Soft Matters: Recent Episodes
Emilie Iris
Are you interested in healing and spirituality but also a bit sceptical about the whole hype it’s become? Good, you’ve come to the right place. Hi, I’m Emilie, your host, I’m a yogi, life coach and therapist myself, So I know what it’s like to provide guidance as well as to need it, because i’m as messy a human as anybody else out there. And when I started my healing journey, almost 2 decades ago, and counting, I would have loved some guidance on how to understand what I need, how to trust my gut in therapeutical spaces and how to make informed decisions so I can take charge of my own health and happiness. So with holistic health professionals from all over the world we’re gonna dive deep into all things healing and spirituality and get real about what healing actually looks like. And spoiler alert: it’s not as cute as the feathered hat guru’s on the socials might have you believe. But if you’re ready to become your own spiritual teacher? You’re gonna loooove this! Now, let’s dig into the soft matters :)
In today’s episode, we explore an uncomfortable truth: the power shift in genderland. The patriarchal systems are slowly crumbling
We talk about:
- how women have been forced to build emotional and human resilience
- how cultural conditioning has cut men off from vulnerability, intimacy, and even love
- why men were never taught the same human muscle and why they feel lost now
- why “power over” is actually a form of disempowerment
- why women stepping into their power feels threatening, and why it shouldn’t
This is not a war between genders. This is a conversation about culture, about the systems that have shaped us, numbed us, divided us, and told us lies about who we’re allowed to be.
It’s a call to remember our humanity, to grow the muscles that were never nurtured, and to return power to where it belongs: within ourselves.
If this episode sparks something in you, I’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts, your anger, your softness, your questions: all of it is welcome here.
Here’s to loving and liberating, one heart at a time.
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
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🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
In this week’s episode, Emilie dives deep into our collective relationship with pain, how we numb it, silence it, and in doing so, silencing life itself. From the opioid crisis to our everyday coping mechanisms like scrolling, working, drinking, over-giving, ... she unpacks how disconnection has become a cultural norm and what it truly means to feel again.
Emilie shares her own raw and personal experiences of sitting with pain, from heartbreak to grief, and offers a way to meet discomfort with honesty, breath, and embodiment.
This episode is not about glorifying pain but about reclaiming its purpose. Pain isn’t punishment; it’s information. It’s the body’s way of saying: something needs your love, your attention, your presence.
Because the only way to truly “kill” pain is to feel it.
💫 What you’ll learn
- Why numbing pain slowly disconnects us from life and from each other
- How pain can become a teacher, not an enemy
- The hidden link between pain, sensitivity, and creativity
- Simple ways to move with pain instead of fighting it
🧠 Reflections to Sit With
- What’s one sensation or emotion you’ve been avoiding lately?
- What happens if, instead of fixing or fleeing, you simply stay with it?
- Who in your life could use your presence — not your advice — as they move through pain?
💌 Share Your Experience
I’d love to hear how this episode lands for you — your thoughts, stories, reflections. Send me a message on Instagram @by.emilieiris
or by email at love@emilieiris.com - I read every single one.
Your experiences are part of this collective conversation 💜
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
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• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
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Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
In this episode, Emilie opens a raw and often-avoided conversation about suicide. Not as a personal failure, but as a mirror of the world we’ve created. She shares her own experience with not wanting to be here anymore, and questions the narratives we hold about life, death, and responsibility.
Why do we call it unnatural to want to die, when the world itself has become so deeply unnatural? Why do we treat those who no longer want to live as the problem, instead of seeing them as proof of a collective disconnect. What if they are our canaries in the coal mine, showing us that something is off?
This conversation is not about glorifying death, but about humanizing pain, and about the humility it takes to listen to what suicide reveals about us as a society.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- A deeply honest reflection on the will to live and the freedom to die.
- Why suicide is not an individual problem, but a collective symptom
- How our social, economic, and political systems distribute suffering unequally.
- Why giving people the right to leave can be an act of collective responsibility
- How privilege blinds us from the weight some are forced to carry
Disclaimer:
This episode contains sensitive topics including suicide and suicidal thoughts.
If you’re struggling, please reach out. You’re not alone.
🇧🇪 Belgium: Zelfmoordlijn 1813
🇳🇱 Netherlands: 113 Zelfmoordpreventie
🌍 International: findahelpline.com
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
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Work with me
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Connect with me
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Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
Listen to discover What Road Rage Reveals About you & What You Can Learn From it! In this episode, Emilie dives into the phenomenon of road rage - not as a superficial traffic issue, but as a mirror of our emotional lives.
Why do we lose it behind the wheel? What does our reaction say about how we move through society, handle frustration, or project our inner chaos onto others?
Through humor, storytelling, and psychological insight, she explores how the car can become a barometer for our nervous system.
Featuring a few laughs and a humbling moment of self-awareness, this episode invites you to reflect on how you move, not just through traffic, but through life.
💡 What you’ll learn
- Why road rage isn’t about driving but about living.
- How your car mirrors your nervous system.
- The real meaning of Hostile Attribution Bias and The Shield Effect.
- Why it’s hard to hate up close.
- How control and territory show up everywhere.
- What your rage reveals about your relationship with yourself.
We want to know:
✨ What’s your version of road rage and what does it reveal about you?
💌 Share your reflections with Emilie via Instagram @by.emilieiris
or at love@emilieiris.com 💌
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
In this episode of Love & Liberate, Emilie dives into the modern obsession with “transformation.” Why does every offer, retreat, or product promise to change your life? And what does that say about the way we see ourselves?
From the rise of “transformational” everything to the capitalist chase for constant self-improvement, Emilie unpacks how this narrative keeps us striving instead of feeling, through honest reflection, humor, and a loving reality check.
She then shares a deeply personal story, one of love, jealousy, and unexpected sisterhood, showing what real transformation looks like when it’s not bought, branded, or forced… but lived.
Just like Emilie herself, this episode is raw, surprising and deeply human.
💡 What you’ll learn:
- Why the word “transformational” became a marketing spell
- The subtle self-rejection hidden in the wellness industry
- The difference between performing transformation and living it
- How jealousy can become a portal to leadership and connection
- A simple embodied practice to face emotional triggers with love
Maybe transformation isn’t something you buy, but something you allow. Real transformation will cost you nothing, but courage.
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
In this vulnerable episode, Emilie gets real about her love-hate relationship with structure. After years of living without structure, she realized that the absence of boundaries can quietly breed stress, disconnection, and even self-betrayal.
Through a personal story about being late, memories from her upbringing, and a deep reflection on masculine energy, Emilie opens a conversation about what it really means to find freedom within form and why learning to trust the masculine again can be one of the most radical acts of self-love.
This conversation dives into:
- The illusion of “no rules” culture and why it can feel unsafe
- How rebellion can mask a longing for safety and containment
- The connection between structure, trauma, and trust in the masculine
- Why understanding isn’t the same as healing
- Reflection prompts to help you find your own balance between flow and form
✨ Reflections for you:
Where in your life have you mistaken chaos for freedom?
And where could a little more structure actually help you feel more alive?
Connect with Emilie on Instagram @by.emilieiris
or via love@emilieiris.com
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
In this episode of Love & Liberate, Emilie explores the rise of guru culture: the glorification of coaches, teachers, therapists, and spiritual leaders as saviors instead of fellow humans. With raw honesty and personal experience she unpacks the risks of putting people on pedestals, the commodification of spirituality, and the cost of outsourcing our truth.
Instead of looking outward, Emilie invites you back to your own body, emotions, and lived experience as the true source of guidance. She reflects on her own tension as a coach who refuses to be anyone’s guru, and offers a vision of interdependence, humility, and embodied truth.
We explore:
- How guru culture shows up in spirituality, coaching & therapy
- The harm of outsourcing authority and truth
- Spirituality as a commodity in a capitalist system
- Emotions as portals for transformation, not distractions
- The body as the sacred meeting point of the physical & spiritual
- Why “fallibility” and mistakes are essential for growth
- Healthy guidance vs. codependent teacher-student dynamics
- Questions to ask yourself about your relationship to teachers and coaches
While listening, reflect on:
- Who have I put on a pedestal in my life?
- Where have I outsourced my truth or authority?
- Do I feel equal to the teachers or guides in my life?
- What would it look like to trust my own body and truth more deeply?
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
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• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
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Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
In this tender episode of Love & Liberate, Emilie Iris shares an intimate journey through sudden back pain, the vulnerability of being forced to stop, and the surprising wisdom that emerged. Speaking openly from her bed, she explores what it means to heal, to receive, and to live in integrity.
Inside this episode, Emilie reflects on:
- Integrity as wholeness — inspired by Martha Beck’s The Way of Integrity, she unpacks how living true to your feelings, desires and values is the path to inner alignment.
- The illusion of hustle culture — and why pushing against our own nature disconnects us from love and softness.
- A lesson from Andre Agassi — how true fulfillment comes not from winning, but from meaning and service.
- The softness inside pain — including a profound vision of being held by generations of women.
- Healing = becoming whole — how the very word “heal” is rooted in wholeness and holiness.
💌 To connect with Emilie, write to love@emilieiris.com
or send her a DM on Instagram @by.emilieiris
.
✨ Curious about her upcoming online training? Join the waitlist here: emilieiris.com/waitlist
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
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Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
This one’s a wild rant. Unpolished, messy, full of fire. I speak about:
- How spirituality turned into an image and a commodity
- The danger of quick-fix coaches and shallow certificates
- My own painful breathwork experience and what it taught me
- Why you should always trust your own body above any practitioner
- How the hunger for belonging fuels the industry around us
This is not the truth, it’s my truth in this moment. Take what resonates, leave what doesn’t.
💜 💛 Join the waitlist for my Online Training: www.emilieiris.com/waitlist
💌 If you want to keep journeying with me, stay tuned: in the next episodes I’ll dive deeper into some of these themes!
Connect with me here:
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Email: love@emilieiris.com
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
Ever caught yourself wanting others to feel your pain? Or wanting to cause others the pain that you're feeling?
In this very raw and vulnerable personal story, Emilie shares how she once found herself resenting others for having what she deeply longed for. She reflects on the phrase “hurt people hurt people,” and on the hopeful truth that “healed people heal people” as well.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- How pain and jealousy show up in everyday life
- Why we often want others to feel the pain that we’re feeling (and try to make that happen in the most sad and cruel ways)
- The mechanism of “hurt people hurt people” on both an individual and collective scale.
- Emilie’s honest story of misgivings, shame, and the compassion that followed.
- Why true healing begins with daring to sit with and feel our pain.
This is a tender and powerful episode that shows how honesty, love, and self-compassion can help us break free from the cycles of pain.
👉 Tune in, breathe, feel along — and explore how you too can stop passing the pain forward.
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
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Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
Have you ever struggled with your body image or felt stuck in an unhealthy relationship with food? Do you long to feel at home in your own skin and move through life with more freedom, self-love, and confidence?
In this powerful episode of Love & Liberate, Emilie shares her deeply personal healing journey, from being put on a diet at 11 years old, to battling eating disorders, body image issues, and depression, to discovering yoga, movement, and what she now calls authentic embodiment.
What you’ll hear:
- How early dieting shaped her relationship with her body and food
- The hidden cost of control, perfectionism, and body obsession
- How yoga and somatic movement became a lifeline
- The creation of her practice: authentic embodiment
- Why moving your body freely can unlock joy, confidence, and long-term healing
Trigger warning: Mentions of eating disorders, dieting, and depression.
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
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Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
In this episode, Emilie speaks to the raw, frustrating experience of feeling stuck - when you’re circling the same thoughts, emotions, or patterns, even though you know you want to move. Emilie unpacks why this happens, what might be holding you there, and how to take the first few real, embodied steps forward.
With honest reflection and grounded tools, this episode is a loving kickstart out of inertia and back into movement.
💡 What you’ll hear in this episode:
- The difference between feeling stuck and actually being stuck
- Why you're stuck long after the actual threat or block has dissolved
- How feeling stuck is often more emotional and physical than logical
- How your body keeps you stuck but can also guide you out of it
- A few small actions that help recognise and break inner paralysis
- How to move with stuckness, instead of against it
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
If you’re tired of searching for your purpose and feel crushed under the weight of finding it, or if you’re done wondering why you’re here: this episode is for you!
On the eve of my birthday Emilie dives into her personal take on purpose. Not as a rigid, one-size-fits-all life mission, but as a living and breathing force that shifts with you and that guides you.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- How to use purpose as a guiding light instead of a paralyzing responsibility
- How to keep the search for purpose playful, intentional and human
- The difference between big and small purposes, and why both matter
- How intention and purpose feed each other
- Why your purpose will (and should) change with life phases
- How helping others is at the core of almost every purpose
- The link between dreams and purpose, and how to reality-check them in order to actually LIVE your dreams
And as always: Emilie provides you with prompts & practices you can start using today to connect with your purpose in small, tangible ways.
Whether you feel totally lost or you just want to reconnect with what drives you, this is your invitation to take purpose off the pedestal and start living it now ❤️🔥
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
If you’ve ever felt blocked, bitter, or broken by love… this episode might unlock something BIG for you. If you’re brave enough to sit in the mess, that is, because love will meet you there :)
In this episode of Love & Liberate, Emilie peels back the layers of what love really is. And it’s not the fluffy kind. It’s fierce, it’s honest, and it’ll crack you open before it sets you free.
From a question asked at a tantric dinner party to years of embodiment work and emotional release, she shares her own journey of discovering that love isn’t something you find, it’s something you remember. Again and again and again.
Whether you’re healing from heartbreak, navigating resentment, or just trying to stay open in a world that rewards shutting down, this episode is your reminder that real love is an act of self-leadership.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why waiting for someone to fix it keeps you stuck in your own prison
- How forgiveness isn’t condoning, it’s reclaiming your power
- What it really means to embody love (and not just talk about it)
- How anger, grief, and heartbreak are actually love doing its work
- How to move stuck energy through the body (and why it matters)
- Why love is ruthless and how that’s what makes it liberating
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
Welcome to the very first episode of Love & Liberate
In this episode
I share the heart behind this podcast, why I believe love is the most radical force we have and how reclaiming your voice and agency is a true act of activism that we desperately need in todays world!
You’ll hear
- Why trusting yourself is an act of activism
- Why I believe in self-guidance over gurus
- What to expect from upcoming episodes: raw stories, real tools, and radical truth
- An invitation to step into your own power, from within
- Why love is the real flex (and the only way to liberation)
Journal prompts to dive a little deeper
- Where do you feel you have power?
- And where in your life do you feel powerless?
- Where do you give your power away, subtly or loudly?
- What would change if you believed that you really do have the power?
You’ll walk away with
- A reminder that your truth is valid, even if it changes
- A spark to reconnect with your inner compass
- The first building blocks of embodied self-leadership
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
Hi, I’m Emilie! I'm a self-leadership coach, embodiment teacher, artist, and activist for love. I don’t mean the fluffy kind of love.
I’m talking about the real, raw confronting kind of love, the kind that cracks you wide open and liberates you, creating a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you. Because that, is what I believe life truly is about.
Through personal stories and inspiring, soul-stirring conversations on all things healing, embodiment, and spirituality,
I’ll help you navigate the good, the bad, and the ugly, with tangible tools, fresh perspectives, and of course…
a truckload of love.
Here’s to loving and liberating, one heart at a time.
→ New episodes on Wednesdays
→ Live Community Conversations on Sundays
Work with me
• 1:1 coaching
• Solidarity Sessions (starting at €25, limited spots)
• More info & bookings: emilieiris.com
Connect with me
Instagram: @by.emilieiris
Substack: emilieiris.substack.com
Website: emilieiris.com
🔥 If this episode sparked something, share it with a friend or leave a review, that helps the message reach more Love Rebels like you 🔥
🎧 Here's to love and liberating, one heart at a time.
Are you interested in healing and spirituality but also a bit sceptical about the whole hype it’s become? Good, you’ve come to the right place. Hi, I’m Emilie, your host, I’m a yogi, life coach and therapist myself, So I know what it’s like to provide guidance as well as to need it, because i’m as messy a human as anybody else out there. And when I started my healing journey, almost 2 decades ago, and counting, I would have loved some guidance on how to understand what I need, how to trust my gut in therapeutical spaces and how to make informed decisions so I can take charge of my own health and happiness. So with holistic health professionals from all over the world we’re gonna dive deep into all things healing and spirituality and get real about what healing actually looks like. And spoiler alert: it’s not as cute as the feathered hat guru’s on the socials might have you believe. But if you’re ready to become your own spiritual teacher? You’re gonna loooove this! Now, let’s dig into the soft matters
Are you fed up with healers and spiritual teachers, promising to save you with transformational programs? Great, me too :) Hi, I’m Emilie, your host, I’m a yogi, life coach and therapist myself, so I know what it’s like to provide guidance as well as to need it, because i’m as messy a human as anybody else out there. When I started my healing journey over 2 decades ago, and counting, I would have loved a practical guide for all the crazy, cross cultural healing modalities that I’ve discovered along the way. Soft matters is where we map it all out for you, and dig into the practical reality of all things healing and spirituality, so you can make informed decisions and take charge of your own health and happiness. Together with holistic health professionals from all over the world we’re gonna demystify holistic health and deglorify what healing actually looks like, because it’s not as cute as the socials might have you believe. So, you ready to become your own guru? Let’s dig into the soft matters.