillness or movement, softness or roar, we return to balance in the most human way.

So today, I invite you to pause and notice:
💬 How is your body asking to move or express right now?

There’s space for it all. 🌿

15/10/2025

The world is overwhelmed.
Teachers, parents, workers, leaders, so many of us are stretched thin, living in a constant hum of anxiety and pressure.

Over the past year, I’ve been quietly building and facilitating an ACC-funded program called Calming an Anxious Mind. It’s designed to support nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and embodied healing.

What started as a trauma recovery program has become something deeply relevant to the collective moment we’re in.
Because this isn’t just about trauma, it’s about living in a world that asks too much of our minds and too little of our bodies.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the tools and insights from this work, simple practices to help you pause, breathe, and reconnect.

Let’s regulate together 🌿

women |
Pause Yoga

29/09/2025

DANCE THIS SUNDAY 🎶 As the Aries Full Moon rises, we gather to move with the quiet of becoming. Just as the seasons remind us that every ending is also a beginning, the dance floor becomes our place to pause, to breathe, and to feel the shifts moving through us.

Come join me in celebrating change with the wisdom of our bodies—moving with fire, with tenderness, and with the abundant life that stirs in us all. Together, we’ll dance into the newness of spring and the timeless rhythm of becoming. SUNDAY 10:30-12:30 Street School

21/08/2025

Join us this Sunday as we dance into Virgo’s invitation to listen inward, honour our own pace, and plant seeds of embodied self-trust.

🕒 Sunday, 10:30-12:30
📍 Hampden Street School, Nelson

✨ All bodies, all movement styles welcome. Come as you are.

Conscious Dance Nelson, New Zealand

04/03/2025

NO DANCE THIS SUNDAY! Open Floor with Hester Phillips & I will be at Relish Festival 🎶 Next Sunday Dance is March 23rd ☺️ Hope to see you there xx

22/02/2025

Healing isn’t meant to be done in isolation. While solitude has its place, something truly transformative happens when we come together in a shared space of intention and care.

In a group, we witness and are witnessed. We see parts of ourselves reflected in others’ stories, and in doing so, we realise we are not alone. We receive perspectives we might never have considered. We practice voicing our truth, setting boundaries, and learning to soften into trust.

Group work offers us:
✨ A mirror to see ourselves more clearly
✨ A sense of belonging in our shared human experience
✨ Support and accountability for our growth
✨ New perspectives that shift and expand our understanding
✨ The courage to express ourselves authentically

This weekend, I’m in Wellington, leading Calming an Anxious Mind, an ACC-funded women’s retreat. I feel incredibly blessed to be showing up for this mahi, holding space for women as we navigate the tender terrain of self-regulation and healing. It is an honor to do this work, and I am constantly in awe of the courage, wisdom, and deep connection that unfolds when we come together.

Healing happens in relationship. We are not meant to do this alone.

15/02/2025

Happy Sacred Sunday 😌💛 I’m back at Mana Retreat Centre, supporting the final module of a year-long study in Open Floor Movement Practice.

Being here feels like coming home—this dance floor holds so many layers of my journey, woven with memories of deep inner work, shared movement, and the embrace of community.

There’s something profound about having a place that can hold you in your process—a space where you can move, breathe, and unravel, knowing you’re supported.
Community matters.
Witnessing and being witnessed, moving through our personal stories alongside others, reminds us that we’re never alone in this work.

Right now, I’m taking a moment to pause, to feel into all that is moving within. To honor the unfolding.

Next month, I’ll be leading a retreat here at Mana—if you’re curious, DM me for details. Would love to have you on the dance floor.

13/02/2025

Think You’re Good at Receiving? Think Again.

Many of us believe we’re open to receiving… but what if we’re actually *giving* without even realising it?

I used to think I was great at receiving.

I said yes when people offered me things. I accepted support when it was there.

But I still walked away feeling drained.

Does this sound familiar to you?

Turns out, I wasn’t actually receiving—I was still giving:

✨ Saying yes to help but feeling the need to show extra gratitude so the other person didn’t feel unappreciated.

✨ Accepting a gift but immediately thinking about how to return the favor.

✨ Letting someone do something kind for me but staying focused on their comfort rather than fully enjoying it.

Even in moments meant for me, I was still making sure they were okay.

The Wheel of Consent helped me see the difference between truly receiving and unconsciously giving.

It taught me how to:

✅ Ask for what I actually *want*
✅ Receive without guilt, overthinking, or obligation
✅ Recognize when I’m giving instead of receiving

These are 4 things I explored in my relationship to receiving - you might like to explore them too.

✨️✨️✨️✨️

Recognise Where You’re Giving Instead of Receiving

Many of us struggle to *just receive*. We instinctively respond, reciprocate, or downplay.

Try this:
✨ The next time someone offers you a gift, a compliment, or help, pause.

✨ Notice if you feel the urge to respond or give something back.
✨ Instead, take a deep breath and *let it in.*

Receiving starts with awareness.

✨️✨️✨️✨️

Practice Asking for What You Actually Want

Receiving means knowing what you *desire*—and claiming it.

Try this:

✨ Ask yourself: *If there were no strings attached, what would I love to receive?

✨ Practice making a clear request for something small today—without justifying or offering something in return.

Your desires are valid.

✨️✨️✨️

Notice Where You Override Your Own Boundaries

We often say yes out of obligation or habit.

Try this:

✨ Before saying “yes” to anything, pause. Ask yourself:
- *Do I really want this?*
- *Am I saying yes because I feel like I should?*

Honoring your boundaries makes space for *true* receiving.

✨️✨️✨️✨️

Build Your Capacity to Receive Without Guilt

Receiving can feel vulnerable, but the more you practice, the easier it becomes.

Try this:

✨ Each day, allow yourself to receive *one thing fully*—a compliment, a hug, a favor—without giving back.
✨ When guilt arises, remind yourself: *Receiving is a gift in itself.*

You are worthy, simply because you exist.

👇👇👇👇

I’ll be diving deeper into this at The heART of Receiving Retreat Mana Retreat Centre in March.

If you’re ready to shift how you give and receive in relationships, DM me for details.

Address

Nelson
7010

Website

https://www.dailyalchemy.co.nz/

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About

A woman's soul is like a magical container which is bigger and more spacious inside than we could ever imagine from the outside. It holds treasure and wonders, terrors and monsters, desires and passions. Many of us never look inside because we fear what we may find and how it will make us feel, but deep down we are curious. The revelation comes, for those of us daring enough to peer within, that our journey as women only begins when we turn inward.

Hi I’m Jade. Daily Alchemy is the heart of my well-being journey, it is founded on my own healing work and research into the nature of Self, ancient wisdom practices and the transformative journey of opening to the Sacred Feminine.

For as long as I can remember I have been insatiably curious about what it means to be well. Why do some people struggle while others find a way to thrive, often despite the most challenging circumstances? The depths of this enquiry has propelled a journey of awakening that has opened me to knowledge and practices that have helped me to move beyond the constraints of conditioning, limited beliefs and ancestral patterning; into a deep unshakable sense of knowing who I am and how I’m most authentically called to express myself in this life.

My work, and my passion is helping women, like you, become familiar with your inner dance to awaken to the precious gifts of power, delight, creativity and that most rare jewel - your authentic self. I am wholeheartedly dedicated to facilitating and holding space for your inner transformation, and my own.