Show Notes

If you’ve spent any time in the coaching or personal development world lately, you’ve probably heard people talking about somatics, nervous system regulation, and healing your body.

But there’s a piece of this conversation that’s often missing:

What does nervous system work look like specifically for women of color?

Because telling a woman of color entrepreneur to simply “feel safe,” slow down, or stop doing anything that dysregulates her nervous system doesn’t always account for the reality of her life.

Sometimes you still have to make money.

Sometimes you still have to show up.

Sometimes the threat your body is responding to isn’t something from your past that you can simply process and release.

That’s why I invited Brenda Lomeli to the podcast for a conversation about decolonizing somatics, reconnecting with the wisdom of your body, and supporting your nervous system while still going after your goals.

About Brenda Lomeli

Brenda Lomeli is a first-generation Mexican-American decolonized somatics coach.

For over 10 years, she has supported 500+ women in reclaiming their bodies — first through TL10, and now through Reclaiming the Body™ Decolonized Somatic Certification.

She is a Master Certified Life Coach, Advanced Feminist Coach, and practitioner in nervous system regulation, emotional processing, and ancestral healing.

She holds degrees in Music Therapy and a Master’s in Occupational Therapy — and is a confirmed descendant of Mesoamerican healers, herbalists, and curanderas.

What Are Somatics?

Let’s start at the beginning.

Soma means body.

Somatic work is about your body and your felt experience—not just intellectually understanding what’s happening to you.

Think about entrepreneurship this way:

You have your mind, which is producing thoughts all day.

Then you have the results you want to create: more clients, more revenue, increased visibility, a bigger business, or a new offer.

Your body is in the middle.

Your body is the thing that actually has to post on social media.

Your body has to get on the sales call.

Your body has to make the investment.

Your body has to become more visible.

Your body has to coach the client.

So we can’t talk about business growth without acknowledging the body that’s actually creating the business.

What Does It Mean to Decolonize Somatics?

Brenda explained decolonized somatics as something much deeper than learning another nervous system regulation technique.

It’s about building a relationship with your own body.

That’s important because your body isn’t interchangeable with someone else’s.

You have your own experiences.

Your own lineage.

Your own environment.

Your own history.

And your own felt sense of safety.

Yet somatic and nervous system practices can sometimes be taught prescriptively:

Do this exercise.

Follow these steps.

Use this technique.

Now you should feel regulated.

But what if you don’t?

Decolonized somatics creates space to ask a different question:

What does my body actually need?

Why Context Matters in Nervous System Work for Women of Color

There’s another important distinction in this conversation.

Sometimes nervous system work is discussed as though the threat is primarily internal or historical—something that happened in the past that now needs to be processed and released.

But for people living in marginalized identities, context matters.

Racism isn’t exclusively historical.

Discrimination isn’t exclusively historical.

The experiences affecting Black, Indigenous, immigrant, diasporic, and other communities of color don’t exist exclusively in the past.

Sometimes your nervous system is responding to something happening around you right now.

And sometimes your body’s response makes sense.

Instead of immediately treating that response as something broken that needs to be eliminated, what would happen if you approached your body with curiosity?

What if your body holds information?

What if it holds wisdom?

Your Body Needs Support to Take Business Risks

Entrepreneurship asks your body to do uncomfortable things.

Visibility is uncomfortable.

Selling can be uncomfortable.

Investing money can feel risky.

Launching something new can feel vulnerable.

Being responsible for another person’s experience as a coach or service provider can feel heavy.

Your mind can know exactly what you’re supposed to do while your body is saying:

Absolutely not.

That’s why mindset work alone isn’t always enough.

You can intellectually believe you should post the content while your body freezes at the thought of being seen.

You can know you should make an offer while your body is responding to the possibility of rejection.

You can understand the strategy while still feeling unable to execute it.

Supporting your body can help you create enough groundedness and safety to take the next action.

Nervous System Regulation Doesn’t Have to Mean Shutting Down Your Business

This is where the conversation gets especially important.

We’ve seen nervous system language used as a full stop:

“My body doesn’t like this, so I’m not doing it.”

Or:

“My nervous system is dysregulated, so I need to shut everything down.”

There may absolutely be situations where someone needs to stop or rest.

But that’s not the only option.

For many women of color, shutting down every responsibility while healing simply isn’t realistic.

You may still have bills.

You may still have a job.

You may still need business revenue.

You may still have people depending on you.

So the question becomes:

How can I honor what my nervous system needs while continuing to move toward what matters to me?

Use Titration Instead of All-or-Nothing Action

Brenda introduced titration as one way to think about this.

Imagine slowly adding something to a science experiment instead of dumping everything in at once.

You can approach business growth similarly.

Maybe becoming more visible online feels overwhelming.

The options aren’t necessarily:

Post every single day.

Or disappear completely.

Maybe you post three times a week and develop a process that supports your body before and after you post.

You’re still moving.

You’re still honoring your responsibilities.

But you’re also honoring your body.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Build a Relationship With What Makes Your Body Feel Grounded

One of the most important parts of decolonized somatics is discovering what works for your body.

For Brenda, certain sensory experiences can help her feel grounded.

For someone else, it may be movement.

Music.

Dance.

Sound.

Nature.

Community.

The point isn’t to copy someone else’s ritual.

The point is to develop enough of a relationship with your body that you begin recognizing what supports you.

Ask yourself:

What helps my body feel grounded?

What helps me access enough safety to take the next step?

You don’t necessarily need to eliminate every ounce of fear before acting.

Sometimes you simply need enough support to move while fear is present.

Your Body Can Be a Source of Wisdom in Your Business

The deeper you build a relationship with your body, the more information you may notice.

Brenda shared how this shows up in her coaching.

When she’s sitting with a client, sometimes she notices something through her own felt experience that the client hasn’t explicitly said.

Rather than assuming she’s right, she’ll check in with the client about what she’s noticing.

That connection to her body becomes another source of information alongside the mindset and intellectual coaching skills she already has.

That’s the difference between treating your body like an inconvenience and developing a relationship with it.

Your body isn’t necessarily standing between you and success.

It can become another resource you learn how to listen to.

Women of Color Don’t Need Another Prescriptive Framework

For women of color entrepreneurs, decolonizing somatics isn’t about finding the perfect three-step nervous system technique.

It’s about reconnecting.

With your body.

With your context.

With your lineage.

With your agency.

And with what safety and groundedness actually feel like for you.

You can honor your nervous system without making discomfort mean stop.

You can support your body while building your business.

You can acknowledge real threats while still accessing resilience.

And you can pursue ambitious goals without disconnecting from yourself to achieve them.

Your mind holds wisdom.

And your body does too.

The work is learning how to listen to both.

Reclaiming the Body™ is a decolonized somatic certification for coaches of color who want to learn how to work with the body, emotions, and nervous system in their coaching practice. Rooted in a decolonized and anti-oppressive approach to somatics, the certification unlocks what becomes possible when we stop treating the body as something to override—and recognize it as powerful, intelligent, and unique source of wisdom.
The founding cohort of Reclaiming the Body™ kicks off October 1, 2026.

Learn more about Reclaiming the Body™:
www.brendalomeli.com/reclamation

Join the membership: https://forthe23percent.com/everything-sales

LISTEN BELOW ON APPLE PODCASTS AND SPOTIFY