Learning to Listen to My Body to Make Big Life Decisions, and Helping Others to Do the Same

By Sasha Cagen

Fifteen years ago, I felt like a strange person because I listened to my body to make major decisions about what to do with my life: where to live, what to do, who to date or become friends with.

Now that I have spent a lot of time with Gay and Katie Hendricks and learned from them in their Body Intelligence trainings, I know that I am in good company.

I know, without a doubt, that listening to our bodies to make major life, business, and partnership decisions, is a brilliant way to live that is backed by a growing field of scientific research at the cutting edge of neuroscience and psychology.

The big upheaval in my life that led me to this body-centered approach for living my life more authentically, and ultimately, helping others to do the same, started back in 2008 when I first traveled to Brazil for a three-week trip to celebrate my 35th birthday.

After going on umpteenth online dates in the hopes of meeting the man of my life to travel with, and coming out still single, I decided it was time to take matters in my own hands. I needed to remember that I could also travel on my own.

I traveled first to Bahia, in Salvador and Arraial d’Ajuda, a charming, colorful, slow-paced beach town. During the last week of that trip in Rio, I walked around on the streets of Ipanema by Rio’s glorious beaches, danced in samba street parties with strangers who quickly turned into friends, and watched a whole lot of people make out in the streets in displays of sensuality and passion that had gone missing in my own life, in the tech hub of the world, the San Francisco Bay Area.

I felt things in my body as messages, quietly shouting: Move here! Spend some time in Brazil! They were like whispers of aliveness. There were twitches and sensations and pulses of knowing, an intuition that I could not put into words.

My body felt alive in Rio. I wanted to feel alive again.

I wound up leaving Silicon Valley to follow those bodily instincts. I moved to Brazil a year later, in a yearlong solo travel adventure that wound up taking me to cities and countries all over South America I never planned to visit, and ultimately, to changing my life completely.

I became a tango dancer, for one, something I never would have predicted, and lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for six years, immersing myself in the city’s unique dance culture. You can see me dancing a bit of tango in Buenos Aires here. I’m writing a memoir about all the changes and deep healing from childhood trauma that happened as a result of deeply listening to my body. You can learn more about that book project here.

When I returned to San Francisco, I couldn’t return to a career in tech as a product manager that left me feeling dead. I wound up training as a life coach in 2011, and then opening my coaching practice in 2012 with a somatic, female embodiment focus that had been dwelling in me since I became my so mystified and amazed by the power of getting out of my head and into my body during those first weeks spent in Brazil.

When I came to do coach training with Katie and Gay Hendricks in their Body Intelligence and Conscious Loving courses in 2022, I felt like I was coming home. These people were speaking my language. They were talking about the importance and effectiveness of listening to our bodies. These were my people!

I have treasured learning from the Hendricks, pioneers of Body Intelligence. Interestingly, I was working with Diana Chapman, a leading figure in Silicon Valley who trained with the Hendricks and founded the Conscious Leadership Group to bring a body-centric approach to corporate leadership. When I was first on the precipice of heading back to South America in 2009, Diana urged me to listen to my body’s instincts. She encouraged me to go back to Brazil when I was filled with fear about aging out of the dating pool and ruining my career. She also pointed me to studying with the Hendricks.

The Hendricks have been with me all along on this adventure that I’ve been living. When I finally came to study with them, I thought, dang, Why didn’t I attend these trainings sooner?

Their Body Intelligence tools and practices have provided a language and framework to share with my clients, to help them discover what their bodies are telling them in a deep, brilliant, non-formulaic way. There is a beautiful sense of validation to be part of a group of people who know from decades of research and experience that our bodies are rich reservoirs of information and intuition, and that when we listen to our bodies, we become more powerful, more whole, and more alive.

I work with clients 1:1. If you want a real-world embodied approach to change and finding your unique path of aliveness, I would be happy to hear from you and talk with you.

You can learn more about me about me and my approach on my website sashacagen.com, and you can always reach out with an email at sasha at sashacagen dot com.