How to harness your Jaguar energy
*A collage I made while being very angry. Very healing and empowering and very recommended ladies!
Reclaiming your inner predator is essential for nervous system health.
Here’s how I channeled mine and how my story can help you. Sharing book recs and tips, too!
♡
Sometimes, I feel deeply connected to the butterfly as a totem - constantly transforming, delicate, and highly sensitive to energies. But more often, I resonate with the jaguar - a force within me that pushes me to mark my territory and do whatever I set my mind to. And it’s not just me. All women carry the spirit of the tiger or the wolf within them - an ancient, primal energy imprinted in us to protect, create, and survive. It might be dormant to many - but is always there, waiting for a wake up call.
A few years ago, I turned to this archetype - this animal, call it what you will - to heal myself. My conventional therapy had reached its limit. Long before embodiment was a trend, I told my therapist, "I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I feel it in my body. I need to scream, dance ecstatically, and release it." (Of course, as an embodiment teacher I know that releasing a stored emotion is different from processing it, and I don’t intend to simplify the journey of therapy. You don’t let go of emotions just by bodywork.)
That’s when I discovered the work of Kimberly Ann Johnson and joined her Inner Jaguar training, which helped me immensely. I then devoured her new book “Call of the Wild”, and from there, I also began creating my own somatic practices - by the sea or in the darkness of my yard, fully embodying my wild nature and animal self.
We know that when we are determined to change certain patterns, the universe sends us uncomfortable situations to make that happen. So, I began experiencing many challenges where I had to let go of the 'good girl,' raise my voice for justice, define my boundaries, and hold strong eye contact with toxic energies - trusting that my light would prevail. (If you’ve read The Celestine Prophecy, you know what I mean! Most interactions are a battle between energy fields.)
Books like Women Who Run with the Wolves and Call of the Wild transformed me. They reminded me of who I truly am - not just the soft, delicate girl, but the fierce jaguar woman. These books shaped my work, and now, I teach Belly Dance and Feminine Embodiment not just by nurturing our soft, sensual side, but by giving mutual space to awakening our primal, instinctual self, too. (Join my workshops in Europe!)
The female nervous system works in waves and you need to recognize your own patterns.
Image from Call of the Wild by Kimberly Ann Johnson
There is a stress response (activation), followed by a discharge and deactivation. To enter a relaxed parasympathetic state - where healing and balance occur - we must first release that sympathetic response.
This release might involve crying, screaming, ecstatic movement, orgasms, intense exercise, or expressing your inner world through deep conversations and facial expressions.
Most women get stuck in the good girl role, suppressing their wild expression. As a result, this sympathetically charged energy becomes trapped in the system, leading to psychosomatic issues.
That 'keep calm, say these affirmations, and do the meditations' approach doesn’t always work. In fact, it can even be harmful if you have stored sympathetic energy.
Reclaiming your inner predator is essential for your well-being.
This requires embodied work - first guided by a professional in a safe environment, then practiced regularly. Because everything is about practice.
Here are a few tips to begin with:
1️⃣ Have honest conversations with yourself, Are you a people-pleaser? Do you ignore your intuition or silence your voice, desires, and instincts? Awareness is the first step.
2️⃣ Realize it’s not just about mindset. It’s embodied work. You have to reconnect with your body. Bring your attention lower. Move your pelvis. That jaguar energy, that life force, that fire - lives in the womb.
3️⃣ Learn to identify your stress responses. Are you in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode? Do you need a warm bath to relax, or do you need a fast walk to release stored sympathetic energy?
4️⃣ Do jaguar visualizations. Close your eyes and see your force in front of you as a jaguar. That powerful being - it is you.
5️⃣ Connect deeply with your partner in intimate moments. Let your animal body move without using the brain.
6️⃣ Learn to scream into pillows - often. Even if you don’t feel like it, there is always stuck energy in the throat.
7️⃣ Dance ecstatically in the dark. Let go. Move without self-judgment. Rewild yourself and find your inner flow.
8️⃣ Find a practitioner who works with the fascia and does spinal adjustments.
9️⃣ Educate yourself on the complexities of the female nervous system and get the two books I recommended - Women Who Run with the Wolves and Call of the Wild.
She is with me the last ten years. Best present to yourself and friends. ♡
