The Fluid Realm is one of embodied paradox. It invites you to move away from the lens of either/or and into the expansion of both/and.

Which can feel confusing and chaotic!

It can feel like being tumbled by a wave or like the stillness unrivaled by even the most placid lake. It can feel rhythmic or stagnant. Deep or shallow. And it can feel all of those ways at once. It’s simply many permutations of one thing held in many ways.

Your Fluid Realm is omnipresent and shapeshifting; as you honor this, it imparts its gifts to you. You become the shapeshifter. You no longer experience flow as one discrete experience but as a state you can access at any time, no matter the circumstances.

See? Paradox.

Each aspect of your fluid body activates a unique way you’re designed to move through life. Holistically, this is your Flow.

What is Fluid and Flow?

Flow is a term that’s overused and a bit wishy-washy at that. What does it mean? What does it feel like? I can’t help but wonder if we talk about flow because we can’t put better language to a feeling we’re trying to evoke.

But let’s get precise about what these words mean in your Fluid Realm.

When I discuss fluid as an object, I’m talking about your inner ocean that’s contained and moved. Think about blood that’s held iwthin your arteries and veins and moved by the contraction of your heart or skeletal muscles. As an object, fluid has no fixed shape and yields easily to pressure.

The Fluid Realm consists of four specific fluids, described by their containment systems within the body: intravascular (contained within arteries and veins), intercellular (existing outside of cell membranes), blood, lymph and interstitial fluid, transcellular fluid (contained in body cavities with an epithelial lining), and intracellular fluid (contained within cell membranes).

Flow is an action; it’s your fluid body’s movement within a stream or the ability to move continuously within and amongst itself. 

There are two types of energy flow in the Fluid Realm: circulatory, or how you move within the system of containment, and osmotic, how you move against or across containment. 

Now ,we’ll put it all together so you can better understand the energetic pathways in the Fluid Realm and why it’s important to work with your inner ocean.

Intracellular Fluid is within a cell

Physically, intracellular fluid is roughly 28-32 liters (67%) of your total body fluid.

We’re starting here because it’s the most significant percentage of your inner ocean. But more importantly, intracellular fluid is where your Fluid Realm establishes safety in your body, giving you the feeling of being held, contained, and secure while you take up the space you require to do your work.

When you work with your intracellular fluid, you cultivate and create the experience of safety that you require. You begin to understand the space you desire, your work, and how you need to be held.

 Because intracellular fluid requires containment, the specific way you maintain structure and stability in your life is an essential part of this fluidity.

Intracellular Flow is across a cell membrane by osmosis

Intracellular fluid moves in the body through osmosis back and forth across the cell membrane from inside the cell to interstitial fluid. Physically, this maintains a specific balance of ions, proteins, and nutrients in your inner ocean.

Energetically, intracellular flow isn’t about redirecting flow or making significant changes. It initiates small, powerful shifts that maintain your flow when the system could quickly become out of balance.

This work assists your Fluid Realm in maintaining the fluid balance of your inner and outer world and holding what you require for your safety, work, and overall well-being through tiny shifts and micro-movements.

Intravascular Fluid is within arteries and veins

Physically, vascular fluid is the roughly 7% of body fluid that is in flow as blood plasma. This is the part of your inner ocean that experiences internal rhythm, internal pressure, and drive.

Like a centrifuge separates out component parts of the blood, working with your intravascular fluid separates what’s yours and what’s not yours.

Throughout life, you become incredibly attuned to your external world and the pressure created by it, specifically the energy and pressure of the people and environments you are closest to or exist within. You may lose your calibration to your internal rhythm and over-identify with external pressure.

When you attune to your intravascular fluid, you can release, shift, and integrate what isn’t yours so you can more acutely feel your inner rhythm and generative internal pressure.

Intravascular Flow circulates within a system

Vascular fluid moves through the body within a vast network of arteries, capillaries, vessels, and veins. Flow in this system is circulatory. However, it’s unique in that there is a constant loss of fluid that is then recaptured, and fluid volumes are adjusted through the circulatory flow of lymph.

Vascular flow is not truly a closed system. This permeability and net loss open an exciting way to understand internal drive and pressure. It is a reminder that internal rhythm requires support to maintain.

Working with the energy in your vascular system invites you to feel and understand how your internal pressure changes within the structures of your life. It calibrates how your nutritive, energized, life-giving flow within these systems and shows compassion for where you lose your inner drive.

You’ll understand the multidimensionality of pressure, expectations and how and where you flow your energy and release the need for it to feel the same all the time.

Transcellular Fluid is contained by epithelial-lined cavities

Transcellular fluid is the smallest percentage of body fluid, making up less than 1% of all extracellular (outside of the cells) fluid. It’s contained within epithelial-lined spaces, which means specific cavities designed to hold a volume of fluid. This includes your bladder, parts of your eyeball, your gallbladder, and even your joints!

It’s here, in transcellular fluid, that you deeply surrender to the purposefulness of every fluid and recognize that as uncomfortable as they may be, as much as you don’t want to experience them, or as much as you love that particular fleeting experience, it is not the whole. It is not the standard.

But removing these experiences, these seemingly small outliers, is impossible because they’re necessary.

Transcellular flow is largely by osmosis

In transcellular flow you once again experience fluid movement across a membrane or a boundary, except for the movement of urine from the kidneys to the bladder. Transcellular fluid moves in the body through osmosis and cell transport activity. It shifts specific ion concentrations within epithelial-lined spaces to make sure that the fluid is purposefully supporting each space and requirement.

Each unique, energetic movement in the transcellular fluids can be viewed as assisting you with where you are and where you want to go or getting in the way. The flow of transcellular fluid is highly susceptible to how you feel about it and what you do with those feelings.

Transcellular flow teaches you that what looks like chaos, energy leaks, or split focus may be exactly what needs to be done to maintain systems or specific functionality so other flow can happen. It teaches you to listen and use discernment before judging your current experiences.

In transcellular flow, when things shift towards a particular state of being, it helps you understand your biases, preferences, resistance, and control.

Interstitial Fluid freely exists within the field of connective tissue

Interstitial fluid accounts for roughly 26% of body fluids and is consistently replenished by blood plasma leaking from capillaries and lymph flow moving into circulation. This part of our inner ocean experiences external rhythm, pressure, communication, and caretaking.

Interstitial fluid, particularly lymphatic fluid, is also your connection to collapsing timelines. This flow state allows things to unfold in a shorter time with more ease than you ever thought possible.

Interstitial flow is circulatory

Interstitial fluid exists as a ground substance between a protein and collagen matrix. It’s the source of fluid for the lymphatic system. Flow, in this system, is pressure-based, whether between organs, fascia, tissues, or lymphatic vessels. It is a unique system that maintains flow between every single cell and replenishes fluid back into circulation in the vascular system.

When you listen to your interstitial fluid you’ll identify what isn’t working, what’s getting in the way, and what is inefficient within the interstitial fluid. It shifts these collapsed timelines out of your body through the lymph system, leaving only what’s supportive, nourishing, and caretaking back into the vascular flow.

The Fluid Realm is where pressure is a good thing!

Pressure is a force exerted on something.

In physics and in your body, pressure is mechanical.

Energetically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, pressure is influential and behavioral.

Which begs the question: where does the pressure in your life come from?

At an interpersonal level, you may find that pressure comes from the expectations of people who you are in relationship with. Parents, children, partners, teachers, etc.

At a structural level, you may find that pressure comes from expectations and behaviors that don’t support your energy or lifestyle. Trying to fit your flow into an app, program, workout, spreadsheet, or modality that “should” help but only cause more stress and external (or internalized) pressure.

Systemically, pressure likely comes from beliefs, messages, patterns, and systems baked into society. You carry the mental burden for your entire family. You make less money because of your skin color or gender. You consciously or unconsciously show up differently in public than in your home because of your gender, culture, beliefs, or skin color.

Unfortunately, working with the energy in your Fluid Realm won’t solve all of society’s ills or release systemic pressure.

Booooo hissss! However, your Fluid Realm will connect you to your inner rhythm (or internal pressure) that feels generative, life-giving, and supportive. And this helps you navigate external pressure without burning out or losing yourself in the process.

Your Fluid Realm is where pressure gives life and sustains your desires. 

When you intimately know your inner rhythm, you can meet the rhythm of others with stronger boundaries or greater generosity.

Above all, your Fluid Realm is a paradigm shift for moving through your life and the world. You can use the Cycle of Communication to begin listening to your inner ocean and all of the ways it’s held and contained, or we can dive deep together in an Energy Archaeology Session.

If you’d like to learn more about Embodied Realms, The Bone Realm, or The Muscle Realm, explore my similar guides to get started.