The Embodied Jewish Woman with Rena Reiser

361 - Expression Is Medicine: What Journaling Does to Your Nervous System

When my husband and I were first married, I suffered from chronic migraines, back pain, and other physical symptoms. What I've come to understand since then is that my body was doing the only thing it knew how to do: expressing through pain what I wasn't letting myself express. In this episode, we talk about the connection between self-expression and physical and emotional wellbeing — and specifically, about journaling as a tool for regulation, healing, and bringing out what's inside you. We get into: - why the brain creates physical pain to distract us from emotional pain (Dr. Sarno's work) - the one thing that finally helped me feel safe enough to journal - non-dominant hand writing and what it does to the brain - how I journal in a focusing way - the two different types of expression I use - the balance between expression and silence - the Torah idea that each of us has something completely unique to bring into the world

360 - The Iceberg Within: Radical Self-Honesty and the Path Forward

We're back! After almost two months away - because life here has been a lot - I'm so glad to be back with a new episode, and as always, joined by my husband Rabbi Yonasan Reiser. This week we're talking about being honest with ourselves. The kind of honesty that requires us to look underneath the surface - at the beliefs, the feelings, the needs, the thoughts that are quietly running the show whether we acknowledge them or not. We talk about why we avoid this kind of honesty, what happens when we don't feel our feelings (including a powerful Torah insight about anger and hatred), and what it actually means to embody something. We also get into shame, compassion, the language of the body, and why focusing is so powerful as a gentle path to self-discovery - one hair at a time.

359 - Coping Mechanisms: What they are, why you do them, and how to stop judging yourself for them

It's been a week. In this episode, my husband Rabbi Yonasan Reiser and I sit down to talk about something that's been very alive right now: coping mechanisms in a real, honest, this-is-what-our-nervous-systems-actually-do way. We talk about what coping mechanisms actually are, why we can't just decide to stop doing them, and why the self-deprecation that comes after — the memes, the jokes, the haha-I-ate-everything — is actually just another coping mechanism sitting on top of the first one. I share what my own coping has looked like during this war. My husband shares his. We get into soldiers and dissociation and bitachon. And we close with the idea that during times of intense pressure, the small steps we manage to take — the tiny bits of awareness, the moments of trying — carry exponential weight. Neurologically and spiritually. The olive doesn't reveal its light until it's pressed. This one's for anyone who's been a little hard on themselves lately for how they're coping. Which is probably most of us.

358 - Somatic mindfulness practice: Coming home to your body after the chaos

Purim is over. Your nervous system might not know that yet. The body doesn't reset the moment the seuda ends. It takes time to unwind from noise, from running, from giving, from holding everything together — or from not quite managing to. The activation lingers. The tension stays tucked into places you might not even notice until you slow down enough to feel them. This week's practice is a somatic tracking exercise — moving through the body with curiosity, resting wherever your attention is drawn, noticing what each part is still holding, and letting it know you're there. There's a line from the practice I want to offer you before you listen: "You might feel like you're not doing very much. But you're doing so much for your system." That's the paradox of this kind of work. Presence — just being with what's there — is not passive. It's how stuck energy begins to move. What is your body most ready to put down after this week? Listen here.

353 - The Purim episode is here

We recorded this one fast — "recording in 30 minutes, send your questions" fast. The questions that came in were honest ones. About the weight of expectations, the mishloach manos pressure, the teenagers you can't control, the joy you're supposed to feel but don't. The life force that feels stifled. My husband and I sat with all of it. Before you press play: What's the one thing about Purim you're most bracing yourself for? Freilichen Purim, Rena