Trigger Warning: In this episode of the SOVEREIGN Magazine® Podcast, host Nicole George connects with Ashley Dahlem, SOVEREIGN Magazine®’s Birthwork, Body Wisdom & Cyclical Care Columnist, to explore the October New Moon theme of Constructed Reality through Ashley’s article, “Beyond the Story: Returning to What is Real.”
They discuss how a mother’s beliefs about pregnancy, birth, and postpartum are shaped by family, culture, media, healthcare narratives, and everyone present in the birth space, and how inherited stories can influence the nervous system and embodied experience.
Ashley shares how she helps clients identify and question these narratives through present-moment inquiry and somatic embodiment, reframing “surrender” as trust rather than failure. Ashley also describes witnessing a “wild” hospital birth that challenged protocols and modeled sovereignty, choice, and collective healing in medical settings.
Timestamps:
00:00 Trigger Warning
01:06 Meet Ashley Dahlem
01:53 Constructed Birth Stories
05:38 Rewriting the Narrative
08:06 Redefining Surrender
09:12 Vulnerability After 2020
11:59 Wild Hospital Birth
14:44 Closing and Next Episode
Connect with Ashley Dahlem
Producer’s credits:
- Nicole George – Podcast Host | CEO/Founder SOVEREIGN Magazine® | Editor-in-Chief
- Ariane Lim – Podcast Producer + Engineer
- Sara Wagle – Audio Efficiency & Flow Manager
- Marielle Setenta – Enterprise Assistant
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