On belonging without safety, pleasure as resistance, and what the body remembers when the world forgets. With Sage Hayes, hosted by Amel Murphy.

What does belonging actually feel like in the body, especially when the world doesn't feel safe?

Sage Hayes has spent over two decades working as a somatic practitioner, and this conversation gets to the heart of what that means in practice. Not the theory of it; the lived, embodied reality of trying to stay connected to yourself when survival keeps getting in the way.

Sage and Amel explore why safety and belonging are not the same thing, why pleasure is the first thing the nervous system sacrifices under stress, and what it actually takes to keep returning to yourself, your community, your aliveness, when the world makes that very hard.

"We're worth it without having to do anything for it." — Sage Hayes

EPISODE GUIDE

Opening ritual and introduction

Sage on Peaks Island, the Wabanaki people, and gender as a both/and

Displacement, adoption, and the pull toward belonging

The dream Sage is attending to: disrupting violence, rekindling connection

Belonging and safety: do we need one before we can have the other?

Justice in the Body: what it means to feel justice inside when the world won't give it to you

Pleasure as practice: why survival mode crowds out joy, and how to find your way back

Amel's story from Zimbabwe: the women's circle, the heavy walk, and the shake

Listening between the lines: rhythm, elders, and nature as teachers

Sage's closing seed: who we are is worth it, together

ABOUT SAGE HAYES

Sage Hayes (she/he/they) is a healing arts practitioner with over two decades of experience in Somatic Experiencing, bodywork, and biodynamic craniosacral therapy. They are an ecstatic dance DJ, a facilitator of family and systemic constellations, and the founder of Justice in the Body, a somatic wellness practice grounded in the question: what can justice in our body feel like today, even in conditions of ongoing injustice? Sage lives on Peaks Island, Maine, with their dog Thelma Jean.

https://embodiedliberation.com/

ABOUT AMEL MURPHY

Amel is the founder of Embodied Beings. She grew up between cultures, and it was the body, not the book, that first taught her what belonging feels like. For over twenty years, she has worked at the intersection of personal healing and collective change, supporting leaders, communities, and changemakers to come into right relationship with themselves, each other, and the world around them. This podcast was born from that inquiry, and from the belief that stories, told honestly, are medicine.

www.embodied-beings.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amelmurphy

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Music by HappinessInMusic from Pixabay.