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Listening to Your Body with Ben Dorfman · Rare Medium with Deb Snyder

• Ben Dorfman: the body is incredibly wise and it's energetically sensitive. And so there's this whole invisible world that's always here with us, this world of energies. And and and we know that this is the case, even if you don't have practice with it, because like say you walk into an environment And it's a brand new environment, you start to feel things immediately, whether it's like a comfortable place, and you're like, wow, I can really relax here, or whether it's like this place that kind of gives you a little bit of like anxiety of like, ew, I don't know how I feel about being here. You know, how would you know that? just walking into a place. the body knows the body's picking up energies, Whether it's energies from the past, like what's happened in this space before you got there, or energies of the people that are there, And it comes through the body as a feeling, And so you know helping people land deeper in their feelings and to begin to trust that those feelings are not random. But that they're a guidance system. And if we give that stuff more credit in any moment in our day, it opens up a lot of opportunity for awareness, Deb: Rare Medium with Deb Snyder, celebrating life's rarities, the people, places, and experiences that just might be a little bit weird. This podcast explores all facets of our energetic connections to each other and beyond. We'll dive into the depths of mediumship, psychic ability, intuition, near death experiences, afterlife research, healing modalities, and more. Our focus is to bring you relevant and moving accounts with guests who share their authentic selves and their treks into the spiritual and energetic realms. We'll learn how those experiences shifted their perspective on life itself. Join us to be inspired by everyday people on their extraordinary journeys into the rare medium of the mystical world. Topics discussed on Rare Medium by the host and guests are presented for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional, legal, or medical advice. Deb Snyder: Hello and welcome to Rare Medium. I am your host, Deb Snyder. I'm so excited this week to have Ben Dorfman with me. Now let me read you Ben's bio. He does a lot of cool, things. Ben is an acupuncturist, life coach, energy healer with 14 years of private practice experience helping individuals unlock the wisdom of their bodies and reconnect with their true life paths. He's the author of two transformative books, The Highly Intelligent Body and The Book of Spiritual Awakening. With extensive training in ancient shamanic healing ceremonies and energy work, Ben bridges the gap between physical health, emotional intelligence, and spiritual awakening. Through his clinical practice and immersive weekend healing retreats, he empowers people to listen deeply to their physical body. Be more present with their emotions and step into their power as infinite beings of energy. Welcome Ben Ben Dorfman: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. Deb Snyder: it's it's an honor to have you. And you can of course learn more about Ben at his website, bendorfman.com. Now, Ben, our audience loves to discover the evolution behind the expert. What brought you to where you are now? Ben Dorfman: Yeah, thank you. Great question. my well, I come from an alternative medicine family. My mom is a well, she's a nutritionist, but she operates like a naturopath, and her best friend was a a shaman. So I got to hang out with lots of interesting people as I grew up. But for my own personal journey, I struggled a lot with really heavy depression for like two and a half decades, and also had like very loud spiritual. cravings and needs that I couldn't figure out how to get those needs met. And so it was a long journey of trying to heal and to figure out why I was feeling the way I was feeling. And in that whole process, I, you know, got to do amazing healing ceremonies and therapy that kind of unlocked a lot of emotional awareness and tools and everything that I felt like helped me. I brought to my private practice to see if it would help other people and and it Definitely did. And so I got to, you know, play with these awesome tools, not just for myself, but also for for my clients and and whoever else needed them, you know. Deb Snyder: Wonderful. So it started with the acupuncture? Ben Dorfman: my private practice. Yeah, Deb Snyder: Yes. Ben Dorfman: it it's interesting. As I was going through school, grad school for acupuncture, which is a four-year training, halfway through I was having this kind of emotional healing awakening. So I went to my mom, of course, and was like, I want to be a therapist, I don't want to do this acupuncture thing. And she was like, Stick it out, and then afterwards you Deb Snyder: Yeah. Ben Dorfman: can train and do another thing on top of that, you know. So that's kind of what I did. I yeah, I started with acupuncture and then I went on to become an ontological life coach, which is like a body awareness. Deb Snyder: Mm-hmm. Ben Dorfman: coach and so I blended those two into my private practice so I can do both emotional healing but also physical healing as well. Deb Snyder: it's fascinating. It's all connected for sure. Now, in your latest title, the Book of Spiritual Awakening, you explore Ben Dorfman: Yeah. Deb Snyder: our connection to the divine. Now tell us what you mean when you talk about our infinite selves. Ben Dorfman: Yeah, you know, for me and my kind of spiritual journey, you know, I in the beginning felt like there had to be this choice between being human or being spiritual. So if you're trying to be more spiritual, you have to try to get out of the body somehow, kind of go back to the spiritual realms if you believe in such a thing. And it always felt like you couldn't be both at one time. And as I've gone through a lot of trainings and big healings in in the spiritual department, you know, I realize very clearly kind of on a body level that The divine is here now, you know, in in everything, right? It's in our bodies, it's in the human experience. And it's kind of funny to me now that we when I witness people splitting that up, I have to have this human experience, but then I can leave finally and go back to the spiritual world. It's like, well, no, the spiritual world's here now, right? And so that means our infiniteness as a spiritual being, a soul that that, you know, keeps this body, going. That's here right now. We have access to our infinite self here in the body. And it's always happening, whether we're aware of that or not. And so just having tools and practices to help us embrace that. Deb Snyder: Very good. Now, how can someone who might be going through, you know, a really challenging time here on planet Earth ignite this divine spark within us to help themselves in daily life? Ben Dorfman: That's a question. For me, I really connect the physical sensations in our body and also our emotional experiences with the spiritual. And they're all kind of one unit in my work, in my practice. And so I always try to encourage people to sit with what's showing up for them as they go through a process with their life. So whether that's like for me, it was depression or anxiety or grief or sadness, whatever it may be, and that. tends to be the window into deeper aspects of ourselves. And so part of the practice is ending the battles between us and those emotions because it's so easy to fight with those things because they often are painful and we don't want to experience those things continuously because of the pain. And so if we have someone helping us sit with those things calmly and and kind of breathe and settle into those things, often they will shift and change on us into other deeper things that we can connect to, deeper parts of ourselves, but often it's spiritual aspects of ourselves that will show up as we kind of walk through those feelings when they're there. Deb Snyder: Very nice. Now, when you work with clients, how is that? is it styled like a similar therapy session? Are there any particular activities that you how would the most of us relate to that type of thing? Ben Dorfman: Yeah, great question. I think it somewhat depends on how people show up. So when people come into my office I'm always kind of tracking and noticing like what are they drawn to first. And so often it is through the body work that people kind of step into that healing world, whether it's like basic stuff, back pain, headaches or whatever. but some people, you know, are aware already that there's emotional things here for them that they need to really deal with. And so for for that, like within my coaching practice, it would be a one-on-one for an hour, like a therapy session. I do it virtual or in person. and a lot of that's about both learning about who they are and what they're going through, but also beginning to help them see their emotions more clearly and how those emotions are a guide f for healing and for awakening. That's kind of how the body guides us. And so it just depends on which which version they show up with in the office. And that's kind of where Deb Snyder: Right. Ben Dorfman: we start. Yeah. Deb Snyder: And you probably use your own intuition to tap into that, I bet. I would imagine. Ben Dorfman: yeah. All the time. I that's my favorite topic. Like all the ways our intuition is gathering information through smells and through how people s look and talk and like there's just information everywhere that the body tracks. Deb Snyder: Absolutely. Now in your first book, The Highly Intelligent Body, you explore energetic sensitivities of our bodies. Now tell us what does it mean to listen to your body when you teach people to listen to their bodies? Ben Dorfman: Yeah. it's yeah, like I said, it's probably one my favorite things to to talk about and teach with people. But you know, the body is is incredibly wise and it's energetically sensitive. And so there's this whole invisible world that's always here with us, this world of energies. And and and we know that this is the case, even if you don't have practice with it, because like say you walk into an environment And it's a brand new environment, you start to feel things immediately, whether it's like a comfortable place, and you're like, wow, I can really relax here, or whether it's like this place that kind of gives you a little bit of like anxiety of like, ew, I don't know how I feel about being here. You know, how would you know that? just walking into a place. Well, the body knows the body's picking up energies, right? Whether it's energies from the past, like what's happened in this space before you got there, or energies of the people that are there, right? And but it but it comes through the body as a feeling, right? And so you know helping people land deeper in their feelings and to begin to trust that those feelings are not random. But that they're that's a guidance system. And if we give that stuff more credit in any moment in our day, it opens up a lot of opportunity for for awareness, right? And it also applies to our relationships. So we sit with someone or talking with them. And if we're really paying attention in our body, We get all these kind of different feelings and pings and pings that just show up in our body as someone's talking or we're having this exchange. And I think it happens so naturally. Some people don't even sit with that stuff to think, why am I feeling this in this moment? You know, why is this thought randomly showing up in this moment? Like what is the connection there? And if we again give that stuff more credit, that's that to me is our intuition. That that's that's the practice. Deb Snyder: And you're feeling that the the awareness alone of some of this is the powerful tool. Ben Dorfman: Yes, yeah. Just the awareness, aka the feeling, right? and and a lot of our intuition comes through the five senses. And again, I think it's so basic that people don't even th think twice about it. But like one of my favorites that I use a lot is through smell. My I'm very sensitive to smells. And so for certain clients, they come in with a very particular perfume or something like that, I get hit with all these emotions and memories and things and and I try to sit with those things as I'm with them to be like, how is this information that I could use to kind of get to know them in a deeper way to help them with whatever they're going through? So it's just those five senses are are powerful. Deb Snyder: Now do you feel people give themselves permission to feel all that? Ben Dorfman: Man, what a good question. Deb Snyder: Yeah. Ben Dorfman: you know, no, I I mean I think people are are yeah, yeah, exactly. You Deb Snyder: Pass one energy therapist to another right there. Mm-hmm. Ben Dorfman: know, no, I think people have a lot of doubts. You know, I I think our Western culture does not encourage us to trust our body this much. You know, it's it's we we get taught like to dominate the body. The body is not like an ally, it's we should be able to control it and do it, should do what we want. And so that relationship then mixes this all up, right? Versus the body who's like a team player who's like, no, I have things for you. I want you to know some stuff, you know. so I think Deb Snyder: That's right. Ben Dorfman: people really doubt like what they're picking up, you know, and or or or emotions get in the way, right? I mean, I think the classic stereotype is like you're lonely, you go on a date, you're hoping for connection, they're nice enough and they're handsome enough, right? And so you're just kind of like, This is good, right? But like the body is like, we don't this is not the person we wanna be with, you know, it's like you can feel it, right? And so we override that Deb Snyder: Above. Ben Dorfman: stuff for other reasons, you know. And so Deb Snyder: Absolutely. I find in work with people over Ben Dorfman: It's probably Deb Snyder: the years, it's also a matter of whether they feel worthy. they're so used to giving credit to anyone but themselves. So it's have it helping people unlock that and validate their own natural feelings. it's a powerful thing. Now you talk about that you believe body symptoms, including emotions. Are never random. What do you mean by that? Ben Dorfman: going with this idea that the body is is super intelligent and also an ally, a team player, you know, the feelings that arise within us, there it's always information of some kind, right? And so even the smallest little thought, you know, we could always and so thoughts and feelings kind of the same, but we can sit with with any random thought that shows up. And ask basic curious questions why. Why is this here right now? Out of out of all moments. Why this moment? Right? what is my body trying to tell me right now through this thought or feeling? And if we sit calm enough, often awareness will bubble up to the surface and we'll get guidance of some kind. And so this I think is cool just day-to-day living, but also when when it comes to like a healing journey, this becomes very important because the body to heal, the body has very particular things that it wants you to process and become aware of. And it just shows you that stuff all the time. It just says, hey, I want you to feel this thing. And if we again stop fighting those feelings and give credit to them and investigate with non-judgment, then a lot of just natural awareness just shows up. And then we actually process stuff and and we can get it off our back. Yeah. Deb Snyder: do you ever feel that intellect can be a barrier to helping people heal? Ben Dorfman: You absolutely. I'm sure you run into that all the time. Yeah. Again, our our Western culture puts more value on logic. They it almost puts like logic as like a quote unquote mature trait and then the emotions as like a quote unquote like young, naive trait. So we've kind of there's like a hierarchy there. and so But also with logic comes control. So we want to control how we feel. And this is where I had a lot of issues with when I went through different therapies and stuff. Some of the therapies really didn't work for me because I was suffering emotionally with depression and other things. And they were trying to teach me how to just control my mind to control my feelings. And and I tried those things out, but ultimately it just created more tension in my body. I was just battling and battling and battling, trying to rein in control. And it never worked. Anyways, I'm sure people are aware of that, even though they might be in denial of that. But like we can't control these things. The body is is so powerful and it wants us to know stuff. So it will always find a way to get us to know whether we want it to happen or not. So we might as well try to be friends with the body versus have it be like our arch enemy, you know. Deb Snyder: Excellent. Now I some people are more sensitive than others to energetic signals. what would be some of your best advice for people and how to navigate energies if they're extra sensitive? Ben Dorfman: Great, great question. there's lots of different ways to play this. I mean for me I like basic energy barriers that we can put around ourselves. The stuff this can be very simple stuff, but to me it's energy really moves with intention. And so if we have intention of like I want to just surround myself with you know a pillar of love and light that just filters away all energies that don't serve me. And then you kind of visualize that coming through your body before you go out to to a big event or whatever. That stuff plays a big role actually in not being impacted by energies as much. I also like to encourage people to fill their whole body up, every cell with their energy, right? So we that way there's not space left for other people's energy to come into the body. You've you've already taken up all the room there. And so basic strategies like that can can really work. And then on an emotional level, I think stuff like having boundaries, just actual boundaries, plays a huge role in energy, right? And so when we can practice saying, No, this doesn't work for me, or practice leaving a situation when you when you need to leave, those things really protect you actually from from energies as well. Deb Snyder: that's an excellent point. I'm a or was a people pleaser early Ben Dorfman: Yeah. Deb Snyder: in my life and boundaries I wasn't comfortable or good at making very good boundaries. And as a sensitive, as a psychic medium, I paid the price over the years with my own physical health and Ben Dorfman: Mm-hmm. Deb Snyder: and doing things that I was trying to make other people happy, Ben Dorfman: Yeah. Deb Snyder: but to to my own detriment. so I Ben Dorfman: Sure. Deb Snyder: yeah, I totally agree with you on on that aspect. now as talking a little about these energy systems, do you deal you know, people hear these terms tossed around, you know, aura and things like that. Do you educate people on the subtle energy system? Ben Dorfman: Yeah, yeah. I do. It depends on I guess what they're looking for or in need of kind of in their own process. but I think I tend to be kind of in the camp of like the infinite love and light camp. we're working with an infinite source of energy and and in that way, we're working with oneness, kind of the oneness network that we're all a part of. And so in that way, it can Be simpler at times just because helping people wake up to their own love and light, but we're also part of this powerful loving system, which is a a good energy for us to be working with. And so that energy can be very powerful for yeah, cleansing energies, protecting us, and but also. bringing awareness in ways that gets us out of our heads and just more into our hearts. So I I don't know if I answered that properly, but Yeah. Deb Snyder: you did. I thought I love all the different systems that they have out there. And some people resonate with some more than in more than others. but I know that if you get too regimented people, then am I doing it right? And they get the opposite of where we want them to Ben Dorfman: Exactly. Exactly. Deb Snyder: be. now you talk a little bit about your weekend re retreats. Walk us through what what something what one of those would look like if someone wants to come out and see you. Now you're out in Seattle. Ben Dorfman: Yeah, yeah, I'm in Seattle. Yeah, it's a great spot. Yeah, I'm actually gonna we're we have one coming up that's all all full now, but like in in two weeks here. But yeah, we have this beautiful shared community property on an island here called Anderson Island, right on the water. And so, you know, just the island itself, I feel like is just healing when you get there. but my my work for the retreats is aimed at community healing. And so I've found over the years as I got to experience for myself, that Healing when you're with other people is much faster and more can be more powerful than when you're by yourself. partially it's because you hear people's stories or you get to experience vulnerability and intimacy and those things really open us up and really deep powerful ways and we get these deep validations and and things and we get to see that people are just like us and we they struggle in the same ways that we do and it just kind of unlocks lots of stuff. And so that's kind of the way those retreats are oriented. We kind of all sleep in two houses, you know, it's kind of like sleepover style. and then we make meals together and then each retreat has different themes. And so this retreat coming up is for embodiment and so we'll be playing around with getting people back in their bodies and we'll be doing that via barefoot walking in the woods, breath work and we'll do some drumming as well. And then the second day will be emotional embodiment. So you know getting back into our emotional bodies, giving credit to how we feel about things and just kind of building awareness about, yeah, am I listening to my feelings or do I fight them? And and why is that? and then usually there's a spiritual component in all this. So this time we'll be doing a spiritual journey to meet one of our core spiritual allies. And that's a very classic shamanic practice that we can do via the drums. but I love I love that kind of journey because it's exciting and it's interesting, it's a different muscle that we don't get to play with as often. And it just tends to bring very cool conversations for people and stuff like that. Deb Snyder: wonderful, Ben. It sounds fabulous. Now, how often in a year do you do those retreats? Ben Dorfman: Right now I'm putting them on twice a year, but there's always options to do maybe four times a year if we get more people wanting to consistently do them. And so I'm Deb Snyder: Right. Ben Dorfman: this is my third retreat. So I'm you know, I'm still kind of building the the knowledge and the momentum of like what's working for people, what doesn't work for people. but yeah, I you know, people can always contact me to be added to the list and then I tell people when the next one's coming and then yeah, people can come to Seattle if they're not here and don't know, it's fun stuff. Deb Snyder: Yeah, it does sound definitely right up my alley for sure. So but Ben Dorfman: great. Deb Snyder: so yeah, folks, so go to bendorfman dot com for his schedule. Now, Ben, you're also on social networking. So we'll be sure Ben Dorfman: Yeah, and so Deb Snyder: to link up your different channels so people can follow you every day. it really is interesting it's fun to have a show, but follow these people in the day in the life and you get to see all the different changes and events that they do local. So it's so it's fun. Ben Dorfman: Yeah. Deb Snyder: Now Ben, as you know, we end every episode of Rare Medium with our 10 QQ, our 10 quick questions. Are you ready for your 10QQ? All right. Do you believe in the afterlife? Ben Dorfman: Absolutely. Deb Snyder: What was your age in the best year of your Ben Dorfman: Yeah. Deb Snyder: life so far? Ben Dorfman: Honestly, I think I'm living my best life right now, so f I'm forty years old. Getting older. That's right. Deb Snyder: very good. Forty, that's a good age. So long ago. Ben Dorfman: Like this. Deb Snyder: Who is your favorite musical artist? Ben Dorfman: Right now I like a a group called Stick Figure. They're kind of like a Hawaiian reggae kind of mello band. Yeah. Deb Snyder: fun. Now where would you most like to travel? Ben Dorfman: Right now we have Tahiti on our list. We're part of a Tahiti dance and drum group, so that's yeah. Deb Snyder: that sounds like a blast, Tahiti. Beautiful. What person has inspired you the most? Ben Dorfman: man. I the first one that comes to my mind is a person named Warren. He was like my very first mentor of sorts. And he was the person I had met here in Seattle when I first came and moved here to Seattle. And he had his this book group called the present moment reading book group, where we we read out loud together and discussed in the in the moment and just kind of awakened me being with him and seeing his vulnerability. Yeah. Deb Snyder: that's powerful when we meet someone like that. They shift it all. Ben Dorfman: Totally Deb Snyder: Now, if you could have an entirely different profession, what would it be? Ben Dorfman: I always thought it'd be fun to be like a a handyman, a construction worker, 'cause I I've always wanted those skill sets to to fix the house and to build things and I never really learned that stuff, only through YouTube. And so I thought although it sounds like very hard work, but that'd be cool to know. Yeah. Deb Snyder: Now what are you grateful for? Ben Dorfman: man, I'm grateful for my family and my my kids and and all the community that we get to experience, especially via my wife who's a very community oriented person. So yeah, including the island that we do the retreats at, that's a shared community space. I just am grateful to have those connections. Yeah. Do you love yourself? Deb Snyder: Fabulous. Do you love yourself? Ben Dorfman: I do love myself, yeah. I I've I'm grateful to to be in that position to to have healed that much. Deb Snyder: Wonderful. What do you most regret? Ben Dorfman: Ooh man, what do I most regret? I think I regret at times not being fully in the moment, getting caught up in fears and anxieties and trying to prepare for the future as if I knew the future when I really didn't know the future and I missed out, I think, on just really enjoying and having more fun and and lightness and lots of different moments in the past. Deb Snyder: Now, in a word or two, what is your advice for your fellow humans? Ben Dorfman: Trust your heart. Yeah. Deb Snyder: Very good. Ben Dorfman, thank you so much for being with us. We look forward I look forward to catching up on both of your books and looking forward to what you have next. Ben Dorfman: Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed our time together. Thank Deb Snyder: Thank you. Ben Dorfman: you. Deb Snyder: This has been Rare Medium with Deb Snyder. Please subscribe on your favorite channel and leave any comments you'd like us to see. To learn more, visit DebSnyder.com or Heartglow.org.