Tracy Harward, Ishtara Creator and Teacher
I created Ishtara as a method to heal myself. I shared it with others and it worked for them too.
As a result of prolonged childhood trauma from the ages of 7-15 years old, my nervous system learned to run in a survival state most of the time. I searched for years for a way to heal myself. I did self help, therapy, and spiritual practices for decades, but none of these helped because the source was my body - not my brain or my spirit.
It was learning a practice of moving meditation and how to follow my own body’s wisdom that changed everything. As I became able to listen to and follow my own body from the inside, I was able to get a felt sense of how my psychology lived in my nervous system. Because I could feel it, I was able to discover a way to re-pattern it on my own.
My personal practice became a method that I developed over 10+ years, tested for 5 of those years in free classes, and perfected for 5 of those years with 100's of students, including licensed therapists.
I would love to teach you the depth of this method.
I love teaching people to become free and share Ishtara from my heart.
Tracy created Ishtara from listening to her own body. The method is also informed by her 11 years of high practice in moving meditation and 25 years total of study and practice in somatic psychology, spiritual and yogic philosophy, gestalt psychology, trauma psychology, attachment theory, and transpersonal psychology.
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Tracy also studied with masters in somatic psychology, including in-person study with Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk (Body Keeps the Score) and online trainings with Dr. Peter Levine, Dr. Stephen Porges, and Dr. Pat Ogden. More importantly, Tracy studied with her own psychology in her body and knows it is YOUR body who is your authority and the most trustable guide for you.
Work with Tracy
With love from my body to your body.
I discovered the being who is my body, and she changed my life. It started in a practice of moving meditation that resulted in a re-membering in my body. I was experiencing some very strong emotions as a result of being in my body for a few days, and instead of running from my feelings, I went toward them as sensation in my body and in the safe comfort of a few women who love me. Then something happened.
It was a remembering. I experienced it as a part of me awakening and rising in my body after 40 years of being asleep. I felt her intuitively as a part of me I had hidden deep inside my body as a result of trauma I experienced as a child. She was a young part of me, the innocent and magical part of me. And now she was awake.
I returned home and started dancing daily. She had a lot to say. I started moving everything I was feeling in my body every morning. I cried every day for 90 days. I cried in a new way - without suffering - it was like wringing sadness and past stories in my body, like wringing water out of towel.
As I followed my body, my life started changing rapidly. My triggers started to disappear. As I allowed my body to let our her feelings, the sadness and any pain of my memories that were the source of my triggers melted away.
As my body released stored emotions, I began experiencing more moments of joy arising in my body. I gave myself space to move in higher states as I was moving. And I soon discovered that if I danced it, it would show up my reality. Within 90 days of dancing daily, everything in my life changed.
Suddenly I was leaving a 20 year long corporate career working as an executive. I was grateful for the work, but working in cubicles in a masculine environment was draining me. For years, I desired a change, but had no idea what to do to change things. On one particular day, I was driving home from another long day of working and realizing I had been doing the same thing for years. Truly on a hamster wheel.
On this day, I deeply asked myself, "What are you doing?" Immediately, I felt an energy come into my body - it was a body NO - as in, we are not doing this anymore - and it rippled through me to my core. Within 30 days of this experience, I was leaving my corporate career with my partners being pleased to give me a year's salary to start a new life.
On that same day, I boarded a plane to go to a dance retreat and planned my next adventure for when I returned. I was able to fulfill a long held dream of living by the ocean. I landed in the most magical place with fruit, flowers, and hummingbirds in a neighborhood where the houses were separated only by a sidewalk. The 'walk streets' were like a secret garden, lined with exotic gates, and covered by romantic trees hanging with lanterns. I took a 3 month sabbatical and let myself dance every day and continue to follow my body.
I intended to start working again after 3 months. To the day, people started calling me out of the blue with opportunities. I began a new way of earning my living - on my own terms working half the time and making twice the money and working from wherever I pleased. I was free from corporate life. And I have continued to be able to work in this way for 7 years without ever creating a web site or selling myself. It still amazes me. And I am deeply grateful.
So much more has happened to me. More than I can share here. Rest assured everything I teach, I learned, healed, experienced and created by following the wisdom in my own body. I realize my results are extraordinary. They come from the magic of my body. Your body journey is unique to you. And creating a new reality for yourself will depend on your willingness to be in your own body and the quality of your devotion to your practice.
I waited a very long time to create this course. I waited until I could truly say I lived the principles in my body. I waited until I could also say I was able to help others transform their lives in their bodies.
I started by teaching for free for 5 years. As I did, I saw women transforming in the same rapid and demonstrable ways as me. I practiced with different people of varying ages and walks of life , and again, the results exceeded my expectations.
The women I practice with started saying to me - everyone needs this in their life. So in January of 2020, I wrote a book and launched this site. My plan was to continue teaching in person and test beta version of an online course. Then came the pandemic and the lock down.
March of 2020, I devoted myself to supporting people and made my online classes initially free. I began teaching every night and on the weekends to show women how to heal their trauma - not only past, but now present for all of us - in their bodies.
I discovered a way to teach Ishtara online as deeply and effectively as in person. Today I teach women all over the world how to return to the power of their body and be free.
I am now offering this practice to you.
My passion is to share principles and practices that can connect you to your own power and return you to yourself in your body. I love that once you learn to be in your body, you are free. You can l follow your own body and your own journey in your own home at any time. Your body is your teacher and can lead you on your own amazing adventure.
You only need to love her and learn to speak body.