Birth is not a one-shot deal.
It’s a constant layer by layer journey of coming into this body, and sometimes abandoning it in a trauma.
Stress makes it hard to stay in this body. Dissociation is not just “the nerves.” It is also our spirit leaving our body. And who can blame us? When things feel hard, when we stress out, our bodies become very uncomfortable places to be.
Ironically, it’s the body that has the answer to dissipating our stress. The body generates the enthusiasm and delight that make us want to stay on the planet. It’s the body that has pain, but it’s also the body who knows how to release pain – emotional, physical, and mental.
The art of staying calm, grounded, sexy, and healthy are all part of our Embodied Genius. The gift of feeling connected with nature, a part of this world (instead of an alien), and the calm of any storm – this is Embodied Genius. Belonging. Enthusiasm. These are the gifts of Embodied Genius.
And the level to which you have Embodied Genius right now is reflected in 1. The way you were welcomed (or not) at birth, 2. The way you have stayed (or not) in present awareness of your physical body and its sensations, 3. The amount of somatic (body-centered) healing you’ve already done to bring your spirit back into your body, and be at home here.
For most of us modern folk, our birth was a medicalized procedure followed by a stressful isolation with one or two nervous or busy parents. Perhaps not the best way to welcome a pure soul into a meat-suit on a dense conflicted planet, eh? 
Many indigenous and wisdom-based cultures, including that of my teacher Maria Yraceburu, celebrate a Rite of Passage at birth that welcomes the spirit of the child into the body and world, supports the parents in creating safety, comfort, and belonging. The little one arrives into a circle of welcoming people with calm nervous systems, lots of love and comfort, and spiritual support too. And this is one way to make sure a person feels truly at home on planet earth, in a community, and in their brand new body.
Most of us didn’t get this. And I’m not here to blame our parents, systems, or culture. Hey, everyone’s doing their best! But honestly, now that we are older and wiser we can do better. That’s why we go back and heal that Life Passage – not just of birth/entry into the world, but also of Conception – the point at which your soul decided to enter this body, this family, this world.
When you don’t have the foundation of a clear Conception and Birth Passage, this creates ongoing stress in your life. You might feel like you don’t belong here (like, on the whole planet). You often feel at odds with the body you inhabit. You do not have the basic foundation of safety in your nervous system that these first two Life Passages are meant to instill in you.
I remember after Maria took me through the Tlish Diyan Birth rite of passage, I felt so different at a fundamental level. I felt like this whole planet was friendly to me, my true home. I could feel how my body was a miracle, a part of a larger living organism called the human family. I could forgive my parents for things I’d held against them – easily. I could love my body – easily. I could feel my body’s messages for me, and this let me take care of my body more effortlessly than ever before.
Maria and I have been doing ceremonies together for over 20 years now. She has encouraged me to channel through new rites and ways of healing the Life Passages – ways that can work with busy modernized folk. And that’s what I’ve devoted a big part of my life to. I’ve been quiet about it for the past seven years, working with Silicon Valley company founders, Fortune 100 elite creative tech designers, world-renowned professionals and artists and movement founders. They’ve found me rather miraculously each time, and have paid me generously to walk them through this work one on one.
My clients are getting immediate incredible results with these Passages. One client, a multi-millionaire professional creative woman, was amazed that right after our work together on this, she suddenly (and for the first time in your life) loved what she saw in the mirror. Every mirror. Every time. She also reported meeting a big challenge in her business “that should have totally freaked me out” with calm confidence that went deeper than what she’d felt before. Everything, she said, got easier. And she felt a sense of peace like time slowed down when she tapped into the power of this passage.
Guys – These. Results. Are. Typical.
The Life Passages, the way I facilitate them, are swift, easy, and pleasurable. No plant medicines (although I bow to these traditions and sacred processes when held in integrity). No weeks alone in the desert without food. No big drama. I’ve usually led them in a naturally beautiful place, like a bungalow on Lehrman pond in Maine, or a beach-side modernist resort on a riviera, and most often on my land here at Sacred Cedars, but sometimes in a hotel suite overlooking the Manhattan skyline. It doesn’t matter. Nature is under the concrete, too.
It’s not just the one-shot peak experience. It’s a process. Step by step. There is training, coaching, and wise counsel. There is energy healing work, nature connection practice, and getting to know your spirit guides or invisible team (pick your metaphor – they all work). It is an individual journey, because this is not a dogmatic or religious process. It is about direct personal connection with spirit, with earth, and with power. It is led by the intention for the highest good, and therefore it calls in the Good Guys. And you can overlay your favorite metaphor or religious or cultural context. Spirit shows up however and whenever we welcome Spirit. Welcoming the highest Love, in humility and service, works every time. Life provides the perfect serendipitous events to prepare before the Passage, and to integrate after the Passage experience, and of course there’s my support and the support of the land and spirit.
The Passage itself is not dramatic, peak or ego-driven. We use simple ceremony, guided shamanic journey practices, ancient songs and prayers that were given to me for these purposes. Most of all, we leverage the overriding power of our combined intention. And yes, the ceremony can create miracles. In an easy, delicious, natural birthright kinda way. When aligned with spirit, with the highest good, and when put to good use. These energies are here for us. I have a uniquely powerful gift for holding this space for the right people. And I do so at the request, direction, and allowance of my elders and guides. For that, I am grateful. Because every time I facilitate, I also am challenged, confronted, and healed. I work for the biggest Boss I know. I’m guided by wise ones I trust. And I love my work.
Here’s what’s really blown me away about my experience guiding folks through the Conception and Birth Passages, and the other 7 Passages too. We have the power to go back and heal what was missed the first time around. The rites of passage in our lives are not linear. Life itself often re-initiates us on these various points. But life often does it with trauma – a loss, a difficulty, a drama. The benefit to healing Life Passages consciously with ceremony is this – we can skip the drama, call in the activation, heal the old blocks from the root, and create a new reality fast. As long as we are doing so for the right purposes, with the intention for good, and while humbly co-creating with all that is, this stuff works.
The first step to learn about your path of genius is to take the Soul Gift Quiz at SoulGiftQuiz.com.
And if you already know you want to work with me, take the WorkWithMe session-picker survey at ChannelYourGenius.com/work-with-mellissa/
Mellissa was a Stanford-educated business lawyer until her intuitive abilities awakened in the year 2000 with the birth of her daughter. Now she bridges the worlds of business strategy and intuitive intelligence. Creative designers, Fortune 500 executives, and thought leaders hire her to teach them how to Channel their Genius – to create on demand, to stay in their flow state, and to create lucrative businesses that follow their souls’ calling.