08/07/2026
There is a traditional nautical saying, “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.” Every sailor knows this inherently each time they embark on a journey. Try translating the context of this saying into how a sailboat tips, turns, or glides forward depending on its surrounding conditions for our human physical emotion regulation abilities.
Scientific theory supports that the entire body broadcasts cues from head to foot, inside and out, as basic human needs are met or unmet. As the body feels safe, threatened, satiated, or socially connected the nervous system sends strong signals to the rest of the body to shift its Point of View and the entire body responds immediately through behaviors including facial expressivity, breath, vocal prosody, and bodily posture.
Due to the neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change, grow, and reorganize its structure and connections, some Postural Points of View activated repeatedly over long periods of time can create new neural pathways and remain on low levels, feeling as if they are remaining just below the surface of behavior, as if embedded within our habits and personalities. Research shows that posture adjustments can either positively or negatively influence emotional interpretation, confidence, social openness, memory, decision making, and overall health conditions.
Thankfully, by learning the Emotional Body® method, the Postural Points of View can be learned, practiced and used as a physical emotion management method. Consider these postural patterns to be constant tools for adjusting your “sails” like how the sailor controls the shape, angle and tension of the sails with lines and rigging and then uses the helm and rudder to steer the boat.
Visit my Substack page for my most recent post titled, Adjusting Our Sails for the Changing Winds: Postural Points of View. The post provides valuable information on postural attitudes and ends with a recorded lesson for practice to learn how to embody, shift and adjust your physical Postural Points of View in your daily expressions.
Link: https://open.substack.com/pub/pureexpressions/p/adjusting-our-sails-for-the-changing?r=1he2ft&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Adjusting Our Sails for the Changing Winds
Postural Points of View
06/24/2026
What is possible within us when we scan through our bodies and our environment with curiosity and reflection? What can we learn about ourselves and others when we consider creating new pathways for growth and rehabilitation? Come visit my recent article and recorded lesson for practice, as I reflect on reimagining life with increased resilience and holistic self-care abilities…In A Brave Quiet Place
https://open.substack.com/pub/pureexpressions/p/a-brave-quiet-place?r=1he2ft&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
And…if you are interested, contemplate the idea of visiting me for an in-person workshop July 22-26, and taking advantage of this rare, reduced rate coupon of $150 off available only until June 30th. Use the coupon code at checkout: 150-off-workshop and register here: https://courses.pure-expressions.com/courses/2026-introduction-to-the-emotional-body-method
Introduction to the Emotional Body method: An online course
Receive introductory lessons to prepare for the in-person Emotional Body® method course, as well as continue your practice of the method during and after the course ends to increase self-awareness, emotional fluency, and emotional resilience.
06/23/2026
Reimagining Life…In A Brave Quiet Place
As I walked through my favorite local park, I stopped to fully take in a pavilion structure titled, “A Quiet Place” with a plaque sharing this reflection, “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
Although the building was donated in 2017, to the right of the plague was a second one noting the high watermark line of the recent Hurricane Helene that devastated our region and impacted 5 states in the U.S. on September 27, 2024.
I sat and meditated in the pavilion about the last 20+ months, reflecting on the various ways the environment and our community have recovered and acknowledged that more healing is needed to find a sense of balance. We recover in layers.
I recognized this pattern from experiences with past extreme difficulties and crisis events and could see its universal relationship to recovery and the need for resilience skills to achieve a state of holistic well-being.
The recovery journey takes time, patience, care, and attention, yet it is a bumpy and uneven road that requires perseverance.
I sat listening to all the birds chirping, wildly happy around me. There were so many now! The woods sounded incredibly different from the stark silence we experienced for months after the hurricane, except for the buzz of chain saws.
Miraculously, it seemed more diverse and vibrant than it was before the hurricane. Could it be that having survived the storm, in their own demonstration of resilience, the strength of the seeds and birds that survived are demonstrating that they can come back, and do so with even greater power than before? Can the same be true for us as fellow survivors?
Join me on my Substack page with my recent article and recorded lesson for practice, as I reflect on reimagining life with increased resilience and holistic self-care abilities…In A Brave Quiet Place
A Brave Quiet Place
Reflections on Recovery and Resilience
05/06/2026
The Retired, Re-Identified, Professor
I recently retired from over 30 years of university teaching. Several months before my official date of departure from the Halls of Academia, I was fortunate to receive wise advice from several recently retired academics who counseled me.
“Take at least 6 months, if not a full year, to ‘be with yourself.’ Contemplate who you are, entirely for yourself. Consider activities that might nurture your wants and desires. Question if all the activities you have focused on for the last 30 years still belong in this new chapter. You have lived a profession where you worked hard to fulfill a role created by others. Now is the time to have conversations with yourself. The answers you receive, will help you create new patterns, and discover fresh intentions that feel like a good fit for this next chapter in your life.”
I took this advice to heart, and embarked on many walks, bike rides, and enjoyed daily moments of mindful movement and breathing contemplations, as I considered re-identifying myself with new intentions and holistic behavioral patterns.
Through this practice, I gradually weeded out the behaviors and activities that were no longer welcome, and certainly not serving my wellbeing, within this new chapter. The change was evident to me, as well as to those around me who remarked on how much more relaxed and happier I appeared.
I continued to invite in new patterns of behavior, while making plans for long term activities that aligned with my newfound intentions. During this practice, one day, while walking in a favorite park, deep in contemplating about my future, I stopped for a moment to reflect on a recent epiphany and discovered I was sitting on a bench identified as ‘The bench of Intention.’ How apropos! After months of daily conscious mindful movement, breathing and meditation practices, I took this as a sign that I was on my way to becoming more holistically tuned in.
Contemplation and holistic practices truly do create Transformation!
If this way of thinking and behaving resonates with you, join me on my Substack page to learn more: https://pureexpressions.substack.com/
-Laura Bond
04/06/2026
Come learn about your Emotional Body with this unique method, unlike any other technique available!
What is the Emotional Body® Experience? Learn more about the method, how we teach it, hear stories from those who have studied with us, and then find out where YOU can take a course this summer! Click the link below or use the QR code in the picture to learn more: https://open.substack.com/pub/pureexpressions/p/five-in-person-trainings-summer-2026?r=1he2ft&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true