Glimmers: The Nervous System Path to Unapologetic Thriving
with Ife Mora · SEP
About this episode
When life changes, whether it’s a new career, a loss, a new chapter, or a season of becoming, we tend to treat transition as something we figure out in our heads. But you don’t go through transition in your mind alone. Your body moves through it with you. It carries the stress, the uncertainty, and every past overwhelm it never had the chance to release. So the tools and resources you bring into your transition need to support your body, not just your mind. In this episode of The Room: Navigating Life’s Transitions, Dr. Nicole Yeldell Butts welcomes somatic experiencing practitioner and trauma healer Ife Mora to explore what happens in our bodies during life’s chrysalis seasons. Ife shares that while we tell ourselves stories and perform “I’m fine,” our nervous systems are often bracing, numbing, and stuck in survival mode. Together they talk about how the body holds what we’ve been through, why women of color in particular often live in constant survival physiology, and how that shows up as tight shoulders, a locked jaw, restless sleep, gut issues, and chronic pain. They unpack weathering, the Superwoman schema, the difference between being regulated and being numb, and why real resilience isn’t about taking it all. It’s about your body’s ability to return to baseline. Most importantly, you’ll leave with practical tools and resources for your transition that you can use right away. Ife guides three live practices: a body scan to drop your mind into your body, a vagus nerve toning exercise, and a healthy pride exercise to help you move from shrinking to unapologetic thriving. Dr. Nicole also shares the everyday practices that support her own nervous system: grounding barefoot in the grass and a morning ritual of orienting to safety before her day begins. Because you can’t thrive in survival mode, but you can find your glimmers. In this episode: • What somatic healing is, and where it came from • How trauma and chronic stress show up as gut issues, chronic pain, poor sleep, and reactivity • Why systemic oppression registers as a threat in the body, even when the mind says otherwise • Regulated vs. numb: recognizing “faux resilience” • The vagus nerve, glimmers, and the polyvagal ladder • Co-regulation with our children, partners, and communities • Healthy feminine rage, safe rest, and healthy pride
Show Notes
Guest Links
- • Website: ifemora.com
- • Somatic coaching certification & education: OneSomaInstitute.com
Guest
Ife Mora
SEP
Ifé Mora is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, Spiritual Teacher, Trauma-Informed Educator, and founder of One Soma LLC and One Soma Institute, organizations dedicated to trauma-informed education, social justice, and facilitating profound healing through both individual and group work. As a certified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner trained through Somatic Experiencing International, Ifé has completed three years of rigorous training in Dr. Peter Levine's methodology, including advanced certifications such as The Eye of the Needle—an SE® specialization for supporting recovery from near-death experiences and deeply traumatic altered states of consciousness. She has also pursued specialized training in Polyvagal Theory with the Polyvagal Institute® and Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB®) through the Mindsight Institute, Dr. Dan Siegel's interdisciplinary framework for understanding the mind-body connection in healing. With over 7,000 clinical hours as a Somatic Trauma Healing Practitioner, Ifé integrates Somatic Experiencing® techniques, nervous system rewiring modalities, mindfulness, somatic movement, wisdom traditions, spiritual teachings, and visualization exercises to help clients release and regulate stored trauma trapped in the body and nervous system. Her approach specializes in helping individuals resolve trauma, regulate their nervous systems, build resilience, and achieve their dreams while fostering a harmonious mind-body-spirit connection that guides clients toward transformative life experiences and wholeness. Raised in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, Ife bridges ancient contemplative wisdom with modern nervous system science, making profound healing concepts accessible to everyone. Her trauma-informed education work extends to community abolitionist organizations, including Dignity and Power Now, where she is committed to helping communities thrive through collective trauma healing circles. Drawing on her background as a professional musician and her current work as a medicine music healer with her ensemble, One Soma, Ifé understands that art, science, and medicine are not separate domains but interconnected pathways to transformation and authentic living.
