Uncaging Your Wild, Untamed Self: How to Release Shame and Reclaim Your Power

Every time you shrink yourself to fit the pain, you lock yourself in a prison no one else can free you from. You are the key.

Poem: Vice

what is blocking you and keeping you stuck

is often the thing you give into when down on your luck

sometimes these vices are obvious and relentlessly judged

others are socially acceptable and masked as hard work or fun

it may be a quick fix but is causing harsh damage

that quickly spirals and becomes impossible to manage

figure out why that vice makes you feel so good inside

is it comfort, numbing, or simply an excuse to avoid the ride?

address the root cause and acknowledge the true price

challenge the beliefs that cause you to play excessively in your vice

list where in life it divides you and robs you of your peace

note where it causes resentment and barbaric need

begin to work on healing the reason behind the desire to escape

kindly tend to yourself and nurture better things to take shape

fresh habits will be built and new pathways graciously paved

slowly you will become profoundly free and no longer enslaved

self-love and trust will be forged through this vital process

you'll no longer need to self-punish due to hollow nonsense

be mindful of small slips along the way while exploring things anew

so the harmful vices in life no longer have coercive control over you

The Weight of Shame

Where do you feel shame in your body?
For me, it’s a heaviness in my cells—a subtle but sharp discomfort in my stomach, like butterflies that never quite leave.
It’s the same feeling that shows up when someone says something harsh or a stranger on social media launches a projection at me or when my family judges me for something I deeply value like ‘frivolous travel’.

It’s familiar, known, and oddly comforting—like a barometer that’s always pointed toward self-protection.

But what if that feeling is also the cage that’s holding back the wild, untamed self within you? What if shame is the jailer of your true voice, your purpose, and your worth?

The Key You Hold

Shame is the master key that locks away the very parts of us that hold our power.

We think we’re staying safe by hiding our voice, our creativity, our joy. We build cages out of negative thoughts, uncomfortable emotions, and ruminations on other people’s projections. We internalize harsh words—both from others and from ourselves—and use them as bars to keep our wild, untamed self quiet.

But every time we silence our voice to appease others, every time we hide our light to avoid judgment, we reinforce the belief that our power is dangerous. Over time, that cage becomes a home—safe but suffocating. And our purpose, our visibility, our expansion—our life force—wilts in the dark.

Open the Gate

For years, my butterfly shame weight kept my wild, untamed self locked away. The part of me that just wants freedom, to do what she pleases, to not care what anyone thinks—she was punished long ago.

So, she locked herself away in a cage made of self-judgment, fear, and other people’s expectations. Whenever shame appeared, it felt familiar—a direction I could trust to keep me small, to keep me safe. I learned to numb that feeling with food and alcohol. But every time I felt those butterflies in my stomach, that churn of disgust, I was reminded: “You don’t get to be free.”

And so, I hid. I silenced my voice. I buried my creativity. I smothered my expansion. I forced and did and proved my worth—always to everyone else, but never to myself. It took me years to see that shame wasn’t protecting me. It was caging me. And it was time to break free.

It’s not the actual shame that is caging you, it’s what the shame makes you believe about yourself that is crippling.

Where the Brain Holds the Lock

Neuroscience shows that shame activates the same areas of the brain as physical pain. Our nervous system interprets shame as a threat—and responds by shutting us down or lashing out. Somatic studies reveal that shame is stored in the body, often in the gut, chest, or throat.

When we feel shame, we contract. We hold our breath. We hide. And every time we do, we reinforce the belief that our power is too dangerous to be free. But shame is not the truth. It’s a story written by trauma, by society, by projections that were never ours to carry. It usually stems in misperception, negative inner narratives and confusion of the event or circumstance that ignited it. It’s the cage that holds the very parts of you that hold your voice, your creativity, your prosperity, and your worth because shame is the great protector of self-image.

I have mentioned before the concept from Carl Rogers on Self-Concept. Picture a triangle. One point represents the Self-Image (how we view ourselves and how we think others view us). The second point is our Ideal Self (the one we aspire to be, evolve and grow into) and the third point is Self-Esteem. If our Ideal Self and Self-Image have a huge gap, we are low in self-esteem, and self-worth. Shame tends to talk down our Self-Image to keep us safe and small, while our soul reaches to be our ideal self. It is the barricade to where we want to be and owning our worth, but only if we believe the story it tells.

Shame is really trying to tell you that there was something that happened, it made you feel ‘less than’ somehow and it had to do what it did back then to keep you safe and make sense of things, but shame is always nagging at you to reframe. It wants you to see you are your Ideal Self. It is asking you to rewrite the story around ‘the thing’ and see yourself now from a higher light.

Shame isn’t the villain here— it is the visionary who knows all that you are and is beckoning you to use it’s presence for more awareness of what needs releasing.

Shame as the Rescuer?

The cage is not the protection—it’s the prison. Your wild, untamed self is not dangerous—it’s the part of you that carries your power, your passion, your purpose. She’s nothing to be ashamed of, she’s aware now of the role shame played in her life and is ready to transform it into something beautiful. Your shame is waking you up trying to tell you that you hold the key that will lead to your free.

Shame is not your identity—it’s the residue of old wounds. The parts of you that crave visibility, expansion, creativity, and joy are not threats—they are the gifts you came here to share. When you release the outdated thoughts, the negative self-talk, and the heavy layers of shame from your body, you allow yourself to fully embody your worth.

You allow yourself to balance doing with being. You allow yourself to receive, rather than force. You become whole—and the world needs the whole, unfiltered you.

So how do you break free from this self-oppressive cage?

When You Uncage Yourself

Imagine standing in your power without apology. Imagine expressing your voice, your creativity, your sensuality without fear.
Imagine living a life where prosperity flows because you trust that you are worthy of receiving. Imagine the world experiencing your gifts in their fullest, most authentic form.

This is what’s possible when you open the cage and set your wild, untamed self free. Shame no longer runs your narrative, it challenges you to challenge what beliefs about your worth you developed because of it.

This is the transformation waiting for you inside the WORTH Mini-Course + Quest—where we guide you to shed the layers of shame and fully embody your purpose, passion, and power. It’s not another thing to do or earn, it is something to uncover, reclaim and remember. And if you’re just starting, the SHIFT Spell is your first step to unshackling your worth.

Three Things You Can Do to Start Transfroming Shame’s Role:

1. Feel the Shame:
   Close your eyes and ask: “Where do I feel shame in my body?” Name it. Witness it. Don’t run from it. What is it really trying to tell you?

2. Name the Cage:
   Write down the thoughts, beliefs, and projections that built your cage. Whose voice is it really? Was it only meant to be a temporary response that went rogue? What purpose did it serve then and what nagging truth is it trying to get you to see?

3. Ask Your Wild, Untamed Self:
   If that part of you could speak, what would it ask for? What does it need to feel safe to be free? What is one small way you can begin to shed the shame and your worth reclaim?

If You Hold the Key, How Will You Set Yourself Free?

Where have you caged your wild, untamed self—and what would it look like to set her free?

Remember: you are the only one who can rescue your worth from the shadows of your wounds. The door is ready to be released and your soul forever free— just choose to believe you are the key.

Until next time love—

Mandi