Sanctuary for the Heart.

08/23/2026

This One Sacred Life: From Survival to Unity

A Healing Journey From Survival to Presence

There’s something here that knows there is more to our existence than our suffering and that something is here right now. That something is the very ground we walk on, the air we breathe, the gravity that is holding us in our seats right now. The sky, the clouds, the trees and even the traffic outside our window right now. That something is the very substance of this moment including every one of us. We may feel like we’re separate identities walking around in our own personal realities but the greater truth is that we aren’t separate. We are one. One being taking on many forms. A human. A tree. A puppy. A river. An ocean. A bird. Colours. Sounds. Textures.

It takes time for the physiology to come into alignment with our longing for wholeness. Our longing for peace. For unity. Home. The physiology has an imprint of separateness. Fear. Struggle. Competitiveness. Lack. Trauma. Confusion. Flight. Fight. Freeze in the nervous system.

Orientation is a simple practice that begins to align the physiology with the safety and support of the present moment. It encourages the system to rest. To notice safety. To come out of identification with suffering and trauma. To come out of identification with separateness. To be slow. Simple and Kind. To stop pushing so hard.

If you are interested in an embodied spiritual path that addresses the impact of undigested trauma this event is for you. You are welcome to join me and a small group of friends for my upcoming 8 week online event, “This One Sacred Life: From Survival to Unity” which begins on Friday, Sept. 11th, 2026.

Over the course of eight sessions, you will be learning to listen and tend to what your traumatized system really needs to settle into it’s natural state of ease and open receptivity.

08/22/2026

This One Sacred Life: From Survival to Unity

A Healing Journey From Survival to Presence

When the body is no longer in service to the personal identity it begins to reveal itself as inseparable from the true nature of the present moment. As the survival system relaxes out of the need to guard and protect, what remains is not an absence of life, but a direct, unmediated experience of the present. While many spiritual traditions provide the philosophical framework, deep trauma work is what actually clears the somatic structures and defences to living that truth.

If you are interested in an embodied spiritual path that addresses the impact of undigested trauma this event is for you. You are welcome to join me and a small group of friends for my upcoming 8 week online event, “This One Sacred Life: From Survival to Unity” which begins on Friday, Sept. 11th, 2026.

Over the course of eight sessions, you will be learning to listen and tend to what your traumatized system really needs to settle into it’s natural state of ease and open receptivity.

08/22/2026

Thank you Nishkala. ❤

So many of us have had to withdraw from mainstream to heal and re-claim and re-embody our sensitivity so we can offer it to others as a possibility.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DcRgrB4KuNx/

08/21/2026

Recognizing true nature can be so challenging for those of us who have experienced childhood trauma. It’s challenging, not because true nature is any less here and available, but because attention becomes so fused with how the trauma vortex lives in our physiology. Within the trauma vortex there is so much overwhelm, protection, freeze and fear in the system.

Along the way I was told by many spiritual teachers that it is very difficult to awaken from early childhood trauma. As a devoted spiritual seeker, therapist and someone who had experienced early childhood trauma this was very disheartening to hear. In all honesty I didn’t believe that something as common as childhood trauma could be a barrier to spiritual awakening.

I always knew in my heart that childhood trauma held a particular kind of grace for the spiritual seeker and I have come to know that’s true through my own experience.

Awakening and healing trauma are the same path in my experience. I’ve taken many many detours along the way but I’ve discovered over and over again that the intersect between healing trauma and spiritual awakening is the missing link on the path of spiritual awakening. If we’re going to truly embody awakening we must include these deep layers of trauma and to do that we must provide safe and reliable ways to meet the trauma.

If this speaks to you please reach out to find out more about the work I do and my offerings of support. [email protected]

Candace Kirby Trauma Therapy | Nervous System Healing | Trauma and Spiritual Awakening I look forward to joining you in unravelling the beauty and mystery that is you – Candace Let's Connect CounsellingWhen we feel safe, seen and heard our sense of safety, belonging and personal value can finally ...

08/19/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgQowYPTrbs&t=29s

In this talk, Jon explains how the only practice is to notice the h...

08/19/2026

Enlightened and unenlightened. Doesn’t that take up a lot of space on social media. Let me break it down. Who we are is already and always enlightened. It’s our nature and the background and substance of all experience.

What is experienced as unenlightened is a survival system that isn’t as much unenlightened as it is primal and unaware. It is highly intelligent; instinctive; pre-conscious and the root of all disturbance in the physiology. It fuels all of our survival strategies, roles and identities. This isn’t a problem until we identify with this system at the exclusion of everything else that is happening right now.

If the system has experienced childhood trauma, particularly severe trauma, there is more reliance on this survival system and working with that on the “spiritual path” requires special consideration.

There is no unenlightened person. Just a misidentification in consciousness. We are everything. Knowing this as a lived experience beyond a concept is enlightened. But anyone that is living in this reality drops the word enlightened because it doesn’t really fit or matter anymore.

08/18/2026

This One Sacred Life: From Survival to Unity

A Healing Journey From Survival to Presence

“Can I simply be here is one of the questions that brings my attention back when it wanders off. Can I simply be here? That means noticing where here is and who I am. It sounds complicated but in reality it’s very simple. The answer is yes or no and both are ok. Sometimes I can’t be here because there is too much going on inside and I am caught in the intensity”.

If you are interested in an embodied spiritual path that addresses the impact of undigested trauma this event is for you. You are welcome to join me and a small group of friends for my upcoming 8 week online event, “This One Sacred Life: From Survival to Unity” which begins on Friday, Sept. 11th, 2026.

Over the course of eight sessions, you will be learning to listen and tend to what your traumatized system really needs to settle into it’s natural state of ease and open receptivity.

08/18/2026

This One Sacred Life: From Survival to Unity

A Healing Journey From Survival to Presence

Orientation, a foundational practice for restoring a sense of safety within the nervous system, is less of an exercise and more of a return to the physiology's natural state. We were never meant to be completely disconnected from our senses and living our lives without an embodied sense of safety.

If you are interested in an embodied spiritual path that addresses the impact of undigested trauma this event is for you. You are welcome to join me and a small group of friends for my upcoming 8 week online event, “This One Sacred Life: From Survival to Unity” which begins on Friday, Sept. 11th, 2026.

Over the course of eight sessions, you will be learning to listen and tend to what your traumatized system really needs to settle into it’s natural state of ease and open receptivity.

08/15/2026

Tender Heart. Fierce Protector.

It’s a quiet morning here on the West Coast.

08/14/2026

I used to believe that anger was wrong. I was scared of anger in my own physiology and in others. I had heavy conditioning around anger and had been deeply hurt by unintegrated and displaced rage. Now, after a decade of trauma work, the energies of survival have calmed and I notice that when anger arises here it’s always intelligent and protective. I am grateful to the ways my body informs me and yet no longer have an impulse towards self judgement, suppression or reactivity. I trust the intelligence of this system. My physiology is no longer in service to survival but to a deep and ancient wisdom that was always inside me.