Henrietta Hippocampus (Season 2)

Chronic stress releases cortisol, a stress hormone that can damage and affect the growth of the hippocampus. During times of stress, the body reacts by secreting stress hormones into the bloodstream. Stress can cause unhealthy changes in certain brain areas which can cause long-term damage. The longer you are in an emotionally abusive environment, the more deterioration of the hippocampus. Emotional abuse is devastating and can often be more traumatic than physical wounds.

Transcript

Hello everybody,

It's your friendly neighborhood moms at the Stuck Stops here.

I'm LW No Lie and I'm here with Tammy Atman,

I'm not a neighborhood mom.

We'll be right back.

Lyrical lunatic cutting ties I did pick a saboteur with eyes that bleed.

Red as fire,

White as death,

It beats so hard inside my chest.

Who do I feed?

I'm a freak.

Remember who you were before they told you who to be.

I'm a freak.

Remember what you saw when they told you not to see.

I'm a freak.

Remember what you saw.

The Stuck Stops here,

Season 2.

This is episode 5.

And the clever name for this one is,

I'll let you do it Tammy.

Henrietta Hippocampus.

Henrietta Hippocampus.

I'm Henrietta Hippo.

How are you,

Falmer Ted?

The New Zoo Review.

That's right.

I'm really dating myself.

If you remember the New Zoo Review,

You're freaking old.

I barely remember the New Zoo Review.

I know.

I'm Henrietta Hippo.

That's really good.

Thank you,

Thank you,

Thank you.

Cue the applause.

Cue the applause.

So,

Hippocampus.

Wait,

Hold it.

Before we talk about the Hippocampus.

You interrupted me.

You just triggered me.

Before we get all scientific on your ass,

I want to talk about something.

So,

This morning I decided to go do some yoga,

Which is what I love to do every day if I can.

Me too.

Yes.

So I walk into my yoga class and who's there?

You.

Me three.

I didn't know you were going.

It was a surprise.

A surprise.

And we did yoga together next to each other in class,

Which is fantastic.

Yes,

We did.

So right now we are so relaxed,

Feeling good,

All is well.

Happy day.

And an interesting thing we were talking about before the class started was about the music that we write together.

The songs that we've been putting on these podcasts.

The Bernie Toppin,

Elton John connection.

Correct.

Yes.

Or one of these.

The Elton.

And it's really interesting how the music has changed.

It's evolved.

Yes.

You know.

When you first started writing lyrics,

You were always thinking country rock kind of style.

Because I actually have a pretty wide,

Diverse taste in music,

But I would habitually write in the country rock blend.

Is that because that was your favorite style to write in,

Or do you think that was just kind of a habit?

Both.

Okay.

Favorite style to write in is I just assumed that that was.

I should do it because I like that style so much.

But music has changed so much in the last couple of decades,

You know,

With hip hop and rap and,

You know,

A lot of kind of singing but spoken word type stuff that the country rock is like.

So it's a little bit,

I don't want to say old fashioned,

But maybe for the direction we're heading in,

Maybe it was a little bit more.

I think it was probably a tad bit restrictive because even though I have a million genres,

You know,

On my playlist,

And I happen to have a pretty diverse taste in music.

I was writing in only one style.

And when we talked about,

You know,

We're collaborating and ideas,

You know,

I came up with something you came up with something back and forth,

And you know something in this,

You know,

Particularly rap hip hop I wish there was a better name for it but keyboard riff that you came up with sort of on this song today and this particular song sort of sent me in a different direction and I was kind of surprised by it was more of an effortless effort.

That's amazing.

That's kind of the beauty of the process though you know you you you follow a certain path for a while thinking you should thinking it's the only thing you know,

And then one day,

A little piece of these little place in your mind opens up,

It was wait a minute,

I'm going to try this direction,

And it's that could be,

You know,

Applied to pretty much anything and everything personally professionally creatively emotionally.

So,

Yeah,

That's why I brought it up because,

You know,

We're not dead.

No,

We're not yet.

Okay,

We're old enough to remember the new zoo review,

Right,

But we're not dead we're not going more and Louis.

Yeah,

We're,

We're sort of in this third act,

You know Jane Fonda says you're in your third act act,

You know because we still have so much creativity and so much to offer.

And it's so great to be on the side of that realizing that we're not,

We're not old ladies you know we could still we still have a lot to offer.

And you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Yeah.

And an old dog can learn new tricks.

That's right,

I really don't like being called an old dog but I'll go with it for the moment.

That's more of a wolf.

So anyway,

So I just wanted to bring that up because I feel like people are listening to the songs and relating to them,

And people relate to your lyrics a lot and musically so glad to hear that.

Yeah,

And musically I've delivered what you wanted,

You know,

You would say,

Here's some lyrics I wanted to sound kind of like this.

So I delivered musically what you wanted because I'm that kind of a chameleon that I can do anything.

My favorite style of music truthfully is jazz,

But I can do anything.

Yeah.

And so I,

Which sometimes is not such a great thing because I'm like,

You know,

Jack of all trades master of none,

You know,

Except maybe jazz,

Which nobody listens to so thank you.

But the fact that you say to me this is the style I wanted and I've been delivering that,

But this last song that we worked on remember you said to me,

This is kind of like a Beastie Boys meets.

I don't know it was like a rap kind of a vibe rap vibe yes I used my,

You know,

I used a totally inaccurate analogy but keep going totally and but I understood because I know you.

And because we do yoga together we know each other.

And so I went into a different direction a little bit more of like a current house street,

Urban,

I don't know,

Direction.

And you it sort of opened something up for you and said wait a minute.

This is good I like this I want to do more of this,

It was triggered in a good way,

You were triggered in a good way and I love that I was that person that triggered you.

So,

Just grass yes,

Moving forward.

You'll hear,

You're going to hear some more stuff like that.

And just keep on listening,

Keep on enjoying and I,

You know,

We're on not getting a lot of feedback,

Particularly on this insight timer website about meditation app,

It's Yes,

It's a meditation app but there's talks,

There's everything meditations music.

There's really anything and everything that's you know psychological spiritual all things healing.

Yeah,

Healing.

Yeah,

So you have a lot of options there.

You can find us on there too our podcast or everything's the same the stuck stops here.

Yes.

And my name,

Tammy receded admins on there,

But I don't know if the songs are on there yet but they will be soon.

I think that people have been commenting specifically about how much they like you know,

Songs the lyrics and I want to keep delivering it.

Absolutely,

And it's such a pleasure for me to be able to use my musical ability to help deliver as well,

It's a joy.

That's part of for me what music has always been it's about healing it's about community.

It's about getting people to sing together and feel something and it feels good to be part of that.

Me too.

Yes,

Me too.

So with that,

We're going to talk about today's subject which is Henrietta Hippo campus,

Take it away,

Tammy.

So what's the scary thing is that we all know about our laptops our TVs and our small smartphones,

Way more than we know how our brain operates.

And I think that's a tragedy and that's why you know last season I brought up the amygdala.

And this time I'm bringing up the hippocampus.

And the main point behind discussing the hippocampus is when you grow up with emotional abuse and emotional trauma and spiritual neglect.

It actually makes architectural changes to your brain.

And that's what's sort of been fascinating to me is that's one of the reasons why it's very hard to break out of old habits because neural pathways are formed at a very young age.

And if they're to oversimplify good or bad,

That's what you know when that's what you'll stick with.

And from both an emotional habitual and physical standpoint,

You are sort of locked into a pattern.

So,

What I'm hoping to,

You know,

Talk about with the hippocampus is just tell you what it,

What it does.

And again this is all through the books I've read articles I've read I'm just relaying the information as,

You know,

I absorbed it and delivering it to you links to the articles or the notes so I take the information,

However you want it,

But I want it to motivate you to sort of understand why it's hard to break out of those patterns and learning about the brain is so fascinating.

It is I'm totally fascinated by it.

And the amazing thing is that you can change your brain too you can change a lot of those neural pathways.

Podcast 76 will be on neuroplasticity.

76.

I'm waiting.

Imagine 76 more songs,

Jesus.

We got it.

The hippocampus regulates motivation,

Emotion,

Learning,

And memory it is we're short term memories get converted into long term memory memories and then stored elsewhere in the brain.

Read,

Search has shown that these nerve cells continue to develop throughout adulthood,

Which is why they can change.

So,

In many articles that I've read the hippocampus is described as the heart of the brain.

So,

Chronic know where it is in the brain.

It's on two,

Both sides of the temporal lobe.

So,

In terms of physical anatomy.

I'm not really good with that.

But I do know it's by the temporal lobes.

I don't know where the temple over.

Sorry doctors.

I'll have to ask my kids.

Yes,

Exactly.

They're the ones that are doctors.

So,

But what I do know is that chronic stress does release cortisol cortisol can,

That's a hormone stress hormone,

And that can damage and affect the growth of the hippocampus.

So,

When the amygdala with stress.

It gets bigger with the hippocampus and stress,

It gets smaller.

So,

During stressful times,

The body secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream.

And that causes unhealthy changes in certain brain areas and that causes long term damage.

So,

The longer you are in an emotionally abusive environment,

The more deterioration of the hippocampus.

Wow.

Would you say that our yoga practice today relieves a lot of that chronic stress for us for other people that could help with the hippocampus?

Yes.

And one of the reasons why it's good question.

I like yoga is it talks about,

You know,

Connecting with your breath and deep breaths,

Actually,

Are a catalyst for calmness.

Everybody just listening,

Just inhaled exhale exhale and exhale.

Thank you.

So,

Now my thing,

You know,

If you think about it,

You could survive with food without food for.

A month.

You could survive without water for a month.

For a month?

Maybe three weeks.

I don't know.

Your breath you can't survive with without more than a minute or two.

So,

When you think about how important it is,

It's the one thing in life that is absolutely,

You know,

Other than death and taxes,

Our breath.

We cannot live without it.

Right.

I notice I work with a lot of young children singing and I notice a great majority of them do not take in enough air.

They do not breathe enough.

They feel very shallow breaths.

A lot of them holding their breath.

You know,

That's one of the first things I work on with them is let me see how you're breathing because I can feel it when they're singing and they're not breathing.

I can feel that they're not breathing.

Right.

And when you hold your breath,

Is anybody relaxed when they do that?

No.

No.

One good exercise you can try if you want to have less shallow breaths and breathe a little deeper is use a straw.

Take a straw and just suck in air through the straw and just fill up as much as you can and then slowly let it out.

You could even put your teeth together and go sssss and just slowly let it out.

Like a balloon.

Like a balloon?

Yeah.

Not a popped balloon.

No.

That's bad.

That's how I used to be.

I was like 27 million balloons popping.

Pop,

Pop,

Pop.

That's a good exercise you can try if you want to see how much capacity your lungs have for breath.

They can really take in a lot more air than you think.

Good advice.

Thank you.

So when the hippocampus is small as a result of chronic emotional abuse,

It makes it more difficult for a child to process and deal with traumatic events,

Which starts that cycle of more stress and more cortisol secretion and more damage.

So when these impulsive responses,

Which are formed early in childhood and become habitual,

They overproduce neural connections that are unhealthy and underproduce neural connections for reasoning,

Planning,

Rational thought.

They underproduce that.

That makes a lot of sense.

That's right.

So basically,

The stupid decisions we've made in our lives.

Oh,

I'm queen of that.

Anybody want the list of stupid decisions I've made?

Read my book.

So when you're when you're chronically releasing cortisol and chronically stress,

It's like revving a car engine for hours every day.

Wow.

That's really what it's like.

So that's exhausting.

It is exhausting.

It is.

Science has shown,

Research has shown long term elevations and cortisol levels can alter the function of many neural systems,

Suppress the immune system and change the architecture of regions in the brain that are essential for learning and memory.

Wow.

So that's one of the reasons why I had a lot of time retaining facts,

Concentrating,

Studying hard time with that.

Oh,

Yeah.

Do you ever notice,

Like when people have a lot of stress,

They tend to get sick more often to that's the immune system.

Yeah,

Absolutely.

So in podcast 82,

We're going to talk about the Vegas nerve,

Which is connected to not in Reno.

No,

Nope.

Yeah.

What what happens in the Vegas goes everywhere.

And this one,

It's the opposite of Las Vegas.

Wow.

So.

These.

Chronic.

Emotional abuse,

Chronic secretion of cortisol.

Children constantly feel threatened and respond impulsively,

Even in situations where no real threat exists.

They will misread facial expressions,

Expressions,

Misread words that are used,

Misread people's intentions.

Me,

Me,

Me.

Yeah,

I did all that.

So proud.

I'm proud of my sarcasm.

But now look how great it is now.

You're totally aware of that.

You're in such you're so woke.

Right.

I am woke.

Yes,

I am woke.

Which is really,

Really good.

Yes,

It's and it's been,

You know,

Quite healthy.

I don't.

It feels almost,

You know,

Wow,

I haven't gotten mad in a long time.

I still do believe this isn't perfect.

You know,

I am not I'm not achieving perfection.

It's just how often I get mad and to the level that I get mad is far,

Far less than what it used to be.

And it's just it's great because I'm not wasting energy on it.

There's a good chance you're rewiring your brain.

That's right.

And until you rewire your brain.

Which is work.

But it's worth it so that you undo,

You know,

These this damage.

You'll continue to engage in self-destructive activities.

Including substance abuse.

I was I say I was a rageaholic and a destination addict.

I was hard wired to,

You know,

And to focus on the goal and not the process.

I was hyper attached to outcomes and they talk a lot about that in yoga.

So one of the things that is great about yoga is when they talk about those things is don't be hyper attached to outcomes.

But you could do yoga eight hours a day,

Every day.

And if you aren't doing the work to alter your perspective or face the emotional trauma.

Head on,

Grieve the loss of the childhood that you wish you had.

Yoga is not going to do anything for you.

Right now.

It's great.

It's better.

You know,

It's better than heroin.

Right.

Yes.

Right.

Yoga is better than heroin.

So I'm not saying,

Oh,

Stop doing it.

That's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is add to it.

Add everything.

If you're doing inner child healing work,

Everything will benefit.

If you're doing everything except that,

You're not going to get as much out of anything.

Right.

And dare I say,

Dare I say you're doing some of the work right now by listening to this podcast?

That's right.

We're forming new neural connections as we speak.

I feel that lawnmower just going from the right temporal lobe to the left temporal lobe.

I don't even know where they are.

That's awesome.

So I have a quote from Professor Ian Hickey.

That's a challenging name from the Brain and Mind Institute.

It's a great quote.

Your whole sense of self depends on continuously understanding who you are in the world.

Your state of memory is not just knowing how to do Sudoku or remembering your password.

It's the whole concept we hold of ourselves.

End quote.

So real change goes beyond superficial activities.

You know,

I,

You know,

Was a exercise fanatic and I see a lot of people,

You know,

Working out,

You know.

And probably to an unhealthy degree.

And it is great to exercise.

But it's if it's in place of inner child healing work.

Then you'll have a tight body,

But you're still going to have a suppressed immune system.

So the best thing you can do for yourself is realize that how you feel about yourself is everything.

How and right.

And how you how you make changes.

Right.

But not anybody else.

It's everything.

How we think about ourselves,

How we view ourselves.

And it's got to be positive.

It's got to be positive.

That's right.

Like if you're viewing yourself as someone who's unlovable,

Full of guilt in the ass,

Full of guilt,

Whatever,

Whatever.

It's it's that's not healthy.

You want to see yourself for the amazing and beautiful person that you are.

And everybody is.

They just don't know it because they're,

You know,

Covered in,

You know,

Layers and layers of distorted thinking and pain and trauma.

Yeah.

And your hippocampus is like the size of a pea.

Wow.

We don't want that.

We want the hippocampus to be,

You know,

The size of a truck.

Right.

And the amygdala could be smaller.

Yes.

We want the amygdala size of pain.

That's right.

That's your focus.

Keep the keep the amygdala small.

Keep the hippocampus big.

OK,

With that,

We're going to take a short musical break so you can absorb everything we said.

And then we're going to come back with more.

Henry on a hippocampus.

See you soon.

This isn't how the story should end.

Now is the answer.

The question is when the road was rocky,

The road was tight.

I'm paralyzed and tired of the fight.

Remember who you were before they told you who to be.

Remember what you saw when they told you not to see.

Remember what is true when they told you to lie.

Remember all the reasons when you ask yourself why.

And we're back with more of Henrietta Hippo campus.

Go ahead,

Tammy.

So a very quick review on emotional abuse and the short term and long term effects.

So examples that I experienced yelling,

Constant criticism,

Gaslighting.

Wait,

Constant criticism.

You being criticized.

You criticizing.

I was criticized.

Criticizing.

Yes.

Got it.

A lot.

And therefore,

That's what I used to do to myself for four years.

And remind us what is gaslighting.

Gaslighting is manipulative attempts to question your own sanity.

So,

You know,

A parent says something that hurts your feelings and you say that hurt my feelings.

And you're like,

Oh,

You're too sensitive.

Well,

Why did you say that?

Well,

I didn't say that.

You didn't hear it right.

That's gaslighting.

And I'll get into.

And then you think,

Wait a minute,

It confuses you.

It confuses you,

Especially.

Well,

You know.

Because your initial reaction was probably right.

And then your parents,

Whoever said that to you was like,

No,

No,

You're not right.

And then you start to say,

Oh,

Wait a minute.

Oh,

Maybe I wasn't right.

Right.

And then you got yourself.

So you start.

So not only do you start doubting yourself.

I'm already self-critical because I was criticized and I'm not alone.

My mother had no boundaries.

She invaded my privacy.

She tried to control my life.

Everybody,

You know,

My mom,

Dad,

Stepdad would all take turns issuing the silent treatment,

Manipulation tactics,

Guilt trips.

So all of that long term emotional abuse made me feel confused,

Afraid,

Hopeless and full of shame.

And how did that affect your hippocampus?

Yeah.

So that's where I got moody.

I had a hard time concentrating.

I had nightmares,

Racing,

Heartbeat,

Panic attacks.

So that's all,

You know.

Totally related to changing the architecture of my brain as a result of all that.

That you're not born with muscle tension or difficulty concentrating.

Those are created.

Right.

Those are an effect of mistreated.

Yes.

I mean,

You all born with certain personality traits.

But you wonder,

You know,

When your parents say,

Why are you like that?

Why,

You know,

They don't even think to look at themselves and their behavior and say,

Maybe I caused this.

No,

Not for one second.

Part a big part of it is,

You know,

Give some of the benefit of the doubt that it's an unintentional repetition of toxic generational patterns.

They don't know they're doing it.

Other ones,

They know they're doing.

They just don't care.

So that's pretty evil.

Yes,

It is.

Long term effects of the abuse.

I had anxiety,

Depression,

Low self-esteem,

Chronic feelings of guilt,

Never feeling good enough.

Insomnia and isolated and lonely.

Wow.

Yeah.

Listen,

Does that feel like you?

Yes.

So.

You can actually by acknowledging that you,

You know,

You experience that trauma and what it probably did to the physical part of your brain,

You might start to feel like,

Oh,

I can I have some control over this.

Yeah,

You might feel a sense of relief because the brain is adaptable and regenerative,

Regenerative.

And in particular,

The hippocampus.

So I hear that meditation helps rewire.

I'm going to get into.

Yes.

Oh,

We're going to get into that.

Generate new ways.

Hold that brilliant.

All right.

OK.

L.

W.

So.

Depression can cause pretty profound changes in the hippocampus,

But so can effective mental health treatments in positive ways.

So they talk about neuroplasticity,

Which is still only its early stages.

We don't fully understand it.

That engaging in self healing activities can reverse the damage done to the brain and restore it to a healthy state.

So some of we're going to get to meditation.

Nice.

Yes.

Thank you for bringing that up.

Studies have shown long term meditators have larger hippocampus.

That is the plural of hippocampus.

So I like hippocampus.

Way easier to say.

So any amount of time that you spend on stress reduction and relaxation is going to make your hippocampus grow.

You're going to be.

I got to wait for a happy hippo camper.

Happy Henrietta Hippo Campi.

There's a song in that song.

So exercise helps.

Yes.

In addition to helps with mood.

It does.

It does.

Along with other things.

But yes,

It's not just about getting buff.

It helps with mood.

Right.

Which is really important.

Yes.

Especially if you're moody because of the damage done.

Yeah.

And a diet.

I'll throw it.

I really hate talking about food because it's such a dysfunctional subject.

But eating a diet that includes olive oil,

Salmon and any foods high in omega three fatty acids.

Also,

Learning a new language or challenging your brain with a new topic,

New facts.

One of the reasons why I think I've healed is,

You know,

Writing music has,

You know,

Definitely helped.

I think there's a lot of stifling of our creative abilities as a result of a traumatic childhood.

You know,

I have a couple of friends who are very good at making things and selling things and they don't really do anything with it.

But I think it would actually be very good for them.

Of course.

But,

You know,

You can eat a host of water.

You can't make them drink.

True.

One of the reasons why I find myself being in a much calmer place is because I sing.

And singing is a type of thing.

You don't have to be a great singer.

OK,

Let's say you have a terrible voice,

Which people sometimes come to me and say,

I have a terrible voice.

Then don't sing for people and expect them to listen.

Sing for yourself.

Singing is a form of meditation.

It's an amazing thing.

Sing in front of the mirror.

Use your hairbrush as a microphone and sing along with your favorite songs.

It really does.

You're getting all risky business on us.

Don't wear a white oxford and do not do it to Bob Seger.

It's the best,

Though.

I dated myself,

Didn't I?

Yeah,

You did.

Yeah.

So just,

You know,

Sing.

It really makes the body feel good.

And if you are a pretty good singer,

Then join a chorus.

Join a group.

Sing with people.

That's an amazing thing.

You know how sometimes in yoga we do the Aum as a group?

It's a great thing when the group sings together.

It's very healing.

It is.

But this is also,

You know,

If you're OK,

Music not your thing,

There's art.

All kinds of art and crafts,

Painting,

All of it.

There's so much out there if you're just willing to take a look around.

Creativity is so good for the brain.

Spending time with people.

Social isolation harms both our bodies and our brains.

My stepdad had antisocial personality disorder.

He was pretty rude to all of our neighbors.

Still does,

Though,

Right?

He still has this.

Oh,

Yeah.

He thinks he's better than everybody else.

And he's odd.

You know,

He doesn't even know what's appropriate anymore.

So.

And it's not good.

You know,

My mother happens to be very social.

And,

You know,

That hasn't been ideal.

But where she lives now,

She's actually made a group of friends,

Which is healthy for her.

And I'm glad she does.

You know,

Let them spend time with her,

Not me.

So social isolation can offset the benefits of exercise.

So that's why you need to be with people,

Whether it's lunch with a friend,

Join a class,

Volunteer.

Sometimes it's hard.

Yeah.

We're part of a pack.

You know,

So that's like wolves.

Sometimes it's hard to find people that you can relate to or that you want to be with.

It's very hard.

But.

It's even harder if you,

You know,

Sit in your house and keep your world ultra small.

Right.

But you've got to find things that you enjoy that you can do with other people,

Because,

You know,

How do you how do you meet people?

Well,

I mean,

Nowadays it's,

You know,

With the meet up app and.

Right.

There are meet ups.

That's right.

You know,

I'd something that interests you and meet up with people.

That's one option.

Facebook groups.

Yeah.

Even if you're you know,

If you're at the gym,

Get into a group training,

Take a group exercise class.

You know,

Obviously you're meeting people that do the same thing as you.

And that's one of the things that,

You know,

Is pretty impressive about the yoga community,

No matter what part of the country you're in.

They definitely foster a sense of community.

And maybe you step out of your comfort zone once or twice or a few times and send someone a text and say,

Hey,

Want to meet for coffee or,

You know,

You because it's scary sometimes asking people.

But chances are good they will be receptive and say,

Of course,

I would love to.

Well,

You know,

If everyone is sitting at home.

In isolation,

Waiting for somebody else to reach out,

Nobody's going to do it.

So that's something to think about.

And the last thing I want to say before I tell a story in all the articles,

They basically emphasize the point that the future of any society depends on its ability to foster healthy development of the next generation.

So heal yourself,

Heal the world.

Probably not so far fetched.

I think that's why you and I and our husbands,

Of course,

Find it so important to raise our children the way we do.

We're creating future citizens and people who can feel good about themselves and feel like they're achieving something in the world.

And they know they have confidence in their ability to function.

And they know that they're healthy in a healthy way.

Yeah.

I mean,

And that's authentic to themselves.

That's really what a parent is supposed to do,

Because if your kids living authentically,

Then they're going to surround themselves with people who are authentic.

And it just sort of goes viral in a good way.

Love it.

So I have to tell you about this funny,

Interesting review.

So I was reading it.

The person said,

Said very nice things about a podcast and is a licensed therapist.

So I was very thrilled that she said that.

Yes,

And we're grateful for all the wonderful reviews.

Oh,

Yes.

Thank you.

For those of you who are taking time to write,

It makes me very happy.

Me too.

I'm a walking emoji when I get a good review.

So she says after she says something nice.

One thing is I'm really surprised is that a coda will use the term hearing impaired.

I'm thinking coda was capital C,

Little o capital D,

Capital A.

Oh,

Child of deaf adult.

Oh,

That's a term you never heard before.

Did not hear of it.

A coda.

But I did start thinking coda.

C-O-D-A.

C-O-D-A coda.

I'm a coda.

Sounds like a good parody song.

Yeah,

Exactly.

So I was actually giggling when I saw that.

And I'm like,

Wow,

I had no idea that that was politically incorrect to say hearing impaired.

My mom has been,

You know,

Beating that into my head my whole life is I'm not deaf.

I'm hearing impaired.

If she knew that it was politically incorrect.

So the correct term is deaf.

Deaf.

Yeah.

Simple as that.

Yeah.

Four simple letters.

Four simple letters and less syllables.

Wow.

Yes.

So I learned something and I think I discovered a new song.

Thank you.

Thank you.

C-O-D-A coda.

The person who did that review.

Thank you for that.

So now I have to tell her to her face that she's deaf.

How's that going to go?

Don't say anything.

I think I'll just keep it quiet.

Just stay away.

OK.

So we talked about in last week's podcast about low or no.

It's her contact.

Contact.

Yes,

We did.

We did discuss that last week.

You're not going to change her anyway.

No,

I won't.

And I don't even want to.

But we got a song out of it.

C-O-D-A coda.

I'm a coda.

She gave birth to me and she told me to dance.

Her parents sucked.

I didn't have a chance.

I'm a coda.

You just made that up.

That was clever.

So.

All right.

I'm not singing.

I'm going to break the microphone here because I cannot sing.

Don't you feel good that we sang together?

I do.

I feel a little joy.

Yeah.

I hope you guys out there sang with us.

A little a little,

You know,

Twinkle in my toes.

Absolutely.

So.

Do we understand the hippo camp?

I.

Oh,

Wait.

What?

I'm not a doctor.

I'm not a life coach.

Neither am I.

We are not licensed therapists or life coaches.

We're just your friendly neighborhood mom.

I'm unfriendly neighborhood mom.

She's unfriendly.

I'm friendly.

Yes,

You are nice.

Not always.

Yes.

And we are just talking about this subject that interests us and hopefully interests you.

And let's heal the world.

Let's go global.

Love it.

So share this podcast with your friends.

Tell people about it.

That's right.

Just send a link.

The stock stops here.

Send in the link.

That's right.

Just send the link.

Yeah.

Just like we do to everyone we know afterwards.

Exactly.

Here,

Check this out.

No pressure.

No pressure.

Just because it'll crush my self-esteem and fuck up my hippocampus.

You don't need to watch it.

No,

People really like us.

I like it.

It's good.

It's the most likable I've ever been.

It really is.

Yeah.

We found your your zone.

My groove.

You found your groove.

I'm a coda that's found the groove.

And now I know how to move.

OK.

All right.

Well,

I'm L.

W.

No lie.

And I'm a coda.

Signing off Tammy Atman.

Yes.

And we'll see you next week.

Goodbye.

Lyrical lunatic cutting ties a dipping a saboteur with eyes that bleed.

Red as fire,

White as death.

It beats so hard inside my chest.

Who do I feed?

Remember who you were before they told you who to be.

Remember what you saw when they told you not to see.

Remember what is true when they told you to lie.

Remember all the reasons when you ask yourself why.

This isn't how the story should end.

Now is the answer.

The question is when the road was rocky,

The road was tight.

I'm paralyzed and tired of the fight.

Remember who you were before they told you who to be.

Remember what you saw when they told you not to see.

Remember what is true when they told you to lie.

Remember all the reasons when you ask yourself why.

Remember who you were before they told you who to be.

Remember what you saw when they told you not to see.

Remember what is true when they told you to lie.

Remember all the reasons when you ask yourself why.

Reviews

Spot on with all your subjects! Love to listen, learn and laugh most importantly. Thank you for putting things into perspective. I know of a few women who will be interested in listening also, perhaps as a planned get together to listen to and discuss. Thank you both!! 🌸🌼🌺

I love the humor you and LW bring to these podcasts. I love the music. I love the message. Never in a million years would I have thought there was some meaning to this madness I have lived for most of my life! Discovering that I am not the problem and that I can change because we know our narcissist won’t. This has been life changing for me and eye opening at the same time!

A better life awaits if we do the work! 💜