I have never been one for the meaning of names… all 4 of my kids were named because we liked the sound of them, I don’t even remember looking up the meanings! But things have changed and I wanted to share the backstory to why I changed my business name to Emma K Willmann and why it’s so important to share…
It wasn’t until a few years ago, a friend’s husband interrupted her Whatsapp message, to tell me what my name meant! I didn’t think too much of it at the time because I was right in the middle of a season of healing. I am not just talking about a vague idea of healing- I mean I was auditing my belief systems, rewiring thoughts, regulating my nervous system and healing my body from trauma.
You probably didn’t realise this because I kept it quiet, but about a year ago, with no injury or accident, I woke up and felt stiffness in my lower back. The stiffness soon turned into an ache and that soon became debilitating agony. To the point where I had to lie down every second day, I couldn’t lift or cuddle my kids, I was on panadeine forte and tears were ever near the surface, waiting to leak out.
It wasn’t until I stumbled across a book by Dr John Sarno on the mind-body connection, that I made the connection between back pain and trauma. Apparently, our brain creates pain to distract us from experiencing negative emotions. Just knowing this changed everything for me.
It allowed me to make 2 major changes in my life:
1- I doubled down on my embodiment practices and working my emotions through my body, especially through movement (rollerskating & pilates).
2- I removed myself from environments which reminded me of my trauma- places where fear & conformity were used to exert control (Religious environments were a full body NO for me).
Emma means WHOLE- Unbroken, undamaged, in one piece, physically sound and healthy, something with complex unity, a coherent system of parts fitting or working together as one, an undivided unit.
This year I am reclaiming the true meaning of my name. I am declaring my season of healing complete. I am not defined by my past pain, trauma, insecurities, fears or internalised limitations. I have transmuted them and I am taking my whole healed identity with me forward and expanding into crevices and cracks and relationships and opportunities that I sense are deeply aligned. I have broken generational patterns. I have learned how to cultivate a safe space inside my own body, for myself and my children. I have learned how to trust myself instead of external hierarchy. I have learned to tenderly let go of control and find freedom.
If you know that you are in the middle of a healing season or that the way you have been living is causing you pain (physical or emotional) can I encourage you that the mind-body connection is real and that you have an inner compass that is conspiring to move you towards love & freedom.
But you’re not going to find it by following someone else’s path.
There is no guru, organisation or mentor who has the divine pathway- that is written inside of you my friend. And if you want to find it, you can go within and uncover it. Warning! It will ask a lot of you- you must surrender not just your mind, but all of your heart, spirit and body too. You must let those walls of separation and control implode.
I am holding space for you to step into your own wholeness too. I want to see others put back together, more beautiful than ever before. Just like Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, the real value of our humanity is not about what happened, or how we started, but about how we respond, what we do with what we have been given and how we finish.
Your life is a work of art
And you get to edit it endlessly. Your work or business may just be the vehicle you use to not only transmute your own experiences but to serve and redeem others too. If this resonates with you, please let me know. I want to connect with women who are ripe for change this year. I want to walk with you and see you become united, with all parts of you working together in unity so you can step into your divine purpose.