Candice Wu 0:00

This episode is about understanding the different levels of our physiology, how we can access the deepest levels of healing, as well as, how to nourish and love ourselves from the source of our being and to live from that source in alignment with our true nature.

Candice Wu 0:19

Hello and welcome. You’re listening to the Embody Podcast, a show about remembering and embodying your true nature, inner wisdom, Embodied Healing and self-love.

Candice Wu 0:32

My name is Candice Wu and I’m a holistic healing facilitator, intuitive coach, and artist sharing my personal journey of vulnerability, offering meditations and guided healing support, and having co-creative conversations with healers and wellness practitioners from all over the world.

Candice Wu 0:52

This episode is possible because of all my listeners, people like you. And those of you who are supporting me on Patreon.

Candice Wu 1:00

I’m so grateful to have your support and your contribution of donating some money to the behind the scenes work for the podcasts. And all the offerings that I put out there have been so touching and instrumental in continuing this podcast.

Candice Wu 1:16

If this podcast or the healing experiential meditations have been inspiring to you in any way, I would encourage you to check out the Patreon page because it’s also a lovely exchange. I have some new offers there, where if you donate a certain level per month, then you can have access to either Q&A sessions with me or personalized healing meditations that are intuitively based on your needs and what you have shared with me that you want to focus on in your life.

Candice Wu 1:48

And I’m really excited to share with you the new offer which is a monthly call where you can connect up with me and gain specific support for your body and soul and any embodied support that you desire for the month and the call is for up to four people. You can check all that out at my website, CandiceWu.com/patreon.

Candice Wu 2:14

Welcome back. It’s really great to have you again. By the time you’re listening to this episode, I will be on my retreat, it’s the Soul Body Retreat. And it’s happening in Utah with a group of very special women. And at the moment, I am recording this in a bedroom in Michigan, because I’m still here and preparing to head out there on retreat. And just getting a little ahead of the game with the podcasts.

Candice Wu 2:43

At the moment, the focus of my heart has been riding horses and being with horses. I just cannot get enough. And I have been feeling into what really is that giving me? What is it about being with horses, that too makes me feel completely alive?

Candice Wu 3:02

You might have heard my podcast about commitment and conviction, a story about me being with my horse, Sage, the horse I’ve been riding.

Candice Wu 3:11

Lately, I’ve been riding this other horse named Skippy. And he’s a bit smaller, but easier for me to ride because I’ve got little legs. And it’s already quite a challenge to strengthen my inner size and hamstrings and all of my leg muscles to stay on a horse. If you never have ridden a horse, you might not know that it takes a lot of muscle, I had no idea. But for about two months straight, my muscles have been completely sore. And I’ve just been so happy.

Candice Wu 3:41

And mostly because being on a horse and having that connection is just been so empowering. It feels like communicating at a very powerful level in my body and in my soul, with an animal that’s responding to me and moving around from that place. It is exactly what I want for myself to feel like, I can trust myself, trust the path of my life, but also give it direction and influence and create, so it’s beautiful.

Candice Wu 4:13

And the connection that I feel with the horse during that process is just so magical. It’s what I want to feel all the time.

Candice Wu 4:23

If you know me at all, you might know that I am a little bit impulsive. And I think that that’s a kind of a bad connotation of how, you know, how I can see myself. Because what I learned from an astrologer once, is that I’m quite like a butterfly. I can just move from thing to thing, and it’s my natural way. And so on the outside, it may look a little bit impulsive, but on the inside, it’s just right. I’m just in sync with myself when I moved from thing to thing. And perhaps, that’s why traveling is something that keeps me feeling alive. But this feeling in love with whatever it is that I’m in love with at the moment and letting myself have it to the full degree, it’s really in my nature.

Candice Wu 5:08

So as I share this with you, I’m just thinking about all of you out there. And how it is for you that you feel like you are yourself? How it is that you feel that your flow is the most like you? And what is it that you just truly love right now? What gives you the feeling of joy and excitement and inspiration and growth?

Candice Wu 5:32

I’d be so happy if you shared that with me. Feel free to email me or send me a message in any way. I always love hearing from all of you out there.

Candice Wu 5:39

So today I want to talk about the Koshas. It’s the levels of physiology that make up who we are, who we perceive we are.

Candice Wu 5:47

We are a collection of energies. Those energies have tendencies over time. And they either continue in a sort of way, or we heal them, complete them, and disrupt them and bring in new energies, find more wholeness, find more of ourselves, the power that we actually are. And we claim that power from all the different experiences that we heal or recover for ourselves and move forward with that new energy integrated as our being.

Candice Wu 6:21

But that energy is the unseen force of creation. It is the vibration of everything. It is the energy that flows through every single being. The most powerful energy that each of us have, or rather that each of us are.

Candice Wu 6:37

We are the energy that flows through us. So the energy of the source of things, the source of all energy flows through every single one of us into our particular individual consciousness, which then expresses itself through our mental body, energetic body, and physical body, the energy that is the force of us that is underneath everything, gives the blueprint and signature for how we feel inside, what we think, and how our physical body manifests itself. It is from the energy that’s unseen and deep inside of us, that gives the physical body.

Candice Wu 7:19

Okay, so let’s get a little more concrete with this so that it’s tangible and understandable. Because some of the language that can be used around these topics can feel so abstract and nebulous, like, divine energy, what is that? Or what is the force of creation? And when it goes in that way, I can also feel skeptical or I have a lot of questions.

Candice Wu 7:45

So I want to start with talking about the Koshas.

Candice Wu 7:48

The Koshas come from the tradition of Yoga, which is a long-standing tradition. It’s far beyond doing poses like Down Dog or Tree Pose, that’s just one aspect of Yoga, which is Asana, the poses, the understandings in the Vedas and the Sutras.

Candice Wu 8:09

The scripts of knowledge that are behind Yoga, go really deep into understanding our physiology, our human body, as well as the energies that are beyond our physical body, and all the way, into the way this universe functions and how it is this universe has been created, and therefore, how we can create and be our most powerful selves. Because we were incredibly powerful.

Candice Wu 8:39

We are more powerful than we believe we are. And that’s because our mind can be quite limited, our mental capacity. And that’s part of this conversation, because we’re going to look at beyond the mental capacity, beyond what we think we understand.

Candice Wu 8:56

The Koshas describe the different levels or Sheaths of our physiology.

Candice Wu 8:56

For now, I’ll just list from the outermost layer to the innermost layer, so it can get an organizational idea of this. But then I want to talk about it from the innermost level outward.

Candice Wu 9:14

The outer most level of our physiology is our physical body, then, underneath that is our energetic body then the mental body, which is encompassing the mind and emotions, then the intellect, which touches into the spiritual body, and all the way down to the level of oneness, or the source energy.

Candice Wu 9:38

I like understanding these five different levels, because it helps me understand where the most powerful and deepest healing can come from. If all the levels of our physiology are fluid and functioning, and all the tools on the inside are available to us, then we can touch into the deepest level and heal very easily.

Candice Wu 10:02

We can look at our situations in life, and track and sense with ease, what it is that’s happening? Where is our struggle? Or what is it that we believe? What are the impressions that we have about ourselves and the universe? And what is the truth? And then, therefore, we can access every possibility that there is.

Candice Wu 10:28

So let’s talk about that, let’s talk about every possibility, which is Om. You might have heard that word or use that word in your practice, in your mantras. Aum is comprised of three sounds, “a – u – m”, and these are the sounds in Sanskrit that give the energy of the whole, of all possibility, and all probability.

Candice Wu 10:50

As my teacher, Jim Kolakowski describes, this is the energy of the source of all things. Because this is the root of everything, this is everything itself. It gives the knowing that every single possibility is possible. And those possibilities that we can’t even fathom, are possible.

Candice Wu 11:13

And so when we get stuck into thinking, “I can’t do it,” or “I’m not capable,” actually, these are distortions of the truth. The truth is that we are much more powerful than what we think. And there are capabilities beyond what we have seen or know, at least in my own experience that are possible.

Candice Wu 11:35

So the innermost level of who we are is the energy of oneness. It’s the energy of the whole of Om, of bliss. And in Yoga, in the Koshas, they call it Anandamaya Kosha, the bliss level.

Candice Wu 11:55

Bliss isn’t just an emotion that you experience from the level of your mind. It’s the deepest form of peace, joy, love, and flow. That’s the undercurrent of everything. And it’s connected with every single being, every single experience of all existence. This level is free of distortions of the truth, distortions of what we believe over time, and it is the pure energy of consciousness itself.

Candice Wu 12:28

You might have heard me say, “the big S-Self, or the small s-self,”, meaning, like, spelling it with a large “S” or a small “s”.

Candice Wu 12:37

And this level, the oneness level, is of the big “S” self, and everyone’s self in big “S” is the same. We are all the same at this level, we’re energy, we are consciousness, there’s no distinction.

Candice Wu 12:52

So you may have tapped into experiences where you feel like you’re in that level of joy and pure being with complete neutrality, but it is peaceful, it is joyful and loving. That may be you touching into this level.

Candice Wu 13:13

I’ve experienced this in connection with myself, when I’m in deep meditation, or during Yoga Nidra, which is a deep relaxation, Yogic sleep.

Candice Wu 13:23

You might also experience it in between states of consciousness, like, when you’re falling asleep, or in different connections that you have with people or nature and animals.

Candice Wu 13:37

This energy of the source of all things moves through us, as our life force. And so when it moves through our individual soul, our individual consciousness, and all the belief sets that we came in within this life, in this experience of our being, that is the level of Vijnanamaya Kosha, that’s the knowing sheath, the intellectual level of our being.

Candice Wu 14:07

If you’ve ever seen the logo that I created for my work, it’s a circle, which looks like concentric circles outward, like a target sign almost, but a little more amorphous. The central circle is that oneness level, that’s the meaning behind my logo, actually. And then, the next circle that surrounds that central circle is this level Vijnanamaya Kosha.

Candice Wu 14:36

When I say intellect, it’s not the intellectual mind-stuff, or the things that we know, or the facts. It’s knowledge behind. It’s the knowing of discernment, it’s the knowing that can see, observe, and be aware of all things that are happening in our inner and outer world.

Candice Wu 14:58

So when you ask, “Who are you? Who are you truly?”, you’re actually the awareness that can witness all the things that are happening, you’re the part of you that watches all of your emotions, thoughts, happenings, all of your actions. And this is the level of the intellect.

Candice Wu 15:18

At this level of our being. The ego-consciousness exists as well. There’s a sense of being, an individual person or feeling like you are separate. And at this individual consciousness, we are clouded by ideas, memories, and experiences that created what in Yoga practice is called Samskara.

Candice Wu 15:43

Samskaras are the belief sets, the ideas, and impressions that we have that have been created over time, and almost created iteration after iteration through experience, that clouds our thinking and understanding because it just confirms and confirms itself. It’s a belief that’s untrue. It’s an idea of yourself and the world or the universe that isn’t true, but we live through.

Candice Wu 16:14

So at this level of healing, when we’re able to tap into that knowing awareness, the part of us that can witness these beliefs that are true or not true, we can affect very powerful healing that can reverberate through the other layers of our being, as long as those layers of our being are also online and engaged in a natural way, in our most optimal and healthy form.

Candice Wu 16:43

So if we can tap into the bliss layer, or the energy of oneness, that’s our best bet. Because we’re tapping into the source of energy, which is underneath all the beliefs, all the beliefs that we think are true in our life, and in the world.

Candice Wu 17:02

And then if we’re going to this level, where we are able to discern, then we can work with what has been our truth, or what do we have thought has been our truth.

Candice Wu 17:14

This is the small “s” self, where we believe we are separate from the source of energy, from the wholeness of all possibility. And we believe something different like, “I’m not enough,” or “I’m unimportant” or “I’m a bad person.” All of these things that we can believe about ourselves, or the way that things work in this universe, that’s this level of ego consciousness, of thinking that this is the way it works for me.

Candice Wu 17:46

So at both of these levels, we can access the most powerful healing because we go to the source of energy, and we go to the source and the root cause of our reality. And from here, whether we want to believe this or not, our intentions from this level, create the reality that we see around us, not only by painting our perception through this lens, but it actually gives and creates and attracts those situations that will match and agree with the beliefs that you have at this level.

Candice Wu 18:24

That’s partially why it’s so tricky to see whether or not beliefs are true or real or not. Because we create the experiences that make them very real to us, that makes them confirmed in our sight, in our experience.

Candice Wu 18:41

So then we go back and say, “Well, it is true that I’m a bad person,” or “It’s true that I am not valuable. And I can’t, I can’t make ”X“ amount of dollars,” or “I can’t do this in my life,” or “I’m not allowed to speak” because this happened.

Candice Wu 18:57

So we find reasons in our external world to confirm those beliefs. Along with that, we not only create the reality that’s outside of us, the relationships that we have, the connections, the way that our world and life is set up, the way your bedroom looks, or your home looks. All of that, on some level, is a spilling out of these belief sets. An experience of what’s on the inside of us, now on the outside.

Candice Wu 19:29

Not only this, but we’re also creating our energetic and physical bodies and the way that we feel inside through these belief sets that we have. This may not be new too at all. But this is the organizational construct that really helps me understand everything and pushes me to take responsibility for the beliefs that I hold, every single, tiny belief reverberates outward.

Candice Wu 19:58

In this level of our physiology, we can work with spiritual practice, Karma Yoga, or Gyana Yoga, which is the study of action, intention, and our deepest parts of self. We can work with forgiveness and resolving statements that help us release belief sets, as well as Family Constellations, which is looking at how we’ve been imprinted with beliefs of who we are, and beliefs of who others are in relation to us, as well as Vedic meditations, when we’re working with mantras, with sounds that can touch into the level of the source of all energy, the source of things, as well as clear up the belief sets that live at this level.

Candice Wu 20:49

So the next level, the next Kosha, is the mental sheath, the mental body, which is Manomaya Kosha and that represents the mind.

Candice Wu 21:03

We usually think of our mind as just our brain, the thoughts, and the brain activity, but, the mind is actually, the first mind is actually in the gut, that gives the brain activity, that gives the information all the way up to our brain to give to the rest of the body.

Candice Wu 21:22

The mental body encompasses the thoughts, emotions, and the feeling sensations that happen inside. So you can begin to see how what we believe in forms, the mental body informs what we think, it informs how our body feels and responds through the lens of those beliefs.

Candice Wu 21:46

We can work with the mental body by sensing inward and doing a mindfulness meditation. For example, feeling the sensations, emotions, thoughts that are happening.

Candice Wu 21:58

Of course, if you’re doing a Yoga practice with poses, you can also tap into this layer. But you can also do Yoga poses without tapping into this layer, by just doing the poses itself without tuning inward and feeling and sensing. You can use it for a pure exercise and not be tuning into the level of the mind, the mental body.

Candice Wu 22:22

You can work with a variety of somatic therapies or somatic healing that tunes into this level of imagery and impulse, sensation, and emotion, as well as the meanings that go to the deeper level, go to the next level of Vijnanamaya Kosha.

Candice Wu 22:39

I use a variety of somatic therapies and healing techniques including Somatic Experiencing, focusing and Family Constellations, which is very much in the body. So anything that’s using the awareness of what’s happening on the inside.

Candice Wu 22:55

The next level of our being, out from there, is the energy body, the energy sheath, which is called Pranamaya Kosha. You might have heard the word Prana before and know it in your own practice. Prana means vital energy or life force.

Candice Wu 23:10

The Prana of the body is the breath. It’s the movement and flow of energy in the body and the breath, as well as the movements of energy that are in cycles, meridians, in Chinese medicine, and also Ayurveda, they’re called channels or meridians. These natural flows of energy are given by our beliefs, by the emotions and whether or not the emotions and sensations are fluid in our body. They will either continue to feel clogged or blocked or flowing and smooth.

Candice Wu 23:50

When we use practices like Pranayama, which are breath techniques in Yoga practice or breath work or working with the energy centers, the Chakras in the body as well as the meridians, the channels of the body, this is through practices in Qi Gong or Chinese medicine, Yoga, and very many indigenous practices, Acupressure or Marma Point therapy, as well as the practice of tapping or EFT, all of these are working with Prana in the body, the energy body.

Candice Wu 24:25

Each of the energy centers in the body, which go from the very base of our body, at the pelvic floor, all the way up the spine, through the central channel of the body, Shushumna, all the way to the top of the head. Each of those Chakras contains the energy of themes in our belief sets. So that it touches all the way back to the level of the intellect, which we talked about already.

Candice Wu 24:51

You can see how everything is so intertwined. And it’s very hard to separate each of these levels into distinct levels that are separate because they’re not. So you can see where the belief sets give way to the Chakras, the energy centers, and the flow of those energy centers all the way to their relationship with the meridians in the body.

Candice Wu 25:17

Each of the meridians connects up with a different theme and emotion and set of functions in the body that also connect thematically. I’m not going to go into each of the Chakras today or each of the meridians today, but you can see how each of these intertwine and connect in a cohesive expression of our physical being, which is the outermost level of our body, the physical body.

Candice Wu 25:52

So it is specifically to say that the energy, the blueprint of our being, starts all the way from our belief sets, and the tendency of our energy over time and goes into the mental body, the sensations and emotions, and thoughts that we have all the way out to the energy, which is the flow of Prana in the body, the flow of the life force in the body, then, that gives the physical body, gives the physical manifestation of the subtle belief sets, the ideas that we hold, which we cannot see, actually create our physical being.

Candice Wu 26:40

So the physical body is the food body. In Sanskrit, it’s called Annamaya Kosha. And Ana means food. It’s the outermost level of our physiology, and it’s the body physically, it’s what we eat, which gives away to how our physical body can manifest itself. And it is our home, our vehicle for knowing ourselves, expressing ourselves and creating. And if we nourish and take care of our bodies, we are able to allow for deeper spiritual knowing and purpose.

Candice Wu 27:19

This is the level of Yoga Asana, the practice of yoga poses that we physically can access. So when we’re doing poses, we are moving our physical body such that it allows access to the deeper levels of who we are.

Candice Wu 27:35

So that is the point of our physical being. It is to be in this human experience, to learn and to evolve. And to really understand what we’re all about, who we are at the deepest levels.

Candice Wu 27:49

The physical level of our being also encompasses our daily rituals, what we eat and put into our body, what we take in through all of our senses, our environment, our home space, and the lifestyle we have.

Candice Wu 28:06

So when we want to take care of this level of our being, we might be doing self-care practices, like having boundaries, and taking space for ourselves, or taking a bath, or eating healthy, eating in a way that feels intuitively balanced to our body, taking care of our home space, so that it feels like it nourishes us and brings us a feeling of beauty or health, having a balanced lifestyle, and daily activities that make us feel like ourselves, and that connect us to feeling that we are here in this body.

Candice Wu 28:47

Healing practices like somatic therapies are also very important at this level, obviously, because we’re connecting with the physical body, the muscles and the tissues of our body. But we’re also sensing into the deeper levels like the sensation and emotion which connect with the mental body and the energy body, which, the flow of how our body wants to move is connected with.

Candice Wu 29:11

So just going back to that idea of how intertwined each of these levels are, we started with the level of oneness and pure consciousness, the source of all energy, and the source of our being that lives through us, and channels its way through the belief sets and impressions that we have of our specific and individual soul and consciousness that’s Vijnanamaya Kosha, then, that gives way to the mental body, the emotions, and sensations and thoughts that we have, all the way to the energy, the flow of our life force in our body that we cannot see but we can feel, and that gives way to the physical body. It gives the tension or fluidity of our muscles, it creates imbalance, or holding in one aspect of our body, or gives the space and openness because energy is flowing inside of us.

Candice Wu 30:12

The way that I use the Koshas in working with my clients is that we look at what level of their physiology needs attention. And sometimes it is just giving your body the space to rest. Sometimes it is just taking a bath more often, and taking that rest. And yet, as someone changes those practices, it also starts to change their beliefs that are about themselves.

Candice Wu 30:43

If you begin to take better care of your body, eat healthier, then everything starts to feel better, then your belief of yourself changes. If you’re not noticing it, it might be very subtle, but who you are, starts to grow and evolve into something else. And maybe you feel more capable of doing things that are more confident and relating to somebody. And so everything just has this ripple effect.

Candice Wu 31:14

If you’re receiving Reiki, Acupuncture, doing Shamanistic work, or visualizing and working with energy and color, then perhaps you’re accessing the energetic level of the body the most. But of course, it’s touching into the other aspects. And it’s going to bleed outward and affect your physical body. It’s going to affect how you feel in your physical body, as well as what you believe about yourself. And so you can see the same for, if we access the level of the body which holds the beliefs, the intellectual body.

Candice Wu 31:50

If you’re touching into the belief that you have of yourself, for example, in order to belong, I have to keep silent or it is my job to be responsible for other people or I am the absorber of negative emotion, you can see how that would affect your physical body if you believe something different.

Candice Wu 32:16

I think the most interesting thing about this level of our being is that we don’t always know what we believe. And it most often takes working with someone who’s gifted at sensing into those beliefs sets or patterns in you that can help you bring to light those beliefs.

Candice Wu 32:38

And when we’re working with the belief sets, it’s like going to the root of the issue, it’s like going to the root of a tree and effecting change from that level. We don’t water a tree by just putting a little drop of water on the leaf, we water it at the root, and we are the same.

Candice Wu 32:58

So when we do illuminate our belief sets, it’s incredibly powerful to effect change all the way out to even our physical body.

Candice Wu 33:07

And in my own experience, when I’ve worked with healing practices that do touch into that, or at least by the time that I trained myself to sense into that and be aware of that, I have completely changed my physical body. I used to walk around with so much tension in my hips. And if I ate certain foods, it would make it worse.

Candice Wu 33:30

So you can see the mixture of belief sets layering up with how I’m treating my body nutritionally. I used to have headaches all the time and heart palpitations, numbness on one side of my body, and with all the different practices that are embodied, that do touch into what I believe about myself as well, the meaning behind things, that’s where that’s been able to release.

Candice Wu 33:57

And now, I feel very fluid in my body, there are still aspects of me that I work on, and then I’m continuing to heal. But I feel a world of a difference. I definitely don’t have headaches anymore, heart palpitations, tension is just little bit in different areas, like around my neck at different times, or maybe at different points of my life, depending on what I’m going through somewhere in my spine but it’s moving through. And it’s part of my process.

Candice Wu 34:25

But the thing about working with belief sets is that if your physical body plus your mental and energetic body aren’t prepared with a capacity to move the energy through of what’s lodged in your body, and what you’re holding in your energy field, then, tapping into a belief set isn’t actually going to do that much. Because you may be just tapping into it logically, from your mental capacity, from the mind, from the sought level, which is actually more like the physical body.

Candice Wu 35:00

It’s when the mental body, when the emotions make its way, all the way up to the brain, from gut to brain. And the brain releases this energy through the format of thoughts. It’s a form that we can understand things in, but it doesn’t always interpret what’s going on correctly.

Candice Wu 35:23

So for just working with our thoughts, and leaving them in the brain only, just talking about things or analyzing our issues from that level, even if we’re looking at our belief sets, if we’re not embodied in it, if the energy and emotion isn’t moving all the way through, completing itself and touching into the level of soul and of heart where we need love, then, it’s not actually making its way out.

Candice Wu 35:57

So we do need to support every single level of our physiology and reclaim all the capacities of our innate being, and all the tools that we have, so that we can release those belief sets that aren’t really, truly, the truth of who we are. So that we can align with the source of our energy, the source of who we all are, the love and the power, the peace, and then knowing that everything is possible, so that we can truly be in touch with spirit, that is spirit.

Candice Wu 36:32

I’ve often had a conversation with people, what is spirit versus soul, and is there a difference?

Candice Wu 36:39

And spirit to me and my experience and my understandings and the practices that I’ve learned, it just in my innate self, in my knowing, feels like it is that oneness, the pure consciousness, the pure energy of all beings. And soul is connected with that, it contains that, as we spoke about the next level of our physiology, but that it does come with the belief sets of who we think we are, that may or may not be true.

Candice Wu 37:13

Spirit does not decipher what’s good or bad. Spirit is all energies, spirit is in all forms. And it doesn’t say that anger is bad, or feeling sad is bad, or having your house burned down is bad. All of it can be utilized and understood as part of things.

Candice Wu 37:38

So when we get to this level spirit, there is an acknowledgment that we are all kinds of energies, and none of it is good or bad. It is all there for us to use as a tool at different times in our life, and to embrace as our wholeness, whether that means distraction or creation, all of it is in our tool belt. All of it is important, and all of it is ours.

Candice Wu 38:10

That means we are both the hero and the villain. We are the parts of us that we reject, as well as the parts that we embrace. But we are those from a place of neutrality. We don’t say that one is better than the other from the level of spirit, because all of those tools are needed. And it’s all understood in this movement and flow, this in and out and expansion and contraction of the universe.

Candice Wu 38:38

It’s only through human consciousness and the earthly consciousness, the ideas that we have about what’s good and bad, and morality, that we live through, that we think certain things are not good or certain things are better. And it’s not the case that’s too rigid.

Candice Wu 39:03

Yes, certain things are better or worse at different times. But not one type of things should be outcasted as wrong or bad. But if we are in alignment with the source of energy, with a source of creation, then, it’s most likely that there will be certain things that don’t feel preferable to us, like killing people.

Candice Wu 39:30

It doesn’t feel good when we are aligned with ourselves truly, and I mean, aligned with self, big “S” self, that’s where there’s true connection with all beings, because it is one.

Candice Wu 39:41

So understanding the Koshas can be really helpful in reclaiming yourself, in looking at the different levels of your being and understanding, where you need the most attention.

Candice Wu 39:52

So if you’re unable to feel your emotions, it may be very helpful to work with both the energy body as well as the mental body, but also your belief sets. What stops you from being able to feel your emotions? Are their beliefs that you have, ideas that you have around emotions that make you stop yourself from feeling?

Candice Wu 40:20

That’s just one example. But getting back to where you can attend to yourself, and truly nourish a level of your being, so it affects all the other levels, and knowing from which place to access from, might be incredibly helpful.

Candice Wu 40:37

It also can be helpful to understand through this lens, how people are speaking with you, and from where they’re talking.

Candice Wu 40:45

When people give me advice, or if I’m looking at other healers or practitioners and seeing what it is that they’re doing, how they’re helping people, I do think about what level of the physiology are they working with? Are they touching it on all levels, especially if they say they’re holistic? What does that really mean?

Candice Wu 41:06

Sometimes people say holistic when they just mean well, we look at work, social life, relationships, and personal life. But to me, holistic means an integration of spirit, soul, mind, energy, and physicality.

Candice Wu 41:27

So this can help you decipher what it is that people are actually offering you when you do look to reach out to a coach or a healer, therapist. And that can help inform what steps you need to take.

Candice Wu 41:42

This has also been a very helpful tool when talking with some of my friends. Because we talk about healing a lot, we talk about what’s going on in our souls, and what themes were working on, how we’re connecting with our spirit, and what’s bringing us alive now. And so, we’re talking about this stuff all the time. And sometimes we help each other with what we’re struggling with.

Candice Wu 42:05

One of my friends can support me in looking at the level of the Spirit, and discerning from the level of spirit, what’s happening?

Candice Wu 42:16

And I’m very good at sensing in and moving through with emotion. So you can see how we’re coming in from different angles. And we can support each other by seeing what’s needed, at what time.

Candice Wu 42:31

So this is what I wanted to share with you today about the Koshas and understanding the different parts of our being. And also to encourage you to feel into what level of your being wants your attention right now? What level of your being wants to be honored?

Candice Wu 42:49

And also to look at how it is that you do create your reality. And, it is, yes, in unison with the universe. You are the universe. Because we are that level of spirit that is underneath everything. But it’s a matter of looking at how clouded we are. How separate we feel, from the whole, that gives away for how we think things work in this life.

Candice Wu 43:21

And so to really look at that and examine who you feel you are, what you think you are, what belief sets you have, that actually create your reality or your perception of reality. And to take a higher level of responsibility for the experiences and things that we create.

Candice Wu 43:41

I am not saying that I’ve mastered this completely, where I can manifest anything that I want to. But I do use this understanding to help me when I do feel blocked. When I do feel like I’m limited or that something is a struggle or stuck in me, that I can see, what it is that I’m believing and where that is living in my body, so that I can release it, complete it, if it wants something. And live from a different place, connect back with source, with the alignment of the universe that lives in this body. So refresh myself and reset all the time.

Candice Wu 44:24

The Koshas can be a bit complicated to understand. I’ve tried to distill it into the simplest words that I can. I’ll attach a PDF of the breakout of these layers of our physiology with some of the ideas on what each level encompasses and how to understand each level. So you can check that out in the show notes at CandiceWu.com/koshas.

Candice Wu 44:52

So this has been very fun to share. I use this all the time. And so if you’ve listened in you might hear me refer to the Koshas at different times in other podcasts and wanted to give this preface so that I could really talk more in depth in the other podcasts about some of the different levels and how I’m understanding healing or what’s going on in the physiology through these levels.

Candice Wu 45:19

If you have questions or experiences that you want to share with me about this, feel free to reach out to me, I appreciate you listening. And I would also love to hear what topics you’re interested in, what you want to know more about or have questions about, or what is it that you’re struggling with in your life or desire for yourself.

Candice Wu 45:41

So as we end today, I’m wishing you all that connection with self, with a big “S”. The connection with just your pure being and the source of your beings that you can feel freely yourself, but in the meantime to all so except wherever you’re at right now. And to know that whatever you’re working with is along the journey towards knowing yourself.

Candice Wu 46:09

Sending my blessings to all of you and I look forward to seeing you next time.

Candice Wu 46:16

And before you go today. I’d invite you to sign up for my bi-monthly newsletters. You can get updates and self-love notes, healing experiences, and workshops by me. And also feel free to check out the Embody Community which is the Facebook group that you can tune into five to 10-minute video clips of healing support and self-love. Take care and see you all next time on the Embody Podcast.