Nataliya Priess at AUREA: Be a Balm, Not a Bomb

Nataliya Priess spelled the word out from the AUREA I stage so nobody in the room could mishear it. "I choose to be a balm. B A L M. A nourishing balm." The bomb she was giving up was the operator she had become inside her own company: the intimidating one in the corporate office, running on attitude.

Priess is a businesswoman with a technology startup, and she was answering a question put to her on stage about which modalities actually open up deep inner healing. Her answer ran through burnout, shadow work, and what she has come to believe feminine energy is for. The whole segment is under five minutes.

What Nataliya Priess means by being a balm rather than a bomb

A balm is her word for strength that nourishes the person standing next to it. "High potency and strong, but it's caring and loving and nourishing. And also that smells good."

The bomb was the version of herself she ran in corporate rooms, sharp and intimidating and effective. She kept the strength and changed what it does on contact. "I'm still a strong woman," she told the room, which is the part of the reframe people miss.

Why she burned out running a technology startup

She spent most of her working hours in masculine energy because her industry runs on it, and it emptied her. "Go, go, do, do, do, do, do, do, and then I burn out."

Technology is a very masculine industry, in her description, and operating inside it meant living in her masculine for years at a stretch. Coming back into balance was not fast. She describes where she stands now as balance between her inner masculine and her feminine, arrived at by work rather than by decision.

Which practices she credits with bringing her back into balance

Four, named in this order: shadow work, inner child work, meditation, and breathing. "It took a lot of healing, it took a lot of shadow work, inner child work, meditation, breathing, to get to the point, to the place where I'm now."

The question she was answering asked exactly this: which modalities had really opened up deep inner healing for her. She gave the list without embellishing it. She also guided a full breathwork session at the same event, so the last item on that list is one the room got to do with her.

The compliment that changed how she thinks about presence

A woman at a Goddess Retreat told her that her energy worked like a perfume. "I love your energy. It's like a perfume. I just want to be around and smell and inhale. I want more of it."

Priess says that was the moment she understood what feminine energy actually is, and that it is available to anyone. Presence carries. People stand near it and want more of it, and they cannot always say why.

Why she calls feminine energy the strongest energy there is

Because it is the energy that gives birth. "Some people think that feminine energy is weak. It is the strongest energy. That gives birth. It gives life. It gives birth for the ideas, for the innovations."

Her sequence has two moves in it. The feminine conceives the idea, and then the masculine puts it into reality; she pointed at the man sitting inside the word manifest to make the point stick. The order is what she cares about. It starts with the feminine, and the building comes second.

Why she opened by thanking the men in the room

Because rooms like that one are usually almost entirely women. "Conscious kings, thank you for being here," she said, over applause, before she said anything else.

Outside of Burning Man, she said, the spiritual retreats, events and workshops she attends skew overwhelmingly female. Her position on why that matters: "the divine feminine is rising. There is no way to stop us, but we do need divine masculine next to us. By our side, in balance, in unity, in sacred union." Then she turned it inward, which is where she leaves it. "The sacred union starts within."

She closed with an instruction rather than a summary. "I invite you to embrace the feminine energy within you. Be a perfume. And anywhere you go in this stinky false matrix, make every place smell better."

Watch the full talk above.

Frequently asked questions

What does "be a balm, not a bomb" mean?

It is Nataliya Priess's phrase for keeping your strength and changing what it does to people. The bomb is the sharp, intimidating operator she became in corporate rooms. The balm is her word for the same potency delivered as care: nourishing, loving, and in her description, good to be near. She spelled it out on stage so the room would hear the difference between the two words.

Who is Nataliya Priess?

A businesswoman who runs a technology startup and works in inner child healing, shadow work and breathwork. She spoke on the AUREA I stage about burning out in a masculine industry and rebuilding her balance, and she guided the full morning breathwork session at the same event. Her talk here is a short answer inside a longer on-stage conversation about healing modalities.

What practices does she credit for her own healing?

Shadow work, inner child work, meditation and breathing. She named those four when asked directly which modalities had opened up deep inner healing for her, and she credits them with taking her out of chronic burnout and into balance between her inner masculine and feminine. She does not present them as quick. Her words were that it took a lot of healing and a lot of time.

Why does she say feminine energy is the strongest energy?

Because it is the energy that gives birth, both to life and to ideas and innovations. Her argument is that people mistake it for weakness while it is doing the generative work. In her sequence, the feminine conceives and the masculine then builds the thing into reality, and she is firm that the order runs that way rather than the reverse.