Meet Vada
Expressing The Self In Words
Hi! I’m Vada
I am grateful that we meet here today, where I have poured my passions into one big expression of self. Where you can truly see me for what I am here to create. One of my favorite things about this, is that I get to introduce myself in the form of my art.
So welcome to my portal.
So What Am I Here To Create?
I’m here to create space.
Space for the entirety of our beings. Space to breathe, to expand. Space for the self to take off its inhibitions and be the rawest version it can be. Space to soften into our unrestrained selves.
Because space is exactly what we need. Space between thinking, space between speaking, space between doing. As it is within the in-between where we will let go of who we’re supposed to be and find ourselves as we are.
One of the biggest drivers for my life is freedom. For I have often felt as if I were restrained. Restrained by a society, deeming my vast range of expressions as socially unacceptable. So in honor of untaming the wild within, I give myself permission to be my most expressive self and hope to inspire you to do the same.
May you untame the wild within.
Where does freedom really come from? And how do we give ourselves a permission slip so grand?
Everyone’s version of freedom may differ, but as for me, freedom comes from welcoming all parts of myself. I believe that every part of us is sacred; every emotion, every sensation, deserves to be felt and to be celebrated, and it is when we say yes to these parts that we find wholeness, freedom.
I believe that by welcoming every feeling and every sensation as sacred, we tap into the richness of being human. When we see feeling as a gift and we open ourselves up to it, we find abundance in this human experience. But when we meet sensation with fear, we shut ourselves off from the streams of liberation.
Freedom lies within welcoming the wholeness of yourself with love and without judgement. The word freedom comes from the old English word frēodōm, created from the word frēo, meaning exemption from something, and the suffix -dom, meaning condemnation or judgment. So freedom can be seen as being without judgement.
May your parts become whole.
The Birthplace of Freedom
In my practice, I’ve found that the body speaks in the language of sensation. The body speaks not in words but in pain, in joy, in ache, and in ease. And when we learn to speak the language of the body, we are liberated.
I do this by practicing presence with the body. By offering it a space to speak and seeing it not as a machine but as an intelligent being. It's the least we can do, as our bodies have offered themselves as the containers that hold what our mind does not wish to. Our bodies are the carriers of our repressed experiences.
You can look at the body as a blob of energy, because essentially that’s what it is. You can also look at our emotions (energy in motion) the same. Emotions are like streams running through us, and when an emotion arises that we deny the full expression of, its flow gets blocked, it gets stuck in the body, and later manifests as aches or pain. Until you offer it the opportunity to be felt and embraced, what was once closed off, dormant, and forgotten begins to open, move, and be remembered.
May you see your pain as a portal.
The Body As A Portal
Nature As A Portal
Just as our bodies are intelligent beings, nature is the larger embodiment of our bodies! These are both physical manifestations of greater divine forces. As above, so below.
The same way that our bodies speak to us, nature does too. Nature speaks in the cycle of the seasons, the circadian rhythm, the cycle of the moon, the elements, the planets, and so on. We can look to these greater forces for guidance, learning their patterns, and recognizing that they live within us as well. We are in them as they are in us.
Because we are so interconnected, we are meant to be in deep union with each other. Holding each other through the cycles of expansion and contraction, death and rebirth. When we are in deep connection with nature, we are in deep connection with all of existence, as nature is only the embodiment of greater forces at play.
May you tend to your inner universe.
What happens when we empty ourselves of the egotistical ideas we hold about who we are? What happens when we surrender the ideas of what we think we should be, and just be what we innately are? What happens when we let go of the preconceived notions we have about life, and let go of the limitations we’ve created?
When we empty ourselves of restraint, we make room for something greater. We become a channel of the divine. We allow spirit to be expressed through us. We find our essence. We become the bridge between worlds. And as we are guided by spirit, we guide all of humanity with us.
May you unveil.
Devotion To Something Greater
My Story
My journey through the veil is a story of the most fruitful tragedy I will ever experience. While my journey has given me the greatest of pain, it has also given me the greatest of pleasure, and for none would I change it.
When I was seventeen, I received the harshest of wake up calls. The deterioration of my body. It felt like all of a sudden I was a teenager living in an elder’s body. I used to think that it happened out of nowhere, that it was unforeseeable. But with all the self-neglect, numbness, and disconnection from my body—of course I wouldn’t have seen the signs until they were undeniable, and that’s exactly what I needed. I needed the loss of my autonomy to stare me in the face before I would acknowledge my pain.
My body could no longer hold the pain i’d repressed anymore, so it cried out for help. And I heard it. I heard it so clearly that I surrendered every inch of my being to heal the relationship I had lost. Slowly, everything I was turned into everything I am.
From western doctors I received a juvenile arthritis diagnosis, pills, and a “welcome to the rest of your life!” card —I think the fuck not. I had a choice: to stay a victim and live forever this way, or accept the challenge at hand. Could I be the one to heal my own disease? Could I cure the incurable? Thus began my journey.
Curing The Incurable
The Medicine Within
I began studying the ancient ways of healing. The kind of healing that our bodies naturally know how to do. The kind of healing that our ancestors did. The kind of healing that is embedded into our DNA. The kind that goes beyond the surface, that travels so deeply it reaches the soul, it reaches the collective.
I began to support my inner environment so that it had the opportunity to thrive—nutritionally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I chose to heal purely from what nature had to offer, as I believe the plants have a spirit so wise that they know exactly what we need. We are made of the same essence.
The greatest thing I found, was the rediscovery of my first passion. As a young girl, I told myself I would be a professional dancer, it was my calling. And when I lost myself, I lost my favorite form of art. The art of movement. I fell back in love with this part of myself when I discovered yoga. I began to remember the bliss I felt when I was truly IN my body, the bliss I felt when I was in tune with my sensual self. For me, movement is medicine. For me, movement is my portal to the divine.
I began to fall in love with the art of healing. I began to fall in love with nourishment through food and herbal medicine, through nature, through ritual and meditation, through the entire process.
My love for healing expanded beyond myself and into a love for healing others, and Unveil was born.
I hope not to come off in a way that makes this healing process seem like I just popped some herbs and danced my way through it.
It took hard fucking work, a daily commitment to moving my body when all I wanted to do was curl up and try to ignore the pain. It took acknowledging the scars of my past, the scars of generational trauma; it took every part of me to devote to self love when I didn’t have the love to give; it took creating a sense of worthiness that wasn’t there before; it took staying on this path when no one believed in me.
And it's not over; I still have hurdles to jump and fires to walk through; I still have a daily commitment to my practice, and I always will, and it will always be worth it. Because I deserve more than living a life of carrying a burden that is no longer mine to carry, and you do too.
I write these words, and I share my story not to toot my own horn (maybe a little, cause bitch I worked hard!) but to inspire you, to invoke something in you, and to fully express myself so that I can be truly seen in my rawness, in my vulnerability.
I wish to show the world how truly magical all parts of us are, especially the parts we try to hide, the parts we think are unworthy; these are the parts of us that lead us to our greatest liberation, and they deserve to be unmasked, to be laid out on the table and freed from the burdens we carry. I feel so incredibly deep for you and for me, and I am so grateful that you have read my story. if this has touched you in any way I would love to hear your heart speak back.
May your love speak louder than your fears.
