S2E10 - Centering the Bodily Experience in Creative Practice: A Conversation with Writer and Teacher Molly Caro May

Jul 26

“I remember saying to my husband, I wish there was some sort of machine where I could attach a keyboard to my limbs and learn to type differently through my body so that the writing was a physical dance; instead of just my fingers dancing, it was my whole body dancing. I want to feel, not just sensations in my body, but feel my body in motion as I am writing.
And so a lot of what I do is recording myself as I walk – writing with my voice – and feeling what it feels like to have it come from my pelvis and up my voice, not necessarily through my hand initially.”
~ Molly Caro May

We’re excited to share this conversation with Molly Caro May. Molly is an author, a teacher, and a holder of space. For over 13 years, she's facilitated personal story workshops for more than hundreds of people across the globe. She is trained in somatic experience and focuses on where language, voice, and the animal body meet.

Kaitlin first came to Molly's work ‘Body Full of Stars’ when she was postpartum with her second child. She then decided to read the book aloud to her then-six-year-old eldest daughter for bedtime, which, while unconventional, turned out to be a beautiful experience as you will discover in this episode.

Molly and Kaitlin talked about:

Finding equilibrium in times of transition.
The somatic work in Molly’s creative spaces and what piqued her interest in fostering “...open, unscheduled, unplanned spaces for the creative birthing of anything that our world needs.”
The journey of writing Body Full of Stars, including the experiences that influenced the book’s content, and how Molly’s relationship with the stories within it has evolved with her postpartum experience over the past decade.
The ways in which her writing process has evolved over time, especially how the care work she does for her own body and for her loved ones have influenced this shift.
How being mindful of our body movement can positively impact our writing process.

Read the unedited episode transcript here…

More about Molly Caro May:
Website: mollycaromay.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollycaromay/

Related Resources:

Body Full of Stars: Female Rage and My Passage Into Motherhood, a book by Molly Caro May: https://bookshop.org/a/86159/9781640092075
Check out our previous episode with Dr. Darcia Narvaez: https://www.postpartumproduction.com/episodes/s2e9
The Evolved Nest: evolvednest.org
Molly’s first book, The Map of Enough: One Woman's Search for Place: https://bookshop.org/a/86159/9781619024748
Mary Oliver quote: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

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