Body-First Healing Podcast

Sami Clarke On Building Self Trust & Finding Alignment through Somatic Healing

• Britt Piper • Episode 35

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After a year of working together, Britt sits down with Sami Clarke, wellness entrepreneur and founder of FORM, to explore what it actually looks like to move from overthinking and shutdown into a more embodied, trusting relationship with yourself. Together, they reflect on what changes in your life when you start to build self-trust and how patterns that once felt overwhelming begin to make more sense when viewed through the lens of the nervous system as protection rather than something to fix. Sami shares how learning to slow down, stay with discomfort, and not rush clarity created space for deeper self-trust, stepping into her power, reconnecting to her intuition, and holding more compassion for her younger self. She also opens up about the daily nervous system practices that support her, offering a grounded look at what it means to live your healing rather than just understand it. Tune in to better understand how somatic work can support you in building trust within yourself and your path.


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SPEAKER_01

Welcome to the Body First Healing Podcast. I'm Britt Piper, Survivor Turn Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Aut. If you feel stuck in old patterns, overwhelmed by your emotions, or disconnected from yourself, you're in the right place. Each week, I'll share practical somatic tools, personal stories, and conversations to support you in building a more regulated and embodied life. Because you can't talk your way through healing, you have to feel your way through. Together, we'll explore what it means to come back to yourself and create a life that feels safe enough to fully live in. I am so glad that you're here.

SPEAKER_00

Before I wanted it to be predictable because that felt awesome. And that isn't the growth or the depths of the relationship I am having or meant to have with myself. I'm practicing every single day hearing what my intuition sounds like. My intuition is not here to like mess up my life, but it's here to make sure I'm living the life I am supposed to live.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Body First Healing Podcast. I am your host, Britt Piper. Oh man, you guys, today's episode is a really special one because I am sitting down with someone who I have had the privilege not only of witnessing just out in the world, but also walking alongside of personally. I am joined today by Sammy Clark. She is a Pilates instructor and trainer. She's the co-founder of the Form app and Form Athletic Wear and co-host of the Transform podcast and just someone who has honestly inspired so many women to step into a more intentional and aligned way of living. But I feel like what makes this conversation different is that Sammy is also one of my clients. She has gone through the body first healing program. And over time, she has become a dear friend. And so what you're hearing in this episode isn't just surface level insight. It is a real and honest look at what it means to do this work. And I feel like Sam's story and her journey is just a testament to the power that we have to self-heal, the power that we have to come into alignment with the life that we know is truly meant for us. In our episode today, we talk about navigating uncertainty in life, in relationships, the pressure of being seen online while still kind of finding your footing behind the scenes, how our external success can sometimes mask internal dysregulation and just really what it looks like to slow down, to reconnect with your body, and to make decisions that feel authentic and aligned with your truth and no longer with your survival. So I just love Sam to pieces. I think you guys are going to get so much out of this episode when my podcast manager first heard back the recording. She's like, this is the best thing I've ever heard Sam on. So we are all just so incredibly proud of the work that she has done. And I'm just really grateful that she was willing to sit down and to share just her heart and her history with all of you. So without further ado, let's get into our episode today, guys. Enjoy. Hello, hello, Sammy Clark. How are you today?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I am I'm doing pretty good. I am really grateful to be with you. It is always such a gift to have you in person. And I was just reflecting with you because I was reflecting the other day that we have been working together for a year. And it feels really nice to be here together and celebrate that in April that we'll be together for that long. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

What a full circle moment.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so much has changed.

SPEAKER_00

So much has changed. Boy, oh boy. When I look back at 2025 to now, so much has changed. Yeah. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

Resourcing Exercise

SPEAKER_01

And I'm excited to get into some of that today from a space that really reflects and I feel like honors just all the, oh my goodness, incredible internal, hard, messy, heavy work that we've been doing, but that really you've been doing. It's been just such a gift to really witness it. So how do you feel about starting with some resourcing? I'd love nothing more. Does that feel good? Okay, cool. I'd love nothing more. Yeah. So on the Body First Healing podcast, I do solo episodes, some guest episodes, and then somatic practices. And I thought that we could just start with doing some resourcing to begin. And I'll just be honest, the power just went out in the studio, which is perfect because we're really going to do some resourcing in real time. Our nervous systems need it. But resourcing, I know you guys know here in my community, it's our way of bringing the nervous system into a state of ease and settling and presence. So wherever you're sitting right now, you guys, I'll just invite you for a moment to just start to notice just the inside of your body. Maybe you notice your organs, maybe you start to track muscles. Maybe there's tension, settling, openness somewhere. Maybe you're tracking your bones and your joints, noticing posture, sturdiness. And then for a moment, just begin to follow your breath, and we don't need to force it, we don't need to change it, just observe its rhythm. And noticing just as you breathe in how those muscles, those bones, and the inside body changes. So for me, I'm noticing the diaphragm as I kind of expand. I notice my rib cage open up as I breathe. My chest rises. And then as I exhale, I notice that I kind of soften into my sit bones a little bit. Noticing Sammy is moving her ankles a little. Alright, so breath often brings movement into the body, motility, what we call our life force. And then I'll just invite you for a moment to just explore that one question that we love to ask. How does my body know that I am here right now? So just exploring with the senses, a bit of a scavenger hunt. What can you notice? What can you observe? I'm noticing these filter lights kind of in front of us and little patterns. Just feeling into that support. And for those of you who are sitting, it's always a really great place to anchor into and land. I'm just asking, like, how does it feel to be held right now, to be supported, to be held up? And is there even just a tiny bit of letting go that your back muscles can do right now? Just yielding and kind of surrendering into that support. Sammy, how's that for you from when we first started to now? I'm curious just what shifts you're noticing as we're doing some settling.

SPEAKER_00

I notice a lot of just swallowing that's going on. I was like, she swallowed. Libra always calls that out in our session. She's like, you're doing really good swallow. So I'm swallowing a lot. I also feel spaciousness in my neck, which always is a signal for me. When I my neck wants to like tilt, that's like a real open indicator for me where my body's feeling more relaxed, more open. Even in my voice, it feels a little bit more raspy or a little bit like of a level down.

SPEAKER_01

There's a lot of softening in the eyes, just some lightness in the face, and even just the blinking. It's like a kind of slower orientation. Saw some gentle, just yeah, some hand movement on the legs, some self-touch here. Yeah. And then throughout, I'm not sure if you guys could catch Sammy's noises that she was making. The she's always been very vocal when we're doing our somatic sessions. So yeah, I know what those audible cues are for you. Yeah. Yeah. That was beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was needed. The last time Sammy and I were in this studio, we had some technical difficulties. So we did. Um, yeah, if you guys are curious if this nervous system stuff works, it definitely does. And that is just evidence of the world. It definitely does.

SPEAKER_00

Even the mms, it's it's funny. When I went to the Hoffman process, you're in a classroom of 40 people for seven days straight, and you really get to know each other and you're sharing, you know, your your deepest, darkest things. And at the end of the class, everyone was like, I'm really gonna miss your mms. Yeah. It's like I do those to like really feel safe in my body to like come back to the present moment. And I feel like working with you, I like got to step into that and use it as such a superpower.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Of those mms bringing me so much clarity and closeness and safety.

How Talk Therapy Fell Short

SPEAKER_01

Your yawns are always so loud, too, and wonderful. It's it's you know, the way that we express through the voice is is a way that the nervous system releases energy. And we know that vagus nerve is tied down through the the vocal box and into the gut. And so when we have those guttural like mms, we can feel it through the whole, the whole system. Well, we've been brainstorming and talking about how we want to approach this conversation today, because you've had some big changes in your life, and I really want to honor just your privacy. But I think that maybe what we can touch into today, at least to start, is like what brought you to this space? I think you and I have a similar trajectory of we've been in traditional talk therapy, just talking about like your history with therapy, how that helped you, how maybe it didn't help you, and just how you came to be in a somatic space with me.

SPEAKER_00

Right. So I love this question because I get asked it a lot too of almost where to start, even when you're starting this journey of meeting yourself, is how I would describe my journey. It was a moment or moments in time of me just understanding I wanted to be with myself and not be scared of myself. I wanted to hear thoughts and not want to run away. At the end of the day, I have to go to bed with myself, and I'm the only one in this body. So I'd like to get to know it. And so I remember years ago, I started to invite that in. And I think that I was always searching for answers, which I would recommend to anyone. Like there isn't really answers, it's more of just this beautiful journey of meeting yourself. And so I just got really curious. And the ways that I got curious was yes, speaking to different people. So I did talk therapy. Gosh, I probably was in it for at least a couple years. And that was a really great time, but also a time that I feel like I was in the beginning, so it made sense. Like talk therapy made sense then for me, but where I was going and evolving to, it wasn't allowing me to go to like that next degree. And so I think my journey, I don't want anyone to feel like, you know, talk therapy is bad. It was part of the journey for me to get to this point of working with you and learning about somatics. But for me, it was like I wasn't able to move past a certain point. Like I hit a wall and I was like, I don't think this is gonna take me deeper. There's something else here that's a missing piece. So then as always, I just kind of speak out loud and like ask for the universe or God to show me the way of how to continue to meet myself and what this journey looks like. And I remember just scrolling on social media and your video popped up. And then another nervous system woman that I really loved and cared for too. Your guys' videos kept just kind of appearing on my explore page. And I was like, this is so interesting. Like you were talking about thoughts and how, you know, they are not absolutes, or you were talking about how to actually form this relationship and safety within the body or building capacity. And it was all hitting a note that I didn't understand fully why, but you have to listen to that ping. And there was just a moment, there was like a gut punch for me that I needed to reach out to you. And this was like the next degree that I needed to do of actually letting the body speak rather than so much living in the cognitive talk therapy that I was doing for so long.

Struggling with Intrusive Thoughts & Finding Somatic Work

SPEAKER_01

I love that. I think what you keep touching into here is depth. And I think when we're in the cognitive, you know, when we're doing talk therapy, we're working in that conscious cognitive brain. You're working with conscious thought, and what's beneath and deeper and sub to that is subconscious. And so somatic work, a lot of people think it's like, oh, just shaking stuff out or yeah. But it's really working with our subconscious beliefs, our subconscious patterns and our impulses and reactions and how we show up in the world. So the ways that we shut down, the ways that we run away, the ways that we react. Those aren't things that you can, you know, will your way into or out of. It's things that are really controlled by the body and the nervous system. So I think that that's a beautiful starting point when people feel like I've done something long enough, whether it's therapy, whether it's EMDR, hypno, you know, whatever it might be, there's so many forms of healing and so many modalities out there. And by the way, I think what I loved you said is this is what worked for me. I am not of the belief that there is like a one size fits all or an end-all be all when it comes to the modalities and healing. I look at it as a big old pie and there are different slices. And so for you, the next step was going deeper. Also, you said that you were looking for a lot of the answers outside of yourself. And in the somatic space, what we teach is position and posture yourself to look inward because the answers have actually always been internal all along. And I've seen a lot of that for you like coming into oh, I've had the answers. Even though sometimes they're hard to find. I have a lot of intuition and a lot of guidance. We're gonna speak a lot to that, but I'm curious. So when you came to work with me, are you open to sharing just like what some of uh we could say symptoms or things that you were struggling with in your life at the time that you needed some support with?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I was struggling with a lot of at that time, I was calling them intrusive thoughts. So it was just all day thoughts. And it was like I could not get out of my head. That's the best way I could describe it. From the moment I woke up to the moment I go to sleep, I was having thoughts constantly in my head. And it was like a loud voice. It wasn't quiet, it was so loud and so constant. So it was so dysregulating for me because I feel like I could barely be in a conversation with people. Like you get really good at, you know, doing life because you kind of have to in ways. But there were days where I was so over it and feeling like truly like someone was like pounding my head. So that was the hard thing for me where I knew something needed to shift because I would talk about it in therapy, but it would not go away. It would not go away. So I think the thoughts and the anxiety also threw that to shutting down. So I would get so overwhelmed that I would just completely shut down. Like I'd be like, I just need to go to sleep. So I would sleep a lot. Like I'd be like, get me to bed at 4 p.m. Because if I wake up, maybe it'll stop and then it'd wake up and it would still be there. So I think the thoughts were the most debilitating part.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And we often say that an overthinking mind is an underfeeling body.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

But I'm curious, like, even if um, Sam, when this episode comes out, my homework to you is to go back and listen between how you just responded to the last question and then this one. So even as you're talking about the overthinking, there was animation. I just felt your energy like ramp up. Yeah. I'm curious if you notice that now. You because I'm sure there's part of you that's going back to that period of like the ruminating thoughts and just wanting to go to bed and let it end. Like, are you noticing any of that? Because I'm sensing into that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that I'm like almost free in it. Yeah, I'll say this with my community. My dream is to help women so much. And I know that that's yours too. And I have such a story to share, but it's still so delicate in the way that I feel it. Like I feel the pain of that girl who had those pounding thoughts. Like it still makes me emotional because she was really struggling and I'm still being there for her and forgiving myself and not feeling shame around it. Like I am, I'm really going through such a process still. So I'm so excited to be able to have spaces like this to normalize it and say I still don't have all the answers. I'm still working on it. But it's it was a really tough time for me. And I think I was struggling alone. I didn't share it with a lot of people. I was so confused by it. I was really ashamed of it. I felt like I should be grateful for my life because there was so many amazing things going on. So there was just so much confliction in me. And I think I'm still being there for that girl right now of like, it's okay. But I feel her so deeply of how hard that was. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you for sharing. I'm curious as you're saying that, just what you're noticing now. I'm feeling in the resonance there was some love that was coming up in my system, but just feeling into both of those parts of you. What are you noticing in your body?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I feel when I talk about her separately, I have so much compassion for her. Um your hands over your chest for those of you who aren't watching the video.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Celebrating Moments of Growth

SPEAKER_00

I do. I feel so much compassion for her. I have done a lot of work of going back to childhood and understanding a lot of different things and different ways and different patterns. And I used to play victim to that a lot too. And I think now I'm at such a place where I understand my purpose here is so specific that those things were part of my world to get me to who I am today. And so I think when I have compassion to her too, it's it's from such a place of like I love you, you did so good. But not from a place of like victim, which also feels really huge for me to move through and be in a different place to look at her that way. Can we sit with that for a second?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. Just sit with that celebration for a minute. And hold that just in your thoughts and then just notice what changes in your body. It's a really big shift. So there's a smile. What else are you noticing? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I think I am just celebrating that moment. You know, I I feel like some days I'm not celebrating it, and today I am, and that probably has a lot to do with you sitting here with me. But yeah, I am really proud of her. I'm really proud of her. And it does feel like, oh yeah, this is your path. It like makes sense, even though it doesn't make sense. Like I feel very connected to personally that like we chose to come into this life and you know, create new templates or live a certain one. And I think mine is specific where it's a little messy and it's a little different, and it's me getting on a mic saying, Holy shit, this is hard sometimes. And I'd love to like, yeah, turn around, but I think it's what I'm supposed to be doing here. So I just feel like I'm celebrating this moment that I actually can see it that way rather than feeling like I am a mess and it's been a shit show.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And even when we are a mess, part of what you said too is like, I think this is the path that I'm supposed to, or I think this is the direction. And I think even deeper than that, there's the knowing, but then there's also the feeling part that you've been able to add into this process. Cause yeah, a lot of it doesn't make sense. You know, we were at lunch before this and we're like, our lives sometimes don't make sense, especially when you get into healing. Maybe we could talk about this in a minute. It's not going to make sense as you start to heal and you make choices for yourself that feel more aligned. The outside world is gonna be so confused by it. They might might even push back. And even in our own mind, we're like, does this make sense? Am I making the right choice? But being embodied and being able to follow that intuition is so incredibly powerful. So yeah, just seeing you come into that has been really beautiful. Um, we went from, you know, therapy, traditional therapy, coming into the work with me with overthinking, ruminating thoughts, and then the shutdown. What felt different about somatic work and nervous system work? And how did that support you in working with some of those patterns? And I love that we're not villainizing these patterns. We see them as this is your brain and your body. Brilliant way of trying to keep you in some form of safety, right? Whether it's control or being prepared for the next thing that could happen. But how did coming into your body and starting to do more somatic work, how did that shift things from traditional therapy to this?

SPEAKER_00

The word that comes through boldly when you were just describing that what I felt when I started working with you was not rushed and not having to figure everything out. There was such a space, space, like space for the unknown and the uncertainty and that being okay. And I don't think I allowed myself to feel that. I wanted so much certainty, so much understanding of what was going on, what's next, so that I didn't have to feel so uncomfortable with what was going on in my body. And you gave this crazy amount of space of what if we just sat with that discomfort? What would it feel like to actually feel the heat rising to your jaw? Or what would it feel like to think about that situation and just sit with it? And the space that was given, I didn't abandon myself or leave. I just sat with it. And in that, I got to actually find clarity. And the truth came through rather than the reaction or me speaking from a place of fear. It was, oh, you're not going to abandon me. Great. Then we can actually do this together and find the actual solution. But we also didn't need to find it out in this exact moment. Yeah. So it was like these little itty bitty moments of me not leaving myself and feeling safe enough to stay with the really big feelings or the discomfort or the situations.

Somatic Healing at Work: Moving Slow & Embracing Discomfort

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Oh, that's beautiful. I feel like we live from such an opposite perspective in the world that we live in. Like we want everything fast. We want it done now. We need decisions. We need to know what's what's right, what's not right. And there's such beauty in the unknowing because when we're moving at such a rapid pace, we're often overriding what's meant for us. Like we're not slowing down enough to really let it unfold in the way that it's supposed to. And were you surprised by how gentle the work was? Because I think traditional therapy, we use the analogy a lot of traditional therapy, you're often thrown into the deep end of trauma. Let's talk about the hard stuff, let's get it out, let's process it. It's on this big table, and we're just going to sift through the entire memory book. And we know that we now know, at least you and I know. Um, and those listening know that that can keep you kind of stuck in the past because your nervous system doesn't know the difference between what's back then and what's right now, which is why it reacts and triggers and responds like things are happening in the present. But in somatic work, the analogy is that we walk you into the shallow end and then we give you floaties, we learn how to float, then we learn how to tread, then we dip ourselves deeper down into that deep end, but it never feels overwhelming. Did that surprise you, that gentleness? Because when you move slower, you actually move much deeper. Like you can get to the deep end faster.

SPEAKER_00

The control part of me wanted to be like, why are we moving so slow? Like, what are we what do we mean? This is the magic being in talk therapy for so long and it putting me in such a dysregulated state all the time. Because let me just say to that, and this is for me personally, my story. I relived that trauma patterns, things that honestly did not need to be spoken on. I was almost like searching for things at one point in talk therapy. I'm like, maybe when I was two. That that girl did say that. And that is the reason for why I am like this. I got to a point where I was searching so deeply. And in the end, I ended up being reactive and making decisions that weren't actually coming from like a clear place. So, with you, when we started to move at a pace, I think I was questioning it, but the way that I felt and what I felt to just give you guys an understanding for someone who was in their head so much, I started to be able to like breathe. Like I could have thoughts come through and I could be like, okay, I can move through it. It's okay. And then the next day I would have a clear thought of what to do next. So things, my intuition was coming through. So that's where I was like, this is working, but yeah, it's a pace that is fascinating and it's a pace that is not feeling like in control because you're not like, I don't know, going and figuring it out. You're actually just sitting with it and like being there with it, which was very different and new and not what our world teaches us at all.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. It's weird because you're giving control back to yourself, just different parts of yourself, those intuitive parts that keep you aligned, that keep you on the path. I think what's interesting is that overthinking and trying to control things and control outcomes, it's actually just our way of avoiding pain and stress. Totally. But then, like, we're just prolonging our suffering. And when you think about anything that any growth that we go through, it's gonna come with discomfort. I mean, you're you're a trainer, you know. You want to grow in muscle, you want to grow in anything. Like you want stronger bones, it's gonna take small fractures of running, it's gonna take going to the gym and doing something that doesn't feel comfortable. Your body, your nervous system, your soul, and your spirit, they operate in the same way. And so I think that what I've gotten to in my healing and what I have seen so many people do that I work with is it's almost like they start to not run from pain, not run from discomfort, but almost like gravitate towards it.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And they're not doing it in a way of like, I'm gonna go punish myself, but it's like it's that knowing of like, oh, where there's discomfort, there's gonna be growth and there's gonna be more connection to myself. Yeah. So I'm curious how your relationship to pain and obstacles and challenges, like how that has changed. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

When you were speaking to that, I was thinking about the things I'm uncomfortable about was because they are uncomfortable. Like I am uncomfortable that I'm about to make a really big life change, or I'm questioning my relationship. Like when I think about that, I'm like, of course I'm uncomfortable, right? Like it's it makes sense. Or if I'm questioning work, or if I'm questioning my friends, like that's uncomfortable. And I think if I've learned anything is we are here to evolve and we are here to grow. And I think staying the same, looking to your left and the right, and the people are the exact same, or you're in the same place, that feels really safe in a way that you don't have to feel uncomfortable. But that's not the life that I chose to live. And I feel like that's not the human experience. So the more that I also got to understand, like, yeah, you are feeling uncomfortable as hell because you're kind of thinking about leaving your relationship right now. So can we give that space of like that makes sense? But we don't need to decide right now, but that makes sense why you're feeling really anxious. And if we actually give that space, the truth will come through. So I just like want to speak to the reality of I think we're supposed to feel uncomfortable, but it's not really talked about or shown. And the more that I allow myself to know that every hard thing has always brought me to the greatest things in life. Like truly, when I think about my journey, how I've started my community, how I've had my relationships, is all because I put myself in uncomfortable positions. And on the other side of that is getting to know myself more, is loving myself more, is going deeper. But it is really challenging when it looks messy or it looks like I imagine people were like, what the hell is that girl doing over there? Like turning her life zigzags sideways. And I'm like, yeah, I am, because I am here for a human experience. And it definitely is looking like I'm gonna try some things, I'm gonna question some things. That's a big thing too in this in this work that I've done with you, is it's a loud space of curiosity. I am so curious if I like that. I'm so curious what I want my future relationships to look like. I'm so curious of how I want my days to look. And before I wanted it to be predictable because that felt awesome. And that isn't the growth or the depths of the relationship I am having or meant to have with myself. Thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_01

Uh, I'm gonna speak to it in a second, but I'm curious if you can just notice what's going on in your body.

SPEAKER_00

I think I'm feeling like a lot of energy and like a lot of passion and a lot of like weer about this subject.

SPEAKER_01

I literally was thinking a lion. I'm like rar.

How to Step into Your Power

SPEAKER_00

When I like let myself actually say my truth, I get so like rar. Yeah. You know, like I do turn into this like passionate lion.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Can we be with that for a sec? Yeah, yeah. Does that come up?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. She's really cool and she takes up space. And that's something I also have been leaning into. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just I felt that for me, just the energy rising. And I I think it's beautiful. And I think it's just showing that you're just here naturally, right? Like I think this is, as you were saying, all along the path that you were supposed to be on. And I love that you're teaching women something different. Not that your community is just exclusively women, but I know it's a lot of women. But as women, we have kind of fell into just these patterns of like self-silencing. Yeah. You know, I think that's why women are proportionately more ill, you know, chronic illness than men, 83% more um chronically ill than men are. And I think it's because we suffer in silence, we play the part, we play the roles, we don't push past others' boundaries for the sake of keeping the peace. And I think what's beautiful about what you're doing is recognizing that for you, you don't want to remain stagnant in life. And that growth comes with change. And that change doesn't mean failure. It means that you're just stepping into new versions of you over and over and over again. And that's what evolving is, you know? So I'll just jump to one of the questions that we received on Instagram for you, and then we can circle back to other things. But since we're in our lion energy right now, someone did say you've been stepping into your power. How do you do that? I think other people are curious, like, how do you step into your power?

SPEAKER_00

And I know you just spoke to that a little bit, but I freaking love this question because if you're asking it, like you're ready to do the same. And I think I just want to speak to what you were saying of where women are and have been in this world. And I believe we are in a time where women are truly disrupting like the way that things have been. Like we've been in disrupting it, but it's like happening to such a degree right now where it is so uncomfortable. And I think also people around probably feel the uncomfortableness too. And that is something I'm having to completely trust in. And that's power. Like to trust yourself and advocate for yourself and say, say something and feel like, yeah, I feel I feel really glad that I said that rather than like wanting to take it back. That's power. And even if I changed my mind tomorrow, like I'm glad that I said it. And so I think being honest is the biggest way that I have stepped into my power. And honesty was asking for help. Like, think about being honest. It doesn't mean you have to say something that blows up your whole world. But honesty for me was finally saying, like, I need real help. Like, I need to get help. And Brit was there to be a woman and a pillar in my life. So I think it's trusting what is coming through is for you. And you are here to be in a purpose, do things that might be different from the person to your left, to your right. But the more that you resist, the more it persists. And it's going to get so loud, and you are not going to be able to feel like you are living in your truth. And your truth is your power. So I would invite people in to just like be really honest. Like in your days, small little doses of it. Like I started to be really honest of like, do I like that color? Do I like that restaurant? Do I actually like that music? Because let me tell you, I was the girl that flowed. Like I flowed in a way where I didn't really want to make the temperature change and I would exist. And now I'm like causing a little bit of discomfort for a lot of people. I'm saying things that make people feel really uncomfortable. And I have to allow them to feel uncomfortable and me not take that on. And me just know that I am doing everything I can from love and trusting myself. And that is the most powerful thing that I can do.

SPEAKER_01

I'm just over here. I'm just like a cheerleader.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, because you've seen, you've seen a lot. So thank you for that. Yeah.

What Sami Wish She Knew About Healing

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. No, that's beautiful. Gosh. And such an encouragement to others and a testament to women to just how strong and powerful we can be. And really what you're speaking to here is that healthy aggression that we talk about, that life force and being able to be with healthy aggression. Like, my goodness, women are taught, you know, to avoid that at all costs. So I think this is a good segue because, you know, you've been sharing a lot about nervous system and somatic work on your page. And I think it's wonderful and incredible. And nervous system is having its moment, which we love to see because we know how transformational it can be. But I think there's a lot of misconceptions out there around nervous system work and maybe just healing in general. Healing is that it's about getting past something, moving on, and never having to be like bothered and you know, activated and triggered by it again. And in the nervous system space, it's about being calm, cool, and collected all the time, which we know is not exactly the case. But yeah, what are some, if you'd be open to sharing, uncomfortable truths or just things that you've been learning, whether it's healing, whether it's nervous system, just some things that you want to set the record straight, just to like prepare people for what this work can really look like.

SPEAKER_00

I think one thing that I wish I would have known before in this space is there isn't one path. Like even working with you or diving into this work and the healing, I would still compare the pace I was going to others. And when I started to learn that my specific nervous system, even is so specific to me and personal, it gave me permission to just continue staying on my path and trusting myself. And that's a gift I would like love to give anyone. I was like, you can't look at anyone else's or compare because their journey is so different from yours, their mission, their purpose, it's all so different. So I think trusting yours and like not looking to other people's, being inspired, but not comparing. I think the staying calm thing, that was my goal. Like the finding you was like, just make me calm all the time. Like, and you're like, well, it's crazy because we actually go down that ladder about 40, whatever many times in a day. So I think the feeling like, yeah, you're supposed to be calm all the time or supposed to be in regulation all the time.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and that kind of speaks to what you were just saying about can you be with the discomfort? Right. There's the whole like hashtag unbothered thing, like the art of detachment and being unbothered. And I think that's great in some ways because we don't want to give our power away, but also we're supposed to be bothered and disrupted by life and activated, yeah, which is not that calmness. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, I love that. I I honestly think I wanted to be like a monk, like I wanted to be not affected by anything. Like that was a lot of the YouTube videos or podcasts or books I was reading when I was really going through it. Is I was like, do I need to go move to a mountain and you know, run away? And I think, yeah, I can have moments of that, but actually understanding that this healing journey is also not just like straight up. Like there's days where I feel like I went, I went 10 steps backwards, but I do that in quotes because I know I'm not actually going backwards. But it isn't, it isn't this like leap and then you never visit it again. Like it is a constant thing that I am inviting in and learning about myself and continuing to learn new modalities. Like I love that nervous system is having a moment. And I'm like also curious of like, how can I continue like processing and how can I continue being there for myself? So I think understanding that healing, there's not like a finish line. I wanted the finish line, but there is no finish line. I also like if you have one, holler at me. And I think leaning on your village or asking for help is something that I wish I would have done a lot sooner. I think, especially with social media, it looks like everyone's doing awesome. And as we both learned, I just shared a lot of my struggles and what was going on. Like, people aren't sharing it. And a lot of people are struggling alone. And I think if you actually start speaking about it with people you feel safe with, or I like to call in like expanders, like you are one for me. I have people online that have never met me, but they're expanders in my life. It's like people that actually make you feel really heard, really safe. Like that's really important to belong in this time is really, really, really important. And I wish I would have done that sooner for sure.

SPEAKER_01

It's beautiful. Do you feel like there's been any kind of trickle effect or ripple effect to your healing in terms of your relationships, your work, your family? Because what I have found is that when people start to do nervous system work, it's like everyone else around them is like, I can feel this, I can sense this. Like you don't just have more knowing about your life. There is something that feels different about you because your nervous system is a feeling system and it starts to emit out this frequency of regulation and expansion. So yeah, I'm curious just how you've seen that impact just other pillars of your life.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, definitely. I will say that I've seen a lot of other people come forward with truth when I came forward with like being more in my nervous system, which was really wild to witness and really powerful to witness a lot of women in my life. I think what I felt, yeah, from others and people would say it is I didn't even have to like say words. It was just, it really was like a felt sense. Like people would be like, why do I feel this around you or why do I feel safe to share these things, or why do you feel like I truly wouldn't say words, but why do you feel so calm and safe? Safety in the way that like they could be vulnerable and I could hold the space for their vulnerability. And it was in a way where I didn't have to comfort them or overextend myself. It was a way where I was just so in my body that they felt like for some reason I just want to like share my heart with you and like thank you for that without me even saying words.

SPEAKER_01

It's your capacity because you've been growing your capacity to contain and hold yourself, and people see that and they're like, is there room for me in there? Because oftentimes they don't have that capacity for themselves. And so we lean on others when we can't, you know, maybe when we're having a hard time on our own. Yeah. You should be a somatic practitioner.

SPEAKER_00

You know anyone who's teaching a course?

SPEAKER_01

Oh man. Um, it's been really beautiful to witness. It really has. Just your journey. And I know that we're continuing on it. How do you see this playing out, right? Like how do you plan to continue using somatic and nervous system work? Because I know when you came in, it was about using these tools, and this is really what it is. It's about starting to access the innate tools that you have within that have always been there. And you use them at a really difficult season of your life. I know we're still in the difficult moment sometimes, but you've come into such a knowing, such a felt sense of direction and alignment and intuition. Let's actually talk on that real quick. Hold on. Intuition, because this is a question I get all the time. And then I want to end with some of your routines. For anyone who's like, gosh, she's making such big choices. How did she know that that was the right choice? Which is there a right choice or is it just an aligned choice? But what would you say about following intuition versus is that not intuition?

How to Connect with Your Intuition

SPEAKER_00

Well, if you listen to the voice notes that I send Britt, this is my this is my question to her quite often. And I just want to be like transparent. It's it's a practice, it's a muscle I'm building. When you have overridden your intuition for quite some time, you bet that voice gets really quiet. And so think of it like going to the gym. I have to put this into practice all the time. So I'm practicing every single day, hearing what my intuition sounds like. And we have many voices going on. We have protectors, you know, I've done a lot of IFS work where I really can distinguish from like the inner child work, the ones that are protecting me, you know, the ego, we could go on. And for me to distinguish the voice, it's still a practice. Some days it's clear as hell. I'm like, I see you, I'm in it, I feel it. And some days I'm like, whoa, we got so many going on in here. This is probably a day where I shouldn't make a lot of crazy decisions because I'm just feeling a lot of different things. So I just want to like humanize that. But I think how I started to connect to my intuition was being honest. Even if that decision or that statement I was saying wasn't true, it needed to come out of me. Like it needed to truly like come out of my body. And underneath it was a lot of emotion. So what ended up happening is I was giving myself such a process of a lot of the times. It just needed to like, yeah, shake things out, cry, be angry. And after that, my intuition was like, hey, girl. So what I want you to do is I actually want you to do X, Y, and Z. And it's gonna be the best thing that you could ever do for yourself. And that feeling, you can't deny that like voice that it feels so true and it feels so safe, actually. Even if it's asking you something really big, it's like I could never deny this voice. It almost feels like if God was coming down and saying, like, this is where I want you to do. So I started to continue taking action on it. I would speak to, like, say I had, I spoke about this on one of my episodes. I actually had a curiosity about my sexuality for a little bit. And that was scary for me as hell. I'm like, what do you? And this was post-me breaking up. I'm like, now I might be a lesbian. Shit. And the best thing I could do was not freak out, not be reactive. And instead just saying, like, all right, if this is my intuition, let me give it some life. So I gave it a little bit of life. I talked to a friend about it, people I trust that love me. I talked out loud about it. And I said, if you are, it's okay. And I allowed that like safety to come into my body, that capacity to build of like, if this is the case, we will be okay. Like, we will be okay. And that was really important for me to feel. And what do you know? I gave it space, I gave it life. And then my intuition was like, cool, we are just seeing how open we were. And I think we're pretty open and you have lots of love to give. But I, but yeah, you want to be in a relationship with a man. Like that was the journey of me learning about myself. And where I think that stems from is there's so much programming of us coming on earth and how things are supposed to go. That like I think I'm deprogramming and my intuition is bringing me back to like me and who I am. So it makes sense that it's so disruptive and uncomfortable because my intuition is not here to like mess up my life, but it's here to make sure I'm living the life I am supposed to live. So that's how my intuition and I are working together. It's a relationship. Like I am vibing with her some days, and some days I'm like, I don't want to call that friend and say that thing that I we both feel, but I know that this is how I actually grow. And it always is actually there for you. It actually is seeing the bigger picture rather than what we see right now. So little, little, little truths every day was really big for me.

Sami’s Daily Nervous System Routine

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, and I love that you're talking about how it's aligned action, following aligned action steps every day and not necessarily getting caught up on the right steps. And yeah, the relationship piece that you were speaking to the whole time, I was like, she's talking about relationship. She's talking about how she's relating to herself, how she's loving herself, how she's listening to herself, attuning to herself. And sometimes we can get really caught up in the regulation techniques and the somatic things, and what do I do? And it's like if you're doing that from a relational standpoint of I need to override, I need to fix, I need to get rid of this activation in my body, then the regulation is kind of fabricated. You know, it's not intuitive, it's not aligned. Oh, that was beautiful. Well, as we bring it to a close, I just want to ask one more question. So, someone from our wonderful Instagram community wants to know what your morning and nightly nervous system routine is. And maybe we don't even call it like maybe you don't, for me, I don't call it a nervous system routine, but just what do you feel like are some things that you do that really support your your system and just staying in your aligned self?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. I think my morning and night routine has changed and evolved over the years, but I remember in the beginning, what was really important for me in my routine, then I'll say mine now, was again being honest, where I asked myself how I feel. And I know this is like really something big that you ask your community to ask to. So I would, I would truly journal and I would allow myself to actually say how I felt without judging it. So I would, you know, if I felt angry, like I would allow whatever needed to come out and I'd be like, oh, I'm feeling some anger. And that was really important for me to call out. Like it felt significant. Then I didn't really know why, but it felt significant. And so now my routine that's really important, one of them is journal speaking. So I do a journaling routine in the morning and I'll do like 20 minutes where I truly am just like writing everything that wants to come out. You do too. Yeah, I've I've started doing that over the past four months and it's been well, obviously it's been wonderful.

SPEAKER_01

It's changed my life in lots of ways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And does, and that's what I think this whole like so much of this episode I'm speaking to is like being honest, where there's parts that need to come out. They just need to come out. So that's what journal speaking has done for me. It's allowed so much to come out that in the end, either sometimes I see patterns in that, I'm like, oh, you just need this, or oh, you do need to have that conversation, or really none of this needs to even be looked at. And we can just like throw it and put it in the trash. But that felt really good. So that's a huge part of my routine. I also do meditation. I love meditation. I change it up all the time. But right now I use the open app. I love that app, or I'll use form our app, which I love. And that ranges from five to like 30 minutes. I'm not someone that actually has a crazy disciplined, like it has to be the same every day. But I've really like grown to be that way. I used to have more discipline and now I can like really be flexible with it. But meditation allows me to build that capacity to be with that discomfort. Cause when I'm sitting in meditation, yeah, you bet I have some thoughts coming through, or maybe some feelings or anxious about, oh my gosh, we have this day coming. That is like a huge tool for me to just like be like, we're okay. We can sit with it. What do you need? So I love um meditation. A huge thing I've also been doing is actually speaking out loud my day. So I'll speak to it like I'm talking to a friend that it already happened. And I'll be like, oh my gosh, it was the best day. I saw Brit. We had the craziest, best conversation. I was so centered. Like I'm truly walking through the entirety of the day. And what I have seen is the day literally plays out that way. It's the craziest.

SPEAKER_01

I've been doing that. I have a 2027 Brit voice note that I recorded, and then I listen to it, but she also walks through, like, this is what happened in 2026, and the stuff is starting to unfold.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm like, there's like magic sauce. There's magic. There's magic sauce in it. Yeah. I so agree. It's something only recent that I've been doing, and I'm like, the day will end. I'm like, that was the exact day. Get into the bed. Yeah, like you can go see the sunset wasn't the plant. Like it's crazy. Yeah. So I think that's a really huge tool. I think nutrition honestly is a huge. Like, I have food right when I wake up. I always feel better when I do that instead of like caffeine for myself, like a smoothie moving my body. Music is such a huge resource for me in the morning. Like I have my playlist that is like, again, when I need to release some anger, like I'm flipping the frickin' sky off. I put that song on, or when I just need to dance and like have some fun. Music's a huge resource for me to come into my body, which is my goal in the morning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So I just recorded an episode called my mental health toolkit because people ask, like, what do you do? What are your routines? I will have to send you the episode. You'll have to listen to it because it's almost exactly what you just said, which doesn't surprise me at all. All right, beautiful. Well, let's start to bring this to a close before you share just how people can, you know, get in touch with you. You're doing incredible work in the world. Like we're just sitting here talking about how incredible you are as a person, but you're also just such a powerhouse. You do wonderful things. But what's next for you? What are you hoping for? Let's titrate it. Just in the coming month or two, what are you excited about? What's bringing you to life right now?

SPEAKER_00

Conversations like this, I'm really excited about. I think being more open about my journey is something that I've been really waiting for. I think a lot of people have been waiting for because I think a lot of people want to do the same. And that makes me excited because I was looking to people and wanting the same as well. So I'm excited to continue to feel safe in sharing my journey to whatever capacity. So conversations like this, I'm coming out with a series on my podcast that's all around how to trust yourself and love yourself. And in there, I'm just speaking to exactly what we're talking about, the tools that I've used, the journey that I've been on, the decisions and how I got there. And I hope it's just like an extension for people to feel like they can do it too. So I feel really excited about that. And I can sense that. Yeah, I can feel into that. Yeah. Makes me happy. Um, and then I think just like continuing to truly be my biggest cheerleader. Like having this moment today was such a win for me of celebrating where I'm at. And I would love to continue feeling that and continuing making sure I am celebrating me. Like we celebrate all the people around us. Yeah. But to actually pause and tell myself, like, you know, you're you're actually doing awesome. And I'm so proud of you. I want to continue doing that in this next month.

SPEAKER_01

One of the biggest words I picked up on from our conversation today was flexibility. You mentioned the word flexibility so much, whether it's flexibility in life, changing path, changing course. So if anyone could take anything away from today's conversation, it would be that you also posted about flexibility and capacity on your page. So if you're not following Sammy, make sure that you go follow her. She'll share that in a second. There's a last question that I always ask every guest on the podcast. And that is if you could say one quick and loving thing to a younger version of yourself, what would you say? I know that's a especially for us who do parts work, that's a big question. But yeah, if you could talk to your younger self, any version of you, and say one thing, what would that be?

SPEAKER_00

To trust her path. Like truly to not compare or care about how anyone else has done it and know that you are creating new magic in the world. And the best way you can do that is actually by trusting your own path.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I just love and adore you. You're incredible. How can people get in touch with you? How can they connect with you? How can they learn from you? Yeah. Share all the ways.

SPEAKER_00

If you I absolutely can, and I know this is coming to a close, but I do want to say for anyone listening, Britt has been such a pivotal person in my life, and it is such a gift to have you. And I just want to say thank you for everything that you have done for yourself, because in the end, it has impacted so many, but deeply me, to be able to get to this point where I'm sitting here and I feel so safe and I feel so celebrated and I feel in my power. Like you have such a big part of that. So I just want to say thank you so much. It's not even words that can like truly do it justice, but the life that I'm living is a reflection of you being a part of that. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01

That's sweet. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

You can find me at Sammy Clark across everything. And how do you spell Clark? C-L-A-R-K-E. And then Sammy's S-A-M-I. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you guys can also find all of my goodness that I share, which is workouts, nutrition plans, meditations, everything on form. We have like an active worse side, and then we also have a podcast called Transformer Brit is about to come on too and have a really awesome conversation too. So you guys can come listen to that. She's coming on for the second time because the community literally was so obsessed. But yeah, you can find us there.

SPEAKER_01

Well, this was just honestly such a treat. It's been a full circle moment, and I've just been so thrilled to be a part of it and to just witness it. It really is just so life-giving. So thank you for sharing your heart. Thank you for sharing your story with us, your wisdom, beautiful soul. Guys, go give Sammy a follow. Love on her. Let us know in the comments what you thought about this podcast episode. Be sure to share it. And we will see you again next week on the Body First Healing Podcast. Bye. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Body First Healing podcast. If this episode resonated with you, I would be so grateful if you subscribed, left a review, or shared it with someone that you love. I'll see you back here next week. And until then, be gentle with yourself. You're doing the best you can with what you have, and that is more than enough. Just a quick note this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. Always consult a qualified provider for personal support.