509: How The Body Stores Trauma, Stress, & Emotional Blocks

In this episode, I’m joined by Harmony Slater for a soulful conversation about the body, the breath, energetic healing, and the hidden patterns that can keep us out of alignment with who we really are. We talk about how the body holds emotional experiences, why so many of us feel disconnected from ourselves, and how healing happens when we slow down enough to listen to what our body has been trying to tell us all along.

Harmony shares her personal journey through yoga, mysticism, energy work, and healing from autoimmune symptoms and chronic fatigue. We also explore the mind-body connection, the role of the nervous system, and how unconscious beliefs, emotional patterns, and old wounds can shape the way we show up in our lives. This is a grounded and expansive conversation about coming back into wholeness through breath, awareness, and deep inner healing.

Transcript

Hello, Hello, Everyone. I'm so happy to have you with me today. Welcome to the Michelle Chalfant Show. I am joined today by the wonderful Harmony Slater. I want to tell you just a little bit about her before we jump in. She's a masterful teacher, Breathwork guide, And spiritual mentor who has spent decades weaving together ancient wisdom, Energetic healing, And modern transformation. She's one of only a handful of certified Ashtanga yoga teachers worldwide. And what I love about her is how grounded, Real, And deeply intuitive that she is. We're diving into the body, The breath, Awakening, And the hidden blocks that keep us from living in true alignment. This is going to be a soulful, Expansive conversation. So settle in, Everyone, Because here we go with Harmony Slater. Welcome. Hi, Michelle. Thank you so much for having me join you today. Oh, My gosh. I'm so excited. So yeah, We've got a lot of fun things to talk about, Breath, Awakening, And hidden blocks that keep us from living true alignment. We're going to also cross over into mind, Body, Connection, Energy, And all of it. We're going to see where we go. Let's do it. Let's see where we go. It's going to be an intuitive fly. Love it. So let's. . . I want to hear about you. You have a really interesting background. Let's talk about. . . I want to hear about your personal journey from philosophy and religious studies to yoga and mysticism. Yeah. Let's hear about it. How did you get here? Yeah, Sure. I mean, I kind of was raised Christian with a mom who took me to all different types of churches. She was sort of like church shopping. She actually was very new age when I was young, So, You know, Was into transcendental meditation and always wanted to go to India. I always find it interesting how our children kind of in some way become this extension of ourselves, Like our unconscious selves, You know, It's really beautiful. And so I grew up in that kind of tradition. But when I went to university, I started studying religious studies and existential philosophy and I loved philosophy and I really loved Eastern religion. So that took me into Buddhism and yoga, Indian philosophy, Which really sparked a love for meditation and a desire to travel. So I went to China and meditated in some Buddhist monasteries and did a whole, I guess, Like honors paper on Buddhist meditation and then went to India shortly after that. And in India, I was participating in this yoga school called the Shrangi Yoga in Mysore, South India, Practicing with the guru, The founder of Shrangi Yoga, Shri K. Patabi Joyce, And spent four months there and went home and was like, I need to get back there as soon as possible. So in that, I had kind of started to make some connections and was invited to go and work at a yoga retreat center in Thailand. So I moved to Thailand that same year and then I would just travel between Thailand and India studying Shrangi Yoga in Mysore and then working in Thailand and kind of going back and forth for several years. Eventually, I ended up moving back to Canada and starting my own yoga school. And then I got pregnant and had my son, Who's now almost 15 years old. So that was a while back. Moved again, Sold my yoga school and started mostly teaching workshops and retreats internationally, Really looking at the mind body connection and how to integrate this deeper existential philosophy, Like the philosophy of living, Which yoga and Buddhism both are into your daily life. And that sort of then kind of drew me into more of the subtle practices. I'd actually been always very interested in Reiki and energy and did like my Reiki training back in 2000 before it was even anything anybody knew about. And then and then since then, I've forayed and like ventured deeply into the realm of energy healing and energy work doing spinal energetics, Which is both working like with the body, But it can also be done online, Just working in the quantum field and integrating that into my practice as far as what I'm offering and how I help people. And so, Yeah, It's been quite the journey, Quite the adventure. Oh, My gosh. You've had quite a life. That's like the life of 10 people. Yeah. 11 in one. I don't know. My spirit wants to like fit it all in for some reason. Now, This is a term that I don't think a lot of people know, Is Ashtanga Yoga. Mm hmm. What is that? Yeah, So the Ashtanga Yoga, Ashtanga comes from the Sanskrit, Which means eight limbs. And as it was taught by Sri K. Patabhi Jois in Mysore, India, It's very much a physical asana practice. So it's very intense asana. So any type of yoga that it has, What a lot of people know what vinyasa is, Vinyasa means like breath movement practice or to yoke together two things. And so any vinyasa yoga comes from Ashtanga Yoga. It was the original vinyasa. There was no vinyasa before Ashtanga Yoga, Because that was the teaching is bringing this sun salutation or the Surya Namaskara and linking, Threading every single posture together with this movement and breath practice. And so power yoga, Vinyasa yoga, Flow yoga, Shiva Ray, Shankar, Like all of them. Yeah, They all started doing Ashtanga Yoga because that was it was either Iyengar Yoga, Sivananda Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga. Those were like the big three. Where does kundalini fit into all that? And kundalini, Yes, Kind of in there, Too, In the 60s with the Yogi Bhajan, Totally different type, You know, Using more the kriyas, The breath, The movement. Yeah, Yeah. If you haven't seen Breath of Fire, I highly recommend it. Love Breath of Fire. That was my, That was my favorite. But I never, I mean, You don't see a lot of that Ashtanga Yoga. So I want to, I remember it being very powerful, Like these power poses, Like it was intense, It felt very intense. Yeah, There's like a whole discipline that goes around with it where you're supposed to practice five or six days a week. You typically practice very early in the morning. You know, It's sort of like quite involved. Wow. Well, Gosh. OK, So something you talked about, I've never heard of this spinal energetics. What is that? Yeah, Spinal energetics is incredible. It's a discipline that is based, A lot of people might be familiar with the work of Donald Epstein, And he created Network Spinal or sometimes called Network Chiropractics. Oh, Yeah, Yeah. He had several students or, You know, Facilitators that worked in his lineage, Like John Emeril and there's others as well. And people know John from like the Goop documentary. There's he was in that with Gwyneth, You know, Showing how the body, How like the somatic energy in your body will like open up and move the body. And your body has innate energy in it that knows how to heal and create coherence and connection within ourselves. What creates dis-ease or disconnection in our body is when we're holding, You know, Emotional patterns, Trauma, Memories, You know, Misperceptions, Misbeliefs, Different things that have happened to us throughout our life kind of start to pile up. And that was my case as well. I start, You know, I hit my mid 40s and all of a sudden it was like all of life felt like too much, So heavy. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. I felt like I had chronic fatigue. I had so many things that felt like they were just going wrong in my body, And I couldn't figure out how to make myself feel better. And I'd had like 25 years of yoga practice. Right. Yeah. So I'd had like two decades of very intense yoga practice. And all of a sudden it wasn't working anymore. My body completely was like, No, You can't do this. This is not for you. And so I was struggling. Like, How am I going to heal myself? How am I going to like find balance? I know what balance feels like, But like nothing I was doing was helping to bring me back into that place of balance. I was like meditating. I was doing the pranayama, The breath work. I had enrolled in three different coach certification programs and was working with like all of the emotional stuff that helped a little bit, For sure. Yeah. So like, You know, Past memories, Past traumas, Inner child work, Parts work. You know, I was doing all of it. And still I was like, I still am just not like finding that place where it feels like there's ease and flow happening. I still feel like there's like out of alignment. I mean, It's such a general way to say it, But I think everyone knows what that feels like when they're just like something's off and I don't know what it is. Yeah. So that drew me into this world of sort of self-healing and healing yourself and this work of a practitioner who had worked a little bit with Donald Epstein. Her name's Dr. Sarah Jane, And she's a chiropractor in Australia, And she created the modality spinal energetics, Which is really combining the Western science of chiropractics and the Eastern philosophy, Which, Of course, I was very attuned with and knew a lot about, You know, Where you're working with the energy centers in the body, The chakras, The nadis, The the channels of energy in the body like you see in the acupuncture offices, You know, The the images and then also this understanding that we have this innate intelligence within us that truly wants to heal and optimize our health and our bodies, Not just within us, But it's also in the energetic field or in the quantum field around us. So spinal energetics uses the connection we have to ourselves in our physical body using sound and frequency and also the energetic field, The sort of quantum entanglement belief that we resonate. We help, You know, What you say, Co-regulate each other. We have resonance with each other. And so coming into a facilitator's field, You already start shifting, You know, The same way we're in each other's fields right now. We're creating this mirror effect. We're already shifting and changing things about each other just by being in each other's presence. And it happens all the time. We're just not consciously aware of it. So spinal energetics does that, Where as a facilitator, You work with sound, Breath, Frequency, Music and gentle, Very gentle touches along the spine and then in the energetic field to help somebody connect their unconscious into their conscious and use that connection they have to this innate intelligence and energy within in them and all around them to release maybe blocks or traumas or just areas of disconnection where there's patterns of holding in the body that, You know, Maybe the body is ready to let go of, But we don't give ourselves the space and the time to really go in and acknowledge what's there and let it go. So that's, Yeah, That's the spinal energetics modality, Which I love because it really brought me back into alignment and cleared so much of that, Like accumulation of stuff that I'd been carrying in my body and just gave me a feeling of total freedom. Wow. How long did that take you? Like, Was it one session or a year of sessions or how long? I still get sessions. I get probably two sessions a month as well as I facilitate the work now as well, Because life keeps happening, You know? Right. Exactly. You can't really like just say, Oh, You need to do 12 sessions and you'll be cured forever. Go on your merry way. Yeah. I mean, Life continues to happen. We continue to have unprocessed stress. I don't know about you, But it feels like every day is just like insane. Yeah. It's like, Yes, So much that we're carrying now. Yeah. And so to have this as a way to come into myself, Whether it's an online facilitated session or in person is like an incredible gift. Mm hmm. I love it. I'll have to check it out. I've never heard of it before. I have heard of network chiropractic. I've had several of those in Nashville and here in Charlotte. Love that. So it's similar. It sounds like so much similar. It is similar, But it works more in the energetic field. Ooh, I love it. Yeah. And it uses more sound and frequency to shift because that's how our body actually releases and finds these patterns is through that sound and frequency. What type of sound are you using? Are you using like singing bowls or tuning forks or music or what do you use? It's music. Yeah. Mostly music. But also there's a sounds like that we make as practitioners that are like access sounds like when we access either in the field or on the body. And then like when we're moving through the field, There'd be also sounds like. So it becomes kind of like a like a light language. That's so cool. I am. I'm excited. I'm checking it out for sure. Incredible. I love it. So, Yeah, So that's really interesting. You said something about the body knowing innately how to heal itself. Yeah. So what do you think happens? Why don't we just stay healthy? Well, I mean, We have all kinds of misperceptions. I think you know that I want to get your opinion on this, Though. Yeah. So here. Yeah, We you know, We have a lot of unconscious beliefs that I think we carry with us that, You know, And a lot of patterns as well. So, You know, Whether it's an unconscious belief of, You know, I have to work hard to. You know, Be worthy. Mm hmm. Or it's just like and we might not know that we have that belief, But maybe then we have a pattern of of like, You know. Feeling like we're never doing enough. Mm hmm. Yeah, That's a good point there. Yeah. And that pattern can work for a while. I mean, All of these patterns we have because they're advantageous to some extent. Right. And they've worked for us. They're success patterns. Mm hmm. And so, You know, Someone might have a pattern of overworking and someone might might have a pattern of asking for support. Or maybe over asking for support. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, They're just both patterns that we found helpful and advantageous until they stop working. Or they're overworking and then creating imbalance. In our lives. So it's almost as if that that innate. Knowing how to heal. It's within all of us, But it gets covered up. Exactly. Yeah. Just gets covered up by masks or like you said, These beliefs. And it's like we can't hear it. We can't access it. We can't know it. It can't stream through us in order to help us to stay in balance. So, I mean, The body always wants to be in balance. It's trying so hard to be in balance. We take ourselves out of balance. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And I think that's the thing that we feel like, Especially as women, We're often at war with our bodies. We really feel like, You know, I'm not thin enough. I'm not young enough. I'm not like I don't know. We have all these these hang ups that we take on about our bodies and we're always like in conflict with ourselves. And it creates a lot of dysfunction. Right. And and instead of creating compassion, Self-compassion and tenderness and listening and really, Like you say, Celebrating and honoring like, Oh, My gosh, My body's doing so much for me. It's caring so much. It's processing so much. It's eliminating so much every single day without any thanks or gratitude. We don't have to cue it like, Hey, Please digest my lunch. But I just said, Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's just always trying to bring us back into health and wholeness. And yet we're kind of like berating ourselves all the time for not, You know, Being perfect or looking perfect or, You know, Running 15 miles every day or whatever it is that, You know, We're carrying around with us, Whatever. Yeah. Shame and guilt. Yeah. And that's like the stuff that accumulates, You know, And especially I think as we age. It builds up and it's like our body can't keep up continuing to bring us back into balance because it's like we're getting overloaded now. It piles on, Doesn't it? It just keeps piling on and then we lose ourselves. We don't know who we are. And then we get mad at the body and, You know, All the things. Yeah. But actually, So what do you what's your take on like clearing these unconscious beliefs going from inner critic to soul alignment? Is it going through spinal energetics or can you offer anything else? What else would you say about that? Yeah, Sure. I think there's lots of ways that we can clear things. And this is what I love about spinal energetics. But it's also what I love about coaching and the type of coaching that I do. And it sounds like also the type of coaching you do from what we've spoken about, Which is like my true belief. I done training at the Institute for Coaching Mastery, Which is founded by also a somatic therapist, Alyssa Nobrega, And really looking at how we have to clear these, You know, This accumulation, Let's just call it. Yes. So, Yes, We need to clear it somatically through our body. And that, You know, Sometimes that can happen through movements, Through breathwork, Through spinal energetics, Right? Like doing something that involves our physical body through our behavior patterns. So obviously a true change always shows up in a change of behavior. So changing it like actually in our day to day lives and how we're functioning, But also changing it in our emotions, In our emotional field. And this is where I love this energetic work in spinal energetics, Because we have our physical bodies, Which is, You know, Our somatic body or our vital energy sort of system. And then we have our emotional field, Which is both inside but outside of the body. And this is where we carry a lot of stuff, Right? Like the and it's a lot of it's unconscious. And the body is the key to the unconscious as well, Which is kind of beautiful when you're doing somatic coaching, Going into a sensation like being with that sensation and letting it express. And always emotion comes out, Right? Because we're storing emotion in our body. And so it can be accessed, You know, Through that field, Through that emotional field and giving the emotion like that part of us that's stuck in that experience. So, For example. Like, Say I'll take an example from my own life because it's easier to understand with examples and stories. So I auditioned when I was, I think, Maybe six years old for a part in a ballet where I was going to be a little mouse in the ballet. I think it was a Cinderella. And and then I didn't get the part. And so that six year old, You know, Made it was very emotional, Of course, Right, For a six year old to like go to an audition, To stand up there, To dance, To put yourself out there and then to like be sent home. Rejected. Right, Right, Right. And so that was probably my first experience of, You know, Being really rejected, Like in a very obvious way, In a very public way. And so emotionally, Then that sits somewhere in my body, Like if I'm not good enough, I'm going to be rejected. I don't perform enough. Wow. Yeah, I'm going to they're going to send me away if I don't show up and look exactly how someone wants me to look. I'm not going to make it. Right, And so a six year old makes up a lot of beliefs about this one very limited, Small experience, But it becomes a foundational emotional experience for the rest of reality. And so then that creates all kinds of interesting patterns around needing to show up a certain way, Look a certain way, You know, Function a certain way, Perform a certain way. So when you go into the body and you follow sensations back, You know, Whether it's a stomach ache and always this is such an interesting thing, Which you probably already are familiar with, But we'll just tell your audience. We go for it for fun. But like things that we have where we're like, You know, Feeling this fear of rejection. Right. Maybe we're trying to create a new offer online. Right. And we're like, Oh, I want to create a group program for women to come in and transform their lives. Something like this. Right. And so we have it all mapped out. We want to do it. And then we go to make it public and to become visible and to show up and invite people in. And we feel like, Oh, Like, Like I get a pit in my stomach, Like I just can't do it. I want to do it and I'm doing it. But even while I'm doing it, I'm still holding this pit in my stomach or my solar plexus or wherever you find it or your throat, Your voice. You know, We hold things, Different parts of our body. And so when we slow down and go into the sensation in the body, So using that body as an access or a portal into our unconscious, If you follow the sensation all the way back, You'll touch into an emotion. Mm. That hasn't been expressed. Mm hmm. And often then a belief that goes with the emotion that hasn't been expressed. And until we bring what is unconscious into our conscious mind, We can't actually clear it or release it or be with it and address it and love it. And it's not about getting rid of it, But it's about bringing everything that's unconscious, Which is a lot like 95 percent of us is unconscious into our conscious awareness so that we are not letting it control how we're showing up now or how we're, You know. Like how we're acting in the present moment. Mm hmm. So it's a learning to like bring all of these kind of rejected, Hidden, Exiled parts of ourselves into wholeness, Into who we are and like learning to be with the emotions and release the emotions, Acknowledge them, Accept them. Then all of a sudden there's freedom because now you can move forward because it's been seen and it's been met and it's been loved. And that little six year old that felt unloved and ugly and like a failure can, You know, We can recognize, Oh, That was just the misunderstanding of a six year old. And now the six year old isn't driving your whole business, OK, Which which she will. Six year old. We do. We do. Right. The girl can be in the backseat where she belongs and we can just attend to her as she needs attention. Right. So working like with the emotions, With the mind, Of course, There's some mindset stuff or like misperceptions, Misbeliefs, You know, Reframing and looking at those. But really doing this deeper work, Which is all like clearing energetic blocks. And where are they in the field? Are they in community and relationship? Are they, You know, Karmic from past lives or ancestral? I mean, A lot of money, Trauma and money beliefs are ancestral, You know, So we're sharing them with us. I love that. So true. I love it. Love it. Love it. Yeah. So just like working on all those levels, That's to me what I love. And that's sort of the union of of the coaching that I do with the spinal energetics where you're you're having, You know, You're working in the energetic field. But you can also do that through speaking as much as you can do it through, Like just dropping in and feeling your body and feeling the energy in your body. So it's just different ways to work with the same kind of processes. Right. Right. I know. I love that. Talk a little bit more about I know you do a lot with nervous system regulation, But let's talk about it for, You know, Anyone that might be sensitive or an empath or any or a healer. Talk about the importance of that. And what practices do you recommend for people like us that are definitely more sensitive out in the world to stay regulated? What is your experience been with that? I mean, For me, I always feel like the breath is our number one. It's the number one tool and the easiest to access for regulation because it's the one aspect of ourself that is mostly unconscious, Right? We're breathing all the time. We don't have to think about it, Thankfully. If our body is just doing that for it. Yeah, That's right. Yeah, It's totally free. We can just, You know, Hang out and breathe. We can run and breathe. We can swim and breathe. You know, We don't have to really worry about it, But it is the one aspect of ourselves from our autonomic nervous system, Which is the part of our brain and our central nervous system that is, You know, Keeping our heart beating, Keeping our breath, Moving, Keeping our food, Digesting our circulation, Moving. It's the one component or the one thing that we can consciously take control of anytime we want. Right, So I can say, Let's all just take a deep inhale. Let's hold. And let's exhale. Yeah, And we can all do that, Right? Anytime we want, It's within our conscious control. And so as one of my, You know, Yoga teachers, Very. He was actually the one who taught me pranayama exercises and pranayama means the expansion of prana, Prana being the life force within us, But also the breath. So pranayama is the yogic tradition of controlling and regulating your breath. And so there's different exercises you can do. But he would always say you can't control the mind with the mind. And so you've probably had this, You know, Experience where like maybe you're circling or cycling in a thought, Right? Why did they say this to me? I should have said this. Why didn't I say this? You know, And you're like maybe like spinning that thought around in your head and you're like, Oh, I just want to stop thinking about this. Just stop thinking about it. But you can't actually stop thinking about it. And the more you want to stop thinking about it, The more you keep thinking about it. Right. Or you're like, Calm down, Just be calm. Right. Maybe you're like feeling irritated or aggravated or you're feeling angry and you're like, Just don't be angry. Yeah. How can you just tell yourself not to be angry? Like you're actually feeling an emotion. You're having a physiological response to something. So you can't just use the mind to like control the body in that way and or to control the mind. So what do you do? How do you control yourself? Right. How do you kind of act? You're unconscious because that's really what it is. Yeah. So you have to control it with the breath. And so the breath is like the back door to the mind. And so you say, OK, I'm just going to think about my breathing. I'm going to start counting and take it, You know, Five seconds, Six second, 10 second inhale. I'm going to pause for two seconds and then I'm going to exhale for six seconds, 10 seconds, However long, You know, As long as you can. And so the breath is the easiest way to immediately bring yourself into that center, Into that controlled place within yourself. And so if you're sensitive or you're feeling like very. Open and maybe hypersensitive or you're you know, You're going into an environment that you find dysregulated like a supermarket or a podcast interview. I don't know if I like anything where you're feeling like, Oh, I need to really show up here and and perform or I'm going to be around a lot of people like a party, A Christmas party or, You know, Something. And I know I'm going to be inundated. The best thing you can do is take maybe that five minutes or, You know, Sit in your car for an extra two minutes before you go in and just consciously slow down your breaths. So you can breathe in through your nose. You could even just pause at the top for a moment and then exhale. If you exhale through your mouth, Either with pursed lips. Or just through the mouth. You can make a little bit of a sound, Either like, Oh. Or make the exhale as long as you can by pursing your lips. Like you're blowing out a candle. Hmm. The longer the exhale is, It actually starts to activate your vagus nerve, Which is the braking system to your sympathetic nervous system. So it takes you out of fight or flight into a more regulated place. But also just that two minutes, Five minutes of conscious breathing. Will create like there's a couple of things that it does when you inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. It's very grounding. So that grounds you and helps you feel into kind of your feet, Your legs, Your root chakra area, Right? The base of your pelvic floor. And so it's going to bring you into a more grounded, Centered place within yourself. It also kind of is going to create strength in in your energetic shield. So, You know, We all have like a Taurus field around us. So anytime we're doing this kind of like conscious, Slow breathing, We're connecting and like strengthening that energetic field around us. So it'll create like a little bit of a shield. You could even add some visualization if you want, Right? As you're breathing out. You're just like putting yourself in like a golden bubble or egg or, You know, Whatever, Creating a ultraviolet shield whenever you want to do. That can also help because it will create, Again, Our mind, Our intention is so, So powerful. So as we visualize what we're doing, Connecting to the breath, We're bringing it into the breath. We're bringing it into the body. We're regulating our emotions. We are creating our reality. Mm hmm. And so you can't fail. No, I love that. So if someone's, Let's say, Really angry or having an intense emotion. Yeah. And they do. You know, We do this as humans. We go, Yeah, Angry. It's like, No, I'm so mad, You know, And then we go into our head and we try to figure it out. Why am I so angry? How do I stop feeling this angry? Right. So if you were to talk to someone like that, You would say first, Take a breath. Let's breathe together. So, Yeah, It depends how angry they are. I mean, Sometimes you might just need to shake it out and move your body, You know, Because energy like emotion gets dissipated by sound and movement. So sometimes we like, Especially in the West, We're very like we don't move conscious. We don't like we're like this. Yeah. Yeah. We freeze. And we also don't like to make sound. Yeah. Right. So we're like frozen and quiet. Yeah. Yeah. So. And that's how we trap the energy in the body because we get frozen and quiet and our body's like, OK, I guess I'll just suck this down for later. No, We got to. I love what you said. We've got to let our body move, Move, Move. I remember when I used to see clients one on one in my office in Nashville, There were some clients. I'm like, What do you feel like doing? They're like, I feel like getting on the floor. And I would get on the floor with them. Yeah, I'd roll around like I would match them. So they didn't feel uncomfortable. And the more I did with them, The more, You know, They would yell. And I, You know, We got into it. But holy moly, They'd get off the floor and sit down again. They go, That was absolutely amazing. Thank you for doing that with me. I'm like, No problem. That was really fun. That was good. But yeah, It was it's powerful. I every morning I'd love to know, Do you do a morning practice? Because what I've been doing lately, I get up in the morning. I go downstairs, Feed my dog, Because he won't leave me alone till I feed him. Yeah. And I just stand up. I do a lot of like stretching. I'm constantly stretching, Not yoga, But I'm stretching. And then I jump up and down and I'm twisting like this is my new thing. I don't know. I've been awesome last month or so. Like I'm getting my lymphatic system going. I'm just and it feels so good. Yeah, It's just like a minute long. Like it's not anything you can do for 20 minutes. But yeah, And I thought I've thought about that a lot is it's discharging energy. It's getting my energy going for the day. It's so many different things. What else would you recommend me in the morning? Yeah. Oh, A morning practice. That's always like, I know you could say about a hundred things, I'm sure. Yeah, There's like a hundred things. I'm always like, Man, Morning practice. If I had my ideal morning practice, It'd be like five hours, You know, And then I'm ready to end the day. Like, OK, How are we going to do that now? When I was practicing a stung yoga, It's very intense. So you're doing about two hours of asana every morning. So I had a very extensive morning practice at one point in my life for about two years. I was doing an hour of meditation, An hour of pranayama, Which is like controlling your breath and holding your breath. And then two hours of asana was a four hour morning practice. Oh, My gosh. I have a question for you. I want to go back to. But wait, Since you're on this topic, So you don't do that now. So how is your life now compared to then? Like what's different? Yeah, That's so interesting. It's like in my mind I have I hold this as like the ideal, You know, Like, Oh, Back in the day. But where do you feel? And I'm curious, Only because I don't have that time. I mean, I guess I could if I get up like four and three in the morning, I could do it. But that's how we did it. Yeah, I'm sure I was going to say you probably didn't get over that. OK, So did you feel then more calm, More balanced, More all of these things compared to now or now? Because you're still doing your work, But in a different way. Yeah. Are you experiencing the same kind of this emotions in the same way or peace or calm? Like I want to hear the difference. Or is it? Yeah, I think this is the thing. I think we often kind of have this idealized sort of thing, You know, That we're doing. I mean, Now my morning practice would probably not just be those three things for that long. And, You know, I'd want to do other things like do some journaling or, You know, Different things. But anyway, I think the interesting thing is sometimes having like an extended period of time is really, Really helpful for people to create that discipline, That regularity, To have time for themselves. And it depends what you're working on and how sort of deep you want to go into yourself. But I mean, It's not so practical when you have like a child and a job and, You know, You're not getting to bed until 11 or midnight. And then you're you know, You need sleep is important. OK, Especially for nervous system regulation. Health sleep is important. So, You know, I was quite young then, Too. I was like in my 20s and early 30s. And so you're you can kind of like push those boundaries a little bit more and sort of, You know, Get away with five hours of sleep. You need to. But I don't think actually, To be honest, That that kind of like, You know, We always like kind of idealize the people who are doing the hours and hours of meditation or these hours of yoga and every day you're sort of, You know, Holding them up on this pedestal like, Oh, They must have it all figured out. But in a weird way, It was like this kind of controlling of my environment to such an extent so that I wouldn't have to deal with things. Oh, My God. First of all, I love how vulnerable you are about that right there. That's beautiful. Yeah. Well, Thank you. I mean, It's I've thought about it a lot and like I've been through it a lot. And it's like there's a little bit of a spiritual bypass that happens, You know, Where it's like instead of like your world expanding and opening up to different people and different ideas and different ways of doing things and putting yourself into different situations that are going to be a little bit stressful, You're kind of like closing your world down so that you just don't have to do that. Mm hmm. And so there's sort of like this interesting thing for a while. Maybe it's nice to put up those boundaries like and needed and necessary. But if like your whole world is like that and just getting smaller and smaller in a weird way, You're not actually growing at some point, Right? You're interesting. Yeah, That's a great point. Shrinking. You know, I know I was one of those people and I and I've worked with these people, Too, That say, Oh, I meditated this morning and it felt to me like I was checking a box, Like I should be. That's what that's what I should be doing. I'm spiritual. I'm a spiritual person. I need to meditate every day. And then they found when I would hike in the morning, I walk every morning for about an hour and I walk through the woods and I live on a lake. It's really pretty. But I don't talk on the phone. I don't listen to me. I'm in silence. And what I realized was that's when I'm meditating versus what I used to do was sit on my cushion, You know, And I'd be with my eyes closed and I meditate. That felt like such a chore. But I could tell her, Oh, I meditate today. I'm like, No, I love what I do now. I have a kayak. I'll go out on the lake and I'm paddling. And I'm like, This is the rhythm. And I'm in the moment. I've got my eyes wide open, But I feel like I'm in a meditational state. That to me has done more for me than when I used to sit on a cushion for 20 to 30 minutes in the morning. I'm like, No way I wouldn't trade it. So I think we have to I think what that's why I said, I really appreciate what you said, Because there could be that aspect of the, You know, Of our ego coming in saying, Look at me. I've done this for four hours a day or even me saying, Look at me. I did it for 30 minutes. It's like, Well, Wait a minute. Is that really healthy? Yeah, And exactly. And I mean, The ego is so tricky. It loves to co-op all these things. Yeah. Look at me. I'm a meditator. I'm this. It's like, Well, Are you getting anything out of it? Because you just hung up or you excuse me, You stopped meditating. Then you had an argument with your with your child, With your with your partner, With whomever. Then you got to then you were being a workaholic all day at work. It's like it's not translating into your entire day. Right. Exactly. Anyway, I'm going to go back. And we can use those like take the same patterns, Right, Of achievement, Performance, Perfectionism, Like all of those same patterns that we can just put them into the spiritual box. And now, You know, Now I'm I'm on the same treadmill. But instead of going after CEO in the company, Well, I'm going after, You know, Meditating for an hour every day or I'm going after, You know, I want to work my way up into, You know, Becoming a retreat leader, A spiritual retreat leader, Having, You know, A following of people, You know, Admiring much spiritual practice. I don't know. Right. Like I love I can just take the same patterns and apply them to the same things. And a lot of people do. And then as someone who maybe isn't from that world, I mean, Because I know a lot of of these humans. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. You know, You look up to them and you think, Oh, They're amazing. Look at look at everything they can do. And they, You know, Have regulated their lives so that they can practice for 10 hours a day and, You know, Or like four hours a day and meditate and do all these things. I'm like, Yeah, But like they don't have relationships or they don't have, You know. Like very successful, Like they're not successful in other ways, Like their life is just that. And that's not even balance. Right. And so it's it's interesting when you kind of start looking at those patterns of of what people are kind of, You know, Doing totally. And are we just spiritually bypassing? Like, Are we really addressing why I feel like I need to have four hours to myself without anyone interrupting? That's it's all about awareness, Right? Like, What am I doing? We have to really ask ourselves, What am I doing? Like, Is this is healthy, Not healthy. Exactly. This was great. I want to go back to the question, Though, I asked. So what would you say to somebody? And for my last question for you. Yeah. So how do we what would you recommend to someone listening as a somewhat give some give people some ideas on what would be a really good routine or morning something? And it might just be like a morning hike. Like I just said, Like you're not listening to a radio or the phone or anything. Well, What else? Yeah, I mean, I've kind of I've kind of like thought about this a lot. And for me now, I feel like it really depends on the day. So I'm I've sort of like gotten rid of the extreme discipline that I used to have. Yes. Because it was not healthy. Totally. And and yeah, I love that. I love that you're bringing that in, Like going for a walk without your phone, Without distraction and just being in nature. I think being in nature is so powerful, Whether it's kayaking or walking or taking your dogs for a walk or just being not connected to technology, Because so much of our the rest of our day is very much connected to technology. Very much. I'm not saying is bad. It's just takes us out of our connection to ourselves. And we are nature. We are the earth. And we are the breath. Also, We're air. We're earth. We're water. We are nature. And so coming into that connection with nature brings us back into ourselves. So whether it's taking a walk or, You know, Meditating and focusing on your breath or doing a simple breathwork practice, I have like a two minute breathwork practice. If people want guidance where you inhale, Pause and then exhale for longer or double the length. And so just like even box breathing or, You know, Alternate nostril breathing. There's so many practices you can choose from. But picking just even one. Yes, I agree. Just one. Like, Yeah, Just pick one. And like, Don't confuse yourself. No, You do not need to. You need one thing. Exactly. Clarity creates consistency. I really think that when we start our day, I think that whatever we're doing in the morning, It sets the tone for the rest of the day. So when we jump out of bed or even stay in bed with the phone, And it's like it automatically triggers the nervous system. Yeah. Right away. You know, So we've got to learn extra boundaries now because we didn't have phones like it's true several years ago. So anyway, And phones that could do all that they do now. My God, Does that I know it's not even a phone. It's a computer. It's not like it's games. It's a computer. I'm thinking about all the apps you have on a phone. Like it's on and on. It's actually a computer with a phone app. Yeah, It's a small computer with a phone. Exactly. Exactly. Oh, My gosh, This was so good. Thank you so much for being with us today. It was such a pleasure to be on your show and to connect with you and your audience. And yes, Such a fun conversation.

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