Episode 97: Feminine Shame & the Female Nervous System

In this episode, Charli spontaneously joins her Facebook community live to speak about something she's been seeing come up again and again: with clients, in her Circle community, and, most recently, on her Wild Awakening Crete retreat. Feminine shame. This isn't a polished, prepared talk. It's honest, personal, and real, which is exactly why it resonates. Charli covers the difference between guilt and shame, why shame lives in the body and not just the mind, what feminine shame actually is and how our culture programs it into us from birth, how it shows up physically — in our health, our hormones, our nervous system — and what it actually takes to begin healing it. Not affirmations or positive thinking, something much more honest than that. Charli also shares her own experience of living in chronic shame and anxiety, and why she no longer sees PTSD as a disorder but as a nervous system response to chronic stress. If you've ever felt like there's something fundamentally wrong with you, this episode is for you. Mentioned in this episode: 🍃 Wild Awakening free Facebook group  🍃 The Circle — online membership (£24.99/month)  🍃 Feminine Shame & the Female Nervous System mini programme (coming soon, ~£33) 🍃 Charli's coaching video from 2018 🍃 Wild Awakening retreats: book a free call with Charli    Wild Awakening Circle  Community Membership: Join our LIVE monthly feminine: transmission, plus 2 group calls per month. £24.99 per month (Plus replays available).  https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeni...   WILD AWAKENING RETREATS:  Spain: https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/wild-awakening-retreats-in-spain-2026 UK (Norfolk): https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/wild-awakening-retreats-in-norfolk-2026 Crete: https://app.gohighlevel.com/v2/preview/ui7Ke23yy9FQ8mXwCW5A?notrack=true Book a call to talk about the Wild Awakening Retreats here: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widge... JOIN MY WILD AWAKENING COMMUNITY: Wild Awakening Facebook Community:   / understandingyourfemininenature   Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dea... 🌺 FREE PROGRAMMES HERE:  https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/your-wild-awakening-begins-here

This is a transmission originally shared inside Charli's Circle, now released more widely following a recent live conversation. Grief and Grace explores grief through a feminine lens… not as something to fix or move through quickly, but as a cyclical, embodied experience that asks to be honoured. Shared in the midst of personal loss, this transmission speaks to the weight of grief… and the quiet intelligence within it. 🌿 In this episode, we explore: Grief as "making heavy"—the embodied experience in the body The cyclical nature of grief, reflected in seasons, moon phases, and the feminine body The cultural conditioning that encourages suppression ("keep going", "hold it together") Trauma looping and the cost of unexpressed emotion Grief as a universal experience: personal, collective, and global The connection between grief and the metal element (Chinese medicine), lungs, and letting go The importance of honouring the "winter phase" or dark descent The relationship between grief, renewal, and quiet rebirth The myth of Demeter and Persephone as a mirror for loss and return 🌿 This work & the retreats The themes explored in this transmission are deeply woven into Charli's retreat spaces. Within Wild Awakening Retreats, women are supported to: Safely feel and process emotion held in the body Move beyond suppression and disconnection Honour their own cycles, including grief, rest, and descent Be witnessed in their truth without judgement or fixing These spaces are not about bypassing pain…but about meeting it with presence, capacity, and support. 🌿 Continue the journey If this transmission resonates, you may wish to explore: Wild Awakening Retreats (Crete, Spain, Norfolk) The Circle⭕Charli's online space for ongoing support, teachings, and shared experience 🌿 Reflection As you listen, you might gently consider: What have I been taught about grief? Where do I suppress or avoid feeling? What would it feel like to allow the weight… without rushing it away? Wild Awakening Circle  Community Membership: Join our LIVE monthly feminine: transmission, plus 2 group calls per month. £24.99 per month (Plus replays available).  https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeni...   WILD AWAKENING RETREATS:  Spain: https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/wild-awakening-retreats-in-spain-2026 UK (Norfolk): https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/wild-awakening-retreats-in-norfolk-2026 Crete: https://app.gohighlevel.com/v2/preview/ui7Ke23yy9FQ8mXwCW5A?notrack=true Book a call to talk about the Wild Awakening Retreats here: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widge... JOIN MY WILD AWAKENING COMMUNITY: Wild Awakening Facebook Community:   / understandingyourfemininenature   Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dea... 🌺 FREE PROGRAMMES HERE:  https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/your-wild-awakening-begins-here

In this live transmission, Charli opens a space to speak about her Wild Awakening Retreats…but as often happens, the conversation moves far beyond logistics. This episode explores the deeper terrain beneath "readiness"—the quiet threshold many women find themselves standing at when something in life no longer fits. Drawing on her work in feminine energetics and the female nervous system, Charli speaks into the patterns so many women live inside… holding everything together, overriding their bodies, and feeling disconnected from themselves despite appearing to cope. This is not a conversation about fixing or becoming someone new…but about coming back into relationship with what is already there. 🌿 In this episode, we explore: What readiness really looks like (and why it rarely feels like certainty) The unseen beliefs shaping your choices and life experience "The water we are swimming in", unconscious conditioning and inherited patterns The nervous system's role in what feels safe, allowed, or possible The masks women wear to feel safe (people-pleasing, over-functioning, the "good girl") The Inanna myth and the descent into the underworld as a feminine threshold Why it's not really about time or money… but capacity, safety, and self-permission The difference between guilt ("I have done something wrong") and shame ("I am wrong") The quiet inner voice beneath the noise—and how to begin listening 🌿 About the retreats Charli hosts Wild Awakening Retreats in Crete, Spain, and Norfolk. These are not simply retreats to relax or escape…they are immersive spaces where women can: Reconnect with their bodies and nervous systems Explore the deeper patterns shaping their lives Be witnessed in a non-judgemental, female-led space Soften out of chronic doing, holding, and performance Begin building capacity to feel, receive, and choose differently Each retreat is co-created with the women inside it, with ongoing connection through a private WhatsApp group before and after the experience. 🌿 Ongoing support For women who want to continue this work beyond the retreats, Charli offers her online community: The Circle ⭕ is a space for continued exploration, shared experience, and deeper integration through feminine-led teaching, transmissions, and community. 🌿 A note If you find yourself listening and feeling a pull…but also hesitation… resistance… or uncertainty…This episode invites you to gently explore what sits beneath that, because to be in relationship with something…we have to know what the thing is. Wild Awakening Circle  Community Membership: Join our LIVE monthly feminine: transmission, plus 2 group calls per month. £24.99 per month (Plus replays available).  https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeni...   WILD AWAKENING RETREATS:  Spain: https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/wild-awakening-retreats-in-spain-2026 UK (Norfolk): https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/wild-awakening-retreats-in-norfolk-2026 Crete: https://app.gohighlevel.com/v2/preview/ui7Ke23yy9FQ8mXwCW5A?notrack=true Book a call to talk about the Wild Awakening Retreats here: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widge... JOIN MY WILD AWAKENING COMMUNITY: Wild Awakening Facebook Community:   / understandingyourfemininenature   Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dea... 🌺 FREE PROGRAMMES HERE:  https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/your-wild-awakening-begins-here

In this episode of Courage, Dear Heart, I'm joined by the wonderful Rachel Corby — personal rewilding coach, plant whisperer, author, and guide into a deeper, more reciprocal relationship with the living world. I first found Rachel's work through her book Rewild Yourself, at a time in my own life when I was beginning to come back to nature in a much more conscious way. This conversation felt like such a special one. Together, we explore Rachel's early awakening to plant communication during her geography degree, and how that experience opened her to a completely different way of relating to the world — one rooted not in separation, but in connection, listening, and trust. We speak about what courage really means, the importance of inner trust, and how our relationship with plants, trees, breath, and the natural world can help us remember something many of us have forgotten: that we are not separate from nature — we are nature. We also talk about: what "plant whispering" actually is how to begin tuning in, even in the middle of a busy life the healing power of slowing down and paying attention the reciprocal relationship between humans and the more-than-human world why disconnection from nature may sit beneath so much modern stress, anxiety, and emptiness indigenous plants, native plant ceremonies, and the wisdom of the land we live on kincentrism, and what becomes possible when we begin to see all beings as relations rather than resources This is a rich, thoughtful, and deeply grounding conversation about belonging, reverence, and remembering the wider family we are part of. If you've been feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, or hungry for a more rooted way of being, I think this episode will speak to you. In this episode, Rachel shares: how her connection with plants began in a remote Scottish valley in the 1990s Why courage, for her, means trust Simple ways to begin reconnecting with nature wherever you are Why rewilding is about relationship, not just survival skills How plants can become access points into awe, wonder, and deeper listening Why asking permission, giving thanks, and reciprocity matter What kincentrism means, and why it could change how we live on this earth Explore Rachel's work further: 🌿 Kincentric Leadership Handbook (free + book formats available): https://www.kincentricleadership.org/handbook A beautiful and expansive body of work exploring how we move beyond a mind-led, human-centred way of living into a more reciprocal, relational way of being with the wild. 🌿 Rachel's upcoming retreat – The Art of Plant Whispering (April): https://www.wildgaiansoul.com/art-of-plant-whispering If this conversation stirred something in you, this is a chance to experience Rachel's work more deeply. A gentle invitation from this conversation: Go outside when you can. Take your shoes off. Pause. Breath. Listen. Say thank you. Connect with Rachel Website: https://www.wildgaiansoul.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mugwortdreamer/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mugwortdreamer Wild Awakening Circle  Community Membership: Join our LIVE monthly feminine: transmission, plus 2 group calls per month. £24.99 per month (Plus replays available).  https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeni...   WILD AWAKENING RETREATS:  Spain: https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/wild-awakening-retreats-in-spain-2026 UK (Norfolk): https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/wild-awakening-retreats-in-norfolk-2026 Crete: https://app.gohighlevel.com/v2/preview/ui7Ke23yy9FQ8mXwCW5A?notrack=true Book a call to talk about the Wild Awakening Retreats here: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widge... JOIN MY WILD AWAKENING COMMUNITY: Wild Awakening Facebook Community:   / understandingyourfemininenature   Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dea... 🌺 FREE PROGRAMMES HERE:  https://leads.iamcharliewall.com/your-wild-awakening-begins-here

In this Wild Awakening Live Q&A, we go beyond the usual boundary talk — past rehearsed scripts and surface-level advice — diving deep into the energetic roots of why boundaries often collapse when we're stuck in survival mode. Led by Charli Wall, this isn't about having the perfect words. It's about understanding why your system might still feel unsafe when you hold a boundary, why exhaustion lingers, and how true healing begins when you stop performing boundaries and start embodying them. We explore the complex intersection of spiritual awakening and relationships, the pain of emotional burnout, and the nervous system patterns that drive people-pleasing, over-functioning, and self-abandonment. You'll be guided through a healing meditation and hear powerful, vulnerable stories from women navigating their own journeys of relationship healing and burnout recovery. This is for anyone feeling overwhelmed, depleted, or lost in their giving — especially those craving truth, safety, and feminine energy healing from within. This isn't about fixing yourself. It's about remembering who you were before survival forced you to over-manage others to feel safe. It's about reclaiming your boundary — not as a rule, but as an energetic frequency. This session explores: Why boundaries sourced from depletion, fear, or people-pleasing often collapse The swampy feminine - emotional overwhelm, controlling, needing certainty, and the ache beneath it How fawn, freeze, and unprocessed trauma keep us managing others instead of trusting ourselves The difference between performative 'no' and true energetic clarity What it really means to become a threshold, not through rules, but through frequency  This isn't a lecture. It's a descent. A reclamation. A remembering. Wild Awakening Circle  Community Membership:  Join our LIVE monthly feminine: transmission, plus 3 group calls per month. £24.99 per month (Plus replays available).  https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeni...   WILD AWAKENING RETREATS:  Spain: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeni... UK (Norfolk): https://gamma.app/docs/Wild-Awakening... Crete: https://iamcharliwall.com/wild-awaken... Book a call to talk about the Wild Awakening Retreats here: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widge... JOIN MY WILD AWAKENING COMMUNITY: Wild Awakening Facebook Community:   / understandingyourfemininenature   Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dea... SELF-STUDY PROGRAMMES:  Comfortable in Your own Skin (Free): https://charliwall.simplero.com/comfo... The Call to Descent: https://charliwall.simplero.com/page/... Sacred Descent: https://charliwall.simplero.com/page/... Apply to work with me https://iamcharliwall.com/1-1-coaching/

In this episode of Courage Dear Heart, Charli explores what so many women describe as "lack of motivation," "burnout," or "brain fog", and reveals why the root cause often lies in the nervous system, not the mind. We've been taught to fix ourselves through discipline, mindset, and dopamine-driven doing. But what if what you're really experiencing is dopamine dominance and oxytocin depletion—a body wired for survival, overstimulation, and control, yet starved of safety, connection, and rest? Charli explains the deeper chemistry of the feminine nervous system and how modern life keeps us stuck in cycles of overdrive, depletion, and disconnection. You'll learn:  Why control, exhaustion, and emotional overwhelm are nervous system responses, not personality flaws   The difference between dopamine and oxytocin, and how imbalance impacts your energy, focus, and relationships   How chronic stress mimics ADHD-like symptoms and disconnects us from rest and belonging   Simple ways to begin restoring oxytocin and reconnecting with your natural rhythm of aliveness This isn't about fixing yourself; it's about remembering that your body is wise, and safety is the soil from which true vitality grows.  Join the community: Wild Awakening: Understanding Your Feminine Nature  Learn more about the programme: Safe to Feel: The Female Nervous System Reconnection  Free "Safe to Feel" Master Class: https://charliwall.simplero.com/safe-to-feel-a-live-masterclass Listen now and rediscover the courage that's always been yours. Free series of 5 Vlogs - "Comfortable in your own skin" https://charliwall.simplero.com/comfortableinyourownskin FLY - First Love Yourself 11-day program: https://charliwall.simplero.com/page/194297-fly-first-love-yourself Circle Community Membership £24.99 per month: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningcircle/ The Finding Freedom from Habits & Anxiety program can be found here: https://charliwall.simplero.com/ffha-programme Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dear-heart-podcast/ Crete Retreat: https://iamcharliwall.com/wild-awakening-crete-retreat/ Spanish Deep Nature Retreat: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningretreats/   Apply to work with me https://iamcharliwall.com/1-1-coaching/ Have courage, dear heart 

In this powerful and refreshingly honest episode, Charli Wall sits down with her client, Karen, who shares the intimate story of her journey from "soggy and overflowing" tears to feeling grounded, spacious, and sovereign in her life.  In this conversation, we explore: The weight of emotional overflow — how Karen felt consumed by grief, family tensions, and a constant sense of heaviness The courage to reach out — pressing "send" on that first email and defying the inner voice that said "six weeks should be enough" Discovering slow, gentle unravelling — why true healing isn't a quick fix, and how spacious conversations opened unexpected portals From fixing to allowing — how Karen stopped trying to "fix" everyone and learned to honour her own boundaries Learning to receive — the radical shifts that happen when a woman allows help, support, and provision into her life The ripple effects on relationships — how understanding masculine/feminine energetics transformed her partnership, family dynamics, and business Integrating wisdom into everyday life — from creative work as an artist to navigating family with new tools and compassion Trusting the body's truth — how Karen learned to listen to somatic signals instead of overriding them Compassion and devotion to self — why it's still surprisingly hard to write 10 things you love about yourself, and why it matters   Karen's story is a potent reminder that it's never "just one part of life" we're working on.  It's all connected — grief, relationships, health, creativity — and healing ripples outward. If you're standing at the threshold, wondering whether it's time to reach for help, Karen's words might be exactly what you need to hear.    Resources Mentioned: The Keys to the Kingdom and the Queen's Code by Alison Armstrong The Places That Scare You by Pema Chödrön Charli's She Finds Freedom Programme and Wild Awakening Circle Membership Charli's Portal Collection (from her creative shop) Listen now and rediscover the courage that's always been yours.   My free community can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/understandingyourfemininenature/ Free series of 5 Vlogs - "Comfortable in your own skin" https://charliwall.simplero.com/comfortableinyourownskin FLY - First Love Yourself 11-day program: https://charliwall.simplero.com/page/194297-fly-first-love-yourself Circle Community Membership £24.99 per month: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningcircle/ The Finding Freedom from Habits & Anxiety program can be found here: https://charliwall.simplero.com/ffha-programme Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dear-heart-podcast/ Crete Retreat: https://iamcharliwall.com/wild-awakening-crete-retreat/ Spanish Deep Nature Retreat: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningretreats/   Apply to work with me https://iamcharliwall.com/1-1-coaching/

You leave the café, the call, the catch-up…⁣ ⁣ And instead of feeling filled up, you feel flat.⁣ ⁣ Heavy.⁣ ⁣ Drained.⁣ ⁣ Like your soul's been wrung out.⁣ ⁣ She talked.⁣ ⁣ You listened.⁣ ⁣ She unloaded.⁣ ⁣ You held it.⁣ ⁣ And not once did she ask how you were.⁣ ⁣ Here's the truth no one wants to say out loud:⁣ 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗹.⁣ 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴.⁣ 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘆𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵.⁣ ⁣ Sometimes it's coming from guilt, from the good girl, from the part of you that's terrified of disappointing someone.⁣ ⁣ And your body?⁣ ⁣ Your gut?⁣ ⁣ It always knows.⁣ ⁣ In this week's #QuestionoftheWeek, I'm going live to talk about:⁣ ⁣ The difference between holding space and being emotionally used⁣ ⁣ Why does your energy leak in some friendships and not others⁣ ⁣ How to actually trust your gut without guilt⁣ ⁣ And the deeper wisdom underneath your exhaustion⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Let's name what's really going on behind the emotional hangovers.⁣ ⁣ Because you deserve friendships that nourish, not deplete.⁣   My free community can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/understandingyourfemininenature/ Free series of 5 Vlogs - "Comfortable in your own skin" https://charliwall.simplero.com/comfortableinyourownskin FLY - First Love Yourself 11-day program: https://charliwall.simplero.com/page/194297-fly-first-love-yourself Circle Community Membership £24.99 per month: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningcircle/ The Finding Freedom from Habits & Anxiety program can be found here: https://charliwall.simplero.com/ffha-programme Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dear-heart-podcast/  Crete Retreat: https://iamcharliwall.com/wild-awakening-crete-retreat/ Spanish Deep Nature Retreat: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningretreats/   Apply to work with me https://iamcharliwall.com/1-1-coaching/

In this deeply moving episode of Courage, Dear Heart, Charli is joined by the courageous and warm-hearted Lauren.  Together, they explore Lauren's journey from the depths of anxiety, disassociation, and suicidal thoughts to finding her voice, her power, and a renewed connection with herself and her son. Lauren openly shares the traumatic early months of motherhood, navigating a complex and misunderstood medical journey with her son Casper, and the profound loneliness she experienced as her inner world began to unravel.  Through their one-to-one work together and the nurturing space of Charli's Circle, Lauren began to feel seen, heard, and gently held through her descent. This episode weaves together themes of: Nervous system education and real-life regulation tools Motherhood and the weight of intuition being dismissed The power of safe connection and community Mental health, medical gaslighting, and reclaiming authority Learning to pause, soften, and live outside the "basement" Humour, swampy moments, and the sacredness of slowing down Lauren speaks candidly about being a former mental health nurse, the fantasy of madness as an escape, and the slow climb back into life—through breath, presence, and radical self-compassion. This conversation is both tender and empowering, a reminder that even in our darkest moments, there is a way through.  As Lauren beautifully says, "It wasn't about fixing me. It was about someone seeing me, sitting with me in the pain, and holding on to hope when I couldn't."   My free community can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/understandingyourfemininenature/ Free series of 5 Vlogs - "Comfortable in your own skin" https://charliwall.simplero.com/comfortableinyourownskin FLY - First Love Yourself 11-day program: https://charliwall.simplero.com/page/194297-fly-first-love-yourself Circle Community Membership £24.99 per month: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningcircle/ The Finding Freedom from Habits & Anxiety program can be found here: https://charliwall.simplero.com/ffha-programme Courage Dear Heart Podcast: https://iamcharliwall.com/courage-dear-heart-podcast/  Crete Retreat: https://iamcharliwall.com/wild-awakening-crete-retreat/ Spanish Deep Nature Retreat: https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningretreats/   Apply to work with me https://iamcharliwall.com/1-1-coaching/

What if the moments when you feel like you're falling apart... are actually the moments when you're being called deeper into yourself? In this episode of Courage, Dear Heart, we explore The Call to Descent—the sacred invitation to step beyond the surface and meet ourselves in the depths. Descent is not failure. It is not punishment. It is the feminine path of remembering—a return to truth, wholeness, and the wild, untamed knowing that has always lived within us. We explore:  What descent truly is and why it happens.  The ways we resist it and why surrendering makes it easier.  How grief, rage, and longing are initiations into deeper wisdom.  The power of myth—Inanna, Persephone, and the Selkie—as guides for our own journey.  Why The Call to Descent is the prelude to Sacred Descent, and what it means to step into this work with intention. The Spring Equinox is approaching—a portal into the next chapter, a moment of balance between light and dark. And with it comes the question:  Will you answer the Call to Descent? We begin this Thursday, March 20th, with a 7-day guided journey into the depths—an initiation into trust, surrender, and the wisdom of the unknown.  Join The Call to Descent   Join Sacred Descent Wild Awakening: Understanding Your Feminine Nature - https://www.facebook.com/groups/understandingyourfemininenature Crete Retreat 4-9th May 2025 - https://iamcharliwall.com/wild-awakening-crete-retreat/ Spain Retreat 15-20th September 2025 - https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningretreats/ Wild Awakening Circle Membership - https://iamcharliwall.com/wildawakeningcircle/